19. All wrapped up in her work

And better at crawling every time she sees a kitty to chase.

18. The Purple Peril

I believe I've mentioned how much the Infanta is fascinated by the cats? In case I haven't, she's completely enraptured by them. When she sees them, she goes completely still, and, wearing a huge smile, makes small noises which I think are supposed to be enticing. Since the cats want nothing to do with her, this tactic doesn't work, but it's adorable nonetheless. If they're anywhere vaguely in reach, she tries to grab, and has been known to actually catch a limb, a tail, or a handful of fur. This has been happening more often recently, as the Infanta becomes mobile faster than the cats can process it. (We do sometimes carefully guide her in softly stroking a captive feline, but I think she's really too young yet to grasp the concept.)

Her recent strides (if you will) in mobility have been significantly motivated by her desire to play with the kitties, and in the last day or so, as she begins to be able to articulate knee movement in her crawling, she's taken to pursuing them to their highest refuge in the living room: the top of the comfy chair. In fact, just before I sat down to write this, she'd managed to trap both the kitties there!

Being somewhat callous pet owners (we love our cats, but we don't coddle them), we naturally encourage our daughter's efforts to pursue the frisky felines, and pretty much only intervene when she manages to catch one. After all, we don't condone actual torture... much as we enjoy messing with them.

17. It's astonishing

what a little exercise and company will do for you. I took a good, brisk walk early yesterday afternoon (the Infanta needed a couple of shots, and the clinic is about a 20 minute walk away, nicely nicely), and then hooked up with Bethany for a little shopping (window shopping on my part, she had gift cards). Then home, and a bath for Herself, and a shower for me, and although the Infanta was a bit more fussy than usual at bedtime, I slept quite well, thankyouverymuch. :)

It seems that pretty much everyone (ok, the moms I know well in the area) is feeling pretty awful right now. Bethany was proposing a party with chocolate; sounds good to me, but I think I'd add alcohol!

16. Fun with a dose of suckage.

January is still sucking. I'm feeling on the edge of PPD, and would probably be fully into it if I weren't on brain meds. Sheer anxiety is kicking my ass at night; the Infanta slept for six hours during the first part of last night, and anxiety had me awake for fully half that time.

But I had an enjoyable evening, anyway. My brother is running a game of Dungeons and Dragons (4th ed) with a local gaming group at a local game store, and I've joined it. I'm not all that much of a fan of D&D, but since it's pretty much the only game going right now, I'll take it. Making it more fun for me is that another player's wife (who is one of the potential clients I mentioned last week) has been happily watching the Infanta during part of the times we're playing, so I'm not trying to tank and juggle baby simultaneously the whole session (Josh helps, too, but since he's playing, there's still the baby at the table). I'm not counting on her being present, because she has her own life, but if she's hanging out with us while we play anyway, at least she can get a baby fix, and give me a break, so it works out for us both. :)

I realize that it may come as a surprise to some of you out there that I play games like D&D. Well, I do! I've been a gamer for pretty much all of my life - and by gamer, I mean tabletop role-playing games, not video games (which are a much newer part of my life). I hadn't had much chance to play in the last several years, but I'm enjoying my opportunity now! Plus, it mixes well with knitting. ;)

15. Art

I figured it had been a few days since I posted any Infanta pics, so here's a few, taken just moments ago. I refuse to apologize for the motion evident; that's her most common state these days.

14. I hate January.

I try to keep a distinction between hatred and dislike. I try to reserve the energy of hatred for things or people that have actively caused harm - usually to me personally, but sometimes to others. Other things I feel negatively towards, but that haven't caused harm, I try to keep at "intensely dislike".

I hate January. I've been pretty sure for a long time that I have some level of SAD, but it hadn't hit me very hard in the last few years; in the past, I've endured some of the deepest depressions of my life in this month - I definitely call that harm. This year, with Velcro Girl and her Amazing Late Evening Naps, the agony of January has been back in full force. Last night, after she was finally asleep, and after Daddy was out, too, I found myself having an anxiety attack, desperate for someone to pass the Mommy buck to, if only for a few hours. It didn't help that I'd looked at my SAHM meetup group and discovered that a person I do. not. like. has joined it.

Now, I won't say I like everyone in the world, far from it, but I can manage to rub along okay with most people. When I actively dislike someone, it's a whole different ballgame. I dislike this particular person enough that I am likely to avoid any events she attends (even if they were events I would be attending without her), and I would be considering leaving the group if I weren't pretty positive that she is unpleasant enough that she's going to get herself booted before long anyway. At least, I really hope so. She hasn't actually harmed me or anyone I care about, though (although I do believe she's tried), so I can't quite hate her. I'm pretty close, though. I did go so far as to send an email to the group's organizer about how this person is baaad news, though...

I did manage to get to sleep, and that helped a lot of the anxiety. I also plan to nap with the Infanta this afternoon - maybe that way we'll both rest better.

13. the Blogverse provides

I'm almost two weeks into this daily post thing, and I'm finding that just when I'm stumped for a post, the blogverse hands me something.

Take today: going through my morning blogroll, I found a post from hedra about a study on human dirt-eating. Go read it, it'll make you feel better about your baby chewing on the soles of shoes. Or whatever. :)

12. I'm doomed - not that that's new.

Since only two people commented on my contest, both Katie and Stacey will get treats. Email me (I know you both know how!), and we'll talk stash. :)

This morning, while I was doing my usual lie-in-bed-denying-that-it's-time-to-get-up and play-with-the-baby, the Infanta sat up, almost entirely unaided. Now, she didn't start flat on her back (she was arched over my arm and on a pillow), and she did want a finger to grab for the last few degrees to upright - but heck, I'm bad at sitting up from lying prone! Sad that my baby's abs are better than mine.

Aaand now, just as I'm thinking thoughts about it being time to start transferring Herself to a proper crib (she's about to outgrow the cosleeper), it's time to brace for the eight month sleep regression. Although she's what I've come to realize is an "easy" baby, the Infanta has hit all of these Wonder Weeks early and distinctly. Send chocolate!

11. Maybe it's the time of year?

The Infanta and Grandpa at family Christmas, New Year's Day.

I really admire Norma for not only posting daily for over a year now, but for always having interesting things to post. Or maybe they're just interesting to the rest of us, and she thinks it's all trivial and uninteresting, but posts anyway? Hard to tell sometimes.

All I know is that January's always been the worst time of year for me, and the last few days I've felt like I couldn't get enough sleep. I even got to the point of "touched out" last night, with the Infanta and her 9 pm wakings (which we handle by letting her play with us (usually Daddy) for a while, and then it's lights out and she's swaddled and into the cosleeper, where I lay a hand on her until she's out), and my having wanted to go to sleep at 7.

But we did have a funny moment the other night; Daddy had just turned the lights off while I was nursing Herself (trying to get her asleep), and while she was having none of that, she clawed at the side of my breast rather painfully. I said "Ow"; Daddy gently said something about "Don't hurt Mommy", and she gave a rousing raspberry. I honestly don't know if the timing was intentional - my guess is not - but it was so perfect that Josh and I laughed and laughed.

10. Check this out!

Found it here. I heart pro-breastfeeding ads!

9. Save Handmade part 2

The law affecting handmade children's items has been altered to exclude those made by the WAHM industry; read a bit about it here: http://www.kval.com/news/37241774.html On the other hand it still prohibits the resale (or even giving away!) of used clothing and toys. There's a petition about it here. I understand why they put the law into place at all, but they needed to have been more careful about how they phrased it! Sign the petition, please; leave a comment if you do so, and I'll pull a name out of a hat and give you something nifty. If you're a knitter or you sew, it'll be something stash-like; if you don't, maybe a book. It'll depend on whose name I pull.

eta - Contest will end this Sunday, Jan 11, at midnight.

8. Clients?

We're off to the babywearing meeting this morning. Such a pain to make the trip take twice as long, just because I have to take the bus.. but it's better than staying in and never seeing anyone.

I found two potential clients last night! One is the wife of a guy Josh games with. The other is one of the local knitters. Although the knitter is due around the beginning of August, I'll still leap at the chance to be her doula - we even joked about her being due for the Sock Summit. :)

7. Well, I was going to post some pictures.

Blogger seems to be having trouble talking to my computer and uploading pictures today. I was going to post a photo of the Infanta sitting up on my lap, but I guess not today... Nope, can't even work it from posting it on Flickr - but here's the link.

The Infanta (currently snuggled against me in my new Moby), while not precisely crawling or sitting up independently, is making great strides in physical achievement. She creeps quite well, and pretty quickly at times - I should probably find another place for the Asian ceramics than the floor, dontcha think? She also sits quite well if placed there, as in the linked image - although she tends to lean forward and scoot off in pursuit of something that looks chewable.

SIL's naturalization ceremony yesterday was amazing. I think that every kid should attend one, as part of their education in civics. I definitely think I'll be making an effort to get my kids to one when they're old enough to appreciate it!

6. I overslept!

And have no time to post properly before a full day that includes a trip to Portland on Greyhound to watch my SIL become a citizen. Proper post tomorrow!

5. Giraffe!

The Infanta is practicing her Velcro skills today, so here's a video of a giraffe being born to entertain you. Ignore the gratuitous footage of the tourists.

4. Let there be Knitting!

Helena, from the Summer 2008 Knitty. Begun in August, finished Christmas Day; you may recognize it from the pictures I've posted of the event.



The start of the Leaf and Nupp Shawl, from Lace Knitting of Estonia. I never, ever thought I'd say this, but nupps are kinda fun! Apologies for the dimness of the picture, but a) the Kauni is dark and b) I had to get between the Infanta and the lace, which also meant between the light source and the lace. This is something I can only work on when the Infanta is asleep. I'm really enjoying it, though!

3. To answer a question.

Have I mentioned how much the Infanta loves the kitties?

My brother asked yesterday: Ok, so I have to ask. What's the diffrence between this and the other wraps you own?

I own one other wrap. Well, two if you count the rebozo, which I have more as a doula tool than as a baby carrier. I also have a mei tai (which I made myself) and a ring sling (which Amy made me), both of which I use frequently. My wrap is homegrown; it started as a piece of cloth from my costume stash (actually a length I acquired a decade ago to use as a turban) which I cut in half lengthwise so that I could have a wrap and a turban. I have yet to hem the raw edges, although I really should. It is lightweight but sturdy woven fabric, and I haven't ever really used it much, because of the learning curve, my laziness, and fact that I'd never washed the fabric, so it was very stiff with dye, making it very difficult to adjust. I did wash it recently, but haven't gotten around to playing with it. Maybe I'll take it to the babywearing meeting next week for some help.

The wrap I have coming to me is commercially made of jersey (knit fabric to those in my audience less fabric savvy than me). This makes a hyooge difference in ease of use - for one, you can adjust it before you put the baby in! Not something you can do with the woven wrap.

2. Gravelled for lack of matter

Five days into daily posts, and I'm dry. This does not bode well.

Well.. it's not really that I have nothing to talk about, more that I'm sleepy enough (sue me, I wake up late) that I'm having trouble thinking of what to say, especially without having a cute baby picture that I want to share immediately to hand.

So here's something (almost) completely different.

Someone on my babywearing group posted this video a couple of weeks ago. Words are in French, but the visuals are clear enough..plus the music's pretty awesome. Anyway, it got me fired up again about acquiring a stretchy wrap. I've been wanting to get one in time for the next baby (whenever that will be), but a Moby is supposed to be good for babies weighing up to 35 pounds - and the Infanta is only about 16 right now, so I can use it with her for a goodly length of time, too. So, as my Christmas present, I ordered one last night. This will be my first bought carrier!

1. Happy New Year!

Kind of in a rush this morning, as we're going to Grandma and Grandpa's for the family Christmas celebration this afternoon, but here's a cute baby and momma picture.

I hope your headaches this morning don't overshadow the joy in possibility of a new year!

A year in review

My blogroll this morning was full of posts thinking about the past year, appropriate for the day. So here goes some of my year.

This was a big year for us. Buying house and having a baby are some of the biggest events in people's lives, and we did both!

I went from being a complete virgin as a doula to being one who has a birth under her belt, two if you count my own.

I went from being a complete recluse, with a social life entirely conducted online, to acknowledging my social needs and fulfilling them, forming new friendships with like-minded moms in my area. My social life is now conducted about 50% in person. :)

I went from being completely out of shape, unable to walk even a few blocks without exhaustion (although some of that was because of gestational changes), to regularly walking the mile or so to the nearest "downtown" area without thought, even with an increasingly heavy baby strapped to me.

My baby went from this:



a twenty-two week bump in my belly;

to this:



seven months old today and loving french fries and pickles. (I've invited Gran to write the story of the pickles, and I'll post it when she sends it to me.)

Things I want to do in 2009 include posting here every day (as I mentioned yesterday) and growing my doula business (and oh the social things I'll have to do for that... not fun for this introvert). I also want to stop thinking of myself as an overgrown teenager who's just faking this adult stuff (I'm 32 years old and a mother now! way past time to work through that), and to see if I can't get my teeth fixed. Lesser goal include going to the Sock Summit and working on growing my hair out.

2009, here I come!

Some videos

First off, some videos of the Infanta. You can see all the videos we've taken and edited of her here, but for those who don't have time to check them all out, here're a couple of my favorites.





Secondly, I realized the other day that (duh) I could find bellydancing videos on yootoob, so I did a search, and found some great stuff. First up is a video of "superstar" Rachel Brice doing her thing (with a couple of friends, ultimately):



And here's a dressing-room interview of her talking about an incredibly inspiring moment she had watching another dancer:



My New Year's resolution is to post here every day in 2009!

Christmas

Yup, we had it. My folks traveled up from the Bay Area by train; my dad stayed with my brother and SIL, and my mom stayed with us. Due to the snow and there only being one car (seating four adults and one baby) between two households and seven people, we didn't get together nearly as much as we'd intended, which was a bit sad, but we'll do better another time.

We did get a chance to get together both Christmas Eve (over at my brother's place) and Christmas Day (our house); the picture above is the Infanta giving the Nom of Approval to the tag of one of her presents. She loves the present itself, too, but you know babies and tags...

There has been Knitting! But I'm saving that for another post. :)

Fun stuff

I promise a baby news post in a bit, but first, something completely different.

My friend Bethany is a writer... and like many writers, she's in a writing group. Well, one of the other members is about to be published!! And she's holding a contest on her blog. Linky below!

I mentioned it's cold, right?

I mean, this is the Willamette Valley. It's supposed to rain a lot, get frosty now and then, maybe have a light dusting of snow in late winter. Right now, there's a pretty thick blanket of snow on the ground, enough that a little while ago Josh and I saw a couple going up the street on skis! This photo is of my front yard right now - that's snow up to the top of our bottom step. Incidentally, we had rain overnight, so that this was bare ground this morning. Right now? Freezing rain. What's going on, are we turning into Canada or something?

Baby, it's cold outside!

First of all, I apologize for having lied on Sinterklaas. I really did mean to come back and post that recipe and such... What can I say, it's reeeeeeelly easy to get sucked into not being able to do much besides chasing the Infanta (who's at the on-all-fours-and-rocking stage of learning to crawl - I would not be surprised at some real crawling by Christmas!). I promise, I'll post it sometime soon!

Now then, for the members of the audience who don't live near me, this was the view out my front door at noon today:



Notice the white stuff? We had a couple inches of it fall yesterday afternoon and evening. It had melted/settled a bit by the time I took that picture; now it's preparing to get verrry icy overnight. Go go down comforter!

Save Handmade!

A few of my readers may have heard about the law going into effect this February that will basically make it impossible for anyone but big manufacturers to sell items that come in contact with children. It seems reasonable in theory - protecting kids from lead - but it basically requires everything that goes into any item that's going to be used with or for children to be tested for lead. Every part of every item. This will absolutely kill the WAHM (work at home mom, for those not internet-acronym-savvy) industry, as well as many others, including all small craftspeople that make kid's toys.

This particularly hits home for me, since I was hoping to soon start a small sideline in things like soakers, just to have a little coming into the family budget from me.

At any rate, I've put a button in the sidebar that will take you to a site with more information, including details on the Act and contact information and sample letters to nag your politicos with. I strongly encourage you to do this!!!

Sinterklaas

First, a gratuitous baby shot, taken just moments ago:



Today is Sinterklaas. Now, I'm not Dutch, but my SIL is, and we thought this was such a good idea that we've adopted it ourselves. I have a few gifts for our immediate party - Josh and Lina and me, and my brother and his wife (we'll be celebrating at their place tonight) - and I can't show you pictures because that would spoil the surprise, now wouldn't it? Tomorrow, I promise. :)



I also have cookies - at least, cookies in progress. It's kinda hard to make cookies late in the evening with a tired baby and no daddy to take his shift... Nonetheless, I did manage to make half a batch of Dutch Letter Cookies (thanks to Norma for sharing the recipe!), with the rest to make this afternoon, and I have the dough chilled for Pepparkakor. Yay for ethnic European spice cookies! I would post the recipe, but I have a sleepy baby in my lap, and getting up to get it would disturb her. Again, tomorrow, I promise!

Reality Check.

My mom had a cancerous tumor removed yesterday. It was, as these things go, a minor deal - a melanoma "in situ", meaning it was just in that spot, nothing extending elsewhere, not even all the layers of skin - but is cancer ever a minor deal, really? And, to pound it home even more firmly, I just read a post about another blogger's mom's cancer, and now I'm getting pretty upset about it all. I mean, I can't even go be with her right now, because we're hundreds of miles apart. She's planning to come visit for Christmas, but I'd like to be with her now, sharing Lina's toothless laughter in person and helping with her recovery.

I think I'll start keeping enough room on a credit card for an emergency train trip.

Now, with knitting!

Josh has been playing chess online recently. One morning about a week ago, he came in while I was in denial about getting up (standard practice for me on weekends) and asked if I'd make a hat for a lady he's been playing with who's going through cancer treatment. Well, of course I would! So, we hopped in the car (once we were all up) and went to my favorite LYS, the Rose and Ram in Independence. The yarn is Fibra Natura Exquisite Bamboo, 77% bamboo, 23% superwash merino, in Fiesta; pattern is Turn a Square by Brooklyn Tweed, but in only one colorway. It's yummy! Light and warm and soft and silky, and very cheery. :)



My socks have started wearing out. All but my very newest socks have either HYOOGE holes, like, too big for darning (darn it!!), or are showing distinct wear in spots. So I'm trying to churn out a few pairs while I still have some to wear. I had started this pair - Knotty or Knice by Chrissy Gardiner - pretty much as soon as the fall issue of IK landed in my mailbox back in... August? But what with them being a traveling pattern and me having a baby to chase, I didn't finish them until This past Friday. Hey, I finished them!!! And when I was at OFFF back in September, I showed the WIP to Ms. Gardiner herself, and she was happy to see her design "in the wild", and said that she liked the colorway I was using better than the one she'd had to use for the sample in the magazine. Yay! Yarn is STR lightweight, Star Sapphire. And yes, I'm a total dork. But you knew that.

Life with Squirmy Baby.

The first picture was taken just instants after Lina'd stopped pulling that blanket over her face, a favorite game since she was young, but one she can now play by herself. The second two were taken this weekend; we spent Thanksgiving with our dear friend Br. Vincent. In the first of those, Br. Vincent and Josh are playing chess while Lina wiggles on the ground (shortly thereafter Br. V draped his scapular over her head, leading me to joke about telling the abbot he was letting girls under his habit). In the second we are at the monastery's lodge, a lovely building on the Puget Sound, as the two share a package of popcorn.

More Ergo giveaway props!

I mentioned this contest a few weeks ago, and here's another! Ergo must be having a field day...

Swallow First.

Lina supposes her toes are roses

Lina has recently discovered her toes. I took these shots a few days ago, and then happily discovered that I could set up a slideshow on Picasa (Google's photo application).

Whaddya know?

Well, it really was contagious. Turns out my illness Saturday night wasn't from the turkey I treated with improper respect, but a 24 hour bug that's been making the rounds. I've been myself today, mostly... except that I'm not really interested in food. I'm kinda hungry... but every little flavor, especially sweetness, is very intense, and my tummy is still a touch queasy.

This is bad, especially when you consider that I'm still Lina's sole source of nourishment (and even if she was eating solids, the which she's shown no interest in yet except as toys, it would only be token amounts at this point), and that she's nursing very frequently right now - every couple of hours or less! I'm suspecting a supply decrease from ovulation... Oh yeah, did I mention I got my period for my birthday a couple of weeks ago? Guess I'll be eating oatmeal for breakfast and drinking Mother's Milk tea to wash it down.

Aaand the house is a mess. And while I got the laundry folded this afternoon, the baby sleeping on my front prevented me from putting it away. and while L's mom was able to make other arrangements for today, I'll have her again tomorrow. Ah, well, such is life...

I think it's contagious.

Here's the obligatory baby picture so Gran doesn't complain (as much ;P ). It's a few weeks old; she's currently asleep on Daddy, part-time miserable with her first real cold.

Megan had food poisoning in the middle of last week, from some bad fast food. I wouldn't bother to mention it here, except that I saw her Friday at the LLL meeting, and then spent all of last night puking my guts out, I think from something I ate at dinner. Josh, the lucky bum, had no issues at all. So today, he's doing the majority of the Lina care while I'm miserable on the couch. I'd enjoy it more if I didn't feel like a$$.

Meanwhile, I think I'm going to work on preparing for the Pendragon game I'm ramping up to running; I have the Howard Pyle version out from the library (different edition, but meh). They also had Malory, but I thought that choosing an edition that I could (and would) actually read in the time I have was the better part of valor.

Sue me, kids eat time!

I know a bunch of other moms who not only also have infants, but older children as well. How they manage to blog so much more regularly than me, I don't know. Must be practice...

I'm posting for once because someone on my babywearing list posted about this contest - and the site looks awesome enough in general that I decided to play. Besides, I so wouldn't say no to an Ergo!

And now, I know you're all champing at the bit for pictures of Little Girl.



This was Halloween - mama and baby kitties!



With Great-Grandma, on my birthday (as it happens).



Baby's first garb (and this is a dual purpose shot - something I've been working on!!! It's a UFO, but I'll finish it, I hope soon...).




This is L, a 4 year old I've been watching during the day for about a month now. And no, she's really not mine, but everyone thinks she is! This is a shot of her at Gilbert House.

That's all for now!

Happy Halloween

Art

has been requested.



First up: at OFFF, this is Lina and Mia's Gunner, who is generously sharing his big sister's cold. To be fair, after he sucked Lina's thumb, he gave her his, too.



Lina and our friend Penelope (Penny) at Gilbert House. Penny is about two months older than Lina (hence she's sitting while Lina's doing tummy time), but because she's very petite, Lina's actually a touch bigger. But they're wearing about the same size clothes, so at the swap yesterday, Penny's mom and I were snapping up all the cute girl's clothes in size 6-9 mos.



It's not a mouth, it's a clown car. I can say no more.

I promise!

We have not disappeared down a hole. Lina is alive and well (and making raspberries in the other room). Just... time gets away from me, you know?

There has been knitting. There have been baby pictures taken. There has been sewing - even quilting!

But I'm watching a four-year-old four mornings a week now, and that really eats into my time and energy! So... bear with me. I will post about our doings as brain, energy and children permit.

Kinnearing

Man, oh, man this is getting funny. Check it out here and here.

Me, I'm too much of a stay-at-home to ever be likely to play...

Another post without pictures.

So Little Girl's been growing like a weed recently. She's outgrowing her size 6mo sleepers at a ridiculous rate - I've watched one get too short over the course of a day in the last week! So, I dug out the 6-9mo sleepers I had stashed, and put one on her tonight... and it's not too big. There's a little room to grow, but it's not too big. Four months old tomorrow, and she's heading into 9mo clothes already! *cry*

It's about time!

Go check out my new doula blog!

I know just the thing!

I've been beginning to agonize about Little Girl's Halloween costume. I mean, how can I, obsessed with playing dress-up, even at the advanced age of 30-something, not do something fabulous for my firstborn's first Halloween? I've often been considering something video game-ish, just because... and then I saw this.

For this, I can pick up a crochet hook.

Babywearing: it's not just for the crunchy!

Someone posted this video from 1963 about "baby-toting" to one of my mom's lists. It's about 10 minutes long, but worth watching. :)

Getting political for a moment...

Hey look, a cute baby! If you don't want to hear about politics, look no further.

You all know I tend not to get mouthy about my political beliefs; I believe what I believe, and there's not much that's going to persuade me otherwise. I tend to assume that other people are pretty much the same way, so I don't bring them up unless I'm pretty sure that the people I'm talking with are people I'm comfortable with. I might discuss minutiae with my brother or my mom or a close friend, but that's pretty much it.

I'm not a huge fan of Obama, but I'll be voting for him; Bethany has a pretty good argument for why. But the real reason I'm posting about this today is something I read on another blog. The author is a midwife and a pretty religious (Christian of some stripe) woman, just for a teeny bit for y'all to know where she's coming from, and here she talks about why Sarah Palin is baaaad news.

The Other Woman

I know, I know, you're thinking, here's yet another picture of the Little Girl - what's so special about that? Other than being, you know, a picture of adorable perfection. Here's the thing: when I laid her down, it was on her back. She got into the above pose all on her own. Grandpa got her laughing out loud last Sunday, too!



Josh has been cheating on me. Guess who the other woman is - that's right, Vacuum Girl herself!

There has been actual factual knitting going on chez nous, but as I don't have pics, I'm not talking about it at present. Soon!

So apparently I'm only Average.

43 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

I figured that I'd be higher with all my domestic arts... but I guess since Little Girl is too little yet to do school-related stuff, my domestic arts don't out-weigh my "vulgar" habits. Maybe I should re-take it with what I intend to do with her?

It's ok, though. I don't *really* want to be a perfect 1930s housewife, anyway!

Improvements on the way

I've decided to start adding tags. I know, shocking, huh? So over the next days and weeks, I'll be going back over all my posts and adding tags (or labels, as Blogger calls them) to all my past posts.

I also plan to add my Flickr stream - and post more photos to it! Really super-duper shocking, I know!

Don't I know it!

more animals



How is it that, even though Little Girl(tm) let me sleep decently last night, I'm as exhausted tonight as if she were a newborn again? I suppose it's a good thing that she's too cute to strangle...

Sleep Deprivation and other pleasures

I haven't gotten to sleep very much the last couple of nights, between some random internal thing of my own and Lina suddenly having learned about comfort nursing (I think).



This is my current favorite Lina picture.

~Our State Fair is the Best State Fair in the State~

I have been remiss in posting recently; all I can do is claim a teething baby (all screams, no teeth so far).

But Saturday we got to go to the State Fair; I was meeting my friend Bethany, and then I worked at the Bella Vie booth later in the afternoon. Despite getting roasted (I always forget my sunscreen, even when it's in the bag) and having to juggle a baby whose part-time job at the moment is attempting to burst my eardrums, I had a really great time. Besides, Lina made a really great prop for the birth center booth!

On the other hand, I only managed to take two photos during the day.


This one was going to be of Lina sucking the same two fingers that I sucked as a child, but Miss Squirmsalot pulled one of them out while I was getting the camera.



This knitted wedding dress evidently took a high prize - it was nifty and knitted, how could I not take a picture?



Sometime Saturday morning, Lina all of a sudden learned how to blow raspberries. So, we now have a game where we can blow raspberries at each other. The above photo was taken during such a bout; I wanted to try and capture both sides, but somehow it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. Anyway, she ended up very pleased with herself, as you can see.

We had dinner last night with Bethany and her husband and offspring last night; in between wails from Lina (can you believe she's three months old already?!), Bethany said she thinks Lina's going to end up with my nose. I hope so, I like my nose!

No, really, this is realistic!

I never would have believed so before beginning to nurse, myself, but it is!

I found this while running through a set of links to medieval and renaissance art showing nursing women.

Dangit, it's what they're for!

I found this article very timely. My in-laws are great folks, and absolutely adore Lina (as they should!). But... my father-in-law is very modest about breastfeeding, to the point that he'll go into another room when I need to nurse the little girl. It makes it pretty awkward for me, sadly. I don't think he disapproves of breastfeeding at all, he's just extremely modest...



How can you not adore an image of a newborn nursing for the first time?

A couple of things

First off a token Lina picture. This was a month ago, when we were visiting Br. Vincent to watch him take his first set of vows. The monk and the babe!

Rachel and Allen both wondered about the title on my last post; for me, it's a quote from the BBC comedy series Are You Being Served?

I just found this on a knitting forum, and I figured y'all would appreciate it. Serious geek candy!

That's all for now; today and the next couple of days are expected to be serious scorchers, so we're going to be hibernating to the best of our ability.

The things you see when you haven't got your gun.

In no particular order:



Yes, Lina is very much her mother's daughter, complete with glares.



This is rapidly becoming my favorite dessert: marionberry shortcake, with ample whipped cream (of course). The berries were fresh from the farmer's market, the shortcakes were courtesy of Bisquick. Sue me, I'm lazy!



More uses for a mei tai.

I spose it's time to start posting about the food budget challenge, since I went shopping for next week's food today. I spent about $60 today; yes, I know, that's more than I'm supposed to spend for a week's food, even if you count Lina towards the total. However, that wasn't all food (we slipped a couple of soda-type drinks in, and I also added a $5 food container), and some items will stretch for weeks or months - for example, the tahini I bought to make hummus with. All in all, I feel pretty good about today's purchases.

I also went a little crazy this evening with food pre-preparation. After a yummy bowl of leek and potato soup (leeks bought a week or two ago, potatoes delivered from our CSA), I randomly decided to start using up my white bread flour (unbleached, natch) by making some pizza dough to freeze for later use. For the curious, this means I made the dough and gave its first knead, then popped it in freezer bags (one ball of dough to a quart bag, two quart bags to a gallon bag, air squeezed out as much as possible) and into the freezer. The dough will rise in the freezer, but very slowly; the double bag method means that if any should burst their initial bag, the outer bag will contain the dough. Honestly, I don't expect it to last long enough for that to be a problem. When I'm ready to use a ball of dough, I'll pull it out of the freezer and let it defrost; by the time it's room temperature, it will also have finished rising. Then, since I had momentum (if only sort of energy), I chopped the veggies for the pot roast I'm making tomorrow. We're actually having some folks over for dinner, and since I like to cook my pot roasts until the fall apart in the pan (which takes forever), I want to make sure that I start the roast early enough that it's actually ready on time. I figure that having the veggies all ready to go will expedite things - it won't necessarily save time, since I generally do them while the roast is browning, but it will certainly save energy and brainspace (which will promptly be used up by the above cutie pie). I also started some chickpeas soaking to make that hummus I mentioned earlier; it seems that I've corrupted my picky-eater husband into liking it, and since it's WAY cheaper to make than to buy... you do the math.

We have video!

Josh has been playing with the video function on my digital camera, using our very own entrancing subject:







The first is my favorite, but the others have their charms, too - how could they not? I just love the faces Lina makes while sleeping... but then her earnest concentration while trying to crawl is just enchanting! The third is Lina tracking Josh's hand while he films - as if we needed more evidence of her intelligence. :) Ok, ok, I'm besotted - but I'm supposed to be!

Lina and I went to a local SAHM meetup this morning (that's Stay At Home Mom, for those here who don't know the internet-ese), and had a great time. I chatted with the other moms, and Lina had a blast watching the other kids playing in the fountain (we were at a park around the corner from our house that has a fountain specifically designed for kids to play in it). I've been gradually building a friendship with Bethany, and was very happy to see her this morning. Not only did she help me with getting Lina into a back carry with a wrap, but then we went downtown to the Wednesday Farmer's Market together, and just hung out a bit longer. Imagine our delight when we went to get our babies out of their seats and found them holding hands! I'm still giggling over how fast each of us reached for our camera phones... Bethany declared that clearly our daughters were instant BFFs (Best Friends Forever), so it's a good thing she and I have been becoming friends! I would love to post my photo, but I don't have a way of getting pictures off my phone yet. Maybe Bethany will send me a link to hers so I can repost it here. :) I haven't had so much fun with a new friend in a long time, and I'm very glad to have had my efforts (you know, of just getting out of the damn house?) rewarded so well.