Family Fun and the Fourth

A couple weekends ago I was determined to check out a farmer's market, but didn't want to deal with the crowds of the big one in Minneapolis. I did a little Googling and found another one close by that seemed to have food, wares, and even music. Sounded good to me so we headed off to Golden Valley's farmer market.

It's a little early for certain food items, but we still found some goodies to buy such as radishes (a Jesse fav), small potatoes, and fresh bread. We picked up these fantastic pretzel rolls and even went back for more.

Num, num. Pretzel bread.

Once we made our purchases we sat down to listen to some music. At some point Riley started singing along  (in her own words, of course) to the joy of everyone around us. She's always loved music, but she's been embracing singing lately. She might find a familiar tune and then makes up her own words to the song. She's totally her father's daughter in this regard. I don't know how many songs Jesse had made up and sang to me so I love that she does this too.

Also, had a caprese kabob from that food truck to the right which was delish

We tried to leave, but Riley wanted to go back and listen to the music. Ok, fine by us. We found a grassy spot and laid down while she sang, jumped all over us, took pictures on her own, and just hung out. It was rather nice.

Photo by Riley

I'm learning all sort of things you can do with thin, fine hair that I could never do with my thick hair.

Reluctantly leaving the farmer's market

Want to find a local Minnesota farmer's market? This site is the place to go. 

A few days later we tried another neighborhood treasure hunt, but brought daddy along this time. It started out well enough until there was a pretty traumatic 'knee to concrete' incident. But even after that happened (and the blood was still flowing) Riley wanted to make sure she got in a swing ride before going home. Go figure.

Stick!

Rock!

Bloody knee! *not on the treasure hunt list

And then there was the 4th of July - Independence Day. It was a day I used to love, and hope to again, but now it's just nice to have a day off of work before I start cursing the neighbors for setting off fireworks that freak the F out of my kid. Plus, (on a sad note) the 4th of July brings back so many memories of my brother, Scott, who passed away 5 years ago. He loved the 4th and wanted to make it an incredibly fun event especially for the kids. Gosh, I miss that guy.

At any rate, we tried to get outside a bit with Riley and headed over to a local park to kick a ball around.

Riley actually stayed up until almost 10 PM this night, but not like most kids who were trying to stay awake for the fireworks. She was just freaking out like she has been all week on the sleep front (thank you for being consistent on that kid #dripping in sarcasm). Luckily, she fell asleep with Jesse sleeping by her side just before the bangs and booms started. It was a fairly uneventful day, but was really nice to get a break in the work week and hang with the family on a nice day. That alone made it worth it.

One day this kid will love fireworks, right?

July 2013 | Photo a Day | Week 1

In March of 2012 I started participating in Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day Project. Essentially, she comes up with a word prompt every day and you take a picture that represents that prompt. I loved this project as it made me look at my surroundings in a whole new way. Plus, it was a fun way to document what was happening in my life. 

But when October rolled around I realized it was about to get harder and harder to take pictures that I liked.  During most of the winter months it's dark when I go to work and dark when I come home so I decided to take a break and hoped to pick this project back up in the spring. But spring came around and the thought of this seemed like another chore to add to the list. Eventually, though, a friend posted a few photo a day pictures on Instagram and it sparked my interest to pick it up again.

Here's the thing, I probably could do this project without having to commit to every single day, but I'm not like that. If I commit, I want to commit fully. Yes, it killed me a little that I didn't participate in this from October through June, but it would have killed me more if I participated just some of the time. So taking that time off kept me saner than not giving it my full.

Of course, taking and posting a photo a day would be easier if I had a smartphone. You see, in the past I would just take my pictures with one of my cameras and then posted them weekly on this blog, but most people post them daily on Instagram. I have to admit, I kinda wanted to be part of that gang. There was something about us all being in this together - all across the world. I figure it's pretty silly to just buy a smart phone for this project and Instagram so instead I decided I would try to take all my pictures with my iPad. I know, dumb - but I like a challenge so here we go. Although, part of the challenge of this is not only taking pictures as prompted, but learning to take better pictures so we'll see how long the iPad thing lasts.

The iPad, of course, takes fairly crappy pictures (as my Instagram followers are quite aware), but it's my main way to use Instagram and I enjoy Instagram so I'll stick with it for now. At any rate, I still wanted to compile all the pictures here... maybe even give the story behind them as I still think they are a good way to document my weeks.

Without further ado...

7/1/13

Happiness is...

I finally got around to making Iowa Girl Eats' Greek Dip and it was Fantastic (I subbed basil for parsley). I even used non-fat yogurt and it was super flavorful and fresh tasting. This moment captured several things that made me happy: my kid, being outside, being done with work for the day, and eating this delicious dip (I even made a second batch today). 

7/2/13

Shoes

My friend supplies Riley with many of her clothes since she has three girls of her own. These shoes used to belong to my friend's youngest daughter, Libby, but since she outgrew them they are now Riley's. Almost every time Riley wears them she asks about the girl who gave them to her.

7/3/13

Cold

I would classify this past week as a good one, but when I look back at all that went wrong it seems that I should be much more unhappy than I am. Glad that I am not. Let see... I got a slight case of heatstroke from walking too fast over lunch out in the hot sun without water. Our water heater broke (now fixed). The car broke down while I was going down a ramp and then at the ramp exit and then at the light, but I finally got it started and drove right to the mechanic who I was going to see the next day anyway. At least I got a nice walk in after dropping it off. We chased down a mouse in our house (released alive - hope he doesn't come back). Our nice car got rear ended - it was more of a hard tap and I don't think any damage was done. Honorable mentions: one of the cats puked all over the house, and I found animal guts on my back step one morning. Yeah, I think that's enough for one week.

7/4/13

Red, white or blue

Again, thanks to my friend, Riley is set with her choice of 4th of July attire (credit to grandma for these shorts, though). Independence day is pretty much like any other day for us except we don't have to work. We don't even attempt to try to keep Riley up for fireworks especially since she doesn't like loud noises. Although, if you read my last post about her sleeping issues you'd know that she was likely up late anyway. She fell asleep shortly before the fireworks went off, thankfully.

7/5/13

Love

So many pictures I could have taken - actually there were a lot of other pictures I did take and decided not to submit for this prompt (not every picture needs to be of Riley, I suppose). I took this while waiting for my bus for work. It was super peaceful and the temperature was perfect. And, it turns out, I got to hang out at the bus stop for 20 minutes or so. Apparently, since it was the day after a holiday my bus was on a limited run schedule. I may have been a little late to work, but I got a few more moments to enjoy the outdoors. 

7/6/13

Fave smell

Not much to say here. I've mentioned before that I am super sensitive to smells since I get migraines. I've come to hate smells like perfume and bonfires as they can also make me feel nauseous. There are a few scents I can tolerate, but clean, fresh air is the best. 

7/7/13

Where you are

After a week of crappy kid sleep (which means crappy adult sleep) and feeling body achy I was proud that I got up and went to the gym. Then I even decided to pick some weeds in my yard. It was actually a highlight of my day to be able to get a few minutes all by myself outside. PS. That brown thing is a cool turtle a friend gave us when we moved here. We love it.

Previous Photo a Day Posts

Sleep is a wonderful thing

Last weekend we brought a new bed home for Riley. We had purchased a convertible crib before she was born thinking we would use it for years to come, but then realized how much room a full sized bed would take up in her very small room. She was clearly outgrowing her toddler bed and we thought her sudden 'up in the middle of the night' behavior might be caused by her too small bed. I finally agreed that we would sell the convertible crib and bring home my old bed from my dad's spare room.

When I was in my teens my parents bought me a bedroom set. I was never very enthused by it (especially since I had a full size bed before and was getting downsized to a twin), but I didn't really care at the time. It was a bed - it served it's purpose. The nice thing about it was that it had drawers under the bed and since I had a small room every bit of space was valuable.

The more I thought about it for Riley I realized I liked the under the bed storage it would provide along with the overall space she would have in her bedroom. We also got rid of her dresser as we had another dresser that matched the new bed better.

Plus, we got rid of her rocking chair. This was huge because she had fallen into a new routine for the last 3 - 6 months of wanting a little 'lap' time before going to bed. A typical night would include reading a couple books while sitting on the rocking chair and then turning out the light and just rocking with her. But then, when she started having these random wake ups, she would insist on 'lap' time. We just wanted the chair to go - hoping that her request for rocking would disappear with it. I silently grieved that we'd no longer be rocking in that chair as there were so many cuddly moments there, but the reality was that she was just too big - especially in how she wanted to lay down on my lap. It just wasn't working anymore.

For some silly reason we actually thought she would just go with the flow if we removed that darn chair.

The first night was awesome. Riley was excited about her bed and slept great. She didn't make a peep all night long... the first time in a long time. I had also introduced the 'Rock Jar' before bedtime so that might have had something to do with it. I promised her she could put two rocks into the jar every time her dad and I caught her being good. Once she fills up the jar she gets to do something special (right now she's chosen to go to the zoo). I specifically told her that if she slept through the night she would be able to get some rocks in the morning... and it worked.

New bed - now I just need to replace those gold handles

But the next night was a different story. I put her down to bed and even laid with her for a few minutes. When I left she screamed and screamed. Bloody murder scream. For the next couple hours Jesse and I tried to soothe her and get her to sleep. We couldn't quite figure out the deal. What was she so freaked out about? And then it happened almost every night this week. Joy.

Also need to find a blanket/comforter that I like.

Come to think about it she hadn't been sleeping great for some time, but since we had that big storm a couple weeks ago we've had extra trouble with her sleeping. And perhaps, getting the new bed and getting rid of the rocking chair just sent her over the edge. Each night she cried that she didn't like her new bed. A couple times she ended up sleeping on the floor and each night she insisted on keeping the light on.

There was one night this week that she miraculously feel asleep in my arms as I was reading her a book. I guess getting a couple less hours a sleep for several days in a row (along with no nap that day) did her in. But the night after (and the night after that) it was the same thing - hysterical crying. We'd try and let her cry, but Jesse can't hold out as long as I can. He ends up going up there and crashing in bed with her. I don't blame him, but I think we need to let her cry it out at this point (other suggestions welcome).

Riley is somewhat of a rule follower so early on when she transitioned from crib to toddler bed we set the expectation that she stay in her bed (after a couple nights were she proceeded to 'read' every book on her shelf instead of sleep). This has caused her to cry in the morning instead of getting out of bed and coming into our room. We recently explained that she can get out of bed in the morning and now she feels free to get out of bed when she wants. This means that if we don't go up to her when she's crying she gets out of bed and heads towards the top of the stairs screaming. Sigh.

The dresser has been in our family a long, long time - it's at least 75 years old.

Last night, she actually turned the light off herself. I laid down with her intending it just to be a minute or two, but ended up zonking out myself. An hour and a half later she was still awake. I left, denying her request for the light to be turned back on, but agreeing to keep the door open. And for the most part I didn't heard a peep after I left.

I hope this passes soon as I can't imagine doing this every single night for the unforeseeable future. I mean, she won't still be doing this when she's 15 right? Anyone, have some special tactics that work? Anyone want to do kid duty for a couple hours each night at my house?

Randoms

It feels like forever since I posted, but it also feels like nothing has been happening anyway. It turns out that there were actually quite a few things that happened. Might as well share...

Like, my bestie left the state. So sad. I finally got Joanna in the same city as me (which I did not take advantage of enough, dangit) and now she's living in Colorado. She's starting an Ayurveda program in August and I am so proud of her, but will seriously miss having her nearby. She's been on this track for the last few years where she's become a yoga instructor, learned Thai Massage, yoga therapy and now she's onto this.Glad she's following her dream.

We hung out a few nights before she left - so glad she was able to squeeze me in for one last visit. We've been friends since high school so I know this move won't cause out friend ship to waiver. I can't wait to visit her (girls weekend! family vacation!) and have a feeling that she might not ever move back. It's Colorado, guys!

I couple days after Joanna left we got hit with a storm. Heck, it was raining every day so Thursday's storm didn't seem like that big of a deal, but there were places nearby that lost their electricity that night. Friday night was the night that we really felt it.

It sort of snowballed right after I put Riley to bed at 7:30. The rain, the wind. OMG, the wind. Garbage cans flying down the alley, branches down. I got Jesse and we both exclaimed "holy crap!" as we looked out different windows (even after weather.com said to move to interior room. I should know better - my sister lost her house a few years ago to a tornado). Then the electricity went out, Riley started crying, and my sister called and left an urgent message to call (my dad was visiting her in Missouri so this freaked me out a bit). We brought Riley downstairs, grabbed some flashlights, and I attempted to call my sister, but discovered that my phone was now dead. Lame. Dead phone and no electricity to charge it. Super lame. Phone will constantly be charged from here on out (and then I'll totally forget to do this after a month).

Luckily, Jesse's phone was fully charged so I was able to call my sister back. Nothing horrific had happened to my dad. Turns out my sister and dad were following the storm on the news. My dad was a little worried that he might have lost electricity causing his sump pump to stop working and therefore flood his basement. They called my dad's house and the answering machine did not pick up thus solving the power out mystery. I agreed to stop at his house after work the next day (yes, I had to work on a Saturday) to make sure all was well. (It was ok - no electricity, no flooding, tons of branches down. Cleaned it up best I could, but even the neighbor said to leave some behind as he knows my dad likes to have projects to work on.)

Anyhoo, after the winds died down a little, but while the storm was still going fairly strong, my nutso husband decided go outside and stand relatively close to a questionable tree.

We had some drain tile installed  (and got rid of a super ugly gutter) and he wanted to make sure it was working right. We were a little worried it would have overflowed right next to the house and flooded our basement, but it really did its job. Plus, I think he just wanted to see it in action (the water drains out near the sidewalk, and even with this much rain all the water drained under ground.)

This week I decided I would have a date night with Riley. Actually, as I was leaving work I got a wicked craving for frozen yogurt so I tried to convince Jesse that we should pick up food and a frozen treat and go on a picnic! He thought it would be more fun to mow our two foot long grass (may be exaggerated for effect, but seriously it's hard to mow when it rains every day.) That's fine. Riley and I could go without him. It wasn't very well planned out (I envisioned us picking up food and going to a park), but it still worked out in the end.

We ate dinner at Panera (because it was the only place I could think of that had something she would eat, but seriously hate paying 5 bucks for a PB and J sammich). Then we stopped at Target for our frozen goodies. Riley wanted blueberry (she was quite insistent and excited about it) and I wasn't sure what to do when I couldn't find any blueberry. Can I buy raspberry and fool her? She wasn't buying it when I tried to grab a different flavored ice cream. Thankfully, I finally found some blueberry graham cracker frozen yogurt (and a little raspberry fudge chunk for myself).

We brought it home and shared some with her daddy on the front step. It was fun and I hope to do more of this over the summer, but I think next time I will have it more planned out. Perhaps, I'll already have a picnic packed and the wagon ready to go down to a local park. For those days that it doesn't rain, that is.

I'll finish up all this randomness with a conversation Riley and I had at bedtime last night:

Riley: Don't look at me.
Me: Why not
Riley: It's too weird.
Me. I like looking at you.
Riley: It's too weird and bad.

I can wait until she's a teenager...

A Rare Moment

It's a rare moment when Riley and I get dressed up, but Father's Day seemed like a good occasion. Actually, this was after my family left and I did an outfit change to go hang out with a friend.We just painted our nails and headed outside to snap a few photos. Hard to tell that it just had poured buckets of rain a couple hours earlier.

Father's Day 2013

As you may recall, I hosted Father's Day last year. I don't have the largest house, but I do have a large family. I was a little worried about the comfort level, but as long as the weather was good we'd be fine as people could spread out into the yard. Turns out it rained the moment people showed up and stopped just as everyone was going to leave.

This year I was hesitant to volunteer my house again for this exact reason, but after talking with my sister I agreed to host. What were the chances it would happen again? Well, good actually. Especially with all the rain we've received this year. At any rate, I crossed my fingers and watched the weather predictions all week. At first things looked ok, but as we got closer to the event date I realized we were probably going to get rained on.

I did not not want to set up my yard with chairs and tables because weather forecasts can change from moment to moment, but knew that it might be a totally wasted effort. In fact, as the hours approached the start of the party I thought we might have a couple hours that were dry. In reality, we had about a half hour. At first it drizzled and this is when I should have told Jesse "let's start grilling now in case it rains harder", but instead I said "let's wait until 3:00". 

By the time 3:00 rolled around and the grill was hot, it was pouring. I had earlier offered to move the grill to a more sheltered spot, but Jesse declined so it's partly his fault that he got absolutely soaking wet while grilling :) ... on a day that we were celebrating him and the other fathers in the family. Love you and appreciate you, babe (ps. he also did most of the cleaning for the party too - he rocks). 

There were a few less people this year so it didn't feel quite as cramped so there was that. People brought a lot of good food and it was fun to see everyone (I feel like I haven't seen many of them for awhile). 

Would love to know what they were talking about that my brother Chuck (in the blue on the couch) has that expression.

And the sun did come out shortly before everyone left.  A few adults wandered outside and the kids played in the playhouse. It was a big hit.

My dad with my sister, Judy

Baby John and dad

Back inside people were getting ready to go when someone noticed Riley's guitar and commented on it. Then this happened:

Wish I would have video taped this. It was hilarious and the kids loved it. It basically involved a lot of "rock-n-roll type jumping". My husband is totally a big kid at heart.

The next day Riley and I tried to let Jesse sleep in a little. While he was sleeping she finally got around to making her dad a card (or I finally remembered we never made one) and I wrapped up a one tusked, carved elephant I found at a garage sale for a buck.

AB... C, D, and E are on the back, of course.

We have a shelf that runs along the stairs to our basement and a while ago Jesse noted that he would love some carved elephants to go there. I've searched online for them, but most of what I was looking for was spendy so I just hadn't gotten anything yet... until I found this little guy. I wish I had a series of them, but guess I will just have to collect them over time.

Riley and I had also put together a video a few days prior. Please ignore the dumpster of garbage in the background. She was sitting calmly in that chair so I embraced the moment. It's a little long and she gets distracted multiple times, but it went about as well as I would expect for a three year old.

Once Jesse woke up, we presented him with his gifts. Of course,he wanted to know where I got the elephant so we could get more (sorry babe - I'll keep searching). We hung out a little and then headed off to the gym. Jesse had mentioned earlier in the week that he wanted to go on a bike ride so we worked that in by biking to the gym (need to do that more often).

The rest of the day was nice and mellow. Jesse wanted to go to Chang Mai Thai for lunch (delicious food and carved elephants to be envious of), we all took a nap in the afternoon, and Jesse got to end the night playing his new video game. I hope he knows how special we think he is.

And of course, the weather was gorgeous with only a spot of rain late in the day. Go figure.

Momma Rage

Let me just start by saying I am not a perfect mom.

And my child is not a perfect child.

But I recently had an experience that had me seething about other people's parenting skills.

Last weekend, Riley and I took a stroll to a local park. It was fairly busy, but there were plenty of areas to play. As Riley reached the edge of the playground she proclaimed that she wanted to play on the ladybug which didn't have any kids on it.

She took off running, but moments later so did a little girl (about age 2 or 3?) that had been playing on something next to us when we walked up to the park. It was clear that she overheard Riley and now she was running toward the ladybug too. I watched this all unfold and knew what was going to happen before it did, but I couldn't quite believe what this little girl was doing.

As Riley was climbing on the ladybug this other little girl shoved Riley and sat down on the ladybug.

Riley was stunned and started crying. I was appalled, but tried to remember this was a little girl who was at that age where sharing is often a difficult concept. But I have to admit that I thought she was a little snot. I know, she was 2 years old or so, but she knew Riley wanted to play on that ride... and she went for it herself.

The little girl's grandma was with her and saw what went down. I expected her to step in and help resolve the situation. Riley was really upset and kept crying that she wanted to go home. She may have been a little dramatic about it, but I understood why she was upset. Often she does a good job of brushing things off, but this time was a hard one for her.

The grandma turned to her granddaughter and said something along the lines of "Avery, that little girl was going to play on the ladybug. You should let her". Then grandma turned to my balling child and kept asking her what her name was. She finally discovered Riley's name because I was using it to try and soothe her.

Grandma turned to her grandkid and said "you can let Riley play with the ladybug next".

WTF.

No, grandma, you need to be clear with your granddaughter why she shouldn't have done what she did. Make it clear what the impact is and if she doesn't get off the toy (when, again, it was clear that she pushed my kid out of the way to get on it) you take her off. You set the rules. You demonstrate appropriate behavior so this impressionable young girl knows how to treat others. At least get her to say "sorry".

Maybe I am over reacting, but I was pissed that this grandma was so passive and let her granddaughter get away with this behavior. Perhaps it helps explain why the kid was so pushy in the first place.

Eventually, Riley calmed down and quit insisting that we go home. She continued to play, but I always had one eye on that other kid (especially when she said she wanted Goldfish as she was standing next to our stroller that had some Goldfish clearly sitting there). Hands off my stuff, kid.

I talked with Riley about what happened. I'm not sure she really got the bigger picture. She just knew that someone was mean to her, but I hope she knows that I've got her back.