Thank you!

Thank you to the ladies at 2girls2dogs2cats.blogspot.com for the lovely ornaments. What a beautiful trio. If you can't tell from the photo, these are glass globes with curled ribbon. So simple and beautiful.

Thank you also to An Offering of Love for organizing this swap. It's fun to connect like this with fellow writers.

Sorry I've been mia. Life is busy this month. My sister in law had her baby early (she's fine) and my mom in law is staying with us. I'll do a proper update soon I swear :)

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quick birthday post

today is arden's first birthday. since it's impossible to a real post while this munchkin is running around wreaking havoc, this is just a quickie.

aside from noting that arden is one, i wanted to share the birthday gift i found at 5:30 this morning. AF is back. exactly one year from arden's birth. very odd. i'm ok with it. i was kind of anxiously awaiting it each month.

anyways :) there is so much to share. i really want to write more later today. maybe during naptime...

first snow day

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Guest Post by Anna

I'm doing this guest post, because Kat told me "you should do a guest post" when I said she should do a post before our trip to see her family. I thought I'd try to be funny - or show her that I could do one super fast and that something is better than nothing, maybe. So here ya go - an update from the other mom:

Arden is learning so fast lately. Earlier this month, she learned how to make a monkey noise -- she would bounce up and down a little and say, "ooh ooh," when we asked her what a monkey says. Then, she learned elephant and would raise her arm and say, "mphmmmph." We thought they were both the cutest thing ever and have tried to get to make the sounds often, but she won't do it anymore. I guess she lost interest for the time being, but we we've heard that kids stop doing new things for no reason and then start again.

Arden is also walking really well now. I don't remember the last time we saw her crawl, and she loses her balance less and less often.

What else? My mom was here this weekend for my sister's baby shower. Kat and I volunteered to organize, but luckily, my mom stepped in and helped A LOT. She flew in Friday night, and we made food and decorations Friday evening and Saturday morning. The shower ended up being a great family get-together, and my sister said she had a great time. Arden had a good time at the baby shower too. After she got over the shock of waking up and being carried into a room full of strangers, she enjoyed exploring the house (my aunt hosted), toddling from room to room, opening anything she could get her hands on -- including the unopened shower presents.

Mom bought Arden an early birthday present while she was here. We picked it out together at the local toy store while Kat stayed home with the napping baby. We got a wooden xylophone and a handful of small things for the big baby and the new one to come. Arden already likes playing with her new toy, and we're hoping it will keep her entertained all year long.

Hopefully Kat will post the video of Arden "opening" her present tomorrow.

photo-tastic!

i was going to do a few photos, but then i started looking back through the past month plus. there are a lot of great shots. :) enjoy!

no excuses

i'm lame. i haven't really posted anything in quite a while. sorry guys.

there is a butt load of stuff to update you all on. hmm... this may get long. back in the middle of october, anna had a work training thing in chicago. we decided that arden and i would fly to indiana at the same time anna was in chicago. this way we could see my dad and brother (and

their families) and save on one plane ticket, since anna's work paid for her's.

arden and i spent 2 1/2 days staying at my dad's house. arden got some quality grandpa arvid and grandma edris time. arden hadn't seen my dad since she was a month old, and edris hadn't

met her yet. they were very excited for the trip to say the least :) we basically hung out and caught up on life. arden was terrible at napping on this trip, which stressed me out, but we tried to just roll with it. a cool little milestone for arden and me happened when i went to the gym with my dad. they have a kid's care area to use while you're working out. we have never left arden in a setting like this. i was very unsure of how she would do (or i would do). she didn't cry when i left. when i peaked in the window after my workout, she was just sitting on the floor watching all the bigger kids play. she didn't even freak-out when i came in to get her. it was no big deal :)

what a relief. i feel like, if the need arose, she would be fine doing this again.

after staying at grandpa's house, we went to my brother's just an hour away. anna finished her work thing on that day too, and took a bus down to indianapolis to spend the weekend with the whole family.

my brother, neice jennika, dad, step-mom, anna, arden and i went to a place called conner prairie on saturday. it's an early to mid-19th century "outdoor living museum." lot's of fun :) the weather was gorgeous while we were there. we got to see a lot of animals, crafts, and gardens. everyone that works/volunteers in the village/towns acts as if it is really early 19th century america. i loved it.

grinning like a goof at cousin jennika

chillin' with grandpa, grandma edris, and uncle myk

the next day we did an alzheimer walk to benefit research. my brother works for an assisted living facility. his family and mine went out to support the event. i was excited to be involved in something like this, and ended up feeling disappointed. the route for the walk was not well organized. it was basically an out and back, not a loop, which makes a lot more sense. i think it was the same for the running section of the event. there were a few tables at the start/end, but they appeared to all be for assisted living/retirement communities. while those definitely belong at this sort of thing, i thought they should have more. maybe some representation from the medical community. like what is alzheimer and what is being done to find a cure. oh well. they did seem to raise a lot of money though. that's positive.

the trip over all was wonderful. i was really happy to introduce/reintroduce arden to my family. she had fun playing with my nieces. the adults all got to have a fun baby around for a bit. i know we'll need to go through a little "stranger" anxiety again when we see them, but she's getting older. i know she is creating more long term memories of these people. hopefully we won't need to go so long before seeing them again :)

after that short 5 day trip, we were home for a week and a half before jetting off to puerto vallarta! it was a little nerve-wracking packing for this trip. what did/didn't we need for arden? in the end, i felt that we had everything she needed, except for a thermometer.

our trip started off well, although way too early for my taste. arden napped fine on the plane. she loved playing she the items in the back of the seats. taking them in and out repeatedly. she seemed to be a little warm though. we chalked it up to being on a warm plane and being primarily held in our laps. the second leg of our trip from la to puerto vallarta she seemed to be getting warmer and very sleepy. we thought it was odd, but weren't too concerned. that first night we had dinner on the beach. arden played in the sand while we chatted. while we were finishing dinner, she started to get fussy so anna's mom walked her around. arden fell asleep in mary's arms. that was out-of-the-ordinary for her. she hasn't done that since she was a little baby.

the next day we played at anna's parent's hotel pool. arden had fun hanging on to me in the kiddie pool and passing a toy back and forth with another little girl. when we got out, she wanted to sit in my lap and nurse. she subsequently fell asleep. she woke up a little when anna's brother and sister-in-law arrived, but then passed out again. no boob this time, just passed out. then she did the same thing in anna's arms. at this point i'm worried. she's pretty warm and has been rubbing her ears a bit.

we went to the pharmacy and bought a thermometer. when we checked her temp it was high (but not scary). she is acting very fussy and needy. i'm starting to freak-out. i have a potentially sick baby in a foreign country. for peace of mind, we decide to go to the doctor. anna's mom knows some medical spanish because she is a nurse practitioner that works with a lot spanish speaking clients. we hopped in a taxi (sans car seat, they didn't care down there and in hindsight i really should have taken the time to grab it). drove like max 10 minutes away. we tried to pay our fare, 40 pesos, and he would take our 100 pesos. they don't like to give change in most places/taxis. i was getting pissed because i just wanted to get out of the damn taxi. i basically shoved it at him and said to forget the change. so annoying.

it turned out that he brought us to the urgent/emergency care hospital instead of the place we asked for (it ended up being two blocks away). the doctor on call spoke moderate english, so it was fine. she examined arden's ear, eyes, and throat. her fever was already going down from the tylenol we gave her (we had remembered to pack that). the doctor decided that it was most likely an ear infection. her left ear was a bit inflamed. she wanted to call a pediatrician in though. it ended up be the pedi. we would have seen if the taxi brought us to the right place. oh well :) that doctor said the same thing and prescribed amoxicillin and ear drops for pain relief.

after we go the meds and returned to the hotel, we discovered that the amoxicillin was in powder form. the pharmacist forgot to add the water to it. we didn't have the number for the pharmacist, so we couldn't call and ask. anna and her parents tried to decipher what the package said. anna's dad finally noticed a marking on the side of the bottle that looked like a "fill to here" line. so anna filled it... with water from the hotel sink. oops. now we had heard that the water is much safer than it used to be, but still. even in america, i don't really like to drink out of the sink at a hotel. we had a momentary freak out wondering if the drug wouldn't be safe for arden now that we had added regular water to it. hell, we didn't know if we added enough water.

arden took the amoxicillin just fine. it had a nice orange sherbet smell to me. the ear drops were another story. she hated those. we stopped doing them after a couple days because she seemed fine. we did the whole amount of amoxicillin, but it became clear that we either hadn't done enough water, or were giving her too much medicine at a time, or both. we really should have just gone to at pharmacy and asked for help. silly americans. we were supposed to give her the meds for 7 days. we finished it in5 1/2 days. hmm. except for arden throwing up in the middle of the night the first night we gave her medicine, she was ok. she didn't sleep for crap and would only nurse, but she seemed to be getting better.

aside from arden being sick, it was a great trip. one day we took a crazy, bumpy bus ride out to a village in the foothills. we went to this restaurant on the river that had really good homemade tequila. i had a little sip. it was so smooth. arden got to play in the river while we waited for our food. she loved it. she had a meltdown afterwards, but anna ended up getting her to sleep in the ergo. they laid down on a rock by the river and just listened to the water.

sunday was halloween. i didn't realized that they would celebrate halloween like we do with dressing up and trick-or-treating. kids were running around everywhere in costumes, even in the bars :) i really wish that i had brought a costume for arden. oh well. that night anna's dad watched arden for us so we could go out. basically we put her bed and he sat in the living room making sure she stayed asleep. we went out to a bar owned by an ex-pat and played pool. they had a band playing that was pretty fun. this is where we saw kids running around asking for candy. after that we went to a bar called garbo's. it's a piano bar. pretty gay :) their was a waiter that was very friendly there and spoke english very well. he congratulated anna and i on our marriage, and cooed over arden when we saw him the next day. while we were at garbo's i told anna and her brother that i had really wanted to enjoy our night "off" from arden. i wanted to enjoy my drinks and dance with anna. and i did. i thought it would be a great idea to get a shot of tequila to go along with my margarita. not so smart. then i followed up with a second margarita. i don't remember leaving the bar. i forgot about using the lobby bathroom at anna's parent's hotel. i forgot about spitting all over said bathroom because, well, i wanted to spit. i do remember magically being in an oxxo (like a 7-eleven) and finding nachos. i love me some fake orange cheese with jalapeños. oh man. silly, silly kat.

i was regretting all of this when arden decided to wake up twice after we got home. i ended up bringing her to bed with us the last time (might have been the third time, actually). ugh. i did not feel good in the morning. i really wanted a mcd's breakfast. best hangover cure :)

but no mcd's for me. we had to get our butts up to make breakfast for the family. we had a mini-kitchen in our suite. we cooked up some eggs and even added some leftover spicy shrimp. so good. almost cured the hangover. after breakfast we hopped on a rented boat to go snorkeling and play on the beach on some islands.

i think the boat scared arden a little bit. she basically hunkered down and nursed herself to sleep under my sarong. we got to see dolphins, sea turtles, and different birds. our guides tried to catch a turtle for us to get photos. basically, they just lift them out of the water and put them back. the turtles kept diving before we could get them though :) smart things.

i had never been snorkeling before. i was pretty nervous about putting on the mask. i get a little claustrophobic when my breathing is restricted. but after practicing on the boat for a while, i felt comfortable. it was amazing. the fish we so colorful. the rocks were amazing. anna's brother is really into saltwater fish, so he really enjoyed himself. he was able to point out a puffer fish that i definitely wouldn't have noticed otherwise. arden wasn't too happy when we were out of the boat though. anna and i weren't able to swim together for very long. but it was ok. i totally intend to find another opportunity to snorkel in the future.

after that, the guides took us to a beach on another island. there was a large group of tourists, but they left just a little after we arrived. we had the whole island to ourselves. the water was amazing. there were hermit crabs all over. the tops of the cliffs around the beach were covered in cacti. i could have stayed there forever. arden had fun toddling around in the sand, but would not go near the water. it definitely frightened her. even if we held her. we had to take her in at one point because she was covered in sand from head to toe. poor, screaming baby. fortunately she'll have no memory of that (right??)

we left mexico the next day. our flight home was uneventful. arden was clearly happy to be home the following day. she just walked around the house playing with her toys. she napped well in her crib. i was happy to have my bed and shower. looking out at the grey skies right now makes me miss the warm sunshine, but it is so good to be home.

the next post will have photos from our trip. there are too many for me to add them on this already long post :) i also have a post going about arden's development. she is growing so quickly! i can't believe she will be a year in just a few weeks (sniffle, sniffle).

ok one more

Ain't she cute :)

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pumpkin farm

We went to an awesome pumpkin farm today. It had a petting zoo, hay bale maze, corn bin, photo ops, corn maze, and, of course, pumpkins. We had a great time with our neighborhood friends. We look forward to going again next year. I have more photos but they're on my camera. Currently, we are sitting in the car waiting for Arden to wake up (with the car off, Lynn).

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Playtime

I watched my friend's son, Henry, this morning. It was a lot of fun seeing them play together :) Usually when we hang out, we're running at the park. It was fun to just watch them for an hour just doing their thing.

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puerto vallarta

hey readers, have any of you been to puerto vallarta? we are trying to get a hotel with a suite in the old town district. i've got some different options, but i thought i would ask all of you too :)

we all have our passports now. i'm getting excited. the weather has been nice here, but i know it's going to get cold and rainy soon enough. it will be nice to have some sunny beach time before winter sets in. lord knows i could use a few more freckles on my white-a$$ skin :)

update from doctor

didn't expect to hear back from the doctor so quickly. here is what he said:

Hi Kat,

The EEG was normal. I spoke with Dr. [specialist] who is the neurologist who read the EEG just to make sure that we were doing all that we need to do. He suggested, and I agree with him, that it would be good to have Arden's vision formally screened by a pediatric ophthalmologist. We are being extra cautious in doing this but vision can be very difficult to assess in a 9 month old and sometimes episodes of eye movement like she had are an indication of problems with vision. I have put in a referral to the pediatric ophthalmology group that I like. They are located in Kirkland. It's a bit of a drive but they are excellent. If you do not need a referral for your insurance, you can go ahead and schedule the appointment:

[edited]

Please make sure to take your video of Arden's eye movements for them to review. I suspect that Arden has something called congenital nystagmus that may or may not improve with time but I want to make sure we have covered all the bases.

Dr. S., MD

baby EEG

it was awful. i hope none of you ever have to hold your terrified, screaming, crying, coughing, hiccuping baby still while someone they don't know does things they don't understand to them.

here is the run down of our day. it didn't start off as planned. typically arden sleep until about 5, nurses, and goes back to sleep until 7. this morning, she slept straight till 6 and then was up for the day. i decided to roll with it, figuring she will nap earlier in the morning and be even more ready to nap at the appointment.

well, she did nap earlier. she fell asleep around 8:30 when i was finishing my morning run. again, let's roll with it. i thought i would do an extra loop on the trail we had just run. she would hopefully sleep for an hour. all would be good. nope. she woke up half an hour later.

now, my sweet baby typically goes for three hours from morning wake up to morning nap. same between the naps. so that puts us at an afternoon nap of 12. not gonna work. our EEG appointment was at 1. we needed to keep her awake until they were running the test. freakin' fantastic. oh, and she is getting a cold.

we have a sleepy, grumpy, sniffling, sneezing baby to which they need to stick electrodes. ha.

we got to the hospital at 12:30 to check in. arden was doing ok. i was able to keep her awake in the car while anna drove. she's doing good, except when she is in my lap. my lap equals milk which equals get ready to sleep.

the technician was very nice. tried to get arden to warm to her. had toys ready. arden wasn't having any of it. we laid her down on the bed and had to keep her relatively still. the tech began measuring and marking arden's head. cue freak-out. even though she wasn't being hurt, arden did not like the lady messing with her. i thought that once the electrodes were on arden would be allowed to play and then would take a nap. what we actually did was much better. the tech asked if i was BFing. when i answered in the positive, she said i could lay down on the bed with arden and just nurse her to sleep. that's it. it was perfect.

i laid down with arden, making sure the video camera wasn't obstructed. the tech set up a strobe light near arden's face. arden calmed right down. she fell asleep within 5 minutes. i even fell asleep. the total testing time was 40 minutes and arden slept for 30 minutes of it. she wasn't even fazed by the strobe flashing in her face (that was only during the first 5-7 minutes).

after the test, we had to get all the electrodes off her head and clean the markings off. again, she got really upset, but it was quick. we decided that she definitely deserved a treat for making it through this ordeal (and we did too). we walked over to an awesome ice cream shop. i had remembered that they had frozen yogurt before, and we were going to get arden fro yo when she first started walking. they didn't have fro yo anymore, but they did have watermelon sorbet and kid cones.

arden loved it. she chowed down. sticking her face right into the sorbet. she ate more than i expected her to. the cone was a little smaller than a typical cone. she ate it down to the last half inch. the only help she had from us was making sure the sorbet didn't melt all over.

she fell asleep on the walk back to the car. she didn't even wake when anna transferred her to the carseat. she proceed to sleep for an hour. my poor baby was wiped out.

we won't have the results from the test until next week most likely. the tech told us that the neurologist that will be reviewing the info is the top doctor for epilepsy (one of the potential issues). after he is done, he'll pass his findings on to our pediatrician, who will then call us. we just need to wait. sigh. i really hope that whatever we find out is not major. no, what i truly hope we find is nothing. i hope the doctor tells us that these two incidents are minor and something she will out grow, right now.

first sorbet

A treat following her EEG. More later...

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bye bye, rugby nanny

RN has found a real job so she's not going to be helping me anymore. :( she is/was wonderful with arden. i know she would gladly babysit in the future, which makes me happy. arden always seems glad to see her. when i'm in the house, i can hear them playing and talking. RN is a natural. i can't wait for her and her wife to have a baby :)

so, after today i need to decide if we get another helper or... a cleaner! i think i'm leaning towards a housekeeper. someone to come like once or twice a month. i know, i know. i'm home virtually all day. but man, it is hard to stay on top of things. i get one thing done, only to need to do another thing, and then the first thing needs done again, along with three others!! argh! it would be nice to have help with the basics: dusting, sweeping, mopping, bathrooms. i'm going to look around on our neighborhood email list to find recommendations.

anna and i have divided up two major tasks in our house. she handles dishes, and i handle laundry. i hate dishes and get easily overwhelmed by them. i think it's working ok so far. i would love to hear what you all do. is there a division of labor? do you have a task list? do you do certain things on certain days to keep organized?

i would love a housekeeper to help us out, but i need to make some serious adjustments to what i'm doing regularly. bring on the advice, readers!

first words

i'm going to make it official by posting this: arden's first words are kitty cat, or rather "titty ta." adorable :) she has also kind of said olive, "aw-wi."

she does say ma-ma, but it doesn't seem to mean me or anna yet.

she knows what i'm talking about when i ask where her water is. she'll point to her sippy cup.

she is still perfecting her walk. sometimes it seems like her head it just too big for her and she doesn't know how to balance. she does a little drunk baby walk :) but she is walking without us coaxing her.

and she's beautiful. that's all :)

sometimes...

you just need to break out the beer and chill out. anna and i split a 6 pack of beer tonight. it had a higher alcohol content than i expected (7.8%) and i was a bit tipsy after 1 and a 1/2 beers :) and clearly after 3 i am postpartum "drunk."

mmm... i need a cheeseburger.

folks, i hope you are all enjoying your evening/weekend. i hope your babies are sleeping well. i hope your preggo bellies are not interferring with your sleep. i hope your baby making is going smoothly.

drink a, um, whatever you prefer for me and enjoy life :)

cheers!!

fun video

Arden recognizes a few words now. She understands and points at malo, olive, mommy, momma, ball, and book. She also comprehends kitty and puppy. She can indicate all of these words in pictures to. It doesn't need to specifically be olive when we ask where the puppy is. She will point it out in a book. It is so cool to see this comprehension.

We are doing fine today. I had rugby nanny over for a few hours. I was able to play on my sewing machine and relax while they played.

The EEG is scheduled for next Wednesday. They will do the test while she is awake and napping. I'm a little skeptical about the napping. How the heck am I supposed to get her to sleep at a hospital with things stuck to her head??

enjoy the happy video :) hopefully I never post one like yesterday's ever again.

ETA- sorry i had no idea that the video would post sideways. oh well :)

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update- nystagmus

this is what was happening to arden in the video i posted. sorry for the poor quality, by the way, and the length.

here's the story: this morning, arden fell backwards three separate times while sitting. i don't know why she fell. seemed that she just lost her balance. anyways, the third time, i saw her start to fall. i went to her quickly and picked her up when she started to cry. i looked at her face and saw that her eyes were moving rapidly to the left. this was an uncontrolled action. this rapid uncontrolled eye movement is called nystagmus. most likely this episode was caused by the fall(s).

i just realized i never wrote about our ER visit when she was 6 months old. after our big trip to boise, we had to go to the ER for the same thing, minus the falling. i was sitting in the living room playing with arden when she started flopping her head into my chest. she stopped after 3-4 times. i thought to myself, "that was odd." we played for a little bit more. i raised her up in the air and brought her back down, then her eyes started moving. it freaked me out big time. i tried to snap her out of it (literally snapping in her face). when that did nothing, i rushed her into the bathroom to get anna out of the shower. then i called 911 because i had no idea what was going on. the eye movement probably lasted a minute. 911 said it could have been a seizure, but it was inconclusive. i called our nurse hotline for our pediatrician. they said to go to the hospital just to be safe. we went, and after a couple hours we were told it was probably nystagmus. again, inconclusive. they said if it happened again to try to get it on tape.

thus, the awful phone video i posted. you can see her eyes moving in the first minute. the rest of the video is just to record how she was acting afterwards. i was really trying to remain cool while in my head i was stressing. this time there seemed to be a reason for the nystagmus, but last time there wasn't. what is going on with my baby's head?

i sent the link to the video to our doctor. he said it did appear to be nystagmus and the pediatric neurologist at a local children's hospital agreed. that doctor wasn't too worried though. arden's episode seemed to be pretty minor. they did recommend having an EEG done, just in case. what they would do, because of her age, is stick a bunch of wire to her forehead and let her play. they would watch what was going on in her brain during this time. they would look for any evidence of a potential seizure hiding in her brain. the test seems to be pretty non-invasive. (but it still makes me want to crap my pants.) i'll talk to the doctor's office tomorrow to schedule the EEG. i'm hoping we can do it this week. i just want some answers. i want to know my baby is healthy.

i'm really trying to be ok with everything. nystagmus isn't serious, as far as i can tell from dr. google. but i still feel like crying. it's so frustrating to not know what is happening to arden. to not have definitive answers. i was hoping this was all behind us after the first time. i was starting to forget about it. i dislike not being in control of this. i want to put a helmet on her and put padding everywhere in the house. then, i also don't want to do this. i don't want my baby going around cautious all the time. i love how adventurous she is. she just tries things. she is so active. i don't want that to ever be stifled.

i gotta move away from this topic before i get sucked down. the doctors will have answers. this is not serious. my baby is wonderful.

so... you guys got a behind-the-scenes glimpse of my life :) baby in pjs and momma in a bathrobe, hair sticking up all over. toys strewn about the living room. using the couch as my desk. :) things i never intended to show my readers. oh well. that's what mommy-hood looks like sometimes (ok, most mornings). please tell me this is true for you guys too :)

freaky video

Arden fell earlier and had a scary eye thing happen. She had involuntary horizontal eye movement. I'm putting this up now and will talk more later. I'm using my phone and it sucks for long posts.

Www.YouTube.com/watch?v=ZGGBFEoUZCc&sns=em

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these booties were made for walkin'

here's the video :) enjoy!

time for some fro-yo!

the other day anna said we should have a special treat when arden starts walking, something she could enjoy also. what could be better than frozen yogurt :)

and guess who gets to have frozen yogurt as of today. i know this is a hard one. i'll let you think about it...

ARDEN! surprise! yes, she started walking this morning. she was holding on to the coffee table, let go, and took two steps towards her toys. i kept encouraging (ok, maybe tricking) her to try again. my friend, denise, was over today. she is a photographer (in fact, she took the photo in the last post). whenever she is over she takes more than 200 photos of arden. i love it. right, so she was taking oodles of photos and caught some with arden walking. then she got out her iphone and took 20 minutes of video. she is going to edit it and send it to me. i'll be sure to post it as soon as i can.

i know arden has been on the verge of walking for a bit now, but i was still surprised. she just did it so nonchalantly. the other thing she's been doing like it's no big deal is climbing stairs. my baby is getting so big!

another photo by denise, taken at our favorite restaurant, geraldine's

the monster

check out this pear. It's huge! I tried to find something that would give a good comparison. I don't think this quite does it justice.

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forgive me readers...

for i have sinned. god knows when i last did a real post. sorry :( i really thought i would into the routine doing that 30 days thing. i thought i would start bustin' butt and talkin' to you guys, for realz. :) not so much. oh well. you all love me still. right?

so update on life currently in our household. our garden is pretty close to being done. we still get

a smattering of blueberries and some small heads of broccoli. our tomatoes became a forest. we cleaned it up this weekend with some cleverly place twine. there are a lot of tomatoes on the vine, but i'm not sure that they are going to ripen. it's gotten cool and grey here already.

our garden was more successful than in the years past. we had kale, rainbow chard, snap peas, green peas, lettuce, green onion, scallion, strawberries, rhubarb, and a carrot (yes, just one). we are still waiting on some squash and peppers. we might have gotten too late of a start with those ones.

we think we have missed our plum harvest. the tree didn't produce as much this year as last. before we actually purchased the house, we would come over to check things out in the garden and yard. the plum tree was crazy with fruit last year. we have had some though. arden loves

those tart little guys.

we harvested a good bit from our pear tree tonight. we filled one of those reusable grocery bags. guess how much it weighed. 20 pounds! woowee! some of the pears where larger than any i've seen. seriously. huge! there is one that is as large as my hand. width and length.

we really didn't know what the previous owners had planted in the rest of the yard. we ended up with some lovely flowers. fortunately, they were low maintenance. we had columbine and jasmine. lilies, daffodils, tulips. lavender, sage, mint, lemon thyme. rock roses, succulents, and a lot more that i don't know the names of, but enjoyed looking at through the summer.

there were other things that we planted that did well too. we planted honeymelon sage,

lemongrass, oregano, thai basil, fuschia , orange mint.

i recently got a new sewing machine (thanks, momma!). i can't wait to play on it. i'm intending to take a class to learn how to use it properly. i did get it out of it's box today and played with a few stitches. this was achieved while my lovely friend was over helping me with arden :) since i don't have her consent to use her name on here, let's call her rugby nanny, or RN for short.

RN is a rugby friend that lives in my neighborhood. i did have a helper for a few weeks, but she quit to focus on her AA degree better. i knew RN had nanny experience and wasn't currently employed. so now, she comes over on tuesdays from 12 to 4. she plays with arden. feeds her. let's me run out the door singing and skipping over to the bakery :) it's lovely. arden clearly likes

her too. when she comes over, arden is excited to play with RN. this makes me happy, and a happy momma is the best momma. the little time apart from arden makes me appreciate her all the more too.

hopefully, i'll be able to use the 4 hours to do things for myself and the family/house. my intention is to set little goals for each week. chores for the house and chill time for me, however i see fit. so today, i made a yummy squash, pea, and potato puree for arden. there was enough for her lunch and for the freezer. i unpacked my sewing machine. i went to the bakery for a danish and decaf coffee. also, i went to the post office to mail some very important forms, our passport updates... for our trip to mexico!

like the segue :) anna's dad will have time off from his work in laos in october. anna's mom, brother, sister-in-law, and our family will be meeting him in puerto vallarta. woo! i haven't been to mexico before, so i'm really excited. we got all of arden's passport things handled too. she will have been to two different countries before she is one. albeit, they are the easiest for americans to go to, but it's still cool. i can't wait to play on the beach, sip yummy drinks (sans ice cubes), and chow down on some good mexican food. mmm...

i'm a little nervous about the trip because we have another one planned just a week and a half earlier to indiana. that means we will have a three hour time change, back to regular time, then a two hour change. arden's sleep is bound to get messed up. i'm also afraid of her getting sick in mexico, or anna and myself. but, we'll have a lot of family with us. anna's mom is an NP. puerto vallarta isn't rural. i'm sure we'll be fine. arden is not allowed to be teething on this vacation

though. the past two she has been.

we go in for her 9 month well-visit on friday. i'm super excited. i love finding out her measurements and getting figurative pats-on-the-back from the doctor :) makes me feel like we're doing it right. i know arden is awesome either way though. she's growing well. learning all the time. amazing us. and she's funny. she has this fake laugh that cracks me up. i'll try to catch it on film sometime. i wouldn't trade her for anything.

well, maybe nachos. nah, not even nachos :)

look at that profile. i just wanna give her a big kiss :)

my sister

my sister is one of the funniest women i know. she cracks me up. i'm constantly telling her that she needs to do stand up. i've also granted her the permission to use most anything about growing up with me for a laugh :) and boy is that a lot of material.

she recently found a video on our mom's computer that i took at my house. this was just last year when i was still in my first tri. check it out, it's pretty goofy. you should really read her other posts. :) i love my little sister. she will be a star one day.

fyi- the woman with the glasses is one of my aunt, my mom is in the other chair

ETA- the link, duh :)

http://breccabrecca.blogspot.com/

no nap = park

dear Arden didn't want to nap yesterday afternoon. So after an hour of trying we went to the park. She is getting to be so mobile!

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questions

couple quick questions:

what do you all do with food stained clothing? arden is really enjoying feeding herself. the problem is when she puts her little hands down at her sides. any food in wiped all over her pants. i can't be stripping her down anytime we are feeding her. well, i could but there will be times where it's an inconvenience.

what i've been doing is rinsing the clothes right afterwards. i try to get the food out as much as possible. then, before they go in the wash, i use a spot remover. sometimes this doesn't work. i would really like to be able to use arden's clothes more than once. also, i don't like to use harsh chemicals. the more natural suggestions, the better.

next question is regarding naps. arden is a great night-time sleeper. not so easy with naps. we have gotten to the point where we are CIO. i didn't want to do this, but arden was resisting everything. she was working us over like a pro. now, we've only been doing this for 4 days, but man is it rough. i just wanted to see if anyone else has gone through this, or is right now. i've got questions like: how long should i let her cry, what if she doesn't nap after an hour, do i keep her up until the next sleep time, how do i keep her awake, how do i not pull all my hair out?

phew, i hate nap time. and stains. :)

day 6- 20 of your favorite things

oh snap. this is a hard one.

1- my wife

2- my baby

3- my family

4- my bed

5- a good, hot, strong shower

6- snuggling

7- reading

8- sitting on the beach when it's nice and hot, but there is a breeze that is just cool enough

9- sitting in front of a fire

10- christmas

11- my home

12- working in the yard

13- talking with my sister

14- designing- that goes for various things. artwork, my home, framing, installations...

15- playing/watching a good rugby game

16- hiking

17- camping

18- my wedding

19- smelling herbs- lavender, thyme, mint, sage. i love them all. most especially when the smell is from my garden.

20- a good homemade dinner

ok that wasn't so difficult :) i'm coping out on writing more for tonight. i want to chill with my wifey. hope you all have a great weekend!!

delay on day 5- your favorite quote

i was uber-sick with a stomach bug monday. didn't quite feel like posting. then anna was sick and arden was a bit off. she still is today.

fortunately, arden didn't have the pukes like anna and i did. she was extra poopy though. twice, i put her down for a nap, only for her to wake up half an hour later with a very full diaper. my poor sick wifey had to get up to help me clean her. total mess. arden's fever never went much higher than 100 though. which was very fortunate because the past three days were extremely hot for seattle, over 90s. our basement is nice and cool, but the floor is still just cement. not exactly appropriate for a baby that wants to stand and walk all the time.

on to the topic for adjusted day 5 :) your favorite quote. this one i actually have. it's by eleanor roosevelt.

"do one thing every day that scares you."

quite the challenge huh :) i think the thing i do everyday that scares me is taking care of arden. yep. scary. she is becoming so mobile. cruising, climbing on things, crawling at the speed of light. phew! making sure she doesn't injure herself is full-time, man. :) but it's great to see her change and develop.

in the past few days i've seen a couple new things out of her. she is playing with olive, for real. she will pick up olive's tennis ball and "throw" it (a throw is usually only a couple feet, unless it bounces further). then olive gets it. brings it to me, and i hand it to arden to do all over again. she will play ball with me too. i'll roll a ball to her, she'll track it rolling towards her lap, pick it up and roll/throw it back. too cute.

the other thing is an awareness of placing objects. before now, she would set objects down with out realizing that she did. i've now seen her purposefully set a block down on her shelf and pick it back up. she will also put toys into her bath cup.

it's amazing how little things we don't think of need to be developed. setting an object down, picking it up. all done with a conscious effort. wow :)

i'll probably be m.i.a. over the weekend again. my momma is coming to town! just bought ticket today on the spur of the moment. she'll be here friday morning to monday morning. i can't wait. arden will get to show off all her new tricks for grandma :)

day 4- your favorite book

i love, love, love to read. i devour books. that being said, my hunger for books doesn't always lead to be best choices. kind of like junk food for the brain. i got in the habit, when i was still working, of going to the grocery store close by and buying a book. they had a dollar bin for a while that i would sift through and read whatever crap looked the most interesting. and it was mostly crap. when they stopped having the bin, i went to the book aisle. i was spending more than i should have on books i would never touch again. anna hated that i did this. it was a wasted of money.

now we live right by a library. it's so nice to just hop over there when i need a new book. our family often passes along books to us too, and i like their choices.

most recently, i read a book of short stories by ursula k. le guin called changing planes. very interesting. i didn't get to read the whole thing though because it was due back to the library. i wasn't able to renew it at the time.

my mom just sent a box full of terry pratchett books. i love his work. he's created a world called "discworld", and writes about the happenings of the people in it. his stories are full of dry, british humor. and the puns. oh i love the puns and other plays on words.

i do read books other than fantasy. i love mystery. like sue grafton. she writes the books that go through the alphabet (m is for malice). historical fiction is fun too. typically, i read a large batch of books from a certain genre, and then take a break.

i've been intending to read some of the classics and must-reads. if you have an suggestions, fire a way. right it's late now. off to bed.

day 3- your favorite tv program

we got rid of our tv over three years ago when we were planning our wedding. we recognized that we were spending way too much time just sitting on the couch. we would eat watching tv. we would stay up to late just to watch one more show. we would put off our household chores. it was bad. so we ditched it.

we started watching things on netflix. we watched six feet under and loved it. it was a little easier with netflix to restrict ourselves. we had to wait for the next disc to arrive, and often we would be slow to remember to mail the previously watched one back.

the rise in access to tv shows online has kind of defeated the purpose of us not having an actual tv. we watch things on netflix, hulu, and amazon now. oops :) and it's even easier to just keep watching sometimes with that nifty "next" button.

anyways the shows we have watched or are watching are:

dexter

dr. who

the x files

30 rock

law and order

weeds

heros

you can see, again, that we watch a variety. there are a couple that i watch when i just need a little "me time" when arden is napping. i've recently liked watching america's got talent. it's escpecially nice to just skip over the bad acts and all the snarky judge stuff :) i've also like modern family.

anyways, i realize we need to reevaluate the amount of tv we watch again. but it's hard to do. and there are so many excuse you can create that keep you on the couch :) i almost feel we need to take drastic measures to jump start an adjustment. then we can self-regulate from there. i've wondered if there was a program you could put on your computer to make it automatically shut off at a certain time, even if you're using it.

so, again, i ask what you guys like? how do you moderate how much tv you watch, or do you just soak up the good stuff :) i really do like to hear back from whomever is reading this... really, truly. now i'm off to watch my name is earl!

day 2- your favorite movie

hmm, well, again i like a number of movies.

benny and joon

dead poet's society

it

life is beautiful

i am sam

young frankenstein

the princess bride

fight club

ma vie en rose

the triplets of belleville

i could go on and on :) i like movies that make me cry, scare the crap out of me, and make me laugh so hard i snort. i like movies that make me think beyond my little world. i like subtitles. i like just sitting back and ignoring the outside world for a while.

movies can evoke so many different feelings. they can also hold memories about certain times of my life. when i was a kid, we would have sleepovers at my house. the girls and i had three movies we watched a lot: newsies (because of the cute boys, haha), arachnophobia, and it. the last two fall under the "scare the crap out of me" category. those spiders, that clown. yeesh. i still get creeped out watching those.

i am sam made me cry virtually the whole time. i remember sitting in my college apartment right next to the tv. my roommates mom and sister were on the couch. i don't now if i was pms'ing or what, but, man, i bawled like a baby. i'm sure my roommates family thought i was crazy :) it is such a sweet movie. it rips at you heart.

the princess bride and young frankenstein are family favorites. i grew up watching those two movies numerous times. i own young frankenstein on vhs :) god knows what i'm going to do with it since i have no way of watching it in that format. but i'm not tossing it, no sir-ee.

i've brought arden to two movies at our local theatre. it has cry baby tuesdays. the first movie we saw was how to train your dragon. that was a sweet animated movie. good to bring a little baby to that just wanted to nurse and sleep at the time. the second movie, anna came along. it was... ummm, darn i can't remember now. but i remember it was the first time arden really bit me while nursing. she was a real wiggle worm. we ended up just letting her crawl around on the floor in front of us (we were in the front row, it's a small theatre).

i love the whole cry baby movie thing. i like going to the theatre. i love the popcorn at our place. and it's another way to try to meet other parents.

what's your favorite movie? have you taken your kid(s) to see anything?

toothy mcgee

Isn't she just adorable! I think the right incisor is next. I hope that will be it for quite a while. I am so done with teeth!

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day 1- your favorite song

this list might be a little difficult for me because i don't really have favorites. but i'll use the topics as a jumping point.

a song that comes to mind that i've always liked and i find very moving is the hallelujah chorus. anytime i hear it, i get choked up. there is just something about it. this is one thing i miss about being part of a church. i sung in the choir and i loved the christmas program. i've considered joining a community choir. maybe, now that i'm a SAHM, i might have the time (haha).

i love music. all varieties. oldies, 80s, hip hop, country, rockabilly, classical. the funny thing is, i don't buy music. our newest cds are all burned by friends. i have an ipod, but i hardly update it. i kind of just forget about music. i have been trying to play more to expose arden to it. if she's freaking out in the car, usually classical music chills her out. i recently created a station on pandora based on 'they might be giants' kids music. i don't question turning on stations that i like to listen to when arden is around. of course, i make sure the lyrics are clean and the 'mood' of the music isn't inappropriate for how she's feeling.

i want her to like music as much as i do. i want her to have a well rounded education, and music is important for that to happen. what do you guys think about music, in relation to yourselves and/or your kid(s)? leave a comment or blog about it. :)

as an aside, arden is become quite the acrobat while BFing. it's like she's trying to crawl away while eating. it's been making things interesting, especially if i'm nursing her before bed. any tips?

30 days

found this list on mina's musings. since i seem to have a hard time blogging consistently, i thought a list of ideas would help. i intend to start this tomorrow :) watch out people.

Day 1 - your favorite song
Day 2 - your favorite movie
Day 3 - your favorite television program
Day 4 - your favorite book
Day 5 - your favorite quote
Day 6 - 20 of your favorite things
Day 7 - a photo that makes you happy
Day 8 - a photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 9 - a photo you took
Day 10 - a photo taken over 10 years ago of you
Day 11 - a photo of you recently
Day 12 - something you are OCD about
Day 13 - a fictional book
Day 14 - a non-fictional book
Day 15 - your dream house
Day 16 - a song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 - an art piece (drawing, sculpture, painting, etc)
Day 18 - my wedding/future wedding/past wedding
Day 19 - a talent of yours
Day 20 - a hobby of yours
Day 21 - a recipe
Day 22 - a website
Day 23 - a youtube video
Day 24 - where you live
Day 25 - your day, in great detail
Day 26 - your week, in great detail
Day 27 - your worst habit
Day 28 - what's in your handbag/purse
Day 29 - hopes, dreams, and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 - a dream for the future

teething while on vacation

it sucks, big time. but let me back up a little and give you the whole run-down.

anna's dad is working in laos right now. he is in gold mining. he's been there since the beginning of the year. anna's parents figured out they would save a ton on taxes if he didn't come back into the u.s. for the rest of the year. so we all traveled up to vancouver island, british columbia. we went to the juan de fuca provincial park to camp for a week.

this was the first time we had camped with arden. anna and i are backpackers. we're used to packing small, light-weight items. just the essentials. for this trip, we bought a big ass 6 person tent. it's 11' x 11' x 6'. we brought an air mattress and a pack-n-play. we brought whatever food we thought of, and packed it in a big cooler. life was going to be comfortable.

ha!

turned out to be a very cold trip. we wore layers the whole time. i slept in socks, jeans, two shirts, and a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up. all inside a 20 degree down sleeping bag. arden wore socks, footed pjs, a long-sleeved onesie, sometimes pants or baby legs, a fleece sleep sack, and a hat. we also covered her with a thick baby blanket, her thin baby blankie, and a baby towel. she would go to sleep in her pack-n-play but come to bed with me after her first wake up.

oh and the wake ups. man, it was like having a newborn again. i was a nursing machine. i have this terrible crick in the shoulder/neck area from sleeping and nursing (on a slowly deflating air mattress).

arden finished cutting her left front tooth at about the beginning of the trip and started cutting the right front. it was rough going folks. it didn't help that she fell and cut her lip on a cooler. she had a nasty bruise on the inside of her lower lip. it was dark purple/blue. ouch. the tooth, i think, is what made the trip the most difficult. but the memory of why specifically is starting to fade already :)

trying to keep a mobile, curious baby away from small rocks while camping is very interesting. fortunately, anna's mom brought a screen tent thing. we set that up to keep arden away from mosquitoes. then anna and her mom put down a tarp, put sleeping pads on top of it, and then a large blanket. surrounding that area, they put all coolers, boxes, and large luggage. they basically created an awesome play area that arden could safely play in (mostly- reference cooler lip cut). it was the best idea ever.

until, anna's mom had an even better idea. she had brought the inner tube that they pull behind their boat in case we could play in the water at the beach. since is was freakin' cold and there was no way in hell we were going in the water, she blew it up for arden to play in. and that is how the tumble tube was invented :) arden loved that thing. she could stand up in it and fall down without getting hurt. she could reach for thing outside the tube but we didn't need to worry about her climbing out of it. she even started standing in the middle of the tube without support! it was awesome!!

arden got to experience a lot of different things on this trip. hiking in the woods. bathing in a washtub. playing in tide pools. ooh, i forgot. we went to butchart gardens and she rode the carousel. she went to a "foreign" country.

yeah, the bad memories are fading away. it was difficult caring for a teething, cold baby while camping, but we enjoyed ourselves a lot. it was great to spend time with anna's parents, sister, and uncle. we had good food. read some fun books. had good conversations. saw beautiful scenery. i know i'm forgetting some good stuff, but you get the gist :)

next time we'll be sure to bring more clothes. we'll check the weather better. make sure the mattress will not deflate (ugh). and remember where we put the baby tylenol. :) pictures will follow. first we need to unpack the car...

are you there guys? it's me, kat.

anyone get that title? :) so, i've been absent. a ton has been going on and that kind of overwhelms me. overwhelmed = writer's block.

-arden crawls like a pro on her knees now. she just did one day and has continued doing so.

-pulling herself up is still a fun activity for her. she tries to do it on everything. the wall, my legs, things hanging from our coat hooks :) as i'm writing this she is playing with the chair from her baby swing. it converts to a toddler rocker. and she's trying to climb on the lamp now, oops...

-baby-proofing is a work in progress.

-her snaggle-tooth is totally out, and it's adorable :)

-she recognizes her name and will turn to us when we call her. she also recognizes some words and signs. she definitely knows what milk is, and we think she understands eat and more.

-anna and i have been taking sign classes for a few months. i have a niece that's deaf. i've been wanting to do classes again for a long time (i did them when i was around 13-15). aside from doing signs with arden, anna and i want to be able to communicate with my niece. baby signs don't work for conversing with a 14 yr old :)

-our sign language instructor has a background in nannying. i'm going to have her help me one day a week for 4 hours. this will give me a chance to do more around the house without interruptions, go out for errands, and/or have some quality alone time. i'm really excited.

-she's pooping on her potty. we bought a boon. when we hear her start grunting, we whip off the diaper and plop her down. it's really cute to see her sitting there with her onesie pulled up around her chest, grunting away. we aren't necessarily trying to potty train her now. this started as a little bit of a selfish act :) her diapers can get so messy. cleaning out a potty is much easier than cleaning out a cloth diaper. of course we want to encourage her to use the potty and there is no harm in starting early. she doesn't dislike using it, and loves to climb on it. it's definitely more of a play thing for her right now, and that's just fine.

-sleep is once again messed up. i think it's due to teething. it sucks that we get her on a good schedule only for it to go to hell again. whatever. i don't need sleep. right?

-now for the most recent, exciting news :) arden has learned how to clap. it's freakin' adorable! the best moment was yesterday morning. i was nursing her in bed, trying to get a few extra z's, as she's eating, she starts clapping :) loved it. finally, i get some appreciation for all the good milk i've been giving her! haha.

i can't guarantee my next post will be any sooner than this one was. i do have a new phone now that enables me to post on the go. so maybe you'll hear from me in less than a month :) we have been busy enjoying the good weather. play-dates, walks, swings and sandboxes, bbqs, vacations. and it doesn't look like things will slow down anytime soon. i'm cool with that :) i hope all of you are enjoying yourselves too.

test

I got a new phone and am trying this out. hope it works :-)
the photo is of Lynn, Stella, and Arden at a wading pool. we're enjoying the nice weather, even though it's been rather fickle.

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passport for arden

we need to get arden a passport. we'll be heading up to vancouver in august. i looked at the government site for details and was totally overwhelmed. can anyone give me a clear description of what i need to do?

thanks!!

how has a month passed??

wow, i'm a slacker. there is so much to catch up on i'm going to use those tried and true bullet points. sorry, if the order of things is a bit jumbled :)

- arden can get into and out of a sitting position without help. we had seen her do it on the changing pad with help from the vanity mirror. but i discovered her sitting in the middle of her mattress during nap time. since then it's becoming more regular and seems to be getting easier.

- she is still trying to figure out crawling. she is awesome at arm crawling. she will get up on her hands and knees but will only do one or two steps. she's becoming a pro at push-ups and planks :)

- she has started climbing on things, primarily me.

- she likes to stand and walk with help. i'm a little afraid of encouraging walking too much since i was running at 7 months. scary! but it's so cute to see her face walking toward you.

- she loves to play with toys. she will deliberately go towards what she wants to play with. obviously that's a problem when it's the animals toys.

- did i tell you she fell out of our bed? scariest moment yet. wow. we never leave her alone on there any more. she was perfectly fine. just a little bruise on her back.

- we've purchased baby-proofing stuff. my intention is to install things this weekend. any tips are appreciated :)

- her increased mobility and awareness makes nursing more interesting. sometimes i wonder if i'm going to still have nipples when she's done :)

- she loves to nurse though. even if she gets distracted, she'll go right back to eating. we are doing pretty well on this front. i do worry sometimes if she's getting enough, but we just take it one day at a time. i would love to nurse her for a year.

- eating solids is going really well. she had seemed ambivalent about it until we switched to level 2 earth's best. she loves it! before she was eating like 1/2 an ounce at a time. now it's 2 oz. or more. she's tried so many things: rice cereal, oatmeal, carrot (puree and sticks), sweet potato, butternut squash, peas, spinach, brown rice, potato, watermelon, apple, pear, strawberry, peach, banana, and plum. some of these she eats whole with our supervision.

- yesterday she had a strawberry fresh from our garden :)

- she has three teeth now. two front bottom, and her left incisor.

- she knows how to bite. fortunately, this hasn't been while breastfeeding yet. but she will bite me when climbing on me. tips on how to deter this action would be lovely.

- anyone still reading this :) cheers if you are, i've got a lot more to say.

- the increased solid food has obviously changed her poop. it's funny to see chunks of carrot :) today she had her first solid turd. lovely, huh. she was grunting and groaning. she got so red in the face and was shaking her fists. i think she was/is a little dehydrated (we just got home from a trip to a very hot boise).

- she likes to drink water from any sort of container, except a bottle of course. she is getting pretty good at manipulating cups by herself. we still spot her though.

- our recent vacation had a lot of new experiences for her. we went to the aquarium, the zoo, drove to boise, went to my 10 year reunion (!!), went to bruneau sand dunes, ate sand, went to craters of the moon, played in lava sand, went to yellowstone, saw ol' faithful, saw a waterfall, went swimming, and drove home. there is so much more that i'll need to do another post

- being around my family and a lot of new people seems to have encouraged her to talk more. i love the new sounds she is making. she has become so much more interactive.

- she loves to play in the water, whether it's the bath or the pool. i can't wait till it's warm enough her to get out the kiddie pool.

- sleep got really messed up while on vacation. we are going to restart sleep training tonight. yesterday, she was so tired she fell asleep at 4:45, slept till 9:15, ate, went back to sleep till 12 something, then 3:30, then 6ish. i brought her to bed then and we slept till 8. THEN she took a nap from 10 to 12. i think she was a little tired :)

- since sleep is messed up i'll record what we hope to accomplish with our first stage of sleep training. we want her to go to bed at 7, without nursing to sleep. then we want her to sleep 6 hours before she gets to eat again. if she wakes before then, anna helps her back to sleep. after that, we want her to sleep 4 hours. each time i feed her, i put her back to bed before she falls asleep.

- our intention for naps is for her to sleep in her crib primarily and without being nursed to sleep. it's fine if she sleeps while on naps or on errands, but when we're home she goes in the crib.

i think i've covered everything. i'm really enjoying this stage. it's really exciting. she is exploding developmentally. i love watching and playing with her. she is such a joy :)

did anyone read my last post?

have i lost my readers? or did my last post get screwed up? i accidentally published before i was finished last time. maybe you didn't realize that i went back and wrote more than one paragraph :)

maybe everyone is off having early summer fun. hope you all have a good memorial day weekend! oh, and for those not in the u.s., i hope you have a good regular weekend :)

we've got the beet, we've got the beet, we've got the beet...

yeah! :) we decided to give beets a shot a while ago when we accidentally got some in our produce delivery. i did a simple sauté and really enjoyed them. i purposely ordered more for our recent box. i searched out a new recipe. i found a great sounding one in a new-to-me cookbook called feeding the whole family: cooking with whole foods. it has yummy recipes and includes suggestions at the bottom of each to help include younger family members. for example. i made "nina's famous spring beet soup." it suggested saving some of the cooked beets and carrots for the baby to eat.

nina's famous spring beet soup

prep time: 30 minutes

makes 4 servings

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil or butter

1 medium onion, cut into thing crescents

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon sea salt

3-4 cups water

1 bunch spring beets, cut into large matchsticks (save the beet greens)

1 large carrot, cut into large matchsticks

1/4 head green cabbage, shredded (i forgot to get this at the store, so we didn't include it)

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon tamari or shoyu

1 tablespoon snipped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried, for garnish

1/4 cup sour cream, for garnish

heat oil in a 4-quart pot. add onion, garlic, and salt; sauté until soft. add water, beets, carrot, and cabbage and bring to a boil. lower heat and simmer, covered for 10 to 15 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

meanwhile, wash beet greens, remove tough stems, and cut greens into short, thin strips. add beet greens, lemon juice, and tamari to soup; simmer another 3 to 5 minutes. serve at once, garnished with dill and sour cream.

for babies 10 months and older: remove some cooked beet and carrot pieces from the soup and puree or serve whole as finger foods. go easy on beets for babies (only a teaspoon or less at a time) as they have a strong cleansing effect on the bowels. (we just gave arden a raw carrot stick)

my input- i loved the soup. i forgot the cabbage and i don't think it was lacking because of it. also, the sour cream and dill were a really nice touch. i liked the tangy taste they added. i didn't use fresh squeezed lemon juice. i used one of those plastic lemon squeeze things you can get in the produce department. also, i had intended to add barley to the soup to make it more substantial. forgot to do it. i'm going to try it next time. it was a good meal, but not totally filling enough. the book suggested serving a tempeh dish alongside for a full meal. i figured making one dish while taking care of arden was enough :)

arden has been enjoying carrots for the past few days. we've been giving her earth's best carrots and yesterday we let her gnaw on a carrot stick. i think the carrot stick felt good on her gums. she isn't quite back to her usual happy self. i'm wondering if another tooth will come in. her sleep isn't horrible, but not awesome. she wakes up twice to eat and go back in the crib. then the third time i bring her to bed with us. i would love to take out one of those feedings. all in due time.

we've gotten into a routine for her morning nap. i've been wanting to get her away from napping in my lap. so now about an hour and a half to two hours after she wakes in the morning, we go to my bed. i nurse and once she is asleep i move away. i can then take a little nap too if the night was particularly rough or i can get up. she's been sleeping wonderfully this way. more often than not, she's slept for about an hour. this is a big improvement.

she can sit by herself now too. on sunday, she sat unassisted for 15 minutes. she doesn't always do so well, but it's neat to see her improve. she even caught herself a couple times when she was about to tip over.

she's really working on trying to move. she did a little bit of an army-crawl this morning. yesterday, when i went to wash her diapers, i left her playing in her room on the carpet. when i came back she had pushed herself backwards all the way to the wall between her car seat and a duffel bag of extra clothes for her. she didn't know how to get out of that space :) it was cute.

we're loving all the new things she can do. there are struggles because she has a very strong personality. but we love our big, little girl. she is amazing.

and just for fun. here is a photo of malo chillin' in the co-op bag.

aahhhh!

so we thought perhaps arden was allergic to peas, apples, or bananas (all foods she has recently tried). she's had a cold start over 2 weeks ago. she still has a very runny nose. then for the past 5 days she's had way more poopy diapers than usual. like almost all of them. annndd she's been waking up a lot more at night and fussier than usual during the afternoon.

turns out..... she has her first tooth! i was just playing with her, and, when she laughs, it's the perfect time to check her gums. i look on top. good, good, nothing there. look on bottom. wait, what's that? something white? something barely out of her gums? holy crap, it's a tooth! it's on the bottom, right side.

i'm excited. can you tell :) we'll see if i'm still excited after she bites me... :)

strongest baby ever

i'm cheating and doing another video post instead of writing. enjoy! and sorry it's sideways. i don't know how to rotate a video with my program...

puppy love

our little girl is becoming very interested in olive. she loves to reach out to her and thinks it's funny to get her hands licked.

this video shows massive cuteness so beware :) arden has been shunning the blanket i spread on the floor, while olive loves it. they've decided to reverse positions here. i love how olive seems like she is trying to understand what arden is saying.

stranger anger

a stranger in the grocery parking lot just made me feel like crap. i wasn't able to park as close to a cart corral as i like. so when i was done putting my groceries, and arden, in the car, i left the cart in in front of my car. you know, out of the way, but not the best spot. when i pulled out of my spot the cart moved. it rolled into another car. the tire of the cart hit the tire of the car. no big deal. i stopped my car, moved the cart into the same spot. i did not want to leave arden in the car alone. the woman in the parked car told me to put it away. i said i couldn't leave arden. she said she would watch arden. yeah right. i'm going to let a stranger watch my baby. i told her no and walked to my car. she said "i raised 4 kids and took car of all my responsibilities, like putting the cart away."

f-you lady! because of this inane comment, i got all flustered and as i finished pulling out of my spot i almost hit a car. woo way to make me look even better.

in ended up parking behind the grocery and crying for a while. worrying if i was a good mother. i called anna and she assured me i was. phew :)

i hate that a little comment can do that sometimes. ok, arden is trying to tear my shirt off. more later

i did it lynn!!

hehe :) lynn told me i had two weeks to get up photos of the curtains she helped make for arden's room. i'm attempting to get back into sewing after ummm... 15 years. i finally got the curtains up on saturday. here are the photos 4 days early :) excuse the photo quality.

momma, mommy, mummy, ima, mere...

there are so many names for mother, and today there are so many of us that get to celebrate this day. but there are many still waiting.

i wish all of those that are TTC a happy mother's day. you are special women. i'm making myself cry right now cause i just want all of you to experience such joy wherever your life leads you. even though i don't always comment on your blogs; i am reading them. i am crossing my fingers for you. i think of you often.

i may not know you in real life. i barely know you in the blogasphere, but i care about all of you.

happy mother's day.

ps- i don't mean to exclude anyone with this post. just putting out what i'm feeling right now. :)

second-parent adoption

all done!! anna legally became arden's mommy today. stupid that we needed to do this, but thank goodness it is available. it was formal, yet informal at the same time. one of the clerks took photos the whole time for us. it was really cute. the judge was very nice. our lawyer is great (seattlites, i highly recommend her- lisa schuchman on capital hill). arden was still sleepy from her car ride so we had no embarrassing screaming baby scenes. we were the first adoption in that court (i think it was recently remodeled/built). kind of exciting. they all cooed over arden and congratulated us over and over.

now for the photos :) not terribly exciting to look at, but a great event none-the-less. arden really wanted to eat the gavel, by the way.

court date

we go to the courthouse tomorrow for anna to adopt arden! woohoo! we'll get a photo with the judge and i swear, really, really i do, that i'll post it :)

i, also, want to try to get up the lovely curtains that lynn helped me with tonight. i'm sure you're all anxiously awaiting the photos :) all, like, 5 readers. anyways... more tomorrow!

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.