Santa?

WARNING: if you are under 10 years old PLEASE do not read this post. It is really boring. I promise.
I'm taking a cue from my friend Kara B and throwing up a post that I hope will promote some discussion (maybe controversial?). I really would like to hear your opinions on this matter.
With Christmas coming up we have had many adults ask Cadie what Santa is bringing her and if she has been a good girl this year. Although she has no idea what they are talking about (she is 13 months old!) this is starting to worry me. Why so much Santa? Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to deal with Santa at all?
I've started to think seriously about a Santa-free Christmas. But how to do this?
I have no problem explaining to Cadie that Santa represents the spirit of giving, the biggest roadblock that I see is how to keep her from explaining that to others kids.
So there you go - has anyone done this? Any suggestions? Am I totally crazy? Is it impossible?

My Little Monkey
Cadie picked up the sign for "monkey" this week. It is hilarious! For her birthday she got a stuffed monkey that she likes to wrestle with because it makes funny sounds. She kept calling it a dog (doing the dog sign) and we would correct her with the sign for monkey. Sunday she busted out the monkey sign and won't stop. Anything that she doesn't know the sign for is now a monkey. This morning I entered her room and she was running back and forth in her crib signing "monkey" and making monkey sounds. Eric and I both started laughing.
We started signing to Cadie at about 8 months and she picked up a few basic signs but wasn't totally into it. This past month though it seems she has really taken off. It is great to be able to communicate with her!
My favorite example of how great baby sign language can be is this story: We had been showing Cadie the sign for "bed" for a couple weeks every time we put her in her crib. One day I was sitting on the couch watching her play and she stopped, crawled into my lap and did the sign for "milk" and then the sign for "bed." I knew exactly what she wanted - no tantrums or waiting for fussy/cranky mode to kick in. It was time for a nap!
Here is the monkey sign (and the monkey wrestle) caught on video:

Turkey Day in Chicago
Thanks to the Brooks for a fun weekend in the windy city! Loved the food, loved the city, loved the lights at the zoo, and loved being with good friends. Cadie loved following McKinley everywhere.

Happy Birthday Cadence Abigail!

Cadie had her first birthday on Sunday! We were all sick so we canceled the party but still let her dig into that cake. It was neat to have family join us via webcam. She wasn't so sure about eating the cake but enjoyed throwing it on the floor. Molly enjoyed that part as well.
The bath afterwards was almost as fun.

New Addition to the Toman Household

We have great neighbors. Within the first hour of moving in we had a plate of brownies and within the next couple of weeks many of our neighbors stopped in to say hi and introduce themselves with more cookies and treats. Our next door neighbors decided that with three kids and three fish tanks their home was a little too crowded so last week we adopted a 10 gallon tank with guppies and platies. We now have a fish room and Cadie loves watching them. She learned a sign for fish and wakes up in the morning doing the sign.

Knitting Again
A Hanna Andersson catalog that came a few weeks ago had the most adorable sweater dress on the cover. It reminded me of the hand-knit Norwegian sweaters that my grandmother made. I was inspired to dust off my needles and start some new projects. The first: Cadie's leggies.
This is my first attempt at creating a pattern and I'm "publishing" it here so I can link to it from ravelry.
Cadie's Leggies, size 12 months.
Materials.
Set of size 5 double sided needles.
Sport-weight yarn, I used a "baby soft" cotton/polyester blend.
Stitch Glossary.
k=knit
p=purl
Pattern.
Cast on 60 stitches, divide among 3 needles.
Row 1: Join round, *k2, p3, repeat from * to end.
Row 2: *k2, p1, k1, p1, repeat from * to end.
Rows 3-20: Repeat rows 1 and 2.
Rows 21-60: k60
Rows 61-80: repeat rows 1 and 2.
Bind off and weave in ends.
Changes I'll try next time
These turned out a little short and stubby for my 11-month old's long skinnies. Next time I'll decrease the total stitches from 60 to 50 and add about 20 rows to the middle section.

Shoe Obsession
She likes heels and furry ones the best.

Yummy for my Tummy Halloween Style

Dinner in a pumpkin

1 smallish pumpkin
2 lbs. sausage or ground meat
1 onion
3 cups cooked wild rice
8 oz baby bella mushrooms
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz sliced water chestnuts
Good glug of worcestershire sauce

Cut off a lid on the pumpkin and clean out. Slice onions and saute until tender, add meat and worcestershire and brown. Combine meat mixture with remaining ingredients and spoon into hollowed pumpkin. Put lid on, place pumpkin on a baking sheet and cook at 350 for 1 hour or until the inside meat of the pumpkin is tender.
Enjoy eating the pumpkin meat as well.

Monkey See Monkey Do
I didn't realize that I talk on the cell phone while walking around that often...

Fun Fall Weekend
We had a crisp fall weekend and enjoyed the weather and outdoors. Cadie finally got a helmet and she had her first ride in the bike trailer. She didn't like the helmet much but once we got moving she was happy and babbled along talking to her doll and anyone else that we saw. We visited small town Ohio (Circleville) for a pumpkin festival and were amazed at the crowds and at the HUGE pumpkins - the winner was 1375.5 lbs. We tried out the pumpkin fudge and pumpkin pie but couldn't find the famous pumpkin burgers. We didn't stay around long enough to watch the parade but did see "Miss Pumpkin," or maybe it was one of her attendants, walking through the crowds.

Cadie Version 2.0 (Walking!)

This is my hair.
This is Eric's favorite story-time book.

We found it at the greatest book store, Powell's, in Portland. My favorite bits are "This is my hair when I see a bear" and "This is my hair when my brother cut it."
One of Paige's last duties while she was staying with us was to cut my hair into a cute A-line, chopping about 8 inches off the back. She made it so cute with her drying techniques and straight-iron. However, now that she is gone I'm having problems replicating the style. So I'd like to add a couple of pages to the hair book.
This is my hair when Paige does it:

This is my hair when Paige is gone:

We miss you Paige!

We did it!

Eric, Paige, Ted, and I all finished the Akron marathon on Saturday in under 6 hours (the cutoff time) - and one of us (ahem "maybe I'll join you" Ted) finished well under that mark. Four days later we are still hobbling around but no longer needing ice packs strapped to us.
We have been in Ohio for almost one month now and here is the quick run-down:
Closed on our house and lived in it empty for a week until our stuff arrived.
Lost a tree, part of the roof and fence, and power for 4 days due to hurricane Ike.
Ate ox for the local high school football team.
Had visits from Mom and Dad (Myers) and McArthurs.
Ran a marathon!

Wow we have been busy - luckily Paige has been with us to help out. I'm sad that she leaves today.
We love our home and neighborhood and have great neighbors. I'll start posting more now that Eric officially has started work at the University and the home computer is free.

George Washington's House:

George Bush's house:

Our house:

Haven't posted for a while- we have been packing everything we can into our last weeks in DC along with trips to Ohio (found a house!) and Oregon (we miss you Oregon!). More details to come but right now I've got to pack while the little one is napping.

Aunt Paige
Paigie is staying with us for the summer - it has been great to have someone watch our home and Molly while we have been traveling and Cadie loves hanging with her. I think they look a little alike.

Le Tour
The Tour de France started last Saturday! My fantasy team is doing very poorly, but I am enjoying watching the stages - we actually have cable this year.

Happy birthday USA
And Happy Birthday ERIC!

Cadie and I (E) visited family in Utah while Eric was in Vail for work and then we met up in Denver where Cadie got to meet and play with cousins Kaeden (2.5) and Issak (5 mths). It was great to be back in the rocky mountains!

Well, since E made provided a log, I thought I'd put one together too. Here's our travel log so far this year:
DC
Maryland
Virginia
Florida (airport only)
Puerto Rico (including the separate island of Vieques)
New York (airport only)
West Virginia
Pennsylvania
Ohio
Utah (E and Cadie)
Delaware (E and Cadie)
Vermont (Eric)
Colorado
Germany
The Netherlands
Belgium

My favorite place is Maastricht in the Netherlands, although the Rhine Valley was pretty impressive too.

Marathon Training Log:
Ted: 17 miles
Eric: 16 miles
E: 14 miles
Paige and Molly: 10 miles
Ouch!
Only three more long runs before the big day!

First Tooth!
Cadie has been working on her lower teeth the past weeks (extra fun while traveling) and one broke through on Father's Day. Here is a (copyrighted) photo from a shoot on Thursday pre-tooth. Just had to share.

Bikes Everywhere
I love that Europe is full of bikers. There were definitely more bikes than cars in the Netherlands. We would see moms picking up their kids after school on bike - one kid in a front basket, one kid in a back basket, and one kid trailing after on his own bike. Homes had bike racks built into them. There were also many interesting bikes signs. Of course we had to take pictures.
Bike rack in Bacharach, Germany:

Eric in front of bike parking, downtown Maastricht, NL (no car parking in sight):

Bike sign in Tongeren, Belgium (translation anyone?):

And one more sign - can't remember the location:

Toman Family European Vacation
We just got back from a visit to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Eric had work meetings in Bonn and so we made a vacation out of it. Cadie was a great traveler but is having a hard time getting back to East Coast Time. This is Berg Eltz - one of the many castles along the Rhine and Mosel valleys in Germany, and my favorite. I'll post more when I'm less sleep deprived.

Happy Birthday to Us!
Within about one month Cadie and Amiya turn 6 months and Jess and I turn... a large number... We all spend the weekend in Ocean City to celebrate. Somehow I didn't get a picture of just the girls - Jess can I get your pics? We had some crazy allergies amongst us - corn, nuts, dairy - so there were 3 types of cupcakes. Did I mention that Cadie is crawling? Result: I'm not blogging or getting much accomplished. I did manage to run for 2 hours this morning as part of our marathon training. It was long and I kept my mind occupied by trying to do math. Seriously. Somehow basic math skills go down the drain when my heartrate goes over 150 so trying to figure out running benchmarks kept me busy (if that sign says I am 2.2 miles past the DC line and it is 3 miles roundtrip from my house to the DC line, how far have I run? - that one kept me busy for at least 10 minutes).

Cake vs. Pie (or any other dessert)


Normally when given the choice between desserts I chose the non-cake option. Cake is ok - it is just not my favorite. However, I have found a cake that I might chose over cookies or pie. SHOCK! It is cakelove's VEGAN vanilla cake with either chocolate or peanut butter dipped chocolate frosting. Cakelove is a bakery within walking distance to us that specializes in over-priced ($3.00 cupcakes!) cakes made from scratch. But their cute store and catchy name just make you want to love their goods. Cadie is allergic to milk protein which means I am not eating dairy and so a vegan cake option caught my attention. But I was skeptical - eggs and butterfat are usually important cake ingredients. I think the reason I am now hooked on cakelove's vegan cake is because it is really dense, moist, and flavorful. On the fluffy scale between angel-food cake and bar cookies, cakelove vegan is like a soft cookie. Now if I could just convince them to release the recipe!

Best Buds

Molly and Cadie have started "playing" together. Mostly this means Molly will visit Cadie to sniff out a dirty diaper or stuffed animal while Cadie bats her arms around trying to grab any fur she can. But occationally they will hang out next to each other and wiggle arms, legs, paws, and tails at each other.

We took a quick trip to Columbus where Eric had some faculty meetings, I looked into the job scene and we scoped out some neighborhoods and houses. We were able to spend a night in Cincinnati visiting Eric's friend Steve from high school. Another friend Mark came down from Chicago for the occation. It is going to be fun to live close to these clowns!

Crazy days...
Not much time to post - Aunt Paige was here, Jess and Amiya came to visit, and then Grandma Carol stayed with us and finally got to meet Cadie. Here is a picture from Easter and me sporting my new do (Thanks Paige!).

We braved the crowds last weekend and hit the cherry blossom festival and kite festival. We weren't in time for the kite battles but still had plenty of cool kites to watch. The blossoms were amazing - especially around the tidal basin where the branches draped over the water. Here are a couple of fun pictures. Cadie was just happy to be out and about with so much to see.

What the???
Something happened to the blog layout while we were out of town and I have no idea how to fix it. Why is the side bar at the bottom of the page? Any suggestions? Jess I think I need your help here.
Recap on the past 2 weeks: 1 week in Puerto Rico with friends Matt and Christina and then 1 week back in DC with sister Paige visiting. Cadie's nap/sleeping schedule is totally werid now but she was a great traveler and loved seeing the sights with Auntie P.
Here's a shot out of one of our hotel balconies that makes me wish we were still on vacation. Fresh mangos and papayas and 81 degrees on the beach every day. What more could you want?

How I spent my spring break...


Sun Bay, Vieques Island, Puerto Rico

Where do squirrels go when it rains? There are dozens of the little critters around our place - enough to keep Molly occupied all day watching them out the back door. Seriously - I always thought they lived in tree hollows but there are way too many squirrels and not nearly enough trees for them around here. And I have yet to see a soggy squirrel.
Alright - I also have a confession that I have needed to share for a couple of weeks. I ate squirrel. It was chewy and tasted like the spices that it had been stewing in all day and that is all I have to say. A friend, who will remain nameless in case all you squirrel huggers want to get revenge, had "game night" that had nothing to do with scrabble and pictionary. The venison and duck were delish and the squirrel... Maybe now that I got this out I can look at the little guys again without feeling guilty.

Lest you think we only have cute photos

Here is a funny one with Cadie's hair gone static. I don't know what it is about our couch but it can shock you!
We have had cold weather and an ice storm so we have stayed mostly indoors. Nothing too exciting to report. I guess it is just a mellow monday.

Not sure who's smile that is...
But she sure has inherited Eric's gift of gab. I'll post a video when I can figure out how to get clips off the little tapes... Cadie has been gibber-gabbing all day long. She even tried to sing along while I played Guitar Hero (I think Smashing Pumpkins was her favorite). I really wonder what she is trying to tell me.

Allright, I've (Eric) hesitated to post any political philosophies here because I appreciate many of us have different thoughts about how things should work and, even more importantly, you'd rather see pictures of Cadie. So here's a warning, there are some brief political ramblings ahead. Stop now if you'd rather not read them. It won't hurt my feelings. We'll be back soon with some new photos of the little one. Here's my new favorite. E got her to pose so nicely!



So, as all of you know the presidential primaries are underway. Last week our region had their chance to vote (the Potomac Primaries). Many of you know of my long time interest in all things policy (you've probably been subjected to at least one of my soapbox moments). Having said that, I haven't ever been really enthusiastic about a presidential candidate before, but this time around there's a candidate I've been pretty excited about since first hearing him speak in 2004 (while we sat in a hotel in Frankfurt). That's the first time I remember feeling inspired by a politician to believe in something rather than simply against something or someone. Living here has really made this next election so much more real than before. Traveling to the monuments here and reading the words of former presidents like Lincoln, FDR, and Kennedy, I have been struck by the strength and inspiration of their words. The only time I've been close to feeling that from a politician at any level in my days is from Barrack Obama. Since first hearing him speak, we've read a lot about him, listened to a number of his speeches, and talked to some friends from his Senate district. And I'm still inspired.

What's prompting this post now, is that I attended a rally last week on the University of Maryland campus. It was awesome, despite being in a .5 mile long line for over 40 minutes on what was (until then) our coldest day of the year. Some 15,000 people attended - it was so great to see so many people so excited about playing a role in the political process. But the best part was the positive nature of the message, even though he's in a heated primary and looking toward the national election, his purpose was to articulate his message of hope and a new way of doing politics beyond the old stereotypes and divisiveness.

For all you Colbert fans
We stopped by the National Potrait Gallery last weekend to check out their new acquisition: Stephen Colbert's portrait. It was hanging in the entrway to the bathrooms just before the presidential portraits. There was a line of people waiting to get their picture taken with it. This is Eric's portrait face:

The gallery also had a hip hop art display and I really liked the graffiti walls. We've been to the portrait gallery before but between the Colbert joke and the hip hop display there was quite a different crowd there.
We also visited Ford's Theatre (closed for rennovation until 2009), the house where Lincoln died, and the Natural History Museum to check out their new Rastafari exhibit. Cadie did great in the baby carriers. She has been obsessed with sticking her tongue out lately and licked my sling until it was so soaked I could wring it out.

You've reached the winter of our discontent
No I'm not depressed - it's just a great line from Reality Bites. Flipping through the channels last weekend we happened to watch enough of this classic flick to ask two important questions.
1) Did Ben Stiller have some work done? (Do you remember that he plays the straight-laced yuppie boyfriend of Winona Rider?) He looks a bit different - especially the smile.
2) Why do girls always go for the grungy greasy slacker guys? I admit, I had a crush on Ethan Hawke in Realty Bites and Viggo's pretty hot in LoRings. I will even go so far as to say I'd take Han Solo over Luke. So what is the deal? Why did Winona pick the angry, jobless, starving rock musician over the successful, convertible-driving, smart-dressing executive?

Here is a picture of Cadie sucking her thumb and holding a toy while sleeping to make this post more interesting.

Two Weeks in Pictures
I haven't been on the computer for a while. I'm sorry if I haven't returned your emails! This is what has been going on:
It snowed (Only #2 this winter),

Ted had a birthday,

Cadie laughs and smiles more and more until her 2 month shots put an end to all smiles (from mom and baby) for a weekend,

Brother Micah has a layover in Baltimore on his way home from Iraq (Cadie still remembering the shots),

Visit Jess and baby Amiya (3 weeks younger than Cadie) in Delaware,

Christina has a birthday,

And finally, Cadie turned into a frog.

Or maybe she just had frog feet.