You’ll shoot your eye out!
February 9, 2010 at 10:40 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Check out my neighbor’s monster icicles. Those could do some damage. Bracing for another 12 – 18 inches, according to this morning’s weather report. James is home for the second day this week, and he might go for a third if Metro service stops again tomorrow.
Snowy Photos
February 8, 2010 at 8:57 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentI took these photos on Sunday, and, egad, they’re calling for another foot of snow tomorrow and Wednesday! So, imagine another foot on top of this…we’re never getting out of here.
A weekend of winter weather and walking
February 8, 2010 at 12:47 am | In Uncategorized | 3 CommentsIt started Friday at noon, just a few flurries, not even sticking. Liam and I easily made it to baby yoga at 10 and to a lunch date at noon, and I really did think this whole huge storm thing would blow over with little to show for it. So imagine my surprise when I woke up on Saturday morning to see at least a foot of snow on the ground, and no signs of the storm letting up. The wind picked up, the tiny flurries turned to big flakes, and I grabbed the camera. We lost power around 1 PM, and with one flashlight and two overpoweringly scented candles, we survived the night camped out in the basement with every blanket we own.
The next morning, still without power, we took turns shoveling a path to the sidewalk, then argued over who was going to walk up to the CVS in search of DuraFlame logs. Liam fell asleep on me, so James was It. It took him four hours to discover every store near our house was sold out of anything useful, take the Metro to the only other underground station available from our stop, buy up every available D battery and flashlight Target had (or course they were out of DuraFlames), and make it back to our house. And by the time he got back, the power was back on! Worse yet, Liam decide to start walking in earnest while he was gone. Thankfully I caught it all on video.
Unsurprisingly, James has a snow day tomorrow, so we’ll be attempting to dig our car out then. I hear there’s more snow in store for us next week. Nooooo!
Liam started signing!
February 6, 2010 at 9:56 am | In Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: amusing, baby
Two days ago I asked Liam if he wanted more or if he was all done with dinner. And he did the sign for all done! I thought it was a fluke, but he’s been doing it with every meal since. What a smart boy I have! But not such a smart mom, apparently. At lunch yesterday Karen mentioned that Cam could do the sign for all done, but it was different than what I taught Liam. Cam does a little so-so motion with his hand, and I taught Liam to sweep his hand across his chest, like an umpire calling safe. I looked it up online, and sure enough, I taught him the wrong sign! I have no idea where I got the idea that all done was that sweep with the hand. But it’s too late to rectify. Oh, well. As long as I know what he’s saying, it shouldn’t matter, right?
Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Nuggets totally rock
February 5, 2010 at 4:55 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: cooking
James came home early on account of the snow, so I spent my afternoon making these broccoli cheddar cheese nuggets while James entertained Liam. They were a bit labor-intensive, and by the time I had them finished Liam was down for his afternoon nap. But I just sampled a few, and if Liam doesn’t wake up soon, he won’t get to try any! Actually, this made a ton, so I’m sure there will be some left for him to try at dinner. But if he doesn’t like them, I won’t mind. More for me! I’m not even a huge fan of broccoli, but I could eat these all day.
Here’s the recipe from WholesomeBabyfood.com, great for toddlers and grownups alike! One note: best to eat them right away. We discovered they’re not nearly as good reheated.
Broccoli & Cheddar Cheese Nuggets
Ingredients:
1 16-oz Package frozen broccoli, cooked, drained, and chopped
1 cup Seasoned bread crumbs (you could try using baby cereal if you want, we know it works well with “baby meatballs”)
1 ½ cups Shredded cheddar cheese (please use real cheese and not a “processed cheese food” product. Try tomato & basil cheddar.)
3 Large eggs – Most pediatricians say it’s ok to use whole egg in a baked good when baby is over 8-9 months old without allergies. We would recommend that you substitute 5 egg yolks for the whole eggs if serving this to those under 1 yr. Ask YOUR pediatrician.
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375 and lightly coat a baking sheet with olive oil and set aside.
2. Combine all remaining ingredients and mix well.
*Add seasonings if you like – garlic powder, pepper, extra basil & oregano for example
3. Shape mixture into nuggets or fun shapes such as squares or squigglies etc..and place on baking tray. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, turn nuggets over after 15 minutes. Serve warm
Suitable for those who have had the ingredients and for those who can handle texture and mash foods with their gums. Great for Moms & Dad too
Batten down the hatches
February 4, 2010 at 12:23 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: bab, baby, video
The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Or that’s what the local weatherguy would lead you to believe. Though, after looking at this map, I have a feeling we’re in for a lot of shoveling this weekend. James is bummed the snow is hitting Friday. He wanted a snow day. Judging from last time, he may still get it on Monday. I’m not taking any chances — I hit the store yesterday, so we’re all stocked up. Shouldn’t need to leave the house this weekend at all.
Liam’s been a fussy butt lately. It’s so frustrating when they can’t tell you what’s the matter. The other day he woke up from his afternoon nap in the foulest mood. First I thought teething, so we tried some baby Oragel. Then I thought stomach ache, so we tried some gas medicine. He wouldn’t let me put him down, but he clearly wasn’t happy being carried, either. I had my iPod on shuffle, and I noticed he’d quiet down whenever one of his toddler songs came on, so I switched to one of his albums, and suddenly he stayed quiet. Was the music the problem all along?! Or maybe one or the other medicine finally kicked in? I’ll never know.
Liam’s also getting more finicky about his diet. I suspected he was getting tired of eating the same old baby food, so I picked up some new finger foods (Melba toast, animal crackers, and veggie chips to name a few). And this morning we tried a new recipe I found on WholesomeBabyfood.com: Banana Pancakes. The recipe’s simple — just slice up some bananas, dip them in buckwheat pancake batter, and cook like a mini pancake. They were a huge hit. I’m calling them “Nanacakes” because I can get Liam to say “Nana.” I had enough leftover batter to make myself a pancake for breakfast, and man, oh, man, was it tasty! This was a honey buckwheat flavor mix, and I guess because I’ve always equated buckwheat to health food, I thought it wouldn’t taste very good. But I’ll take this over Bisquick any day! This afternoon I’m trying another finger food recipe: broccoli and cheddar cheese nuggets. Yum!
Balancing the checkbook has become a juggling act, transferring money from my unemployment account and pulling in money from savings to cover when unemployment doesn’t pay out. I found out the hard way that if I make more on a freelance job than my weekly allowance they freeze my account and i have to call to reactivate it. So we missed a few weeks of bennies. We should be fine — plenty in savings — but it’s annoying because on paper we should be easily making ends meet with these weekly payouts. Trouble is, if I do any work for anyone, I have to report it, even though I typically don’t get paid for that work for another 30 or so days. James and I have cut way down on eating out, and we’re doing our best to curb our spending in other areas. I listened to this very informative podcast on NPR about getting the best deal on cars, credit cards, and all sort of things. One piece of advice I followed up on was to contact my cable company to see if I could get a better price. Our bill is ridiculously high, and I’ve been steeling myself up for the idea of canceling our movie channels to save money. (If I can just get through this season of HBO’s Big Love, I think I can handle it.) But it turns out all I had to do was sign a 2-year contract and they put me on a plan that would save us $40 a month! And we ended up with more channels and faster internet! The bill is still pretty high, but we can down grade to an even cheaper package if we need to later. Sweet!
I’ll leave you with this amusing video I shot last night. Apparently Liam has a mad face, accompanied by heavy breathing, lol.
Maybe we should have stayed home
January 29, 2010 at 9:13 pm | In Uncategorized | 1 CommentOh, Liam. We had a rough day, I know. First you didn’t want your eggs. Now I know…I forgot the cheese. My bad. We were running late for yoga, so I fed you some pureed fruit while I took a bath. You had loads of fun with that. I bundled you up tight so we could go to class. Not so much fun with that. You didn’t want to play with the other kids today, so we just roamed around the room, your barefeet slapping against the floor and your giggles and smiles hard to ignore. When we tried to join the circle, oh the fits you threw. We got you a much-needed nap in the car, and then a quick stop home before we took the train into the city. You love the train. We met some moms at a dim sum restaurant in Chinatown. You were good…at first. You loved the pork pastries and pork buns. But it was loud, and there weren’t any other kids, and you’d had enough. Back to being bundled in the stroller, and decidedly not happy. Then we went to see daddy at work, which cheered you up. And cheered him up. He loves showing you off. But the cheer didn’t last, so we went back home, had snack, bottle, nap. But instead of being refreshed, you woke up cranky, and stayed that way all through dinner. Much was thrown on the floor. Much was refused. Oh, where did my little I’ll-eat-anything-you-give-me guy go? A mess from head to toe, we got you in the bath, and, as always, that cheered you up again. You love the bath even more than trains. Then into your PJs, and while your bottle warmed, you helped me wash the dishes. Then a very tired mommy was hoping against hope that you’d go right to sleep. She’d had a rough day, too. But then after your bottle, you just lay there in my arms, pulled the blanket up to your cheek and rubbed it there, grinning that half-toothy grin of yours. You stuck your fingers in my mouth, my ears. You pulled my hair. And I stared into your pretty blue eyes. All is forgiven, son. Your momma’s such a sucker. Night, night. And then you went right to sleep.
Gearing up for Lost
January 29, 2010 at 6:37 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: lost, television
Check out this hilarious five-minute video recap of the entire Lost series. Yeah, the show is that crazy. And I love it.
Liam is 13 months old!
January 27, 2010 at 6:04 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: baby, Liam's Monthly Update
I almost decided to scrap the monthly updates now that Liam is a year old, but he’s still changing so much, and learning so much, that I want to make a note. Here’s what my toddler is up to these days:
- His hair is growing out nicely from his first haircut. It’s even getting a little curly in the back. He’s sporting his Russell Brand look in the above photo, heh.
- When asked he can point out his toes and his belly button. We’re working on nose (which sounds so much like toes that he usually mixes them up), ears, and teeth.
- His favorite post-bath activity, after waving bye-bye to the water going down the drain, is to flip off the light switches. He can flip them off, even the sideways ones, but not back on again yet.
- We’ve been working on baby sign language all month. He hasn’t done any signs back, but I’ve been doing signs for milk, water, all done, more, and thank you.
- Liam has discovered the joy of cuddling. Whenever he gets a hold of anything soft, he rubs it along his face and smiles contentedly. He cuddles his stuffed animals, his blankets, and whenever I wear my super-soft robe, I get some cuddle-lovin’, too. The other morning I went in to get him, and he immediately gave me a wet toddler kiss and then cuddled my shoulder.
- Tooth number six has put in an appearance. The better to chew pork chops with, grandpa Mark would say.
- My niece Evie was the baby with a million silly faces. Liam is the baby with a million funny noises. He does the usual da-da, ba-ba, na-na, ma-ma. But he also does this purring noise, I know, like a kitten. He blows raspberries all the time, and can even make a good “th” sound. Sometimes he trills like a little bird.
- The dustbuster no longer poses a threat. But he still has his eye on the vacuum cleaner.
- Liam has discovered the “off” switch on the TV. He and daddy are duking it out.
- He’s starting to get pickier about what he eats, randomly refusing carrots for two days in a row, spitting out any fresh fruit except bananas, and turning up his nose at scrambled eggs (one of his favorites!), only to eat them whole-heartedly a few days later. So it begins. On a positive note, cottage cheese finally made it to the “acceptable” list…at least for today.
- He’s still not walking on his own yet, but he loves dragging me around the house by my finger while he goes exploring. He’s getting braver, though, launching into a few cautious steps between pieces of furniture. He’ll be there before we know it, unfortunately.
- This kid is so smart. I know, I know, every mom says that. But, as I mentioned before, he can point out his toes and belly button! And when we play the See ‘N Say, he mimicks the cock-a-doodle-do of the rooster (with an “ooo-ooo-oooo”)! And he can put all of the right shapes in the right holes of his shape sorters! We can’t help but brag.
The one-month stay-at-home assessment
January 25, 2010 at 1:49 pm | In Uncategorized | 1 CommentTags: amusing, baby
So, I’ve been at this gig for one month now, and so far so good. We do a play date once a week with Cameron, and I usually schedule one other activity per week with my mommy groups on Meetup.com. I devote one day to house work (which sometimes trickles into two half days), and we usually make it to the store during the week, as well. And on Fridays we do our Itsy Bitsy Toddler Yoga class at Willow Street Yoga. The rest of the time we play, go on walks, have meals or snacks, and take naps. At first I modeled our play time after Alice, who never watched TV and played kids music for most of the day. But I found I feel completely cut off from the world without my morning CNN, and if I had to listen to toddler music all day, I might just shoot myself. So, I’ve worked out a compromise – I get my CNN fix while Liam eats his breakfast, then I turn on a mix of toddler music and soothing grown-up music on the iPod while he plays and I do some pilates. During lunch I’ll put on an NPR podcast – This American Life, Fresh Aire, Car Talk, or Science Friday. They say Mozart can make your baby smarter…I wonder what the Tappet Brothers will do?
After a month at this, I can honestly say that my layoff couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. Originally I had wanted to stay home with Liam from the very beginning, but I’m seeing now how much more fun Liam is at this age, and how bored I might have become in those early months. I got wonderful guidance and advice from our nanny, and a built-in playmate for Liam. Every day he’s learning something new and becoming more social with other kids and adults. I’m so lucky, so fortunate to get this time with my baby boy. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Lest you think it’s been all fun and games, we have hit a few bumps. My shower routine, for instance, has been thrown all out of whack. I wrote last week about Liam’s fascination with the shower, and I figured I had a couple of months until he’d be big enough to actually try and climb in with me. What I didn’t count on was him pulling on the tub faucet, tipping himself over the edge, and doing a header right into the tub! Poor lil’ guy was wailing, soap all in his eyes, still fully-clothed and soaking wet, and I’m standing there in the shower trying to get him rinsed off and relatively calm. My friend Candi suggested I try putting him in the shower with me, which used to work for her son. So this morning I turned on the shower, stripped the boy down, and set him down in there. Or tried, rather – he stiffened up his legs and let out a great yelp. I guess the memory of the face-plant was too near. So the diaper went back on, the shower turned into a bath, and all was right with the world. Liam delighted in throwing his bath toys into the bath with me, then chasing them down when I threw them out. So my shower routine is now a bath routine. But, I don’t mind – baths are better for the environment, and Liam is having a blast. And this way I can catch him if he decides to try and pull himself in again.
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