Salmon and Souvlaki

Help a good friend and ESOL teacher

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Laura

I have a soft spot in my heart for students who are learning English (obviously). My friend Katie is an excellent ESOL teacher. She teaches in Baltimore City and is currently raising money through DonorsChoose to purchase vocabulary activity sets for her students. Learning vocabulary is one of the hardest things about learning a language. Can you imagine being thrown into a situation where you needed to learn thousands of words at once?

Please consider giving to Katie’s project, “Fun with Words to Build Vocabulary.” Even a donation of $5 or $10 would really help Katie (“Ms. B”) and her classmates.

Thank you!

Posted in friends, school | 3 Comments

Lots of laughing happening around here!

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Laura

All three of these movies are from last Saturday. Enjoy the laughs!

Here’s Ellie dancing in the bathroom mirror with “Auntie” Julie:

Then we discovered that packing tape is hilarious! (I especially love the pause before the laugh.)

And finally, we discovered that loud kisses on Ellie’s head elicited the same response as packing tape (maybe because they sound similar?). The video was taken from the door because I didn’t want to distract her! And don’t you just love the dimples on her knees?!? 🙂

Posted in Ellie, movie | 5 Comments

Some literary baby quotes

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Laura

On nursing:

from The Science of Kissing by Sheril Kirshenbaum
“Kissing another person greatly shapes the ebb and flow of hormones throughout our bodies. The pattern of responses is laid down early; the hormones released in the body of a nursing baby girl, for instance, influence the responses she will have later in life. As an adult, she will experience positive emotions when she is kissed, hugged, massaged, and touched – thanks to the very same hormones once associated with nursing in infancy.”

On baby wearing:

from Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
“He doesn’t feel fine about Taylor’s being with someone else. He wants her to get his name tattooed on her person, or have his baby. Or both. Jax would like his own baby. He and Turtle could take it to the park, where they go to observe duck habits. He would wear one of those corduroy zipper cocoons with the baby wiggling inside, waiting for metamorphosis. He likes the idea of himself as father moth.” (I love that image.)

Posted in Ellie, nursing, parenting | 1 Comment

Movie Week, Day Seven

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Laura

Have you enjoyed Movie Week? We’ll try to be a bit more prompt posting movies from now on but we’re not making any promises. So you may see another movie week in a couple months.

For our final film, we feature a new extreme sport that just may make it into the 2012 London Summer Olympics!

Lap Launching! (Sorry that it’s sideways!)

Posted in Ellie, movie | 2 Comments

Making progress, part 2

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Laura

The quilting is done and I made the binding. I’m hoping to finish by the weekend!

Posted in sewing | 2 Comments

Movie Week, Day Six

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Laura

Nik and his mother both have this unconscious habit where they rub their feet together. It’s evidently hereditary because Ellie has started doing the exact same thing!

Here’s the proof:

Posted in Ellie, movie | 2 Comments

More baby blankets

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Laura

Lots of friends and family in my life are having babies these days!

So here are three more baby blankets I made recently:

For Kristen and Claire (pink because she’s a girl, green in case Kristen gets tired of pink) (sewn in December):

For Nikki and Luke:

For Lisa and her baby boy (to be born in about a month!):

Posted in sewing | 2 Comments

Movie Week, Day Five

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Laura

Here’s a little film we like to call “Inchworm Ellie.” She’s fond of doing this trick and then complaining because she can’t see. As you’ll see, we don’t feel sorry for her but we do tend to have compassion on her and set her upright again.

P.S. It’s also the peacock dress and pink/brown booties in action!