So, on New Year's Day I took River to Ikea, where they were promoting free kid's meals in their (already cheap) little restaurant. Then I let him play with their demo toys, then test the hinges in several of the "rooms" they have set-up. The upstairs at Ikea, on a non-crowded day, is actually pretty cool for a well-supervised toddler. Everything is bolted down well for safety, and the doors, drawers and cabinets are *meant* to be opened and closed over and over again.

If it's crowded, however, it's pure hell trying to keep up with him as he dives through foot traffic.

Picked up a rug for my bathroom (so he won't slip on the towels I'd been using) and a tiny ironing board (so I can iron my interview clothes, should I ever get one of those again). Looove Ikea. I have my eye on at least two pieces of furniture that are on my "to buy when I finally get a job" list that will make our lives more organized/ baby-proofed. But for now, I can only content myself with the stuff that's $5 and under.

When we got home, I tried to nap, given that I'd been up until 2:30 am the night before, but alas I had DAYTIME insomnia, which is just unfair. Had insomnia Friday night, too, so I napped as soon as Tim got up on Saturday morning. Woke to bad headache, which was finally put to rest by sinus meds. Bah! I hate being stealth sick.

I spent two hours last night cooking a sweet potato, raisin and cranberry strudel, diligently following a recipe in my new Savory Baking cookbook. The filling was yummy (I tested it before I rolled up the strudel) and it looked AMAZING when it came out of the oven. Alas, the recipe had called for WAY too much salt, and it was too salty even for me (and I'm from the midwest and like a lot of salt on everything). I choked my serving down, because, dammit, I'd spent two hours in the kitchen and it LOOKED so GOOD. Tim took one bite and pushed his plate away. Fucking recipe. This is the second recipe I've tried from this cookbook that is too salty. I guess if I ever dare try another recipe, I'll just ignore the salt and add it when we eat it, but I'm still pissed off to have wasted so much time and food.

I also did a half an hour on the Wii Fit. Their new Kung Fu exercise is adorable and fun and made me smile, even though it's hardly anything like doing real kung fu. Still, the 10 minutes I did of it (it's a 2-min exercise I did 5 times) left me with really sore arms today. As in, ow ow ow I can't pick up that coffee cup because it's soooo heavy. And I lift weights regularly! I am filled with respect for my friends who do actual martial arts.

I've been diligently keeping track of what I eat and how much exercise I do in my little Lose it! app. It's very handy; it does all the math for me and makes it simple to look up how many calories or how much fat/ fiber/ protein something has in it before (or after) I eat it. Today we went to brunch and, after a few minutes, I could make a conscious decision to go ahead and have the Crab Cake Benedict, even though it's almost half my calories for the day. That's the nice thing about brunch -- it's both breakfast and lunch, so it's not unreasonable to spend a lot of calories there. But, just to keep it balanced, I ran part of the way there (the rest of the way I walked w/ Tim and River) and we're having salad for dinner. This is what I mean about not being stupid about what I eat -- by keeping track, I know I have to go lighter tonight and/or do some exercise.

Now I should stop dilly dallying and go work on my novel. Just as soon as the kid stops fussing and falls asleep for his nap...

River in the Ikea bathroom:



Two pictures from today:

With Daddy at brunch:


At the playground: