Baby Conversations

I was snacking on a few strawberries last night when I noticed Alex watching me intently. As I thought to myself, "aww, how cute!" I also realized that it wasn't me he was watching intently, it was the strawberries. He followed each and every one that I picked up to eat. So I held one up in front of his face, in closer range so he could see it more easily, and he started talking to the strawberry!! So I grabbed the camera and repeated it, since I'm sure you all want to see him talking too, don't you? :)

It took him a little bit to get going again, once I brought out the camera, but he did indeed start talking to the strawberry again! (And do you hear how he says something almost just like "Hi"??)

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Breaking Dawn sneak preview

Okay, Twilight fans! Want a sneak peak at the opening scene of Breaking Dawn Chapter 1??

Go here!!
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20203238,00.html

Strawberries (or: Summer Has Officially Begun)

This morning we had a nice large playgroup activity, and met at a farm for strawberry picking. I drove an HOUR each way for this activity. O.o (that's my "holy smokes" face... one big eye, one little eye, a nose in between....)

It was worth it, really. The strawberries are absolutely delicious. Way better than you get at the store. But somehow they still don't quite hold a candle to Marysville, Washington strawberries (Ahh, the yearly Strawberry Festival!). I grew up with a strawberry farm 5 minutes from my house, and didn't pick-my-own until I visited 2 years ago. (And I'm pretty sure my parents have still never gone... hint, hint....) And here I am driving an hour to pick strawberries that are delicious and great, but so not the same. The things you take for granted!

We all got ourselves out of bed bright and early to make it to the farm by 9:30am. We gathered with a few of our friends, and drove on the tractor-pulled wagon/bus thing. Melinda and Jacob thought that was great. I was a nervous wreck, with no bars to keep them in, and only one of me, so I couldn't block them in with my body. I was afraid Melinda was going to topple off with every bump, and wind up under a tractor wheel. Yep, that was some fun visual images, huh? But we made it (both ways) without any incidents. Thankfully. :)

Melinda really enjoyed picking the strawberries. She did a really good job, too! She missed a lot, but everything she picked was nice and ripe. Jacob, on the other hand, only picked a couple strawberries, and otherwise just stood around waiting for me to hand him some to put into his bucket.

Here are the kids with our yummy red crop!! It was so hard to resist the temptation to taste-test the strawberries, as I'm sure you can imagine!We headed back earlier than most who were with us - Our containers were full, and Jacob was a little too grumpy to just hang around to visit. (That's what happens when you go to bed at 10:45pm and wake up at 8:00am, and you're still 2.5 years old.) We bought our strawberries, and enjoyed the nearby playground while the others in our group finished up. Jacob and Melinda shared the see-saw swing:


And both of them really loved the wooden "choo-choo" train. Jacob really got into it!

After a while of making Melinda wait and wait and wait and wait, we finally walked down to the petting zoo area (this is a really kid-friendly farm, huh?). We saw - and petted! - two big ol' spotted pigs, a small cow (about my shoulder height), a few energetic goats, a couple donkeys, a llama, two very cute bunnies, and even a peacock! Isn't he beautiful? Jesse asked the kids what their favorites were when they were telling him about our day, and Jacob answered "Peacock!!" with no hesitation at all.
We did buy a small bag of food to feed the animals, too. This picture is before we went inside the fence. After? The goats were all over us, and the cow wasn't far behind. I'm surprised we didn't get any injuries from their horns, in all seriousness.

At Alex's vocal prompting, I finally had to drag Melinda and Jacob back to the car. Neither were especially happy about that, but it was lunchtime (for *everyone*!), so back to the car we went. On the way, they both stopped to blow some dandelions. I couldn't resist taking a picture.And what did she wish for? A teddy bear. "Don't you already have a teddy bear, Melinda?" "Yeah, but I want more!"

And of course, with two large bowlfuls of strawberries here at home, and me not planning ahead, I searched around for some recipe ideas. I quickly saw a pattern evolve: 1 serving equaling nearly 400 calories in each dessert recipe I found. Ugh. Definitely not what me and my 20+ extra pounds need. And strawberries are supposed to be healthy for you, aren't they?? So I was very happy to run into a dinner recipe, and eagerly tried it out. It was very, very yummy!! So I'm sharing it with you. Aren't you lucky? Especially if you're my mom and I know you're going to have access to a million strawberries any day now?? :) I should say that we didn't include the walnuts the recipe calls for. None of us in this house like nuts in our food.

Strawberry Chicken Salad

Servings: 4
Prep: 20 min.
Cook: 10 min.
Total: 30 min.

INGREDIENTS

Dressing:

• 1/2 cup honey
  
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
  
• 4 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 garlic clove, minced
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• Dash pepper

Salad:

• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  
• 1 teaspoon butter
  
• 8 cups torn mixed salad greens
  
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
  
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
  
• Additional whole strawberries, optional
  
  

DIRECTIONS

In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients. In a large skillet, cook and stir chicken in oil and butter until no longer pink; drain. Add 1/2 cup salad dressing; cook 1 minute longer.
Place the salad greens in a serving bowl. Top with chicken, sliced strawberries and walnuts. Garnish with whole strawberries if desired. Serving with remaining dressing. Yield: 4 servings.

Wednesday Mishmash

Jacob napped for about 3 or 4 hours yesterday afternoon. After he woke up, we managed to get him to drink some Gatorade and eat about 1 ½ grapes. He laid quietly on the couch pretty much all evening, practically falling asleep the whole time. But a bit before bedtime, he started sweating, so I figured the fever was breaking. I think I was right. No signs of fever today, hooray! Although I will say that I made the mistake of letting him wear underwear this morning, and he had a really gross, stinky, sloppy accident in them. That was decidedly not fun to clean up.

The best part about today? Both kids slept until 9:45am. SERIOUSLY. I was in heaven. And yes, of course I stayed in bed! You practically can't drag me out of bed before 10am most Saturdays, when Jesse's home and gets up with the kids. Oh, and the second-best part about today is that *thank heavens* it is much cooler and not humid today!! I was sweltering yesterday, it took all my will power to leave the A/C turned off.

After my well-rested morning, I had a fun idea. You see, yesterday, Melinda was asking where "horsies" live. She was playing with a small horse that we bought and used in the ice activity. I was being a not-quite-there Mommy, and was barely answering her, until she got really insistent and demanded that I tell her where they live. So I told her they live in fields. "Well how do I make a field?" She asked. I told her she could use a scarf to make a fence. "But what about the field?!?" she yet again demanded. So I remembered the little look-alike blanket I made for her dolls that matched Alex's blanket: it's entire back was made with a mottled green fabric. So I told her to grab that and use it as a field. She loved it. Played imaginatively with the "field", a scarf for a fence, and the little horse for at least 15 minutes, all by herself.

So now that you know the backstory, here was the idea I had: I could sew a play mat for the little animals I bought! You know how they make rugs for driving cars on? Why not a nice mat with fields and lakes and beaches? I think they would love pretending with that. So while the kids were happy and occupied this morning, I made a little sketch. I may modify it still (like I just had the idea that maybe I should add a cave, Melinda likes to pretend to have people and animals in caves), but here's what I came up with:

Once Alex woke up from a long nap this afternoon, we headed to the fabric store, and I bought a number of fat quarters to play with. I hope it turns out well! I'm excited to try this, though it may be tricky sewing such irregular lines!!

And speaking of Alex, I should share an update about him. He's just about officially out of his 0-3 month clothes. Some of them don't fit him anymore, and the ones that do are "just right", with no room for growing. And he does fit a good handful of the 3-6 month sized clothes already. He's growing so fast! And we've hit a very fun milestone this week: he's really loving to "talk" with us! I haven't gotten a good bit of it on camera yet, but he's making the most adorable sounds. A few days ago, Melinda and Alex had a good 5-minute conversation between the two of them, while Jesse and I were rearranging the kids' room! It was so funny to hear Melinda talking to Alex, and Alex cooing at her. (He likes talking to Melinda the most!) And you know, the thing I say most to him is "Hi!" (over and over and over again...) and I swear that half of his coos sound exactly like he's saying "Hi!" as well!

Memorial Day Weekend

I just *love* 3-day weekends. I used to love them before kids, for completely different reasons. Now, when I look forward to 3-day weekends, it's pretty selfish: I'm so eager to have Jesse around for THREE WHOLE DAYS! Still, we managed to do quite a few fun things this weekend, I think. We did the "ice activity" on Sunday, of course, but we also went for a nice long visit to the park on Saturday. The only problem with that was that I completely didn't plan ahead, and we went sans sunblock. We were in the sun for maybe 1.5 hours, which I didn't think would be a problem at 3pm - the danger hours they always talk about are from 10am - 2pm. But, Melinda did end up with a bit of a sunburn on her arms. Actually, we think the outdoor time for the ice activity contributed to it, because she really didn't complain about it before then. And we were outside at 4pm for that, which I really thought was safe enough. At any rate, she has a bit of a sunburn. Not bad by any means, but bad enough that she's really been complaining about itchy arms.

On Monday, we did two things:

First, a "wormery" activity. We got together with a friend and her kids, and dug around in her backyard garden for worms. Actually, I have to say I felt quite embarrassed. This activity was planned for the week before, but got rained out. She emailed everyone to say she'd try again for the next Monday. And since that Monday was a holiday, I hadn't decided for sure whether we'd come or not until the night before. And then I realized on Monday morning that nobody had replied or said anything confirming the date, so I tried calling her that morning before we left. She didn't answer, so I decided that maybe she was already outside with her kids and just didn't hear her phone. And so when we showed up, she totally wasn't expecting us. Apparently everyone else who had planned on coming contacted her to let her know that they wouldn't be able to come because of the holiday. And dumb ol' me just never bothered to let her know I'd still be planning on it. But she was wonderful, and smiled her biggest smile, and said how glad she was that we came! All 5 of us!! And so she quickly finished her vacuuming (oh yes, I did show up unexpected!!) and grabbed her supplies so everyone could do the activity. They had a fun time, finding all those worms! We layered dirt, newspaper shreds, and threw the worms in as we found them. The idea is that the worms will actually eat the newspaper, and you can continue to add in dirt and kitchen scraps as you see fit, and the worms will just keep on living in there! It was kind of neat to see a couple worms split in two (and keep on living) while we were digging them up, too. Melinda was tormenting one by holding onto one end for a very long time, dangling it - it finally split to try and save itself, I guess!

After the activity, we ran home to change clothes and eat a light snack, and then headed on our way towards Pennsylvania. Well, it was sort of round about. First, we had to go back to our friend's house to pick up the hat Melinda left behind. We would need it for the sunny afternoon ahead of us! And then we had to go to the store to get a new hat for Jacob (he lost his hat at one of our destinations on Saturday, and we didn't notice till Sunday), and also pick up some dessert and chips to take with us. And just as we were checking out, Melinda started having an absolute fit about how itchy her arms were, so then we spent almost 10 minutes in the pharmacy area looking for Aloe. All while she was having fits. What fun, huh?

Finally we headed up to Pennsylvania. Our friend Russ was celebrating his 30th birthday, and decided to make a real day of it, and they rented out a pavillion, had a barbeque, and even bought ice blocks for riding down the hill. We had a lot of fun up there, until Melinda's mood got even worse. She was suddenly having meltdowns at every other turn. Too tired. (Have I mentioned how the kids are now not going to sleep until almost 11pm ... regularly? Depsite our efforts!!) So we left for home around 4pm, despite wanting to stay longer and even head over to our friends' house afterwards. And she did fall asleep in the car, as we expected her to, but only about 10 minutes from home, of course. Sigh. We really thought that Jacob and Melinda both would have no problems going to sleep that night, because we really had a full, active day. But they proved us wrong, both falling asleep just before 11pm again. It makes both of us upset, quite honestly, but Jesse handles it slightly worse than I do (well, not every time it happens....), getting mad at everything, not just the bedtime situation. It just snowballs for him.

Oh, but back to yesterday: Jesse and the kids had some fun experimenting with ice blocking down the hill, but Melinda's arms got scratched up by the grass. Jacob was doing just fine, loved playing on the large playground, was having a great time, even entertained himself in the ice bucket that kept the drinks cool. But Melinda was having meltdowns about drinks, dogs (not being allowed to randomly play with them without asking), arms itching, everything. So we headed home. But they did have fun. And so did we. It just would have been more fun to stay longer and play and visit more.

And here I am today, and now Jacob's got a fever. I can only assume he picked it up from Nursery at church. It seems like he always gets sick on Tuesdays. Sure, we hung out with a lot of kids on Monday, but let's face it, most sicknesses aren't gonna get you sick less than 24 hours after you're exposed to them. And nobody we played with yesterday had a fever, either. But let me tell you, it hasn't been fun trying to keep Alex happy, keep Jacob happy, and deal with the sickeningly humid weather today. Jacob wants me to hold him, but I CAN'T, unless I want to melt in a large puddle of sweat. I can hardly sit still without melting in sweat. Plus I'm worried that he'll pass the fever on to Melinda (who continues to complain of itchy arms throughout today), or worse, to Alex.

Ice, Ice baby!

Okay, I recently discovered a blog called Let's Explore, and they have awesome activity ideas for preschoolers. I absolutely loved their idea for Ice Treasures - Jacob and Melinda are *constantly* playing with any ice in their reach, so I knew they would love this. I froze a bunch of stuff that I either had around the house, or bought from the craft store, into 6-quart containers. I have to admit, it took a lot longer to freeze that much ice than I anticipated (and I, too learned something from this activity - if you put a lid over water, it takes longer to freeze than when it's exposed to air!). I started freezing on Friday night, and it was just barely ready for the "actibity" by 4pm Sunday. Which happened to be a perfectly lovely afternoon, by the way!

Here's one of the blocks of ice I made.

Melinda and Jacob, in this picture, are just getting a good look at their blocks of ice, poking around at them.

The melting begins! We had warm water and the tools were an oral syringe, a turkey baster, a peri bottle, cups, and soons for whacking (I totally forgot to try salt!). The oral syringe was *awesome* for melting, it acted like a little drill and got stuff loose in a jippy! (Is that the right way to spell that word?)

Alex relaxed on a blanket in the shade, looking at the sky. Eventually he fell asleep with the aid of a pacifier.

Jacob starts tugging on the item of his focus, the kitty cat....

Look, mommy, I got the kitty out!

I really liked this shot. I know I'm totally overdoing the pictures, but oh well. It's my blog!! :) You can see how a hole has been worked right through the middle of Jacob's block of ice, and there are still many treasures to be found.

I tried to get a "cheese", but Melinda never glanced at me, and Jacob only turned to scowl as if to say, "why are you interrupting me?!"

Daddy brings out the "big guns", quite literally, in the form of a Super Soaker. That was fun, but it got put away after a few tries. It was too annoying to refill.

Jacob whacks at the ice with his spoon.

This activity was also great for some pouring coordination practice. And what kid doesn't like to pour water?After the ice has finally released all its treasures, a good 1 hour 20 minutes later, the leftover chunks are carried to the "river" down the hill, and gleefully splashed into the water to float away.

Daddy played with the optical zoom and got Mommy into a picture. See, I was there!!

And I took a video, which probably does a bit more justice than just still pictures!

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This was just so much fun. Mom and dad sit back and either participate or enjoy the weather, no fighting between the kids, and it kept them happily busy for almost an hour and a half. I'm definitely going to try and do this with a playgroup soon!

Dumped in

This morning I was throwing things into the crock pot for dinner tonight. Cafe Rio burritos, and the meat mix is made with pork tenderloin, and a bunch of different stuff for the sauce. I was almost done when Jacob ran to grab a stool so he could watch what I was doing. He watched me put in some brown sugar, some apple cider vinegar, and then I started the last ingredient, garlic. I thought I had plenty of garlic, but it turns out one bunch of them was pretty old and basically rotten looking. So I grabbed the garlic powder to use as a substitute for the rest of the cloves, put a few scoops in, and then started cleaning up after myself. I turned around to face the sink and clean the garlic press. Jacob continued to stand at the stool by the crock pot.

That was my first mistake.

I wasn't listening very closely to his ramblings. That was my second mistake. I suddenly processed the fact that he said, "Put the lid back on?", so I turned around to see what he was doing. I had left the garlic powder on the counter next to him. That was my third mistake.

As I turned around and saw him putting the lid back onto the garlic powder (which I'm fairly sure he removed by himself, first), I saw that the garlic powder jar was empty. Completely and totally empty. I think that was the first time in my life I did one of those shocked, audible gasps of horror at my realization of what had happened. Jacob had dumped about 5 or 6 extra *tablespoons* worth of garlic powder into the crockpot. And the label says 1/8 of a teaspoon is equal to one clove of garlic.

So I quickly grabbed a tablespoon and started scooping out powder as best I could, for my dear life. A lot of it had already absorbed into the liquids in the pot, so I'm not sure I even managed to get out half of what Jacob added. But I did my best.

I guess we'll hope that dinner isn't ruined. We've always tended to add more garlic to recipes anyway, since we like garlic so much, but I'm nervous this time. Very, very nervous.

Lesson? Don't ever turn your back to your 2.5 year old child who likes to "help" make dinner, especially when he is within easy reach of an open pot and handy ingredients.

Time Warp

I just went out to get my mail. As an aside, this is one of my favorite times of the day - I'm always eager to find a surprise lurking in the snail mail. Something more exciting than bills and junk. A Netflix movie is great, but usually expected when it arrives. A card or invitation is always a thrill.

Time warps? Yeah, those are a shocker.

I received my little brother's High School graduation announcement in the mail today, 10 years after I sent out my own graduation announcement. Uhhh, woah. How did 10 years go by so fast??

After I got married, my family went to Scotland with my dad's job for the summer, without me, of course. My brother was about 10 years old at that point in time. I left home after that summer without seeing them again, and haven't seen them frequently since. A few things have gotten me back home - a wedding here and there, a funeral, a very infrequent family vacation... I think I've only been back home maybe 4 or 5 times since I moved away, and never for an especially long time. Certainly not long enough or frequently enough to make my mental picture of my brother adjust to real life changes. So you can probably see how I remember my little brother. In fact, I tend to remember him exactly like he was when I was freshly married in this picture. And even that was almost a stretch, since I had left home for college almost 2 years before that, and was only back home in between school. He's lucky he's not permanently stuck in my memory as an 8-year old. No, he gets to be 10 years old forever. (Not so lucky for little sister Kaija, also in the picture. She's stuck as an 8-year-old, which is a little bit more drastic for a girl who's now 16 and looks shockingly different, from what I can tell.)

Not only is it always odd to hear his voice on the phone, but it's very shocking when I see his face in pictures, especially over the last few years, since I don't get pictures sent to me very often at all. And I haven't seen him in person for almost 2 years. He's now much taller than me now, and not at all how I remember him. This is the picture that came with his announcement today. It reminds me more of certain boys I used to gawk at on the bus ride home from school, with their jutting adam's apples, their long lean frames, and their "veiny", muscular arms....and very much not at all like the boy I remember him as.

It's difficult for me to imagine what life will be like in another 20 years, when I and my siblings are all in our middle years, and our kids are the teenagers, or already out of the house. I'm not sure how I'll relate to my own sisters and brother, with how infrequently I see them. It's easy enough for me to relate to Jacy and Melissa, since they were "grown up" by the time I left home, and have always been in the same life stage as I have been, with only a year difference either way. The only "catching up" we have to do when we talk or get together is a move to a new house, or what the kids are up to. With Megan, Dallis, and Kaija, it's almost like I'm talking to a half-stranger when I try to catch up with them. They are not who I remember them as, and you just can't flip a switch to make the mental images and memories change. At any rate, I hope that in 10 or 20 years, when my family all gets together, that we interact the way I remember my parents' families interacting at their family reunions. Like all they knew was each other as adults, instead of little kids. Although now I'm wondering if that was just my teenage mind projecting that onto them, and maybe they didn't interact quite the way I interpreted.

Anyway, Dallis, if you're reading, congratulations! You've done a lot of growing in the last 8 years, and I've missed so much of it. I wish I could be there for your graduation ceremony. Enjoy it, and this time in your life! The next 10 years will go so much faster than you expect it to, as I've come to find out.

And completely unrelated, I don't know why I bother buying my kids new crayons. They're always broken within 48 hours, anyway. :(

Curious George and the clogged toilet

Melinda just told me about one of three dreams she had last night. I'll try to use her words and way of talking as much as possible, because it just makes the dream that much more cute! Still, it's not a direct quote, because my memory isn't that good!

Last night, I had three dreams. One dream, there was the monkey George and the Man in the Yellow Hat. The toilet got ... clogged, filled up ... the water kept coming up and up. And they were at church. They ran to the place where you get to sing and read, but the water could come under through the crack under the door.

I asked her, Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat were at church?
Yes, she said.
And the toilet was clogged?
Yes, the Man in the Yellow Hat kept flushing it again and again. Why do you have to flush it a lot to see how high the water goes?
I don't know why, Melinda. Where is the place where you sing and read? Is that at the front of the Sacrament Meeting room?
Yes.
The place where you go up front to sing with all the Primary kids?
Yes.
Did they go there because it had stairs to get up high?
Yes. That was a scary dream, wasn't it, Mom?

3a.m. Ramblings

It's almost 3am and I'm still wide awake. I have to blame it on a couple things:

1. I took Excedrin Tension Headache medicine tonight. I swear it's the only medicine that not only takes care of my headaches, but does it in a matter of 15 minutes or less. It also has caffeine in it, and usually when I get headaches that are bad enough to cause me to medicate, it's in the evening. So that affects my bedtime, obviously.
2. I ate a few handfuls of chocolate chips. Not only bad for losing weight, but it also added additional caffeine to my evening, which I didn't consider at the time when I collapsed under chocolate temptation.

So here I am, 3am. Sitting in a dark room at my computer because I had to give up on sleep. What better to do than blog out some of the random thoughts floating through my head?

My sister Jacy tagged me to share 6 facts about myself or my spouse. Since that seems awfully close to another recent meme I participated in, Six Quirky Things About Me, I'm going to go with a more husband-driven approach. It seems appropriate, since he just got back home from New York, and his birthday is coming up in a few weeks, as well as Father's Day.

So, here we go. Six facts about my husband, Jesse.

1. When he was 1 year old, Jesse lost half of his thumb. His older sister shut a heavy window-seat lid on his thumb, and it came off right at the top knuckle. I can't even imagine how traumatizing that might have been for a 1-year-old, as well as for his mom. But aside from making certain gaming controls a little bit harder, he loves his stubby little thumb. It's great for scaring kids with a more "real" thumb-disappearing trick, and I have to say, it's also great for a nice solid pressure-point massage. He can really get a lot of pressure behind that one remaining knuckle. And people never notice it's missing until he points it out.
2. When Jesse relates about his decision to become an engineer, he always tells about a time when he was about 6 years old. There was a broken glove box in one of his family's cars, and he asked his dad if he could try to fix it. He took the lock apart, found a spring inside that seemed broken, and realized he had seen a very similar spring before, in the type of pen with a button that you click at the top. He took apart a pen, grabbed the spring, and put it into the glove box lock. Put the glove box back together, and viola! Glove box is fixed. And he was only 6 years old! He's always loved to take things apart to see how they work, and then put them back together. Engineering is a natural evolution for him, really.
3. Jesse was a pole-vaulter in High School. He went to State with his Track and Field team, had his pole-vaulting picture in the paper, and everything! I know for sure that he placed in State, but I can't remember what. I want to say it was either First or Second. He also had longer, shoulder-length hair and a scruffy goatee when he was in High School. It's quite a trip to look at those pictures of him in the newspaper... just a totally different version of him than I'm used to! He did try to grow out a goatee for me one year around Thanksgiving (so I could see what it looked like), but only lasted about a week and a half before the itching was driving him crazy.
4. Jesse served an LDS mission in Brazil for two years. He was in the Salvador area, mostly in the very rural sections of his mission. He, like most missionaries you meet, loves to talk fondly about his many different experiences in the country. Still, I think the ones I hear most frequently involve the crazy things they did in their missionary apartments - like making trails of lighter fluid on the tile floors and lighting it on fire, or adopting a (wild!!) pet monkey, and the companion he had that could smell cockroaches if they were anywhere near him. And of course, the time he vomited his entire meal because of being overheated in the sun, after having gone a week without eating because of a stomach bug. It was so upsetting to him, he was so ready to stuff himself since he was feeling better, but his body just couldn't take it! Also, he and my brother-in-law, Steve (Jacy's husband), met each other on their missions. I remember calling my sister and telling her about Jesse soon after I had met him - while Steve was in the room - and I described his half-thumb, and suddenly Steve jumped into the conversation: "Does he have "clown hair," too?!?" I had to laugh, and said, "Yeah! He does!" (Jesse described it to me himself that way, when we started dating! If his hair starts getting long, the sides grow almost straight out and almost upwards near the crown of his head, giving it sort of a clownish shape.)
   
5. Jesse loves to cuddle. I've always loved snuggling up with my husband, of course. But sometimes his love of hugs and cuddles makes things difficult, especially with young kids in the house. I often end up feeling "touched out" by the end of the day, between nursing, holding kids on my lap, and so on. And so I've got a history now of just not wanting to be touched at all once Jesse is home from work. Luckily, I haven't gotten to that point yet with child #3, which I hope will keep up. Because Jesse does love that physical closeness, and he's a wonderful man to be patient and understanding when I just can't bring myself to accommodate him. I remember even after we were first married and lived with Jesse's parents for a few months, he would often lay his head on his mom's lap or shoulder, which I found very endearing (I've always heard you can tell how a man will treat his wife based on how he interacts with his mother). And when we went couch-shopping for our first home, we tested each couch we liked, to make sure it was roomy enough to fit both of us for TV snuggle time.
   
6. Jesse has a crazy memory. I swear he can remember every factoid he's ever heard, even if it was only once and long, long, long ago. He'll bring up the most random things in conversations, and talk about them like he's just an expert. He can watch a history show, or the type of show that shows how different things work, or read a book that describes something in detail, and so on, and he'll just have that knowledge he gained ingrained into his memory forever. Myself, family members, and friends are always astounded by what he can remember. And I'm sure it all influences his skill at Engineering. The more you know, and the better you can remember details, the easier it is to solve problems, right? (And yet, when it comes to remembering significant conversations from recent time, or the way a specific event happened in our lives, he always forgets the most important details.... Men! What can you do?? Though, I do have to give him credit - he tends to remember how my childbirths went, and our children's' baby stages much better than I do. I often ask him to recall details for me that I've long forgotten.)

And there you go. Do you feel like you know Jesse a little bit better now? Even if not, it was fun to talk about him. I don't do it enough on this blog. And hey! It passed some wide-awake, middle-of-the-night time for me!

Technically, I'm supposed to tag 6 more people. Jacy already tagged my other blogging sister, and I've picked on Summer every time I've been tagged so far, and Allyson from Laughadaisy is quitting blogging (so sad!!), and I'm just not sure how the majority of the rest of my friends with blogs feel about tags. Memes are somewhat like email forwards: either you love 'em, or you hate 'em! Since I can't think of 6 people (by a long shot!) that I'd feel comfortable tagging, I'll just pass on being specific this time around. But if this is a meme that any of my readers would like to participate in, please do! I'd love to learn more about you or your spouse.

I should probably head back to bed now, and see if I can get some sleep before Alex wakes up to nurse, and then the sun rises, and my morning starts. As it is, tomorrow will be... interesting... on such little sleep. ;)

Day 3: Loch Raven Reservoir

The end of Day 2 went fairly well. Melinda and Jacob played so hard with Zoe (and I had a good time visiting with Emily!), that they went to bed with no problem. I could hardly believe the difference! I tucked them in, and just as I was finishing up, Alex started fussing from the other room, so I said goodnight quickly. After I had sat down with Alex for just a few minutes, I suddenly realized that it was still silent from the kids' bedroom. I went to check on them, and sure enough, they were sound asleep! Phew! Unfortunately Jacob woke up hysterical around 11:30pm, and it took maybe an hour to get him back to sleep (in my bed this time). I think I finally figured out what was getting to him - he didn't know where Melinda was. She had covered herself up with the body pillow instead of a blanket at some point, and he couldn't tell she was under it, and thought he was all alone. Ah, well, at least I had someone to cuddle with as I fell asleep!

I really didn't know what we would do today. Jesse suggested, over the phone, that I make sure to take them outside, since we've had a couple yucky days, but I hadn't convinced myself to make it a plan.

But Brittney from our ward called me up in the morning, and said she was taking her boys over to Loch Raven Reservoir to play and have a picnic lunch, and invited us to go with her. I had never been to the Reservoir before, only across it on a bridge on my way to other places. I wasn't thrilled with the prospect of trying to get everyone ready to be out of the house in only about an hour and a half, as well as packing a picnic lunch, but I knew we would have fun if we went, so I agreed. And it *was* a challenge to get everyone out the door, since the kids had dumped out EVERY toybox in the front room, and were fairly unwilling to pick it all back up before leaving. I finally bribed them with candy, but anyone who didn't help didn't get a piece. And Jacob didn't help. Hopefully he'll help next time?

Anyway, we headed over to the Reservoir. It's fairly close to us, really. See on the map? We live right near the 45 on the map, and the arrow shows where we went. Church is right down at the bottom tip of the triangle shape of roads by the 146 symbol, and that's only about 10 minutes through backroads.
The weather started out nice enough - mostly sunny and in the low 60's. But there was quite a breeze right next to the water. There were a lot of Canadian geese hanging out on the "beach", and the very first thing Melinda did (and Jacob, too, eventually) was chase after them. I think the geese were a little bit used to it, because they didn't fly away, they just kind of ran slowly out of her path, and sometimes went into the water to escape her.

After a few minutes the shoes came off and she headed to the water's edge. Melinda and Jacob both loved the little waves (even though they called them big ... I guess we have never taken Jacob to the ocean, and Melinda hasn't been since she was about 9 months...).


Uh oh. Now Melinda's gone and rolled up her pants and is stepping into the water. I guess I should have thought about making some rules before letting them loose. But honestly, my brain had gone mostly towards getting to the reservoir, not what we were going to do once we were there! And notice how all three boys are looking on and getting ideas. Brittney said both of hers were a bit afraid of going into the water, though, so she didn't have to deal with wet kids later. But see? Jacob's shoes are off now.... he's taking note.

Aaaand there he is, coming out of the water. I didn't have a chance roll up his pants for him, so they're already getting soaked.

And of course, Melinda and Jacob did what all kids love to do: Throw things into the water!

Melinda found an actual egg on the beach. It was BIG! Definitely had to be a goose egg. She was very concerned with it and kept trying to "give it back" to the geese, which means, of course, that she was walking further and further into the water trying to hand it to them, and they kept swimming away. There were a lot of goslings there... I'm not sure why this one isn't hatched and just hanging around at the beach. I picked it up and it felt heavy enough. It must be a dud or something? But also, nothing has cracked it open to eat it yet, so it can't have been abandoned long. Still, I had never seen a goose egg before, so it was interesting. And of course we had to talk about why it wasn't hatched, and I was having a hard time explaining why there might not actually be a baby goose in it, and ended up saying, "Maybe there's just yolk inside." And Melinda says, "Oh, so you can eat it?" So I think she finally got it. ;)
After she had thoroughly soaked her pants, she grabbed the bucket and shovel that Brittney had brought with her, and had a good time with some water. Jacob joined her before long, and they pretended to build a sand castle. It was a few small holes and a lot of water-dumping, in reality!
We ate our lunch. Well, most of us did. Jacob took about 3 bites from his sandwich, ate a couple grapes, and ran off again. By this time, the steady wind had blown in some dark clouds, and it was feeling pretty chilly, even to me, who was completely dry and had longer sleeves on. Melinda was shivering and complaining, and then I remembered I had a couple small blankets in the car that never made it back inside the house after winter. So I grabbed those and she huddled gratefully under them while she ate.

The geese wandered over to our direction, and Melinda started feeding them crusts from her sandwich. They really liked that! Jacob soon joined in by trying to feed them sticks and rocks. I kept trying to tell him they wanted "food, not rocks!" but he didn't listen. He still managed to get his finger nipped by one of the geese, though! The geese were getting aggressive enough that they were yanking bread right out of Melinda's hand, instead of waiting for her to break a piece off to throw at them.
See the cute goslings? They're eating Melinda's bread. (I sure hope it's okay to feed birds peanut butter and jelly... I'm positive they got at least some, somewhere in there.) It would have been fun to stay longer - the kids had a really fun time playing - but they were both too wet, and the wind too strong, and the day just chilly enough, that we needed to go back home.

Once home, they both enjoyed a nice warm bath (to make them comfortable and get the pebbly sand off of their feet!), and now Jacob's asleep on the couch while a movie is playing. Alex is hanging out asleep on the couch, too. I've taken to putting him in a blanket-cushioned car seat when he takes his long naps during the day, so he's more upright and contained. He seems to sleep better that way during the day - similar to wearing him in my sling, but not so demanding on my body.

Hopefully Jesse will be home today. If he will be, he should be leaving around 4 or 5pm, and then driving back home, so he'll still be home kinda late in the evening.

All in all? 3 days really hasn't been all that bad. The first day felt the longest. Still, we'll be happy to have daddy back home!

Day 2

Well, Day 1 went alright. We did get out of the house and do some shopping. Jacob fell asleep in the car on the way to Babies R Us, where we spent a gift card, and stayed asleep in the basket of the cart- with my diaper bag for a pillow- the whole time we were browsing. We then went grocery shopping*, and by the time we were home, it was 4:30. Just enough time to put groceries away, get the kids a snack, sit down to nurse Alex, and then Jesse called. After we all talked, we had some dinner. I was going to do leftovers, but the kids asked for sandwiches, and I obliged, and kept the leftovers to myself.

*At the end of the grocery shopping, I took Jake out of the cart to make room for the filled bags, and within seconds, had completely forgotten that I took him out. Which resulted in a very embarrassing moment: I practically ran him over with the grocery cart. I have no idea what exactly happened... he was probably hanging onto the front of the cart and I was just going a little too quickly for him to keep up with his legs, or something. All I know is that suddenly about 3 different people all looked at me in horror and exclaimed, "He fell down! He fell down!!!" He didn't even whimper, so I don't think he got hurt at all, though his pants did get scuffs on them. But I seriously felt like worst mommy of the year.

They asked me to play some Mario Kart on the Wii, a while after dinner. They like to watch video games. It's not as interesting to watch mommy play Mario Kart, as it is to watch daddy play Zelda, though, and pretty soon, Jacob was sticking slobbery fingers all over Melinda, which really upsets her for obvious reasons, and nothing I was doing was making him stay settled down... and well, it eventually degraded into Jacob chasing Melinda all over the room, with her running and crying hysterically, and finally Jacob shoving Melinda right off the couch. I had just had it at that point, and decided it was a perfect time for bedtime. Well, Melinda really didn't like that, especially since it wasn't her fault that Jacob was being aggressive and getting on my nerves. But it really was technically their bedtime, anyway, so I stuck to it. Unfortunately the crabby part of me really came out in the whole process, because Melinda just wouldn't stop having a fit about the whole going-to-bed thing, and I was just getting tired of it, and cranky. Not proud of how bedtime went down, especially toothbrushing time, but Melinda was eventually sound asleep, and Jacob was sticking to his now-typical "I'm scared of everything but not going to actually act scared, just say I am" routine. He eventually got sleepy enough to join Melinda on the top bunk, but woke her back up in the process, and because she had thrown such a fantastic fit, her nose was stuffy and she couldn't breathe through it, which prompted another fit. *FINALLY* both of them ended up asleep, and Alex fell asleep around 9pm as well. It was a relief after the noise all three of them were making for a while, there. But then, there was nothing on TV. No new Netflix video to watch. And I didn't know how long Alex would be asleep, so I ended up deciding to start a new book.

It was far too quiet for me last night. I enjoyed reading and not being on constant mom-duty, but I also just felt too exposed to my drifting thoughts, when it came time for bed. Things like, why can't I be more fun and less business-like as a mom? What will my kids feel about their relationship with me if I don't change myself during the next several years? How do I change it? But I don't want to go through all that effort to change it, it doesn't feel like I can. Why am I so lazy that I can't even convince myself that changing would be good, even if it's hard? Anyway, you can probably see the sort of mood I put myself into as I was falling asleep, with thoughts going in that direction. I found myself wishing for the noise of Jesse snoring just to distract me from my thoughts. Because the annoying part of my thoughts was simply that they were making me realize that my family would benefit greatly from any efforts I could make to inject a more fun attitude into how I operate as a mom... and well, I have so many other goals in the back of my head right now that adding one more big one just makes me want to give up completely. I can't do it all at once, and I have no idea which is most important and should take priority. Plus, I've never been great at fulfilling my goals, anyway.

But enough about me and my wandering thoughts. We're now on Day 2, and it's going alright, although it would be better if Jacob weren't in such a frustrating age. We had an activity planned for this morning, but it was canceled due to rainy, yucky weather. So we did more shopping instead, and I got shiny new crayons for the kids, among other things. Melinda said the crayons were "just so exciting!", which made me giggle. Ah, but I know what she means. I'm always such a sucker for a brand new smooth-writing pen, myself!

Emily is coming over in just a little while. She saw my post yesterday and decided it was a perfect day to bring us some dinner. I'm so glad! I'm sure I could have managed just fine, but I'm even happier not to have to worry about it at all, and then to have her and her daughter's company, as well! Emily's always such a joy to be around, and it will make the day feel much less lonely. (Jacy, I don't know how you can do a full week at a time without Steve around! Do you spend a lot of time on the phone to make sure to get some contact with adults, or what?)

Hopefully bedtime will go a little nicer for all of us tonight. And of course, I have American Idol to entertain myself with this evening!!

Day 1

Jesse's staying in New York (not the city, but within sight of it) for a couple nights for work. I'm not thrilled about it, to say the least. I probably depend on Jesse coming home from work every day more than a lot of mothers do... it's just about all that gets me through the day, sometimes, knowing that soon there will be another adult to play "tag team" with. So I have a couple days of being on my own with three kids, and hopefully my sanity will stay in tact. And actually, Jesse doesn't know if he'll be coming home on Wednesday or not. They might need to stay Wednesday night and not come home till Thursday, if the timing works out that way.

Sigh.

I think the key will probably be to get ourselves out of the house as much as possible, so the kids aren't constantly bored and fighting with each other. So today we'll do some grocery shopping, go spend a gift card at Babies R Us, and maybe even do some clothes shopping for me, if I have energy for it. (And while I have plenty of clothes, a very dismal few look decent on my body shape anymore!) I'd like to throw a playground in there for the kids' sake, but I'm not sure the weather will be good for one. Guess we'll have to find out.

Wish me luck! These next few days will be the testing grounds for the next big adventure: Jesse has to go to Japan in early June for at least a week. I'm reeeeally not looking forward to that. Especially right near, and possibly overlapping, our birthdays. :(

Excused

After reviewing the information provided on your documentation, you are being excused from jury service at this time.

PHEW!

Thanks to everyone who left me comments about jury duty! It kept me only the teeeeeniest bit nervous about not getting excused! I was very glad to get this notice today.

Birds on the porch

We recently refilled our homemade bird feeder on our porch, at Melinda's insistence. A lot of seeds were spilled all over the porch and in the "garden" area right next to it, and the birds have been eager to come and help themselves. I was able to sit back on the couch and take pictures of them with the optical zoom on my camera- getting too close scares them away.

We had a cute baby bird and his parent come. I didn't even realize it was a baby bird until I saw the parent feeding it! They came at least 5 different times yesterday afternoon.

Here's the baby bird opening his mouth wide, saying "feed me!"
A couple different shots of the baby bird getting fed:

And cute fuzzy baby bird sitting on our brick wall:



We also have a couple cardinals that come to eat the seeds. The males are bright red, and females are a bit duller/browner overall but still have a really bright beak. We also have small pigeons that visit, but I haven't taken pictures of any of them.

CAUTION: May cause flames!

So, a funny (scary?) story.

Jesse comes home from work for lunch most days. Today was not an exception. We had a couple italian sausages in casings leftover from a dinner I made a couple nights ago, and Jesse decided to cook them on the broil setting in our toaster oven for his lunch today. He's cooked sausages in the toaster oven before. Most recently, he didn't use the drip pan, and grease from the sausages dripped down onto the heating element and caused little tiny flames. So he learned his lesson, right? And today he used the drip pan, and also used the broil setting so only the top heating element would be on.

Good thing I was standing in the kitchen working on the kids' lunches. About 10-15 minutes into broiling, suddenly there were loud sounds of dripping grease, and flames coming OUT of the toaster oven. We opened it quickly and saw the source of the flame: A tiny hole had opened in the sausage casing, and the pressure build-up from heating the sausage was causing grease to actually spray vertically into the top heating element. Even after we removed the sausage, it continued to spray grease for at least another 30 seconds. We're talking about a spray that went from the surface of the sausage to about 3-4 inches high before it started curving back down with gravity.

CRAZY!!

So, lesson #2 learned: If you're cooking sausage in its casing in a toaster oven, you should always make a few holes in the casing to allow grease and pressure to escape during cooking. Mmmkay?

What's in *your* sunscreen?

When Melinda was about 9 months old, I took her to the pool for the first time. This momentous occasion was also the first time I ever put sunscreen on my child. I used my standard for the time - Coppertone WaterBabies brand. It's probably what I used most of my life, too. But what happened with Melinda made me look more closely into what exactly I was slathering onto her (our?) skin. See all that red splotchy area around her eye and temple, and also her forehead? That was from the sunscreen on her face. It actually made the white of her eye red, too. I thought it might be the pool water, until I used the sunscreen a second time and she ended up looking exactly the same, no pool water involved.

After some reading around, I ended up purchasing a new brand of sunscreen, California Baby. It's not exactly cheap, but I feel so much better using it. And no more scary skin reactions!

I'm sharing this story with you because of another blog post I read today. It linked to an Environmental Working Group article, which I'd like to quote just a bit:

A new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reveals that 97% of Americans are contaminated with a widely-used sunscreen ingredient called oxybenzone that has been linked to allergies, hormone disruption, and cell damage. A companion study published just one day earlier revealed that this chemical is linked to low birth weight in baby girls whose mothers are exposed during pregnancy. Oxybenzone is also a penetration enhancer, a chemical that helps other chemicals penetrate the skin.
.....
The Food and Drug Administration has failed miserably in its duty to protect the public from toxic chemicals like oxybenzone in personal care products. At the request of industry lobbyists, including Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who represented the Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association, the agency has delayed final sunscreen safety standards for nearly 30 years.
.....
Among common sunscreen chemicals, oxybenzone is most likely to be associated with allergic reactions triggered by sun exposure. In a study of 82 patients with photoallergic contact dermatitis, over one quarter showed photoallergic reactions to oxybenzone
.....
Sunlight also causes oxybenzone to form free radical chemicals that may be linked to cell damage, according to 2 of 3 studies.

I strongly recommend that you read the full EWG article, as well as this fantastic and informative blog post at Skimbaco: Is your sunscreen safe? 86% in the market are not! I'm happy to say that my pick of California Baby is on the "Best" list as given at this blog. As Skimbaco notes,

"And interestingly, as sunscreen sales have risen, so has the rate of skin cancers."
What? Shouldn't sunscreen protect us from skin cancer?

I definitely think it should. So read up, and protect your family this summer!

6 weeks

Yesterday was technically 6 weeks postpartum. But today was my 6 week postpartum visit with my midwife. Enter big sigh - I got the go-ahead to resume normal activity and exercise. On the one hand, I'm a little eager to get working on losing some of this extra weight. On the other hand, I've always hated exercising, so I'm a bit skeptical about my eagerness, thinking it will probably wear off pretty soon.

And if I'm going to work towards losing weight, I need to be more accountable for what I eat.

Like... I shouldn't go ahead and finish off the rest of my baby shower cake that was sent home with me just because I can. Or, I really shouldn't have two bowls of super chocolate fudge brownie ice cream in one day just because the kids have driven me crazy and it's a nice source of comfort. And I definitely shouldn't let Jesse come home with a dozen of my favorite "colossal" donuts and then not think twice about eating 4 or 5 in one day.

Now, I suppose since I'm nursing, and extra helping of veggie-filled pasta won't hurt me too much, but I really need to find something that will cure my HUGE sweet tooth cravings without packing on a million calories in one sitting. And I may need to work on some emotional issues... It recently dawned on me that I'm somewhat of an emotional eater. For instance, if the kids are extra tough to handle, I'll crave chocolate that much more. Not crave it, but need it. There's not a physical reason I can think of to actually need chocolate just because you're having a hard day. Or often, if I'm feeling bored, I'll start rummaging through the kitchen to find something to snack on. And this often happens in the 10-11pm range, which is not good for losing weight. So I need to work on how I treat food, I guess. Please allow me to be pouty and sulk about it, though, because I just enjoy treats so much. I guess I just need to moderate how much treats I consume.

But yeah, the postpartum weight has me feeling pretty down. With both of my previous pregnancies, I was back to my postpartum weight by my 6-week checkup. Not so this time, not by a long shot. I was somewhere in the 165-170 range when I discovered this surprise pregnancy. And I was a solid 187 still at my a checkup today. That's a pretty big chunk of weight that I still need to lose....and I wasn't terribly happy with my pre-pregnancy weight, anyway. I'd love to get down to about 150-155. My ideal would be to hit my marriage weight of 140, but considering the changes my body has been through, I've gone ahead and put that weight into the "impossible dream" category for now. But yeah... 20 pounds to pre-pregnancy, 30+ to my ideal. I'd better start doing something. I guess I can't count on just nursing to take care of it for me, this time. Especially not with the crappy eating habits I have.

Otherwise, all is well, aside from a possible plugged duct my midwife felt during my breast exam. The same spot was tender about a week ago, but it had gone away after I worked on it in the shower. Guess I haven't cleared it totally yet.

And we weighed Alex really quickly before we left. Fully dressed and with a bit of a wet diaper, he was at 14lbs 6oz!! What a little chunker. (Come on, can't he count as some sort of exercise, carrying him all day?? Oh yeah, it's not my arms that need help... it's the tummy and butt and thighs...)

Oh, I was also happy to find out this week that our insurance did in fact cover our homebirth like they finally said they would. It took talking to 4 different people... my midwife's receptionist finally got in touch with someone over the phone that said they would. We had gotten a confirmation number sort of thing from that conversation, but in all honesty, I was half expecting a fight, and an oh-so-fun appeal process, thinking they would go ahead and try to not cover it. I'm glad they did. I'd rather not stress about it all! So I happily wrote the check for my responsible amount this afternoon.

I'm also very grateful that Jesse left work early and came with me to the appointment today. Jacob was tired and crazy, and we were there for an hour, and Alex ended up tired and cranky, too. He had his hands full in the office foyer...and I'm so glad I could focus on talking with my midwife instead of keeping the kids' hands off of all the office equipment, or hanging my head in embarrassment at their usual habit of running up and down the office hall as loudly as possible. My husband is wonderful.

What's for dinner... and a snack

Here's a quick and tasty dinner, made with ingredients you may already have on hand!

Quick Lemon and Pasta with Chicken

8oz linguini
3T butter
1T lemon juice
1½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
1 lb chicken, cooked
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to package directions. In a separate saucepan, combine next 5 ingredients and simmer till butter is melted. Add cooked chicken and stir till coated. Add drained pasta and toss to coat. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, serve immediately.

And here's a fun (and good for you!) snack you can make. This recipe is from Jesse's aunt Sandy. I had never tried it before, but Jesse's mom Nedra made a whole bunch for us while she stayed after Alex was born. This recipe makes a LOT, so either half it, refrigerate the dough and cook over a few days per the directions, or cook it all and freeze the muffins. They counter-thaw quickly.

Bran Muffins

2 cubes butter (or margarine, if you must)
3 cups sugar
4 cups All-Bran cereal (pellets)
2 cups Nabisco Bran cereal (bran flakes)
2½ tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp salt
5 cups flour
4 eggs
1 quart buttermilk

Mix butter, sugar and Bran cereals with 2 cups boiling water, and let cool. Add buttermilk, eggs, and dry ingredients. Add raisins, nuts, or spices if desired. Store in the refrigerator and bake as needed at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Keeps for 3-4 weeks in the refrigerator.

We've been making these muffins with raisins, cinnamon and nutmeg (I eyeball the measurements, sprinkling them right into the dough), and they turn out surprisingly tasty. They're not a very sweet snack at all, but enough to keep you going back for more. We use a mini muffin pan (the kind that makes 24 mini muffins at a time), and half the recipe, and usually get around 50-60 muffins. The kids *love* snacking on these, and so do I. And I promise that if you eat more than a couple, everyone will be plenty regular... hehe. Nedra also says it would be great to use half a cup less sugar, and substitute half a cup of molasses. Mmmm.

Melinda wants me to make them with chocolate next. We'll see....