Life with Lauren: 5 Months

This is Dan's favorite sleeper for Lauren. 

Five months outside of the womb have passed so much ore quickly than the first five months of pregnancy. Lauren seems more like a little person each day, and I can only imagine that this impression will grow stronger as she asserts more of her own opinions about things. She has always been alert -- baby big eyes! -- but even more so now. She captivated the ladies sitting behind us at church, and calmly accepted their praise and clutched proffered fingers. Immediately after she stuck her index finger in her mouth to chew on, so I sincerely hope all of those people were part of the clean hands club. (Oh yes, she has mastered the sucking of the index finger.)

Big moments from the month include the first unenthusiastic spoonful of food, and I use the word food loosely here. When our doctor said we could start her on rice cereal any time after four months, I was surprised, then sad (my baby is growing up!), then excited (real food!), then started to plan (baby food cookbooks? an immersion blender? storage containers?), all of which was tempered by at least three parents confessing that their babies despised rice cereal. We waited until she was pretty steady sitting up and very observant of our mealtime actions. (Sitting on our lap, she cranes her neck to follow the path of our glasses from the table to our mouths.) And, so at about 4 months, 3 weeks, we gave her a spoonful, which was pushed around and pushed back out. Dan tried a couple more spoonfuls and gave it a break for the night. We've only tried twice since then, every couple of days, with similar results. So, maybe as we get closer to six months we'll try a little bit more. I'm not in a hurry. Our combination of nursing and supplementing with formula continues to work for us.

Funniest look on her face. 

Lauren currently weighs 12 lbs, 14 oz, so she's continuing to gain weight at a slow and steady pace. Her length is __________*. She's our string bean and I love her to pieces! She's in her 3-6 month and 6 month clothes. It's so funny how different brands fit -- in her Gerber onesies she's in the 6-9 months because of her length, yet the Gap 3-6 month sleepers are still too long. Things still have a habit of sliding off her narrow frame, especially pants and socks. But her cheeks are getting chubbier and chubbier, as you can see from the pictures!

Another beautiful milestone of this month has been increasingly regular morning naps. After two hours of being up in the morning, she wants to go back to sleep, and I am happy to oblige by swaddling her up and being able to do whatever I want around the house for 45 minutes or so. The actual time of these naps vary quite a bit, anywhere from about 7:45 in the morning to 10:15. More often than not, Lauren's internal alarm clock goes off at 5:40, and sometimes that's it! She's up for the day! (Although my internal alarm clock doesn't love it, at least Dan occasionally gets baked oatmeal out of the deal, fresh from the oven.) Night time sleeping is getting better, with the occasional agonizing setback of multiple times up in the night. I'm realizing that when she goes to bed, usually between 8:30 and 9:00, I need to go to bed.

Playtime is more and more fun. She loves grabbing on tight and putting things in her mouth, especially blankets. Weird? Maybe. We read a few books every day and sometimes her hand happens to turn a page. I know it's a coincidence, but I like to pretend she knows what's going on.

As I said before, Lauren is very observant. One of the cutest moments of this month was when she was sitting on Dan's lap during dinner. He was telling me about his day, and Lauren was leaning back, head turned up at him, staring at him adoringly. I broke the spell by grabbing the camera, but it was the sweetest expression of total fascination with her dad. My favorite moments from the month have been the belly-laughs when I kiss her round cheeks and soft neck. I can't get enough of it! The other special memory for this month, for me, is during some of the early morning nursing times. Lauren has fallen asleep in my arms, and before I've put her back in her crib, I've spent a few minutes just looking at my baby girl. She's had the most beautiful, peaceful look on her face.

Just so you know, it's a fact she's cute. So cute, in fact, that at the doctor's office yesterday, a little boy said, "Your baby's cute! Is it a boy or a girl?" I told him that she was a girl and he said, again, "She's so cute." Then he reached into the car seat, patted her foot and then patted her head. (His mother told his to stop, but he was only touching her clothes.) I followed him and his mother out to the elevator, and he turns to her and says, "That baby is really cute, right mom?" Melt my heart, funny little boy who can't say your "r" sounds.

This week, Lauren and I are off to visit family while Dan is stuck here with work, so we are hoping for an uneventful car ride there and a wonderful week of memories!

*Baby is currently sleeping. I will update with this information at a convenient time... aka never. 

CSA: Week 2

Week 2 for the CSA rolled around, and I have to admit, I was dreading it a little bit. The problem was that we still hadn't eaten some of our CSA veggies and yet other store-bought veggies were hanging out in our refrigerator too. It was one of those goofy weeks when we ended up not eating as many meals as I had planned -- out to dinner, leftovers, and a meal not on our original menu. Added to that, this week the entire box was ours because of M & M's generosity, although we still shared some of the bounty. So there were no tears because the box wasn't overflowing. In fact, I was a little relieved.

Our haul on Wednesday included:
1 bag of "chard"
1 small bag of broccoli
1 bag of kale
1 bag of garlic scapes
1 bunch of green onions
1 qt. and 1 pt. of fresh strawberries

The strawberries were beautiful, ripe the entire way through, perfectly red and juicy. As I had spent an hour in the blazing heat on Monday with Bethany picking about 10 pounds of strawberries (and had spent the previous evening making them in to jam and strawberry cotulis), I knew that I couldn't hoard these berries. We made a date to share them with Mike, Mary and their boys over some strawberry shortcake with freshly whipped cream. Can we say delicious?

As for the garlic scapes, I decided to make them into another pesto, similar to what I did with the garlic greens. I've decided I like basil pesto more, but since I needed to use these, it worked! It's a pretty strong flavor, but it jazzed up our pasta.

The green onions went into our Pasta and Italian Sausage Veggie Extravaganza. That was solution to the way-too-many vegetables conundrum, and oh my goodness -- it was fantastic! Pasta from the cupboard, asparagus languishing in the fridge, red peppers purchased for a dish we couldn't make (see next paragraph!), green onions, leftover garlic greens pesto, and some bulk italian sausage, all topped with some Parmesan cheese made a fantastic dinner. (We ate the broccoli as we prepped for this meal, after a short 13 mile bike ride.)

And the chard, a whole bag of which we still had from the previous week? Well, last week it was called chard, but it looked a lot more like lettuce and much less like the pictures of chard that were posted online. And in this week's newsletter? It was dubbed lettuce. We were much more willing to eat that, and most of it was consumed in our chicken salads on Saturday evening.

The kale is wilting in our fridge for a few more minutes, but I'm going to give it a whirl in a variation of this recipe. Dan searched for "best kale recipe ever" when he learned that we had gotten this in our share, and I think that mixing the kale with beans (but skipping the mushrooms, of course) will make it a bit more palatable for the two of us.

The last thing in our share was a bunch of flowers. Dan was probably right when he called them weeds, but they have been brightening up our apartment all week.

Hope your adventures in summer eating are as delicious as ours have been!

Sunday Morning Pancakes

As a kid, one of my favorite nights was when my mom would let us have reading suppers. This would involve everyone bringing the book they were currently reading down to the dinner table and reading through dinner. Even my parents would join in, and secretly, they were probably glad to have a dinner time with no fights.

The only way dinner got any better was when we would have breakfast for supper. There's nothing like pancakes, bacon and/or sausage, eggs, pure maple syrup, and a big glass of cold milk enjoyed at dinner time. Apparently, Dan didn't like breakfast for dinner as a kid. He thought it was cheating, but he's changed his mind after we got married. PHEW. There's almost always what we need for breakfast-for-dinner in our cupboards, fridge, and freezer, so it's a good thing he doesn't mind when we indulge in this delectable meal for dinner.

Although this time we didn't enjoy these pancakes at dinner, I love this recipe for its healthy spin. They are hearty and wholesome without tasting too healthy, and sprinkled with a few blueberries (picked this past summer and frozen in bags) they are a great start to the day. Hope you enjoy them!

Whole Grain Pancakes*

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oats

1/4 cup wheat germ OR 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal & 2 tablespoons oat bran

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups milk

1 egg

2 tablespoons oil

Combine dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients and add to dry. Let set for a few minutes as the griddle heats. Sprinkle with blueberries when cooking pancakes on the griddle. Enjoy!

*Perhaps this recipe is courtesy of Aunt Amy? The baked oatmeal wasn't (oops!), but I think this one is. Tell me if I'm wrong.

Thanksgiving -- Hip Hip, Hooray!

Today we are off to Dan's sister's house so we don't have a crazy hectic morning tomorrow, what with the 5K and all. I volunteered (or was asked?) to bring pies and rolls, so I've been preparing since Monday.

I made two different kinds of rolls on Monday. First I made potato rolls, melt-in-your-mouth delicious and a reminder of the Fredonia establishment The Upper Crust. Later in the day I made oatmeal rolls, complete with some white whole wheat flour (love that King Arthur brand!).

Yesterday I made pie crusts and put them in the fridge, and this morning I finished up the pies. Chocolate pecan pie and apple with a crumb top. My motto is that cooking/baking ALWAYS takes longer than you think it will. And I was right. The kitchen looked like a war zone even with that step out of the way, and I spent all morning making the fillings for 2 pies.

Now they are cooling on the counter (and the kitchen is cleaned up), so I have some time to reflect on the past few Thanksgivings.

In 2007, our first "married" Thanksgiving, we went to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving #1 and then to Fredonia for leftover Thanksgiving #2.

In 2008, the first year we were in Wisconsin, my parents and my sister made the long drive out to Williams Bay, and we celebrated with my Aunt Faith and cousin Frankie, too. That was the first Thanksgiving I was somewhat in charge of, although my parents brought a turkey, stuffing made and frozen, and some other Thanksgiving essentials (including recipes, which I now have safely tucked away). I made cornbread stuffing (I think?), Dan made mashed potatoes, and I also made the most amazing crescent rolls, if I do say so myself. It was also the first year we tried Chocolate Pecan Pie, and I fell in love.

In 2009, we did a pre-Thanksgiving celebration at Halloween with Dan's family because my student-teaching break far too short to drive all the way to PA. It was fun to have Thanksgiving with everyone and then go trick-or-treating. I loved it.

Then, for the REAL Thanksgiving, Andrew & Shelley drove out to WI to celebrate with us! They got totally lost in Ohio, but made it out to Williams Bay. It was my first Thankgiving without any parents, so I was (overly) prepared. I made a list of the menu, complete with what dishes the finished food would go in. As I was student teaching, I had to go to school on the day before Thanksgiving, and Shelley and Dan did most of the prep work for the big meal. It was like having a sous-chef.

On the day of Thanksgiving, we were joined by our friends Ryan & Virginia (and her amazing sweet potato casserole) and Jay. It was awesome -- I absolutely loved everything about this Thanksgiving, and apparently had so much fun that I didn't take a single picture. Of course we missed the family members who weren't there, but it was great to have friends and family to share the day with.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. You spend lots of time making delicious foods, which are laced with memories of years gone-by. You get to sit around eating and talking and laughing with family and/or friends. And then you can relax for a few hours, only to get out the leftovers to enjoy them again. So excited for the memories that this Thanksgiving will create.