A post to tide you over

We have a computer! Hurrah!
But I am having trouble posting as I have had house guests and we are trying to get ready for Saturday Market this week.
So here are some pictures to tide you over until I get my act together.
Alright, I could hear you all sigh all the way over here. Since we all know my act will never truly be together I will post sooner than that.

And a word to the wise: Do not put the lid on your child's toy box if you don't want them to get to what's above it.
And when you hear your child say "Tissue, tissue!" maybe pay attention a bit faster than I did.

Nothing to see here, folks.

So my computer has died an unexpected and untimely death. This is upsetting for several reasons- annoyance, money to buy a new one, transferring data. At least all our documents should be fine.

But that is why the blog post that was promised has not arrived. It's not cause I don't love you. Really.

I have to have a computer again to put the pictures on. I need Photoshop. So I will be posting as soon as possible.

Shelby and her beau arrive tomorrow on their way to China for a whole year. And while I think it's really great for her to go to another country for year, blah blah, yadda yadda, I think it's terrible that she won't come visit me for a year. It's making me sad. And when I looked at flights to China I realized that wasn't happening either.

But we will enjoy our few days before she leaves and I will post pics when I have a computer and time.

Pee pee on the potty

Sorry I've been AWOL the last few days. I have been dealing with an insanely congested chest and the mother of all sore throats. Seriously, it hurts!

Anyway, since I seem to be on some sort of nakey baby kick I will tell you what happened today. I was changing Sadie's diaper and she started yanking at her shirt and yelling, "Nakey baby! Nakey baby!" So, fine, I thought, a great potty opportunity. Look at her hanging out on it:


I am making a grilled cheese sandwich for her lunch and hear, "Mommy, uh-oh Mommy, pee-pee. Uh-oh pee-pee Mommy!" Yep, right next to the potty:


So I remind her that pee-pee can also go in the potty and go back to grillin' cheese. 2 minutes later. "Pee-pee Mommy!" I think hm, not again, she just went. I wonder what she means.
Well, she meant pee-pee. This time on her couch:


So, we clean that up. Finishing up grilled cheese and I hear, "Oh, oh, uh-oh, Mommy, Mommy, peeeeee-pppeeeeeeeee!" No way, I think. Yes, way. I kid you not:

So, I've come to the conclusion that while Sadie recognizes pee, she doesn't recognize the feeling of having to pee. It's just a giant surprise suddenly when she's standing in the middle of a puddle. Which is fine. I'm not all hopped up to get her trained if she's not ready.
But maybe we'll do a bit more nakey baby outside.

So, we had semi-nakey baby time:

And grilled cheese. Yum.

Nakey Baby

Okay, so let's say it's July and you're driving down the street and look down a driveway and see this looking out at you:

Why is there a naked baby, on a hot day in July, wearing a knit winter hat? What kind of parents are they anyway?

Look at this kid running around, sitting in the dirt!

Well, I never!

Well, someone wanted out of her clothes in the house. And seeing as how it is hot and stifling today, and some nakey baby time is good for ya, Dada took off her onesie thingy. Then she ripped off her diaper and we thought, Hey, maybe we'll bring out the potty and she'll pee on it at some point.

So Sadie ran around yelling "Nakey Baby!" quite happily. Then I remembered I had to water the garden. And if you remember the rule we learned here you'll know there was no way I was going alone.
So off we went. And we had to watch Dada bring out the garbage at the front of the house. Who then got the mail on his way back up the driveway.
In the mail was a package from Sadie's Great-great Aunt Lucy and Great-great Uncle Seymour, which had in it a soft and gorgeous handmade periwinkle sweater and hat.
So we had to try the hat on, of course. And this crazy kid wanted it to stay on.

And that's why you would have seen a dirty, naked toddler wearing a winter hat staring down the driveway at you on a hot day in July.

And look at this pair, too cute:

Oh, and did the potty idea work? Nope, she waited until she was about to get in the bath and peed on the floor. Oh, well.

The Country Fair

Not to be confused with the County Fair. The Oregon Country Fair is a weekend-long fair that takes place in an enchanted forest with delicious foods and crafts and all kinds of music and dancing and just general all around hippyness and love.

This year I made Sadie and myself wreaths of flowers to wear in our hair. We were so hot since it was 98 degrees today that after being there for a short period of time I never took the camera out again. Thankfully there is plenty of shade and little spots to sit in the trees.
But, we never took a picture of me and Sadie together. Here are a couple of pictures of Sadie in her finery.


And Sadie and Dada:


Oh, and first I decided to make Sadie a hat with flowers on it so she would be shielded from the sun. But since we used our baby backpack that has a sunshade I made her a wreath. Which was good because the hat looked like an Easter Sunday hat. Cute, but not very fairy, enchanted forest-like. And she wouldn't keep it on when we tried it on at home. However, it fits Laddie like a dream!

Partners in Crime

Sadie has always liked Laddie, of course. But she seems to be having more fun with him recently. She has also found that it's fun to feed him. I made banana-carrot bread (sounds weird, but it's delicious) and Sadie really liked it.
She asked me for some and I saw her give the dog a little piece. I asked her not to do that and then watched as she quietly went over and starting feeding the whole piece to him.
So, like any mother who is more concerned with updating her blog than actually enforcing rules I started taping. I was trying not to laugh when I told her to stop. She just cracks me up, that little monkey.

100 posts!

So I just realized that this is my 100th post. I feel like it should be more momentous than me coming on here to make a quick post before heading off to bed. But, oh well. We'll celebrate another day.

Here's a picture to keep you happy. Seriously, do we not have the best dog? Look at him, he's half asleep even with a nutty toddler sitting on him.

Fairy Princess

We went to an art and wine festival yesterday where we sampled some wine and ate a piece of cheesecake that had been dipped in chocolate. Yup, that's right. And then it was rolled in hazelnuts. Mmm-hmm.

Sadie got to make a crown with ribbons down the back. When we put it on her head you could just see that she felt like a fairy princess. She turned and just started walking around like she owned the festival. It was too funny. But who doesn't want to be a fairy princess? Well, I'm sure someone doesn't, but I still do.

And, in other news:



Yes, I took another quiz that tells you if you are a geek. Obviously, you see the results. I wasn't too surprised.
And aren't I using my time wisely while granny's here? Work, work and more work. Wow, I simply must do something frivolous!

Mother Superior

75 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior Take the test!

Well, I was almost Very Superior. I only needed one more point.
I think it was the cooking in pajamas and walking around in stockinged feet questions that did me in.
Gosh, now I'm going to have to rethink my appearance whilst keeping house.

I feel cheated. I mean, c'mon, would an only Superior wife wear this when cooking dinner?

Treat O' the Week

I love baking. Well, actually I love baked goods. And baking.
But especially baked goods.
I have been baking something pretty much every week for a year or so now. Sometimes it's every ten days, sometimes it's every week, sometimes it's every 5 days.

But mama needs her nightly cuppa and a treat. Home baked goods are cheaper, full of ingredients you can name, and fun to make. Especially with a kid running around and getting in your way.

This week's treat (which, as of this writing 5 hours after it finished baking, is almost half gone already) is Cherry Cobbler. I got this blackberry cobbler recipe off of another blog and decided it would be delicious with cherries. I was right.


Here they are. Cherries! Not only cherries, but organic cherries I picked myself in Danielle's backyard. Is that not cool?

Then, finding the cherry pitting to be a very daunting process, I also borrowed Danielle's cherry stoner. Heheh, stoner. This thing is neat. You put the cherries in, press the plunger, and a pitted cherry comes out the other end into the bowl you've put there:

Here's a pitted cherry. Neat!


The only problem with this setup was that someone had access to the bowl and was eating them faster than I could pit them:

I suppose it's better than trying to eat the half rotted ones with pits still in them directly off the ground. That's what she was doing the other day.

Then you mix up a batter that is basically butter, flour, milk & sugar. Throw it in a dish, cover with 2 cups cherries & sprinkle with more sugar:


Then, since there are no eggs in the batter, when your child decides to grab a cherry and eat it, it's OK:


Surprisingly, the cherries sprinkled with sugar are not a hit. What?!!! Look at that face:


Bake for one hour. Pull out when toasty brown:

Yes, that is an ugly dish, I know. I don't have any fancy baking dishes, of course I would have used one if I did. You all are totally worth it. But, alas, I don't. These baking pans have been used and abused. But they work, and that's what matters. Right?


Here's Miss S enjoying her first taste:


And another:


And some more:


Have you noticed that she picked all the cherries out and ate them first? They turn into these delicious, sweet, syrup-y orbs of deliciousness. Yum.

Oh, and Granny (not to be confused with Grammy) is coming in tomorrow and we are going to Portland to get her. We'll be gone all day and I don't think I'll be able to post. I'll miss you!

Night Weaning: the end of week two

Well, I just put Sadie down for night 14 of our night weaning experience.
I have not nursed her between 9pm-5am on any of those nights. She is still waking up a couple of times and at times gets pretty mad when there's no boo-boos to be had, other times she just wants some water and then snuggles up and goes to sleep.

At some point during the first week she woke up and, man, was she mad! She could.not.believe. that I was still saying no boo-boos until morning. Sheesh! She gave me the biggest evil glare, turned around and HIT the mattress! Then she flipped over, snuggled into me, and went back to sleep. It was kind of cool watching her work out that anger.

I have nursed her countless times during the night for the last 550+ nights, so I suppose it makes sense that she would take a while to get used to no nursing. I just hope it doesn't take another 550 nights to do so!

Anyway, this is one stubborn kid to begin with. And we all know that in general toddlers aren't famous for their ability to go with the flow or change horses midstream, as they say. I just hope that she keeps this tenacity she has and uses it when she's older.

Sensitive but tough, a great combination.

And here is a picture of my sensitive but tough baby taken today: