Outfit of the Week

Our friends Carrie, Morgan, and Greta passed this dress on to us, knowing how much I adore Liberty of London.  Carrie gave it to us when we picked up our CSA share last week, with the caveat that she would like a picture of (notoriously camera-averse) Clio wearing it.

Clio agreed.

Outfit of the week: camping edition

I'm trying to accept the new normal around here, which is that we have adventures and I don't manage to post them.  Instead of pretending that I'm going to get around to it eventually, I'll just share whatever snippets and photos that I mange and then anything more is just a bonus.

Case in point.  We went camping a few weeks back, with a number of families from the girls' school.  Clio got geared up, and I can't tell you how much I love this little, slightly dorky, tourist-in-training ensemble.  (Also the fact that she let me photograph her!)

Enjoy.

And as if that wasn't enough, next she added some knee socks and clipped on her kleen kanteen.

Can you stand it???

Outfit of the Week

Walking to our car at pick up today, a friend drove by, rolled down her window, and said "okay, you HAVE to get a picture of that."  She was right, and so I did.

It is truly spectacular.

Outfit(s) of the Week

Clio has really put together some doozies lately.

I have no idea what's up with that expression, or why she is holding her slippers next to her face like ears.
From this morning, I'd like to point out that she is wearing a velour bolero.

I think she chose it just to spite me when I said no to the taffeta party dress that goes with it. (The request was denied only because the crinoiline can't possibly fit comfortably under her snowpants!)

Oh, Clio.

Outfit of the Week

Sometimes, Eleri manages to get the dress-up clothes out of the basement and up into her daily wardrobe. She puts these things on herself, which is why she ultimately ends up with the layered look. (She's into layering these days anyway: short sleeve shirt over long, dress over skirt--that was a favorite tactic of Clio's at this age, too. Must be developmental, somehow?) I especially love the use of this dresses' waist band as a halter strap (which, incidentally, broke off and smacked her in the face when we tried to pull the dress down without pulling the stap over her head first. That was an unpleasant surprise.)

The self-dressing also accounts for the hunchback look, since Eleri can't pull her two shirts down under the dance dress.


Did I mention that she is also wearing sweatpants? Boys sweatpants two sizes too big, from the cast-off pile at school, no less.


And now that we're on the subject, Clio is rocking a while lot of a look here, too, only none of hers is from the dress up rack.

Outfit of the Week

I must say, Eleri is really coming into her own in this "column"

Outifit of the week, First snowfall edition

Winter is here, offering an endless array of new options to accessorize.

Love Eleri's choice of overscael prints and bold colors. Go, girl.

Outfit of the Week

I love this little orange hat. My friend Emily knitted it for Clio when she was a baby, and I had it out on my dresser with a little pile of things for a memory box I'm finally starting for each of the girls. (After much delay, I've decided to use my sister-in-law's method: one box for each of them to be delivered on their 18th--or21st?--birthdays. Maud figures this means about an inch per year.)

Eleri is very good at scavenging around the house and finding things she shouldn't have. Needless to say, this hat is several sizes too small. Don't you love the way her curls stick out the back? And what's with the onesie? Oh, that's because it is July in October (in Minnesota!) with temps clocking in in the 80s. Perfect weather for a wool cap., wouldn't you say?

Outfit of the Week

I went to an event at my high school this weekend, and because my friend Liz is the Alumnae Coordinator, and because her mother and her mother's sisters all went to our school too, I got to see her aunts Helen Mary and Martha for the first time in quite a long while. Helen Mary told be that she was once out with Lizzie when we were little kids, and she remembers seeing the loveliest, most put together woman with the most mismatched child, and when she remarked on it, Liz told her "Oh, that's Terry Terry Mama and Heather; Heather gets to pick out her own clothes."

As does Clio. Keeper of the flame.

Helmet Head

Unlike many kids, who are NOT interested in wearing things on their head, Eleri is way into her helmet. She calls it "Eleri's Helmie" and she requests to wear it all the time. Often just around the house. I captured her this weekend post-ride, having lost the pants but kept the helmie. She continued to hang out like this for quite some time.


The no-pants thing is fast becoming a THING:


While I was uploading photos, I also found this, which qualifies as an Outfit of the Week, and goes along nicely with the funny headgear theme, only because the way she is wearing this hat is not a fluke: she props it up on her head like that every single time.

Outfit of the Week

Outfit of the Week

Clio has continued to develop such a, well, specific style of her own, and she is applying said style to school days with such flair, that this "outfit of the week" really should become a regular feature of the blog. But this would require taking her picture daily, and then choosing the best outfit on Friday and posting the accompanying snap shot. And followers of this blog know that Clio does not like to have her picture taken. (Note to self: Clio does like to look at pictures of herself; perhaps, if given equal voting rights at the end of each week, and if allowed to see herself on the blog, Clio would cooperate with this project.)

At any rate, she wore such an- ahem, choice outfit this week, I had to risk all to capture it.


I didn't do such a great job. Unfortunately, it's hard to see the plastic butterflies in her hair, the result of the styling that followed her recent haircut at Lollylocks salon. And by this point she had removed her white, velcro-closure sneakers. And it's hard to get a real sense of the stains on her silky dress or its sagging hem. But you get the general idea: pink smocking plus peter pan collar plus embroidered pearls plus--naturally--bold red and white striped tights. with sneakers. For school.

Boy, did she love wearing this.

Outfit of the week

Another gem from the Morgan and Greta repertoire.
To quote Cat Deeley, "I mean, have you ever....?"

With those little criss-cross back straps, front and back views were totally necessary. I have no excuse for adding the side view as well. Except, well, have you ever...?

Cutest Eleri Outfit Ever

I mean seriously, mom. how do you do it?

Eleri sported the ensemble to check out her new birdhouse "in-out" toy



And to do some serious scavenging under the couch

Outfit of the Week

Another fabulous outfit, another unhappy photo subject.



I love that the dresses-over-skirts phase is more like a permanent obsession. And that most of her skirts also have built in shorts. And that Clio finally took a shine to these winter boots- in June.

Oh daughter, my daughter.

Outfit of the Week- inaugural Eleri edition

Now I know this has been a less-regular feature than the title would suggest, and I know it has not been featured in quite some time, but I was inspired by the very high cuteness factor of Eleri's corduroy jumpsuit this morning. Since almost all of Eleri's clothes are hand-me-downs, I thought I would get very, very bored with the outfits; but in fact, because Eleri is bigger than Clio was, she's able to wear things that never worked for Clio. To wit: by the time Clio grew into 12-month clothes like this jumpsuit, she was actually 12 months old and July is not the best time for corduroy, even if it is hot pink and has a butterfly embroidered on it.

Thanks as always to Greta and Morgan Harrington and their mom Carrie for a lovely batch of clothes back when Clio was a baby- the gift that keeps on giving!

Portrait of a Mom as a Young Girl

In keeping with the recent tutu images, my mom sent along this picture of me that she just came across. The bathing suit and tutu combo is a real winner.... almost as good as Clio in tutu and full winter gear!

The Meaning of Christmas

On the 8-hour Drive from Morrison to Carbondale on Christmas Day, Dave and I took a vote, which was unanimous: Worst Christmas Ever. This, of course, had to do with Eleri's double pneumonia, with Pete's stomach flu, with the power outages, ice storms, and driving weather that generally looked like this, or worse:


All of which, in hind sight, makes me feel like a complainer, and makes me wonder if we've all kind of forgotten what Christmas is about. My friend Statia was saying at our last Mom's night how much there actually is to Christmas, and how difficult she found it to explain all the elements of this holiday to a kid: flying reindeer, a fat man coming down the chimney, a tree covered with lights, and who is this Jesus character, anyway?

When we were leaving the hospital on Christmas Eve, the staff gathered around Eleri's car seat to coo over her one last time, and to see her off.

Earlier in the day, one of the nurses had presented us with a wrapped present, topped with a bow, which turned out to be a little pink stocking with a tiny teddy bear tucked into a pocket, and the words Baby's First Christmas across the top. "I was at the store last night," she said; "I saw this and thought, 'oh she just has to have it, especially if she's in the hospital for Christmas.'" The gesture was very kind, and as we left the hospital with our baby who had touched everyone in the Morrison Community Hospital, I realized that the first Christmas was, in fact, a baby's, and for many people it is still about a baby who changed the world.

On the pagan side of the holiday, I also found myself thinking about the trope of the Tree. When he was little, Dave nixed the idea of a Christmas Tree (I guess he was an early adopter of the Green movement). This year, when it looked like we would stay in Morrison for Christmas, apart from Barb's parents and brother, with whom she has never, as far as I know, missed a Christmas, Barb and I both had the same idea: we needed a tree. For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Peterson house would have its very own honest to goodness Christmas tree, and we would buck up and throw ourselves a tree trimming party.

In New York, you can buy a tree on the sidewalk outside just about any grocery store or CVS (once when Clio and I passed a lot after school, I told her how good the pines smelled; she threw her whole body into the pile of trees and emerged with the declaration: "YUCKY!"); in Morrison, you either cut down a tree on your own property (Barb's preferred method) or you drive on over to the nearest tree farm. When Dave came home with a tiny little tree in a pot, so it could be planted after the holiday, I was instantly reminded of A Charlie Brown Christmas, where Charlie Brown is sent out, much like Dave, to bring home the holiday centerpiece and, much like Dave, he comes back with a dinky little evergreen.


In the cartoon, Charlie Brown is lambasted for his choice: it is the 1950s or 60s, and brightly colored tinsel trees are all the rage. But of course Charlie Brown's choice is more about love than it is about aesthetics or commercialism, and when his friends all band together to decorate it, the little tree transforms into the largest, most beautiful tree around (at least, this is my memory of the story.) I would say that our tree, hung with the plastic-cow lights that Dave had back in college and photo-ornaments that Clio and Barb made together, was transformed by this same Christmas magic. I don't have an "after" shot, but I'm not so sure the spirit of the tree can be captured.

Of course, the holidays are mainly about connecting with loved ones, and we did manage to get Clio and Eleri some quality time with 4 grandparents, 4 great-grandparents, 1 step-great grandmother, 2 great-aunts, 2 great-uncles, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, a first cousin once removed, and her two cousins. Grandma Barb has retained many of Dave and Derek's original toys and gear over the years, and when she pulled out Memory, the Mommy and Baby animal matching game, I was brought right back to Christmas Eve, circa 1979 or so, when my cousin Christine and I received matching white rabbit fur hats and muffs from our own Nonny and wore them all night with our pajamas while playing the newly minted Memory in the long hallway connecting one end of the house to the other, and I realize that for me, Christmas has always been about cousins.

When I arrived in Minnesota from Illinois, my brothers and their families came to my parents' house for another round of Christmas celebration, and I had the fur-hat flashback again when I took these pictures of Clio and Lucia in their matching tutus in front of our-yes-vintage silver tinsel tree, just like the ones Sally really wanted in A Charlie Brown Christmas.
And while I couldn't find the picture that I know exists of Christine and I playing Memory, I did find these, which tell the story equally well.



And I know that we will remember this holiday in many ways (not the least of which will be a plaque that Pete might have carved for the tree once it is planted, which will read The 2008 Christmas Memorial Tree: It's Always Something), but you would be hard pressed to match the happy photos from the last two weeks with the list of things that went wrong, and I know we will not remember this as the Worst Christmas Ever. In fact, I no longer believe there could be such a thing.

Merry christmas, everyone.

Clio Encounters Christmas Decor (while dressed for Halloween)

We have a neighbor who decorates her front "yard" and chain-link fence for every season or holiday: red, white, and blue pinwheels for the 4th of July, pastel eggs for Easter, cornucopias for thanksgiving, you get the idea. Tonight on our way home from Titi's house, we came upon the winter/Christmas-scape, including a faded plastic Santa, some little skiiers, lots of lights, and a snowman that plays some kind of christmas carol. Clio stopped in her tracks, made the face that made Macauly Culkin famous in Home Alone (that perfect "O" mouth- don't tell me I'm alone in thinking this is one of the all-time great Christmas movies), and said, "I hear.... I hear.... I hear Santa snoring!"

And to add to the irresistible scene, this is what she was wearing (topped by her gold satin parka, of course.)

Delicious.

The Penchant for Pink Continues

The second photo is an outtake from a post from last October, which you can see here.

It's hard to say if Clio really loves pink, or if it's more that she just happens to have a lot of it, between Lucia's hand-me-downs, gifts from my mother, and some of my own choices, making the odds go way up that she might end up in pink from head to toe.

That said, I took her to Old Navy last weekend to pick out a winter hat and mittens. She happened to be dressed in all pink that day, too, and chose a two-tone pink polar fleece hat set. Now, it's true that I tend to be influenced by my own outfit when I shop, picking things that coordinate with what I'm already wearing; but I couldn't even get her to LOOK at the orange and green striped hat that I favored (in fact, she threw it on the ground). In the end, I enabled her pink habit by getting not only her choice of hat, but the pink fair isle version seen above as well.