Chip

Maggie has a new nickname. Poor girl...even though she has mastered walking, she has been trying to go a little faster, pumping her arms, and letting her feet get ahead of her.

Maggie chipped her front tooth. Not bad, but it's jagged and the hour before bedtime was filled with crying, a bit of panic, and blood. In the moment that it happened, Michael scooped her up and grabbed the chip on the back patio. I've saved it and added it to her baby memories.

I'm going to have her checked out, but from what I hear, there's not much to do about a chipped baby tooth. Did it have to be in the front though? She's not even 2!

Mourning

Don't worry, it's nothing too serious. I'm just mourning the end of the Tour. It ended Sunday night and it was like dropping a friend off at the airport. I'm a Lance fan and it was great to see him out there and finish this year, but like they said, he did not have lady luck with him in his last year at the Tour. I enjoyed his interviews though, he has a funny sense of humor.

I quickly became a fan of Andy Schleck as he and Alberto Contador went head to head on the climbs. He didn't win overall this year but I'm excited to see what next year holds. Favorite commercial, see here. I'm also a fan of Tyler Farrar, a sprinter, and I'd love to see him beat Mark Cavendish one day.

I caught almost every day of the Tour and appreciated Versus looping the coverage every few hours. Very convienent when you have a life and don't have a DVR. We spent many nights over the past month watching the stages and they were all exciting. For a couple of cycling lovers (even though my getting out on a bike these days means hooking my bike up to the chariot and riding around the neighborhood), this is by far the best televised sporting event all year.

Humbug

We embarked on our first camping trip a couple weekends ago and what I hoped was going to be a ton of fun turned out to be a ton of work. Hubby says I have a "unicorns in the sky" way of thinking and I suppose I do, but come on, can't I look forward to getting away anymore? There were bits of fun interspersed with all of the parenting moments that left me exhausted by the end of of the weekend. Then came Monday, a week of hormones, followed by a cold on Friday, which Maggie caught and has carried on to today.

I need a break.

I've been wondering whether it's worth it to go anywhere besides home with a kiddo this age. Then I think I'm weak sauce compared to the other families we see out there with more than 1 kid.

We subjected our friend Ken to our "family fun". From the looks of it, he doesn't seem to have suffered too much.

He brought dark chocolate covered pretzel bark to share. I think Maggie enjoyed it.

It was nice to spend time with our friends, escape the heat, be in the mountains and smell all of the wonderful alpine smells, and see Maggie have a great time exploring. We heard lots of singing and talking to herself while she puttered around.

Maggie on the go

Michael and Maggie in rigged baby tube

Me knitting (gasp!) during her nap

I admit to liking being in control, making lists to stay organized, and all that jazz, but I also love spontaneity. Travelling with a toddler + spontaneity isn't a great combination. Bummer. So I try to be prepared as I can be but then one thing leads to another and I'm thrown for a loop. My friend Jessie said that she just looks at it this way: she expects the worst and then when the experience isn't the worst, it actually had tidbits of fun and was better than expected, she is pleasantly suprised. Oh jeez!

One thing is for sure. I've hit my 30's and I definitely need a good night's sleep. Maybe it's the fact that I'm a parent to a toddler and need a good night's sleep to keep up with her and not lose my marbles by the end of the day. Either way, I need a functioning aerobed (not one that has such a slow/small leak that you can't find it but by the wee hours of the morning it's 3/4th's deflated but I wait a few more hours trying to get some sleep trying not to move a muscle so that I don't wake the baby and the whole time I really had to pee) or I need a $100 3.5 inch camping thermarest to get me through the next few years of sleeping on the ground. Even better, how about we spring for one of those camping trailers everyone and their mom complains about? Those look just about my style these days. I'm starting to see why people do what they do, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. 10 years ago, I scoffed at so many of these things. Now I'm swallowing my words. You really can't judge until you've lived a day in another persons shoes.

Next time we go camping, I'm bringing new toys. I'm looking for the element of surprise. Bubbles, tonka truck, you get the idea. I'm pre-cooking her food and I'm not going to let her OD on fruit or juice. That only leads to suprise moments at the lake.

In other words, I'm going to be more prepared. See you later spontaneity. Ugh.

Ken wants to plan another camping trip so that makes me think it wasn't that bad but then again, he's not the mom. But it makes me realize I need to loosen up and lower my expectations. I know Michael is smiling right now.

For kicks

Maggie a couple weeks ago with Day Off Dad. Can you name the location? That's her little dog Howie that she doesn't go anywhere without these days. He's usually tucked underneath her arm and she loves to hug him.

She's 16 months old tomorrow!

Developments:
-saying more words: mum, dada, uh-oh (yesterday), dog (today), what's tomorrow?
-signing more signs (loves things in the air and likes to sign bird and airplane)
-imitating everything, even the burp at the dinner table last night which had me cracking up :-)
-eating really well
-sleeping through the night and going to bed at 7 most nights
-recognizing our neighborhood, grandma's neighborhood, parks, friend's houses
-likes to ride in the car now
-likes to clomp around the house in my shoes
-understands everything (we're having to watch everything we say for REAL now) and will do things we ask which is pretty cool to see the connection (diapers went back in the bin tonight, shoes go back in the drawer, and she actually sits down in the shopping cart)
-I could go on but my eyes are tired. Love you Miss Magdalena,

Mommy

Week(s) in pictures

Pizza craze

Funny story...

Last Saturday we get a knock at the door from our mail lady. She woke Maggie up from her nap while doing so and she needed a signature for certified mail being delivered to me. Michael signed for the letter and started probing me about it while the baby was crying in the same moment, so for a second it was chaos. Quickly, I had baby in my arms and I caught up with him in the kitchen as he was opening the envelope (which I told him to do among the chaos...I totally thought it was junk mail). Keep reading.

It all started last summer when I was on maternity leave, cooking often, and trying to save a few bucks. Our friend Ken had hurt himself and we wanted to bring him food once he came home from the hospital. I made a few pizzas and experimented with ingredients as I often do. One of the pizzas I made was unique and well-recieved. I had seen on the packaging of the crust I had used that the company held a recipe contest for new pizza creations. I stored the information away...

Fast forward about 6 months. I was at home one day while Maggie was napping taking care of stuff on the computer and I decided to write down my recipe and submit it online. It was really easy and after that, I totally forgot about it.

What I recieved was a letter telling me that I am a semi-finalist in their 2010 pizza contest! I not only won 52 voucher coupons for free pizza products from my local grocery store, but I also won an espresso/cappuchico machine in exchange for the company using my recipe for promotions/website/packaging. How cool is that? Michael says that for about 48 hours all I could talk about were subjects involving pizza. My mind was reeling.

Looking back, I wish I would have perfected my recipe even more, but heh, I won, right? and maybe if I had put too much thought into it I would have lost the simplicity of it all.

I'm guessing once 2011 rolls around, I'll find out if I am one of the winners of the grand prize, which is $5k (1/2 of which goes to a charity of my choice) and a trip to Disneyworld. I've never been and now we have Maggie in our life. This just gets better.

If you know me, I love game shows and cooking contests. I love coupons. I love free stuff. I've won a few things in the past, but I think this is the biggest yet. With our family on a major budget, I was thinking this past weekend how we love to travel but our trips these days involve camping and staying with friends and family. Don't get me wrong, it's been great, but I would love to go somewhere big, like Thailand. Seeing as that idea has to wait, Disneyworld in 2011 would surely satisfy my travel bug. It's a slim shot, but here's hoping for a little bit more luck!