The Unexpected

Remember the high hopes we had for our garden, despite the fact that we got a late start, back in May? It was the first time we had grown a garden from seed, and we were even inspired enough to create artsy garden stakes for our vegetables. It was a fabulous weekend of planting, and we then proceeded to spend the entire summer neglecting our new plot. I think we pulled weeds once, and even then we only got through half the real estate. We watered sporadically, even in the 100-degree weeks, and all of the greens bolted and went to seed on our watch.

Well, despite our woeful neglect, our spunky garden is offering up a respectable bounty. Though the tomato plants were never staked and the vines are creeping along the ground, they are producing a lovely crop of several different varieties of fruit. We have harvested a few enormous and delicious cucumbers. The broccoli is starting to make headway (pun intended), and the melons and pumpkins are ripening in the September sun.

And my favorite beauty is a perfect butternut squash. I am especially proud of having grown a squash (well, I really had little to do with it!), since anyone who knows me knows I have detested the entire squash and zucchini family for my entire life. But I will now eat sweet winter squashes, thanks to having some good cooks for friends and family. Here is this past weekend's harvest.

In another unexpected turn of events, it appears that Imogen is a southpaw. We were thinking she might actually be ambidextrous, but she is definitely not right-handed. As I'm watching her sort small playdoh containers while I write this, she is primarily using her left hand. Thomas doesn't know of any lefties on his side of the family, but both my dad and my nephew, Wolf, are lefties. So Imogen may have the distinction of being the only girl southpaw in the family. Kind of cool. Here she is snuggling with her crazy right-handed Papa and brother this morning.


Also unexpected today was Elliot's coloring spree. He only started scribbling in the last year or so, having had no prior interest in crayons or coloring whatsoever. He mostly likes to finger paint, but when he does put washable marker to paper, it's usually to write letters or numbers, or to write his name. But clearly he is learning all sorts of things in school this year! Today he asked for my Sharpies (not washable, but what are ya gonna do?) and some paper and produced these drawings.

First up, here is his ever-favorite topic of conversation, an elevator. He's actually drawing these all over the place these days - on his doodle pad and with chalk on the trampoline. When he gets really inspired, he also draws the up and down arrows and numbered buttons. (As a side note, a friend sent me a link to an online elevator museum today, and I can't wait to show it to him when he gets home from school!)


But this drawing is my favorite. When I asked him what it was, he said in a tone that clearly indicated that it should be obvious, "It's a person!" I about fell over. I've never seen him draw a picture like this before, and the uber-coolness of his masterpiece was not lost on Mama. I asked him to sign his name (which he did across the person's tummy), and I promptly hung it up on the fridge.


I like days with these kinds of unexpected surprises (as opposed to, say, waking up in the middle of the night to a sick kid). So today I wish on all of you an unexpected, wonderful thing. Let me know what happens!

More Fun Than A Barrel of Monkeys

We don't need no stinkin' monkeys! We have monkeys of our own to entertain us. Just thought I'd brighten everyone's day with these two videos.

First up, here is Elliot teasing the kittens with a laser flashlight.



And here is Imogen hiding from Mama behind Papa's recliner.



Wouldn't it be great if we could all giggle like this at least once every day?

One Year

Happy anniversary, blog! The McElroy Chronicles turned one on Monday of this week (which is also my dear friend Connie's birthday, so a big shout out to her!). A look back at the milestones from the past 365+ days:

* The birth of Imogen, of course. Our little one year old is now almost walking, has several "almost" words, and is cutting teeth numbers 3, 4, and 5.

* Elliot went GF/CF, learned to write his name, and started kindergarten.

* I started sending my children's book with artist Brett Superstar to publishers (fingers crossed!) and completed a series of 40 pregnancy poems which I hope to publish as a literary pregnancy journal, paired with b&w photography.

* Thomas got a job with Burning Man while simultaneously running his own law firm and being a fabulous hubby and papa.


Thomas also successfully got Imogen to sleep while I went to the So You Think You Can Dance concert on Sunday night. The concert was a blast, though it was entirely too long. Lots of fabulous dancing, but way too much filler! Here is little Miss Idgie passed out on top of her Ergo on the couch, where I found her when I got home at 10:30pm.


And here is the alert girl doing one of her favorite things - climbing into stuff. She is a fearless adventurer, unlike her cautious brother.


And here is the big brother himself, enjoying a snack dipped in mustard that Papa fashioned into his name for him.


Now back to the girl, who continues to huck books onto my keyboard while I'm writing. I think she's trying to tell me something.

Clues

Remember when you could still go into the airport terminal to meet someone coming off a plane? I used to love people watching at the gates. When I was waiting for a plane to arrive, I would look at the people waiting with me and try to guess who they were waiting for. A boyfriend? Grandma? A friend from college? I loved the debarking, when I would find out how many reunions I had guessed correctly.

You can't judge a book by its cover and all that jazz, but there are always clues. I'm the kind of person who likes browsing the bookshelves at people's houses, especially people I've just met, to see what kind of person they might be. Sometimes I look over my own bookshelves and try to see them from an acquaintance's perspective. What kind of person has a book collection that includes reams of poetry, hundreds of illustrated children's books, everything Barbara Kingsolver has ever written, all the Harry Potter books, a library of autism titles, and stacks of folklore and knitting books?

Thomas and I were robbed soon after moving into our house on 10th street in 2000. After that incident, I walked through the house differently for several weeks. Was the thief hasty, noticing only the stereo, jewelry, and power tools? Or did he (I'm assuming he) also notice the wedding photo on the mantel, the plastic fruit hanging from the kitchen ceiling, and the piles of law school books?

This week, as I approached my car in a parking garage, I wondered what someone could tell about me just by looking at my car. I think my car actually gives away a good deal about me. If you made a circle around my car that day, looking inside and out, here is what you would have seen.

1. A mid-nineties Subaru wagon with plenty of scratches and dings and Oregon plates.
2. Three Burning Man and Black Rock City bumper stickers.
3. Two bumper stickers promoting breastfeeding, including nursing in public.
4. One bumper sticker in support of natural childbirth.
5. One bumper sticker promoting autism awareness.
6. A bumper sticker of the Irish flag.
7. Two knitting bumper stickers - one being Knitters for Obama.
8. Window stickers for NPR, OPB, and the Oregon Zoo.
9. Two car seats - one for an older child and one for an infant, and a few baby toys.
10. Buttons over the rear view mirror of American Idol contestants from the past 4 seasons.
11. A clock and compass mounted to the dashboard.
12. A copy of Twilight and a Grey's Anatomy Season 4 DVD on the passenger seat.
13. Cloth grocery bags, a collapsable stroller, blankets, and an emergency kit in the way back.
14. No trash or extraneous items ANYWHERE in the car.

It's me, no? Would I be able to get to know you so well by inspecting your car or bookshelves?

And speaking of clues, here is Elliot, master of all things clue-like. He's posing with his little dog Ebb on the 1921 Parker Carousel at Jantzen Beach. It was Imogen's first carousel ride, and she loved it. She was up in the backpack on my back, though, so I don't have any pictures for you of her glee.


Happy weekend, everyone!

She's (the) One

Happy birthday, Imogen! Little Miss Idgie had a wonderful first birthday yesterday. We had a gorgeous, warm day and hosted a little BBQ in our backyard for the occasion. Here is Elliot giving the birthday girl a hug.


Imogen had her first taste of birthday cake, a GF/CF creation that big brother could eat, too. Here is Elliot helping his little sister blow out her candle (Imogen managed to get her fingers in the icing, sneaky girl), and then mightily enjoying the cake which he had been waiting none too patiently for all day.

There was also much romping and bouncing in the backyard. Here are Imogen and Jasper going for a ride.


And of course there's no excuse like your granddaughter's first birthday to try out a really crazy outfit. Here is Papa Pat in his pink flamingo print ribbon shirt (Burning Man's over, you wacky man!).


And last but not least, here are the monthly sibling comparison photos for you. Here are Elliot and Imogen, both on their first birthdays.


Happy birthday, little girl! Now it's back to playing with all her new baby dolls. The best birthdays involve cake and dollies, I always say.

I Heart The Dollar Store

First, a couple of shout outs. Happy birthday to my wonderful mother-in-law, Nancy! Last year at this time she was lobbying hard for Imogen to be born on her birthday, but little girl wanted her very own day. Nancy gets to keep her birthday all to herself today, and we hope she has a great one!

Also, a big congratulations to my cousin Tim and his wife, Elexis. They just found out this week that the baby they are expecting on February 1st is a girl. Hooray! Imogen is already looking forward to sending the wee lassie Lamberton her adorable hand-me-downs.

Finally, a giant thank you to Terry, who knit a fabulous sweater and hat set for Imogen. My favorite thing about the super cute sweater is the buttons, which have Beatrix Potter characters on them. I don't know if Terry knows about my love of illustrated children's books, but the sweater is a big hit with both Imogen and Mama! Here it is.


Recently, I have been keeping my eye out for items to build a good dress up collection for the kids. And I must tell you that I love the dollar store. I can't help it. I know, I know, it's full of things that are made in China and plenty of crap-ola. But it's also a ton of fun. I went there this week to get supplies for Miss Idgie's birthday party, and I found a treasure trove of fabulous dress-up items, including:

1. A gigantic pink hat with yellow polka dots.
2. A pair of green plush bear claws (or monster hands, as we like to call them).
3. A blue police helmet.
4. A set of orange fairy wings, fairy skirt, and fairy shoes.

And there was plenty more where those came from. I'm looking forward to going back in the next couple of weeks to stock up for Halloween. The kids have been having a great time with the new dress-up box items. Here is Imogen trying out the polka dot hat and monster hands.


The polka dot hat has also been popular with the kittens. Here is Ismene playing hide-and-seek.


So that's just the kind of girl I am. I get just as excited about a trip to the land of everything's a dollar as I do about a gorgeous hand-made sweater with Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddle Duck buttons. Ok, maybe I get more excited about the sweater. But still. That dollar store was my favorite outing of the week.

I'll leave you with this picture of Imogen eating Os. She's finally decided that solid food is ok to swallow.


Stay tuned for birthday pictures soon!

Milestones

Awwwwwwwwww. It is so nice to be loved. You guys are great. In the past few days, I've had several of you dear readers contact me to make sure everything was ok here at the McElroy homestead. And yes, indeed, all is well. Sorry for the long hiatus, sports fans!

On the heels of Thomas being gone for 11 days at Burning Man was a week of Elliot's school being closed in preparation for the new school year, and then both Elliot and Thomas getting sick. So that made for lots of parenting and not a lot of blogging for moi! Also, this is my 100th post! That milestone, and the fact that it is also almost the one year anniversary of this blog, combined to give me a little case of writer's block. But I've finally gotten over myself and decided to just write a post, already. So here's the news.

First up, I must give my dear hubby a hard time for taking very few pictures at Burning Man, despite the fact that he stole my camera for a week and a half. And he has no pictures of himself at the event, either. But here is a fantastic picture of Thomas, aka Ranger @pparatus, in all his Burning Man glory, taken by photographer John Pettitt. You can check out more of his work here. You can also check out photos of this year's event in the Burning Man photo gallery, here.


Next up, Elliot is now a kindergartener! He doesn't officially meet the cutoff date-wise, but he is definitely ready to be in with the older kiddos at School of Autism, having already met the majority of his kindergarten benchmarks (little superstar!). We all love having him go to the afternoon session at the school instead of mornings, and he is doing great. He will most likely do two years of kindergarten at SOA, and then we'll make a decision about mainstreaming. Here is the big boy in a rare moment of stillness.


Also a big shout out to all of you who took your cars to get washed on August 28th for the School of Autism fundraiser through Washman Car Washes. $10,400 was raised for the school that day. Woo hoo!!!!!

And here is Imogen, who is going to turn one year old this weekend (can you believe it?).


Since Elliot hasn't followed the typical developmental milestones, every little thing that Imogen does never ceases to amaze me. I had no idea, for instance, that pretend play started by 11 months old. Here is little Miss Idgie pretending to talk on the phone. I couldn't get her most impressive phone voice on video, though, in which she holds the phone to her ear and says "Herro!" in her best Asian accent, at full volume.

So there you have it. Stay tuned for first birthday pictures this weekend, and I promise to save you the panic and will never neglect my blog for so long again!