Swinging

How did November happen so fast? It was supposed to be leisurely with lots of time for catching up on things and getting organized. Yet, I'm running late, exhausted, and 2 weeks behind on my novel writing--yikes! Plus, according to this blog, Tillie has been celebrating Halloween for a while now...

Tilli-BOT 3000

...says "1001111100101000110101" (which translates roughly as "Happy Halloween!")

Diseased

Is this the face of pestilence, the harbinger of disease, the bringer-home of pandemics? Since when does infection come in such a cute package? A toddler in daycare is the grossest petri dish out there. She is virulence unchecked. Tillie got a cold last week, which Scott was tortured by this weekend, and which I now feel creeping my way as a slow, tight ache in my throat. And to make matters worse, swine flu is going around her classroom. Four out of the 12 children in her classroom have come down with it. Tillie and her fellow booger-nosed friends greet each other with moist kisses and suck on the same toys, so it is just a matter of time before we are oinking up piles of vomit here on Dancy Street. I'm not looking forward to it. As if contagions weren't enough, now Typhoid Tillie also has puffy hives all over from who knows what. It started out as an embarrassing (for her mother) number of mosquito bites and has blossomed into a full-body reaction to something. She hasn't done anything out of the ordinary over the weekend, so I can't explain why she looks like a rash victim. Fortunately, she isn't bothered by it. I can't tell what her teachers think of my parenting skills. Hopefully CPS doesn't show up this week. Or if they do, I hope they bring some cough drops and calamine lotion. Yuck!

NaNoWriMo

I'm going to do it! I'm going to participate in National Novel Writing Month. I don't have an idea for a plot or any characters yet, but the lovely thing about NaNoWriMo is that it places importance on quantity not quality. Starting November 1st, I will be writing a 50,000 word manuscript for a crappy (or brilliant--either works) novel. On average, that's about 5-6 pages a day. I'm excited to try out a new kind of writing for me and I hope that it helps improve my professional writing--or at least is just fun.

Here's the link if you want to find out more: http://www.nanowrimo.org/

I encourage all of you to try it along with me this year. I'd love to have some virtual, or even in-town buddies, for support and camaraderie. It is free (or pay what you want) and there is no actual pressure to finish (or at least as much pressure as you want). Even if you do not have any interest in participating, please feel free to encourage/ask/nag me about it : ) I'm psyched!

Leonardo de Tillie's First Oevre

This, my dear blogadiers, is Tillie's first drawing! Yes, my maternal chest swelled with pride as I witnessed her draw this likeness of a "kitty cat" per my request. I don't really need to point out to you any of the features, as their verisimilitude is so exact, but she explained to me as she carefully pushed the red crayon across the card that the two keen dots are its eyes and the dark, round maw below them is its mouth.

PS. Not impressed? Well, perhaps I should show you the little puddle of pee that she left in the potty for the first time this week. Hah! Now I know you think her a Renaissance woman!

New Wheels

Tillie got a tricycle for her second birthday. Doesn't she look sophisticated and mature with her new wheels? Of course, if you look at the video you will see that she hasn't quite yet figured out how not to press down on both pedals at the same time. I hadn't realized that was something one had to learn--but I guess we all did at one time.

Also, she got presents that help her try out a couple of interesting occupations:

Small Animal Vet
This poor puppy is still "sick" and gets its temperature taken and several shots on a regular basis.

Thank you Camile and Alex!

Sushi Chef
Already an expert chopper and chopstick wielder!

Thank you Hazel!

So...what should she be when she grows up?

Happy Birthday Zane!

Here's a special birthday song for our buddy Zane (who got the flu oh no!):

We love you!
Get well soon!
Happy Birthday!

Encore

"I Am a Bobah"

Translation: I am a robot [said in robot monotone]. We've trained Tillie to say this. It is very cute.

Fun at the Playground?

.

Thinking...

...on a plastic dinosaur.

Two!

Birthday girl:

Salim and Tillie get frosted:

Oliver shows us how cupcakes should be eaten:

Hazel takes notes for her first birthday:

Amy, the talented icetrix:

So pretty:

Meeting the adoring public:




And...a banana chaser:

Odds and Ends

I love this skull sweater I just bought for Tillie. Why don't they come in my size?

On the way to daycare, she took this funny picture of my hand.

Tom Sawyer Stopped By

Cheese Face

You'd think that I would wipe her face before recording these precious moments...

Frosted Flakes

Tillie had a cupcake at her friend Oliver's 2nd birthday party earlier this month. Or, at least I thought she did. I found the cake part uneaten on the floor later--she had simply eaten the 1.5 inches of frosting. When I say "eaten" I use that term loosely. Really she just mashed if all over her face, shirt, and hands. See Figure 1 below. Zoom out (Figure 2) and you'll see that Oliver managed to get chocolate frosting all over his feet. When is cake not sweet enough for you? When you are two!

Figure 1

Figure 2

New York Adventures

I just got back from a refreshing vacation (solo!) in New York. I took an informal tour of all the chocolate boutiques of Manhattan with the lovely Kharissia. Plus, since my travel adventures must include all things gustatory, you can guess that I also ate many delicious pastries, pastas, salads, risottos, sushis, pizzas, and Chinese soups. I also enjoyed finding great discounts on all the sale racks in Soho.

An exotic highlight of the trip included helping my friend Amy prepare for a ready-to-wear fashion show as part of the New York fashion season in Bryant Park. Not only did I pick up some very useful sewing tips (this season's line included some fabulous jackets, six of which I pinned and pressed into submission), but I got to rub elbows (quite literally because the room was too small) with some fashionista fancy-pantses.

The three days of mad sewing was an adventure in itself, but the actual runway show was an incredible thrill--lasted only about 15 minutes, but what an exciting 15 minutes! Imagine tall, elfin models teetering on stick-like legs with bored expressions, hair frizzed to there, and glowing eye makeup. All around them buzzed the team of black-clad makeup artists, hair stylists, concept designers, producers, dressers, seamstresses, and shoe-putter-oners (my job). While lacing up the $2500 Manolo Blahnik boots (a task that took 20 minutes each), I had take furtive breaths at strategic moments in order to avoid inhaling a cloud of hairspray or bronzing powder. My proudest moment involved the last-minute stitching of a zipper so that it wouldn't spring open and reveal the model's bony butt as she pranced down the catwalk. I even got to yell "Dust!" so that the make-up artist would quickly smudge the pale stitching with brown powder so it wouldn't stand out on the dark skirt. Days of little sleep and backbreaking labor payed off, as I earned a mention in the show's program--please refer to me as Accessory Coordinator from now on.

PS. I do not understand how you can fit the normal allotment of human guts into the narrow body of a runway model--it's a biophysical paradox that I suspect involves some sort of hidden mini-dimension.

Chocolate F(r)iends

Molly Takes Manhattan

Runaway Runway

Cow Girl

I used to get on these same stone cows when I was a kid. Delighting little wranglers for 25+ years and counting...very impressive!

Lunch Lady

A trip to the zoo included feeding the goats. Tillie now wants to hand feed everything and everyone--dogs, cats, neighbor kids...

Frank Talk About Pluto

If you have not been following the Pluto controversy, I highly recommend reading up. No, knowing about it will not affect any part of your day, year, or life. No, ignoring it will not put anyone's lives (or livelihoods even) in danger. However, it is one of those purely intellectual quandaries that make us delightfully human and I don't want you to miss out on it.

The debate also brings to light what science is about and how it can and should affect society and education--but it does so without threatening anyone's religious beliefs, health, or budget. (A la evolution, stem cells, and global warming...) It is a lovely, accessible thought experiment. And, everyone from all walks of life seems to have a strong opinion about it. I am dying to know what Tillie and her generation will have decided in 30 years.

I just read something (old news, well, not even news really) that blew my mind. "Pluto last crossed Neptune's orbit on Jan. 23, 1979, and remained within it until Feb. 11, 1999." (from NASA's website) I had heard this, that Pluto spends 20 years as the 8th planet rather than the 9th planet from the Sun every 250 years--no biggie. However, I didn't realize that this was occurring NOW! (That was "then" of course.) It was happening while I was learning about Pluto!! Pretty much from the time I could understand what a planet was and that there were 9 of them and that they were in a certain order--until the time that I was beginning my career as a textbook editor--Pluto wasn't even where it was I thought it was in the solar system. Nobody mentioned this to me!!!

Why is this little factoid important? Well, if you feel that Pluto's status as a planet hinges on tradition--then perhaps you should consider that Pluto itself completely disregards tradition. He (or is it a girl?) says, "Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally, but my very educated mother just served us pine nuts and NOT nine pickles, at least while I'm on my tropical sesquibicentennial vacation in the sunny part of Neptune's orbit, hah, hah, hah!" What a little imp!

Meanwhile, Tillie shops for a revised poster of the solar system...

Road Trip

I took a quick solo road trip yesterday. I love to drive for a few hours by myself. I used to hate it, but that was when I had more time in my life, more time for thinking and not doing anything. I can't just lay and stare anymore. No time. I could be working, reading, cleaning, child-minding, home-repairing, laundry-folding, show-watching, crafting, catching up on sleep, etc. If possible, I should be doing two of these things at once, which means no thinking. The great thing about driving is that you can't do anything else at the same time. You are not tempted to multitask. You can only think. Just in time, too--the old mind files needed a good dusting.