Daily Photo

What am I gonna do with this pasta?

It’s lemon flavored. My parents brought it and a bunch of other goodies back with them from their trip to Italy.

I’m very excited about the pasta, but I’m just not sure what kind of sauce to make with it, or if I should just dress it with some olive oil and parmesan. I don’t know… Major life decision.

They also brought back some delicious chocolates, which are also lemon flavored (and they have some kind of alcohol).

They’re hard to explain… They’re almost like malted milk ball lemon drops (with booze in them), and when you bite into one, you get a rush of lemony flavor. I haven’t had anything quite like them before.

I’m really excited about this cute tabby cat-themed garland and journal, too, because I love old-timey maps, and the paper is handmade and really thick (I believe that the garland kitty is holding a fruitcake).

The notebook and the garland came inside these cool little bags, and I’ve always thought that bags from foreign places look really cool because you can see the addresses and the language.

They’re like getting a souvenir with the souvenir. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

So…something scary happened last night. There was a big fire on the ridge across the street from our house!

Right after I took this pic, big flames shot up the hill. Needless to say, I freaked out a little.

El Hub started hosing down the roof and the trees and the hill outside, while I…well, I ate an apple.

Yeah, that goes to show how useful I am in stressful situations, LOL!

Maybe I was subconsciously carbo-loading for what I thought would be a long night ahead…

We started preparing to be evacuated, which has happened to some of the neighborhoods in the Bay Area lately because of wildfires. I pulled the cat carrier out of the closet, called my parents to let them know what was up, and made an odd mental list of things I’d need to grab before running out the door, like the baby (of course), Tabs, the backup drives, my personal documents and a box of keepsakes and mementos I’ve had since I was a kid.

I also came to the humbling realization that I really have no control over anything. In my mind, I like to think that I’m in control of my life and the things that happen in it, but if those flames had turned our way, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.

It was very scary.

We found out later that it was a two-alarm vegetation fire. Dozens of homes were evacuated, but luckily there were no injuries, and no homes were destroyed.

That was a close one!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

You know you’re from Northern California when you go to the beach and you’re shocked — SHOCKED! — to find that you don’t need to wear a sweater or jacket.

We took Connor to the beach for the first time yesterday. We went to Fort Cronkhite, which is on the northern tip of the Golden Gate on the Pacific side, because it was in the 90s and probably the last hurrah for hot weather here in this part of the Bay Area.

It’s usually windy and cold at the beaches here, but it was warm enough yesterday for a tee. And there were actual regular people swimming, too. Not just surfers clad in wetsuits.

It was probably still a little surprising for Connor because she started crying when her toes touched the water for the first time.

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GURRRRL, you know I had to do it. When I saw the words, “Future Lady Nerd,” at Target, it took me less than two seconds to get that onesie in my cart.

These cute baby clothes are by a new brand — well, new to me — called Baby Cat & Jack.

I’d never seen them at the Target by my house before, and target.com says they don’t even launch until August, so I guess this store got them in early.

They feel really soft and sturdy and pretty well made. And they’re affordable. The onesies are $4.99, and the set with the top and pants is $10.

So often when I see onesies with sayings on them for girls, they’re things like “Born to shop!” which, yeah, not the most inspiring message, but I can get behind something that promotes future lady nerdiness. 🙂 If Connor wants to be an astronaut on one of the first missions to Mars, I’m in total support of that (although I’d miss her terribly if she were 40 million miles away in space, waaah!).

I ended up getting the “Morning Person” onesie because Connor is, like her daddy, a total morning person, and I also got the other set with the — what is that, a bear? Or a cat? I couldn’t resist the print and the matching pants with the ears and the eyelashes on the knees.

Yet another baby outfit I wish I could find in adult sizes. That list is getting alarmingly long, LOL!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

I wonder if there’s a built-in feature with baby biology that erases the memories of all of the hard parts about pregnancy and the difficulty of labor and delivery, and just leaves behind all of the good stuff, because all I feel are good things whenever I see Connor.

Our little coywolf is four months old now, and she’s kicked it into high gear! Her arms and legs are always moving, and she recently figured out how to roll onto her belly and hold her head up to look around.

She loves that point of view!

She’s constantly trying to crawl and gets frustrated when she can’t. She has, though, figured out a modified form of locomotion on her tum where she lifts her booty up and kind of scoots along.

I wonder how much time I have left before she’s off and running and I’m chasing her around…

Right now, Connor Claire loves…

• Rolling over. And over. And over. And over. And over.
• Skyping her grandparents (seriously, technology is AMAZING).
• When mommy dances with her. We listen to music when she’s lying down, and I’ll take her legs and move them to the beat. She smiles and laughs! 🙂
• Waking up early. Oh, boy. I think this child is a morning person, and she’s a HAPPY morning person. She’ll wake up at 5 or 6 and lay there babbling to herself for a good half an hour. It’s really funny, but now I’m starting to wonder who she’s talking to… Is my house haunted? I hope not! And when I walk over to see her first thing in the morning, she grins from ear to ear.
• Being outdoors. She really enjoys picnics and going for walks to see and hear the sights and sounds.
• Exploring the world with her hands. She has this activity mat with hanging toys, and she’s figured out how to grab things and hold onto them. Her favorite toy is a purple toucan named “Sam.” She talks to Sam, strokes his feathers and tries to bite his beak!
• Sucking her thumb. Another new discovery. She’s obsessed with that thing…

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. Thank you, Auntie Stephanie, for this pretty purple outfit!

Oh, boy, sweets, I think your niece is going to be a handful. This baby… She does not stop wiggling! I tried to take pictures of her in this lovely outfit with mixed prints, and for the life of me I couldn’t get her to sit still.

Notice how her limbs are always in a different position!

It’s a good thing, I suppose, and it’s great to see that she’s active and interested and playful (although I may live to regret those words when she’s running around the house like a bouncy kitten).

El Hub has a theory that she’s going to be a high energy baby, and I’m inclined to agree. This week she discovered her feet, and now when she’s lying on her back she uses them to scoot herself across the floor. She also just figured out how to turn herself over. I found her in her baby gym on her tummy with her head up.

It’s exciting and scary at the same time. Our little angel is officially on the move!

Oh, and this outfit is yet another example of baby clothes that I wish were available in adult sizes, LOL! I’d wear striped rainbow pants with a polka-dot shirt in a hot second. Wouldn’t you?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

I don’t know what I did in this lifetime or a past life, but somewhere along the way I got lucky because Connor Claire is a pretty happy baby.

Well, most of the time… I’d say like 83.5% of the time… Maybe 87. She’s easygoing, quick to smile and a joy to be around. It’s easy to snap pictures of her smiling or looking thoughtful because those are her usual states of being.

But sometimes in pics she looks like she’s throwing SO MUCH SHADE. It totally cracks me up!

It’s like when you’re just about to leave the office, and you’ve turned off your computer and swung your bag over your shoulder, and you feel like this inside…

But then your boss shows up out of nowhere and says, “If you could do this one last thing for me, that would be great…”

So much baby shade, HAHA! Yeah, I’m pretty sure I made this face on the daily when I was a legal assistant.

Oh, and this is the face she gave me when I made her promise to never star on a reality TV dating show.

The reason for this request was because I’ve recently started watching The Bachelorette.

Yeah, apparently I’m one of the last people on earth who had never seen it before. It’s streaming on Hulu right now, and I put it on one day while I was feeding Connor.

Holy freakin’ crap! It cracks me up, but in an unintentionally funny sort of way. I know it’s been on for years and tons of people love it, and I can TOTALLY see why it’s addictive, but are these dudes for real?! Because they really seem like they’re trying to “make a connection with Jojo.”

Do people actually get married and stay married after meeting each other on this show?? I guess it’s not technically impossible that you could find someone to marry on a reality show… I guess…

Dearest Connor Claire,

Please note that as of June 2016, the official transcript states you promised your mother that you would refrain from ever starring in a reality TV dating show.

Thank you. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen