chugga chugga choo choo

We're in full autumnal swing! Last year around this time, we had just moved to Oregon and Orion and I were just figuring out our life here. This year, we're celebrating having figured some of that out. We know the best pumpkin patches and the most fun apple orchards, we know where to find the yummiest goodies, and we're taking our pick of the most exciting concerts for kids. This is a good feeling! We're chugging right along.
Orion is almost out of his terrible two's which means that my life isn't quite as stressful, which is great. He's asserting himself, and testing boundaries, but usually we're able to resolve any issue with a calm discussion and he ends up making the right choices most of the time.
Every day, I notice little things that remind me that he is NOT a baby anymore. (most often, this is him actually saying, "I'm not a baby anymore Mommy!") I'm at once thrilled to see his growth and development (it is SO exciting to watch!!) and also a little sad that my baby won't be little forever.
This year, he picked out his Halloween costume (He's going as Thomas the Tank Engine), he has a friend to go trick or treating with, and he is very excited to trick or treat. Last year, we had a great time trick or treating with the Portland Single Parents Group, but Orion really had no idea what was going on.
The challenge now is how to entertain this developing, inquisitive and VERY energetic toddler during a long wet winter spent indoors.
I've made some mental notes of places with indoor play spaces, kids activities and I am hoping there will be some dryish days when we can go hiking, since that is a new favorite past time for the both of us.
I'm exhausted just thinking about all that!
Chugga Chugga...

SINGLE mom

Never has the title "single mom" felt more real and more tangible than it does now. Most of the time, I'm thrilled with my life. I have tons of fun with my son, we do lots of great things. This weekend, I took him fishing! Me! Fishing. Crazy. What's more is that I liked it. I could go fishing all the time. I am feeling like I'm doing a decent job of being mommy and daddy. (so much so that Orion has been calling me "daddy" almost as much as mommy lately).
Even though I love our life, and our time together, I'm feeling lonely. I don't know how to "get out there" or date or any of that. It's been a long time, and I've been focusing so hard on being a good mom, and doing everything for Orion. I just don't know how to do anything for myself.
How does a single professional mom find time to find someone? How can I be available, when I'm not? I'm emotionally ready, but the logistics of dating are really intimidating. Babysitters, time away from my son, fitting dates in to my crazy work schedule... all are obstacles.
Other people do it! Maybe that means I'm doing something wrong? I just don't know any more.

high maintenance

All of a sudden, my easy going little baby has turned into a high maintenance emotional wreck. The doc says this is pretty typical of his age group. . . but it is wearing me out!! To compensate, I'm cooking alot. . . and baking. He loves to eat soup, so my crock pot has been working hard! I'm planning a bunch of baking experiments for this week because my mom is coming to visit. My mom is not a baker, or a cook. She's all over the other domestic stuff. . . cleaning and rearranging etc. But for some reason even though she has baked nary a cookie in her life, I feel this strange compulsion to be a domestic goddess in her presence. I've got to bake, and have a spotless house, and fresh smelling drapes.
This visit is going to be SO good for my mental health. I've been a single mom since conception, but before moving across the country, I had a huge support system and roommates to help me with the easy stuff. . . the entertaining while dinner is being cooked, the carrying him in for me while I schlep the groceries. . .
I'm really learning now what being a single mom means. I've been alone out here for a few months now and I can't wait for mom to watch the rugrat while I go out for a few hours. I almost hate admitting that I need a break from him, but I do.

I was telling a friend tonight about how I've been trying to deal with the baby's terrible two's. For me, it's all about timing. I need to make sure I have the sippy cup of milk ready before I utter the word "milk". It's imperative that I have binkies in every room and a blankie on each floor. . . and that there is at least one truck within arms reach at all times. There can be no sudden movements. I can't take the trash out or get the mail unless I'm prepared to bring him with me.
All of that exhausts me, but then he does things that make me melt. Tonight I was on the phone with my sister and he started tickling my armpit. and he was cracking up! It was so cute.

Of course it's all worth it and even the meltdowns are all part of his development. I love seeing how he's learning to express himself, even if his favorite way of doing that is by screaming "NO!!" or "MINE!!!" :)

brussel sprouts and evolutions (originally on iheart)

So tonight, I made brussel sprouts, and the baby ate a whole plateful.
I was so excited, because I love brussel sprouts and I'm always trying to get him to eat the stuff that I love.
Here's the "recipe" (quotations, because I made it up. . . . )

1lb of brussel sprouts (cut the bottoms off and then slice them thin and then let them soak in cool water to get the grit out)
2 or 3 slices of pepper crusted bacon
real maple syrup
olive oil
garlic
sea salt
pepper

I cooked the bacon first, then removed it from the pan and drained most of the grease. Then finely mince the garlic and sautee it in the left over bacon fat and a little bit of olive oil.
Add in the brussel sprouts and sautee them til they're tender. Add about a tablespoon of the maple syrup and keep on the heat.
Right at the end, crumble the bacon and throw it back in and then use a bit of sea salt and cracked pepper.

It's so yummy, seriously.

As I was cooking tonight, I had something of an epiphany. . . . Every time I cook dinner, Orion wants me to hold him. And at this age, he rarely wants me to hold him anymore. Except when I'm cooking dinner or unloading the groceries from the car. . . something that makes it virtually impossible for me to pick him up. This got me thinking. . . .

Evolutionarily speaking, shouldn't kids be programmed to do the opposite? Shouldn't some sort of instinct kick in that says, "Mommy needs to cook dinner so I can eat, I won't scream and cry and get in her way"

But in fact the opposite is true.
It's as though nature has designed parenthood to be as inconvenient as possible. . . logistically speaking.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but it just occured to me.

engulfed in seasonal merriment

I typed that phrase in an email to a friend earlier, and it was sort of a joke, but the more I thought about it, it's really not a joke.


ah. . .

However, that's not really what this blog will be about. . . I am having poop issues. Not my own poop issues, mind you, but the baby's poop.
The problem is that he can't really poop if he has a diaper on. No lie. He tries and tries and nothing happens and then he cries. . . It's awful. So, to solve this problem, I've gotten into the habit of letting him run around with no diaper and then when he seems to want to . . .ya know. . . i run upstairs with him to the bathroom. The sad and sort of embarassing reality is that he most times doesn't make it.

Good thing I've got hardwood floors.

So, I'm faced with a bit of a problem. . . he's only a year and a half and his doctor recommends not trying to potty train for another year. So while I definitely plop him on the potty when it's feasible, it's not something I can really start implementing as the norm for him.

If you had told me two and a half years ago that my blog would be about baby poop I would have laughed in your face.
and so it goes. . .

Fall. . . . in love

So I'm obsessed with it being fall. . . I don't know what it is. I've hung Indian corn, I'm lighting pumpkin pie candles, I want to swear scarves. . . etc etc.

I think now that I'm a mom. . . everything seems cooler. Christmas seems whimsical again. . . fall is wholesome and crisp and exciting again. We're going to pumpkin farms, apple tastings, farmers markets etc.

I don't bake pies, but I'm even considering making an apple or pumpkin or sweet potato pie. . . or maybe all three!! or pecan pie!

Dishes featuring root vegetables are looking really appealing. . .

Pretty soon I'll be making baby scarecrows out of outgrown baby clothes and weaving wreathes out of things. . .

If you see me making any sort of clothing out of corn husks. . . please stop me.

Viva la Autumn!

chasing pumpkins

Today, I took the baby to a pumpkin farm. . . and it was great. We had a ton of fun up til the very end, when he started getting cranky.
So, we're walking to the car. . . he's in the wagon with the pumpkins. . . and I can't find the car.
I ended up dragging him and the pumpkins around in the wagon for like ten minutes and he's getting more and more antsy as time goes on and I'm losing my cool.
Finally, we get to the end of one of the rows, and I go to turn the wagon around and it spins out, falls over, and the baby and the pumpkins fall into the gravel parking lot. . . the smaller of the pumpkins hits him in the head and the big one goes rolling off down the driveway, out of my view.
So I've got a screaming baby, a toppled wagon, and one less pumpkin, and still no car.

At this point, I really lost my cool. And all I could think of was how much easier it would have been in that situation if I wasn't alone. If there was someone who could have gone running after the renegade pumpkin while I'm comforting the baby. . . or vice versa. . . or someone who could have walked around the parking lot til we found the car instead of dragging the wagon around the whole time. . .

It's times like that where it bothers me. The whole day up to that point had been great!

So finally, I get us to the car. . . and then we were fine. . . and then I got the idea to go drive along the driveway to see if I could find our pumpkin (we paid for it after all!!) and see if it wasn't too badly damaged. And I found it!! I felt so triumphant! I found it, and it was in tact. It was such a mommy moment. . . even though he wasn't even sad about the pumpkin. . . if I hadn't been able to get it back I would have felt like I didn't "win" or whatever.
The pumpkin did not defeat me!!

It's the little things in life that make me happy :)