busted…almost

Posted in parenting apparently? by ElaineMarie

a few days ago darla had a nice little streak of being a very good girl so i got some red, white, and green gummi bears, filled our glass christmas tree, and left a note for her from santa. he told her he was proud of her and had one of his elves come leave her a treat and she should continue to be good so he could bring her more toys and treats on christmas day.

she was over the moon. and since then she talks about all the presents she’s going to get at least once an hour. i think my plan worked though and the old jolly man has carried a little more clout with her when i say things like “santa’s watching and he wants you to eat your delicious curry.” we had to pretend it was radish curry, by the way, because she’s been insisting she’s boober fraggle.

well today she found my grocery list scribbled on the same stationary as her note left from “santa.” she called me out on it. she really gave me the third degree and kept asking “are you sure this isn’t another note from santa because it looks just like my other one?”

away to my excuses i flew like a flash. i can’t tell if she bought it or not but i’m still in disbelief that my not-yet-three year old almost broke the santa code right open. she’s sleuthy.

20Dec2011

final snaps

Posted in love and happiness by ElaineMarie

and there’s the last installment. in hindsight i probably should have just uploaded them all at once. sorry to be annoying about the whole process.

photos by claudia of aion arts

19Dec2011

and more snaps

Posted in Uncategorized by ElaineMarie

weekend view

Posted in let me let me update ya, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

weekending:

moments from the weekend: 1. making breakfast with darla. occupy ladder. 2. child labor laws or no child labor laws, i take help when i can get it. 3. don’t tell me what to do! sign from a visit to columbus museum of art 4. clay art made for me by hubster and daughtster 5. animal building at columbus museum of art 6. she’s pretty pleased with herself for climbing up where she’s not supposed to 7. she looks sweet but she’s really formulating a plan to rip my decorations down. i know this because she told me so right afterward. 8. too cold to smile. 9. pretty holiday brightness at scioto mile 10. breaking out my festive socks purchased in LA. keeping me warm in style and reminding me of warmer days.

can i now narrate some of my favorite moments of the weekend to you? what was that? you’re too busy? it’ll only take a minute.

ahem.

one of my favorite things about having a girl is that if you throw a coupla tutus into the mix it turns any mundane task into a party. while folding laundry darla marched in with tutus and asked that i put one on, too. you know i never turn down a tutu, so i put it on then put the nutcracker suite on and soon i was pirouetting from drawer to drawer filing laundry away and having a blast. probably the most fun i’ve had doing housework evah.

the columbus museum of art was our playground for about two hours sunday. mike hadn’t been there in years and this was his first time with darla. our visit was soundtracked by school choirs singing christmas carols in the hall upstairs and it was sooooo cool. darla actually paid attention to the paintings and stayed with us for 90% of the time.

CMA really impresses me. besides the kids interactive zone on the first floor, they have interactive stations in all the galleries. plus they offer free admission on sundays. there’s really no excuse for not exposing the wee one with the set up at CMA.

we all put together an impressionist puzzle using the real piece as our reference model. and having the added bonus of the place sounding like a rehearsal of the vienna boys choir is going to be hard to live up to in the future. i will want it to sound like angels every time we go back. oh well.

around dusk we loaded up, grabbed hot chocolate and headed to the scioto mile. the city has the park all decked out in lights. we sat on a swing sipping our cocoas while darla pointed out different things she saw: helicopters, planets, cell phone towers, etc. we strolled down to where the fountains run in the summer and as soon as we made it to the open area WHAM!’s “last christmas” started up on the sound system. i hope i will never forget the three of us dancing to wham in the twinkly twilight, free and without a care.

it was a good weekend. how much more holidayness can we pack in this next week? we shall see….

18Dec2011

flashlight self-revelations

Posted in kiddie-do, parenting apparently? by ElaineMarie

i guess it’s only natural to become introspective in the dark.

the video quality during this flashlight disco dance session wasn’t the best but the punchline is in the audio anyway. these sessions are therapeutic and entertaining all at once.

*in case you all can’t translate my child as well as i can she says “why do i have to be this way?”

17Dec2011

a commons holiday celebration

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, kiddie-do by ElaineMarie

we finally figured out how to control our wild child last night: freeze her into submission.

we ventured to the columbus commons holiday fair for the opening night. mainly because of the fireworks. i will go to ANYTHING if fireworks are on the bill. it turned out to be quite a nice family event, even if we were all frozen solid after only an hour. i am yet to be disappointed by anything the columbus commons people have put together. I guess the only disappointment would be the overcrowded food truck fair they had in the summer but you can’t knock people for putting on too successful of an event. and i got my food truck fill last night. momma wins again.

well we got darla down to the fair long enough to ride the carousel, eat off some trucks and see the fireworks before splitting. darla was simply too cold to want to run around too much but despite that she was having a wonderful time. All Columbusites? Columbusans? Columbusonians? yeah i like columbusonians. All Columbusonians should try to check it out this weekend. here’s a schedule. take a looksie.

if you decide to go bring along your own hot beverages. the fair sold out last night and i wish we’d had some lovely hot cocoa to sip as we strolled through the lighted displays. I recommend the carnitas tacos at Mojo Taco truck and mike had the curried chicken fries from Tatohead. one of the tastiest things i’ve had in an aeon.

happy holidays!

17Dec2011

stocking stuffers

Posted in Shopping by ElaineMarie

darla’s been into stamping lately so i decided quirky little stamps would be a good stuffer this year. etsy is of course my go to place but i’ll still need to see what i can find when i hit up the craft shop. i found this cuuuuute little set on JFlairHomestyles etsy. i thought the prices were pretty reasonable given then number of pieces in each set and quality. now i’m in search of some fun inks. shopping. weeeee!

Source: etsy.com via Elaine on Pinterest

16Dec2011

dear internet friends

Posted in Kiddie Hangouts, let me let me update ya by ElaineMarie

time for our weekly update.

well i guess the biggest news would be that we’re moving to a new place in just a few weeks. yay!

and now it’s sunk in that we have to start packing things in boxes during the holidays. but we’ll get through it. i keep telling myself it won’t be that stressful. ha.

we’ve done lots of normal everyday things. i wish i had more excitement to reveal but it’s been pretty low key which has been nice. most of my excitement has come in the form of finally, FINALLY, i-know-meg-buzzi-i-know finally, checking into the friday night lights scene.

here’s some of the normalcy:

1 & 2 on a kiddie date. one of the reasons i love this man is he’s always willing to be right in it. 3 chicken hobos. i love wintertime hefty heartiness.

after darla’s last gymnastics class we decided to hit up smith’s restaurant in clintonville. the place is retro radical! the food held up, as well. darla had fun playing with the vintage decor and also asserting her independence.

1 distancing herself at an early age 2, 3 & 4 weight and fortune machine. i masterminded the question but her answer was perfect.

also i just want to point out that “am i too emotional” is sandwiched between “should i buy a new hat” and “should i pay off all my debt” hmmmm.

5 i really really really want a vintage range.

6 officially the cutest pjs she’s had to date. i’m glad i got them a size too big because i’m never going to let her take them off. ever. also boober fraggle is her new best friend. this requires a lot of hand puppeteering on mike’s part so it’s a little effort intensive around here right now. but boober gets her to do things she’d never EVER concede to doing for us so it’s worth it in the end.

one of the funny things darla told mike the other day was that he’s “going fat.” this is not the case but it was a pretty hilarious response to mike’s second helpings at the dinner table. i asked her this morning who her family is and she first named our nuclear family, then extended family and then she continued on to name lots of family friends. i don’t think this is an accident. it was our aim that she see our friends as family. it’s nice to know that foundation has been laid.

well, i’m off to clean and start the packing process which is really the purging process at this point. wish me luck. and have a wonderful weekend.

16Dec2011

more snaps

Posted in i dig music by ElaineMarie

and here are are two shots that illustrate perfectly why we chose to have our photos taken at spoonful. spoonful records is beautiful, funky, well organized and beautiful. did i already say that? i guess what i mean is that it is evident he took time to design a space that would highlight some of the more artistic design elements that go along with music. admittedly, it’s fun to dig through some bins in a dingy record shop but spoonful provides a nice alternative with being able to view the album art gallery style. many thanks to brett for letting us invade his space.