What's That in My Mouth?

Oh, it's my tongue!

EZ Blocks

This entry is to showcase both Sarah's current favorite toy and her ability to sit up. That being the case, I've edited out the many times she fell over.




I got these blocks with my starter kit a few weeks ago when I started to sell Discovery Toys. DT puts these toys in the 18+ months category and I'm sure that she will need to be that old before she can start building castles and such with them. But she can sure knock them down with the best of them.

I read somewhere that a 6 month skill is being able to put things into a container and dump them out. So I went looking for something that we could practice that with and hit upon the EZ Blocks. I also liked that she sat up straighter in order to knock over the tall towers I make for her. Before using this toy she would not really sit up, but more bend in half and play with things on the ground. She loves to shake the blocks since they rattle and is just starting to bang them together (although, I couldn't capture that on the video). She likes to dump out the bucket, but hasn't shown much interest in putting the blocks back in. She does like to throw the blocks, though, so I'm thinking that will come soon.

The video shows her using her left hand most of the time. I don't think that is an accurate indicator of her handedness, however. She sucks her left thumb but she switched to it when we had to mitt her right hand to prevent her from scratching at her exzema. Now she often plays with things with her right hand WHILE sucking on her left thumb. In this video, I think she is using her left hand so much because (1) the toys are on that side of her and (2) her right hand is being held out for balance.

I'd love to hear back from people as to what their baby's favorite toy was at 5 or 6 months old. And, I feel compelled to add, if you are interested in seeing a catalog for Discovery Toys, please let me know. August is kind of a crucial month for me since it is my first full month with the company. So if I hit the company's sales goal for this month I receive a cash bonus plus a credit towards next season's catalog items. I thought I had a big order coming from the library, but they had to back out at the last minute.

How does your Garden Grow?

I picked my first heirloom tomatoes today. Yummy! I've been able to eat the cherry tomatoes for several weeks now and there are tons more ripening on the plant. So I think we can say the tomatoes were a success.

The local rabbits would tell you that the snow peas and green beans were a success as well. But, they would be wrong. These plants were mowed down by the bunnies the moment they reared their stems out of the soil. We kept trying to tell the rabbits that if they would allow the plants to grow just a little bit then there would be plenty for all of us. I really only wanted the vegetables off of one of each type of plant. I would have been happy to give the rabbits the rest. But it seems rabbits are an impatient breed. Who knew?

My pepper plants look like bonzai . They look perfectly healthy except that they never got bigger than about 8 inches and they never flowered. I guess they don't get enough sun. My leeks never took off either.

I have some very oddly shaped cucumbers and butternut squash growing. So we will see what comes of that in the next few weeks. And my herb garden has done really well. All except the cilantro that flowered while we were on vacation. I meant to see if I could get another plant but never quite got around to it. I thought the parsley was gone (also thanks to the resident bunnies) but even though it was down to stalk nubs with no leaves, it came back nicely. I have a huge crop of basil going that I am going to harvest and freeze so that I have it all winter. I'm thinking of digging up the rosemary and thyme and keeping them indoors this winter. I don't think the cats will bother them as they smell so strongly.

I had a few strawberries right at the beginning of the season. The plants have completely disappeared. I don't know if they will come back next year or not.

I had lots of lettuce but I never picked it. We had plenty of lettuce in our CSA box and so I never got around to it. Did you know that lettuce flowered? I'm not sure if that means new lettuce plants will grow up on their own or not. I need to get out there and pull them up. I have more seeds so I will plant them for a second harvest.

As for the flowers I planted ... the Dahlia plants are really healthy. They have no blooms but they are really healthy. Why don't they have any floweres? Well, because the rabbits like them. They ate the portaluca immediately. Every now and then they will allow a cosmo to bloom. The rabbits seem to have no interest whatsoever in the snapdragons. So I've had a great time with them. These last few thunderstorms have done their fair share of dammage though. My sunflowers never even sprouted (I think some critter ate the seeds in the ground. I'd blame the bunnies but they can't have done ALL of the damage. This one might be the fault of the squirrels). I got sprouts of sweetpeas, but they never blossomed, nor did they climb the fence as I hoped they would.

For those of you that don't know, this garden was my first Mother's Day present. Arlo, who absolutely HATES gardening, cleared out my patch of waist high weeds that were growing after the snow melt. Cleared it down to dirt. Weeds came out by their roots. Then he went to two different garden centers and helped me plant all of my pretties.

When I was recovering from my deep depressive episode a few years ago, one of the things I did each day was "inspect the troops." Each morning I took my coffee out in the morning and checked my garden for new growth. It really helped me. Arlo pictured me taking Sarah outside this summer in order to help me inspect the troops. We have been outside some this summer. But not as much as I thought.

I'm already planning next year's garden to be a bit more toddler friendly. We will plant a few square feet of sod so that there will be come grass to sit on. And we'll definitely have tomatoes.

Mmmmm Mmmmmm

Sarah has been showing signs of wanting to eat solid food for awhile. She watches Arlo and me intently whenever we eat. Yesterday, at the park, she watched a baby eat, opening her mouth whenever the other baby did. Arlo helped her play with a spoon today and even with just air, she knew what to do.

Since she is not yet 6 months old, our choices of what to give her were limited. She could have commercial rice cereal (but not homemade whole grain cereal), avocado, banana, or sweet potato. The rice cereal is out for us. The only ones I can find in the stores here have preservatives in them and Arlo was severely allergic to preservatives as a child. We don't want to take that chance with Sarah. I will make my own cereal eventually, but her digestive system can't handle the whole grain yet. So we went with the avocado.

I think you can see that she liked it. I guess she will be a guacamole girl. I think we will hold off on the margareitas for awhile.

20, 16, 11, 0

That's how many minutes I let her cry before falling asleep. I started two days ago with one of her naps and then at bedtime (the 20 minutes and 16 minutes respectively). Eleven minutes was for one of yesterday's naps. Arlo put her to bed last night and decided to lay with her until she fell asleep instead of letting her cry. And then we had zero minutes for her first nap of the day today. Hurray! She did cry out once, when she got her leg caught through the side of the crib. But I fixed it and she fell asleep.

Here are a few other sleeping pictures for comparison purposes:

Her first time sleeping in her crib.

She moves around quite a bit in her sleep.

Just a few weeks old. In her Pack N Play. She still sleeps on her side a lot but not with her legs crossed like this.

Nap in her swing. This was at 2.5 months. Now her feet hang out and her head is almost to the top of the swing. She will be so sad when she outgrows it. She LOVES her swing.

Sleeping at the air show in Osh Kosh Wisconsin

At the doctor Monday she was 28 inches long (99th percentile). She is only around the 75th percentile for weight at 15 lb. 12 oz. but the doctor uses a chart that has both breastfed and formula fed babies. I would expect her to weigh less than a formula fed baby. I need to do a jammies assessment though since she is not quite 5 months and she is almost out of her 6-9 month jammies. (I have a bunch of 9-12 month, but I don't know how many of them are summer weight.) She stretched her legs out fully yesterday morning and bared her shoulder.

End of the Month

With this post, I've done it! I've accomplished my goal of posting every day for the month of January. To those of you that slogged through the days that I really didnt' have anything to say ... Thank You!

For some reason, when I realized that today was the last day of the month, my mind started thinking about one of my favorite books as a child. It was a "little golden book." My favorite of these was "Sam the Firehouse Cat" but the book that came to mind was "The Monster at the End of this Book." It has Grover (from Sesame Street) reading along with you and when he realizes that there is a monster at the end of the book, he does everything he can think of to prevent you from reaching the end. He bricks the pages up, ties them down, and many other things I'm sure, but I can't remember exactly. But then, of course, when you reach the end of the book, the only monster is sweet, lovable, Grover.

I'm not saying that I dreaded reaching the end of the month, that there might be a monster in this post or anything. I'm thinking that this book came to mind because of the relief I feel at reaching the end and seeing that it wasn't so bad. For some reason, I write these posts right before I go to bed. This has not been good planning on my part, but there you go. So each night I had this Blog-Monster looming over my head. But I feel success at having accomplished the goal.

Have no fear, I will continue to post. Maybe, even tomorrow night, we'll see.



In other news, we are again a two-car family. I'm a little amazed that we ended up buying an SUV, but you never know where life is going to take you. It is a 1996 Ford Explorer that seems to be in really great shape. It has over 100K miles on it and I'm sure the gas mileage is atrocious but all we needed was something that Arlo could drive back and forth to work (less than 3 miles round trip) and we wanted something that could carry large purchases, when necessary, but still have a back seat so that it could accommodate a car seat. We wanted something under $3000 (we paid $2500) so that we could buy it outright and not have a car payment. Success all around.

Secondly, we saw Gran Torino tonight (great movie). It was at a neat little theater where the two of us had dinner and a movie for less than $20 ... including snacks. It was nice to have a little date with my husband.

It's a Start!

Well, we've not done much to prepare the nursery yet (I am pretty proud that I've bought AND washed some quilt fabric ... but that's it). But thanks to wonderful friends and family our little one will be able to bathe and swing. She has some clothes and burp clothes and this too cute for words bunny pillow. She even has some very nice books to read.

So lets see, we have cleanliness, clothing options other than naked, intellectual pursuits, rocking and other comforts. Now we only need small details like ... oh, I don't know, sleeping facilities, auto transportation equipment, pedestrian transportation equipment, clothes storage, diaper changing facilities, etc. So I'd say we're essentially done. What do you think? No? Not quite? Well, ... it's a start.

Thanks to everyone that is helping us out.

Yards and yards of pinky goodness

I've been wanting to make a quilt for the guest room bed for a number of years now. (You would think I would want a new quilt for our bed since the one we have is the first quilt that I ever made and I didn't quite understand the need to back stitch or give proper seam allowances. This has lead to many holes in the quite faded quilt. But somehow, I haven't been ready to replace it. Maybe the reasons for replacing it are all actually reasons for not replacing it.) Anyway, now that we've decided that the bed will stay in the baby's room (at least for now) I really want to do something to make it a bit more girly. I've decided on pink and brown. I'm not quite sure yet what pattern I will do for the quilt, but the fabric was half off and only through this Sunday so I just had to get it now.

I'm not so sure that the bottom left fabric (close-up below) goes as well with the rest of the fabrics but I just couldn't resist the toile images of a mother and daughter that were perfectly brown on pink fabric. I will find something to do with this.

Stimulating the Economy

With all the talk about President Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan, I am continuously reminded of Zoe the cat's recommendation. Enjoy this video brought to us by our favorite cat-loving engineers. Her stimulus plan comes in at about 4:25.




If you haven't seen the original "Engineer's Guide to Cats," you really need to click here.

I think it has been at least 2 days since I've posted about my cats ... so you all are due. When we first got these sweet girls, I was really good about trimming their claws EVERY Sunday. They squirmed the first time but quickly learned to associate claw cutting with the treat they got afterwards. In fact, I have to cut Anabelle's claws second because as soon as we are done, she runs over to the drawer where the treats are kept. If I don't follow shortly, she gets quite impatient.

Lately, I have not been very good about the every Sunday aspect of the cutting of the nails. I think we went 3 weeks and it wasn't until I realized how often I was yelling at them to stop clawing the couch or some other inappropriate place that I realized that they probably needed their claws cut.

Well, I forgot again this last Sunday. I was reminded when I heard Arlo strongly urge them away from the couch (i.e. yell) for the third time this morning. Really, they were just a little bit crazy. They like the items that we bought them specifically to claw, but this morning it also felt good to give the couch a good swipe as they were racing pell mell around the room.

I cut Millie's claws first for two reasons. One was mentioned above and the other is that Anabelle is so jealous of any attention that anyone other than her receives (this will be interesting in a few weeks) that she comes and stands right next to me. This is quite convenienet in my pregnant state as I don't have to get up in order to take my next customer. My growing tummy has made this job a little more difficult than it used to be. I typically lay the cat on her back while she is on my lap in order to cut the front claws. Then, I sink her further into the hollow of my crossed legs in order to gain access to her back claws. Well, this hollow is fast disappearing. But we managed. And the rest of the day was couch clawing free.

We'll see about tomorrow.

Queen for an Evening

Hugs from Heaven, a new baby boutique in a higher end shopping plaza, had a pampering night for moms-to-be. We had foot baths, foot massages, and shoulder massages while they came around and gave us Mama-tinis and fed us nummy food and desserts. There door prizes were pretty fantastic as well. In addition to a little baby toy and a goody bag with coupons and such I won a 30 minute massage. I think I will wait until I get closer to my date to redeem that one. And for now, I'm going to take my relaxed self to bed.

Nine Months

Do you remember this movie with Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore? I didn't. Except I think I might have seen it. Either that, or the previews and commercials for the movie overlapped in such a way that I had seen the movie without ever having seen it.

Regardless, I thought this should be a nice funny movie to watch as I head into my 34th week of this pregnancy. There were parts that I found particularly funny based on my own personal experience. But mainly I thought "Wow! I can't believe I'm watching a movie with Tom Arnold. I remember now why I don't watch movies with Tom Arnold." and that it was almost, but not quite completely unlike, being pregnant. Although, I do understand everyone experiences pregnancy differently. But it is hard to be believable when your premise is that the "perfect relationship" is rocked to its core by pregnancy. I'm not buying a perfect relationship that has so little communication in it.

While I have told many people that I don't think I could have been a single pregnant woman, that Arlo's support has been imperative and so important to me, I wasn't sure I had told Arlo this (or at least not recently). So I took the opportunity to do so. And I'm doing so again, publicly.

Thank you so much for your love and support. I love you, Arlo and I think you will be as wonderful a father as you are a husband.

Crazy Kitties

Anabelle was sick earlier this week (Sunday and Monday mostly with some extra sleeping on Tuesday) and I don't think Millie knew what to do with herself. So she went exploring ... Not only can she open all ground level cabinets but she can also stand up on the bathroom counter and open the medicine cabinet in order to get at the plastic basket that holds my make-up. I'm sure she could reach Arlo's side if she wanted to .... but it does not seem that she does. Now that Anabelle is feeling better (we haven't heard a sneeze since Tuesday morning), Millie is showing her all of her new tricks. When I came home from my book club meeting yesterday, the house looked as if a tornado had gone through. No kitties met me at the door (as the ALWAYS do). Every cabinet was open. Every piece of paper that used to be on a surface (table, shelf, etc) was on the floor. Baskets were overturned, etc. The cords that tie up the kitchen windowblind were disheveled and one of my african violets sitting in the kitchen window was out of its pot and lying in the sink. The pot was nearby, luckily not broken. As I weaved my way through the destruction, I kept calling out for the girls ... no response. I thought that they might have just been hiding, knowing that they had done wrong. But no, they were sleeping the sleep of the innocent (extremely tired but still innocent) upstairs in the office (which was also in a shambles but it is hard to tell what they did vs. the mess it has been in ever since I tried to organize it).

Today was more of the same, except we were home. Therefore, we just kept yelling or distracting them from their path of destruction whenever possible. We dug out every milk ring and mousie that we could find (mostly from under the hutch where Anabelle keeps them banished) and they might have tired themselves out. We'll see.

I suppose this is good practice for having a two-year-old in a couple of years ...

A Taste of Childhood

When I was 8 or 9 years old, the Harlem Globetrotters came to Hawaii. Of course I knew the Harlem Globetrotters from Scooby Doo.



It seemed that all of my friends went to see them and it was all they talked about for weeks. I was so jealous.

So when I saw on t.v. that they were coming to the Joyce Center at Notre Dame ... I asked Arlo to see if he got a faculty discount. He did and so we went. I think we were among 10 people in the crowd that did not have kids with us. It was pretty campy and slapstick but I loved watching how much fun the kids were having. The basketball handling was fun to watch and there were a several antics that I found myself laughing out loud at.

To Do

1. Find a pediatrician

2. Locate and purchase nursing bras that actually fit me. (I've tried every place local and am now on the mail order hunt

3. Find some nursing tops for me. I haven't even tried yet. The bra has been stressing me out too much.

4. Get (almost) everything for the baby's room.

5. Make/get a new quilt for the guest room bed that will stay in the baby's room. Currently it is very blue and not going with all the cute pinkness that appears to be in store for our little girl.

6. Go to the eye doctor so that I can replace my glasses that the cats broke back in August. The crack just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I figure I might want them in the hospital.

7. Investigate gdiapers since we're thinking we want to use them.

8. A million other things that I'm sure I haven't even thought about yet.

So Tired

I'm evidentially in quite a mood. I've started this post about 8 times and each time I come off sounding so unhappy and grouchy. That is really not the tone that I want to take with this blog. While I feel it is okay to have a grouchy day every now and again, somehow writing about it gives it more permanence and power than it deserves. It just seemed that everything frustrated me today. I know it all stems from lack of sleep. I have slept so poorly (less than 6 hours a night and no more than 3 hours at any one time ... usually less) for so many weeks now. And it is really starting to affect me. People tell me that it is good practice for when the baby is here. I guess, somehow, I don't expect to get anything done in those weeks after the baby is born and I can just sleep when she does. But right now I have so much that I need and want to do and so I end up fighting through the day.

Frogs and Balance

One mitten frogged.

A new mitten almost finished.

One earring lost.

Origami jumping frog found.

I sat around this morning and watched the inaugural proceedings. I don't think I've ever actually done that before. I usually see the speech but I don't think I've ever been home on January 20th to watch the entire ceremony. I'm a big fan of tradition and found the historical commentary of what aspects of the ceremony were added by which president and why they were added really interesting. I was surprised at just how religious the entire ceremony was. I don't know why I should be so surprised, but I was. I've also been reflecting on Obama's choice of using Lincoln's bible for the swearing in portion of the ceremony. I understand his desire to have Lincoln as a theme throughout this inaugural process. But, as everyone keeps talking about the historical nature of his presidency, I keep thinking that someone in the future might really want to honor him and his memory in their inauguration. Will this person also use Lincoln's bible?

The above is the frogging and knitting of the new mitten ... this time with the thumb in the right spot. That was what I did with my time while the proceedings were slowly proceeding. I stopped to actually listen to his speech.

I've been wearing the same earrings since we returned from Germany. They are the earrings I wore to get married. I like them. They are comfortable. They have a french wire that actually clasps (I thought well). At first I was wearing them without stop because we were homeless and traveling around the country for so many weeks. Then I was wearing them because I was so sick in the mornings and it felt good to go out of the house with jewelery on but also to not have to think about it. Then I was wearing them because it was habit. I got two beautiful pairs of new earrings for Christmas, but I decided I was going to continue wearing those earrings until the baby was born. Not for any particular reason. It was just that I had been wearing them for so long and I needed a natural breaking point. Well, it turns out another one was provided for me. I was on the phone last night and realized that I was only wearing ONE earring. I think the other one will turn up. In fact, I think Millie might find it for me. But in the meantime, I'm back to wearing different earrings as I please.

The reason I think Millie might find the earring is that she is good at finding things she is not really supposed to play with. We came home Sunday with some pieces of completed origami. Nice bright paper. Put up high to keep out of reach of kitties. I've now found one of the jumping frogs in my boot ... twice. Millie has no idea what I'm talking about.

One Mitten

Done and one to go. I wish the thumb were a little lower. So I am debating whether to frog this one and remake it or just make the other one to match. Speaking of matching, I have a yummy warm hat made out of this same yarn which is an alpaca blend.

Local Happenings

The local towns have been having ice festivals. I think the main attraction is the ice carving that happens. I kept reading about them but the weather wasn't good for driving and I kept thinking I would get to the Hunter Ice Festival in Niles, MI. Niles is about an 8 minute drive (on non-icy roads) from South Bend. In fact the yarn store that I really like and sometimes attend their knit night is in downtown Niles. So I even knew where the festival would be. Well, it was this weekend. And even though we've had good weather (mid 20s is good right now) it just didn't happen. Yesterday it was all we could manage to get to the grocery store. We even ended up eating at a burrito place because we couldn't get out of the house early enough to get back with groceries at a time acceptable to still cook dinner. Today, I wanted to go to the Origami class put on by Amanda with the Riverbend Community Math Center. This class was at 1:00 and I thought we could go to the ice festival either before or after the class. But, you see, I'm just a little bit pregnant. I'm not sleeping well at night AT ALL so it is hard to get moving in the morning. And while we were at the class, I felt myself fading, fading, fading ...

The class was (and is going to be) really cool. I loved making Origami as a kid. I seemed to always have an origami book out of the library. But all I ever did is follow directions. Amanda is teaching us some of the mathematics behind the folds so that we can actually create our own original Origami pieces. Today, we learned that any construction that can be made with a ruler and compass (things like finding midpoints, bisecting angles, etc) can be done with a few Origami axioms. Plus, there are a couple more axioms that will allow us to do things like trisect an angle (something that is classically known to be impossible with a compass and a straight edge). I think the universe will be able to rest soundly knowing that it is still impossible to square a circle (I think ... )

Snow Angel

Arlo has been talking about making the perfect snow angel for months now, ever since we had our first dusting of snow. Since it was 40 degrees warmer today than it was yesterday, he decided today was the day to make his mark in the pristine snow in our back yard.


Millie supervised.

In case you weren't reading carefully, I did say that it was 40 degrees warmer today than it was yesterday. Today was 20 degrees Fahrenheit. We got up yesterday morning and I turned on the news ... it was 19 degrees below zero. I turned to Arlo and told him that he was on his own today. I had no intention of leaving the house and I didn't. Also on the news, I watched one of the reporters take a cup of hot water from the cooler/hot water dispenser in the studio and walk outside and throw the water into the air ... it just vaporized. Well, of course, we had to try it. So I boiled some water and took it outside in a coffee cup. When I threw it out and about 3/4 of the cup of water vaporized in the cold, dry air. Some of the water did in fact hit the ground. But it was still really cool to see.

Mathematical Knitting

I learned to knit a few years ago when I was teaching at a charter school in Tucson. Whenever my 6th graders had a spare moment (before class, after a test, etc) they would be knitting. I found this curious and so asked what was going on. It turns out that the 6th grade art curriculum for that period was knitting. Both the boys and girls in my 6th grade math class were eating up the knitting and doing it at any opportunity they had. I asked the art teacher to teach me to knit during a faculty afterschool art class/workshop that she was running.

Recently, I listened to the interview with Cat Bordhi on Craft Sanity. Cat is a knitter and designer. What I had not known was that she had been a school teacher. In the interview she talks about how she incorporated knitting in her lessons. Her website has an essay that she wrote describing some of her experiences.

I am starting to do some work for the Riverbend Community Math Center where I help the director come up with some projects for students to work on. I was reminded, today, of Cat's comments about incorporating knitting and mathematics. I think this would be fun to explore.

Cuddle Buddy Bunny

Here is the official first knitted project for my own baby. Although, I might go get some different yarn and make a different one. These blanket buddies were all over Europe when we were there last year. I haven't seen as many American babies with them ... but I am seeing them in the baby stores, so maybe they are coming into their own here.

This pattern is from Lion Brands free pattern archives. I did not use Lion Brand yarn, however. The pattern calls for a bulky yarn on big needles. I used a sport weight with size 7 and 3 needles. Once you knit the blanket portion with the larger needles, you switch to the small needles and double knit (meaning knit both the front and back panels of the head at the same time). Unfortunately, I purled when I should have slipped and even though I discovered it on the very next row, I some how couldn't fix it. I think it just gives him character though.

I ripped out the embroidered face 3 times before I settled on this one. I am not very good with embroidery, period, but somehow with a knitted background I have even greater difficulty.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with him. I think he is quite a character. But I still think I might knit another one. Arlo wants my next project for our little girl to be booties. As we've been completing our registry, he keeps commenting on how adorable the little shoes are.

There is no temperature in South Bend tonight

That's what it means when it is zero degrees ... right?

Math Trails

I was extremely happy with my presentation / workshop that I gave this afternoon at one of the elementary schools in town. I talked a bit about Math Trails and showed examples before giving the teachers about an hour to go through a sequence of steps towards the goal of having a math trail at their school. The enthusiasm from both the teachers and the principal was amazing. They were just bursting with ideas of how to implement these within their classes and with the whole school. The Principal even suggested having me come back to work with her a a subset of teachers as they worked on implementing some of the ideas in their school.

It is interesting to watch the teachers' faces. When I was introduced and it was clear that this was a "math talk." I could tell, immediately, who were the P.E., art, and music teachers. They had the looks that said, "yet another talk that doesn't pertain to me." But I think I even got them interested in the idea. That was fun, seeing them open up and share ideas about how math could be seen in their subject areas and having them contribute to the discussion.

For those of you that are wondering: A math trail is a series of math problems that are written assuming that the problem solver will be standing in a particular location. It may involve making actual measurements or just examining objects and locations carefully in order to answer mathematical questions. There are a bunch of examples on the internet. The larges repository that I've located so far is at the National Math Trail. Click on one of the two subtitles under National Math Trail map and you will find the math trails organized by state.

I'm really hoping that this school will do something with the problems that they created today and with the idea of having students create their own math trail to share with others.

I got nuttin'

So yesterday I posted about what I had for breakfast. Can you all tell that I'm running out of ideas? I was telling a friend at the Mother's club party that I was trying to blog each day for January but that I was afraid I was going to get stuck for ideas. She told me that once the baby comes, I will always have something to say. Hopefully, you all will want to hear it.

The party was fun. The noise level got overwhelming for awhile, but overall I enjoyed myself. Amazingly, the silver-plated pineapple candlestick holders found a good home. They were stolen the maximum number of times and the woman that ended up with them was really happy. So glad that I can spread joy.

I spoke to Molly today. She and Grayson seem to be doing well. I had a doctor's appointment today and we seem to be doing well too. I'm measuring just a little bit ahead of my date. I'm not sure what that means except that I better hurry up and get the nursery in order. Our hospital run childbirth class went well last Wednesday. I'm looking forward to the Bradley method class that starts tomorrow night. I'm anxious to meet this teacher. A lot more is riding on this class and I hope there is a good personalilty match there.

Tomorrow I will make some money (It might cover a crib and mattress if we go for the bare-bones model). I will present a workshop on Math Trails at an elementary school for their professional development half-day. I hope they like it and are interested. I think they are really cool. I intend that during the 2 hours they will actually come up with a workable trail that they could take their kids on. I think that will inspire them to work a little harder on it. This is all assuming that school is not cancelled tomorrow ... we have quite the storm coming in.

Oat Waffles

I have a Crabtree and Evelyn cookbook that I've had since I was in high school and had romantic dreams about my life. The cookbook is arranged in menus for such special events like picnics where you have pasta salad with lobster and drink champagne. I have only made one recipe out of this book in all the years I've had it (until this morning). And that was not actually a recipe out of the book ... it was an adaptation. They have a recipe for summer fruit pudding (in the british sense) but also talk about a scandenavian dessert that I had while I lived in Denmark for a summer. I've made that dessert (once or twice).

Well, my sister and brother-in-law came to stay with us around Thanksgiving. Since Joe has Celiac Disease and can not eat anything with gluten I went searching for recipes I could make. Knowing Karen's love of waffles, I thought I could adapt the Oat Waffles in this book. The recipe does call for wheat flour but since it is in such a small quantity, I thought I could substitute in Oat flour. I thought that should go nicely with the oatmeal that is in the batter. Oats. Oats are not wheat. Right? Well, it turns out that is only partially correct. Oats are a "contaminated crop," I was told. So we couldn't have the waffles that weekend.

Well, they have been on my mind ever since then. Today, I decided to try them. I followed the recipe as written (i.e. with wheat flour). I made this decision since I was using up the last of the eggs and the last of my oats in the recipe so if it went poorly there would be no other options for breakfast. They were amazingly good! The oats gave them slightly more tooth than my normal waffle recipe that calls for seperated eggs where the whites are whipped to smooth peaks. I would like to try experimenting with other flours. So, I think I will try them on another day with the substitution of Oat flour.

Oat Waffles
(From Crabtree and Evelyn Cookbook: A book of light meals and small feasts)

3/4 c. rolled oats
3 Tbs. butter, cut into pieces
1 1/4 c. flour
1 Tbs. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1 c. buttermilk

In a medium saucepan, combine oats with 1 1/4 c. water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook, stiffing frequently, for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir butter into hot oatmeal until melted.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a mixing bowl. In another bowl, combine eggs and buttermilk and beat lightly. Stir oatmeal into egg-milk mixture. Add oatmeal mixture to dry ingredients and stir just until well blended; do not overbeat.

Preheat waffle iron until hot and cook waffles according to iron manufacturer's directions.

More Snow and Christmas keeps coming

1. If you haven't read the comment left by Jenny on my snow post of a few days ago, you should do so. Jenny makes me laugh so very hard.

2. We've had about a foot of snow over the last 36 hours. Arlo is determined that today will see the perfect snow angel from him and there are some kids in the center open area of the parking lot making a massive snow fort with the plowed snow.

3. I am going to a Winter Party (not a Christmas party except that we are doing a white elephant gift exchange) for the mother's group I joined. For my white elephant gift I am wrapping up the silver plated pineapple candle holders that I've been moving with us since our wedding. I kept holding on to them even though they never fit with my decor because I thought, "Someday ... someday, I'll have that formal Luau and these will be perfect." Hopefully, they will match better with someone else's decor. As far as silver plated pineapples go, they are very nice silver plated pineapples.

Healthy Eating

The realization came to me slowly, but a few years ago when I lost about 25 pounds on Weight Watchers I came to realize that you get much more for your caloric buck when you stay away from processed foods. The Weight Watchers plan allows you to eat anything you want but you need to stay within their points system, based on calories, fat, and fiber content of foods. I learned a lot about portion size during this time period as well. It turns out that as an added bonus to feeling better when you cook with food ingredients (rather than processed food ingredients) your grocery bill is a lot smaller as well.

All of this is just an intro to a clever food solution that I've devised and want to share with you. Since we've moved to the midwest, I've had to find new brands for almost everything I was used to eating. I started trying out different brands of Greek yogurt, but none were satisfying me.. I wanted Greek yogurt but I also wanted strawberry yogurt and I was not finding such a creature. Trader Joes carries (or at least carried) a nice strawberry flavored Greek yogurt. But, alas, there is no Trader Joes within a reasonable distance from our house.

I started hearing about Fage which is Greek yogurt made from only milk, cream and yogurt culture. Plus, according to the packaging, it is produced from animals that are not fed by any chemicals, hormones, or antibiotic substances. AND they have a strawberry version. Here is the clever part ...

I could buy individual serving packages for about $2.50 apiece. I would have to mix in the strawberry substance myself. OR I could buy the bulk package that has about 4 servings in it for $5. They don't have the side flavor mix-in though. So, instead, I buy a high quality strawberry preserve (right now I'm using Dickinson's organic strawberry but I usually buy Bon Mama) and scoop in a small spoonful. I end up scooping in less strawberry than comes in the individual serving package, so I'm getting less sugar using my method plus I'm saving money.

It's really nummy. You should try it!

Snow

I have lived in places with snow (I hesitate to say snowy places) twice before in my life. I spent one academic year in Boston and half an academic year in Aberdeen Scotland. I suppose if you count the one weekend that snow actually stayed on the ground last year, then our year in Germany was another place with snow. I've always liked it but had to wonder if I would still like it if I were trying to "really live" there. For instance, I never drove in any of these three locations. I had no experience driving in snow before this winter.

It turns out I still like snow! I realize that I have a very flexible schedule and just don't have to drive when it is bad. Probably most importantly, since we live in an apartment and townhouse complex, neither Arlo nor I have to shovel any snow. I imagine that could get old quick. But I love how it covers everything and makes it all fresh. I love the crunch under my feet. I love being all cozy inside while the snow is coming down outside. I'm not even minding how cold it is (maybe it is the extra body that I'm carrying that is giving me this feeling). What strikes me most when I look around me is the beauty of a burst of color in the snowy black and white world.



My opinion is still out on ice storms.

Chicago Babymoon

Arlo and I had planned on a trip into Chicago as part of our Christmas gift to ourselves. I've been hearing these "last trips as a couple before the baby is born" called "Babymoons." So that's what we wanted to do ... stay in a nice hotel, see the Christmas decorations and go to a show. Unfortunately, the Indiana Toll Road is extremely dangerous in icy conditions and we live in a very icy climate. So I kept being unsure as to how to plan this trip. When should we go? When will the weather be nice? It was too difficult for me and so I kept putting it off. Well, the Sunday after Christmas, it warmed up and rained (not even frozen rain) which cleared all the of the streets of ice. The weather forcast for the following Monday and Tuesday was clear skies and temperatures in the 40s so we thought "here's our chance!" We booked a room at the Palmer House Hilton in the Loop and got tickets to see the Blue Man Group, both on Monday night. We had a really nice time. We went to the top of the Sears Tower. We had deep dish Chicago pizza (the place we went, Pizanos, was not really very good). We walked around a bit in the Loop and the Magnificent Mile (although, I've had better walking days and it was still a bit cold in the evening for walking). We went into the Macy's in the Loop to see the Christmas decorations and had the most amazing mint chocolate deserts (cheesecake for me and ice cream pie for Arlo) after lunch in the Macy's restaurant. All in all, a fairly slow and leisurely trip ... which was exactly what we needed. Here are some pictures:

Sears Tower through the Loop buildings

Night Skyline view

A Blue Man

Proof that we were both in Chicago. Notice my coat unzipped and my scarf just dangling from my neck. I was actually still warm. Sorry there's no belly shot here.

A few Christmas Trees we encountered

I think the most memorable thing for me from the entire trip is re-establishing just how sweet and adorable my husband is. We were tired and cold from walking around Monday evening. As we had been upgraded to the executive level of the hotel, we had access to refreshments so Arlo got us some hot cocoa to drink in the room. I was flipping through a guide book thinking about what we would do the next day and I thought Arlo was flipping through the hotel information book. He'd been quiet for quite some time and I looked up and saw him writing. Assuming that the answer would be "doing math" I asked him what he was doing. Here was his answer: "Writing a letter to our daughter." I think I started crying right about then.

Welcome to the World!

Welcome to the world Grayson James Caine! We can't wait to meet you in person. It will be so fun when your second cousin is born this March and we can get you two together.

Well, here is the first of the 2009 babies from my mix of friends and family. Arlo and I start our child birth classes tomorrow night. We're up next! Any sage advice Molly and Jim?

Anabelle and Millie

I think it is time to introduce you to the two little girls we have living with us. Here is Millie, often known as Millie Bean and sometimes, when necessary, as Millicent Jean.

Millie has many idiosyncrasies, many of which come from being at least partially deaf. She has an incredibly loud meow and has no fear (or even annoyance of) the vacuum cleaner. One of her favorite pastimes is to watch the snow fall.


It is good that we have so much of it around here. Although, the past week has seen very little snow and so recently, Millie has started noticing the television. She stands on her hind legs and paws at the screen. One night we were watching a DVD on our computer (the television was off) and Millie noticed the movie on the computer screen then walked over to the television and stood up to paw at the screen before returning to the computer. There was something interesting going on in her little brain.

Here is Anabelle, often known as Anabellina. She had a middle name at one point as well, but it has faded from memory.


As Anabelle and Millie were litter mates, Anabelle has developed a high, trilling meow that Millie seems to be able to hear. It is very kitten-like. She hasn't found her grown-up voice yet. Anabelle is somewhat of the toy mistress in the house. Millie plays with toys and Anabelle makes them abide by rules. One such rule is that all Mousies must be under the hutch in the dining room. Periodically, we will take a long ruler and pull out 8-10 mousies that live under there. They will all be banished under the hutch again within the hour (sometimes in as little as 20 minutes). The exception to this is the one mousie (that appears no different to the human eye) that lives in the hall closet. This is the same cat, however, that will bring a toy (most often one of these mousies) to a human occupant of the house in an expectation that a game of fetch will ensue. Games of fetch can last upwards of an hour.

This Christmas, the girls received (what have come to be called) The Best Cat Toys Ever (or BCTE) from their cousin Schroedinger. It should be noted that these toys have NEVER been banished and, in fact, we often awake to find them in our bed. These toys have inspired some amazing acrobatics and an occasional wrestling match.




In the end, they are always friends again.


Although, even in their cuddling, there exists an aspect of dominance.

Front Desk? My water pressure is too low.

So, I'm on Consumer Reports trying to do some research as to "The Best" car seat, stroller, etc. While not a high pressure purchase like the others, I was curious as to which infant bathtub Consumer Reports recommends. Each of the three listed have their pros and cons, but I burst out laughing when I read the con for one of the tubs -- "Battery powered showerhead has weak spray." Are you serious?!? How much water pressure does an infant need anyway?

Babies All Around

Two couples that are good friends of ours had babies last year. I admit, I was a bit sad that I couldn't be part of their baby party. But, come to find out, Arlo's cousin and his wife (who live only a few hours from us) are having a baby this month and another set of good friends are having their baby this May. So it turns out I'm part of a baby hootenanny (that's bigger than a party, right?).

Arlo and I have signed up for some child birth classes that start in a week. So it is time to get serious about furnishing our nursery and choosing all the equipment needed for our little girl in her first few months. But first, I had to finish this sweet blanket for Jim and Molly's little one that will arrive any day now.



Here is a close-up of the little bear I designed to go in each square:

Lowered Expectations

Arlo found this T-shirt with a slogan on it that is inspiring me these days. It says, "I'm growing a human, what did you do today?" I had a list a mile long of things that I wanted to do today. Arlo asked this morning if I was planning on developing some pictures today and I told him that it wasn't currently on my very over-ambitious list of things for today but I would do it soon. Well, I accomplished one goal for today. I took down the Christmas decorations! That's it. I accomplished other things not on my list, though. For instance I took a 3 hour nap. That goes towards the goal of growing a human, right?

In taking down the Christmas decorations, I photographed the ornaments that I made for Arlo this year. I have this thing that Christmas stockings must have ornaments in them. But we set a strict budget for ourselves this year and I felt guilty using some of that money for an ornament when I'm the one that cares ... not Arlo. So I made these little bunnies instead. The mama bunny came almost directly from this pattern from Little Cotton Rabbits blog. Then I tried to adapt it for the papa and baby bunny. I don't think they came out as well. This is also a bit fussier a project than I typically work with. The tiny limbs and ears were a challenge to sew on nicely.

Auld Acquaintance

Happy New Year Everyone! With a new year, comes a new blog. You can, of course, access my old posts on Deutsch Lessons but my life has changed quite a bit since that last post and I thought I needed a fresh start.

Since leaving Germany, we are living in South Bend, Indiana where I am crafting both in the literal and figurative sense.

The most amazing is the little girl that I am crafting inside me who will make her debut in early to mid-March. I have such an amazing outpouring of love for my unborn baby, I just can't imagine all that I will feel once she is really in this world and I can hold her in my arms and see her face.

In a more general sense, I continue to craft my life. I would like to think that I weave together old and new friendships and relationships with my husband and family while knitting in my own interests. However, this pregnancy and move have left me a bit self-absorbed in the waning months of 2008. Many an Auld Aquaintance has asked me to resume my blog so that there exists a window into my life. As such, this blog will be about the craft of my life as well as be a forum to show my my more traditional crafts (mainly with fiber and paper arts).

So welcome friends new and old. Here's to a start of a fantastic 2009.