31 March, 2009

mmm lunch

Our plan to change our family's eating habits is going pretty well. I planned out a menu for this week and C bought the groceries needed for it. At some point I will plan out the rest of the month as well. Oh, and study. hahahaa. Alright, I'll try to plan out the rest of the month, but menu planning is HARD when one's appetite is erratic (hooray pregnancy), one only wants CHEE (cheese) or CRACKA (granola bar/cracker/banana/cheese), and the third will eat 'whatever'. :)
However! We are trying and doing pretty well. Yesterday C made a delicious salad and some fried potatoes and, shockingly, the potatoes were completely upstaged by the salad. Wow. We also discovered C likes kale (he was feeling adventurous at the grocery store and picked some up. It's much better than him picking up other random foods, like cookies), which is great! As for today, well, I had plans for lunch and dinner but I chose both recipes out of the book C is currently reading, and which is at work with him, so lunch today is salad as well! Dinner will be sushi, so that's easy, just took some rearranging of the menu. I'm so flexible like that. ok, I'm actually just really hungry like that.
We're also eating down all of our 'junk food', which in our case means crackers, cheese and a box of Pocky I got as a surprise for C. Can you believe that? Our junk food is crackers? Weird. C also picked up a package of pita because the book recommended them and he forgot about Pesach. It's cool though, we've been using it to eat through the random tub of hummus we have. Once Pesach is over we will also be a gluten-free household. That's going to be huge, especially since last night the only thing I wanted was crackers. (Which I ate. yum.) So I need to get on the ball with finding alternatives that are not only gluten-free but healthy. Nothing like choosing the right time for a major life change! Like, right before 2 others! At the beginning of my final quarter! Awesome! At least we know we can survive on cut veggies if we both get to overwhelmed to actually cook anything. E will adjust.

In E news (not E!News) he is doing better still, except he looks like a prize fighter now because he fell off a trike into a grate, and then face-first into stairs at the playground. Poor kid has bruises all over his face, a slight black eye and what looks like a scraped chin but is actually a horrible bruise. Today C made a crack about CPS showing up and I said that no, they wouldn't, because both incidents occurred in front of witnesses. Nothing raises your parenting cred like having your kid bust his face right in front of you while other parents are standing nearby. Lord knows what his face will look like when we are actually distracted by the new baby. yeesh. Oh, and my sister thinks he swallowed a pen cap a few days ago, which would explain his complete outrage at any bms lately. We're waiting to see on that one. woohooo. Alright! Nap time!

28 March, 2009

calm before the headlong rush to June

Yesterday we went back up to the house, unloaded a whole bunch of stuff, enjoyed a lovely lunch at Mountain Mike's, got the car smogged ($$) and bought paint for E's room. C started taking down the horribly installed crown molding and I started painting the closet, none of which I photographed. That's ok! It was a really, really good day.
The main wonderful part was the E was HAPPY. He was calm, he was playful, he was wonderful. It's like we have our baby back again. It also confirms our suspicions that he has celiac disease, as after the allergy tests confirmed he does not have a wheat allergy we started giving him bread again and he turned into a hissing, screaming, angry, hysterical little monster. No, I'm not exaggerating; he was horrible. I decided enough is enough and we stopped giving him anything with wheat on Wednesday. That day he managed to get a cookie from somewhere, but was still much improved; by Friday he was a joy to be around, again.
Because of this we are going gluten-free, especially since based on C's own health history we both are starting to suspect that he also has celiac disease, and looking at his family we think there may be a few more suffers in there. My first instinct is to rush in and start cooking for everyone BUT one person at a time. C also started reading Dr. Fuhrman's 'Disease Proof Your Child' and is excited to start improving our health for E's sake.
It's great; I feel like we are really getting on the same page food-wise now, and we've already agreed that occasional lapses are not only ok, but need to be scheduled in (i.e., pizza; C's occasional chicken cravings, our familial cheese addiction). So now I am trying to get rid of anything with gluten in the house. It looks like I will be baking a lot of gift cookies :) Oh, and we also just bought matzah. Yay, guess I know what I'll be snacking on for the next month; good thing we have hummus!

In other news, baby went from measuring 2 weeks behind to 2 weeks ahead. Even though I have not gained a pound since my first appt. at 8 weeks this kiddo is growing just fine, so that's a nice reassurance that I'm doing well nutritionally. Also, this week I have had 4 different people ask me if I was going to find out the gender and then try to convince me it's a good idea. I don't even know these people; it's not like they would get the share in the news; weird! I'm going to go play with my son now, before classes start up again (Monday! Augh!)

26 March, 2009

it comes as no surprise...

...that occasionally, things just suck when you are pregnant. By 'you' I mean me and my stupid melodrama-enhanced issues. Everything I do, or rather, try to do, these days just winds up frustrating me. Example: today!
We are planning to go up to the new house tomorrow, so we were going to borrow the van and pack it full of stuff. Well, we can't 'borrow' the van; my mom is willing to bring it over and go with us and take the van back home afterward. Cool! Works for us! Except it HASN'T. She was supposed to come this morning, so C could help load it before he had to work. Instead, she decided she wants to bring my sister K to help out. Ok, fine. Except K has an appointment tomorrow that she has to reschedule instead. So I spent ALL DAY sitting around, waiting to find out what the plans were NOW, so I could re-plan my own day. I was supposed to go to the store with DL to get paint. I was supposed to go to the grocery store and get food. I was supposed to have a somewhat relaxed day with my Mom deciding what to pack up. Instead, I finally head out alone with E late in the afternoon to run errands. We got as far as the paint store. I did not get paint. I instead got a full-on toddler meltdown because he wanted, ughh, I don't even KNOW. My best guess is he wanted to play in the parking lot. Tough, kid. Back in the car, back home, I get a message that they want to come in the morning instead. UM. Cue sobbing. I had PLANS, people, and not just plans for today, which have all gone to hell, I had plans for TOMORROW, which included picking up the new stroller and painting E's room and getting the car smogged because we HAVE to plus I NEED TO STUDY and damn it all tomorrow is just going to suck too. It just is, as much as they say 'oh, you won't have to load anything' moving is not just loading and unloading, and I know that now not even half of what we were going to do is going to get done and I'm just disappointed and emotional and there is nothing I can do about it GAH.
Also I can't post any pictures I have because they are all on my external which has decided not to turn on anymore. GAH.
Also C keeps trying to buy bread products. Passover! a week or so away! I do not want to eat any more bagels right now thanks!
Also E is being a PIA and even though he is much better now that we, again, took him off of wheat, I am tired of dealing with it just go to bed or something for the love of all that is holy.
Ok, I think I'm going to go feel sorry for myself some more while worrying about the effects of my tantrums on the emotional makeup of my unborn child. Fun. Times.

13 March, 2009

bedtime?

reason why C should, perhaps, NOT be reading the bedtime book:
adding explosions to the end of each page doesn't exactly add a 'calming atmosphere' to the event. It DOES add hysterical giggling (from C) and confusion (from E).
...
"It's midnight. Do you know where you child is?"
Yes, I do. He's kicking my face.

05 March, 2009

birthdays and cookies

Yesterday E turned 18 months. As he gets older these month markers aren't as dramatic, but this one, now that he's officially "a year and a half" I've been looking forward to. He's close enough to the 'terrible twos' that his tantrums and acting out just look normal to other parents (not that we are encouraging them); it's nice not to have to say "he's very advanced" all the time. He can be lumped together with the older kids and no one bats an eyelash, and it is wonderful. I miss my little baby sometimes, but this kid is so wacky and fun, and honestly sometimes it's hard to remember the tiny baby, so I'm hanging on to these moments while I can.

C's birthday is today; 25! Yay! I got him 'Cowbell Hero' and 'I need more Cowbell' t-shirts. Part of it was because he LOVES that SNL skit, and part of it is because he was driving me crazy with it during my crankiest and he was nice enough to STOP. MENTIONING. COWBELLS. at the time, so this was a combined apology/thank you/happy birthday gift. I'm just so good at multipurposing things that way.

I'm hosting a little dinner in his honor on Sunday, and today, hopefully, I will make a TON of hamentaschen. I'm so excited; it's the first time I'm making them completely on my own, and I am looking forward to good things. I'm also glad I can make a batch for E that is gluten-free, so he can join in the yummy fun too, especially as we will be having a very sober Purim this year. Next year? Alcoholic hamentaschen. Oh yes.

01 March, 2009

getting there

We signed the closing papers on the house Friday! Yay! While it isn't where we plan to wind up, it's a nice house in a nice neighborhood. Now on to phase two: remodeling! The front room is two stories, so we are going to put in a loft. By 'we' I mean V (MIL) is going to find a contractor to do it, since I am too baby-full and time-crunched to actually do anything construction oriented at this point and C, well, C just plain isn't interested. But! There are plenty of things we will be doing. Once we relocate the closet in our new room (the current closet has to be removed to give access to the loft) we will paint and lay in new flooring. Currently the entire upstairs is carpeted, and I refuse to deal with wall-to-wall carpeting anymore. I REALLY don't get the appeal in that. Anyhow! E's room is getting painted by the end of this month, and I hope to start on the yard as well. One side yard is going to be raised beds. The other side is currently filled with Jasmine; we're going to tear out about 1/2 of it, install some other vines (I'm thinking raspberries, maybe some grapes, depending on the soil/drainage conditions) and hopefully clear space for a little play house). M&J (SIL & BIL) are moving and giving us their play structure, so that will take about half the lawn area, and that leaves a nice amount of lawn and some mystery fruit trees. I'm pretty sure they are apples, but I couldn't tell when I saw them as there weren't any leaves yet. The front yard has a swath of rosemary I'm trying to save, since it is filled with bees (I love bees!) and V & M both want to tear it out BECAUSE of the bees. No! We need bees!

Anyhow, those are the plans for now. In the meantime I need to get back to actually passing my classes. This month has been rough, with the 3-week cold from hell which I followed up by giving everyone food poisoning. Awesome. Baby is doing well, at least, although starting to slow down in growth, which pushes my due date back. Which we expected to happen, so yeah. Kiddo is looking right on schedule for me; that is, late! E is watching the Incredibles, so I better finish writing that paper. That really pointless paper for the worst class I have ever taken. What a way to wind up my college career, right?