Julia seemed to need a little something extra in her oatmeal this morning.
About two weeks ago, she looked like this. Well, not every day. But if you look at her mouth, you can see one of her front teeth is slightly askew.
We waited.
We were wondering when this tooth would finally depart Julia’s mouth. The main hope was that it wouldn’t happen while she was wearing her flower girl dress. Red wasn’t part of the color scheme that day.
Originally Julia said she wanted a giraffe cake.
Because I’d done elephants before.
And Beluga whales last year.
The plan was to have a bunch of fondant giraffes all over a grassy cake.
But then, as is her womanly right, Julia changed her mind.
Continue reading "Herbivores of the African Plains – Julia’s Cake 2011" »
You’ve met my daughter.
She asked for an egg sandwich the other morning, and while the egg was frying, she grabbed her camera and took a picture.
I’m thinking of starting a separate blog just for her, an offshoot of this one, maybe “Barefoot Kitchen Pixie” or something like that.
Anyway.
That same day (Julia was home from school, recovering from strep throat), later, after the egg sandwich, she was hungry.
A clear sign she was feeling a lot better….
We’re able to get free compost from the town. Last week Bill nearly filled up the truck bed with gorgeous, dark compost. Most of it is out, but there’s still some that needs to be removed.
Julia likes to help.
See this girl?
She’s been busy today.
After a day of lounging around on the couch, reading and napping, I was very happy to hit the road with Julia the following day.
A couple of weeks ago I picked up some sewing equipment for Julia. I got her a pair of scissors that are super sharp and much easier for her small hands to manage than my big, heavy Ginghers. And I got her a little pin cushion (pink, of course) and a box of very pretty pins.
Yesterday Julia sat in the kitchen and started reading Little House in the Big Woods to me.
So happy.
Both of us.
As sometimes happens, I take plenty of process pictures and then totally forget to take a picture of the final product.
These are my cute, but rather shaggy children.
Or, rather, these were my cute, but rather shaggy children.
Well, they still are my children. And cute. But the shagginess is no more.
And no, I have no idea why Julia is making that face. She’s six. That’s all the explanation I’ve got.
So yesterday, after Natalie and I baked the pound cake, we trekked down to my sister’s house to return Natalie and her share of pound cake, to bring snacks to the chickens, and to tame the crazy hair on my kids’ heads.
As always, it was entertaining.
Continue reading "A Visit with Auntie: Chickens and Haircuts" »
They have some sort of radar.
Any time I toss out scraps of bread, stale cookies, or things like that, within minutes, a small flock of seagulls begins to circle our back yard, slowly spiraling down until one or two decide to land on the feeding platform and start grabbing at the day’s buffet.
On Wednesday we had yet another snow day. No school for Bill or the kids.
Actually, snow day isn’t quite accurate. More like sleet/freezing rain/yuck day.
Definitely not a day to frolic and play outdoors.
Here’s Julia, “Slippers,” the kitten, and the quilt Julia made for Slippers.
We finished it last night.
Yesterday Bill took Alex ice fishing. It’s cold up here in the northeast right now, –1 F this morning, for example, so the ice on the local ponds is pretty thick. The menfolk dressed warmly and brought an extra pair of gloves each, and off they went. Julia and I wisely stayed home and, more importantly, indoors.
I started working on Bill’s quilt, and Julia wanted to help, but there wasn’t really anything she could do to help…so I asked her if she wanted to make a quilt of her own, maybe for her dolls, or her 25,769 Barbies….
I didn’t do the braids.
I need to learn how, or, rather, to practice so I can do them this nicely.
‘Twas weeks before Christmas
When all thru the house,
Not a creature was stirring.
Well, at least not the lizard.
Once upon a time I got married, and over the next several years, we had two kids. A boy, Alex, and a girl, Julia.
We live in "The Ocean State" and so we felt it was important that our children learn to swim at an early age. After wasting our time and money for a while at one place, we moved our kids to Envious Swimming's "Learn 2 Swim" program, and our kids have become fish.
Fast, fearless fish.
Earlier this summer, we learned that Envious was organizing their first annual Kids Triathlon. And we thought - "Hey, cool!" And then we got busy with working on the house and sort of forgot about it.
And then, a little over a week ago, I was reminded at that week's swim class.
Before I begin, here's a link to Julia's cake last year. Alex's cake is in that post as well, but I haven't done this year's cake yet - that'll be next month's production.
Anyway, up until a week or two ago, Julia wanted a cake very similar to last year's, only instead of the elephants wearing ballerina garb, she requested that they be gymnasts. So I played with that idea in my mind for a while...what color costumes the elephants would wear, and which pieces of equipment they'd be performing on...Julia is partial to the uneven bars herself (or "unbeeven bars" as she used to say it), so I'd have to include those...maybe the balance beam and trampolene as well. And the costumes kept appearing in red, white and blue in my mind, so that's where I was headed in that regard....
This is my daughter, on a recent trout-fishing trip.
Yesterday Julia gave me the task of doing all her Barbies' hair. Julia chose their outfits (which basically means she matched up each doll with the outfit she came with originally) and I dressed and coiffed them all.
This week Julia's been asking that I braid her hair for school. Earlier in the week she wanted two braids. Yesterday it was three. Today she asked for two braids and a ponytail. This is the result.
I think she wore this hat when she was a newborn. Don't know where she found it, but this is how she was dressed first thing yesterday...
I'm moving image files to an external hard drive, and I figured I'd share...
These were taken in May of this year. Julia had requested and received a "brown horse head on a stick" for her birthday.
I think she's named it "Brown" or "Brownie" or maybe "White Spot." Or something entirely different. I've lost track.
Anyway, not only is the horse an accomplished steeplechase competitor, but it's also got a military background.
Continue reading "De-Cluttering the Laptop: A Girl and Her Noble Steed" »
This morning I made egg sandwiches for Bill and Julia. I'd put Julia's hair in a ponytail so she wouldn't get egg in it, and after that, I went by her and past the end of the dining room table toward the windows so I could open them and let some cool air in before the humidity took over.
I rounded the end of the table, and scattered on the floor I saw hair. And a pair of red-handled children's scissors.
Mouth agape, I turned to look at Julia, the question "Julia, why did you cut your--" barely spoken, and I saw this:
See it? The hair that DOESN'T fit in the ponytail? I hadn't noticed it when I put her hair up minutes before, and I'd also been walking around on the other side of her when I served her egg sandwich.
Initially my reaction was to keep scissors out of her reach for the rest of her childhood, but while Bill was putting scissors up on top of the pie safe (where she'd easily get to them using a stool stacked on a chair when we weren't looking), I decided to find out why. I'm big (sometimes) on why.
So I sat down with her at the table and gently asked WHY she'd cut her hair.
And in a small voice, her little eyes brimming with a few tears, she said "Because I want to be a boy."
Ohhh, sweetie.
I remember that feeling. Like it would be SO much better to be a boy.
And so I told her that cutting her hair wouldn't turn her into a boy. And besides, she was just as strong and smart and brave and awesome as any boy.
She didn't seem all that convinced, but the issue kind of fizzled anyway. I held her adorable little face in my hands and looked into her big blue eyes and told her that she was perfectly wonderful exactly the way she was - as a girl.
She said "Who do you think likes to play with the toy mice more, Scratchy or Softie?"
I tried to make my point a couple more times but she had already switched gears and was kind of past the boy thing - or at least past wanting to discuss it.
So I asked her if she really, really, really wanted short hair. Because once it's cut, you can't glue it back on.
And she said she did.
And I asked her again, just to be sure. And I used my Really Serious Abuot This voice, too.
She said she did.
I said that if she really really really wanted her hair short, (and I also told her she was NOT going to have hair as short as Alex's) I could call Auntie later and see if she could do it.
She liked that idea.
So a bit later, I talked to my sister and explained the whole thing, and she said she'd be home all afternoon.
After lunch, Julia took a bath and I washed her hair and combed all the tangles out.
And then we were out the door and on our way. (I asked her a few more times - really really sure? She still was.)
"Look at me, Mom! Aren't I walking like a big girl?"
I had her stand with her back to me so I could take a picture of her hair. It's still wet from her bath.
When we got to my sister's house, Julia petted Ozzie, one if the cats, while I snapped a few more pictures of her still with long hair.
It's funny. I remember it was (or seemed like) a HUGE deal when I got my hair cut short for the first time. And I was...let's see...eleven. It was the summer between fifth grade and sixth. If I find a picture of myself (because of course my father took before and after shots) from that time, you'll never know because I have no desire to post it. Sorry.
You'll just have to enjoy the Julia transformation. She's way cuter anyway.
On the ride down, I thought about what to do with her hair, and rather than just sweep it into the trash, I thought we could donate it to an organization that makes wigs for people undergoing chemo or something. As luck would have it, when we got to my sister's house, her neighbor, Joan, was outside and she and I were talking about the Big Day for Julia, and she suggested Locks of Love. So that's one I'm considering. Any other suggestions? The ponytail we've got is over 10" long, so I know most places will take it. If you've got another organization you support, or you've donated to, please let me know.
We went inside, Meredith (my sister) fixed some celery and peanutbutter for Julia, found a channel to keep her entranced (and sitting still), and then, it was time.
Part of me expected to get all teary-eyed about this. I've been the one determined that Julia's hair would remain long. It seemed so much a part of her. The long, wild mane seemed to represent her bold, fiesty nature. She'd stand there with her little hands on her little hips and toss her hair off of her shoulders while trying to boss Alex around or something. Like Sampson, Julia's hair gave her strength.
Except that that's ridiculous.
And knowing Julia, it wouldn't matter where we hid the scissors. She'd find them if she really wanted to, and she'd cut her own damn hair if she wanted to.
Much better, then, to at least have my sister do it so it would look good.
And so out came the scissors.
And after hacking through the hair, a few layers at a time,
The ponytail was off.
"Look, Ma! No hair!"
After that, I put the ponytail in a plastic bag and my sister got to work tidying up the rest of Julia's hair.
That's Natalie grabbing a piece of raspberry Entenmann's coffee cake. Julia is still glued to the Scooby-Do marathon my sister found for her to watch.
This next one came out very blurry, much to my regret. I love the angle, and the look on her face.
And that was one portion of Julia's Big Day.
© 2003-2011 Barefoot Kitchen Witch / Jayne Maker. All Rights Reserved. Please do not use any photos or text without written permission from the author.
