Rosh Hashanah, painting, and Costco

They don't have anything in common. Three things I wanted to blog about. That's it.

Rosh Hashanah

The only thing we can get from our Delta sky miles is useless magazines (I didn't mean it, People magazine. YOU certainly aren't useless.) So, we have maybe 5 free subscriptions of various mags that show up. One of those is Martha Stewart Living. I skim through it to see how uncreative I am overall, enjoy pics of others' creativity, and then put it aside for someone else who might enjoy perusing through it. The last page of of the latest edition had a picture and recipe for Apple Honey Challah that caught my attention. "Ooooh. That's pretty bread," I thought. I was amazed that I actually had all the ingredients for a Martha recipe (I don't think she shops at Walmart OR Albertson's. Table salt just won't do. It's coarse sea salt for Martha.) Anyhoo, I set out to make the pretty bread one evening. I had Jake look "challah" up on Wikipedia, the site I always refused to let my students use for research but that I use on a regular basis, to find out why it is made in connection with the Rosh Hashanah celebration. We learned, we ate, we acknowledged the fact that Rosh Hashanah isn't for another month. But it IS pretty bread, isn't it?

Painting

On our trip to the craft store Michael's, we bumped into the clearance section on our way to what we were looking for. There was a wooden alphabet puzzle for $1.50. I have plenty of craft paint, so I figured it would be a fun project for Tessa to paint and a toy we could use to work on letter recognition. She LOVED being the artist and spent a good amount of time making her wooden letters look just so. While Sister did this:

Brother did this:

And Mom had a sweet, uninterrupted time making dinner.

Here is the lovely finished product after I drew the letter markings back on the paint caked pieces the next day. She's especially proud of the "rainbow letter" V.

Costco

A. If you see one of these in the Costco parking lot, it HAS to be for one of the employees, right?

Because there is no way you are going to fit anything from Costco in this vehicle. I had boxes piled on top of my children on our way home today from a small shopping trip. And this was at least in a four door auto.

B. Today when we parked our car, a Black Eyed Peas song came on the radio. I was bopping along to it and looking back at Tessa to try to get her to do the same. She just smiled as her mom had a dance party that she didn't feel like joining. I got out of the car where there were 4 senior citizen age men standing a couple cars away. One hollered at me to get my attention and let me know that they all had been watching me and that I had given them a good laugh. I replied, smiling but embarassed, "I'm glad I could do that for you today." They silently walked past me, and only crickets chirped as they made their way into Costco. I followed slowly to avoid and give the awkwardness some space. He DID say "laugh", didn't he?

And to that I say: "I'm so three thousand and eight. You so two thousand and late! Boom, boom, boom!"

One last thing:

It was Cole's one month check up this morning. (12 lbs, 10 oz. if you are still following the stats on the baby linebacker). Tessa was able to get the nose spray flu vaccine while we were there, and did very well. She kept talking about the lady "painting" her nose, though. I like to hear how she describes things with her two year old vocabulary. She's into the phrase, "it's kind of like.." lately. Comparisons. She had some chocolate milk. "Mama? It's kinda like candy."

Some things I've learned in the past couple weeks

1. For me, having more than one child = a race against time. Example: Okay, Tessa is enjoying fruit snacks and a drink in the kitchen. I've just finished changing Cole, and Cole is calm and happy on the changing table. Strap that kid in, I've got 5 minutes to brush my teeth, make my bed, and put some laundry away. Run!(Cole's baby acne was in its height of glory here, so thank heavens for Biore strips and Benzoil Peroxide because it's finally clearing up. ;) if you know me at all, you know I'm kidding, so please keep the tsking to a minimum.)

2. I don't like it when good friends move far away. I understand it happens, but I don't have to like it.

3. A 56 oz. bag of peanut M&M's may very well be one of the best/dangerous gifts I've ever been given. It doesn't matter where I hide it. I still know where it is.

4. Funny details are still my favorite. Even though we decided to officially celebrate my 30th a week later because of the bar exam, Jake still bought me flowers on my actual birthday. Awwww. They were very pretty, but my favorite thing about them was the birthday pick that said "ppy Birthday". Jake said the lady at the store was very sweet and intensely helpful as she insisted on making the arrangement extra special by adding a birthday pick. She didn't notice it was busted, and Jake wanted to keep it that way since he knew I'd think it was funny.

5. I DO function better with a list in hand.

6. Although Cole hasn't smiled at us yet, I do see some definite, easy-to-read faces that he makes. The first is always directed at me, but I'm not sure why. I call it the "Woman, are you insane?" face. I'm not kidding. That's really what it looks like he wants say when I'm trying to entertain him. The second expression I've only seen when Tessa is coming at him or cuddling with him. I call this one the "Please let me live through this" face.

The very best, though, is when he laughs in his sleep. I love it. I'm excited for when he deems us funny enough to share it when he's awake.

7. My feet are indeed a half size bigger than they were less than seven months ago. That's creepy. I have asked around, and there are actually a lot of women who have had their feet grow bigger after pregnancy. This isn't width, folks, this is length. Someone explained that when bearing that weight, your feet spread to make up for it or something. Now, I know I whined PLENTY about it, but if you saw my feet prior to and right after Cole's birth, it would make sense that my tarsals and metatarsals were floating around in foot bags of liquid. Now they are rearranged and bigger. Creepy, I tell you. There are a couple pairs of shoes that I refuse to give up, so if you see my toes hanging over the edge of my shoes, keep it to yourself, please.

Now, I'm wondering...can your knuckles get any bigger after pregnancy? I still can't get my wedding rings on, and it's driving me nuts. I'll give it more time...., but... :(

8. I saw a ton of advertisements for this new fall TV show called Glee. I kept thinking, "Good grief. Talk about building up the expectations for a program they've only shown the premier for. I want to see what all the fuss is about, but it can't possibly live up to its advertising." So, I finally sat down to watch the premier online with Jake the other night. I loved it. I've had Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" in my head since then. I thought it was adorable. I'll get over mourning Samantha Who? and adore these characters instead. I hope that the other episodes can live up to the first.

9. I keep relearning some of the same life lessons because I haven't quite gotten the point. At least I can recognize that and try harder.

10. My daughter is waaaaaay better at freaking out about bugs than I am.

Soon after this picture, a fly buzzed around her head and tried to land on her. She screamed in horror and flew at me, limbs a flailin' to protect her.

Adjectives

Some of the things that come out of my two year old's mouth really crack me up. Her current efforts to employ more adjectives have given us some insight as to what she really thinks of us.
A couple weeks back when my mom was here with us. We were driving somewhere while Jake was telling us a story. Either my mom or I let loose the familiar phrase, "Are you serious?"
Tessa immediately responded with, "He's not serious. He's dangerous."
Yep. That's Jake. Dangerous.
Then yesterday while Jake was fueling the car, Tessa and I were having a conversation, and she told me that I wasn't "amazing". I told her that I was amazing, and the teasing conversation went back and forth for a minute. Then she suddenly said, in her matter-of-fact voice, "I'm awesome and you're crazy."
It's true.