Last night, Nivek went over to a friends house for a few hours. By 8:30 p.m. I hadn’t heard from him, so I texted him to see if he was planning on staying the night or coming home; I am a firm believer that summer kills brain cells.
Motherhood
Sunday Farmer’s Market Flowers
Aside from the fact that I (practically) live spitting distance from the Sacramento Central Farmer’s Market (8th & W), more often than sometimes, Kennedy and I will venture over to the farmer’s market on Sunday mornings with the sole purpose of buying flowers and coming home to arrange them. Because this farmer’s market is pretty busy, and you can expect to get bumped abruptly pretty much around every turn, it definitely does not have the nice, calm, coffee-sipping feel of the smaller markets. While I do really like the broad variety of seasonal produce this farmer’s market offers, we tend to do more swearing than strolling, and just quickly head to the same few booths each time. Luckily, the best flower stand and our favorite fruit stand are on the same far end, so getting in and out quickly has become an art form.
Once we pick out our favorite bunch of flowers (15 dollars fills 2 large or 3 medium vases in our house), we head back home where it is Kennedy’s job to sort them into the vases.
Disclaimer:
This might be the truth. Kinda of. Maybe. Ish. I sort the bundle of flowers into stacks based on type, and hand her the flowers one by one while persuasively suggesting which vase each flower should go in (think: crazy micro-manager boss with the voice of your 90-year-old grandmother). Once she has all of the flowers in the vases, I might use the good ole “Look! Is that a pink elephant?! LOOOOOOOK!” so that I can perform a quick switcheroo, before helping carry them inside.
She is SUCH a great helper.
Shirt | Wren and James
Shorts | Vintage Wranglers
Monster Slippers | Carter’s
Texting with the Big Kid
Nivek went over to Cal Middle School to pick up his 8th grade class schedule. This is the conversation we had while I was at work:
artBEAST Studio
Yesterday, we finally had the opportunity to take Kennedy to discover artBEAST. ArtBEAST is a drop-in kids exploration studio which allows children (and parents) the opportunity to explore an open studio and various thematic rooms throughout the building. The open studio is on the second floor and has many tables for the kids to explore, without the constrained formality of a class setting. Birdseed for dumping , play-doh for shaping, moon sand for digging, clay for sculpting, a wall of glass for painting, tables for crafting, and numerous easels for painting allow kids to discover each room freely, with out being confined to the one-task class sessions. In addition to the second floor art studio, the basement level provides opportunities for the exploration of music, drama, and make-believe, while the third level has a space for infants, a room for building, and an area for birthdays etc… The backyard space features a great water table, two large sandboxes, and a bakeshop.
The best part, Kennedy absolutely loves it and all proceeds go back into artBEAST or into the Tubman House, a free, 18-month transitional living program for Sacramento’s homeless, parenting youth.
Zampano Tank | Misha Lulu Shorts | Zara
California State Fair
I really had no intention of going to the California State Fair this year, but after being handed a couple of passes and a parking voucher, I felt guilty just letting them go to waste. First, I tried to pawn them off on my son; I was sure that the lure of bad food would override his dislike for amusement park rides (nope!). Then I offered them to a few friends, all of which promptly responded with, “pass.” So, it was settled, Kennedy and I were going solo and we were going to have the best time ever.
It’s not that I dislike the fair, necessarily; I just feel like every year I wonder why I went, and this year was no exception. My main motivation for going, aside from the free part, was to take Kennedy to see the animals and go down the big slide (on my lap) one zillion times. We arrive right at 10 AM, before the rides and carnival attractions opened, in hopes to avoid the heat and pushy fair goers. Kennedy ogled the Alpacas from a safe distance, “no mommy,” and saw her life flash before her eyes at the sight of the huge bulls, “nooooooooo mommmmmmy.” Once we hit the lambs I was sure that we were going to get to make our introduction (hell, Mary had one, remember) but she b-lined toward the exit and that concluded or animal experience.
From there, we had a bit of time until the fair rides opened so we meandered over to the photo booths, and I tortured her by making her sit in a dirty, confined space while I made stupid faces to a reflective piece of glass (see exhibit “A” above).
Just up the hill from the photo booths, and easily the highlight of our State Fair experience, we listened to the Street Drum Corps and grabbed some ketchup with a side of corndog (see above). After drinking her weight in ketchup, I walked Kennedy over to one of the random measuring sticks and was excited and surprised to see that she reached the 36” minimal requirement for rides, so I bought a pack of tickets from the booth and we headed toward the fairway.
I had a list of the family friendly rides and tickets in hand, and when I approached the Dumbo ride, the carnie pointed me toward a height sign, in which I put Kennedy next to and she was too small. Odd, I had just measured her a few minutes prior and she appeared to meet the height requirement. Hrmmmm. While I was annoyed, and a bit confused, I figured we could easily blow our 25 tickets on the carousel and slide, so it wasn’t a huge deal and we moved on. After what felt like forever, “up, mommy, up,” we got in line for the carousel.
Well wouldn’t you know… “You must be 36” to ride this ride, even with an adult.”
REALLY!? FOR THE (expletive delete) CAROUSEL!
I’m sure you can guess what the sign at the slide said too.
With our lower lips extended and after handing off our tickets to a random bystander, we put our tails between our legs and made the long walk back to parking lot Z; we were home by Noon. Part of me wants to say that we wont go next year, but in truth, I know she will be big enough and a whole different version of herself by then, so it is entirely possible that I will be suckered into another year.
First Attempt at Painting a Peg Doll
A few months back I bought this set of peg dolls and some paint on Etsy with the thought of painting many of our family and friends for Kennedy to play with. This first painting of a peg doll was really entertaining, but definitely a trial and error process. I wasn’t trying to do anything fancy or paint anyone in particular; I just wanted to get a sense of how it would go. The peg dolls themselves are fairly smooth, but could use a nice going-over with fine sandpaper before starting. I really liked being able to use the small paint kit, so that I didn’t have to deal with a lot of set up preparation or clean up after. Overall, the process was fairly straightforward: Sand. Sketch. Paint. Polish. I really liked the way that the head turned out, but will certainly put more thought into the clothing portion next time. I’m really excited to try to make people that I know, more than anything. I do think that I will buy some Kokeshi peg dolls, which have a larger head, because I like the finished look of them better. Once I have painted a few more and feel like I have the process down, I’ll post more about the details (like not selecting the part of the doll head that has a big ole crack in it), but for now I am excited to see what I can come up with.
Kennedy’s 2nd Birthday – Mendocino, CA.
A few months back I got this wild idea to invite my and Matt’s parents to come and stay with us in a cabin in Mendocino for Kennedy’s birthday. Matt’s parents flew in on Thursday morning from North Carolina and we spent most of their first day packing for our trip to the beach. Friday morning, Matt loaded the dogs and his dad into the old Volvo (odometer stopped at 189k), and I had Nana and the kids in my car. Overall, the drive was unremarkable and we arrived at the Bay House in about four hours. We arrived at the house around 3:00 PM and were completely taken aback by the beauty of it all. The front yard was perfectly landscaped and once you walked around the porch to the back of the house, you found yourself staring at a simple wooden bench on top of a cliff. Much of the rest of our Friday was spent settling in, cooking some fish on the BBQ, playing Spades, and staring off into the expanse of the ocean.
Saturday we woke up early (thank you Kennedy) and made our way into Mendocino to walk around the shops. Right off, Kennedy threw an epic tantrum that landed her on my back in the Ergo carrier. Luckily, it wasn’t long before I had coffee-in-hand from Moody’s and she was fast asleep. Having spent many summers in Mendocino, I tend to have my trip fairly well rehearsed and mostly look forward to stopping at Rainsong Shoes (for shoes, obviously) and Old Gold for some of the most beautiful jewelry I’ve ever seen. After that, I’m happy just strolling through the shops until I get to have the most messy-great mango curried chicken pita from Cultured Affair Cafe. The rest of the evening involved some BBQ chicken, the dogs at the beach, and a late night Spades rematch.
Sunday was another early morning (again, thank you Kennedy) and her actual birthday. The afternoon was spent wandering Fort Bragg (I found a black pair of Miz Mooz sandals that I love-love and Kennedy had an epic slice of pizza) and sitting down on the sad, now-commercialized, Glass beach. In the evening, Kennedy opened her gifts and looked on in amazement and joy as everyone sang her happy birthday (my favorite moment of the weekend). Overall, the trip felt both calm and chaotic. It felt good to actually spend the weekend away with my parents (I cannot remember the last time I spent so much time with my father), and together as a blended family. I am hoping that the terrible parts of the terrible twos are gentle, and the rest is slow moving, or at least, that Matt is nearby and I can say, “Not it” when I need to.
GIngham Jacket | Gap, Yeah Sweatshirt | Mini & Maximus, Skirt | Misha Lulu, Strawberry Shoes | Mini Melissa, Sandals | Saltwater
Painting in the Backyard
This last weekend I decided to revisit painting with Kennedy. A few months back we started painting with watercolor, and that was great, but I should have known that finger painting would have been a total disaster. I think it was one of those situations where I was really excited to have her finger paint, and she was completely against it. The minute the paint hit her fingers she kept saying “dirty” and getting really upset, so we had to throw in the towel. For whatever reason in my brain, this manifested to me believing that she really didn’t like to paint. I was so relieved when I put out a plate of paint in Sunday and she just went for it. I think she asked for me to reload the plate at least four times, and she probably painted every other page in the notepad. It could also be that Wish bear and Tenderheart bear (her muses, of course) helped a little too.
Dear Potty
Dear Potty,
I really would like to be your friend, but I am afraid I like my Mickey Mouse diapers too much. Every time my mom would put me on the big potty I would say, “No No No” and would act upset until she let me down. Then one day she came home with the floor potty. I immediately knew that I needed to go once in the big potty just so that she knows that I’m doing this on my terms. My babies really like the potty though.
Thanks,
Kennedy
Zampano Tank | Misha Lulu
Kennedy’s 1st Masterpiece
A few months ago, I started taping a large piece of paper on the coffee table for Kennedy to draw on whenever she pleased. What I found was that if I left a few crayons on the table, she would draw on it intermittently throughout the day. After a few weeks of that, I decided to cover the whole coffee table with one piece of paper, and leave it there for a month and have it framed. We had needed some sort of art in our living room, so this worked out perfectly. The only caveat is that we weren’t going to treat it as something sacred. While she did the drawing part, I still put my feet on it, put my overflowing coffee on it, and generally pretended as though it wasn’t there. Below are the progression photos through each week.
Week 1: I thought she made a surprising amount of progress the first week, with pretty uniform coverage all over.
Week 2: She continued to make progress here and there, but without as much zeal as she has the first week; however, I did manage to spill a few cups of water and some coffee. Go Mom!
Week 3: I think this photo appears like it should be before the last, but that is just because of all of the water and such that we spilled on it. I don’t think I have spilled that much in my whole life.
The end result:
