Blogs are out of style now, which means I'm into it.

It's been seven years since I've written a post on here.  I thought I'd never be writing here again, but here I am.  Do expect to be rich and famous?  No.  I just had a few ideas, and this spot seemed like a good place for them.  If someone is reading this and enjoys them, then that's cool.  If no one ever reads it, that's fine too. 

Potential future posts:

Stuff about backpacking
Stuff about backpacking with kids
Stuff about the environment
Stuff about being an environmentalist parent
Stuff about Jesus
Stuff about Jesus and family
Stuff about feminism
Stuff about raising an empowered female
Stuff about coffee
Stuff about how no one I live with cares about coffee

If you have any curiosities about my opinions, you can submit them and I'll do my best to entertain them.  Otherwise, I don't expect you to care about my self-important ramblings.

Detachement Parenting

I wanted to be an attachment parenter.  I wanted to sweetly swoop over my baby every time she cried and sing her loving little lullabies till she quietly surrendered her screams to coos and giggles.  But when she was born, and we couldn't understand why she wouldn't eat.  Then we figured that out and she developed reflux.  And then there was gas, and teething, and separation anxiety, and then I just didn't want to hear her cry anymore, so I laid her down with a pacifier and walked away.
I'm jealous of moms who fall to pieces whenever their babies cry.  I wish my world would fall apart every time I heard the tiniest little whimper.  I wish I could have that primal urge to always be at my baby's side.  But I'm not a super-mom.  I'm just a lady with a baby who's trying to be a good person and show her baby what love is.  Not frustration or anger or temper tantrums.

These Little Piggies Went to Market

   Mid-August is my new favorite time of year, especially in Virginia.  I might not like the ridiculous temperatures and the off-the-charts humidity, but the food is absolutely heavenly. 

 

   Last Saturday, we all went to Eastern Market for a special trip to the farmer's market.  Last summer I often shopped for produce at markets,  but we haven't been able to this summer.  We considered this our special treat, and our trip happened to fall on National Farmer's Market Week, too.

 

    Overall, Eastern Market is my favorite outdoor market in Metro DC.  It's right up Constitution Avenue from the Capitol Building in a historic red-brick building where they have a huge deli, a flower shop and a restaurant.  On Saturdays and Sundays they have an outdoor flea market and farmer's market. 

   I was somewhat disappointed that the flea market didn't have many resale vendors with used home goods or clothing, and the ones that do won't negotiate prices.  There are many artists there I would love to support if I had money to spend on novelties and artwork.  The deli and the farm stands are really where this market shines, and where you can find the most variety.

  

  Many of my favorite foods were in season like berries, peppers and peaches.  I honestly can't pick favorites when it comes to fresh, organic produce.  

 

 

And, oh, the tomatoes!  Cherry tomatoes, chocolate tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, grape tomatoes and heirloom tomatoes of every color, shape and size; I was sad I could only pick three kinds.  

   Little's favorites were the blackberries, which were like juice-bombs, and my home-grown grape tomatoes.

Thirteen Months

   My-oh-my, what a little mover!  Photographing a 13 month baby is so much harder than photographing a 12 1/2 month baby.  She has completely given up crawling and is walking everywhere.  It seems like walking has doubled her energy.  She can't sit still any longer, which means no reading, no cuddling and no high-chairs.  She's fearless and indestructible.  She wants to run, but doesn't quite have walking down, so she takes a lot of tumbles, but she never cries.  She always gets back up to try it again.  She loves slides, swings and stairs.  I'm already having a hard time catching her at this pace, I fear a little for the time when she learns to run.

   Despite not cuddling, she seems to have become more affectionate.  She's learned how to make kissing noises, give hugs and blow kisses, and she hands them out like candy on the Fourth of July.  She usually gives kisses when you ask for them, and she loves to give her animals hugs and kisses, too.  Sometimes she'll even offer up a few kisses, completely unsolicited.

   She loves to play games and invent new ones.  Some of her favorites are hiding in boxes, playing peekaboo and getting squished between me and the couch.
   David and I seem to have worked out a good bedtime routine.  We give her a bath, read her The Big Red Barn (with David cleverly executing every animal noise),  put on her jammies, sing a song, lay her down, say her prayers and leave her with a lullaby playing.  This was working well enough that we could get her to sleep without a single tear, so we decided to start taking her pacifier away at night.  Now she absolutely loathes bedtime.  The moment she sees one of us holding her book, she throws a royal fit, so we have to skip all the fun stuff and just leave her in her crib until she cries herself to sleep.  It breaks my heart, because singing to her before bed is my favorite time of the day, but I'm afraid if I give her paci back at this point, she will just depend on it more.  Eventually, when she gets used to sleeping without it, we will take it away at nap-time, then in the car, too.  Here's praying that she comes to terms with it soon...
  She's still as social as ever.  She loves Sundays when she gets to see her Sunday-school friends, and lights up whenever she sees her buddy in the morning.  It's so much fun to watch them play peekaboo together and share their toys with one another.  She still loves to go on walks, go shopping, watch us when we play Ultimate Frisbee, and visit the Alexandria boardwalk.

  I'm really looking forward to being able to introduce her to more activities.   Finger-painting and Simon-says are the big ones.  I'm not sure if she's quite there yet, but there's no harm in trying until she gets it.

Cool stuff she can do:

stack 2 blocks

stack rings

walk

climb up and down stairs

go down slides

roll a ball

blow kisses

draw with chalk

pull on hats, necklaces, shirts and bracelets

Favorites:

tomatoes of every variety

eating grape tomatoes straight off the vine

cottage cheese

playing Squish

doggies

musical pull-horse

classical and alternative music

playgrounds

Tooth Count:

still working on #5 + 6 (slowly)

Words she can say (and mean it):

Hi

Mama

I am not a Baby

I eat my cereal.

I sit in a chair.

I walk wherever I darn-well please.

 

My Buddy

Fawn-Doe-Rosa

   During our trip to Minnesota, we took a family trip to Fawn-Doe-Rosa in St Croix Falls, WI.  It's an educational petting zoo with all manner of farm animal, plus deer and other native Wisconsin wildlife.  Many of the animals are allowed to roam, including deer, geese, hens and roosters, and bunnies.  They also had an area with only baby animals, my favorite being the tiny little fox cubs and the calf.  Most of the animals could be fed by hand.
   The Little took a little warming up when we got there.  The first animal we tried to show her was a  little baby bunny, and when we tried to get her to pet it, she pushed it away.  After she woke up and walked around for a while, she was fearless.  Eventually I had to hold her back so she wouldn't lose her fingers to the ponies.

 

This lamb and kid went everywhere together.  Best friends forever!