MELISSA’S BLOG

Since I was little, I’ve been disgusted with squash. And for no good reason. Maybe it’s the name that grossed me out so much? Lately I’ve decided to give it a chance. We’ve enjoyed summer squash sides and roasted zucchini on kabobs. I tried out butternut squash for the first time when I mushed some up for Ryan. He is now enjoying roasted pieces of sweet acorn squash and pumpkin. I picked up a cute acorn squash last week and decided to stuff it. I found a recipe for baking diced apples in the squash, but decided to make more of a meal of it. I cooked up the apples, some chicken, and brown rice in some maple syrup and apple cider. I stuffed the squash and baked it with some sprinkled nutmeg. Matt and I really liked the stuffing, but weren’t crazy about the squash. Everything was a little too sweet, so I think I’ll dry something different without fruit.

I love pumpkin pie and have wanted to make one from scratch. Yesterday I cut up a pumpkin, roasted the pieces, then pureed it. I also roasted up the seeds, coated in butter and garlic and salt, which Matt had never eaten before. Very yummy! I haven’t started the pies yet — I still need to make up some crusts — but decided to make some pumpkin soup for lunch. [Recipe on Recipezaar] I know it has cream in it and Ryan shouldn’t drink milk yet, but I gave him just a little bit of soup and he seemed to enjoy it! I liked it enough, but think it all came out too thick. Matt didn’t care for it too much, though, and thinks that it’s too sweet (again, probably the apples.) I still have tons of pumpkin pieces and pumpkin puree and will be looking for other fun pumpkin recipes this week!

The leaves around here are turning, so Matt and I wanted to go out and see the prettiest place here that we know of. A while ago we hiked through Oirase Gorge, which leads to Lake Towadako, but hadn’t spent much time at the lake. Rather than driving through the gorge this time, we took narrow, twisty mountain road down to the lake. It was so gorgeous looking out over all the fiery trees, but the drive was terrifying. The roads around her are often pretty narrow, and the drivers down the mountain zipped so quickly and all over the tiny road. There were no guard rails and we came centimeters away from oncoming traffic quite a few times! I don’t think Matt breathed at all until we stopped. The lake was nice and we didn’t really spend too long, but we got to see the trees and sit out on the rocks and watching the ferry travel around the lake. It was a beautiful day!

A while ago I knitted Amelia an earflap hat for the winter and I wanted to have one for Ryan, too. I have matching yarn in red and blue and finally got to knitting up his blue hat. I’m glad, too, because Ryan has been using Amelia’s (I haven’t gotten it in the mail yet) when he needed a hat because he doesn’t have any others that fit! I did pretty much the same thing as I did for hers, but I made the cords a little bit longer. I like how the top of Amelia’s hat turned out better - I made some mistakes on Ryan. Neither one of them is perfect, but they’re pretty good for just now knitting for only 2 months! I can’t wait to see the baby cousins together and wearing their matching hats in December!

Hi sweetie! You’re now 8 months and doing fantastically! You’ve lost a tiny bit of weight compared to last month, but it’s probably because you’ve also been a little sick. You had your first cold, but you got through it like a trooper! At first whenever you’d cough or sneeze, you would smile or giggle because it was oh, so amusing! You got tired of that pretty quickly, though. We didn’t go to the doctor because you seemed to be doing really well with everything and had a great attitude all the way through. Daddy and I were sick at the same time, so it made the whole week a little stressful. At least that’s over with now!

Your friends Josh and Aime are visiting their grandparents in Texas right now, so you haven’t seen them much this month. You did have a nice visit with Samantha from church and across the street. I babysat her for a few hours and you two had fun playing together! She is 6 months older than you and it was fun to spend time with her and see about where you’ll be in the near future. We also met a lady who has a son, James, who is 2 weeks younger than you. We got together to play at his house and at the playground and you guys were too cute playing side by side!

You’ve been eating solid foods for a while now, but I’ve mostly looked at it at exploring new tastes and sensations. Now we’re trying to have more regular meals for you. Mealtime was a huge mess and was a little frustrating for me for a bit. When I used baby food you would get it everywhere, grab it with your hands, wipe your ears, play with your hair, and we’d have to rush off to the bathtub after every meal! I found that if I tuck your hands under your high chair tray, you keep them down in your lap and I can spoon feed you without you rubbing it all over your body. It may sound mean, but you don’t appear to mind having your arms pinned at all and mealtime goes much more smoothly. I’m trying to move away from the liquid baby foods more and have you feed yourself little bits of things. You have tried all sorts of new foods recently, most of which were a success! You love baked carrots and cauliflower with nutmeg and gobble them all down very quickly. You’ve had egg yolk and also yogurt, both of which you aren’t quite so sure about. Yesterday you had some cottage cheese with mango pieces that you loved! Last night for dinner you had some acorn squash pieces and also baked chicken and brown rice. You were pretty unsure about the chicken, so I ground it up in some sweet potato baby food (which you love!) You still love to munch on your sweet potato puffs - your favorite food! Daddy and I are lining up puffs along the clean carpet to try to encourage you to crawl. You will lean and reach as far as you possibly can then flop to your stomach and stretch even farther!

Speaking of crawling, you did crawl for the first time a couple of weeks ago! I was sitting in a chair and there were some toys and your books by my feet and you flopped from a sitting position and crawled on your hands and knees for about a foot and then creeped on your tummy for another foot to reach the book. Daddy and I were so excited that you were getting around on your own, but that was the last time we’ve seen you do that! There’s no rush, sweetie, but it will be fun when you’re traveling around the room on your own!

We haven’t done a whole lot that is too exciting. You love going to stores and looking at all the neat little things, so we do go shopping together. We’ve been out for a little hiking and walks around the base. We’re still having a great time at home, playing, reading, Skyping with grandparents, and snuggling together. Daddy and I love you very much and are looking forward to another wonderful month!

Love,
Mommy

I really like the Ballband Dishcloth I made a little while ago, but I don’t like that it’s not reversible. And it’s a little big. I found a pattern for a smaller, two-sided scrubbie using the same pattern. I used the same antibacterial acrylic that rocks at scrubbing pots as I have been for my other scrubbers. I’m going to give this to Andrea and Michael as Michael loves using sponges and this is sort of spongey (thick, same size, more absorbent than the large dishcloth) but Andrea wants to use washable cloths. I’ll probably make one for ourselves soon, since it takes no time at all to make.

Ryan and I have been on the nature trail by our house a few times, but Matt finally joined us for a little walk. I really like the trail, even if it is quite overgrown and unkempt. It changes every time I’ve been, even in a matter of weeks. Now that it’s getting colder, a lot of the leaves are turning and flowers are dying. It was a bit of a chilly little walk, but it was really nice. Ryan enjoyed himself, as usual. As Matt was walking along, Ryan would reach out at branches and leaves. I found him gripping a twig he found somewhere along the way. We saw all sorts of pretty little things. More photos here.

I really liked how Ryan’s green soaker turned out, so I wanted to make one for Amelia. I know Andrea doesn’t need all of Amelia’s clothes to be pink and girly, but I don’t often get to indulge in girliness! So I knitted up a pink soaker and embroidered a cat on the bum (but it’s a little off center - oops!) I used a lighter weight yarn than I did for Ryan’s, but double-stranded it. I made it a size smaller, too, because Amelia is such a tiny thing! I wish I could have had Ryan model it for some photos, but it’s too small for him. Hopefully I’ll get some good shots of Amelia wearing it (hopefully it fits!!) this winter when I finally meet her!

Yesterday I finished the Ballband Dishcloth. It was really easy to knit and didn’t take very long. I didn’t learn any new techniques in this project, but it was fun practice! Matt and I have slowly been “going green” over here, so we’ve decided to stop using sponges and paper towels and to instead use washable towels and knitted cloths and scrubbers. This yarn is acrylic treated with silver ions, which I’m told makes it antibacterial. I had been planning on using cotton for scrubbers, but I guess acrylic has a little more scrubbing power! So I’ll save the cotton for potholders or something. Anyhow, here’s my first dishcloth. Matt likes it because it looks like bricks. Maybe I’ll get some brick red and white and do another!

The other night I knitted up a “Calorimetry” head warmer. I think the pattern is a little big, and even with my tight gauge it still wound up too big for my little head. I really love the prettiness of the yarn, but hated binding off because it kept breaking. I really don’t want to rip this apart and start smaller with less stitches. I just hope I have a girlfriend with a large head! Knitting it was very easy, though, and just took me a couple hours. I’m going to make a couple others with smaller needles in different colors. I’m so glad I live somewhere that gets cold so I can wear pretty things to keep me warm!

Last week a bunch of us went to the local apple orchard with the kids. We paid ¥500 and were driven out on a little cart around the orchard, then were allowed to pick 3 Fuji apples.

It was really windy and dusty, but still a pretty day. It's a little expensive to buy apples this way, so I'll definitely be getting them from the market instead, but it was a nice experience. I'd like to take Ryan again when he's a bit older! I picked up some apple juice and apple cider, too, which is very yummy! I water down the juice a little bit and Ryan really enjoys it in a sippy cup.

I used one of the apples in some tuna salad earlier, then decided to use the other two today to make some applesauce before they go bad. I just cored and diced the apples with the skins still on, steamed them for about 20 minutes until they were mushy, added some cinnamon and nutmeg, and smoothed them in the food processor. What a yummy breakfast!