Being a wife

I spend a lot of time thinking about my family, just the three of us: Dave, Annabelle and I. We make a family. We eat dinner together every night. I stay at home with Annabelle during the day while Dave goes to work as a Project Manager. Annabelle is our crazy daughter who reflects us both so perfectly.

Dave and I often share conversations about the kind of family we want to be. We want to have a fun household, one that laughs a lot and dances around the house. Other words that come to mind that describe our perfect home are supportive, cozy, friendly. I want our home to be the kind of place you can walk in to, grab a cup of tea, the cookies are always on the counter, or have some yummy leftovers from the fridge, there's a craft project in mid-stream in the corner, you can join Dave and play the board game on the table, some music is playing, it's warm enough to go barefoot, always clean enough to eat something you dropped on the floor, quiet enough to read, comfortable enough to laugh loudly, and there is inspiration for creativity or thought in every corner. I feel like my house is maybe only 35-40 percent of this home I described... but we're always working on it, which is nice. Striving counts for a lot in my book.

This morning I woke up to the strangest sound. I wasn't sure what I was hearing and had to raise my head off the pillow to hear it better. And even then I wasn't quite sure. I thought something was wrong with my body, and then realized that it was Dave's body making the noise. "Is that your stomach?" I asked. Indeed. Dave's hungry tummy was growling so loudly this morning that it woke me up. And then this afternoon he sent me this email:

Date: 1/31/2007 15:33:18
Subject: you know

for you to be woken by my grumbling stomach this morning seems to be the picture perfect moment of domestic tranquility. for some reason, it encapsulated our lives in one brief moment. i don't know, it was a funny, peaceful moment, which is a good description of our family. i love you so.

How nice to think that our family is funny and peaceful. And nice to realize that my husband thinks about domestic tranquility. I like our family.

Friday morning brag book

Annabelle draws a LOT these days. She especially likes to draw on top of a picture that either I or Dave drew for her.

Riding and playing with trains is her latest obsession.

When she gets tired of feeding herself, Annabelle will sign for help and then sign "big" to make sure we pile as much food on the spoon as possible before she opens her mouth to eat.

When Annabelle started asking for things that I really didn't want her to eat or play with I would often say, "Just one!" or "Only one more!" and she quickly picked up signing the number one to ask for another cracker, toy, etc. It didn't take long for her to learn how to sign the number two, now asking for "Two more!"

An irresistible picture taken on the Mark Twain Riverboat at Disneyland.

I still haven't figured out if she realizes that she doesn't really fit.

An ode to peanut butter

Thou salty creaminess of ecstatic flavor,
Gone once for 96 weeks! My parched tongue!
Despondent, I cried, Can you e'er return?
Instead more followed to lands of lost,
No eggs! No milk! No! No breads! No meat!
No! My insides cried for the want of you all.

O sweet teasing babe, you wean. Or do you?
I entertain thoughts of buns, steaks, cream.
Pushing. Nights of woe. Happy days. O happy days!
Happy for the taste of thou! For freedom!
Kneeling down to the babe, I thank ye for growing.
And to thou, I relish the first melting spoonful.

Yo ho! Yo ho! A pirate's life for me! Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho!

Riding the Mark Twain Riverboat.

For Christmas my mom got us annual passes to Disneyland. When she first thought of this idea I was very skeptical: I don't like a lot of the Disney movies, I didn't want a bunch of Mickey Mouse toys ending up in my house, and I really don't want Annabelle wasting the third and fourth years of her life wishing or pretending that she's a princess. But my mom was convinced that it would be fun for us and we all spent a day there together last November.

I had the BEST time! It was awesome! Music is piped through the whole park, the Disney characters wander around interacting with all the kids, and best of all: Annabelle was thrilled with every new adventure and loved the rides. I could hardly wait for my annual pass.

We finally bought them last Saturday and have already visited the park twice this week.

And every single time Annabelle spies someone in character (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, Chipmunks, etc.) walking around the park she points at them and signs, "Hug. Me. Them. Hug. Hug. Hi! Me. Hi! Hug. Hug." And runs towards them at full speed.

So last Sunday we waited in the short line to meet Goofy. She could hardly contain herself. She kept signing, kept skipping ahead in line... and then it was our turn. And the moment Goofy turned to her she became hysterical. Screaming. Clinging. Real tears.

I promise I only stood there long enough for Dave to snap a quick photograph.

She gives me that look a lot lately.

Ignore the messy bookshelf. And, if you can, ignore the grumpy stare from Annabelle too... and look what I got for Christmas from my mom and mother in law! A new wooden swift and ball winder! I think this makes me a full fledged knitter who can now be worthy of the nicest yarns because I can wind them at home! Which is a good thing because my husband got me several skeins of some gorgeous angora yarn too. I've been winding balls like crazy lately, cleaning up my stash of left overs and preparing for bigger projects.


And, speaking of bigger projects: I knit this sweet little sweater up for Annabelle in about ten days. I used a really nice heavy cotton yarn (forgot the name and the labels got thrown away! tsk, tsk) and a pattern that I purchased at a knitting shop in Novato while we were in the San Francisco Bay Area over the holidays. Of course, I didn't really follow the pattern, but I did the best I could and made up the rest. It fits her almost perfectly, only slightly long in the arms... so it will be just great for her as she grows into it this spring.

I made Annabelle wear it to a baby shower the very day I finished it, just so I could feel proud of myself. Here we are at the party, and you can see I had to roll up the sleeves. But gosh, doesn't the sweater increase her cute factor by at least double?

I think it was the chicken.

For most of yesterday I felt sick to my stomach. The kind of wish-I-could-throw-up-now-and-get-it-over-with sick. It brought to mind reminiscent thoughts about being pregnant with Annabelle and made me glad that I didn't have ten more weeks of this feeling.

Finally, at the end of the day I did actually throw up. While I was puking, Annabelle stood about two feet from me and cackled hysterically like it was hands down the funniest thing she had ever seen me do. When I was done, leaning on the sink shaking, sweating and spitting, she clapped and proceeded to walk around the house pantomiming me barfing over and over again.

Kidding people! Honestly, who do you think I am?

We listen to a lot of Eminem in my house. Especially at dinner. We all rap along at the dinner table together.