The Bower Family Happenings

Trains and Lights

2012-01-30T12:10:00.000-08:00

This weekend was fun, productive, delicious, and relaxing. Dave was home with Eddie on Friday...I'm not sure what they did since I was at work, but I'm sure it involved watching some Dinosaur Train, collecting the chicken eggs, eating lots of snacks, and a nap for at least one of them.

That night I finally made Buffalo Chicken Dip...sorta. Instead of mixing chicken into the dip, we made sandwiches with sliced breast meat, cheddar cheese, and crunchy lettuce on French bread, using the dip as a sandwich spread. Lordy, it was goooooooooood. I didn't take a picture because we were starving and ate the sandwiches right up. Although the sauce was spicy, even Eddie liked it!

Saturday morning baby Josh came over to hang out with us for a few hours while his parents did their taxes. We got a late start heading off to the train museum, so Dave asked if we could keep Josh for several hours instead of just a few. Surprise, surprise, his parents didn't mind!

First, we got corn dogs and fries near the museum and ate on a bench in the warm sunshine. Then we headed inside...which was a little tricky since the double BOB stroller doesn't fit through the regular entrance doors. Dave asked inside and they showed us a side double door to use.

Once inside, Eddie ran over to the gift shop entrance and played with the turn stile. It popped up and smacked him in the nose, making him cry and bleed a little. Hopefully that'll be the only time it happens.

Dave has taken Eddie to the museum several times but they've never gone upstairs to where the big Thomas and Friends play tables are. Since Josh can't walk very fast (he just learned), I figured playing upstairs would be good since he could hold onto the toy trains and the tables for support. I don't know what it is about playing up there, but EVERY SINGLE TIME we do, Eddie poops and I have to change him there. It doesn't bother me, but it is weird that this area makes him poop (and it isn't a "time of day" thing because we've gone to the museum at all hours of the day). This time, BOTH boys pooped (so it's not just MY child this happens to!). Dave and I each got to deal with one.

By this time Eddie had missed his nap and was getting a bit cranky. We went downstairs to check out the tunnel and the wheelbarrow (normally Eddie's favorite downstairs attraction, oddly enough). But this time he just wanted to climb up on the displays, which is not allowed. So we told him that if he either walked calmly back outside or let us buckle him into the stroller, we could get some ice cream. He hopped right up into that stroller without a fuss!

We got cones for us adults and a cup of chocolate for Eddie (Josh had a pear and about 10 million fishy crackers), which we ate while meandering over to the water. That side of the river is pretty ghetto and nasty but it was a nice change of scenery. We let Eddie run around a bit, careful to keep him away from the steep slope leading down to the gross water.

At about 4pm we dropped Josh back off to his parents and then headed to Home Depot to buy some lights for the living room. I had hoped Eddie would fall asleep in the car, but he didn't and was therefore a bit of a terror inside the store. He and I ended up hanging out in the van watching Robots while Dave finished getting all the supplies. Like most projects, however, he ended up making a few phone calls to my dad and making another trip back to Home Depot the next morning to exchange something.

Sunday morning he installed lights on top of the bookcases and rigged them to some of those remote-controlled outlets so I can turn them on and off easily (from our holiday lights stash). I wanted more light in the living room so I can see more easily to fold laundry and knit while watching TV. With our TV now mounted up on the wall, the ceiling fixture reflection is smack in the middle of the screen. It is SO ANNOYING. And since I rarely do nothing while watching TV (like, just sit there and watch--I'm nearly always doing something else as well), I end up sitting in the dark. We had a pole light in there, but it wasn't enough for knitting (maybe THAT's why the cabled section of my legwarmers doesn't look right??). The light fixtures are ugly and the bulbs are bare (read: super bright when you look right at them) so Dave will cut and stain some wooden trim to put up on the bookcases to hide them. For now I am using the cardboard boxes the lights came in.

I still can't believe just how bright it is in there now--it's like daylight. And it brightens the kitchen considerably. We were going install 6 canister lights in there, but this is better since we can take the lights with us when we move (and they don't require a building permit).

That afternoon I took Eddie out front with me while I weeded the winter veggie garden bed (carrots, turnips, diakon radishes, and red cabbage). He was a good helper, emptying the buckets of weeds for me whenever I asked. It was sooooooo warm outside in the sun that we wore hats and I took off my sweatshirt. When Dave was done fixing the phone line in the backyard, he brought each of us a Popsicle. Yum!

For dinner, I defrosted 3 Indian dishes from the deep freeze (butter chicken, brinjal (I added paneer cubes before serving), and veggie vindaloo, to which I added some lamb). I used up an acorn squash by making one new dish, which was super yummy. And of course I made naan, but tried using half whole wheat flour this time.

Would it be weird for a while girl to open an Indian restaurant in Gualala? Just kidding. I'd really love to open a twice weekly cafeteria, though. One of those restaurants that serves only one meal any given day, whatever the chef chooses to make. So it'd be like eating in my house and I could vary the menu however I wanted...Thai one day, Indian the next, Japanese, Italian, Mexican, Southern, etc. Dave's grandmother used to own the local hotel and operated an Italian restaurant downstairs. It'd be fun to carry on that sort of tradition, don't you think? (Now I just need to figure out a way to be a scientist, mother, wife, AND restauranteur all at the same time...)

THE EXAM

2012-01-26T21:59:00.000-08:00

Warning: looooooooooong post ahead! I started this back in September and just now finished it. I wanted to have a complete record of the experience of preparation, execution, and celebration (such as it was). Most students will tell you that they don't remember most (or any) of the questions asked during their exam. Maybe the were so overwhelmed that they couldn't remember or maybe they chose not to remember because it was a bad experience. Mine was a good experience and I know that in the future I'll want to remember what exactly happened.

Ah, the qualifying exam. I'm glad it is behind me, but it still doesn't seem like it is behind me. Not that I'm still dreading it or anything, but it wasn't a painful or traumatizing experience like I thought it would be. For so many years I was used to saying, "I still haven't taken my exam." And now I won't have to say that anymore. Woo!

My workspace in the office I share with three other students.

Here are some pictures of my big ass QE binder, into which I filed all my notes according to subject and sub-subject area:

I should have weighed this thing, it was heavy.

The key for me was organization (and lots of tabbed dividers).

And here are examples of my notes. And yes, these are very basic concepts--if you hammer those down solidly, then understanding bigger concepts is a cinch.

A week before the exam I wrote myself a little note (in purple chalk) on the back patio while I was playing out there with Eddie. I answered it in pink the morning after the exam when I checked on the chickens.

Two days before the exam I made a batch of flashcards for each of the "major" things I figured I'd need to know: extraction schemes, plots of isotope trends, enthalpy equations, types of chemical bonding, etc.

The night before the exam we went to Costco for some shopping and to eat pizza for dinner. Later, I had Dave quiz me using my flashcards. Remarkably, he was able to decipher what I'd written on the cards and correct me when I was wrong. For someone who hasn't take chemistry since high school, that's pretty amazing!

After that, we watched something on Netflix. I checked my phone for emails before hopping into bed. I had one from a family friend of the Bowers, wishing me luck the next day. The email ended with, "if you're reading this tonight, STOP, and go to bed! It is late!" Indeed, it was nearly 12am.

The morning of the exam was leisurely. I took a shower, made omelets for Dave and I (he'd dropped Eddie off at preschool earlier), did the dishes, then got dressed. I got to my office, dressed in the only pair of black slacks and sleeved non-t-shirt that I own.

I texted Jennifer a picture of myself a few days before to see if she approved of my outfit.

I handed the sack of snacks and bottles of water to my friend, Yumi, so she could set them out for me--in some departments it is the norm for a student to provide refreshments for the faculty members during the exam; in my department, however, it is considered "bribery" so a friend usually pretends to provide them instead.

My labmate, Garrett, whisked me away to coffee once I was sure I had my laptop, charger, projector, laser pointer, etc. all organized in my backpack. He promised we "wouldn't talk science" so I wouldn't get nervous. HA. We started talking about our home renovation projects, our adorable kids, stay-at-home mothering versus working parents with daycare, etc. But then some of his colleagues from one of his research projects walked by...and when he introduced me to them, he mentioned my imminent exam (like an hour away at this point). So of course I had to explain what I was studying, blah blah blah. Sigh. It was only then that I really became nervous about the exam. Logically, I was fine. But my nauseous stomach felt otherwise.

I'd packed a small, calorie-rich lunch to eat an hour before the exam. I knew from my three-hour long practice session a few week prior that I would get HUNGRY and tired by the end. But of course, I was too nauseous to eat much.

All too soon it was 12:40pm so I went into the room I had reserved to set up my laptop and projector, get out my laser pointer, and arrange the set of new dry erase markers I'd brought from home (how embarrassing would it be to realize all of the markers already in the room didn't work?!).

At 12:55pm people started arriving and chatting with me and with each other. Once everyone was there, it all began.

My committee chair, Randy, asked me if I had a preference for the order in which each professor questioned me. I said I didn't--but what else was I supposed to say? "Please have that professor go last and that one go first." It'd have shown my nerves and my expectations about the difficulty of each person's questions. Anyway, next he asked me to step out of the room while they discussed a few things. So I sat in the hall for a few short minutes, and then he invited me back inside. He asked me to begin by telling them all a bit about me: who I am, how I came to be at Davis, etc.

I knew he'd ask this, so I had written something out the night before and saved the document as "Who I am.doc." Isn't that hilarious?

I am a CA native, raised in the Bay Area. After high school, I received my bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Saint Mary’s College.

After graduation, I worked as a “field chemist” at an environmental consulting firm where I managed hazardous waste and chemical inventories for public school districts. While working there, it became clear that I needed to extend my education in order to do something more—I needed more intellectual stimulation and to be in a situation where I could always be learning new things.

For graduate school, I was interested in applied chemistry programs. I’ve always been interested in tangible processes. The Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry graduate group here at Davis fit the bill perfectly.

I entered UCD as a PhD student in the fall of 2006. During my first year I joined the Claassen lab, which sparked my interest in thermal analysis and soils and regenerated my life-long love affair with compost.

After a series of economic and family related issues, I decided to change to the Horwath lab between my third and fourth years where I have continued to study compost and thermal analysis.

The interdisciplinary aspect of this graduate group suits be well—I enjoy taking classes from many departments and learning about other fields of science from my classmates. As you know, UCD is a land grant university, whose mission is to spread new information to the general population and there are programs on campus that help researchers do that. One example is the John Muir Institute for the Environment’s “environmental leaders” program, which I joined a few years ago and have learned about translating scientific results to laypeople.

I’m still not sure what I’d like to do when I grow up—but it will need to be a position where I am constantly learning new things. (Teach, cooperative extension, etc.)

Everyone was smiling and nodding the whole time. At the end, my first major professor, Vic, asked a clarifying question: "So Julie, you said you entered UCD as a Ph.D. student, right? Were you always a Ph.D. student?" Knowing Vic's supportive, fatherly nature toward me, I knew being completely honest was okay. I explained that I had switched to the masters track at one point due to "the economy, my pregnancy, and family medical issues" but that after I returned from maternity leave I realized that completing my doctorate was something I really wanted (and that it was a now or never situation). I got bigger smiles and a silly "ta da!" type hand wave motion from my committee chair that I could begin my presentation.

So I stepped through the presentation, answering questions as they arose. Of the five committee members present, three knew every last detail of my project by heart and the other two just didn't care. They were there to moderate and test me on my general soil science/compost chemistry/thermodynamics knowledge. I think it took me about an hour to get through the presentation. My last, "thank you" slide also included two personal pictures and I explained why I included each of them. It made everyone giggle a little.

Me in 1985, quite dirty after a day of sifting compost with my dad, asleep on the grass.

Eddie in 2010, wearing a cute shirt given to me by a friend. Hopefully he will also love compost someday as much as I do!

The chair asked me if I'd like a bathroom break, which I gladly accepted. In the hall I saw a specialist from my lab, who gave me a thumbs up on my way to the drinking fountain. I went back to the room and opened the door to find the committee have a gab-fest and laughing their heads off. One of them shooed me out the door and said they'd let me know when I could come back inside. Oops! I didn't get the impression that they were chuckling about me, but just blowing off steam and hanging out. My impression was actually that they weren't taking the exam as seriously as I was...which, I suppose, is perfect.

Once I was back in the room, the chair told me that he would have Professor V start (a biological engineer who works on composting projects; I'd never taken a class with her so I wasn't sure how "deep" or hard her questions would be). I admit that I was nervous and that I was worried that I'd embarrass myself in front of everyone. (I think my biggest fear during the whole exam prep and actual exam was that I'd turn out to be an idiot.)

As it turns out, the questions Professor V asked me during our pre-exam meetings were much, much more difficult for me to answer. She asked, "Why is doing PLFA analysis better than doing some other type of microbial biomass assessment...like nucleic acids?" I answered by saying that I wasn't familiar with nucleic acid analysis/extraction, but that the benefit of PLFA is that these membrane-bound compounds are rapidly destroyed when microbial cells die so when extracted, they represent only the living biomass. She was nodding like crazy and then answered the rest of the question for me: "Right, things like nucleic acids remain in the system even after the living cells die so you end up over estimating the size of the biomass." I thought to myself, "Jeez, that was easy. I hope she asks me a harder question." Her next (and last!) question was equally easy and I was honestly quite disappointed. She just wanted me to list each of the compound types I expect to be combusting during each of the two exotherms on my plots (which I had laid out a few times during my presentation and in my proposal). I figured she'd contest some of my explanation and make me realize I was totally wrong. Instead, she wanted to know why cellulose would have a higher estimated combustion temperature than simple sugars. At first I just said it was because the cellulose is more complex so there are more intramolecular bonds that needed to break. She wanted a little more than that, like what bonds and why. So I drew glucose (as simple a sugar as they come) and then realized she wanted me to talk about all the hydrogen bonds between all the glucoses (which make up cellulose).

Next up was Vic. Ah, Vic. I knew he'd be fun. At this point I can only remember one of his questions (but I saw that he had a list of about 5 at the time). He pulled out a paper with one of my thermograms on it (the heat flow through a compost sample that had been heated from room temperature up to 1000C). He said, "Okay, so let's pretend I'm a scientist who "does chemistry" a little different than you. Let's pretend I decide that you've done YOUR work wrong and your plot really should look like this." And he shows everyone how he's redrawn the middle of my plot so the whole thing is one giant exothermic reaction, instead of two. I laughed a little because I knew where this was going (we'd had this conversation many, many times). He wanted me to explain why his answer was wrong and why my plot was right (two exos instead of one). That was easy since I could use the mass loss to prove that there were at least two (and possibly three) classes of compounds reaction in that temperature range that each seem to produce their own thermal response to the applied heat.

He did ask one more question, but now I can't remember what it was...but while answering it he cut me off and said, "That's enough. You know your stuff. I have no more questions." And he pushed his list away from him.

Then Randy, my committee chair had his turn to ask me some questions. I had taken an awesome class called Biogeochemistry from him my first year. It was a catch-all course about soil and water and the atmosphere and all their interactions with each other. He pulled out a map of the USA's soil organic matter content. He had me explain why about 10 different locations have a given soil organic matter content (and the answers had to do with vegetation type, rain or snow fall, certain organic compounds (like terpenes), mean annual temperature, etc.). It was a super fun question (because I knew the answers) and I wished it had been longer! Then he asked a few soil physics questions like, "Which has a higher field capacity--sand or silt--and why?" (Answer: porosity due to particle size.)

Next was Will, my current major professor. Ah, Will. Whether in an exam, at a lab meeting, or having a personal meeting in his office, his questions always confuse me. Not necessarily because they are difficult but rather because he's not good at phrasing his questions. Often they sound more like statements instead of questions so you don't know whether he's asking something or just setting up to ask something later. First he asked me to list each of the major plant compound types (cellulose, lignin, hemicellulose, sugars, proteins, lipids) and then asked me to estimate the percent of total mass for each one. That wasn't so hard but I went slow to make SURE that my numbers added up to 100. Then he wanted to know which would have the most heavy carbon in them (C-13, as opposed to the much more common C-12). So I sketched out a diagram from my notes that very roughly outlined the biochemical pathway of these compounds and then added an axis for C-13 enrichment. He was fine with that.

Earlier, in my presentation, I had shown some "very, very preliminary" isotope data. He wanted to know why each of the exothermic regions had certain values, given the biochemical pathway thing I'd drawn previously. Some of the numbers (well, the order of the values) didn't make sense. I reminded him that the analytical method doesn't capture individual compound types, but rather compound classes, so there was sure to be some overlap and that the blending of real (but unmeasurable) values could lead to the measured values that we see in my novel method.

Next he wanted me to explain something about nitrogen availability to microbes versus plants (based on something I'd said during my presentation). I can't remember exactly, but as I started to answer I decided to draw out the nitrogen cycle so I could step through my answer. I guess he didn't want me to take the time to draw it out so he told me to stop! I asked him if I could keep drawing it because it would help me to see the cycle, so he finally let me. And thank goodness he did, because I recall not really knowing what he was actually asking until I had finished the diagram--and then it clicked. Whatever the question, I realized that my statement in the presentation had been backward so he accepted my corrected explanation.

And then he said "You know the Maillard and Browning reactions..." and his voice trailed off. I thought, "Crap, is that a statement or a question?" I didn't say anything so he said it again and I realized it was a question. I admitted that I know of those reactions and that I did learn them in organic chemistry and again in his soil carbon class years ago but that I couldn't remember them. "Not even the gist?" he asked. I think I said that I know they have something to do with protein and sugar and that they occur in soil and are what makes toast taste caramelized and delicious compared to untoasted bread (now how's that for fumbling?) He asked me to draw the reactions. "I don't remember them at all and I can't draw them for you," I said probably a little too firmly. After an awkward silence he shook his head and said, "Yeah, okay. I'm done asking questions."

I know that sounds awful, but that's a totally normal conversation between us. Him not being clear, me not understanding what he wants, and one of us eventually realizing we need to look something up (or that it isn't important to the issue at hand anyway).

Last to question me was Joy, the administrator of my fellowship at the time. She immediately said, "All right. I want to go back to something Will asked you." I glanced at the whiteboard where I'd draw out those diagrams during Will's turn. And I hear her say, "Now just back up." So what did I do? Yes...I'm embarrassed to say that I did actually back up. As in, I took a big step backward. I was so ready to do whatever they wanted me to do that I took her literally. I can laugh about it now, but it was embarrassing. She wanted me to give another explanation for my "very, very preliminary" isotope values (around -30 ‰). I didn't know exactly, but she egged me on until I realized it was because my reference gas value was, in her words, "plucked from the sky."

Next she wanted me to discuss whether my compost system was open or closed from an isotope perspective (answer: open since the respired CO2 is able to leave the system through holes in the jars during decomposition). She wanted to know what effect that would have on the residual substrate delta values (the compost material left to decompose in the jar). So I explained about how delta values are calculated as a ratio of ratios and that there is a linear relationship between delta values and % C-13 within a certain enrichment level. I also drew a graphical comparison of open versus closed systems' product versus residual substrate delta values. While explaining all this, she eggs me on to realize that the region in which using open versus closed equations matters is not within the scope of my experiment (I'm not using materials that are that enriched). After that she said she was done asking questions.

At that point, Randy told me that they'd like to have a few minutes to talk while I waited outside. So I grabbed my water bottle and sat on the couch in the hall. After about 5 minutes Joy asked me to join them inside. I walked in and Randy said, "Congratulations, Julie. You have passed." He explained that I should "work with Joy to brush up on my isotope knowledge" and that Professor V wanted me to take a decomposition course with a particular professor. Everyone shook my hand and then Randy gave me "the" form with his signature, proving to the Office of Graduate Studies that I was "qualified." Woo! He told me I'd have to pay a $90 fee to the accounting office (seriously?!) and then submit the forms to Grad Studies to make it all official. I looked at the clock and it was only 2:20pm. I finished 40 minutes early!

Once everyone left I gathered up the juice, water bottles, cheeses, and berries I'd brought (I mean my friend brought...) and then returned the projector to the main office. Then I texted my brother with "Woo!!!!!!" I went back to my office and got a reply text of "Does that mean you passed?" (Duh.) I walked into my office just as Will was walking out. Garrett jumped up from his desk and said, "So...did you pass???" I looked at Will, who shrugged and smiled and left. Garrett said that Will told him to ask me if I'd passed. As soon as I said, "Yes!" Garrett and I walked downtown to get a much needed drink (and food...I was starving since I'd not had lunch due to nerves). I called Dave and Edward to meet us at a Thai bar and restaurant. It was hot on the walk so I took off my sweater blouse thing and just wore my camisole. Trashy, but I did NOT care at that point.

We got to the bar and Yumi was already there waiting with tables. She took my driver's license and went inside to order us some drinks. About a minute later she came back out with a disappointed look on her face. The bar tender realized that my license was expired (back in March!) and therefore couldn't give me a drink. Phooey. So I said I just wanted a coke and some food, I was starving. Since it wasn't 5 yet they weren't serving food. Ahhhhhhhhhh, agony! About that time Dave showed up and then Edward and Jennifer, too.

My hunger disappeared for a few moments when I suddenly saw my DADDY walk into the bar! It was awesome, he came up as a surprise. Edward and Dave were working all afternoon on hiding it from me and figuring out a way of getting him to the bar without me knowing about it. Having my dad in a bar is one thing, but having him there when HE got to have a beer while I did not was just plain weird. I was literally counting down the minutes until 5pm, when I promptly ordered some appetizer plates. Later on, the Schwinds came by with their twins...it was nice but also sad since they were moving the very next day.

I'd rather not post these pictures here because they are terrible, but I want my future self and kids to see a picture from this day. I was so tired and hungry and mentally worn out from the exam that I look awful (and sleezy in that camisole!).

Eddie spent that night with Cassie so we could go out to celebrate. Normally your major professor will take you out to dinner, but Will had to take care of some family business instead. He told me he had to go pick up his mother's ashes (!!). It had been a year since she passed away and the funeral home needed him to finally come pick them up. Later I checked my email archives and saw that my exam was exactly one year after her death. Gah, I felt bad that I didn't realize earlier--I would have scheduled my exam differently if I could have.

So Dave, Edward, Jennifer, my dad, and I went to see The Help that night. It had just come out so the theater was packed full and we had to sit in the front row, meaning we had to lean our heads way back to view the screen. The movie was great, even in that crappy position, so I imagine it'd be even better seen from a normal vantage point. After that we decided to get some food, but since it was late our only option was Applebee's.

It wasn't until two months later, a full month after Dave had taken his water distribution exam that we got to have a celebratory drink. We went on a date during one of Cassie's "parents' night out" events to an Asian noodle bar and got some amazing ginger cocktails.

Overall, the exam was a good experience. The fear and anxiety was highest before I ever set the exam date, and then it steadily dwindled down to nothing as I studied and got myself and my notes organized. If you're about to take your exam and are worried, trust me: childbirth is way, way, way more work. And you can opt for an epidural when in labor. Unfortunately, you don't get one during your exam. But trust me, you won't need it. =)

New Year's Eve

2012-01-24T20:55:00.000-08:00

I realize this post is a little late...

We went to the bay area to celebrate the new year. We started our trip with a visit to Dyani's new apartment in Palo Alto. Her parents, brothers, and aunt/uncle were there so it was a very full house. Eddie and Batiste were like two peas in a pod: munching on chips, following each other around, and checking out Batiste's new big boy bed.

Eddie insisted that I sit in Batiste's bed to read them stories. Unfortunately I don't speak French so I couldn't read most of the books he picked out.

Batiste is such a sweetie--he was content just to sit on my lap in his little bed.

Donovan made a scrumptious pot roast dinner for all of us and I brought pecan shortbread cookies with some jars of lemon curd for dessert. That night we headed back to my parents' house full and contended.

Since Edward and Jennifer had been in New York visiting her family over the holiday, we waited until NYE to "do Christmas" (i.e., exchange gifts) with the Levies. They arrived in Livermore on the morning of December 31 so we got to hang out with them all day.

The neighbors across the road got some new horses in their pasture so we took Eddie over to see them. He thought the stray kitty following us around was much more interesting...but I loved petting the horsies and feeding them carrots and apples.

Once we got back inside, Eddie was suddenly interested in "riding the horsey." So we pretended that the dog crate was a horse by adding a reins (dog leash) and plopped Eddie right on top. I don't have pictures of it, but later that night we strapped his booster seat on top to act as a saddle so he wouldn't fly off when we pushed the crate around on the carpet.

I don't know where this fits in time-wise, but we did make some bread at one point. Eddie helped Grandpa with the kneading and was rewarded for his effort when Grandpa fashioned the dough into a choo choo train for him! We didn't bake it that way, but we should next time. How cool!

That evening we did our gift exchange. Eddie got some fun books and a fish tank from Uncle and Auntie! (His mama may have asked for it so she wouldn't have to clean the old bowl quite as often...) He spent most of his time going from person to person helping them open their gifts.

After exchanging gifts my parents and us Bowers went to see the lights at Deacon Dave's while Edward and Jennifer drove over to Dyani's house for her party. I don't think Dave had ever been so Deacon Dave's lights so was nice to share that experience with him. Eddie liked it so much that we went through a few times...and then stopped to play on the cement lions outside the gates!

That night Edward and Jennifer took off to Palo Alto to party with Dyani while we bedded Eddie and then headed to my friends' house down the road. I got to wear a new Stitch Fix dress and the gorgeous bead-and-crystal necklace my mom gave me for Christmas. Sorry, these are terrible pictures but they are all I have from that night.

Of course we got to the party way later than everyone else, but we still had some delicious cocktails and chatted with some seldom-seen friends until the ball dropped. Being lame parents, we scooted back home around 12:45am so we wouldn't be zombies the next morning when Eddie woke up.

Edward gave my dad a new landscape rake so we put it to the test before we drove back to Davis. Eddie insisted that he also get to use a rake, so my dad dug through the barn to find the old rock rake he'd cut down to kid-sized back when I was a tot.

And what's a trip to Grandpa's house without a ride in the wheel barrow?

It was a nice trip to Livermore that was just the right balance of fun and relaxing.

Icelandic Lamb Soup

2012-01-23T16:24:00.000-08:00

Kjotsupa! It pairs nicely with buttered, toasted bread.

For my dad's birthday meal we made a leg of lamb but had about 1 cup of meat left on the bone. So I Googled "lamb soup" and discovered that Iceland is known for a soup called Kjotsupa.

You can Google the recipe (there are hundreds since this soup is much like chicken noodle in that everyone has their own favorite proportions). Most recipes I found call for using water but I made stock from the remaining lamb bone so you'll see, below, that my measuring bowl if full of lamb stock. It is very plain soup, in my opinion. Everything is boiled so there aren't levels of flavor from browning the onion or anything. But it is still pretty tasty and is very inexpensive and easy.

I used purple potatoes and leeks since that was I had.

And turnips instead of rutabegas since I had some mature ones in the front yard garden.

Kairos Time

2012-01-19T13:20:00.000-08:00

A friend shared this via Facebook, and I wanted to put it here, too. I thought it was insightful and hilarious. I'm glad I'm not the only one whose favorite time of day is bedtime. And someday I, too, hope I will remember the toughest moments when I see a stressed out mama and be able to afford to help make her life a little easier.

Here's the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/glennon-melton/dont-carpe-diem_b_1206346.html

And here's the article (copyright Huffingtonpost.com):

Don't Carpe Diem
Glennon Melton | Jan 14, 2012 11:57 AM EST

Every time I'm out with my kids -- this seems to happen:

An older woman stops us, puts her hand over her heart and says something like, "Oh, Enjoy every moment. This time goes by so fast."

Everywhere I go, someone is telling me to seize the moment, raise my awareness, be happy, enjoy every second,etc, etc, etc.

I know that this message is right and good. But, I have finally allowed myself to admit that it just doesn't work for me. It bugs me. This CARPE DIEM message makes me paranoid and panicky. Especially during this phase of my life - while I'm raising young kids. Being told, in a million different ways to CARPE DIEM makes me worry that if I'm not in a constant state of intense gratitude and ecstasy, I'm doing something wrong.

I think parenting young children (and old ones, I've heard) is a little like climbing Mount Everest. Brave, adventurous souls try it because they've heard there's magic in the climb. They try because they believe that finishing, or even attempting the climb are impressive accomplishments. They try because during the climb, if they allow themselves to pause and lift their eyes and minds from the pain and drudgery, the views are breathtaking. They try because even though it hurts and it's hard, there are moments that make it worth the hard. These moments are so intense and unique that many people who reach the top start planning, almost immediately, to climb again. Even though any climber will tell you that most of the climb is treacherous, exhausting, killer. That they literally cried most of the way up.

And so I think that if there were people stationed, say, every thirty feet along Mount Everest yelling to the climbers -- "ARE YOU ENJOYING YOURSELF!? IF NOT, YOU SHOULD BE! ONE DAY YOU'LL BE SORRY YOU DIDN'T!" TRUST US!! IT'LL BE OVER TOO SOON! CARPE DIEM!" -- those well-meaning, nostalgic cheerleaders might be physically thrown from the mountain.

Now. I'm not suggesting that the sweet old ladies who tell me to ENJOY MYSELF be thrown from a mountain. These are wonderful ladies. Monkees, probably. But last week,a woman approached me in the Target line and said the following: "Sugar, I hope you are enjoying this. I loved every single second of parenting my two girls. Every single moment. These days go by so fast."

At that particular moment, Amma had arranged one of the new bras I was buying on top of her sweater and was sucking a lollipop that she must have found on the ground. She also had three shop-lifted clip-on neon feathers stuck in her hair. She looked exactly like a contestant from Toddlers and Tiaras. I couldn't find Chase anywhere, and Tish was grabbing the pen on the credit card swiper thing WHILE the woman in front of me was trying to use it. And so I just looked at the woman, smiled and said, "Thank you. Yes. Me too. I am enjoying every single moment. Especially this one. Yes. Thank you."

That's not exactly what I wanted to say, though.

There was a famous writer who, when asked if he loved writing, replied, "No. but I love having written." What I wanted to say to this sweet woman was, "Are you sure? Are you sure you don't mean you love having parented?"

I love having written. And I love having parented. My favorite part of each day is when the kids are put to sleep (to bed) and Craig and I sink into the couch to watch some quality TV, like Celebrity Wife Swap, and congratulate each other on a job well done. Or a job done, at least.

Every time I write a post like this, I get emails suggesting that I'm being negative. I have received this particular message four or five times -- G, if you can't handle the three you have, why do you want a fourth?
That one always stings, and I don't think it's quite fair. Parenting is hard. Just like lots of important jobs are hard. Why is it that the second a mother admits that it's hard, people feel the need to suggest that maybe she's not doing it right? Or that she certainly shouldn't add more to her load. Maybe the fact that it's so hard means she IS doing it right...in her own way...and she happens to be honest.

Craig is a software salesman. It's a hard job in this economy. And he comes home each day and talks a little bit about how hard it is. And I don't ever feel the need to suggest that he's not doing it right, or that he's negative for noticing that it's hard, or that maybe he shouldn't even consider taking on more responsibility. And I doubt anybody comes by his office to make sure he's ENJOYING HIMSELF. I doubt his boss peeks in his office and says: "This career stuff...it goes by so fast...ARE YOU ENJOYING EVERY MOMENT IN THERE, CRAIG???? CARPE DIEM, CRAIG!"

My point is this. I used to worry that not only was I failing to do a good enough job at parenting, but that I wasn't enjoying it enough. Double failure. I felt guilty because I wasn't in parental ecstasy every hour of every day and I wasn't MAKING THE MOST OF EVERY MOMENT like the mamas in the parenting magazines seemed to be doing. I felt guilty because honestly, I was tired and cranky and ready for the day to be over quite often. And because I knew that one day, I'd wake up and the kids would be gone, and I'd be the old lady in the grocery store with my hand over my heart. Would I be able to say I enjoyed every moment? No.

But the fact remains that I will be that nostalgic lady. I just hope to be one with a clear memory. And here's what I hope to say to the younger mama gritting her teeth in line:

"It's helluva hard, isn't it? You're a good mom, I can tell. And I like your kids, especially that one peeing in the corner. She's my favorite. Carry on, warrior. Six hours till bedtime." And hopefully, every once in a while, I'll add -- "Let me pick up that grocery bill for ya, sister. Go put those kids in the van and pull on up -- I'll have them bring your groceries out."

Anyway. Clearly, Carpe Diem doesn't work for me. I can't even carpe fifteen minutes in a row, so a whole diem is out of the question.

Here's what does work for me:

There are two different types of time. Chronos time is what we live in. It's regular time, it's one minute at a time, it's staring down the clock till bedtime time, it's ten excruciating minutes in the Target line time, it's four screaming minutes in time out time, it's two hours till daddy gets home time. Chronos is the hard, slow passing time we parents often live in.

Then there's Kairos time. Kairos is God's time. It's time outside of time. It's metaphysical time. It's those magical moments in which time stands still. I have a few of those moments each day. And I cherish them.
Like when I actually stop what I'm doing and really look at Tish. I notice how perfectly smooth and brownish her skin is. I notice the perfect curves of her teeny elf mouth and her asianish brown eyes, and I breathe in her soft Tishy smell. In these moments, I see that her mouth is moving but I can't hear her because all I can think is -- This is the first time I've really seen Tish all day, and my God -- she is so beautiful. Kairos.

Like when I'm stuck in chronos time in the grocery line and I'm haggard and annoyed and angry at the slow check-out clerk. And then I look at my cart and I'm transported out of chronos. And suddenly I notice the piles and piles of healthy food I'll feed my children to grow their bodies and minds and I remember that most of the world's mamas would kill for this opportunity. This chance to stand in a grocery line with enough money to pay. And I just stare at my cart. At the abundance. The bounty. Thank you, God. Kairos.
Or when I curl up in my cozy bed with Theo asleep at my feet and Craig asleep by my side and I listen to them both breathing. And for a moment, I think- how did a girl like me get so lucky? To go to bed each night surrounded by this breath, this love, this peace, this warmth? Kairos.

These kairos moments leave as fast as they come- but I mark them. I say the word kairos in my head each time I leave chronos. And at the end of the day, I don't remember exactly what my kairos moments were, but I remember I had them. And that makes the pain of the daily parenting climb worth it.
If I had a couple Kairos moments during the day, I call it a success.

Carpe a couple of Kairoses a day.

Good enough for me.

Eight Things

2012-01-16T17:56:00.000-08:00

1. Jennifer got a job at an advertising agency...something like account associate? I can't remember but I keep imagining Mad Men and just hope there'll be less infidelity and smoking.
2. Edward and Jennifer got their very own apartment. This is great for them since they've only ever lived together but with other people (roommates, a grandmother, us, or my parents). I can't wait to see Jennifer's decorating style!
3. Because they are moving into their own place, it means our house will soon be empty of a couch, a bed, some housewares, and linens (we basically absorbed Edward's stuff when he moved back here).
4. Eddie has been sleeping on Edward's queen bed, which has been in his room since June of 2010. So we ordered Eddie a twin bunk bed with a trundle. It is quite awesome, with a staircase instead of a ladder (that doubles as a dresser with drawers under each step). Because Eddie is so young, Dave didn't feel comfortable with the ladder and opted for the stairs. UPS tracking says it'll arrive on Friday and since Dave bought the mattresses at Costco yesterday, we'll be ready to assemble it as soon as Edward hauls his queen bed away.
5. I ordered a solid colored, king sized bedspread that I plan to cut into two and hem to the exact dimensions of the twin mattresses (as opposed to making them bigger, as most spreads are, so they can hang down over the edge of the bed). I might even sew one side of the flat sheet to the fitted sheet so it stays in place, too. I don't want to have to deal with the hassle of making a bunk bed (tucking in the sheets and blankets). I bought a set of "trains, cars, airplanes, and tractors" sheets and a jungle animal set, too. I think cartoon character bedspreads are tacky so I'm hoping he'll be satisfied with fun sheets and a plain top blanket.
6. My family will be visiting next weekend so we can celebrate my dad's birthday. I've already planned out the meal and I can't wait to eat it. I won't say what it is here on the blog because I don't want to ruin the surprise for my dad.
7. I love that Dave has today off. It made for a wonderful weekend that was so jam-packed full of fun and relaxation that it has felt like he's been here a whole week. Once I've offloaded the pictures of our weekend getaway I'll post about it--the food, wine, hotels, shopping, and childlessness. It was glorious.
8. There is a "hard freeze" weather advisory in effect for tonight and tomorrow so I just wrapped towels on the above ground irrigation line in the chicken house and plugged in the lights on the lemon tree and threw a sheet over the whole tree. I should probably bring the chicken waterer inside, too, once it is dark (and they are asleep) and bring it back out in the morning so it won't freeze solid. It'll be so cold tomorrow that it might take a long time to melt and I don't want them to be thirsty.

Operation: Playgrounds!

2012-01-11T19:50:00.000-08:00

Growing up, our family didn't have many traditions (beyond, perhaps, getting cans of smoked oysters in our stockings every year at Christmas/New Years). I've always been a little jealous of my friends who had sentimental or even quirky traditions.

Vacations, for example, were something done only with my mom and perhaps the Joneses. It wasn't really a "family" vacation, more like a trip with our moms. In college I was a geriatric caregiver to this woman named Georgia. She and her husband had a daughter and I loved listening to her stories about all their family traditions. One in particular was that each year the choice of the destination for the "big family vacation" rotated amongst the three of them. I thought that was awesome, so no one ever had to feel like they didn't get a say in what was "fun" or not. (I'd love to adopt this tradition in our family. Eddie's not old enough for that, obviously, but he will be in a few years.)

Along these lines, I thought I'd start a new tradition for our little family. The plan is to go to every single park in Davis for play time and a picnic of some sort. Davis isn't a big place, but it is in sunny California and is very family friendly so there are a LOT of parks--forty three parks, actually, according to this handy parks map I found online. Since I try to make everything educational, I did some reading about the "father of playgrounds and recreation," Joseph Lee and found a book I will try to read about parks, too. Lucky for Eddie, he's too young to get anything educational out of it so it'll be all fun for him.

On a see saw for the first time! At Whaleback Park, January 10, 2012.

He opted for the "big" swings (instead of the baby swing seats) at Whaleback Park.

Ideally we'll be able to visit all the parks in Yolo County before we move away after I graduate. Our county includes the cities of (and respective number of parks with play areas for kiddos): West Sacramento (14), Davis (43), Woodland (22), Esparto (0, sad), and Winters (1). I'm basing the last two cities' parks only on Google Maps since I can't find anything on their municipal websites.

Having a snack at the Mace Greenbelt Park on January 3, 2012.


He really liked climbing this fake rock at the Mace Greenbelt Park, January 3, 2012 (we stayed until it was too dark to see).

As of yesterday (when we went to Whaleback Park during our Tuesday afternoon off), we've been to only 10 parks in Davis. Considering we literally live next door to a park, it is hard to justify biking or driving across town to a new park so we visit "our" park many, many times a week. Hopefully Eddie and I will get to go to a new park each week that it isn't raining (in which case we'll go to the tractor museum, train museum, bounce place, or something else indoorsy).

Poor kid, I'm ruining him for our move to Gualala where there's only ONE park. I've always want a geodesic dome play structure...maybe we can get one for our kids when we move, to augment the recreation experience up on the coast? And a tree house, they'll definitely need a tree house...with a slide and a bucket pulley system to haul goodies up. And a trampoline. Can you tell I miss childhood?

Holiday Foods

2012-01-09T21:51:00.000-08:00

We ate some pretty tasty things this holiday season. Unfortunately, I didn't make everything on my list, in part because we weren't able to visit Gualala for a week as we intended so I had less cooking time. My in-law's were sick (and "run ragged" by their new puppy) so they didn't want us to visit last week. So I was back at work and away from Dave a week sooner than I'd hoped. I was seriously disappointed that we didn't get to visit...I don't think we've been up there since October!

So I'll just finish up my list over the next couple of weekends when Dave is home to eat with us. But here's what I did make over the holidays:

A couple of days post-Christmas we had cheese fondue, using whatever random foods we had left in the fridge for dipping (purple potato pancakes, broccoli and cauliflower, chicken, and bread).

For breakfast on New Year's Eve, my dad and I made Eggs Benedict. I'd never poached eggs the "real" way (swirling, barely simmering water, etc.)--mine are always more like "coddled" eggs when I nestle them into the ramen noodles when I make Asian soup. We made the Hollandaise sauce the night before and it was pretty easy. Like Julia Child says, once you master the egg yolk nothing can stop you in the kitchen! Instead of using English muffins, I made a loaf of rosemary French bread and grilled it in butter before topping it with the egg, ham, and sauce (a la Cafe Bernardo, my and Dave's favorite breakfast eatery here in Davis). We also just used some ham my dad had bought instead of Canadian bacon.

Eggs Benedict will be one of those educational meals to engage Eddie when he's older: learning about French sauces, why Hollandaise is named after Holland, the use of English muffins, Canadian bacon, etc. Quite the European and (colonial) English lesson!

Edward and Jennifer arrived later that day from New York so we had a feast ready for them: roasted trout, paella (with chorizo on the side since my dad doesn't like spicy stuff like that) and jalapeno poppers (Daddy didn't eat any).

It was very yummy...and particularly enjoyable since we adults ate our feast without Eddie, who was napping. Meals are so much easier (and quieter) without him around.

I stuffed the trout with fresh bay leaves, parsley, and lemon and it was daaaaaaaaang good.

Before roasting.

After roasting for 20 minutes at 375F (and cut in half).

Just yesterday I made donuts for breakfast. It was quite simple, really, but once you start frying it goes pretty fast.

That lumpy thing at the back of the stove is a half-pumpkin from our CSA that I roasted the night before. I think it'll become curried soup.

I made a half batch of dough the night before and let it do the first rise in the fridge over night. On Sunday morning I simply took it out, rolled and cut it, and let the second rise happen in a warm oven. To prevent the dough from deflating when I transferred each piece into the hot oil, I put each ring on a small piece of waxed paper and then sort of "dumped" them into the oil, as suggested some a reviewer of the recipe. Excellent suggestion!

I used a maple syrup glaze that I sort of made up...and it wasn't wonderful (didn't harden) so I need to work on it. But overall, the donuts were super delicious--more cakey than raised donuts from a proper shop, but more delicious I think. I fashioned ours into rings, holes, and one braided cinnamon-sugared "twist" for Dave. The boys certainly approved.

This coming weekend I'll make the buffalo chicken dip for an easy junk dinner on Saturday and mussels and fries on Sunday for dinner (perhaps I'll be able to make a Moroccan preserved lemon pilaf for Sunday lunch?). Having a quick, fun dinner dish like the dip on Saturday evening will be nice since we'll have just come home from a night-away date. More details on that later!

Breastfeeding Support Program Testimonial

2012-01-03T13:09:00.000-08:00

I posted this link on Facebook a while ago and forgot to put it here, too.

Eddie and I are featured on the UC Davis Foods for Health Institute's testimonials page for the Breastfeeding Support Program.

I've copied it all here because I'm sure this website will be deleted someday and I want to make sure Eddie gets to see it when he's older (see the copyright at the bottom of the page). One of the other kiddos featured goes to daycare with Eddie, so that's worth noting.

» News > 2011 > November > UC Davis Breastfeeding Support Group Members Share Their Stories

UC Davis Breastfeeding Support Group Members Share Their Stories

Contributors: Stephanie Maroney

— filed under: Lactation Study

Read the testimonials from members of the UC Davis community as they share their experiences in the Breastfeeding Support Group.

The Breastfeeding Support Groupis a vital program that enhances the quality of life for UC Davis employees,students, and the greater Davis community. This unique work/life program goesbeyond state-required policy to create an encouraging and supportiveenvironment where women can successfully breastfeed their children.
Staff members, graduate studentsand a faculty member share their experiences as members of the breastfeedingsupport group, and express with gratitude the sense of community that grew outof their time in the group. Specifically, all the women who providedtestimonials were thrilled to have the opportunity to praise the outstandingwork that Lactation Consultant Lonna Hampton has done for their families.

Min Yu, staff member After Min had her daughterSofia, she was surprised by how difficult it was to breastfeed. Min was renting a hospital-grade pump, struggling withunanticipated problems, and felt frustrated that she didn’t do more research beforetaking maternity leave from her job as a Student Advisor for the EnvironmentalScience and Management program at UC Davis.

When Sofia was about six weeksold, a friend recommended the Breastfeeding Support Group and Min was relievedto learn about the variety of resources funded by the University and provided to thecampus community. Ever since that moment, Min has been attending all thesupport group meetings and has reached out to Lonna Hampton, the program’slactation consultant, with “all kinds of questions.” Min says, “Lonna is veryexperienced and it so beneficial to have someone to listen to your storiesabout the challenges with breastfeeding.” Min describes Lonna's commitment to help baby Sofia learn to take pumped milk from a bottle when Min had to return to work, and howcomforted Min felt knowing that she had Lonna’s advice and expertise at hand.
When Min returned to work, shecontinued to attend the support group meetings. It was reassuring to hear thetroubles and successes of other new moms, which Min says helped to “normalizethe experience” of breastfeeding and “realize the benefits for my baby.” Shecontinues to rely on Lonna as resource, stating that “without her help, Iprobably wouldn’t have continued breastfeeding this long.” Now that she’s “apro,” Min can also provide guidance for other new working moms who strugglewith their baby’s peculiar schedules.

Elizabeth Guerra, staff member
Elizabeth began attending the breastfeeding support group meetings when she was still pregnant with her son, Santiago. Working in the Anthropology Department at UC Davis, Elizabeth learned from a friend about the benefits of the program including the lactation rooms, the breastfeeding classes, and the support group.

But what Elizabeth didn’t anticipate is that the program’s lactation consultant, Lonna Hampton, would become “her guardian angel." When asked about the most beneficial part of thebreastfeeding program, Elizabeth can’t possible quantify the value of Lonna’sparticipation: “Lonna falls in love with your family, and it’s incredible." Elizabeth has learned so much atthe support group meetings, which have helped make “being a mom as easy as itcan” with the encouragement of other moms, fathers, grandparents, andespecially Lonna. In the meetings, Elizabeth was able to connect with two othermoms whose kids are the same age and request additional lactation sites neartheir workplaces so that the three moms could have a choice in lactation siteswhen others were not available.
Elizabeth only wishes that morepeople knew about the program, and especially that women would attend whilethey were still pregnant to get information ahead of time. Elizabeth stressesthat breastfeeding is “a lifestyle – it changes your life completely.” But bybeing a part of a big network of breastfeeding moms in Davis, she has learnednot to feel any kind of stigma about it or to feel embarrassed about feeding herbaby in public.

Teresa Steele, faculty member
Teresa began attending thebreastfeeding support group meetings one month before her daughter Anna wasborn. She found out about the program from a handout she received about UCDavis’ Work Life Program at her new faculty orientation. When having a babycame onto her radar, she attended a seminar on maternity leave policies and sawthat it was easy to find information online and registered for thebreastfeeding support program.

Before Anna was born, Teresa had taken a breastfeeding class through her hospital with other families who weren’t yet nursing, but she credits the UC Davis support group meetings for really helping her understand what to expect. Teresa feels that it is an “absolutely fabulous program. It’s a big asset to Davis and a huge reason why breastfeeding worked for my daughter and me.” Teresa attended her secondbreastfeeding support group meeting in August, and her daughter was born thatnight. When Anna was a month old, Teresa went back to the meetings to shareinformation and resources with other, more experienced, moms. In addition tohelping Teresa and Anna get through the exhausting early weeks ofbreastfeeding, Lonna Hampton and the other mothers helped Teresa prepare forintroducing solids, going back to work, and many other issues thatdeveloped.
The other component of theprogram that Teresa found very useful is the lactation rooms. When she returnedto work, Teresa found that the nearest lactation site was frequently occupiedwhen she needed to use it. Teresa spoke with Lonna and they were able to openanother lactation room in her building. Teresa says that these rooms are“fantastic in terms of being able to maintain pumping. Even though I have aprivate office, I share the space, so the lactation room allows me to go into aquiet place and just think about my baby – I could block out work and my computer.” The more adjustable, hospital-grade pumpsalso allowed for a better pumping experience than her portable pump.
When she attending a recentsupport group meeting, Teresa saw all the new babies and was pleased to be avoice of experience. She says it’s a “nice completion of the cycle to be ableto pass on our experiences. I think the program is one of the things that makesDavis special and sets it apart from other UC campuses and other schools.”

JulieBower, graduate studentWhenJulie was pregnant with her son Eddie, she was also confronting some verydifficult events that affected her personally and professionally. At that time,she was a 3^rd year Ph.D. student in the Agriculture and EnvironmentalChemistry Graduate Group at UC Davis and Julie considered taking an extendedleave from her program. Although she was faced with challengingcircumstances, Julie made the decision to return to school because she feltthat UC Davis' supportive resources (including her professor, colleagues andclassmates) wanted her to continue. Julie then found outabout the breastfeeding support program through the Women’s Resource andResearch Center on campus and realized how much support the campus provides fornew mothers.

When Eddie was three months old, Juliestarting coming to campus to attend the support group meetings and wascomforted by the issues discussed by other mothers – issues that were verysimilar to her own. Since her partner lives away from home during the week,Julie found the support and encouragement she needed to continue her life as anew breastfeeding mom who also worked and pursued her Ph.D. Julie says that shedoesn’t know “if I would have been able to come back to school if it wasn’t forthat program.”
What Julie finds most useful about theprogram is the lactation sites on campus. Julie explains that “when you work ina lab, there isn’t any private space,” and since she is committed tobreastfeeding, Julie was prepared to delay her return to school if it meant shecould breastfeed at home. Julie needed a “haven to think about her baby, relax,have a snack and not think about work” and Lonna Hampton was able to direct herto a private lactation room, with a hospital-grade pump. The pumps provided by the campus made it easyfor her to provide milk for her baby every day, without the hassle of bringingher own heavy pump from home. Julie stopped using the lactationrooms when Eddie turned one year old, but she continued bringing him to thesupport group meetings to provide guidance to other mothers who face the sameproblems she worked through and to get advice on breastfeeding a toddler.

Lisa Sperber, graduate student
Lisa is a Ph.D. student in the English Department at UC Davis and firstheard about the Breastfeeding Support Program from an on-campus friend. Lisahas attended the support group meetings and plans to use the lactation sitesthis fall now that her son is attending part-time daycare, but the mostvaluable part of the program for Lisa has been the attention and knowledge oflactation consultant Lonna Hampton. Lisasays, “In addition to being a really knowledgeable, up-to-date lactationconsultant, Lonna is an exceptionally kind and supportive person during a time that can be a really difficult adjustmentperiod.” Lisa, like many new mothers, was overwhelmed by unexpectedcomplications as she began to breastfeed her son. But Lonna was able to offer many helpful, practical suggestions.

As alactation consultant, Lonna has offered invaluable expertise that is bothexperience and research-based. Lisa says that Lonna is “not only moreaccessible than some of my doctors, but her knowledge has often been a lot moredetailed.” Lonna also validated the things that Lisa felt were instinctivelycorrect, which helped to ease some of the stress that new mothers feel. Lisa also attended the support group meetingswhich normalized the process of breastfeeding as she was able to hear fromother women whose babies had gone through similar challenging phases and movedbeyond them.
Lisabelieves that “the breastfeeding support program has helped me continue to be aproductive graduate student by relieving a lot of mental worry associated withvarious problems that arose around breastfeeding.” She adds that “being thesource of food for a growing human being is a huge responsibility! Asacademics, many of us live far away from family, so having an institutionalizedsupport system is especially important.” In the support group meetings, Lisahas found a sense of community and encouragement that she would not have foundelsewhere, and has learned from other women’s experiences. Through Lonna's expert facilitation and direction, Lisa has developed supportiverelationships that will continue past the breastfeeding stage of mothering.

New Year's Resolutions: 2012

2012-01-02T17:30:00.000-08:00

I did really well with my resolutions from last year. Number 3 was and always will be tricky...but I'm not perfect.

Accomplishments: Dave and I each accomplished big career milestones this year. He passed his water distribution exam on September 17 with a 96%. I passed my Ph.D. oral qualifying exam on August 30, getting out 40 minutes early. For him it marks the first step towards being fully certified as a water treatment and distributor for the North Gualala Water Company, something he takes very seriously. For me it means one step closer toward the end of my long, twisted, Ph.D. path.

Challenges: I've continued as a mostly single working mother, upping my time on campus to nearly 40 hours a week most of the year to accommodate being a TA and for my exam prep.

I worked as a teaching assistant for a science and society fusion class in the spring and really had to push myself in that position. I'd never had to teach that many students (100 students, with about 30 per discussion section, all of which I taught), prepare lesson plans from scratch, confront students about cheating, etc. Truth be told, I was pretty nervous about it but it turned out to be a really wonderful experience, one that I'm REALLY looking forward to doing again.

During that quarter I started preparing myself for studying for my big qualifying exam. Arranging Eddie's childcare schedule to accommodate six weeks of intense studying was tough (and super expensive).

Dave has had to deal with not being around for Eddie as much as he'd like. Thankfully, faster/reliable internet has been installed at his parents' house this past year so that we can Skype nearly every night. Usually we get to chat from dinner through to bath time. Some nights I take the laptop into Eddie's room so Dave can listen to bedtime stories with us, too. It isn't perfect, but it works for now.

And now for the resolutions:

1. To have two publications ready for submission by the end of 2012. My professor wants me to have 3-5 publications before he'll let me graduate. I think 3 is the department sign-off standard, but since I don't have a masters degree and people are hired largely based on publication records, he'd like me to have more than the minimum.

2. I will finish collecting all my essential data by the end of 2012 (DSC-IRMS, C/N, headspace gases, plant component extractions). This is definitely my BHAG for the year. I have an undergraduate intern lined up to help me run my instrument cluster (assuming the stable isotope director will allow me to train someone else to run the IRMS) and process my compost samples. With Eddie's schedule I can only squeeze in about 4 samples a day, but hopefully the intern will be able to do 2-4 additional if she can come in before I arrive (at about 9:15am) and after I leave (at about 5pm). In order to accomplish this, it means I will need to work extra long on Fridays and probably one weekend day, too. But the sooner I can get done, the sooner we can move on to the next step in our lives (living together, in one place like most families do...imagine that!).

3. We will finish our major home improvement projects. These include: replacing the windows in the hall bathroom and living room; deciding and acting on what to do with the dining room (split into two rooms or not?); paint the interior doors; replace all broken/rotting fence posts; install wooden edging around garden beds. This list isn't particularly long, but some items are pretty involved. But we need to prepare the house for eventual renters and these are "must do" items.

4. I will finish the knit monster pants that I started the day after my heart surgery (12/2010). The yarn I used is much thicker than what the pattern called for so the ended up being for a toddler instead of a baby (perfect since I'm STILL not done with them!). I have only about 4" on one leg to finish and some sewing decorations to add.

5. Sell my collection of "see if I can sell this" stuff. It includes some vintage/old wallets and purses, a mostly complete collection of Babysitters Club books, and a few other things. Basically, things that are worth more in college fund money for Eddie and his future siblings than the sentimental value of holding on to them.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T10:33:00.000-08:00

This was the best Christmas ever: relaxing, good food, a happy child, a few presents, etc. It was just what I needed after an insane year of juggling my research, my qualifying exam preparation, living apart from Dave, and raising a toddler. Just us Bowers all snuggled up in our home and we stayed in our PJs all day long.

Most of my holidays are crazy busy with lots of family members around (except one back in 2004 when I spent Christmas flying to Cape Town for an internship so I spent it with no one). So this was my "smallest" Christmas otherwise, since I was Eddie's age and spent the holiday alone with my parents.

We set out the gifts the night before so Eddie could see them when he got up. It was a great morning because Eddie didn't get up until nearly 9am. I suspect this or maybe next year is our last "normal" Christmas morning. Pretty soon Eddie'll realize that he can wake us up super early.

After a leisurely breakfast of oatmeal, bacon, and eggs we opened up our gifts. We were pretty stingy on the gifts: only 4 for Eddie and 1 for each of us parents. But he got to open his 3 gifts from Grammy and Papa Bower at Zennie's and he'll open more at my folks' house at new year's. Since I accidentally left Dave's gift from me at my parents' house, all he got were some slippers from Eddie. Dave surprised me with a Kindle Touch reader, which is pretty cool. Although I'll always be partial to real books, this is a welcome change. It'll be SUPER nice to have a one-hand device like this next time I am nursing a baby (in a few years)--I remember how hard it was to juggle a squirmy baby and a book during hours and hours of nursing. My first purchase was Alexandra Fuller's newest book and I'm enjoying it a lot.

The rest of our day was spent cooking and playing with Eddie's big present--a huge Bruder excavator toy. He scooped and dumped all the balls of wrapping paper and wooden blocks he could.At noon Dave threw a rack of ribs on the grill over low heat and they cooked for the next 5 hours. I rolled and cut the tomato and spinach pasta dough (red and green, how festive!). Right before our Christmas dinner I sauteed up some broccoli, pumpkin, fennel, and cauliflower with satsuma zest and juice (wow, yum). We ate our supper around 5:30pm and then headed out in the car to view some Christmas lights on "candy cane lane." I think it is cool that this whole court participates in decorating their houses in lots of lights; it isn't as lavish as Deacon Dave's in Livermore, but it is still very nice. I love the little "Davis" touches: a cloth diapered baby ginger bread boy and Santa pulling a bike trailer full of presents.Then we got a Red Box movie (The Adjustment Bureau...soooooooooooo good) and headed home. After some more chocolate peanut butter cheesecake and homemade strawberry ice cream we called each of our parents so Eddie could wish them a happy Chriastmas and then we put Eddie to bed so we could watch our movie.

What a great holiday. I hope each of YOU had the perfect Christmas, too!

Christmas with Zennie

2011-12-25T13:16:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve Eve we went to Mike and Bernie's house for a meal, presents, fort building, and general holiday merriment.

Dave's parents sent their grandkids' gifts down with Dave so we loaded up the van like Santa to deliver the presents. Our very own elf helped us with the packages.They had cooked up a feast of pasta, chicken adobo, beet salad and lots more. For dessert I brought a chocolatey peanut butter cheesecake (the crust was brownie). Not liking traditional cheesecake much, I thought it was pretty dang tasty, if not way too rich. Eddie surprised us and sat throughout nearly the entire meal--something he's not known for doing at home, but which we are working very hard on--I think because Cousin Zennie is such a good eater. She sits throughout the entire meal, eating all her food instead of playing with it. Not that Eddie is a "bad" or picky eater. He just prefers to graze all day instead of eat a whole meal.

Bernie picked up a bunch of appliance boxes from Home Depot so the kiddos could make a fort in their living room. It was a genius idea because we got to color and decorate the insides and outsides. Michael event tossed a bunch of paper inside for them to throw around--it was quite a hit!After that we went outside to play with Zennie's handled trike and wagon. Uncle Michael plays really intensely and Eddie LOVED it.

Later we opened presents and Bernie read some books to the kiddos before we headed back home. Eddie was going on no nap that day and we knew he'd crash into sleep or a meltdown any moment. Of course he fell asleep minutes before we pulled into our driveway so he and Dave finished napping in the van while I went inside. And as is the case with all short naps, he was SUPER DUPER cranky afterward. On Christmas Eve we met up with Bernie and Zennie at the Sacramento Zoo, which was open for a free half day. It was super crowded and parking was a bit hairy, but I'm glad we went. Eddie had never been to the zoo before (gasp!) and he seemed to like it. My favorite--as always--were the anteaters. I can't tell what Eddie's favorite animal was since he was a little overwhelmed by all the people and his cousin. Maybe the orangutans, though. We stared at those for a good long while until Dave pulled us away so we could find Bernie.

As usual, we couldn't get a good picture of Eddie or us as a family because of Eddie's camera aversion. Here's the best we got, sun glare and all:Thanks to "burst mode" on our camera, which we just figured out how to use after two years, we were able to get *some* pictures of Eddie and Zennie with them both looking at the camera (one or two out of about 50 taken about a second apart). Of course, the only time Eddie cooperates for pictures is when he doesn't see the camera or he's snacking so there's food or a hand in his mouth. Ah, toddlerhood. This was also a nap-free day since we were at the zoo until 1pm. He was tired, but not cranky so we pushed our luck and stopped at Ace Hardware when we got back to Davis. Our chicken waterers are both broken (plastic + UV rays for 2 years make them leak apparently) so we had to buy a new one. This time we spent more money on a nice galvanized metal one that isn't gravity fed so we shouldn't have issues with it. We were all getting hungry by that point so we got to Thai food downtown at a new restaurant we'd not been to before. Unlike other Thai places in town, this one was more quiet and subdued than others (or maybe it was like that because it was filled with adults instead of college students near the holiday?). Eddie surprised us and did fairly well at keeping his voice down and not making too big of a mess with his food. I love that my child love tom ka gai soup as much as I do.Dave and Eddie settled in to watch a Robots the movie when we got back home while I made some pasta dough. About 15 minutes into the movie I got a text message from Dave (yes, he was in the next room) saying I should come in and look at Eddie. He was passed OUT. It was adorable seeing him snuggled up on his Dadda with his brother right next to him. Oh man, Dave was in heaven holding Eddie during the movie. Happy holidays everyone! I'll post about Christmas morning later on.

You Know Your Husband is About to be Home for a Week When...

2011-12-22T14:29:00.001-08:00

...your Costco cart looks like this:

Holiday Feasting

2011-12-20T21:58:00.000-08:00

I was chatting with Dave online last night about all the food I want to make during the two weeks we will be together for the holidays. Granted, it will mostly just be the three of us Bowers, but I can't help myself...I just love variety. I won't make a lot of each thing, just a little bit of each so we can have our own buffet.

Buffalo chicken dip
~~bbq ribs~~
~~fondue~~
~~paella~~
mussels and fries
~~eggs benedict (I've never made Hollandaise before)~~
~~bacon jalapeno poppers~~
~~donuts~~
steamed buns like you get at dim sum
~~roast a whole, big fish~~ (I want to see Eddie's reaction; he likes fish, but I'm not sure he understands that what we eat is the same as what we see)
~~something Moroccan using preserved lemons~~ (I made some a couple of months ago and they are ready to be used)

If I can get my hands on some purple ube paste or powder I'll make an ube cake with the mutant coconut I bought on discount in Gualala.

I already promised myself that I can sit down and make the feasting grocery list after I finish my headspace gas measurements in lab tomorrow (it'll be my "treat" with my afternoon coffee). We all know how much I love making lists and cooking so this'll be a treat indeed. Mmmmmmmm.
Since we're talking about lists, here are the things I'd like to do with Eddie and Dave over the holidays: see the Christmas lights at Deacon Dave's in Livermore, ride the train somewhere, go sledding/tubing, go to the zoo, go swimming, and take Eddie to a movie. Hopefully we all stay healthy so we can eat and enjoy to our heart's contents!

Go Bouncing

2011-12-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was fantastic, minus the lingering cough that plagued Dave.

Friday he spent all day with Eddie. That night we took Eddie to Cassie's for "parents' night out." All the kiddos go to make Christmas tree pizzas, decorate ornaments, change into jammies, and watch a movie. Meanwhile, their parents got some much-needed couple time.

First we went to the local toy shop to modify an order for Eddie's "big" gift and for Dave to pick out a puzzle for Eddie. Then we used our gift certificate for Applebee's that my mom gave me a while ago. She also gave us a movie card but there wasn't anything playing that we wanted to see. So we spent a good 1.5 hours eating and talking ways to give me more work time, him more Eddie time, and us more "us" time. Oh, and how and when to get me graduated in a reasonable amount of time (there is light at the end of this tunnel...it's just that the wavelength changes on occasion so it is hard to see...but it is there!).

After dinner we didn't know what to do. We were both tired but it was only 8pm and we were paying for childcare until 10pm. We didn't need to go grocery shopping and weren't hungry for dessert. So we got some gas, got tea at Ciocolat, went to my lab to start another run in my instrument, then discovered it wasn't working (surprise, surprise...it had been working at 5pm when I last used it...$%#*@ instrument). By that time we were ready to get Eddie. Of course, he had had tons of fun!

I had intended to work all day Saturday but since the instrument wasn't working I got to hang out with the boys instead. We did little stuff around the house (laundry, fixed the Christmas lights, etc.) and then got to work cooking up the abundance of produce we had in the house. The CSA basket we'd been getting since March decided to close for a bit and will relocate and reopen in the spring. Anticipating this, I signed us up for another basket, one that delivers to the house instead of just to campus. Somehow we ended up with three weeks of double baskets. So we've become inundated with persimmons, butternut squash, apples, and lemons. (Most complaints about winter CSA baskets is that you get nothing but kale. Around here there's plenty of variety all year round. And in our house we go through whatever greens we get mighty quickly. I'd actually prefer more kale and fewer persimmons.)

I chopped up tons of radishes and mini parshnips, some leeks, carrots, fennel, and beets and threw them into the crockpot for beef stew, along with more than a bottle of red wine. It turned out pretty tasty, but needed a little sugar to balance out the sharpness of the radishes. Then I squeezed as many of the ripe persimmons as were ready into a baggie for the freezer so I can accumulate enough pulp to bake something delicious.Next we tackled the apples (just when I thought, after 21 gallons of cider, that I was DONE with apples!). We didn't make applesauce yet this year so that's what we did. Eddie and Dave were in charge with cutting up the apples. It was adorable watching them work together. Eddie has his own knife. I've taught him how to hold it in his right hand and then press down on the top of the blade with his left hand, nice and flat. So now he is always checking to make sure his hand it flat enough before pushing on the blade.It cooked low and slow all day and part of Sunday, making the house smell amazing. I threw in all of the fuyu persimmons we had since I don't really like eating them (too sweet).

Before dinner we decorated some gingerbread cookies I'd cut out to look like trains (engines, coal tenders, trucks, and wheels). We used whatever candies and decorations I could find in the house and glued them on with pink, white, and blue royal icing. I figured we'd do gingerbread houses, but Eddie declared that he wanted to make "choo choo cookies." So we did. And it was super fun. Those cookies acted as a great bartering item for the remainder of the weekend. "Eddie, if you eat your dinner, then you have have a choo choo wheel afterward."

That night after Eddie was in bed I juiced and zested the 20 or so lemons we had in our fruit bowl and got busy making lemonade and three batches of canned lemon curd. We used something like 30 eggs...basically the entire half-flat of eggs we'd gotten on Wednesday from our egg delivery service. Thankfully, our chickens are still laying eggs or we wouldn't have had any eggs for breakfast this morning! Skipping morning eggs would be worth it, though. The lemon curd is tasty. I need to make some scones!

We wanted to take Eddie somewhere fun on Sunday and decided on the zoo. But when Dave was checking the hours online, he discovered that it'll be open for free on Christmas Eve. So we will delay our zoo trip until next weekend. Instead, we decided to go to the trampoline place in Rancho Cordova. We had a feeling Eddie would love it, so we booked two hours. Turns out that was a bit long for his first time, but WOW did he love it. He spent half his time bouncing and half his time running REALLY FAST along the yellow walkways. That kid is FAST. When we wasn't on the trampolines he was playing on all the arcade games. Who taught my child how to hold a gun?Or a guitar? My LORD, isn't he the cutest guitarist EVER?
I assumed he'd be tuckered out and fall fast asleep on the drive home, but boy was I wrong. We got home in time for a late nap, but decided to watch a movie instead and let him fall asleep on the couch. Again, wrong. Throughout the movie Hook he alternated between sitting on the couch and eating popcorn with us (butter, black pepper, and Parmesan, our new favorite topping combination thanks to Auntie Jennifer), climbing on us, and wandering around the house.

It was one of the best weekends we've had in a while. Just us Bowers with nothing pressing to do. Ah, fantastic. And I wish someone would pay me a dime each time Eddie's asked "can we go bouncing now?" Cause I'd be rich.

Thanksgiving?!

2011-12-19T10:13:00.000-08:00

Yikes, how did I not post about Thanksgiving before now? Oh...that's right...life got in the way. I suppose it is nice that real life gets in the way of blogging about my life. Otherwise, what would I blog about?
This year we had Thanksgiving at our house and Edward and Jennifer were able to be here, too. Dave took the whole week off, but got sick a few days before and was pretty miserable (and silent from the laryngitis). But he was able to get lots of rest and I was able to get lots of cooking done. Mostly because I started my cooking on Sunday before and just threw side dishes into the freezer.

Our feast was small compared to most years, although we did have a lot of variety. Everything except the casserole and rolls were gluten free, and therefore Jennifer-friendly. We also chose to do chickens instead of turkey so that Edward could eat the meat, too. (He's allergic to turkey...weird, I know.) I didn't realize until I had made the casserole that the canned soup I used had wheat in it. Dang! This is why I should make everything from scratch...dangit. I don't think anyone would know that the meal was gluten free.

We had: roasted chickens, mashed yams with raisins and pecans, stewed greens, green bean casserole, focaccia, butter horn rolls, cranberry jelly and relish, butternut squash bisque, gravy, bread stuffing, and a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. My mom also brought me some pies from Sharry's, the restaurant chain that took over Baker's Square. I had hoped that they kept the French Silk recipe the same, but sadly, they did not. It was too sweet and runny. I've had this pie recipe on file for a while but have never made it because it requires raw eggs. But maybe now's the time since I have a seriously hole in my life without French Silk pie. (The Baker's Square here in Davis closed in the middle of my pregnancy, after the doctor ordered me to avoid chocolate. So I haven't had any of that scrumptious pie in years.)My mom and Jennifer decorated/set the table...isn't it lovely?Eddie is really into having candles lit at the table (in fact, we have candles lit at EVERY meal nowadays). My mom thought it would be fun to eat by candlelight. But it was too dark so Jennifer and I strung up some Christmas lights on the curtains. It was okay but they were creepy LED lights that were too "white." I would have preferred to dine with the lights on, but it sort of worked since we all ended up whispering along with Dave, who had lost his voice. (Mob mentality much?) It was hilarious when Dave "yelled" at Taters to "go on!" (meaning "get out of the kitchen and dining room while we are eating, dog. You know the rules."). Taters actually obeyed much more than he usually does when Dave has his full voice. Ha!

After dinner but before dessert, everyone except Dave and my mom decided to go for a walk so we could return a Red Box DVD. While we were gone, my mom did the dishes and Dave took a nap. We got back just in time for Horton Hears a Who on tv. It had rained recently so Eddie had lots of fun splashing in the puddles.
Overall it was a nice holiday. I just hope Dave isn't sick for the next one!

Mini Weekend

2011-12-11T11:43:00.001-08:00

Dave decided to stay, at my suggestion, in Gualala on Thursday night because he was very tired after a full day of work and then a late meeting. So he came back home on Friday at 11am, meaning that I got to have a nice morning at home with Eddie.
During lunch I knitted with some girl friends. Kelly showed me (easy it is) to cable! My legwarmers should be completed soon! That evening my lab went out for a drink with a visiting Chinese professor, who downed a beer faster than any of us Americans. Ha! We intended to go to a neighbor's birthday party that night, but Eddie and I were having some much fun playing with Miss Zephie, the puppy, that we decided instead to play at the park with the dogs.

Saturday morning, I got up at 5:45 to see the lunar eclipse. It was freaking freezing outside so I didn't stay long. The total eclipse was to happen at like 6:06, but I didn't want to stay up/out that long. So I snapped a picture for Dave and headed back inside to our warm bed. I'm glad I got up, though. It WAS pretty cool.
Later that morning, Dave made waffles with blue sprinkles in the batter. Then he got set up to hang the Christmas lights on the roof (turns out one whole strand doesn't work). I took Eddie to Michael's craft store and to Costco to keep him out of Dave's hair and--most importantly--off the tall ladder. We bought some stocking stuffers, groceries, and a pack of cards and envelopes for our holiday cards, too. Hopefully our ghetto printer will print on them okay.
Instead of buying commercial photo cards this year, we will be making our own cards. That's only because I had a free promo code for 50 prints from Shutterfly. The ONLY family picture we have this year is from Halloween, so that's what we are using...us in Peter Pan costumes. Ha! Eddie is in an "I scream and fuss and refuse to look at the camera" phase and has been most of this past year, so this was the best we could do. He isn't even looking at the camera (off to the side, to Uncle, who was distracting him from being camera cranky). So our cards will be a little ghetto this year. Oh well, handmade with love trumps a traditional portrait, right? RIGHT.
Eddie napped from about 1:30-4:45pm so we didn't make it to the movie we wanted to see with him at 4:30 (Puss in Boots). His long naps are great because I get a lot done, but it prevents us from doing fun things sometimes. Yesterday I was able to deep clean both bathrooms (skipping the floors, though), put all the Costco stuff away, watch a show and eat some dinner, and a million other things. Dave had time to clean up the garage, fix a fan, and go to Target to get his flu shot, plus more Christmas lights and some candy for stocking stuffers.
Once Eddie got up, the neighbor called to see of Miss Zephie was able to come to the park for a play date with her dog (they had played a lot on Friday in the front yard, I guess). We all ended up playing at the park with all the dogs. I think Zephie was a little overwhelmed because she ran back home a couple of times. She sure was tired afterward from all the excitement! (See our spiffy new couch they are on? We love it!)

Then we decorated the front yard with all sorts of lights--strands of pink, purple, blue, green, and some of those net ones in multicolor for the one bush we have. It is whimsical and fun. Dr. Seuss would be proud.
About that time, Dave remembered that his dad said there was some extra work they could do on Sunday. Not wanting to pass up the extra income, we both agreed that he should go.
Since we still wanted to do a family outing, we opted for ice cream and cupcakes downtown after Eddie and Dave ate their dinner. It was delicious. We both chuckled after we got home--it was the first time in a loooooooooong time that we went downtown for food as a family (and drove, to boot!). About 98% of the time we stay home and eat food that I've prepared. It was a nice change of pace, for sure.

This morning Eddie and I had breakfast, made a loaf of persimmon bread, and then headed outside to thin the turnips and carrots in the front yard. The chickens joined us and ate all of the slugs I found while gardening. It is pretty dang cold outside and my fingers were nearly frozen when we decided to go back inside for hot chocolate, pretzels, and an episode of Chuggington. I can't stand this show, so I'm blogging via email.
This afternoon we will skip nap time so we can meet Cassie and some other parents at the local Christmas tree farm. Hopefully I can get a picture of Eddie with Santa. I've never taken Eddie to the mall, so I feel like this will be his only chance to meet Old St. Nick.

Bowers Love Puppies

2011-12-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

In early November by brother and sister-in-law adopted two female McNab puppies. Their beloved Missy Bean had to be put down this past summer due to old age complications and they were ready for a new dog. One of the new puppies (they called her Zephyr) was actually for Dave's parents, whose older dog is nearing "retirement."

Little Zephyr is now living up in Gualala, keeping my mother-in-law super busy. She chews on everything, loves to hide in dark places, and must be watched at all times, lest she go potty or get into something she's not supposed to. As you can imagine, Dave is enamored with her. So much so, that I had to admit that I was a little worried he'd fall so in love with her that he'd love our doggies less. But being the good husband/dog-lover/father that he is, he assured me that would never happen. (We'll see...)

We've been web-chatting with Dave each night this week from dinner prep through bath time. And each evening he scoops Zephyr up into his arms so Eddie and I can swoon over her. She's now about 3 months old and much bigger and more active than when I first met her at 2 months old.If you know Dave well, you know that his chosen "career" in life (if he could manage it) would be to breed/raise McNab border collie puppies and be a potter. There is a picture of Dave as an 8 year old, holding a litter of puppies while sitting in a dog house wearing rubber muck boots. It is the most adorable picture of him. Hopefully I can find it in his baby book and post it here.

Until then, here's a picture of our web chat from a few nights ago...us Bowers sure do love these doggies!As a side note: I'm calling this new pup Zephyr, the name given to her by Mike and Bernie. My mother-in-law, however, is calling her Missy. Missy! Like the dog that was jut put down this summer. Ahhhhhhhhh! Isn't that a little...uh, creepy? I know the whole family loved Missy Bean just as much as if she were a human member of the family (okay, more than if she were a human member of the family). But to name your new/replacement dog after your beloved old dog? No way. That'd be like naming my next child Eddie if my current Eddie happened to die. To be fair to my MIL, I'll call her "Miss" Zephie. But I cannot call her a dead dog's name. It just makes me shudder.

As a joke, I sent Dave a text telling him that he should bring Miss Zephie home to Davis for the weekend. And to my surprise, my MIL was totally okay with it. I think she needs a break, haha. Eddie is sooooooooooooooo excited that Zephie gets to come to play this weekend. Our dogs have played with her before, but since they were at Mike's house and distracted by him and all the new toys at his house, they didn't pay much attention to the puppy. This time it'll be different, I'm sure.

70 Years Ago Today

2011-12-07T10:01:00.001-08:00

It is hard to believe that it was 70 years ago today that Pearl Harbor was attacked. That seems like so long ago, only because I wasn't alive then. But on the day I was born, it had only been 39 short years before. And thinking of events that occurred 40 years before today seem pretty recent, all things considered.

Anyway, it got me thinking about my Grandma Avis, Grandpa Jake, and Great Uncle Walter. While these brave men fought in the war, Grandma waited (im)patiently for them to come home. And it took a while for my grandpa, who was a POW and survived the Bataan Death March. Ouf, terrible stuff. You can read his obituary here and my uncle's obituary here.

I Would, I Swear

2011-11-28T22:02:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm watching the finale of The Song Off. Pentatonix just won. I knew they would, but I'm a little disappointed the Dartmouth Aires didn't win instead, since I bet Pentatonix would have gotten a record contract regardless (they really are super talented).

Dave is still home tonight since he's been too sick to go back to work. Poor guy fell ill just before Thanksgiving, spending the hours leading up to the big meal in bed. He lost his voice for two days, and mob mentality had us all whispering along with him during the meal.

He's feeling okay at the moment, so he's working on getting my laptop's operating system to the point that I can use some software for my research. As it is, I have to use the programs on my instrument's computer, which is situated on a lab bench without a knee hole, forcing me to stand in a very uncomfortable way. It is fine for programming my sample runs, but that's about it.

So *if* I had a working laptop, I swear I would update the last post with pictures and would be working on my photobook. Instead, I'm relaxing and typing this on my phone via email.

My upper back and neck hurt quite a lot because I spent too much time using the leaf blower yesterday. Holding a heavy, vibrating machine in one hand for so long seriously took its toll on me! Our front yard had amassed a month's worth of wet leaves so it took about 45 minutes to blow all the leaves from between the plants. Sometimes leaves are okay, but at this point they were just acting as snail habitat. My lacy looking cabbage and bok choi leaves show it. So I'm laying here on the couch with a heating pad on a pillow to ease my tight muscles.

I got my composts (of my BIG experiment) wetted up last week, just before the holiday. Hopefully I'll find some time soon to finish writing and post about my qualifying exam experience...I started it months ago, but other things have taken priority. Of course, I also have a deadline for using my free photobook promo code, so I need to work on that, too. Christmas cards probably won't happen this year, unfortunately. We have no decent family pictures at all from 2011...I might end up just using a picture of Eddie, though.

Dave just told me that our blue gourami fish died so I put the body into a canning jar and some water into another jar. We bought Eddie two fishies this weekend, something we intended to do just before he got sick with hand, foot, and mouth disease, which prevented us from taking him into the store since he was sporting nasty blisters on his touch-everything hands.

Because Amex offered $25 refund on small shop purchases on Saturday, Dave figured getting the fish that day was ideal. Poor little blue fishie never did seem quite right. He didn't swim much and seemed to sink to the bottom most of the time. The brown one, though, seems fine. We still have the receipt so we will take the body and the separate water sample in for a replacement fish (store policy requires each of those).

So tomorrow we will hopefully have another fishie and I'll be trying to convince Eddie to name them something more unique than "the blue one" and "the brown one." It seems like he'd at least choose Thomas and either Annie or Clarabell, you know?

Busy in the Lab

2011-11-22T14:52:00.000-08:00

Sorry for being such a blog-slacker lately.

Two weeks ago Eddie got croup again (I heard him wake up at about 1am barking like a seal). I put him into bed with me, hoping to God he'd fall back asleep quickly. He did, but I was worried. He hasn't slept in our bed since we were in France last year and I wasn't sure either of us would get much sleep. It worked fine, except at 6:30am the dogs started walking around on the bed to alert me that it was their breakfast time. Normally I roll over and tell them to lie down and they do. But that stern command apparently wakes adorable toddlers up so we ALL got up.

Eddie only barked a few more times that day, but of course I had to keep him home from daycare for 24 hours. So that put us at Thursday afternoon. And what's the point of taking him to daycare for only a couple of hours? What could I get done in the lab? Not much. And then of course it was a holiday on Friday so I ended up away from the lab for 3 solid days. The first day I was annoyed, but then I fell into my stay-at-home-mom groove.

I already posted about the following weekend (Indian food feast), everyone was happy and healthy.

Fast forward to a little lab work on Monday. Everything was going great, I had my Excel sheet calendar with my HUGE experiment all worked out. The plan was to wet up my composts on Tuesday afternoon. But then I noticed that the diaper rash on Eddie's rump has migrated to his thighs (nothing gross, just red dots that don't seem painful to him at all). And then I see them on his feet. And his hands. UG. They literally popped up on his hands between daycare pick up and bath time.

I realize he must have hand, foot, and mouth disease. Not a big deal, not painful for most, and apparently only contagious BEFORE the rash appears. I put Eddie to bed and figured I'd call Cassie in the morning to ask her opinion (not contagious, but gross looking...could be still come to daycare?). After talking to the advice nurse and Cassie...and then Cassie talking to her OWN advice nurse...it was decided that while the sores on his hands were blister-like (with a potential to pop and spread ickiness around), he had to stay home.

My friend's daughter had had it a week before, but the babies hadn't had any contact in like a month. But we soon learned that it was spreading around a lot of Davis preschools and daycares. As common as it is in these places (like lice and colds), Cassie had never dealt with it. My understanding is that only 2 other kiddos got it.

So...how does a mama entertain a toddler inside the house or outside in the cold air without allowing him to play at the park next to his house? Especially when said mama is on the verge of freaking out because she's got so much work to do in the lab? Well...you build a giant fort in the livingroom, you let him watch too many movies on Netflix (new favorite: "mousie," aka Stuart Little), rake leaves in the front yard, give him a shovel and let him scoop nearly all the sand out of his sandbox and distribute it around the yard even though you REALLY REALLY wish he'd just leave it in the freaking box. And then you recruit your wonderful brother (your child's namesake) to come baby sit. It is a God-send that Edward lives in California again and works for himself, from home. And then you deal with text messages like this once you get back to work:

"You'd better be getting a ton of work done. This is exhausting!" I texted back, what's so exhausting? And got this back:

"Fix the choo choos! I hiding! Read dis book! Fix the choo choos! I want a nack!"

The sores on his rump, thighs, and feet cleared up within one day...but of course, the ones on his hands lasted for DAYS. I think they finally disappeared on Saturday.

So we had another healthy weekend. Saturday night we had Justin babysit Eddie (they went to foyo and then did some thrift store shopping, apparently) while we did a double date with Edward and Jennifer. We went to a Russian restaurant in Carmichael and ate soooooooooooo much good food. It was a nice change of pace from our normal Indian, Thai, Japanese, Mexican routine. Afterward we saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra perform at the Power Balance Pavillion. I don't have the album from which they played most of their songs and I found the first half of the show a little slow, boring, and confusing (they had a narrator but it was hard to hear him so I was confused about the plot of his story). The second half was much more exciting and we ended up having a good time.

When we got home to Justin, he was pretty distraught--not by Eddie or studying for his stats exam, which is what he was supposed to be doing after Eddie went to bed. He'd been following the news reports and Facebook updates about the Chancellor's press conference and the silent protest as she exited her office building on campus that night. Justin is involved in the protests against tuition hikes here on campus and was present at the pepper spraying incident (luckily, not sprayed). I think he was sad and frustrated that he didn't get to be a part of the thing that night and still angry at the Friday events. Poor guy.

I spent Sunday cooking some freezer-safe, make-ahead components of our upcoming gluten/turkey free Thanksgiving meal to accommodate family allergies. So far I made: mashed yams, cranberry relish, gluten free bread and focaccia, red pepper hummus, and butternut squash bisque. Hopefully I can do my last shopping trip tonight at Safeway and finish cooking Thursday morning.

I just spent hours wetting up my composts (each tube has to be done individually and there are 216 of them)...so right now I'm taking a sit-down break. And I finally remembered to eat some lunch, too.

Back to the lab I go!

(I'll update with some pictures later on.)

Weekend in Pictures

2011-11-15T10:27:00.001-08:00

This was our LAST short weekend with Dave. Woo!

It went by fast and included a lot of cooking (on my part) and playing trains with Eddie.

Here we go...

Saturday Dave worked at the rental house we manage for a few hours in the morning (no pictures) while Eddie and I played trains, went to the store, and prepared some of the many components of our Sunday Feast.

We blenderized the vindaloo garlic pepper paste, caramelized a ton of onions, marinated chicken, etc. Eddie is learning how to CAREFULLY stir food in pans and pots. He understands that it is very hot and seems to understand not to whip things around violently like when he's "pretend" cooking with Legos. That night we had pinwheel steaks. I filled them with kale and sweet potato greens (wilted them in microwave first), Swiss and Parmesan cheeses, purple basil, and sun dried tomatoes. They were super yummy, but took a lot longer to cook than I expected. And what would a day be without long stretches of train-playing with Eddie?Sunday Dave and I worked in the yard while Eddie took a nice, long nap. I removed all the tomatillos and green tomatoes I could find on the vines before ripping out the plants. Meanwhile, Dave strengthened and expanded the shelf in our shed so it can hold more (heavy) stuff, as evidenced below:
That afternoon I finished cooking up our Indian Feast. Eddie helped with the naan, from a safe distance:
I made tons of food, admittedly, but since we love variety, we treated it like a buffet. I doubled most of the recipes so we can have left overs for the freezer and one or two meals during the week. Dave took some food up to Gualala for one of his dinners. Hopefully his dad will have a taste, too.

Our dishes included: peach lassis (with canned peaches in pear juice since mangoes are expensive), butter chicken (made with less butter and mostly half-and-half), veggie vindaloo, raita, naan, and gulab jamun for dessert. I also pulled some pre-made spicy brinjal eggplant and saag paneer (recipe below, from my friend Geetika) from the freezer.

It was all soooooo good. The only thing I need to change is to make real mango lassis next time. Dave didn't care for the only-peach flavor. Since I'm terrible at cutting mangoes, I might look for canned mango or something and cut it with peaches, since they are super cheap.And, of course, we spent a lot of time playing trains on Sunday:
Geetika's Saag Paneer

2 T oil
2 t cumin seeds
2 T coriander powder
1 t turmeric powder
1 t chili flakes
1.5 t chopped garlic
1 inch piece of ginger root, grated
1 medium/large red onion, chopped
8-9 Roma tomatoes, chopped finely or pureed (or 2 cans tomato puree)

Heat oil in pan over medium high heat. Add cumin seeds and sauté until they begin to split open. Then add coriander powder, turmeric powder, and chili flakes, garlic, ginger and sauté until it barely turns golden. Then add onions and cook until the onions are pinkish brown. Next add the tomato puree. Simmer until all excess liquid is gone; continue to cook so that the paste fries and the tomato flesh eventually releases all its liquid, too. Transfer to containers to freeze if you like, or use as is. Geetika uses this curry sauce for her saag paneer dish (a few tablespoons curry for about 4 cups cooked spinach or other greens like chard, mustard, collard, etc.).

Where Did the Weekend Go?

2011-11-07T12:05:00.000-08:00

Only one more "short weekend" until Dave gets back to his regular 4 day work week (3 days home with us)! It can't come soon enough.

Friday I picked Eddie up early from preschool for some "us" time. We had a snack and then watched Toy Story 3 on Netflix. He snuggled with me for nearly an HOUR under a thick blanket...I was in H.E.A.V.E.N. He hasn't stayed still for so long on me since he but a wee nursing newborn. But this was nicer since we got to talk about the movie (he liked Lotso, the creepy magenta bear best and was very concerned when Buzz broke the garbage bag using the dinosaur's tail to escape).

My big man, eating out of Uncle's old "bunny dishes" that we had as kids.

We had split pea soup made in the crock pot that night, along with some skillet cheddar corn bread. Perfect for the cool weather.

On Saturday we puttsed around the house for a while until Dave got up the gumption to set up the stone saw on the patio so he could lay the paving stones in the LAST (promise) part of the soon-to-be outdoor kitchen. He didn't get any work done that day, though, because I had to leave right after we set up the saw so he had to be on daddy duty. Eddie can actually be quite helpful with projects nowadays, but the loud saw scares the bejesus out of him! Plus, it started to rain.

That afternoon/evening I went to my friend Kelly's Shutterfly House Party. She was one of 3000 people across the country chosen to host a party showcasing the all new Custom Photo Books. It was fun--wine, delicious food, fun ladies, and lovely Kelly teaching us how to make amazing books. Plus we each got a free book! I've made several photo books over the years, but usually just opt for a pre-designed one where I just modify the text and pictures. My friend Joanne got married a year ago and I keep meaning to send her a recipe book for a gift. Well, now's the time! I started her book, called Julie's Scratch Cooking, filled with tons of step-by-step pictures and tutorials on canning. I hope she likes it...and that I don't take forever finishing it!

That night we watched Gnomeo and Juliet after Eddie went to bed. It only occurred to us afterward that it was a movie we should have waited to watch with Eddie. Oh well, it was cute enough to watch again. (Side note: Dave is thinking of replacing one of our toilets and I told him I'd like to put it in the yard with a wisteria in the tank. Fun, right?)

Sunday we tackled the to-do list and tried to embrace that fact that Eddie didn't roll his clock back to regular time:

shell beans
disinfect Eddie books (he had a diarrhea explosion a month ago during nap and we weren't sure which, if any, of the 12 books in his crib got dirty...so I Lysoled all of them...finally)
pack away Halloween decorations (but I hung some of the spider lights in Eddie's room on a timer so he can enjoy them before bed)
laundry
install paving stones

Dave worked on the paving stones for about 3 hours while I kept Eddie busy and out of his way. Eddie and I went to the grocery store to get some things for dinner, and that activity alone took about an hour. That's crazy when you realize we live only 1/2 mile from the store. But Eddie insisted on walking most of the way to, through, and from the store...even though I had the comfy BOB stroller for him. He had to inspect every yard we passed to see if there were any kitties he could pet. Luckily I wasn't in a hurry.

This is where our outdoor stovetop, sink, and countertops will eventually go:After his nap and Dave was done outside, I got busy cooking a Thai dinner for us. We had pad Thai noodles (with a recipe I am finally happy with and Dave said was better than most restaurants!), tom ka gai soup (realized that "light" coconut milk is not worth it...gotta use the full-fat stuff), Thai iced teas, and green curry made with eggplant and sweet potato leaves from our CSA basket. We wanted to make fried bananas to eat with coconut ice cream, but we were way too full.

Last night I finally got to see a picture of our newest niece/nephew on Zennie's blog! Bernie's having another baby Bower in May. I'm soooooooooo happy for them (well, all of us)! My feeling is that the baby is a boy. It'll be so fun to see what this baby looks like and what they name him or her. Ahhhhhhhhhh, babies! And Bower babies to boot--Bower genes sure do make some adorable babies.

Right now I'm taking a break from standing at the lab bench, weighing out my leaves, stems, and grass for my compost experiment. I'm nervous and happy that I'm FINALLY getting this thing started.

Halloween 2011: Peter Pan!

2011-11-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

When talking to Cassie about costume options for Eddie, we decided to have Eddie be Peter Pan and Leila could be Tinker Bell (we knew she wanted to be a fairy of some type). All of us adults jumped on it and decided to take part, too. I was Wendy (wearing one of my mom's frumpy nightgowns), Dave was Captain Hook, and Cassie's boyfriend was John Darling. Cassie intended to dress up as Princess Tiger Lily but she couldn't find any non-slutty costumes. So at the last minute I suggested she be Peter Pan's shadow. So she wore tights, a belt, and a tunic all in black. She had a hat, too, but since Eddie refused to wear his, she skipped hers.

As far as festivities, we started the Halloween celebration by going to Impossible Acres to tour the petting zoo and pumpkin patch with Eddie's daycare. My mom and I were chaperones.
Holy geez, daycare is a lot of work! We had like 11 kids and 5 adults but it was STILL overwhelming and exhausting! Each kid got to choose a pumpkin before eating their mini sack lunches. And of course, Eddie kept choosing rotten/squishy pumpkins. I eventually picked out a normal orange one for him.Saturday evening we attended Cassie's Halloween party. It was a potluck and we contributed several jars of apple cider and some orange olive bread with spinach dip. Edward and Jennifer came to the party, too. I LOVED Edward's costume. He just finished reading the book and apparently drove around to 4 stores looking for all the components to his costume.

The kid party lasted until about 9pm--there was a chicken grain pit (like a sand box but full of corn and other chicken "scratch" things), coloring, lots of food, and a projector showing Charlie Brown and The Great Pumpkin movie at the end.

We all had a fabulous time at the party. At one point Dave had a sword/light saber battle with a mini Darth Vader, followed by a game of tug-of-war with his sword against 5 kids! The sword broke, so they all moved on to playing "keep away" with Dave's pirate hat. It was adorable watching my man play whole heartedly with so many kiddos. Eddie was getting out of control by the end of the party (waaaaaaaaaaaaaay overtired and coming off all the candy he ate throughout the night) so Dave took him home to bed. My mom and Gayla were there so they hung out with sleeping Eddie while Dave returned for the "adult" party. Edward brought some Chipotle burritos to Cassie's while we waited for Dave to return.

The adult party was super laid back. I think we were all too worn out from the kid party to do much more than eat our burritos and talk. We ended up getting back home at about 11pm.

We don't have a single picture of all of us together since we were too busy at the kid party to gather together. And because Eddie is at the stage where he hates having his picture taken, we didn't get any super good pictures of us (someone is always not looking). Sigh...maybe next year. Some of these are Gayla's pictures, thanks for sharing!Dave took Monday off of work so he could be here for Halloween. Eddie went to daycare as usual and then all of the parents (plus my mom and Edward) met up at 3pm to take the kids trick-or-treating downtown. He seriously ate just about every piece of candy he got immediately. My friend Kelly and her daughter Renee came along with our giant gang. It was a little busier than last year, but i think all the kiddos still had fun.I asked Edward to push Renee's empty stroller so Kelly could go into some of the stores to trick-or-treat with Renee. It was so funny to watch Edward walking along pushing a stroller. Normally when he's pushing one, I'm right next to him so I can't see how "fatherly" he looks.We went home, carved pumpkins, ate dinner, and then waited for the trick-or-treaters. We didn't get many. (More candy for us!) Dave let Eddie color a pumpkin with a permanent marker. When he was done, Dave used the zillions of marks as a "suggestion" of where to carve. It was a very unique looking pumpkin. I was lame and just cut out various shapes (circle, oval, square, diamond, star, etc.). Our pumpkins were pretty lame this year and we didn't take pictures of them.

Edward, my mom, and I took Eddie out to only 5 houses (he didn't need more candy). This time he wore a hand-me-down fireman suit since he didn't want to wear his tights anymore (who can blame him?). Eddie had been upset earlier in the evening and hit me in the face. I asked him MANY times to say sorry, but he wouldn't. The only thing I could think of to threaten him with (since he doesn't get dessert or other luxuries regularly) was not letting him to trick-or-treating. Knowing that I still wanted to take him out that night, I kept telling him that he had to say "sorry Mama, no hitting" before he could go. FINALLY he said it once he saw kids coming to our house and collecting sugary loot. I know I'm a pushover for letting him have SO much time to apologize...I promise I'll be tougher next time. It is hard to discipline when they are small and don't have privileges to take away!

Over all it was a fun Halloween. Next year it'll be fun to see what costume Eddie chooses for himself (I guarantee it won't include tights!) and watch him carve his own pumpkin.

Eddie at 25 Months: Morning Routine

2011-10-27T14:30:00.000-07:00

I seem to be completely incapable of getting Eddie to daycare earlier than 9am. He's signed up for "full time" daycare/preschool so technically we are paying for him to be there from 8am-6pm. But that's crazy: no way am I going to sacrifice that much of my day to be without him and no way am I even able to get him there that early!

The minutes in the morning seem to fly by. The only solution is to wake him up earlier in the morning...but I don't really like waking him up. I prefer to let him wake up naturally so he's in a better mood. And it reinforces that he doesn't need Mama right when he wakes up. Most mornings he chatters, sings, and plays in his crib until I go in and get him. I like his independence in that way.

6:30am: my alarm goes off
6:45am: I get up, make the bed, feed the dogs, start the coffee, etc.
7:15-7:20am: I emerge dressed and teeth-brushed from the bathroom after a shower
7:20am: I set up our breakfast (eggs on counter, butter in frying pan, water and oats in pot, etc.) and pack the bike trailer with our stuff (diaper bag, stuff to mail, my backpack)
7:35am (sometimes as late as 7:50am): Hear Eddie on the monitor, finish up whatever task I'm doing before I get him up and change his diaper (may or may not convince him to change into clothes yet)
Between7:40am: Eddie sits on counter while I cook breakfast. We watch the news.
7:50-8:15am: Sit down for breakfast. It is our only true meal "together" because he's actually hungry enough to sit still long enough for us both to eat our food. I cherish this somewhat leisurely meal with him because by dinnertime he's more fidgety and often not very hungry after having snacks at daycare...so I end up eating most of my meal alone.
8:15am: Put dirty dishes in dishwasher, wash oatmeal pot, pack my lunch (leftovers from dinner) and put into bike trailer, dress Eddie, fill dog bowls for dinner that night and stash in cupboard, try to make Eddie brush his teeth
8:30am: Prepare house for dogs to be left alone (Taters has been acting up recently, getting into loaves of bread, knocking over the garbage can, etc. so I have to "prep" now): put garbage can up on counter, move scented candles onto high shelf, stash all carbohydrate foods in oven, close bathroom doors, fill water bowl, etc.
8:40-8:45amam: Convince Eddie that it's time to "go see Cassie!" We put sweaters on if needed, open the garage door, back the bike and trailer out onto driveway, convince Eddie to get into the trailer so I can buckle him and clip on his helmet, roll up my pants leg (lest it get caught on the gears), close garage door
9am: Arrive at Cassie's

You'd think that 2.5 hours would be PLENTY of time to get all that done. But I can't seem to trim down ANY of it. I've tried getting up earlier, but as a person who seems to operate with the sun 6:30am is about as early as I can manage (unless I have a newborn who decides when I get up...thank goodness that's behind us). I've tried waking Eddie up earlier, as naturally as possible, by opening his door at about 7:10am and letting our ambient noise wake him. But it doesn't usually work. I've tried putting him to bed a full half hour early to see if that'd make him wake up earlier...but it doesn't.

I like to be on time or a little early for everything. But daycare isn't do-able. It doesn't REALLY seem to matter since the kids are usually doing a craft from 8:30-9am and then having a snack. (So no major curriculum or anything.) But I feel weird bringing him at 9 when I see on the sign in sheet that everyone else gets their kids there by 8am. And we're all either students or professors so none of us have super rigid work hours. Am I just feeling guilty that my child has a great sleep pattern?

Shifting our schedule would be an option, say to 9am-6pm at daycare, but Eddie is SO tired from playing hard all day that he's unmanageable by the time I pick him up. And then I'm just fighting him and we don't get any quality PM time together.

I'm seriously considering buying one of those daylight simulator things for my room and putting it on a timer so it turns on 30 minutes before I have to get out of bed. Maybe the light will trick my brain into thinking the sun is up so I can get up a little earlier.

In other news, I have the cutest kid ever, as evidenced in the following video:

Croup, Apple Pressing, and Mushrooming

2011-10-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Last week about half of the kiddos at Eddie's daycare got colds and/or croup. (Self-diagnosed, I admit, but what else makes all those kids bark like seal lions when they cough?). So I only went to school through Tuesday. Wednesday Eddie woke up sounding like a dog so we stayed home. He didn't seem sick or uncomfortable otherwise but illness rules dictate that kiddos stay home with icky coughs like that, especially when so many other kids at preschool were even sicker. The last thing I wanted was to infect MORE kids, especially the little babies.

It was actually a really nice change of pace to stay home with Eddie. Since March of this year I basically gave up my full days and then my half days off with Eddie. I had to TA pretty much every single day spring quarter and then I jumped full-force into my exam prep so there wasn't any time to stay home with him. I had hoped that I'd be able to take at least one afternoon off each week with Eddie this quarter...I haven't done it yet, but I think I will start that up again soon. Kids are so different at different parts of the day--depending on their energy levels, etc. And I miss hanging out with my bumkin by myself (I have to "share" him with Dave on weekends). So even thought it was a "sick" day we still got to do fun stuff like take a walk to the grocery store to pick up a few things and play outside.

Edward was still at our house and he noticed the van door was left open in the driveway. I'd let Eddie in there to find his sandals and forgot to close it before we walked to the store (oops!). So he texted me asking if I wanted it closed. When I responded I told him we'd wait for him at the corner of such-and-such streets if he wanted to join us on our walk. A few minutes later Eddie began waving and saying, "Uncle! Over there!" We meandered around the Grocery Outlet for a while and then I showed Edward the newish Chinese/dim sum place in the shopping center. He was suddenly craving dim sum so we ate lunch there. Most of it was "eh" but the steamed buns were SUPER good. We got the "student lunch special" for Eddie because I know he likes chow mein...apparently this special is only available from 12-12:2opm. How weird for the window of time to be so short.

I'd planned on driving up to Gualala on Thursday evening after school and letting Eddie sleep in the car. Dave had already taken all of Eddie's stuff up there so I'd just have to transfer a sleeping Eddie to his crib. Edward needed to get back to Livermore via train in time for an interview and I figured that we might as well spend our sick days up in Gualala so we could at least see Dave in the evenings. So we decided at about 1pm to depart ASAP. Edward helped me tidy the house, feed/water the chickens, and pack the van. I dropped him off at the Fairfield train station at 3pm. Eddie and I arrived in Gualala at 7pm since we stopped for a leisurely Taco Bell dinner in Petaluma. We sat inside next to the windows of the drive through. It was SO fun to watch drive-through-ers watch Eddie dance to the loud music playing inside the restaurant.

My MIL is in Arkansas visiting some family so it was pretty quiet and relaxing around the house while Dave and my FIL were at work. We played outside a lot, went to the park and the grocery store, played with the dogs, checked out the apple orchard, and did TONS of laundry. Boy howdy, do loggers dirty a lot of clothes. People say that when person returns to his childhood home he reverts back to his childlike habits. That is 90% true for Dave. He grew up in a household where only Mom does the dishes, laundry, cleaning, cooking, etc. because that's how Mom wants it. So when we are there, he leaves his dishes on the table, throws dirty laundry on the floor, doesn't make his bed, etc. And his dad is even more that way. So since MIL wasn't there, I took up her duties. I was happy to do it most of the time. But I learned something about myself over the 4 days we were there: I don't like tending to other people's needs when they expect me to do it without any appreciation extended whatsoever. Dave and I always thank each other for everything: cooking, cleaning, putting laundry away, taking the dogs on a walk, etc. It is how we work. My FIL is not that way...and it made me a little grumpy sometimes. But it was totally worth it so Eddie could see Dave before and after work.The weekend was much more fun because we got to hang out with Dave, plus Edward and Jennifer came up for the weekend, too. Saturday we spent most of the morning hunting for King Boletus mushrooms. I hit the jackpot after an hour and found three. Dave found one and left another behind so Jennifer could discover it on her own. The ones we didn't eat were put into the freezer to use at Thanksgiving. Then that evening we all went into the orchard to pick apples. We found two trees with delicious apples that were virtually bug-free so we picked every last apple of each of those trees. You can tell what Eddie's thinking in this picture..."Mama, we have ENOUGH apples. Let's go inside and watch Spiderman or Bob the Builder now." A couple of days before, Eddie and I discovered a bunch of bear prints and poop in the orchard, along with two damaged trees. You could clearly see where the bears, one big and one small, came in through the fencing. We played phone tag all weekend with the Department of Fish and Game, the Warden, and Animal Control to get a trap set to catch and relocate the bears. Of course, with budget cuts there doesn't seem to be anyone available to help out.

Saturday night my FIL agreed to stay home with Eddie after he went to bed so us kids could go out for dinner. We went to Bones Roadhouse for some smoked brisket. It was so good that Dave and I ordered a second plate of it at the end. Mmmmm.

Sunday morning we got the garage set up with all the apple pressing equipment: tables, press, knives, cutting boards, fan, food processors, garbage disposal, etc. At 11am, Jennifer and I filled a coffin-sized cooler with 4 boxes of washed apples and used the wagon to haul it into the garage. By 4:30pm we were hauling all the equipment back to the sink to wash up. Edward and Jennifer left at about 5:30 so they could drive home with a nice view of the ocean. We ended up with 21-22 gallons of cider this year. HOLY CRAP, that's a lot. Last year we had like 20 people working on 7 boxes and it took 8 hours. This year it was just 4 people doing 6 boxes in only 5.5 hours. We put it all in canning jars so I could can it to be shelf-stable so we don't have to take up freezer space. That canning process took hours, but at least I could watch Netflix while the pots boiled. Dave and I were totally exhausted Sunday night (and yesterday). We need to limit ourselves next year. Maybe only 4 boxes? It was so hard to stop picking apples when they were so good and bug-free!

(Oh, and Eddie's cough was gone by Sunday evening so our Gualalan respite seemed to do the trick to get him healthy again!)

Learning by Imitation

2011-10-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Isn't it adorable to watch your child learn how to do things by watching...and copying you?

Here are some of my favorite instances of our little man trying so hard to be a big boy.

-Wearing his backpack, like a big boy (this is our backup diaper bag that we keep in the BOB stroller):

-Helping Dadda with any shoveling or pitch-forking needs:

-Pretending to text and chat on the phone (complete with rambling conversations about everything from having poopy diapers, to what he did that day, to what he wants to eat for a snack):

Yesterday and today we've been home sick with what I think is croup. Eddie sounds like a LOUD sea lion when he coughs and his voice is getting hoarse, but he really doesn't have any other major symptoms at this point--and I hope it stays that way! He cries when he coughs (mostly morning and night and after a nap) but I can't tell if the sound scares him or if it actually hurts. Several kids at Eddie's daycare have croup or bronchitis or something. His energy level is still high enough that he wants to ride his bike, help wash dishes and do all the other stuff he normally does at home. Cool air is supposed to help reduce swelling in the larynx so I figure playing outside is fine as long as we avoid other kiddos so we don't spread the virus around.

Mommy's Surprise Party!

2011-10-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

About two months ago Jennifer and I decided to plan something for my mom's birthday. We talked about various options and then settled on treating her to a massage and manicure. I thought it'd be fun to invite some of her friends along, as a surprise, and then follow it up with a surprise luncheon at a Livermore restaurant.

Before I knew it, it was only 2 weeks before her birthday and we hadn't planned anything. THEN, in the blink of an eye, what I envisioned as a ladies-only day morphed into a full blown, 20-person surprise dinner at Casa Orozco.

The changes are largely my "fault" because I couldn't bring myself to say "no" when guests asked if they could bring their spouses. Plus, my mom wanted a bunch of us to tour the David Glass House in San Ramon that morning and then go out to lunch. She invited a couple of friends to those activities so I had to rearrange the dinner and poor Jenifer was stuck finding a suitable spa that could accommodate 5 of us. Also a consideration was finding a spa that would do a scalp massage since my mom doesn't want to lay on her stomach for too long because of her chemo treatment portacath in her chest. Luckily she found a place called The Livermore Spa that offered to do a scalp massage for her even though they don't normally do them.

I got up early on Saturday morning to pick up an Austrian torte from a bakery here in Davis, then drove to San Ramon to meet Jennifer, my mom, Gayla, and Liz for the house tour. Of course, we got there just 1 minute too late for the 10am tour so we had to wait an hour. But there was plenty to do: tractor rides, a pumpkin patch, and a 4-H exhibit with chicken and rabbits. Jennifer and I spent a long time talking to some overly enthusiastic and dorky high school students about the animals. The tour was nice and it was cool to see how people lived in the East Bay back in the 1800s.

We drove to downtown Danville and found an Italian bistro with outdoor seating for lunch. This whole time I had the torte in a cooler in the back of the van so I had to make sure to always park in the shade, lest it melt in the heat. I called Edward and made him meet us for lunch...and to bring more ice packs for the cooler! After lunch I traded cars with Edward so he could get the cooler into the house while Jennifer and my mom went to the spa.

At the spa, Kateri and Liz met up with us. My mom was so surprised and happy that we'd planned for her friends to come along! The spa ladies opened a bottle of champagne for us, too! Kateri, Jennifer, and I got our toes done while my mom and Liz sat on the couch chatting. Later, my mom got her scalp massage while Liz got her fingers done. The massage lady came out to tell me that my mom was "purring" (snoring) and asleep on the massage table. Haha. I asked if it was okay to leave her there for a while since she'd had a long day and needed a rest. At about 5 I went into wake her up since we had to get home to change for dinner--turns out she was not asleep (for long) but didn't know if she was allowed to get up or not. Haha!

We'd told my mom that we were going to take her to a non-Emil Villa's dinner that night as a family. Of course she kept asking, "How in the world did you get DADDY to agree to eat someplace else???" I told her he agreed only because it was her birthday and that I had a Groupon for a free birthday meal, as long as it was within 1 week of their actual birth date. My lie worked since she has no idea what Groupon is and I told her it was an "online coupon." Yes!

All of us except my mom dressed up a little for dinner. I told her I wanted to dress up simply to wear one of my new Stitch Fix purchases. My dad, of course, only dressed up because he had a set of clothes he'd worn the week before to a memorial service and figured he "might as well wear them again before washing." Sigh...men.

Lucky for us, my mom didn't recognize any of her friends' cars as we arrived at the restaurant. I left the cake in the cooler in the rear of the car so she never saw it. I told her we had a reservation so I asked where our table was and then marched us back to the banquet room.

As she walked in, most people stood up to welcome her. I loved seeing the look on her face when she realized what was going on! She first saw someone that looked like her sister-in-law, Bev. Then looked at someone else and realized it was her friend, Greg. Then it hit her--a surprise party! We had old neighbors from our first house, a high school friend of hers, her brother and sister-in-law, people from church, Dyani's grandparents, etc. It was awesome.I had told everyone to bring cash because I knew they wouldn't split up our table 10 different ways. But when the bill came, my dad offered to pay for everything! Amazing, right? (Yes, thank you Daddy!) We brought out the cake and sang happy birthday. I love it when other diners sing along, too.After we dropped my parents off at home, Edward, Jennifer, and I went to pick up Alex and then went to a few bars (clubs? I don't know...) downtown. I had only three drinks from 9:30-1am and it was plenty. We got some breakfast at IHOP and then went home to bed. My room was too hot and the walls so thin that I woke up at 7am when I heard my mom walking around. Ug....I did not feel well until I got my steak and eggs breakfast and coffee at Emil Villa's. Conclusion: I am too OLD to stay out partying until 2am. But I did have fun hanging out with Alex, drinking girly cocktails, and wearing my cute outfit.

How to Make and Can Tomato Sauce (or Soup)

2011-10-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

This post is for Kaitlin!

Here's a step-by-step of making a sweet tomato basil sauce/soup and canning it to make it shelf-stable. The ingredients are acidic so we can do water bath canning with any big pot of water. This is not pressure canning, which requires a special canner. Of course, if you only have a pressure canner, you can just use it as a water bath for this recipe.

Supplies:

Tomatoes, any type
Onions
A sweet fruit like apples, pears, or peaches
Garlic
Basil
Seasonings: salt, pepper, oregano, etc.
A roaster oven or roasting pan for a normal oven
Giant spoon
Canning jars, new lids, and bands
Big pot(s) for water bath canning (any pot will work, just make sure it is deep enough for 1" of water above the top of the size jar you are using)
Trivet to put in bottom of each pot (optional...I'm talking about a regular metal trivet you'd use to put a hot pot of food on your dinner table)
Jar lifter and jar funnel:

1. Wash and cut as many tomatoes as you want. I don't skin or seed the tomatoes because I don't mind them in my sauces and soups. You can remove them if you like, but that just adds more work.

Toss them into the roasting pan. Here I'm using my electric roaster oven so I just brought the entire pan into the kitchen. In the summer time I use my roaster oven in the garage so it won't heat up the house.

This is about 20 pounds of tomatoes.2. Wash and cut some apples to toss in for sweetness and some onion and garlic, too. This is a really good way to use up old apples or pears that aren't very good for eating fresh. I don't like pears much so I often toss them into tomato sauces/soups like this.
3. Stir it all up.
4. Set temperature to about 450F. Set the timer for 20 minutes. I like to set my phone timer so I can go off to do other things around the house.

5. Every 20 minutes stir the contents of the pan. Keep doing this until it is a pot full of mushy goop (about 3 hours). I often turn the temperature down to 350F after it is pretty mushy and only come back to stir it every 30-40 minutes.

6. Turn the oven off and let it sit for a while (even overnight) so it is a lot cooler. You don't want to carry a big pot of 400 degree sauce into the kitchen!

7. Use an immersion blender (or food processor) to blenderize the goop. I don't know how I lived so long without an immersion blender. They are ah-mazing!8. Admire the sauce; isn't it lovely?
9. Wash and chop as much basil as you want to add.10. Then stir it in. Add any other seasonings you want at this point. I added about a cup of dried oregano and some black pepper to mine.
11. Put the roasting pan back into the oven and set temperature to 300F while you prepare all of your canning supplies. It'll take a lot less time to get the water bath up to a boil to seal the jars if you start with warmed sauce (this is referred to a "hot pack," where as putting cold or room temperature foods into jars is called a "cold pack").

12. Fill one or two big pots 1/3 full of water and set to boil. Put a trivet in the bottom of each pan. The jars will sit on top of the trivet so water can circulate beneath them and help prevent them from knocking around while boiling. Sometimes I don't bother with the trivet and sometimes I use a washcloth instead.13. Gather as many jars as you need. Wash them in an empty dishwasher or in hot, soapy water in a clean sink.
14. Put the new lids into a pan of water and set to simmer on the stove to sterilize them. Don't let them boil! I shut the heat off right when I see bubbles forming on the lids.16. Rinse your jars with hot water and set on the counter.17. Fill the jars to about 1/4" below the bottom of the rim. This extra space is called the "headspace" and the amount of headspace differs a little between types of foods. I have found this amount of headspace to be perfect for this type of sauce (and applesauce, too).

Leaving too little room will let the sauce boil out of the jar during canning. This isn't good because particles of the food will get stuck under the rubber part of the lid and when it cools it won't seal.
18. Wipe the tops of each jar with a clean, damp paper towel to clean it off. It must be fee of any food residue before placing the lids on top.
19. Run a clean finger around the top of each jar to make sure there are no nicks in the glass (this would be a good thing to do before filling the jars, actually...oh well). Nicks in the glass will prevent a good seal from forming when the jars cool.20. Place a hot lid onto each jar. Careful, they're hot! I use a fork to remove the lids from the pan (slide a lid between the tines and lift it out).21. Place a band onto each jar. Only tighten them a little bit. If they are too tight then during the canning process the heated air in the headspace won't be able to escape (hot air expands). If the hot air can't escape you could get a broken jar.22. Use the jar lifter to place the jars into the pots of boiling water. You want to fill the pot full of jars so they won't knock around while boiling. You can always use a bottle of clean water to take up space if you don't want enough jars of sauce.23. Add water to the pots if needed to get about 1" of water above the tops of the jars. Set to boil.24. Set timer for 30 minutes once the pots reach a rolling boil.

25. Turn stove off and remove jars with the jar lifter. Do not tip the jars when you are removing them! Doing so can let some of the boiling sauce pour out from under the lid and it won't seal. Sealing occurs ONLY once the jars start to cool. So at this point the jars are NOT sealed yet.26. Set the jars on a towel and leave them alone until they are completely cool (like overnight). Don't touch the tops of the jars!

27. Once they are cooled completely, take the bands off. You don't want to store canned foods with the bands on because the moisture trapped there from the canning process will make the lids (and bands) rust and also mold can grow there.28. Tap the top of each jar to see if it makes a "clink" sound of the lid depressing (not sealed) or a dull "thud" (already sealed). If they are sealed you can wash the jars off, label them, and put them on a shelf to later use. If they are not sealed, you can either put them in the fridge to use soon or re-can them with new lids. Just remove the existing lids and start back at step 18.

You can see one jar with a white lid at the bottom of the picture that I've pulled off to the side. It didn't seal so I put it into the fridge...and then ate the soup that night.29. Enjoy the sauce! Here are some of my suggestions for the tomato sauce:

Eat as-is, as a tomato basil soup (we like to dip grilled cheese sandwiches in!)
Stir in some cream of half-and-half to make it a cream of tomato soup
Stir in some curry powder and/or garam masala and yogurt or cream to make an Indian-inspired simmering sauce for veggies, beans, or meat and serve over rice
Add more dried herbs to make it into a pizza or pasta sauce (rosemary, thyme, garlic powder, etc.)
Pour some into your next batch of chicken soup to give it a little acidic/sweet flavor
Use it as an omelet filling with some cheese...these were a favorite "left over spaghetti sauce" breakfast growing up!

WUVER!

2011-10-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

How could I forget the cutest Eddie-ism to date?

The background: If you've ever spent any time with us, you know that Dave and I have several pet names for each other. Baby, Love, Lover, Davie, Jewwie, Jewwies, Jewmissa, Dawid (like a Latin pronunciation of David), etc. I mostly call Dave "Lover." Eddie must have picked up on this because the other day I was calling to Dave from another room with Eddie on my lap.

Me: "Eddie where's Daddy?"
Eddie: "I dunno. Where Dadda?"
Me: "Lover! Can you come here?"
Eddie: "WUVER! Dadda! WUVER!"

Dangit, this kid melts my heart.

And the best part? This wasn't an isolated incident. Over the last couple of weeks he's often asked me, "Where Wuver?" or exclaim, "Wuver!" when he sees Dave.

Ouf, I can't get enough of this kiddo.

Eddie-isms: 25 months

2011-10-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

I always joked about this day coming...that Eddie would one day say, "Mama! Stop KISSING ME!" Dave and I cannot hold ourselves back from kissing Eddie's adorable cheeks and his warm, smooth neck when we are holding him. He's just so kissable!

Well, yesterday he actually said to me: "Mama, no kissing!" Sigh. Too bad for him, I don't listen very well. ;)Other Eddie soundbites of late:

"Mama, do dis." He says this while moving his body a certain way (like dancing) or mimicking some cleaning or home improvement task. It is hilarious. Last night at dinner we had a mini, arms-only dance party at the table that he initiated. Other times he'll ask me for a "ash cwof" (washcloth), clean the floor with it, and beckon me to do the same.
"Dat hurt me!" Any time I do something that he doesn't like (putting socks on, changing his diaper, pulling a shirt down over his head, etc.) he exclaims that I'm hurting him. It takes me a second to determine if I've actually hurt him or not (usually not) and then respond with, "No, I didn't hurt you, you're okay."
"Eddie siwwy! Hahahahaha!" Siwwy, of course, is silly. And yes, he laughs at himself when he says this.
"Eddie eat bwekfast!" Lately we've been having OJ with our breakfast. Well, when we get home after school he always insists on having a "nack" (snack). I let him eat some fresh or dried fruit while I make dinner or--if I'm lucky and well-prepared--dinner just requires reheating so I make him wait for five minutes while I serve our food. Over the last week he's begun to understand me when I explain that we only get to have OJ with breakfast, that we don't just drink juice whenever we want. The other night he asked for juice, I said "no, only for breakfast," he thought about it, and then said, "Eddie eat bwekfast now!Orange juice!" Hahaha, not quite, buddylove. But you're a keen kid!
"No sound!" Sometimes when I have the radio on in the car he'll cover his ears and yell "no sound Mama!" Usually while NPR is on...maybe he just finds it boring. I'll turn it off and ask him if that's better. He always nods and says an enthusiastic "yep!"

Nix the Driving

2011-10-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Eddie's daycare used to have plenty of parking, so all of us cheap-o grad students (and professors, actually) could leave our cars parked and then bike the 1 mile to campus. That way none of us had to use parking permits. Daily permits are $6. I know quarterly permits are a lot cheaper per day but I still don't want to pay for one. Plus, I like the idea of biking, busing, or walking here in Davis since it is so small and flat.

The daycare moved downtown so it is SUPER close to campus--about a 5 minute walk from my office. Parking downtown is always limited, but for about a 5 block radius around campus the time limit is 1 hour unless you have a resident permit. Cassie's block doesn't allow permit parking at all and her house only has two end-to-end parking places in the driveway. So there's really no way for us to park for free anymore. And that means that we won't be driving to school anymore. (I do have a 'Go' parking permit that allows me one free parking permit per month since I signed a pledge to bike to campus most days. But I will save those for days when it is downpouring or I have to run a bunch of school errands and need the car for hauling stuff.)

This week we've had our first cold autumn storms roll through. Monday we biked home in a light rain. The bike trailer's canvas cover was just about saturated to the point of dripping down on Eddie by the time we got home. I had it parked under a building's outdoor patio so it was dry when I left campus, but the 15 minutes of rain from getting to his preschool and then home was just about all it could take.

Yesterday we took the bus, even though I knew it probably wouldn't rain. The stroller has to be folded while we ride and I usually just set it on the floor under my feet (it is an umbrella Britax Blink). But I learned a really valuable lesson yesterday: don't take the bus that arrives on campus a few minutes before the hour (like at 8:50am). Those buses are PACKED FULL of students trying to get to the next class. Yikes. Eddie and I got on early enough in the route to get two seats but I had to hold the stroller vertically between us. And because it was so full we couldn't get off at our downtown stop. So we waited until most other folks were getting off on campus and walked to Cassie's. Not a big deal, but with the extra stops and walking we got to her house only 5 minutes after we would have if we'd just taken the later bus. Thank goodness Eddie didn't have his morning poop while we were riding the bus. That would have SUCKED. I was seriously saying a silent prayer to myself the whole ride: "Please don't let Eddie poop...and don't let him kick off his boots either because we'll never find them when we get off."

I've looked online for rain/weather covers for our particular bike trailer and they don't seem to exist. Only expensive Burley ones are available and only fit that style. Sigh. So it looks like I'll have to make one.

Our stroller rain cover ended up in our stash of outgrown baby stuff up in Gualala so I couldn't use it this week. I think when it is raining we'll probably just take the bus with the rain cover on the stroller (assuming I can fold/unfold the stroller with the cover on...I haven't tried it yet).

I'm hopeful, but not completely confident, that we'll be able to avoid driving most days this year. Thank goodness Cassie had parking for us all those months when he was too small to ride in the bike trailer!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

2011-10-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's (and her twin brother's) third 23rd birthday. They were born in Sacramento at what is now Memorial Hospital. My grandmother moved from Point Arena down to the Sacramento area to live with her parents toward the end of her pregnancy in order to have access to better maternity care. Her obstetrician had no idea she was carrying twins...until they were born. Can you imagine?

This was during WWII, a time when many things were rationed. Metal was diverted for the war effort so buying appliances like washing machines was difficult. So when my grandmother returned to her tiny coastal town with her new babies, she was faced with hand washing cloth diapers for two babies. The story in the family is that some nice folks in town got together and were able to get a hold of a washing machine for her so she wouldn't have to do all that work. Isn't that a lovely story?

We have a picture somewhere of my mom and Uncle Bill sitting in their highchairs, crying, on their first birthday. There are little cakes sitting in front of them. Apparently the cake was too sweet for their taste and so they didn't like it. Sugar had been rationed since May of that year, so people weren't cooking with it much (and regardless, probably not feeding sugary foods to babies anyway). My grandmother had to save up enough sugar before their birthdays in order to make them each a cake. What a waste since they didn't even like it! (If I can find the picture, I'll post it here later.)

I'll be going to Livermore this coming weekend to spend some quality girl time with my mom to celebrate her birthday--Victorian house tour, dinner, and birthday spa treatment for my mom!

What's In My Bag

2011-09-30T12:40:00.001-07:00

There is a fun "what's in my bag" trend going around in the mama blogosphere and I was tagged to do it next. All of the ones I've seen are for purses...but I haven't carried a purse since Eddie was born. Except on the rare occasions that we go out without Eddie, but then I just throw my wallet and keys into whatever old purse I can dig out of my closet.

So I thought I'd share what's in the two bags I most often have with me--the diaper bag and my school backpack.

Back pack (hot pink, very mature of me, right?)
Laptop and charger
Lab notebook
Pencil case
Laser pointer/presentation device
Thumb drive
Business cards
Bandaids
Small mirror (see me smiling in it?)
Container of ibuprofen and cold medicine
Packets of tissue
Extra hair bands
Sunglasses case
Coupon booklet
Checkbook
Phone
Wallet
Bus pass
Old batteries I need to toss into the recycle bin at school
Assortment of snacks (candies and a bar)
Two chapsticks
House/car keys
School keys (with requisite chemistry nerd permanent pens attached)

Diaper bag (vinyl Petunia Pickle Bottom boxy backpack...worth every penny I paid for it)
Cloth and disposable diapers
Old plastic bags for dirty diapers
Wipes
Change of clothes and shoes for Eddie
A pair of old breast pads...ew...those have been in there far too long...
An old Snappi for the cloth diapers we used a long time ago
Baggies containing travel size ointments, sunscreen, children's ibuprofen, mama ibuprofen and cold medication, etc.
Tums for Davie
Hydra-Stick (keeps Eddie's cheeks from chapping when we are out on super cold days)
Hand sanitizer
Chapstick
Nail clippers
Gum
Extra hairbands
Bandaids
Stain remover packet
Eddie's insurance card/immunization record
Eddie's train museum membership card
Bubbles from a wedding
Color pencils, crayons, and construction paper
Old cell phone of Eddie's

I tag:
Kelly (a student mom who DOES carry a purse!)
Stephanie (a student who isn't a mom)
Leah (a mom who isn't a student)

Short Weekends

2011-09-26T10:01:00.001-07:00

Until November 15 or when it rains (whichever comes first), Dave will be working Fridays since they are busy with logging operations. His activities vary from cutting branches off of felled logs, making roads, putting chains around logs, or operating the skidder. As long as he's safe and happy, I'm okay with whatever he does.

It does stink that he has to work Fridays, though. That makes it so he's only home with us two days a week instead of three. That may not seem like much--only one day--but trust me, it is a lot. I keep doing rain dances but so far they've not had a serious downpour to halt operations (shhhh, don't tell my father-in-law, he'd be mad if he knew what I were up to!).

For the last month we've been working weekends at Cassie's house, helping with renovations of the detached garage to turn it into the new preschool room. When she toured the property, it looked to be a complete room. But once she moved in, she realized that the rental company had torn out EVERYTHING because it had been college student style construction (i.e., a few sheets of drywall quickly nailed to the uninsulated walls, carpet thrown down on top of rotting wood and cardboard, and no power in the room). Another dad named Mark has been leading the way with all the construction. I'll be SO GLAD when it is done. Then we can have our weekends back. I'm apparently unable to not help with things like this. When good people need help, we help. It's that simple.

On Saturday Dave had to go to do annual maintenance on a rental property that we manage for someone. We get paid hourly and Dave likes doing home repair so it is a good deal for us. I decided that since he was busy anyway, Eddie and I would go to Cassie's to help move furniture into the preschool room. I was under the impression that the baseboards and carpet had been finished so all that was left was furniture. Wrong! She and I ended up installing the carpet padding and carpet. I tried to put in the baseboards, but didn't have the right saw with me. Eddie wouldn't nap at her house for some reason so I took him home. Poor kiddo fell asleep in the bike trailer. He wouldn't nap at our house, either, but I left him playing/reading/singing in his crib for an hour hoping he'd surrender to much-needed sleep while I showered and laid down for 15 minutes. My back hurt, my knees were bright red from crawling around on the indoor-outdoor carpet all morning, and I was exhausted.

Once Dave got home, he got cleaned up, and we went to the park with Eddie on our bikes. The little stinker never wants to ride his bike home from the park so we end up carrying it home on the back of my bike. We got home in time to make a bunch of pizza dough for Leila's half-sleep over party that night. There was a swim party beforehand, but since Eddie didn't nap I didn't want to wear him out too much for the end of the party. We dropped him off and Cassie scooted us out the door. We didn't have to come back to get him until 10pm (we came around 9, though). What an AWESOME party for all of us! The kiddos made personal pizzas, had cupcakes, and got to watch movies outside in a tent using a projector screen. The party favors were these pre-packaged backpacks with a flash light, water bottle, and sleeping bag. Eddie was completely passed out in his sleeping bag when we got there. He didn't wake up until we put him in the car. I've never dealt with transferring Eddie straight to bed from the carseat at night before (since we never go out late at night), but he did fine and slept until 8am.

While Eddie was partying, we went to get some delicious spicy food and cocktails at a place called Red Noodle Bar downtown. Then we saw Crazy, Stupid Love since Moneyball was sold out. Our movie was cute and we both enjoyed it. It was so nice to have a date and we didn't have to pay for childcare! Woo! Plus, we got to have our celebratory post-exam drinks now that I have a renewed license. Dave took his water distributor exam the week before. (The night of my qualifying exam we tried to go out for drinks but the bar tender realized that my license had expired back in March. Oops! And funny, since I know I've been buying alcohol other places the whole time and no one noticed.)

Sunday morning we had a big breakfast of sausages, eggs, toast, OJ, and delicious Sharlyn melon slices. Then Dave and Eddie worked on the dishwasher while I cleared out all the dead vegetation from the front yard. It was a cool, overcast day and it even rained a little. I was in heaven. Regarding the dishwasher: we thought the food residue on the top rack dishes was from a bad impeller but once we bought a replacement, it was clear that wasn't the issue. Dave took apart some other things but those all looked fine, too. So we made sure to level it since the ball valve requires it to be perfectly leveled in order to get top rack water sprayer to work right. Throughout the day, we ran it about five times with vinegar or lemon juice poured in to remove some of the hard water crust. A bowl set upwards in the top rack collected black and white powder each time. Sigh. At least the bottom rack still gets clean. We'll continue to use it to see if the acid improved it or not. If not, we'll break down and buy a new dishwasher.

While Eddie napped we super-trimmed the honeysuckle in the utility yard. There is a HUGE pile of yard debris in front of our house this week! We kept all the dried leaves from the vines and made two new compost piles in that yard. For the last several months we've been throwing all our veggie/fruit food waste out to the chickens. But when I go out there at night I can see way too many cockroaches also eating the food. I'm okay with most bugs but NOT cockroaches. So our food waste will now go into a proper compost pile or into the worm bin I finally got around to finishing. Sorry, chickens....you'll get worm treats soon, though.

We went downtown after naptime to get yogurt and to buy some more winter veggies and flowers from Ace. Eddie also got his very own leaf rake. Dave was going to cut down the handle for him, but he seems like like it long. Once we got home I planted the seeds I started inside a few weeks ago into the beds in the garden. And I tucked some bok choi, green cabbages, and Brussels sprouts into the front yard beds. I'm hoping to get the pansies planted that I bought, too. For dinner that night we tag-team cooked steaks and Brussels sprouts while alternately cleaning the garage and watering the newly planted veggies.

It was a great weekend (especially all the family time on Sunday) and I can't wait for this coming weekend! We are planning on having a wienie roast over the fire pit for dinner one night and fondue the other night--both meals that Eddie is SURE to love (which is why we're doing them).

Eddie's ABC Book

2011-09-22T10:40:00.001-07:00

The only time I ever get around to making a photobook is when I have a hefty coupon code. I decided to make another book for Eddie, about Eddie.

He knows his colors, we're working on counting, and I know ABCs are next in line! Hopefully this book will be educational and fun for him.

Click here to view this photo book larger

The Way I Cook

2011-09-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

For the past few years I've been hounding all sorts of home economics, money saving, and meal planning blogs for ideas to help me better run my household. Nearly ALL of them tout planning meals at least a week in advance as a way to stay organized and to save money. Many people also sing the praises of planning meals based on your pantry contents and what is on sale.

Both methods make sense, especially for people who lack the desire to cook and absolutely must save money. I am not one of those people. I always sorta brushed off the whole meal-planning thing because I enjoy some surprises in life.

However, with a child who thrives on a consistent schedule I can't pull off my "hmmm, it is 5:30pm...let's figure out what we'll cook up for dinner" and still get him to bed at a reasonable hour. (Right now he's in bed between 8-8:45pm, which is too late for both of us. I tried putting him to bed at 7:30pm, assuming he'd get up earlier than his current 8am...but I was wrong. Sigh, now I have to purposely wake him up in order to get us to preschool by 9am.)

So I tried planning my meals a week in advance and shopping to make sure I had everything for the week. But it just doesn't work for me. And I finally figured out why.

1. I like variety and I never know what I'm going to be in the mood for a full week in advance.
2. Since I am alone with Eddie during the week, I need to cook freezer-friendly stuff or just cook smaller portions so we aren't eating the same thing as leftovers, over and over again.
3. I get bored easily. A lot of families have a list of meals they tend to eat frequently and they just rotate through them. With a few exceptions, I do NOT like to eat the same meal/dish more than once a month or so. I LOVE variety in my diet.
4. I adore cooking and all its components (recipe hunting/development, preparing the ingredients, cooking, serving, eating, and cleaning up afterward). So fast, easy meals are not my thing. I need the whole process to enjoy a meal and to destress.

So how can I plan a week's worth of meals considering my food preferences? I think about a few key dishes I want to eat soon, make a list of the ingredients necessary, and then plan the rest of the week around the remaining ingredients as the week progresses. So I usually only plan about 3 days out and keep my pantry and freezer really well stocked so I can make anything, anytime. To figure out what else I'll want, I think about it this way: "If I got to eat out at a restaurant instead of cook this week, what would I want to order?" I love eating at Mexican, Japanese, Indian, and Thai restaurants so I force the ingredients to fit into those categories usually.

For instance, if I know I will have a bunch of mushrooms left over from making beef strogranoff, then I will decide to make red, yellow, or green Thai curry using the mushrooms and whatever other veggies are in the CSA basket that week. And if I'm using any type of dried bean I'll also make a Mexican casserole that I can freeze for later or just freeze the cooked beans in baggies to toss into some other dish later on. If I know I will need to buy half-and-half for a sauce (and I always buy a half gallon of it at Costco because it is so much cheaper there), then I will plan on freezing a bunch for later and also making a cream soup or Cajun pasta sauce.

Fresh herbs make food taste SO MUCH BETTER--sprinkling some basil or thyme leaves into your salad or stirring in some mint or citrus zest into a rice dish can make the whole meal "pop." (Seriously, you'll be blown away.) A bunch of fresh cilantro or basil at the store can cost up to $3 around here...which is a lot if you will only use it for one meal. But I splurge and then make sure to use it throughout the week. Basil works in Thai and Italian; cilantro works in Thai, Indian, and Mexican); taragon is delicious tossed with roasted or sauteed veggies of any kind. We have perennial crops of rosemary, sage, taragon, oregano, chives, lemon verbena, a few types of mint, and stevia. In summer we obviously have tons of basil and in winter we have cilantro. We are lucky to live in CA where fresh herbs are available locally year round at the farmers market, too.

And then there are all my "go to" dishes that are so adaptable that I don't get sick of them because they vary in texture, taste, and appeal depending on what ingredients are available. I love these options because pretty much ANY veggie or meat can be used:

Risotto
Omelet or fritatta
Pizza
Pilaf with whatever grain you feel like (quinoa, rice, barley, wheat berries) or using boxed Rice-a-Roni as a based to which you add other stuff
Curry (Indian, Thai, etc.) with rice
Enchiladas
Poached eggs nested in sauteed veggies
Ramen noodles (we pump ours up with extra water, sesame oil, fish sauce, poached egg, and whatever veggies we have around)

Now that I've written all this, it seems ridiculous that I still go looking for new and exciting stuff to try. It does take me a while to stumble upon something that is exciting/new enough for me to want to try it. Lately I've been perusing Samoan food blogs since we love anything containing coconut milk and I'm inspired by my friend Kaitlin's dishes. I'd like to try making bento boxes for lunch with dinner ingredient left overs, as well as more Chinese and Japanese foods.

Tonight we are having raviolis (fresh, bought from Costco) with some sort of creamy-herby sauce and salad. And I intend to make a giant batch of pico de gallo to use up the tomatillos and tomatoes from the garden as well as a bunch of cilantro I bought last week when I made enchildads and chili (I hope isn't rotten yet!).

Our meals for this week are/were:

Monday--dinner out with family in the bay area
Tuesday--welcome dinner on campus for my graduate group
Wednesday--fresh pasta with salad
Thursday--CSA basket veggie saute with poached eggs
Friday--beef pad thai noodles
Saturday--whatever Dave wants (probably a hunk of meat on the BBQ with veggie kebabs)
Sunday--who knows

Last night I FINALLY went to Costco after more than a month. I spent a ton of money on chicken, cheese, milk, and other things that will hopefully last us a few months. After Eddie was in bed, I divided up the chicken, seasoned it with either Asian salad dressing, chili powder, or garam masala, and froze it in baggies. That way it'll be marinated once I defrost it so cooking something delicious with it will be a snap. I bought a pack of English muffins, cheddar cheese, eggs, bacon, and sausages with the hope of making a ton of breakfast sandwiches that I can put into the freezer. Eddie would eat oatmeal every single morning if I left him decide...but I am getting really sick of it. So I need to add some other stuff to our options. He loves all foods that can be carried around outside so I think he'll like the sandwiches.

So......what are YOU having for dinner?

GONE

2011-09-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend when we were in Gualala I checked Facebook and saw that an old coworker/friend, named Kathy, had written a farwell note on another friend's wall. It said something like "Goodbye Bonnie. You will be missed, friend." A million thoughts went through my head--did Bonnie move away? Did she die?!

My heart sank and I clicked through to Bonnie's Facebook page to see if there was other information to figure out what was going on. Bonnie has lived in the Oakland-Orinda area her whole life and I met her through our work at the Presbyterian church nursery where I worked Sundays in college. For the last 18 years Bonnie was in that nursery rocking and playing with babies during church services. There were a handful of us "gals" who worked or volunteered there and we loved spending our Sunday mornings together, caring for babies and chatting about everything under the sun. All of those ladies (ranging in age from our 20s to mid-50s) became near and dear to me. Bonnie and Kathy especially taught me a lot about what it means to be a good mother and they emanated good Christian values in every single thing they did. Oh how I miss those days!

Anyway, when I got to Bonnie's page only one other person had posted anything: and it said "RIP Bonnie." I was stunned, angry, confused, and sad. How could Bonnie be GONE? She has so many friends, a loving husband, and three amazing daughters who are just setting out on their own. I couldn't believe it. So I sent Kathy a message to ask for confirmation. I was scared to get her response back, but I did a few hours later.

Her funeral was yesterday so Eddie and I went to Moraga. My mom, brother, and Jennifer were nice to come along to entertain Eddie while I was in the service. Bonnie's middle daughter gave part of the eulogy, which was heartfelt and funny. After sharing some funny stories about her mom, Hilary said that she keeps thinking about how her mom is "gone." But that she realized a few days ago that she could change the way she thinks about the word "gone." She realized it could be an acronym rather than just a word. GONE: God Offers New Experiences. Everyone was nodding in agreement as she explained that her mom is now in heaven, partaking in all the new, eternal life experiences God has in store for her. Extending that, I think that Bonnie's passing (anyone's really) allows the rest of us to have new experiences, too. Especially when someone dies who has always been in your life, like a parent. You've never known life without them, and for the first time you are faced with navigating the world without them. So all those experiences are new for you, too. GONE made me feel better...even if I'm still not sure of what I believe awaits me after I die.

I brought Eddie into the reception afterward so all the other ladies could meet him. He was a really good boy, making friends with everyone, drinking lots of lemonade and eating cookies. It was surprisingly hot outside--about 91F! Although the circumstances sucked, it was nice to see everyone. I'm kicking myself for never making the time to come see all of them earlier. We decided that we should get together regularly but find a place halfway between Davis and Moraga. We WILL make it happen.

Afterward, my mom treated us Bower-Levie-Whitney's to lunch at one of my favorite Lamorinda eateries, Pizza Antica. It is usually super loud inside but because we were there at an off hour (about 3:45pm) it was super quiet...which did not bode well for me and Eddie. He was being squirmy and loud until our food came. Everyone else thought he was being relatively good, but I wish he'd just SIT STILL. Oh well, there's a reason we never go out to eat anymore. Once his spaghetti came he was a happy kid, slurping up those noodles and making a huge mess.

Then we decided to get ice cream at Loard's. Rather than drive, Edward suggested we take BART one stop down the line to go to Orinda. Eddie was STOKED. He hasn't been on BART since he was only a couple of months old.

Every time a train zipped by out the window he'd have to look long and hard for more to come. Sunshine in his face did not deter him from enjoying the choo choo ride!It was a bit of a walk from the Orinda station to the ice cream shop and I didn't bring the stroller. Eddie rode on my shoulders, which worked to entertain him (higher vantage point) and allowed me to control exactly how fast we walked and keep him safely away from fast cars. I must have looked ridiculous wearing a kid on my shoulders, dress shoes, and a black dress. We enjoyed our frozen treat in the air conditioned shop, then took Eddie to play at the newly renovated fountain at theater square. With him distracted I was able to use Edward's phone to call Verizon to complain about my constantly rebooting phone (a replacement phone is on the way!). We had to wait forever for the return train back to Lafayette and I was worried that Eddie would crash in the van on our hour drive back home, making it difficult to get him to cooperate for a much needed pre-bed bath. But he stayed awake the whole time, chatting with me!

Once he was in bed, I wasn't far behind. I have laundry to fold, dishes to wash, and clutter to put away...but I was too exhausted emotionally and physically to do any of it. Perhaps tonight!

Eddie's Second Birthday

2011-09-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

Due to the timing of my exam, I didn't want to throw Eddie a birthday party...at least until after my exam was out of the way. Lucky for me, he doesn't know the difference so I figured we'd do something in September. Even luckier for me, my mom decided to throw him a party in Livermore since we had to be there to attend a wedding. I chose the Thomas the Tank Engine theme since Eddie loooooooooooooves choo-choos right now. She took care of the decorations, party favors, food, and cake.
We arrived in Livermore on Friday afternoon. After dropping our stuff at the house, my mom dropped me off at the library so I could study before dinner. Once the library closed, it was a short walk over to Emil Villa's for dinner.

Saturday I took a break from studying and instead just hung out. My dad had fixed up an old lathe we inherited from Dave's grandfather so we played with that for a while. Eddie rode his bike around a LOT that day, too. There's a little slope in the backyard and he'd really get going fast!

That night we got dressed up in our fancy clothes to go to Kristin and Caesar's wedding at Poppy Ridge golf course. It was a nice ceremony and we got to sit near another grade school friend, Elizabeth, and her parents for the ceremony and dinner afterward. We chose the steak for dinner and it was GOOD. The cake took forever and a day to be served, but it was worth waiting for! Edward and Jennifer crashed the wedding an hour before it was over (I checked with Kristin ahead of time and she didn't mind). Too bad they got there just after the bar closed. Oh well. Jennifer and I had tons of fun dancing.

The next morning I headed back to the library to study. At 3pm my mom picked me up from the library and we went to Almond Avenue Park to set up the party. It was a pain to carry all the coolers and heavy stuff from the school parking lot to where the tables were, so I decided to remove one of the walkway barricade posts in order to drive into the park. Genius!

We set up the table cloths and all that while Edward and Jennifer went to the store to pick up all the food. My mom ordered SO much food from Safeway that we were literally eating mini croissant sandwiches for days afterward (even for breakfast...).

All the guests showed up around 4pm. The guests were some of my high school friends who are still in Livermore, plus all of our family friends. We hired my childhood friend, Katherine, to come take pictures of the party. That was a real treat because I didn't have to worry about taking pictures AND I got to enjoy flipping through all 200+ of them later (some of which are included here...but the cake one was taken by Mrs. Porter). Everyone seemed to have a good time eating, chatting, watching Eddie scoot around on his bike, and then eating cake.We asked that people not bring gifts since we don't need more stuff and want Eddie to learn that the people are more important than the presents. As expected, some people did bring small gifts or a donation to his college fund. We appreciated everyone and everything!

In no particular order, here are some pictures of the party.
Sweet baby Batiste was the hit of the party:
I should try to find an old picture of the three of us, back when we were grubby kiddos ourselves--me, Katherine (photographer), and Dyani:My mom made goodie bags for each of the guests. This was amusing to me for a few reasons: 1) She used fold-over sandwich baggies; 2) One of the "goodies" was a pocket pack of kleenex; 3) There were only 2 kids at the party; 4) She put extra fun stuff in the kids' bags--crayons, bubbles, and wind-up toys...which all the adults had fun playing with, too:
Three cheers for a family photo of us Bowers. It is a very realistic picture, as you can see from Eddie's super grubby face and hands.

Two Year Doc Visit

2011-09-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

My mom and I took Eddie to his two year old well child doctor visit today. I missed taking him a month ago, nearer his birthday, because of my exam.

Here are the stats:

Height: 36"
Weight: 30 pounds
Cuteness: 100th percentile
Chatterbox-ness: 89th percentile

I couldn't get an appointment late in the day, so I was stuck with 8am (no way, the angel is still sleeping at that hour, bless him!) or 1:30pm. The latter is do-able, but crappy because he is usually napping then. So I avoided the napping and picking him up at daycare issue by spending the morning at the train museum with him and my mom. Both of them had a ball...and all three of us were ready for lunch and a nap by the time we were done. We stopped by a saloon in Old Sac for a quick lunch. It was the type of place that lets you throw you peanut shells on the floor and had a bunch of arcade games in the back (meaning it was PERFECT for a loud two year old).

He promptly fell asleep in the car...and since we had 40 minutes to kill before arriving at the doctor's office, I put the cruise control to an old lady speed of 62MPH and we toodled back to Davis. Poor Eddie was cranky when I had to wake him up to go inside.The nurse left a paper measuring tape in the exam room when she left, so I let Eddie play with it to distract him. He had a good time "measuring" Grandma's foot with it. It is amusing to me that he pretty much knows how to use a measuring tape, screwdriver, hammer, and pliers in the correct way.I agreed to let a medical student shadow the doctor today. Unfortunately for Eddie, that meant having two physical exams (one by each person). I told the medical student that he'd be much happier if he could have a lollipop after she was done. Poor Eddie thought I meant that we already HAD a lollipop for him in the diaper bag and he kept asking me to find the "puppy dog" in the diaper bag. My mom and I were so confused--we couldn't understand the word he was using. Finally we realized he was saying "lollipop" and not "puppy dog." The medical student brought him a sucker after her exam was over and he perked right up. He was even more happy when he figured out how to remove the cellophane wrapper all by his big boy self!

So the physical by the actual doctor was completely fuss free, albeit a little sticky because of the sucker drool all over his hands and face.No surprise, he's 100% perfect!

Here's a list of all the newish things Eddie can do at two years old:

run REALLY fast
understand me when I say "walk, don't run" (not that he listens to me most of the time...)
insist on helping stir whatever I'm cooking and pulling the cord on the salad spinner when I'm cleaning veggies
correctly identify each of his grandparents, uncles and aunts by their respective names: Grammy vs. Grandma, Papa vs. Grandpa, Auntie Bernie vs. Auntie--meaning Jennifer but she's just called "Auntie", and Uncle Michael vs. Uncle--Edward, but he's also just called "Uncle"
jump down steps (I'm not a big fan of this trick)
use a shovel, and I don't mean just poking at the dirt--he can actually use a shovel to dig a hole by stepping on the blade and scoop up a remarkable quantity of soil. I'd love it if he understood that the paved patio was NOT the place to deposit said dirt...
give the BEST and most INTENSE hugs ever. I know this phase won't last so I ask for and accept his little bear hugs as much as I can. Dave reports that Eddie is ALWAYS cocking his head to the side and asking him "Hug Mama?" So Dave helps him find me so he can give me a hug. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........!
use the phrase "my" to identify "his" objects. Around 19-20 months he began claiming things as his by saying "this mines." We realized that we were responding with, "yes, that is Eddie's." But by using the possessive form of his name, we were inadvertently making him think that "mine's" was correct. So we started saying "yes, that belongs to Eddie" instead. For the last month or so he's been saying "this MY [insert object]." The cutest instance is when he says to whoever is listening--strangers at the store, my mom, Cassie--"this MY Mama!" while grabbing onto me. So, so sweet.

Wallet

2011-09-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

I found it! Where was it? In the lab, on my bench, right where everyone walks by...sigh.

Now where'd I put my brain?

Eye Splinter

2011-09-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

After daycare last night, Eddie and I had a quick leftover pizza dinner at the house. Then we were off to the park so he could ride his "bikacull" for a while. He also played on the playground with a bunch of other kids. Around 7:30pm I convinced him to ride his bike back home so we could have a vitamin (he loves them).

We were both filthy--covered in grass, dirt, and bits of tan bark from the playground. I was wearing a tank top, flipflops, and my paint-spattered exercise shorts because it was too hot to keep my jeans on from school that day.

I pulled his shirt off of him when he was standing in the kitchen, despite his protests that he wasn't ready for a bath and to get naked. He immediately started screaming intensely--that blood curdling type of scream that means pain. I turned him around and he kept saying "Eye HURT! Eye HURT! Owie!" I tried to keep him from rubbing his eye too much and I pried it open as best I could to get a better look. There was a big piece of bark in his eye, right in the middle (like 2-3mm in diameter). It was a flat flake of wood. I blew on his eye to make him blink, but it didn't budge. So I pried it open again and tried to "dab" it off with my finger tip. No luck. Then I laid him down on the kitchen counter, filled a cup with water, pried it open again, and flushed his eye several times. He was NOT HAPPY. Still, it wouldn't budge. I sat him up and tried to call our neighbor to see if she could come over and help me wrangle him so I could try to flush it better or use a Q-tip to dab it off. But she wasn't answering her cell or landline. By this point Eddie was so sad and in pain that there wasn't much I could do to prevent him from rubbing his eye.

So I grabbed him, my keys and phone, and hopped into the car. I couldn't find my wallet anywhere (still can't). On our way to the hospital I called urgent care to ask if he should go there or to the ER. The lady said ER since he was so young.

We were seen by the triage nurse right away, who kept commenting on how smart Eddie is--he was a chatterbox through his fussing, pointing out all the colors he saw and asking her repeatedly, "What doing with that?" Ah, what a sweetie he is!

If you click on the image below you'll see a tan colored thing in his eye:

Eventually we were told to wait on a hallway hospital bed for the doctor to come. Eddie wanted to get down and run around, but I wouldn't let him because he didn't have shoes (or a shirt!) on and hospital floors can be icky. He was surprisingly well behaved on that little bed, all things considered. Here you can see his collection of "bam-aids" as he calls bandages. He doesn't have that many owies but insists on wearing at least 2-3 at all times.

In the meantime a couple of nurses came by to have a look and they agreed that they needed the doctor to figure out how to retrieve it. And, of course, by the time the doctor got to us the thing was gone.

The doctor looked in Eddie's eye and looked confused. "Is this splinter big enough that you can see it? Where is it exactly?" And wouldn't you know, it had finally come loose. I thought he was going to say, "No problem, you can go home." But he wanted to dye the eye ball to check for scratches. There is a scratch, but the doctor said it isn't a big deal and he'd just require some antibiotic eye drops for a few days, just in case.

Of course, I have no one at home to help me wrestle Eddie to the floor to put the drops in...nor do I have the wherewithal to remember to bring the drops to daycare this morning to have Cassie help me. Sheesh. And I still can't find my dang wallet.

Stuff at school and at home is all over the place: broken instrument pieces that have to be freight shipped to Pennsylvania to be repaired, research plans to be finalized with my professor who is leaving for China for a whole month, broken dishwasher for which I need to drive to Sacramento to by a replacement part (it SUCKS not having a dishwasher and having a toddler who insists on "helping" to "wash disses" with you), four loads of laundry I need to fold...and did I mention that I can't find my wallet?

We are heading up to Gualala tomorrow for a long weekend of honey harvesting, apple pressing, SLEEPING IN, and hanging out with Edward and Jennifer. I can't wait to get there. Oh...but first I also have to pack the car full of our stuff and lock Taters in his crate in the back of the van so he won't try to climb into the small space under my feet while I'm driving (you know that space...where the pedals are?).

I thought life was supposed to be easier and less stressful once my QE was over...didn't I read that somewhere?

Catch Up!

2011-09-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of catch up on! Here's a little list for starters. I'll write proper blog posts...soon.

1. I passed my exam! It was a really good experience. More on that later.

2. I missed Eddie so much while studying! He was at daycare more than full time over the last 6 weeks. We skipped our weekly Tuesday afternoons off together in favor of studying. Because I spent weekends in the library, it meant that I really only hung out with him before and after school. And if you know anything about small children, you know that their personalities are different early and late in the day (more fussy, tired). I can't wait to get back into a schedule that lets us--just us--hang out during the daytime.3. So many people supported me throughout this process! Obviously, Dave was there by my side when I needed him to be--he took a week and a half off in order to take care of Eddie and me (I was "done" studying so we did get to hang out a bit, which was soooooooooooooo nice). Edward cleared his schedule in order to stay with me for a week prior to Dave's "term." My mom had her schedule cleared in order to come stay with Eddie after he was in bed, if I needed her to (she didn't end up needing to come). People all over the place were praying for me and sending me nice emails encouraging me and telling me I'd be in their thoughts and prayers. That was SUCH a booster for me!

5. Eddie is a talking MACHINE now. Sheesh, it seems like he can say practically anything. And he DOES--he talks NON STOP.

6. My family orchestrated my dad coming to Davis the day of my exam and surprising me at the restaurant where we were celebrating afterward. Ha! It was awesome! (And it boosted my confidence because he obviously knew in his heart that I would actually pass the exam, otherwise it would have been awkward for him to come all the way up here.)

7. The Schwinds moved the day after my exam. =( I'm so sad about that. John and I are in the same cohort at school (same starting class in our program). I remember him before Jessica moved to California to be with him. And I remember him telling me about his girl friend and how she was going to move here. Then I remember meeting this hot blond lady at one of our seminars--it was Jessica and she'd tagged along with John to school that day. She became a professor at a local university AND started at Davis as a Ph.D. student (she's quite a catch). Then we bonded over our dogs...and eventually over babies. And now they are gone--back to Georgia to live near Jessica's family. We couldn't go to their going away party because we were in Livermore at the time. They came to my exam celebration so I did get to hold each of the babies and say good bye.

8. Eddie turned two years old just two weeks before my exam. He's definitely not a baby anymore. My mom threw him an awesome party at a park we used to frequent at his age. It was really fun.

Random Updates

2011-08-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

It took Eddie and I a whole ten minutes to walk to the park yesterday. Mind you, the distance from our driveway to the park is less than the length of our house...and it took us allllllllll that time because he kept stopping to pull up his shorts to make sure his bandaids were still on his knees. For the last four months he's had at least one scab on each knee. To me, that means he's really a kid now, and not a baby. In my mind, knee scabs are hallmarks of childhood. I was always scratched up as a kid--from climbing trees, tripping while running, wrestling with my brother, who knows.

We had nachos for dinner tonight. Apparently, Eddie only likes eating chips when HE is in charge of dipping them into the toppings. He wasn't interested in eating his food once I plopped all the goodies on top (cheese, olives, beans, sour cream mixed with salsa, tomatoes). Sigh.

Eddie turns two on Saturday at 10:22am. TWO. Where the HECK did the last two years go? I went to work last year while Edward and Dave hung out with Eddie at the park. The same thing will probably happen this year, too, since I should spend at least half the day preparing for my exam. Maybe next year I'll be able to spend "his" day with him!

Eddie talks non stop these days, to the point of annoyance. Some of his funnier phrases are:
-Oopsies!
-Oh, goodness!
-Wherediditgo? This is definitely a single word for Eddie (not said rapidly but it does flow all together) and it is adorable to hear him say it and gesture with both hands while lifting his shoulders.
-Mama want a yogurt pop, too? (He gets one frozen Go-Gurt each afternoon and although I never eat one, he always asks if I want one. Isn't he sweet?)
-Mama! Mama! Mama! Where penis? (He asks this when he's wearing a diaper or pants. When he's naked he'll just point to it and tell me where it is.)

I have only three weeks until my exam. The proposal is basically done. Now I need to make my presentation and then do a bunch more reading. After that I'll make some flash cards for tidbits I think I should probably have memorized (like the combustion enthalpies of glucose, cellulose, lipids, and proteins found in plant material). *Hopefully* I'll be able to meet with each committee member within the next week so I can review whatever they think I need to know. The engineering professor can't even meet with me until Monday, which makes me nervous because that gives me only two weeks to study the stuff she recommends. Hopefully it won't be brand new information...since the proposal and my coursework are supposed to create the limits of my expertise. Dang, I should probably look though my class notes this weekend to see if there are any equations that are pertinent.

I've been having trouble sleeping lately and I think it is because I force myself to stay up late reading or working on the proposal. Although I know I shouldn't, I do. Remember a while ago when I said I wouldn't study at home at all? Hahahahaha. Oh, naive Julie. I am going to read one or two papers tonight and then do something relaxing...like fall asleep while watching Bones.