Monthly Snapshot: May 2012

Hello, hello!  It's time again for our monthly snapshot!  Drumroll please........

And heeeere are the Puff family highlights for the month of May!

Incidents & Events

Hands down the most dramatic event of the month was that my sister's car was stolen.  Michelle moved to Colorado with her new husband Chris back in February, and they had driven her car out there so she would have transportation.  One morning, while Michelle was out riding her bike, someone stole her car right out of their driveway  Welcome to Colorado, right?

At any rate, the police didn't have a lot of hope for recovering her car, so she was told to wait a certain number of days and then turn it in to her insurance company.  However, the next day police found her car.  It had been dumped not all that far from her home and completely gutted, most likely so the thieves could sell the parts.  When I say 'gutted', I mean gutted.  Like, they took the headlights, people.  Gutted.


Michelle and Chris debated for a short while and ended up purchasing a new car with their insurance money - a fancy Honda hybrid!  I'm excited to see it!

Norah and Josiah on a Jeep adventure in the African Safari

In other news, this month we invested in the purchase of a membership and yearly pass to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo.  I've taken the kids to the zoo three times so far, so the pass has already paid for itself (really, a child's entry fee is $8.50.  $8.50 - how much does is really cost to host a 3-year-old at the zoo??).  We've gone once with Erica and her lovelies, Josiah and Sophia, once with Nicole & Sarah and her red-headed beauties, Leila and Ellie, and once with Jessica and Kimberly and their littles, Liam, Caroline, and Maya.  I've discovered that the zoo makes an excellent space for talking to other moms - the kids are occupied looking at the cool animals, and we can actually get more than one sentence out before getting interrupted! Whoo!  The zoo pass is also going to be great for those days when we're just having a rough time and need to get out without spending money.  I feel like this is going to be an excellent summer for the zoo!

Why hello there, Sophia! When did you get so big?

Ellie, Norah & Leila

1.25 seconds before I shot this, all three girls were looking at the camera and smiling.  For realz.

 

Really, mom, I said no paparazzi...

True story from the zoo:  When we went with Sarah, Nicole, Leila, & Ellie, Sarah planned to buy the kids popcorn.  She brought these lovely paper bags with her because she is a prepared grown up, and she knows that having your own bag of popcorn is way cooler than sharing with everyone else.  So Sarah bought a bag of popcorn and split it up into three paper bags and gave one to each of the kids. 

Norah was not having this - she wanted her own bag of popcorn from the popcorn stand.  These kinds of moments can be pivotal in a parent's day: do I fight with her about the popcorn?  Force her to take popcorn from Sarah?  Tell her she can't have any popcorn at all if she doesn't want to share theirs?  No matter what I do, it's going to suck - and at this point I felt my decision had the potential to make or break the entire rest of the day (which you may or may not believe - if you are a parent, you believe me).  So, right at that moment I decided that the popcorn fight was not worth having.  Non-parents call this permissiveness, or 'raising a brat'.  Parents call this 'choosing their battles'. 

(For the record, if you give in to every battle, or to most of them, you cannot say you are 'choosing' your battles.  At that point you are actually losing the entire war.  You do have to actually raise them, you know.)

So anyway, I walked over to the popcorn stand and bought a bag of popcorn.  Norah promptly insisted that this popcorn be in one of the paper bags.  In my head I was like, "Dear God, are you freakin' serious?", but what I said was, "Sarah, could we please have a paper bag?".  She very kindly obliged and I poured all of the popcorn out of the zoo bag and into the paper bag.  I handed the bag to Norah and she looked up at me, and said, completely deadpan.....

Popcorn?  What popcorn?

wait for it.......








"I'm not really hungry,"







and handed me the popcorn.


Srsly???

I felt slightly better when Sarah laughed her head off and said it made her feel better to see someone else's kid doing this - apparently I'm not the only parent in the world who has ever had this problem.


This month also marked the opening of Mom & Dad's lake cottage, and we went to the lake for Memorial Day.  I made myself a fancy mesh sling for wearing Miles in the lake, and it turns out he is a fan of splashing in the water.  Norah was absolutely thrilled that it was lake season again and poured her heart into swimming around, jumping off the pier, and building sandcastles (or mudcastles; she's still a little unclear on the sand to water ratio needed to for a strong sandcastle foundation).  Most of the Mills family was on hand and we had a lovely time.

Note her intense concentration - I think we've got an architect here, folks.

This month was also a big month for big news amongst my friends!  Erica & Jason sold their house, packed up, and moved a little ways away on Kensington.  Three couples I know also got engaged!  Justin planned an elaborate proposal to Carissa, which she loved.  And said yes, by the way.  Curt proposed to Mike while they took a Memorial Day camping trip.  And Jason and Anna also got engaged recently.  Looks like 2013 will be a big year for weddings!  Jason & Anna are planning for March 30 of the coming year, and I believe (though I'm not sure) that Justin & Carissa are looking at a 2013 wedding, as well.  Curt and Mike are planning for a long engagement, as they are waiting until Indiana legally recognizes same-sex marriages before they get married.  As Curt so eloquently put it, "I want a wedding, not a gay wedding."

I've had a hard time with this lately - not so much about having to wait for their wedding, but with my feelings about marriage equality.  I've had a lot of thoughts lately about the rights I'm afforded for no other reason than I'm straight and I can get married.  For example, if something were to happen to me, I know, without a doubt, what would happen to my kids and my assets - no one would ever question or contest Daniel's getting both.  I'm afforded the ability to stay home with my kids because I can automatically get health insurance through Daniel's employer.  And so on, and so on.  I have a crapload of rights and assurances because I happen to have been born straight, and these have a major impact on the decisions I'm able to make for my family.

My closest friends don't have those same rights.

And that is wrong.

*sigh*

I have had to try to explain to Norah why Jason & Anna and Justin & Carissa can get married next year, but her 'Uncle Curt' can't.  How do you explain that to a three-year-old?  That Curt & Mike want to get married needs no explanation - three-year-olds get the concept of love with surprisingly little prejudice.  It's inequality they don't understand.  It's bigotry that makes no sense to them.

Oh, that we all could look at my friends like three-year-olds.

My Lovelies

Heeeeeere I go!

The biggest news, kids-wise, in our house is that Miles is ready to crawl!  As of this writing, he's taken off all over the house, but in the month of May he wasn't quite there yet.  He was doing that 'almost crawling thing' for awhile there, where he would get one knee under him and one stuck up with his foot flat on the ground, then get mad that he couldn't get anywhere.  Then he got onto his belly and somehow managed to scoot around backwards.  Now he's just crawling around like it's the easiest and most natural thing in the world.


Miles has also been trying all kinds of new foods.  I can't believe what a crazy good eater this kid is.  He is in love with berries - can't get enough! - and is also quite fond of scrambled eggs, but he'll eat just about anything we put on his tray.  The other night we made bacon wrapped chicken with homemade honey mustard and he chomped his way through it like it was nothing.  I'm telling you, this kid must be a Quinn.  Because he picks up his food and eats it himself, there's no keeping him clean, so I've been putting him in the sink after meals as of late.  That's normal, right?

There's a baby in my sink!

How shall I describe the month with Norah?  Let's just say it hasn't been as easy as some of our past months.  We're doing a lot of work on asking for things politely and listening.  There has been a lot of screaming demands in the past few weeks, which just isn't flying with me, so we have been spending a lot of time on learning new ways to cope with the giant three-year-old feelings that just don't fit all that well in her three-year-old sized brain.  Despite the unusually difficult month, she's still such a sweet little girl and loves her little brother to bits.




You're right, they are a little big.... 

Norah has been working on recognizing letters with her bathtub letter set.  She often asks me what letter something is when we're out and about, what sound it makes, and what word starts with that letter.  This actually sounds like, "What's that letter for?" which, as a mom, I have cleverly deciphered as her wanting to know a word that starts with that letter.  She is very good at identifying 'E', 'I', 'N', 'M', 'D', and 'T', and is working on all the rest.

Norah has also become very independent in the past month, and has been using her kitchen stool to cause all kinds of mayhem.  One night while she was home with Dan she decided to 'wash dishes', which, in reality, consisted of scrubbing down exactly 3 dishes with nearly an entire bottle of Dawn dish soap, and enough water to irrigate the Sahara.  I have also found random objects in my refridgerator, such as a play doh container filled with water and ice cubes.  Uh, what?  But she is working on doing things herself and despite some of the craziness, is becoming quite capable at various tasks.  Norah can make scrambled eggs mostly by herself (she has trouble getting them entirely scrambled while mixing and needs a little help), including being able to pour them into the skillet and flip them around without touching anything hot.  She's also doing quite well at asking if she can have a certain snack and then getting it herself.

I swear, she was just born, like, yesterday - wasn't she?  Now she's getting ready for Top Chef.  *sigh*  It all goes so fast.



Are you ready for an adventure?

Here we go!  Hold on tight, baby brother!

Both kids have been spending a lot of time outside playing, but Norah has especially.  She's a big fan of the both the sprinkler and the kiddie pool, and she often comes into the house completely drenched!  She's also getting our money's worth out of the playset we put up last month.

 Bubbles!

 

Food & Health

Probably the biggest change I made in May in regards to my health was that I joined CrossFit Fort Wayne.  CrossFit seems really different than gyms or exercise programs I have seen or done in the past, and I really like that.  Less 'cardio', more strength and conditioning.  Workouts are varied, short and intense, involve functional movement (oh, I can actually do something in real life with what I worked on today?), and cover a wide range of fitness skills (endurance, strength flexibility, etc...)  I like that I can go to a class and get instruction from a trainer rather than just showing up at a gym and not knowing what to do.

This has been an enormous challenge for me, and I'm really, really proud of myself so far.  I'm not, by any means, athletic, even remotely.  My idea of an athletic activity is to move the coffee table closer to the sofa so that I can reach my drink while I read a long-ass book.  Kind of like my idea of outdoorsy is to take my book to the front porch.  There's a theme here.  And in fact, most of why I used to go to the Y was because for 2 hours I could utilize child watch and I could walk on a treadmill or elliptical machine at a pretty sad, slow pace and actually get some time to myself that was quiet enough to read a book.

So, needless to say, I'm not running circles around everyone at CrossFit.

I'm actually fairly pathetic, though apparently that's why I need to go in the first place.  I do have some decent flexibility going for me, but that's about it.

Before I could start going to regular CrossFit classes, I had to take a start up class called On Ramp, where I learned some of the basic CrossFit skills.  Now my friend Beth, who got me interested in CrossFit in the first place, told me not to worry about not being fast or good at anything, because she said she couldn't run 400 meters when she started and look at her now! (Actually she did not say the 'look at me now!' bit, because Beth is very modest.  So I just looked at her now all on my own, and she is rockin' it!)  So I showed up for my first On Ramp class, thinking, "Eh, I know I'm probably going to suck at this, which is the whole point of me being here in the first place.  But other people surely suck at it when they first come too, so whatever."

I was promptly placed into an On Ramp class with two other people, both of whom are clearly athletes - like, probably lifelong athletes.  The two were an engaged couple, and the girl mentioned her indoor soccer league, having run track, cheerleading, and gymnastics in the course of 2 evenings.  Erm.

Not spectacular for my self-esteem

The first night of On Ramp we did a workout that was 8 minutes long.  For me, anyway.  It was 5 minutes long for them, because they are fast and fit and can get shit done.  So I almost doubled their time at it, plus I felt like I was on drugs afterwards- my arms and legs felt all funny and rubbery and I couldn't focus my brain.

I sat in my car and cried for probably 10 minutes when it was done.  I knew I was bad at this, but geesh!  Rub it in a little?

But I have kept going.  I am still not terribly good at anything, but I am going.  I signed up and paid for 6 months and if, at the end of that, I'm still not good at anything and I don't feel any stronger or more fit, I will quit.  But I don't think that's how it's going to play out.


I think it will take me awhile to feel ok with CrossFit and with myself and with everyone there.  Not that anyone there has been a problem for me, or anything, but I have come to realize that I have issues with the concept of 'athletes'.  What's an athlete, anyways?  Apparently I'm working on becoming one, or something.  And apparently everyone there is one.  I've been thinking about it and I realized that in my mind there are two subsets of this thing called 'athletes'.  There are: 1) my sister and her friends, and 2) people who are total assholes to me.  So there's a slight mental block there that I'm working my way around.  The good news is that I've spent a lot of my time over the past 6-7 years intentionally being uncomfortable for the sake of some goal - building community or trying to be better at something and so on.  I'm so totally uncomforatble at CrossFit, but I think that's a good thing.  I think I just need some time and experience and perspective and hopeully things will fall into place.


And lastly, one more thing before I shut up about CrossFit:

One of the awesome things about CrossFit is that is aligns well with my Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Plan (ZAPP), which is really just a short list of things I should probably have in order in the event of a major world crisis.  Zombie Apocalypse sounds way cooler than 'if that Captain Tripps thing really comes true' or 'if WW3 happens and we get invaded and I have to run to the mountains on short notice'.  At any rate, being fit enough to run away from the Zombies is important.  Jason told me that a lot of first responders use CrossFit to train.  He said something like, "It basically prepares you to run into a burning building, lift a beam off of someone, pick the person up, and run out of the building with them to safety".  Really, how badass is that?  It's like Chuck Norris meets Heather's fitness plan.  Zombies, look out.


I'm sure I could go on (and on and on and on.....), but I think I'm out of steam for our May 2012 report.  I'm going to wrap up with some additional photos of the kids, and I'll see you again when I wrap up with June!

Monthly Snapshot: April 2012

Well, here we are again!  For anyone not familiar with what's going on here, I'm posting monthly snapshots of my day to day life on my blog.  Stories, photos, and the inevitable craziness that tends to crop up.  Since we're all here, let's just dive right in, shall we?

Incidents & Events

Our first major event for the month of April was, of course, Easter - or as we affectionately call it (erm, at least around Sarah's bonfire), Zombie Jesus Day. 

We celebrated Easter twice this year.  First, we had the opportunity to go out to my Aunt Julie and Uncle Jim's for a very nice dinner.  I was very relieved to see that Jim was doing really well because he had not seemed well when we last saw him at Christmas.  Yay for better health!  Norah thoroughly enjoyed their 2 boxers, Rosie and Wilson, and she got to go on a golf cart ride!  All through the ride she snuggled in to me and would say, "Mommy, look!  Look how far we've ridden!" over and over.  I think it's safe to say she had fun.

When we returned from the golf cart ride, I saw that Erica had texted me, asking if I was at Julie's house.  Turns out her brother lives across the field from them and she was over there and had seen my car in the driveway.  So I texted her back and told her we were there.  At that point, she decided to ride her dirtbike across the field to visit.



Whoa, go back.  Read that again.



She rode her dirtbike across a field to visit me.



I didn't even know I had friends who were capable of that.

This is a whole new epiphany for me.  I have friends who can ride dirtbikes.  Across fields.  How badass is that?  We know who I'm adding to my Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness team, don't we?

Norah: "Miles, look, the Easter Bunny bringed you spoons!   
Spoons!  Spoons!  The Easter Bunny comed in our house and
bringed you spoons!  Look, here they are, Miles!"                  
Miles: Blink, blink                                                                   

On Easter Sunday we celebrated at mom and dad's house with the Mills side of the family.  As it turns out, our Easter Bunny was one of those colored-egg-hiding, brings-small-gifts kinds of Easter Bunnies, while their Easter Bunny has apparently been moonlighting as a diabetes drug rep on the side.  Shame on you, Bunny, for what you've done to our blood sugar.  But it was nice that Norah could have some Easter treats without there having to be candy in our house to deal with over the next few weeks, so I'm not entirely upset with that bunny, though I do think next year he should read the conflict of interest clause on his contract.

Sugar aside, the kids were super cute.  Look at these happy little faces:

Easter was a lot easier for me this year than it has been in the past.  I think I really have come to a good place with my feelings about the Jesus story vs. the Christian religion, and it was nice to be able to think of the story fondly without brooding over all the yuckiness of the religion.  I will say that it was difficult to know what to tell Norah when she asked why we were celebrating.  How do you explain to a toddler that many, many people believe something, but you don't, but that you're going to celebrate anyways because it's still a story worth celebrating even if you don't totally believe it?  And then how do you further explain the actual story without scaring the living crap out of said toddler?  Uh, so there was this guy, and, uh, he was murdered, and, uh, then he came back from the dead.  No, that's not creepy at all.

And so we muddle through.

Oh, but it's so worth it.

My children also attended their first protest/rally this month.  One of Indiana's Certified Professional Midwives was arrested for practicing midwifery without a license.  The thing is, there is no licensing available for CPMs in our state.  26 other states offer licensing, but not Indiana.  Because there are only a handful of CNMs (Certified Nurse Midwives, who do have licensing in Indiana) who attend home births in our state, the lack of licensing essentially makes homebirth illegal.  Ok, maybe not exactly.  But it sure sounds dramatic, doesn't it?  At any rate, the lack of licensing definitely restricts women's rights in regards to their healthcare and reproductive choices.  The rally took place at the LaGrange County courthouse, where said midwife was scheduled for a hearing, and ralliers (is that a word?) gathered to demonstrate our desire for legislation to legalize CPMs in Indiana.

This is not me or one of my kids.  But I did take this picture, so I'm claiming it.

It's possible I'm raising my children to be hippies.  I'm not really sure how D feels about this.

Building in action!  Go D!

In other news, WE GOT A SWINGSET!  I'm a little excited.  We gathered up bits of our tax return to purchase a nice swingset for the kids.  It arrived earlier this month and D has it mostly put together.  There is still a canopy that goes on the top, but we received an incorrect piece with our set and are waiting for a new, correct, piece to arrive.  This thing is awesome!  There are spots for 2 swings, a trapeze bar on the side, a slide, a rock wall.... everything a 3 year old could want. 

Missing the canopy and a few toys up top yet.  The trapeze bar is on the side
behind the slide area, and the rock wall is on the side by the neighbor's fence.

Norah absolutely loves it.

Miles doesn't think it's too shabby either.

My Lovelies

Looking through my hard drive, it turns out I've taken a lot of photos of my kids this month.  Prolly because they're frickin' adorable.  Consider yourself warned: you're about to see some photo-whoring.

Good morning, Sunshine!

Norah had her orientation at Bunche this month.  She is going to be going to preschool there in the fall - how exciting!  We found out that she will be in Teresa's classroom, which is just wonderful.  Her playmate from across the street will also be in the same classroom with her, and I'm so happy that she will have someone she knows to start the year with.  Very, very rarely, everything falls into place, and this was one of those times.  Everything I could have hoped for happened - she got into the school, she got into the class I was hoping for, and she knows someone in her class.  Woot!

Completely unrelated to the text of the blog, but absolutely adorable.  *swoon*

Norah's favorite books this month have been Corduroy (the one about the Corduroy bear), and Harold and the Purple Crayon. She's started getting better at putting puzzles together and has been spending a lot of time on them lately.


Norah has been working very hard at growing her very own flowers!  She chose 5 kinds of flowers, planted them in pots, and has been checking on them every day and watering them.  I think she's going to have success with them - they're looking good so far.  She's really excited about having her very own plants and is looking forward to planting them in the ground when they get bigger.

Miles has been growing by leaps and bounds!  I can't believe it, but he's getting close to 6 months old.  Where has the time gone?  Miles is doing really well sitting up unassisted, though I do keep a pillow or a boppy close by in the event that he tumbles over.  Usually he falls over because he has reached too far forward for a toy, but he occasionally still topples over backwards or to the side for no apparent reason other than unsteady balance.

He has also been eating like crazy.  I feel sad watching him eat so much big-people food because that means he's not such a baby anymore.  *sigh*  But he seems to really like and want food and is doing really well with it.  He's recently discovered sweet potatoes, which he likes quite a bit.

Nom nom nom.... sweet potato!!

Norah and Miles are getting along very well.  Miles is now big enough to interact with Norah more, and she absolutely loves it!

Here, let me cover you up, baby brother.   Uh, ok sis.

Food & Health

This month has been difficult for me as far as trying to keep things healthy.  We ate a lot of sugar at  Easter time, and it was surprisingly hard to recover from that.  I also haven't done any regular working out at all because I'm checking out fitness places in hopes that I'll find a good fit.  More on that now:

In April, I visited both CrossFit facilities.  There is one on the north side of town, www.fortwaynestrengthandconditioning.com, and one on the southwest - www.crossfitfortwayne.com.  I was very impressed with both places and I think that the CrossFit philosophy will be a good fit for me.  It seems that there will be a lot of strength training, and that there's surprisingly little equipment because you learn to use your own body to train your own body, if that makes sense.  So far the southwest CrossFit has my vote, mostly because childcare is available for some class sessions.  With Daniel's work schedule not always being consistent, and with him traveling for up to a week and a half at a time, I need to be able to have somewhere my kids can go while I work out.  The biggest downside is that it is pretty pricey, and I don't know that I will be able to go forever.  If I go I will likely make a 4 or 6 month commitment, which I can pay for now, but I don't know how I will come up with the cash to keep going after that.

My goal was to decide on a fitness plan by the end of April, but that didn't quite happen.  I still have one more place to visit - Studio Seva.  Sarah has been going to a circuit class there that I would like to check out.  On the up side, it's substancially less expensive, however the circuit class meets only once a week (though they do have yoga and zumba on other nights) and there is no childcare.  I'm going to check it out next week, and then D is gone for the week following that, and then I hope to actually start going somewhere regularly.  So hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, I will figure out what I want to do and actually start doing it by the end of May.


As for food stuff, April was the month of frozen things.  First we tried a cherimoya fruit, which we froze and then scooped out of the skin.  I read on the internet that if we did this, it would taste like ice cream.  The internet clearly does not know what ice cream tastes like.  The reason we bought the cherimoya fruit in the first place was because it was sitting beneath a sign at Meijer that read: 'Cherimoya:  Tastes like candy'.  Uh, candy?  In a fruit?  Yes, please.  However, as with the internet and ice cream, Meijer clearly does not know what candy tastes like.  As Nicole so helpfully pointed out to me, there is a list of things that taste like candy:

1) candy



As you can see, the Cherimoya fruit is not on the list.  It does taste pretty good, though.  I think that had it not been frozen it would have been kind of banana-y in texture.  It was sweet and yummy, though definitely not ice cream or candy.

Srsly, mom?  How am I supposed to
 scoop out this giant frozen watermelon?

Next we froze some chunks of watermelon.  I read on the internet that if you freeze chunks of watermelon, your kids will be more inclined to eat it.  In what can only be described as a moment of redemption, this time the internet turned out to know its shit.  I have never, ever, ever gotten Norah to eat more than a taste of watermelon before spitting it out.  Freeze it, though, and it's frickin' toddler caviar.  I did make the mistake of quartering a mini-watermelon and thinking that would be good enough.  Obviously, this is a bad idea, as it was nearly impossible to eat.  The next time I cut it into manageable strips, which I then cut into little cone shaped treats.  This was much easier to eat.  Even Miles loved it!

Which leads me to my parenting tip of the month:  Things taste better when frozen.  At least at my house.  So far this year we've had huge success freezing bananas, yogurt, blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, and the ill-described cherimoya fruit.  Not only does freezing somehow make fruits more appealing to my kids, but it also preserves them so that I'm not silently cursing while I throw them into the compost at the end of the week because I couldn't get anyone to eat them.  (Side note, I received a compliment on my compost bins this month.  You know you're running with a crunchy  crowd when.......)


Keeping with our frozen theme, we also made sorbet this month.  This particular sorbet is strawberry orange lemon.  It was supposed to be strawberry orange, but I ran out of oranges while I was making it, and the next closest thing I had around was a lemon.  *shrug*  It was still really good.

Mmmmmmm..... sorbet.

Other treats we made include a grain free faux thin mint (heavenly!), and some super delicious lemon-coconut balls.  I'm experimenting a bit with grain-free baking, and these were both successes!

Reading back over that, it sounds like all we eat is fruit and grain-free baked goods.  Uh.  Oops.  Rest assured, that is not the case.  The baked goods I try to limit to one a week or every other week, because even though they are grain-free, they probably shouldn't be the staples of my diet.  Other than the frozen things and new baking, things have pretty much been our same old recipes.  However, I'm really looking forward to getting my garden moving so that I have some new vegetables to try new recipes with.  I got plants of spaghetti squash, zucchini, broccolli, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers, which I think sounds pretty amazing!  I'm waiting until after Mother's Day to get them into the ground, but I'm hoping for a good vegetable garden this year, and subsequently, some good new recipes.  In particular, Pinterest has provided me with about a zillion spaghetti squash recipes, and that's something I've only tried to cook a handful of times.


Aaaaaaaand, I think that's about all for the Puff family for the month of April.  Tune in next month for more of our adventures!

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.