this week or so in pictures

cool ornament from my aunt roshanna!  she always sends the best gifts!

i suppose it's been almost two weeks since my last post...i have totally lost track of time between working 7 straight days and the busy christmas workshop waiting for me the few hours here and there i am home.  i finally had two days off and my fingers have been feverishly busy on the needles in spite of the hopelessness i will finish gifts in time for christmas.  my work is really cut out for me, but we will do what we can.  the kids seem to somehow understand the demands of this task and have for the last few days been remarkably self sufficient and exceptionally "gentle" with these projects when they become interested.  i still do love knitting, but i'll be relieved when i can do something additional with my down time!

anyhow, other happenings this week.......

the kids are still incredibly cute with fat faces that i eat morning, noon and night.

she might have a future in cage fighting.

bean is getting really interested and actually quite good at tidying up.  she loves putting dishes in the sink and dishwasher, wiping up spills on the floor, and loading/unloading everything from her bookshelf to toybox to dresser drawers.  it's the reloading that's really impressive...her dad and i have not yet developed that trait.  she's becoming very interested in helping with reese too, changing his diaper, wiping him, washing his hair...while this usually makes him physically uncomfortable (a lot of soap in eyes), he relly enjoys the attention.  she also started saying "puppy" this week, which is pretty cute.  we're so excited about her becoming more resilient and easy going about her sleeping habits as well.  she'll basically sleep 12 hours straight from when she goes to bed, takes one solid afternoon nap without a fuss, and really shocked us for the first time in her life the other day when she fell asleep in her stroller around nap time, woke up, and went BACK to sleep in her crib for a real nap immediately thereafter.  her refusal to do so the previous 1.5 years has ruined more outings and entire days than i care to mention.  a few nights ago she hid her pacifier somewhere during one of her organizational frenzies and then went to sleep without it no problem, so we never attempted to retrieve it.  just like that.  amazing.

 today we bought her first pair of winter boots, which are big and rigid and clunky, but will soon become necessary once this big scary winter rears its ugly head (for now, we're still enjoying a sunny 50 degree day here and there, see below).  she was stumbling around like a drunk astronaut and needed a much larger and cornerless space to explore, so we set her loose to terrorize the 15th floor...

 the big boy is, well, a very big boy.  every time we make him a larger and larger bowl of cereal, we say to ourselves, we'll save part of this for next time.  and then he finishes it.  without pausing.  i don't know if we're better baby food chefs this time around, but he also eats anything we put in his mouth without so much as an inquisitive look.  hopefully he'll remain such an unfussy eater.  he seems to be doing better with his naps now that we're paying more attention to them.  and, i noticed this evening he's sprouting his first tooth...david couldn't believe it since he's only 7.5 months old, and i reminded him that the average age is 4-6 months, which must mean a fair number of babies are born with teeth since bean was toothless until month 16 or so...

and aside from knitting and working, we HAD to take full advantage of the beautiful weather...yes, these photos were taken just this past monday!  finally got back out to northerly island.  this is the view of the city, my favorite, that i've mentioned before here.

dad made us this delicious stew with gingery greens that we all enjoyed for dinner over some kalinga rice:















and we received "fresh food fast," a vegetarian cookbook by peter berley that we're REALLY excited about.  big plans for this book that we'll talk more about later.  for now it's time to rest up for the several hours of power knitting ahead!  see you in 2012!

this week in pictures

we awoke this morning to the first legitimate dusting of snow on the ground...not my favorite sight, but to make it this far without a few inches is something to be grateful for.  however, i will say that losing the perceived hour of daylight between michigan and illinois is really hard on the circadian rhythm.  the sun sets literally at 4pm here.  at 4:30 it's pitch black outside.  it leaves our bodies wondering why it's bedtime when we aren't even yet hungry for dinner, and leaves my brain wondering why i'm not busy knitting away with these kids long since shipped off to dreamland.

it also really complicates our ability to leave the house.  in addition to the usual obstacles (somebody, adults included, is always hungry or tired), winter brings far fewer hours of daylight, which really limits the areas we can walk/run around safely , and putting two kids in snowsuits and packing them into the stroller just to grab something from the drug store is often too daunting a thought to even consider.  thus, we become more sedentary and stir crazy these months...it has begun.

walking to whole foods at 5pm

we have been busy indoor bees this week.  as anticipated, the tree went up.  i can take absolutely no credit for it.  dad really took one for the team to provide us with the centerpoint of our holiday enjoyment, and enjoy we do.  i'm sitting next to it in its twinkly splendor as i type.  this is the first time bean can really appreciate it, and reese is doing so in his own way as well.

now that david cares about running and fitness again, our workouts have parted ways, as he's no longer interested in walking at a good clip while i jog beside him.  compounded with our 2 hours of daylight, i've said goodbye to my beloved runs by the lakeshore and have adapted to running in more populated areas, usually the magnificent mile.  it's crowded, but fortunately i don't run much faster than the window shoppers browse, so it's not too bad.  i take my camera to capture charming holiday moments like this:

sorry folks, she is wearing underwear.

the kids really got slammed with shots this week, four apiece.  we felt especially bad for bean, who we promised was only getting a flu shot, only to find that, attentive parents and practitioners we are, we totally overlooked her 15 month appointment.  so she got hit with flu and dtap, undoubtedly the most painful combination of vaccines possible, and two others for good measure.  i will maintain until i die that my most recent tdap was worse than reese's labor and delivery.  poor stinks.  but, they seem relatively unscathed and have been indulging me, dancing around to christmas music most hours of the day.

both of them have turned real corners in their eating.  reese developed a real taste for sweet potato/apple/carrot/prune puree that has him scarfing down bowls of cereal that would put some adults to shame.  bean has really excelled at using utensils.  not surprisingly, she's quite insistent upon it now.  she's not incredibly effective yet, but she refuses to eat at all unless she's holding a spoon, so she splatters food all over the kitchen while i sneak bites in her mouth.  clever as she is, she eventually catches on and needs to have spoons in both hands, so every meal requires at least three spoons.

and if she sees you using something besides a child appropriate utensil to feed yourself, be prepared to hand it over.

we bought some suction bowls to try and contain the mess somewhat and make it easier to aim the spoon without a moving target, but these were no match for the might of bean.

reese has gotten so proficient at eating and bean so exceptional at feeding, it was only a matter of time before the two of them joined forces:

bean has added to her repertoire of intelligible words "book" and "cup" although she uses these words for many objects not limited to books and cups.  she is also able to recognize some letters now.  she continues to say "dai dai" for bye bye, but lately she's been saving a "bah bah" exclusively for her friend the el train that passes frequently by her window.  she continues to expand upon her dance skills, and has developed a real fondness for the free credit score commercial, which she has fully choreographed.  reese continues to slither and nudge rather aggressively around the apartment and his dad claims he is starting to reach for us when we pick him up.

other than that, my fingers have been busy on the needles whatever spare moment or two i can find.  how is it that i've been knitting non stop and have only two xmas projects completed, and one turned out rather poorly (sorry, dad)?  fortunately, i'm not knitting so much that i no longer enjoy it (so it's hard to imagine when that point would come), but the project i just started is really rather taxing.

say what you will, but to me this appears to be more thread than yarn.  it's so delicate, my needles feel dopey trying to poke their blunt noses through the loops, and this project is not incredibly forgiving of fat, dirty, curious little hands and mouths.  it doesn't lend itself to mom knitting, so it's progressing quite slowly.  so slowly that i've been working on a side project that moves rather fast so i can still feel a sense of accomplishment.

i can't remember how old i was when my grandma gave me my first pair of needles and yarn, but i think it was before i started school...certainly a needle and thread was.  right now bean takes a real interest in anything i'm doing, but i'm really excited for her dexterity and attention span to grow to the point where we can spend long hours knitting together and sipping tea.  and reese, too.

this week in pictures.

hello, december.

we're happy to maintain temps in the mid 40s as we ease gently into what's continually being hyped as the worst winter chicago will have seen since the last ice age.

david started the week and will end the week very busily with work.  thus, the few days in between have been devoted to a lot of relaxation.  two significant events have recently transpired in david's life that have translated into some notable changes in his lifestyle.  first, the 10k we ran a few weeks back has really inspired him to commit more of our nonexistent free time to fitness.  we have plans to run our next race in february, and while i continue to take the approach of "completion=awesome," he's set some really impressive goals for himself to improve on his previous performance, which is really great.

second, as i suspected, after completing eating animals by jonathan safran foer, david instantaneously modified his eating habits and outlook on food production in our country.  we never cook meat at home, but we have begun to closely examine how we source our other animal products, which has led to us paying 2x more for eggs (which we already payed about 2x more than average for), because after doing some research on our current eggs, we felt we could support a better operation.  we were very pleased to find eggs in chicago from a farm that treats its animals humanely and with respect.  this action is representative of the responsibility we as humans really should take seriously...it's not eating meat or animal products that i object to, but the way in which we source those products.

it's easy to forget when milk is in a carton or animal parts are already separated and packaged that these items were once alive or came from living things, and if we choose to use them for our own nourishment and gain, we should do so humbly and with dignity.  we are so busy searching for a bargain, we overlook the tremendous ramifications that might have on not only individual animals, but ecology, the job market, communities, and our own health.  yes, buying quality and humane food costs more.  a lot more.  but as humans at the top of the food chain, we can choose to eat less or spend more.  instead, many of us choose to eat more and spend less at the expense of much more than just animal welfare.  i would argue it's just this ability to reason rather than say, our braun, that has us atop the foodchain to begin with...we ought to use it more often.

if you knew where your food comes from, you'd truly be appalled.  take it from my husband, who when we met stated, "no meal, including breakfast, is a meal without meat."  yesterday, we ate dinner at our favorite vietnamese restaurant where we've had several delicious pork chops and huge bowls of beef pho the past few years.  last night, we enjoyed wonderful fresh spring rolls, a mango and papaya salad, and huge bowls of vegetable pho.  was it the same?  no.  was it memorable and delectable?  yes.  we're excited to rediscover the chicago food scene with a greener outlook.

anyway!  back to our days of relaxation.  we made this pizza (along with the raw kale salad we can't get enough of), arugula, tomato, and david's first seitan sausage.  it was so finger-licking good that i have to stop typing for a second to get a snack because the pictures are making me hungry.

 bean is making a lot of progress feeding herself with a spoon, and now takes large bites of certain things without needing them cut up.  big girl!

she continues talking a lot, with intelligible words sprinkled here and there.  but she has an impressive vocabulary and can point to anything around the house or in any of her books if you say the word.  she's also getting very interested in tasks we do...sweeping, wiping, picking things up, helping with reese...we hope she maintains interest when she's old enough to be effective.

not sure if it's because she's picking up speed lately or our apartment is just very difficult to navigate even for the nimble-footed, but she falls constantly.  she slips, trips, and sometimes inexplicably just topples over.  she got a little overly-excited a few nights ago when our bedroom was briefly left open and unattended...we found her seconds later balled on the floor screaming with a mouthful of blood.  such are the adventures of parenting a toddler.  as usual, she was over it quickly.

on a side note, her hair is slightly bigger and more awesome daily.

 big guy has continued to protest naps, so we've had to lay down the law a little harder and get him back in the routine.  he's doing ok with it since we reintroduced the sleep sheep noise machine.  he makes the cutest little squinty perplexed face when he wakes up because he sleeps in our pitch black bathroom (this is actually not the most obvious daily indication we need a larger place)...i haven't been able to adequately capture it yet, but this is close:

other than that, my fingers have been busy on the needles with various projects (just ordered the last of my xmas knitting yarn), and other crafts in preparation for homemade xmas are underway, with lots of help from the two elves.  we have plans to erect the tree in the next week or so.........negotiations continue regarding who will string the lights.

1.5 weeks in pictures.

happy thanksgiving!  i know, we briefly fell off our diligent one post per week ritual...fortunately this is not because we were particularly busy over thanksgiving (three day weekend in exchange for working the holiday itself, not a bad deal), but because we were enjoying some serious relaxation and family time.  i really happen to love thanksgiving because it's truly a holiday to do just that--no religious obligation (unless you are david and devoutly practice footballism), no gift giving pressure, just a lot of warm smells and feelings.

a lot of people think of thanksgiving as a meal of strong tradition, a time to prepare old favorites with tastes to conjure fond memories, regardless of how time consuming (or fat laden) they might be.  as soon as i got really into cooking, i began to view this holiday instead as a time to revise those old favorites and to search for some new traditions.  culinary experimentation this year included a lot of roasting of vegetables...

...mixing of spices

...and new riffs on old favorites, like these bite-sized apple pies.

the big winner, as voted on by all participants in our meal, was this kale salad, which was a snap to make and is exactly what a heavy, starchy dinner needs.  green, bright, lemony and just enough heat to keep your tastebuds alive.  we will be making this frequently.

we did manage to squeeze in some exercise to offset all the eating and sitting, including a run with the kids in their newly insulated stroller:

as well as a surprise black friday evening in the high 50s that called for a nice long jog up and down the magnificent mile to check out the christmas window displays.

reese has continued with his forward motion, occasionally getting his belly off the ground (a true accomplishment), and has graduated to solid foods.  and by solid i mean breast milk with some rice cereal sprinkled in it.  i had forgotten how much i dislike feeding babies who don't know how to eat.  i just don't have the patience.  this is similarly a problem with my dysphasic patients, who look at me fearfully with food spilling out of their mouths and plead, "slow down!"  but, reese is getting used to the spoon, and is remaining open minded about prunes.

however, seeing as i'm convinced beyond reason that he's a perfect child and can do no wrong, i do not care about the food all over both of us, or the fact that he no longer takes naps in his bed.  lately his only naps are in somebody's arms, in his jumper because he fell asleep bouncing, or in the boppy because he fell asleep eating.  

my two professional cat nappers, one of whom turned 5 this weekend!

 
bean, who as we well know likes to mentally perfect any physical task before taking it on, reached for a spoon the other day and fed herself an entire bowl of yogurt.  remarkable.  each day into her toddlerhood she becomes more strong willed, so we are always searching for ways to make life run smoothly.  however, she also gets a little smarter, more engaged, and more fun as well, so it seems a fair trade.

exploring.

note the bruise from opening the door into her head.

my fierce peccary.

other than all the cooking and eating, we did manage to finish nani's birthday present (but forgot to take a picture of it unwrapped), 

as well as one of my xmas knits that i started a month ago.  it was horrifically tedious.  however, the only thanksgiving related sale i attended was at my neighborhood yarn shop, where i picked up a few skeins of this beautiful peruvian wool to make something nice for reese.  i stayed up late last night finishing my project, and as a reward today i made reese a quick little beanie just to play with the yarn.  it was a lot of fun seeing the patterns emerge...excited to make him another piece of some sort to match it.

 

anyhow, tomorrow it's back to the grind.  david (who is sitting next to me diligently fulfilling his word to read all of eating animals this weekend) and i will be back to work for a few days straight, but have high hopes of setting up the christmas tree sometime soon.  this officially marks the season wherein i can listen to christmas music nonstop totally unapologetically.  YES!