An amazing day in February

Weather-wise, we couldn't have asked for a better day than today, especially since it's February and every part of me feels like I should be braced against the cold. Well, I'm not braced against the cold. In fact, Jason gave his final this morning and this afternoon, we sat on the deck and had a beer.

Sierra had a ... pinecone?

Kilroy was here:

There's something about being on the track in the sunshine ...

... that feels like home to me. Probably because I ran 8 seasons of track in high school and college. And some of my best friends were my teammates.

I love running. I especially love running when the day is as perfect as it was today. During my run, the sky was clear, the sun was shining, and it was in the mid-50s. I ended up in my shorts and tank top by the end of my workout. It felt good to run fast for a change. "Fast" is really a relative term here because I'm not nearly as fast as I was when I was running for a team. Sometimes, I miss how fast I used to run. I'm in a different place now, though, and I have neither the time nor the desire to do the amount of training required to be "fast." And that's okay. I don't miss it that much!

What I do miss is my teammates. The girls I ran with were my friends and though there are people here that I'm friendly with, I don't feel like I've developed a close relationship with anyone. "My girls" are now scattered from Seattle to Japan and I don't often see them. I'm able to keep up with some through their own blogs, but many I haven't heard from in ages. We lived together, we played together, and we ran together. Running with a team is a completely different beast than running by yourself (or with your dog, as I often do). There's a feeling of "we're in this together" and you've got someone (or several someones) to help you along if you're having a rough day. I have an occasional running partner here, but we have different schedules, we both have kiddos and it's sometimes difficult to have free time at the same. Besides, I don't think she'd be interested in joining me on the track (but maybe I should ask her!).

Today, I remembered my days running with the girls and I realized how amazing it is that then, I really had no idea where I would be now. It was 10 years ago when I was running my first season of college track. It was February in northeast Missouri, which mean that Coach very likely had used the snowblower to clear off the first two lanes of the track so we could get our workout in! Today, though, snowblower was replaced with sunshine; Missouri with Virginia; teammates with my thoughts and memories; fast with not so fast ... However, the end of my workout still resulted in that exhausted, accomplished feeling that comes from a good workout.

Oh, and in case you're wondering: 400-400-800-1200-1600-1200-800-400 (:89-:89-3:14-4:52-6:30-4:55-3:11-:91), with rest time equal to run time.

Peek-a-boo and other games

I know I've said this before, and I will undoubtedly say it again, but it never ceases to amaze me how quickly Sierra grows and changes and learns.

She is now able to entertain herself for short periods of time. She'll crawl around on the floor investigating whatever she happens upon. She will crawl to the chair and pull herself up, then crawl to the coffee table and pull herself up, then crawl to her swing chair and swing it back and forth.

She now has a little play table that our friend Shari gave to us (her son is 5) and she loves to pull herself up on it and spin the colored balls and bang blocks against it.

A couple nights ago, she actually initiated a game of peek-a-boo, which was a first for her. She was on all fours and she crawled into another room, and pulled the door closed so I couldn't see her.

"Where's Sierra?" She swung the door open so I could see her.

"There she is!" Then she swung the door closed again.

"Where's Sierra?" She opens the door.

"There she is!" ...

Today, we crawled around for several minutes together with Sierra going "through the tunnel." I was on all fours and I looked back through my legs and called her, and she came crawling between my legs with a huge smile on her face. Then I would take a couple step in front of her, get back on all fours and look back between my legs again. She would come crawling through my legs with that big smile again.

Saving Randall

I saved a dog yesterday.

It was Sunday morning, Sierra and I were on our way to church (without Jason -- he had to be in his classroom for consultation because this is finals week). We had just gotten into the north part of Charlottesville, where there are a lot of shops and an 8-lane highway. The speed limit is only 45, but you know people drive faster than that. I had just passed through a stop light when little dog ran across the road and nearly got hit by a car! I flinchd and he tried to run out in the road again and almost got hit again! Cars were now slowing down, and the dog was in the median, so I pulled over and put my flashers on. A woman stopped behind me and also put her hazard lights on. The dog tried to run across the four lanes of traffic on the other side of the median and I whistled. That distracted him. A car pulled over on the other side of the median as I headed toward the dog.

"Is he yours?" the guy driving the car yelled to me.

"No," I said, "but he just ran right out in the middle of the highway."

I headed toward the dog and the car and the dog ran under the car. The guy pulled him out. Poor little thing -- he was just quivering with fear!

I offered to take him to the shelter, but didn't know where it was. The guy directed me. The woman in the car behind me gave me a piece of fleece she had in the back of her car to wrap him up with.

When I got to the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA, it was still an hour before they opened, but the front door was open. I walked in with the scared little dog and as I came in the door, one of the young ladies working there said, "Ooooohhh ... he's back!"

"You know this dog?"

"It's Randallll. He slipped out of his collar while he was being walked this morning and ran off." She was so relieved.

I hope that Randall may soon find his forever home!

And I was only 2 minutes late for church! (good thing I left early yesterday)

Carrots, Pt. 3

After our last miserable rather comical failure in introducing carrots, I waited awhile to try again. This time, at the suggestion of our dear friend, Sierra's "aunt" Kate, I added a little real maple syrup.

[side note: living in New England spoiled us. We now must have "real" maple syrup for our pancakes on Sunday morning. As a result, it is something we have on hand anyway]

A little drizzle apparently made the carrots barable. She certainly didn't gobble them down and open her mouth like a baby bird in a nest reaching out for mama with big juicey earthworm, like she does with sweet potato (really. It's hilarious.). However, she did eat several bites with a puzzeled look on her face. I'll call that a success.

I tried to get a picture of the weird look she had on her face when I gave her carrots, but when I pulled out the camera, she immediately stopped making that face and smiled! What a ham!

A 15 Year History of Em

Someone recently posted this on Facebook, and I think that I found it more interesting than any other time in my life. Perhaps because the timing is "just right" right now. 15 years ago, in 1994, I was in 8th grade. That is a huge contrast to 10 years ago, 1999, when I was a freshman in college. For this blog, I will do the "expanded version."

How much have you changed in 15 years? Share

15 YEARS AGO (1994)
1) How old were you?
I was 14 years old. It's amazing how mature I felt at 14; I was headed into high school, I was old enough to get a job (with permission from my parents and a form sign by the school), and I had a boyfriend. Which brings us to:
2) Who were you dating?
I was "going out" with Ben Leifker. My did once asked me where we were going. I was so frustrated with that, "Dad, it's not like that ..." But really, where were we going? We went to 8th grade basketball games and held hands, and we sat at the same table at lunch, we met up at 8th grade dances and someone's mom dropped us off at Happy Joe's for pizza and mozzarella stick afterward. I remember crying at my 8th grade graduation because I was going to a different high school than Ben. We broke up at the end of the school year for that reason, but we saw each other at the pool that summer and Ben said he didn't want to be broken up with me. So, we were "going out" again. It lasted through homecoming or so and then I guess we both just grew up and grew out of that relationship.
3) Where did you work?
I had summer job with the City of Galena. I taught swimming lessons and worked as a non-certified guard. This meant that I did not get to sit in a lifeguard chair with a whistle and a red resuce tube. What it meant was that I got to sit at the top of the slide, watch to make sure the 10 year old did not stop on the curve where I couldn't see him and wait for his friend to run into him, and say, "Go ... Go ... Go ... Go ahead ... (*nod*) ... Go ahead ... Go ... " to each person in line at the slide.
4) Where did you live?
Field Street ... in the house where I live from kindergarten until I moved away for college. This was the year I finally convinced my parents that I should get to re-decorate my bedroom, which had purple carpet (Yes! Purple carpet! My parents let me pick out the carpet when we moved there. I was 5, if that explains anything) and rainbow wallpaper. I was, of course, too mature for purple carpet and rainbow wallpaper. My friend Adam helped me paint. We painted the room "stone green" (I think that was the color). Adam came over every day for a week. We had cheese sandwiches on white bread with Kraft singles every day. Why it took us an entire week to paint one little tiny room, I have no idea. I can now paint a room by myself in a morning. I think it was because it was my first experience painting (my mom let me do it on my own!) and we were painting over plaster which sucked the paint in so it took a lot of coats of paint!
5) Where did you hang out?
Home, Kelley's house, the swimming pool, 8th grade sporting events, school dances, the woods behind my house. The woods behind my parents' house was awesome growing up. We had a "castle," that was really just two very large boulder that had fallen together. There was a dungeon, and a thone, and two entries!
6) Did you wear contacts and/or glasses?
I did not.
7) Who were your best friends?
Kelley, Casey, Alison, Brian, Tania, Adam. Interestingly, I have known all of these people most of my life and am still in contact with them on a fairly regular basis. I feel very fortunate that I have friends that I've had almost my entire life that I still keep in touch with.
8) How many tattoos did you have?
Ha! As if my parents would have allowed me to get a tatoo!
9) How many piercings did you have?
Two. One in my left ear and one in my right ear.
10) What kind of car did you drive?
I did not have a driver's lisence. I did not even have a permit. I was 14.
11) Had you had your heart broken?
Bruised, a little, not broken
12) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorced?
Single, but I did have the aforementioned boyfriend. Is it even legal to be married when you're 14?!
13) Any Kids?
Not even biologically possible at that point. I was a "late bloomer" and didn't even start menstrating until my freshman year in high school.

10 years ago (1999)
1) How old were you?
I was 19. I was finally realizing that, in fact, I didn't know it all, and really had a lot to learn in life.
2) Who were you dating?
Russ Smith. Russ and I met and started dating my junior year in high school. He was a year older than me. He was my first ... (you know). Our relationship lasted through his freshman year in college (my senior year in h.s.) and almost all the way through my freshman year in college. When Russ first went to college, he came home every weekend. Really, I think there were 2 weekends that year where he stayed at school. It wasn't that far away, but still, I didn't understand it. I knew that were the situation reversed, I would not be coming home every weekend. I went to a different college than Russ, but he transferred to the same school after my first semester there. He said it was because they had a better program in his major (true), but I know that it was also partly for me. I wish he hadn't done that. By the end of my freshman year, I had just grown up and my relationship with Russ was not what I needed.
3) Where did you work?
During the school year, I worked at the library, in the periodicals section. I worked with a senior, Andrew, with whom I was completely infatuated. He probably served as the catalyst for my breaking up with Russ. It was going to happen, Andrew just gave the motivation to end it sooner than I probably otherwise would have. I had a little fling with him, but it only last a few weeks. During winter break, I worked at Chestnut Mountain Big-Hill Resort, teaching ski lessons to kids. I was always amazed at how quickly little kids could pick up skiing! That summer, I would work both at the El Dorado Grill, an amazing restaurant that I was sory to see close, and Eagle Ridge Inn. It was at Eagle Ridge that I met my friend, Brad, who is still one of my best buddies today.
4) Where did you live?
Blanton-Nason Hall at Truman State University, with roommates Shannon and Kate, and our pseudo-roommate, Alisa. We lived above the boiler room and it was so frickin' hot! Bonus was, when we moved in, the R.A. came in and declared there was no way we could live there comfortably, so we got an a/c. Sweet! It came in quite handy in August (and, January, because of the boiler room). We lived across the hall from Steve, Ryan, and (a guy whose name escapes my memory -- Dan?) with whom we had an on-going playful feud. One day, while Ryan was in class, Kate and I stole and hid one shoe from every single pair of shoes he had. They retaliated by putting a garbage can full of water leaning against our door so that when we opened it, it dumped all over the room. We put gummy worms between Steve's sheets (we hoped that would be there for one of the many different girls he brought back to his room! Sheesh!), they got us with shaving cream ... ie!
5) Where did you hang out?
the library, cross country parties, track meets. I didn't really go out much ... I was an athlete and there wasn't a lot of time.
6) Did you wear contacts and/or glasses?
I did. I discovered I needed glasses my junior year of high school. I would sit in the back row of French class with Kelley and she would always have to read the assignment off the board for me. My chemsitry lab partner, Molly, had classes, and I tried them on one day and everything came into focus. Amazing!
7) Who were your best friends?
Amy, Alisha, Beth, Alisa
8) How many tattoos did you have?
None ... I would get my tatoo in the summer of 2000.
9) How many piercings did you have?
Two ... one in my left ear and one in my right ear.
10) What kind of car did you drive?
I didn't have a car. When I was home, I drove my parents' 1984 Dodge Caravan. Whoo hoo! His name was Oscar. My friend backed into Oscar when she dropped me off one time (was that you, Liz?) and from that point on, his front headlight was held on with duct tape. I would very carefully tape all around the headlight and it would last for several months before I had to perform this operation again. Oscar was white with that fake wood panelling around the middle. Except for the drivers-side door. That was plain white with no panelling because my dad got called out to work in a storm one time and when he opened the door, it blew off!! He went to the junk yard and got a (plain white, no panelling) door to replace it.
11) Had your heart broken?
I was the breaker more often than the breakee, but the boy I dated from my freshman to my junior year in high school broke my heart.
12) Were you Single/Taken/Married/Divorced?
Still single, and dating Russ. He was my longest relationship until I met my now husband.
13)Any Kids?
Just those that I taught. I taught Catholic religious education on Wednesday evenings to 10 or do kindergartners.

TODAY (2009)
1) Age?
I will turn 30 this October, but for now ... 29! I wonder if my turning 30 makes my mother feel old?
2) Where do you work?
My "boss" is an 8-month-old named Sierra. She is very demanding. I also work part-time intermittenly as the meet manager for the Woodberry Forest School track and field team. This has been a great gig for me because I love track and I get to see the other side of things, and learn how a meet is actually run. I have applied for a seasonal job at Shenandoah National Park (which would be awesome) but won't know about that for several weeks. Think happy thoughts about that for me.
3) Where do you live?
I live at the Woodberry Forest School in Virginia because my husband teaches chemistry here. When you work for a boarding school, you are always "on" when classes are in session. It's demanding for both him and us, but the time off at Christmas and during the summer is nice. We have a lovely little house at the bottom of the hill from the school buildings behind the new stadium next to the golf shop. You can walk out our front door and be on the 5th tee. Too bad I don't golf. I am working little by little to make this house "home." Yesterday I bought lamp shades for the living room that are perfect. I finally made curtains for our bedroom a few weeks ago.
4) Who are your closest friends?
Oh! How I miss my friends! I really, REALLY miss having close friends. In grad school in Connecticut, I hung out with Kathryn, Rachel, Jessica, and Molly on a regular basis. I still have close friends that I talk to regularly, but none of them are close in the physical sense. Here in Virginia, I enjoy the company of several people (Shari, Lorae, Jamie, Tricia, and a few others), but haven't really been here long enough to build strong friendships.
5) Do you talk to your old friends?
I do! I miss them dearly. See the above question. I talk to friends that I've met in all stage of my life. I feel blessed to have them and wish I could see them more.
6) How many piercings do you have?
Two ... one in my left ear and one in my right ear.
7) How many tattoos?
One ... the "om" symbol in the middle of my back ... my center. There are a couple others that I would LOVE to get, but can't justify spending the money right now. (nor do I have the time or know where I would go)
8) What kind of car do you have?
"My" car is a 1998 Nissan Pathfinder; "Jason's" car is a 2002 Dodge stratus coupe. We have found out how impracticale a coupe is when you have a baby. It's a bitch getting the carseat in and out of the back seat. We are beginning to accept the fact that we may have to go (*gasp*) the way of the minivan (*gasp* again). We have made the long drive back to the midwest at least once a year since we moved east (almost 5 years ago). With just the two dogs, it was fine, but now that we have added a baby, we are packed to the gills. If we decide to add another baby to the mix, we will either have to tie the dogs to the roof (and I don't think that's legal) or get a vehicle with more space.
9) Had your heart been broken?
See above. I have been the breakee a few times, but haven't had my heart broken since high school.
10) How many kids?
One, our lovely Sierra, since June 2008. Plus four furbabies: Casey (7), Molly (5), Thomas (3) and Sophie (2).
11) Are you Single/Taken/Married/Divorce?
Married to my love, Jason, since 2003.

Productive

It's 12:15. This is what I've done today:

Straighten bedroom
Make bed
Straighten Sierra's bedroom
Start laundry
Unload dishwasher
Feed baby breakfast (2/3 of a banana. wow.)
Clean kitchen
(At this point, Sierra got fussy, so I put her in the mei tai on my back. The rest of the list was accomplished with a passenger)
Make babyfood - sweet potato
Clean up that mess
Make babyfood - acorn squash
Clean up that mess
Another load of laundry
Straighten living room
Vacuum living room
Vacuum "tumble weeds" from four animals that landed in the corners of the stairs with hose attachment
Vacuum kitchen, dining room, and office
Clean coffee pot with vinegar solution
Balance check-book
Check e-mail
Catch up on posts in Google Reader
Write this blog

The baby has now been sleeping for one hour (albeit on me). Since she fell asleep at 11:20, and has been down for 60 minutes, this is significant enough for me to declare a break in the no-morning-nap stand-off

Feeling the mei tai love

And speaking of mei tai's, a friend recently sent me this:

"I was reading through your blog and was wondering about why you like the mei-tai so much. Why is it more comfortable? Do you think it would work for all babies?"

First, here is a page that sites some sources and outlines some benefits of wearing your baby, such as: the baby will cry less, it's good for mental and emotional development, and (for ity bity babies) it makes the transition to life outside the womb easier.

Now, for me personally ...

How I love you mei tai, let me count the ways:
1. They are way more comfortable for me than the baby bjorn or bjorn-type carrier. We had one (well, I guess technically we still have it, but it now resides in the attic) and that thing totally killed my lower back.
2. They are much better for the baby, ergonomically speaking, than some other carriers. When a baby spends too much time dangling by the crotch, spinal damage can result. Gasp!
3. I hate carrying Sierra in her carseat. It hurts, plus, my chiropractor specifically told me NOT to do that. MT solves this delima.
4. I can use it on the front!
I can use it on the back!
5. It's great for the winter because with Sierra on my front in a MT, I can just zip my ski coat up around both of us, put a hat on her, and we're good to go. I don't have to worry about her getting cold because she's snuggled in my coat next to me.
6. Our little darling is rather high maintenance and wearing her allows me get things done. The other night, when she wouldn't go down and kept crying, I put her on my back, and she fell asleep to the walking motion and I did the following: picked up the living room, cleaned the kitchen, did some sewing, addressed envelopes, wrote a blog, read my book, folded laundry, and made applesauce. No joke.
7. I never have to maneuver a stroller through tight aisles in stores because Sierra is against me in the mei tai. Hooray!
8. Mei tai great for hiking where a stroller would never be able to go!
9. You can get a mei tai in any number of fun or beautiful prints. Unlike some other carriers which only come in ... black ... or brown ... blah.
10. A mei tai is really versatile in terms of sizing. A skinny person, fluffy person, tall person, short person can all wear the same carrier without having to mess with readjusting buckles and straps.

There are more reasons, but I like nice round numbers so I will stop at 10. I will also say, that though I feel the mei tai love in many situations, I also use a wrap and a ring sling on a regular basis and I love them for other reasons. Perhaps I'll post about the different types of baby carriers at another time ...

As to specifically why it's more comfortable, probably because the baby's weight is distributed on my waist an both shoulders. And YES! I think a mei tai would work for all babies. A little one can have their legs tucked inside the carrier and a larger baby can have their arms out over the top (or if they like arms in, you can get toddler-size mei tais).

The eye of the tiger - RAWR

Or, rather ... the mei tai of the tiger.

Since we live at a boarding school, we go to a lot of the sporting events on campus. The Woodberry colors are orange and black and the mascot is the tiger. I made this mei tai and I must say it turned out really well. It was my first time attempting a mei tai with a hood, and I am so happy that I was able to accurately match the pattern from the hood of the mei tai to the pattern on the body of the mei tai! Hooray! I love this because it shows some school spirit without being obnoxious (obnoxiously orange, obnoxiously covered with tigers, take your pick).

New food Tuesday

Mango mania!

The mango were ripe when we were at the store this week and looked super yummy. Thus, Sierra got to try mango this week. It was a hit!

It's so funny introducing new food to her because you give it to her and she opens her mouth up. Then, if it's something she hasn't had before she gets this puzzled, contemplative look on her face. In this case, she like the mango, so after a few bites, she was totally into it. I would bring the spoon close to her mouth and she opens up like a baby bird waiting for mama to drop in a big, juicy worm. Yum!

She's also quite good at communicating when she's finished. The first thing she'll do is try to grab the spoon. If I'm not quick, watch out! She will have blended food item all over her arm. If I don't get the hint, she purses her lips. Last step, if I insist on continuing to try and feed her when she's not in the mood, spitting it all over the place (this also happens if she doesn't like a food!)

Foods so far:
Avocado: +
Banana: +
Applesauce: +
Sweet potato: ++
Rice cereal: 0
Carrots: -
Pears: +
Peas: -
Acorn squash: +
Mashed potato: 0+
Mango: +

The nap stand-off continues

Well, here we are: day 4 with no morning nap. Sigh. It's not looking good for the future of morning naps. Problem is, we are now in some sort of weird "transition zone." With no morning nap, Sierra is exhausted by around 12:30, or 1:00. So she naps, which is great. When she wakes up, she's good til about 7:30pm. You would think then, that I could just put her to bed at 7:30, right? Wrong! She takes another evening nap for about an hour and then is totally awake and doesn't want to go to sleep again until somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00. I think this is far too late for an 8-month old to be going to bed, but the good news is, she's been sleeping in until about 8:30/8:45, even though I've been getting up before her. I suspect that the afternoon nap will move a little later in the day and then she will be ready to go bed by 8 or 9 in the evening. I will miss you, morning nap.

The Hindu Experience

Our church service this morning was really wonderful. The students in our religious education program have been doing a unit on Hinduism, and as a result, the entire congregation got a chance to experience that this morning.

Our pastor had the day off, so to speak, as several members of the Hindu group at UVA were on hand to run the service. We heard the story about Ganesh, the elephant headed god and how he got his elephant head. We heard readings from the Bhagavad Gita, which is one portion of a larger Hindu religious text. There were also 6 dancers who performed a traditional Indian Hindu religious dance. They were wonderful and Sierra was captivated by the bells on their ankles and the vibrant colors they wore.

To nap, or not to nap, that is the question

And if your name is Sierra, the answer is: NOT to nap.

The baby book says that most babies drop their morning nap between one and two years of age. I am thus hoping that the last two days with NO MORNING NAP are just a fluke. I have 4 more months!!!

Both yesterday and today, Sierra was acting sleepy around 10:30 or so -- around when she usually goes down for a nap. Yesterday, I nursed her and settled her in swing chair, where she often has a morning nap and (*gasp*) she did not soon fall asleep. Instead, she wiggled around and fussed and tried to get out of the swing chair and wiggled and fussed some more. I thought I would put her in a mei tai and walk around to see if that would induce sleep but no ... she was having none of it. So, I got her back up and we read stories and crawled around on the floor and practiced standing up. For two more hours!

Today, we tried the same thing, but I closed the curtains and turned on the white noise and put her down in her crib. HA! She was having none of that! She finally took a 90 minute nap after lunch with Jason. And then was up until 6 or so when she fell asleep on the walk home from the dining all. At that point, she had a power nap in the carrier on my back for 1/2 hour. When she woke up, I got her all ready and we did our bedtime routine, but she screamed every time I left the room. I finally put her in a wrap and she is sleeping there right now. Kind of like this (this picture was taken a few weeks ago, but you get the idea):

There's a baby in the bed!

We co-sleep with Sierra. Some people find this particularly odd. As an example, when Sierra was just 3-months old, a friend of my parents', after learning we sleep with Sierra in our bed, said "You have to get that baby out of your bed." No, in fact, we not have to get that baby out of our bed. We will, yes, but just not yet.

Jason and I never intended to co-sleep. It happened out of a combination of necessity and parenting style. Our little darling is not a very mellow baby. She leans way more toward the high-maintenance end of the spectrum (our baby book of choice calls her "high need"). When she was tiny, she really didn't sleep unless she was touching another person. She could be sound asleep and if we put her in her bed by herself, she would be awake crying within a matter of minutes. We tried having her in a little co-sleeper that goes on the bed, but she didn't really like it and it took up too much of the bed and was uncomfortable for us. Our arrangement soon evolved to Sierra just sleeping between us on our bed.

Now that she's a little bit older, parently style also plays a role in our reasons for co-sleeping. Jason and I do not subscribe to the "cry it out" school of thought. It seems cruel and unnatural to me personally to just let a baby cry. Babies cry because they need something, even if it is just comfort from their parents. How sad to let a baby cry alone in a dark room just because you are trying to teach her to "self sooth," or any number of other excuses. (Don't misread, we don't jump at the slightest little cry, and sometimes Sierra has to cry in her crib for one reason or another for a few minutes, but I am not about to just let her cry uncontrolably until she cries herself to sleep. I did this once, out of exhaustion and exasperation. She cried for 20 minutes straight and then whimpered in her sleep for another 15 after that. I slept worse, not better, and hated the guilt I felt the next day.) Anyway, back to our "high need" baby ... she still wakes about twice a night and it is so much easier to comfort her or feed her if she is right there next to me. Since she is breastfed, at this point, when she wakes up, I just roll over, offer her a breast and go back to sleep. Neither one of us wakes completely up and Jason sometimes sleeps through the entire thing without even noticing.

We co-sleep because it works for us. I love that Sierra will pet my hair when she is half asleep, and how sad it would be to miss those happy first moments when she wakes up. Turns out, there are a lot of other benefits as well.

Dust

You know how when the sun shines in the window at a particular angle you can see the dust floating in the air? Today I noticed there is way more dust in our bedroom than there is in the living room. Why do you suppose that is?

8 months of motherhood

It sounds like such a cliche, but a I honestly cannot believe that Sierra is 8 months old. Phew! Time flies, but these have definately been some of the most challenging months of my life. Never the same challenge, though.

My little angel is currently sound asleep on my lap. She's had a rough day of crawling, looking at the cat, eating books, attempting to stand up, and smiling at everyone in the dining hall. If she continues on her pattern of the last few days, though, she'll be up in about an hour, then she will remain awake until 10 or 11, regardless of whether I want to go to sleep or not. Last night, as we were lying in bed, trying to sleep, Sierra was crawling around, climbing on me, grabbing my lip, pulling my ear, poking me in the eye ... you get the picture. She was happy, though, and that makes me happy.

At 8 months old, she is now a full month into her endeavor of forward motion and gets better at it every day. No fear, either. Today, after lunch, I set her down on the carpet in the dining hall and she just took off ... I followed her (I'm the spotter) to make sure noone inadvertently stepped on the tiny human motoring along the floor, but she was certainly on the move. She also attempted crawling down the step between the office and mud room with much less disasterous results than the last time. Last time she made the attempt, she slipped and bonked her head. I like to let her try things, but I didn't catch that one quick enough. This time, I was right there, but she went down the step, played with my shoelace, then turned around and came back into the office.

I'm still waiting for a syllable other than "ba-ba-ba-ba," but so far that's all we got. Well, that and the strange, growling "baby dino" noises. You should hear them ...

Feeling proud of myself

I made the header and the background that I'm currently using all by myself. Yay! Well, not totally by myself ... I did follow some online tutorials. But still ... yay! I realize that the light-colored part where the words are is a little too skinny, so I will keep that in mind for next time. It's a process.

I'm particularly happy with my header. In it, you may notice a new address. I purchased a domain name. Blogger is still hosting, but it was only $10 and I feel cooler this way. Jason thinks it's silly. I don't care what he thinks.

One potato, two potato

Monica wanted to know the steps I take to make Sierra's baby food. It's really quite simple and intuitive, but here ya go ...

This week, Sierra's new food is potatos, so I'll use that as an example.

1. Cook the food. For the potatos, I just cut them up and boil them in a pan with water, as if you were making "grown-up" mashed potatos. When I did sweet potatos and squash, I baked them. For apples and pears, I chunk them up, put them in a pan with a cup or so of water, bring to a boil, then turn down and let simmer until it become a chunky apple- (or pear-) sauce.
2. Put in the blender with some water. Add only a little at a time. This applies to things that are not already water-y, like the above mentioned apple- and pear-sauce. It's sort of an inexact science, but add enough water to be like a milkshake consistency. I don't add anything else to my potatos because I don't want to introduce dairy items just yet.
3. Pour into ice-cube trays and freeze.
4. When frozen, pop out the cubes, put them in ziplock bag, label and date, and voila! Homemade baby food. It helps to hold the tray sideways and run a little hot water over the edges before you pop out the food cubes.
5. When you're ready to feed baby, just take a cube or two, stick in the microwave for about a minute and stir well to make sure there are not hot pockets.

Oh, bananas, I just feed fresh. I make sure I'm using fruit that is well ripened and mash it up really well with a fork. This was one of Sierra's first foods, and when she started I would mix it with a little water so it wasn't so chunky.

She's a little lady, alright!

Well, we decided to give Sierra these "Biter Biscuits" from Gerber.
They're like a hard, slightly sweet cracker for little ones new to eating solids. They melt in the mouth pretty easily to minimize choking risk. I bit off the end of one, and they sort of taste like corn bread. Problem is, if you are not yet very talented at feeding yourself, the melt-in-your-mouth happens, well, less in the mouth than all around it, all over your hands, on your shirt, in your neck folds ... well, you get the idea.

Needless to say, next time we have these, Sierra will be wearing a bib! (but I do think she liked it!)
So much for the nice, new outfit!

Our little lady

Thanks for the new outfit, Grandma and Grandpa!

I am so not ready for this yet

Last night, Sierra actually stood unsupported while holding onto a chair. I was holding her, but then she reached for the cat, and was on her own ... Then! She went into the living room and did this completely by herself. Ack!

Monica, you have a choice to make

Because I told Monica that I would like to make her a mei tai as a baby gift, she gets to pick the colors that she wants. Anyone else may express what they like the best (if anyone even reads this blog!) but Monica has the final say.

Your straps can be made out of green twill:
Or natural colored twill:
I can make the back of the carrier the same as the straps. Alternately, the back of the carrier could be a different color cotton (a light dusty green, a bright turquoise or a yellow. Again, on green or natural twill.
We could also do the straps as a indigo denim:
Or a graphite courdory:
Back of the carrier same options as before: same as the straps or one of three colors of cotton fabric.

Let me know!

In search of winter

Well, we finally got some snow here ... it lasted a grand total of about 36 hours. Boo. I know you people buried in the white stuff this winter really do not want to hear it, but I would prefer a little bit of winter. Seems that's too much to ask for this year in Virginia. Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy sitting on the deck drinking a beer yesterday afternoon in the sun when it was nearly 60 degrees out, but come on, it's February!

Anyway, Jason had several glorious days off this weekend because it's "long winter weekend" and the boys were all away. We took Friday and went for a winter hike in Shenandoah. We bundled Sierra in her "peep suit" (yellow fleece suit that makes her look like a marshmallow peep) and did a 2 mile hike. The trail was slick in spots, but it was a lovely sunny day and I loved the quiet of the park (amazingly, relatively few people visit Shenandoah on the last day of January!) and the sound of the snow crunching under my feet.

Baby in a peep suit:

We hiked to the Pocosin Mission ruins, which was a settlement of people who lived in the park before it was a park. There were the remains of a house, the steps and foundation of an old church, and field stones marking what used to be a cemetary.

Steps where the church used to stand:
Field stones marking the graves:
We capped off our day by stopping for a late-afternoon snack and at the Blue Mountain brewery. Nothing like a brew after a hike -- even if it is January!