Week of Troubles

Since I've last posted it seems like we've had one thing after another. First I was sick (again!), and Nora had the croup (again), which evolved into the stomach flu last weekend, which resulted in me not cleaning (again). But the worst day was Monday. Just as Nora was getting over the flu (no barfing in almost 24 hours), we were rushing off to our Monday morning routine, and Jason slipped on the ice and fell down the front steps with Nora. I was right behind them and in my haste to help, I hurried after them and fell on top of them. Jason and I were fine, but Nora to a nasty konk on the head and we rushed her to the emergency room in possibly the most panic-frenzied state of our lives. After several hours there and a CAT scan, we found out she's fine, but we're still a little shaken and guilt-ridden. Fortunately her bruise isn't as horrible as I feared it would be and she's back to her normal self. But between the croup. flu, and concussion she lost 2 pounds, which wouldn't be a big deal for adults but it's quite a bit for a already-light-for-her age 24 now 22 lbs little girl.

The one upside to Nora's flu was that last Saturday we did watch an entire day of Rankin and Bass stop action animation holiday features and Nora learned a whole new vocabulary - "Rudolph", "Santa", "Reindeer", "Vixen", "snowman", "Heat Miser/Snow Miser", and most unfortunately, "barf", which punctuated our day of TV excess. For those of you who may only be familiar with Rankin & Bass's "Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer", I can highly recommend several of their other features, most notably, the surreal "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" based on a Frank Baum book, the historically laughable "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" which features Ben Franklin and Caveman Ug helping Rudolf save Baby New Year, the biographical "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" or as Todd calls it "Glen Cambell Claus" showing the early years of of a very red haired Santa and his efforts to thwart the toy-destroying Burgermeister Meisterburger. But best of all was my personal favorite " A Year Without Santa Claus" featuring those trouble-making siblings - Heat Miser and Snow Miser. There were also several less thrilling features - Nestor the Long Eared Donkey and Pinocchio's Christmas. For those of you who missed it, I understand the Family Channel does this every year and that they will also show them throughout the month of December as well. All this Family Channel watching also resulted in me having to tune in on Sunday to the much advertised and anticipated Family Channel Holiday Special, Holiday in Handcuffs, featuring Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina) and Mario Lopez of Dancing with the Stars fame (but I know him from Pet Star on Animal Planet). Jason commented that it was much better than expected.

The other event of note is that my aunt has bought Nora yet another pink pony that she can sit on and it neighs and plays music. This one has wheels instead of a rocker. It was supposed to be out at my parents but somehow it made it's way here, and now there are TWO singing pink ponies in my living room. I need a stable.

Mourning the Muppet Show still, but at least we have this....

Anyone who has a had a child in the past few years, is probably familiar with Sandra Boynton, illustrator and author of a band of animals who wear pajamas, dance, and play together nicely across the pages of rhyming board books. Those of you without kids, have no doubt seen her characters on greeting cards and other such products. The books withstand multiple readings and I've yet to tire of them after almost two years. But not everyone may be aware that she is also behind several CD and book sets as well. Nora has received two of these from my aunt and while we were initially hesitant to put it on (children's music isn't always a something adults want to listen to), one of these has become a standard in our ipod playlist. Jason and I have been known to spend days singing the Rhinoceros Tap songbook, especially So Long Doggies Goodbye, Oh What a Crab, and These Little Piggies and not mind a bit. It works both as Nora entertainment but also a hilarious send up of showtunes. The second CD/book, Philadelphia Chickens, featured a conglomerate of artists I've heard of but never really were into and despite a 2003 Grammy nomination (thanks Wikipedia), it never seemed to take off with us, maybe we just weren't willing to give it a chance (Scott Bakula has a song on it and I still can't get over the stink of Enterprise) But last month, as part of Nora's Christmas gifts, I picked up Dog Train (yes the name made me buy it). It had a similar conglomerate of artists (those Bacon Brothers again), but I also couldn't resist the Weird Al Yankovic / Kate Winslet duet, I need a Nap. Jason couldn't wait for Christmas and popped it in tonight, possibly to distract Nora from her cold/croup that she's suffering with. We have not been disappointed. Weird Al and Kate were fabulous, Five For Fighting made us smile with Penguin Lament, Alison Krauss mesmerized us again with her lullaby, Evermore, but what stole the CD for us was the 3 part Cow Planet by Billy J Kramer. For one brief moment it was as if David Bowie was on the Muppet Show with Lenord Nemoy. If I ever got motivated and posted a Christmas shopping guide for parents, this and Rhino Tap would top the list. It's a must if you've got children under 5 and it might even make your Christmas list even if you don't have kids. Now I'm going to have to give those Chickens another chance.

Welcome to the World, Mete!

Nora now has a new cousin! My cousin, Leah gave birth to her son, Mete Dylan Berkoz this past Saturday. He weighed 8 lb. 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. He came right on his due date - what a prompt little guy! Congratulations new parents Leah and Oguz and grandparents Ted and Linda. I can't wait to meet him!

Spunk Lost and Found?

Carol has been complaining lately of a lack of blogging spunk and apparently it is a problem over here as well. I can't complain about a complete lack of activity, because, actually November has had plenty, which may be why I've done so little blogging.

We returned Sunday from our trip to Arkansas for Thanksgiving which was a bit of an exhausting drive and required more luggage than a debutante's tour of European capitals. But Nora got to see her grandparents again, and Jason's grandmother, Grant was up from Texas and Max was down from Bentonville. Nora had a great time re-arranging Kathy's rock tray and bowling walnuts, and practicing her piercing shrieks among people who find it endearing. Jason and I took advantage of the free babysitting to eat a meal together (as opposed to in shifts between Nora chasing) and to check out downtown Hot Springs and marvel at the changes that have occurred since our Little Rock residency. Happily, the fabulous toy store is still there and we had a great time buying too much stuff for Nora (musical instruments, kitties, and a music box). For those who care, the Arlington now has a Starbucks and they've done some redecorating so it's not quite so bright in the lobby. Oh, and there was some football game between the Razerbacks and LSU, I'm told it was quite a game, but it's really not my thing.

We took a little side detour to Conway to see Bob, Sarah and Zelda. They ministered to our need for a place to unwind and an audience to vent about the horrors of travel and holidays with family. Zelda kindly played big sister with Nora and let her touch and play with all of her toys (even the horses and unicorns) and read stories to her and prevented her from destroying the house while Jason and I languished on the couches and made Bob and Sarah entertain us with stories. It was very restorative. Hendrix has grown by leaps and bounds and I learned that there are actually two new mascots - one with a sword and one with a banner not sure that one is that much of an improvement over the other.

Now we're home again and December looms in front of me. I actually do have some Christmas spirit this year and while that doesn't translate into putting up a tree (we really don't have any room). I did get an advent calendar for Nora (it came yesterday and no, I didn't pay that much for it) and I think there is some serious baking in my future (I've got the whole Veginomicon to get through!). The Rock N' Roll craft show is this weekend and while I know I will be shopping I also hope it inspires some more craft activities. Unfortunately, I didn't really have an opportunity to work on Nora's stocking this break and my mom has made a lovely one for her already, so I might not get it done, but I had so much fun with the felt food, that I'm hoping I get another project underway soon.

Breakfast, Morning Everybody, Sun's Up And We'e Having Toast and Jelly...

Or something else. Here's my felt breakfast and there have been some comments regarding some of the elements not resembling what I think they resemble. So, can you name what's on the plate? Or have I gotten in over my head with my breakfast creation?


I also went a head and made a little snack as well. My favorite - cookies! These are oatmeal raisin because that's what Nora eats, but maybe you would prefer chocolate chip or some other yummy variety. Whatever you like, it's your imagination!

Pasta Party

I took a mental health day to try to catch up from working several weekends this month and to take on a project that I've been meaning to do for awhile. Nora's kitchen should be coming any day now (I hope) so I need to get onto making that felt food to complete her birthday and Christmas present. Awhile ago I bought a pattern for an Italian dinner set from a mom on hyena cart. I probably could have winged this one on without the pattern, but in retrospect, I'm really glad I had it for my first foray into felt food! Without further ado, here's the pics:


Above is the ravioli and butter pats with a cannoli. I'm most happy with the ravioli. The canaloni is my least favorite, but that also could have something to do with me deciding I didn't want to make it quite the way she suggested. I'm also thinking of making some pancakes so that Nora can use those butter pats again. I might make some eggs, just because that seems so fun, even though Nora can't eat eggs.... Here's the fettucine with tomato sauce and meat balls.
This was so much fun, it took me about 2 hours because I decided I didn't want to hunt up a sewing machine, so I did all the raviolis by hand and nor did I have a pinking shears so that took a little while too. I got to finally use my cutting wheel and mat, so over all I'm pleased, but I'm sure the next projects will go better since I've got the hang of it all now. Next on my list is the breakfast and then I might go on to making some cookies and fruit. I think that this will work for Jason's dinner - he went to the dentist today to have several cavities filled, so maybe felt food will be soft enough. Poor guy!

American Girl

So my mother got an American Girl catalog in the mail and passed it on to me. Nora is a bit too young still for their targeted demographic, but I ended up browsing through it anyway. It confirmed much of my early opinion of the marketing giant, that they use book tie ins to lure parents in to buying a whole lifestyle for their dolls, that they might even balk at buying for their daughters themselves. After my initial horror, I brought it to my office and to a group of women who are similar minded to me, for them to turn their feminist eyes on it. One of them noticed (& I heard her cackling at her desk) and pointed out to me that Kit, the 1934 doll was described as the "bright light of the depression era". We were all feeling a mixture of shock and awe at the sheer volume of accessories and lifestyle packets that are available for the dolls, some of which correspond with their literary historical counterparts (check out the new 1970's doll if you really want to feel old) and then something odd happened. It got to my co-worker first. She turned the page with the matching daughter/doll pajamas. "Ohhh, I can see why people buy this, I would've wanted my daughter to have this", As I was laughing at all the excess (do we really need tiaras for our daughters and our daughters dolls?) I was occasionally pulled in by some of the details. It brought me back to my aunt's amazing barbie doll wardrobe and how much fun I had playing with it. My colleague, who's daughter is just a couple of years older than Nora, pointed out how well made the AG stuff is compared to other toys, and how cool the record player (for the doll) actually played little miniature 45's. Then I saw the Kit doll's doll (insane isn't it?), who was dressed like an aviatrix. Now I want an aviatrix outfit and matching doll for Nora (no, I haven't checked to see if this is possible). So who knows if I'll eventually fall into the American Girl marketing quagmire. I've still got a few years before it starts working it's evil hypnosis on Nora, and maybe by then I'll figure out where I stand.