Gareth's Quilt

Remember how I was going to make a quilt for Gareth? And I'd even purchased half the fabric for it? I started washing the fabric, but then things like getting pregnant and feeling sick got in the way. And then by the time I was feeling better I had to make a Halloween costume. And then it was pretty much time for Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years and all that.

But I'm still planning on making a quilt for Gareth. And over the holidays I went with my mom to the quilt store and chose fabrics for the quilt she'll make for our new baby. Over the past couple weeks she's proceeded to tell me how she's finished washing the fabric and cutting out the pieces (not to mention taking the time to figure out how to re-size the quilt to a smaller baby size). And she's only had the fabric for a matter of weeks! I was feeling rather shameful that I'd had mine for months and hadn't done a thing with it. So during our snow week (yup, Gareth had not a single day of school last week) while I was not doing other things, like practicing and house cleaning, I finished washing the fabric and proceeded to start cutting it.

It will be a slow process since the blocks for this quilt are small - less than 4" finished. Which means I'm cutting center squares of 1 1/4" to start. And then strips of 7/8" (it's a log cabin quilt). But, despite my frequent breaks whenever my back and hips start to hurt, I think I've done fairly well at moving along.

That may not look like much, but there are over 300 squares there. Only a little over 100 to go! Of course, once I finish the squares I get the fun of cutting the strips. Oh, and this is only half of my fabric. I still have to go back for the light tones. My quilting store here is moving (thankfully they're just moving down the street a little way from where they are now, not across town or something!) and so I'm going to head over there this week during their moving sale to see if I can get some of what I need for a good deal. 

The goal is to get as much cut out as possible before the baby comes. If I can start piecing even better - I'll pay someone to do the quilting for me this time around. I'd like to have the whole thing done by the time Gareth starts Kindergarten, or at the latest by this next Christmas. 

Quinoa Again

Remember my post soliciting quinoa recipes a long while back? Well, my sister and her husband remembered that I'd been in need of some and gave me Quinoa 365 for Christmas. Last year we got a cookbook full of vegetarian recipes from another sister, which turned out to have many delicious and easy/quick recipes in it. This cookbook has so far proven equally successful (good job, siblings, on purchasing great cookbooks for us!)

I honestly had to limit myself when making up this month's menu, or else half of it would have been dishes from this cookbook. There are several great things about this that make it a useful book to have: several dishes have quinoa as their main ingredient, several dishes have quinoa as a secondary ingredient rather than a main ingredient, they have recipes in the back for baby food using quinoa (seriously, how awesome is that?!), they have some amazing looking desserts that use quinoa, some of which are gluten-free (I've become more aware of this as a couple parents in the preschool and Gareth's preschool teacher all eat gluten-free), and all the recipes I've tried so far are tasty and quick/easy.

This month we're trying three dinner dishes and a couple of breakfast dishes (on our weekend breakfasts). So far we've had Leek and Potato Soup (soups with milk in them often make my stomach very unhappy - this one didn't!), Black Bean Soup (I did have to increase the amount of liquid called for in this one, but it was easily done at the end and everything still tasted delicious), and Apple Strudel Cereal. Ryan and I liked the breakfast cereal, Gareth not so much. It is a little strange at first to be eating quinoa for breakfast, but after a few bites I got used to it and it was very tasty - basically just quinoa with raisins and dried apples and cinnamon mixed in while the quinoa cooks. Then once it's done you throw in some vanilla and a tiny bit of brown sugar if you want. Serve it with yogurt (I used Greek honey yogurt, Ryan tried the leftovers with plain yogurt) and toasted almonds on top. A great thing about eating quinoa for breakfast is that it keeps you full much longer than many other breakfast foods. I think we're going to be going through a lot of quinoa in the next few months...

On a less healthy note, if you want some delicious-looking recipes that are far more fattening, check out the "Daily Indulgence" at myrecipes.com. Not all of them are desserts, but most are. And most of them are very tempting. Good thing I don't usually have time to make dessert!

Snow Day

We've had snow all weekend, but none of it stuck until yesterday (though friends further out did have a couple of inches stick). The schools opened late (not sure why) and then it started snowing, so they closed early. Gareth ran out to play in the snow yesterday, but came back in about five minutes later saying there wasn't enough to build a snowman with. And he was right - there was probably less than a quarter inch. A few hours later the sun came out and most of what had stuck melted.

But the snow started up again during the night and we woke up this morning to a couple of inches. Gareth was very excited to go out and help me shovel. Maybe one day he'll learn that the snow on the grass doesn't need shoveling and that we want to put shoveled snow on the grass areas, not the areas I already shoveled. Overall, he did a pretty decent job though. Then this afternoon we went outside and built his first snowman (well, I built it, but he did shovel some snow over to me once in a while and helped put in the stones for it's face and buttons). He really doesn't have mittens conducive to playing in snow, so it was best for me to do it anyway.

I couldn't be bothered to find sticks for arms. It's a pretty small snowman, but a good size for a little kid. I'd forgotten how exhausting making a snowman can be! At least we can make them here, though. In Indiana I could never get the snow to pack. Growing up I remember being able to make a small ball and then just roll it in the snow to make it larger. That method didn't work so well today, but maybe I'm just out of practice. Gareth was very pleased with it and didn't seem to notice that it has no arms, for which I was very grateful.

Holiday Puzzle

So here's our puzzle from the holidays this year, a Norwegian fjord:

We only started working on this on New Year's Eve, since we were out of town for the rest of the holidays. Ryan had to go back to work the next Tuesday, so this year's puzzle took us quite a bit longer than usual to finish. The lower left and upper right corners were the most difficult - I took to just sorting the pieces for the lower left by shape and at times figuring them out by the slow process of elimination.

We were given another puzzle this year as a present, which I'm excited to put together next year. This year's puzzle we purchased at a local toy store. Ryan was a little wary of the store as we pulled up because the entrance is rather run-down looking. But I assured him that I'd been inside before and that it was not as run-down on the inside. This toy store (and another one we've been in while here) have not only a great selection of toys, but also a great selection of puzzles, both for kids and adults. In previous places we've lived we've been stuck with big box stores like Walmart or Target (perhaps we just haven't found the local toy stores in our other locations?) where the puzzle selection is dismal. In past years we've walked out of the store very disappointed after poring over the selection for what feels like forever before settling on the one half-way decent puzzle we can find. But at this toy store I came back after a few minutes and Ryan had found this puzzle. We spent a few more minutes looking over them together and noticed several others that we'd enjoy and Ryan pointed out a large one that will be fun to do with Gareth when he's older. We managed to restrain ourselves to just the one puzzle for now, but it's great to know we have somewhere we can go to buy great puzzles for future years!

The Difference of a Couple Years

I've always been a bit nervous about how Gareth would handle a sibling. He's been a very attention-demanding child from day one, constantly wanting 100% of any adult attention 100% of the time. He spent much of his baby and toddler-hood screaming if I ever gave my attention to anything other than him. Not exactly the temperament suited toward acceptance of an attention-demanding infant usurping his place. He seemed like the perfect candidate for enjoying being an only child.

But lately I've been feeling better about how he'll do. Oh, I'm sure he'll have his moments of annoyance with the baby. But I think, now that he's older, that he'll do much better than he would have a couple of years ago. He did quite well with his cousin over the holidays. And today we had Gareth's best friend and his friend's little brother over for the evening. Most of the time, Gareth and his friend successfully ignored the little brother who followed them around as best he could while they ran to and fro. But after I'd played peek-a-boo with the little boy a couple of times, Gareth decided it looked like fun. He managed to entertain the one-year-old for quite some time with this game, which enabled me to finish up dinner. Not only that, but at one point, after he'd gone off to play with his friend again and the baby wanted me to hold him, Gareth was more than happy to come entertain the baby while I opened the hot oven. How nice, to have a child who is capable of understanding why a crawling baby around a hot oven is not a good idea! Of course, the kids Gareth's been dealing with are all one - much more interesting than a newborn. But hopefully some of his willingness to help will remain, even if his interest in playing with his sibling doesn't.

Holiday Travel

One of the reasons this will be our last year away from home for the holidays is because I absolutely hate travelling during the winter. Everything's crowded and everyone's tired and the chance of delays at the airports is just way too high. The only reason I was willing to do it this year was because we found a flight into Philly with a layover in Newark. I figured if the weather was bad we'd either end up stuck in Seattle or Newark, which is close to where we wanted to be anyway.

Things on Wednesday started out great. We took the bus and the light rail down to the airport and were there in plenty of time to catch our 11 am flight. Travelling with a 4 1/2 year old is soooo much easier than with a 3 1/2 year old. After getting through security, Gareth obediently and patiently sat waiting on a chair while we gathered all our stuff, got shoes on, etc. We never once had to worry about him running off (meaning we never had to use the tail/leash of his monkey backpack). It was awesome - until we got to our gate and they announced that our flight would likely be delayed at least an hour. They started boarding around noon, got the plane going down the runway, and then announced that we'd all be sitting there for about an hour before the people in charge gave us the go-ahead to take off. Things were delayed in Newark. I'm sure the couple behind us with 20 month old twins were thrilled to hear we'd be stuck on the plane an extra hour. We finally took off about 1:30 pm.

Gareth was also remarkably well-behaved on the plane, despite our having few toys to entertain him. He enjoyed making the babies behind us laugh (I think their mom appreciated his entertainment as well because he was keeping her kids from having a meltdown). Thankfully it was a smooth flight, so we weren't stuck in our seats the whole time. Gareth was able to kneel by his seat and play with his cars and I was able to get up and walk around from time to time. Even still, about half way through I was ready go crazy being cooped up in there. It's been a while since we've been on a flight that long and I'm not eager to do it again any time soon (after we get back to Seattle that is).

We figured we'd miss our connecting flight to Philly, since our layover was only supposed to be an hour and we weren't going to get into Newark until 30 or 40 minutes after that flight was supposed to leave. But we figured they'd either re-book us or let us just go (definitely our preferred option, since Newark is closer to my parent's house than Philly). Things got bad once we started descending. I was walking back to my seat as the turbulence started and almost got knocked over a few times. But what was worse was the feeling of extreme nausea that took over as soon as I sat down. Gareth thought the bumpiness was fun (but his ears were bothering him). They told us we'd be on the ground in a few minutes, but it felt like hours to me. A little kid sitting across from us threw up and I grabbed our bag of bagels in case I needed it (I even took the remaining bagel out so I wouldn't puke all over it). I gave up looking out the window, hoping I'd see ground, because every time I did we seemed no closer. Apparently Ryan was feeling sick as well. We did make it on the ground eventually and the pilot came on to tell us that the winds had been 60 mph while we were landing. Blech. Then we got to sit around and wait for quite a while longer in order for another plane to leave the gate we were going to.

We got to our connecting gate (no one had missed their connecting flights since the entire airport was delayed due to the winds) and found that our flight to Philly wasn't scheduled to leave until at least 11 pm (our original schedule had us arriving in Philly at 9:45 - we'd landed in Newark just after 9). We tried to see if the airline would let us just skip the flight to Philly, but if we did that they'd cancel our return flight unless we were willing to pay almost $500 to re-book the return flights. So we settled in for the long haul, even though I wasn't sure I could mentally cope with another flight that night. Ryan found me some food since I was shaking from hunger by this point. Our departure kept getting pushed back - the last time I heard was something like 12:10. The plane we were waiting for was coming from Buffalo, but it never came. Finally, just after 11, they cancelled our flight. I was initially discouraged by this, but Ryan thankfully was smart enough to realize that this was our out. He talked with the people at the desk and they said we were free to go and that our return flight was still scheduled. We even thanked them profusely, though we later realized it's not like they had actually done anything - we should have been thanking the horrible weather! But I'm sure it made them happy that at least some people had been pleased to hear the flight was cancelled. Elated, we called my parents to come pick us up. They were happy to trade a trip to Philly at 1 in the morning for the shorter trip to Newark at 11 pm.

So, yes, everything worked out. But I'm not planning on travelling during the winter again for a while. It is fun to be here with all my family, but I'm definitely looking forward to a travel-free Christmas at home next year!

Our Couch (and some holiday thoughts)

So last weekend our couch was delivered. We'd been a bit worried about if it would fit through our entryway or not, which requires it to come through the door and then only has 4 feet before you hit a wall and have to turn to get into the living room. We obviously chose a good size of couch for our house, since it came in quite easily. We were expecting they might have to take off the legs to get it through the door, but they didn't even have to do that. The whole getting it in the house process took about two minutes. Gareth was overly excited and wanted to start jumping on it right away - something which we've been asking him not to do ever since. He always replies to our reprimands by saying, "But I'm not jumping! I'm playing!" Ah, yes, because if it's playing that involves jumping on the couch that makes it all okay.

Enjoying resting (Gareth rarely lets me actually nap)

And here's a view of Gareth right after the couch was delivered:

The room is starting to actually look like a living space rather than somewhere we stick random stuff we don't have anywhere else to put! I am hoping to find a replacement shade for the floor lamp one of these days (anyone know where I can find one?).  Our next purchase will be a TV to go across from the couch and we're hoping to purchase an area rug for the floor before next holiday season. While we still can't entertain tons of people, it is nice to know we could invite another family over and have a place for them to sit that's not a hard floor.

In the second picture you can see some of our holiday decor, sort of. There isn't much of it anyway as we don't get a tree when we're not going to be home on Christmas. I'm excited for next year when we'll have one. It's rather fun to have a fireplace mantle to put some things on. Next year we'll have to purchase some stocking hanger things, because the push pins currently holding them in place wouldn't win a match against gravity if we actually filled the stockings. And since Ryan wants to occasionally have a fire in the fireplace next year, I'd rather not have our stockings go up in flames.

The packages across the mantle top are from the advent presents my mom sends us every year. Usually I attach them to a red and green rope and hang them like a garland. I didn't have time to do that right away this year and in the end decided that I liked having them lined up across the mantle.

Gareth is, of course, very excited for the holidays. He had a couple of days this year when he asked lots of questions about Santa. I'm wondering, does anyone else feel bad pretending Santa is real to their kids? I'm very torn, because I loved believing in Santa when I was little, and really wasn't particularly upset or disappointed when I realized Santa wasn't real. But I feel horrible lying to Gareth about it, telling him that Santa can fly because he's magic and other such things. I see how easily he accepts my explanations and I'm not sure that's something I want to encourage. I don't sit around telling him other myths are true. Usually I would encourage him to question. Would it diminish his excitement any if we didn't pretend Santa was real? At the same time, though, I don't think it hurt me to believe in Santa as a kid, so for now I continue to pretend the myth is real.