I needed that.

So the baby and I stayed home sick today; not fun...but!

1. I got some cleaning/arranging done; so nice!

2. We had dinner from the crockpot; so nice!

3. Daddy's home; so nice!

4. Baby got to visit the pediatrician and she doesn't have an ear infection or anything that's moved into her chest; really nice!

5. REBECCA'S COMING TO VISIT US ON FRIDAY!

Bonus 6. That "strata" I mentioned earlier only got better and lasted us through lunch today.

How's your week shaping up Reader? I hope you're staying healthy!!
xoxo, natty ♥

A detour.

I was supposed to go to work today for an event. Since I'm a single mom for the weekend I lined up some babysitters and prepared accordingly. I planned to make breakfast and coffee for our friends to sweeten the deal of an eight AM Sunday babysitting gig and got everything else planned out accordingly {my outfit, natch}.

Then yesterday a gross cold hit our little family. We're still swimming through it {I anticipate a long night ahead of us}, for the record.

But that strata. It was the first strata that I've made and I learned that stratas are to be refrigerated the night before. So last night after bedtime I sauteed and toasted and did all sorts of good things and at 6:30 this morning I stuck the thing in the oven right before making the call of staying home with our sick baby. No babysitters, a huge and delicious strata just out of the oven, and some coffee helped me feel a bit better about our situation AND I get a new recipe out of the transaction. Plus enough leftover for dinner tonight.

Link to recipe HERE. Differences: I used: 1/2 and 1/2 for all of the dairy, powdered thyme, only a wedge of brie not a round, a bit of extra parmesan before baking it, and some fresh spinach to lessen the guilt of a nine-egg-three-cups-of-cream recipe.

Here's to getting healthy!
xoxo, natty ♥

Seven months!

We are on our own this weekend {help!} while Michael is out of town at a wedding...so let's see what this past month has brought us.

Not the clearest picture but none of the ones I took today were lacking blurriness; this baby loves to move! And shout! And squeal!! And kick her legs!!

How old: seven months.

Weight: maybe somewhere near 17 pounds? She was about 16 a month ago and scale visits here at home have shown not a whole lot of growth, though our scale can be erratic and  she certainly feels heavier to me so maybe around 17 is what I’ll say.

Likes:

• People; Hanna Lu is almost always enthralled with the other people who ride the elevator with us and is totally impressed by any other small child…so observant!
• Sweet potatoes!
• Her oatmeal, mixed with milk though tonight she had it with water since there was no milk on hand {I had frozen everything that was in the fridge}.
• Crawling! This kid is everywhere…she’s showing signs of maybe wanting to pull herself up but for now she’s army crawling all over the place. She gets up on her hands and knees all the time and can even move a few paces this way but she hasn’t quite perfected it. Sometimes she sticks up her bum when she’s on her hands and knees. Hanna will also be on her hands and knees and kind of go down/turn to one side which puts her legs in this funny position but she does it when she wants to sit a bit and look at/play with something.
• Sticking thing in her mouth. This past week she started getting her fist in there but in a funny back and forth in/out sort of way which makes a really cute “blaaabba blaabba” sound.
• Creaking like an old door and babbling {dadadadadada…}.
• Playing in her toy/play area {& she just recently starting trying to pull up and chew on the edges of the alphabet/number mat…but when she wants attention from us she starts crawling towards us.
• She still enjoys hanging out in her exersaucer but for shorter periods of time since she really loves moving around on the floor.
• Guinness the dog; he can elicit a laugh basically by just walking past her. She also appreciates grabbing onto his fur but we try to circumvent that behavior.
• Her new crib. We help her get into a standing position while holding onto the railing and she loves that vantage point. It’s got a much softer mattress than her pack n’ play and her sleep hasn’t changed, though it hasn’t been stellar since returning from California anyway.
• Our building’s play room; there’s not much for her age but there are some toys and when we take her there she makes a hilarious series of breathy-oh-my-gosh-so-much-to-see noises.
• Other kids; being at daycare has really fueled this. On the swings yesterday Hanna was staring at the toddler next to her…what a creepy stalker baby!
• And her new daycare; woo hoo! This new lady is super warm and bubbly and Hanna Lu seems to really enjoy her which makes me feel good.
• Swinging! Hanna’s grandma and Zaide took her to the park on their last visit and we went again yesterday so the kid doesn’t have much swing experience but gosh golly she was THRILLED with it last night.
• Grab-scratching onto things; my chest, the couch, my face, her dad’s face, our arms…so mostly her parents’ bodies? This is painful with her little talons.

Dislikes:

• Getting her nose cleared out; we’ve had a bit of congestion here today and this morning she couldn’t eat because she couldn’t breathe from her nose so I used the thing we have to clear out congestion. It wasn’t the first time but it was the first time she really needed it {& still does, she totally sounds gooped up still} and Hanna Lu is not happy afterwards.
• When daddy gets her dressed; she seems to scream just for him – she doesn’t love the process but little bit makes it much harder on her daddy.
• Teething; we had a rough weekend last week before chomper number two made its appearance; this weekend has been better so far but for the unrelated congestion.

Milestones:

• Can sit unassisted though topples over if she gets excited and moves too much.
• Has taken some baths sitting up!
• Has teeth!

Sleep and eat:

• Sleeping has struggled a bit in the past two weeks thanks to our cross-country trip, teething, and the recent snottyness…still not too bad {one to two night wakings} in a 12 hour period but not as good as before. Still, we can’t complain.
• Hanna still eats/drinks mostly milk but will have oatmeal two to three times a day and one or two “meals” {along with the oatmeal} of food – roasted  veggies, banana, avocado, plain roasted chicken breast, and toast are all things she has enjoyed so far. I’m having some trouble coming up with more food to give her since we’re not really doing purees. The whole “Baby Led Weaning” {“weaning” meaning “to eat food other than breastmilk/formula” rather than wean off of milk completely} touts just giving baby what we’re eating but we never have enough left overs and it seems a bit much for her so young, though tons of people do it so we’ll see. Up new for this week: cucumbers {raw and in spears} and butternut squash {roasted and in spears}.
• The babe is still a difficult milk drinker. At her six-month appointment I asked about a possible posterior tongue tie. Weeks and weeks of a baby who doesn’t love eating/drinking and daycare providers who ask about it and I’m much more resigned to our lot with this infant but still super curious and sometime in August I started to wonder about a tongue tie, though I can’t remember what prompted that. Hanna’s pediatrician checked it out and said there might be but gave us a referral to an ENT person for little humans. Each time I call to make an appointment, though, no one answers and none of my messages have been returned. Lame. The baby seems to enjoy eating food just fine but if we plan to nurse/bottle feed until at least a year old that’s still a good chunk of time and if there’s something we could do to make the process easier, oh my goodness I’d be all for it. There’s been nothing quite as frustrating in my life as when the baby doesn’t want to eat.

Miscellaneous:

• We had a great time visiting California very briefly which made us only that much more excited about going home for Christmas to visit both the Golden State and Arizona; we certainly miss our families out here.
• Hanna Lu is wearing mostly size six-month clothes, though she can fit into some three-month things {they’re just short on her}, but not many. We haven’t tried any nine-month things yet, but I have them all washed and they actually look like they’d fit her but I just haven’t attempted it.
• In disposables little miss is wearing size three and probably will for a long time, though she wears cloth diapers 100% of the time; we just did the disposables for our big trip. I haven’t decided yet if we’ll take them along at Christmas. I brought them this past summer for our long trip and two weeks feels like a long enough time to validate bringing them, even with a transfer between California and Arizona in the mix. They take up suitcase space, obviously, but I hate buying so many disposables. We also started using flushable liners in the cloth diapers which make for easier clean-up; since Hanna’s eating food now and not just milk, her dirty diapers are no longer water-soluble and need to be worked on a bit before putting them in the wash – the liners are incredible and make things really easy and since they’re biodegradable I don’t feel so guilty.
• I’ve been curious about baby shoes since I see other babies of a similar age sporting them and we have a few we got as gifts; they are all massive on her and earlier today at the mall I checked out sizes and I think our child has freakishly small feet. I’d love to get her a pair of cute little baby moccasins and the tiniest size fit her nicely but I think I should get the next size up with the assumption she’ll grow those feet at least a wee bit.

25 years already?

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area. I have a whole new appreciation and perspective of providing explanation/context/support for children in traumatic situations, though Hanna Lu isn't really old enough to understand explanations nor has she seen anything crazy, but having a kiddo does make one think a bit more than prior.

I was five, eating a popsicle, sitting in my beanbag chair, and watching "You Can't Do That on Television" {hello 1980s}; my grandmother was watching along with me on the couch {or zoning out or reading, which is more likely [aka what I would be doing], but I remember her watching with me}. The first thing I remember was hearing breaking glass from the kitchen and then as my grandmother was getting in the doorway I was scurrying under the coffee table like they taught us in school. When it finished shortly thereafter I remember having an empty popsicle stick in my hand because it had flown off the stick in my movement. My aunt was upstairs at the time and she and my grandmother deposited me under the dining room table with some blocks while they did a bit of damage assessment. The electricity had gone out on our side of the street but not across {lame} and two of my friends lived across the street so I was able to have dinner and a bath at my friend Emily's house. I spent the night with my mom since her place had electricity and my dad's didn't either. My main concern after the quake, after watching too much news, was that the freeway would collapse {which happened} and that the street would crack open and I or someone in my family would fall in {this didn't really happen but the streets did crack a bit and would be filled in with sticky black tar stuff...in my mind the cracks would open to great crevasses}. I don't think I mentioned these fears to anyone because my family probably would have tried to quell my fears.

It's funny because each year I notice the anniversary but this was the first time I read an article online and really looked at some pictures; it's hard to believe it was really 80s {seeing the clothes and hairstyles [hello flat-tops]} since it doesn't feel that far away.

Here's to hoping that if/when crummy stuff happens in our babe's life we'll be prescient enough to anticipate the weird ideas that young children can come up with {street opening up and sucking us all in! I also was convinced that this giant statue of a man at a local body shop would detach from the ground and come get me at preschool...and that the sounds of airplanes were other giants roaming around} {or hopefully our child isn't as bizarre as her mother is now that I type this all out and realize how coo coo I was} and {the more likely situation} be supportive and comforting adult figures for her.

Aaaaand...on to the weekend!
xoxo, natty ♥

I love you pizza.

We redeemed a groupon for our local Pete's New Haven Style Apizza {"Apizza" ?} tonight; why is is just so darn glorious to not have to do dishes or cook? Meanwhile there are those days when concocting something in the kitchen feels the only thing I want to do.

Thinking about the weekend yet party people? We are!!! Hopefully the teething settles down a bit but #2 is still worming its way up so I don't think we'll see much of a respite. Oh well; as one of the men who work in the convenience store at our building said to Hanna, {the three guys who work there all love her and the dog}, "we all have to do it" {he also said "ahhh she's grouchy".}.
xoxo, natty ♥

Distract me please!!!

30 weeks!

This past week flew by! So let's look at the details...

Odd angles.

• LOVES sweet potatoes/yams...and is eating more in general. In a fit of "oh, we should be getting you on food", Hanna Lu Lu has had two to three "meals" a day; each one usually has oatmeal {mixed with the milk she drinks} but before that I give her time to gnaw on/swallow a bit of whatever we have ready for her...so far she has had: plain roasted chicken breast, roasted sweet potato {and with cinnamon}, roasted carrot {a big hit, but not as big as the sweet potato}, banana {a favorite when frozen in her silicon feeder [I tossed the mesh one because it's too hard to clean the banana out of]}, a lone waffle, toast {plain}, and avocado. I don't send any food beyond the oatmeal to daycare with the babe since we're doing the whole baby-led feeding thing {no purees, just give baby a big enough chunk of the food to gum on} but maybe in a few weeks I'll ask her daycare lady about doing it this way.

• Is totally into being up on her hands and knees though the kid's legs kind of splay out when she tries to move forward as such so most of  her movement is army crawling though she does get some hand/knee movement. Hanna Lu is not content to just sit and be, she is constantly on the move. The kid shows some desire to pull herself up at times and will definitely stand up/walk if assisted. She will occasionally be OK just hanging out on her back, playing with a toy, but that happens maybe once every other day; our infant is no longer immobile. 

• Is enjoying different textures; she has always loved the scratchiness of our couch and ottoman, she's been big into grabbing onto my face and, if you will, decolletage area, and she's loving her sheepskin; 

Hiding under it is good too.

          we snagged it at Ikea last week {nude baby on sheepskin pictures coming soon, I'm sure}

• Is teething; I think I see a little white spot next to her tooth which probably {hopefully} explains the fussiness and neediness of the past few days. The aforementioned frozen banana was a huge hit which makes me think it's helping with the pain.

• Thinks Guinness is HILARIOUS. 

• Had some rough sleep this past week {waking two to three times versus the one or none we had seen before last weekend's California trip}; I'm really hoping this irons itself out. She's definitely actually hungry when she wakes up, versus just eating for a minute before falling back asleep, so perhaps there's some growth happening, or teething, or adjusting to the new crib, or trying new foods during the day,  or still getting used to being back after vacation, or being a baby...

• Is showing the development of a bit of separation anxiety; if she doesn't want to be left alone, she'll protest if we put her down in her play area...but then she calms down after less than a minute and realizes her toys are around her. She doesn't seem to mind being left at daycare or going to new people but I do notice a skeptical look on her face when we do so.

• Continued consonant sounds; "dadadadada..." is still going strong but I've heard some "la"s and just this afternoon a "ma" {at least I think so!}...this babbling is very cute.

• Is sitting up in the bath, very supervised obviously, though I'll still have her lay down at times.

• Is hilarious and our joy;we love this baby oh so much!

20 minutes.

A day off! But we've had some rough sleep this weekend {teething? Getting used to being home [still?]? Too many new experiences during the day?}. Soooooo...

1. Yesterday I strapped on my Brooks and got in a bit of a run, the first since July. That's all.

2. This is a bit of an abbreviated week at work which allows for some extra grading/planning time; much needed extra grading/planning time.

3. Hmmmm...this baby has been a bit of a pill this weekend; maybe daycare and working and all that jazz ain't all that bad after all.

4. Black bean and pumpkin soup; YUM.

5. Leftovers!

How's your week shaping up dear Reader? Well I hope!!!
xoxo, natty ♥

A bit of sun.

The clouds parted a bit today and it was lovely. We picked up Uncle and all had Greek for lunch in the city.Then after getting home at around 3 some fog had crept in.

The view from our roof-top.

Then it got really thick. It's dark now and as it's gotten later the fog has actually thickened; I've never seen it like this! I'm thankful I don't have to drive to work in this soup tomorrow morning. And kind of spooked by this eery weather!
xoxo, natty ♥

Gloom.

It's been rainy and gloomy all day here but that's ok, we're still happy about time-off and we have two soups on this weekend's agenda; chicken tortilla tonight and black bean and pumpkin for tomorrow.

It's funny because I finally starting cooking a bit later in the summer but since work started I really haven't done much and it feels so good to get back in the kitchen {which is ironic considering that our kitchen is a big part of our apartment and I'm in there everyday}.

Any soups on your early autumn docket folks??

Side-note - in looking through my recipe posts I just found these gems and am feeling inspired, though who knows when I'll have the time motivation {ie, another three-day-weekend?} to get going

Greek Lemon Chicken 
Curried mashed potatoes and turkey
PIE {oh my goodness gracious golly that certainly feels more like two months ago than a year and two months ago}
xoxo, natty ♥

Hola weekend.

Oooooh a three-dayer; what luck! After last week/weekend's extravaganza this is much needed and anticipated. 

We've got lots of rest {yippee!}, laundry {boo}. and grading {double boo} on the agenda and we're so so happy.

Happy long weekend to you!
xoxo, natty ♥

Regular.

At a lot of schools I think it's prevalent that the weekly schedule is disrupted just that, weekly. I'm actually OK with this, apart from losing a bit of teaching time, since it helps to break up the work-week. But, we are in the middle of some craziness here and with the weirdness of traveling and being out of town it will be nice to settle into the "normal" routine soon. But then it's practically the holidays and who said time could move this quickly?!?!
xoxo, natty ♥

29 weeks.

Woah WHAT a week for little bit...let's see:

We took and left our usual quilt at daycare; a mistake not to be repeated.

• had another set of travel experiences in the air! Baby Lu is not as easy to fly with as she was; she's way more alert now and into her surroundings which makes it challenging to get her to sleep. She's super squirmy and curious about everything and doesn't want to turn off. When she did realize how tired she was, I think she was having a hard time because she normally sleeps on her tummy and obviously couldn't do so on the plane. But we made it and we're home and hopefully the time difference irons itself out later this week {last night's sleep was rough and there has been crying tonight – something we hadn’t seen since we first began teaching the babe how to sleep way back in July}.
• went to her second wedding! She didn't dance at this one either and she actually changed into her pajamas for the reception and slept for a portion in her stroller ...what a funny baby.
• visited the beach for the second time and even took a nap in the sand.
• watched beach soccer.
• got to see her loving California family; they were so excited and so was the baby!
• we're babbling!! Alluvasudden on Thursday {October 2nd for posterity's sake} the kid let loose with a "dadadada..." and she hasn't stopped since. I've also heard some "la/le" in there as far as other new consonant sounds.
• and did I mention the tooth?!?! After much curiosity, we finally have the tip of a tooth breaking through on Hanna Lu's bottom left. I found out the hard way. I think I had noticed a bit of increased drool as well as some biting down on things but I thought nothing of it until I truly noticed it while Hanna was having a snack on the plane.
• started a new daycare; unfortunately our new situation had to close {no bad reasons, thank goodness} and through a series of fortuitous events and really kind coworkers, we have a new situation even closer to where I work. Today was the first day since we were still traveling yesterday so hopefully Hanna Lu isn't too discombobulated after all this craziness.
• crawling crawling crawling! Hanna Lu is up on her hands and knees for about 50% of the time she spends crawling {the other half is army crawling}, but while up on those hands and knees, she can’t quite coordinate the traditional movement so we see her move with her hands and kind of pull her legs forward.
• lots of face and hand grabbing; when we were sharing a bed over the weekend Hanna just wanted to hold a face or hand while she slept. This is majorly adorable and it makes it extremely heartbreaking to let her cry while she falls asleep again but she had gotten into such a great sleep habit that moving into bed with us is not a good idea since she sleeps there pretty poorly compared to on her own {same for mom and dad}; vacations are fun but this has been a very challenging transition back.
• is pretty curious; I’m including a shot of her grabbing the camera cord during her shoot today and not letting go.

So curious.

Here's to another great week with our beautiful daughter...as well as to some more quiet times in the days ahead!

Joy.

I'm in a post-vacation/red-eye daze...in some happy news:

 

1. We made it home safely.

2. I got the baby to nap with me all afternoon. We unfortunately got up at seven PM which is her bedtime so there have been a couple of tearful hours while we've been trying to put her down, but now hopefully she's good and ready for sleep.

3. I got all our bags for work/daycare {& a new one at that} ready for tomorrow; even if I'm not prepared at work {but I should be; I left everything set for my return} I'll at least have everything set to go when I walk out the door in the morning.

4. My dear husband is taking care of dinner tonight.

5. Did I mention that nap after a red-eye flight with another one after it {with a baby?}? 

 

What's new for you folks?

xoxo, natty ♥

Driving back.

We got back to my grandmother's house around 5 this afternoon and after a busy time of visiting & getting the babe to take a nap/bedtime, we packed up and are on the road to the airport for our red-eye flight back home...though we have what I anticipate to be a joyful layover in the Dallas airport. Wish us some much needed luck.
xoxo, natty ♥

A theme.

Beach soccer kicked off the wedding day for our friends; what a gorgeous venue!

We then had lunch in the beach town of Mendocino {quinoa and kale cakes with salad...and two pieces of pizza poached from the larger group's lunch - yum!} and then tried to get the baby to nap - her sleep is all sorts of off which is OK considering the people willing to hold and entertain her here.

A beach ceremony awaits us as well as a night of dancing under the stars in an adjacent field {not beach}- congrats to our friends!!!



xoxo, natty ♥

Hello Mendocino!

Mikey and the babe and I are winding our way up the state for the wedding of a dear friend. We probably won't have any service up there so I'll take note of what's happening and post it later on...for now, here's to beautiful views and gorgeous weather!!!
xoxo, natty ♥

Back in California ♥.

We {me and babe-o}got here late last night after hours of plane time; yea for family and a California late heat-wave
xoxo, natty ♥

This pooch.

Up in the air.