Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

Katherine is no longer interested in munching on blankets and soft toys.  She now wants spoons, wood, and, apparently, cardboard books.  She dissolved a good inch of a board book page the other day before I noticed.  A great source of fiber?

Erin

Miss Katherine turned six months old yesterday.  Despite my grand visions, we did not spend the day dressing her up and taking formal pictures of her.  That will need to come a bit later, since we, instead, spent the day sniffling as a three-part chorus (awwww).

Six months, in case you’re interested, is also the date set by the American Academy of Pediatrics for beginning to introduce solid foods to infants.  I haven’t been pushing Katherine on it, partly because she’s still more interested in spoons than in the contents of those spoons, and partly, I admit, because, as a cloth-diapering family, solid food will require us to get into whole new diaper-cleaning territory!

But we have given Katherine a few things here and there.  She seemed quite interested in watermelon, since she could grasp it and suck all of the juice out of it.  Sorbet, of course, she licks quite happily.  We’ve also started using food as a distraction technique.  Last night I was chopping peppers and set Katherine up in her usual observation post, right next to the cutting board.  She got very interested in my pepper pieces, which are far too small for her (and near the knife!), so I gave her a large piece.  It took her about a minute to decide that she was fine with the flavor (funny faces, many funny faces), and then she munched on it quite happily for ten minutes or so.  Then we went back to the shiny spoon.  Sydney did something similar with zucchini today, which she also seemed to like.  The red pepper surprised us; maybe we’ll have an adventurous eater on our hands!  When it looks like she’s really interested in food we have lots of squash, potatoes, and sweet potatoes from Sydney’s garden to mash up for her, but for now we’re all enjoying her playing with food.

Ah-ha: the incessant colds that I’ve had since the semester began appear to be due to a sinus infection.  Lovely.  And I can’t go on antibiotics since I’m feeding Katherine.  Lovelier.  I’m doing my best to make sure I get rid of this thing before it costs me job applications!

Erin

Hey, it’s a lot cuter than any pictures of us dissertating . . .

Erin

I’ve been doing mostly guerilla cooking recently, working with whatever we have lying around, trying to fit in soups and casseroles when Katherine’s content to watch.  We’re basically just trying to outlast these next two months, as we balance teaching, dissertating, and job applications.  And that means using what we’ve pillaged from the garden to make simple food that keeps us running.  Sydney might call it harvesting, but, what with all of the other things taking our attention this year (and Katherine’s unwillingness to begin garden help before she’s old enough to walk–willful child) it feel more like stripping the garden of goodies whenever we have a moment to drop by.  It hasn’t been bad cooking, though, if I do say so myself; because of the bounty of zucchini this year and my unwillingness to make dessert-y breads with it I’ve made over a dozen zucchini-lime-avocado pizzas.   Can’t get enough of those.  I’ve also found a potato-corn soup recipe that calls for lime and avocado, so I’ll get my green fix even after the zucchini runs out.  This recipe calls for jalapenos.  Which Sydney has.  But, as I’m sure you know, hot peppers vary greatly in their heat, depending on the growing conditions as well as the kind of pepper.  When I found myself without a jalapeno I picked up a small yellow pepper Sydney had brought home from the garden.  We know nothing about the pepper, other than that it’s a hot rather than a sweet one.  So I put it in a large pot (by which I mean vat) of potato soup.  That little pepper, about the size of my pinky finger, gives an incredible heat to that pot of soup!  Good thing we like spicy food!

Erin

Did you know that Jesus Christ wrote an autobiography?

It seems he also wrote poetry and was a member of the Victorian Institute:

The members of the Holy Trinity also collaborated on a work to clear up — at long last — the mystery of their unity:

Okay, so Google Books clearly has some problems in its metadata …

Sydney

The other day I was exhausted and sure that I would head for a nap as soon as I got Katherine down for one.  She had awoken several times in the night and then kicked me for an hour or so at each awakening as she worked herself back toward sleep.  Yes, she’s one of those who fights it until the bitter end.

Surprisingly, though, I found myself digging out my bread recipes and starting up a brioche as soon as she was asleep.  Something about making my favorite dessert bread restored a bit of my humanity to me.  I still need the sleep, but I’m glad I took the time to make the bread.

Erin

Yesterday evening Erin heard some rattling sounds from the birdfeeder area just outside our front door that made her think there was something more outside than just lots of wind. There was, in fact, though we didn’t get a chance to see the visitor. Here are the clues to the visitor’s identity:

1. The metal post on which we hang our feeders was bent over all the way to the ground.

2. The top of our metal feeder was bent seriously out of shape.

3. We didn’t see the visitor but we did hear it for a good while as it made its leisurely way through the brush near our house (whatever it was didn’t think it needed to leave in a hurry just because there were a couple of humans around). I’ve never heard a wild animal make this much sound before merely by walking. Many a branch and twig got broken along the way.

4. This morning I found a few tracks in the area from which I heard the sounds. The tracks, unfortunately, were in a grassy area so I wasn’t able to get any details about the foot shape and so forth. But I did get some idea about size: roughly 5″ in diameter.

What do you think it was?

Sydney

Poor Katherine.  The back half of her is ready to crawl.  She’s got the legs pumping, the toes dug in, and those sturdy little legs are ready to push off.  Unfortunately, the equally sturdy little arms are locked straight and she seems to have no idea that she needs to bend them in order to move.  So the legs dig in and push forward and her little rear goes higher and higher–until she falls over, having made herself into a steeple shape.  This kid needs a helmet.

The consequence of all that frustrated exercise?  She moves backwards.  Today, having gotten fed up with the failure to move forward, she did some frustrated scooting backwards–the full width of our living room.  I came to get her when she finally got herself backed against the bathroom door.  This house is going to seem a bit small unless she learns to steer!

Erin