New sweater

GramRe finished this adorable sweater for E. Apparently it was extremely last minute--like in the car on the way to the airport. But I love it and think it is fabulous. E just thinks Aunt J is beautiful--see that look of adoration?

The big 100

I just realized as I went to post this that I had 99 posts. Already?? I must talk too much. So here's the little celebration I deserve-- <3
Now, I wanted to title this "I'm one of those People." Y'know? The kind that is obsessive about puzzles? I cannot have jigsaws in the house. I can't have them because I will not leave them alone until they are done. I won't eat, sleep or pee. And I can only imagine how my children would suffer if I can't meet my OWN basic needs. So, I didn't think very clearly when I started this. And why should I? I had never done chart work before. I had only done very simple lace. I thought it would just be a fun way to expand my knitting skills. That and my niece would get a nifty cardigan out of the bargain. So I bought some fun yarn and waited until my other projects were done to start it. Work commenced directly after Christmas. Wowsa. This was much more complicated than I realized. At first I considered chucking the idea of this sweater and making something more simple. But something made me continue. As I got the hang of reading the chart and the feel of the pattern, it got a smidge easier. It's not easy, it's still quite a challenge. But I can't stop. I have to keep picking this thing up. I prefer to knit it over peeing. My water intake has suffered. E gets nursed a lot more. I'm working on L's birthday present too--which is a blast. But I keep picking up the sweater. And it suddenly clicked why. My brain sees it as a puzzle. Oh dear. I guess this means it will be a finished object. Here is the progress so far:


For Christmas from my husband, I got some great bowls--huge, medium and small stainless-- and the shoe bench I wanted. But it needed to be assembled. Since D is fabulously wonderful, she came over and did it for us. Here is D with the boys sitting atop the finished product. I hope this helps with the shoe disaster.



I had to include this because it is just cute. I made chocolate cake and gave the bowl and beater to the boys. I told them to share, not really expecting that to happen. It did!! They did very well and cleaned it right up. The cake was yummy too.

Chocolate Cake with strawberry yum:
Cream together 1/2 C butter with 1 1/3 C sugar
Sift together:
1 1/2 c brown rice flour
1 C tapioca starch
1/2 C arrowroot or cornstarch
1/3 C sorghum flour
1/2 C cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
3 tsp baking powder or 1 tsp baking soda and 2 tsp cream of tartar

Add to creamed sugar alternating with 2 C water. Pour 1/2 the batter in an angel food or tube pan. Spoon strawberry jam along middle of batter. Pour remaining batter in. Bake at 350 for35 minutes or until a straw comes out clean.
For instand gratification, I microwave it in an angel food pan on 70% pwr for 10-12 minutes.

Drying out

We figured out the rucksack carry, although the wraps I have aren't really ideal--not as comfortable. E seems to enjoy it for a little while, but then wants the security of being on my front. Fair enough.

E has arrived at the time that is my favorite thing about nursing--the nursing giggle. It's where they look up into your eyes and are so happy to be eating their favorite food that they risk havin to re-latch and giggle. I LOVE baby nursing giggles. It's absolutely the best. It seems to say, "Yay! We made it through the tough beginings and now we can just relax and totally enjoy each other."

This is turning into a total E post--anyway, he learned a new trick! If we help him figure out how to open, then close his fingers on his rattle, he can get it to his mouth. Victory!

And, finally, the finished longies. I'm really happy with how they turned out. And they work great. I made them way too long, but I'm sure E will take care of that in no time!

The "Storm of the Century" as one news station called it. Whatever--here's our teeny bit of snow that then turned to gushes of rain.

The storm has finally passed on! Well, I guess that should be the plural, storms. We got hit with a triple whammy this weekend. 3 storms in 1. Yuck. I'm still not sure exactly how much rain was recorded here, but I heard that Bremerton, WA recorded upwards of 10" in 24 hrs. We didn't get anywhere near that, but both local rivers are flooded, and many more in the area are as well. Our street was partially submerged for a few hours--you could drive on the other side and the water-logged side was passable still.
Growing up in Idaho, we sometimes had flash floods from sudden downpours, but living in Oregon has taught me lots about rain. For example, I used to read stories where the author would refer to "lashing rain." Now I know what lashing rain sounds like--it's rain being blown at your window at over 50 mph. It sounds like it's going to come right on in for dinner.
The kids are happy to be able to play outside again. Not that I'm against them playing in the rain by any means--I'm all for it. This weekend was just a bit too much for my tastes.
That reminds me--I forgot to tell the last G rain story.
I sent them out in their muck-muck boots, rain coats, hats and gloves to play in the rain a few weeks ago. It was pretty cold, but not freezing. Well, G, my child who is usually the last to ever come inside, comes up to the door and is just shivering too much to talk. I ask if he wants to come in and he nods. "Fffffeeezing mommmy" he manages to get out. I start stripping clothes off him. His boots have a few cups of water each I pour out, his pants look like they've been dunked, even his shirt and lining of his water-proof coat are literally running waterways. I ask him what happened. "Go fimming mommy!" he says proudly. Seems he decided that the gutter, having roughly the water level of a kiddie pool, was a great place for a swim on a blustery day, so he tried it out. Yeah, um, not so good. I don't think he'll do it again. It took awhile to get him warmed back up. At least he had the sense to come inside!
My kids....

Ho hum, stall

I was checking through my feeds, wishing someone would update their blog so I had a reason to stay on the computer and ignore my dishes awhile longer. Then I realized that I haven't posted here for a few days and figured it's a good time for that. You all are way more important than my dishes. Feel loved?
Randomness:
The homestudy went just fine. The social worker sat on our couch, asked a few questions about E and the family. Q's such as, how's he eating, growth, what the boys think of him, what life is like with 3 kids, what do our families think of him, church, friends etc. Then she said we looked great and left. I'm thinking that since this is adoption #2, this is just a paperwork thing and I don't have to stress a bit. In fact, I'm not really stressing. I just hope this all goes lightning fast because I don't like being a "legal babysitter" at all. I want to be the legal mommy.
Aunt J came over today and watched the boys, ran a few loads of laundry, cooked lunch while I got my hair trimmed. For a second I thought about getting 10-12" lobbed off, but thought better of it. I knew I'd be so sad if I cut off all my hair (well, less than half I guess) and had to wait for it to grow back. I really like having long hair. It's easy. Everyone always asks if it is so much work to have long hair. Umm, no. I wash it, comb it out and stick it in a ponytail or braid. Always a braid before sleep so I don't strangle myself in the night. (Can you imagine the headlines? Crazy cloth-diapering, non-vaxing, cosleeping, breastfeeding adoptive mother kills self and infant with hair in midnight stupor. Officials believe the lack of vaccines and the elevated prolactin levels are to blame. Story at 11). If I had short hair, especially MY hair, I'd have to wash it every day, see a salon every month or so, keep it styled and spend a fortune on gunk to keep it in place. Ughh. I'm busy enough. Or I would be if I wasn't on the computer. Or maybe I'd be less busy if I backed away from the computer and did my dishes. Nah.

It's cold. Last night when C got home from work, giant white snowflakes were drifting out of the sky. M was thrilled. He has high hopes of more snow this year. Looks like he may get it. He loves winter clothes, sledding, shoveling, hats, scarves and gloves. It took me hiding his gloves this summer to get him to quit wearing them. He had eczema flare ups from the heat rash. G on the other hand... G darted out to said snow with only a T-shirt on last night. Didn't bother him in the slightest. I caught him at the end of the block in the pouring rain in just a shirt and pants a few weeks ago. Soaked to the bone. At least he had pants on that time. Here I am trying to protect his future reproductive abilities by keeping him out of disposable diapers and he's out half naked in the snow. Eh, I guess the cold is better than heat?
E is growing, of course. That's what babies do. His favorite pastime is eating, of course. I made a slight mistake over Thanksgiving. I knew that peppermint is a fine way to dry up milk and so avoid it like crazy. I had read and promptly forgot that sage is just as or maybe more effective. I ate lots of sage. Then I wondered where all my milk went. I get to start over I guess. Grrr
On other E news, I have started a pair of longies for him. Longies are a type of diaper cover. They are like the old-fashion soakers knit from wool (of which I have a few pairs), but they are pants. Wool is awesome in that it breathes, absorbs oodles of moisture, but doesn't let it through. I use lanolin on the wool to help it repel moisture too. My plan is to be able to put E in a couple of nice thick diapers and longies at night and avoid diaper changes. Right now I'm using disposables to accomplish that. Yuck. They smell. Here's the pattern I'm using. Just scroll down to "the longies pattern."
I'll try to post pictures of everyone soon. I think I had better do something with my kitchen so there's enough space to make tacos tonight.
Here's my GF flour tortilla recipe. Caitlin? Maybe you can use it?

1 ½ C brown rice flour
¾ C tapioca starch
½ c arrowroot or other starch
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 C boiling water.
Extra water to make a soft dough

Combine all ingredients in mixer. Pour in water and add the additional water to bring dough to a soft but not sticky consistency. Let rest for 5 minutes. Press small balls in a tortilla press or roll out between 2 sheets of oiled plastic. Cook in a very hot fry pan approx. 30 seconds each side. Tortillas will roll some when hot for use in burritos and enchiladas. Can also be deep fried.

Please note, this is my recipe, I made it, I sweated over getting it right. If you use it somewhere and someone asks you where you got it, please be honest. Thanks.