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.

Carolina Bright-eyes

That's my cutie!

She's now two months old (or nine weeks, take your pick on how to gauge it), and currently spending much of her waking hours screaming - because she's processing so much she can't cope right now. Not much fun for any of us, and Josh and I hope it passes very, very soon.

At her two-month checkup on Friday, we found that she's 24" tall (in the 95% for her age) and 11 pounds (50%) - tall and slender, much like me. With her height, she's almost grown out of three-month clothing, but too skinny for six-month pants. Fortunately, the weather seems to be warming up again, so maybe by the time she needs pants again she'll have plumped up a bit.

And now for something completely different. A month or so ago, I joined a group here in town that's exploring ways to make our lives greener without breaking the budget. At our last meeting, we talked about food, and Stacey passed out a set of menus and recipes aimed at eating local, cheap, and healthy - and organic as much as possible. Several of us have decided to try out the menus this month, and report back how it worked for us. Since we're going camping much of this week (in fact I need to get off the computer and go shower and pack and stuff!), and I believe we have ample food to carry us through the rest of the week after we return, I'm going to start counting next Saturday, when we go food shopping next. The goal is to spend $15 per person per week; I'd usually say that would be $30 for me and Josh, but I may fudge and add a few bucks in Lina's name, since I'm eating for two still. We'll see how it goes!

Post 101

Signing in to Blogger just now, I discovered that the last time I posted, it was #100. Funny to think that in almost two and a half years I've only posted 100 times...

Anyway, I was looking through the pictures on my camera just now, and discovered that I lied: we did get some Lina pix last week.



This is her in her adorable little baby coolie hat, which we found in the awesome spice store we visited in Olympia a few weeks ago.



Anyway, this is the little eight-week-old angel less than an hour ago (before she woke up from her nap screaming because she was hungry and there was no one in sight). Daddy's playing with her so Mommy can eat and finish her blog post. :)

more cat pictures

Yes, I'm cheating, posting with lolcats instead of knitting or baby. But this one was so exactly Peppar's reaction to us vacuuming...

Ok, ok, since I'm posting, here's some of the other content.



These are a couple of wool soakers I made a couple of weeks before Lina was born; she has now outgrown them. *sigh*



And this is the lovely Peggy with Vacuum Girl herself, back at the end of June when we visited her on a particularly warm weekend. Peggy was thrilled, Lina spent the day fussing badly.

I haven't taken any pictures this last week; was having too darn much fun with our very dear friend Br. Vincent, who was visiting us on his vacation, and has now headed back to the abbey.

Just sayin'.

(eta: ugh. The pic won't all fit! iz kyoote tho.)