Saturday, February 27, 2010

Some pictures of Etta (4 months old today!)

Showing off her bright blue eyes

She is already learning how to open up buttons!

Having fun in the exersaucer (notice  by the bib that she shares her mommy's love for coffee)

Friday, February 26, 2010

$27 (plus tip) later...

I have a pedicure and haircut! A big thanks to my mother-in-law for watching the girls so I could get a much-needed haircut.

Having Greenwood Academy of Hair 5 blocks away sure is cheap & convenient. I have gone there for haircuts a few times before & have gotten my brows waxed there as well.

Here are my reflections from this (and past) trips:
* Pedicure - It is worth the extra $10 or so to go to an actual nail salon. They did not cut off my toe or hurt me in any way. Then again, I could soak my feet in a plastic tub of water, rub some lotion on, then apply polish all by myself. Going to a nail salon has the perks of a massage chair, hot scented water to soak my feet in, a slightly painful but necessary scrubbing of the dry spots on my feet, and a good clean-out of the grime between my big toenail and skin (Good mental picture, I know. I almost took before-and-after photos but decided that they were not quite necessary and may do more harm than good!)
* Brows - I was happy with them last time and it was a lot cheaper than salons I have gone to. The trick, no matter where I go, is to say I want them to look natural & just be cleaned up. They can always take more off, but they can not put the hair back on!
* Haircuts - I am not picky about my hair. Knowing details of what I want or having a picture is always best.  Since there are instructors inspecting their work, there is little chance for a really big screw-up. They have less experience and may take longer, but just grab a magazine or bring a book from home.

So for convenience & price they can not be beat. However, for a slightly less convenient but similarly priced training salon, I prefer the Gary Manual Aveda Training Institute. There is definitely better ambiance and, in my opinion, a higher quality of trainees. Plus I love the smell of Aveda products!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Big list of books

Below is the list of books I have read with my bookclub*. A big thanks to bookclub member Kelly who compiled this list. The books are in a very rough order of the ones I liked most to those I liked least. I have been revamping the order for a few weeks, but I just have to call it good & post it otherwise I could re-work the list indefinitely! You will notice that a lot of these books have been made into movies.  For the most part we read the book before the movie came out (although I believe there has been an instance or two where a member watched the movie instead of reading the book!) As is almost always true, the books are better than the movies. I put comments next to a few of them, but otherwise email me if you want more info on a particular book or are wondering about borrowing a book (I purchased a few, but most I just checked out at the library. Which, by the way, is one sign of a good pick. You want to be able to get it from the library within a one month time frame!)

Reading Lolita in Tehran (This was the very first book chosen & I had not joined the book club  yet. Since I have not read it, I can not rate it.)




A Prayer for Owen Meany 
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Egg and I 

Water for Elephants 
The Birth House (hooray for midwives!)
Eat, Pray, Love (coming out as a movie this summer)
Twilight  (all the members ended up reading all the Twilight series & are watching the movies!)
The Art of Racing in the Rain (I don't cry easily, but this is one book that triggered a few tears) The Life of Pi 
The Secret Life of Bees
Sister of My Heart
The Omnivore’s Dilemma (if you like reading this, I really recommend Animal, Vegetable, Miracle)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay 
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Phantom Toll Booth
The Year of the Flood 

A Severe Mercy
Next
The Lemon Tree (interesting & informative but not a light easy read)

Wicked 
The Penderwicks 

Memoir’s of a Geisha 
The Abstinence Teacher 
The Know-It-All  
A Christmas Carol
The Mammoth Cheese (some book club members would put it much lower on their list!)
Random Family 

Running with Scissors 
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The Old Man and the Sea

The Grapes of Wrath (a classic, I know, but I still was not a big fan)
Love in the Time of Cholera
Suite Francaise
Mansfield Park
The Sea Wolf
The Secret River 
Watchmen
Sleep Pale Sister




* More details on my bookclub to come at a later post.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Recipe: Chocolate Oat Bars

I am working on a few posts but it may be a week or so before I finish them so here is a recipe for now. I have made it numerous times because it is easy, tasty, I tend to have all the ingredients on hand & it requires no oven time. My comments are in red.


Chocolate Oat Bars
1 cup butter (2 sticks) you could safely use less
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla  I use slightly more
3 cups uncooked quick oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy) I use slightly more

Grease 9 inch square baking pan.


Melt butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar & vanilla, mix well. Stir in oats. Cook over low heat 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Press half of mixture into pan & - use spatula to flatten & spread evenly (I do more like 2/3rds on the bottom).


Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips in small heavy saucepan over low heat (low heat takes too long on my burners, I do medium & keep a close eye on it), stirring occasionally. Stir in peanut butter. Pour over oat mixture, spread evenly with spatula. Crumble remaining oat mixture over top of chocolate (I do this by hand. Careful though - it can be hot!)



Cover & refrigerate 2-3 hours or overnight. Bring to room temperature before serving. Drink a big glass of milk with these!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Lion

As a child my favorite stuffed animal was a teddy bear named Theodore. (I was pretty original & creative as you can tell!) Theodore survived my childhood just slightly lumpier for the love. I still have him and actually came across him and pulled him out of storage a few months back. It feels good to give my old teddy a hug.

Addie has a favorite lovey, but I am extremely doubtful that he will survive past her childhood. He has already lost his tail. Well, not technically lost since we very deliberately cut it off & threw it away. Here is the story of Addie's lion:

Addie was given numerous stuffed animals, a lion among them. When she started showing special feelings for the lion I realized I could be in trouble. So I went to my favorite locally owned toy store and bought an expensive, organic machine-washable lovey that was made in Germany. That lovey has not gotten much love. (I am sincerely hoping Etta forms an attachment to it.) Addie made it clear that Lion was her favorite. Since an early age she has found comfort in sucking on cotton and fabric. I don't know why - I really should research this fetish since Etta is showing the same interest. Anyways, she would suck on Lion's tail. It started to get really wet & smelly. Matt & I thought we were being pretty clever when we cut it off: remove the smell & the appendage that was being sucked on - problem solved! Nope! Instead she took to sucking on his butt, or occasionally his nose. So now we had a serious problem You know the wet dog smell? This resembled it: layers of saliva that slightly dried. Surface washing would not have solved the smell issues so I have machine washed lion a number of times (put him in a pillow case on the delicate cycle). He was made in China and had no washing instructions, but it is clear that he was not made to withstand frequent washings. Oh. He also lost his smile. The thread for his mouth came loose and we ended up clipping it all off.

The solution to our problem has been fairly effective and is twofold. First off, we gave Addie a blanket that was dubbed her "biting blanket" she was told she could cuddle with lion all she wanted, but if she needed/wanted to bite she needed to bite the blankey. Also Lion has progressed to wearing diapers. We have two thin cotton diapers (made for a doll) that he rotates between. Her biting happens the most as she falls asleep so sometimes Lion still gets gnawed on since her eyes are closed and she is half asleep. If he feels wet in the morning or after a nap we comment on it but do not make a big deal out of it or scold her.

Since the arrival of Etta, Addie has upgraded Lion to the status of a baby. He is now called Baby Lion. He gets nursed, he gets his diaper changed, he gets time on the play mat, he sits in the car seat, you name it. It is pretty cute to see her lavish so much affection on him. I worry, though, about how long this attachment will last and how long he will survive all the messy love he gets!

Here are some pictures:

Lion in his early days (Christmas 2008 when Addie turned one) notice his lush main. In this picture she is taste-testing a new stuffed dog so Lion is being spared for the moment.


Going in for a bite (post tail-removal). Notice that his hair is looking slightly more ratty.

When we had maternity photos taken this September, Lion had to be included in some of the family shots. Notice the wet ring around his rear.


And here she is trying to go in for a bite on his foot!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

No nap - updated

Addie went to bed an hour early Thursday night and woke only slightly earlier than normal Friday morning. But Friday at naptime the same thing happened, she sat in bed for an hour talking to herself fairly loudly and did not nap. At one point I went in to check because I heard her talking about poo-poo. No she did not have a poopy diaper she said with a grin on her face. Little stinker! That night she was fussy and ready to crash an hour early again. After consulting with a friend the plan is this: make sure she gets time outside or active time before lunch. Get that blood flowing! The weather has been nice the past month and we actually have done a fare amount of outdoor play, but it has been in the afternoons. I am going to be intentional about active time in the morning over the next couple of weeks and we will see how things go. Saturday Matt took her to the pool in the morning and she did a good nap after. On Sunday she had Sunday School in the morning then walked home from the grocery store and had a normal nap. So far so good.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

No Nap

This is a first for Addie: no nap. I gave her an hour & went in there 2 times reminding her that she needed to nap. After an hour of her being in her room & fussing/talking/saying she was ready to get up, I told her she could come out of bed. I then warned her that if she was fussing and disobedient, I would take it as a sign of her being sleepy and I would start nap time over. I consulted my sleep book and it says that at this age if they skip the occasional nap they need an earlier bedtime that night. So I informed her that we will be doing that. We will see how this goes. I am really hoping that this was a major fluke & we do not have consistent naptime refusals already. I am a mom of two, I need downtime too!