Monthly Snapshot: March 2012

First things first, I learned a valuable lesson this month, namely that one should begin one's monthly snapshot at the beginning of the month and add to it as one goes - NOT begin it the last week of the month and assume one will find the time to write a lengthy blog post some time that week inbetween caring for the small people, keeping up the house, doing all the laundry, and getting medical care for the dog.  So, yea, anyway.  I realize it is nearly mid-April, but here is the much anticipated (!!) March snapshot!  Whoo!  Here we go!


Incidents & Events

Let's start off the month talking a bit about my husband.  Anyone who knows Dan knows that a lot of times when he tries to fix things, he first breaks them.  What they may not know is that he also inadvertently seems to break things *without* having had the intention of fixing them.  They just break, for inexplicable reasons.  Like, for example, my bathroom window.

Yes, my bathroom window.

Full story:  I'm lying in bed, nursing the baby when Dan walks in and informs me that our bathroom window is broken.  We only have one window in the bathroom, which happens to be in a door.  I look at him and asked what happened to it and he says.... wait for it.......





.......




"I was standing there looking out the window when I had to cough.  So I coughed and hit my head on the window and it broke"


For realz.

My husband broke the bathroom window with an innocent little cough.  In order to keep the glass in the window until it can be fixed (which, incidentally, it has not been yet), we taped it up with duct tape.  We're classy like that.

My bathroom window.  Note how the turquoise duct tape complements the brown curtains.  Classy.

When I told the story to Curt, I said, "You're not going to believe how Daniel broke the bathroom window," and he said, "Heather, I would believe anything.  This is the guy that fell asleep while he was peeing."  Touche'.  I guess this is just another day in the life for the Puff family.


Other unfortunate events include a random dog attack.  Fortunately, everyone is ok, but it was really scary.  I took the kids out for the first time in a new (to us) double stroller we had been gifted, and also took the dog along on a walk.  This was the first time I had ever put Miles in a stroller - he has always taken his walks perched on my back - and we were happily walking around the block when all of the sudden, a dog sitting on a porch darted off the porch and ran straight at us, barking and growling and snarling.  This did not go over well with me.  Two small children in the stroller, and a dog is coming at us like a (rabid) bat out of hell, and I didn't know what to do.

Luckily the random dog went for Dingo, who is equipped with sharp teeth and some wicked nails, rather than for the 4 month old in the stroller.  But poor Dingo got a nasty bite on her muzzle before the dog's owner came out and took it back in.  She is alright now, but did have to take antibiotics for awhile.  I also did call animal care and control, and they said the nasty mean dog would be quarantined for awhile, although I'm not exactly sure what that entails. 


We had a few exciting nights out as well.  We chose St. Patty's day to celebrate Sarah's 30th and my first drag show since having the babe.  What can I say?  I just really like drag queens.

It's a little depressing that this drag queen is way hotter than me,
although I know for sure she didn't just have a baby 4 months ago.
You know, that whole 'I'm a dude under this costume'  thing. 

The elusive Green Dragon comes out to play for St. Patty's day

After Dark: Gay Bubble Headquarters

Sarah and I discussed it, and it turns out that she and I only have 2 kinds of going out.  Version #1 of going out means getting dinner and possibly drinks at a resturaunt.  Version #2 of going out means going to After Dark.  If we're feeling really dangerous, we'll go out for dinner/drinks and then go to After Dark, which is what happened on St. Patty's day.  Look out, world.

We also discussed the gay bubble we live in.  Incidentally, the term 'gay bubble' is pretty gay.  But what I mean is that sometimes I forget there are bigots and crazy people who hate gay people because I've surrounded myself with people who aren't crazy bigots and who don't really care a whole lot what sex/gender/sexual orientation anybody else is.  That just isn't part of the equation in regard to whether someone is liked or not.  I like my bubble, but it makes me sad that there's a whole world outside of it that makes the bubble necessary.  Other bubbles I live in include the natural birth/midwife bubble, the crunchy bubble, and the sewing bubble. 

My Littles

The kiddos are still doing really well.  Miles is a crazy good sleeper, and he usually doesn't wake up during the night at all until Dan gets up in the morning.  I can't believe how great he is at sleeping.  He is starting to really have a personality and likes to pick things up and shake them around.  He also really likes book time at bedtime.  We always read 2 books at bedtime and he has started paying attention to them and really appearing to enjoy them.

I'm totally cute.... and I know it.

Nom nom nom... I eats apple

Miles is also starting to try some solid food now, which is code for, "he totally sucked on an apple slice and licked my pizza crust".  The Norah mommy would never have let this happen.  The Norah mommy would have said, "OMG, get that away from my baby before you give her an allergy and make her not want my milk anymore!! Agggghhh!".  The Miles mommy says, "Whoa, check that out - he's so busy sucking on that chunk of apple I actually got to eat hot food.  Whooo!".  And that, dear readers, is birth order personality theory explained.

Norah is her crazy 3 year old self.  This month her favorite books to read have been 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and her Thomas the Tank Engine books.  She has been putting her baby doll in her sling and carrying it around a lot lately, and it is super cute.  I particularly enjoy when we go somewhere and I have Miles in my sling and she has her baby doll in hers.   So sweet!


Norah is all about the question, "Why?" as of late.  It makes me slightly crazy.  I almost think she just automatically says 'why?' without even knowing why she is doing it.  And if you answer her, she asks 'why?' about your answer.

Norah does not realize this, but deep within her she has the power to make me feel like an idiot.  Why, you ask? (much like Norah) - because half the time I have no idea what the answer is to what she's asking me.  "Why is the sky blue?", "Why do birds eat worms?" "Why aren't there zombies in the moon?" (Srsly, she *has* to be my kid).  How do you even answer those?

In addition to her pursuit for knowledge, Norah got to spend quite a lot of time playing outside since this month was so warm.  She's been riding her bike, playing with sidewalk chalk, and even spent some time in the pool!

This month was the lottery for Fort Wayne Community Schools, and we found out that Norah got into Bunche.  Bunche is the early childhood Montessori school run by FWCS and we were hoping to get her in so that she would have a shot at Montessori school through 8th grade (there's no way we can afford private Montessori school).  I feel a bit nervous about sending her since she's so young, but we very likely would not have gotten in if we had waited another year.  It's a few hours each morning, so it isn't very long, but it should be a good start to preparing her for school.

Norah and Miles are still getting along fabulously, and just lately Miles has started reacting and laughing at things she does.  Melts my heart.

Food & Health

This month we tried some new things!



Norah and the Ugli fruit - for best
taste, eat while wearing pajamas

First, we tried an ugli fruit.  I was all excited about my ugli fruit, first because it was very ugly, and second, because it sounded very exotic and adventurous.  I thought to myself, "How awesome is this that I'm going to try an ugli fruit!?!"  I felt so proud for having such an adventurous nature.


And then I googled ugli fruit.


Thanks, Google, thanks a lot.  Now I feel lame again.


Google ever so helpfully informed me that an ugli fruit is simply a hybrid orange/tangerine/grapefruit.  Not terribly adventurous, but it did taste good!

We also made some delicious yogurt bites, which have been the hit of the month.  "But what about banana pops?" you ask.  Oh, come now, banana pops are soooo last month.

To make the yogurt bites, we get those giant tubs of plain whole milk yogurt from Meijer, and then mix them up with some fruit - I have been using preserves I made 2 years ago, actually, because we have a ridiculously massive stockpile.  Put the yogurt in a ziploc bag, cut a hole in the corner, and then squeeze little bites of yogurt out onto a pan.  Freeze, and Wha la!  Yogurt bites!

We started out with strawberry....

And because I do everything in moderation, we moved along to blueberry, then to honey vanilla, then honey vanilla with blueberries and strawberries stuck in them, then to plain with granola stuck in them.  We went through 6 tubs of yogurt this month - that's 12 pounds of yogurt.  I don't really even know what to say about that, except I'm just thankful it wasn't 12 pounds of lemonheads.

I do not have OCD, I do not have OCD, I do not have OCD......

Norah with her yogurt bites.  I suppose this explains why all her pants are too short as of late.

There have been a lot of salads in our lives this month, which is nice with the weather getting warmer.  I used to think I didn't like salad, but it turns out that what I don't like is iceberg lettuce - make me a salad with some spinach and I'm completely happy.  However, I think I'm the only one in my house that likes spinach.  One day I was making salads and Dan said, "I don't want that spinach".  Then Norah tried a piece of the spinach, but all she did was lick it and make an awful face.  Miles picked  up a piece and looked at me like, "What's this crap you're trying to pull? I may have just started eating solid food yesterday, but I know a tree leaf when I see one," then threw it down on the floor where the dog proceeded to eat every. single. crumb. in sight - except for that piece of spinach.  True story.


This month I also got the chance to read an awesome book titled, "Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It," which did a wonderful job of explaining how our bodies metabolize fat and showed some crazy research supporting the reduction of carbs (specifically easily metabolized carbs like sugar/white flour) for optimal health.  I've been making some changes to my diet lately to reflect this, though I'm not ready (nor do I think I probably ever will be) to give up carbs or grains altogether.  We've tried some baking with both almond and coconut flours, and have also just worked on eating fewer grains and carbs and more protein, fat, and fruits/veggies. 

Believe it or not, with very little effort I've finally reached my mini-weight-loss-goal #2 of getting under 155 lbs.  Yes, I just posted my weight on my blog.  I have clearly lost my mind.  Most of what I have done is to reduce my sugar and grain consumption, but I haven't reduced anything else and have probably eaten much more fat.  I figure I've been trying to cut sugar anyway, and if I try this for a couple months and it doesn't work out for me, I can always tweak/change/work on something else.  There are 4 more mini-weight-loss-goals out there and I would love to achieve them by the end of 2012, but we'll just see how it goes.

I have also been going to zumba, though I'm thinking of stopping.  I am hoping to try out CrossFit in the near future and I think that may be a better fit for me than zumba.  I'm very interested in a good strength training routine, moreso than cardio.  Someone who is a member has a guest pass and is going to hook me up to try it out in the next week or so here.  I'm pretty excited!  The only downside is that it is quite cost prohibitive, and I'm really not sure we can afford it for more than maybe 1 quarter.  We'll see.


I think that may be everything I had to report.  Once I log off here, I should clearly get started on April's snapshot, though I think it may have to wait a day or so.  Hopefully I get it written some time before June......

Here are more pictures of my kiddos, in case you didn't get enough.