Communication

First of all, hi. C here. We'll see how this thing goes. :-)

Tonight, when E looked at Coyote and said, "Change, please?," she looked at him and asked "What do you want to change into?" Laughter ensues, which, with the stress as of late, is useful...

"You are never too young to learn homonyms!"

I have found that communication has become the keystone of everything lately. I am grateful for this.

-C

GFCF Toddler Life

Ideally, we would still be breastfeeding, but like all mammal milk, human milk contains casein. We discovered a while back that Elijah could speak when he went two days without breastmilk but couldn't speak after he had a feeding. So... he was quickly weaned. It didn't seem to bother him too much, most of the time.

And now, he still remembers that there's milk in there, but as he just said to me, "Not my milk."

I'm so proud of my boy :)

I'd give him chocolate soy milk in his bedtime sippy cup, but he'll have a meltdown because it's not plain rice milk, if I do that. So the reward will have to just be a big hug ;p

Mama Coyote

Random stuff

Hi. I'm mama k, I like long walks on the beach, spending time with my family, and eating Thai.

New Year's Eve

I'm sitting in Elijah's closet-bed (a pile of pillows and blankets), listening to Bach, and I can hear the family chattering happily in the common space. Daddies are playing Magic: The Gathering, Maddy is getting ready to go out to a party, Uncle Ap is playing video games. I'm not sure what Mama K and Elijah are doing, but I can hear laughing.

It's a relaxed time.

I love my family.

Mama Coyote

A link.

A Teenager's Perspective on Polyamory

It's a bonk head!

Complaint, observation, and general statement whenever his little head hits something, or anything.

"It's a bonk head!"

Kinda cute, unless he's done it on purpose. :P

~Maddy

Stories for the Last Day of the Year

A couple nights ago, I went into the half-bath in Elijah's room to grab some toilet paper for the main bathroom. I stumbled over some toys and it woke him up. He sat up in bed and looked at me. I went over, gave him a hug, and apologized for waking him up.

Me: I love you, sweetheart boy, good night.
Elijah: /Bye/, Mom.

As annoyed as he sounded, it was hilarious. Two years old and already telling me to go away :p

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I've invited Daddy, Daddy C, Mama K, and the Visionary to be writers on the blog. I would like this blog to show all sides of poly parenting, and some stories from their perspectives. I would love to have the memories, in years to come.

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The upcoming Childfind appointment is... I can't decide if it's making me nervous or not. I'll be glad when it's done. I'll be annoyed if they won't give him any help. I'm nervous about giving him gluten and casein beforehand, just as I was the first time around.

If this appointment gets canceled with no warning, I am going to be angry.

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We have the entirety of the core family home today, and the plans are to spend the day together, relaxing and eating and keeping the house together. I have a few babyschool projects I might put together.

Elijah is watching Little Einsteins even though it is not noon (his normal time for being allowed to watch cartoons), because he ran up to me this morning and said, "May I have Rocket please?" without any prompting. Maddy and I both said, "...it's not noon! But... yeah, you deserve Rocket today!"

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Dinner last night was: Red beans and rice, and it was amazing. It is going into the regular rotation.

We're working on the polyfamilies.com method of shopping. This should be fun ;)

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That's it for thi morning. I need tea!

Mama Coyote

Mama Coyote

Elijah pointed at a picture of a coyote and shouted, "MAMA!!!!"

Things keeping me sane today:
-Warning! Readers Advisory! - A friend of mine reviews books in a hilarious manner.
-binder clips
-OTC painkillers
-the idea of a bath later
-decaf chai
-bash.org
-this blog
-white dog, black cat
-anticipating post-Christmas enjoyment of some stuff from annaB's gluten free bakery.

Elijah Speaks

"Look! Kai-lan have helicopter!"

Morning ramblings.

I have discovered that during a weekend, when the entire family is home (so we have Mama K, Daddy, Daddy C, Uncle Ap, the Visionary, me, and baby boy), extended family is visiting (Mamu, Uncle Cat, and Auntie Bug), and we've picked up between 1 and 3 strays, this household goes through 10 cooked cups of rice, which means running the rice cooker twice a day, and never having it available to make, say, brown rice, or rice pudding, or sweet rice. I suddenly desperately want a second rice cooker... a 10 cup, that only makes white rice. Hmmm... note to self: Start saving up.

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It's 8:23am. I can hear the Elijah playing in his room, babbling to himself and moving his furniture around. He'll happily play in there by himself for two hours before he fusses at the door for me to get out of bed and get breakfast for him.

He'll say, "Hi Mom! Change?"

He is starting to put together sentences. "Walk this way!" when he wants to show someone something or try to get them to do something for him (which he generally doesn't have the words for; he'll take your hands and try to make you do it, physically).

He's 28 months old, it's time to move on to the next Gymboree class, but watching him in his class, he hasn't really reached any of the milestones the rest of the kids have. He can't jump, he doesn't really interact, he's all over the place, off in his own world. I'm trying not to compare kids but I also don't want to drop him in over his head if the next class is going to be too much.

Although I did have the wonderful moment of him walking away from a dancing circle to come try to get me to dance. "Up mom!" And when I said I hurt and couldn't dance, he climbed into my lap and gave me a hug :)

He has an appointment with ChildFind on January 4. He had an appointment this past Friday, but when we got there, the office was closed. Probably due to weather. They didn't tell us they'd be closed if the weather was bad and they din't call to cancel the appointment. It was very annoying.

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In other news, I have a cat! He is sleek and black and talks a lot and plays a lot and his name is Kyle or Sanctuary or Get-off-the-computer, or "Oh, tit-ten!"

Elijah loves him and the cat lets him pick him up and carry him around. The cat does not look happy, but just waits until he's rescued. He's the most amazing cat ever.

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Yesterday, one of Elijah's Winnie the Pooh toys said, "A kiss on the cheek might be nice."

He got scared and threw the toy and hasn't touched it since.

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Everyone with food allergies should check out annaB's gluten free. Completely by chance I was able to try their products yesterday, and they're amazing!

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I've learned to cook dried black beans. I'm rather inordinately proud of that accomplishment ;)

My current favorite CFGF snack:
-cooked rice
-cooked black beans
-bacon grease for fat/flavor
-steamed broccoli
-adobo (either with cumin or with saffron)

I'm pretty sure eventually someone's going to yell at me for how much I use bacon grease and mayonnaise and other sources of fat. I'd like to give a little explanation here:

The body needs fat. My body's sources of fat used to be butter, cheese, and heavy cream. I used to walk 12 miles a day for my job; I drank po cha (tea with butter and milk) for the same reasons mountain climbers might carry whole sticks of butter.

All of those sources of fat have been cut from my diet. I don't even eat massive amounts of beef fat anymore. Rice milk, soy creamer and coconut-based creamer are extremely low in fat. Beans and rice are also low in fat, and most of the meats we have now are low in fat as well. So... bacon grease goes into my beans and rice to provide not only umami, but some dietary fat.

There we go. That's my explanation.

Now I need tea and breakfast.

I do so miss po cha.

Quote of the day: "Do not sit on the kitten!"

In my index card in box, I have a note: "Do sloths fight?"

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Elijah will say, if prompted, "rocket ship, dog ship, mama ship, cat ship, Elijah ship!" And it is awesome.

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I have a lot of pictures that need to be posted, and maybe some day I'll get to that. But for the moment, here are a couple.






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Things that save my sanity and/or make life more awesome:
-Gymboree
-photography
-housework help
-office supplies
-LARP
-Al-Anon
-trains
-chocolate
-Washington, DC

Birthday Present

From Baby Coyote - A Baby & Mama blog

Thank you, cousin Olive :)

Hello again.

A lot has changed since I last posted. I've been on Celexa for two months now, I haven't slipped and had casein or gluten for several weeks and I can think better than ever. I've been putting the house together, successfully rather than making everything worse.

Elijah is learning what time-outs are all about, and it's proving to be a decent deterrent.

When he gets excited or upset, he spins. Or flaps his hands. Or both. He says three things clearly: "A rocket ship", "cat", and "mom". "Mom" can mean Mama, Banana, Remmy, or just about anything he particularly likes.

He tries to say train, truck, dog, and a few others, but they are not understandable unless you know him. He says "ra" for "milk". He says "nnnn" for "please".

He'll play for hours by himself, very happily. He loves Dora, Little Einsteins, Signing Time, Go Diego Go, Kai-lan, and random anime that he watches with Daddy or Mama K.

He's running across rooms and throwing toys. He's trying to figure out how to learn to jump, but not doing so well.

We went to a wellness check yesterday. The nurse practitioner gave us contact information for Child Find.

I should be posting pictures soon :)

You shine...

Today

Today, the antidepressants are kicking my ass, making me too tired to function.

Today, I missed B as soon as he walked out the door for work.

Today, my baby boy said "shoggoth" and "ramune" and "apple juice".

Today, I had way too much tea.

Today, Bones kept me sane.

Goodnight.

This morning's dogwalking-time.

I was hugged today by a random lady on the street. She moved awkwardly, and her makeup was haphazardly applied. She smelled strongly of baby powder and floral perfume. She asked to pet the dogs and when she could pet Morning but not Beanie or Remmy (it scares them and I've become less shy about saying so), she gave C and me hugs to make up for not petting the dogs. She was on me before I had the chance to say no, thank you, no hugs. So I hugged her back, and I walked away thinking: If you'd said no, you'd be a hypocrite. You can't simultaneously demand that this society be more cuddly, be more understanding of "just friends" cuddling, and not be willing to hug strangers.

So that's me trying to change my attitude.

Hugs are better than any medicine, the woman said as she got back into her car.

Never change your attitude, strange old lady. Thank you.

Thoughts today.

I seem to go in cycles of getting excited about food, and the excitement fading out. At the peak of excitement, I am sometimes even eager to cook. Or at least eager at the idea of cooking.

I love to eat. I love food, its flavors, history, methods, theories.

I do not love to cook.

I actively dislike cooking, usually. Prep drives me crazy, except prepping mushrooms, and the cooking itself takes too much patience. It's not always so bad when I actually get to it, and if I let myself be patient, I'm usually pleased with the results. But on a day to day basis, cooking is not my favorite thing to do (while eating may well be).

However, in moments like these, when it's raining and thundering and I'm reading through a Jamie Oliver cookbook, my mind and desire wanders.

Several of these recipes are inherently gluten and casein free. Some may only require slight modifications.

This could be a good week.

The benefits of a gluten- and casein-free diet.

This way of eating is kind of difficult. I'm hungry a lot, still trying to find the balance of what to eat, how much. It's hard to find something filling except a steak, and I can't afford to have steak with every meal. I'm trying to learn to like vegetables without butter and cheese. I'm learning to get my protein without dairy. Sometimes mayonnaise has wheat starch in it. BaconSalt has wheat flour in it (why?). I don't like soy, for the most part. The "vegan"-labeled rice cheese K bought today turns out to have a dairy product of some kind in it. Labels are important.

It's hard. So let me explain why I do it.

I feel like a different person.

Let me try to emphasize that: I. Feel. Like. A. Different. PERSON.

I can think. I can complete tasks. I don't have migraines every day. I don't worry so much. I can have social interactions with strangers on the street. I have less fear. I have less pain. I can read at length. I can write. My house is clean. My head is clearer. My dogs are cared for. I can play with my child.

I went to a psychiatrist recently. The appointment was made months ago, before the diet change. After we discussed which antidepressant to start me on, I was explaining all the differences, all the improvements. He finally said, "Do you think you need medication?"

I stared. "I don't know," I said.

I have the prescription anyway. I haven't filled it yet. I will, and I'll see if it helps. I do still have the days of crying, of not wanting to eat, of just wanting to go back to bed. We'll see if Celexa helps.

But I can think!

I've never felt like this. For the first time in 26 years, I can think about doing something, and plan it, and then do it. I hung pictures on the wall today. I walked all the dogs, and then I had individual time with them. I worked out a training program to help all three of them get back to basic training, to work on recall, heel, sit, don't run through the front door like a maniac just because it's open. Two hours every morning, first a walk and then 15 minutes training time with each of them. And I'll do it.

And I haven't had a sugar crash in a while, either.

All of that said, I'd kill for some hot chocolate made with cream, right now.

Hi.

Elijah climbs up in the window and barks. When Remmy gets more than ten feet away, Elijah looks at him, and calls out, "Ma! *kiss kiss* Ma!" Imitating me when I call Remmy back to me.

Elijah howls when we howl, tries to get his own water out of the water thing, asks for cheese ("cheeee!") and crackers ("pa!"), plays with his trains every day, and comes to Mama for hugs when he falls down.

I want to make Ethiopian food once a month.

5things
-the McDonalds woman and her dog
-the Comcast guy and his dogs
-rain
-Train games!
-Last.fm
-A couple of African tribes
-notebooks
-lotion
-reading
-Madeline Hunter
-my family

Arguments

There have been far too many arguments lately.

For instance, I'm having an argument with my dryer. It proclaims, "58min" on its blue LED display, so I set a timer for 60 minutes, with the intention of spending an hour doing something else, and then bringing up nice clean dry laundry. I go down to collect said laundry when the timer dings, and the dryer says, "18min".

So either my microwave and my dryer disagree about how long an hour takes, or my dryer is lying to me.

What do you think?

Add to the wishlist...

I can have an F-350, right? That's a reasonable sort of vehicle when what one needs to do is haul a lot of groceries, a side of beef, and some bookshelves, right?

Right?

200th Post!

I'm proud of myself that there have been 200 posts now. Admittedly, in nearly two years of Elijah's life, there should have been considerably more, but 200 is much better than I probably expected myself to stick to. How's that for a convoluted sentence?

Elijah is asleep (and just as I write that, he wakes up, wanting more milk), b is at work, K is visiting her mom, and C is taking our Marine (on a week of leave! Awesome!) off to Wal-Mart for soda, so I have a few minutes to myself.

We've all been working hard on learning how to care for ourselves. If you don't take care of yourself, you can't have any patience to foster relationships and lives with others. And we need our relationships and lives, so that Elijah can get into college :)

This week is a week of cleaning. One more mad dash to get the house put in order. It never lasts long, but we can hope :p It's getting better, slowly. Instilling new habits in myself is working. Slowly. But it is working.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow, to B working from home and taking me to Manassas for my useless psychologist appointment (yeah... got leads on a new one, though, thanks to a friend), and books, and maybe hot chocolate. If I feel like cheating on gfcf.

I have a stack of books I was meaning to page through while I sat here, but I haven't even looked at them. Hello, computer! Oh my.

RPG FTW

I ran Deliria for the first time ever today. I've made attempts in the past, tried to put together players and characters and settings, and somehow I just never get to it. But! Now! I have an attention span! And players, and a fire pit, and food cooked over the fire, and it worked and it was cool.

Today was very full. Things are afoot and perhaps I will write about them tomorrow.

For now, goodnight <3

Hehe!

I have half a bridge, a rose, three red hairs, and a small toy train, because Kacy is cute!

This Wednesday has lots of words.

Elijah is sitting next to me, watching model train videos on my phone, while I write blog posts on my computer. I'm playing Kitchen Nightmares on C's computer, and C is reading Snow Crash next to me (I'm really excited about that, it's one of the most amazing books ever). B's computer, across the room, is playing Little Einsteins. There are wooden trains on the floor. The level of tech in this house amuses me.

Mama K has been amazing the last few days, dealing with my depression and pain and craziness and taking care of E when I am too pathetic to. Yesterday involved me sleeping too much, to combat pain and craziness. And today was my psychologist appointment, so K had E all day again. Hopefully I can let her rest for the rest of the week. I will try not to suck.

Today was interesting. I had a toasted sub from Subway, and it was amazing. I had hot chocolate from Starbucks. I asked them to make it entirely with heavy cream. And they did. It was amazing.

The reason the sandwich and the hot chocolate were amazing is they were the first wheat or dairy product I've had in a while. They were wonderful. I don't feel all that great right now, but that's okay. I'll sleep tonight, and I'll be better tomorrow. And I'll give B the rest of my sandwich.

But I will drink the rest of my hot chocolate. It is cold chocolate now, but that is perfectly okay.

Small snippet.

C, B, and I sat on the porch this evening, playing Quarto and talking. B played his harp. Elijah played with his tricycle, naked in his outdoor playpen thing, pulling the streamers off the handlebar and draping them over his head and laughing.

He's noticeably bigger, heavier, more solid than just two days ago. He's growing.

Will I miss the baby days? The toddler days?

We'll see.

No words needed.

What I Absolutely Love Love Love!

Today, today, today.

Today I am thankful for:
-the firepit (not the firebowl)
-chocolate
-chicken cooked over a wood fire!
-potato cooked in safflower oil in the microwave

Today, this is what made me feel good:
-time with B
-the family not exploding
-family dinner also being firepit time

Today, this is what made me feel good about myself:
-cleaning the kitchen
-cleaning out the refrigerator
-organizing one of the cabinets

It was Saturday.

Elijah went to sleep at 7pm today, two and a half hours earlier than usual. It is now 10:45pm, and while he woke up at least twice and fussed himself back to sleep, he has still kept to himself for nearly four whole hours. That's unprecedented, and really quite awesome.

The best part of today: Nursing Elijah back down, lying in his room in the dark, listening to my family sing songs around the firebowl out back, on the patio under Elijah's bedroom window.

Other notable points through the day:
-headbutting one of my Chrises many times
-talking to another of my Chrises for the first time in a while
-seeing little Alex at Gymboree again - that kid is awesome
-Elijah actually being engaged at Gymboree, and running around and playing
-sending my mom lots of Gymboree videos
-showing the Marine the body-sized box of K'Nex he gets to play with until Elijah is old enough to claim them for himself

I learned today that being casein-free means that Vicodin hits me harder than usual. Which is good, because it means it's actually effective. So: Yay! for no pain.

But I want to go to sleep ;)

Elijah is happily, though zombily, watching Dora the Explorer while K works on food plans and I . . . sit here, warm in a blanket, going through my Chrome tabs.

After breakfast, Elijah and I dealt with the kitchen. I put away the clean dishes out of the dishwasher, while he sat in his highchair and watched and babbled. I explained to him what every item was as I dried it and put it away, and he just watched me like, "Why are you talking?"

And he's learning to say "bulgogi". I can't wait to show the lady at our favorite Korean restaurant :D

Quick post today.

Elijah fell asleep in his highchair today, in the middle of eating rice. He's done that a few times lately, if his afternoon nap gets cut short. Normally the afternoon nap is an hour or two, but if it's anything less than an hour, he falls asleep at dinner. And it's really cute.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll have a guest post from B, about things Elijah is teaching himself :)

Newness

I'm sitting in the car while I type this. The second disc of the Broadway recording of CATS is playing, and Elijah is playing with a small die-cast Deisel Ten and staring at himself in the mirror on the back of the driver's seat. B is driving, it's raining, and we're headed to garage sales, estate sales, flea markets. Anyplace to see awesome things and let Elijah interact with the world. And me, too, for that matter. I may use ASL instead of speech--it helps with the anxiety, and if I am signing, people don't expect normal behaviour. The social pressure is off. It's amazing.

The CD is from 16 years ago. It's thicker than today's CDs, it only holds about 30 minutes of music (versus today's 75), it's covered in scratches but it still plays perfectly. I listened to CATS every day when I was 10. My portable RCA CD player was one of the first, before "ear-saving" volume limiting. I listened at full volume, drowning the world out. My ears still ring.

This car is wonderful. It's been the place of so many parts of my new life--all those long car rides while B and I got to know eachother, and the continued long car rides while I was pregnant, when the car and the Sisters of Mercy was the only time I could relax. I still listen to Floodland every day, sometimes twice a day, while Elijah falls asleep.

One of the myriad of reasons I haven't been posting lately is that my computer's cord died. We replaced it with a cheap one, thrilled to get a good deal, and it turned out to be a false economy. That one lasted a couple of weeks and then died. So now I have a new one, with a selection of tips to let it work with a lot of different laptops, and, the best part, is it came with a regular wall plug and a car-cigarette-lighter-thing plug! Hence why I am typing in the car, where there are fewer distractions and I feel more relaxed.

The other reasons are pretty much just that I'm lazy and bad at organization and time management ;)

I have a list of topics that I want to write about. Maybe I'll do a poll.

Elijah says, "Hi! Hi, hi, hi, hi!"

"So first your memory I'll jog, and say a cat is NOT a dog..."

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Steamed Broccoli with Adobo and Apple Cider Vinegar dressing
Vegan, casein-free, gluten-free, cf, gf, cfgf

This isn't so much a recipe as a preparation, I suppose.

-steamed broccoli, cold
-adobo (or fresh garlic, ground black pepper, oregano)
-apple cider vinegar
-safflower oil

Put adobo, apple cider vinegar, and safflower oil in a Mason jar or some such thing that you can shake. Shake! Shake until the dressing is emulsified to your liking. Pour over broccoli. Eat! It's really good.

I assume you could also eat it when the broccoli is hot. I just like it cold.

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B wants me to make a note about how we still need to go to a used bookstore and a Moroccan restaurant in Old Town Alexandria. I said we would never look at the note. He said, "Put it on the blog."

I laughed.

Hello, Blog Reading World. Welcome to being my personal Notepad.

5Things

1. Plastic boxes with lids (for toy organization)
2. The massive number of YouTube videos of model trains (and 2.5: YouTube on my phone)
3. Cloth diapers (once again!)
4. Honey soap
5. Honey lotion
6. Wegman's
7. Sleep
8. Email
9. Family
10. B having a great job

Insert Title Here

It's naptime, and Elijah brought one of his train cars to bed. He waved it around for the first three and a half minutes of nursing, but as his eyes started to close, he set the train car down on his chest, between us, and rested his hand on me. He's in a mood today because of diaper rash, but this cuddle time is welcome. He'll be asleep when Winamp makes the transition from Suzanne Vega to The Sisters of Mercy.

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A week ago, in the car, he was exhausted and angry at being restrained, and screamed and screamed and screamed, refusing to fall asleep. I put on his sleep playlist (thank goodness for cell phones that play music!), and he screamed through the first two Suzanne Vega songs. As soon as the first Sisters of Mercy song started, he stopped screaming, listened for fifteen seconds, made an annoyed fussy sound, and closed his eyes. He was fully asleep. I don't think he even stirred when he was removed from the car seat and carried over Daddy's shoulder.

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Toddler breakfast these days may include a bowl of Cheerios, two bananas, three clementines and some cheese. He loves to eat.

What does one do when the world is falling apart around them?

Walk around DC all day, apparently :)

My feet are happy.

My baby boy is happy.

And the sloth bear is happy, too.

ohaiblog

alive tomorrow? mebbe

Links & Comments & Sentences

Elijah is learning to use sentences. "Fruit please", "chair please", "up please"... with ASL, of course. Although he did attempt to say, as in speak, "Daddy go" when B went out the door yesterday :)

He's done other awesome things lately, too, but I'll have to track down my notes. Meanwhile, have some links.

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Clearing out my tabs:

KnowYourMeme - Excellent for those of us who lost track of everything new on the Internet in about 2002...

Alouette - the song is horrible, just in case anyone didn't know ;)

IntefaceLIFT - Awesome desktop wallpapers.

TheSixtyOne - Independent music. Worth checking out.

MomLogic: It's Not Swinging if You're Committed! - A surprisingly positive article on the benefits of poly parenting. I started reading the comments, though, and I shouldn't have--I should have known it would just make me angry ;p

Families of Adults Affected by Asperger's Syndrome - A interesting concept for an organization... it could be useful.

Gayle's Preschool Rainbow: Activities for Toddlers and ToddlerToddler.com: Rainy Days - Both are sites full of activity ideas for toddlers. Keeping an NT child occupied is hard for my AS brain. He doesn't want to spin endlessly or rub tabs between his fingers. What am I to do? These sites help.

Musicovery - This is a distinctly strange way of finding new music...

5 Things Made From Junkyard Scraps - An slideshow of interesting products made from scrap material. Pretty awesome.

Morning interlude.

We're having pizza rolls and cereal for breakfast. Elijah put a pizza roll down on his high chair tray and enthusiastically signed "pillow".

Random things + Snow

Making This Home: Appreciate Your Imperfect World - This is an awesome post on the idea that Americans apologize too much.

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It's not often that people knock on my door. EXCEPT WHEN THE SNOW IS A FOOT DEEP. WTF!

People who have knocked in the last two days:
-UPS man bringing Gevalia order
-guys wanting to shovel the driveway
-neighbour asking if we had a gas can because his was buried in the snow
-more guys wanting to shovel the driveway

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Elijah is loving Little Einsteins. He calls Rocket a helicopter, and he goes pat pat pat pat BLAST OFF with them (with his hands, not his voice).

At lunch today, he gobbled up lots of eggs, chorizo, and rice. For dinner, lots of potato and broccoli and cheese.

He gets really excited, with laughing and squealing, when I run up to him and hold out tickle hands.

He likes watching StepMania; he watches the arrows, not me.

He signed "More" at Remmy today when Remmy stopped jumping up and down and running around.

He gives kisses on the lips and he hugs the giant ball.

Cats & Quidditch

One recent morning, when Elijah woke up, before he'd even opened his eyes, he said, "Caaaa!" and signed "cat" very enthusiastically. I wonder if he was dreaming?

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We spent two hours at IKEA a few days ago, wandering around, talking, entertaining Elijah and making house plans. I was reminded that I am not a "girl" and this was a perfectly acceptable "date night" sort of thing in my opinion.

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I should have so much more to say. E is growing, and learning, and being amazing, every day. He's trying to say "bubble" and "Barjot", and I've completely lost count of how many signs he has. He knows "firefighter" and "store".

Enforcing a bedtime is getting harder and harder. So I just have to try harder. Enforcing a specific naptime might help with that. Consistency?... it's just so hard for me.

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Keeping me sane today: Quidditch videos!

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All of that said, it's Snowpocalypse time in DC again. We've got hot chocolate, heat, and warm dogs. What preparations have you made for being snowed in all of . . . oh, probably two days? ;)

Memory? What memory? aka Marriage

I just had to search my email to find out what date B and I got married, because I kinda-sorta figured the anniversary was coming up but I didn't know if it was one year or two.

I promise that mindset doesn't reflect my devotion to the relationship... it just reflects my confusion that the law cares so much, and also that the baby ate my brain.

On the other hand, I do remember the day itself fondly (except for the migraine), because two friends drove out with us and the reverend lady was very nice and her house was so cute. And we had steak afterwards.

And the vows were nice, too.

Schedules?

What is it about keeping a schedule that is so incredibly difficult? I mean is this the ADD? I'm talking waking up and going to bed at a specific time, and having meals within a relatively regular schedule. Nothing drastic. Just a little bit of structure.

Why can't I manage it? Elijah, B, and even I function better when we stick to it. Everyone gets enough sleep, everyone's blood sugar stays decent.

But I just can't seem to keep it up.

I can has ADD meds now please?

Title? Really? Do I have to do this every time?

This morning, Elijah ate more cereal for breakfast than I did (and with less sugar...), and is in a much more awake and less cranky mood than I am as well. He's watching Signing Time now, so I can have a few minutes to wake up, although when I first started playing it, he fussed and asked for Pooh. But I can't take Pooh for the 20th time since yesterday, so Signing Time it is.

And after an hour of Signing Time, it's Pooh time again, and time for the blanket fort to be set up and the blocks to be pulled out :)

Hilarious: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IsThereAnyMommyOutThere/~3/NyTdYO2W19A/breastfeeding-rules-and-regulations.html

Snippets and commentary.

There's an animal that eats algae and steals algae genes so it can photosyntesize.

It can turn sunlight into energy.

It doesn't need to eat food.

It's an animal that eats sunlight!

Here! Go here! Animal-plant creature!

I want these: BLT Bites

We've been watching Lady and the Tramp. The animation impresses me, the expression on the dogs' faces. There's an excellent, "Shut UP, grrrr!" face on the Scottie when the bloodhound starts talking when Darling might hear. Which is amusing since the humans don't understand the dogs to begin with.

The best thing of all, however, is Elijah sitting in his rocking chair, watching the show.

And he moved his chair so that it was facing the screen, instead of away from it.

---

Elijah wakes up enough to squirm and rub his face, make a cute little noise, then goes back to sleep.

This morning, he wore a black leather fedora all through breakfast.

Salvation, with tomatoes.

Things keeping me sane today:

Cat with cherry tomatoes.

Youtube, mostly these:
358. Salvation Has Been Brought Down-Southside Chuch of Christ

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

Salvation has been brought down BMalone SSOrl 52409

Elijah dancing to the hymns and signing for more. Also lots of toddler tickles.

Honey nut Cheerios (with half & half and way too much sugar).

Torchwood (on Netflix).

Winnie the Pooh.

Neopets.

Hello again.

Well, for a little bit there, I thought I was going to manage to post every day in January... but apparently not. Maybe I'll manage it for February :)

Elijah has been blowing kisses, giving hugs, pointing a lot, trying to babble more. Signing and signing and signing. He's gaining more recognition of the world every day and it's a lot of fun.

He's also discovered a love of frozen waffles. While still frozen.

I still haven't found a food he won't eat, though Kacy's given him asparagus and that didn't go over well. But garlic, mashed potatoes, spicy Thai curry, cheese (and cheese and more cheese), bacon, beef stew, baby corn, hot sauce on eggs? He gobbles it all up, loves it.

And he's learning to put his clothes on. He's figured out socks, and he nearly got his pants on today. He got them up to his thighs, and stood up, but I had to pull them up for him.

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As for me, the day's been full of pain, sleep, and Northern Exposure. And love, lots of love--the whole family was here for the weekend. Chris had to head home for job and school related stuff, but Kacy and JD and the cat are still here. I've done nothing of substance today except make coffee and cuddle the baby boy.

And continually threaten to eat Remmy, because he won't stop barking.

Notes to self:
-goodreads.com
-new music every day
-painkillers work better if taken at the right time
-naps are wonderful
-NeoPets.com can save sanity
-so can Netflix

Note to Elijah:
"ga" made much more sense as your word for "dog" than "ma" does. "ma" has none of the right sounds. At least "ga" had one correct letter.

(placeholder post? maybe. seeya tomorrow.)

One of those nights.

This is a post.

This is a line in a post.

This is a greeting in a line in a post.

Goodnight?

Yeah, goodnight.

Picture Post

Christmas morning.




This picture makes it look like I can actually manage to keep my house tidy. I assure you, that's not the case.










I'm thinking of getting rid of that blanket because I keep mistaking it for the dog (especially when he's clean).