In the past 30 years, my wonderful husband has done a lot of stuff. He learned to play several instruments, kicked ass in marching band, became an Eagle Scout, graduated high school, saw The Matrix in the theater 79 times, decided college wasn’t for him (it interfered with Matrix-watching time), joined the Navy, survived boot camp, became a really excellent dancer, blazed up the military ranks at wild-fire speed, got married to your truly, adopted a dog, bought a house, traveled to Japan/Hawaii/Singapore/Greece/Gibraltar on a nuclear submarine, made Chief (E7) in less than 10 years, bought a boat,  and contributed 50%  of the genetic material needed to make Baby Evan. Next up, he’s hoping to get picked up as a Limited Duty Officer and contribute some more genetic material, several times over. Since most of E’s friends are internet-based (or deployed) and extended family is a 10-hour drive, we’re going to celebrate with a nice sushi dinner and some family time. But 30th birthdays are a Big Deal so I did my best to make it a (surprise) special occasion.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

When I got up to feed the baby at 5 am last night I also packed a lunch for E to take to work (so he wouldn't have to hike to the cafeteria in the snow). I also included some special treats.

I also decorated the dining room for the evening's cake eating.

Did you guess the theme yet?

Carrot cake with cream cheese whipped cream frosting - E's favorite. The frosting is slowing sliding off the cake (I made it too thin) but it TASTES absofrigginlutely delicious.

Baby Evan helped with the frosting.

And this is a picture from our craft project this morning, when Baby Evan made daddy his first of many birthday finger paintings. The gift is the only thing that's still a surprise.

I don't think the Crayola people had this in mind when they labeled it "non-toxic".

I am ridiculously proud of this scarf, especially considering I did about a million things wrong as far as “good” knitting goes. But hey, it will keep my neck warm so how wrong can it be?

Behold, the bebeh moddle, moddling my scarf:

I am obsessed with knitting. OBSESSED. Which is a really strong feeling for someone who’s only knit two badly misshapen baby washcloths and knows almost nothing. But my plans are huge – HUGE I TELL YOU.  I’ve already ordered several balls of yarn, a bunch of needles and a pattern for a hat and scarf that is FAR too ambitious for my very minimal skill set. Luckily I have that set of moms in the Mother of Purl group who can hold my hand through the beginning stages and the vocabulary and remind me not to knit with the long tail AGAIN because I won’t get very far. I don’t think time is going to be a problem because knitting is a perfect evening activity. It’s just as mind numbing and calming and just as easy to do while watching crappy TV as Bejewled or Tetris or Twitterstalking but you actually have something to show for your time when you’re done. And hopefully the things I have to show are adorable little baby socks and accessories. If you have children, better start practicing your “It’s beautiful! I love it!” face because there is a really crooked baby hat not too far in your future. YOU’RE WELCOME.

There’s actually a fairly high chance I’ve just spent a bunch of money on a hobby I’m going to give up or get tired of in a couple months. Quitting my hobbies is sort of my hobby.

While I was looking for Father’s Day gifts back in June I came across a lot of fancy handprint kits.* I really liked them but couldn’t justify spending $40+ on what’s basically a picture frame. So I made one myself.

The frame was $12.99 at Target (I just looked for one with a large white mat – there were several choices). The paint is Crayola non-toxic craft paint, also from Target and about $6 total. And I printed the picture out using our home printer (I’m going to replace it with a nicer one IF I CAN EVER GET E TO DRESS UP AND POSE FOR ONE FRICKIN MINUTE).

If you notice, my hand is yellow and E’s is blue. And yellow and blue make green, so the baby’s print is green. Aw how disgustingly cute. Also, I suspect they use midgets and not babies for the product pictures of baby handprints, since the somewhat smudgy one we got was after three practice tries. Babies are more interested in rubbing the paint on their face than making beautiful treasured keepsakes. Selfish babies. Can’t they see the big picture? Anyways, if you’re somehow related to me expect your own version of this at Christmas. Try to act surprised.

*Actual Father’s Day gift: Tool belt and tool caddy I picked out in Home Depot while E was buying lumber and presented to him at the checkout so he could pay for it.