Oonce Oonce Baby

I'm not a big fan of house, but Yobo & the Moose sure seem to like it.

Dinner with a friend

Tonight, the Moose & I tried the Anchorage Olive Garden for the first time on a girl date with our good friend, Bee.  We had such a good time!  The Moose & I were late, plus I totally forgot my phone at work; thankfully, Sweet Bee did not leave us  :D   We ate some OK food with great portion sizes and an excellent waitress.  The only other hiccup was that the man at the table next to us kept staring at the kid and when I tried to put her in the high chair (in between me & the man), she started crying.  I couldn't blame her, so she just sat in my lap through dinner.  As usual, she totally just chilled, babbled to me & the Bee, and ate her dinner.  The waitress asked if she could hang out with her 1 year old son to teach him how to behave at restaurants LOL  We all split the baked salmon, broccoli & peppers, bruschetta, and a few breadsticks.  Then Bee & I split some Tira Misu (sp?) - double yum!  It wasn't AMAZING, but it was good enough to be enjoyed and the portion sizes made up well.

After dinner, we went for a little stroll around the area.  The Moose wanted to walk, so we let her loose.  She was going along & then stopped when she saw a family with a kid and STARED.  I had to pick her up to get her moving again after the family started looking at us funny.  What can I say?  She's enamored with other kids.  I thought this was normal.  Anyway, there were some ladies a bit later who were much friendlier & playing with her as they walked passed us.  The Moose stopped & stared at them, so one of them said "I can do that, too!" LOL and stopped to stare.  I don't think the kid knew what to make of that.  Then the other lady ran to her car, hid behind it, then jumped out to scare the kid - which the kid LOVES.  Totally won her over.  After that, there were waves & smiles to the ladies  :)  She face planted once in the parking lot, but did quite well in walking circles around Bee & I.

Baby Love

Baby calling



it's a Wii baby!  it's actually really cute because she now tries to do Wii yoga with us




hahaha she looks like Nana getting ready to harvest some greens on the side of the road







Wordless Wednesday



House Duck



What's my name again?

Boy oh boy - when it rains, it pours.  This is a very ranty post as I am having some difficulty with optimism at the moment.


What a crazy 2 weeks it's been.  Firstly, we're over the flu!  Yahoo!  Then the Moose got 2 new teeth & her fever came back for seconds.  Then Yobo slipped & busted his hand pretty good - he's been a joy.  Then I broke my bottom retainer; hello bill I can't pay.  Then I had this wonderful massage and was all stoked & on cloud 9... until I went to start the car when leave the massage place and it decided it didn't want to go anywhere.  Thankfully, it's just the battery that died and, after a night of recharging, Yobo was able to get it to start again.  This weekend's market was pretty much a bust - there was a concert being set up in the parking lot that the market-goers use, so inconvenient parking = not many market goers.  Plus the sound check was so loud it vibrated everything, making it difficult to breathe.  This went on for the whole last hour of market.  The Moose had some nastiness in her belly or something and woke us up at 4am Monday screaming (I would have been screaming, too)!  The smell hit me at the door.  When I picked her up, she was wet.  When I turned on the light, I discovered it wasn't all pee. 

Work stuff, work stuff, work stuff.  Work is crazy

My migraines are trying to eat me alive.  My milk supply is all but non-existant.  There has been a household shortage on sleep.  The mosquitoes are CRAZY thick, even by Alaskan standards, and they LOVE me.  Many mosquitoes have been horrifically murdered by slaps & claps.  There's been a lot of arguing all around & including me.  What else can I throw in here?  Well, that's not all of it, but it's the version that's more appropriate for posting online.  Thanks, it actually feels a *little* better getting all of that out.  So even if no one reads this post, at least I got that part out of my system  :D 

OK, I'm done now.  Adorable pictures will be posted tonight!

Piano (Whoa!)Man

Down with the Sickness

Ug.  It finally got me yesterday afternoon.  I have been punched in the face by a summer cold virus  :(   Yobo is solo-ing market today & Grandma has the Moose.  Today is Kids' Day at the Spenard Farmers' Market - we're giving away FREE mache & winter spinach seeds.  Yobo's mom (Grandma) took the Moose for the day, so I'm home alone for the first time in like for.eh.ver.  It's weird.  It'd probably be kind of nice if I didn't feel like poo; but, as it is, I'm laying in bed, watching bad TV, and occasionally hanging my head over the humidifier.  I tried sleeping at first, but it's so hard to sleep when you can't breathe and I keep going back & forth between too hot & too cold.  Ug.

The Moose is still a little sick, but she's been fine as long as she's awake LOL when it's bedtime, there is about an hour of screaming before settling.  Poor kid.  She slept until 2pm yesterday!  That's insanity!  We discovered this morning that she finds aspirators very funny  :D  The feeling of getting the snot sucked out of her nose makes her crack up - thank goodness for that!

I'm watching this horrible show called "Don't Trust the B----- in Apt 23".  It's absolutely ridiculous, but suits me well during this sad, stuffy headed time.  If you need an inane laugh, I highly recommend it.  

Videos! Here Moosey Moosey...

Yay! for videos!  The 1st one's a giggling Moose, the 2nd's a walking one.

Stylin'

these are my shades

they make me look cool

see?!  I share!

Achoo!

Well, the Moose is definitely sick.  Poor little bug can't breathe through her nose, so she's only sleeping a couple of hours at a time max.  Plus, now she can't breastfeed, which is a big part of the usual sleep time routine.  Since she can't breastfeed, I've increased pumping, but not much production happens this way anymore.  I'm lucky to get 1/3 oz total among work pump sessions!  I don't know how much she's able to get out, but it's definitely more than 1/3 oz throughout the work day.

Of course, her appetite only waned for a few hours yesterday during the day LOL then she was back to monster feeding!  She's on a curry kick the last couple of days (probably since she stopped feeling good) - she wants rice & curry and curry & rice, with the occassional bowl of baby oatmeal with blueberries.  She'll eat bananas, but doesn't eat them in 2 bites anymore; now she eats part of it and just plays with the rest of it.

She's got the sniffles & can't snuffle.  I was trying to show her how to blow her nose last night LOL she just thought I was being funny.  She'd put her nose into the kleenex & start giggling  :D  Thankfully, she's such a happy baby!  All last night, she was my little Klingon, but she was quite pleasant about the whole thing.  I even held her for a bit while I was doing some easy stuff on Wii Fit - she was cracking up when we did MamaBaby step aerobics!  There wasn't much of a cough, but a slight fever and lots of sneezing.

Waking up this morning was weird... I normally get up at 5:30, spend about a 1/2 hour feeding her & a 1/2 hour getting ready for work.  This morning I got up at 5:30, got ready for work, stopped for a cup of decaf, and am now at work at 5:36am, pumping & blogging.  Oh yeah, and Yobo told me this morning he's not feeling too hot himself now  :(  I greeted my boss this morning with "kid's definitely sick, I'm here early for a quiet place to pump. by the way, the husband's starting to feel sick, too..."  Oi vei.

the Moose's 1st cold

So, last night the Moose was sneezing like crazy.  She generally sneezes at bright lights & gets congested when teething, so Yobo assured me it was not a cold and she was just going through her growth thing (see previous post). 

After said previous post was posted this morning, I get a phone call from Yobo to let me know that the kid indeed DOES seem to have her 1st cold!  Now she's coughing, too - poor baby.  They were supposed to go with Grandma today to the library to see the Wizard of Oz as performed by marionettes!  Yobo said she's still in a pretty good mood (THANK YOU), but hasn't left his lap much today. 

I am getting a lot of Wows about the fact that she is over a year old and just NOW getting her 1st cold.  Thank goodness for small favors then.  Now I can't wait to go home & scoop the poor girl up!

My New Favorite Thing in the WORLD

So, the Moose will now come up to me, stand in my lap, turn around, sit down, and lay back / lean against me - best.thing.ever.  I'll start feeding her, she'll take a few bites standing up, then just crawl up in my lap & get snuggles while being fed.  LOVE IT!!!   When I'm reading to her, she'll come over, take the book, crawl up in my lap, and hold the book open, ready to start again  :D   I'm so in love it's ridiculous.  This has become my absolute favorite thing in the world.  Talk about feeling justified in the world, even if it's "just" as a leaning post / seat for a 1 year old girl.

Also, she's been making strides in the walking world.  But, really, walking is nowhere near as cool (to me) as the snuggling up.  I will post a video later of her walking - it'll be my first video!  Boy oh boy does her walking make less time for everything else LOL  thankfully it's summer now & she LOVES being outside.  Yay! for bike rides & lawn time with the kitty.  Monkey (the kitty) has been loving this summer, too.  Him & his buddy, the Moose, have fun stalking mosquitoes & dandelions and enjoy attempts at traipsing through the garden beds!

We think the kid must have some serious growing going on.  She's not sleeping well - getting up to eat like mad every few hours & has a stuffy nose.  I suspect the little bit of bagginess in her 18-month clothes will disappear before the week is out.  I am always grateful for such a happy, easy going baby, but times like these... they make me ecstatic for her naturally sunny disposition.  THANK YOU.

This kid just KNOWS.

So last night, I went to wake the beast about 11pm before I went to bed for a "midnight" feeding, as usual.  When I opened the door, I was greeted by the most horrendous stench!  This was a nasty poo.  Yobo even came in to hold baby's arms to keep them from a-wanderin'. 

Thankfully, this wonderful, sweet baby woke up in a joyous mood - all smiles & giggles, half-asleep (read: rather sedate), didn't even get all wriggly.  I cleaned up the horrors in her diaper, vaselined her, got myself cleaned up while Yobo entertained her, and fed her.  When I was getting ready to put her back to bed, after spending 45 minutes feeling sick from the smell she didn't seem to notice, she lifted her head up & gave me a big fat sloppy kiss without any prompting from me!  I layed her down & she just passed right back out.  Man.  This kid just knows.  I ended up walking back to bed with a huge cheesey grin on my face  :D

the Alaska Run for Women

drummers playing music to keep up spirits & cheer on the runners / walkers

we had to take a rest to watch the drummers.  the Moose's foot started twirling as soon as she could hear the beat, far before we saw them  :D

you can see all the food the Moose was stashing in her stroller

little L was DONE.

yay! the Moose's 2nd race, our longest yet

The Moose & I joined up with our friends big & little L to walk the 2012 Alaska Run for Women yesterday.  We got there late and were the last ones to start - everyone had at least a 10-15 minute head start.  The Muni truck picking up the barriers to close off the streets was just ahead of us.  Without the awesome force of 7,000+ women alongside you, it was a little scarier running through the middle of the downtown streets that was the course, so we got on the crowded sidewalk pretty quick LOL  

About mile 2, we caught up with some other walkers.  When we got up to the drummers (above, almost mile 3), there were even more people resting.  We stayed for a minute ourselves, then got back to trekking.  There were at least a half dozen other little groups that finished after us.  It took us about 1 1/2 hours to finish, which is exactly what I guessed it'd take  :D    We all had a good time & the Moose had NO problem passing out for her nap when we got home LOL  not a bad way to start the day at all.

This kid...

So, I'm a dummy & I set my alarm for 5:30PM, not 5:30AM.  When I woke up at 6:30AM (having to be at work at 7AM), I panicked.  Curse words came out & I rushed out of bed, down the hall, and into the Moose's room to feed her.  Poor baby had soaked herself in the night, so she needed to be stripped, wiped down, & changed into some nice DRY clothes.  Thankfully, she was so good this morning & didn't have a melt down (she normally gets fed first & then has no problem enduring the coldness of changing).  After feeding her, I went to put her back to bed and, as usual, kissed her cheek.  Wonderfully UNusual, she turned her head & opened her mouth for a kiss  :D  Totally made the panicked morning less stressful & I walked out of there no longer in a rush, but now at peace with being late.  Thank you baby.

Yard Happenings

the Moose is inspecting the kiwi vines

2 potato rows, grapes & tomatoes in pots, and strawberries & garlic under the hoop

the raspberry bushes are filling in!

the dulgo crabapple is flowering

some robberjays came to visit  :)

everything's rose-y!

and the pooping gnome continues to guard out strawberries & garlic... plus a couple of marigolds, dahlias, a sweet pea, and a grape vine

Our Week

eating corn on the cob - excellent teether, btw

little monkey

more blueberries.  NOW.

bike trailer...

let's go!

Our 3rd day at market is tomorrow!

this metal cart thingy is fantastic!  it makes hardening off the plants a snap!

little helper

lots of teeny Tiny Tims  :)