Grown Up

Date night isn't really an established element of our household anymore. We spend plenty of quality time talking or working together (or at least in close proximity) so I don't feel at all as though we have neglected each other since the arrival of our joyous bundle (a bundle nearing nine months!).

Regardless, I felt a surprise night out with dinner and a concert was in order, especially since one of hubby's favorite bands was in town with cheap tickets. A yummy dinner with a coupon, checking out silly baby halloween costumes and then on to the show.

It was a fantastic show. Chill, casual and just the thing for enjoying company with your favorite man. But. We decided we have started feeling old.

The show was held at one of our local colleges and therefore attended by mostly students. Young students. Trendy students. Full of hopes and dreams. We giggled at some of them and watched as some chose to sit up front on the floor for two hours while we old fogies preferred our padded seats with backs.

It was a great night. Even though I'm not going to sit up late tonight and discuss either the philosophy of life or the cutest boy on campus (both topics I used to love chatting over) it was fun to remember being where they were. It is amazing how quickly life passes by so that when you turn around so much has changed without our even noticing.

8 years ago we didn't have digital cameras, ipods or camera phones. We didn't blog, tweet or text our friends every 2 minutes. It's just so interesting how much can change about culture so quickly.

What do you remember about college?

It's Going to Be Hard to Keep Up

Crawling from Anne on Vimeo.

Thirsty?

Harvested from the garden.








Washed and dried.








Mashed.








Simmering with a side of mashing.








Cooked for 15 minutes.








Pouring through cheesecloth.





















Straining overnight.










Chilling and straining.








Chilled and strained.








Ready.








Cheers!








After harvesting, washing, mashing, cooking and straining the grapes, I poured it into a wine glass with a splash of sparkling water.

Paired with a hot bowl of potato/corn/sausage/kale soup, I don't think I've ever had a more satisfying drink. It is thicker, richer and more grape-y than any other juice I've ever had. It is fantastic. It is thicker, richer and more grape-y than any other juice I've ever had. It is fantastic.


If you come over in the next couple days, I might let you have a sip. But you'll want to hurry.

Month Eight

Sweet girl, you have had a good month. Your little body has been growing and learning and stretching at every moment. You recognize your name and some of the names of people around you. While you haven't said "Mama", you know that that is who I am.









Finger foods are very manageable for you now. You've got the pincher grasp down and are so happy with a bowl of O's, baby puffs or bananas to snack on. You love your sweet tators and pears best of all, but will tolerate pretty much anything so long as it is paired with a bite of some rice cereal.




You like to spend as much time standing as you possibly can. Some days we have to force you to sit or lie down and work other muscles, otherwise you'd never get any other exercise. And the books say you have to, so we've got to follow the books, right? Work those abs, baby!










Whether it's at the coffee table, the couch, the tub or around the outside of the exer-saucer you are quite the little cruiser. Not that you seem to go very fast and you don't really appear to be in a hurry for any real walking, but you're darn cute pounding your little hands or toys on the table.









I knew you were teething lately, but I had no idea that you would turn out to be a tiny vampire. Apparently, I am going to have to start stocking up on red meat.






We've started your sewing lessons this month. Won't be long before you can start putting together your own home made clothes. It's just tricky keeping your fingers out from under the needle...










Every day we try to spend time outside. Either walking or playing in the yard or going to the park. You love feeling the breeze and watching the world go by. Everything holds so much interest and it's so fun to see you experience all the different things in life for the first time.





Your favorite toy this month was the spinners. Tops. Anything we could put on a hard surface and twirl. You'll crawl for them, stare at them, do your tummy time for them. Spin, spin, spin.









My little boppy girl. We had to put the rocker and a few of your other baby things away this month as you are starting to outgrow them. A little comparison maybe? To how tiny you were when you first were sleeping here?








Baby girl. Eight months seems so old! Sigh. Can't you just quit growing? Pretty please?

Ch-ch-ch-changes

My day as I had planned it:

Clean the house in the morning.
Burn CDs and print schedules.
Back to back afternoon meetings for new volunteers.
Home to shower and change.
Fabulous (free!) date night dinner out.

My day as it happened:

Wake up feeling yucky.
Lay on the bathroom floor.
Lay on the couch.
Lay on the bed.
Nap.
Lay on the bed.
Eat a couple crackers.
Lay on the bed.
Lay on the couch.
Drink some Sprite.
Go to bed.

Good thing hubby was home to be super dad all day.

Monday Morning Schedule

7:30 am Baby wakes up
Daddy goes down and plays with baby on the floor while Mama sleeps a little longer to offset the many wakings from the night.

9:30 am Baby takes a nap
Mama & Daddy take a nap too. It was a long weekend.

10:00 am Get up from nap and make breakfast and coffee.

11:00 am Baby wakes up from nap. Stay in jammies and lay on the floor to play with Baby.

1:15 pm Baby takes a nap. Mama decides to change out of her jammies.

2:00 pm Baby wakes up from nap and plays in the bathroom while Daddy takes a shower and Mama makes lunch. Thinks about doing the dishes and cleaning the house and putting away the piles of laundry. Puts it off for a little while longer.

Yep, it's still morning around here. Gotta love a Sabbath Monday. Especially after a very long week and a very busy weekend. Happy Monday, friends.

Please Do Not Disturb

Though I work in a very large facility, it can still be rather difficult to find a good spot during then day when I need to, um, "make baby food."

For a while I was using the nursery. It makes sense, that's where I feed her on the weekends anyway. However, the chairs in the nursing room are designed for nursing. Or so I surmise. The top of the chair is angled so that you MUST be looking down at your child at all times. Personally, I find this quite uncomfortable. Even more so when I am not actually holding a baby. So I went looking for a new place to sit.

Most of our classrooms have only kid-sized chairs. Many of the doors are only half-doors and therefore offer limited privacy.

The church has wifi and I tote my laptop with me to answer emails or work on my scheduling, planning or music stuff. After a bit of trial and error, I finally found a good room that is rarely used, has a full door, grown-up chairs to sit in and a table to set my laptop up.

All was going well until one fateful Tuesday.

There I am, minding my own business, typing and pumping away when the door opens. I keep my back to the door and all is safely covered, but nonetheless I was rather startled and hurriedly asked the older gentleman standing in the doorway,

"Can I help you?"

"We have a meeting in here at noon."

I look at my watch. It is 11:45.

"Ok," I say. "I'll be out in just a minute."

He leaves and I turn to quickly finish and start putting all of my equipment away. The door opens again. Ahhh!

"Can you please wait until I come out?" I ask as patiently as possible while being rather frustrated and quite discombobulated.

The door closes again.

As I leave, there are at least three older gentlemen now milling about in the hallway. I hear a rather huffy, "thanks," as I tucked my head down and hurried back to my office.

Honestly, I don't think any of them knew what I was doing in there. Most likely, they just thought I was on my computer taking up their meeting room.

Shortly thereafter, I approached our HR director and asked for a bit of advice. Firstly, there should be a posted sign outside the door for when the room is scheduled to be in use. If I had known of the meeting, I would have chosen another location to lactate.

Secondly, she recommended my making a little sign of my own to post on the door.

If you work with me, you already are aware that I have need of a bit of privacy a couple times a day. Hopefully, if my little sign is displayed it will detract anyone else from just popping in. Hopefully.

A Sigh of Epic Proportions

Every working mother knows the frustration and stress and worry of where to put her child in day care. I only work part time and a good half of those hours are spent during church services. My girl can happily play in the nursery with several fabulous and professional baby-holders while I go about my job.

After 7 months of having my dearest friend care for Randall during the one day a week I'm in the office, I faced the weighty task of finding someone new. Of course, this would also come smack dab in the middle of her starting the joy of separation anxiety!

For a couple weeks, she was going to a girl who I knew from church and who also watched another good friend's baby. Unfortunately, starting this week, she is full on the day I need a spot.

I had two other good leads of highly recommended caregivers, but one of them ended up being full and the other doesn't do single day positions.

A couple days later, I got a number of another girl whom I know and who nannies full-time but also takes on babysitting and might work out.

No dice. She had just picked up that "one more" child she could watch.

From one of my original leads, I was given the number and website of the local daycare organization. While I knew there were probably tons of great places on that list, the thought of going from taking my daughter to my best friend to taking her to someone I didn't know at all sent me to tears instantly. It still makes me tear up.

The stress was mounting in my heart. I knew that God had the right person in mind to take care of my princess, but I felt as though time was running out and I just didn't know what to do. Several friends and coworkers were praying diligently for me as we all knew it just isn't feasible for me to bring her to work on a regular basis.

We've brought her in a couple times and Andy carries on his morning meeting in the nursery while playing with blocks and balls, then I take the afternoon shift and try to do my work while she naps or plays in a jumper. It doesn't really make for the most productive of days, I'll be honest.

I called a couple other girlfriends and asked where they took their kids. If I could at least find somewhere that someone I knew was going, it would lighten my concerns considerably. One girl said that the Salvation Army, (where her husband works) has child care and both she and her son (as well as another family we know) love it. I took down the number and was immediately feeling more peaceful just knowing a good option was available.

Before I even got a chance to call them, my other girlfriend replied via Facebook to my message. She asked a couple questions and I got the impression that she might be interested. A little while later, she sent me a message saying she wanted to take on the job!

We have been in a couples' small group together for over five years. I've watched her raise her daughter and know her and her family very well. She's a teacher and loves kids. She quit last spring to raise her daughter and son (who is exactly one month older than Randall) and decided to help her family income with childcare.

We basically are answering each other's prayers.

I don't ever doubt that God will come through with my every need. But I still take all of the worry onto myself as if somehow I don't believe it. In the grand scheme, this isn't a monumental situation. In my heart though, it is enormous.

Tomorrow is her first day. Her bag is packed and her bottles are full. It's like the first day of school and I'll probably cry when I drop her off. Her little arms outstretched and her sad face as I leave. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she will be in loving hands. And that is worth all the stress and fear. I will work diligently tomorrow to pay for that childcare, but I won't worry about my girl at all.

Tuesday Night Ponderings

It's time for me to hit a few of the questions that I was asked back on my bag giveaway contest and I'm challenging you to answer these as well.

The first two questions are lovely little lists and like most bloggers, me likee lists!

"If you were 20 (single and no baby) and money were not an object, what are five things that you would want to do in life and why?"

1. Go on a backpacking tour through Europe and Asia.
2. Live in Africa working at an orphanage for several months to a year.
3. Take classes on photography, dance and cooking.
4. Learn another language fluently.
5. Work on a kibbutz in Israel for a year.

"If you were 60 (still no family concerns) and money were not an object, what are five things you would want to do and why? What accounts for the differences between the two lists?"

1. Take an expensive b&b and castle trip through Europe.
2. Buy a home on a lake and host weekly Sunday brunch gatherings with friends on my veranda overlooking the water.
3. Buy horses and stables with property adjacent to my lake house.
4. Take classes in history and agriculture.
5. Garden and read books all the live-long day.

Big differences in my lists. I think I will still want to travel when I am older, but backpacking will definitely not be as attractive as comfy beds and renting spiffy European cars. However, at the same time, I want to continue learning as long as I live and enjoy as much out of life as possible! I've done a lot of wonderful things in my life and hope to keep living it to the fullest! Even while happily being a Mommy.

What are your lists? If you're a lurker, give this a shot. If you want to cover it on your own blog, go ahead and link back here, just shoot me a comment that you're doing your own post!

Name That Meal!

It's time for a rousing game of Name! That! Meal!

Here is a picture of ingredients. Not only do you need to name all of the ingredients shown, but you have to guess what the meal is that they are going to be made into. One key ingredient has been left out.

Good luck!

The past few months have been a series of sleep trials for us. Baby started out as a fantastic little sleeper--sleeping through the night at just five weeks. She hit the four-month "regression" and really wasn't too bad, only waking a bit for the binx or a quick meal. After only a couple weeks she was back to sleeping through the night again.


I'm not exactly sure when the common night waking began with the cutting of her first two teeth, but at one point she added back in a 4 am feeding. This was fine, I figured she just needed a little snack, but that eventually we'd need to cut the nighttime eating.

Shortly after we finished that sleep training there were new nighttime trials. With the 7-8 month regression in view, more teeth likely emerging and her little body trying to crawl, to walk and to grow, sleep has been insanely messy for quite a while.

She woke up every ten to fifteen minutes for an hour and a half one night. The next night she'd fall asleep only after ten to twenty minutes of rocking only to wake up again after an hour to start the process over again. Some nights she would soothe quickly and easily but still wake up every hour. This poor kid just couldn't get through a full night of rest for her life. We tried playing her favorite CD, adding in a nighttime feeding, a box fan for white noise, snuggles, etc. All we got was a few hours less sleep and bad back pain from leaning over a crib.

Babies decide to do what they want to do. I'm all about training and scheduling and helping baby learn how to live. But there are still a lot of factors that you just can't do anything about. It sometimes amazes me.

Anyway, last night was blissful after so many sleepless nights. Baby woke up for a quick feeding and that was it until 7 am. Added to this were two beautiful 2-hour naps. That was a first for her. We are usually fortunate to get one 2-hour with a twenty minute or an hour for the other nap.

This doesn't mean I got a whole lot more done today, but that's ok I guess. One day at a time. I'm planning on being much more productive once these doggone Olympics are over.

Here's hoping for another good night of sleep.

The West Coast Vortex

I won't go so far as to say that the West Coast is inherently evil, even if I secretly might think that to be true. I mean, I've always heard how beautiful, how cultural, how advanced everything is. And that's great, sure, but I'm pretty sure there is some type of ominous sucking vortex along the shore.

This post has taken me almost a week to write, which is pretty ridiculous. I'm basically just afraid I will find myself sitting here on the couch crying all over my mac. I'm fond of my mac and want to spare it this disservice.

Please, West Coast. All I want is to have my friends back. Three years is a really long time. I'll wait if I have to, but promise you'll spit them back out when you're done? It's not all that much to ask of a Coast.

That is all.

You Win!

For our random giveaway from the great bloggy giveaway week, the winner is:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

92 

Timestamp: 2008-08-14 17:54:04 UTC

Heather!! You were late to the giveaway game, but you also were one of the few who actually linked back to me! You can use your bag for all of your upcoming baby stuff too... How lucky are you!?

For our completely subject giveaway from the great Iowa vacation week, the winner is: Jenn! Yay! You were my first and most creative questioner and I am pondering my answers...

If you would email me at sewverysweet[at]gmail[dot]com and give me your mailing addresses and the fabric you like best, I will get your fabulous shopping bags out to you this week and you can head out to the farmer's market! Or anywhere you want to shop...

I am going to be listing my bags in my etsy shop soon so you'll all be able to tell all of your friends and family where to get sweet bags to help save our environment. And look stylish doing it.

Month Seven

This wasn't as much a month full of firsts as last month. However, you have been eating a lot more interesting things. The cost of our grocery bill has been significantly offset by your job. "Baby food tester extraordinare." We've tried mac & cheese (nasty), oatmeal with fruit (ok), yogurt fruit juice (yummy but weird) and infant water. Not sure why I would buy water for my infant, but we tested it nonetheless. Thanks for stepping up and contributing to our family budget needs. We appreciate it fully.


You are SO close to crawling. I was sure that you would skip it entirely in favor of walking but with a little bit of help, you are pulling and pushing yourself forward. That or you're practicing your yoga.

Here we have "up dog" and "the cobra."






Not only are you almost crawling, you spend most of your time trying to climb. Up us, mostly.

This past week you got to meet some more of your Great-Aunts and spend time with Gramee, Papa & GG. Anytime you are around people you have gotten so that you are super happy and smiley. I'm afraid you'll be bored when it's just the three of us and there are no extra people to give you all of their attention! You just love people.




Ahhhh, the pool.







If it is something to do with water, you are all about it. You love your swimmy boat and splashing up in the air. If only we had a pool at home, we would be in it every single day. You'll have to content yourself with your little kiddie pool. The boat won't fit, but you can sploosh and splash to your tiny heart's content. We're pretty sure you are going to refer to water as "splooshy."




We've only gotten to the beach once so far this year, but it was a beautiful day and you got to play in the big waves and dig in the sand. The textures were so interesting that I had a hard time keeping the sand out of your eyes! Thank goodness for the binx so you didn't eat any of it... It is amazing all of the places that sand can creep into. And impossible to get it all out.




Silly little bucket-head. You haven't figured out yet how to put this on or take it off. So I get to do silly things to you and they just stay there cutely. Heh heh.






You may not know for years how blessed you are or how much people love you, but Mama is so thankful for some of your friends who are willing to watch you while she works. You love your buddy Alina who plays dress up with you and plays with your toys with you and distracts you during a change and pats your head and gives you endless hugs and kisses. You will sit and play for hours with her. Or maybe it's that you sit and let her play with you. You are such a cute little baby doll.





You are going to miss Alina and Jean so much. But I'm sure we'll get set up on Skype quickly so that you can still see them as much as possible!






I can't stop looking at your sweet face. I think I say this every month, but you get sweeter every day. Every morning I lie in bed and listen to your chatters as you wake up and then go in to get you and am rewarded with your beautiful smiles. Even when you are messy or grumpy or exceedingly poopy you are my favorite little person in the world.



You love to play with hair and it often soothes you when you're grouchy. Your Dolly Mama doll has the perfect little mass of hair to twiddle. Smaller toys are the most fun as they fit perfectly in your little hands. Especially the Little People pirates. We can't wait to teach you to say "Avast, ye scaly-wags!"




If there was an Olympic sport of raspberry-bubble-making, you would absolutely win the gold. You didn't drool much while teething, but when trying to blow berries, you can fill a swimming pool. And speaking of Olympics, I'm pretty sure you have been watching far too much TV this past week. Basketball seems to be the most entertaining, but you have been seeing all kinds of records broken lately, and I'm ok with it. We'll turn the TV off next month. (except that next month is all the season premiers, but that's after you go to bed so it doesn't count)

We love you baby girl. You kill us with your cuteitude.

There Will Be A Winner! (Or Two)

But not until next week.

Why? You may ask? Well, because I'm going on vacation.

Where? You may ask? Well, Iowa, of course.

Why? You may ask again? (geez, all the questions...) Well, because there is a pool, obviously.

In the meanwhile, I want to give away another bag next week. Therefore, there will be TWO winners announced when I come back.

But not for nothing. Oh no, not for nothing.

Your challenge is to give me topics. You may have noticed that I don't post as much as I used to. Also, while my child is endlessly interesting to me, it would behoove me to write about something else once in a while. Interspersed with adorableness and cuteitude.

Whoever comes up with the most interesting topic or question for me to write about or answer will receive their very own fabulously, lovingly handcrafted shopping bag. That way one is given out randomly (last week) and one is given out thoughtfully (this week).

Let's have it folks. Break out your creativity (or just plain silliness) and let me have it.

Happy August. It's going to be a scorcher. Will you be at the pool?

Also, for your viewing entertainment, click here. And here. You won't be sorry. Don't forget to cast your comment-vote.

Things I Love Thursday - Better than Baby Einstein

We received a set of Baby DVDs from a friend at church recently. He works in the Christian music industry and is always passing new stuff on to us.

I'll be completely honest, Praise Baby had me super skeptical at first. I imagined that it would be the usual cheesy song production with the usual 12 year old girls singing along.





(For the record, this type of production and vocal tracking drives me insane. To the point that, when we record a kids album, we tend to specifically include a few tracks of kids who are not on pitch just so that it sounds like real children.) /end rant


The vocals were exactly what I expected them to be but the visuals were stunning. This, for me, made it all ok. If I'm going to plop my kiddo in front of the tv for 5 minutes so I can go to the bathroom, it had better be in front of something good. There is great footage of babies and toddlers and kids playing, interacting and laughing. There are stimulating images of black & white and other high-contrst colors that babies just love to look at. Intriguing, even for a grownup...

The other bonus is that in the menu you can completely turn off the vocals and have just instrumental tracks playing. Ahhh, now that's better.


Before you worry that I am allowing my tv to babysit my infant, know that she is only amused for about two songs worth anyway and then we'll play again. This was, however, very good for a distraction last week when she was sick and not feeling up to much of anything other than snuggling.

Did Someone Shout Giveaways?

I hear around the bloggy blogosphere that this week is a big ol' giveaway week.

This means I had better get in on the action. This also means I might be up late tonight. Grab your coffee, ladies, it's time for some fun!




I'm going to be giving away one of my proven hard-working grocery bags. You may not yet have joined the cloth grocery bag craze, but you should. Get rid of those yucky plastics and reduce, reuse, recycle! Plus, lots of stores give you $$ back for using your own bags.

My bags are patterned after a plastic bag but I have made them a little bigger to hold even more. They are also lined to be approximately 10 times stronger than plastic.




At the end of this week, one of you who have commented & linked will be chosen at random for one of these fabulous bags, and you will even be able to choose your own from a fabulous selection!

Happy Shopping & Blogging, friends!

*Note: if you don't win and are interested in a bag, email me and we'll set up a lil' ol' sale.

Worst Morning Ever (note: hint of sarcasm)

Mornings always make me especially lazy.

Especially lazy after a night spent trying to train Baby not to wake up for a 4 am feeding. She did pretty well for her first night at this. The crying is sadder just because of the fact that it's not loud and wailing. Just sad. And a little hungry. Hopefully, she'll get the idea soon enough.

Anyway, this morning we all had a hard time pulling ourselves out of bed. After Baby finally went down for her morning nap, we flopped onto the couch with our laptops (Dad has Mondays off--hooray!) and whined about how I had to plug in my computer and his was across the room and had to be fetched. What a pain...worst morning ever...until I knocked my entire cup of fresh yummy coffee off the table and onto the floor. Now it was official.

We console ourselves with this pile of cuteness. It will all be ok. Plus, my second cup of coffee is safely in a to-go mug.

In the Quiet

In the stillness I wait.

I take a sip of my coffee and wait.

I look out at the trees and my hammock and the flowers and I wait.

I heave a relaxed sigh. Maybe I'm not really waiting. Waiting indicates forward action in a sense, a moving ahead. Or at least, a wanting to move ahead.

These quiet moments when everyone in the house is napping. Rather than scurry about to finish cleaning or a project, I sit and enjoy the quietude. I check my email, read my blogs, play a game on Facebook.

Later I'll worry about the laundry or the sewing or the garden. There's plenty of time in the day for it all. Right now it's all about the quiet.

My Little Helper

At the advice of a friend, I signed up yesterday for The Grocery Game. The past few months I have been more diligent about clipping coupons and looking for deals as prices for everything has been rising.

With a free month to try it out, I'm loving this site after only one day. It matches up your local grocery store's sales with weekly coupons to find you the best deals. All from sitting on your couch with your feet up. The thing I love best is that it even tells you the percentage you are saving. So if three different brands of the same thing (usually toilet paper) are on sale, you can easily see which one is cheaper without pulling out your calculator.

Baby Girl has been helping me sort and clip coupons so I'm all ready to go shopping. Granted, her method of sorting involves a lot more crumpling and chewing on the coupons, but she's really trying to be helpful, I'm sure.