Take some baby steps

Take some baby steps
Originally uploaded by riblet.

Whew. He's asleep. Finally!

So catching up? Thanksgiving was nice. We had both sets of parents and most siblings at the table. My folks brought the turkey, I made just about everything else. It was all really tasty. Even Leon's lentil loaf, which wasn't as bad as he said. Though to be honest, it might have been good with a little more salt. If a recipe doesn't call for salt, it better be for sweets.

Ira has been walking all over the place. It's pretty cute, but man is it tiring me out. It's not that I'm chasing him all over the house, it's that he wants to be outside, walking all over grass, streets, sidewalks, flowerbeds, you get the picture.

So my life has become a tour of playgrounds. We hit one up everyday because little dude has to get his ya-yas out.

Here are some playground reviews:

Southside Park
Usually we go to Southside park. This playground is awesome! The equipment is really imaginative. They do have slides, swings and sand but they also have awesome climbing toys and a rad spinning toy that looks like a little red tulip that you sit in and spin. Plus everything is space-themed and most of the terrain is a cushy rubber mat. The other day when we were there, I think the local Sacramento crank-moms meet up group was convening. If you are missing a tooth...like a really important front tooth, how do you explain that to your kids? Oh well, at least those moms were nice.

East Portal
If we are on our way to TJ's we go to East Portal's playground. It's ok there. This playground is mostly wood chips and Ira usually leaves with some kind of scratch from them. Then there are the East Sac moms. Some of them are nice, most of them are a lot older than me, and some of them aren't moms at all but nannies. The playground equipment is really basic and I hate the front gate, which is really hard to open and close. It's not my favorite place, but Ira doesn't care.

Coloma Community Center
If we are feeling like loners, we go to the playground behind Coloma Community center on T street. There's never anyone there! It has swings, slides, some kind of tunnel things and lots of wood chips. Ira likes it, I can't complain too much.

McKinley Park
Pretty rarely we find ourselves at McKinley's playground. Here's another wood chip playground with lots of "what the heck is that" wood toys. Um, hello? Splinter City! Plus, it's like a maze in there and kids can get lost like (snapping fingers) that. Especially the little ones like mine. This is the only park that I ever see dads at in the middle of the day. Once the whole playground was shut down because a lady saw a bee in it. She was allergic to bees and hadn't yet found out if her baby was allergic, too. She complained and the park staff shut down the entire playground. Awesome. If I were that lady, I would have just gone home. You can't control everything everywhere you go. That's just a part of life!

All right. Well, like that was interesting to anyone. Ok, next time I'll write about what I'm watching on TV. Everyone watches TV, right?

When things go baaaad

Other goat
Originally uploaded by riblet.

Sometimes when you get a long line of rotten things happening in a row, one good thing will happen and make everything better.

At the end of last week, I was at least 20 flavors of frustrated. Short story: baby and I needed a break, so then we got one. I had 6 glorious hours away from Ira. It was just what we both needed. When we woke up the next morning, he flung his little arms around my shoulders and gave me a big, open mouth kiss on my chin. I almost cried! It was if the whole terrible last week never happened.

When someone relies on you as much as he does on me, it can get kind of intense. That's why beer and shows were invented.

And he's off

Ira started walking last night! It's so precious. I don't yet have pictures of it but should soon. So awesome, right?

Holy smokes!

First visitors
Originally uploaded by riblet.

I barely remember when Ira looked like this. Do you? What a teeny, tiny little bundle of cheeks and furrowed brows.

Making food

I made the most delicious dinner last night. The recipe is from Real Simple, a magazine that normally makes me feel like a loser (I can never be as organized and anal-retentive as their publication wants me to be). After seeing their recipe for sausage with escarole and white beans, I thought: "I can do this...with Tofurky!" And voila, it was done. One minor change: I sliced the Tofurky Italian sausage before I browned it. I also used spinach instead of escarole, but who's looking?


Yum! It was so tasty. You should try it!

One bad night

Oh
Originally uploaded by riblet.

Man. I made it. Last night was awful. Between Ira and Heylove, I couldn't sleep a wink. Then I started to get the most awful tension headache ever. The pain started behind my right eye and went down the side of my neck. I was totally miserable.

Ira's problem is that he doesn't want to sleep in his crib. If he sleeps with us, he eats all night long and I get very little rest. I know. Last night I tried in vain for 90 minutes to get him back to sleep in his crib. He ended up back in bed with me, but not without tons of tears (both of us) and one heavy sense of defeat (mine).

Heylove's deal is that she had more seizures last night. So at 3 am, Ira is finally asleep beside me and poor Heylove starts freaking out and seizing. She went on like this, off and on for at least an hour before we had to just put her in her crate and hope for sleep...for all of us. We can't worry too much about her though. While it's scary and she's done it before, she woke up this morning with a great appetite and good energy level. Leon was able to film some of her behavior last night so now we can finally share it with her vet.

Oh. I am so tired. I need a vacation from my life.

Comic by Amaya

Comic by Amaya
Originally uploaded by riblet.

My 8 year old niece is funny. This comic she composed and narrated (with Leon's help) was cracking us up.