weekending

it is pretty much impossible to have a lame weekend with shoshi mama by your side.  she is all that, and a bag of chips.  she is such a little bro, she is totally the kind of friend you could call to come save your party, take some flying trapeze lessons, and/or track down a chicken in chinatown.

i was realizing this weekend that one awesome part about being a single mother is that i have learned to let go of a lot of unnecessary bullshit.  like a lot of women, i used to be a PRO at making extra work for myself, whether it be crafting intricate handmade valentines for everyone i've ever met, or volunteering to bake several dozen cookies for a get-together with friends, in spite of the fact that i hate baking.  why do women do this?  i totally still do to some extent, but i've managed to put quite a (jaunty little) cap on it lately.  it feels great to have that impulse come on (sho will be going to a party for three second cousins' birthdays with her grandma today?  what elaborate bit of handmade nonsense can i spend her entire naptime slaving over?) and just SQUASH that beeyotch.  nothing, that's what!  it's awesome.  i recommend it.  

vote for me, perchance?  if you feel like it, thank you mightily.

dog wedding, you know how those go

i know i said the next pictures i'd post would be taken with my fancypants camera, buuut...well, who actually cares, let's be real here.  i did end up buying a fancy camera and i want to lick it all over.  except that would violate the immortal rules set down in the instruction manual, which run through my head every single time i pick it up: "this camera is a precision instrument.  do not drop or manhandle it."  but...you so fine, camera of mine! your viewfinder...the click of your shutter...mmmm....

anyway, my parents email me phone pictures everyday of the shenanigans of our little shenanigan while i'm at work, and today they were like, oh you know, here she is dressed up as the flower girl for a dog wedding at the moment.  how cute is that?  i tell you, the two fifth-grade girls who live on our street are always up to something cool.  i told them about my time capsule-obsessed childhood when i took them the to the lake the other day, and mere hours later one of them was on my doorstep with a blueberry box filled with various secret time-capsule related artifacts, to be stored in our basement until she enters college.  my kind of girl.

presenting the happy couple.

dude, i'm psyched it's almost the weekend!  i'm about to sew my little pants off.  ...maybe whilst sewing little pants, who even knows?  sky's the limit, it's the mutha lovin' weekend!

it's rebel time

 

yesterday i went to take a picture with my parents' camera, which i've been lucky enough to use ever since the screen shattered on my dear point-and-shoot (a sweet gift from sho's other grandma when she was a baby), and my heart sank: "lens error" it proclaimed.  oh eff!  i felt real bad and nervous about telling my parents, but it turned out okay, they're going to keep me as a daughter after all.  plus...i've decided to finally buy myself a nice camera with a lens, a canon rebel t3, the kind i've been dreaming of since i was in high school, taking black and white photos of my feet!  i remember the totally weird lab tech guy in my photo class being like, "this...is...the...very best...camera...for...shooting...large cats.  tigers...lions...oh yes."  he was a verrrry slow talker, you see.  one time he was calling out names of people who'd signed up to use the darkroom, and someone had written "amanda huginkiss" on the clipboard.  "a...man...da...hug...n...kiss?  amanda?  a-MANNNN-duhh?"    

anyway, i use a camera every day, whether for product listings in our etsy shop, pictures on this blog, or just capturing the everyday magic of one shoshanna mary, so i think it's a worthy investment.  plus, the last time i spent this much money at once was the $400 mac mini i bought for college ten years ago, which i've been using ever since.  so even though this lovely camera is at the absolute budget end of SLR cameras, it's still going to eat up almost the entire paycheck i'm getting today...but shoot, a respectable, grown-ass woman camera!  woop woop!  not to dork out, but i feel pretty proud to be able to buy myself something like this, AND support sho and myself.  super proud!  so...the next pictures you see on this here blog will be FANCY ones, taken with my very own camera. 

who knows, maybe even some of those "big cats" photos i've heard so much about....

superhero in aisle five

today during shoshi's nap, i took a break from the nonstop shop sewing i've been doing all weekend and made my girl and her teddy bear matching superhero capes.  i figure, every girl (and her bear) should have one, don't you think?  between the cape--which she insisted on wearing to target along with her pink boots--and her new tea set which has been in use basically nonstop since we got it, the cute bar has been raised pretty high around here these days.

when i peeked in to check on her during her nap, she rolled over and sighed quite dreamily in her sleep, "piizzaaah!"  i rewarded her for being such a stone-cold cutie by buying us a medium pizza from pizza king for dinner.  we watched toy story 2 and didn't wear pants, so it was pretty much the best date a girl could hope for.  

the TOTAL best part about the tea set is the brilliant flash of inspiration that came to me around naptime, when i innocently offered her chamomile "sleepytime" tea with honey.  bam!  that kid was knocked out.  i felt a little guilty...but not enough to totally do the same thing when bedtime rolled around.  she's been going through a period of taking for-freakin-ever to get to sleep lately, so this discovery just might have been my most genius moment in parenting to date.

my parents will still be out of town for most of the day tomorrow, so i've taken the day off work to hang with my crazy little naked baby-wearing tea-drinker.  

it really doesn't get much better than a three-day weekend, just me and my girl.

  

man, i cannot resist taking pictures of that shoshi girl when she's sleeping.  before her nap today she insisted on matching white t-shirt jammies for her and "dat bear" as she calls it.  regarding the flowers, my friends sara and sara (yeah plus me, sarah: 80's represent!) came over tonight, and shortly before they arrived i was seized by a martha stewartly impulse to pick them each a jar of flowers from my mom's garden.  speaking of which, my mom has made a huge bouquet for my desk at work every sunday night since i've started that job.  she is the best mama, obviously.  

1) those stickers in the top picture are by my friend erin, aren't they the raddest?  i traded her a couple michigan patches for 'em.  2) it's been real nice to be able to spread out all my projects throughout the house while my parents are outta town.  i'm definitely a big-table kind of girl.  3) little shoshi monster broke a teacup at the salvation army today so i ended up buying the entire tiny tea set.  i'm thinking it's the best $3 i accidentally spent, because she's been having dainty and elaborate tea parties all day, with "dat bear" as the guest of honor.    

both of these pictures were taken today, one of sho in a dear vintage dress prancing around sweetly, the other of her standing on a mound of gravel, an enormous filthy work glove on one hand and a pvc pipe 'telescope' in the other: "ARRR, makey!"  

when she was only a couple of days old, i remember already understanding so clearly that she had two strong sides to her personality, that she was somehow both of these opposing things at once, wrapped up in one tiny stubborn body: she was utterly sweet and totally ferocious.  it is such a privilege to be her mama, to be the one who knows her best in the world and watch day by day as she unfolds into herself.

my parents are out of the town for the weekend, road tripping to connecticut to visit my little brother matty, so shoshi and i have the place to ourselves for four days!  nothin' like a little mama-shoshi summertime solitude, heavenly air-conditioned to boot.  while i'm at work today, shoshi's other grandma is taking her on what sounds like the most epic best day ever, including a movie and swimming with the cousin who shoshanna looks up to so much, she often requests that we make sculptures of her face with play-doh.  that's love right there (that, or the sweet beginnings of a young stalker-in-training).  i plan on doing a bunch of sewing and screenprinting this weekend, to prepare our etsy shop for two rather thrilling giveaways going up on other blogs later this month, which i'll keep y'all apprised of.  speaking of which, how dear are these little dudes (as sho calls them)?

only fifteen bucks a pop, here in our little shop along with a bunch of other assorted cuteness.  speaking of assorted cuteness...

 

shoshanna's darlin' little fifteenth-percentile legs can finally reach the pedals on the tricycle her dad bought her for her first birthday!  go shorty! 

man, that kid.  the other day my friend rosie and i took her to a burrito place for dinner, and sho immediately honed in on a five-year old girl whose mother called her emily, one time.  from that point on, shoshi was in full-on stalker mode.  "emily!" she cried, walking up to their table and sitting down with her evidently long-lost family.  "EMILYYY!" she sobbed, as i pulled her away.  "nooo, EMILYYYY!"  what a nut.  then later that night when we took her to see the fireworks, she sat facing in the opposite direction from them, those breathtaking explosions in the sky, to better observe and flirt with a family sitting behind us.  that girl could sure use some brothers or sisters.  and a dad, as long as i'm placing an order.  there was a dad at the library last night who was lifting his tiny daughter up with one hand high above his head, the girl's shrieks of laughter reverberating around the lobby.  it made me so sad for my girl, who sees her papa only a few hours a month these days, for reasons that continue to baffle/make me want to punch someone.  i think i might have to find her a papa myself, which might prove difficult due to my current nun status and absolute utter lack of interest in the mens right now.  ah well...it's just you and me for now, kid. 

and emily, wherever she is.

xo

a day at the lake

i love a lot of things about michigan, but the lakes, dude.  i want to MARRY the lakes.  our neesy, parks and rec director extraordinaire, put together a truly epic day at one of our favorite lakes in a nearby little town on saturday, complete with three bounce houses, a magic show, facepainting, fireworks, and chicken.  can't forget the chicken, which shoshanna tore up like the crazy-ass little meat eater she is.

 

do you see that tiny figure hurtling through the air at record speeds?  that is my bad little dude.  and on the right, the closest i've ever been to fireworks.  it seemed really strange that they were just chillin' on the beach, two feet away from people lounging on their beach towels and eating chicken, but i guess the world is full of amazing mysteries.

for sho, chocolate ice cream (and how she got lucky enough to eat some) is definitely one such mystery, every time.  see also: the contents of a certain two-year old's glittery little purse, for me anyway. 

  

in the shallow waters of the lake, i observed a skinny little kid run up to a curvy teenage girl and say breathlessly, "ooooeee!  if you was on the mcdonald's value menu, you'd be a mcgorgeous!"  then, with slightly less confidence, he asked, "can i get a kiss?"  the girl grabbed his face with both hands and planted a smooch on his cheek.  the boy ran off through the water, punching the air and yelling, "yessss!  yes!  YES!" 

the lake, man.  it brings people together.  last summer, in the throes of a deadly heat wave/no air conditioning combination, i instituted a thirty-day-lake-challenge, during which we went to a different local lake every evening.  it was truly glorious.  it's hard to believe it's only been a year, and that shoshanna is in fact wearing the same swimsuit these days, because pretty much everything else has changed.  and even though the changes have totally been for the better, i still think we could use a little more lake in our lives these days.

xoxo