1m2aSandbox

Something’s beeping.
Something’s beeping that shouldn’t be.


I pry my eyes open and search for the noise, finally realizing
it’s Cora’s monitor. But the monitor only beeps when it
loses its base signal, so what’s going on? What time is it,
anyway? I look at my clock and see it’s out. Ah,
power’s out. Mystery solved.


But if the power’s out, why are strobe lights going off in
the room? I swing out of bed, grabbing the emergency flashlight by
my bed. And then a third question hits me – why is someone
throwing pebbles at our window?


My brain finally catches up with my senses, and I realize our
windows are banging fiercely in the wind. The hail is assaulting
the window panes, and the lightning’s flashing too fast for
us to figure out which thunder crack goes with which lightning
bolt. My husband and I look at each other, and fear starts to snake
in my belly. I look out our bedroom windows and see our pear trees,
nearly horizontal. I see the sky flashing back and forth between
pale white and sickly green. And that’s when I know.

Yeah, beep beep.


Sorry, just had to finish out the song lyric –


Yes, it’s official. At ten and a half months, Cora is
walking.

My previous entry was about feeding
finicky toddlers, and the feedback fell into two categories: 1)
“I feel terrible in comparison since you make things from
scratch and I’m serving up Kraft Mac ‘N Cheese most
nights”; and 2) “We want more details!”


So first off, don’t feel bad if you don’t do everything
just like me. Keep in mind I’m home all day and have the time
to cook that moms who work outside the home often don’t. I
make cheese crackers from scratch because a) I like to, and b)
after eight months of unemployment last year, I’m very very
cheap. And finally, don’t feel bad because I cracked open the
blue box last week myself; my kids don’t always eat like
pro-biotic, all-organic angels.


As for the request for more detailed suggestions, here goes!

Hey Jessica – this one’s for
you! Sorry it took so long for me to cover this topic – you
know how it is.


When Maddie was a baby and doing the whole pureed food thing, I
thought I was Magic Mommy: she’d eat pretty much anything I
gave her. I was pureeing broccoli, spinach, asparagus – you
name it, she’d good-naturedly allow me to spoon it into her
mouth. As per the doctor’s instructions, I was giving Maddie
a protein, a fruit, and a vegetable at every meal (with the
occasional starch thrown in as accompaniment) and I naively assumed
we’d continue this way for the rest of her life. I had hazy,
romantic visions of a four-year-old Maddie placidly eating her
lentils and brussel sprouts without comment, and honestly
couldn’t see what all the fuss was amongst my friends: picky
eaters? What??

I went into Cora’s room yesterday
morning to get her up, looked into the crib at the cooing baby, and
thought, “Who are YOU?”


Am I the only one, or does everyone else see their babies change
overnight? They go to bed looking like themselves, and wake up
looking like someone else. I mean, I know that I don’t see
changes as blatantly as people who only see my kids infrequently
– say, once a month or something. I expect to look back at
old photos and be shocked at how different Cora looks, especially
in this first year when she changes so much. But there are times
when those changes seem to happen overnight.

When we lived in New York, Maddie and I
went for play dates all across the city thanks to church friends
scattered throughout the five boroughs (and even –gasp- New
Jersey). I loved visiting our friends in their homes and getting a
chance to hang and chat in a controlled environment – no
worrying about a kid running too far away or talking to strangers
or whatever. I also enjoyed simply seeing my friends’ homes
and getting ideas for creative ways to cram more crap into a tiny
space, or new ways to make the house look cool with no cash: in New
York, it’s pretty difficult to make enough money to do the
whole “designer” decorating look, and we all had homes
filled with flea-market finds and hand-me-downs. And as much as I
my friends and I are alike, our homes were all very different.


Since I’ve been in Texas I’ve been going to a playgroup
comprised of pretty much all families in my subdivision. And while
I’ve never been much for the “Keeping Up With the
Joneses” syndrome, I can feel it creeping into my psyche
now.

I made one of my stand-by recipes last
night – a creamy fettucine with asparagus I got from href="http://www.everydayfoodmagazine.com" target="_blank">Everyday
Food a couple years ago (which, by the way, is a great
magazine to subscribe to, since they try to do seasonal foods and
under 30 minute prep times – way more realistic than Martha
Stewart!). And I realized once again what a great meal it is, and
why it’s on my short list: it can feed older babies and
finicky toddlers, but has a taste adults love as well; and
it’s got veggies built in, so all I have to do is add a side
of fruit and we’re done. I divided up the meal for Cora
– pasta, cut-up asparagus, and peaches all finger-friendly on
her tray – but left it mixed for Maddie to fork “all by
herself” in a bowl. Both of them cleaned their plates.