Why we're out of relish OR Baby's near miss

Let me start out by saying I am super tired tonight.

That's why I was making the coffee.

I went to grab the bag of brown suager out of the pantry door, while looking at Lorelei while she played on the kitchen floor when I heard a big bang. I look back towards the pantry and there on the floor is a shattered brand new jar of relish. Oops... good thing the baby is on the other side of the kitchen.

My boyfriend comes in to investigate, walks over to the baby and pulls-- seriously-- a piece of broken glass out of her mouth.

Apparently one of the shards slide across the floor and stopped right in front of her, so of course she popped it in her (incredibly lucky) little mouth. Further investigation revealed no more glass in her mouth and no cuts at all.

My heart is still beating a little fast and I've aleady cleaned up the mess, finished my coffee and given her a bath.

Sharp baby!

Lorelei has cut a tooth. Right bottom one. Just felt it a few mnutes ago. It makes me scared to nurse her tonight. Can't see it, but can definitely feel it with my finger.

I thought I had been feeling it coming in. I'm not sure if I am happy or sad about it though. She's growing up awful fast.

Still here

Just a little overwhelmed. Lorelei has started somewhat crawling. Like she can crawl and get places but it takes a lot of effort and half the time she goes backwards. I try to scatter toys about for her to try to get to, but more often then not she makes a beeline for cat toys instead. Every tie I think I've found the all and have them all hidden, she finds another one, and I catch her licking a furry mouse. She also has a thing for shoes and trying to eat them. Yay.

On top of this my life has been one big almost-migraine. I get migraines that start with visual disturbances (auras) and I've constantly had the dot in my vision just waiting for me to miss more sleep or get more tired or frustrated.

For anyone who looks at my 365 project, I haven't given up... I'm still taking pictures, just being slow about posting them.

Vet time

The kitten is getting spayed today. A very good thing since a neighbor has an unneutered tomcat that has been coming out a lot recently and harassing our porch cat. For some reason though, I am very worried for her. I'm usually not worried when a cat gets spayed but last night I was almost having a panic attack thinking about it... I felt sure she wasn't going to make it. She's there now probably being prepped right now, but she'll probably be fine



For a little history, the kitten was found when Lorelei was maybe 8 weeks old, in some bushes. Turns out she was from a litter a neighbors cat had, but they were trying to find her a new home. All the other kittens were in their back yard and this one seems to have climbed the fence to go across the street and hide in our bushes. We think she's about the same age as Lorelei! We have an aazing array of kitten and baby pictures.



... And in other cat news, our porch cat is a girl. Hopefully either old enough to be infertile, or spayed- the neighbors tomcat sure has been paying her a lot of attention but we can only handle one cat at the vet at a time. We only know Spare is a girl because my boyfriend held her still and I actually divided the furs to do the checking- she is a VERY long haired kitty that doesn't like turning her back on people. Months ago we decided it was a "he" from attitude and stance, but apparently that's not a good way to figure it out!

Commence childproofing

Well, the kid is learning to scoot herself around on the floor. Hard flooring means she can push herself around and just kinda slide from place to place.

My first mistake was letting her scoot around in the tub on her tummy -in very little amounts of water under my paranoidly watchful eye- OMG when she stuck her face in the water and sipped a little I almost had a heart attack- and now my mistake is playing out in this way... a baby scooting around half of my living room making backwards beelines for the magazines I had stacked under the coffee table.

She's terribly proud of herself, and is singing a warbly screechy soung to herself as she moves around. She's also a bit arngry that she can't go forward, but I've heard that's par for the course. So here I am with a semi mobile baby who doesn't really sit yet. Weird.

Coming up in the next few days: an "adventures of solid foods" photojournal

A quick thought on Gdiapers

Gdiapers are touted as being better for the environment in drought stricken areas because they are flushable. Supposedly cloth diapers take way too much water because you have to wash them. I may be missing something here but- don't toilets take water to flush? If each time you change your baby's diaper you have to fluish the insert, isn't that using up something like 5 gallons per flush?

I'm not taking the time to do the complete math here, but something isn't adding up for me.

LIFE archives

I just found out today that Google is hosting Life magazine's image archives. Many of the images haven't been published before.

Some images are weird... like this little boy in a "Skinner Box"

Some really need more explanation, like what the hell theu are doing to these cats in this series?

Some are classic photography like this one

There are ton of images and a lot of variety.... check 'em out

New Years resolutions!

I've been sick this week. Sick and grouchy and wishing Lorelei would just play by herself as much as possible.

I realized this morning I haven't taken the time to make her laugh in a few days! She's easy to amuse so to me this is a problem.

So my New Years resolution is.... to take the time to try to get Lorelei to laugh at least once every day!

I love baby laughs :)

Chicken Minestrone Soup

Ok, yes, I am crazy. I enjoy cooking with whole foods and don't mind when it takes a long time. We buy very little in the way of processed foods (we have some serious weaknesses though- like for bacon and Dr Pepper, though not together)

I hate the taste of canned minestrone soup, but when I came across a recipe I decided to try it from scratch and- big surprise here- I love it! This is a result of looking at a bunch of different recipes and then doing my own thing ;)

For broth:
Leftover chicken, picked clean of usable meat
Celery leafy parts
1 carrot
part of an old leftover onion
Spices, if you want

Simmer this all together as long as you can. A crock pot may work for this too, but I haven't tried it. Every now and then skim off any foam that forms, as well as some of the fat that floats to the top. When all the veggies are mushy and the chicken is falling apart, strain all the solid stuff out and you have broth

For the soup:
Chicken meat, cut into manageable pieces
Broth from recipe above
1-2 TBSP olive oil
1 small yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot, chopped (end pieces go into both pot)
1 stalk of celery, chopped (end pieces go into broth pot)
1 can cannelloni beans
1 can dark red kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 small package frozen spinach
2 tsp tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
1 1/2 cups bow tie pasta

Saute the onion and garlic in some olive oil for a few minutes. Add in the carrot and celery and saute for a few more minutes, until they are softened. Stir in everything but the spinach, pasta and tomatoes in as much broth as you need to cover it all up. Cook for 30 min, an hour, however long... this is pretty flexible.

Thaw the spinach in some hot broth while the soup is cooking.

About 20-30 min before you want to serve the meal, stir in the noodles, spinach and tomatoes. Add more broth if needed. Add salt and pepper to taste. I recommend adding a little cayenne pepper if someone in the house has a cold. Serve when the noodles are cooked how you like them.

Sick sick sick

I had some pink eye the other day and I was really hoping it was just from how much we had a fire going over M's Christmas vacation. It got worse though and it's for real a head cold now.

Not much I can take for it since I'm nursing, though this chicken Minnestrone soup I made today with a liberal sprinkle of cayenne pepper in it seems to help some.

I guess I have to cancel the play date I was going to host on Monday. Even if I'm feeling better- which I doubt- there is no way I will get the house as picked up as I would like for it.

Right now the baby is babbling loudly and every now and then punctuating it with an angry sounding shriek. My head might just explode soon.

Baby hats

I went looking for hats for Lorelei before Christmas and was a bit dismayed by the lack of selection and the price of most of what I found... so I decided to make some myself.

They aren't great, but they came out sort of cute, plus they cost me almost nothing because I used fleece I already had sitting around.

This one was sort of from the Martha Stewart website... I followed the instructions loosely though and didn't add pom poms. I'd link to it but it seems like the website always sends you to the main site. Search for Fleece Hat on there and you'd find it easy enough. This one also has about an inch of hat available to let out, since I made it too big at first. Matt suggested I not cut off that piece so she can wear it still when she grows.

This one I much made up after seeing similar looking ones. It was super easy, and I used the curled selvage edge instead of making a band. Lorelei seemed to like this a bit better than the big band, but then she hates hats and always has to wear ones that are a bit big or she cries. I did take out a little of the excess fabric and made it a bit less bulky after this picture was taken, but it doesn't look that different.

In theory I am going to make a pom pom for this one some time... but I night not ever get to it.

I also knotted up the end to see what that would be like - it would be good for if she was in her car seat or stroller- and it worked pretty well.

So there you go, baby hats!
If anyone would want me to make a baby hat for them, just let me know