one afternoon

he stepped out into the day, considered his options,

and decided on his path.

he walked,

he climbed.

and he wanted to play in the street, but mama wouldn't let him.

it was a devastating experience.

he quickly recovered.

he picked a dandelion,

destroyed a dandelion,

and picked another.

he wanted to join a man and his dog on their walk, 

but mama wouldn't let him do that, either.

so he went exploring instead,

and found some acorn caps, which were quite interesting.

he assumed if they were this interesting, perhaps they tasted good, as well, 

but mama wouldn't let him do that either. he let her know he was very upset about this.

but he was soon distracted, because the sun was quickly setting 

and there was just too much to do before bedtime.

so he ran and pretend-jumped (because he can't really jump yet) 

and shrieked and chased his mama, and all was happy again.

the end.

the apple tree

happy birthday, isabella

sponge

tonight, i've been contemplating all that river has learned about life in the past week: he has learned how to sniff to smell, water flowers, tickle people, and read a book. picture all of those in quotations. 


because "smelling" is actually exhaling through his nose, rather than inhaling. and it's the funniest thing to watch him do. i show him how to smell a raspberry tea bag. he wants to put it in his mouth, and has to try really hard not to open his mouth out of habit, but to sniff instead. his face is very serious, and he watches me intently as i sniff the tea bag and say enthusiastically, "mmm! it smells so good!" i'll bet it's like rubbing his head and patting his belly to him. after he has sniffed, he smiles with a crinkly nose, so proud of himself.

watering the flowers at our door is holding a half-gallon milk carton with a cup of water in it over the flowers, but not really pouring. he even pumps his arm up and down, "watering" very thoroughly the petunias. we clap and say good job, and he doesn't want to come inside. he runs from me to the other potted plant and proceeds to water that one, too. he's my outside hippie boy and he loves the green life. nothin' wrong with that.

john tickles me. a lot. i pretend to hate it, but i don't, because it's fun. so, john's tickling me, and i'm laughing uncontrollably, because i am the most ridiculously ticklish person you will meet. river is laughing and squealing, and starts rubbing my hair vigorously and patting my back excitedly and biting the back of my neck. he is "tickling" me too. and he is doing a great job...because it sure is making me laugh.

this afternoon, he catches some sunlight through the window and sits down to read a book. he opens it and flips through its pages, saying this, and saying that. when he catches me taking pictures of him, he doesn't even budge - gives me a sweet love smile, and goes back to his book. i guess he's going to be a reader, like his mama.

all of these little things melt my heart. he's soaking stuff up like you wouldn't believe. he's a little sponge and he's trying oh-so-very hard to do exactly what mama and daddy do, and it is the most pleasing thing. sometimes i feel like he's more of a toddler than a baby. it may just be first-time-mom syndrome, but... i think he's really smart.

prettying things

i haven't been blogging because i don't know what to write about. normally, when i feel artistic, i have trouble finding an outlet for it. and sometimes, i don't feel particularly overflowing with creativity, but somehow i will create something with which i am quite pleased. it's complicated. to find an outlet for my creativity, i will often sink myself into an over-sized starbucks chair, with my grande cinnamon iced breve coffee beside me and a blank notebook and pen in my lap. for some reason, i always think buying new pens and notebooks will magically give me the inspiration i need, but this is rarely the case. [usually, it's the worn, loved book that has been my companion for years that receives many of my coffee shop/laundromat/two-in-the-morning musing.] and i don't even finish my coffee. i should stop buying grandes.

i gave up trying to pretend to be poetic and i rarely have the patience to finish and perfect a drawing, so i directed this energy toward our apartment. we moved in nearly two years ago, and i have had a difficult time loving the place. decorating an entire home is completely different than decorating one bedroom, which is all i've ever had to work with. plus, we don't just have money floating around to put towards making our apartment look pretty, so it's been a slow process. and because i can't really buy stuff, i end up completely moving furniture around just about every six months or so. john has been ever so patient.

so, instead of trying to write and draw and what-not, i decided to sew. i took a visit to joanne fabrics to see if they had any cute fabric for sale that i could use to make my plain blue curtains prettier. i figured this would be a cheap, easy way to add some color and style to our living room. unfortunately, they had tons of cute fabric squares. this is unfortunate only because i ended up buying way more than i needed. but it was very exciting.

my curtains before their makeover.

my curtains after.

sure, they look cute, but don’t look too close. i literally did the least amount of work possible to put this together. john asked if i tucked in the fabric so it wouldn’t fray, and i said no way, why should i? it won’t fray that much. i even considered hand-sewing the strips on to keep from having to sew around bunches of fabric with my machine, but i figured that would end up being more of a headache and too time-consuming.

river approves. it's his favorite spot.

he likes to people-watch.

while on my trip just to buy fabric, i stopped and picked up some paint to paint my desk-turned-dresser. i have had this desk for about five years. i bought it at a neighborhood yard sale for ten bucks. then, for some bizarre reason i will perhaps never be able to explain, i painted it black and teal. uum, what? yeah. i don't know. i thought it would be cute. it wasn't. i wish i had pictures of it in all its black-and-tealness, but alas, i do not. so you'll just have to picture it that way.

the desk in my old, comfortably cluttered room

with its cheery red walls.

it's been an eyesore since that very confusing paint job of mine, so it was hiding out in our artmusicjunk room that used to be river's nursery. john recently made two simple wooden desks for himself and we were going to toss the ugly thing, but then, my genius husband sawed the desk in half. i was impressed. who knew a gross-looking piece of furniture could start making its way to becoming such a pretty little thing? poor john. he was going to use it as a nightstand, but then i stole it and sanded and painted it and now it is in our living room.

"but you wanted to get rid of it!"

"well, it's mine anwyay, and now i want it."

that’s exactly how it went. i love him. i still have to get some knobs for it and paint some more details on the sides, but so far i am loving the way it looks. 

by the way, sanding? a new, fun experience for me. for the first two minutes.

if that.