From the Cinco de Mayo DC United soccer game. We had a fabulous time. DC United scored a goal and in celebration, B tossed up the confetti she’d made from shredding a game program. Unfortunately, confetti and cotton candy don’t mix. But she didn’t care…

Today was a Mother’s Day program at B’s daycare. The 2-year-old class did some nursery rhymes (and were so adorable doing it) and the 3-5 year olds sang a variety of songs including “You are My Sunshine” and “Doe-Ray-Mi”. The first song, though was an animal song I’ve never heard before and each child was supposed to dress as an animal. Supposedly, Brianna chose to be a pig, though this morning, in a fit of dramatics that would do Elizabeth Taylor proud, she sobbed uncontrollably that she didn’t want to be a pig and that the teacher had said she had to be a pig. Regardless, we moved past the dramatics and B went on to be a very cute little piglet.

As generally happens, I got a lot of great shots of other people’s children, but most of the ones of B didn’t turn out that great. Except this one, which I adore, because it shows her singing her little American Idol heart out. Most of the kids were incredibly shy and either sang quietly or not at all. Not my diva. She belted out those tunes like she was born to the stage. This picture? Makes me laugh out loud every time I see it. She looks so earnest, doesn’t she?

Brianna often spouts off a lot of funny one-liners that I share on Twitter, but sometimes our conversations are too long to share on Twitter. This morning, she got me pretty good.

Last night she had swimming lessons, and I’d brought a long-sleeve black rashguard for her (because the pool is COLD) and some random swim bottoms that were not black. As she was changing into them, she asked if I had matching bottoms to go with the black top. I explained that it was okay, because black goes with everything. She processed that for a few seconds, asked if brown went with black (don’t ask me why she was fixated on brown) and then said “okay”. That was that.

This morning, she got dressed in pink sweatpants and a pink shirt. I told her to go find her tennis shoes and she said, “I’m not going to wear my tennis shoes.”

“Okay, what are you going to wear?”

“My black boots.”

“No, you can’t wear your black boots, they don’t go with your outfit.”

“But, Mommy, you said black goes with everything.”

*crickets*

Little brat. I was actually speechless. She wore the black boots.

I promised myself on February 1st I’d turn my attention to breathing life back into my poor blog. It was never my intention to be absent this long, but my energies, by necessity, had to be focused elsewhere. However, I have no intention of closing down this blog or letting it die, so I’m going to pour some of that energy into thinking of how to be interesting on multiple blogs at once. Wish me luck!

Those of you who’ve been reading my blog since the beginning–five years! I missed my blog birthday back in January during my blog hiatus– have also been watching Brianna grow up, and we’ve gone far too long without pictures of her on the blog. I share them on Twitter, but I know many of you aren’t on Twitter (or aren’t paying attention on Twitter) so I have to show you how .5 (her name before she was born because we refused to tell anyone what we were naming her until after she was born) has grown up. She’s such a little girl, with quite the (stubborn) personality. Incredibly fun, and funny, bright and imaginative, and way too charming for her own good, she’s really an amazing joy to spend time with.

We got about ten inches of snow dumped on us this past weekend. More snow than we’ve ever gotten at any one time in the decade I’ve lived here. Brianna was beside herself with joy. I grew up in North Dakota but she’s the one who longs for the snow they get there (I don’t get it, myself). Here’s a few quick pics of her, and the dogs, romping in the snow.

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Something else exciting happened! This weekend, we took a trip to Washington D.C. for the weekend. We’d gotten tickets to the Metropolitan Food Show, and to see Guy Fieri give a presentation (he was an absolute riot, really. Very funny guy and I’m so glad we got to see him). I got us a room in Inner Harbor of Baltimore so Sunday we could walk around the Inner Harbor and visit the Aquarium. The weather cooperated so well, it was almost 70 for our walk around the Inner Harbor. Brianna loved every minute of the aquarium and kept saying it was “the best day of my life!” I got some good shots of her, here’s a few:

From 2009-11-10

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I don’t do a lot of Brianna posts here anymore, but this conversation was a little too long for Twitter, and it tickled me so much, I had to share.

B: “Phew, something stinks outside the truck window. What is that? Ohhh, I know, it must be the farmer’s plants…they put special stink stuff on them.”

She ponders this for a few minutes and then says, “Are you going to take the Miata?”

“What?”

“Tomorrow, when Miss Jeri watches me, are you going to take the Miata?”

“No, I don’t think Uncle Adam will fit in the Miata with us”

“Why is Uncle Adam going on date night with you?”

“Because he’s coming along and Miss Jeri is going to babysit you. Maybe next time just Mommy and Daddy will go and Uncle Adam will babysit you.”

“You mean bigsit. I’m not a baby.”

“Well you’re my baby.”

“I know, but I really don’t want you to call me a baby. I would prefer you not call me a baby, because I’m not a baby. How about big-girlsit? Since I’m a big girl now. NOT a baby. Yeah. Big-girlsit.”

“Okay, then, big-girlsit it is” (shoulders shaking, trying desperately not to laugh. And yes, that is exactly the wording she used in the entire conversation. Precocious much?)

All great conversations start on Twitter. No really, these days they do. I thank Twitter for most of my blog topics these days.

A few months ago I was researching the Leapfrog Tag reader on Amazon, and reading the reviews. Brianna is a huge bookworm, I’m not sure WHERE she gets that from but she loves books. We read every night and, sadly, when we’re searching for a punishment “reading” is what we have to take away. I know, it seems wrong, but when that’s the thing your kid loves…

Anyway, she loves reading and though she’s at that point where she can both memorize whole books to read back to herself, and recognize/sound out some small words, she’s really not quite reading yet. I’d seen the Tag reader around and thought this might be something she’d love, because it would both read the books to her and also help her read them one word at a time. But I like to research things before I buy them, and though I don’t use Amazon’s book reviews because…well, that’s a topic for another post…I do like to browse their product reviews and read both the favorable and unfavorable.

But I was fairly taken aback by some of what I read while perusing the reviews. People attacking those who said they’d bought this for their children, chastising them for buying something to read to their children instead of reading to them themselves. Accusing them of all sorts of terrible things from bad to lazy parenting. Um. Excuse ME? Talk about making huge assumptions. Man, reading those comments pissed me off.

As it happens, Brianna did get this (for Valentine’s Day) and she loves it. She uses it almost every night at bedtime. AFTER we’ve read to her and she’s in bed reading by herself. Yeah, I can see how that’s evil and bad parenting. Come on, people. Did you ever consider that maybe the person buying it wants to supplement their reading time, not replace it? Bah.

So right now, Brianna has three books for the Tag reader, the one that came with it plus Scooby Doo (she chose that) and an Ariel Princess one that I got on sale last week. She was pretty upset because the Ariel one was NOT the book she’s been wanting. She wants Walter the Farting Dog. I mentioned to Josh today that I was thinking of ordering it from Amazon and shipping it to my parents, so we’d have it for her Easter basket next weekend. He looked at me like I’d grown three heads (not just two). Apparently, he’s never heard of the Walter the Farting Dog books. I was surprised because I thought they were just popular enough that most people know about them but…nope, guess not. He kept repeating “farting…dog? Farting dog?”

So now my husband thinks I’m insane because I want to get our daughter a book about a farting dog. Of course, he didn’t really appreciate the humor behind the jelly-bean pooping reindeer that I put her in Christmas stocking either. That our daughter refers to as the “pooping reindeer” (which is totally what it’s called), causing him to scowl at me every time. Heheheh. Guess who’s got the larger dose of juvenile humor in our family? Just wait until he finds out someone told me there are pooping bunnies AND pooping sheep in the Easter Candy aisle

This was fun. I grabbed this from my friend Penny’s blog. Ask your kid the questions and write them down exactly how they respond.

1. What is something mom always says to you?
“No”

2. What makes mom happy?
“Uh…something that you do that your mom says”

3. What makes mom sad?
“Um, that you don’t do things right.”

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
“Making silly faces”

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Uhh…a baby

6. How old is your mom?
“Fifty-two one eight”

7. How tall is your mom?
“how tall are you? I don’t know. I’m going to have to measure you. Fifty-two one eight six”

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
“Work”

9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?
“Work”

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
“Cuz she got good at it”

11. What is your mom really good at?
“Working” (are we sensing a theme here?)

12. What is your mom not very good at?
“Science… Are you good at science, Mama?”

13. What does your mom do for her job?
“Work”

14. What is your mom’s favorite food?
“Uh…what were those things we had yesterday night? The green things? Asparagus!”

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
“That she loves me”

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
“Minnie!”

17. What do you and your mom do together?
“Mmm…do silly stuff. Make Daddy laugh.”

18. How are you and your mom the same?
“Mmmm…that we both have blue eyes.”

19. How are you and your mom different?
“that we don’t have the same hair”

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
“Cuz she gives me kisses”

22. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go?
“Uhh…the place where it has…what’s that place? What’s your favorite drink? Your favorite place is to go…to…Australia! I mean trips.”

Confession: I’m completely exhausted and only the thought of failing out only the second week of the Friday Confessional kept me doing it. Brianna has the flu and was up all night last night throwing up. After the second time (and second bedding change) I slept with her, nearly got barfed on the third time (and third bedding change) but after that she figured it out and managed to tell me with enough time I could get the bucket under her. I don’t either of us slept more than an hour straight at any given time. I’m just a little groggy. She had a spurt of energy for a few hours this morning but has since collapsed back to the couch and is now upstairs sound asleep. Poor thing.

I was going to post about how I think seeing other people vomit is the grossest thing ever (I’m a sympathetic puker). I worked as a nurse’s aid to put myself through college. I could deal with anything, any bodily function. Just not puke. I once discovered a body after the person had been dead for three days in the Arizona summer heat. No one but me was able to enter the apartment without a mask. I’ve dissected a number of cadavers. I can handle disgusting things. But vomit gets me. I was going to post all that and then realize there’s one thing that gets me more than vomit: maggots. I can’t handle them, not to think about, not to look at on TV, nothing. Ew ew ew ew. Now you know my weaknesses. Vomit and maggots.

Moving on!

Quick question. I’ve been using a new Firefox addon called Zemanta to help add links to my content. Some things you see (like Zemanta) are linked for me by them, just by clicking on something on my dashboard. The program will also add related content links of my choosing to the bottom of the post, have you noticed them? It does other things, but so far those are the two most useful. Oh, the “Reblog this” that you see at the bottom of the post also comes from that. What do you think? Useful or intrusive?

For Readers:

I’m sure everyone has seen this, but just in case:Harlequin is giving away 16 free books as part of their anniversary celebration. This is very cool. There’s something for everyone! You can also download them via Stanza (also very cool).

Leah (Madame Butterfly) has a rant about DRM and why one publisher has lost her business because of it. I’m not a fan of DRM from the publisher side, and Leah’s post illustrates why.

An interesting blogpost on the Kindle, what it is and how it might affect trends.

SciFiGuy lists the February 2009 paranormal, fantasy and urban fantasy releases.

Agent Nathan Bransford asked: will you ever buy mostly ebooks? Only 10% of the almost 1000 respondents said absolutely yes. I wish I knew the demographic breakdown of people voting. That would be interesting!

Twilight fans will enjoy this: Twilight done by bunnies (in 30 seconds) via Katiebabs

For Kindle owners. MakeUseOf.com tells you how to read feeds on your Kindle device for free.

In the Kitchen:
If you’ve ever had any questions about using your bread machine, you must read this post, Bread Machine Basics. I stumbled across it Googling for something and it’s an amazing source of answers for all your bread machine questions!

What do you get when you combine a pound of bacon and two pounds of sausage (besides a non-kosher heart attack?): the bacon explosion. This horrified and fascinated me so much I had to share it. via Tastespotting

How to make Skittles Vodka from tipnut.com You know you want to. Heck, I KNOW *I* want to.

For the Crafty:

Lisa begins a series of bag making for beginners. The first post is about sewing terms. Part two is choosing fabric and interfacing. I’m really excited about this series because when I sew, purses are one of my favorite things to make. I actually thought about making something and donating it to the Brenda Novak auction but that hasn’t solidified in my head.

How to make an old cupboard door into a serving tray. I love their finished product.

For Authors:

Epublishing and traditional publishing compared by an author published with both.

Agent Rachelle Gardner did some posts on the “elevator pitch”.

Agent Jessica Faust discusses the form rejection letter. It’s a fantastic post and she lists many of the reasons we use a form letter at Samhain.

Author Ilona Andrews is doing a series of one paragraph critiques. It’s interesting to see how she tears down and rebuilds each paragraph. The first one is here and she does a terrific job of relating POV to camera angle.

Anyone who’s seen my workshop on epublishing or read the articles I’ve written has heard me talk about Yog’s Law. Agent Jennifer Jackson takes this time to remind you: money flows toward the author.

For everyone:

Domino, Wondertime, Country Home and Realms of Fantasy magazines will all be shutting down or have shut down. Ouch.

Interested in politics or what President Obama has been up to? Follow the new White House blog. It’s been interesting for me, to get updates on what’s going on. I like it.

Agent Rachelle Gardner wrote a post about Twitter. She doesn’t want you to use Twitter to try and do business with her. I feel similarly. I wish I had written this post. I almost reposted the entire thing here. I might still. I like Twitter, but it’s not where I conduct business. Like Rachelle, I rarely discuss business related things there and anyone hoping for brilliance from me on Twitter is going to be sadly disappointed.

SuperBowl Sunday is this weekend (I can’t believe it’s going to be February already!) and whether you’re staying at home with just your family, having a big bash or attending one, you must check out these two posts full of delicious-looking dishes to make. The first is from Cathy at Noble Pig and oh man, did this post make me hungry! I think I’m going to try a few of those. The second is from Pioneer Woman *insert fangrrl squee* who also has a post full of dish ideas. Both posts have photos, and I dare you to go look and not drool.

Something fun: Karen Scott posts the best complaint letter ever. Ewww is all I have to say!

Picture of the week:

I’m going to give you a couple. This one, because I saw it last week and immediately marked it to use for today. The emotion of the moment is so beautiful. via Huffington Post

Then this one from Paperback Writer’s blog because, hello, who doesn’t love a picture of a cute puppy?

And from Brianna’s photos this week. This elephant is no bigger than a tennis ball but the perspective on this one makes it look much bigger. I love this picture.

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We had swimming lessons last night and sadly, my daughter was “that kid”. Oh, you know the one I mean. The kid that’s bratty and disruptive to the class and the other kids trying to learn. The one that doesn’t listen to the teacher, doesn’t pay attention and goofs off every time his back is turned? Yeah, that kid. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one frustrated with her–the teacher seemed frustrated too. What’s sad is that she really needs these lessons, she loves the water so she needs to learn how to swim. And watching her compared to the other two boys in her class, their skills are a lot better.

She spent a lot of time being “girlie” too. You know, screaming and shrieking when the teacher tried to get her to do something. Picture a woman with a high-pitched falsetto saying “save me, Mr. Baron, please save me!” *hand to brow* Yeah, that’s my daughter.

So she didn’t seem to get much out of the swim class and I don’t think the teacher felt too interested in teaching a shrieking, screaming, obnoxious girl when he had two boys who were attending to what he was saying and doing a great job of performing.

No amount of me talking to her seemed effective either. The child believes she can just smile charmingly at me (or the teacher) and we’ll think she’s so cute that all is forgiven. I’m not sure where she gets that idea, it’s not like it’s worked for her in the past (at least not with her father and I, I think a few past teachers have fallen for it).

Anyone want a cute, charming, irritating 4 y/o girl to come live with them for oh…14 years?