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.