2: Number of bizarre poopy diapers I changed today (teething???)
4: Number of times Amelia said "eye, eye!" after I got sand in her eye changing one of the above diapers. (Park. Sand toys. Jelly shoes. Lifted up her feet to take off the yucky diaper, and it was a sandfall.)
45: Number of minutes we have spent going up and down stairs so far today.
1 and 1/2: Number of hours I have spent today preparing to go camping this weekend.
1 and 1/2: Number of hours of A's nap so far.
1,000,000: Number of stinky grains of pollen blown into our yard and onto our porch by a strange storm we are having.
0: Number of raindrops from the storm.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
6 years ago today,
on a beautiful June afternoon,
surrounded by people we love,
I married my best friend.
surrounded by people we love,
I married my best friend.
Monday, June 20, 2011
What We've Been Up To
So I can't post every day. It was a fun experiment, but I really don't have something interesting to say every single day. I have enjoyed posting more often, though, and I will try to keep it up.
In the meantime, Amelia and I have been having a lot of summer fun.
We have a membership at the Denver Botanic Gardens and go there at least once a week. They have a wonderful children's garden with paths to follow, plants at kid-level, and garden-related toys to play with.
They also have a stream for kids to play in. So much fun! The gardens are only about 10 minutes from our house so this is a fun place to cool off on hot afternoons.
Here's Amelia at home later with her two Popsicles.
We've also been going to Book Babies downtown at Denver's Central Library. This is a different library than we went to for Book Babies last summer.
The library is at the edge of downtown, within walking distance, or we can take a bus (or drive, but it can be hard to park). We've been going early to hang out outside at the Denver Art Museum, which is across the street from the library.
A couple of weeks ago Amelia discovered this piece of art.
After a closer look she kept saying something, which I finally discerned to be "blocks in it!"
Dice. Part of the art, I figured (very thought-provoking).
Amelia added to the piece by dropping this strawberry into the water. She was pretty upset about it till I fished it out and we threw it away.
Last Friday, we went back and the dice were gone! But Amelia found a flower
which she gave to the man.
And today at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, she met a pirate.
As you can see, we've been pretty busy, but having lots of fun.
In the meantime, Amelia and I have been having a lot of summer fun.
We have a membership at the Denver Botanic Gardens and go there at least once a week. They have a wonderful children's garden with paths to follow, plants at kid-level, and garden-related toys to play with.
They also have a stream for kids to play in. So much fun! The gardens are only about 10 minutes from our house so this is a fun place to cool off on hot afternoons.
Here's Amelia at home later with her two Popsicles.
We've also been going to Book Babies downtown at Denver's Central Library. This is a different library than we went to for Book Babies last summer.
The library is at the edge of downtown, within walking distance, or we can take a bus (or drive, but it can be hard to park). We've been going early to hang out outside at the Denver Art Museum, which is across the street from the library.
A couple of weeks ago Amelia discovered this piece of art.
After a closer look she kept saying something, which I finally discerned to be "blocks in it!"
Dice. Part of the art, I figured (very thought-provoking).
Amelia added to the piece by dropping this strawberry into the water. She was pretty upset about it till I fished it out and we threw it away.
Last Friday, we went back and the dice were gone! But Amelia found a flower
which she gave to the man.
And today at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, she met a pirate.
As you can see, we've been pretty busy, but having lots of fun.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
June and a Half
A dear college friend of mine, Erin Wunker, wrote an excellent post about reaching and setting goals yesterday on Hook & Eye. Although her post is targeted toward academic professionals, her words hit home to me too. Summer doesn't mean the same things to a stay-at-home-mom/writer/former-future teacher as it does to a current academic professional, but there are similarities. Both situations lack immediate pressure to actually accomplish anything, as well as immediate consequences for not accomplishing anything. Hey--you could even say SAHMs are on summer break year-round--although I doubt most of my SAHM friends would describe it that way. In any case, summer doesn't promise the juicy break it did when I was teaching, but since I finished my manuscript and sent it off I have felt as though I am on (a well-deserved) vacation from writing poetry for awhile. But as I posted at the beginning of June, there are things I want to do this summer.
I decided to follow Erin's advice to take the next step from posting about my goals and plans for the rest of the summer and actually write them down. All of them.
The list isn't terribly legible but I defined "summer" as today until the end of July. I included things I want to do between now and then under different headings: Amelia (learn about potty training); Writing (find books and brainstorm ideas for two writing projects I have been daydreaming about); Blog; Home; and Health. My favorite thing about the list is that it actually includes boxes to check. I think the idea of tracking progress for summer goals, or any goals that lack much outside pressure for completion, is a fabulous idea. It's easy to do but (hopefully) incredibly effective.
Although I just made the list today, my June plans have been progressing pretty well. I have been running and going to yoga about 2 times a week so I would like to up that a bit. I have posted every day of June except one. I have been reading a couple of times a week, not as much as I wanted but more than I was reading before. And I have not been cleaning! Much. The house is messier but not that bad. I am pleased with my June so far, and glad to have found an idea to help me get more specific with my goals for the rest of the summer.
I decided to follow Erin's advice to take the next step from posting about my goals and plans for the rest of the summer and actually write them down. All of them.
The list isn't terribly legible but I defined "summer" as today until the end of July. I included things I want to do between now and then under different headings: Amelia (learn about potty training); Writing (find books and brainstorm ideas for two writing projects I have been daydreaming about); Blog; Home; and Health. My favorite thing about the list is that it actually includes boxes to check. I think the idea of tracking progress for summer goals, or any goals that lack much outside pressure for completion, is a fabulous idea. It's easy to do but (hopefully) incredibly effective.
Although I just made the list today, my June plans have been progressing pretty well. I have been running and going to yoga about 2 times a week so I would like to up that a bit. I have posted every day of June except one. I have been reading a couple of times a week, not as much as I wanted but more than I was reading before. And I have not been cleaning! Much. The house is messier but not that bad. I am pleased with my June so far, and glad to have found an idea to help me get more specific with my goals for the rest of the summer.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Mount Sniktau
Dean and I went on our first Amelia-free hike yesterday! It was probably the longest period we have spent together away from her since she was born.
We climbed Mount Sniktau. It was a morning of false starts. We had planned to go on another hike, one that involved driving up to Guanella Pass, a pass that just reopened after being closed for over a year due to an avalanche. Yikes. But when we got to the road for the pass, there was a sign that said it was closed from 8-11 and 1-3. This was about 7:30 am, and we knew we would have to be back to the car by around 12:30 to avoid being stuck there till 3. We decided to go to Sniktau so we wouldn't have to be rushed.
It was a good choice. First we spent about half an hour hiking on the wrong trail, and then we started out hike on the correct trail, up a steep "hill." A very steep "hill."
This picture does not capture the steepness.
If you read the description of the hike on the link above, it sounds pretty easy. But it's Rocky Mountain easy, which to people like me means it's still pretty hard. I had a difficult time on the beginning of the hike. Even though it's "only" 13,234 feet high (really, website author? "Only"?) I got out of breath pretty quickly. It's a crazy out of breath feeling, too, not like you have been running too long, just like you took about 5 steps and you can't catch your breath. But Dean was patient and we finally made through the first section of the climb, up to a point at about 12,500 feet of elevation. We hid from the wind behind some rocks, had a snack and enjoyed the view.
Then we got started on the second leg of the trip, to "point 13,152."
It was cold! And very windy.
We climbed along this ridge. It reminded me of a black and white cookie, which should give you a clue about how many times we stopped to eat a snack.
After the initial climb, the hike was much easier, even though we still had a climb. I think the beginning was so hard because I wasn't used to it. Once I got through the first climb I was more in the hiking zone.
These mountains are a winterscape. This is Torrys Peak, a 14er.
This is another shot of our trail along the ridge.
This is a view of interstate 70 from the summit. You can see the Eisenhower Tunnel, tiny from this view.
After another snack and rest at the summit, we made our way back down the rocky trail. On our return trip, we noticed tiny patches of wildflowers. Such a harsh place to live!
We got back to the car around noon, so we drove through the town of Dillon to eat lunch (delicious portabella and pepper cheese"steaks" and fries!). It's a lovely little town beside a lake, much warmer than the mountains so close by. See the avalanche paths on the mountain in this picture?
Despite the challenges, or maybe even because of them, it was a really nice day. It was great to hike with Dean without worrying about Amelia or listening to her make her Marge Simpson "get me out of this backpack" noise. (And this hike was definitely too cold and windy for her--plus she had a fabulous time with her Ewee and Inna). I couldn't post yesterday about the hike because I had what I deemed exposure exhaustion. The sun, wind, cold and elevation really take something out of you. But the feeling of being at the top of a mountain after a long climb is like nothing else. It's a kind of freedom. I am glad I have a partner whose idea of fun is climbing tall mountains, because otherwise I might not do it, and I would be missing out on something incredibly beautiful.
We climbed Mount Sniktau. It was a morning of false starts. We had planned to go on another hike, one that involved driving up to Guanella Pass, a pass that just reopened after being closed for over a year due to an avalanche. Yikes. But when we got to the road for the pass, there was a sign that said it was closed from 8-11 and 1-3. This was about 7:30 am, and we knew we would have to be back to the car by around 12:30 to avoid being stuck there till 3. We decided to go to Sniktau so we wouldn't have to be rushed.
It was a good choice. First we spent about half an hour hiking on the wrong trail, and then we started out hike on the correct trail, up a steep "hill." A very steep "hill."
This picture does not capture the steepness.
If you read the description of the hike on the link above, it sounds pretty easy. But it's Rocky Mountain easy, which to people like me means it's still pretty hard. I had a difficult time on the beginning of the hike. Even though it's "only" 13,234 feet high (really, website author? "Only"?) I got out of breath pretty quickly. It's a crazy out of breath feeling, too, not like you have been running too long, just like you took about 5 steps and you can't catch your breath. But Dean was patient and we finally made through the first section of the climb, up to a point at about 12,500 feet of elevation. We hid from the wind behind some rocks, had a snack and enjoyed the view.
Then we got started on the second leg of the trip, to "point 13,152."
It was cold! And very windy.
We climbed along this ridge. It reminded me of a black and white cookie, which should give you a clue about how many times we stopped to eat a snack.
After the initial climb, the hike was much easier, even though we still had a climb. I think the beginning was so hard because I wasn't used to it. Once I got through the first climb I was more in the hiking zone.
These mountains are a winterscape. This is Torrys Peak, a 14er.
This is another shot of our trail along the ridge.
This is a view of interstate 70 from the summit. You can see the Eisenhower Tunnel, tiny from this view.
After another snack and rest at the summit, we made our way back down the rocky trail. On our return trip, we noticed tiny patches of wildflowers. Such a harsh place to live!
We got back to the car around noon, so we drove through the town of Dillon to eat lunch (delicious portabella and pepper cheese"steaks" and fries!). It's a lovely little town beside a lake, much warmer than the mountains so close by. See the avalanche paths on the mountain in this picture?
Despite the challenges, or maybe even because of them, it was a really nice day. It was great to hike with Dean without worrying about Amelia or listening to her make her Marge Simpson "get me out of this backpack" noise. (And this hike was definitely too cold and windy for her--plus she had a fabulous time with her Ewee and Inna). I couldn't post yesterday about the hike because I had what I deemed exposure exhaustion. The sun, wind, cold and elevation really take something out of you. But the feeling of being at the top of a mountain after a long climb is like nothing else. It's a kind of freedom. I am glad I have a partner whose idea of fun is climbing tall mountains, because otherwise I might not do it, and I would be missing out on something incredibly beautiful.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Today's Post
Rearranging elements on the blog counts as posting, right...?
Not really. But one thing trying to post every day has taught me is that I really don't have something to say every single day.
On the bright side of that is that I have been reconsidering what I do have to say and how I want to say it. Hence the sudden changes in the blog, changes I have been considering for some time.
A couple of months ago I read an article about "mommy blogs," and it really upset me. More on why I was upset later, but for now, I will say I am trying to reconfigure this blog and webpage to better reflect myself--as a writer, a person, and, yes, even a mommy too.
Thoughts?
Not really. But one thing trying to post every day has taught me is that I really don't have something to say every single day.
On the bright side of that is that I have been reconsidering what I do have to say and how I want to say it. Hence the sudden changes in the blog, changes I have been considering for some time.
A couple of months ago I read an article about "mommy blogs," and it really upset me. More on why I was upset later, but for now, I will say I am trying to reconfigure this blog and webpage to better reflect myself--as a writer, a person, and, yes, even a mommy too.
Thoughts?
Friday, June 10, 2011
Changes
I am making some changes to my blog. You can probably find some already!
One of them is the web address. Over the next few days the url for my blog will be kimberlyoconnorwriting.com. You will still be able to find me through questionair.blogspot.com, but I don't know how long that will last, so make note of the change.
Also, I am going to try out some different templates and designs. If you particularly like or dislike something, please let me know in the comments!
One of them is the web address. Over the next few days the url for my blog will be kimberlyoconnorwriting.com. You will still be able to find me through questionair.blogspot.com, but I don't know how long that will last, so make note of the change.
Also, I am going to try out some different templates and designs. If you particularly like or dislike something, please let me know in the comments!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Food and Drink
It's been one month since Amelia was weaned, and over two weeks since she last asked about milk. We really are done!
The whole thing went much more easily than I thought it would. The hardest part was definitely making up my mind to do it. I had anticipated fits and tears from Amelia, but overall she handled it pretty well. She probably drank more chocolate milk and orange juice than most doctors would recommend for awhile, but oh well. Maybe she still does. She loves both. But if those are the worst things she eats, we're doing pretty well...
sadly, they're not the worst things she eats, though. I bought her some Oreos today in Walgreens to distract her from "sitting a minute" in the car when we got home. It worked and for lunch she had three Oreos and two pieces of roasted tofu. Small pieces. Oh well. I try to have a fairly relaxed attitude about junk food. Sugar doesn't seem to make Amelia crazy and I grew up being able to have small treats fairly regularly. I think it made me less obsessed with candy than some of my friends whose parents were super strict.
Amelia's eating is still unpredictable. One day she will eat one or two or even three healthy, well-balanced meals, including lots of friuts and veggies, and another day she will eat only rice. Or only crackers. Or only nothing. Last night for dinner she had a sippy cup of orange juice. She chugged the juice, then picked at the lovely plate of food I made for her (rice, beans, cabbage, grapes, cheese--all things she loves (even the cabbage, weird, huh)), and then she proceeded to sit on my lap the rest of dinner time reading the same two board books over and over. Well, I read them. With help.
Another thing I tend to be relaxed about is when and where Amelia eats. I love the idea of the whole family sitting down to eat together at the same time, and we will definitely do that when A is older, but it does not work for us right now. For one thing, Amelia sometimes eats more when she is allowed to wander. I often put her food out on a low shelf in the kitchen, where she can reach it, and she has what I call "Amelia's traveling buffet." Probably not the safest thing to do choking wise, but we stay with her and watch her, and she doesn't run around, just kind of wanders. And no forks. Also, Amelia gets hungry between 4:45 and 6:00, and sometimes she eats dinner before Dean even gets home. It is fairly easy to put together a healthy meal for Amelia to eat that early, but I couldn't make something for all of to eat then, plus Dean and I aren't really hungry that early. And eating with Amelia is stressful. It makes my stomach hurt. Dean and I are hanging on to our peaceful dinners for two for now. While we can.
The whole thing went much more easily than I thought it would. The hardest part was definitely making up my mind to do it. I had anticipated fits and tears from Amelia, but overall she handled it pretty well. She probably drank more chocolate milk and orange juice than most doctors would recommend for awhile, but oh well. Maybe she still does. She loves both. But if those are the worst things she eats, we're doing pretty well...
sadly, they're not the worst things she eats, though. I bought her some Oreos today in Walgreens to distract her from "sitting a minute" in the car when we got home. It worked and for lunch she had three Oreos and two pieces of roasted tofu. Small pieces. Oh well. I try to have a fairly relaxed attitude about junk food. Sugar doesn't seem to make Amelia crazy and I grew up being able to have small treats fairly regularly. I think it made me less obsessed with candy than some of my friends whose parents were super strict.
Amelia's eating is still unpredictable. One day she will eat one or two or even three healthy, well-balanced meals, including lots of friuts and veggies, and another day she will eat only rice. Or only crackers. Or only nothing. Last night for dinner she had a sippy cup of orange juice. She chugged the juice, then picked at the lovely plate of food I made for her (rice, beans, cabbage, grapes, cheese--all things she loves (even the cabbage, weird, huh)), and then she proceeded to sit on my lap the rest of dinner time reading the same two board books over and over. Well, I read them. With help.
Another thing I tend to be relaxed about is when and where Amelia eats. I love the idea of the whole family sitting down to eat together at the same time, and we will definitely do that when A is older, but it does not work for us right now. For one thing, Amelia sometimes eats more when she is allowed to wander. I often put her food out on a low shelf in the kitchen, where she can reach it, and she has what I call "Amelia's traveling buffet." Probably not the safest thing to do choking wise, but we stay with her and watch her, and she doesn't run around, just kind of wanders. And no forks. Also, Amelia gets hungry between 4:45 and 6:00, and sometimes she eats dinner before Dean even gets home. It is fairly easy to put together a healthy meal for Amelia to eat that early, but I couldn't make something for all of to eat then, plus Dean and I aren't really hungry that early. And eating with Amelia is stressful. It makes my stomach hurt. Dean and I are hanging on to our peaceful dinners for two for now. While we can.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
2011 Garden
"Garden" is one of the words in the description of this blog, but I have posted almost nothing about our garden this year. It's not for lack of garden work being done, although most of the work has not been done by me. Dean started plotting and planning the garden back in the fall. Since then, he has dug up a yard full of grass and stones, designed and laid a stone pathway, built brick and wooden beds for plants, built trellises for peas and beans, started seeds of all kinds, ordered and planted flowers, given tender loving care to seedlings, arranged approximately 500 soaker hoses and made approximately 10,000 trips to Lowes and Ace Hardware.
This weekend, he planted the last of the seeds of the season, corn, beans and squash: "the garden is officially planted."
Our little Denver yards have been turned into an impressive city garden, if I do say so myself. In the backyard, we have peas, radishes, beets, strawberries, blueberries, asparagus, and lots of flowers. In the front, we have broccoli, corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash and corn, plus some flowers and cactuses (cacti?) on the porch.
Here is a little walking tour of our garden, with "before" pictures from April and "after" pictures from today.
Here are the baby peas in April:
and here is a picture of the newly-planted flowers and peas from today. It's safe to say that the peas have grown.
On the other side of the path from the flowers are the strawberries. Here they are in April (they have grown and overcome a strange outbreak of brown spots but still look pretty much the same):
Against the fence and beside the strawberries are blueberries and asparagus. No pictures of those today, as both still are very small.
Moving to the front yard, here are the baby broccolis, right after they were moved to pots:
and here are the front beds in April, just after they were built:
Now here is the front yard today:
You can see how much the broccolis have grown. In the front beds are peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, and corn.
Here is a view of the other side of the yard from the sidewalk. As Dean said, our yard looks weird. The teepees are for beans to grow up, and the metal trellis is for cucumbers. Behind the beans and cucumbers will be squash.
Finally, here is something very cool:
my hanging cactus flowered!
Now, fingers crossed against wilts, droughts, bugs, and mysterious plant diseases of all kinds.
This weekend, he planted the last of the seeds of the season, corn, beans and squash: "the garden is officially planted."
Our little Denver yards have been turned into an impressive city garden, if I do say so myself. In the backyard, we have peas, radishes, beets, strawberries, blueberries, asparagus, and lots of flowers. In the front, we have broccoli, corn, tomatoes, peppers, squash and corn, plus some flowers and cactuses (cacti?) on the porch.
Here is a little walking tour of our garden, with "before" pictures from April and "after" pictures from today.
Here are the baby peas in April:
and here is a picture of the newly-planted flowers and peas from today. It's safe to say that the peas have grown.
On the other side of the path from the flowers are the strawberries. Here they are in April (they have grown and overcome a strange outbreak of brown spots but still look pretty much the same):
Against the fence and beside the strawberries are blueberries and asparagus. No pictures of those today, as both still are very small.
Moving to the front yard, here are the baby broccolis, right after they were moved to pots:
and here are the front beds in April, just after they were built:
Now here is the front yard today:
You can see how much the broccolis have grown. In the front beds are peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, and corn.
Here is a view of the other side of the yard from the sidewalk. As Dean said, our yard looks weird. The teepees are for beans to grow up, and the metal trellis is for cucumbers. Behind the beans and cucumbers will be squash.
Finally, here is something very cool:
my hanging cactus flowered!
Now, fingers crossed against wilts, droughts, bugs, and mysterious plant diseases of all kinds.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Twenty Months and a Day
Monday update:
Amelia slept from 7:30 last night till 6:30 this morning without a peep. I told my mom about it, and she replied, "That's toddler sleep." I'll take it! I am hoping this is a new trend.
It's hot in Denver and very humid. It is a southern heat. I could barely run at the park this morning, and we couldn't stay long at the playground either. I have had success getting Amelia to leave places pretty easily by first telling her that we are going to say "bye-bye to [whatever it is] in a few minutes," and then pretty quickly picking her up and getting her to say bye-bye. Consequently she can now say "few minutes" and says it a lot when she wants to do something. One of the most trying of these is sitting in the car. She loves to sit out of her carseat in the car, and she obviously can't do that while we are driving, so we spend a lot of time these days sitting in the parked car in the garage. She likes to press the buttons on the radio and pretend to turn the steering wheel (from my lap). I am sure to pull up the emergency break and I stay right with her, keys in my pocket, so this is not unsafe, right? It feels sort of like one of those "don't"s in a list of toddler rules, but it's not like I'm leaving her in there alone. Another funny thing she says is "back yard" and by this she means the very back of the car, behind the back seat. (We have a Rav-4. We traded in Dean's Camry back in the fall when he realized he needed 4-wheel drive to get to many of the trailheads he wanted to get to. Plus we ended up needing it to drive on snow. Denver doesn't really plow its roads.)
We got out garden planted this weekend and are just waiting for it to grow. Expect a garden post as soon as I get some current pictures taken.
And, finally, I got an email this morning saying that the journal that accepted one of my poems will be out soon! You can see my name on the table of contents here.
Amelia slept from 7:30 last night till 6:30 this morning without a peep. I told my mom about it, and she replied, "That's toddler sleep." I'll take it! I am hoping this is a new trend.
It's hot in Denver and very humid. It is a southern heat. I could barely run at the park this morning, and we couldn't stay long at the playground either. I have had success getting Amelia to leave places pretty easily by first telling her that we are going to say "bye-bye to [whatever it is] in a few minutes," and then pretty quickly picking her up and getting her to say bye-bye. Consequently she can now say "few minutes" and says it a lot when she wants to do something. One of the most trying of these is sitting in the car. She loves to sit out of her carseat in the car, and she obviously can't do that while we are driving, so we spend a lot of time these days sitting in the parked car in the garage. She likes to press the buttons on the radio and pretend to turn the steering wheel (from my lap). I am sure to pull up the emergency break and I stay right with her, keys in my pocket, so this is not unsafe, right? It feels sort of like one of those "don't"s in a list of toddler rules, but it's not like I'm leaving her in there alone. Another funny thing she says is "back yard" and by this she means the very back of the car, behind the back seat. (We have a Rav-4. We traded in Dean's Camry back in the fall when he realized he needed 4-wheel drive to get to many of the trailheads he wanted to get to. Plus we ended up needing it to drive on snow. Denver doesn't really plow its roads.)
We got out garden planted this weekend and are just waiting for it to grow. Expect a garden post as soon as I get some current pictures taken.
And, finally, I got an email this morning saying that the journal that accepted one of my poems will be out soon! You can see my name on the table of contents here.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
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