are things complicated yet?

I think I can stop fretting about dressing Charlotte in Claire's old clothes and not being able to tell which child is which when I'm 70

I got Charlotte's 6-month photos in the mail the other day, from my AMAZING photographer Angela Majerus. Charlotte continues to look a little less like her sister each time we put her in front of good lighting and someone that doesn't shoot in Green Square Mode. I still see similarities, but they're not as strong as they used to be. 

Here they are at 6-months. Claire on the left, Charlotte on the right (in both).

Really, when we started with newborns that looked like identical twins, I think it's amazing how different they are turning out to be, which is probably the dumbest statement of the century. KIDS ARE DIFFERENT. HOW ABOUT THAT?  

(Charlotte on the left, Claire on the right.)

It's rodeo season here in Texas

The Ft Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is kind of a big deal around here. It's a big Ft Worth thing that Ft Worth people get really into and there's lots of money involved and lots of kids and their FFA animals. Lots of cowboy hats, $1,000 boots, belt buckles the size of dinner plates (no, really), $50,000 mowers on display etc. Very TEXAS-Y.  Very fun.

We went last year and actually went to the rodeo but it was waaaaay too loud for Claire. We should have brought her headset she uses in the airplane, but we hadn't counted on our seats being directly underneath a gigantic speaker. (Incidentally, the headset is a great deal for $16 and useful in LOTS of situations if your kid is noise-averse, Claire has worn hers at baseball games, fireworks, concerts, etc. Anywhere there is a speaker system or clapping.) This year we skipped the rodeo and just looked at animals. 

There was a lot to look at in here: ducklings, baby chicks, eggs in an incubator (hatching!), a GIGANTIC SCARY ASS TURKEY (now I know when a turkey is spooked into trying to fly, its wings make the most AWFUL flappy-feathery-gross sound oh my god birds are so disgusting), lambs and piglets.

Piggies!

I didn't know these existed, did you? (We didn't get one.)

(And, speaking of Red Velvet, you really need to go read this about Maggie's pastry chef sister and a customer that was, um, confused about what a Red Velvet cake is. Oh my gosh, people can be so stupid.)

Lots of FFA trailers were unloading today, getting ready to show livestock over the weekend. 

Charlotte wore her pink cowboy hat. Claire wore a pearl-snap shirt. (What? You don't have western wear in several sizes for your children?)

I think maybe I'll take the girls back next week. We get in free with our museum membership and if this glorious, sunshiney weather holds up that would make for a pleasant day where we don't have to stare at each other at home while I avoid doing dishes. 

Some words, but mostly pictures of the baby

Charlotte is on the move. No, seriously, the kid cannot stay still and I have really had to up my parenting game in the past few weeks. (Did you know that a house with stairs is a death trap? It totally is. When Claire was this age we lived in a one-story house.) She's been sleeping terribly and after a little thinking I remembered there's a BIG 37-week/9-month developmental growth spurt. Since she's not quite 9-months it felt a bit early to be blaming the growth spurt, but out of curiosity I asked Dr Google for her exact age.

Ah-ha. Well. That would probably be the reason I was up for 90 minutes with Screamy-For-No-Reason-Baby last night. Her brain is in overdrive.

Anyway, it's hard to believe that this:

(holy crap you guys she's small enough to fit inside the damn BOPPY) turned into this:

She crawls with speed across entire rooms. She can and does pull up on anything (crib, dollhouse, her sister, you, me, chairs, overturned laundry baskets, etc).

She can cruise around the ottoman, along the side of the sofa and she can switch from hanging onto one object (a chair) to another, adjacent object (the table).

She can cross the room and climb up 3 stairs (THREE!) in the time it takes to turn your back to get milk from the fridge. (Oops, time to keep the baby gate up 24/7.) (Also? HOLY CRAP HEART ATTACK can I get some warning the next time you learn to do something dangerous that I thought was far, far, far outside the realm of your abilities?) She's not standing from a sit unassisted and she's not walking, but she's definitely getting verrrrrry close.

Secret Talent: She is very good at locating outlets I forgot to stick plastic covers in. (Unfortunately, I fear this Secret Talent will not carry her far in life. We are working on developing other Secret Talents.)

Charlotte has three teeth (all on the bottom, curiously enough). Surely there are more in there, waiting to inflict screamy, sleepless pain.

She continues to be the family goat. This kid will eat ANYTHING. She's getting better at feeding herself and I remain not-so-great at thinking of new things to put in front of her or having the patience to let her make a complete mess. I spoon-feed her more often than not, just because it's easier for me. Takes less time to fill her belly, makes a smaller mess. It's also kind of novel because we had to fight for every bite Claire ever took (and continues to take). It's just kind of...fun to make a baby food and then actually see her ingest it. She can drink from a sippy cup if I hold it, but she's not terribly excited about it. 

She's testing out new sounds. LA LA LA BLAH BLAH BLAH DA DA DA. DADADADADA. DAAAAAAAA! (Not even a hint of mmmmm or maaaaa or mama.) Her hair is getting longer and spikier. It's darker than Claire's and doesn't show a hint of curls (yet?). 

And that's what Charlotte is up to these days. We chase her. She keeps going. It'll probably be like this for several years.

Just writing about toffee makes me want to run out and buy some more toffee.

Living with Claire these days is such a mix of up and down. She's so bright and she gets it and she draws stunning conclusions from only threads of information but then she has a moment where she is so utterly and completey THREE that I understand how eBay ads for children sometimes happen. (I'm not saying it's okay, I'm just saying I UNDERSTAND how a person might get there.)

Just this morning she threw a royal fit about wanting a certain cup to drink from. (We are trying to enforce a one cup per day rule around here, because I'm tired of filling the top rack of the dishwasher up with the eight ot ten cups she requires in a single afternoon.) Other times she says, "I love you so much, Mommy," or, "You're my best friend. No, wait, Charlotte is my best friend!" and then I wonder what on earth I did right or accidentally to give me such a kind little person to spend my days with.

***

A few weeks shy of the 33rd (!) birthday I have discovered the royal delight of a Heath Bar. For many, many years I thought I didn't like toffee, because it's a close cousin to caramel and that's never been a favorite of mine. (Too sticky.) But then I bought a Heath Bar for my cookie party, to crush up as a topping and HOLY WOW THAT SHIT IS GOOOOOOD.

I have since become a candy bar check-out stand addict. It's a little embarrassing.

***

We've had some nice days out here in the greater Dallas-Ft Worth area. We are still waiting on winter to show up and we've instead had a very long and stretched out fall season. The temperature waffles between freezing and 70, most days are sunny and the sky is such a stunning cerulean it seems impossibly real and I keep stepping outside just to check that the windows aren't tinting it artificially. The air is crisp and it's perfect for bike rides and playgrounds and scooters and kicking a ball in the back yard. If day after day of that doesn't make you look up and whisper thank you to whatever entity you give credit to for days and a life like this, nothing will. 2012 is starting off quite nicely around here.

I didn't solve the Mystery of the Dressing Table Drawer, but this is as good as I can do for free and without traveling to Arkansas to dig around in old files

I asked my grandmother for some background on the furniture and this is what she said:

I understand Mother and Daddy bought it when they moved into that house, probably the summer before I was born in 1931.  Think maybe it was from Fakes Furniture Store downtown Ft Worth.  Fakes and Ellison were the furniture stores of my childhood. 

(Here is the house my Grandmother grew up in. I vividly remember playing on that stone wall out front as a child. It's cute, isn't it? My Family Furniture Disease is pretty severe, in that I dream of this house going on the market and BUYING IT.)

I remember Mother said that when they moved in she walked around the empty rooms and thought it marvelous.  I will ask Annabelle (her sister) when I talk with her, but she has few memories of her childhood.  She says that "It was just uneventful."  I remember more about mother than she does.  I believe the location of Fakes Furniture was probably on Houston St  in the 400 or 500 block.  I remember going there before the department stores moved from downtown.  Historic Ft Worth probably has record/pictures of the store.

Daddy used it until he moved to the nursing home. 

(This photo is from the 1930's, right about when my great-grandparents bought the bedroom set.) (Photo credit to Flickr user "TexasFight!") (Oh, it PAINS ME to write that user name on this website.)

(This is the Fakes Furniture building today. The upper floors are residential lofts.)

The Other Family (actual name redacted) bought it for their oldest daughter when we cleared out Daddy's house.  She used it until she got bedroom furniture that her husband's grandfather had made by hand.  That is when we bought it back for you. 

This messes up my timeline a bit. I thought the furniture was manufactured after 1940, when the incorporation documents were submitted to the state, but they bought it in the summer of 1931. I WAS right on one thing: my great-grandmother did select the set and she died in 1960. It appears she used it for about 30 years. 

At about this point I got an email from my dad with some notes he'd been able to turn up. The first was an article from a local newspaper that mentions a few key items:

Walnut was so abundant in Arkansas in the 19th and early 20th centuries that some of it was even used to make pencils. (So, the stamps that read 1944-WAL and 1915-WAL probably DO mean that it's walnut.)

Ballman and the brothers joined forces in 1894, incorporating as the Ballman-Cummings Furniture Co. By 1913, the company, along with the Ward and Garrison Furniture, produced enough furniture to fill 1,171 rail cars with beds, cabinets, chairs, couches, dining tables. 

Furniture making was alive and well much before 1940 in this part of Arkansas - as early as 1894! Garrison was producing as early as 1913, likely earlier. HRMMMMM.

Then my dad found an obituary that mentions Ed Lucas. (My father has fantastic Google Ninja Skills.) Remember Ed? He's listed as a current officer of Garrison Furniture with the Arkansas Secretary of State.

Ed Lucas is the son-in-law of the former president of Garrison Furniture (Jack Grober, whose obit is linked to above).

Dad guessed that the document above may have been filed when Ed was added to the company, but that doesn't really make sense. The document was filed in 1940 and Jack (the former president of Garrison Furniture) would have only been 16 then. Surely Ed hadn't even been BORN in 1940, much less old enough to be the President. (Well, I guess he could have married a much younger woman?) Or, perhaps the Ed in the document isn't son-in-law Ed, maybe it's his father, Ed Senior? Maybe Ed Senior and Jack were friends and managed the company? Or, a third (and most likely) possibility is that the state only shows the date of original filing and not the date it was last updated or amended.

Probably that one is what's going on. Ed is probably son-in-law Ed and the digital record doesn't show each update. Anyway, out of all of these clipping and bits of research I don't know much beyond what I originally suspected.

1. The furniture was purchased in the summer of 1931 from (probably) Fakes Furniture in downtown Ft Worth.

2. It was made in Arkansas.

3. It's walnut.

But beyond that it's anyone's guess as to the value, how many duplicates were produced, and whether any are still out there. (I don't really care about the value though, since I wouldn't part with it in the first place.) I'm pretty excited to paint it and I'm 90% sure I'm going to give Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint a whirl. I've got the dresser in Charlotte's room already and it just fits PERFECTLY and the scale is lovely and it's like it was meant to go in there.

It's weird to realize that by the time this furniture (and my grandmother!) is 100 years old, Charlotte will be 20 and probably in college. (Don't worry, people in my family live for a really long time. My grandmother will be around.) It's five generations from my great-grandmother to Charlotte and that's an awfully long time to keep something and use it every day.

It's nice to think about my great-grandmother sitting at the dressing table every day between 1931 and 1960, while both of her girls grew up around her, just like our family.  Two mothers with two girls, four generations and 80 years apart. This is why family furniture is so much more special in a way that IKEA or Ethan Allen or Crate and Barrel can never be. I'm so glad to have it, finally.

The mystery in the dressing table drawer*

Several years ago there was a phone conversation with my Grandmother about some furniture that had been her father's (my great-grandfather), which was purchased by a friend, many years ago when they were cleaning out his house. That friend was now no longer interested in owning the furniture and she kindly called my Grandmother back, after all those years, and asked if she'd like to have it again since it was a bit sentimental. She didn't want it, but she wondered if I did?

I think I had just gotten married and we had NO PLACE to put that furniture, but I have a disease where you love old family furniture even if it's ugly and in need of repair and you just can't stand to see a STRANGER own that bit of history (heavens no!) so you collect things you have no business owning. It's a very strong genetic trait that my mother passed down to me. I couldn't say no. In fact, I had never even seen it when I told her YES I WANT THAT PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.

It was...not a pretty as I'd hoped. But, still. SENTIMENTAL. Plus, we were already there with a truck and several sets of strong hands and it would have been terribly rude to back out at that point. At home, we crammed it into places that it didn't really fit. Chris understands my disease (kind of) so he didn't ever say much, but it was pretty clear that this furniture was...not his favorite. It stayed, awkwardly, in our home for a while. Then I got pregnant and the problem of too much furniture really presented itself. It just...had to leave the premises of our house. There were no extra bedrooms, no more closets to cram it into, no bed to slide the headboard under. We were at max capacity and we were about to bring another human home with all of the frillions of plasticky things a baby needs these days and there was just no place to put the stuff.

Obviously, selling it was out of the question (my disease has no cure or treatment plan) so I called my grandmother and asked if she would store it for me, in her house that isn't any bigger than mine. I wanted the furniture and felt strongly that it would have a place in my home some day, but not today. Not in my (then) small home with a baby. Because she's really nice, she crammed it into her guest bedroom where it didn't match her carefully chosen decor and she never said a single word about it. It stayed there for several years until I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted it back.

I have been thinking about Charlotte's room as a big girl room, a room without a crib. Not that we'll be there any time soon (OH HELLS NO, she's only 8-months-old), but I knew that if this was the furniture destined to be hers it was going to need a lot of work and time to be improved enough to be something I'd want to look at every day. 

For all of the sentimental value, this furniture is no prize upon first look. I KNOW Chris thinks I'm crazy and you'll probably think I'm crazy too. (That's okay. I'm pretty sure this whole scheme might be the worst idea I've ever had, but I'm going to see where it ends up. I mean, I'm several years into it at this point. Can't jump ship NOW.)

Are you ready? Here it is. (Crappy iPhone pictures with flash. SORRY.)

Chest of drawers:

Dressing table with mirror and chair:

Close-up of dressing table:

(Not pictured: headboard/footboard.)

It's walnut (I think?). I initially thought it was manufactured about 1914 since there's a stamp that reads, "1914-WAL." Another piece is stamped, "1944-WAL," so now I think that's actually a product or reference number. It's thinly veneered and is chipping in several places. The chest of drawers actually fell off a moving vehicle sometime in the 80's or 90's and the top half broke off in (what I am told) was a very dramatic traffic event in Plano, Texas. The interim owners had it repaired and the damage is only visible from the back. There are several dings and gouges. The finish is worn and tired-looking. It's also dark. DARK. I'd say it's almost black but it's just a very, very dark brown. Someone might think this color is pretty but it's just not my style. I don't have anything this dark in my house.

I also don't have anything this cutesy or feminine in my house, which is why it seems to be IDEAL little girl furniture. (Let's all pause at the hilarity of my disease that made me accept what could only be little girl furniture BEFORE I WAS EVEN PREGNANT IN THE FIRST PLACE.) I feel like this could be cute and sweet in Charlotte's room, even though it doesn't match, uh, anything else in the house in look/feel/tone. I would have LOVED having this dressing table as a child and teenager, to store all of my important things in and have a place to get ready. I also tend to think the ultra-feminine style might contrast well in her room, which I intend to keep as blue/pink/red.

The veneer is so thin and chipped and cracked in so many places I don't think I have the skills to repair it and stain to something lighter. I think it would look pretty terrible if tried that. My plan is to paint it white. Charlotte's blue walls contrast nicely with the white furniture already in there and I think this would look pretty sweet in a creamy white color. Lots of internet research needed on that project, but I think I can pull it off. I am hoping I will end up with something like this:

Source: centsationalgirl.com via A'Dell on Pinterest

Or, if I become truly insane I will paint it all an actual color (probably not pink).  

Source: lecourtier.tumblr.com via A'Dell on Pinterest

 

See how this style could look in a girl's room? It can be cute! I will probably not go as bold as this, but you get the idea. Old/new!

Source: referans.wordpress.com via A'Dell on Pinterest

 

 

Anyway. The mystery. WHERE IS THE MYSTERY YOU WERE PROMISED? I spied a worn label inside a drawer tonight:

Curious about its history and expecting something obvious to pop up, I Googled. Nothing popped up. Forty minutes later I was looking at all kinds of archives in the state of Arkansas, Fort Smith Historical Society pages, newspaper archives, research manuscripts and finding a whole lot of nothing. Out of all that, I only found two obituaries that briefly mentioned a deceased individual that had worked at Garrison Furniture in the 1950's. There's an address and phone number for a Garrison Furniture in Fort Smith today, but when I looked at the building via Google street view it didn't seem to be an actual furniture company any more. It was sort of a smallish office park, where you might find a local CPA or lawyer.

There weren't any mentions of anyone collecting this brand of furniture or anyone that owned this brand. Nothing on eBay or any lists of collectible or vintage brands of furniture. Searches of antique store inventories came up empty as well. Finally, I ventured over to the Arkansas Secretary of State's records and was pleasantly surprised to discover that a Garrison Furniture Company was incorporated on December 23, 1940. BINGO. That HAD to be it. Curiously though, the company hadn't been dissolved in more than 70 years and was listed as still in good standing with the Secretary. Searches for the two listed individuals came up empty though. The address appears to be a residence.

It appears that the furniture was probably purchased in the 40's or 50's but I don't know much else about it other than that, which is so STRANGE to me that Google would leave me so empty-handed. I've asked my grandmother for more information, but I'd be interested to know if her parents traveled to Ft Smith to buy it or if it was purchased at a furniture store in Ft Worth (where they lived). I would also be so curious to know what it originally cost. I know that my great-grandmother died in about 1958 (I think) and this furniture is SO feminine, so it feels like she must have been the one to choose it, which also fits the time line of the company above and the company that was mentioned in the obituaries. I can't imagine a widower picking this out from a store. I think I'll call the Garrison Furniture Company that's currently listed, tomorrow, and see if the person who answers knows anything but I'm not expecting a whole lot.

So, that's the mystery. I suppose the second mystery is, "Will she be able to turn that furniture into something cute enough for Charlotte's room?" (We might be waiting a few months on that one.) (And, trust me, THAT IS DEFINITELY A BIG MYSTERY.)

*You have no idea how pleased I am to use a Carolyn Keene Nancy Drew knock-off title for this post.

Some quick takes, others not so much

1. There is a Christmas tree in my living room and while it is undecorated and I know that Epiphany isn't until tomorrow (or, Saturday? I don't know) and TECHNICALLY if I wanted to give myself that long of a grace period for tree removal I could, the truth is that I am very annoyed at this giant TREE in my living room and I can't wait to move it to its proper off-season storage location.

2. All of the other Christmas paraphernalia is in the dining room and since ignoring things I don't like to deal with is a coping mechanism that works for me, I just don't go in there.

3. I started working with a trainer yesterday and my arms realllllllly hurt today. It's not that aggravating and bright, "it hurts but it feels good!" hurt, that annoying people talk about sometimes, just to brag that they've been working out. No, it just hurts. Ouch. I have damaged my extremities. This is perhaps telling of how long it has been since I've done any weight work with my arms (I don't think a 7 to 20-pound blob that needs bouncing/shushing/swaying counts).

4. I sent in my first-gen iPod Nano, per the recall, and they sent me back a BRAND NEW ONE! At first they were sending back refurbished OLD ones, but I let the box rattle around in my car for a few weeks (remember, I ignore things I don't like to deal with) and by the time I sent it in they had run out of OLD Nanos so they sent me a teeny-tiny new (silver!) one. This would be super kick-ass, except I use my iPhone at the gym for music because I like Pandora (thank you to Holly for pointing me towards Pop and Hip Hop Power Workout). I had zero use for this new Nano, which explains why the old one had been sitting in a drawer since 2008 when I got my first iPhone. I gave it to Chris. This is what western civilization has come to: Too Many Apple Products With Overlapping Utility.

5. I wrote about some bowls and then they sold out and it made me feel like a retail superstar. Crate and Barrel, where is my commission? 

6. I am feeling a bit more normal these days. I am well-past feeling hugely pregnant, I don't feel any post-partum-y crazy hormones that make me cry when the dishwasher leaves food on things, and my hair stopped falling out in giant, scary clumps. My body is still squishy but I'm going to the Y regularly and eating well (better than I have in years, actually) and I feel good. I wake up every day at 5am to the pterodactyl cries of Charlotte and I don't want to strangle anyone or cry because I'm so tired. I'm pretty well-rested these days. I have always been happy (sometimes GROUCHY, but still happy) but I am finally starting to feel like a normal person who didn't just have a baby. And, eight moths later, that sounds about right. I'll bet by month 9 I feel whole again.

7. Um, yes. EIGHT MONTHS. She's eight months old this week, which means her first birthday is a scant four months away. If I was the kind of person that throws a one-year-old a birthday party I might start planning that throwdown, but I'm not that kind of person so instead I'm planning the Miles-Bankrupt vacation Chris and I are going to take once this kid gets weaned. (Which, I don't know when that will be but it will be sometime this year, probably sooner rather than later if she follows in her sister's footsteps.) We're going to use ALL THE MILES and go first class and then change credit cards as soon as it's booked so we'll stop accruing American Airlines miles. (Still not sure which one we're switching to.) Right now we are thinking Caribbean but I'm not sure exactly where. Chris has voiced votes for Aruba, St John, Turks and Caicos and Barbados. I just want to go somewhere and sit on a beach and not have anyone whine at me for a couple of days. (I am easy to please.)

8. My birthday is coming up at the end of the month and I have made a very big decision that I hemmed and hawed over for an embarrassing number of weeks: I am going to buy myself the giant chocolate Costco cake for my birthday cake. I know, you want to come over for my birthday now, don't you? YUM. I can't wait.

9. We hired someone to help us in the kitchen and she's actually quite terrible at helping clean, but she's rather cute so I think we'll keep her.