Friday Randomness

• With one successful craft under my belt I suddenly like crafts and am going to try to make Margot a tepee for her birthday present. I'm also thinking about some holiday crafts.
• my parents considered naming me Whitney. In fact they had a deal that if I was born with red hair (my dad is a red head) I'd be named Whitney and if I had brown hair I would be named Laura. I have a hard time imagining myself as a Whitney.
• This Saturday is the last out door farmers market. I am sad. Taking Margot to the farmers Market has become one of my favorite things to do
• I am working on printing photos of Margot. I have taken almost 1500 photos since she was born and I think I'm going to print about 700. It's funny because growing up we had one photo album of my first year of life that had around 150 photos. I used to think it was so crazy that my Mother took 150 photos of me in one year and now...
• With Halloween behind us I'm really getting into the holiday spirit. Last year we were barely functioning at Christmas time due to a wee one who hated to sleep but this year I am feeling more human and am up for some good old fashioned holiday fun, decorating, x-mas trees, making cookies and wrapping presents.

A Day in the Life

When Margot was 4 months old I did a post on a day in our life. I was looking back at her monthly posts to pull pictures for her birthday party and I couldn't help but laugh at that post. I laugh because that day seems so much easier yet at the time I know I felt it was really hard. It just goes to show how fast babies change and grow. Also that post was before Chris started at the firm when he worked much more normal hours. So here is a day in the life with our now 11 month old. This was one day last week.

5:00 am: Chris' alarm goes off and he gets in the shower. Margot starts fussing and I go get her and bring her back to our bed to nurse. Margot is wide awake after nursing never mind that it is 5:20am. Chris gets dressed and leaves for work. I Change her and put her on the floor where she promptly crawls over to my shoes and starts pulling every single one off of the shoe rack. I get dressed (I usually shower at night otherwise there is no guarantee I'll get a shower) and fix my hair. Margot has now moved on to pulling all of the laundry out of the hamper. Margot and I make the bed and but away all the shoes and laundry before getting her dressed. Then we head to the kitchen were she sits at her high chair with some cheerios and I make my tea and grab my lunch.

6:20 am: I cart Margot, her bag, my bag and my hot cup of tea out to the car and we leave. I drink my tea and listen to NPR on the way in. Margot jabbers to herself and her doll francie making sure to squeal as loudly as possible during all the moments of the news I really want to hear.

6:40 am: we get to my Mom's. I nurse Margot and put on make up (which I now keep in my bag).

7:25 am: I park downtown where I have a board meeting for Better Eugene Springfield Transit (BEST) a non profit board I'm on.

9:15 am-12pm: I get to work, eat my breakfast (yogurt and granola which I keep at work). I deal with email, phone calls. I work on some testimony due at city council by 5pm. I also work on a power point for a presentation I'm making at our board of directors next week.

12:00 pm: I run back to my Mom's where I nurse Margot and eat some lunch.

1pm: Back at work for a couple hours then a couple meetings in the afternoon.

5pm: I go pick up Margot. She nurses then we pack her things and get her into the car. We leave Mom's about 5:30 and listen to NPR on the way home.

5:45: I put Margot in the high chair with her dinner. Tonight it's some left over meat loaf and roasted sweet potatoes and apples. I unload the dishwasher and get our dinner going (bangers and mash with braised cabbage).

6:10 Margot is now throwing food on the floor and laughing. I clean her up and put her on the floor with some toys. That works for about 10 minutes then she starts pulling herself up on my legs and saying ma ma, ma ma, I pick her up and thankfully Chris walks in at 6:30 and I can finish up dinner. we eat in the family room while she plays. Every few minutes she comes over to my plate for bites. She's like a little puppy when it comes to food on my plate.

6:50 We help her put away her toys and Chris reads her a few bedtime books while I load the dishwasher

7:00pm I take Margot into her room put on her pj's and nurse her to sleep.

7:30pm I rotate laundry and do the rest of the dishes. Then Chris and I settle on the couch. We read for a while and then watch Colbert and Stewart online.

9:00pm I take a shower and we go to bed 

Happy Halloween

From our little dinosaur...

 So sometimes in motherhood I fail utterly. Take for example the time I didn't realize Margot would react to her vaccinations and Chris and I went on a date night and came home to a baby burning up with temperature.

 But sometimes I do rock the Mom thing. This Halloween...I rocked it by making Margot this awesome dinosaur costume. I mean how cool is this?! She's the cutest dinosaur I've ever seen. Best of all I only spent $12 making her costume (well $12 dollars and 4 hours). I also completely made it up. No pattern, no pintrest, just my imagination. And it was really easy.

 So here's how to make your kid a really cool dinosaur costume. Get fleece in three color's A half a yard in the primary color and 1/4 yard in the other two colors is more than enough. Get two large buttons (I pulled these out of my Mom's button box.

 Fold your green fleece in half. Then find a jumper one size bigger then baby's current size (I think for a boy overalls or shortalls would work in a pinch). For Margot I used a 18 month jumper she has. Lay the jumper on the fleece and cut around it making two matching pieces. Just make sure the "back" pieces has longer shoulder straps to button onto button holes. Take the back piece and cut it in half. Cut spikes out of your two contrasting colors. Then you will sew the spikes into the back of the jumper. I added a tail which also had spikes.

Once your spikes are sewn in you can sew the sides of your two pieces together. Sew buttons onto the front and cut button holes onto back. For the bottom measure out leg holes (I used a pair of Margot's leggings to as a rough guide). You are going to sew up the bottom leaving two leg holes. I tucked and pinned the fabric to hem it and then sewed it up. Lastly for a cap use a winter hat as a rough guide. Cut out two matching hat pieces and sew them together with spikes in the middle. Add some straps and you are done. Margot is wearing her costume over leggings and a long sleep tee she already had. If you wanted to give this costume a more finished look you could hem the arm holes, neck and hat or trim them with matching yarn. However given it's a Halloween costume it doesn't really need to be as finished as a traditional outfit. I had a blast making her costume and can't wait to do it again next year.

Tuesday Night Dinner

I still have a back log of recipes I made this summer and never shared. I made this recipe a while back when we had zucchini coming out of our ears. It was one of those great 20 minute dinners that we all love.

Pasta with Italian sausage and zucchini

2 small zucchini, sliced

1/2 of Italian sausage (sweet or hot)

handful of fresh basil

2 cloves garlic sliced

pinch of saffron

1/2 lb of thin spaghetti

olive oil

salt and pepper

cook pasta according to package directions. While pasta is cooking heat olive oil in skillet. once hot add garlic. cook garlic for a minute or so until it just starts to brown. Add zucchini and saffron, salt and pepper. Cook for 3-5 minutes stirring occasionally just until the zucchini starts to brown. Remove the zucchini onto a plate and set aside. Add sausage the pan and cook until done. Once sausage is cooked through add zucchini pack to pan. Add cooked spaghetti noodles directly to pan and stir to coat. Add fresh basil leaves and serve.

And the count down to one year begins

Margot,

Oh my baby...You are 11 months old and hardly a baby anymore. You are so big and constantly on the move. I couldn't even get you to hold still to take your photo.

 You are crawling all over the house and constantly exploring your little world. You can pull yourself up, stand and cruise along all the furniture. You are frighteningly apt at getting yourself to where you want to be. One of your favorite recent activities is to "escape" when I'm trying to get you. This is especially fun post bath when I'm trying to diaper you. You squirm out of my reach and take off at the fastest crawl you can muster laughing and squealing as you go.

You often jabber, laugh, squeal and sing. You love to sing in the car along with Mommy. It's so funny. And you can say a few words, ma ma, da da, uh oh, and yee haw. You have other ways of communicating your wants. When you want me to pick you up you crawl over and pull yourself up on the back of my pant legs. You point to things you want. And when you want more food you open your mouth as wide as possible.

You have started to eat much larger volume of food this month. You can easily eat 1/3 to half the food on my plate. You mostly feed yourself but we also still feed you some. You love anything on Mommy or Daddy's plate. You are a very adventurous eater. In the last month you have eaten Chantalle mushrooms, beef stew, roasted squash risotto, artichoke hearts, pickles, and braised cabbage. You are very skilled at dropping your food on the floor and you have started to spit it back out when you are done. So much fun!!!

You love to play with your books and dolls. However, your favorite activity lately seems to be sorting anything. You love to take all of your toys out of one basket or bucket and move them to the other. This is also fun with Mommy's large jewelry, kitchen items, laundry and the kitchen drawers. Here you are sorting Grandma Jody's kitchen Tupperware.

This month we had two Portland trips and one included your first trip tot the Zoo. Here you are looking very intently at Monkey's. You loved the Monkey.

 You also traveled on the Max which you also loved. I think you share your Mother's love of public transit.

 And you went to the pumpkin patch!!! This was so much fun. Here you are standing next to a pumpkin. You are almost a toddler (tear).

Your funny little personality continues to emerge everyday. You are turning out to be quite a little ham. You love attention and want to be in the center of everything. You know what you want and are quite determined to get it. You are a stubborn strong willed little monkey. I predict a very eventful toddler hood for you! You love to see new places. The farmers market, grocery stores and restaurants are your favorites. You still love to cuddle and nurse and always prefer Mommy and Daddy's bed to your own.

You turn one in 21 days and we can hardly believe how fast this year has flown by. Love you to pieces. Mommy and Daddy

Lately I'm Loving..

• Earl Gray tea with cream and honey, even better with biscotti
• making Margot's Halloween costume
• Presidential debates
• This book
• Zupan's, a gourmet market in Portland, AMAZING
• Radishes with real imported French butter and French grey sea salt (thank you Zupans)
• Delicata squash from the Farmers market
• Simple fall outfits such as today's black turtleneck, denim pencil skirt, grey sweater tights, and black booties

warm socks and chicken soup

Well I survived Las Vegas and being away from my baby for 4 whole days. I landed in Eugene late Friday night and was greeted by fall! I was delighted to wake up to a steady drizzle and a hazy grey morning. We all bundled up and headed to the farmers market. The market was beautiful. Everywhere you looked there were signs of the changing season. Dried chilies, fresh mushrooms, pumpkins, squash, leeks, fennel, apples and pears. After filling our market basket we headed home and spent the rest of the weekend celebrating fall with roasted squash and chili risotto, braised chicken with leeks and tomatoes and the best beef stew I have ever had. Sadly the changing seasons, or perhaps the air plane, has left me sick sick sick. I have a horrid cough and head/chest cold.

When I am sick there are a few things that I MUST have or I will be a total baby. Homemade chicken soup, my hooded U of O sweater from college, and an endless supply of peppermint tea with honey. I have recently added to that list a warm sock treatment. Have you all heard of this? I learned about it last winter when I was sick. You get a pair of cotton socks wet with cold water and wring them out well. Then you soak your feet in hot water for five minutes. Dry them off and put the wet socks on. Then put a pair of 100% wool socks over the wet socks and get right in bed. Keep the socks on until morning or until both socks are completely dry. It's amazing. And it really helps you get better faster. Something about circulation. I usually don't like to wear socks and I NEVER sleep in socks but even I like this. It just makes me feel better and I think it helps you sleep better.

I stayed home sick today and thankfully my Mom came over and made me chicken soup. I made a lot of chicken soup and I like to think I'm pretty good at it. Yeah my Mom's chicken soup was so much better than mine. Usually when I make it I start by poaching a whole chicken to make broth and I use the meat from that chicken for the soup. My Mother brought homemade broth from her freezer then poached chicken breasts in the broth. The chicken soup is so good. It's all I've eaten today.

Well that's about all the thinking/typing my poor sick head can muster. I hope everyone else is enjoying the changing season sans colds.