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Carmela loves to sing. On a scale of one to 10, singing ranks very high. Like, a 40. This happened today while Mama was making cheddar drop biscuits.  Enjoy!

Ela meets ice skating for the first and second times

Here in our little town by the sea, the city's post-Thanksgiving celebrations include hanging a huge star on the Macy's downtown, putting up a tall Christmas tree, and putting in the carousel at Westlake Center.  A quick Monorail ride away is Seattle Center, where Winter Fest is in full swing, with a winter village and train set and, best of all, ice skating at Fischer Pavilion!  Mama and Ela decided to check it all out on Saturday.

Mama took Carmela last year (and maybe the year before; Mama can't remember), but Miss Ela was too little to do anything but sip hot cocoa and watch.  This year, Miss Ela was brave enough to try it.  So, Mama and Ela laced up their skates and grabbed a little walker.  Honestly, Mama thought maybe on this fledgling flight they might go around a few laps, and then Miss Ela would be done (bored, a little scared, too hard, etc.).  Mama was so wrong.  Miss Carmela June would like everyone to know that she LOVES ice skating (except that the boots hurt her feet), and that she would like to do it every weekend!  She and Mama skated and skated and skated.  They took a short break for popcorn and cider, and then skated and skated and skated some more.  She had no control whatsoever over her walker, but she loved it when Mama pushed her and they went fast.  She loved it so much that she was absolutely DEVASTATED when it was time to leave, and cried, and screamed (which never works with Mama, sadly), and there were tears and snot everywhere.

But, what luck!! The next day, Daddy was home from work, and Mama and Daddy agreed to go ice skating AGAIN.  Hooary!  Mama, Daddy, and Ela laced up their skates, grabbed a walker, and set out on the ice again.  Daddy did great (it was his second time skating, and the first in about 20 years), and Carmela loved it.

There was a little excitement at the rink when a big girl (8 years old) fell down and hit her head on the ice.  She knocked herself out for a few seconds and the staff had to carry her off the ice.  Daddy went over to help her and did some EMT things while everyone waited for the Seattle Fire EMTs to show up.  Daddy checked her out and told us the little girl was OK, but Carmela wanted to keep watching because it was so interesting!

Carmela did a great job when it was time to go, and is happily looking forward to going again next weekend.  Hooray!!

Carmela has a snack of popcorn during her first outing to the ice skating rink.

Carmela loves when Mama pushes her fast!

Look at the grin on that kid!

Skating with Daddy.

Carmela does her superstar dance to show how much she loves ice skating.

So, how do you chop nuts for biscotti?

Ela and Mama got to bake a whole bunch of cookies today.  It was awesome.  Ela has the most important jobs, which include pouring, stirring, rolling into balls, dipping in sugar, chopping nuts, and tasting.  Mama has boring jobs, like measuring, melting on the stove, stirring in all the flour, and putting things in the oven and taking them out with her oven mitts.

Fortunately, Ela is very creative, and likes to figure out new ways of doing things, like chopping nuts.

Thanksgiving 2012

At the moment, Mama doesn't have any pictures of Thanksgiving dinner, partially because of the camera (again with the camera), and partially because Thanksgiving was at Miss Carmela's house this year, and Mama was busy running around eating cheese and visiting with Nana and Grandpa.  But, Miss Carmela did want to make some turkeys this year, so she and Mama spent Thursday doing some crafting.  (Daddy had to work on Thursday, so Ela and Mama did some crafting and visited some friends that day, and we celebrated a family Thanksgiving on Friday instead.)

The turkey princess holds up her turkey with its beak.

A close-up of the turkey.

A close-up of the turkey princess.

Ready to go to Auntie Katy and Uncle Chris's for dinner.

Trick-or-treating 2012

Miss Carmela June was so excited to shimmy into her mermaid costume and venture out into the dark drizzly night on Halloween night!  She was a little shy about saying "trick-or-treat," though, and it didn't help that at the very first house, the owner's little chihuahua came shooting out onto the porch yapping its head off.  Ela is terrified of dogs (we're not sure why, except unpredictability is a big problem for her, and dogs can be sort of unpredictable).  So, in those anxious moments just after ringing a stranger's doorbell on a dark, rainy night, there was a fierce chihuahua barking like crazy, a shimmery purple mermaid shrieking and trying to back away with her legs cinched together by a tight shimmery purple mermaid sheath skirt, a lady apologizing profusely and trying to make up for it all by pushing more candy on the shrieking mermaid, and a certain mama and daddy trying hard not to laugh.

The remaining houses were less exciting, which was fine with Miss Carmela.  She got the whole "trick-or-treat" thing down, and was very brave about selecting her favorite candy (Tootsie-Pops, it turns out).    (Also, M&Ms.)  She was a tiny bit unnerved by the older kid dressed as a gorilla, but as mama and daddy were on their way home with her anyway, it all worked out ok.  In the end, Ela was thrilled to get to sort her candy and see what she got.  Success!

Back view of the mermaid costume.  Basic sheath skirt with bunched up tulle for the tail fins and a bit of tulle around the bust for a bikini top.  We lost this element pretty quickly, honestly, because it was sort of pointless.  The undershirt is a light pink gymnastics leotard.

Front view of the mermaid costume.  You can almost see the sequiny headband.  Fun, easy costume to make, and a nice addition to the dress-up basket!

Happy kid with her "trick-or-treat" loot!

The flu

After all the excitement of the Halloween party and seeing her friends, and then going to the farmer's market and having a picnic and watching the drummers, Miss Ela June woke up from nap not feeling well at all.  A general gripe about a tummy ache turned into a 102-degree fever, flushed cheeks, watery eyes, and all-over body aches.  Poor little girl threw up in the middle of the night, but Mama's old friend Ser told her all about the layers-of-sheets-on-the-bed trick (Ser has three boys), so it really wasn't that big of a deal.  It was just a bummer to see our happy girl feeling so under the weather.  Mama's had her on a steady diet of toast with honey, water, Pedialyte, and Children's Tylenol.  She ate three (itty-bitty) bowls of chicken noodle soup for supper (mostly broth) last night, too.  (Mama was glad that was mostly digested before her puking episode last night ....)

She's still feverish today, and doesn't have much of an appetite, but her spirits are a bit better, and she's definitely looking forward to spending the day in her fuzzy jammies and watching TV with Daddy.

Nobody likes the flu.

Halloween 2012

Halloween is a big event for the Doctors.  It starts in September, when Mama and Daddy figure out when the farm is open, and how much the pumpkin cannon costs.  We go pumpkin hunting early in October, and enjoy carving our pumpkins into jack o'lanterns.  Sometimes we roast the seeds, but generally not.  For some reason, despite the fact that they're dry, crunchy and salty (all great qualities), our family just doesn't care for snacking on pumpkin seeds that much.

This year, Uncle Jason bought It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, so Mama and Carmela had a screening with some pumpkin pie.  Joy.

Then comes decorating the house with little black spiders, spider webbing, rubber rats and bats, and jack o'lanterns.  Daddy also builds a sort of seated scarecrow out of old work clothes.  He has no face; just a creepy mask.  (Mama forgot to warn the milk man last week.  Mama kind of wishes she could have seen his face as he came up the front steps.)  Uncle Jason has a fake severed leg and a fake severed arm that he likes to put out to up the scare factor.  Ela *really* didn't like them last year because they were too scary.  (She called the severed leg Little Foot, and very gravely told us many times that she did not like Little Foot.)  This year, she thought they were alright, and even tried to trick Mama into thinking she hurt herself.  Ha!

During this time, Mama and Carmela figure out what Carmela wants to be for Halloween, and then they go to the fabric store to pick out the material.  Mama enjoys this part a lot, especially because little children's costumes are very forgiving!  (Note: Ela would like the remainder of her flapper girl dress fabric made into a mermaid costume.  Mama has some Internet research to do ....)

Then comes the Halloween party.  This year, because Ela's a bit older, she got to invite quite a few neighborhood friends as well as some friends from her old preschool.  We played some silly games, ate some pizza and cupcakes, and Ela had a wonderful, screeching, jumping, balloon-bonking, beanbag-tossing, footprint-stamping, apple-chomping good time.  Whew!  We had a fabulous time, but didn't get any pictures.  One of our friends has a great camera, so when we get pictures, we'll post them to the blog.

Carmela is reintroduced to Little Foot.

"Ow, ow! Mama, I hurt my leg!"

Purple flapper girl dress and sequin flower headband.  It's some sloppy sewing, but in the dark from a distance, it looks pretty cool!

Bean bag toss game.  Daddy did a bang-up job carving out the jack o'lantern for the bean bag toss, and even lit it up with a fun yellow light on the inside!

Learning the finer points of jack o'lantern carving with Daddy. 

Very detailed work in progress.

Next up:  Trick-or-treating!  We'll post pictures on Thursday!

Baking cookies

Mama's really excited about having an enthusiastic helper in the kitchen, for things like mixing and stirring, and especially for rolling out cookies.  As Ela gets older, it gets easier and easier to encourage her help.  Mama thinks she's going to have a perfectly great helper for cookie baking day this December.  When Grandma DD and all of Ela's aunties and cousins (Aunt Patty, Aunt Lynda, Aunt Kim, Bizzy, Sarah, Becca, and Ally) get together at Grandma DD's house to bake cookies, Ela and Mama bake cookies on the same day all the way across the country here in our city.  (We make Grandma DD's Austrian Chocolate Balls, so it's probably a good thing Bizzy's on the other side of the country, because Mama hears that Bizzy likes to eat them all!!)

So, until cookie baking day, Ela and Mama will keep practicing.

Miss Carmela June lines up the cookie cutter after rolling out the dough.

Getting the gingerbread boy situated just right.

A few spooky Halloween gingerbats!

Guess who loves making cookies? This kid!

Zoo visit

Ela loves going to the zoo, but Mama doesn't go that often because, frankly, Mama gets hopelessly lost every time she goes, and everyone's a cranky, hungry, overstimulated mess by the time they stagger into the front door seven hours later.

But! Mama's old friend Michelle offered to share some passes with us, and because she and her son, Liam, go all the time, she knows *exactly* where she is and how to get to the exits!  We had a great time visiting with them and seeing the flamingoes, lions, wolves, bats, and everything else. We're looking forward to joining them again!

Pumpkin patch 2012

What a gorgeous day!  Miss Carmela June joined her good friends at the pumpkin patch for a fun little train ride followed by a hay ride into the pumpkin patch to pick out some perfect orange pumpkins.  She found two, and lifted them all by herself into the wheelbarrow.  After a picnic lunch with her friends, she got to shoot a pumpkin out of a pumpkin cannon. Cool!  She fed some goats a goat snack, said hi to a peacock, and snacked on some pumpkin spice donuts, too.  The sky was perfect blue and sunny, and there was lots of dried corn stalks and deep red and orange sunflowers to make for a perfectly beautiful fall day.

Mama and Ela check out a goat from a safe distance.

Carmela works up the nerve to feed a goat some goat snack out of her hand.  She ultimately concluded that she was not all that interested in feeding goats out of her hand.

Who's a champion goat-feeder? This kid!

Ela pulls into the depot in her pony train car.

Hanging out in a wheelbarrow in the pumpkin patch.

Three little friends.  So sweet.

What a great day at the pumpkin patch!

Fish ladder

It's salmon-running season here in the Pacific Northwest (coho and steelhead? Maybe?), so Carmela made a play date with some of her friends to go see the fish ladder at the Locks.  We only saw one salmon (he must have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque), but he was magnificent.  Then we saw lots and lots of boats, a minor boat wreck, and neat ship stuff at the visitors center. Fun!

New leotard!

Ela was so excited to get a surprise package in the mail from her Great Grandma DD and Great Grandpa Gary.  She was delighted to tear open the paper and find two new leotards to wear to gymnastics!  Thanks Grandma DD and Grandpa Gary!

A quiet moment

Ela reads a story to her best cat, Tiny.

Apple picking 2012

This year, Carmela decided to invite some of her friends from preschool to come along to our favorite apple orchard for some apple-picking fun. What a ball!  The girls got to ride in an apple cart, swing on the tire swing, teeter on the teeter-totter, and munch all the delicious apples they could eat.  After a picnic lunch at the orchard, Miss Ela June hugged her friends goodbye and snoozed in the back seat all the way home.

Waiting for a ride in the wheelbarrow.

Swinging on the tire swing.

Ela munches on a delicious apple.

Snoozing all the way home.

State Fair 2012

We have been looking forward to the State Fair (which Miss Carmela June has been calling the "county fair") for weeks!  We all went last year and had a great time, so Mama and Daddy have been watching for it, and as soon as we saw the announcement and mentioned it to Miss Carmela, she was off and running with the idea of it.  And today, finally, we got to make the drive to the fair. Hooray!

Mama didn't take many pictures this year, partly because the cell phone doesn't take very good pictures, but also partly because as Miss Carmela June gets older (and more fun. OK, I said it), Mama finds herself and Daddy actually *doing things* with her, and not just standing around snapping pics.  Just by way of context, this state fair is a lot more 4-H/community club/senior center driven, and much less professionally organized and produced.  So, in the interest of a recap, a few of the highlights:

• The racecars at the speedway.  Unlike last year, Carmela has developed a dislike of things that are loud, so we didn't spend very long. Mama did notice as we were making our way for the exit, however, that Miss Carmela did seem to be cheering for the red racecar.
• The horse races.  These were fun, but not as much fun as last year because (a) last year we caught the barrel races, and this year was just down-and-backs, and (b) the kids riding the horses were a bit inexperienced, so the horses weren't buying it.  Sometimes the horses walked, sometimes they stopped, a few actually turned around.  This made it kind of funny, too.
• The Hawaiian dancers. We didn't see this last year.  Carmela enjoyed it, and tried a little Hawaiian dancing of her own.
• The lumberjack competition.  Basically, lumberjacks chopped wood, but it was fun to watch!
• The animals.  We saw goats, sheep (and felt their wool), alpacas (we felt their amazing wool, too), cows, dogs (which were competing in a dog show!), and bunny rabbits.  Carmela was checking out a big male goat when he suddenly bleated out a big billy goat, "BAAAA."  It made both Mama and Carmela just about jump out of our skin. Mama thought it was pretty funny. Carmela not so much.
• Elephant ear.  Carmela enjoyed this treat so much that she ran around and around and around and around and around after she ate it!
• Miscellaneous stuff.  Mama and Daddy and Miss Carmela got to see a lot more this year because Miss Carmela is a bit bigger, gets around more easily, and has a greater attention span and greater curiosity about and interest in things. 
• Alas, Miss Carmela was too small for all of the rides, so we'll have to hold out for next year.

Carmela enjoys some carne asada tacos after seeing the racecars and horse races.

A good example of the miscellaneous things we were able to see this year: The historic Shanahan cabin.  Carmela was very interested in working the old water pump to make water come out onto her hand.

We spent a long time at the water pump. Simple pleasures.

Carmela poses as a cow.

It's so hard to come home. She snoozed the whole way from the fairground to the house, and only woke up briefly when Daddy walked her from the car to the front door. She remains sacked out in her bed, still wearing her clothes. We think she enjoyed her day at the fair.