The 10 Month Giggle

Seriously, how can you not love this girl.  Between her high squeals and her low mischievous giggle it's just too much.  As our neighbor Ginny put it, we could just eat her up with a spoon.  

p.s. Amber will appreciate this,  but the only time the computer is available for me to use is when Chris is in the shower.  Otherwise he is using it to build Pasplore ALL DAY.  Hence the lack of posts and minimal text.

Esther's Great Love

Esther loves many things.  She loves people (especially babies), and bathing, teasing dad, going on walks outside, swinging at the park, and her mom.  But there is one thing she loves to the extent that it's an obsession.  That would be food.  

Some of the little ways Esther shows how she loves food:

• swinging legs back and forth in her high chair while waiting for food
• slapping hands on her tray while waiting for food
• using her many ways to communicate "I want food" : grunt, whimper, puppy whine, holler, shriek.
• pulling (hard) at mom's shirt to get at her favorite food (often in public spaces...which can be more than a little embarrassing)
• Once she finally gets food, she uses both fists to shove as much food in her mouth at a time
• she has an enormous mouth, which is fortunate for her because it allows her to fit more food in at one time.  And even if mom has to use a big spoon because all the baby spoons are dirty, Esther's gargantuan mouth can handle adult spoons with no trouble.  She still gets her food.
• Esther uses all her strength to push mom's hand away from the banana she is trying to slice.  Relentlessly. 
• Whimpering/grunting to mom if there is too much time between bites...strange for such a happy girl  
• Pounding her fists on the tray if she's eaten everything on it...signal for more food.
• Even if she has food, if Esther see's other (better) food on mom or dad's plate, she will make her displeasure known.
• Once she's finished dinner (finally) and is playing on the floor with her toys, she will abandon them to crawl to a crumb on the floor by her high chair.  Or, if mom and dad are having dinner, she'll climb up their legs and beg for a bite.  Like a puppy.
• She chases after the broom pile as mom sweeps up the food crumbs.  It's a race between mom getting the crumbs in the trash or Esther getting them in her mouth...yuck.  Thankfully mom usually wins.

Some of Esther's Favorite Foods:

• 1/3 of a spaghetti squash (not a small one)
• 2 whole waffles and 1 pear for breakfast
• Asian lentil and Vegetable stir fry...who knew babies go for garlic, ginger, and soy sauce
• Porridge: we rotate between Quinoa, millet, and oat groats...she loves them all
• anything baked or bread-like.  
• snacks: chick peas, french cut green beans, Jo's Os, dehydrated strawberries (also Trader Joe's), peas
• pears and avocados
• prunes  (her only baby food and it's out of necessity)

Let's just say there is a very good reason Esther started having to wear 12 month clothes at 8 months...and why they're snug on her before 10 months.  We love our happy girl!

Dropping out of school...here's why.

Have I mentioned that Chris dropped out of his PhD program?

Well he did.  He is now doing a startup business and our family is living off savings, rental income, and 10 darling piano students and the prognosis is that we have 14 months to get something off the ground before the money runs out.  So here we go!  (This is a longish post so if you're short on time, jump to the last paragraph for the highlights.)

So, about this business.  Chris had an idea come to his mind on July 1st while in the shower.  (I'm told the best ideas come while the shower.  Maybe I should shower more so I can have clever thoughts too.)  I digress.   His idea was a solution to the annoying problem  when working on a task online that requires searching multiple websites.   You know, those times when you have 15 browsers open and you're trying to keep track of everything on a post-it.  NOT HAPPY.  Well, we're working to develop a technology that simplifies your life with the help of Chris's amazing-computer-engineer-genius-brother-in-law Wes Dyer who just quit his job at Microsoft.  (His wife/Chris's sister Amber is a saint)

Initially, Chris was developing the business to make home search easier, less realtor dependent, and to lower transaction costs. The problem is, we don't have millions of dollars to spend on advertising and home buying can't exactly go viral because it's not something we do on a regular basis.  So, Chris and Wes changed gears to work on a task that many of us do very regularly:  EAT.  More specifically, find recipes, plan menus, and cook.  It's something we mothers do ALL THE TIME and let's face it, unless you want to cook the same 7 meals every week, it's takes a lot of research, planning, and work to create delicious & nutritious meals every day.  So here is a tool to make our lives VERY HAPPY.

Dying to know where you can find this amazing tool? It's PASPLORE and can be found at www.pasplore.com. We're still in the early stages, but if you check it out you'll find a great collection of Thanksgiving recipes from food bloggers.  If you sign up for the private beta, you'll be one of the first the menu planning tool that's under production. Oh, and since this is our source of livelihood, baby Esther will thank you if you tell your friends & follow us on Facebook.  Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving!


PASPLORE

First Piano Performance - 7 months

Happy at 8 months

Quick Update

-Our camera took a tumble and is no more.  Hence the lack of pictures.  I'm trying to figure out how to upload from our flipcam. . .
-Esther is almost 9 months old!  She is mostly delightfully happy, giggly, and playful, but she is also starting to exhibit some demanding tendencies.  Mainly when it comes to food.  She whines and is quite huffy if she feels I am feeding her too slowly (id not a continuous stream).
-Esther has 4 teeth, crawls, stands, waves, and claps.
-Our house had a big week.  Granite counters were installed Monday.  We retrofitted our old counters into the apartment kitchen.  Also, we put in a new Ikea Farmhouse sink that is not backwards (hooray!) and enormous.  I can wash a cookie sheet or high chair tray so much better because they actually fit inside the sink.  Love it!  We put in a glass tile back splash, and we* finally  installed a light in the main floor bathroom (no more lamp on the toilet), and put in a mirror and a better sink.  We* redid the bath walls in the apartment bathroom because there was some water damage and it was just nasty.  We keep telling ourselves we'll be done remodeling.  
*"We" in the Crittenden household is often used as a euphemism for "you."  As in, "honey, why don't WE make a delicious dessert tonight." So, when I write "we" it really means Chris was the workhorse while Esther and I did our best.  

-I was moved from Beehives adviser to YW Secretary...probably because I am so meticulous and organized. Ahem. Either way, the young women at church are great and it's fun to work with them.
-Stake conference was last week and Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy and his wife Kathy visited. It was marvelous!  After living away from Utah/BYU for so long it's been a while since I've heard a GA speak in person. They were so relaxed, unpretentious, and inspiring.  Elder Jensen is the church Historian and he spoke about the significance of context.  Initially I thought it was an odd choice: context?  But he talked, in short, about the importance of knowing as much as we can about the past and future so that we can be more successful in dealing with the present.  The scriptures, temples, and prophets are all tools to give us that context.  Chris and I left feeling more motivated to be in the temple and to listen to the prophets. We also came away loving Elder and Sister Jensen and the positive energy they shared with us.

Lonni's visit

Lonni (cousin) and  JoAnne (ward)

While Chris was spending two weeks in Seattle starting a new business (aah!) I was lucky enough to get an unexpected visit from my amazing cousin Lonni Leavitt-Barker.  She used to be a reporter in Raleigh and came back for a reunion of sorts.  At the time, her roommate  was JoAnn Goodwyn who is now a church friend of mine.  Small world!

Thanks for the visit Lonni!

Thanks to the Goodwyns for a yummy dinner!

Women's Day

My stake (church group) has an annual "Women's Day" where all the ladies get together for classes that are educational and/or inspirational and then have a yummy lunch together.  It's a great tradition (especially for those who live to far away for BYU's Women's Conference) and this year's was a hit.

 I went to a parenting class was called "Strategic Parenting" and was based heavily on a book call The Parenting Breakthrough. It was all about preparing your children for adulthood and having set objectives for what each child should be capable of at a certain age.  It was a great class, but my favorite part of Women's Day was learning how to do flood icing on sugar cookies.   I don't know why, but I have this obsession with sugar cookies.  Even though I don't like how they taste, I LOVE making and decorating them but I'm usually too ashamed to give out my messy creations.  Still, I've been hauling around a giant jar of cookie cutters (half of which have never been used) thinking I'll someday know how to make the darling Martha Stewart-esque cookies.  Well friends, that day has arrived.

And a closer look: 

Flood cookies are great. They're darling but don't require much artistic abilities.  Such a shame these were thrown in the trash.  Chris can't eat them, I don't like them, and you can't give away Christmas cookies in September.

Retreat!

A couple of months ago Chris got an unexpected email inviting us on an all expenses paid retreat with the consulting firm he used to work for.  Apparently it's a recruiting tactic to get people to return once they finish school.   I'd heard so much about the famous "McKinsey Retreats" but had never been to one.  Needles to say, we accepted the invite.

So last weekend we flew to Phoenix to leave Esther with her wonderful grandmother and we went to Cancun. (Esther was happy but I was a teary mess).

The retreat was at the Fairmont Mayakoba which was about an hour south of Cancun...and was AMAZING! It was 45 acres and definitely the nicest beach resort I have ever seen. One of my favorite parts was riding the (BMW) bikes around, sipping virgin pina coladas, and as much guacamole as I could eat.  We got to choose one activity per day.  We chose to go zip-lining (way fun!) and a visit to the spa for a massage.  Let me just say Chris and I agreed that a eucalyptus steam room needs to become a regular part of our family.

The McKinsey Retreat lived up to my expectations.  It's only downside was that it was a McKinsey Retreat...so Chris had to go the professional development meetings for the first half of the day.   We decided we would have return later on our own.  Nonetheless, we had a lovely time.

Mayakoba =Marvelous

This place was enormous. You had to take bikes, a golf cart, or a boat to get around.

Someday we'll figure out how to get both our heads in the same picture.