Cyotes???

I live in Suburbia, in an area developed increasingly between the 1920s and the 1970s. It is bounded on one side by a freeway, on the second by a set of train tracks, and on the third and fourth by industrial buildings with huge open spaces. The actual developed area is about 1.25 miles by .25 miles and consists of (mostly) single family homes on .3 to .6 acres. Since I never go into the open spaces (they are marked "No Trespassing") and they don't connect to my walking routes, I forget that we live on the edge of some forests.

I was slightly surprised today when a woman yelled at me from her car, "I just saw a cyote!!! Be careful!"

I've been yelled at once for walking on the street (there are overgrown bushes which crowd the sidewalk), but never before warned of wildlife. Hmmm. I do remember that the correct defense against mountain lions is to look big (thanks to trail running in high school). I wonder if that is the correct thing to do in the case of cyotes.

John loves books

About two weeks ago, I considered posting a question about how to get John interested in being read to. He had no desire to have books read to him, though he loved flipping through them on his own. Then, a week ago, something clicked. Now he brings me about five different books each day and wants me to read each of them to him five times. Some are normal baby books - "I can count!" or "Paddington's ABCs" or "Goodnight Moon." Some of them are normal children's books - "Curious George" is his favorite. Some are just books that my mom got at garage sales and I read him an abridged version - "Turtles and Snails" or "Flowers" or "The Children's Atlas of the Universe" has a short paragraph on each page. Since he wants to turn the pages before I am done, I usually just read a few sentences before letting him turn the page. He gets all the information each day since we read it through *many* *many* times. These books are designed to teach elementary school children about nature and I learn things, too. I used John's book about "Trees" to figure out what trees we have in our backyard.

At church yesterday, the nursery coordinator brought in new toys. When I picked John up after Sunday School, the lady watching him exclaimed, "He just wanted to read!!! I couldn't interest him in the new toys!" It makes sense - that's what he sees me and Dan doing all the time!

A new type of pizza

I found a pizza recipe which used hummus instead of normal sauce. We liked it!

I carmelized onions on the stove while making hummus without olive oil (I figured there would be plenty of fat from other sources). After precooking the dough, I put on hummus, mozarella cheese, and the grilled onions. If you like salty/sweet combinations, you'd probably like this. If not, keep looking, or at least don't use carmelized onions.

Sourdough

After Laura's sourdough blog, I decided to see if I could revive my much neglected starter. It worked and we had delicious bread!

This is how I did it.

For about a week, I let the starter sit on the counter, feeding it every few days. The last day I added four cups of flour, 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp salt, and 1 cup water to 1 cup starter. I kneaded it and let it sit for 8 hours (until about midnight). Then I kneaded it again and shaped it into skinny (fast cooking) loaves). When John woke me up the next morning, I started the oven heating at 400 F. After John nursed, while Dan showered and we got ready for the day, I let the bread cook for 25 minutes.

Aha! Fresh bread in the morning IS possible without a bread machine.

15 w, 2 d

I had my prenatal today; the second prenatal for this baby.

My weight was good (gained 1.5 lbs), but while I was testing for sugar and proteins, John figured out how to flush one of the toilets and stuck his hands it in. AAAH!!!! We then spent a few minutes figuring out how to get John's hands really really clean, although I still freaked out when I saw him licking his fingers in the backseat of the car on the drive home.

Dan and I plan to get an ultrasound done, but I'm in the habit of saying no to every test offered me. Additionally, on our initial "sign up" form, I was asked what preferences I had for care and wrote that I regard the baby as a human being from conception and would not consider killing it, so to please treat it that way, too. Thus, when the midwife said, "You don't want any testing, do you?" I answered "No" without thinking about the 20-week U/S.

BTW - a number of acquaintances have used their 20-week ultrasounds to save life rather than kill it, so I'm not opposed to it. One girl was found to have only three heart chambers, so her mom decided to deliver at the region's best children's hospital so that she could have immediate heart surgery. Another friend who waived all prenatal testing didn't find out about her son's missing heart chamber until it had caused secondary damage around one year of age and after numerous painful tests for all sorts of other ailments... Yeah, it is anecdotal, but I know these people (wives of grad students at the University, though both children were born pre-U), which makes it powerful for me.

So I guess I'll be calling them to get that prescription. I'll be twenty weeks at my next appointment!

Shameless promotion

Given Ellie's recent gripe about people promoting items like Pampered Chef and Mary Kay, I wavered regarding whether I should write this entry, but decided to write it anyways. I love this product, and it is unique, so I'll promote it. I don't stand to gain from it, but I have found it really helpful so I'll write about it.

Note that as I write about this I'm sipping dark coffee.

I found out about Shade Clothing, a Mormon business, about six months ago while searching for modest clothing. A week ago I took the plunge and bought some maternity shirts. Being 6' tall, I war with my shirts to cover my belly even when not pregnant, so it's even worse when pregnant. The first few months of pregnancy are awful because maternity shirts fit like tents and maternity pants fall down, but I have to play tricks with my normal pants to keep them up. The "tricks" also require that the top few inches of the pants be covered, which is not an easy task!

I bought two undershirts (which is what they are - unless you want to advertise your figure to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who walks down the street) and really like them. Right now, I'm wearing normal pants (held together with rubber bands), a brown "undershirt" which goes down to the bottom of my jeans pockets, and a lightweight beige sweater which, currently, goes about 2" below my belly button. Without these undershirts, I'd be relegated to maternity shirts, which get boring fast enough without adding an extra couple months of wear at the beginning.

I'll probably buy some more undershirts (maternity and normal). I may get the maternity three-pack and then get 3-5 normal undershirts which I'll cut nursing slits in. The maternity undershirt is a really trim fit, made to stretch as your belly grows, so I don't currently feel like I'm wearing a tent.

What a great product! Even if I don't have special underwear to hide.

Nursing entry

If you don't want to read about nursing or John's potty ability, please skip this entry entirely!

John is pretty good at using the bathroom, despite our dismal attempt at elimination communication when he was young. We half-tried for about three weeks, but John didn't like being naked - our house is really drafty, which might account for that! He was much more comfortable and happy wrapped in layers of clothes. Besides taking him when I go, he signals to use the toilet a few times each day. He often signs during dinner, but those mean something more like, "I'm done eating and want to go play with my bathroom toys." However, if he isn't in his high chair when he signs, it usually means he really does have to go. Today, while making lunch, I heard a grunt. Dan took John to the bathroom and John went. We're "catching" about 90% of #2s (which we have a lot of due to our very-high fiber family diet) and about 20% of #1s. I'm encouraged about the #2 catches due to horror stories I've heard about toddlers having a hard time learning to control #2s. John also squats down to go #2, so I think he'll have a reasonable time transitioning to a potty chair.

If you don't want to read about nursing, please skip the rest of this entry!

I read the synopsis of this book a few minutes ago and found the last "law", that babies outgrow breastfeeding, particularly appropriate right now.

John expects to nurse every morning, but goes down for naps and night time without nursing. He only nursed twice yesterday, and the second time was because I offered it to him. (Granted, the day before he nursed six times for a total of about 3 hours, but he also didn't nap well and nursed for about 1.5 hours before bedtime.) More and more frequently I realize that he has only nursed a few times each day. If Dan is home, he'll nurse for about three minutes before wondering where Daddy is. He loves climbing and would rather climb up the stairs or climb on and off of the bed or couch instead of nursing. At twelve months and no solids, it felt like nursing would never end. Now, I can't believe it is tapering off so sharply.

Pillows

Noting that John frequently lays down on a pillow or stuffed animal for part (1) of above, I started wondering when I can give him his own pillow in his crib. Anyone know?

Body language

Remember movies where a kid has chocolate smeared all over his face but can't figure out how his mom knew that he ate the chocolate chips cookies?

John is just like that when he goes to sleep. He has a "Big 3" of body language that he does as he gets tired (in this order, too, like clock work, for naps and bedtime).

1) Kneels down, puts head on the ground and rear end in the air.
2) I pick him up and he puts his head on my shoulder and starts patting my back.
3) He picks up his head from his shoulder and rubs his eyes.

With these three accomplished, I know he's exhausted, so I say, "Nap-nap time, John," which makes him start to cry. I put him in his crib and he cries for a few minutes and then he's out for 1-3 hours and wakes up, once again his normal teaser-baby self.

(My parents say John is a teaser baby because no other babies are as happy as he is.)

Pizza success!

Craving good pizza Saturday afternoon, I went to the web and found the secret of good pizza at home:

Prebake the crust for 10 minutes before putting toppings on!

I make a pineapple-onion-pepper pizza this way to take to potluck on Sunday night and everyone loved it! Now I won't be tempted to buy premade pizzas anymore.

The crust was thin and crispy, just as it should be.

Laundry and lists

I'm only doing laundry three days a week now (when my neighbor bought the new machine she asked me to not use it every day) yet it seems like I am doing more laundry than ever! To stay on top of things, I need to do seven loads of laundry a week. I only wash 15 diapers at a time because my neighbor is worried about the machine being overloaded, so I need to do three loads a week. (That number is decreasing with John's increased use of the potty - notice that a decrease of two diapers a day equals one less load each week!) I wash sheets once a week, bath towels every other week, and kitchen towels every other week. That leaves two loads for clothing, which is reasonable unless we decide to go out for ice cream.

When I was doing wash Monday to Friday, if I put in an extra load on a day when I washed diapers, I felt like I was getting ahead. Now, I need to do three loads of wash on two of the days to not go crazy on Friday.

Two weeks ago, a friend gave us a ton of clothing for John - about six loads worth. What a blessing! Unfortunately, John is allergic to their laundry detergent. That brings up the laundry over two weeks from 14 loads on six laundry days to twenty loads on five laundry days (I'm going to go to the zoo on Friday). Both on Monday and today I did four loads!

I've started writing to-do lists each night with my difficult tasks for the day. This is day three and I'm on track to finish today's tasks. I've been breaking up difficult tasks into pieces; for example, I'm cleaning and organizing the disaster of a dining room this week. Each day I wrote to spend twenty minutes on the dining room and associated stuff. Miraculously, I am almost finished. Why did I procrastinate for four months on a task that in reality would take little over an hour and greatly improve my life???

More to come on lists and how using them is changing my life in the coming weeks...

Do what I do...

Dan and I both read. A lot. (Others are addicted to soaps, I battle book addiction.) So John likes to "read" and frequently sits down with whatever book he can find: "I can Count!" or, at a friends house, the teen novel, "Al Capone does my Laundry", or maybe "Advanced Statistics." As long as it has two covers and pages between them, he's happy, pictures or no.

Our neighbor (who has 4-month old twins who were born 9 weeks early and is therefore ALWAYS home) has a huge television which is always on. When we visit, she leaves it on for background noise, I guess, but John doesn't really know what to do with it. We don't have a TV, and if we watch a movie, it is on a tiny computer screen. He isn't mesmerized by the screen but is curious about the new machine. Last time he hit it before I could get to him. (Last time was a hard visit: he wanted to touch the babies, hit the television, and play with the cell phone and remote control.)

Sometimes I'd like to kick a TV, too, but I haven't told him that.