Yard Work and Other Naughtiness

Mark bought some stuff to build a little retaining wall to keep our yard from spilling into our sidewalk every time it rains. Because, you know... that's kind of annoying.

Nathan surveyed the situation (Mark shoveling dirt) and said: is Daddy throwing the dirt? Is that naughty? We don't throw dirt.

But then when we assured him it was ok, Nathan was of course happy to "help." :) And now our dirt should be contained where all dirt belongs -- in the yard. (What, you didn't think we kept grass there or something? Come on now.)

Spring Break Update

Nathan is on spring break this week. We have been keeping close to home (a little too close to home, actually... neither Nathan or I changed clothes or left the house between church Sunday morning and grocery shopping today... classy huh) and trying to actually be on a break. With varying degrees of success. Here's what we've been up to:

1.) One thing I wanted to do this week was spend some time with diaperless Nathan and see what would happen if we only let him use the potty. (Are you laughing at me yet? You can start now.) Well. Turns out he has no clue when he's going to pee, can't feel it coming on, can't stop it, and when it does happen, it doesn't bother him in the least to be standing in a puddle. Which, frustrating though it is, I needed to learn: I don't think he's ready for pee-potty training. But pooping is another story. He knows when it's coming, he can tell us when he needs to go, and he has a process for getting it done. So after many tears and lots of whining and many hours sitting on the potty yesterday afternoon, he finally pooped in it. And then got down and promptly pooped even more in a diaper ten minutes later. {sigh} All that stress, and it's like... it didn't even click. And he has done it again once since then (potty then diaper). He knows what to do, he knows how to do it, he just doesn't want to. Punk. (And by that, I mean help me please I do not know what to do with this kid!!)

2.) Anneliese seems to have given up her third nap and is working towards a two-nap schedule. Which means she sleeps from like 11-1, Nathan sleeps from 1-4, and Anneliese sleeps again from 4-5:30. For those of you keeping count at home, that's zero minutes with both kids sleeping. Which is exactly why I was dreading this two-nap stage. I can't decide whether I want to try to get her back on three naps, or rush her through this and get her down to one (I know, I know, it's way too soon for that). I'm leaning towards three. Even if it means getting her up a little earlier in the morning. Which pains me to do. Oh how I love those 14-hour nights.

3.) Nathan keeps getting a few words and phrases confused. A common one these days is lookforing. As in, what's mommy lookforing? Or possibly, I'm lookforing the small ambu-lamps. It's cute, in an only-MY-kid-can-use-bad-grammar-cutely kind of way. Or maybe it's just that even in his toddler-english mind, he knows he shouldn't be ending a sentence with a preposition. :) ...Also he keeps getting confused about when to say yes ma'am as opposed to yes please. Which results in a lot of conversations like this:
Nathan: Want some milk.
Me: Ok but I'm not going to get it if you ask me like that.
Nathan: Yes ma'am, have milk now.
Doesn't sound as bad if you know he means yes please. Still, it makes him seem a little bossier than he really is, doesn't it? Hmmm, I wonder where he got that particular personality trait. At least he's now saying yes ma'am instead of yes man. We're getting somewhere, I think.

4.) I took this picture on my phone (look at that, I called it a phone instead of my droid, be proud of me) when we were grocery shopping this morning. Anneliese was fussy and only Nathan's truck would calm her down.

I have a feeling she's just going to love whatever her brother loves. Which means she may never give a flip about dolls. Which is ok, I guess. It's probably too soon to tell, anyway. Man, doesn't she have a great smile though?

5.) I have been listening to a lot of Pandora this week. (One of my new Droid addictions.) When a Beyonce song was on and she popped up on my phone screen, Nathan said there's Mommy right there on the phone! Why yes, sweetie. I am that hott. And thank you.

6.) Anneliese is doing great with eating solid food. She has ventured out from the first carrots and oatmeal, and is now eating prunes, squash, applesauce, peas and sweet potatoes. And she's eaten (and pooped) all of it pretty well. I can't believe the whole starting solids thing could be this easy. My memories of Nathan sitting in the high chair screaming until I nursed him are still fresh. The ease of this whole process with Anneliese has definitely confirmed that he wasn't ready, and that she is. I really really really like it when things are just... easy.

7.) My (future) brother-in-law crashed his motorcycle yesterday and it was scary there for a minute. But a day (and a leg surgery) later, he is fine and has been discharged from the hospital to spend the next month or so recovering. Including walking my sister down the aisle in two weeks -- most probably on crutches. Which is funny only because he is ok (it definitely could have been so much worse, so praise the Lord it wasn't). He even made the news (disclaimer - John says the story isn't entirely accurate). Nathan was very happy when we told him about the accident. Clearly he didn't understand the whole Uncle John got hurt thing. He was just focused on the motorcycle and whether or not there was an ambu-lamps.

8.) I am in a weird mood tonight. I have all this nervous energy and I'm not sure where it's coming from. I feel antsy and fidgety, like there is something I need to say or do or take care of, but I can't figure out what it is. Something is nagging at the back of my brain and I can't put my finger on it (yes, I have sorted through my calendar and to-do lists a million times and it's nothing on there... this feels more, like... aesthetic... or something). I've been trying to sort through everything I thought about and talked about today, to figure out what it is that is playing at my nerves, but I can't. And it's like I won't be able to put it out of my mind until I can articulate it. I am already getting that panicky feeling that comes when I am worried I won't sleep well (and worrying about not sleeping is a surefire way to not sleep). Am I just weird and crazy? Does this happen to other people? I think I need to go find some yummy dessert and calm my nerves so I can sleep. Here's hoping. (Making this list did help me feel less twitchy, at least temporarily.)

Two more days of "spring break" at home with the kids and then we are headed to the beach with my dad for the long weekend!!

New Floors!

Here's why I hate (loathe abhor) home improvement:

This is what our dining room looked like all weekend. Yes, that is Nathan's bed. And dresser. And everything from his room. Oh! And everything from Anneliese's too. We had new carpet put into their rooms (and new hardwoods in the hallway and bathroom and one staircase*), so we had to displace everything in their bedrooms for a couple of days. Which, like 99% of home improvement projects, is something less than convenient.

I really really intensely dislike not being able to just live in my house like normal. Bunking in the basement and tripping over piles of furniture in our living space makes me irrationally frustrated and, well... ok I won't use the b-word. But something like that.

Needless to say, after I had moved all this furniture into a chaotic heap in the middle of our house, I skipped town. Since I would be taking care of the kids anyway, then I wouldn't have been much help if I had stuck around. So taking them and the dogs away for a few days might have even made things easier at home. Also, see above reference to the b-word. Mark was definitely happier with me out of the picture. Once I had done my part in moving furniture and taping some trip to prep for painting, he was probably glad to not have to deal with me!

When I came home tonight, all the trim was freshly painted (Mark stayed up very late two nights in a row doing it), all the new flooring was in place (the carpeting in the wrong place... Nathan's went in Anneliese's room, and vice versa, but I am forcing myself to just get over it), and all the furniture was back in the rooms right where it belongs (for the most part). Also the back storm door and front storm door (both broken when I left town on Thursday) are now fixed and working properly. I have to say, our home is definitely improved. :)

Nathan's room, before and after: Bathroom, before and after:Hallway, before and after:Anneliese's room, before and after:

Our house feels new and clean and fresh and I was only minimally inconvenienced (road trip with two fussy kids aside). I came home and it was just... done.

And that is why I love (adore treasure) Mark.

(*Didn't take a before picture of the staircase, but I totally should have because it was gross... just trust me when I say it looks way better now!)

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

This week while the rest of the family has been going on with our normal lives, this is how Nathan has been passing most of his afternoons. He wants to poop, he needs to poop... but he won't do it on the potty. He just sits there, reading and playing with his trucks. Forever. But it's still progress, kind of... right?
I think next week, when he is on "spring break" (a break for whom, exactly?) from preschool, we'll be doing some potty training in earnest. I think it's time for me to be a little more proactive with this process. Ideas? Hints? Help? Please send 'em my way.

Droid Love

I am one week into ownership of my new Droid. I am calling it my Droid (as opposed to my phone) because the fact that it actually makes calls seems almost... secondary. This thing is smarter than my computer. And it's definitely smarter than I am. Calling it just a phone seems almost insulting. And we can't go hurting its feelings now... poor little Droid. (Also we don't want to insult it or make it angry, because it just might know how to seek out and enact revenge.)

My thoughts so far:

-- Somehow it has merged all my contacts into one list. It pulled them from my old phone, from several email contact lists, and facebook. Then it found pictures for most of them, and they were the right pictures. It even figured out who "Mom" was and pulled her correct contact info in there -- her physical address (from my hotmail contact list), her email address (from my gmail contact list), her phone numbers (from my old phone) and her picture and current status (from her facebook profile). The only place I actually had her listed as "Mom" was in my old phone. See? SMART. Or stalkerish. I'm going with smart. (My mom just read this and is now fervently praying that no one ever finds my phone.) But to be fair, this didn't work as well with my Dad. And the fact that I have a friend named Nathan in my old phone and email, and that facebook knows I have a son named Nathan, utterly confused my poor Droid; I had to do some clarifying there by giving friend-Nathan a last name, which cleared it right up. (It did figure out the three Betsys on my list though, probably because I at least had an extra initial attached to each of their names.)

-- It took me close to three days to successfully answer a call. I am still learning the touch-screen swipey technique required to unlock the phone. But when I do it right (which is pretty much every time now, thankyouverymuch), man do I feel smart and sophisticated. The fact that answering a phone call correctly makes me feel that way pretty much proves that I am not, in fact, smart and sophisticated. Whatevs.

-- I find it ironic how much time and energy and effort we spent learning to type correctly (and money on at-home computer software that our parents could "grade" for us... HI DAD), considering we were destined to type with only our thumbs.

-- With my Droid, my texting package has been upgraded by $5, which gets me unlimited texting within verizon, plus 500 extra (I used to get 250 total, and went over approximately every single month). Which makes my fingers thumbs a little itchy to send messages. In the last seven days, I have sent/received 178 texts. And with every text, a cute little picture of the person sending it pops up onto my screen. Hello awesome. (Clearly it's the small things that impress me.) Also it threads all my texts by recipient, instead of keeping them in one big list. Which is helpful considering that list would be mighty long right now.

-- There are lots of cool apps, and most of them are free. I haven't spent even one penny on apps, and I have a lot of fun stuff on my Droid already. So far my favorite is Pandora. (Which might or might not be constantly tuned to the Glee station.) There is also one called the Sexting Vault which password-protects any messages or pictures or calendar events that might be, you know, only for your husband to see. ;-) Which means you can totally show your new Droid off to your friends (or download apps that can "see" your messages and pics, etc) without fear of accidentally sharing more than you want to.

-- There is a feature in the contact list which will automatically send all calls from a particular contact directly to voicemail. I don't care too much about this (how hard is it to just ignore the phone if you don't want to answer?), but Mark is thrilled enough that I thought it was worth mentioning. No, he did not enable this feature on me. I know that's what you're thinking. Those particular contacts shall remain nameless to protect the innocent. (Also I don't know exactly who they are anyway. But I know I'm not one of them. I promise. I can't believe you even thought that. Yeesh.)

-- I get the best of the touch-screen world, but also a slide-out keyboard if I want it. It's like they took all the best part of the iphone and all the best parts of the blackberry, and mashed them up into one phone.

-- It's very tightly integrated with anything google-related, including our calendars. Which means I can just touch the calendar button on my Droid and it goes straight to my online calendar and tells me what my family has scheduled for any given day, and also acts as my to-do list. I love lists, have I mentioned that recently? And I love being able to toss my old-school paper planner (which was a pain to keep synced up with our online calendar) to the birds and know that I just have all my scheduling and to-do info with me on the go.

-- The gps system is built-in. Seriously I didn't have to download anything or buy anything extra. A friend sent me an email with the name and location of a park we where we were meeting this morning, my gmail recognized it as an address, hyperlinked it to google maps, then asked me if I would like to be navigated there. Um, yes please. So it turned on its internal gps and off we went. As I pulled into the park, the screen flashed up with a street view picture of the destination, so I could be sure I was in the right place. How cool is that? (I'll admit, decidedly less cool when it did the same thing on my way back and showed me our house -- complete with Mark's car in the driveway -- as I turned onto our street. How does my Droid have a picture of my house linked to google maps or google earth or whatever? Stalker.)

-- Google Reader on my Droid = never be bored in traffic or waiting rooms again. Or while breastfeeding. Yes I just said it. Sometimes I am (gasp!) a little bored during a particularly long nursing session. This is a judgment-free zone, so don't hate me. I am a good mom, which is why I'm confident enough to admit this. You read your parenting books while nursing, and I'll peruse my google reader. It's pretty much the same thing, at least from where I'm sitting.

Anyway my Droid does a bajillion cool things that are way too numerous to talk about here (plus I haven't discovered all of them yet)... just trust me, it's awesome. I have to say, I can see how these phones could cause people to tune out the world around them for the world at their fingertips. I'm going to have to work very very hard at keeping this in check, I can already tell. On the first few nights that Mark and I were learning our new phones, we were both sitting on the couch playing with them, with each other but not with each other. I'm hoping that kind of thing is really kept to a minimum. I might or might not have had to send him a dirty flirty text (ahem) to get his attention. (Thank goodness for that sexting vault, right?) I'm sure the newness will wear off at some point though!

First Solids for Anneliese

Anneliese had her first solid food today -- carrots!

Mark: Hey Nathan, guess what? Anneliese ate real food today!
Nathan: What'd she eat?
Mark: She ate carrots! Like a big girl!
Nathan: Carrots from Mommy's boobies?
Mark: Well... no...

But she ate them from a spoon, and that's almost as cool (if way less likely to make us rich), right?

Since Nathan's foray into solids didn't go so well (they stopped him up then he didn't eat well for several weeks) and in hindsight I don't think he was really ready -- I told myself that I would do it better with Anneliese. I would pay less attention to her age and pay more attention to her to let us know when she's ready. Well, my milk has trouble keeping up with her hunger, she's sitting up with some support, and she's
interested in what we eat... so we decided she's ready. Last week we dissolved a little single-grain oatmeal into some breastmilk for her in a bottle (all the doctors in the crowd are shaking their heads at me, but it worked so I don't really care) so that we could introduce a tiny amount of food into her system without making it thick enough to eat off a spoon (which we think is what overwhelmed poor Nathan). She handled it just fine, so today she had some carrots.

And she liked them! Even though that's what I was hoping, I was still kind of surprised when it happened! She ate several big mouthfuls before she got tired of it and started making faces.

She looks like such a big girl sitting in a chair eating from a spoon, doesn't she? I got a little teary after she ate, just because I can't believe how fast she's growing up. (I know I say that all the time. I know it's a cliche. But it's true.)

Congrats, sweetie girl! Welcome to the world of food!

Egg Hunt and Joyful Noise

It's the first weekend of spring! (By the calendars anyway. If you'll recall, in my brain it has already been spring for several weeks.) And we spent it the way spring weekends should be spent -- happily and mostly outside.

Yesterday morning we woke up and hit in the ground running... we went to a pancake breakfast at church pretty much as soon as we rolled out of bed. And then proceeded to stuff our faces. Even Nathan. And Anneliese. ;) I have to say, I love a big breakfast when someone else cooks it and cleans it up, and in a room loud enough that no one is bothered by my baby fussing through the meal (which she manages to do approximately 95% of the time when I sit down with a plate of food in front of me). We feasted on pancakes, grits, eggs, bacon, toast, and I longingly eyeballed the orange juice but didn't touch it. (They even had sweet tea. I do love that iced tea is considered a legitimate breakfast drink around here. Even though I didn't drink any.)

After breakfast there was an egg hunt for the zillion little kids who had showed up. Nathan did pretty well! He found more than one egg this year!! (in past years he hasn't fared so well.) I didn't actually get to see him hunting down the eggs this year, though, because we had a rehearsal for our Lenten cantata and I had to be there earlier than Mark. So while Daddy and Nathan were busy filling eggs with dirt on the playground, Anneliese was in the nursery and I was in the sanctuary singing. (It's actually kind of typical for our family to be scattered all around our church campus on any given morning.)

After the egg hunt, Mark dropped Nathan off in the nursery too, but was still a little early for his part of the rehearsal. So I ducked out and we took a few minutes to ourselves. (If you're rolling your eyes at the thought of us sneaking a kiss during a rehearsal at church, you clearly have never been a new-ish parent whose alone moments are precious and few, or you would have done the same thing when you looked around and realized your kids were taken care of and no one would miss you for a few minutes. So don't judge me, applaud me.) I don't think our music director noticed, but I'm sure he wouldn't have minded anyway. :) Right before we went back in, we took a few minutes outside since it was so gorgeous out. Definitely the best weather we've had so far this year. Thanks, vernal equinox.
I spent a good chunk of the afternoon out on our deck and then Mark and Nathan did some running around on the golf course. Seriously, I don't think I can emphasize it enough: it's so so nice to be outside!!

This morning after a loooooong stint at church (Mark did three services, I did two) with lots and lots and lots of joyful music-making, Mark went and played soccer with some friends from church, and I spent my afternoon recovering (surprise!) out on the deck in the sunshine before the rain starts. We have big plans to hang around the house with the windows open, some pizza, and some adult beverages (what? Sundays are feast days, even in Lent) and enjoy the spring evening together. I like knowing that even if it's going to be crappy out for the next week, we made the most of our sunshine over the last few days.

For more pics from yesterday, click below on our church.

by mgoetts

And since I don't think I ever posted it a few weeks ago, here's the link to more pictures from the last couple of months -- click below on Nathan in his high chair.

by mgoetts

My Name is Erin and I'm a Fluffymailaholic

I have a confession to make. I started out with this whole cloth diapering thing just to save some money. But now I'm also totally in it for the cute diapers. It's true. Better for the budget, better for the environment... sure, ok, whatevs. But they're stinkin' cute, people.

I might even admit (... I'm scared to put this on the internet but here goes...) that I secretly might maybe actually kind of enjoy changing diapers now. I get some kind of weird rush from choosing a diaper from the stash, feeling how soft it is, and putting the wet one in a bag (where I get to use it again and again and again... yes, being frugal is definitely part of the rush). Dorky but true.

So in the last month I have spent a lot of time and energy in the cloth diapering online community (yes, there is one, and it's surprisingly huge) hunting down new colors and patterns and kinds of diapers I want to try. I have been buying and trading online like it's going out of style (oh, it's already out of style, you say? ok then, um... oops). I have been stalking websites and facebook fan pages and chatting with other moms online who want to buy/sell/trade like I do. It's like some kind of weird non-hobby. And by non-hobby I mean addiction. But a fun one!

Every time I have new diapers on the way, I get a little antsy watching for the mailman. I'm pretty sure he knows we're stalking him. When he pulls into our street, we all pile out of the house (mommy, puppies, babies) and gather 'round the end of the driveway to see if he has anything fun (fluffy mail!) for us. I'm letting him believe that the stalking is completely about Nathan's obsession with his mail truck, even though that's only about 50% true. Really I am just crazy excited (way more excited than is normal or appropriate, I'll admit it) that he might have a package for me with some super soft fabric in pretty colors or patterns for my kids to poop on. I feel very sure I should not admit to our mailman what's really going on every day at our mailbox -- that I'm a fluffymailaholic and he's an enabler.

So what kinds of diaper bliss has my fluffy mail addiction brought into our lives of late? Well I'm glad you asked. (Because I am an addict and I have diaper mentionitis and I really really want to tell you.)

My new friend Erin (who had a baby like two weeks ago but somehow knows more about cloth diapers than I do) recommended trying Rumparooz, so I did. My original motivation was just to get a lavendar diaper, since BumGenius (the staple of our diaper stash) doesn't come in purple. Anyway I loved it. It's basically just like a Bumgenius 3.0 (similar rise snap settings, closes with velcro, stuffs with a microfiber insert) except that the fabric is a lot softer, and it comes in more colors, and there are double elastic leg gussets which keeps poop in better. Not that I have any problems with poop leaking out of the BGs (it's still never happened since we switched to cloth) but I imagine for some people or newborns with really runny poo, that's handy. Anyway I love love love love them -- I have the first purple one I bought secondhand and also a hot pink one that's furry on the outside like a teddy bear (apparently this is called minky. who knew). And since I liked them so much, I waited for a sale and bought two new (which I wouldn't normally do since they're more expensive than the BGs) in brown and bright blue. Also (and here is where you're going to think I am nuts) I made a video testimonial for Rumparooz and they sent me a free red diaper for doing it. Yes, I basically got paid in diapers. I do recognize that that should be sad and pathetic but instead it's just really fun.

Also I got a got a couple more (secondhand) Goodmamas since I liked them so well before. I can see these diapers being dangerous for me. Since she only makes a certain amount in any one fabric (doesn't come in standard colors like most other diapers), I find myself saying "oooh, I want that one! And that one! And that one too!" And I just need to stop it very very soon like right now. I love how squishy the Goodmamas are, and all the fun colors and designs, and how luxurious they feel (again, my bum is jealous of Anneliese's) but Mark is just not a fan since they close with snaps instead of velcro. (I admit I don't love that either, but come on. It's not that complicated. If you can snap baby PJs, you can snap a diaper. I promise.) But he does seem happy that we finally have an orange diaper. The other "orange" diapers we had were apparently not the right orange. To the extent that Mark wouldn't let Nathan even call them orange. {sigh.}

Goodmamas in orange and giraffe spots, and a red Rumparooz.

I do take some comfort knowing that I am not the only mom going through this addiction. I have three friends who also frequently include fluffy mail updates in their emails to me. Also, even though I know I am a legitimate contender for the Internet's Dorkiest Mom right now, I do feel better knowing that my fluffy mail addiction will have to stop soon. Even though I am not spending out of our working budget on diapers (just "extra" money like commission checks, consignment cash, etc, plus trading of course!), I still recognize that the whole point really is to save money, despite what the dangerous half of my brain tells the logical part of my brain about how Anneliese needs to have the cutest fluffiest bum in town. Plus, I think I'm driving Mark nuts. :)

And I am officially one of Those Moms who I mocked just a few short months ago. You can now mock me now; I know I deserve it. But I can totally take it, and it's totally worth it.

Things to Be Happy About

I have four friends from college (Sarah, Kelley, Katie, and Merritt, since you're dying to know) who, every day in someone's dorm room, would read a list of five things to be happy about. The idea stemmed from one of those page-a-day calendars. Once in a while, if something on their list made them think of me, they would either type it out in an email, or rip off the page itself and mail it to me (I was studying abroad in Germany when this tradition started). I'm not gonna lie... it made me feel loved. (By the way, it's been ten years and although they now live in four different states, they still keep a calendar and email things to be happy about pretty much every day.)

Anyway, the whole idea of dwelling on things to be happy about has always struck me as ridiculously... healthy. Often when I'm in one of those woe-is-me Moods, I force myself to think of good things instead of negative things. In a list, of course. (Is there any other way?) I mean, of course there's the whole God loves me and I have a roof over my head, but it's also nice to just dwell on small everyday joys. Again... healthy.

Here are five things for me to be happy about:

1.) I just spent the most lazy and blissful morning in my bed, alternating between dozing and reading. (What is it about sleeping late that's so awesome anyway?) Mark got up with the kids and kept them entertained all morning. I stayed horizontal the whole time, and only had to open my eyes long enough to latch Anneliese on for two feedings, and to sing a couple of songs and snuggle with Nathan while Mark took a shower. Before I could mosey on downstairs for the day, Mark had done the dishes and cleaned the kitchen (not just wiping down counters, but cleaning). And you know what the best part about it is? It's not out of the ordinary for him to be that helpful. HAPPY.

2.) I am getting a Droid. Wait, that didn't have enough exclamation points. I'm getting a Droid!!!!!!! No, I don't technically need it. But we so rarely splurge on these kinds of things that it makes this feel really special and fun. Yes, I just said "fun" when talking about spending more money every month on a data plan. And as anyone who has been remotely in earshot of me over the last month or two knows, I have been craving a smartphone. (Volunteers to help me figure it out once it's in hand? Volunteers to help pray that it doesn't take over my life?) Anyway, HAPPY.

3.) No less than four people, after reading about my Mood last weekend, told me that they secretly wished they had been on the receiving end of the Crazy Erin email, and that no self-censorship would have even been necessary. Which first of all is a little weird, but also, wow do I feel loved, to have people who want to see me at my lowest (even though you have no idea what you're asking for; that email was awful, hence deleting 90% of it before sending). But still... aw, you like me! You really like me! HAPPY.

4.) It's shorts season. Officially. Which doesn't affect my legs in the least, but Mark running around here in summer clothes with his calves exposed just does good things for a gal. (Sorry Grandpa, it had to be said.) :::happylustfulsigh::: Also, warm weather and all that. HAPPY.

5.) I have gotten a lovely amount of grownup and alone time this week. Monday night I had dinner and good conversation with a friend (no kids), yesterday I got to watch a couple of hours of cheesy tv after the kids went down, and today, besides the whole spending the morning in bed sleeping and reading, I also get to (wait for it) grocery shop alone. Ahhh, bliss. HAPPY.

Anyone else happy about the little things things today, or is it just me?

Anneliese's Feet

Anneliese's newest obsession is her feet. Whenever she's lying on her back, she grabs on to her feet and toes and just grins and squeals.

I mean, can you blame her? They're really cute feet.Clearly she's a fan of getting changed.

I mean, can you blame her? They're really cute diapers. :)

I *Heart* Sunshine

I think I have seasonal affective disorder.

No, no wait. I really think I do. And it's not just because the internet told me so. (My mom is a brilliant physician; who needs internet diagnoses when Dr. Marmie is just a blackberry away?) Just hear me out on this.

Between my sister, my mom and me, you can probably imagine I grew up with a plethora very reasonable amount of moodiness in our house. (Ahem.) Well Mom and Ashley have long claimed a corrolation between the weather and their moods. (I should say Moods, with a capital M. That's the kind we have in these parts. Don't act so shocked.)

Winter and darkness and dreariness bring them way down in the dumps, but then when the sun comes out, the Mood goes directly to the giddy end of the spectrum. (The men in our lives just adore this unpredictability, for the record.) Mom is actually so addicted to the sun that she has a vitamin D box sun lamp in a spare bedroom for when she needs to ride her bike indoors in the middle of the night. (Yes, she really does that. Really really.)

So anyway, I'm familiar with the whole seasonal affective disorder self-diagnosis thing. I've seen it. I've lived with it. I get it. And I am now joining their ranks.

Because here's the thing: although I'm in a great mood right now (if you wanted to, you could even say delightful), last night I was foul. Like, horribly foul. I was pissy with everyone. I was resentful of the kids for "trapping" me at home alone on a Saturday night. I was coming down off a high from the crazy joy of having a college roomie here visiting, and her departure just made the house feel that much emptier and lonelier. I was annoyed and bummed that a tentative idea for watching a movie at home with a friend didn't pan out. I was dwelling on the fact that some new mommy "friends" were horrifically mean to (about) me this week when they didn't know I was in earshot, and somehow that represented all the mommy friends I don't connect with, and how I would never have friends again, and how I might never leave the house again because I was being sucked into a black hole of joylessness, and that the sun might not even come out again, ever.

See? Pissy.

So I did what any good wife would do: I picked a fight with Mark over gmail chat while he was on night shift. (I'm such a grownup.)

And then I wrote out a looooooong (even for me) email to a friend, detailing all my woes and everything I was frustrated with and it was all poor me, feel sorry for me, why can't I get a break and before I sent it, I read it and realized wow, do I sound pathetic and negative. And who wants to get an email like that? Even if you can take it (and this friend totally could), you don't want it. So I didn't send it. Well, I sent it, but I deleted the emotional train wreck parts, which encompassed about 90% of the content. (Yep, you read that right: I filtered. Feel free to praise me.) I just went to bed and slept the restless sleep of the unhappy, shortened by one hour due to something about saving daylight.

But you know what happened? The sun did come out. And I felt fine. No, thrilled. I got to get up! An hour early! And take a rushed shower (while praying fervently that no more milk would flow down the shower drain, but it's still a shower)! And go to church and worship God! And put shorts on my kid because it's totally spring! (Don't argue with me here. It's March. That's spring. If you say it enough, it makes it true.) And play loud music all the way home and sing at the top of my lungs!

See? That's what you call a Mood Swing.

And now I am sitting outside in the sunshine on my deck, where (for the second week in a row, again -- possible only through the miracle of science and the redemptive love of Christ) my wireless connection is staying connected. And my perspective compared to last night has totally changed. I am feeling rather loved, actually.

I have emails from several friends who like me and want to make me smile with their e-hilarity. I have a husband wandering around bleary-eyed (he just woke up), who loves me enough to bring me flowers, even though I do things like pick fights with him via gmail chat. I have a neighbor friend who is always eager for a walk and a conversation, and apparently thinks that what I have to say is halfway interesting. I have two beautiful children who think I'm a pretty good mom. I have friends at church who like to make a joyful noise with me. Including the near-victim of last night's disasterous email, who is always nice to me despite the fact that he's clearly catching on to my emotional-train-wreck status. I have a sister and a brother who look up to me and love me, and two stepbrothers and some German pseudo-siblings to boot. I have parents and other "grownups" who support me and offer wise counsel when I need it. Mom even loves me enough to move that box sun lamp and let my kids sleep in the nursery workout room at her house.

In short, I am now feeling so happy and thankful that I can barely remember what I was so stressed about last night, what reduced me to tears, what made me feel so alone and negative and pathetic and gross.

So... it has to be the weather. Or maybe a little pms (let's hope so anyway; it's that or another pregnancy). But I'm going with weather. God put that sun right where I needed it today.

Sunshine = love. Someone want to buy me a box sun lamp before next winter? Kthx.

Five Month Update... from Daddy

Much to Erin’s disappointment, I am usually reluctant to acknowledge any mid-year age landmarks (half-birthdays, etc). However, when kids are less than a year old, I’m happy to recognize the monthly mini-milestones. So much, in fact, that when Erin asked if I wanted to write a blog post for Anneliese's 5-month mark, I said yes. She must have had a serious case of writer’s block to even suggest (last night at 10:30) that I write something, but here goes…

I have to start off by admitting that I was happy but also very nervous when we found out we were having a girl. Having only grown up with a younger brother, I started to wonder, what do girls do all day? (I still don’t have the answer to that question.) But aside from me feeling a little more protective of Anneliese, there has not been anything different through her first five months than Nathan's. Right now, she’s just a happy (for the most part) baby.

I love to go downstairs and get her when she wakes up in the morning, even though it might be earlier than I would wake up naturally. It's an almost guaranteed smile to start the day. Anneliese has such a big and lively grin once she realizes we’ve come to get her. I can’t help but smile back, even very early in the morning.

Anneliese will also cooperate with a little snuggle time occasionally. It's great to have her curl up onto my shoulder and have my cheek rest against her fuzzy little head.

Although she is not a huge talker right now (it can be hard to get anything in with Erin and Nathan around), she does have her moments when she will try to mimic sounds we make to her. I'm still working hard on Da-Da, but we're not quite there yet. She has a sweet little voice, so I'm happy to hear anything she has to say right now.

There have been a couple of notable progressions over the past month:
-- Her first tooth came in last week . I was very impressed with how well she handled it. There were some fussy moments, but nothing too out of the ordinary.
-- She can sit up (with some support).
-- Anneliese has actually started to jump in her jumperoo, something not seen in the Goettsch household before. (Nathan preferred to just be suspended by the seat in his exersaucer, legs drawn up below him.) She's been sitting in it for several weeks now, but only recently has she started to actually use her feet and jump.
-- She is getting more comfortable with rolling during tummy time.
-- She weighs just over 15 lbs (62nd percentile) and is about 27 inches long (off the charts tall).
-- She is still eating only breastmilk, but in the next few weeks we will likely introduce some rice or oat cereal to get her body ready to handle solids around six months. We're playing this timing by ear.
-- Anneliese loves to tear the toys off the bar on her bouncy seat. Every time we put her in it, she has those toys down in under a minute.

Erin and I took a turn watching the nursery on Thursday for a Lenten worship service at our church. There were only two other kids in there, a 4 year old boy and his 2 year old sister. Erin mentioned that the two kids were separated in age the same way Nathan and Anneliese are. It caught me a little off guard to hear that. I can picture Nathan in 2 years, but to imagine Anneliese running around, talking and with hair was difficult to do. I am not trying to wish away her baby days, but I'm excited thinking what the future may hold for her.

Happy five months, little lady!

Pretzel Chicken

This recipe is such a favorite in our house that I can't believe I haven't posted it yet. Mark has been a big fan since the first time we made it, and Nathan is becoming a fan too, especially because he gets to help make it. And after it's done, he gets to dip it. And say dip it, dip it! a million times. Always a surefire way to please him. :)

This is basically pan-fried chicken that uses pretzels instead of breading. Healthy? Not really. Comfort food that's yummy and crunchy and gets the family to all sit down together? Totally.

This is originally a Rachael Ray idea (you're shocked, I know) and her original is here. Below is the slightly-altered version
our family usually makes.

Pretzel Chicken
1 lb chicken breast tenderloins
2 eggs
splash of milk
vegetable oil (for frying)
two huge handfuls of pretzels
2 eggs
splash of milk
dried thyme
black pepper


Cheddar-Mustard Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
3 cups grated cheddar
3 tbsp brown mustard

Set oil in pan and heat to medium-high. Grind up pretzels in a food processor (or, if you live with a toddler, put them in a plastic bag and let him crush them with a meat mallet -- this is the preferred method if you like loud banging and happy shrieks). Put them in a shallow bowl and season with thyme and pepper. In another shallow bowl, beat eggs together with a splash of milk. Dip chicken tenders into egg mixture, then dredge through pretzel crumbs. Place into hot oil and fry for about 3-4 minutes per side.

While chicken is cooking, melt flour and butter together in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in milk and stir quickly to eliminate lumps, cook until hot (but be careful -- milk burns easily). Stir in cheese until melted, then add mustard and mix together. If it's still too thick for your liking, throw some beer in there to thin it out. Then drink the rest. You're welcome.

Now dip it. :) And enjoy.

(We usually eat this with rice or mashed potatoes since it makes a lot of extra sauce. But if you are one of those families who likes something green at every meal, then broccoli would go well with that cheddar sauce too.)

First Tooth!

With about zero fanfare, Anneliese cut her first tooth last night. She hadn't been exceptionally fussy, hadn't had extra trouble sleeping, hadn't seemed in pain.

She grabbed my finger and stuck it in her mouth (as she is wont to do) and I felt the unmistakable ridges of what could only be the top of a tooth that hadn't been there just hours before. Y'all, she's not even five months old. Isn't this kind of early? But I peeked into her mouth, and... there it is! The top of a tooth, poking up as a little grayish whitish line in her bottom gum.

I tried to take a picture of it, in response to the demands of the masses Ashley. But she'll apparently be satisfied with any picture of Anneliese's mouth, tooth or no tooth. So here you go. Even though the tooth isn't much to photograph yet (maybe in a few weeks? I can't remember how long this stuff takes), it's at least through the gum, which means the worst of it is over. Right?

Or maybe it means that we've just begun the whole teething process and the next few months will be awful. But. I'm going to take the optimistic road here.My little girl is growing up way too fast! I'm not ready for teeth yet! I don't want her to be a baby forever, but I don't want her to grow out of it yet! SLOW DOWN, KIDDO. Rest your head on my shoulder and snuggle with me and let me drink in your infancy before it slips through my fingers. Or before you bite my boob and I'm forced to stop calling you an angel.

Let's just... have a few more months of babyhood, shall we?

I Favorite

The most amusing Nathanism around our house these days is how he talks about his favorite things. Whenever we ask him about his favorites, he replies by saying, I favorite the... whatever it is we're talking about. I favorite this food, and I favorite that color, and I favorite this truck. So cute.

(If you can't see the embedded video below, click here.)

Although, I'm thinking he hasn't totally grasped exactly what the word "favorite" means, since his answers tend to vary by his mood... or whatever happens to be in his line of vision at the moment. And also because he apparently thinks is favorite color is a green elephant.

(You can point the finger at me for somehow giving him the mistaken impression that elephant is a color. My bad.)

Overalls for Anneliese (and Erin!)

I decided last week that there's not much cuter than a kid in overalls.Except maybe this kid in overalls.

(I have been coveting our friend Annie's pink corduroy overalls for months, so I am stupidly happy that these finally fit Anneliese. Also that Annie and her parents are moving to the Triangle from Texas! It's basically just a really good week.)

Edited to add: After my dad's comment below, I dug around and found a picture of me in the pink overalls which are indeed pretty much like Anneliese's. I can't believe my dad remembered them!(That's Ashley on the left and me in the pink overalls, duh. And man do we look alike in this picture!)

A Tow Truck and a Musical Poo

Because bad things sometimes come in threes (as my aunt pointed out on facebook), we can now add a broken car to the list of things to spend our tax refund on this month. First the washer, then the dryer, now a broken accelerator cable in Mark's car. I was stressed about it last night, but now I am just laughing. Which is easier than crying. And I can't control any of it anyway, right?

I met a tow truck this morning where the car had been parked all night, and as you can imagine Nathan was beside himself. A tow truck. Towing Daddy's car. Complete with big tires and orange lights and a big hook. A real big hook, to be specific. He was briefly disappointed when it wasn't Mater, but he got happy again as soon as the tow truck started doing its thing. The driver told me that Nathan's excitement was really flattering. He said very few customers are that appreciative. And he almost never gets applause. :)

********************

In other Nathan news (and he is going to kill me when he's 18 and realizes I told the internet about this), he has recently created an odd routine when he needs to poop. First we ask him if he wants to try on the potty and he emphatically says no. Then he gathers up his recorder, maybe a tool or two, and a bunch of cars which he packs into his red box and carries into his bedroom like a briefcase. Then he spreads everything out on his bed or armchair so he can look at his cars and play his recorder while he does his business. I understand people taking books and magazines into the bathroom, but playing a recorder while you poop? That's weird, right?

(I tried to get it on video, to no avail... he wouldn't even let me take a picture until he was done.. apparently he needs privacy. Which is weird in light of the whole recorder thing.)

My New Internet Soul Mate

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I have been relying a lot on my far-away friends as a support system of late. Praise the Lord for email, right? Well it turns out that one of these far-away friends could be my new internet soul mate. Want to know why?

1.) Her name is also Erin, and she also has a cute engineer husband and has big plans to travel the world with him.

in India -- visiting our mutual friend Kelley, who introduced us

2.) She sends some of the best and most hilarious emails of anyone I know.

3.) She agrees with me that it's not creepy at all that we have never met in real life but still feel like we're friends.

4.) She is a mommy (as of yesterday!)... and judging by this picture of her new daughter, she can't stand ugly hospital baby hats either.

5.) She also had to wait many days for her daughter to decide to vacate the womb premises. Just like I did, she thought her baby would come with the full moon. Just like mine, hers didn't.

6.) She always calls me Erin, and never Mama. Because that is a term for children to use with their parents, not friends to use with each other. (Internets: did you get that memo right there?)

7.) She is secretly worried about being able to love another "baby" as much as her pup. Been there.

8.) She (like me) has been a pregnancy magnet for people who say stupid things. Someone she knows told her she was "barely showing except that her face was filling out." FAIL.

9.) She helps me shop online and when she sees stuff she knows I want, she tells me about it. And in one case, even ordered it and then backed out so that I could have it instead. Do you have friends who would do that for you?

10.) She made a spreadsheet to keep track of which diapers she likes best for her daughter. A spreadsheet. (See? Soul mates.) LOVE.

Congrats on your new mommyhood, Erin!

March 4th Memories and Milestones

I was looking through some old emails and pictures, and I realized that Mark and I have had some milestones and big events on March 4ths of years past.

March 4, 2004: house-hunting begins. Just over two months into our new life in Raleigh, Mark sent me an email saying he was over our apartment and wanted to start house-hunting. And sent me several options he had found online, none of which were even remotely in our price range. (Also, he asked what we were having for dinner, which I distinctly remember annoying me every single day back then. And he asked how our baby girl was doing -- baby girl meaning Bowden, of course... she was an only child back then.)

March 4, 2006: St Croix enters our lives. I sent my mom an email telling her that if she could get strong enough and fit enough to do a five-mile ocean swim in the virgin islands, then by darned Ashley and I would do it right alongside her. So she did, and we did. And thus began our family's ongoing relationship with this small hilly island in the Caribbean, which turns out to have played a role in a whole host of our family's milestones: Nathan's first vacation (and plane ride and boat ride), our longest ocean swim, Ashley's first half-ironman and her engagement to John, and most importantly... Brad's new home. Mom's actually there right now, visiting him!

March 4, 2007: Climbing the Great Wall of China. Our last-minute babymoon across the globe. Yep, that's Nathan in my belly there. We had just found out we were having a boy, and later that day we made our first new-baby purchase: a red t-shirt that says "I climbed the Great Wall!" Said t-shirt is now included in the quilt Megan made us. More pictures from our Beijing vacation here.

March 4, 2008: Nathan in the hospital. Yeah that was a bad week. And scary. Nathan was so tiny (seven months old, but only as big as he had been between two and three months) and even though he was trying to be a good sport, he was so scared and overwhelmed. (Me too.) This was also was the first night I ever spent away from him -- since they were closely monitoring everything he ate (which means it had to come from a bottle, not a boob), Mark spent the night at the hospital and I went home from about midnight to 6am. Only two miles away, but still... not with my baby. Grateful this chapter in his life is over and he's now a healthy growing boy!

March 4, 2009: in Mendocino, CA. Mom and Nathan and I took a multi-generational trip out west to see family and the sights. Here are the three of us in the redwood forest. Yep, that's Beanie Anneliese in my belly. :)

(Alas, no exciting events or news on March 4th of 2010... I know that's what you were all hoping for and why at least six of you scrolled directly to the bottom of the post without reading anything above. Yes, I can see you through my computer. No, there will be no picture of me with an announcement of a new baby inside. Did you really think I was pregnant again already? Are you calling me fat?)

EDITED: March 4, 2010 -- got the invite to my sister's wedding!!! Milestone WIN.

And a New Dryer Too

In a touching move, the likes of which have not been since since together-in-life-and-death pups Dan and Ann in Where the Red Fern Grows (don't know what I'm talking about? You need to stop reading blog posts and get thee to a library to put your hands on a copy of what might be the best novel of all time), our dryer heaved its last sob and died of a broken heart on Sunday. Just a week after we replaced her longtime partner with a young and handsome (colossal, even) washing machine stud.

That's right: OUR DRYER DIED TOO. And it has gone to live in recycled-appliance heaven with the washer. Clearly the dryer couldn't go on living after the washer had died, but was able to hold on just long enough for us briefly consider ourselves done with appliance shopping and delivery fees. Good timing, you two. Thanks.

This morning our younger and hotter dryer arrived and seems quite happy with the handsome washer she's standing next to. She has a nice (drying) rack inside, and her door opens down instead of sideways, so even though it's a mixed marriage (she's a Kenmore and the new washer is a GE), we think it will be a productive and happy partnership.

And our laundry room has taken a distinct cosmetic slant towards modern. (As long as you ignore that drying rack over there to the right. Come on, it's more modern than a clothes line, give me a break.) If you don't think this looks very modern... you should have seen it before. :)

Note to the dishwasher, oven, microwave, fireplace, water heater, fridge, or any other appliance in our house which might be tempted to fail before the end of 2010: don't even think about it.

Tenth Bath

Anneliese had her 10th bath tonight! And I even have photographic evidence -- kind of. Didn't actually get the camera out when she was in the bath, but here she is, all clean and wet and wrapped in a towel afterwards. I promise we wouldn't have posed this picture if we hadn't really given her a bath. A milestone bath even. (If you're flipping back through your calendar to see how many weeks old she is, and trying to deduce from that how often rarely we give her baths, you should just stop it. Stop it right now.)She actually loves bath time (like her mama) and we're totally going to start doing it more often. Starting... next week. Or maybe the week after. But soon. Soon.