Today wasn't overly productive. After karate, I let Jeremy take a nap, so I missed out on my prime productive time. I did stop at the produce store to get some fruit and veggies. While I was there, on a whim, I bought six vegetable plants to plant in a container in my backyard. Then I found a container to use, took it to my father-in-law's so he could help me drill some drainage holes in the bottom, lined it with coffee filters, took it to the township dirt pile and filled it with soil, then planted my six little plants. Who knows if anything will come of my plants (two tomato plants, two jalapeño pepper plants, one eggplant plant, and one green pepper plant, I think - they weren't very well labeled, and I didn't ask, because I liked the idea of surprise vegetables). It's worth a shot, anyhow, and I think Valerie will enjoy watching them grow.
Then we went to Trevor's fourth birthday party at BounceU, which was a lot of fun, and not nearly as chaotic as I was expecting. Then home for some watermelon, Glee and, hopefully soon, bed.
I still have a lot to do on my HADA projects, and I'm a little bummed that I didn't get them done, but at least I don't feel like there is no end in sight anymore, so that's something. I had kinda hoped that my last day of HADA would be one of those awesomely productive days, but at least I crossed the finish line. Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Day 30 tally: 1 hour shopping and planting vegetables.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Hour-a-Day April: Day Twenty-Nine
Okay, this is going to be a quickie post, because I'm tired.
Sorted clothes in the walk-in closet. One full trash bag of donations, one full trash bag of trash, one box and one pile of "give to specific people" stuff.
Watched some clips of the Royal Wedding on youtube. Loved her veil, which was pretty much exactly the look I wanted for my own wedding veil (and made myself because I couldn't find one I liked in my price range).
Went to the park for a few hours, had dinner at the in-laws'.
Dress shopping with the hubby. Managed to find a dress that fits up top without hanging like a flour sack on the bottom, and for less than I was planning on spending. (Hooray for Burlington Coat Factory!)
And now, I am ready for bed. I can't believe tomorrow is my last HADA day!
Day 29 tally: 1 hour 20 minutes sorting clothes + 1 hour 20 minutes dress shopping = 2 hours 40 minutes.
Sorted clothes in the walk-in closet. One full trash bag of donations, one full trash bag of trash, one box and one pile of "give to specific people" stuff.
Watched some clips of the Royal Wedding on youtube. Loved her veil, which was pretty much exactly the look I wanted for my own wedding veil (and made myself because I couldn't find one I liked in my price range).
Went to the park for a few hours, had dinner at the in-laws'.
Dress shopping with the hubby. Managed to find a dress that fits up top without hanging like a flour sack on the bottom, and for less than I was planning on spending. (Hooray for Burlington Coat Factory!)
And now, I am ready for bed. I can't believe tomorrow is my last HADA day!
Day 29 tally: 1 hour 20 minutes sorting clothes + 1 hour 20 minutes dress shopping = 2 hours 40 minutes.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Hour-a-Day April: Day Twenty-Eight
You know when you're packing up for a move, and you pack really carefully for a few days, labeling every box meticulously. Then the day of the move, you realize how much more crap there is, and you don't have enough time to sort through it all anymore, so you throw everything in boxes and label them "misc" or "junk"? Then, the next time you move, you find those boxes, which you never opened, and throw them in the moving truck, along with half a dozen more boxes that you just labeled "random" and "crap"? Then you do the same thing all over again? And again?
When we moved to this apartment three years ago, it was the seventh place we had lived in seven years of marriage. Seven times, we have gone through the "Crap, we're out of time, just throw it all in a box" routine. And those boxes all went into the walk-in closet.
I spent a little over 2.5 hours emptying boxes today. I must have been in the right mood for it, because I threw a lot of things out. One full kitchen trash bag of garbage, plus the things that went into the various "donate" or "give to specific people" piles. A few things got filed or relocated, and a few things (like yarn and knitting/crochet supplies) were reboxed and labeled properly. I finished most of the left side of the closet. I expect I have another 2.5 hours of work to do on the right side of the closet, but we're gradually getting there.
I had a packrat breakthrough today. I hold onto things for many reasons. Some things have genuine nostalgia or record-keeping value, like old yearbooks, medical records, tax documents, photographs, creative writing, or journals. I try to find a coherent way to keep these things organized and safe, while taking up the minimum amount of space. (One file cabinet is sufficient right now.) I'm pretty good at whittling down the nostalgia stuff if I ever have the time to sort. What I'm terrible at is the "But it's still good! Someone might be able to use it someday!" stuff. I'm pretty sure I learned this from my dad. He took pride in being able to find the correct random bit needed to solve any given problem from his treasure trove of miscellaneous stuff (a.k.a. our basement). Broke a shoelace? I have spare shoelaces! Is fluorescent orange okay? Lost a screw? Let me grab my seven jars of random screws, we'll find one that fits! Sprained your ankle? I have ace bandages in four different sizes!
There is also a pride in repurposing broken things. Sure, there's a hole in this backpack, but the drawstring clamps are still good, I could use them on another backpack! Yes, the elastic waistband on this skirt has crumbled with age, but I could use the fabric to make a wrap-shirt! I know this card has writing inside it, but if I cut the cover off, and glue it onto card stock, I could reuse it! And those are only the arguments that have succeeded. My brain has been thwarted in attempts to save: a deck of cards with only 42 cards, because there is probably some game you can play with it, shoes with holes in the soles, because I might be able to cover the holes with glue or something, and an answering machine, because, even though we don't have a home phone, we might be able to use it as a tape recorder for the girls to play with.
Anyhow, back to my breakthrough. 28 days into my HADA challenge, and I still have so much STUFF to sort through. And it hit me today that all this stuff has a hidden cost: My time. It's not just harmless junk sitting in a box waiting to be used; it's a burden. It takes time to dig through and find the item I need, it takes time to sort everything into neatly organized categories, it takes time to move everything around when I change my mind about the layout of the house. It eats so much time. And honestly? Time is the one thing I have the least of right now. We don't have a lot of money, but you know what? We can afford a pair of shoelaces. And if I have to hang onto this much stuff that I might need just to have that one thing one day that I do need, it's not worth it. It's not worth the time, it's not worth the storage space, it's not worth the stress.
I came across a baby blanket today that I started making when my sister was pregnant with my nephew, over four years ago. I had managed to crochet about 12 inches of it when I decided that it was taking too long, and I wasn't very good, and I didn't want to spend however many hours it would take to finish a crappy baby blanket. But I kept it, for some reason. Maybe I thought I would finish it someday, I don't know. So today, when I found it, I told myself it either needed a purpose, or it was going in the trash. Use it or lose it. I decided that it wasn't worth making into a full blanket, but maybe one of Valerie's dolls could use a blanket. So I sat down, redid a few stitches that had come undone, called it finished, and wove in the loose ends. It took only a couple of minutes, and now Valerie's dolls have a remarkably amateur baby blanket.
I want to have less stuff. And I really am trying, but it takes time to change the way you think about stuff. I'm trying to be realistic about anything I save for future use. I think I might actually make that skirt into a wrap-shirt. I'm pretty sure I'll never make those greeting cards into new cards. I will reuse some of those gift bags, but I probably don't need to keep all of them. I do hate throwing things out, but that's what the donate pile is for. I probably overestimate the value of my junk, but at least I can think it's going to get used, even if Goodwill just throws everything out.
Oh yeah, I went grocery shopping tonight, too, after the girls were in bed. I'm tired, and this post is taking forever to write, so I'm just going to click publish and go to bed without all the obsessive editing I usually engage in.
Day 28 tally: 2.5 hours in walk-in closet + 1 hour shopping = 3.5 hours.
When we moved to this apartment three years ago, it was the seventh place we had lived in seven years of marriage. Seven times, we have gone through the "Crap, we're out of time, just throw it all in a box" routine. And those boxes all went into the walk-in closet.
I spent a little over 2.5 hours emptying boxes today. I must have been in the right mood for it, because I threw a lot of things out. One full kitchen trash bag of garbage, plus the things that went into the various "donate" or "give to specific people" piles. A few things got filed or relocated, and a few things (like yarn and knitting/crochet supplies) were reboxed and labeled properly. I finished most of the left side of the closet. I expect I have another 2.5 hours of work to do on the right side of the closet, but we're gradually getting there.
I had a packrat breakthrough today. I hold onto things for many reasons. Some things have genuine nostalgia or record-keeping value, like old yearbooks, medical records, tax documents, photographs, creative writing, or journals. I try to find a coherent way to keep these things organized and safe, while taking up the minimum amount of space. (One file cabinet is sufficient right now.) I'm pretty good at whittling down the nostalgia stuff if I ever have the time to sort. What I'm terrible at is the "But it's still good! Someone might be able to use it someday!" stuff. I'm pretty sure I learned this from my dad. He took pride in being able to find the correct random bit needed to solve any given problem from his treasure trove of miscellaneous stuff (a.k.a. our basement). Broke a shoelace? I have spare shoelaces! Is fluorescent orange okay? Lost a screw? Let me grab my seven jars of random screws, we'll find one that fits! Sprained your ankle? I have ace bandages in four different sizes!
There is also a pride in repurposing broken things. Sure, there's a hole in this backpack, but the drawstring clamps are still good, I could use them on another backpack! Yes, the elastic waistband on this skirt has crumbled with age, but I could use the fabric to make a wrap-shirt! I know this card has writing inside it, but if I cut the cover off, and glue it onto card stock, I could reuse it! And those are only the arguments that have succeeded. My brain has been thwarted in attempts to save: a deck of cards with only 42 cards, because there is probably some game you can play with it, shoes with holes in the soles, because I might be able to cover the holes with glue or something, and an answering machine, because, even though we don't have a home phone, we might be able to use it as a tape recorder for the girls to play with.
Anyhow, back to my breakthrough. 28 days into my HADA challenge, and I still have so much STUFF to sort through. And it hit me today that all this stuff has a hidden cost: My time. It's not just harmless junk sitting in a box waiting to be used; it's a burden. It takes time to dig through and find the item I need, it takes time to sort everything into neatly organized categories, it takes time to move everything around when I change my mind about the layout of the house. It eats so much time. And honestly? Time is the one thing I have the least of right now. We don't have a lot of money, but you know what? We can afford a pair of shoelaces. And if I have to hang onto this much stuff that I might need just to have that one thing one day that I do need, it's not worth it. It's not worth the time, it's not worth the storage space, it's not worth the stress.
I came across a baby blanket today that I started making when my sister was pregnant with my nephew, over four years ago. I had managed to crochet about 12 inches of it when I decided that it was taking too long, and I wasn't very good, and I didn't want to spend however many hours it would take to finish a crappy baby blanket. But I kept it, for some reason. Maybe I thought I would finish it someday, I don't know. So today, when I found it, I told myself it either needed a purpose, or it was going in the trash. Use it or lose it. I decided that it wasn't worth making into a full blanket, but maybe one of Valerie's dolls could use a blanket. So I sat down, redid a few stitches that had come undone, called it finished, and wove in the loose ends. It took only a couple of minutes, and now Valerie's dolls have a remarkably amateur baby blanket.
I want to have less stuff. And I really am trying, but it takes time to change the way you think about stuff. I'm trying to be realistic about anything I save for future use. I think I might actually make that skirt into a wrap-shirt. I'm pretty sure I'll never make those greeting cards into new cards. I will reuse some of those gift bags, but I probably don't need to keep all of them. I do hate throwing things out, but that's what the donate pile is for. I probably overestimate the value of my junk, but at least I can think it's going to get used, even if Goodwill just throws everything out.
Oh yeah, I went grocery shopping tonight, too, after the girls were in bed. I'm tired, and this post is taking forever to write, so I'm just going to click publish and go to bed without all the obsessive editing I usually engage in.
Day 28 tally: 2.5 hours in walk-in closet + 1 hour shopping = 3.5 hours.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Hour-a-Day April: Days Twenty-Six and Twenty-Seven
Yesterday was such a long day, I really couldn't tackle a blog post at the end of it all.
It started at 5:15 am again, with a poop explosion. Fun stuff. I had someone coming over at 10 am to drop off some donor milk for me to bring (along with some of my own) up to a baby who lives about an hour away. My plan was to stick her milk in the freezer with mine, then drop it all off next Tuesday on my way to Vermont/Ottawa. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
She was coming at 10, so rather than plopping down at my computer and wishing I was asleep, I got to work cleaning up my living room and dining room. I got Dorothy back to sleep at around 7, and by 8 I was ready to vacuum. This was a dilemma, because I was afraid the vacuum would wake the girls. But, since 8 is a reasonable time to wake up, I went ahead and vacuumed. Both girls did wake up, but I still managed to finish cleaning up the living room and dining room with them underfoot. We were planning on going to a park at 11, so I was feeling pretty good to have been so productive so early in the morning.
My friend came with the milk at 10, and she had a lot more milk than I was picturing. There was no way on earth it was going to fit in my freezer, even if I made a giant ground beef and broccoli sundae for lunch. So I quickly amended my day's plans, grabbed a cooler from the basement, and packed up for a mini-road trip.
We went to the park, met up with some friends, had a picnic lunch, and played for 2 hours.
Then we drove an hour north, dropped off the milk, and visited a bit with the baby who gets our milk (and her family).
Then, since we were already an hour north, we drove another 40 minutes north to visit my cousin. Valerie and her second cousin Nick really hit it off, and ran off playing together the whole time so Kristin and I could chat. The afternoon quickly slipped away, so my cousin threw some extra noodles in the pot so we could stay for dinner. Then we drove home (the ridiculously long way, since I was too tired to argue with the GPS), gave Valerie a snack, and sent her to bed.
Day 26 tally: 2 hours cleaning, 7 hours spontaneous road trip (not counting the park, which was the one thing originally on today's itinerary).
And today? Today I am very grateful that i didn't take Monday off after all, because I am taking today off.
It started at 5:15 am again, with a poop explosion. Fun stuff. I had someone coming over at 10 am to drop off some donor milk for me to bring (along with some of my own) up to a baby who lives about an hour away. My plan was to stick her milk in the freezer with mine, then drop it all off next Tuesday on my way to Vermont/Ottawa. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
She was coming at 10, so rather than plopping down at my computer and wishing I was asleep, I got to work cleaning up my living room and dining room. I got Dorothy back to sleep at around 7, and by 8 I was ready to vacuum. This was a dilemma, because I was afraid the vacuum would wake the girls. But, since 8 is a reasonable time to wake up, I went ahead and vacuumed. Both girls did wake up, but I still managed to finish cleaning up the living room and dining room with them underfoot. We were planning on going to a park at 11, so I was feeling pretty good to have been so productive so early in the morning.
My friend came with the milk at 10, and she had a lot more milk than I was picturing. There was no way on earth it was going to fit in my freezer, even if I made a giant ground beef and broccoli sundae for lunch. So I quickly amended my day's plans, grabbed a cooler from the basement, and packed up for a mini-road trip.
We went to the park, met up with some friends, had a picnic lunch, and played for 2 hours.
Then we drove an hour north, dropped off the milk, and visited a bit with the baby who gets our milk (and her family).
Then, since we were already an hour north, we drove another 40 minutes north to visit my cousin. Valerie and her second cousin Nick really hit it off, and ran off playing together the whole time so Kristin and I could chat. The afternoon quickly slipped away, so my cousin threw some extra noodles in the pot so we could stay for dinner. Then we drove home (the ridiculously long way, since I was too tired to argue with the GPS), gave Valerie a snack, and sent her to bed.
Day 26 tally: 2 hours cleaning, 7 hours spontaneous road trip (not counting the park, which was the one thing originally on today's itinerary).
And today? Today I am very grateful that i didn't take Monday off after all, because I am taking today off.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Hour-a-Day April: Day Twenty-Five
I decided to break my "Mondays are my day off" rule today because Nana had the day off of school, so I had a daytime sitter for the girls. Dorothy woke up too early, but then we went back to sleep until 9, which was nice. Then Valerie slept until 10. Poor kid is just plum worn out from a busy busy weekend.
Once we finally got moving, I took the girls over to Nana's, nursed Dorothy, then left, figuring I had about 3 hours before she would need to nurse again. I stopped by my pastor's house to pick up something I had forgotten at church, then visited for a bit, because it was so nice out, and I was dreading going indoors to clean. Then I checked my email. Then I made some lunch. And, all in all, I did a pretty good job of wasting the first hour and a half of my kid-free cleaning time.
But I finally found the motivation to get off my butt, put on my Justin Timberlake Pandora station, and started cleaning.
One flaw I have noticed in my HADA challenge is that it doesn't encourage me to do the everyday stuff that also needs to get done. If I have ten minutes to spare, why should I spend it doing dishes, which doesn't count? So I've been working on my projects and neglecting too many of the daily tasks. So today, I added a new rule to HADA, because it's my challenge that I made up and I get to make up new rules on Day 25 if I want to.
So, long story short, I spent the next two hours working on things that I wouldn't have counted for HADA before today, but that seriously needed to be done. Dishes, laundry, putting away clothes, emptying trash. It's not glamorous, and I'm still not caught up, but it needed to be done, and, frankly, I probably could have counted it for HADA even without the rule amendment, because I've been having a hard time finding the time and energy for the surface stuff lately.
DAy 25 tally: 2 hours doing stuff that wouldn't have counted yesterday, but really needed to be done.
Once we finally got moving, I took the girls over to Nana's, nursed Dorothy, then left, figuring I had about 3 hours before she would need to nurse again. I stopped by my pastor's house to pick up something I had forgotten at church, then visited for a bit, because it was so nice out, and I was dreading going indoors to clean. Then I checked my email. Then I made some lunch. And, all in all, I did a pretty good job of wasting the first hour and a half of my kid-free cleaning time.
But I finally found the motivation to get off my butt, put on my Justin Timberlake Pandora station, and started cleaning.
One flaw I have noticed in my HADA challenge is that it doesn't encourage me to do the everyday stuff that also needs to get done. If I have ten minutes to spare, why should I spend it doing dishes, which doesn't count? So I've been working on my projects and neglecting too many of the daily tasks. So today, I added a new rule to HADA, because it's my challenge that I made up and I get to make up new rules on Day 25 if I want to.
- Daily upkeep tasks count for HADA, but they can't make up more than 30 minutes of the base hour. So, I can spend 30 minutes on upkeep and 30 minutes on projects, or 2 hours on upkeep and 30 minutes on projects, or an hour on projects and no time on upkeep, but I can't just spend an hour on upkeep. Unless it's the first day that this new rule goes into effect, in which case, I can spend all of my HADA time on upkeep, for that day, and that day only.
So, long story short, I spent the next two hours working on things that I wouldn't have counted for HADA before today, but that seriously needed to be done. Dishes, laundry, putting away clothes, emptying trash. It's not glamorous, and I'm still not caught up, but it needed to be done, and, frankly, I probably could have counted it for HADA even without the rule amendment, because I've been having a hard time finding the time and energy for the surface stuff lately.
DAy 25 tally: 2 hours doing stuff that wouldn't have counted yesterday, but really needed to be done.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Hour-a-Day April: Day Twenty-Four
Today was really busy. 8:00 am "sunrise" service, church breakfast, followed by our regular Sunday routine of 9:45 music and 10:00 service. I was on the worship team this morning, so there was no rolling over to get an extra hour of sleep. Poor Valerie took the loss of sleep especially hard, and I had to hold her during the songs I sang (and she escaped to provide an impromptu dance performance while I was drumming).
In between the breakfast and the music service, I dressed the girls in their white Easter dresses and we got some family pictures. (Score one for the smart mama who saved the white dresses until AFTER the Easter breakfast.)
After church, we went back to Nana and PopPop's house for Easter dinner. Dorothy and I took a 20-minute catnap and missed the Easter egg hunt, but rain was was in the weather forecast, and they didn't want to wait too long. I woke up just in time to snap some pictures of an almost-asleep-on-her-feet Valerie and find the last egg for her because she had run out of steam.
After dinner, I took a three-hour nap. I was going to watch Doctor Who (because my in-laws have BBC America, and we don't), but the new episode is not up On Demand yet, and the nap was much-needed. I was going to call today a day off, and take a three-day HADA weekend, but three-hour naps are rare enough to fit the criteria of HADA.
Day 24 tally: 3 hours napping.
In between the breakfast and the music service, I dressed the girls in their white Easter dresses and we got some family pictures. (Score one for the smart mama who saved the white dresses until AFTER the Easter breakfast.)
After church, we went back to Nana and PopPop's house for Easter dinner. Dorothy and I took a 20-minute catnap and missed the Easter egg hunt, but rain was was in the weather forecast, and they didn't want to wait too long. I woke up just in time to snap some pictures of an almost-asleep-on-her-feet Valerie and find the last egg for her because she had run out of steam.
After dinner, I took a three-hour nap. I was going to watch Doctor Who (because my in-laws have BBC America, and we don't), but the new episode is not up On Demand yet, and the nap was much-needed. I was going to call today a day off, and take a three-day HADA weekend, but three-hour naps are rare enough to fit the criteria of HADA.
Day 24 tally: 3 hours napping.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Hour-a-Day April: Day Twenty-Three
This morning started with an all-family snuggle in the big bed. A pretty good start to any day. Then I went to karate class. After karate, I hung out with the girls for a while so Jeremy could work on stage two of his clothing project - putting everything on hangers in the closet. Then I took a BATH with a BOOK. And I SHAVED. It was lovely. (Until it was interrupted by a screaming baby with a nasty diaper that a certain parent who shall remain nameless didn't think to change.) Then Valerie and Dorothy and I finished up my bath together.
I decided that today's HADA project was gift cards. I'm terrible about spending gift cards. I know it's not considered classy to give cash, but gift cards are almost a burden to me. I had a Babies 'r Us gift card from my La Leche League friends, and a $10 off Kohl's coupon, and I also wanted to get a hair cut (okay, there was no gift card involved in that one, just over a year of hair neglect). So, I left the girls with Jer and his brother, and I went shopping. Dorothy was just going down for a nap when I left.
I went to Kohl's, and managed to find a $10 outfit for Dorothy, which I then paid $0 for. Then, since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped by my favorite consignment store (where I bought nothing) and my favorite thrift store, where kids' clothes were 30% off today. I bought 12 things for the girls and 2 things for me, and a bunch of CF lightbulbs, all for $34.
Then I went to Babies 'r Us, and got two sleepers and five onesies for Dorothy, which were all on sale, and I only had to spend $9 more than the gift card. I'm not sure why I'm including all of the amounts I spent in this update, because it's not really relevant to HADA, but apparently, it's an important part of the narrative.
Then I got my hair cut, and just as I was driving home, Jeremy called to see when I would be home, because Dorothy had just woken up. So, I was gone for just shy of 3 hours, and Dorothy slept almost the entire time I was gone, I got almost everything on my "to get sometime" list, and spent all my gift cards. Errand win.
We played a few hands of cards, then we had dinner, then went to a family birthday party for dessert. After some yummy sundaes, we came home, and Valerie fell asleep in the car. Which is good, because we have to wake up an hour and a half earlier than usual tomorrow.
Day 23 tally: Solo bath with time for shaving and reading, 40 minutes + solo errands, 2 hours 50 minutes = 3.5 hours
I decided that today's HADA project was gift cards. I'm terrible about spending gift cards. I know it's not considered classy to give cash, but gift cards are almost a burden to me. I had a Babies 'r Us gift card from my La Leche League friends, and a $10 off Kohl's coupon, and I also wanted to get a hair cut (okay, there was no gift card involved in that one, just over a year of hair neglect). So, I left the girls with Jer and his brother, and I went shopping. Dorothy was just going down for a nap when I left.
I went to Kohl's, and managed to find a $10 outfit for Dorothy, which I then paid $0 for. Then, since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped by my favorite consignment store (where I bought nothing) and my favorite thrift store, where kids' clothes were 30% off today. I bought 12 things for the girls and 2 things for me, and a bunch of CF lightbulbs, all for $34.
Then I went to Babies 'r Us, and got two sleepers and five onesies for Dorothy, which were all on sale, and I only had to spend $9 more than the gift card. I'm not sure why I'm including all of the amounts I spent in this update, because it's not really relevant to HADA, but apparently, it's an important part of the narrative.
Then I got my hair cut, and just as I was driving home, Jeremy called to see when I would be home, because Dorothy had just woken up. So, I was gone for just shy of 3 hours, and Dorothy slept almost the entire time I was gone, I got almost everything on my "to get sometime" list, and spent all my gift cards. Errand win.
We played a few hands of cards, then we had dinner, then went to a family birthday party for dessert. After some yummy sundaes, we came home, and Valerie fell asleep in the car. Which is good, because we have to wake up an hour and a half earlier than usual tomorrow.
Day 23 tally: Solo bath with time for shaving and reading, 40 minutes + solo errands, 2 hours 50 minutes = 3.5 hours
Baby-Led Weaning: Day Two
We gave Dorothy some broccoli at dinner tonight. She did so incredibly well with it! Here's a video of her cuteness feeding herself. I love that you can see her figuring the whole process out. At one point, she gets the stem, doesn't like it, sets it down, and grabs it from the other end to eat the flower. So cool!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Dorothy's First Solid Food
A few days ago, we decided that Dorothy met all of the criteria to start solids using the baby-led weaning approach (the same approach we used with Valerie), but we wanted to wait until her cough improved first, to minimize the risk of choking. I think we must have said this out loud in front of her, because her cough went away pretty much as soon as the words left my mouth. "What, I can have solid food if I just stop coughing? Sure thing!"
So, at dinner tonight, PopPop was baking a sweet potato for Granddad, and he threw an extra one in for Dorothy, just in case. Normally, I bake sweet potatoes in fry shapes for BLW, but I wasn't making dinner tonight, and I didn't want to make extra work for anyone else, so it just got baked normally along with the other potatoes. I did my best to cut the sweet potato into fry shapes after it was baked, but I mostly ended up with squishy blobs. (Note to anyone considering doing BLW: Take the extra time to cut the potato up before baking. It's worth the effort.)
Dorothy wasn't sure what to make of it at first.
"Um, Mom, Dad put food in front of me. Aren't you going to take it away and get mad at him?"
Valerie was especially concerned. She reminded us that Dorothy is a baby, and she can only have nursies. We told her that Dorothy is getting bigger and she can now have sweet potatoes AND nursies. No, she can't have your chocolate milk, she can ONLY have sweet potatoes and nursies right now.
Dorothy finally figured out that she was allowed to put this stuff in her mouth. She poked at it a bit, then got a big gob on her thumb.
"Aha, thumb! I know how to put you in my mouth! I will coat you in tasty orange stuff, then suck on you!"
"You are especially tasty, today, thumb."
Then she grabbed a fistful, and ate everything that she could squeeze out between her fingers.
Then she did it again.
And again,
and again,
and again.
Judging by the amount I cleaned up after she was done, I think she ate almost half of a small sweet potato. Tomorrow's diapers should be fun!
Next, I think we'll try broccoli. It has nice, little, built-in handles. And the next time we do sweet potato, I will make it into proper BLW fry-shapes.
I thought I would be more sad or excited about this milestone, but honestly, it just feels normal. She was ready, we gave her food, and she ate it. It was the most natural thing in the world. I almost forgot to take pictures. (Obviously, I remedied that near-oversight.)
So, at dinner tonight, PopPop was baking a sweet potato for Granddad, and he threw an extra one in for Dorothy, just in case. Normally, I bake sweet potatoes in fry shapes for BLW, but I wasn't making dinner tonight, and I didn't want to make extra work for anyone else, so it just got baked normally along with the other potatoes. I did my best to cut the sweet potato into fry shapes after it was baked, but I mostly ended up with squishy blobs. (Note to anyone considering doing BLW: Take the extra time to cut the potato up before baking. It's worth the effort.)
Dorothy wasn't sure what to make of it at first.
"Um, Mom, Dad put food in front of me. Aren't you going to take it away and get mad at him?"
Valerie was especially concerned. She reminded us that Dorothy is a baby, and she can only have nursies. We told her that Dorothy is getting bigger and she can now have sweet potatoes AND nursies. No, she can't have your chocolate milk, she can ONLY have sweet potatoes and nursies right now.
Dorothy finally figured out that she was allowed to put this stuff in her mouth. She poked at it a bit, then got a big gob on her thumb.
"Aha, thumb! I know how to put you in my mouth! I will coat you in tasty orange stuff, then suck on you!"
"You are especially tasty, today, thumb."
Then she grabbed a fistful, and ate everything that she could squeeze out between her fingers.
Then she did it again.
And again,
and again,
and again.
Judging by the amount I cleaned up after she was done, I think she ate almost half of a small sweet potato. Tomorrow's diapers should be fun!
Next, I think we'll try broccoli. It has nice, little, built-in handles. And the next time we do sweet potato, I will make it into proper BLW fry-shapes.
I thought I would be more sad or excited about this milestone, but honestly, it just feels normal. She was ready, we gave her food, and she ate it. It was the most natural thing in the world. I almost forgot to take pictures. (Obviously, I remedied that near-oversight.)
Hour-a-Day April: Day Twenty-Two
I woke up a little bit cranky this morning. But it was Jeremy's day off, so we talked through the things I was irrationally annoyed about, then Jeremy got started on some of the projects I needed him to get out of my way. He made some pretty good headway, then I got Dorothy back to sleep. I didn't want to interrupt the flow of work by putting a sleeping baby in our room, so I put her down on the living room floor so she could sleep while we cleaned in the bedroom. Valerie slept in, and we got a lot done. Even after both girls were awake, they played happily together on the bed while we got more done. Then Valerie ate breakfast while we got some more done.
Morning tally:
Jeremy: Purged the bookshelves, sorted his too-many shirts
Jule Ann: Emptied the "desk clutter" box, emptied and organized the desk drawers, finished the too-small-for-Dorothy clothes sorting project. (Valerie's closet now has: 9 sorted and labeled boxes of too-small-for-D clothes, 4 sorted and labeled boxes of too-small-for-V clothes, and 4 unsorted boxes of too-big-for-V clothes. Yes, that's a lot of clothes. I'm just too cheap to say no to hand-me-downs, and we have a lot of generous family members.) I also got some laundry done (where on earth does all this laundry come from?) and cleaned a toilet, but those things don't count for HADA.
Did I mention that we did all this before noon? At noon we went over to Nana and PopPop's house. Valerie played outside with Trevor for a while, and Trevor and I made "resurrection rolls" (crescent rolls baked around a marshmallow, which disappears while baking, leaving a hollow "tomb" of a roll). Then all the cousins came over and we died eggs. We came home after dinner, and had tubby time. Dorothy got to join Valerie for part of tubby time today, because she had her first taste of solid food at dinner, so she was a bit messy. While Valerie was playing by herself in the tub, I spot-treated some muddy clothes, and, since she had decided to put ALL of the bath toys in the tub, I cleaned the floor underneath where the bath toys live. Then I rinsed off all the bath toys and lined them up to dry. Then I put in another load of wash, and I am folding the clean laundry from this morning.
Today is exactly what I needed. I feel pretty darned accomplished right now. And after I finish folding this load of laundry, I might even start uploading some of the hundreds of pictures we took today.
Day 22 tally: 2.5 hours doing morning projects + 20 minutes doing tubby time projects = 2 hours 50 minutes.
Morning tally:
Jeremy: Purged the bookshelves, sorted his too-many shirts
Jule Ann: Emptied the "desk clutter" box, emptied and organized the desk drawers, finished the too-small-for-Dorothy clothes sorting project. (Valerie's closet now has: 9 sorted and labeled boxes of too-small-for-D clothes, 4 sorted and labeled boxes of too-small-for-V clothes, and 4 unsorted boxes of too-big-for-V clothes. Yes, that's a lot of clothes. I'm just too cheap to say no to hand-me-downs, and we have a lot of generous family members.) I also got some laundry done (where on earth does all this laundry come from?) and cleaned a toilet, but those things don't count for HADA.
Did I mention that we did all this before noon? At noon we went over to Nana and PopPop's house. Valerie played outside with Trevor for a while, and Trevor and I made "resurrection rolls" (crescent rolls baked around a marshmallow, which disappears while baking, leaving a hollow "tomb" of a roll). Then all the cousins came over and we died eggs. We came home after dinner, and had tubby time. Dorothy got to join Valerie for part of tubby time today, because she had her first taste of solid food at dinner, so she was a bit messy. While Valerie was playing by herself in the tub, I spot-treated some muddy clothes, and, since she had decided to put ALL of the bath toys in the tub, I cleaned the floor underneath where the bath toys live. Then I rinsed off all the bath toys and lined them up to dry. Then I put in another load of wash, and I am folding the clean laundry from this morning.
Today is exactly what I needed. I feel pretty darned accomplished right now. And after I finish folding this load of laundry, I might even start uploading some of the hundreds of pictures we took today.
Day 22 tally: 2.5 hours doing morning projects + 20 minutes doing tubby time projects = 2 hours 50 minutes.
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