Bye Bye Daycare.

Well, after having a teacher at daycare yell/snap at one of the kids in her class, we were really uncomfortable when we learned that teacher would be her teacher once she turns one. SO we decided to look for some other options instead of daycare and my friend, Lakeisha said she could watch her with her own daughter who is 4 months older than Natalie. Today she started 'daycare' with Lakeisha & Ciel.

It was wonderful. We instantly felt horrible for having left her in daycare for so long when we saw the difference in Natalie's behavior. Here's how they compared:

Today - she was in a talkative, happy, free-roaming crawly mood both when i dropped her off & when I picked her up. She drank 40z of milk and then wanted more. She napped for a total of 3.5 hours in 2 naps and she was waving & smiling goodbye to Lakeisha and her mom and squirming to get out of my arms as I was trying to take her home (she still wanted to play & explore more). She was happy & playful all evening at home, playing contentedly by herself while we ate dinner.

A day in daycare - when I dropped her off she was always very reserved, watched other kids carefully but didn't smile or crawl over to them. Wouldn't drink even a full ounce of milk all day, no matter how warm or cool or when or how they served it to her. She napped usually 30 to 45 minutes, sometimes up to an hour totaling 2 hours at the very most. When we picked her up at school, she was spaced out smiling a little when she saw us, then blank staring again until we got home. Once we got home, she would be very clingy and eat non-stop for two hours.

Anyway, I'm embarrassed to say we didn't take these cues to heart and should have paid closer attention to her behavior changes. Maybe we could have gotten her out of that environment a lot sooner. And who knows how her days went there to make her act like that?? It's kind of scary in retrospect.

MOVED!

So there's been a nice furniture move at the moran house, lately and I'm diggin it bigtime :) Here's the living room:

Nice and fresh and roomy:

The dining room is now only for dining (moved the computer desk out of there)

And here's my new cluttery, catch-all bedroom (but it's worth it to make space for baby to be able to crawl around):

And the 'junk corner' in my room:

And here's what natalie was doing during all that moving:

That's right, playing in her baby condo/timeshare. Thankfully, she didn't wholly hate it :)

A very full day.

So today we all woke up at 4am to Grizzy barfing all over the bedroom floor. Grass, dogfood, you name it. awesome.

a few hours later, while getting ready for Natalie's ped appointment, I got a call from my boss... cutting my hours from 22 per week to 15. I (we) were shocked/horrified as we are so strapped already, but we had to keep it together to be strong & happy/chipper to help her through shot day.

then our awesome baby did so great with her 6 month shots! She had to drink a virus cocktail and get 3 shots in the thighs. Ouch. She cried a loud, screachy cry and turned bright red & hot (from being so mad) and then we blew on her and kissed/hugged her and she stopped crying before we even got to the front desk of the doctor's office! what a brave, big-girl!

keeping in mind that there is practically no food in the house until payday (friday), after baby's appointment and subsequent nap, we ventured over to the in-laws house under the guise of delivering the future best-picture dvd (a home video collection complied by my most awesome sister & brother in law!!! thank youuuuuuu!!!!!), and we mooched home-made ice cream & cheesecake off them. yum!

a family nap later, we made chicken fried rice, egg rolls, and chocolate chip cookies for dinner and mashed bananas for baby (pictured).

after her night-night, I settled down to check my email. and there was one from dad. Here's how it read:

I would like to take my Granddaughter to visit her Great Grandparents. There would, of course, be no cost to her parents for this escapade. You are welcome to accompany us at, again, no cost. The weekend of October 15-17, coincidentally Grandma's birthday, is the time frame I am considering. The weekend would begin with my driving on the morning of the 15th, picking up my riders, driving to the Airport to make the flight. From there, we would leisurely drive the 1 1/2 hours to Great Grandparents. While in there, I envision showing off my Granddaughter(Natalie Rose) and Daughter(that be you) to any and all peeps that we meet/visit/see in the mall etc. The flight back would be Sunday the 17th at some as yet undetermined time back, followed by a brief ride to take you home. I will, of course, return home and all will have had a good time. If the above scenario appeals to you, please let me know so arrangements can be made both in Florida and Illinois.

Lots of Love from Dad and Grandpa

Natalie & I accepted the generous invitation! Sheesh, what an eventful day.

Being Cheap & Healthy!

Cheap Teeth Whitening: Read this article about combining two products that whiten your teeth for less than $5.

Save money on liquid hand soap & dish soap, while going 'green' at the same time. Dr. Bronner's (or the like) Castile Soap is so concentrated that it makes regular liquid soap in a one teaspoon to a gallon ratio! So the 32oz bottle will last you practically forever!

Making my own baby food also not only saves a ton of $ (costs me $.05 per oz compared to store-bought costing about $.30 per oz), but it is a LOT better nutritionally for baby! Read this article for more on that. And here's my favorite homemade baby food website of all time.

And speaking of baby, save money by skipping the immunization pre-medicating for baby, too! Check out the latest in pediatric news on that recently posted in this MedScape Today (by WebMD) article which reveals that pre-medicating baby causes baby's body to react to shots with less immunity! Whoa!

And speaking of groceries, everybody says to buy produce in season, which is hard to know off hand, so here's a list I recently found:

The Cheapest Fruits and Vegetables Month-By-Month

January - oranges, grapefruit, tangerines, tangelos, lemons, papayas, cabbages: red, white and green; leeks, broccoli, cauliflower

February - oranges, tangelos, grapefruit, lemons, papayas, broccoli, cauliflower

March - pineapples, mangoes, broccoli, lettuce

April - pineapples, mangoes, zucchini, rhubarb, artichokes, asparagus, spring peas, broccoli, lettuce

May - cherries, pineapples, apricots, okra, zucchini, rhubarb, artichokes, asparagus, spring peas, broccoli, lettuce

June - watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, cherries, blueberries, peaches, apricots, corn, lettuce

July - watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, peaches, apricots, kiwi, raspberries, plums, cucumbers, tomatoes, summer squash, corn, green beans, lettuce

August - watermelon, strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, peaches, apricots, kiwi, raspberries, plums, cucumbers, corn, eggplant, tomatoes, summer squash, green beans, lettuce

September - grapes, pomegranates, persimmons, eggplants, pumpkins, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce

October - cranberries, apples, pomegranates, grapes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, broccoli, spinach, lettuce

November - cranberries, oranges, tangerines, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, pumpkins, winter squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, spinach

December - pears, oranges, tangelos, grape fruit, tangerines, papayas, pomegranates, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower

Always a Good Deal - bananas, potatoes, celery

The Most Awesome CSN Store Giveaway EVER!!!!

OK, ladies (and gents) I never do this, but I have the most fantastic giveaway I just HAVE to share with you!!! It's for a $125 Gift Code to CSN STORES!!! What do they have they you want, you may ask?! I have no idea at all, but I know what *I* want, so if you love me at all, go to CSN.com and get the link for the baby food machine i NEED for natalie!!! do it NOW, people!

Then go to Susan Heim On Parenting blog and enter to win this for my sweet, precious baby girl. Then do EVERYTHING it says to get more entries!!! PLEASE, i never ask for ANYTHING!!!! so this is it...

IF YOU LOVE ME OR NATALIE IN THE SLIGHTEST THEN YOU WILL DO IT!!!!! **insert every cheap guilt trip tactic here**

thank you. seriously, stop reading and go do it. thanks.

~Katy (katymoran79at_hotmail_dotcom)

I like Squash!

I never liked squash until last week, when I gave it a try as an adult and... yum! So I made some for myself today:

I stir-fried it up with some onions, butter, salt, pepper, & powdered ginger and it was so delish!

Life in my world

So, here's a little of what's been going on with me (us) lately...

I am currently eating a strawberry fiber-one poptart/ sharing it with the dog, but upon typing the word 'fiber' I must admit I'm rethinking the sharing with the dog thing. I just got off the

phone with grandparents and found out grandpa had a fall a few weeks back and banged up his arm, nose, etc bad enough to go to the hospital and nobody even told me (btw, I hold the entire family responsible).

My landlord has been remodeling the main bathroom and it's now all fresh and new in there but it was pretty tough for a privacy-loving family like mine to open our house to the public for a week and a half while the landlord & his handywoman came and went as they pleased. But we're finally back to normal now (Yay for that).

And in the middle of all the bathroom ordeal, a thunderstorm took down our phone line at home and, in turn, our router got fried (somehow) so we had to mooch wireless off my neighbor until the at&t guy could get here a few days later. fun, fun.

Then, the other day, Natalie was kicking the edge of the table with all her might, while she was in James' lap and skinned one big toe and bent the nail back on the other one! They both ended up bleeding but she never cried at all, so it took us a while to figure out what had happened to them and when. Talk about a high pain tolerance!

Hubby's job is stupid as usual, so not much news there. His boss is the same misogynist as always so whatevs about that.

And in closing, here's a gratuitous cute baby photo: