Elberton

funnel cake

After missing a traveling circus in September and a county fair a couple of weeks ago and feeling unreasonably sad about it, I made for damn sure we got to Elberton for the 10-county fair last weekend.  This was no sizable South Carolina State Fair, but most of the rides seemed transported from the SC fairgrounds of 1980; there was a rusty old Scrambler, the Himalaya rocking Aerosmith (Eloise was mesmerized by this ride, which was my most favorite when I was about 11), the Ring of Fire, the Zipper.

eloise and the himalaya

And most notably for this sucker, overpriced carnival food: corndogs, vinegar fries, funnel cakes (or as I know them, elephant ears), cotton candy.  We ran out of money before I could sample one of these caramel apple beauties.

mmmmmmmmm

The lamest thing about the fair was, in fact, how freaking expensive it was; $58 (yes, I was totally naive in thinking this would be plenty enough for 2 kids, 2 adults) got us 3 kiddie rides and some fair food…. no balloon darts, no Ferris wheel, no candy apples.  But 2 hours went by fast and the kids were fair crazy and needed a long drive down some country roads to chill out, so we left happy and full of it.  It was dusk, which in retrospect is more like the best time to arrive at the fair.  Fair in broad daylight is grungy and you miss the magical lights.  And the mustachioed women and meth-addled freaks aren’t so visible at night.  Plus we missed the pig races.
Jack rode the motorcycles twice, but I think his friend Basil’s face expresses the moment best (you can see Jack pulling up the rear, seriously riding that bike)….

joy

 

First fall garden

fall transplants

We spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday cleaning out the summer garden (a.k.a. dried-up plant and vegetable matter dotted with dehydrated kitty poop that I’m blaming on the deviant new cat in the hood), mixing up good ole mushroom compost with some healthier manure (cow), and dressing our neglected beds for an autumnal veggie plot.  Really I should call this a broccoli garden since that’s about all I could find transplant-wise around town.  That and a few lettuces and sweet peas.  Seed-sowing and indoor starts are not yet a possibility in our tiny, baby-ridden camp (to have carrots, watermelon radishes, parsnips, beets!)  But the kids had fun with it, Jack especially since he could put his digger and dump truck to good use.  Eloise mostly shoveled and rearranged the plants again and again and again.  Ah, the life of a toddler….it’s like a cross between being OCD and having absolutely no short-term memory.  We started on this a little late, we’ve had nights in the low, low 40′s, so I’m not holding my breath, but how nice it will be to have sweet peas! and lettuce and broccoli (the broccoli might ruin us).

in the beds!

In other news, I am absolutely dying to get up to the mountains for a weekend.  Who’s in?  I’m down with rustic….  And the kids need to see some sights….

Introducing Eloise

relaxin'

We’re a little late on this, but no matter.  Here is 22-month-old Eloise in her stripey shirt and pink pants attempting to max and relax like her dad.  If Eloise were here right now she would insist that we sing one of her favorite song that involves whatever she is wearing that day (diaper, curly hair, stripey shirt, you get the idea) and the following:

Eloise is wearing her <piiiiiiink pants>
Her <piiiink pants>
Her <piiiink pants>
Eloise is wearing her <piiiiiimk pants>
All day long

3 years later…

summertime 2011

Who says you can’t pick up your blog 3 years later?  Now that we’re not strictly baby talk and diapers, our lives seem MUCH more interesting, perhaps to you, too!  So I’m going to at least try.  I’ve also got to get a work blog going, which means I’ll need motivation beyond library blogging to keep me coming back to WordPress.  Fall is here more or less — leaves are falling from the trees even if it is still 85 degrees — so we’ve got apple picking, county fairs, Halloween, ridiculous craft projects, food-making, all sorts of cooky Luken snippets coming your way.

Cold Weather Happiness

I’m so glad the summer is over.  It’s really my least favorite time of year, and I’m pretty sure Jack agrees.  Today we debuted the bear suit and took a nice long wintry walk.  You can see how much he enjoys the fresh air….

baby in a bear suit

As usual it has been some time since my last post, and in the last month or so Jack has become mister personality.  He has good moods and cranky ones, he talks to the kitties when they caterwaul around the house, he likes to roll around and play by himself, and he loves variations of hide and seek.  Chris has this game of running around the bed, popping up here and there shouting boo! that always gets belly laughs.  He’s also right on the verge of crawling– he can get up on hands and knees and rock but still does the roll and the army crawl to get around the floor.  We need to baby proof.  Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot we can do about the kitty puke and animal hair that lovingly carpets the living room.

Last weekend we got our Christmas tree; Jack picked it out…

oh christmas tree

He LOVES the tree lights and gets really excited when I sing ‘Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, How Lovely Are Your Branches To Me.’  Ah, the holidays. I love them.

One last piece of news, Jack’s first word is ma ma ma ma ma !  That is, if you don’t count huguh or eeaaa.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Casting our ballots….

Jack joined us at the polls on election day as we Baracked the vote. And he awoke this morning with a smile on his face! We couldn’t have asked for a better anniversary present than Obama as President! Elect! Here is Jack on a historical day…..

the BIG day

future voter

We spent our first Halloween in Columbia and had a great time hanging with Poppi and Tinka and cousins Gayle and Frances, Gayle and John, and Kate and John (now you understand why we decided to go with Jack instead of John). Jack was a jack-o-lantern for about 5 minutes (as soon as I get photos from Mom, I’ll post them).

In other news, I *think* things may be improving on the sleep front. He’s able to stretch the night feeding until 2-3am and is beginning to sleep more soundly from 3am until 6 or 6:30, when our day begins. Some nights, though, he is just restless and will stir and fuss every couple of hours.  It’s these nights that make me want to quit my job and learn to meditate.  I just have to keep reminding myself that he is only 6 months old and things will improve.  But when I can’t take it anymore, I go to Ask Moxie, which always makes me feel better.

More soon!  Love to all!

Pears pears the musical fruit…

Jack and I went to see the pediatrician last week because he hasn’t been terribly regular lately (sorry) and has seemed a bit uncomfortable, not to mention, well, gassy (apologies).  She gave us a 3-pronged plan of attack:  probiotics, laxative, fruit.  I decided that fruit seemed the most sensible of the three options, so just shy of 6 months we’ve started Jack on the solids.  Grandmamma Luken can attest to how well they are working.  We started with pears (see exciting video below) and yesterday I whipped up some sweet potatoes in the Baby Beaba, which Jack loved, too.  Food is fun!  Of course he still wakes up at all hours, alas….

Ode to the yellow spot

I’m not exactly sure if Jack is seeing 20/20 yet but his vision has certainly sharpened, and this new clear view of the world spells the demise of the happy yellow spot.  This patch of peeling paint underneath the kitchen cabinet next to Jack’s bouncy seat was a smiling friend to the blurry-eyed babe while Mom and Dad shuffled around trying to make coffee and eat.  Here’s the one picture we got of Jack checking out his little pal…

little friend

The blog must go on…..

I am a terrible blogger already. I’ve been writing posts in my head but haven’t found the time to update the real thing. Part of the problem is that our home computing situation is very sad right now with our slow and crappy laptops, and now that I am working shorter days I have less time to do recreational things on the job. Still, I will try to be more attentive to Jack Jack Goose since the cuteness never stops and must be shared!

Jack turned 5 months old on Wednesday, so to honor that here are 5 things I think you should know:

1. Yawning or panting like a dog never fails to make him smile
2. He loves red, chewing on book corners, rolling around on a blanket outside, staring at the radio
3. He does not love the carseat, and sometimes Grandpa Luken’s booming voice is really scary
4. Watching mom and dad drink water, fascinating
5. When he’s gone too long without sleep he looks like this-
   

   Need Sleep

Also, we’ve been sitting on a stack of baby announcements that our friend Kate designed as a shower gift.

Jack's Baby Announcement

Pretty cute, huh?  Ferdinand is one of our favorite books.  Someday you’ll get one of these in the mail, I promise.  I just haven’t yet figured out how to get things done in a timely manner.  I do think as Jack gets older and learns to entertain himself more, I won’t feel so bad trying to take care of stuff while he’s awake.

I’m getting really excited about Fall weather and Halloween and holiday breaks.  I want to dress up Jack for the trick-or-treaters, but I refuse to spend $40 on these newfangled baby costumes (organic banana!, hamburger & french fries!)  that you see at Pottery Barn Kids and the like.  Please send suggestions!

Good News for Emily

After 4 months of interrupted sleep, the crazies really caught up with me this week, making it a difficult few days around the Luken household (for one, I’ve been unnaturally obsessed with getting Jack–a wee 18 weeks old–on a schedule; talk about an exercise in futility).  On the bright side, however, I finally worked up the courage (or just got desperate enough) to ask my boss if I could cut back my hours for a few months.  So now I’ll  be going in from 9-3 instead of that life-draining 7:30-4:30…. hallelujah!  I’m thinking that the days of me looking weathered and drained, as exhibited in this scary picture, are now behind us.

scary mom

Jack is fully giggling now.  And this week he started flipping himself from back to tummy. He reminds me of one of those paper fish when he does it.  Pictures of this are forthcoming!