Sunday morning at the Strands

Here's a glimpse into our Sunday morning.

We start the day with the Sunday paper:

And with the paper you need your coffee (or water in a mug because you want to be like Mommy and Daddy)Then it is time to enjoy the sunshine and 30 degrees. It felt so warm! I had to shovel under the swing because her feet kept getting caught in the snow.Yay! I can almost feel springThen we head to the local bakery. Penelope was not happy to have a hat on or stop for a photo. Practicing our walking This is all before 10:30. You get a lot done when the littlest family member wakes everyone up at 6 am.

Hitting the slopes

Today Penelope was still having stomach issues. Lots of baths! But by 11:00 we all needed fresh air. Penny crawled over to our coat rack and pointed at her jacket. I got the message. Okay, so maybe we didn't really "hit the slopes" but doesn't she look like she can join the olympic team with this great snow suit? Thanks, Grandma Chuck!

Here she is right before going down the slide. So much fun to get outside!

I tried to take a photo of her standing in the snow, but she kept telling me she wanted to get back in the swing.

also, I finally got the videos to work. Check out 3 new videos at youtube.com\clpstrand

You don't have to be so brave

NOTE: If you don't want to hear about bodily fluids and would like to read a post about Shakespeare please move to the post below. This blog moves from vomit to the bard quickly...what can I say? Welcome to our adventures...all types!

Well, you should all be very glad that technology hasn't developed enough to let smells through cyberspace. Our house stinks! Penny has had a horrible stomach bug. It started last night after dinner. She crawled to the bathroom and started puking all over the floor. We didn't think anything could be left in her. No fever and she was a smiley happy baby right after the incident. So we gave her a bath, a small cup of milk like usual and put her to bed. I was unsure about going to see Macbeth, but Chris said everything would be fine. When I got home I went in to check on her. The moment I opened the door, the smell hit me. I neared the crib and saw it running down the crib, all over the blankets and her pajamas, and pretty much a helmet on her hair. Chris felt horrible, but he said she never cried. Maybe she never woke up...or this whole "cry it out" thing has backfired, and she won't even cry for her mama and dada when covered with throw up. (Do you like how I can blame myself and become mama martyr in every situation? At least I recognize it and admit it, right?)

We took her out of the crib and started removing her pajamas, but she was barely awake. The big decision to wake her up for a full bath or wipe her down. It required a call to my mom. The final decision was to wipe her down with a warm washcloth. I was able to get most of it out of her hair. This happened by 11:30. By 5 am we were out of all clean crib sheets, last pair of clean pajamas and a very tired Strand family. Chris was absolutely wonderful. He took care of all of it until 4 am. Once we didn't have any clean crib bedding he brought her into the bed with us. She threw up on his side so I took over at that point while he went to the couch. The poor baby was so thirsty. She kept saying "agua agua". We'd give her agua, she'd fall asleep sipping on her cup, and it would come right up. She wasn't even waking up when it happened, but there was no way I could let her sleep in it so we just kept changing sheets, changing her pajamas without disturbing her too much and cleaning her up with warm washcloths. In a desparate moment when she wanted more water, I actually offered her cherry crush. It's like 7 up right? She didn't like it.

It all seemed to be over this morning. First thing was a full long bath! That was followed by breakfast when she kept down some oatmeal. We both took a 4 hour nap. Then this evening she was a happy giggly self. She was very gassy though. Her loud toots kept cracking her up, which in turn cracked us up. So it seems fart humor is nature and not nurture--at least in our family! Well, I won't get into too much detail on this one, but we had another episode out the other end. I told her "please, please, please wake us up if you don't feel well! Don't sleep in it" We'll see what happens....

(Who knew I could write this much about a stomach bug? Please go read a classic or some important current events to make up for your reading material here. I flip back and forth between PBS documentaries and Real Housewives...it all evens out)

Sorry folks but I had to jump in here on this post. I know it has been forever since I've posted anything, but I felt that my unique descriptive talents could be used here...also I find potty humor hilarious. From this day forth Penny's digestive system will be labeled as a weapon of mass destruction banned by international law. What Laura left out was the real reason that I was sleeping on the couch. After the vomiting in our bed, I took Penny back to her room. Now at this point Penny has retched twice on herself and has developed a rather unique fragrance despite me wiping her down multiple times with a washcloth...a hang-over special if you will. Now combine that with whatever splatter is remaining in her room and you got a feast for the senses, (NO OPEN FLAME, EXPLOSIVE). Rather than just lay her down and flee the room, I needed to abate the guilt for my early failure of not realizing she was sleeping in vomit. So I took up a seat in the rocking chair as Penny did not want to be left alone. Two hours later and with the smell of fetid yogurt and god knows what else we fed her that night permanently burned into my nasal passages, I crawled into the one room left in the house that had some fresh air. Having been the bearer of many a projectile vomit incidents, I would just like to thanks all those care givers of mine out there in reader land who survived.
Now before you read any further a word of warning. Anyone who has a rather vivid imagination may want to skip the next part and move on to the review of the play..........................................................................................................Still here? OK!!! This is what happened tonight after those funny "toots" Laura mentioned. You know back when you were a kid and you made a home made volcano? You mix the vinegar and baking soda and you get that ever expanding foaming mess. Yeah that's what came out of Penny's diaper. A POO-POO volcano! Look I've seen things in my time.....horrible things, but few things can compare with that. What added to the effect was the sulfurous smell that accompanied the explosion. Basically we are having to burn the carpet, the clothes she was wearing, the rug in the bathroom, my clothes, my shoes, the curtains....I'm working on sanding the wood floors, stripping the paint of the walls and ceiling....the only thing stopping me from just blowing up the house and calling it a day is the fear that it might spread the contaminent to the outside world. What have I helped to bring into the world? Ah well, I cannot say that I don't contain a small measure of pride however. It is great the way Penny can keep me laughing the whole time a crime against nature is taking place. Not to get cliche', but it is an important lesson to find a little humor in any situation....not matter how horrible....the horror....the horror.
And now like Lady Macbeth, I return to my scrubbing "out out, damn spot!"--Chris

A review of the Scottish play

Yesterday I saw Macbeth at the Guthrie. It was pretty spontaneous because I got an email for a $15 ticket. I love their discount program for non-profit employees!
I've never seen Macbeth on stage, but I think it was my first knowledge of Shakespeare. In my third grade Discovery class (name for gifted and talented program at our school), we were given a variety of options for a group project. One of the options was to act out scenes from a play. Of course, me and my friends picked this one. We never chose the science/math ones. I wonder why that program only focuses on our strengths. My math skills were so bad I was in Chapter 1 (remedial math class). I think I was the only kid in both programs. Anways, back to Macbeht, I told my group we didn't need to go to the library to look for a play. I'd bring one from home. So I went home and picked up my grandma's copy of The Great Works of Shakespeare. I have a vague recollection of my dad pointing me to the "Double double toil and trouble" witch's scene. We did that scene and my friend Jorge and I did a Macbeth/Lady Macbeth scene. I really can't remember which one. As I was watching last night, I was somewhat perplexed at what scene we picked. I'm not sure there were any appropriate for third graders.
The production at the Guthrie was really good. I heard it was quite violent, but I didn't feel any of it was gratuitous. It's a violent play. Shakespeare tragedy = lots and lots of death. Did we have to see MacDuff's kids drowned in a bathtub? It doesn't say in the play how they are killed just that it was savagely done. But I actually thought that horrific scene was well done and a good lead to MacDuff bringing back an army to fight Macbeth. The actors playing Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were excellent, although, I never imagined Lady Macbeth to be so sexual.
I actually didn't read Macbeth in my college class because the course only went up to 1600. Such a disappointment to miss out on King Lear, Othello, Henry VIII at the college level. We did read it in high school, and as I was watching last night I returned to my past questions about Macbeth. If he had not heard the witches would he have still become king? Would it have been in a noble way or by killing the king? Even after listening to the witches, if he had not gotten overly ambitious and egged on by Lady Macbeth, would his destiny still have led to king? Or did the witches determine this evil path? Chris and I discussed it this morning and he had a good way to ask it: Are the witches revealing his fate or engineering his fate? (Why is it that Chris can take 10 of my rambling sentences and condense it to 1 very good question? I can only get to my main question if I write down all my thoughts and then edit) What do you think? I'm sure many many people have argued about Macbeth's fate. I could google and find tons of answers, but sometimes I just want to come to my own answer. I like to think he would still have become king, but it would have been in a noble way...shows my outlook on the world and fate I guess.

President's Day with my own special dictator

Penelope's day care follows the public school holiday schedule so Chris and I are taking turns to have special days off with Penelope. We celebrated President Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Dictator Penny. The problem with being Penelope's subject is she hasn't learned the word yes. Well, she does nod her head yes, as she says no. "No" and "nuhuh" are the favorite words right now. This is very confusing when I'm trying to figure out what she wants to eat. Good thing she isn't picky because I just give her a smorgasboard and she goes to town.

I took her to the Children's Museum in the morning. That place was packed! The toddler room was crazy, but it's huge so she had room to run around and make friends with other kids 1 1/2 years old. The rest of the blog is a picture overload, so if you don't want to see an adorable toddler go on to another blog...I understand...but you are missing out on some great 80's style...

Okay, all of you still left here, check out the side ponytail and cool striped sweater. I had to say no when she asked if we could break out the shoulder pads.

Who doesn't like fun mirrors? I took photos of me and Penelope in the mirror, but they don't have any of the skinny mirrors. Penelope's cheeks look extra cute in the chubby mirror, mine not so much. Oh, by the way, this is how Penny "walks". I keep thinking she'll realize her knees hurt and walking is so much easier. She may have calloused knees at the rate we are going (sigh).

Ruling over the babies...no, really...right beneath her is the area for all the wee babies. Penelope screeched at them while they rolled around and drooled.

Love, love, love this picture. Makes me want to go wake her up right now and cuddle in the rocking chair. I'll fight it. I've done it before, and it leads to no good. Believe me, no good can come of waking up your baby no matter how bad your day is and all you need is a cuddle...so I will avert my eyes from this photo for now.

Such a little explorer! We played so hard she fell asleep in the 10 minute stroller ride back to the car, and it was 2 hours before her nap.

Telling Daddy all about President's Day.

Kids' events: hit or miss

I'm always on the look out for fun things to do on the weekend. We always go to the library for a half hour at least. Penny loves it because the kids' area has a big space to crawl around and huge bins of baby books. She empties the bins one book at a time and then chooses a few for mommy to read. Her attention span is about 3 pages in each book so it is kind of like a choose your own adventure as we move through 5 different plots in 10 minutes. Here she is at the library while I'm checking out my books:

But besides our library visit, I like to go to other places besides Target and the grocery store. It used to be fine because it was a change of scenery, but now Penelope actually reaches out for things she wants and gets mad when I push the cart away.

A few weeks ago we went to Rock the Cradle, a free event at the Children's theater. I had heard all sorts of reviews about last year's event. We decided to go at the end since most parents I talked to complained about the crazy crush of humanity...and that would be a huge crowd with lots of boogers and high pitch voices. I printed out the map and schedule so we knew exactly what we wanted to do. We had a blast! There was a woman who put on a half hour show with puppets, songs, books, violin. She had 100 babies, included Penelope, totally mesmerized. Then there was a kid disco party, an instrument "petting zoo", yoga and gymnastics. Total hit! I didn't get good pics, mainly because we were having so much fun.

Well, today we decided to go to the Midwest Kidsfest in St. Paul. Now the website made it seem like an indoor kids heaven. Bouncy castles for all ages, ponies, magicians, characters, face painting, a train, kids' bands etc. The huge list of vendors and sponsors should have been a red flag. It was $5 per person to get in, which is totally fine if it was what they advertised. However, the majority of the room was set up with booths of all types of vendors, and then it seemed like the kids activities were an after thought on the side. Plus, the best activities cost extra money. We pretty much paid $15 for people to try to sell us stuff. I could have gone to Target for free! Most of the magicians and characters were just people sitting at a booth giving out brochures about performing at birthday parties. The Reptile Center and Underwater Adventures were doing the same thing, but at least they brought some snakes and sea urchins to pet. Then there were your usual suspects: Tupperware, Mary Kay, Pampered Chef. And why did 4 chiropractor offices feel this was the right venue? Are parents' backs really that messed up? There were also quite a few photographers there so I got some business cards since I'd like to get family photos in the spring. It became pretty clear that we had to rethink our idea to spend a good portion of the day at the Kidfest. We stayed about 45 mins. I'll be much better at reading the fine print of these types of things to see if it will be worthwhile.

Penny did get to experience a few fun things for the first time. Here she is with Spanky the pony:They also had a bouncy toddler area:It took a little bit of time for her to get used to it. I also have video, but halfway through I'm scolding the 5 year old who is jumping around way too much and almost landed on Penny.

In Minnesota if the word fair, fest, carnival etc are used in the description, you betcha they will be making piping hot mini donuts. We bought a bag and let Penny try one. Here she is taking a bite:Do you think she's a fan?Here's dad after he hid the bag. He's doing the "all done" sign. She was not happy about this.

When we got home she crawled over to the diaper bag and within 30 seconds was eating another mini-donut. Chris said, "we seem to have unlocked the donut monster gene" Thankfully after that one donut she was happy when I gave her an apple. They kind of cancel each other out, right?

Penny's art?

Penny made Mommy a pretty mask with feathers. (I have a sneaky suspicion the teachers help quite a bit with these art projects)

What a ham

Yesterday Penny seemed really tired. All the new stuff in the toddler room would tire me out too. She snuggled for a few minutes. Chris took a picture. She saw the flash and....
...somehow all that sleepiness disappeared (wink wink) peek-a-boo

ah ha! Here I am!

I'm just so cute!

First day in the toddler room

Penelope was in the toddler room untill 1 pm today. Chris forgot her boots but he thought "hey, it's snowing 5 inches today. They aren't going outside." Turns out if you want hard core Minnesotans you train 'em young. She had to go back to the baby room, while all the other toddlers went outside. They go outside whenever it is above 20 degrees. I wasn't quite sure how her boots would have helped since she doesn't walk on her own, but I guess a teacher holds the hands of the not quite walkers. Penelope is the only one right now. Smart girl...she gets a teacher all to herself. According to her teacher, she was really smiley and comfortable with all the kids. She loved lunch. In the baby room she has still been getting the baby food they make, plus food we bring. Well, today she got to eat with the toddlers. Oh, boy, do they eat well! Jardin Magico has a full kitchen with 2 staff that cook meals every day. Penelope's going to beat me on the veggie/fruit quota hands down. Today she had a cheese quesadilla with corn, peas, carrots, zucchini, red peppers, cauliflower, potatoes and broccoli with a side of peaches. Woowee! All of those in a quesadilla sounds a little strange, but she gobbled it up.

One of the best parts was when I went to her cubby and got her first "project." It's a bunch of pieces of tissue paper stuck onto a map of America del Norte. What can I say? She leans towards modern art. I can't wait until pick-up time tomorrow to see her second project...and her big smile and giggles the moment she sees me.

Giggles and kisses

We had a very giggly, cuddly cutie this weekend. Penelope has figured out how to give kisses, and she comes up to us multiple times a day to put big wet kisses on our cheeks. Adorable!
Here's a pic of her with daddy. One with Mommy

Lots of giggles

I have two great videos, but they keep failing every time I try to put them on YouTube. Boo! I'll email them to my dad and see if he can upload them.

A weekend of yummyness

I'm really starting to enjoy this cooking thing. Chris still does the majority of the cooking, but occasionally when I'm reading a cookbook (guilty pleasure) I make the recipe myself instead of flagging them for Chris.
This weekend I made yummy sofrito (garlic-pepper sauce). It has a ton of ingredients that aren't in season, but with all this snow and 10 more inches coming I just needed something to taste like summer. Look at all those bright colors!
By the way if you have a small kitchen the sink cutting board with the bowl is great.
Here it is after sauteeing, 1 1/2 cup of cilantro and the food processor. I put it into a really healthy flavorful black bean soup. Here's the recipe.
I then froze a cup to use with chicken breasts later.

Now for Superbowl food, we needed something sinful (I like the commercials and the food). One of my coworkers has gotten me hooked to The Pioneer Woman. It seems like I've been in a black hole because this woman is really popular--30,000 comments on 1 post last week! She has been blogging for years. She was a city girl planning her career and then fell in love with a cowboy. She now lives on a ranch in the middle of nowhere--a very beautiful ranch--with 4 kids that she homeschools. She is an amazing writer. I haven't read much yet, but what I've read is funny and heartwarming. Her website is broken into Confessions, Home and Garden, Photography, Cooking, and Homeschooling. I put her cookbook on hold at the library. 105 holds in front of me!

Well, anyways, for Superbowl Sunday we decided to try her Drip Beef recipe. Oh my gosh! It is probably in our top 10 best meals ever! We made the one with peppercinis but also added onions. So good! I want to try every recipe on her site...problem is that unlike her I'm not 6 ft tall and don't spend my days rounding up cattle to burn off the extra sinful buttery recipes so I'll have to try them in moderation. Anyways, if any of you want a blog to be addicted to, you should defintily check out The Pioneer Woman.

My new ring tone

Chris came with me to pick up Penny from day care. Penny got to say her favorite word over and over again. Take a listen (I took audio since I could hide the camera...such a sad state affairs this is that the moment I show the camera she must have it or a tantrum ensues)

Yes, I know a button to click is missing. After trying for a ridiculous amount of time to convert the audio from my blackberry into a format that would work, I can't get it on here. grumble grumble grumble. Let me give you a sample
"dada"
"penny"
"dadada"
"pennypenny"
gigglegiggle "dadadadadaada"
"pennypennypennypennypenny"
"dada?"
So not the same effect as the actual recording

On Monday Penelope starts transitioning to the toddler room at daycare. I'm a little nervous. The walking thing seemed to be a fluke. She really hasn't taken more than 3 steps at a time for 2 weeks. She will hold onto her hands and walk with us if we ask her to, but has no interest to do it on her own. I'm just afraid she's going to be trampled by all these big kids.Okay, not that big, just a year older than her. She'll be the young one for a few months until these ones transition to preschool. The daycare owner has assured me they've moved non-walkers up before, and in everything else Penny is ready. She's now one of the oldest in the baby room so I agree, but it still makes me worry. I'd like to think that she'll notice everyone around her walking, but in the baby room there are 4 other walkers, and she doesn't seem bothered to crawl after them. I know...if I'm fretting a ton about this walking thing I'll certainly have a head of grey hair by the time we are choosing her kindergarten...I know my life is pretty good if this is my greatest worry at the moment.

Hopefully I can snap some photos this weekend to post.