Food

Hello all!!!

Yes, it is the new year and I am back to feeling bloggy again.  It's been almost a full month since I have felt the need to write down my thoughts and today was a day that I really missed being here.

Of course, once I have downloaded the hundreds of pictures I have on my camera to the computer (being 34 weeks pregnant makes you not only forgetful, but tired as well, so my camera has also been neglected) I will show you all the fun we had over Christmas break.  Evan's parents came to visit along with Kyle and her boys. Their first time visiting us in our new home in Texas!!!

Recently, I told Evan that I wanted to get rid of all the sweenters in our house.  I've been slowly trying to get us to be more mindful of the food we eat and what we have in the house.  A year or so ago, I banned all HFCS and dyes from the house.  This meant saying good bye to some beloved cereals and snacks, but the dyes were really hurting Julia's stomach and I've just never been able to get over how HFCS is made.  So, my family begrudgingly agreed and, low and behold, it turns out that Evan started feeling better when dyes were taken out of his diet too.  Then, I started trying to buy foods that had ingredients we could read, pronounce, and recognize.  That's been harder since processed food is so easily attainable.  I also said I didn't want to use sweetner anymore in our coffee.  Turns out, that was one of the biggest changes we noticed.  Dude, sweenter is gross.

But, throughout all our changes, we've still been keeping cases of soda in the house.  I don't remember what I read or where I read it, but a couple of months ago I was inspired to wean us off of soda.  All soda.  I know that I was drinking about 2 a day and at my worst (when I was teaching) sometimes 4 a day.  Granted, it was Diet Coke, so there were no calories, but that is a lot of chemicals and crap that I was inhaling.  I've given up soda every now and then (for Lent or a diet or to try to build up my self control), but it's always creeped back into my diet.

Growing up, we never had soda in the house. My dad kept diet soda in a refrigerator in the garage, but we rarely drank any.  We'd get sodas sometimes at restaurants, but it was never a daily staple of our diets.  As I got older (probably around high school) I started drinking soda almost daily at school. By college, I was completely addicted to Diet Coke. Probably not an addiction my body has ever appreciated.

So, when I approached Evan about not buying soda anymore, he said no.  He only drank one or two sodas a day and didn't feel it was that big of a deal.  I told him that I would like to try to replace it with sparkling water (like La Crouix) and just see how it goes. Once again, he begrudgingly said he would test it out.  I bought a few flavors of the water and was surprised by how much cheaper buying a 12 pack of the water was compared to buying a 12 pack of any soda.  Maybe saving money would bring a positive spin to getting rid of soda.

Turns out, the water is good.  It took some getting used to since the water is not near as sweet as soda, but we've ended up really liking it.  And, Evan's noticed he doesn't feel as bloated and is feeling better not having soda daily.  I also found sodas with real ingredients at a local store, so we are using those as treats as soda should be.

Since we omitted diet soda from our house (which was around Thanksgiving time!), I haven't really missed it.  I've had 2 Diet Cokes, one consciously and one I ordered out of habit.  Otherwise, we've been drinking water (normal and sparkling), iced tea and orange juice.  Well, I've been drinking orange juice like it's my job, but that's just been the current craving.

Last night I started reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (gifted to me last Christmas by my lovely friend, Melissa!) and it's the story of her family's journey to eat better.  Kingsolver's fabulous narrative voice tells you how they decided to grow more of their own foods on their small piece of land in the Appalachians and to buy more locally.  I am still in the beginning of the book, but am loving it so far.  I'm hoping to start buying locally here too, especially since we live in Texas and farmers' markets are open year round.

I'm excited!  I know that I am a lover of food and cooking, which does make me more interested in food in general, but I love the idea that I am setting up my kids with a sense of eating healthy.

I apparently love Santa.

I am almost done Christmas shopping. I have a few presents to buy, wrap and mail for my family in Illinois and a couple of Santa gifts and stocking stuffers to get the girls, but otherwise, I'm pretty much done. And, I would like to thank the internets for being such a fabulous place to purchase gifts.  I hate shopping and I have had to do very little of it in actual stores this year.  :)

 Oh, and I need to tell you my GENIUS idea this year.  Instead of dragging up the wrapping paper and box of bows, tape, gift tags, etc.every time I need to wrap something, I got smart.  I set up a wrapping station in my basement.  I put up the card table, set up all the wrapping essentials, and as presents are purchased or arrive in the mail to be wrapped, I just bring them straight downstairs and wrap presents while I'm downstairs doing laundry.  GENIUS! I tells ya!!!  I don't have to wait for the girls to go to bed or stare at the mess of wrapping things because I don't want to haul it up and down stairs all the time!  Best idea ever.

 I am reading a fabulous book called Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham. It's about the friendship of FDR and Churchill (duh) and it is well written and has my complete attention (which is hard to do when I am growing a human in my belly). I am sad that I won't be hitting my goal of reading 100 books this year.  I'm only at 68. But, like I said, when I'm pregnant, I just can not concentrate on books long.  I have started and put down numerous books that I just can't get into that I guarantee, once this baby has evacuated the premises, I will be able to try to read again and be fine.  It's so annoying how pregnancy just saps the brain cells from your head.

 This weekend, we are taking the girls to Sea World.  We have one in San Antonio, and the girls have been begging to go, but I did not want to pay good money to go when I'm pregnant and slow as molasses and need frequent breaks to sit and try to breath and whine about how slow and waddle-y I am.  But, I found a coupon for military members for a free day pass, so we printed it out and are taking the girls on Saturday. They don't know yet.  :)  For zero dollars, I don't mind being slow and waddle-y.  Plus, Julia is in love with The Polar Express (which, we have the movie but not the book...so unlike me!  So, she's getting the book for Christmas :) and they have a Polar Express 4-D show at Sea World we're going to go see.  She's going to be beyond excited. Then, once this baby is out and the weather is warm, we'll buy passes for next year.  They have a fabulous water park that everyone keeps ranting and raving about, so I definitely want to be able to take the girls this summer when we can.

 While looking around my holiday decorated home, I realize that I super like Santas. I have a lot of him.  Not just any Santas, mind you, but unique one.  This is my ultimate favorite Santa:

 He's the one on the upper left.  I bought him when we lived in DeKalb and I named him Fat Santa.  Every year, I make the girls come and ooh and ahh over how beautiful he is and make my annual speech about how they can not touch him because he is breakable and if he breaks I will cry like a baby.  Last year, I bought Elisabeth the Santa in the lower right corner.  He is a plastic Fat Santa that she can touch and put on the tree (because she loves my Fat Santa so much, she has asked for him when I die...which is not the first time she's tried calling dibs on things of mine after I croak).  She put him right next to my ornament, which I found cute.

Oh, and my lovely friend Kim bought me this cookie jar last year:

Omg, I love him.  He is still sold at Target and when we go, Julia says, "Oh, look, there's your Happy Santa!".

Well, I have deemed it a baking kind of day. I have a list of Christmas cookies that "need" to be made and I have totally been slacking on it this year.  I mean, it's December 7th and I just made my first batch last night! I know!  I am a slacker.

Colorado visitors.

The weather here lately has been to-die-for lovely.  Highs in the upper 60s and low 70s.  Some rain, but mostly sunny and awesome.  It's hard to remember we're in December because it's just not cold. We have needed jackets, and in the mornings when it's in the low 50s, Elisabeth does need a coat to walk to the bus stop, but otherwise it's just nice, fall weather. Plus, flowers are still blooming and thriving here!

 But, it is Christmas time, which is what we saw when our friends Kim and Chris came to visit us Thanksgiving week.  This is the tree in front of the Alamo:

 and true to Texas form, there are only ornaments of all things Texas--the state shape, the lone star, cowboy boots, etc. Not even one ornament on it that doesn't scream "WE ARE TEXANS!".

Elisabeth was so excited to have Kayleigh stay with us.  It was funny, because the minute Kayleigh walked in the door, those two went invisible.  They played and hung out and half the time we forgot they were even in the house.

 Since it was their first time visiting San Antonio (and Texas, for that matter), we had to take them to see The Alamo.

 Because it was not almost 100 degrees, we explored more of the gardens around The Alamo, which was gorgeous.  Evan, the girls, and I got to see things we hadn't on our first trip.

 Someone tell me what this plant/tree/fruit is:

 Cause i have no idea!!

We also walked to a little shopping district called La Villita National Historic District.  Honestly, it wasn't much to look at.  Yes, there were some small, weird shops, but nothing where I feel like we need to go and visit again.  We did happen to find an old church in the district though.  I insisted on going in to take pictures.

Called "The Little Church", it was built in 1879.

Then we walked down The Riverwalk back to our car.  The Riverwalk is something that everyone who has ever visited San Antonio has told us "you have to go to The Riverwalk!", but, honestly, we don't see what the big deal is. We've walked down the part where there's restaurants and where it leads to the mall, but...it kind of sucks.  I'm not going to go visit a million restaurants in one day and I'm certainly not going to go to the mall all the time (omg, I hate malls).  But, when Kim and Chris were here, we found a different part of The Riverwalk we hadn't seen and I liked it much, much more.  No restaurants and swarms of tourists.  No mall and stupid shops.  It was quiet and very pretty.

These are tree roots!  How creepy/cool are they?:

I told Evan maybe we should walk more of The Riverwalk (past all the commercial parts) and we might find what all the hype is about, because that small part we walked was pleasant.

Kim and Chris were here for Thanksgiving.  Since we'd already had a traditional Thanksgiving when my parents came to visit, we all decided to just have a Chinese take-out feast.  We had a big order.

It was awesome.  It was relaxed and yummy and the clean up was super simple.  I would not be opposed to more Thanksgivings like that one.

Don't worry, I totally still made a pie...a pumpkin pecan pie.  It was yummy.

All too soon, Kim, Chris and Kayleigh had to go back to Colorado.  The girls were sad, but we've already made plans for more visits (including us going to visit them in Colorado in June!).

I love haivng friends that are family.

Solitude.

Saturday morning, I woke up feeling grumpy.  Never mind that it was my sleep in day and I slept until 9:30.  Never mind that Evan and the girls were in a fabulous mood.  I was a big, fat, pregnant crab.  I wanted to wake up in a small apartment that only housed me, where I didn't have to talk or interact in anyway with anyone.

Ever have those days?

 Thankfully, my family did not take it personally.  They gave me some space and went about their (annoyingly) jolly ways. It really wasn't personal, but some days I just long for solitude.  I long to be in my own little bubble where I have no one depending on me, monopolizing my time, expecting anything from me. On those days, I would stay in bed as long as I liked.  I'd wander into the kitchen and make 2 eggs over medium with an english muffin lathered in butter.  I would curl up on the couch, cover myself in blankets and lose myself in a book.  I'd have a hot cup of never ending coffee at my disposal, followed by endless glasses of Evan's sweet tea when I was done drinking coffee.  I'd probably watching mindless tv while crocheting beautiful scarves and afghans. I'd take a nap and start all over again, never having had to talk to anyone in real life or on the phone. I'd take a walk (cause my pregnant body would not be tired or swollen) and then go to bed early.  That is my ideal isolation day.. Saturday was one of those days.

 But, for every one of those isolation days I long for, I am given a day filled with silliness and giggles; questions and bickering; random hugs and a few stolen kisses; exasperation at ears that won't listen and a feeling of overflowing love at a glance of two sisters getting along in a loving manner; small kicks and pushes from the newest of our babies growing in my belly.

As I was reminded quite recently (after complaining about a certain 3 year old who must have tabs on my whereabouts at all times) by someone who used to have a little boy who was most demanding in the attention department, I will miss all this someday.  I will soon have teenagers instead of small children.  And even those teenagers won't be sticking around long before I will have grown up children.  I hear that happens much faster than I can imagine.

So, I shall take these days of overwhelming madness and try to appreciate them (though I know full well, I probably won't the majority of the time). I will try to minimize my need to hermit away because some day I will have plenty of hermit days...and I will probably long for small giggles and little hands that instinctively reach for mine.

It's hard being a Juju.

Julia has been exploding into a preschooler lately. 

She has an insatiable appetite for letters and numbers.  She is constantly asking me what different letters are, making me trace my finger along the words while I read, helping her count past 20, and insisting on me writing the numbers and ABCs so she can trace them.

Her verbal language is expanding too. She is figuring out more words and better sentence structure, but that makes her stutter as she tries to say the words in her head outloud.  When she stutters, it totally breaks my heart.  Yes, I know it is totally age appropriate.  Yes, I do realize that just this past spring break she was a stuttering fool when she was bursting with new words and that the stuttering went away once she had it mastered.  Yes, my mother-in-law is a speech pathologist and at my disposal for any questions or concerns (she is not concerned by any means).  But, that doesn't mean that listening to her stumble over her words is not the most heart wrenching thing to listen to.  I have had to tell Elisabeth that we don't interrupt her or try to finish her sentences for her; mainly because that pisses Julia off to no end and usually causes a full blown tantrum, but also because she needs to be able to figure it out without pressure.

And, as with every developmental growth, Julia has been a bear to deal with. Julia has also been determined to do things on her own.  She gets herself dressed and undressed.  She uses her stool to try to reach what she can so she doesn't have to ask for help.  She is furious (FURIOUS) if you at all try to do something for her when she is determined to do it solo.  And her temper?  Boy howdy, that girl is a tiny volcano.  We have really had to scramble to figure out ways to deal with her outbursts. Obviously, hitting or kicking are not allowed, but when she's mad, she needs to physically let it out (unlike our Ebeth who either needs to talk/cry it out or pouts somewhat quietly).  So, we've been letting her leave the room/table/area where her anger started and do her own thing until she can calmly come back and be human again.  Sometimes, when she has decided to throw/slam/destroy things in her anger, we give her the option of going to her room to chill out by herself or with our help.  Honestly, she usually asks us to come with.  Once she's in her room, she snuggles into her bed and we read books or cuddle or she cries until she can talk about why she's so mad.  She is much more of a "3 year old" than Elisabeth ever was. As I've said a million bajillion times, they are so opposite of each other.

Julia's definitely on her way to being her own independent person, even if she does need to have me in her line of vision at all times.

I am most curious to see how she will do when this new baby I am growing in my belly joins the outside world.

Why I am thankful we kept our stupid cats.

Our cats were an impulse buy in June of 2009.  We'd always promised Elisabeth that we would get cats when we moved into a house instead of our apartment.  Evan and I had both grown up with cats and enjoyed them over dogs.  So, one day, while out and about exploring Colorado Springs, we decided to stop at a Petsmart and see the cats there. We ended up leaving with a 1.5 year old male Tabby cat that we named Roosevelt and a 4 month old gray and white kitten we named Figaro.

Now, I am sure that for those of you who own pets, I don't need to state the obvious; that taking care of pets is much more time consuming than being a child whose parents take care of pets.  Yeah...we know that now.  Honestly, after the first couple of months, we were tempted to give them back.  They both had their claws, so they were scratching the crap out of our furniture.  We weren't sure how'd they do being left alone in the house at night, so we shut them in the basement every night, which led to them climbing the insulated walls and tearing them to shreds.  I didn't realize that cats could be so picky about when their litter needs changed or that they'd find new places to pee if they felt there was no more room in their litter box.  We also  found out that Roosevelt prefers to be outside about 75% of the day, which we were unsure about since he tended to hop the fence and wander the neighborhood.

But, the thing that has kept us from every getting rid of the cats (who still claw the furniture and meow at our door at night to be let in so they can sleep at our feet) is that they are so good with our kids. Actually, they are good with almost everyone's kids, because now that we live in Texas and have no fence, they wander around our yard and everyone else's yards.  Roosevelt is a total pet junkie and will roll onto his back for belly rubs the minute any one comes over to say hi to him.

 He is kind of camouflaged here (he's at the base of the tree that Julia is climbing):

 but Roosevelt follows Julia around like a puppy.  They honestly play tag together outside.  It is hilarious to watch.  He lets her pick him up and carry him around willy nilly and never fights or tries to get away.

 He even lets her jump with him on our little trampoline.

 He is friendly and playful and is Julia's buddy.  He likes to be in the middle of everyone and the neighborhood kids love it when they see him outside.  Of course, they all flip the eff out when he scales the trees, but I think I have convinced them all that he is just fine because, you know...he's a cat.  They do that kind of thing.

 As for this massive cat:

he's not near as friendly and bold, but he is also very good with the kids. If they can catch him, he goes limp in their arms and allows them to carry him around (which is hard for Juju because he is "sooo heavy").  Plus, he and Roosevelt are very much best friends for life.  They snuggle and are usually always hanging out together.  I mean look at them:

That is true cat love people.  How could we ever separate them?

Preschool

Julia will be 4 in June.  We've always planned on her going to preschool at 4 because...well, because we think she'd love it.  Plus I'm an advocate of preschool (um, I have taught it for goodness sakes) and know the benefits of being apart of a preschool class to a little one.  If we were still in Colorado, she could have even started this year (at age 3), but I probably would have kept her home until she was 4.

 But, here in Texas, at the school district Elisabeth attends, preschool is not offered until age 4 and it is an all day program.  Yep, all day, as in, 7:45AM-3:00PM.  That is the same schedule my 3rd grade Elisabeth has.

Evan and I discussed it and we just can't justify sending Julia there for an all day preschool program. It's a long day for someone so little (and four years old is quite little, which I think people forget).  I looked at the schedule on the school's website, and there are a lot of things that she would love, but eating lunch and napping at school at age 4 feels more like I'm sending her to day care instead of preschool.  It would be different if I needed her in day care, then that full day preschool would be a godsend because it's free through the school district, but I don't.  However, I am going to call the school and see if just taking her for half the day is an option, because if it is, then we'll definitely sign her up.  I do think she'd love preschool, just not a full day's worth.

 The thing is, I feel all this guilt about her not experiencing preschool, but I never went. I started the whole school experience when I walked into my first day of Kindergarten.  And, it's not like I'm worried about Julia's development or learning abilities--she's pretty smart and inquisitive with no red flags that would suggest she needs any early intervention.  I used to be concerned about her timidness in situations where she had to leave me behind (because the girl might love my company to no end), but enrolling her in dance class has really shown us that she is fully capable of being in an environment without me when it's something she loves to do (and she does lovelovelove to dance!).

Plus, um, I have my bachelor's (and some master's classes!) in EDUCATION.  I am fully aware what she needs to know to be ready for Kindergarten and am pretty sure that I could, you know, teach her things needed to know before she steps into her first day of Kindergarten.

It just seems so odd keeping her at home with me another year when Elisabeth started day care at the age of 2.5 and loved every single minute of it.  Ebeth was begging us to go to school so she could meet friends!!  Granted, I worked in the same day care (in the room right next door!) and was able to see her all day, every day.  She also flourished in that kind of environment because the girl thrives off of interacting with other people.  Plus, we had no choice--Evan was in law school and I had to work to make ends meet.  It's just different with Julia.  I'm home all day and don't have to work.  She has never been in a day care experience at all (and I don't think she would have taken to it the same way as Elisabeth did).

So, overall, I feel much better with our decision that, if half day preschool is not an option (because paying tons of moola for a private one is not something we're willing to do...mainly because everything here is a million miles away and also because private preschool is EXPENSIVE!), then Julia gets to stay home with me and the new baby next year.  She can start Kindergarten (which is also full day) when she is five.