The Puppy Who Lost His Way

It's raining outside right now. It's very quiet inside. Tim's at class. Weston's in bed. I'm baking cornbread for tomorrow's cornbread stuffing. And I have a doggy story to share.

During my walks around the neighborhood, I see a lot of dogs, most of which are behind fences or on leashes with their owners. Perhaps because there are so many dogs in my neighborhood, I also see a lot of "Lost Dog" signs, which I always stop to look at, so that I can memorize the dog's face and keep my eyes peeled for it, just in case.

A few weeks ago while on a sunny morning walk, I noticed a couple of large, friendly-looking dogs across the street. They were going from yard to yard, sniffing the bushes, running around, moving on to the next yard. I wasn't sure if they were lost, or if they'd just gotten out of their gate and were going home or something. They didn't look particularly distressed. I stopped and watched them for a little while, but ultimately kept going.

Two days later, I saw a "Lost Dog" sign on a telephone pole... with a picture of one of those dogs. ARGH! I was kicking myself all day that day. I even considered calling the number and telling them that I'd seen their dog two days earlier, if that would help. (I didn't, because I thought that might be weird, and potentially saddening.) But I made a new commitment to pay better attention to lost pets and no longer miss opportunities like that to help out.

Fast forward to yesterday evening, when I was out on a walk again. A few blocks from my house, it happened. I saw another dog. This one was clearly lost -- it was walking slowly, almost limping, and it was sniffing all around and wandering in and out of the street. It looked calm, not aggressive, but perhaps slightly confused.

So, I made good on my new commitment. I followed that dog around for probably 20 minutes, all the while pushing Weston in the stroller. I kept trying to get her to come towards me so that I could read her collar. A few times she approached me and then backed off. One time she approached me and actually let me pet her, but I didn't want to scare her by reaching under her neck for the collar tag too suddenly. So I lost her again.

Finally, I approached and managed to see her tag -- Jamie was her name. Then I was able to call her: "Jamie! C'mere Jamie! Jamie! Want to go home?? Come here, Jamie! Jamie!!" It was sort of working, but not really. She kept wandering away (into yards, into the street, down the sidewalk, etc.), sniffing all around, while I kept following her and calling to her. I kicked myself for not bringing my cell phone along, because I had no idea how I was going to get Jamie to follow me home. But I had to figure out a way. Time was passing and it was getting dark. I was still following her around. All of these ideas and strategies were running through my head, and at the same time I was wheeling Weston all over the place in the stroller after Jamie, trying to coax her to me again, and trying to get her to come with me. All of this was happening when a man in his driveway across the street called Jamie, and she went trotting off towards him.

Hmm.

I ran away as quickly as I could with a stroller. The guy had probably decided that he didn't actually want me to steal his dog.

Maybe I was a little too gung-ho about that commitment. But you could argue that Jamie made it home safely after all. :-)

Free! FREE! FREEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Weston is weaned! The child is weaned!!! Bwah-hahahaha!!! I’M FREEEEEE!!!!! (Cue scene from Home Alone where Kevin screams with joy and goes nuts and runs all around the house.)

So, we’ve been in the weaning process for about a month now. First we downgraded to four nursings a day, and then a little while ago, we downgraded again to two nursings a day (morning and night). The other night when I went out, Tim gave Weston a bottle and put him to bed, and I pumped so that the ol’ funbags wouldn’t get too sore. And guess what… it was only like two ounces of milk!! Haha! (Sorry, kiddo. Maybe that’s why you always seemed to get hungry again so quickly.) After that realization, I decided to make the weaning final, and just switch entirely to formula.

It’s been a mini-emotional roller coaster for me with weaning. It’s equally delightful and traumatizing to watch Weston get older. Delightful because he’s learning and moving and communicating more each day, but traumatizing because he’s becoming less and less dependent on me and more and more interested in his environment and other people. (My mother-in-law once pointed out that the irony of childrearing is that your real goal is to get them to be fully independent and leave you.) Nursing will always have a special place in my heart because it gave us a quiet, loving opportunity to bond and be close (multiple times a day, to boot). I also really enjoyed the idea of being able to follow through with my pregnancy even after he was born by continuing to nourish him. So, it’s been a little bit of an emotional battle for me: the freedom and convenience of the bottle versus the bonding and the health benefits of the breast.

Not that it mattered, though, because I have never known such bottle drama as I have with Weston. (I’ve also never been a mom before, so, who knows.) He took bottles occasionally in the beginning, then didn’t, then did, then did NOT, then DEFINITELY DID NOT, then sort of did, and then, finally, did. I think it was the combination of a few things that finally got it to work: a warm bottle, a fast-flow nipple, and an eventual penchant for experimentation, brought on by the introduction of the highchair and new flavors and textures of solid food. One time several weeks ago, I had to go out without Weston, so I pumped a bottle and left Tim with my well wishes and a sympathetic look for his upcoming misery. When I got home, I learned that Weston took the bottle, without any freaking out, wailing, or mental/emotional breakdowns (on either of their parts). Apparently, Tim had put him in the highchair, stuck the bottle in his mouth, and waited. And Weston drank. Aaaaaahhhhhh, thank you, Bottle God. Sigh of relief.

Since then, he’s been fine with bottles, even when we switched from pumped breastmilk to formula. Maybe consistency was the answer, because we certainly weren’t consistent before when I was taking care of him all the time anyway, and could much more easily nurse him than go through the bottle drama for the simple sake of being consistent with a bottle. The mini-emotional roller coaster aside, I couldn’t be happier right now. I am very, very excited that Weston is now able to be cared for by anyone… Tim, family members, babysitters, homeless dude wandering in front of our house, etc. The feeling of loss that he doesn’t need me for nourishment anymore is passing, and it’s being replaced by a feeling of JOYFUL, BLISSFUL, HEAVENLY FREEDOM. Especially since we’re going to Disney World with Tim’s family over the Christmas holiday, and Weston won’t have to be attached at the hip to me!! (Love you, Weston. Really.)

Anyway, here are the immediate results of The Weaning a couple of days ago:

(1) I thanked my nursing bras for their exemplary service and said goodbye for now, and then I pulled out my happy, comfy, non-nursing bras, gave them a hug, and welcomed them back.

(2) I drank Diet Coke without the guilt of caffeinating my child (instead of drinking Diet Coke with the guilt of caffeinating my child, haha).

(3) I decided to set up an appointment with my stylist friend for a haircut. A HAIRCUT!!! I’m goin’ nuts here.

(4) I went to Costco and bought the ginormous two-pack of Kirkland formula. (Three to four bottles a day for the next three months?? I’m gonna need a lot more than that, too.)

(5) I came to terms, for now, that my baby is growing up and needs me a little less each day. There will continue to be mini-emotional roller coasters about this, all throughout his life I’m sure, but for now, I’m hugging him and cuddling him and cherishing all those nursings and loving that he’s growing up. :-)

Yay Vampire Fun!

Yeah Twilight GNO!!! BAAAAAAAA IT WAS SO FUN!!!

Vampire Fever

As we ALL know, Twilight is opening this Thursday at midnight. I know some of you are obsessed, while others are indifferent or completely unawares. I, personally, will be channeling my inner 12-year-old and going on Friday night with a few girlfriends. I imagine that we will be surrounded by shrieking 'teens and 'tweens who will be wearing plastic vampire teeth and t-shirts with pictures of Edward's face in a big sparkly heart, and who will be clutching their bedazzled iPods and listening to Jonas Brothers, HSM, and Bella's Lullaby Remix. It will be off-the-hook awesome. And, I am not ashamed to say, I think there will be some Edward-induced giggling on our part, too. (Don't worry, Timberwolf, you know my heart is yours.)

In the meantime, check out these cupcakes from TAMN's latest giveaway. How sweet is this:

How I Love Those Tidbits of Awesome

There have been several tidbits of awesome recently. Oh how I love it:

-I ate Candy Cane Joe Joe's for the very first time. WOW. So good!! I get it now, y'all. I GET IT. Keep 'em comin'.

-I shopped at Old Navy with a 30% off coupon and a tremendously well-behaved baby.

-I watched The Office and 30 Rock while Timmy brushed my hair and massaged my scalp. (Oh my heavenly bliss.)

-I slept in on Friday morning for the first time in months (thank you, Bottle God), while Timbo got up and fed the baby. I woke when I wanted to, instead of when my cute little baby alarm went off.

-I went out on a date with Timberwolf for the first time in a couple months (excluding a last-minute late-night jaunt to Cheesecake Factory, and also excluding the more recent mini-date to Stake Conference, which ended with Jean throwing up on the sidewalk... but that's a story for another day). On Friday night, Tim and I went out to dinner at Mimi's and then drove to Disneyland, where we raced around the park like a couple of kids without a stroller, and managed to go on 11 rides in 3.5 hours. We forgot how convenient it is to NOT have a stroller (or baby, haha), and how great it is to go on the scary rides, and how fantastic it is to be there late at night when lines are super short!! We love you, Weston, really we do.

-I attended our daytime enrichment yesterday, which was a crazy-awesome craft extravanganza. There was a lot of crafting and general extravaganzing going on, and we all enjoyed a yummy soup lunch and plenty of laughs and conversation. I left with a sweet-looking glass ball ornament (yaaaaaay I made something), along with my nativity blocks (wooden blocks with cute nativity images), which are very sad and unfinished-looking. (I started them, but then realized that the sanding alone would probably take two hours. So, being the wholeheartedly uncrafty person that I am, I decided that I would finish them at home in a very sub-par manner, and then apologize in the future to my children who have the plain, unfinished blocks instead of the pretty, stained, shiny blocks that all their friends have. Sorry, children, but you have kind of a low-maintenance mom, so if I were you, I'd take my advice and try to embrace her low-maintenance-ness in order to be satisfied with sub-par things and not be disappointed all the time.) :-)

-I found out that my friend Abbie's husband got accepted into medical school. YAYAYAYAY!!!

A couple of the downsides to my tidbits of awesome:

-Going to bed at 2:00 AM after a fab date with the Timster, only to awake at 6:00 AM to a babbling, yelling baby. Oops, I just fell asleep while typing that. I'm awake again.

-Checking the Weather Channel this morning, only to find out that it's going up to 92 degrees today. Oh blurg. Thanks a lot, Al Gore. (haha)

Where the Heck Is That Darn Cheerio...

Weston had a late-afternoon bottle today, so he just had a few Cheerios for dinner. Because he's still a bit uncoordinated with his Cheerios, it's rather amusing to watch him eat them. Case in point.

Yah, Aebleskiver! Yah!

Up until a couple of months ago, I had no idea what aebleskivers were. Then one day, exploring a Williams-Sonoma store (happy sigh), I learned that they are small, filled pancakes of Danish origin, and that they are supposedly freaking-holy-schnikies-delicious. I originally planned on buying the Williams-Sonoma aebleskiver pan, which is $39.95 (whaaaaat?), but then I noticed that the Target aebleskiver pan is only $17.99 (whee!). Oh, and warning: apparently Target People noticed that everyone was buying their cheaper pan instead of the newly-released Williams-Sonoma version, so they increased the price to $19.99. And second warning: it comes in a ghetto "As Seen on TV!" box, but don't be concerned. It still works fine. :-)

This morning, Tim was a super helper monkey, and he entertained Weston so that I could give the new pan a whirl. Naturally, I documented the big event. Here, I'm preparing the dry ingredients:

... while also beating the egg whites:
Then I combined the batter with the fluffy whites:

... and switched to a whisk, because my spoon was not allowing me to "fold in the egg whites" very well:

I started by preheating the pan and spraying it with cooking spray. Then I added about a tablespoon of batter into each well:

I chose pumpkin butter for the filling this time, in honor of the season:

I plopped about a teaspoon of filling into each well:

And then topped it off with more batter:

I flipped this little guinea pig much too early:

But fortunately, the first batch worked out!

Seven hours later, here was the final batch:

And voila - our mound of warm aebleskiver:

They were yummy!! Tiny, yes, but very fluffy:

We enjoyed them with a little maple syrup. He likes them! He likes them!

Oh, and in other news, Tim shaved his head yesterday. He said that he was sick of having so much hair. I asked if he was going Britney-Spears-crazy, but he said no. He just shaves his head every once in a while. Yep. :-)

Post-Election Debrief

Well...

There you have it. Another presidential election. Maybe you're ecstatic, maybe you're depressed. I can understand both of those feelings, because I've been there. Either way, this is a momentous, magnificent event in the history of our American society. Whether we are Republicans or Democrats or Independents or Others, I think we should all try to join together and support our new President-Elect. I, for one, am grateful that Weston is going to be part of the new generation that grows up knowing that, truly, we are ALL equal and EVERYTHING is possible. Thinking about this world of possibility and opportunity that he is entering makes me very happy.

Anyway, it's dizzying going through all the commentary by TV pundits and journalists and writers as to the immense meaning and implications of this election. Here are two of my favorite articles that I've come across, if you have a few minutes for a couple quick reads:

Article #1: (This one is extremely thoughtful and touching.)
And Then They Wept
By Charles M. Blow
Published: November 4, 2008
History will record this as the night the souls of black folk, living and dead, wept – and laughed, screamed and danced – releasing 400 years of pent up emotion.

Article #2: (This one is... well... did you really think that this WOULDN'T come up? Haha!)
That Dress? Everyone Has an Opinion
By Ruth La Ferla
Published: November 5, 2008
Some called Michelle Obama's election night dress an eye-catching statement and others an eyesore.

Halloweekend

FRIDAY

First, Weston put this on (thanks Gangy!):

Then we went and played:
Occasionally, there was some of this going on:

And also some of this:

And even some of this (in the upper left corner):

And we had to take a picture with this:

And we made this guy do this:

Later it was time to grab this:

We took a picture with this guy (Weston's first-ever trick-or-treat):

There was a lot of this:

And again, some of this:

SATURDAY

This greeted us at the Trunk-or-Treat party:

It was rainy, but there was still lots of this:

And lots of lots of this:

And lots and lots and lots of these:

And accordingly, much of this:

And finally, there was a lot of distributing (and consuming) of this: