07.28.03

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Posted in Uncategorized at 3:11 pm by Anne

Over the weekend, Shan had an old middle school chum and his pregnant wife over. She will probaly deliver in the next few weeks and due to her physical state, there wasn’t a lot we could all do together. Dinner and a movie had been planned and I had baked a blueberry pie early that morning for dessert. Unfortunately, movie times were not working out and to sum: I was forced to endure the hellish and poorly written debacle known to the pseudo-civilized world as ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’.

Oh. My. God.

It was easily THE worst cinematic misadventure I have seen all year. The storyline was so preposterous, Sean Connery (who helped produce it, I think) could not come to its rescue, and with insulting references to various literary characters (so abominable I felt weak with disbelief, how could they do such a thing with so many would-be sly winking…ugh), and to cap it off, the title…gentlemen…what, the lone woman who was invited to join the group does not count? A girl in the group we saw it with claimed that women, back in the day, were referred to as gentlemen…lumped in with the men…but I have trouble believing that seemingly facetious (sp?) statement. So tell me…Gentlemen (HAH I say), have you ever heard of a lady being referred to as a gentleman? I consulted the unabridged dictionary in the house and every single definition therein consisted of a nod to the masculine in one way or another and never to the feminine. Not far down the page, though was the term ‘gentlewoman’..imagine that. I think this is just another example of how misinformation or pure propaganda gets started…when someone makes an off-handed statement of fact and those listening just turn off the BS-o-meter and commit it to memory. A good friend of mine later pointed out that (Get ready for a spoiler) because the woman character, Mina, was a vampire, gender does not apply to her. “as a vampire, Mina, though retaining her feminine attributes, in my opinion, is no longer properly a female human creature, but a creature of the night not at all interested in the creation of life, sexless and the opposite of gentle but cruel. ” So okay, that explanation works for me but I still cannot ever reccommend this movie. It was just awful.

Now. About the pie. You all know I thoroughly enjoy baking good things to eat and because Shan is partial to blueberry pie and because we’d be left with the leftovers, I decided to make one. The last time these people had come up( they live in fort worth), I had concocted an apple-cranberry pie (it was wintertime and I distinctly remember blogging about that!) and their reaction was to pick out the cranberries and leave them on the plate, like so many tasteless red marbles( photos of that pie here. At the time, I thought, fine…they don’t like cranberries, they don’t have to eat cranberries. Why do I care but you know, part of being an adult is trying new things and not being an a-hole, even if it part of your nature…especially with someone you don’t really know very well (i.e. me). But this is not the story, I have digressed to an entirely different subject please excuse me. Anyway, so I made the most wonderful blueberry pie I have ever made, increasing the amount of sugar and decreasing the amount of lemon zest and juice since most people (myself not included) tend to not enjoy the higher acidity which lemon naturally lends to the dish. The top crust was gorgeous. First problem: The heating element in myoven seemed to be flaking out on me. It was set to 425 F but the interior thermometer showed a discrepancy of about 200 degrees, registering a top temp of, well, 250 F. So I decided to load everything up (with Lily in tow) and drive to my father-in-law’s to use their oven. He has two ovens, surely this wouldn’t be a problem. And it wasn’t. The two of us finagled the timer, set it for 45 minutes. and I went back home. An hour later, he called to let me know there was a problem. While we had noodled with the timer, the oven had inadvertently been turned off. No problem. he removed the pies, re-set the timer and temp, and put the pies back in. I was not worried about it. We,the group, came back by Grandpa’s house a few hours later, pulled out the pie, dropped off Lily again, drove to the awful movie, sat through a few hours of bad cinema, picked up Lily and the pie (which by now was absolutely stunning and could have made it into the pie hall of fame based on sheer good looks and olfaction), drove back home, dropped off said pie, and drove off to supper. Dinner was great, we chatted, the only thing that would have been better is if I had ordered some wine but the lady was pregnant and he didn’t drink and I wasn’t inthe mood to field any questions about drinking and nursing Lily and blablabla..so I endured a few additional hours of borderline tedious conversation, all the while fantasizing about the pie, when the waitress, invariably asked if we wanted dessert. Shan replied, no that we had blueberry pie waiting, but thank you just the same, right before she rattled off a few of the house specialties…lemon, coconut, etc…I have had their pie before and found them unremarkable. It’s just difficult for me to get excited about store-bought crust. But then it happened. The man, we were with, piped up that he would like a slice of lemon. His wife interjected, ‘Scott, there is blueberry at home.’ He pressed the issue but not before I leapt in, “You know, if you want lemon pie, get a slice, we’ll take it home and we’ll all have dessert together! No problem here.” Then he suggested, “or, I could just order a piece now, eat it here, and then have pie at the house.’ Fine. I was in no mood to argue. So he got the pie. Shan got a cup of coffee. To make a long story short, by the time we got home, everyone was too full for pie.

Petty yes. but still, insulting. incidentally, the blueberry pie is the best I have ever made. Tender flakey, buttery crust enclosing a startlingly good ratio of blueberry to lemon to sugar…simple yet elegant in its distinct simplicity. Yes, it’s that good. Next time I’ll defrost some sara lee for him, he won’t know the difference.

Nobody doesn’t like sara lee, I’ve heard.

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07.23.03

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Posted in Uncategorized at 12:41 pm by Anne

let’s see.

I got a ton of work in yesterday and stayed up late working. At one point Shan was looking after the baby and I suggested he feed her. For some reason he always tries to get out of it. “Im not very good at it.” blablabla…I told him one get’s good through practice, which was a mild fig since I don’t really believe one can get better at such a thing. Yes it is messy, yes it takes time, yesyesyes but I more or less made him do it when I never moved from the desk after informing him of the baby smorgasboard of pureed fruits all ready and raring to go in the fridge.
A short time later I heard him talking with her from the bathtub and he called out, “Come look at your daughter.” I braced myself and went in to discover my poor little miss nearly covered in what appeared to be peaches. It was all over her collar and sternum area and there was so much of it seemed like Shan had just dumped it on her. She was beaming at me. “And so how much actually went into her mouth?” I asked innocently? I think he was hoping this would be a lesson to me, that I’d never want him to have anything to do with feeding her again. Too bad for him. I don’t care how many stained outfits she acquires, that man is going to be a feeding machine when we are through with him.

Curently, that little jumper from yesterday is soaking in a sink of cold water. What a freak, I keep a pile of fresh bibs right by her highchair, how difficult would that have been? sheesh.

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07.22.03

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Posted in Uncategorized at 9:44 am by Anne

This morning I made two separate components for her breakfast. The first, a plate of mashed banana, the second, a rammekin of plain yogurt. I assured her that she would like the combination, like peanut butter goes with chocolate, but she failed to get my meaning. Lately, eating has been messy business as she becomes sidetracked with looking out the window at trees and plants blowing in the wind or at darwin, who always makes an appearance or two during feeding time in hopes, no doubt of catching a stray morsel for herself. Lily looks at Darwin and smiles, makes grabbing motions at her hairy black head, and pretty much behaves like an enamored pre-adolescent. It’s very sweet but I don’t think Darwin is impressed. Lily is one thing to her, and other than a usurper, she is an obnoxious one at that.

To combat the on-again-off-again interest in eating, I hold the spoon in one hand and in the other, the oversizedcolorfulsetofplasticnoveltykeys that clack together and occasionally bring the little one back to the task at hand. I need some new tricks.

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07.16.03

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Posted in Uncategorized at 6:03 pm by Anne

It worked! Yay baby! I am hoping we are well back onto the straight and narrow road of sleeping through the night.

Man. She crankily cried a little right around midnight for 10 minutes or so and then fell back into dreamland. I woke up at 7:20 this morning with the thought, “Where’s baby!” and went into the nursery to wake her up.

lovelovelove.

Today we went to the gym, the office, lunch with a friend, and then visited with Lily’s cousins for a good many hours. They are 6 and 3 and just love playing with her and watching her and talking to her and she is very interested in them. It’s just plain cute. Please cross your fingers about the film I shot, I’m hoping against hope that this roll turns out.

Dinnertime, I think we’re having mexican. yeehaw.

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07.15.03

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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:25 pm by Anne

6 month Well baby Exam and Lily passed with flying colors. She is a whopping 16 lbs, 12 ounces and about 25 1/2 inches tall. Her growth curve is almost perfectly average, not big nor small for her age. I’m not worried about it. At 5′8″ I tower over my petite mother and Shan’s too. Whichever, short or tall, she is my precious gem. Unfortunately for her, though, she got three more shots in the leg which left her howling and unfortunately for me, her father didn’t come to this appointment so it was all up to me to try and comfort the little miss. And you know, it wasn’t do bad after all. She even smiled a the nurse after I picked her right up following the shots. That’s a girl. For a little reward, I took her shopping. hah. Last week I had gotten a hamilton beach hand blender from target for about 20 dollars. After getting it home and trying it out, I decided that maybe I should have waited to get a Cuisinart hand blender…so that was one of the things I got today. When I got home, I gave the blender a little spin, pureeing a peach and some blueberries for the misses lunch. With yogurt. A baby smoothie of sorts. Well, the cuisinart did a terrible job. It was larger, heavier, and more expensive then the hamilton beach. To compare, I took out the first one (it was cleaned and ready to be returned to target) and got all the components together for an identical test. And it totally outperformed the more expensive one. Who would have thought! Less money, smaller, more powerful. So we returned the cuisinart and I am happy as a clam.

Then, while still at the store, Gramma called to see if Lily could come over and play this afternoon. Could she ever! Shan and I dropped her off and booked it to the 1:30 showing of Pirates of the Caribbean and I absolutely ADORED it. Oh my god. Johnny Depp is so perfect. So very perfect. Yow. It was HI-larious and entertaining and filled with gorgeous shots…some of the fighting scenes were a little longer than I like but it was just exactly what I needed to see. When’s the last time you saw a pirate movie? Well that’s too long! And this was so engaging. I totally have to see it again.

now I am going to sleep. Dr. said Lily is old enough to sleep thru the night and if she goes to sleep at 9PM to just let her cry when she wakes up at midnight. We’ll see. I am feeling maternally sympathetic for her shots today. Maybe we’ll start the torture treatment tomorrow night. Also, we aren’t even supposed to go in the room when she wakes up at midnight, not to soothe her or talk to her, but to let her cry for at least 20 minutes. This could be miserable.

more later.

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07.10.03

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Posted in Uncategorized at 1:28 pm by Anne

54 samples today and half of thenm 24 hour Rush. Thankfully Shan’s GP’s are coming over for a few hours this afternoon. Meanwhile, Lily is sitting in her saladspinner talking and grabbing and sticking her fingers in her mouth. Good baby!

Last night we spent without Shan. He drove to Houston to be with his cousin who had been rushed to the hospital for a kidney problem. She is doing better today and if she continues to improve, he’ll be home by tonight in time to pick up our friend at the airport in Dallas! I thought it would be clever and fun to have Lily sleep in bed with me but I was wrong. In fact, she did go to sleep by 10 but she tossed and turned so much (She’s not used to the mattress I guess) that by 1AM I moved her to the crib so that I could get some shuteye.

2 poops already today. I am thinking about adding prunes every 3 days or so…anything more than that and I think it’ll be too much.

ack. Lunchtime!

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07.09.03

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Posted in Uncategorized at 12:18 pm by Anne

More news on the poop front.

Lily hadn’t pooped since the aforementioned saturday morning, and I called the pediatrician yesterday. She said that unless baby is acting constipated (crying, uncomfortable, etc) then not to be concerned until a total of 5 full days of no poo has passed. She also told me I could start giving her more fibrous foods, including prunes. “Babies seem to like prunes.” So I went to the store and got prunes and fresh plums, and you know what? Lily loves prunes! I just mashed up the slimy bastards and fed them to her with a sippeecup of water and down the hatch. This morning I was rewarded with a nice little poop. What a good baby!

Then I got ready for the gym. She dozed on the drive there and of course her little eyes snapped open the moment we got to the daycare room. There were two new teenaged girls this time and a lot fewer kids ambling about, I thought no sweat. Lily has always been a good baby. Well. After neartly finishing a halfhour on the elliptical deal, one of the girls walked out holding an obviously tearstained Lily replete with a puffy red face. She had been at it for the 10 minute time limit so unfortunately I loaded her up and drove back home. I still need to work on my arms and I may pull out the dumbells or maybe, just maybe Ill get to work in the front flowerbeds. I’m afraid the roses need tons of attention and Lily is sleeping…for now.

Poor little miss.

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07.06.03

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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:07 pm by Anne

So you may be wondering how the little miss has been changing lately. Well, firstly, for the past few weeks, she has taken a step backward in the ’sleeping thru the night’ category. For a good while it seemed liuke she was making a good 7 hour chunk of sleep once we put her down but lately, I am lucky if she sleeps for 5-6 hours, and I mean lucky. Whenever we sleep someplace else, like the lakehouse for example, the sleeping routine goes to pot. Last night, I am sorry to report, she woke me up every three hours, like clockwork. I could have set my watch to her. To make matters worse, she was crabby (no wonder) a couple times and after nursing, commenced wailing. One time I got her back to sleep and the other, her Dad.

Another big deal is the whole solid food milestone. For a few weeks now, the routine is right before bedtime, she gets about 3/8 cup of mashed banana plus oatmeal plus formula. She doesn’t like formula by itself, or the cereal by itself, but all together, she loves. I am going to introduce a vegetable of some kind starting tomorrow. Carrots? Squash? Spinach? Who knows. It’ll be fresh, though. I am holding off on the purchase of jarred babyfood since I don’t believe it’s near as good as homemade. And how hard is it to cook a little bit of vegetable anyway? Come on!

Now comes the poop. You know, when she was born, all the books (and people too) talked about how baby poop has no smell and isn’t it wonderful blablabla. From the beginning I thought baby poop not only looked gross but smelled gross too. Now that the little miss is off the total liquid diet, we have entered into a new realm of poo. and this poo stinks. I mean, yeah, it is way more stinky that previous baby poo. I suppose it’s all very relative. Also, the new baby business is a lot more solid. This makes for no more baby blowouts. (knock on wood) At least so far. Over the weekend Shan got to her before me one morning, noticed a poo smell and got to changing her diaper. He rushed into the kitchen with a grinning baby girl and exclaimed, “Oh man, her poop was the size of my fist!” And ever since then, I can’t get the image out of my head. That’s a lot of poop!

Finally, 3 months ago, I never thought it possible that I could love her any more than I do so maybe I don’t. Maybe I am at full capacity and blowing ahead with this tremendous love but every day, she is so very exciting. I am getting to know her, her squeals, laughs, how those huge blue eyes can become so serious when she looks at me…it is just incredible, and so much fun. Last night, even though I was tired, at one point as I tried to get back to sleep, I actually missed her and had to remind myself that she’d be waking me up in another hour or so. This is why people have more than one child. It’s just the best watching this little person experiment with life but long before she can talk back or give you the finger. Everything that had happened in my life up until recently, the good and the bad, were entirely necessary so that I could have this little Lily to appreciate and lovelovelove. I used to feel that way about my husband and of course I still do, but good lord. Being a mother is the greatest of all pleasures.

And that’s it for the oozing. It had been awhile.

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