Hi! 

This is our car, I think. 

Another one. 

The view from our kitchen. 

You can't see the steps. 

Hi everyone! 

more snow 

a lot more snow 

a pile of salsa

This morning I was startled by a crash on the kitchen floor. I went in to see what the commotion was about and found my husband ankle deep in chunky red stuff. I almost fainted at what I thought was blood and then caught a glimpse of the remains of the salsa jar. Oh. It was a big jar too. I like to get the bigger jars because you get a better deal on the price of salsa per ounce. I am going to speculate that we did not get such a good deal on this jar, based on the amount of salsa on the floor. At any rate, I told Todd not to worry about it and go ahead and get ready for work. I then started to clean up the delicious salsa. I was oh-so tempted to dip a couple of chips in it because it smelled so good. After picking through the glass shards intermingled with the salsa, I decided that it probably wouldn't be a great idea. Salsa--good. Shards of glass--not so good. I am going by the store to get more salsa today. I will be buying it in a plastic jar too.

Update

The winter storm has now overtaken the December 1947 storm as the worst in NYC's recorded history. The link is here.

i'm bored today

There's not much to do when you are snowed in. We set up a tent inside for Caroline to play in. It was an amusing diversion for about 10 minutes, then it became an obstacle in the living room. Oh well. She is in bed now, so I will take it down an put all her books away.

By they way, I'm currently 12 weeks 3 days pregnant, meaning that I have exactly one week before I am out of the first trimester. Yay! I have been feeling 100% better these days; I'm just very tired and I need lots of naps.

Blizzard of 2006

I just heard on the news that NYC has received almost 23 inches of snow, making it the #2 snow storm in history of the city. Last night we heard lots of thunder and saw the flashes of lightning through our bedroom window. Lightning and thunder is rare in this town. I can't remember ever having a storm thunder and lightning. The streets have not been plowed and our car is hidden beneath the snow. It doesn't look like we are going anywhere today. I took some pictures, but I'm afraid that they don't show much other than white stuff here and white stuff there. I will post them soon.

I went to my crochet class last night. It was an excellent way to firm up my "book knowledge" of crochet. That is, I knew how one was supposed to make a single crochet, but I couldn't actually do it reliably. Somehow, the best teachers are people who have actual real world experience as, opposed to books with nice photographs. Next week, I will start working on a baby blanket. Yea!

Caroline went to the doctor today for a checkup. She is doing "well overall", though she is small for her age. Her height was around the 50th percentile and her weight was in the 25th. I suppose I should start feeding her candy and cookies, right? The doc suggested that I make her eat more, but I countered with "I'm below average weight for my height--could it possibly be genetic?" He relented, but added "She is doing well overall." He then told me not to feed her peanut butter before the age of 3. Hmmm. I have lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches forever. I mean, I eat one every day or nearly every day. While pregnant with Caroline, I ate quite a few of them and while nursing her, I ate even more. The AAP recommends waiting until age 3 before introducing peanuts. Ha! They also recommend peanut butter as a healthy snack for one-year olds. So which is it? Well, it's controversial. Some say, no peanut butter at all (that means nursing moms cannot eat peanuts or peanut products) and also means no peanuts during pregnancy. Other people say that it's fine after the baby is 12 months as long as there is no history of peanut allergies in the family. Caroline loves her PB&Js, by the way. I know the doctor is just playing it safe, so I don't mind when he says these things. I just do my own research and make my own decisions (I consulted dad on this one).

Caroline brings us books to read to her these days. She will also take pens or pencils and write on any available paper. It actually amazes me how well she holds the pen. She doesn't use a fist; she uses an almost correct pencil hold. She likes crayons too, but tends to eat them.

I had another sonogram yesterday. The baby is the right size and everything looks healthy. Of course, we won't know if it's a boy or girl until April 3. I need to get the scanner working again before I post some of the sonogram pictures.

I am going to a crochet class tonight. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Caroline is almost completely weaned and she seems to be handling it okay. She has occasional breakdowns though and I usually give in and nurse her. The doctor says that I shouldn't breastfeed if I'm pregnant, though everything I have read about breastfeeding during pregnancy has indicated that it is only problem if you have a history of premature labor or other health issues. At any rate, her nursing is slowing down a lot and we are spending more time cuddling.

Nesting early this time...

I knitted three hats (okay two, almost finshed with the third though) and I started learning how to crochet. I think that it's a symptom of nesting. I know that it's extremely early to be doing these things , but I have already felt the baby moving. Everyone scoffs at this notion (even doctors), but I know what I'm feeling and it's not gas (like everyone says it is).

The crocheting is turning out to be harder than I thought. I've learned the chain stitch, single crochet, double crochet, and treble crochet. People knit and crochet on the Staten Island Ferry a lot. Of course, I wouldn't be caught trying to make something that looks like a chewed sock in public, so I will have to wait until I am better before taking my crochet with me. The people that crochet in public can seemingly make entire afghans appear before my eyes. It's quite deceptive and after seeing people whip out these beautiful stitches effortlessly, I thought that it would be an excellent hobby to try. Wow. Now I am stuck trying with much effort to remember yarn over twice, insert hook in next stitch, yarn over, loop off, yarn over, loop off, loop off, yarn over, loop off, loop off, yarn over, loop off, loop off. Yikes. This is one stitch, called the treble (or "trouble" if you're me) crochet. Now I am not using the proper terminology, but this is simply how I remember what to do. I'm not giving up though. I've only spent one day learning crochet, so it's bound to get better, right?

New words

Caroline has a small vocabulary at this point. She says:

Mama
Dada
Cat
Meow
Dog

The funny one is "meow" which she says while chasing after the cat. We practice her words everyday and are trying to encourage her to say more.

We're expecting another baby!

I'm 11 wks pregnant today and I thought I would announce our news to the world (or at least the 5 people that read this blog). As soon as I can figure out how to work our scanner, I will post the sonogram picture of the little one. Wish us luck. Caroline will be about 20 months when the baby is born and I'm sure that it will be crazy. My due date is August 24th.

A little research...

I have recently discovered that over 90% of children are toilet trained before the age of one. Of course, most of those children are not in the United States or other westernized countries. The fact is that diapers are too expensive or simply unavailable in most developing countries. I ordered the book "Diaper Free!" from Amazon to read about this phenomenon.

Basically, from birth babies are able to know when they go to the bathroom. We train them to ignore these signals by keeping them in diapers and teaching them go in the diapers. My pediatrician told me not to start potty-training Caroline. I did my own research and learned a few things. The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) recommends that toilet training start at 24 months or later. Any sooner and you risk damaging the child. The article is here. The interesting thing about this article on toilet training is that it was supplied to the AAP by Proctor and Gamble (the company that owns Pampers) and their "Advisory Board" of Pediatricians. That's right. The diaper manufacturers (Pampers) is telling the AAP when potty training should begin. Conflict of interest anyone? AND, to make matters worse, the adivce they give conflicts with the studies that the AAP does. I am OUTRAGED!! There is a lot of the AAP site about TT and the surprising thing is that some of the conclusions do not support the recommendations of the AAP (namely, beginning after 24 months). Studies on the AAP site have shown that beginning earlier causes no problems, but results in a longer period of training. Yep, that's right. So we should just keep them in diapers until the age of four and then teach them. That will be easier.

No more Pampers for us. We are potty training now and it seems to be going well. Caroline had two accidents today and used the toilet 3 times. Yea!


Another story of the doctor giving me bad information:

When Caroline was a few weeks old, her pediatrician told me to give her vitamin supplements because breastmilk is lacking in iron. I reluctantly tried giving her the supplements (they tasted terrible) and she hated it. I then did some research and found that babies do not become anemic from exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months (anemia is the problem doctors worry about, because breastmilk is low in iron). Breastmilk is low in iron, but that does not present a problem for the baby. There is a biological reason that breastmilk is low in iron and it is a very good reason. Iron in in the body is used by bacteria and can make a baby very sick. The iron is breastmilk is bound to a protein called lactoferrin which ensures that most of the iron is absorbed (more than 70%) and is not used as a feeding ground for bacteria. Most formula is iron fortified and it has a lot more iron than breastmilk. Unfortunately, no formula can recreate the protein lactoferrin so only around 7% of the iron is absorbed. Where does the rest go? I quit doing the supplements and Caroline never became anemic. Interestingly, most women become anemic at the end of pregnancy (I did) because the baby stocks up on iron in the last months. If a baby is born prematurely and misses out on the iron in utero, the breastmilk compensates and is iron-rich for premature babies.

A little research goes a long way...

a broken nose

On Sunday morning, Caroline was in bed with us (nursing), which is the usual thing for us. When I was switching sides she sat up in the bed and promptly flung herself backwards. Todd, still very much asleep, was pounded in the nose by our one year old. I apologized profusely, not that I believed that it was really my fault, but just because I knew that it hurt. We laid there for another few minutes before Todd said "I know it's broken." Somehow, I knew it too.

Later that morning, he went to the ER and they took an X Ray and yes, it was definitely broken. His nose did not need to be straightened or anything, so they sent him home with some pain medicine. He seems to be doing well though.

We have had something of a rough week, this week. Caroline needs my full and complete attention while she is awake (most of the day) and refuses to allow me to sit on the couch or read a book. We have been playing with crayons and play-doh and paper hats to keep her happy. She likes to eat the play doh and crayons and when you make her a paper hat, she says "hat" pretty clearly. I have been trying to keep her entertained, but it is really draining to entertain a 1-year old that has no concept of imagination. While I am sure that she will acquire these skills soon, she does not really "play" very much yet. One game that she enjoys is taking blocks out of one container and putting them in another container. I'm not certain how this is entertaining, but it will occupy her for 30 minutes or until I pick up a book to read (whichever comes first). If I dare to sit on the couch, all hell breaks loose and she lays on the floor and screams. I think I need to throw the couch away.

Sigh.

Missing Christmas photos

I have searched all over the computer and I cannot find the photos we took at Christmas. I hope that Todd hid them somewhere, because otherwise I think they are gone.

Caroline is doing really well these days and is enjoying her newfound freedom that comes with walking. She is all over the place and into everything. Her favorite thing to do is the go into the kitchen and open the cabinet containing the cornflake and cheerios and eat straight from the box (while I watch, of course). I have let her enjoy these exploits while I cook dinner and it really seems to entertain her. She will pile the cornflakes around her and snack away. The dog cleans up when she is done :)

Caroline's 2nd Christmas!

Having been married for only 2 years, we still haven't quite figured out what our holiday traditions are/will be. We opened presents on Christmas Eve, not because of any particular tradition, but because it just worked out that way. I'm sure we will figure it out. Caroline really liked the boxes and paper and pretty much ignored her gifts. (She will love them once we throw away the boxes!) She enjoyed "opening" the presents (with our help, of course) and tearing the paper. She pulled our tree over too! Our Christmas tree is only about 18in tall so it wasn't a problem, though it did scare her.

She is walking a lot these days and has developed the strange habit of carrying one of her spoons with her all day. It has become something of a comfort object to her. Sometime she will even carry two spoons! She even insists on holding the spoons while she nurses. It is so odd... I will post some pictures shortly.

The MTA union goes on strike

No subways or buses this morning. My day has been completely turned upside down. I will be unable to go to the doctor today because of the mess. The ferries are still running, thankfully. Apparently the conflict is over pensions and retirement ages. The MTA workers get to retire at the age of lie 22 or something (55?) and the MTA wants that age raised to 62 and wants workers to-get this- contribute to their pension plans and health insurance. Keep in mind that MTA employees make $60,000+ a year. I am outraged.

The remains of the cake 

Yea! 

Hooray! 

Hello! 

The icing is attacking me! 

Dad, are you eating my cake??  

:) 

:) 

:) 

Wow! 

Icing is yummy! 

Daddy is taking his piece of cake before the whole thing is destroyed. 

Hmmm. Interesting... 

A very cautious start. 

Here she is waiting to grab the cake. 

The Happy Birthday balloon 

Caroline's birthday cake. 

Caroline's first birthday is tomorrow!

Since I probably won't have any time tomorrow to post, I wanted to give everyone a quick update. We aren't really planning on having a party, but we'll probably do something casual. I gave her her birthday present earlier today (couldn't resist). I bought two bags of balls (the kind you find in ball pits) and put them in her play yard. It's the perfect at-home ball pit. The best part is I don't have to worry about the balls being cleaned (because you never really know, do you?). Anyway, I will definitely get some pictures of that and post them soon.