Addie's Room

Before Addie has to share her domain with her little sister, I thought I'd post a few photos of Addie's room before it changes again. It finally has all the standard furniture in it - bed, dresser, toy shelf, bookshelf. When we moved from our one-bedroom into our current two-bedroom, her room only had a crib, a single tall bookshelf and a chair. I'm not sure how we went 2 + years without a dresser for her.


Much of Addie's room was decorated on a budget with pieces coming mainly from IKEA, Urban Outiffters or Craigslist. I didn't really plan on buying so much from IKEA but it's just so tempting and I don't feel like I have to commit as much as I would if we spent zillions on something from pottery barn. The antique bed was a find on craigslist and Addie chose the orange bedspread from IKEA after one she saw in the book Corduroy. The birdcage curtains I had made from bedspread fabric I bought at Urban Outfitters and the owl painting is a gift from talented artist and cousin, Max Neutra.

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The shelf and oversized floor lamp are also both from IKEA. The three framed pictures are of Addie's own drawings and the owl decal I found on etsy.com.


The dresser is, you guessed it, IKEA. It was sort of an impulse buy as we saw it before checking out. I had originally wanted some sort of mahogany antique. The artwork above was painted by Addie and Clara at LACMA a little over a year ago. The lamp is Peter Rabbit, a gift from my Mom which I believe she found on e-bay.


The school desk we found on the street in Brooklyn years ago. Our old neighbor refinished it for me after I tried to sand it myself and gave up. The blanket was Cap's when he was a baby. The felt octopus picture is by Cap's friend and artist Amanda Barr. You can't have too many baskets to store stuff and these two orange ones were snagged from the clearance section at Urban Outfitters. I love their home section but unfortunately we have to drive all the way to Burbank to find one since not all the stores carry home items anymore.

There is not much left to do in her room, but I'm on the lookout for a cool (an inexpensive) mobile possibly with birds on it. I pretend I'm going to make one but don't hold your breath. Cap told me enough with the bird thing, but I can't help it! Birds are so cute!

When Threes Company

Last week commemorated the theoretical halfway point in my pregnancy - 20 weeks. Jamie shared with me, not only her reaction, "Holy Crap" (where did the time go?), but a sweet post from well-read baby blogger, Dooce , who is also pregnant with her second child. I don't follow her posts regularly, but every time I read something she's written, I'm like, "Dang! That girl can write!" Here is the last paragraph from her April letter:

"But we've been told countless times by couples with multiple children to stop and enjoy the time we have alone with the first child. Because it will very soon be a bit of history, when we were only three. When it was just Mama, Daddy, and the one who changed our lives forever. Leta, I think you're old enough that you will have memories of this time, of when it was just us, and that is something we will share for the rest of our lives. You knew us when. You are the one who ushered in that monumental phase of our lives and have lived with us as we fumbled our way to this next phase, and here we are are about to go on this ride together. I'm so excited that you are here to experience this with us, and I cannot wait to see the ways in which this little sister opens up your life. I am as excited about meeting her as I am about watching your life grow to include her." - Dooce, April 2009

I cry everyone time I read this. It makes me sad to think about not being just the three of us. I'm glad things worked out this way though, that I have had 3 selfish years with my little Addie monkey all by herself. Of course, I'm excited too to meet her little sister, but I feel like, somehow, I'm letting Addie down. Everything belongs to Addie now. All of our attention. Our love. Her own room, finally. How could I take this away from her? I guess she still will have all of our love and attention (definitely not her own room though), but that 'all' is just going to have to get bigger to fill the four of us now.

29 Hour Vacation

I think I've hit on something. The 1 night/2 day vacation. I really felt like I got away and only had to pay for one night in a hotel! The key is to go someplace relatively close, and I love that Palm Springs is just over 2 hours from our house. We drove out Saturday morning to spend the day with my friend Sara, her hubby and her son Alex who is 4 years old. She and I are friends from NY and I only see her when she does her once a year mother-in-law visit. I'm a little embarrassed I haven't been back to New York in almost 5 years. Oops.

We spent Saturday morning with them at the Living Desert Zoo. It was our first time there and I loved it! Addie was shy around 4-year old Alex and it only took her about 3 hours to warm up to him. Maybe that's not so long since she told me recently that she doesn't like boys because they are too loud. By the end of the day, after the zoo, lunch at a Mexican restaurant and swimming at the pool, Addie thought Alex was hot stuff. He introduced her to Scooby-Doo and she requested to sit next him at the amazing outdoor feast that Sara's mother-in-law cooked for us. We didn't get to our hotel until after 10 pm and the three of us crashed out family style in the King sized bed.

They had to fly back Sunday, so we had all day to explore on our own. I wasn't expecting much from the Travelodge we booked. Prices were outrageous and availability slim so we took what we could get. I was more than pleasantly surprised. We even liked it enough that, instead of spraying ourselves with Lysol and heading out first thing in the morning, we hung out by the pool in the morning, after a glutinous diner breakfast, and took in the view of the San Jacinto mountains behind us. Heck, I'd even go back!



After pool-time, we headed up, 8,000 feet up, the mountain via the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I had to explain to Addie that it was aerial as in up in the sky, not Ariel as in the Little Mermaid. It was in the mid-80s when we left the valley and was 49 degrees at the top. I love that we cooled off in the pool and then Addie got to hack at snow all in the same day. After putting in two full days, she fell asleep first on my shoulder and then on Cap's during our shortened hike. Check out a few more pics of our weekend here.

Princess Me

"Just who could this princess be, the lovely, faithful Princess Me?" - Karma Wilson

At little Lyla's birthday party, her big sister Rya and Addie shed many a tear over who could hold the fairy wand. And the princess tiara. Oh the tears! and the screaming! and the wailing! Oh the horror! Rya owned no less than 6 pairs of plastic princess shoes so thankfully that was one less thing to fight over. Addie and Rya have been in daycare together since they were both 3 months old. They know how to share, except, apparently, when it comes to anything princess. (Note to self: get at least two of each princess item or be prepared to have a house of wicked stepsisters.)

In general I'd say Addie doesn't have much of an opinion on her attire but I think that has begun to change. On Easter, after we let her choose which dress she wanted to wear, she immediately asked, "Where's my fairy baton? I want to wear my princess shoes!" Sorry toots. You don't have a fairy baton (how the heck did she even know the word baton?!) or princess shoes. You can wear your sparkly red converse if you want. They are like magic Urban Dorothy shoes! We bought Addie a new pair of awesome brown converse recently which she refuses to wear declaring, "those are for boys." Oh great. Then Cap told me this week she didn't want to wear a blue and white striped t-shirt because that too was for boys. Cap is starting to rethink his plan that she'll be a skater. Maybe she just needs a board with Hello Kitty on it?

Bee Mine

Saturday we went to the 1st Birthday Party of Addie's friend Rya's little sister, Lyla. And we never left. Cap had to attend an event for work, so Addie and I went over at noon. We were still there just chilling in their background when Cap came around 4 and I left to get my hair cut. At 6:30, Cap said he was still there and that everyone who left for naptime came back. We didn't go home that night until almost nine. When the sun set, they hung a sheet from the side of their garage and all the kids watched movies wrapped up in blankets. Awesome. I love a good neighborhood party where everyone wants to stay all day, and night.

Sunday, we were invited to celebrate Greek Easter with Cap's Aunt and family at their house. Beforehand though we stopped by Travel Town. I'd like to say that trains hold about zero interest for me. We rode the cute little choo-choo around the park which was fun and that was about as much as I felt like I needed to check out. All trains look about the same to me and since we could only get inside one of them (an empty snack car and the engine) we didn't stay long. Perhaps it's a good thing we're having another girl!


Greek Easter Feast

Blood of Christ Eggs (so cool!)

Riding the little train

The Empty Snack Car

Engine #5

How to be a big sister

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We've been reading a book about bringing home a new baby which, thankfully, Addie loves and has us read over and over each night. In The New Baby, the older brother wants to show his new baby sister all of his favorite things - toys, books, jokes - but the baby doesn't seem interested. What can you do with a new baby, he asks? Well, you can cuddle her, tickle her, give her a rattle and let her pull your nose, and of course, show her off to your friends. As we've learned from Hollywood, babies can be your best accessory.

When we talk to Addie about her little sister, she often adds her own rules.

The Rules of Having a Baby in the House According to Addie:

I don't want to push the baby.
I don't want to bonk babies heads together.
You can't put a baby on a wall.
You can't go poo poo in their mouth.

Words to live by.



(* photo is by my friend Jan)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

This might be the first weekend I never left the house. Usually even the thought sends shivers down my spine. I love my home, but I can get antsy. Fast. But this weekend it didn't matter because we brought the fun to us.

Saturday, my friend Jan from my old days of photo class and her daughter came over to dye eggs with us. I made a promise to myself last year that I would let Addie dye the eggs herself this time and I kept my promise. Yes, I can relinquish control sometimes! I can get kinda nutty about dying eggs so I turned my egg efforts to creating My Very Martha Egg Tree complete with hand blown and dyed eggs. I even went a little Easter batty and made the cute little pom-pom chick. Awww.




On Sunday, Addie ate jellybeans for breakfast compliments of the Easter Bunny and went on an egg hunt in our front yard. The eggs didn't like the sprinklers, but the slugs sure thought they had gone to slug heaven. I was pleased to hear that Addie still calls then "snugs," something she said last summer. Maybe they would have a better rap if they were always called snugs.



Then we all got dressed and 5 of Addie's daycare friends and their parents came over for brunch and another Easter Egg Hunt. Addie's own egg hunt was with her real eggs, and the hunt with her pals in the backyard was plastic eggs filled with more jelly beans, stickers, play-doh and princess rings. We had mimosas, quiche and angel food cake with fresh berries. Yum! And who needs toys when you have a Daddy Dogpile! Don't lie in the grass if you don't want 5 toddlers stacked on top of you.

I think Easter might be my new favorite holiday!




Check out more photos from Easter Weekend on the left!

The Butterfly House

I thankfully did not forgot about our little caterpillar friend turned chrysalis who had been living in a plastic cup the size of mini salsa container from Baja Fresh. Addie painted his new digs and even the leaf to match. I think sometime in the next week or two we should have a little butterfly friend. You can see Mr. Chrysalis hanging like a gray booger from the top of his dashing new quarters. I'm sure his new digs would have made it into Domino for Bugs.

In other news, I received the results of the amniocentesis, and our little bell pepper passed with flying colors. She's also quite the kicker. Cap even got to see and feel her ballet moves for the first time two nights ago.

Another Sunny Weekend

Do you think Addie is having fun at Jake's third birthday? I think so. I even warmed up to the puppeteer despite my fear of clowns, mimes, adults in animal outfits (yes Disneyland can have me cowering behind Cap at the site of Goofy 10 feet away), and anything that might possibly involve audience participation. The worst example of that was at a Burlesque game show we went to (only in Brooklyn, I know) that ended up involving contestants from the audience. Believe me, I did not want to win anything.

Sunday we indulged in some seriously delicious french toast at brunch with our old neighbors. Boy do I wish they could trade places with our current lot upstairs. Then we all headed to the beach for a few hours. Don't you think everyone should look this glamorous in $.49 cent sunglasses?

Pretty darn good weekend.

Gardening by the Yard

Before this weekend's adventures, I best post last weekends!

We took advantage of springy spring days and headed outdoors. On Saturday I got ambitious, and Addie helped me plant 2 cherry tomato plants along with some basil and italian parsley in an abandoned terra cotta pot that has been in our yard since we moved in. Only a naive urban gardner would dig in the dirt decked out in a white skirt. I think this weekend I want to add a few more herbs - maybe dill and mint. Hmmm. I wonder if this means I'll have to cook one of these day.




On Sunday, we went further field - all they way to Pasadena to the Kidspace museum to adopt a caterpillar. Addie named him Caterpillar, and I need to remind myself that we MUST build him a bigger home since he's already in the chrysalis stage. Kidspace is pretty awesome, but I don't think we'll make it back on the 18th for the butterfly release party. Maybe we'll just have our own!

We went with Jake and Chloe, and I'm taking it as a very, very good sign for impending Big Sisterdom, that Addie completely dotes on her half pint pal. She has a real fondness for babies and told me "Babies are funny." Addie gave Chloe a brush and showed her how to dust off the dirt on the dinosaur bones. Jake in turn showed Addie how to lick rosemary, always an important life skill.

More pics on the left too!

Two Lollipops

Introducing "Two Lollipops" written and performed by The Addie+Daddy Family Band.

After Cap was done playing guitar, Addie said, "Now Mommy do it!" I had to explain that Mommy doesn't know how to play the guitar. She looked at me like I was a lame lump of a person. Sorry honey. You are going to be disappointed later on too when you realize I can't drive stick, play pool, ski or tie a maraschino cherry stem in a knot with my tongue.

Maybe you'll teach your Mom a few tricks!