This blog has moved!

I've opted to combine my blogs since my mommy rants and my doing things daily almost always coincide these days!

You can find new material at spacedonawire.blogspot.com.

Doing, not writing.

Darn.

I guess I've been so busy doing things daily that I don't often have time to get over here and write much about it. Either that, or I can't come up with much to say about what I do -- I usually only get a few things done each day on either end of baby-care.

Today, not too different from most days, went something like this:

• Baby woke me up at 8:30
• We played downstairs until 10:15
• At 11:00 she fell asleep again.
• I went to the gym while she slept, and got home around 1:00
• She had woken up around 12:00, and played with gramma for a while. When I got home, she was tired again.
• I fed her and tried to put her back down for more sleep, but she just wanted to play more in bed with me.
• We got back up, and came downstairs to find gramma ready to run out for some shopping.
• We went to Toys R Us, Target, Home Depot, and Borders (We only went to Borders for coffee because Calina was sleeping in the sling through Target & Home Depot, and it was in the same plaza.)
• We got home around 5:00
• I wrapped some Christmas presents while Calina played with Gramma
• Colin came home at 7:30.
• I made dinner while he played with Calina.
• We all ate around 8:00
• We watched half an episode of Wonder Pets
• Calina got cranky and tired at 9:00 and went to bed around 9:30.
• I got caught up on some computer chores, read my email, and sat down to write a blog entry. It's almost midnight now, so... time for bed?

I guess that's life right now. Gym, shopping, cooking. That's really all the time I had my hands to myself sans-baby. I did a bit of baking over the last week, too.

It's unbelievable how short these days are, really. I spend quite a lot of time right now putting Calina to bed at various times of the day... She's in a transition between needing 3 naps and only needing 2. If she only gets 2, she tends to be cranky, unless one was at least 2.5 hours long. And it's getting harder and harder to help her fall asleep for that middle of the day nap... So a lot of time is spent TRYING to get her to go to sleep until I just give up and decide she's not really tired enough.

I love her to pieces, but I'm really excited for her to gain a little independence. She's starting to show signs of getting good at playing by herself, but she's still super clingy and needs me on hand at all times -- just in case she needs me for something, I guess. :) It's super fun to watch her play, though, and to see what she finds amusing. Like picking at the carpet to find a speck of fuzz to put in her mouth. Or using both hands to shake a rattling object that's only in one of them. Or suddenly dashing off away from me toward a doorway she shouldn't go out. And riding in her stroller behind Myles's swishing tail.

She's stirring upstairs, and I have to run. That's all for now. ::sigh::

We didn't do a couple cool things today...

We hit up Leu Gardens for their "Free Before Noon Every Monday" deal, but discovered upon arrival (after getting there at 11:00, not wanting to wake napping babies, driving back out to Einstein Bros. Bagels to grab a picnic lunch for the Gardens, and driving back there) that it was no longer free on Mondays. Only FIRST Mondays. $7 per person? I don't think so. So we left.

And we had a lovely picnic at Loch Haven Park, letting Jhonen run around and play in a big field and on a big tree (though he still wanted to go right for the street), and Calina sat on her blanket trying to reach for big fistfuls of grass to taste. (Prettiest. Day. Ever.)

We wanted to find something fun to do, so Jack suggested that we go downtown (nearby) and check out the puppet museum, where he had some pieces on display. We were all for that, so we drove over there, only to find that - yup - they were closed. 0 - 2. Instead, we walked down to Bento to get some Boba teas: I had a passionfruit red tea with [slightly too many] pearls. It was yummy, almost up until the very end. :)

My good friend Stefany and her friend Chris are coming over tomorrow after traveling all over the country promoting Mona-vie, so I knew I wanted to make a nice dinner tomorrow night... I opted to wait to do the shopping until tomorrow when I figure out what awesome thing to make. So tonight was a "get creative with leftovers" night... again. It was probably the worst menagerie of ingredients I've ever had to deal with in this situation -- and I am usually SO good at it. But when you're really just out of everything, it's really, really hard.

I had a roll of premade pizza dough in the fridge, so I went for the make-a-flatbread-out-of-everything idea. 1/2 of the rectangle was turkey chili with cheese on top; 1/4 was hummus with breakfast sausage and baked beans with cheese on top; 1/4 was red sauce with chopped up fried chicken, buffalo sauce, and - you guessed it - cheese on top. (I knew if nothing else, Colin would eat the buffalo chicken bit.) For the most part, it turned out well. Certainly edible. If a little soggy under the middle chili pieces.

--

Yesterday afternoon, we went to our friend Bryan's house for a why-the-crap-is-it-still-so-hot pool party... except that we had our first cold front of the year this weekend, and it was freezing. Still fun. My now-famous chocolate chip cookies were a huge hit, and Colin got in some rock band, with baby strapped on an all!  (Thanks for the awesome pic, Bryan!)

My 1st Halloween - er, Calina's first Halloween.

So, Colin's grandma (Nanny) has a crazy Raggedy Ann collection at her house in Oregon. I wish I had a picture to show you because when I say "collection", you don't usually picture what I am talking about. She has an entire bedroom in their house covered - top to bottom - in Raggedy Ann & Andy stuff. Bedding, lamps, dolls, figurines, books, toys, stuffed dolls, hard ones... Really, in a nutshell, it's a masterful, crazy, incredible room to set foot in - let alone try to get some sleep with all those EYES looking at you.

Anyway, I was inspired by seeing her room, and I thought it would be a fun tribute to Nanny if I dressed Calina up like Raggedy Ann for Halloween. Naturally this meant that I would have to MAKE a costume, since nobody dresses up like Raggedy Ann for Halloween anymore. These days, with about 85% of our sample so far falling into line this year, little girls are all fairies/princesses and little boys are all dinosaurs/dragons.

It also seemed like a good excuse to flesh out my sewing skills, since, on a costume, you can be a little more "fudgy" than on real clothes. And I was sure I'd need some fudging. And I did, but not nearly as much as I figured.

I managed to pull out some sewing skills I didn't know I had, and Calina looks totally amazing.

So today, we went out to the Sanford Zoo here for their annual Halloween "Zoo Boo". Best part was, we not only had a trial run for the actual holiday, but it also made me finish it early so I could get a bunch of photos to send to Nanny before Halloween. Too fun. The whole album is here, but I'll give you a little taste:

Everyone was probably most impressed by the fact that she didn't rip her hat off. We seem to have found another added perk of her helmet! She didn't even notice that she had anything different on her head!

We entered into the Costume Contest, along with about a dozen other "under 3's".

3rd place: The Alligator Dragon kid!
2nd place: The Little Purple Octopus girl!
1st place: Our little Raggedy Ann!

And our prize? A monkey as big as she is. :)

Colin's worried I've set myself up for failure... Now every costume she wears has to be as awesome as this one. And has to win prizes. :)

Autumn

There is nothing like autumn to get the fiendishly ambitious kitchen goddess out in me.

Yummy autumn goodies thus far created in our household:

1. A pumpkin roll with cream cheese frosting. (Yummy, but not "the" recipe. Will try a different one soon.)
2. Curried pumpkin seeds, roasted. (Amazing.)
3. Jess put together a pumpkin pancake feast for us this morning, to which I added a hash brown potato with peppers & onions.
4. This is all after I discovered the very best chocolate chip cookie recipe and made 2 batches.

Also, I've been making Calina's baby food... steamed carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, avocado, pear sauce. She is an incredible eater!!

Coming up:
-My first attempt at sewing baby clothes
-Halloween!
-A huge post from our Oregon trip with lots of photos & video
-Wedding planning!?! (Yeah, we're getting around to it, finally...)

It's September 25th.

Jess's Mom-iversary

I guess it never really occurred to me before, but now that I'm a mom myself, I kind of understand how parents can go so nuts over their kids' birthday parties before they can really even remember any of it: birth is a crazy transformative experience, and a child's birthday is as much a celebration of the parents' memory of that occasion as it is a chance for the kid to celebrate his or her own existence.

I was so fortunate to be a part of Jhonen's birth one year ago today, and as much fun as it was to find fun presents for Jhonen's birthday (2 AWESOME Yo Gabba Gabba toys and a set of "Big Boy" PJ's), I really wanted to do something special for Jess on the anniversary of one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed. Not only was Jhonen's birth significant, but the year since has been an amazingly fast, hard rollercoaster.

He is HUGE, and has been since the start, and poor Jess's body has been abused heartily by his - albeit sweet - clingy nature. Try lugging around a 30 pound boy who NEVER wants to ride in his stroller! And since he's been able to get around on his own, crawling and walking, a 30 pound boy who doesn't want to ride in his stroller, but DOES want to be put down - regardless of whether it's an appropriate safe place, of course. The only thing worse than a 30 pound sack of potatoes in your arms is a 30 pound sack of potatoes trying desperately to get OUT of your arms.

She is one tough mama. But, I guess we've always known that. :)

Anyway, I wanted to do something nice for her, to celebrate getting through birth itself as well as making it to the end of a very fast but very exhausting first year of momhood, so gramma and I rode out to the Winter Park farmers market this morning before the party and picked out an awesome bucket of mixed plants, a huge mixed herb pot, and a pot of gerber daisies (her fave), and a hazelnut coffee cooler from Barnie's.

[We incidentally discovered that A) the Winter Park Farmers Market is AWESOME and B) that they had a paramedic station with mercury-free flu shots. Trying desperately to NOT get the bug I had last year. Ick.]

So, it was a nice surprise. Like I said, I never really thought about it before, but... It's hard to see this milestone come and go. Calina's about to hit 6 months and I just cannot-belive-it. I guess as a parent your job is to just make sure that every day you appreciate what you have, enjoy each moment, and make sure that the day was as good for that little one as it could have been. Now that my little girl is really starting to "enjoy" doing things, I think we're going to make it a point to start doing more things. Playing at home is awesome, but I can already tell that she gets a little bored and stir crazy with the same toys every day. She loves morning outings when she can get them. She loved the farmers market this morning. She had a good-ish, if a little overstimulating, time at the party today. And her day, really, is only from 7 or 8am to 5pm or so when we start winding down for bedtime.

We're off to Oregon on Wednesday, gramma and Calina and I will be staying out there for 2 weeks, and Colin will come home after the first week. (One whole week away without daddy. Yikes!) Sooooo looking forward to it, though!