Blueberry Girl

This weekend my mom was in town for a visit. She arrived Saturday afternoon and stayed through Wednesday. Sunday morning I got a little retribution for my childhood spent in strawberry fields and got her and Alicia to go do some blueberry picking. The picking was great and we each had about 6lbs in just over an hours work. The bushes were still loaded even this late in the season. So we have been enjoying blueberry cobbler and Zara has gotten some yummy blueberry banana combos. Now I have a good 10 lbs in my freezer for pancakes and muffins to come.

Zara got to spend all day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with her Tayta. She also got a few new toys included a rolling caterpillar (if baby could give a shout out, she'd say holla for that rockin' crawly) and some new blocks.

Cat o' 9 Months

Today Zara is 9 months old. We had our standard checkup and she is doing great. Got a prescription though because she has a cough leftover from a cold that just wont go away. Otherwise she has returned to her petite ways and weighed in at 16lbs 1oz, 10th percentile. Length is 27 3/4in so she remains over 50th on height. She still has just the one lonely tooth but is becoming an expert army crawler and we may have to break out the barbed wire obstacles for her soon.


I haven't talked about her sleeping habits in awhile, but she is making her own decisions when it comes to that. Apparently, we now sleep on our back sometimes and get mad if we aren't laid down like that. But this week she also started falling asleep by herself instead of being rocked. She will continue to wiggle her way around in your arms until you put her down. So its taken a little time and patience, but she is turning into a good sleeper (8-9hrs solid), but it is in her own terms.

Park No More

Yesterday, I arrived back at Hobby from a trip up to Denver. I have been using the Parking Spot to leave my car for years now and, even though they are a little more expensive, have always had great service. Well, now they have starting parking cars in the aisles and blocking others in when all the spots fill up. These car owners leave their keys and then they get jimmied around when people come and go, which I frankly would have a really difficult time being comfortable with myself. This time though, I was one of those blocked in cars and spent 15min waiting for someone to move the car behind me (they didn't) and finally Austin Power-ed my way out of the spot and around the car that was parked half behind me.

On the one hand, it's only 15 minutes and seems pretty trivial to get upset by. On the other, at the end of a trip when I make it to my car I really, really am ready to leave and don't like being inconvenienced by someone else's greed in over filling the lot. I guess I will be voting with my dollars and find somewhere else to park, that should help them figure out their overcrowding problem.

Frozen Assets

I have been making Zara's food (and drink for that matter :P) since we started solids which is actually pretty easy. We were starting to run low and I am going to be on travel again for a few days this week, so I got caught up today and restocked the freezer. This is the fullest it will ever be as we are starting to dip into the frozen milk as well. So here it is, Zara's freezer complete with veggies, fruits, and meats and everything a growing girl needs. I should say everything a growing, army crawling (officially mobile, but limited range), toothy (1 of em) girl needs.

There is Always Something Worse

I know I've previously had a conversation about how awful this consumer product is: Smucker's Uncrustables.

But, leave it to someone to come up with an idea even more terrible: Candwich.

Seriously, cannot think of a single redeeming quality about this thing.

Healthier How?

Last night I was watching "The Next Food Network Star" because I find myself on the Food Network a lot but am not necessarily a frequent watcher of that show. One of the contestants is a "healthy" eating guy, that's his schtick. At one point he said something along the lines of "if you make something a wrap, it's automatically healthier." At which point he lost all credibility with me on healthy food since it appears he hasn't actually done any research on what he's pushing.

Personally, I think the whole "healthy" wrap thing was an awesome marketing campaign because everyone generally assumes it to be true. But let's examine the facts with two comparitive options for making a sandwich:

1 Mission brand 96% Fat Free Heart Healthy 10" Tortilla, 180cal, 18 from fat, 2g Fat, 0.5g sat fat, 450mg sodium, 35g carbs, 5g fiber, 2g sugar, 5g protein.

2 slices Orowheat 100% whole wheat bread, 200cal, 20 from fat, 2g fat, 0g sat fat, 420mg sodium, 38g carbs, 6g fiber, 8g sugar, 8g protein.

Seriously the numbers are nearly a wash and if anything you get the benefit of extra protein in the bread. I think a tortilla is healthier, if you compared it to say Wonder Bread. But I also believe reasonable test and evaluation methodologies, just that engineer part of me that kicks in.

p.s. I like Chiptole burritos but there is another place the tortilla = healthy thing falls on its face. Their flour tortlla has 290cal, 80! from fat, 9g fat, 3g sat fat, 670!mg sodium, 44g carbs, 2g fiber and only 7g protein. Seriously, save yourself and order the bowl in which you can throw some lettuce in and actually make it a reasonably healthy meal if you eat there.

We're Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

This weekend we figured out that the large A/C (downstairs) unit in our house wasn't working. Even before the peak heating of the day (which was 91) our A/C wasn't keeping up and it was only blowing hot air. So we had to cancel plans for folks to come over and watch the World Cup at our house yesterday since most people don't want to sit inside an 80+ deg home to watch TV. By shutting the blinds and the curtains on all the windows and with the small upstairs unit going we peaked at 83deg inside yesterday. It is just barely tolerable during the day. At night, we are retreating upstairs and closing the doors to Zara's room and a guest room to sleep so the cold air can build up in the rooms from the small unit and they stay comfortable.

The units are still under our home warranty we got when we bought the house, so that's good. But this is the THIRD A/C repair since April we've needed. Clearly, these units are on their last legs and need to be replaced. But whether we can get the warranty company to agree is probably a long shot. Repair company won't be over until tomorrow morning so we have at least one more night of this.

Mo Betta Mo Hawk

I forgot I took these pictures a couple weeks ago during bath time. I was having a little fun while washing her hair and snapped a couple pics of Zara's first up-do on her hair. Crazy hair is too long to get it to really stand up, we'll have to break out the egg whites for that some other time.