The Small Family     

Hey, I just realized that I think it’s my Mom’s dog’s birthday today! So, before anything else, Happy Birthday Peekaboo! She is 11 years young. But that’s not the only birthday of the week--Grandpa Tom also had a birthday on Wednesday! He, alas, is a wee bit older than 11, though still young at heart.

Grandpa Tom and Grandma Kathy paid us a visit this weekend, and we celebrated Grandpa Tom’s birthday with a yummy dinner at our favorite local Turkish restaurant and a chocolate birthday cake (made by me--but don’t be too impressed, as I only had time for a box mix!). Theo had a great time with his grandparents, and they even attended his Little Gym class on Saturday morning, so they got to see his hanging prowess. (Hanging on the bars is one of his favorite things to do at Little Gym.) And Grandpa Tom and Chris spent the better part of Saturday fixing a broken sprinkler pipe that was causing lovely erosion in our backyard.

Much of our week was spent working. As usual before a vacation (ours is coming up in about three weeks), I’m trying like crazy to keep up with work so I’m not swamped when we go. Looks like I will unfortunately have to lug a laptop and put in a few hours of work in the hotel at night, but it shouldn’t be too bad.

In somewhat exciting work news, I forgot to mention last week that the book I co-authored went to the printer, so it should be on the shelves in a few weeks. I’m going to include a picture of the cover in this week’s album. I got to write an author bio for myself, which was really fun! The abbreviated version is on the back cover of the book, with a slightly longer version inside the book.

And I just have to mention this work bit because it’s so darn strange. I have mentioned before that I’ve taken on a little side work to try to help pay off our nasty tax bill--I now edit articles for eHow.com in addition to my “day job” of editing full-time for Cengage Learning. Usually I stick to the tech articles for eHow, since I’ve been doing technical editing for 11 years and thus it’s like second nature to me. But occasionally an article comes up on my screen that I can’t resist doing. This week’s was--I kid you not!--“How to Play Sensual Seduction Notes on a Harmonica.” My goodness! I’ve never thought of a harmonica as an instrument for seduction, so I had to read that. Ha ha, maybe I can make use of some of the tips the next time Chris and I need a little romance in our lives--I’ll just whip out a harmonica and play him a sultry tune! Seriously, can you imagine being seduced by someone playing a harmonica? It’s just weird! I think it’s almost as weird as trying to seduce someone by playing bagpipes, but hey…maybe that’s just me. :-)

But moving on to other news… We did take a break from work this week to go to a get-together at our friend Sylvia’s house. A bunch of our friends from our graduate program were there, and it’s always great to see them. Theo had several little pals to play with: Benson (age 17 months), Ella (age 20 months), Grace (age 4 weeks--so she wasn’t doing much in the way of playing!), and Lizzy (age 2 1/2 years). He was particularly fond of Lizzy (who is also his pal from float lessons), and he was an ardent fan of her singing.  She’d sing a song and he’d clap like crazy and say, “Yizzy! Row, Row, Row!” Alas, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” is one song Miss Lizzy does not know, so he had to content himself with her renditions of the ABCs, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” and a couple songs from church. Miss “Yizzy” also shared her brownie with Theo, who was very polite and thanked her for each bite--before she gave it to him. He’s quite good at saying “thank you,” but he hasn’t quite got the timing down! For example, he’ll walk up to you with a book to read, put it in your hand, and say, “Book! Fank you!” And when he hands me his potty full of…well, you know…he says, enthusiastically, “Fank you!” So when he said “Fank you!” to Lizzy before she gave him bites, he was really saying, “I’d like a bite, please--thank you!” But it all worked out--she got the idea, and Theo got his bites. :-) And we scored a bunch of unused cloth diapers from Shelley (Ella and Grace’s mama), which we shall save in case there is ever a Small Baby #2. (Can’t believe the amount of money we saved using cloth for over two years, so we’ll definitely do that again if we have another child.)

As long as we’re on the subject of diapers, you know I have to talk a bit about pottying. (I’ll stop soon, I promise!) We reinstated pants this week! We’ve been working with Theo on his ability to remove his own pants when he needs to use the potty, since he tends to be quite the independent potty-goer. Last Sunday we decided he had mastered it well enough to put the boy back in underwear and pants full-time. (We had been having him run around bare-bottomed at home while we potty-trained him, putting pants and underwear on him for outings.) I’m pleased to report that we have overall had great success! Theo had a couple poop accidents this week, but in all cases he has told us he needed to go--he just couldn’t get his pants down in time, and we weren’t quite quick enough. He’s a master at holding his urine, but it seems the urge to poop comes on him more quickly, and being slowed down by having to remove his pants and underwear isn’t doing him any favors. But he’s had far more successes than accidents in the poop arena, so we’re very proud of him and pleased with his accomplisments!

But on to other topics. Let’s talk about food, now that I’ve just covered poop--ha! I made another batch of homemade pickles, and they are quite tasty! I had to use a different type of onion this time, which slightly altered the flavor, but they are still very good, if I do say so myself. And our new homemade item of the week is Chris’s homemade spaghetti sauce from fresh tomatoes. We haven’t yet had it on pasta (he made it and froze it), but I tasted the finished product, and it is yummy! Not sure what we’ll try this week. Perhaps another jam (we’ve almost demolished all the strawberry jam I made) or perhaps homemade bread. I’ve also got the bug to try homemade marshmallows one of these days. This endeavor is turning out to be quite fun!  

We’re actually on a semi-similar adventure now, too--purging our pantry of refined and processed foods. Ever since I got pregnant with Theo, we’ve made a conscious effort to improve our eating habits. They were never bad in the first place, really, but you know--always room for improvement. So when I got pregnant, we started eating more “whole foods,” and we’ve continued that trend and had Theo eat the same way. (By “whole foods,” I mean unprocessed foods--fresh vegetables instead of canned or frozen, steel-cut oats instead of processed oatmeal, fewer foods with preservatives in them, etc.) I just think about all the conditions and diseases that seem so much more prevalent in the last 30 or 40 years, and I can’t help but wonder how much of it is related to the amount of processed foods loaded with preservatives that we eat….

So anyway, my friend Rachel has been on a strict whole-foods diet for I think about a year now. Her pregnancy left her with terrible digestive problems that did not fully resolve after she had her daughter (the lovely Miss Yizzy, of singing fame!), and in consulting with many, many doctors and doing a ton of research on her own, she has finally found a fair amount of relief through a whole-foods diet. Because some of her friends were interested in the diet and the process for switching over from packaged, processed foods to whole foods, Rachel has been posting on Facebook some tips and tricks for making the switch. So Chris and I are trying to follow her tips and make the switch as well.  Our first “challenge” is ridding our pantry of canola and vegetable oils and cooking sprays and other processed, refined oils, and replacing them with “healthy” oils like coconut oil, olive oil, and sesame oil, so I’ve done that.

Chris and I decided that our next step will be to remove the refined sugars and flours from our house and replace them with healthier alternatives, such as agave nectar as sweetener. It will take some experimenting to figure out how to bake without “traditional” refined sugar and oils, but I’m really eager to try it. I’ve actually had irritable bowel syndrome since I was pregnant (sorry if that’s too much information--I’ll spare you the gory details, though!), so I’m hoping this improved approach to eating may give me some relief in that area. And frankly, Chris and I would both like to take off a couple pounds for health reasons, and we’re hoping this will help, too. Rachel (who is naturally very thin) lost 10 pounds in 9 months without doing anything other than switching from processed foods to whole foods, and I suspect there is something to that. When I got pregnant with Theo and after I had him, I no longer ate foods described as “low-fat” or “fat-free” because I didn’t feel that the alternative ingredients they put in the foods to make them low-fat or fat-free were particularly healthy (and I was nursing Theo, so I didn’t want any unhealthy ingredients passing through to him--poor kid had enough tummy trouble without that!). And I continued to eat that way even after I weaned Theo…and lo and behold, I really haven’t gained any weight. I haven’t lost any, but I haven’t gained any. I’m eating regular foods, but healthier versions, and I’m maintaining my weight. Hmmm. Maybe there is something to the idea that eating low-fat processed foods actually makes you put on a bit of weight. I had a much harder time keeping weight off when I was eating low-fat, which is kind of an interesting irony.

Qualifier here: When I say I’m eating regular foods, I am--but I’m not sitting around devouring sticks of butter or anything like that. I do try to keep my diet pretty healthy--it’s just now, if I want butter, I will have butter instead of slathering on some low-fat alternative. If I want a cookie, I have a regular cookie--not some low-fat one. If I want salad dressing, I’ll have regular dressing--I just won’t ladle it on. You get the idea….

Second qualifier: Don’t get the idea that I’m some perfect eater who never indulges in unhealthy foods. I love pizza and ice cream, and I do occasionally dine at McDonald’s or Taco Bell! I just try to eat whole, fresh foods as much as possible, so that when I do have the urge for a Nachos Supreme, I don’t have to feel bad about it. :-)

Anyway, for anyone who is interested, I will keep you updated on our healthy-food challenge. I’m interested to see how it goes.

The only other noteworthy bit from our week is that we went to the zoo on Sunday. We’re having unseasonably cool weather (it’s not even supposed to break 90 degrees this week!), so we took advantage of the beautiful Sunday weather and our zoo membership by going to the zoo for a bit. We noticed that this time, Theo was much more interested in looking at the animals instead of racing around throwing away “trash” (which is usually leaves and sticks he picks up). He was particularly interested in a giant tortoise this time.

I had seen a coupon for our favorite Greek restaurant in the paper, so I tore it out and we had a yummy Greek lunch after our zoo trip. Mmmm! Theo very much liked sharing my fresh cucumber and tomato salad…until the fries came. Then he was all about the fries…. Alas, he couldn’t share any of my chicken pita, as the garlic sauce on it was a bit spicy. Ditto for Chris’s falafel pita. But I think he was quite happy just to munch on bits of pita, fries, and cucumber-tomato salad.

I’ve been doing a lot of letter games with Theo this week because 1) he likes them, and 2) I’m fascinated to see what he’s picking up. I was indeed right that he is starting to understand that letter sounds make up words. We were playing with his bathtub letters, and he’d pick up a letter and say what it was, and I’d say, “What word starts with that letter?” And he’d tell me a word. And indeed, some of them were brand-new words I hadn’t heard him use before (and that I haven’t heard on his Leapfrog toys). For example, for the L, he said, “Love!” He’s heard that word a zillion times from us, and some of his toys say things like, “I love you!” but none of them says, “L is for love” or anything like that. And neither Chris nor I have told him that “love” starts with an L. Yet somehow, he knew. He did that with several other letters, too (P has gone from always being “puppy” to now sometimes being “park” or “pop,” for example). What fun! Grandma Kathy mentioned that it looks like he’s starting to develop some pre-reading skills. He recognizes logos when he sees them in unusual places, and he pretends to read signs by moving his fingers across the words and saying whatever words come into his brain. Of course, none of this means anything in terms of when he’ll actually learn to read--he may learn in kindergarten, for all I know. But it’s just really fun to watch these skills developing in him, especially because we haven’t gone out of our way to teach them. We play letter games with him because he likes them, but it’s not like we sit around drilling him with flashcards or something. So I’m fascinated to watch the natural learning that comes just through play.    

Anyway, a last note. We’re getting really excited for our trip back East! Grandma Diane went shopping with Theo and me this past week, and she found a dress she really likes for the wedding, so now we’re all set with our finery! And we’re starting to firm up plans with people. We’ll be seeing my cousin, Heather, and her family the first day after we arrive, and I’m excited to see her little girl, Grace, who is apparently quite the chatterbox these days! I suspect Theo will be quite interested in her. :-) We’re going to spend some time with my great aunts, too, which will be a lot of fun! And of course, there are various wedding activities while we’re there. In Philadelphia, it looks like we should get to see Chris’s great aunt and uncle, as well as his cousin (well, his dad’s cousin, but you get the idea) and his wife. We saw them all last year and had a great time, so we’re really looking forward to that. And in Virginia, we’ll be seeing my aunt and uncle, who haven’t seen Theo since he was six months old and just emerging from his “I scream or cry pretty much all waking hours” phase. Now they’ll get to see a walking, talking happy bundle of two-year-old energy! I suspect our only problem with this trip may be getting Grandma Diane to come home, since she’ll be seeing some beautiful places she’s never been! She has, of course, been to Buffalo, having grown up there, but she’s never been to Pennsylvania, and she hasn’t been to the part of Virginia where my aunt and uncle live. It’s a beautiful, peaceful little town, and I have a feeling my Mom is going to fall in love with it. (It’s in western Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley.) Chris and I get to see a few places we haven’t been, too. I get to land in Minnesota on our way out (and Lisa, that so counts as another state on my list of states visited!), and we leave out of North Carolina (Charlotte), where none of us has ever been. Additionally, depending on what route we take from Philadelphia to Lexington (VA), I think we may cross into West Virginia for a brief time. (And Lisa, that totally counts as another state! If you’d like, I will make a pit stop there to make it official!)

Anyway, enough rambling about our trip. I just get so excited about travel that I tend to go on and on about it. I will stop talking now. :-)