glee: 2009

Introducing

Miriam Rose Duncan
born November 15, 2009
12:43 a.m.
10 lbs.
!
21 inches
not a lot of hair, but not bald, either
chubby, chubby cheeks and a double chin
We're all doing really well (if a little tired), and are so happy to finally have our baby sister here in our arms.

I do believe Melanie is the winner and I will be in contact with you, Melanie, to work out the details of your hat. :)

Heh, heh, I was the furthest off on absolutely everything. Heh. Nobody guessed anything above or below the 8 lb range, which I find terribly amusing (especially my wishful guess, HAH!) Anyway, thanks for not guessing 10 lbs, even though that's what she came out being. It really was so nice of you all, and I appreciated not getting the "YOU look like you're going to POP!" comments from any of you. You guys are truly the best family EVER!

I've never had problems uploading photos to blogger, but there is some kind of error. I'll try one more time, but you guys may have to wait for photos. Sorry!

post your guesses here

I thought I'd open up my blog to a contest for a little fun these last dragging weeks. So, whoever gets the closest stats to actual birth, wins a free hand-knitted hat made by moi (though I'm not guaranteeing it will be THIS winter that it will actually be knit for you, heh, heh.)

So here we go, you've got 6 categories to guess:

1. Day of Birth (for those of you who don't know, the official "due" date is Nov. 15--and I'm only telling you that for this contest. If I see you on Nov. 15, or Nov. 22, I DON'T want to talk about it.) ;)
2. Time of Birth
3. Boy or Girl (Even I don't know this one, but hey, you've got a 50/50 chance!)
4. Weight
5. Length
6. Miscellaneous (anything you want to add? Hair? Baldness? Furry ears?)

Have fun and good luck! (I'll add my guesses after everyone so you're not swayed by my insider opinion. Hey, I want to win a handknit hat, too!)

cause for concern?

Today, my nearly 4-year-old son said, "I like movies."

I said, "Oh, that's nice, dear."

Then he said, "Have you ever seen Windzee Wohan?"

(Lindsay Lohan.)

I don't know if this should be cause for concern or not.

good to the last bite

I've recently finished reading Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma and so when another of his articles about food and cooking was published yesterday in the New York times, I naturally wanted to read it. Good to the last bite. :) I've been trying to cook more at home, using my own kitchen as my own processing plant so that I can choose exactly what I'm putting in my body. It's true it has taken a lot more time and energy, and I'm learning the "how" as I go (thank goodness for mom and the internet!) so it is definitely not convenient. The planning part is where I'm finding the biggest difficulties. Oh, and getting family members to actually eat what I make is a whole other story--can be very discouraging at times. But I'm sticking to it for at least my own health and the baby's. Seriously, though, people only spend 40 minutes cooking and cleaning up in a day? I must be slow. I'm finding breakfast takes at least an hour (cooking and clean up) and dinner, pffff, I don't even know if you count the shopping and mishaps and whatnot. That's not to say that I'm cooking dinner everyday, because I'm not, but I would like to be cooking the majority of our meals soon. Especially after reading the Omnivore's Dilemma and Robyn O'Brien's book "The Unhealthy Truth." Then the only problem will be to get the child to eat it, and not hold out for the ice cream and cake at the next birthday party or for fruit snacks and soda at the next visit with grandma or the candy from Primary. Know what I mean?

Now how can I still learn to cook, manage everything, start a joyschool, go to work, get ready for baby, get ollie to swim lessons and still get to go see Food, Inc. and Julie and Julia? ;) Not to mention laundry, heh.

I hate the TV

I have a love hate relationship with the TV. I love it when I want to actually ACCOMPLISH something, and I can plop Ollie in front of it and actually string a few thoughts together and perhaps finish the dishes or laundry in peace. But I also HATE that I actually DO that. I hate that the first thing Ollie does when he wakes up is demand to watch something on TV and turns the TV on. Couch potato at age 3. Nice. I hate that by the end of the day all I want to do is sit in peace cause I feel so tired, and so the temptation is there again to put a movie on so I can actually sit and rest.

I'm one of those weirdos that doesn't really watch much television or movies, much to my husband's disappointment. Honestly, people say they don't believe people like me when they say they don't watch TV, but I am, I am weird like that. Admittedly, I do like to tune out and escape(see paragraph above) and I do enjoy watching a movie to accommodate that desire, but I can do that just as easily with a crossword or novel.

I just hate the tv. LOATHE ENTIRELY. and wish that it had never become such a huge part of ollie's childhood.

maybe another reason to avoid HFCS

Another reason to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Not that I'm hugely worried about me or the baby, because the items on the list are items I never consume, but Oliver does get exposure to these "types" of foods more often than I prefer. And he likes them and craves them.

We may have to switch over entirely to Izze's for Kevin's sake.

This one is for you, Melanie

eat food. not too much. mostly plants.

From Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food:

"That one should feel the need to mount a defense of 'the meal' is sad, but then I never would have thought 'food' needed defending, either. Most readers will recall the benefits of eating meals without much prompting from me. It is at the dinner table that we socialize and civilize our children, teaching them manners and the art of conversation. At the dinner table parents can determine portion sizes, model eating and drinking behavior, and enforce social norms about greed and gluttony and waste. Share meals are about much more than fueling bodies; they are uniquely human institutions where our species developed language and this thing we call culture."

I feel I have failed miserably in this regard as far as Ollie's upbringing so far. Currently, and despite some effort on my part, his favorite place to eat now is in front of the TV. Partly because I gave up trying to fight him to the table, and partly because of some other influences in his life, the innocent of which shall remain nameless.

A good read, by the way. Some of it I was already aware of and some of it was a surprising and new--a new way of looking at our current food culture and the historical shaping/molding of our current state in America. To the farmers market I go. Although, it's kind of sad that I picked up this book at the very same time as trying to considerably decrease our monthly food budget. Cause real food ain't cheap.

a glimpse into my chaotic mind

This is my to do list. And my try-to-make-some-kind-of-decision-about-this-issue-soonish list. And think-about-this-later-when-brain-isn't-exploding list. And don't-forget-this list. And it's not everything, either. If only I could fit everything onto an 8.5 x 11 peice of paper. But it was a relief to spill it out onto some paper to give my mind some rest for a while.

indecision

I've been thinking about painting my kitchen cabinets for over two years now. One thing that has been keeping me from painting them is the idea that it will make our apartment harder to sell when it comes time to sell. The other is that I just can't decide what color. I look through magazines and online and see things that I like, but then can't visualize how it will look on MY kitchen. I've also dreamed of putting a hard floor in our dining area (currently, we have carpet under the table. As you can imagine, it's a pain to clean up after infant/toddler and lazy parent (me) and the carpet is in very poor condition) and I don't know what color to put on the floor. So one day I was thinking maybe I could have some fun in photoshop and quickly "paint" my cabinets without any money or time invested in a possibly horrible mistake. As you can see, I got a little carried away. And I'm still not any closer to deciding.