So many words

Mats has always been a talker, but he really wasn't into words until maybe three weeks ago. He pulled out "boo" for balloon back at his first birthday (because he was obsessed with the balloons we had up around the house), and would do mommy and daddy, but other than that it was mostly just emphatic babbling. While we were in Steamboat Springs on vacation a few weeks ago, though, something just clicked with him, and he's been adding words with regularity. He discovered "hot" and "up" that week, and hot is still one of his favorite go to words.

Parenting magazine just rained on my parade - they have an article online that says that by 16 months, girls have an average of 50 words and boys an average of 30. If that's true, Mats is apparently way behind average on verbal skills, but I'm okay with that. Hmm, although WebMD says that at 18 months, kids may say 10 words. Clearly there's a spectrum. Either way, I'm still super proud of the words my sweet 17 month old does have:

1. Dada (always with gusto)
2. Mama
3. Balloon
4. Ball
5. (sign for) All done
6. (sign for) More
7. Hot
8. Up
9. Shoe
10. Cheese
11. (sign for) Help (which is only distinguished from "More" by context)
12. Please (also does the sign)
13. No No (with a shaking head)
14. Nose

The cutest thing Matson's learned to do recently, in addition to pointing to his nose and crinkling it up while saying, "Nose" (seriously, adorable) is kissing! I'll ask him for a kiss, and if he's in the mood, he'll run over, pucker up his lips, and kiss me straight on the lips. So endearing. If he's not in the mood he'll just ignore me.
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We got to enjoy a vacation in Florida with the little tyke last week! Scott's middle sister got married on the beach in Pensacola, so we flew down for the festivities and tacked on a few extra beach days. We had an amazing time playing in the waves, laying on the sand, making sand castles for Matzilla to smash with a fierce growl, and hanging out with family. Highlights of the week included several night swims, jumping into the ocean with our clothes on post-wedding (the bride and groom led the charge!), collecting seashells, taking a long moonlit walk on the beach with my sweet husband, catching mini sand crabs, watching Mats dance at his aunt and uncle's wedding and subsequently having everyone at the wedding dancing "The Matson".

And now, I can't believe that it's suddenly September, all of our summer vacations are over, school's back in session, and the days are getting shorter. Does this mean that summer is over?

Toddler in the Air

If you've ever met Matson, you know that he is a busy little 14 month old. Busy busy busy. If he ever sits still, it's usually because he has a hammer or stick in his hand that he wants to whack with (ie, hammer for his ball run), or dirt he wants to play in. He much prefers grand scale exploration to sitting and attending to a small task. Thus, the idea of flying with him to Phoenix this last weekend to visit Scott's parents was intimidating. (The idea of flying with him by myself in a few weeks to help my parents pack up their house is even more intimidating!) But, we survived! And I'm so thankful for my sweet husband who did most of the baby wrangling while I fished snacks and toys out of the bag.

My tips for those of you flying with a walker who doesn't like to sit still:

• Take a car seat! Our flight to Phoenix wasn't full, so they let us take it on ... amazing. That flight was over naptime, and he slept almost the whole way.
• Lots of finger food snacks. Blueberries, peas, grapes, and animal crackers were all big hits.
• Bring a fun new food. We picked up a bag of freeze dried mango at Target (no sugar added, but it's super sweet and has an easy puffy texture since it's freeze dried) that Matson loved.
• For the week before the trip, anytime Mats would pick up a toy at home and bring it to me to play with him, I'd set it aside for the plane. Things your toddler likes to sit and poke are perfect - for us, the best were a mesh squishy ball (like http://amzn.to/KZtuo5), a touch and feel book (http://amzn.to/Ksfea9), and a clean bulb syringe because he likes to feel the air rush on his face when you squeeze it.
• Go walking in the aisles when you can, even if your kid seems happy in your lap at that point! The seatbelts sign will come on soon enough - save the snacks and toys for then.
• We let him splash in a little water cup, which was messy and it kind of looked like I'd wet my pants, but it made him happy for a good 5 minutes.
• We tried a video, but he's never been into them at home, and within the first 30 seconds it became clear that he thought my phone was a better chewtoy than entertainment device.
• Dress baby as simply as possible. The little shorts rompers were great for plane/airport diaper changing - no extra layers to contend with.
• Resign yourself to the fact that your kid will probably have a public meltdown at some point. They turned off the air on our descent back to Denver, so between being past bedtime with no afternoon nap, a hot plane, and ear pressure, Mats had a frantic and very loud 15 minutes refusing all consolation. He was fine as soon as we got off of the plane, but I did have basically everyone on the plane staring at me. It happens, and we survived.

We'll see what I come up with after flying solo with the little man next month!

 

How We Play

One of the things that most intimidated me prior to being with Mats full time was wondering what on earth we'd do together all day. How would I entertain him? One of my favorite things about Mats being 13 months old and walking all over the place (and really, this applied even when he was 9 months old and crawling all over the place), is that he is so good at entertaining himself. His capacity for playing by himself is really pretty remarkable.

His current favorite independent play activities:

• Being outside!
• Splashing in the watering can (a water table is on my garage sale list ... I really like the fact that with a watering can, he can get wet and enjoy the water, but I don't have to worry about him drowning or give him close supervision - there's absolutely no way he could get his face near the water)
• Finding sticks
• Sitting behind the air conditioner playing with mulch
• Drumming on the canoe
• Riding his toy truck in the yard - it doesn't go anywhere on our bumpy grass, but that doesn't seem to bother him!
• Sifting through dirt
• Wandering around the yard
• "Shoveling" the front driveway (obviously only when I'm outside with him)
• When I leave the back door open for him so he can go back and forth between playing inside and outside.
• Looking out the front window - he spent 10 minutes yesterday on his tippy toes, parting the blinds with his fingers so that he could watch some landscape guys spreading fertilizer on our neighbor's lawn
• Climbing on his toy box (also conveniently located under the front window)
• Dragging my broom around the living room
• Sending toys and shoes down stairs
• Dancing to the radio
• Hammering on his ball run
• Putting stacking blocks together (this is new!)
• Taking the mini broom and dustpan on walks around the house
• Sitting and bouncing on the bottom stair
• Riding wheely-cow around the living room
• Wadding up a knotted bundle of yarn
• Draping belts and strings around his shoulders like a scarf
• Making music with his xylophone
• Wrapping himself up in the curtains
• Exploring the pantry
• Paint stirrer sticks ... not really sure what's so amazing about these, but he loves taking them for walks

He also loves bringing me books to read to him, playing peekaboo, having dance parties with mom, inspecting my cooking, tussling with dad (which is what Scott calls their nightly wrestling/tickling matches on the bed during which Mats is usually almost hysterical with glee), tackling anyone who happens to be sitting/crouching/laying on the floor, singing songs together, and mommy's hair.

One year olds seem to have an endless capacity for being fascinated by the most minute things!

SFG

I once have the vegetable garden bug. I had a little veggie garden I think two years ago, but got maybe 6 cherry tomatoes and a single miniature, deformed bell pepper out of the experiment. Colorado dirt just doesn't have anything on rich Midwestern soil for growing things. Perhaps why people ranch instead of farm out here. Hmm.
Anyway, I knew I'd have to do things differently this year. For starters, water the darn thing. In my defense, I got pregnant mid-summer two years ago and was reeeeeally tired/sick feeling for the last part of July, all of August, and most of September. Like I would get home from work at 5:45, take a nap til 6:30 or 7, eat a little something that didn't contain meat, then back to bed at 9:30. This year, I don't anticipate that being a problem.

Back to my point, though, I knew I'd need to revamp my gardening plan this time around, actually work the soil with some nutrient rich stuff, etc. And pick a spot that gets good sunlight, which my initial area didn't. Looking around my yard, the spot that was standing out was our side yard ... 300 square feet of river rock, weeds that get waist high in the summer, and 40 year old weed barrier below a few inches of rock and dirt. Super. That side yard has irked us since we moved in, but we always had more pressing issues to deal with. Now that we have a walker, though, who passionately loves rocks (to eat) and was fascinated by the thorny thistles, we decided to go ahead and have it cleared - and that it would give me a garden spot was just icing on the cake!

I got that done for a fair price via Craigslist (and so glad I didn't try it on my own - it took two big guys two full days to get it cleared!), and then realized that the dirt under all of that was still pretty rocky. Some Googling, some plotting and planning ... and I discovered Square Foot Gardening. Basically, the premise is that you build a raised bed - no more than 4' wide, so that you can reach the inside of the bed for harvesting while standing outside (you don't want to step on the soil to compact it), fill it with a super rich mixture of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss, and create a grid on top so that you have a defined zone for each vegetable. You can allegedly grow a lot more plants closer quarters that they would be able to in the ground. As in, what was going to take probably 75 square feet on the ground because of rows and all that will be contained in 16 square feet. Not entirely sure why - maybe it's the rich soil? Creative pruning? But it seems to work, according to the book and a lot of blogs and forums.

So, I borrowed Scott's truck for a few days to get fill dirt (for the low spots), weed barrier, and mulch, put all of that in myself (so glad we bought a wheelbarrow last year!). Looked up a lot of plans and pictures of raised beds, went to Home Depot and bought some wood, and broke out the saw and drill and got it built! Installation was a little less than fun since I had to dig 6" holes to plant my bed supports into, but it went a lot more smoothly once I remembered that water + dirt = mud = easy digging. Thanks, Kindergarten!

This last weekend I got my compost mixture in place, and yesterday I created my square foot grid with nails and string. Today, Mats and I will hit up a garden center for some tomato and pepper plants (since I waited too long to get those started inside), and start planting! I'm so looking forward to a summer of garden fresh vegetables.

One down side: a 12" raised box is pretty much perfect height for my baby, who loves dirt. So far, he loves running his fingers through the soil (and trying to dump it outside the box, of course), and twice tried to climb into the box. Somehow, I think Mats is going to be my biggest garden pest this year.

Compostable Future

Clearly I haven't been as diligent about tracking food waste (or blogging in general) as I had hoped. However, I have an excuse in the form of a 30-inch tall man who really likes attention! And lots of it. Also, smacking mommy's keyboard while she's typing, leading to interesting results. (The craziest was when we apparently hit ctrl+alt+up all at the same time, turning my display upside down. That took a bit of neck craning and Googling to figure out.)

It's now spring, though. Oh, spring, how I delight in you! Open windows, fresh air, and making all things fresh and new. After getting a bit stinky (the fridge, not us), we purged the fridge last week (it was due in part to baby not yet being a fan of whole milk and me not being on top of it enough to do something with the milk before chunks - yes, chunks - formed). No pictures, but a fresh start at least.

And even though we did toss a fair bit of food, I do have a few victories to report: chocolate pudding made with precisely two cups of souring skim milk, potatoes au gratin made with four cups of skim milk before the souring began (note to self, don't forget to buy Lactaid!) ... and a compost heap!

I discovered a 3'x3' chicken wired area behind our shed when we first moved in, half-filled in with dead grass and with weeds growing out of it. Clearly a compost heap, but I had a) no idea what to do with it, b) no idea what to do with compost, and c) way too many other projects to care. But, I really like the idea of things not going to landfill, and the compost heap has been niggling at the back of my brain for the almost four years we've lived here now. This spring, as I was putting together my very first legit, planned-out garden (another post for another day), I decided to go for the gold and start using my compost heap.

First step: obtaining a pitchfork (listed as a "garden fork") via Craigslist for $10 - way better than the $35 the big box stores wanted. Second step: strapping on my garden gloves, pulling the weeds out of the heap, and poking the fork in while being ready to run if anything skittered out. No critters, surpringly enough/thank goodness. Whew! I initially thought I might have to clear all of the old stuff out to make way for a fresh heap ... but then I figured, isn't the point of a compost heap to biodegrade old waste? So I just mixed it up and started putting in my food scraps.

Composting lessons learned via Google thus far: no cooked foods or dairy or meat or fats, toss the heap weekly, cover fresh food scraps with grass/leaves to keep smell down, keep the mix balanced between food and (mostly) yard waste. I thought briefly about buying a special little compost bucket to keep in my kitchen to throw scraps into, but why? $20+ for something that's really just supposed to be airtight, small, and provide a receptacle between counter and heap? I grabbed a yogurt container from the recycle bin, and so far so good.

Anyway, all that to say - I think it's awesome that I no longer have to throw away/garbage disposal things like kiwi skins or the blocky base of a head of lettuce. I think it'll be at least marginally helpful with food waste. And we're getting a fresh start here, people! That, and it'll be really nice if I can save money on compost for my veggie garden next year. My compost heap cost thus far has been $10, which is maybe 2.5 bags of compost. Come on heap, get to work!

thinking about weaning

mats turns one (1!) in less than three weeks ... i truly cannot believe how this year has flown by! there are so many changes that come with having a one-year old toddler rather than an "infant".

• we bought a bike seat for the little man for his birthday - the yepp mini front bike seat at rei, paid for in part with the rei giftcard that i won from the frugal girl's giveaway last year!
• we're looking at convertible car seats since mats is reaching the height limit on his infant seat (bummer, since that one will stay in the car, meaning that when he falls asleep in it, he has to wake up when we get home.)
• since he can walk, he gets to actually play at playgrounds
• we have to find real soled shoes to put him to protect his feet walking around in public since the little leather booties he's currently in won't do much for him if he steps on something sharp
• i get to start thinking about weaning

(if you're a boy and don't want to think about nursing, go ahead and stop reading now.)

i was admittedly pretty excited about the weaning idea a few months ago, particularly just before christmas when he was teething awfully and biting up a storm. then, i was practically counting down the days. but now? i'm a bit more reticent. his nursing time is such a sweet time for us - he knows just what to do, he lets me snuggle him, i get to feel all warm and fuzzy and motherly and have set aside time to pray for him and his future, and it's a nice little break from the day. in the evenings when we're doing his bedtime routine, i'll sit in the glider in his room and read a bible story while he plays on the floor with scott, and when he's ready to have his milk and go to bed, he'll walk over to me at the chair, lift his arms to be picked up, then immediately lay down in my arms while smacking his lips and opening his mouth like a little baby bird! pretty precious.

on the one hand, i'm eager to be past this stage so that we have more freedom during the day to not have to hide out somewhere to nurse, but on the other hand, i feel like it's one of the few baby-ish things my kid does anymore. i'm not in a rush to move us past this. (although i say this and in the same thought also really hope that we're done by this summer sometime so that we can go hiking and camping and biking without a nursing cover. and so that scott and i can get a night away.)

allegedly, pediatricians ask at the twelve month appointment about your plan for weaning and i'm really not sure what i'm going to say. do i have a plan? i plan to start offering him milk in a sippy cup once he hits a year and it's "allowed" ... but i don't really plan to push the end of this. maybe my plan is to let it end naturally, as he transitions himself to milk more and me less? i guess i assume that'll happen in a timely fashion on its own. if it doesn't, then i'll start my planning.

fun with photoshop

i realized recently that because of scott's student status, we can get education-related discounts of software ... specificially adobe cs5.5 design standard, home of indesign, illustrator, acrobat pro, and photoshop.  i acquired that little bundle for myself for $229 (around $1300 without the student discount) as an early birthday present and have been having a delightful time with it.  i'm working on a project in indesign (more on that at a later date), am utterly confused by illustrator ... but photoshop.  oh, photoshop.

my first stop was to download the pioneer woman's action sets (here for the photoshop cs versions, or here if you're an elements user like my dad), look through some of her action set tutorial posts, and start playing.  for some of the actions, you just press a button and it's done, for others you get to play with settings.  i have yet to do anything other than using actions in photoshop yet, but it's an easy first step in learning how the program works since it can be super intimidating opening up photoshop for the first time.

one of my favorite pictures thus far, entitled "swinging in sunshine":
before:

and after:

i'm kind of captivated by it!  i'm sadly not sure what all steps i took - i saved it in jpg format (which deletes layer information, ie the things that tell you what you did to the picture) rather than photoshop's format (psd) so that i could post it on facebook.  clearly next time i need to save it in psd AND jpg just for good measure.  i think i used pioneer woman's boost, seventies, bring on the eyes, and sunshine ... maybe more, maybe less.

food waste "friday" #2

a month later, i cleaned my fridge for the second time.  ahem.  i think i keep telling myself that if i don't clean out the fridge, that the stuff moldering in there isn't *really* there.  i'm sure there's stuff that we threw away in the interim, but i tried to restrain myself until i was ready to take a picture, so hopefully it's fairly comprehensive.  (i did have a few failed cooking nights, which i don't think i'd necessarily count as food waste.  the saddest was 6 potatoes, 1 onion, and 2 bell peppers that turned into glue rather than hash browns for breakfast burritos.  there's just nothing you can do with that.)

not as bad as i thought it might be!  we have a cup of sauteed mushrooms that matson didn't like and that i couldn't find a cover for ($1), so they shriveled in the open fridge (whoops), a cup of cut up mango with wheat germ that mats wasn't in the mood for and that i forgot to address later ($1), a container of bitter quinoa because i forgot to rinse it before cooking ($2), some bits of baby finger food that mats kept not eating and finally got stinky ($negligible), month-old pureed spinach ($1), leftover rice ($negligible), a bit of steak fajita that got shoved to the back of the fridge ($2), and some leftover ground beef that HAD been in the freezer but was thawed for mac n cheese but not used in full and left in the fridge ($1.50).  the beef didn't stink, but it's been in the fridge for long enough that i wasn't going to risk it.

on the plus side, i get a lot of leftovers containers back!  on the down side, according to my ball-park estimates, that's $8.50 wasted.  i just checked my last post, and would estimate that one at about $6 wasted, which brings us to:

2012 cost of food waste: $14.50

score one for frugal

not in the food waste category - i haven't cleaned out my fridge since that first post three weeks ago.  oops.  coming soon, though.

in the clothing category, though, yes!  scott carries a soft leather briefcase to work and school - he has his laptop in it daily, and schoolbooks to read on the train on class days, so it gets a workout.  we got him a nice leather bag a few years ago, and it was working great until a few weeks ago when the little leather tab that holds the d-ring for the shoulder strap snapped.  not so useful without a shoulder strap (it does still have handles, but super cumbersome, especially on school/train days).

we went back to the outlets this weekend, were totally misled by signs that said, "final clearance!  70% off lowest ticketed price, whole store!"  sounds like that'd be 70% off of everything, right?  nope, just clearance items.  the first bag scott picked out was $120 after any discounts, the second bag was $70 but on the verge of being too small.  we went ahead and got it, but my thrifty self wasn't thrilled with the solution - why were we paying so much money for a bag that may not even be a good fit?

i was looking at the old bag when we got home, though, and got to thinking ... might this be fixable?  i took it to the tailor across the street from us on monday, and lo and behold - yes!  but at what cost?  $14.  kid you not.  (i had to run home to grab the d-ring, and when i got back the guy said, "okay your total will be $21."  since he had told me $14 literally 5 minutes before, though, he honored his original estimate.  i felt kind of bad because i want to support a local business and i know they need to earn their living ... but you can't change your price like that.)

so, after this fix and a nice polishing by me (the leather's looking a little worn), his old bag will be good as new, for a savings of $56 over the price of the new bag!  holla!

scott's party input

scott got home around 10pm last night from class, and as i was telling him that i had started brainstorming time for matsy's party, he very helpfully said, "i was kind of thinking a south pole theme.  bring in a couple dozen penguins.  some artic icecaps."

to which i replied, "oh that's good.  except that arctic means north.  antarctic would be south."

"it's ice, the penguins won't know the difference.  maybe some polar bears, too.  hmm, except that polar bear eat penguins."

me, "also north, so no they don't."

scott, "what, really?  you always see polar bears and penguins together.  they don't eat penguins?"

quick google break in which i confirm that i am correct - polar bears only live in the north, penguins only in the south, and that polar bears eat seals, not penguins.

scott, "well then, we won't have to worry about the penguins being eaten!"

so helpful, this husband of mine.

party planning

matson turns one (can you believe it??) in a mere two and a half month!  being a planner, i've already started brainstorming what kind of first birthday party i want for him.  philosophically, though, i'm not into crazy huge extravagant themed events.  okay really, i'm not into themes in any facet of life - even with his nursery i really just wanted a cozy, cheery space and decorated it accordingly.  nor do i have any intention of doing a big birthday party every year for him (or any kid) - i think a big celebration for the milestone birthday like 1, 5, 10, 13, etc sounds good, with the in-between years just being fun, special days.

but i digress.  what do i want in a first birthday party?  i want it to celebrate matson making it to a year and all of the firsts that we got to enjoy with him this year.  i want it to be fun, festive, cheerful, but not stressful, over-the-top, or expensive.  i want it to be a celebration of his life, not a venue to get more toys.  i want it to be personal and colorful and exciting and to be a way to show our friends and family all of the things we love about our little man.  he's curious, and active, and sweet, and charges head-first at life.  he's our little dinosaur!  (he actually responds to dino as much as he does to his own name - haha.)

so ... how do we get from here to there?  we have friends over all the time, and while that's fun and all, i want to make this somehow separate from that.  some pinteresting, some googling, and then i discovered young house love's post about their girls' first birthday party.  perfect!  it's festive, it's personal, it's cheery and fun, and it's theme-free.

my takeaway ideas from yhl:

• post our matson-by-the-month pictures for viewing pleasure
• balloons!  colorful balloons!  (okay, i had this one down without them.)
• finish his first year video before the party to share with everyone
• share foods that are special to us - like pizza since that was my major first trimester craving, or steamed peas since that's matson's favorite food.  (hmm, might need to figure out a more fun food for him!)
• work the dino thing in there somewhere fun but subtle ... maybe little plastic dinos as a party favor for the kiddos?
• start a simple tradition that we can carry forward even in non-party years

so much brain food!  now to go get my real dino some real food.

food waste friday #1

my friend kelly and i decided to take the frugal girl up on her invitation to join her on food waste fridays, wherein you clean out your fridge/pantry each week and take a picture of the food that has gone bad that you have to toss.  the idea is that by taking a picture and sharing it, you'll be motivated to waste less food - and also that you'll be going through your fridge regularly enough that you'll find food to use before you waste it.  perfect in keeping with my #7 resolution to finally get my grocery budget under control!
anyone else care to join us on this endeavor??

without further ado:

in sum: a few random black olives from a looooong time ago, half a container of homemade pesto from one of my sisters-in-law (it was so good, too!  darn me), a bit of vanilla yogurt still lingering from my friend alison's visit when mats was 6 weeks old, some gravy from thanksgiving, half of a lime, a bunch of cilantro (let's be honest, who can ever finish one of these bunches??), one crunchy taco shell that i was going to save but that got cracked when i was wedging it back into the pantry, and the saddest part: most of a container of goat cheese.  (i got two containers from whole foods as a topping option for grilled pizza bar for tapestry lunch a few weekends ago, we used one, and while i tried mightily to use this one on subsequent dinners, it was blue and just smelled off this evening when i went to use it for salad.)

really, not nearly as bad as it could have been!  i did discover a few lurkers in the back corners of my fridge, though, so hopefully i can stay on top of it and have a good showing next week!

(this is also a good motivator to get my kitchen cleaned up!)

quinoa would insist you call it dude

it should be no surprise that my personal favorite resolution is always one to do with cooking.  i made a chicken stew with butternut squash and quinoa (via pinterest) last night that was yummy, but oh so time consuming!  (i nixed the kalamata olives in the recipe because i'm a midwestern girl who only likes generic canned black olives.  it was still good.)
in case you were curious about how to best prepare butternut squash, a handy tutorial can be found here.  (i think part of why my stew was so time consuming was that i steamed my squash on the stovetop and it took forever - plus i needed the same pot to cook my chicken.  steaming it in the microwave and simultaneously poaching my chicken on the stovetop would speed things up mightily.  plus, not having to look up a tutorial on prepping squash.)

also, in case you are curious about quinoa, i found this little gem.  personal favorite quote, "if it were a movie, quinoa would star a flip-flop wearing jeff bridges and insist you call it dude."  the page does have some handy tips on cooking and recipes in addition to a few funny paragraphs about how awesome quinoa is.

in addition to last night's stew, i also set aside some nice steamed squash cubes for the dino.  he needed an early bedtime last night and thus didn't get to try any, but lunch today for sure.  he's been doing an awesome job of feeding himself lately.  mum mums, puffs, fried banana slices, oatmeal from a spoon, bits of dirt off of the floor ...

___

unrelatedly, i went with a friend yesterday to a local cloth diaper store that's having a big 1/2 off sale, and while i didn't get any diapers, i did have some good finds!  my personal favorite was a dino piggy bank in blue for $10 - so cute and so perfect.

biggest kind of splurgey purchase was a super duper baby/kid carrier for hiking (the deuter kid comfort iii) for $140 ... originally $280 there (or $288 on amazon or $299 at rei).  a lot of money that i hadn't necessarily planned on spending at this point, but such a smokin' deal on a great product!  it's apparently one of the lightest carriers on the market, but really nice and padded with good storage space, and mats loved the vantage point on our test walk last night!  snowshoeing and hiking, here we come!

i also got him a pair of babybanz for $7, a new swim diaper for $6, and christmas and birthday gifts for kinley for $15.  whew!

matson's resolutions

matson confided his resolutions to me, by the way.

1. to be more active.  he'd really like to work on walking and running this year.
2. to communicate better.  he'd like to start by saying real words and maybe even work up to short sentences!

in the meantime, i just want the little man to get better - he started running a fever on saturday afternoon.  it started while we were at nu's gamewatch, but has been 102-103* first thing in the morning both yesterday and today.  we've been keeping him dosed up on tylenol and advil and it's helping - he's a little more fussy than normal, but hasn't been lethargic at all since that first afternoon (when he spent a good half hour just laying on my leg, which if you've ever met him is wildly and completely and totally unusual), no other symptoms, and with meds his temp is staying around 99*.  since it is responding to meds and it's a long weekend, i haven't taken him to a doctor yet, but i think i'll give them a call tomorrow if he still wakes up with a fever in the morning.

of course our health insurance changed yesterday so that preventive appointments are 100% covered, but sick visits we pay in full (up to our annual max of $4500 or something like that - it's a high deductible health savings plan, which has a super low monthly cost and should work well for us since we're rarely sick).  i might see if his doctor's office would be willing to make the visit his 9 month appointment, since he has that scheduled for next friday anyway.  or even better, that he would heal up today!

lessons and resolutions

since i'm a goal oriented person, here are some things i've been learning in 2011, and what i want to learn this year:

1. on parenthood
1. lesson: parenthood does not suddenly make you an all-wise, perfect being.  i totally thought it did as a kid. (my parents seemed way more mature to me growing up than i feel right now, even though i'm the same age having mats as they were having me.)  it is, however an inately sanctifying experience.  it reminds me of our first year of marriage in that i'm suddenly seeing my own selfishness magnified against my abrupt closeness with this other person.
2. resolution: be more intentional about placing matson's wants above my own.  even if i have a really good want (like to finish the dishes before scott gets home), it's good to set that aside every once in a while if he is tugging at my leg wanting to play.  even better to let it go if it's a purely selfish want on my part - like hanging out for an hour on the couch browsing pinterest when mats wants attention.  i want him to know that he's more important to me than my laptop or a spotless sink.  (please don't read this to say that i think i should be spending all day doting on my baby ... i really do think independent play is good for both of us, but i think i could also be better about making sure we have simple fun together.)
2. on projects
1. lesson: i'm a big dreamer, and a little follow througher.  this has long been a stumbling block of mine, particularly with big projects, or house cleaning.  (my floor hasn't been mopped since before matson was born.)  i want to do what i say, though.  i've been working on vocalizing fewer project ideas so that i at least don't feel like i'm not following through on anything ... but i also really do want to work on finishing things!
2. resolution: follow through on projects!  i'm going to make a list of things that i have half-baked, and do them.  i'm going to have to get scott's input before finalizing this list, but it's going to include some things like setting up a college savings account for matsy, iras for us, staining our window sills, refinishing our coffee table, and finishing a picnic quilt.
3. on homemaking
1. lesson: for the last nine months, i've been telling myself that my house is messy and we still eat dinner at 8pm because i have a new baby ... but let's face it, he's nine months old now, generally naps well and is good about entertaining himself when he is up.  my house is messy and dinner is late because i choose other things like pinterest and errands and hanging out with friends and reading books.  i want a neat house and a non-rushed evening, though.
2. resolution: read the frugal girl's post about scheduling my time and do something with it!  possibly revisit flylady.net for inspiration.  plan one crock-pot meal per week.
4. on marriage
1. lesson: life is busy, and it's shockingly easy to not get quality time with my sweet husband now that he's added school to the mix and we have a baby.  lucky for him i'm exceedingly self-aware and will happily communicate when i feel like things aren't quite up to par with us.  which is why we're instituting ...
2. resolution: date night!  our date night has been things like take out and watching tv/movies for the last few years, and while that's not bad, it's also not good focused communication time.  since we don't have limitless hang out and communication time anymore, we need to work to get that communication time in there.  so, 1-2 times per month, we're going to do an outside-the-house, matsy-free date together.  could be dinner and a movie, could be a coffee date, could be a bike ride ... but something just the two of us to remember why we chose each other.
5. on cooking
1. lesson: we eat a lot of junk.  we also eat a fair bit of tasty, healthy food ... but my fallback is always things like macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, and potato anything.  as mats is getting closer to eating table food, i think i'm becoming more conscious of this - i feed him things daily which i enjoy but eat rarely.  (zucchini and sweet potato, for instance.)  i want him to enjoy healthful food, though, not just push it aside and want mommy and daddy's soda and cheese fries instead.  (we went to steak 'n shake last night - first one in the state!  and it was awesome.)
2. resolution: experiment with one healthy food at a time.  i go on new recipe kicks sometimes and get overwhelmed.  this year, i'll pick one new healthy food from time to time and go for it.  first up: quinoa!  i've been wanting to learn how to cook with it for a while and found some yummy recipes for it on pinterest, so we'll give it a shot.  easy dinners will remain, but i'll try to limit them in favor of quick healthy dinner options.  also, talk to scott about a soda ban in the house.  (i had started getting generic diet root beer at the grocery store as a treat for myself, which led to us always having soda in the house and drinking it on a pretty much daily basis.  diet so not terrible for us, but also not a good habit.  matsy loves the shiny cans.  hmm.)
6. on faith
1. lesson: i'm pretty bad about prioritizing bible reading time in day-to-day life.  prayer is definitely getting better, but bible time has definitely not been benefited by having a baby.  i joined a women's bible study at church this fall and loved it - totally loved it.  in the five months between having matsy and joining study, though, no time reading the bible (just being honest), and in the month since study ended, also nothing.
2. resolution: stay in bible study.  definitely worth it.  (there are studies offered every fall, spring, and i think even a short one in summer.)  during the off weeks between studies, make sure that i have a game plan for bible time before the break occurs ... and then follow through on it.
7. on finances
1. lesson: i had grand plans of a mostly-unchanged grocery budget once i was staying at home.  umm, yeah, that totally didn't happen!  i'm not sure just how much it didn't happen yet since i haven't done my final budget update of the year with comparisons of budgeted-to-actual spending and year-to-year changes and all that ... but my grocery spending was ridiculous.  my other plans of limiting food waste, eating leftovers, and doing cash for grocery also didn't pan out.  and, scott generally has no idea where we stand with our budget.
2. resolution: revisit my goals from a year ago.  we've switched most of our spending to credit card (which we pay off in full every month) to reap that lovely 1% cash back reward, but i think we really need to go back to cash for grocery for a while, to keep a better handle on where we are with our spending for the month.  i'm also toying with the idea of doing a weekly food waste photo (a la frugal girl) to motivate me on that front.  do my menu planning on tuesday evenings when the grocery ads come in the mail so i can shop produce sales better.  and do a monthly budget update for scott (also per fg).
8. on service
1. lesson: over the last few years, i've realized that my love language is acts of service, and one of my spiritual gifts is also service.  (makes sense.)  i love to help people.  i also want matsy to grow up wanting to help people.  i think it's good to live outside yourself.  for the past few years, i've tutored with whiz kids, but decided not to this year since mats needs to be my priority and scott's work/school schedule could interfere with that commitment with no notice, which isn't fair to the kid i'd tutor.  instead i committed to cooking a meal for the middle school whiz kids, but that happens maybe once a month.  i serve in the nursery at church two sundays a month, but i have lots of great time during the week with matsy, and i really want to be able to use it to help someone (in a way that matsy can do with me).
2. resolution: there's a great ministry in denver called open door ministries, which has a few residential houses to serve homeless men, women coming out of prostitution, and single moms.  i started an application a few weeks ago to babysit for the single moms so that they can do things like work and go to school, but i need to actually finish it.  as a new mom, i understand how totally overwhelming motherhood can be, and i have an awesome support network.  i want to help provide support for other moms, and it seems like it'd be something that i could easily do with matsy during the day or on nights when scott's at class.  also, i want to be open to other service opportunities that come up.

so there we have it!  play with matsy more, make and do a to-do list, schedule my time better, date nights with scott, find healthy new foods to play with, plan in bible reading time, lay the smack down on grocery spending, and babysit for some single moms.

overall our life is in a pretty awesome place, but in general i feel like you're either moving forward or backward, and goals keep me moving forward.  sink or swim!  and for the record, these are all mental goals i've been ruminating on and working toward anyway, i just decided to list them out for better processing and in honor of the new year.