p-p-p-p-p-poker face

patrick's friends from work invited us over for another poker night. the kids have tons of fun, plus there is food, booze, and gambling involved.  after i looked at our pictures from the night, i realized that piper and patrick are the same person. look at them.  exact same thoughts at the same time. 

breakfast buddy

even if i eat giant scones, at least my daughter eats a healthy breakfast.  i'm pregnant, ok!?!?!!?!?!

there's a sweet little bakery around the corner from us with big, yummy treats and mismatchy plates.  when piper was really little, i put together a few saturday playgroups for working moms through the 'bucktown babies' group and held them here. we were able to just lay down a few blankets near the low chairs in the corner and let the babies do their drooly baby things. and now that piper is older, she loves to sit on the little kid chairs at the kids table and play with the toys from the toy shelves.  of course, she likes to sit at the big people chairs and eat breakfast with her mama, too.

a progressive dinner

creative interpretation of table setting (emily post would never approve)

we did a progressive dinner with friends! ... the theme was spring, but as this was back at the first weekend in march, spring had not yet arrived (it's here now though! it has been gorgeous, and we've basically fast forwarded to summer. ahhh.).

the original plan was four houses, but the flu struck our appetizer stop. we missed have our friends with us, but had plenty of food nonetheless! ours was the second stop.

first stop (small plate): braised short ribs, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts.
second stop (small plate): filet with plantains and gremolata (or shrimp with plantains and gremolata).
third stop (dessert): tartlettes and oreo truffles

the last time i did anything with the word "progressive" in it was about 11 years ago, in claremont, involved dorm rooms, not homes, and there was no food involved. in retrospect, food probably would have been a good idea.

has anyone else done a progressive dinner with friends?  if you have, i'm wondering how you set yours up ...

do i look like julia roberts?

in terms of portrait style preferences, i guess i would lean toward the more candid and outdoor versus the posed studio portrait.  but i had a groupon (impulse) that i had to use and thus was born our 2011 holiday cards.  the photographer was marc hauser. he's photographed some pretty famous peeps.  albeit, in, like, the 90's ...

the pretty woman herself

 woody allen

sophia loren

 michael jordan

and to add to the ranks ...

miss piper larkin, 14 months

mr. hauser definitely sticks to his style.

our session was bizarre and fun in a crazy way.  we were welcomed into his live/work open loft (a straight shot south of us on the same street) by his assistant.  he and some other assistants were sitting around the kitchen table in the middle of a hand of cards.  we felt like we'd walked into their dinner party, yet their conversation didn't even skip a beat, as if people always walk into their kitchen.  which i guess they do.  the walls were coated in frames of his work.  he had funky furniture, and old box cameras on display.  on his bedside table he had no fewer than 30 bottles of prescription meds. we wandered around and admired his work while he got ready for the shoot.  he wasn't particularly personal or impersonal.  he was a little friendly, took to piper, but let his assistants do most of the work, and talking. 

i didn't know this until after our session, but in 2004 marc hauser and an assistant were badly injured falling in a crane while on a shoot in seattle:

We were both knocked out. I remember frantically yelling at my assistant to drop his camera, but he refused, and it punctured his chest, leaving him paralyzed for life. I shattered my leg in five places and the impact of the fall had detached my retina from my eye, which has caused many complications.

... ah! this explains why he rode a motorized scooter in his studio and wore an eyepatch. probably also explains why he's on groupon now. makes for a rather tragic bio.

the shoot itself lasted only a few minutes.  it was late, and piper was not in the best mood, but we managed to get something for our holiday cards.  and a little portrait that i'm absolutely in love with.  classic piper.
we sat around his coffee table with him while they printed a large image for us to take home. marc suggested it be printed more sepia, which is his signature style.  it was kind of surreal, to sit across from this man with an eyepatch while cindy crawford, dennis rodman, a ballerina in a tutu and a sullen boy in a charlie chapman halloween costume stared at us from his walls of work.  he told us about where he found the chair he used in piper's photo.  once our photo was ready, marc signed the print.  and we left not knowing exactly what had just happened! was that fun?  was that weird?  more than either, it was memorable.

eventually we'll frame that print and hang it in our home, and now you know the story behind it.

ps and to my dismay, there is nothing julia roberts about me in the photo. damn.

room tours with piper

this week piper alice larkin takes us on a tour of her bucktown loft:

well really, one evening piper disappeard into her bedoom and since most of our pics are in the living room, i grabbed my camera and followed.  not much goes on in there most of the time.  sorry for the blurriness, took me a minute to figure out how to adjust.

usually that picture frame and dish are not on the table (aka on the floor), for fear she'll pull the table onto herself and the glass items with it.  but i threw them back up trying to make it look better in there since i had the camera out.

blurry, but piper showed off with some yoga moves on her fuzzy mat.

here she shows us her push puppy and where her closet is

her humidifier is an elephant, so now she's just pointing out the elephant and making elephant sounds

we still use the built-desk for a changing table. works great!

and we can easily slip the pad under the table if we need some desk space.

but the fun part of her room is the chalkboard wall ...

she loves chalkboards!

there's a clear cover over that outlet, dontcha worry now

and ... in not too long, we'll be bringing in a toddler bed so that baby brother can use the crib

27 and 29 weeks

27 weeks

29 weeks

the zoo on a sunny february day

one of the things i thought i had learned to expect living in chicago is a brutally cold winter season.  this year i was really worried about squeezing a preggy belly into my zippered down coats, and swollen feet into warm boots and socks.  and with no "winter respite" type of getaways planned, i figured i'd probably loose my mind by march.  yet i'm happy to report my mind is intact (i mean, for the most part).  turns out chicago had a surprise up its sleeve this year.  this has been the most incredibly crazy-mild winter, probably on record.

so on a sunny february day, piper and i headed to the for some mommy daughter time.  i've been really busy at work and i needed some time with my piper face. 

the afternoon was for the most part uneventful, but i'm going to post about it anyway.

some clinginess:
we started with the gorillas, chimps, and apes.  when pipes realized what she was looking at, she was happy to state, "mokey! ooh ee ah!" <-- her monkey sound.  but honestly, she was pretty skeptical and super clingy.  she didn't cry, but she was really uneasy.  smart girl, i mean, who are we to take for granted that those clear walls are really going to hold back multi-hundred-pound animals?

the stare-down:
next we went to see the cats.  puma, cheetah, blah, blah. piper said, "meow" and was ready to move on.  then we got to the lion lounging on the rocks.  piper's best animal sound is probably her "rawr" because it comes out so girly and petite. 

the lion honed in on piper (i really didn't like that).
piper looked directly back at the lion (you don't scare me). 
stare down ensued. 
then piper said, "bye bye lion" and was done.

outside:
we ventured back outside to run around a little bit.  as usual, my beautiful daughter stopped foot-traffic and she chatted with strangers.  they say, "look at those shoes! well hello! what's her name?  she's soooo socialable!" people sure do love babies and toddlers. 

the polar bears weren't out.
i don't think i've ever seen them.

and the birds in the bird cage scared me. eagle = WAY too big.

and so on:

• we went to check out the seals pool, where a little girl paid more attention to piper than to the animals.
• then onto snakes and lizards.
• the moles were a big hit with the adults, who all totally blocked piper's view. but she squeezed in and made some friends. there were a lot of adults at the zoo that day. 
• next, we saw turtles, then a fox, and some kangaroo things (wallabies?)

above ground seal pool

underground seal pool

 

looks like the aquarium
but with no fish
come here, little seals!

iguana/monitor

watching the moles once some of the adults finally  moved out of the way

there's a fox in there somewhere

after the zoo we went outside for a little walk to take in the spectacular weather.

we walked over the bridge

this is piper "sitting" "still" for a picture

self portraits didn't go so well either. oh my god, chinchilla child with a mama in desperate need of some lip color.

 boring photo, but pretty excited for the petting zoo behind that little white fence to open up for the season!  it's right across from the green city farmer's market, too!