Nose strips.

Skylar and I have been getting sick ever since we left home. At first we thought it was allergies, then a cold, and it culminated in a sinus infection (at least for me) resulting in a trip to the ER the day before Thanksgiving.

Anyway, Skylar was snoring from all the congestion so Aunt Nicole (an avid nose strip user) tried to convince her that wearing a nose strip would be fun. Skylar is already afraid of band-aids because "they hurt" (and she's a bit of a drama queen) so a nose strip sent her spiraling into a fit of hysteria.

She was happily munching on a chocolate covered marshmallow when Nicole adhered the strip and sabotaged her happiness. You can see the trepidation in her eyes (and the chocolate dripping down her chin).....
The nose strip was spreading her little nose and pushing up the skin under her eyes......she was not a fan.
Skylar felt betrayed. How could Aunt Nicole, who usually has such fun ideas, do something like this? All she wanted was eat her treat in peace. This was not a fun idea.

We eventually distracted her, but the nose strip only lasted an hour and came off right before bed. A pity, because no doubt we all would have slept better that night without the little freight train in the room.

No pictures and lots of tears.

This will be a picture-less post.

In fact, until yesterday, every post was in danger of being a picture-less post.

Because I left my camera on an airplane.

It traveled to Philadelphia without me, tucked snugly under seat 26F (that would be the very last row--the one by the horrifically stinky bathroom). I left it there when we landed in Dallas and I was struggling to get Skylar's car seat unhooked, and grab the car seat bag, and my purse, and the diaper bag, and the carry-on. Meanwhile the stewardess nazi was staring me down, not helping of course, just waiting for me to hurry up so she could get off.

The very same stewardess nazi who woke Skylar and I up on the first leg of the flight (before her car seat was in place) to tell me she couldn't sleep on my lap even though we were in the air with the seat belt light turned off and the poor child had been up since 3:30 am.

It was a safety issue.

Then we landed and even though our connecting flight was on the same plane and they announced we didn't have to disembark, she still made us get off with all of our stuff because our seats weren't confirmed yet. We ended up in the exact same seats we had started in. But it was really fun to haul everything off the plane and then back on again.

The same stewardess told me Skylar couldn't watch her dvd player because she didn't have headphones even though the volume was so low I could barely hear it sitting next to her. She said people might be trying to sleep. Ironic since the constant slamming of the bathroom door made that impossible. And any errant noise from a dvd player was nothing compared to Skylar's wailing protests when I had to turn it off.

She was an evil troll dragon, bless her heart.

Anyway, an hour after landing I realized I didn't have my camera.

Panic.

I caught a shuttle back to the terminal and went to the baggage claim office and blubbered to the lady working. And I am not a crier. I cry maybe twice a year. Maybe. Not even when I'm pregnant do I feel the need to cry. I just don't.

But as soon as she called the gate and told me that the plane had already left and no camera had been turned in, the water works started. I shamelessly blamed my exhaustion from being up since 3 am and traveling with a toddler, the raging pregnancy hormones, and my husband's recent deployment for my stupid mistake. I needed all the sympathy and cooperation I could get.

My pathetic emotional break-down worked.

Kathy, the nice desk clerk, more than compensated for the evil troll dragon nazi stewardess with her kindness and willingness to help as she made phone call after phone call and told my sad story to everyone.

Three hours later the plane landed and my camera was recovered, put in lost and found and then FedExed to me that same day. I had it sent to Colorado for the last half of our trip.

Kristy called to tell me it was at her house yesterday.

Praise the Lord.

So Skylar and I have been deep in the heart of Texas for almost a week now visiting all kinds of people and I haven't gotten any pictures with family, old friends and new babies.

Despite our rocky start, we're having a great time.

There just aren't any pictures to show for it.

Mediterranean Quinoa

In the last 24 days I have cooked exactly twice, and that was this past Saturday and Sunday when we had company for dinner. I've done some baking for different things, but as far as meal planning goes, there is no plan around here. In fact, I cooked my first meat since Micah left this past weekend.

So what the heck are we eating? Skylar eats what she always has: fruits, vegetables, cheese, yogurt, peanut butter and noodles. (When I say peanut butter I'm not talking about a sandwich--she just wants a spoon of peanut butter. Weird.) I always offer her what I'm eating, but now that she's two she usually looks at something and says "I no liiiike that" in a whiny voice that makes me a little crazy.

I pretty much eaten whatever sounds good, a sandwich, salad, veggie burger, bean and cheese quesadilla, beans and rice, cereal.....whatever is fast and easy. I drink a lot of milk so I know I'm getting plenty of protein. I'm sure it'll get old eventually, but for now I like not having to think about what to make for dinner. Although if Micah came back tomorrow, I would be more than happy to cook for him. It's just not fun to cook for yourself and a two year old who lives on dust and air and gumballs.

Anyway, I love Mediterranean food. LOVE it. I also really like Quinoa (keen-wah) ever since I discovered it in Whole Foods a few years ago. It's a "super food" and if you aren't familiar you should read up on it. It's really high in protein, so it's a good meat substitute. But lets face it, I'm not that healthy, I just eat it because I think it tastes good. And it's easy to find, they sell it in the rice/grain aisle of any grocery store.

It makes a great side dish, similar to rice or Cous Cous, but I like to make mine into a salad. Throw a little meat on top to make the man in your life happy, and it's a legitimate meal. It's been a couple of months since I made this (I just like to photograph my food when I cook--mostly because it stands still and doesn't fight me) but lately it's been sounding really good:

There is no recipe, I just cook the Quinoa substituting chicken broth for water (per the directions on the package) and then throw in my favorite ingredients. In this case:

-diced red onion

-Kalamata olives

-cherry tomatoes

-crumbled feta (They've changed the rules--you can eat soft cheese if you're pregnant as long as it says on the package it's been pasteurized, and feta usually is).

-flat leaf parsley

It's good warm or cold. Give it a try!

Collections.

I am not a collector. In fact, I am anti-collection. It's fine for other people, but there was never anything I wanted to collect.

Except maybe shoes. And scarves. And earrings. Does clothing count? Nah.

I did collect starburst wrappers when I was ten (please remember I was homeschooled and never got to eat candy). And my sisters had a sweet collection of key chains.

What about sippy cups? We definitely have a collection of those (and this doesn't even include the half dozen strewn around the house and car)..... Basically, I am opposed to the idea of a glass case full of creepy china dolls or stuffed animals. Or a deafening chorus of wind chimes on the porch. Or a grouping of Hallmark figurines of any kind. Or those stained glass thingy's that hang from suctions cups on a window. Or even having 50 serving bowls when I only use 2 or 3 at a time. (No offense if one of those is your fave).

Anyway, it's funny how collections sneak up on you. They start out as things you are drawn to and subconsciously start to accumulate like when I unpacked and realized I had 16 candlesticks. Or maybe other people notice you like something and they start gifting you more of them and then one day you wake up and you are driving around with 500 beanie babies displayed in your car. (Let's hope not).

The other day I was at the sink and I realized that what started out as three inkwells in my window sill is accumulating......

It's on it's way to being a collection. And I'm okay with that.

So maybe I'm a collector after all. Maybe we all are. As long as we don't end up on "Hoarders: Buried Alive" I guess it's okay.

Why yes I am!

Almost every time Skylar meets someone when we're out around town they say to her "Aren't you pretty!" It's been that way most of her life so she just kind of expects it now. She usually agrees with them and then says "My shoes are pretty too!"

So today Skylar decided to beat them to the punch and she walked up and said "Hi, I'm 'kylar and I'm pretty!" (I inwardly cringed a little). They agreed with her and she showed them her shoes.

Bless her heart, she just doesn't have an ounce of self-esteem.

I guess if she turns into one of those vain mean girls in middle school, I'll just blame the world for her inflated self-image. But I'll have nobody to blame but myself for her shoe obsession.

Then again by the time she hits middle school she might have bad teeth, terrible acne, enormous red coke bottle glasses (my mom will convince her they are cool, just like she did with me) and still be years away from needing a training bra (oh horror of horrors!). In which case, an inflated self-esteem would be a non-issue and her great taste in footwear may be the only thing that gets her through those awkward years.

Leaves.

I put Skylar to work today raking leaves. She filled 20 bags for me, it was awesome. Okay, so that's not exactly how it went down.

She spent three hours running through the piles "making train tracks" and redistributing armful's of leaves all over the yard. She also took lots of lemonade and Diego breaks, and begged for gumballs constantly. I turned off the heat and left the front doors open so she could go back and forth inside. She wanted watermelon. Her finger was hurt. She needed her nose wiped 20 times. Her hiney hurt. She wanted me to be done. She needed a chai. Her baby needed a blanket to go night-night.

You get the idea.

I wanted to at least get the front yard done before tomorrow--recycling day.


I was trying to get my 2010 "Skylar In The Leaves" picture, and only ended up with a couple of good ones (it gets harder every year):

She was a roly-poly leaf baby in 2008:

And in 2009 I was still able to bribe her into sitting still with a piece of bread:
This year she has pretty much left her toddler days behind her, and is on the verge of being a preschooler who doesn't think her mom's camera tricks are very funny anymore........

Next year her daddy will be home, and I bet raking will be a lot more fun with him. I know it will be for me!

A finished fence.

I forgot to take pictures of the fence before we left town last thursday. They finished it right as we were pulling out of the driveway. Unfortunately, we can't stain it white until the spring because the cedar needs to cure. So for now, it's au naturel, which I think looks kind of funny with the house, but that's just the way it'll have to be for now.

In order to preserve all the landscaping, it ended up kind of an odd shape and it isn't a very big yard to begin with. Years ago someone added an addition to connect the garage to the house, and that took away the backyard, so really we just have two side yards and the front. (That's okay with me, because I am grateful for an attached garage in the land of perpetual rain/snow. And it's less to mow).

Overall, I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and I'm thankful to have it up just in time for the snow.
So Skylar and I went to my parents for a long weekend and we spent Halloween at the Harvest Festival at Main Post Chapel on West Point. I have mixed feelings about Halloween, it isn't my favorite. We don't decorate, and I avoid taking Skylar places where she'll see scary things (which is pretty much everywhere this time of year).

But I do enjoy dressing her in various animal costumes, and it's a great excuse to eat candy. This might be the last year I can pick for her, I think next year she'll actually have an opinion about her costume. A week before Halloween she said "I no want to be a giraffe, I want to be a pirate!!" Um, no. I still get to dress you and you're going to be a giraffe because I said so. And we already took the tags off the costume. And next year I'll have a new little victim to dress up who won't be able to speak for themselves yet, and then you can be whatever you want. (Don't worry, I didn't actually say that out loud).

Last year she was a turtle, so this year she moved up the food chain. Skylar arrived on the scene with her Giraffe costume ready for a party and some treats.....I didn't get a very good shot of it, but my favorite part of this costume was the padded butt that made the tail stick out....
Please note the little boy dressed like a wiener in the background--best costume ever:

By the end of the night, Skylar had totaled about six pieces of candy in addition to what she scarfed down, and I intentionally left it all at my parents house because she had forgotten about it. So the candy is no more. Except for the 500 gumballs that Kristy and Andy mailed her from their trip to Las Vegas. She has NOT forgotten about those.