I love 6 month olds

I just cannot get enough of Michaela. She is such a sweet, happy baby. She makes all of us squishy with warm fuzzies when we hold and play with her. Her big sisters are crazy about her--there is nothing more peaceful than love between siblings. Sam is loving this stage too. In fact, he just loves babies. Period. He would hold her all day long if he could. But it isn't hard to be convinced to hold a little one with bright eyes and yummy fat cheeks like this, is it?


These days Mika (Meek-Uh) is spinning on her belly, rolling over and over again, beginning to do the caterpillar scrunch and scoot on her belly, she is getting more hair that is beginning to curl and still working on balancing when sitting. She loves steel cut oatmeal--blended to a powder and made up with water like a roux. She is neutral when it comes to acorn squash. She has discovered a love for paper--she must be concerned about getting adequate fiber in her diet. She makes a extremely joyful and precious addition to our family. She seems to have the spirit of a jubilant peacemaker. It is like she has always been ours. She is perfectly delicious and she makes me want to have another much sooner than I'd ever consider because I really can't get enough of her.


I love this 6 month stage because you get to hear them communicate more clearly, they are doing new things and they are discovering the novelties of the world around them. They get a kick out of and laugh at everything so easily--of course what isn't funny about your big sisters dancing around you being silly SOLELY for the purpose of making you laugh? They are also still little babies only with much more expression and more fat. She is my fattest baby thus far--though I am sure she is still in the lower percentile in comparison with other babies her age. But, hey, she can wear 6-9 mos clothes--that is new. In fact, Maia (who will be three in September)-can still wear some 3-6 mos old onesies. Sam put one on her last week--it was intended for Michaela--but I digress. Back to 6 month olds, I love how sweet and compact their bodies are when you hold them. When they are firstborn they are like delicious little limp noodles..little sacks o' baby. Now it is like holding a snuggly little tight, round ball that smiles all the time.


She is over her egg and dairy sensitivities now..at least when it comes to nursing. Which means I can eat them now. It wasn't bad at all going without any and all dairy and egg for the past 4 month but it is nice to not to have to check labels all the time. I still prefer SO Delicious Soy Ice Cream over dairy ice cream and I still prefer rice cheese to real cheese. It is nice to add a little strawberry cream cheese to my bagels though. But I am happy to be reunited with the incredible, edible egg. Hello Quiche!! But whenever we try to tell her that she can eat eggs in a couple months, she always does this.


Well I just had to give a little report of how my scrumptious new addition is doing. I can't help but be a proud mommy.

Who needs a chainsaw?

Not me, I am a woman with a wildly odd sense of ingenuity. As I was shoveling and dreaming of a chainsaw, I had the urge to search thru Sam's tool shed. I looked high and lo and I found the perfect tool to help me uproot the smaller of the two rose bushes. It was long, red and heavy..it was a 24 inch pipe wrench. It was quite an amusing experience, I totally chuckled under my breath--wondering what any normal tool using person would think of my cleverness or queerness (is that a word?). I even smacked the bush with it before I wrapped the wrench part around the base stems and pried it up. Is that girly or what? I stopped when I had visions of treacherous thorns flying thru the air and blinding me.

So anyway, both rose bushes are removed. One by me and my shiny red pipe wrench in jeans and sneakers. The other BIGGER one was removed by my garden partner and downstairs neighbor, Emily, who used her real woman strength. She braved the elephantine thorns in flip flops and got that sucker up with my lovely new shovel. One day, I hope to be like her. Until then..it's just me, my dreams of a chainsaw and my beauty of a pipe wrench.

I need a chainsaw

It is springish time here is Utah--it likes to go back and forth between Spring and Winter weather even now at the beginning of May. It even hailed teeny slushy snowballs for a short bit yesterday. Mother Nature's magic is a bit fickle here. But despite it all..it is time to plant a garden!

Enter silly marching dance with your hands raised high above your head.. GARDEN! GARDEN! GARDEN! Despite my good mother's influence in my adolescent youth I never got the digging in the dirt bug until about 4 yrs ago when me and a good friend and neighbor, Chellae, decided to plant a garden together. I've been sold on the endeavor ever since.

Back to the chainsaw I alluded to in the title. We are creating a bit more room in our garden, so we are getting rid of a couple rose bushes. A couple of extremely thorny mature rose bushes. I've just as soon get a chainsaw and slash the things down to a stump and dig around it until I can uproot them. Yes, a chainsaw..that would make things easier. Can't you just see me with a loud, sharp chainsaw? Maybe I should ask for one for Mother's Day.

If anyone has any tips to uprooting a rose bush, please feel free to share your knowledge.
Back to digging and dreaming of a chainsaw...

Dancing in the Kitchen

So, last week, I woke up to a dirty kitchen and I needed to get it clean. But I needed some motivation to get me over the depressing feeling that a messy kitchen sometimes gives. So, I took matters into my own hands. Michaela was screaming to picked up but I was a mother on a mission. I sent the girls outside to play in the sun and the dirt, I situated Michaela in her boppy and I took out an old CD. An oldie but goodie--the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack. Can't you just hear it? Doesn't it bring back memories of Jr. High and High School.

Enter deep male voice "Now I've had (pause) had the time of my life..."

Enter crazy, silly mommy.

I was dancing with such reckless abandon that Michaela quit fussing at me and starting giggling. It was SO MUCH FUN. I opened the windows, I sang, I wiggled, I toetapped, bounced and flung my arms wild around me. It was fun to sing along and apply the applicable words to my world around me. Michaela was flattered that I've had the time of my life and that I owed it all to her. She grinned quite profusely at that.

The kitchen, magically, was shiny and clean and I didn't want to stop. In fact, I had to stop when my best friend came over for a playdate.

So, if you haven't let yourself free and danced in the kitchen lately..go do it. It is air to the spirit and life to your soul. Let's your kids see you, let them dance with you, let them laugh at or with you for that matter. Be wild and free together. It is a magically refreshing feeling--sure to make you sparkle like a diamond for the remainder of the day.