Natalie Pics

Went to a big consignment sale this weekend and found a few treasures. Natalie now has light-up shoes ($1.50! Barely worn!) and an Easter hat that she wants to wear all the time. And for the record, she's just going the extra mile and making a 2-rise cake ;)

Pilsbury biscuits? Who needs 'em!

I made breakfast biscuits for the first time today and they turned out awesome. Thank you, Betty, for another fabulous recipe. Here they are with sausage gravy. It was a fabulous breakfast, and only took like 30 minutes from turning on the oven to sitting down and eating.

We finished our downstairs bathroom. It cost a little more than we expected (more like $200 than $100, though some of that was on reusable painting supplies) and took a little longer to finish than we expected (6-8 weeks), but it looks nice and we are very pleased. The pictures make it hard to get a good idea of how the room really looks, but it's nice. Trust me. We got a cool, tree decal for the wall but unfortunately, it didn't adhere very well because of the wall texture and finish. It looks okay, but not fantastic. The wall color, we LOOOOOVE. It's just dark enough to be dramatic without making the space too small. The trim looks so nice and clean and the floating shelves over the toilet make it seem much more spacious and add some nice storage. We changed the light bulbs for some pricey-er ones that are supposed to be more "outdoor" in their light temperature, and it makes the space seem much more elegant. Now, when I'm feeling frustrated, I can go in there, sit on the toilet and pretend that we're fancy.

Baby Aquisitions

I've collected some free baby stuff from friends at church. There isn't anything that I really need, but we were pretty minimalist with what we got for Natalie because we spent the summer in Boston after she was born. So, she pretty much had no cool toys and wore the same 10 onsies so many times they are all faded gray and brown down the front. I really wished we had gotten a swing, but by the time we realized how much it could have helped, she was already getting too big for one. Plus, we would never have fit it in our car to and from Boston!

The swing I got from a church friend had no seat cover, so I bought a broken one on craigslist for $5 so that we can use the cover (since covers are $25 minimum on ebay/the replacement parts store). The added benefit: since this one is already broken, we can allow Natalie to climb on it without worrying about the motor, since she's quite a bit over the weight limit. She is pretty interested in the new toys. Hopefully she's not too jealous when she realizes they aren't for her.

She's over the weight limit for this one, too, but I don't worry about it as much. Parents who have these seem to love these. They take up so much space, but since it was free, I will have no reservations about getting rid of it once it has been outgrown. Maybe nephew Adam will still be young enough to enjoy it when he visits in April? Although, as Natalie illustrates here, there seems to be no age ceiling on the enjoyment factor...

We also got a newer carseat that is in better condition that Natalie's ever was and some little, little clothes. We didn't really buy Natalie any newborn clothes- she just wore shirts from the hospital mostly until she could wear the 3-6 month sizes- but now we're stocked. Fancy us.

A moment for reflection

Sammy went in for a dental cleaning on Thursday morning. He had to be dropped off at 8am and I was too scared of going across town in heavy morning traffic, so Micah kindly went in later that day so that he could drop off Sammy before heading to school. Sammy was super loopy when I picked him up that afternoon and spent the rest of the night asleep on our bed- he didn't even come out to bark when our friend came over to drop off her kids! I guess it takes a while to get over general anesthesia. Today he has been more himself. The sad part- they removed one of his bottom, front teeth because it was very loose. Not the best look for a dog with a severe underbite.  Oh, well. At least he can pull off that look better while we are living in the south here ;)

"Don't even THINK about changing the channel away from Animal Planet"

Happy Mardi Gras

A.K.A. Fat Tuesday

Seriously? 9 more weeks?

Naughty Natalie

It's been a tough week and a half.

Natalie has decided that she's too cool for naps. Which would be fine, if she were just naturally outgrowing the need for naps. But, no. She still needs a nap in a terrible way. By the time Micah comes home (around 5 these days), she is in total meltdown mode over everything. E.g.:

*Dinnertime*

Me: Natalie, please don't put your fork between your toes.

Natalie: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! *convulses, cries, hyperventilates and nearly falls out of highchair*

I've been doing everything I can think of- making sure she gets plenty of active play opportunities to wear her out, giving her a filling (and not too sugary) lunch beforehand to make sure she's not hungry, never skimping on the routine of reading books and singing. But she just won't settle down. A couple of times, after trying for hours to get her to go to sleep, I've just locked her in her room to let her cry. For a while she cries, but then she just whines and empties the contents of her dresser all over the room. Last time, she kept knocking on the door and calling, "Do you want to build a snowman?" Then she pooped in her naptime diaper and took it off... smearing it all over. Gross. So, no more of that. 

Good thing she's so frickin' cute. No matter how much I can't stand her, I can't easily throw her out either.

Strawberries and Nutella

Wearing Dad's helmet and gloves while riding her cafr

Climbing daddy while he tries to exercise

Cute dress from LeAnn

Rocking out, playing her favorite song

This was hilarious. I was playing some meditative music and she was terrified of the image on the TV screen.

Playing "this little piggy" with the penguin. Her version just involves saying "that piggy market" with each toe.

Iced In

We enjoyed the following series of fun weather events this week:

Tuesday: AM Sleet, warm afternoon, night time freeze/icing over 

Wednesday: AM snow on top of the ice, wet sleet all day, night time freeze

Thursday: AM snow, warm afternoon. 

It looks like we're finally out of the path of the storm now; it's headed up to the northeast. Micah has been home Wednesday and Thursday but will be going back to school tomorrow. He's got a lot of work to do and so far has not been very productive this semester, so that's a little stressful. He just got back the reviews from a paper that he submitted to a journal and the paper is going to need some serious revisions before it can be published. It's a good and bad thing- on the one had, it gives Micah more stuff to do. On the other hand, the reviewers were very thorough and offered a lot of commentary, which shows that they felt that the paper really deserved some attention. Micah is supposed to write his thesis proposal this semester but so far has not been able to start. And somehow, I imagine the springtime won't be too wildly productive for him either. I'm mostly disappointed because Micah was talking about graduating as soon as next August if he proposed this semester, which is when he stops receiving his fellowship stipend. It would be nice and neat and eliminate the worry of how he would get paid for a while, but I guess 4 years would be a freakishly short amount of time to get a PhD anyhow.

In other news...

I tried English muffins again and they were great. This time, I used half whole wheat flour (freshly ground!) and I made them flatter. They had more nooks and crannies than my first ones, but still not quite like the kind you can buy. 

Also, I started this herb garden on my kitchen window sill. Hopefully the cold weather won't kill them all before they can even get started! I planted cilantro, basil, thyme, rosemary, chives, lemon balm, and parsley. 

Last weekend, we got to leave Natalie with Micah's parents while we spent the night at a nice hotel to celebrate our birthdays and Valentine's Day. We had a delicious dinner at a small Indian restaurant (for some reason I can't get enough butter chicken and naan right now) and then watched the opening ceremonies while soaking in a nice spa surrounded by junk food snacks. Unfortunately, between the bath and the amazingly comfy bed, I passed out unintentionally before the torch even got lit. 

We had to put this off for a couple of weekends because I wanted to make sure that Natalie's potty training was well established. But she has been doing great lately. We made it a week with only one accident.

Here she is making some modern art with the silicon baking mat that Micah got me for my birthday.

And here she is eating a slice of lemon, rind and all.

We broke out the watercolors on Tuesday. I see a lot of expressive and technical progress here! The top one is from a few months ago and the bottom one is from Tuesday.

Some other things we've been doing to kill time? We made Valentine's Day sugar cookies. Natalie got to add the red sprinkles, which she did by the huge, grubby handful. By the end, Micah and I were both ready to hyperventilate with anxiety because she was making such a mess. 

I've been making a few nice meals and then being lazy for other ones. This snowy weather has been very damaging on our waists. This morning for breakfast, we had sausage, eggs and blueberry pancakes; dinner was Alfredo pasta and homemade Macaroni Grill bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic; yesterday we  made eggs Benedict again and I've got meringue cookies in the oven right now.

Cool thing- did you know that you can reuse pickle juice to make more pickles? Micah and Natalie love pickles and I hate spending $1-$3 per jar when they can eat a whole jar in one sitting. I read that you can put cucumber slices into your pickle juice, stick it back in the fridge and they become pickle-ized in 2 weeks.  I've done it twice with slices and just stuck in some spears to try. Cucumbers have been on sale at ALDI for $.29, so a much cheaper alternative. Just takes a little space in the back of the fridge.

Aside from all the food, there has been a lot of this over the last 2 days:

Micah generously took Natalie outside to play both yesterday and today. She got soaked and was freezing but still didn't want to come in after an hour. Here I tried to get her to wrap up and get warm after returning from the snow/slush.

Natalie's snowman (which Micah forced her to make. I guess she was NOT happy to lay down in the snow):

Micah has also done a lot of prepwork to paint our bathroom and practiced piano to pass the time. I'm excited to see it done! I think it's going to look great- the nicest 18 square feet in our whole home! 

Micah has also been doing a lot of chores and letting me rest because in the past week I've developed continual, sharp pelvic pain that is unbearable. It makes everything a struggle- walking, standing, laying down, getting up- it's just been constant pain, pretty severe at times. I've already been experiencing terrible back pain. This makes it so hard to believe I have 12 more weeks to put up with. I believe that I may be suffering from SPD (see link for info), so we'll see if the doctor agrees on Monday. I go in for the first glucose screening. Natalie has gone to my appointments with me in the past, but since this visit will take over an hour, I had to schedule a time when Micah could stay home with her. Hopefully I pass; I don't want to have to find someone to babysit her for 3 hours if I need to take the follow up test! 

Chattypants

Just a little snippet of Natalie talking to herself while playing with beads. Of course, she was saying much more interesting stuff BEFORE I got out the camera. But if nothing else, this video will help you determine if you speak Natalese- I understand every word, but most people probably don't.