Party Girl

Gwennie and her stripey tights. Rutherford is fascinated by them.

And this week's phrase is: Right Now. "Play game, Daddy? Play game righ-now?" "Want milk righ-now, Mama." It's not nearly as rude as it may seem - it's not really a demand at all. It's a timeframe more than anything else. Gwen's got righ-now, I haffa-way (I have to wait,) and layer (later.) She's actually better at later than at have-to-wait. You can practically her her little brain cells begging, hoooow looong? Hooow looong do I haffa-way?

It's been a busy, rainy week for social butterflies. The rain started on Tuesday and effectively canceled our usual Wednesday hike. So everybody came over here for a playdate instead. That's her playdate dress up above. Gwen was a very gracious hostess, and only got upset over sharing once.

We moved the slide inside for the playdate, and it's now living in our foyer. We don't use the front door all that much, so that's ok. Gwen hasn't actually been sliding all that much, but she's making her father happy by performing physics experiments, sending Rutherford and various other toys down it.

Thursday Gwen wore her brown Sesame Street shirt. No pictures, it's not that cute, but it did make a boy at the library ask his mother if she could take it off, because it was his turn to wear it. And when we went to Adessa's house that afternoon, she poked Gwen and shouted, "Momo!" several times, until Gwen and I figured out what she was saying. Gwen's face said it all - why is she call Melmo Momo? There are a million names for the small red monster of Sesame Street.

Saturday was Ryan's party, and Gwennie wore her pretty party or princess dress (the name changed accordin to when her father was around, mostly.) Guess what Gwennie got for Valentine's Day?

We love the Dollar Store! We love shopping at the Dollar Store late on the night before the holiday, when the manager is ready to make a deal! Whoo hoo!

The most amazing thing about this dress? She wore it for the entire party, mac-and-cheese-lunch, birthday cake, and all, and I was able to hang it back up in the closet. I'm still shocked. Because usually she ends meal like this, with one hand in her high chair, and the other one waving a PBJ in the air.

She's seriously into hats and scarves righ-now, too, but that's a post for another day.

Did Something Good

I can't get the pictures to post anywhere except at the top, so here's one of our little lion, with her little lion.

So I have to admit, I always feel self-conscious at rallies or protests. Well, always, as if I go to one every other week. Let's start over: even back in college, I felt self-conscious. You're basically yelling at no one. I mean, I think it's important, but it's still a little weird.

But... at the No on 8 rally, Gwen's music teacher pulled up at the corner where we were - rallying, I guess you'd call it. And he's a hip, dreadlocked music-teaching-young-children loving guy, and I had literature to hand out, so I ran over to him. In his defense, he wasn't really looking around, and all of a sudden this large redhead is in his car window, yelling "Teacher Jonah! Vote No on 8!" and it's quite possible that I frightened the bejeebers outta him. But after he recognized me (one meeting, mind, even if was only 2 days before,) he looked me in the eye and said, "I don't vote."

I was flabbergasted, stammered apologies, and slunk back to the curb. But I was bummed. I really liked him, but I have a hard respecting someone who doesn't vote. I mean, honestly. Be an adult. I couldn't really think of a way to convince him to vote without being more obnoxious than I already had been, but it bugged me.

Well, today after class, he told me that he had been thinking about it a lot, and talking to his friends, and that he has decided it is really important for him to vote. So he's registered for the first time this century. And he's talking to other people, convincing them to vote this election, too. He says he doesn't even get why we should have to vote to allow adults to marry. You go, Teacher Jonah!

Score.

I'm proud of me - I put myself out there, and it made some impact.

Soup and other stuff

Gwen is wandering around in her sleeper and last year's pumpkin hat perched on the back of her head. Rutherford is tagging along with a turquoise baby hat on his (it's one of the ones Gwen brought home from the NICU, which brings up all those "so-tiny!" newborn memories.) It's begging for a picture, but the camera is somewhere(?) else, so it's all words today.

Last night I made Farm Share Soup again. It's roughly based on a Rachel Ray recipe called Peasant Soup, only I only use stuff I have in the house, which is mostly the stuff that comes out of the farm share box. It comes out different every time. The last batch had red beets, red chard, and a healthy slug of red wine I had left over, so it was Pink Soup. This one had lots of carrots, golden beets, green chard, and kidney beans. So pretty and so yummy. I'd already fed Gwen, but she ate another half a bowl sitting on Jim's lap.

Jim was gone on a business trip from Sunday to Wednesday, so the girl and I had a busy week. She spent the day with the Senkos on Sunday while I helped a friend pack up her house. That's always fun, because if Jess doesn't keep her busy, she plays with their cat Smoke. (Gwen: Hi! Smoke: Meow! Gwen: Hi, kitty! Hi! Smoke: Meow!Purr...Meow! and so on) Monday, we went to the outlets in Gilroy and bought her a lot of clothes for the fall. Well, I did - she mostly pushed the umbrella stroller around the stores. Her new favorite is a blue fleece hoody with brown hearts, and a knot on the top of the hood. This makes it the coolest jacket ever, especially if she can wear just it and a diaper. Tuesday we swam, Wednesday we hiked, and then Daddy was home. Today we're off to our music class, and a playdate in the afternoon.