today...

is the first day since Sadie was born that I haven't done a single load of laundry.  Not a one.  And it wasn't for lack of having laundry to do.  I think the washing machine just needed a rest; maybe I'm projecting.

stuck inside of nomeville with the tempest blues again...

 Blerg... mother nature puked on us this week with every kind of ugly weather you can imagine.  I guess we kind of deserved that after the whole "oopsies! we just opened a cavernous hole in the ocean floor and spilled millions of barrels of oil into the ocean" incident earlier this year.  I'm sorry mother nature.  Humans are the worst sometimes, but please don't take it out on the Alaskans and the Kiwis.  We love you!  If you must seek revenge, please open a bottomless rift and swallow Gadaffi and his heartless regime.

So here we are in the aftermath of blizzard number... ah, whose counting anymore. After 3 days of 50 mile an hour winds, grounded flights, and freezing rain the snow has worked itself into cement like substance which means my plan of digging a dog-proof mote around the perimeter of the fence so our hounds don't go skipping down Front Street every time we let them outside is officially foiled. And now it is getting cold again. Too cold to dig a mote anyway--tonight it is supposed to get down to -45 with the wind chill.  And look at this:

warm storm.

 We have been having some blizzards this week.  Today's blizzard is brought to you by winds of 50+ miles per hour and an air temperature of 37.  It is gusty, melty, and miserable. 

seven months

a busy collage for a busy baby

Whew! Gotta type this fast, because we're busy today.  And by "we" I mean Sadie.  Sadie is moving out of human grub stage and transforming into a MMU (mobile, mess-making unit). 

This month Sadie grew her two top teeth, which brings us up to 4 teeth total. She is doing really well on solids.  She hardly ever complains about what's for dinner, unless you count smearing your food over the table/chair/self/dogs as complaining.  We don't.

Gone are the days of staying put.  Sadie has learned to crawl.  Not just talking about army crawl, we're talking about "turn your back for a second and Sadie is in the dog bed with Cash chewing on the rawhide crawl."  She is getting quick. Along those same lines she is climbing up EVERYTHING to practice standing.  She even goes for moving targets, like mom and dads legs in the kitchen while we're trying to cook dinner, or Cash.  This month she has also learned to high five, and in the last few days she has started clapping.  So cute.

This kiddo is also babbling up a storm.  She says "mama, baba, mmmmmm, da, and bear" The latter seems to be a catch all for anything furry, which includes her teddy, Cash, Toby, and also the very-bearded Loren. She is extra chatty in the morning when she first wakes up.  This morning I was trying to get her to say "Cash" and when I said it she started looking all around off the bed for him.  It was sweet, and confirms that she is associating words with their corresponding objects, which is pretty cool. It also means that mom and dad are going to have to watch what we say now.  

In spite of the new-found chaos of having a mobile baby, we just couldn't be happier with this little Sadie bug.  She fills our home with so much joy and sweetness.  There is just nothing better than the happy laughter and toothy grins of a seven-month old.

The 365 days of shorts.

   My first year of teaching in Nome, I noticed a strange phenomenon.  Every morning when the bus pulled up to school a large portion of the kids would disembark wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and basketball shorts.  Well, I thought to myself, it is September, and although there was frost on the ground this morning, and the temperature is below freezing, it will warm up to at least the 40's by the end of the school day.  No need for a jacket yet, right?

happy St. Valentines

thirty below

Well, we knew the relatively warm winter weather wouldn't last forever.  On Wednesday, the thermometer began to dip down, down, down. Now it is for-real cold.  Thirty below not counting wind chill.  What have we been up to?  We have been inside staying warm and busy.

happy birthday mom, love the worst.

A certain baby, who wishes to remain anonymous in this story, was trying to remind me on Sunday that it was your birthday.   She looked at me square in the eye, puffed up her little cheeks, curled in her lips and said, "mama mama mama."  I squealed with delight, thinking she was talking about me.  She said it several more times with a very serious look.  I guess what she was really trying to say was, "call your mama mama mama!" Gosh, new mothers can sure be dense. At least you know that Sadie said anonymous baby didn't forget your birthday. 

blogAlaska: Nome--First Impressions.

     Nome is a place that is full of contrasts and contradictions.  When we decided to move here and  I came up from Southeast Alaska for a visit it was the middle of December.  It was cold, dark and ugly--a winter wasteland.  I won't lie, I cried about it. For me, the town of Nome itself holds few of the picturesque charms of the southeast.  No turn-of-the-century houses painted bright and cheerful, no boardwalks and twisty stairways clinging tenaciously to steep rock faces. No dense, mysterious stands of cedars shrouded in thick green moss, so quiet you can hear the sound of each raindrop falling on the thick umbrellas of Devil's Club. 
     Nome has its own historical relics and quirks, but the buildings are made to be functional, practical.  Many of the residential areas are HUD homes, which give a nod to the tract housing of suburbia, except in lieu of lush green lawns and manicured yards there are patches of mud with mangy dogs chained to weathered boxes. Rusting carcases of cars or snowmachines litter driveways and yards. Here and there you see the evidence of children at play: a balding doll half submerged in a puddle, a cheaply made plastic three wheeler missing a wheel and a handlebar, mittens, hats and other odd articles of clothing forgotten and pancaked the muddy streets. There is always garbage blowing in the ever-present wind--either tossed on the ground or pulled out of dumpsters by the mischeivous ravens.

warning...gratuitous baby cuteness ahead.

if you decide to do a delayed/selected vaccination schedule...

...prepare to be judged.  That is what I got a healthy dose of today at the public health clinic.  We usually see this one nurse who is totally cool and respectful of our choice to selectively vaccinate Sadie.  Today  I got to see a different nurse, and I think I totally threw a wrench in her game.  Our convo went a little like this:
Her: Have you been getting your vaccinations done somewhere else?  It looks like we have incomplete records for your baby.

Me: No, we are doing a delayed/selected vaccination schedule.

Her: Oh, well I need to get one of these forms and fill it out, because we can actually get into trouble from the state if they audit us and it shows our clients are not vaccinated up to schedule.  Can I talk to you about doing a combo vaccine today?  

Me: No, I think we are just interested in doing the Hib as a single.

Her: Well, it really is easier if we just give her the Dtap, polio and Hep B virus in one shot.  

Me: No, I think we are just going to stick to the Hib.

Her: Okay, let me make a note of this in our records. 

Me: Okay, there should be a box down by the bottom that you can check that says "Child's mother is a paranoid hippie."

I just love this girl.

That is all.

does it make me totally crunchy if I think La Puy Lentils are beautiful?

because I do.
Sometimes I just stare at them because they look like little tiny worlds...and then I get to thinking that maybe they are little worlds, holding a seed to grow new life, or energy to make our bodies and spirits stronger.  Oh man, I am starting to sound like this guy.

I think I just answered my own question.

I am going to go back to the kitchen and finish making my Lentil Celebration Loaf. 

Don't judge.

partnership parenting

Today I was reflecting on how lucky our generation is to be breaking loose from a lot of the gender-stereotypical parenting roles that were expected in our parents' generation.  I am lucky, also, to have a supportive partner who believes that parenting is an equal partnership.

Even before we had Sadie, I noticed this trend. It makes me so happy to see so many guys these days really stepping up to the role of  sensitive, nurturing father.  This is a good thing not only for women (who have for many years been weighted down by the unrealistic expectations of being the perfect wife/mother/homemaker/career woman) but also for men.  What a loss that fathers were expected to uphold the strong and silent stereotype, never showing emotion or the ability to nurture their children.

Homemade wholegrain goodness.

Multi-Seed/Grain Cracker Recipe:

In the spirit of getting into better shape in 2011 we are trying to cut out empty carbohydrates around here.  Unfortunately, today I was really in need of some crispy, delicious crackers.  I didn't feel like going to the store because one: I haven't put Sadie's new carseat in the truck yet, two: my chevrolegs are too sore from this morning's INSANITY workout to take me there, and three: I really didn't feel like paying $7 for a box of wheat thins today. So I decided to make up my own recipe using all healthy whole ingredients, and it turned out very good.

Sharing

Cash and Sadie seem to be developing a very "what's yours is mine, what's mine is yours" policy these days.

Notice how the toys here are distributed to their proper owners?

But Cash's bone is WAY cooler than my stacking cup!

Sadie eating her rice puffs.

Cash, cleaning off all the ones that are stuck to her fingers. Ew.

Cash brought his bone over to Sadie and kind of pawed it into her lap.

But then he changed his mind and decided he needed to chew it too.

But don't worry... this bone is big enough for two to chew. Again, ew.