I didn't know about this show, but now that I do, I love it. This dance makes me tear up every time I see it. I don't know why. So much emotion. I told my friend about it and she made fun of me UNTIL she saw it and said she had chills and watched it at least three times. Did anyone else see it? I think these two are my favorite couple.

Babycakes

When Eli was about three, we would lay down at bedtime and talk. I would ask him if he would always be my Babycakes, he said yes. I asked him if I could always call him Babycakes, he said yes. He has since outgrown that name. He is so far from being a baby, he is my oldest and my baby all at the same time. He doesn't get enough credit for being such a great kid. I think oldest children always have more pressure on them, I expect him to be more responsible, to not tease (he has too many genes of this to avoid it, sadly), to help me, to be perfect. He isn't, but he is so much more.

Eli was a hard birth. I labored for hours. The doctor all but attached a suction cup to Eli's head and then to a truck and pulled him out of me. Seriously. His noggin ended up being on the large end of the scale and let's just say my body didn't appreciate it at all. But do you know what he did when he emerged from that canal? I kid you not, he smiled. Truly smiled. I have quite a few witnesses if you want to dispute this.

This kid is physically gifted. He was walking by 9 months, running two weeks later and hasn't slowed down. He is shorter than most of his friends by inches, but you would never know it by how he moves and runs and jumps and hits the ball and swings a racket and flips on the trampoline. I love to see his little legs and muscles. He is strong.

He loves to learn. He reads so well, because he wants to. He soaks in what he is taught, he understands it a little better each day until he knows how to do it. He wants to be good at things. He gets frustrated when he isn't. Fortunately, his dad is a natural teacher and calmly works with him.

He LOVES to be social. He wants to be in the middle of it. He wants 13 play dates a day, or more. He is an equal opportunity friend, he loves almost everybody. He has really good friends. I think he is a really good friend. I think all kids have their days where playing isn't a good idea, but his are far and few between.

He is sensitive. Once, while watching LOST, he walked in from his bedroom, we didn't see him. He came over and looked very sad. The scene he had just seen was an emotional one, he asked if the girl would be ok and why was she so sad and what can we do to make her happy. He feels what others around him are feeling. He gives hugs because he knows that they will make the recipient happy. He greets loved ones enthusiastically, sincerely because he is happy they are there. He is wonderful.

His siblings love him. From the moment we drop him off somewhere to play or to attend school, Caroline is counting down the minutes to when they can play together. Like most brothers and sisters, the way they treat each other can be maddening, but they truly love each other and he watches out for her and she watches out for him. She loves him like crazy. He is the coolest, the most awesome, the nicest and sometimes the "teasiest" brother. Joey laughs at him. This morning, Joey crawled over and pushed him on the ground so he could hug him and lay on him. Tears in the eyes for me. He also plays games with Joey and thinks Joey is "Super Joey".

Why am I saying all this? Eli is 6 today. Six years ago, at 5:26pm, he was placed in my arms and I fell in love with this nameless child. My heart about swelled out of my chest. I couldn't stop crying from the magnitude of love. His birth has started the most difficult era of my life, Motherhood. No one can ever tell you just how much it takes - emotionally, physically, spiritually - but there is nothing like it. I'm blessed to have him, and those that have come since. His smile is one of the best things on Earth. His hug is candy. Seeing him develop is miraculous.

p.s. E got a skateboard for his birthday, so Ben and Linds, you need to give him some pointers when you are in town.

Thanks to all that entered the drawing, the winners are, thanks to random.org:

anja

lacey

and jenifer

email me your addresses, piccalillitoo@gmail.com

thanks for playing, y'all can do it, the punchneedle I mean, it is a lot of fun.

Wax on, wax off

"Wax on, wax off" has taken on a whole new meaning to me in the last few years, but from 1984 on it meant The Karate Kid. I just saw it at Target for $5 and had to buy it.

Growing up, my friend Brookie (who lived across the street) asked if we could watch this EVERY day. I think we watched it at least 4 times a week, maybe more. So, today, I bought it and dropped it off at her house. I think there were tears in her eyes. We don't see each other very much, even though somehow we ended up in the same city (not the one we grew up in) and even maybe just 2 miles between us. She is one of those friendships that take no effort, are comfortable at all times, but you never seem to be able to see each other.

Remember Bananarama's "Cruel Summer"? And all the other songs totally take me back. My most memorable line from the movie? "Put him in a bodybag Johnny!" in that totally weasel-y voice. Remember?

So, since I am an out and proud blog peruser, I want you to see some of the things I have seen as of late. One of my favorite artists on etsy is Elsita and I also love her blog. I found this today on her blog about this other shop and the story behind it. I love how heartwarming it all it.

If you are ever wondering where you can see a lot of beautiful work from artists of etsy all compiled into one post, look here. Lots of great favorites on this post.

Over at Posie Gets Cozy, she recently reviewed a bunch of books that she has read. Since I love everything about her site, can't wait until her own book comes out, I am sure that these books will be great reads and I am on my way to the library site to start reserving them.

If you are looking for a yummy menu, look here. And look at the game that her kids are playing, in the post below.

I always like visiting Anna Maria Horner's blog. She has a new line or two out of fabric, she has five kids, she has been on Martha Stewart and recently just got back from interviewing her. I like how much energy each post has, lots of sincerity, lots of love and lots of bright colors. I admit it, I have a huge crush, blog or not, on this gal.

After reading her blog, I am ready to go back upstairs, apologize to E for getting mad at him for making mud, to Caroline for making mud and to Joey for getting mad that he found the mud. Not a big deal! Mud shmud. But mud mixed with 3 days of headache and 3 days of no change in normal activity to alleviate the headache makes me a monster and I am going up to apologize to all for it.

Happy Birthday Dad!

You, Dad, are a great father. You are so funny. Sometimes I think we are the only ones smart enough to get how funny you really are. Plus, you think I am funny, which works for me.

You make good choices. You have friends that go back 40+ years, which says a lot about the type of people you align yourself with and says a lot about the type of guy you are. You have really good friends. And, they are good to me.

You married Mom, good choice.

When I got to college, you encouraged me to study, to have fun, to make friends and to make good memories. You facilitated that by introducing me to nearly every alum on the Earth, telling me who they married, who their children are, where they went to high school. It helped me feel less self-conscience when people knew who my dad was.

You are a respectable person, a man with integrity, a man with values and you are really smart. It has been easy to look up to you.

When I was little, you treated me like I was your little girl, but still let me be one of the boys. You made me feel like I was pretty special, you still do.

Growing up, you had a nickname for almost all my friends, you made them feel welcome, you still do. Whether it was calling them "Brows" or by their last name, they still remember your chumminess.

You have a fondness for many people, whether it is your nieces and nephews, brother and sister in laws, your own sisters, people in your neighborhood - it taught me to try to do the same.

My kids make you grin, laugh and smirk - thanks for loving them. They love their Opa.

Thanks for telling Dave the things you did when he asked you if he could marry me.

Thanks for being my dad, I love you.

Fluttery Tummy and a Giveaway

Ok, I am going to do it. I have toyed with this idea for a while now and have decided that I want to do a giveaway and the thought of it is giving me a fluttery tummy. I know, all 8 of you readers have a chance to win. I have recently hit the 21,000 reader milestone and since my birthday is on the 21st of some month we are going to celebrate.

I am going to give away a punchneedle patterns to 3 lucky people. You can choose which one. You say you have never needle punched before? No worries, you will learn quickly and become addicted right away. It is kind of a soothing needlecraft, if you ask me. You can take a look over at our etsy store and see the patterns. So here are the rules:

*you can leave a comment with which pattern you would like to receive, but make sure I have a way to contact you, either through your blog or an email address

*you can email me at piccalillitoo@gmail.com, please write "giveaway" in the subject line and include which pattern you would like

*you can blog about it on your own blog and get another entry, just email me the link

I will choose three lucky people on Tuesday, June 24th, and will notify you then.

visual catch up

here we go:

Last month I finally convinced Dave that we needed a playset. These are the inaugural swings.

Last month while playing with friends, Eli took Joey down the slide and I of course wanted to capture it for posterity. It didn't occur to me to stop them at the bottom before they both flew forward, but it turned out ok.

We had some friends of the kids over and I had heard that Caroline's friend E had dance offs at her school. I asked her about them and she told me to turn on some music. It was pretty awesome.


Eli had the annual school fun run. I think it was about 1/2 a mile too long to be fun, this kid is a sprinter, not endurance.

I took a couple of pics after and asked Eli's friend (below) to smile like he does when he sees Joey (he loves him), this is what I got. I told him he could no longer smile that way at Joe, it was a little disturbing.

Caroline had her spring recital. She danced to the Mary Poppins' "A Spoonful of Sugar" and "Let's Go Fly a Kite". Dave knew all the words to every song at the recital, so did I but how cool of a dad that I had to refrain him from belting out choruses?

Here is Oma, Caroline, me and Opa waiting for the recital to start.


First up was "Spoonful", I didn't get any good shots.

Here is Caroline waiting once again for the next set.

She has the dance fever now.

The picture below doesn't look anything like her, very odd.

Can't you just feel the wind pulling the kite to and fro?

Eli's last day of kindergarten. It as a great year, he had an amazing teacher and he keeps saying, "I bet Mrs. G. misses us all so bad."

Joey is trying to bulk up, luckily he is loving vanilla pediasure. Maybe we will see some legitimate chubbiness on him soon.

Caroline's first dental appointment. And her first cavity. But she was a great patient.

Joey had his first "real" haircut (I had buzzed his hair 3 times last summer. I can't stand uneven baby hair, you know, the patchy, rubbed off, 3 inches randomly sprouting baby hair? So Dave made me promise not to cut it anymore, until now.)

He was not too happy. You know he is the third when I can laugh and take pictures and say to the lady, "Just keep going, he'll be fine." What is even worse, I haven't taken one of the finished cut. Eli came home and looked at him and said, "Joe, your haircut is handsome." It was very cute of him to notice, in between playing here and there.
And, if any of you are looking for a good shower gift for someone having a girl, I picked this up at a used book store. I think every mother of girl's should have one. They'll thank you in six years, I promise.

My Scoop of Coop and Dose of Delight

Last night I had a lot of fun. A lot of fun. I started with making dinner for this family (see recipe below) so they could eat it tomorrow night. I then picked up this gal and we headed out to see Angel, Rob, Britt and Coop (the fam from above). We meant to just kiss and hold Charlie for a while and then head out to dinner just the girls but ended up talking for a long time, reminiscing, getting out the yearbooks so I could figure out who we were talking about, and getting more information about people we know than I could ever successfully erase from my mind. Rob, you know more details about some people's lives than any 10 girls I know. AND Mister Railroad Man, quit the act. You are not a back-country bumpkin, you are diabolically smart, you are so full of BS it is unbelievable but so much fun to sit around and talk with. Thanks for the entertainment. By the way, how did you luck out with gal like Ang? And, Britt, don't even get me going. The kid is non-stop cute. Funny, dimply cute. And Coop, I could hold and kiss his face and chubbiness all night. I think Rob probably wiped him down after we left because Amanda and I were kissing on him so much.

Finally, we realized it was basically bedtime and headed to dinner. It was one of those fun's like the time goes by way to quickly. So much so that I forgot to even call Dave and let him know we were still out talking and don't wait up. Sorry.

I have a serious problem with memory. High school is sort of murky, some years of college are too. Not for the reasons that you would think - I didn't have that much fun. So, Amanda tried to remind me of certain things. Some things that I am probably better off leaving in the murk. Good ol' queen bee business that tends to happen when there are a lot of girls that are strong-willed and smart. Stuff I think most of us wish we could re-do and do better and kinder. Whatever happened happened, I say. I think everything works out for the best, experiences teach you things and all that stuff. Hopefully, 15ish years later, we aren't still pulling that kind of nonsense. But I also had fun remembering the fun and adolescency goodness.

I will tell you, Angel in high school (and later as roommates in Israel) was the kind of golden gal that you could bask in her glow and feel pretty content. You weren't mad that she was golden, you just loved the way she made you feel when you are around her. She is still that way. If I were her, I would be a bundle of nerves, stress and weepy tension. Ang says any mom would do what she is doing. Amanda says it best, "but not with the grace and strength you do it with". I agree. I'm glad we are friends all these years later. Everyone should have a gal like her to bask in and around.

Amanda is still super funny, a super quick talker (I love it, it makes me do the same and I don't get to do that often enough, at least when anyone is listening!), smart and savvy. I also loved this about her in h.s. and love the way the years and experiences have added to it. Much wisdom, a lot of self awareness and she still can enliven a conversation with laughter.

It was a lot of fun ladies, can't wait until we do it again - soon! It was just what I needed, all the candid talk and misty eyes (mine) and walking away feeling really happy with myself and those around me. I need a daily scoop of Coop but will take what I can get.

Grilled Chicken Pasta Salad

4-6 chicken breast halves, sprinkled with lemon pepper and grilled

1 pkg of pasta (penne or bowtie), cooked and rinsed with cool water

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 bunch of spinach, cleaned and torn (or one or two bags baby spinach, my pref)

1 chopped red and/or yellow pepper

1/2 c. almonds, sugared and toasted (sorry ang, I forgot this step)

Dressing - combine and process in a blender

1/4 c sesame seeds

1/3 c red wine vinegar

1/2 c soy sauce

1/2 c canola oil

1/4 t salt

1/4 - 1/2 t ground pepper

1/4 c fresh chopped parsley

3 T sugar

Grill chicken and cut in to strips, then slice in to bite-sized pieces.

To make sugared almonds, you'll want to use slivered or chopped almonds. Put them in a non-stick fry pan with a couple tablespoons full of sugar and less than a tablespoonful of water. Cook over med-high heat, stirring, until nicely toasted. Let cool.

Combine everything and toss together.

And tonight, I made this for our friends and some for us. I serve it over red potatoes that I mash with garlic, butter and chicken stock, and some asparagus. Yum.

Shhh, don't let them know you are here.

Raise your hand if this is the first blog you have ever visited.

Raise your hand if you only look at the blogs that are on your blog roll.

Keep them up. Raise your hand if you never, never, never blog-hop or blog lurk, or blog-admire as I like to call it.

Really? Never?
(warning, I am seriously chatty, so sit tight)
You don't just start clicking and see something you like on another blog or see someone has left a comment on your friend's blog and you don't click just out of curiosity to see who it is? You don't ever think "maybe that is the Savvy from college, let's just look"?

Liar! (Unless you really aren't, but I don't think anyone is guilt free of this)

I have found some old friends through this very clickety click blogworld. It has helped me rediscover old friendships that are better anew or introduced me to people I may never meet but have found way too much in common with that they might be my lost twin (between Gilmore Girls and other TV shows, plus books, I think she needs to move to America, right next door to me and be my best friend). (I have to say I am writing this while sitting next to Dave as he watches Deadliest Catch. Why is it ok for him to watch this reality series but he scoffs at The Hills? That is for another ranting post. Two brothers are arguing saying "You're not my boss, only Dad is and you are only my brother...." good tv)

Here is the good thing about blogging and the bad - comments. Don't you ever read something or laugh out loud at something and so want to leave a comment but you really don't want them to know that you are lurking? Really, no? I have. In fact, I saw this tonight and about died it was so funny (if you happen to come across my blog and see that I have linked to you and really aren't happy about it, let me know and I will remove it promptly, but just know that you are really funny and we have met, so technically it isn't so creepy, right?). Let me tell you how I got to it. I know that this gal that my little brother went to school with links to the other gal that grew up across from my aunt who links to my good friend's sister in law who had a post about her baby being born and since it is too late to call my friend and get the date of the baby's birth (for a birth plate I am having made for her) I just clickety clicked to find the right post and presto chango I have my information that I need. I knew that she had posted about it because a friend of her's told me that she saw a post about my friend's new baby. Got it? Back to the post I saw earlier. I really wanted to write something like " OH my gosh, how did you find this? I can tell that you are terribly funny and witty and remember that time we met, so...." who knows what I would write, but I wanted to. Then, the anxiety. I couldn't possibly leave a comment. They don't remember me, they would find it creepy that someone that isn't on their blog roll is leaving a message. What if I am not cool enough? The scorn. The angst. The uncertainty.

I admit, I have left the random comment on blogs before. Sometimes it has been on some one's that I have admired their blog from the shadows and finally felt like I should say something. This has turned out some fun new "friendships". I also have left comments on blogs belonging to people that I have known for years but haven't seen in years (do you know what I mean?). There are still quite a few that I haven't outed myself to. Maybe this will be my new goal, share my admiration of them with them. Everyone likes to be recognized and complimented, right? Recently, somehow, and I don't even think I could retrace my steps, I have found the blogs of some gals I used to live with in college, sorority house mates. When I see these gals, I am excited. It is always good to catch up. But leave a comment on their blog? I'm still thinking about it.

In any case, something that has been on my mind. That silly comment box. So inviting, yet so daunting. I should ask this friend to rewrite this whole post for me and make it so much better, but instead I will just wait to see what brilliant thing that she writes next (once again, if you would rather I not link to you, send me an email, but really everyone should be reading her blog anyway). And while I respect that you may want to remain a blurker, I would love any comment you feel like leaving. Unless it is rude or pervy, then kindly stop visiting. And most likely I will wake up tomorrow and either rewrite certain things or delete this post all together. This blog phenomenon is interesting, isn't it?

Sassy Swap

Yesterday was a crazy day. Caroline had a recital (I'll post later), then we had a punchneedle class at my house. During that time I got a box in the mail, it said Sassy Mail on it so I assumed it was my apron but I couldn't open it then so I put it aside. The day just kept going and I kept not opening it. I saw it again right before bed and had to open it. I gasped out loud (aren't all gasps out loud?) and hugged it to me. It was so like a '50s movie. I couldn't believe this

and here is another view (the first color is the closest match, I just couldn't take a picture that would show the whole embroidery or do it justice)

and here is the full apron

and lucky me, it is reversible.

I love, love, love the apron by Yetta. She put so much thought into it, it is totally personalized, my embroidered children have initial on their clothes. I'm still giddy about it. Thank you so much Yetta for sharing your talents with me. Caroline and Eli thought it was quite wonderful, too.

And, tomorrow I will be sending this one to the land down under. I wasn't able to see who my gal was, she doesn't have a blog, but the theme is summer and I love this old print and these colors make me think summertime. Strawberry reds, greens and pinks. I added yo-yo's to it for some fun. I hope she likes it.