First week back to work full time, done. Whew. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It helps that I worked from home all week, so when it was break time I was able to just walk down the hall and snuggle my baby. It also helps that I had plenty of things to do, so the diverse workload kept me busy and distracted. I think if I could always work from home, I wouldn't mind working as much. It's the days when I have to go into the office that are the hardest for me. (Not to be ungrateful for my blessings -- I know that my work situation is really wonderful and a lot better than many other working moms, and for that I am truly grateful.)
In less than two weeks we are going to officially publish my first major report, which is an analysis of skill shortages in a small segment of Oregon's workforce. The report was supposed to come out a month ago but the editing process took much longer than expected, then it got queued up in the graphics department behind a couple of other, large projects. Thankfully the delay gave me extra time to do some of the other finishing steps (creating a presentation of the results, writing a press release, etc.). I feel like I will be fully prepared when it is released on July 2. Stay tuned for a link to the report! Woot, woot!
Our garden is growing nicely. Since it's June and it's Oregon, the weather is swinging like a pendulum between cold and rainy, and hot and sunny. On the cool days, the onions get fat and the lettuce grows huge. Then the heat comes on and suddenly the squash-family plants are exploding. We chuckle about this every evening when we go out to look at the progress. The bell peppers are struggling and the tomatoes are still pretty small. I need to transplant my tomato starts into the ground soon. I also have a couple of tomato plants in my lettuce box (huh?) that need to be moved.... somewhere. Darn the volunteer plants! We have yet to put in corn or sunflowers; maybe tomorrow we'll get around to it.
Nate's big plan for tomorrow is to do a bunch of framing in the basement. His dad is coming over for a couple of hours to help him out. I think they will have the walls framed in no time at all, which means Nate might even start putting up some drywall. Wow, what a difference that would make. I won't hold my breath, though -- there are a lot of projects to finish. If he gets the framing done in quick time, I'd like to get back to finishing the shoe box in the entryway.
Our city is having its annual Tour of Homes this week. The Home Tour is a common summer event for many cities, so you might have one going on where you live. (There was a Home Tour every year in our college town, too; we always went.) It is very interesting to compare homes on the Tours from year to year. We started touring in 2005 or 2006, before the housing market collapsed, so we experienced a few years of ostentatious homes. Now the majority of the houses are very normal, modest family dwellings. There are a lot more "starter" homes on the Tour than what we saw four years ago.
There's a particular local contractor who we love to see every year. Nate and I decided that if we are ever in the financial position to do a massive remodel or build a new home, this is the guy we're going to call. He builds in a modern Craftsman style, with high quality products and a great eye for detail. (Coincidentally, the guy who does all of this contractor's tiling work is a friend of ours from church.) I really want to share some links and pictures of his work, but..... it would violate my self-imposed privacy standards (by revealing my location).... so I'll have to hold off. Sorry to be so suspenseful :)
Anyway, getting back to the Home Tour: Every-other night this week we went out to see a couple of houses. This usually meant putting Darling down to bed a little late, but we really enjoyed our "family dates". The Home Tour only comes once, for one week, so either we stretch our routine or else miss the event. The choice is obvious! In fact, I love touring so much that I might try to convince Nate that we should drive down to our college town, see some friends, and see some houses! (I'm looking online at the tour for that city, and it looks like they are still showing off lots of "McMansions" -- much cooler than our Tour.)
Okay... brain dead... I'm forgetting some things, but it's just about bedtime anyway. So goodnight. :)
Friday, June 22, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Happy First Birthday: The (baby's) year in review and some seriously mushy stuff
One year ago today, my daughter was born. She arrived at 10:44am after 41 hours of natural labor, in the local hospital, with just her father and the medical staff present. Baby Girl came out with a tight nuchal cord so she was blue and breathless, but the excellent staff quickly got her breathing and she has been a perfect picture of health ever since. I thank God for this in my nightly prayers -- it is a tremendous blessing.
In the last year, Darling has learned how to sit up, roll over, and crawl. She can wave and clap. She expresses excitement by flapping her arms and sometimes knocks herself over. Darling doesn't say any true words just yet, but she loves to babble and makes lots of word-like noises; she definitely has sounds for certain things, like her "kuh" sound for the kitties. Don't be fooled, this girl understands a lot of words and actions. Darling is very perceptive.
She is also quite curious. She loves to explore. Baby Girl is always on the move, checking out new objects and trying out new "toys". Some of her very favorite things include kitties (okay, any active animal gets a lot of attention), outside, cheese, mommy, and playing. She never sits still during story time and loves to make big messes. She does not like naps.
In the last year, she has sprouted seven teeth. Her weight has more than tripled, from 7 pounds 4 ounces at birth to about 22 pounds right now. Darling's length/height has increased at least a foot. (Her 12-month checkup isn't for a couple of weeks so I'm not exactly sure how tall she is at the moment!) In her first few months, she blasted through several clothing sizes; she was in her 9-month clothes at 5 months. Since then she very gradually moved into her 12-month-size clothes. She is beautiful in everything, but her mommy is most fond of her bare bottom!
She visited the ocean once. She graduated from her infant car seat to a convertible car seat (after much drama and hesitant decision-making by her mom). She has listened to her parents read through all four volumes of the "scripture stories for kids" and has just started over with the Old Testament. She has taken at least 300 baths, spent at least 730 hours nursing, and slept through half her days. Baby Girl goes through about a dozen diapers a day, which is a lot, but is less than the 20 daily changes she needed in her first months. If I had to guess, I'd say she's had at least 4,000 diaper changes in the last year. She's used up almost 7,000 baby wipes. Her clothes and diapers have necessitated about100 extra loads of laundry.
If I could use only three words to describe my daughter, I would call her a magnifloriously awesome princess.That's right -- she's so cool I have to make up a portmanteau just to accurately describe her. :o)
Now here's the part where it gets mushy and religious, because I am going to write some words directly to my daughter...
Dearest daughter,
The truth is, there aren't words. I cannot possibly express the depth of my feelings -- love and joy and more -- for you. Whenever I try, I end up with something that's totally mushy and over the top, yet still deficient to what's in my heart. Quite simply, you are the very best thing in my life. Ever. I have always wanted your dad and I to be an eternal family, but now that you are here, the desire has become a necessity. I love you and never wish to be parted from you, not now or in all eternity. This is a gospel doctrine that I did not understand until there was you. I am grateful for you and to you, my sweet girl. Thank you.
I'm a person who expresses and defines things based on numbers, but none of the stats I quoted here (nor any of the ones I left out), can possibly describe you or your life thus far. You are much more than 22 pounds, 4,000 diaper changes, and the distant reality of college tuition. You are a daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, cousin, niece, big sister (er, eventually), and so forth. You are a daughter of God, beloved of Him. Every day you bring joy to every one you encounter. You are a light in this world, bright and glorious and good. Never forget that you have the ability to change the world; you can be a neuro-physicist or a nuclear engineer or a novelist or the president of the universe, if you want :o) Just dream, my darling, and build toward your goals, and know that your family will always support your good decisions.
While you are dreaming and building, you will be have the opportunity to do the most important work in the world... nay, the universe: be a parent. Guiding souls -- teaching them and showing them how to be good through your example -- is the greatest thing you can ever do. Make no mistake: truly changing the world is a one-soul-at-a-time process. You have this gift. I hope you will choose to exercise your gift and make a better world. It will bring you joy.
This last year with you (366 days -- it was a leap year) have been wonderful. Not every minute, of course, but from the big-picture view, it could not have been better. You have completely changed my life. I don't really remember what life was like before you were here, and that is fine by me! You are worth every change, every challenge, every sacrifice. I would do it all again. Thank you for teaching me how to be a better person, baby girl. Because of you I am more patient and selfless. I am not perfect (sorry, kiddo) but I strive each day to be a great mother because that's what you deserve. Thank you for growing with me, forgiving me, and loving me.
I look forward to many long, wonderful years together. We have a big journey ahead of us. There will be more challenges and more sacrifices. You will throw tantrums and -- I'm so sorry -- I will, too. I cannot shield you from all of the hard things life will bring. Sometimes there will be pain, heartache, and sadness. People will say and do mean things. You will lose some of the people you love. In all of your trials, please take comfort in the words of our Heavenly Father, and "know thou, my [daughter] that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."
I love you will all of my heart, sweet girl. I hope you had a wonderful first birthday today. I enjoyed spending every minute with you....
And I look forward to an eternity together.
In the last year, Darling has learned how to sit up, roll over, and crawl. She can wave and clap. She expresses excitement by flapping her arms and sometimes knocks herself over. Darling doesn't say any true words just yet, but she loves to babble and makes lots of word-like noises; she definitely has sounds for certain things, like her "kuh" sound for the kitties. Don't be fooled, this girl understands a lot of words and actions. Darling is very perceptive.
She is also quite curious. She loves to explore. Baby Girl is always on the move, checking out new objects and trying out new "toys". Some of her very favorite things include kitties (okay, any active animal gets a lot of attention), outside, cheese, mommy, and playing. She never sits still during story time and loves to make big messes. She does not like naps.
In the last year, she has sprouted seven teeth. Her weight has more than tripled, from 7 pounds 4 ounces at birth to about 22 pounds right now. Darling's length/height has increased at least a foot. (Her 12-month checkup isn't for a couple of weeks so I'm not exactly sure how tall she is at the moment!) In her first few months, she blasted through several clothing sizes; she was in her 9-month clothes at 5 months. Since then she very gradually moved into her 12-month-size clothes. She is beautiful in everything, but her mommy is most fond of her bare bottom!
She visited the ocean once. She graduated from her infant car seat to a convertible car seat (after much drama and hesitant decision-making by her mom). She has listened to her parents read through all four volumes of the "scripture stories for kids" and has just started over with the Old Testament. She has taken at least 300 baths, spent at least 730 hours nursing, and slept through half her days. Baby Girl goes through about a dozen diapers a day, which is a lot, but is less than the 20 daily changes she needed in her first months. If I had to guess, I'd say she's had at least 4,000 diaper changes in the last year. She's used up almost 7,000 baby wipes. Her clothes and diapers have necessitated about100 extra loads of laundry.
If I could use only three words to describe my daughter, I would call her a magnifloriously awesome princess.That's right -- she's so cool I have to make up a portmanteau just to accurately describe her. :o)
Now here's the part where it gets mushy and religious, because I am going to write some words directly to my daughter...
Dearest daughter,
The truth is, there aren't words. I cannot possibly express the depth of my feelings -- love and joy and more -- for you. Whenever I try, I end up with something that's totally mushy and over the top, yet still deficient to what's in my heart. Quite simply, you are the very best thing in my life. Ever. I have always wanted your dad and I to be an eternal family, but now that you are here, the desire has become a necessity. I love you and never wish to be parted from you, not now or in all eternity. This is a gospel doctrine that I did not understand until there was you. I am grateful for you and to you, my sweet girl. Thank you.
I'm a person who expresses and defines things based on numbers, but none of the stats I quoted here (nor any of the ones I left out), can possibly describe you or your life thus far. You are much more than 22 pounds, 4,000 diaper changes, and the distant reality of college tuition. You are a daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, cousin, niece, big sister (er, eventually), and so forth. You are a daughter of God, beloved of Him. Every day you bring joy to every one you encounter. You are a light in this world, bright and glorious and good. Never forget that you have the ability to change the world; you can be a neuro-physicist or a nuclear engineer or a novelist or the president of the universe, if you want :o) Just dream, my darling, and build toward your goals, and know that your family will always support your good decisions.
While you are dreaming and building, you will be have the opportunity to do the most important work in the world... nay, the universe: be a parent. Guiding souls -- teaching them and showing them how to be good through your example -- is the greatest thing you can ever do. Make no mistake: truly changing the world is a one-soul-at-a-time process. You have this gift. I hope you will choose to exercise your gift and make a better world. It will bring you joy.
This last year with you (366 days -- it was a leap year) have been wonderful. Not every minute, of course, but from the big-picture view, it could not have been better. You have completely changed my life. I don't really remember what life was like before you were here, and that is fine by me! You are worth every change, every challenge, every sacrifice. I would do it all again. Thank you for teaching me how to be a better person, baby girl. Because of you I am more patient and selfless. I am not perfect (sorry, kiddo) but I strive each day to be a great mother because that's what you deserve. Thank you for growing with me, forgiving me, and loving me.
I look forward to many long, wonderful years together. We have a big journey ahead of us. There will be more challenges and more sacrifices. You will throw tantrums and -- I'm so sorry -- I will, too. I cannot shield you from all of the hard things life will bring. Sometimes there will be pain, heartache, and sadness. People will say and do mean things. You will lose some of the people you love. In all of your trials, please take comfort in the words of our Heavenly Father, and "know thou, my [daughter] that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good."
I love you will all of my heart, sweet girl. I hope you had a wonderful first birthday today. I enjoyed spending every minute with you....
And I look forward to an eternity together.
Monday, June 11, 2012
A handful of pictures
We ate dinner on the front yard on Sunday evening. Afterward I took some pictures of the baby because she's cute and it was fun. I got a few good shots...
Here's her little face, I love it:
She just learned to clap this last week. It has been such fun clapping with her:
Gestures and pointing, which she is doing a little bit less lately:
She rarely eats her toes anymore, but somehow I managed to catch a rare action shot:
Finally, check out how long her hair is getting:
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Recipes for Baby's First Cake
My daughter's first birthday is this week, and we've decided to have a casual get-together to mark the occasion. (Friends and family, you are all invited!) I love the first-birthday custom of giving baby her own little frosted cake to enjoy and destroy.
Of course, I'm weird about food, and I don't want to just give my kid any old cake from the store, nor do I want to give her something completely unhealthy. But it's cake so it should be sweet and doesn't have to be a perfect model of health food, and it's her first cake so it should be special. I did quite a bit of internet research in order to find a good recipe. I'd really like it to be a chocolate cake with white frosting (I don't know why; it just sounds good) but a lot of the recipes I found were vanilla cake. A lot of the whipped cream frosting recipes added cream cheese. I like cream cheese frosting, but I want to do a very simple frosting, just whisked whipped cream with a touch of sweetener.
As I was searching around for recipes, one of the blog posts I found opened with the following words, which I thought were an excellent summary of my own feelings:
I laughed out loud about the it's-child-abuse-either-way part of that paragraph. So true, right? Personally, I don't think it's abusive to make a rich, chocolately, sugary cake for a baby's birthday. I just don't plan on doing that for my kid -- it's not the way I'm raising her.
Anyway, I don't want to get stuck on the "healthy or not" conversation. It's not the point. The point is that I found a few recipes and I did some test baking this week. First I selected four recipes -- two chocolate, one carrot, and one chocolate-vegetable cake. I had the ingredients on hand for the plain chocolate cakes so I made them. I was pleased with the results and have decided not to try the other recipes (but they are included below for anyone who is curious; I might yet make them for another occasion or just for fun).
The first recipe ("One Bowl") uses agave instead of white sugar. It calls for whole wheat flour, which I use anyway. It calls for salt, which I absolutely never add to recipes. And it calls for vegetable oil, which I usually replace with olive oil. (Because I'm weird that way.) It asks you to put in 3/4 teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder. That's an odd size of measurement (3/4 teaspoon?) so I did something like 1/2 teaspoon powder and 1 teaspoon soda. Or maybe it was the other way around....
(In case you can't tell, I'm a tad liberal about recipes, especially when it's just baking. I don't measure things exactly, and I modify the ingredients as I see fit. Baking doesn't have to be perfectly exact -- your cup of flour can be a little over filled or you can forget to leveling off the cocoa powder. It's not going to affect anything.)
The agave chocolate cake included directions for making whipped cream topping with agave. Neat. I followed the whipped recipe, although I halved the amount of vanilla.
The second cake recipe was a "healthy chocolate cake." That sounds dangerous, but it was good. I replaced the 1 cup of caster sugar with 1/2 cup of agave. I left out the salt. I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil (or apple puree). I was surprised that it didn't ask for an egg. I really wanted to add an egg, but I didn't.
Here are the results:
Both cakes were tasty. One Bowl was a bit moister than Healthy, and a bit fluffier and darker. I'm thinkin' it was because of the egg. (Really.) I would absolutely feed either of them to my daughter, but we decided to go with the One Bowl recipe. It's a little bit more of a treat, more like a typical cake, but still moderately healthy. (Not as healthy as the Healthy cake recipe, but still much healthier than a typical cake.) And did I mention yummy? Both cakes were good, but One Bowl was a bit tastier.
The whipped cream was also good. (Although I'm thinking about reducing the agave a little more when I make it this weekend; it doesn't need to be overly sweet.) It took me forever to whisk the whipped cream. I put it in the stand mixer and it was going for probably ten minutes and didn't seem to be making progress. Nate went outside to do some exercising when I started mixing it. When he came back in I was grumbling at the mixer. He said, "Are you sure the speed is high enough? I think you have to mix it pretty hard." So I turned the speed from whatever it was at (4 or 6?) up to full or nearly-full speed (8 or 10?) and in about a minute it was whipped to perfection. He's brilliant, huh?
Finally, I wanted to make sure that Baby Girl was going to like my concoction, so after dinner (this was Thursday night, I think) I gave her a slice of One Bowl covered with whipped topping. It was adorable -- exactly what I hope to see this coming Saturday. She got her hands covered in whipped cream, licked the white fluff off her fingers, then attacked the cake. She didn't really devour the cake, but that's fine. She ate a few bites and made a big mess. Perfect.
The recipes are included below. The first two recipes are the ones I made (one includes whipped cream directions). I did not change the ingredients or directions in the text below. I also included the other two cake recipes I found. Finally, at the bottom of this post, there's another set of whipped cream directions using regular white sugar. It has a couple of possible variations. (If you follow the link, it will take you to several more variations for the whipped cream, including some that use fruit... yum.)
Happy baking!
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Grease and base-line a 20cm round, loose-based cake tin. Heat the oven to 350 F
Sift together 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 4 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 cup caster sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt.
In a separate bowl, mix together 1/3 cup of vegetable oil or apple puree, 1 tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 1 cup warm water.
Mix these into the dry ingredients until just amalgamated. Do not over mix.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until the cake has risen and springs back when pressed.Serve the cake just as it is, or to make it extra special, top with Greek yogurt and raspberries.
Chocolate, Zucchini, Sweet Potato Cake
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/tipFirstBDay.htm
1/4 cup cocoa
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup rye flour or buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup grated zucchini
1 cup grated sweet potatoes
1 cup dried cherries, hydrated in 3 tablespoons rum or hot water
1 cup pecans, roughly chopped (optional)
Decrease the oil by ½ cup, omit the sugar and honey. Try using choppedjarred maraschino cherries for more moisture.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Butter and flour a bundt pan.
• Sift together first 7 ingredients.
• Set aside.
• In a mixer mix oil, sugar, honey add eggs and vanilla.
• Mix dry ingredients into egg mixture then add buttermilk.
• Stir in remaining ingredients.
• Pour into pan and bake for 50-60 minutes till toothpick comes out clean.
• Let cool.
• Invert onto cake dish.
Of course, I'm weird about food, and I don't want to just give my kid any old cake from the store, nor do I want to give her something completely unhealthy. But it's cake so it should be sweet and doesn't have to be a perfect model of health food, and it's her first cake so it should be special. I did quite a bit of internet research in order to find a good recipe. I'd really like it to be a chocolate cake with white frosting (I don't know why; it just sounds good) but a lot of the recipes I found were vanilla cake. A lot of the whipped cream frosting recipes added cream cheese. I like cream cheese frosting, but I want to do a very simple frosting, just whisked whipped cream with a touch of sweetener.
As I was searching around for recipes, one of the blog posts I found opened with the following words, which I thought were an excellent summary of my own feelings:
There are so many options. So many opinions. People who believe depriving a baby of devilishly chocolate, sugary cake is tantamount to child abuse; people who believe giving baby any sugar, ever, is tantamount to child abuse. Some people skip cake altogether, reasoning any messy, dessertish dish will do for the messy-faced photos that most everyone agrees are about the whole reason a child turns one.
I laughed out loud about the it's-child-abuse-either-way part of that paragraph. So true, right? Personally, I don't think it's abusive to make a rich, chocolately, sugary cake for a baby's birthday. I just don't plan on doing that for my kid -- it's not the way I'm raising her.
Anyway, I don't want to get stuck on the "healthy or not" conversation. It's not the point. The point is that I found a few recipes and I did some test baking this week. First I selected four recipes -- two chocolate, one carrot, and one chocolate-vegetable cake. I had the ingredients on hand for the plain chocolate cakes so I made them. I was pleased with the results and have decided not to try the other recipes (but they are included below for anyone who is curious; I might yet make them for another occasion or just for fun).
The first recipe ("One Bowl") uses agave instead of white sugar. It calls for whole wheat flour, which I use anyway. It calls for salt, which I absolutely never add to recipes. And it calls for vegetable oil, which I usually replace with olive oil. (Because I'm weird that way.) It asks you to put in 3/4 teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder. That's an odd size of measurement (3/4 teaspoon?) so I did something like 1/2 teaspoon powder and 1 teaspoon soda. Or maybe it was the other way around....
(In case you can't tell, I'm a tad liberal about recipes, especially when it's just baking. I don't measure things exactly, and I modify the ingredients as I see fit. Baking doesn't have to be perfectly exact -- your cup of flour can be a little over filled or you can forget to leveling off the cocoa powder. It's not going to affect anything.)
The agave chocolate cake included directions for making whipped cream topping with agave. Neat. I followed the whipped recipe, although I halved the amount of vanilla.
The second cake recipe was a "healthy chocolate cake." That sounds dangerous, but it was good. I replaced the 1 cup of caster sugar with 1/2 cup of agave. I left out the salt. I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil (or apple puree). I was surprised that it didn't ask for an egg. I really wanted to add an egg, but I didn't.
Here are the results:
Both cakes were tasty. One Bowl was a bit moister than Healthy, and a bit fluffier and darker. I'm thinkin' it was because of the egg. (Really.) I would absolutely feed either of them to my daughter, but we decided to go with the One Bowl recipe. It's a little bit more of a treat, more like a typical cake, but still moderately healthy. (Not as healthy as the Healthy cake recipe, but still much healthier than a typical cake.) And did I mention yummy? Both cakes were good, but One Bowl was a bit tastier.
The whipped cream was also good. (Although I'm thinking about reducing the agave a little more when I make it this weekend; it doesn't need to be overly sweet.) It took me forever to whisk the whipped cream. I put it in the stand mixer and it was going for probably ten minutes and didn't seem to be making progress. Nate went outside to do some exercising when I started mixing it. When he came back in I was grumbling at the mixer. He said, "Are you sure the speed is high enough? I think you have to mix it pretty hard." So I turned the speed from whatever it was at (4 or 6?) up to full or nearly-full speed (8 or 10?) and in about a minute it was whipped to perfection. He's brilliant, huh?
Finally, I wanted to make sure that Baby Girl was going to like my concoction, so after dinner (this was Thursday night, I think) I gave her a slice of One Bowl covered with whipped topping. It was adorable -- exactly what I hope to see this coming Saturday. She got her hands covered in whipped cream, licked the white fluff off her fingers, then attacked the cake. She didn't really devour the cake, but that's fine. She ate a few bites and made a big mess. Perfect.
The recipes are included below. The first two recipes are the ones I made (one includes whipped cream directions). I did not change the ingredients or directions in the text below. I also included the other two cake recipes I found. Finally, at the bottom of this post, there's another set of whipped cream directions using regular white sugar. It has a couple of possible variations. (If you follow the link, it will take you to several more variations for the whipped cream, including some that use fruit... yum.)
Happy baking!
One Bowl Chocolate Cake (with Agave)
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup agave nectar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour one nine-inch round pan.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the agave nectar, egg, milk, oil and vanilla. Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed of mixer. Stir in the boiling water last. Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Whipped Cream Topping
Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream
1/8 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preparation:
Whip cream until almost stiff. Add agave and vanilla; beat until cream holds peaks. Spread over top of cooled chocolate cake or another dessert. Top the whipped cream with grain-sweetened chocolate chips if desired.
HEALTHY CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE
www.healthy-eating-made-easy.com/healthy-chocolate-cake-recipe.html
www.healthy-eating-made-easy.com/healthy-chocolate-cake-recipe.html
Sift together 1 1/2 cups plain flour, 4 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 cup caster sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt.
In a separate bowl, mix together 1/3 cup of vegetable oil or apple puree, 1 tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 1 cup warm water.
Mix these into the dry ingredients until just amalgamated. Do not over mix.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes until the cake has risen and springs back when pressed.Serve the cake just as it is, or to make it extra special, top with Greek yogurt and raspberries.
Chocolate, Zucchini, Sweet Potato Cake
http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/tipFirstBDay.htm
1/4 cup cocoa
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup rye flour or buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup grated zucchini
1 cup grated sweet potatoes
Decrease the oil by ½ cup, omit the sugar and honey. Try using choppedjarred maraschino cherries for more moisture.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Butter and flour a bundt pan.
• Sift together first 7 ingredients.
• Set aside.
• In a mixer mix oil, sugar, honey add eggs and vanilla.
• Mix dry ingredients into egg mixture then add buttermilk.
• Stir in remaining ingredients.
• Pour into pan and bake for 50-60 minutes till toothpick comes out clean.
• Let cool.
• Invert onto cake dish.
Baby's First Birthday Cake (Carrot
Cake)
http://grizzlybirds.blogspot.com/2007/01/babys-1st-birthday-cake-recipes.html
(Makes 1 double-layer 9-inch square cake; adapted from "What to Expect")
(Makes 1 double-layer 9-inch square cake; adapted from "What to Expect")
2 1/2 cups thinly sliced carrots
2 1/2 cups apple juice concentrate (you
may use slightly less)
1 1/2 cups raisins
Vegetable Spray/Shortening
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 whole eggs
4 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 Tbsp low sodium baking powder
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
Prep: Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two 9
inch square cake pans with waxed paper and spray the paper with vegetable
spray/shortening.
1. Combine the carrots with 1 cup plus
2 tablespoons of the juice concentrate in a medium size saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat
and simmer, covered, until carrots are tender, 15 to 20 mins. Puree in a
blender of food processor until smooth.
3. Add the raisins and process until
finely chopped. Let mixture cool.
4. Combine the flour, wheat germ,
baking powder, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups juice
concentrate, the oil, eggs, egg whites, and vanilla; beat just until well
mixed. Fold in the carrot puree and applesauce. Pour the batter into the
prepared cake pans.
5. Bake until a knife inserted in the
center comes out clean, 35 to 40 mins. Cool briefly in the pans, then turn out
onto wire racks to cool completely. When cool, frost with Cream Cheese Frosting
below or sprinkle a wee bit of powdered sugar if desired.
Vanilla Whipped Cream Frosting
http://sensitiveeconomist.com/2012/01/30/one-bowl-chocolate-agave-cake-with-agave-whipped-cream/
3 cups heavy or whipping cream
3 cups heavy or whipping cream
5 Tbs. granulated sugar
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Chill the bowl and whisk attachment of
a stand mixer for 20 min. in the refrigerator or 5 min. in the freezer. Pour
the heavy cream into the bowl and whisk on medium-high speed until it just
starts to thicken. Slow the speed down to medium and gradually pour in the
sugar. Continue to whisk until soft peaks form.
Add the vanilla extract and continue to
whisk by hand until the cream is smooth, and stiff peaks form (the cream will
stand up straight when the whisk is raised).
Variation: Chocolate
Omit vanilla and increase sugar to 6 Tbs. After soft peaks form,
turn off the mixer and add 1/4 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably
Dutch-processed. Whisk by hand until the cream is smooth, and stiff peaks form.
Let the cream sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to dissolve the
cocoa. Whisk briefly before using.
Variation: Mocha
Omit vanilla and increase sugar to 6 Tbs. After soft peaks form, turn
off the mixer and add 1/4 cup sifted unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably
Dutch-processed, and 2 Tbs. instant espresso dissolved in 2 Tbs. boiling water.
Whisk by hand until the cream is smooth, and stiff peaks form. Let the cream
sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to dissolve the cocoa. Whisk
briefly before using.
Here's what we did... yesterday.
I got a new laptop yesterday. The bulk of my evening was spent setting it up and copying files. It's up and running now, which makes me very happy. We also ordered a new computer for Nate, but it will take at least a week to arrive.
Now lest you think we've gone on some spending spree, I want to clarify that both of our current/old computers are dying. They have been on life support for quite some time -- Nate's been nursing his computer for a year, I've been struggling for 8-9 months with my computer. So we did our best to hold off on the new purchases, we took the old machines to the repair shop, and when we finally got new ones we didn't buy anything fancy. They are very moderate, practical computers. As soon as his new computer arrives, oh! It will be such a relief to no longer stress about our broken machines.
For about an hour, I had my old and new laptops up and running simultaneously. My work laptop was sitting off to my left, and my netbook was off to my right. Then Nate came in to fire up his computer. So I decided to bring my tablet in from the bedroom and take a picture of the whole family:
I should have grabbed my older laptop (from college) and set it up too, just for fun. And Nate could have pulled out his work laptop. Maybe next week when Nate's new computer comes we can get all nine machines together for a photo. Hahahhahaha. I'm totes kidding.
We also went to visit Nate's dad yesterday. Nate's mom is out of town, visiting her sister in another state, so poor "poppi" is home alone. He's been over for dinner a couple of times and we've gone to visit him a couple of times. He's a very nice man, very easy to talk with, and we enjoy seeing him.
Do you remember that hideous pine tree in the back yard that we cut down? The stump is still in the ground and Nate decided that yesterday was a good day to start attacking, so a friend from church came over and they spent a couple of hours digging and chopping the roots. Apparently it has some very tough roots because they did not get very far. (And apparently the ax is also over-due for sharpening.)
They did not plan to wear matching outfits, it just happened:
While the boys worked on Mr. Stump, I cleaned up my office. My desk has been a disorganized mess for awhile now. After a couple of hours of cleaning and purging and moving stuff, it's still not my ideal, but it is much better. I just need to hold on to less crap -- paper, specifically. I have way to many scraps and notes and pictures and documents cluttering up my space. (I get this bad habit from my dad, who was.... and is... bad about piling up stacks of papery things in the kitchen. Growing up, I always thought this was my mom's bad habit, but I recently accused her of being a packrat and she pointed firmly at my dad as the culprit.)
Speaking of paper, I happened to get a Uline catalog in the mail yesterday (random!) and so I donated it to the baby. She has loved ripping the pages out of it, then ripping up the pages. I probably should not be permitting this activity -- she's probably learning an awful habit -- but dang if it's not super cute.
Just like everything else about her!
Her. Baby Girl. She turns one year old this week! It's surreal. Where did the year go? A year ago Tuesday, I started having contractions; 41 hours of labor later, my daughter was born. One year later, here we are! I've been thinking for a week now about what I want to write to her in her one-year letter but I just can't get my head around the idea. She's still just a baby. As I was telling Amy (in SIL) last week, I never imagined my one-year-old would still be a baby. I thought she'd be walking and talking, and eating mostly solid foods by now. Instead we're still waiting for a first word, she doesn't even want to stand up (forget about walking) and she still nurses for half her meals. I thought she'd be toddlerish, but nope. Baby. Maybe that's why I'm no longer feeling the next-baby urge, because this one is still a baby? Who knows.
She sure is great, though.
Now lest you think we've gone on some spending spree, I want to clarify that both of our current/old computers are dying. They have been on life support for quite some time -- Nate's been nursing his computer for a year, I've been struggling for 8-9 months with my computer. So we did our best to hold off on the new purchases, we took the old machines to the repair shop, and when we finally got new ones we didn't buy anything fancy. They are very moderate, practical computers. As soon as his new computer arrives, oh! It will be such a relief to no longer stress about our broken machines.
For about an hour, I had my old and new laptops up and running simultaneously. My work laptop was sitting off to my left, and my netbook was off to my right. Then Nate came in to fire up his computer. So I decided to bring my tablet in from the bedroom and take a picture of the whole family:
I should have grabbed my older laptop (from college) and set it up too, just for fun. And Nate could have pulled out his work laptop. Maybe next week when Nate's new computer comes we can get all nine machines together for a photo. Hahahhahaha. I'm totes kidding.
We also went to visit Nate's dad yesterday. Nate's mom is out of town, visiting her sister in another state, so poor "poppi" is home alone. He's been over for dinner a couple of times and we've gone to visit him a couple of times. He's a very nice man, very easy to talk with, and we enjoy seeing him.
Do you remember that hideous pine tree in the back yard that we cut down? The stump is still in the ground and Nate decided that yesterday was a good day to start attacking, so a friend from church came over and they spent a couple of hours digging and chopping the roots. Apparently it has some very tough roots because they did not get very far. (And apparently the ax is also over-due for sharpening.)
They did not plan to wear matching outfits, it just happened:
While the boys worked on Mr. Stump, I cleaned up my office. My desk has been a disorganized mess for awhile now. After a couple of hours of cleaning and purging and moving stuff, it's still not my ideal, but it is much better. I just need to hold on to less crap -- paper, specifically. I have way to many scraps and notes and pictures and documents cluttering up my space. (I get this bad habit from my dad, who was.... and is... bad about piling up stacks of papery things in the kitchen. Growing up, I always thought this was my mom's bad habit, but I recently accused her of being a packrat and she pointed firmly at my dad as the culprit.)
Speaking of paper, I happened to get a Uline catalog in the mail yesterday (random!) and so I donated it to the baby. She has loved ripping the pages out of it, then ripping up the pages. I probably should not be permitting this activity -- she's probably learning an awful habit -- but dang if it's not super cute.
Just like everything else about her!
Her. Baby Girl. She turns one year old this week! It's surreal. Where did the year go? A year ago Tuesday, I started having contractions; 41 hours of labor later, my daughter was born. One year later, here we are! I've been thinking for a week now about what I want to write to her in her one-year letter but I just can't get my head around the idea. She's still just a baby. As I was telling Amy (in SIL) last week, I never imagined my one-year-old would still be a baby. I thought she'd be walking and talking, and eating mostly solid foods by now. Instead we're still waiting for a first word, she doesn't even want to stand up (forget about walking) and she still nurses for half her meals. I thought she'd be toddlerish, but nope. Baby. Maybe that's why I'm no longer feeling the next-baby urge, because this one is still a baby? Who knows.
She sure is great, though.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
A long post about lots of different things
I ordered a car seat! I started writing about the final decision-making process and last-minute pandemonium with actually ordering the car seat, then about three paragraphs along I realized it makes for a whole post all by itself, so I will finish and post it later. Suffice it to say that we ordered a seat, it will arrive Wednesday evening, and that we are excited and relieved! (Oh, and spoiler alert: We got the Britax Boulevard in Aztec, no click safe.)
Aside from writing about the car seat, I also want to be really whiney about the fact that I am sick. I started to feel stuffy on Wednesday night, then woke up Thursday morning, WHAM, full-blown sick. It has been a miserable few days. Turns out it is really hard to be a good mom and take care of my baby while being sick. I could honestly grouse about it for several paragraphs, but I am not going to give in to the negative. I am already starting to feel better, and after a couple more days of rest I should be mostly mended. (The runny nose will likely persist for at least a week because, for some reason, that's how my body works, but I'm sure I will otherwise feel fine in just a day or two).
So here's some of the best parts of the week:
Last Monday (Memorial Day, a day off work) we went to visit some friends who live about an hour south, in the town where Nate and I went to college. The husband is an old friend of mine from high school; we were in band together. I became friends with his wife about six years ago, after they got married, because she (Kimmy) use to host an open-to-everyone waffle breakfast every Saturday morning. Kimmy is absolutely one of my most favorite people in the world. I think of her as a kindred spirit. I don't know that she thinks of me quite as affectionately, but that's okay -- I don't keep a lot of company so I tend to be a bit overly affectionate about the handful of friends in my circle. I try to keep the lovey dovey stuff pretty well contained but sometimes I just can't help it...
Like when our friends let us stop by and suck up half their day, and let us use their baby wipes for the six diaper changes we go through in a four-hour period (how did I forget baby wipes?! Blarg, I felt and still feel pretty dumb) without even batting an eye. They are very generous souls. Nearly every day I find myself wishing that we lived closer to them.
Anyway, we headed south for the bulk of the day to visit with our friends and go walk around on the ol' college campus. It looks about the same as it did when we left five years ago, although there were several new buildings and developments on the East side. It was fun to see the changes, but unfortunately since it was a holiday everything was shut down.
So we had lunch, took our walk, went back to their house for a little more chatting and hanging out, then hit the road.
Back home, Nate went to town on a project we started in the entryway. Unfortunately I don't have a "before" picture, so those of you who have been to our house will just have to call upon your memory, and for those of you who have never been over: when you walk into our house, immediately in front of you there is (was!) a narrow, half-height bookshelf built into the wall. We use to keep toys and trinkets on the shelves. At some point several months ago, Nate suggested that we take out the bookshelf and put in a shoe storage locker for ourselves and our guests. I liked the idea so much that I started ripping out the shelving.
As if we needed another project, right?
We have one of the shoe lockers in our office and we love it -- it's very handy and very tastefully subtle. There's not a lot to be done with the entry way because it's a narrow space with nothing but exits into other rooms, so this is a much more practical/functional yet still simple use of the space.
Anyway, on Monday afternoon, Nate and I knocked out all the rest of the shelving and the studs, then framed the space for the new shoe locker and put the shoe locker frame in place. In other words:
We forgot that the shoe locker doesn't have a backside (it's left open because it's suppose to be mounted to a wall) so we need to get more plywood for the back before we can actually finishing putting together the locker. We also need to figure out how we want to frame the locker and the space. More pictures to come whenever we continue working on it.
(Here's the fully assembled shoe locker:
)
This week I did some sewing. But before I talk about it, let me share story that will help put things into perspective: About a month before my daughter was born, I had a baby shower, and my grandmother gave me a crib bumper. It's cute, it has animals on it. (This generic picture doesn't really do it justice...)
But even though the bumper came from Ikea and the crib came from Ikea, for some crazy reason the ties on the bumper did not line up correctly with the crib bars, and so it wouldn't stay up properly in the crib.
All I needed to do to fix the problem was put the bumper in the crib, mark where the ties needed to go, and add some ties. (Or move the current ties.) Simple, right?
For some reason, it took me almost a year to get it done. Baby Girl was probably about 8 months old before I finally marked the bumper, and then about 10 months old when I finally sewed on the extra ties and installed it in her crib. Sad, right? I know.
So it's no surprise that the crib skirt experienced a similar fate. I had a gift certificate to Pottery Barn that I used to order a very nice, white-with-brown-ribbon-trim skirt for the crib. It arrived in the mail, I put it in the wash, and put it on the crib.... And it was about two inches shorter than the length of the crib. That doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me, there was a big gap on either end of the crib skirt and it looked tacky. I got the skirt when my daughter was maybe a month old, and it stayed on the crib for several months. In fact, I think it was my renewed efforts on the crib bumper that finally prompted me to take off the crib skirt. ("Now that I've fixed the bumper, I am going to fix this d----- crib skirt!")
The skirt sat around my craft room for a couple of months before I finally made time to work on it. The skirt has a very nice, full pleat on either side that gave me extra fabric to manipulate. I let out the pleats, cut the lining in half, sewed in a 2-inch length of cloth, narrowed the pleats and sewed them back down.
This picture is a bit fuzzy, but you can see where I put in the new length of fabric:
And here's the "fixed" skirt, installed in the crib (note that it is still a tad short on either end -- I couldn't make it any longer without losing the pleats):
(For the record, I actually ordered two skirts, but I hadn't opened the second one when I discovered the first one was too small, so I sent the second one back.)
Thus, now that my daughter is nearly a year old, her crib is finally all put together. Of course, since she's going to start standing up sometime soon, we will need to lower the crib bed and thus the skirt will be too long. It figures, huh?
Today I made bread. Normal bread, just whole wheat with honey. Actually, I used my Challah recipe but rolled it into normal loaves rather than braiding. It makes for a bit of a fluffy bread -- I think I'm not kneading it quite enough or baking it long enough for it to really thicken/harden -- but Nate and I generally prefer a soft, fluffy bread. Some time soon I'd like to branch out and make a dense, rich rye bread. (I will have to chat with my father in law about this; he's an excellent bread maker and his rye is superb.) If I had more free time, I would love to spend more like baking. For instance, this afternoon I was thinking it would be fun to try and make a cheesecake sometime. I've never made a cheesecake, nor anything like it. I wonder if it's hard?
I often say to Nate that if I could be a stay at home mom, I would like to start making bread for the family. Right now, it's a fun thing to do sometimes on the weekends, but I think it would quickly become overwhelming if it were permanently part of my responsibilities. There's a lot to do, running a home and a family, and Nate and I keep pretty darn busy with the tasks already allocated. But if things were different, well... it sure would be nice to do more baking. (Kimmy, lately I find myself often wishing I were in your shoes! You are so blessed, and I am so happy for you :o)
Now for your favorite part of every post: THE LATEST WITH THE BABY!
Let's start out the baby section with a very cute video:
Baby Girl got two (TWO!) new teeth this week. One of them came through on Monday, the other came through on Friday. She was significantly less fussy and cranky and difficulty during this round of teething. Yes, she woke up earlier, acted a little fussier once in awhile, bit more and nursed a little less, but nothing like the first five teeth. Those additions were hellacious! In comparison, gaining these two teeth was pretty gentle.
Baby Girl has become crazy about animals. She loves, loves, LOVES kitties. Whether it's one of our cats, or a neighborhood cat, or her poppi's pet cat (Miss Kitty), when Darling sees a kitty, she starts squealing and squirming and shaking her arms/hands in delight. If you are holding her, she will fight to be set down. If she's sitting, she will immediately start crawling toward the cat. She is also saying "kitty" although she says it in her baby language, not the actual word. But it's very clearly her version of kitty -- she says something that sounds about like "tee-tee" (although once in awhile she'll say "kit-uh"). I will find it endlessly amusing if her first word is, in fact, kitty. Nate doesn't think it's cute, he's still working hard to get her to say momma or mommy. (She does say "mah-mah" but it's not really her word for me, it's just a sound she makes.)
Our pet cats like to sleep under our bed. Sometimes we take baby girl into our room, lift up our bed skirt, and gently pull one of the cats out from his or her basket under the bed. Baby Girl has learned this routine and will now do this for herself sometimes when she is exploring -- she will crawl into our room, lift up the bed skirt, peer under the bed, and start pulling out the kitty basket. When Jack is in a gracious mood he'll come out and let her snuggle on him. Or he'll just run away, which is even better: Darling loves to chase the kitties around the house.
This video sorta captures what I'm talking about (sorry it's dark at the beginning, and fuzzy throughout, and that I blow my nose somewhat loudly...)
Finally, please remember: If your mommy dresses you up in an outrageously shiny princess dress, please play the part by banging things together and causing a general ruckus. (Because you are, after all, the center of the universe.)
Aside from writing about the car seat, I also want to be really whiney about the fact that I am sick. I started to feel stuffy on Wednesday night, then woke up Thursday morning, WHAM, full-blown sick. It has been a miserable few days. Turns out it is really hard to be a good mom and take care of my baby while being sick. I could honestly grouse about it for several paragraphs, but I am not going to give in to the negative. I am already starting to feel better, and after a couple more days of rest I should be mostly mended. (The runny nose will likely persist for at least a week because, for some reason, that's how my body works, but I'm sure I will otherwise feel fine in just a day or two).
So here's some of the best parts of the week:
Last Monday (Memorial Day, a day off work) we went to visit some friends who live about an hour south, in the town where Nate and I went to college. The husband is an old friend of mine from high school; we were in band together. I became friends with his wife about six years ago, after they got married, because she (Kimmy) use to host an open-to-everyone waffle breakfast every Saturday morning. Kimmy is absolutely one of my most favorite people in the world. I think of her as a kindred spirit. I don't know that she thinks of me quite as affectionately, but that's okay -- I don't keep a lot of company so I tend to be a bit overly affectionate about the handful of friends in my circle. I try to keep the lovey dovey stuff pretty well contained but sometimes I just can't help it...
Like when our friends let us stop by and suck up half their day, and let us use their baby wipes for the six diaper changes we go through in a four-hour period (how did I forget baby wipes?! Blarg, I felt and still feel pretty dumb) without even batting an eye. They are very generous souls. Nearly every day I find myself wishing that we lived closer to them.
Anyway, we headed south for the bulk of the day to visit with our friends and go walk around on the ol' college campus. It looks about the same as it did when we left five years ago, although there were several new buildings and developments on the East side. It was fun to see the changes, but unfortunately since it was a holiday everything was shut down.
So we had lunch, took our walk, went back to their house for a little more chatting and hanging out, then hit the road.
Back home, Nate went to town on a project we started in the entryway. Unfortunately I don't have a "before" picture, so those of you who have been to our house will just have to call upon your memory, and for those of you who have never been over: when you walk into our house, immediately in front of you there is (was!) a narrow, half-height bookshelf built into the wall. We use to keep toys and trinkets on the shelves. At some point several months ago, Nate suggested that we take out the bookshelf and put in a shoe storage locker for ourselves and our guests. I liked the idea so much that I started ripping out the shelving.
As if we needed another project, right?
We have one of the shoe lockers in our office and we love it -- it's very handy and very tastefully subtle. There's not a lot to be done with the entry way because it's a narrow space with nothing but exits into other rooms, so this is a much more practical/functional yet still simple use of the space.
Anyway, on Monday afternoon, Nate and I knocked out all the rest of the shelving and the studs, then framed the space for the new shoe locker and put the shoe locker frame in place. In other words:
We forgot that the shoe locker doesn't have a backside (it's left open because it's suppose to be mounted to a wall) so we need to get more plywood for the back before we can actually finishing putting together the locker. We also need to figure out how we want to frame the locker and the space. More pictures to come whenever we continue working on it.
(Here's the fully assembled shoe locker:
)This week I did some sewing. But before I talk about it, let me share story that will help put things into perspective: About a month before my daughter was born, I had a baby shower, and my grandmother gave me a crib bumper. It's cute, it has animals on it. (This generic picture doesn't really do it justice...)
But even though the bumper came from Ikea and the crib came from Ikea, for some crazy reason the ties on the bumper did not line up correctly with the crib bars, and so it wouldn't stay up properly in the crib.
All I needed to do to fix the problem was put the bumper in the crib, mark where the ties needed to go, and add some ties. (Or move the current ties.) Simple, right?
For some reason, it took me almost a year to get it done. Baby Girl was probably about 8 months old before I finally marked the bumper, and then about 10 months old when I finally sewed on the extra ties and installed it in her crib. Sad, right? I know.
So it's no surprise that the crib skirt experienced a similar fate. I had a gift certificate to Pottery Barn that I used to order a very nice, white-with-brown-ribbon-trim skirt for the crib. It arrived in the mail, I put it in the wash, and put it on the crib.... And it was about two inches shorter than the length of the crib. That doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me, there was a big gap on either end of the crib skirt and it looked tacky. I got the skirt when my daughter was maybe a month old, and it stayed on the crib for several months. In fact, I think it was my renewed efforts on the crib bumper that finally prompted me to take off the crib skirt. ("Now that I've fixed the bumper, I am going to fix this d----- crib skirt!")
The skirt sat around my craft room for a couple of months before I finally made time to work on it. The skirt has a very nice, full pleat on either side that gave me extra fabric to manipulate. I let out the pleats, cut the lining in half, sewed in a 2-inch length of cloth, narrowed the pleats and sewed them back down.
This picture is a bit fuzzy, but you can see where I put in the new length of fabric:
And here's the "fixed" skirt, installed in the crib (note that it is still a tad short on either end -- I couldn't make it any longer without losing the pleats):
(For the record, I actually ordered two skirts, but I hadn't opened the second one when I discovered the first one was too small, so I sent the second one back.)
Thus, now that my daughter is nearly a year old, her crib is finally all put together. Of course, since she's going to start standing up sometime soon, we will need to lower the crib bed and thus the skirt will be too long. It figures, huh?
Today I made bread. Normal bread, just whole wheat with honey. Actually, I used my Challah recipe but rolled it into normal loaves rather than braiding. It makes for a bit of a fluffy bread -- I think I'm not kneading it quite enough or baking it long enough for it to really thicken/harden -- but Nate and I generally prefer a soft, fluffy bread. Some time soon I'd like to branch out and make a dense, rich rye bread. (I will have to chat with my father in law about this; he's an excellent bread maker and his rye is superb.) If I had more free time, I would love to spend more like baking. For instance, this afternoon I was thinking it would be fun to try and make a cheesecake sometime. I've never made a cheesecake, nor anything like it. I wonder if it's hard?
I often say to Nate that if I could be a stay at home mom, I would like to start making bread for the family. Right now, it's a fun thing to do sometimes on the weekends, but I think it would quickly become overwhelming if it were permanently part of my responsibilities. There's a lot to do, running a home and a family, and Nate and I keep pretty darn busy with the tasks already allocated. But if things were different, well... it sure would be nice to do more baking. (Kimmy, lately I find myself often wishing I were in your shoes! You are so blessed, and I am so happy for you :o)
Now for your favorite part of every post: THE LATEST WITH THE BABY!
Let's start out the baby section with a very cute video:
Baby Girl got two (TWO!) new teeth this week. One of them came through on Monday, the other came through on Friday. She was significantly less fussy and cranky and difficulty during this round of teething. Yes, she woke up earlier, acted a little fussier once in awhile, bit more and nursed a little less, but nothing like the first five teeth. Those additions were hellacious! In comparison, gaining these two teeth was pretty gentle.
Baby Girl has become crazy about animals. She loves, loves, LOVES kitties. Whether it's one of our cats, or a neighborhood cat, or her poppi's pet cat (Miss Kitty), when Darling sees a kitty, she starts squealing and squirming and shaking her arms/hands in delight. If you are holding her, she will fight to be set down. If she's sitting, she will immediately start crawling toward the cat. She is also saying "kitty" although she says it in her baby language, not the actual word. But it's very clearly her version of kitty -- she says something that sounds about like "tee-tee" (although once in awhile she'll say "kit-uh"). I will find it endlessly amusing if her first word is, in fact, kitty. Nate doesn't think it's cute, he's still working hard to get her to say momma or mommy. (She does say "mah-mah" but it's not really her word for me, it's just a sound she makes.)
Our pet cats like to sleep under our bed. Sometimes we take baby girl into our room, lift up our bed skirt, and gently pull one of the cats out from his or her basket under the bed. Baby Girl has learned this routine and will now do this for herself sometimes when she is exploring -- she will crawl into our room, lift up the bed skirt, peer under the bed, and start pulling out the kitty basket. When Jack is in a gracious mood he'll come out and let her snuggle on him. Or he'll just run away, which is even better: Darling loves to chase the kitties around the house.
This video sorta captures what I'm talking about (sorry it's dark at the beginning, and fuzzy throughout, and that I blow my nose somewhat loudly...)
Finally, please remember: If your mommy dresses you up in an outrageously shiny princess dress, please play the part by banging things together and causing a general ruckus. (Because you are, after all, the center of the universe.)
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