1st Birthday

Well, we are about 2 weeks away from celebrating Anders' 1st Birthday (um...when did this happen???), and I am completely ready for it. We will not be having a "traditional" 1st Birthday party since we really don't know enough people with kiddos out here to make it worth it. Instead, we are flying back to Vermont for a week to celebrate with our families.

As the standard "spoiled" first grandkid, Anders will have 2 parties, one with each side of the family, and we just cannot wait to see everyone! While we are there we will also be closing the sale of our Vermont home, which S and I are extremely excited about. In going back "home" for A's birthday, I have given all creative license to my Mom and Mother-In-Law to do as they with for the celebrations. Honestly, the "events" will be more focused around seeing all of our friends and family rather than a kid's birthday party.

If someone had told me 2 years ago that I would not be planning or really throwing a birthday party for my child's 1st birthday I would have laughed. While I do think that many people go way overboard in planning a party, I had never anticipated that I would not be the one hosting our friends and family for a simple get together to celebrate our child. Realistically, it makes no sense to try and host something here for our families-too many people, too many flights, only grandparents could come, but sometimes I do wish we were celebrating our child in our home. We considered having a few friends over, but most people we know out here do not have children and we are still developing our friendships with them. Even if we had a "no gifts" party, I still feel like it would seem gift-grabby and awkward to host a kid's party with a bunch of 20-40ish adults with maybe 2 kids thrown in.

This is simply one more "first" we are going through living here. S and I will celebrate Anders' first year with him on the 4th, and I'm sure it will be the prefect celebration that we need at this point in our lives, but there is still a part of me that wishes for invitations, party favors and piles of dirty dishes.

end hiatus???

Obviously, I have taken some a lot of time off from blogging. I could say "it's been busy" but really, I just haven't had a whole heck of a lot to write about. Of course, things have been busy: we replanted a major flower bed in our backyard (one that had been neglected for about 15 years), we switched to cloth diapering, we remodeled yet another part of or first floor, we stopped napping (well, Anders did), and we became thoroughly overwhelmed with life.

There's a lot to be said for support, and S and I have learned a whole new way of supporting each other over the past 2 years. We made some major life changes: getting married, a major cross-country move, and welcoming Anders into our lives; and because of all of this, we have learned how to lean on each other. While we no longer face the every-day challenges of figuring out how to get around our new geographical location, we still face the challenge of coming to terms with our distance from family and old friends.

No, this is not meant to be a "oh poor me" post, but it's more of a "huh, I thought we would be in a different state of mind by now" post. Simply put, we both thought that after a year things would feel less isolating.

But, on a lighter note, I'm hoping to renew this blog. There has been a ton of changes over the past few months, and as we draw in on Anders FIRST BIRTHDAY (what????) I'm thinking it's time to put on my writers cap and start documenting/sharing our lives with the e-world. Plus, I totally feel like I need a blog do-over...I need to revamp the look of this sucker...

And in closing, here's a picture of Anders at about 10 months, munching away on his sweet potato bites that he loves!

Just call me Grace

In standard fashion, I decided to end January with a bang, just not a very fun one.

Sunday night I tripped while going up the stairs to our master-wood with carpeted treads-and carrying a wine glass. First, there was a moment of mourning for the Cabernet and the Schott wine glass that died in this incident. Second, I promptly realized that I had glass sticking out of my hand, elbow and knee and two baseball size bruises on both shins. After a good 20 minutes of glass removal by me, and clean up by S, we decided we were golden and headed off to bed. My assessed damages on Sunday were: 2 monster shin bruises, 2 puncture wounds on my right hand and a good 1/2 inch slice to my pointer finger...plus lots of little pin pricks from glass shards on my left elbow, both hands and left knee.

Welcome Monday morning...where my entire body feels like it has been beaten. I'm not sure how I did it, but every single muscle in my upper body screamed at my every move as I tried to pick up A and get dressed for work. Bonus: I also discovered glass shards in my feet, a few tiny ones in my hand and a decent size chunk in my pointer finger. Needless to say, I called in to work and planned to spend the day "quietly" at the house with A and the pups. A decided to take one of the fabled 3 hour naps he occasionally takes at daycare, so I got to try and relax with some pain meds, yeah, no such luck.

In the end, S came home at noon, I took some pain pills and we spent the afternoon watching movies with A and the pups in our bed. End result: I am covered in bandaids, my left shoulder is almost immovable and my legs are varying shades of purple. Thankfully, we get to chill in bed all day tomorrow thanks to the "snowstorm" (5 inches is not quite a storm in my opinion....) that has closed A's daycare-sans S who has to be at the office for a lovely 11 hour day tomorrow...

Overall, no matter how much everything hurt today, it's tough to be grumpy when you get to spend the day with this:

Yes, that's both dogs...not just one realllly long one

Yes, this is a rambling post, thank you pain medication and exhaustion

Update..

So much for trying to keep the blog more up-to-date....

Here's a quick recap of the past 15 days (or so) while I try and get Anders down for his much needed nap...

A) S's parents visited for a long weekend. Yay! It was great to see family again and show off how much Anders has grown. Even though we live 1500+ miles away from ANY family member, we have been very lucky to be able to see one side of the family or the other about very 6 weeks.

B)  I am in the process of "building" a composter. I cannot seem to find one I like around here that fits my "low cost" desires...so we are building one.

C) We are making our dog food....Our dog, Bogey, has started thinning out, a lot, for no apparent reason. He eats a ton of food every day, and despite switching his food, vet visits, tests, etc... the only thing we can chalk it up to is his crazy energy level and high metaboism. So, after talking to our vet, we started making the dogs their own food, and it seems to have worked! We have gotten about 2 lbs on Bogey, which is huge!

D) Anders has decided that sitting is fun, but standing is AWESOME. 90% of the time we have to get him standing a soon a we put him down or he will squeal like some prehistoric dino. And, when we stand hm up, he stomps his feet like he is trying to walk.

E) Wee man, Anders, is still sleeping 12-15 hours a night solid, but naps are going out the window. We ae currently getting about 2 20 minute naps/day.

Alright,the kiddo is awake, surprise surprise! Hopefully some pictures this weekend!!!

Baby Food

This is a post about all things pureed. And cooking the living daylights out of steak for Anders...a feat that almost had S and I, as Medium Rare steak lovers, almost in tears.

We, and by that I mean I, decided early on that we really wanted to make all of Anders' baby food. S and I eat a mostly organic diet, and we wanted to do the same with A. When we started looking a organic baby food options in our area we were not impressed with the selection or the price. For example, I can buy 1 container of Earth's Best peas for $0.89 (on average) which is a 2 oz container; or I can buy 1 bag of organic frozen peas at Whole Foods for $1.69 and make 18-20 ounces of food. For my "frugal' lifestyle it was a no-brainer.

When we started to look into what we would need for baby food making we looked into the Beaba Babycook and ultimately decided against it-the main reason being that it makes very small volumes of food. We had recently gotten a Kitchenaid Food Processor for our wedding (which feels like it was ages ago....not just 1.5 years back) and we have a ton of these steamer baskets already.

Here's what we do:
1) prep veggies/fruit
2) steam them until very soft
3) process until desired smoothness is attained
4) pour into ice cube trays
5) freeze
6) store in labeled ziploc freezer bags

With chicken we simply poach it and them puree. Steak, we cook until well done. And, Anders favorite of them all, tofu is simply pureed.

Here's one of his favorite recipes:
Chicken with Apples and Carrots:
1) Peel and chop 10 medium carrots and 4 Apples
2) Steam carrots for 5 minutes then add apples (or steam seperately) and steam until very soft
3) While steaming, cut 2 chicken breasts into 1 inch chunks.
4) Place chicken into 8 cups boiling water and poach until cooked through.
5) Drain carrots and apples and reserve liquid.
6) Add poached chicken, carrots and apples to your food processor.
7) Process using a pulse setting until desired texture is achieved. Add reserved water from carrots and apples as needed for thinning.
8) Pour into ice cube trays and pop into freezer when cooled.
9) Once frozen, pop cubes into labeled ziploc bag, defrost cubes as needed.

My favorite food processor in action

Ready to freeze.

Anders loves this "recipe" and S and I really like it too-we try everything we make for Anders.

Enjoy, more recipes to come....

New Years "Resolutions"

1) Blog more

2) Grow my cooking repertoire to include more challenging and unique foods, and actually BLOG about what we cook

3) Start a raised bed garden in our backyard...which admittedly, our whole back yard is the size of the garden I grew up with. Oh how I love city living.

4) Continue to explore making our own dog food.

5) Finally finish all of our planned major home projects (we should be done these by February), and to tackle any new projects in a timely manner.

6) Remodel our wine cellar. The previous owners installed it "upside down", ie: corks up, and it needs some serious TLC. Let me also note, that it also needs to be stocked...it's so hard to keep a bottle in it!

7) Enjoy every moment, both challenging and easy, with Anders. 

8) Take more pictures!

9) Laugh more. 2010 was a rough year for us all. It's time to enjoy life and take things in stride.

10) Focus on that which is important and ignore that which is not.

Happy New Year!
S, M and A

Christmas 2010

This Christmas was our first in Nebraska and it brought quite a few changes. We celebrated Christmas with S's family in Florida in early December, and my parents came out to NE for 10 days to celebrate with us. Traditionally, we spend the day, and Christmas Eve, running around to different homes to meet up with all of our family, and cook a huge meal to enjoy with everyone. This was our first year "offically" hosting Christmas for our family, and it was very calm, quiet and different.

We did not do a good job taking pictures, but, thankfully, my parents did. More pictures to come as they settle back into their lives in Vermont!

This time.....

This time last year, well, yesterday 12/27 to be exact, we packed up our SUV and left our home in Vermont to move to Nebraska. We left every single thing exactly where it was since S's company was paying to have it all packed by our movers, and we loaded our two nut dogs, a bag of clothing, 2 sleeping bags, our top tier of our wedding cake, some books, all important documents and some munchies into our car and we left.

S cried for about 3 miles. I waited until week 2 in Nebraska, when, after a long day of unpacking, I discovered our movers had destroyed our brand new carpet in our basement. And then I sat down and I balled for 30 minutes.

Now, we both knew everything would be fine, and now, 12 months later, it is. But what we also knew was that we had a very uphill battle facing us. We have lived and traveled outside of Vermont and the US. We have gone months without seeing our families. We have been lonely and we have survived. However, moving to Nebraska was the hardest thing we have ever done.

Essentially, we left our jobs (which we both loved), every single person we knew, our home (that S built), and our wonderful lifestyle, all for S to pursue a job he hoped that would bring him professional success. Thankfully, S loves what he is doing, and without moving he would have never gotten many of the opportunities that have been allotted to him in Nebraska. But that doesn't make life easier.

We are learning to lean on each other more than we ever imagined we would. We are learning what our strengths are and where we are weak, and we are trying so hard to be stronger and "better" for A. We have finally, and I mean FINALLY, started to see our home in Nebraska as our house, and we are ready to take the next step in our lives, which right now means growing our lives here and realizing that looking back is not a good thing.

And, we have learned that somedays, it will just suck. Flat out suck. Living 1500+ miles from all that you have known and being aware that there is no "summer break" to go home to will suck a lot.

And on those days, I am thankful we have a very well stocked wine cellar.

Hello December

how is it December already? I hate to say it, but it as been almost a MONTH since I had 5 minutes to sit down and blog....yep, I am a blogging failure!

In life news: Thanksgiving was a bust-S was getting over the stomach flu, A had a sinus infection and I had a nasty little cold. We all hunkered down with our turkey and caught up on our DVRed shows. Sad, but true. We went to Florida to visit S's parents and grandmother at their homes down in the sunshine. It was a great way to spend a cold December week, and it was wonderful to finally get to fly with S for a full trip! Right now we are all getting ready for my parents to come out for Christmas-which means that it may actually be time for us to finish decorating our house. We are so behind in all things home/life related simply because since the first week of November one member of our family has been sick with one ailment or another.

On the baby front: Anders is 6 months old! Woohooo!!!! He is becoming more and more of a "real child" (as S likes to say) every day. He can sit unassisted, he has outgrown his bouncer, swing and infant car seat, he eats a boat load of "real" food and he is learning how to self entertain.

One of the cutest things is to watch him eat solids. He loves pears, apples, peas and anything mixed with cinnamon. He's indifferent to green beans and sweet potatoes. This kiddo loves his food.

Oh yeah, and he is huge. Here's our stats over the past appointments:
Birth: 7 lb 8 oz, 20.5 inches
2 months: 12 lb12 oz, 25.5 inches
4 months: 17 lb 12 oz, 27.5 inches
6 months: 19 lb 9 oz, 29 inches
We are in 12 month clothing. Sadly for A, they are all too wide, so we spend the day pulling his pants up...which, of course, he hates.

Last weekend we went to see Santa, and A was wonderful.

He loved Santa's real beard, and Santa loved that A only touched it instead of pulling it....just you wait one more year!

Hiding under S's golf hat

Family shot at S's family Christmas in Florida.

Jolly little 6 month old!

Finally!

Anders rolled over this morning, for the very first time! Yes, he is 5.5 months old and lots of younger babies have been rolling over for a while, but I think each kiddo will hit his or her milestones when they are ready. Anders was just chilling on the floor on his belly while I was putting his clothing away this morning, and next thing I know he's on his side. This has happened a lot since he was about 3 months old-he gets to the side, chills there for a moment then rolls back to his belly. This morning he did his side roll, chilled for moment, and then flipped to his back. All the while with this look on his face like "Hey mom, I could have done this months ago, but I just didn't feel like it."

The only thing I can equate his look to is that of our dog, Bogey, who wouldn't "shake" at all, until one day about 2 months ago (yep, he was over a year at that point, and we have been working on this since day 1) when he just picked up his paw and was staring at S with this look of "I was born doing this, I just didn't feel like letting you in on in you measly human."

I wish I could say I am kidding, but I truly think our kid and dogs have a conspiracy to take over our house...they are just waiting for A to learn to walk.

Back in action

This was the first weekend in a long time where we were all home, healthy and rested. And it was SO needed. Highlights of the weekend included:
-Doing a little bit of Christmas Shopping
-Sleeping in until 8
-Drinking a bottle of champagne and feeling "mature", even if we did go to bed at 7
-Lots of cooking: Beef Pot Roast, Butterscotch chocolate chip cookies, Canadian Meat Stuffing, and lots of baby food-peas, pears, squash and green beans
-Cleaning up after the first snow storm. Yep, we now have a 5 foot high pile of tree branches outside our home waiting for our garbage day
-4 runs to Whole Foods (we totally need to write down a grocery list instead of trying to remember things sans paper)

In Anders news, A is starting to love baby food. For a bit he would just munch on the spoon and ignore the food, but over the past week he has become passionate about eating. He loves pears, peas and apples. Right now, he is iffy about green beans and will be trying squash tomorrow. I make all of A's food with organic produce, and he loves sitting in hs highchair in the kitchen and watching me.

A is also huge. At 5 months he was 28.5 inches long. We have our 6 month (yep, 6 months already!) appointment on the 10th and I can't wait to see how huge he is! He is a baby that very obviously grows out then up, one week he is chubby cheeked and the next he is a little rail. S is thinking he will be 6'5", I think about 6'4", but either way, I'm sure he will have as many issues finding pants to fit his length as I do. Can I just mention that I have a 36" inseam....poor kid is doomed to a life of highwaters.

S and I are both working a lot and getting ready for our first Thanksgiving without our extended family present. Thanksgiving day we will be delivering turkeys for the Salvation Army for 4 hours, and then we will be having our own small Thanksgiving and enjoying a day of rest and togetherness. "Black Friday" we are planning on remodeling our downstairs hallway and guest bath. This involves lots of painting, a new ceiling, tons of trim work, a new light fixture, and remodeling our pink bath. Pictures to come.

Here's a few shots of A from our most recent trip to Vermont:

Halloween

Smiley-4.5 months

I'll be back....

Eventually.

We got back Wednesday night and I have been super busy at work, and then A and I were plagues with a stomach virus for the weekend...joy.

Plus, I'm in a total life funk. Just a funk, nothing major.

So, give me to Friday, when I finally will have a few moment to catch up, unpack, and re-arrange my hott mess of a blog.

I promise, I'll be back.

October Updating...

Okay, so I can admit, I have been really, really bad the past month (okay, maybe 2 months) in updating our blog...but I can explain!!!!

Excuse #1-I am working...it may ony be 25-30 hours/week, but after spending all day at a computer Monday-Wednesday (and occasionally Thursday) I am sick and tired of the computer screen! Plus, I want the time I am home to be spent with S and A, even if the little guy does only stay awake until 5:30 on day care days.

Excuse #2-We are trying to spen more time with the dogs. S and I have been taking them to the dog park 3-4 times a week, which takes away from my blogging time.

Excuse #3-The house is "under construction", again. We are getting ready to remodel our first floor hallway and guest bath, and paint our master. Therefore, free time is spent taping.

Excuse #4- The most honest excuse... I am fried. S and I have been dealing with some stressful work scenarios (on S's end mostly), trying to remodel some of our personal goals, and we are trying desperately to have a social life. Sadly, there are hundreds of factors that seem to play into every decision we make, and every time we feel like we are getting our feet under us, the proverbial rug is pulled out again. At the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is sit down and revisit the good, the bad and the ugly, especially if it mas seeing it on paper.

Solution....we are heading off for a nice long vacation bak "home" in Vermont. S can only go for 5 days, but I know the 5 will be wonderful for him. Anders and I will be gone for almost 2 weeks, and I hope that he and I come back feeling refreshed.....

4 Month Updates

Anders got to experience his first time eating this week. S and I plopped hm down in his highchair and broke out the Earth's Best Organic Rice Cereal we had bought the previous week. Anders actually enjoyed it, he brought his head forward to the food and eventually wound up smiling between bites.

Hum...

Okay, I'm not sure about this, Dad.

More? Really??

Anders also had his 4 month appointment this week. Turns out, he's huge! 27.5 inches long (in the 98th percentile) and 17.12 lbs (in the 89th percentile). He also had 2 shots, and while I know some Moms say it breaks their heart to see their baby get a shot, it really doesn't bother me. I think that the alternative (illness) is much worse and painful for all involved. Plus, he only cries for about 30 seconds and then totally forgets about what just happened and is back to smiling at the nurses.

At this appointment, A also decided to poop on the thermometer as his temperature was being taken, and to pee in the face of the nurse taking his temp. Nice.

When we got home I popped him in his pack and play to chill for a moment while I took care of the pups. When I came back to check on him he was out, and has been asleep for over 2 hours! Here's a shot of the little kiddo post-shots:

And here are the pups waiting for him to wake up so we can go for a walk:

The Nebraska Social Scene

So A and I went for a lovely walk with Sarah and her little girl Blythe on Friday. Anders, in usual fashion, decided it was way too much work to try and stay awake in his moby, so instead of socializing he napped, and napped, and napped. After our walk, Sarah and Blythe came over for tea and for a chance for the babes to play a little. Oh yeah, and the two babes are only 1 day apart, Anders on 6/4 and Blythe on 6/5. Here's a few shots of the kiddos:

S and I also got to enjoy a beautiful Friday evening with our wonderful neighbors, their fun pup, a good outdoor fire and some champagne. I'm pretty sure bubbly and wood smoke are the best ways to start off a weekend.

The pups also got some "friend" time with 3, that's right 3 trips to the dog park. The guys love the park, which is a beautiful fenced in area about 10 minutes from our house, with space for the big dogs and the little dogs. Saturday, Bogey made a friend, a 20 lb beagle (yes, this is our 65 lb, hyperactive, leggy, 1 year old lab) who could easily barrel roll Bogey and kick his butt. Did I mention this beagle was 9 years old? And Bogey, in true insane puppy fashion, loved every minute of it. Cooper loves the park too, especially when there are fun weimeraners to play with...there's just something about them that makes Cooper have an extra bounce in his step.

Since I was too busy watching the pups and wearing Anders to remember my camera, here's a shot of the pups with Anders from 2 weeks ago (I'm a really bad blogger lately....)

No Baby legs were crushed in the making of this picture. Bogey and Anders with Cooper looking on in supervisory mode.

Bogey and Anders.

Bogey making sure Anders doesn't get all the attention.

Mildly Dreading Thanksgiving....

This will be our first Thanksgiving without our close family, and I am not looking forward to it. This will be our first "serious" holiday where it is just S, A and I, and, of course, S and I also have Friday off, so it will be a long weekend filled with thoughts about what our families are doing.

So, in order to minimize the loneliness, we are remodeling yet ANOTHER part of our house. We moved in 1/1/10 and have remodeled our dining room, living room, one spare bedroom (turning it into our nursery), our master bedroom stairwell, and all of our flower beds (that's 5 beds....and they were a hot mess). Left on the list includes: our first floor bathroom, first floor hallway, repainting the master and updating the outside trim. Let me just take a moment and say, we have a 1395 brick tudor, so everytime you touch something everything around you falls down.

For Thanksgiving we will be remodeling our first floor hallway and possibly our guest bath. Our hallway will be getting a new paint color, all of the trim (which includes 4 doorways and doors) painted ivory, a new ceiling and a new light. We are hoping to tackle the pink bathroom also...all depending on how much Anders naps!

End of month 3....

Today marks Anders' last day as a 3 month old!
Here's a few fun things we have noticed him doing in the past few weeks:

Reaching for toys on his floor gym and connecting with them:

Sitting in his highchair while I cook:

Sitting up against pillows without S or I holding him:

And we have exhaustion after daycare (and work for S):

When S is Out Of Town...

Everything falls apart. Okay, not really, but last night they sure did! Here was our fabulous schedule:

4:00-Get home from work/day care with A (we left at 8, so not too long of a day), arrive to dog vomit on our floor

6:15-Anders crashes 45 minutes early in my arms, then wakes up immediately when he's put in his crib

6:30-7:00-Spend 30 minutes reading to A while he is in his crib until he finally crashes and stays asleep

7:30-Sit down for dinner and to catch up on "trashy" tv, 30 seconds in our dog promptly pukes on our white carpet. 4 times. Begin monster clean-up.

8:00-9:30-Finally eat dinner, do laundry and go to bed with the pups.

10:30-11:30-Dog vomits on bed as I am falling asleep. Change sheets, clean bed and send dogs downstairs.

1:00-2:00-Dogs sneak back into bed and Bogey pukes again on my clean sheets. Put on 3rd set of sheets for the night.

3:00-3:30-A wakes up and starts talking to himself. This is common and lots of times he falls back asleep, but I am still half awake the whole time.

3:30-4:15-Anders starts squealing. I get to his crib to discover he has flipped himself 180 degrees around and is trying new acrobatics never before seen out of this kiddo. He eats 8 oz like a piglet, but is wide awake. We read Goodnight Moon 4 times and he finally crashes.

4:15-7:45-Chuck dogs behind their gate and I crash on the couch to get some sleep. Fall asleep around 6 to some movie about polygamy and dream that S comes back from his trip with 2 wives....

7:45-8:30-A gets up for the day, again he has flipped all the way around in his crib.

So far A has napped a total of 20 minutes since he got up, and I think we are on the verge of teething-which means everything goes into his mouth and he is kinda cranky. Oh yeah, and the vomiting dog is still at it. I think it's just a bit of gastroenteritis, so withholding food is on the docket for tonight...this should be fun.

Our Adorable Monster Baby

Here's a shot of A and I from this past weekend.

Can we just note how HUGE our little 3.5 month old is?! (Mind you, I'm 6', so the fact that he takes up a lot of my torso is nuts.)

I didn't quite realize how huge he was until I saw him in daycare with some other kiddos around who were quite a bit smaller and crawling and trying to walk. When I asked how old they were we found out they were 9 MONTHS! Anders outweighed them by only 2 lbs, but he was at least 3-4 inches longer.

Yep, he's a monster baby. I'm thinking 6'4"?

Oh yeah, and he's already in 6-9 month pants for the length, and 9 month rompers. It's pretty hilarious that you could fit two of him in them for the width, but they are just barely long enough.

Welcome to the world of highwater pants little guy.

Canada bound?

I'm thinking it's time to move to Canada. Not only does one reap the benefits of poutine, but also their fabulous health care.

Let me just say, we will have paid over 14k between medical bills and premiums (we have really poor insurance coverage), and our premium costs will increase from $6600 annually to $9768 as of January 1st, and our deductible is going up $1500. Let me just mention that S works for a large, well known architecture and engineering firm, one that due to their reputation, you would think they would offer better coverage for their employees....

I'm this close to setting up a flatscreen outside of our home and playing Moore's Sicko on repeat 24/7 for the next 3 months.