Mr Froggy

Happy Birthday to Joan!

Sweet Piano

Congee

I got this recipe from this months Mothering Magazine. I LOVE this magazine above all others, and get so excited each time it comes in the mail. I have learned so much from reading it...it truly is my favorite of all advise.

I'm posting this recipe because it's so simple, and so yummy. The magazine calls it Energy Tonic Soup - but it's not very soupy....and great for when you need some comfort food and something warm, or for a rainy day like we had today. Adelaide loved it, so I plan on making it again and again and maybe adding in different veggies or spices every now and then. Here is the basic recipe:

4 cups water or stock
1 chicken thigh with the bone (or 1/2 pound cubed tofu)
1/2 cup rice or barley
1 2-inch piece of kombu seaweed (which by the way I've been adding to all of our grains/beans)
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon ginger, minced
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
GARNISH: 2 scallions, chopped

In 3-quart soup pot , combine water, chicken, rice, kombu, bay leaf, ginger, salt, and cumin. (If using tofu as protein, add later). Bring to boil, lower heat to very low simmer and cook at least 3 hours, up to 8 hours. (Or place in crock pot and cook 8 hours on low). Add more water if needed - Congee is a soft, thick dish, but not soupy. When cooking is completed, remove chicken bone. (If using tofu, add now). Check seasonings, add more salt if needed. Garnish with scallions.

Serves 2

Let me know if you try it and how you like it!

Off she goes!

Today Adelaide started walking....a lot more than ever before. It was like something clicked all of a sudden in her mind. Once she started she didn't want to stop. She just kept turning around and going back and forth between Myles and I. After a few minutes she fell and might have twisted her ankle or something, because now she is limping just a little bit =( I got her on camera though - so check out this big girl! She is so cute - I think she walks just like ET.

Another amazing shoot

Today was my first photo shoot with 4 people. I was so nervous because I haven't shot more than 3 people at a time and was afraid that it was going to be almost impossible. The truth is, it wasn't any harder than 3 people. We had a LOT of fun, and I think some of the shots turned out so magical. Sometimes I feel like I must just be so lucky to get these shots. Please let me know what you think! I need the feedback to help myself grow. To see the whole shoot just go to my photo blog at http://www.focusonyourheart.com/ and let me know how you like it!

Springtime at our House!

All of our Japanese Maple trees are starting to bloom!
As well as every other tree on the street:

All of the seeds in the garden have sprouted!
Wisteria is getting ready to open
Clematis are getting ready to bloom too!
And many of the starts are almost ready for their permanent home!
Myles flower box is in full bloom as well!

Bike rides and Gang Fights

Today started out as a wonderful day. Adelaide and I got SO MUCH done! We picked up some dental x-rays, went to the nursery to get bamboo for our peas to grow up, went to the grocery store and also had lunch there, and then went to Target to get some things we needed for the house.
After Adelaide's nap my old friend Shannon came over and Adelaide, she and I rode our biked down to Alberta st. for lunch. It was a nice long ride and so sunny out. There weren't a lot of people around which was surprising considering that it's spring break. It was just perfect. Adelaide loved the bike ride and the weather couldn't have been better.
When we got back Shannon wanted me to go with her to the mall to pick out sunglasses. I left Adelaide home with Myles having no idea what was going to happen while we were gone.

We spent about an hour in Nordstroms trying on sunglasses and goofing around. Shannon wasn't sure she liked any of them so we decided to try Macy's. As we walked through Macy's in the mall we were suddenly bombarded from behind with a bunch of noisy teenagers running and yelling. At first I just thought they were being extremely rude and wasn't sure what was happening. It was very noisy and chaotic. Suddenly a whole pack of police men came charging in our direction, clearly towards the group of kids and started yelling at everyone to "get on the ground". One kid took off running....and at this point all I could think about was that Adelaide was at home and needed her mummy and I didn't want to die this way. I know that sounds so dramatic and crazy...but I seriously thought that there was going to be a shoot out between the gangster kids and the cops. One of the cops yelled "he's got a gun" at some point. I just wanted to get out of there. Shannon and I high tailed it towards the exit...I think my body just took over. I remember looking for a place to hide from bullets...but how do I know what is bullet proof? Could a bullet go through the counter? How about a post with mirrors on it?
The part that disturbed me the most is that we were watching the little kids have their ice skating lessons on the rink in the mall, and as we exited, I heard the loud speaker telling everyone to get off of the ice asap. How scary for those little kids!!!! And what if one of them caught a stray bullet?
Apparently there was a gang fight outside of the Foot Locker (go figure!) One of the kids pulled out his gun and fired, and then another fired his twice. What a bunch of DUMB PEOPLE. Nobody was hit, not even the intended person, but still - in the mall??? How careless can people be?
The whole thing was just a huge remider about how fast things can happen. It also makes me reconsider this city that I live in. I know these things can happen anywhere, and I can't live my life being afraid of such things. But it was scarry. I cried when we got out of Macey's and just wanted to rush home and be with Adelaide and Myles. I felt so vulnerable there. I think I looked crazy to my friend Shannon, but I guess there is just something that becomes different once you have a baby.

Bend

We went to Bend for the weekend to meet up with our friends at their family's ranch. It was a great chance to get to see other parts of Oregon, and I had been hearing about Bend and other small towns along the way for a long time now. I love traveling, even if it's only a few hours away, so was excited to go. Our friends also have a daughter that is only a few months younger than Adelaide, so I wanted to see how she did having a friend around for that long. It was a fun drive down. We passed the eeriest looking lake - Detroit Lake. It looked so creepy because there was hardly any water, and it was surrounded by old tree stumps that probably used to be covered by water for years and years. We stopped in Sisters to get some lunch, and then proceeded to Bend where the ranch is. They have 10 horses and a pony too. I LOVE being around horses, but we didn't get to ride them because our friends parents weren't there. We did however get to feed them carrots and take some pictures and pet them! I wish I had taken more pictures of the town and stuff...but here is what I got:

On the way there, you can see "the sisters" in the background.

Feeding the horses some carrots

Here is the house - and Adelaide wearing the CUTEST sunhat from Fallon
We took a walk in the park downtown
We fed the ducks. Adelaide loved it but was a little scared of the ducks at first. You can see Jessica and Fallon in the back!


Myles caught Adelaide sleeping with her butt in the air. So cute!

Learning to Walk

This was yesterday - notice some of the trees are starting to bloom!!!

Earlier in the week. Practicing on the grass =)

Being silly for Daddy.

Poop Tub

Last night Adelaide blew kisses to her poops as we flushed them down the toilet. About 20 minutes later she was in the bathtub making me laugh by blowing bubbles - and NOT from her mouth! I thought it was funny that she thought it was so funny, but then it happened....I knew it would happen eventually, but wasn't expecting it last night.....she pooped in the tub. It happened so fast that I didn't have time to get her out and over the potty. She contaminated her bath toys, and everything else in the tub, so we had to take her out, clean it up and then get her back in there to clean her up. It was funny and totally my fault because I was laughing at her instead of taking her cues to get her over the potty!

Stay at Home moms and Dr. Laura

The other day Adelaide and I were in the store. She was smiling at everyone who walked by (she always does). An older woman stopped me to say that my baby was very happy. I hear this a lot. She then asked me if I "stay home" with her. "Yes I do" I replied. "It means everything to me". The woman told me that it was a very important job that I am doing, and that she knows that is why Adelaide is such a happy girl. That made me feel so good. It's nice to know that there are people out there that see the value of being a good mother, and that for some people that is the only identity that you need.

Let me start by saying that I used to "hate" Dr. Laura. My boss would listen to her at work and I would always groan and ask to change the station. Something happened though, I got older and wiser, or just decided to actually listen to what she was saying and learn from her. Now I really like her. Yes she is harsh - and mean sometimes, but she is almost always right. It's weird to admit that - but it's how I feel these days. She has really changed my views on a lot of things - the most important at the moment being the fact that I am a stay at home mom.

She even has a book about it now called In Praise of Stay At Home Moms. She is basically just celebrating all of the reasons that SAHM's are good. I am a SAHM on purpose. We sacrifice so that I can be. YES we have a tiny little house, YES we only spend $100 a week on groceries and $20 a week each on anything fun or what we need like clothes etc.... YES sometimes I feel poor, but it really is so worth it. Getting to be with Adelaide every day makes it worth all that it cost us. I get to be there to see her first laugh, her first cough, her first steps (one of these days). I get to teach her everything I know. I get to focus on what we need to do each day to be happy and also learn. I don't have other things bombarding my brain and taking me away from her mentally. I get to be PRESENT with my daughter in every aspect of the word. We have time to play and have lots of fun.

Some of my mom friends admit that it's "easier" to go to work, and I do believe them. It's not easy to keep a baby occupied and happy all of the time. It's not easy to be cooking and cleaning up after someone all day long. I just can't imagine the alternative. Having someone else raise my baby is not for me, I didn't have babies for that reason. I love being a mommy, and I am so thankful I've had this time to be with her. I'm hoping that my little photo business keeps us afloat so that we don't have to look at other alternatives when our savings is gone, but I know that no matter what, I want to be with Adelaide for all of her waking hours. I can get a night job if I must, but I want her to know that I'm always here to hold her if she gets hurt or needs a hug, or someone to sing her a song. And hey - at least a tiny little house is easy to keep clean! =)

I have to add that I would NEVER be able to do this without Myles. He is so supportive and helpful with everything. He works so hard, and then comes home and makes us dinner and spends time with Adelaide. He never gets a break either, I don't know what I would do without my love.

Also I think I feel like I do because of the way I was raised. My dad raised my sister and I , and we never had a babysitter or daycare. He took us to work with him, and everywhere else with him if we weren't in school. It made us 3 a very close family, and I know it's because of him that I don't believe in daycare too.

Business as usual

I have finished designing my business cards. In the process I came up with "Focus on your heart". At first I put on the cards..."focusing on mama's, babies, families and pets". I was trying to be clever with the "focus" part because I'm a photographer. Next my brain wanted to shorten it..so I thought about how to sum up what my subjects mean to my clients, and it will be the things they love most - so I changed it to say "I focus on your heart". Myles thought that it would sound better left at it's simplest form "Focus on your heart" and that is what is on the card now.

Here are my designs....but now I'm contemplating changing the business to be called Focus on your heart rather than "alishaphoto". It just sounds nicer and better. PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know what you think sounds better and more professional- Focus on Your Heart - or Alisha Photo..... here are the cards for now - although I may need to do some tweaks if I change the name, as I will have a new email to go along with it.

This is the card for all of my dog lover friends, for the doggy daycares down the street, and anyone I know that is in love with their dog (in this city there are tons!)


And this is the regular everyday card for everyone... do you think I need a special card for just kids and babies too? Any advice would be great!

Stinker

Our new Garden

It's been a nice warm end of winter this year. Many of the trees are already blooming and there have been lots of sunny days to tease us. Several of my friends have begun to plant their gardens, and that has inspired me to start ours too. Usually we get starter plants, but I figured we could try to do everything by seeds this year because we are prepared and have plenty of time. Things just seem more magical when you plant them from seeds too...so I'm glad we are going that route =)

In mid February my friend Jenny had a "seed blessing" ceremony at her house. She gathered some friends and we all got to plant some seeds, and when we did we also wrote wishes on paper and planted it in the pots to grow along with the plants. It was a beautiful celebration where she had friends read blessings for air, fire, water and earth. We blessed her soil and all of our little seeds that we planted. Adelaide had fun with her friends and I thought it was nice to celebrate the upcoming growing season. Here is a picture of some of our seeds on the little table to be blessed.


Yesterday I had completed my research and figured out what I was going to plant straight into the garden, and what needed to be started indoors and moved out once it gets warmer. It was a nice sunny day, a little chilly, but still nice out, and Adelaide and I got started. I really wish I had pictures of her pulling all of the labels out of the bag and scattering them all over the lawn. At one point I looked down because she was so quiet and she was sitting in the dirt taking off her pants???? She is so silly, but I'm glad she was having fun with me.
Myles took some pictures of me while Adelaide was napping. Here is the beginnings of what we hope to be a very prosperous growing season!
I was sure to add the "blessed" soil to the garden as well.

Myles also started some seeds in his pots. He is much more organized than I!
And then today I got some plastic to put over the box to create a bit of a green house. As I put it on there it began to hail like crazy!!! That was great timing on the garden cover, and they are now saying it's supposed to snow tomorrow, so hopefully things will still work out. Yikes!!!

Oh - and one more thing....in case you were wondering - Adelaide is still OBSESSED with bike helmets. Here she is with mine.

My latest creations

I have been working on more little critters via my new crochet hobby! I know these are my first ones...so of course there will be some mistakes here. I need to get some better little eyes so they are not just plain black. I enjoy crocheting the pieces, but am not so fond of sewing them together. I will get better though...I just need practice =)

I still need to do this little guy's arms =) They will be just like his legs...white with lavender ends.

Here is miss kitty. I really like her because she has a little dress that you can take on and off.

And here is the duck I made for our friends birthday this weekend. She is turning One - and ducks are her favorite animal.

The Mall

Here we are at the mall today. We met our friend Rebbecca for lunch and went to visit friends at my old job. It was a fun day! Rebbecca took this with her phone!

PPPssssssssss

Tonight after dinner I put Adelaide on the potty and made the pppssssss sound that I always make to try and tell her to go pee. She was being so cute and funny and making the sound back to me, but not a drop of pee came out.

Several minutes later Myles was getting her ready for the bath. I hear her in there making the pppssssss sound, and then all of a sudden Myles says "Oh Adelaide" and I hear a bunch of rushing around and the bath going. I knew something funny had to have happened.

I go in the room to ask what happened, and Myles tells me that she was making that cute little sound and he set her down for one second to get something for her bath and all of a sudden she was peeing! There was pee all over the floor, but apparently she was standing in her crib?! So I guess she tried to tell him that she had to go, he mustn't have believed that she knew what she was talking about, so she politely stood at the edge of her crib and managed to direct her pee straight out the side and onto the floor. Does this mean she's potty trained?

Books that I'm reading

I have no idea how I have time to read. Most nights I'm so pooped by the time I get in bed...but there is something about taking a few minutes to read that makes me feel like I'm getting to relax. I try to read at least a page or two. Sometimes I will read when I'm trying to get Punkie down for her nap, or on the weekends. I have so many things I want to read all of the time. Right now I'm reading one of the most amazing books I've found. I've got 3 books going on right now and I'd like to talk about each of them.

The first is a book I just got at the library. I picked it up because of the big changes that Adelaide has had in terms of her temper etc. I know she is growing and things are normal, but it's nice to read. The book is called Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old. It has totally validated everything that we've been going through, which just makes me realize that there is nothing I'm doing wrong to cause her to act this way. I am still in the beginning of the book, but think I'll probably read the entire series because so far everything has been very accurate. It's short and to the point. It talks about their eating, sleeping, play habits etc. I just really like it because it's easy to pick up and read for just a minute or two, and I feel like I always want to be reading at lest one book about my baby.

The second book is called The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I heard a yoga teacher mention it once and that was enough for me to buy it. It's a novel partly about a 12 year old genius girl who plans to commit suicide when she turns 13, but before hand is writing down her amazing thoughts. I have to admit sometimes I wonder if I'm actually smart enough to read this book, it seems to be for the smarty pant big vocabulary type people...but so far I get it. The other character is the concierge for the apartment building (it's based in Paris) and she is ugly and has giant bunions ( I love bunions) and seems to have some great things to say about life as well. Overall I think it's a book about life, and I like it. The reviews say it's sad...so we will see where it takes me.

Lastly is the most amazing of all books so far - Anam Cara:a book of Celtic Wisdom. I don't know what it is about this book, but I think I must have just found it at the right time. It's amazingly spiritual without being religious, and it really makes you think about things differently. This is the book that my yoga teacher did a reading from that I couldn't forget about. It's a book that I plan to read over and over, and I think it has something for everyone in it. It's poetic, philosophical, and just beautiful. Here is part of a section called "Love as Ancient Recognition" that really touched me. I hope it makes sense on it's own...

"Real friendship or love is not manufactured or achieved by an act of will or intention. Friendship is always an act of recognition. This metaphor of friendship can be grounded in the clay nature of the human body. When you find the person you love, and act of ancient recognition brings you together. It is as if millions of years before the silence of nature broke, your lover's clay and your clay lay side by side. Then in the turning of the seasons, your one clay divided and separated. You began to rise as distinct clay forms, each housing a different individuality and destiny. Without even knowing it, your secret memory mourned your loss of each other. While your clay selves wandered for thousands of years through the universe, your longing for each other never faded....."

If you are any sort of spiritual journy what so ever - I highly reccomend the book.

So what are all of you reading out there? My other favorite book of all time is called Angela's Ashes. It took me years to finally read it because I thought it was a dumb name for a book - but it is my favorite ever now - and I love the name too.

Toddler time

Adelaide has definitely been growing into her own person more and more. She has started whining when she doesn't get what she wants. I guess that goes along with the temper tantrums. It's just amazing to see that she realizes that she is her own person with her own opinions. It makes the days a little bit harder, but in the end I know it's good that she is going through this and it's a normal progression. She is still very clingy to me, and usually wants to be held a lot. That might be because she is still sick....but I hope it ends soon. I really can't leave her at all, even to go to the bathroom!

She still is not walking, and sometimes I feel like she might never. She gets brave and will stand on her own, so maybe she will be walking by Easter? I guess we will see. I don't think she has anything wrong physically- I think she is just very cautious!

She talks a LOT! She will try and say anything..and when she starts to say a word she will keep repeating it until you figure out what she is saying and say it back to her. Sometimes this can take a few guesses...and she goes crazy. She is using her sign language as well, and I think that really helps her to communicate. She is already such a talker...look out!

Right now she is OBSESSED with bikes. If she sees one on the street, or on her clothes, or in a magazine...or her own bike. Now that we have the bike seat for her, it's all she wants to do. Our friends got her a sweatshirt with a bike on it for my baby shower, and each day she goes to her dresser and points to it saying "bike, bike" until I give her the shirt to wear, or put it on her bear. She loves bikes!!!

Another cold

Punkie is sick again =( It's probably my fault for taking her on that cold bike ride. Her nose is plugged and she can hardly nurse, but has figured out a way to do it without breathing. I think I was getting sick too, but got a Neti pot the other day and I think it saved me! I feel so sad for her when she doesn't feel well. Today we just stayed home and rested. She wanted me to snuggle with her in the rocking chair a lot, and it was raining outside so I was in heaven holding my baby! I'm hoping that tomorrow is better.