Author: Sarah

Squash, Anyone?

Sarah Carolyn

Carrie tried squash today. Anyone want to guess whether she liked it or not? I think I could feed this child pureed lima beans and brussels sprouts and she’d eat it happily.

I guess in a few days we’ll start barley cereal, then maybe plums or nectarines. And then she’ll be pretty close to 8 months old so I think I’ll give her some yogurt. It would be nice to have something to mix her fruit into that isn’t cereal for a change.

(Oh, and once I’m sure she likes barley, I’m going to have to mix up some oats, peas, beans and barley and sing this song to her while she eats.)

Worst Mother Ever

Sarah Carolyn

I can’t even believe I’m admitting this. 14 hours later I still have a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach just thinking about what happened…

Carrie migrated to our bed at some small hour of the morning, which is not unusual. When Denis got up to take his shower, he put pillows on his side of the bed, but Carrie was already stirring and I was soundly asleep. I awoke abruptly to a thud and wailing. Apparently, she crawled headfirst over the side of the bed.

Amazingly enough, there were just a few tears (well, from her – there were a lot from me) and a little rug burn where her forehead met the carpet – not even a bump. It could have been so much worse. In fact, my mind has been racing through all the horrid things that could have happened all day.

And the nurse at the pediatrician’s office, while assuring me that Carrie was probably ok, made me feel like the worst mother ever. She told me that her little checklist of questions to ask to decide whether the child needs to be seen or not were mainly for children 2 years or older. So, I’m the only mother who’s allowed her 7 month old to fall off a bed?

Now I have to figure out a way to make co-sleeping for part of the night safe for my very mobile baby…especially because I love waking up to a giggling baby face an inch away from mine. Any ideas?

No Time To Blog

Sarah General

I need to finish some gifts for next weekend…

But, we finally managed to go out on a date and see the new Star Wars movie. It was much better than I expected, and we went to a different theater than last time which was also much better.

Peachy Keen

Sarah Carolyn

I bought some frozen peaches the other day to make for Carrie to try. They really aren’t as sweet as I’d hoped – I think I might have done better with fresh ones even though they’re not quite in season. But I gave them to her today and guess what? Carrie likes them!

I’m now on a quest to find a food she doesn’t like…and yes, I know I’ll be eating those words when she hits the picky toddler stage…

A Musical Baton

Sarah Music

Jenny has passed me a musical baton. I answer these questions and pass them on…

Total volume of music files on my computer:
5.13 GB

The last CD I bought was:
The “Spamalot!” soundtrack.

Song playing right now:
I wasn’t actually listening to music, but I just put my entire iTunes library on shuffle and hit play and it came up with “Opus 10 – Air (Dublinesque)” by Billy Joel, which, incidentally, is one of the few songs from that album (Fantasies and Delusions) that I can actually sort of play on the piano.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
“Ch

An Open Letter To My Neighbors

Sarah General

Warning: this post has a number of references to donkey kicking. I don’t normally use such harsh language, but I do feel quite strongly about this subject. If you are offended by donkey kicking, feel free to click away. You could go read about why Grover is bitter.

Dear Neighbors,

We all get along really, really well. Our neighborhood is generally very nice and peaceful. However, as the parent of a young child, it has recently come to my attention that many of you do not have children, or have not had young children for many years. I can only assume that either you are not aware of – or have forgotten – what it is like to have a small child. So, I’d like to put forth the following suggestions:

  • If you blast loud music in your open car sitting out in your driveway after my baby has gone to bed, and it wakes her up, I will kick your ass.
  • If your visitors, upon leaving your house after my baby has gone to bed, honk their car horns as they pull out of your driveway and it wakes her up, I will kick your ass.
  • If you rev your car/lawnmower/ATV/motorcycle engine loud enough to be heard three counties away and it wakes my baby up, I will kick your ass.
  • If you fire off illegal firecrackers or fireworks on any night except the Fourth of July and wake my baby up, I will kick your ass.
  • If you cause my dogs to bark by walking your dog past my house after my baby has gone to bed and it wakes her up, I will not kick your ass. Since you are a much more conscientious dog owner than I am because you actually walk your dog, you can have mine. For free!

As you can see, these really are not hard rules to follow, all you have to do is be considerate of the fact that even though it does stay light quite late these days, my baby still needs to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Although I do truly enjoy rocking my baby to sleep, I don’t enjoy doing it several times every evening, or even worse: rocking her to sleep only to have her awakened the very moment I am tucking her in.

I am willing to compromise about the ass-kicking. Perhaps the offending party could come and rock my baby back to sleep for me? Or, really, I’m not above bribery – cash or dark chocolate might do the trick.

Thank you for your consideration,
Your loving neighbor
(…who is contemplating moving way out into the country, or at least somewhere cold enough to keep the windows shut all the time…)

Memorial Day

Sarah General

Hm, I think we’ve done our civic duty this long weekend…

We opened the pool.
We grilled – for three days straight. (I think I need to eat nothing but salad for the next three weeks.)
We did not, unfortunately, see a parade – everyone thought it would be too noisy for Carrie. Maybe next year!

Weighty Issues

Sarah General

You know, keeping my room clean would be a lot easier if I didn’t have everything from a size 8 to a size 18 (there, yes, I said it) stuffed in every possible shelf and drawer.

Seriously, I have a double dresser all to myself, a huge armoire that is way more than half mine, and the lion’s share of the (tiny) walk-in closet, and I can’t put the clothes that I actually wear away – they’ve been living in a neatly folded pile in the middle of the room. How pathetic is that?

I’ve decided that the easiest way to lose weight (and keep my room clean) is to get rid of all of the clothes I own that are too small. Murphy’s law says that once I get rid of them I’ll need them, so I may as well put it to the test. Besides, what better way is there to celebrate losing weight than going out and buying nice new clothes?

So I’m parting with a lot of stuff (some of which is really hard to part with so it may hide in a box somewhere for a little while) and then I just need to work on the whole weight loss thing. You would think with the amount of time I spend running after Carrie and hauling her around that I’d be super skinny by now. Ah, well. I guess I’d just settle for being in shape…

But honestly, I’m not going to obsess over numbers on the scale or on the tags for my clothes, I’d just like to have clothes that fit me (size and style) and that fit into my storage space.

Grasping At Straws

Sarah Carolyn

We went to Friendly’s for lunch today, and although I packed everything Carrie needed to eat (oatmeal and applesauce, bibs, spoons and wet wipes) I forgot to put her sippy cup in the diaper bag. It’s not as though she ever drinks very much water anyway, but I do like to give her some water to drink after eating because I think it’s a healthy habit to get into.

So I asked for a children’s cup of water (no ice) with a straw. I figured it was worth a try. She got it on the first attempt. It was kind of a big straw, so she got way more water than she could swallow and ended up spitting it out everywhere, but then she managed to get another couple of sips in. She took to it like drinking from a straw was the most natural thing ever.

We went grocery shopping after and I bought her a straw cup meant for 2+ years. She can drink from that so much easier than her sippy cup I’m not sure we’ll bother with the sippies from now on. At least I know if I get stuck in a restaurant without her cup she’ll be able to drink from a straw.

And I think she’s finally grasping the concept of games. She now hides for peek-a-boo. I had her in her high chair with her bib on and she pulled the bottom up so it covered her face for a couple of seconds then lowered it, and when she did it a second time I caught on and said “peek-a-boo!” and she started giggling and did it again. Definitely genius material, don’t you think?

Mmmm…Oatmeal

Sarah Carolyn

Carrie tried oatmeal today. As with everything else she’s tried, she was more than happy to eat it. It’s not that I want her to not like something, but I’m amazed that she seems to like everything. I guess it’s time to get a little more adventurous with trying new foods? I really ought to make up some sort of schedule or plan, because at the rate we’re going she’ll be trying new foods until she’s 27 years old.

Oh, and while we were at my grandparents’ house Carrie finally figured out how to get a piece of puffed rice cereal off of her tray and into her mouth. She still thinks I might be trying to poison her (at least, that’s what it looked like when she made her funny face) but it apparently tasted good enough to do it a couple of more times.