Wacky Weather

I LOVE rain!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!!

Therefore this week has been fun. It has rained every day. And not just dreary, misting rain. Full on RAIN!! Complete with lightning, thunder and even HAIL!! Can you tell I'm excited?

I generally enjoy rain anytime, but I think I was able to enjoy it even more this week because I was home for most of it. I would just sit and listen. I'd stand outside and watch. It's so rare to get any kind of real rain around here that it makes me stop in my tracks. Jim and I are wacky Californians in that we want rain all the time. Someday we hope to move to a rainier area. Until then, we will dance and sing in weeks like these.

Our cluster of storms are starting to come to an end. Within the last two hours we had quite a system move through that had all the ingredients. The best part was that it gave us the finale of a rainbow. And not just one, but TWO rainbows. Jim came running in the house to make sure I saw it. Joshua was sleeping in my arms, but I carted him out there with me. I told Jim to run and get the camera. Here is the beautiful view from our porch.

Can you see the double rainbow?

This is how flooded our street was right after this big cell moved through.
The sun was shining, but it was still raining.

Joshua's first rainbow.

Thank you rain for your presence this week. We hope to see you again real soon! =D

Sleep Training

We learned early on with Joshua that swaddling was our best friend. It really was the only way he could sleep and he would go down so easy. If he wasn't wrapped tight enough and an arm broke free, he would whack himself in the head and wake up crying. I would swaddle him in a regular receiving blanket during the day, which he would increasingly bust out of as he got bigger and stronger. For nighttime, we have a more robust swaddler with velcro that really doesn't budge. Seems much more like a straight jacket to me. But he stays asleep, which means we stay asleep, which means everyone is happy in the morning.

However, since he is getting bigger and stronger AND because my return to work was looming - meaning others would have to try to swaddle him - I figured it was time to start transitioning Joshua out of the swaddle. I didn't want him to remain dependent on it and be more difficult to get to sleep if the grandparents didn't get the swaddle just tight enough since they will be watching him while I am at work.

I started by swaddling as usual, but leaving one arm out. Thinking that he could still feel the security of the swaddle and only have one arm flailing about instead of two. I prepared myself for a rough day with the boy getting little sleep. Much to my surprise and delight, he did awesome! He'll normally cry a little in the swaddle, but fall asleep within about five minutes. The first time with his arm out and he was asleep in 15 minutes. It was pretty much the same with every nap the first day. After that he would fall asleep faster and faster.

Such a rock star!!

In less than a week we had both arms out.

I did find that for some reason he still likes his torso swaddled. It seems kinda silly to me, but there must be some sense of comfort there. One time he was crying and crying with no swaddle and I didn't want to take a step backwards, so I just swaddled his trunk and he went out like a light. Once in while he'll even go down without the torso swaddle.

He's only that much cuter to watch sleep now.

We still give him the straight jacket swaddle at night. I'm dreading the first night we try to go without that. But I dreaded this process too, so I guess I should hope to be surprised.

Another result of being swaddle-free is that Joshua has started to explore his fingers. First he nibbled on the left index finger for a few days. Then he suddenly switched to the right index finger. Monday he found his thumb and this is looking like his new favorite. The others he would just suck on for comfort and never really seemed to sleep with his finger in his mouth. But the thumb is a new friend. We find him sleeping with his thumb in his mouth somewhat often.

Is there no end to the cute exponential?

So all this training was motivated by the inevitable day for me to return to work. That was yesterday. I was anticipating it for so long, that it was nice to just get that first day over with. Like finally ripping off a bandaid. I'm only working three half days this week, so it's not too much of a shock right off the bat. Next week will be the full, normal, revised schedule. I will work three days in the office and two half days from home. I think it will work out really well. The grandparents have their assigned days to watch him and Jim has some days mixed in as well. I am so elated that he will always be with family - it is such an immeasurable blessing.

Terry's Toffee on YouTube

My family has a great sense of pride for Terry Opalek. He is my mom's first cousin, which I guess makes him my first cousin once removed. Right? Yah. We'll say Yah.

My great-grandmother, Frances McCall, had an English Toffee recipe that has since been treasured by her descendants. I learned to make it when I was a teenager. It has become a standard act of the Christmas season for me to make it. I am not very experimental when it comes to food. I may try a little something new, but not much. I make the toffee per the instructions and have only added the step of scattering toasted almonds on top. It makes it look so pretty.

Terry, on the other hand, and his partner Michael have an impressive flare for experimentation. They, too, make the McCall toffee (she is Terry's grandmother), but have turned it into a booming business. The amazing thing to me is all the flavors they have infused in the toffee. It's pretty amazing.

Below is a piece done by Chicago Revealed all about his business. It's really a neat piece. Check it out.





What I really enjoyed was seeing him make the toffee the old fashioned way. It's exactly what it looks like in my kitchen. He of course has a more robust setup for the mass production (which I am a little jealous of). When Jim and I did our big cross country road trip a few years ago, we picked up my parents at the Chicago airport and then stopped by the toffee shop to get the tour. Unfortunately it wasn't a production day for the toffee, so we didn't get to see it done. But Terry talked us through it all and it was very inspiring.

Way to go Terry and Michael!!

Check out their website at www.terrystoffee.com!

Mystery

Sunday morning, I opened the garage door so I could clean out the car a bit before we loaded up for church. Immediately I noticed that the laundry basket was on the ground on its side. This is unusual. If I had left it on the ground, it should be right side up. But I was pretty certain I had left it on the dryer. Did the motion of the dryer knock it over? This has never happened before, so that would be strange. But I suppose if it was close enough to the edge, it would be possible.

As I approach the car, I notice one of the bags of cat food is sticking out from underneath the passenger side of the car. The two bags we have are stored on the driver side of the car. So again, this is a strange sight. I stand there staring, trying to come up with the scenario.

Background: The garage had been open for a large part of Saturday as we were disassembling Christmas. Jim finally pulled the car in around 8pm-ish.

So why was this bag there? Had Jim driven over it when he parked the car? So I look closer and the bag does not appear to be smooshed. However I do see it is open and there is food spilled out. The bag is torn. Huh.

I walk to the other side of the car to see the state of the second bag. Now I see a basketball - normally in a basket on a shelf in front of the car - is laying on the ground near the driver door.

I'm gonna need some backup.

Something weird is going on here.

I call for Jim and point out my findings.

He investigates.

He finds many more things have been knocked over: propane canisters, paint cans and supplies, miscellaneous garden stuff. And then, there is the poop. Someone was in our garage.

Background: Jim had left the garage open after parking the car because I had been doing laundry and he thought I would be going back out there. Since I didn't need to, it was a while before I went out to shut off the light and close the door.

During Jim's investigation, I had assumed it was an opossum. We have had previous encounters with opossums. Upon finding the poo, Jim thought it was a cat because we have several strays in the neighborhood. Later he found paw prints that have us suspecting a raccoon. We figure a raccoon is more rambunctious to knock things over than an opossum would be.

Then this morning...dunh, dunh, dunh!

I take our comforter outside to wash it and really notice how dirty the washer and dryer are with foot prints from whatever was running around in there. I turn on the water for the washer and open the lid...and...this ugly little creature is staring at me! It was an OPOSSUM!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!

He had been in there since Saturday night!!!

I slam the lid and run to go get Jim, but realize the water is still filling the washer. So I run back and turn it off. Run to the house again to get Jim. My poor cats are freaked out by my behavior and their tails are all puffed.

I cannot believe how much opossums gross me out. I did not want to get anywhere near it. We decided to call animal control to get rid of him. It was several hours before they showed up and it was just horrible to keep thinking about that vermin being in there.

After he was gone, Jim cleaned out the couple pieces of poo and we ran the washer without anything in it to try to clean it out. Then the water overflowed and poured down our driveway. Even when we got the spin cycle to empty the basin, the thing still smelled like pee. Whether or not the machine was broken, Jim and I could not stomach the thought of washing our clothes in opossum pee. So we bought a new washer and dryer today. Why a new dryer? The old one was probably not going to live too much longer anyway and why not get a matching set now.

UGH! Such adventures today. Nothing has gone as we planned (including Josh's schedule). Today was the prime example of flexibility. But at least our weekend mystery has been solved.