after posting a bajillion times yesterday

I stayed up way past bedtime reading through my xanga blog. Parts of it really, really made me laugh. Very nostalgic.

Anyway, four things:

1. I miss doing "quote of the whatever" at the bottom of my blog posts. I may reinstate QOTW here.

2. The day I started falling for Rodgers was Saturday, June 11, 2005. I didn't blog that, even though I was totally grungy that day, he told me that I look more beautiful every day (which is what put me over the edge). But, I did blog that I visited Claire at camp that day, and that's when it happened.

3. I've forgotten the source for many of the QOTWs. This is a sad day.

4. I'm finally far enough removed from my horrible first job that I can really laugh about my dumb, douchecanoe former boss.

for my long-time followers

I know, three posts in one day is ridiculous.

Dad mentioned my old blog the other day, and I just wanted to point out that while the url is no longer active, I did import the blog into this one. Just felt like keeping it all in one place. If you're looking for some of my really old stuff, anything on this blog written before Aug 10, 2008 is from my "justrachet" blog. For about the first year of "rodgersrachel," I kept both blogs going, posting my deepest thoughts on the other one, and updates about the wedding planning, getting married, the green card journey, and pregnancy here. Eventually I just decided to put it all in one place. Then I stopped having deep thoughts.

When I imported, I didn't label all my old blog posts as such, they just mingled in with these. Now, I've tried to go back through and label them for organization's sake, though honestly, I probably didn't get them all labeled correctly. You'll see a huge label in my label gadget in the sidebar that says "justrachet." That's where you'll find all of my posts from my old blog, including anything about my time on Doulos. Warning: many pictures used way back then may no longer exist on the internet, and there are probably lots of broken links.

If you're one of my really old followers, you may remember when I blogged on xanga. That blog is still there.  If you fancy taking a glimpse at my beginnings in blogworld, have a go.

2 cute pictures

Eating some Lil Crunchies, while watching TV. I think he looks more like a kid (rather than baby) in this pose than any other.

We used the rubber tooth and gum massager for a long time. Finally, I bought him a baby toothbrush. He loves it and doesn't try to swallow it. After I brush his teeth, he gets a turn. I think he basically just chews the brush and sucks all of the (safe if swallowed) toothpaste off. He loves brushing his teeth.

see 'n say

I don't remember if I had my own See 'n Say as a child, but I remember playing with them in church nurseries and possibly my grandmother's house. I remember one that was yellow, with a pull string:

from here [click]

...and a blue one with a lever:

from here [click]

I loved listening to the animal sounds. I can still hear in my memory, "Here is the coyote: ow--ow-ow-owoooooo!"

Nate has a new fangled See 'n Say. He also loves listening to the animal sounds. He hasn't quite figured out the lever himself, but he brings the See 'n Say to me so that I can make it work for him. He has this one:

(sort of, the pictures on his are different)
from here [click]

I like that is has 2 "pages." (The yellow part flips over to the other side, revealing more animals.) Nate likes it, too. He loves turning pages, so flipping back and forth between the 2 sides is one of his favorite parts. I also like the songs - one side plays Old McDonald (with animals and animal sounds from the See 'n Say) and the other plays The Farmer in the Dell. The quiz is fun, too, and when Nate figures out how to work the See 'n Say, I'm sure he'll enjoy that.

Here's my complaint:

Rather than having the same intro to each animal, it switches back and forth between "The [animal] says: [sound]" and "That's the [animal]. [sound]." Then it goes back to "The [animal] says: [sound]." Back and forth. Every other pull of the lever. Fine.

On the side not shown in the picture above, there is a bunny. What sound does a bunny make? I know what sound it makes when a labrador is eating it alive, but that's not really a cute sound for a children's toy. The sound they use is "boing, boing," like a hopping noise. Ok...

Here's the problem: if, for example, the previous animal was "The cat says: meow, meow," and then you play the bunny, it will say, "That's the bunny: boing, boing." But, if you play the bunny after it plays "That's the cat. meow, meow," it will say, "The bunny says: boing, boing."

No, it doesn't, See 'n Say. The bunny does not say, "boing." That is all.

maisha kamili blog

Maisha Kamili blog is now live at http://maishakamilimombasa.blogspot.com/. If you are one of those in our circle who has received a copy of the proposal, you will recognize that the current posts are copied and pasted from the proposal. More pieces will be published as we make our plans.

Nate videos

A few of our recent videos of Nate. Enjoy.

penguins

After seeing Nate's birthday monkey cupcakes, my dad asked me to make him penguin cupcakes for his birthday. When my parents stopped by yesterday, it was the first time we'd seen them since his birthday, so I wanted to make the penguin cupcakes. Unfortunately, I was out of eggs and didn't have time to run to the store, buy eggs, make cupcakes, let them cool, etc. So, I just made the penguins. I think he liked them.

I used mini oreos for the heads and double stuf oreos for the body, with the top cookie cut in half to make the wings. Eyes, beaks, and legs were a gel icing pen.

cooking blog

When I was in 6th grade, we lived with my grandparents for a few months. My grandmother has a few recipes that she keeps on "repeat" at all times. One thing she cooked frequently was salmon patties. While they were good, I got salmon patty-ed out. In the past 10 years, I've eaten them maybe once.

I follow several cooking blogs. Usually, I star recipes I like in my Google Reader, and maybe will cook them. someday. It surprised me when I saw a recipe for salmon croquettes on Not Your Bubbe's Kitchen, and they actually looked appealing! I decided to give them a second chance. Maybe it was the use of the word "croquettes" rather than "patties" - much more appetizing, right? Or maybe it's just that I know Jackie and trust her to have yummy and healthy recipes.

Whatever it was, I'm so glad I made these for lunch today! They are delicious! They were also very easy and quick to make. I followed her recipe mostly. I only had one egg, not two, but it worked out!

Not Your Bubbe's Kitchen features a lot of other fabulous recipes, too. One that I am eager to try out is The Best Damn Brownies Ever. Check it out!

[P.S. I did not try out the grains recipe today. I was in the mood for mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli.]

a lovey-dovey post

Rodgers and I started dating in March 2006, so we missed Valentine's Day that year. Our first Valentine's Day as a couple was 2007, but I was in the Philippines.

Our second Valentine's Day (first one spent together), 2008:

2009, one month (4 weeks) before the wedding:

2010, with a 30 day old baby:

[didn't manage to get a picture of Rodgers and me because we were too distracted by Nate's grinning face]

I love looking through pictures from the past years and remembering each stage of our relationship, seeing how far we've come in this short time together. 

bilingual

At (nearly) 13 months old, Nate seems to understand most of what I say to him. He doesn't understand most of what is said, but most of the things I tell him (do you want to eat? give me that. don't eat that! take that out of your mouth. are you ready for a bath? bring me a book. it's time for Elmo...). Also, he has a handful of words he can "say."

He says Mama and Daddy regularly. He has said Elmo twice. He signs milk, more, eat, and bath (that one's not real sign language, it's his own sign he made up for bath - pretending to splash the water with his hands).

He can tell you what a snake says (ssss), a monkey says (AAAAAH!), and a baby says (Mama [in a high pitched voice]). I'm trying to teach him Daddy says pffffft! (raspberry sound). Is that rude?

He also has some words of his own invention. Aiyiyiyiyi means he is chewing on something, wants to chew on something, or wants to put something in your mouth for you to chew on. It's the chewing sound. He frequently says yeesh. Sometimes it means he wants a drink. Sometimes he says it when I ask him a question - any question. Like, "Yeesh, Mom, get off my back!"

He does not repeat things that we say to him, or did not until yesterday (unless it's raspberries or sssssss or screaming). In Swahili, haya means ok. I will often sit down on the floor with Nate and say haya, as in, "Ok, what are we going to do now?" Yesterday, when I said, "Haya," Nate looked at me, grinned and said, "Yaya." So I said it again, and he responded with "Haya." We said haya to each other back and forth a few times. This morning, I was telling Rodgers about it, and Nate again said haya with me. I don't know that it has meaning for him, but it's a sound he hears from us, which he figured out how to mimmick.

Regardless, I officially declare Nate bilingual.

schedule changes

Again, Nate's changing his schedule up. He used to nap after every bottle - 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. He dropped an afternoon nap first. Eventually, the second morning nap was dropped, too. At that point, he went from taking 1 hour or less naps to taking 2 hour naps. They were awesome. He really spoiled me. [What spoils me even more is that he's slept from 7 pm to 6 or 7 am since he was 4 months old. He still does this. :) ]

However, he is transitioning to only 1 nap per day. This is difficult. He's ready to sleep again at 10, especially if he woke up before 7. But then, he doesn't sleep very long because he's hungry for lunch at 11.

Last week, I tried letting him sleep from 9-10 (I had to wake him up), then getting him up for lunch and putting him back down in the afternoon. No go. I tried letting him sleep from 9 until he woke up on his own, but then he was awake from 12-7 pm. He was ready for bed by 6, but he can't go to bed that early unless we want to wake up at 5 am, which, I think it goes without saying, we don't.

Yesterday and today have been better. We kept him up all morning long. Yesterday, we fed him lunch as usual, with his milk afterwards (he's still taking 3 bottles a day), but he was too tired to drink his milk. He slept for an hour and a half, though. Longest afternoon nap in over a week! Today, we let him drink his milk when he was getting fussy for a nap, around 10 am. Then he had his lunch as usual at 11, went down for a nap at noon, and slept until almost 3. Success! I hope we can repeat this.

pizza's good for toddlers, right?

Nate likes almost every food. He doesn't like most fresh fruit, but that's about it. He goes through phases, though, when he just doesn't want to eat what I cook. I know he likes it because he's eaten it before, but maybe he's just "not in the mood." He also goes through phases that seem like he never stops eating and will eat anything. So I have to assume he has hungrier times and not so hungry times.

Sunday through Wednesday this week, he refused to eat anything besides applesauce, Cheerios, cheese, and dill pickles. I didn't give him full meals of those things. So, by refusing to eat anything else, either he was going hungry, or he didn't have much appetite to begin with.

Thursday, we had pizza. The boy can eat some pizza. I cut some of the Roma tomato and green bell pepper into bite sized pieces for him, and he inhaled it. First veggies he'd eaten since Saturday (unless pickles count?). He got some of the meat, cheese, and crust, too, but when he started eating the veggies, I just kept putting them in front of him until he wouldn't eat them anymore.

Today it seems like he's back to his usual eating habits - eating from all the food groups, like a champ. Seems like having pizza snapped him out of his applesauce-Cheerios-cheese-pickles phase. Maybe he'll go through another phase next week, and we can try having pizza again to snap him out of it. This might not be such a bad thing...We like pizza.