I'm just getting ready to go houseboating for the weekend, without my cute, but very demanding, son. I'm VERY excited! I can sleep in! I can do nothing! I don't have to make anyone lunch! Or bottles! Or dinner! I can drink.
I'm sure I'll miss him like crazy, but I am still looking forward to every minute of my weekend. hee!
Happy Canada Day! And Happy USA day on the fourth!
Today is the first week of my organic community box program and I must say, I'm mighty pleased. I was anticipating a box basically full of lettuce the first time. I thought, or maybe was told, that there would be a lot of greens in every box and this early in the season I had braced myself not to expect much. What a delightful surprise!
The box had a red and yellow pepper, the biggest darn cucumber you ever did see, these funky twirly onions, spinach, butter lettuce, romaine type lettuce, this mix of greens and edible flowers, strawberries, rhubarb, brocolli, and snap peas. How's that for a first-of-the-season box?!!!
I'm going to freeze the spinach, everything else will get eaten within the week, and then figure out what the heck people do with rhubarb. What DO people do with rhubarb? Make a pie, I suppose?
Callum is chowing down on organic, locally grown cucumber as we speak. I feel all proud.
*ETA: Thank you Mommy for all my organic food :) *
One exciting thing that happened this weekend is that Steve and I saw a cougar on the side of the road just outside our campground (we were in the truck, thank god). Man, those are a very, very big cat. I have no idea what it was doing on the side of the road, and I hope to never see another one. Of course, I didn't have my camera (I never do) just like I didn't have a camera when we stopped at a slow-vehicle turn out and a bear was sitting there checking us out. You never have a camera when you need one.
I had the weirdest dream that these crazy guys came to my house because they wanted us to spray the house with pesticides and document the effects on Callum. But because I didn't call these people I didn't answer the door and instead called the police. I was holing up with Callum in the nursery and the police showed up and then suddenly there was a shoot-out. The police were killed and I was totally freaking out talking to the 911 dispatcher and she wanted me to look out the window. Yeah, right, crazy woman. You look out the window when there's a shoot-out. Then Steve came home with a gun and killed the would-be intruders and we were all saved from the very deadly pesticide.
I watch way too much crap tv.
We're off again to Bamberton for some family camping. It should be a lot of fun, Steve's brother is going to join us on Saturday night too. Hopefully it doesn't rain ALL weekend...
I think I may have been a little hasty in my griping about the suspected lactose-induced screaming from Callum since the day after I wrote that post it just stopped. Just like that. I don't know if he just needed a bit of time to adjust or if something else entirely was the cause, but at any rate, he seems to be back to his usual self. The only exception is that he's suddenly started to wake up for a feed in the middle of the night again. I'm using the term "night" loosely because in my world, 6 am is STILL night-time. Morning doesn't happen until the clock strikes 7:00. Last night he slept through til 6:00 so that was a blessing. He's a good kid, at least, and after his bottle he just talks to his stuffed animals and falls back to sleep in about 10 minutes so I can go back to bed.
I know, very boring update. Hope you all have a wonderful Father's Day weekend!
More woes, although this one is a little more pressing than finding me the right knitting pattern :).
When Callum was wee, we had to supplement him a little at first until his tongue grew (who knew a tongue length could set back nursing?!!). As time went on I probably could have exclusively breast-fed, but I couldn't pump very much milk and we liked that at least once a day Steve could give Callum a bottle so we always gave him 4-12 ozs of formula every day. It was our family's compromise and it worked well. Early on it was clear that the lactose-based formula upset him so my naturalopath recommended a soy-based organic formula that she sold. There was some skeptism, but it did seem to sit better in his tummy so we switched.
At the time I was warned about the dangers of soy-based formulas, mainly from my friend R, but since Callum was having it in moderation and the majority of his diet was breast-milk, I figured it was a small risk I was willing to take.
Fast-forward to today. Callum began weaning himself about 2.5 months ago and is now completely weaned. Since he's not nursing anymore he's drinking upwards of 30 ozs of formula a day. I am not ok with that much soy-based formula. The debate is still on as to whether or not its safe, but honestly I don't want to be experimenting with Callum. As with all things baby-related, a switch doesn't happen over night, but in the last week we finally decided that we had to do it and switched back to the lactose-based formula. Besides, in the coming weeks we were going to start introducing yogurt and cheese and figured the safest place to start would be a lactose-based formula.
Holy. Mother. Of. God. The screaming that has begun now that we have switched over is unreal. Its like an 8-month old with colic and 8-month olds have mastered the scream so much more effectively than a newborn can. I have been up from 1-2 am the last three nights while Callum screamed unconsolably, and there is usually a similar session at some point during the day. When you have a chill, easy-going baby who suddenly is writhing in pain you feel like the most evil person to ever live. Its pretty horrible.
We have since tried a hypo-allergenic formula as an alternative that he simply refuses to drink (and I don't blame him, its disgusting tasting. I think it must be rice milk because that is what it tastes like. blech.). I suppose the next step is to try another lactose-free milk based formula alternative. Any recommendations?
We're also broke. Broke, broke. So all this formula buying (which is stupid expensive) and then not using the formula is also hard to stomach. Not that I'm saying my kid isn't worth spending the money, of course he is, its just that there isn't that much money lying around to spend and he could have had all the breastmilk he wanted for free if he wasn't so stubborn! Unfortunately, you can't nurse and look around the room or wiggle and move and attempt to slide down the couch or pet the cat or... you get the idea :).
I would like a knit a baby tunic. In particular, I'd like to knit the baby tunic featured in Bernat's pattern book "Mommy and Me". Uber-cute, eh? I also think the bunnies are adorable).
I do not, however, want to pay for said book. So I turned to my trusty friend, the internet, to provide me with a free baby tunic pattern. Looking at the picture it is obviously a very simple pattern so a free pattern MUST exist.
Internet, you failed me.
So now I'm turning to you, my 5 friends of this site, and asking if you have a pattern for a baby tunic. All in one color, preferably in stockingnet stitch or a simple pattern.
Or, if you're clever, change this* pattern so I can understand it and its all in one color.
Thank you!
*you have to register to see Lion Brand free patterns. If you're a knitter, I trust you're already registered, if you're not a knitter, you wouldn't be reading knitting patterns anyway so move along to a more entertaining site. Like Facebook. heh.