Today was much better. Morella totally caught up on her sleep and I caught up on my energy reserves.

Her morning nap last three hours, so by the time she got it and was ready to eat her 2nd bottle it was 12:30. I brought the bottle into the living room and showed it to her along with a pinky kitty she had been playing with a little earlier. I sat down and proceeded to ask the kitty if she was hungry and wanted to eat. As soon as I started to feed the kitty, Morella grew very angry. Immediately, after her look of shock and comprehension wore off that the kitty was eating her lunch, she threw a fit and screamed, turned red in the face and waved her arms up and down furiously. I was amazed that she didn't fall back because she was standing at the Music Stand of Doom. I held back my laughther, set the kitty aside and went to pick her up. She was much happier after eating and then was okay about offering the bottle to the kitty and me.

CUTE!

Tim tried it later when he got home and while he did get a reaction it wasn't as violent as the I had earlier. She crawled up to him to investigate and then when she was close enough she started to whine. Oh babies.

Quickly - Morella is not herself. She has only 13 oz of milk today...I hope to get her to take a little more before bed. She has cried off and on most of the day, slept a total of 50 minutes (one 20 min nap this morning and another 30 min nap this afternoon).

Now to see if she'll go to bed...and hopefully eat a little more. What's wrong with my poppet?

Friday Photos: 1st Week of October







Do you see other teeth in the second photo? Her third tooth that is for sure in, is on the right hand upper side...but I think I see more in this photo...

Moment of Peace

Both babies are taking naps. Tim came down a ferocious cold this past Saturday and has had to stay home the past two days to recover. He's getting much better and has been working on sleeping as much as he can. I really do think that sleep is the best prevention and medicine for being sick. I fight for my own sleep that of Morella's as much as I can. I think that is one of the reasons why I am not ill as much. BUT...then again maybe it's because I was sick almost non-stop as a kid. Can you believe there was a time I thought it was normal for everyone to have stayed in the hospital a few times?

I had pretty severe asthma which landed me in the hospital for a few times, and a couple bouts of the flu that won me at least three more stays. Of course the other times were for a hernia operation, a broken back surgery and last of all for a baby. :)

A baby that I love to pieces, even when she screams bloody murder at my for trying to get her to eat more of her midday bottle. I mean really, she melted down and Tim had to come to her rescue. We decided on giving her some tylenol because it seemed like her mouth was in pain. I don't understand why she always seems to be in more pain after the teeth break through then before. I always read about everyone saying 'Finally a tooth popped through...now we can get back to normal." That never seems like that for Morella. Or maybe there are more teeth working their way in? I don't know. Babies are such mysteries sometimes.

I am making a crock pot dinner - chicken and dumplings. I think I have made this recipe before -- the dumplings are from a can of biscuits. It will be nice to have some leftovers for the next few days, though I do know what I am making next: home made pizza with veggies, basil, feta and leftover over pepperoni and then a tatertott casserole. I could also make texas hash...hm. It's Tuesday though and we don't need that much leftovery stuff....or do we? If I get sick then I am going to need easy food already there.

I hope I don't get sick.

I am doing some laundry right now. I wrote in my todo list. I already swept the kitchen floor and have only the living room left. It's weird that my floors are so clean now. Morella is such a good motivator for that.

I was thinking the other day of squalor. I think it kind of shocked me when I realized that is what I had grown up in. That is the state of some of the houses I visited of family or friends. I guess I always thought it was just really, really messy -- which in the case of my Mom is kind of true. It was never a really really bad squalor case. But I do know of some houses where the appliances don't work, there are narrow paths in and out, and just garbage litters everywhere. When I was young...eh. That is just how it is. Now that I am older ... well it can happen to anyone. It builds. What a disjointed paragraph. Sorry folks. I guess I am still processing it. Even the word squalor is one that no one wants to associate themselves with. It's disgusting. It's poor. But see, that is one question -- why does squalor often go hand in hand with being poor?

Oh I think my earl grey tea is finished brewing. I need to put the cozy on it and take out the bags so it doesn't get overly strong. This is my second...no fourth pot this week. I think with the turn of fall that we are back into tea season. I need to get myself a few more black tea options. Most of our stuff is decaf or herbal...which is fine but sometimes I would like a cup of regular straight up tea. But first, must use what we have before buying more! It's a mantra these days.

I also need to update our monthly budget report. Yeah I should do that now before I log off the computer and find something else to get distracted. Yesterday I bought two bras -- at Lane Bryant. They were nice enough to size me and help me pick some out. I ended up getting two because the woman was also awesome enough to use coupons so it ended up being buy one get one free. :D They have no underwire but they also look super heavy duty ... uh Mom bras. I don't care. It's not like I walk around wearing just a bra anyway. I have never cared about pretty underwear, I prefer functionality.

I went to JoAnn's to see if they had any micro fiber or micro terry to make Morella doubler or two for her diapers instead of spending $15 per doubler/insert at the local Hippy Momma store. The closest thing they had was terry cloth. I bought a yard of that and figured I would try to make a doubler or two out of it and see what happens. My splurge purchase was a stuffed halloween type bat for Morella. The material of the bat is very similar to her crib blanket that we think she is forming an attachment too. Instead of having her carrying a blanket around later on, a cute bat might be easier. Or maybe we should have just sucked it up and gotten one of those little blanket/stuffed combo things that seems to be all the rage. Like this:

Guess who has a new tooth! Morella does, it's the ... well it's not the top two teeth, it looks *like its the third one down. Like one of the sharp teeth...a canine? So it could be that or the one next to it ... but it's not either of the two typical front teeth. Hurray! Maybe that would explain why we were going through 5 or 6 poopy diapers a day last week. It's looks like it really broke through too. [Edit, Hilary said it's a cuspid].

This morning we went to baby book and Morella had fun. I learned that at the end of October, baby book is done until February because the lady running it is having a baby herself! Great for her..but nutz. I met one other woman there (can't remember her name) but she lives near the library, then Ann and of course Emily -- I'm think that we should do a play group meeting on Monday's when baby book is done. Yeah!

Weekend was pretty low key. Tim got sick and so we didn't do much. We went to the Goodman Community center grand opening too late and there were no refreshments left. Morella was crabby and Tim was snot explody so we left. Then we went to Netherworlds, a gaming store downtown and saw lots of nerds sitting there playing card. Tim didn't find the book he was looking for and we left. Next up was Sentry to get some cake, trip to walgreens for bandages, kleenex and bandage scissors, followed by Farm and Fleet for vet wrapping (where Morella was called a hillbilly because she wasn't wearing shoes or socks!), and a quick visit to Misty Mountain where I caught up a little bit with Steve (owner and former sparring buddy).

Sunday, I walked with Morella to Woodman's to get a pot roast (great way to use up a bunch of weird CSA vegetables), more medicine for Tim and some cough drops, and potatoes. I popped over to see if my neighbor Colleen was home (she wasn't) and dropped of some pear bread. Then Tim's parents dropped in for a visit because they were in town and stayed for dinner. While they were here we made some apple crisp with apples I got from a neighbor's tree. Oh that reminds me to bring some over to him later today. I'll use a dairy container. Yeah....anyway. It was pretty great crisp I think that recipe is a keeper! Morella's Grandmother did the bedtime ritual of bath, book, bottle, song, prayers and bed and Morella did really well! Though of course I was a teeny sad later because I could have used one more Morella cuddle. Not that I would have gotten it considering how sassy she was all day. Good thing I have her all week! :D

Tim is home sick today. Wait I said that. It's a big deal folks.

I need to take a shower, go wash dishes, make some more xanthan gum thickener....and then write my to do list before we meet up with Sigrid this afternoon to window shop. I should really work on shoes for Morella too. We have some hand me downs that she can wear until I am done with her real ones... but sigh. I spent the last two nights working on cross stitch instead of moccasins because...well I wanted too. Sometimes you gotta take a break from what you should do with what you want to do.

Can you believe this is the end of September? Wow.

Friday Photos: 4th Week of September

Denim Moccasin Mockup. Experiment a FAILURE. The opening isn't wide enough and it just doesn't fit right. I looked at what I did wrong and I had forgotten to take into consideration the circumference of the food. A problem I will correct next time. However, these one piece moccasins look a bit weird until they are worn for awhile and the leather eventually lies flat. Plus, I am not sure they fit the same for a babies foot as they do for an adults foot. I also need to find a way to exchange the leather strings for elastic so that they stay on without having me tie them, or having her untie them all the time. A part of me just wants to toss in the towel on traditional (no matter HOW cute) and go for the plain soft food wear pattern (aka ro.beez). But that would be lame. These are her first pair of shoes! They should be special, right? Complete with beadwork and the such. I could also make her another pair...for the house. Those can be plainer.

The pattern. I'll update you on further progress.

Willie Street Festival. They have a parade on Sunday, in which pretty much anyone can go and join in. I saw lots of families just dress up and parade around. It was a really cute idea and I would LOVE for Morella to do that when she is older. That would be so cool. The stilt walkers though, she was afraid of. She took one look at them, started crying and turned her head. I had to walk away from the parade onto the sidewalk until she calmed down. She liked the drummers that came up next though.

Monroe Cheese Days! We went down on Sunday afternoon with Sigrid, Matt, Christian and Cecci. We waited in a line a LONG time for these golden nuggets of cheese. They were good, and though at the time I swore I was done with cheese after eating them, I would very much like one more to remind me of why I swore them off. No, make that two...
Morella playing with Matt's beard. She's really into investigating other people's facial hair since she doesn't have any of her own....and uh...neither does her Daddy. *oh snap!*

More photos of the past week can be found here in September 2008 Gallery

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In other news. I thought I might have sinus issues which would explain why I have a low grade headache for the last week, and why I get dizzy when I shake my head. So I busted out the old Netti Pot and did a sinus drain this morning. Ugh....gotta recover from that now! I hope when I do I'll feel a ton better.

I am field testing my own simply thick concoction....I guess we are in it for the weekend because I only have a four day supply of real stuff left. So far she has had two bottles with no ill effects. I hope it keeps up. She has however been pooping ALOT the last couple of days. Like 5-6 times a day, and a lot of the time it's really runny. I almost suspected the probiotics I started giving her in noon bottle, but this was happening before that. But then again it could also be the food that she does actually get down into her gullet. Tim pointed out that her diet consists mostly of liquid, and since she is bigger now and gets more liquid that is reflected in her poop.

[Eww! I just bent down to pick up Morella and water started running out of my nose...no wonder I still don't feel right. How much of that netti pot water is still left in there?!! How big are my sinuses anyway?]

Anyway, so I have had to hand wash her covers daily now because she is going through one of them every time she poops. Speaking of my darling girl, I gotta go. She's wreaking havoc in her room....

I made weak coffee this morning. See, I left the rest of Tim's decaf in the decanter and then replaced the filter with full caf and then added water. My problem is that I am not sure how much coffee to add. I guess I am being a little stingy because I don't want to blow through my little stash too fast. If I was just honest with myself and said "Hadjare -- you NEED coffee! If you don't drink it you won't be able to stay awake in the morning, and honey, you really need a shower."

So yeah. Oh well, it's still working.

Last night we were up late talking about the possible collapse of the economy. Tim came in and asked me where I would go if we were separated and something terrible had happened. I prodded to get him to try and tell what terrible things might happen...like are we talking zombies? Plague? War? Invasion? But had to eventually settle for a mundane reason like riots. In any case, with the exception of a total climate disaster via The Day after the Tomorrow (in which hyper sub temperatures freeze the city of New York and a good portion of the Eastern coast) in which case I would stay put and huddle in the basement with a homemade chimney jutting out of the side of the house made from hvac pipes. But we are being realistic. Social unrest, anarchy that sort of thing. I would have to say I would make my way to my Dad's. He lives out in the woods on 40 acres and have some ties with the native community, has some guns, a couple dogs and a pretty good store of food. Tim said he just wanted to know so that he could find me. Whew, glad we can scratch that off our to-do list. Next up, wills and that sort of thing. Ha ha. No really...we should but...uh...tooo haarrrrddddd!

After that we talked about readiness. How ready are we to hunker down and be frugal like the old depression days? He asked me if we have a good store of food and I kind of chuckled. Our pantry is full. We have more food that most of my friends combined in our house, and quite honestly I could do more food hoarding. In this regard, those Mormon's are onto something by being ready in the event of a disaster. Hm. You know, I wonder if they are worried about the economy at all...in fact I also wonder how many Mormons really do have a stash of food saved up.

It's kind of coincidental that he brought this up (well maybe not so coincidental considering the government panic going on in the news right now) - but I had told him yesterday that we needed to do better on our budget. As in stay within it and track our spending more. Okay, I need to do that. I am the family accountant after all. We had to borrow from savings three months in a row to pay bills. Admittedly the summer is always expensive, and a lot of that is vacation, but it's time to save. After all Christmas will be here before you know it, as well as a first birthday party, a fall party, and the traveling that ensues.

Just for the record, I read frugal living tips like a junkie, and it's especially easy to find them when almost media has tips on how to stretch a budget, or find bargains, or whatever.

Okay, time to buckle down and work on my list for the day.

I got a cup of real coffee, a bowl of hot oatmeal on my lap and a baby who is sweetly napping. I already started a load of laundry -- diapers. She went through all her covers before the inserts. Tim thinks she might need new diapers soon, I am not so convinced however it does bring up the point of how the heck do I get more diapers? Do I branch out from prefolds? Try something more all in one? Is that harder? More expensive? Sigh.

My other burning question is when do I make her barium swallow appointment. I am running out of Simply Thick. Do I buy another case and have it last for two months and be stuck with it when she passes? (please let her pass!) or ... go ahead with the appointment and have her fail and blah blah blah. At this point in time we are clearly procrastinating her test because neither of us want her to fail. I wonder if I could sell the unused jugs of Simply Thick afterward. Maybe I should make my own again...it's not that hard. It's just xantham gum...

We gave Tim a ride to work this morning because it was raining. I offered the car to him but said that we had planned on the grocery store and I guess he thought it was important to have stuff like milk and eggs in the house again. I *almost* stopped at McDonald's on the way home but Morella was fading fast and i wanted to make sure she was in her crib before conking out. It's better this way anyway. I save money. Eat better, and have more coffee. I wonder if I lived out in the middle of no where if I would be skinny because of no temptations. Or would I bake and eat entire batches of cookies, pies and cakes without spreading them out amongst my friends?

It's kind of nice to have some time to eat breakfast, drink some coffee and get stuff done before she gets up. I could have actually done it on Monday and Tuesday but I needed to catch up on sleep. I wonder if I am taking advantage of the whole "Sleep when the baby sleeps" thing too much. I sometimes think I actually got less sleep before she came along...on the other hand I didn't use as much of my brain and endurance before that either. Oh I need to pay the mortgage and internet today.

The other day it occurred to me that I missed the season opening of Heroes. I was kind of bummed about it because I enjoy watching TV and I liked that series. However, having a baby around that goes to bed at 8 makes those shows kind of hard to see. I really wish I had a dvr or something so I could record the tv shows I want to see and watch them after she goes to bed. Then again, we barely watch TV -- I have half a mind to cancel our cable. But then what about the few times we DO watch it? The times we need to see the local news? Then it would cost a bundle to have it hooked up again with their fees and what not.

I really like the Parent's magazine. It's full of such good ideas. It's my favorite magazine right now. My other subscriptions are Good Housekeeping and Redbook. There, was does that say about me? I bet it says a lot. I would be interested to hear other peoples magazine subscriptions. Tim's is PCWorld and SQL Server...and that's it. We tried ReadyMade but I got sick of all the emo's culture it perpetuated. We did Time forever, but it got expensive and repetitive. I liked Quick Cooking for two years but then it got repetitive too. Back in the day I used to read Reader's Digest like it was going out of fashion until one day I realized it WAS full of scare tactics, elementary reading and was super conservative. I think I was just mostly addicted to the funny quips and stories though. That is STILL my favorite part of any magazine.

I turned down the water heater heat level because Morella is so mobile and grabby. I am sure the previous water heat level would have scalded her because it was almost too hot for me! But I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the instant heat for dishes and diaper washing. I think I am going to have to start soaking the diapers for 15 minutes before washing them to make up for it. I am trying to take comfort in the fact that lowering your water heater level saves the environment and you money.

See? I should stay up every morning, you would get so much more out of me. :D

10 Months

My baby girl is 10 months old today. Amazing how fast it went, and quick summer just flew by. I'm a little sad about it and really I can't be in denial because the trees are changing and yesterday was offically the first day of fall. However, the weather has been magnificent and so we have been outside as much as we can to enjoy it and soak it in before the rotten weather comes. I know I have been a bit of MIA these past few weeks but that's how the end of summer usually is, right?

Morell and her favorite cat - Migo. These two are best buds. One of my favorite things to do is watch her chase Migo around the living room. It's adorable when Migo let's her "catch" her, but I have to be careful and make sure Migo doesn't play back using claws...which is usually waht she does. Another of Morella's current past times is climbing up to the laptop and banging on the keys while I am using it. I am fairly certain that this is a common baby lap top technique. It's amazing what Morella can pull up on now -- she is becoming quite adept at even pulling up using my pants or skirt.

The Music Stand of Doom. This is the cause of so many accidents the past week. She gets excited and loses her grip and smacks her face into it, or she pulls the whole thing over with her when she gets down (aka falls back on her butt). In fact, I put it up when I am pumping because it's the kind of thing that requires some touch supervision. She loves it though. It's on loan from her cousin's Moslee and Zeland. It is one of her current faves. Though she had red eye in this photo I included it because she is standing on her tippy toes and screaming -- a common Morella posture.

She figured out to crawl while wearing a dress, and so I busted out the dresses while she can still wear them. I always liked this one because it's a dress/jumper combo. We got this from our Aussie friend currently living in TX. It's rated 9 mo, and our little shrimp still fits in it with plenty of room. It is Carter brand though, and those tend to be bigger (which is nice!). With tweaking (long sleeved turtle neck onsie and tights or leg warmers) I plan on using this outfit until it's outgrown. ;) Hm. She looks kind of like a weeble wobble in this one. Heh.

Investigating the camera. She still has the same old two teeth, but they are really growing in. Other Morella updates:

• Pointing. She points to everything.
• Babbling is sounding more like ... sentences. Almost like another language.
  
• Will still clap if you clap, or put her hands on her head in a attempt to play peek a boo, and is starting to immitate really well. Right now the most immitating is with her daddy in which they take turns blowing.
  
• LOVES books. Sit's quietly and looks at the pictures and is now catching on to helping me turn the pages.
  
• Swim Class is going well - she doesn't like to lay back though. She kind of freaks out, clamps her eyes shut and flails. She does this in the bath too.
• Eating is still a challenge. I still offer her food several times a day for snacks and at least two meals. She eats about 4 bites and stops.
  
• Choke meter had been reset and we are now on day 4. I also bought some baby probiotics and am now adding them to her bottle to see if that will help with the reflux.
  
• Changing diapers is usually a baby wrestling match. I miss the old days where she would just lay there and be good. Now she has to flip over, stand up, look out the window, get into everything else....
• She has been caught standing her herself unassisted for one or two seconds before she realizes it and lands on her butt. I also saw her "cruise" between two pieces of furniture. But really she just turned around...though she has taken a few steps in either direction.
  
• Bedtime is still 8:00 an she sleeps through until 6 - 7 in the morning. Oh sure she will wake up and cry sometimes before midnight and rarely after that...but never getting up for two or three hours with her (knocking on wood). I'm really grateful for that.
  
• Loves dancing. When she hears music with a beat she yell a happy yell and start bobbing her head. If you are holding her and start dancing she really gets happy. It's awesome that she loves music and dancing so much. Maybe she'll be that kid that knows how to breakdance and make all the other little girls totally jealous.
  

Friday Photos: 3rd Week of September

Morella and her friend Noah at Olbrich Gardens.

Morella is channeling her energy into a powerful 'ki'

As if Pluto doesn't have enough problems. Now he is being devoured by babies. This is Leo who popped over to visit with his Mom and tried out some mediocre raspberry coffee cake. I know it sounds good, how could it go wrong? No worries, I found a way to make it happen.

Kandace came to pick up the rat. He was off to a new home surrounded by loving children in a 5th grade classroom. By Jenner/Justin/rat/buddy. Our basement won't be the same without you!

(More photos in the September 2008 Gallery)