That is Solid, Man...

So we have been introducing solids to the baby...and it has been interesting.

I am making all the food myself.  Not because I am a real granola crunchy kinda girl...but because I can't read the labels on the baby food around here.  And I am not sure about how her stomach will handle different brands/systems...

That might sound silly, but I am not willing to take the chance.

Especially, since she is spitting up a bit with new foods sometimes...mainly carrots or harder veggies...I think it might be a matter of preparation.   We also seem to not be working well with oats.  We are working on it.

But she has just progressed to three meals a day...usually:
breakfast: rice cereal in the morning with banana or pears
lunch: rice and veggies
dinner: rice, veggies and usually a fruit.

The veggies we've tackled and like: peas, green beans, carrots, cauliflower, zucchini. 
Fruits: pears and bananas

Not our favorite: sweet potatoes and peaches.
I hope to tackle soon: apples, squash, potatoes, berries...

What do you suggest?
Also, we looking to start finger foods.  Cdubs is getting much better and is showing signs of being a leftie with her pincher grasp.

She also has developed new skills: getting to table top, sitting up, drinking from a straw, and giving high five.

Great Recipes

We hosted the babies club this week, and I have to share this great recipe:

Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips:

Ingredients

• 2 kiwis, peeled and diced
• 2 Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and diced
• 1 pound strawberries
• 1 pear, peeled, cored, and diced
• 1 necatrine diced
• 3 tablespoons fruit preserves, any flavor
•  
• 10 (10 inch) flour tortillas
• butter flavored cooking spray
• 2 cups cinnamon sugar

Directions

1. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix kiwis, Golden Delicious apples, raspberries, strawberries, white sugar, brown sugar and fruit preserves. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 15 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3. Coat one side of each flour tortilla with butter flavored cooking spray. Cut into wedges and arrange in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle wedges with desired amount of cinnamon sugar. Spray again with cooking spray.
4. Bake in the preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes. Repeat with any remaining tortilla wedges. Allow to cool approximately 15 minutes. Serve with chilled fruit mixture. 

The chips were tedious to make, but incredibly worth it!!!

I Miss My Mom

I am 28, and I miss my mom.

I used to think that was a sad thought.  To be a grown up and want my mom.

And now, I hope Cdubs never does NOT miss me.

Because I went 20 minutes to the store today without her...and I missed her.

Us in Poland ... soaking up the polish park experience... where they sandboxes are lined with pierogis...

The problem with being me

I don't think I am very complicated.  Or very deep.

But I am kinda needy (aren't we all in our own ways).

Even though, I am getting better at handling our adjustments back and forth, and it is an adjustment every time in both Atlanta and Vienna, and the baby is sleeping better and is getting adjusted...I am discontent.

Maybe it is just me, but when I get discontent, I look at my marriage to make sure that it is in a good place.  I constantly worry that I will let it slip...the problem with that is that I pick at little things and nag and fret over the big and little things.  This is my personality and Kdubs (after many years) realizes that when I get into an frantic "fix-it" mode with any aspect in my life, I just need to be soothed, hugged, and then distracted.  We then try and "fix" whatever it is when I am less neurotic.

This may be an over-share or a duh...but even after my usual "OMG the baby's sleep pattern needs to be fixed, THE APARTMENT IS A MESS! You don't love me anymore" hormone and stress induced panic attacks, I still feel like I miss something here in Vienna. 

Yes, I miss home, but I also miss a sense of connection to this place.  I miss friendships and bonds.  And that is something that I always want IMMEDIATELY when we have moved.  I want to find a group of friends or a go-to best friend.  The person or people who GET ME...who understand my humor, is available for coffee/diet coke/wine, understands or at least empathizes with some aspect of my life.

When we have moved before, I expected God to place them in my life.  And He does...just not within my first few weeks of moving and not after running around feeling like a disgraced fat kid on the playground thinking "won't you be my friend?" 

And while I know it usually happens after some time...I just don't see the point here.

Because of my visa situation (Austria won't give me one), I have to leave the country for 6 months of the year.  This is great that I get to come home so much and Kdub's work lets him come home with us for a lot of that time. However, there is no incentive for people here to befriend me...I am not here a lot.  And the friends I have in Atlanta have more consistent friends and consistent routines that make it hard for me to be included.  Part of me realizes that if I did get attached at either or both places it would be a constant tearing and mending of friendships: "yea, we have so much fun together" then "balls, you are leaving for 3 months...this sucks."  But I WANT IT!  I want friends!!!  I want to fit in!

And the people here (even in the baby group I force myself to go to in hopes of making a connection) don't get me.

This group is nice, we all have babies in the same month of each other.  However, these are women from around the world, who live here.  Most of them have married Austrians and/or speak the language very well and like/know the culture.  No one is here temporarily, no one thinks that going home is a treat, they all act like America is a cultural wasteland, and most of them, as my sister-in-law-who has met them says, are wet blankets.

The ones that seem okay are either people who have been here for eons and have tons of friends...they don't seem interested in making more than casual acquaintences with anyone in the group or English is their second language and my sense of humor doesn't seem to translate well.

There really doesn't seem to be much of a solution for this, but I just wanted to vent into the Internets to blow off some steam...which I can make a lot of with no A/C and 95+ temps.

Ruht Roh

Messed up my links while doing some maintenance and updating of the old blog.
I also have lost all your comments and links to your sites.

So, if you are out there. Leave a comment so I can get you back on my blog roll.

Thanks,
TRS

Ps. Any one guess what the title of this post is from?

Tough while Traveling

If I haven't mentioned it before, Cdubs is an amazing traveler.  She finally has tackled that little issue of thinking her carseat is going to kill her (and its cohort, the stroller).  She takes naps on the road and finds new people fascinating and doesn't mind being in one seat for a long time (as long as it is on someone's lap).

But once at our destination, the poor thing has some trouble adjusting.  She doesn't seem to understand why the 24 hour feeding fest should stop, why mom can't hold her continually, why she should play with things on the ground.  We have had almost 8 weeks now of interrupted sleep and crazy schedules.  The past two nights have been a reintroduction of scheduling.  Including (do not yell at me), Crying it Out at night.

She usually goes to bed nicely (if she nurses almost to sleep--we are trying to break that).  Sometimes she can go down more awake and listen to her music toy or she just cries for 5-10 minutes.   Then, a few hours later she may wake up and cry for a bit.  Sometimes she can flip herself back over and go to sleep...other times, we go in and flip her and rub her back.  Picking her up, we have learned, does no good.  So now, we check on her...if rubbing her back is useless we just let her cry.

It hasn't been perfect but I am hoping that within a week or two, she will be able to sleep through the night again.

Our introduction to solids has taken a backseat while traveling.  So we are back to square one: rice cereal and veggies (this week: peas).  She got incredibly constipated right before we left the US and I wasn't sure if it was the carrots or something else that caused it, but we are going back to 1 veggie/fruit a week and monitoring its effects.

If you have any tips on introducing solids or helping with sleep.  I'd be really appreciative.

Thanks so much

Cdubs,
I love being your mom.  Even though you can't really talk or do much, I think you are HILARIOUS!  Thank you for all the smiles and laughs you give me.

Thank you for the grunting and moaning that signals, "Hey, vend-a-moo, get over here and feed me!"  and thank you even more for the sighs and moans of contentment.

Thank you so much for letting me see your new tricks.  You are so close to crawling we can taste it...but the sitting up makes you seem like SUCH a big girl.

And lastly, thanks so much for the gratuitious spitting up on MY side of the bed this morning.  That was a treat worth sharing....why don't you aim for Daddy's side next time?

Love you Monkey,
Mama

We be travelin'

As soon as we got back to Vienna, we had to start traveling for Kdubs work.

Our itinerary for the 9 days:
Train from Vienna to Warsaw (8 hours)
Warsaw for two days
Train from Warsaw to Krakow (5 hours)
Krakow for two days
Krakow to Prague (8 hours)
Prague for two days
Prague to Vienna (6 hours)

It was a full schedule.

The baby was a wonderful traveler and a less than stellar sleeper.
We are back and working on sleeping through the night again.

I will be posting pics from our trips coming up, but here is a picture of Cdubs to tide you over: