Cold Turkey

Lily is done nursing. This was my decision, not hers. I know breast is best, blah blah blah, but I was just done. She was only nursing two or three times a day, and it was completely for comfort, not nutrition. She was starting to bite and was trying out gymnastic moves while nursing. A couple of weeks ago I just decided to stop. I did it for 20 months, and that's enough. Now that she's old enough to ask for it she's old enough to be comforted in other ways. 

The first day was pretty rough. All she did was cry and cry and cry and would not be consoled by anything. The next day was much better. She only cried once, and was mollified by us both crawling into her hut and reading a couple of books together. 

The real challenge has been nap time. She usually takes a nap sometime between 11 and 1, and it's either in the stroller, the car, or she nurses to sleep. Because of allergies I've been pretty tired lately myself, so I had been enjoying just being able to lie down with her, nurse real quick, and a take a nap in the middle of the day. Also, I've just always been a napper. Even through college I managed to get a mid-day nap in a couple of times a week. At my first job at the environmental firm, there was a break room specifically designed for quick 20 minute naps. I loved it. 

Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to walking or driving for two hours a day without a nap for me. She hasn't been nursing to sleep at night, so I figured we'd give it a shot and just lie down, no nursing. She cried and pulled at my shirt for 40 minutes before passing out in anger. The next day, it only took 5 minutes. And after that there's been no crying at all, she just snuggles up next to me and we go to sleep. It's wonderful. 

I've been avoiding sitting in our usual nursing spot so she isn't reminded of what she's missing out on. It's been two weeks now, and she's completely over it. Every once in a while she pats my chest and says "mama" (her sign for nursing) and then smiles and shakes her head no. This is usually followed by a hug and a request to read a book. 

It's been nice to wear real clothes again and not have to worry about easy access. And I think it's helped her cope with getting upset in public. I haven't been nursing in public for a long time now, mostly only at home. But if she was really tired or upset she would cry and pull at my shirt until we got home or to the car/stroller where I could strap her down and she could sleep. Now she just comes over for a quick hug and runs off again. 

Of course I did some googling on this subject AFTER I just decided to stop. And all of the advice sites say to do it gradually. Oh well, she doesn't seem any worse for wear. It has been gradually less and less since she turned one in July, so I guess that counts. 

Sick Kid Etiquette

So the not so unofficial rule of parenting is if your kid is sick, you keep them away from other kids as much as possible. In general, this is a good rule. And I'm pretty good at following it. When Lily gets sick we don't go on play dates or to music class and we usually just chill at home taking it easy. 

Today that just wasn't going to cut it. I was antsy. I didn't want to watch a lot of TV. Lily doesn't sit still for very long when reading. I'm sick of the cold and wind. I'm too much of a wimp to brave it for a walk, and I didn't want Lily to be out in the cold too much. But we needed to go somewhere. She just had a runny nose, so I figured a museum would be ok. Public places are filled with germs anyways, so I thought she wouldn't be contributing too much to the germ pool. 

So we went to check out the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. I had heard about the Butterfly Haven as a good place to go with stuffed up kids. It's warm and humid and they can just wander around looking at butterflies and birds and plants and fish. And it's free on Thursdays! 

It was fun, but it was also packed. We stayed for about an hour before Lily was ready for a nap. She slept the whole way home, through a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some soup for lunch, and all the way up until we got inside the apartment. 

She wasn't that interested in drinking water or milk today, and I don't want her to fill up on juice, so we had a tea party. With real tea. Barely warm herbal orange blossom tea, but real tea nonetheless. She thought it was great fun and gulped down a couple of teacups full. Then she was just more interested in pouring the liquid from the pot to the cup to the sugar bowl and back again. We might do it again tomorrow if she's still congested. 

So I apologize to any parents who took their kid to the Nature Museum today and they came home with a cold. What kinds of parenting faux pas do you commit? 

Back to work

I've been back at work at the bakery for about a month now. It's tiring, but I really enjoy it. 


Right up until I started again I was seriously debating about going back at all. Last summer I NEEDED to work. I needed to feel like something other than a mother. Maybe it was the two weeks plus of 100* temperatures or I don't know what, but I was feeling really trapped. 


This year, not so much. Lily is my little buddy and we have a pretty good time hanging out together. We go places, we do things, we see people, it's all fun. I was worried that if I went back I would be missing out on lots of fun things. But I told myself I couldn't make that decision until I actually went back to see how it felt for a while. 


Turns out I still really like cake decorating. I talked with my boss, though, and I'm only going to work one day a week. Last summer I was working two or three days, and while it was what I wanted it was still pretty tough. Surprisingly, cake decorating is hard work. You're standing in awkward positions, bending down frequently to scoop icing, carrying around 30+ pounds of cake, washing, sweeping, climbing ladders for supplies, and all manner of random things. 


One day a week for this last month has been just perfect. It gets me out of the house and out of mommy-mode. I get to be creative and still spend a ton of time just hanging out with Lily. Every once in a while I think about what my life would be like if I took the museum job instead. And every time I do, I come away knowing that I do not regret my decision even one little bit. Having so much fun and so much free time to enjoy silly things like naps (see later post) make it totally worthwhile. 
I'm looking forward to many days at the beach, impromptu museum trips, and just being outside (once this cold and wind goes away!). Come on summer!

The Garden

Last week we finally got started on our garden. With all the  nice weather we've had it's been tempting to get out there earlier, but I decided to follow my gardening book's advice and plant things when they were supposed to be planted. And given that it might frost here tonight, I'm glad I did. After clearing out last seasons plants we spread some carrot, radish, and spinach seeds in large blocks. When the time is right we'll add some tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and watermelon. I'm SOOO excited to try to grow watermelon. 

Last fall I planted some tulip bulbs in a little corner of our plot so we would have something growing in the spring. I love tulips. Lily likes to try to pat them gently and smell them. She loves going down to the garden in general. She has her own little watering can that she uses and a little set of gardening tools from my aunt and uncle (Hi Boisses!). It's a little tough to keep her from trampling on the dirt, but she's only 25 pounds, I figure she can't do that much damage. 

We planted this strawberry plant last year. It was called a long-season strawberry plant. It grew exactly three strawberries last year and then proceeded to just spread and spread and spread. Well, it came back this year and there a TONS of blooms on it. I am super excited to see if we get to eat any of the strawberries this year. Our lavender bush is still going strong. And I was surprised to see that a few of our chard plants survived as well. So we harvested some for a delicious side dish (recipe below). We're going to pull those plants out in a bit because that's where we're going to plant the melons. 

And here is our little indoor garden. On top we have potted basil, mint, and african violets. Underneath we are sprouting peppers and broccoli in the little greenhouse. Lily's Valentine strawberry seedlings are doing pretty well, too. And on the bottom is a tiny fern that I've done my best to kill, but it keeps chugging along. Lily really likes to help me water all of the plants and sometimes she just goes and stands nearby gazing at them. As much as I miss our cat, Duncan, having a cat-free house means you can have way more plants inside and I'm enjoying that. 

So that's our garden this year. There will be many more updates as things start to actually grow. 

***

Sauteed Swiss Chard with Parmesan Cheese (from AllRecipes.com)

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/2 small red onion, diced (we used green onions because that's what we had)
• 1 bunch Swiss chard, stems and center ribs cut out and chopped together, leaves coarsely chopped separately
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste (I would recommend using less than this much)
• 2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• salt to taste (optional)

Directions

1. Melt butter and olive oil together in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the garlic and onion, and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the chard stems and the white wine. Simmer until the stems begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chard leaves, and cook until wilted. Finally, stir in lemon juice and Parmesan cheese; season to taste with salt if needed.

I think this would be delicious if you tossed in some pancetta, too. 

The Reading Hut

This awesome little cardboard house was a gift from my mom. They sell these all over, but she got this one real cheap from Zulily. Such an awesome site. We set it up in the Lilypad mid-February, I guess it was. It quickly became her favorite place for reading. 

Here she is with the sun streaming in, sitting in her little camp chair reading a book about international babies. 

And this is the view from the little skylight in the roof. Aside from reading by herself, her next favorite thing to do is demand that either Joe and I get in there with her and read to her. Here she is 'counting' all the different things the Very Hungry Caterpillar eats on Saturday. Oh how this warms my heart. 

And just this week we started to color on it. I obviously drew the main items, but Lily sure loves to help color things in and add her own flair. I will probably regret teaching her it's okay to draw on some walls very soon, but for now this is too much fun to pass up. 

Resolution Check-in 3

1) Exercise for 20 minutes per day. I did not rock this one this month. I worked out 23 out of 31 days. Still hovering around 160lbs. Excepting the week we were on vacation I did manage to run and lift once each per week. And we did a ton of walking while we were in Memphis, so I don't feel too bad about it. At the moment I'm feeling sick so I'm not going to be ambitious and change anything.  

2) Send one letter per week. This is getting easier and easier. Mail begets mail, apparently. Once you send a letter to someone, they usually respond with a letter, and the cycle just keeps going. I also sent another cake for my father-in-law's birthday.  

3) Bake and decorate one thing outside of work per month. My brother is engaged! So I made him a cake! It is a delicious chocolate fudge cake with white chocolate butter cream icing covered in ivory vanilla fondant. I made the bow with fondant and a little bit of gumpaste to make it a little bit stiffer. This isn't the greatest picture, but on top there are two small birds with a heart in the middle, like those old folk art stencils. 

4) Stop comparing myself to other moms. I had an epiphany this month. I am a mom who goes and who does. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to take Lily places. Because we live so close to excellent public transportation, we've become members at most of the Chicago museums so we can go whenever we want for however long we want. And now that she's getting to be a more reliable walker, I can even leave the umbrella stroller at home making the bus all that more easy. Lily really enjoys taking the bus, too. She likes to flirt with all the passengers, look out the windows at the tall buildings, and when there's enough room she gets to feel very grown up sitting in her very own seat. We usually go somewhere fun at least once a week. We also just randomly go outside for a quick walk to the big park near the lakefront most days. Lily prefers the big open green space where she can chase the birds and squirrels and hug the trees to the play lot. Although if there are some little kids playing on the playground, she'll run over and join in. But left to her own devises she's a little nature girl I think. I love it. 


And I've come to terms with my impatience with play. I'm happy to get down on the ground and play with Lily for a finite period of time, but I just can't do it all day. And I'm not good at planning activities or crafts together. My obsessive need to clean and cook and do laundry, just generally DO THINGS, won't let me just entertain her for long periods of time. So now that she's big enough, it's getting easier to simply include her in what I'm doing anyway. If I'm washing the dishes after breakfast, she usually runs over to her kitchen to make me a second breakfast. She gets it all set up at her little table and chairs, and when I'm done with the first set of dishes, then I go sit at her little table and we have second breakfast together. Then while I finish cleaning up the rest of the kitchen, I give her a plastic tub of soapy water so she can wash her dishes, too. Everyone is entertained, and things are getting done. Same with cooking in the evening. She's pretty good at scooping and stirring so I can have her help me measure things. And don't get her started on laundry, it's her favorite thing in the whole wide world. Maybe I'm turning her into a tiny little housekeeper, but that's okay. We play and have lots of fun in between getting done what needs to get done. 


So I'm settling into a groove, and it feels good. Hooray for a little bit of self-confidence. 

Memphis

This post comes with a soundtrack. Please click here to listen to my YouTube playlist while you read the rest.

We took The City of New Orleans, an overnight train, to Memphis, Tennessee for spring break. It was awesome. Here's the proof.

Our train was to depart at 8PM, so we got to Union Station early for dinner and to give Lily a chance to run around and burn some energy before getting on the train. Here she is peering off a balcony at daddy, who took the picture. 

We had reserved a roomette on the train. Basically it's a private little space with two seats that fold down into a bed with another bed that folds down from above. Here we are all smashed into one seat for our first attempt at a cheesy hold your arm out picture of the trip. The train was awesome. We had a big window, all your meals are included (surprisingly they served dinner to us around 9:30 in the dining car), and it's more comfortable than a plane. Lily and I snuggled into the lower bunk while Joe climbed into the upper. Once Lily fell asleep, she slept soundly the whole night. Then we woke up at 6 and got off the train in Memphis. On the way back we got to have breakfast in the dining car and then sat in the lounge car watching the sunrise for a while. This is definitely a cool and efficient way to travel if you have kids that sleep well. The second picture is Lily holding her baby up to the window so she can see the view as well. 

The first day we spent mostly renting a car, getting supplies, and checking into the hotel and then resting. The day after that we visited the Shiloh National Military Park, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War battle which took place there. This is the battle where John Wesley Powell lost his arm (a general badass, but of particular importance to geology - he was the first to go through the Grand Canyon, with one arm). We took a million pictures, but this one is pretty representative of the whole day. Walking around in pretty woods with Lily trying to pick things up along the way. It was pretty great. 

Sunday Lily and I spent the early afternoon in the Memphis Botanical Garden's My Big Back Yard, their children's garden. It's similar to the Children's Garden at the Morton Arboretum. Lily had a blast. Here she is making some 'soup' outside of one of the cutest play houses I've ever seen. I'm totally making one of these once we have a yard of our own. And just below she's standing in front of a bottle tree and painted gourd chain that I will also be constructing at our own place. 

The next two nights we splurged and stayed at the Peabody Hotel, home of the famous Peabody Ducks. They are these ducks that live on the roof of the hotel, and every day at 11 they ride down an elevator and march into the lobby where they climb up into a fountain to spend the day. Then at 5 they reverse the ceremony and go up to roost for the night. I'm not sure how I feel about the poor little ducks, but Lily LOVED them. Every time we got in the elevator she started to quack because she knew we were going to see the ducks. 

For the first time Lily had fun swimming in the pool. She seriously thought she was a fish and wanted to take off all on her own. She was kicking and paddling like a little baby swimming machine. 

Obligatory cheesy picture of us on Beale Street. Lily was asleep in the stroller so it's just the two of us, like old times. 

We only rented a car for the first few days, so after that we walked and took public transportation, which in Memphis means trollies! They were so fun, and cheap. Lily had a blast riding next to the open air windows and every time one rolled past us she would stop and point and say "Wow!"

The last night in Memphis I took Lily up to the roof to say goodnight to the ducks. They have their own little miniature Peabody Hotel, a nice pond, and lots of space to waddle around. As we were riding up the elevator, a bunch of men got on wearing AutoZone name tags. When we got to the top there was a big sign that said "Closed for a private event." I was crushed. What do you do once you've told a toddler you're going to say goodnight to the ducks for the last time and then you can't do it? Well, a nice man from the elevator said "Go on, no one will mind." So Lily and I snuck onto the roof, where there were a few scant cocktail tables and not a lot of people yet. When we got to the Duck Palace they were all snuggled up and asleep. One hen was near the door and Lily squatted right down next to her and said "Ni-ni" in a quiet little voice. I just about melted into the roof it was so sweet. Then as we walked back towards the elevators she of course started quacking loudly, attracting the attention of all the big burley AutoZone men and they all laughed.  

The view from our window at the Peabody. 

All in all, it was a great trip. And a much needed vacation from studying and cleaning and craziness. I'm going to write a whole separate post about what and where we ate because it was that good. As much fun as we had, we're definitely glad to be back!