Big Growth

Well, Rose is now 1.0, and she is celebrating in style! Her week has been fraught with milestones. Tooth number 6 is keeping her up nights. She has started pulling up on anything she comes to (she pulled up to standing for the first time in late October, but only did it occasionally since then). Yesterday she climbed to the top of the stairs (with her daddy following along below her) for the first time. I asked him how many times she fell back against him, and he said none! If we hadn't been paying attention, she would've been at the top without any falling. We will definitely keep an eye on her because we do not need another toddler with a broken leg!

Her birthday celebration this past weekend was entertaining. I baked her a special 6 inch teddy bear-shaped birthday cake all of her own (and then several mini bunt-shaped cakes for everyone else). Ruth 4. 8 selected the cake mix; it was white cake with sprinkles mixed through it and princess edible images to lay on top of the cake. When the teddy bear was set in front of Rose, she picked the entire thing up and took a big bite, as if it were a great big sandwich! When she was done, there was nothing but a large pile of crumbs (the cake was a bit crumbly anyway) and she and Peanut looking very happy.

Peanut is her best friend at meal times. Rose often leans to the side of her highchair and passes Peanut (our beagle puppy) some choice bit of something she doesn't want. I have never seen a dog that would eat absolutely anything, but probably that comes from being starved as a puppy before she was rescued by the humane society-type group we adopted her from. She is food obsessed. (She jumped up and ate pizza right off a plate I was not actively guarding the other day.)

And finally, beyond the climbing and tooth emerging, Rose has really been making a wide range of verbalizations, constantly. One of her favorites is to make a sound and alter it up and down in pitch, on and on. Ruth declared, "She does a great Tarzan!"

Imaginary blog with Puppies!

Most of this blog is imaginary. I can't tell you how many times I begin a blog post in my head but then never remember it when I'm at a computer or never get time to log in and type it up.

I think I need to make my aspirations a bit more reasonable. I'd much rather post short blurbs of our life on a daily basis than write grand, deep thoughts about earth-shattering issues every 2 weeks!

Ruth 4.8 has a fever today, so she is home from school. What that means to me is that I got to shut off my alarm last night and "sleep in." I got to stay in my fuzzy fleece jammies (still there now!) and pass up the 7:40 run to school. Yay! The good news is that it is just a fever and headache. So far, no vomiting; she's still got an appetite. I HATE vomiting. Ruth is finally old enough to seek out the toilet when she's going to vomit, though. That is such a bright spot in child development!

Rose 1.0 (at least she'll be 1.0 in 2 days! Woot!) is sporting a new tooth today. It finally broke through yesterday, and so she actually slept last night. I'm a bit on the sleep-deprived side from the few nights before that when that tooth was really bothering her. Now, if the whole family were fever-free, I'd finally be able to catch up on my sleep, too. The next logical prayer for me to offer today is that the bug that Ruth has would not spread.

My sister is coming to visit today to spend the weekend and enjoy seeing Rose dig into her first birthday cake. We plan to go rollerskating/blading also. It isn't really a very nice way to celebrate Rose's birthday since she's way too young to skate, but everyone else really loves to do it and with additional adults to pass Rose around to, I'll get to skate much more than normal., maybe even without holding anyone's hand for a few laps! (The little things in life that bring joy!!)

Yesterday, we had a visit from a friend, Beth, and her new little puppies! Beth's 1-year-old great pirenese had 7 puppies 10 days ago. Unfortunately, the mommy immediately fell ill with infection and several days later did not survive. Additionally, she smothered 3 of the puppies, so Beth is now bottle-feeding 4 little puppy orphans. They were so cute, with still-closed eyes and trying to suck on anything they touched! Ruth loved them! She didn't even mind when one peed on her. Rose was interested and tried to touch them. May 7.4 was sort of scared to touch them. We gave the little puppies some pacifiers that we are done with. They sucked and sucked and seemed to like them.

Mmmm, Mojitos

Last night we tried a new restaurant. If you ever hear that phrase come out of my mouth (or my keyboard), you know that Spitz has been looking up reviews and/or heard of a new place he'd like to try. Me, I'm happy to go to familiar places and order the food I've tried before and enjoyed. But he urges me to stretch my comfort zone and try things. He's really good for that, because I totally admit to enjoying many of his plans once we are there. I like to think I've gotten better about being willing to try new things, too.

Well, last night he looked up recently reviewed restaurants in our area and found one owned by some folks whose food we've enjoyed before, but in a different place. Havana Rumba is a Cuban restaurant near us that is fabulous yummy. (That one we heard about from my hairstylist and tried out a few years ago.) Its sister restaurant does Spanish tapas. We headed out to find it last night with all three kids in tow. I doubt too many people bring 3 kids under the age of 8 to Mojitos. It was classy. Didn't completely break the bank, but it was nice.

Spitz and I loved it. The salad with cranberries and pear (and who knows what else I can't actually name) was yummy, and the sweet potato fries with smoked honey were delicious (how do you make honey taste like that?). The melty cheese on bread from the Blue Dog Bakery was also really, really good - couldn't believe we couldn't even get May to try that one, though she loves cheese. The shrimp and beef tenderloin were also yummy; next time we'll pass on the paper-thin pieces of ham. The downside, as I hinted at, was that the girls ate, well,... not much of it beyond the bread and pear slices. Much griping was had. The good side was that at a tapas place, we could order many different things to try. Oh, and they did eat the shrimp.

Then we ordered dessert, because what else could we do at a place where everything was one big experiment? Churros con chocolate and Trio de chocolate.... Oh. My. Word. The chocolate with the churros (the girls loved the "donuts," of course) had espresso mixed in it. mmmmmm The trio of chocolate was pretty good, too, but the dark espresso chocolate... I ended up eating most of it just with a spoon, forget the churros! And because of the espresso, we didn't let the girls have much of it.

We will definitely be going back, but next time we'll be taking adult friends with us, not little girls who'd rather be eating mac 'n cheese.

Pffft and some rambles

Well, I am looking forward to settling back into a normal routine when school starts back up next week, both for my sanity and for the survival of my house. Having all the girls home to play all day and create art all day... we are buried in it! And boy do they like to create art.
There comes a point when a mom has to determine what to keep and what to throw away. It feels awful to pitch the hard-worked, colorful, unidentifiable paper or cardboard constructions. And you have to find a way to do it without the child seeing it in the trash or the hurt in their eyes will just paralyze you. But if you aren't strong and decisive, the sheer volume of paper and yarn and paint and tape....
Some moms I know do not let their children have tape. May has always loved stickers and tape. I have given it to her freely. What harm can it possibly do? Most surfaces in the house can just be un-stuck as long as it is not left too long. And children love tape. Love it. It just seems like a cheap way to entertain without much downside. It's not a battle I think is worth having, and it is an entertainment source worth exploiting.
The baby cries, so I cut this train-of-thought ramble short. She and I need a shower.