Ah Fall...

Well, this past week has been a good one overall.  Fall has arrived and we've got great fall weather.  We are really starting to see trees change color and lose their leaves.  With all the rain we've gotten the past few days there are even some bare trees already. It is difficult to believe how much change happens so quickly.  Last week A and I went for a walk at the prairie.  I realize how much I've missed the prairie this summer and it was nice to get out and enjoy the crisp morning when I went.

playing with shadows on the fall flowers

Ready to walk with the fun sunglasses

I also managed to finish my quilt.  It isn't perfect by any means and I think only a few of the corners match up right, but it is done and A likes to drool all over it. I will never quilt with the gingham that I used again, but may use it for future bindings.  I like the pattern, so you will probably see many iterations of it. 

A is continuing her drooling and hopefully we will get to see some rewards to the teething soon.  We shall see as always. She has really started to work on sitting up and crawling. Today she was kind of doing a "downwards dog" (if you know yoga, it is basically having your hands and feet on the floor, with your rear end in the air, and looking toward your knees) but no real movement to speak of at that time.  As opposed to "army crawling" she is more "army pushing" with her legs. She is working on these skills enough that she jars herself awake at night sometimes. Here she is sitting up all on her own.

As we wrap up September we really don't have much going on.  Chris and I are continuing to put applications in and resumes out places, so hopefully something with break soon.  We are at least one day closer to landing a new job, so that's hopeful at least.

One other very fall thing I did this week as create a pumpkin pound cake.  It is quite tasty, recipe as follows:
3/4 C butter
1.5 C sugar
2 TBS vanilla
2 C Flour mixture (I used 1 C sorghum, 1/2 C oat, 1/2 C tapioca, 1/4 tsp gelatin, and 1 tsp guar gum)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
about 10 ounces of pumpkin
4 eggs

Cream (mixer on high setting) the butter and sugar for about five minutes -- make it creamy! Add the vanilla and cream a bit more.  Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing about a minute after each addition to ensure complete incorporation to existing batter.  While the butter and sugar are creaming, mix up the flour, baking soda, and spices in a separate bowl.  After adding the eggs, gradually add in the flour to the wet mixture. Add in the pumpkin as a last step.  Scrap down the sides of the bowl occasionally, but let it beat at a medium speed for about five minutes.  Distribute in muffin tin or bread tin, or however you want to cook it.  Cook it at 325 F for 30-60 minutes depending on tin used.

I prefer to use muffin tins for things because that gives up easy single serve portions that are easy to freeze/thaw.  Also, if I have to take bread/muffins/cakes etc on a trip it is super easy to have muffin sized things made.

I'm sure that this is the first of many things I will be exploring the use of pumpkin in.  I didn't quite use up my can of pumpkin, so I may try to make pumpkin waffles or something, we'll see. 

I hope that you all have a good week! See you in October!

Shots Part 2

We went to see the doc again today and A got her second round of shots.  She fears the needles and the team of nurses that come in with them.  She was kind of apprehensive of them this time around, so she may be learning to fear them. Her basic stats were quite good -- she had grown about 2 inches, so she's now over 2 feet tall! She's also 13 pounds 6 ounces, so she's long and skinny.  Big surprise.  She is now consistently rolling over whenever she wants.  She can go both front to back and back to front, but prefers to be on her stomach, so if you lay her down on her back it doesn't take long for her to end up on her stomach.  She is also starting to sit quite well if you place her.  She hasn't really started sitting up herself, but she's can sit there if you want her to for a bit.

I finished her quilt this week.  It took me a month to complete the project, so I feel good about that.  It is super cute and I'll make another one or two probably because it was fun.  It was also interesting that some of the sewing tricks don't work with quilting because of the precision needed for quilting. In reality I've been sewing a lot lately -- I've made A a jacket, some pants, a shirt and Chris a cape.  I'm starting a vest for Chris and a cape for me.  I hope to have them both done relatively soon so that we can be a wizard family for Halloween if the need arises. 

Chris is now done with the fourth week of school.  One of his minions left so it is just him, an undergraduate, and another fairly worthless minion. We have a fairly mixed up schedule these days so it is hard on everyone's sleep schedule.

That's really about it.  I need a nap and since A is asleep and I haven't heard which train Chris is on, my warm cuddly baby and I are going to sleep some.  :)

St Louis Pictures

Playing in Patterns

I've been doing a bit of sewing lately.  A year and change back I told Chris that if I had the time to make a Lucius Malfoy costume for him I would do it.  Since I'm home with A these days I have decided to work on it. I've finished his cape for the most part so I only have the doublet let to make.  Hopefully I can get it done by Halloween.

A seems to like to put paper things and cloth things in her mouth and this piece of pattern paper made a great tent for her.  She also discovered her toes in St Louis this past weekend.  She is also continuing to talk and regularly rolling over.  She prefers her stomach, so any time you lay her down on her back she will roll over to her stomach.  She then kicks her legs in sequence and tries to crawl.  She is also working very hard on sitting up unassisted.  She can sit with the boppy quite well these days, and with only back support for a few minutes.

Learning Rocky Top

Riding along

Reading the Lorax with Mama Sue

Bridge across the Mississippi

Family picture with the old courthouse

St Louis Arch on its side.  The photo doesn't seem to want to orient properly...

Arch shadow

Top of the Arch

Looking out over the Mississippi

These are some pictures from our Labor Day excursion to St Louis.  We were there because Kelly ended up back in the hospital for unknown pain.  She had some biopsies done but everyone seemed to be scratching their heads.  To get out of the hospital some (and since I've been wanting to do it for a while now, especially the past four years of driving through St Louis) we went to the arch. 

End of August?!

Time for an update.  A is asleep, Chris is watching a video that I've tried desperately to watch, and so now I'm going to blog a bit and add a few pictures from this past week.  Since it was the first week back at school Chris had a difficult week.  I dressed A up for him (since he always says that she is his daughter and needs to be dressed up) when I picked him up from the train one day.  She was "so stinkin' cute" that it made his day much better.  Yay, mission accomplished.  I think she looks like she was born in a different time, but that's just me.

Just hanging out on the floor

This weekend we had Chris's father in town.  We hung out and took pictures.  Since all of us like photography on some level it was nice.  It was nice getting to see family too.

After we dropped my father-in-law at the airport we went to the MSI.  We didn't see Body Worlds, but did check out the new Smart Home exhibit.  They redo the inside with new furniture and stuff each year.  The cool thing from this year is them re-using the University of Chicago lab cabinets in the kitchen. The parallel between laboratories and kitchens is not missed, so it couldn't have been more perfect.  Plus since they have glass doors, everyone can see inside!  We got to look in the gardens which were gorgeous today.  The weather was perfect, so that helped for sure.  There were butterflies everywhere so it was fun to try and catch them on camera.  I also managed to get some honeybees on camera.  :)  Here are a couple of pictures from the Smart Home gardens.

Besides for the Smart Home, we also saw the temporary exhibit, "Suiting up for Space" which is on loan from the Smithsonian.  One interesting thing I learned was about the suits, with how delicate they are! You would think that to keep a person alive in space they couldn't be delicate, but they only ever made on trip out of the atmosphere and the different layers of the space suit tend to react and deteriorate them.  Now, they can take x-rays of the suits so it is pretty neat to see the different suits x-rayed. Here is one such picture. 

This week holds work and playing with A for me.  We're definitely getting close to sitting up alone.  She has the turning over down -- both directions really.  She is frustrated about the not crawling, but to be honest, we aren't exactly encouraging her to be mobile quite yet.  She still likes to sleep on her side, so that takes a lot of balance and stuff.  Today she also started grabbing toys and putting them in her mouth.  This is fun since before she would only hold onto toys if you put them in her hand, now she will grab them.  It is a big step that is encouraging. 

Quilt Pictures thus far

All the fabrics laid out together

First bit of confetti and a bit of sewing the pieces together

making the central part of the quilt sqaure

one of the two square versions for the quilt!

The past two weeks have been quite busy.  We have settled into a routine during the day and have been able to accomplish a lot because of that.  We are still working on a night routine, though A doesn't help us in this regard as she is starting the teething process.  She doesn't actually have any teeth yet, but she's become a drool factory and will put anything in her mouth.  She is also really working on the crawling bit, but is having a lot of trouble with the arms part of the equation.  She will accept stuff if you put it in her hand, and is just starting to explore the things around her.  She is rolling over quite easily, though not always on purpose.  She doesn't cry or scream when she does it, just smiles a little.  She is smiling a lot overall, and we regularly get more smiles in a day than tears.  She thinks that daddy will respond to her tears so she will turn on the waterworks for him, but not for me.  She's just a bit over three months and she's already figured that out?! She's also working on sitting up alone and does really well with her boppy. 

The fall term started for Chris this past Monday.  So far it is definitely not his favorite year.  Saturday he had to work getting the lab they remodeled together enough to start class.  Currently his minions are not doing so hot and the TAs are driving him nuts.  We'll see how the term goes, but hopefully he'll get a new position (or I'll get one), and then we won't have to worry about it any more. 

While he worked on Saturday, A and I went to a friend's house and started quilting.  Since I can't find a position and have always wanted to make a quilt I've decided that I will make one for A.  I've got a lot of fun fabric (yay for remnants!) and have cut out about half of the squares.  I'm just working on the top part right now, and that isn't nearly as bad as I originally thought it might be.  Hopefully I'll get a job and have to put it on the back burner, but if not, then I'll have a quilt to show for my time.  Maybe I'll decide that I'd rather quilt than crochet or knit and start making baby quilts for people.  I'll put pictures up sometime soon of my progress.  I really hope to have it done by Thanksgiving, Christmas at the absolute latest. 

Other than the developmental stuff with A, stuff at UIC, and me with my quilt not a lot is going on right now.  We have Chris's father coming up this weekend so that should be exciting. 

I'm going to go though since everyone is asleep and I'm kind of tired myself.  Hopefully a quick shower will make me head right off to sleep once I lay down, we'll see though. 

Update to go with last batch of pictures

This past week has brought in August with a bang.  We were super concerned about Kelly, and she ended up getting a liver in the last moments last Wednesday.  She had surgery that night and then we went down to see the family on Friday.  A wasn't allowed up into the PICU room, so someone always had to stay downstairs to watch her.  We never seemed to run out of volunteers.  We also got to talk to a med student who got to watch the transplant surgery.  They ended up taking her off of the vent and waking her up on Saturday.  She moved out of PICU on Monday and they are talking about putting her in the Ronald McDonald House this week or next.  Everyone (docs, nurses, family, etc) is very amazed at how well she is doing this soon after surgery. 

Neither of us have heard back about from our interviews so we're assuming that we will not be getting the jobs.  This is unfortunate as both would have been good opportunities for us, but we'll get something eventually. 

A and I went to the zoo this week (as you can see in the pictures) and saw a lot of my old co-workers.  It was nice to visit the zoo, but not have to work.  They had no elephants which was interesting, but they had a ton of new babies around the zoo.  There were baby addax, kangaroos and gibbons.  They are doing a study with the gorillas, so I got to hear all the gorilla names and look at that one. 

On Sunday I went on a bike ride with my friend who does triathlons.  She and I only went about 15 miles.  We wanted to go further, but we saw an impending storm coming in, so we turned back early.  We were glad that we did because it was pouring by the time we got home.  It was raining so much that she kept my bike until Tuesday.  We are planning on going for another ride this Sunday.  We're planning on going about 25 miles, we'll see how it goes. 

A is working really hard on rolling over and pushing up with her arms.  She has the legs down for crawling and that's actually how she's managed to roll over a couple of times.  She will be on her stomach and moving her legs trying to get her feet underneath her, then she'll push with her leg and the same arm while trying to get her arms underneath her and end up rolling over.  She's also started sucking her thumb a bit.  She doesn't do it often, and she prefers to have her hand splayed out across her face when she does it.  She also continues to love her door jumper/swing.  She hangs out in that while I do laundry and other household stuff, and always seems content.  A also continues to work on sitting up.  I will put her in the boppy and let her do smaller crunches.  She scrunches up her face and gets part of the way up, but not all of the way up.  She is better at keeping herself aligned in her jumper and her bumbo, so we're getting somewhere. 

The other thing that A and I have been working on is getting stuff together to make a quilt.  I'd like to make something for my baby girl and a quilt of sorts seems like a good thing.  I've always wanted to try my hand at quilting, so we'll see how it turns out.  I've got some great fabrics that I got as remnants and a fun looking pattern, so we'll see how it goes.  Hopefully I can have something done by Christmas, it may be my Christmas present to her. I put her in her sling while we go and look at fabric and everyone is always amazed at her.  She is alert and up close to me, so everyone likes to comment on that fact as well.  We both like our little excursions out of the condo, especially since the weather has become nice again. 

Overall things are going well.  I'm looking at picking up a couple of courses at Westwood during the October term, so we'll see how that goes.  That's provided I don't have other means of employment.  But if I do that it would allow me to stay home with A during the day and then Chris would stay with her during the evenings that I teach.  It isn't my first choice, but it would be a way to keep from going completely crazy adjusting to this mommy role.