Plainssong

Once upon a time...

2009-04-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

When in Rains, it pours.

2009-01-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

I really ought to wright more here. I can't believe the last time I wrote anything was in November. Part of why I write here is that I am really bad at keeping a journal the last few years. Well, hopefully I am back now.

Joseph fell in the bathtub tonight. He was standing on one foot washing the other, and then he just tipped. He had to get 6 stitches or so (I wasn't there, so I didn't see.) Poor thing.

I had a car accident recently, and Tommy just had stitches on Monday. I am crossing my fingers that nothing happens to Jim.

Study

2008-11-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

Last Friday after I got my haircut, I was finally able to finish up with my study. I have finished sorting all of the books and found places for all of my knitting and sewing materials, and also all of my other things. It feels good to have finished this and its great to finally have a work room of my own after all of these years. Here are some photos.

This is a wonderful room for a study. I have had dreams of having a cabin where I could study and create, and so I love that the pin Oak branches outside look like they are hugging the room. When the tree is full of leaves it really shrouds the view of the street and so I fell quite separate from the outside world. Here are some photos of my view while I am writing this.

Next year's garden

2008-11-24T10:11:00.000-08:00

Because of the forward thinking person that I am, and also because of the success of this years garden, I can't wait to get started on next years garden. So, I decided not to. I prepared one of the garden beds with mulch and manure to get it jump started for next spring. I went to a horse stable to get manure, an Joseph came along to help collect it.

Tommy and Spot waited in the car.

Joseph had a lot of fun. He really had a blast scooping manure; I guess its those Frisian roots, or maybe just that he is a four year old boy. Here is a video.

Leaves, leaves, and more leaves

2008-11-24T09:48:00.000-08:00

Today Joanne is here, so I was able to clean up all of the leaves. I hope that this will the last time, but we'll see. A couple of weeks ago we bought a yard vacuum because cleaning up the leaves from the pin oak in the front is a monster task. Here is a before and after picture of the tree.

The vacuum grinds up the leaves and makes the piles about 10 times smaller in volume. I put a lot of the leaves on the garden beds as a mulch. Here are some pictures of today's efforts.

First Halloween in our New House

2008-11-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun on Halloween trick-or-treating in our new neighbourhood. We had more kids walking around that night than I have ever experienced. I had fun decorating the entrance with spiderweb, and we had a ghost that moved and made scary noises.

Joseph was a fireman, but he really wanted to be a truck. First he wanted to be a tow truck, but I convinced him that a firetruck would be a really good truck to be (and a lot easier for me to make.) I was making an opossum costume for Tommy and me, and then on Halloween wear him on my back (Like real opossums carry their babies, but I ran out of time and so I wore my standard witch costume that I always have on hand. This year I added a lantern that I carried and that enhanced the otherworldly impression. Jim was a bat, and you can see his silhouette in the door of the outdoor photo.

Getting settled

2008-11-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

We are finally getting settled into our new place. It has been tough getting it all together; the boys have been sick this last week so that has defiantly put a kink in things. Now Joseph at least is feeling better, so now things will happen a little faster again. Jim has been working on the fence. These photos are from the front. He has been working on the back this week but I don't have any photos of it yet.
Clearly from the amount of foliage these photos were taken a long time ago (probably a month ago.) Another thing we have been spending a lot of time on is cleaning up leaves, and there are A LOT.

Here are some photos of the ground floor.

The kids reading area.

The kitchen.

The playroom.

The playroom has actually changed a lot. We got a big fence divider so that Joseph can build with blocks with getting them knocked down. It has been very helpful because this way I am not breaking up fights every 30 seconds.

I don't have any good photos of what the living room, upstairs, or basement look like right now, so those will have to wait.

Seven years, but worth the wait

2008-11-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

Are you wondering why I am smiling? Today I finally, finally got the haircut I have been wanting for seven years. Yes, for seven years I have been trying to get this haircut. I had begun wondering if it was even possible, but I was continually reminded by the movie Amelie that this style did indeed exist (only perhaps not in America.) Well somehow I finally found a stylist who listened to me, and also did some research of the movie the night before my appointment. It took her and hour and a half, but it was worth it.I have never been so pleased with a hairstyle as I have been with this one. It was exactly what I wanted. If you want to see a video of some of the movie that inspired this search, you can see it here. It is called Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain and is one of my favourite movies.

Abandonment

2008-10-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I read things in the news that are so far from my understanding that I feel unmoored by them. Tonight I read a story that did just that. The horrible thing is that this is the third such story that I have heard about recently (they are all mentioned in the article.) The subject is about the child abandonment that has been happening in Omaha since a safe haven law took effect in Nebraska. Now, in my mind leaving a baby is one thing (because at least that baby will not remember that he or she was abandoned,) but leaving a teenager? And as I said before, this is not just one isolated case, but the third since July.

Montessori

2008-09-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

I have gone back and forth on the issue of sending Joseph to preschool. Now it looks like he will be attending the Montessori school after all, at least he will if there is enough room. We visited the school again today, and I completed the application and surrendered the accompanying application fee, so I guess that makes it official that we are trying to send him there at least.

He really enjoyed being there today, and tonight he told me that he wants to go back tomorrow because he didn't do all the things that were there. I really like this school; it really feels like a school, and not just a place to keep them busy. What is great about this is that it is not a school in the academic sense, but in a worldly sense. What I mean is that it teaches children to experience the world though there senses, and also how to best learn and accomplish certain tasks. They have stations set up like water pouring, rice pouring, painting, and clay. They do also have academic things available, like math and language, but the child can engage in these when he chooses. This school is really very close to the original Montessori method, and I think it would be good for Joseph to experience that. They stress being orderly and calm and it would be very good for him to be in such and environment.

The last week or so he talks about how big he is, and he has said a few times "Look how big I am! I am big enough to go to school without you Memmy." He was so excited that he unhooked the gate on his own and got in the car so that we could go. I didn't know he was doing this, and so when I went looking for him, I got a real scare the at gate was unhooked. However, as we were getting in the car to go home after visiting the school, he said he was really to go to the school, but I have to stay. It was really kind of cute; I am sure he would be fine without me now though. He also seems like he is almost ready to give up his nap, and he is getting to be a little bit less dependent on me in general, so this is perfect timing in that sense. The last two weeks he stayed in the nursery during Mom's group of his own will, and he said that he really liked it and had fun playing with the other children. January is still quite aways away, so by then I am fairly sure that he will be ready.

Closing

2008-09-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

Today renters, tomorrow home-owners. It's hard to believe, but it happens that fast. Tomorrow we have our closing appointment, and then we will have the keys to our new house! It is so exciting!

We won't actually be moving in until a week and a half or so from now. I just finalized the custom blind order today, so that has to come in and then they still have to be installed. We are going to have a mixture of roller shades and wood blinds. I am really pleased with the fabrics that this company had; very stylish and lots of colors and fabrics types to choose from. I will post pictures when they are installed.

Jim ordered the fence material yesterday. We decided to put up a pre-made steel decorative fence that looks like wrought iron. It isn't as nice as the trellis fence that we thought we would get, but it is much cheaper and this way Jim can install it himself and so it will be up sooner. One of our neighbours here in the near south has this kind of fencing and it looks really nice. He has a beautiful wild garden and then this faux wrought iron fence surounding it, so it reminds me of a sort of secret garden. I will need to plant some plants along the borders because this kind of fence really does go better with a garden than a lawn. Oh, darn; more gardening. ; )

After we get our key we will go shopping for a refrigerator and stove (well, probably not on the same day.) We waited until now because we want to take measurements first. I think I want to get a refrigerator with french doors and a freezer drawer on the bottom. They seem to have nice wide shelves, and we always have bags of fruit and vegetables in the freezer, so a drawer would be perfect.

Other things we need to do include getting a gas line into the kitchen so that we can install a gas stove (yippee, finally gas again!) and then we also need to repair some windows. Lots of work, but oh so much fun!

Fun with Haggling

2008-09-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks I have been stopping at yard sales and experimenting with haggling. My mother used to haggle for our Christmas tree, and while I was never embarrassed I certainly never thought that I could do that. Well, that has all changed now. Recently I stopped at a yard sale and it just sort of happened. One afternoon I was driving around because after an errand both kids fell asleep in the car. I drove past a place that had a wooden highchair, and figured why not stop to see how much they are asking. I looked at it, and then walked around to see the other things because I thought it priced a little high. Then I saw a serger, which I have been wanting for a long time, but would never buy brand new. I sew enough to want a professional finish on my projects, but not enough that I want to pay full price for the machine. So I checked it out, and it was a good machine that the woman had just had serviced. Somehow I asked for a lower price on both items together, and the seller agreed. I guess what made the difference is that I didn't really need either, and I was willing to walk away. Then I went to another sale and saw a wicker settee. I really liked it, but I didn't want to get something like that without asking Jim first. I ended up going back the next day and asked them to lower the price. At first I was too low, and then we made a deal. Since then I am hooked. I don't really do it because of saving money, after all, these are yard sale items we are talking about (although saving money does help.) Really for me it is the social interaction, the guessing about what I should offer, and then the discussion that I like. Unfortunately most of the time the people here seem a bit surprised, think for a minute and then agree, so there isn't a whole lot of discussion. Either I don't go low enough, or they just don't know what to make of it. Too bad I don't live in the Mediterranean, 'cause there it is just par for the course.

A Real Preschooler

2008-09-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

Joseph is really a preschooler now, at least in terms of behaviour and likes if not in school attendance. Lately we have been playing games in the evenings on Friday and Saturday nights, and he just loves it. We have even made up our own game using some vehicle counters that I have. It is not too complicated but Joseph likes it. The game involves trading, which being the social one that he is, this is his favourite part. I decided to get some more complicated games because the ones that I have are too simple for him already (I have some matching games, simple counting games, etc.) He is always wanting to add rules to make the game more fun, but usually these 'rules' are really just an extension of his fantasy having to do with ambulances, firetrucks etc.

So anyway, I bought 'The Ladybug Game' and we just finished playing it this morning. It has a little story about how these ladybugs have to get back home to their rose garden after getting blown away by a storm. Along the way they meet a scary Praying Mantis, and some bossy ants who want the ladybug's aphids before passing. Joseph really enjoyed it, and so I guess this is his first real board game. I did have to help with reading the numbers, and I also made the rules simpler so that we never lost any turns or aphids. This will be fun for game nights and also snow days. Now I will have to try some other games. I Found lots of really neat Looking ones on amazon, so once in a while I will add one.

Another change showing that he is growing up is that he is really into listening to chapter books on tape lately. He listens to 'Socks' and 'The Mouse and the Motorcycle' by Beverly Cleary, and less often to 'Stuart Little' by E.B. White. His favourite is most certainly 'The Mouse and the Motorcycle' and he listens to it at least once a day. We also got the movie version from the library, and he also wants to watch that pretty often too. Where I can really tell that he is getting older is that during the scary parts in the movie, his eyes shine and he squeals with delight. The scary parts are like when Ralph, the main character, almost gets sucked up by a vacuum and once he gets chased by a cat. At first he wanted me to sit right next to him to watch these parts and he was totally on edge even though he knew the story from the book. Now these parts don't scare him so much but he still gets a thrill out of them.

Caught in a Whirlwind

2008-09-22T22:28:00.001-07:00

I have been so incredibly busy lately! What with the new house, Etsy, the kids, cooking, and our regular social activities I just can't seem to find the time to blog lately. For the house I have been making lots and lots of phone calls to contractors to get various things done. Last week I met with two contractors for blinds. The fabrics they showed me are amazing! I am really happy that I decided that I wanted to do the whole house in roller shades and wood blinds. I think it will look really classy, and it seems that the cost isn't going to be too horrendous.

Tonight we met with a fence contractor, and with that things also seem like they will work out really nicely. We have this weird problem of having a really neat stone retaining wall around most of the property. The problem part is that it is really old, missing in one spot and is also varying heights around the property. It seems that we have 'decided' on a picket fence in the front. Also I saw this really cool fence that I will call a trellis fence walking to our new house tonight. I am hoping that we can also put one of these alongside part of our yard. I call it a trellis fence because it is kind of like square lattice, but is much more like a fence then just a trellis. What is neat about this is that it doubles as a fence and trellis and this is great because it would be set in some garden beds on the side of our yard. It will also keep Spot from going into the neighbours yard via their driveway. Well, more on that stuff later.

In other news, I finally know how to make sourdough bread! I am rising my third loaf as I write this. I have been trying to make sourdough bread off and on for years. I finally really stuck to it and made a great starter over the course of two weeks. I make the dough in the afternoon, let it rise for the first rising all evening and then punch it down and let it rise all night in the oven (while it is off.) Then when I wake up all I have to do is turn on the oven, and half an hour later I have a steaming hot loaf of wonderful bread!

I also have been experimenting with puree cooking ala the cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. The premise is that you cook and puree a bunch of vegetables and fruits and tuck them away in various dishes. The idea is to get your kids to eat more vegetables. This is great for us, because even though Joseph eats pretty well for a preschooler, sometimes it is hard to get him to eat a very balanced meal. So far I gave him hot chocolate with yam in it and he loved it. He said it was better than our usual hot chocolate! I have to say that I agree with him; it was rich and creamy, and you really couldn't tell that there was yam in it. Even Jim liked it, and he doesn't even like hot chocolate. Tomorrow morning I will be giving Joseph some Blueberry Lemon muffins (he loves blueberry muffins) made with butternut squash (and also soy yogurt, whole wheat pastry flour, and flax flour.) Breakfast has become a really difficult time with him, but I am hoping that this cookbook will help to solve that problem.

Art shop

2008-09-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

I am now an artist with Etsy! I just listed my first item and you can view it here. I just started my shop, so there isn't much to it at the moment. I also have some more things in the garage that will go up as soon as I unpack them next month and see what condition they are in.

State Fair

2008-08-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

This morning I took Joseph and Tommy to the Nebraska State Fair and we saw some amazing things, as it should be at the state fair. When we first got there we saw this sand sculpture.

Having an art background I was of course totally impressed by this, but Joseph preferred the thing next door which was a big pool of water with people trying desperately to get their unwilling dogs to swim so that they could compete for who was the fastest, etc. We sat there for a while and watched while we ate our sandwiches. Through out the day this was the theme; the simplest things pleased Joseph, and I just went along with it. Its fun to see what gets a three year old excited.

Later on we had fun trying to milk the fiberglass cow. They fill it up with water from an opening in the top, and then you pull the teats to get the water to come out. This is supposed to be like milking a real cow, though I don't know how accurate it is of course, since I have never really milked a cow. The guy in the blue shirt in the background seemed to have experience and also that it was a pretty good model. Doesn't Joseph look like a perfect future farmer?

In the same pavilion this guy was sculpting a block of cheese. Once again, I thought this was pretty neat, but Joseph didn't really get it.

Finally, at the end of our visit we went to the exotic animal petting zoo. This was Joseph's favorite, along with the birthing pavilion where there were animals (pigs, sheep, cows, chicken, and mice) who were about to, or had very recently given birth. The petting zoo had all kinds of animals for which one could buy feed and give to them with little shovels.

We had so much fun that we are going to go again and this time we might actually see a show or two, and maybe even shuck some corn. After all, it wouldn't be the Nebraska State Fair with out corn shucking, now would it?

New House

2008-08-25T23:01:00.000-07:00

The time has finally come; we are buying our first house! I just checked the realtor's website and the photo isn't there anymore, so I can't post any images of it. Perhaps I will go take a photo to post it. (Ha! Another good excuse to drive by!)

I will miss our wonderful landlords and neighbours, but not the mice that are quite populous here lately. This summer I was feeding the birds, but as things got busy lately I stopped, and so now we have a bunch of fat, hungry mice rooming around. At first they were only outside, but now we see them inside too from time to time. Trapping them is easy because they are so fat, but Jim has to be sneaky about it because Joseph has lately gotten sensitive about mice and what happens to them.

Which leads me to my next topic. Lately Joseph has been listening to Beverly Cleary's Mouse and the Motorcycle, and he really loves the main character. It is amazing how good his attention span is; he listens to the whole story (two hours worth) everyday. He doesn't listen to it all at one time of course, but he does listen to it in order. He loves it so much that he will just lie on his floor listening too it. Thinking about this gave me the brilliant idea to try listening to it with him when it is nap time. Lately he is so obstinate about falling asleep, but he really, really needs it, and his lack of napping is quite painful for all of us at dinnertime. So my plan is that we can listen to the story together at quiet time while lying in bed, and maybe, just maybe he will fall asleep. Brilliant, isn't it?

Friedrich Froebel and Blocks

2008-08-19T23:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what got me started, but I have been studying the origins of Kindergarten lately. The inventor of Kindergarten, Friedrich Froebel, had a very different idea of what Kindergarten should be from what it is now (at least what it is now in America,) but his ideas are still very useful. His method involved giving children a series of twenty "gifts" and occupations that all would build on each other. The early gifts were mostly some combination of blocks that related to each other mathematically, and the occupations would be arranging the blocks, and later on other materials, to make harmonious and aesthetically pleasing arrangements and constructions. Maria Montessori was greatly influenced by Froebel, and so that is why Montessori programs include physical math. Froebel thought that children should do these types of activities from the time they were what we would call preschool age until seven or eight years old. It is a shame that contemporary Kindergarten, as well as the later lower elementary school years, are so focused on academic learning. There is definitely something to the idea that if a child plays with unit blocks, then they will intuitively understand math at a much deeper level later on, and so this argues against the worksheet and drill type instruction that is so common nowadays. Interestingly, it seems that many successful architects, as well as other creative types, went through Froebel Kindergarten programs.

So, all this theory led me to buy some standard unit blocks, and Joseph really likes them. I haven't had too much time to play with them with him yet, but I am really looking forward too it. I do think that our set is pretty basic though, so I am sure that I will be buying some more complicated shapes sometime in the future. You can't build a very interesting road without curves, for instance, and roads are what Joseph likes to build.

Ancient Chariot

2008-08-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

I opened my yahoo mail, and this article was on the front page. I wish there were more news stories like this. It is so much more interesting than politics or sensationalist crime stories. If you click on the photo you can see more images of the Chariot. Reading this article reminds me of when I went to study art and art history in Greece. Wow, that was a great time! I hope to go there again someday. For the moment I can dream through this article.

He's an outlaw

2008-07-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

Jim always said "He's an outlaw, you can see it in his eye." Or course, being naive, I said "No, no he's not, He's a good boy." Well, it looks like Jim was right. This morning when I was watering my plants, Joseph was eying the hose because he wanted to play fireman. I fought with him for a while, and then I just let him have it, naively thinking he would just be spraying the lawn or something. When I went to get him he was spraying the front porch, including the door and my newly cleaned windows. Then he told me he sprayed the inside of the house too. "Oh no, and it's my fault for letting him have the hose", I thought. Luckily if wasn't true, but he was thinking about it. Sigh....

Kapla Blocks

2008-07-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

Last week Joseph commented that the Elves had not visited for a while, and suggested that we invite them over for coffee. I explained that being shy of loud noise that they probably wouldn't like coffee time (though I assured him that it was very generous of him to want to invite them.) I told him that I would call them and ask them to come for a visit, and so this is what they built last Wednesday night ...

I suppose they had such a good time building this tower, that they came back and built this (Of which I hear they are especially proud because of its original design)...

After this fury of building, it came to my attention that perhaps the Elves need more blocks. Through my research I found that there is an identical product made by a french company called Kapla, however, they also produce colored blocks. This was something I could not resist, so I went ahead and ordered some. I can't wait to see what the Elves think of them!

Unbelievable

2008-07-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

Can you believe this?

We lowered the playpen because Tommy was trying to stand up all weekend. Yep, you read that right. At six and a half months he is trying to stand up. Boy, am I in for it.

Changing Fast

2008-07-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is one of those weeks that things are changing so fast I can hardly believe it. I am so glad that I am home with these boys to see their changes.

Last Friday I caught Tommy sitting up in the portable playpen outside. He fell over almost right away, but he kept trying all day. The next day he was already sitting up for longer, though not very straight, and by Sunday evening he could already totally straiten up and balance pretty well, with minor tipping.

On Monday morning he would already sit up for half a minute or so, and then later in the day he would sit up for several minutes. Unbelievable. It literally seemed like minute to minute changes. Now he can already sit for twenty minutes or so to play with his toys. With these photos you can see how things progressed.

Another amazing change is that Tommy started signing this last Sunday! I have been making different signs to him for a couple of weeks, and on Sunday he started to wave his arm when he has to go potty. And today, he made the sign for nursing. He is just brilliant!

Close Call

2008-07-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

For a little while this evening it seemed like we lost Spot. I was watering my plants before dinner, and accidentally left the gate open to the front. We went inside to have dinner and didn't think much of it that Spot wasn't there until a couple of hours later, just as I was bringing Joseph up to bed. I guess we just assumed that Spot was out in the yard, like he prefers so often as of late. Jim noticed that the gate was open and then went out to look for him. He didn't see him anywhere and came back home, only to go out and look again. About the third time going out, Jim found Spot was two door down from our house with a neighbour that found him wandering around. It really goes to show how poorly we know our neighbours when something like this happens, because after all, we are always outside, and we walk Spot at least once a day.

Well anyway, I am very happy we found him, because I was really starting to get worried. It is so unlike him to wander away, but I guess he is feeling rather comfortable here now that we have lived here a couple of years. Just imagine how Joseph would have reacted...

Freecycle

2008-07-19T21:44:00.000-07:00

Freecycle is an internet news group where people post stuff that they want to get rid of and want to give away for free. The idea is that it is better to exchange things in the community so that we reuse things and not contribute to adding to the landfills as much as possible. It is not always possible, or worth it to try to sell things, and it is better than donating it to a thrift store because you are certain that the person who comes to pick it up really wants it, and you don't even have to take it anywhere to get rid of it.

Today I did my first freecycle. I needed some chicken wire to keep a cat from pooping in my garden (more on that later.) I didn't really want to buy any, since I didn't need very much. I thought, 'hey let me check freecycle', and lo and behold I got an offer the very next morning. I also put up on the board a kids knitting machine that I didn't want anymore because it dropped too many stitches for my taste. Coincidentally the lady who was going to give me the chicken wire wanted the knitting machine, so that worked out very nicely.

Now I am working on getting rid of and old screen door that I was going to use to make a trellis and a bread machine that doesn't work anymore (you wouldn't believe what people are offering and taking on this board.) Unbelievably I already got two replies about the screen door. One man's junk is another man's treasure.

Storytelling

2008-07-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago Joseph and I were playing a game with picture cards that have opposites on them. He wanted me to tell stories about them, so I told a few. Here is an example of one of my stories. The pictures were a clean boy and a dirty boy, so I told a story of how a Memmy got a boy ready to go out and then he went outside and jumped in a puddle. I said that then he had to go to the library dirty, but Joseph made a face showing he didn't like that. So then I said they went in and got clean clothes on and then went to the library.
This was lots of fun and after a while Joseph wanted to tell a story too. The picture pair he picked was of a candle that was lit, and one that was unlit.

Here is his story:
Once there was a boy. There was a candle with a flame and he blew it out. Then his Memmy and Daddy came and said "Ohhh, you blew the candle out." Then the boy lit the candle again, and the Memmy and the Daddy said, "Ohhh, you lit the candle again."

Pretty good story, isn't it? I mean it shows a timeline, has characters, and cause and effect. It just keeps getting funner.

Six months old

2008-07-18T22:15:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it! Tommy turned six months old last Sunday. He had his six month well baby check on Monday and he weighed 16 lbs, 8 oz, which is 40th percentile, and was 28 and 1/4 inches long, which is 95th percentile. He had to have his shots, and of course he cried but over all he did very well the rest of the day. Today he sat up by himself for the first time! He was in the camping playpen outside; he moves so fast now I can't just put him on a blanket anymore. I was working in the garden and looked over at him, and there he was sitting up. I was so surprised and from the look on his face, so was he. The playpen has soft mesh sides, so I am sure that helped him to get in a sitting position. Here is a picture of Joseph at six months old for comparison.
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Colds

2008-07-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning the boys and I woke up with a cold, so we have been staying home. It is just a cold, and I actually don't feel too bad, but judging from Joseph's whining yesterday, he doesn't feel as good as I do. Then again, maybe he is just three years old. I am actually getting some rest at the moment because Tommy is taking his late morning nap after an active morning of almost crawling! He is so close, it is scaring me. This morning it took him about eight minutes to cross our bedroom floor over to where the cords of the fan and air conditioner are. I guess it is time to baby proof the house. All morning long when I had him in the ergo, he wanted to get down on the floor so that he could move around. After a while I just decided to put him on the floor where ever I was going, and that kept him happy. This way I spent much of my morning doing laundry, and downloading photos to Snapfish so that I can finally make some scrapbooks.
Joseph spent the morning watching video's, which we don't usually do in the morning, but considering how he was feeling I figured it was OK. Afterward he actually went to play quietly in his playroom, so I figured he must be still feeling sick, but hey I'll take quite anyway that it comes, which isn't often in this house. At the moment he is outside because after a torrential rainstorm last night and threats of rain all morning it is now sunny and also not too hot. I think that I am going to move the laptop out there in a bit when I am done with this post. Just think, I can sit on my patio with the internet moving photos around, all while listening to Tommy's baby music on the baby monitor! Ah the wonders of technology...

Finally!

2008-07-06T20:40:00.001-07:00

We have a tooth!

Monster Dandelion

2008-07-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

Check out this monster dandelion plant that Joseph and I found. I took some of the seeds home so that we could plant it to see what the flower looks like. I recently did this with an interesting seed that we were finding everywhere, and it turned out to be from a Honey Locust Tree.

The Simple Things in Life.

2008-06-19T22:01:00.000-07:00

Construction paper is a wonderful thing! With it you can make all sorts of things, as we do, often. A while back we made these spring flowers...

yesterday we made a fire...,

and then this is my favorite.

A couple of days ago Joseph decided he wanted to make a book. I stapled some construction paper together, and then he came back with a book with all kinds of drawings. Of course they were all vehicles, and the title is "All About Machines", and Joseph made sure to point out that it is written by Byron Barton (one of his favorite authors.) Many of the machines are half construction vehicles, and half service vehicles, such as "an ambulance that flats the road, but it also helps people." When I was a child I used to make books, and then my parents would write down what I narrated to them. I still have two of these books, one with my mom's handwriting, and one with my dad's handwriting. I have great memories of making these books with my parents, and I am glad that I am doing that with Joseph now.

Whew, What a Day!

2008-06-11T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today when I left to go to Walmart I deludedly thought I could get back in an hour. After two hours we finally got back home, and we hadn't dilly dallied around in the store. We didn't even stop to take anyone potty. It is just that far away, and that big of a store. Too big, really. Well anyway, after getting back home I was pretty wiped out, and we were an hour late in our schedule. To make matters worse a bad storm was coming toward Lincoln, and we had to go down to the basement right when dinner was ready. We were really lucky that it was ready though, because otherwise we would have been eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. This storm was quite a bit more serious than the last, and a funnel cloud was actually spotted in the southwest part of the city. There were apparently some reports that it touched the ground, thereby making it a tornado, but the reports were unconfirmed. There was so much rain, that some people on the radio said there were ducks swimming in the parking lot where they were. This photo was taken in the northern part of the city (not by me, I was most definately at home.)

Two hours passed, and I started to really understand why people in the Midwest so often have finished basements. I think that that is something that I will add to my list of desirable qualities in a house for when we do finally buy one.

After the worst of the storm was past, and the tornado warning over, we went back upstairs. In the basement I didn't think I felt nervous, but after we came up I really wanted to sit with a cup of coffee. I put Tommy in the playpen and went to make myself a senseo. He stared fussing, and as I turned to get him I stepped on a ball, and promptly fell on my butt. Ouch! I just lay there, not really hurt but feeling pretty shocked. After checking to see if I was OK, Jim went to get Tommy. I just lay there trying to catch my breath, and so after a minute Jim, Tommy, and Joseph were all standing around and looking down at me. Tommy had a rather confused look on his face; after all, usually he is the one looking up at me. Well, I'll just say it one more time: Whew, what a day!

Amazing Boys

2008-06-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

These boys amaze me everyday. They are both changing so fast it seems I can hardly keep up with it all. I want to record the changes, but its hard when so much is happening with both of them all at once. So, first about Joseph. Last night we were sorting some puzzles that he had strewn about the bedroom, and I realized that he does 25 piece puzzles with such ease that his puzzles don't seem to hold much interest for him anymore. I guess that is why they were strewn about the room, in stread of being neatly finshed. Anyway, I decided that I would take him to Walmart this morning to get a more difficult puzzle for him. Well, we didn't get moving right away because I was kind of tired from the last few days, and then we ended up writing a letter (Joseph helped.) I told him we would go get the puzzle after his nap instead if we had time, and we did. To make a long story short, in the end I wondered if we should have gone somewhere else, because there were only two puzzles that suited Joseph; a 24 piece Cars puzzle without a cardboard boarder like his others have, and a 35 piece Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle. Most of the other puzzles were at least 100 pieces, or the pictures were not interesting to him. When we got home he did the Cars puzzle immediately, and it really wasn't even much of a challenge. I guess I will have to find somewhere else where they have a better selection for the intermediate level. Tomorrow we will do the Thomas puzzle, and see if that is more challenging for him.
Another way that he is amazing me lately is in his drawing. Today he drew an Aerial lift with a bucket, and you could even see the joint in the boom. After he drew the machine he colored purple all around it and said it was nighttime, and so the machine is not working. Then this evening he drew a cement mixer in the snow!

Well, Tommy is equally amazing to me lately. He is changing at a lightening fast rate, and I just don't seem to have the opportunity to record it like I want. This is what has been happening lately. A week and a half ago Tommy was sitting on my lap and Joseph was being silly and all of a sudden Tommy started laughing real belly laughs. Jim and I just sat there watching it, and looking back to each other.
Secondly, then the last while he has been on his belly almost constantly whenever I put him down. Yesterday I put him on some blankets in the backyard and he stayed on his belly for at least half and hour straight through, and he just moved himself all around the blankets, looking around.

Today just before the nap I put Tommy on my yoga mat upstairs because he wasn't sleepy at all. In the first couple of minutes he turned himself around 360 degrees looking all around the room, and then I put Joseph's toy clock in front of him for him to look at. Tommy reached for the blocks and got lots of them out. The last couple of days he is really motivated to move around to get to his toys. I personally think he will be crawling in a couple of weeks. Wow, this is going too fast!

Elves Again

2008-06-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

They were back, those elves. This time they built boats, and Joseph turned one of them into a race car (the one in the foreground; click on the lower picture to see.)

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-06-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

That describes my life lately, so this post will be short. This week I have already had two doctor's appointments, and it is only Tuesday! Tommy came with me on the first one, but Joseph stayed with our new sitter two days in a row. It is such a relief to have found her; this way it is no problem for me to go to any appointments that I have, and lately I seem to have a lot. Joseph really likes he too. She is really good with kids and plays with Joseph in a really fun way.

Other than doctor's appointments, I have been mostly trying to stick with our new schedule (it's working!,) cleaning, and ironing (yes, I actually have time for that with this new schedule.) Well, it is pretty late, so I will leave you with this really cute photo of Joseph and Spot having a picnic. Spot has cookies, and Joseph has a rice krispie treat.

Where's Waldo the Frog?

2008-06-08T22:54:00.001-07:00

I promise he is here in this photo. This was taken just after we let him go. Afterward we went over to this natural play area that the park just recently opened. The natural setting is really neat and beautiful too. Just on the other side of the path to this play area is the pond where we let the frog go.

That is Joseph and a friend carrying a log together. I don't have too many photos of the play area, but here in the foreground is a dirt/ sand box, and in the back ground is a platform with some wood to build things. Next to the sand box is a rack with lots of tools hanging on it, and it even has pegs to hang your coat. We have been there three times now, and I never see anyone there, which is too bad. I think it is just a little bit far off the beaten path that not too many people know about it.
My friend who came along to release the frog brought her biologist husband along as well. He studies duckweed, which is a plant that grows on the top of ponds. He told me about the species that we found (Lemna and Spirodela,) and we ended up taking them back to our pond at home (the aquarium.) Later on I discovered that we also took home a little snail. As soon as I put the plants in, the tadpoles were very interested in the duckweed and were rooting around in it, I suppose looking for food. We have quite an interesting little pond community now.

Changes

2008-06-06T23:03:00.000-07:00

Tommy is changing so fast. The past week or so every time I put him on his back he immediately rolls onto his belly. He is desperately trying to crawl, so I bet it won't be too long. Today he was in the playpen and suddenly got really upset, so I picked him up and he got even more upset and leaned toward the playpen. What he really wanted was a toy that was just out of his grasp. He is so amazingly different from Joseph. When ever Joseph was upset I could pick him up and he would calm down. Joseph was always really social, but Tommy seems really motivated to explore the environment.

Another Great Idea...

2008-06-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

with which I can't make any money, but at least it makes a fun gift. A couple of weeks ago I was trying to think of what to get for a friend's daughter's birthday, and I thought of making laminated drawing sheets. The idea is to make an incomplete drawing, laminate it, and then who ever is drawing on it can draw or color what ever they want (with watercolor markers.) I thought of this because as a child I remember making half drawings like this with my sister, and then having the other person finish it. It was lots of fun, and it is so much better than just coloring a detailed coloring book drawing. I have a home laminator, so this is something I can easily make, and tonight I made some because tomorrow is the party.

Tadpoles

2008-06-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

On the last day at our Mommy and Me nature class one of the parents brought in some tadpoles for the kids to take home if they wanted. I thought it would be neat to see them turn into frogs over the next couple of weeks, so we took three tadpoles of each species. Here is a photo of our aquarium that we set up the next day.

The poor things had to live in a bucket of water until we got the aquarium at the pet store. The two big blurry things at the top left, and on the bottom in the middle are American Bullfrog tadpoles, the small dark things at the top right, and bottom right are, I have since determined, Western Chorus Frog tadpoles. The orange is a goldfish that was in the feeder tank at the pet store that Joseph talked me into buying. I figured for 26 cents, why not? Of course if I had thought about Jim's opinion, I could have thought of lots of reasons for why not, but that is a different story. Joseph decided to name the fish Dinosaur, all on his own. He is so creative!

Well, back to the tadpoles. A couple of days ago I noticed that one of the Chorus Frog tadpoles had back and front legs, but it was still in the water at the bottom of the tank. Later that day is was floating at the top.

By that evening it's lungs must have developed though, because then when we were going to feed them we noticed the froglet stuck to the glass on the side of the tank. He was changing really fast!

The next day the tale was almost completely gone. The froglet started spending most of its time on the side of the tank. I showed Joseph how the tale was mostly gone, and he was puzzled by this. Growing legs was something he could understand, but losing the tail, now that was just too weird. Since the tadpole is now mostly a frog, we are going let it go in a pond the nature preserve tomorrow. There are lots of other Chorus Frogs there, so that should be a good place for him.

A few days ago, when the frog had his all of his legs, I told Joseph that we would be letting the frog go soon, and he didn't like this idea at all and almost started crying. I explained that it can be very hard to make sure that a frog has enough food, and that he will be much happier in the pond. After that he seemed pretty OK with letting him go, though he has been saying that we are going to keep the big tadpoles. I just said that "yes, for a while, we will." I learned through my research that American Bullfrog tadpoles take two summers to change, and they complete the metamorphosis by the end of the second summer. One of our Bullfrog tadpoles has legs already, so I think he will change this summer, but the other two don't have legs yet. My guess is that they are in their first summer. At any rate we will be letting them all go at the end of summer, because I really don't want to keep them over winter. I will cross that bridge with Joseph when the time comes, but for now he gets to watch them.

It's a Twister!

2008-06-04T22:17:00.001-07:00

This evening we had our first visit to the basement due to a tornado warning. No, we didn't really have a tornado, but isn't this a nice picture? It did put a kink in our new schedule a little bit, but not too badly. Well, this post is really about our new schedule, but tornadoes are much more interesting than schedules, so I thought I would start with that.

So anyway, I finally figured out a good schedule that is easy to follow! We are getting up, eating all of our meals, and sleeping at the same times everyday. It has been difficult to get it worked out because so often my mom's group meetings, la leche league, church, library programs, etc. start and end at such different times. We have been trying it since Monday, and so far so good. In reality, evening has always been the most difficult because Joseph is so adamant about not going to sleep. He just does not like it. And he never gets tired. Well, almost never. For a three year old, I think his lack of sleeping qualifies as never. Last week I tried letting him stay up until he wanted to go to sleep, just to see what would happen. Twice it was midnight before we went to bed, and on those days he had gotten up at 8:30 am and not really had a nap. Of course the next day he felt terrible, and my day was equally terrible. So, I decided something has to change, and it is really working! He still has been waking up at 8:30 in the morning (which, in my opinion, is a really good time,) but now he goes upstairs for quiet time at 8:00 in the evening, and we turn the lights out at 9:00. I tell him a Bread Story in the dark, and that really helps to get him to agree to go to bed.

Thankfully, we are also still taking a quiet time/ nap time in the afternoon. I finally figured out to send Joseph upstairs at 1:00 so that I can clean up the house, do the lunch dishes, and hang any laundry that I have waiting. It is so hard to get those things done with Joseph around when he is tired, and I really like to have those things done before resting in the afternoon. By sending Joseph upstairs early he also winds down a bit before I come upstairs with Tommy, and that makes it easier for the transition. He still doesn't always sleep, but now he is at least mostly quiet. Notice that with this whole schedule thing I haven't mentioned Tommy. That is because he is so easy and predictable! Every afternoon he falls asleep in the Ergo (a backpack bay carrier) at 1:00 and in the evening I give him a bath at 7:00, and most nights he falls asleep right after that. I guess these two boys balance each other out.

Not So New Shoes

2008-06-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

Well, they are not so new now anymore. They were new when I got them a month ago in the mail from the Dansko Outlet. Dansko's are the only shoes that are really comfortable for me, and also the only ones that seem to last me any length of time. Lucky for me they are also really stylish. Aren't they great?
And as an added benefit, from the Dansko Outlet they cost about half of what they sell for in a store. That means that I can get twice as many pairs, right?

Elves

2008-06-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

I keep wanting to write on my blog and just never get to it. I have so many things that I intended to write about like elves, shoes, frogs... In no particular order. Well I will start with the elves. One night, after we opened the Keva blocks, the Wood Elves visited and built this little town.

This inspired Joseph to build his own town (the planes on the table were made by Jim), which was precisely the goal of the elves.

The block building was so vigorous for a while that I decided to make a dedicated block building space by the windows. This worked out nicely for a while, except that right now I have a whole bunch of seed starts on those tables, and also an aquarium with tadpoles, but more on that later. Here Joseph is building his own plane.

This building is what the elves left another time. Joseph was very excited to see that the elves had left him another surprise, and he immediately wanted to add a porch to it. Those elves are smart when it concerns influencing people for good.

Well, now it is very late, so I am off to bed. I am hoping that I will be writing on my blog every night now, because I we made some changes in our schedule, but more on that later too. For now.... zzzzzzzzzzzz.

First Song

2008-05-15T23:45:00.000-07:00

Check it out- I can play "This land is your land" on my guitar! I went to the library with Joseph to day and we checked out this book which included the guitar chords. I am not fast, but it definately sounds like "This land is your land." Now I just can't stop!

Doctor Visit and Chapter Books

2008-05-10T22:54:00.001-07:00

On Friday I took the boys to the Doctor for their well-child checkups. Tommy weighs 14 lbs and 3 ounces and is 25 inches long. He is 75% for height and 50% for weight. I was surprised because he increased 25% in both categories. Joseph weighs 34 lbs and is 38 inches tall. He is 75% in both categories. He is our little tank!

After the doctor visit Tommy was sleeping for quite a while and Joseph was playing with play dough in the high chair. I thought that since we seemed to have some time, and because it was a rainy day, I would get out some of my favorite childhood chapter books from the basement to see if Joseph would tolerate listening to one of them. I have been looking forward to sharing these old favorites for a long time, and he seems to have a really good attention span lately. I picked Ribsy by Beverly Cleary and Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingles Wilder, two of my favorites. Not surprisingly he picked Ribsy, because it has a dog on the cover. I started to read aloud, and we read most of the first chapter before Tommy woke up. Not a few times did he stop playing with his play dough to listen more attentively. He was very excited about it and wanted to keep going, but I had to tell him we would continue with it later. Tonight we finished chapter 2, and he was begging me to start "Little House in the Big Woods." I said we will read that after we finish Ribsy, which should take us a couple of weeks. I am so glad that I decided to read these to him, because they are so much fun (for both me and him.)

Guitar update

2008-05-10T22:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been practicing for several weeks now, and so far I know all of the open position major cords (A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.) I also know most of the open position minor cords (A, C, D, E, F, and G.) After I get B minor down I will move on to the dominant 7th cords. After that I will be able to get by playing most things, or so I have been told. I am so excited about this! I have wanted to learn to play guitar for a while, but there are just so many things in life to try, and believe me, I have tried a lot - just ask Jim or my mom. :)
I don't have much time to practice, but I have the guitar out all the time in the office so I pick it up at least once a day for a few minutes. I have found that it actually calms Tommy down when he is fussy and wanting to rest. The other day Joseph was sleeping and Tommy was fussy, so I laid him down on the futon and played some cords. He immediately quieted down and then he started singing! I had no idea that I was so talented. But seriously, I guess that means that I am doing something right that I can calm an infant with just a few cords.

Wow! Three years old...

2008-05-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

And look how smart he is!

Just kidding, Jim built the plane and Joseph is working on it. This was on Joseph's Birthday just after we opened the Keva blocks. We had a great day. Here a picture of the cake that I made for him. He loved the truck on it and insisted that we not eat it (well, for a few days anyway, after which he wanted to eat it himself.) I had lots of fun making this cake, but I think I am going to have to break down and get a tilting cake stand so that I can decorate the sides of my cakes. Well, it was my best tasting cake, if not the most artistic. It was a yellow cake with blueberry compote, and the frosting was a variation on the Wilton Buttercream recipe. I made a mistake that turned out to be a happy one. I accidentally used too much shortening, which in effect reduced the sweetness. Now I have my very own secret frosting recipe, so I guess I can start my own bakery.

May Day

2008-05-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

Here in the Nebraska people celebrate May Day. Even though I had heard of May
Day before I had never heard of anyone actually celebrating it, other than California Pagans celebrating religiously with a Beltane ritual. Here people (presumably neighbourhood kids) leave baskets with all sorts of little gifts in them on random doorsteps on the first of May. May Day was last Friday, and this year we got our first May Day basket! Jim and Joseph were in the front yard mowing the lawn and Joseph found the basket on the porch and came into the house with it to tell me. Our basket had flowers, some candy, a Christmas ornament and this little tricycle. It is quite a nice and friendly tradition and yet another thing that I like about the Midwest.

Homeschooling....

2008-04-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

Maybe I will. I have questioned my ability to be able to do it, but this video is proof that I could definitely do it and be successful.

Seriously though, it is something that I have been considering, but at this point it is any body's guess concerning what we will be doing. I have looked into the Montessori preschool for Joseph, and it looks great, but also expensive. I am also looking at the Nature center preschool, which seems nice too. There they take daily hikes on the preserve, and do lots of nature related activities. The programs of both look great, but to tell the truth, I don't look forward to having to drive Joseph there and dropping him off only to have to go back and pick him up again in an hour and a half at the longest. Getting in and out of the the house with both kids is hard enough when we stay all together, plus being a taxi really doesn't sound like much fun for me or the baby. Honestly, there are so many free kids programs here in Lincoln, that it really seems a waste to pay for a program, and I like having Joseph home anyway. I have met lots of stay at home mom's here that are using these programs, and some that plan to keep homeschooling beyond kindergarten. I even know one home schooled kindergartner who is reading "Little House on the Prairie." Of course there is a huge debate over kids who stay home vs. go to school, but the augments against homeschooling don't really seem to be all too compelling. People always mention the socialization aspect of school, but if you think about it, where else will a person encounter such a large group of peers who are exactly the same age and working on the same things? It would seem that being active in the community would be much more healthy, and have a better influence on children. Then of course there is the argument that homeschooling is risky academically. Well, there are of course guidelines that one is given by the school district, as well as testing that happens periodically. Finally, there are plenty of brilliant people who were home schooled, and plenty of people who attended regular school who only ended up dropping out in the end. And of course, the biggest benefit of homeschooling is that one can travel during the school year, when the flights are cheap. When your family is spread over three countries, that is quite a weighty consideration.

One week later....

2008-04-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

this is how much our potato guys grew in just one week!

Dreams can come true, with initiative

2008-04-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

One thing I have always wanted to do was send drawings and stories to my nieces and nephews, but as so often happens it alway just remained a dream. Well, sometimes dreams do come true, and this last week I decided to draw a couple of birthday cards; one for one of my nephews in California, and one for one of my nieces in Spain. No stories yet, and there is definately room for improvement, but at least it is a start. It was so much fun doing these cards, that I definately want to keep making them.

Guitar

2008-04-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well, now that Tommy is three months old, I am starting to have more energy and more time for other things. I am actually trying to teach myself to play guitar. I have been singing so much with Tommy and Joseph that I thought "Hey, why don't I get the guitar out and play while I sing?" That way I can learn something new, while being with them. Of course it is much harder than that , so at the moment I am just playing a few cords. Tonight after Joseph went to sleep I learned three cords while Tommy laid next to me on the futon and listened. He seemed to think I was playing music.
I had just gotten the guitar out on the day I took this photo, and Joseph of course wanted to try. At one point he pointed to one of the strings and told me with all seriousness "This string is the 'J' string." For those of you who don't know music, there is no 'J' string. I think he picked that letter because it is the first letter of his name and the one with which he is the most familiar. Too cute!

Striking Resembalance

2008-04-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I went for a walk with Tommy in a baby carrier under my coat because it was so cold, and just before leaving I looked at myself in the mirror.

What I saw was that I bear a striking resemblance to Gossamer, the red haired monster from bugs bunny. That is a good thing, because he was always one of my favourite characters. If I add a pair of sneakers and a radio playing "Power house" from my pocket, perhaps I have my next Halloween costume!

Pine near park

2008-04-21T21:55:00.000-07:00

Today on the way to our nature Mommy and Me class I told Joseph that Pioneer Park is the name of the park where the nature center is. He thought about that for a minute, and then said "Well then I suppose that there must be Pines here then."

Potato guys

2008-04-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

People always say that the Midwest is a great place to raise kids, and I have to agree. There are so many things to do here for toddlers and preschools that you can very easily go somewhere everyday. We generally go to one of the library story time or toddler time programs every week, and now I found out about a great preschool program that they have at the Lincoln's Children's Museum every week too. We went last week, and the theme was 'Gardening.' There were several stations where the kids could do art projects, and they could also look at worms, dig in some dirt to find fake worms, and listen to a story. This is where Joseph made these potato guys, who will be growing hair that is actually grass.

Triumphant

2008-04-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

Tommy rolled over for the first time yesterday, and this is how he looked right after he did; he looks rather tickled.

Diaper Bag

2008-04-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

Out with the old, in with the new! It's not here yet, but soon this beautiful bag will be replacing my well loved (and tattered )Petunia Picklebottom bag.

Keva Planks

2008-04-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

I am just so behind on everything! I have been trying to write thank you notes for people who sent gifts for Tommy for so long (I have actually done some, but just not all.) We received some money gifts from some people, and for a long time I just couldn't decide on what to get since everything from Joseph is still in good shape. I was thinking of getting a really great set of blocks, but just couldn't decide on which kind. At least not until I took Joseph to the Lincoln Children's Museum last Wednesday. There they had an amazing display of these great blocks called Keva Planks. The display is a room full of the most amazing creations (some of which you can see on the website in the gallery,) but what is really great is that these blocks are for all ages, from Toddler to Adult they say. It really does seem like there is no way kids could outgrow them, and that little fingers can easily manipulate them. Lucky for us I still had the money for the baby saved, as well as some old birthday money for Joseph. I can't wait until they get here! I guess I better write those thank you notes while I wait... : )

Three months old

2008-04-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Today Tsjomme is three months old! Of course I am a little sad to put away his clothes, but he is growing so nicely, and changing so much. The past week or so has been much easier because he is much less fussy. In the evenings he doesn't really fuss at all now, and usually goes to sleep around eight o'clock. He also seems to be a lot more alert lately and likes to watch Jim and Joseph at the dinner table from my lap or his little chair. Last night he seemed to be imitating us talking because he was intensely looking at us with a little frown and making lots of noise while we were talking. It wasn't lilting like when he wants me to sing, so that is why I think he was imitating us. I sing a lot, and about two weeks ago he stated to make little lilting calls when I was singing. Sometimes he also does it when I am not singing, but when he wants me to sing to him. He just seems so much older and wiser all of a sudden the last couple of weeks; he even laughed for the first time today when I was tickling his belly!

First Day of School

2008-04-12T21:56:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I took Joseph to our first day of a Mommy and Me class at the Nature center. Joseph really loved it. The first day was about worms, and when we were there the kids were supposed to pretend they were worms. During the story that was about worms there was a spider character , and being rather impressed with the teachers impression of a spider Joseph decided he would rather be a spider than a worm. All week long he did talk about worms and pretended to be one too.
This last week was about birds. The kids got to look at birds nests and eggs, and we took a walk to look at some bird houses out side around the nature center. During the story the teacher showed the kids pictures of birds, and Joseph knew some of them (the Cardinal and American Robin) that we have in our yard. This week Joseph pretended to be a bird when eating his spaghetti noodles. : )

Here is a picture of when I was trying to leave the nature center. The first day it took us an hour to leave! Between Joseph and the baby it is hard to get moving.

They grow up so fast!

2008-04-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

Today we went for a walk, and Jim carried Joseph in the Ergo. His pants were way to short when he was riding in it, so we decided it was time to change his clothes to the next size. Joseph was very excited to get a closet full of clothes. I thought he might get upset about packing away some of his favorite clothes, but he was so excited about some of the car and truck things that it really wasn't too difficult. I also have to change Tommy's clothes to the 3-6 month size, and I will be doing that tomorrow. Luckily I got everything sorted in different boxes by size, so switching is relatively easy. It is amazing how things change when they get older though. This time Joseph was helping me to hang his new clothes on hangers, and he did a really good job!

Storytelling

2008-03-06T16:22:00.000-08:00

The past few days I have been telling stories to (or perhaps I should say with) Jospeh before bed. It started because I was busy with Tommy and couldn't lay down with Joseph to get him to relax to sleep. Joseph has a stuffed Chihuahua that he has named 'Bread,' and the first story had Bread as the main character. They are really silly stories, such as Bread walking to a park and making friends with a cat who is swinging in a swing, and then with them going to a nearby forest and singing with each other next to a stream, upon which a mockingbird hears them and copies their song. Of course to make the story longer, I sang the longest song I knew during this part. Joseph loves it when I tell these stories. As soon as I finish one he asks me for another, so luckily I have a good imagination. We already have several recurrent characters such as a Kitty (who is a stuffed animal that belongs to Tommy,) a hedgehog named Mr. Hedgehog who likes to have tea parties in his hedge kitchen, as well as family members who also appear in the stories. Last night he wanted me to tell him a story about my aunt (tante Jelly) driving a tow truck to pick up Beppe (and Bread) and her broken down Volkswagen. Of course I had to throw in that tante Jelly also brought Koeke and a thermos of Coffee.

First Book

2008-03-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

Last night just before bed, I read Tommy his first book: Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt. He stared intently at the black letters and pictures and got very excited. After the first page or so he started to make lots of noises and waving his arms and legs when he was looking at it. I remember that I read "The Big Honey Hunt" from the Bernenstein Bears series to Joseph the first time when he was three and a half months old, and he also stared intently at the pictures. I suppose that I should have read him a much shorter and more babyish book, but that was what I had on hand. Now I have a bigger and better selection of books, so Tommy will not have to suffer that.

Nice Weather

2008-03-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

Wow is Nebraska weather crazy! Here we are last Saturday in the garden. We were outside all day (except during nap time of course.) Joseph loved being able to get out in the sandbox again, and he went crazy running around the yard looking for sticks and other things to play with. He loved pretending to ride on his tractor that he got from his Grandma and Pop. He wont push the peddle yet but he loves to move the front loader, and to fill up the loader and trailer with mud.

Preschools and Schedules

2008-03-05T13:57:00.000-08:00

Finally both kids are sleeping, and amazingly I am alert enough to get some blogging done. Joseph is upstairs and Tommy is downstairs with me, in the bennewein (or baby carriage.) Actually I decided to not sleep today so that I could call my sister, and also call a preschool that I have been looking into for Joseph for next fall. I am waiting for a call from a preschool that is non-academic and has a nice gym for them to run around in on cold, snowy days, and next week I have an appointment at a Montessori school.

Well, things have been pretty good here. I have been trying to get a good schedule now that we have two kids. We finally have a good evening schedule, and we now are going to bed at the same time every night, though Joseph still doesn't fall asleep until an hour and half or so until after he is in bed. But I'm not complaining, because it is nice just to have a schedule at night.

Moby Wrap

2008-02-01T21:21:00.000-08:00

Ahh, finally a moment to blog, which at the moment is due to this great thing called a Moby Wrap. Tommy has been crying quite a bit the past few evenings, but I didn't try the Moby Wrap much because I couldn't quite figure out how to get it to fit him comfortably. Today he started to get fussy around 4 pm, and this evening we finally figured out how the wrap is supposed to be for the baby to be comfortable. He was in it for three hours, and it really seemed to help with his fussyness; actually he slept the whole time that he was in it. He was usually fussy the past few days from around 7 until 11 pm, but this evening, not a peep! My Mom even tried it on later in the evening. I will add those photos later on. The photo of me and Joseph is actually from the first time I wore the Moby Wrap, so it is not exactly how it is supposed to be. Joseph also wanted a Moby Wrap for his baby, so I used one of my scarves for him.

Tsjomme Garlan Liebgott-Osinga

2008-01-17T20:41:00.000-08:00

Here he is!!! Tsjomme was born at 2:30 in the afternoon on Sunday, January 13th. He was 7lbs6oz, and was 20.5 inches long. He arrived 9 days after the dute date, which was not a moment too late. He still had a little bit of vernix in his wrinkles, and the crooks of his elbows. As for his name, Tsjomme was the name of my grandfather on my father's side, and Garlan was the name of Jim's grandfather on his mother's side. Because Tsjomme is so difficult for english speakers, we will call him Tommy. As you can see, we are very happy that he is here!

Suite Française

2008-01-11T21:43:00.000-08:00

For Christmas I got a copy of Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky. I was shopping with my mom (who is visiting from the Netherlands) just before Christmas, and while in Barnes & Noble this book caught my eye. She got it for me, and it was a good choice.

The book takes place in France during WWII. The title includes 'Suite' because the author intended for there to be five distinct parts, like a musical composition. She only survived long enough to complete two parts. She was a Russian Jew, and so she died in a concentration camp in 1942.

The first part of the book, called Storm in June is about the invasion of Paris by the Germans. This section flips back and forth between about five different groups of characters, each group having a different point of view on what is happening to them as French citizens. There is even one chapter that discusses the event from point of view of one family's cat. Overall Storm in June was interesting, but not as good as the second part.

The second part, called Dolce, is about the occupation of a French village by German troops. Some of the characters are the same as in Storm, but it mostly felt like I was reading a completely different book. This story was more deeply emotional, and I felt much more like I could relate to the characters. However, perhaps this was due to me, because when I visited France I felt more drawn to the country people than the city people. Regardless of this, the characters in this part of the book were more fleshed out and it seemed like the author spent more time with this part of the book. There also seemed to be more descriptive passages, whereas in the first part it felt like flashes of impressions. I think Némirovsky did this intentionally to give an impression of the invasion verses occupation. I personally more enjoyed getting to know the characters and reading about their reflections on the war, rather than about lots of impressions of the invasion and evacuation of Paris.

The end of the book includes two appendices and also the preface to the French addition. I was almost going to skip this part, but am really glad that I didn't because this was the best part of the book. The first appendix is the author's notes about her plans for the book. After reading the two stories I could really see a glimpse of her intentions, and they were indeed grand. It would have been magnificent. The second appendix is a series of letters that she and her family wrote during the war. They showed how the situation in France was changing for the Jews and 'Stateless' people. It was particularly sad to read her husbands letters in which he tried to find where she was after she had gone to the concentration camp. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in WWII history; it is a great combination of fiction and biography.

2007 Book List

2008-01-11T16:50:00.001-08:00

Well, since it is now 2008 I suppose it is time to archive my list of books read in 2007.

The Pecking Order by Dalton Conley (Jan.)
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Audio Book, Jan.)
March by Geradine Brooks (Feb.)
Othello by William Shakespeare (Feb.)
Almost French by Sarah Turnbull (March)
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (March)
Sequencing by Arlene Rossen Cardozo (April)
Cymbeline by William Shakespeare (April)
The Power of Play: how spontaneous, imaginative activities lead to happier, healthier children by David Elkind (April)
Antigone by Sophocles (May)
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (May)
Oedipus the King by Sophocles (May)
The Odyssey by Homer (translated by E.V. Rieu)(June/July)
Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell (July)
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (July)
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (July)
The Pre-Raphaelites: Romantic, passionate and visionary by K.E. Sullivan (July)
What Mothers Do Especially When It Looks Like Nothing by Naomi Stadlen (Nov.)
How to Make your Child a Reader for Life by Paul Kropp (Dec.)

Reading Challenges

2008-01-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

Just for fun I decided to look up "Shakespeare Challenge" to see if anyone was doing anything in that vein this year. I love reading Shakespeare, especially the more obscure plays; it is fun to compare their themes with those in his better known works. I did find a Shakespeare Challenge, and it actually runs from January 1st until June 30th, so perhaps I will be able to participate. Not that I am counting on it, but perhaps...

I also found an interesting Challenge called My Year of Reading Dangerously. This one is about reading authors which one considers intimidating and runs the whole year through.

I don't know If I will be participating in either, but I wanted to note them both here for my own memory

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Since this is my first post of the year, I will reveal my resolutions for 2008. I know it's corny, but for some reason it is satisfying for me to declare my intentions. So, first of all, I intend to read 25 books this year. Last year I read 19, and if I hadn't been pregnant I probably would have read more. I'd like to read more art history books, and something in Dutch, German or French (I've got some good ones on reserve in my bookshelf, but I will wait to reveal them until I start.) Secondly, I'd like to get back into sketching. I did a lot of that in 2006 before we moved to Nebraska (but not much since we got here,) and it was very satisfying and therapeutic for me. And finally, I intend to have this baby this year! Seriously though, I am really, really happy that we have made it through the holidays without adding a new member of the family. Although it may be fun to have a New Year's baby with all the attention, gifts, etc., I really don't think it would be nice to have a birthday on that day. Then the day would never really special in and of itself.

Waiting...

2007-12-29T21:24:00.000-08:00

Lately it is difficult for me to do any blogging; I guess I am just waiting for the baby to come. My due date is next friday, but I don't feel like the baby is in any hurry to get here.

So, in the mean time I will tell a cute thing about Joseph. I was taking him to bed and told him we could read one book since it was quite late. He is used to getting at least three stories before bed, so he told me two books that he wanted to read. I said, "No Joseph, you have to pick one or the other." So he said to me "the other."

All I want for Christmas is...

2007-12-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

A Jackhammer!

This morning during breakfast, when we were both quietly eating, Joseph suddenly said "Maybe Santa Claus will bring me a Jackhammer." I'm not making this stuff up, and we haven't influenced him in either direction either. He is just so very much, and very naturally a boy. Before I had a boy I thought that a lot of external conditioning went into kids' interests, and with some kids maybe that is true. But Joseph is just heavily predispositioned to being a very masculine boy, at least so far. He likes his stuffed animals, but he Loves his trucks.

Hanging in there...

2007-12-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

but just barely. I hate to be so negative, but things have been really hard lately. We had a good trip to California for Thanksgiving, but when we got back all of us were sick. We seem to be pretty much over it now, but I have been having quite a time with Joseph. He has been acting up a lot, not listening, and just being generally destructive and laughing about it when I try to discipline him. Poor Spot, as he has been taking the brunt of a lot of it. I have been thinking about the whole situation and I think that it is because we were traveling, and he does much better when he knows what to expect. He was quite fussy the last half week of the trip whenever I was visiting anyone. Also, he has been very demanding of my time since we got back, and I think that that is probably due to having lots of people around all day, everyday for two weeks. It was clear that he missed everyone when he got back because he would say things about going back to California. Well, hopefully it won't take long for us to adjust to being home.

As far as my pregnancy is going, it is quite different than with Joseph. My indigestion became so unbearable that I am finally taking a medication for it, and that has helped a lot. It has been very difficult to sleep overall, but the medicine is helping. I am finally sorting through all of the baby clothes. I have to wash everything, because since we packed them in Humboldt everything has a moldy smell. I have lots and lots of clothes, but a many of them I won't be able to use because Joseph was born in the spring, and so some of the the smallest clothes are for much warmer weather. However, it still seems that we will have enough warmer things. I should know by the end of the week when I have rewashed and sorted everything.

Depression

2007-10-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been about a month since I have posted anything. The reason is that I have been quite tired, and also pretty depressed. I didn't really want to post negative things on my blog, but I feel like I need to put it down here. I remember feeling the exact same way when I was pregnant with Joseph, so I suppose it is really just hormonal (though knowing that doesn't help much, especially at the darkest times.) I think I will mention it to the midwife at my next appointment, although I can't imagine she can really do anything about it.

Today we went and looked at a house that I happened upon last week. I spotted it last week when coming home from the library with Joseph. The woman who owns the house saw me and invited us in to look, so we did that. It is quite a nice house, at a fairly low price, and in a really nice neighbourhood. I really liked it, though I feel torn about buying anything right now. Jim and I decided to go look at it, and he really likes it too. The only thing that I really don't like about it is that it doesn't have a fireplace, and I have my heart set on that. In the end, I think we won't think any further about buying a house at the moment. It really doesn't seem like a time to change things in a major way with the baby coming. I have been so emotional about things lately, that it wouldn't be a good time to make such a huge decision.

Here is a funny story about Joseph. When we went to see the house the first time, he really was excited about the owner's cats (she has four big ones.) The whole time we were there he was exclaiming about them and squealing with delight when they would come toward him. As we were leaving and we and the owner were saying goodbye, he said 'Maybe when you go to your new house, you can leave one of the cats.'

The Home of Home Economics

2007-09-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

Things are continuing in the Home Economics vein here. Some how whenever I have free time I am thinking about home things lately. Tonight I tried to continue with Joseph's costume, but I have to go get some ribbing for the neck and sleeves before I can do anything else. I actually did already get some, but I got white and the costume fabric is cream, so that looks awful together. I also cut out some fabric for a dress for me, and the pattern pieces for another dress. I hope I can sew a lot this weekend, because it would be nice to have the dresses finished.
I had an appointment with the midwife today. Everything is going well. Last week Jim and I told Joseph that there is going to be another baby, but he didn't seem too surprised. He did seem surprised, however, when I told him the baby is in my belly. Today I could see the baby moving and showed him. He got very giggly. He does seem to have mixed feelings, though. Yesterday I was buying a bunting to put over the baby's' car seat, and Joseph asked me what it was. I told him that it was for the baby's car seat. He got kind of tearful and asked very pitifully "but, can I have a car seat?" I assured him that he would keep his car seat and that the baby would have a different one. He dubiously asked where it was, so I said in the basement, and then we showed it to him in the evening. After that he seemed OK with it all again.

First Cake

2007-09-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my first cake for my cake decorating class. I had my first class one week ago, in which we learned how to make frosting, about frosting consistency, how to torte a cake (cut it in half in order to add a filling, etc. This week we practiced basic techniques of cake decorating, and we also decorated our first cake for the class. My cake is a raspberry buttermilk cake with raspberry jam filling, and almond flavoured buttercream frosting. I learned a lot with doing this first cake, like how to make stars, zigzags, curving lines, and transferring images. I drew the picture of the raspberries and vines on a piece of paper, and then used piping gel to transfer them to the cake. Mixing the colors was very fun for me. I didn't had enough of the red after doing the raspberries, so I had to mix more in order to be able to make the boarders. It was just like painting!

New Happenings

2007-09-18T22:18:00.001-07:00

Last week it we had some cold weather, so I took Joseph shopping for some new clothes. This is him in his new outfit. There is also a matching sweatshirt top. As you can see, Joseph loves to wear new clothes and model them too. I also finally got some maternity clothes, so now I have some decent things to wear again.

Recently I tried some new recipes. I made a really interesting un-yeasted bread in which the only ingredients are whole wheat flour, a little bit of salt, and water. After mixing this together, one must let it sit for 24 hours. Then after punching it down you let it proof for 4 hours at room temperature. It is very hearty! Another recipe I tried, that is completely different from this austere bread, is one for glazed donuts. This one was also very good, and very easy.

Busy, busy

2007-09-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone. As you can probably guess from my lack of posting lately, things have been rather busy around here. This morning I woke up to Jim telling me there was a mouse in the cereal, so I spent the first hour or so of my morning putting all of our food that the mouse didn't get into into glass jars and plastic containers. I had to be creative because we have lots of different dried goods like various sorts of beans, flours, and sugars. I even consolidated the coffee to get the big Folgers container for powdered sugar. It is actually nice to have it all sealed away in plastic and glass. Now I just have to find a container for my baker's sugar and for the oatmeal.

One reason I haven't been blogging much is that in the evening have been doing lots of cooking, baking, and knitting lately. I will try to make up for that now by describing some of our most recent photos. During the day I usually can't be on the computer at all because Joseph complains when I am in the office (we have a gate in the doorway so that he can't get in there,) but today I have remedied that by taking the computer into the kitchen. He desperately wanted to play with play-doh, so I thought why not take advantage of the situation and move the laptop to the kitchen table too? Of course every once in a while I have to stop and make something for him, and if you look closely at the photo you can see my little play-doh family complete with a pregnant Memmy, and of course, a barking Spot. The thing that the boy figure is sitting on is a car that Joseph made. Well, that didn't last long; now Joseph has declared he has to poop. Back in a few.....

Well that brings me to the next subject: EC (a.k.a Infant Potty Training). I haven't talked about it for a while, I guess because things are going so well. Joseph started wearing underwear full time in February and in May he still had some occasional wetting at night, however, since June he has only wet the bed at night perhaps twice. At this point he comes to tell me whenever he has to go potty, and he also wakes up at night to go as well. I have even started to leave him on the potty alone for a few minutes sometimes if I have to finish doing to dishes or something, and then he calls me to say he is finished. EC has turned out even better than I hoped!

My Inner June Cleaver

2007-09-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

Something about being pregnant turns me into June Cleaver with a heavy dose of granola. When I was pregnant with Joseph I taught myself how to knit and toward the end of my pregnancy I did lots of stuff in the kitchen, particularly baking shortbread cookies and almond doubles (which are a sort of tart with raspberry and apricot jam, and dark chocolate on the bottom.) This time around it seems that baking is taking precedence. About a week before my birthday I decided that I wanted to make a cake with buttercream roses on it. I got rather involved in my research on how to do this and ended up making a cake with marshmallow fondant. The fondant turned out O.K, but then it was time to start making roses. I watched a few videos on you tube, and it really didn't look that hard.

Well, this is my cake in the end. I think that my frosting wasn't stiff enough to make roses because I couldn't get the frosting to stand up on the rose nail. So, I am now taking a cake decorating class at the local hobby store. I just had my first class last night, and I think it is going to be a lot of fun. Next week I will post a picture of my first class cake.

Cooking experiments

2007-09-11T22:50:00.000-07:00

Since about a month or so ago I have been doing tons of cooking, and for me that means lots of experiments. Toward the beginning of august I was on a Mexican cuisine kick and got into making tamales and Pan Dulce. I had to order a gigantic steamer from a Mexican food supply website in order to make the tamales. I make about 60 savoury tamales (tofu with green salsa, tofu with mole, and black bean and vegetable.) Then I make about 90 sweet tamales (apple and raisin with Cinnamon, pear with Cinnamon, peach with Cinnamon, banana, and banana with chocolate.) They came out very good, and it was actually really easy to make them. I had actually helped to make them before one time with a Mexican friend when I was about twenty, but that was quite a while ago, so I used this really great website as a guide.

I decided to make the Pan Dulce (Mexican sweet bread) for a friend's birthday who is also from Southern California. We really had no idea what to get for him, and I figured that since he really likes Mexican cuisine this would be a unique and welcome gift. They came out really yummy, though I would like to work on my decorating.

For my birthday I got a ravioli maker and a pasta drying rack. I got the pasta machine last Christmas, and I have wanted the ravioli maker ever since then. The pasta drying rack is great, because usually when I make pasta I have to hang it on every clean free surface I can find, and it was quite a pain. Here I am making our first ravioli dinner. I made them with Spinach and Tofu cream cheese.

Fall Garden

2007-09-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

My container garden is going very well. I planted about 3 weeks ago, and they are all doing quite well. Everything came up except for the cilantro. This first photo is how they looked a week after I planted. The weather here turned to fall weather about a week ago, and my plants actually seem to be doing better now, especially the kale and mustard. Before I would sometimes catch them wilting in the hot sun, and now they seem to be growing before my eyes, even when it is cloudy all day. Here is a photo of how they looked today. I hope that the weather doesn't turn too cold too fast before they are big enough to handle it. The average first frost date here is October 5th, and it feels like it is approaching fast. For the last week the air is rather nippy in the evening and morning, though it is really perfect in the day.

Technically, I do work outside the home

2007-08-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today we went down to our Nebraska bank to add me to the account. When we first moved here Jim got the account here, and then we just kept using our California bank account so we could use up our checks. Anyway, when the banker asked me if I work outside the home, I said no, but Joseph had a different answer. He enthusiastically told the banker "Memmy makes plants." I guess my recent involvement in our container garden really impressed him.

Second Trimester Delay

2007-08-25T23:02:00.000-07:00

Apparently for me the first trimester of pregnancy ends late (somewhere around the fifth month.) That was true when I was pregnant with Joseph too. Now that I am five months pregnant my life is once again a flurry of activity. As I mentioned before, I have been very involved with cooking and baking; Yep, barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. I think the only prepared thing we bought this month were some tortillas, and some cereal because it was on sale for an amazingly low price. I made tamales a couple of days ago, and our freezer is quite full, and our refrigerator has in it lots of flour, eggs, soy milk, etc. Last night I told Jim I was going to make some Pan Dulce because Joseph was asking for some, and he just laughed at me. I was puzzled by this, so he said "Well where are we going to put it?!" Well, not to worry, I found some space. I will write about making the tamales and Pan Dulce tomorrow, or whenever we finally put new photos up.

My container garden is doing well, only I am having to move the pots every few hours so that they get enough sun. There is so much shade in the yard right now, that no one space is sunny for more than a couple of hours a day. I moved all the pots today very faithfully to make sure they got sun for as long as possible, and I could actually see a difference in how big they were (they are just now emerging.) The only thing that hasn't sprouted yet is the cilantro and spinach. We are going to get some kids' wagons so that I can roll them around the yard. I'm sure the neighbours think I am crazy.

I have also been thinking about my knitting again this week, and got out an unfinished project to finally finish up. It is a pair of lacy socks in midnight blue Merino wool. I started them over a year ago, and one is almost finished; I only have the toe left to do. I also started thinking about Joseph's Halloween costume this week, and I thought that a dog costume wouldn't be too hard to make. I looked at my patterns today and found one with a dragon costume that would not be hard to convert. It is ideal because it has a hood, and last year it was unbelievably cold on Halloween. I even have a bunch of white fleece for the basic suit, and accented with black it will be perfect. I told Joseph that I am going to make him a "Harry the Dirty Dog"costume, and he seemed pleased. Knowing Joseph, I am sure he will be dirty by the end of the night.

The Thinker

2007-08-25T22:38:00.000-07:00

Once again Joseph amazed me this evening. Just as I was getting him ready for bed he said he wanted to go to the store to buy a candy cane (this was completely out of the blue.) I actually have a few candy canes left from last Christmas in the cupboard, but Joseph didn't know about these. I told him that I have some and that he can have one tomorrow. That seemed to satisfy him. Then about an hour later, as I was putting him to bed he said "I want some soy sauce.' So as a joke I said 'You want soy sauce with your molke? Molke is our word for nursing. He laughed and said, "No, with rice and beans." (For some reason, he really likes to eat Mexican Rice and Beans with Soy Sauce. I guess he is truly global.) Anyway, I told him that he can have that tomorrow for lunch if he likes. He smiled and said " I want soy sauce with rice and beans for lunch and a candy cane after." He is always surprising me with how much he thinks about things, since he is only two. In reality though, I think mostly it is because he speaks so well that I am so aware of all the connections he makes; when kids don't speak too well it is impossible to know what is going on in their heads. I feel fortunate that Joseph expresses himself so well because not only does it help to solve problems, but it is just so fun to hear all of these amazing things from him.

The Pursuit of Perfection

2007-08-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

Joseph is such a perfectionist, both in actually doing things as well as in speaking. A couple of days ago one of the buckles from my shoe broke off, and then the next morning he was thinking about it and said something about it. I said "Yes, my shoes are broken, so I can't wear them today." He responded, "No, only one shoe is broken!" and then he looked at me like 'don't you know anything?' How could I be so sloppy?

Another example of his linguistic perfection occurred last night when I was reading him a bedtime story. We were reading Fabian Escapes, a story about a cat who escapes from the house for a day. At one point the cat goes into the flower garden and eats the flowers. The illustration shows the cat surrounded my many bushes of flowers. Joseph interrupted me to tell me that "He doesn't eat all the flowers, only a little bit of them."

R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril)

2007-08-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

The time has come for another reading challenge. This time it centers around books that are, to quote Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings, "stories that deal with gothic themes: stories that are eerie, creepy, dripping with atmosphere, suspenseful, scary…"
I am attempting Peril the Third (the Scary Sandwich Peril) in which one reads two books that are scary not only because of their content, but also their length, and then also one shorter book as well. My list is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Fall Garden

2007-08-16T23:17:00.001-07:00

Today Joseph and I planted a fall garden. We did it all in containers, so it was really easy. So far we planted Kale, Mustard, Chard, and Basil. This weekend we will add Spinach and Cilantro, but I think that is all. I had planned on planting in the spring, but my seeds never came up, and then later I just never had the energy. I started thinking about growing Kale during the winter (indoors) again a few days ago. This is something I have wanted to to do for a long time because we eat so much of it in the winter. After some research I found out that it doesn't do well indoors even under the best grow lights, but that since it is very hardy it will grow well here in the fall. I found an article in which the writer said she had experienced Chard (growing in a container) until mid-December one year, in Northern Pennsylvania. Another really interesting article said it is possible to grow all sorts of greens in hoop houses covered in bubble wrap, even in the coldest places. I don't think we will be doing that for a while, but the fact that the garden store still had kale seed is motivating. At any rate we should be able to get some borecole meals out of it.

Joseph liked the planting quite a bit and was actually quite helpful. He helped me fill the pots with dirt and exclaimed "I'm getting all dirty!" with glee several times. I gave him some of the seed and he did a very good job spreading it out, copying me. I told him that the Kale seed would become borecole, and he smiled and said "Ohhhh!"

Tamales and Indian food

2007-08-14T21:57:00.001-07:00

It has been a while since I wrote anything here, so I thought I would give an update. For some reason our website with our photos has been down the last couple of days, so I can't narrate any of our photos for you.

The last couple of weeks I have mostly been really busy at home cooking and baking. I decided to try to make everything we eat myself, such as breads (including pita bread and hamburger buns,) cereals, and baked goods, and also using only dried beans. My goal is to only buy the raw ingredients to make all of our food. The tofu burgers that I talked about last time were delicious; much better than the ones we were getting at the store. The buns were somewhat tough the first time, but I made them last night again and they were lighter this time. I think next time I will use egg in the dough.

Last weekend I made Indian food, specifically Dal, Palak Paneer (with tofu substituted for the cheese,) and Naan. It was truly delicious. I made enough for us to have four dinners from it total. I love Indian food so much, but we can never go to an Indian restaurant because they use so much dairy. I have made it before, and always with great results but lately it just never occurred to me to make it. Once I ran across this Naan recipe on the Internet, I had to do it again. It turned out to be a fabulous recipe.

Another fun thing is that I bought a tamale steamer. I used to love to eat tamales when we lived in southern California. I have plans to make some tofu mole tamales this weekend. Some other things I have been making are soy milk pudding, Pan Dulce (more on this later,) and falafal.

Thunderstorm

2007-08-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

At the moment we are in the midst of a big Thunderstorm. This is one thing about Midwest weather that I like so far. Somehow the crashing booms and flickering lights fill the night with a certain liveliness.

This past week I am back to my old self concerning cooking and baking. I wasn't doing a whole lot of either because of both the heat and just not feeling up to it. We were reviewing our food bills this last weekend, and it really motivated me to start doing most things from scratch again. Last winter I was making most things we ate from scratch, so those months are my comparison. It seems that if we bake our own bread, use dried beans instead of canned, eat hot cereal for breakfast instead of cold, and finally if I bake all of our baked goods myself we can save somewhere around $100-$150 a month. It really doesn't seem like that much of a change, especially since it tastes better to cook this way anyway. A couple of days ago I found a recipe for veggie burgers, and I mixed that up tonight. We'll see tomorrow how the recipe is. I also made some whole wheat hamburger buns using our bread maker to mix the dough, and taking it out to prepare in into buns after the last punch down. They are rising as I write, and so far they look pretty good.

I am currently almost half way through The Fellowship of the Ring. I have read it before, but I am amazed at how many details I forgot. I am having much more fun with it this time because as I am reading it I am using The Atlas of Middle-Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. This atlas is absolutely fantastic! I have found everyplace mentioned so far in The Fellowship of the Ring, and since I am a visual person it has somehow made me more attentive to the story.

Yesterday I began The Woman in White by Wilkie Collens. After reading yet another passionate comment about this novel, I finally started reading it. I've only read about 30 pages, but I'm already hooked. It is described as the first sensationalist Victorian novel. It is quite long, about 750 pages I think, so it was probably not the best thing to start while reading the Lord of the Rings, but oh well. Sometimes you just have to follow your passions.

Hello!

2007-07-29T00:42:00.000-07:00

The Importance of Reading

2007-07-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

Reading to children is so important. A couple of days ago I was getting ready for the day in my bathroom upstairs, and Joseph was playing on the floor with his little cars. He had made up a whole scenario and was making the cars talk to each other. I heard him say something about having to stop so that the green bird could pass by. Do you recognise the story? I did- he was playing the part in Go Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman where a bunch of cars are driving in a row, and have to stop to let a bird walk by.

Another time I noticed this was when my mom was visiting a few weeks ago and gave Joseph a present of 6 wooden trucks. Immediately after opening the present, he took the trucks over to the back step, and drove them around for a bit. After some time he called Beppe (my mom) over and started talking about how they were watching an airplane take off. Then I noticed that the trucks were all neatly lined up in a row, and this is exactly what happens in another of Joseph's favourite books, Five Trucks by Brian Flota. In this book five trucks are servicing and airplane before takeoff, and then line up to watch it take off.

I remember as a child how much I would draw on my reading experiences and make them a part of my life. I remember one time I just had read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and when I came home after school I sat down with a chocolate chip cookie and tried to eat it as slowly as possible, just like when Charlie was eating his Wonka candy bar in the beginning of the book. This was at a time when my family was having some money problems, so when I look back at it now I think that maybe in my mind I was trying to find the good aspects of being poor, like that when one is poor, one really appreciates the things one does have. It is really neat for me to see that Joseph is also savouring his reading and bringing it into his play.

The Lovely Bones

2007-07-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

I read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold about a week ago. I noticed this book mentioned quite a bit lately, and my curiosity finally got the better of me. I wish it hadn't. The book is about a 14 year old girl who is raped and murdered by a neighbour. After she dies she watches her family, friends, and her murderer from heaven. The book is ultimately about the healing that takes place after this crime.

Certainly the subject is a difficult and important one, however, I am disappointed with how Sebold chose to present it. I feel like she chose some typical pop ways to make her book appeal to the public, and quite frankly I felt kind of tricked. I read a Salon article that states that this book is more literary fiction than a genre thriller. I have to agree that there are things about it that make it seem literary, such as Sebold's use of metaphor. In the beginning the the book, right after the crime takes place, Suzie (the main character) describes how, while floating over the earth, she is looking for clues in the cornfield (where the crime happened) and would see the burrows of rabbits whom she loved, and "who sometimes, unwittingly, brought poison home to their dens. Then inside the earth and so far away from the man or woman who had laced a garden with toxic bait, an entire family of rabbits would curl into themselves and die." When I read this I was stunned. I stopped and read it again several times; I felt completely locked in, and from that point on I knew I would have to finish this book to have closure. That is the thing with this story; it is written in a way that makes you identify strongly with Suzie and her family. That kind of power in writing is a good thing.

However, it is not a good thing when turned into the stuff of a thriller film. The murderer turns out to be a serial killer, and his other crimes are also described in graphic detail. There is a scene where Suzie's sister is inside the killer's house, looking for clues and he comes home while she is still in the house. My heart was beating twice as fast as usual the whole time I read that part. Now, it is is not that I don't like heart racing excitement in a book, but this was cheap.

I know it is true that such crimes happen, but less violent ones do too. I felt that by graphically describing these crimes really is only a way of appealing to people's baser selves, and quite truthfully, a great way to appeal to the public at large. I hope that Sebold goes on to write things that will show her literary talents, but that she leave the pop thriller style of writing in her past.

Finally Back

2007-07-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

Well, after some time of not blogging I am now hopefully back. I took the month of June to visit family, so I didn't do much reading, but now I have started with that again. A couple of weeks ago I read Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell, last week I read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sewell, and now I am right in the middle of the Hobbit. After The Lovely Bones I needed to read a nice light adventure story, and also to get back to reading books that have been on my 'to read or reread list.' But more on that later when I do my reviews.
Other than reading I have been VERY tired lately, which I think is due to the combination of being pregnant during the hot summer. I will be happy when it is fall. Lately we haven't been doing much during the day other than reading and sitting outside in the shade. Jim finished Jospeh's sandbox, and he has been having lots of fun with that. Today we were outside all afternoon and he played in it the whole time.

Breezy Days and Bicycles

2007-07-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

After a couple of weeks of yucky, hot weather, it is nice to be having some cooler, breezy days. Today I took Joseph to the library on the bicycle and it was very pleasant to ride through our neighbourhood. There was a nice breeze and no traffic.
Joseph has been saying some funny things lately, as usual. Today, a couple of hours before going to the library, I told him we were going to ride the bike to the library later, and he immediately asked me "Is there a bike rack at the library?" He is very into the process of how things work, so I think that locking up the bike on the rack is as important to him as the ride. As we rode up to the library, he sang out "There's the bike rack." Then it was so cute too, because when I took him out of the seat he grabbed onto the back wheel (while I was locking the bike up,) and then he told me he better hold onto the bicycle so that it doesn't fall over. This is something that Jim tells him to do so that he stays by the bike, and doesn't wander into the street or parking lot. I thought it was cute because I didn't say anything about holding onto the bike, but Joseph clearly sees that this is an important job, and he had better do it.

Ultrasound

2007-07-03T22:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the ultrasound, and (happily) we saw that there is only one baby. I was getting pretty scared because I did start to show very early this time, felt the baby move early, and am VERY hungry. Interestingly I am eating a lot, like twice as much dinner as usual and am often having an extra bowl of cereal before bed, but I'm not really gaining any weight (have only gained about 3 pounds, and this is week 14.) It is really very weird. Before the ultrasound I told Jim that maybe I really only had a tapeworm, but I guess I just have a hungry baby.

First Midwife Visit

2007-06-25T21:23:00.001-07:00

Today I had my first visit with the midwife, and so far I am very pleased. The clinic was bright and decorated with art with either Pregnancy or Mother/Child themes. The midwife had a very positive natural childbirth attitude, and all of my questions were answered the way I wanted them to be, such as they don't require a heparin lock, and fetal monitoring is only done for the first 15 minutes when you arrive at the hospital (if you agree to it.) After that they do check the baby with the Doppler, but not nearly as often as it was when Joseph was born. This was quite a relief because with Joseph my doctor was clearly angry with me when I refused the heparin lock, and the fetal monitoring was extremely disruptive to my labor. I told the midwife a few things about the birth experience, and she also thought that my doctor had done some things that were alarmist and unnecessary. After the birth I had a bit more bleeding than normal, and my doctor panicked. One nurse actually dropped some of the tools because she was barking orders and making everyone nervous. She also ordered two bags of pitocin, the second of which they stopped pretty soon after starting it, because it wasn't necessary. The weirdest thing of all is that when I had my check up she didn't do a physical examination, and said that I could come back next for my yearly check up which was six months later.
Well, I am happy that this time around I will have a midwife instead. Next week I will have an ultrasound to make sure that I am not pregnant with twins and also to make sure of the due date. I already felt the baby move the first time two weeks ago (I was 10 weeks pregnant then,) and then again, moving a lot, a week later.) This made the midwife want to check the due date, but also since I am showing a lot already she also wants to check to see if it could be twins ( I hereditarily have a high chance of twins, on both my father's and mother's side.)

2007-06-22T21:20:00.001-07:00

Whenever I don't blog much for a while I find it difficult to get started again. In truth, ever since we have gotten back from Southern California, I have had trouble feeling motivated to do anything. It could be that I am pregnant, or maybe it's just the heat. Well, today marks the end of the first trimester of this pregnancy. So far things have been so different than when I was pregnant with Joseph. Perhaps it doesn't mean anything, but this time my intuition says 'Girl.' We'll see....

Baby News

2007-06-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

Well, now that I have told all of my family, I suppose I should mention here that I am pregnant. This is the reason for my scant posts recently. For some reason when I am pregnant I enter my own world a bit more deeply, and tend to not have as much contact with others. Interestingly I don't really feel pregnant, other than a periodic loss of appetite, and of course my increased introversion. I am not really even more tired than usual! This pregnancy is quite different than with Joseph; that time I had a lot of anxiety, even before I knew I was pregnant at all. I have had two extremely vivid and frightening dreams in the last two weeks, but this is not as many as I had with Joseph, and I have had no daytime anxiety at all. Because I was curious, I read a bit about anxiety dreams during pregnancy and found out that they are quite normal. A psychologist did a study and found that women who have such dreams during pregnancy tend to have quicker labors. I had many anxiety dreams while pregnant with Joseph, and interestingly even the doctor was surprised at how quickly my labor was progressing.

Up, up and away!

2007-05-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow we are flying to California (of course not in a biplane, but isn't this photo cool?) This trip is the reason I have not been writing because I have been busy shopping, organizing, and cleaning. I got some new dresses, a new bikini, and some new bras. The shopping was quite an experience for me because I finally decided to go to some decent stores for a change. Last year in Holland I got some beautiful, although expensive, clothes that were so much better quality than I was used to. I vowed that even if I was going to live in the U.S. (where it is so easy to get really cheap clothes) I would only buy good clothes. Somehow last winter I forgot that vow and just bought a bunch of stuff from the clearance rack at Target. I was happy at the time, but a lot of it didn't last long and in reality I bought too many things.

This spring sometime I decided to go back to last year's vow. I got some really cool retro dresses (sorry Theresa, I really do think the retro 60's dresses are cool) from Dressbarn. I never would have thought a store with a name like that would have some classy things, but they did. I got a big, stylish, black sun hat that will go with two of the dresses. I was so excited because I have been looking for a hat like that since the summer of 2001 when I went to Greece. I also went to Victoria Secret for a bra fitting and discovered some interesting things, like that I have probably always been wearing the wrong size. The quality of both the dresses and bras is really good; you really do get what you pay for with clothes. Funny I learned this years ago with shoes (I pretty much only wear Dansko,) why did it take so long for my attitude to change about clothes?
Well, now I better get back to packing.

Beep, Beep, Beep!

2007-05-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

Joseph has an incredible love for anything with wheels. He is always talking about them, playing with them, and today pretending he was one. In one of his books about construction vehicles, it describes the kinds of sounds they make, such as 'when backing up the dump truck says "Beep, Beep, Beep." Yesterday on a walk we saw a large passenger van backing up (thus beeping) and Joseph said "The van is like a dump truck." and then he laughed triumphantly because he made this connection. This morning as we were getting ready to go to our La Leche League meeting he was walking backward around the living room saying "Beep, Beep, Beep." And a little while later "Memmy, I'm a dump truck! Beep, Beep, Beep." Sometimes it is difficult to get him out the door, so I told him to "Beep, Beep, Beep" out the door. He loved the idea of this and got moving right away. I had to be careful the he didn't fall off the porch, but this time he didn't fight me when I lifted him to help him down.