grasswire

Well she’s all you’d ever want,
She’s the kind they’d like to flaunt and take to dinner.
Well she always knows her place.
She’s got style, she’s got grace, She’s a winner.
She’s a Lady. Whoa whoa whoa, She’s a Lady.
Talkin’ about that little lady, and the lady is mine.
Well she’s never in the way
Always something nice to say, Oh what a blessing.
I can leave her on her own
Knowing she’s okay alone, and there’s no messing.  :))
Well she knows me through and through,
She knows just what to do, and how to please me.
She’s a lady. Whoa, whoa, whoa. She’s a lady.
Talkin’ about that little lady and the lady is mine.

You can also listen to the original here.
 

It’s the last week of the semester and it feels sooo good!! Well, it will actually really feel good after I grade some 200 papers that they will all turn by the week is over, but still… We also had quite an exciting weekend but I choose not to go into details of our car breaking down on the highway and a wedding from which starved people escaped to McDonald’s to get a little snack. What you get instead is the above pic from Koper, and a slightly more abstract version of the same motif - mind you it is quite a challenge taking photos while holding Tamara in one hand (click here to see the proof and here to see the little perpetrator).

I know, I know, it is not Valentine season but who would not be in love with such a cute creature, who is so much loving you back. Sometimes quite literally :)

Hmmm, in the monotony of recent days, the one thing worth sharing is one of Tamara’s recent gags, when she takes her mother’s hair pin and puts it in her hair. Well, not exactly “in” her hair but more “on” her hair. For now, she does not seem to mind the fact that despite her continuous efforts, the pin falls of her head.

I wanted to do this for a while but the final push was the discovery of a Flickr group Organised collections that was founded by one of my favorite bloggers. The pic on the Flickr has comments about the items although it is more or less self-explanatory. Stuff that Tamara loves to play with. A lot. You can also look at it as a collection of the battles we lost :)

This morning on our way to the vegetable market, we stopped in an old watchmakers shop. It is one of those small, family-owned old shops, run by a very friendly elderly couple. We have peaked in many times before but never went in, but today CC had to get a new battery for her watch and she picked that shop. I will definitely go there at least once more to shoot lots of photographs, the word genuine lingered all around the place, as did the old clocks. The old lady was instantly charmed by Tamara and as a sign of her affection, she took the clock handle on one of those cuckoo clocks that look like Bavarian houses (this one was a splendidly kitschy specimen) and moved it to ten so that the it started making sounds and the cuckoo flew. Tamara loved it. The ringing that was not on time and probably attracted attention of her husband who emerged from behind the shelves and after seeing Tamara, repeated the trick himself.  The fact that there are still some kind people in town made our Saturday morning coffee a bit nicer.

While I had a hectict start of a new semester, Tamara set several important new milestones in her development, like walking backwards or dragging a toy on a string and the like, but none elicited such enthusiasm as the slide. We took her to the playground yesterday and put her on the slide just to see if she would like it or not. By the fifth time, she was already pushing herself off from the top with both hands and a big smile on her face that brightened our faces as well.

We had quite some meal the other day that was all too reminiscent of a certain delicacy we ate as students in the dorm. To those of you who are not familiar with the concept, pašta z mize that translates as pasta of the table is a fairly simple dish of spaghetti, canned tuna and tomato puree (or other varieties of simple pasta sauces), served on the kitchen table and eaten with bare hands.
Click here to see how pro’s did it, while the pic above depicts Tamara’s recent struggles with long strings of pasta. But I must say that she had as much fun as we did in the old days…

Well, the first snowflakes of the winter were a bit shy but there were enough of them to make a puffy coating on the ground that Tamara could inspect in puzzled amazement. But they were nothing compared to the lights we put on the window. This pic would really deserve a sound bite of her loud enthusiasm but… The little one is obviously enjoying the nationwide attention being paid to her upcoming birthday:) And while the first Christmas trees already sprung-up in the windows of surrounding apartment buildings, we still haven’t quite figured out where we are going to put ours so that Tamara won’t be able to pull it down. We’ll have to think fast.

Yesterday, Tamara went to see her first Dedek Mraz or Father Frost as I believe is the proper English translation of this Santa equivalent. In the Santa vs. Father Frost controversy, we stand firmly on the side of Father Frost as the only proper present-bringing character and I’m very glad that my employers are on the same camp:) It was actually quite fun and this suspicious look got Tamara her first New Year present.
Today, we put up first bit of our holiday decoration, the chandelier I kept bumping in all afternoon. Of course, Tamara had a good inspection of that one too. We are still not quite there yet with the season’s spirit although the evening alcohol consumption went up as did the number of coffees and meetings during the day. And than there is the crafting itch…