Picnics, Books, and Bad Attitudes

Yesterday was my birthday celebration picnic in the park, and it was so lovely--a significant improvement upon the gas station burrito on my actual birthday.  Jeff made chicken and veggie kabobs, Joseph and I made an amazing salad with strawberries, almonds, gorgonzola, and red onion with a balsamic & olive oil type dressing that makes eating salad more like eating, well--something way yummier.  (Yes, I am a bit prejudiced against "the salad" as a category.  It is one of my short comings as a grown woman.)  Tara made a beautiful trifle that I finished eating out of the beautiful trifle dish yesterday with a giant serving spoon.  That's pleasure.  

 
We waded in a little creek running through the park, played paddle ball, ate lots of food, drank some champagne to celebrate Tara and Jeff's recent engagement---What!  Yep!  Congratulations Tara and Jeff!  I am happy for you two and happy to see my sister in such a good place in her life.  Love is beautiful, isn't it?

~ 

Joseph just bought two boxes of books for school from a graduating med student.  He got a great deal on them which is terrific.  However, they are not even all of the books he will need.  Then he got many that aren't required, but will be very helpful.  So there they all sat, on our living room floor.  We are just looking at these books, both thinking the same thing.  So I said, "Go ahead, learn that stuff."  Seriously, we are just trying to fathom the amount of information he is going to have to absorb come August.  Open head.  Insert knowledge.  Perrin, being of stronger character than her parents, was not brought up short even for a moment.

We already had more books than bookshelf space, so to Home Depot we went.  As of today we have a brand new six foot long book shelf above our tv in the living room.  We now own riveting titles from, "The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics" to "Rapid Interpretation of EKGs."  Man, I can't wait to get into those.  This is me not being jealous of Joseph.

~

Last night Perrin woke at 11pm and wouldn't go back down without eating.  She has been having some random (but sadly increasingly regular) nighttime wake-ups for the last couple of weeks.  It is generally making me grumpy.  So when the cats started loudly begging for breakfast this morning at 5am, thus waking up Perrin, I was NOT NOT happy.  I hadn't even set my feet on the floor and I had already dropped the F bomb--"Those f!@#$%* cats...grumble, grumble, curse, curse..."  

I don't want to be that angry person.  Cursing at the cats before even getting out of bed for the day seems like a good--let's stop and take stock--moment for me.  Yes J and I have been varying degrees of sleep deprived for 10 months, but, PULL IT TOGETHER.  Anyone with advice on living with sleep deprivation and not turning into a complete A!@#$%^, let me know your best tips.  I really don't want to be that angry cranky person.

 

33

I turned 33 this week.  It feels much like 32--more like a negation--not young, not old.  I'm fine with that.  Joseph and I aren't people to cling to our youth, anyway.  We already enjoy things that will make us happy old people; we like to sit and read, enjoy a nice chair on a porch with good beverage, watch high quality science fiction.

Right now Perrin is napping.  I am out on the balcony resting my coffee on the cooler that has been cast out here since Christmas last week.  It is one of those little sad life facts.  Every time I look out the sliding doors, I see the cooler sitting there and I think about how it has been there for about five months instead of in the garage where it belongs.  For some reason we seem physically unable to clean it out and restore it to it's proper place.  This fact alone does not concern me.  But it does feel like some sort of measuring stick for my general adeptness at life; particularly when I am having a bad day.  Said measuring stick is coming up reading "less than enough."  Humph.  

I think it is this impending job search that has got me feeling crummy.  Really not so impending now; I guess it is time to get serious.  Looking for jobs just makes me feel so incredibly judged--as I'm sure is true for most people.  But instead of motivating me or just pushing through it, I feel completely paralyzed.  Having not interviewed for a job since my college days, the thought of a job interview makes me want to drag my family into the mountains to live like wolves.  If it wasn't for J's pesky career plans...why care for people's health and get paid for it when you could huddle against the cold with your family in the wilderness?  


This Saturday we are celebrating my birthday in the park with a picnic.  Tara is making a vanilla lavender cake trifle.  This is going outside of my normal--chocolate on chocolate--birthday cake request, but I am feeling summery and this sounds wonderful.  I will try to bring you a picture of this creation, as trifle is so pretty!  

The actual day of my birthday J worked from home and took me out to lunch and cupcakes.  It was lovely.  By evening there had been a misunderstanding between us and what was to be a dinner of chicken in mushroom sauce, ended with me eating a gas station burrito and J eating ramen.  The details are not important.  What is important is this lesson:  Be patient with your loved ones.  Usually when there is an argument, it is because of a miscommunication--not because after years with this person they have suddenly--as of today--turned into a complete ass.

One a lighter funnier note, Perrin has discovered the washing machine.  Aaaand she likes it.

 

Oh yeah.

Baby is sleeping, the dryer just got fixed by a nice man named Mario, and I have already made baby food popsicles today...things are good.  That's really all I have to say right now; just wanted to share my Friday--gettin' stuff done--glow with others!  Have a good weekend out there folks!  

Feel free to eat the dandelions; they are edible.

The dryer is broken...really?

So our dryer is officially broken.  Yesterday when I went to get the clothes out of the dryer and they were still not dry, I thought that maybe it was some kind of fluke--if I didn't acknowledge that it happened, it would not have happened.  After the 3rd cycle that didn't end with dry clothes, I considered considering that the dryer may not be operating at peak condition.

After running another experimental load today, I can say--yes, the dryer is broken.  The heating element is not heating the air.  I now have clothes, diaper shells, diaper inserts, and cloth wipes strewn about the house to dry.  Now to try and dig out those dryer warranty papers that--come on, does anyone actually know where those papers are?

Joseph just brought home sandwiches and ice cream, so of course Perrin just decided to wake up and cry 30 minutes after going to bed.  And as you can see, we are doing really well with making more healthy dinners at home.  It's just that Jimmy John's makes these sandwiches...and if you give them money, they just hand them to you, no questions asked.  Next week we will hunker down and plan two meals for the week.  That seems like a good starting place.  Send food! we are starving!  Wish us luck!

Tara took me to Cafe Terracotta for Mother's Day breakfast over the weekend.  I love that place.  Anyone here in Littleton should eat there.  Seriously. Eat there.  I had eggs benedict with artichoke and mushrooms and a side of french toast.  We sat on the restaurant's front porch, talked, ate, drank.  It was wonderful.  

The next morning, on Mother's Day proper, Joseph made me breakfast and we all went to the farmer's market.  I was off diaper duty all day.  It was a great weekend.

Here is little P in another one of my old baby dresses that my mom brought to me when she visited in March.  The sleeves were pretty tight on her chubby little arms, sweet sweet chubby baby.  "D" is for double chin.
 

 

What's for dinner?

Yesterday Perrin and I had a lovely day.  We took the train downtown to J's work, where Tara also met us on her lunch break, since RTD just opened up a new line on the light rail that goes right by T's work.  It was such a pleasure to see two of my favorite people in the middle of the day during the work week.  Plus Perrin did a wonderful job on the train ride in, sitting on my lap, smiling and babbling at strangers, and watching out the window.  We had a wonderful lunch at Davita, which sounds strange, but they have an awesome cafeteria--seriously restaurant quality.  I had Pad Thai with chicken.  Perrin got to eat some of my chicken and veggies off of Aunt Tara's salad.  It is good to have Aunt T around when we are eating out; we know someone will order something that is healthy/ natural enough to share with the little one, as J and I's plates of cheese laden, carb heavy plates arrive.  

I had thought that when Perrin started eating solids we, as a family, would naturally start eating healthier, less processed foods since we want to be able to largely all eat the same foods.  This has not happened.  Instead our evenings look more like this:

Nurse Perrin at 6:30, put her to bed at 7.  J gets home at bedtime.  I haven't shopped for food for a meal.  J and I are both worn down by our days so someone suggests, Want me to run and get Jimmy Johns?  (Or to be perfectly honest, Taco Bell.)  The other person's face lights up and decision is made.  

Other nights we may have pasta (quinoa pasta, to counter act the Taco Bell) with jar sauce and if we are feeling our oats, and I have grocery shopped in the the recent past, we will throw in some sauteed veggies.  This meal ends with one of us thanking the other for cooking.

The funny thing is that J and I both enjoy cooking.  But we do not enjoy planning meals, grocery shopping, or compiling the list of magical items that when combined create a legitimate respectful meal, where everything isn't the same color and you could serve it to guests and not be slightly embarrassed/ashamed.  

In order to prove that we aren't completely unambitious, I will brag on a few great things we do sometimes make...(clear throat)...

Homemade bread.  This one is olive rosemary.

   
J makes great pecan pie, lemon meringue too.

We do Chicken Tikka Masala that we are both really proud of.  It takes a decent amount of time, but keeps thus makes great leftovers.  We make it nice and spicy with lots of cilantro sprinkled on top.  The chicken gets coated in a ginger yogurt sauce before being baked and mixed in.  Wish I had a picture of this one.  The red with the green cilantro is very pretty.  

On our 2nd date we made orange glazed pork chops with rice pilaf (from The Working Stiff Cookbook).  We continue to make these dishes from time to time, as they are sooo good.  It always makes me remember that date when we were still figuring out who the other was.  I walked into the house he shared with three other guys in our little college town...the top of the kitchen cabinets were lined with empty beer bottles...Oh no, I was sure he wasn't one of those guys who act like they are in a fraternity for the whole of their adult lives...He wasn't.  If anything, in that house they were more Dazed and Confused than Greek...anyway...

I guess the point of all of this is that I am not sure how to eat the same food together as a family, while making sure my daughter is getting healthy and natural food, even when J and I have both had long days.  I fear the only answer is planning ahead, so I will continue to implore, how do we do this?

Irrational

I have been thinking about how parenthood makes people pretty irrational.  The other night I was in bed reading while J was getting ready.  He was opening drawers on his big old wooden dresser that are very heavy and creak like crazy when opened and shut.  All I could think in that moment was...Perrin is going to wake up!  What the hell are you doing?  Why would you be opening those drawers right now except that you want to ruin my night and our baby's sleep.  You hate me and everything that is good and wholesome in this world!  

Of course I said nothing because the poor man was just trying to put on his pajamas.  And concurrent with those thoughts was...This is no way to live.  Chill out.  Neither does my husband hate me, nor everything that is good and wholesome.  Crazy lady.  This is one example of something that happens numerous times a day.  Big things, smaller things...thinking it might be possible for Perrin to choke on a piece of lint she just found on the floor and popped into her mouth and is now chewing.  It can be difficult to relax and keep rational perspective when dealing with your children.  This is something I am going to try to get better about...because poor J.  I don't like to be mean to him in my irrational controlling mom internal dialog.  


Perrin's crawling is progressing slowly.  She seems to sometimes forget that she knows how to do it, so she will just sit and play with what is right around her or roll to something near by.  But when she does go, it sure is fun to see.  Here she is with her first crawling conquest, my camera cord.  

Today we went outside in a little green space right near our house to get some fresh air before nap time.  It is a beautiful 60 degree day and being outside tends to put P in a good mood if things have gotten a little testy.  I think with the crawling revelation she is just slightly out of sorts, but sitting out on the blanket in the sunshine made us both feel good.

Leeks

We just got back from a big day celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary, going to the theater.  The musical was good, yea yea, let me tell you about the pizza we ate before the show. It was from Lucky Pie downtown, a sort of sexy cool little pizza place.  The pizza was called Freak A Leek.  It had leek, goat cheese, mozzarella, and bacon on a thin crust.  Wow, leeks.  Who knew.  And leeks with goat cheese was magic.  I took really small bites to make it last longer, while I looked at Joseph sitting across from me and considered knocking him out and hiding his slumped body under the table while I devoured his slices.  I am already plotting another trip there...maybe I can use my upcoming birthday to get close to that leek pie again.


I found a baby tunnel at the Goodwill last week.  Now that P can crawl we busted it out.  She hasn't crawled through it, but likes to sit at one end and peer through at you on the other.  Both cats also like the tunnel.

I love how in the above picture you can see Perrin in the background craned around in her highchair watching the cats.  She is thrilled just watching them lay curled up motionless on the couch, so Puck getting ready to attack Simon in the tunnel is riveting business. 


Merry sent us some great books for Perrin the other day.  The series is called...

We have Baby mix me a drink, Baby make me breakfast, Baby get me some lovin', and Baby do my banking.  I would also appreciate a Baby clean my house tutorial for Perrin, so if anyone sees that one..., as there is a funny smell emanating from somewhere in our kitchen. 

Speaking of funny smelling, I captured a great Perrin "I just smelled a fart" face...because we are classy ladies like that. 

 

She crawled!!!!

Perrin officially, no doubt crawled this morning!!!!!  And the timing was wonderful; Joseph hadn't left for work yet and got to see.  Go baby go!!

As of this very moment, she is putting a damper on the excitement of the morning, as she is laying in her crib napping crying.  She doesn't like to dole out the parental joy in too large of doses, as it may inoculate us to her baby charms.  I see the logic.  

Well, she has got to work it out for herself in there for a little while longer, as I am pumping right now in preparation for tomorrow--Joseph and I's anniversary!  He got tickets from his work for us to go see Mary Poppins at the Buell Theater in the afternoon.  Tara is going to babysit--sort of for the first time since the other times Perrin had already gone to bed.  It will be the longest Perrin has been away from both J and I when she was awake.  It will be fine.  It will be fine.  

J and I are really looking forward to going out.  I get to put on a dress, drink an adult beverage somewhere, and then just sit for awhile.  Not to insult the cast of the musical, but the sitting down with out interruption for nearly two hours has a good chance of being the highlight for me, and I really like Mary Poppins.

Ok, time for baby torture to come to an end.  Off I go.

Is that crawling??

So Perrin and I are skyping with my mom this morning and I have the computer on the floor so grandma can watch Perrin roll/ sit/ scooch and around, straining towards crawling.  We are talking and my mom says, "I think she is crawling."  And I say, "Is that crawling?"  

It seems my standards are a bit high.  What I was looking for was a more coordinated graceful movement than that...I don't know; I guess that WAS crawling.  She was on hands and knees and was moving forward...hum.  Cool.

Perrin is now just over 9 months old and is in constant- absorb my surroundings- mode.  This is really fun to watch--to see her really see the world and to see her making something of it in her mind.  The one time this is not fun to watch is when she is supposed to be nursing.  We will be sitting on the couch, but then the cats run through, Joseph comes home from work, a pin drops...aaaand she is pulling away from me, looking all around, trying to do little baby sit-ups.  I can actually become worn out nursing her, just trying to wrangle her, move her, try different positions, different rooms. 

So this morning we go into my bedroom to nurse on the bed where there is less distraction.  Sometimes this works, but other times she just keeps rolling away, wanting to look at whatever is behind her.  Here is what this morning was like.  Nursing for a few minutes, then rolling onto her back then onto her stomach (very pleased with herself).  So I say, oh, she wants to to be turned that way, so I switch sides with her and try to nurse her that way.  then she rolls onto her back the other way, then onto her stomach (again, extremely self satisfied).  It is a silly and frustrating dance we do...darn babies.  Just eat the food!  But usually she eventually eats well; either worn down by the dance and finally submits to consuming the life giving food, or eats more later in the day.  The 3rd option is-- don't eat well all day and wake up hungry at 1am hollering from the next room, "Why won't you guys give me some food!?  All I want is to be fed, gosh!"  

(Insert sweet Perrin picture to counteract rotten baby thoughts...)

Months ago I bought material to make a celebration flag banner to hang up for birthdays or any celebration really.  Since my sewing machine was still sitting on the kitchen table from Merry's visit, and since her homemade tutus fired up my DIY spirit, I finally got my banner made!  Here is a quick rundown of how to do it.

Just get about a 1/2 yard of each of the fabrics you want to use and some ribbon that matches.  I used a thin ribbon, but after making mine, I would advise getting a wide ribbon that you could fold over the tops of the flags and sew so that the top of the flags are enclosed.  

My template for the triangle flags was two 11.5 inch sides and one 8.5 inch side.  Just trace onto your fabric and cut out. 

Now I have this banner making bug because it is so easy with such great visual payoff...I want one for every holiday!  Picking fabric for the Presidents' Day banner will be challenging, possibly rivaling finding Columbus Day banner fabric...

Puck Cat moment of zen...

 "I like tunnels."