She's beautiful in black and white, too

Love is in the air

What fun we had this Valentine's Day Weekend. The most fun was seeing my step-brother Caleb and introducing him to his niece. See, she loves him.

The next fun thing was eating carrots for the first time. And in the new highchair! Woo hoo! The excitement never stops at the Lew Residence. (I don't think the carrot washed out of that shirt. Evie may start eating in the nude because when she is wearing her bib all she wants to do is stuff the bib in her mouth. The whole bib. Which is extra funny because she wears a bib most of the day and has no desire to stuff it in her mouth. But start feeing her with a spoon and all of a sudden it's like bib-devouring time.)

The third fun thing was having grandma come down to watch Evelyn while my darling husband and I had a nice brunch together on Sunday morning. We also saw "Coraline," which was amazing and beautiful and a bit creepy. Evie took this nice picture.

Those blue eyes kill me every time. She is soooooo pretty.

Westminster

Did you watch the Westminster Kennel Club dog show last night? I love dog shows, and every time I watch them I want to run out and get another dog. Last night was no different, although my desire to get another dog was more short-lived when Sofie started barking and Evelyn woke up and I came back down to reality. Three dogs? One baby? Two adults?! I don't think so.

Still, we have a list. The list of dogs we'd like to have someday, along with their names.

Boston Terrier or Boston mix. Pug-Bo, French-Bo. You get the idea. Name? William Shatner, of course. (Why did we decide that William Shatner was the perfect name for a Boston Terrier? I'm not sure. But it seems like the best name ever. Sometimes we like to put celebrity voices with different dogs, too. We're weird like that.)

Whippet. No definitive name yet. Jon likes Devo. Skinny Pete is also on the short list. I can't remember the others now.

Brussels Griffon. Oh my gosh, such a cute little face! Did you see the little one that won the toy group last night? I wanted to jump through the TV and squish his little face. Names? Well, for a short-hair, Bat Manuel. For a rough coat, Old Man Whithers. He runs the haunted amusement park.

I realize that as Evie gets older she'll probably want a say in how we name our new dogs and that's ok. Maybe we'll have a "show name" and a "pet name." Cuz we're fancy. Ch. Old Man Whithers Shaggy Luvs You. Pet name Sparky. Something like that.


Those Pedigree ads were killing me last night, though. If I had to see the one with all the dogs in the shelter one more time I was gonna start crying. "I'm a good dog, and I'm not sure why I ended up here." *sniffle sniffle* Jon and I decided that we want certain characteristics in a dog that might make it more realistic to get a pure-breed dog. We really want a dog that will work with our family and lifestyle so that we can have a long, loving family pet. Labs? Not for us. Terriers? Also not so much. But we looooove dogs, and hate that so many end up in shelters. Whenever we get our next dog, many years from now, we will first try to go through a shelter, then a rescue group, then a breeder. If we go through a breeder we will have to make a donation to a dog shelter. Of course, I've also told Jon there is a very sizable chance that I might just someday come home with a dog that I saw at a PetsMart adopt-a-thon and couldn't resist...

First solid food!

We have a very big girl with us today. Evelyn ate her first food! I woke to nurse Evie last night and decided, yes, she is ready. She can sit up pretty well. She is very interested in our food. She wants to eat more than the breastmilk is sufficing. So yes, she's ready. Yum, rice cereal!




She liked the cereal pretty well, actually. I think she was more interested in the spoon than what was on the spoon. She ate a lot more than I thought she would, too. She is getting so big. It is amazing.

Today Evelyn has also taken to screeching. Loudly. And a lot. One of Jon's friends stopped by with her mom and grandfather and Evelyn just screeched and squealed the whole time. They are happy noises, but crazy loud weird noises. She is also learning the difference between making a noise with her mouth open and her mouth closed. And how to move her tongue more. She is definitely learning how to use her vocal chords!

Newfound drive toward self-fulfillment

I am so excited for my sewing class in two weeks. I am excited to (re)learn a new skill and put that skill to work. I have a friend taking a very similar class next week and I think we will both have a lot of fun. Now, if only that friend was in Denver, and not New York, we could take the class together, go fabric shopping, and generally enjoy the new-feminist craftiness that is overtaking my generation. (Maybe overtaking is an exaggeration, but I think there is a lot more knitting, sewing, hand-making, etc. lately than in the recent past. It skipped a couple of generations and now it is "cool" again. Or maybe I just didn't know about it before. Maybe every generation has this same awakening, but because it is something done at home and among friends it isn't something I would have noticed.)

I've been thinking a lot lately about happiness and joy, discontent and melancholy. Because I've been feeling very melancholy. I am not getting enough sleep, I'm not eating the best foods, I'm not getting any exercise. I am merely existing. I lament that I have no time for anything and that I am too tired to do anything even if I did have the time. But then Jon said something that struck me. "You have to prioritize." It is something one of his dad-friends said to him in response to the question, "how to you find the time" with kids and jobs and life. I am going to be tired, but that doesn't mean I can't do anything. (I also just was diagnosed with pretty serious hypothyroidism. I'm getting on some meds and that should help with the exhaustion.) I have a few snippets of time to myself on the weekend, and a couple hours of time at night after Evie goes to sleep, to do what I want to do.

So what what do I want to do? What makes me happy? I made a list:

1. Knitting, and all knitting-related activities. Reading patterns, reading blogs, browsing yarn stores. I love it all.
2. Spending time with my husband.
3. Other creative adventures. I'm going to relearn how to sew, and that is exciting. I also really enjoy baking. I want to plant a strawberry plant. I also like to read about other people's creative adventures.
4. A clean house. I feel so much better about myself and my world when my house is clean. Sadly, I hate cleaning. But one cannot exist without the other and so I must buckle down and do some tidying up. Just 15 minutes after Evelyn goes to bed would make a world of difference.

And so I will return to this list from time to time when I am laying on the couch watching another rerun of Seinfeld. Does Seinfeld make me happy? No, not really. TV makes me laugh and helps me unwind and relax, but it does not make me happy. It is a time filler. I have limited time, I have to prioritize, and so the place for TV will be much more limited.

Evelyn is my love and my light, but she is not my entire life. I am feeling good about my newfound drive toward self-fulfillment.

Two pictures for your Wednesday morning

Two pictures.

1. Evelyn and Sophie sitting on our new couch. They eye each other knowingly. Like, which one of us is going to soil this new couch first? Let's race!

2. Evie in her first hand-made outfit. From her grandmother. Isn't it cute and spring-like?

Tagged

I have been tagged! And since it is a Monday morning and I've already had a day...grr leaving my wallet at home and having to return and getting to work late and...I shall complete the following questionnaire before I move on to more important things.

I shall tag:
Our newest blogger, Carol
Jon
Alisa
Anyone else?

Step 1: Respond and rework—answer the questions on your own blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your own invention, add one more question of your own.
Step 2: Tag other un-tagged people.

Questions:

• Make a list of things you can see without getting up: Well, all the things on my desk. World's oldest Blackberry on its charger. My new fancy-pants Blackberry not on its charger. Apple, banana, diet coke, glasses, lip gloss, calendar, phone, etc.
• Favorite football team: Gotta go Broncos. No fair-weather fan here!
• What are you wearing now? Ooh, I look sassy today. Purple boat-neck sweater, necklace my MIL got in Spain, black a-line skirt, tights with a little pattern, very high-heeled mary janes.
• What color is your bedroom? Pale purpley-gray
• What’s the last thing you read/are currently reading? Oh lord, I haven't read a book book in so long. Maybe the baby books during pregnancy. The last thing I really read was the knitting pattern to the "heart" I'm knitting. From Knitty.com.
• What is the last thing you cooked? I made a big breakfast on Sunday. Bacon, cheesey scrambled eggs, home-style potatoes, orange juice.
• What is your favorite restaurant of all time? For the fond memories associated with it, The Banana Cafe. For more recent good memories, The Black Pearl. For all-around awesomeness, Zanmai.
• What’s your current obsession/addiction? Conversation Hearts.
• What was the last gift you gave? Everything associated with Christmas. It's a long list. I am currently working on a few gifts, but I haven't actually given them yet.
• What was the last thing you bought? Bagel and a diet coke
• What are you listening to right now? The dull din and clicky clatter of cubicle dwelling.
• What movie do you know every word to? Say Anything, Love Actually, Father of the Bride (oh man, did I just admit to that?), Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 40-Year-Old Virgin,
• If you could have any super power, what would it be? I think flying. Or super-strength. Not sure yet.
• What is your favorite weather, and why? I like a beautiful sunny day in fall, cool and breezy, when it smells like it is going to rain. Why? Because it is lovely.
• What is your most challenging goal right now? Rolling over my 401(k)s into one location. Why is this such a freakin' difficult process? You'd think companies would want your money. But nooooo...
• If you could have a house–totally paid for, fully furnished–anywhere in the world, where would you want it to be? A large apartment in Tokyo, I think. It would make my hubby so happy. Plus, if we ever got hard up for money we could sell it for like a bazillion dollars! Either that or one of those great old houses near Washington Park here in Denver. They are gorgeous.
• The last vacation you took? I think a trip to surprise my mom on her birthday last Febrary. To Sacramento. Was that really the last one?
• Name one thing you just can’t resist no matter how bad it is for you: Bacon. Cookies.
• If you could talk to anyone dead or alive, who would it be: I'm feeling nostalgic, I guess, because I think I'd talk to each of my four grandparents. They all died before I had reached that point in life where you want to know things about your grandparents. I realized this weekend I don't really know much about them at all.
• If you could have any job in the world , what would it be? Owner of a successful and awesome yarn store.
• You see a cute baby, what is your reaction? Aw, that's cute...but my baby's cuter!
  

New Question:

• What is your all-time favorite book and why? My favorite book is 1984 because it made me start thinking about government in a different way, and becuase every time I re-read it I find something new.