Not one for subtleness

February 10th wasn't that long ago. Two weeks. Fourteen days. Four posts ago. Go ahead, scroll down. You'll see that only 14 short days ago, it was 45 degrees. What. The. Heck.

Douglas Falls

One thing I like about Tucson is that it hides itself pretty well. Yesterday, we went hiking in the Rincons. The mountains in the above picture are the Catalinas, which are relatively close to our house. If we had super binoculars, we might have been able to see our apartment. But, up there on that mountain, looking over the city, you can almost forget that you're looking at over 1,000,000 people.


The whole hike was a complete disaster. Nora started screaming that "RAAA RAA RAAA RAAA RAAA" cry that translates to "I'm ticked and nothing but a good feeding and a nice nap swaddled in my crib is going to fix it" and Lillian tripped and fell on some gravel. We started out the hike with Tyler wearing Nora and I was wearing the backpack with Lillian because the backpack was, it seems, designed for someone of my stature and the hip strap stops before Tyler's belly button. On our last hike, Tyler was very vocal about how it didn't fit and it was very uncomfortable and all the weight was on his shoulders and the only way he could take the pressure off was to bend over, as seen above. So this time, I volunteered to take Lillian. But, turns out, Nora does not like Tyler's rock hard abs, and Lillian is very heavy.


We turned back before we got to Douglas Falls (which I was pretty upset about because we only had 1.3 miles left. Tyler thinks it would be dried up anyway... he's always raining on my parade), and when we got home, Lillian took a nap. Upon waking, she had these red marks on her face. At first, I thought it was a pacifier mark. Then it got redder and spread a little to her eye.


These pictures don't show it very well, but her skin was splotchy around her mouth and up by her left eye.

My best guess, although I'm still not sure what it was all about, is she either 1) ate something she oughtn't have on the trail or 2) had a small allergic reaction to the peanut butter sandwich she worked on in the car but I didn't wipe off her face until we reached home, about 30 minutes later. She didn't complain of it hurting and when I asked if her face itched she replied "yes, no, yes, no... feet," so... I don't know what that means. She's had many peanut butter sandwiches before on the same bread with the same kind of peanut butter. Who knows? It was gone by the time she woke up this morning.

Oh, and because I know I have legions of fans out there who are irritated that they can't get an RSS feed for this blog because it's private, good news: I made it public again. Follow away!

Tumamoc Hill

I used to hike a lot. I used to do an "easy" hike once a week. We decided to do an "easy" hike this past weekend.


There were many strong points to hiking Tumamoc "Hill." Number one: it was beautiful. Number two: it was close. It's in the city, right by A Mountain (which, for the uninitiated, is the name... so it's A, as opposed to B, and not just A, as in one of many). Number three: we saw a lot of wild life, including five deer which we failed to get a picture of.


The website which listed the hike labeled the terrain as 'fire road.' I figured that meant 'wide dirt road' like Madonna Mountain in SLO. Having just junked our jogger stroller, and not wanting to push the regular stroller on dirt, we decided to carry the kids. To her credit, Lillian walked for some, but not much.


For future reference, "fire road" in Arizona, means paved.


The biggest downside, it wasn't easy. OK, well, we did get lapped by the grandmother pushing a double stroller. But, the next day, both Tyler and I were hobbling around like old people. I kept saying, "I didn't used to be so out of shape. When did this happen? When did I become so doughy?" The number two negative is that the name Tumamoc Hill is a total misnomer. You'll notice in the video below a nearby hill. That hill is A Mountain. You'll also probably notice that it looks smaller than the hill we're on. I don't know who was in charge of naming these things, but they screwed it all up.




And, for your enjoyment, Lillian throwing rocks.

Chunky Monkey

We just had our 2-month check up. The results are in:

Weight: 13 lbs 9 oz (99th percentile)
Height: 25 in (99th percentile)
Head size: 15.5 in (70th percentile)

The only slip from Lillian's well baby checks I saved was from her 6 month when she was measured at 25 inches. I've been telling people Nora is a giant, now I have proof.

Snow?

Yes, those are little snow flakes under the weather description. And no, it didn't snow. Well, the picture is of the Catalina mountains from the street by our apartment complex. This morning, the snow was all the way down to the bottom of the mountains. By noon, this is what they looked like.

No snow, but it still is cold and windy. Who knew that Tucson got so cold?

Till Dermatitis Do Us Part

So, I've been wearing this ring for quite some time. Recently, I got a rash under the ring, so I took it off. The rash went away after about a week, so I put the ring back on. Then the rash came back, so I had to take the ring off again. This may or may not have contributed to me getting hit on when I was without children or husband on the UofA campus. I'd just like to think it's because I'm extremely good looking.

Tyler has a nervous habit of taking his ring on and off, on and off. This has started to irritate his knuckle and it's hurting a lot, so he took his ring off to try to retrain his hands to do something else. Thus, for a week or so, neither of us has been wearing our wedding rings.

When I was on my now famous grocery store trip of last Monday, I wasn't wearing my ring and with the elderly Asian woman staring at me, I felt self conscious. I could just hear her thinking, staring at my left hand, wondering why I didn't have a husband. Either feeling bad for me that I was abandoned with two small children, or condemning me as a woman of ill repute.

So, I started wearing Tyler ring as, depressingly, our hands are the same size.

Fake Mustache Day

Do we all remember International Talk Like a Pirate Day? I do. Well, yesterday was International Fake Mustache Day. Tyler brought home "The Bandit."




Of course, we don't look as good as my nephew Jack, but who could?

Grocery Store Fail

My green fingers.

So, we didn't know you were supposed to have 3-D glasses for the Super Bowl. (How were you supposed to know this? Did they tell us on TV? I guess we haven't been watching enough. They were giving them away at Safeway/Von's and Fry's/Kroger, but we shop at Albertson's, so we had no idea.) Anyway, you also need the glasses to watch Chuck tonight, which is one of our shows. I needed chicken bullion anyway, so I thought I'd go over to Fry's to see if I could score some. The bullion located, we headed over to a large Super Bowl display where they had leftover plates, napkins, football-shaped platters, etc, thinking that if they had them, they would be over there. No glasses. But, they did have leftover mini cakes for $1.50. I'm all about that, so I grabbed one. It was about the size of those gigantic muffins that you get at Costco and it was in a plastic 2 piece container that snapped together. Lillian saw it and wanted it right next to her on the seat. Fine. (My mom alarm should have gone off at this point, but it didn't.)

From the time it took me to walk from the display to the check out line, Lillian had opened the cake and dumped it out. Just then, Nora started to scream.

I was standing there trying to hurry with the wipes with a screaming baby while an elderly Asian woman silently looked on from two feet away.

I still needed the bullion, so I got in line. I asked the checker if they had any glasses left.

Checker: The Super Bowl was yesterday.
Me: I know, I was wondering if you had any glasses left over.
Checker: The Super Bowl was yesterday.
Me (Nora is still screaming): I know, but you... (I was going to say you need them to watch Chuck.)
Checker, loudly: It was yesterday, so no.

Ok, no glasses. I did end up buying the cake, but I threw it away right outside the store.

I got out into the parking lot and Nora was still upset. I was set upon by a boy of about 16 who was very dirty and asked if I had anything to eat.

Me as I'm loading screaming Nora into the car: No, I'm sorry, I only bought bullion.
Him: What?
Me: I didn't buy any food, only bullion.
Him: What?
Me: I only have bullion.
Him: What?
Me: Bullion. (At this point, I had loaded Lillian so I just got in the car and left to take solace in Grammar Girl explaining split verb forms.)

Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

Tyler was trying on some clothes, and Lillian wanted to be just like Daddy.

I need help.

See, I've really only been a stay-at-home-mom for 7 months. Sure, I stayed home for a year when Lillian was born, but from 0-12 months, she was an infant. I'm finding out that staying at home with a toddler is much, much different. People would ask me what I did all day when I was at home. Mostly, I did what I wanted to do: I read a lot, I taught myself basic Spanish, I went for runs, I chilled out. I could give Lillian a piece of tape or a box and she'd be good for at least an hour. However, chilling out is no longer an option.

I hold two diametrically opposing views of myself and parenthood. The first view is one I came up with when I was learning to drive stick, namely: people dumber than me do this all the time. 'I'm smart, I can do this.' I've used this little mantra many times in my life to coach myself through a difficult task. The second view I hold is that for some reason, I think that everyone is doing a better job than I am. Whenever I screw up (like last week when I gave Lillian a spoonful of peanut butter and as soon as I turned around, she fed it to Nora. Turns out, Nora is not allergic to peanuts), I think, 'other mom's don't do that.' I don't berate myself, and it's not one mom in particular that I think is so super. I just have this prejudice that other moms, in general, are more together than I am.

Which brings me back to what I need help with. One of the things that (for whatever reason) I fixate on is how much TV Lillian watches. I can't break myself of using that as a measure of how well I'm doing as a mother, and of course, other moms don't let their kids watch that much TV (my brain tells me, but statistically, the average toddler watches about 5 hours of TV a day, so I know this isn't true, but I can't help thinking it). I used to very strictly limit Lillian to about two hours a day: Sesame Street in the morning, and two episodes of something else in the afternoon. Since Nora was born, this has gone out the window, mostly because I've been too tired (or I've been glued to the couch nursing) to do anything else. But now, my problem is that I don't know what else to do.

Say we go to the park in the morning. We'll get home around noon, eat lunch, and Lillian will go down for a nap and sleep for two hours. She's up at 2:30 and there's still 3 hours until Daddy comes home. What to do? Color: 20 minutes. Make a small craft (like, unrolling cotton balls and gluing them to paper): 15 minutes. Play blocks: 10 minutes. Um... color again? You see my problem? I feel like we do this cycle of coloring, reading books, playing play dough, and emptying the dishwasher. What else is there? Is it just that my child isn't very good at entertaining herself?

I ask you moms out there the same question so many asked me: What do you do all day? What kinds of things do you do that are semi-structured but don't take too much time/effort on your part to set up/run? Or do you just say, "go play"?

What kinds of things do you do when you don't have any errands to run, you've already watched two episodes of 'Little Einsteins' and there's 2 hours left before you can reasonably begin making dinner?

Potty Training, My Little Stinker

Lillian often likes to 'eat' food out of books. Just recently, she started feeding it to us. Then, she started feeding Tyler non-food items, like bees and eyeglasses.

The real adventure this morning has been my feeble attempt at potty training. It went something like this:

(note: Throughout this ordeal, I was giving her juice and water almost constantly.)

8:00- attempt #1 to sit on the potty. Successful, chocolate chip reward given.

8:15 - Lillian requests to wear big-girl panties. Request granted.

8:20 - Lillian has an accident. We have a talk about accidents and I make her sit on the potty. Attempt #2 successful as well. Chocolate chip reward given. Second request for big girl panties. Request granted.

8:35 - Attempt #3, unsuccessful. No chocolate chip.

8:40 - Accident #2. Second talk about accidents. Attempt #4 to sit on potty, unsuccessful. Switch to training pants with vinyl cover.

8:50 - Attempt #5, successful. Chocolate chip.

8:52 - Accident #3. More talks. Attempt #6, unsuccessful.

9:10 - Attempt #7, successful. CC.

9:12 - Accident #4. Mom gives up.

Four Years

Tomorrow is our four-year anniversary. This sounds like a lot to me, but my in-laws just celebrated their 40th, so I know it's not that much. Just for fun, here's a look back at what we've been doing this whole time.

2004

Just before I met Tyler, my life had taken a big left turn, but I was pretty sure I had ironed out all the kinks. I was ready to hang out with Claire in SLO, graduate college, and start my career. Tyler walked in, he was way too... nice, so I walked him right back out. But something happened, he wouldn't leave. I liked him OK and all, so I was fine with him hanging around, plus he had a car and I didn't. Pretty soon, I let him take me on another date. To Hearst Castle.

This was the most disasterous date ever, mostly that was my fault. As you can see from the picture below, I had an awful time: women's issues. I was in a lot of pain and I don't know if the day was dry or if my contacts were just old, but they were bugging me so much, I couldn't see very well. I couldn't have been terribly pleasant to be around. (Myriah, maybe this is why I hate Hearst Castle).


But, even though I was awful, Tyler was really concerned. He wanted to help, to make me feel better. He offered to stop and buy me medicine or ice cream or whatever I needed. He rubbed my shoulders or left me alone, depending on my mood. At the time, I had no idea how much it cost to tour the Castle, but after I found out, I thought if the shoes were on the other foot, I would have been irritated that Tyler ruined my day after I paid so much for it. If he had any thoughts of this nature, he never let on. This really turned my opinion of "nice." I decided I wanted a "nice" guy.


After the tour, I felt a little better so we drove up this hill overlooking Morro Bay. You can see Morro Rock just to the left of my face. Even though I had been a horrible date, Tyler asked me out again. And again and again.


By August, Tyler and I still weren't what they used to call "going steady." At least not to me. Then my friend Jen (on the far left of the picture) invited me (far right) to go backpacking in King's Canyon. I bought a new backpack for the occasion thinking I'd use it again and again in my swinging single life. We were gone for a week, during which time, I did nothing besides hike and talk about Tyler and how great he was. It was a surprise to me, I had no idea he was so fabulous. When I got back home and saw him, I realized I had missed him a lot. A lot a lot.


Two months later, we were engaged.

2005

Three months after that, we were married. Everyone warned me that the first year is the hardest, and after four year, I'd have to disagree; the first year was the easiest.


We were both in school, so our lives weren't terribly exciting, but we went on a few trips during those first months. Around May, I think, we hiked Half Dome in Yosemite. This was my last big hike. I haven't used my backpack again because...


In October, one year after we got engaged, I found out I was pregnant.


This was our dining room in our apartment on Boysen street. That was a great year: the Winter Olympics and the World Cup, Patrick and Peter across the street, Claire and Liz two streets over, dinner parties, Trivial Pursuit, Settlers of Cattan (or rather, Settlers of Zarahemla), Farmer's Markets, the Geek Movie, a lot of good music mostly provided by Claire.

2006

When I was four months pregnant, we hiked Bishop's Peak. I knew it was the last time I'd get to be up there for awhile.


In July, Lillian was born. Here we try to give her her first Gravenstein apple. She doesn't seem terribly interested. Mmmmn, Gravensteins.


December was a big month. Above is my first run in with a jalapeno. I saw someone on TV chop up a jalapeno with their bare hands for guacamole. I decided to do this as well, with disasterous consequences. Within minutes, nay seconds, my face was on fire. I called my mother and Tyler's mother to find out how to make the burning stop. My hands started burning. We consulted the internet. I put baking soda, baking powder, and vinegar on my face. All to no avail. So take heed: if you're going to chop up a jalapeno, wear ziplock baggies on your hands, or get someone else to do it for you.


Over Christmas break, we took a trip up to Oregon to go snowboarding on Mt. Hood with the Saponases.

2007

In February, we went on a hike with our friend Liz. I remember this hike because Liz pretended to ride a bike like she was on that Capitol One commercial. It was very funny. Lillian hated this backpack/carrier. She screamed the whole hike. Around this time, I joined a hiking mom's group in an effort to make friends with other moms. I went hiking every week for a few months but didn't make any friends. Probably because it's hard to make small talk when your baby is screaming bloody murder.


And who could forget the dog sweater? My Chinese friend Patrick bought us this dog sweater for my baby shower. His line of thinking was that babies crawl with their arms out in front, like a dog, so wouldn't dog clothing fit better than human clothing? Did I mention he's a mechanical engineer? And Chinese?


Our friend Blake (who's taking the picture) took us river rafting on the American River. That was pretty fun, although not as fun as when he took Tyler the year before.


In December, Vivian took our family pictures in Goleta. She does such a great job, and she's great. I want to grow up to be just like her.



Also, at the First Annual Canaan Christmas Party at the Cohen's, I got Tyler to do the unthinkable: we karaoked "Baby It's Cold Outside" in front of other people. If I didn't have this picture to prove it, I would think I dreamed it. This party was such a good time, I'm sorry I missed the Second Annual CCPC.

2008

You guys all remember this last year, so I won't go too much into it. We took a trip to DC and Boston.


We took a trip to San Francisco (although this was before our trip to DC because I still had long hair, sorry for them being out of order) and saw the Wave Organ and Alcatraz.


I found out I was pregnant in March. Tyler and Lillian dressed up like superheroes to disrupt my study time.


We graduated college and had a big farewell party at Port San Luis attended by no less than five Ashbys (if you count Jerry and Levi) and Liz and my entire family (except for the Maryland Calders, and they were missed). Vivian took this picture of Lillian in the sand. She does such great work. I passed my boards, Tyler defended his thesis, we moved to Arizona, and I had Nora (not pictured).


To those who say the first year is the hardest, I say what about a few nights ago when Nora was colicky all day and then up ever hour and a half from 11-4 and just after she went to sleep, Lillian trotted into our room to tell us she had a messy diaper and my husband, who doesn't function well on little sleep, had to get up to go to work the next day and I had to get up and care for two children under three all day? Huh? How can arguing over where to put the couch compare to that?

But, when everything calms down, when I watch Lillian twirl around and tell me she's a ballerina, or when I look at Tyler asleep on the couch with Nora on his chest, or a million other times a day when I'm amazed by how great life is, it's all worth it.

Snow Day

When we first got here to Tucson, we'd ask people questions like directions to someplace, where to get a good pizza, or what do does one do for fun here. Whoever we asked would say, 'oh you must be new. Where did you move from?' We'd say we moved from the central coast of California and without fail, the person would scrunch up their face and say, 'why did you leave? and why would you come here?' I got the overwhelming sense that everyone who lived here was looking for a way to leave. Maybe because I knew we were here for the long haul, five years at least, I tried to like Tucson. Up until a few weeks ago, I thought I was doing a pretty good job. Then my friend Myriah posted about my favorite place in the world, Montana de Oro. I realized that I miss SLO so much and Tucson stinks.

I decided to renew my efforts. I thought and thought about what, exactly I liked about SLO. I made a mental list and I discovered I liked it because it had things that no other place had. Surely Tucson has things that no other place has. Maybe I would like Tucson more if I formed more associations with things that belong to just here.

Thus, we decided to visit Mt. Lemmon and play in the snow.

At first, Lillian was into it. The snow was cold, but nothing we couldn't handle.

Good times were had sliding down the hills.

Then we decided to go for a little walk.

We found this snow cave someone had built. Here's Lillian and Tyler contemplating whether or not to go in. Lillian decided against it.

We set her in front of it to take a picture and she FREAKED out. Maybe she thought we were going to push her inside.

That was the beginning of the end of our outing.

I stopped to take some pictures of these icicles and that stop was 20 seconds longer than she wanted to stay. All of a sudden, the snow was too cold, too snowy, too outside, and too not accompanied by Toy Stories as she calls it.

Here's the meltdown in action. Total time spent in the snow: 20 minutes. Total time to drive one way: 1.5 hours.

I look awful in this picture. Really horrible; I'm not sure why I'm posting it. Oh well.