I have no idea

And I'd say "excuse the crazy hair and no makeup" but let's be honest; I always look like this. 

*(Now maybe with a vid that works?)

Why my eyebrows are a little thicker than usual

Christina Applegate in Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead was THE epitome of beautifulness and chic when I was a littleone. Watching it now (I bow to your wisdom-in-programming, HBO), I can't even see the error of my thinking. She still looks amazing and suddenly I'm eBay'ing high-waisted pleated pants in olive drab.

If you give a girl a donut (shirt)

Didn't get my mama's flat booty. Phew.

Tough to get a head-on pic these days (especially when the subject is climbing all over the couch), but I had to document HJ's new skinny jeans (yes, BabyGap, I fell for it) and donut t-shirt.

One of the donuts? Is saying "ouch!" because it has a bite out of it. Which is apropos, since Harps spent a good 10 minutes trying to eat them off her shirt this morning.

When you have a grumpy day

Oh, the first half of tomorrow* was bad. Bad bad bad. People were mad at me, I was mad at me, I had a headache, H wouldn't nap, I felt restless and my skin was dry and I could only find 1 of her Smartwool sock in the dryer, and my new phone would not activate and I had to make FIVE separate calls to customer service, and my half 'n half had weird little chunks when I poured it. 

It's funny how writing those things out makes them pedestrian and sitcommy and silly, but I felt entirely disheartened. I actually said the words "I miss my mom" to...myself and then stared out the window and then built another tower of wooden blocks.

But then, the sun came out and I got my phone working and I finally changed us both out of our lentils-covered pajamas and put her in those cute little gray sneakers and hit the playground next-door. And she was in SUCH a good mood, crawling under the bridge and halfway up the little green slide, and picking up little pebbles and staring in awe at the big kids -- that I just couldn't keep the lingering sour taste in my mouth. 

All my shirts are 9 month shirts, mom! Not s'posed to be 3/4 sleeve!

Dewdrop.

We wrapped up our play session, then headed out for a bit and I bought her a pink soccer ball. (She's obsessed.) And we rolled it back and forth on the back deck and sipped on orange juice and felt the sun get cooler on our hands and cheeks.

Tho it took a really long time for her to go down (damn canine teeth!), by 8:00 cc and I were out the door, babysitter in place, my seat warmer toasty.

Because? We had courtside seats to the Nuggets. (thanks, working-for-a-sportsy-company benefits!!) And tho they played a killa team, the Nuggs pulled out a win at the end (I kind of love basketball, but don't tell anyone) and it was exciting! And I was oooouuuuut without a baby and they came to my seat and asked if I wanted anything and I wanted NACHOS. And I cuddled cc's neck until he made me stop and we didn't get home till almost midnight what!

It was just what I needed. Oh, and those up-close-seats are just as cool as they've always looked to me on the teevs. Kinda like this:

Swooosh.

*I just realized I wrote "tomorrow" instead of "yesterday" which is too funny to correct. I IS PROPHET AND KNOW WHAT TOMORROW WILL BE. 

I kinda hate when posts have video, but there are grandparents to appease...

I was somehow graced with a chillun who has an amazing attention span.

(It comes to her naturally, but I will say I foster it by totally leaving her alone when she's in a groove...and chugging my coffee in a corner)

(Except when I can't help myself and must tape her)

Tonight, right at bedtime, she started playing with a pile of (dirty) clothes. Lasted at least 20 minutes. Total, utter focus. Deep breathing. Sorting of reds and whites. Titanic (?!?!) playing in the background.

This is why we really don't need to buy these bums toys. (But I'll never stop!)

I feel a little like Bob Saget circa 1991 narrating vids.

Milkshaaaaaaaakez

A girl and her dog and her shake.

We're in a weird limbo nap phase, where she mostly still needs 2, but at strange new times and sometimes she only does 1 but is then a total demon child. Sunday afternoon she finally took a snooze longer than 40 minutes. I was so pleased, I handed her the rest of my chocolate milkshake (sneakily procured during her slumber -- we've been eating waaaay too healthy and I needed a treat) (also -- what gives? I say 'milkshake' now instead of 'frappe'? F!)

She sucked that sucker down so fast, didn't have time to blink and/or steal it back. What can I say? Girl is coco for cocoamilk.

Can't date till she's 40.

Just some randoms and a picture of H-money in a dress

1. Harper in a dress. Doesn't happen everyday, but she was into it. And so was I. (The tulle the tulle!!)

2. Anyone else watching the last season of Big Love? I feel alone in my viewership and need to discuss some of the seriously WTF things happening.

3. Bras. I hate them. I've gotten really bad and lazy about even putting them on lately, which really isn't appropriate. Please give me recs for really amazingly comfortable ones? Pretty please?

4. I cooked lentils today and they actually taste good! Miracle of miracles and king of kings!

5. I'm not a big candy person, but I find Easter candy unbelievably irresistible. Well, obviously. But I'm also consumed by those maple-cream-filled chocolate eggs. Sort of salty, sort of grainy, all of rabidly delicious.

6. I hate how weird and nervous and flirty Ina gets when she has a guest (usually male) helping her cook in the kitchen. "Does this look good?" she asks, chopping an onion. Really? Quit it, hero!

7. Harper's new favorite little game is taking Clay's temperature in the mornings. The thermometer lives on my bedside table (NO, not for fertility purposes -- I just never put it away after he had a little fever) and she knows how to use it (not from her own experience, since that's not exactly where she gets hers taken...) -- She reaches over to grab it, pushes his head down into place, and puts it right-side-in to his mouth. Then waits a few seconds, takes it out and looks at it. To die for.

8. I miss knitting. Need to get out my needles.

9. What in the hell do you guys eat for lunch? Especially stay-at-home people. I feel like I'm always hungry and struggling to find something easy and filling and healthy. All thoughts accepted.

10. I'm throwing my hat into the Casey Abrams ring for Idol this year.

11. Friday!

She was really excited about our new J Adler saltandpepper shakers

If I let her make a huge mess, I have a few minutes to myself. But then I've also subtracted a bunch of minutes for clean-up I have to do later. Harumph.

(That t-shirt? Borrowed from her boyfriend before their afternoon walk-around-the-park together. Her ladybug turtleneck wasn't really cutting it in the 80 DEGREE WEATHA WHAT?!)

Eaten by a scarf

I'm spending this naptime drinking out of a Missouri mug (given to me during my semi-pre-term labor saga) and pondering the question of: Should dads really host playgroup? A mom in mine just informed us her husband unit would be hosting from now on -- and that was that.

It feels suuuuuuuper awkward and strange to me. Try and talk me out of my judgies, but I'm guessing you'll fail?

My new sunny room

Best couch eva. Turns into a full-on pull-out fort.
Ikea I missssss you. 

This room is what sold me on the new digs. It's connected to the kitchen and has superhigh ceilings and just feels light and airy, but also cozy. And the sun won't quit, yo.

Perfect for drinking half-and-half-heavy coffee while watching Chesney pull dental floss in and out of a plastic baggie.

May your weekend

Be as good as alone time with a roll of toilet paper.

I call this shot

Climbing inside bookshelves and throwing semi-empty, abandoned Starbucks cups. (Have you tried their new cocoa cappuccino? Oh yes.)

Then rinse repeat.

People. I'm going to admit out loud these aren't the easiest days of motherhood. I'm tired. I've been through a lot. She needs a lot and I give it to her. I'm just really feeling...like I need a 2 week vacay somewhere warm and full of servants that make grilled cheese and tomato sammies alongside a frosty cranberry juice with lots of crushed ice. Also a masseuse that looks like David Duchovny circa mid-nineties.

Am I still typing? Ni'ni'.

Pretty much summing it up

Love this pic:

12-18 month jeans that are absolute flood pants. Please note they aren't/can't be buttoned either. We'z nuthin but class over here.

Filthy face.

Filthy barefeet.

Frantically frantically signing for more Gingersnaps. My current bribery food while I unpack one very very slow box at a time.

Odds they're prepping to take her away from me?

Huzzah for handmedown xylophones and homes

The move was exhausting, but we did it! We haz aliveness!

Loving the new pad and all its airiness and flow. (Just imagine all those boxes gone...)

I'll do a lil house tour once we're settled! Off to ice my head -- shower curtain rod fell on it as I was trying to be handy. I'll take the hint to stop and sip my caffeine instead.

Before my life is in complete chaos (oh wait, it already is?)

I wanted to tell you about my new child, the toddler.

It seems like overnight, she went from a gooey baby to a saucy todd -- complete with too many tricks and passions and tantrums. It's awesome how she's a real person now, but it's also exhausting at a whole new level. Without dire consequences (major fit), I can't: Talk on the phone, use my computer, eat, look at a magazine, drink from a mug, take anything away from her. Don't worry, Dr. Phil/Supernanny/MIL/whoever else, I say no/follow thru/take sh*t away quite frequently. It's just painful.

Yesterday, we got the cutestcutestcutestcutest package in the mail from my mom. Well, the package wasn't cute. But the inside contents! Wooeee. She made Harps a dress (and a pair of pants!) from recycled t-shirts and -- they are very delicious and completely Etsy-worthy. As we opened the puffy envelope together on the side porch steps, Harps quickly grabbed the (pink and with some studded sparkles) dress and then, for the next hour, WOULD NOT LET IT GO. At all. No. Stop, mom. You touch my stuff -- I kill you. You call me Frances? I KILL YOU. Oh sorry. Different story.

Nothing can slow me down. Not with Dressy by my side.

I thought our up-and-down the sidewalk game would distract, but I was proven very very wrong. Held onto it for dear life, sniffed it, put it over her shoulder, laid it down on the sidewalk and took a 3 second nap with it. And when I gingerly took it away (or even put it on her -- I thought that might be a good compromise?) she screamed at the top of her lungs and then real tears and then hiccups of sorrow.

Directly after I gave in and returned the bounty. 

So hey, Grammy! We love the clothes! You're the best! But what the hell did you make them from? Catnip/crack/Charlie Sheen?!

THEY'RE AFTER ME!

Places I have lived in the past 10 years

I think I need to sign up for that ancestry.com stuff and see if my peeps were hardcore nomads.

Because...

• 2000-2001: Boston University, Claflin Hall, 9th Floor (The Fine Arts majors floor woooeeeee!)
• 2001-2002: James Madison University, Blue Ridge Hall (The transfers dorm!), 2nd Floor
• 2002-2004: 72 Gardner Street, Apt 1, Allston, MA (My real world house. Fo realz)
• Couple months of 2004: An apartment in Brighton, MA (Met cc and bailed -- sorry, girls)
• 2004-2005: Clay's place in Cambridge, MA (An old, drafty house btwn Harvard and Central Sqs)
• 2005-2006: My cozycozy studio on Myrtle Street in Beacon Hill, Boston (with a red couch!)
• A few months in 2006: A sublet in Santa Monica, Cali (A delicious place to live)
• A few months in 2006: Another sublet in West Hollywood, Cali (Not so delicious)
• 2007-2009: 2105 Broadway St, teeny tiny apartment with a green wall, San Francisco 
• 2009-2010: 2200 Sacramento St, apartment-in-the-sky, SF (I miss you Billy the doorman!!)
• Few months in 2010: 12th floor of the Glass House, downtown Denver (I miss you, furniture!)
• Few months in 2010/2011: Our bungalow in Wash Park, Denver 
• 2011-?????: Our 100-year-old housey in Bonnie Brae, Denver

And lots of inbetween/backandforth stays at our old pad in Groton, Massachusetts -- my beloved 40 Wallace.

I'M EXHAUSTED JUST TYPING THAT.

Any of ya'll live with me any of those places? Any of ya'll move as much?? (I might even beat cc?!)

COUNTDOWN

Ya'll. We move in ... I don't know. Four days? That sounds right. Or wrong, rather.

*takes another 12 bites of frozen cookie dough from a bucket*

Living far away from family is really hard at times like these. (Also because my cousin and his wifeywife just had THEIR DELICIOUS BABY GIRL AND I CAN'T INHALE HER.)

However! I can inhale my own Biscuit. Who really does make our lives oh-so-very good.