Nathalie's Notes

Road trip confessions

Sorry about the lack of posting this week. Believe me, it is not for lack of something to say! After meeting my deadline at pretty much the last minute, I packed Sam and myself up for a whirlwind trip to Washington to catch up with some old friends and meet up with my biological family.

We're back home now and fighting a little cold. I think with the help of Glenna's essential oil treatments I should be feeling better soon. There is, it turns out, such a thing as too much Oregano oil.

I spent most of the drive huffing a tissue laced with tea tree oil. Sam was basically a trooper but man, when he's done being in the car, he is done. He threw what I can only describe as a total shit-fit starting in about Kalama and ending about six miles from home where he fell asleep. Perfect. During the red-face, fists-clenched "mommy, please stop beating me" screaming, I - briefly, entertained the thought of taking my water bottle and dumping it over his unreasonable head. In his defense, though, he'd been in the car for five hours and had no way to know I was a) feeling like complete crap and b) stuck in traffic with no way to help him. We made it home, safe and dry. Which, by the way, gives new meaning to the Slovak expression "Slava nasmu vyletu, nezmokli sme a uz sme tu."

Deadline Mommy

I suspect Deadline Mommy will not be Sam's favorite. Deadline Wife is not Matt's favorite either but he knows it's coming and that it'll be over soon. He also knows how to make it smoother: Stay. Away. I get all wigged out and walk around muttering to myself. I'm sitting at the dinner table, maybe even carrying on a conversation, but I'm somewhere else entirely. I get snappy and stressed and wonder why I am working as a writer when there are other perfectly good jobs that don't make me feel like I'm exposing myself, so to speak. It's sort of a manic time, though, because I also get giddy when my pile of Post-it notes and index cards come together and I know I've hit my stride. Now it's just a matter of editing down to the assigned word count. 600 words. Crazy, I know. I have so much more to say! The guilt of not posting while every spare minute I had went to the column finally got to me. Plus, I'm procrastinating.

Ditching story time

A couple weeks ago I took Sam to story time at Third Street Books. I felt a little silly at first but I really needed to a) give myself a break and b) well, pretty much just needed the break. The Story Time Lady aka Linda, was terrific. She adapted the reading to the varied age levels and personalities present. I watched with amusement wondering which "type" of kid Sam will become. And would it be different if we called him Knox?

But I digress. Story time was a hit. Sam loved interacting with the other kids. I think he spent most of the time looking at the four girls present and plotting how he could reach their hair long enough to give a good yank. The rest of the time he tried to eat my shoes. 

This Sunday, we planned to go to story time with Amy and Ella. By some double miracle, we arrived in plenty of time and both kids were asleep. So we decided to ditch story time and hit the coffee shop instead. It turned out to be a fun afternoon strolling Third Street and checking out the mayhem that is Alien Daze. 

Me: Do you feel like if you just had three hands it would be okay?

Amy: Yea. Or like two right hands.

Our napping, crawling, Xhosa-speaking genius

This just in: Sam napped today. At home. In the house. In his crib. For more than an hour! I can count on one hand the number of times that has happened in his seven months on the Earth. He's a good one for napping in the car. With gas at nearly $4 a gallon, we needed to find another way. This recent heat wave, 90 plus degree days in Oregon, gave us a solution I hadn't considered before, a fan. It's not perfect, but seems to be helping! When I gushed about this to a friend this weekend she warned me he will need that noise to sleep into adulthood. But he'll be alive! So if a lifetime of needing white noise is the price he pays for a good night's sleep, his and mine, so be it.

This is Sam's "Oh no you didn't" face. Love his facial expressions. The picture is taken moments before he broke the wind chime. He is surprisingly strong. He is crazy crawling now. He does this funny little thing with his back leg where he looks ready to stand. He is, in fact, trying to stand from a seated position. I'm impressed with how determined he is.

He's coming up with new sounds nearly daily. He busts out with them upon waking up, as if he's been contemplating the new sound all night. The other day he woke up making this clicking noise, perhaps in preparation for a trip to South Africa?

"That seems very advanced to me." Matt said when he heard him doing it tonight.

"I told you he's a genius!"

We may have found a new key to

Peanut Gallery, etc.

This picture of Sam is one of my new favorites. It is so very him. When I showed it to Matt, my suddenly fashion conscious husband, he said: "I don't know honey. Plaid hat with a striped shirt?" You'd know how ironic this is given some of the outfits Matt puts together without flinching. But still, great, now I'm the mom who dresses my kid funny.

At 9 a.m. it's already 73 degrees in our house. Could be worse, I could be pregnant. I took Sam to Winco yesterday for a few groceries and to enjoy the air conditioning. Amy asked me later if I was enjoying our new air conditioner. Oh, right. We have that now. Of course, we can't use it until I find the damn manual and figure out how to program it. So we'll have to go to Dairy Queen later. You know, to cool down.

Date at the dump?

I'm not allowed to post what I've written for another column, but I can link to it. :) If you're within driving distance of Manzanita and looking for something awesome to do Friday night - check out my new post at EcoMetro.

Random notes from paradise

I had a dream that Sam met President Bush. Good ol' Dubyah just happened to be walking along as I pushed Sam in his stroller. President Bush got this goofy look on his face. Oh, wait. It might've been there before. Even the President was unable to resist Sam's charm. He cooed at him as Sam cocked his head to the side, his blue eyes clouding over as they narrowed and then, my normally cheerful baby started wailing.

Man. My little guy is so smart.

In other news ... why.the.hell. can't I get anything done start to finish? In the spirit of full disclosure, the blame can not be placed solely at Baby Chi Chi's feet. It was a problem before. It's just much worse now. Much, much worse. Today I will attempt to excavate Mt. Laundry.

Babe? What have you done with all of my white shirts? Matt asked the other day as he realized he was down to wearing his Mopar tank top under his workshirt.

Uhm. Nothing. Well, I moved them to the laundry room and there they sit. Rotting. Probably we should just buy some new ones. I, the antithesis of June Cleaver, replied. 

Don't worry about finding them on sale this time. He said, laughing.

Did I tell you guys about that? Since Sam has been sucking the smart right out of me I have done some pretty odd, slightly ridiculous things. Twice I bought Matt some white shirts that were on mega-sale. I put them in his clean shirts pile both times without noticing they were made for boys who still believed in the tooth fairy.

Mel's Dinner in a Pinch

(adapted from Cooking Light and my ineligible notes from the car)

Ingredients:

Spinach (calls for a bag, use what you have, or less if you want Spinach for tomorrow)

4 cups Broth (calls for chicken, but use what you have)

1 can Great Northern Beans (also called Cannellini)

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup sliced carrots (or not - I added some celery too. Mushrooms would be good, too. Unless, of course, you know how disgusting they are.)

some chopped meat if you a) have it and b) feel like it

Directions:

1) figure out what it is you have and what you can substitute

2) saute veggies and chopped meat

3)Add broth, Italian seasonings, pepper/salt to taste

4) Bring to boil. After it's boiling add spinach for one minute to wilt.

5) Serve.

Serve with Chicken Salad Sandwich. Wait. What? Didn't have time to stop at the deli for exorbitantly priced chicken salad? No worries. You can, get this, make your own.

You had time to make the chicken salad? I asked Mel, amazed. She has, after all, twice as many kids as I do!

Well, I had the ingredients on hand.

Yeah but by the time you cook the chicken and ...

No, the chicken is in a can. You know, like tuna.

Genius.

So in case you've never made it like someone we all know and love (or why are you still reading this?!)

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Ingredients:

can of drained chicken (did I mention this is pure genius?!)

mayo/miracle whip/Smart Balance whatever

Splash of Dijon - if you have it

chopped celery, onion, or something else crunchy.

Mel suggested adding almonds - yum.

Directions:

Mix. Serve on bread, bagels, pita, or if all of those are molded, scoop into avocado. Call it dinner.

Scenes from the Zoo

Three kids + two friends + one day at the zoo = an awesome afternoon.

 

Mel and I took the kids to the zoo on Friday. Does that ever stop sounding foreign - the kids? As it was a big day for school field trips, I was, at times, tempted to throw on my old school secretary "don't run in the halls" hat but for the most part I was grateful not to be in charge of any of them. Especially when the gazelles got frisky.

Since Sam lights up every time he sees Lucy, I was pretty sure he was going to dig being at the zoo. Especially since he got to go with his buddies Sofia and Cassia. It was the best afternoon. We had a picnic lunch (thank you Mel) on the lawn and got to watch moms compete with each other over who was doing the best job taking care of their precious Petunias or Phillip Maximillian the Thirds. It is so refreshing and relaxing being able to hang out with one of my BFF's and my Very First Friend Ever and not worry about whether or not I packed the right things to prove that I'm a good mom. Sam has, by the way, pretty much outgrown his days of me packing him around in the Bjorn. This lead to making a purchase at my beloved Babies R Us on the way home to buy the very thing I once mocked. More on that another day.

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm borrowing a computer to write up a quick post but just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day! I was surprised to find myself more excited about Mother's Day than my own birthday. I've wanted to be able to celebrate this day for a long time. Sam delighted me by sleeping in a bit and Matt helped him pick out some flowers for me. I look forward to the macaroni necklaces in my future. He is an awesome little boy and I am so, so lucky to be his mama. And, of course, how could I sign off without a special shout-out to my own mother who taught me so much about what it means to be a good mom? Aj ja teba, Mami!