Potty Time!

Here are some fun pix I took over the weekend. Dave gives Hadleigh her bath every night, and one thing he has noticed is that as soon as he turns the water to the bath on, HC pees. After some chastisement he now tells me when she pees on the bathroom rug so that I can wash it, but that is another story. He thought it would be a fun experiment to see if HC would pee on the toilet, so a week ago he took her diaper off, put her on the toilet and turned on the bath. Amazingly she went! Ever since that night he has put her on the toilet, and 6 out of 8 times she has gone.

We both think this is completely hilarious. HC just loves sitting on the toilet and likes the added attention Dave gives her if she actually goes.

The Undomestic Devil?

I have done some reading recently which has been fun. I feel like I took a break from reading while we moved and transitioned, and now I am back to it.

Two of my fun recent reads were The Devil Wears Prada and The Undomestic Goddess. Both were hilariously funny, and actually had similar themes. I'll have to say that I was really excited to read the Devil book, and then to watch the flick (which recently won a Golden Globe). Overall I was a little disappointed with how the book resolved, and the movie was just OK. If you have the choice, choose the book over the movie. The Devil is about a recent college grad, Andy, who desires to be a writer for the New Yorker, but in desperation takes a job as the second assistant for Miranda Priestly, editor-in-chief of Runway magazine, the top fashion mag in the country. The deal is that if Andy works for Miranda for a year and doesn't get fired, she will be able to get a top job anywhere (specifically at the New Yorker). The problem is that Andy essentially gives her life away, as working for Miranda requires being on call at every minute. After surviving almost a year and essentially losing almost everything she finally tells Miranda where to stuff it. In my opinion it wasn't soon enough.

The Goddess book was a lot of fun. This book follows Samantha, top lawyer at the largest firm in England. She is about to make partner when she royally fouls up a job and is fired. In a drunken stupor she winds up in a little English town in the country and interviews for the job of housekeeper and cook (of which she knows nothing). The rest of the book is devoted to her foibles of learning how to cook and clean, and leaving behind the fast paced life of work and "success".

Both were interesting and fun reads, and both seemed to comment on the rat race of the "civilized" western world. I will mention that both books are a bit crude, but if you enjoy a fun read like Bridgett Jones' Diary, then you will enjoy these books.

I am currently reading Presbyterian Creeds, yea, I know a completely different genre. I will write more on that when I have finished it. I think the title is kind of humorous. The title leads you to believe that these creeds are written by Presbyterians or something to that nature, but the book looks at the historic creeds that have shaped the theology of Reformers, specifically those who are Presbyterians.

To comment on the picture above, it obviously has no connection with the post. Hadleigh and I went to Piedmont a couple weeks ago to play some football. HC was a little irritated that I wouldn't let her play. She was showing me that she does have a game face.

Miss HC Goes to the Park

OK, HC has been to many parks, but this is the first time we took her to a park and let her play on the equipment. Saturday was a beautiful day and we couldn't let it pass without some time outside.

We usually run down to Piedmont when we have some time, but decided that to maximize Hadleigh's time at the park we should stick around here. She had a great time. She went down the slide, played in the wood (I guess wood chips now replace sand), swung in a big swing with Dada and a little swing by herself, and took a hike across a creek and through the woods.

Ten Months

Two weeks ago Hadleigh Claire turned 10 months. I cannot believe that my little baby is almost a year old! I think she continues to get more fun with each day she grows, and that makes each day with her a treasure.

She has mastered crawling, and is all over the house and into everything. She has begun to pull up onto her knees, but will rarely pull up to standing, although she seems to enjoy standing.

The pincher grab is a new trick, and she enjoys sitting in her high chair eating her string cheese and cheerios. This grab has also become highly useful to suck on and eat other yummy things that she finds on the floor. She especially likes crumbs, leaves, rocks, pennys, and worms. I vacuum the house everyday, but nonetheless I feel like she just goes behind the vacuum and picks up everything the vacuum did not get.

She has graduated to a convertible car seat, which I think is somewhat of a pain, but am getting used to it. Her baby car seat is still out in the dining room, as we have yet to put it away, but HC loves to play in it. She will stretch out with the top half of her body in the car seat and she enjoys pressing the seat belt release button. She could do that for hours on end.

Eating is one of her favorite activities. I am still nursing, but only half the time, the other half she gets soy formula because we think she has some sort of milk intolerance. We haven't noticed any reaction to other dairy products, just milk and ice cream. She continues to love yogurt, cottage cheese and string cheese. We think that we have caught a couple of allergies, one to melon, and one to peanut butter. We are still checking this out, and I plan to talk to the ped when we go in for her 1 year appt. For breakfast she generally has super porridge, which consists of oatmeal, lentils, egg yolk, sweet potatoe and green beans. For lunch she enjoys yogurt with peaches and ground up pumpkin seeds (she really liked yogurt with pb and banana until I noticed she was having a reaction). Dinner always is a mish-mash of whatever Dada can get his hands on...squash, carrots, apples, broccoli, etc. This month she is looking forward to trying whole grain pasta.

Bargains

I have been meaning to post for the past couple of weeks, but for some reason everytime I think of something to write about I never have the time. This has been a post in the making for a while. I havve been rather discouraged since arriving back in the US at how expensive food is. A few weeks ago I was making Bowtie Chicken Pasta and the recipe calls for pecans. I was horrified to find that a bag of pecans at Kroger cost $9.00. I mean, really, for a bag of pecans?

I knew that we were spoiled being in Germany. The produce was always inexpensive on the economy and we had the luxury of shopping at the commissary on post, so we were able to buy a lot of our food for super cheaper. I can't remember how much a bag of pecans in Germany cost, but I know it was less than $9.

Before we moved over to Germany I was a die-hard Publix shopper. I hated Kroger, refused to get one of their cards, and also to step foot inside one. Since being back I still have not completely reconciled my love-hate relationship with Kroger, but I do shop there weekly and I finally have one of those lame cards. In my opinion, the card doesn't save you much, it just gives them an opportunity to inflate costs for the unfortunate few who don't have a card. But anyway.

Before I left for Germany I heard about Coupon Mom and her little system, and since returning to the states, I have been committed to clipping coupons and buying sale items. It has been fun to see how much I have been saving, and now I am totally addicted. Last week Dave was home on Monday so I was able to go shopping alone and able to hit all three stores on my list. I had my lists of what to get at each store, and headed out. First I hit the Farmer's Market which is like produce heaven. All produce is about half the price of what it is at Kroger or Publix. I don't know why everyone doesn't shop there. It always makes me happy to load up on produce and pay $15.00 for a cart-full of fruits and veggies. Next I hit Publix for my main groceries, and it was so fun to pass their produce section and scoff at those shopping there. $1.39 for an avocado...ha...I paid $1.00 for 2 avocados at the FM. And now that I am so familiar with the grocery stores I can easily say $2.19 for a packet of yeast, I think I can get that cheaper at Kroger and I could! After Publix I hit Kroger for my last items, and then home. It was true that I found Kroger's yeast was $1.89 for a packet. I also noticed that the bag of coleslaw I was going to buy at Kroger was $2.79, but fortunately I had picked it up for $1.49 at the FM.

I came home in such a good mood telling Dave how much I had saved.

I am slowly getting this down to a science, and was able to hit all 3 stores with my list in hand and return home in less than 2 hours. And that even included running home for a minute to pick up something I forgot and bumping into my bud Christina at Publix. I never knew I could be a bargain shopper, but with a little planning and commitment, I am addicted.

Final disclaimer: While I do now tolerate Kroger, it is only a means to an end, I always will be a Publix girl at heart.