15 months

Well, little chickie had her 15 month checkup today. The doc was all "Oh wow, she's walking, that's so great!" and I was like "Phsaw. Old news. Her new thing is saying 'Hot! Hot! Hot!' anytime we sit down to eat or when she sees me cooking at the stove or drinking tea." She's not too thrilled this afternoon, she had to have a total of 3 shots- two in her leg and one in her arm. So she's a bit cranky and nap-refusy. Which means there's no time for a lengthy entry here. I just wanted to give the stats from the doc.

15 months old.
29 1/2 inches tall (25%)
18lbs2oz (>5%)

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Snow. and Snow.

Yesterday Nate left at 5am to catch a cab. A cab to the airport. To catch a plane to SanFran and then on to Shanghai. This morning at 10am we videochatted with that fool who'd stayed up until 11pm after traveling halfway around the world, just to say good morning to us. He'll be gone a week, and we already miss him around here, but it sounds like he is going to have a really great trip, and we should be able to talk a few more times throughout the week. Thank goodness for Google videochat.

Also this morning at 9am, it started snowing. Just flurries at first, I thought it wouldn't add up to much of anything. Then it picked up, and kept snowing the whole entire day long. After lunch I took the little one outside to play. We walked down to the mailbox, picked up the mail and stuck it in the back of babygirl's sled. Her gorgeous little wooden sled on metal runners that her Great-Grandpa Troutman made. Made from a sled that was Grandma's when she was a little girl. So it's a pretty special sled. And she absolutely loves it. Sitting in the sled, walking in the snow, eating the snow... she seems to be a cold weather girl.

Catching snowflakes on her tongue.

Now she's down for the count and I've cozied myself up on the couch for another evening of solo TV watching. Though I've cut myself off from doing anything like watching 4 episodes of Criminal Minds right before going to bed... I couldn't fall asleep for anything last night. Every little noise I would open my eyes, all "oh NO! It's an intruder! A rapist! A murderer! A kidnapper!" Normally I can watch things that freak me out, and then later when I start to get all pathetic and creeped out I just scoot over to Nate's side of the bed and while he doesn't wake up, he's still enough to reassure me that I just have an overactive imagination, and that everything is normal and fine and okay and it's just the wind, for crying out loud. But not last night. I was all on my own. So tonight it's just straight home renovation shows. Maybe a little Hoarders. Those will let me sleep.

And now, even though it's kind of chilly in here, I've got a hankering for some ice cream. So I am about to go serve up some mint chocolate chip and I will leave you with some comparison pictures.

Making a snow angel on patio table last March.

Making a snow angel today... though I did still have to move her arms and legs.

Last year she wasn't so sure about the whole idea of snow.

This year she looooooves it.

Oh, and PS? The girl is 15 months old today. 15 whole months. She's got her checkup on Monday, so be prepared to be regaled with all sorts of stats and percentiles as to just how tiny she still is.

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Lame.

I don't even want to try to make excuses. Two months? Pathetic.

And we've done so much and been so many places, I'm hesitant to even try to write a catch-you-up-on-our-lives entry. Soooo. Let's do a quick recap of the last two months. Thanksgiving in MA. Came home, set up our Christmas tree and did our little Christmas #1 here at home with just the three of us. Went to PA to visit family and have Christmas #2. Then we came home and were here for all of a week before we took off again to visit family in ID, where we stayed for nearly 3 weeks of good times and loads of food. That included Christmas #3. Also New Year's. Also, a ski trip to Montana, during which I left my little chickadee with her grandparents and spent four WHOLE DAYS doing nothing but drinking tea and reading by the fire and not worrying about if the baby was about to wake up from her nap and end my quiet. Finally came home in January and we were here all of what, a week and a half before we took off for the Poconos for a weekend for Christmas #4 with the Grimes side of the family. Ended up taking 2 siblings home to VA with us, Erin and Jonny were here with us all last week, which was really fun. Then this past weekend was the March for Life, which meant various members of the fam were independently coming to DC. Heather came and stayed here for the weekend, and Mickey stopped by for dinner on Saturday. Yesterday after Mass and a lovely coffee date with some Walkers everyone left for their various homes, and we are back down to just the three of us. It is quiet.

So that brings us up to today. Not the most riveting paragraph I've ever written, but it covers the basics of what has happened in the past two months.

Now to begin writing about the banalities of everyday life again. To start with, my child has an inSANE love of bananas these days. I mean, she wakes up and we go down to the kitchen, she just starts in with "Nana? Nana? Nana?! Nana! Nana!" until she's got the banana in her hot little hands. Then she eats the entire thing in like 2 minutes flat and starts asking for more. I think the girl would eat an entire bunch of bananas if I let her. It's fairly hilare.

Also, she has started doing this little fakey cry whenever anybody else is sad... I first noticed it yesterday when we were at Mass. There was a little boy a few pews behind us who was getting kind of cranky, and when he would start to cry, Fiona would glance up at me or Nate and make a little pout face and start to whimper in empathy. Then last night we were playing with a little Fisher Price girl, I would balance her on my knee and Fi would knock her down, I'd say "Oh no, she fell!" and Fi would start to do these fake little sobs until I said "She's okay!" It's so cute.

In baby #2 news, we've had the midwaypoint ultrasound, and everything is looking good. I'm at about 24 weeks now, and starting to really feel pregnant. I've got the obvious pregnant belly now, which makes me happy cause I no longer just look like I'm getting kinda chunky. I've also been having the whole charlie horse thing, which is not so awesome, along with the various aches and pains that are still more annoying than actually painful. BUT I also get to feel the baby move and kick ALL THE TIME, and he/she is still small enough that its not painful yet. So that's awesome.

Annnnnd that's all I've got time for, kids. Backyardigans is over. My blog writing window is closed. Now I've got to get to playing with this little monster, hopefully get some errands done, blah blah etcetera, boring things. Peace out.

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Sandwiches.

In case any of you missed the news, we are currently working on BabyLaMartina version 2.0. Which is to say, I'm pregnant again.

We are officially in the second trimester, which means all the sickieness is pretty much gone (huzzah!) but I've still got food issues. This happened last time, too. People say, oh, you're pregnant, eating for two, you must just be hungry all the time! Uhhhhh, not so much. Mostly I just don't feel like eating. Even now that I'm not feeling queasy 24/7, most food is just unappetizing. So when I stumble upon something that sounds good, I tend to eat it every meal for like a week. I've been eating a lot of ham egg and cheese sandwiches. And baked potatoes. And turkey sandwiches. Annnnd thats pretty much my entire diet, right there. It's got plenty of variety and nutrition, right? Shut up. It does. End of story.

The thing that sucks is that I tend to run out of things pretty quickly. The thing that DOESN'T suck is my hubs. Who will run to the store for me an embarrassing number of times. Like that time he ate up the end of the cheddar cheese and after my brief OHNOTHEREISNOCHEESEFORMYBAKEDPOTATO fit, he happily volunteered to run to the store to grab some more for me. Aww. What a sweetheart. But it gets better. Last night, we were talking about dinner, and I settled on my usual turkey sandwich. The trouble was- we were out of pickles. And I MUST have pickles on my sandwich. I'm very particular about sandwich construction. So my love ran to the grocery store to pick up some pickles, and he also got a couple other things we were running low on. Not only that, but he took the little chickadee with him. She loves to go to the store. And he gets mad compliments from everyone about how cute she is (especially when he carries her around in the little basket instead of getting a cart, which apparently happened last night). So they get home and YAY I have pickles and I can make my sandwich and then I realize- we have no more chips. And not only am I particular about my sandwich, I'm particular about the entire sandwich meal, including presentation and sides. And currently "my meal" consists of the sandwich (on a bulkie roll, cut in half), arranged on the plate with a small pile of baked Ruffles in the middle, sour cream and onion dip, the "tropical mix" of canned fruit (which is pineapples and papayas), and a drink. The drink is the only thing that varies. Sometimes water, sometimes milk, sometimes ginger ale. In any case, I am now distraught because a big piece of my meal (the chips) is now not available. I really did try to shake it off and prepare my dinner without them, but I guess I was kind of moping around? Cause Nate offered to head BACK out to the store to get my chips. This boy, I tell you what. He is the best.

Anyways. I've got to end here. I hear Nate and Fiona coming home from the store now... I hope he remembered to pick up milk...

This boy, I loves him.

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One.

She's just... I don't... I mean...

Gah. My baby is one year old today. One. That's an entire YEAR. Which really doesn't seem like that long until you start thinking about how many things she can do today that she could not do a year ago. And that a year before that she was not even anything at all.

I just... don't have words. She's just too adorable. I seriously think I could cry, she's been so cute today. I'm not usually the type of person to do those sorts of things, but pregnancy hormones do crazy things to you.

And so, I will just leave it at that. And since I am not so much on the words today, I'll leave a handful of pictures, because I do that much better.

Our family a year ago, and our family now.

Babygirl one year ago, on the day she was born.

And here she is today, picking out pumpkins, and pushing the wagon around,

Last year she was a skeleton. This year she has a few different costumes, one for each event, and the first of those was the spider for the party at Nate's office today.

She's just too awesome. I love her to bits.

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Moar Food.

Made two new recipes since I last wrote. Tuesday I totally wimped out on the grocery shopping front and Nate picked up a delicious frozen pizza for dinner, which I enjoyed immensely. But yesterday I managed to drag my ass out there and so for dinner we had-

Pork Chops with Garlicky Broccoli

I've never made pork chops with the bone in them before, it was a new experience. This is also the first time I've made pork chops that they weren't totally dried out. Plus, the broccoli (made with garlic and soy sauce) was totally delish.

Today was absolutely miserable. Rainy and cold and just blech. Fiona and I did manage to make it out to playgroup, which was fanTAStic, just to be out of the house for awhile, and to be someplace warm. You see, our landlady has this contract with this company, and they come out every fall to check the furnace and every spring to check the A/C. Great, right? That she's so on top of things? She gave me the number of the company to call and set up the appointment for them to come out, and she very specifically said to make sure they check the furnace before we use it. "Oh, of course!" says I. "No problem!"

And then we went on vacation and I kind of forgot all about calling to make that appointment. When we got home from vacation and settled, I realized that oh yeah, it is October and we'll probably be needing to turn the heat on soon, so the other day I called to set up the appointment, thinking they would come out sometime next week. Wellllllll... the first available appointment slot they have is November 4th. Which um.. yeah. It was cold today. It's gonna keep on getting colder. Not particularly thrilled about the situation. The temp in here dropped as low as 64 degrees today, which sounds like a decent temp, but its actually quite chilly. If it gets much colder than that, I might call the company and just be like "uh, is it okay if we turn the heat on before you come inspect the furnace? Or will that totally screw things up?" Cause damn.

In any case, this evening I set Fiona in the living room, turned on the Sesame Street, and went into the kitchen to start some meal prep. She was happy as can be in there, but as it turned out, she wasn't so much watching the show as pulling out a half a box of tissues and strewing them about the room. And playing with my phone.

Trouble.

So the whole idea of making dinner was put on hold until Nate got home, so he could play with her and I could get dinner made. Tonight was yet another first for me. I made steak. Which I've never done.

Steak with Potato-Parsnip Mash

Another new thing? Parsnips. When I came to parsnips on my grocery list, I had no stinkin' clue where to look. I didn't know what color they were, what they were shaped like, or where in the produce department even to look. Turns out they kind of look like whitish yellow carrots, and are extremely tasty mashed up with potatoes and scallions. Another resoundingly successful dinner.

And my friends, that's not all. I also made a yummy smelling marinade from some of that leftover rosemary and some garlic- and tomorrow evening's chicken is already in the fridge soaking it in.

But wait, there's more! The bananas I bought yesterday turned brown SUPER fast, so tonight after the little chickadee was in bed, I decided to make banana bread. Which I have never made before in my life but is starting to fill the house with a delicious smell.

I'm almost starting to get nervous. What happened to myself and who is this little Suzy Homemaker?

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Finally Fall

Well, we've been back from vacation for about a week and a half, which means I've finally got almost all the dirty laundry done, and the suitcases have at least been brought upstairs to the bedrooms... not fully unpacked though. They seem to have somehow refilled themselves with clean clothes... not entirely sure how that works, but I'm hoping to tackle those today.

The big news is- I've started something new. I've started cooking much more frequently. And new dishes, too! Things I've never done before! I saw this magazine, and on the cover it said "Meals for a Month" and it had all the recipes and weekly shopping lists and I was just so impressed that I bought it right there in the checkout aisle. After I bought it and flipped through, I realized that most the recipes seemed easy enough, and like things we would actually eat, so I decided to follow it. Last week I went to the grocery store and bought weird things like bok choy and shallots and chili-ginger sauce. I bought things I have never actually cooked myself, like chicken drumsticks and pork tenderloin. And I followed it. That's right, kids. 1. I actually made 5 new recipes in the last week, and 2. This blog has officially descended to that level of mommybloggerdom where I can only talk about kids and what I made for dinner. So sue me. But first enjoy all the pictures of the yummy meals.

Monday- Tilapia with peppers.

It was supposed to have olives in it too, but we cut those out cause we no like em.

Tuesday - Beef and Bok Choy Stir-Fry

And yes, I made the stir fry sauce from scratch.

Wednesday- Spicy Orange Glazed Drumsticks with Green Beans

I think this was our favorite meal of the week. Very very delish.

Friday- Roasted Pork with Brussels Sprouts and Apricots

This should have been Thursday's dinner, but we were very excited about the post-season starting, and so had a ballpark type meal of hot dogs, pretzels, and nachos. So the pork got bumped to Friday. It was okay, but none of us were crazy about the brussels sprouts. When I reheated the leftover pork on Sunday, I made some homemade applesauce with it and we liked that much better.

Monday- Fettucini with Sweet Potatoes and Ricotta

Another meal that got bumped back a few days due to various reasons. But it was quite yummy and I'm actually eating some of the leftovers now for my lunch.

I have to be honest, I'm pretty damn impressed with myself. I have every intention of continuing with the recipes in the book, though I might stray from them a little bit this week, cause I've got some ingredients left over that need to be used up before they go bad. So I might have to even get creative. This is most definitely a side of me that I've never seen before, and it's pretty interesting.

In closing, enjoy a few pictures of Fiona unloading the dishwasher. She's quite the little helper.

ps. I'm still pissed about stupid Crapelbon blowing that game on Sunday. Friggin' Red Sox, man. They just break your heart. Go Phillies.

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