It's official

Now that she's opened presents and gotten frosting on her cheeks, Amy is truly one year old.

If you are wondering what the inspiration was for the big smile on her face in the above photo, it's DADDY. Every home should have one!

And yes, I did color-coordinate the wrapping paper to her outfit (both of which are selected to match my scrapbooking supplies). So what?

This is probably the only photo from the present-unwrapping session that doesn't have ONE or BOTH of her siblings "helping" with the gift. I actually had to banish them to the other side of the room, which lasted for about a second. But, it's a proud older-sibling tradition to be unusually interested in baby toys on birthdays and Christmas. And to Amy's credit, she didn't seem to mind. She's so used to the noise and enthusiasm of her brother and sister, I think she actually thrives on it.
Look at me being all artsy with the camera. Actually, I took the picture straight-on and then used the 'straighten' tool in Picasa to tilt it. I also used the 'focal b&w' button to make the cupcake even more delicious-looking. Now, for a lot of scrapbookers, fancying up their photos is as natural as breathing, but I kinda stink at the photography side of scrapping, so this was a big deal for me. Baby steps, Joni. Baby steps.

This one was kind of gratifying. None of my other ones really went for the cake on their first birthday. This time around I made cupcakes instead of a cake and now I wish I'd done that all along. A cupcake is the exact perfect size for a one-year-old to pick it up in both hands and get a faceful of pink frosting. She still wasn't too messy - no frosting in the hair or anything - but I think that's because she was more concerned with eating than with playing. When it comes to desserts, she doesn't mess around. That's my kind of girl, people.

One year.

That was then, and this is now:




Check out my baby's footwear, huh?! That's pretty typical attire for her. Amy actually prefers to be barefoot but those sneakers are a little more work for her to get off, and she had other things to do... those buttons aren't going to push themselves!

Man, it kills me just a little, that she's (probably) the last baby and she's not going to be a baby for that much longer. I, um, kind of have a thing for babies (as you may have noticed by now). That said, as much as I loved it when Amy was squishy and tiny and wrinkly, she's sure a lot more fun now. Newborns don't blow raspberries or play peek-a-boo during a diaper change or sing along (and conduct!) with the hymns at church (and maybe keep singing after everyone else is done, just because they like the sound of their own voice).

We're actually celebrating on Saturday, because it's easier and because her cousin Miles is coming up for a visit. I'll be sure and get a lot more pictures.

Blah blah blah music blah blah.

Anyone who's spent too much time around me in the last couple of years has been forced to listen to me extol the virtues of Yahoo Radio. I discovered a while back that I could create my own customized radio station just by listing my favorite genres, artists, and songs, then listen to it all day long while tutoring or folding laundry or whatever - for free. (Sure, you had to put up with a few commercials every hour. And you could pay, like, $5 a month for commercial-free, but I'm too cheap. Every dollar spent on tunes is a dollar not spent on awesome scrapbook paper.) Over a period of time I refined my station to reflect my dizzyingly wide array of musical tastes. Because where on earth can you go from Death Cab to Steely Dan, followed immediately by a Baroque concerto, the Crunchy Frog sketch by Monty Python, and then a couple of tunes by Sinatra? Only on the internet, that's where. And I liked that it would suggest new stuff based on my preferences, so I discovered some bands I'd never heard before (Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, say, or Rogue Wave) as well as rediscovering some older ones (I had no idea I liked Guster or Joni Mitchell so much). Of course it took a little while to winnow out the music I hear far too often on the real radio, as well as what I just plain don't like. For example, the computer assumes that if I like Led Zeppelin, I must also like AC/DC and Ozzy Osbourne. This is an incorrect assumption. Van Morrison, yes; Rod Stewart, no. Dave Matthews Band, yes; Green Day, no. You get the picture. But after a couple of years I had something like 1,000 ratings saved so I had it pretty well tailored to my preferences (including about eleventy-million different recordings of Ants Marching, which after all these years I still think is pretty much the best song ever).

So anyway, now that I am staying home again I logged into Yahoo so I could listen to some free music and I found out, it was gone! Apparently they sold the whole Yahoo Music concern to CBS or something, and all of the user-customized stations got deleted! Which isn't a problem on the scale of earthquakes or pirates, or even layoffs, but it's a bit of an inconvenience. So I've been looking around for an acceptable substitute. I found out about Pandora on a scrapbooking blog, actually, so I've been trying that out. It's free, which is the primary recommendation, and you can listen to it on your iPhone, assuming you're hip enough to own an iPhone. (I'm not even hip enough to set foot inside the store.) Pandora is definitely different than Yahoo, better in some ways (like the profanity filter, which never seemed to work on Yahoo. This is a problem when you like Ben Folds as much as I do. Great music, lotta swears.) If this doesn't work out the way I want it to I'll try another site; any suggestions? I know about Rhapsody but I think you have to pay for that one. Have I ever mentioned being cheap?

Also, speaking of music, one of my favorite new-ish shows is Chuck (which is in its second season) and they have really been bringing it, soundtrack-wise. I've been starting to annoy Matt because every episode I'm like, "Oh man, this song is aaaawesooome!" and then he can't hear the dialogue or whatever. Enter TV Show Music... problem solved.

Spring: Broken.

So, the kids are on spring break this week. And it is freezing. It actually snowed yesterday (apparently the universe doesn't realize that if I wanted snow in April, I never woulda left Rochester) and it's supposed to be in the thirties and forties all week. Nevertheless, we are determined to make the best of it. My goal is to do something fun every day. Yesterday, for example, we went to the pet store (and cleaned the basement. Fun! Yay!); we also have trips planned to the zoo, the Children's Museum (for the first time since before Amy was born), the library, and Chick-Fil-A. Yes, Chick-Fil-A counts as 'fun.' Their food is delicious and they have an awesome play area.

Speaking of things that are broken, I went to Wal Mart yesterday and one of the things that I picked up was a replacement copy of The Princess Bride. Can anyone guess what happened to the original? If you guessed 'The kids broke it' you're dead on. Anyway, I got the brand new disk home and, guess what? That one doesn't work either. I was kind of bummed because now how am I going to know who is and isn't left-handed? So, I'll have to make yet another trip to Wal-Mart (which actually is a big deal because I usually only go there once a month or so) but it will totally be worth it to have The Princess Bride again.

Another thing that seems to be broken: I can't figure out why my blog posts are not showing the date. I keep going in to edit the template and it says that the date is already being displayed. Must be something broken in the new template... any suggestions? I am so not a computer genius.

Shiny!

My blog was starting to look pretty dingy, so I trawled the 'Net for a new style. Luckily there are like billions of free Blogger templates you can download (I've even saved a few for when I get tired of the laundry line). I've been working on re-building all my sidebar widgets; I think I've got everything in there except for my Web album of scrapbook layouts.

Up by the little birdie you can type in a search term and actually search my blog posts, which is pretty neat. If you're wondering how many of my posts contain the word 'poop,' the answer is: More than one. (Ditto with 'boogers.' I guess we know what kind of blog this is, don't we.)

And now that I'm looking at it, I'm realizing that the little B&W picture of me over there is seriously old. I took that picture when we lived in the old house so it's been at least three years. Looks like it's time for another self-portrait!