The Mystery of Baby Brains

Baby Girl likes toys and colorful moving things (aquariums, movie screens, soda cans that adults around her are drinking from) plenty, but I am continually puzzled by her preference of games. She loves being bounced or laughed at, and when we try peekaboo she just stares at us and seems to be thinking "what are you trying to do right now?" Her very favorite game right now is something I call "Does it fit?" Step 1: lay an item of clothing over her body (at this point she's beaming and often making happy sounds). Step 2: with mild to moderat excitement ask "Does it fit?". Step 3: do it again if you want. That's the whole thing, and how it is the world's best game I do not know, but it makes Baby Girl happy, so it's my favorite game too.

Christmas Recap

I am pleased to report that Baby Girl's first Christmas was a success. She loved staring at the tree, loved her red velvety Christmas day outfit and its wooly white cuffs and collar (thanks Great Aunt B.), and loved her visiting aunts and grandparents.  She spent Christmas Eve looking adorable in a onesie a friend had painted for her stating her desire for a hula hoop (luckily that was as Chipmunk-y as it got), and using her new little tray seat from Aunt I., which as far as she's concerned is the best thing since stuffed toys. As it turns out, 3 months is old enough to appreciate toys she can turn on an axel, and she switched off between spinning it and trying to pull it off the seat so she could put it in her mouth. Adorable- but I might be biased. Well, Mama's Little Motivator says it's time to get started on Day Two of our cleaning and organizing binge, and I tend to agree.

Decorating for Baby's First Christmas

Yesterday morning before work the three of us went and picked out a lovely balsam fir. The tree is in the living room, and I'm off work today, so this begins our house's 24 hour Christmas transformation! There's Trimming the tree and setting out my collection of Christmas music boxes, and then of course there's hanging the stockings(not to mention decorating Baby Girl's; I got her a plain green and red one with some ribbon to trim it with). For others like us who lack mantles, where do you hang your stockings?

Well, lots to do and limited time to do it, and Baby Girl says we have to get started.

A Feast for the Eyes

I have mentioned that I am a movie fan, so round two of Budgie Tree Inspirations will focus on movies that are visually enjoyable. (list is in no particular order, just the order I thought of them in)

Speed Racer (colorful almost to the point of being surreal. Also, captures the essence of the cartoon without being too ridiculous. Plot, characters, and characters' relationships are developed, and several scenes are completely hilarious)

VanHelsing(for the costumes and as a guilty pleasure if you're in to that kind of thing)

Conan the Barbarian (the 2011 version. It may have flopped, but it should win awards for it's costumes, and if it's not nominated for them, I'm calling shenanigans on award season. It was also a better movie than I expected from the ads and from how quickly it was out of theaters)

Ever After (it's full of pretty clothes, and is an enjoyable retelling of Cinderella with a strong female lead. For those of you worried about the messages about women that your daughters are getting from the media, this is also a good movie for you. It's rated PG 13 only because of someone saying "horse s**t" and possibly one other swear, so it's family friendly too)

Stranger Than Fiction (this is visually interesting not for the costumes, although they are very well chosen, but for the graphics used to illustrate how the main character, Harold Crick, perseves the world. It's fascinating and clever. Bonus: it is also an excellent movie).

Hellboy 1 and 2 (both cool movies with enjoyable action and interesting plots. Impressive make up and costuming, but you'll forget all about it in the first one when you consider the awesome anamatronics; there is a dog-monster with a mane of tenticals- that's not computer generated! They actually built that, and operated those tenticals the whole time it's on screen. Let's all take a moment, because they put in a lot of hard work and the results are truly impressive.)

Now since they are not out yet, I have not seen either of the Snow White movies coming out next year, but the costumes in Mirror Mirror look exquisite (my first thought on seeing the trailer was "I want to see this just for the clothes."), and Snow White and the Huntsman looks like it has fine costumes, but really cool effects. Now, this is all from the ads, so plotwise one or both could be lousy, and the effects in either one could turn out to be cheesy, but we'll see.

Inspirations for Art and Housekeeping

I said in my initial post that I would share some things that inspire me, so here's round one.
Although I have already mentioned the work of Jan Brett in my list of Holiday books the other day, I recommend feasting your eyes on her illustrations for The Owl and the Pussycat.
Another unmissably beautiful picture book is Princess Furball by Charlotte S. Huck.

Inspiration isn't just for arts or crafts. Baby Girl (aka Mama's Little Motivator) has been my inspiration for working on getting my house in order. Since I've gone back to work, I finished reorganizing my pantry shelves, and I set up a portable closet in our previously closetless master bedroom so we're not stuck hanging our clothes in the other closets around the house. After that my plan is to tackle my little craft room and to pull off baby's first Christmas. Baby Girl is cooing at me right now and giving me a big smile, saying "Mommy, its your day off, let's get to work!" So that's what we'll do.

'Tis the Season

I realized the other day that now that I'm Mommy, Christmas is my responsiblity too. So I thought I'd share some of my holiday favorites to get in the Christmas spirit.

Adaptations of 'A Christmas Carol':
The Muppet Christmas Carol
Scrooged

Cookies:
Spritz
Pecan tarts

Non-'A Christmas Carol' Christmas Movies:
A Child's Christmas in Wales (1987 live action)
The Snowman (1982 animation)
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964 stop motion animation)

Christmas/Winter/Holiday books
The Sweet Smell of Christmas (an actual scratch and sniff book which is so cute)
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming (yes this is a real book and it's fabulous)
The Mitten (Jan Brett)
The Wild Christmas Reindeer (Jan Brett)
The Haunted Tea Cozy (Edward Gorey)
Festivus, A Holiday for the Rest of Us

With 20 days left to Christmas, hopefully this helps get you in the spirit of the season too.

Being Back at Work

Well, it's been my first week back at work and as I feared

1. I miss my baby like crazy
2. work is just as super busy as I remembered it
3. all I have the time or energy for (or the inclination to spend that time and energy on) is work and baby; I was really hoping to continue getting stuff done at a rate resembling my semi-motivated days during my maternity leave.

And alas, I do not have the kind of job where I could telecommute.

On the topic of working moms, I've been especially noticing over this past year that there is this portrayal in movies etc., that moms work because they love their jobs, and that stay at home moms hate and ridicule working moms.  I refuse to believe that I'm the only woman who works because I love having food on the table and a roof over our heads, in which case, why should some other woman hate me because her husband earns more than I do?  I am generally a big fan of movies and TV shows as a form of entertainment, and a good sport when it comes to my suspension of disbelief, but that whole dynamic is something which I am becoming unwilling to simply skate past in order to just enjoy the show.  There's an ever rising number of two working parent households, society needs to stop acting like working moms are an aberration.  Hopefully the parents of my daughter's peers will not be the jerks that the entertainment industry portrays their predecessors as, especially since so many must have had working mothers themselves.

A Trip to the Movies

We went to see the new Muppet movie as part of our family Thanksgiving, and it was delightful. The jokes were just the right mix of pop culture references, harkening back to previous Muppet movies and TV shows, and just plain funny stuff, that you could enjoy it whether you knew the Muppets before or not (and whether you recognized the celebrities or not). The plot did head to the expected happy ending, but I couldn't predict the path it took along the way, which is what I want from family fare, and which is often hard to find. The music was upbeat and catchy; I find myself humming the tunes or trying to remember the words so I can sing them to baby girl. And the costumes (for those of you who care about clothes) were thoughtful and character appropriate.
It seems like a strong come-back for the Muppets, just as cute, clever, and funny, but without those ribald jokes that you sometimes got on Muppets Tonight.
As for baby girl, she ate and napped through a lot of it (as nearly-two-month-old babies are want to do) but she was awake for a dance number and seemed to like the music and the colorful moving images one the screen (then she started sucking vigorously on her fist, so I fed her some more). It was a good choice for baby's first movie outing, not only because we enjoyed it enough to tide us over (since we won't be going to the movies again for a while) but also because it's a movie we can tell her she went to and let her watch when she's a little older without being embarrassed about the content or anything, or having to explain how we thought a baby could sleep through a movie with -insert objectionable noises here- ( that many explosions, so much yelling, so many car horns, etc.).

Tips for a Wheat-free / Gluten-free Thanksgiving

Last year we did a gluten-free Thanksgiving because one of our guests had an allergy.  Here is what I learned:

1. You can thicken gravy with teff flour (used in Ethiopian cooking and available at Wegmans) and it will be very nice, with a pleasant mild nuttiness, so we're doing that again this year.  NOTE: When it cools to room temperature this gravy becomes a little more solid than Jello.
2. You can use your normal pumpkin pie filling recipe to make a crustless pie by pouring the filling directly in to a lightly greased glass or ceramic pie pan (or cassarole dish I would guess) and baking it as usual (maybe check it a little early just in case).  I would, however, avoid replacing the sugar in the pie filling with honey, because the difference is very noticable.   If the idea of crustless pie might anger your guests you can call it a pumpkin pudding or something like that.
3. You can use gluten-free bread to make stuffing from scratch, however, some types of gluten-free bread (and hopefully you're gluten-sensitive friend or family member can let you know if the loaf your using is one of these) need to be toasted until the look burnt before they taste or act like toasted bread.
4. Some ingredients that do not themselves contain any glutenous grains can still be cross contaminated with gluten.  The ones mentioned to me were oats and nuts, but as I understand it there are others.  This is not my area of expertise, so your gluten-sensitive guest may have to fill you in on products they have had issues with.

Good luck to everyone responsible for Thanksgiving cooking!  It's a big job whether the meal contains gluten or not.

Greetings from the Budgie Tree

As I prepare to relaunch my Etsy shop, I thought I'd start a blog to post about my crafting and inspirations, as well as what I'm up to in general, from household projects to new recipes to book and movie reviews.  I'm also planning to document the process of getting my Etsy shop up and running for the grand re-opening I have planned for January 2012.  This entails setting up my work space, tweaking the listings I had previously written, creating new items and doing their listings, and raising the profile of BudgieTree within the Etsy community and beyond.  Writing it all down here will help me track my progress and see how far I have left to go, and give me a little accountability so I don't let myself get too busy with the holidays and the baby and push the reopening to February.  As I go along, I'd be happy to hear any tips or suggestions you have for whatever I'm working on, and hopefully my readers will find some useful tidbits in what I have to say.