probably deserving a lot of cookies
The clean up from this past weekend’s snow storm has been extraordinary. We estimate that we received around 30 inches, though since that storm was the third in seven days it fell on an existing snow layer… and really, at a certain point, does it matter? Lots of snow. Wet, deep, heavy snow in such quantities that Rob shoveled for around nine hours total to clear our driveway and sidewalk. It is so deep that it is hard to play– Ally actually walks right on top of it, but when I try to play with her I sink mid-thigh deep and get kind of grumpy when I can’t move.
Given that our county promised to clear our road “3-4 days after the storm’s end,” our neighbors took matters into their own hands today and we all paid $50 to have a few trucks plow our court. They did a fantastic job. Rob and Ally were able to escape the house briefly and stock up at the grocery store. Why? Well, depending on who you ask, we’re going to have another 10 to 20 inches of this stuff on the ground starting tomorrow. And I really don’t have anything polite or thoughtful to say about that, but at least we’re stocked with chocolate chips.
I think we moved to Vermont and I was too sleepy to notice
Snowpocalypse, Snowmaggedon… call it what you will, we have over two feet of wintry goodness outside and I’ll call it we’re not leaving the house anytime soon. There are drifts almost halfway up our garage door. The bushes are buried. And it just keeps coming down!
As is our tradition, Ally and I baked cookies today; ones that will require frosting and decorating to keep her amused indoors this afternoon. Rob is bottling our second batch of home brew. I’m pretty sure I should be doing something productive as well, but I’d rather adopt Ally’s pose from this morning:
A few neighbors have gone outside to shovel, but to me as long as the snow is falling and the wind is roaring, we’re housebound!
unintended
A month after Christmas and just a few weeks after Mandy’s birthday, our house is stocked with an extraordinary array of toys. Classic wooden toys; electronic toys; dress-up costumes and riding toys and pushing toys. Puzzles and crafts.
Regardless, Ally spent the day putting on and taking off her bathing suits from last summer. In layers. We gave up fighting her over wearing a bathing suit in the middle of winter with a good layer of snow outside; I mean, if she’s cold, she’ll put on clothes… right?
And then she rode Mandy’s lion ride-on toy. It seemed to squeak a little under her weight. Squeak, squeak! Ok, look away: how many bathing suits is Ally wearing?
As for Mandy, I’m remembering why things get a bit more challenging once a baby becomes mobile. Our house is pretty child-proofed– there’s very little that is breakable or climbable. Regardless the primary objects of her attention are the cats, lamp cords, and hitting the windows. And of course any toys of Ally’s that are on the floor! I promise and swear I took away Tinkerbell’s wings after taking this picture.
beefcake
Though I wouldn’t argue that Mandy is a big or stocky child in any sense, she doesn’t seem exceptionally small to me. She has chubby legs and dimpled arms, a round belly and full cheeks. She has grown more slowly than Ally, though, and she is slow to move to new clothing sizes. When I took her to our pediatrician for her one-year check up, though, I was surprised to see that her weight of 17 pounds, 3 ounces is below the 5th percentile– in fact, her weight is off the charts, though her length of 28.25 inches remains in the 25th. For comparison: at one year, Ally weighed 20 pounds, 2 ounces, and was 28.5 inches long.
There are a lot of possible explanations: she had a pretty rough cold between Christmas and New Year’s that reduced her food consumption to almost nothing, and a small kid wouldn’t be a surprise when you look at her Mom. (If you don’t know, I’m kind of short. Just a bit. Really! You may not have noticed.) Bloodwork also has revealed that she is a bit anemic. So now we’re trying to figure what to do– whether this is just normal for her or something about which we should be concerned. She has started to take an iron supplement and we are working hard to choose calorie dense foods for her. But she’s a picky eater, and I’m weaning her, so there are a lot of variables. Oh, and given that every stage 3 baby food seems to include carrots, she is really, absolutely, no-doubt-about-it turning orange.
We’ll have to submit to a second iron level test in about a month and a weight check to see how she’s doing. Meanwhile, I can tell you the highest calorie baby food options, because that’s a really handy bit of knowledge to carry around!
pain is weakness leaving the body
There’s something about a baby’s first birthday that seems to light a spark in a lot of Moms I know to start to reclaim your body and life. I’m no exception– the realization that I have spent nearly four years of my life pregnant or nursing is humbling and gratifying, but it isn’t an excuse any more. Mandy had her first taste of cow’s milk this weekend (verdict: no thanks!) and I can no longer blame middle-of-the-night feedings, an irregular schedule, or nursing for inactivity. The challenge is fitting exercise into a full-time working Mom’s schedule, so I’m trying different options: waking up earlier, working out during weekend nap times, and even exercising with the girls. Ally was pretty exciting to try an exercise video with me and donned what she called her exercise clothing.
Shred that, Jillian Michaels!
Meanwhile, Mandy is getting her own work out: she just started to pull herself into a standing position, and it is so cute! Of course she gets stuck sometimes, which is cute during the day and sort of stinks in the middle of the night. Our pediatrician thought her muscle tone is a little low so I’m so happy to see this progress.
birthday recipe
Start with 6 pounds of butter.
Transform said butter over the course of a week into 72 cupcakes, two GIANT cupcakes, and approximately 20 cups of buttercream frosting.
Add fifty family members and friends, of whom you have too few pictures but whose presence made the birthday party one of the most special events we have ever had, and bring it all together for one moment:
Mandy: what’s this tasty stuff?
Ally: Oh, I’ll fill you in.
Rob and I send our heartfelt thanks to everyone who traveled to celebrate Mandy’s birthday with us this past weekend, especially my sister’s family and Rob’s Dad, who drove long, long distances. We love you all.
twelve: and, of course. It was worth it.
Dear Mandy,
You have just turned twelve months old, but the number twelve isn’t the number we’re dwelling on. You are one! One year old! And though you are still our snuggle bug, still my sweet sprout, still delicious with your round cheeks and kiss of a mouth, you are growing and learning and in the future I can just barely glimpse the moment when you will look back at me and say, “my do it.”
I have to admit, you’ve given us quite a run during your first year. You have made our hearts grow just as you taught us how little sleep is needed to function. We didn’t know how often a baby could get sick or how pitiful a sick baby can be. I never knew babies could not be interested in food. I mean, food? Who doesn’t like to eat? And we didn’t know how challenging it could be to manage your growing relationship with Ally, who I’m quite sure loves you but also doesn’t want that love to get in the way of her preeminent rank in the family! Your sister makes you smile and laugh and you love the attention she gives you, especially when she pushes you in one of your new riding toys. In the coming year I look forward to seeing your friendship grow and watching you learn to play together more. But we’ve also learned not to expect your relationship to be without its bumps and jealousies and squabbles. That’s ok.
This past month you have started to crawl fast, particularly when something grabs your attention like a tasty bit of cat food on the floor or when we pretend to chase you! You can also lift yourself onto your knees and bounce, especially when music is playing. You haven’t pulled yourself to a standing position yet, but we suspect that will happen soon. You babble and squeal and coo. You have a few games you like to play with me: in the rocking chair you like to try to put your finger in my mouth and for me to nibble it, then spit it out. You like when I hide cheerios in my hand for you to find, or hiding behind doors to play peek-a-boo. You love hanging upside down or flying around the house to play “baby tag” with Ally. Most of all though you enjoy exploring and trying all of the interesting toys that arrived on Christmas and for your birthday. You play very independently– something I’m not used to!– but we have to watch you with all of Ally’s big girl toys, a.k.a. baby death hazards.
Your favorite foods are chunky baby foods, especially mixtures of vegetables and soft pasta, yogurt– vanilla and banana especially– cheerios, and any kind of muffin or bread. You love chicken nuggets. You do not like cheese, pasta, pizza, beans, soft vegetables, soft fruits, toast, sandwiches, deli meat… or pretty much anything else from my plate that I offer. I think you’ll get better. I hope. This month I’ll start weaning you, so I do hope you start eating more!
Sweet Mandy. We love having you in our family. Your sweet temperament charms me every day. It is worth it, every little bit, to have you with us. The adventure is just beginning. I promise to minimize your consumption of cat food as much as I can if you promise to not try to get away so fast.
Love, Mommy
syzygy
It seemed too good to be true: a weekend with our good friends; three healthy children; a brewery tour and a girl’s night out and a whole lot o’ cupcakes. But it actually happened and we’re still a little giddy to have enjoyed such a good time. Every winter and summer we find a way to get together with our friends Mark and Emily and their son Efram, and we are so thankful that they have come to our house the past couple times so we didn’t have to travel with a Mayflower truck o’ baby gear.
Efram and Ally, though the same age, are really really different kids. Efram strikes me as thoughtful and focused and very, very sweet. He is almost always smiling and can concentrate for hours on a game of Candyland. But some things that Ally loves, like crafts and games of her design like “playing ponies” or “playing fairies,” didn’t capture his interest. They did find common ground in a shared passion for running, squealing, and being silly, so we just did a lot of that and tried to remind Ally that she couldn’t expect Efram to do everything she dictated!
A break after running for, oh, 30 minutes or so.
Rob built the kids a little fort-tent with our dining room table, but we had to take it apart after the kids kept bumping their heads. Woops. Nevertheless Ally kept asking us for much of the weekend, do you want to play camp?
Mandy’s ball popper continues to be a big hit with both Efram and Ally, though Efram didn’t try to use it for unintended purposes as Ally does… she has learned to put it on its side and shoot balls with it.
Efram no longer naps, so of course he joined me in the kitchen! He can make a killer corn muffin.
There was a lot of this going on.
By the end of our visit, Ally had convinced Efram to join her in costume. I imagine she was very pleased.
For more pictures, see their family blog. Thank you so much for visiting us!
and all before 7 AM
On mornings that I travel to my office, Rob calls me around 8:30 after he has dropped off the girls at daycare to tell me about their morning together– who woke first, whether Ally disagreed with my clothing selections, who developed a runny nose overnight. More often than not we laugh together over one thing or another, but this past Friday Rob told me had a story for me but I would have to wait until I returned home so I could see the pictures.
Here they are.
Apparently while removing the wreath from our front door before the girls awoke, Rob disrupted the nest of a bird who has inhabited the wreath for some time. The bird flew around the first floor while Rob attempted to shoo it out. My favorite picture is of his makeshift bird catching net. And all before the first cries sounded on the monitors!
48 bottles on the wall
On the day after Christmas, Rob bottled our first batch of home brew. Check out the 5 gallon carboy behind him and the bottles on his bottle tree (with a capacity of something like 90 bottles!). Wasn’t Santa nice to him this year?
I was supposed to help in the process, but just as we accidentally siphoned beer all over the kitchen floor Mandy woke up, so Rob was left bottling and capping solo. Given that our second batch is fermenting in the laundry room as I type, I imagine I’ll have more opportunities to cap in the near future.