Remember when I introduced Little Man I told you “Upon initial meeting he appears to be extremely easy going.  That will change within the week.”?  The first handful of days were blissful.  He was sweet, happy and easygoing and I wondered how I would ever find him a blog name besides “Angel” or “Perfection”.  Around the 2nd day home his tummy emptied from the feast he enjoyed in the womb and he got cranky.

I had never had a baby who cried before and had NO idea what to do about it.  Turned out he was hungry.  Poor baby.  He lost nearly a pound (more than the 10% that is considered normal) and I had to supplement.  For 48 hours I was exhausted from feeding, pumping, and bottle feeding every 2-3 hours.  Thankfully Tackler enjoyed helping with the bottle feeding and was disappointed when Little Man got up enough strength to work for his own food and we said goodbye to the bottles.

Now that he isn’t starving, our little Perfection is back to being an easy going  baby.  With a caveat.  When he wants something he yells something that sounds like “I told you 3 seconds ago I was hungry.  Where is my FOOD?”  Same for dirty pants.  And for being undressed.  (You’d think if he hated being undressed so much he’d stop pooping every 30 minutes right?)

And so his blog name was born.  Little Man.  With apologies to all the wonderful men in my life, he is just SO male.  Easy going as long as things are going exactly according to his plan.  And for the life of him, he can’t figure out WHY we don’t think he’s easy going.  Do it my way and I’m happy.  What’s so hard about that?

(Photo taken at age 8 days)

5 days before Little Man made his entrance, we celebrated Pretty Girl’s 2nd birthday.  I spent a lot of time creating a fun video for you of all the little clips we recorded but since You Tube and Picasa are conspiring against me, you do not get to see it unless you visit me in person.  She was absolutely hilarious to watch open her presents.  With the exception of a doll, her presents were all clothes and she couldn’t have been more pleased.  She ooohed.  And aaahhhed.  And gave the funniest expressions on each new outfit.  We have another clothes horse to add to our mix. 

She is sporting her new birthday pants and her “2″ birthday shirt.  Mom forgot her birthday crown (how does one forget something THAT important?).  Come back tomorrow and you get to see all the other clothes I made or altered for her.  I had fun indulging her clothes horseyness.  Little girl clothes are just SO much fun.  Who doesn’t need more than can fit in one’s closet?

At our house out of control behavior is rewarded with a timeout.    Only in the past few months has Pretty Girl ventured far enough from angelhood to experience timeout, with mild success.  I spent most of her requisite minute keeping her on her chair begging her to stop crying long enough to hear the timer ding.

Then my friend mentioned that she used a stroller for timeout and I realized my mistake.  The next time she misbehaved I asked the boys to get one of their belts.  While they delighted in taking such an active role in their sister’s agony, I strapped the little cherub to the dining room chair.  She screamed the entire time (having just had a birthday her time has now doubled to two torturous minutes).

Tonight she was quite put out with Tackler and in her sweet little girl way, proceeded to beat him up.  He received a left jab, a right cross, and a devil of a hair pull.  I was feeding the baby and was quite exhausted from cooking Thanksgiving dinner (post to come) and did not have the hands or strength to enforce a timeout.  I sent her there anyway and thankfully needed neither.  Pretty Girl hopped off the couch and marched proudly to the dining room.  She climbed on her chair and sat happily and quietly until the timer dinged.  Then she hopped back off her chair and ran happily to my arms.  She seemed quite pleased to pay two minutes for the punches she delivered.  Who says crime doesn’t pay?

My husband is a perfectionist.  He is one of those people who thinks nothing is worth doing unless you can do it 100%.  That means if he won’t clean the car unless he has 4 hours but when he’s finished, you could eat off the tires.  When I fry up peppers and onions I toss them in a pan with a little oil and stir until they are done.  I took the picture below to show how my husband cooks.  It is a process.  A very exacting process.  I think he used a ruler to evenly space those puppies.

The end result was the best meal ever – fajitas with homemade tortillas.  Peppers, onions, chicken, salsa, cheese and more peppers and onions.  I know that’s not exactly a recipe.  For how to season the veggies and chicken you’ll have to read my husband’s blog.  Oh wait.  He doesn’t have one.  But he did recently discover facebook so befriend him there and ask.  And tell him his wife is hungry for more peppers and onions.

Stir fry chopped walnuts in some butter, cinnamon and brown sugar.  Toss on baby spinach with craisens and chicken and top with poppyseed dressing.  If you have delectables like pears and goat cheese they would make it even better but this salad was a crowd pleaser.  I got less than half after my 3 kids helped me with my lunch.

Nance the Great’s Poppyseed Dressing

1/2c sugar

1t dry mustard

1t salt

1/3c cider vinegar

1T grated onion (I never add this because I’m lazy)

Blend with a blender or stick blender and slowly add

3/4c oil

Stir in 1t poppy seeds

While I recover from making, birthing and now feeding a baby, my incredible husband has been waiting on me hand and foot, entertaining 3 kids and keeping the house spotless.  Watching him it occurred to me for the first time ever that motherhood and housewifehood is a full time job.  (I’m a little dense I know).

Kind people have been bringing us meals so he hasn’t even been cooking, just heating, and he hasn’t been doing school or laundry, yet he is busy all day.

Hmmm.  Food for thought for me as I lay around doing nothing all day and wonder how many days can go by in unproductivity.

I am always so busy.  Sewing, organizing, reading, teaching.  What is this crazy race I’m trying to win?  Would we be better served by a mother who keeps the house spotless instead of always trying to play catchup?  Are there even bigger things I’m missing?

I have a friend who is on a quest to find my passion in life.  She asked me recently “If all your sewing projects were finished and your house was suddenly completely organized, how would you spend your time?”  I couldn’t comprehend the question.  What would your answer be?
(Photos taken on Little Man’s 6th day of life.  Sentiments expressed on day10).

The ankle alarm was removed, we signed our discharge papers and were finally released back into the wild.  Doesn’t Little Man look thrilled?  He loved the car as long as it was moving.  The gorgeous afghan was knitted with love by Grammy.  She spoils us.

The siblings were thrilled to finally meet their little brother.  Pretty Girl came running into the room – I assumed to see her mom she hadn’t seen in 4 days but no, “MY baby!!”  We were greeted with all sorts of signs, buttons and balloons.  Home at last for our first good nights sleep!  Hurray!

We are apparently having a rush of bad health.  The doctors are busy.  The hospital is cautious.  That means they have severely limited visitors.  For new babies that means dads and grandparents.  We only had one dad and no grandparents.  Dad was sick and busy with sick toddlers so rather than leave me and Little Man in total isolation, we invented a couple grandparents.  It was still a very lonely stay at a place I loathe anyway and my kids were not too thrilled to not see me or their new brother for 4 days.  Ugh.  Not the best 4 days of my life – at least when they were over I got to take home a sweet little bundle.

Wait baby.  You can’t come yet.  I haven’t finished your snuggly yet.

Just a week before Little Man made his appearance I stumbled across something on the web that was so cute, I had to let it step ahead of all my other projects.  I had seen her first one a while back but I am NOT a knitter or crocheter and did not dein it necessary to turn myself into one.  But when she posted it again complete with detailed photo instructions and a promise that it will only take 2 hrs, I was sold.  She’s a liar.  But I forgive her because her idea is brilliant and my baby and his baby nest were a huge hit at the hospital.

The night before I went into labor I was stitching furiously away, apologizing to the missionaries at dinner for ignoring them but surely they understood I had a deadline.  But then I hit a snag.  She gives instructions like I do – “Stop when you feel like it can accommodate a baby”.  Problem is, I didn’t have a baby yet.  The next day that changed so I picked back up to stitching furiously.

That first day of recovery I was filled with pain medication and my baby did nothing but sleep in between nest fittings.  One nurse joked that she expected to see me crocheting while feeding him.  Fortunately she said that on my last row and I didn’t have to admit that I had.  One nurse said “It fits him perfectly!”  Of course it does.  It was stitched around him.

My version was significantly more lumpy than the pattern but after tugging it off and on him several times, the lumps have evened out and it now looks less amateurish.  The nurses all thought I should go into business.  Right.  If anyone would like a $200 snuggly nest, be sure to let me know because I am a SLOW crocheter!  I have one happy, snuggly warm customer and that’s all I really need.

We interrupt this frantic catchup to give you the latest news.

I did not actually spend the past week blogging.  No, I spent the week before that blogging and scheduling my posts so I was covered when I went to the hospital.  My plan worked – I am caught up through October.  But today after rumors flew at church I got yelled at for pretending to blog when I was really sitting at the hospital.  I apologize.  It’s really dad’s job to post initial pictures and announce the news but he was busy with 3 kids.  I finally got the camera, the download thingy and the computer on the same level so here are a few pictures.  More to come so check back.

Sunday November 8th I looked like this:

Monday November 9th I looked like this:

And a few hours later on Monday I looked like this:

Introducing the newest addition to our family: Little Man

Little Man was born at 9:30pm.  He weighed 6lbs 15oz and was 19″ long.

He has incredibly long fingers (predictions abound on how soon he’ll be able to palm a basketball) and long feet.

He has a headful of dark hair (though in the pictures it looks almost blonde).  Upon initial meeting he appears to be extremely easy going.  That will change within the week.

In honor of my dad, who claims to be 25 but was actually alive during our country’s founding, we attended a Revolutionary War Reenactment last month.  (yep!  Last month.  That means we are almost caught up!)

The kids played period games with hoops and sticks and tug of war and thankfully no one took a video of their 8 month pregnant mom attempting stilts.

They were enthralled with the weaving looms and the table of medicinal tools and exhausted the weaver and doctor with their myriad of questions.  Why would you go to something like this if not to learn?

We ran into several homeschooling friends, some friends whose wife was getting a day off, and a couple families from church.  I guess 1776  was THE place to be last month!

As for the actual reenactment, we were not so thrilled.  The boys thought it was interesting but awfully loud while Pretty Girl was absolutely petrified by the blasts.  We ended up cowering as far away from the fighting as possible, which at least was more historically accurate than standing around idly watching like the other spectators.

The only disappointment of the day was that we had not worn our Revolutionary coats (see here) to match the real players. (I had been told it was a Civil War Reenactment.  Next year we’ll know.  Maybe Pretty Girl and I will have matching dresses by then.)  Click here if you don’t see the video of my children playing with sharp objects.

Oh, and I absolutely promise that tomorrow, in honor of my due date, I will post what I’ve ACTUALLY been doing for the past week.  You don’t want to miss the exciting news.

In discussing baseball one day (we have a recent disagreement regarding good guys vs bad guys) the boys were being a little cheeky so I told them, “I have the power to send you to bed.”  Their retort? “Well, dad has the power to send YOU to bed.”  Well!  That doesn’t sound half bad. I immediately called dad to see if he wanted me to go to bed.  Unfortunately, he was not inclined to exercise his power in that way.  Dang.

Last month we were reading “The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles” by Jule Andrews Edwards.  In it, the following question is posed: What do you think is the most serious problem adults face?  Tackler’s immediate response: When they have to ask children twice.

Prince thinks the most serious is “when someone steals from you, that’s breaking a law, and that’s a big problem”.  I suppose Prince has a little more perspective on large problems of the world but I have to admit, Tackler perfectly pinpointed my personal biggest daily struggle!

Photos: Dad is making progress on turning his old workshop into a luxurious school/play room for us.  Don’t feel bad for him – he is getting LOTS of help from us.  Can’t you tell?

Have you ever done anything really risky?  Something so far over the edge that no one can believe you did it?  And did that thing change you so much that people did not even recognize you after the fact?  I did.  And I’ve never been so scared in my life.

So what scary life changing endeavor did I pursue?  I made my first visit to a hair cutting salon.  This scary venture was not my maiden voyage to a beauty parlor because I had perms – hey, I was alive in the 80’s – but I have only ever trusted scissors to my mom and myself.

My hair history:

• When I was 2 my mom cut my scraggly locks to chin length.
• When I was 11 I cut my hair to chin length and was told by every single person “I liked it better long”.
• When I was 32 I chopped it all off and gave it away to bald kids.

I had the idea in July and pulled out my tape measure and realized I did not have long enough hair so I wrote in my planner to remeasure in September.  At the appointed time my friend mentioned she had been considering donating to Locks of Love.  I couldn’t believe the timing.  We pulled out the tape measure and wrote a date on the calendar, then I called and made appointments.  We made a girls day of it.  I coached soccer in the morning while she did homework then we left the kids with dad and drove off.  We visited the salon – a new experience for both of us.  And followed it up with a visit to the Temple. A perfect girls day and night out.Want to know how inexperienced we are?  First they make a ponytail and cut it off.  At that point we were both ready to say thanks and go on our merry way.  No, next was washing and cutting.  Then combing and cutting.  Then styling and cutting.  We were caught between two thoughts.  #1 – Women really spend this much time on their hair?  #2 – Am I the only woman in the world who thinks this is a waste of time?  It was nice having the experience with the other weirdo around.  And I admit she did a much more fabulous job than I have ever done.  So there is my life changing experience.  I will never the same again.

Oh, I almost forgot the funny part.  The girls at the salon were shocked by my “virgin hair”.  That’s hair that has never been colored or treated.  I think they doubted such a thing still existed.  They were quite enthralled and made sure all the other girls saw it.  Too funny.

Sunday mornings are rough around here.  We are late sleepers and church starts at 9am so I have to drag my kids out of bed long before they are ready.   Except the baby.

My 24 month old has a horrible morning habit of wanting food.  Also a horrible 2 year old quality called persistence.  She gets into my sleepy face and chants “eat.  eat.  eat.”  I sweetly suggest she go play and she responds with “eat. eat.”  If I say ok, she will give me 9 seconds to start crawling out of bed.  If I stop moving she returns and repeats the process from the beginning.

On Saturday night our dear friend (a single student in our ward) offered to babysit while we still had only 3 children.  She spends Sunday afternoons at our house so rather than driving back home, she spent the night and went with us to church. My children absolutely adore her.

The two hours before she arrived Pretty Girl would not let me put her down.  She didn’t even want her daddy idol.  Knowing that any minute I am going to take a trip to the hospital and thanks to the freakout over the stupid swine flu, not be allowed to see her for 3 days, I indulged her whim for mommy attention.  As soon as F arrived though, she immediately went to her and shrugged me off when I tried to say goodbye.  Hmmm.  I think I’m being played.

On Sunday morning at 6:30am (an hour we consider the middle of the night) I ran into Tackler in the hall.

Him: Can I go downstairs and see F?

Me: If she’s up you can.

Him: She said she always wakes up early, that’s why I woke up early too.

(So all those other Sunday mornings he wasn’t really tired, I just wasn’t interesting.  I think I’m being played.)

Pretty girl (having just finished her debut as the poster child for starving children of America) appeared in the hall and asked to join Tackler downstairs.  They conned F into reading books for the next 90 minutes until regular waking hours. I guess Pretty Girl wasn’t hungry afterall.  Do you think I’m being played?

I think I might hire them out for con jobs if anyone knows of any shady characters in need.

One of my first blog posts (here) was for the dry version for homemade laundry soap.  For about I year I used the powdered because I was intimidated by the liquid instructions.  One day I finally decided to buck up and try the liquid.  I guess I must like it better because that’s what I always use now.  I have finally reached the point where I can whip it up in a free hour instead of considering it an ordeal.

This post is for my mom who stole my fels naptha and is still in the too scared to try it stage.  Give it a go.  Just don’t let the soap boil over.  It was bad enough to clean up on a flat top stove.  A Viking with melted soap scum would be cause for running away from home.

I didn’t take pictures of the process (you can find a dozen blogs w/ those pictures), just of my materials I use.

Step 1: Collect a bunch of empty liquid laundry detergent bottles and 3 empty milk jugs.  One is used for measuring water.  The other two you need to cut in half with the handle still in tact.  One you are saving the top to make a large funnel.  The other you are saving the bottom to make a scoop.  Also find a large bucket and set it in your sink.  I think mine is  about 3 gallons and given to me free at a bakery.  It formerly held frosting.

Step 2: Fill one milk jug + 6cups + 4cups with hot (ish) water.  Pour the 4c water in bucket and set the other water aside.

Step 3: Fill large pot (see photo) with water.  You do not need pans just for making soap.  It’s soap.  It’s clean.

Step 4: Grate 1/3 bar of fels naptha soap.  Some people use other things.  Ivory did not get my clothes clean.  Colgate was too harsh for my baby’s skin.  Fels naptha is a bit more expensive but worth it.  It’s also a little harder to find but one of your regular grocery stores should have it.  Use a Cuisenart or watch your knuckles.  Tonight I managed to grate my soap w/o grating my skin for the very first time.  (*I think 1/3bar is somewhere between 1/2-1c grated.  Every recipe you find has different proportions so wing it if you like).

Step 5: Measure out 1/2c washing soda and 1/2c borax.  Again, both should be available at your local grocery store.  You don’t have time to measure out later so do it now.

Step 6: Boil the soap until it melts.  I tried a shortcut once and didn’t grate it and couldn’t get it to melt all the way.  Again, make sure it doesn’t boil over.  It isn’t hard, just don’t act like a mom and get distracted.  No multitasking allowed.

Step 7: Stir in soda and borax and stir until well dissolved.

Step 8: Pour mixture into bucket in sink.  There should already be 4c water in bucket from step 2.  Mix well.

Step 9: Add the rest of the water (1gal + 6c) and stir more.

Step 10: If you like you can just leave it in this bucket and use from there.  However, I find this makes life messy twice a day.  I prefer to put mine in old detergent bottles and pretend I’m normal until I run out.  This part is a little tricky but I have gotten better at getting it IN the bottles instead of in my sink.  Set the milk jug funnel over the pouring part of the laundry bottle.  It’s a nice fit.  Use the milk jug scoop to get your goop from the bucket to the funnel.  It’s hard to tell when the soap bottle is getting full so just watch for overflow.

Step 11: Clean up your big mess – which is mostly in the sink.  And catch up on the laundry you put off while you found time to make more soap.

At the beginning of October we enjoyed a fine treat – we were a stopping point on a romantic anniversary getaway.  The first child I ever babysat for is now expecting his first child which makes the young couple I sat for almost grandparents.

They celebrated their anniversary this year with a fall leaf trek through New England (they live in Arizona).  We only got them one night but we enjoyed every splendid moment of it.

I grilled the mom on how to be a patient mother of many while we dined on my homemade bread and her homegrown pistachios.  Simply delightful.  She wanted my waffle recipe and a picture of my tablecloth so here they are:

2c whole wheat sour dough starter

2 eggs

1t ginger

1t cinnamon

1t baking soda

1/2t salt

This makes enough for about 2 people.

These waffles are only good fresh.  They are light and crispy but must be served immediately or they fall flat, cold and too sour doughy.  Served immediately though, they are ultimate perfection.

In the morning Pretty Girl left our room and I fell back asleep.  When I awoke and couldn’t find her anywhere I felt guilty that our guests were entertaining my baby while I snoozed.  Except the whole house was silent.  I started to panic and checked all the rooms again – finally finding her snuggled up in bed with Tackler.  Made my heart melt.

Thanks for the visit.   We are looking forward to seeing you in Arizona in two years.  We will be here two more autumns if anyone else has an anniversary coming up.

One of my Papa’s specialties was orange syrup.  I don’t think I’ve had it in a dozen years but I remember that sticky sugary buttery goodness.  I recently discovered a new favorite pancake recipe – it is reminiscent of Papa’s syrup without me having to actually make it.

4 eggs

2c flour

1 1/2 c water

1/2c oj concentrate

1/3c applesauce

1/3c oil (don’t substitute this oil for more applesauce.  It’s too gooey)

1/2t orange extract (opt)

1T sugar

4t baking powder

1t salt

These pancakes are best a little overcooked.  Not so dark your kids complain they are “burned” but just before that.

What is the farthest you have ever traveled to see a game?  Not many people would but I do know a few diehards who have trekked across country for their favorite team.  My dad is one of them.  In his defense though, he traveled for two teams and got to see two games of each.  Who are his favorite teams?  Why the Lancers and the Netherlands of course.  Never heard of them?  That’s just because you don’t keep up on 5 yr old town sports.

While my parents were here we took a trip to a Revolutionary War fort where my dad enjoyed reliving his glory days (bet you didn’t know he was that old did you?  He is).    We admired the local fish catch (have you ever seen a fish quite that small except in a tank?)  We enjoyed the scenery as fall considered settling into our neck of the woods.  And most importantly, we made my dad fix us up a freezer full of his enchiladas to tide us over after the baby is born but before he makes it back here to make us more.  Er, I mean to see the baby.  ….Assuming he forgives me for this post.