Just some pics

Big Sister lovies!

Meeting Oma & Opa for the first time

Flirted for Uncle Robert's camera

Homegirl's just hangin' in the crib with her peeps

At Tyler's first birthday party. Mommy is just starting to get the hang of this sling.

Ava is 1 month old today!

I don't know if I should laugh with pride because my little girl has gotten so big, or cry because my precious little baby is growing so fast. It's just going by way too quickly.

Ava's first tub bath

Ava had her first tub bath last Saturday evening. Unlike her big sister, who also had her first tub bath at this age, she didn't scream bloody murder...she actually seemed to like it. Who knew?

SOMEONE has to clean up this pigsty

I don't know where she got the idea that vacuuming is fun. I know there are some people out there who really enjoy housework (Julieann...this means you!) However, I am not one of them--my mother can attest to that. Not that I'm complaining, by any means. The phrase, "Liesl, if you help me pick up your toys, I'll give you a treat and let you vacuum" has left my mouth more than once this week. (The kid is so gullible.)

Oh, Martha...your protege is living in my house.

11-20-07
Not to be outdone by Big Sister, here are some pictures of Ava as well.

First time holding the baby

I'll remind both of them of this sisterly love when they're 14 and 16.

Liesl Meets Ava

I plan to post Ava's birth story soon, it is in the final stages of writing. (I don't remember a lot of it because I had mentally "checked out" and didn't pay attention to the clock. So I have to rely a lot on my doula's and husband's accounts of the event.)

But anyway, I thought this video was too cute not to show. My dad brought Liesl to the birth center about an hour and a half after Ava was born. Liesl's reaction was puzzled but curious (and we were relieved!) Truthfully, she was more interested in the cameras--and later, my breakfast--than the baby. Oh well.

Try not to look at me--the kid is the cute portion of this video. Mind you, I had just given birth, drug-free, been in labor for 11 hours, and last but most importantly, had no makeup on. (Woof.)

Tickling Grammie

Never EVER teach a toddler that tickling adults can be fun. :-)
Taken on 11-3-07, during the Michigan/Michigan Stage football game. (Hey, at least SOMETHING was fun that weekend....)

Ava's Newborn Portrait

Taken at the Birthing Center on October 28, 2007.

Just 24 hours old.

"Live long and prosper...."

Welcome Ava Grace

Ava Grace

October 27, 2007, 7:05 a.m.

8 pounds, 9 ounces, 20-1/2 inches

Born natural, drug free!

Alternative Birthing Center, Southfield, Michigan

Nothing exciting, just pictures and video :-)

No real news going on here. We have had some practice labor (i.e., "false labor") going on most of the week, but my midwife says this is normal for women who've had babies before, it could go on for weeks. (GREAT.) I've had plenty of uterine surges (i.e., "contractions"), but nothing regular or strong enough to be actual labor. My doula has been by twice this week to chat and work on some relaxation techniques; she's been wonderful about learning the HypnoBirthing lingo and using this terminology instead of mainstream medical birthing vocabulary. It's been extremely helpful! We have been hitting it off very well, too, I may have a new friend when all this birthing stuff is said and done. :-)

So other than that, nothing exciting, no trips, no big events...just pics of my cute kid. :-)

Watching "The Wiggles" on a DVD I borrowed from the library.
I SO want to take her to see them in concert now....
10-24-07

In her "new, big-girl room." Papa C. made the table and chairs for her a long time ago. She really, really loves them. The room is quite bare, there will be a dresser, nightstand, and hutch delivered for her new room on Wednesday. Also a headboard for when she gets her "big girl bed," which we are not in a rush for. For now, Squidgie will sleep in a borrowed bassinet while Liesl keeps the crib.

Just smiling. :-) 10-24-07

Signing "toast." (Note the extremely intelligent look on her face, too.)
10-26-07

Squidgie won't be naked

My 36-week appointment with the midwife was yesterday. While she'd like me to hold onto the baby for another week to be considered full-term, I am now 100% eligible for the Birth Center and can labor and birth there when the time comes. Based on Liesl's birth and my exam yesterday, she thinks I could go into labor at any minute. So, the bag's packed and the outfits are purchased. I splurged and bought a boy's ensemble and a girl's ensemble; each complete with a matching sleeper, hat, bib, and booties. Both are now packed in my Birth Center suitcase; Grammie has the assignment of taking the unused outfit back to Carter's.

For Liesl's birth, I didn't really pay attention to the all-important going-home outfit, and packed a simple green sleeper. So when Liesl arrived quite a bit early, 3 days before Christmas, Tom made an offhand comment that she needed a Santa hat to go home in. Never say these things within my mother's hearing. She was out and about in every store you can think of to buy baby clothing, TWO DAYS before Christmas, searching for a "Baby's first Christmas" outfit and a Santa hat. I am forever grateful that she took the time and energy to do that; especially since she had been up from 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. the night before, attending Liesl's birth. Liesl's newborn portrait is very much treasured, as is the story behind the outfit.




Not to be outdone by news of Squidgie, here is a cute picture of Liesl in the bath. She LOVES water --be it a bath, a swim in Torch Lake, sticking her head in a wheelbarrow full of dirty rainwater...you name it. The child should have been born with gills.

Happy Halloween to my fellow Moms!

I just had to post these pictures. I'm a member of the Farmington Area Mom's Club. Farmington/Farmington Hills always has tons of festivals, competitions, and other family-friendly events to celebrate the current times of the year. Over the summer, the FAMC's float won second prize in the Founder's Festival parade. This is the FAMC's contribution to the town scarecrow display and competition. And yes, there really is a baby scarecrow in that sling. (That "scarecrow-ess" is one BUSY but happy Mom!)

I am sad to say I could not participate in building this lovely scarecrow family due to time and body constraints. However, once Squidgie is out and about, I will get to do more of these fun activities. The Mom's Club has been a great source of friendship and activities for both Liesl and I, we have met so many wonderful (and colorful!) moms and kids through this amazing group of ladies.

Hitting the sauce...HARD

The herbs and veggies are in full swing, so it was time to make and freeze homemade spaghetti sauce for the year. We wound up with approximately 12 quarts to go into the freezer. Whenever I make sauce, even with my best efforts to clean as I go, I end up with a disastrous kitchen. This time was worse than usual--it has become hard to lean over Squidgie to reach the counters and sink to scrub, peal, dice, chop, and wash. However, the extra work for the fresh home-grown herbs is definitely worth the taste, not to mention dried herbs are terribly expensive at the grocery.

My darling Mom came out to help take care of Liesl, and even made me a double batch of meatballs for Tom to keep in the freezer. For dinner tonight, we had 4-cheese ravioli with the fresh sauce, and Tom had fresh meatballs. It was delicious! The rest will be put in the freezer for quick, tasty, healthy meals for the rest of the winter. This will be especially helpful when Squidgie is born. The house smells heavenly today!

With any Italian meal comes the requisite baby-eating-tomato-sauce photos. Cleaning up the kid and the high chair (and a 40-foot radius around the high chair) is always a source for discussion. Tom wants to bring out the power washer; I usually suggest renting a convertible and going through the nearest car wash. We opt for a bath instead...and getting her upstairs and into it without covering our stairs, furniture, walls, bedspreads, and clothes with tomato sauce is the next problem to be solved. But at least she had a good healthy meal.

Streaker in the making

Being naked is only natural; Liesl knows this and wishes to partake, thankyouverymuch. I found her in her crib this morning only 1/4 dressed. Thank goodness the diaper was still intact! After Tom and I had a laugh, I got some pictures of the little nudist.

We've also had an awful lot of dancing these days....Liesl has more rhythm than her mother. Then again, any inanimate object you see has more rhythm than her mother, so that's not saying much. Still, dancing and the radio are big fun in our house for everyone.

The next streaker for the U 0f M games
(we have to give U of M football a little bit more class than they're used to)
9-25-07

Dancin' to the 80's, interrupted by commentary on the camera :-)
9-25-07

Ducks, donuts, and dirt

Today, Liesl and I went to the Parmenter Cider Mill with the Farmington Area Mom's Club. Up until now, Tom and I usually visited the Franklin Cider Mill every autumn, which is very near our house, but one look at Parmenter made me realize it is much more kid-friendly. For one thing, there is a large play area for very small children such as Liesl's age, full of equipment for climbing and sliding for toddlers. The cider itself is cold-process pasteurized, and while the cider mill obviously is near a river (with the requisite huge flock of ducks that is always present at every cider mill), it is far enough away from the play area that you don't have to worry about kidlets falling into the river.

Liesl had her first taste of cider and LOVED it! Truthfully more of it made it onto her clothes than in her mouth, but heck, that's why we own a washing machine. And she did have the better half of a donut, which was also very tasty. (Along with her own donut, Mommy, um, "helped" Liesl with the other half of her donut. We wouldn't want it to go to waste, would we?) The hungry, tame, Pavlov-donut-educated ducks were also a huge smash (see video below) and playing on tons of equipment with scads of other little kids was a huge success. We will definitely visit Parmenter (and the ducks) again this season.

<-- An evil plan is surely forming here....

Tormenting the Ducks at Parmenter Cider Mill

9-19-07

Thank God they've outlawed whaling

We took a few pics of Liesl and myself dressed up for church. Liesl looks like a Scottish Pillsbury Dough boy (girl) in this dress...it is one of our favorites (and I got it at a Mom 2 Mom sale for 5 bucks! What a steal!) Liesl is often pointing to my belly. It is very sweet. I feel compelled to respond every time with, "Yes, there really is a baby in there. No, Mommy hasn't been hitting Krispy Kreme recently." Anyway, here are pregnancy pics at 32 weeks. (Crikey...it's getting close!) Someone please tell me why my Yahoo avatar is way cuter than I am. (And why the little girl in the stroller is so much better behaved than you-know-who.) I wouldn't DREAM of wearing pink like that--pregnant or not. And someone give me a diplomatic way to tell the assistant at my midwife's office that when I step on the scale, she needn't move the slider into the 200-pound position immediately. I've taken to pointedly moving it back to the 150-pound position without a word, and they take it from there (sometimes with a stiff attitude, but they deserve it.) Whale or not, I'm not quite there, and really have no intention of GETTING there, thankyouverymuch.

Before church last Sunday, we spent a cozy half-hour in our jammies in the family room. It was cool, so we lit our fireplace for the first time this season, and somebody is taking after her mother's habit of sitting at the fireplace and reading. And yes, we are VERY careful about her being around the fireplace--we don't take our eyes off her. She sat next to it and spoke the word "Hot...hot...hot..." about 5,000 times.

"We don't eat toast with a spoon"

That was my refrain for most of lunchtime today. Liesl has been practicing her "big people" eating skills by using "big people" spoons. I have stopped getting the toddler spoons out for most foods, as they're useless and clearly uninteresting. Liesl's newest sign is "spoon," so she'll sign it over and over and then point to the silverware drawer. @@

Unfortunately the concept of no spoons with finger foods hasn't sunk in. See for yourself.

On another food note, I caught an advertisement for a new show on the Food Network called "The Next Iron Chef." So which chef is leaving???? It better not be Cat Cora...if so, I'm going to pull out a rare but noisy feminism card. After all, Liesl is soon to be Chef Cora's apprentice. (But no pressure or anything.) I don't call her "Iron Chef Liesl Rose" for nothin'.

(Yeah, I gave up...toast is impossible to eat with a spoon. That Mom of mine, she is right...occasionally. Don't tell her, though, it'll go to her head.)

Green Thumbs & Green Buns

Our gardens really took off this year. We tried an experiment with our corn and planted 1/2 of the crop 2 weeks later than the first 1/2. I'm not sure if the weather played a part in it or what, but for some reason the 2nd crop produced very short ears compared to the very satisfactory 1st crop. It is possible, too, that we planted everything way too late--I didn't get the first batch in the ground until late June. However, we have feasted on corn on the cob plenty of times this summer as well as zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, and eggplant. And we did scale back...we only have 96 pepper plants this year. (For those of you who like our salsa...get your pantries ready, PLEASE.)

As for the "green buns" part of this post, we've officially switched to cloth diapers. A bit late in the day for that, putting a 20 month-old in cloth, but every little bit helps not only the environment, but our budget as well. I've been wanting to do it for months, but every time I research cloth diapering on the Internet, I get a migraine. (Type "cloth diapers" into your Google search and you'll see what I mean. These are NOT your mother's cloth diapers!) I finally bit the bullet and ordered them. We have 1 dozen bumGenius 2.0 one-size diapers for Liesl, as well as a few wetbags and a few dozen cloth diaper wipes. I purchased everything from an online diaper store called Abby's Lane. The owner, Stephanie, has a super-fast shipping rate, ships for free on orders over $50, and answers any questions you have very quickly. I love her! So far, so good! It's really easy to wash and care for these diapers, and the "ew, gross, poop" factor isn't a problem at all--there's just as much poop to deal with in a cloth diaper as there is a disposable. (Poop is poop, it really doesn't care what you put it in...I didn't realize that until I had used these diapers for a few days.) I wish we'd have done this months ago, but these diapers will be ready for when Squidgie is large enough to wear them. (These diapers are, unbelievably, one-size-fits-all, and are adjustable for babies from 8-35 pounds. Yes, really...and I was skeptical, too!) Squidgie will probably be wearing cloth prefolds with covers for the first few weeks/months of his/her life, and then be ready to move into these larger diapers.

On one more "green" note: My humblest sympathy to my dear University of Michigan friends after these last two weekends in football. You all must be feeling quite awful. I am so sorry for your losses....really....(it is so hard to keep a straight face while I say this....)

The 2007 Gardens

Raspberries at the right foreground

Corn, squash, eggplant, cucumber, and cutting flowers in the middle

Pepper & tomato garden in the left background

Closeup of the front pepper & tomato garden--the black row cover that Tom painstakingly put down to squelch the weeds really did the trick this year.










My prized Chianti sunflowers, with a little pollination help going on :-) (Thanks, Mr. Bee)

More cloth didie pics

These are some random shots from our "cloth didie photo shoot" today. Liesl is so proud of her cloth diapers...but she also felt the need to cover up a bit. With Daddy's shorts. (That's what I get for not putting the laundry away before she got up from her nap.)

Take a guess as to who wears the pants in this house....

Dude, we're stylin' now....

Why no, Mommy hasn't made the bed or put the laundry away yet. Thanks for pointing that out, Liesl. Now Grammie can chastise me. Thanks a TON.

Oatmeal Buttermilk Pancakes

So many of my friends and fellow bloggers are posting pictures of their recipes, I thought I'd join the fray. Today for breakfast I finally made a recipe I've been wanting to try for months, but it required some advance planning and a semi-free weekend (those have been few and far between this summer.) Steph's is one of my favorite recipe sites for classic recipes and food. I've made many of her soups, breads, and dressings. Check it out if you have a moment: Steph's Country Kitchen Goodness


This picture has about 1/3 of the pancakes, my husband and daughter beat my camera to them. They were a real hit. The next time I make them, I'll double the recipe and freeze the leftovers; I've always had great luck with tossing frozen pancakes straight from the freezer into the toaster oven and having them come out crisp and hot. They make a great quick breakfast for Liesl and I on busy days. Up until now, I've been making the wholemeal World-Class Pancake recipe from Marleeta Basey's book Flour Power, but my husband informs me these are a bit nicer. (He doesn't know that I didn't use any white flour....I snuck in 100% home-ground, whole wheat flour, milled from hard white spring wheat. But hey, what he doesn't know won't kill him...quite the contrary, actually.)


Oatmeal Pancakes
Note: You must start the batter the night before serving.

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups buttermilk, plus a bit more
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled
Nonstick cooking spray

1. Partially prepare the batter the night before. In a small bowl, combine the oatmeal and 2 cups of the buttermilk. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
2. The next morning, sift together the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside (do this the night before to save time in the morning).
3. In a large mixer bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Add the butter and blend, then add the oatmeal mixture. Quickly blend in the flour mixture. The batter will be very thick, so you might need to add 2 to 4 more tablespoons of buttermilk, but not more than that.
4. Coat griddle with nonstick cooking spray and heat to 350°. Drop a large spoonful of batter on hot griddle and pat down a bit. The pancakes will be about 3/4 inch thick, and will puff up when turned over. Serve with warmed maple syrup. Yield: 16 pancakes.

Some random summer photos

What happened to the stuffed animals??? The aliens did it....I swear.....
8-11-07

A critique of Alton Brown's Stovetop Mac & Cheese recipe
(I daresay it's a favorable review) 8-17-07

Fresh corn OFF the cob from Mommy & Daddy's garden
8-22-07

Your toes could use some water, Mom
8-29-07

Revenge is SWEET 8-29-07

New definition of "Baby Shower" 8-29-07

Signing "sleep" after a long afternoon in the kiddie pool
(If you think she actually naps on that couch, think again...she's just mimicking
myself and her dad.) 8-29-07