The other day, my Dad brought me some cocoa almond spread that he accidently picked up at Trader Joe’s. It reminded me of a once-favorite-snack, which has quickly become a current favorite again! Snack: piece of toast, spread with a little coconut oil, then the cocoa almond spread – yum! (also good with chocolate peanut butter)

I’m pretty good at complaining – or what I like to think of as ‘venting’ – so it should come as no surprise that I would complain about some of Verity’s behaviors. Dahlia has said that when it comes to kid behaviors, complaining about it, sometimes loudly, can help change things (maybe the wee ones really do listen sometimes?). A little while ago, I was complaining about Verity squishing up her finger food instead of actually trying to eat it. I know it’s a developmental stage, but it was also really annoying me… I am happy to report that complaining about this behavior worked! Verity rarely squishes her food anymore (her pincher movement is also improving – maybe a correlation) and instead is shoveling food in almost as fast as I put it on her try.
Do you think this complaining loudly business also works in other areas? Like maybe if I start complaining often that I don’t have a house in Hawaii, one will magically come into my possession? Worth a try?

A while back, I was having a restless night of sleep (how is that possible when I’m so tired??). I was in that half dream, half awake state and had been dreaming that we’d gotten a third cat who, for some reason, had not been fed with the other two. I became very worried in my dream, but then started to wake up – still thinking we had that third cat who needed food. So, naturally, I asked Jay if he’d fed the cat, hoping I wouldn’t have to get up to do it. Jay, very calmly (as I was more upset than one should be at not having fed a cat…), assured me we only had two cats – both of whom had been fed. Then I settled back in and fell asleep. The next day, I asked Jay how crazy he thought I was worrying about a non-existent cat. He had no recollection of our middle of the night chat — apparently he’d been more asleep than me!

Today, Verity (and Reed) turned 3 months old – holy crap, where has the time gone? By the time she’s 4 months old, I’ll be back at work, which makes me teary eyed already, but that’s another post. She celebrated the day by not napping in her crib, yet still managing to remain smiley and mostly pleasant until the last 15 minutes before bedtime. At this point, I feel like we’re getting a bit of a handle on understanding Verity (at least for the moment – except for the whole not napping thing today, no clue what that’s about) and enjoying her and her personality more and more each day. Her smiles come more easily, she’s chatty, she enjoys songs, looking at books, and even playing by herself in her baby gym. She enjoys getting out and about and often coos when we’re in stores/places with lots to look at. Verity is a sweetie and I look forward to our time to come (until she hits teenage-hood and if she’s anything like me, we’re shipping her off to Auntie Melissa’s house ).

How fast can I type this out before Verity wakes up… we shall see!

The past week and a half, I’ve been feeling SOOOOO much more like myself again – thank goodness! Still would love more sleep, but I imagine that’s how I will feel for the next how many years? But back to this whole how I feel business. In the first few weeks after Verity was born, I wondered what was wrong with me, why I couldn’t seem to fathom getting out of the house by myself – or even manage to get a shower in on some days when other new Moms seemed to have the ability to just go. I was so glad Jay was here and hadn’t a clue what I was going to do when he went back to work! And though I was feeling better by the time he returned to work, I still wasn’t myself – or very confident about doing much outside of the house yet finding myself increasingly unhappy ‘stuck in the house.’ But then I hit the ‘magical’ 6.5 week point and all of a sudden, I felt like a real person again. I am now able to get out and about without feeling like it’s this huge ordeal, I can move in ways that I expect to be able to, and I have a much better idea of what this little girl can handle and what she needs in a day — all of which have given me a renewed sense of freedom and some sanity in our (or at least my) daily lives.

Maybe this post will not quite seem blog worthy – other options would be how cute Pippin is when playing with his mouse (and sliding on the new hallway floor), house remodel, Jay’s insane work schedule (can we say average of 4 hrs of sleep per night these days?), my itchy skin, or baby stuff. The story of my neighbor seems like the most ‘unusual’ so we’ll go with that.
Jay and I know the names of the neighbors who live closest to us and we wave at each other if we’re outside at the same time. Rarely to we have a conversation of more than, ‘How are you?’ They all seem like perfectly nice people, but at different stages in life than we are. The neighbor I talk the most to is the woman who lives next door to us and lives alone (important for later in post). This woman had been on vacation recently, but had seemingly returned. Then last Thursday evening, I noticed her garage door was still open, car in driveway, yard waste container not put away (2 of the 3 are unusual – she rarely has her garage door open for longer than a short time span and always puts her garbage/etc containers away promptly – unlike us). Friday, same picture. Saturday, also the same picture – though no sign of our neighbor herself. By this point I was becoming concerned – and hoping she hadn’t slipped in her house somewhere and was lying in pain, unable to get help… I mentioned it to Jay and he too seemed concerned. We decided that if nothing had changed by Sunday, we’d go talk to our neighbor across the street with whom this woman is better friends. Sunday rolls around and no change, so Jay and I went to knock on our neighbor’s doors, Jay checked to see if they were locked and if he could see in any windows – and I was trying not to feel like a snoop. After no results from this search, we went and talked to our neighbor across the street who knew nothing about this woman being gone again and was also concerned when we mentioned the garage door had been open for a few days. First the three of us went to close the garage door. Then she and I went and spoke to the neighbors on the other side of said missing neighbor – again with no new info, but more concern on their part. Luckily, both sets of neighbors had some ways to contact my neighbor and an email message and phone call were sent off. Tuesday my neighbor across the street got a call from the ‘missing’ woman – all was well, she was on vacation with her father in eastern Oregon and hadn’t checked email/messages in days. She’d rented a car and therefore, probably just forgot to close the garage door as her car was in the driveway. Mystery solved, in the best way possible. Exciting times at the Blanton/Otten household

For a while now, Clara has been convinced she would love to be an outside kitty. We let the cats out on the patio, but that does not always satisfy Clara. Since we’ve been remodeling, the side door has been used much more than usual – and Clara can often be found waiting by the door, hoping to sneak outside. Last week, she was finally successful in not only getting out the door, but also in not being noticed… I think she was only out for about an hour, but that was enough time to get into a cat fight, lose her collar, and tangle with a rusty nail. Ah Clara… When she came in, I tortured her by washing out her wounds. The next day I called the vet to see if I should bring her in – I thought her wounds were minor, but wanted to be sure there was nothing else I should do. The vet’s office said that as long as the wounds were not red and infected, she should be fine. Yesterday I had to take her in for a check-up and showed the vet her largest wound – and found out it was more serious than I thought. Poor girl had a big tear that had opened up (I thought she’d just lost the top layer of skin…). So today, she’s having minor surgery to repair the wound (the vet did not think it would heal on its own and it was too long since it happened to just glue it closed). I think the worst part will be that she will have to wear a special kitty cone so that she doesn’t like the sight – any guesses on how often a day we’ll get hissed at? Poor girl! And thus she continues to be our expensive kitty – Pippin only has to go for yearly check-ups, but Clara, no, she gets to make many more trips for all kinds of reasons. Good thing she’s so darn cute!

I first heard Cynthia Lair share recipes on NPR, including from a snippet of her online cooking show which can be pretty funny. After this, I looked up her website and printed off some recipes that sounded good – and they were! I think it was her apple-walnut kale recipe that really sold me. I had never cooked much with dark greens as they can be bitter and tougher, but I began giving them a try thanks to Cynthia. And I discovered I really like them – and (a bit of a shock to me) so does Jay.
Cynthia Lair focuses on making food that is fresh, uses more natural ingredients, and is fairly simple to cook. Ideas that sound good to me! For Christmas, Jay got me her cookbook which I have recently been using A LOT. The recipes are a little different than our standard fare, usually quite tasty, and, for the most part, do not require a lot of time in the kitchen. Did I mention they are quite filling too? I mean, I know this is the goal with food, but sometimes a meal just doesn’t stick with me as long as others. An added bonus with her cookbook, tips for feeding kids a variety of foods as well as how to make parts of meals baby friendly — both of which I’m sure will come in handy in this house soon.
I would suggest checking our her website and see what you think!