sickness strikes again

Have you ever seen a sadder girl? Fever of 103.2, endless crying, projectile vomitting,  sick girl eyes...it breaks my heart! Get well soon, Rose!  (and let's hope mommy and daddy can stay well this time!)

bad habit: broken!

I haven't had time to look through Rose's 38-week "portraits" yet - I hope to get to that later this week. But in the meantime I thought I'd tide you over with this shot from dinner last night. Over the past several months, we had gotten into the really bad habit of giving Rose "treats" (Mum Mums, saltines, graham crackers, Puffs, or cheerios) if she didn't like whatever we were serving for dinner. It started off innocently enough back when she wasn't physiologically able to eat what we ate, but recently we started to notice that she would simply thumb her nose at our food and then cry until we gave her a "treat" instead.  Clearly she had quickly  pegged us as dinnertime pushovers.  But we firmly believe that we don't want her eating nutritionally vacuous meals (aka "kid food") while we eat the nutrient-dense "grownup food" we've been trying to incorporate more into our diets. And, on a really practical level, we also didn't want to set the stage for preparing multiple meals for dinner for the foreseeable future.

So, I'm proud to say that after about two weeks of slowly weaning all of us off of this terrible habit, last night Rose simply ate what we served! Yay, Rose! Three cheers for the brown rice with raisins, chickpeas and green peas that Mike made! (And thanks to Trula Anne for the great cook book!) Tonight she wasn't so keen on my veggie quinoa bake (this recipe modified with some additional baked squash and red bell peppers, plus some extra cheese), but c'est la vie - maybe she'll like the leftovers tomorrow, and I'm just proud that we can simply serve one yummy family meal each night from now on.

Have a great week, everyone!

37 weeks!

Rose is just getting cuter and cuter every day! She also keeps us on our toes - the thing she loves most one day is something she wants nothing to do with the next. For example, last night she was madly in love with the yummy lentil soup Mike made for dinner. She smacked her lips after every bite! (It was so cute that I even pulled out the video function on my phone which, if you know me, is really saying something!)

Then tonight she refused to have anything to do with the lentil soup! Ah, Rose and her opinions. :)

But other than her lability regarding food preferences, she pretty consistently enjoys:
* standing
* "petting" the cats (aka ripping their fur out if they're silly enough to get within arm's reach of Little Miss)
* tapping objects together
* being a "milk monster" (this hasn't changed since day 1!)
* chewing on mommy's shoulder while standing
* pulling up to kneel by daddy's legs
* being in her stroller, especially for naps
* smiling at stranger in the mall, at Target, etc.
* splashing in the bathtub (she now knows this word and will splash on command!!!!)

We've also learned that she HATES loud noises (such as the bag of recycling being poured into the bin, or the sound of the vacuum). She also doesn't like when new people force themselves on her too quickly - she may like making smiley faces at you, but if you get too close too soon she will let out a howl!

This weekend Rose got to meet more great grandparents. They gave her plenty of time to warm up and she had a great time! (She also liked that Trula Anne shared her tater tots at lunch - Rose consistently loves tots!)

Rose is not so interested in crawling any more. Any time she tries, her knees lose traction on our slippery wood floors and she ends up further away from whatever she was trying to reach. Frustrating! So now she's decided to devote herself full time to learning how to stand. So far she has gotten proficient at pulling herself to kneeling.

Unfortunately, if she plops on her bottom from kneeling she gets really scared - so she either needs to be "rescued" after plopping or "rescued" from being stuck while kneeling.  You can tell she's so ready to be fully mobile, but she just hasn't quite figured it out yet. So along those lines we preemptively installed the baby gate that my parents gave us for Christmas. It's only a matter of time before we'll have to actually use it!

With that, I'll leave you with her "official" 37-week portrait. (I stayed up too late watching football on Saturday and watching Downton Abbey on Sunday, so this mama needs some rest!)  Hope you all have a great week!

P.S. I forgot to mention - Rose finally got her 6th tooth in this week! :)

Happy Saturday!

Resolutions

Maybe I should have put some more thought into my New Year's resolutions, but it just occurred to me today (Jan 2) that I should get on this. Oops. Well, here are some resolutions off the top of my head. Since they all came to me so quickly, I think that means I've already been thinking about them often and already working on incorporating them into my life. Here's to a peaceful and happy 2013!

1. Be present. Enjoy the moment - Rose will only be this age once, so slow down and enjoy her!

2. Eat better. More whole grains, start each dinner with a vegetable, use honey instead of sugar, tea instead of soda, and pick "happy" meats.

3. Move more. Get the treadmill fixed, once it's warmer take the long way home after picking Rose up at school, start running and/or walking regularly again, do more yoga.

4. Take care of myself.  Floss, use the neti pot, don't check work email at home, get together with friends on a regular basis, always be reading a good book, don't feel the need to finish a book I'm not enjoying, make time for hobbies (baking, quilting, etc.), spend less time on Facebook, get 8 hours of sleep (plus 30 minutes of reading) every night.



And now, your moments of zen:

Rose can pat the bunny!

practicing with utensils!

presents

Rose got so many cool gifts this year, as did Mike and I. So I'm only going to brag about one, which doesn't mean that I think any less of any of the other gifts that any of us received, but I just wanted to show off this one! (Sorry for the glare on the glass!)

It's an original pencil drawing replica of this photo! How cool is that?!? Thanks, Mary and Mike (Grandma Roles and Grandpa Fly) for the great gift that is now prominently displayed in our living room. And thank you to Grammy and Grandpa Jack, Ninja and PopPop, Trula Anne, Uncle Dave and Aunt Sara, Aunt Emily and Uncle Jason, Great Gramma Larson, MomMomMom and PopPopPop, Great Grandma and Grandpa Borho, and all the other friends and family who gave us fabulous presents! (Yes, we will still be sending thank you cards at some point, but at least you have this digital thank you to tide you over!)


And I'm also going to toot my own horn and brag about the presents we made for all the grandparents. You know the weekly photos we've been taking? We took each of the first six months and made them into coasters!

I got the idea off Pinterest. It turned out to be a really good project for both me and Mike, since making six sets took quite a lot of time and effort! I'm glad it truly was a gift from our whole family.


Finally, I thought I'd share just a couple more photos from the weekend.

Happy New Year! (It's nigh on 8pm, which means it must be bedtime for Steph!)

Happy New Year! (36 weeks)

My parents came to town for a belated Christmas / early New Year's celebration. It was so much fun!

Saturday we met up at cousin Janet's in the late afternoon and got to see Janet, Jeff, Kari, Maggie, and Annika. Rose enjoyed meeting her older cousins! Then we came back to our house for dinner, a gift, and a regular bedtime for Rose.

Rose started doing this really cute thing where she lifts up her arms ("so big!") then tilts her head to the side until we all start laughing and smiling. :)

Sunday we went swimming in the hotel pool, followed by an afternoon of present opening and then football watching.

"Finally, some green and gold!"

We also took her 36-week portraits that morning.

 

Sunday evening, my parents let me and Mike stay at their hotel room. It was my first ever night away from Rose! I think I did a great job, if I do say so myself. I enjoyed myself so much that Mike and I even went out for breakfast on Monday morning before we went home. What a treat!

The rest of Monday, Rose spent some quality time with her grandparents while I painted that bathroom and while Mike did a lot of chores around the house - he fixed our garage door, installed a new dimmer switch in the bathroom, and replaced our sink sprayer. And Rose did lots and lots of standing, rocking (still not crawling!), and playing. Yay!

  

New! (old)

 Mike made matching hats for me, Rose, and Ninja. Aren't they great? :)

 Then we topped off the evening with a fancy salmon dinner and the bottle of Sauternes that my parents gave me for Christmas. What a great weekend!

Thanks, Mom and Dad! And Happy New Year, everyone!!