Blog a la Cart

Month: January, 2015

5/52

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“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015 wearing the most beautiful clothes by The SWIS Avenue.”

Sunny: Reminds me of my mother here. That gorgeous head of hair certainly contributing to the comparison.
Kaki: Bed headed and dazed. Loving the catch light in their blank, pajama-clad stares this week.

There are ways to make those occasions even more memorable especially when your daughter reaches the age of when they want to dress like their mommy. Here on matchinggear.com/mommy-and-me-pajamas/ you can find the cutest mom daughter pajamas.

More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.

Juno

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Juno was the anti-climax here in Southwestern Vermont. Sure, there’s snow outside, but nothing worthy of shutting down civilization. By Monday afternoon, every possible event, extracurricular, appointment, or meeting was cancelled, despite the absence of snowfall until well after midnight. When I awoke Tuesday, there was hardly an inch on the ground. While it did continue to accumulate throughout the day, it was at a much more reasonable rate and amount than predicted.

Admittedly, I didn’t mind the day of pause, especially as I’m now on the west coast for work in Seattle. I was able to get myself organized and spend some quality time with the family before my flight on Wednesday.

It was quite cold and blustery outside, so we spent the day indoors, painting our nails, coloring, making Play-Doh, eating grilled cheese and tomato soup, dancing ballet, dressing in monotone, watching movies, napping, knitting, etc. Here are a few snaps from the lazy day.

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^^Silver nails!^^

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^^Purple (homemade) Play-Doh in the works.^^

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^^They dressed themselves as Purple and White. I don’t know either.^^

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^^Googley-eyed Hanna and her adoring fan.^^

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^^Anna and Elsa. Naturally.^^

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^^A Goofy Movie and Mama’s knitting. And now we can’t stop singing this. Also, Bruno Mars is Powerline. You’re welcome.^^

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^^Wood stove bathing. Whale humidifying.^^

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^^Sugar Donut^^

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^^Wet nose smudges on the door and one pup perfectly content in the cold and snow.^^

I’ll be home Sunday and in the meantime, can only hope that in my absence, no tongues are frozen on poles a la 2014. (It is worth re-reading James’ post for a solid laugh).

Snow Days


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These photos were taken this past weekend, on a brilliantly sunny afternoon full of sledding and snow glitter.

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Currently Playing

Thanks to the urgings of my bestie from grad school, James and I hired a babysitter Saturday night and headed out to the Helado Negro concert at MASSMoCA. (During which, Kaki threw up all over her bedroom carpet. I guess we’ll call it a win for us parents who avoided puke clean up. But that sitter may avoid our house forevermore. Good news? It was because she ate dirty snow, and a boot and rally restored her gastrointestinal world. If I can claim that as good news? At least the rest of us more self-preserving humans in the Cart family were not at risk of infection? Question mark?).

ANYWAY! Helado Negro (Black Ice Cream!) now his music is on repeat chez Cart. And I’m dreaming of grooving around in one of those tinsel suits. A very inspired evening, and I was reminded that James and I need to do a better job of taking full advantage of the ridiculous talent happening around us on the regular. Just look at this line up?

Sun Beam

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A little Sunday afternoon sunbathing. I couldn’t resist that beam of light. We’re hunkered down, ready to be buried in snow and frolic accordingly!

Mastering “The Pizza”

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Who is this confident, mature, ebullient girl and where the heck is my Mohawk Baby?!

I have to confess, I expected Sunny to loathe skiing. While she’s always been a relatively easy-going kid, she can be a bit of a whiner. When frustrated, she’s apt to whimper and whine and throw up her hands in defeat. Given that clothing in particular often causes much distress, I figured that the discomfort of snow boots coupled with the cold and the difficulty of learning to navigate a slippery incline on two skinny planks would be the kiss of death for her ski career.

How very very wrong I was. And how willing and happy I am to admit that.

Sunny did not have school on Friday, so I signed her up for a day long ski lesson at our local mountain. We’ve been talking about teaching her to ski for years, and it finally felt like she was ready. I could work from the lodge while we gave her a chance to try out this winter sport. As the kids get older, I’ve had high hopes that skiing might be a fun family activity that we could do each weekend to make the cold and grey more tolerable. But first, we need to see if our children enjoy it.

We were fortunate that the weather was ideal (that 30 degrees with sun that makes my mood soar), and Sunny’s class was just her and two other kids.

Six hours of skiing is a lot for a first timer, especially a five year old, and yet when I arrived to pick her up from the lesson, she begged to put back on her skis and keep at it for the extra hour she was allowed to play solo. Full of smiles and joy, it could not have been a more successful day.

Only problem is that skiing is certainly not inexpensive, so we need to do some financial planning so we can work this into the rest of her winter. But it’s given us great ideas for next year, and we’ll definitely plan accordingly so we can get as much time on the mountain as weather will allow.

I was so proud of her resilience and positive attitude. How I underestimated her.

Skiing really is such fun.

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And a super cheesy vid of her first day skiing. Namely for the grandparental-sect of my readership.

4/52

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“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015.”

Sunny: Ah-Choo! The most magical sneeze I ever did see.
Kaki: Insisted on building SnowGIRLS all week.

More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.

Currently Reading

I’ve been in a bit of a funk this week, reading in to the actions of others more negatively than they likely intended. This post about What Babies Can Teach Us was a positive reframing of my perspective:

People are usually tired and scared; not mean

They can’t – of course – tell us what is wrong with them. We have to guess – and what’s striking is how generous we are in our interpretation of what is going on.

When they cry, we don’t accuse them of being mean or self-pitying. When they hit or kick, we assume they must just be frightened or momentarily vexed. We are constantly aware of just how much the workings of hunger, a tricky digestive tract or a lack of sleep may affect human character.

How helpful it would be if we were more often able to apply a similar method of interpretation around adults. How kind we would be if we could look beneath the surface behaviour – the unpleasantness, viciousness and desperate grumpiness – and see that what could really be going on is just confusion, fear and exhaustion.

Full post here.

The Small Things

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I awoke Tuesday morning with a painful stabbing in my left eye. Despite complaining and whining and wiping and rinsing and staring and crying, the stabbing remained. I attempted to ignore the nagging pain, knowing all too well that it was likely an infinitesimal speck lodged in my eyeball that was sure to eventually vacate said cornea, but alas the jabbing, scratching particle got the best of me.

It was at the crest of that hill on my commute to work that I admitted defeat. James came to my rescue as chauffeur and shuttled me to the nearest eye doctor. A few hours, some numbing eye drops, an everted eyelid, a Q-tip, and an itty bitty shard of clear sand later, balance and comfort was restored to my ocular world.

How maddening yet humbling it is to have one’s day thrown by such an insignificant, tiny thing. How eyeopening (har har) to be reminded of how I take comfortable eyesight for granted. And how trite yet monumental to refocus (killing it with the word play) on the value and import of The Small Things, in all elements of my life.

A cheesy albeit apt reminder to give the positive small things in my life the same energy and weight I gave that silly fleck of sand. How truly contented life could be during even the most mundane of moments. Easier said than done, but a worthy reminder nonetheless.

Snow Glitter

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