More on baby fashion

After my 'torn about dressing Evie in pink' post (I swore I would never dress my daughter overly girly... but it's just so darned cute!) Susan took pity on me and went looking for something that would soothe my hippie soul. And wow, did she find it!

This outfit is from Laughing Bear Batik and I totally love it! I am definitely budgeting some money for a Laughing Bear shopping trip the next time I go to the island (and it may be for both me and Evie)!

As Susan pointed out it has animals, it is sorta tie dye, and it is not pink! I can now shop for pink clothes secure in the knowledge that Evie has some non-pink options in her wardrobe. ;)

In other news, Evie has been grounded for excessive scratching. She is forbidden the use of her fingers and is sentenced to wear socks on her hands until her doctor's appointment on Wednesday. Hopefully they can give us something to help both the rash and the dry skin.

In related news, her new hat has arrived. Pics to come. :)

Slight change to the blog

The bad news is my cell phone has been dying for a while now and today it finally gave up the last of its battery life (yes the terribly pink phone is finally gone).

The good news is that I got to upgrade to the Droid phone (and it isn't pink)! I can use it to check email... but I need a gmail account.

The bad news is that I totally screwed up my gmail account followed by my google account... the one that links to this blog.

The good news is that I was able to make a new account and link the blog to it. So if you see any weirdness it is probably due to that. Technically there are two Vorpaks posting here, one from each google account.

I used to be good at this web stuff dammit...

Sweet Caroline

This summer Ian was singing in the car and I suddenly recognized the chorus line. When we stopped at a rest stop I asked him to sing the full version and this is what I got:



Those day care ladies make sure the kids have a thorough Red Sox education.

Three months old!

Here is Evie's three month birthday picture next to my old friend Brownie.

She was much happier today, although I had a hard time pulling her attention away from the TV. JD was playing a PBS special about fixing the Hubble and apparently it was fascinating.

She is getting big!

The many hats of Evelyn Cage

When Evelyn was a few weeks old she developed a nasty case of baby acne (just in time for Christmas pictures poor baby). It cleared up after I started washing her head with baby soap every night.

This has led to very dry and irritated skin. When I skip a night her skin does not dry out as much, but the rash flares up. So right now the dry skin is the lesser evil.

Unfortunately this means that she scratches her head a lot. No matter how short I keep her nails she still manages to gouge furrows in her scalp. To combat this I drench her in Vaseline and baby lotion every night, which is not very attractive, and keep a hat on her at all times, which can be very attractive.

Here are some of our hat solutions. My Aunt Jan made Ian a beautiful bunny hat that I am waiting for Evie to grow into.

Totally adorable.

Until she grows into that one, hand-me-downs and the occasional Etsy buy are fulfilling our hat needs.

I am struggling a little bit with the ethics of it all. One the one hand, damn she is cute. On the other hand, I don’t want to be one of those moms who plays dress up with her baby like she was a little tea cup poodle or something. And who knows what the long term consequences will be?

If I start dressing her in hats now will she turn into a girly-girl who actually knows about fashion and likes to accessorize?? What will I do?? How will we relate??? I am perfectly confident in my ability to raise a half-wild feral child… but a fashionista? JD will never forgive me!

So I ponder little camo pants and mini tie dye shirts at Babies ‘R Us while I secretly shop the net like a junkie for flowered bonnets and tutus.

Luckily I get lots of cute, girly hand-me-downs from baby Sophia. If I couldn’t blame Evie’s beautiful wardrobe on her older cousin I would probably have some kind of psychotic break in the middle of the mall. Thank God for Miriam and her intrepid trail-blazing into the world of baby fashion! I don’t have to face the questions of my wide-eyed friends “You bought that for her? You? It’s pink! And it has RUFFLES!!! Bwahahaha!!!”

But speaking of baby fashion let me address my pet peeve. Pink and brown. Why is EVERYTHING pink and brown? With Aqua and lime polka dots? And paisley? I just managed to have a little girl in a time period that is trying to bring back the worst fashion mistakes of the 60s?

To be fair I actually like pink and brown together. I like brown. And *mumble*pink*mumble*. I even like paisley. But on every. Single. Piece. Of clothing? And I could do without the pink and brown and lime green combo. When was lime green ever a good idea on a baby? Where are my pastels? Where are my cute circus animal prints? EVERYTHING is pink and brown.

Ish.

On a completely different note: today is Evie's 3 month birthday!! She was so tired and grumpy when we got home that I decided to wait on the picture taking... which is too bad because she had a really cute dress on. All she wanted to do was eat and curl up on my lap and I didn't have the heart to shove a flash bulb in her face and try and get her to smile. But never fear -- tomorrow (if she is happy) I will post up her birthday-plus-one-day picture.

On another completely different note: Ian is on the Vineyard with Grandpa and Grandma for the week. I know he is having TONS of fun -- but we miss him. It is very quiet without him!

Updates from school

The daycare ladies tell me that Evelyn is exactly like her brother in both looks and personality (translation: she is cute and happy).

1. She wakes up the same way Ian did -- with a big grin for the first person she sees. Mom calls this "charming." She is attempting to charm whoever she sees into picking her up. It is quite effective.


2. She smiles and laughs whenever you talk to her.


3. She sticks out her tongue when she smiles.


4. Same mouth, same nose, same eyes, same cheeks, same head as Ian.


5. She is a GOOOOOOD eater.

By jove, I think we have a pattern here!

Ian's photographic talents

Ian loves to take pictures with my camera. If you've looked at my snapfish account you've probably seen some of his efforts. His unique style is characterized by his habit of taking pictures while 2 inches from his subject.

I thought I would post some of his more interesting compositions for your viewing pleasure. While looking at these pictures I am struck by the innate curiosity and appreciation for everyday objects they display. I am also struck by the realization that small children spend a great deal of time looking up our nostrils. This makes me feel vaguely guilty.

Enjoy!

A few cute pictures of the day...

I was just unloading my camera and cooing over the cute pictures of this week, so I thought I would share! (Click on the pictures to view full size versions.)

1. Evie sitting on the couch, looking very pretty and pink.


2. Getting a change of clothes after her bath.


3. Overstimulated by the excitement of the play gym.


4. In her favorite position on Mama's lap. (OMG mama needs someone to hold the baby so she can take a shower! Yeek!)


5. Papa got Ian (and himself) a matchbox car race set that was on clearance at Target. It is fun! And LOUD.

Indiana Jones is not for kids

Ian has been rockin' the XBox lately, playing all things Lego: Lego Star Wars, Lego Batman, and Lego Indiana Jones (which he calls "Lego Alien Pirate" for reasons none of us can understand).

So I innocently asked JD if he thought Ian would like to watch the Indiana Jones movies. After he stopped laughing at me he pointed out the people impaled on stakes thing, the face melting thing, and the ripping beating hearts out of chests thing.

Oh yeah. It's been a while.

But what about The Last Crusade? That one is pretty cool and the only scary part is at the end where the guy turns old really fast and I can fast-forward that part. Right?

Yeah. Right.

Tonight I decided to pull out The Last Crusade and see what Ian thought. Totally forgot that the movie started with young Indie -- which was fun to watch again. And Ian watched it quietly. Right up until the snake scene.

When Indie fell in the anaconda tank Ian let out a scream that had me leaping from the couch to cover his eyes. Unfortunately I didn't make it before Indie fell into the other tank and got covered with little snakes. Ian started screaming, crying, and shaking in fear as JD ran into the room and grabbed the controller to turn the TV off.

Bad mom. Bad, bad mom.

He is, no doubt, scarred for life.

Bad. Mom.

It reminds me a little of the time I turned on Monsters Inc., not realizing the volume was on extremely high. As the THX symbol thundered into existence Mom and I scrambled to find the volume control as Ian screeched in terror. For a whole year he couldn't watch a movie that had the THX part without crying and hiding his face in my shoulder.

Bad, bad mom.

*ponders whether Ian would like the original Batman movie*

Bad mom.

Free Library: Paksenarrion!

One of my favorite author blogs pointed out that Suvudu has a free version of Paksenarrion: Sheepfarmer's Daughter online! Completely legal and with permission of Baen books. :)

This book is in my top 5 all-time favorites (the first four slots are for the Hobbit and LotR trilogy). I HIGHLY recommend it!!

You can get a copy here:

Free Library: February Addition!

First day of school!

Today was my first day back at work, Ian's first day back at school, and Evelyn's first day at school ever! She seemed really excited. Ian... not so much. He is just not a morning person.

All maternity leave he was waking me up at the ungodly late hour of 8:30 (yeah, I'm lucky), but today it was back to dragging him out of bed at 6:30, kicking and grumbling. And as soon as he was dressed he crawled right back in.

Evie, on the other hand, was all smiles and laughs. Even though I woke her up from a sound sleep, changed her diaper in a cold room, and forced her to eat when she was trying to have a conversation with me, she was all smiles and laughs as I belted her into her car seat. I am sure she will learn to hate mornings as much as the rest of humanity, but until then it is very sweet.

Once Ian got to school he was off like a shot, heading straight for the blocks and his buddies. They were SO excited to see each other. At the end of the day when I came to pick him up he pretended not to see me so he could play just a little bit longer.

Evie also had a great time. Usually she takes 3 hour naps but today there was so much interesting stuff to see she couldn't keep her eyes closed for more than 1/2 hour at a time. She was looking around and making noises about everything. She had BIG smiles for her teachers and had no problems being handed over to them when I left.

I was able to go in and nurse her several times which was really nice. Nothing breaks up the day like a warm baby and a shot of nursing endorphins. *grin*

Work-wise it was a very quiet day. I went over my list of things to do and tackled the great and powerful Agile. And tomorrow I get to do it again from home. How cool is life right now?