No Screaming: I'm Off Duty

March Madness

2011-11-09T12:42:00.009-06:00

Continuing the month-by-month update, here's March:

Has the credit card paid off, now owns a vehicle that was made in the last 6 years (and has a CD player!), and just got a phone this morning that can go on the internet and take pictures... its like we won the lottery! Any recommendations for apps for an iphone? March 1

Small group at the flaggs! March 2

Will eat the entire can of pringles in one sitting without noticing it... March 4

Is trying couponing-- I would love to be one of those people that buys $200 worth of stuff and pays $5, but so far... not so much. I'll keep at it though! March 7

Very distinct sentence from Rowan to Brian: I love you too! :)
Now if only he would say it to me... March 7

We're officially down to one vehicle-- I dropped Brian off at work after leaving the old truck at Carmax, and Rowan cried the whole way home for Daddy! :( March 10

Feels like there's something I've forgotten to do... March 10

On the way home from our MOMS group, Rowan asks for "Park?"
"No, we'll go to the park after your nap."
"...Dan?"
"No, I don't think we're seeing Dan today."
"...Laur-ie?" :) March 11

Had an awesome visit with my Mom!! :) Also, Happy St. Patrick's day! March 17

Community got renewed! Woohoo!! :) March 17

Swimming at the Y with Brian and Rowan-- the toddler is getting to be a LOT of fun! March 19

Got a new laser printer off amazon for $91 (including shipping)-- just installed it and fired it up-- this thing is awesome! March 19

Church, coupon-clipping, lunch, computer shopping (but not bought yet!), sanding and putting wood putty on the table... having a fairly productive day! :) March 20

Brian: "I'm getting really hungry."
Me: "Me too."
Brian: "What do you want to eat?"
Me: "I don't know... we have a lot of bacon."
Brian: (laughing)
Me: "So... are you going to make bacon?"
Brian: "How can I say no? " :) March 21

Hmmm.... after reading some articles, looks like I need to watch some of Elizabeth Taylor's movies. Actually sounds like fun! :) March 23

Vacuumed my bedroom today for the first time... EVER. Owned this house for 3 years. We did not own a vac until yesterday, and used a shopvac on the laminate floors--usually I just ignored the carpet in the bedrooms. (I have had them steam cleaned twice though.) You know things were gross when you have to empty out the vac 3 times before you've finished a room... March 23

Anybody with kids in the Round Rock/Austin area want to trade babysitting? I need a sitter for Tuesday, April 5th from 5pm to 9pm. Let me know! :) March 23

Dear Netflix, Put the following movies on Instant Watch:
-The Matrix -Far and Away -Jurassic Park -Stargate -The Silence of the Lambs -Sneakers -Mission Impossible -Forrest Gump ...there's more but I didn't want this to be too long. Why are there a million piece-of-crap movies from the 70's on there, but not the classics?! (and by "classics" of course, I mean awesome movies from my lifetime.) March 23

Church unplugged is sooo much better when you sit on stage near the band and can actually feel the drums. :) March 23

Took Lucas to the vet & now my truck looks like a dog exploded in the front seat. March 24

Does anybody else feel so much more productive after their bed is made? March 24

To all moms: Carter's website: 50% off everything, plus an additional 20% off any order over $50 with coupon code NEWBORN. I just got 30 onesies for $63! March 24

Hates "New" Abed on this episode of Community. It can't last. It won't anyway, but I just had to put that out there. March 24

Is in line at Round Rock Donuts, since it turns out the muffin mix I bought for MOMS group only makes 6 muffins-- this is the definition of a "happy accident!" :) March 25

Shopping online is so much easier than shopping in person. Most of the time, even including shipping, its cheaper too. :) March 26

Elite 8 is pretty darn good, considering we lost by one point in overtime. I still say... Its Great to Be a Florida Gator! March 26

Okay, been couponing for 3 weeks now: Today went to Randalls and through watching for sales, having a Randalls card, and using coupons, saved 51% on my groceries. Then, went to CVS and got 4 boxes of Stove Top and 2 cylinders of Raisins for $2.08. (coupons + CVS bucks) This couponing stuff works! :) March 28

The squirrel trap arrived today and is in place at the base of the tree. I say this because I feel like I should mark the occasion somehow as the first time I've officially "hunted" an animal. :) March 29

Spent most of the day organizing her music collection on the computer to have the last 3 hours of work erased by accident. Time to go to bed. :( March 31

~~Its so funny to look back and see what's changed and what has stayed the same, even over only 8 months:
I don't coupon as much now, but I want to get back into it,
I feel like we were rolling in dough in March for some reason (oh! Tax returns! Duh!),
still love my laser printer and vacuum (which reminds me of some chores I need to do),
Community is still my favorite show (yay!),
the squirrel cleared out after he saw that we were putting traps out (which I think was for the best),
and Netflix, ever since you changed your prices, we've switched to the Instant-Watch only plan and are doing just fine. On to April! :)~~

February in a Flash!

2011-11-09T11:47:00.010-06:00

February via Status Updates:

Just heard Brad has been moved out of the ICU and is now in room #634 at Brackenridge Hospital.

Okay, he's already been moved to another room. They're too fast for me! 2/2/11

Brad Update 2/2/11: Doing better, opening his eyes, actually talking (though usually with his eyes closed because he's still really groggy). He's out of the Main ICU and in the (I guess) not-as-serious ICU now since he's off the breathing and feeding tubes. Feeding himself, but not yet asked for a computer so you know he's not QUITE with it yet! :) In room #612 but that may change. Getting better daily! February 2

Does anybody have a clothes rack we could borrow? We're having a garage sale Saturday and need a place to hang clothes! February 3

Is excited to announce that we're moving to Asheville, NC! BorgWarner made us an offer we couldn't refuse. Brian starts 2/28/11. Now to get the house cleaned out and sold! Feb 3rd

Dude! Firehouse subs groupons for Austin, and you can buy one for each location! I've already bought 3! Oh yeah... and it snowed. :) Feb 4th

Ever have one of those days where everything just makes you angry? That would be today. Feb 4th

Garage Sale! No one has asked about the furniture yet, which I think is weird. They're all just buying little stuff (which is pretty much the opposite of what I do). Whatever floats your boat, I guess! Feb 5th

6 months ago, Penny arrived! Has it really been that long? Feb 5th

As someone who does not follow professional football, I still love Super Bowl Sunday: Chips and French Onion Dip = YAY!!! :) Feb 6th

Had a blast today swimming with Rowan at the Y! February 7

So, Penny HATES the Y childcare room. Full-on, red-faced, streaming-tears screaming. She doesn't do this at church childcare, or for the friends we've had babysit. Very weird. This is going to make things difficult. February 8

awwwww CRAP! A pipe has burst and is leaking water all over the garage!
I think we got lucky-- it doesn't look like there was much damage. Had to call the plumber out to get a whole new water heater though. thank goodness we had our home warranty, so the cost wasn't too bad, all things considered! February 10

Brian gets home tonight! February 11

Trying to choose between two great things. Prayers please! February 13

omw to dinner with the Rinks and Brad-- Mighty Fine at the Rehab Hospital-- yummy February 14

Valentine's Day isn't as much fun when your Valentine is in Canada and you're in Texas. I got a very sweet card though... :) February 14

After much stress and weeks of negotiations, it turns out that we're going to be staying in Austin after all! :) February 15

Last week, it was the hot water heater that had a pipe burst and had to be replaced. Today, guess who's minivan overheated and had to be towed to the mechanic? This crap only happens when Brian's out of town. I'm thinking next week he should take a trip to China so that a random gas explosion will burn our freaking house down. February 17

Had a great weekend hanging out with Benito, Brad, and Brian (now that he's back in town)! February 21

Got a new truck today!!! WOO to the HOO! :) February 24

Fun at Dallas Night Club!
Was out until 2:30, up until 3, and I've been awake since 7:30 thanks to the kiddos. Soooo tired. February 26

While the boys run to the nursery for tomato plants, Penny and I are chilling at home. :) Tomatoes, poblano peppers, some herbs, I think. The store ended up being closed when Brian and Rowan went so we might not get them planted today, but will be doing it ASAP because I guess the time is right for it! :) February 27

Delicious burgers at the Copelands. :) February 27

Fun at the Big Bounce with Katie, Ella, and Ethan, then lunch with Laura Eaton = great start to a week! :) February 28

Is out of credit card debt!!! WOOHOO!!! :) February 28

~~Man, February was an exhausting month-- I remember being really stressed out about whether or not we were moving to Asheville, getting rid of the minivan, selling the old truck, buying the new one (which I love!)... but it definitely ended on a high note!~~

A Whole Bunch of Status Updates... Yeah, I'm Lazy Like That

2011-11-09T11:04:00.008-06:00

So, probably the easiest way for me to update this blog on the last year is to take my status updates from facebook (and any longer notes from there as well) and post them here. This will probably be a boring read for most people, but it will help me remember a lot of the little things from our day-to-day lives, and let's face it, that's a big part of what this blog is about. I'm thinking I'll just go about a month at a time and see how it works, starting with the last entry I put on here from last year:

Dec 24th, 2010: Merry Christmas! Just got home from the Imagine Christmas service at Gateway. How often do you see aerialists and acrobats performing at church?! :) There was a chick hanging from the ceiling!

Dec 26th, 2010: In-laws let us sleep in while they entertained the kids, then went grocery shopping and filled the fridge! Sleep, food, AND childcare?! Heck yes! :)

Had the BEST dinner tonight-- went to Hudson's on the Bend for Brian's birthday/our 6th Anniversary dinner. Tried all sorts of things I've never had before: Rattlesnake, escargot, venison, rabbit, buffalo, quail, brussel sprouts... :) That place is sooo romantic! December 29, 2010

Okay, this is going to be oversharing: We've been working with Rowan (off and on) with pottytraining and today reached a milestone: 1st time going #2 in the toilet! Yay! (Judge me all you want, haters out there, until you've potty trained someone, you can shut up!) :) Happy New Year!!! December 31, 2010

Happy New Year everybody! December 31, 2010

You know you're old when you consider "staying up late" to be 9:45, since your husband went to bed at 8...January 4 at 8:09pm

Rowan tried some of our Indian food last night, then instantly ran to the kitchen and grabbed a towel and started toweling off his tongue-- I'm thinking it was too spicy for him! :) January 5

Rocking out to "Enter Sandman" while working on compiling photo books-- sometimes its nice to feel a little less like a mom, and a little more like kicking ass. :) January 5

Penny is 5 months old today! January 5

Any moms out there need to know (especially if you're potty training someone): I just paid $5.86 for 4 pairs of pants and 5 shirts for Rowan at Salvation Army. If you pay full price for clothes your child is just going to piss on, you're crazy!
January 7

Its 8:30 and Rowan has already been sent to his room twice. Sigh. Its going to be one of those Mondays. January 10

Rowan was up from 1:15 - 4:30 last night. Then Penny decided it was her turn, waking up at 5:15 and 5:45. Brian's alarm went off at 6:30, and at 7:30, Penny woke me up to get her and Rowan up for the day. So, I basically didn't sleep last night. We cannot have anymore days that are too cold to go outside-- my children need to be worn out so that everyone can sleep properly! January 12

Saw that I suddenly liked AT&T on facebook...wtf? Then realized Rowan was clicking stuff...fixed that one. Unlike! January 13

Took the kids to the doctor today: Penny has RSV and an ear infection, while Rowan has infections in both ears. This explains why the week has been so awful behavior-wise. Could use prayers for health and parental sanity if you've got a moment! January 14

Wow, this weather is gross! Its officially been winter for less than a month and already I'm sick of it! January 15

I am so jealous-- 2 of my sisters just went swimming with manatees in Florida and at least one of them kissed a manatee in its big squishy face! I am totally doing that-- I want to kiss a manatee! January 16

I LOVE ordering stuff off the internet-- shopping without having to drag children with you is the BEST! I especially love when you get emails saying the item is on its way... waiting a little bit makes me anticipate and enjoy it more... YAY!! :)
January 19

Dear Indian Grocery Store: After trying to eat dinner and only getting down a few bites, I'm fairly certain that box of spice mix wasn't meant for human consumption, so much as A CHEMICAL WEAPON. That's not flavor, that's PAIN. There's a difference.
January 21

Just had Baba ghanoush for the first time-- yummy! :) January 22

The weather today is GORGEOUS! Got a fire going in the pit, cutting wood for the new dining room table on the deck, saying hi to the neighbors-- life is good! January 22

Quick while the kids are asleep-- heading outside to sand parts of my new dining room table! I cut the wood Saturday with the circular saw and sanded about half the wood today. I'm hoping to sand the rest of the wood hopefully this week, and once Brian's back in town we can put the table together (he's going to Colorado for work next week starting Sunday.) It will be done soon, just not this week! :) January 24

Misses Ocala sometimes. January 26

Could really go for some Pluckers Trivia Night tonight. Oh well. January 26th.

For those of you that know Brad Mouring, he had a BAD motorcycle accident yesterday and is at Breckenridge Hospital ICU. He is responsive and on a feeding tube and (I think) a breathing tube. He has broken both legs, and his recovery will take an extensive amount of time. If you want to visit, call his parents at: (321) 917-2324 to figure out a good time to come in. January 30

Brian went to go see Brad tonight and this is what he's told me:

They don't know when the accident happened, or how exactly it happened-- it was sometime Saturday night because someone discovered his bike, then his body, on the side of the road, around 3am on Sunday morning. We don't know if he was out in the middle of nowhere or in town-- forgot to ask.

Brad was asleep when Brian went to see him (they're keeping him pretty heavily sedated), but the good news is that he doesn't seem to have any problems with his head or spine-- hooray for helmets! He is on a respirator and has a feeding tube, and tomorrow morning will have surgery on one of his legs to put a rod in and work on his kneecap (broken). He broke 3 out of 4 of the major bones in his legs, but he can wiggle his toes, so he's not paralyzed or anything like that. Other than his legs and his arms looking beat up, everything else seems to be okay.

It looks like he's gonna have a hell of a time for recovery, but he's going to be alright. If anybody has cards or anything they want to send him, just message me and I can give you our address and we'll make sure they get to him. I'm sure he appreciates hearing from you guys. That's all I got for now! January 30th.

~~Wow, looking back at this stuff reminds me how hard some of the year has been. RSV and ear infections, Brad nearly dying, and oh yeah, the table is STILL NOT FINISHED. We're hoping to get that done before this Thanksgiving. LOL.~~ Also, am trying to upload some photos, but apparently somehow lost the original versions and just have the NEF ones, so I'll need Brian's help on that. ARGH.

Almost a Year Later

2011-11-09T10:41:00.003-06:00

Now I know why there's a million pictures of myself as a baby, and of the rest of my sisters... not so much. I TOTALLY GET IT NOW, AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOW MUCH YOU LOVE YOUR CHILDREN. When you only have one baby, there's time to update your blog, take pictures, etc. When you have two (or more), suddenly nothing matters other than survival. Don't get me wrong, there are quite a few pictures of Penny and Rowan over the past year-- I just haven't gotten organized enough to go through them all, write up posts, and actually put them on here.

But! Now that the holidays are approaching, I find myself once again organizing pictures for the annual photo books I give to the grandparents. In doing so, I realized that in the past, I have been able to use the blog as a helpful guide in figuring out what happened when, and going through the zillions of pictures taken over the past year. Not so much this year... so! I'm going to have to go over my facebook account for the past year, and that DOES NOT SOUND LIKE FUN.

As I do this, I've decided to update the blog with the biggest events of the past year, and maybe even remember to post some pictures too (this one is of Penny when she took her first steps--a few months ago...eek!). Its insane looking at this blog and seeing how much the kids have grown between my last update and now.

Also, blogger has given me some new options for layouts and such, so hopefully the page itself will look better too. Wish me luck! :)

Thanksgiving: The Seige

2010-12-21T19:36:00.005-06:00

Okay, this is about 3 weeks late, but Thanksgiving in Wilmington, North Carolina was AWESOME!!!

Lots of fun, family, food, and free time (for me, not so much for Nana, Papa, Dinnie, Charlie, and Adam, who were busy keeping Rowan occupied)... sooo nice to sleep in at least a little bit and have people take care of you (and your toddler!). Had a blast at the beach, seeing the Christmas lights at the Gardens whose name I don't remember, hanging out around the house, etc. So glad Dinnie, Charlie, Jay, The Talberts, and Don and Betsy could meet Penny and Rowan! It makes me sad to think that might be the last Thanksgiving in that house (they're trying to sell it). Had lots of fun, especially playing Catchphrase with Dinnie (and having to wear items on our heads so she knew which team we were on...). I even got to slip away for some quiet time to read!

Here's a link to the pictures on facebook (you can see them even if you're not a facebook-person):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=258453&id=507176668&l=99f4579566

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! :)

4.5 Months Later...

2010-12-20T20:56:00.007-06:00

So... I haven't posted in a while. This is not because I didn't want to, but because I didn't have time. (Having 2 kids this young is very time-consuming!)

Real quickly, I'll post some updates for each person, and then get on to what everybody really wants to see: pictures and video!

Brian: is doing great! Work is going well, he got a small raise in October, and is adjusting to having 2 kids-- he keeps saying its like she's (Penny) always been here. :)

Nikki: is doing great too! I'm within 5 pounds of my pre-baby weight, and am not currently really sick (I've been fighting off the 8 million diseases that Rowan brings home from school), and now that I've gotten most of the Christmas stuff done, things are looking up! As of this week, I've stopped breastfeeding Penny (I wasn't making enough to fill her up at feeding time), but I still pump 3 times a day, and we have a ton of milk frozen in the freezer, so we should be good for at least another 2 months. This fall, I enrolled in a Mom's group at my friend Katie's church, and have really enjoyed meeting new people and doing the bible study on Friday mornings.

Rowan: had an awesome day, for a Monday! (Mondays are usually his hardest days.) He had a playdate today with his good friend Ella, and is adapting well to Penny being here. Within the last 2 weeks or so, he's learned how to give kisses, so that's made him really nice, and he hugs people now too! Now that he's 2, we say prayers before his nap and bedtime, so that whenever I say, "Time to pray!" he claps his hands together. When I say, "Amen," he does too, and repeats it several times. He gets glowing reports from his teachers at school, and is still sleeping at naptime like a champ. He loves to help us take out the trash and recycling, put dishes into the sink, and his hand-eye coordination has gotten amazingly good-- he can close the ad windows on youtube videos using the mouse! He loves songs, whether I'm singing them or listening to them on the ipod or computer, and he loves water soooo much (he pretty much gets 2 baths or showers a day). He's started counting, but doesn't quite have it down yet--he'll say," Two...Four...One...Two...Four....Two!" He's also trying very hard to learn to jump, but mainly just falls down, and he still dances in circles whenever the credits to a television show come on. We've started some mild efforts at potty training, asking him if he wants to "Go Potty," and anytime he says yes, we give it a shot. He knows exactly what to do (I guess they've been doing this with him at school for a while), and after the holidays, we're going into full-blown potty training mode (since kids from his class have to be potty trained before they can move up in August). Here come the Spiderman Underoos! :) He's also as stubborn as ever, but we're trying not to focus on that...

Penny: is sick right now, so she's having a hard time. :( She's got a minor cold (all of us have it, but its hitting her the worst), and its making feeding her difficult since she has to be able to breathe through her nose to drink from the bottle. She handled the trip to North Carolina for Thanksgiving really well (did awesome on the plane), and sleeps through the night from 8 to 7:30, only needing one feeding at 11 or so. As for her stats, she's now in the over 95th percentile for height (the doc said she's the height of a 6-month-old), and just under 50th for weight, --at her 2-month appointment, she was literally off the chart for height and 50-75th for weight, so she's actually slowed down a little bit). She laughs and smiles and coos, bats at the toys in the pack'n play, and she's recently been trying to do sit-ups (which the doctor says is a 6-month-old trait), so she's ahead of the game! We tried introducing some rice cereal into her bottle for night feedings, and so far she's handled it pretty well. We also tried spoon-feeding her some last week, but decided she's not quite ready for that yet, so we'll probably put that off until after the holidays. She's very calm personality-wise (over Thanksgiving, Brian's uncle called her "The Non-Baby Baby"), and while she doesn't nap as much as Rowan did when he was her age, she's a lot quieter, so you don't even notice her when she's just hanging out next to you. She loves to be wherever people are though, so if she knows you've gone into the other room, she cries because she wants to be where the action is!

Videos!

The Toy Rules

2010-10-05T10:48:00.006-05:00

In case you didn't know, Rowan's 2nd birthday is coming up this Friday. While grandparents on both sides of the family have asked what to get him for a present, I'll tell you right now what his parents are getting him: a cake and a trip to the park. And that's all.

Rowan's very good at helping Dad wash the truck!
Some people may think we're horrible parents for doing this—that by somehow not buying our son the latest and greatest plastic beeping thing with flashing lights, that we're depriving him. But honestly, we didn't buy him anything for Christmas or his birthday last year either, and he was totally fine with that—he doesn't know what birthdays and Christmas are yet (SCORE! We're milking that for as long as possible...), and even when he finds out, we want to teach him about the holiday we're celebrating or show how happy we are to have the person (who's birthday it is) in our lives by spending time with them, not necessarily a bunch of money on a gift.

This isn't to say that Rowan doesn't get gifts, or that he has no toys to play with. When we see that he's really interested in something (or if his teacher at school has noticed him playing with one toy in particular), we make a note of it for when special occasions come along (relatives like having suggestions on what to give). But more often than not, Rowan wants to play with the things that he sees his parents playing with on a regular basis: the camera, the cell phones, home improvement tools, etc. Books have become huge in our house (now that he picks them out himself), and the activities he loves to do the most are helping around the house with whatever chore we're doing (especially opening and closing the dishwasher), going for walks, playing outside, and chasing the puppies with a stick (we've had to take the grill tools away from him though-- turns out, dogs don't like being hit with the metal grill brush).

Helping Papa get some home improvement done in the kitchen.

He loves the computer.

Helping Dad and Papa paint and sand the cabinets.
If Rowan is going to get a toy though, we prefer it to be one that doesn't require batteries, that doesn't make noises, have flashing lights, be related to any particular movie or television show, be weapon-like, be expensive, or in general, be made of plastic. And to be fair, we have found that we own a few awesome toys that break these rules. We highly recommend, for instance, the My Pal Scout toy because we use it multiple times everyday-- Rowan dances with it, drags it all over the house, and falls asleep to the music it plays so that its become part of his naptime and bedtime routines. It can also be adjusted to match his interests (you plug a cord into the USB port on your computer to change the settings), so we are confident that it will last a long time. We also have a music table that he's played with quite a bit since he received it at Christmas (only really losing interest in it about a month ago), and the vibrating chair and car seat music toys from when Rowan was a baby are getting use a second time around now that Penny is here. These are, however, 4 toys out of the many, and are exceptions to the rules.

For example of why we have these rules (a purchase that I am still kicking myself about): Recently, I bought a Buzz Lightyear toy for Rowan as a gift from the new baby to soften the blow of having to share his parents' attention. While its a pretty neat toy (it talks, has flashing lights and wings that pop out, etc.), he plays with it very little, the wings broke within the first day of his playing with it, and it cost $35! (I've gotten him a $3 toy from Goodwill that was more sturdy and that he played with more). Its so true what people say about toys and their boxes-- Rowan will play more with the cardboard box than the actual toy, so why spend the money when I've got lots of boxes laying around?

Helping bring the groceries into the house on a rainy day.
Lastly, I just want to end this monster of a post by saying that we are definitely not anti-toy, and we love our children very much--we're just very particular about the toys our kids play with. Its like anything else with parenting: we all have our things that we try to take a stand on, and we all have our things that we let go. Toys (and screen-time, but that's another post) just happen to be our issues-of-choice, and we're okay with that. Thanks for reading! :)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-09-29T11:41:00.000-05:00

For anyone who was interested, here's the link!

http://granvillehouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Hope you like them!

Almost 8 weeks Later...

2010-09-28T10:28:00.012-05:00

Okay, so I know I haven't written in a while, but I have an excuse: with 2 under the age of 2, I've been a little bit busy!

Life has been hectic but good-- Penny is an amazing sleeper, while Rowan continues to come home with every sickness possible. Since Penny was born, Rowan's had full blown pink eye once, a slight amount a second time, and Penny had pink eye for a few days, as well as the both of them having multiple colds. Rowan is covered in mosquito bites because we rarely doused him with bug spray (who wants to put all those chemicals on a toddler?) and until a day ago, it was still hot and muggy out--thank goodness its finally cooled off and feels like Autumn!

Penny eats about 6 times a day-- 3am, 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, and 10pm. She could go longer at night, but I want to wait until she weighs a bit more before having her go more than 5 and a half hours without food. Her personality is so different from Rowan-- who would have thought 2 babies that looked so similar would act so different? She's very quiet, likes to be held, and is not very demanding: if she's crying, she either wants to eat, to be wrapped tight, to have her pacifier, or... Rowan poked her in the eye. About once a day (in the evenings, which are her slightly fussy time), she cries herself to sleep, but that usually only takes about 10 minutes. Wet diapers don't seem to bother her at all, nor do the trains, the dogs, or the loud noises that seem to just come with the territory of being near Rowan. She loves riding in the bjorn, the stroller, the car... I wouldn't say she's a happy baby yet (although we have started seeing smiles!), but she's definitely a more content one.

Rowan is talking more and more, and his attitude has improved quite a bit. His teacher says its because since he's talking more, he's making himself more understood, so he's not frustrated all the time-- makes sense to me! Just his mastering Yeah and No make life so much easier--I'm no longer confused as to what he wants the majority of the time. It has even made him more affectionate-- now he puts his head on your lap or against your face as a sort of hug, and I haven't been bitten in weeks (I still get hit every now and then when he's angry though). However, he's really taken to the pillows idea his school has for punishment and temper tantrums, so when I ask, "Do you need to go to your pillows?" he either decides not to throw a tantrum, yells no and leaves, or he continues to throw a tantrum, but walks along with you to his room to have his tantrum there (rather than out in front of everybody). Every now and then, he'll throw himself to the floor on all fours into a sort of prostrate position (Brian and I laugh about his "Angst" position), but it doesn't last long. Things are looking up!

In addition to what he already could say, he can now say milk, baby, poop, food, bird (although when he says it, it sounds like "bech"), ELMO (all day long--our efforts to keep him away from television have slacked lately due to exhaustion and dealing with the baby), butt (for belly button), purple, yellow, orange (though I'm not sure he knows what the colors are, at least he can say them), and he has finally stopped saying "guy" when he wants water-- now it actually sounds something like "water." He still loves to feed the dogs (and eat their food), and Go is still his favorite word. He likes to go out and play with the puppies, wade in the river at the park, and play on the computers (but not as much as before since we've put password screens up with the screen savers). He loves helping at the grocery store--if I point to what I want him to grab off the shelf, he'll grab it and put it in the cart. Then, when we get to the cashier, he'll put the groceries on the conveyor belt. He's handling Penny's presence so well-- he even wants to hold her sometimes, though his attention span on that is limited. He'll be 2 in about 2 weeks, and I can't believe how much he's grown in that time-- it really is amazing!

In addition to taking care of children, I've been working on some projects around the house-- a few weeks ago, I found a great blog for how to make your own furniture, so I printed off the plans, drove to Lowe's, bought the materials, and got to work. Brian showed me how to use the power sander, how to varnish wood, how to use the power drill (I hated that thing for years but now I don't mind it), and within a week we had a new bench for the dining room that can seat 2-3 people! I plan on making another one in the next week or so, and eventually a table to go with it. It really wasn't hard to do-- it just took time, and now that I have done it once, it should go a lot faster the second time around.

I also saw how someone made cushions for their window seat on another blog, so I took the plans, bought the wood, fabric, foam, and batting, and got to work. Brian showed me how to use the circular saw (ok, I still wouldn't use this without having someone else around to drive me to the hospital in case I cut my fingers off), but I would say I know how to use the saw now. Now we have a nice cushion on the window seat in the living room (and I didn't have to do any sewing--yay for staple guns!), so I'm pretty happy about that. I will say that I don't see myself doing anymore projects involving fabric-- too expensive for what you get. For the price of the materials to build the cushions, I could have built 3 more wooden benches!

Also, found an awesome recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and made them last week. I wanted to post the link here but now I can't find it. Oops.

I posted some pics here but there's lots more on facebook.

Here's the link on facebook for the picture album of Penelope and Rowan:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=238107&id=507176668&l=d675eaf444

For the projects: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=238119&id=507176668&l=579828bb84

Oh! I almost forgot! Rowan got his first hair cut yesterday. We went to a kid-centered place called Snip-Its that's just down the street from our house. It had tons of toys and books and televisions to distract kids when they're getting a haircut, but sadly Rowan refused to be distracted and pretty much screamed the whole time. He definitely needed a haircut, seeing as his hair in the back was getting so long that it would matt together and knot up-- the lady actually had to cut a knot out of his hair. But, she worked really quickly, and it looks pretty good-- my only complaint is that to me, Rowan doesn't look like Rowan anymore--he looks too grown-up! I miss his curls!

That's all I've got for now. Yay for football season--Go Gators!

The Labor Story, Penelope Renee Kindinger, and the Aftermath

2010-08-16T16:00:00.005-05:00

Penelope Renee Kindinger was born August 5th, 2010 at 3:57pm at the Austin Area Birthing Center here in Austin, TX. Here's the story:

Penelope was originally due August 9th, but because her brother was born almost a month early, we'd been staring at my stomach in anticipation for weeks. Anytime I'd have the slightest pain or twinge, I'd be thinking, "Is this it?" The pregnancy had been very different from Rowan's, so we had no idea what to expect. The go-bag had been packed since week 35, the room ready since week 36, and Brian's phone was no longer on silent, seeing as at any moment, I could call and say, "Get home, now!"

What added a bit to the stress of being ready to pop at the hottest part of the summer in Texas was the fact that at Brian's work, they were having NI Week, which is something they pretty much prepare months for, and which requires a ton of time every year. Because I could go at any moment, Brian's work had given him things to do, but were understanding that at any point, he might not be there, and he'd arranged to give his presentation to a co-worker if need be. He ended up giving his presentation on Monday and only missing one day of the conference-- when they announced that he'd won an award at the sales conference, someone apparently shouted out: "He's not here because he's having a baby!"

Here's where some awesome timing comes into play: Knowing that I was exhausted dealing with Rowan and being huge, Mrs. K decided to come into town on Wednesday night-- even if I didn't have the baby on my due date, it would have to be soon, so she went ahead and flew over. About an hour and a half after her arrival (around 1am), I started having contractions!

I laid in bed and tried to get some sleep-- the contractions weren't super painful yet, but were pretty frequent, so I took note of them and slept off and on until about 7am. Rowan got up and I drove him to school, fairly certain (since the contractions had gotten stronger and not let up) that that day was THE DAY. Around 8am, I called the Birthing Center and started timing how far apart the contractions were. I told Brian to stay home and wait with me, so we went out on the back deck and cut his hair. (Since my water hadn't broken yet, we weren't too worried about rushing-- there's a lot of hours to labor that are just sitting around waiting.) Around 9, the contractions were about 3 minutes apart and I needed to stop what I was doing when I was having one. Not super-painful still, but definitely not the Braxton Hicks ones I'd had in the past.

Since Rowan's labor had started with my water breaking, and had not had any real contractions (instead of pain coming and going in waves, it was just ALL PAIN ALL THE TIME), I was pleasantly surprised to be having a textbook labor this time around (it hurt, but at least the pain went away at the end of a contraction). Around 10am, we decided to go in to the Birthing Center. I had finished cutting Brian's hair, called my mom to let her know what was going on, and we swung by the Whataburger drive-thru on the way there. (That chocolate shake after the baby was born was SOOOOO good.)

We arrived at the Birthing Center and got settled in. They checked me out and said I was about 3cm dilated and 90% effaced. Woohoo! We were the only ones there this time (last time 3 other couples were having babies that same night), so we had the place to ourselves. Got the wireless internet fired up and started watching a movie on Netflix. Emailed a couple people. Contractions were getting more painful, but not more frequent. Around noon, Brian went and got us lunch at Schlotzsky's. I could only eat a few bites, but it helped (I finished it off later). By about one, we decided to go for a walk, hoping that might speed things up a bit. There's a walking trail at the Birthing Center, so we wandered through the woods for a bit (it was super hot out). Contractions started getting a lot more painful, so we headed back to the Center.

By about 1:30, things were hurting enough that I decided to jump in the shower on the yoga ball (which is where I spent at least 8 hours last time). Brian was wearing swim trunks, and would put counter pressure on my back during the contractions, and things were going well-- as well as could be considered seeing as I was in some pain. Brian kept encouraging me to yell/moan my way through contractions, which helped, but my throat was really sore after wards. By 2:30, I was really hurting, and asked to be checked. (I generally resisted being checked this pregnancy and labor because it hurt and was usually disappointing last time--after hours of labor, to hear you hadn't progressed was disheartening.)

This time, they said I was at about 5cm, and I wanted to start crying-- my water still hadn't broken yet, and the midwife (Rosewitha--we had her last time too!), was fairly certain that as soon as my water broke, the baby would be arriving right behind that. At 3:30, I was fed up. I yelled, "Why won't my water break already?!" and the heads of two midwives popped into the shower and said, "We can break it for you, if you want."

Did I want it? Heck yes I did! They had me lay down on the bed and checked me again-- no real progress made after an hour--UGH! Then, they got out this thing that looked like a long toothpick, and a scene from the Exorcist followed, complete with me screaming and 3 people holding me down (including Brian). Suddenly, everything got WAY MORE PAINFUL (which I hadn't thought was possible), and I was on all fours trying to breathe my way through the pain. Brian says I started whimpering (like last time) saying, "I can't do this! It hurts too much! I need some drugs!" over and over, and he kept saying, "Yes, you can. You said that last time and this time is way shorter-- You can do it." (Because logic is the right call when someone is psycho with pain.) ANYWAY. In my crazy-anger-pain state, I thought to myself, "I'll just poop on the bed, that will show them!" Because that makes a lot of sense.

So I started pushing what I thought was a different set of muscles, and suddenly it wasn't going to be a #2 anymore, because a baby head had decided to show up instead. At which point, I freaked out, flipped over, and the midwives started doing stuff. I won't describe it-- just know that at one point, I accused them of trying to push the baby back in, when really they were just positioning the head so that it would do as little damage upon exit as possible. Long story short, Penny popped out looking purple 25 minutes after they broke my water, which is actually super-fast (she quickly turned pink). They wiped her off, put her on my chest, and Brian and I said hello to our new daughter, who came out scowling and looking JUST LIKE ROWAN. Seriously. When we saw the angry face, both Brian and I thought, "Whoa. We know that face." :)

She was born weighing 8 lbs, 11oz, but did less damage upon exit than Rowan (no stitches, yay!). She's blond with dark blue eyes and a slightly receding chin (sadly for me, it looks like she's not a redhead, but Brian is thrilled about that). Inevitable clean-up followed, including looking at the placenta (gross--pass if you are offered to look at that), and resting, while every hour or so a midwife would come in and check our vitals and make sure we were doing okay. I ate the rest of my sandwich and chocolate shake, and we started making phone calls and playing around on the computer. A couple people came by to see us, and the midwives gave Penny her first bath and went over our instructions with us. By 9pm, since everything looked incredibly healthy, we were free to go home!

By this point, I felt kinda guilty for not checking on Rowan all day, but I think having a baby is a good excuse. Mrs.K had picked him up from school at noon and hung out with him all day, but she said he kept going into our bedroom looking for us. Awww! :)

Since having Penny, we have to admit to the world that she is probably the best baby EVER. Not that Rowan wasn't a great baby, but he was demanding as far as feedings went-- he wanted to eat every 2-3 hours, like a normal baby. Penny wants to eat every 2-3 hours DURING THE DAY. At night, if 5 hours pass without a feeding, its no big deal. If it gets to five and a half (we set the alarm), then we wake her up and feed her. She spends most of the day sleeping, and occasionally opens her eyes enough to stare at you with a confused look on her face. She's so small that most of the newborn clothes don't seem to fit her yet.

As for sleeping at night, she slept next to us in bed for about 5 days (in a box thingy so we wouldn't roll over onto her), then we moved her to the pack 'n play (put next to the bed) for a night. Then we moved the pack 'n play over by the window for another night, and since she handled those moves so well, we moved her last night to sleep in her crib in her own room, and had no problems. We set the baby monitor up, but don't really need it, seeing as her room is across the hall from ours, and she did great!

Penny is a very fast eater, and after some initial difficulties, is now breastfeeding like a champ. I'm pumping like crazy as well--my goal is to fill the freezer with extra milk, and I'm pretty proud at how much progress we've made so far. Her bodily functions are noisy and working very well, and we have no issues like we did last time with Rowan's kidney, so that's a relief. At her checkup about a week after she was born, the doctor said everything looked great.

Rowan is adapting to his sister pretty well, all things considered. He says "Penny" and "baby" and is enjoying spending lots of extra time with his Nana (who went home yesterday) and his Dad (who is on paternity leave). Brian is amazingly patient and is adapting well to "toddler time"-- doing things when Rowan feels like them (Rowan has mastered saying "yes", but says "no" to everything that gets suggested, even if its something he would like). Since there's no real hurry to our days at the moment, we avoid temper tantrums by giving him lots of choices, and it seems to be working alright (though we have gone backwards in one area--Rowan is eating meals back up in the high chair because he refuses to stay in place when eating and everything in the house was getting grossed-up as a result). His teacher says he's been a bit "rebellious" lately, but I suppose that's to be expected. Plus, he's back to sleeping through the night, which he stopped doing when Penny first arrived. Things are getting better!

Today, Rowan came up to Penny and while palming her head with one hand, kissed her on the cheek. Penny looked shocked, but she pretty much always looks that way if her eyes are open, and I've never seen him kiss anybody before, so that was awesome.

Lastly, I would like to give a gigantic THANK YOU to Mrs.Kindinger, who entertained Rowan for over a week (who can be EXHAUSTING), fed us, did the grocery shopping, cleaned the house, and in general made life not only livable but fun while we adjusted to the new baby. We can't thank you enough!!! (Also, she got the inevitable out of the way by being the one who said the S-word in front of Rowan, which he immediately repeated. LOL! :) We dodged that bullet!)

That's about all I've got for now. I posted pics on facebook. Here's a link that you can open even if you aren't on facebook, to see the pictures (don't worry, there aren't any labor pictures--we don't do that):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200100&id=507176668&l=21505a2b26

Thanks for all the well-wishes, emails, and phone calls! We're doing great! :)

Pics from Kindingers' Visit and Baby Girl's Nursery

2010-07-16T19:52:00.039-05:00

Baby Girl's Room!

While we still have to hang shelves above the couch, the room is basically finished. I love it! The paint color, the crib linens, the mobile, the light fixture, the curtains-- all of it! I couldn't be happier with how its turned out. It really says "Baby Girl" without all the pink and purple that you usually see in girl rooms. Thanks so much to Mrs.K for all her hard work-- I especially love the mobile made out of little stuffed animals from IKEA! Now, all we need is a baby! :)

I'm Starting to Think We're Being Punished

2010-07-14T20:59:00.003-05:00

Every third day now, something (either house, health, or car related) breaks, stops working altogether, or requires a professional to take a look at and possibly take our money to make the problem stop. In the last 2 months:

-we've had someone out to fix our tv,
-we purchased a new router when the internet stopped working,
-we've had to deal with customer service twice from Time Warner because it turned out the internet problem was on their end,
-we've had to deal with customer service twice from the router people because after we installed it, the router initially only liked working with 2 out of 5 computers that were in the house,
-the minivan threw a belt so that the power steering stopped working,
-the car inspector said we needed to buy 2 new tires on the minivan before we could pass inspection,
-Brian's right back tire went flat due to something metal stuck in it, and is not considered repairable (as in, we have to buy at least one new truck tire—so we're currently driving around on the spare),
-Brian's truck battery died and now needs a jump every morning and evening for Brian to get to and from work,
-the A/C has started leaking large amounts of water (which we fixed a week ago, but has today started doing it again),
-I've had a dentist appointment due to super-sensitive teeth as a result of the pregnancy,
-we've switched pediatricians so I had to go interview the new one,
-Rowan has gone to the doctor at least three times-- the first time, he had a massive fever, the second time, he had an ear infection, a fungal infection on his junk that chafed to the point of bleeding, as well as a cold, and the third time, he has two different rashes and a cold (one rash is a contact rash from touching something he must be allergic to, while the other is considered the result of a virus that should go away after 4 days, has now lasted 8 days, and scared the crap out of us because it looks like measles or chicken pox or something serious),
-I now have an appointment with the midwives every week because I'm down to the last month of the pregnancy,
-the window in our bedroom came off the hinge so Brian's dad had to fix it,
-the toilet is now randomly flushing again,
-the grill stopped working (has since been fixed),
-the carbon monoxide detector had a low battery, but instead of saying “Low Battery,” it told us to get out of the house because we were all going to die and we had to have the fire department come out with 3 firemen and a truck to make sure we were in the clear, and
-Rowan was teething for about a week, making him act like he was possessed by at least a minor demon, and not sleeping through the night.

In addition, I'm 36 weeks pregnant in Texas during the hottest month of the year, and we chose last week to clean, sand, prime, and paint the cabinets and walls (basically re-do) in the entire kitchen. The only thing I can think of that hasn't gone haywire are the dogs, so I fully expect them to either 1) escape and get returned to me by animal control, 2) escape and at least one of them get hit by a car, or 3) come down with some sort of tumor or virus that will either kill them or cost at least $1000 to cure, within the next week.

Compared to the last few months, I would welcome the relative calm of just pumping this baby out and being up half the night taking care of it, if it would mean the other insanity would stop.

35 Weeks... And What Feels Like the Longest Post Ever

2010-07-06T19:46:00.005-05:00

I'm pretty darn tired, so I will post pictures later...

-About 2 weeks ago, my mother-in-law, whom I have nominated for sainthood, arrived and we started fixing up the house.

-Baby Girl's room:
--is now painted,
--electrical outlets and face plates have been replaced, (it was fun learning how to do that!),
--couch has been moved into that room and now has a cover,
--shelf above the crib has been put up,
--the closet has had shelving installed,
--I have organized all the clothes, and put them in dollar store baskets,
--2 pictures hung up,
--an adorable decal put up on the wall,
--found a nightstand for the lamp to put in the corner,
--installed a chandelier,
--and curtains with draw-back hooks have been hung up.

-In Rowan's room:
--drawback hooks have been put up for the curtains,
--quilt (that was hanging) has been moved to being over the dresser,
--diaper changing pad has been removed and put on changing table in Baby Girl's room,
--color signs (that I didn't like) have been removed and replaced with the Animal ABC's that used to be somewhere else,
--shelf above the bed has been put up.

-In the kitchen:
--many delicious meals have been made,
--Mrs. K stripped the wallpaper (or 12 layers of paint that were peeling and flaking off the right-hand wall), down to the drywall using a steam machine.

-Since Mr. K's arrival on Friday night:
--dining room wall has been painted,
--all cabinet doors and drawer fronts on the right side of the kitchen have been taken off,
--the upper ones have all been TSP'd, sanded, primed, and painted,
--blue paint touched up in living room and dining room,
--all child-proof latches on right-hand side of kitchen have been removed,
--all shelf liners on right-hand side have been removed and cleaned,
--all cabinets and drawers on right-hand side have been cleared out,
--back wall of kitchen primed and painted,
--light above the sink taken down and replaced,
--master bedroom window fixed,
--and grill repaired.

We have also:
--done about a million loads of laundry and dishes and times of taking out the trash,
--dropped off the recycling (the amount of cardboard we had was getting ridiculous),
--gone to Lowe's at least once a day for the last 2.5 weeks,
--attended our first parent-teacher conference (it went very well!),
--made trips to the park by downtown Round Rock, Jungle Java, the indoor playground at Lakeline Mall, Brushy Creek Lake Park's sprinkler park area, the Howards' for a pool party, and numerous walks around the neighborhood,
--had another midwife appt (all is good),
--got a blow-up pool and swimming shoes, and had an awesome sprinkler/pool/bubble-fest on the 4th of July,
--interviewed our new pediatrician on Friday (and then visited her today since we realized yesterday that Rowan had a fever and was covered in spots-- he's okay, but not super fun to deal with),
--called Time Warner to get our internet connection fixed,
--I went to the dentist (all is good),
--got the tv fixed (repair guy had to come out when lines showed up on the screen),
--packed the go-bag for when Baby Girl decides to make an appearance,
--had a fun interaction with Round Rock's fire department sending a fire truck and showing up at our door at 6:45 on a Friday morning because the Carbon Monoxide alarm was going off and we had to evacuate the house, (all is good now--for some reason, instead of saying "Low Battery", the alarm chose to make us think we were all going to die),
--shredded about 2 years worth of documents (on purpose),
--sprung a leak in the water-handling part of the air conditioner, spilling water in the A/C closet, garage, and laundry room (it is now fixed--thank goodness!).

-As for Rowan, he's been busy too. We have started some new routines around the house based on his time at the Montessori school:
--he gets his diaper changed standing up (not easy by the way, but is supposed to help transition to potty training-- he wipes his own behind now most of the time and throws his used wipes into the trash, helps pull his pants up and down, and helps hold his shirt up),
--he no longer eats in the high chair or wears a bib-- he sits at a toddler table in the dining room, hands his plate to me or Nana when he's done, helps wipe off the table, and throws his trash away,
--he puts his shoes on by holding onto the coffee table or window seat and stepping into his shoes (while we help get them on),
--he gets picked up rarely--when he holds his hands up to be picked up, I bend down to his level and hug him instead (its not good for me to be picking him up now anyway, but it also is helping him see that he has to cooperate and hold our hands when we need to go somewhere rather than just being scooped up and carried along-- don't worry, he still gets snuggled a lot!),
--and he has a "pillow area" in his room that he has to go to when he has a temper tantrum to calm down.

These little changes have not been easy. It was very hard to get him to cooperate at first (of course, I have to remember that its his job to test us), and he still has to be reminded to go "sit down please" when he gets up during meals, but after doing this for a little over a week, I have to say the results have been very promising. There have been far fewer tantrums (we were up to 7 or 8 a day, and now we're down to less than one--except for today, due to illness), the biting and clawing at our faces has decreased dramatically, and I no longer have to chase him around the house to get his shoes on (which was exhausting). There's very little food throwing anymore (although he now just chooses not to eat something he doesn't want--I miss the baby that inhaled anything I gave him!), and he just seems happier overall.

He's talking and babbling more to himself, shaking his head "no", and now says: Go, cheese, more (sometimes with please), bubble, shoes, nana (for banana, but he also understands it means "Grandma"), mama, papa, bye, hello, go-go (for yogurt), thank you (when he wants something you have), uh oh, guy (this means "water"--I have no idea why), and he seems to understand far more than he can say. Every now and then, he'll repeat something we've said but not with any consistency, like "grapes, "blueberry," "love you," "book," etc. He loves to mimic what we're doing, especially if it involves tools, driving, the laptops, the spray nozzle on the hose, the tv remotes, or washing his hands in the sink. He's 30lbs, 7oz now, he'll jump into our arms from the edge of the swimming pool, and loves being sprayed with sunscreen or bug spray. He insists on carrying a green blanket around the house with him, he helps pick up his toys after he's made a mess, he prefers drinking out of a regular cup (rather than a sippy cup), and he still uses a pacifier (but not at school, so that's a start). He's growing up so fast, it really is amazing.

As for me, I'm doing alright, just not sleeping well, can't get comfortable, lots of back pain to the point where I can't bend over very well, that sort of thing. Typical pregnancy stuff. I'm carrying Baby Girl much higher it seems than I did with Rowan, and I have far less heartburn, so that's awesome. Also, no 3rd trimester morning sickness (woohoo!). I'm trying not to stress or do too much because we have to make it to 36 weeks or we can't have Baby Girl at the Birthing Center--less than a week to go for that milestone (Rowan arrived at 36 weeks and 3 days, so we have to be careful). Brian's holding up very well (staying busy with work and house projects), so we're doing fine. Brian's parents are amazing and I'm pretty sure are smoking crack or chugging Red Bulls when my back is turned because they have way more energy than anyone else I know on the planet (including Rowan), and make me feel tired just thinking about all they have already accomplished. Our next house will definitely not be a fixer-upper, and the Kindingers should have their own home-improvement tv show--that's all I'm saying.

I'm going to sign off now because I feel like I've been writing this blog for hours. Pictures to come soon(-ish). Good night!

31 Weeks Along...

2010-06-01T10:21:00.016-05:00

Things are starting to really pick up here in the Kindinger household. I'm now 31 weeks along, so that means Baby Girl Kindinger will be here in about 2 months!

We had an awesome Memorial Day Weekend. While I thought I had morning sickness a lot of the time (now I'm thinking it was a stomach virus), we still had a lot of fun and got a lot of stuff done. Here's what's been going on lately:

Baby Shower! Last weekend, my friends Laura and Brooke threw me a baby shower that was super fun and incredibly cute: it was co-ed so that everyone could come, had a Doctor Seuss theme, and we had a blast!

Delicious Food!

Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish Cupcakes!

Thanks so much to Laura and Brooke for doing this!!! :)

In other news, we've been working hard to get things ready for when the baby arrives. While we haven't painted her room yet, we've done some other awesome things (and by "we" I mean, I thought of some awesome things to do and shopped for some of them, and Brian's actually done the work to make them happen): BEST HUSBAND EVER.

1. Got this buffet cabinet off of craigslist for $70. Here's the before:

And with some cleaning, sanding, priming, painting, adding new knobs, spray painting the hinges, and installing baby-proof latches on the doors, (Brian, you're my hero) the beautiful AFTER:

Plus, since we have this in the living room, we got a lot of the crap off the kitchen counter that we've just been dumping there every time we walk in the house, and have moved the china, silver, and vases into the bottom section, which freed up some kitchen cabinet space for food (that had been piled on top of the fridge and into a cabinet under the microwave, a location which had made it really difficult to see what food was actually in there). Woohoo for better organization!

2. Bought a sleeper sofa from Goodwill for $56. It matches our other furniture, and now guests will have a place to sleep (since the guest room is now being taken by Baby Girl Kindinger).

3. Finally bought nice frames for a few pictures, posters, and things we've had around the house for ages, and have hung some of them up. I'm planning on hanging a good number more, but since I'm not entirely done with this project, I'm not posting pics yet, but so far am very happy with it!

4. Installed water-saver toilet thingies: they are supposed to cut down your water bill by 30%. They work by having 2 buttons, one for "smaller" toilet flushes, and one for "bigger" flushes. That way, if you don't need a ton of water to move your "deposit" along, you don't use an entire tank of water. Super cool, and took very little time to install. Makes the bathroom feel slightly fancy too. :)

5. Tonight, Brian installed dimmer light switches in both Baby Girl and Rowan's rooms (took about 10 minutes each, how great is that?!). The one in her room works great (and will be awesome for night feedings), but in Rowan's room, it goes into dance-party-strobe-light mode when at the lower settings, so Brian thinks we just need to switch out the type of light bulb-- once that's done, it will be really helpful at bedtime.

6. We've moved the couch that was in the garage into B.G.'s (Baby Girl's) room (I still need a cover for it, but I'm getting there), took apart the guest bed, and moved it out of there and into the garage. I found some really awesome crib bedding for B.G. at Goodwill for $20, so I don't feel bad not re-using Rowan's crib bedding (which has been put through all sorts of grossness and destruction over the past 20 months), and have re-organized the closets so that the one in B.G.'s room is all baby stuff. The room's not done yet, but its getting closer!

7. Brian took down the old shelf in the laundry room and put up 3 nicer ones. We're planning a 4th one, just haven't done it yet. Already we love the extra storage space for tools and paints (instead of a jumbled pile in the corner of the laundry room floor).

Lots of other stuff planned and in the works too.

As for health stuff, I've got a slight cold, but other than that, am doing great. Had a midwife appt today, and apparently B.G is kicking around, has a nice strong heartbeat, and has turned head-down (yay!), while I managed not to gain too much weight this month, do NOT have gestational diabetes (woohoo!), am NOT anemic, and my blood pressure is right where it should be.

Brian and the puppies are doing great too-- Rowan is the only one having issues, and he seems to be trying to make up for the fact that the rest of us are doing fine, by having a chest cold, an ear infection, a fungal infection (bright red rash that won't go away with diaper cream), and teething. Plus, about 3 weeks ago, he had a fever so bad we had to take him to an urgent care place on a Sunday. Poor little guy-- he's been miserable, but I'm really happy I took him to the doctor today to get looked at: now he's on antibiotics and a fungal cream so he should be doing better soon.

That's it for now-- I gotta get to bed! :)

Long Post - Family Visit, Toddler Transitions, & Preparing for Baby

2010-05-21T10:06:00.016-05:00

(Rowan having a blast with his dad-- Brian's using the blower to blow off the deck here.)

I can't believe its been over a month since I've posted something! In the last month, we have:

1) Had a visit from two of my sisters (Jessie and Claire) on their way home to Florida.

2) Switched Rowan to a Montessori school (instead of daycare).

and 3) This week, switched Rowan from the crib to a "big boy" bed!

I don't think I have any pictures from when my sisters visited-- it was a whirlwind visit (they were barely here for 24 hours), but we had a good time. I wasn't feeling well at all (exhaustion + baby-brewing + horrendous head and chest cold--I think I've been dealing with some form of cold pretty much every other week at least since I got pregnant), and they were pretty worn out from their trip, but we made the best of things (thank goodness Brian can take sick days when I'm under the weather and am not up to watching Rowan--the green stuff I was hacking up was pretty gross).

They arrived at 3am, and I tried to make the most of the time they were here by showing them around the awesomeness that is Austin. That morning, we dropped Rowan off at daycare, went to a midwife appointment (the really long one with the glucose test, and where they got to hear their niece-to-be's heartbeat), went to lunch at Chuy's (yum!), checked out Book People (the largest independent bookstore in the US), walked around 6th Street a little bit (I admit I'm not super active these days--very little energy, and I'm really showing pregnancy-wise), and saw IronMan II at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown. It was great seeing them-- I wish they could have stayed longer and that we all were feeling better than we were, but we'll do that some other time I guess. The next morning at 6am, my sisters hit the road for New Orleans, and in a day or two, they made it home to Florida.

(These pictures are from Rowan's first day at Montessori school.)
On the daycare/preschool front, about a week after I enrolled Rowan in daycare at the Children's Courtyard, the Montessori school located just down the street (that we had LOVED when we visited), called to say that they had an opening. Did we want it? HECK YES! It meant that instead of driving 15-20 minutes one-way to drop Rowan off, we now have a 5 minute drive. Plus, not only is it cheaper, but I really like the Montessori method for learning at Rowan's age, and the people there are very nice.

After a tour, a classroom observation, and a parent-orientation meeting, Rowan started Montessori school last Monday, and it has been great! The teachers there have reported that after only 2 weeks (for 3 mornings a week, so really, just 6 mornings), that Rowan no longer squirms during circle time (he sits there politely and participates like a big boy), they have seen him line up with the others to go outside, heard him say the words "wait", "go" (which he says for us all the time) and "push", and they see him put his lunchbox away when he gets there in the mornings and when he's done eating. Also, since he's not allowed to have a sippy cup or pacifier there, he only uses the pacifier at home (mostly at nap and bedtimes) and at school he uses an actual cup (he still spills it on himself, but he's getting better!).

I've also seen some results at home (after such a short amount of time, its amazing!). He is much more talkative in the evenings (making all sorts of word noises), holds our hands to walk to the car and the house, turns to people and says "bye!" and waves when he's leaving (or when they are), and on days that he goes to preschool, he's down to one nap a day. Yesterday, I saw the most encouraging thing yet: Rowan picked up the donut color stacker toy that was on the floor of the garage, put the pieces on it (I helped him know which ones go in what order, but just by telling him and pointing, not handing them to him--so his listening skills are improving!), and then he turned around and put the toy away on the shelf when he was done with it. I almost cried tears of joy at that one!

For more toddler news, on Monday night we drove to a house in south Austin and picked up a toddler bed for Rowan. Someone was selling one on craigslist for $45, and seeing as the mattress itself costs about $35, we got a great deal. On Tuesday morning, my friend Laura and I put it together, and that afternoon, Rowan took his first nap on it. He loves his new bed-- he loves to play on it and climb on it-- and I'm pretty sure he's a big fan of being able to get out of it as well. It is originally from IKEA, is white with a blue tent canopy thing over the top (that the previous owners had put sparkly stickers all over), is pretty low to the ground, and has a guard rail so he won't fall off. While we were worried that he wouldn't sleep in it and would just get up and play in his room, he's been pretty good about it. (I'm re-doing Rowan's room, so I'll post pics of the bed and stuff once its all done.)

Here's the progress so far:
On Tuesday night, we did our normal bedtime routine, and laid him down. While there was a lot of crying and banging on the bedroom door (I think this was partly because we were watching LOST loudly in the living room with Laura), by about 9:30, he calmed down and went to sleep (I checked in on him at 10). That night, he woke up somewhere in the middle of the night and cried for a while, but didn't get up. The next morning, he was still in his bed when it was time to get up, so score!

Wednesday was more of the same-- crying and banging on the door at the beginning of his nap and bedtime, but by Wednesday night he seemed to be getting it: he woke up once in the night, and I just went in, put his pacifier back in his mouth, laid him down (he was sitting up in bed), turned the music on, and left the room--that was it! He was still in his bed the next morning.

Yesterday, I think he might have slept on the floor in front of the door at nap time because when I went in to get him up, he was right there with his blanket--but at least he took a nap. At bed time, I went in once to put him back to bed because when Brian checked on him, Rowan had fallen asleep under the window (behind a chair on the floor), but that was all there was to it-- no middle-of-the-night drama, and he was in his bed this morning! :)

I'm super-pumped because this may be the first real transition that we've done with Rowan that hasn't been incredibly difficult-- we haven't had any nights with no sleep or naps getting skipped or anything like that. I think it helped that he's seen other kids sleep on mats on the floor at daycare and Montessori school, so he knows that "big kids" don't sleep in cribs anymore. He was however, very jealous when he saw that I had moved the crib to the guest room and put Ella to sleep in it (of course, she loves it because she's not sleeping in the pack-n-play anymore). We moved the crib into there (as well as the changing table), and moved the dresser with a changing pad on it to Rowan's room-- I would like to get as many changes like that accomplished as possible before the new baby arrives so that Rowan doesn't feel like she's stealing all his stuff. It will be hard enough that the new baby will be getting lots of attention-- I don't want him connecting the new baby with taking all his furniture too!

On the baby-brewing front, I'm getting pretty big. I have, however, cut back to one soda a day, and no more milkshakes or ice cream, because at the last appointment, I was told I had gained too much weight for the month. OOPS! I guess I was enjoying the pregnancy excuse a bit too much... :) I can't see my feet anymore, bending over to pick stuff up off the floor is difficult, and the heartburn is slowly getting worse (but still nowhere near as bad as last time). Rowan is finding it harder to sit on my lap when I read him a bedtime story, and the baby is kicking up a storm (she has been for a couple months, but now Brian can definitely feel it when he puts a hand on my stomach). I've been nesting big time--cleaning out closets, going through my books and getting rid of ones I know I'll never re-read, and slowly accomplishing projects that have been on the To-Do List for ages. I've found that in the last 3 days or so, I have had more energy, but I think that's because I'm finally getting over the cold that tried to kill me (and had forced me to take at least one nap a day). I need to pee constantly, and I pass out cold at 10pm (sometimes earlier), but so far this time the 3rd trimester has been way better than the 2nd. Of course, I'm only 28 weeks and 4 days though...

My favorite shows are winding down for the season: "Dollhouse" was canceled and ended a while back, "Community" was AWESOME, haven't seen "House"'s or "Glee"'s yet, and the only thing that could really make "LOST" any better (other than getting answers to all of my questions, of course) would be if Kate dies in the last episode (but I doubt they'll do that). Netflix's Instant Watch on the Wii is fabulous and I'm thinking of paring back our rentals from two at a time to just one because we use the Instant Watch on the Wii feature so much.

Speaking of the Wii, on Wednesday at small group, we whipped out the "Just Dance" game Brian's mom gave us for Christmas, and it was hilarious! I didn't think anyone would get into it, but soon almost everyone had taken a turn jumping around and dancing in front of the tv. Soooo much fun to watch, and the people that played with it seemed to like it, because soon they were taking a second and third turn at it. :)

Here's the pics I've been promising to post for ages:

Even though he doesn't go there anymore, here are pictures from Rowan's first day at Daycare at the Children's Courtyard (okay, its really his 2nd day, but who cares?)

I was going to post pics from the Florida trip, but realized we haven't gone through them yet. Sorry! They'll have to wait for another post. In the meantime, have a video of a giggling toddler:

Nikki Meets Bossy (and lots of other Austin Bloggers)

2010-04-19T15:58:00.003-05:00

Last Thursday, a random group of people happened to meet up at The Lustre Pearl (a house converted into a bar) in downtown Austin. The only thing these people had in common was that they all read and followed iambossy.com, a blog written by Georgia (who lives, I think, in New York).

Named "Bossy," Georgia has launched a No-Book Tour across country, where basically she drives all over the place and meets the people who read and comment on her blog. (Let me just go ahead and say that she has A LOT of followers.)

It was a lot of fun to meet the woman behind the blog, as well as at least 8 other women in the Austin area who have a similar appreciation for her writing and who have blogs themselves. Three of us in the Austin area are even Gator Alumni--how cool is that?! :)

Here's the iambossy.com blog about the meetup. In other news, we took pictures today of Rowan going off to his "first official" day of preschool (the first one we had to pay for, anyway). As soon as I go through the pics, I'll post them! :)

First Day at Preschool!

2010-04-16T10:09:00.004-05:00

Today marks Rowan's first day of preschool/daycare! He is going to be attending at the Children's Courtyard off Sam Bass Rd on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8-12. While I was originally more than okay with this (Rowan has shown us time and again that he learns better when he plays with other children, and the idea of having 3 mornings a week with only one baby around the house sounded awesome), today has me a bit shaken up.

Rowan, in every preschool or daycare we've looked at, didn't want to leave. He always wanted to play with the other kids in the new setting with the new toys, and I totally understand that. It was me who was a bit cautious, noting teacher/student ratios, menus for meals, making mental notes of places that didn't seem to have enough books out at toddler height level (or had remnants of breakfast food on the floor), and interviewing directors and teachers to make sure they were excited about the prospect of adding Rowan to their class. Price was (of course) a big determining factor, and most places were simply out of our range. There were a number of places too that wouldn't do half days, or wouldn't do them until Rowan was 2 years old, or who were more than willing to do them but would still charge me for the full day price. *Grrr....*

Luckily, we found the Children's Courtyard--this particular location only opened 6 weeks ago, so everything is brand new and gorgeous. The staff seems very willing to work with whatever issues Rowan would have in transitioning to part-time care, and his teacher seems very nice and excited to have him in her class. Plus, they have a 10% discount for National Instruments' employees, they waived the registration fee, AND gave us our first day for free! (Let's just say Mom's pocketbook was pleased.) I am really hoping that things go well there (at least, better than they started out this morning).

This morning was not how I had pictured Rowan's first day of preschool. I got up at 7:30, got dressed, got Rowan up, got him dressed and changed his diaper, and collected a bag with extra diapers, wipes, a spare outfit, and sippy cup. Up to this point, things are going very well, but from this point on, things pretty much SUCK.

Deciding this was a momentous occasion, I wanted to take a picture of Rowan on his first day, but that proved impossible.

1) Could not find camera, had several-minute panic attack that we somehow had lost it or gotten it stolen on our last trip.

2) Found camera in back of closet after 5 minutes of panic attack, opened it up to realize that Brian had taken the lens off.

3) I have no idea how to put the lens back on—-proceeded to have a temper tantrum while trying to put the lens back on and failing.

4) Almost threw lens through window. Would have felt soooo good, but decided against it.

5) Tried calling Brian (who I thought was going to see us off anyway, but it turns out he was still playing racquetball and didn't actually know I had wanted him to see us off).

6) Took a picture of Rowan with our old camera, threw him in the car, and hit the road.

7) Drove through 3 different school zones, freaking out because we were now running late and I was worried that we would get there and Rowan would have missed breakfast.

8) Get there, can't get in without a door code. No one is at the front desk to answer doorbell.

9) Wait for another mom and kid to let us in. Go to Rowan's classroom, no one is there.

10) Walk around looking for Rowan's teacher (who it turns out doesn't show up until after 9, so I had no idea who I was looking for).

11) Find Rowan's class (teacher with 4 other kids) at the playground. I start calming down, but don't know where to put Rowan's stuff (which I had dropped outside his classroom).

12) Talk to teacher. Am relieved that we didn't miss breakfast. They were having a staffing issue this morning so no one was at the front desk. I go to get his things (by going back into the building), and realize we are all LOCKED outside on the playground. (WHY DOESN'T THE TEACHER HAVE A KEY?!)

13) We wait for someone to let us in. I hand off paperwork, Rowan's bag, say goodbye, find out the door code, and leave.

14) Get in the car, see the time (Ella gets dropped off around 8:30, it was 8:27)-- begin panic session #4,000 for the morning.

15) While driving, remember Brian had been concerned about red bumps on Rowan (bug bites? chicken pox? rash? no idea...) so I call the doctor to set up an appt for this afternoon. Receptionist says not to take Rowan to daycare if we suspect chicken pox, and when I tell her I already dropped him off, she says to go back and get him, and that she wants us to call her back to make the appt once I've done that.

16) I hang up and decide for simplicity's sake that they were bug bites—(they weren't all over, just on his head and arms, and they weren't bothering him). At this point, start crying.

17) Get home, see Chad and Ella pull up in the driveway, pull self together.

I'm sure Rowan's fine—he wasn't crying when I left, and I heard he was about to have blueberry muffins and a banana for breakfast—2 things that he loves. I'm the one who's having a hard time this morning. Maybe its because my first baby *sniff* is going off to “school,” but mostly I think its because I wanted Rowan's preschool days to result in less stress, not more. Here he is looking traumatized by going to preschool (taken with our old camera--sorry its really dark--I was in a hurry.)

In other news, I am still planning to post stuff from the trip to Florida. Also, last night I went to a meetup in downtown Austin for followers of the blog iambossy.com. Had a blast and will post about that soon. I just need to catch my breath for a few minutes.

UPDATE:
Now that we've finished our first day of preschool, here are the results:

-Rowan is happy as a clam, and just went down for (hopefully) a long nap.

-His teachers say he loves playing on the playground (chasing balls especially--had to fill out an Incident Report because he somehow fell OVER a ball and hit his head when trying to pick one up). I told them not to worry--if he hasn't hit his head on any given day, he probably hasn't woken up yet.

-They also say he loves singing songs and reading books with them.

-But the main comment they had was: He sure does eat a lot! His teacher said: "I was writing down how many muffins he had at breakfast, but eventually I stopped counting and just wrote down 'LOTS!'" I said, "Yeah, he does that."

On Monday, I'll probably ask them to limit him to seconds (not just letting him eat as much as he wants), so that we have some concept of portion control. I'm sure their biggest concern is not wanting a child to go hungry, so they let them eat as much as they want, and I totally understand that. At the same time, Rowan wouldn't allow them NOT to feed him-- he very much makes his appetite known, and will eat until they stop giving him more food. :)

This morning flew by for me and Ella, and since things have calmed down a bit, I'm much happier. Now that the two of them are taken care of, its time for MY lunch and nap!

At the Zoo, the Park, the Backyard... We're All Over the Place!

2010-02-28T20:04:00.019-06:00

For Valentine's Day, Brian got a new camera, so we've been taking pictures left and right. A couple of weeks ago, we took Rowan to the Austin zoo for a friend's birthday party:

(We love cheese cubes!)

(Trying to eat the goat's food)

(I'm a sucker for a giant chicken...)

(Making some new friends...)

The next day, we played at the park:

And recently, we have been playing outside in our backyard quite a bit (the last 2 days have been GORGEOUS!).

Rowan has also gotten particularly interested in "helping" us do things around the house. He "mops," he helps close doors, and he has even started playing with Ella! (Although as I typed that, I had to pause to go teach a lesson entitled: "No, We Do Not Hit Ella in the Head with a Plastic Hammer.") Parenting: Two steps forward, one step back, right?

If you spin in circles, he will too (until he falls down). He's getting much better at following us when we're walking around in public, better at eating at restaurants (we took him to Olive Garden today for spaghetti), and he's just all around getting to be much more fun. His hair has gotten much longer and looks like it will definitely be red and curly like his dad's.

And last but not least, the first official photo of pregnant Nikki:

Boo-yah! and My Take on Birthing Centers

2010-02-11T09:54:00.006-06:00

I have a very good excuse for not updating the blog for a month. I haven't gotten a second job, or third dog, or really sick or anything like that (not exactly, anyway). Brian and I are still happily doing our fix-up-the-house thang (I'm continually amazed by what that boy can fix when things break around here--last weekend's bathroom sink, for example). And unlike Haiti, I've got nothing disastrous going on to explain my absence to the blogosphere (would a computer virus that sends Viagra ads to my friends' emails count?). Just this:

(Wait for it...)

BOO-YAH!

Yep. That's baby #2 a-brewing.

Most people that I know (and that are on facebook) already know about this, but I figured it was time to put it on the blog, seeing as I basically announced it to the world about 2-3 weeks ago. For those that don't know: I'm 14.5 weeks along, doing fine other than being tired ALL THE TIME and the fun, occasional random oh-my-gosh-I-suddenly-have-to-vomit sprint to a bathroom. Also, at any given point in the day, you could ask, "Nikki, do you have to pee?" and the answer would be "Yes!"

Baby #2 is due for arrival August 9th, but seeing as he/she is measuring about a week bigger than he/she should be, and given how Rowan was 3 days short of being a month early, he/she will probably be arriving a little bit earlier than August 9th. We'll see--(that could just be wishful thinking on my part seeing as I just LOVE being pregnant! If you couldn't tell, that was sarcasm.)

To answer any questions:

-So far, because I've been nauseous and vomiting more than last time, I tend to think that this one is a girl. This could also be because I've got an awesome name picked out for a girl (No, like last time, I'm not telling what it is), and have no idea what to name a boy if that's what it turns out to be.

-We'll find out what it is around 20 weeks (so, in about 6 weeks from now), and yes, we'll tell everybody.

-Yes, we're having it at the Birthing Center again. They were awesome the first time, and seeing as second pregnancies generally go faster and smoother than firsts (so I've heard--once again, this may be wishful thinking!), we decided to go with them again.

STEPPING ONTO MY SOAPBOX NOW:
For those that don't know about the Birthing Center, they are a group of certified Nurse Practitioners (who are also Certified Nurse Midwives), who work very closely with a doctor, and they are located less than 5 minutes away from the hospital if we need it. They only take low-risk pregnancies (single-births, births with no complications beforehand, people with no history of complications, that sort of thing), and are across the street from Brian's work so that if I go into labor during the work day, he's half a minute away. :)

Contrary to popular belief here in the US (where the infant mortality rate is actually worse than many other countries--I think we're ranked 35th in the world, you know, just below Singapore!), the vast majority of births in every other civilized country take place with midwives, not doctors, because birth is a natural process and doctors really only need to be there if something major goes wrong. This is not to slam doctors in any way (thank goodness they're there when they're needed!), but the fact is that they really aren't needed the vast majority (I believe its over 90%) of the time. I certainly don't want to take up a doctor's time (who could be out savings lives) with a natural process that doesn't require a doctor to be there. Of course, if a doctor/hospital becomes necessary, we'll go. Its just that most of the time, its not.

People also have the idea that midwives have you give birth in a barn or something, which is ridiculous. The Birthing Center is a modern building with (I think 3 but it may have gone up since I had Rowan) birthing rooms that are super-clean and super-comfortable. There's a giant walk-in shower in the bathroom (where I hung out for most of Rowan's labor--boiling hot water is awesome for back labor), there's a jacuzzi tub if you want to have a water birth, and there's a giant comfortable bed in the room if you want to have the baby in bed. There's a kitchen down the hall for the husband to bring food or cook after the baby is born, and the rooms are decorated to be as soothing as possible. Its like being in a spa--you can bring whatever music, movies, candles, etc, that you want to make you more comfortable.

There's no beeping monitors that you are hooked up to, bright overhead lights, no IV's, no being forced to give birth on your back with your feet up in stirrups (which makes no sense from a helping-the-baby-to-come-out mindset). You can walk around as much as you want. The only thing that really freaks people out is the no painkillers thing, which I totally understand. Yeah, it hurts like no pain you've ever had before. But, for me anyway, it was only 17 hours of my life. Its not the end of the world. Plus, the baby is born kicking and screaming and put directly on your chest and stays with you-- it isn't born conked out (I've heard epidurals can do that) and whisked away for tests--once its born. If you've got tearing, they can stitch you up no problem, and if everything looks great, you can go home with your baby about 8 hours later. (I had Rowan around 3:45 in the afternoon, and we went home to sleep in our own bed around 1AM.) You can always come back in if something doesn't seem right, and you have a checkup 3 days later to make sure mom and baby are doing great.

So, long story short, I highly recommend the Birthing Center, and suggest that those who are skeptical do some research--its easy and free to do on the internet, and especially if you're pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, can be a real eye-opener!

GETTING OFF SOAPBOX NOW.

-Rowan will be 22 months old when the baby is born, and since he's been hanging out with his best friend Ella on a daily basis for months now, he should be pretty used to sharing his Mom and Dad.

-We're going to make the guest room into the baby's room, so we'll have to move some furniture around a bit, but we'll make it work. We're not planning on moving to a bigger house for another couple years, so we'll just have a tight squeeze for a little while, but anyone who knew me growing up knows that I'm used to it (8 people in a 3 bedroom house!).

-Lastly, we're planning a trip to Florida soon in the next 12 weeks or so (before the 3rd trimester starts) so that we can see family and friends there before the baby is born, seeing as we won't want to travel much with 2 small children after that for a while. Hope to see you then!

Okay, sorry that was such a long post, with so few pictures. I should probably update on how Rowan's doing: he can open cabinets, give (rare) high 5's, climb up the steps on the playground and slide down the slide on his own, eats darn near everything, has a (minor) biting problem, points to things he wants, can say "Mama" and "Dada" (LOVES playing with Dada), and is doing much better around Ella (a lot of the jealousy has gone away). So, overall, he's doing great!

I hope you're having a wonderful day!

So, This is Late...

2010-01-07T09:23:00.014-06:00

Ok. I know I haven't written in a while. There's been no yearly Christmas letter, no Happy New Year post, nothing. I have been exhausted lately, and I feel the weight of posts-not-written hanging over my head. And so, in typical schoolgirl fashion, when there's something I feel I have to do, I procrastinate.

Here's Rowan's picture with Santa. It went really well! He didn't cry at all or try to run out the door or kick Santa in the face, he just chilled, grimaced whenever the flash went off, and hung out on a very nice Santa's lap until Brian made a face at him or something off-camera and he finally smiled. :) Ta-da!

A few days before Christmas at our church, they had a live nativity scene (and behind that, a petting zoo of all the farm animals), so that was fun!

Turns out holding a piglet is a lot like holding a toddler: they weigh about the same, are likely to kick or bite you, and they wiggle and squeal a lot. :)

Christmas went really well. We spent the holidays at home here in Texas, and to be honest, that's exactly what we wanted. Great food, great company, great gifts-- lots of just relaxing with Brian's family and naps. Many, many naps. It was wonderful. Grandma K took over the kitchen (and cooked enough food to fill both freezers) and all child-raising responsibilities for a week (THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU), while Brian, his brother and his dad finished the deck. It now has rails and everything! For Christmas, (among other things) Brian put up bookshelves in the living room so now they look like built-ins and I couldn't be happier about how that turned out.

For Brian's birthday, we bought a really awesome firepit for the deck, and on New Years' we had a big house full of party people that apparently love champagne and board games. (Yes, we're nerds.) It was a blast, and an event I totally hope turns into a tradition.

Now, we're settling back in to regular life. We've taken down the Christmas tree, relatives have gone home, and everyone is back to work. Oh, did I mention the minivan officially became ours over the holidays? I'm rocking the soccer mom look now--(don't be jealous, it doesn't suit you!) After 10 years, the Taurus has gone to that big car garage in the sky. My parents gave it to me when I turned 21, and it has seen some really awesome times: camping trips and driving from Florida to North Carolina, 3 years of college, the honeymoon and the tango with a guard rail on day one, teaching jobs and 8 different apartments/houses, the road trips to and from Texas, and finally, 2 dogs and a baby. We will now have a moment of silence in honor of Torvah the Taurus.

...

Rest in peace.

As for Rowan, he is now 15 months old, in the 75th percentile for height, and 90th for weight (even though they weighed him with his shoes and jacket on, so he's probably not quite that heavy). He continues to be very vocal, and I think the terrible two's have come early (but I have heard that's pretty common). He's on the brink of talking, and eats more than I do. He claps, he waves, he throws many, many tantrums a day, loves baths, and is much more regular due to the bran muffins we've been feeding him. He has 6 teeth (with molars due any second), tons of red hair, and has learned how to turn light switches on and off (when you hold him up to them). He loves books (and is slowing down on literally eating them), and playing outside is THE BEST thing in the world for him. He's lost a lot of the jealousy he had of Ella, and while he hasn't figured out that he could probably climb out of the crib at this point, he loves climbing the stairs at the playground and then throwing himself (face-first) down the tube slide. He has no fear of anything. :)

Now that the update has been written, I'm facing a very long to-list (my parents have not even had their Christmas gifts brought to the post office yet, if that tells you anything), so I have to go. There will be no Christmas/New Years letter this year (just like there were no Christmas cards either). Life is good, we've all gotten a little bit older, and the house is coming together, but I'm sure you've read about it (or you can) on the blog, so I don't really feel the need to repeat myself this year. Hope you had a great holiday season!

P.S. I know the blog does not look very nice currently. I'm working on it.

On a Happier Note...

2009-12-15T17:31:00.007-06:00

The Christmas tree is up! Its actually been up and decorated for over a week, and we took pictures, but I forgot about them until now. Presenting, the Kindinger Family Christmas Tree!

Rowan helping me put up the lights:

Plugging them in:

Putting the angel (which my grandmother made a long time ago) on the tree:

Ta-da!

How to Wake Up a Sleeping Baby

2009-12-14T14:55:00.003-06:00

Over the last year or so, because I am now a mom and thus expert on all things child-related, many of you have written in with your questions, the most prominent being: How do I wake up a sleeping baby?

Apparently, some of you have babies that sleep for too long, giving you days that are way too quiet, making you miss them while they sleep, or allowing you to consider possibly making another baby with the all the extra time you have while they are sleeping. This can be a very concerning problem, and luckily, I have a simple, easy-to-remember, 3-step solution that requires no extra people or tools to accomplish:

1. Make sure you are exhausted. This can be accomplished in a number of ways: running errands, skipping meals, doing chores around your house, having power struggles with your offspring over eating their vegetables and picking up their toys, spending most of your morning on the phone with people who have chosen to make customer service their career (like you would find at a large bank, insurance company, or government office, for example), letting your dogs (that you didn't even notice had escaped) be returned to you by animal control because they were out running on a major road, etc. Because I like the human interaction, I usually choose to do some combination of the above, just to keep things interesting. In whatever way you choose to do it, make sure you're about ready to drop dead.

2. Put your baby to sleep. While this may seem obvious, getting the baby to go to sleep is probably the most difficult part of this whole procedure. It is however, completely necessary, as you cannot wake up the baby if the baby refuses to go to sleep in the first place. Some methods for this include: having the baby spend a large portion of the morning fighting sleep so that it is good and tired for the afternoon nap, feeding baby until it is so full that it is spitting food back up, reading a story to the baby, playing ocean sounds to the baby to soothe the baby to sleep, taking the baby for a drive in the car, or (my personal favorite but only to be used in absolute emergencies) putting the baby in the carrier and placing the carrier on top of a running clothes dryer. (You may laugh, but it works.)

Once your baby is asleep, you may be considering taking a nap yourself. This is completely understandable, especially since everything ever written on working with babies says to "sleep while the baby is sleeping." So, go ahead, get comfortable. Take off those shoes. Breathe a sigh of relief. Stop accomplishing things for a second and go to your room. Turn the lamp off. Close your eyes. This is all in preparation for step #3.

3. Let your head hit the pillow. At this point, the baby will, with its Baby Sense (which is much like Spider Sense, but in this case, used for evil), instantly know that you are trying to enjoy a moment without it, and will wake up and demand to be held, fed, changed, or entertained in some way. If your infant's Baby Sense doesn't seem to be working at first, just wait. You have a max of 5 minutes before you either pass out (at which point, you won't care that it didn't work because you'll be asleep) or wake the baby up (which is what you were going for, right?). Variations on this last step include: (instead of laying down), trying to eat a meal, trying to take a shower, and (the most successful method ever at waking up a baby, but it does require having another person around) trying to silently be affectionate with your spouse.

So, there you have it. My fool-proof method for waking up a sleeping baby. I hope you find it helpful!

5 Years Ago Today...

2009-12-11T08:08:00.006-06:00

I married my best friend. This is one of the many times where I look back and go, "Good Lord! That was 5 years ago? I suddenly feel old." Its been an amazing five years-- getting Sadie the Sharpei 4 months after we got married, my first (and possibly only) 2 years of teaching, finding friends in Ocala (despite having grown up there, I never had friends in Ocala growing up, the way that I did my second year of teaching--other than Michelle, of course!), Brian graduating with his master's, our trip to Europe, moving to Austin, the tiniest apartment we've ever lived in, my job-hopping in Austin, a much larger apartment, buying our first home, getting Lucas (giant beast o' love), multiple reunions with college friends, making new friends in Austin, being pregnant and having Rowan, and the last whirlwind year of learning how to be parents to the loudest baby in the world while still trying to be ourselves. My goodness, that was a long sentence.

Brian promised a long time ago to keep me laughing for at least 20 years, and he has definitely been keeping that promise. I hated group projects growing up, but marriage is the ultimate one, and I think we're going to pass! Brian is an amazing husband and father, supportive, kind, funny, sexy, smart, easy-going, takes direction well (hehehe!), he needs me (but not too much), calls me out when I'm being ridiculous, and has a compassion for others that I do not share but will always admire. At the end of a long day at work, he comes home to a screaming baby and a stressed out wife and manages to calm everyone down, get the baby bathed and put to bed, make dinner, and carry on a conversation (while making it all look easy). He really is my better half (that phrase is more true than anyone knows). I love you, baby. Happy Anniversary!

How Bank of America Stole Christmas

2009-12-07T08:10:00.003-06:00

On December 1st, 2008, the Bank of America website was experiencing technical difficulties, particularly when it came to the "Transfer Funds" option. They admit this on their website in writing, and when you call in.

On that day, I went to pay our mortgage like I always do on the first of the month, and kept getting messages saying that the transfer did not go through, to please try again. Frustrated, but unable to get a hold of a human being due to the insane phone customer service system, I found a way to pay the mortgage by accessing a different webpage on the same site, and paid the mortgage. I received a confirmation number, printed out the page saying that I had made the payment, and thought, "Good, that's done."

Sunday morning, I look at the bank account to see that TWO mortgage payments have been taken out of the checking account, and I about have a heart attack. I call Bank of America to get this worked out, and they transfer me to the mortgage department, which is not open on Sundays. Great.

On Monday morning, I call BOA. I explain the problem to their computer people, and they said, yep, there was definitely a problem with the website on that day, here's the mortgage company's phone number. I call the mortgage company (even though it is all Bank of America), and they say that I will need to call back at 4 or 5 in the evening because their phone lines are having problems, and that to get our money back we would have to fax them something saying the payment went through (which, wouldn't they know? seeing as 1)they are BOA, and 2)the payment would be in their account).

At this point, I'm ready to claw my eyes out or light someone on fire because IT SHOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE FOR YOUR MORTGAGE COMPANY TO STEAL AN EXTRA PAYMENT OUT OF YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT. I never received a confirmation number for the first payment, otherwise I certainly never would have made a second one. I have done nothing wrong, and yet I'm going to have to jump through all sorts of hoops to get our money back. I don't have a fax machine. I shouldn't have to fax anything.

Here's what should happen: They should have someone from the checking account department email whatever information necessary to someone in the mortgage department, and I should get my money back instantly, along with some sort of apology.

Here's what probably will happen: Instead, I bet that even when I do call back this evening, and even if I do manage to fax them the information this evening, it will likely take at least 5 business days to transfer that money back into my account (if they do it at all). I will have to give them all of my information over the phone (for the third time), and waste God-knows-how-long trying to get this settled. Because I am not a trusting soul, when I call them this evening, I will be writing down everyone's employee ID and asking to speak to a manager.

Thank God we were planning on paying the home insurance payment for the year in full later this month, so we are not over-drafting like crazy. I can't imagine the sorts of fees that I would have to fight to get removed if that had happened--(you want to read horror stories, type "BOA overdraft fees" into Google and see what happens). But, if we don't get that money back soon, not only will our home owner's insurance not get paid (and I have no idea what the result is when that happens), but Brian will not be having a Christmas or birthday present either (this was going to be a lawnmower that he picked out).

Thus, this is How Bank of America Stole Christmas. I hate Bank of America.

___________________________________________________________________________

Update 12/8/09: After another phone call last night (where I learned they were still having phone line issues--how is it their phone lines are having trouble if I'm talking to them on the phone? I don't even ask), it was made clear that I would have to go into a Banking Center (which are of course only open 9-4...I should have been a banker--I'm a stay at home mom who watches one little girl, and even I work longer hours than that!). So, this morning, I packed up both babies for the cold, rainy weather and headed on over to the Banking Center at 9am. I must say that the babies behaved themselves very well. :)

After a short discussion with somebody, he got on the phone and made things right. He gave me his card, and said that it should take 2 days to get the money back into my account, and if its not there by Friday, to give him a call. (I'm wondering how much money BOA is making in interest on my second mortgage payment that they'll have had for a week and a half?). He was very polite and understanding, and even helped me get the double stroller out the door when we were done. I'm pretty sure that from now on, any problems I have with BOA, I'm just going to go into a Banking Center rather than calling or going to their website, because that's where the personal customer service is. Hey, if I have to waste someone's time in person to get good service, that's what I'll do! :) So, here's hoping I see that money by Friday! Wish me luck!

Shiner Gug

2009-12-03T09:44:00.003-06:00

We need a baby helmet. This is what it looks like when good toddlers go bad, or get into bare-knuckle street fights behind the sandbox, or something. Actually, its just what Rowan looks like when he trips and falls face-first into a dining room chair:

The good thing about these accidents is that he's forgotten about them 3 minutes later and doesn't realize he's walking around looking like a baby version of Rocky. I guess one of the joys of being a baby is not caring what you look like--this also explains why he's let me dress him the way that I sometimes do.

Me: "You don't care if you're wearing all-used clothes off of craigslist and consignment shops, a red shirt and a different shade of red sweatpants, or pajamas in the middle of the day, right?"

Rowan's response: "Can I move in it without tripping? Is it comfortable? Is it clean? Screw that last one, I don't care. We're good!"

Actually, looking down at what I'm currently wearing--and have worn the last 4 days in a row--I agree with Rowan's sense of fashion waaaay more than should be allowed in an adult. I think I've worn these jeans for 3 weeks straight, and I have no intention of stopping until I stain them noticeably. And by noticeably, I mean REALLY noticeably-- baby spit-up wipes right off and water/drool/snot is invisible once it dries. Maybe if I get splashed with big patches of mud, or mustard, or blood or something. MAYBE. Its not that I don't care, although I'm sure that's a big part of it, its that my day-to-day living does not require a dress code other than jeans, sneakers, a t-shirt, and a sweater. And to be honest, that's the way I like it.

In other news, "Gug!" has now been caught on camera:

Have a good one!

Thank God!!!

2009-12-02T09:57:00.003-06:00

Okay, since I last posted, things have improved by about a million percent, if that's even possible! Over the Thanksgiving break, Brian and I worked hard to get Rowan into the routine where after each meal, he goes into the baby cage (that takes up half the living room and has lots of toys in it) to entertain himself. After 45 minutes to an hour (Brian and I are usually sitting nearby either doing stuff on the computer, cleaning the kitchen, or doing chores), one of us goes in there with him to play for a few minutes and pick up his toys. Through lots of positive reinforcement, Rowan will now put his blocks into a box, his plastic animals into the Noah's Ark they came with, and his ocean toys into the little fish tank! He's picking up after himself, and I LOVE IT!!!

Then, once we've cleaned up, Rowan can come out and wander around the house for a bit, following us around, playing in his room, exploring, etc. While Rowan overall hated the whole baby cage idea at first, and still cries for about a minute whenever I put him in there, now he settles down and plays contentedly almost the entire time. This alone has made a huge difference in everyone's enjoyment of the day, and I can't begin to tell you how wonderful the past few days have been.

I've also started trying to wake Rowan up (instead of HIM waking ME up)--getting up a little earlier, making his breakfast, and getting things ready so that I can go in there, turn on the light, and almost surprise him in the mornings and after naps. When I started doing this yesterday, he woke up and turned to me and made a noise that said, "Mom! What are you doing here? What a great surprise!" The amount of screaming has gone down so much as a result of these two things, that yesterday Ella was actually louder than Rowan. (This is not a truly fair comparison, seeing as Ella is sick right now, but STILL!) I believe the last two days have been the quietest days of Rowan's entire life. Who would have known that changing 2 little things about our routine would have brought so much happiness??? :) :) :)

A Breakthrough?

2009-11-24T09:08:00.005-06:00

Here's the way most days (for the last month) have gone:

7:15-ish: Rowan wakes up, starts crying. This wakes me up. I get dressed, get him up, change his diaper, make 3 eggs for breakfast, feed him. I check my email and drink my slimfast while he eats. Rowan screams the entire time except for when he's shoveling food into his mouth. This is at about an 8.5 on the Rowan Screaming Level Scale.

7:45-ish: I clean up Rowan and let him down from his high chair. I clean the kitchen (which has to be done about 5 times a day). Rowan screams, pulling at my jeans and trying to wedge himself between my legs and the cabinets. Crying Scale Level: 7 (presumably because he's been fed.) This goes down to almost 0 when he's doing something he doesn't want me to know about, like playing with a steak knife he just pulled out of the dishwasher. (Momentary panic attack!) At least he's a smart boy though--he never grabs the wrong end of the knife.

8 or 8:15-ish: Brian! (either comes home from playing racquetball or emerges from sleep). Rowan and I are both happy to see him. Crying goes from a level 7 to a 4. Brian showers, gets dressed, feeds the dogs, shows Rowan his computer, takes out the trash, and collects his stuff. Brian's leaving brings the crying back to a temporary 7--I can't tell if Rowan's upset because he's leaving, or because Brian gets to go out the front door (and probably in Rowan's mind, gets to play in the street all day--because THAT'S WHERE ALL THE FUN IS).

8:30-ish: Brian out the door for work, Ella and Chad arrive. Screaming goes to almost 0 when Chad arrives (Yay! New people!), but back up to a 6 once Rowan watches another person go out the front door to play in the street. Ella sits there smiling at Rowan happily. Level 6 is maintained for 15 minutes, because (in Rowan's mind) Ella has come straight from hell to look cute and take his attention from his mom away.

8:45-ish: Ella goes down for a nap. Ella does not like going down for a nap, so there is some mild crying (about Rowan level 2.5). This lasts for all of 60 seconds, max. Meanwhile, Rowan is increda-pissed (level 7.5), because Mom and Ella are out of sight (Rowan does not get to be in the room while we're reading a story and going down for a nap), and we must be doing something really awesome in there, like shredding paper towels with our teeth or playing in a toilet. Mom re-emerges without Ella, which is always appreciated. Screaming goes down to level 5.

8:45 - 10-ish. Rowan screams at me (various levels) while I get things done around the house, like brushing my teeth, picking up after him, paying bills, doing the laundry, etc. I try to keep him quiet so he doesn't wake Ella up, but luckily she's a pretty heavy sleeper. Rowan spends most of the time following me around and making messes by pulling everything off of every shelf he comes across.

10-ish: Rowan goes down for a nap. Ella wakes up. If Rowan goes down later or Ella wakes up earlier, that means Rowan sees her, and the SL (Screaming Level) shoots up. I try to prevent this from happening.

[You might at this point, be wondering what a level 10 is caused by and what it looks like. What you need to understand is that a level 10 is not just determined by how loud the screaming is (although it is Ear-Drum-Vibrating-Loud--this is not an exaggeration; I have witnesses that can verify this), but the duration matters as well. A level 10 is somewhat rare (maybe once a day), and only happens when both Ella and Rowan are awake, and I'm feeding Ella her bottle, while Rowan looks on. At this point, Rowan's jealously is so great that he just stands next to me pulling on my pants, screaming red-faced at the top of his lungs, tears pouring down his face, occasionally trying to bite me, while also trying to smack Ella in the face or at least steal her bottle. This lasts for 30 minutes or longer, depending on how long it takes Ella to drink the bottle. I avoid this at all costs.]

10-ish to 11:30: Rowan is read a story, then goes down for a nap. Luckily, he's very good at this part of the routine, probably due to being exhausted from the screaming. There is a sudden blanket of quiet that falls over the household. Ella usually wakes up somewhere around this point, getting a diaper change, and then eating, and she sits happily in my lap while I read, write, or play around on facebook, staring lovingly into my eyes and occasionally making adorable gurgling noises. Depending on how rough the morning was, I drink a Rum and Coke. Just kidding! I drink the rum straight up.

11:30: Rowan wakes up angry. He does not want a diaper change. He does not want to be set down on the floor to play. He does not want to see Ella, ever. SL 5 commences.

Around this point most days, I'll find some excuse to leave the house. Do we need to go to Target? Sam's club? The bank? If there's no errands to be run, we generally make our way over to the Goodwill Outlet, because even if we don't buy anything (and even if we did buy something amazing, it would cost only $2.00), its a place where both babies can be entertained for at least half an hour people-watching (or having a meltdown) and nobody cares. Sometimes we end up at the playground inside Lakeline Mall, but since Rowan knows where the playground exit is, I usually end up chasing him around the mall rather than watching him play happily with the other children, so we haven't been over there lately.

Anyway, we find some way to kill time outside of the house from about 11:30-12:30, then head home. And that's a typical morning at the Kindinger household.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Today, on the other hand, I may have stumbled across a miracle. When reading my Pre-Toddler Wise book (by the same people that made the Baby Wise book), I noticed it said something about setting boundaries. Now, I already knew that kids need boundaries to feel safe (that's why I've been trying to set clear rules so that Rowan can follow them). But just re-reading that part of the book made me wonder: maybe Rowan needs more physical boundaries in his day. When he sleeps, he's in his crib, when he eats, he's in the high chair, and when he's getting a bath, he's in the tub. But for the rest of the day, I've just been letting him wander all over the house, thinking that he just liked to explore.

Well, this morning after breakfast, out of desperation, I put him in the baby cage with some toys, expecting him to just scream non-stop until I pulled him back out. Instead, he screamed for thirty seconds, then sat down and played quietly with the different toys FOR AN HOUR! I sat four feet away from him so that we could keep an eye on each other, and I could occasionally put toys back in that he had thrown out, or pull out books that he had started eating.

At 9:30, I got Rowan out of the baby cage and let him sit on my lap (so he could see what I was doing on the computer). I gave him a paper towel to shred, and after 10 minutes of happily hanging out, he wanted to be let down, so I put him down. He walked into the living room and played with his toys there until 10, at which point (NO WAY!) it was nap time.

I cannot explain the difference this made to my morning. It was like God reached his hand down to say, "Look. This is what you've been doing wrong, and this is what things are supposed to be like." I could actually feel my sanity slowly dripping back into my brain like an IV of morphine, and I gotta tell you, it felt good. The amount of screaming this morning compared to every other morning this month is amazing-- I don't think (after breakfast) he even got past a 3.5 on the Screaming Level Scale.

Maybe its a fluke. Maybe its a coincidence of some sort. Maybe I'm just kidding myself and I really do have a "difficult" child. But I'm hopeful. I'm going to test it after each meal today, and I pray to God that it works.

The Best Christmas Ornament Ever

2009-11-22T14:04:00.005-06:00

We saw this the other day at Lowe's and had to buy it. This ornament is called, "The Christmas Pickle."

Here's what it says on the inside as an explanation:
"The legend of the Christmas Pickle speaks of hiding a small, pickle-shaped ornament somewhere on the Christmas tree among the rows of holly and garland. On Christmas morning, children would race to find the Christmas Pickle. The first one to find it and cry, "Pickle!" would win a special Christmas present. It is said that adults could join the hunt, too. Finding it was a sign of good luck for the coming year. By continuing the tradition of the Christmas Pickle, you bring one of the lost legends of Christmas to life!"

Now, I'm pretty sure this is complete crap. Research online has indicated it might not be (several websites mention it, and not even ones about this particular ornament!), but c'mon. Its pretty ridiculous.

However, who can resist a pickle ornament that sings? Oh yes, it sings. Here's the song (sung in a possibly German? or Super-Mario-sounding accent):

The Christmas Pickle Song
"The Christmas Pickle is my name
And I'm hiding in your tree.
I play a very special Christmas game
Won't you come and look for me?
Be fast, be quick, be speedy swift
And find my hidden hiding place
Then yours will be a special gift
Win the prize--win the race!
Am I here, or am I there?
I could be hiding anywhere.
In the branches way up high
Or near the roots by and by.
So hurry, hurry--don't you wait
Find me first, without delay
For others are looking to this day
The pickle-finders are on the way!"

I feel that the best part of this is that to fulfill tradition so that children can go looking for it, you first would have to hide the pickle. Hilariously awesome.

Whoops! and My TV Favorites Right Now

2009-11-17T19:38:00.002-06:00

Okay, so I guess I forgot to post something yesterday-- to be honest, it was a relief to realize that this morning. Now I don't feel obligated to post something everyday, but only when I actually have something worth mentioning. On to the television shows!

Here are the shows I'm watching currently (not when they're actually on, but on my computer with far, FAR fewer commercials):

House (loving me some Hugh Laurie, pretty much always)
Heroes (although I only stick around for Sylar--the rest of the show is crap)
V (saw the first two episodes...okay so far, but doubtful as to if I'll keep watching for much longer)
Modern Family (hilarious!)
Glee (I'm not going to explain the love I have for this show-- you just need to watch it)
Community (I LOVE the Jeff/Annie semi-romance going on)
Flash Forward (even though I think they're going about it all wrong)
Dollhouse (even though its officially been canceled after this season. Boo.)
LOST (when it comes back on in January, it will be the PRIORITY).

Here's something: not a single one of these shows is a reality show, a cop show (Flash Forward and V have cop-type characters in them, but that's not what the shows are about), or a forensics show. If only tv executives were paying attention to my blog... :)

That's all I got for now.

Slight Dancing

2009-11-15T18:59:00.002-06:00

This is the closest to catching Rowan dancing on camera I've gotten. With moves like these, he'll be a hit with the ladies...

Clapping!

2009-11-14T19:08:00.003-06:00

I've been meaning to get this on film for about a week now, but tonight I finally remembered to get the camera out and actually do it: Rowan can clap on command! :)

I Won Something!

2009-11-13T19:10:00.003-06:00

Before you get all excited for me, I won a bag of dog treats. But still! Bonus! I don't have to buy a bag the next time I'm at the store. :)

A lot of the more famous bloggers get sent free stuff from companies (in order to try and market to their readers). Well, I follow a blog called I AM BOSSY, and a few days ago she had a giveaway contest for organic dog treats, giving away a bag to 10 people randomly who commented, and I won a bag. So, yay for that!

In other news, on a Goodwill trip today, I found this DVD and VHS shelf for $14:

which organizes and displays approximately half of the movies we own. Since I had recently gotten fed up and put all the game systems and electronic-type stuff that had cords into the movie cabinet, the movies had been sitting in a jumbled pile at the bottom where a person couldn't find the movie they wanted without possibly having to drag ALL the movies out or risk a giant pile of VHS tapes and DVD's falling over. The rest of our movies are in the entertainment center (while there's still a few that are stacked on top of each other, you can at least SEE all of them to find the one you want). Woohoo!

Last but not least, the end of the year is almost here again, which means Brian and I are in the middle of being hit with a major COST WHAMMY consisting of House Taxes, Homeowner's Insurance, Home Warranty, Our Anniversary, Christmas, and Brian's Birthday (and possibly Thanksgiving and New Years' Events). Luckily, we save up for this and have Brian's stocks, because otherwise, we'd be screwed royally. To help with this, we're not traveling for any holiday this year, and I've been in the middle of searching for cheaper homeowner's insurance rates, cheaper Christmas gifts, researching to see if our energy company is the cheapest option (we have a choice here in Round Rock--how cool is that?!) and just finished paying our taxes (OUCH!!!--Good to be done with it though!).

I feel like such a responsible adult today dealing with all this stuff, that I think I'm going to go drink a few sodas and play video games for a couple of hours after Rowan's asleep. :)

Posting Every Single Day is Exhausting

2009-11-12T19:26:00.005-06:00

Okay, so really, posting everyday is not so bad, its just that I don't have anything that interesting to say everyday one way or the other. Don't get me wrong, I have things to SAY, but I think most of them are beyond the scope of this blog (as in, could get me in trouble) due to their being about: politics, religion, money, stupid people, family and friends who probably do not want their business posted on the intertubes, and so on. I try to be responsible. I figure that any time I want to post something possibly inflammatory, I should pause and think about it for a few days, because while I can always remember to write about it later, I can't take it back if I say something that offends somebody. (Not that I currently have anything like that to talk about, I'm just trying to explain the lack of super-interesting commentary over the last few days.)

Today was calm, but lots of fun! Rowan woke us up a good 15 minutes earlier than normal (which was to be expected since we both had the day off...grrrr), and after a leisurely breakfast, the three Kindingers drove downtown to Zilker Park and played on the playground. Rowan did a great job wandering around, picking up rocks (but not eating them!), and wearing himself out by trying to make a break for it to the nearby 4-lane road on a regular basis. Then nap, lunch, and a trip to another park (this time, the playground at Old Settler's where Rowan tried to make it into the lake), the HEB for dinner stuff and cookies, another nap, dinner, and a walk in the stroller around the neighborhood. We just got done with his evening routine, and now he's down for the night! We had a great time just walking around most of the day, and it was awesome to have somebody to talk to during the day for a change. I love my redheaded boys--they made my day awesome! :)

So Very Tired...

2009-11-11T22:48:00.003-06:00

I have no real reason for being this tired. Good news though! Brian is taking tomorrow off, and Ella (in a random coincidence) is not coming tomorrow either, so it'll be like the weekend! Excellent!

Going to bed now. Will post more tomorrow.

Recent Rowan Developments

2009-11-10T15:34:00.004-06:00

Quiz:
In the last week, Rowan has:
A) had his LAST bottle
B) learned how to clap
C) chewed apart half a nerf dart
D) all of the above

If you guessed D, you're right! :) I can't believe my baby is all done with bottles. He's been drinking water out of a sippy cup for a while now (he still can't seem to hold it up on his own yet), and last week we decided to kiss that last evening bottle goodbye. A few days later, I packed up all the bottles until baby #2! What a great feeling! Now its a banana for a snack before bedtime, and to be honest, he hasn't even really needed it.

About a day after that, I put Rowan's hands together a few times to clap to a song, and since then, he'll clap whenever someone does it in front of him...half the time, he'll do it if you just ask him to clap, so I know that he knows what the word means and isn't just copying our behavior. How cool is that?! (Once I get it on video, it'll be on the blog!)

And yes, since he now has teeth on the upper and lower parts of his mouth, he gnawed half a nerf dart into tiny pieces and ate a good portion of them. Good times!

Ella!

2009-11-09T18:15:00.004-06:00

Normally, my posts feature Rowan in all his glory (and we have made some progress worth talking about which I will mention later), but today's star is Ella Grace Bailey, the beautiful little girl that I watch during the day.

I have been watching Ella for a little over a month now, and I think its going really well! She's very different from Rowan, and I don't know if that's because she's a girl, or if its just a personality difference, but its so nice to take care of a baby that doesn't scream constantly and destroy things. The biggest difference has been her attention to faces--Ella's attitude seems to be saying constantly,
"I love you! Look at me! Isn't eye contact GREAT! I love smiling!," whereas Rowan's attitude as a baby said (on a multiple-times-a-day basis), "Screw you guys. I am not interested in you whatsoever, but look! AN AMAZING PIECE OF PAPER TOWEL THAT I'M GOING TO SHRED AND EAT!"

Plus, its very fun to see how both babies have handled being around each other. Ella loves Rowan (and his toys) and thinks he's the most fascinating person in the world. She always has a big smile for him and likes to make motorboat noises at him. Rowan, on the other hand, sees Ella as a potential threat because she takes away some of his attention, and he regularly takes the one toy she is playing with away from her and with his free hand, tries to smack her upside the head. For him, Ella is a constant reminder that he is not the center of the universe, which of course, is infuriating for a toddler who up until now, thought he was god. (I have been told this is pretty typical behavior for a toddler, so at least Rowan will be somewhat used to a younger baby being around when he someday gets a younger sibling!)

In typical one-year-old fashion, he's incredibly jealous of any attention Ella gets, so he's being quite whiney in the following videos. I have to say that normally things are not quite that crazy during the day at my house, but we were trying out letting Ella sit in the Exersaucer and Rowan did not like that one bit.

These video clips are a bit loud: its a combination of Latin music going in the background, plus the Exersaucer making tons of noises, and of course, Rowan crying.

You have been warned.

Toro!

2009-11-08T18:11:00.002-06:00

This is How Dorks Are Created

2009-11-07T17:35:00.004-06:00

I forgot I took these pictures the other day-- Brian is teaching our one-year-old son how to play computer games.

I'm sure the lesson on how to count in binary will commence any day now. :)

Projects Around the House

2009-11-06T14:19:00.002-06:00

Last weekend, Brian filled in the hole in the drywall that was at convenient reach-in-and-grab-handfuls-of-fiberglass level for the toddler. Woohoo! While we have been working on the bathroom in spurts for some time now, I am proud to say that we are almost finished. We need to install a toilet paper holder (I don't even really want this, but Brian insists), and put that film on the window that makes it so that your neighbors can't see you showering (not that they've said anything, but I'm sure that's not something they want to see when they look out their kitchen window).

After that, who knows? I have to say though, I'm starting to feel the urge for a new (relatively inexpensive) project coming on...maybe painting? Putting up shelves or storage? Doing something in the kitchen?

Or maybe, JUST MAYBE, we should finish all of the unfinished projects we already have going around the house--making sure all the light switches and outlets in the toddler's room have covers, taking down the tape we put around the ceiling when we painted the garage, put some more baby-proof latches on the few remaining doors, or even (dare I say it?) sealing the deck and putting up the railing so Rowan stops falling off the deck whenever we go outside...

Its a gorgeous weekend--let's get something done! :)

Exciting! Check out My New Diaper Bag

2009-11-05T19:26:00.005-06:00

Woohoo! $3 at Goodwill Outlet!

I know its not cutting edge fashion, but odds are good in the next year or so it will be chewed on, dropped on the floor multiple times, stepped on, spilled food on, subjected to almost every bodily fluid, etc., so I think it will do. In the spirit of getting rid of something every time I get something new, the old diaper bag has been donated.

Now I'm off to investigate why Rowan is walking around the house with no diaper on...

Halloween Pics

2009-11-03T15:10:00.008-06:00

[Added Later: Wait a minute! Why is blogger saying that I posted this on the 3rd? I posted this on the 4th! Is it because I made and saved this entry on the 3rd and just waited until the 4th to post it??? Either way, screw that. I posted this on the 4th, so as far as I'm concerned I've kept up with the daily blogging.]

Our friend Chad Bailey took these awesome pictures of Rowan in his Halloween costume. Doesn't he look adorable?!

Also, I forgot to mention one of the more fun aspects of our Halloween adventures: When we went to visit two different friends' houses and surprised them by coming over unannounced, we put Rowan in costume in front of the door, rang the doorbell, and then hid. Doors were opened to an apparently lost and sometimes crying toddler with no parents in sight. It was the "Trick" part of trick or treating-- no nice little kid with a cute costume begging for candy for you--as OUR friends, you get an abandoned screaming toddler up way past his bedtime who doesn't understand why Mom and Dad are hiding in the bushes. :)

Woohoo!

2009-11-03T10:42:00.004-06:00

Today marks probably about the 3rd day this year where I have actually left the house to go shopping for something other than groceries or baby stuff-- I did, in fact, buy myself some clothes(!) of the cooler-weather variety. Now, unless some store is having a MASSIVE sale, if I'm going to buy clothes, I usually go to my staples: Target, Old Navy, Ross (or TJ Maxx), and Goodwill (or Salvation Army).

Lately, due to the economic situation, I have cut down those choices to Target (if it has to be new) or Goodwill (everything else). This works well for me because both of these stores are generally cost-effective, close to my house, not high-end enough to mind me dragging two (possibly irritated) babies in with me while I shop (although both were very well behaved today!), and interesting enough that I can enjoy browsing while the babies generally just kill time staring at other people or shiny things.

At Target, I found hoodie-type-tops for $15 (I got a black one) and baby socks for $1/pair. (While I normally buy baby stuff at consignment shops, do NOT buy baby socks at consignment stores--they're not worth it because they're usually new and 3x the cost of Target!) At Goodwill, I managed to find another hoodie (red) and a nice purple sweater for less than $12 for both, so I'm pretty happy about that. Lastly, I went to a used bookstore to get a copy of "What to Expect" for toddlers, and paid about $8 (about half price for what you'd see at Target). So, for less than $40, I got 3 cool-weather tops, 3 pairs of baby socks, a book and a toy airplane that I found at Target for $1 for Rowan. Woohoo!

Here's a picture of me in one of the tops so that I can show off my awesome shopping skills (but mainly because my mom wants to see a picture of my new haircut). Have a great day!

National Blog Posting Month and DDO (Dork Stuff)

2009-11-02T09:04:00.003-06:00

National Blog Posting Month is actually every month, but in November, there's a website that gives out prizes for people that update their blogs everyday for a month! I seriously doubt I would win anything, but I do like the idea of trying to write something every single day and posting it. I am however, notoriously easily distracted, and will probably remember to post for the next 2 days and then give up. We'll see.

In other news, my friend Chad says he got at least one good picture of Rowan in his Halloween costume, so as soon as I get that, it will be posted! Hooray!

Super-dork update: As some of you may know, in ancient history B.B. (Before the Baby), Brian and I used to play the computer game World of Warcraft. We both liked the game a lot because at the end of a long day when you feel like you didn't accomplish anything, you could go online and complete some quests (or at least kill something). The world was huge, and as far as bang for your buck went, video games are the cheapest form of entertainment around (other than going to the library--but then you'd have to *gasp!* LEAVE YOUR HOUSE).

There were only 3 things I didn't like about WoW:
1)Cost--while it was only $15/month for unlimited play, it would have been much better to find a game that was...say...FREE.
2)Time--WoW took up an enormous amount of time, which we couldn't really justify once house and baby entered the picture.
And 3)PvP--Player vs. Player--where you can fight other actual people--really sucked for me because there were always tons of players (and by "players" I mean 19-28 year old boys whose families or girlfriends had not forced them to get jobs for some reason) who would play constantly (24 hours a day) and made it no fun for the casual player, who would always get their butt kicked. While I loved playing WITH other people to accomplish quests, I did not enjoy playing AGAINST other people who obviously did not have lives.

So, over a year ago, we stopped playing. Boo.

Then, this weekend, Brian found Dungeons and Dragons Online, another game much like WoW, except that: 1)its Free! 2)It doesn't seem to have as many of the crazy players as WoW did, and 3)the focus is much more on Questing than PvP. Woohoo!!

So, that's pretty much what we've been doing for the past 2 days (when not cleaning the house, taking care of Rowan, going out with friends, etc). That, and eating leftover Halloween candy. :)

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T09:54:00.006-06:00

This is the LEAST blurry picture we have from Halloween.

This year at the Kindinger household, we had a very low-key Halloween... no pumpkin carving or parties, just patching the drywall in the bathroom, watching the Gators stomp Georgia, and trick or treating around the neighborhood (and a few friends' houses). EVERY SINGLE ONE of our photos turned out horribly blurry, so we may have to stage a few of Rowan in his costume. We do have video though-- Rowan is wearing the jack-o-lantern costume my mom made for me when I was a baby, and this is the first hat he's ever kept on his head for more than a second, so we were very proud of that. Rowan didn't quite get trick-or-treating (he ignored the candy and kept trying to go into people's houses to see their dogs and tried to follow other little kids who were dressed up and running around), but we had a great time and the weather was fabulous-- cool and clear. :)

Anyway, Rowan looked adorable, and we scored enough candy to last us for quite a while (no, Rowan doesn't get any--he got to have the joy of dressing up and everyone thinking he looked super cute!). While we did not hand out any candy (we weren't home), we did leave some on the front porch for trick-or-treaters, and they obviously very politely took one as our sign said because while some candy was gone when we returned, no one had just emptied the bowl or anything like that. How nice are our neighbors?! :)

Here's hoping everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Benito and Andrea's Wedding Weekend

2009-10-27T10:29:00.009-05:00

This past weekend, Brian, Rowan, and I flew to Florida to attend our good friend Benito's wedding. While we were in Florida from Wednesday night to Sunday morning, we feel like we could have easily spent double the amount of time visiting friends and family, and we're glad we got to see the ones that we could.

We flew in on Wednesday night, had an excellent dinner, and pretty much crashed. Thursday Brian spent on one big fishing trip with his brother and dad, while Rowan played with Grandma K, and I slept almost the whole day due to a cold I had picked up from Rowan. I did manage to get a haircut and highlights in there at some point though (thanks Mrs. K!), and I'm pretty happy with the results.

On Friday I was still recovering, but we did get to see one of my college roommates, Reba, for lunch (she's a lawyer in Tampa), and meet Adam's girlfriend, who was very nice. That evening I felt well enough to go out on the boat before sunset, so we took the boat out to go let Rowan play on the beach, which was absolutely awesome: he stood on the shore and watched the waves come in and out for about 30 seconds, decided he understood what was going on, then charged into the water until he was in at least waist deep, and face-planted into the water so that he needed to be pulled out. When put back on shore, he showed no hesitation whatsoever, and proceeded to charge back into the water and face-plant repeatedly until he got bored and started exploring the shoreline for shells and sticks. We now call him "The No-Fear Baby."

On Saturday morning, the three of us and Mrs. K hit the road for Palm Bay and Benito's wedding. (Mrs.K had generously volunteered to come to Palm Bay and babysit for us while we enjoyed the wedding and reception.) It was awesome seeing Benito, meeting his wife Andrea, seeing their families, and seeing our friends Yar, Katie, their daughter Evie, our friend Diana, getting to meet her husband, and seeing Dave P. and his wife Gina. It was a beautiful and intimate wedding, and I'm so happy we could come see the last of Brian's roommates married off!

Had a fabulous time at the reception (especially enjoyed Brian and Dave's karaoke version of "Sweet Caroline"), and got back to the hotel in time to have Rowan keep us up half the night due to teething issues. (He had about 4 teeth poke through his gums during the trip!) Sunday, we got up bright and early, and Brad carpooled with us back to the Tampa airport for our flight home (and Publix subs on the way!). While things overall went pretty smoothly on the flights, let's just say that that was the last flight we will be taking with Rowan for a while--he's a bit too antsy to sit still for that long. :) We had a great time in Florida, and congratulations to Benito and Andrea!!!

What We're Working On

2009-10-15T10:28:00.005-05:00

Its amazing how fast now Rowan is learning things--even trivial things. The other night, I taught him how to maximize his bathtub splashes by smacking his hands into the water and kicking. Yesterday, he learned how to make a clicking noise with his tongue, and for the last 2 days we've been working on turning the pages in the books we read. We're also making great progress getting him to drink more water, by offering it to him in the sippy cup after every 3 bites of food...while he's not holding it on his own yet, he's starting to realize food goes down much easier when you have something to drink with it.

On the mobility front, he's everywhere and into everything before you even realize he's in the room. He follows people now from room to room, and gets mad when they leave him behind by going out the front door. He's learned how to turn while walking, and can even walk in circles (which makes him look like a tiny drunk midget). His behavior has really improved this week around Ella-- he's no longer passive-aggressively "accidentally" falling on her anymore, and he seems to be starting to understand that he has to be gentle around her. He's gotten much more patient about eating--if Ella's around when its time for him to eat, he actually behaves better than when she's not! :)

He can even play by himself in the garage/playroom for a few minutes while I run to the restroom or clean the kitchen. When we go to the store, he's learning to either sit in the special buckled-in toddler areas of the carts (different stores have different places for toddlers in the carts--not just the baby-basket part), or to sit in the main basket of the shopping cart (although he has to be reminded to sit down so he doesn't go cart-surfing).

On a negative note, he now knows when he has something he's not supposed to, and when I call his name to try and stop him from putting paper or leaves or other bits of things into his mouth, he looks up at me, and then shoves it into his mouth as quickly as possible to eat it before I can get over there to take it from him. Grrr....

Next week, we'll be going on our first plane ride since he could walk, so I'm curious to see how this is going to play out. Pray for us all! :)

Mr. (and Mrs.) Smith Go to Austin, and Happy 1st Birthday, Rowan!

2009-10-12T10:25:00.006-05:00

Rowan's birthday was on Thursday the 8th, and since my parents were coming into town the next day (and let's face it, Rowan has no idea what a birthday even is), we decided to celebrate his birthday on the weekend. I picked my parents up on Friday and we hung out for a while around the house until Brian got off work. Its actually cold here now (although its already starting to warm back up), so we got to wear jackets and sweaters for the weekend, which was a big change for my parents who were coming from Florida and 95 degree weather. After a Mexican food feast and playing around on the laptops (we had 3 up and running at any one time--what can I say...this family loves computers!) it was time for bed.

On Saturday, we took Rowan to the mall for the indoor playground and some breakfast (yum!), then home for a nap, then to Brushy Creek Park for a long walk on the trail (it was soooo nice out), then home for a nap and ultimate nachos (delicious and very filling!), then took my parents to church, got some Rudy's BBQ brisket (getting uncomfortably full by that point!), and watched the Gators beat LSU (woohoo!). (There were worries here that Tebow wouldn't be ready to go, but he put them to rest.) Sunday, we basically got up and dressed and it was time to head to the airport.

We had a very relaxing visit with my parents, and it was great to have them come to town and see us and Rowan and all the work we've done on the house in the last year or so. Strangely, we got so caught up in doing practically nothing all weekend that while we did get the birthday cake made, we didn't get around to eating it and singing Happy Birthday until after my parents left on Sunday (oops!). Before I post the video from that, I just want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone for remembering his birthday (and that I'm sure he would say thank you if he could for all of the toys, books, clothes, and other gifts). You guys rock! Also, a big THANK YOU to my parents for making the trip from Florida--we love seeing you!

And now, the birthday cake:

The Deck of Awesomeness!

2009-09-27T17:44:00.008-05:00

Today, September 27th, 2009, Brian laid down the last of the main boards for our brand new deck! We still have to sand, seal, and put rails on it, as well as find a stepping stone for stepping down into the yard and making the wood part where you walk out from the house, and get the roofers to put the top on the upper beams, but the vast majority of the work is now DONE! Doesn't it look gorgeous?!

The Calm Before the Storm

2009-09-15T18:08:00.004-05:00

I haven't posted much lately because while there are things going on (Gator Football Season, interviewing roofers, more meal planning, etc.), there's been nothing momentous really. The deck continues to be worked on, but due to enormous amounts of rain, that has slowed down a bit (though our lawn is incredibly happy!). Rowan is getting better and better at walking, and we bought him a pair of shoes the other day--he takes giant steps with them on, as if he's walking on the moon. We've gotten caught up on our tv favorites (House), tried True Blood (a little too gruesome for my taste), and are making our way through the first couple episodes of The Tudors. We were very social this weekend (did stuff with 3 separate groups of people), especially considering we didn't have any plans before Saturday morning. Brian took yesterday off (he had to use up another vacation day), so we're getting lots of stuff done around the house. I'm excited about the Gators playing Tennessee this weekend, and while its been a little quiet around the house, its a welcome quiet. In October things will pick up again, so for now, we're just enjoying not being too busy. :)

Look how far he can walk!

Meal Planning and Cup-Chasing

2009-09-01T14:39:00.005-05:00

Around the 15th of August, I decided to try planning out our family's meals, getting the groceries, and seeing if it would help us to save money, not go out to eat as much, and possibly be healthier. Well! I don't think we were any healthier, and I'm not sure how much money we saved, but it did help us not to go out to eat (we only went once a week by the second week, and that was for lunch!). I did end up having to go to the store near the end because there were a few items I forgot when I bought groceries, so our grocery bill for 15 days ended up being about $200, but this also includes stocking up on diapers and formula (which, if you've ever had to pay for these things, you know they will eat through your money pretty fast!). Here was my plan for those days, and how well we stuck to it...

Monday, Aug 17th
Brian for Lunch: Lasagna (check!)
Dinner: Crockpot Gyros (Delicious!)

Tuesday, Aug 18th
Brian for Lunch: Gyro leftovers (check!)
Dinner: Taco Soup (check! Once again, delicious!)

Wednesday, Aug 19th
Brian for Lunch: Lasagna leftovers (check!)
Dinner: Italian pork chops in crockpot (dinner at small group)--kinda did this...it was more like Brian ate this, while I skipped dinner and just snacked.

Thursday, Aug 20th
Brian for Lunch: Taco Soup leftovers (check!)
Dinner: Jambalaya rice with sausage (Check!)

Friday, Aug 21st
Brian for Lunch: Jambalaya Leftovers (check!)
Cheesy Chicken Casserole (check!--next time, I'm making this at the beginning of a week because we had tons of leftovers that Brian could have taken to work...we did eat them, just didn't in as timely a manner for leftovers as I would have liked...)

Saturday, Aug 22nd
Lunch: Cuban sandwiches, black beans, rice (Oh God Yes.)
Dinner: Tilapia and salad (Brian had tilapia, I just ate another Cuban sandwich...ahhhh Cuban sandwiches...)

Sunday, Aug 23rd
Lunch: out with People after church (check!--This was a bit expensive...I'm thinking next time we'll split something.)
Dinner: Pasta salad and soup (Didn't eat this--I think we were too full from lunch and just kinda snacked...not sure on what.)

Monday, Aug 24th
Brian for Lunch: forgot to plan for this one, so...(no idea--maybe lasagna?)
Dinner: Take and Bake Pizza (check! But waaaay too expensive from Papa Murphy's--going to go with Sam's club from now on.)

Tuesday, Aug 25th
Brian for Lunch: Pizza leftovers (check!)
Dinner: Grilled Porkchops, couscous, grilled squash (I think we forgot to make squash, but the rest of it was good.)

Wednesday, Aug 26th
Brian for Lunch: ?
Dinner: Crockpot Black Eyed Pea Soup and cornbread (I know we made this on this week, but I don't think it was on that day...delicious though! We made calzones instead--awesome, but not on the meal plan so we had to go to the store and buy more stuff for it, or really, Dan and Laura did and we need to pay them back...oops.)

Thursday, Aug 27th
Brian for Lunch: Black Eyed Pea leftovers (Since we didn't make that the night before, I don't know what Brian ate.)
Dinner: Salsa and Black Bean Soup (Had this on the following Monday instead.)

Friday, Aug 28th
Brian for Lunch: Salsa and Black Bean Soup leftovers (Brian had this for lunch today.)
Dinner: Chicken and Stuffing Casserole (Yum! Good, but super heavy.)

Saturday, Aug 29th
Lunch: Chicken patty sandwiches (Went to Firehouse subs instead, so we had to cancel going out to eat on Sunday.)
Dinner: Baked potato Night (Pure awesomeness.)

Sunday, Aug 30th
Lunch: out with people after church (Went home and had leftovers.)
Dinner: Chicken patty sandwiches (Made Arroz con Carne instead.)

Monday, Aug 31st
Brian for Lunch: chicken patty sandwich with an egg!! (He loves this.)
Dinner: Arroz con carne (Salsa and Black Bean soup instead--pretty good!)

While we may not have stuck to each day the meals were assigned, we pretty much ate all the meals I had planned (other than the calzones), so yay for that! Plus, it really makes you think about what you're eating (I'm thinking we eat a lot of carbs and not enough vegetables), so I adjusted accordingly for the next few days. Here's the plan for the next 2 weeks:

Tuesday, September 1:
Dinner: Cheesy Chicken Casserole and Salad (I need to get to the store TODAY.)

Wednesday, Sept 2:
Lunch: casserole leftovers
Dinner: Tuna Helper and fresh green beans

Thursday, September 3:
Lunch: casserole leftovers
Dinner: Taco Soup

Friday, September 4:
Lunch: Taco Soup leftovers
Dinner: Shake and Bake porkchops, frozen corn, dinner rolls

Saturday, September 5:
Lunch: Cuban sandwiches, black beans, rice
Dinner: Grilled lemon chicken, couscous salad

Sunday, September 6:
Lunch: Out with friends
Dinner: Ranch chicken (I think I might just re-name this "Chicken a la Bec"), garlic mashed potatoes, frozen peas

Monday, September 7:
Lunch: sunday night leftovers
Dinner: Lasagna and Salad

Tuesday, September 8:
Lunch: lasagna leftovers
Dinner: Jambalaya and Salad

Wednesday, September 9:
Lunch: lasagna leftovers
Dinner: Hamburger Helper and Edamame

Thursday, September 10:
Lunch: Wednesday night leftovers
Dinner: Baked Potato Night

Friday, September 11:
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: Arroz con Carne

Saturday, September 12:
Lunch: Chicken patty sandwiches
Dinner: Blue Cheese Steak Salad

Sunday, September 13:
Lunch: out with friends
Dinner: Chicken and Stuffing Casserole

Monday, September 14:
Lunch: Football Soup
Dinner: Cheeseburgers on the grill, potato salad.

Tuesday, September 15:
Lunch: Football Soup
Dinner: Pizza (Little Caesar's--if they're still doing the cheap pizza on Tuesdays thing).

So far, Meal Planning is working out pretty well! I'm happy that I'm cooking more, and I really like planning the meals out ahead of time--it gives me something to look forward to for each day. I'm going to try shopping at Wal-Mart for groceries today (not for produce) and hopefully that will be cheaper than HEB.

In other news, I've almost got the entire floor of the garage covered in rubber tiles now, since Rowan's having a black eye every day was getting embarressing. You can see the colorful tiles on the video--I'm planning on having the garage separated into centers (blue for a reading area, yellow for practical life, etc.) but haven't quite gotten it all set up just yet.

Now, for your moment of Zen-- Rowan chasing a blue cup around the garage.

Fun at the Mall

2009-08-25T18:02:00.003-05:00

Today, Rowan and I went to the mall with our friends Katie and Ella. There, we discovered what is probably the cleanest surface for a baby to crawl on--the mall floor! (The way I figure it, by the time someone's shoes get to the center area of the mall, they've been wiped clean on the different stores' floors. Plus, those floors must get cleaned pretty frequently because they were pristine, AND we were there in the morning on a low-traffic day.) We only did this in the center of the mall though, because the floors of stores had carpet (which seemed to have much more bits of things to pick up and possibly eat on them--tiny bits of paper, strings from clothes, etc).

Rowan would watch someone walk up, watch them walk past him, and then would try to chase them (crawling) for a few seconds before realizing that there was no way he was going to catch them (and that they had no interest in playing with him), and then sit down to watch them walk away. Then, he would repeat the process. So, after a little shopping, we decided to check out the kids play area at one end of the mall. I was not expecting the awesomeness that we found: this kiddie play area was carpeted, practically everything to play on was rubber, and there was tons of seating for the adults. As a result, the play area was swarming with kids (not old enough to go to school) and their moms.

Now, if you've never seen Rowan interact with other kids before, its pretty funny. He usually takes a few minutes to stare at them running around, almost as if he's saying, "What ARE these things?" Then, because he has no natural fear of anything or anybody, he'll try to chase them/walk to them/pull their hair out/claw their faces. He's not being mean about it, he's just decided its time to see what they feel/taste like. (Almost always, the other child runs away.) Then, its time to explore the play area because all the other kids are doing it, so there must be something to it!

Rowan played there for half an hour: chasing a little girl with braids whenever she ran by (because of course, braids are the ultimate in hair-pulling fun), head-butting another little boy (the two of them afterward looked up at each other in shock, then crawled away in opposite directions as if to say, "Let's never speak of this again"), practicing his walking (he's getting much better!), and, at one point, pulling almost a whole handful of hair out of another child's head (yikes!--strangely, the other little boy ignored the incident completely).

Rowan also be-friended another little boy's mom (who is obviously way cooler than I am) because she was crawling around a large round rubber ball, trying to get her son to chase her, and Rowan decided to join in on the fun and ambush her from her other side. A little bit later on, he followed some larger kids in climbing UP the front of the small slide (at which point, I came over and took him down). All in all, we had an awesome time, and I DEFINITELY see us going back there to play in the future. (An air-conditioned, safe, free playplace--heck yeah!)

Here's some video of today's mall fun:

The Joys of Mobility!

2009-08-22T20:38:00.004-05:00

Rowan is now super fast at crawling, and likes to chase his dad around the house...

And here it is: video of Rowan walking! I put together several small clips of him taking a few first steps. He gets so happy when he walks just a few steps--we can't help but laugh along with him. We're so proud of Rowan!! :)

End of the Summer of the Kindingers

2009-08-12T12:06:00.028-05:00

Look! Its the rare and elusive family photo!
Sadly, both Grandma and Grandpa K have now returned to the Sunshine State. While they were here, we:

-went to a costume party as The Professor and Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island,

-added the roof frame to the deck (the actual roof we may have a roofer put on),

-hung up the ocean animals quilt in Rowan's room (looks awesome!)

-worked some more on the bathroom (new floor rug, new shower curtain, new cabinet for above the toilet, a bath mat for Rowan to sit on in the tub, cabinets are painted, light fixture installed, outlet covers put on, and gunk scraped off the window--still no mirror though--we're working on it!),

-got a new kitchen mat and a ton of new toys for Rowan, (this little table was an awesome Goodwill find!)

-ate like kings (key lime parfaits, County Line BBQ, blueberry pie, lasagna awesomeness),

-went to the Round Rock Rockin' River (City Pool),

-gave the Kindingers the stomach flu, and... THE ANNOUNCEMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR:

-ROWAN IS OFFICIALLY TEETHING! (And is very angry about it.) I decided not to put angry crying pictures up--instead, you get some from the Monday night bathtub photo shoot. The above picture is Rowan looking "wistful."

This is his "curious" look, also known as, "Is-That-An-Electric-Socket?-Let-Me-Go-Stick-My-Fingers-In-It!"

Grandma K thinks he looks angelic. However, in this one, I believe he was actually going for "Children of the Corn." Isn't he wonderfully knowledgeable about pop culture? :)

Look at those come-hither eyes... I can just hear him saying in a seductively deep voice, "Hey girl. Why don't you come over here so I can eat your necklace?"

Last but not least, here's some video of some reckless parenting/awesomeness. This is the first time I've added music to a video file, added fade-in and fade-out, and managed to upload a video to youtube and embed it on the blog. We'll see if it works! Have a great day!

The Stomach Flu and Cheddar Chicken Casserole

2009-08-05T17:23:00.003-05:00

I have not been writing much the past few days due to the horrible stomach flu that has been trying to kill the Kindinger family.

Because I am a nice person, I'm not going to go into too many details about it. I just know that at one point, I told Brian that I preferred being in labor to having the stomach flu, because at least with being in labor you got something worthwhile at the end of all that pain. Brian looked at me like I was crazy, and told me I obviously wasn't remembering Rowan's labor accurately.

Thanks to time, sleep, Pedialyte, Sprite, and help from Brian's mom, we are recovering-- Brian went back to work today, Rowan is eating again (somewhat), and I have kept some soup down for most of the day, so yay for progress!

That's all I got for now, but here's a tasty recipe I made on Saturday night: Cheddar Chicken Casserole. Its not made in the crockpot, but it was pretty easy.

On Saturday, August 1st:
Cheddar Chicken Casserole

Found at: http://www.recipezaar.com/Cheddar-Chicken-Casserole-124695

My cost of buying the ingredients at the store: Okay, so the problem with me writing this up several days after the fact is that I can no longer find the receipt from my trip to Wal-Mart. I already had the chicken, cream of mushroom soup, broth, onion powder, and cheese, so the only things I had to buy were the rice (which is pretty cheap), and the cream of chicken soup. I think together these two items cost about $2.00.

Cost of what I actually used to make the meal: given the estimations and what I had on hand...$5.71.

Cost per person for a meal: This made enough for two for dinner: $2.85/person/meal.

Changes I made: Added an extra handful of cheese on top.

Would I Make Again: Yep! This was tasty and easy. I think I would double the amount of rice, because there didn't seem to be enough--the final result had a bit too much sauce and not enough rice (but it was still good!). I was looking for something easy, and this fit the bill--the only prep work you have to do is defrost the chicken breasts and cut each one in half so that you have 4 pieces, then put everything together in a casserole dish. Took 5 minutes to make, then popped into the oven! :)

Now, I'm off to drink more Sprite.

My Internet Connection and Our Love-Hate Relationship

2009-08-03T11:36:00.001-05:00

For those of you who don't know, other than taking care of Rowan (and most of the time, myself), I probably spend the vast majority of my day on the internet. Its not that I'm particularly lazy (although I am), its that this is my only real way to have human interaction all day long (as a stay-at-home-mom, everybody else I know is working).

I use the internet to:
-read the news,
-find recipe ideas,
-stay in touch with my friends and family,
-watch tv shows and movies,
-read articles on home improvement and decorating,
-listen to new music,
-research what's going on with my baby so that I don't have to call my mother every 10 minutes,
-read my daily scripture readings for my church group,
-play games,
-find awesome coupons, deals, and free items,
-sell or donate items I no longer need,
-pay my bills,
-do local research (such as finding roofers, steam-cleaning people, etc),
-regularly work on improving my writing through my blog,
and about a million other things I can't think of right now.

The internet connection being down means I might have to (gasp!) LEAVE MY HOUSE, which I don't mind doing, as long as I've planned said outing ahead of time. I don't really like to do this unplanned because with a baby, there's always more work involved than you originally think. Plus, leaving the house usually results in spending money, and I don't want to do that if I don't have to. (I know that this would not be as much of an issue if I were cool and trendy and modern and had an iphone but I don't have one and don't see that happening anytime soon so for now, my internet connection stays home-based.)

I guess what makes me the most angry about this is that I pay for the internet connection I have to be operational 24 hrs a day, and when its not, I find it comparable to my electricity or water suddenly not working. Usually when the electricity or water is not working, its due to a natural disaster, and it is fairly obvious that there's something wrong. Also, since I only pay for what I use, while it is inconvenient to not have these things, at least I'm not losing money on the deal. With the internet connection however, not only could it randomly die at any given time, but when it does, the world acts like its not a big deal while I am sitting there screaming obscenities at a product/service that for no apparent reason is failing to do its job, and which I'm still paying for.

Finally, once it returns, it does so without fanfare, notice, or apology, (or refund!), showing up in my home like a wayward apathetic teenager, slouching in my doorway as if to say, “Hey guys. Where've you been?” while I've been so upset I'm writing a page-long blog about how pissed I am that its gone. No big deal. Life can go on. I've just had a meltdown, that's all.

I think the worst part is that once it comes back, I realize its only been gone for 25 minutes.

Crawling Along...

2009-08-01T14:03:00.003-05:00

After multiple attempts and requests at getting Rowan's crawling on camera, here it is:

Have a great weekend!

Mobility, Lemon Chicken, and a New Roof!

2009-07-29T08:38:00.004-05:00

As of yesterday, Rowan is officially mobile(!), and we are now experiencing all the joy and pain that mobility can be. He can crawl from one end of the room to the other pretty quickly, and is rapidly progressing in his ability to do so without hurting himself (he's not quite there yet). Yesterday, he was able to move 3 out of 4 limbs in a row without falling--the 4th one would make him faceplant on the floor--but he's learned from his mistakes and as of today, can now full-on crawl. The only things slowing him down are his energy level (he has to stop and rest after crawling a short way), his gigantic head (and the fact that he seems to have no concept of how big it actually is when it comes to going through doorways or not slamming into things), and that he's easily distracted (a lot of the time he'll crawl half way to something, get distracted, and crawl back to the beginning, rather than toward what he wanted).

The good news is that he's no longer super-frustrated all the time: he can now get to the things he wants to play with. The bad news is: HE CAN NOW GET TO THE THINGS HE WANTS TO PLAY WITH. He's loving the fact that he can now get to the puppies when he wants to (see video clip), follow me into the bathroom from my bedroom, and crawl across the room when I call him. I'm proud of how quickly he can move and the way he seems to pounce on the things that he likes. On the other hand, I'm scared to death he's going to kill himself somehow.

Yesterday, I think I pulled him away from certain death or injury at least 8 times. I had to remove electric cords from his hands at least three times (this is even with the plugs that are not being used being covered), and I have decided the lamp in the living room is getting moved. He grabbed at the cord that was charging Brian's power drill, and would have pulled the drill off of the counter onto his own head if I hadn't stopped him. He's pulling books off the bookshelf in his room when he's supposed to be napping (yes, he's doing that from inside his crib), and pulling a bag of cabinet knobs and outlet covers out of the bathroom cabinet (and THANK GOD ignoring the razor that was sitting right next to it).

Earlier this morning, I was sitting at the computer checking my email, and Rowan was 2 feet away playing near the back door. Suddenly, I hear a thump and insane screaming, and rush over to find Rowan has given himself a shiner. I think he must have been trying to stand up by leaning on the high chair, slipped, and caught himself with his face (almost his eye) on the back door hinge. Now, whenever I'm not going to be basically staring at him, I've decided to confine him to the baby cage, the pack n play, a walker, jumper, or crib. It sucks that now that he's finally able to go where he wants, I have to severely restrict his movements, but HONESTLY. It looks like I beat my baby right now.

As for my latest culinary endeavor, the Crockpot Lemon Chicken turned out alright! For making up my own mixture, I'm fairly proud of the results. There was enough for dinner for two, and while there wasn't any chicken for leftovers, we boxed up the remaining liquid for use in future recipes. Here's what I did:

-Defrosted 2 chicken breasts and put them in the crockpot.
-Added 3/4 cup lemon juice, 1 cup white wine that we had sitting in the fridge, 9 small cloves of garlic (cut up), half an onion (cut up), some cumin, and some oregano.
-Let it sit in the crock for about 7 hours.
-Made couscous on the side. Here's the more official write-up:

On Tuesday, July 28th:
Crockpot Lemon Chicken

Found at: Made it up!

My cost of buying the ingredients at the store: I already had the lemon juice, wine, spices, and garlic, so... $9.65 (a bag of chicken and an onion).

Cost of what I actually used to make the meal: $2.34 (only used 2 pieces of chicken and half the onion).

Cost per person for a meal: I'm guessing on the costs of the wine, lemon juice, and couscous, and not including spices: $4.20/person/meal.

Changes I made: N/A.

Would I Make Again: Sure! I'm thinking next time I'll thicken it up a bit somehow (maybe adding a can of cream of chicken soup or more vegetables?), and putting only half a cup of lemon juice and half a cup of wine. It tasted pretty good, and the chicken was falling apart by the time we pulled it out of the crock. Yum!

In other news: a while back we filed a claim with our homeowner's insurance for hail damage to our roof, and it looks like our insurance is probably going to cover it. I'm thinking that after the deck is finished (and once the insurance company mails us our check), I'll start having roofers out for estimates and checking references. So, if you know any good roofers in the Round Rock area, please let me know!

Lastly, Brian heard on the radio that this was officially the hottest July EVER for Austin. We picked an excellent month to spend a ton of time outside building a deck in our backyard...talk about bad timing! Oh well, we survived! :)

Making Baby Food and Other Culinary Adventures

2009-07-28T14:27:00.007-05:00

So, while Crockpot Easiest Pork Chops was pretty darn easy, it wasn't the best recipe ever. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible, expensive, or inedible, it just wasn't awesome. Here's the info for it:

On Monday, July 27th:
Crockpot Easiest Pork Chops

Found at: http://busycooks.about.com/od/porkentreerecipes/r/cpeasyporkchops.htm

My cost of buying the ingredients at the store: $1.74. (I already had the pork chops at home.)

Cost of what I actually used to make the meal: $1.15 (there were 2 soup packets in the box and I only needed one).

Cost per person for a meal: I'm guessing a bit on this one because I haven't bought pork chops lately, but I think I normally get 12 for about $8, and it made enough for dinner for the two of us, so...: $1.25/person/meal.

Changes I made: Only used 2 pork chops instead of 4.

Would I Make Again: Probably not. It wasn't bad, and the meat was super tender and juicy, but the recipe really didn't give it much flavor at all, and we were both still hungry afterward (we had a salad with it on the side, and then later...ice cream.) I'm sure I'll be able to find a recipe to use the extra soup mix with though, and the juices off the meat were totally re-usable over rice (I think Brian threw them out though). Oh well!

Ten seconds after I stopped filming this, he freaked out and refused to eat any more--I think the Mrs.Dash was a bit too much for him.

In other news, last night we finally got Skype working for both my parents and my sister Jessie, so now we can see each other in that way. Woohoo!

As for today, it has not been as fabulous a day as I would have liked. To be honest, most of the things I've done today have been alright, but Rowan just WON'T STOP FUSSING. Unless he's asleep or in the car, he's been pretty much crying/fussing/moaning ALL DAY. I have no idea what's up: he seemed fairly happy with breakfast and lunch (as in, he ate some of it), is not 'stipated (that's usually the problem right there), and I'm trying to get him to sleep, but he's really fighting it. I thought he was just tired this morning, but he didn't even sleep for the length of his normal nap (1.5 hrs)--he woke up a good half hour early and wouldn't go back down. ARGH.

Also, this morning's activities reminded me why I do not generally consider myself "domestic." I spent the morning getting groceries and then making a crockpot meal for tonight and attempting to make baby food for Rowan. For tonight's crockpot meal, I made up my own recipe for Lemon Chicken based on what I had in the fridge and after looking over some recipes online, so its kind of an experiment. If its any good, I'll post it.

Tasty Lemon Chicken? We'll find out!
As for Rowan, I decided that I didn't want to be buying the baby food already made at the store because 1) its expensive, and 2) it tastes horrible--I thought Rowan was just being picky until I tasted some of it--ew! So, I bought 3 sweet potatoes, 3 yellow squash, and used some carrots that I already had, and made 7 meals for Rowan just by washing, peeling, and boiling the vegetables and then running them through the food processor. Then I stuck all of it in little individual Tupperware containers and put them in the freezer so they'll last. They are a little less solid than Rowan seems to be preferring now (lately he's just wanted to feed himself and not be spoon-fed), but he's not coordinated enough to feed himself finger foods very well and usually ends up agreeing to be spoon-fed something rather than go hungry. So, we'll see how that works out.

As far as a cost comparison, its worth it monetarily, but it sure didn't seem like it was worth it until I did the math (and maybe I just feel this way because I've had a crappy day).
-All the Gerber 3rd level foods were $0.68 each, and Rowan usually eats one per meal. Now, for comparison purposes:
-For fresh squash, it was $1.54 (I bought 3), and it only made one and a half meals (so $1.03/meal)--I guess yellow squash isn't the best for this.
-It was definitely worth doing for the sweet potatoes: I bought $2.49 worth, and it made 4.5 meals, so it was $0.55/per meal.
-As for carrots, I only used half a bag because I needed some for another recipe. It didn't make much (only one meal's worth), but it also only cost $0.40 (a bag is $0.79) so I guess I'll make sure Rowan likes it and then stock up on the carrots big time.

I didn't try it for fruits so I could be missing out--I did buy bananas, but I figure Rowan can feed cut-up pieces to himself so that should keep him fairly happy at meal time. Plus, I have no idea if these prices are good for these vegetables (I don't usually pay attention, I just throw what I need in the cart), so maybe they'll be cheaper later in the year? I would think so, at least for squash because isn't that a fall vegetable? We'll see.

Prunes! Hooray for regularity!
I've been struggling to make foods that Rowan will eat, so I'm hoping this will help. The rice cereal, cinnamon, and prunes combo I made a few days ago turned Rowan bright red anywhere it touched his face (I've now read that cinnamon can irritate a baby's skin, so its not an allergy). He liked rice, but only for one meal a day--if its at both of the solid meals, he rejects it. He didn't like pasta, tomatoes, and Mrs. Dash either (I think it was the Mrs. Dash that did it), so today I gave him pasta, tomatoes, and Parmesan cheese for lunch and that went okay (not awesome though).

He didn't like the imitation crab meat, cheddar cheese, and prunes combo I gave him last week either, although I think he would have been fine with it except for the crab. (I wasn't really expecting rave reviews on that one anyway, I just thought it was funny more than anything else. Plus, its not like he knows any better as far as what foods are normally paired together...). Growing up, my sister Claire put ketchup on EVERYTHING (chicken, potato chips, raisins...) so maybe we'll try that next... Some things we know for sure though: Green beans in ANY form are rejected immediately, and cookies are always welcome. Sigh. At least he likes sweet potatoes--Tasty and good for you! :)

Crock Potting and a Finished (pretty much) Upper Deck!

2009-07-27T09:13:00.010-05:00

{Because this is a long entry with very few pictures to go with it, I'll just randomly put pictures of Rowan throughout. You don't like the inconsistency of it? TOO BAD! Here's one now!}

He's so well-behaved at story time.
On Saturday, Brian and Dan pretty much finished off the upper part of the deck! While it still needs:
1) an extra board at the end that has to be specially cut,
2) sanding on the ends of the boards,
3) sealant of some type, and
4) benches, rails, and a firepit,
it is definitely usable for evening meals outside! While the boys were putting the deck together, my friend Laura Eaton and I went garage sale shopping and picked up an outdoor set of a table and 4 chairs for $8 that works great as temporary furniture, so the last two nights have been awesome because we've eaten dinner out on the deck!

What's really REALLY great about this is that we can haul a few foam puzzle piece squares and the baby cage outside with a toy or two, and Rowan will just play happily in it while Brian and I have an uninterrupted dinner together. Let me say that again for those of you not quite with it: AN UNINTERRUPTED DINNER TOGETHER. Do you know how many uninterrupted (by the baby) dinners Brian and I have had together with Rowan being both awake and within eyesight since he was born??? I can count them on one hand. And on Saturday, he played with a hair scrunchy on the deck for 45 MINUTES without needing anything from us. On Sunday, it was a headphone cord and a stuffed alligator toy. 45 MINUTES PEOPLE!

Meanwhile, this week, I have been trying to plan meals out, determine exactly how much they're costing us, and (of course) cook more. As a result of the deck being near done (okay, at least over 50% done!), I have decided I've got to get on the ball when it comes to cooking. The logic goes like this: the deck cost a lot of money so that we can't really afford to go out to eat as much (note: it did not cost anywhere NEAR as much as it would have to hire somebody to build it, but still), and now that we have this lovely area to eat outside, I should definitely be making more meals so that we eat at home more. I have decided to go with crock pot meals because I am admittedly lazy, a very bad cook (I've ruined Easy Mac before), and they look fairly easy.

The little crock pot that could.

I mostly get my recipes from these websites:

A Year of Slow Cooking (awesome—she uses her crockpot everyday for a year!): http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Three (and Four and Five) Ingredient Crock pot recipes: http://busycooks.about.com/cs/crockpotrecipes/a/3ingredcrock.htm

and the book:
The Fix It and Forget It Cookbook.

The goal of me posting about these recipes here is not really to provide info on how to cook the meal, which is why I don't usually provide the ingredients or directions (I do post a link though so you can make it on your own if you want). Instead, the focus is on how much it cost and if the meal was worth it. Here's how I'll break it down:

-Name of Recipe

-Where I found the recipe.

-My cost of buying ingredients from the store (this will almost always NOT include spices because its practically impossible to figure out how much you used, and I won't include stuff I already had around the house (like chicken or garlic)...if its something special I have to go buy though, I'll include it.) Also, these prices should just give you a general idea--I'm sure they vary from place to place.

-Cost of what I used to make the meal (this will almost always be less, because a recipe might call for a half pound of something, but I can only actually buy a pound in the store, or a cup of something, but I can only buy a 1 quart container). Also, I'll try and put the cost of everything used (including what I've got around the house, except spices) so you can get an idea of what it would actually cost YOU to make.

-Any changes I made to the recipes-- did I halve some ingredients? Double others? Usually I have to adjust things somewhat because my crock pot is a 2 qt., so its a bit smaller than most people's.

-If I would make it again...

Random Rowan picture #2.

So, here's what I've been making/eating so far:

On Friday, July 25th:
Crockpot Gyros

Found at: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/07/crockpot-gyro-recipe.html

My cost of buying the ingredients at the store: $22.96

Cost of what I actually used to make the meal : $10.73

Cost per person for a meal: Enough for the two of us, plus enough leftovers for one person to have lunch the next day (so 3 meals), so the cost per meal was: $3.58/person/meal. Pretty good, considering we had lamb in there, and that other than the garlic, olive oil, and spices, I had to purchase practically everything to make it.

Changes I made: None.

Would I Make Again: Definitely. This was delicious. Plus, we have tons of stuff leftover to make more-- the only thing we used up were the pitas (and I've got extra tortillas on hand to substitute), so I could make it again and not pay any more than the original $22.96. Yay! :)

Do NOT try this at home. Potential for baby injury from falling off the window seat while in the Exersaucer is quite high--especially when the Exersaucer doesn't really fit in the window seat. Also, if your baby is like mine, he'll only find it amusing for about 10 seconds, and then start crying again. Interesting idea, but totally not worth the effort.

On Saturday, July 26th:
Cheesy Crock pot Chicken and Rice

Found at: http://busycooks.about.com/od/chickenbreastrecipes/r/cheesecpchicken.htm

My cost of buying the ingredients in the store: (I already had the chicken, pepper, and chili powder), and I bought a rice packet for the side, so: $2.76.

Cost per person for a meal: In this case, I added in how much the chicken cost based on how much a bag of chicken costs and how many pieces are in the bag (9), and it made dinner for two plus a lunch leftover for Brian, so for 3 meals it came out to: $1.58/person/meal.

Changes I made: Because I have a 2 qt crock pot instead of a big one, I only used 2 chicken breasts rather than the 6 called for in the recipe. I kept everything else the same, which meant that I had lots of sauce left over to pour over the rice (which I made on the stove just following directions on the package). Yum!

Would I Make Again: Yep! This recipe had 5 ingredients, 2 of which were spices. It required absolutely no cutting up of anything, and the prep work consisted of defrosting the chicken in the microwave and opening 2 cans of soup. I'm all about cooking if it takes less than 5 minutes of work! :)

Sunday, July 26th:
Taco Soup

Mmmmm...put some sour cream and cheese on that!

Found at:http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/02/original-taco-soup-crockpot-recipe.html

My cost of buying the ingredients in the store: (I already had sour cream and ranch dressing mix, and I bought all the other ingredients listed, plus chips and cheese, so): $16.55. (Without chips and cheese it came to: $7.87. Wow those two items were expensive!)

My cost per person per meal: I bought all the ingredients, forgetting that I have a tiny crock pot, so that in the end, I used about half of them to make the meal because the rest wouldn't fit in the pot. It made enough for dinner for 2, plus lunch leftover for Brian, so 3 meals, and it ended up being: $2.42/person/meal.

Changes I made: I kept the amount of meat and seasonings used, but only used half of the canned stuff because there was no way it would all fit in the crock pot. Believe it or not, the main costs were cheese and chips, without which, it would have cost WAAAAY less. Like, instead of $2.42/person/meal, it would have been $1.69. Note to self: buy store brand chips next time, and shred your own cheese!

Would I Make Again: Yes! This was a great, hearty meal--Brian and I ate until we were stuffed, and there was lots left over. Also, because I bought twice as much of the ingredients as I needed to make it, I can basically make this again at very little cost (okay, so I need to buy more meat and taco seasoning, but that would cost me $2.28). Also, at my grocery store, ground turkey is $1.49/pound, while ground beef is $1.78/pound, so I'll be getting the turkey next time, which I think is probably healthier too! Plus, here's another recipe that required no cutting up of anything whatsoever, and mostly just opening cans! (You do have to defrost and then brown the meat, though.) Hooray for easy recipes! :)

What I'm making today: Crock Pot Easiest Pork Chops. I'll post how it goes!

Side Note: I typed this entire entry out on my deck this morning: Rowan entertained himself the whole time by playing with a couple toys, staring at the puppies, watching the wind blow through the trees, and listening to the train go by. I'm LOVING the new deck!

And due to requests for more video, here you go:

Because its always fun to lift up the carpet and see what's under it. He's practically crawling now--earlier today he went from one end of the living room to the other and ended up behind the couch. Yay for mobility!

Rowan's First Baseball Game!

2009-07-23T15:12:00.007-05:00

On Thursday, July 2, we took Rowan to his First Baseball Game at the Dell Diamond. For those of you that don't know, Round Rock has a minor league team called the Round Rock Express. I have no idea if they're any good, but we had a great time going to see them play!

It was "Thirsty Thursday" so the beers were half price (still a bit expensive, but you make do), and we sat on the berm seats (on blankets in the grass) way out behind left field. Rowan ate lots of grass (grrr....Brian!), tried to eat peanut shells, played with our friends, got wheeled around a lot in his stroller in an attempt to get him to go to sleep at one point (unsuccessful), and saw fireworks for the first time (he did NOT like that AT ALL). There's so much going on at these games that I didn't really watch the players at all and still had a great time. But, I'm pretty sure the Express won!

Jay Howard and Rowan hanging out--I think Jay's teaching him about the rules of the game... who's winning again?
Plus, behind right field there is a playground and even a swimming pool for kids whose parents are watching the game. I get the feeling we're definitely going to be taking advantage of that in the years to come! Thanks so much to Jay and Laura for inviting us-- we had a blast! :)

Me and Laura Howard, our new neighbor.

Rowan in his appropriately themed baseball outfit!

Making Progress...

2009-07-23T09:07:00.016-05:00

Hey guys! What's all this hard work you're doing in the yard?

Working it on the Bobcat! Those are my $1.99 sunglasses from Goodwill--purchased for the sole purpose of letting Rowan play with them.

Swimming in the baby pool in the front yard while Brian and Mr.K build the deck, and while I'm moving mulch.

In the last 2 weeks or so, we've been making HUGE progress, and not just on the house. While Rowan's room has been painted white (as well as the guest bathroom), and the deck is halfway done (I believe the majority of the super time-consuming parts are done), and the rockpit is GONE (WOOHOO!!!), we also have had developments on the Rowan-mobility front.

Don't you just love the swim hat?!
Turns out, not only can this boy now pull himself up from sitting to standing, he can also get up from laying down into a sitting position (which you would think would come first, but doesn't), and...he can DANCE! The other day, we were rocking out while Rowan watched, and suddenly he started kinda bobbing up and down too... Mrs. K would dance for a few seconds and wonder why he wouldn't dance too...we finally figured out he was waiting for his turn! So now, about once a day, I put music on and stand him up holding onto a bookcase or the coffee table, and we take turns dancing and watching the other one dance. I wish I had video of it, but as soon as he sees the camera he forgets about dancing and just wants to grab it.

Ghetto fabulous: This picture should tell you that we're pretty desperate to get Rowan to sleep-- even if we run out of foil for the window, we'll put wrapping paper up if that's what it takes. We couldn't stop laughing as we put this up. We're a resourceful crew. :)

As seen from a previously-posted video, Rowan's gotten pretty good at getting around in his walker/car. He can now stand for a few seconds at a time (not holding on to anything), which is amazing to see. He's also down to 2 bottles a day, with 2 solid meals as well. He now refuses to eat if he's just being spoon-fed. He wants to have food he can feed himself, so we have a lot of cut up vegetables and fruits, like tomatoes, green beans, bananas, and peaches, as well as his favorites of rice and couscous. He's progressed from motorboat noises to a shouting-while-sucking-in-his-breath noise, which sounds hilarious, to now just lots and lots of "wa-wa", "ah-ah", "Eeeeeeeee!" noises. He might be saying his first word in a few months!

Rowan and I were moving mulch from the truck out front to the giant pile in the back so that we can line the dog run with it! (Okay, Rowan wasn't, but he liked to watch!)
He's amazingly fast at getting into things and grabbing things he's not supposed to have-- if he sees it and its in reaching-distance, he grabs it before you can even think about if a baby should have it or not. (He knocked over more drinks and grabbed more papers and cords in the last 2 weeks than in the whole of his life so far combined.) It seems like he's really starting to understand more-- maybe not exactly what I'm saying, but definitely the tone now. He's also pretty much down to 2 naps a day--one in the morning and one in the afternoon. He's still really fussy in the evenings, but we try and distract him from that by going outside, and usually it works.

This is what I see now when I go in to get Rowan up from naps. I love that he looks psychotically happy here.

Lastly, while we did have pretty bad GW yesterday (Grandma Withdrawal), today has been much calmer. We even got some errands done without freaking out and having to leave the store! :) Here's pics of the last few days:

Most of the framing was done at this point...

Brian and Lucas taking a break.

This is 3 truckloads of mulch Mrs.K and I moved from the truck to the back yard using the bobcat.

Crazy family photo. We like to ignore the rules...like the one that specifically tells you not to put people in the loader.

Adventure Baby!

The Kindinger Boys after a long day's work.

Can you believe how professional this looks?! AWESOME!!!

The Kindingers are coming back in a couple weeks to help us finish this up. A deck this size would have cost 5x as much as we've paid to hire someone to build, but because the guys are doing all the work themselves, we're saving a bundle. Plus, you get to keep the tools when you're done! Brian is already planning on building several other items around the house with his nifty new miter saw--I can't wait! :) In addition to the home improvements, we even got a night off to go to the movies and see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! Thanks SO SO much to the Kindingers for another awesome visit!

The Rock Pit Is GONE and Other Progress

2009-07-17T14:09:00.010-05:00

The Kindinger men are making great progress on the back yard. Yesterday, by the end of the day, they had gotten the wood delivered, built 2 sawhorses, ripped something off of the roof and replaced it (I think it was where the bleeping squirrel was getting in), and built 6 of 11 rails for the deck. The earth mover arrived this morning, and they've been leveling the yard out, ripping out bushes that I hated, and filling in the rock pit. I'm happy to say the pit is now 100% gone! YAY!!!!

Plus, who doesn't love playing with heavy machinery?

In addition, Rowan's room is done being painted and all the furniture has been moved back in there!

We ended up:
-painting 2 coats of primer,
-painting 1 coat of "white,"
-painting the crown molding around the top of the room,
-replacing all the beige electrical socket covers with white ones,
-tearing down the foil in the window (it looked like we were running a meth lab),
-dusting (ew!), and
-removing the printer shelf that used to be sticking out of the wall in the corner.

We have decided the room still needs a few things:
-a corner shelf,
-a quilt hanger (we have a nice quilt we'd love to hang on the wall above his crib),
-a light-blocking curtain,
-the blinds need to be put back up,
-the chair cover needs to be washed, (the chair in the photo doesn't have the cover on it),
-the carpet needs a steam cleaning, and
-I'm thinking of putting some letters that spell out Rowan's name somewhere, but overall, we're pretty much done with that room for the time being.

Just as a reminder, here's the before shot (not completely accurate because in reality that room has not been a study for a long time--it had all of Rowan's furniture in it, but I think the point is mainly the paint color):

And After!

Now, its on to the guest bathroom! We've planned to:
-sand down the yucky spots on the wall (and scrape badly done paint off in some places),
-paint the room white (its a dark beige now and we need to use primer first too),
-take the gunky clear stuff off the window (and either replace it or put up blinds or curtains--haven't yet decided),
-put up a new mirror (and take down the old one),
-put up a new light fixture (and take down the old one),
-add a chair rail (possibly painted a color other than white),
-put up a white shelf,
-add new knobs on the cabinets (brushed nickel),
-buy a new bath mat and shower curtain,
-rip out the old toilet paper holder and patch the drywall where it was,
-install a new toilet paper holder on the other side of the toilet,and
-bleach the living gunk (literally) out of the shower curtain liner.

We're hoping that by putting it in writing, we'll actually get it done... wish us luck! :)

Mid-Projects

2009-07-16T12:49:00.009-05:00

Since we are in the middle of about 4 different home improvement projects, I don't have much time to write, so I'll just post some pics to let you know what's been going on.

While Brian and his dad work on the deck, Mrs. K and I have been painting Rowan's room. About a year and a half ago, we painted the room a dark maroon color, but now that it has become a baby room, we thought it needed to be brighter--a nice, neutral white that would look good for a baby room (and for eventual re-sale). It has taken us a while to finish, mainly because we needed to put up two coats of primer to cover the maroon, and we're juggling childcare at the same time. While we're doing this, half of Rowan's bedroom furniture is now in the living room:

and Rowan is taking naps in our master bedroom closet.

Meanwhile, outside...

Mr. K and Brian have set up a table outside to work with their new giant shiny toy (electric miter saw):

The wood for the deck was delivered this morning:

Can you believe that's enough wood to build a deck? Doesn't look like it to me, but then, I'm not the builder here!

Mr. K built the two wooden saw horses yesterday in anticipation of the massive amount of wood-cutting they're going to be doing in the next few days.

The earth mover for leveling out the yard and getting rid of the rock pit might arrive today (and we have been told it will definitely get here by tomorrow), so that will soon be happening, and now, they're getting ready by doing something to the side of the house (I have no idea what)...

Now, I've got to get back to painting while Rowan's taking a nap! :) Wish us luck!

He's Going To Be A Great Driver

2009-07-10T12:53:00.005-05:00

I took some video of Rowan tooling around in his walker (action shots!), and he can now come to me in his walker from across the room which is super fun because you can kinda play hide-and-go-seek (except with Rowan, its more hide-and-go-call-out-to-him-until-he-finds-you). I especially enjoy when he backs up in the car, throwing one arm over his shoulder and backing up like I do when I drive... he's going to be a heartbreaker--cute guy with a big smile, baby blue eyes, and a flashy red sports car...he can't talk yet, but talking's over-rated anyway, right? :)

9 Months Old!

2009-07-09T22:00:00.010-05:00

(I don't know which day this was, or even why it was "dress like a redneck" day at the Kindinger household...)

Yesterday, Rowan officially turned 9 months old! We celebrated by having our 9-month doctor visit, where Rowan did not have the best day. On the one hand, we found out that he weighs 21 pounds and 12 ounces, is in the 55th percentile for weight, is 29.5 inches tall (90th percentile for height!), and looks to be very healthy. On the other hand, since he's been INCREDIBLY fussy for the last 5 days and has the kidney reflux history, they wanted to make sure he didn't have a UTI, so they tried to give him a catheter to get a urine sample. He was empty. So, we had to go eat, come back, get ANOTHER catheter (successful this time), as well as a finger prick for blood for a glucose test, AND a vaccine shot. There was lots of crying (from Rowan) and held back crying (from me). They saw no sign of a UTI though (thank goodness!) and believe he must just be teething. Yesterday was not a pleasant day. :(

I did not want to put any videos from yesterday (because they would have just had a ton of screaming, so here's a happy video instead):

In other news, Rowan is able to pull up into a standing position from sitting! I saw him do it once (and only once) in his fortress of solitude (AKA the baby cage) but it was awesome! Recently, Rowan has expressed his extremely strong desire to walk-- he wants to be standing at pretty much all times, or be "walking" with assistance around the room... he can even take a few steps while holding on to furniture. When he's in the walker, he can get pretty much wherever he wants to go intentionally now, and the dogs know that when he's in the walker, to leave the room because he's coming after them!

As for food, he's now eating 2 solid meals a day (one from the Gerber jar, and one that's pretty much regular food, just mashed up), and not only does he love Greek food, he loves Indian food, lasagna, sour kraut, cookies, french fries (we don't really feed him that much junk food--it just happens to be what he can eat that's soft at restaurants right now!), and will try to eat leaves, grass, and peanut shells if you let him, as Brian discovered when we took Rowan to his first baseball game on July 2nd. We went and saw the Round Rock Express (minor league team) play at the Dell Diamond, and it was lots of fun. We sat in the grass in the outfield, hung out with friends, saw some fireworks (which Rowan definitely did NOT like), and overall had a really great time. I will post pictures from the baseball game as soon as I get them. :)

Rowan at my parent's house in Florida.
In addition to eating 2 solid meals a day, Rowan is sleeping through the night pretty effectively-- from about 8:30pm to 7:30am. He has moved up to a new car seat (that does not have a carrier with it), and can now ride in shopping carts just sitting in the child seat and looking around at everything. He is more curious about the world every day, and wants to play with anything and everything (especially if the object is NOT an actual toy-- keys, cell phones, headphones, sunglasses, etc...). We have pretty much baby-proofed the house (plugs in all the electrical sockets, clasps on the doorknobs, stoppers on the cabinets) but it seems like every day or two, Rowan finds something that should have been put up, or covered, or moved out of baby-arm's reach. He is not talking yet, but he definitely makes his moods known, and now instead of just being fed, he tries to grab the spoon and feed himself (which always ends up making a gigantic mess).

As for the back yard:

Before the weekend was finished, all the concrete around the pool was in pieces!

Over the past few weeks, we have mainly been busy working on the house, chasing down the puppies when they escape, enjoying our time with our small group from church, and swimming at friends' places on the weekends. Life in Texas is good, but very, VERY hot. (104 degrees every day hot.) The concrete around the pool/pit has been completely jackhammered apart, and this weekend we will rent a bobcat to try and level out the backyard before Brian's parents get here next week. We have hung some shelves in the dining room, re-arranged the furniture (again), and moved a lot of the baby stuff out into the garage/soon-to-be-daycare-playroom. We've also sold the lawnmower, a framed picture, and 2 stools from IKEA on craigslist, so we're getting rid of extra stuff (which I love doing).

In other news...

The "Outlaws" photo-- instead of in-laws, all the out-laws of Daniel's mother's family get wedding pictures with shotguns--FREAKING AWESOME.

(I know this is at least a month late): we went to Florida, where my sister Claire got married, Rowan got baptized, and we got to see a bunch of our friends!!! :) It was wonderful to see everybody, and I'm so glad we could go. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures after the baptism because Claire took my camera with her on the honeymoon (!!!), but I do have some of the wedding and baptism (whew!).

Here's my parents thinking: two down, four to go! Also, my uncle Bryan and his wife Janet.

Rowan being presented to the church after being baptized!

I loved how there were 5 baptisms going on, and yet our family took up 50% of the church-- we must have had 40 people there to see Rowan get baptized. I feel so blessed to have so many wonderful Christian role models for our son! :)

Rowan, Father Pat, Me and Brian, and Rowan's godparents: Michelle and Chris Seiler!

We had a fantastic time seeing everybody-- from both our families, to our friends from Ocala and Tampa/St. Pete-- I got really homesick for a few days after we returned to Texas because of how much fun we had in the Sunshine State. I would post more pics from the wedding, but its mostly teachers drinking (most of my friends in Ocala are teachers) and I don't want to get anybody in trouble! :) Let's just say a good time was had by all!

Okay, its really late so I've got to get to bed. Goodnight!

Jumpin' Jumpin'

2009-06-20T15:44:00.003-05:00

This was at the END of the jumping session: keep in mind he'd been doing this for about 7 minutes straight before this video. :)

Topless Pics and Other Fun Saturday Activities

2009-06-20T14:52:00.011-05:00

For the second weekend in a row, we're ripping apart the deck! Also, scroll down for the topless pics...

We got about this far last weekend: most of the bottom boards ripped out and carted to the front yard (we also used parts of the old deck for a mini-deck in the dog run and a mini-deck for our trashcans on the side of the house).

Brian figuring out how the deck roof was attached to the house so we could start this week's demolition.

Action-Brian ripping parts of the deck roof off!

Surveying our handiwork--we're about half way done now.

Remnants of the deck roof.

And now, for the topless pics!

Hahaha! Gotcha! You people....what kind of website do you think this is?! :)

Here's Rowan playing on the rubber floor mats that fit together like puzzle pieces. We also got him a set of baby gates that fit together into an octagon to make a baby jail/ ultimate fighter ring, since he's THISCLOSE to crawling, and sitting up like a champ. The biggest development this week was that he now intentionally lays on his stomach and hangs out there for a while without screaming...he's going to be mobile soon. Still not much hair and no teeth, but we're having a good time anyway. Now its time for extreme nachos and guess what? Tomorrow's my birthday and Father's Day= fun-ness all around! Have a good one!

Austin Outdoors

2009-06-08T22:21:00.021-05:00

For Mother's Day a few weeks ago, Brian and I took Babyface down to Zilker Park for a free performance of the Austin Symphonic Band. It was supposed to be a meetup with several other mothers and babies from a local stay-at-home moms group, but we got there late and never ended up meeting anyone (but still had a great time!).

The next day, my friend Joanna and I took Rowan to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in south Austin and had a blast! It was ridiculously hot that day and, like an idiot, I did not wear sunscreen and (of course) got really burned. Oh well--the wildflowers were beautiful!

Pre-sunburning...

I just love the aqueducts that supply water to the gardens!

Turtles!

It was too hot for Rowan so we soon were carrying around a naked baby.

I think these are called winecups, and they are definitely my favorite!

Trying to be arty with the camera...

My new desktop background.

Nothing says "Texas" like giant scorpions made out of scrap metal.

Rowan thinking: Wait a minute...I'm being photographed with no clothes on?!

Don't you want to be touched by slimy baby hands?

View from the tower.

In the last week and a half, we visited my family in Florida, attended my sister Claire's wedding, baptized Rowan, visited a bunch of teacher friends from my time in Ocala, visited Michelle and Chris, went to St.Pete and visited Brian's family, Bec and Dave, and Reba, and had a fabulous time. Unfortunately, my sister has my camera, so I will update once I have pictures... Also, our friends Chad and Katie had their baby this weekend! :) She is beautiful and I can't wait to meet her!

I Freaking LOVE Book Shopping!

2009-05-13T16:11:00.007-05:00

Last night I found a free curriculum online that gives you lessons and suggestions for books to read and activities/songs for babies up to preschool, starting from birth! Here's the link: http://www.letteroftheweek.com/

(These people kinda weird me out with their whiteness, but if they're spending all their time indoors, at least they're reading...)

While I felt that I was doing a pretty decent job of keeping Rowan fed, clothed, clean, warm, rested, and feeling loved, I started to feel like I haven't been "educational" enough as far as reading books and doing activities went. I mean, I've kept him pretty much away from the television and we read a book to him every night before bed (I think I've now memorized Goodnight Moon), but I wanted to do something more. So, I decided to try and use the curriculum I found as a guideline, and that meant one major thing: BOOK SHOPPING!

Now, everyone knows I hate to go book shopping...I mean, if there's anything in the world I'd rather be doing, book shopping would definitely NOT be it. Book Shopping, floating down a river in a tube with a beer, going to movies when I have someone babysitting for free, and messing around on the internet...yeah I hate all those things, book shopping the MOST. (This may be the biggest lie I've ever written. Hmmmm....) So, begrudgingly, Rowan and I set out this morning to see what we could find at 5 different Goodwill stores and one Salvation Army. Here's what we discovered:

1) Wednesday is half-off day on books at Salvation Army (at least at the one by 183 and Anderson Mill). Woohoo!!!

2) Some of my favorite books from my childhood were at these thrift stores...books whose names I couldn't even remember, but that I could recognize from their covers, and of course, I happily freaked out.

3) The Goodwill on I-35 by Hwy 79 is the most expensive of the ones I went to for books, and I think the most disorganized (at least for children's books). And by expensive, I mean charging $1.99 for hardcover children's books...Boo!

4) The Goodwill at 183 and Anderson Mill had almost no selection whatsoever, which prompted me to walk next door into the Salvation Army store and be very glad that I did.

5) The Goodwill on McNeil is some sort of Super Goodwill Outlet. I bought 7 books there for $3.25. Will definitely be going back.

6) If you go looking with a list of titles, you won't get anywhere. The classics are rare and very hard to find. I did get a copy of Blueberries for Sal, and Trapper (one of the Serendipity books), but most of the books I found were of the Disney character/cartoon character/Sesame Street variety (nothing wrong with that, but I was going more for Caldecott Winner's...)

7) Don't bother even looking at used pop-up books (they almost always had the pop-up parts ripped out) or the kind that say they're books but require batteries because they have buttons you press to make sounds. I ignore these. Real books do not need batteries! (Plus, I don't want to pay for batteries, and odds are good anyway that since they're used, that half the buttons are busted.)

8) Rowan HATES any stuffed animal that is animatronic. (I mean, that you would put batteries in to make it sing/dance/move. This isn't really a book-related find, but we did confirm our suspicions about this during the trip.) I don't think he's afraid of them--he doesn't act startled--but he may just find them repulsive or somehow "wrong" in the Rowan scheme of things. He'll stare at them in awestruck silence while they do their thing, and if you put one near enough to touch him, he'll get a HUGE frown on his face, take a deep breath and start screaming, as if to say, "How dare you put this thing that pretends to be living NEAR ME!"

To be honest, the Boobahs are crazy-looking. Plus, it was gyrating to music.

Overall haul, 27 books for $23.65. Plus, I found this (Jessie, tell me you remember this!):

We've had a busy week, but I will post about that later. Also, Lost Season Finale Tonight! Woohoo!!!

Grandparent Withdrawal

2009-05-05T13:19:00.007-05:00

I love whenever Rowan's Grandparents come to visit (this last visit was far too short), and man do I hate when they leave! While they're here, not only do they make meals, clean more than I do normally, fix up the yard, give me someone to talk to during the day, and buy Rowan tons of toys (the exersaucer and bathtub chair are the latest addition to our baby paraphernalia), they also feed him, bathe him, change his diaper, and hold him during his every waking moment. While ROWAN AND I BOTH LOVE THIS when they're here, afterward it always takes us a good day of grandparent-withdrawal before we can resume life as we know it.

I walk around the house listless, bored, starving, forced to clean up after myself and check my e-mail every few minutes for signs of human contact, while Rowan, being a baby, suffers even more than I do-- he's no longer being held every single second of every single minute and acts like he's dying whenever I have to leave his line of sight.

The Pack 'n Play? No fun without Grandma.
The vibrating chair? Grandpa's not there to talk to me!
The jumper? The car seat? The walker? The exersaucer? Screw this! I want Grandma!
Even licking the dogs (and being licked by them) is no fun without a Grandparent in attendance to watch and laugh.

Meanwhile, Mom seems to have acquired a new specialization in Baby Torture. Mom has to do things like get dressed, clean the kitchen, run errands, go to the bathroom, put the baby down for naps, and eat meals, all of which are THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD YOU COULD BE DOING WHEN YOU SHOULD BE HOLDING THE BABY.

Mom is but a pale shadow next to the awesomeness of The Grandparents. The only saving grace I have is that right now Rowan has practically no memory, and by tomorrow, the Grandparents will be pretty much flushed from his system. (We're screwed when he gets old enough to remember people for more than a day.)

Thanks for coming, Kindingers. We don't know how to quit you. :)