Adam Turned Five

Among other festivities, there was some business with cupcakes.


There were some cousins over to play, and some target practice.




Adam's aim improved later, after he learned that you have to scrunch up your face.

There was a birthday dinner, with Adam's requested menu: artichokes, roasted vegetables (brussels sprouts, carrots, potatoes, and mushrooms), and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. And chocolate milk.

He wanted to say the blessing on the food. He said, "Thank you for this day, and thank you for this food, and please bless that it will be good for us -- well, actually, I know that the mac and cheese isn't good for us, but please bless that at least the other things will be good for us . . ."

Oh, how I love this kid.

Ellen Gets Herself Ready for Preschool

Green preschool T-shirt, pink floral capris, purple sequined vest (another birthday gift from Grandma Kathe), and two-tone purple patent leather Mary Janes.

It took a while to get that shoe buckled.

Green marker on her cheek to match the shirt.

She latched onto those purple shoes at Old Navy a couple of weeks ago and followed me all around the store begging for me to buy them. I kept telling her sorry, no, can't buy those, sorry, no. But when I went to put them back, I couldn't find any others like them, and they had no tag, which might mean . . .

Me, to salesperson: "Can you tell me how much these shoes ring up at?"
Salesperson: "$2.34."
Me: "Thanks. We'll take them."

Adam had been all ready for preschool, but when I called that it was time to go get in the car, Megatron showed up instead.

*By the way, can you see how Ellen has a few bangs now? She cut those herself a few weeks ago. I'm not kidding. No one has touched them since she took the kid scissors to them. We got lucky -- I'm sure her intention was not to give herself some bangs -- she just went after the part that was hanging in front of her face and happened to get it right. I know one of these days our luck is going to run out, because this girl has taken the scissors to her hair 3 times now ("Ellen! Is it ever OK to cut your own hair?" (Big smile)"No!"), and so far never with disastrous results. I do miss those curls I had to cut off when I eventually decided to even everything up after the last time she played barber to herself and took a chunk off from the back underneath.

Black Suede Baby Shoes

For my cousin's baby.

I thrifted an old suede jacket on 99 cent tag day a long time ago, with projects like baby shoes in mind. It was too thin a suede to use without a lining, otherwise this project would have been easier. It was especially fiddly since you can't really pin leather and it could have used some pinning. The pattern is from this Japanese craft book. Looks like it's out of print now. Sadly, I didn't get a pic of the top I embellished with some flowers to match. (So why am I even telling you about it?) That's what I get for starting projects 10 min. before I'm supposed to leave for the shower.

Also, tonight Jane posted this helpful sign, in verse:

Monkey Zu

In our 2004 family newsletter, we reported:

"Zuzu has developed her native climbing skill impressively over the course of the year, learning to get into and out of her highchair without help at 14 months, out of her crib or playpen at 18 months, and out of any shopping cart, even if buckled in. With the help of a bar stool, even the top of the fridge is not out of her reach."

I thought I'd give you this 2010 update on the situation:

video by Peter