This week

Last week Andrew was really sick with roseola all week. He had a high fever must of the week and was just very lethargic and wanted to be held all the time. So, nothing much got done last week. But now, he's all better, so we felt like doing some fun things.

Andrew helped me make cheese. This was our second time making mozzarella and the curds turned out much better AND I remembered to put in the cheese salt. Yeah. We'll make pizza with it today. Andrew loves to help me cook and wants to see every single step.

We also went raspberry picking on Thursday. Andrew was a pro at picking them, but they all went into his mouth instead of our bucket. He was more interested in being social. Whenever he saw anyone in the field, he would go over and say hi and stand next them and just jabber away and also try to take their raspberries! After we picked about 2 qts he got bored and kept wandering to the dirt road so he could watch trucks go by. Needless to say, it was time to go home. But we ate some, froze some, and I'm packing a beautiful raspberry buckle as we speak (we are totally hooked on blueberry buckles this month - so easy, so yummy).

A Big Investment

I love saving. Not as in getting a good deal (though I love free things), but as in actually saving money. Nothing gives me as much glee (well, almost nothing) as maxing out our IRAs (grad students don't get 401k's - how uncool is that?), throwing some money into our ING savings account, or saving up for Andrew's college in his Michigan 529. I love to calculate our savings rate at the end of every year. Let's face it, I am a personal saving nerd. I like to read personal finance pages and rue on the virtue of making a CD ladder or find some other obscure way to save money. And I dream on the day when we get matching funds put into our retirement account ...

Unfortunately, these have not been the best days for our investments, as I'm sure anyone who turns on the TV or reads the paper knows. And we have lost LOTS of money this year (well, at least it seems like lots to me). Now, as far as investment personality, I am very boring, very plain-Jane. Buy and hold. We haven't actually ever sold any of our investments yet and the only switch we made was from Katsu's small cap to a target retirement fund. And we basically have only index funds.

Seeing that I only get paid 3 times a year (beginning of Fall and Winter semesters and beginning of summer), we feel rich after I get paid, even after paying out tithing and estimated tax payments (you feel it so much more when you write a check versus having it automatically taken out). So, this year we decided on a NEW BIG investment. One I won't see big red negative returns in Quicken each week ...

NEW FURNITURE.

Neither of us could stand feeling like we are living with college student furniture (never mind that we are still college students ... it's different). We wanted some of the real deal. So, after a trip to Ikea (two lamps, two small table, and a big plant later) and then to Value City Furniture (a couch, a loveseat, a coffee table, an end table, and a dresser later) and after some reorganization, we have some new stuff! And we love it. Best investment of the year!

New kitchen with some old bookshelves (ignore the mess):



The wall of books:



Andrew's smaller play area in the living room (with sick little Andrew):



and now for the new furniture:






I still am totally lacking in interior decorating skills (I'm not seeing that change anytime soon ... Kroger wouldn't even let me help in the flower department because I was so bad at arranging flowers back in high school ... yikes!). But we are loving new things and more seating.

Feminism

I went to our ward book club this month to talk about "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History", by Laurel Ulrich. I hadn't (and haven't yet) read the book, only the review from Amazon.com, but it'd been awhile since I went to book club and I wanted to go.

We spent most of the time talking about politics and feminism (though not neccessarily together). And I was thinking (although I didn't actually say much). Some people were saying that they had never had a very positive light on feminism and this book changed that to show them some of the amazing things that feminism accomplished for women.

I have considered myself a feminist for a long time, though I surely wouldn't agree with all feminists. But the general notions I think have been with me for awhile. And I think it dates back to listening to a CD (well, back then tape) series by Living Scriptures that I listened to on Great Mormon Women. I found the women in these stories AMAZING. I was always astounded at what they did, how strong they were, and how they tried to balance family and other demands. One women went to medical school back East by request from Brigham Young so they could have better birth outcomes back in Utah. She was pregnant and had many small children, but did her best. Wow! And more recently, a women who went into government, locally to help improve the quality of their water, and ended up running (and winning) for Senator in Florida (I think). I just got a CD of this from my parents and can't wait to listen to it again. I love hearing about great women and the great things they did.

So, one small critique I have. So many members of our church make the trek out to Palmyra every year. It's not too terribly far from here (or from Boston), so it seems a lot of people in our ward do it each year. And a lot of people go to the Peter Whitmer Farm but no one ever goes to the Seneca Falls Women's Rights National Historical Park which is the SAME highway exit. We hadn't planned on visiting it, but when I saw the sign for Seneca Falls - I knew it had to be around and I made Katsu come with me. (Seneca Falls was the location of the Seneca Falls Convention, an important location and event in the fight for women's voting rights - I did a play about this for History Day one year and so I remember it well. Of course, one of the members of my team didn't show up for the competition because she forgot she was going to be in Hawaii that day .... how do you forget that?). So, now you know. So, next time you or a friend goes to see the church sites in Palmyra, on the way to the Peter Whiterm Farm, stop by and honor the women who helped give you the right to vote. And, until then, honor their memory by VOTING.

Okay, off my soapbox ... continue on your life.

Andrew is 16 months old!

Andrew continues to grow and grow, well, older anyways. Based on his 15 month appt, he hasn't actually gained any weight in 6 months and is down to the 30somethingth%, though he has gotten taller, so he looks a little thinner. It always cracks me up when someone says how chubby he is and how big he is, since he is smaller than average now.

He walks really well and can walk backwards now. I tried to offer him a cookie once and he backed away because he was suspicious (he doesn't really like sweets). He waves and claps all the time and can give high fives (finally!). He even will gesture a little bit when we sing songs, though he mostly just ignores them. He likes to climb and get into everything of course. Today he started crying and I found him stuck under the bed!

Andrew is a very social little guy. He loves to wander about and walk up to other unsuspecting kids and adults. He got his doctor to read him a story at his last doctor appt as they were trying to explain something to me. He will go up to older kids at the library and smile and babble away. If other kids are running, he thinks they are playing chase with him and he will run around and play with them. I love it and hope it sticks and he is a little social butterfly. Of course, he is pretty aggressive with other kids and is very possessive of his toys. But he likes to hug other kids too, so he is probably mostly just very physical. Occasionally a bigger kid will scare him and he will cry, but usually not.

Andrew keeps throwing lots of little tantrums where he lies down on the floor and cries for a bit. He also hates when we tell him "no" and will cry and seek comfort from the other one. Poor little guy. Sometimes it's hard to keep my patience when he is wrecking destruction around the house, but I usually do a good job.

Andrew is starting to imitate us sometimes too. It is very fun and cute.

Andrew is talking a lot more, but a lot of it is babbling. But he does say a lot of words. His favorites, which uses all the time, are "truck", "cat", "dog", "this", "that", "done", "more", "mom", "dad", "fish", "yeah", "ba" for banana. He says many many other words but not as consistently. Sometimes he says little sentences but I can not think of any right now. I'm very grateful that he doesn't say "no" or "mine", yet. He also makes sounds for his cars, which is so cute.

Andrew LOVES loves loves loves trucks and cars. He makes us read any books about trucks over and over and over again. Each morning he loves to line up his cars on the air conditioner, then move them to the table, and over and over and over again. He even has pretended that his food was a car before (which seemed like a huge cognitive leap to me!). He loves to play with his train set now too and is figuring out how to put the track together and make the cars go over the bridge or through the tunnel.

He loves to read stories (especially car books) and gets very excited when he sees a cat or a dog or a car or a truck in a book. He will bring books over to whoever is convenient to get them to read to him. He even brings over DVD's for us to read the covers to him. His favorite books are "Baby Farm Animals", "Trucks", and his "Truck", "Train", "Boat", and "Plane" books in Japanese. I can read the Japanese books, albeit quite slowly, but I am getting faster. If only I understood more of what they were saying. He fell in love with the book "Heavy Equipment Up Close" or something like that. The book was almost as big as him. He would struggle to carry it over and then sit while I read him paragraphs about draglines, space shuttle crawlers, bulldozers, and dump trucks. I finally took it back to the library today because I was so tired of reading it.

Andrew's eating has been much better the last week or two. He now likes chicken (yeah, another food group!). His favorite foods are still rice, peas, and goldfish crackers. He is enjoying lots of fruits, many vegetables, breads, and noodles. He still shuns the dairy group and spits out any non-water beverage. He could live on rice. He is still breastfeeding, but it is definately cutting back to just a couple times during the day (but still at night! ARGH!) The funniest thing is, he is always trying to convince me he wants to nurse and so he will pat the couch and then bring over the pillow he lays his head on, and then he will go get me reading material (scriptures, a book, or a magazine). He definitely knows the way to my heart!

Andrew will only take a nap in his stroller. I just go with it. I need him to take a nap and if that's the only way he will take it, I am not going to stress over it. It will be more difficult in the winter, but oh well. His night sleep is still not fabulous, especially the last week or so as he is getting more teeth. He now has all his molars and is getting his incisors. I will have a party when all his teeth finally come in.

As far as events go, this month was a busy one for Andrew. We went to Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula. And he was diagnosed (possibly) with asthma and nebulizer treatments. Which also meant he started watching movies every day during his treatments but thankfully he doesn't seem to notice he's missing them since we stopped the treatments. Andrew also started taking a "Fun at One" class through First Steps Washtenaw on Saturday mornings with Katsu so they can have some quality time together and I can get some more work done. He has switched to going to his babysitter in the mornings (9-12 for three days a week) and really seems to enjoy it. Maybe he'll even learn some Bulgarian, since that is mostly the language she talks to him in. The Fisher Price party and all the new toys was especially exciting for Andrew. (Although I am NOT used to have toys that make so much noise! Yikes!). We are also having a little play group with kids around his age at our house once a week, which is nice for us. Maybe he will learn to share a little better.

Overall, Andrew is a really happy boy who is always babbling, laughing, playing, and walking around with a few trucks in his hand.