Nuts.

Today we got Little One's test results back from the allergist. She came back positive for everything they tested for, and "highly positive" for all but one "moderate". We are sorry to hear that we must add strawberries to the list of no-nos. And we were surprised to hear that peanuts were topping the charts, since we thought milk was the worst.
Little One has never had a peanut, Peanuts. But now we know that She must stay very, very far from them. (but not from you). Let's put it this way.
Milk got a allergy value of about 7. Little One is so allergic to milk that touching a product made with milk causes big blistering hives and swelling where She touched it. Peanuts were in the 30's.
Of course you're all wonderfully careful about what you feed the Little One when you see Her. Because you are super and that's why we love you. But peanuts apparently warrant an extra-extra careful, so here's a heads up. Perhaps this handy poster will help us all. I might make it into wallpaper for the hampster-bubble we will put Her in. Too much? Ok. I'll just nail it to the front door, then.

A Little Renovation

Look how Little One has been "helping" in the kitchen. How cute! And totally dangerous considering practically everything in there is poisonous for her!


So to distract Her, we wanted to get Little One a poison-free play-kitchen. But we found that mini-kitchens cost mini-fortunes. So imagine our delight when we found one at the thrift store on half price day! It was a... fixer-upper. But J and I are no strangers to renovating kitchens. When we moved in, ours had peeling plastic counters and mushroom decals on the light fixtures. So I spruced it up a bit. What do you think?

Before:

After:


So far its working! I cook with poison, while Little One cooks with pretend food made of pretend hypo-allergenic air. Somehow, Her dinners always turn out better than mine. Sweeter.

Presents

Since our visit with the girls, Little One has become the proud new owner of Her very own Ethiopian virus! It came as an extra in the goodie-bag with warm-fuzzies, happy thoughts, and sugar-coated memories. An added bonus! Since the day after our visit She has been investigating the various aspects of this new acquirement- fever, sniffles, coughs, various icky gooey stuff- and found it to be quite extensive in its offerings. In fact we dropped by the doctor yesterday and found that in its current permutation it even includes a "wow that's a good and nasty ear infection!"
The news must be out that She has a birthday coming soon. Because three teeth have also chosen this time to pop in, bringing a jello mold and a nice basket of inflammation and throbbing pain. The gifts just keep coming!
Thanks to this shower of generosity, Little One and I have put many miles on the rocking chair, and spent a couple of looong nights just exhausting ourselves with all the fun. Did you know that booger-goo and tears when heated by fever to just the right degree, becomes an incredibly stalwart bonding material? Well yes! It does! Little One is now welded to my body.
I'm on my third cup of coffee and I hate to see my Little One so miserable. But see, these are days of busy, exploratory independence, Peanuts. And Somewhere in our fourth hour of rocking last night, She coughed and woke and the lip popped out and the whimper made it shiver. Then She cracked Her puffy little eyes and saw me There. She took a deep, raspy breath, snuggled in reeeeaaally close, and fell back asleep, still clinging tight to my shirt. I can't make Her better, and that would be the best thing. But the power to comfort, simply by existing and caring, is a pretty incredible feeling. I might even call it a gift.

Thanks for listening...and please stay tuned

Remember my post back there asking for help bringing Mekdes to the states for her surgery? Well some of you Peanuts stepped up and I'm sending a great big e-hug out to you right now. Big. The kind where you get sorta squashed and all you can think is, "is that tide? I think that shirt crammed into my face was washed in tide. Gosh I'm glad she washed her shirt. Otherwise she might not smell so tide-y". Wanna know why you get my tide-hug?
Because last week your help combined with lots of other people's help brought Mekdes here to DC! Another girl from AFC came too, and Little One and I are SO lucky, that we got to hang out with them a little before they headed out to CT where we hope miracles happen.
Excuse me while I get a little warm-fuzzy on you, but seeing those girls- two of the best girls on the earth, Peanuts,who I really do love very big- all the way out here and holding my baby....well. It felt quite a lot like some miracles had already happened.
Here are a few pictures of three of the loveliest ladies ever to be, and one of the happiest faces you will ever see me wear. Those of you that helped make these pictures possible, Thank You.

9/11

8 years ago, I wasn't in DC. I was sitting on the couch in my sorority house with my mouth hanging open, feeling the world change.
My dad, though, he was here. He was here rushing into a burning pentagon when all common sense would have him rushing out.
For my dad, so many heroes, and all those who were lost then and since, I'm sending out some love and gratitude today.
And remembering never to take anything for granted.

11 Months

Well well well. Little One’s 11 month birthday- that’s BIRTHday- happens to fall on Labor Day. Whattaya know. I think it’s very fitting, don’t you? Of course Little One has been a good little laborer Herself, working hard day and night on this "growing up" job, staging the occasional strike or protest, and negotiating for higher broccoli payloads. Here are some more of the accomplishments my little teamster has managed this month:


Little One can now SAY these:

"NO"- by shaking Her curly head very. emphatically. That's right. Little One has the ability to object and She's not afraid to use it! Oh jeeze. Here we go.

"more", "milk", and "potty"- by signing. And She not only tells us when She needs the potty, but when we tell the dogs to "go potty", She makes the sign for them, too. In case they need encouragement.

"dada" and "mama", and "da-squeal" which means "dog".

She just about has the hang of "hi", "hello", and "all done". She's got the intonation, it's just the consonants we're still working on. She holds her play phone up to her head and says, "haaahDo-oooh!"

"La! La! Lalalaaa!!!" Which is Her artistic interpretation of the ABC song.

"RrAAAAWWWRR!!!!" As in, "Little One, what does a lion say?" "RrrAAAAWWWWRRR!!!"

She can now DO these:

Find Her foot when I ask. Also Her nose. And my nose. Which is good because you don't want to misplace feet and noses.

Play "patty cake", making the hand motions Herself. She loves "rolling" and "patting".

Patting in general is big. We pat-pat animals gently. She pats the bunny in the pat-the-bunny book. She pats the baby on the "pat and burp the baby" page of another book. She pats Her parents when She's trying to show love.

Or hugs and kisses. Sometimes if I lose her I holler, "can I have a hug?!" and She'll emerge from the cabinet/under the bed/inside the toybox and squiggle over to climb up and put Her chubby little arms around my neck. There you are, Little One!
She gives me a big wet kiss first thing every morning, and whenever She's just feeling lovey. Beware the kiss when She's excited though, it comes with teeth.

Eat with a spoon and fork (with help loading them first). Broccoli is still the #1 ammo.

Recognize differences and remember. So She can find a certain toy in the box if I ask for it, or choose Her favorite book off the shelf. ( "10 9 8" or "jazz baby").

Give me five. And high five!

'sing' and 'play piano' at the same time. PLUS shake the booty. It's quite the act.

Pretend. She very much likes to pretend to feed Her food to me. She holds it out and I pretend to take a bite, She squeals in delight and then eats it Herself. Sometimes She gets silly and stuffs it in Her mouth before my pretend-bite, then laughs hysterically with Her mouth full of lima beans, knowing She has just pulled a fast one on mama.
She also pretend-sleeps, so I will call to Her in the car seat "Little One! Oh Little One! Are you asleep?" Which starts the dominoes of sly smile, peeping through one open eye, giving up the act and laughing hysterically because She has again pulled a fast one on mom. Mom is so gullible.

Empathize? Miss? Something. Something for the dogs. She loves them. She loves them SO. So much that if they are getting kicked out because I just cleaned the floo-um...allowed out to play in the sunshine, She will wail and flail and cry real tears as the sliding glass door latches. Then dramatically heave Herself over to press Her face against the glass, pounding it with little fists and reaching to them with Shakespearean theatrics. Diva.

Remove Her diaper. It is good that She no longer likes to be in a wet diaper. It is good because we are getting more and more wet in the potty. It is bad because if I'm not paying attention and miss the wrist-flip that means "gotta go, Lady!" She will take matters into Her own hands.
J- Why is the dishwasher full of all our tupperwear?
C- Little One peed in it.
J- ALL of it?
C- Yes.
At once.

We're working on it. It will take awhile. But dirty diapers (knock wood) are a thing of the past. She even holds it when we're out, and goes when we get home. Yay for no more dirty diapers!

Put things INto other things. Instead of just taking everything OUT of everything. I reeeally hope She runs with this one.

Climb. She has figured out how to pull out each drawer just a little so they make stair-steps. She has stacked two empty toy baskets and climbed on top of them the better to scale the bookcase. She can climb the stairs. If you sit still long enough, She will climb you, too. I'm on the lookout for little flags bearing "LO" at the top of everything, as She claims the furniture for Herself. (I'm on the lookout as She climbs, too. For the Grandmas freaking out out there. Don't hide! I saw you cringing!).

Plus lots more stuff.

Whew! I told you She has been working hard. And, really Peanuts, we all have. She's quite the whirlwind to keep up with these days. Have you noticed these birthday posts are getting looooonger? Her development has hit an exponential curve. It is exhausting! And it's so so SO much fun. Physically She is doing great, eating like crazy and staying very healthy as long as we are very careful. She's still chillin' down there in the 10th percentile for height and weight, rockin' the 3-6 month outfits, but She's growing and growing and getting muscles under there. Actually...I can't believe how big she is already...but I'll save the sniffles another month.
Happy Birthday, Little One. All that hard work is paying off. You're turning into one heck of an amazing Little One, and we love you! In fact. One a scale of 1 to 10, you're an 11.

Summer Scrapbook

Do you really want to see a litany of pictures involving the same people over and over? Oh. You do, huh. Well, here you are then! Don't say I never gave you anything!

Berry Fun

National Arboretum - where Little One and O had their engagement portraits done.

Down on one knee and everything. Such a gentleman.

Corcoran Art Gallery. I did not get to see Adams and Leibowitz there this year. I did get to see some really good Eggleston inkjets, though. Which J found about as impressive as I find football. To each their own, no?

Little One is with me on the art thing, but with J on the photos. She liked the sculptures best.

We decided that the camera being stuck on this wierd setting made the photos look very, um, modern-artistic. Maybe we will lease them back to the gallery for a hefty fee.

Visits with the illustrious Miss M. Who by the way has of her own accord named her baby doll after Little One. Every time we hang out Miss M is sure to bring her Little One. "My Little One is sleepy too!!" she will say, tucking baby Little One into the stroller with big Little One. Which makes me remember when Miss M was a baby, and get all gooey and mushy.

Many a date with O. Who even gives her flowers sometimes. Charmer!

Backpacking by the river in Harper's Ferry. This was the girls trip, just us two, which followed the "mommy-wants-to-clean-the-house-all-day-without-you-lot-getting-in-the-way" trip a few days earlier, with just J, Little One, and the doggies.

Splishing at the Splash Park



"I'm a Little teapot"




C.H. Festival Petting Zoo

This camel later kissed Her on Her head. Really. And it was cute. Really.

Paying no attention whatever to the bunny hopping around under her dress.

Holding, erm, hooves, with Her new buddy.

Roaring at the sheep. Either all that wool looks like a mane, or it's just the only animal sound She has mastered. Either way, the sheep doesn't seem fooled.



Summer sailing lessons.



Family Hiking aka doggie heaven.




Mine too.

Still Here- Check Under the Squash

It's falling around here. It's getting dark earlier, it's getting chilly in the morning, the geese are going nuts. This means BUSY times around here for me!
Between the pick-your-own orchards, the farmer's market, and the backyard, I am in a whirl of picking, cleaning, sorting, chopping, cooking, baking....
I've got baby food frozen in gallon containers, herbs hanging from the ceiling, pestos and salsas jarred, muffins and cakes strewn across the counters, and all kinds of fruits and veggies chopped and stored up for the winter. I'm like a squirrel.
It also means lots of gardening, hauling clothes up and down from the attic, and other such fun.
That combined with J's dwindling time at home (today's the last day) and our determination to harvest every last bit of J-ness along with the tomatoes means that Little One and I are busy little bees. Not to worry Peanuts!
It also means a bunch of summer-fun photos coming soon. When? SOON I say. As soon as I emerge from the heaps of produce in the kitchen, dive into the heaps of laundry piling up while I've been chipmunking around, and tunnel my way back out again.