Moving!

Just a brief note to let you all know that we are moving this week. We won't bother sending change of address cards because we will probably move again before next Christmas! But if you want our new address please let me know.

I'll try to post some pics of our new place in a few days. We are lucky and extremely grateful that my brother Dan and his wife Jen gave up an awesome New Years vacation to Park City to stay in So Cal and help us move. Which is pretty much the last thing they did in Washington before heading out of the country a year ago too! Only this time we will not have Redhook to comfort us.

Christmas Outfit

See? I own clothes that aren't pink!

Homeless? No!

Just a quick update for any of you waiting with baited breath to know whether or not the Kleins will be living out of their car in a few weeks...

Ta-Daa! We aren't homeless! We found a place to live and signed the lease yesterday. We'll be moving next week - everyone we know is welcome to help us move. The place we're moving into is a little smaller than our current place (hard to imagine, I know), but it is a 6 month then month-to-month lease, they'll take the dog, and it has a great little yard, with orange trees! Hooray!

The excitement was only slightly dampened by both Dan and I catching really nasty 24 hour flu-type bugs over the weekend (so much for any last ditch effort to come up with Christmas presents). It was so bad, I actually felt pregnant again! We both recovered quickly and thankfully Nory does not seem to have been affected.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Presents

To all of our family out there who are expecting Christmas presents on time this year - Ain't gonna happen. I'm sorry to say that this morning was the first it had even crossed my mind. Does that make me a grinch? Perhaps. My excuse is that Dan is in China and I'm a single mom with an extremely active baby and we are on the brink of homelessness (nope, haven't found anything yet, keep getting turned down because of our boisterous dog, dangit!). Shopping and shipping simply didn't make my todo list this month. Feel free to skip getting us presents as well! Although, since the rest of our family probably finished shopping months ago, I realize that's a little difficult. If it makes you feel better, I haven't gotten anything for Dan or Nory either. Please know that we do love you and do still wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Things I've learned

Dan has been gone a little over a week and here are some things I've learned about myself during his absence:

1) I absolutely HATE waking up to the alarm. I haven't set an alarm since he's been gone. I either wake up to Nory or to the coffee pot gurgling every morning (I've been setting it up on a timer).

2) When your husband is out of town you can put EVERYTHING in the dishwasher.

3) Somewhere in the last 4+ years I've forgotten how to wash knives. I've cut myself so many times this week I'm running out of bandaids.

4) I watch a lot of TV/movies after Nory is in bed, which I don't actually like, but it is a good companion for knitting.

5) I knit.

6) I don't eat vegetables. This is ironic because I'm pretty sure Dan doesn't like vegetables that much, and I love them, but I just can't bring myself to really cook when he's gone. Maybe it has something to do with needing to wash knives afterward...

7) I listen to Christmas music.

8) I don't floss.

9) The dog misses Dan as much as I do. Yesterday I caught him dropping his rope on Nory's head trying to get her to play tug with him.

10) The house stays tidier than usual but the kitchen is messier.

11) I really, really, really like being married to Dan.

Too cold?

Well, I hate to make fun of people that I really like, but I can't resist this time. I hope she doesn't follow my blog! But I have to post this because it was so funny. The context is that my mom's group is supposed to meet at a park tomorrow afternoon. One mom responded like this:

Hmmmm...it's suppose to be 60 degrees Tues. Too cold for [baby] and me to hang outside for a long period, unless we are walking. But we'll see you next week, weather permitting!

REALLY? 60 degrees is too cold to be outside??? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE??? I mean, I have come to really like these moms, but let's be reasonable here!

Things we did NOT do today

This post is dedicated to my friend Alison, who asked for a whole bunch of iPodPhone pictures :).

On Friday Nory didn't eat much, so Friday night she woke up in the middle of the night twice, starving. So when we both got up Saturday morning, I was feeling a bit groggy. Nory sat in her high chair while I had some breakfast. Here she is, NOT eating. Although she did manage to get squash all over her pajamas somehow.

It was raining today. I didn't invest in the "rain cover" that is sold separately for our stroller, I figured I could just wing it on those few days a year it rains. Here is Finny asking for his walk, and NOT getting it.

I set Nory down in the living room while I did some dishes. She managed to scoot herself backward across the room and under the Christmas tree. Then she pivoted herself around and tried to open a present! I think she really just wanted to eat the paper, but still, I told her she had to wait for Christmas. Here she is NOT opening her presents early.

Nap time! Here is Nory, NOT napping.
After Not Naptime, Nory and I went and looked at a couple of rental houses. There sure are a lot of yucky places to live in SB. We saw two that we will NOT be living in.

This afternoon we had a nice visit with my friend Lisa. Here is Nory, NOT crying while Lisa played with her. Nory loves Lisa! (She has developed some stranger anxiety lately and has not done very well with strangers. Okay, actually she hasn't been doing very well with anybody besides me while she was teething. But I think those days are over!).

As I mentioned, it was raining. I loved it. We went on a walk. Here are Lisa and Nory NOT staying in.

Fun times! Here is Nory, NOT letting go of my nose.
While Nory took her afternoon nap, I decided to make some bread. I put it in the warm oven to rise. Unfortunately my bowl was too small. Here is my bread dough, NOT fitting in its bowl.
Finny has taken to hanging out in the trunk in the garage during the day. I think he is afraid of being left behind. If the trunk is closed, he will sleep right behind the car on the garage floor. Here is a picture of Finny, NOT getting left behind when we went to visit my friend Abby for dinner and a movie.Here are Finny and Chester, NOT being still! Finny and Chester are great friends.

Abby made cookies. Yum! Here are the cookies, NOT eaten yet!

And here is Nory, NOT going to bed. She finally went to sleep around 9pm. Too late for this little girl!

The Great Klein Challenge

So far, so not good!

Well, from what I hear from Dan, he is surviving his side of the Great Klein Challenge. It is us girls over here in SB who are having a tough time! The day Dan left, my landlord stopped by to tell us we have to move out of our house by mid-January. I guess he was kicked out of his own home so he is moving in to ours. He was really sorry about it, blah blah blah, but the point is I need to find a new place to live, pronto! So all my free time (wait, I'm a single mom, no free time!) is going towards craigslist hunting for a new place to live. Since we are hoping to move again in the summer if Dan finds a job, I need someplace that will let us sign a 6 month lease and that will accept the dog. Not too easy.

However, catastrophe aside, Nory has slept well for me this week (hooray!) and I even managed to decorate the tree and living room for Christmas with help from my friend Abby and her dog Chester. Thanks Abby! Only iPodPhone pictures available but this gives you an idea :)

Also to be noted was that I was encouraged by Nory actually not throwing a piece of frozen (cooked) sweet potato when I gave it to her in her mesh ring yesterday. She held it for a few minutes and even put it in her mouth a few times. I was so encouraged that I opened a jar of applesauce and gave her a bite. The face was priceless, I wish I had it on video. Not only did she spit it out and grimace, but actual gagging took place and continued for a couple minutes. I guess she really doesn't like applesauce yet.

Today we will be scooting around looking for apartments. Wish us luck!

Second Annual Home Depot Christmas Tree

Tomorrow starts the first day of two weeks of the Great Klein Challenge, whereby Dan goes to China and Judy single-moms it for two weeks. Victory goes to anyone still alive at the end of two weeks. The tree is up in our living room, big and bushy and obviously not from a forest. It isn't decorated yet which means that Dan will be missing the muppets Christmas decorating/cookie making (and eating) festivities.

Wish us all luck! Since Dan is taking his big camera (duh) and the point-and-shoot camera, poor Kleinland will be without photos for a while. Use your imagination.

Christmas Card Rejects

These speak for themselves!

Teething and Eating

At 3 months, I thought teething was a baby with a little bit of fussiness and a lot of drooling...

At 7 months, teething is a baby waking up every hour or two screaming for 45 minutes inconsolably, followed by a new tooth!

I really preferred the 3 month version.

Nevertheless, she seems none the worse for wear and is mastering several new skills as she approaches 7 months. No crawling yet (thank God), but she can sit pretty much forever, she can wave (so cute!), she makes lots of baabaapaalapaabaa talking noises, and she eats.

Oh, wait, now that I think about it... she doesn't eat. But she will sit in her high chair and play with her spoon! In fact, here is a list of foods she doesn't eat:
avocado, squash, sweet potato, banana, apple, carrot, oatmeal.

Here is the list of foods she does eat:
Ice, breastmilk.

We're working on it!

A new love

There are many types of love in this world; love for God, love for your spouse, love for your child, love for a friend. And I am discovering a new one: love for photography. Now, those of you who know me and know how my face turns a pale green every time Dan mentions another piece of gear he can't live without may very well be surprised. And, true, I don't love photography the way Dan does - he loves the technical aspect of it, the ISO-Aperture-Focal Length-Off Camera Flash-Noise Ratio part of photography. He also loves the artistic nature of it. Dan looks at photos the way an Engineer/artist looks at photos. He enjoys the challenge of getting all the technical variables lined up correctly, in addition to framing the picture just right in order to get that great shot.

No, this is certainly not the part of photography I am falling in love with - which is to say, I am not a photographer. I've been thinking over the weekend about what it is about photography that I love, and it is hard to describe. I think what I love is giving people pictures, of themselves, their family, or their children, that bring joy to their hearts because they look at the photo and see the beauty of the person truly captured there. They think, YES, that is exactly the person that I love! Most point-and-shoot photos fail to really give you the ability to look at yourself and say, "yes, that's me, and I'm beautiful!" Or, "yes, this is my child, don't you agree that she's the most amazing thing in the whole universe? Can't you just see from this picture how her joy lights up the world?" And I love that Dan and I are able to give this to people. (Okay, pretty much all the talent and effort regarding the actual photos belongs to Dan, but I think I am beginning to enjoy it just as much, in my own way).

This weekend we went home to Redlands for Thanksgiving. My mom cooked up a storm (without, by the way, a working refrigerator... Take That Rachel Ray!). We also took the opportunity to hook up with my friend Kimber from high school to do a photoshoot with her family. "A friend from high school" is a pretty loose definition - Kimber and I went to Elementary School, Junior High, and High School together; we swam on the swim team and ran on the cross country team together; we became Christians more or less together; we even worked together as lifeguards over the summer. In fact, to this day, sometimes when I'm out running near the top of a hill, wanting to stop, I can hear Kimber's dad cheering for me in my head - he never missed a cross country meet! Our paths diverged when we went our own ways to college, but thanks to Facebook we've gotten back in touch and Kimber is the one who encouraged me to sign up for the Carlsbad Half Marathon in January. She has an absolutely beautiful 2 year old daughter named Reese. It was a pleasure to shoot her family!

An Above Average Weekend for the Klein Family Camera

This weekend Dan took about 1200 photographs.

Saturday morning Dan was paid to take some pictures for a World War II museum. We went to someone's house who had an entire room dedicated to WWII artifacts and models. They also had a authentic WWII jeep. I have certainly never seen so many WWII things!



After the WWII photoshoot, we went to a family picnic for my mom's group, mamatoto. It was really fun! I hang out with the moms and babies every week but don't get to see the dads too often. It is amazing to see the kids interacting with each other more and more as they grow!

This first picture is my friend Tomika, her husband Luis, and their daughter Maya. Luis just got a job in Richland Washington and they will be moving there in January. Booooo! Not only am I jealous that they get to move to Washington, but also I will be very sad to see them go, Tomika is one of my favorite new Santa Barbara friends.

Tomika, Maya, and Luis

Gavin

Soren

Jayden

After the picnic we did a photoshoot for our wonderful nanny Tove. We were photographing her daughter, Emma (age 3), and two neices (13 and 14 years old). I had never known that high school kids were so difficult to work with! This was a very disappointing shoot, mostly due to the fact that we'd say "can you sit on this bench and hug your sister" and they would say "no." No? Really? I guess working with babies is relatively easy! Anyway, somehow we still managed to get some good shots. Nory LOVES Emma Joy, and follows her with her eyes wherever she goes!

Emma Joy and Nory

Tove and Emma Joy

Before we left the park we took some pictures of ourselves with Nory. And that was just Saturday! Sundays photos will be posted later.

Nory's Zoolander face - MAGNUM!

Nory and Daddy

Also, just to mention it - we took Nory to the doctor this week for her 6 month checkup. She is a fat and happy baby for sure! She weighed 16 pounds, 14 ounces, was 25 1/4 inches long, and had a head circumference of 16 1/4 inches. Percentile-wise this puts her at the 25th percentile for height and head and the 70th percentile for weight... we've been told it will all even out eventually. She's a stout little girl!

Charlotte

Dan and I had our second paid photography gig this Saturday, and it was for someone we'd never met! That's right, an absolute stranger paid us to take photos of their kid. We're really professionals now! Thankfully my mom was in town to babysit so Dan and I could both pay full attention to our subject. We spent about an hour and 15 minutes with them. It was really fun. We ended up narrowing it down to about 100 fantastic shots of Charlotte and her family, here are a few of my favorites.

My Soapbox

This is my blog, so from time to time I think I can climb up on my soapbox and give a piece of my mind. And this blog entry from my soapbox happens to be about my soapbox, or the ingredients written on it.

Before I was pregnant, I was half-way on the "environmental" bandwagon. Which is to say, I love the planet, I want to "go green," do my part, yadiyadiyadi. When we lived in Kirkland we had a compost pile for food scraps, recycled, and bought organic products when it was convenient for us.

When I was pregnant, I started making a conscious effort to rid my household of anything toxic. The reasons for this are to:

1) Protect my baby from any long term side affects caused by household toxins,
2) Do my small part in helping keep the environment around, and
3) To model the conservation effort to my children, and have it be a part of their lives from the beginning.

I am finding that this effort is not as difficult as I thought it would be. I'm amazed by the wide variety of toxin-free, earth-friendly products available, and often the cost is not significantly more. I started with buying natural baby products, but quickly realized that this would not do, since Nory is constantly touching me and all of our household objects. So now my goal is to get these products out of our household.

My goal is to get rid of anything which is a "known carcinogen" or known irritant such as laureth sulfates, phthalates, parabens, and other common household toxins. (Did you know that in most cases these ingredients are NOT required to be listed on consumer products because they represent a trade secret?) I want to reduce my impact on the environment by minimizing disposable items. I want to buy locally to minimize the carbon footprint that comes with imported items. And I want to do all this with the balance of being a busy working mom with limited resources.

Here are some of the changes we've made and how they've been working out so far:

Buy produce at the Farmer's Market
I've been making the effort to go to the farmer's market every Saturday for all of our produce. Most of the produce sold at the farmers market is not only organic, it is also local (less carbon footprint for getting it to you), cheaper (no grocery or transportation overhead), and taste better! In Southern California there is a wide variety of food that grows "in season" year round. So we're taking advantage of it while we're here. I buy most of our non-produce food from Trader Joes which is cheap and convenient. Check out this article for a list of foods worth buying organic and what you can save your money on.

Diapers
Well it turns out that using cloth diapers has not been as hard as expected. We use BumGenius one-size cloth diapers and bamboo diaper wipes. In the situations where I run out of clean cloth diapers or are going to be on the road for a long time, we've switched from Pampers disposable diapers to Nature Babycare brand disposable diapers, which do not contain any oil based material (like plastic)! When we need disposable wipes we use Earth's Best chlorine free baby wipes. The cloth and the Nature Babycare diapers work great, no complaints, and I'm saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars by washing and reusing my own diapers over three years. The Earth's Best baby wipes seem to dry out Nory's skin a little so I generally use a little olive oil on her bum when I have to use these wipes.

Baby Skin Care
Started with Mustela brand products, switched to Aveeno, and finally ended up with Burt's Bees. The Burt's Bees lotion smells a little like an old lady but that is my only complaint. We are now using California Baby brand sunscreen which also works great although it is very sticky when it comes to having your baby in the sand at the beach.

Grownup Skin/Body Care
Shaving Cream- Switched from Gillette to Trader Joe's
Toothpaste - Switched from Sensodyne to Tom's of Maine Sensitive
Shampoo - Switched from Blonde to Aveda
Shower Soap - Switched from Philosophy Grace to Trader Joe's
Face Soap - Switched from Clean & Clear to Nature's Gate
Hand Soap - Switched from Softsoap to Trader Joe's

Household Products
Paper Products - After reading this article about the devastating affect America's toilet paper craze has on the rain forest, I was pretty motivated to switch. We switched from Charmin toilet paper to Trader Joe's, and I'm not sure what paper towels we were using but I've also switched to Trader Joe's. I plan to switch to Seventh Generation eventually but I haven't been at the right store at the right time to make it happen.
Dish Soap - Switched from Dawn to Seventh Generation, and switched from Cascade to Trader Joe's dishwasher soap.
Laundry Soap - Mostly using All Free & Clear, always have. When this runs out I'll look for something more earth-friendly but also on the diaper approved list.

Clothes
This is the most difficult one so far. I've been trying to buy Cotton instead of Polyester for baby clothing items, but most of Nory's clothes have been gifts. Also trying to look at the tag and buy things that are made in the USA, Canada, or Mexico when possible, to minimize the carbon footprint of importing clothes, not to mention the social implications of buying overseas clothes. However, I have found that in many cases it is nearly impossible to find clothes that are not imported from Asia.

Work In Progress
Still working on replacing household cleaning supplies such as DrainO, 409, Soft Scrub, and Clorox Toilet Bown Cleaner. Feel free to toss me recommendations of friendly products that work well! Otherwise I'll wait until I run out and then go to Lazy Acres, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe's to pick something up.

Now you know the ingredients on my soap box... I doubt there are many people who made it through to the end of this blog anyway. If there is anyone else there who is trying to raise a baby toxin-free or simply live a less-toxic life, I'd love any encouragement or ideas you might have!

PS
Nory got her first tooth yesterday. Getting to know that is your reward for making it to the end of this blog!

Happy half birthday, Nory!

I stole this 6 cupcake idea from my friend Calia.

Where did October go?

Here it is!

Lots of photos were taken in October but Dan was super busy with school so nothing got posted except for a few on the blog.

Eating (sort of)

It's hard to believe, but it's been 6 months! Well, technically Nory's 6 month birthday is on Monday, but because Mondays are really busy in our house, we decided to give Nory her first meal today. Here is what was on the menu:

Avocado, mashed with breastmilk into a guacamole-looking paste. I choose this after reading several pediatric articles regarding how the old staple of rice cereal is actually pretty much just empty calories with very limited nutritional value. Why feed your child iron-fortified rice when you could just feed them food that naturally contains iron? Anyway, this morning I went down to the farmers' market and picked out a nice, ripe, local, organic avocado.

It wasn't pretty, but Nory more or less enjoyed it. Or better said, more AND less enjoyed it. After every bite, she opened her mouth as wide as it would go and made choking noises, as if she were about to throw up... but then two seconds later would lunge for the spoon again, mouth wide open for another bite.

The food went in, the food came out. But overall, I think more of it went in then came out - so we'll consider it a success! I'm guessing about a teaspoon was actually consumed. We'll keep trying, my goal is to give Nory some turkey on Thanksgiving.

A Comedy of Errors

Minor catastrophes are happening all the time - what keeps us sane is that they don't all happen at once. Usually.

Then again, some days they do.

This morning started out normally. We had a nice breakfast, kissed Dan as he went off to school, and Nory settled in for a morning nap. For my birthday my mom gave me a gift certificate to get the house cleaned (how old am I that this was the best gift, ever?), and the cleaners were scheduled to come at 10:30 this morning. So while Nory slept, I finished picking up the house. At 10:00 I knew I had plenty of time to get in a shower before they came.

Catastrophe #1:

The cleaners arrived early. So at 10:15 when I was stepping out of the shower stark naked, two cleaning people came barging through my front door (which I had left open for the dog) with arms full of cleaning supplies... and headed straight to the bathroom. I did a short scream followed by a mad rush to get dressed. Threw a few items in the diaper bag, grabbed the baby, and rushed off to swimming lessons 30 minutes early.

Swimming was nice.

We arrived home shortly after noon at which point Nory was exhausted and went down for another nap (gotta LOVE those swimming lessons!). I realized that we were scheduled to go to a halloween party later this evening, so while Nory slept I took it upon myself to make something for the potluck. I've been in a bread making mood lately, so after checking the Evite and seeing that the host was making chili, I decided to make rolls. Yum!

Catastrophe #2

I was out of flour so I turned to my Trader Joes multigrain baking mix. The recipe for rolls said it made about about 12, perfect! So I dump all the ingredients together in the Kitchenaide and start the mixing. After a minute I realize the dough is still perfectly dry and re-read the directions. Oops, directions call for adding 2 cups of multigrain baking mix, and I added the entire box - about 8 cups. So after quadrupling the recipe, I ended up making about 48 rolls (and saddest of all, getting my newly cleaned kitchen all floury).

The rolls turned out smelling, looking, and tasting delicious, and Nory was still sleeping.

Catastrophe #3

Re-read the Evite, realize it says that the host is providing homemade chili... AND ROLLS. Crap. Now I have 48 rolls and nothing for the potluck. Re-read Evite again, realize I'm allowed to bring wine. Saved!

I have coffee with a group of moms every Friday (the ones you see in the halloween picture from a few blogs ago) and we usually meet at Jeanine's at 3pm. At 2:30 I frantically call all the girls and invite them over for coffee and rolls. Nory awakes.

Catastrophe #4

Ever forget to push the coffee pot all the way under when you make coffee? Yep. Grounds everywhere. ALL OVER MY CLEAN EXCEPT FOR SLIGHTLY FLOURED KITCHEN.

Coffee and rolls with the girls was nice - a little break from our normal tradition, but they were troopers and had at least 2 rolls each, and I was down to a small enough stack that I could squish them into my freezer. By the time they left around 5:30 Nory was seeming a bit tired so I put her down for another nap. It was certainly out of character for her to take an early evening nap, but then again, it was a strange day.

Catastrophe #5

And oops, 5:30pm is when the Halloween party started, and Dan is nowhere near home. In fact he is working late and doesn't get home until 7pm. This is probably my fault because I forgot to remind him about the halloween party until late this afternoon. Anyway, we totally missed the party. But at least we have 40 rolls in our freezer as evidence of how we almost did something fun.

Catastrophe #6

By 7:30pm I realize that the "nap" Nory went down for at 5:30 is actually turning into bedtime, because she is still sound asleep. Thinking about how I didn't want to be up at 4am when she was done sleeping, I broke my never-wake-a-sleeping-baby policy and gently woke her up so she could hang out with dan a few minutes and eat one more time before really going to bed. Well Nory did NOT like being woken up. In fact she screamed, which is extremely rare. She then proceeded to cry through saying hi to Dan, having a bath, and eating. I think she cried for a whole hour before finally settling down and playing a bit on her piano as if nothing bad had ever happened, and then politely going back to sleep.

And I think I'll follow soon!

Bagels

Dan was born with a genetic disposition to eat a bagel every day of his life, and I'm pretty sure he's done it every day since he learned how to eat. So when we ran out of bagels yesterday and I didn't make it to the bagel store before closing, I decided to try to make them from scratch. How hard could it be?

I started by making the dough in the kitchenaide mixer. I used half white and half wheat flour to make my plain bagels a little less plain. Then I split the dough into little balls and let it rise for 20 minutes.

After that I rolled each ball into a long snake a little bigger than two hands widths, and then joined the ends together using a bit of water to make it sticky. Not too pretty at this point, but it turns out bagel shaping is pretty forgiving. After the dough was in its bagel shape, I was supposed to let it rise 20 minutes, but ended up letting it rise about 45 minutes because after about 15, Nory woke up from her nap and needed to be fed and have a new diaper. I thought this would make the bagels too fluffy and wonder-bready, but I guess this step is also pretty forgiving because they weren't.
Then came boiling, a step I was a little apprehensive of but turned out to be no problem at all. Just dropped those suckers in a pot of boiling water (4 at a time), flipped them after a minute, and scooped them out with a slotted spoon after another minute. I feared that the dough would disintegrate in the water, but it stayed together in its happy bagel shape! Unfortunately I forgot to snap a photo of the boiling step. Which is why I'm not a professional food blogger.

Finally, popped the little guys into a 425 degree oven for 10 minutes, flipped them, and let them cook for another 10 minutes.

Hmmm... how come one is missing a bite?

And the last step - breakfast!

All in all they were pretty good. Next time I might experiment with toppings. I think I'll make them a little bigger and I'd like to get the crust a little thicker - but I am not sure how. Boil longer? Bake longer? I'll be doing some google research before my next attempt!