Oh, uh, hi there!
I didn't quit you, LJ, I swear. I've been reading every day, just feeling quiet. I never feel as though I have anything important or interesting to share lately, you know? It's winter, and winter is boring.

Everyone is fine and dandy here, more or less. Owen has two pet frogs that The Mitten attempted to assassinate at 3am the other night, but they were rescued from a terrible fate after falling several feel onto a wet and gravelly kitchen floor. Larkin finally took her first independent steps last week at 15 months, immediately after the pediatrician recommended we take the number of the early intervention specialist. Ha! M is busy working and I am busy doing laundry and baking us to death with cookies.

Here is a reasonably dull video of a baby eating lunch:



( And a couple of photos: )

I made Larkin a doll. It was one of the most enjoyable things I've done in a long while!
I'd probably make another right away, but my fingers are raw from all the tiny stitching of hems, etc.
Anyway, it's good to finally make something. Plus, she'll look really cute sitting on the doll bed L's getting on Christmas morning.

Thank you for your kind words about Owen's pet fish yesterday. :)

We made it through our lake-effect 'blizzard' yesterday and for the moment...the sun is out. I may actually be able to get some holiday shopping done today! It's better than sitting around and marinating in cookies. So many cookies. Somebody take away my baking powder!

I just found the coolest thing while wandering through a random blog: a Diana camera lens that (with an adaptor) can fit on my D80! How cool is that? I need to pay attention to photography geegaws more often. I miss shooting with Holgas and Lomos and various toy and antique cameras. I have a bunch of film cameras but it's just so ridiculously expensive to get it developed and printed and I've become lazy and dependent on a preview window, haha.

Owen's betta fish Finny died yesterday. He had been poorly for weeks and weeks, unable to swim well due to (I think) swim bladder disease. We could nothing except keep his bowl clean and give him pep talks. He managed to galumph around his bowl for the longest time, coming out from behind his rock to check out what the cats were doing, etc. He was such a good fish.

Anyway, yesterday before I woke up I had a vivid dream where Finny was swimming normally in his bowl, his scales the same vibrant red and purple they were in his youth, and when I woke up I knew Finny had died. I was right. Owen took it pretty bad when he came home from school, but when the tears dried he asked to write Finny a note. ( This is what he drew: )

I inadvertently chose the exact same outfits (except not; entirely new clothes!) as last year's holiday photos. Odd!

Today we went to the George Eastman House to take pictures and to gawk at the gingerbread house exhibit. It was pretty crowded. They were having a flute concert in the conservatoooory, which I was hoping to hear a bit of, but two children had other ideas. It would have probably been a pretty nice warm/fuzzy holiday experience on a quieter day.

The photos were kind of a bust, too. It hasn't snowed yet, and we were hard-pressed to find a decent appropriate backdrop, so this had to do. Oh well! Gotta get those cards out...

I've been totally Twitterized and only communicating in short, bite-sized bursts nowadays. It makes sense, considering there are only bite-sized things going on lately. Like, I finally ordered an Eames knockoff chair!

What else is going on? Well, Owen had the flu a couple of weeks ago, went to the ER with difficulty breathing, but he's ok now (still coughing, though, poor guy). I'm sick with something else currently, no biggie though. Everyone else is dandy. I'm getting geared up for the holidays, because I'm a giant nerd who sings along to Bing Crosby in the car and watches Rankin-Bass specials over and over again. I'm also fond of the holiday baking. We're supposed to get our tree the first week of December and I can't wait.

Aaaand, a baby just woke up.

Aaaah! How cute is this?!

Completely impractical, and way too small to be properly nostalgic. But I'm glad it exists.

Larkin vs. dim sum.

( Some more things about that baby: )

I know, I know - enough with the pictures of your kids, right? Sorry to be that person.
Really, though, it's either this or regaling you with tales like, 'I went to the craft store and bought nothing!' and 'I didn't have anything to eat but cheese so I made my husband bring home soup!'.

See? So here:



( Buy me a pony! )

It's not easy to get Owen to agree to photos these days. They'd just cut into his video game time, you know?
But look at this sweet kid! So pensive, so thoughtful, ( wouldn't hurt a fly... )

( Larkin finally had her birthday party: )

Is anyone here using Google Wave? The husband is and I'm trying to figure out how to get an invite. I don't even know when it's supposed to launch officially. O, technology!

So who wants to buy a Frank Lloyd Wright? Bonus: I will come over and help you decorate.

It's the Larkin Bee's birthday!
Her proper party was postponed a couple of weeks (so that family could find hotels nearby with available rooms), but today my mom took L and I out to lunch and then went nutsy cuckoo at Pottery Barn Kids with the spoiling of the Bee. I mean, check out this puffy dollhouse that opens up and has two floors! And Chloe doll with changeable clothes! And ooooohhhhhhh. How long have I been mooning over that chandelier/mobile?! And it was the last one.
That was just the spontaneous birthday extravaganza. She had already arrived with other toys, too! A fluffy adorable puppy, Golden books, a talking push-button phone...my kids are lucky kids. I'm a lucky mom (and daughter). I can't forget that.

It's snowing. Snowing!

Just hangin' out and bein' a bee.

( and stuff: )

Bullet points! Here's what's up:

- Went to physical therapy today and mostly talked about why I'm not feeling much better. It's almost certainly a herniated disc, and while I'm up and around, I'll turn or move slightly and feel like my leg is being torn apart. Today I drove with the L.Bee to the toy store in town (5 min away) and was ok until we got back in the car to go home. Commence growling and puffing and shrieking through the searing pain, gripping my leg with one hand and steering with the other. This sucks.

- The L.Bee turns one next week. No! Way! She helped me pick out some presents; I figure she'll forget about them by her birthday.

- The Owen Bean is just truckin' along in school. He's a really sensitive dude. We saw 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' and he spent most of the film hiding, curled in his seat. They're cartoon meatballs, dude! Ah, poor kid.

- It was our 7-year wedding anniversary on Monday. We had takeout sushi while sitting in bed and watching Nick Jr. with the kids. That's 7 years for you!

- Ohh, project runway is on.

I want to bring LJ back. Facebook has too many tiny universes to keep track of, Twitter's cute and fun, but a lousy conversationalist. Hey, winter's coming! What else are we going to do?

So, Halloween's coming. Owen was planning to be Ash Ketchum, an endeavor that was veering dangerously into obsessive cosplay territory. No, not the Ash from the original series, the newer one with the red and black hat. Not those gloves, the other ones. And the shoes...

Then, mercifully, he started playing a video game about tiny ninjas and decided a ninja costume would be acceptable as well. Done and done! Clearance costume from the mall, $10. Not spending every night for a week sourcing puffy vests and trucker caps - priceless.

And no, I did not yet tell him about the sweet-ass pretend katana set I bought him to wear with it. Would you want to be ninja attacked every morning for the next three weeks? Me neither.

Breaking the seal on autumn - first visit to the pumpkin patch.

( Two more: )