March

February has come and gone, with it tons and tons and feet of snow, most of which has now melted. Our tiny little yard looked like a battleground after the snow disappeared... big tree branches all over the place, a thousand little piles of dog turds, not to mention all the pine needles and leaves that we never raked up in the fall... Nate and I spent all this past weekend (which was GORGEOUS) outside raking and raking and bagging and it looks so much better now, even if there still isn't any grass...

Last week we also had an interesting couple of days when our fridge decided, after months of making this really annoying loud clonking noise, to die completely. Of course, I didn't realize it until it had been dead for so long that all the frozen food was totally defrosted...thank goodness for friends with deep freezers with space. All the fridge food was loaded into coolers with bags and bags of ice... this was Thursday. They finally delivered our new fridge yesterday, and it's so shiny and clean and new and COLD and it's just fantastic.

This morning Nate took off work and the three of us went to a Rocknoceros concert at Jammin' Java. Sounds kinda lame, but it's actually a really good time. Babygirl is slow to warm up to the idea of concert, staying close to Mama and Daddy at first, but after a while she enjoys getting up there and being part of the action.






Fi wasn't SO much into the dancing while I was shooting this little video, she was a bit more intent on sticking her hand inside the back of her diaper. Which was actually kind of embarassing. She has become kinda fascinated with that lately. In the past couple weeks, we've had three instances of "I'm done napping and now I think it would be fun to reach into my dirty diaper and make a poop painting on the sheets of my crib..wheeee Mama isn't this fun!??!?!" Yesterday she tried it at the end of her morning nap, but was thwarted by the zip-up footie pajamas. Although she made a valiant effort and managed to get one arm outside of jammies. She is too much.



In completely unrelated news, I haven't given any updates regarding baby numero dos recently... that's probably because everything is progressing just fine, no issues beyond the fact that I'm a little anemic and tend to be a bit hypoglycemic. Neither of which is surprising, I've always tended that way. Just means I need to eat frequent small meals and take an iron pill. I'm also supposed to take it easy on things like sugar and white flour and simple carbs... all those things that make up delicious snacks. Instead I have to do proteiny complex carb things. Like wheat pitas and hummus. And hardboiled eggs. Which isn't as delicious as bagels or candy, but still pretty good. I'm 30 weeks along now, so we have entered the final stretch, the final 10 weeks. I'm actually counting down using LOST episodes, because there are only 10 left till the end... the final episode is slated to air May 23rd, and I'm slated to have this kid May 18th. We'll just have to wait and see which finishes first- this pregnancy, or a show that we belatedly only got into last summer and has sucked us in like none other. I've got my next appt in a week, I'll od my best to update again at that point, maybe even including a how much have a gained type update?

I've also decided to become better about cooking dinner again. I was doing so well back in the fall, and then it fell away to NOTHING. I saw this cookbook in the checkout aisle at the grocery store (I fall for that stuff Every. Time.) and it caught my eye. "Fix It and Forget It. 200 Slowcooker recipes using 5 ingredients or less." The way I see it- I have both energy and time in the mornings. In the evenings I've got time, but I'm also usually beat. Getting up the energy to make dinner just seems like a monumentous effort. So if I slowcooker it, I can prepare dinner earlier in the day when I've still got some get up and go and then I can still be tired and blargh in the late afternoon and yet manage to get some actual dinner on the table. I went through the book and marked a bunch of recipes that looked tasty, added the ingredients to my shopping list, so we'll see how it all turns out... I'm hopeful.

On that note, I need to go get a little snack and then maybe a bit of a nap while Fi is still sleeping... here's hoping.

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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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