I hope you're having a great weekend and are looking forward to enjoying a lovely Sunday!
I want to say a special hello and welcome to the many new readers who have stopped by in the past week, since Marvelous Kiddo was featured on Blogs of Note.
Thank you so much for visiting -- I love your comments and emails!
Stay tuned for lots of goodies this coming week ;)
Oh my! I can't begin to tell you how much the response to my last post has moved me. It is so wonderful, exciting, powerful to get a sense of who is actually out there reading my blog, and I want you to know that every single comment and email that I receive is so very deeply appreciated. Thank you so much for reading, and thank you so much for saying hello! You guys are the BEST and I love you!!!
These are two of my favorite photos from the weekend. Above, Jackson and me, mugging for Photobooth while still in bed, early Saturday morning. Below, Walker onstage with Taro for the introductory speech on opening night of the Our Time pre-teen shows.
In the month of May, 53,125 of you visited Marvelous Kiddo! Who are you? How old are you? Where do you live? What do you do? Take a moment to introduce yourself or just say "hello". Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful weekend!
XOXO, Leigh
PS: Be sure to check back in on Monday...I have a fun surprise and I can't wait to share ;)
We're back in NYC, and I have to be honest: I don't think I've ever been in less of a mood to blog. Other things are seeming way more important right now. Expect less of me here for the next little while, mkay?
All the same, I found this amazing video on Anne's blog and it seemed a fitting post for my mood, as well as something you would enjoy. I hope you do, and I hope 2011 is treating you well so far! XOXO.
Y'know what I just realized? I reached my three-year blogaversary on November 8! I totally forgot to mark the milestone that day, but I just couldn't let it go without mention.
When I posted my first post here, I never could have imagined what this blog would come to mean to me. It has been a source of great fun, a way of making wonderful friends, an incredible learning experience, and an amazing creative outlet. I am so appreciative of everyone who has contributed here, as readers, commenters, guest posters, and sponsors. For me, this space has come to feel much more like a community than a diary, and more of a party than just a journal of reflections. Thank you so much for being a part of it!
To celebrate the three-year milestone (that's 1,325 posts and counting!) I thought I'd link to some of my favorite moments. Here are twenty Marvelous Kiddo posts that I still think about and love, in chronological order:
Friends, we are back in NYC after one of the most blissfully fun, restorative, adventurous trips I can remember. I have loads of photos and stories to share, so stay tuned this week to find out where we went and for posts detailing our exploits.
Meanwhile, I am full of gratitude for all of my wonderful guest bloggers from last week. Thank you all so much for providing such compelling material while I was gone! It was a joy to take a real break from the blog, especially knowing I had left it in such good hands, and I had so much fun catching up on reading the posts and comments when I got home yesterday :)
Also, I just wanted to say hello and welcome to my new readers. Thanks for stopping by! If you've never left a comment here before (or even if you have), I'd love it if you'd introduce yourself and tell me where in the world you're reading Marvelous Kiddo!
I'm signing on to Taro's computer before he leaves for work this morning to say that my laptop is out of commission for the day, so I'll be taking a break from posting. After two years of using my computer every day I am finally backing up the hard drive, and it is taking FOREVER! (I'm embarrassed to say I haven't done that before, but at least I'm finally taking action before something goes really wrong. Better late than never right?)
We'll be at the playground today. What are your Tuesday plans?
Wow! I am overwhelmed by the response to my last post. I am loving reading every single comment, and it is so cool to hear about the diverse people who make up the community of readers of Marvelous Kiddo. Thank you so so much for saying hello and sharing a bit about yourself! Most of all, thank you for reading my blog and letting me know that it resonates with you. Ya'll are the best, and you inspire me.
Yesterday I joined a fun new group pool on Flickr, called Bloganistas. It was started this week by Erin, of Design For Mankind, and it features the daily outfits of bloggers! So far I've only contributed two days worth of outfits, but I really want to try to keep up with this. It's good motivation to actually get properly dressed every morning instead of flopping around the apartment in my sweats all day ;) If you're a blogger and you enjoy expressing yourself through your wardrobe, join us!
I can't believe that today marks the two-year anniversary of my first post on Marvelous Kiddo! The time has absolutely flown by. When I started this blog, I had no idea how much fun it would be, what a huge part of my life it would become, or how it would be the catalyst for making friends all over the world!
I have had the privilege to meet such wonderful people through Marvelous Kiddo, and it absolutely means the world to me that so many of you take the time to read and comment here on a regular basis. As a small token of my appreciation, and to mark this milestone, I am offering a special giveaway:
Leave a comment on this post by Sunday, November 15 at 11:59 pm (please include your email address or other contact info) to be eligible to win one of my wire face sculptures!
Many of you might not know it, but before I had this blog and before I was a mama I was a sculptor, working with wire to create pieces inspired by my love of fashion and beauty. These wire faces are from a collection I made at the behest of Simon Doonan several years ago, especially for an installation in the windows of Barneys New York. I actually made 40+ faces for the window project, and these are the ones that remain:
And here is how they appeared in the windows...
I will pick one winner at random to receive a wire face. Thank you for participating and for being a part of Marvelous Kiddo, and GOOD LUCK!
Happy Monday! After reading this post, I'm experimenting with making my photos appear larger in my blog posts. I've always been annoyed by the fact that the maximum size option on blogger is so puny, so I'm hoping this new technique for posting photos will work. The photo is of me in September, 2005 when Taro and I were vacationing in Cadaques, Spain. You can see more of this trip on my Flickr! XOXO.
UPDATE: Well, phooey. Now that I've published the post, I can clearly see that while the photo is bigger, it's now TOO BIG FOR MY LAYOUT AND THE PHOTO IS WEIRDLY CROPPED. Wah. I have no idea how to expand the width of the middle column, and I'm totally scared of screwing up my template if I start messing around with the HTML. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Here, for your entertainment, is a corresponding photo (in the normal Blogger-friendly size) of my dear hubby. How cute is he?
...while I give my blog a little boost! In the wee small hours I decided to play around with expanding the Marvelous Kiddo template from two to three columns, and here I am, with things a little half-finished :) Forgive me, but a mama's gotta sleep eventually.
Stay tuned for updated links and hopefully some fun new features in my newfound sidebar real estate!
This is my six-hundredth blog post, and I just wanted to pause to say "thank you" to all my readers. It has been such a pleasure to connect with you over the last year and a half of blogging. I value every comment and email, and even though I may not always get around to a timely response I want you to know that your words mean the world to me. I feel very blessed to have discovered so many kindred spirits and new friends through this little piece of internet real estate! Thanks for finding and becoming a part of Marvelous Kiddo :)
When I last posted on Thursday, I really wasn't planning on taking the largest unannounced break from my blog to date -- it just kind of happened. Blogging is funny: I find that when I'm really into it, there is something totally compulsive about it...at one point in my brief blogging career, if I had already posted a couple of times in one day, I felt like I should do one or two more. My more recent rhythm has consisted of feeling good about rising above the sleepy-tired-nausea and getting one post up a day -- wanting to but also kind of needing to as if driven internally to stay connected to this little piece of internet real estate.
However, in the last two weeks I have felt physically better than I have in a few months and a stronger more biological force has taken over; a force is that is called Nesting. Yes, it started out innocently enough with my mother's visit and our Ikea exploits, but in the interim it has become a case of full-blown, There-Is-a Child-In-My-Womb-And-I-Must-Get-Everything-Organized-And-Prettified-NOW Syndrome. For a couple of days I ignored my nagging compulsion to blog so that I could focus wholeheartedly on the furniture-building, closet-excavating, junk-throwing-out, picture-hanging madness, and then something funny happened: I entirely lost the urge to blog!
After a few days had gone by, I was all, "well now I can't just throw any old post up there! I'll have to explain and analyze!" and then I was all, "hmmm, instead, let me organize all of our socks by color." And now that six days have passed, you can see which activity won out!
So, here's the thing. It was really nice taking that blogging break and devoting myself to something else for a while, and I'm really excited about the progress that has happened on the home front in the meantime, but bottom line: I miss the daily fun and connection of blogging.
In a way, I'm really glad to have unwittingly tested myself. In the last week I have learned that I can just put down the laptop and walk away (my blog won't explode!). But ultimately, I really am back and glad to be.
I just want to send a huge, overflowing "Thank You" to everyone who left such sweet and excited messages for me (and T and the Kiddo) yesterday. I am so very moved and grateful for the kind of support, love, and happiness that was expressed as we announce the beginning of a new journey.
I am in awe of the power of the blogging medium to connect people and create community and I feel so fortunate to have stumbled on such a lovely little corner of the internet where old friends and complete strangers alike can find one another and bond over a shared love of raising babies and enjoying beautiful things. Whether I've known you for years or just heard from you for the first time, I want to say "Thanks" for being here with me and sending me your love. It is felt and appreciated, and I love you right back :)
Now for more on what's going on with me:
I am about seven and a half weeks pregnant, making me due at the end of August (woo hoo, here comes a long, hot, big-bellied summer in the City!). I hesitated to blog about my pregnancy so early, but it has been difficult to think about anything else to blog about! I'm already reading (new-to-me) books about pregnancy and childbirth and I want to be able to share as I go along.
Physically, I'm feeling pretty well, all things considered. I am one of the lucky few who seems to get off fairly easy in the nausea and vomiting department of the First Trimester. So far, I've just felt tired for the most part and I LOVE to sleep and stay curled up in the bed if possible. This has led to more watching of Sesame Street on YouTube with the Kiddo than I would like to admit, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.
We plan to have another home birth.
The Kiddo is doing great, perhaps buoyed by his sudden awareness of all things Big Bird and Elmo. He is really obsessed with babies right now, and insists on referring to everyone that is his age and younger as a "bibi" (I'm viewing that as a hopeful sign that he is taking well to the news that we're having a baby). Really, it's all too much for him to grasp right now when I tell him there's a baby in mama's belly, and who could blame him? It kind of blows my mind too.
Over the last few weeks since the orchestration of my birthday-surprise-for-the-ages, I have been inundated with remarks from people reading this blog who are marveling at the man I married. Indeed, I am a very, very lucky girl to have a husband who would give me such an amazing gift, but the truly incredible thing is that you don't even know the half of how wonderful T is!
I'm not going to get into listing all the ways in which he is so wonderful right now, I just want to focus on one piece of the wonderfulness puzzle. And it is this: I want you know about T's work, which is inspiring, beautiful, and changing-the-world-for-the-better-exciting.
Back in 2001, T decided to start a theatre company for young people who stutter. He has stuttered since childhood and spent most of his life feeling isolated, alone, and misunderstood. When he was growing up, he found an expressive outlet in the performing arts and went on to become a successful professional actor/dancer/choreographer. Throughout his years performing in New York and around the world, T was having the time of his life (this was the era during which we met, after all!) but still, something was missing. T dreamed of shifting gears and using his gifts and experience to help other people who stutter.
Now in its eighth season, Our Time provides an environment of unconditional acceptance which allows young people who stutter to transform the fear and shame that often comes with stuttering into confidence and self-esteem. Within the fun and fabulous framework of Our Time, young people who stutter discover the joy of creating and performing original theatre and music. There is no audition for prospective members, no performance experience necessary, and Our Time serves its company members free of charge. Usually kids come back to Our Time year after year, fostering a feeling of community and family. The impact that T and Our Time has had on so many lives is breathtaking. I cannot tell you how deeply affecting and inspiring it is to watch young people being transformed by art and understanding. And yet it goes deeper -- the stock-in-trade of Our Time is love, and it positively oozes out of every performance, every song, every poem written at Our Time. At the heart of everything the theatre company does is a vision of listening and acceptance that transcends the boundaries of the specific issue of stuttering, motivating audiences to appreciate and celebrate everyone's unique voice.
I have chosen to tell you all about this now, because last week T launched the Official Our Time Blog! You must check it out, as it is an excellent window into the company's ongoing projects and a great way to see behind the scenes, all while getting your daily dose of cuteness in the form of kids performing and reading their own original work (T is addicted to his new Flip, so expect lots of video snippets!)
By frequenting the Our Time Blog, you'll be the first to hear about Our Time collaborations with popular artists (Our Time's supporters have included Mandy Patinkin, Paul Rudd, Rosie Perez, Cynthia Nixon, Natalie Portman, Bill Withers, and many many more. You'll want to keep your eyes and ears peeled for news and updates on the in-production Our Time Album which features many celebrity guest artists).
SOOO, check it out! And check it out often for news and updates!
NOTE: For an opportunity to see Our Time in action, in person, there are shows coming up this weekend in NYC. For more information, click here or call 212.414.9696.
And finally, to give you a little taste of what's in store for you on T's blog, I'll leave you with three of the Our Time pre-teen company members, reading about their holiday hopes:
In the month of May, 53,125 of you visited Marvelous Kiddo!
Just a little reminder to check out my other blog, The Bean and The Bear! I've been posting lots of inspiring, beautiful goodies there, of late :)
Friends, we are back in NYC after one of the most blissfully fun, restorative, adventurous trips I can remember. I have loads of photos and stories to share, so stay tuned this week to find out where we went and for posts detailing our exploits.
Many of you might not know it, but before I had this blog and before I was a mama I was a sculptor, working with wire to create pieces inspired by my love of fashion and beauty. These wire faces are from a collection I made at the behest of Simon Doonan several years ago, especially for an installation in the windows of Barneys New York. I actually made 40+ faces for the window project, and these are the ones that remain: 
And here is how they appeared in the windows...
I'm lacking a bit for bloggy inspiration today...
...while I give my blog a little boost! In the wee small hours I decided to play around with expanding the Marvelous Kiddo template from two to three columns, and here I am, with things a little half-finished :) Forgive me, but a mama's gotta sleep eventually.
This is my six-hundredth blog post, and I just wanted to pause to say "thank you" to all my readers. It has been such a pleasure to connect with you over the last year and a half of blogging. I value every comment and email, and even though I may not always get around to a timely response I want you to know that your words mean the world to me. I feel very blessed to have discovered so many kindred spirits and new friends through this little piece of internet real estate! Thanks for finding and becoming a part of Marvelous Kiddo :)
I just want to send a huge, overflowing "Thank You" to everyone who left such sweet and excited messages for me (and T and the Kiddo) yesterday. I am so very moved and grateful for the kind of support, love, and happiness that was expressed as we announce the beginning of a new journey. 
Over the last few weeks since the orchestration of my birthday-surprise-for-the-ages, I have been inundated with remarks from people reading this blog who are marveling at the man I married. Indeed, I am a very, very lucky girl to have a husband who would give me such an amazing gift, but the truly incredible thing is that you don't even know the half of how wonderful T is!
