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July 1st, 2008
 | 07:05 am
Eddy likes this Sesame Street video even better, many more babies. :D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4EUE9KBDUU
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June 27th, 2008
| 04:02 pm
We've decided to make Friday Night Pizza Night. Tonight will be roasted eggplant, caramelized onions, and maybe a few sun-dried tomatoes. I was going to make the sauce (just from cans and a couple of ingredients) but I wussed out and bought canned. The mozzarella is made, and this time I'm making ricotta from the whey! Not sure what I'll do with it but it sounded fun and I had cheesecloth on hand. ;) EDIT: Hrm. Looks like I'm going to end up with about a teaspoon of ricotta, and that's *if* I can extricate it from the cloth, LOL. Ah, well.
After his nap, Eddy peed a little bit in his diaper but immediately told me "potty" and finished the job there. Since then he hasn't wet his diaper. I've reminded him a couple of times, "Do you need to go pee on the potty?" and he either says his adorable, serious head-shaking "No. No," or he giggles and takes off pell-mell for the bathroom. He was running around in the back yard nakey-butt and peed out there, then after I said, "You made pee-pee!" he kept saying, "MORE" so I told him, "OK, make more pee-pee" and he'd find a tuft of grass, point to it, concentrate, and produce a few little drops in that general direction. I found it hilarious.
OK, the boys are going to the bank. I need to put away diapers, take a shower, start the pizza dough, and roast the eggplants and caramelize the onions. Whoo!
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June 23rd, 2008
| 09:53 am - Purslane
This weekend at the farmer's market I saw that a vendor was selling baggies of purslane along with her herbs. I recognized the plant as a weed in our yard, and, surprised, I asked the vendor how it's used. She said she has a vegan customer who loves it stir-fried with garlic and onion. So today I verified that it's in fact what is taking over half of our garden. Looking up information about identifying and eating it, I read, "Purslane contains more Omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable plant we know of. " Wow! I gave a sprig to Eddy and told him it was Nom. He keeps pulling off leaves and noshing them, LOL.
Also, our zucchini has been going nuts and we've been harvesting several at the ideal 3-5" stage every day. But I guess we missed one, and it's grown to massive proportions. Should I make zucchini bread from it, or just let it grow and see JUST HOW BIG it can get? (So far it's almost 2 feet long, about 6" diameter, and weighs several pounds.)
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June 18th, 2008
| 08:34 pm - On Cheese
Heh, I excited a lot of interest with my cheese talk! So, in honor of the most INCREDIBLY AWESOME MOUTH-GASM OF A PIZZA EVER MADE, I present to you: a post on cheesemaking!
Making homemade mozzarella is easy, and fun, and yummy! Soft cheeses like mozzarella really change their flavor when stored; I've read that in Italy it's typical to purchase your fresh mozzarella the day it's made for the best flavor and texture. It's really the best if it's still warm. It's super quick to make too. Today Eddy went down for a short nap at 3-ish and I was kneading the cheese (just a few steps from finished) when he woke back up ~30 minutes later.
I first made mozzarella with a friend who'd purchased a kit from http://www.cheesemaking.com/. It included the book by Ricki Carroll the Cheese Queen, which is quite fabulous, and I found the recipe in there extremely easy to follow. So I recommend it highly!
But, I don't own the book, so I use this older version of her recipe that I found online: http://homecooking.about.com/od/cheeserecipes/r/bldairy22.htm
All you need is a gallon of milk, some rennet, some citric acid, a thermometer and a big pot! I use a pasta pot and a thermometer DH had from his beer brewing days. I got the vegetarian liquid rennet at Whole Foods (with the custard making supplies) and the citric acid also at WF in the bulk herbs section.
To sum up, you put the milk in the pot, add the citric acid to curdle it, and heat it up to a nice lukewarm temp. Then you add the rennet and keep heating while the curds coagulate. When it's hot enough, the curds will be mostly separated from the whey so you scoop them out into a bowl. You nuke them in the microwave for a couple of minutes; press out the whey; nuke again (repeat a couple of times until there's no more whey coming out). Then you start to knead! Just press and fold, press and fold and stick it back in the microwave to nuke every time it cools down enough to be comfortable to the touch. ;) Like magic it transforms under your hands from crumbly curds to stretchy, shiny, stringy CHEESE!
So. There you have it. You, too, can make cheese! I promise!
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| 04:45 pm
Mozzarella is made.
Squash, eggplant, onion, and bell pepper have been roasted, as has a head of garlic.
Pizza dough is in the bread machine; the peel and stone are ready.
Dinner's all but done!
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| 11:34 am
If you're in the market for a small appliance or blender parts, I DO NOT RECOMMEND HouseholdAppliance.com. I think they came up as a sponsored search result when I Googled for a replacement blender jar. They seemed fairly reputable so I placed an order. That was May 31. I got an email that they would ship June 3. I started to worry when we got home from Texas to no package. I looked up the UPS time-in-transit info and they said it should have been here by Friday the 6th. I finally got ahold of their customer service today (SUCH an annoying menu and hold music!) and they first said, "Oh, shipping is a week behind..." but then they looked me up and said that after they input the shipping info they found they were out of my blender part and the backorder just came in; they would be shipping tomorrow instead and I just looked up; if they're not lying I'll expect my package on Tuesday the 24th.
Unacceptable. >:( They're getting no more business from me, that's for sure.
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June 14th, 2008
| 09:53 pm - Baby's first sitter
OMG, he did awesome.
The sitter got here about 5:15 and was great with him. Just great. Kept engaging him with questions about his doggie and his nose and his pockets. I served him some dinner and then Daddy got home and that was worth getting down from the table over. I told the sitter I expected the dinner to be from 6-8 and I'd be home about 8:30. Then...we left. Gulp. I heard the cries behind the door but kept walking. I'd warned her that back in January, he cried/fussed on and off for an hour and a half. She reassured me with stories of the "criers" and "first-timers" she'd sat for. (Did I mention that she's probably in her 40s, she was a SAHM and a preschool teacher and some kind of behavioral therapist, she's been with this babysitting guild for 10 years? Experienced, in other words.)
So, we went to the party. Got there shortly after 6. Mingled until maybe 6:30. Got drinks, oh, 7? People slowly started taking their seats by 7:30 or so and the awards program began. The waitstaff crept through the room serving appetizers. We were the next-to-last table served. I think I got my appetizer shortly after 8. I was getting so antsy. Then they slowly retrieved dishes...then slowly began serving the main course.
I got my plate at 9pm. NINE! For dinner! Not everyone at the table had been served but I was getting to the end of my rope. I scarfed my meal, kissed hubby goodbye (he would catch a ride with someone else) and booked. I didn't get home till 9:30.
I walked in the door to Eddy running from the living room yelling about "Mama!" At the kitchen though, he stopped and turned to the babysitter. Pointed at me, as if to say, "See? It's my mom!" And didn't even come up to me! He was still more interested in her! She said he cried for about 5 seconds when we left! I was so SO proud. And she was totally cool about me being late. And told me that he's super smart because he has a sense of rhythm when he dances to the Lawrence Welk Show. LOL. The child loves to dance, but I don't see him following any beat but his own when he does. Regardless, I glowed. ;)
So, he got to bed without a fight at about 10pm. I'm so glad to be home. I'm so glad he had a good time. I am looking forward to the next time, even! I never thought I'd say that about leaving my kid with someone else!
Anyway, enough elation. ;) I hope DH gets home safely. :) I need a snack, those dinner portions were TINY! :P
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June 12th, 2008
| 05:27 pm
Eddy had his (belated) 18 month visit today. His weight has come up a bit on the growth curve, he's now about 25 pounds! (His height was down a bit, but can be explained because they measured him standing upright so he probably slouched. 32" though!) Best news of all -- his hemoglobin is normal! WHOO! No more fretting about his brain development!
I really like our NP. I always have, but she just seemed so on top of her game today, so reassuring while still being attuned to real medical needs. Like, I mentioned being a touch concerned about Eddy's verbal language not being terribly clear. She told me that developmentally normal kids should have 20 words at age 2, of which half should be understandable by people other than the parents. Dude, we totally have that covered! And, at the same time, she said that if he's not stringing two words together by age 2, we can have him referred to early intervention (and she made it sound SO NOT A BIG DEAL which was really nice.)
He has totally become a climber. Today at the park he tried out the jungle gym-type bars to climb up to the play structure. At the doctor's he launched himself confidently onto the spinning stool. And just now he used his tiny, low footstool to launch up to the sink (where he is now playing happily in the water.)
And...yeah! Texas was good. Saw a lot of family, mended some bridges I think. It was good seeing my folks. I might write more about the trip later.
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June 5th, 2008
| 06:00 pm
Eddy and I went to a playdate today. The hostess had her four (age 5, 4, 2, and 1 I believe) and another friend brought her 12 week old. Eddy warmed up like I've never seen before at a playdate! He loved all the kids. He shadowed the oldest boy, laughed it up as the two middle girls entertained him, loved all over the 1-year-old (like, literally, kept giving him tackle-hugs and petting his back), and when the tiny baby cried he tried to rock the carrier or offer him a sip of water. :D
So sweet. :)
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June 4th, 2008
| 12:09 pm - Note to self
When your toddler poops on the potty, and you're quite sure he's not done (because one log does not a three-day backlog make) it's probably not a good idea to let him go diaperless when he gets off the pot. Because you might just hear his delighted exclamation, "POO!" and look down to see him with a turd in each hand. 0_0
Mommy reaction: "Oh, look! Poop goes in the potty, let's go to the potty! Yay, the poop is in the potty now! TIME TO WASH HANDS." Yeeesh.
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| 09:34 am - Long update.
- We bought a king sized bed! DH and I have been sleeping in a full since 1998, and for all those many years I've spent something like every other night grumpy and resentful about being edged into a tiny little space and having to elbow myself into enough room. Now I can spread out! Choose my own sleeping position! It's so luxurious! I even brought the baby to bed at 6am and there was more than enough room for all three of us!
- On Monday my internet went out for a few hours. This happens around here every time we get a phone call, pretty much, and usually it means we have to reboot the modem but this time it wasn't coming back after a few reboots. So I called Qwest to see if there was a local outage. When they reported that there wasn't but...hey, they weren't seeing any signal at my house at all! I offhandedly mentioned that this was probably because we'd just gotten a phone call. Alarmed, the tech person said this shouldn't be happening and is almost certainly a wiring issue they should fix. She scheduled a service call for yesterday afternoon.
The guy showed up at 2 and decided that because he was stumped, he'd just re-wire the phone line so we get a separate DSL line coming from the outside box and into the computer room. This...um, required drilling holes from the outside of the house to the inside. :O It required over two hours of work thanks to his tools repeatedly failing. And when he left, he couldn't restart the wireless router so we had no wireless and (for a brief aggravating few minutes) the internet didn't seem to be coming up either.
DH was pissed. And it was my fault because I'd called them in the first place.
Fortunately the internet was OK, I got the wireless back up pretty effortlessly, and while our cordless phone still seems to knock out the wireless, it doesn't take the whole modem with it so the system comes back up promptly. So overall an improvement I guess as long as the landlord doesn't have any beef with the holes. >_<
- Several months ago I was dithering about how to encourage Eddy to adopt a lovey. I ended up placing three stuffed animals and a blanket in his crib, in order to let him choose for himself. I usually tried to associate Buzzy Bee and sometimes blanket with nighttime activities and nursing, so they'd be the most lovey-ish. Well, the whole process backfired. Now when he gets tired he signs "bear". If I give him the Buzzy Bee he insists, "NA!" and signs "bear" again. So he gets the Ikea Bear. Then he signs "monkey" and says, "Ooh!" so the stuffed monkey joins the crew. Finally comes the baby sign for "blanket". He can't even hold all of these loveys, he's constantly dropping this bear or that one, but he will NOT settle for just one. D'oh. I just can't see bringing ALL the bears to Texas this weekend! I'm really thinking of just bringing one and his blanket, and then retiring the others when we get back. But I can't decide which one to restrict him to!
- I sent a couple of emails to potential babysitters I found on Craigslist. The timing is getting really tight (we're out of town Fri-Tues, the dinner is the following Sat and we want one trial run before hand.) I'm nervous about trusting my son to someone from CL but they're both ASU students with CPR certification and fingerprint cards. I'm still putting out other feelers too.
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June 1st, 2008
| 04:29 pm
My son picked the Buddha's nose.
A few minutes later, he dropped the Buddha on his toe. :(
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May 30th, 2008
| 04:02 pm
*aklsj;flashd89p LOST l;ajdji0w[ehf
Started watching and couldn't help but finish.
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May 27th, 2008
| 07:08 pm
So tomorrow I've been invited to meet up with a group of women, doctors' wives, all of whom met on a message board for medical spouses.
I would try to explain the history but it's complicated. In a nutshell, it will be my sweet, cool friend and her infant; S_____ the cardiologist's wife who is learning to live it up as a dawkter's wife (big money big money NO WHAMMIES!) and who's bringing none of her four kids; K_____ the pediatric surgery fellow's wife, marathoner and former high-powered attorney who left her two kids back in Ohio; and me with Eddy. My friend got invited by serendipity, she called S_____ (with whom I've had trouble getting along ever since I felt like she blew me off for a playdate last fall) for a lunch date and learned of this meeting. My friend invited me out of obligation I think. So I'm a total fifth wheel and I'm really self-conscious about toting my toddler along. :\
Ah, well. I'll enjoy my friend's company, plus she said something about popping over to Wildflower Diapers! So that'd be fun.
Wish me luck!?
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May 24th, 2008
| 08:35 am
I get a whiff here and there -- pungent cat food, minty toothpaste, sweet room spray. I think my sense of smell is coming back, thank god.
I am going to get way too spoiled with DH here more often in June. Already, the last few days (the end of his vacation; he works the next 8 days straight), I find it hard to handle Eddy when DH is on his bike ride. This morning I got to sleep in with the boy until 7 while DH made coffee, then I was already getting fed up with him by 8am so DH took him outside to work on bikes! It's just so nice to have a co-parent! I'm even going to get to have a dental appointment during June.
I'm going to sign Eddy up for swimming and Romp 'n' Roll (a new kiddy activity place right around the corner from me.) This is going to be a long summer without stuff to do indoors!
While we were on vacation I started playing at "how long can I go without eating meat at a meal," choosing vegetarian options when we ate out. So I mentioned to DH that I was in a mood to eat vegetarian and he had an epiphany -- he was interested in losing weight, but deprivation diets weren't working and junk food at work was his downfall. So he realized that if he just cut out meat for a while, he could have a clearcut reason to avoid some of the worst stuff at work, and we would have some guidelines for healthier eating at home too. So we're pescetarian again. :) I loved how I felt when I was eating that way, hopefully this works for us for a while!
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May 22nd, 2008
| 11:32 am
Home again, home again. Photos to come!
Just as I was getting used to having my sense of smell back, I lost it AGAIN when I caught Eddy's croup. I *hate* not being able to smell. I'm used to having a sensitive nose, so having nothing is really disconcerting. And it totally destroys my ability to clean house, because my major motivation is making the place smell fresh. We're having friends over tonight, and the place is decimated from leaving it in so-so shape then going on vacation and having the animals cooped up in here for five days and the damned unhousebroken dog pissed all over the living room and I can only find the spots I can see and after I do an initial pass on those I don't know if there will be lingering funky smells. :( I guess I'll just spray lots of room freshener to make myself feel better.
I brought all my flat diapers with me, with grandiose aspirations of using cloth part-time and washing in the tub, but I ended up only using about 4 and bringing them back home dirty. Ah, well. That's 4 fewer disposables in the trash! And the boy's bum got a few hours' airing that way.
OK, I really need to get my ass in gear if we're going to have company!!
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May 16th, 2008
| 06:46 am - FREAKING SPOILERS!
Are you serious? Can I not even read my friends-page until I find an hour...while packing for a freaking trip...to watch Lost?
Sorry for being cranky but GAAAAHHH!
Edit: OK, watched half while the boy was still sleeping and half while he was waking up, LOL.
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May 15th, 2008
| 07:09 am
Yesterday I got a half dozen old-fashioned Curity gauze flat diapers in the mail. They're rectangular, which is an odd shape for diapers these days, so I googled "how to fold Curity flats".
Among the hits I stumbled across a site for Adult Babies. :O :O :O :O I guess Curity flats are a preferred diaper among this set. Explains why sets of them go for hundreds of dollars on eBay. >_< I think is the expression.
MENTAL EYEBLEACH!!!! (There were no photos, as it was an archived thread, but there were placeholders for images, and descriptions...*shudders*)
(I know it's intolerant of me to judge someone for their kinky or fetishy behaviors that don't have any direct impact on ME. But...but...*shudders* For hours after that I couldn't even read my diapering message board without suspecting everyone of nefarious purposes!)
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May 14th, 2008
| 08:14 am
It's 8:15 and Eddy has just gotten up, cranky with a slightly croupy cough but not too warm. His fever broke last night sometime before 5am, so hopefully he's on the mend.
Edit: Baby's first Sesame Street. Poor thing is so deprived; his other little friends already recognize and say, "Elmo" and enjoy Sesame Street Live productions. ;)
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May 12th, 2008
| 10:11 am
OK. We left Friday morning for the 3 hour flight to Missouri. The boy was pretty rambunctious and screamed in frustration a few times. It really could have been worse though. We got a rental car and drove to Columbia; he slept. We went to a fancy rehearsal dinner and he did OK there. DH learned of his butter obsession and was embarrassed of it.
He slept OK between us on the king size bed. We had breakfast then went to a farmer's market (local Missouri produce in May = spring flowers and a little bit of lettuce, LOL) and drove to the Missouri River to go hiking. We swam in the hotel pool and tried to nap (Eddy was having none of it.) Then we got ready and went to the wedding. I wore shoes I'd bought on Thursday, and we had to walk several blocks, so my heels were bleeding. The ceremony was short and the boy made only one peep (and it sounded like a "whoo!" when the vows were over so it made people laugh.) The reception was fun and Eddy showed off his dance moves to the merriment of all. We left without any major scenes.
Yesterday we drove back to St Louis (stopped at a natural cave along the way) and took our slightly delayed flight back to the land of HOT. He did a lot of running around in the airport then slept in my lap for most of the flight. We were home in time for dinner, but then he didn't want to go to sleep in his crib. Finally he came to bed with us at 9, I transferred him asleep to his crib, and he slept till 4 then I took him to the guest room with me. He was pretty much up for the day at 6 and now I think he's ready to nap.
I have to leave in 45 minutes to babysit, and I don't know how long I'm expected to stay or whether it will be Mom or Dad doing the handoff. DH left on a bike ride and Eddy is asking for his Daddy but might not see him until Thursday night. :O I can't imagine how tough it would be if I worked full-time and went full weeks without Eddy and DH crossing paths. :(
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