It's Fun To Stay at the

Risking Rudeness?

I had an incident today that put me in a bind.

I just signed Frannie up for her first "real" ballet class over at Village Dance Arts in Claremont. If you aren't familiar with it, it is a dinky studio with an even dinkier waiting area (as most studios are).

We got there early, but soon enough lots of families were filing in and it quickly became apparent to me that Natalie's presence was akin to having a puppy in the room. It seemed like every child in there wanted to do "goo goo ga ga" in her face and tickle her tummy and all the rest of it. I usually find it lovely the way children so instantly love babies, but being that it is flu season every time someone came up to her I got a little nervous.

One boy in particular came up and I saw that he had red-rimmed glassy eyes and he looked a bit disheveled and he was smiling so joyfully and grabbed her hands.

In my brain I'm going back and forth- my brain is saying "GET AWAY FROM MY BABY WITH YOUR GRUBBY HANDS!" and then my other side is saying "But he is so sweet and I really don't want to hurt his feelings and I know he just finds such delight with my baby."

So I got up and nonchalantly went to the bathroom to wash her hands.

But then here he comes again, and now his sister is there. His mom can see that I'm getting antsy and she tells her kids to leave the baby alone. I did finally explain to her that I'm just paranoid about flu-season and that I don't mind if they hold the baby's feet.

In a few minutes class lets out and little girls are filing past and one stops and kisses Natalie right on the lips. And my brain does another split-thought ACK! GET AWAY!" vs. "Oh you are just such a sweet girl aren't you?"

Turns out this nice girl was the other sister of the little boy with the red-rimmed eyes. So this lady has such loving kids and all I can think about is wondering how many germs they are possibly harboring.

Next time I'm just going to take a 45 minute walk with the double-stroller while Frannie does her lesson.

Anyways, what would you do? How do you handle baby etiquette?

P.S. Oh yes and Frannie did very well! I like this class much more than the class I took her to in La Verne awhile back. In that class it seemed like the kids spent most of the 45 minutes waiting in line until it was their turn to do some kicks across the floor or a wobbly chaine' turn. But here the girls were moving the whole time, prancing around like horses and running around the room in a big circle fluttering their arms like butterflies. More fun. More work on posture. It's good.

Good Chicky Recipe

I read this post about cooking a whole chicken in a crock pot and got some good tips.

I often cook pork and beef in the crock pot but have not made many whole chicken attempts since Jason thinks crock pot chicken makes the house smell weird.

The above post though had a great tip that worked out very well. After stuffing the cavity with celery, onion, and carrot, place the chicken into the crock pot on top of a few aluminum foil balls to keep it raised. Then just season with salt and paprika and set to low. Don't add any water.

This technique gave the chicken more of a rotisserie flavor and was very good.

I now have the bones, leftover chicken juice, and more celery, carrot, and onion cooking (with about 6 cups of water) to make some broth. My neighbor does this every time she makes chicken and she never has to buy canned.

My Three Sweeties

Unfocused, but I like it anyways. Oh and I posted several pictures today so if you get a direct feed to your blog you won't see the other pictures. Click on the dancing family link to scroll through.

Drunk on Cake

Cross Dressing

Big Smiles

I'm telling you this little baby is so cute and so sweet I can barely stand it. Oh yes, and she's 5 months old today!! Big girl :)

Adventures with Grandma Bobbie

This is what happens when mom stays home, and Grandma Bobbie is in charge.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BicycleFriends#p/a/u/1/tI3pbjnYZTU


http://www.youtube.com/user/BicycleFriends#p/a/u/0/01LChG8fZIA

5 Things I'd Rather Be Doing Than Zoning on the Computer

I have developed this ridiculous habit in the evening of "just checking my email" and then it turns into this click-a-thon back and forth between my various email accounts and Facebook. Sure, I read up on birth news and do a little research, but mostly I'm just zoning and wasting ridiculous amounts of time and going to bed too late. Why do I do this? Why do I get sucked in? Blech.

So here are 5 things I should do instead with my time:

1. Update my blog. Have you noticed that I don't update barely anything anymore? And I have an absolutely ADORABLE 4 month old baby? Don't you know that I have some beautifully cute scrumptious pictures in my camera that need to be loaded? Mmm hmmm...I need to update.

2. Input new Bradley students into the AAHCC website. Every time I have a new student they have to fill out this little yellow registration card and I'm supposed to input some info into the AAHCC database. I also record info about their birth. I have, let's see...(counting) 17 cards to input. I have PLENTY of time to do this. I just need to do a few a day and I'll be done really quickly. So stop zoning Jamie and input the dumb cards!

3. Read. I don't read anything anymore. Well, except for news articles related to birth stuff and most recently the flu. I click around and read other people's blogs. Occasionally I'll follow a link to an interesting article. But I haven't read an actual book with a plot-line in a really long time. Wasn't I an English major? What happened to that? I sometimes think my attention span has been reduced to naught.

4. Crochet. I am currently working on a blanket for my niece Catie. I was a very enthusiastic crocheter in the the beginning but I since haven't touched the thing in about two months. I know that if I just worked on it in the evening even for just a half hour I would get a lot accomplished. I'd like to give the blanket to her for her 5th birthday, but that means I must CROCHET THE BLANKET.

5. Pantry plan. One of my most important jobs in this household is to make sure we eat. I take a bit of pride in being a household where there is warm dinner every evening cooked by m'oi. I actually only cook three times a week typically because I always make enough for a second day, but the point is is that there is food and I want it to be nutritious and have some variety. Well, lately, I've been really slacking in the dinner department and I don't like it. Part of the problem is that it has become such a chore to grocery shop with the kids and I have three different grocery stores that I like. Trader Joes has the milk, eggs, juice and cereal. Sprouts has the bulk goods like oatmeal, beans, rice, and they sell very tasty sausage and have good sourdough bread. They also have good prices on produce. Stater Bros. has a good meat department and deli, and everything else that I need like sandwich bags, paper towels, and really anything else. However, I only have the energy for one major grocery store trip a week. This means that I'm either compromising and paying too much for something that is lesser quality at one of the stores or I need to plan ahead better and stock up on certain goods while I'm at a particular store. Or do what I have been doing lately which is not plan well at all and not have the right ingredients for stuff so then come dinnertime it is a big shrug because I don't have much to work with. So, I need to use my time in the evening to take stock so that when I do go to the store I'm not forgetting so much.

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In writing this all out I hope that I can keep better focus of what I can be doing in the evening.

Ice Cream and Grandpa

Growing Up

Here's my little Frannie. She sure is getting bigger and smarter and a little sassier too. She's my oldest girl but I still love my cuddles from her. I feel a little bit sad sometimes that this is my last year with her at home full-time before Kindergarten starts. I know she will really love going to school, but I can't help in wanting to keep her my little girl here at home with me.

To my darling dear, I love you so so so so much. You are my sweet princess girl with your long flowy hair and noodley legs. I love the little space between your two front teeth that is just the way your daddy's teeth looked when he was a boy. I love your giggly girlish laugh and the way you turn your lips and chin up when you don't want to do something. Hmph!

You love your cuddlin' and you still like for me to sing to you and tuck you in nice like a flower and sprinkle raindrops on your head before you sleep. You wake up every morning and have cereal with Daddy before work and he puts on a "secret movie" for you to watch until I get up with Natalie.

You love Adam very much. When you are apart from him for just an hour or so the first thing you want to do is find him and give him a kiss. He feels the same about you. He cries "Wecca!" when you go anywhere without him. Of course the two of you also fight, fight, fight, fight...but then you get back to playing and making the house loud with your fun. Joyful noise I never mind.

I just love you so much. We all do. Daddy loves you. Adam. Baby Natalie. Grandma Bobbie and Grandpa Marr. Grandma Carol and Grandpa Tom. Auntie Jenny and Doreen and your cousins too of course.