conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

We got our internet and cable back late yesterday afternoon. It’s a highly technical repair that involves an unprotected coax cable running from two house down, across the construction site, and then up to our house. The backhoe is out running around today, so our hopes for seeing Lost tonight are very slim. I’m still suffering from the loss of my Biggest Loser fix.

I’ve been suffering through this cold from a week now, and every night seems to be worse — more stuffy nose, more coughing. Now I think the kids have it. Jim’s nose is runny, and Colin is taking an unheard of three-hour nap. Never has he napped this long. Although I know to wake him up all I have to do is turn the water on for my shower….

So, some construction accident next door took out our connection to the world — both the main cable line and the line to our house were severed, according to some nice guys out in the street who looked at it for me. All I saw was smashed things. So it will probably be days before we have TV AND Internet again. Dad is helping me out with this portable internet device for the duration. But as far the LOST premiere, we are probably hosed.

Needless to say, yesterday was quite tortuous, since I had just gone through deleting all the kids shows we’d already watched, to make sure we had room for our Tues-Wed-Thurs lineup of good (aka grown-up) TV. We’re stuck with two hours of WordGirl and the DVD player. But a paltry selection of kids’ DVDs, since they were scattered to the winds before we moved.

I had a post I was already to put up yesterday about steps. I took about five steps back in office organization Monday night, removing the old dining table so that the IKEA table could be built, only to find we don’t have all the parts we need for the IKEA table. Then I didn’t have the right size screwdriver to install the toggle bolts to mount the shelves. So now my office is strewn with more junk, and has less table space it.

But onto the steps forward — as in, Colin is up to about ten in a row before giving up. He walked across our bathroom last night. He is willing to walk on his own, but gives up quickly.

And I still haven’t found the camera battery charger, although last night I found my knitting supplies (but I have no where to keep them).

As soon as I get the cable I need for the video charger, I lose the charger for the digital camera. so I’m missing cute shots of Colin playing with his toys. He’s so independent, it makes his non-whiny times too easy.

Jim is selling chocolates for a school fundraiser between now and Feb 4th. It’s a paper form, nothing online, so email me if your interested.

It’s the much heralded baby entertainment device, and why it looked like a recycling bucket exploded in the back of my car for six months…

June 18, 2007

July 31, 2007

from July 2007:

July 31, 2007

I got the cable I needed to pull video off the new camera!

January 9, 2007

I picked up some puffs for Colin at the store yesterday. We haven’t had them in the house, mostly because I bought a monster box of cheerios for him, and also because Jim wanted to eat them all. With Jim obsessed about the pack of mini cereal boxes I got him, I figured we could retry the puffs.

Within 18 hours, more than half of them are gone. We had snack together yesterday, and as soon as he finished the portion I gave him, he would whine and moan liked a trapped animal to get more. This boy loves his food.

In a move that made me happier but poorer, I finally gave in and replaced Colin’s leaky sippy cups with real ones. If you don’t know, there’s a huge dust-up in the mommy world about all the plastic baby bottles and cups that are made with BPA, a potential cancer causing compound that can leach into food and drink. Without being alarmist, it turns out that most plastic food packaging (that I’ve come across) is made with this questionable compound. I’m not an expert, but the number in the recycling symbol is a clue (with 4, 5, 1, and 2 being the safer choices).

So of course, all the sippy cups that we have leftover from Jim are in the questionable category. To replace these, the only affordable and available option was the Take N Toss cups. This are meant for exactly that — no screw on lids, no anti-leak valve. But cheap, and readily available. So Colin leaned to drink from these. And I learned to clean up spill after spill after leak after leak after spill. You get the idea. They leaked from the spout, they leaked from the lid seal, and once in a while, with a good drop, Colin could dislodge the whole lid.

So, I check reviews, and found the best anti-leak, baby-type sippy cups. When I ordering them, I remembered I tried to get them a few months ago, but Amazon was sold out. But I got these frog Drugstore with free shipping, so it was good. So now I’ve gained twenty minutes back in my life.

Other moves that we made to fight the plastic? To Jim’s chagrin, no more Lunchables — the meat sits right on the package, and that just bothered me. I’ve stocked up on a variety of aluminum sports bottles (Nalgene is apparently iffy as well). None of the plastics we use for drinking go in the dishwasher. And I’m replacing my plastic storage containers with glass. Also, I reheat food in glass instead of plastic.

I’m awfully wordy lately. See what free time gets you? Last night I finished the first little girl apron, and I’m very happy with how it came out. Pics on saturday after they’ve been gifted.

So, last week I found out I have inherited my family’s tendency towards high cholesterol. There’s that tendency, plus the list of foods the doctor told me to cut down on? Well, that’s been the makeup of my pregnancy/post-pregnancy/feed the kids diet for the past three years: eggs, cheese, red meat, fried food.

So, it’s high, and my LDL is also high, but the doctor thinks we can change it with diet. Since this is the family of the future, I downloaded some software to track my intake of fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol, and found out what my intake of these should be, to reduce my cholesterol numbers.

So, of course I have put in in my height and weight into the software to calculate my caloric intake, and I’m told that I need to lose weight (duh?). So this is a new diet on many levels. Family now have an added challenge of either offering a low-fat option for me along with what the family eats or sometimes having a new low-fat meal. So for Colin’s birthday dinner, I made chicken cacciatore (not an authentic recipe, for sure) to go along with the lasagne that everyone else got to eat. Last night it was chicken stir-fry, and the night before was pot roast, but I only had one piece of roast. The good thing is that with all this cooking, there’s leftovers for lunch.

It’s kind of like being on Weight Watchers, but less strict. I’m not limiting my calories as much as if I were trying to “diet”, because I’m still nursing. But I also think that I’ll be able to cut down on calories as my appetite decreases. I’m already having an easier time today.

In the the “nothing much but” category… With all the cooking, there’s more veggie preparation too. Last night I cut my finger making the veggies for the stir fry. It hurts like crazy, and the cut is right where I rest the needle on my finger when knitting. So, I have to stop knitting on Jim’s sweater for now. Which bugs me because it’s so close to being done — just the neckline and seaming.

So, with no knitting, I picked up a sewing project. Which means cleaning up my office first. I got that done (amazingly), and I’m working on some aprons for two little girlfriends of Jim’s, and maybe one for me, too.

Weight: 22# 14 (50 percentile)
Height: 31 3/4″ (90-95 percentile)

So, Colin is all good. His cold that he’s had since last week is just a cold; no ears, lungs or throat involved, so he got his shots. He’s ready for cow’s milk, but doesn’t seem to like it much. Since he never really took to a bottle and drinks from a cup, we’re on track there.

Colin has moved from standing to actually taking one step before crouching down to crawl again.

He’s not sleeping as well as he was a few days ago, but he’s sick, so that could be a factor.

I picked up a set of bowls that have a suction cup bottom, so that Colin can try feeding himself. He’s working on some banana peach oatmeal right now, and pictures will follow. He’s a right mess.

Getting started:

Likes it:

REALLY likes it:

Let’s just shove the whole thing in at once:

More please!:

Then:

Now:

For his first birthday, Colin and his mommy got colds. So, the celebration was low-key to non-existent, keeping in mind that a family dinner is planned for tonight. He got some cookies as a treat after dinner.

However, Colin did give mommy the gift of five hours of uninterrupted sleep — he slept from 12.30a to 6.00a this morning. A new record! The extended naps seem to be helping.

There’s a bunch more photos up of Colin’s big brother in the January album, from Thursday’s visit to our new playground. Walking distance! Without the traffic!

means that sometimes you have to get up and move him from in front of the cable box, so that you can stop the fast forward.

Colin has moved on from furniture surfing (well, there’s still lots of that) and is now standing for extended bits of time. So, I’m saying he’ll be walking in a month.

If I ever get this video stuff figured out, I finally got video of his baby dance. Where Jim did the twist, Colin bounces.

This week marks our first attempt at ROUTINE. Something that we never got a chance to try in say, the last year. Colin has set naptimes now (9.30 and 2.30), and sometimes sleeps longer than 45 minutes (a real baby nap should be at least an hour). I’m also working on getting him to go to sleep better by himself. He still nurses, but I wake him up if he falls asleep, and then read him his story and sing him songs, and then put him in his crib and rub his back for awhile. Sometimes it gets him to sleep, and sometimes it is just enough to get him relaxed enough so that I can leave his room without screaming fits of hysteria.

Without the holidays, we aren’t running around like crazy, and it’s helped get some of the crazy out of the house. We’ve even had chances to do a little more improving. Not much, but yesterday I got a shade hung, and today I put together the stools for the kitchen island. With the counter clean, the boys and I have a place for lunch.