Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Them Grays...

With the unseasonably warm January weather I have discovered myself at odds with my hair texture. One day I look frizzed out like a pubescent 7th grader and the next I'm a borderline grease-ball with zero volume... except for the grays. They are their very own special type of hairs - wild and coarse and all different lengths (due to obsessive plucking over the past year). Well, I have given in to the little fuckers. No more plucking or hiding them. Sometimes I part my hair in order to show the best clump of frizzy whites, and bobby pin it right there - just so you know I'm getting old when you look at me in the supermarket checkout.

Eloise has had a really rough time since Saturday afternoon. Boogie Wonderland was a mob scene and my girls were pretty bummed out about the crowd because the grownups kind of dwarfed out the toddlers. It was dark and loud - and although Weeze loves to dance, she could barely manage a few steps because of the early stages of a little asthma attack. That night Myles returned from a call day and stayed here with Ruby while I drove Eloise to Richmond for a doctor's visit. Not so much fun. I had to hold her down for a nebulizer treatment - it was horrible. But I must say, our doctor is such a sweetie that he opened up his office in the middle of the night for us and put on some Bob Marley for atmosphere... he tried so hard to get Eloise to like him.

We made it through the night with about 6 hours of sleep, but then Myles was off again in the early, dark hours for another short day at the hospital. I spent Sunday basically coping with a miserable kid, plopped in front of the t.v. every 4 hours (you try getting a 22 month old to sit still for 15 minutes). She just hates it. Almost as much as I do... But the nebulizer wasn't enough to regulate her breathing so now we've started the oral steroids (which we have to force down her throat while she coughs and sputters)- which have FINALLY taken effect. We still have to nebulize too, just not as often. Ugh. So I feel slightly brain dead. Zero energy. And little Ru has been a total sport during all of this, which just breaks my heart. She just goes and reads to herself and plays pretend with her "guys".

So I'm ready for a recovery. The entire family has been sick in one way or another for about 3 weeks. I'm so afraid the worst is yet to come! And by the end of this season I should have at least 50 new gray hair follicles developing from stress and exhaustion.

(Bring it on.)

Friday, January 20, 2006

I'm 30!


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
For those of you who didn't know, I turned 30 on January 4th. For my own personal celebration I spiced up my lonely afternoon with Ru and El by making a full fancy tea party spread, complete with the Tiffany tea pot and a tablecloth. This is me using the self-timer function on the camera - which is pretty cool because the girls like to look at the flashing light before the camera goes off.

Myles is on call tomorrow so I have a pretty lame day ahead of me - but not to worry. We do have Boogie Wonderland to go to, which is a special family-centric disco party at a local club... they have advertised it as "from James Brown to Jay Z". Considering Eloise's superior dance skills we should have a very good time. All the hoodlums will be there I'm sure.

Did I forget to mention that we had Audrey the wonder nanny start this week? She comes Tuesdays and Thursdays and now I have NO excuse to not get a portfolio or a show together (I think, well, at least that's the idea). She's just the best - and although I'm struggling with extreme guilt while I'm gone - I know it's the right thing. Somehow I can't really see myself getting used to separation from the girls. What does one do when their toddler goes to school full time? Oh my oh my that seems like it should be ages away....

Anyway, I'm really going to attempt to check in on my blog more faithfully and just jot down something - even if it's just to write about gray hairs. I think I feel pressured to post photos, which makes me not update anything. Ugh. I'm such a lazy slug.

sundown in my home


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
We get these dreamy late day shadows when there's been a sunny day. It makes up for a lot, considering how boring some of these January days can be. Is it fair to say boring even though I have two very non-boring kids? Maybe that's the wrong word.

The bakelite napkin rings were a xmas gift from my dad to all of us. There are actually 4 - one for each family member. It's sweet because Ru and El just love to play with the doggies at the dinner table - and I get some sick pleasure out of the fact that they're already handling bakelite at such an early age. HA! And they drink Rooibos tea with me...

Monday, January 02, 2006

Almond Paste


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
I think my next art project should probably be made out of marzipan - I mean - if you can make a hot dog out of almond paste and sugar, just imagine the possibilities... and of course the deep meaning behind whatever you sculpt. It would really be a statement about a woman's role in la cucina, no? What if I made a marzipan dildo? Or just a marzipan penis?

Perhaps I should just stick to making a marzipan brooches for farmer's market.

Marzipane


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
After Christmas my mom and I went into the North End of Boston to visit our friend Sarah - with the intention of getting new shoes for Ru and El - but we got kind of side-tracked by food. Our lunch was delicious as usual and the girls were hypnotized by the array of sculpted marzipan at the Italian bakery. We got them little chocolate sandwich butter cookies that looked like leaves - and I scored a marzipan carrot. Then we went back to Sarah's place and tore up her apartment... with lots of shrieking and stomping around in her closet... while we chatted and sipped some yummy coffee. It was a most delightful day. Simple pleasures...

Party Coats


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
Once we arrived at my mom's house, we got to go to the annual Xmas sing-along at the Haynes'... in our Holiday Best! Did you know that the red-eye reduction function gets disabled when you are wearing the two extremes on the color spectrum... in this case, red bows and black coats make for rodent eyes! Regardless, I think they are pretty f-ing cute. And Eloise particularly liked "We Three Kings" once we started singing. She danced her little Elo dance the entire time.

Bindi Madness


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
The weekend before Christmas we exchanged gifts with Ra-Ra and Pops. Ruby was quite fascinated with the bindis and ended up with a nice pattern of bindi glue on her forehead once we took them off. It stayed there collecting fuzz and Miguel fur for a couple of days.

La Casa di Gingerbread


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
I think we did okay for first timers... with limited supplies and limited icing. Feliz Navidad!

Jim-Jams


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
I realize that I don't feature myself in these photos all that often (could anyone guess why?) so I thought a little insight into our bedtime story moment might be nice for my viewers. Look at how curly their hair is after a bath! I just want to eat them up... and the clean jammies! It's just too much.

Morning Toast with Jam


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
Now that Weez has finally gotten over her sippy cup addiction, she has been more interested in eating and shoveling food into her mouth.

Roo


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.

Weez


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Originally uploaded by mollieholliday.
These two photos are from our holiday card collection - the ones that didn't make it to the final mailing.