On December 10, Connor turned two. What was originally planned as a repeat of his first birthday (a nice dinner and chatting with friends), quickly became more. It was actually the most stressful and time consuming party I have done. Lessons I have learned are: never throw a birthday party on the same day I work; I don’t have to do EVERY home made craft created on the planet that fits a birthday theme.
Besides those things, I really had so much fun and it was great to see my son love everything so much and be old enough to get excited.
Understatement of the year: Connor Loves Angry Birds. He loves the music. He loves searching them on YouTube. He loves making angry pig noises. And, of course, he loves to play the game. He couldn’t care less about his score, even when it’s better than his parents. He just loves to fling those birds off the slingshot ASAP.
The trouble for me began when I started doing some research online for Angry Bird themed parties. Thank goodness for Etsy to help me along the way. We actually only invited five families, but that totaled 14 kids.
Aside from using it as a giant drinking bowl, Connor really enjoys having water in the backyard. The first time we used it, we filled it up and put him in. He was not a huge fan of the FREEZING cold water. Understandable. It made is significantly tiny penis shrivel up even tinier. (ed. note: The previous statement has been retracted due to its potentially offensive nature to unsuspecting readers who do not realize I can sometimes be offensive.) It’s cold. So the next time, following a great tip from our sister-in-law, we filled it up in the morning and let it heat up until after his nap in the afternoon. A much more pleasant experience.
A Christmas/Birthday present for my sister-in-law over at Waits4theBus– I decided to make an epic cross-stitch of Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. After completing the Mega Man project in June, I started looking around for a video game based cross-stitch pattern. I LOVE Sprite Stitch and Stitch Please for inspiration. As I was looking through various video game patterns, I was leaning toward a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme. Rather than use a pattern created by others, I wanted to do a Todd Waits original. I started looking for sprites used in TMNT video games from the NES and SNES. I found a good resource that I have since forgotten, and found a sprite of Krang. I new exactly what I wanted at that point! I grabbed another sprite of a dialog box saying “Tonight I Dine on Turtle Soup,” and used Photoshop to combine the images. I then used PCStitch Pro to convert the gif into a cross-stitch pattern with corresponding DMC floss colors, and created what has to be one of the coolest patterns EVAR!
Before I even started working on the actual stitching in September, I knew that I was not going to keep this for myself. My sister-in-law loves the TMNT, and I knew this was going to be her Christmas/Birthday present (they are the same day) from me. The whole pattern came out to about 8 x 14 inches. It was big, but so much fun. I really slacked off in October and November. For the first two weeks of December, I essentially watched movies and cross-stitched in order to finish in time. Every time I would finish an identifiable section, I would get so excited and think how much Wendy was going to LOVE it. I also couldn’t wait to post it online, but had to wait until after Christmas otherwise ruin the surprise. So Christmas has come and gone. She loved the gift, and I quote from Twitter: “@DarkYodeler Wow. That’s all I gotta say. Cross stitch has made it to a whole new level for me.”
Enjoy a full res shot and printable pattern after the jump:
We went to Simmons Farm this morning to find some pumpkins. Of course, we also took a BA-ZA-HILLION pictures of Connor. His favorite part was sitting on an old tractor turning the steering wheel. His second favorite part was eating dirt in the pumpkin patch. See if you can spot the moment he tastes it. Ha! There was also a corn maize we got to stroll through. It was nice and quiet. We arrived at the tail end of a school tour. Once they left, we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. Yay.
Upon leaving Simmons Farm, we had two pumpkins, two dried ears of corn, an assortment of fresh vegies, a pumpkin roll, and some Elderberry Jelly. Yum. I am ready to stuff myself full of all that deliciousness. Check out the pics:
Posted by Todd on Saturday Aug 28, 2010 Under Family, Vacation
As we packed up our belongings, we bid a fond farewell to “Bruce’s Place” (which we re-dubbed Brucekies Place after finding a substantial stash of Soviet Life magazines from 1978-1981 and various Russian travel guides and literature). We posed on the deck for a final shot with our matching shirts. You know how much I love matching people, so that was totally my idea. Right, Liz?
Anyway, it was a great week. We had a great time at Chincoteague, and really enjoyed our time with the Machins. It was a fantastic way to spend a week, and truly was a week without any concerns. We thoroughly enjoyed relaxing and conversing with Mr. Sun way more than we normally would. But, alas, we are home now. In more comfortable beds, true, but we will still miss Brucekies Place.
Posted by Todd on Saturday Aug 28, 2010 Under Family, Vacation
We biked to the beach today. Not a bike, mind you. No, a much more efficient vehicle. A surry. *cue Oklahoma Surry music now* It was quite the ordeal to pedal that much weight around on one single low gear. It felt as though we were pedaling up an incline both ways. Connor loved it. He slept most of the time there and back. Richard helped push the surry while on his bike. We could definitely feel the difference. It is very safe to say Liz and I are somewhat out of shape. Just a bit.
We went to the bike beach, and it was very much deserted. It was quiet and beautiful. Great waves provided a lot of entertainment. It seems as though most of the big, cool shells were deposited here as well.
The ride back was full of swarms of mosquitos. All in all, though, it was a lot of fun. It has been a relaxing week with a lot of beach exposure.
Posted by Todd on Saturday Aug 28, 2010 Under Family, Vacation
Sunday became a day to recoup. Connor did not cooperate with the whole sleeping at night thing. He thought he should wake up every 45 minutes to an hour to remind us we were all sharing one room. At 5:30 am, I laid him on the couch, lay down next to him and we both went to sleep. Later that morning, Liz and Jeanne went for food at Wal-Mart, Richard and his boys biked to the beach, and I stayed home sleeping and watching movies (Advent Children and Centurion).
While watching the movies, a severe thunderstorm rolled in. Richard and the boys were stranded on the beach. Jeanne and Liz missed the whole thing while at Wal-Mart. At the home base, a lightning bolt and subsequent thunder clap struck so hard, a picture was knocked off the wall. Connor slept through that whole thing. Why couldn’t he have done that at night?
Posted by Todd on Saturday Aug 28, 2010 Under Family, Vacation
Driving down from Pittsburgh to Chincoteague Island, VA went a lot smoother than anticipated. Connor entertained himself in his car seat and we only needed to stop for major meals and diaper changes. We were prepared ourselves for wailing and gnashing of gums as we drove the eight hours down.
Once we crossed the bay bridge from Maryland to Virginia, we started to look out for a place to eat lunch. We only saw things like Bob Evans, Applebees and Panera Bread. As we passed one more (and seemingly the final) batch of restaurants, The Machins, who we were traveling with, made a u-turn. We thought that meant we were headed to Panera. But we were wrong. They found a Sonic! What a perfect place to eat for a family on a road trip! No need to leave the car. We let Connor play on the floor, and the dogs (did I mention Little Bit and Wesley came along?) played on their leashes.
On arriving at our bungalow in Chincoteague, we immediately unloaded, dropped the dogs off and headed off to the beach. During the trip, we caught a glimpse of the wild horses Assateague (the national park where the beach is) is famous for. We lit a fire and enjoyed the company of friends, fire and mosquitos.
