jessliotta's Profile

We didn't do an announcement, though if that's your thing sure, why not.

We're the first in our generation in a big family to have a kid (a few years ago). We made our family complete a puzzle at Thanksgiving. A long message all cut up into bits and distributed to everyone in pieces that they had work together to put together in order. It said something long and syrupy about how much we love them and how happy we are to be together on this holiday etc etc blah blah blah. Then, once they'd pieced together the puzzle, we told them, great! Except there was a META puzzle and they weren't done yet. Eventually they all figured out that some of the letters didn't overlap when they pieced it all together. If you wrote out the non-overlapping letters it spelled out

OMGSURPRISEBABYLOL

...because we are by far the biggest nerds on the planet.

Anyway that's how you do a baby announcement IMHO :D

Once I had fresh small farmers market carrots, I was totally turned off of insipid grocery store options. SO much better! I tend to cover them in (quality) lard and salt and roast them until golden brown and delicious. Oil poaching is similarly tasty.

We have had our soapstone for about 3 months and looove it. Our house is a 105 year old craftsman and the soft scratches and patina it is already slowly developing actually fit right in. Oiling isn't too much of a pain, and I am very pleased we can set hot pans or pots on it without worry.

I use those exact same jars and drawer configuration - it's great! I have little labels printed from my label maker on top, and I keep them alphabetized. Backstock of oddball things get kept in the pantry (like my ridiculous salt collection for example).

The tins I use I picked up in various places - some at world market years ago, and The Container Store currently has packs of 3 for $5.99: http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10011223

But, are you at all interested in garden/outdoor space overhaul stories? Because we are obviously mentally unbalanced, we are thinking of undertaking a major landscape architect guided redo of the yard next...

Just came back hoping an answer to the cabinet hardware question had been posted - alas, nothing. Please? :)

We just ordered this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005GSZB9Q/), which allegedly fits a dinner plate. Reheating leftovers is all we ever do with a microwave so it seemed sufficient. No idea how it works yet of course, since it hasn't arrived.

We co-slept until 6 months, and then moved to a floor bed. Our son is now 22 months and still in it.

I wanted co-sleeping to work so hard. But I found that our particular child slept much, MUCH more soundly when he's in his own room away from us. It was a humbling lesson in paying attention to your child's cues and following them, even if you have an ideology that states "such and such Method is Better." We went from 4-6 wake-ups per night to 1 instantly upon the change. And sleeping in much later in the morning, too. It was AWESOME. But I think part of that was also him being ready for it - we paid attention, and moved him at the right time for him.

My technique during that time was side-laying nursing to sleep. It was great, because I could nurse him down then get up and leave when he was out. Ditto for the midnight nursing session.

We got an ikea mattress and put a rug next to it. He scooted off a bunch during the month he was perfecting crawling, but quite honestly it didn't seem to bother him to end up sleeping on the floor so we couldn't fathom why we should let it bother us. :) After that period of intense movement development it stopped and he hasn't rolled off once since.

The independence and freedom of movement is spectacular. He's totally cool to chill out in his room in the morning until we're awake enough to go get him, and likewise after naps. I really can't say enough good things about floor beds!

I think your site just took over my whole browser window with a giant ad and started playing music automatically. Most uncool. :( Pop up ads, ok, necessary evil I can accept. Auto-playing video and music? Nope.

Gravensteins all the way! For the short window we have 'em, at least.