Three and Carefree

Lili is three years old today! 3 seems like a big milestone, I think because now she is no longer considered a toddler. Lili is old enough for preschool. She is potty trained. She can carry on great conversations. She even came up with a wonderful haiku-ish poem in the car today:

"The sun is dry. The sky is blue. The rain is wet."

And, Lili will be a big sister soon. My brother was 3 years old when I was born, and if the family photo albums are any indication, I was a pretty big impact on his life. I hope in a good way. And I hope that Lili will continue to be the precocious smiley little princess tomboy that she has developed into.

Here she is this morning, in her "Birthday Rainbow Dress", about to open her morning gift:


And, I just realized the title for this post can have a double entendre... she is three and it's a carefree age. But, we are also 3 members in this family and it seems a more carefree time than when an infant comes along!

Grand tour of MA

Whew! Lili and I just spent a long weekend in Massachusetts, visiting college friends, and my brother and sister-in-law for their baby shower. In four days, we visited 4 different MA locations, as well as a stop into Providence, RI.

Things I discovered on this trip?

Lili rides really well in the car, especially when there's only 1 parent to whine to.
She is capable of asking "why" about 5 times per mile.
I am very capable of navigating major suburbs.
Air conditioning is niiiiiice. (but really I knew this already).
My belly is the same size as Alicia's. But she's 8+ months pregnant, and I'm only 6.
Apparently perfect strangers that bag my groceries at Trader Joe's think it's OK to tell me that I still "have a long way to go" in this pregnancy, and to remark that I look like I'm having twins.

Really?

But I don't mind. I had a great trip visiting people I love and spending time with family!

AND... came home to 2 nice sized zucchini from the garden. Bonus!

First Harvest

Well, not really the first harvest, but the first reasonably sized one. Despite all the rain (or maybe because of it?) we have had many many peas (snow peas and sugar snap peas), maybe for a whole month now. The raspberries are just starting to ripen, and we have gotten 3 little tomatoes so far. The tomato plants are HUGE, and we have a few small zucchinis to speak of too!

All in all, very exciting for our first year gardening here. And this is going to sound cheesy, but I was thinking that as my body's "fruit" is ripening (the baby), so is the fruit of our garden. Fruits of our labor.

and, is she the perfect model, or what?

Camera Suggestions?

Our (8 year old) digital camera is dying... Any suggestions? Give me the pros and cons of your suggestion, too please!

Knackered

Naps have been iffy lately. Some days, Lili will fall right asleep; heck some days she even asks for a nap. On those days, she'll often sleep for 2-3 hours in the afternoon. Then again, often on those days she also stays awake until 10 at night.

On days with no naps, we can be guaranteed of a very whiny cranky child by 5:30pm and pretty much count on a bedtime of 7-7:30, which is wonderful. Well, really it's one of those tradeoffs, because she is a bear to deal with when she is cranky (yes, inherited from me).

Today, there was no nap. And then I took her for a couple of errands, not 2 miles away from home. She fell asleep just as we were returning to our own driveway, and I thought she'd wake up on the transfer out of the car, like always. But you can see here... half an hour after being unceremoniously deposited on the couch, and she is still snoozing. Here's to still hoping for a reasonable bed time. I really wanted to finish that movie I was watching!

She's not shy

Something Lili often says when she meets new people is "I'm not shy". This was never more evident than today.

We attended a free kids concert as part of the Burlington International Waterfront Festival (which is part of the Lake Champlain Quadricentennial Festival... whew! mouthfuls!), and one of the performers asked for audience participation. Lili was very gung ho about it and volunteered, even though I don't think the performer necessarily wanted her to. Whatever, he was game! The song involved each participant to say a particular phrase about the lake whenever the mike was shoved in their face. Lili was a pro, saying "rainbow trout" every time it was her turn. Oh, and she picked Rainbow Trout because she is currently obsessed with rainbows :)

Also, we were interviewed for the local news at the concert and Lili got to see herself on TV. The first thing she said after seeing herself? "I didn't smile!". Next time, she'll be camera ready.

Here's a little video snippet of her singing. You really have to strain to hear her squeak out "rainbow trout". But it was so cute. So worth it. I was so proud of her I teared up!

This thing they call Nesting

So. Nesting. It is, supposedly, a phenomenon of pregnancy. I can't say that I experienced it very much with Lilian, but for this baby... as with everything else, it is so different.

For the past month, I have been consumed with thinking about getting a dresser. I don't know why, but I must have a dresser. So yesterday, Keith found one I had also eyed at Burlington Furniture, and we bought it. Too bad two of the runners are broken. Nesting Foiled, count 1.

Same day as the dresser purchase, Keith discovered that the crib we have been meticulously saving for the baby has been recalled. Suffocation risk. Known fatalities. And the company that distributed it is now out of business (big surprise). Grrreeeaaat. Nesting Foiled, count 2.
(Note: we should be able to return the thing to Target. But we don't have a Target in Burlington. So maybe a trek to Plattsburg?)

And, we are working on the downstairs family room. I'm removing trim from the doorways and the windows, and Keith is repairing a closet corner. All in preparation of painting and putting down flooring so that the space can be livable. Nesting in progress, count 1.

Off to buy paint!

VT Tourists for a week

We had a good visit from our friends S&C, and because it was raining or gloomy much of the time, we weren't able to beach it as much as I wanted to. But, we did do a lot of the touristy VT things that I have been meaning to check out. Stowe, Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Cabot Annex, and the Trapp Family Lodge (they have a nice parking lot... I stayed in the car while Lili slept :).

But, by far my favorite place this visit was the Magic Hat Brewery, which is only a couple miles from our house! I've never sampled several beers in one sitting and it was really interesting to me to discover that I don't really like lagers, but I do like hefeweisens. My favorite was the Circus Boy, which will be very easy for me to remember because Keith unicycles. I only sipped! So don't worry about the baby.

Lili's big score at the Brewery was the tie-dyed ear plugs they gave away on the factory floor. She wears them well:

Toilet Paper Curtain

What do you do when you can't find any curtain rods that fit your style and existing window treatments?

First of all, we needed light blocking curtains. The sun rises into our room + Light filtering shades + June is not a morning person + June is pregnant and cranky and nesting = Make new light blocking curtains with a trip to JoAnn Fabrics.

Second of all, we needed very basic curtain rod brackets.

Third, we needed those brackets to be big enough to allow clearance for the existing shade.

Fourth, we wanted something wooden.

These criteria are impossible to find at Lowes. Maybe Lowes was not the right place to look, but it was the most convenient for me.

So, if you are us, and you are two engineers living in one house, you procrastinate about it until something brilliant occurs to you. For instance, using the cheapo wooden toilet paper holders and a cheapo wooden dowel to make your ideal curtain rod set-up. A little bit of customizing woodwork to make the rod removable, and voila: Our Ideal Curtain Rod Set-Up. AND it can remind you of going to the bathroom!

Muchas gracias to Keith for being the custom woodworker and installer!