How about some questions?

Mostly parenting related, but some gardening too.

Toddler bed or twin bed? We found M with her foot resting on the top of the side of her crib a couple of nights ago. She was trying to escape and if I hadn't scared the crap out of her, she would have likely fallen pretty horribly. That combined with the diaper removal last week, and I think it is time to take the plunge. We have access to a free toddler bed, but would have to pay for a twin. I worry about transitioning twice.

Just how much can you prune off of a tomato and have it survive? I should have caged mine, I did not, they are falling over. I need cages, stat! I also need to cut them down. I have tiny tomatoes, so I'm trying to cut enough, without it being too much.

Two years old too young for fireworks? We could likely drive not that far and see some. Her bedtime is 7, she is up until 8, but they won't start around here until close to 10. I'm thinking one more year.

Why can't anyone figure out that women have larger feet than a 10? I swear to god it is starting to drive me absolutely batty that I have such limited choices in shoes. I need some dressy but comfy shoes for BlogHer, and for work. Anyone out there to prove me wrong? My left foot is an 11.5, my right is an 11. I can do 11-12 depending on style. Seriously. Show me that cute and comfy exists in larger sizes. I will love you forever.

That's MY momma!

I'm not sure if this is the case in every toddler classroom, but in M's classroom, it is considered bad form not to claim your parent the moment they walk into the room. Should anyone else look at your parent even sideways, you are to immediately make sure they stick to a respectable distance. Shoving is not out of the question.

Yesterday M wore the dress that I made a few weeks ago to daycare. I wasn't sure if I wanted it to get worn to school. However, it wasn't like I made it out of super expensive fabric, or that it can't be washed. I might as well let go. M likes it. It twirls well. She also knows I made it, and took great pride in telling everyone I made her dress. I'm soaking it up. I know it won't last. There will come a time when I can no longer thrill her with robots and zoo animals and she won't always claim me when I come to get her.

Thank you FB for taking me back 14 years.

I am positive that in high school I was relatively horrid to be around. I was miserable, unhappy, and I hid a lot of my insecurities with a superiority complex. Not that the kids I went to school with were nice, but I am sure part of it was me. When I left my home town after high school I went to a school no one else did and pretty much entirely wrote off my entire hometown and high school experience. I had minimal contact with one person which ended abruptly for a reason I no longer remember. When I would go home for the holidays and occasionally in summer, I would do my best to avoid seeing anyone. It took work since a lot of people never left.

Four years ago when my ten year reunion happened I thought about going. After all, I was married to a great guy, with a house and a dog. Then I thought about how I no longer lived in NYC, how I was heavier than I had ever been, (lighter than that now, yay!) and how I had nothing to rub in that all of the crap I took hadn't hurt me. I had spent a lot of time wondering if they still hated me or if they had gotten over it. However, when it came right down to it, what I realized that I was the one who had stuff to get over. If I was going to prove to them that they hadn't hurt me, then I had missed the point.

I'd like to think I've made advances since then, but damn Facebook has brought it all up again. The class VP had my address and married name from the reunion, and she went and friended mostly unused profile from a class account. I was curious, I logged in. I friended back. I've waited and wondered if anyone would friend me. No one has.

I've realized that I'm doing it all over again. I have a pictureless profile and I haven't reached out to anyone. I'm not even sure who I would reach out to if I wanted to. If I keep waiting for them, it will never happen.

So today I uploaded a photo, and I reached out to the one person I miss the most. I still fear rejection, but if I never take the chance, nothing will ever change.

Yeah, I got nothing.

It has been an extremely challenging week at work. It feels of the old days of long days at the office and endless hours on call and fixing broken things at night. I missed it a little, but I know I am not ready to go back to that world just yet. There is a short person who demands my time. Fortunately most of the work has been doable after 7 PM, so I miss little time with her. I just know this isn't sustainable, so happily in my position I will stay. (this isn't the kind of thing we deal with regularly)

So, more garden photos it is:
I'm not sure I've ever seen such a lush tomato blossom. This is I think a Yellow Brandywine. One to two pounds eventually. All of my original tomatoes have now outgrown my stakes. They're huge!
I may have upped the purple a little, but the contrast is just about that striking. I'm a sucker for purple plants.

The first garden pea. Only an inch long, but growing very fast.

Steps to a New Header

Rebecca left a sweet comment on my photo post about liking my headers and wanting to know more about software. I responded to her comment, but I thought it would be fun to go through my process for the headers using Picnik, since I think that is just about all anyone needs. For around 25/year for Premium and regular updates to it I think it is a great deal.

Step 1: Find a photo I like. (this one is my purple flowering kale in the garden) It needs to have enough interesting detail in a narrow band for a header. Rotate it until you get the right angle.

I rotated this one left, once.

Step 2: Crop it. I know the general dimensions that look good and fit, I try to have a focal point, and I like to follow the rule of threes. Ever wonder why your camera has that nifty grid to divide the space into 9 parts, yeah, that would be it. I use it for balancing positive and negative space as well. Sometimes I just go for content, but the ones I like the best follow those rules. (left two thirds positive space, right third, negative space)

Step 3: Adjust exposure (this one was over exposed so I decreased) and contrast (I increased it a little, more drama)


Step 4: Play around with effects. Here we have Boost:

and Vibrance.


I went with Vibrance. They also have some seriously far out ones, and traditional like Sepia & B&W. For a lot of fun, go with Lomoish.

Step 5: Soften if needed. Sometimes I like doing this, especially if the colors are strong like in this one. This is the Matte effect.


Step 6: Rounded corners and add text. I love the text options, and I keep wanting to find reasons to use the really wild ones. Still, the ones I like best look like neat writing or retro typewriters. I was feeling purple, so purple text it is.

Step 7: Shrink to Fit. My Blogger header has a 890 pixel width. To make sure that it scales appropriately (instead of letting Blogger do it for me) I save the file as 890 pixels wide and let it scale the height.

Dino PJ's and Butterfly Tattoos

Dudes! That picture there represents some pure awesomeness. That is a temporary tattoo bribe. The holy grail of potty bribes for pooping in the potty (I coordinated bribes with daycare to make things easier). She's been raking in the stickers and M's for a couple of weeks now, accident free other than naps & nighttime. Oh, yeah, except the poop in the undies. All of that "get the poop stain out" magic I had to work when she was little has come in handy again (Dreft Stain Remover & Oxyclean thank you to my friend J, you know who you are). She's been a stand up pooper (you know, not a squatter) so I was totally shocked today when I heard the grunting in the bathroom and found a very stinky turd floating there. (seriously, how do such small creatures create such large turds) I'm not holding my breath that this keeps up, but I'll take one less set of dirty undies.

In other news, her low grade fever has now gone on for a whole near two weeks. We've gone as high as 100.7 in the evenings, and missed three days of daycare. Without it being a full blown illness, I'll be damned if I know that the F is going on. We go to the Dr. tomorrow.

Also, my tomatoes have outgrown their stakes and have a crap load of flowers on them. I'm twitterpated with excitement. Something is eating tiny holes in my jalapenos and I'm getting pissed about it, but they still have a ton of flowers. I also have one lone pea on one of the pea plants, with more on the way. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Oh, and yes, that is my little girl wearing dino PJ's. Because until they start making the female legends of science pull-ups that my friend Kristen suggested, it is the least I can do to encourage her analytical mind.

Falling in love again.

My love of photography goes way back. I guess you could say it is genetic. It is the one artistic pursuit that I have had that I've kept all these years. I really have no idea why I didn't go to school for it. Perhaps it was just too close to my dad, when I didn't like him all that much.


I don't hide that I want a Canon DSLR, and I want it bad. It is what I have been saving for. Unfortunately, I don't see it happening any time soon. I just can't seem to save enough, what with the diapers, the food, the damn we're going to need a big girl bed because the snot is removing her diapers at night.

So lately I've been trying to really get to know my little Canon PowerShot A540. So far, it is working. I get the macro shots I love so much, as well as good video, and the ability to go fully manual. Nearly every day I'm out taking pictures of my beautiful garden.

Instead of a new camera, I think I'll invest in the new iPhoto, to better manage what my addiction creates. I may also finally break down and get PhotoShop Elements. Picnik is still great, but I want a real watermark and maybe a little more control.


Until that happens, if you are looking for me, I'll be out in the garden, perfecting the use of the manual macro settings.

Happy Father's Day A

I'll admit that I don't always give A a fair shake. I feel like I do more household chores, that I deal with more potty breaks, more dirty diapers, and dammit all, I breastfed. However, when it gets right down to it, A does a damn good job. He's there, he's involved, and he makes M (and me) a priority. He takes time off from work for sick days, he goes to all of the school conferences (something I don't remember my dad doing) and eventually, he'll brave a trip outside the house with M alone, I just know it. (It is OK, potty training in public scares me too)

He doesn't like cards, so I didn't get him one. When I told him M and I were doing an art project for him, he was moderately afraid it would involve paper towel rolls and macaroni. So I was happy when he liked what we had made. He's always had a thing for stepping stones, and this is something we can take with us, even if we don't stay in this house. M has a great way of saying who she loves, in the third person. M loves Mama. M loves Tess. M loves Papa, and so do I.

Happy Father's day A!

Well, at least it makes me smile.

Consult with your Dr. before beginning

Writing about it sort of got lost in the flu scare, but I had my first appointment with my new endocrinologist on Wednesday afternoon. It was by far one of the most informative, comforting and terrifying Dr. appointments I have ever had.

I got a diagnosis, a Power Point presentation (which makes the geek part of me super happy) on just what my body is/could be doing, a lot of blood drawn, and the beginnings of a plan. I'm still processing it all.

The Dr. I saw is the head of an obesity & endocrinology clinic. Someone who has seen that traditional practices do a poor job of treating the whole patient, especially patients with weight/endocrine issues. I am obese, but instead of just looking at me and going "you should do something about that" and saying my overall tests were OK, it was treated this time like a disease, with causes, and treatments. Based on my old blood work, my symptoms (hair growth, blood sugar issues long ago, insulin issues now, weight, girly issues), I also got a diagnosis of PCOS.

The plan is to take a look at some new tests (hormones, Vitamin D levels, sugar levels, cholesterol), make sure the source of all of this isn't something else, and then treat the obesity and the insulin resistance. I have to see a nutritionist, go to some food related classes, and see the Dr. on a regular basis.

I'm scared, super scared, of what he could tell me. I'm scared of taking drugs to help with weight loss, I'm terrified that it won't work, I'm worried A won't be willing to help me make diet changes (though I'm relatively sure that when I see the nutritionist, she'll see I'm already eating pretty well), and well, I'm just plain afraid. This is new, this is different, this is change, and I'm not always so good with change.

My next appointment is in a couple of weeks. Until then I am trying to tell myself that I am not alone. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't feel like I had support. I am doing this to make sure that I am healthy, and here for my daughter as long as possible. So I can remind her about the hell she is putting me through with potty training.

At least the garden watching is good.

I do believe we are in for the duration, her fever flirted with 100 again today. If this is the piggy flu, I wish it would just develop fully on so we can get a clear picture of how much work I am going to miss. The long days with the whining sensitive child she when sick are eventually going to get old.

Cue the violets.

One of the new gnomes, riding a snail through the peppers.

The other new gnome, riding a tortoise through the arugula.

A future jalapeno pepper. It is one of many things producing flowers right now. I cannot wait for the fruit it will produce. I am beyond excited. I also had a small salad at lunch that came directly from the garden. Provided the weather doesn't batter it tonight, I will have more tomorrow.

The Flu Ham Chu

Today M had a fever that met the threshold for "the flu", you know the one. The H1N1... (Sorry, couldn't resist)

We're on flu watch at daycare after a parent of a kid tested positive. My daycare is taking full precautions and following the most restrictive MN rules. That means, after an Influenza Like Illness (ILI), you must stay home seven days AFTER symptoms have cleared. That applies to all members of the household. So, say for instance in a family of three, illness spread out 5-7 days, lasting for three days, we could be out of work/daycare for a MONTH!!!

Do you know how much entertainment of a two year old that is? A two year old that is used to having constant options and entertainment at daycare. Not to mention playground equipment twice a day.

So far it is just a fever, no other symptoms, so this could be just a couple of days. However, provided it is not, I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do. I got provisions from Target tonight including some Color Wonder stuff (to go with birthday present of finger paints) a kiddie pool for the back yard (since we're going to cancel swimming lessons now), and assorted Play Dough implements. I'll save the paper towel rolls, make A get some paint, and I'm sure I'll figure something out, but for now, I'm a little intimidated.

So, I'm looking for ideas, the tweeters have already given me some, but I'm looking for more. This will hit us eventually, might as well get ideas now.

I'm a bad Hot By BlogHer....

So I went and sort of nagged Christina (my BlogHer roomie) about Hot By BlogHer, and then haven't really done any of the challenges or kept up. I've just been a little overwhelmed. Especially when my weight loss didn't happen quite the way I planned initially.

As of today, I've lost 10 pounds from when I started in March with the Shredheads. It isn't much in weight, but I've made up with it in overall change in my body. More muscle, better clothes fitting. I feel so much better than when I started. I'm continuing my regular exercise, and I'm also keeping up (most days) with eating better. I will go to BlogHer more confident than I was, and really, that is what being HOT is all about.

I still have a long way to go. My weight is still obese, my skin is still going to take time to recover from all of these changes. However, I don't feel like I'll be back sliding at all. I'm confident enough that when I cleaned up the laundry area, I put all the larger sizes in bags to pass on to other friends. There is something about this time that feels different. This weight isn't coming off quickly, it isn't a fad diet, it just small changes that I know I can maintain. I'm hoping when I see my new endocrinologist tomorrow that they agree that I'm taking that right steps. I hope that they can help me find the right tools so I never deal with Type 2 Diabetes.

I feel like I've written this post before, and maybe I have, but I need to remind myself that this is working, that this feels good, but there are still days when I doubt myself.

Of course, I can also look at this great dress I found for BlogHer. Ignore the flash in the window, this was the best shot of the dress. It will look even better with the Spanx I got. I decided not to try them on for the try on photo, they terrify the dog. How did I not believe that they were worth the price before, they totally work, but that is another post.

Local Love - Mexican Food

One of the only deficits I found when living in NYC was Mexican food. I'm sure if I had gone to the right neighborhood I would have found it, but it didn't happen. Here in Minnesota, that isn't a problem at all. Chinese is another story however.

I have three favorite Mexican places to go. Two are relatively recent finds, and one I have been going for over 30 years. (It will be 32 this August in fact) They are all locally owned and run.

Boca Chica's Taco House - This is the fast food version of the restaurant across the street in the Del Sol neighborhood in St. Paul. I was raised on their bean burritos, I crave their tostadas, and their chicken mole burritos are a special treat. They still use real cheese, and you can get fried flour tacos there. Corn tacos are soft, just the way I like them. The best part though is their salsa. An all fresh, spicy bit of perfection.

Taquería Los Ocampo - Masa, the corn dough base of tamales and tacos can be used to make all kinds of creations. I read a review of these guys once that called them the masters of masa, and I think it is true. The huaraches are masa and bean boats filled with meat and topped with queso fresco, avocados and tomatoes. When I was in the hospital, after giving birth to M, this is where I made A go and get me food from. (at least I think I did, if I didn't, I should have) They have two other locations besides the MGM, but since they are kitty corner from Salty Tart, that is where we usually go.

La Loma - I'm pretty sure that if I had to pick favorite foods, their Oaxaqueno tamales would be at least top five. Somewhere close after that would be the sweet corn ones. What makes them so special I think is that they mix a little of the meat and seasoning in to the masa itself. It makes the whole thing so flavorful. You can get bulk tamales to go at their Mercado Central location, or get their tamales plus breakfast all day at the MGM. If you're not feeling like you want to go to the city, you can get chicken and pork tamales at most Cub stores.

Dresses, potties, and summer has arrived.

Class today at Crafty Planet was a huge success. MC (teacher) is wonderful, as always. I learned something that I didn't know before, but still finished enough ahead of the class to be able to get dinner and be home with plenty of time to spare. The dress is adorableness. You can actually get it yourself off of Etsy from Frog Legs and Ponytails. I think I'll try one of her other dresses since I like this one so much.

About to go try on my shoes.

Practicing her jumping for me.

Jumping away from me.

It has been a long but good weekend. Saturday, a whole day, no accidents. We put on pull-ups for naps and long walks (where they were needed) but managed to stay dry for going out to dinner. Today there were accidents, but she knows when she's had one (different than last time we tried this) and I think that is better than us making her go so much she stays dry. This way she learns.

I got a dress for BlogHer, and it is all kinds of Following The What Not To Wear Rules awesomeness. (I am additcted to that show) Now I just need to get back on my bike (still a little scared to) and start doing some push-ups and arm toning. It is sleeveless and while I have a sweater to go with it, it is not very Sparklecorn.

There is laundry to do, and my house is an inferno (we are still holding out on AC use until it hits 90). Local focus (it needs a name) will have to wait until tomorrow. I have a good one, it involves food. Awesome food.

Mary Mary How Does Your Garden Grow

With plants who needed rain more than I realized.

And bright yellow marigolds.
And radishes that had better be making something good under the ground.

And more marigolds & nasturtiums.

I will be making sure to water more heavily from now on. I am getting tomato flowers, big juicy pepper flowers, and thinning the lettuce is mighty tasty.

So, if you planted a garden, how is it doing? How soon will harvest be? Anything good from the CSA?

P Colapse

I knew it, I knew I shouldn't have done it. I just didn't have anything else to write about. Blogging rule broken, and I am sufficiently sorry about it.

Today I traumatized my daughter and may just have completely undone all of the potty training progress so far.

Today, we went to the Zoo for day camp. We went early to look at sharks and stingrays. We tried to go potty by the sharks. But the toilet, it kept flushing. You see, all successful public peeing was in ancient bathrooms. Not nice new ones with auto-flushers. It flushed, and she cowered, and it flushed more, and more and more.

And then I, not knowing how to make it stop, and certain that if she would just pee the fear would be gone, pushed it. I pushed her, and may have completely traumatized her. I know I'm traumatized a little myself.

I now know about post-its (never leave home without them) and toilet paper, and where every bathroom you can make your daughter scream at the in the Zoo is.

As penance I went out and bought a small fortune in undies. Every kind of character undies (except the damn princesses) that I could find. Screw the expensive training undies, we're going full force. She can do it, I know she can. I got more jersey shorts/pants. We've got dresses coming out of our ears. If she has a 50 percent success rate, I should be good for two days without laundry.

Please, if you're listening universe, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was so happy about it. It won't happen again.

ETA: I don't know if I dare write this, but in trying to get her to poop, she is now wildly (and I do mean wildly shrieking and giggling uncontrollably) by her own farts. I find it hard not to laugh wildly with her.

This post brought to you by the letter P.

I'm very conflicted about posting about potty training, but since other blogger posts about their trials & tribulations have been a source of both amusement and assistance to me, here we go. I give you some snippets of recent happenings, bullet points style.

• Despite being a regular small potty user at home, M experienced major big potty fears at daycare.
  
• Last Thursday, I offered to hold her hand while she tried it. It worked. We have been off and running ever since then. That day, she used it all day long. Even going without prompting.
  
• Including a 15 minute sit down with a favorite book. She is her father's daughter.
• Friday was another good day, she stayed dry from before nap to bedtime.
  
• Weekend of backsliding. Poop catchup was the major issue.
• However, first public restroom use, so it was a wash. Had to go four times during dinner, I may never get to eat dinner again.
  
• Monday, back at daycare. She's now taking herself without any help.
• She's even removing her pull-up and going commando for unknown length of time.
  
• At the suggestion of daycare, today we brought undies... and 10 pairs of leggings (only slightly exaggerating)
• Instructions from momma. Pull-up for nap (she hated it), back in pull-ups if there is an accident. Still not convinced that she knows when she has to go.
• Unfortunately confirmed she may not know. She was devastated about it though. Went to go before bus ride home, wet pull-up again. I am as confused about how ready she is as she is.
  
• Tonight, working more on pooping. Got her to try big potty at home. Back and forth between two potties at least 50 times before Momma requested a timer to convince her to stay. No poop, but peed.
• Tomorrow, a Zoo visit and day camp, pull-ups or undies? I am unsure. Perhaps there is a magic 8 ball for potty training
  

I was not paid for this post.

I'm sort of trying to ignore all of the whole bruhahaha going on, because it so doesn't apply to me, but just so you know, despite running ads on my site, no one pays me for anything I write. I was doing paid blogging before, but that was at a different site and very up front. I feel the need to say it, because I'm going to BlogHer. Like now I need to justify it. Also, I'm about to talk about things I love. No one paid me to, this is just good community building and trying to support the people and businesses I adore. I'm going to try to write something about local people/businesses I love here regularly. Since I'm trying to support more local myself, and I think this is a good way to learn about what is good in your area. Go social media!

This next Sunday I'm taking a class at Crafty Planet. If you're local, and you the slightest bit of craftiness in you, and you haven't been there, shame on you. Trish and Matt are just about the best people in the world, and they run a great shop. Way back when I started knitting, I visited a shall remain nameless yarn store on the West Bank. (rhymes with Feapth of Dield) Super judgmental to both my budget and sense of style. Crafty planet was the cure to that. They are fun, funky (the have cross stitch patterns that say Fuck You), and most of all, supportive. Because of them, I feel comfortable taking on just about anything, knowing I have the resources should I need them. They stock Sublime Stitchery embroidery patterns, Japanese fabric imports, great (and affordable) yarns, along with regular crafty tools.

The class I am taking is being taught by my all time favorite craft teacher. You see, at this point, I know enough to be dangerous, and a pain to a "by the book" teacher. Hell, I've always been that way to teachers. She (leaving out her name in case she wants it private) lets me not always follow the pattern, and gets my odd problem solving skills. The fact that she's teaching a class on how to make something I want, just made my day yesterday. Also, if you're a beginning knitter and most patterns give you the fits, try hers available at the link above. She is awesomness.

And 12.25 feet more

Apparently my tweet about addiction was more than just a joke. I can't stop gardening.

Last Saturday I went out and got the wood to make another planter box. That was after I bought more plants on Thursday at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market. You know, I had to find room for them.

I also bought a three foot long window box to help me rotate lettuce crops and two more pots to help me grow a few other things.

So far I have the yellow squash planted (from Dehn's Garden at the FM), some kale (I have a kale obsession you obviously understand if you know me), and some cucumbers in one of the pots. After M wakes up from her nap, I will be going to buy peas. Then in go the peas and I think another row or two or radishes and maybe carrots. You can never have too many radishes.

On the non plant side of things, I've mulched with the ground up stumps and some commercial mulch, and moved the rocks that ringed our tree (that came out two years ago) to around the planter boxes and along the fence. I think it is a nice touch. Added after this picture were two garden gnomes, picked out by M (who went on and on last weekend about our "new gnomes"). Our previous gnome had an unfortunate incident where he lost his arm.

Two.

There is just something logical about having two kids. You know, replace yourself, but don't contribute to global overcrowding. An heir and a spare. A square family. I guess it just seemed like that was what would happen. Except, one is expensive, and our house is under water (mortgage wise), and we have other debts, and one daycare payment is already a large portion of what I make. So, we've decided to stop at one. We've been through all the scenarios given our current situation, and unless something major changes financially one is all we can do without stretching ourselves so thin that we would be miserable. I grew up with stretched parents, and it sucked.

And I'm sad about. More sad that I thought I would be. One should be enough right? People try so hard just to get one, I should be happy with one. She's awesome. But I'm sad. Tonight on my walk (3.3 miles in an hour), all I saw was families for four, or pregnant women.

It doesn't help that today I was supposed to see my OB. An appointment I looked forward to. My OB is one of the few doctors that I have really liked and gotten along with. I wanted to see her before I saw my endocrinologist next week. I wanted to talk to her about how despite regular exercise (still keeping up at least three days a week, sometimes more), and eating relatively decent, I am not losing weight. I feel like crap, tired all the time. I wanted to get her opinion before I dealt with the endocrinologist that I don't like. Except today she had to deliver a baby. Just another reminder. The only appointment I could get with her is two months out. N0 good for me to get her opinion.

Instead I made an appointment with an obesity and endocrinology clinic. It is kitty corner from me in the cities. Appointments will require taking half days off from work, if not full days. However, I want to be treated as a full patient, and that is what they specialize in. I don't want to be like this, but I don't know how to not be without at least some help. Diet and exercise the way I'm doing them are not working. I also want to talk to someone about pharmaceutical help for all of the stress I am going through. All this exercise should be helping my general mood, and that it isn't, means that it is time for me to ask for help.

Speaking of the exercise, I am still plugging along, even with taking a week off from riding bike. I am bummed about not losing weight, but I am gaining muscle. I can feel it, and it would be what usually happens to me. I sort of wish I wasn't, but I know it is a good sign. Muscle burns more calories than fat does. Still, I would feel a little better if my thighs weren't larger (and harder) instead of smaller.

A whole bunch of questions.

I have questions, lots of them. Mostly mom type questions, but not all.

I love having M in the backyard with me while I garden, but I think I need something for her to do. Not that it would stop her from trying to garden, but I can wish, right? I have been looking at climbers and playhouse type things. You know, Little Tikes, Step 2, generally plastic and garish. I figure she isn't quite ready for a metal swing set like this, and I don't have A. the yard or B. the money for one of those monster Rainbow Play Systems. (Every budget my ass and would it kill you to give pricing online, I don't have time to go look)

So? What is good? What sucks? What is appropriate for a super tall two year old. Think two year old skills, but has been caught dwarfing the three year olds at parties. I'm finding woefully little information from bloggers about them. Specifically about the size an age appropriateness of them. However, it seems everyone but me has one, so I'd love some sharing.

Speaking of wanting one, where can I find used? I work full time and can't do the Thursday garage sale thing, I'm not seeing what I want (for a reasonable price) on Craig's List. It could be the all go fast, but I'm not sure.

Speaking of Craig's list. Any experience selling kids stuff on it? What about Once Upon a Child? It has been decided that M will likely be an only child (I'm sure I'll blog about my feelings eventually), and that means I am freed to get rid of a bunch of what we have been holding on to. I'm sort of looking forward to it, but I'm unsure how to do it. I would like to get a little return, perhaps to pay for part of a climber or play house.