Golfing

The weather has been cooling just off a bit, so the other weekend was the perfect time to take a quick stroll down the street and visit the driving range.  We're not big golfers, but Maks gave Bryon some certificates to the golf course earlier in the summer for his first Father's Day.  Bryon's been busy improving his game over the past few months, and this time Maksim and I tagged along to play around in the shade.

Somebody couldn't take his eyes off of his daddy.  Fore!

It's nice to be able to simply play with Maks and not worry about the quality of my strokes...especially since I've only been golfing on a whopping 2 different occasions in my lifetime.  Does anybody else see how good this little one is doing?  Maybe some day Maksim will be a more skilled golfer than his mama.  Let's hope so.  

I realize that not all patrons at the golf course have the same nonchalant attitude towards the sport as I do.  So, I encourage those individuals to view Maks' presence at the driving range as a free service to help improve their game.  Distractions galore:

• Can't-take-your-eyes-off-him adorable.  
• Known to throw random items (toys, etc.) onto the green (and possibly even at a golfer...or two).
• Exceptionally good at producing unexpected, loud noises.

We stayed until Maks got too excited to refrain from disturbing those who take the driving range just a tad too seriously.  Come on people - a baby...playing on the golf course...now that's cute. 

Busy Body

The past few weeks have included a bunch of developmental accomplishments for Maksim.  Some of the pictures/videos are almost a month old now, but I'm just going to compile them all together in this one post.

He's discovered his feet.  One morning, we simply woke up to see him grabbing on tightly to his feet - one foot in each hand!  Before we know it, I'm sure they'll make their way into his mouth!

He's a maniac in his doorway jumper.  I'm quite certain that this toy does absolutely nothing to help Maksim learn to be upright/balance.  It does, however, provide a wonderful opportunity for Maks to release as much energy as he possibly can!

He's focusing his attention on sitting up.  The BjornBabysitter Balancer is restricting Maksim more than he likes right now.  As soon as we place him in it, he tries to sit up on his own and get out.  The same goes for his car seat.  I never thought that my 4 month old child would sit up out of his car seat on his own when I unbuckle the straps to take him out.  He never fails to surprise me!  This boy just doesn't like to be tied down!

He's a wiggle worm.  Swaddles are continually falling apart in our home.  Arms and toes are flailing about during nap time.  Over the past month, he has become an expert at rolling over while swaddled in his swing.  The other day while Bryon was watching him, he managed to slide out (he didn't even mind his journey to the floor below!), so our trusty swaddle-and-swing routine has been retired...now he's always securely strapped in.

He's ready to crawl.  Rolling over is no big deal to him anymore, but he'd rather be able to crawl than have to perform multiple rolls to get from one side of the room to the other.  Here is a rather dated video of Maks at 3.5 months old just learning to get his booty up in the air:

And 2 weeks later, just days after he turned 4 months old:

I don't have anything from the last few weeks, but he'll be 5 months old in a week, so you can imagine how much he's improved over the past 3+ weeks!  He's well on his way - a few weeks ago I placed him on the bed and he managed to scoot forward on his belly until he'd made it to the foot of the bed.  Clearly, this raises a concern for Maks' sleeping situation as we just use a regular queen size bed.  We've decided that it's now time to take the bed apart and just place the mattress on the floor.  Given Maks' 10 hour stretch of continuous sleep, quick break to eat, and then 3 more hours of sleep last night...I'm thinking that he likes the "new" bed just fine!

Fancy Feet

Unfortunately, story time at our Barnes & Noble has been cancelled for the entire past month.  What's even worse is that I found this out the hard way.  I'd timed Maksim's nap just right, piled him into the car (which is probably his least favorite place to be) and managed to show up at B&N exactly ten minutes before 11AM a couple of Thursdays back.  Go figure, we waited patiently for 25 minutes before I finally asked a lady at Customer Service when the weekly story time would begin (I could barely believe that there was only one other mama waiting for story time with her child!  For a city that has absolutely no libraries with story time, you'd think that Barnes and Noble would be packed.  Apparently I am mistaken.).  At the Customer Service desk, the representative informed me, "I used to be in charge of that, but I got a promotion.  I don't think anybody has been hired to fill that spot."  Then she turned around and started helping the next customer.  No concern for me at all!  Hello!  Aren't you going to see if someone can just sit back there and read a story to us quickly?  Or can you at least tell me if there will be someone present for story time next week?  Or the week after that?  Oh, and thanks for updating your website and/or posting the announcement to give the heads up to all of us who travel across town to participate in your "weekly event."  I was frustrated to say the least, but at this point so was Maks.  Back into the car I crawled, crying baby and all.

Luckily, Barnes and Noble kept their painting event that was to be held one month later.  The book to be read was written by an artist and Louisiana native.  Anyhow, I'd had it marked on my calendar because I thought it would be a fun event for us to attend, especially since it was on the weekend when Bryon could come with me and Maksim.  As it turned out, there were only 4 other children present besides Maks, and Maks was definitely the only one young enough to still be in diapers.  Was the chosen story interesting for preschool age kids?  No.  So, we grabbed a drink from Starbucks and wandered around the children's section until it was time to paint.

Of course, Maksim was far too young to use the paintbrushes (I was actually under the false impression that this was going to be a finger painting event.) that were provided for the children.  Additionally, seemingly everything that we hand over to Maks ends up in his mouth; finger painting might have been a complete disaster!  So, we chose to strip Maks of his clothes, throw on a disposable diaper and let him stomp around in the paint with his feet.



It didn't take Maksim long at all to get the hang of things!

Woo-hoo for Maks' very first painting!

What's better than a good old John Hancock?  Foot prints, of course!

Vegetarian Korma

We have a favorite date-night location in town that just so happens to be an Indian Bistro.  The gentlemen who run Indigo are always welcoming, comical and never forget a face.  They fed me throughout my pregnancy and made sure I consumed plenty of spinach and spices.  Even when I experienced difficulty consuming an entire meal in one sitting, they would sit down at our table and make sure I finished my plate!  I sent Bryon to get takeout from them when Maks was just a few days old; Bryon came home beaming and talking about how excited they were to hear about our new addition.  I'll never forget the first time we visited with Maks in tow: "You are loved, little Maks.  You have Indian food in your blood."  

Clearly, we cannot afford to go out to eat every night of the week.  And, obviously, there is no true substitute for the delicious food at Indigo.  However, I've tried to piece together a dish that will satisfy my palate between our date-night escapades.

This recipe is wonderful as a vegetarian or vegan centerpiece (simply use your preferred heavy cream substitute).  I serve with brown basmati rice that I make in our rice cooker.  I use about 1-1/2 rice cooker cups, which is a little bit less than 1-1/4 cups uncooked rice.  It'll all depend on how much rice you like to enjoy your korma with, though.  If you want to go all out, prepare some naan and serve that with the meal, too.   

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, diced

2 tsp fresh minced ginger (use fresh ginger, the kind that comes in the tube just isn't the same)

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 large (or 3 small) russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 carrots, peeled and cubed

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

3 Tbps raw cashews, ground (I throw the raw cashews in our Magic Bullet)

4 ounces tomato sauce

2 tsp fine sea salt

1-1/2 Tbsp curry powder

1 cup frozen green peas

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1-1/4 cup heavy cream (or vegan substitute)

freshly cracked sea salt and cilantro for garnish

Directions:

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat.  

Stir in the onion, and cook until tender.  

Mix in ginger and garlic, and continue cooking 1 minute.  

Mix in potatoes, carrots, jalapeno, cashews and tomato sauce; season with salt and curry powder.  Cook and stir for 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Stir peas, green and red bell peppers and cream into the skillet.  

Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 10 minutes.

Plate upon rice, garnish and serve!  Flavorful and fulfilling!

*original (non-vegan) recipe from allrecipes.com*

Tears and Teething

We've been cleaning up drool for a good month and a half now, and we can definitely feel some tiny buds in Maksim's mouth.  I'm also quite certain that a lot of Maksim's recent tearful awakenings throughout the night can be blamed on his teething.  There is no worse feeling than knowing that your child is hurting and there is nothing that you can do to help them.  I mean, I'm sure Maks will thank me someday for allowing him to teethe - there is nothing cute about a 15 year old (or 30 or 50 year old) without teeth.   Nonetheless, I've been told to expect 4 months of drooling before the first teeth actually break skin.  We only have a month and a half down, but progress is progress.

When Maks first started to struggle with teething, I was unsure of what I should give him to help ease his pain.  I know what you're thinking: Baltic Amber Teething Necklaces.  Well, I haven't quite bought into the hype of the baltic amber teething necklaces.  The idea sounds nice, but I'm not exactly convinced.  In theory, the beads release succinic acid to be absorbed through your child's skin.  (These are necklaces, NOT teethers.)  I acknowledge the historic use of this acid as an anti-inflammatory medication and analgesic, but I'm also quite certain that in today's market, these tiny stones are sure to be produced with loads of resin and treated with who-knows-what else.  And, even if I was able to get my hands on a real, true-quality baltic amber necklace, I'm not convinced that the beads will have a high enough concentration of succinic acid to be able to be absorbed through Maks' skin, travel through his bloodstream and have any significant effect of his pain.  I'm not going to knock it until I've tried it, but for now, I'm opting to keep the baltic amber necklace in my back pocket and instead venturing down other avenues for Maksim's teething-pain relief.  

So, back to good old teethers.  There are hundreds of teethers on the market, but I won't bring myself to allow Maks to gnaw on plastics loaded with BPA or fabrics soaked with dyes and other toxins.  Thus, my search for quality, affordable, all-natural teethers began.  I carefully selected the following two products and have been extremely happy with the results so far:

The Little Star teething ring is 100% natural and comes in 4 different styles.  The ring itself is sustainably-harvested, unfinished birch wood.  It is a little bit large for Maks to fit very far into his mouth just yet, but he sure does try his very best to get it in there!  I'm positive that as he continues to grow, the ring will get more and more action!  Tied on to the ring is fabric consisting of 4 layers of 100% organic cotton.  The fabric is completely free of bleach, dyes and chemicals.  It has 2 different textures, so it stimulates Maks sense of sight and touch when he's holding it, looking at it, and chewing on it.  I also like that we can soak it in some water and freeze it to give him a bit more relief once those pearly white get closer to making their grand debut!

I'd already found a good, firm teether in the Little Star ring, but I wanted something a bit softer for when Maks' gums were really tender.  I didn't like the idea of Maks chewing on synthetic silicone.  So, after some more searching, the standout winner in my eyes is Maks' Hevea Panda Teether.  When I came across Hevea's teething products, I was pleased to discover that the panda was made from 100% natural rubber.  It's completely free from phthalates, colors, PVC, EVAtane, silicone, and BPA.  Yes, please!  It's perfect for encouraging his gnawing actions, and the gentle texture is soothing for his baby gums.  He has truly loved this panda from day one; I could barely get it out of the package before he was trying to fit the poor bear into his tiny mouth!

Maksim is slowly adjusting to the teething pressure and also getting loads better at coordinating his hand-to-mouth movements.  It is true that these teethers were a bit tricky for him to consistently maneuver at 3 months old.  Now, a month an a half later, he's becoming quite skilled at picking objects up, changing the angle he's holding them at and placing them exactly where they need to go in order to soothe his pain.  And we're sleeping a little bit better through the nights now, too!

Fresh Herb and Chickpea Soup

It's almost Fall!  Even if it's not quite September 22nd, I can smile knowing that September in general typically brings about cooler weather.  Although we're in the heat of the sweltering South, I suppose the same is true for us here, too - the 10+ degree drop in temperature is welcomed with open arms.  However, at 90 degrees, the weather is just now starting to feel like a perfect summer day to me.  

I love, love, love the change in weather from 100+ to a more tolerable 90 degrees.  But I also know I'll soon be missing the Fall season I've experienced the majority of my life.  Before I know it, I'll see my friends post photos of leaves changing color, babies bundled in fleece blankets, outfits donned with cute scarves and mugs of hot chocolate to be sipped during football games.  And y'all can rest assured that in a quick month I'll be longing for some juicy Honeycrisp apples.  

I ran to the grocery store by myself the other day (yay for "me" time) and couldn't put my finger on exactly why it felt so refreshing.  Sure, it was a nice break to go somewhere alone, but there was something else contributing to my heightened mood.  I was driving with my window down, dressed comfortably in jeans, and didn't feel the need to search for the parking spot nearest the entrance upon my arrival.  I finally honed in on the fact that a mid-eighty degree start to the day is exactly what I've been missing these past few months.  And there you have it; I jumped on the true Fall bandwagon!  I crossed my fingers for an even cooler day (not 90 degrees people - more like mid-70's...hey, a girl can dream!) to show up on the forecast sometime this week, and bought my groceries accordingly.

We didn't quite get any "Fall" weather, but last night's thunderstorm provided the ideal gloomy weather for me to throw together a quick batch of homemade soup.  This soup is easy to prepare and doesn't require any ingredients that can't be found at your standard grocery store.  

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1-1/2 cups whole wheat Farfalle pasta
28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 can chickpeas
2 tsp paprika
3/8 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
2-3 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
fine sea salt and cracked pepper to taste  

Directions:

Heat oil in a soup pot over low heat.  Add garlic and cook until golden.

Add 4 cups of water and bring to a simmer.  Stir in pasta and cook according to package directions.

Add the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Season and serve!

Feel free to play around with the herbs to reflect your preferred taste.  This soup tastes best with fresh herbs, but you can always use dried if you're in a pinch (between a drought all summer long followed up by Tropical Storm Isaac, our garden herbs are looking scarce!).  If you choose to use dried, I recommend using about 1/3 as much (for example 1/4 cup fresh = 4 tsp dried).

*modified slightly from Vegan Express*

Live, Love, Laugh and Learn

My sister and her fiance, Andrea and Matt, came to visit us for a week.  We were a stopping point/long detour on their move from Pennsylvania to Minnesota.  As we live in different regions on the country, we rarely are together more than once or twice a year.  Nonetheless, there are a handful of things I can always expect when we all meet up:

- I will become annoyed, stressed out and inevitably irritable about something extremely miniscule.
- Andrea will pout about something going on between her and Matt (that she'll refuse to discuss with anyone), and she'll withdraw herself to another room for a good portion of 1 at least day.
- Matt will make a conscious effort to push the buttons of anybody and everybody that is running low on patience.
- Bryon and Matt will stay up and discuss philosophy/politics/wherever else their conversation leads for hours past when the rest of the house has turned in for the night.
- We'll play board games.  Strategy games.  And Bryon will win.  ALWAYS.
- We'll laugh.  Like, pee-your-pants-laugh.  And it's almost always at ourselves.
- We'll say goodbye with hugs.  All of us.

After reviewing my list of given experiences during our visits, I can see how it might be good that we keep our gatherings limited to just a couple of times a year.  But then there are those positive experiences that make the negative moments seem negligible.  Indeed, twice a year is not enough.

During visits with this particular couple, I always learn something new.  That's the best thing about my family being so worlds-apart-different from one another.  More specifically, this time around I learned about mountaintop removal mining, induced hydraulic fracturing (fracking), elective dumpster diving, and N.S.A. domestic spying (and another little topic I'll mention in just a bit).  Don't even ask me about all of the other random topics I've already added to my bag of tricks as a result of these gatherings!

(No blinking allowed.)

Our week was full of activity and most definitely flew by with far too much speed.  We all went to the Cypress Black Bayou Reserve to go on a hike and stopped by their small "zoo" on our way in.

This little guy is almost old enough to be released into the wilderness again.

Maks enjoyed the quacking by the geese and ducks.

Our pool got it's fair share of use, that's for sure.  I swear, if Maksim could go swimming every day, he would.

I love how Kira is patiently waiting in the background, longing for someone to throw her ball!

It didn't take Maksim long to warm up to his new friends!

Swim, buddy, swim!

Does his face scream "determination" or what?

Could that tongue be any cuter? 

He made it!

He's loving his pool!  And I'm loving this shot!

We had game night, nightly.

Let it be known that I did win 1 game!

And those pee-your-pants laugh moments?  As previously mentioned, they're almost always at the expense of one of us.  Thanks for being a good sport this time, Andrea!  Let's just say that we were sorting through some old family photos and found some spectacular before and after "makeover" photos of Andrea that were taken during a friends birthday party.  Mind you, the party was in the early 90's (making Andrea about 6 or 7 years old), thus, her final look was pretty wild.  I'm choosing to spare Andrea the embarrassment of posting these photos...mostly because I don't have them stored on my computer.  Darn!  

Finally, in true Louisiana style, we picked up some drive-thru daiquiris (for everyone but me and Maks, of course):

Anyhow, back to that "another little something new" that I learned.  About a week before visiting, I distinctly remember Matt telling me on the phone that he was, "looking forward to meeting that offspring of yours that you refer to as Maks."  I like to think that I keep my mind open to all  lifestyle choices - so long as they don't interfere with my rights/the rights of others.  Matt chooses to not identify with a gender - for himself or for others.   (However, he does note that the social construction of gender exists.)  I am adamant about doing my best to eliminate stereotypical gender roles while raising Maksim, but attempting to completely disregard gender in its entirety is something I had never before thought to consider. 

In my eyes, it is Maks' anatomy which makes him male.  And, yes, I do refer to him as "my little boy/man."  But if his relative, Matt, wants to refer to him as "the little human with a penis," that's fine with me, too!  It isn't good or bad; it's just new.  And I'm so thankful to be continually exposed to "new."   

Mama and her little man.

I'm always trying my best to foster a home of acceptance and respect.  We love people for who they are and not what they are (or what they are not).  Bottom line in our house: people are simply people.  It's freeing, and liberating, and allows everyone to be themselves.  And I hope it's a bit refreshing, too.  

We had a wonderful week.  Hugs to you both!  Thanks for visiting and come again, y'all!

Water, water, everywhere!

This past week was filled with plenty of pool days!  The pool is right down the street, so it's convenient to walk to for a quick afternoon dip or an all-day outing.

Maks loves the water and is happiest when he's being thrown in the air by his daddy or doggie paddling from one end of the pool to the other (see below for videos).

And, speaking of doggie paddling - we were sure to bring Kira for an end of the season doggie dip!  She was quite the retriever, bringing back each and every single ball she could find the the pool area.  

Occasional trips to the baby pool were taken so that she could rest up a bit.  However, we quickly learned that we were needlessly worrying about her stamina; she never seemed to run out of energy.

Kira thoroughly enjoys splashing in the pool, but she's not a fan of jumping directly into the water if it's deep.  Instead, our playful girl will run around the perimeter of the pool to the shallow end, jump in (actually, she's more inclined to bound down the stairs) and swim the entire length of the pool to fetch her ball.  Thank goodness for the 4 year old girl who was able to get Kira to jump in the deep end effortlessly.  We'd been trying for hours to no avail.

Although the pools are now closed for the year - which seems silly to this Midwestern girl since it's still consistently above 90 degrees - we have our backyard pools (yes, one for Maks and one for Kira) that are still open for business.

Sleep Deprivation

My little Maks is good at a lot of things.  He grows and gains weight like a child months older than him.  He can already roll over like a pro and in the works of crawling.  You can add charmer to his bag of tricks, too.  Oh, and he can soak a cloth diaper like nobody's business.

Maksim also used to sleep at least 8-9 hours in a row, uninterrupted.  Key words: used to.  Is he a good sleeper anymore?  NOT SO MUCH.  I initially thought that this was just a short phase that he'd outgrow.  A couple of days to maybe a week or two.  Unfortunately, I've now concluded that I need to remove "sleeper" from the list of Maks' strengths and officially relocate this quality to his list of weaknesses.  It's a sad day.

We've been back from our road trip for almost a month now.  Throughout our trip, I was so concerned with maintaining Maks' sleep schedule because I didn't want to ruin the good thing I had.  Fortunately, the trip was a success in terms of Maksim and his sleeping habits.  Unfortunately, we arrived back home: bad sleeper night #1.

Yes, I realize that waking up once or twice a night is nothing to complain about.  Technically, "sleeping through the night" for a baby is 5 hours of consecutive sleep.  So, I suppose, Maks was still sleeping "through the night," twice in a row, almost every night.  But, when you've had a taste of something so good, it's difficult to continue to appreciate it with even the slightest decline in performance.

I've stuck it out for weeks now, but it's continuing to get worse and worse.  This week has been riddled with the absolute worst sleeping patterns Maks has ever tried to pull off.  Who am I kidding?  He's not trying to pull this off; he is pulling it off with flying colors.  But could you deny this (I told you he's a charmer.):

Daytime naps have been on the decline, too.  I believe that yesterday he napped for a total of 2 hours, scattered between 2 naps.  I was convinced that he was being overstimulated by visitors (we've had guests for a week now) and constant activity, and that was what was to blame for keeping him up all day long.  We all believed that come sunset, he was going to sleep like a rock.  Boy, were we wrong.  Last night Maks went to bed at 8:30pm.  Then we woke up at 10:15.  And at 12:00.  And at 2:30, 4, 5:30 and 6:15.  He woke up for the day at 7:15AM.  Sometimes he wakes up hungry, but last night half of his time awake was simply spent making noises and looking around.  At 2:30am I looked over to see my little boy propped up on his elbows (yes, he is a tummy sleeper) looking at me, as if he was just waiting to engage in a late night conversation.  And, by the way, doesn't everybody want to play at 4AM?   

I'm restless.  My head is fuzzy.  I've been convinced that today is Thursday all morning.  In fact, I've been an entire day off all week despite being corrected by 3 different people.  I'd like to simply blame Labor Day for throwing my week off, but I'm quite certain the culprit is a 4 month old boy named Maksim.

If only soy-milk steamers helped keep this mama awake!

This is more than the usual new parent scatter-brain.  Sure, I forget where I place things and almost always am missing at least one essential ingredient for whatever is on the menu for dinner.  But, there is a real problem when I calmly ask Bryon to check Matt's diaper because I believe it's dirty and needs to be changed.  Maks and Matt can sound quite similar when you're speaking a thousand words a minute, but there's no denying that people take notice when you suggest a man in his mid-twenties check the diaper of his peer.  True, my sister and her fiance function a bit off the beaten path.  But, I'm fairly certain diaper wearing is beyond even them.  (Thank goodness.)  And, even if it was their chosen practice...I like to believe that they would change them themselves.

The extra help around the house is quite nice, but I've been operating under the false idea that I'll be able to catch up on rest while my house guests play with my son.  Yes, they've been great at entertaining my boy.  But I seem to be attempting to tackle all of the other items on my to-do list that out-prioritize sleep at the given moment - eat a bowl of cereal, take a shower, cycle the laundry.  As soon as sleep is on deck, it's time for Maks to eat...And it gets really weird when I announce that I need to nurse Matt.  Come on people, we do have boundaries!

So, I apologize for the lag in my posts.  With an extra 2 people, 2 cats and 1 dog in my house right now, my plate is momentarily full.  I have a plethora of snapshots and stories to post from the past week, as well as a handful of more detailed "natural mama" topics to discuss.  For now, visiting with family that I get the pleasure of spending time with only once or twice a year is taking priority.  Hang in there, I'll be back next week!