and then there were four…

We got a tree!

A good friend of mine told me Kohls was having a 2-day sale on their trees, so I told Bill to pop by and see if the deals were worth it. He got a 7 ft pre-lit tree for $70, which while it was more than we had thought we would need to spend, was over half off the regular price of $179.99. The best of both worlds, right? I’m excited about decorating. I just hope it looks as nice set up as it does on the box and the website. I’ll be sure to post photos.

The best thing? It doesn’t have fake pine cones stuck all over it, like the ones at Target did. It looks real, but not “you live in a forest” real.

It should be fun to have Olivia help with the decorations this year. She was awake for the festivities last year, but just barely. I’m hoping she doesn’t want to pull stuff off of the tree.

Okay, I know she will, I just hope she doesn’t do it constantly, I don’t think I can keep up.

Today marks the end of the National Blog Posting Month. While I had 30 posts in 30 days, I did mess up and forget one day, but I feel good about staying on track even though I had a slight derailment. I haven’t decided if I will continue to post EVERY day, but I will try to keep up for the sake of not being lazy. I just hate posting when I have nothing much to say, or my brain isn’t working like it should (which is more than I care to admit). However, I have enjoyed this experiment, and I will definitely be doing it again next year.

Thanks for reading even when I was boring!

See the pretty tree??

This is not going to be a super-long post by any means, as I have no idea what in the world to write about. It has been a pretty normal day today, Olivia and I read a lot of books, played with her choo-choo train (and she LOVED when I would “choo-choo”), talked to my mom for awhile (had a really nice conversation, actually), but nothing pops out of my head that was interesting enough to write about in detail. That’s life, right?

I just wanted to be consistent and also, wanted to say thank-you to all of you who gave me tips about artificial Christmas trees.

I’m on the fence about whether to just go ahead and get one or wait until after Christmas. They are so pretty that I don’t want to wait, but the realist (and thrifty mama) in me says to wait and save that extra dough for other things.

We’ll see what happens. In reality, if this is my only problem, I’m doing pretty darn good ;o) Or pretty pathetic. You decide.

This past weekend when we ventured into the grocery store, I pondered how it may be neat to start buying dry beans and making them from scratch, instead of buying the canned ones. I’m a geek, I know.

“You put all that stuff in your baked beans anyway,” Bill so kindly pointed out. “May as well start from the dry bean and make them yourself.”

So, I bought white beans, black beans, pinto beans…just to start my journey into making beans from scratch.

I decided I wanted to do something with the black beans first since I’ve never even cooked them from a can. I was feeling a bit adventurous. I had a bag of black beans, a bunch of ground turkey and lots of cans of diced tomatoes. So I utilized one of the awesome search functions available at Allrecipes, the ingredient search, and came up with this one: Fantastic Black Bean Chili.

However, I made a few changes to the recipe:

• I used olive oil to sauté my garlic (as I’m not a huge fan of the vegetable oil).
• I didn’t use canned beans (duh).
• I had no onions, so I didn’t put them in (I did put in onion powder).
• I added Cayenne pepper for a bit more kick (the chili powder wasn’t enough for me).
• I included one can of tomato sauce and one of tomato paste, as my chili was not setting up thick enough for my liking.

The longer you let it simmer, the better it is. Mine simmered for about three hours, but if you can only do the required one hour, I’m sure it will be just as yummy. Definitely sprinkle some cheese on top. It’s spicy, but you can adjust it to your own liking.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Oh, and if you want some information on how to cook beans from scratch to use in recipes and whatnot, check out Central Bean. They have useful information.

This afternoon Bill got home a little earlier than usual, so I got a wild hair up my ass to go to Target to find a new artificial tree so we wouldn’t have to go this weekend with the crazy Christmas shoppers.

We’ve had the same Christmas tree for about 4 years, a tiny 6 feet tall artificial tree. Although, saying the tree is 6 feet tall is stretching it, they just stuck an extra foot at the top by adding one long branch. We may eventually start buying a real Christmas tree each year, but since we are apartment dwellers and space is limited, we are sticking with an artificial. Also, it could be dangerous to have loose tree needles when you have a very curious toddler. Anyway, I have been wanting a new one since our little tree is getting up there in age and when we got it it probably cost about $15, so I feel it has paid for itself a bunch of times over, and should be retired. Plus it looks really pitiful if you don’t decorate it just right.

So, we go to Target and quickly realize that artificial trees are fucking expensive if you want anything decent. I wanted one that looked more like a real tree, which obviously will cost a bit more, but I didn’t expect them to cost over $200. Sure they had these $99 deals, but even those were way overpriced for what you were getting. So, we decided to wait until AFTER Christmas, get a good one on sale and just use our little pitiful tree one more year. Talk about stretching your dollar.

I’ll be sure to take a photo of the tree and post it when we decorate this weekend. Maybe I can decorate it just right so it doesn’t look too damn Charlie Brown-ish. In the end, it really doesn’t matter, Olivia will think it is huge and be amazed at the twinkly lights and “pretties”.

I’m not the only one who enjoyed 4 whole daddy-filled days, as Olivia demonstrated this morning, making my heart melt and Bill later saying he “felt like shit” because he feels like he should be here.

In the mornings when Olivia wakes, I usually bring her back to my bed where I will let her nurse laying down. I’m not a morning person, and I’ve found that doing this helps me ease myself into the morning routine (or, in the least, allows me 20 more minutes of semi-consciousness). This morning when I brought her in, she looked at me, then looked at Bill’s side of the bed and looked back at me.

“Daddy?” she asked (Of course, I’m taking liberties with the whole notion of her “asking”, but you get the idea).

“Daddy, Daddy?” again she says his name while looking over at his side of the bed.

“Sorry baby, Daddy went to work today, but he’ll be back soon.” I explained as she began to nurse.

I swear she looked so disappointed that he wasn’t around.

Every single afternoon, as soon as the key hits the door, Olivia starts running towards it, and when it finally opens and Bill pops his head in, Olivia yells “Daddy!” and giggles.

So awesome.

We have noticed that she is much more content when we are both together. If we are both here and one of us leaves (and she realizes we are leaving) she starts to get upset. Even if it is just going to take the trash out or grab a load of laundry. She definitely likes us together. Which, if you think about it, is very sweet, maybe she doesn’t feel complete unless we are together as a family.

She’s definitely the sweetest little girl I could have ever imagined having. We’re very lucky.

“Spirited and mild-mannered toddlers alike will experiment with … how shall we say it? … undesirable behavior. If your toddler indulges in fits of screaming, hitting, and biting, you can take some solace in knowing that [their] development is right on track. Discipline can be a challenge with kids this age, so try to build a little personal time into your schedule each week as a way to refuel your patience tank.”

Dearest Olivia,

This was the first paragraph in the weekly Babycenter email I received last night regarding “Your 13 month old, Week 4″ (that’s you!). First off, I can’t believe you are considered a toddler already. *Tear* you’re growing up so fast. My reason for this letter is to clear the air, if you will, regarding some of your recent behavior.

I understand, Olivia, really I do. Babies (I’m sorry, toddlers), like to experiment, test their boundaries, push buttons (and nerves!), but, why oh why do you insist upon poking your fingers into your ears so hard? I’m so afraid you are going to poke out an eardrum, force some piece of food in there that just so happens to be stuck to your fingernail or tip, causing it to become infected and thereby causing you pain. Why do you think it is a game when I tell you no? Why do you laugh at me when I pull your finger out of your ear, laugh, and then put said finger right back into your ear? It really can’t feel all that good to poke your finger in there.

You are simply the most adorable child ever, in my opinion, and I love the sweet and often hilarious faces you make. My problem is when you pick up your juice cup and throw it from the edge of your chair as you make such faces. I need to tell you “NO”, but those faces make it hard to do, without laughing. I promise you I am not laughing at your behavior, as it is unacceptable. Do you feel that when I say “NO” this is just another way of me telling you “Go ahead sweetie, throw your juice cup on the floor, see what happens”? Do you enjoy throwing your food also? I know you do, but, how is it your aim is such that you are able to lodge a pea underneath the table legs where I can’t find it? Or in some corner 10 feet away where I don’t find the pea (or cheese, or apple piece or whatever else you may throw) until 2 weeks later?

Also dear, sweet Olivia, could you please stop biting my nipples? Why did you decide to start doing it again? I thought you had realized 6 months ago you shouldn’t do that! I let it slide when your teeth were brand new, because I knew you didn’t understand what they were for. Now it seems just plain mean, you’ve had those suckers for 7 months already! Mommy’s nipples are not like your sippy straw. You can’t bite them to get more liquid out, I promise it doesn’t work that way. When you get to the end of the milk, you can’t squeeze the last drops out by utilizing your teeth. You just can’t. So please don’t.

Thus far, you have neither hit, nor screamed at anyone, so I am pleased. It is not nice to do either of these actions, unless of course you are being attacked or someone is trying to kidnap you–then, by all means, fire away. Don’t worry, I’ll explain those differences to you a bit later.

All in all, I am happy to let you know that you are just like every other almost-14 month old out there.

You’re normal, and I love you,

Mommy

I don’t feel good and I want to sleep. But in order to honor my promise to post daily, this is all you get: A recipe.

It is for a six layer dip I made. I know it says seven layer: I didn’t make a green onion layer as I didn’t find it necessary. I suggest not buying taco seasoning. Make your own: throw in some chili powder, paprika, cumin, onion & garlic powders to taste. You’ve just saved yourself some money (assuming you have these things on hand, and you should!) and the don’t have to eat the grossly over-processed flavor packets.

Also: Don’t think you can refrigerate this and it will taste okay later. It won’t. But the first go-round it was great and everyone loved it (even Miss O!) we just didn’t want to eat it all and not have any room for Thanksgiving dinner, so unfortunately I miscalculated and it was icky after being refrigerated. That makes me a sad Panda.

Enjoy, I’m off to watch TV on DVD and try to recover from whatever life is currently throwing at me.

This morning my husband informed me of how he thinks we have to discipline our daughter.

Looking her in the eye when we say “no”.

And I have to say, it works pretty effectively.

Saying “no” over and over again is not effective, as I have known for awhile now. I even tried popping her hands and saying “no”, but that only ended up making me feel like a horrible parent and not really curtailing her behavior. This morning after she nursed, I fell asleep again and Bill took care of Olivia (Awesome…he is so awesome). When I emerged a bit later, he explained that he had tried this and it worked beautifully. I had a “why didn’t I think of that” moment, and then realized that co-parenting is just that. Two parents working together to come up with solutions regarding the rearing of their children. Sometimes I’ll have the ideas, sometimes he’ll have the ideas. Or total failures, whichever the case maybe.

Olivia has a habit of pulling things off of shelves, and as I mentioned, saying “no” over and over again, or popping a hand while saying “no” does nothing. But, this morning when she pulled a book off of the shelf, I looked at her firmly in the eyes and said “no”.

It worked.

She got upset with me and cried, but that was okay because I didn’t use any physical means and I was able to convey that she was not to do what she was trying to do. We tried it again later in the day and it worked again.

Our theory is that by looking her in the eye we are more able to convey how we are feeling (seeing is believing?) and she understands that we see what she is doing and we don’t like it. But, that’s just our theory and we’re not child psychology experts.

I’ll keep you posted as to how well it really ends up working. But it does look promising.

Just wanted to wish everyone  a Happy Thanksgiving. Hope your meal was just as tasty as mine. :o) I’m going back tomorrow for round 2 and pie! (Why is it we never save room for pie in our family? haha)

Miss O enjoyed her first Thanksgiving as a solid foodie. She really likes cranberry sauce, yams & stuffing.

I’m exhausted, stuffed, and ready to go to bed, so I will leave you all with wishes of a Happy Holiday Weekend.

I’m not braving Black Friday, except via internet, and any of you who are entering the ring with the crazy public, remember: It’s just stuff. Don’t get into fights or anything. ;o) Otherwise: Happy Shopping!

I recently added something called global stats to my blog. Nothing too invasive, just logs how many folks are reading the site, what stories are popular, where they are coming from, and if any search terms are bringing folks to the site.

I never paid attention to much of the stats, except maybe how many visitors I’ve received. While I’m not in the big leagues blog-wise, I’m doing pretty decent, I suppose. Not that I’m writing to obtain a ton of readers, mind you. I’m tickled I get as many readers as I do and I appreciate you all! But, I’m still super nosy.

So, tonight, I was not sure what the hell I was going to post about, since I have this major headache and I really need to go to bed so I can be up early enough to start the Thanksgiving day festivities. I’m about to hit the “write a post” link when I notice something about my global stats. In the place that tells you which search terms were used to find your blog, instead of “none” as is usual, it said “her wet diaper” and a number 2 beside it.

Basically this means 2 people did a search for “her wet diaper” and somehow along the way came across my blog.

Let me just say “Eww”

But why, Natalie? Why is that gross? You must have spoken of “her wet diaper” somewhere. Of course I did, I blog about being a new mom. I’ve probably written a lot about “her wet diaper” But. Do a google search of those terms. I dare you. Double-dog dare you.

I went through 10 google search pages full of links and still didn’t find my blog (maybe they used yahoo or some other search engine?) The point is, what I did find were websites involving adults and diapers.

And I ain’t talking Depends.

But, maybe they were looking for the other things the search brought up? There were many websites that included “her wet diaper” that were about parenting, potty-training, and those little dolls that wet when you feed them. But the majority were about Adult Baby and Diaper lovers.

Why? Isn’t that the best thing about being an adult? The ability to take a piss or shit on a toilet and not have to sit in it?

I won’t pretend to be above it, or say that it is a horrible fetish, because, I am not one to judge. However, it still gives me a case of the icks. I just remember that CSI episode where the fat-cat casino owner was into that and he died and they were investigating the death…it made me a bit sad that he felt he had to dress up like a baby.

However, I suppose one person’s ‘ick’ is another person’s ‘ooo la la’.

But…I’m keeping my eye on you now, crazy search terms.

If I get enough of them, I’ll have to start a new section.

Yeah, right. ;o)