perfect

Our next house will have a library. An honest-to-goodness room dedicated solely to my love of books. All my life I've dreamed of having a library like the ones in Victorian novels - shelves up to the ceiling, rolling ladders, plush carpets and chairs for my relaxing pleasure. And of course a fireplace. You can't have a library without a fireplace. In my mind, reading by firelight is the only way to go. I imagine it to look something like this.

And of course, the smell. It will have that lovely, comforting smell of old leather and musty pages, of adventure and knowledge wrapped inside a cover. Right now we don't have nearly enough books to fill the library of my dreams but I figure by the time we can afford the house that goes with the library, I'll have stocked up some more.

When I get near books, that butterfly, squirrel-y feeling takes over in my stomach and I just want to spend hours picking up and touching every single book. I can't seem to leave Barnes & Noble without buying something. I can spend hours on Amazon just browsing through their recommendations.

I saw recently that more and more people are instead downloading their reads onto an iPad or Kindle. I just couldn't do that. A big part of the experience is holding the book in my hands; turning the pages and hearing the rustle in the binding. I felt sick the other night when I was watching a show and the character showed how he tore out the pages he was done reading so he always knew where he was. He said he'd already read the other pages so why keep them around. I don't even dog-ear the pages because I have the weirdest belief that I'd be hurting the book if I did.

So that's what I want. A real library. I told Jason we need to start saving now because I have a feeling it's not going to be cheap.

8 months 10 days

Dear Pumpkin Face,

Yeah, I know what it says up there. 8 months 10 days is not the same as 8 months. But if you just read the last post I put up you'll see that Mommy's brain has been frizzled ever since we got back from the beach. I blame all the seaweed I had to avoid tripping on. But don't worry, I'm pretty sure this type of thing isn't hereditary. Unlike other things.

This last month you have grown up so much. And I don't really mean size wise. Oh sure, you're taller and such but your brain just seems to be sprouting. Pretty soon I'm going to see it growing out of your ears.

You now have a total of 6 teeth. SIX! That makes for a lot of chomping. And you like to use them. You've begun eating real solid foods, not just the quote-unquote solids you were eating before. You can pack away those green beans so fast you make me believe you might actually like them. Your eye/hand coordination has improved so much that you no longer throw your food all over your face before getting it into your mouth. Vast improvement over having to bathe you after every meal.

You're also trying to convince Dad and me that you're ready to walk. Some days, if I listen carefully and the wind is just right, I can hear you squeal in satisfaction when you pull yourself up to standing. This has become something of an annoyance to the cat since he used to think he was safe on the couch. But now you stand nose to nose with him and demand that he acknowledge you as a member of this family. I'm pretty sure he still hopes we'll take you back where we got you.

This last month there were so many new things for you. You went on your first road trip. Met your great grandma and grandpa and a great aunt. Spent time with 2 aunts, an uncle and 4 cousins for a whole week. Stood on the sand and got hit by a wave. Went to the Zoo, fed an elephant and even ate Pop Rocks. That's more things than I usually get to do in a year.

And through it all you were my sweet happy Bug. Even on the 10 hour ride home when you were awake for 8 of those hours. Even when you were crying so hard the snot bubbles were as big as jawbreakers. And especially after we stopped for the Benadry.

Love,

Mama

ketchup

For the longest time as a child I thought the term "catch up" was the same as the word "ketchup." You could see the dilemma I was in if someone mentioned having to "ketchup on [insert anything here]." I don't know if this contributed to my putting ketchup on just about everything I ate or not, but I'm going to go ahead and say it did.

So now that that's explained, I can ketchup with the last month or so.

Toward the middle of June we went on vacation with my family to San Diego. It was fantastic and everything you think San Diego should be during the summer. There was ocean and beach and family. There was a trip to the Zoo and we even go to feed some elephants. Jason's sister Nora got to hang out with us the whole week and she's the reason there WAS a trip to the Zoo. My brother and his family finally got to make Penny's acquaintance after 8 long months of just pictures and Skype. Nothing beats slobbery in-person kisses.

Ever since vacation I just can't seem to get back into the swing of things. Hence the not posting regularly. I fully intended to have a vacation post up right after we got back and another by June 26th when Penny turned 8 months old. And here it is July 6th. 

Also, because I forgot to do a post about this weeks ago and I am a horrible, awful daughter, I just wanted to tell my dad he's the best Dad in the whole world. I am too lucky to be your daughter.

And to wrap this up, I thought I'd just post some of my favorite pics from vacation.

kryptonite

I love cupcakes. Wait. Love isn't a strong enough word for how I feel about cupcakes. Even my Thesaurus fails to come up with an appropriate word for my feelings. I'm smitten, twitterpated, attached to, enamored of, and completely devoted to these cups of cake.

And how could I not be? I will argue that they are the perfect food. They're hand sized, portable, most will fit cleanly into my mouth (stop with the dirty thoughts!) and there seems to be an infinite variety of them out there. Plus they seem immune to the frosting/cake ratio conundrum that goes with regular cakes.

And I love them. Nothing makes my day more fulfilling than when a cupcake is waiting for me.

This is me with them:



And without:




They can be fancy. They can be cute. And everybody loves them. Have you ever been to a party with cupcakes and been like, oh man, this party sucks because they have individual cakes in portable little wrappers? NO. You're like jumping up and down, screaming at the people coming in the door behind you LOOK! THEY HAVE CUPCAKES! THIS PARTY ROCKS!

They're appropriate for every single holiday I can think of and every special event. What Groundhog Day isn't spiced up with a little hand-held themed goodness?



We even had them as our wedding cake. That's right, that's a TOWER of cupcakes.



I bring up the topic of cupcakes and their deliciousness for one reason. I'm addicted to them. Utterly and completely. And it's all the fault of a local bakery that makes the BEST cupcakes I've ever had. They're ruining all my attempts at dieting. There is just no healthy alternative to a sweet, tasty cupcake. So I wanted to see if anyone knows of a Cupcakes Anonymous meeting around here I can attend. Because I honestly don't think there's a cure for my cupcake fever.

(And don't even get me started on muffins. They're not fooling anyone. Slap some frosting on it and call it what it really is!)

the first of five

All of my parents' grandkids have learned to say 'Papa' (their term for grandpa) first.

Lately, Penny has been making more noises that sound like real words. The first few times we heard this, it sounded like 'mama'. But this time it sounded distinctly different.



That's right Mom, she said 'Nana' first.