...and the saga continues...
I got a pesky e-mail the morning after I ordered Sofia's baby telling me that the baby that I wanted was no longer available. Unfortunately, after lots of time wasted scouring the Internets for a duplicate, I discovered that the baby I chose has been discontinued. Fortunately she is available in other outfits. Unfortunately I have discovered (or maybe confirmed is a better word) that I am quite stubborn and picky and I am not a fan of any of the other outfit options. Fortunately I started searching for a baby doll months in advance of Sofie's actual birthday and if I'm lucky I might just find the right one with a day or two to spare!
I promise that my next post will not make any mention of baby dolls. In fact, I promise that my next post will be full of pictures (although they might be blurry) and say something even remotely stimulating!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Gee...is it Wednesday again?
Oh...whoops...Thursday you say? Bummer!
1. The kid...she is a crazy! Have you noticed the lack of pictures on the blog lately? Yes?! That's because she won't stay still long enough for me to snap one. She has also grown quite fond of shrieking whenever there is something she can't quite figure out how to communicate. Sort of like, "Squeeeee!" I'm in the seat of this cart and you're not looking at "Squeeeeeeeeee!" me and why won't you "Squeeeee!" let me out so I can "Squeeeeeeeeeeee!" push it into the end cap and "Squee!" where's my cookie woman?!!! Let's just say that I've turned into that mom. You know, the one with the really obnoxious child. The one who makes you mumble under your breath, "I am never having children." It's a good thing she's so darned cute!
2. I have finally purchased Sofia's first baby doll. (Cue the fanfare from the heavens!) She is not any of the options that I provided links to and I'm going to be cruel and make you wait and be surprised with Sofie. She is notably simple, but she is sweet and soft, daddy approved and machine washable. I have lovely visions of her being dragged around naked by one arm and I am hopeful that her face will not be tattooed by any curious ink pens. (Did I ever tell you about Ben's stuffed monkey from his childhood? The one whose name is My Poor Monkey? He lives in Sofie's room now with his crusty, smooshed banana grin! Remind me to post a picture.)
3. Sofia has her first official play date tomorrow with a new (boy)friend from a Mom group we attended on Monday. I'm pretty excited to actually get to spend some daytime hours talking to an actual grown-up person!
4. I broke down and bought invitations for Sofie's birthday and a lovely purple glitter pen to fill them in with. Expect yours in the mail soon!
5. I picked up my OAMC book from the library today and it is everything I could ever have hoped for with several meal plans to choose from complete with grocery lists and step-by-step cooking instructions. I'm going to start with a 2-week plan since there are only three weeks left in the month and the recipes are meant for a larger family so we should have plenty of left-overs. I'll be sure to let you know how it all works out (and of course you're invited for dinner!) I made the full bread recipe on Monday and individually wrapped five loaves and froze them all together in a large freezer bag before their second rising. Interestingly, they continued to rise in the freezer and burst out of the bag! I pulled one out today to bake, allowing it to thaw and rise for several hours. It was mighty tasty, but it didn't rise quite as well as the fresh dough did. Next time I'll freeze them in individual bags and see if that makes any difference. Even if it doesn't, the bread is well worth the effort!
6. Lest you think that my life has become nothing but domesticity I'll make a mention that there are some pretty exciting prospects floating around behind the scenes here. I feel sort of funny saying anything, almost like telling someone a birthday wish, so I won't say much more unless something becomes solid. With that said, I'd appreciate all the crossed fingers and pixie dust you can muster!
1. The kid...she is a crazy! Have you noticed the lack of pictures on the blog lately? Yes?! That's because she won't stay still long enough for me to snap one. She has also grown quite fond of shrieking whenever there is something she can't quite figure out how to communicate. Sort of like, "Squeeeee!" I'm in the seat of this cart and you're not looking at "Squeeeeeeeeee!" me and why won't you "Squeeeee!" let me out so I can "Squeeeeeeeeeeee!" push it into the end cap and "Squee!" where's my cookie woman?!!! Let's just say that I've turned into that mom. You know, the one with the really obnoxious child. The one who makes you mumble under your breath, "I am never having children." It's a good thing she's so darned cute!
2. I have finally purchased Sofia's first baby doll. (Cue the fanfare from the heavens!) She is not any of the options that I provided links to and I'm going to be cruel and make you wait and be surprised with Sofie. She is notably simple, but she is sweet and soft, daddy approved and machine washable. I have lovely visions of her being dragged around naked by one arm and I am hopeful that her face will not be tattooed by any curious ink pens. (Did I ever tell you about Ben's stuffed monkey from his childhood? The one whose name is My Poor Monkey? He lives in Sofie's room now with his crusty, smooshed banana grin! Remind me to post a picture.)
3. Sofia has her first official play date tomorrow with a new (boy)friend from a Mom group we attended on Monday. I'm pretty excited to actually get to spend some daytime hours talking to an actual grown-up person!
4. I broke down and bought invitations for Sofie's birthday and a lovely purple glitter pen to fill them in with. Expect yours in the mail soon!
5. I picked up my OAMC book from the library today and it is everything I could ever have hoped for with several meal plans to choose from complete with grocery lists and step-by-step cooking instructions. I'm going to start with a 2-week plan since there are only three weeks left in the month and the recipes are meant for a larger family so we should have plenty of left-overs. I'll be sure to let you know how it all works out (and of course you're invited for dinner!) I made the full bread recipe on Monday and individually wrapped five loaves and froze them all together in a large freezer bag before their second rising. Interestingly, they continued to rise in the freezer and burst out of the bag! I pulled one out today to bake, allowing it to thaw and rise for several hours. It was mighty tasty, but it didn't rise quite as well as the fresh dough did. Next time I'll freeze them in individual bags and see if that makes any difference. Even if it doesn't, the bread is well worth the effort!
6. Lest you think that my life has become nothing but domesticity I'll make a mention that there are some pretty exciting prospects floating around behind the scenes here. I feel sort of funny saying anything, almost like telling someone a birthday wish, so I won't say much more unless something becomes solid. With that said, I'd appreciate all the crossed fingers and pixie dust you can muster!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Wasting Time...
...because Wednesday is the day I am supposed to clean the bathroom!
1. I am still on the dolly quest. Ben vetoed my favorite because, he says, she is not a baby. He thinks that Sofie should have a doll that is younger than she is (because clearly she could never have birthed a toddler...a baby is so much more believable!) We went to visit a few of the Corolle dollies in the store today, and Sofie happily fed this one a bottle, but I just wasn't convinced. The Middleton doll is Ben's pick and I've added a new choice to the batch. What do you think of her?
2. Planning a first birthday party on a shoestring when you have a ginormous family is quite a task! I have notoriously poo-poohed elaborate birthday parties for children and there's a great big part of me that thinks that they can really get ridiculous, but there's something about the first birthday that is uniquely momentous and deserves to be celebrated in a big way. In reality, I view it as a party for us as a complete family, marking the grand accomplishment of surviving the first year (with most of our hair even!) We are planning to celebrate with family only (Auntie Heidi counts!) but even still the list has nearly fifty people. Oy! I am trying to economize as much as possible but it is proving to be a difficult task. I thought I'd make my own invitations since I have plenty of materials on hand (and plenty of time!) but that was before I realized that our printer is out of ink. Well that and our desktop computer, the one with a decent word processing program, recently quit functioning (we think it's the video card - solvable!) Somehow all of my ideas to attempt to save money seem to end up costing me more than the shortcut would. The goal is to spend less than $100 on everything which might even be remotely realistic since grandma has a pantry that is mysteriously overflowing with party food...
3. My first attempt at once-a-month-cooking, hereafter referred to as OAMC, is looming just around the corner as the month of July comes to an end. I'm awaiting the arrival of a library book that I'm hoping will spell things out pretty exactly since it seems like quite a task to prepare a menu, shopping list, and cooking order (first cook ten pounds of ground beef...ha!) If you'd like to join me in my endeavor, there's still time! Just let me know. Sort of related, we've had two weeks of homemade bread now. The first recipe was laborious. It instructed me to knead the dough for a full ten minutes. Now, I know that doesn't sound like much, but by about four minutes in I had beads of sweat forming on my forehead. If nothing else, I would have some sweet arm muscles if I continued to bake this one, but it was a complete dud. The bread pretty much tasted like cardboard. All that work for nothing! Last weekend I tried a simple recipe, a quite simple recipe, and it turned out great. The recipe is for six loaves and there are instructions regarding how to freeze the loaves (pre-baked) that you don't want to use immediately. A winner! You can find the recipe here. Incidentally, if anyone has some nice loaf pans that they aren't putting to good use I know a certain baker lady that could really take advantage of them since hers are maybe a little bit rusty (bet you didn't know a pan could rust!)
4. Lastly, I have to brag about the kid a little bit because she is just so freaking cute these days. She has begun to sing to herself when she is winding down before bed. Usually she'll flop herself over me and begin crooning her ballad. It takes every ounce of concentration I have not to break out in hysterical laughter, the kid is stone tone deaf! Hopefully I can recruit Ben to catch it on a video soon. She is a complete snuggle bug and she often curls up on top of me and gives me pats. She is starting to give more consistent kisses, although her version is more like a head-butt, on request. Following are a couple short clips of some of her newer tricks...
1. I am still on the dolly quest. Ben vetoed my favorite because, he says, she is not a baby. He thinks that Sofie should have a doll that is younger than she is (because clearly she could never have birthed a toddler...a baby is so much more believable!) We went to visit a few of the Corolle dollies in the store today, and Sofie happily fed this one a bottle, but I just wasn't convinced. The Middleton doll is Ben's pick and I've added a new choice to the batch. What do you think of her?
2. Planning a first birthday party on a shoestring when you have a ginormous family is quite a task! I have notoriously poo-poohed elaborate birthday parties for children and there's a great big part of me that thinks that they can really get ridiculous, but there's something about the first birthday that is uniquely momentous and deserves to be celebrated in a big way. In reality, I view it as a party for us as a complete family, marking the grand accomplishment of surviving the first year (with most of our hair even!) We are planning to celebrate with family only (Auntie Heidi counts!) but even still the list has nearly fifty people. Oy! I am trying to economize as much as possible but it is proving to be a difficult task. I thought I'd make my own invitations since I have plenty of materials on hand (and plenty of time!) but that was before I realized that our printer is out of ink. Well that and our desktop computer, the one with a decent word processing program, recently quit functioning (we think it's the video card - solvable!) Somehow all of my ideas to attempt to save money seem to end up costing me more than the shortcut would. The goal is to spend less than $100 on everything which might even be remotely realistic since grandma has a pantry that is mysteriously overflowing with party food...
3. My first attempt at once-a-month-cooking, hereafter referred to as OAMC, is looming just around the corner as the month of July comes to an end. I'm awaiting the arrival of a library book that I'm hoping will spell things out pretty exactly since it seems like quite a task to prepare a menu, shopping list, and cooking order (first cook ten pounds of ground beef...ha!) If you'd like to join me in my endeavor, there's still time! Just let me know. Sort of related, we've had two weeks of homemade bread now. The first recipe was laborious. It instructed me to knead the dough for a full ten minutes. Now, I know that doesn't sound like much, but by about four minutes in I had beads of sweat forming on my forehead. If nothing else, I would have some sweet arm muscles if I continued to bake this one, but it was a complete dud. The bread pretty much tasted like cardboard. All that work for nothing! Last weekend I tried a simple recipe, a quite simple recipe, and it turned out great. The recipe is for six loaves and there are instructions regarding how to freeze the loaves (pre-baked) that you don't want to use immediately. A winner! You can find the recipe here. Incidentally, if anyone has some nice loaf pans that they aren't putting to good use I know a certain baker lady that could really take advantage of them since hers are maybe a little bit rusty (bet you didn't know a pan could rust!)
4. Lastly, I have to brag about the kid a little bit because she is just so freaking cute these days. She has begun to sing to herself when she is winding down before bed. Usually she'll flop herself over me and begin crooning her ballad. It takes every ounce of concentration I have not to break out in hysterical laughter, the kid is stone tone deaf! Hopefully I can recruit Ben to catch it on a video soon. She is a complete snuggle bug and she often curls up on top of me and gives me pats. She is starting to give more consistent kisses, although her version is more like a head-butt, on request. Following are a couple short clips of some of her newer tricks...
Monday, July 28, 2008
Eleven Months
Oh madam what a month this has been! The first full month since your very first month that I have had the privilege of providing all of your care. It has been delightful to meet you again from this new perspective and I am honored to say that I am quite proud of the little girl you are becoming.
You began this month on the verge of walking, then took your first tentative steps, gained confidence and triumphed over longer distances, learned to pause and balance yourself if you needed to, figured out how to turn, and finally, just recently, you've mastered the last step that bumps you from part-time crawler status to full-time walker status, you learned how to stand up without the help of a prop to pull up on. Phew! As much as it feels like you've progressed through these phases overnight in truth I watched you practice over and over again so diligently every single day. It reminds me to stop and take a moment to stand in awe of the breadth of developmental challenges you are facing and tackling head-on each and every day. What a determined little creature you are. Truly amazing!
Your communication skills have undergone a similar explosion. I have distinguished eight words you use appropriately (Hi, Eye, Yuck, Yes, Hot, Bye-Bye, No, Heh?) and I'm growing more convinced each day that you are attempting a garbled Thank You and Did It! as well. You are also learning a few key signs and frequently use the signs for milk and more. You continue to be a nursery rhyme enthusiast and you know that I will begin to recite Patty Cake or Itsy Bitsy Spider if you start doing the hand motions and usually "request" that I repeat them several times!
You have become quite independent and you play on your own for much of the day. You can spend a solid fifteen minutes pulling the books off of your bookshelf and flipping through the pages. Once in awhile you'll bring one to me and we'll read it together. You've learned how to put things away and you find it quite interesting to put your toys away and then pull them right back out. Your toys, however, don't impress you very much. You're much more interested in the world around you. Some of your favorite discoveries this month have included peeling the skins off the onions, pulling wipe after wipe after wipe out of the container, disassembling daddy's wallet, and removing his socks and underpants from their drawers.
Sofia, I tend to create lofty expectations for myself and my thoughts on motherhood are no exception. I am sometimes disappointed by my failure to maintain the quality of mothering that I want you to experience on a daily basis. While there are certainly areas that could stand some improvement I want to admit that I'm very proud of many of my mothering instincts. Most of all I'm quite proud that I often ignore the little voice in my head that says, "You shouldn't let her do that!" This month you practiced blowing out matches, proudly brushed your own teeth after a preliminary sweep, and gleefully splashed water out of the bathtub. Today we walked outside, you toddling near me but on your own, and you stopped sporadically to pick up rocks and leaves (your little knees are perpetually filthy!) You found a bit of a wrapper from a sucker lying on the ground and it was quite clear that you had found yourself a treasure. That little bit got away from you several times but each time you stopped to pick it up and continued on. Perhaps I should have taken that piece of trash away from you, but instead it accompanied us home, even found its way into the bathtub with you for a swim. I'm so proud of that Sofie, my ability to allow you to see treasures where I see trash, to separate your experiences from my own and to be delighted by you, not when you choose what I would have chosen, but when I see your eyes light up. As long as you chase fervently after your passions you can never ever disappoint me. I love you!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Reading List
Perhaps you've noticed that I've added a reading list to the ol' blog. The library has always been my first stop post-finals and reading was my first true love. I have been thoroughly enjoying my free-time in the evenings after Sofia is asleep devouring books. Currently I'm reading Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids, and Life in a Half-Changed World and it is resonating so deeply. I couldn't have found a more timely and appropriate book to help me deal with the current "issues" I'm riding regarding being an intelligent, driven, and powerful woman and learning to balance those traits with my home life in a meaningful way. Just had to take a moment to be appreciative...
Monday, July 21, 2008
Late Breaking News...
Bear with me here...this is what becomes "prime time" news when your daily conversational partner's vocabulary is limited to, "Hi! Eye! Yuck! Hot! Yes! Bye-bye! No!" and the sign for milk...
We are all too quickly approaching Worm's first birthday. Everyone knows that one of the best parts of being a parent is picking out toys for yourself er...for your kid I mean. So I have been daydreaming about what to give Sofia for birthday number one for quite some time. On the top of my list is a baby doll. I am quite excited over the prospect of picking out Sofia's first doll, and I have been embarrassingly nervous for months now that someone might give her one as a gift and take away what I view as a very special rite. Lately I've spent more time than I'm willing to divulge browsing the Internets for the perfect doll.
...and here she is...
Kathe Kruse Kikou Sina Doll
She has the perfect soft weighted body, sweet face, and fun outfit. Unfortunately, she also comes with an exorbitant price tag. One that I can't seem to justify paying. Not even for a super-special first baby doll:(
So...I have been trying to find a reasonable alternative. Somehow everything else is paling in comparison, but here are the distant runners-up...
Middleton PlayBabies Little Hailey
Corolle Calin Laughing Raspberry Doll
What do you think?!
And just for kicks, Baby Bobbie, on this page, was my first baby doll!
We are all too quickly approaching Worm's first birthday. Everyone knows that one of the best parts of being a parent is picking out toys for yourself er...for your kid I mean. So I have been daydreaming about what to give Sofia for birthday number one for quite some time. On the top of my list is a baby doll. I am quite excited over the prospect of picking out Sofia's first doll, and I have been embarrassingly nervous for months now that someone might give her one as a gift and take away what I view as a very special rite. Lately I've spent more time than I'm willing to divulge browsing the Internets for the perfect doll.
...and here she is...
Kathe Kruse Kikou Sina Doll
She has the perfect soft weighted body, sweet face, and fun outfit. Unfortunately, she also comes with an exorbitant price tag. One that I can't seem to justify paying. Not even for a super-special first baby doll:(
So...I have been trying to find a reasonable alternative. Somehow everything else is paling in comparison, but here are the distant runners-up...
Middleton PlayBabies Little Hailey
Corolle Calin Laughing Raspberry Doll
What do you think?!
And just for kicks, Baby Bobbie, on this page, was my first baby doll!
Friday, July 18, 2008
A Day in the Life...A Video Blog
Find something new and interesting to discover...
Visit with Snook (a rare treat to actually see him on the big screen although we do watch his music videos on pbskids.com quite often!)
Practice walking in the obstacle course you've created...
Let daddy teach you new tricks!
Throw in some tasty meals, a nap or two, a trip to the pool, and a few chores and you can pretty much call it a day!
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