Living LaFarge

The waiting game.

Sometimes your kids know exactly what you need, even more than you do. One day, a couple months ago, Anna and I were having one of the regular disputes over naps (I think she should take one, she doesn’t) and I was getting really frustrated and tired. I was about 8 months pregnant at the [...]

Well, we knew our house was old, but it’s pretty interesting to see some evidence. Darren, Rod and David, our framing crew, started to rip siding off of our kitchen wall this week, and they found some newsprint—pages from The People’s Home Journal and Mail Order Monthly Magazine, weathered and beat-up, dated October 1903.

Now I [...]

This is supposed to be snow.

That’s what just hit me as I’m looking out the window. That, and my god, what a big pile of mud our construction site is becoming. What is this, Seattle? Calcutta?

Okay, maybe it’s not that bad. But this is a lot of rain for Colorado, in September. And just as [...]

Last week, the gloves came off. All of the planning we’d done thus far started to become a reality.

It all started when Erika held up the little swizzle stick which had turned blue in about 6 seconds. From that moment on, [...]

She’s on to us.

We think we’re doing some sort of game, but she knows it’s a didactic exercise, and she’s not going to play by the boring rules.

I’m pointing at something which has a series of colors—you know, red, orange, yellow, green, etc.—and I ask her what colors there are. She [...]

1!

2!

3!

4!

5!

8!

9!

10!

14!

5!

Are you sure that’s right, Anna? ;)

Yesterday, in the midst of a mundane lunchtime, my daughter exhibited a beatiful moment of personal creativity that inspired me to keep the TV off so that her brain can be on. She’s done lots of imagining playthings, from the baby hippos she finds in various locations and picks up and carries, to taking her [...]

Everyone talks about the “terrible twos” and I do understand why this developmental period is hard for many parents. I remember when my friend Leah’s daughter Sophie was upset about something, I said, “It is hard to be 2” and her mom replied “It is hard to be the mom of a 2 year old.” [...]

I’m looking for the perfect oatmeal cookie. I’ve tried the Betty Crocker version, with white sugar and flour and lots of butter (good but so sinful – not something you can give your child for a snack and feel good about). I’ve tried the healthy version, with only whole wheat pastry flour and molasses (fairly [...]

Anna attended her first peace vigil – we joined a few hundred people on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq at Boulder’s courthouse lawn. We sang songs, lit candles, and organizers read letters [...]

Apparently, I used to eat my dog’s food when I was about this age. Anna hasn’t gone so far as to eat the cat’s food, but when I was feeding scraps of turkey (as I cleaned the carcass) to [...]

Cute things kids say…

Lots of snow out here in Colo-ra-do

In which Anna pulls herself to standing without assistance! (but not crawling yet..)

We’ve got more pictures of Anna up on the site. It’s been a while, in large part because I (not Erika, I) was agonizing over buying a digital camera. Now that we have one, we’re going crazy with it, of course. This album shows lots of shots of Anna in the last couple of weeks, [...]

This is not the same as writing in a journal, which I used to do sometimes when I would wake up in the middle of the night. I’d write down my dreams, and there was/is something so personal, alive, cozy about writing that way. At the same time, though, it’s always so hidden away, and [...]

It’s a little song I made up this morning while carrying Anna. It goes like this:

Pumpkin Pie Patootie,
Pumpkin Pie Patootie,
Pumpkin Pie Patootie,
Boop boop boop!

(repeat)

Well, that’s my part. Anna’s was this:

Gnaw on daddy’s thumb, drool!

(repeat)

Okay, it probably won’t win any awards…

Finally managed to get photos up from a couple of weekends ago—you may wish to catch Anna at her debut, or see shots from Easter at my dad’s house. Then again, you may not. That’s okay too.

And happy birthday to me! Wish me well, and take a little time to send a letter to your Congresspeople.

Shit, tomorrow’s the Earth’s birthday, and I don’t know what to get it! I’m sorry, Earth, I do this almost every year—I get so excited about MY birthday I forget about yours! Really I feel pretty guilty about it. I’m guessing a nice pair of earrings won’t do. A few more hours. Maybe I’ll think [...]

It’s been an eventful day for 4 out of 5 residents of 929 LaFarge. Sammie had a couple of walks and a whole lot of nothing in between, but the rest of us had a handful. Okay, I don’t really know that Sam didn’t bay at passing neighbors for hours, but I have a hunch.

But [...]

Or,
Why you give baby a bath after she’s pooped in her diaper

Warning: possibly objectionable reading ahead. If you’re not sure, re-read the subhead above to see if you think you want to read on…
It’s Sunday! And about time we gave Anna a bath. It’s been a week, and it seems like we should clean out [...]

I’ve really got to paint over that mural in our living room.

In which daddy gets some quality snuggle time with The Baby.

Yesterday morning a new life joined our world. And we couldn’t be happier.

There’s a scoundrel afoot in town. Watch out, before he steals your lady’s heart and sniffs her butt until she whines.

Wherein our esteemed author waxes lyrically about vegetable matter

I think that’s about how long our new kitten remained hidden when I got home from canvassing for Kerry for four hours this afternoon (first time volunteering for the Dems or any party politics but felt I needed to do a LITTLE something to help out, but anyway)...
...during which time I:

ran around the house twice [...]

Wasn’t it W who said, “Fool me once, shame on you… F‚Äî ah…. er, you’re not gonna fool me again!”

This I say to the snow gods. You would think I would have learned last year that you should ALWAYS roll up the car windows all the way when you come home.

You would think.

kitty pix

In which we welcome a new spirit into our home. A furry spirit with sharp claws and teeth. And pouncing.