smiles!

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James and my pops. Memorial Day. Jamie was running around and being a crazy person, but as soon as my dad picked him up he was all chummy and huggy and smiley.
Oh, boys.

Sometimes

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it gets a little messy.
We do like to take pictures of ourselves when it's windy and Gail smooches the bebe. The hair starts blowing and...well, we still look good.

It's hard being soooo adorable.

In Which there is a Haircut

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Gail cut the boy's hair, and I think it looks great...and I think he looks like a big boy. Crazy.

Feather's New Toy

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I recently acquired the Fuji Instax Instant Camera. I love love love it!
I want to take a gabillion pictures with it and wallpaper my life. If only the film wasn't a billion dollars.
On a side note, look at James William in his short pants. He's awesome.

Easter mowing

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I have been awfully sick and in a terrible way. But picture this: a few weeks ago, it was Easter! And we went to Gail's house! and there was ham! And it was delicious! And we took James outside and he mowed everything and then we went down to the schoolyard and he mowed everything else. And this is my favorite picture of that day!

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John and Bean and Loch and Seanie and Rich and Carter came up for Roly's suprise 40th birthday! (Happy Birthday, Rol!) Because they were here anyway, Gail and Joe threw a little 1st birthday for James - more on that later. James is having TWO first birthday parties...mostly because they have a tiny house. This weekend is Jamie's real birthday! But it was great to spend time with our little friends...even if I had the stomach typhoid and thought I was going to die on Thursday and Friday! Even if I played freeze tag and thought that was the end of me for sure! Even if I was so tired at the end of the day that the mind-numbing "Barbie and the Island Princess" wasn't the worst possible thing to watch. Even if I couldn't eat the cool baseball cupcakes.

Where We Go To The Zoo!

Gail and Joe and James offered to take me to the Central Park Zoo to see the puffins for my birthday! That was in August, and with my terrible summer schedule and their school starting...well, March is when our trip came to fruition.
Wednesday we took the train in to the city and went to the zoo! After many subway elevators that smelled delightfully of urine, we were strolling around the city with a curious baby.

We got there just in time to see the Sea Lions feeding, where they put on a little show.

James was not so interested in the sea lions, but he did like watching all of the big kids running around.

These are the tufted puffins, which look different than I thought they would. James has this stuffed Noah's arc that has tufted puffins and I thought they were crazy looking fake birds from some crackhead toy designer. Turns out I was wrong.

James liked the sheep in the petting zoo.

Joe liked the giant cow...or bull...I'm not sure - I didn't look!

At FAO Schwarz, James found a toy he liked

a little rubber ball! He didn't even look at the jungle of stuffed animals in the front! He crawled around chasing his rubber ball, looking at the outlets they have in the floor and checking out the wheels on his stroller. He wasn't really interested in the rest...
While we were running around checking out how crazy awesome everything is...


James fell asleep.
We made our way back to the LIRR, and James eventually woke up.

He pretty much entertained himself

by staring

at all the crazy people on the train.

And we had a great time! Thanks for my birthday trip, Gail and Joe and James! It was superfun!

He walks a lot

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Originally uploaded by feathermar

My friend James is a walker now. With shoes and everything.

Bangs

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I know. I know. You cannot look away from my spectacular bangs. It's okay. I can't either.

They are delightful.

Chubs

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This is my friend James's wrist and hand. It is very very chubby and it makes me laugh.
This particular day he was happy to be outside, but he wanted to eat the grass and leaves that he picked up. And his mama wouldn't let him. And he is walking up a storm - across the grass with his giant feet and his (did i mention) chubby chubby wrists.

Happy St. Pat's

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Of course, of course! My nephew James, in all his finery wishes you a Happy St. Patrick's Day! Of course, being in a bagpipe band is not all glamour and fun...we had to wait two hours to step off. We arrived an hour early to boot, so it was three hours of just waiting. Oh, boy. It was a nice day, and James was SuperBaby again. He often behaves as the coolest baby in the world and goes with the flow. My Pops came, too and we rode the subway and carried a gabillion pounds of drums and baby stuff and then waited the aforementioned period of time and then we marched for two miles whilst twirling our sticks and banging our drums and waving to people and then we drove home and then we had McDonalds and went to bed.
Remember the days when St. Patrick's Day was all about drinking at packed bars?

Yeah, me neither.

Where We Go To Albany!

Shannon and I went to Albany for Library Lobby Day, where lots of library people go to the state capitol to ask for money. Well, actually, library people go to say "Please stop taking away the measely amount of money you give us." Libraries get very little money to begin with, and we stretch one dollar into ten, and it's crazy. But everybody's in the same darn boat, I guess.
Anyway, Shannon and I got up super early and got on the bus in Uniondale.

Rule Number one for Lobby Day - Don't say "Good morning, Library People!" at 6:30. To explain the reaction of our fellow busees, Shannon said "Whoa, what's with the death glare?"

Rule Number Two -
If it's called a rally, you gotta chant! And I was pretty excited about it. Shannon thought it would get testy and violent, so we made sure to pick up some Swedish fish for the show. It turned out, we chanted, "No more cuts" and we were disappointed in the lack of tomatoes thrown.

Behind us is the table of library swag. Surprisingly, we didn't buy anything.

Also, Shannon meets Olesh, her formally "Facebook-only" friend.


Rule Number Three - We got shunned like we were Amish.


Standing room only! Except at our table.

Rule Number Four - don't talk about touching a certain Senator's hair, because when you get to sit next to him, it's all you can think about...until you notice how white his teeth are.

Rule Number Five- Take some time out to have some fun! If you are every in the NY State Capitol Building, you can go to the State Museum (Ansel Adams photos!) and the State Library (there wasn't time for manuscripts!) and...on the top floor...The Carousel!


Yahoo!

James Helps with Paperwork

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There's a lot of papers on our coffeetable - newsletters, magazines--general paperstuff. Jamie likes to take it all off, wait for Grandpa to put it back on (neatly) and then take it all off again. Sometimes he eats a little - a corner here, a corner there.

We tell Grandpa that Jamie helps with the filing. Grandpa's Little Administrative Assistant.

Are you Jealous?

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Of my beautiful plate? It's from Denmark and I love the three gentlemen courting the three ladies...and I love the apartment builiding and I love the color of the ink...I love this plate really.
Katie and I found it out in Hampton Bays on a rare "Wednesday adventure" while school was out. It was a great little shop and we had to call the shopkeeper, Marilyn, to come and open (as per the sign on the door). Katie got pieces to her bakelite vanity set, and I walked out with this plate.

I know.

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This bebe is ridiculous. I can't believe it myself!
Colin is now a giant...taking over cities...picking up parked cars...stepping into lakes as if they were puddles.
But he's pretty cute, eh?

I found this video while reading SwissMiss, which is an awesome design blog.
This is completely amazing. I am only just beginning to find out about nutrition and cooking. I've never been a good cook--I guess I've never been a good eater either. I like to bake, but cooking always made me nervous and freaked out. There's too much that can (and does) go wrong with me and cooking that I never was really all that interested. But I have gained weight and started reading labels and looking at how crappy my diet is - and I'm trying to change. It's really hard, though. I like bacon and refined sugar and salt and there's nothing to be done about it--accept to go almost cold turkey...almost.

The Great Chase

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Originally uploaded by feathermar

James wins most of the time, and not always because his mom lets him.

Happy Fish!

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These are my happy fish! I've been embroidering a lot! I like the yellow and black striped one the best!

Alicia's Fiesta!

Alicia decided to have a Mexican Fiesta for her birthday party theme this year...Kate and I said, "We will take care of the party favors!" So, you know what came next...MOUSTACHES!







We were...oddly tabled, so there wasn't a ton of shenanigans as usual, because we were split, and my back was turned. But we still had fun fun fun and closed down the place and I had delicious fajitas and some pretty good cerveza. And I got to wear a moustache. Happy Birthday, Bambina Alicia!

I Conferenced--I conferred?

So, this weekend I went to the SCBWI conference-- the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. I thought it would be a big deal...but it turned out to be a really big deal. I mean, not for me. There were a LOT of people there, and some of them were super famous! I was able to hear (and later meet) Libba Bray, who won the Prinze Award this year. I was also able to hear Jane Yolen speak, and I told her how much I loved Pay the Piper. It was an awesome conference, and I learned a lot...and I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with all the information.
There were over a thousand people there-- from Australia, California, Washington and a gabillion other places. I was a little shy, which is unusual for me -- so I didn't really network.

In other news, I feel unwell. So this is me whining - whine whine snort whine. The End.
In other news, I didn't blog a Happy Birthday to my nephew Lochlain - like I normally would. He's five this year, and a strong willed five at that. Here's a picture of him from (probably) four and a half years ago:


So, Happy Birthday, Loch! Aunt Gail and Uncle Joe and Jamie will bring you your presents when they come to visit! I love you!