they're so cute

this is for my dear sister eliza. who says you don't have great pictures with your kids?!?! this now tops my list for you. love you.

the beach - in a blink

wow, that went by fast. the beach was awesome and we loved it but we're looking forward to things being a little quieter, a little calmer, a little less cramped, and a few other things. we'll be hanging out in atlanta for a few days before we fly back to colorado on tuesday so it'll still be a while longer til i get pictures and posts up.

in other news, baby has sprouted yet another tooth and she started talking this week and has a few words in her vocabulary. july 9th. this was my due date last year. i can't believe that a year ago i was hugely pregnant and i hadn't even met this kid. my how things change.

welcome to atlanta

first off, have i mentioned before how much i hate packing?  because i despise it.

let me tell you i've had more pleasant flying experiences than the one i had today.  there was no crying or anything and she was really well behaved but my baby did not sleep even one second of our three hour flight.  it was like trying to contain an octopus.  an octopus with adhd.  i was ready to pull my hair out.  but you know baby with her hair pulling fetish did that for me.  luckily i was wearing a black shirt so everyone could see that half of my hair was attached to my head and half was not.  it was disgusting and painful.  also her diaper may have leaked on her, me, and my nursing cover, and before we even got on the plane, i did quite a bit of trucking around the denver airport because the security guy couldn't scan my text message boarding pass and i had to go back upstairs to the delta counter to ask them to print out a paper boarding pass so i could haul myself and my bags and my baby in her carseat back down through security.  and then since that took so long, by the time i got to the plane, everyone had boarded and they said i had to gate check my rolly bag because there wouldn't be enough room for it.  i hate that.

on a positive note, delta didn't even bat an eye at my "diaper bag" which is actually just a huge duffle full of all of baby's things for the trip, my rolly gate checked bag was waiting for me on the baggage carousel, baby finally passed out at noon MST (she'd been awake for almost six hours), and mother and i had a delicious lunch at the varsity.  i love being home.

other things happened but instead of writing about them, i'll just post the pictures.  it was never fabulous but lately, my photography has seriously gone downhill.

waiting for mom

my bag and my "diaper bag".  not pictured: my loaded purse.

still passed out

don't let the grogginess fool you.  baby loves the varsity.

bath time!

go ahead and tell me.  i have the cutest kid ever.

she was playing with a dinosaur so i gave her stegosaurus spikes.  i'm a really good parent because i take advantage of bath time being an educational experience.

this is weed.  or sister lisa.  i love her to death and tonight was the first time i'd seen her in TWO WHOLE YEARS.  welcome home from finland weed!  remember you're always welcome at the maycocks where my dad will serve you a nice salad with the fatted salmon.

have you ever wondered why i'm so nazi about my kid always wearing a bow?  let me tell you.  the real purpose of this picture was to compare my child to my brother as a child.  sans bow and avec comb over, my baby turns into her uncle wally.  yes, he actually goes by uncle wally.  but i swear he's not weird and creepy.  except when he attempts a mustache.  but really, aren't those maycock genes amazing?  and dominant?

not pictured: BBB (big booty belen) who, after tonight, will now be going by the name "buns."  i love that girl.  especially when she says "toaster" with an american accent.  

we're here! we're here!

we've been in our house for almost two weeks and it has been amazing.  I LOVE PARKER.  we only have a handful of lingering boxes left to be unpacked.  we have almost the whole house furnished.  as of thursday, baby has stopped crying and clinging to my legs 24/7.  that felt like it would never end.  we have a tv and channels.  the first time in our marriage.  on tuesday we'll finally get internet.  on thursday, baby and i are going to atlanta!!!  we'll be at the beach all of next week.  to prepare, we've been going to the pool every day.  baby girl loves the water and it completely fearless as she crawls headfirst into the baby pool.  oh, we also got a second car.   first time in our marriage that we've ever had two cars.  baby girl is getting so big.  she's looking so much older to me.  she claps when we tell her to and she waves in socially appropriate situations.  she also does quite a bit of walking while holding on to just one hand.  still won't stand up on her own though.  she sits down the second i let go of her.  and if she knows it's coming, she won't even put her feet down.  this morning we had waffles for breakfast.  first time in forever since we didn't bring our waffle iron with us to california.  i was so excited for waffles that i made them from scratch since we were out of bisquick.  and ohhh they were so good.  the waffles themselves were just normal but when you add butter, powdered sugar, syrup, whipped cream, and strawberries...  mmmm.  it's going to be a sad day for me when baby wants to eat what i do.  until then, i'm grateful for mornings like this one where she'll happily eat peas while i stuff my face with loaded waffles.  we have hung absolutely nothing on our walls yet.  hopefully that will happen sometime.  and hopefully i can go back to taking pictures and blogging regularly too.  maybe... in a few weeks.  okay, that's all i have to say now.  i'm at the in laws right now and i should probably be a better guest.

life has been a little busy lately

holy cow i can't wait for this mini whilwind to settle down.  we made it to colorado finally.  i say finally because after everyone had boarded the plane last night and waited for 15 minutes, they told us that our pilot was a no show.  flight delayed for a full 2.5 hours.  we got in late.  i got to sleep at 3:15 am.  did i mention that i woken up at 5:50 am?  baby is trying her hand at some early morning waking lately.  it's happened thrice.  i wanted to say "thrice."

remember that terrible week in colorado when we came out here house hunting?  baby was sooo sensitive and clingy and having a terrible time sleeping.  well, lately has been the mini version of that.  ever since we started packing stuff in boxes she's been all out of sorts.  her whole little world turned upside down.  yesterday she woke up at 5:50.  we turned in our apartment keys by 8.  spent some time on campus at the stanford bookstore and spent the rest of the afternoon eating clam chowder bread bowls at fishermans wharf and hanging out at pier 39.  when i say "we" i mean myself and baby girl.  and my youngest brother in law, my father in law, my mother in law, and her parents.

that's because honey left with the uhaul somewhere around 7 am.  his brother is driving with him but only for the good company.  his brother can't actually drive.  honey drove from 7 am til after midnight.  and today he'll drive the rest of the way.  salt lake city to parker colorado!

so it's been busy and challenging with all of those weird little things.  like not having a pack n play.  MIA pilots.  nursing/feeding baby purees and finger foods while we make our way around stanford, san francisco and two airports as "hillier, party of six"

well, baby has fully unpacked both of our bags and is bored with that.

wish us luck.

putting on the green

a video full of giggles

baby girl used to really make us work for her laughs.  well not anymore.  when we're home, she laughs at just about anything.

this video is from last friday night after i got home from yoga.  and just so you know, my christopher and i hum christmas carols to our baby all year round.

ps- we started packing tonight.  well, my honey packed.  i watched him and ate.

we've been busy

liza, sorry i haven't been blogging lately. do these pictures of my baby in an itty bitty wagon make you want to forgive me? maybe i'll catch up on sunday when i have a little more time. love you!

"babysitting"

this is what was going on while i was at yoga last night. i love getting picture text updates... especially when they look like this. have i mentioned before that when honey's in charge of watching our baby he calls it "babysitting"?

best babysitter ever.

my thursday

today i did two full loads of laundry.  folded and put away too.  i took care of baby.  i went to yoga.  i shopped and cooked.  in honor of this being a productive day of accomplishments... i will attempt to document it for my posterity.

9:15 i left to go to yoga class and participated for the full 90 minutes.  the instructor even complimented me on how flexible i was. that made me feel a little better because i have no balance and i pretty much looked like this little girl when attempting any pose taking place not entirely on the floor.  i would have been embarassed or self conscious except that i recently perfected my "who really cares what they think?  they don't know me and they won't remember me and i'm never going to see them again" attitude.  it is wonderful and liberating.  i'm especially good at it because in a few weeks i will not only not be living here anymore.  but i will also have no plans of returning to this wretched unique state of california (vent/rant to come).  ps- i'll have you know i'm not thaaatt serious about hating california.  i mean, the weather is nice.

11:15  as i was about to get in the shower, honey woke baby up (ugh!  45 minutes early) while he was getting a shirt (they share a closet, remember?) although i have no idea how because he was absolutely silent and she's not that light of a sleeper anymore.  oh well, he had to go to class and i had to shower.  we left baby in her crib to calm herself down (i stash toys in the corner for this specific reason) and she hung out for the next half hour while i showered.  i didn't do my hair, but i did manage mascara and clothes.  thank goodness for that last one.  nursed and dressed baby.

12:30  i took baby to milk pail and scored big with about fifty pounds of produce for a mere $11.50.  i should have taken a picture of all the stuff i got.  it almost broke my back.  i also bought a head of cauliflower.  my first time ever buying that stuff.  i must be growing up.

1:00  my non blogging sister, liza, called while i was finishing up so i walked on over to ross to mindlessly wander around so i could talk to her for a while longer (since it's illegal to talk on the phone and drive).

1:30  then i went to walmart to grab everything else on my list.  that's when i had my first tragedy of the day.  my walmart discontinued skim milk!  they're frequently out of it but this time i couldn't even find a slot for it (except in a few other brands they had it in half gallons) so i asked the nearby walmart worker.  he said they don't carry it anymore because no one was buying it!  ummm, i was!  five gallons a week!  good thing i'm moving.  to place with a decent walmart.  yesterday i got beechnut (brand of babyfood) coupons in the mail (i'm on their mailing list) for a FREE 8oz box of cereal and 2 FREE jars of baby food.  the reason i hate couponing is that my coupons never ring up right and i always end up paying more (since i'm purposely buying a certain brand/size/etc that isn't cheapest unless i have the coupon) and it's soooo frustrating for me.  so then i decided i would only use coupons for FREE items because then it's easier for me to know if it rung up right (cancelled out the full price is easier than subtracting 61 cents or something).  but even then i haven't had luck. so this time i had the cashier ring up the cereal and two jars and my coupons before even touching anything else.  i told her i wanted to make sure it rung up right.  so she does that and says, okay, your total so far is $1.50.  umm what?  read the coupon, it says FREE.  she kept telling me it wasn't working so i told her to keep trying.  apparently the fourth time's the charm.  got it.  but if i hadn't made a big deal about that i would have gotten ripped off again.  which is what normally happens because the cashiers always tell me that they like to ring up the coupons at the very end.  anyways, i'm happy it worked this time.  i guess i'll just have to keep doing it this way.  is it only me?!?!  why is it ALWAYS so difficult?!?!

so then i had to go across the street to safeway to get four gallons of milk (you only get the cheaper price if you buy milk in multiples of two (yeay for milk only being $3/gallon!).  it was kind of sad though because it came to $12.  so much money on milk.  i could be rich if i loved water this much.

2:45  got home.  unloaded groceries, including the milk pail loot: carrots, sweet potatoes, yams, cauliflower, mango, blackberries (only 99 cents!), raspberries (only $1.50!), apples (my first time buying organic!), tomatoes, pears, and a ton of bananas.  i stuck baby in her highchair with raspberries and blackberries while i brought in milk and everything else and found it a home in our fridge.  she inhaled those berries!  and then i moved to bananas and then to peas and finally she looked at me like "really?  why is lunch going downhill?"  next time i'll save the raspberries for the grand finale.

3:00 baby down for her nap.  folded laundry.  started dinner (i made this cube steak recipe with mashed potatoes, from REAL potatoes, and gravy).  stayed busy in the kitchen.

5:00  insane headache hit.  hard.

5:15  baby woke up.  splitting headache.  i think i might die.  baby has soooo much energy.  she is sooooo bored with all of her toys and our tiny tiny apartment.  she can only be entertained by my full attention or maaaybe picking at the carpet, scavenging for lint and hairs and inedibles to eat.  i did pay attention to her for a while.  i held her while i was on the phone with my mother in law.  and she laughed constantly as she crawled around and tried to get me in our little game of chase.  but i couldn't keep it up.  so i stuck her in her chair with a ton of peas.  refilled her tray with peas THREE times.  gave her potato.  more potato.  and more potato.  fed her the rest of an opened berry puree.  fed her oatmeal.  fed her an entire 6oz jar of stage three turkey and rice dinner (y'know... the one that was free).  and then i told her she was all done because honestly... it was a TON of food and i was afraid if i fed her anymore she's explode.  or barf.  i have no idea why my child won't gain weight.

and since she was covered head to toe in food (soooo active even in her chair) i gave her a bath.  which always softens my heart.  because she is so skinny and tiny and when her hair is wet that's just the cutest thing in the whole world.  but as soon as i took her out she turned in to a wiggle worm again.  so i got her in pajamas and decided i would just sit down to nurse her and let her eat for as long as she wanted until honey came home.  sat down, she started nursing, i put my head back and closed my eyes.  and then of course she's crawling all over me while attempting back flips and only nursing for two seconds at a time.  ugh.  probably because she's so full from all those solids.  i can't even remember what i did after this.  it was rough.

8:00 honey came home in a fabulous mood and saved my life.  we ate dinner together and he played with baby.  i went upstairs to lay in bed.  he put baby down and cleaned the kitchen (at my request).  it's a disaster area down there. then he left to go to a thing at the facebook/asian house.

11:00  honey home.  i'm still in bed... haven't moved.  i can hear him finish cleaning the kitchen.  told you it was bad.

spit peas

just a few videos from dinner time yesterday.  i should have gotten out our real video camera and just had it recording the whole time.  because i'm pretty sure this went on for at least a full ten minutes.  talk about heaven on earth.

go ahead and try it with your kid.  or spouse.  or roommate.  see if you have as much fun as we did.  

and then go ahead and challenge us to a pea spitting contest.  

nurse amanda's delicious banana muffins

just in case you needed a little more deliciousness in your life...

banana bread (or muffins)

ingredients:

3-4 bananas (kind of older)

1 c white sugar

1 egg

1/2 c margarine or butter OR if you wanna be healthy you can use applesauce (cinnamon kind)

1 1/2 c all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1tsp baking SODA

1 tbsp cinnamon (optional)

1c chopped walnuts or pecans (optional fanciness)

raisins (optional fiber)

chocolate chips (optional choco fix)

muffin pan with paper thingees or bread loaf pan (9x5) sprayed, then lightly floured

cooking spray

how to make em:

pre-heat oven 325 degrees

in a bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda together (and cinnamon if you choose to use it)

in another bowl, mash bonanas until they're good an dead!  then mix in sugar, then add egg, and butter.  then mix in the dry ingredients in with the banana mushness stuff.  THEN stir in any extra of the cool, yummy "options" you want.

pour into pan of choice and bake for 1 hour to 1 hr 10 min.  OR until toothpick comes out clean from the center (if you insert it to check the middle)...(note: if you make muffins, then they only need to bake like 45 min)

then let it cool in the pan for like 30 min and then dump it out and let it cool some more THEN cut it up... or eat it warm.

and these are my alterations to the recipe:

i do not ever measure the bananas.  when they start to go bad, i peel them, break them in fourths, and put them in a plastic bag in the freezer.  by the time i pull the bag out to make muffins, i have no clue how many bananas have gone in there.  soooo i just make sure it looks like at least two.  although a few times i've put in a TON of bananas and i probably should have compensated by adding more flour because they ended up coming out sticky (although still delicious).

this past time i only used 1/2 cup sugar and i couldn't even taste a difference.  so i'm going to keep cutting back probably until i notice it.

instead of margarine or butter, i use applesauce.  we're not much of applesauce eaters though and it goes bad after 10 days or two weeks (according to the container) so i buy the little kids, lunch stuffers, single serving ones.  i use regular (not cinnamon) and i get unsweetened and make sure that there is no high fructose corn syrup.  i use a whole thing (i think it's probably right at a half cup and it saves me from dirtying a measuring cup... oh the things you think about when you have no dishwasher!) and it's perfect.

i never add in any of optional things.  no cinnamon, chocolate chips, nuts, nothing and i think they are still super flavorful and sweet and delicious.

when i use muffin liners they're often really tricky to get the muffin out of because the banana is so sticky.  so i prefer to make them right in the muffin pan.  it would probably be really great as banana bread because it's not crumbly at all so it wouldn't be such a mess.  i'll have to try that next time if i remember.

oh, and just a note, since i never measure the bananas, i always come up with an awkward number of muffins... like a dozen plus three or something.  so sometimes i'll make the muffins HUGE and sometimes i'll try to make them smaller.  so when i cook them, i always just set the timer for 30 minutes and then check them from there.  

no stanley cup for us

we're more than a little sad that the sharks are out of the playoffs.

especially since they lost in double overtime.

baby took it hard. honey took it harder.

welcome to our castle!

let the tour begin!

dining room

dining room

office/study

great room

great room

great room

kitchen

kitchen

kitchen

main floor bathroom

laundry room

master bedroom

master bath

master bath

now upstairs we go!

upstairs bedroom

upstairs bedroom

upstairs bedroom 

upstairs bathroom

playroom

and back outside!

patio and backyard

patio and backyard

now we will be taking contributions to help us furnish our home.  because as mentioned in the previous post... we have no furniture.  so it'll be kind of like camping... in a really big house.  

want to visit us?  no problem, just BYO sleeping bag.