Tag Archives: baby

Sunday Night Dinners

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Sunday has become my night to cook. The husband has asked for at least a day off from cooking and at last I’ve gotten into the rhythm of a Sunday night meal. It gives us an opportunity to get out of the same-old routine. It also helps that I started the South Beach Diet approximately 2 weeks ago, so I’m all about looking for menus that have no grains, breads, sugars, etc as part of the meal.

Last week it was white bean turkey chili. Really tasty though I overdid it with the cinnamon and cocoa powder (was surprised that the recipe called for both, but they contributed to the flavor in great ways.)

white bean turkey chili via chattycha on flickr

Leftovers lasted for the next couple of days at work, which as also nice.

Tonight it was a great vegetable frittata that turned out really well. Smooth plating, set really well. A great alternative to our usual quiche and very SBD friendly. Best part of it was watching Lily eat it with one hand, like it was a candy bar (mmmm….candy bar)

Anyway, started up on SB because I’ve had these nagging last few pounds to lose since the baby. And yes, the “baby” is a toddler. She’s two. I’ve resisted going on SB because I really love bread and I really really really love sweets. I think in February I overdid it, though. What with the Valentine’s Day candy and the sweets at the office becoming a norm and not a special treat; and discovering caramel syrup in my lattes… definitely overboard. So on one Thursday (Feb 24 to be exact), I decided to take the plunge. On Saturday I headed to SB-land. On the Friday in between I got the email from my sis that my delivery of Girl Scout Cookies were in the mail. Argh!

I haven’t had a cookie yet, though a box of Samoas await me in the freezer. I’ve watched the husband and the daughter make their way through a box of Tagalongs and Thin Mints. I salivate at the thought. But when the time is right I’ll have my cookie and eat it, too. For now, I have to be honest. I get true enjoyment from watching the toddler have a cookie. (or as she sometimes calles it “kee-coo”. can’t get those syllables right all the time).

toddler has her first girl scout cookie via chattycha on flickr

BTW, in Phase 1 of SB I lost those last stubborn pounds and then some. On to Phase 2!

Lily’s Birthday Cupcakes

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She turned 2 so quickly. My is time flying. I took the day off work and we had a wonderful day together as a family. Breakfast at Sunflour Cafe. A trip to the zoo, where the weather was kind and the animals were out.

happy birthday gorilla via chattycha on flickr

A nice long nap, followed by dinner and of course the obligatory cupcakes. I am including a pic of the cupcake without frosting, as the end result was kind of unimpressive.

mini cupcakes for mini me via chattycha on flickr

Remind me not to use that icing again.

Lily’s First Words

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I wanted to write these down, lest I forget. Her first word, in my mind, was “shoe”. Still one of my favorites.

A rundown of Lily’s vocabulary:

  • Hi (said softly, “Hi-eeeee)
  • Shoe
  • Balloon
  • Zoo
  • Mama
  • Dada
  • Happy (anything that is good)
  • No (said, loudly, no-no-no-no)
  • Ball
  • Eye
  • Nose (said, no)
  • Cheese
  • Cheerio
  • Apple (app-um)
  • Banana (nana)
  • Bye-bye
  • Night-night

In the words of Marvin Gaye, What’s going on?

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Wow. I sure do spend a lot of money to host a blog that I never update. Life has been busy as of late. In February I started in a new position at the firm, and suddenly life went berserk, but in a good way. Here are some highlights.

1) I had to quit Daring Bakers because I was getting too stressed out with all the fancy baking. You can still visit their challenges monthly, and in fact you should because there are amazing bakers over there.

2) I discovered a new genre of fiction … urban fantasy. Yes, I’ve always been late to the game and this is no different. Trying to catch up on the werewolves/vampires/shapeshifter/fae fiction out there. And there is a lot of it.

3) Along those lines, the family visited beautiful Forks, Wash. It was C-R-A-Z-Y. Here is a taste.

4) I got a Kindle for my birthday. YES!

5) I’ve been spending my free time (after work and feeding the baby and playing with the baby and putting the baby to bed) reading. Or maybe working. But not blogging.

6) Baby is AWESOME.

7) What else do you want to know? I will try to come back and visit soon.

XOXO

You say it’s your birthday!

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While L’s actual birthday was last week, I will never forget that my water broke the night of the AFC/NFC Championship games, which happened to be tonight. Haven’t decided who I’ll be rooting for in the Super Bowl, but I will try to remind the husband that I called these two teams as meeting in the Super Bowl back around week 5 or so. Seriously. No, really. I did. Maybe it wasn’t too difficult a call to make considering both teams were so frikkin hot, but I did and that’s what’s important. But, I digress.

Due to scheduling, we did a little celebratin’ yesterday, when Grandma was in town. Sheva, a gal I know from work who does photography on the side, came over and took pics of the family. I made cupcakes for the little girl. I made it easy on myself by purchasing Dr. Oetker brand organic cake and icing mix (chocolate/chocolate, as requested by the husband), then just whipped up a little bit of icing to decorate. Used some handy decorating tools that the MIL gave me for Christmas. Thus the fancy-schmancy leaf tips and star tips and somewhat neat handwriting using the round tip. Thanks, Grandma, for playing with the little monkey while I baked and frosted.

happy birthday

Happy Birthday, little monkey!

Then and Now

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I was swinging by some old posts and I caught this one, where I detailed out how we rearranged the furniture in our living space. And I saw the pic I took of our living room and giggled. Here is the pic:

THEN

THEN

And here is what that space looks like now.

NOW

NOW

Yes, that’s a baby in the middle of all the hubbub. And that is Max creeping up on the lower right hand corner. We’ve overtaken his previous blankie spot. Now he slumps against the door to snooze. He doesn’t understand why SHE has so many blankies all over the house and he’s just got the one upstairs now.

Too much stuff. And it keeps growing every day. Yikes.

Banana, Green Lake and one cute kid

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Banana - All gone

Banana - All gone

I’m not updating like I used to, and I apologize. The two things I enjoyed writing about most, food and fitness, have both taken a trip to the backburners as baby L has taken priority. So, I could write about her food and fitness. Food: Loves pears, banana with rice cereal, avocado, sweet potato and yam. Couldn’t care less about peas and carrots. She’s now enjoying two solid meals a day, in between her liquid lunches and dinner. She definitely has a sweet tooth. Gets that from her mom.

We are slowly introducing new flavors, too. I’ve tried a little yogurt, and a little tofu. The yogurt I think will be okay. The tofu on the other hand … not so much. I’m excited to try a litle spice as well. So far it’s been steam and puree, steam and puree. More than once, while baking then pureeing the sweet potato I’ve been tempted to drizzle a little olive oil and then season with salt and pepper. I mean, that’s how I enjoy a sweet potato. Alas, I remember it’s for her. Maybe some seasoning like that a little bit later on. Right now I just want her to take it.

And she does. Little girl loves to eat!

As for her fitness, she takes daily walks with her dad. They are nice, long five- or six-mile walks. Which is great … for Dad. I take her on run/walks around Green Lake. Also good, except that a couple of weeks ago I tripped and found myself splayed out on the walking path. Major road rash on both knees and my left hand, still now scabbing up. The girl, safely strapped into the megatron that is our jogging stroller, came out unscathed. But the ordeal has slowed my step a bit. Today’s walk around the lake was just a walk, no run. Which is disappointing, because for the first time in a real long time, I was actually enjoying the run. Not only was I getting great benefit out of it, but with Lily in the jogging stroller it was something fitnessy that I could do with the babe. The days of hanging out at the gym a few times a week, on top of morning practice three times a week are a fading memory. The husband takes care of the babe most of the week while I’m at work and the last thing I want to do is a) tell him to watch over her for a little bit longer because I’m heading to the gym and b) spend that much more time away from the babe that I haven’t seen more than a few hours a day. This depresses me a little bit.

So how pleased was I when I picked up running (slowly, with walking in between, but still I was running) again and it felt … good. While I feel no problems about running by myself, the thought of running with the girl in a stroller kind of freaks me out. My twisted ankle is still a little tender, so I suppose I have a little more time to get over that fear. However, it’s harder to do when I hear people say, after the debacle, “Well, I guess we won’t be doing that again, now will we.” Why not? If I didn’t get back on my bike after falling the first time, wouldn’t that have been ridiculous? Yes.

Moving on. Fitness for the girl includes bobbing up and down in a sitting position, some air drum, and general running in place when we hold her in the air. She also does her own form of yoga. Cobra! Downward-facing dog. She loves all that. Gets exhausted by giggling tons, too.

getting a workout in the exersaucer

her michael jordan look as she gets a workout in the exersaucer

Sigh. So cute. I’ve become that person who does nothing but talk about the kid. Get over it.

First foods

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Hey it’s been a long while since I posted. I’m back here to talk about food. But not my food. Lily’s food. She turned 6 months this week and we celebrated by giving her her first taste of banana. Yum. It was an incredibly proud moment for us parents. I mashed up some banana and mixed it with breast milk, until it was the consistency of half-and-half or cream. Maybe a little thicker. First I dunked my finger and and let her suck on it. She wasn’t really into it so instead I tried one of those little baby spoons. Boy, she was all over that! She had been watching us eat for weeks now, and every now and then I would give her that same spoon to sort of play with. I’d pretend I was giving her something to eat so that she would put the spoon in her mouth. So yesterday, when the time was right, she knew just what to do.

Atta girl!

Atta girl!

So so proud. We decided to try banana as a first food rather than the standard rice cereal that every doctor mentions. We went to a First Foods class that recommended this. In fact, we learned in class that if Mom (that’s me) eats the same food every day for 14 days, that the food will be come a familiar taste to the baby. Well, it just so happens that I eat a banana nearly every day. So, why not go for it? Bananas are chock full of nutrients and are filling. And they are tasty, to boot.

What foods are up next? How about avocado? Sweet potato? Or something in season, maybe peaches, nectarines … What do you suggest?

Here are some resources, if you’d like to learn more about first foods: