17 Months

What a month it has been!

G and I have been pretty sick this month, still recovering from ear infections and sinus infections with bronchitis (that one was me). When James was out of town Valentine's Day weekend, I somehow caught a nasty stomach bug and couldn't even keep water down. Luckily, my mother in law drove out to take care of me and G. He got to stay up until he pretty much collapsed at 11 because I was stuck over the sink in the kitchen and could barely bring myself to move. Lots of gatorade and saltines, and by the end of the weekend I was feeling better. I am forever grateful to Beth because I was in really bad shape, and James was at least 7 hours away. I'm also grateful because I'm sure that her taking care of him the next day and cleaning everything and doing laundry kept anyone else from catching the nasty bug.

James was out of town at the diocesan convention the next weekend too, and I was able to join him for the gala on Friday night. We have a fantastic baby sitter, who G was so happy to see, and I had a blast not being mommy for a night. Socializing with adults is so much fun! [I think I need to get out of the house more, huh?]

We had some friends over for dinner, and enjoyed good food and even better company. We spent three hours waiting to register G for a new daycare. I think it'll be really good for him. He's been biting a lot lately, mostly when his toys are taken or another kid is hovering, but it's been a bit of a difficulty, because one of the teachers isn't willing to discipline him at all; not even removing him from the situation, because he won't stay in time out. I tried to explain that even 30 seconds will help him understand that there's a consequence. He's been bitten a few times too and another kid pushed him, causing him to trip and split his lip. Nothing major, and he didn't even cry. His teacher was impressed that he could hold the ice pack to his lip himself though.I think the new program will be better; it'll be shorter and less days. On the bright side, he's stopped crying when I drop him off.

We announced that we're expecting a sibling for G in late September! It's been exciting, and James and I got to hear the heartbeat at the last doctor's appointment at the beginning of March. We can't wait to see how G does as a big brother. (More on this in separate posts). I do have to share one story. We've been telling G that he'll be a big brother and that mommy has a baby in her tummy. One night, he came up to me, patted my stomach and said "bah-bee!" This continued for about 10 minutes. It was adorable.

Challenges: Tantrums (the car is the worst), lack of weight gain, biting starting up again. We bought a potty seat for the toilet and he screamed when we put him on it. Any tips?
Triumphs: He loves to bring us books to read him. He might not make it all the way through a page, but he likes to sit on our lap and help turn the pages. My favourite time of day!
Words: "mama," "daddy," "beebee" (no idea), "bah-bee" (baby?), "boo" (book)
Favourite toys: A stuffed dog that sings, has ears that move up and down and is soft, a late Christmas present from his great aunt. We've culled the toys in the living room a bit, so he doesn't have the same crazy amount. We'll switch them up every couple weeks.

This is our every day level of energy

The flash on the camera made him smile and laugh

Recipe Review

This will just be a quick review of some of the new recipes we've tried lately. We had great success with the Irish stew and bread of the last post, but the other new recipes need some modification. I'm withholding judgment until I can try the modifications I have in mind. If you try any of the recipes, please let me know how it went, and whether you tried with or without modifications!

The first recipe we tried was the artichoke tomato pasta, which can be found on Better Homes & Gardens website here. It ended up being a very liquid-y sauce, falling past the pasta to the bottom. We used fettuccine, and I had to use white onion instead of sweet onion since I forgot to pick up a sweet onion at the store. The first instruction says to mix Parmesan cheese and the reserved pasta water into the drained pasta; this made a horrible mess and didn't work at all, so I would definitely skip this step and just sprinkle the cheese on top before serving. I think if you use a 14.5 ox can of pureed tomatoes/tomato sauce and a 14.5 oz can of drained diced tomatoes instead of the crushed/diced tomatoes, it would make a thicker sauce that better coats the pasta, but still give you the tomato chunks of the original. The flavour was really good though, and even James, who doesn't like artichokes much, agreed it was a good recipe, though the limp sauce was a bit of a let-down. I can't wait to try the modifications.

Next up is a recipe from an advertisement for McCormick spices. You can find it online here (their website has a neat tool where you can adjust the serving size and it'll edit the recipe!! So cool!) This one had a lot of potential, but despite all the seasonings, it just ended up kind of bland. I think if you added salt and pepper to the flour mixture (or directly to the chicken prior to flouring) and to the sauce, it would end up much more flavourful. We didn't use the brand names, sticking with what we had at home and getting rosemary from an off-brand at the store for much less than McCormick's. I also only use Swanson's reduced sodium chicken broth. I've tried a few different chicken broths, and the flavour just isn't right to me, so I stick with what I know works. We ended up with a large sauce to chicken ratio, and I think we should've used a few more chicken tenders, but you could also always chop up the chicken and add it as an ingredient of the sauce over the pasta. If you can kick up the flavour a bit, this would be a great dish; as it is it's just a bit bland. If the salt and pepper doesn't work, I'm binning the recipe.

A few nights ago we tried grilled chicken with lemon-cucumber relish. This is another Better Homes & Gardens recipe, here, which my mom gave me a subscription to. We've found some great recipes through it, and I always look forward to flipping through it (it's also where I found the paint colours on our walls). There were a few thing about this recipe. The first was user error. I mixed together the relish and yogurt sauce because pregnancy brain. It still ended up ok, but in my attempt to make it more like the picture (before realizing my mistake) it ended up a bit thinner than expected. However, it still worked out fine, though next time I'll mix them separately and properly. I left out the lemon peel since I just use RealLemon for juice. I would also season the chicken differently. I'm not a huge fan of the cumin flavour, which is really prevalent in this recipe. It's ok, but definitely not to my or James' tastes. James pointed out that the chicken could really be quite versatile in this recipe, from plain grilling to lemon-pepper topped (<--this one!!) I definitely think if you season the chicken differently and properly mix the toppings, this would be a phenomenal dish. 

We made the side dish or sweet potato wedges. I've had this recipe for ages; my mom clipped it from the newspaper and sent it to me years ago (seriously, the newspaper is yellow). I found the same recipe here on Martha Stewart's website. These were FANTASTIC!!! Why did I wait so long to make these? James thinks I exaggerate, but he's never been pregnant, so he doesn't understand satisfying a craving you didn't even know you had. I think I hate 3/4 of them, only stopping when I was so full I physically couldn't take another bite; there were two half wedges left out of 32. I mixed the potatoes and seasonings in a gallon sized ziploc bag, shaking it until well-coated. I cooked them for the full 20 minutes and they were so soft, but still sturdy enough to dip (ranch, a tiny bit). So so so so so good. 

St. Patrick's Day Menu

I love having dinner guests. I love cooking for other people. I might go a little crazy sometimes; my first Thanksgiving had a giant turkey and probably 6 or 7 sides, plus 2 desserts. When we knew we were having dinner guests, I decided to try some of the recipes from my to-try binder. I just realized it would make the perfect St. Patrick's Day menu.

The stew recipe I used can be found on Irish American Mom, an Irish woman living in Kentucky, who shares Irish recipes using American ingredients. I had a little bit of trouble with some of the ingredients: frozen pearl onions and bittersweet chocolate chips aren't easy to find here (the clerk tried to tell me semi-sweet was the same thing.) But eventually, I found all the ingredients. I won't go through the whole recipe here since she has a really thorough tutorial with photos. I'll just tell you some of the differences:

• I took the instruction to julienne the parsnips to heart, so mine ended up as shoestrings. Still good though
• I would cut the potatoes smaller to ensure that they soften enough
• Instead of using a bowl/plate to dredge the beef, I put the flour, salt and pepper into a gallon size ziploc bag, added the beef and shook to coat it
• Between no prep the night before, dropping G off daycare and an emergency run to buy a larger crock pot, I had barely 6 hours to cook the stew instead of twelve. It was on high for 3 hours, then low for 2, then high again for the rest of the time
• I had a slight panic attack because the stew tasted off when I tried it after combining all the ingredients. I was sure I had doomed our guests to an inedible meal and emergency delivery pizza. Luckily, by the time it had cooked, the flavours were rich and perfect. 
• I don't like the taste of Guinness, but it was great in the stew. I used the extra stout bottle. Don't bother measuring out 1.25 C, just dump in the bottle; the head makes it impossible to measure.

I would highly recommend this recipe and will definitely make it again. The beef was fork tender, the veggies were soft and it was nice and filling. The leftovers are freezable and even the weather cooperated: nothing like a rainy night for warm stew.

As some of you know, I'm horrible at making sides, but what goes better with stew than bread? Since returning to the States, I've missed Irish bread so much, and this seemed a good opportunity to finally get over my hesitation and bake my first loaf of bread! Irish American Mom has a recipe for brown bread, but I didn't want to have to buy whole wheat flour, pastry flour, wheat germ, etc, so I searched for a soda bread recipe and found one from a Southern food website, of all places. But it used all purpose flour, and I had everything but the buttermilk and cream of tartar. You guys, this was SO easy! Why have I never made bread before?? It took half an hour to prep, less than an hour to cook and made the house smell delicious, as well as tasting delicious. The recipe is pretty self explanatory. The only thing I'd recommend is after melting the butter, stick it in the fridge, mix in the buttermilk first, then mix in the butter, otherwise you'll end up with little clumps of flour that don't incorporate. This happened to the first batch of dough I made and it was horrible, but the second batch was perfect. It was soft on the inside, crusty on the outside, warm and tasty. It also had the added benefit of making the house smell great. It's not sandwich bread, but it is delicious and the perfect accompaniment to the stew.

Again, if you make any of these, let me know how it goes and if you enjoyed it! Happy cooking!

Big Brother G

That's right, time to pull out the chalkboard again!

We're so excited to announce that we're expecting Baby number 2 on or around September 28, 2014!

I've been feeling pretty good so far, just some morning (evening) sickness and a lot of fatigue. We found out about a week after my gallbladder surgery, but our doctor assured us that it was so early that there shouldn't be any ill effects and all the medicines I was on afterwards were safe. We've been dying to tell everyone and yesterday we got to hear the heartbeat! It sounded just like a horse galloping along. It's starting to feel real! (Plus, I can now start wearing my maternity shirts, because you do start showing earlier the second time)

Note on the photo: My idea was that you'd be able to see the "Maternity Clothes" sign on the box, but hopefully the idea came across. This was one of the few where G wasn't running around or with his back to us. Nonetheless I think it turned out pretty cute--already exhausted by the idea of a sibling ;)

"Being a big brother is already exhausting!"

This was about the 5th time unpacking and "repacking" the box of clothes

How far along: 10 weeks

Total weight gain: -7 lb

Maternity Clothes: I'm a little bloated and showing a bit, so I can get away with them, but they're not necessary yet

Sleep: I'm having trouble falling and staying asleep. I get up at least twice a night

Best moment: Hearing the heartbeat
Miss anything: Margaritas, sushi

Movement: Baby, no. Mama, no. I have an appointment with a PT to look at my hip pain, which is back with a vengeance

Cravings: Jelly Bellys, Sprinkles cupcakes (Atlanta is the closest!), blackberries, veggies

Queasy: Every evening, starting around 3 pm and first thing in the morning. If I don't keep something in my stomach it's worse

Symptoms: Morning sickness, fatigue, hip pain

Looking forward to: Everything! I'm excited to be pregnant again and so excited for G to be a brother!! I can't wait til I get some energy back!

Lentil Soup

Is there anything as amazingly comforting as soup? The correct answer is NO.

Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm a soup freak! It can be 90 degrees outside and I'll be curled up in a blanket with soup. Ramen is one of my favourites, but I have a pretty wide repertoire for soup. Greek avgolemano, shrimp bisque, shrimp and corn chowder, egg drop, I love them all! I bought some lentils to try to make my own lentil soup, and the weather has been cooperating by being chilly. James was going out of town for the weekend, and  figured it was the perfect time to try the recipe that was full of some of his not-so-favourite foods. My mom sent me the recipe below, with some of the modifications she had made to it. I made some further modifications and ended up with a soup that G ate two bowls of!

Instead of the porcini and portobello mushroom, I just chopped up 8 oz of regular white button mushrooms and added them in step two. The microwave thing was weird to me but it worked really well. I left my carrots pretty chunky since I just cut up baby carrots. G liked that, but I think I'd have preferred them more minced. Instead of fishing out the bacon after cooking, I crumbled  up the 4 slices of bacon and left them in. I also don't like Swiss chard, so I substituted frozen, chopped spinach instead, and I think it turned out great. I didn't add any salt or pepper, and didn't serve it with oil, but I did top it with parmesan.

One thing I did notice was that with all the stuff in the crockpot, it was almost overflowing, and since I was cooking it on high, it spilled a little and ended up hissing a bit. The dogs thought some creature had gotten into the house and I was wondering if there was a squirrel in the stove vent somehow (you never know here!) Eve after the lentils had absorbed a lot of the liquid, there was still a full crockpot left. We'll have delicious leftovers for a while, and I'm planning on freezing some of it for another week.


If you try it, let me know how it goes! So here's the original, from Slow Cooker Revolution:

16 Months

My little babe is growing up way too fast. I'm constantly hearing his feet tapping on the floor as he runs around the house, never holding still for more than a few seconds at a time. Curious and inquisitive, we constantly hear "wass dees?" and he's forever pulling things out and [sometimes] putting them back.

Challenges: separation anxiety, tantrums, lack of weight gain
Triumphs: sippy cups (1 bottle at night), adventurous palate, cuddles
Words: "wass dees," "uppy," (puppy) "oose," (Moose) "ip," (Pippin we think) "up!," "dada," (this refers to everything) "bah bah" (bye bye)
Favourite toys: Little People ark, pretend food from Ikea, LeapFrog Scout dog, big bouncy balls. He's still a very independent player, but will bring you things, asking "wass dees?" Books are also a hit, but he only holds still for a page or two
Firsts: running, haircut, ear infection

I'm so grateful that G is an adventurous eater. Even though he fusses when we first sit down, if we continue to eat, he will eventually want to join in. He loves anything he can hold, and especially anything he can dip. He still won't feed himself; he'll try maybe once a week, but since he usually dumps the food before it gets to his mouth, he's perfectly happy to be fed. He's had spicy orange chicken with a couscous salad and lentil soup lately. He eats really well, but has barely gained a pound since we moved, and the doctor wants us to focus on upping his calories (butter on everything!) I was pretty tiny though too, so I'm trying not to worry because I know he's getting plenty of food. I honestly think he's just so active that he burns off the calories as fast as we can get them in him. He literally runs circles around me in the kitchen!

Lately, he's been ridiculously cuddly! He's been giving hugs and kisses, wanting to constantly sit in our laps or be held, holds onto our legs when we're standing and is just all about being a lovebug lately. I have been enjoying the heck out of this! It melts my heart to see him run toward my open arms or have him crawl into my lap or smile when I kiss his cheek.

G has an ear infection, diagnosed after I brought him in for a cough that just won't stop. He's still coughing at night, but the doctor seemed to think if we take care of the ear infection it might help the cough since it's not in his lungs. Luckily, G is awesome at taking medicine, and seems to like the disgustingly sweet bubble gum flavour of his antibiotic. He'll still fight a syringe pretty stubbornly, but he likes the little measuring cup and was even upset a few nights ago because there wasn't more!

My surgery went really well! It's been a month and I'm still a tad bit sore, but the nausea is gone and I'm feeling so much better than before! I was up and about the next day (up and about=shower and walking to the kitchen and back). James was wonderful; he took care of everything while I was getting my energy back, did wonderfully with G and understood when all I felt up to eating was rice or pasta stars (and would cook them for me). Life has been pretty good. I'm still getting over my Christmas cold; it seems to keep coming back, but I'll kick it eventually. The weather has been decent and we missed the snow when we went out to California to visit my parents (G did really well with the time change and the stress of a missed flight and lost car seat!) All in all, a pretty good month and I think we're adjusting pretty well!

16 months. I have no idea how he got his arm out.

Pick me up!

Being Honest about Motherhood

There is a notion out there, propogated by the media, social networking sites and nostalgia/romanticising, that motherhood is natural, and easy. This is society's biggest lie. It almost feels like a taboo subject to be writing about, but motherhood is HARD. It is by far the the hardest thing I have done in my life; harder than moving cross-country, harder than labour, harder than saying no to ramen.

Being a mother is amazing and I wouldn't ever change my decision to have a baby. My heart could almost burst when G runs up to give me a hug or a kiss. Watching my little man sleep and listening to his soft snores melts that same heart. There is nothing like the love you have for a child. It is trite, but it is true--it's a love you can't understand until there's a child in your life. And on those days when you are confident, you are on top of the world and nothing can stop you or bring you down.

But there are difficult days too. There's two types of difficult days: baby-centred and mommy-centred. Baby-centred difficult days are those days when your child seems determined to be a hellion. These are the days you wonder what past transgressions merit this form of penance (I know mine, I was a babysitter's terror). Today was one of those days for us. G woke up in a foul temper and had three tantrums before we even left the house, tried to kick me when I attempted to put his shoes on, refused his milk and his medicine then screamed the entire way to school. Those days are tough, but you're dealing with a little person who is trying to figure out this whole life thing and has even less to go on than you do, so you can take a breath and count to ten and (usually) keep your temper.

The really hard days, the worst days are the ones that don't have anything to do with your babe's behaviour. They're the ones where you doubt yourself. The ones where you've convinced yourself that your child hates you and your partner resents you. The days you're absolutely certain that you are the worst mother on the face of the earth. I think it happens more than anyone will admit. I know I certainly don't advertise it when I have a day like that, and they happen more than I want to tell anyone.

The media we're bombarded with every day doesn't help. I read a quote about comparing your life to your facebook friends'; it's like comparing your behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel. There's a lot of truth to that, but it's hard to see when you're having one of those really crappy days. It's hard to remember when you see that mom's photos, you know the one: her child always smiles, never throws things and she still has time to make creative bento box style lunches. Green looks good on me, right? Pinterest is quite possibly the worst. My ideas on there have hardly ever been attempted, let alone completed, but pinterest makes it look like every mom spends her afternoons in creative, educational pursuits with her two year old who can speak three languages, while the baby is on a perfect nap schedule and sleeps 12 hours a night. Instead, I try to convince myself that the third episode of Jake and the Neverland Pirates will actually teach G good manners and contemplate ordering in dinner for the third time that week.

It's hard. Motherhood is hard. Anyone who tells you otherwise 1) has never been a mother or 2) has an abnormal changeling for a child or 3) should just be sainted for their patience already. Some days I don't know how I'm going to make it through. Some days I feel like I've got this motherhood thing down pat. Some days I want to curl up in bed and cry and some days a hug from my little man makes me feel like I could take on an army. In the end, I think we're all doing our best to raise our kids. There's been a lot of talk about moms not judging each other, but to be honest, I don't think that's the problem; some of the best support I have is from other moms. The mommy guilt isn't going to diminish until the media stops handing us the image of the perfect mother like some extravagantly wrapped gift.

So here's my mommy truth. I drop off my son at daycare in pyjama pants. I almost never get dinner on the table before 8 pm. My son sometimes runs out of clean socks and my living room hasn't been vacuumed in weeks. My name is Emmi Lawrence and I am an imperfect mother doing her damnedest.