awesome dinner

the wifey tells me to blog so here i am :) can't say no to that.

i just made a really good dinner. i did beer can chicken, yam and potato casserole, and asparagus. the chicken is so easy to make. i just did a rub and stuck a can of beer up the chicken. one hour later- voila! awesome chicken. the asparagus we picked up from our neighborhood farmer's market.

today was opening day for the market. it's pretty cool. they had a lot more than i was expecting. we also got some fresh chevre rolled in herbs de provence and a yummy balsamic apple vinegar (lynn, you seriously could drink this!). i look forward to hopping over to the market for fresh produce and goodies.

here is the casserole recipe, if you're interested:

Ingredients

• 1 large sweet potato, thinly sliced
• 1 large potato, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup vegetable broth
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. In the prepared dish, make a single layer of sweet potato slices. Place a few onion slices on top, dot with butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat, alternating layers of white and sweet potatoes.
3. In a small bowl, or measuring cup, combine flour and broth. Pour over potatoes.
4. Sprinkle cheese, bread crumbs and parsley over the potatoes. Dot with remaining butter. Cover.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until potatoes and onions are soft.

just do it

i just need to start writing and something will come out of it. don't have an idea for this post, i'll just need to make it up as i go along.

arden is really cute. i love her. :) she makes the funniest noises. i'm so proud of her rolling capabilities. she's started lifting her butt up and kind of bringing her knees up to the side. with all this mobility, i've realized our house isn't really a moving baby house. we have hard wood floors. we have area rugs down, but really, can you keep a baby on a rug?? she keeps rolling off the blankets i lay down and bonking her head. did i mention the rug is wool? so she gets these lovely furry hands whenever she gets to it. and we have a cat and dog that shed. i'm constantly picking hairs off her face. yuck. our house isn't very large. it's comfy. suited to us. but our furniture gets in the way of the babe moving. i've taken to rotating the coffee table 90 degrees so arden has more rug. i think we need to move it somewhere else in the house and get a smaller, more portable, table.

our house is terribly un-babyproof. i don't know what we are going to do with our things when she really gets going. i love having photos and art around me. a number of these things are going to be at her level. harris has already shown me that if it's in reach it's for playing. i've been trying to pair down on the stuff we have since moving into this house. but man, i don't want to get rid of it all, i don't even want to put it away till arden, and subsequent children, aren't so grabby. what to do? what to do?

why won't arden nap on her own? at 9 this morning i fed her and she just chilled in my lap afterwards. totally drowsy. i decided i would put her in the crib with mobile and sleep sheep. nope, not sleeping. i decided to comfort nurse because she was fussing. this was at 10. she fell asleep. i went on to try numerous ways to put her down without waking her. last resort, i put her on the changing pad because it was high enough for me to put her down without breaking contact. then i was going to pick the whole thing up and put her in the crimb. i got her on the pad, wrapped in a blanket, asleep. i was about to grab the whole thing, then she startled herself awake. darn it. i picked her up. rocked and shushed. she commenced with babbling and grinning. she was only asleep for 15 minutes. and not deep sleep. it's now 11 and she's just been playing in the crib. eating her feet. rolling over. squawking. i thought she fell asleep at one point because she had been quiet for 5 minutes. i went in and found that she had pulled a blanket over her face and was quietly talking. oops. she's happy in there, so i'm just going to leave her be and see what happens (without the blankets fyi). but man, this girl and her naps.

we are getting some decent night sleep. -please don't let this following paragraph ruin our good fortune!- we've been getting her to bed around 7:30. two nights this week she went to bed without the boob. awesome! she's been sleeping until 1 or 2. wakes to eat and then goes back down. we had one night that she decided she wanted to be awake from 1:30-3 (that sucked). but otherwise she's been sleeping until 5 or even 6:30. so that's about 6 hours followed by about 3 or 4. and usually she'll sleep another 1 to 2 hours after that. works pretty good. guess what though. i really miss a solid night of sleep :)

something that's been on my mind a bit lately is feeling happy and feeling satisfied. i've been pretty happy with life. i have a lovely wife, pretty baby, nice house. but i haven't been feeling satisfied. i don't know if it's not feeling a sense of accomplishment. maybe if i was doing things that garnered results i would feel better. i'm in a bit of a rut. it's odd but maybe i'm depressed even though i'm happy. i've dealt with depression before. i've been on anti-depressants for years now. i want to do things but i'm having trouble setting them in motion. like i want to make curtains for arden's room. i bought some awesome fabric. lynn gave me her old sewing machine (thanks lady!!). but the fabric is still in it's bag. the machine is still in my car. i use the excuse that i don't have somewhere to put the machine because all my crafting supplies aren't unpacked yet (yes, 6 months after moving). and i just can't get my butt downstairs to move it all. i'm sitting on the couch blogging. which i haven't done in about a month, and needed to be done. but did it need to be done right now? argh vicious circle!!

babe is fussing now. need to go attend to her. yup, thanks for reading my randomness today. maybe i'll get my stuff together soon and write some real coherent posts :)

it's not you...

it's me being lazy. sorry guys. i swear i'll write more soon :)

one singular sensation...

an offering of love tagged me for this meme that calliope created. it's was a bit harder than i thought. i really wanted to add explanations for some things:) but you can't! you have to answer with just one word.

1. Yourself: hungry

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend: washing

3. Your hair: unruly

4. Your mother/stepmother: awesome

5. Your dog: sleepy

6. Your favorite item: bed

7. Your dream last night: non-existent

8. Your favorite drink: quenching

9. Your dream car: sturdy

10. The room you are in: comfortable

12. Your fear: loneliness

13. What you want to be in 10 years: settled

14. Who you hung out with last night: babes

15. What you’re not: thin

16. Muffin: top

17: One of your wish list items: designer

18: Time: late

19. The last thing you did: networking

20. What you are wearing: pjs

21. Your favorite weather: warm

22. Your favorite book: difficult

23. The last thing you ate: brownie

24. Your life: happy

25. Your mood: tired

26. Your best friend(S): growing

27. What are you thinking about right now? friendship

28. Your car: diiiirrrty

29. What are you doing at the moment?: listening

30. Your summer: hiking

31. Your relationship status: lovely

32. What is on your TV?: torchwood

33. What is the weather like?: cool

34. When is the last time you laughed?: afternoon

and now i tag lynn, amy, and amy and melissa. really everyone should try this though :)

spring scattegories from calliope

calliope from creating motherhood has this game going. check it out:)

1. What is your favorite springy color? green

2. Something you put in water? goldfish

3. Something you eat asparagus with? garlic

4. Something you change into flip-flops for? getting my toes done :)

5. Something you imagine yourself singing in your imaginary convertible? girls just wanna have fun

6. Something that makes you sneeze? grass

7. Something that gets you outside? golden sunshine

8.. Something that crashes your picnic? gnats- i hate when they get in your eyes!

9. Something that stings you? giant thorns on the weeds

10. Something that wafts through the air at night? giggles (i know it isn't a smell... but we laugh a lot in this house)

help

hey readers, recently i've received two emails from people representing websites. they have asked to have a link to their page put on my blog. i replied to the first one because it seemed legitimate, but now i have a second one and i don't know what to think. fyi- in that reply to the first one, i just asked for more information.

have any of you gotten emails like this? should i just ignore them?

good video, good message

i came across this video randomly. take a moment to watch it. :)

4 months old

wow, already 4 months. it's surprising how quickly it's gone, but i'm loving it too. arden is so interesting :) we had her 4 month well-baby visit today. the doctor said she's advanced because she's started rolling both ways. eeee! it's kinda cool to hear that from a professional. now for the stats on our big girl:

weight: 15 lb 14.7 oz- 92%

height: 26.8 inches- 100% (holy crap)

head: 16.73- 87%

we knew she was a big girl but 100% in length. that's just crazy. no wonder we can put her in 6 month stuff.

they always put the development stuff on the print out. let's see how arden measures up in the 4-6 month stats:

may sit with support- check

holds head high when on tummy- check

rolls over both ways- check

reaches for and grasps objects- check

brings hand to mouth- check

coos, laughs, squeals, smiles- big check

we talked about food a little. he said that we can do rice cereal if we want. not needed really, but with how big she is, she might want a bit more to eat. he said we can also play with some veggies around 5 months. we'll see how it goes.

she does have one bitsy problem. she has a little bit of l.abial adhesion. nothing to worry about currently and fairly common. this is when lady bits start to grow together. this is also an easy thing to fix if it continues.

she freaked on the doctor too. he was just listening to her heart and she was giving him a wary look. he checked her ears and she started crying. she was really mad. doctor wasn't doing anything that hurt so we think it might be a little bit of stranger anxiety (whenever i hear this i think of the phrase stranger danger). unfortunately this break down was before her shots so that wasn't too pretty either. she had a melt-down. i couldn't soothe her with the boob like usual. she kept freaking. poor little girl.

also, doctor thought he might of seen something on her bottom gums. she might be getting a tooth. i had been wondering that because she is really putting more things in her mouth and gnawing on them. she is drooling everywhere. i've tried looking myself and feeling around but couldn't tell. i've noticed that she is soothed when i rub her lower gums. hmm... we'll see. i'm kind of not ready for teeth. i've heard the hellish stories. i feel like we're getting into a good routine with sleep and i don't want that messed up.

and i'm a bit afraid of jinxing the sleep so i'm afraid of talking about it :) ha. but i will anyways. we've been working on getting arden to sleep sans boobie. we've started getting her ready for bed at about 7. anna is doing most of the night time stuff since she doesn't get as much time with arden as i do. she'll change her, get her in pjs, read her a book while rocking her, swaddle her and put on her mobile and sleep sheep. we've had success in getting arden to fall asleep on her own like this without much fussing. it's pretty great to look into the nursery and she that she's passed out :) this system hasn't worked much for me in the daytime. i think it's because she knows she can get boob easily. but today she fell asleep twice without my help. i am treating it like a fluke, but cross your fingers for me. it would be awesome if i didn't need to spend an hour getting her to sleep. she still only sleeps for 30-45 minutes usually. i would love to have a baby that slept longer, but i can deal with it :)

that's all for now. i hope everyone has a great weekend.

flowers from our garden.

happy spring baby :)

you can do it, put your back into it!!

woot woot :) arden rolled from her back to her belly today! she's been working on it for a while. i had her doing some nudey tummy time (how she prefers it) and she had rolled from belly to back easy as pie. she started working on rolling the other way and wouldn't give up. it was tempting to just nudge her a little to help out, but i refrained. she did it all on her own and i got it on video!

here it is: