Hold the phone! Someone got a new sandbox!

After reading a bunch of online reviews of various sandboxes and dithering for weeks over whether to buy one new or off Craigslist, we finally decided to get a new one and settled on the Step2 Crabby sandbox as being a good size and fairly sturdy for the price. We gathered up some unused gift cards and Easter money and headed on down to ToysRUs. Jag had quite a struggle trying to cram Mister Crabby into the back of the Passat with only half the back seat down, but it did fit. Griff was hugely entertained by the giant red plastic thing hanging over him on the way home.

We think maybe he likes it. 🙂

We all had such a great time at Easter that I’ve just now recovered enough to share the pictures! (Actually, Griff has been such a miserable teething mess for the past few days, I haven’t had time to do much aside from the bare minimum.)

Easter lunch/brunch at my parents’ was yummy. We had bacon, Easter eggs, and I made the traditional 3 kinds of Easter rolls (prune lekvar, walnut, and apricot) that we Eastern European types like to have at this time of year. (I skipped this baking project last year for some reason. Oh yeah, because I had a month-old baby. ;-)). I usually make my own lekvar and apricot filling, but decided to use jarred apricot jam this year. Big mistake. It was way too runny and oozed out all over the place and made a huge sticky mess. Yay for silicon baking liners. At least it tasted good.

Our family has an annual Easter egg “fight”. Basically you pair off single-elimination-tourney style and smack your eggs into each other. Whichever egg survives moves on to the next round. Jag and I decorated some seriously badass eggs this year.

Here are Robin and Jag facing off…

There were five of us, so my mom got a bye because she cooked the bacon. 🙂 My dad’s egg beat my egg, and Jag’s beat Robin’s; Jag’s egg reached the final round with Mom.

Mom’s egg was victorious!

Griff was looking around wondering if he was really related to these weirdoes.

I forgot to take pictures of Easter dinner, but it was awesome. Ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potato casserole, sugar snap peas, spinach/artichoke casserole, and rolls, plus chocolate pie for dessert. Yum!

Griff unfortunately had a tough time of it. It seems like he’s been teething on and off for quite a while now. He’s chewing on his fingers a lot (with his fingers shoved pretty far back into this mouth), and he gets extremely upset when I try to feel his gums, but today I caught a glimpse of what looks like an upper molar coming in. He also has red swollen areas where his bottom canines will be, but nothing definite there yet. He definitely is Mister Crabby.

As you can probably not tell from the above photos, we gave him his first haircut last night and this morning. It had to be done in stages with plenty of distractions, but we seem to have gotten a pretty decent result. And you can’t beat the price. 🙂

I finished Griff’s bunny with time to spare, and I even managed to knit him something to wear so he doesn’t have to be stark nekkid! (The bunny, that is. Not Griff. Griff has clothes.)

Introducing…Mister Bunny! (I figured it would be presumptuous to name him myself, and bunnies all have the same last name, right?). I highly recommend this and other great knitting patterns by Barbara Prime, aka Fuzzy Mitten.

I knitted him from Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride; the coat is another story. I really, really wanted to use some of my handspun for the coat, but I have a limited selection of handspun that isn’t in bigger skeins that I want to use for socks or a shawl or something. I dug up a partially used ball of a green 3-ply and decided to use that. Even though the yarn was way too heavy (DK/worsted instead of sport) and even though it knitted up pretty stiff at one needle size larger than recommended in the pattern, the result was not too bad. It came out much larger than it should have (no shock), so I shortened the sleeves and tacked down the collar to make lapels. I added a button and a button loop, and it turned out pretty well despite the totally unsuitable yarn choice.

He sits!

He stands!

He poses next to a flower!

One of the things I’ve never understood about stuffed animals is why no one ever puts pants on the poor things. So when Mister Bunny started feeling frisky and wanted to flash the camera, what was I supposed to do to protect the innocent eyes of onlookers? Here’s my um, “modest” proposal.

And here’s what Mister Bunny thought of my solution.

I love Mexican food. When I was pregnant with Griff, I craved it to such a degree that I was dragging people out for Mexican 2-3 times a week, whether my poor husband and coworkers wanted to go or not. One of my favorite meals during this period was the carnitas at The Federal. A pile of tender, delicious pork, the best guacamole in the Triangle, and fresh pico de gallo and cilantro, all ready to be wrapped up in warm tortillas and gobbled up as quickly as possible.

Well, I gotta say, The Federal ain’t got nothing on the carnitas I made this evening.

After obtaining a big ole pork roast on sale at The Teet and cutting off a 2.5lb chunk, I did a little poking around online and picked a recipe that looked simple and straightforward. I was a little nervous about the lack of seasoning, so I added 4 chopped cloves of garlic and some ground cumin to the pot at the very beginning; those were the only changes I made to the recipe as written.

Here’s 2.5lbs of pork shoulder and a measuring cup full of orange juice and water. Mmm mmm.

And here’s a bunch of pork chunks boiling away in orange juice and water. It didn’t smell too great, and at this point I was wondering if I’d made a mistake in choosing this recipe.

Things started looking up after an hour or two.

Definitely smelling good now.

I think it was at this point that I started muttering things like, “Oh HELL yes” while looking into the pot.

And here is the final glorious porkscape: shreds of tender pork, rendered in its own fat, crispy at the edges and tender and juicy and awesome.

Meanwhile, I was trying my hand at making corn tortillas with the new tortilla press I got for my birthday (thanks, Robin!). For something made with only two ingredients (masa harina and water), corn tortillas are pretty tricky. It took a few tries to get the dough to the right level of moistness, and then there was some tinkering with the size of the dough balls to put into the press. I had good luck using some cut-up plastic baggies inside the press; the flattened tortillas mostly peeled right off the plastic for me.

And here is an example of my raggedy-ass corn tortillas. But oh my, they tasted good. I don’t think I’ve ever had fresh corn tortillas before, and it was a revelation. They’re so toasty, soft, warm, and, well, corny. Just completely night and day from the pasty, sour, stiff, preservative-laden corn tortillas you get from the grocery store. They kept very nicely wrapped up in a kitchen towel until we were ready to eat them. And Griff loved them.

And here’s the final product: pork carnitas on a fresh corn tortilla, with a slice of avocado and a little cheese. Total bliss. And we have leftovers for tomorrow!

One of the things nothing prepares you for as a new mom is the sudden shift of focus from you, the (formerly) glowing preggo, to your newborn baby. One day everyone wants to know how you’re feeling and to lovingly pet your big round tummy, and the next you’re sitting alone in a corner, feeling like a Mack truck drove through your lady bits, while everyone coos over the new arrival. (OK, I exaggerate. A bit. 🙂 )

I also wasn’t prepared for the attention that babies attract when they’re out and about. Once Griff was old enough to sit up in the shopping cart instead of riding in the mei tai carrier, he started to collect a constant stream of (mostly) female admirers. It’s gotten to the point where I tend to avoid Harris Teeter on Thursdays (aka senior citizen discount day) because he’s particularly irresistible to the more, ah, mature woman. Yesterday on our weekly grocery run we were stopped no less than four times by ladies who wanted to wave, smile, touch his hand, and make approving comments. I assume the attention will wane as he ages and becomes less adorably babylike, but it still weirds me out me every single time it happens.

Look at me! I’m a 13-month-old stud muffin!

Look at my JC Penny catalog pose!

And now I’m a total goofball.

If only my fans could see me now.

Now that he’s becoming more toddler-y, Griff is interested in imitating our actions. This is both a blessing and a curse. For example, Jag started putting a giant blue plastic bowl on his own head to amuse Griff, and then started putting it on Griff’s head for the same reason. Griff is now convinced that the bowl is, in fact, a hat.

On a sort of Griff-related note, thanks to Michelle, I am now the proud owner of a serger! Apparently if you whine and moan on your blog often enough about how badly you want a serger, your friends will seize the opportunity to get you one if it happens to come their way. It’s used, and I’ll need to spend some time figuring out how the heck it works, but in a few weeks I hope to be churning out Griff clothes like a one-woman sweatshop.

Also, this is now my favorite overnight steel-cut oatmeal recipe. I think it needs closer to 15 minutes of cooking, and I’d up the total liquid to 2 or 2¼ cups (I used half milk and half apple juice), but this was some awesome oatmeal. If you find crockpot steel-cut oats to be too mushy and slimy, then this is the one for you. They come out very chewy and full of texture.

Griff and I had a very nice visit with my parents today, which included a trip to the Wake Forest HerbFest. As usual, there was a huge variety of herb plants (and a small selection of organic veggie plants), although I was limited to herbs that will grow in partial or full shade.

I came away with two pots of mint and a big healthy aloe plant which will no doubt come in handy for squirting on Griff’s various booboos and sunburns this summer. I’m hoping the mint will completely take over a section of the yard and climb kudzu-like through the trees. The idea is that I can just walk outside with a bottle of bourbon and the sugar bowl, jump into a kiddie pool full of crushed ice, grab a few mint “vines”, and bathe in juleps. Hey, I can dream.

Wow, it’s been a while. I’m trying to think of why I haven’t blogged, and it’s probably due to the fact that my “fun” crafting has slowed way down recently because most of my free time is taken up by sewing stuff for Griff. Every sleep sack and pair of jeans, shorts, and pajama pants he currently wears (oh yeah, and his hat), I’ve made for him. There’s a certain element of “Go me!” in that, and there’s also a certain element of “If I have to sew one more pair of pants/shorts/fill-in-the-garment I am going to gouge out my eyeballs with this extra-large safety pin that I use to oh-so-tediously drag the *@&*%!#$&@ elastic through his (*@&!*@$*@# little waistbands”. Ahem.

A lot of the stuff I sew for him is made from repurposed adult clothes (ie, free Griff clothes!), but I’ve recently bought a little new fabric to make him things as well. My absolute favorite is this patchwork plaid that I made into shorts. Totally adorable, and soft and comfy as well.

Perfect for the lawn boy on the go.

Now, on to the crafting. After overdosing on a bunch of mommy craft blogs, I decided to channel my inner Waldorf-itude and make some wet-felted eggs. In fact, I was so into it that I almost changed my blog name to “Hot Wet-Felted Mama”. I only made three eggs in my first batch, but they were so fun and easy, I definitely want to make a bunch more. I used some random colorful fiber remnants from a grab bag I bought from Dyepot.com a few years ago, wet-felted around dollar store plastic eggs. I used some cut-up panty hose to hold the eggs together during the felting process (I hand-felted them in a bowl of soapy water), and they turned out great.

Once I had the eggs, I needed a nest. My first thought was to wet-felt some old Brown Sheep spinning fiber around a glass bowl. I mean, how hard could it be? The eggs had been a snap. So I dutifully scrubbed away at a mass of wet soapy wool, and after about 15 minutes, I ended up with this hot mess.

At this point I said, screw this, and I knitted a nest instead. I felted it in the washing machine, and got this lovely bowl toupee.

Which dried into a little fuzzy nest. Woohoo.

Let’s see, what else. I painted a little bunny peep shirt for Griff to wear over to his grandparents’ house on Easter. This is just a peep-shaped freezer paper stencil and Jacquard fabric paint sponged on (acrylic craft paint would work as well, as long as it’s heat-set with an iron).

Griff wore his new shirt to an Easter/Spring gathering at Oval Park today. He was in such an awful mood most of the day. We’re thinking he may have some molars coming in, poor guy.

When I say grumpy, I mean GRUMPY.

And last but not least, I’m finally getting around to knitting a Fuzzy Mitten pattern. This will hopefully be finished by next weekend; not sure if I’ll have time to make the clothes, so Griff’s new bunny may be TOTALLY NEKKID.

We spent a few hours hanging out in the yard this afternoon. Last night’s storm knocked a ton of little branches off our trees, so Griff was thrilled with the new stick selection.

Here he looks like a little hobbit on a quest!

Hey, a flower!

(Yes, our lawn could use a little help with that whole “grass” thing. But the wild violets are so cute!)

Soaking up the sun.

Still loving his rake.

Doing a little happy rake dance.

No, woman. I will not rake for you.

Toddling along in search of a better stick.

This must be the Sacred Stick of Stickiness!

One of the things I love about Durham is the variety of little neighborhood parks with playgrounds. Today we stopped by Rock Wood Park off University (just down the road from Forest Hills), and they had a great little toddler playset for kids Griff’s size. Definitely very recommended for the 3 and under set. They also had a nice paved circuit path that would be great for strollers or bikes. Surprisingly, Griff enjoyed the bucket swings (for about 90 seconds, and then he wanted out RIGHT NOW).

He’s more of a sliding man, it seems.

Yesterday we had a small family get-together to celebrate Griff’s first birthday.

First, there was snacking with Nana, Aunt Beanie, and our old friend Greg.

Then there were presents!

Griff paced impatiently as his parents unpacked his gifts. Why are kids’ toys hermetically sealed and strapped into their boxes with 1,973 twist ties?

This lawn mower from my parents was a huge hit.

The living room was piled high with grandpas and cool toys by the end of the afternoon. This kid made out like a bandit.

Griff had two cakes: a chocolate cake made by a “Mrs. Teeter”, and a banana cake with cream cheese frosting made with lots of love by mommy (but with no skill whatsoever).

The traditional first birthday cake destruction ritual was enacted.

Griff unfortunately was a little tentative with the destruction part.

So we cut him a piece and handed it to him. Things moved along more swiftly at this point.

This was now a full-body cake experience.

After reaching sugar saturation, the guest of honor became unruly and began demanding bourbon in his sippy.

He also threatened passersby with his Frosting Fingers of Death.

As of this morning, the lawn mower love continues. And guess what, that blue icing comes out the same color as it went in!