Our baby on her first day of life...

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I finally figured out how to load some footage from our old camera that we took in the hospital of Eliza on the first night she was born. I loved seeing this video and remembering how miraculous it was to have this adorable little baby girl finally join our family. It's funny to remember how teeny she was, how soft her skin felt, how scared we were to finally be parents, how worried we were that she'd get even the tiniest bit cold (hence the hat, mittens, and multiple swaddling blankets), etc.

I can't believe our baby is almost a whole year old. It's gone by so fast... I remember this time last year... The month of April alone seemed to last an eternity! But I'm so grateful for this whirlwind of a year we've had! It's been the scariest and most stressful but the most joyous and full of love too! Crazy how that works.

Good Eats of Late

I've been trying a couple new recipes of late. Here are a couple I really liked.

Jamaican Jerk Kabobs with Steak and Sweet Potatoes
w/ Radish & Pineapple Slaw

Marinate the meat in Olive Oil, Soy Sauce, Tsp All Spice, Chinese 5 spice.
Boil Sw Potatoes for 15 minutes, drain and cool to touch.
Kabob 'em! with the steak and brush the Sw Potatoes with oil.
Broil. I loved this side more than the entree even! It's a 'slaw made of the really yummy fresh ingredients 1 lb of radishes (shredded) and 1 fresh pinneapple cut coarsely. You can add a little salt if you want. Delicious!!
I couldn't remember trying radishes before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but they just tasted really fresh to me and not that different from cabbage, I guess.

We made some yummy homemade pizzas from some refrigerated dough that I bought from my new favorite C'ville bakery, Chandler's. Left is Steve's, Right is mine (and Eliza's. For some reason, I'm always the one who "gets" to share with Eliza. Steve gobbles up his food like he thinks someone will steal it from him before he gets enough! haha).

These pizzas were so yummy and rich, I couldn't eat more than 2 pieces. We did some random toppings like salami and parmesian cheese, fresh tomatoes (Steve's), spinach (mine), and fresh basil.
My favorite food experiment this week, though, was of course the chocolate dessert! Chocolate covered strawberries!! MMMMmmmm! I made these to thank our new neighbor for some soup she gave us when we moved in and for my friend who babysat Eliza while I went to get my hair cut (for the first time in over 4 months- yikes!).

I actually got the recipe for these out of my weight watcher's cookbook, and it prefaced the recipe by saying how easy these actually are to make. Sooo, I felt a lot of pressure to not mess them up after that. But it was really easy, and I quick. I managed to do it all during Eliza's nap.

I just microwaved semi-sweet chocolate (per the directions) with some water for 1 1/2 min, and also a little white chocolate to drizzle on top, after they were dipped in the semi-sweet.
100% Yummy!!
Mine definitely did not look like the picture in the book, but they tasted just as good! My neighbor said she thought I'd bought them! Nice, right?

And for mom, here is a pic of my new hair cut. I'll try to post a better one later. This is all I could manage for now. (I haven't figured out where our good camera's charger got unpacked to).


It's a lot longer in the back. Hard to tell from this picture. I like the new bangs, though! My hair dresser is sooo good.

Going under the knife and down the ear canal...

*not a pic of Eliza

I found this article about "C-Section Moms Less Likely to Have More Kids" interesting. Including the comments. The lack of Oxytocin rush being released made sense to me. . . I didn't have a C-section, but I did have a very long, stressful, painful labor. A couple of my doctors talked about sending me to an OR for a C-section, but I'm so glad that my awesome doctor and my doula and my Mom believed in Eliza and me and stood there with me through it all!


I think I would have really felt like I'd failed or there was something wrong with my body if I had had to go get a C-section after all of the work and labor (though, I certainly wouldn't think that about someone else who got a C-section).

By the way, I'm the only one I know who used a doula during their labor, but it's a documented fact that the use of a doula reduces the risk of a C-section. For a little while during my labor, Eliza started having heart decelerations (that's when the docs started talking c-section), but my doula had me try a different position, and Eliza did great after that!

I still don't feel ready to return to the birthing center any time soon, but that has more to do with remembering how much work it is to care for a newborn and the nausea from pregnancy rather than the dread of labor.

I also found this article about "Navigating the Earache" very interesting and helpful. Eliza has had one diagnosed ear infection and was put on antibiotics. However, the doctor who wrote this article about the use/overuse of antibiotics and whether they actually help kids get over the ear infections any faster or less painfully. He made some good points. What do you guys think?

How does your garden grow?

We're getting a little more settled here in the new house. I finally have gotten the kitchen unpacked and had told myself that my reward would be letting myself start a garden in our back yard. I'm really excited, but I'm trying to start small. I've been preparing a little plot that's just 5 ft x 4 ft or so.

I tested our soil which appears to be kinda red and clay-ish. It's ph scored very acidic so I went over to Snow's Landscaping and Gardening center which is an AWESOME nursery here that's owned by a family in our ward and got some organic compost called "Gardener's Gold."

I was talking to the owner (who is a really nice guy) about how all the plants that I buy from Lowes and Wal-Mart have just gradually died in my possession and stated that I'd come to the conclusion that I'm not THAT bad at gardening, their little plants are just pitiful! (and when I hang plants under the AC vent, it doesn't help), but he assured me that they make even bad gardeners look good. So here goes nothin'!

I'm planning on planting some summer squash (we love zuchinni), cantaloupe, carrots, green beans, and maybe strawberries. I'm going to plant some herbs in pots, and if they flourish, then I'll eventually add them to the garden. It would be so great to have our own basil, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, oregano, and chives. I also bought some bulb flowers to plant in front. I'm really excited. And Calla Lillies- My favorite! I've been working at intervals during the day (when it's not sleeting outside. What up Charlottesville?).

Eliza plays on a square of cement that I put an outdoor carpet on, pushing (while walking!) around her walk-n-ride toy and playing with her new giant bouncy ball and laughing at the pets as they run criss-cross through the yard. Or she LOVES crawling up and down the back patio/wheel chair ramp. It's really fun to see and hear her thump along the ramp enthusiastically humming to herself as she goes!

I hope I'll have some great pictures to eventually show for this work. It's really exciting to finally have some land to garden in! Steve and I have lived in various sized apartments since we got married, none of which had a place to garden in. Not that we really had time while we were in school or interning.

The other interesting thing I learned this week was that down in the park by our place, Azalea park, the city or county rents out 30' x 30' plots for residents who would like to garden but don't have the space where they live. How cool is that? Eliza and I visited the garden area, and some of the plots are really impressive and inspiring for me to get my gardenin' on! So if any of you C'ville apartment dwellers are yearning for some more outdoor time and missing the gardening opportunity, this might be the thing for you!

I think it's an awesome idea and opportunity that I think many cities offer! If people are growing and harvesting their own veggies and fruits, that cuts back on all kinds of gas and resource-burning transportation from South America or from across the country and saves you money too!

I plan on starting our own compost pile somewhere in our backyard too to help fertilize (eventually) our little plot. Hopefully that and the fact that the city will now pick up our recycling from our curb will really help to cut back on our family's waste output. (We were lugging our recycling across town in our little car to the recycling center before, but I know some things slipped through the cracks that way, and we were using gas to get there.)

Another item of interest in this green related discussion is Charlottesville's Free Cycle which Katy told us about! People just post things they want to get rid of and people respond if they're interested. Fortunately for us, Katy was watching the posts on their site and managed to nab us a free drier for our place! Isn't that great? So instead of this drier sitting in a landfill, we can be using it! (Although the newer models might work more efficiently which can be more environmentally friendly).

This site is such a great idea in the big picture, though, because the more people learn about this and the general concept of recycling junk, the less new production will be necessary. So in the big picture, hopefully we're helping to reduce consumer consequences. I actually wrote the site URL down on a sticky note and stuck it on the clients' computer at work because many of my clients are financial unstable and sometimes moving into new apartments.

I don't claim to know that much about carbon emissions, consumer consequences, and how to truly "go green" or whatever. However, Steve and I took Environmental Biology before we left BYU (it was actually the only class we took together during college), and if I learned anything from that class it was that:

-we do all kinds of terrible things to our soil with run-off, especially from land-fills. (Don't throw away your batteries!! Take them to a recycling center.)

-that our love of cow meat is tearing down the rain forest to clear fields and fill them with cattle which actually are a significant contributor to the methane gas in our atmosphere with less trees to then absorb the carbon dioxide.

-my teacher's hissing cockroaches are still really creepy

-it's sad how many animals we've killed off to near-extinction/extinction... and I can't believe that people really club baby seals!

That's all.

So maybe you didn't actually read through this whole post which is okay! I'm rammbling because I can't sleep this morning, and I don't want to make any noise to wake up Steve or Eliza.

But most of what I learned in the application of attempting to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! was visiting my Aunt Joan and Uncle Dean's for Thanksgiving in 2006 (while I was pregnant with Eliza). They were some of the first people I actually could see living practically applications of trying to recycle. They were revolutionary to my college paper plates and plastic cups, pizza and root beer eating ways, to say the least. And they were really nice about me throwing up every morning, noon, and night-- I still don't know how I made it through that last semester pregnant!!

And on my theme of How Weird are Nursery Rhymes, lately I've enjoyed this one:
I must confess, I love that Mary had the luxury of being contrary and someone still wrote a poem about her. One can really get some pent up anger out slinging that hoe! When I was little and read this poem, I used to think that "Quite Contrary" was Mary's last name... it only recently sunk in that she was Mary the Contrary. Sounds powerful.

Pictures w/ a thousand words or less: My Gang

Doesn't this group look like an exclusive gang? I had to run out to get my diaper bag out of the car which conveniently had my camera in it and nabbed this shot. My poor photography skills are made evident by my reflection in the screen door. But I thought this shot was priceless!

We'll be playing with Eliza when all of a sudden she'll sink her head down in a corner of the couch or in a pillow or under a blankey and wait for us to say, "Where's 'Liza? Where is that girl?" and then she'll spring up on her knees grinning at us! We'll yell, "Peekaboo!" and she will giggle like none other. I'm lovin' it!