Category Archives: Real Life

Real Life :: The Peach’s Nightmares.

Oh lord. Baby nightmares. Man, those night terrors are killing me.

The Peach will all of sudden start calling for Mama around 2:00AM.  When I get to her crib, I realize she’s actually asleep, just wiggling in her crib.  I pat her widdle bottom and shhhhh her back to happy dreams.

But recently she woke up crying crying crying, “Mama! Mama! Light ON!!! Da Bunees falling DOWN!!! And PEACHIE FALL DOWN TOO!!!

Who are these bunnies that are terrorizing my child’s sleep? These evil twins of DOOM.

Here they are in all of the nightmarish glee:

The Bunny Twins was actually my book growing up. I remember loving it. It’s actually just as cute an innocent as it looks. Bunny brother and sister having a blast.

Everything goes swimmingly for the bunny siblings, Fluffy and Flipper until Flipper decides to take his sister on a little wagon ride…

Of course chaos ensues from Flipper going too damn fast. Who does he think he is? Mario Andretti of the rabbit set? BAD FLIPPER!  And Fluffy falls out and cries a cry of deep soulful pathos and pain.

But by the next page they are off and hopping away to play blindman’s bluff!

And yet, that one page is enough to send my little one into a fit of nightmare agony.

What is up with that?

And it’s killing me sleepwise. Oof!

Has anyone else’s little one experience them? What did you do?

Real Life :: Walking in a Winter Wonderland.

I love living in California…for the most part, we have amazing weather here year ’round. Yet as a Michigan girlie the thing I always crave are the four seasons. I love warm, sunny days but I have to confess nothing is more magical to me than freshly fallen snow. When I go back home for the holidays, I love having a white Christmas….there is something so peaceful about walking around outside and all you hear is the snow crunching under your feet.

When we arrived, we had warm coats and hats, but were sorely lacking in the foot wear department. As evidenced by Wolfie in his parka, wooly hat and…Yo Gabba Gabba Vans. Brrrrr! I know my parents think we’re the Crazy Californians.

Someone definitely had cold toesies, poor bunny. I promise, we bought snow boots shortly after this photo was taken. The coat, I must say, was fab. I bought it at Old Navy when they had their annual 50% off sale. Crazy cozy and super warm. (This is it.) You’ll see more pics later on in its full comfy glory!

We headed to my parents lakehouse, which is the best place ever. The lake is always a magical thing to see. In the summer, everything is green and lush and the water is as smooth as a piece of blue glass. We love to swim, watch the turtles and putter around on my parents pontoon boat. It kind of blows your mind in the winter when you realize that you can walk on the water…

One of our little traditions at the lakehouse is a tasty waffle breakfast. My mom’s waffles are the best. She has this really awesome old waffle iron from the 50s (maybe 60s?) and it makes the best waffles. Nice and crispy outside but a little cakey  inside. Always with real maple syrup, please. Yummm.

In addition to snowboots, my mom got Wolfie his snow pants—and they were so cute, like little overalls. The fake furry hat I brought back from Prague! He was quite pleased with himself in this get up.

Then it was outside to build a snow man. Or should I say, snow men! Wolfie and Greg went to town and made a ton of them.

Wolfie was Mayor of Snowman Town. I kind of loved the teensy one….and the little stick arms are the best.

See? That jacket was the bomb. Cozy AND cool. (faux fur, natch….)

Look at my sweet little snow bunny…..so cute and rosey cheeked. And wowzers, did he LOVE the snow.

Greg and I went for a drive around the lake and it was so pretty. The trees look so stark against the white sky.

I was pleased to see that my favorite little vintage snail playground toy (which was all rusted up last year) had received a fresh coat of paint and was lookin’ brand spankin’ new!

One of my favorite times of day is when the sun sets and suddenly the snowy white landscape is covered in a blueish glow. It truly feels otherworldly.

I know for you lovely folks stuck in the deep of winter there are cold realities….shoveling snow, icy roads and the biting wind. If it’s any consolation, Californians are wusses. Especially San Franciscans. Most of those lovely Victorians don’t have central heating and we freeze our buns off when the temperatures “dip” into the 40s. But in my mind I see you all hunkered down by a crackling fire, with a mug of cocoa….enjoying a silent night under an inky blue sky. A girl can dream, right?

Entertainment for a Two Year Old’s Birthday Party

Image via: Ohdeedoh.

Friends, I need your help.

I want to throw the Peach a proper fun birthday party. Nothing too fancy but still fun for all–kids and parents.

I’d love suggestions of kiddo entertainment. Nothing too fancy like one of those bouncy houses, but something still fun for kids that won’t take up too much time or energy or money.

Theme-wise, we were thinking trains–because we could leave up the vintage trains that my Dad brought with him for the Peach’s Christmas. And she LOVES them.  Truly, truly loves them! Hmm… Is that weird for a girl to have a train party?  I don’t think so. I think it’s great!

And, let’s face it I’m a working mama, here–so I have a feeling Professor Dottie from the Slap Dash School of Crafting might make an appearance or two…

Please leave a comment and let me know what’s worked for you and what you’ve seen not work.

Thanks and stay tuned…

Alix & Dottie at the Modern Kiddo Holiday Party!

Dottie: Dahlink! I’m making reservations for us! We’ve had quite a year….I’ve decided we deserve a little Modern Kiddo holiday party celebration so it’s high tea at the Palace Hotel!

Alix: Ooooh, that sounds amazing. Argh, I’m so slammed at work though…are you sure we’ll have time? I know you are crazy busy too.

Dottie: Lady, I’m not taking no for an answer. We are finding the time! We need this!

30 minutes later

Dottie: We’re booked! I can’t wait.

Alix: Hurray! I can’t wait either. Where did you say we were meeting?

Dottie: The Palace Hotel!

Alix: Fabulous!

3 days later.

Dottie: Hey, do you remember what time I said we were meeting for tea?

Alix: I think it was 2:00 next Thursday…oh and where is it again?

Dottie: The Palace! You’ll love it.

Alix: Yes! I can’t wait.

1 week later.

Dottie: Thursday is our tea! YAY! You can still go, right?

Alix: I know I’m so excited!!! YAY! I’ll totally be there. Um, where are we meeting again??

3 days later, Thursday. Tea Day!

Alix: Oh my god, Dottie. Please don’t kill me….

Dottie: What’s wrong? You can still meet for tea, right??

Alix: Yes totally! It’s just….I forgot the name of the place where we’re meeting.

I wish I was embellishing this story to be funny, but alas I really did ask poor Dottie like FIVE TIMES for the name of the place. And you’d THINK I’d remember something as glammy as the Palace Hotel. In my defense I was sick as a dog, it was raining buckets all week and I every time we talked all I heard was “Tea! With Dottie! YAY!” What this story illustrates is how sweet, generous and PATIENT Miss Dottie is. I tell ya. So yes friends….we met at the glorious PALACE HOTEL…which has this insanely lovely atrium. It’s all glass ceilings and chandeliers and a HUGE Christmas tree in the middle of it all.

Darling Dottie showed up in a reeeeally cute little vintage ensemble including a special holly berry Christmas scarf.

She promptly ordered us The Royal Tea which came with some SUPER yummy little tea sammies (my favorites? Bosch Pear with Point Reyes Blue Cheese Cream and Honey and the Cucumber with Sun Dried Tomato Mousse….heaven!). Then out came the little the tiered pastry platter, piled high with tea cakes:

Decadent and delicious! For the tea itself I chose their special Oriental Spice (a warm and spicy blend with orange peel, vanilla, ginger and cinnamon—perfection with a splash of milk and honey!) and Dottie chose the elegant classic, Earl Grey. BUT the best part of The Royal Tea is that it comes with a small bottle of champagne….which was so tasty that you JUST MIGHT want to order a second bottle. And which we promptly did, thank you very much.

We had a terrific afternoon—engaging in fun and silly blogger gossip (“Can you believe she gets over 700,000 hits a month! Amazing…I die!”) and touching upon our goals for modern kiddo (“I really want to start vlogging” and “We could totally be on Martha, right??”). Ultimately we decided that the main focus should be less about what else we could be doing and more about all the things we had already accomplished and were most proud of. We toasted how far modern kiddo has come, we toasted our favorite moments of the year, we toasted how cool our readers were and most importantly we toasted our friendship—which has grown by leaps and bounds over the course of 2010. And that my friends is worth way more than a MILLION hits a month.

*clink*

Oh, and if you have a moment, won’t you please clicky on this banner to vote for your fave gals at Modern Kiddo on the Top Mommy blogs? It takes two seconds. Just click the brown banner below and it will automatically register a Modern Kiddo vote! Easy peasy! Thank you ever so much!

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St.Lucia: Starting New Holiday Traditions

Via: Hagerstenguy.

Friends, you know my obsession with all things Swedish, right? But I think it all culminates in this wonderful holiday, St. Lucia’s Day.

OK–I’m not Swedish or Italian or have any reason to celebrate St. Lucia Day, And it’s way past December 13th, which is St. Lucia’s Day, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love love love that holiday with all my heart and wanted to share my love/obsession with you all!

The story of St. Lucia isn’t that well known and there are several versions, but I like the one where St. Lucia is portrayed as a fiesty young Italian lass who hid a persecuted Christian family in the catacombs and led them by fixing a wreath of candles on her head.

I just think of this sweet little felt one…

via Frontier Dreams.

And I love Sweden’s take on it with the St. Lucia buns.  Oooh yeah! Spiced with saffron and currants.

via Stephanie Levy

via Flickr user, hfb

The only other person I know that love St. Lucia as much as I do is the wonderful Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy, who one holiday season a couple of years ago created these darling little St. Lucia kits.  Here is some of her work.


I love the Carl Larsson paintings of St. Lucia. So beautiful.  I want that tea set too.

As this holiday comes to a close, I can’t help but think about what I’d like to try next year.  Would it be wrong to get the Peach to start bringing us cookies and coffee in bed while wearing a cute little crown and lights?

Have you celebrated St. Lucia’s Day? Have you taken traditions from other countries and called them your own just because you like them?  And please tell me I’m not crazy for wanting this!