AMT: House, News, Food and Stuff

Back with Kendra this week. 

1. How long have you lived in your current home?

We closed on 10.29.12 and slept here for the first time on the 30 so coming up on three years. 

2. How do you find out about news and current events?

Honestly? I look at what's trending on Twitter or Yahoo. Then I seek out actual news sources for more information. But that's how I get the breaking news updates.

3. Would you be able to make change for a twenty right now? For a dollar?

For a dollar, probably. For a 20? Who has cash besides 20s? We never have cash. Ever. I have an emergency fund in our 72 hour kits that is cash but that's all 20s too and probably won't even help much in the event of a zombie apocalypse. (Not that I would want to survive that long anyway... for real.) 

4. What's the craziest food you've ever eaten?

I am not what you would call a risk taker when it comes to food. Like I was Secretary of the National Picky Eaters Club for years. I first tried barbecue sauce when I was 19. That's the kind of picky and unwillingness to try new things we're talking about here. 

So I have no idea how to answer this. I had dried seaweed once. It was fine. 

5. Which of the commonly removed parts have you had removed? (tonsils, wisdom teeth, appendix, etc.)

I had my wisdom teeth out in the summer of 2005. It was the first time I had an IV and I was very concerned about it when I came out of the anesthesia among other things. "I had IV. How did I get to this room? Were you in this room when I got to this room? Are these my lips?" 

I puffed up and only got the soft food for days. (Both my brothers had theirs out and did not get puffy and moved on to real food hours later.) 

As a little girl growing up with all the Madeline dolls, books, movies and memorabilia you can imagine, I was always a little bit bummed that I never had my appendix out. Aside from the pain of having a bad appendix and a surgery and all that of course. 

6. What's your favorite sport to watch on TV? 

Hockey. No question. Also my favorite sport to watch live. But unlike Kendra I prefer when the Blackhawks lose. For what it's worth the Minnesota Wild have a very good goal song as well.

And undoubtedly the best anthem. 

Plus if you've ever been to a game, the opening with the little kid planting the flag, well it gives me chills every single time. Just saying. 

Also the Scripps National Spelling Bee. That is amazingly fun to watch and it's on ESPN. The normal sports announcers are so out of place but bless them, they try.

7QT: Happee Birthdae Harry Virtual Book Club

one. As you may or may not know, I love Harry Potter. The books, mostly. I tolerate the movies. They were going along fine until Prisoner of Azkaban when they left out explanation of who Padfoot, Wormtail, Prongs and Moony were. It's kind of super important to the story that Harry figures all that information out, just saying.

two. Also, as you may or may not know, I read the books every July. It's Harry's birthday month. I used to not have children and therefore could do a book a day for a week leading up to the 31 but...life. So I now take the month!

three. Then it occurred to me when some people commented here that perhaps others may like to join in on this quest. And we could make it like a party. Or a virtual book club!

four. So I invented one.

five. You're invited. It's very easy, just read the Harry Potter books in July. For the first time. For the 99th time. Hardcover. Paperback. British Editions. Kindle style. Letting Jim Dale or Stephen Fry read them to you. Whatever. We do not discriminate here.

six. On July 24 I will post the virtual book club questions for you!

seven. On July 31 (That's Harry's birthday if you haven't read them before.) I will open up a link up for your answers! And what's a birthday party without party favors? I am even going to have prizes in giveaway form for participants. The link up will close on August 7 as a safety net for those who may read a little slower or blog sporadically.

That's it! I hope you'll participate! Linking up with Kelly for this week's 7QT. Have a super weekend friends.

My Guy

This little boy. Oh he melts my heart every day. 

He loves to be outside. He loves books and animals. He loves music. 

Plus he still lets me snuggle him so I consider that a pretty big win. How can I resist a snuggle from this guy? 

He really wanted to swing with his sister. He is a very caring big brother and I hope that continues as a life long trait. I mean, I get they won't always get along but I hope generally speaking he is a caring kind of guy. He does not appreciate when she tries to steal food however. 

The 8 Month Post

Every single month I say that I'm not going to wax poetic on how fast it's all going but this month, forget it. I am having a hard time buying that it has really been 8 months, but then there's the proof. The calendar actually says June and it's all moving at warp speed. She's practically graduating high school.

I have long had this theory that second and subsequent babies talk faster because they have another kid to try and converse with. Either that's true or the whole girls talk faster than boys thing is (or both) because she babbles WAY more at this age than C did. No actual words yet but she is very vocally expressive. (Well she can mimic "Hi" very well but not unprompted.)

She is cruising! Getting up and down is no problem. She can get along furniture and is really getting the hang of the little walker. I was really hoping that she would be content to crawl for a long time but I think we're due for our second early walker. Husband swears she stood by herself for a moment the other day but I didn't see it so I am going to choose not to believe it just yet. She does try to stand up without pulling herself up already. She is not successful at all but she does try.

She love loves loves to eat. She knows when it's getting close to dinner time especially and starts to get grumpy that she isn't being fed already. She got over her distaste for bananas so that's good. She still nurses quite a bit in addition to her table food. But with all her activity I think she has actually slimmed out quite a bit.

She loves her brother and they've started playing together more. Well, parallel play mostly but M will also climb on him and C will let her. They say "goodnight" and "good morning" to each other before and after each rest time and C likes to give her kisses.

We set up our little ball pit with a tunnel for C's birthday party and she thinks it's hers. She loves loves loves it. She likes reading books and chewing but she still has no teeth. Which I think is just the cutest so I am hoping that sticks for a while longer yet. 

She is officially taking a nap in her crib in the morning though I write that tentatively. She's on a 3 day streak. She's in 9 month clothes, size 3 diapers and her shoes are still way too big. To me it looks like her hair is really starting to grow now but she still looks mostly bald, especially in pictures. She loves to dance with C and I and she has a few new jams. Especially the Sofia the First theme song and The Hot Dog Dance song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. (When they come on Pandora it's the absolute cutest.)

She's 8 months old. We will celebrate by reading some of her favorite stories, playing and napping. Which is not dissimilar to any other day but those are the best kind anyway!

AMT: All About Dads

Just in case you didn't know it was Father's Day, it is. And so here is my obligatory (though I want to) post! A Little Answer Me This party with Kendra. 

1. What's the best thing about your dad?
My dad is one of my favorite people in the world. He is always there to listen to me and he always has some sort of sage advice. Plus he is an awesome Grandpa. 

2. If you've got kids, what's the best thing about THEIR dad?

My husband delights in his children. Not always when M is screaming in her crazy high pitch tone at 4:00 AM but 99% of the time he delights in his children. He does not go through the motions even a little. 

3. What's the best advice your dad ever gave you?

"Calm Down." 90% of the time my crisis' aren't nearly as dramatic as I'm making them and somehow, when my dad tells me to calm down, I can. It's like magic. 

4. What's something you have in common with your dad? 

Oh so many things. We like to talk about the weather and what we are going to have for dinner. We both hate bright lights when we watch shows. We have very similar senses of humor. (Smart comedy over absurd.) I definitely got his sense of direction, if I've been there once, I can probably get there again. We both also like to draw diagrams and lists. 

5. What's the manliest thing you know how to do?

Order Steak. Rare. No frilly meat ordering. 

6. Who is your favorite fictional dad?

This is a bizarre question and I have been thinking about it all week. But I settled on Ox Callaghan from While You Were Sleeping. 

To the guy in Mass: "Who made you The Pope?" 

After Mary thanked him for the pierced earrings instead of clip-ons: "Don't look at me, if it were up to me I would've gotten you a Barbie." 

OR Mike Baxter from Last Man Standing. He is so so much like my dad except for the whole vlog part. Or the hunting part. I'm not sure my dad wouldn't go hunting, just that he doesn't. (I know he has.) 

Happy Father's Day!

Quick Takes: Again.

Kickin' it with the quick takes this week.

one. Babies! M is no longer the youngest great-grandchild on either of Husband's side. Tuesday, his cousin on his mom's side had a baby. This one was a bit of a shock because... we didn't know she was pregnant until we got the email that there was a baby. I am not sure what the story is exactly but Baby Hank has 2 older sisters and a brother so the entire thing strikes me as odd. Then on Husband's dad side, his cousin had Baby RaeAnn on Wednesday.

two. I have a mosquito bite on my second right toe. So I'm just going to go ahead and chop it off. Itchy toes is probably a circle of hell. (Probably.)

three. Eating all the things. M is a very enthusiastic eater. She has got that pincer grasp on her right hand down. (She's so going to be a righty.) And she wants to feed herself. Only she's got that no teeth thing going on. I took the advice of Dwija and got one of these:

I got her the girly one because she inherited so many things that were blue. Not that I subscribe to girl colors and boy colors but it's nice for her to have something that is hers. It's going well. She pretty much thinks it's the best. 

four. I power washed our front porch yesterday, We live on a busy street and just the car smog build up and dust makes for a dirty dirty porch. It went from an F to a C yesterday. I had to stop because after a while it was kind of just pushing the wet dirt around to other wet spots. I'm hoping to see some more improvement on the next go around. I learned we need to paint the porch. I also learned how satisfying seeing dirty melt off your siding is. Big shout out to my friend for letting me borrow her power washer. 

five. I stayed on top of the dishes this week. I was pretty proud of myself. But I fell behind on the laundry. Apparently I can't do both. Something to work on I guess. #improvingmyself

six.

She was very excited for bath time. 

seven. We are going out tonight. We are dropping the kids off with Husband's aunt and uncle and going to see a show. This will be our first time going out and leaving M with someone other than my parents. Even though we Skypes with my parents almost daily and she knows them she still doesn't really like being with them without me around. Heck this morning she never left our room but was playing on the floor and in the pack and play but when I woke up too she crawled over to me with this pathetic little cry/smile like "Mom, I missed you, you've been gone so long. I'm so happy you're here." It's cute. I love being loved and needed. But I could really use some time out with Husband so here's to hoping and praying she doesn't cry the entire time so they would be willing to babysit again!

I will be joining Kelly's party for Quick Takes today. Because why not?

Gone Pickin'

Last Friday we went as a family to pick strawberries. It was the perfect day! The weather has been super hot, super rainy and super humid when it isn't raining. (Which hasn't been much, seriously, I'm pretty sure we moved to Seattle without any of the cool city stuff Seattle brings to the table.) 

Anyway, on Friday it had rained, so things we a little damp, but it was overcast and a lovely 68 degrees. Plus because of the hot and humid and rain the strawberries were abundant. Last year was kind of a crap year for strawberries but this year was amazing. We picked 20 lbs of strawberries in a little over an hour. 

Last year we picked for almost 2 hours and didn't even get half that much. Plus it was hot, muggy and buggy. Total win this year. 

His most favorite fruit and he had a great time!! Though with the wind that came right behind the rain my biggest takeaway was how badly my boy needed a haircut. I had been meaning to anyway but he got one the next morning pronto! 

Little M spent most of the time being worn but I did let her get down for a while. She picked more straw from between the rows than anything but she did pick one strawberry. She was given the opportunity to eat her strawberry, plus some more of the haul. She liked them. A lot. 

We made ice cream topping, we froze a whole bunch for when they're not in season, and we ate a bunch too. So delightful. There really is something so perfect about super fresh, ripe strawberries. It makes the ones in the grocery store seem like a crime. 

I love spending time with my little family making memories and doing fun things!