I. Knobs
Before LG was born one of the last things I did (it might even have been the day of my induction, I can't quite remember) was to paint drawer pulls for her dresser/changer. The knobs have been there through her early childhood and until about twenty minutes ago, when I pulled them off to paint them the color of Tiny Boy's recently painted walls. This, after an unproductive trip to Target to *buy* new knobs before it occurred to me I could just re-purpose these. It bothered him when I pulled them off (he kept trying to stick them back on) but I don't think he'll really care once they function as they used to. For me, though, it's the last thing I needed to do to make his room his, which seems all kinds of important when he is (a) the second child and (b) genetically unrelated to either of us. The least he can have is his own nursery.
II. The Bunny Clock
I recently purchased a toddler clock for Tiny Boy, as part of Operation Wean and Sleep. While I don't know if the clock is actually helping, I can report that he likes seeing the bunny "in the sunshine" when he gets up...and he's been sleeping most days until 7:00, which is 30 minutes later than the bunny's wake-up time. He's still waking in the night--I just haven't been able to bring myself cut him off entirely from the nursing as it will inevitably mean crying and less sleep and, well, right now he's getting more sleep, as am I--but things are better.
III. Nutella
Someone tell me why it took me 40 years to try Nutella? And when I bought it, as part of the plan to fatten up my girl child, she was like oh, that is the best stuff EVER and I was like, where did you eat Nutella? (Which was almost as interesting a conversation as when she came home from aftercare insisting that they'd fed her a burrito in a chip form, which turns out to be DORITOS which I don't think I've ever purchased, ever.) Anyway, that stuff is awesome. We put it on waffles this morning.
IV. Immersion Blenders
There's a whole predictable hullabaloo about Michael Pollan's Cooked over at Laura Vanderkam's place. ( I might write a whole post on things related, mostly because I have some kind of sado-masochistic interest in Vanderkam's work and its ability to make me want to rip my hair out on an almost daily basis.) But the very small version is this: immersion blenders rock. Already today I have used mine to make two different kinds of hummus, both of which are incredibly yummy. And since Tiny Boy is willing to eat hummus in literal spoonfuls, well, amen to that. It's so easy that even LG can use it to make herself protein-packed smoothies in the morning.
V. Naps
Sometime around late April/early May Tiny Boy started taking naps at home that match or even out-do his naps at daycare. Even his "short" naps these days tend to go over an hour. All I can say is YAY for that. Naps will be especially awesome when I am teaching in the fall, but even right now I can count on an hour in which to work, to read, to clean something, to cook something, and all that is marvelous indeed.
Before LG was born one of the last things I did (it might even have been the day of my induction, I can't quite remember) was to paint drawer pulls for her dresser/changer. The knobs have been there through her early childhood and until about twenty minutes ago, when I pulled them off to paint them the color of Tiny Boy's recently painted walls. This, after an unproductive trip to Target to *buy* new knobs before it occurred to me I could just re-purpose these. It bothered him when I pulled them off (he kept trying to stick them back on) but I don't think he'll really care once they function as they used to. For me, though, it's the last thing I needed to do to make his room his, which seems all kinds of important when he is (a) the second child and (b) genetically unrelated to either of us. The least he can have is his own nursery.
II. The Bunny Clock
I recently purchased a toddler clock for Tiny Boy, as part of Operation Wean and Sleep. While I don't know if the clock is actually helping, I can report that he likes seeing the bunny "in the sunshine" when he gets up...and he's been sleeping most days until 7:00, which is 30 minutes later than the bunny's wake-up time. He's still waking in the night--I just haven't been able to bring myself cut him off entirely from the nursing as it will inevitably mean crying and less sleep and, well, right now he's getting more sleep, as am I--but things are better.
III. Nutella
Someone tell me why it took me 40 years to try Nutella? And when I bought it, as part of the plan to fatten up my girl child, she was like oh, that is the best stuff EVER and I was like, where did you eat Nutella? (Which was almost as interesting a conversation as when she came home from aftercare insisting that they'd fed her a burrito in a chip form, which turns out to be DORITOS which I don't think I've ever purchased, ever.) Anyway, that stuff is awesome. We put it on waffles this morning.
IV. Immersion Blenders
There's a whole predictable hullabaloo about Michael Pollan's Cooked over at Laura Vanderkam's place. ( I might write a whole post on things related, mostly because I have some kind of sado-masochistic interest in Vanderkam's work and its ability to make me want to rip my hair out on an almost daily basis.) But the very small version is this: immersion blenders rock. Already today I have used mine to make two different kinds of hummus, both of which are incredibly yummy. And since Tiny Boy is willing to eat hummus in literal spoonfuls, well, amen to that. It's so easy that even LG can use it to make herself protein-packed smoothies in the morning.
V. Naps
Sometime around late April/early May Tiny Boy started taking naps at home that match or even out-do his naps at daycare. Even his "short" naps these days tend to go over an hour. All I can say is YAY for that. Naps will be especially awesome when I am teaching in the fall, but even right now I can count on an hour in which to work, to read, to clean something, to cook something, and all that is marvelous indeed.
Have you tried cookie butter yet? I think it is called speculoos (they have it at TJ's too under a different name). Not quite as good as nutella, but pretty darn amazing.
ReplyDeleteHooray for humane naps! My life changed so radically when the Bean started doing that. He still mostly doesn't sleep through the night, but if I get a break during the day, it is just so much more manageable.
ReplyDeleteMichael Pollan. I agree with so much he says, and simultaneously find him almost unbearably smug at times. But I still like him better than Bittman, I tell you what.
Cookie butter? Um, no. What kind of cookie?
ReplyDeleteBionic, what's your beef with Bittman? I like his recipes okay...
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/01/30/i-dont-even-know-why-this-exists-but-it-does-and-its-in-my-house-and-i-have-a-spoon/
ReplyDeleteActually, the name-brand is Biscoff and the TJ's brand is Speculoos. It's those gingery European cookies.
I thought that too about Nutella, until I found Ovomaltine spread (I think over there where you are is called Ovaltine). It has malty crunchy thingies inside and it is ten times better than Nutella in our eyes (my entire family now is a Ovomaltine snob :-)).
ReplyDeleteNaps do get better as they grow up, don't they? Well, hurrah for that. George can easily take a 3 h nap if I let him. I don't, because I like him to go to bed at night at a reasonable hour. But still, yes, after all those long nights and little sleep of the first two years of his life, sleep is betting better. And easier. You're almost out of the woods. The only way is up from now on.
Must go make hummus now.
My beef with him basically comes down to privilege-blind smugness, And an amazing inability to imagine people unlike himself. I like his yeast-risen waffles and am glad he introduced me to no-knead bread, but I've found his columns insufferable for several years now. Plus way too much of his cookbook comes down to "grill it!" And then there was the time he was carrying on about how grilled watermelon was just as good as a hamburger (unless, you know, you are hungry).
ReplyDeletesado-masochistic interest in Vanderkam's work and its ability to make me want to rip my hair out on an almost daily basis
ReplyDeleteThis piqued my interest. I don't have a passionate response to Vanderkam's writing one way or another, but it does sometimes (often?) leave me vaguely irritated, although I have no idea why. So now I am curious what your take is.
In other news, Nutella is the most freakin' delicious thing ever. I had to stop buying it altogether as not only was everyone getting fat, but there were squabbles over who ate how much and how much is really their shar,e and the most ridiculous thing is that it was my kids against my husband as well as one another. Nutella -- sooo good, yet so bad.
Mina, yay for sleep!
ReplyDeleteBionic, yeah, okay...I'll confess I don't ever read his column, just plucked some recipes mostly from the shorter cookbooks.
GMP, there's probably a whole long thing I could say (and maybe I will later!), but the short version is while I like her general ideas about productivity, time management and the like, she also doesn't seem to see outside her own subject position (as a white, married, upper-middle class woman). That wouldn't bother me at all on a "personal" blog but on one that's advice-giving, it makes me nuts.
@gwinne, GMP-- We have several rants on exactly that in our blog history. And it's weird because she says she started out lower middle class and moved up via education (much like I did! Though I think that makes me more likely to stick a hand out for people behind me to pay it back, but she seems to be more Ayn Randian they should be pulling themselves up since she was able to.)
ReplyDeleteI think she's gotten a little bit better because her language is no longer quite so much, "This is what you MUST do" compared to what it used to be. Therefore we haven't ranted about it much recently.
I also wish her advice came with more of a research base, because I can't trust it. Is it the right thing to do or the opposite of the right thing to do? Is there a reason it's being suggested or did someone just make it up because it sounded good? But I guess most journalists are mentally lazy these days. There are very few Atul Gawandes getting to the heart of issues.
nandm...will see if I can find in your history... and, yeah...
ReplyDelete