30 May, 2008

Snack Food

When this is what is taking up your days and nights it sure is nice to have some help around the house. We've kept the Monster in daycare for the time being. It gives me some crucial bonding and nursing time with our new baby and some quiet for Hubby to get some work done (his office is at home, in the living room). Since Elena's arrival we've had both moms down for visits. My mom planted my garden and did some cooking. And Hubby's mom did a whole bunch of baking for me.

My mother-in-law made a couple of batches of muffins and some cinnamon buns for us. First she made these chunky banana bran muffin. They look nothing like Ina's on the show or in her picture, but they sure are tasty. She also made a wholewheat peach muffin, in both "Susan" size (what I call her muffins because she refuses to fill a muffin tin and makes small muffins) and these mini ones with a new muffin tin she bought me for my birthday last week. They are good, but I need to modify the recipe a little before it's perfect.

And now I have treats to eat in the middle of the night while my baby eats her fill.

27 May, 2008

Tacky Love

Add a glass of water, a magazine, and the camera and this is my almost constant companion these days. It sits beside me while I nurse. It seriously is one ugly lamp, but Hubby and I love it.

20 May, 2008

The Baby Before the Quilt

Well, the quilt did not get done. It has sat in the basement for a few weeks now as our little one did indeed arrive a bit early.

Elena joined us on May 13, after about 30 hours of labour. Well, technically it was 30 hours because my water broke on the Monday, but I didn't actually start active labour until almost 24 hours after that. Long story short: it was hell and a bit a scary, but we welcomed our second little girl with a successful VBAC late in the evening.
The last week was spent getting breastfeeding established, entertaining visitors (flowers are fine, but food is better), and watching her for jaundice. We had one return visit to the hospital for a night under the billi-lights, but all is seemingly going well now. I am not recovering as quickly as expected after a vaginal birth, but I have to tell myself that it is still a better recovery than a c-section delivery. The doctor assured me that my healing is going well. So, as soon as my pain subsides (tearing needs to heal) then I get get back to the basement and finish this adorable creature's quilt.

10 May, 2008

My Creative Family

My copy of Amanda Soule's book, The Creative Family, arrived this week. I've devoured it the last two mornings as the Monster and Hubby slept and I did not have to work. I LOVE this book. I was afraid it would be a book of "twelve projects to do with your kids", but it is anything but. It really is about nurturing yours and your kids' creativity; how to exploit and celebrate the natural tendencies of children. And what excellent resources in the back!

On Thursday I came home to this image on the Monster's table. Yes, she has her own table positioned between the dining room and living room. Here we take snacks, host guests, and colour with our 'marks' and 'pepe'. It must be markers, of course. Crayons only get dumped for a game of 64 pick-up and pencil crayons are just not as appealing. It might have something to do with not getting marks on our hands with them! Or, as you can see, on the table itself... I refuse to clean it off as I love the way it looks and shows her exuberance for colouring.

When she decides it is time for colouring she pulls out one of the old school chairs that sits on either side of the table, opens a marker - our favourite colours are yellow, pink, and green right now - and makes some tentative marks. If either I or Hubby are nearby she gets off her chair walks around to the other one, pulls it out, pats the seat and says, "Shit down, Mommy, shit down." (Yes, that is how it sounds.) So we sit down with her and she promptly tells us what she wants us to draw. Lately that's been "hoppies" (that's a hoppie that Hubby drew in the photo) and fish, sometimes a baby. We also both like to just doodle graphic images of dots, stripes, or squiggles.

In the coming weeks I hope to take so much of this messy paper and make some cards. Heck, it's time to celebrate her creativity! Besides, Dido (my dad) is fighting cancer, my boss is in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant, and there are lots of other people around that the simple act of receiving real mail, especially that decorated by an unabashed toddler, is sure to put a smile on their face.

08 May, 2008

Slow and Steady

It turns out I likely had a stomach bug last week. Cramping in one part of the gut causes cramping in another... My husband likes to point out that I probably still have a few weeks left. Thanks Hubby, for the painful reminder.

At least it gives me time to make some more progress on the Baby Quilt. I had the quilting about half done then spent the hour of American Idol on Tuesday ripping out half of that. The quilt has a center medallion in the quilting pattern and what I had done just didn't work for me. I should be able to redo that during the Monster's nap tomorrow.

02 May, 2008

I Should Have Napped

The baby may be coming soon as the contractions are coming faster and with a little more fury. Unfortunately, for me, they aren't amounting to much as they usually stop after a few hours. Soon enough.

After a bad day yesterday I should have napped while the Monster slept, but I really wanted to get the baby quilt basted. That's the nice thing about baby quilts, they don't take that long to baste. Now I just have to settle on the quilting pattern and I can get to it. Baby quilts also get quilted fast! I might have it done before the bambino arrives...

25 April, 2008

The Seven Wonders of Cheryl

Okay, so it won't be that momentous. Elizabeth over at My Crafty Mess tagged me and I thought I would highlight some little known (or too well known) facts about me. My profile is detailed, but there are always things to learn.

1. I cannot make jello or rice krispie squares
I nearly went to culinary school instead of grad school, but I cannot - for the life of me - get either of these to work. My jello never sets and my rice krispie squares are rock hard. Sad, but true. Oatmeal cookies are also a challenge for me, but today may have been a turning point. Thank-you Martha.

2. I absolutely hate coffee
Or anything coffee flavoured, including mocha, tiramisu, or Kalhua. Yech. Just last week I accidentally grabbed my husband's Americano instead of my Chai. I nearly did the full spit out and splatter all over the Monster. Thankfully it was a small taste and I immediately started eating my bratwurst to ge the taste out of my mouth. What is truly shocking about this fact is that I more or less paid my way through undergrad by working in coffee shops. I can make a mean espresso.

3. I cannot sing - at all, ever
It is rather frightening to hear me attempt a lullaby or sing along to the radio. Thank goodness the Monster has no judgement. I was in the choir in elementary school, but was still blamed by the entire choir (over 50 kids) when we lost the Kiwanis Music Festival one year. In university I dated I guy who was firmly convinced that everyone could sing, and that everyone liked coffee. After singing for him one night he had to amend both statements.

4. I am a bit of an exhibitionist
Hey, isn't everyone who blogs a bit of one? One year there was a large music festival, called EdgeFest, with 10,000 people attending and over a dozen bands. Hole was the headliner. By the time they started I was in the middle of the mosh pit. At one point Courtney Love flashed the audience. Feeling flush - and a little drunk - I flashed her back. She pointed me out after a song and said that someone with boobs like mine should get on stage. Before I could think a bouncer grabbed my arms and pulled me over the fence and helped me get on stage. I spent the rest of the show on stage, dancing and singing along. I wish I could end the story there, but alas, I then felt the need to flash the entire crowd. The way I figure it, the girls looked damn good then (unlike my post-nursing girls) and I was proud of them. Yet, when I went to New Orleans I managed to keep my top on. The girls gone wild days are long gone...

5. I once got stuck to a bathtub
To be honest, it actually happened twice. We used to live in a house with an old clawfoot, cast iron tub. I was having a glorious hot bath one night but when I shifted positions I felt this suction in the small of my back. I literally got stuck to the tub. I struggled for a few minutes to free myself, but only made it worse. Then I started calling for my Hubby, then my boyfriend. He couldn't hear me, but our roommate did. I kept screaming, "Get Morgan, I'm stuck to the tub!" Roomie couldn't stop laughing all the way down the stairs to get him. By the time he got to the top of the stairs I had managed to get a finger between my back and the tub to break the seal. I had a hickey the size of a dessert plate on my lower back. It happened again a few months later. I blame the tub, it attacked me.

6. I nearly froze to death
At 11:00 pm on a Friday night a friend asked me to go with him to visit his friend at another school about an hour and a half away. Terribly in like with him I said yes, despite the fact that it was a raging Maritime blizzard and he wanted to hitchhike. We took the bus to the edge of town and stuck our thumbs out. Ben usually had the luck that someone was going all the way from Halifax to Wolfville. Not that night. After a few short rides, only taken because we needed a break from the wind, we got stuck in the next town from Wolfville. Maybe we should have just walked to Wolfville, but instead we thought we would take shelter in a barn we could see from the road. Unfortunately, the barn was little more than two sided hay storage and offered no relief. So we crossed the field and went into town. We tried to get someone to let us in from a cold vestibule of an apartment building. No luck - and can you blame them? Finally we found a heated vestibule with a kind security guard who made us promise we would be gone before any of the seniors in the building woke up. After a few hours of cold, cuddled sleep we walked onto the street where one guy was trying to clear the roads in his truck. He proceeded to tell us how his wife had kicked him out of the house because he was drinking. Clearing the town roads seemed like a logical thing for him to do. We walked in the opposite direction. In a few minutes we found a recently opened gas station with a small diner inside. After the best breakfast we walked outside, into the middle of the road - our drunk driving plowman never made it this far - and stuck our thumbs out to the first car going by. A wonderful lady drove us all the way to our friends house, just 15 minutes away. I never hitchhiked again.

7. Politics was once a desire of mine
I wanted to be the first female Prime Minister of Canada. Then Kim Cambell won the Liberal leadership and became PM, albeit briefly. Oddly, I never thought about politics again.