Things are busy.

Morgan is great.

I still want/need a vacation.

Emily is still busy with projects.

We still like to eat food.  A lot.

Toby is still crazy.

Twinkie is still ruling the roost.

They are both Morgan’s favorites.

Lot’s going on.

Extreme obesity is affecting more children in the United States than ever before, according to a new study.

More than [...]]]> Is this article really any surprise to anybody living in America right now?  There is an audio interview on the page as well…

Study: Extreme obesity affecting more children in US than ever before

Extreme obesity is affecting more children in the United States than ever before, according to a new study.

More than 700,000 children aged 2-19 in southern California were included in the study by healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente.

According to the study, more than 7% of boys and 5% of girls were extremely obese and one in twenty are a full 50% above what doctors consider healthy.

The organisation says obese children face a shorter life span and health problems in their twenties, unless they change their lifestyles.

The World Today’s Ed Butler talked to overweight teenager D’Vonte Pullen and obesity expert Tami Foy.

In a congested part of Patna, capital of India’s Bihar state, stands a striking yellow building – a 100-year-old mansion that has clearly seen better days.

Inside it, in a small dark room, a young bearded cleric [...]]]> Another uplifting article I read about educating the underprivileged in India…

Indian school helping the brightest Muslims

In a congested part of Patna, capital of India’s Bihar state, stands a striking yellow building – a 100-year-old mansion that has clearly seen better days.

Inside it, in a small dark room, a young bearded cleric is reading out sermons from the Muslim holy scriptures to a group of boys seated cross-legged on the floor.

They are in their late teens, some are wearing skull caps and they all listen to him with rapt attention.

At first glance, this could be any of the region’s hundreds of Islamic seminaries or madrassas, where young Muslims receive religious instruction.

But this is no ordinary seminary.

After prayers, the boys head out to a classroom, pen and notebook in hand, where they listen with equal attention to a lecture on advanced mathematics.

This is the unusual setting for Rahmani 30 – a training institute which prepares talented but underprivileged young Muslims for entry into India’s best engineering colleges – the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).

Only the top 2% make it through the stiff entrance exam.

Getting ahead

India’s large Muslim minority is consistently placed at the bottom of social and economic rankings.

Part of this has to do with education – most Muslims end up studying in madrassas, which means they have little chance of being employed in the private sector or government.

So the significance of Rahmani’s initiative is not lost on anyone.

It is the brainchild of a senior Bihar police officer, Abhyanand, who takes time off from his day job to teach the boys physics.

Rahmani was inspired by a similar school – the Super 30, where Abhyanand used to work and which is also aimed at poor children but not Muslims exclusively.

“In our country, any difficult examination is very fearful because a huge number of students take part but only a few get in,” Abhyanand says.

The advantage at Rahmani, he says, is the kind of students they get – mostly from poor backgrounds and determined to get ahead in life.

“They come from a rural background and that is their strength. They become competitive because, for them, it is a win or lose situation.

“If they don’t make it they don’t stand anywhere [socially and economically].”

Great chance

Irfan Alam, 15, the son of a barber who is preparing for the IIT exam due to be held in 2011, says it is a great opportunity.

“I wanted to make something of my life, become someone,” he says smiling shyly.

“It’s the perfect platform. The teachers are amazing and the best part is that it’s completely free.”

It is a chance that few others where Irfan comes from will ever get.

His village is a good four hours drive north of Patna, with lush green wheat-fields, narrow dirt tracks and few proper buildings.

Most people here work as farm labour and a large number of the men are barbers by trade.

I meet Irfan’s father, Mohammad Shafiq, outside his modest, two-room hut made of mud and straw.

Now recuperating after an eye operation, he tells me how his son displayed flashes of brilliance as a child and soon outgrew his village school.

So he decided to send him away.

“Nobody studies here. Most of the teenagers waste their time or start drinking heavily.

“I can’t read and write myself and it was always my dream that my son should be educated and not become a barber like his father and grandfather.”

Back at Rahmani the classes are done but the studying continues late into the night.

Irfan sits with three of his friends inside his little dorm room, poring over textbooks and brainstorming.

In another room, one of the teachers uses a webcam to conduct a tutorial with students in another part of Bihar.

Cultural debate

It’s a fascinating mix of the traditional and the modern.

“The basic philosophy of a madrassa is that the boys live, eat and study together. There is no distinction between rich and poor – everybody is equal,” says Maulana Wali Rahmani, an influential cleric who heads this institute.

“There’s also a culture of open debate. It’s something I experienced myself while growing up in a madrassa. So we thought, why not channel these strengths in a whole new direction and see what we can achieve.”

To find out how spectacularly they have succeeded, you need to travel 1,000km (625 miles), to the national capital, Delhi.

It is a completely different world in the tree-lined, sprawling IIT campus.

Young men and women stroll into their classrooms, dressed in jeans and T-shirts, back-packs slung over their shoulders.

These are India’s brightest brains, many of whom will go on to work in the country’s top software companies or head to Silicon Valley.

Among them is a shy, earnest young man – Shadman Anwar, part of Rahmani’s inaugural batch of students last year, all 10 of whom made it through to the IITs.

“It’s been a dream come true, being here with all the other students. And I don’t feel as if I’m any different,” he says.

His is the kind of confidence that has helped raise expectations at Rahmani, whose administrators now want to establish 10 similar schools over the next couple of years.

India’s Muslim community is often said to have under-achieved, plagued by poverty, low education standards and a conservative outlook.

Now in one of India’s poorest states, a small initiative is trying to break the mould.

Pockets of hope…always nice to see…

I worked on sewing the binding on the quilt I am FINALLY finishing. It’s very slow moving. Either I need to learn to [...]]]> While it still feels great to be outside I’m trying to be outside more often. Last week we brought some blankets and toys outside and just enjoyed the warmth and sun.

I worked on sewing the binding on the quilt I am FINALLY finishing. It’s very slow moving. Either I need to learn to sew faster or I might just give up and machine do it. I really don’t want to though so it’ll probably just take me another two years.

Morgan had fun playing with some blocks, putting them back and forth between the basket and their box.

I sewed a simple bag to hold clothespins, and Morgan likes to play with it, taking them out and putting them back in.

Toby wasn’t sure what to think of all this and kept trying to eat the grass/clovers.

One thing Morgan likes to do is play with this lid. About a month or two ago I think she figured out it looks funny to squish it against our faces, and of course we ham it up a little.

She has also started squishing it against her own face and trying to look through it…

And while we were playing she tried to put it towards Toby. Figuring he wouldn’t go for face squishing (kinda hard when you have a snout) I made it a hat for him instead.

Poor dog looks so tortured in this picture. I imagine he’s wondering why we humiliate him so much by making him look ridiculous. It’s all for the sake of kid play, Toby. Sorry my friend!

India has one of the largest deaf populations in the world, but social stigmas have eliminated many job opportunities for the roughly 6 percent of the population that is affected. Aiming to empower this isolated group economically, Mirakle Couriers is a service provider that [...]]]> How cool is this?

Indian courier service hires only deaf workers

India has one of the largest deaf populations in the world, but social stigmas have eliminated many job opportunities for the roughly 6 percent of the population that is affected. Aiming to empower this isolated group economically, Mirakle Couriers is a service provider that hires only deaf workers.

Mirakle Couriers offers a pickup and delivery service in Mumbai. The company puts a heavy emphasis on the training of employees—right down to the finer points of professional grooming—and has grown dramatically since its late 2008 launch. Its client list now includes Johnson Controls, Bain Capital and the Indian Hotels Company, among many others.

Founded by former investment banker Dhruv Lakra, Mirakle Couriers stresses that it is “not a charity but a social business, where the social element is embedded in the commercial operations”. The firm plans to expand beyond Mumbai to other cities and countries around the world. Social entrepreneurs hither and yon: time to get in touch…?

Talk about doing some good and making a difference.  This has to be one of the coolest things I’ve heard about since Kiva.  We should all have ideas this purposeful.

It’s the question behind manslaughter. Somebody was killed. But the intent to kill them was not there. [...]]]> I heard a guy on ESPN Radio of all places speaking about intent. Do you view somebody based upon what they did, or the intent with which they did said action? It’s a tricky thing.

It’s the question behind manslaughter. Somebody was killed. But the intent to kill them was not there. So maybe you still go to jail, but you don’t go for too long. So there, obviously, you primarily judge based on intent, but secondarily on the act.

What I heard this morning was trying to completely and entirely separate the two. I do not, personally, believe you can make this distinction. They are intertwined. By ignoring one, you are making the other much too important and perhaps irrelevant at the same time.

But which should be the primary and which the secondary in the way that you view things? Should it be like the court system where intent is primary and action secondary? That is for everybody to decide on their own. To me, if you are careless, you had to make the decision (or lack there of – aka. carelessness) to perform or allow said action to occur. By working on the intent (cause), you can eliminate future occurrences of the action (effect), or at least lessen them to some degree. Conversely, if you try not to perform the action, your carelessness may still exist, and if you slip up (inadvertently) the action will yet again be performed.

Let’s use the manslaughter example. Vehicular. Person A is driving and talking on their cell phone and runs a red, hitting and killing Person B who was crossing the street. What happened? They were careless. Consequence? Somebody was killed. Now let’s try to eliminate both the intent and the action from this scenario. Option 1: Person A does not talk on the cell phone, thereby paying more attention to the road and stops at the red light, Person B safely crosses the street. Option 2: Person A is talking on the cell phone, still runs the red light, but now the action – either Person A or Person B notices before it is to late, there is some swerving going on, death is averted.

What do you think Person A would do afterwards in Option 2? Would they think “I need to avoid people in the road when I drive” or would they think “I should have stopped at the red light?” To me, that’s how I look at things. You either fix the problem (Option 1), or you fix the consequence (Option 2).

1:30 pm

I DO like rain. I like the sound, the fact that it makes things grow… it’s just also nice when it then makes way for clear blue skies two and a half hours later! I like how it was absolutely pouring, but there’s barely a cloud to [...]]]> 11:00 am

1:30 pm

I DO like rain. I like the sound, the fact that it makes things grow… it’s just also nice when it then makes way for clear blue skies two and a half hours later! I like how it was absolutely pouring, but there’s barely a cloud to be seen and the sidewalk looks dry in the second picture.

Glenn Beck to Jesus: Drop Dead

Glenn Beck said last week on his eponymous show that Christians should leave churches that preach “social justice.” Mr. Beck equated the desire for a just society with–wait for it–Nazism and Communism.

I’m [...]]]> Here’s this article I found today.  I think the title alone shows that it’s a little skewed…

Glenn Beck to Jesus: Drop Dead

Glenn Beck said last week on his eponymous show that Christians should leave churches that preach “social justice.” Mr. Beck equated the desire for a just society with–wait for it–Nazism and Communism.

I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes.

This means that you would have to leave the Catholic Church, which has long championed that aspect of the Gospel. The term “social justice” originated way back in the 1800s (and probably predates even that), and has been underlined by the Magisterium and popes since Leo XIII, who began the modern tradition of Catholic social teaching with his encyclical on capital and labor, Rerum Novarum in 1891. Subsequent popes have built on Leo’s work, continuing the church’s meditation on a variety of issues of social justice in such landmark documents as Pope Pius XI’s encyclical on “the reconstruction of the social order,”Quadregismo Anno (1931), Paul VI’s encyclical “on the development of peoples,” Populorum Progressio (1967) and John Paul II’s encyclical “on the social concerns of the church”Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987).

The Compendium of the Social Teaching of the Church, published by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, says this:

The Church’s social Magisterium constantly calls for the most classical forms of justice to be respected: commutative, distributive and legal justice. Ever greater importance has been given to social justice., which represents a real development in general justice, the justice that regulates social relationships according to the criterion of observance of the law. Social justice, a requirement related to the social question which today is worldwide in scope, concerns the social, political and economic aspects and, above all, the structural dimension of problems and their respective solutions….

Social justice is not just some silly foreign idea. American Catholics know that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have an Office of Justice, Peace and Human Development. On that website the U.S. bishops say: “At the core of the virtue of solidarity is the pursuit of justice and peace. Our love for all our sisters and brothers demands that we promote peace in a world surrounded by violence and conflict.”

Get it? Social justice is an essential part of Catholic teaching. It’s part of being a Catholic. So Glenn Beck is, in essence, saying “Leave the Catholic church.”

But Glenn Beck is saying something else: “Leave Christianity.” Again and again in the Gospels, Jesus mentions our responsibility to care for the poor, to work on their behalf, to stand with them. In fact, when asked how his followers would be judged he doesn’t say that it will be based on where you worship, or how you pray, or how often you go to church, or even what political party you believe in. He says something quite different: It depends on how you treat the poor.

In the Gospel of Matthew (25) he tells his surprised disciples, that when you are meeting the poor, you are meeting him. They protest. “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

But our responsibility to care for “the least of these” does not end with simple charity. Giving someone a handout is an important part of the Christian message. But so is advocating for them. It is not enough simply to help the poor, one must address the structures that keep them that way. Standing up for the rights of the poor is not being a Nazi, it’s being Christian. And Communist, as Mr. Beck suggests? It’s hard not to think of the retort of the great apostle of social justice, Dom Helder Camara, archbishop of Recife, “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

The attack on social justice is the tack of those who wish to ignore the concerns the poor and ignore the social structures that foster poverty. It’s not hard to see why people are tempted to do so. How much easier it would be if we didn’t have to worry about the poor!

But ignoring the poor, and ignoring what keeps them poor, is, quite simply, unchristian. For the poor are the church in many ways. When St. Lawrence, in the fourth century, was ordered by the prefect of Rome to turn over the wealth of the church, he presented to him the poor.

Glenn Beck’s desire to detach social justice from the Gospel is a move to detach care for the poor from the Gospel. But a church without the poor, and a church without a desire for a just social world for all, is not the church.

At least not the church of Jesus Christ. Who was, by the way, poor.

Um…okay?  Let’s totally forget that this may be taken out of context.  But am I the only one who thinks that “social justice” sounds a lot like “the law of consecration?”  (if you are not familiar with what either up, just do a quick search on Wikipedia for them)  Don’t ALL churches/groups/pacts/whatever-y0u-want-t0-call-it that promote some sort of “higher law” believe in social justice to a degree?

On an impulse we spent a whopping $2.50 on this recorder at Target. I want to be able to expose Morgan to more music and musical instruments, and while the recorder is often sort of pushed aside as that pseudo instrument they make you play in elementary school music class (if [...]]]>

On an impulse we spent a whopping $2.50 on this recorder at Target. I want to be able to expose Morgan to more music and musical instruments, and while the recorder is often sort of pushed aside as that pseudo instrument they make you play in elementary school music class (if there even is such a program anymore), it is technically an instrument.

While trying to remember the notes and how to play, our conversation went like this:
Me: hmm, I wonder what key this is in.
Adrian: um, it’s plastic.
Me: right. Good point.

Regardless, Morgan likes it. I’ll play a few notes and hand it to her, and she will put it in her mouth and start singing some notes. A few times she has even figured out to blow and make some noise on the recorder itself, but I kind of love it even more that she puts it to her mouth but uses her voice to make music. We’re thinking she might like a kazoo.

She’s into music and I enjoy that. The other day I had some music playing on the computer and she went over and pat the record player and made her ‘I want this’ noise. So I turned off the computer music and put on a Rachmaninoff record, and she sat back and moved a little and sung her little song. Smart kid, already preferring the quality of vinyl over digital. Hehe.

I want lots of REAL instruments around. As of now our music corner is just a guitar and the record player–and now the recorder! Adrian’s old clarinet is in the closet, it’s just not a take out and goof off with sort of thing. I do encourage percussion play on tins and pans and with vitamin bottles as much as possible. Someday it’ll move on to the bigger instruments assuming we can get them and remember anything about playing them.

(Reuters) – Vitamin D is vital in activating human defences and low levels suffered by around half the world’s population may mean their immune systems’ killer T cells are poor at fighting [...]]]> For anybody looking for additional reasoning as to “why in the world would you leave Microsoft and the Redmond-area” here is an answer…

(Reuters) – Vitamin D is vital in activating human defences and low levels suffered by around half the world’s population may mean their immune systems’ killer T cells are poor at fighting infection, scientists said on Sunday.

The findings by Danish researchers could help the fight against infectious diseases and global epidemics, they said, and could be particularly useful in the search for new vaccines.

The researchers found that immune systems’ killer cells, known as T cells, rely on vitamin D to become active and remain dormant and unaware of the possibility of threat from an infection or pathogen if vitamin D is lacking in the blood.

“When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signaling device or ‘antenna’ known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D,” said Carsten Geisler of Copenhagen University’s department of international health, immunology and microbiology, who led the study.

“This means the T cell must have vitamin D or activation of the cell will cease. If the T cells cannot find enough vitamin D in the blood, they won’t even begin to mobilize.”

Scientists have known for a long time that vitamin D is important for calcium absorption, and that there is a link between levels of the vitamin and diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.

“What we didn’t realize is how crucial vitamin D is for actually activating the immune system — which we know now,” Geisler wrote in the study in the journal Nature Immunology.

Most Vitamin D is made by the body as a natural by-product of the skin’s exposure to sunlight. It can also be found in fish liver oil, eggs and fatty fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel, or taken as a supplement.

Almost half of the world’s population has lower than optimal levels of vitamin D and scientists say the problem is getting worse as people spend more time indoors.

Geisler and his research team said the findings offered much needed information about the immune system and would be of particular use when developing new vaccines.

“This is important not only in fighting disease but also in dealing with anti-immune reactions of the body and the rejection of transplanted organs,” they wrote.

Active T cells multiply at an explosive rate and as well as fighting infection, can also mistakenly attack the body itself.

After and an organ transplant, for example, T cells can attack the new organ as a “foreign invader,” and in autoimmune disease, hypersensitive T cells mistake parts of the body’s own cells as threats, prompting the body to attack itself.

Geisler said there were no definitive studies on the optimal daily vitamin D dose but experts recommend 25 to 50 micrograms.

Not that we were overtly sick or anything, but you definitely feel the difference.  Synthesized vitamins will only do so much, you need actual sun.  And from October to May, you don’t actually get any Vitamin D from the amount (or lack thereof) of sunlight up there.  Nothing like the real thing, which we’ll get plenty of down here.

If Microsoft had something larger a little more southernly, we’d be having a different conversation right now.  :)  Of course we’ve had rainstorms down here the past few days, and it’s interesting to see how much more difficult it has been to get out of bed and feel energized.

-I came late to the google reader party (well, a while ago, now), and I felt like it revolutionized my internet use. Yeah, I know, I need a more exciting life. Anyway, do you remember those old Rubbermaid commercials where the family would clean up the disaster of a room with [...]]]> A few blog related things:

-I came late to the google reader party (well, a while ago, now), and I felt like it revolutionized my internet use. Yeah, I know, I need a more exciting life. Anyway, do you remember those old Rubbermaid commercials where the family would clean up the disaster of a room with the help of stacks of plastic containers and then announce, “We need more stuff!”? I felt like that. So now I’ve amassed more blogs to read, but it’s all so easy! Hehe.

-We know this blog is a little slow, though we’re not sure why. Adrian cleaned up a few widgets and it seems a little smoother. Or you could just use the aforementioned google reader and that would solve that issue.

-We’re eventually going to discontinue the old domain and the forwarding, so please please PLEASE update your little blog rolls with the proper blog address. And then if it’s the kind that updates when we post it should actually work now, too, so that’s an added bonus.

Merci!

Last week I had a bit of renewed desire to appreciate smaller things. It helps me to enjoy life more, which is always a good thing! There are some rose bushes in our front yard, and one of them happens to be my very favorite color–the yellow/orange kind. I was so excited when [...]]]>

Last week I had a bit of renewed desire to appreciate smaller things. It helps me to enjoy life more, which is always a good thing! There are some rose bushes in our front yard, and one of them happens to be my very favorite color–the yellow/orange kind. I was so excited when they started blooming. Of course the bushes look like they haven’t been pruned in years and there’s a ton of dead growth on them, so I really need to get out there with some clippers and go to town. I wouldn’t care, really, except that if I do the work I’ll have the reward of more of my favorite roses. Convenient how that works out!

[The overgrown bushes are sort of a good example of the house where we're living--nice but maybe a little neglected in some areas. We're still not feeling emotionally settled in it, even if we're "moved in". I would need to do some serious work to get it feeling right, and honestly I don't know if I want to bother since we're renting it and who knows how long we'll be here. I just don't see it as my job to clean up years' worth of dirt in the sliding glass door track, and I can't even get the kitchen window open. Okay, back to appreciating things. Hehehe.]

This week it’s daffodils from Trader Joe’s. $1.29 for eight or so blooms… yeah, that’s worth it! They’re so cheerful!

I was super excited to put together these laundry sorter carts. I’ve been wanting something like this for quite a while. So I opened them up and Morgan and I listened to a little Louis Armstrong while putting them together. She likes the music, which makes me so happy. She danced a little, very carefully touched the light…

…then suddenly lunged forward. I guess the temptation was too much. That’s okay, she’s learning, and I’m just glad she likes listening to good music!

What things, small or large, are you appreciating?

Lately Morgan has been really into eating entire foods, as in the big versions instead of cut up or mashed up versions. Yes, I realize it may not be the wisest thing, but we are always right there with her while she’s doing it so I don’t really fear her choking or anything. [...]]]>

Lately Morgan has been really into eating entire foods, as in the big versions instead of cut up or mashed up versions. Yes, I realize it may not be the wisest thing, but we are always right there with her while she’s doing it so I don’t really fear her choking or anything. If I see her get a too-large chunk I take the piece away. Anyway, if she sees something she’s interested in she’ll reach for it and shout for it, then hold it dearly when she gets it. And then scream when for whatever reason it needs to be taken away (like how yesterday as we drove home from the store she wailed the entire way because I wouldn’t let her keep eating a banana–the peels are really not for eating, and when she’s rear facing in the car I don’t feel comfortable with her gnawing on something like that). It’s neat to see her so interested in things, and as much as possible I say yes and give her the opportunity to explore. She’s learning texture, taste, and color, all things that make food so interesting to all of us.

(The above picture was a few days after we moved in, hence all the boxes and paper. She practically leaped out of my arms onto the counter and dove for the apple.)

She picked the cabbage at the store. I paused in front of the display and she most definitely wanted one. So we bought it and I reminded her how she picked it when we then made a slaw salad deal out of it. She wasn’t so sure about eating it, though. Greens are hard to chew without any molars.

She absolutely insisted that I share my celery and peanut butter with her. I think she liked the peanut butter more than the celery. Then again, let’s be honest here: so do I!

We made soup while I had her in the sling. She held the vegetables for me while I chopped, then later helped me stir. She very much liked this leek. Kind of an odd choice I felt, but again I do try and encourage her to try and explore. So I let her go to town…

…and of course had to take a picture of all her handiwork. I cut everything else up and only had the leek left, so I really needed to take it. She was not happy. I cut off the dark green tops and gave a few back to her and she was as happy as can be.

The kid will eat just about anything (though of course not dairy! and it seems maybe not eggs either–we’re still trying to figure that one out so being cautious in the meantime). We had Persian food for our anniversary and she at the hummus, koubideh, and of course the cherry rice. Oh, and nan. She enjoyed it just about as much as we did, I think. I love that she’ll join us in our eating adventures. Hopefully she’ll grow up used to different flavors. Spice doesn’t seem to bother her at all.

Similar to her fascination with food is her interest in everyday objects. She loves tubes of toothpaste, for example. The funny thing is that when she’ll settle in to nurse, she’ll often stop and sit up, find whatever interesting object she can, and then come back to nurse while clutching it. Some kids have blankies or stuffed animals, and Morgan has tubes of toothpaste and pens.

UPDATE: I actually wrote this post yesterday, and then today, just to prove everything I said above, she fell asleep for her nap nursing and clutching a lemon. I personally think she’s quite hilarious.

Lately I’ve just been showering Morgan with me because it’s been easier, but I really wanted to give her a bath. So I finally cleaned the sink enough (and we bought a new stopper) and gave her a little bath in there. If you know how I feel about sinks, it should tell [...]]]>

Lately I’ve just been showering Morgan with me because it’s been easier, but I really wanted to give her a bath. So I finally cleaned the sink enough (and we bought a new stopper) and gave her a little bath in there. If you know how I feel about sinks, it should tell you something about how I feel about the bathtub that I’m actually bathing my baby in the kitchen sink. You do what you have to do.

She had lots of fun splashing around and playing with the water, as always. Then she tried to stick things down the garbage disposal on the other side of the sink and I had to (a) stop that one pretty quickly and (b) suppress my gag reflex.

This rubber ducky is her favorite. We got it randomly–it was the Westin Kid’s Club gift when we went to Washington D.C. for Diana’s wedding. But we kept it and she’s always liked it. I also always sing the rubber ducky song when she gets in the bath, and she usually grabs the rubber ducky first.

I try to sing certain songs to help give a rhythm to life–so I always sing the same songs at bath time and certain songs when it’s raining, as well as of course the same bedtime songs. I need to increase my repertoire of songs for normal daily stuff though. Is there such a thing as a song for cooking dinner or cleaning? Maybe I’ll have to start making up my own.

Our neighbors brought us a big bag of grapefruits and oranges from their trees. Can you beat having fresh very local fruit in the middle of winter? I think it’s great. And Morgan is really into them. She chows oranges, peel and all, if we let her. I figure the peel [...]]]>

Our neighbors brought us a big bag of grapefruits and oranges from their trees. Can you beat having fresh very local fruit in the middle of winter? I think it’s great. And Morgan is really into them. She chows oranges, peel and all, if we let her. I figure the peel isn’t bad for you, it’s just bitter, so if the kid is crazy and likes it then who am I to deny her? I still only let her have a little, though.

So we’re settling in somewhat in Arizona. We like it so far. Job is good, can’t beat the weather this time of year, and the area seems pretty nice. We’ve spent all our time hunting for a house, which I enjoy for the most part but also kind of makes me crazy sometimes. I realize it’s a huge decision, obviously, but MAN it takes a lot of time and mental energy. So we’ll see where that goes…hopefully forward, eventually! I want so much to “be settled”, whatever that means.

I am a bum about blogging, I realize. It’s been feeling futile to me. But at least it’s good for my own memory, right? So IF I get on things a bit I’d like to go back and record a lot of things, even if it’s from months ago. Let’s go with “better late than never”on this one. Hehehe.

Day -2: pack most of van with incredibly helpful friends (Shayne, Stephanie, Brandon, Karen, Brett…thank you!!). Realize will need trailer. Make reservation for trailer and installation for trailer hitch on car. Dads arrive. Toby goes insane with excitement.

Day -1: pack more with dads’ help. Start to attempt to get rid [...]]]> From both of us:

Day -2: pack most of van with incredibly helpful friends (Shayne, Stephanie, Brandon, Karen, Brett…thank you!!). Realize will need trailer. Make reservation for trailer and installation for trailer hitch on car. Dads arrive. Toby goes insane with excitement.

Day -1: pack more with dads’ help. Start to attempt to get rid of many belongings before deciding to get second trailer. Dinner, thankfully, with helpful friends (Shayne and Stephanie…thanks once again!). Also decide that getting to Orange County in two days is nuts. Add a day to trip.

Day 1: of course start late because of aforementioned trailer hitch installation. Emily starts to lose mind. Luckily Stephanie is there to pull loose ends and even clean the floor (!!). Dads and we are exhausted in every conceivable way.

Stay in middle of nowhere Oregon. Basically a truck stop but not too bad.

Day 2: Emily says famous last words ‘driving will be the easy part. I just hate packing.’

Stop for lunch in Yreka, CA.

Leave two days later.

(Get to know local Walmart and hotel laundry facilities since clothes are in the one car that was ahead and made it through the pass. The fact that we DO have plenty of clothes but they’re buried behind other household goods in the truck is a wee bit annoying. Spend lots of time on road condition websites, listening to radio, and talking to people.)

Day 4: Snow stops long enough to break out of town. Thrilled to be anywhere south of Redding.

Have realized that we cannot get to OC at all because of insane weather and a southern section of the 5 is closed. Plan eastern route.

Stay in small town central CA, approximately 15 feet from the freeway AND train tracks. Room shakes when large trucks go by. Promise self to never stay at that particular brand hotel again.

Day 5: Plan is to stay at AZ border, knowing that we’d arrive in Phoenix too late to get keys etc. Hit more snow on the 15. Starting to lose all humor.

Check engine light goes on as we leave Barstow. Transmission sounds normal and there are no odd smells. Cross fingers and ignore it.

Start calling Blythe hotels. Am confused when many tell me they are sold out. Start getting really frustrated. Even try hotel recently promised self to avoid. Find out a nearby ‘city’ has a large rock and mineral convention and all hotels are full. I am not joking.

Give up and book hotel in Phoenix after helpful hotel employee tells me that’s where the next hotels are.

Get to much nicer hotel where we are given two poolside cabana suites. Ahh. Now THIS is better!

And now day 6…
Hopefully we’ll be able to actually take care of everything today and get at least a little settled. Thankfully our families have been helping us and though we’ve had plenty of changes and odd experiences we’ve had a good time with our dads. All is well. It’s all just a big adventure, right?

So, a quick update (with no pictures because we updated [...]]]> …after I only wrote a single post in December. Hehe. Even this one I’m actually writing from my phone, which is pretty neat. There are moments I feel guilty about that and then I realize it’s probably not the most important thing in my life.

So, a quick update (with no pictures because we updated wordpress and haven’t got everything synced).

-Christmas and New Year’s were good, as was my birthday. We all got sick the week before. I finished not a single gift I was making, didn’t make the cookies I wanted, and failed in working on some traditions we want to create. It was sort of an odd year. Lots of things up in the air it felt like. Oh well…try again next year!!

-Morgan is fantastic. She has eight teeth (did I blog that already?), is starting to get into things more, loves light switches, and is generally hilarious. She started clapping and knows it will always get a response out of us, so she does it at random times. Like when we’re pretending we’re asleep in an effort to get her to go to sleep. And then you can’t just ignore her when she’s clearly trying to get your attention. Hehe. She’s pretty great. Last night she pulled her sock off and then appeared to be attempting to put it back on. I watch in amazement at all she learns.

-I survived my first Sharing Time teaching the little kids at church last week. I think I did okay. But it’s hard to keep the attention of a big group of kids! I sure enjoy them, though. I get to try again this week, so I guess that’s good? Even if I’m already a little nervous.

-If you’ve read this far, good job! Your reward is to learn that we’re moving to Phoenix. In, um, a week and a half. To a house that we have not yet found and will not have seen by the time we arrive. Adventures are fun! And we’re excited for sunshine (oh so much sunshine…). So the house is already somewhat dismantled. The few pictures we had up are now down, our closet is half empty, the books are all gone and added to the twenty other boxes of books in the garage, and I’m thinking I should just pack up the kitchen (which is my biggest stress point packing-wise–the fact that we have nowhere to live would be the actual biggest stress) and forget any more cooking. Adrian started taking apart our chairs (we’re a little nervous about room on the truck) but I convinced him that we needed a table to eat at for at least another week.

We’ll get there. All too soon. I’ve started feeling very nostalgic. This house has been good to us, and we’ve had so many opportunities up here. This is where our first baby was born, and where we learned so much. We’ve met some really great people. And I’m excited, because anything that I feel propels us forward and out of limbo is a good thing, but I can’t help but feel a little sad too. Any change in life is that way, and it’s why it teaches us. Onward and upward!

Look at that squished up nose! It’s been so dark (and [...]]]> Morgan is getting so big. She wants to explore everything and is always interested in whatever we’re doing. She crawls right over and pulls herself up or climbs all over us. It’s a lot of fun. I personally think she’s hilarious.

Look at that squished up nose! It’s been so dark (and cold!!) that I’ve taken to using the flash on my camera. I know–it’s so unlike me. But I’m so tired of having blurry pictures inside that I don’t even want to take them sometimes, which is even sadder than funky flash shadows and washed out everything. So there you have it.

Also, this picture was taken at the end of our week with intermittent hot water. The laundry situation was pretty bad. I feel like I have to put that disclaimer in because of the shorts and my pasty legs. Not that my legs are ever not pasty, nor do I care, but I’m just saying. Happily we have a new water heater and all is well. And I still get excited when I feel warm water coming out of the tap.

I was chain piecing a giant string and of course Morgan was happy to play with it. She likes to sit and sew with me, which usually I like. Last week., though, I actually sewed THROUGH my finger. It was not my most brilliant moment. I was trying to nurse her at the same time (likely the problem) and just somehow got my finger in the wrong spot. Luckily it went through right next to my nail and not through it. I was half annoyed at my dumbness, half sad that I broke a needle. The damage wasn’t nearly as bad as I first thought. Had I not been so worried about getting it out–and listening to an unhappy baby who suddenly was plopped on the floor when she thought it was nursing time–it would have been a good picture. Hehe. It hasn’t stopped me from pushing forward on present-making, though, even though it’s going pretty slowly.

Playing with Daddy’s new golf club as he unpacked it. Of course as soon as she sensed his excitement she had to get right in there! I think she knows which things interest us, and she figures it has to be good. There’s no fooling kids.

She’s reached the “pull everything apart” stage, which includes books on the shelf or clothes I’ve just folded. It’s hard to mind, though, when she smiles like that. Plus I enjoy her exploring, which is all she’s doing. There’s very little that can’t be refolded or reshelved, so it doesn’t really bother me.

The big news of the week? Teeth! She’s had four for a while now, but it sort of stopped for a bit. There was one that has been visible but not through the gums for about two months. A couple days ago we noticed that it had finally broke through, and then last night I felt the one next to it also. Then today I poked at her bottom teeth and noticed another one that’s actually pretty far in already. We just hadn’t been watching for those yet. So that’s seven teeth! Crazy. That also explains, probably, why she’s been super clingy for the past week and hasn’t been sleeping well at night again. The teeth, the teeth… and three at once!

Going along with the teeth, she’s eating lots on her own, which is tons of fun. She makes a mess sometimes, but she actually does a very good job of it and clearly enjoys it. The biggest bonus is that I actually get to eat my dinner more or less like a normal person now, so I’m loving this new development.

Taken out the window. Hello rain and grey skies! It has become suddenly cold and wet around here. (Really this started awhile ago and I took these pictures weeks ago but I’m just bothering to post now.)

This is a bad picture. That’s intentional. Also please ignore the [...]]]>

Taken out the window. Hello rain and grey skies! It has become suddenly cold and wet around here. (Really this started awhile ago and I took these pictures weeks ago but I’m just bothering to post now.)

This is a bad picture. That’s intentional. Also please ignore the mess that is the counter (actually, at least most of the dishes are in the rack, which means they’re clean). This is to show how dark it is inside during the day. This was taken at noon. Note how the blinds are nearly as open as they can be. It’s kind of funny to need to have lights on all day, but that’s just life around these parts, I think. Let’s just say it’s… odd. I’ve noticed, though, how little I feel like taking pictures because there isn’t even enough light during midday to get decent ones. Hrumph! Oh well. That’s life.

On Friday we went to Adrian’s work for a little bit. They had a reptile guy with lots of neat stuff. We got to see and hear some crazy snakes. I think after that they did some sort of trick or treating [...]]]> Just a bit about Halloween before it’s suddenly the middle of November…

On Friday we went to Adrian’s work for a little bit. They had a reptile guy with lots of neat stuff. We got to see and hear some crazy snakes. I think after that they did some sort of trick or treating around the offices, and apparently there was a huge shindig at “the commons” but we had to leave. (Remember, there are something like 200(?) buildings and 40,000 employees at the Redmond campus. There are a lot of people.)

Us on the front stoop on Halloween. Morgan was a horse. I didn’t make her costume, which I had to get over because I didn’t want to buy the costume when we saw it even though we liked it. Adrian gently reminded me that I probably didn’t need to stress myself out over getting something done. He was right. We saw this and thought it was a cow, so we said she could be Mooooorgan. Get it? We call her that sometimes. But then turns out it had a mane and a tail. Hmm. Definitely a horse. So she was a horse. Or a cow.

Slightly better shot of Toby as a shark. Yeah, we actually dressed up our dog. We saw this costume at Target and it made us laugh, so we bought it. He actually did better with it than we thought he would.

The extent of our Halloween decorations. We didn’t even carve a pumpkin. How lame are we, right? Oh well. This was a Martha idea I’ve been wanting to try for a long time. It’s glow sticks in white balloons with faces drawn on. For obvious reasons it was hard to get a picture, so just squint and see if you can tell what’s going on there.

I like recording projects that I’ve finished so that I remember that I have actually completed things (it’s that whole “getting ahead in life” thing). So here are a few recent ones:

I found this fabric and at first wasn’t too sure about it, then decided I loved it and wanted to see it [...]]]>

I like recording projects that I’ve finished so that I remember that I have actually completed things (it’s that whole “getting ahead in life” thing). So here are a few recent ones:

I found this fabric and at first wasn’t too sure about it, then decided I loved it and wanted to see it all the time. So I made pillow covers for the couch with it. I knew I’d have to carefully ration the scraps, since I bought the last of it at the store. I decided to make a fabric basket that could replace the wicker-y one that sits on the couch and holds Morgan’s toys. Sometimes little bits fall off, which isn’t really optimal for a basket that she plays with. So I used this tutorial from Sew Mama Sew and went from there. It was a challenge because it used different types of interfacing and fusible fleece than I’d used before. Plus, because I can never do anything simply, I altered the dimensions. Because I made it bigger the sides weren’t as strong, so I added in a layer of thin cardboard I pulled out of our recycle pile. It didn’t come out perfectly because the lining didn’t quite fit as I was hoping, but it’s good enough. I cut the fabric carefully and calculated I could make four of these (though I’d have to buy more of the Essex linen for the lining and base), so we’ll see if I ever get to that.

I might also add more layers between the lining and outer box because as you can see it’s not too stiff. But hey, it works. It holds toys. And it makes an excellent hat.

The back of the pillows are button closed because I think it’s cute and it makes the cover removable without having to deal with sewing zippers. Morgan here is demonstrating both her fascination with everything around her and her finger skills. I had a vision for what I wanted in the button itself and couldn’t seem to find quite what I was looking for at the store. Then while ordering things from this site of wood products I realized that a wooden button was exactly what I was going for. Voila!

So, um, remember how when I was pregnant I started knitting this blanket? It wound up sitting for a very very long time because I wasn’t really happy with how it was turning out (like oh so many projects…). But I finally finished it and then took another month or two to weave all the little tails in. At least it’s done. I still don’t envision her snuggling up with it because it sheds like mad and isn’t as soft as I wanted (hence the frustration with the results of my work), but at least I finished. And it can now sit in a box forever.

Okay, now this one is funnier. I started this when I was somewhere around the age of 14 or 15, I believe, which means it has been sitting around, incomplete, for over ten years. It’s another one that I wasn’t entirely happy with how it came out, and frankly I didn’t really have a use for it anyway. Well, I’ve been wanting a rug and one day that bag it sat in finally made me insane enough that I finished crocheting it and threw it on the kitchen floor, bumps and all. Adrian’s not wild about the dirty factor with a rug that is near so much food, which I understand, so this is great because it’s washable but if it falls apart and we throw it away I don’t care at all. At least it’s not sitting in my craft stuff anymore, slowly eating at my sanity. Hehehe.

She wants to explore everything! I sometimes sew with her on my lap (since she’ll only let me put her down [...]]]> After the last post about Morgan, I thought of more things that are new lately. There are actually new things almost daily around here, really. I think she’s at such a fun age!

She wants to explore everything! I sometimes sew with her on my lap (since she’ll only let me put her down for about 30 seconds) and now she likes touching and exploring the machine. So one day I put the needle all the way down and let her touch and grab whatever she wanted. I think she had fun.

She has started using her fingers, not just her hands, which is so neat to watch. She has been on a big eating kick lately–she seems to go back and forth, interested or not interested in solid foods, but she’s definitely interested now. We’ve started giving her small things she can feed herself, and she loves it. Except now, of course, she doesn’t like being fed. She only wants to feed herself. It’s hard to feed yourself purees of food when you can’t quite do the spoon yourself, though. She winds up spreading it all over, which is okay too. A little bit probably does get into her mouth. Hehe. Now that she’ll sit and feed herself, I can actually set her down for a minute and eat my own food. Whoa. It feels revolutionary.

This face cracks me up. I know it’s blurry (moving target–she spied my camera and dove for it), but it’s too funny. Notice how Toby just watches us as though we’re crazy? Yeah.

So the other thing about using her hands and fingers: We’ve read Pat the Bunny for a long time, and usually I help her pat the bunny, play peek a boo with Paul, touch Daddy’s scratchy face, etc. If you haven’t read the book, that sentence probably didn’t make a lot of sense. Well, suddenly she does it herself. As I read the bunny page, she reached with her little pointer finger and pat the bunny all by herself, and she likes lifting the cloth to play peek a boo with Paul. Kills me. Too cute. I’ll try to get a picture of this sometime.

Toby is by far still her favorite. She shrieks with excitement when she sees him or gets close enough to touch him. Of course Toby has learned that she grabs and runs away still, generally just watching her wearily from a distance. Hopefully someday he’ll like her as much as she adores him.

Morgan is still very attached to me, but she’s started acting that way with Adrian more, too, which I think is so cute. When he leaves the room we’re in, she calls after him, watching the door, and then gets really excited when he comes back. It’s so sweet to see.

–I read this article the other day written by an American living in London and I felt so London sick. I started wishing I could live there, plotting in my head how [...]]]> This post published in a slightly different form yesterday. So for those of you who read the first one, this one’s a little different.

–I read this article the other day written by an American living in London and I felt so London sick. I started wishing I could live there, plotting in my head how to make that happen. And I don’t know if I’d really want that in the end, but it sure does sound lovely to live in Europe. It’s been my dream for a really long time.

–Isn’t it interesting how there are certain things that stick with you, both positively and negatively, that people say? I can still remember so very clearly certain things from childhood through high school through now that people have said to me. There are compliments that still make me feel warm and fuzzy or other things that still make me feel a little flush with embarrassment or whatever. It’s not that I have a great memory, but it seems like there are certain things that just become so firmly imprinted on us. It’s just amazing how relatively small experiences shape the way we feel and think later in life. Anyone have any they’d like to share? I’ll share a positive one (since the negative ones are best not dwelt on and I’d be too embarrassed to share them): someone in high school told me I was the kind of girl soldiers would have dreamed about while they were overseas. And it still makes me blush.

–Sometimes I feel like I’m in this river and all I’m doing in staying in the same place no matter what it is that I do. I think a lot of work that is traditionally women’s work goes unnoticed, because it’s all the kind that inevitably has to be repeated. You know, you do stuff all day and at the end of it can’t figure out what you did, because the house looks the same essentially, so you have to remember that you DID in fact clean the kitchen, it’s just now messy again because you also made dinner. Etc. It’s defeating when you do a bunch of laundry only to see that the basket is half full by the time you finish the round. But I suppose it’s accepting and realizing that all those little things do add up.

Of course it’s also learning to let go of expectations, which is probably a rather large conversation all on its own. Women in general I think expect a whole lot out of themselves, and then are really hard on themselves when it doesn’t all work out as we’d like. At least I sure do that.

Sometimes it’s frustrating to feel that whatever it is I’m doing doesn’t get me ahead, just allows us to not be behind or swept down with the current of all the little stuff that can easily pile up, e.g. pans in the sink (which thankfully Adrian did all of last night so I could get up and feel not quite so behind today). So how do you do the stuff just to remain where you are AND get ahead? And also somehow remember to brush your teeth (don’t laugh–it’s happened…)?

And then I realize that I only have one child and wonder what it’s like with more kids and want to roll over and really give up. I mean, holy moly! How do people do it? I aspire to be so many things, but perhaps you only learn how by just doing it and getting through it and eventually figuring it all out.

–So! One of those areas in which I’ve been feeling reasonably good, like we’re getting ahead even, is in eating. I feel mostly pretty good about how we eat, and I think that’s important. This week we got fancy and bought some fancy pants cheeses at Whole Foods (we always end up buying extra fun things when we shop together. never good monetarily), and I broke my no-dairy rules to have some. Bad of me, yes, but so so good. At least if I’m going to have some dairy it’ll be something really yummy. Hehe.

–I have this application on my phone for sudoku, and sometimes when I lay down with Morgan while she naps or at night when I’m trying to fall asleep I play. It has a counter of how much total time has been played on it and it concerns me to see the total. I don’t want to acknowledge that I’ve spent THAT much time playing a game. Yipes. Therefore…

–Part of my efforts trying to be more on top of things is a goal to use the computer less. I’m trying to turn it off most of the time, only having it on to check blogs and stuff once a day instead of all day every time I walk past it, which then sucks you in and suddenly you’ve wasted all this time… I feel like I’m just spending too much time on the computer, and not really participating in life the way I’d like to [she said as she wrote her BLOG...ahem].

–This morning I was reminded to be grateful for little things, which today was waking up very warm and cozy between my husband and baby. What’s better than that? I think it’s adorable the way Morgan likes to snuggle while she sleeps, “nursing” most of the night. And she’s so happy when she wakes up in the morning that it’s much easier for us to wake up. What a cool kid.

–The teeth–

Her two bottom ones have been in now for two and a half months. One top came in about a month ago. The opposite one on top has been looking like it’s right there for about three weeks. I keep poking at her, thinking it’ll be through, but it’s [...]]]> Some random updates on Miss M…

–The teeth–

Her two bottom ones have been in now for two and a half months. One top came in about a month ago. The opposite one on top has been looking like it’s right there for about three weeks. I keep poking at her, thinking it’ll be through, but it’s not. This constant pressure might be what’s causing her to have a harder time sleeping lately? Who knows. It’s rough being a kid sometimes, I suspect.

–Um… mobile?–

Morgan has never really truly crawled. She’ll propel herself forward when she wants to, but mostly she just doesn’t bother. She will, however, grunt until we give her our hands and she can pull herself up, which she has been doing for about three months. She’s getting much better at walking while holding onto our hands, and she’ll transfer from one thing to another (the chair to something next to it, our hands to the couch, etc.). However, now that she has gotten better-at-but-not-perfected the concept of walking, she seems to have decided to move on… to climbing. It’s hilarious. She’s been doing it somewhat for a while, like scaling up my hip and side while I hold her (hence the nickname shoulder or back monkey, depending what we’re letting her climb on). But then this week she used the tin of blocks next to the couch to climb up onto the couch–while we were giving her some balance support, of course. She just constantly wants to do more, get more, see more. She still doesn’t like sitting much; she prefers to be up high where she can see more. Curious kid, I tell you. Her awareness since birth has shocked me.

Holding on to daddy’s hands by the couch. This was on Conference weekend, which was absolutely gorgeous weather wise and just so nice.

–Yogurt, or how we discovered her milk allergy–

Morgan was sitting on my lap as we finished up dinner and kept grabbing for my plate, which had tsaziki and hummus on it. I could understand how that would be fun to grab and play in, so we got her a plate with plain yogurt on it so she could eat it if she wanted to. She had a lot of fun. It was all over her, me, and the tablecloth. Luckily all those things are washable.

Well. Her face got a little red, and as soon as we took her clothes off so we could both shower off we saw that her whole chest, belly, and back were turning bright red. Then she started getting little white welt-y spots on her chest. And she was clawing at her chest and scratching it. Poor kid!

So the good news is that now we know what may have been causing the crazy excema and skin issues she’s been having. I have completely eliminated milk products from my diet–which made me cranky for a day because while we don’t drink milk anyway I do cook with milk and cream and really really like cheese. Plus it’s just a pain because milk is in so much. Even the bread we had has milk in it. But of course feeling sorry for myself made me feel worse because I realized how selfish I was being, feeling sorry for ME when she was so uncomfortable and there was a possible way I could help her.

So far she seems to be improving a little but still is not great. It’s been a week totally milk free (okay, except for the very small amount of parmesan in the pesto I had previously made and frozen).  I’ve also switched laundry detergent and use a whole lot of Aquaphor all over her. A couple nights ago she was waking up a lot, grabbing at her chest and trying to scratch through her clothes. So I suspect something still isn’t right. There’s this old animated version of “Madeline” where Miss Clavel runs through the house and sings “Something is not right, something is quite wrong…” and I sometimes sing that to myself. The next step, however, would be to go on an elimination diet for wheat, soy, and eggs in addition to the milk, and then I would have a hard time knowing what to eat at all. We’ll see where all this gets us.

–Playing and exploring–

This is Morgan playing with Adrian’s old wooden blocks while sitting on a blanket my grandma made for me. Hehe. When I realized how funny and neat that is I had to take a picture. She ate them, knocked over my stacks, and banged them together. Normal kid.

The other day I bought some balloons for a Halloween thing I want to do and to entertain Morgan I blew one up and let out the air, let it fly around, etc. She was laughing so hard, possibly the most I’ve ever seen. She seemed to like watching it get bigger. I love how kids are entertained by such simple things. It’s so fun to watch and experience with them. It’s a reminder to focus on the little wondrous things all around us.

–Mama!!!!–

She’s back in a major “I need mommy!” mode. She has been in it before, certainly, but it seemed like she was starting to be more willing to let me out of her sight for a little bit or even be held by or play with someone else. Not so much anymore. Today I set her down to go wash my hands–in the bathroom that’s about ten feet away–and she was crying by the time I got to the sink. She does it even when she can see me, too. It’s cute, however also sometimes exhausting. Someday she won’t need me to hold her constantly. Happily that day won’t come too soon, and by then my back will be too weak to carry her around anyway. So it all works out.

And, just because: THIS is why I don’t use flash, even when it results in slightly blurry, yellow tinged pictures:

Haha! I know there’s a way to adjust the amount of flash on my camera, but I dislike it so much I’ve never figured it out. I will hopefully never use it again.

Let’s call the it the Jon and Kate syndrome, though that’s not really what I’m thinking about. They were cool to watch because they were this struggling family with [...]]]> Question: is it possible for cool things to become popular and still keep their integrity and whatever it was that made them cool in the first place?

Let’s call the it the Jon and Kate syndrome, though that’s not really what I’m thinking about. They were cool to watch because they were this struggling family with lots of kids and you wondered how they could handle it all. Well, they got famous, money is clearly not an issue, and the answer now is that they handle it with money. They no longer have the qualities that made them endearing originally.

Or say Whole Foods. Nice store, lots of nice natural products, carries “eco-friendly” stuff (that phrase is a whole discussion on its own)… but it’s huge. It grew to become like other national chains, so it kind of lost it’s soul. You know what I mean? When the organic produce is flown halfway around the world, is it really that much better? See The Omnivore’s Dilemma (by Michael Pollan) for a better discussion of that particular issue. I’m parroting the idea here.

Sponsorship, I feel, is a huge issue. Everything is sponsored. I’ve stopped trusting a lot of things, because I assume it’s sponsored and that’s why the product is conveniently mentioned. It makes me sad.

I hope it doesn’t happen to the stuff I like. But if a company in Maine is big enough for me to have heard about it, has it already lost its Mom and Pop soul? It’s the end result of a commercialized world. Isn’t the goal sort of to get a good enough idea that one of the big companies will buy you out for millions? So then the whole world is controlled by the same four huge corporations… Will everyone sell out when given the chance? Would I, if it meant I could live a more relaxed life? Probably so I suppose.

Sometimes I want to go live in a cave. Anyone care to join me?

Action shot… she’ll only go forward, inchworm style, when there’s something worthwhile. Apparently the lens cap was good enough. I love the symbolism of crawling away from her toy basket to reach something that Mama likes, which surely means it’s more interesting.

A successful grab… or is this [...]]]>

Action shot… she’ll only go forward, inchworm style, when there’s something worthwhile. Apparently the lens cap was good enough. I love the symbolism of crawling away from her toy basket to reach something that Mama likes, which surely means it’s more interesting.

A successful grab… or is this a Nikon ad? I love how she’s holding it just perfectly. I wonder if there’s a way to submit this photo to them. Haha.

She grabbed a page of a magazine I had intended to save. Luckily it wasn’t one that I really really wanted. My selflessness has limits, okay? I was working on my mostly-useless-but-makes-me-happy collection of Martha articles cataloged in binders. It’s a silly thing that lets me feel like I’m doing a project for me.

I love the “oooh!” face. Can’t help it.

Somehow I caught the bee going to the [...]]]> A couple weeks ago Morgan and I went to the farm to pick some vegetables. I’ve been wanting to go for a while and of course was bummed I hadn’t gone earlier in the season. At least we got some good stuff!

Somehow I caught the bee going to the sunflower. Neat. What a lovely day, eh?

Morgan grabbing the tomato plants. Chubby fingers are cute. Hehe.

Morgan eating the tomato plant. Mmmm…

And just one of our treasures. Notice my dirty fingers. That’s working for your food… even though of course the farmers did basically all the work… not the point.

Someday I’ll grow things in my own yard and not kill them. Really. And then we’ll have super fresh produce all summer long. Someday.

We bought some toys that were sort of for Morgan’s sixth month birthday, but mostly that was an excuse to buy a few things. I was so excited when it all came. It’s from a company that sells all stuff made with wood or natural fibers, so of course I enjoy that.

Morgan playing with the rattle-type toy (note, if you can see it, how well she’s sitting up. She’ll actually sit for a few minutes and play, and it’s so nice to be able to sit with her while I fold laundry or whatever)

All wrapped up together was this silk and wooden bowl and spoon. Yes, I decided to go for it. Because I’m crazy.

And, because I take pictures of somewhat pointless things… I just like that an actual person wrote thank you on the packing slip.

Well, when [...]]]> Have you heard of Tom’s Shoes? For every pair of shoes they sell, they donate a pair of shoes to children in need in the US and around the world. What a neat deal! …and a fantastic business model. I’d looked at their site before, but I just never got around to ordering anything.

Well, when we were in Hawaii we went into this gelato shop, and randomly they also sold Tom’s Shoes. We were pretty excited. So after dinner we went back and instead of getting dessert like we’d planned, we bought ourselves some shoes (probably the better decision health-wise, even if it did cost more upfront).

I feel good supporting a company set up like that. You can even enter a contest to go on one of their “shoe drop tours”. How cool would that be?

They’re more comfortable than I expected, and they’ve become my go-to shoe along with my flip flops. The first outing I wore them on was to Chipotle and Whole Foods, and let me tell you… I. felt. so. cool. And hippie-fied.  Hehehe.

I know it’s a small thing, but it’s nice to feel like the choices we make can have a positive effect on people who need it and who are probably more deserving of it than the executives of big companies where we spend most of our money. You know?

]]> http://theuntitledtitlepage.com/2009/08/21/toms-shoes/feed/ 2 http://theuntitledtitlepage.com/2009/08/20/mama-made/ http://theuntitledtitlepage.com/2009/08/20/mama-made/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:14:49 +0000 Emily http://theuntitledtitlepage.com/?p=644 Here are some recent things I’ve made for Morgan:

The little fabric ball things originally came out by me trying to copy Lesley (have I ever said outloud how I want to be like you?) who made these Easter eggs based on a pattern from RetroMama. So that’s the pink [...]]]> Here are some recent things I’ve made for Morgan:

The little fabric ball things originally came out by me trying to copy Lesley (have I ever said outloud how I want to be like you?) who made these Easter eggs based on a pattern from RetroMama. So that’s the pink one on the left. I made a few of those with some old fabric I had. Then I got it into my head that I should make stuffed balls in different colors for Morgan to play with, since I like the concept of fabric or wooden toys. Note that the shapes didn’t really come out like balls because I kept playing with the egg pattern and also the direction of the fabric (it has more stretch in one direction than the other). So really they’re fabric blobs. But that’s okay. She likes to grab them and we throw them around.

The books are from Bare Books, a company I heard about from Soule Mama’s blog. They have a minimum order requirement, but they are so cheap that I got a bunch and it’s nice to have a little stash for future projects.

One board book is filled with pictures of our family members, and the other is just a bunch of baby and kid faces I cut out of magazines I had already read. I used modge podge to glue it all in. Pretty simple project, and it was pretty cheap and I don’t stress if she wants to drool all over it. I’m collecting pictures of animals for another one, and I’m already excited about the prospect of someday seeing what stories Morgan will come up with and write in her own little books.

My current project are some basic pants for her. Turns out most clothes don’t seem to fit as well with cloth diapers, so I’m ambitiously trying to alter a basic pattern to have some extra space in the tushie region. This is ambitious because I don’t know a thing about clothes sewing.  And yet I am also thinking I’ll add some ruffles at the bottom because why not make it more complicated for myself? Actually, the ruffles will hopefully distract from any mistakes I make on the rest of it. We’ll see how that comes out and if they’ll be “home only” pants.

She still spends a lot of time in the wrap, [...]]]> I don’t take as many pictures in general as I should, and there are even less of me with Morgan for obvious reasons. So it makes me especially happy to have these ones that I feel are a good show of how it is:

She still spends a lot of time in the wrap, and is definitely happy when she does. We got a new baby wearing setup, too, so that now I can carry her on my back as well. There are times it is exhausting to carry her so much, but she’s so happy that it reminds me that it’s worth it. She also loves mirrors, so this was a double happy picture.

Morgan loves grabbing my hair. For a while, her favorite way to be was me holding her on my left hip, and then her grabbing my hair with her right hand and sucking on the fingers of her left. Apparently it was all very soothing. She’s at an age where she reaches out for everything. She likes playing with our faces, too. She makes us smile and laugh.

…and this little one is six months old. She is so much fun, and it’s amazing to watch her grow and change and learn. Sometimes it’s so gradual that I barely notice it until I look back at old pictures. I love it when she’s snuggly (though [...]]]> Time is somehow flying by…

…and this little one is six months old. She is so much fun, and it’s amazing to watch her grow and change and learn. Sometimes it’s so gradual that I barely notice it until I look back at old pictures. I love it when she’s snuggly (though of course she always likes being held, it’s just that she usually likes to be standing). She grabs everything and is sitting up more on her own. Her favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar–good choice, I say. When we read that one she sits with rapt attention and smiles each time we turn the page, especially to the “he was a big fat caterpillar” page. We’re so grateful to have her here!

We went to the Redmond Farmer’s Market and got some pretty great stuff: fresh pastured eggs, sheep’s cheese and fresh mozzarella, and of course lots of fruits and veggies. The peaches we bought were ripe and smelled heavenly, so I cut two up and just blended them for Morgan (who is [...]]]>

We went to the Redmond Farmer’s Market and got some pretty great stuff: fresh pastured eggs, sheep’s cheese and fresh mozzarella, and of course lots of fruits and veggies. The peaches we bought were ripe and smelled heavenly, so I cut two up and just blended them for Morgan (who is 6 months old today… what?!?!). They were so juicy it turned into a juice more than a puree, so we gave it to her in a cup. She watches us whenever we drink from cups and get really excited when we let her gnaw on the edge of one, so she was even more excited to discover that this cup tasted good, too. She didn’t like it when Adrian would take it away to give her a break, and as you can see she even helped hold on to it. The food that is easily mashable has been my favorite to give her so far: avocados, which she also usually likes, and these peaches. She also really likes apples, though I did cook those first of course.

Because, judging off the comments my Trader Joe’s post received, we have some [...]]]> [I am FINALLY going to TJ's as soon as Morgan wakes up from her nap, so it seemed a good day to post this. Two food posts in a row is too much? Sorry, but I don't think so.]

Because, judging off the comments my Trader Joe’s post received, we have some folks out there who love TJ’s as much as I do, I thought I’d share one of my favorites. There are many, of course, but because no one mentioned these it seemed really more like a public service to show you these:

They claim to be mini croissants, but they’re a pretty good size once they rise. See, they start out all small like this

You let them rise overnight and in the morning they look like this:

Then you cook them for about 30 minutes (and don’t overcook them like I did a little) and they’ll look like this:

They are really good, seriously. They’re flaky without leaving that gross layer of gunk feeling on the top of your mouth like cheap croissants can do. Please tell me you know what I’m talking about and I don’t sound totally crazy.

Anyway, I think it’s $3.99 for the pack of 8–or the same price for a pack of four pains au chocolat, which we haven’t tried yet. It’s not a bad price, because you just have to trust me that they taste really good. We don’t have them all the time, but I love them for a super easy treat breakfast.

Bialys. Adrian always talks about bialys (sort of like bagels, but different). Apparently you can only find them near New York [...]]]> Food is an important part of celebrating. It just is. And we like food anytime, no celebration required. Here’s a sampling of the birthday fare this year:

Bialys. Adrian always talks about bialys (sort of like bagels, but different). Apparently you can only find them near New York or that part of the east. I even went to some place called Mikey’s Brooklyn Bagel Shop or some such thing and they didn’t know what I was talking about. So a couple months ago I found this recipe and decided I’d make them for his birthday. I am very afraid of making breads because it never seems to come out like I imagine. Here, the dough wasn’t rising right, but it came out okay in the end. Maybe not having anything in my head to compare it to was a good thing.

On Saturday, since his birthday was on Sunday this year, we went to the Il Fornaio Risotteria in downtown Seattle. It was good, as always. It’s hard to find real Italian food (Olive Garden doesn’t count, though I still argue it’s not bad for what it is, you just can’t compare it to actual Italian food).

We split a pizza for an appetizer. It was a little oilier than we felt it should be, but the pesto and veggies were good. Note the nice thin crust. Ahhhh. Looking at the picture makes me want to go to Italy. Or at least back to the restaurant, which is substantially cheaper than flying to Europe.

Adrian and Morgan with the desserts. We had creme brulee AND a chocolate fudge-like cake. Both very good. (Oh, and we had main courses of a grilled pear ravioli and the porcini risotto. Yummy.)

The rest of the birthday food got a little drawn out because my big plans for Sunday didn’t work out until Monday, but I’ll spare you the details. We’ll just say Saturday was the celebration day.

Anyway, so a few weeks ago I decided to see [...]]]> These pictures are old, but I haven’t been blogging at all lately. I don’t know why–I just haven’t been in the mood. Something about summer laziness, perhaps? Plus we’ve been sick, and it has lingered way more than it should have. Bah.

Anyway, so a few weeks ago I decided to see if Morgan could sit up. I hadn’t tried to let her do it on her own, but she has sat well in my lap for a while so I figured it was worth trying. She did okay as long as she leaned forward to balance herself.

However, it didn’t last long, because I think she suddenly realized that it scared her or something:

So how am I a terrible mother? I sat there taking a picture of her in this distressed state BEFORE I rescued her from it. And perhaps even more sad, I’m kind of glad I did because this face is priceless.  If you only have pictures of your kids smiling you might forget the various other faces they make. Hehe.

(Adrian had this picture as the background on his phone for a bit but had to take it off because it was too sad.)

I am not, in general, such a terrible mother. Morgan’s a pretty darn happy kid, and I take great comfort in that. We must be doing at least a few things right around here.

And I’ll try to post more pictures of things later. But I make no real promises, so don’t hold me to it.

Our freezer.

The weather here is pretty kooky. I feel like it goes from super hot to rainy, but that perfect spot in between is hard to find. We’re enjoying the summer routines, though, of evening walks. It stays light here until about 9:30, so we enjoy getting out after dinner. Nothing too exciting [...]]]>

The weather here is pretty kooky. I feel like it goes from super hot to rainy, but that perfect spot in between is hard to find. We’re enjoying the summer routines, though, of evening walks. It stays light here until about 9:30, so we enjoy getting out after dinner.
Nothing too exciting has happened in the past few weeks. I feel like I’m getting back into a better routine, I think. I’m cooking more (or at least enjoying it more). I’ve been sewing a bit and doing some of that. I even had a friend over and we made some coasters. And today I met up with some friends from church for lunch. This is big stuff for me. Hehehe.

I don’t feel like saying a lot, I just know it’s been a long time since I posted anything so I thought I should. Time is flying and I feel a little panicky that Morgan will be five months old tomorrow. Holy moly. She’s a joy, though, and makes me smile and laugh a lot. She’s very chatty and loves to grab and everything and get it into her mouth. Love it.

[I finally started using google reader--yes, eons behind everyone else--and love it. That also means I now see it when this one random blog post of ours keeps "posting"... I have no idea why. Please ignore.]

“Shall we ask your cousin the reason of this?” said Elizabeth, still addressing Colonel Fitzwilliam. “Shall we ask him why a man of sense and education, and who has lived in the world, [...]]]> “Perhaps,” said Darcy, “I should have judged better, had I sought an introduction, but I am ill qualified to recommend myself to strangers.”

“Shall we ask your cousin the reason of this?” said Elizabeth, still addressing Colonel Fitzwilliam. “Shall we ask him why a man of sense and education, and who has lived in the world, is ill qualified to recommend himself to strangers?”

“I can answer your question,” said Fitzwilliam, “without applying to him. It is because he will not give himself the trouble.”

“I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,” said Darcy, “of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done.”

“My fingers,” said Elizabeth, “do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women’s do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault — because I would not take the trouble of practising. It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other woman’s of superior execution.”

Darcy smiled, and said, “You are perfectly right. You have employed your time much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you, can think any thing wanting. We neither of us perform to strangers.”

Anyone else ever feel this way? I was thinking yesterday that perhaps I am just out of practice. Hmm.

Did that [...]]]> A woman is waiting in line at the grocery store. The checker scans all her items, and as she pulls out her credit card to pay, music starts playing, balloons fall from above, and the store manager runs up to her saying, “Congratulations! You’re our one millionth customer! You get free groceries for life!”

Did that ever really happen or is that just something I think I saw on TV once? Not sure.

This is sort of like that. Kind of. Maybe.

On our relatively new wordpress platform for blog publication, it keeps track of the total number of comments. We’ve been approaching 600 (for a while… why have we had so few comments the past little bit while I’ve been paying attention? It’s a watched pot situation I feel), so I thought we’d do something fun to mark it. Now, this is assuming that all the old comments came over correctly when we ported the blog. I don’t have time to find out and add them all up, so we’re going to trust wordpress and just assume it really is 600.

So I waited and waited and the 600th comment came from…

Lesley!

Hooray! Lesley is a frequent commenter; however, it also seemed fair to figure out who leaves the most comments. So I went back to comment 500 (we can do this all from the admin area, I didn’t actually sort through the last months worth of posts) and tallied up every commenter’s comments. Some people only had one, some were more impressive. On this we have a clear winner…

Kara!

Hooray for Kara, too! So Lesley and Kara will be receiving in the mail these nifty coasters I made. It was a project bug floating in my head, and I made enough to share (does anyone else get project bugs? This one came the day after I had put my sewing machine away, thinking I’d make a little room on my desk. It’s apparently pointless to do that).

You’ll each get four of these. I need to figure out the sets still, but this was the best picture I had. The backs are pieced, too, but with all regular fabric, not the linen, and in between is a layer of thin interfacing so they’re not too floppy. My favorite is the contrast zig zag topstitching. That thread was the only element that I didn’t already have in my stash.

[Lesley, I need your London address... I'll email you or something.]

I think Adrian thought I was a little crazy for doing a comment contest, even one that no one knew about. I may or may not do one in the future. It really probably depends if I have a project bug that fits a blog-related winner. So we’ll see. In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoy a little handmade-ness from me.

I have a bit a of an issue with editing pictures. Or a quandry, I guess. Here’s [...]]]> SOOC is what cool people use to refer to pictures that are “straight out of camera” or unedited. (Hehe… just kidding about the cool people part, since I use the term and therefore negate that whole cool people thing.)

I have a bit a of an issue with editing pictures. Or a quandry, I guess. Here’s the thing: I really like photography, and I feel like the fact that a lot of people edit their pictures gives an unrealistic expectation of what pictures can look like. Sometimes I’ll see some photos a photographer or whoever has put on their blog and I think “Wow, that’s amazing… I wish I could take pictures with such fantastic color.” And then I realize that they were probably photoshopped. HMM.

Really, it’s that I have neither the time nor ability to edit my pictures, and I’m jealous that because of this my photos might look not as good as other people’s. If my pictures aren’t as good because of my lack of photography talent, that’s fine (and true), but it seems a little silly that half of the talent needed for good photography nowadays is ability to photoshop well. Doesn’t that seem a little unfair?

This is a prime example of what I’m talking about. You see the edited picture and think “Wow, what amazing color! I would love to get a shot like that.” And then you look at the original and realize that you have, in fact, taken that same picture about 15 times, you just haven’t edited it. It feels almost like a lie when you edit pictures to that extreme, you know? (I’m not trying to be nasty about PW in particular, by the way… this is just an example. But didn’t she win some award for website photography? Seems to me like that’s different than pure photography.) I totally understand editing to fix up details, correct exposure, or smooth out someone’s acne or little things like that. But to change major elements of a photo seems weird to me.

This is, of course, the same issue in fashion photography how the editing of pictures gives people unrealistic expectations of beauty and what real people look like. But that’s another, and larger, issue.

Do you know what I’m talking about? I do actually sometimes edit pictures, but that’s only because I tend to take them a little underexposed and so I need to lighten them so that you can see them well. (Also because it’s often grey here, which now is changing as the season progresses.) So I’m not opposed to editing pictures, but I just see it as a different skill than photography. Where do those lines cross? And really, like I said, I’m probably just jealous that my pictures don’t look so amazing. Hehe.

Okay, got that off my chest. I feel better now.

To counteract all the above complaining, here’s some happiness:

Ah! Sleeping baby! I take a lot of pictures of her sleeping. I mean, look at those pink lips, rosy cheeks, soft hands, and little eyelashes. Oh my oh my.

You’d think that these were the same day as any previous shot I’ve taken and posted of her sleeping, but no. I just always nurse her on this pillow and so she tends to fall asleep on it. And it’s been so warm that I dress her in just a onesie most of the time. I can’t stop taking these sleeping pictures, though. Too sweet.

As I said before, we get lots of animals in our backyard. I already documented in detail how Toby feels about the chipmunks. We also get your normal rabbits and birds going through. It’s fun to watch out the back and see what we can find. Here are a few recent favorites:

CATS

Our neighbors have cats who like to wander into our yard. Really, they like to sit under the deck in our neighbor’s yard, but on their way they tend to catch Toby’s attention and he appropriately barks and makes a fuss. They live across the street from us, and the cats also like to sit out on the bedroom window ledge. You can imagine what this also does to Toby.

SLUGS

Today while doing yard work Adrian found this cool guy in the grass. He tried to eat his hand, but I missed the picture of that. I did, appetizingly, get a nice picture of the goo it excreted. MMM.

(We saw tons of these around last summer, but they seemed to have hibernated for the winter. It was the first time one of us picked them up, though, I think.)

…DEER!!!

This morning Toby was going insane, to the point that I knew it was probably more than just a chipmunk. I figured it was a cat or something. But then I saw that he was looking to the back of the yard, and saw the deer!  Two of them! And they finally stayed around long enough this time for me to get a picture. WOO! I mean, how cool is that?! That’s our yard. That deer is standing over the carrot seeds I planted last week. That’s awesome.

The other cool detail is that Toby had run downstairs to the back door and in this picture the deer turned to look at him barking. Somehow I don’t think the deer was too intimidated, though.

After staying for a while, during which time I took a ton of pictures, our animals made a lot of noise, and Adrian tried to show Morgan, the deer wandered back into the woods. Come back soon, friends!

Daddy kisses!

Yesterday we went into Seattle. We bought some gear [...]]]> We are enjoying this weekend of sunshine! On Friday Adrian left work a little early so we met up at Red Robin and got to eat out on the patio (which is a big treat around this town).

Daddy kisses!

Yesterday we went into Seattle. We bought some gear for Morgan at Birth and Beyond then went downtown. We ate at the Il Fornaio Risotteria, which was very yummy. We like going to places where we end up ordering a lot because it all sounds too good to only order one dish each. Hehe. We had pizza (REAL, with super thin crust), gnocchi, pear-filled ravioli, shrimp and pancetta risotto, and creme brulee. (Does it make it any better that it was our only large meal of the day?) Morgan fell asleep while we were eating so we walked around the area a bit. When we drove in we passed this adorable older man wearing his veteran’s cap who was giving out or selling poppies for Memorial Day. I was so excited, but then sad to discover that he was gone by the time we got back to that area. Bummer! He had left a sign of Uncle Sam that said, “Uncle Sam wants you to wear a poppy to honor your veterans.”  Aww. If we go back to the city tomorrow I hope he’s back so I can get a poppy. I wanted one badly.

Today Morgan is four months old. As always, I wonder where the time has gone. I tried to take pictures of her today, but apparently she was more tired than I thought because it just wasn’t working out too well. And then when she woke up from her nap the light wasn’t any good. I’ll try again tomorrow.

I had propped her up on her hands and she rolled over. She looks pleased with herself, though.

Good shot… except for the string of drool I happend to catch at just the right moment. Ha!

This kid, I tell ya.

The pictures are off centered because it’s hard to hold the camera and make enough silly faces and noises to get her to smile at the right time. Let’s say they’re artsy this way. Yeah, that’s it.

Besides, does it really matter? [...]]]>

This kid, I tell ya.

The pictures are off centered because it’s hard to hold the camera and make enough silly faces and noises to get her to smile at the right time. Let’s say they’re artsy this way. Yeah, that’s it.

Besides, does it really matter? I think not–look at that happy face!

It was a good day of love from and to our mothers and baby girl. We celebrated all weekend and spent Sunday taking a big family nap for a couple hours. Quite lovely. And we finally took a picture of just me and Morgan, which I don’t think has happened since [...]]]>

It was a good day of love from and to our mothers and baby girl. We celebrated all weekend and spent Sunday taking a big family nap for a couple hours. Quite lovely. And we finally took a picture of just me and Morgan, which I don’t think has happened since she was teeny. That’s what happens to mommies behind the lens, right?

How gross would I be if I ate a whole pound of See’s chocolate in, say, three days? It’s really hard to resist an entire box of my favorites. Mmmm…

We ‘celebrated’ May Day by going in the backyard, intending to pull up weeds and find myself a place to plant something. I’m not really sure what I’ll [...]]]> Last week was absolutely gorgeous. This week we’re back to grey skies and rain, so I am putting up these pictures as a reminder!

We ‘celebrated’ May Day by going in the backyard, intending to pull up weeds and find myself a place to plant something. I’m not really sure what I’ll plant, but something. Anyway, once I got out there I realized it was kind of a bigger project than I had thought, and I was wearing flip flops (not exactly conducive to gardening) and knew I had limited time where Morgan would be happy just sitting there, so I played with Morgan and took pictures instead. She was really enjoying looking at everything outside.

Then in the evening we all took a nice walk. It was great to be totally comfortable in short sleeves and my beloved flip flops.

Look at that happy face! She cracks me up.

Today has been a little rougher, so I’ll just keep thinking about the sunshine that is to come. The days where the sun comes out and the sky is SO blue seem so full of possibility!

Most of the time, she takes her naps in the wrap [...]]]> In an effort to try and remember the little things that are so lovely at this age–Morgan’s super soft skin, her smell, the way her hand grips onto your finger, things like that–I’ve taken some pictures lately of her just sleeping.

Most of the time, she takes her naps in the wrap while I clean, sew, or cook dinner.

You’d think having your head kinked like that would be uncomfortable, but she does it all the time, even when I shift her head to be more straight. Hehe.

The other day she fell asleep while nursing and was happy just to sit in my lap for a bit.

Ah…. so peaceful.

Speaking of sleep, we’ve worked out nursing while laying down, which has made nights infinitely easier. I am a much happier human being, because when she wants to eat I only sort of wake up and then just doze back off while she eats. It’s very handy.

P.S. She also snorts in her sleep. It’s really funny.

…another one of our little chipmunk friends. Look at its pretty stripes!

Hey, we’ve all got hard-to-reach areas to scratch.

The chipmunks, incidentally, have I think taken to taunting Toby. They come and sit outside the door and just [...]]]> Through the tree and bushes, on our neighbor’s deck…

…another one of our little chipmunk friends. Look at its pretty stripes!

Hey, we’ve all got hard-to-reach areas to scratch.

The chipmunks, incidentally, have I think taken to taunting Toby. They come and sit outside the door and just stare at him while he barks and goes nuts. It’s funny except for when all his noise sets off Twinkie and then Morgan starts to wake up.

March

Early April

Mid April

Same tree, and I continue to be obsessed with taking pictures of it, apparently. I do enjoy something about the rythm of the seasons, and its true [...]]]> “And the seasons, they go round and round…” (Name that tune!)

March

Early April

Mid April

Same tree, and I continue to be obsessed with taking pictures of it, apparently. I do enjoy something about the rythm of the seasons, and its true that after living through winter, spring feels all the more amazing. If I hadn’t felt stuck inside for so long, these days with sunshine wouldn’t feel so wonderful. I’ll try to remember about the necessity for opposition in all things next time I’m whining about being cold.

Other than our nice Easter dinner with friends in D.C., we didn’t do anything “traditional” for the holiday. Here’s Morgan with a little lamb my parents sent for it. Seeing as even if we were here I probably wouldn’t have done much, at least our parents send things for her!

At the end of the meeting, we stood up and I saw… a [...]]]> Our last full day in DC was Easter. Jared and the Shark were singing in church, so we went to their ward. It was a lovely program–mostly just music. They sang a capella and I thought it was great.

At the end of the meeting, we stood up and I saw… a friend of mine from Brussels! I knew he was going to be in DC visiting. It was pretty random: he had emailed me saying he was going to Utah for Conference and asked if I was still living there, and I replied that I wasn’t and mentioned that I was going to be in DC (thinking there was a very small chance that he would be there, but it was worth asking just in case, since if you were to visit other places in the U.S., Washington, D.C. might be one of them). He replied that he was going to be there for a day, and it happened to be when I was there! Well, we didn’t really work anything out, and until Saturday I didn’t know what we were doing on Sunday anyway, and I could have tried texting his Belgium number but other than that didn’t have a way to contact him… blah, blah, blah. So I was so excited when I saw him from across the chapel! He was there with the friend he was staying with. I guess it shouldn’t have been shocking to see him (since if he were to go to church while he was there it would have probably been one of the local young adult wards) but it was still a very pleasant surprise.

Us with Sinoui. Adrian tried to make me speak French with him but I lack so much confidence in my French.

Me with Marcia, another friend that I hadn’t seen since leaving BYU. I knew she lived out there so I thought she might be in that ward, but this was also otherwise unplanned and quite fun.

On Saturday Jared G. had invited us to come over to eat Easter dinner with them at their condo, so after church we headed over there and hung out while Jared finished cooking and I made a lemon cake (since we were in a hotel without even a fridge it was kind of hard for us to contribute much… so Jared planned it and handed me the recipe with the ingredients). Jared F. brought over some rolls and asparagus to round everything out and we had a great dinner.

The picture is blurry so don’t look too closely. It was a good meal… though of course you may notice that while everyone else is about finished my plate in untouched because I was busy trying to feed Morgan. Haha. I’m getting used to that sort of thing happening now. She gets first priority, and by this point in the trip she was pretty tired and seemed to be needing a lot of down time.

Jared F. holding Morgan. She seemed to really like him and was for the most part really happy while he was holding her and playing with her. I got a kick out of watching it.

The next morning all we really had time for was finishing packing and driving to the airport. We had a pretty uneventul flight back. Morgan was once again pretty content, and it was wonderful to have a direct flight. With the time change we arrived in the afternoon and it felt like we hadn’t even lost much time. It was a pretty quick trip overall but it was great to see some of the fun sights of D.C. and most especially all the people we know who live out there.

Our yard backs up to a wetland area, and this gives us lots of little critters (and some large) that pass through for visits. Just about every day for the past couple weeks, we’ve seen chipmunks. Here’s what happened [...]]]> I had big plans of “getting things done” today, but I have to share this:

Our yard backs up to a wetland area, and this gives us lots of little critters (and some large) that pass through for visits. Just about every day for the past couple weeks, we’ve seen chipmunks. Here’s what happened today…

Why, hello little friend! You are welcome to relax on our back stoop.

Toby, naturally, is rather “intrigued” by these little guys. In fact, it was all the noise he was making that brought the human with the camera downstairs in the first place.

You’d better watch out, though, Toby, because when you make all that noise…

…they usually run away. Toby looks and looks, hoping he’ll get another glimpse. He has smudged up the whole door at his height by pressing his nose against the glass.

Maybe from the window? Hmm, no luck here, better run back to the door.

He whines…

…and scratches and barks…

…and sniffs and paws and generally acts completely insane, all in trying to see again what’s out there, or perhaps to get out and find it himself.

Ah ha! All that commotion is rewarded.

He tries even harder to get out, but the door refuses to give way. Chipmunk looks warily on.

Chipmunk, perhaps realizing that the crazy dog behind the glass can’t get to him, inches closer…

…and stands to say hello. This of course sends Toby into a further frenzy. He tries to attack say hello back…

…and scares Chipmunk away again.

Chipmunk, however, is the brave sort, and slowly ventures out again from the safety of his hiding place under the barbeque.

He stands perfectly still, allowing for his portrait to be taken by the perhaps equally crazy human behind the glass with the dog.

He decides to show his other side to the camera while the lady admires his lovely colors…

…then rushes off again to his little safe spot. The dog, again, runs around and barks like a lunatic.

And the lady learns she can finally decently capture the chipmunks on her camera as long as she has enough patience and takes about 60 pictures in a three minute period.

The end.

Friday we first went to Diana’s new house (Justin’s house, which is now their house) to meet Justin and chat. I got to see her dress and Justin tried on different colors of bow ties [...]]]> I uploaded many of the pictures but it’s harder to find time to sit down and write it all…

Friday we first went to Diana’s new house (Justin’s house, which is now their house) to meet Justin and chat. I got to see her dress and Justin tried on different colors of bow ties to see what would work. It was good to finally meet him, of course. I realized that this was the first time a close friend was marrying someone I hadn’t met. Not that it mattered, but it was good to meet him all the same.

After that, I got my hair cut. Yeah, I spent my brief time in DC getting a haircut. But it had been a really long time–I think close to a year, because I don’t think I was yet pregnant last time I got it cut. I was hating it, and I couldn’t handle the idea of going to the wedding with my hair as it was. I wish I had some idea of what I wanted with my hair or a person I trusted to give free reins to. Anyway.

That night we met up with other friends who live out there (friends of mine from college, most of whom I met on my study abroad to London). We went to a Lebanese restaurant and then back to Jared and Shark’s condo to just hang out. Morgan K. came and met us which was always a treat, and our Morgan got to meet the second Morgan that influenced her name!

Us, Warren, Morgan, Jared G., Jared F., Shark, The G.s’ friend Amanda, and Morgan’s friend Dave. (By the way, I’m not just a neglectful mother: our Morgan had, um, gone through two outfits that day and all I had left in the diaper bag was a onesie. There were more clothes in the car, though.)

The next morning was the sealing in the Washington D.C. temple. The sealing itself was lovely, and I kept crying. I tend to stuff up my emotions as concerns myself, but it made me so happy to see them be married that I couldn’t help it.

It happened to be raining, which made pictures hard for them and us not really explore much. Therefore, I didn’t take a single picture of them, and this is the only one I took of the temple (out the back of the car after we were safe and dry inside):

Morgan K. came and met us at the temple so that we were both able to go. This was a big deal for me because it’s the first time I’ve been away from Morgan. The only other time was when for some reason we were driving two cars and she happened to be asleep in Adrian’s car. So even though we weren’t in the same car, we were also still no more than 20 feet from each other. Anyway, I tried to feed her a lot before and just prayed that she’d be okay. I was a little worried, but I tried to let it go and knew that Morgan K. would be capable of taking care of her (minus feeding her, obviously… I did bring the pump and everything with us but we didn’t have a fridge at the hotel and I didn’t have time that morning so I just had to hope she wouldn’t be hungry). Happily, Morgan slept the whole time we were gone.

Us at the visitor’s center after the sealing. It was so good to have Morgan there! Nice of her to drive all the way from Pittsburgh to see us, and then to come just sit at the temple so we could go, too.

After that we met up with Jared, Jared, and Shark at a burger place downtown. It was good, and the shakes were amazing. It took us forever to get there through the ridiculous traffic, and that was the time of me [first] losing it in the car because I couldn’t handle Morgan crying. I knew she needed to eat, but by the time we got there–feeling doubly bad because they’d been waiting for us, and we were really hungry, too–she had exhausted herself and fell asleep.

After all that we went back to the hotel to chill out a bit (you do kind of need to make adjustments when traveling with a young baby, and we weren’t doing that as much as we maybe should have). We all fell asleep and woke up around the time we should have been already in the car on our way to the reception, which would have been a major problem because it was on a boat so we really really couldn’t be late. Yipes! Luckily the traffic was clear as soon as we got out of downtown and we found a parking garage fairly quickly so we were okay. Hehe.

The boat left right around sunset, so I had fun taking pictures of it during the ring ceremony. (We were too far back to actually see them during the ring ceremony…alas.) Believe it or not this is through a window. Manual focus helps. Later, there were fireworks, too, which were conveniently going off that night for the end of the cherry blossom festival.

This is how Morgan spent a good part of the reception, snuggled with Adrian.

Of all the lame things, this is the only picture I have with Diana, and I didn’t take a single one with Justin, too. It was a bad combination of the rain at the temple and generally needing to pay more attention to Morgan than the camera. Just a little silly since that WAS the reason we were there at all. Hehe. This is at the end of the night as we were leaving the boat.

…has been a bit sick. But somehow she still manages to smile. She’s just been a little stuffy and a bit cough-y ever since we got back from D.C. Too much getting dragged around I think.

It’s incredibly sad to hear her not be able to breathe well, but somehow the smiles get to [...]]]>

…has been a bit sick. But somehow she still manages to smile. She’s just been a little stuffy and a bit cough-y ever since we got back from D.C. Too much getting dragged around I think.

It’s incredibly sad to hear her not be able to breathe well, but somehow the smiles get to me even more. It’s like when we were in D.C. and stuck in traffic and she was crying ridiculously hard but of course I couldn’t take her out of the car seat. She was getting to the desperate point and then stopped and looked at me and smiled, with tears still in her eyes, as if she were saying, “Please, mama? I’ll even smile for you!” And I couldn’t take it and started bawling too.

I’d like to blame the emotionalness on post-partum hormones but seeing as I was actually MORE even keeled after I got pregnant I probably have no ground to stand on there. It’s just so hard to see your kid unhappy! Adrian said it’s probably just that as she’s gotten older and is getting more of a personality we’re more attached to her, and that’s probably true. At first it was a bond of “I’m your parent and it’s my instinct to take care of you” and now it’s a little more on the “I really like you and love you and enjoy being with you” side.

This face cracks me up. You think she was done with getting her picture taken?

I’ve always gotten teary at silly things, like Hallmark commercials and seeing lines of cars waiting to pick up children from elementary schools. This week Adrian picked up some Persian food because we were seriously craving it and he told me that there was no one in the restaurant and I really thought I was going to full-on cry. I can’t stand it when small businesses fail. Fantasy baseball is no good for me because I feel bad for players or teams when they don’t do well. Like when one of my pitchers (who happens to be the oldest starting pitcher in baseball) had a stinky first game, I didn’t feel so bad about the bad stats for my team but I felt bad for him personally because I respect that he’s still playing ball, and I didn’t want him to feel sad that his first game of the season was like that. These type of situations happen ALL THE TIME. It’s ridiculous.

I even sometimes throw games in real life because I feel bad if someone else loses. I think I need help. Putting that sort of focus on the emotions of anything and anyone around me is actually sort of paralyzing sometimes, because I’m constantly either feeling guilty or trying to figure out how I can fix it or otherwise make it better. And that’s a terribly unhealthy way to function.

Well! I didn’t mean for this post to be about my insanity (in other words, I didn’t mean for it to be so truthful… ha!), so let’s get back to the happy smiles, and hope that this kid can grow up relatively normal.

This is prettymuch how she always looks while getting her diaper changed. She loves that spot. Is it the window? That’s my guess. Sometimes we put her there just to let her chill out because she likes it so much. At her first diaper change of the morning she is the most smile-y out of any time of the day. Amazing considering she came from two very-not-morning people.

I used to [...]]]> I’m going to start putting up some of my kitchen favorites. I’m hoping that it’s useful to someone. If it is, great! If you have a better idea, please share! I like learning new ideas of ways I can make my cooking life easier, yummier, or just plain better.

I used to get frustrated going back and forth to the trash can twenty times while cooking any meal. So I started using a scrap bag:

I always have tons of bags from produce that aren’t really useable for much, and I feel wasteful just throwing them away. So I keep them and then lay one on the counter when I start cooking. I toss whatever vegetable scraps I have or even the edges of bags and things like that onto it. Then, when I’m done, I can either turn the bag inside out, on itself, and all the scraps are neatly wrapped up inside or I just carry it all to the garbage on the bag. I’ve seen this done on cooking shows and such by using a scrap bowl but (a) I’m all about not creating one more dish to wash, and (b) I feel good about finding something useful to do with the produce bags.

Someday I’ll have a compost heap and my method will have to alter a little, but for now it saves me a lot of frustration and I find some odd pleasure in watching my scrap pile grow while I cook.

We took advantage of some sun coming through the kitchen window to take closeup shots of our eyes. Morgan’s eyes are currently a blue-grey, certainly not like either of [...]]]> I was going to title this post “Jeepers, creepers” but I wasn’t sure anyone would catch it and would think I’m talking about bugs or something. Anywho.

We took advantage of some sun coming through the kitchen window to take closeup shots of our eyes. Morgan’s eyes are currently a blue-grey, certainly not like either of ours but they’ll probably still keep changing. Hers were hard to capture because she kept moving. We got some cool shots that show our eye colors and patterns pretty clearly, but since they’re a little creepy looking I’m only sharing Morgan’s. Maybe sometime when she’s less wiggly I’ll be able to get a better true closeup.

And what’s the other sure sign of spring? Daffodils! These ones [...]]]> I told you spring was coming! I sure couldn’t feel it, what with the snow in APRIL and all, but I could see the buds on the trees just beginning. And suddenly, for a couple days, spring is here!

And what’s the other sure sign of spring? Daffodils! These ones are by our mailbox.

The past three days have been so incredibly lovely. On Sunday we took a really long walk and then today I walked to the pediatrician appointment. I put Morgan in the wrap, put supplies in a backpack, and took off. I felt so together. This was a very refreshing feeling. I was a little sweaty by the time I got there, and I was a few minutes late, but that’s okay. The sunshine, warmth, and breeze felt so wonderful that I didn’t mind showing up a little stinky.

Supposedly the cloudiness and rain are returning tomorrow, so I’m making the most of what sunshine we’re getting.

Lest you have forgotten, please see this post from July 2007 or this one from April 2008 to know [...]]]> Well, today was the day…the first day of the 2009 Major League Baseball season! And for all of you rabid fans, you now have come to know what that means…the return of our friend the StatTracker!

Lest you have forgotten, please see this post from July 2007 or this one from April 2008 to know of my fondness for Fantasy Baseball.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am a big fan of real baseball too, but Fantasy Baseball keeps me more occupied and stimulates my mind. It’s partly why I drive a stick shift instead of an automatic. Driving an automatic bores me to sleep, while a stick shift gives me something to think about and do. Plus it’s fun. And the same goes for my Fantasy Baseball. This is the 5th year of this same league, with some friends from Orlando and their friends, and my 7th year overall. You can check out my sweet “player card” on Yahoo and look at how well (or not so well) I have done in my various Fantasy Sports.

Last year was a down year for me, the previous 2 seasons I finished 2nd to the same player. And then 2nd time, if Trevor Hoffman didn’t blow the game for me (thereby forcing the Padres into a 1-game playoff) I would’ve won the league. Side note: I have never had Trevor Hoffman on my team since. This year, we decided to mix things up a little bit and make it a “keeper league.” What that means is you get to keep a certain number of players each year, instead of having to pick them all from scratch again. I worked out the details of how we should implement it (since I like figuring out that kind of stuff), so we’ll see how it goes.

And if you read Emily’s post about baseball season approaching, you also know that Emily has decided to take the plunge and fill out our league as the 14th manager. It will be fun, for me at least, to get to talk to her about yet another thing that interests me and have her involved in it somewhat. Before when I’d talk about it, she’d try her hardest to understand, but didn’t really follow it the way that I did. Now she’ll keep up to date a little more managing her team, and of course I will be helping her. It’s just another thing we can do together.

So will 2009 be my year to finally win it? Well, hopefully. I like my team, Albert Pujols practically fell into my lap with the 3rd pick (thank you Danny and some Yankee lemming who auto-drafted A-Rod with pick #2), and I have a fairly strong team with some very promising rookies. Really now it’s all about seeing how things unfold the first few weeks of the season and filling in any gaps. I almost “retired” after last season since we knew that Emily was pregnant, I didn’t think I’d have the time. But Emily convinced me I should play again (I think she knew it would make me happy since I do enjoy it so much) AND she’s now playing too, so it makes it that much better.

Here’s to a good season. What team do I want to win? Well…Mark Grace played for the Cubs (he’s my favorite player ever), but then won his World Series with the Diamondbacks. And we lived near and went to plenty of Angels games, but I have been big fans of the Rays for a few years since I always love the underdog. And I have Cubs, Angels and Rays hats. And Cubs and Angels jerseys. So I’ll go with the Rays, they are young and throw caution to the wind. They don’t let the establishment tell them it can’t be done, and I like that. Plus, it means they did better than the Red Sox AND Yankees who are both in their division, and that’s never a bad thing. Never.

So if you ever come across me, and I’m at a computer, and there’s a baseball game on…my StatTracker will probably be up and running. And now, so will Emily’s. Since we’re in this together. I gotta help her do well and beat all these other boys (and one other girl). Except for me. She can finish in 2nd.

Adrian prefers to use sponges. I am freaked out by sponges (it’s up there with my phobia of the kitchen sink drain…which is lame because then I’m so afraid to clean it properly, since I’d have to touch [...]]]> I am avoiding DOING the dishes by sharing something about dish washing in our home. Yes, I’m brilliant.

Adrian prefers to use sponges. I am freaked out by sponges (it’s up there with my phobia of the kitchen sink drain…which is lame because then I’m so afraid to clean it properly, since I’d have to touch the nasty, that it then still stays dirty, thereby perpetuating my fear). Sponges, I feel, are a breeding ground for bacteria. They have their place for certain cleaning tasks, but not for washing the dishes off of which we also eat. Plus, before rinsing them he rests them on the side with the garbage disposal so that he can rinse a bunch at once, so they have therefore TOUCHED the grossest area of the sink in my mind. It makes me feel a little queasy when I see it.

Due to my sponge distaste, I use dish rags. I say they are cleaner because I can wash them in very hot water and sometimes even bleach them to get rid of any scariness. I only use them for one load of dishes, generally, before they are washed again. And I sewed the corners so that I can distinguish them from the rags I use to, say, clean the shower (also a freakishly dirty place to me, because feet touch it. But that’s another story). Dish rags and other cleaning rags are not to be washed in the same load. Of course, I also wash diapers in the same washer. But for some reason that doesn’t bother me. Yes, this is how my twisted mind works.

So. Adrian, in turn, thinks my rags are disgusting. To him, a wet rag is the breeding ground for Scary. I say science is on my side, but I will allow him his feelings because, of course, I have my own and we are mutually respective of one another. (We also have our own peanut butter. It’s not necessary for two married people to have every single thing in common.)  Also, to do the dishes, I have to fill up a bowl with soapy water, in which the rag sits, and the sight of that gives him the heebie jeebies or whatever you want to call it. Basically, what it comes down to is that we each have to not watch the other one do the dishes, but just know that however they’re done, afterwards they are probably not going to kill us.

Thursday night I had done some dishes and hung the washcloth on the oven bar to dry. Adrian grabbed the bar to open the oven and remove the cookies and of course grabbed it right over the wet rag. Face slightly contorted, hand frozen in place, he said in a sour voice, “It’s wet.”

“Oh, um, yeah. Let me just take that for you,” I replied, as I quickly grabbed it and stashed it out of his immediate range. No one wants to get a handful of Yuck. Ever.

Of course, this all could be avoided by using the dishwasher, but it’s broken, and neither one of us want to stick our hand in the pool of water at the bottom to dianose the issue. Washing by hand is far superior to THAT. Blech.

We have a very busy couple weeks ahead of us with adventures I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while. It [...]]]> Morgan smells like milk. I enjoy that baby smell. Plus she’s gotten over her little bit of baby acne so her skin is super soft again and I spend lots of time nuzzling it.

We have a very busy couple weeks ahead of us with adventures I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while. It all involves airplanes, friends, and happiness. And a marriage. I promise to take lots of pictures since I’ve been pretty camera-quiet lately (I’m really struggling with our continued cloudiness and snow–in APRIL! GAH!–and feeling like all I want to do is curl up in a ball all day to stay warm and cozy). Plus, I’ve been wanting to view and photograph certain cherry blossom trees for a long time now, and we happen to be going at the right time of year. Hooray hooray!

So we’ll probably be quiet here but if I have time I’ll try to post another recipe or something and schedule it to post sometime.

Yes, that’s my blurry claw-looking finger there, trying to poke her while making ridiculous voices. It’s hard to get her to smile on cue while you’re also trying to take the picture!

I like this semi-suspicious look. I think she’s wondering why I sound so silly. I’m [...]]]> The tail end of a smile!

Yes, that’s my blurry claw-looking finger there, trying to poke her while making ridiculous voices. It’s hard to get her to smile on cue while you’re also trying to take the picture!

I like this semi-suspicious look. I think she’s wondering why I sound so silly. I’m just trying to get you to smile, Morgan!

Here we go. Not a big smile, but a happy baby nonetheless.

Tomorrow she is 8 weeks old, and next week is two months. Amazing.