PIXIE STICKS

Snapshot

My morning:

Laundry.  Bathe self.  Bathe baby.  Watch husband cram food down dogs to encourage pooping.  Watch hubby follow dogs around yard waiting for poop to happpen.  Chuckle when all three come back frustrated. 

Watch younger pup catch dust.  Complete with snapping shark like jaws and everything.  Be amazed at how long he can do this without realizing that it's just the sun illuminating the tiny particles.  Be even more amazed that he never does come to said realization.

Watch baby stand at gate in living room and throw toys out of gate.  Watch her go get more toys and repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Fold laundry on couch to keep eye on baby.  Watch toy pile move from living room to hallway via one baby learning the laws of physics.  Then watch baby unfold laundry just folded on couch.  Salvage what is left of folded laundry.

Giggle when pups need to go out again.  Call hubby.  Watch hubby chase dogs around waiting to catch fresh poop.  (We have a vet appt today, and this is *his* job.)  Hear mysterious quiet in living room.  Find baby wearing daddy's boxers on head.  Giggle at absurd sight, and see baby clap hands in delight.

Think about getting dressed in something other than sweats.  Think about preparing something for lunch/dinner/other meals.

Hear door open, see boogies prance into the house.  Do not see hubby.  Assume is taking care of business.  Hear hubby come in and express worry that the neighbor working on his roof may have seen hubby picking up poo in baggie and think hubby is crazy.  Smile and nod.

Baby now trying boxers on as scarves while still wearing original pair on head.

Hubby feeds dogs more food.  Apparently only one 'got busy'.  Think to self that pups must love vet days.  If only to torture daddy.  I certainly love them.  I take not-so-secret delight in watching hubby follow boogies around with baggies in hand.  Somehow it makes up for everything else.  :)

Watch baby fall into toy basket.  Must tend to bump on head.  Morning interruptus.

Rockabye Baby

As many of you know, we have 2 boys and 1 girl.  The boys have 4 legs, and they were here before our little girl rocked our world.  We sometimes forget about them because they are not learning to crawl, walk, talk, and other assorted amazing things.  But they are still amazing.  Levi adores Maddy, and Dude has patience that can't be duplicated.  Dude will let Maddy grab, poke, pinch, and pull whenever she wants, and won't flinch or move until I pull her away.  Levi doesn't have quite as much patience, but he seeks her out more than Dude does.  And when it comes to snuggling?  Nobody beats a Squeevie.  He is the squishiest, warmest, cuddliest teddy bear any child could want.

Lest anybody think we are negligent parents who let our child sleep with many pillows, fluffy blankets, and (egads!) dogs, let me assure you that we do.  But only with constant adult supervision.  Hey - I've got to get in on the snuggle action too!

Aaaand....she's off!

One of these days I'll post about some of the amazing things I've been knitting on this here supposed-to-be-knitting blog.  First I'll have to knit some of those amazing things.  This has turned into a real blog, one that cannot be fettered by silly things like labels.  I'm good with that.  :)

Madelyn is crawling.  Full on racing across the floor kind of crawling.  Throwing things just to go get them.  Walking all over when we hold on to her hands, but right now she prefers crawling because - get this - she can DO IT HERSELF!  Little Miss is rather independent.  Indeed.  She must get that from her Daddy....

Notice the blurriness of the pictures.  This monkey is FAST!  Also notice the modified plank pose in the last one - she's got potential, Ali!  She's keeping us busy and running, and we're loving every minute of it. 

Sandcastles at Dusk

We have discovered the wonder of sand!

A short drive from our house is a small beach on a local lake.  We stumbled on it on our way home from the co-op one day, and decided to stop and let Maddy experience sand, duckies, and the setting sun on her face.  She was delighted.  So was grammy. 

A few days later we needed a 'reset' in the evening, so we threw boogies and baby in the car and headed to the beach.  This time I packed a change of clothes for Maddy so that she could get shamelessly dirty in the sand and I wouldn't have to bring home half the sandy beach.  She approved of the idea.

Next up: part two, in which Madelyn and several ducks face off.

Mona Lisa

Duane calls this Maddy's "Mona Lisa" smile.  Dad - that's Mona Lisa the painting, not the song!  Madelyn loves to play with her people - Grampy has several rocking horses (and rocking zebras!) that she can ride on, as well as actual ponies for her enjoyment.  She's getting into the idea of rocking and really starting to enjoy it.  She's still a bit small for the rocking horses without support, but recently Grammy found a rocking lamb (how appropriate!) that is short and squat, and Madelyn LOVES it!  I haven't got pictures of her on it yet - shocking, I know - but will soon!

In the meantime, enjoy my Rocking Mona Lisa.

Apple, tree.

For any of you wondering where Madelyn's knock out drop dead looks come from, I present to you this picture.  (Dad - if you click on the pictures, they get bigger and you can see all the details.) 

Now, that is not the most flattering picture of either Maddy or Daddy.  But it's so funny!  Here's a better one of them both - and yes, the resemblance is just as strong.

Foodie

Madelyn is a foodie.  No doubt about it.  She loves to eat.  She loves the activity involved, and (usually) she loves the taste.  Even if she's not wild about the first taste, she'll give it a second try and more often than not she's amenable to it.  We're trying to be careful with what we feed her.  We're working on changing our eating habits to eat more local, more whole, more healthy foods.

With that in mind, I made some Baby Bran Muffins.  For those of you who aren't a fan of Heidi Swanson......what's wrong with you?  She rocks my socks.  I modified the recipe a bit - substituted maple syrup rather then the honey because Maddy shouldn't have honey yet.  I also used 1/2 AP (All Purpose) flour and 1/2 WW (Whole Wheat) flour because I prefer the lightness of AP flour.  I plan on trying it again with Amaranth flour or another lighter flour which is not AP or WW flour.  And......I used my homemade yogurt!  Oh yum! 

The recipe says it makes about 24 mini muffins - mine actually ended up making about 40 little guys.

The best part?  The seal of approval from Daddy and Maddy.  Happy foodies.  :)

Yogurt

I've wanted to make my own yogurt for a while, but have been intimidated by the process.  Bringing the milk to a certain temp but not letting it boil, cooling it to a set temp, and then keeping it warm....wrapping towels around a pot, keeping it in a dark, un-drafty place (hello?  old house?  not drafty???)...making sure the starter is not stirred into the mix too much.....my brain spins out of orbit when I think about it too much.

But I finally took the plunge.  And this is why.  This little guy goes against every 'we don't need another thing in the kitchen' lecture I've ever given to Duane as we stroll through the grocery store aisles.  Forget about Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  We've never made it out of there without some kitchen-y thing.  He's worse than some women, I tell ya!  The Amazon price is not bad, but we got it dirt cheap and brandy new from Ebay.  Nice. 

I decided to use the recipe that comes with it but changed it up just a tad by using 1 c skim, 2 c whole, and 1 c oat milk.  Yes, I said oat milk.  It's a nice alternative to cow milk and didn't change the taste/texture of the finished product in any noticeable way.  Mind you - you can't use it for everything!  Duane tried making pudding with it last week, and....well....it was kind of like flavored slimey goop.  Not so nice.  I digress.  The result of my forays into homemade yogurt making?

Creamy, sweet, smooth yumminess.  Sweet, you ask?  Yes!  I didn't add any sweetener, but I only let it process for 4 hours, which makes a sweeter and less tart yogurt.  Maddy likes it, D likes it, I like it - I'm calling it a win.  Next time I'm going to try some goat milk mixed with the regular milk.  I'm thinking about making yogurt cheese too!  Oh my!  The mind boggles with possibilities!  (I like food, ya think?)

Cox-stinky Coxsackie

Ok, so I thought I was relatively up on my knowledge of baby ills, but apparently not so much.  Maddy is just getting over a nasty bout with something called Coxsackie Virus.  It's commonly known as hand/foot/mouth disease, but that's only one of the various permutations it can take.  She didn't have hand/foot/mouth, instead she had a different strain in which she had fevers for several days, body aches, and horrible lesions in her throat.  Because of the pain she wouldn't eat.  We pulled out all the stops, even letting her lick some ice cream.  You might call me a bad mommy, I call me a mommy keeping her baby out of the hospital.  Kids this age get dehydrated so quickly....

She's feeling better now - waking up without crying, playing and enjoying life (mostly).  She's got a few days to go before she's *all* better, but we'll take this for now.  Coxsackie is highly contagious, so we've been recluses for the most part.  If we have to go out, one of us stays home with her or we all go but one of us stays in the car with her.  Really we're contagious too, but hello?  Who can function without going out of the house for 10+ days?!? 

And now the worst person possible is sick.  Duane.  Oh he is not a good sickie!  But he's doing his best to try to help out between his fevery aches and pains.  I'm holding out against the germs, but feel myself succumbing.  No!  Must!  Not!  Get!  Sick!  What will happen is the mom gets sick?  I fear the house might fall apart and the baby will not be bathed for many days and feedings will be all crazy and unscheduled and and and......oy.  Just can't get sick.  Control issues?  You betcha.  Workin' on it.  Will include pictures in next post, just a quick update for now - back to tend the illin's!

Going Bush

In New Zealand they speak English, but it's not quite the same way we do here.  For example, while Nana is here Grampa Wayne is 'going bush'.  It sounds funny to me.  What it means is he's camping out, or doing something in the great outdoors/woods/bush.  The first day Nana arrived, we went bush....but only for an hour or so.  The flight to/from NZ to here is loooong!  It's hard to adjust to the time change at first.  One thing that helps is some fresh air - especially after being cooped up for hours and hours and interminable hours on the plane.  Our bush is not quite as remote as where Grampa Wayne is.  Ours is right out our door!  But it's still in the woods, outside, and there are bushes.  Or trees.  Vegetation of some kind.  So it qualifies as 'going bush', I'm told.

Ignore the big black boots D is wearing.  They're his bush boots, apparently.  They go so well with his hairy white legs.  Nana had her first Croc experience and the day after this went to buy some for her very self!  I'd say she liked 'em.  :) 

Maddy is LOVING her Ergo.  So are we, actually.  I'm wearing her on my back in this photo, but I can wear her on my front or even side with this thing.  It is the best baby carrier we have found, and we tried several kinds of slings, front carriers, and back carriers.  This one does it all, and will do it all from birth to 40+ lbs, depending on how long you want to carry your babe.  It's so comfy.....I know I sound like an advertisement for Ergo, but really - it's the best!

My guy and his mum.  How sweet.

We're interspersing days of relaxation between days of activity, and we're all having such a lovely time.  I wish every day was a vacation day!