It is just one month until my baby girl's third (!?!?!?!) birthday. And it's a short month! Just four weeks until we are celebrating Tabby's passage from toddlerhood to littlekiddom and I am about as emotionally messy as I get (still, not very). It is sad to see her baby days so far away in the rear view mirror, but I really enjoy her being her own independent person with SCADS of ideas and opinions. She is (generally) kind and sweet and thoughtful and I hope that we (me, Matt, her many loyal subjects) had at least a small hand in that.

The past month has been a rather big deal for Tabby as she is now officially potty-trained. I hate to even write that, lest I jinx it, but she is doing insanely well. My mom proved the theory we were laboring under (that she had the maturity, capability, etc., she was just being stubborn) and guerrilla potty-trained her when we were in Vail. They had a little stand-off and Tabby finally went on the potty. It's been smoothish sailing since that point. She still wears a pullup at night, though we've given it up at naptime and other than the errant accident from her being too absorbed in her play, she makes it just about every time.

She is still taking her gymnastics class with her beloved Miss Katie and I've seen some real improvement in her 'forward rolls' and more generally in her ability to pay attention and stay on task. We plan to continue with tumbling as long as she enjoys it. It's great for her to be with some other kids and get to run around like crazy. She really needs a physical outlet. She has tons of energy. We plan to put her in her first real (sans parent) swim lesson in April.

We are also planning to send her to preschool this fall ... where that will be is still up in the air. I sort of flubbed up registration (didn't understand it was a first come first serve thing) and now she is on two waiting lists for full-day preschool. She is #2 on one of them, so I have high hopes that one of those will come through. Otherwise, we will be sorting out other options, including leaving her at her sitter's and paying extra (ugh) for traditional preschool (3 hours 3 days/wk, or so). Not awesome, but we could probably swing it for a little while if we had to. She is definitely ready and very excited.

Birthday plans are in the very early stages at this point. I've tried to engage her in a discussion of what she'd like to do for her birthday, but she hasn't been too interested. She has insisted multiple times, however, that she only wants a "family" party and seems to understand what this means, and I'm happy to note she counts our best friends and their boys as family.

She is sunny and funny and so lively and clever. She is growing up wonderfully and it is such a joy sharing that with her. We are truly lucky to have her!!

Weight: Not sure, probably somewhere near 27 or 28 lbs. - she's got a teeny tummy on her right now, usually a sign she'll be shooting up any day now.
Height: 36 inches or so (see above)
Sizes: 4 in pullups, 2T-3T in clothes, size 7.5 in shoes, pushing towards 8
Favorite Foods: meatballs, cheese, blueberries, turkey jerkey, fruit leather
Favorite TV shows: Little Einsteins, Charlie and Lola, Toot and Puddle
Favorite pastimes: singing, playing in her NEW playroom, reading books with us, entertaining Ben, going anywhere (except the doctor's office), helping cook and clean

One of the very best things about having the remodel done is that Matt and the kids now have their own spaces, which means I get MY space back. YAY! My giant desk is even more giant because the old computer that lived on it died and so it is now just a desk ... with just my laptop and a couple other things on it. And my office is finally uncluttered and awesome, though it could use a good deep-clean and I've still got a server in my bookshelves.

Elsewhere in the house, we are still in the process of moving around and organizing. We mostly need to get more hanging shelves built in the garage to hold things like sporting equipment and holiday decorations. That's actually quite a bit of stuff! And that is all part and parcel of cleaning out Matt's shop and making it usable again, which is very important as I have an extensive list of things for him to build.

Kids' playroom artwork has arrive and now I must get it framed and hung. And the futon needs to come back from my parents' house so the adults have somewhere to sit that isn't about 10" off the ground. We are still waiting on Matt's artwork, but one print is an extra-large poster that had to be sent off-site to print, so it is taking a while. I cannot wait to get his office all put together. It's going to look sharp.

Really, it has all gone VERY well.

So ... whassup in the kitchen? I had the kids all on my own last week, which isn't really conducive to cooking and such, but I did OK. I made the crustless broccoli cheese quiche (did it in a pie plate instead of the ramekins - they're had to clean) and it turned out very well. The kids were huge fans, though they loved the blueberry muffins even more. I also finally got a nice loaf of bread made and two balls of pizza dough.

This week Matt and I locked horns over the conspicuous lack of meat in his diet, but that was when he was hungry and he was in a better mood after he'd eaten. We had super-veggie spaghetti for dinner on Sunday. Tonight, it was a fish recipe (lightly breaded with flour and a simple sauce made of lemon juice, herbs and a teensy bit of butter, plus Matt roasted carrots with dill and balsamic.

On deck there's Polenta Lasagna, Black Bean Quesadillas and a plain ol' beef stirfry. I also got a bunch more blueberries this week (relatively good price for this time of year) so I need to bake up a bunch of muffins to stock up the freezer. We've also been roasting veggies (sweet potatoes and squash) to have on hand as an easy side dish or to serve to Ben, who is a squash connoisseur (and blueberries, too, it turns out).

My goal for this week is to slowly plan a menu for next when I see this or that recipe so I don't have to scramble come Sunday morning. I'd also like to take out the camera and capture some of these yummy creations. Dare to dream.

Tabby had another big-girl milestone this past week ... her first dentist appointment. I opted for a pediatric dentist since I had a bad first experience as a kid. Tabby has my overactive imagination and she's had enough experience with doctors that she pretty much hates them and flips out when she even scents a doctor might be about. It really went pretty well and she professed to liking the dentist as we were leaving. We'll be back in 6 months for another look-see.

Matt arrived home from his business trip late Friday morning and we spent the rest of Friday and quite a bit on Saturday working around the house. We moved Matt into his office and reorganized other parts of the house (I have an office again!). Saturday night, my parents hosted the kids and Matt worked in his shop, wiring lights, and I hosted game night, which was a ton of fun. We had a great group of girls and even played a few games.

It was a good weekend. Hope yours was likewise.

PS - Photos of the basement are coming, swear. I just want to get a few more things handled so it's FINISHED.

PPS - Tabby picked out her hat to wear with that outfit. It was SOOO cute.

So last night, Ben woke up and wanted food (as in nothing, and I mean NOTHING else would calm him except a bottle) at around 3:30 AM. So I am trying to decode the hows and whys of his being able to sleep through the night or not.

The biggest difference I can see is how he ate on Tuesday vs. yesterday. Tuesday we went to Tabby's tumbling class. So he had a bottle on the way there, a snack of a half-stick of string cheese while we were there and then dinner around 7 PM and a bottle on the way home from dinner (yes, he really eats that much, no problem). Last night, we got home around 5:30 and ate around 6. He ate well enough and then had a bottle while I was getting him and Tabby ready for bed. He went to bed only about 15 minutes earlier, not really enough to explain the 2+ hour difference in his wake times, so I contend: it was the food.

My new working theory is that my son is a hobbit and needs second dinner, or supper, as the hobbits apparently call it, in order to sleep through the night. So tonight, I guess I'll try a bottle right after we get home, dinner as late as I can make the princess wait, and a bottle right before bed and we'll see how that works.

We are having a good week ... let me tell you about it:

• Matt's desk arrived on Monday and we got it all put together. Office is looking great and other than moving in all his stuff, getting our futon back to the playroom and adding some artwork and terminating some wires (cat5, coax), the remodel part of the basement is done (his shop is still lagging behind).
• Tabby had a leeetle stomach bug (maybe Ben too?), but she now seems to be mostly over it.
• I am taking the kids to the library tonight ... and I get to pick up a new book for me.
• Gymnastics last night was hilarious (as usual). Tabby kept running back to the viewing area to give us updates on her progress. "I'm doing great!" and "I'm doing awesome!"
• I got in an excellent 3 mile run last night (farthest in a while!) while I watched Make It or Break It.
• About halfway through a 600 page biography of Ben Franklin ... though I have given myself permission to ditch it if I stop enjoying it.
• Tonight will hopefully be a quiet night during which I can play with the kids and get some laundry and picking up done. And dinner is already made - lentil soup!
• After downing a ton of raviolis and meatballs, Ben finally slept through the night. Am buying stock in Olive Garden.
• Matt is taking Friday off so that we can hang out and get the house ready ...
• because I am hosting Game Night on Saturday. Very much looking forward to it!
• Just found out that we are going to get the awesome prints for Matt's office over a third off because the artist we're buying them from is having a BOGO sale. Also thinking about buying a couple more prints for the playroom.

And yes, another post in bulleted-form.

I am hard at work on making our family's food less processed and more food-like. It is amazing how much junk had slowly crept into what I fancied to be a fairly healthy diet. Luckily, I like ... no, love, to cook, so I am enjoying working on this. To this end, I thought it might be fun to have a reoccurring feature about what I'm doing in the kitchen. We'll see how long this lasts.

• Made butter yesterday ... that worked like a charm and was really cool to behold. There was no real health-reason to do it. We don't use a ton and we can get good stuff pretty easily, but it wasn't any more expensive to do it this way and I froze what we won't eat relatively soon.
• Still trying to create good bread (have made about 4 loaves now). I have come to the conclusion that my yeast may be too old since my bread is all dense and doesn't seem to rise enough. We'll see if that does the trick ... if not, I'll just sign on at a bakery as an apprentice.
• Made *awesome* stuffed squash for dinner Sunday night. Tabby wouldn't eat it (or anything else), but Matt and Ben liked it. Made great leftovers too.
• Also cooked up a pot of lentil soup, sans sausage, Sunday night. Turned out great and I have a ton to freeze and eat this week (some homemade bread would be nice to go with it .. grrr).
• Did mostly recipes out of Clean Eating magazine last week. The stuffed cabbage rolls were great, but some of the other offerings were so-so. Guess you gotta break a few eggs for omelets or whatever.
• I am also making one of my most favorite dishes this week, Salmon with Lemon Relish.
• The rest of the week we'll be eating crustless broccoli cheese quiches, muffins and PB&J sandwiches (if I can ever make some decent bread).

It virtually takes my breath away to realize that Ben is 9 months old already. 3/4 of a year gone like that! Was he ever really a tiny little baby? It's almost hard to imagine.

This past month has, unfortunately, been marked by illness for him. Our happy little guy turned crazy cranky for a couple of weeks. Once we finally worked out that he had an ear infection, he improved immensely and I was delighted to see his cheery self return this weekend.

He has made big strides in just about every way this month. He is crawling like a champ and pulling up anywhere he can get a grip, even on things like larger toys that tend to topple over on him. I am thrilled to see him moving well and hope walking isn't far behind. I am not sure how much he weighs (he went down while he was sick), but he is not light at all and takes both arms for me to safely carry.

He is getting quite accomplished at self-feeding. When he first insisted on feeding himself, his hit-ratio was about 20% but in just a short while, he has improved that to about 80%. He eats just about everything imaginable, with squash and cheese being among his favorite foods and most recently meatballs as well. He still has more of a gag-reflex issue and so I shy away from giving him hard foods or foods with skin (grapes, blueberries - unless I've cut them up pretty small) as I would have done Tabby at this age. He seems to be making up for lost time and I am aghast at how much food he can put away, eclipsing his big sister at times.

Finally, links!! There are a ton, but only the best here. Enjoy.

• Check it: make homemade ice cream with just one ingredient
• I ♥ brown rice and I can't wait to try this recipe
• for all you foodies: check out eat wild; you can find local great quality meats and veggies
• lots of great books on NPR's best books of 2009
• awesome hobbity tree house
• love this heart garland made from magazines
• perfect for a snow day
• fun for the kids: DIY stickers!!
• love these fleece superhero ponchos .... CUTE!
• really digging this seasonal calendar ... free for the printing
• cuuuute bento boxes from my sweet muffin
• a bit late for Christmas, but neat mod gingerbread house
• you probably saw them because they were EVERYWHERE, but you gotta love these tiny gingerbreadhouses
• liked this interesting
• idea about limiting gifts
• printer toaster ... umm, yea
• still want to make this candy cane angel food cake
• really really cute agendas
• when I get a mo, I want to check out how to make HDR images ... amazing!
• hack a magic 8-ball
• next Christmas, I'll try white trash toffee
• nice round-up of photography hacks
• now that we have medical marijuana here, we also have a marijuana restaurant ... wonder if you have to have a doctor's note?
• make a cool magnetic christmas card holder
• I suppose if you need a flowchart, you're probably beyond help, but I'll try

• Open Sudoku for Android is awesome ... just sayin.
• Made cabbage rolls for dinner last night ... they turned out pretty well.
• Finished Love is a Mix Tape this morning. It was a very good read, if pretty sad at times. I am starting Benjamin Franklin: An American Life next, mostly because I think I should ... I really want to start Finger Lickin' Fifteen or The Sunday Philosophy Club.
• Tabby's chief imaginary friend, Sheena, lives on. Recently, when asked where they met, Tabby promptly responded, "Costco." Also, she has a tattoo of a ladybug.
• Finally had what I would consider to be a "good run" this morning, the kind where I was pleasantly surprised at how long/far I could go instead of embarrassed. That distance, incidentally, is about 1/5 of that I'll theoretically be doing on April 24th.
• It appears Ben's main interest in crawling is to get himself somewhere that he can pull up to standing. I'm thrilled ... I cannot wait for him to walk.
• Have a ton of links to share, but the thought overwhelms me at the moment. Maybe tomorrow.
• I have been getting annoying spam comments (not too many, but enough) that are beating my CAPTCHA ... grrr ...
• Carpet is being installed this very minute!!