the kitchen sink

this post will cover a multitude of topics, in no particular order: biting, scratching, hiting, roseola, weddings, ferberization, rain, and career changes, to name a few.

the past few weeks have been insane. starting with: receiving a job offer from a v. cool attorney and giving my notice at my current place of employ. stressful. especially since i will be the third associate to leave in less than a month's time. yep. it's been crazy on the work front. but, i am excited about my new job for the following reasons: (a) no more billing target, yeeeeehaw! (b) a whole new area of law, and much much less litigation work; (c) pete, aubrey and i will all commute to work and daycare together (saving us $ on gas). i will miss the guys here at the office, but i think it's time for me to move on to something different.

and then there's aubrey. my little toddling terror. so during the last post i was complaining about brattiness, etc. well, it turns out that the brattiness was at least partly due to the fact that miss a was SICK. with roseola, it turns out. high fever for several days, followed by a pimply rash. of course, this all coincided with our traveling plans, as we were scheduled to attend a wedding in maine and an anniversary cruise for my grandparents in boston this past weekend. we got the ok to travel from aubrey's doc, so we ended up going to the wedding, but now i'm wondering if we should have. it rained and rained and rained the entire weekend, which made traveling a bit more challenging and less enjoyable.

on top of being a sicky, aubrey has been terrorizing her fellow classmates (and US) with biting and scratching. she seems to want to bite/scratch the most when she is overtired. sigh. so embarassing to sign a form at the end of the day acknowledging that your child hit/bit/scratched another child. our current strategy: if missy bites or scratches or hits, we put her down on the ground, tell her firmly, "NO [insert inappropriate behavior here]" and ignore her for one minute. hopefully, after a few dozen episodes, she'll eventually get the message.

and...as with all transitions that we go through, miss a is putting up a horrendous struggle at bedtime. we have finally resorted to "ferberization," which i don't like at all, but we've tried everything else with no success. it is maddening because for the longest time she would put herself to sleep with nary a peep, so this feels like a huge step backwards. however, i realize that she is going through a lot right now, with learning to walk and all, and that these milestones can cause bumps in the road in terms of sleep habits.

last night she cried for an HOUR before she fell asleep. (and predictably, every time we went in to "reassure her" she would just get more pissed off.) i hope i hope i HOPE that tonite goes more smoothly.

i just keep telling myself that this is one of MANY parenting challenges i will face over the coming years, and to be thankful that aubrey is, on the whole, a happy and healthy little gal. oh, and she's cute, too.

i hope this is just a phase...

...this brattiness and not sleeping business. sheeesh! aubrey has been a small terror over the past few days. i'm not sure what is going on...i know she is cutting a molar, so that may be a contributing factor. she is also really starting to figure out this walking thing, and wants to gogogogogo (or as she says, "DOOOOH!"), and she wants to do everything herself.

hmmmm...an independent streak, perhaps? not sure where she gets it from.

anyhoo, over the weekend boopers didn't take any meaningful naps, and as a result was in near melt-down mode by dinner time. which resulted in a struggle to get her to go to bed. yesterday, however, she took a nearly two hour-long nap at daycare and was relaxed and pleasant during dinner and in the bath, but would NOT go to bed until nearly 9:30! oh, we tried...three times! finally, on the third try she went down without a fuss.

and then she was up early this morning. what is going on!?!?!?

i really hope it is just a phase. usually she doesn't put up a fight at bedtime.

things are very very crazy around here. some big changes, of the career type. my career, that is. i will go into more detail in a later post. too much to talk about and too little time at the moment.

later.

15 month stats

aubrey went to the doc for her 15 month check-up yesterday. in addition to the three icky shots she received (we decided to go with the chickenpox vaccine, after some initial hemming and hawing), she was weighed and measured. the results:

height = 30 3/4 inches
weight = 23 lbs., 4 oz.

for both height and weight, she in the 50 - 75 percentile range. And she grew almost 2 inches since her 12 month check up! wow!

the doctor was impressed with her language skills, too. i'd estimate that she has a vocabulary of close to 20 words now (although some of them she doesn't pronounce correctly...for example, she says "poon" for "spoon") and understands many more words than that. she's smert.

i am pretty down in the dumps this week, on account of my job. one of my favorite people is leaving at the end of the month to move far far away, and then, to make things even more depressing, i just learned that my very BEST buddy here at work is leaving in a week to take another job. so i will be losing my confidants, and i am really, really bummed.

i hope that the rest of the week gets better. i could really use a boost.

rediscovering a super food, and the onset of chilly weather

i've been having a hard time posting lately...my days have been very busy lately, and in the evenings i don't have any desire to be in front of a computer. not to mention that i am usually pooped by 9:00pm as it is.

so.

doings around these parts: slowly making progress with house improvement. aubrey is taking more steps every day, though she is not quite 100% bipedal. the garden is starting to wind down, though we have been blessed with a glut of zucchini. we've had it in one form or another every day for the past week: on the grill; baked in bread; sauteed and incorporated into barley "risotto."

speaking of barley...i think it is my new favorite grain. i love it's earthy flavor and chewy bite. it seems to go well with so many savory ingredients, and yet is perfectly lovely cooked up with a little milk, maple syrup and raisins.

it is also CHEAP. in fact, it's cheaper than rice at the moment. so i am loving that, and am envisioning more barley dishes in the future.

i think fall is starting to show itself around here. this am the thermometer registered 33 degrees Fahrenheit. we didn't get a frost, but i am glad we decided to cover up our tender arugula, lettuce and chard over night!

back to work! i sure am glad i brought a sweater today....

productive holiday weekend

greetings! i'm back at work after a gloriously sunny and productive labor day weekend. on the list of accomplishments:

• we made four quarts of tomato sauce using our own tomatoes, peppers and herbs, and local organic garlic


• we canned said tomato sauce, my first canning adventure as an adult (i used to watch my mom can peaches, pears and homemade applesauce as a kid)
  
• we painted yet another wall in the kitchen...only one more to go!
  
• i made a fantastic homemade pesto, roasted pepper and tomatoe pie, using a slightly modified version of this excellent recipe.

this, in addition to all of the usual weekend chores. with time for several lovely walks in the sunshine with cabot and boopers. and dinner with friends.

i am so very much enjoying all of the homegrown food we've been fortunate to savor, too. in addition to the tomato sauce we enjoyed with locally raised beef over pasta, and the pesto pie with VT mozarella, we also had our own grilled zucchini and lots and lots of cucumber salad. mmmmmm.

i can't believe how fast the summer flew by. this month is going to be busy, as we button up outdoor and indoor projects. we have two weddings this month, one local and the other in maine, and also my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary celebration. busy times for sure. hopefully there will also be apple picking in the forecast for september, more bbq-ing with friends, and early evening family walks around the village.

i'll leave you with a few pictures of aubrey, who is busily perfecting her balancing so that she can cruise around the house unaided. don't you love the outfit? a classic example of the "layering" necessitated by early fall weather in VT!