Monday, August 31, 2009

Dinner

For dinner, Elijah ate:
-a plate of pasta half the size of his head
-some ground beef
-a banana

100th Post - with pictures!

This is my 100th post to this blog o.O We'll see how awesome I can make it ;)

As promised: I got the Applewood Smoked Salt from Gypsy Hill Foods. They were at a local farmer's market yesterday. Their beer pub cheese dip is amazing, too. And the bacon ones. And I got a one-serving package of dehydrated potato soup, too, which Elijah and I will have for lunch sometime this week.

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If you can't tell by my lack of enthusiasm, I'm still groggy. I was awakened out of a dream about gerbil-buying--the pet store woman in the dream told me that she wouldn't buy a cage for gerbils, she would go with a large aquarium, because, and this was important: She held up a vial of live crickets to me and in the dream I said, "Oh yeah!" and we discussed the merits of crickets for gerbils as food and exercise. I woke up thinking, "Do you really feed crickets to gerbils? I can't remember." (Yes, you do.)

Anyway, I woke up at the wrong part of the sleep cycle, and I can't seem to shake it. I promise some day I'll write one of these posts without being exhausted, or at least without complaining about it :p

I was going somewhere with that but I can't remember what. Hmm.

Oh! Oh yeah. I was going to say: By the time I got to breakfast, between the grogginess and the low blood sugar, I couldn't figure out what to eat. Nevermind that I eat the same thing every morning, for exactly that reason: Cheerios with cream and milk. It's relatively non-offensive, even with low blood sugar, and it doesn't require any preparation. So that's what I eat, so I don't have to make a decision.

Except this morning there was also pizza.

I ended up using GoogleFight to make the decision (I would have used a coin but that would require deciding which items went with heads and which with tails), and learning what I already knew: The Internet talks about pizza way more than it talks about Cheerios.

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I need more high-quality educational baby videos, can anyone recommend any? I'm getting tired of Baby Signs (although it's good) and would like to start alternating what we watch.

We don't watch them all day, but we try to watch Your Baby Can Read once in the morning and once in the evening, and one other thing (right now, Baby Signs or Baby Einsteins My First Signs) in the morning as well.

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Learn new skills with the click of a mouse - Interesting. A school in NC is doing an online learning thing that is much cheaper than online college courses... I may try it some day to see if I could keep up with online courses.

And Scientists have taken an image of a molcule's skeleton (sort of)--pretty awesome :D

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"That's a lot of toys, Mama."


I put the entire livingroom toy basket in the playpen.


It's a lot of toys ;)


We found a turtle!


This is his new favourite nursing position. It's easier on my back, strangely enough.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Salt, Teeth, and Cats

It was my intention, when I finally got to settle down to nurse Elijah to sleep, to write about the day, which involved the farmer's market, the grocery store, pizza, a migraine, and plenty of surprisingly calm family time, but I'm afraid that all I've ended up with to say is: Applewood smoked salt. On cucumbers. Try it. Now.

And I'd give you a link to the guy I got the smoked salt from if I'd been smart enough to bring the label (and thus url) in here with me.

And there'd be brand new pictures of the babyface, too, except I wasn't smart enough to bring the camera with me either.

So you'll have to wait till morning.

G'night.

---

(There was all that cranky throwing of soup spoons and sippy cups of Ovaltine at dinner, though, that was finally only quenched with an old leftover jar of butternut squash babyfood. There's one new tooth and possibly some others that are trying to break through, and they seem to be really bothering the poor boy.)

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Oh! And when watching the Your Baby Can Read video this evening, when they got to "nose", Elijah touched his nose :D When they were showing the other kids touching their noses, that is--not just when he saw the word on the screen. Not yet.

But when he sees the word 'cat', he gets very excited and says, "Ka!"
Highlights of today:
-handing the flower woman at the farmer's market the rest of the money I had and asking for a bouquet of whatever that would cover (got a very nice yellow and purple bouquet)
-getting a purpley-reddish curtain panel for $3 that is currently being very pretty in the livingroom
-Elijah finding a toy cat at Safeway and saying, "KA!" and then actually carrying it around all day after we bought it

Friday, August 28, 2009

I wish I had some precooked bacon.

Today is one of those days where blinking hurts, I'm dropping everything, and walking by the "gingerbread spice" scented reed diffuser makes me gag. Usually, I love that thing--it makes my hallway smell like cookies!!--but today. Ugh. Not today.

So I'm trying to coast until naptime, and maybe I'll feel better after we sleep some more.

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Naptime didn't help.

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From Elijah

We have lately been having the best lunch ever: EasyMac with a handful of four-cheese blend and some bacon bits; mushrooms sauteed in butter and olive oil; masala naan; and Ovaltine. Elijah doesn't like the naan, but he LOVES the mushrooms and the Ovaltine, and quite likes the EasyMac.
(One day I will make real mac and cheese.)


First the water... then the Ovaltine... it's so awesome!!


And time to tease the dog!


And this is because there aren't enough blurry cameraphone breastfeeding shots on this blog.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Dear man with the rottweilers,

When your beautiful but massive rottweiler slips his collar and commences attempting to nibble on my eight pound white mop dog, it is polite to say, "Sorry." after you've regained control of your Goliath. It is not polite to simply walk away.

Coyote

PS. When I said, "Sorry!" as you made your escape, I didn't really mean it.
PPS. It took ten minutes for me to stop shaking.

---

Remmy is in the playpen with Elijah, because there are Cheerios. Elijah is mostly ignoring him, because there is Baby Sign on the DVD player.

Elijah smells of miso. He has a belly full of miso and rice.

I had the best idea ever, at dinner: Miso in the sippy cup. He drank a bowl and a half that way.

I wish I had a video of him tasting wasabi. It went something like this:

"... >.< ! . ....... :D Hahahahahaha! :D More!"
Dear moron who screamed outside my window at the worst possible moment,

Not only did you ruin the mood, you made me think for a split second that my baby had been stepped on by an elephant.

Run--before I eat you.

Coyote

Monday, August 24, 2009

IKEA, Dragnet, Thoughts.

Last night, I was thinking of the days when my apartment was a mess, the kitchen not getting cleaned for days, the floors never got swept... but I might watch five episodes of the X-Files in one day.

Last night, I wasn't sure which was better--having the time to clean the house now, while Elijah plays with his toys and Cheerios in the playpen, or lying around nursing and watching things and reading and... not even getting my email done.

Heh. I think I prefer now. The house is clean, the floors are swept, I get dinner made most nights, Elijah and I have nice lunches together, and we go for walks. And the guilt sure is much reduced :p

But a growth spurt day of nothing but nursing would be enjoyable just about now. I haven't finished the X-Files yet.

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Yesterday's shopping trip was bafflingly successful. I had a Harry & David gift certificate from Christmas (thank you guys--you know who you are. I hope :) ) so we ran off to the mall to see what we could find. Harry & David yielded a wonderful travel tea infuser thing, and the most bafflingly amazing smokey mozzarella cheese dip ever o.O

Also some cranky old woman who whined at the woman behind the counter for the chips on the shelf not all being close to the front. And then she sneered at everyone who mentioned tea that wasn't PG Tips of all the boring-ass dessicated tea leaves in the world. WTF.

Here are the candidates for highlight of the day:

Getting $700 worth of suits, shirts and jackets from S&K for... wait for it... $45. S&K was going out of business. They were desperate. It was aweseome.

or

Going all through the IKEA Showroom and Marketplace without buying anything.

I'm not sure which is more amazing :)

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Right now, we're watching Dragnet. One of these days, I'll remember that Dragnet was before the Miranda Rights were instituted, and I'll stop being surprised.

I doubt I'll stop being surprised by the bad acting, the dizzying back-and-forth camera work, or the naivete of the victims.

Elijah has finished his Cheerios and is actually watching Dragnet. He's showing more interest in television now than he has before. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. He seems to like high colour and/or high contrast, and movement.

It's probably time to get serious with the Your Baby Can Read DVDs. That would be easier if I could get them to play in the PS2--Elijah is definitely more interested in watching things on the television screen than on the computer screen. I'm wondering if there's some sort of difference in his physical ability to see the different screens.

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I haven't kept up with the baby book. I know I should. And maybe when the basement is done and there's a crafts room set up, or maybe if I ever get the house cleaned up, or maybe if I got organized enough to cook enough meals in a day to feed us for a week, or, or, or... sigh.

I do have things recorded here in this blog, and lots of pictures and videos.

It'll do.

What I will do when the basement is ready and there's a room for my sewing machine is: I WILL make a quilt out of Elijah's old clothes. I still intend to do that.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

On bottles.

This is just a note to say that Elijah has learned to drink out of a bottle.

He's a year old.

He's been drinking out of sippy cups and regular cups since he was 8 months old, but would never touch a bottle, refused them completely whether full of breastmilk, water, watered-down cow's milk, orange juice, whatever. All things he loves from other vessels.

But now that he's got the sippy cup down and can go an entire afternoon on food and water and no breastmilk, he's chugging water from a baby bottle like it's the best thing in the world.

Babies :p

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Nice Saturday morning.

OMG if I don't make this bacon recipe sometime in the next two weeks, THE WORLD WILL EXPLODE!

Srsly.

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Dear Elijah,

We were up from 5am to 6:30am this morning. 3:30am to 6am yesterday. What's up with this, Elijahface? Can we not do this? If you were screaming and complaining about your teeth, I would understand. But you just wanted to play. When you'd kept me up all night by tossing and turning and demanding more milk than there was. YOU were very fresh and happy and ready to play. I was shaking from exhaustion and ready to cry. How about we try something new tonight? Like sleeping?

Love ya,
Mama

---

While sitting here blithely ignoring the baby while he watched the Baby Sign video and played with loud plastic things in the playpen, THE BABY took his diaper off. Unvelcroed it and stepped right out of it.

So now he's wearing a onesie. And overalls. Because you can't be too careful.

The overalls are kinda a little too big.





And ugly. What was I thinking?

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Is it time for the explanation of why we're using disposable diapers, when we used to be using cloth, and I was all OMG CLOTH? Probably. I could go and on, write some big essay with justifications and apologies and guilt. But really, that answer is: New house. During the new house-ness and stress and all that insanity when I couldn't do the laundry, he outgrew the cloth diapers we had. And we haven't had a lump sum to buy new ones that are big enough.

Lame, I know. But that's how it is.

(Psst: Also haven't had the desire. But that's just me. I could do it. But my inner yuppie is winning out over my inner hippie right now and the disposables are just /easier/. Not a lot easier, if I'm honest with myself--I don't mind the laundry and cloth is pretty cool. Hey, maybe if I keep talking about it, I'll talk myself right back into it. We'll see. I'll keep you updated.)

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The reason I was ignoring the playpenned, baby-sign-watching, loud-plastic-toy playing baby was that I was catching up on my several hundred unread posts on my Google Reader list. I'm down to 227. I want to comment on everything I read, but I just don't have the time. Or the brainpower. But once I get my unread count down, and can keep up daily, maybe I can comment again.

Maybe.

We'll see.

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I need bacon. We have no bacon.

I guess I need eggs, tortillas, salsa and cheese. Because that's what we have.

And the babyface loves salsa.

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Elijah is trying desperately to keep a round bowl-shaped sorting toy on his head as a hat. It's incredibly cute. And he gets so frustrated when it falls off.

I decided to take a video instead of just trying to describe it. Because, well, that's what my camera's for, right?

Here it is:



And now it's time for breakfast.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

OMG

Goths in Hot Weather.

Best. Blog. Ever!

Sanity?

I think I need a rule that I can't have more than... I dunno, what's reasonable?... 5? 10? Tabs. Tabs open in Chrome or Firefox or whatever I happen to be using. Or maybe at least can't have more than that open at the end of the day.

It'd be hard, though.

Anyway, I'm clearing tabs out right now. this post at Flotsam is making me laugh a lot, even though I've already read it. Twice.

Also this post at the same blog, because apparently Flotsam is my thing right now :p I am dreading looking at daycares in the near future.

Speaking of daycare: Yeah. I think Elijah's ready for a half day once or twice a week. I am baffled that I think this, that I think it's time for that. I don't know if *I'm* ready, but I'm pretty sure he is. He loves playing with other children, and I recognize that he needs that, scary as it may be to me. And if he's entertained and has plenty of water and snacks, he can go an afternoon without me.

Gah.

Scary.

Back to other blogs for my sanity.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Birthday!

I don't mean to be ignoring Elijah's birthday; it was this past Sunday. We didn't do anything special, because Brian's parents were here and we were running around with them, but the aunts and I will have to plan something for sometime soon.

A first birthday is not something to ignore--so it won't be. Just a little delayed :)

Storm :D

We both laid down for a nap around noon, and slept restlessly until 2:30 when I noticed it was raining and decided to get up and close the windows.

It's storming beautifully :D

Elijah is working on the word "cat". He is extremely excited whenever he sees a picture of a cat or a real cat, and says, "Ka! Ka! Kaaa!"

---

The power went out for a moment, during a beautiful storm.

Then the livingroom window started leaking. A lot. It was raining in the livingroom almost as hard as it was raining outside.

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This afternoon, we are waiting for Brian to come home, watching Homicide, and paging through random books.



Homicide :D


It rained in the livingroom -.-


But there is fun anyway :D


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Day of hurt.

There's a tropical storm coming in. Pillows, textsfromlastnight.com, Homicide: Life on the Street, the playpen and the highchair and a lot of Cheerios are my saviours today.

Elijah took 21 steps down the hall last night.

Have some pictures.



Toolin' around with Grandmere.


Camo pants and a nice nap on fleece.


Happy birthday, Elijahface! Breakfast was wonderful.


I think this shot needs to go on a custom banner for the blog.


Nose!




Daddy got his hair cut.


Little professor?


Yesterday, he kept putting himself in the cage, closing the door, and looking up and laughing :D


New rug!


Mama's old Lambchop, and baby's new Lambchop. Thank you aunt Dani!


They're hard to see, but there are lots of turtles on that log :D


Such a sweet sleeping boy :D




That tea shop was nice.


Lego store!! See that wall at the back?


IT'S BULK LEGOS!!


If he could talk, he'd be saying, "LOOK!"


"Look at all the ceiling fans!!"


The new high chair is awesome.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Walking!

Elijah just walked 13 steps! Because he was angry and wanted to get to me :D

Home again.

We're safe back in DC. We got in at 1:30am, exhausted. I took in the dogs, the baby, my phone, and my computer. That was it. Brian put Elijah down on his bed and he didn't wake up. We all three conked out till morning... when Elijah was thrilled to be up and home and seeing all the toys he left behind, and we were still bleary-eyed and desperately wanting more sleep.

Thanks to my mom, I have a wonderful new camera phone. It took the place of my S5 for the week because the S5 is nearly as big as my head and doesn't fit in my pocket.

12 hours there, 14 hours back. Both trips done in one day. This has been quite a week. And Brian leaves again tomorrow. Kacy comes in tonight (I can't wait!).

I thought I'd have all kinds of things to say about the trip when I got back, but I seem not to. That's why I should make blog posts while on the road, instead of watching Dead Like Me on my phone.

* * *

Picture time!



The first picture taken with my phone's camera. The walker came from another little boy who didn't need it anymore--Thank you, Owen! Elijah is loving it.


Grandmere found the best book EVER.


He tried to strap himself in!


Grandmere and Babyface both looking at me skeptically. That coffee in her hand, incidentally, is amazing.


Babyface is squirmy.


No thank you, we don't eat rocks.


Best shirt ever.


Elijah was thrilled to meet this Great Pyrenees at the vet's office.


There are supposed to be mountains there...


The groomer at the vet trimmed Remmy's face after the vet fixed his teeth. He's doing well now!


Trying to get the hang of this walking thing :)


And my hair is blue and purple again. That makes me incredibly happy :D


He really loves flowers.


Thank you for the cute shirt, Tina!


We picked flowers before leaving KY.


1/3rd of my return suitcase was shaving stuff :>