Po-tate-o, Po-taht-o

On St. Patty's Day I asked Lucy what she learned about St. Patrick at school. I was pretty impressed at her recollection, until her last 'fact,'

"...And then he became a pope."
"What? Pope? No, Lucy, he became a priest."
Shrugging, "Pope, priest, same thing."

Going to Home Depot one day she was giving me the low-down on the swing set my folks have been looking for,

"So now they are just waiting until the swing set is free."
"Free? You mean on sale?"
"Free, on sale, same thing."

We went to the Farmer's Market and Lucy was upset that the cashier didn't give her any moneys back. While trying to explain the economics of money I had her subtract five minus eight for her to see how many quarters she had left,

"That's fruchting, right?"
"What?"
"Fru...what's that called again?"
"What's what called?"
"You know...fru...fru...when you take eight minus five."
"Subtraction?"
"Yes! That was subtraction, right?"

Rockin' the 80's

Rat tail

+

Mohawk =

Coolest hairdo ever!

(that I'm itching to trim...)

Would you stop touching my hair, already?

Easter

I'm really no good at posting about holidays. Which is crazy, considering my family celebrates them all at least twice each.

Anyway, here's a quick Easter recap (Samantha's first!)

Sam was thrilled to get dressed up.
Daddy didn't know to put a onesie on underneath so she ended up naked half way through church due to the itchiness.

Jer napped, I ate some chocolate.

Lucy buzzed around on a bike my mom probably played on.

Sam played with some equally old toys
(the label on the box said "Playskool"- Days before spell check, I guess.)

She also put said old and filthy toys in her mouth.

And baby Kahlan watched.

Then we ate a delicious supper.
I couldn't resist and went wild on the dairy dishes.
(which was still a no-go)

Sam had her first trip to the park.

She l.o.v.e.d. the slide!


Trip # 47

Kahlan wasn't so much a fan.

Joel discovered he's outgrown the...things...(no clue what they're called)


Kahlan gave the things a shot.


Tried the horse swings,

the things,


and just went back to the slide.


The End.

Nom Nom

Sam likes to put everything that she can fit in her pincer grasp into her mouth.
This includes, but is not limited to:

carpet she yanks out
onion peels
hair
paper
crumbs

But recently I found her spitting something out.

I walked over and found a dead ladybug.

But that's not the gross part.

The next day I see a dead lady bug near her and contemplate picking it up, but think, "Nah, she won't see it. And if she does, she'll just spit it out again."

I come back later and notice two things.

1) The lady bug is gone
2) Sam is happily munching away on something

That's still not the gross part.

I manage to fish the dead insect pieces out of her mouth
(much to her dismay- apparently this one was tasty).

I thought that was the gross part, but it still wasn't.

Later I nursed her and when she pulled off,
there was a lady bug residue on my n i p p l e.

A wing, to be exact.

THAT was the gross part.

11 months

*phew!*
I almost missed it!

Short and sweet this time!

This month FLEW by.

Samantha is just under 15.5 lbs
She eats pretty much whatever we're eating, but has increased her nursing big-time
She prefers eating off our silverware
She can pretty much get anywhere now using a combination of rolling and a side army-crawl (trying to catch it on video)
She's wearing 6-9mo and 12 mo clothing, depending on the brand
She is very into pulling things apart and emptying out containers/bags/purses/buckets
She's added a few more signs, two of which are in this month's video!
She sits quietly at mass, reading her books, eating cheerios and playing with a wet-wipe
And she "talks" on the phone--priceless!

Presenting- Samantha sitting up unassisted:

Rare Footage II

We had an appointment. So, naturally she slept extra long. I did my best to get her to wake up. I turned off the noise-maker. I turned on the hall light. Stroked her head. Even took a picture with flash:

Nothin'.

Maybe I should try sneezing in the other room next time. That usually wakes her up.

*eye roll*

At least I got a sleeping baby picture! I haven't gotten one of those in months!

Peace Treaty Via Black and Decker

Apparently the battle with rice is a generational battle.

Or there's a anti-rice cooking gene.

Jeremy said I've just psyched myself out. That cooking rice is just like baking.
I'm a good baker, therefore it shouldn't be a problem.

So I did what any good wife does when her husband says such things.

I complained to my mother.

All these years I thought she bought minute-rice because she didn't realize the taste difference of real rice.

Turns out she has the same issue I do- and she's a fantastic baker!

So when my sweet friend surprised me with this

both my mom and I were overjoyed (we're moving in with the folks, remember).

I made sure to document the momentous occasion:

Before

During
(I so desperately wanted to intervene- notice the "foaming" on the sides)

Ta da!
No burnt popcorn smells this time!
This turned into our dinner, then lunch, then dinner, then lunch.

Thanks Melissa!!

Baby PT Continued...

Continuing from the last therapy session, this week was SO much better!

First, a tangent.

Since Sam has been born, it never ceases to amaze me how she develops. It's never gradual, like a hill. Everything is a stair step. One day she doesn't sign, the next she's learned 5. One day she won't sit, the next she'll play for hours sitting. This week wasn't any different.

On Saturday, I was a little disappointed, as Sam hadn't made as much progress from all the work we'd been doing since Tuesday's session. Then Sunday came and she blew me away. She sat up in the bathtub, leaning to play with the water. She stood at a glass door by herself, shifting her weight from hand to hand to play with my sisters on the other side of the door. She sat happily in the pew at church, playing by herself and never once tried to lay down.

I was beaming with pride!

And at the therapy session she amazed us again. The therapist said several times how quickly she was catching on and how much she had learned in just 2 weeks.

Sam loved all the musical instruments Diana pulled out and happily played on them.

She still likes to "fall over" but Diana always makes her work to get back up to sitting


The triangle was great motivation (notice the hand on the ground for support!)


Tug-of-war with Daddy (great for ab work)


Trying to get her to reach for the triangle, she decided the mirror was better because it was within reach.

She's gotten so good at sitting that we're suppose to play with her balance, gently pushing her to make her catch herself.

She practiced pulling up.

Coming to her knees first

then putting one foot down

Then to standing!

Having to do it over and over, however, got a little old.


Our homework this week is to play while kneeling as much as possible, and help her come to sitting from laying down. She started putting weight on her elbows while laying on her side this past week (how she "scoots")- so she's already part of the way there!

Typical Tuesday

I'm off to an interview for a waitressing job after I write this post. I've waitressed before, at the Terrace Grille and the Apple Tree Inn. At both places, I really enjoyed it (for the most part) and the money was really good (I think I averaged $10/hr after taxes).

As many of you have probably experienced, once you've entered a job field you get quite picky and critical when you later employ someone else in the same position. Like when I was a grocery clerk. I got real good at bagging groceries, and now it REALLY irks me when baggers throw random stuff together- like bread with cans, or raw meat with kleenex. I've gotten to the point where I put stuff on the conveyor belt in the order I want it sacked, to avoid getting my banana's and tomatoes bruised, or my cereal boxes soaking wet from melting frozen items.
I'll admit, I may need help. Maybe I need to go to a group?

Hello, my name is Kim, and I'm a bagging snob.

Moving on...

Waitressing has not been any different. My server has to be really bad for them to get less than 15%. I'm very understanding about certain things (such as the way food is cooked not being the waiters fault). But I'm very picky about others. Like my glass of water getting empty. Or not having silverware. Or having to ask twice for something.

The one gray area, however, is how often to check your table, and how to kindly interrupt. I've had some waitresses come to my table so often, it almost feels like they're trying to hurry me up. Then other times I have to go searching for another waiter to find my own.

Since it has been a while, and it is different for many people, I'd like to know, how do you like to be served?

Physical Therapy Part II

Since Jeremy was gone last week, I didn't have the brain power to post. I don't know how you single mom's do it! 5 days and I was at my wits end.

Anyway, today we had our third session. It went SO much better than last week. This is pretty much what last week was like:



She caught on to the give-me-my-favorite-toy-and-then-take-it-away game and did NOT want to play. She was happy the instant she had her toys, but threw a fit the moment it was out of her reach.

And all we wanted her to do was this:

Doesn't look like much- but getting her to put one hand on the ground to support herself was the goal.

We didn't get much done because of the tantrums so we got a lot of homework. We had to find toys that she had to pull apart to build her stomach muscles. The therapist had these toys, but had no idea what they were called. There wasn't a label on them (what toy company doesn't put a name on their toy?) Does anyone recognize them? Know what they are called?


My mom has these Melissa and Doug foods with velcro that have been perfect! It took her a day or so to get the idea, but now Sam is a pull-apart machine. She tries to pull everything apart. Which means her markers are no longer in her toy pile.

We've also been working on reaching for toys while sitting, trying hard to get her to put weight on one hand while reaching with the other. I've really had to be creative here, as Sam is not stupid. Here's what I've come up with:

1) Getting a food she REALLY likes (like banana bread) and having her tip to the side to get a bite from my fingers.

2) Any toys she has to reach into (which has become a favorite game of hers now) like a bucket, her diaper bag or a toy with a door.

3) Sitting in the bathtub (which she did for the first time yesterday!!!) and having the water running. She immediately put one hand down to steady herself to play with the water using the other hand- it took everything in me not to squeal with joy and scare her!

4) Rolling a ball back and forth with Lucy. Or any activity with Lucy, really, as Sam is always reaching for her.

Hm...this is getting kind of long and I still have so much to say, so I think I leave this post as a cliff hanger.


TO BE CONTINUED!!!...

Kitchen Nemesis

I'm a good cook. And a good baker. Not great, but good. Give me a recipe, and I'm all over it. Seriously, I'm not an idiot when it comes to the kitchen, recipes or following directions (I was a teacher for heaven's sake- giving/following directions was my life!!)

But for the life of me, I cannot cook rice.

This is what burnt rice looks like. Which smells like burnt popcorn, if you wanted to know.

Don't ask how I did it, I have no clue.

Jer laughs, but this is a serious problem. If we lived (or even visited) a 3rd world country, we'd starve. And we are living on a rice and beans budget. Hello- this is half our diet!!

*sigh*

Tie a Yellow Ribbon Around the Old Oak Tree

Everybody now, "Awwww!"