B*TCH?

Tonight as we were getting M settled into bed, she started doing some peek-a-boo moves with me. However, instead of saying "peek-a-boo" as she popped her face from behind her hands she would yell, "Bitch!" At first I was trying to pretend she misspoke, but when I asked her what she was trying to say she very clearly repeated the word. I then asked her what that meant and she went into baby talk mode. I offered up a few rhyming words that she might want to use instead, which made her laugh, and tried to emphasize that "bitch" is not a word we use, without making a big deal about it. Another milestone for the baby book I guess.

Downward Facing Dog

Stella is some kind of crazy yoga master already at 8.5 months. Porter was trying not to look too impressed with her moves and instead contemplates eating the camera case.

I Needed to Share

This is the outfit Matilda picked for herself today. The top layer is a flannel Christmas pajama shirt. Quite special. The best part is that when we arrived at the playground this morning, the mom of the family we were meeting told us how she had just told her son, Lukas, that he needed to change out of his pajama shirt because Matilda would laugh if he wore pajamas to the playground. I guess the joke is on Lukas!

On the Map

We have finally put heads on the big map Tim brought home for Matilda. For a long time now he has envisioned this family mapping project & I am really excited how it has come together. We scored the map from his old work as the company was closing down. Tim printed tiny photos of friends and family and then we cut them all out and placed them on the map with double sided tape. A world map would be nice to benefit Matilda's sense of geography, but for now we'll embrace ethnocentricity (and put our international friends' floating heads in the Pacific and Atlantic). It is really fun to see the country all laid out with our friends and family.

A few parts of the map are a bit crowded, Upstate NY for example. Rather than being represented correctly in his home on the westside of Rochester, Uncle Brian has been squeezed out to the middle of Lake Ontario. Oops.

It makes Matilda jump for joy. Or maybe she's just still bouncing off the walls from Halloween candy?

Meal Planning

While feeding Porter seems to be lots of fun right now, lately I am having the hardest time feeding the rest of the family. Each mealtime seems to sneak up on me before I have any idea of what to cook. All of a sudden it is 6pm, with no food in sight and we are in a mess of too-hungry-for-reason (me)/meltingdown-due-to-hunger(Matilda). As usual, I am still making a loose plan of what to cook for the week before I shop, but somehow the prep part is getting away from me.

Here's what we have on the docket for this week:

Pumpkin Soup of some variety

Cauliflower soup (our old standby)

Tofu Eggplant stir fry (from the first, scandalous Moosewood cookbook)

Black beans & rice (from the Dinosaur cookbook)

Artichoke frittata (source unknown)

Onion penne

Sides: creamed spinach, green salad, asparagus, cornbread

We will see if I can get through the list without resorting to take out pizza or fish tacos from around the corner!

Porter Food

Matilda was never much for smushy baby food. By the time she really got into eating, at 9 months, we could just cut up really small for her from our plates so I never got into the full swing of making baby food. I think only once I made a batch of pureed something and froze it into little portions for her, before I realized it was a waste. Porter, on the other-hand, is our little eater. He loves just about any food he has tried. He had a strong reaction to peas (as documented in that video from last week), but has since come around. In fact, if you come at him with just about anything (spoon, toy, medical instrument, finger), his response is to open his mouth and try to eat the item.

Porter is eating about three cubes of food, three times per day now. I was limiting him to only 1-2 cubes per meal for a while, until the pediatrician convinced me to stop holding back. He almost always finishes everything we offer him with no encouragement. I am now in the full swing of making food for him and have a freezer full of little cubes of baby food. It is getting fun as his repertoire of food is getting larger & I am getting less strict with the 1-new-item-every-three-days rule. My entire trip to the farmers market I spend thinking about what things to buy for Porter to eat, with the rest of us just as an afterthought. New items up this week: fennel, roasted cauliflower, asparagus, stewed prunes, apples, maybe some beans?

Friday night was the first time I fed him the same thing that we were eating: root vegetables roasted with olive oil and pepper.

I just pureed them up with a little added water since it was quite thick for him.

Porter LOVED the roasted veggies, and ate more in one sitting than ever before. I image that very soon we will forego the separate baby purees and he'll be chowing down on anchovies and tofu stir fry right along side Matilda.

Huntington Gardens Free Day

The very beautiful, but expensive to visit, Huntington Library and Gardens has a free day each month. For many years I have meant to do this but failed. Finally, on October 1st at 9 a.m. I remembered to log on to the web and reserve us some free tickets to go the first Thursday in November. It was so easy, and so free! I highly recommend it. The gardens were just as beautiful on free day.

Matilda just recently discovered this old dress of mine stashed in a dresser. I think we missed the window when it fit properly, since it is way too short for a dress now. The color is such a vibrant red, it is hard to believe the dress is 30+ years old. I even have portraits of me taken in it somewhere that I am too lazy to dig up and scan for you to see.

But why treat the dress like an heirloom? Instead I let Matilda run wild in it, do somersaults in the grass and get muddy in fountains. She particularly likes how it flares nicely when she spins.

Porter & Tim were looking especially cute at the gardens.

One big, happy family pile.

The kids garden there is especially awesome with fountains for splashing, magnetic sand for sculpting, tunnels for chasing and little doors to pretend you are in Wonderland.

They even had awesome benches for Porter to practice his standing skillz at. (And his open mouth kisses.)

All in all a fantastic afternoon, maybe now I can remember to try again December 1st!

Pinned

Lately Porter has been into tackling Matilda. Actually, he has just generally been into launching himself forward. Sometimes he lands in a crawl-ready pose, sometimes he does a smooth belly-flop, and then there are times when he just lands on his face. I am not sure what he is trying to do when he goes for her. Occasionally it seems he is going after her shoes, but usually he seems to be just launching himself in her direction to see what happens. Regardless, it totally cracks her up. M ends up just laying under him laughing until we move him.

Luring Porter in with her awesome knee.

And he has her.

Seems like long enough for a full count, possible we have a new division champ.

My point of view (Yes, each parent has a camera ready at all times. How else would we take so many pictures?):

You Laughing?

Porter shows you which fist he'll use if you laugh at his man boobs or his lucky hat.

Big Sister

Lately 3.5 seems to be killing me. I don't have enough patience and endurance to navigate through all the possible pitfalls each day to avoid hitting at least one huge temper tantrum over some minutiae. Matilda occasionally unleashes her wrath verbally about Porter (to us), but never at him. She is generally so sweet and amazing with him that it often gets her out of the doghouse for other missteps with us.

This morning while out shopping I had forgotten the baby carrier so I decided Matilda could hold Porter on her lap in the cart while I retrieved our new vacuum from a high shelf at Fry's. They were both so pleased with the moment that I had to pause and capture it.

Then later in the car, (Same errand trip, but yes, Matilda had an outfit change. A girl sometimes changes her mind many times in the day about what clothes feel right. Many Times.) Matilda was upset and crying over something (I really have no memory of what - self preservation perhaps) and she wailed, "Porter make me feel better and hold my hand!" I looked back and saw just this. She was already smiling and it brought tears to my eyes.

Trick or Treating

Halloween is our favorite holiday around here and I still haven't shared all the pictures I want to. Plus, I signed up for Nablopomo again this year, so I can pad out my every day posting with more Halloween talk!

Like us, our neighborhood really gets into Halloween with lots of decorations at each house. One place even made this spinner - if you landed on a certain spot you could get a Big Bar!

Early in the outing our flying monkey slept in the carrier on the front of me while Dorothy got warmed up. A few houses she deemed "too spooky" and wouldn't go up to.

This year we felt like ambassadors for Halloween because we took along two girls from our apartment building who moved to the US 9 months ago. They were VERY excited for their first Halloween and greatly underestimated the haul they could bring home. The younger sister was actually trick-or-treating with M and ended up using Matilda's goodie bag when her purse got full. (Matilda just put her candy in the basket with Toto.)

A shot of the whole Oz themed family.

Porter, like any good flying monkey, would pick apart the scarecrow's costume anytime he could reach Tim, sending straw and string bits everywhere. My arms are still sore from carrying his heavy monkey butt all night, but it was worth it for all the awesome reactions we got as witch and flying monkey team. Towards the end of the evening we ran into Matilda's good buddy who was also enjoying a tasty lollipop. M was up way past bedtime with all the candy inventorying, but she was so pooped from all the festivities that despite the sugar load she fell right asleep once in bed. All in all, a fantastic Halloween.

Ruby Slipper Casualty

Monday isn't normally a school day, but they were having a special visitor yesterday so Matilda got to join the fun. The "Tooth Fairy" (a local dentist) came to give the kids a talk on tooth care and swap their bags of candy for goodie bags. Matilda was very generous and was willing to hand over all her candy. (Little does she know, Tim & I fished out all the good stuff before she took the bag.) There was a big battle over whether or not she could wear her costume to school, but school has a no costume policy for Halloween so we settled on only ruby slippers. We figured it was fairly harmless since she wouldn't be playing outside and Tim would be there to supervise that they don't get trashed/lost. We were wrong.

When Tim & Matilda arrived the kids were all still in the play yard, since the Tooth Fairy wasn't there yet. As Matilda went charging out, excited to see all her friends and teachers, she slipped in those damned shoes and fell face first down the stairs. Other than a lot of scrapes (face, ear, leg) and a good scare she was o.k. We thought that the bright side would be Matilda finally understanding why her ruby slippers aren't great for all occasions. However, we have since had two major battles over the shoes. In one instance she wanted to wear them to the park and the other instance she wanted (desperately) to wear them to bed (a case of a way too tired girl I think). This morning she did consent to wearing more sensible shoes to the playground with little fuss, and we also managed to convince her that after three days of wearing, the Dorothy dress could use a wash. Small victories.

You Be the Judge

We gave Porter peas for the first time yesterday. Do you think he likes them?

He loves all the food he has tried so far, with the exception of butternut squash and peas. I can't really blame he on the smushed peas judgement. Fresh peas, stir fried peas, crispy peas, frozen peas.....all fine, but no mushy peas for me please. Regardless, I will keep offering them to Porter and see if he comes around.

No Place Like Home

Can you hear the clicking? It is a good thing she practiced. At many houses last night the treat-givers would ask Matilda to click her heels together to earn another sweet.