It's official

We're now grown-ups. We bought this house today. Eek!

T-Minus, uh, 2 days* until we are officially homeowners

*or whatever the phrase is. I'm too tired to look it up.

Our house is chaos. Boxes everywhere, decisions to be made about things to throw out on Thursday, a toddler starting to get stressed, two kitties also getting stressed and clingy, etc., etc.

Planning about how to handle things Saturday when the movers get here.

Please forgive me if this is incoherent. I can't stop my right eye from twitching.

We're thinking Aaron's going to stay with the movers and I'm going to take the kitties, their food, litterbox and water along with Sophie and the coffee maker and snacks and toys and chairs and books to the house on Saturday morning early so we are out of everyone's way.

Aaron's parents are flying in from CA Friday afternoon. They will be coming to help with things Saturday morning as well.

We are doing our walk-through of the new house Friday morning before meeting with our attorney before going to the Registrar of Deeds. The sellers are moving out Thursday afternoon/evening.

Wanna place bets on the condition of the house Friday morning? Just for kicks?

Dear Neutrogena

Your Healthy Skin Enhancer sucks. Non-comedogenic, my ass! My face has completely broken out and the only new thing I've introduced is your stupid makeup. Thanks for making me look like I'm still in high school. You suck. Sincerely, Erika.

Hobbit Home! (etc.)

Wow! Look at this Welsh woodland house! Underground, hand-crafted, amazing. (via AT:NYC)

A year at a glance calendar. I kind of love this idea. And I kind of hate it.

The night in which Sophie scared me half to death

Sophie scared the everloving crap out of me last night.

Let's back up a few days.

We're back to trying to get her to sleep in her own bed at night. Portland screwed that up for us a bit as we were all sharing a queen-sized air mattress. Plus, there's the time change.

She has realized, way too soon I might add, that she doesn't have to stay on the bed when she wakes up. Or, rather, that she can get off the bed. So trying to get her to sleep at night used to include saying: "Okay, night night, I love you!" and walking away for a bit to see if she would calm down and fall asleep on her own. No longer. She now gets out of bed, crying, and follows me into the next room. "Stay on the bed." doesn't work. Much.

All something we've been struggling with the last week. And since Aaron's working three nights a week during the summer, it means I'm basically in her room until she falls asleep.

So, last night, she finally falls asleep around 8:30 p.m. (WAY too late). She had been mostly asleep earlier but Tabitha chose that moment to meow really loudly in Sophie's room. I'm not sure what the stupid cat's problem was - she had food, she had water, the gate at the other stairs was open, the litter box was clean... So, Sophie asleep at 7:30? Ruined by the annoying cat.

And then Sophie finally stays asleep. Quite frequently, when she starts off in her bed, she wakes up sometime around midnight and Aaron brings her in with us. Not last night. Still asleep at midnight when Aaron went to bed. Sleep, glorious sleep. Until around 4:30 when, in my dream, I hear the thump, thump, thump of little feet. It registers on some level that something is in my room looking at me. I slowly open my eyes and Sophie's face is RIGHT THERE. AAAGHH! I tried to stifle the scream, but holy crap, my worst nightmare is seeing a ghost child in my room and that is what she looked like in the dark, lit only by a faint LED nightlight. She jumped a little when I screamed and then I helped her get in with us. Apparently she's not afraid of the dark. And she no longer feels the need to let us know when she wakes up and will find her way into our room to stand and stare at us (me, my side is closer to the door) until I wake up. Screaming.

Hoo boy. It took me at least an hour to come off that adrenaline rush. And then all my dreams after that involved being scared by ghost children or explaining to people, in my dream, how Sophie had scared the crap out of me.

Recipes - Tomatoes

We've hit the peak of tomato season around here. My heirloom tomatoes are still green, but we're getting some seriously yummy tomatoes from our farm share.

Multicolored Tomato Tartlets

Baked Stuffed Tomatoes with Goat Cheese Fondue

Not sure about this one: Gazpacho with Watermelon and Avocado

22 Months!

Yay! Almost 2!

The last several days have been all about "What dis called? What dat called?" It's like she's all of a sudden realized she doesn't know the name of everything and she's playing catch-up.

She has also discovered that she can get off her bed when she wakes up (or if we are trying to get her to finally, please, go to sleep) and walk out of the room to find us. Lovely. Especially if she is very upset with us because we've told her it is time to sleep. She also knows that we are trying to work on potty training so if she says she has to use the potty, we are more than likely to walk with her to the bathroom. This has been used, very conveniently by her, to prolong the bedtime ritual. I love the fact that she's very clever but, holy hell, sometimes I just need her to fall asleep.

As stated earlier, Portland was so much fun.

There was a trip to a wonderful park, a trip to the Portland Zoo, a trip to go berry picking, swimming in the pool, picking vegetables from Trixie's amazing garden and all the rest of the time just playing and frolicking. Add to that really great food, excellent friends, fantastic beer (for the big kids) and a fun day of shopping for Trixie and me. Good times. I also got to meet up with one of my best friends who moved from New Hampshire to Portland JUST when Aaron and I finally moved back to her area. She's the one who knew about Sophie being a girl before I did. It was fantastic to see her and her lovely family.

Not Made In China

Ideas for toys not made in China.

Via this Ask Moxie post (after the part about constipation).

For my family, specifically, because there are so many hand-me-down toys in our families, we really don't need new toys. Sophie also loves books and we have a college fund set up for her. You want her to go to college, right? ;)

Craft supplies are also welcome. She spent more time drawing at Trixie and Dirk's house than anything else. Well, other than picking "onions" and tomatoes and beans. And swimming in the pool.

Linker Linkage

For the BBQ this weekend: Roasted Garlic, Olive and Tomato Pasta Salad.

For when the squashes start arriving in the C.S.A. farm share: Roasted Butternut Squash Puree with Goat Cheese. It looks savory and yummy. I really don't like sweet butternut squash soups and purees. The ones with cinnamon and/or nutmeg and ginger? Yuck. I have yet to meet one that I like.

Recipe ideas for cucumbers.

Greener Plastic Dinnerware - when you can't avoid using disposable plates. These, at least, can be recycled.

Mmm, popcorn chickpeas with rosemary.

Tips for moving a kitchen.

Mmm, Lemon Chicken Ballotine with Ricotta and Fennel Confit. No baking! It's braised in white wine.

Veronica Mars and Heroes

Did I mention this already? Kristen Bell is going to be a Hero! And probably a bad guy! For at least 13 episodes! This is excellent news.

Birth Book: no, I'm not pregnant

This is just so I remember to read this book for next time. It's going to be a while before we decide to add to our family. Too much is happening right now - new house, etc. However, for those keeping track at home, my very prescient friend says our next one will be a boy. She knew we were having a girl before we did.

The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth, by Henci Goer

All said, I'm very happy with our birth experience but the changes I would try to make next time would be hiring a doula, possibly considering a home birth and, if not a home birth, then definitely a birth center with a full birthing tub. The hospital birth center we used had a labor tub but I remember wishing it was bigger and wishing I could just stay in it. In reading an excerpt from Henci's book, I think maybe a doula would have been there to suggest other positions for labor so that I could have turned Sophie around. Back birth was no easy matter. They also broke my water near the end and I should have waited until she had turned. It sounds like there is evidence that once the water breaks, the rush of fluid draws the baby's head down into the pelvis more. She wouldn't, and didn't, turn at that point. More ouch than was maybe necessary.

I'm also going to bring more snacks and music. And lots and lots of water.

Again, not pregnant now. If I was, the amount of beer and wine I drank in Portland would have pickled the imaginary baby.

Portland, part one in which we stupidly miss our first flight

Gah, I'm so tired. It was a very fun week away with some very good friends but the time difference is killing me. I spend so much time worrying about how it's going to effect Sophie and then never consider how I'm going to make the transition.

Back to the beginning: we missed our very first flight out of CT. Oy. We ran way too late that morning and made stupid, half-awake, decisions about making sandwiches and filling the gas tank and then the security line at Bradley was insanely long at 6:30 on a Sunday morning. I tried asking the security people very nicely if we could move ahead since those names? the ones they're urgently paging over the intercom? That's us. No dice; no sympathy.

Moral: fill your gas tank the day before. And don't make sandwiches the morning of your flight. Oh yeah, and if you're going through Bradley International? Assume at least an hour through the security line. Seriously.

We got to the gate and watched our plane slowly pull away from the walkway.

Surprisingly, we were not stressed as we had pretty much assumed at that point that we were going to miss it. Time to just go with the flow.

The woman at the gate was very nice and she got us on a flight to Vegas, Baby, that was leaving almost immediately from the adjacent gate. We rushed on, checked the car seat and the stroller at the gate and found seats. One in front of the other. No matter that we had paid for three full seats earlier so that we could comfortably ensconse Sophie in her car seat. Ah well. Also, I had meticulously packed a bag full of Sophie books and presents and otherwise-toddler-occupying activities. That ended up in the overhead compartment about 15 seats back from us. Same thing with the backpack full of Sophie Snacks.

Here we were, squished in between two very nice ladies and no Sophie Snacks or activities. What is a mom to do?

I pulled out the barf bags, pulled off the wire and made three rings for Sophie. Then she spent at least the next hour putting the rings on my fingers, on her fingers, in the bag, out of the bag, etc.

There was no napping on this flight. No napping and the only snack we had for the first hour while the seatbelt light was on: cookies and peanuts. Yay!

After we were settled in a bit, I asked our seatmates: "so, how long is this flight?" "Oh, I think it's almost six hours." Excellent.

Sophie got antsy after a while so I transferred her over the seat to Aaron, sitting in front of me.

Side note: we talk poo with Sophie. A lot. She's very interested in it and we're trying to help her recognize when she has to poop before she actually does. I was constantly getting whiffs of poop while we sat there so I kept asking her (quietly) - Sophie: did you poop? No, Mommy. No poop. Over and over again. Later, after I had passed Sophie over the seat to Aaron? Still more poop smells. I think the lovely ladies on either side of me were farting the whole trip and I kept thinking it was Sophie. Whoops!

We finally, finally, finally, get to Vegas, Sophie falls asleep in the stroller, and we call Aaron's sister. Let's call her Trixie.

Trixie is understandably worried. She's been planning a BBQ for us and has invited her friends and a college friend of mine, Tiger, and Tiger's husband and two girls. For 2:30 that afternoon. Which would have been fine if I hadn't thought all along that our flight left Saturday instead of Sunday. Remember when I did that? Good times.

So, there we were in Vegas at around 10:30 in the morning. The next flight to Portland via Southwest leaves at 1 but it's completely full and they very reluctantly put us on standby. Trixie's husband, Dirk, is a pilot and he groaned when he heard we were waiting on standby in Vegas on a Sunday. Apparently, Vegas is purgatory for standby flights. We also get our names on the 4 p.m. flight going to PDX but that would mean that we'd miss the BBQ in our honor completely.

Oy.

Sophie has now woken up. Awakened? Waked up? And Vegas is all flashing bright lights and money jangling and smoking and terrible food selection. I try to find something for us all to eat and, while walking by one of the departure listing screens, I notice there is a US Airways flight leaving in about 1/2 hour for Portland. And I'm right next to a US Airways customer service booth. Kismet!

They have two seats left. I said: I'll be right back. I go back, convince Aaron that we should just buy those tickets. He is exhausted and he agrees. I bring Sophie back with me and the woman had held the tickets for me, just in case, and the price had dropped $250 in the time I was talking to Aaron. W00t!

Tickets, done! We're leaving purgatory! Aaron brings the luggage to the gate while the tickets print and we are on the flight! We even convince a woman to move her seat so we can sit together. Sophie's carseat is, again, checked at the gate with her stroller. We collapse in the seat. This time, we have Sophie snacks and books and games with us. Our new seatmate, Kevin, is a young college theater major and he spends the whole trip trying to get Sophie to smile. She finally hands him a pretzel and all is right in the world.

We get to Portland around 2 and our luggage is actually there! Dirk picks us up and takes us to their lovely house. They have a little girl named J-Bird who is 3 months younger than Sophie. The house is quiet because Trixie called everyone to ask them to come a little bit later and I try to get Sophie to take a nap. No dice. So, we head downstairs just as everyone is starting to arrive. Lots of toddlers, kids, parents, toys, excitement. Sophie stays up until about 7:30 Portland time (about 10:30 according to her internal clock) and then is out, solid, for the night.

And then she woke up at 5:25, on the dot, Portland time. Time transition for Sophie? Solved on the first day.

Next up? All the fun you can pack in a week.

Portland

We got back from our week vacation in Portland last night around 1:30 a.m. We all pretty much feel like we got hit by a wall. Or ran into a truck. Wrecked. It was a great week and I have much to tell, but for now I'm trying to remember where I put my toothbrush and I'm trying to resist checking my work email.

I know it is killing K & N that I haven't posted anything about the trip yet. Even though we were RIGHT THERE experiencing it all together. Sophie was growling like J-Bird today in the bath. Also, she kept saying agua. And every time we mention the "new house" she keeps insisting that you're all going to be there with us. Even Paco will be there even though she only saw him twice all week.

We now have a lot of packing to do in the next two weeks before we move into the new place. Ugh.

Also, Tabitha peed all over the place downstairs in protest of our leaving her inside all week while we were gone. I think I just found the last spot. I love to smell cat pee when I get home from vacation.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my fabulous sister, K!

You are wonderful and gorgeous and pee-my-pants funny. Smart and courageous and warm and loving and strong. As I've mentioned before, there was a big age difference between us growing up - six years. Six years seems silly now, but when you're in school? It's almost a decade. You were out of high school before I entered. You seemed so sophisticated and wordly and way out of my reach. It didn't help things that I was the annoying middle child.

I'm so glad we've become friends later in life. As Aaron constantly points out - we are so much alike. I can talk tv and politics and celebrity gossip and books and kids and life with you. And that is so important. That is what family should be.

I love you. Happy Birthday!

Linkly, my dear, I don't give a link

Glow-in-the-dark zombies!

Indoor carpet skates!

Hee hee hee: Fudge Packer Popped! (link is safe for work): "As cops investigated, Delgado unsuccessfully tried to flush fudge bricks down a hotel toilet. The 'large amount of fudge' clogged up the toilet, reported police."

In other news, we will soon be heading out of town to visit Aaron's sister and brother-in-law and their adorable daughter. All this time, I've had it in my mind that we're leaving on Saturday. I'm the one who booked the tickets, so I should know, right? Uh, yeah, we're actually leaving early Sunday morning. Which means we have an extra day to pack but also means that we're flying for many hours, arriving at their house, and then a bunch of people are coming over for a BBQ. Which would have been fine if we got in the day before. Whoops! We'll see how well Sophie handles this one. My fault, entirely.

My friend generously allowed me to borrow her portable DVD player and a few DVDs for Sophie. *fingers crossed* that she'll happily wear the headphones. I've also collected bags of healthy snacks, little presents for her to unwrap as we travel, and some fun coloring books.

Yikes

With the tragic details of the bridge collapse in Minnesota coming out, now more and more reporters are writing about all the other thousands and thousands of bridges all over the country in similar "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete" status.

We live in Massachusetts. I passed this article around work this morning. The question of the day: are ANY of the bridges around here safe? It appears that, no, they are not.

The town in which we are buying a house? There are basically three major ways to get to it. All three of them are over "structurally deficient" bridges. One of them is rated less than 30 out of 100. And tractor trailers go over it all day long. It is a very scary bridge. It shakes when you drive over it. But there is little other choice as far as how to get into town.

Why is our country falling apart? How do we fix this? How do I not fall into the river while driving my daughter to daycare?

UPDATE: I wrote emails to all of my Representatives and Senators and the local town department of transportation. Stanley Rosenberg (state rep), or someone from his office, wrote back within minutes: (copied and pasted directly from my email)

Thanks for your email.

The tragedy in Minnesota has shown a spotlight on a national problem--inadequate maintenance of public infrastructure. Here in Massachusetts we are no different . We struggle to maintain our public buildings, roads and bridges, etc. In the last ten years or so we have made some significant progress in bringing substandard or marginally standard bridges up to par. The good news is we have made great progress the bad news is, we still have about 10% of our bridge inventory requiring significant work.

Given what happened last week , a significant number of those bridges will have another thorough inspection immediately. In my district that includes about a dozen bridges. The Governor was preparing a capital plan and bill over the last few months and bridges will surely get a lot of attention in it . finally, the bridge to which you are referring has been on the front burner for a about a decade now (I placed it there when I chaired the Senate's Ways and Means Committee) and happily enough progress had been made over recent years that it is slated for movement in 2008.

I hope this information is helpful to you and reassures you that we are taking the situation seriously in general and specifically with regard to this bridge.

Stan Rosenberg

Weekend Recap

Now with photos...

Aaron and I high-fived each other last night for accomplishing a very exciting and fun-filled weekend for Sophie and us.

We went to the pool with my brother and his cute little family and my mom. Sophie LOVES the pool now. She was quite skeptical last year, but she has almost fully embraced it this year. She could not wait to go swimming and she directed us all over the pool. The pool had "boats" for the little kids (floating thingies that you can stick their legs into). She still hates water splashing on her face and her hair stayed mostly dry the whole time. She was exhausted afterwards. We went to my brother's house for lunch and she fell asleep almost instantly when we got her back in the car to go home.

THEN we went walking into town to get ice cream. Not sure there is anything she loves more than ice cream. We only treat her every once in a while because she might come to expect it. This way, it's a special treat and she's very excited about it. Also, we found some tiny Crocs (Croclings) at a local store and she picked out the bright pink ones. She is thrilled with her new shoes. She tested them out (to the amusement of the sales lady) by stomping and marching and waddling and running.

Sunday, we had yummy french toast with lots of "dip" (syrup) for breakfast, then went outside to fill the kiddie pool. We usually try to fill the pool in the morning so that the sun will warm up the water for the afternoon. Given Sophie's new-found love of swimming, she didn't like the idea of not being able to swim right away.

We distracted her by stripping her to her diaper and bringing out the easel, some paper, and her (never-used) finger paints. She was wary of using her fingers and hands to paint and mostly stuck to the foam sponge brush. Once I started painting with my fingers, she realized it was okay to be messy. And then I painted on her tummy and it opened a whole new world of possibilities. To Aaron's chagrin, she painted his knees and toes.

He went around the house to wash off the paint and, as soon as he came back, she painted him again. He has such a hard time with being messy. He washed himself off again and went to the store to buy lunch and dinner stuff while Sophie and I continued to paint our legs and arms.

Then we went in and Mommy and Sophie took a bath together (as I'm not a bath-taker, this never happens, so it was very exciting) to wash off the paint.

Aaron came back and started cooking pasta and some clams for me (surprise for me!) and then we all ate a huge lunch and, after a small tantrum, Sophie fell asleep for 2.5 hours.

As soon as she woke up, we whisked her outside to the now-warm pool. Aaron fired up the grill and cooked some yummy salmon and zucchini and corn. We have a ton of herbs from our farm share left over - dill and fennel and sage. So he put the coals around the outside of the grill and the herbs in the middle. The herbs smoked the fish and veggies with a great flavor. Yummy! After dinner, we played with Sophie's blocks for a while and then we headed up to bed.

I also made her a castle to discover this morning.

All in all, a great, super-fantastic weekend.

Spectacular Linktastular

I love this idea! Fingerprint wedding bands. Would also make absolutely perfect and wonderful anniversary bands. Wouldn't they, Aaron? (via not martha)

Green Clean - the environmentally sound guide to cleaning your home. (via not martha)

Boozy Campfire Cheese - they use brandy, but I can maybe see wine or whiskey as other options. What do you think? Gives new meaning to grilled cheese. (via The Kitchen - Apartment Therapy)

For my sister - what to do with the bok choy in your C.S.A box.

In anticipation of buying some fresh blueberries: Mini Lemon Blueberry Muffins.

Im Cooked - like YouTube but video recipes only. I'll definitely have to check back there. Look! Christopher Walken roasting a chicken. (via The Kitchen - Apartment Therapy)

Very cool cartoon furniture by Richard Woods.

Biothinking's Top 40 Greenest Products.

Pretty little fly and wasp catchers. So charming and, yet, so deadly.

Oh, dear

Sophie replaced her standard, "Aw, Nuts!", phrase with "Oh, dear!" yesterday. She sounds exactly like a little old lady.

I tend to write about Sophie when everything is peachy and she's lovely and wonderful and a joy to be around. At the moment? Not so much.

She's been having nightmares. She wakes up screaming and we cannot figure out why. Other than the nightmare theory. And she's too young to really get that you can dream, so she's very confused when we ask.

Other symptoms:
She had a fever Monday night but then it was gone the next day.

She's been requesting frozen blueberries again and that usually indicates teeth issues, but I can't see or feel anything in there. Other than the chunk of my finger she just bit off.

I was going to blame it on the fact that we weaned her from her binky about two weeks ago, but she went a whole week with sleeping quite soundly after the weaning. And she doesn't ask for it during the screaming sessions.

In addition to waking up screaming, she doesn't want us to touch or acknowledge her and will start to sound like Regan MacNeil if Aaron even attempts to glance in her direction. "LAY DOWN, DADDY! STOP IT!! GO AWAY!!!" Imagine her head spinning around and sounding possessed and you'll get the idea.

I have to wait until she takes a breath between yelling at the top of her lungs and then quickly say things like: "Mommy's here", "You're safe", "It's okay", until she finally just collapses back to sleep. The screaming is so extreme and ANGRY that it is almost funny. I know better than to laugh directly at her, but the intensity of her emotions is so overwhelming that it's hard not to pass sympathy and head straight to manic hysteria.

I'm so tired, both my eyes are twitching. And the back of my head. And one of my ears. Maybe? What?

Growing pains? Teething? A "phase"? Night terrors?

Help, please. Or at least, just tell me she'll grow out of it.

Fisher Price - Recall Notice

Fisher Price has ordered a very extensive recall of over 80 products due to very high lead levels. Character toys such as Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer are included in the recall. Please check through your toys and pull anything that might be included.

Fisher Price page with images of all the toys in the recall.

It's making me want to chuck all the plastic toys we own.