Pictures in the leaves

About this time of year mothers start dreaming of taking adorable pictures of their kid(s) in the leaves. Getting those pictures can be quite the adventure, if not nearly impossible, sometimes. Today was perfect weather with a perfect pile of leaves and pretty much the only chance between the rain and cold to accomplish this feat. Unfortunately, a squirrelly toddler who refuses to cooperate or look at the camera + a normally smiley infant who doesn't like the feel of the leaves and also refuses to look or smile + an over-tired mommy with a very short fuse who JUST WANTS THE PERFECT PICTURE, DANG IT!! = trouble. After a rough first try we had to pack it up and head indoors so I could have a timeout and cool off with a Diet Coke. When I had regained my composure, we briefly tried again. That session ended with an over-tired Lincoln deciding he had had enough already and Emily accidentally stepping in one of Cheney's piles, which then got smeared all over her Crocs and pants. So after two valiant attempts, a change of battery and over 100 pictures taken using the continuous snapshot setting, the collage above is the best of the best. (Click to enlarge) Maybe next year... ;o)

5 months old

Lincoln turned 5 months today and weighs in at 15 lbs. 15 oz. He could have broken 16 lbs. if I would have fed him before weighing him at the hospital. ;o) That's almost exactly the same as Emily was at 5 months.

Lincoln's big accomplishment this month is rolling over from back to tummy. He is quite adept at it now. Unfortunately, he still hasn't figure out how to go the other way. He doesn't seem to mind actually sleeping on his tummy, but he doesn't like waking up and discovering that he's in that position and can't do anything about it. So we have to "rescue" him sometimes.

Lincoln has also become fascinated with his hands and feet. He will stare in wonder as he holds up his hand and slowly turns it in all directions. He will also play with his knees, feet & toes whenever his clothing allows and he "catches" them. This, along with the rolling, has made diaper changes more interesting. :o)

Just this past weekend Lincoln FINALLY had a good nap day with three solid naps all an hour or longer. There is hope! I've decided it's mostly my fault for just not staying home enough and allowing him to establish healthy napping patterns. It seems like I always have somewhere to go and it's easy just to throw him in the car seat and get by with a 30 min. snooze there. I just about had him down to only one night feeding, but between a stuffy nose and the rolling thing this past week the nights have still been very long. We'll continue working on that.

Lincoln also loves to play peek-a-boo. He has begun moving objects on and off his face to play along. :o)

Timber!

After his 4-day whirlwind business trip Austin took the afternoon off. He borrowed a chainsaw and took down the flowering crab tree in our back yard. I don't think it was going to be as much of a nuisance as the one we took out at the Denver house, and it did provide some privacy from the house across the alley. However, I would REALLY like to have a garden next year and about the only place to put it will be along the alley. The tree would have shaded that area a little too much. We're planning to have someone come in and scrape out the old rock/gravel area that was used by a previous owner to park a camper and have black dirt brought in to replace it so it can be seeded. So if the tree was going to come out it had to come out now.

My surprises

Since Austin had several surprises for me when I returned home from my trip, I wanted some surprises for him when he returned from his trip. He probably liked some more than others. ;o)

#1 Fireplace

After an extensive conversation and lesson in gas appliances from my dad last week in Hull, I was able to get the pilot light lit on our gas fireplace and get it going for the first time. It's old, but relatively simple to operate. Unfortunately, the electric blower doesn't seem to work, so it doesn't really heat the room. However, the glass doors get super hot, making it totally unsafe to use with mobile infants/toddlers. It might be something we just enjoy at night after the kids go to bed with a new gas fireplace added to the long wish list of home improvements.

#2 The great toy sort

Following a discussion with the other moms in our Denver playgroup and a growing frustration of how long it takes to pick up toys at night I was inspired to do a massive toy sort and reorganization. Using all the diaper boxes I have been saving (which has been driving Austin nuts) I organized most of Emily's toys into small, distinct categories. I made both written and picture labels for everything and arranged all the boxes in the upstairs landing closet (click on picture for larger view). Even included are 4 small kids' shoe boxes each containing a few "misc" items like a slinky, Happy Meal toys, a flashlight key chain and other random things Emily latches onto for a day or two and then casts aside when she loses interest. The idea is to pick out a few boxes at a time to bring downstairs and play with. Every few days the boxes can be exchanged for new boxes with different toys. We haven't quite started yet because I'm still deciding which toys will be sent to the basement play area which is yet to be established. Plus I have to figure out something with Lincoln's baby toys. And I'm unsure what to do yet with Emily's play kitchen and all the play food/dishes that go with it. I'm sure any "system" I come up with will evolve as toys, interests, and developmental changes occur. At the very least it will cut down on the number of toys to trip over and deal with over the course of a day! (Special thanks to The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room for organizational ideas!)

#3 New rugs/decor

I pretty sure Austin wasn't as thrilled about this one as I was, but I finally put together new master bathroom decor. I removed the blue & green shower curtain for use upstairs when we have guests and put the lavender rugs in Emily's closet. The sad blue & green towels have been demoted to cleaning rags. In their places are a new black shower curtain, fuzzy black rugs and luxuriously soft black & maroon towels. It's my feeble attempt to at least work with the tile & wallpaper currently in the bathroom.


I was also excited to find area rugs that I think will work in our bedroom. It really needed something, and my feet/legs were getting achy from walking across the hard floor so much (mostly at night). I have been completely overwhelmed by the whole rug thing and didn't even know where to start. After glancing through the collections at every store I went into I found these at Blain's Farm & Fleet (my new favorite store). There's enough green that matches the current paint color, and I think the squares compliment the geometric pattern on the bedding set. It adds a splash of color, but I don't feel like it's too overwhelming. Now I just have to decide what and where to hang things on the walls! ;o)

Rainy day fun

Chocolate Dora's & Toothpaste Caps

Two recent stories from life with Emily...

One day last week Emily asked to sit on the potty around 4:30pm. This has been occurring sporadically--mostly just b/c she wants a piece of candy corn, which is currently the reward just for trying. She actually wanted to sit awhile, so I left to quickly attend to something else. By the time I returned she had put on a new "Dora" (Pampers Easy-Up) and almost had her pants back on. She had been eating chocolate covered raisins as a snack, and in the process a couple got smashed on the floor. Seizing the opportunity of a perfect object lesson I picked them up, dumped them in the toilet and flushed. Little did I know. Around 7:30pm I was getting the bath water ready and did a quick Dora check. I saw that it was dirty, so I told Emily to lay down so I could take it off. She started talking about "chocolate Dora's". Sure enough, when I removed her Dora the only thing it contained was 6-8 very melted chocolate covered raisins. If it weren't for the distinct smell of chocolate you would have never known. :op

Also starting last week Emily plunged forward with training toothpaste on her toothbrush (I know--I should have done it a LOT earlier.) She loves it a little too much, so we had to establish a reasonable number of times her teeth needed to be brushed and required assistance with the toothpaste. She was a little too quiet upstairs one day, and when I went to investigate I found toothpaste (gel really) dribbled all over the sink, a distinct fruitiness in the air and Emily jabbering about the cap and the drain. Indeed, I could not locate the cap. After awhile I removed the long drain cover tube thing and discovered that she had either accidentally or purposely dropped the cap down the drain. It's a wide cap designed to stand the toothpaste tube on end and is just slightly smaller than the diameter of the drain. I immediately tried to float it up like the last drain victim (see toothbrush story) by running water. It would float up about halfway and then get stuck just out of my reach. The water would back up in the sink and slowly drain away, taking the cap back down with it. After several attempts the cap sunk all the way to the bottom where it got stuck and remains there today. The only way to retrieve it and unclog the sink will be to completely dismantle the 60-year-old plumbing pipes. Not something you want to casually do. Seeing as the sink is currently used relatively little it is not high on the priority list. Sigh. For the record, the toothpaste and Emily's toothbrush are stored on the top shelf of the medicine cabinet with a mirror that opens towards the toilet. That means the only way to get at it would be for her to stand on the edge of the tub, step on the plastic storage drawer unit and then step up on to the edge of the sink where she could swing open the mirror and reach the shelf. No place is safe and unreachable for Emily!

Zucchini monster

While I was in NW Iowa this weekend I acquired this monstrous zucchini from my sister-in-law. My sister cut off a chunk for herself that she estimates will yield 6 cups of shredded zucchini. I took the rest home along some recipes from my sister. I hauled my portion out yesterday. After skinning it and scooping out the spongy pulp/seeds from the middle I ended up with 14 cups of shredded zucchini. I've never really baked with zucchini before, so I was excited to try something new. I made 4 loaves of bread and a chocolate zucchini cake. They turned out decent even though I have a psychotic oven. The remaining 8 cups is now in my freezer for experimenting at a later date.

It's funny how you can try and mentally justify that what you're eating is "healthy" because it contains vegetables. In reality, between the oil/butter/sugar the bread & cake recipes are probably the nutritional equivalent of a glazed doughnut. Even better is considering the bread a decent breakfast. The only real difference between the cake and the bread is 1/4 cup of cocoa and the fact one is baked in a 9x13 pan and one in loaf pans. Moral of the story: If you want to eat cake for breakfast, bake it in loaf pans and call it "bread". :o)

P.S. If anyone has any tried & true zucchini recipes please feel free to share. They can even be healthy. ;o)

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Some people might be nervous about coming back after leaving their husbands home alone for four days. I'm usually excited to return and see what he's been up to. Not only was the house perfectly picked up, the floors freshly vacuumed/mopped/swept and a big bowl of popcorn waiting on the stove, but he also had three other surprises.

#1 Honey-Do List
I had left a pretty big "honey-do" list of small projects and Austin got most of them done. One of them included installing a working doorbell. I knew he was working on the list because he called me on Friday night from the attic. He had been doing some stuff there and when he went to open the door the door knob broke off on the inside. So he was locked in. The window to the roof wouldn't open either. Thankfully, he still had his cell phone in his pocket since he usually leaves it on the dresser after changing out of his work clothes. It took four phone calls to find someone who was available to come over and let him out. It would have been a long, cold weekend otherwise!


#2 Basement
We have been chipping away at unpacking and putting things away in the basement. However, there were still too many things that Emily could get into if left unsupervised. Austin made the final push to at least organize the remaining boxes/things. Now I can put together a play area for Emily. :o) Here are pictures from just after the move and when I got home on Sunday.

#3 New Grill!
This was the best surprise. I had really been missing a grill. Our gas grill in Denver was a direct hook-up that we inherited and stayed with the house when we moved. It was a piece of junk anyway. I had researched grills using Consumer Reports and picked out this one from Home Depot. I even checked last week and casually mentioned that there were two fully-assembled ones left in stock. ;o) And now one of them is ours! I have already purchased some specialty brats from Fareway for the inauguration on Friday.

Austin is gone on a four-day business trip this week. I hope to have some surprises of my own ready when he returns. :o)

Photo shoot

Just before leaving for home we had a new family friend do a photo shoot to practice for a photography class she is taking. Emily cooperated better than I expected, but Lincoln was a bit of a grump. Then again, I would be too if someone woke me me up from a nap, stuffed me in a fleece hoodie and plopped me down in damp leaves in 35-degree weather! I was thrilled with the results, though, and am having a very hard time picking favorites to get printed. Here is a sampling...

The full photo shoot can be viewed in a folder within our October 2009 Winkflash folder. If you would like the login information or need a reminder please contact me.

Full family weekend

The kids & I just got back from a four day trip to NW Iowa to visit lots of family. We went to six different houses and three people came to my parents' house. It was a great time visiting everyone and actually was relaxing at the same time! The highlight of the trip was meeting our new nephew/cousin Ryan. He makes Lincoln look really big!

It was pretty depressing waking up to snow on Saturday morning. This was the scene from the front window of my parents' house. I hadn't really packed for that. Most of it had melted by the end of the day, but it snowed again after we left for home.

We celebrated my sister Abbie's birthday on Saturday. I also got the chance to catch up with a really good friend from college that I hadn't talked to in 4 years. Plus I did a little solo shopping at a local consignment shop. :o)