What the Bride Calls “Marriageness”

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What? You want MORE pictures? Really? We’ve been kind of image heavy around here lately….but OK. If you insist.

Two weeks ago Trent, Lu and I headed to NYC for my school bud Theresa’s wedding. People have been asking politely rudely texting me for photos ever since. Unfortunately we didn’t get a ton of great pictures since we spent most of our time carrying strollers down subway stairs and preventing our child from being run over by a cab, but we did take a few here and there.

Work it
All I wanted was one picture with the bride…but when Trent told us to “work it” we couldn’t hold back. Fierce.

Mama, armed with sunblock
Theresa knew she could count on her most pale of friends to provide the sunblock for the beautifully sunny day in NYC.

The White Balloon
Lucy got a white balloon from Theresa’s mother and refused to put it down. Even as we jumped from the subway to NJ transit, looking like huge doofs, the darn kid refused to let go of that balloon. Or the other three she collected. We looked like a travelling circus.

We also spent a good amount of time visiting with family in New Jersey. During this trip I mastered the Garden State Parkway in a flashy, bright blue, Dodge vehicle AND spent under $100 at IKEA. I’m so proud.

One Picture Together
This is Lucy’s first major boyfriend, Jack. Jack is the son of (get ready for this) Trent’s brother’s girlfriend’s sister. So technically, they aren’t related. We spent hours trying to get them to sit nicely next to each other and pose, but Lucy was more interested in Jack’s toys then Jack himself.

Baby Grace
This is Jack’s baby sister, Grace. Lucy was a bit obsessed with Grace and spent most of her time at their house making sure that “baby OK?” Grace was so sweet and cuddly it made me want to jump my husband and make babies AT THAT VERY MOMENT. And every time Trent looked at me hording her he would roll his eyes and run away in fear.

Brothers
This is Trent and his brother Scott. They are both hairy. And have unhealthy obsessions with board games.

You can view the entire set from our trip here or below.

Birthday-Mania Week Begins

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A few days ago I wrote a post on this site asking begging for help in finding the perfect gift for Lu’s second birthday. Well, I took some of your advice and also added some of my own ideas. Here’s what I came up with:

Whale Backpack
Lu needed a new backpack for the preschool she will start in one (eek!) week. I spent a few weeks attempting to find one that wasn’t shiny, plastic and covered in photos of Dora the Explorer or Winnie the Pooh. I ended up falling in love with this one from Pottery Barn Kids, which was, admittedly, way more expensive than a backpack should be for a two-year-old. But it was too late, I was smitten.

The Gifts All Packed
I decided to fill the backpack with little toys I’ve collected here and there. Most were purchased at The Learning Tree in Leawood, Kansas.

Lucy's Second Birthday Gifts
The loot. A few favorites are highlighted below, though I pretty much loved everything I got her.

Blow Fish
This blow fish was set up right next to the boy versions of the above backpack at Pottery Barn Kids. In fact, they had quite a few fun, little, gifts, but since they were all $15 each, I restrained myself. But I just couldn’t with this little guy. Lu’s obsession with bubbles has been well documented, and with her ongoing love affair with Finding Nemo, I figured I couldn’t leave the store without this little guy. (Sorry, I guess you can only get these in the store, because I can’t find it on the Pottery Barn Kids website.)

Birthday Monster Book
Books for kids can be a bit, um, stupid. After you’ve read about the love the mother doggie has for her puppy for the millionth time, you would do anything for a laugh. Hell, a chuckle would suffice. I mean, these are books for children, right? They should have a certain level of silliness. So it’s no surprise I’m a big fan of Sandra Boynton board books. They are all a bit strange and funny, including this one, called “Birthday Monsters.” At one point, the monsters tell the birthday hippo to go play hide and seek, and after 20 minutes he finds them cleaning out the fridge. I know Lu will love this. As she is a big fan of both hippos and monsters.

Baby Ugly Doll
For Christmas this year, I bought Lu her first Ugly Doll named Ox. Currently, Ox has a permanent post at the foot of her crib, where he’s always on the lookout for monsters. I figured Lu should have another little guy to take to the new preschool, just in case she gets scared during the day. Enter Poe, the ugly dragon who dreams about ice cream and doesn’t like to fly because it’s too much work.

Even though I ended up spending a bit more than I wanted to, I think the gifts will work out great. And since we decided to have a small picnic (weather permitting, grrrr) instead of a party, I felt I could spend a bit more on Lu than I did last year. Because last year I spent all of zero dollars on her birthday gift, which I’m sure will lead to months of therapy in her teenage years.

Home

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We’re back in KC. And the NYC plus the dirty Jerz really took us for a trip! Lu is sick, Trent is a grump and I am just plain exhausted. But it was totally worth it as the wedding was phenomenal and I got to spend the weekend with the lovely Scott and Erin. And yes, Scott is very lovely. And fairly furry, just like his baby brother.

I’ll post some pictures after I have 8 or 80 hours of sleep. Until then, just revel in the fact that I was able to cross two items off my 100 Things list. Yay me! And also, yay alcohol, apparently.

47. Drink wine in Central Park
92. Drink a fancy cocktail on the roof of an apartment building in NYC – OK, so it was champagne. And, technically, it was the roof of a church. But it still counts. Because I make the rules around here!

Party Planning

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In two weeks we cross the threshold…Lu turns two. Help me, God. If yesterday was any indication, we’re in for a long year. I spent most of a park play date running this way and that way and the other way chasing my little angel all over the place. I’d be in mid-sentence when she’d see an airplane or bird or imaginary flying pony and yell, “Airplane, I catch it!” and run off chasing said object with her hands high in the air. As soon as she saw me following her she’d turn on hyper-drive and zoom as fast as her chubby, bruised legs would take her until I’d either catch up or she’d run out of steam. I think I scared the crap out of the poor mom with the five-month-old, who was probably wishing she had done a background check before setting up a playdate with a psychotic almost-two-year-old.

We’ve decided this year we won’t be having a big party for Lu. While I know it made some family a little crabby, it just wasn’t going to work for us. This whole month has been totally packed, and with our upcoming obligations and trips, there was just no way to plan some big fiesta. Plus, she’s two, not twenty, and she’d be happy with a bucket of mud for her birthday!

I do want to do something nice for her big day, maybe take cupcakes to school. It will be her last week at her current daycare, as once she’s two she is moving to the preschool where they will teach her Russian and ballet (you think I’m kidding, but I’m totally not). I want to do something fun and nice, but don’t have much time (see above paragraph). I’m thinking I’ll make cupcakes or cookies and maybe some cute party favors for her to take to school. While looking for inspiration online I found some ideas that are so cool, but totally daunting. Maybe I can just look at the pictures and pretend I made them?

Blackberry Crow Cupcake

Jack & Jill Cupcake

Beach Cupcake

Nursery rhyme cupcakes by Christine Hamilton. More can be found here.

(Found via ohdeedoh)

100 Things: The Conclusion

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I started my list of 100 things I want to do before I’m 100 a few months back. Honestly, it was a bit of a cop out. I had just started my new job and was dried up as far as content ideas for this site, so I wrote out a huge list of things I want to do someday. Then, when I had nothing else to write, I would post five or ten of these things at a time. Really, it was all about laziness. Which should be the new tagline for the blog: Crazybananas, it’s all about laziness.

I never kept track of how many things I’d written, just hoping I’d be able to come up with 100 at the end of this whole endevour. Turns out, when I looked back, I had written exactly 95. Yesterday I sat down and attempted to finish up my list. But, CRAP, it was hard. How do I come up with five more things, when I’ve already listed 95? How do I fit everything else I want to do into only five things? Quite the quandry.

In the end, this is what I came up with:

95. Attend a big movie premiere
96. Have a piece of art in a gallery showing
97. Make $100 off of my online writing
98. Live in Europe and take the train to faraway locations during vacation
99. Retire and live a life of leisure
100. Do something that changes the world for the better

You can view the entire list right here, and it will also be posted under my About Me section and on the right hand sidebar of the homepage. I plan to continue to update my list as I accomplish things and am able to cross them off. And I WILL accomplish them, even if Trent hates horses and swears we shall never own one! I noticed that many of my ideas involve travel of some kind, and I wonder why that is? I never thought of myself as a person that craved travel and exploration, but apparently I don’t know myself very well! Have any of you tried to write a list like this? What surprised you?

For those of you who hate to click on links (why is that, exactly?) below is the list in it’s entirety.

1. Learn to play the guitar
2. Purchase my own house
3. Get my scuba diving certification
4. Visit all 7 continents
5. Skydive
6. Get over my fear of boats by going on a cruise
7. Learn to snowboard
8. Blog everyday for a month
9. Write and publish a fiction novel
10. Take Trent to Amsterdam and eat lunch on the lawn of the Van Gogh Museum
11. Give a stranger $100 on Christmas Eve
12. Go on a honeymoon
13. Own and train a horse
14. People watch at the duomo in Florence with Lucy
15. Take the train to St. Louis from Kansas City
16. Stand underneath a waterfall in a tropical location
17. Take photos of someone famous
18. Attend a taping of the Oprah Winfrey show
19. Vote for a woman for president
20. Give a speech honoring my dad
21. Grow my own cantaloupe like when I was a kid
22. Spend a day at a spa
23. Play in a real rock band
24. Buy a brand new Mac computer
25. Send my daughter to college
26. Work on a horse ranch
27. Go white water rafting
28. Teach Lu how to ice skate
29. Report from a foreign country for NPR
30. Live in a “green” home
31. Turn off my phone for a day
32. Organize a family reunion
33. Go on a mother/daughter trip with Lucy, my sister and her daughter
34. Pay back my and Trent’s parents for all they’ve done for us
35. Ride a camel
36. Attend P. Diddy’s white party
37. Be content in my life
38. Cross 50 items off this list
39. Buy a very expensive pair of shoes just because they are pretty
40. Take a university level design or photography class
41. Hold a leadership position in local politics
42. Take Lucy to the circus
43. Teach English at a school abroad
44. Visit Washington DC
45. Attend a political rally
46. Donate to charity anonymously
47. Drink wine in Central Park
48. Renew my vows on a beach
49. Live in a house on the Italian Coast
50. Reconnect with an old friend
51. See the Earth from space
52. Get my masters degree
53. Hug a koala bear
54. Visit the Grecian ruins
55. See a Broadway play
56. Sell a piece of photography
57. Go to New Orleans during Marti Gras
58. Cook every night for 7 days
59. Drink a pint in an Irish pub
60. Find out about my lineage and visit where my family comes from
61. See my mom’s old house in South Chicago
62. Ride in a rickshaw
63. Throw a keg party
64. Write a screenplay
65. Learn to bake apple pie
66. Go camping with the family
67. Learn to surf
68. Raise Lucy to become a strong, independent woman
69. Have more kids
70. Take a road trip of the United States in an RV
71. Run a marathon
72. Gamble in Vegas
73. Kiss Trent at the Eiffel Tower
74. Visit the Grand Canyon
75. Volunteer in a third world country
76. Live in New York City
77. Have a girls vacation with friends
78. Throw Lucy a sweet sixteen birthday party
79. Surprise Trent with a gift for no reason
80. Throw an elegant dinner party
81. Relearn how to speak fluent Italian
82. Attend a wedding in India
83. Ride an elephant
84. Learn how to fly an airplane
85. Meet a famous blogger
86. See the pyramids in Egypt
87. Hike through a tropical rain forest
88. Make enough money to support my family DONE – February 2008
89. Take Trent to Cinque Terre and go on a hike there
90. Visit Canada
92. Drink a fancy cocktail on the roof of an apartment building in NYC
93. Go to therapy
94. Go for a week without checking email
95. Attend a big movie premiere
96. Have a piece of art in a gallery showing
97. Make $100 off of my online writing
98. Live in Europe and take the train to faraway locations during vacation
99. Retire and live a life of leisure
100. Do something that changes the world for the better

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