Goodbye, 27

Well, I guess this is goodbye. I could make it last another hour and a half, but my contacts are blurry and I'm falling asleep at this computer.

Goodbye, 27. You were a great year. You were an incredibly busy and crazy year--never could have guessed all the things you'd throw at me! This time last year I was probably sitting awake in bed feeding a tiny baby, thinking of partying it up with my Reno friends for my birthday in 2012. What what? Guess I get to party it up with my FAMILY instead! Yeah, baby!

This post is weird. Just like 27 was a weird year. Good night! Bring on 28!

Stumped

I grabbed these stumps from my mom's neighbors just before Halloween. They were great pumpkin stands! But these suckers are heavy and I haven't taken the time to move them. So now I'm that lady with the stumps on her porch.

I feel fine about it. Sky loves them and decided she and Harper should take pictures sitting on the stumps. I know what you're thinking, and yes: Harper rolled off immediately following this shot. No crying though, because "her is a tough, tough girl!"

Rainbow Child

The typical California winter has started! Hello, rain! I don't miss snow at all and Sky couldn't be more excited about the rain. It rains VERY infrequently in Reno; infrequently enough that Sky once asked if the sprinklers were on outside, because why else would water dropping all over the sidewalk? And she thinks rain is funny. Remember when she laughed at the hail?

She just spent the last 5 minutes staring out the window, waiting for a rainbow to form above our house. ("I think I can see one! I think a rainbow is coming! Oh, never mind. It isn't coming yet. But it will...")

She has a good grasp on the whole why-rainbows-form concept:
"Do you know why rain makes rainbows, Mom?"

"Why?"

"Because rain knows I like rainbows."

Party Time!

Just got back from Harper's birthday party. Sunny and 62 degrees this lovely January day, so we partied at the park! Thanks to our families for coming to celebrate with us!

Here's a little sampler.

Oops, Sheep, Apps

Remember that time I was all, "I'm going to post Christmas pictures before Harper's birthday!" and you were all, "Cool!" and I was all, "Probably?"

That didn't happen.

I spent some time uploading photos, picking some to post, even editing a few (brightening a little, cropping here and there). Then I couldn't get my computer online and now Harper is a one-year-old.

Happy Birthday, Harp!!!!!!!

More on that in another post. We're having a family party for her tomorrow, so I decided to hold out for more photos before the birthday post.

Today we went to see the sheep by our house. Yes, a whole pasture of sheep! As pasturey as you can get on a hillside/roadside lot in residential San Ramon, CA. The kids had a great time staring at them and we got to enjoy some time in the 63 degree January sunshine.

At first all the sheep were way far away from the dock, but one sauntered on over to the fence near us. She found a tasty patch of clover, then told her buddy about it. All of a sudden all the sheep ran over to attack the scrumptious clover patch!

Also, I have a new fave iPhone app. It's called picframe. You should get it.

Walkity Walk

Harper has been very busy this past couple of weeks. Obviously she overheard me and Mike talking about her upcoming birthday and is determined to walk before she's 1.

She is so dang cute. And so tiny! With tiny feet. I love watching her walk. Party on, Harp.

Baby Kangaroo

I wanted to include pictures in the previous post about the baby kangaroo/hush puppy incident, but Sky was sleeping with the baby kangaroo at the time. Behold:

Hush Puppies

I can't believe I never posted this story. It is about 2 months late. Read it.

Sometime in November Mike brought home some hush puppies--little cornmeal-based bread bite things. Maybe you've eaten them before? They're yummy scrummy.

He brought home a large bag full of them. I warmed some up to eat with our dinner. Before we sat down to eat, Sky had been playing with a mommy/baby kangaroo combo she stole from Grammy's house, which was sitting quietly on the couch.

It occurred to me that the hush puppies were precisely the same size, shape and coloring as the baby kangaroo. I walked over to the couch, picked up the baby kangaroo, then walked back to the kitchen table and picked up a hush puppy.

Me: "Cool! The baby kangaroo looks just like a hush puppy!"

I then popped the hush puppy into my mouth. To the immediate wailing of one Skylar Comfoltey.

What the? Why was she wailing? She managed to find enough breath to sob out the words, "DON'T EAT HIM! DON'T. EAT. MY. BABY. KANGAROO!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Ah. There it is.

Of course, my mouth was completely full of hush puppy. I tried to explain myself, but instead started to laugh because why in the world would she think I ATE a little stuffed kangaroo? Nearly choked, then kept laughing. Sky wailing all the while.

After swallowing enough of the hush puppy to be able to speak, I said, "I didn't eat the kangaroo! It's a hush puppy!"

Sky: "DON'T EAT HIM!!! DON'T DO IT, MOM!!!!!!"

Me: "I'm not! It's not the kangaroo!!!"

Sometime between shoving the hush puppy into my mouth and Sky freaking out, I had misplaced the baby kangaroo. Finally located, I held him up for her to see. But she kept screaming. Looking back, it's possible she had too many tears in her eyes to be able to see what I was holding...

Me: "Sky! Stop crying!" (Trying so hard not to laugh; failing). "Sky! It's not the kangaroo! Look! LOOK!!! I'm HOLDING IT!"

Sky: completely out of her mind with grief.

Me: "Sky, why would I eat the kangaroo?! WHY WOULD I DO THAT?!?! I don't eat kangaroos! Or stuffed animals!"

Sky: calming down a little. "What is in your mouth?"

Me: "A hush puppy."

Sky: (between sobs) "Open."

So I did. I showed her the chewed up hush puppy and held the baby kangaroo in the air for her to bear witness of his non-chewed nature.

A couple of minutes later, Sky calmed down. I chucked the baby kangaroo back onto the couch next to its mom. Then I sat down and made the mistake of shoving another hush puppy into my mouth, which restarted the wailing.

At some point, I did stuff the baby kangaroo into my mouth for effect. That's neither here nor there.

The next time we ate hush puppies, I was instructed "not to eat the baby kangaroo; only the hush puppies."

Consider it a lesson learned.

Yearly Newness

Happy New Year!

2011 was a crazy, excellent year for us. We kicked off the year with Harper being born, then powered through 4 months of colic, got into the swing of things with 2 happy kids and took an Independence Day (week) vacation to CA where Mike simply happened upon a new job. Cool. We packed up and moved to CA, rented out our house in Reno (after failing to sell the blasted house) and Mike is now working smack dab in the middle of Silicon Valley. Now we live close to family and Target. Life is wonderful!

Top 11 bits of '11, in chronological order:

1. January 12: Harper was born!
2. April 10: Harper's blessing day
3. Mid-April: Christy turned me into a coupon freak
4. May: Zombies no more. Colic magically disappeared and Harper was a happy baby!
5. May 21: my left arm partook in the Rapture.
6. Mid-July: Mike accepted a job at 3LM
7. September 3: Moved our crazy selves to California
8. October 5: Sky turned 3!
9. November 17: Mike and I celebrated 10 years of being a couple. Punch Tropical, anyone?
10. December 16: Paid off our Dodge (got the title in the mail today!)
11. December 25: Celebrated our first Christmas with 2 kids! (post forthcoming)

Blast. It's already January 5th and I haven't posted about Christmas, but it'll happen. It needs to happen in the next 7 days, because at that point I'll be posting about Harper's 1st birthday! Holy schmoly.

For now, here's this: we had a great Christmas at home with our girls. Sky and Harper loved opening presents and Sky exclaimed "This is JUST WHAT I WANTED!" with the opening of almost every present. Can't beat that.

Happy 2012! May it be awesome enough to kick 2011's trash!