Oh look, a post!

Dudes, I used to post on this blog five days a week. I seriously wish I was motivated to post more often, but damn, sometimes (most times) other shit seems more important. Even if the other shit is taking ten minutes to stare into space.

We had another home visit today (we have one every month) and the worker reports no changes. At my request, she's sending letters to everyone who's supposed to have visits to tell them they need to confirm the visits the day before instead of the day of, so I can tell the daycare when I drop the baby off instead of interrupting work to have to call them. The worker's pretty accommodating about stuff like that, plus also no one has called to confirm a visit in months so it's not like we're asking a lot.

As always in the summer, we have one million things to do all the time. We have a wedding to attend this Friday and then another on Saturday, which will be cool except that I get tired pretty easily and I'm not drinking (except the champagne toast, because I love champagne and I'm going to pretend I'm European for a few minutes). In other pregnancy news, we've decided to opt out of the first trimester screen, because I worry enough as it is and the tests only catch 80% of the defects they're looking for, so I wouldn't really trust the results on that matter, and also something like 10% of the positives are false anyway, so there's that. We know we wouldn't terminate a pregnancy based on those results, so why bother getting the test?

Our foster daughter is thriving and is enjoying the hell out of solids. In one sitting today she ate a whole banana, two slices of peach in one of those mesh teether things, and four big chunks of watermelon. Then she pounded four ounces of formula.

What's up with you, internet?

We switched baby formula

Our doctor suggested we try a new formula for the baby, since she was still spitting up after almost every bottle and because her poop was ... not pleasant. (She got poop in her own armpit on Easter.)

My reactions to the new formula, in order:
1. HOLY GOD IN HEAVEN this shit is expensive. So glad the county pays for it.
2. Oh, hey, it's white instead of tan. Maybe I won't have to spray the living hell out of the neckline of everything the baby's ever worn now, because she eats so enthusiastically she drools out the sides of her mouth.
3. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK HOW DOES IT SMELL EVEN WORSE THAN THE OLD STUFF. (If you haven't smelled baby formula lately, I am very seriously jealous. Shit's nasty.)
4. What? Why the hell is the second ingredient corn syrup solids? How the fuck is that a good thing to be giving to a baby in large quantities? THANKS, AMERICA. (And no, the county doesn't cover the similar-but-not-corn-syrup-laden other kind.)

Also, our county gives us the option of getting the powdered formula or the concentrated kind in cans, which is amazing and if I ever have a child I'm responsible for feeding and breastfeeding isn't an option, I'll sell a kidney before going back to the powder. Anyway, my grocery store only keeps, like, six cans of this new shit in stock, but with WIC you have to use the whole check (which for us is 12 cans) in one go, or you lose the rest of it. So we had to drive around to four different grocery stores to find one that stocked enough of this for us to use a full check. That was a nice way to spend several hours.

However. The baby is spitting up WAY less, almost down to none, and her poop stinks way more but is at least staying where poop is supposed to go. Because this is my blog and I can talk about how the baby's poop smells if I want.

Speaking of which: I am holding her while she is napping, and she just pooped in her sleep. I don't want to wake her up to change her, but it's seriously making my eyes water. My life is not exactly what I envisioned it would be, is what I'm saying here.

Feeling loved

We just got back from spending a long weekend not-camping with our good friends. We rented a farmhouse in Ellicottville, New York, which is home to several ski resorts. We didn't visit any of them. It was terrific.

We spent the weekend eating ridiculous foods, drinking many beers, watching about a dozen movies from the huge selection we found in an armoire in the den, and, in my case, snuggling a baby who didn't really want to be held by anyone but me or occasionally Andy. The baby was a built-in backup escape plan for not having to go outside pretty much at all. Our friends trekked out with snowshoes to explore the acreage at the farmhouse, and I stayed in the den with the baby and the fireplace and Weekend at Bernie's and Encino Man and Crocodile Dundee.

Overall, it was a really restful, lovely weekend. Our friends are great cooks (as is Andy) and the Ellicottville Brewing Company (warning: sound!) was conveniently close for keeping us stocked with growlers of beer. (If you're there in the winter, try the EVL Blizzard.)

While we were roughing it in a farmhouse with actual beds and running water and a heating system, we discussed plans for camping this summer. It was made clear that I am very much invited but that they will understand if I opt out, which is very reassuring. I don't want to be a wet blanket while camping, but I also don't want my close friends to feel slighted if I don't go. So I get to consider at my leisure and either go or not, as I choose.

We brought the dogs this weekend, too, which meant our car was packed full of stuff for us, the baby, the dogs, and the elements. Our friends volunteered to take our cooler, since we didn't have room for it. The cooler is full of the makings of the fancy-ass cheese plate we never got around to making, since we were pretty much constantly eating something. Andy is out right now picking up the cooler from our friends' house so he can bring it back here and make me a delicious cheese plate. Could there be a more awesome end to an awesome weekend?

Food!

Like everyone else in America, Andy and I are trying to get back into our regular eating habits now that the holidays are over. Today I brought all the last of the candy from our stockings to put on the free table at work, so we don't find ourselves mindlessly snacking on it, and we're working on planning meals again so we don't fall into a don't-know-what-to-cook-so-let's-go-out rut.

We are starting to work on eating some of the awesome excess stuff our CSA provided all summer, which will be helpful because our freezer is so full I couldn't fit ice cream in it the other day. We're also planning to get an additional freezer - the stand-up kind - so we can freeze more of our CSA stuff instead of letting it get icky on the counter or in the fridge, and also so we can buy better-quality meats and stuff when they're cheapest. (Regarding meat - here's a confession: we usually buy those giant bags of Tyson's poultry-internment-camp-plus-unnecessary-antibiotics chicken breasts from Sam's. I know. I've seen Food, Inc, and I know how terrible Tyson's is. But they're fucking cheap, and one breast is three servings. I'm working on remembering that paying more is worth it when it comes time to check out.) Anyway, eating veggies we got from a local farm, and the million soups we made from them, is an awesome way to spend the winter.

I have also faced the fact that I don't like eating cold cereal in the winter, so I'd been making excuses to take too long for a bowl in the morning, which always meant stopping somewhere and eating something bad for me. I'm not a morning person, so getting up earlier to cook myself something isn't happening. Enter the best solution ever: baked oatmeal! With recipes for a pumpkin pie version and a gingerbread version too! I made the gingerbread one and have been so happy about eating it every morning.

I'm guessing you, too, have been eating delicious and healthy things, so lay 'em on me! What delicious, healthy recipes can you share?

On being picky

Gross.

My grandma - the passive-aggressive one - once called me a "fussbudget" for not eating a casserole made with Cream of Chicken soup, even though I was a vegetarian and had been for several years. In fact, I was using the "vegetarian" thing as a handy excuse to not eat the casserole, which looked pretty gross.

I have always been a picky eater. I didn't realize that I was for most of my life, because the Kid is about a dozen times pickier than I am. For a period of about two years, she only ever ordered chicken fingers when we went to restaurants. After I started dating Andy, I realized just how picky I really am.

Andy will eat anything. I mean it. The only food he absolutely refuses to eat is beets. I actually like beets, but I've promised Andy that I won't sneak them into his food or anything, because he deserves to have one thing he won't eat, when I have, like, a million.

Here is a very partial list of foods I dislike:
- Bell peppers (they make me ill. My mom and sister can't eat them, either. It's called a non-allergic food hypersensitivity. But mostly, I just hate how they smell enough that it turns my stomach, and I get really nauseated if I eat something that contains even a little bit.)
- Sausage
- Most processed food, including:
  - All Hostess snack cakes that I've tried (which is kind of a lot)
  - All Little Debbie snack cakes except Swiss Rolls, which I love
  - Rice-a-Roni
  - Doritos (all flavors)
  - All Sun Chips except Harvest Cheddar
  - Almost all donuts (I like cream-filled, not custard, and chocolate glazed; that's it.)
  - Most snack-type food, including, without limitation, most prepackaged cookies and cheese-type things
  - Canned pie filling
- Olives
- Any rice-pilaf-type thing
- Any food with artificial fruit flavoring, including Popsicles, Kool-Aid, fruit roll-ups, and lollipops (lone exception: strawberry pop-tarts. Don't know why.)
- Gravy (disgusting slimy meat goo. And no, I won't like your grandmother's recipe. All gravy is gross.)
- Artificial sweeteners including aspartame and saccharine (they taste metallic to me)
- Most soda

The one thing I really, really like, despite its totally artificial and gross-if-you-think-about-it nature is regular Coke. I know it's bad for me, and bad for my teeth, and that high-fructose corn syrup is satan's work, but I can't stop drinking this shit. 

Are you a picky eater? Have you ever tried to quit drinking soda? I'm thinking about cutting it out, and I could use some tips!