Cheeze Whiz and Mustard

I take my beets pickled

S. — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:27:58 +0000

I am now sporting a hot new number: an ambulatory blood pressure monitor. I get to wear the big cuff, with cord sticking out, and wear the battery-control pack around my waist (or neck, like a camera in the old touristy days) for the next 24 hours. I am glad that we are going to get to the bottom of this blood pressure business, but I was not anticipating this thing to be so BIG. (That’s what she said.)

So I guess we shall see how much my blood pressure fluctuates throughout the day and then my dr will decide what to do from here. He laughed when I told him that I ate a pile of beets last night and that it actually brought down my blood pressure this morning. But then he added “Beets are good for you anyway.” I did not mention that they were pickled beets. Not sure if that is cheating, but they are SO GOOD that way! And hey, my bp went from 142/104 to 122/77 overnight. So whatever. I take my beets pickled.

BEETS!

S. — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:09:50 +0000

I need me some beets. I read on some internet-wacko site that beet juice has been shown to reduce blood pressure, enough so that 250 mL of beet juice gave the same effect as prescription medication. So last night, I ate a serving of pickled beets (right out of the jar, no plate required) and this morning TA-DA! 122/77!

Of course, last night it was still 142/104, so I assume the beets had not entered my system quite yet.

I am sure the effects of the purple plant are temporary, though, so I gotta raid my mom’s pantry for all her pickled beets. And make some of my own!

Hypertension

S. — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:14:26 +0000

My blood pressure is high. Again. It was high when I was pregnant with the twins. After the miscarriage, my blood pressure went back to normal within a couple of weeks (this was verified by my doctor). And now, at 15 weeks, it is back up there.

In the last week, I had a wicked headache, if you remember from my last post. I had not really thought much about it until Tony asked if I had checked my blood pressure lately. I had not, so I went in to his pharmacy and checked it at one of those machines. It read 138/88. Not hypertensive, by definition, but still higher than the 119/78 I had when I was not pregnant. Since then, I have had 3 more headaches, and am now monitoring my blood pressure at home. My doctor wants to see me in a couple of days regarding this, because obviously this is an issue with pregnancy and me.

Anyone wanting to send prayers and good karma my way is more than welcome to.

Happy Birthday Sacha!

S. — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:54:55 +0000

My first-born is now a 4-year old.

I had a horrific migraine last night, but I really wanted to finish the knit T-Rex hand puppet that I was making for him. All I had left to do was sew on the eyes. So I did it, placed it in a little bag, and hung it from his doorknob.

This morning, he ran into my room with a big smile on his face: “It’s my birthday today!”

I told him to go look on his door. He came back with his puppet and gave me a big hug, saying, in a way only a sweet 4-year old boy can, “Thank you for making this for me, Mommy. I love you SO much!”

I love you, too, Sacha.

Smells like sweet pickles

S. — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:48:16 +0000

Tony is upstairs making batches and batches of pickles, and while I enjoy the smell of brine as much as the next gal, I am retreating to my blog (hello? Anyone still out there? No? Aw, bad bloggy Sarah neglecting her blog for so long).

Things that are happening right now:

I am nearly 14 weeks pregnant. Yippee! Hurrah!
There is only one jelly-bean fetus in there, as confirmed by two separate ultrasounds.
I have been having a pretty good pregnancy. Not too much nausea, some fatigue, which seems to come in spurts. My appetite is insane, and I am having a passionate love affair with 11:00 pm snacks, including, but not limited to, bologna and kraft singles sandwiches, two things I normally do not keep in the house.
Kees has discovered that he is a 2-year old, and should act accordingly. Most of the time, he is still a good little boy. Other times, however, I just want to put him in his room, close the door, and wait for him to turn 18.
Kees speaks in sentences now. He is a truly bilingual child, and when he doesn’t quite know the right word, he just adds “ee-nay” (or for you francophones, “-iner” to the end of words he does know. This is how we get sentences like: “Kees bonkiner pied again.” What does this mean? Kees bonked his foot again. See, he does not know how to say bonk in French, but surely, since all French words end in -iner, adding that sound to the word bonk MUST be right!
Sacha is freaking smart. The other day, he came up to me and said “Mommy, I have a hypothesis.” I asked him what his hypothesis was, and he replied “My shovel looks like a grader shovel, so it should pick up rocks.” When I asked him what the word hypothesis means, he said “a hypothesis is a word that you can test out.” Not bad for a 3-year old!
Sacha still relies on Daddy to go to sleep and stay asleep at night. Not too sure how we are going to get over this hump (again). We had him broken of this habit, but then we were on holidays, and sharing beds in hotels, and now we are back to square one. The only issue now is that we have to get him sleeping alone because Kees is getting ready to move out of his crib into a twin bed. And where is this twin bed? On the bottom of the bunk bed that Sacha currently sleeps on. Kees sleeps all night. Sacha does not. Sacha needs to start sleeping all night so he can move to the top bunk and Kees on the bottom. This must be accomplished well before the baby comes (I am due at the end of Feb) because baby will be taking over Kees’s room. All part in parcel with having a 3 bedroom house and 3 kids. I have thought of putting baby with Kees, but that would involve buying another twin bed…LeSigh.
Tony is learning the art of home preserving. He is currently making pickles, sweet pickles, and has already made pickled beets. I, on the other hand, have made about 50 jars (those little 1-cup jars) of various jams and jellies. Oh, and I waded into pressure canning territory and canned 7 quarts of spaghetti sauce. Now, I am taking a bit of a break from canning until the tomatoes are ready and Operation Salsa kicks into effect. I made roughly 30 pints of salsa last august, and I only have 3 left. Salsa is a vital condiment in our house.
Sacha is turning 4 this week, and I have promised him a dinosaur party complete with dinosaur cake. This will be a feat if I can pull it off…cake decor is NOT my forte.
We are T-17 days from our New Brunswick trip! Just Tony and I. No kids. For 6 whole days. I am really excited to go, nervous about leaving Sacha (Kees will be fine) and so pumped to see my friend Lynn! I searched online today to see if I can bring my knitting needles on the plane, and I totally can. YES!! I cannot sleep on planes, so I may as well make socks!
I am rewatching the entire LOST series. In bed before I go to sleep. I know, I am a nerd. It really is better the second time around knowing how it all wraps up. And yes, there WAS foreshadowing even in the first season.
I am in need of a good read. Suggestions in the comments are appreciated!

Over and out, bitches.

Miss-Gedo

S. — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:40:33 +0000

Kees is a very chatty two-year-old. He talks himself to sleep, he talks to himself in the morning, usually just rattling off all the people he knows: Mommy, Daddy, Sachy, Vayvay (Memere), Gedo, Jake, Élise, Minou minou (his stuffed sheep). Kees is functionally bilingual, as he translates almost everything he says, for example, if his food is hot, he will say “Chaud! Hot!” If he wants to go to the river to look for jet boats, he says “Boat! Bateau!” He speaks in minimal 3-word phrases, often with a verb and a predicate. Or a verb and a subject. Or a subject and a sound effect: “Truck CWASHSHSHS!” I also am starting to see the cleverness behind his babble, and have realized that he is not my innocent baby anymore; he has a brain, and is very adept at using it for humour.

The other day, the boys were playing in the garage, Sacha on his bike, Kees pushing his dump trucks around (and crashing them into me and Sacha). Suddenly, Sacha looked up and pointed: “Oh NO! A mosquito!”

Kees looked up with hope: “Gedo? Gedo?”

“No Kees, not Gedo. Mosquito. Mosquito,” I repeated, laughing to myself at his interpretation of the word.

“Miss-Gedo?” Kees said with a giggle, while Sacha and I howled with laughter at Kees’s verbal antics. Seeing that we were amused, Kees continued:

“Miss-Gedo! Miss-Vayvay! Miss-Vayvay!”

Oh, that Kees-man. A play on words and he doesn’t even know it yet.

Kees

Overconfidence in knitting speed makes mommies stupid

S. — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:11:10 +0000

My 3-year old loves anglerfish. That was my main motivation in buying Hansi Singh’s Amigurmi: the anglerfish pattern.
I went through my stash and chose colours that would work together and please the 3-year old dictator, and then started up. I literally had cast on 8 stitches when Sacha looked at me and said: “Is it done yet?”
So by day 2, I had the body done and it was stuffed. Sacha really wanted me to finish it, but alas, I have to take care of my other child, 2-year old Kees. So I promised him that as soon as Kees went to bed, I would start working on his anglerfish and finish it, then put it in his bed so that he would see it first thing when he awoke in the morning.
By 12:30 am, after 4 hours of knitting damn fins and such, the anglerfish still had no teeth or eyes, but I was so tired that I said screw it. I put it in Sacha’s bed as it was. I went to bed and hoping to regain feeling in my arms by morning.
At 5:00 am, I heard him call out: “Mommy! Mommy!”

I stumbled to his room, tired, but excited, thinking he was going to thank me. All he said was: “Mommy, you forgot to put on his teeth!” I rolled into his bed and went back to sleep. Two minutes later, he told me to go back to my bed. BAH!

I drank about 5 coffees when I woke up and finished the eyes and teeth by 9:00 am that morning.

Sacha christened him Spike.