Psychotomy

So, Pi appears to be Milk Protein Intolerant.  It’s totally different from Lactose Intolerant.  Seriously.  We were going to make her a carrot cake for her first birthday, like we did for DK.  Specifically, we made two.  One for the guests, and one that he got to eat with his hands and totally mangle the whole thing.

Then we realized that, while I can substitute hemp milk for the milk in the recipe ( i think there’s milk, I never ended up looking) … The cream cheese frosting was going to be a serious bitch to do.  If we’d thought of it last weekend we could have gone looking at some of the other stores for creamed tofu alternatives. But we didn’t, soooo …

So we went back to our other plan, which was to make Pi birthday pies.  (we might alternate with cakes shaped like ?)!  Kiir suggested that for her first real sugary food, and her first birthday, Pi wanted a chocolate pie.

We decided we liked Alton Brown’s Moo-Less Chocolate Pie, because it’s obviously dairy free!  Well, we both HATE coffee, so we spent some time looking through that, and decided we have some banana liquer in the the fridge for the dirty banana martinis we’ve never made, we could substitute.

So after the aquarium, that evening we went out to get the tofu and the chocolate chips and the pie crusts.  Because our chips are all milk chocolate, and that seemed like it would be counterproductive.

It turns out that the store we considered most likely to have a good selection of things … well, to be fair, it did.  Except the only dairy free chocolate we could find was 100% cocoa at 1$/oz, and we needed 2C per pie … It occurs to me as I’m typing that that was unsweetened pure cocoa, so we probably needed to cut it with sugar/etc, so we didn’t need QUItE as much as we thought (from the nestle’s bags, 12oz is 2C, so… wow)

Apparently all chocolate is made with milk fat.  Which, frankly, is pretty much the opposite of milk protein free.  They were probably lactose free, but that didn’t matter so much.

Also, looking it up online, sounds like our closest store’s chain carries a dairy-free chocolate chips brand.  I don’t remember ever seeing it at ours, though, or that would be a REAL BOTHER!

Here’s hpoing it turns out OK, and she doesn’t get too upset by the dairy in the chocolate …

Posted in: PI by attriel /
No Comments

Today it was raining.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain.  It rained yesterday.  We decided that taking Pi to the zoo on Pi day was going to be cold, damp, and muddy.  And the animals would probably show more smarts and stay inside.

So we went out to the aquarium in Baltimore today, instead.  Nani & Pom’s gift this year for the two of them was the family membership.  The both fell asleep in the car, so we let them sleep a while.  Woke them up at 3, ~90 minutes of naptime.  DK kept running ahead, I think he was looking for something, but it turned out to not be the puffins or the sharks.  Might have been the arboretum, might have just been hyper.

Kiir kept running after him and trying to get him to stop an look at the fishes, with limited cooperation from the boy.  I had Pi on my back, and we kept stopping to look at the fish.  She liked the pretty colored ones :o

OMG are people annoying.  They kept standing like 5 in a row completely blocking paths and views.  And with Pi on my back, I couldn’t really slip through anything.  And the folks who had to surrender their strollers (it’s crowded enough as it is; we take ours to contain the boy to/from the parking deck, and to store our coats when we check it) and got the aquarium issued carriers … External frame hiking bags.  Except instead of high, they went far back.  And these people weren’t used to them.  I kept having to dodge out of the way :!

Pi enjoyed the fishes, and when DK calmed down (after going up on Kiir’s back) we went through a second time so he could actually see fishes.  And Pi could get a second round with less rushing to keep up.

They were both happy with their fishes viewing, yay!

Happy birthday, Pi girl.

Posted in: DK, PI by attriel /
No Comments

So, I am apparently an evil dad.  Today I decided we really needed to take down the xmas tree, so I started pulling down ornaments.  And DK started grabbing them and trying to put them back up :o

By the time I was taking down the lights, Pi had a piece of wrapping paper in her hand and just kept turning it over and looking at it, like ‘wait, what’s happening?  I liked the presents thing :(‘

Apparently after Xmas comes Evil.  And I am the embodiment of all that is evil :/

Posted in: DK, PI, general by attriel /
No Comments

Pi went to bed a couple hours ago, but woke up a little bit ago.  While I had K out for his evening walk.

I just saw her on Kiir’s lap and said “Hi baby girl” and she opened her eyes and glared.  Then there was a brief discussion about “when did she get back up?” and “you can go back to sleep”

Then she looked up and just GLARED, with the obvious thought of “I’m TRYING to go back to sleep, daddy, if people would just SHUT UP!!!”

… awkward :o

Posted in: PI by attriel /
1 Comment

So, last week Pi was doing a bit of pushing with her legs and she can turn herself around pretty well for a few weeks now. and rolling over.

Over the weekend we were at my parents, and I caught her pushing herself forward a couple times! It was so neat! (I know, I have a two year old, I’ve done this, it shouldn’t be cool? but it IS! because she’s moving!!!)

Then yesterday while dinner was cooking, she was laying on the floor and DK and I were in the armchair playing ToonTown. I got up to go finish up with dinner, and I’m talking to DK and looking through the breakfast window at the living room to keep an eye on Pi (not that Kiir wasn’t out there too, but) and I notice that she seems to be in a different place.

So I jokingly say to DK, “Is your sister crawling? Why is she crawling around? Is she looking for something? Go give her a hug so she knows you still love her!” (and he’s looking at me like I’m an idiot)

Then I realized something. She hadn’t just turned around or rolled over. She had physically moved … wait uh … So I looked out again, in time to see her propel herself three more “moves” … “Uh, seriously, DK, why is your sister crawling? She’s only just past four months!!!”

It’s still amazing and incredible and neat. But it’s also terrifying and worrisome. Because now we have to start watching for her getting in things from crawling. Eeek!!!

Posted in: PI by attriel /
No Comments

Pi is quietly sleeping on the floor, and DK is watching Wall-E for the second time this morning already.

Kiir hasn’t been getting good sleep, all broken up and fragmented, with Pi sleeping against her back. Pi seems to be working on crawling around, so she wanders around in the bed some at night, making it harder to sleep :o So kiir asked me to stay home from work today so she could get some rest and not kill anyone.

DK woke up at 6 and went over to snuggle with her, and about 6:45 they came downstairs because he just wasnt’ sleep ready :/ He’s exhausted, he just won’t go to sleep yet. Figure I’ll make him lunch about 10, maybe a little before, and see if he’ll go down for his nap then. Hopefully he’ll wake up from nap less cranky, too.

Posted in: DK, PI, general by attriel /
No Comments

So, today:

• Up at 7, took K out, started some more cleaning and laundry
• DK and Pi up at 8:45, put Pi on my back while I did dishes
• Gymboree for DK at 10, Pi and Kiir came with us
• Home, made lunch for everyone, and ate
• Pi and DK fell asleep on the way to the pick-your-own farm
• Berry Picking with DK, Kiir and Pi from ~1 to 2.
• Home, baths
• 4pm pictures for Pi’s 3mo, tried to get a couple with DK (failure!). Took DK on the carosel and got ice cream during pictures, walked around the mall some, got him fries, and pictures were ready to pick up now.
• Home, started rice for dinner, took K on a walk
• Getting ready to start on the rest of dinner, then eat …
• Then probably taking DK to the playground to run off some more energy
• THEN probably walks with Pi and K
• Pass out around 11

Day of rest my arse.

Posted in: DK, PI, general by attriel /
No Comments

Wow, I just keep not getting a chance to post updates. A couple times over the weekend I got ~30 minutes and totally blanked. I keep having ideas of things I want to blog on, but never remember them by the time I get to a computer. Thinking about digging up a cheap recorder so I can note-to-self while I’m out with Pi.

That said, she’s growing well, happy, smiley. We actually took her into the pool first time on Friday, since they have a 3mo limit. She seemed to enjoy it. I’d dipped her feet before and she liked that. I sat in the shallow area with her in my lap while Kiir and DK went out deeper to swim around. “Swim around” meaning that he rode piggyback on mommy as she walked around the pool.

This evening we went out to the big playground a few miles away and he spent an hour and a half running around on the structures and going up the stairs and the rockpile and the ladders and coming down the slides. He also enjoyed chasing after the five year old on her razor up on the structure … frankly, she seemed like a bad idea to me, but her mom wandered off to read in one of the nearby buildings. *eyeroll*

We actually only left because he had to go potty. And I didn’t want to go into the public restroom there for him, b/c (a) it’s already complicated with him, and (b) it was FOUL in there last time I was there … But he was leading me towards the car, but not quite TO the car, so it took me a while to figure out what he wanted. In the meantime we shared a pack of poptars he found in the car and a juicebox. I thought he was thirsty :o

Posted in: DK, PI by attriel /
No Comments

Saturday was DK’s birthday party, he had fun.

Then early Sunday, Kiir, DK, and PI all left for atlanta. So there’s only me and K-line at home now. which is great, I can do various things that are hard when dealing with everyone. Hit the gym yesterday, ran the first oven through clean cycle, watched some TV and worked my way through about 8 boxes of stuff trying to sort and classify it. 3 boxes into the attic, two boxes trashed, and three still left to process. not bad.

The other major feature of this week is that, with no one else here, I can catch up on my sleep. In fact, my MIL and my wife were both very clear on two subjects:

1. I’m expected to clean this week
2. I am not to complain about being tired because she’s taking BOTH kids and so I can sleep all I want and dammit I better

Which is annoying. Because it’s not like I was planning on an 8-day bender or anything. I ALWAYS clean when she’s gone, and I ALWAYS try to catch up my sleep so I can handle DK (and now PI) more when she gets back tired.

Of course, the problem is that I’m so used to having someone else in the house (kiir since 99) and I’m used to sleeping in DK’s bed with him for hte last 6-9 months (and before that, he was in the bed with me and kiir) … I have trouble sleeping when it’s just me.

Don’t get me wrong, I catch up my sleep in the first two or htree nights when I’m trashed from exhaustion, but after that … I ended up watching TV and cleaning until 3am one time because that was when I was finally tired enough to contemplate laying in bed.

Well, apparently, it’s getting worse. I was exhausted yesterday. Falling asleep at my desk today, frankly. But I ended up going to bed at nearly midnight, which is when I USUALLY go to bed with DK already, so no bonus sleep. And even then I spent 45 minutes tossing in bed before I finally drifted out :/

At least I’m getting some cleaning done?

Posted in: DK, PI, house by attriel /
No Comments

so, i took dk up for his nap after lunch. he played in his room, but not interested in napping. i give up just as kiir’s bringing pi up and going to lay down to take a nap.

so I tkae DK downstairs, figure we’ll play xbox. frankly, he’ll probably fall asleep on my lap, but if not, no nap means early bedtime, so that’s fine too.

10 maybe 20 minutes in, kiir calls me to come get PI. Obviously I can’t hold pi while dk sits on my lap, so i save and quit the game so I can put something on for him to watch when we get back down.

excpet he decides to stay up and snuggle up to mommy. half an hour later, they’re both asleep (fairly sure K is keeping a corner of the bed warm too) and I’m sitting slouched in the dining room chair so pi can snuggle up and sleep on my shoulder …

meaning I’m the ONLY person still awake, and I can’t do anything but type on the computer or risk waking everyone else up. oi!!!

Posted in: DK, PI, general, k-line by attriel /
No Comments