godt nytår

Once again, the final months of the year flew by! From October on, our calendar was packed: anniversary, half-birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Jul... not to mention myriad local events, like Balloon Fiesta (pictures of that will be in a separate post) and Dia de los Muertos. Here are some snapshots of a few of Squirt's recent adventures.

Fall fun!
This fall has been especially fun for us. Squirt has mastered the art of the silly face, though still sports her classic serious face when she is not amused with your antics. Her smiles and giggles certainly light up the room, though! She is increasingly curious and eager to explore everything and anything (amazingly, my hair is not yet grey). She loves to read, loves to draw, and loves to sing quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) to herself as she plays. She is all about her babies right now - which vary from her baby doll, to Teddy, to momma's old set of Minni and Mickey Mouse to a gorilla to... well, you get the idea; it's almost impossible to leave the house without one or two of them. She feeds them, kisses them, lovingly tucks them in, and sometimes even tries to potty train them. Her language development right now is exploding. Despite her wicked "toddler" accent, we often carry on conversations, talking about what we're doing or where we've going or what she's done. And she continues to love "helping" around the house. She recently started dragging a dining room chair around to get to counter tops so she can help us with whatever we may be doing, whether we like it or not! Her favorite chores right now include the dishes (we'll see how long that lasts!), making coffee, and "sweeping" the kitchen floor.

Brisk early morning trip to the park.

 

Smiles while tormenting Radar.

 

What she does when you ask her to show you her teeth :D

 

At the Marigolds y Muretos parade (note the black nose; that's all the face paint she'd sit still for).

Picking out books and finding new friends at the library after helping momma vote on Election Day.

"Helping" with the laundry.

 

"Reading" in her Fortress of Solitude.

Saying "cheeeeese" while "helping" momma do the dishes.

 Feeding the ducks with dad-O on an afternoon trip to the zoo. 

 

 

It's bigger than she is! *nom*

 

 

Squeezing in with her babies in her newly repurposed Fortress of Not-Solitude.

  

 She loves the park, even when it's freezing.

Halloween
This year, we continued our (new-ish) tradition of carving pumpkins (and eating their brains). This time Squirt tried to help out a little more. She also got a lot of use out of her Halloween costume (she was an original series Star Trek science officer) - she wore it to the Zoo Boo the weekend before, to daycare on the day, and then again that night for her first Trick-or-Treating adventure with friends!

Punkin' with pumpkins.

Carving her pumpkin alongside daddy.

 

Supervising.

Poking her finger in Jack's eye and giving daddy some sugar.

 "But... what's IN there?"

Live long and prosper (sans pants).

 

 

At the Zoo Boo - cutest science officer ever (sorry Spock).

Trick or treat!

 

Thanksgiving
We had a small family feast (just the three of us) on Thanksgiving (delicious, delicious cranberry roast - a stray from the typical turkey). The next day, Squirt's great-grandparents popped in for a visit. For once, Squirt was actually pretty sociable with them.

<3

 

Jul

As always, the Wendt-family Jul feast was fantastic. This year, in addition to the traditional (to us) roast duck, baked brie, and gløgg, daddy whipped up some fantastic candied potatoes. It's a good thing this meal comes around only once a year... Squirt had fun unwrapping her Christmas presents (a change from last year, when she seemed to think momma's wrapping skills could use a little help) and actually enjoys playing with her new presents more than the packaging (a gold-standard in developmental milestones, I'm sure).

 

"Oooooh!"

 

Trying to co-sleep with her baby in her new nursery set.

*kiss*

Feeding Teddy.

 

New Year

Wow. I just can't believe 2012 has already passed and I survived the dreaded Mayan Apocalypse relatively unscathed! I have a feeling the years will continue to fly as Squirt continues to grow. What a fun, exciting year it's been! On New Year's Eve, we woke to a sparkly dusting of snow, which Squirt was eager to experience. When she first noticed it through the window, she asked me "what's that?" When I told her it was snow, she responded with an awed, "Neeeat," and promptly began to ask (overandoverandover) to go outside. Later that afternoon, to celebrate the closing of the year, we walked through the aquarium - it seemed fitting since we would be gorging on seafood (specifically crab) later that evening and again the next day at a friend's hous (best seafood stew ever)!

 

"What's that?"

Chuckling as momma throws mini-snowballs.

 

Watching the fish and reflecting on her year.

 



more adventures

Here are some more memories from the last few months. I told you! We've been busy!

On the very edge of the very top of the world.

Discovering the cabin perched on the very edge of the very top of the world.

Awed by the view.

One of many silly "cheese" faces.

Shopping for new unmentionables.

Evidence of a not-so-carefully-thought-out art project...

Is that momma's chocolate in your mouth? Noooo.

Climbing up the giant steps to get to the giant slide.

That's a mighty tall slide for such a little miss!

On a big girl swing.

Fearlessly launching herself down the bumpy slide.

 

Harvesting.

Proud of her tomatoes.

Where's Squirt?...

RAAAAAWR!!!

Tee hee.

half birthday

Today is Squirt's half birthday! While she's still a wee squirt, and not much taller than she was at her full birthday, it's amazing to see how far she's come since then. She's really blossoming into her own person, and it's the greatest blessing to be a part of this tiny human's life. Her vocabulary, her interests, her personality are all shooting through the roof and every day, every moment with her is an adventure!

Of course, life with this energetic explorer is anything but boring, which doesn't leave much time for blogging. So, rather than a long, text-heavy post describing her recent awesomeness, here are some photographic memories from the last few months. Happy Half Birthday, Bean!

Mme Crazy Hair. 

Cheeeeeese.

Gimme a kiss! *swak*

Have I mentioned she loves to swing?

Her first ever bath in the sink (in August)...

Rockin' the punk hair.

Watching the kitties (mountain lions) at the zoo. 

More zoo fun.

 

She climbed into her carrier one evening to relax...

Enjoying the grass on one of the last really warm summer afternoons.

  

She has a thing for sweet potato chips and sour cream...

About to go hiking with her favorite companions: Daddy, Teddy, and Baby.

It's hard work being so cute.

Caught red-handed! ("Helping" momma make brownies.)

If the shoe fits...

Playing with (read: drowning) Teddy in the fountain.

More adventures to come!

batter up!

In early August, I had the pleasure of taking Squirt and her daddy to their very first baseball game! While the big guy was unimpressed, the small slice thought it was pretty neat! We went to one of the last Isotope games of the season. Maybe we'll get to see more next year!

Watching as the players take the field.

Hi, daddy :)

Pretty excited about her first game.

sustainable sustainability

A few weeks ago I was tired, and I mean tired. I had had it up to {here} with the endless stream of dishes and laundry and sweeping and folding and... well, you get the idea. I snapped while folding a fitted sheet (which I do perfectly, by the way) and just shoved the linens in the closet, wrinkles be damned. I was fed up with the never-ending cycle of work and chores. I had a strong urge to quit my job, quit doing the housework, and just relax in the hammock all day with a fizzy drink and escapist book. Since that wasn't going to happen, I sent out a plea to some of my friends: help me come up with ways to streamline my routine so I have *some* down-time. The most repeated advice I got was to switch to disposable products - use paper plates, use plastic utensils, and, for Pete's sake stop, using cloth diapers! While these suggestions were well-intended, they really rubbed me the wrong way and exacerbated my frustration. Does it really have to be a choice between an overflowing landfill or a little relaxation? And if I take this advice, what kind of lessons am I teaching my daughter? That it's ok to waste for the sake of convenience? The more I pondered, the more determined I was that it didn't have to be that way. There had to be a way to live sustainably without going crazy and angrily throwing crumpled sheets into the closet. But how?

Since receiving the aforementioned advice, I've been thinking a lot about my routine. I'll admit, I was briefly tempted by the siren call of single-use items, but that lure was short-lived once I realized the cost alone of living so disposably, and don't even get me started on the waste... We could use conventional chemical-laden products that would take decades to biodegrade in a landfill, if they ever did, or spend twice as much money (or more!) on "eco-friendly" products that would, theoretically, turn into butterflies and sparkly dew the second they leave your fingers. I was not ok with either option for predominantly selfish earth-friendly reasons. So began my quest for sustainable sustainability. I *want* to use cloth napkins and eat off real plates and diaper my daughter in soft fluff. I want to stop using so much frikin' plastic and stop adding to the comically large pile of garbage in my office break room during the week. I want to not have to lug our trash can out to the curb every week because it's empty enough to go another week. While this is a noble ideal, I'm struggling to figure out how to make it work with my full-time work schedule without sacrificing every last shred of free time and sanity (ha) I have left...

Baby steps: I realized I need to take baby steps to achieve my "sustainable" goal. My earlier plea - how can I streamline my routine - still applies, but the answer isn't adding in more single-use products, but to reduce them and more efficiently use the products that are already there. Reducing single-use products does mean one unfortunate thing - more dishes and laundry - and that's one of the areas I need to streamline. Laundry-schmaundry. I don't mind that, even when I line dry, since - even with cloth napkins and diapers - I have it down to just a couple loads a week. It's the dishes that kill me (and my free time) since we don't have an automatic dishwasher. My current "baby step" in streamlining those is actually to do them more often. Rather than waiting until the end of the day when the sink is full, I'm striving to constantly tidy up as I'm cooking then to wash everything from a meal immediately after a meal. It takes discipline, but so far it's working and I'm spending fewer long chunks of time at the sink with a howling toddler wrapped around my legs.

Another area that desperately needs to be streamlined is meal planning. Once I started contemplating the balance between time spent doing things I had to do versus doing things I wanted to do, I realized that I lose a lot of time every week to grocery shopping and meal planning/preparation. I *thought* I was doing pretty well in that department, but I still had to make multiple runs to the store during the week and often had to come up with a plan on the fly if the slow cooker wasn't clean or I hadn't thought ahead enough. Streamlining this process is going to take several of those baby steps, some of which I've already started. The first, and probably most important, will be to actually plan meals and the corresponding shopping list. I looked into various "meal planning" sites and applications, but none of them seemed like an ideal fit for us since we eat predominantly paleo (and never eat gluten for Squirt's sake). I finally gave up searching and decided to build my own recipe index using only paleo-friendly, family-approved ingredients. This project took the better part of a week to get functionally populated, but I finally have a workable (living) document listing various meal ideas and ingredients. This effort was well worth it! Last weekend I took it for it's first test run. I was able to pull together dinner plans (and a complete shopping list) for the entire upcoming week in minutes. Because I grouped recipes by main ingredients, I was able to minimize the shopping list (and thereby the food budget) by using the same ingredient in different meals throughout the week. Shopping was also a snap! I'll admit, though, that my meal preparation could use further refinement, but I'm still working on that baby step.

I'm sure there are myriad additional baby steps I can start taking to move toward a more sustainable sustainability for my household (and the associated bragging rights that I am single-handedly saving the entire planet by not using paper towels at every meal while still having enough time to lose myself in the latest Louise Penny... or something like that), so the quest is ongoing. With my new approach to meal planning off to such a good start, I'm pretty excited to continue finding new ways to help my family live more simply with less waste while still maintaining a shred of sanity - or at least going the fun kind of crazy...

Ready to take some baby steps.

exploring

Recently, the "family that Wendt" has been "going" a lot more. We've been adventuring out in the mountains on weekly hiking trips, spending the better part of a day scrambling over rocks and dodging low-hanging branches, with some stream-splashing and tree-sniffing thrown in for fun. It's been a great way to escape the heat and recharge before the work-week starts up again and, while she hates the drive out, Squirt loves loves loves going on hikes. She gets excited the second I bring out her big carrier and is - on the trail at least - the most pleasant, curious little companion. She babbles away as we explore and loves picking flowers, tromping up hills, and licking rocks (future geologist?). She really enjoys getting out of the carrier and hiking on her own, but is always content to ride along, sometimes napping as Momma does the hard work. I think I can safely say on behalf of the entire family that we can't wait for our next hiking adventure!

Her first underground experience in the teensy Sandia Man Cave.

Hey, it's a start!

Picking up her hat.

About halfway up the Tree Spring Trail.

Note: she fell asleep just a few minutes later.

Getting ready for a long hike up to the cliffs.

Her first hands-on encounter with a pinecone.

Hiking is thirsty work.

Snack break at the top of the mountain at the base of the cliffs.

Telling him how it is.

Stealing a sip of Daddy's water.

Silly beans!

helper redux

This weekend I decided to try out a few new (sugar-free) condiment recipes: strawberry ginger jam, peach strawberry and cabernet jam, and peach barbeque sauce (the first two recipes came from my noggin, the latter came from here). I tried to time my jam session with Squirt's nap time, but she had other ideas. She woke up just as I was about to start skinning peaches. Since I already had stuff bubbling on the stove, I couldn't exactly just walk away and play tag, so I decided to enlist her help. Usually, she helps me throw things in the pot and stir, but the jam was bubbling and sputtering, and I didn't want to risk any hot berries splattering onto her tender skin, so I made her in charge of the sink. She tippy-toed on a chair and helped me peel the peaches (sampling some as she worked for quality assurance purposes). As I pitted and chopped the expertly peeled peaches, she washed up some of the measuring cups and bowls. She obviously loved helping out and I loved being able to finish my project without wondering what she was getting into...

 Helping with the dishes.