Looking Back on St. Patrick's Day

I was on a roll with posting, for a moment, last year! Then, the days faded into sameness, as I waffled between apathy and outrage (maybe more on that another time). I just had no inspiration or motivation to blog. But I've been thinking lots of thoughts, lately, so I thought I'd give it another go.

Today is St. Patrick's Day! Up until I met Kevin, I never gave it much thought. I would wear green and whatnot, but no Irish meals, music, or adult beverages. But Kevin is half Irish, and soon after we started dating, he started hosting St. Patrick's Day parties. After a few years, it was no longer "Kevin's" St. Patrick's Day Party, but "our" St. Patrick's Day Party.

The party has evolved a lot over the past 15-ish years. In the early days, our friends would kick a keg of Guinness, or Murphy's or Beamish, if we could get one of those.  Everyone would chug what Google tells me I can call an "Irish Slammer"...although you might know it by a more insensitive name. You know the one...where you drop a shot of Irish Cream and Irish Whiskey into an Irish Stout, knock it back, then probably make some more questionable choices. Our friend, Darren, would lead us in a rousing rendition of "The Barley Mow," during which you take a drink during each verse, finishing a pint of beverage, usually Guinness (or similar), by the end of the five-minute song. Don't think you'd finish it? You would, because at the last verse, Darren would yell, "FINISH IT!" and what else could you do but comply? I tried this with a root beer one year, and holy cow, it was so uncomfortably fizzy. Stick with the stout.

Anyway. Times change. None of us drink that much anymore or can hang that late. We stopped getting a keg because Kevin and I were drinking the leftovers into July, when no one really wants to drink an Irish stout. The thought of the day after an "Irish Slammer" is enough to make me think I may have had my last one. Many of us have kids now, so I put out St. Patrick's Day crafts and books, and we make sure to have kid-friendly alternatives to corned beef and cabbage, and booze-free desserts.

It's still fun. We still listen to Irish music and talk and laugh. The kids play. We reminisce about being young and fun, and having the time and energy to hang out all the time. It's nice to have this time to catch up. And we have new friends (although not that new, anymore!), now, too, and it makes my heart happy to see people from different parts of our lives chatting, having fun together, and maybe even becoming friends, too.

Here we are, this year, though. Our St. Patrick's Day Party was the first "thing" canceled last year. At the time, we thought for sure we'd make up for it by the end of summer. But then we missed birthday parties, our annual Octoberfest and Winter Wonderland Celebrations, too. Here's hoping our year of missed celebrations is bookended with this St. Patrick's Day. 

Not that we aren't still celebrating! My favorite corned beef recipe is in the oven, I tried my hand at Irish Brown Bread today, and made an "Irish Slammer" cake. We'll eat some Irish cheese and crackers for an afternoon snack, and enjoy a Murphy's and some Irish music this evening. I do have to admit, though, we will probably skip the "Barley Mow." 

One of my favorite St. Patrick's Day pics, from 2017

An Octopus Garden Party

I know, months have gone by since I've posted!  I keep taking pictures and videos, and filing ideas away under "Blog this Later" in my head.  But when I finally sit down in the evening, my brain goes all foggy and the best I can do is catch up on Facebook or take a Buzzfeed quiz.

This past weekend, an expecting friend allowed me to throw her a baby shower.  I say, "allowed" because she was initially kind of anti-shower, but recognized the benefit.  After I promised no cheesy games, activities, or fuss, she warmed up to the idea and even suggested a theme: An Octopus Garden, because that is the theme for their nursery.

At first I thought, "What is in an octopus's garden, anyway?" But I needn't have worried, because, Pinterest.  So, we hosted An Octopus Garden Party, with cupcakes and mocktails.

I found some perfect table supplies at Party City, with blue and green sea creatures.  I had the most fun making the octopus decorations, though.  Because, of course, there are octopus in an Octopus's Garden.

This guy was easy.  We saved toilet paper rolls for about a month.  I painted him and five of his siblings in light blue, sea green, and coral.  I meant to take a picture of the whole family, but forgot.  After letting the paint dry, I cut eight slits about halfway up for the arms.  I put a rubber band around the center of the tube to make sure I cut the arms (fairly) evenly.

Then, I gently rolled the arms out.  I wanted to put something on the bottom of the tentacles to be like the suckers, and settled on pom-poms.  A little hot glue:

I originally thought I'd use them the whole way up the arms, but one at the end of each was perfect.  And, of course, the googly-eyes.

I also made these guys:

My intention was for them to be octopus, but I think he might look more like a jellyfish, so, you know, whichever.  These felt more time-consuming to me, and required a bit more an assembly line approach.

First, I painted paper plates, although I certainly could've used colored paper plates.  I also thought paper bowls would've worked well.

I then cut all the lengths of streamers for the tentacles - I just guessed at the length, and then used one as a template for the rest.  I think they're about two feet long.  I used eight per critter, and just scotch-taped them around the inside.

I also cut two lengths of string with which to hang the octopus/jellyfish, and taped it at the four edges, and in the middle for good measure.  What a mess, right?  So, I took a plain paper plate and attached it to the bottom.  I intended to use my go-to, hot glue, but it didn't work out with the ridges.  So, I used double-stick tape all around, and that held up fine.

So here's how everything looked the day of the party:

In the center of the table is a gummy-fish bouquet, with gummy-fish skewers I found at Wegmans and fish lollipops from Amazon.  There's a tiny fish bowl (a candle holder from Michael's) with assorted colors of Swedish fish, and the homemade cupcakes have either a gummy-lobster or gummy-whale on top.  I thought maybe we needed something to balance out the cupcakes, so I made fresh fruit bouquets...maybe not in an underwater garden, but garden-y, yes?  And I can't believe it didn't occur to me to get goldfish crackers to put in the tiny fish bowls, as well!  Oh well.

I lived dangerously and did plan one (possibly) cheesy activity.  Ok, two, but one is more interesting than the other.  The less-interesting one was just to have slips of paper out, asking people to give advice to the expectant parents.  However, I also encouraged people to give advice or their favorite inspirational quote. Not everyone is a parent, and I remember always being at a loss at baby showers when I was asked to give advice before I was a parent.  Not that I have great advice now, necessarily! But I hoped that helped non-parents not feel as awkward.

I wish I had a better picture of the second activity.  I bought a small, cheap-o wooden frame at Michael's and painted some coral-looking stuff on it, and left the rest of the frame blank.  I put out paint markers and asked people to doodle their favorite sea creature on the rest of the frame.  We had everything from starfish to a crab to one of those glow-in-the-dark fish. I was a little worried about how it would turn out, but it came out better than I expected.  Here's a picture of one of the guests working on her fish:

You can kind of see the frame.  If the guest-of-honor sends me a photo of the frame, I'll update with it.

Finally, or I guess, it was really first thing since it happened before the shower - I asked everyone to send me their favorite children's songs, and I made a compilation CD, with who submitted each song in the track listing.  I think it was the mom-to-be's favorite bit of the shower.

I should add that I travelled to Pittsburgh alone for this shower, leaving Miss A home with her daddy.  I missed her so much, but enjoyed hanging out with the one guy at the shower.

This is one of the guest's little guy.  The shower really zonked him out, but he was most charming during the party, in his little suit!  

Ok, ok, for CERTAIN friends and family who will be disappointed they read this whole post, and didn't get a single picture of Miss A, and who say, NO, a cute picture of another baby WILL NOT CUT IT:

Here she is getting tickled by her Daddy on Memorial Day.

A ONEderful Birthday!

Abby had a spectacular first birthday weekend.  She started off the day by playing peek-a-boo with a yet-unnamed moose from her Great Grandma.

Maybe we'll call him Peekaboo Moose?

Then, we had lunch at Brooms Bloom.  No ice cream for Abby, though.  Just mac and cheese and chicken salad.  We wanted to take her to Christopher's Train Garden, which is right there.  Unfortunately, she was terrified of the loud train noises.  Maybe next year!

Abby would rather be playing with Peekaboo Moose

Grandpa made a special lasagna for Abby's birthday dinner.  Lasagna is one of her favorites!

Now, I had assumed that Abby's first cake would be at her party.  This didn't sit well with her Daddy, who insisted we get her at least a cupcake.  Since this gave us an excuse to get cupcakes from Flavor Cupcakery, I agreed.

We put on Abby's party hat...

As you can see, she wasn't a fan.  This might have influenced her lack of enthusiasm towards her cupcake.

She just didn't know what to make of the icing.  She kept grabbing it and trying to fling it behind her back.  She eventually ate a little, but wasn't thrilled.  Kevin wondered if she thought the icing looked like...something that usually comes out  of the other end.

Then, it was present time!

Daddy showed her how to show off he new pants...

...and she modeled her new cupcake hat.

Also, Grandpa made her this beautiful table and chair set.  I knew he was making it, but I didn't know he was making something quite this lovely!

Abby tries it out at breakfast the next morning.

After all this excitement, she still had a full-blown birthday party with all of her friends that weekend!

Photo courtesy of Sarah Prindiville

I love the picture of these kiddos playing!  They will be priceless one day!

Photo courtesy of Sarah Prindiville

Photo courtesy of Sarah Prindiville

Unfortunately, Grandma and Grandpa had to leave early.  But not before Abby played with balloons with Grandpa!

By now, Abby was a pro at opening presents.  Thanks to Miss Jenny for taking these!

Daddy photo bomb!

It was funny - Abby's gifts were quite indicative of the adults in attendance.  When you invite a bunch of teachers and librarians to a one-year-old's birthday party, you're bound to end up with a bunch of puzzles and books, which we love!  Abby also got an awesome baby laptop, as well as adorable shoes from the geneticist-now-stay-at-home-mom-who-loves-shoes. Really, it was easy to remember who gave what! 

Then, it was cake time!  Abby loved shaking her party hat around.  Wearing it, not so much.

Her opinion on cake had also not changed, although we did get her to try it, and, by the end, she was really sort of going for it!  I think it was too dense for her to really get a bite of!  As Danielle said, though, she was the first kid anyone has seen that cried at her birthday cake.

If you really like watching babies smash cake, here's a video:

What a busy day, with so much excitement!  Miraculously, she did take a short nap in the afternoon after cake.  Then, it was PJs and snuggle-time with Daddy.

A pretty good end to a ONEderful birthday weekend!

A Winter ONEderland Unfolds...

About a month before Abby's birthday, this story floated around my Facebook feed.  My intent is not to start a social/political discussion, but it really struck me.  It's a letter to an advice columnist from a mom who thinks her son has decided to be gay (and she would like to convince him to change his mind) because he is trying to get back at her for forgetting his birthday three years in a row.  The focus for most people, of course, is her non-acceptance of her son's homosexuality, which I think the columnist responded to beautifully.  However, seeing as how this came out a month before Abby's birthday, and I had already been planning her birthday party for a month, I was absolutely befuddled that this mom had forgotten her son's birthday, you know, the day she gave birth to him, for not one, not, two but three years in a row.  Even if you and I have different opinions about gayness, I think we can probably agree about the birthday thing.  Now, this woman says she is "very busy with work," and I am a recovering event planner turned stay-at-home-mom, but still.

But anyway, the point of this post is not to give social commentary on homosexuality or to go on about what a horrible mother I think this woman is, but to discuss about how I may have gone a little overboard with my own little one's first birthday.  No chance I would forget this girl's special day a single time.

At the party, a friend said, "I think people just do those crazy parties so they can blog about them."  I don't know if our party was "crazy," but I'm blogging about it.  If you're bored by party-planning, just skim for the pictures or skip this one all together.  I'll post about the actual birthday goings-on soon.

Staying Busy and Sanity

It's hard to believe that Abby will be nine months old tomorrow!  Seems like she just turned eight months...

 

Eight months is a very serious age.

Ok, not that serious.

I initially felt a little bit at a loss when we got back from our Outer Banks vacation in July.  Having family around to play with Abby all the time sort of threw me off.  I realized that Abby and I were both ready for a routine.  We've slowly been developing one over the last two months, and I'm feeling pretty good about it, now.  Of course, it will probably change any day now, as Abby continues to change.

The main thing, for my sanity, is to make sure we have activities planned for everyday, and to make sure we get out almost everyday.  Being a stay-at-home mom in a world where most people aren't is very lucky, but can also be very lonely.  Getting out and about helps!  We try to go to Diaper Gang, a baby story time with rhymes and songs, at the Harford County Library every week. It's fun.  Abby seems to love it, and I get to talk to other mommies.  I've also joined a great online community, Chesapeake Mommies, that has a lot of useful forums and a fairly active activities calendar.  We go to as many play dates and activities as we can.  

Grocery shopping and lunch with Daddy on Thursday (usually).  La Leche League Breastfeeding Cafe at Wegmans second Monday of every month.  Free coffee with purchase of bulk beans at Coffee Coffee on Monday.  Not that I buy coffee beans every Monday, but you get the idea.

We've started going for a walk everyday, even if it's just to get the mail.  When it's hot, like it's been the last few days, we just go up to our mailbox and back (we have a very long driveway).  If it's nice, we'll do the whole street.

 

When the temperature hits the mid-80s, it means it's time for the baby pool!  It's a little easier to manage than taking her in the regular pool, and, in any case, we've been losing an algae battle for the past few weeks.  I fill the pool up in the morning during her nap, so the water has a chance to warm up, and make sure I set it in a place where there will be shade later in the day.

I had forgotten about her swing for a couple of weeks, but we've rediscovered it, and she loves it!

We also spend a lot of time in her Exersaucer and playing with her stacking rings.

I know the jig is about up, though, as she thinks about trying to move.  Which, she's not totally into just yet, but I know it's coming.  Mamas, any advice for entertainment once she gets going?

Any day now.

Abby Goes to the Beach

...well, a little anyway.  Abby's first beach vacation was a little light on the "beach," but full of fun and excitement!

About a month ago, we took our annual Ulmes family vacation to the Outer Banks.

Abby went to the beach for the first time, and dipped her toes in the ocean.  She wasn't a big fan, as you can see below.  But my parents tell me that when I was a wee one, I was scared of the ocean, too.  A wave snuck up and startled me, and I was supposedly afraid of the ocean for years. I don't remember ever being afraid of the ocean, though, so I apparently got over it, and I'm sure Abby will, too.

This new adventure wore her out, though.

She had a little more fun playing in the warmer, more sedate tide pool a few days later.

This wore Abby out, too.

We didn't spend nearly as much time at the beach as we normally do.  The Ulmes don't like to go to the beach in the middle of the day to avoid the sun's cancer-causing rays.  However, Abby tended to take her naps before and after peak sun-time.  So, it was hard to sneak in beach time before dinner time and bedtime.  Abby did manage to stay up late enough one night for us to get some beautiful sunset pictures at the dock near our house.

We're looking forward to next year when Abby will be able to go down to the beach more and have even more fun playing!