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Another Big Bite

Another Big Bite

Tag Archives: kids

There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales from the glories of Halloweens long, long ago…

28 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by anotherbigbite in Nerd Alert, The "Joy" of Parenting, The Good Ole Days

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

brave, costumes, disneyland, diy, family, halloween, halloween costume, kids, merida, sewing, traditions, yeti

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I could easily be listening to the song “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” on repeat right now.  Not because I am excited that Christmas is sneaking up on me like a White Walker.  Not because I particularly enjoy Amy Grant (truth be told, her version grates on my nerves like nothing else at Christmastime – you know what I mean, Mom).  Because THIS is the most wonderful time of the year.  HALLOWEEN.

Last year, we had the best Halloween costumes EVER.  This year, I knew there wouldn’t be any way to top them.  The kids are getting older (and so are Nae and I), and getting everyone on board for one cohesive theme is… Difficult.  Which is fine.  Pretty soon, Nathan and I will be left to our (my) own devices and we’ll get to choose what to go as together since neither of us wants to dress up as a Skylander or something from Monster High.  But for now, the kids are into the things we expose them to and don’t take notice of much else.  Not having cable – not having commercials – really cuts down on the crazy shit they regurgitate from television.

Finn at the Matterhorn

Since our trip to Disneyland this summer, Finn’s Yeti obsession kicked into overdrive and he firmly decided that he would be a Disneyland Matterhorn Yeti (not to be super specific or anything).  After balking at the cost of faux fur, I opted to stick with a white hoodie with a fur hood, gloves and boots.

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And (obviously) Nathan had to be a Yeti as well.  It was either that or a mountain climber.  Not some high-speed 2014-era adrenaline junkie, but a 1950’s, Swedish, Riiiiiiiiccccccooooooolllaaaaaaa-yodeling dude in Lederhosen.  Yeti it was.

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Oh, and the eyes HAD TO GLOW.  Because they do on the ride.  And we are all about authenticity in this family.

Alice in Scottish Highlands

I did a little happy dance when Alice picked Merida from Brave.  I was dreading making that stupid Elsa cape, but a Halloween miracle occurred and she burned out on singing “Let it Go” and watching Frozen daily sometime in July.  Merida – or “Orange Mother” as Alice refers to her – is a bow-and-arrow-toting badass compared to Elsa and Anna.  Brave centers on the struggle between her and her mother (who she has turned into a bear), so when Alice proclaimed that I was to be “Orange Mother’s Mother” I had a slight panic attack over twenty thousand yards of green taffeta and me in a floor-length gown with bell sleeves.  Queen Elinor?  Christ.  Here we go.

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Not to worry.  Alice wanted me to be the bear.  Orange Mother’s Mother as a bear.  Black hoodie?  Check.  Furry ears?  Check.  Crown?  Check.  Orange Mother’s Mother as a bear? Done.  Waaay easier than Alice’s Merida dress.  Which only took me a week and a half.  Only.

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Outtake alert.  Here is Alice “hunting yetis.”  Finn is not alarmed at all.  Which is somewhat worrisome when your kid doesn’t even flinch when someone is pointing a weapon at them.

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We went to Boo at the Zoo at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  We were fully prepared for pandemonium like last year, but it turns out that it is way less crowded two weeks before Halloween and we had more than enough time to do the whole lap twice.

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We went on the Skyride for the very first time.

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We went on the carousel for the fifty-seventh time.

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And thank god that everyone recognized who the kids were.  Not that anyone who complimented Finn on his Abominable Snowman costume was politely corrected by the little man himself.

“It is a Disneyland Matterhorn Yeti.  AND his eyes glow.”

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We also got to wear them to the grade school’s Trunk or Treat on Saturday.  And on Halloween on Friday.  After that, they go into heavy rotation via the costume/dress up pile where the kids will wipe peanut butter on them and roll around in the grass while wearing them.

But that’s not the end of our Halloween story.  Oh, no.  Here in Colorado Springs, the population is a wee bit on the Jesus-loving side and lots of people don’t celebrate Halloween.  I am betting this has something to do with the bizzaro Halloween Costume/Celebration norms that have sprung up in Finn’s school.  The kids aren’t celebrating Halloween at all.  Sortof.  I dunno.  They are having “Literacy Dress Up Day,” in which a pre-approved list of (not-Halloween) costumes was passed out.  Spoiler: Yetis were not on the list.  Little Boy Blue was.  Georgie Porgie was.  Abe Lincoln was.

Whatever.

Which meant I had another costume to make.  And though I would never dream of buying a costume off the shelf, it isn’t like they have The Little Red Hen costumes at Walmart anyway.

I begged for Teddy Roosevelt.  “Round Glasses!  Mustache!  You could ride Alice’s stuffed moose!!”

Shot down.

“Oooohhh!  Three blind mice!  Mickey ears!  Sun glasses!”

Nope.

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In the end, Finn chose to be the grasshopper from Aesop’s Fable The Grasshopper and the Ants.  It took me some time to warm up to the idea, but it was more exciting than George Washington.

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And here is an action shot….

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(And Alice is quite smitten with it as well.)

(And Alice is quite smitten with it as well.)

I am bracing myself for the onslaught on post-Halloween cavities and looking toward Thanksgiving to fill the vacuum that Halloween has left in its wake.  Something tells me that construction paper pilgrim hats and handprint turkeys won’t give me the same thrill as fashioning fishing bobbers and battery-operated votives from Ikea into Yeti eyes.

But it will have to do until Amy Grant starts belting out, “its the MUUUOOOST wonderful time…. Of the YEAR” on the Christmas station.

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A Day in the Life of Finn & Alice – A Typical 2013 Day

06 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by anotherbigbite in Being a Grownup, I'm a Crafty Mo' Fo', The "Joy" of Parenting

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

diy, kids, parenting, photo book, photography

book

It started as a gift for grandparents…  It was Nathan’s idea.  We had zero idea of what we would do for Christmas for our ‘rents.  Here were my qualifications for a gift:

  • Something affordable (dammit, there goes the 48 bottle wine fridge)
  • Something thoughtful (which meant that a round of winter formula windshield washer fluid was out)
  • One-size-fits-all (my 6’1″ stepfather and 5’5″ father-in-law probably would not appreciate Christmas-themed Isotoner gloves)
  • Something “from the kids” (and we’ve already given obligatory coffee mugs or mousepads emblazoned with the kids’ likenesses)
  • Something easy to ship (wow; that wine fridge really never had a chance)

All of this left me with a big, fat goose egg.  No dice; I was stumped.  Nathan thought maybe we should document a normal day in the life of the kids…. Since our parents don’t really get to see what these little monsters do when no one else (but us) is watching.

open book

It was after the fact that I realized that a regular day for one parent is VERY MUCH like a regular day for many others.  In short, our parents have already experienced this.  And they are now grandparents, and have realized what a joy it truly is to hand your grandchildren back to their parents after you’ve stuffed them with sugar, chips and toys with a bajillion little pieces.  This, however, is not something that most parents think of when they are in the trenches with their own children.

My children are unique.  And special.  And poop rainbows and cry unicorn tears.  My experience is so novel and new; there isn’t a parent in the history of the world that has been blessed with angels such as mine or the meaningful tribulations I deal with as their parent.

Riiiiight.

But in the end, all that was important was that they got a book of damn cute pics of their grandchildren.  And that it arrived on time in a standard Priority mail envelope.

A Day in the Life of Alice and Finn PAGE 2

A Day in the Life of Alice and Finn PAGE 7

A Day in the Life of Alice and Finn PAGE 19

I went around all day with my camera around my neck and went about snapping away.  This was actually the EASY part.  Once all the pictures were taken, it took me an entire day editing them in Photoshop.  Of course, if I was a better photographer, I wouldn’t have had to fake it with Photoshop.

I used Snapfish to make the books; they have their own templates that you can drop pictures in and add text, but their platform is sluggish and one of the worst I’ve encountered in the photo-book-making arena.  I opted to design the pages offline in InDesign (but Publisher or Photoshop works just as well), then upload jpegs of the whole page.  When it came to designing the photo book in Snapfish, the only thing I had to do was make sure they were in the right order.

While Snapfish is usually pretty well priced (compared to the superior Shutterfly in my humble opinion), they gouge you on the shipping.  Even though we ordered multiple books and they were all shipped to our house in one box, it was still $8 apiece to ship them.  Oooh, we’ll give you a killer deal on the books, but once we’ve got ya over a barrel when they are done, we’ll charge you an exorbitant price to get them to your door.  Nice.

We had the kids sign them (as did Nathan and I), and then sent them on their merry way with all the trappings of a well-wrapped package.

We didn’t order one for ourselves, but after they all left the house, I feel like we should make some kind of tradition of documenting one day each year.  Not for our parents (because do they really want a new book every year?), but for us.  We commemorate each year with a family yearbook, but methinks this might make a nice little companion to our annual recap of the previous 365 days.  (Shhh.. Secret: I still have not finished 2012’s book.  I’ve only gotten as far as August.)

If you care to take a peek into the monotony of Finn and Alice’s lives, you can see the whole book here.  Beware; there are many a naked baby tush in there.

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Christmas Preppers – Our Life in Pictures

23 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in From the Kitchen, I'm a Crafty Mo' Fo', Party Hearty

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Tags

christmas, christmas list, gingerbread house, kids, santa

While lotsa folks are all in for the Zombie Apocalypse, we march to a different beat around here…  The beat of the Little Drummer Boy.  Precisely, we are prepping for the Christmas Apocalypse.

I am bracing myself for the onslaught of new toys, mounds of ripped paper and excess pumpkin pie.

ornament

Our fingerprint snowmen turned out pretty cute.

I have a secret, though…  Don’t tell anyone, but if you live too far from family for it to be expressly known that you will be visiting for Christmas, the holidays are WAY LESS stressful.  Not that I wouldn’t love to spend Christmas Eve opening presents with my brothers, it is just that we don’t have to deal with traveling and packing and sleeping on the living room floor on an air mattress.  (My mother-in-law will be dealing with those comforts, though… She comes to visit on the 26th).

Once our shopping was out of the way, the only stressful hurdle we had was to mail everything.  And after forking over fiftty effing dollars to ship four packages, I was running low on Christmas spirit.  Nothing a little baking, wrapping and light-viewing wouldn’t cure, though.

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photo 2 (1)There have been many a Christmas activity over here…  We’ve done a few crafts and some baking…

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Flour. It is FLOUR. She isn’t emulating Tony Montana.

Finn and Alice made their Christmas Lists to give to Santa…  And were not willing to have a seat on the jolly man’s lap.

finn santa

alice santa

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santa3Now, I have a thing for bearded men, and this dude did not disappoint.  He even had a bowlful-of-jelly shaking belly that seriously had me scratching my head to whether or not it was authentic.  He could even read every word of Finn’s chicken scratched list.  I was mighty impressed.  Even though the kids wouldn’t sit on his lap (I’m chalking it up to being starstruck in the presence of a celebrity), it was our best Santa visit EVER.  Not that there have been many.

lightsWe went to Electric Safari at the zoo.  And got cozy in our Christmas jammies…

trainsThis week we made a gingerbread house…

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Sans clothing…

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The doorbell has rung more times this week than the entire time we’ve lived here.  Each time, the kids chant, “Another package!! Another package!”  It has been hard not to let them rip the boxes open to release the smell of new Legos and Ponies.

And on Friday, Finn had his preschool Christmas party.  It is his teacher’s first year, and she thought it would be a great idea to have a Christmas luau.  Complete with pool party.  Boy, was I THRILLED to don my bikini.  My pasty white palour was the envy of all the other moms.  Oh, yes.

swim1

swim2So, for now, I am reveling in the calm before the storm.  We relocated the mountain of packages to ride out the last few days beneath the tree.  I’ve gotta get bathrooms cleaned and bedrooms vacuumed for the MIL’s visit.  Then it is a mad rush for baking, cooking and green bean casserole making.

And with that, I bid all of you a very happy holiday.  Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Eid Mubarak, Happy Chanukkah, God Jul (better late than never on some of those), and Have A Good Day on December 25th.

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Finn’s Big Boy Room – Put a fork in it; it is DONE!

18 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in Fixing Up the House, I'm a Crafty Mo' Fo'

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

bedroom, before and after, boys room, decorating, diy, home, house, kids, kids room, loft bed, remodel, renovating

1finn1This weekend, we put a few finishing touches on Finn’s room.  I was super stoked, but I still was searching for a rug to hide the fugly carpet (which is not on our list of priorities to replace).  After heading to Ikea on Tuesday night, I snagged one of my top contenders for $35 from the As-Is section.

And now, with the rug down, the room finally feels done!  Here is what it looked like when we moved in…

Before...

Before…

And this was the other side of the room…

IMG_5362And now:

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There are a few minor pieces of trim that we are still scratching our heads about exactly how to address (like the small gap between the wall and rock wall and the toe-kick at the bottom of the rock wall), but everything else is totally complete.

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I put tiny curtains up under his loft to give him a little fort to hang out in.  It also has been employed as a stage.  And a reading room.  And a hideout for doing things Mom doesn’t let you do, but now you have a secret hideout to do it in.  Like giving your Lego men a bath in a cup of water.  And spilling it.

The Lego table was originally parked under his USA map (see the full rundown on that project – my favorite – here), and the closet was supposed to house his dresser to free up some floor space.  Oh, I measured twice to make sure it would fit – and it did with lots of room to spare.  Only I forgot to think about making sure the drawers would open once it was inside the closet.  Spoiler alert: drawers didn’t open, and it moved back to its original spot.  Now that it is there, I think it anchors the map much better than the Lego table did.  Finn’s made sure the map doubles as a cork board of sorts…

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The frog donning a Batman costume was TOTALLY Finn’s idea. Bah-rill-yant.

We also found a new spot for the rhino head I made him a few years ago.  The rhino keeps his Disney pins safe.  And I was sooooo happy to hang up the sign with his name on it; my dear friend from Spokane made it as a piece of decor for Finn & I’s baby shower years ago…  (Miss you, Great and Powerful Peggy!)

1finn12Hands down, the best part of the room is the bed.  It is mega sturdy (all four of us have been up there without the slightest creak or wiggle) and Finny has a blast climbing up the wall to get in and out of bed.  I think we have successfully planted the rock climbing seed for little Alice…  She whips up that baby like a spider monkey.  She has a bit of a problem getting down, but we’re working on it.

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1finn11I did a little digging through Nae and I’s old road trip pics from years ago, and decided to meld one of the shots from Sequioa National Park with a favorite literary reference.  A match made in Tolkien-nerd-road-trip heaven.  Finn also gets lots of use out of the little shelf underneath it…  It is just out of reach of Alice’s destructive little fingers and makes a great spot to keep his latest Lego creations safe.

1finn5Now that it is done (99% anyway), I am itching to get going on Alice’s room.  My mom is coming to visit in a week…  Ikea is begging for a mom-grandma-kids shopping trip.

1finn2

But for now, I have a few weeks to clean up all the tools stashed upstairs.  And to plot my next move for Alice’s space…

Just in case you are curious about our process, check out the room in-progress here, here and here.

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Congress Blows Goats. So Let’s Go on Vacation! (Part 2)

10 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by anotherbigbite in On the Road Again, Out of Doors, The "Joy" of Parenting

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

colorado, family, fishing, hot springs, kids, ouray, parenting, rving, Travel, traveling with kids

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Before we could  trek about downtown Ouray on Saturday morning, the kids made sure to clamber for pancakes for breakfast.  As Nathan and I have learned, going camping is just like staying home…  Only every task we complete takes eighty times longer.

Making coffee at home: 90 seconds.  Making coffee while camping: 12 minutes.

A pancake breakfast at home is a pretty big deal around here and takes at least an hour once you figure in noshing time and cleanup.  When we are out camping?  By the time we finish, we’re ready for grilled cheese sandwiches.

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The weather had warmed up and the sun was on full power as we made the five-minute walk to Main Street.  First on Finn’s list was O’Toys.  It was a charming family owned affair with its own Game Bar where everyone was welcome to try out any number of the giant stash of games they sold.  We hit up the toy store on our way into town and also on the way back; we had a chance to talk to both of the owners while they suggested age-appropriate trailer-friendly games for us to take home.

Finn is a pain most of the time, but when we are out and about, he is pretty well-mannered when he wants something.  He constantly tries to ask questions of every cashier we meet.  It is adorable, but very frustrating.  Most folks seem to tune out little people, so Finny’s “Um, excuse me, ma’am”s ususally go unheeded, no matter how many times they are repeated.

The gentleman at O’Toys was a completely different story.  Every time Finn would politely interrupt, he would respond right away with a kind “Yes, sir?”  It made all of us happy.

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1trip2After we chose “Spot It,” we ventured out to find a spot for lunch and ended up at the Timberline Deli.  You’d think a deli would be a speedy place to get a bite to eat, but you’d be wrong if you expected to get in and out of there in a timely manner.  After waiting for twenty-five minutes for our food, the kids’ grilled cheese sandwich arrived as a hamburger topped in mac and cheese.  How does that even happen??

photo 1

After another ten minute go-round with the waitress who completely missed me gently repeating GRILLED CHEESE, not MAC AND CHEESE five or six times, two plates arrived with fries and mac and cheese.  I rolled my eyes and shut my trap, especially when I noticed the pieces of bun and hamburger particles stuck to the noodles.  She scraped the pasta off the first hamburger we got?  And that took her ten minutes??

“You know, if all that hadn’t just happened…  I might have actually said the food was pretty good here,” Nathan mused.  “Too bad it was spoiled by-”

“The taste of bitterness?” I interjected.  I was still irked and mildly fuming.

We decided NOT to stay for dessert, but instead moved the crew to Mouse’s Chocolates and Coffee (they roast the coffee and make their own chocolates in-house – HOLLA!).  A wise decision, fo sho.

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We dove head-first into ice cream, caramels, truffles, coffee and “Scrap Cookies.”  What is a Scrap Cookie, exactly?  All the extra pieces of chocolate, caramel, truffles – any of the scraps from chocolate-making – end up in an enormous cookie.  Good lord.  It was amazing.

After hitting up the rock shop, hardware store, a few kick-knack shops and the toy store one last time, we walked back to The House with Wheels to put Alice down for her nap.  While I settled into getting some work done, Nathan and Finn played a few rounds of “Spot It” and built a snowman.

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“Mom. She is TOUCHING my snowman.”

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Once Alice woke up, we packed up our swimming gear, bundled up and headed to the Ouray Hot Springs.  Though it was only 40 degrees out (which made getting in and out of the pool a little uncomfortable), it was amazing to settle into the steaming water for a few hours.  The water was between 95-105 degrees depending on where you parked yourself, and both the kids were completely enamoured with the novelty of being outside, almost naked, when they had been playing in the snow an hour or two before.

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We stayed in the pool past the kids’ bedtime, and by the time we were snuggly warm back at camp, all of us were itching to roast ourselves some marshmallows.  Nathan built a rip-roaring fire and just as we popped open the bag of Stay-Pufts, the Fourth of July fireworks began.  Yep.  In October.

For whatever reason, Ouray didn’t blow off their Independence Day pyrotechnic display in July.  Instead, they blew off the entire fifteen minute show in ninety seconds to coincide with the city-wide Jeep raffle (I was scratching my head, too).  Couple that with a toasty marshmallow and you’ve got yourself a pretty decent nightcap.

On Sunday morning, we headed into town one last time for breakfast at Backstreet Bistro.  All four of us were in hog heaven; Nae had a giant cup of coffee to rouse him from his morning grump, Alice and Finn each had a large cinnamon roll to gorge on, and I had the “Scramble,” which brought me right back to the glory days in Spokane when Nae and I would wake up to breakfast at Huckleberry’s every Saturday morning.  (Oh, Bistro Scramble and Brule; how I pine for thee!!)

Before heading back to pack up camp, we took in a mountain drive and took a moment to check out the Ouray Ice Park, though it was completely devoid of any ice climbers.  Or ice.

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On our way out of town, we stopped at the Hot Springs again to feed giant coy.  I’m happy to say that we all walked away clean and dry (by only a narrow margin), and Alice and Finn were happy as a clams feeding the fish and chasing the turtles.  We got back on the road just before lunch.

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Once Alice fell asleep around the Blue Mesa Dam, we pulled the trailer over and popped it up.  Alice and I settled inside with the dogs while Nae and Finn climbed down to the river to go fishing.  Besides the fact that we were pulled over on the side of the highway (all the National Recreation Area parking lots were closed… Still.), it was rather peaceful.  I fired up my laptop and put my nose to the grindstone.  Besides the group of foreign travelers who stopped right next to us and proceeded to take photos of themselves in front of the camper like it was George Michael, no one bothered us.

And don’t worry; I TOTALLY photobombed every shot from inside the trailer.  How they couldn’t see my bare ass face through the window is anyone’s guess.  Bet their friends will be entertained when they post those shots on Facebook.

We pulled into the driveway around ten on Sunday night, and both Nae and I wished we were still out there.

Heck, I still wish it was out there and it is already Friday.  Sigh.

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