Yummy Dance!

SNG picked up salmon on his way home from work today. He also got a pint of Ben & Jerry's and a box of neopolitan tofu ice cream sandwiches. E-baby and I opted for the sandwiches and both of our heads are about to explode from delicious delirium. E-baby is running around like a maniac doing the yummy dance (kind of like a happy dance, I think). SNG tasted mine & realized he chose wrong in picking the Ben & Jerry's.

If you haven't tried tofu ice cream sandwiches, you will have difficulty imagining just how delicious they are. Go get some and report back. I'll wait.

In My Absence, Life Goes On

I haven't blogged in about an age and a half. I wish I had more time because there are a lot of things I am behind on (including one little girl's 2nd birthday present getting into the mailbox and I don't know how many thank you notes that aren't yet written). I haven't even really been on the computer for fun in a couple of weeks, because work has gone mad-crazy and home is crazier. Tonight the kids are asleep, my parents are in town but out visiting a friend, and SNG finally gave up the laptop to go watch the TDF. So I blog.
Jambuca's 5-month-day was yesterday! Here are some highlights on him:
*He's rolling (and rolling and rolling) and most of the time when I go in to wake him up, he's on his belly.
*He's getting good at recognizing some cues for things like eating (well, mostly just eating). If I say "Want some milk?" he makes this cute "heh-heh" laugh and cranes his neck as if trying to reach for milk.
*His favorite color seems to be purple. Anytime he sees something dark purple, he gaaaaazes at it, sucks his thumb intently, and then wrangles the thing into his mouth. "Puuuuuurple. Give me the puuuuurple."
*He is really interested in watching people eat. If I eat while I'm holding him, he tries to snake a bite from my fork. Any day now he'll end up with a mouthful of chicken or apple pie. Yes, I will be starting him on cereals on his 1/2-birthday. Not any sooner that that, though, because, well, he is a CHUNKER and doesn't really need to put on more weight.
*He's in size 3 diapers, and Huggies are too tight around his belly. It's the cutest pudge-gut I've ever seen.
*He is easily the happiest baby on the block. He's cheerful most of the time, and really just cries for food and when he's tired. He sleeps like a champ for usually 10-12 hours a night. When he's awake, he's looking for someone to laugh with.

E-baby and Jambuca are so obviously going to be best buds, and she's taken to calling him "little man" which is so funny coming from her. We let her stay up late last night to see 4th of July fireworks. It was her Granny's birthday, too, and she's kind of got Independence Day mixed up with Granny's birthday, resulting in this interpretation of the fireworks show:
"Granny is the angel, and she flies WAY up in the sky to spark the fireworks. She puts the pink one over where the green one is, and moves the green one to where the pink one is. Then we say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! FIREWORKS!"

Here are some pictures, for your viewing pleasure.

At the Festival for the Eno (look at that boy's legs!)



E-baby and some roses



Buddies



Happy baby

Boring Post-Pardum Weight Loss Post

OK, I am really frustrated with the fact that I weigh a few pounds more now than when I returned to work two months ago. WTF? Isn't nursing supposed to make you LOSE weight? Well, it didn't with e-baby, and it hasn't with Jambuca either. Really, it just makes me hungry and a little bit lethargic. When I was pregnant with jambuca, I said that the best I'd expect is to maintain my weight until he is weaned. But this is ridiculous and I have to do something because darn it, I am almost at SNG's ideal weight (!!!) (No offense, sweetie). So here I am, setting out goals, and setting out plans for achieving them. You are lucky enough to have clicked onto my blog to read about it. I won't be offended if you take a nap.

I realize that putting it in big, overarching terms doesn’t help at all, but so what, here is the big picture:
BIG GOAL:
Lose 15 pounds (putting me at my pre-e-baby pregnancy weight)
BIG PLAN:
Eat less, exercise more (duh)

Now, here are the specifics in bite-size chunks (heh. heh.):

Goal: Lay off the snack foods.
Explanation: e-baby has snacks between (and alongside) meals, and while most of the snack foods are reasonable as toddler snacks go (goldfish crackers, whole grain saltines) most of them are irresistible to me (the crunchy little iced oatmeal cookies, cheese, dried fruit). I don’t mind if she has calorie-dense snack foods, but I shouldn’t be snacking on them, too.
Plan: Buy her snacks that I don’t care to eat. Nutri-Grain bars, for instance, are not my taste at all but she loves them. Trouble is that there aren’t a lot of things like that, unless they’re REALLY unhealthy, like ice cream and gummy bears. And of course I’m not feeding her ice cream and gummy bears for her between-meals snacks.
Plan: Stock up on raw veggies to crunch after work while I make dinner. Stop buying the snack foods that I have trouble resisting (although I like for her to eat dried fruit, so those will have to stay).

Goal: Intake fewer calories overall
Explanation: Duh. I eat too much. Not rocket science.
Plan: I’ve been cooking with butter more than I used to for certain things, particularly leeks. I like the butter because it makes the leeks taste SO good, and olive oil is a poor substitute. I could cut that amount of butter way down and substitute a little olive oil and salt, but bring the total fat down to half.
Plan: Keep a food log (FLOG) of everything I eat. It’s easier to say no to that second biscotti if you have to write it down. Shoot for 1700-2000 C a day, which should be plenty to sustain milk supply for Jambuca.

Goal: Stay hydrated
Explanation: I am often so busy that I forget to drink water. Breastfeeding and dehydration-- a bad combination.
Plan: Fill and drink a 1-qt Nalgene bottle at least twice a day at work. Then it's easier to keep track of whether I'm drinking enough.

Goal: Improve core strength and posture
Explanation: I can carry around 2 children a lot, but my posture is paying for it.
Plan: Do Pilates every evening before bedtime, but do the push-ups and planks in the morning because I’m usually too tired for them in the evenings. Gee, I wonder why?

Goal: Improve cardio fitness
Explanation: I just feel lethargic a lot of the time.
Plan: Walk to work 2-3x a week (already doing this, most weeks). In the summertime, SNG will have to pick us up because it’s usually too hot and BUGGY to walk home (yes, Buggy. The biting flies are ferocious)
Plan: Get in one 1-hr bike ride each weekend (NOT already doing this-- oh, how I miss my bike!). Could take e-baby in the trailer if she wants to go.

Goal: Eat at least 4 superfoods a day. (If you don't know what superfoods are, you can Google it)
Explanation: I can feel that I am in needs of anti-inflammatory foods. My carpal tunnel is as bad as ever.
Plan: Stock up each weekend on enough for the week, and get everything cleaned/cooked/prepared on Sunday.
Examples: Frozen broccoli, fresh leeks, fresh spinach, strawberries, frozen cherries, garlic, sweet potatoes, greens (the farm provides these), zucchini

Goal: Coordinate with SNG so we BOTH get more exercise
Explanation: SNG needs to get more exercise, too. Not that I’m saying he’s fat. But, um, perhaps I have already said too much. Anyway, he wants to bike to work once a week and bike at least once on weekends.
Plan: He should ride on days that I am not walking to work and I should walk on days that he isn’t riding. We can watch the weather and our calendars and plan his bike day in advance. Whatever day I ride on weekends, he will ride the other day. He might tag along on rides with the neighbors. SOON, Jambuca will be big enough for the trailer and we can actually ride together (YAY!).

OK, so that was a boring post. But it's out there, and I'll hopefully continue to feel motivated enough to stick to my plans.

In other news, SNG, e-baby, Jambuca, Dianaverse and I are heading to IKEA in Charlotte tomorrow! Woohoo!

It's an ABBA Kind of Day

This is a belated video birthday card for my mom, but everyone else can enjoy it, too.

Post-Partum Hair Club

One of the few perks of pregnancy is that, for many of us, your hairs stop falling out of your head. So there you are, fat and tired, but with fabulous, thick hair. For me, my legs also got super freckly, but the freckles go away after a few months (which is really weird when it happens).

And just like the proverbial free lunch, the hair is temporary. I've estimated before the amount of extra hair. Figure a person loses ~100 hairs a day. In pregnancy, say you lose (conservatively) half that. Forty weeks of gestation and that's in the neighborhood of 14,000 extra hairs waiting to take the leap. When the kid is 3 mo old or so, BOING! Hairs everywhere. And now you've still got the normal 100 a day popping off. Over a few months' time, the house, the car interior, and the office become abstract hair sculpture.

SNG won't store his hairbrush in the same drawer with mine. Because the hairs leap onto his brush. I just thought someone might want to know that.

Pictures!!

You want 'em, you got 'em!
Here are pictures of our front garden that we worked on for most of April and May.
Here are pictures of e-baby and Jambuca doing what they do best.

Party, Party Weekend

It's no wonder both children behaved like orcs this morning: that was one seriously busy weekend. It was also seriously fun, so the orciness was worth it.

Friday night we went to see and play and dance along with my friend as he played blues guitar followed by the Raleigh Drum Circle's monthly Rhythmicity. Both my frind and the RDC are celebrities to e-baby now, and she was over-the-moon when she was allowed to play the guitar afterwards.

Saturday morning we went to see Elmo live in concert (do not laugh, I can throw you for distance and will not hesitate to do so). The four of us went with PIC, LeBon, and c-baby. E-baby loved it, c-baby liked it, Jambuca thought it was a bunch of noise for no good reason, and the rest of us thought it was a little too long and way too expensive. Still, I'm glad to have had the experience. I saw at least 3 other mothers I know there with kids e-baby's age, so I felt a little better knowing I wasn't the only one with SesameStreetSucker written on my forehead. I agree with PIC that the most fun part was having lunch together afterwards.

Sunday afternoon was our Joan of Arc day bonfire, also known as the semi-annual burn-stuff-in-our-backyard party. That was super duper extra fun. I would love to throw a party every single weekend, if I could be sure someone would actually come to it. Maybe SNG and I should open a nightclub when we retire. A nightclub with a firepit.

I forgot to take pictures at any events this weekend, but I do have some awesome shots of e-baby and Jambuca doing what they do best that I'll upload to Flickr soon.

Next Friday and Saturday we'll be picking blueberries for the first official weekend of blueberry season, and Sunday we'll be eating blueberry pie, blueberry cobbler, blueberry muffins, blueberry bread, blueberry jam, blueberry pancakes,...If you're hungry, you know I love guests!

Like A Kick to the Chest

I just realized that I have been back at work for the same amount of time as I was out of work on maternity leave! Wha?! It feels like I'm still unpacking into my office. People are still asking "Are you back at work ALREADY?"

In the scheme of things, three and a half months really isn't a very long time, but it's a lifetime in baby years. When every day sees new developments, and every interaction seems significant, and multiply that by two kids, time goes on the log scale all of a sudden.

Nearly Perfect Day

This morning, SNG & I slept until 7:15, the kids slept until 8, and we cleaned up the house really well. Then we cleared out the pine straw from the last section of our garden and repotted the last of the seedlings. We also installed our new silly frog-playing-a-horn fountain.
At lunch, SNG took the truck to get 2 trellises and 17 bags of pretty pea-gravel, while I took the kids to Sonic (our Sonic won't let you keep the tray on your window. WTF?). E-baby loves their grilled cheese. I like having the children in a confined space where they can't hurt themselves or each other. Jambuca likes to be fed in the car. Everyone's happy.
After lunch, it rained like mad, so the kids & I watched SNG shovel pea gravel into the just-cleared section of the garden, now known as the zen garden. We put in all the plantings & the trellises, the weather cleared up, and the yard was a glorious spectacle of red, yellow, purple, orange, white, pink, and green. Later in the afternoon, our cul-de-sac hosted a big neighborhood street party, and e-baby 'sold' every single flower from our garden to the other neighborhood kids when she set up a florist shop behind the gardenia bush. I heard her charging anything from forty cents to 200 dollars. Our garden is just green now, but that's ok. What's the point of flowers if nobody's going to enjoy them? Jambuca was passed from neighbor to neighbor all evening until he was pooped from all the attention. I know I've said how much I love it here, but I'll say it again- I love our neighbors.
Both kids went to bed without any argument and now I will, too. Good night!

Learning about Laryngitis

I caught a cold last week and lost my voice (again!!), which was bad timing because I also had to teach all this week. Luckily, my co-instructor could cover for me when I couldn't go on for all the coughing. Oh, and extra bad timing because Thursday night I was scheduled to give the speech at the Teacher's Appreciation Dinner for e-baby and Jambuca's daycare.

So yesterday, desperate to get my pipes back, I did some Googling on laryngitis. From all the reputable websites I read, I learned that it's a really, really bad idea to whisper through laryngitis. You're better off either croaking (if you can) or writing things down. Or, presumably, signing, but if you're the only one in the room who knows a little ASL, it may as well be Mandarin. I was really surprised to read that whispering is as hard on the larynx as shouting. It doesn't feel that way to me. But I tried not whispering at all yesterday, and whaddaya know, I am starting to sound better today. Ordinarily, I'd have another day or 2 without a voice.

I croaked through the teachers' speech, everyone laughed at the right times and smiled at the right times, although I suspect that everyone really just wanted me to shut up so they could dig into their dinners. Still, it was fun.

I still have to teach all the next 2 weeks, so hopefully this voice thing will be completely healed by Monday. This weekend we're going to a birthday party, trying to get a visit with my aunt, uncle and cousins who are in town, and experimenting with pre-cooked frozen breakfast sandwiches. As in, making them from scratch, freezing them, and having quick, easy breakfasts all week. Has anyone ever tried to freeze cheese or scrambled eggs? Any advice before I ruin a bag of groceries?

Happy Mother's Day!

E-baby sings for all the Mommies.

Happy mother's day all you moms!

Sharecropping

One of the great fringe benefits to living in North Carolina is the fact that pretty much everything grows here, and in spite of what you may have heard about hog lagoons, we really do have a booming (non-livestock) agriculture business here in the north. Since we moved here in 2000, we've spent from May-October visiting the NC state farmer's market (it's freaking HUGE!) almost every weekend. It's where I get my strawberries and blueberries for jam-making, and the only place that has eggplant I'll actually eat (and 8 or 10 varieties of it). They have dozens of different kinds of everything. Corn picked within the hour, $5 for a big paper grocery bag full. Fresh baked pies, fresh goat's milk cheese. And then there's the peanut guy. He always has boiled peanuts and he always flirts and he has about 4 teeth and I love him.

But since e-baby was born, we've been to the farmer's market maybe 4 times. It means that the last 2 years' jam were made with non-local berries from the grocery store, and our veggies were waxy, shipped in from other states, and sometimes other countries. That won't do.

Fast-forward to last fall. Here in the woods, everyone knows everyone and one of the neighbors wanted to get a group of us in on a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm. With a CSA, you buy a share of a local farm and everyone takes their share of the produce for 6 months. If it's a good growing year, you have lots of goodies. If it's a crappy year, you don't get so much. It's still cheaper than what I spend on pproduce at the grocery store by a LONG stretch. Another neighbor wanted to learn about sustainable farming, so he took an internship at a local organic-growing farm, and so choosing the farm was a no-brainer. I still didn't know what I'll do with radishes or beets or arugula, but all the other stuff we'll get is going to be great.

Today was our first shipment. It's early days, so all we got was lettuce, greens of unknown origin, and strawberries. We also got arugula flowers-- the crop bolted in the recent hot weather, but the flowers are sweet and nutty. Perfect on a salad. I had lettuce wraps for dinner. The lettuce was as good as any tortilla I've ever had.

The coolest thing is that e-baby loved all of it. Normally she dislikes strawberries. But who can blame her-- they have to get here from Florida or California, so of course they taste like crap. But local, organic strawberries picked this morning? Oh yeah-- that rocks her world. So does red leaf lettuce dipped in ranch dressing.

Three Months Old

"My sister picks my outfits"

My tiny new baby is three months old today. He's 15lb 8oz. where does the time go? How did this happen?

A little over a week ago (at gestational age of 2 months) a bunch of things happened:
Jambuca quit his nonstop slow poop in favor of several days between poops (as many as 8 days) without any apparent pain, so I interpret it as his gut maturing (yeah, I know there's a joke hanging right there- like fish in a barrel).
He seems to be bothered less by what I eat. Maybe I'll venture a cup of coffee in another week?
He is awakened to play several times a day so he can't just sleep away the day between feedings, which leads to...
He sleeps all night. Hallelujah, can I get a witness! AAA-MEN!!!

We moved him to his own room Friday night and he sleeps even better there than in our room.

For a milestone of my own, we crossed some threshold where 2 kids is no longer 4x harder than 1 kid. Now it's more like 1.5x as hard. That came faster than I expected. I don't figure it'll always be that way.

I'll add a picture or two to this post later when I can get onto a real computer (this is coming from my phone-ouch, my thumbs!).

Where's a Camera When You Need One?

Today, e-baby had her first trip to the dentist. She was cautiously optimistic about the whole thing, and sat on my lap on the chair at first, watched a little Barney, rode up and down, and took a little tour of the "treasure box." After that, she sat in the chair by herself while the hygenist counted her teeeth, looked at them with a mirror, and brushed/flossed them. It was very, very exciting, but she was a little shy. When the hygenist put on her mask, it was "Oh, no, lady-- keep your face right where I can see it, thank-you-very-much."

After her checkup, they let her pick a toothbrush and a prize from the treasure box. She chose a shiny-silvery plastic set of fairy jewelry: a tiara, a wand, a ring, and a bracelet. She tells me that now she is a real fairy.

After the dentist, we continued an old family tradition of going to Wendy's for a frosty. They serve the same delicious frosties and apparently they also play the same music as they did in 1979. Fly Robin Fly, Slow Ride, the disco version of Beethoven's 5th symphony. We spotted not one but TWO fire trucks out in the parking lot while we were eating. On our way to the car, we stopped to look at one of them, and a REAL fireman came out, gave her a sticker, let her sit in the driver's seat and turn on the lights, showed her around the inside of the fire truck and (ahem) admitted that no, they don't *really* have a fire dog named Sparky, he's just a dog on the sticker. Still, it was teh AWESOME. The fireman's name was David. He was probably just waiting for lunch. He is our hero.

It was so much fun that she didn't even cry when I took her back to school for nap-time. When I left, she was bragging to her teacher about the fireman and the truck.

If you'll pardon the cliche, seeing so much stuff through the eyes of a child makes the whole world seem like it's coated in sugar and spice.

Oh, and the title of this post? I didn't have my camera or my phone, and there were probably a hundred Kodak moments. So instead, I got a picture after we got home so you could all see the fairy jewelry. And e-baby's latest shoe-fashion statement.