Gratuitous Egg Shots

"Why do you keep eating bread and jam," asked Father,
"when you have a lovely egg?"
"I like bread and jam," said Frances,
"because it does not slide off your spoon in a funny way."
-Bread and Jam for Frances

Poached eggs, on vegetarian biscuits and gravy

Poached eggs, on beet greens

Peter Rabbit

Translation:
"radishes.
And feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley.
Round the end of the cucumber frame
whom should he meet but Mr. McGregor!"

Gets distracted by video camera.

Parseltongue

At the High Desert Museum, and Scarlett is saying in her sing-song voice 'Snake!  Can you come over here?'

Around these parts

So far this year, three of our closest friends have had baby boys.  Two of them were born on a Friday the 13th- January and April.  Suddenly Scarlett seems giant, and independent.

Yeah, she plays dress up

But then something happens, and I remember she's still so small.  I took her to a swimming lesson last weekend.  There was a giant fan by the poolside, which she hated with the same passion she also hates vacuums, blenders (sometimes) and motorcycles driving by.  She clung to me and whined.  And in what was not my best parenting moment, I made her an ultimatum- if we leave now, no more swimming lessons.  So we cancelled the lessons for the duration, and I felt like a mean parent.

I said, 'smile for mama'

In the meantime, she's been taking a judo class with her cousin Esther, which is mostly just kids crawling around on mats and hitting the ground with their palms.  I've only been once, and it was chaotic, as a room with 12 toddlers should be. 

She still loves putting her stuffed animals to sleep, in a very long, elaborate routine that involves us being very quiet as we sneak back into the room to check on them.  There's a new game too, where she sits in her wagon and we hand her the friends, until she's under a big pile of them, giggling.  Her toes are her piggies and she'll say 'my piggies are buried'. 

Also, I've been making poached eggs like crazy, ever since I figured out how to poach them straight in the water.  Charlie thinks I'm crazy, because I think poached eggs are beautiful and I take a lot of pictures of them.

I *think* it might be spring

Easter Weekend (Part 2)

On Easter morning Scarlett got an Easter basket with bubbles, books, a bath toy, some coloring supplies, and bracelets.  Then, we went to visit cousins- we ate food and drank mimosas.  Scarlett played with cousins, mostly in the dirt.  As a bonus for us, she took a super long nap after the morning brunch.

Easter Weekend (Part 1)

I feel like all I hear about around these parts are people complaining about the weather.  They're upset that it's raining, or it's overcast, or it's cold.  And I get it a little, I could stand to see the sun sometimes too.  But if you live in Portland Oregon, it seems silly to expect the nice weather in March or April.

That said, this was the first weekend all year with enough sun to play outside two days in a row.  People were cheerful.  Especially the people, Charlie and I, who spent Friday night at the Edgefield, walking around and drinking wine and soaking in this salt pool.  And eating dinner, sitting for as long as we want to eat without feeling rushed by a toddler.  We talked a lot about Scarlett, then we talked about being one of those couples who mostly talks about their kid.  But we had fun.  Did I mention there's a soaking pool?  There is, you should try it.

When asked who was coming to eat dinner with her, and put her to bed, Scarlett said Tavish.  So I guess, big thanks to my mom and dad for driving Tavish up here so he could handle all that.

On Saturday afternoon, there was probably an hour's worth of prep so that Scar and Lucy could dye eggs, which lasted a matter of minutes.  

And then, the Easter egg hunt.  We've been reading the Clifford Easter book extra lately, so Scarlett was familiar with the idea of hunting for eggs even though she's never done it before.

And for some reason, Amber is being really selfish and holding that baby in her belly even though it's time for him to come out.  Why you gotta be so greedy Abag?  The rest of us want to hold him too.

In last year's Easter family photo, Scarlett wouldn't let go of her baby doll.  The doll is covering half her face for most the pictures, or she's looking down at it, or the pictures are blurry because we're trying to make her smile.  This year, the treats inside the eggs caught her attention.

Tightrope

We saw tightrope walkers at the park, with their ropes stretched between this maze of trees.  It was really odd and fun, except the part where we had to keep Scarlett from running underneath them.  To distract her, we did some daredevil moves, but closer to the ground.

The ropes are in the background of these pictures, below. Although I totally understand if the beauty in the forefront is so distracting, you can't look past her.

Car talk

On the way to the grocery store, Scarlett says to me, "I have a lot of bathing suits."

She does- she has four.  She put them all on, one over another, yesterday.  But then she had a potty accident, and we had to wash all the bathing suits, and they are hanging up drying in the basement.  Later on, in the grocery cart, she said 'The bathing suits are hanging to dry'.  Everything she says is fascinating to me, I wonder when that will end.