A quick hello

I had grand plans of posting a delicious pizza recipe with you all here a few days ago, but a stomach bug found it's way into our house and so all three of us have been under the weather.  We are doing much better now, thank goodness! I'm hoping we all get some good sleep tonight and are back to normal by morning.  Here's to hoping.
Every time we don't feel well, I find myself so amazed by the resilience of babies.  Henry smiles despite feeling sick, and tries so hard to keep his normal energy.  He still crawls and climbs about while I whine flattened on the floor.  Amazing. Here's a little video of him this evening doing his new thing! Standing! He's been working on this for a few days, and it's so fun to see how it progresses. Last week he started to stand alone for a few seconds but didn't realize he was doing it, but now you can tell he does it on purpose.  He gets the proudest look on his face, and he expects there to be clapping when he's done.  We are always happy to oblige with lots of clapping and "yay!"s.  I'm also pretty sure he's trying to say dog.  It sounds like da, but he's doing it at the right times so hooray for growth and exciting things in the little love!
Stay healthy, everyone! I have never been so excited to get up in the morning and get ready for work and just carry on with a normal day. I hope that we're all healthy enough to do so!

Giggles

Daddy, baby, and dreams of a truck.

Eric has been pining after a truck for some time now.  It is definitely not the right time in our lives to get one, but until that day comes he will continue day dreaming about them.  Every time we pass the right kind of truck it's "there's my truck!!" And then there are the scenarios that play out in his mind that he tells me about that I think look much like this commercial.  Trips to the farm together in the truck, trips to haul wood for camping trips together, trips to help family shovel their driveways, all with his little boy by his side on the seats of their truck. I think this commercial secretly turns him to a lovey ball of daddy mush and he directs my attention to it every time.  I make fun of him for wanting a truck so badly because it's something I don't understand but the commercial--It gets me too.  Goodness I love having a little guy.  I can't wait until he uses his imagination like this during play time, and Eric can't wait until he's the daddy getting out of the truck with a little Henry running to his arms. 

These Chevy advertising people know what they're doing. 

9 month update

Happy end-of-weekend, friends.  I wish I didn't have these expectations of myself to write often, because I feel so disappointed when days go by and I have no chance to write.  More than that, I am disappointed because I genuinely love to write here on this blog.  It's my outlet, it's my memory bank, and it's a place to reach out and chat with other people, all things that I adore about this space.  When I  miss multiple days, I miss that many ideas as well.  Even when I have something I want to write, by the time I get to it it often seems irrelevant and I'm finding it frustrating.  Anyway, I am enjoying the time now, so I suppose I should focus on that.

 I am late in Henry's 9 month update, but wow do the changes just keep coming at an alarming pace! He turned 9 months on New Years Eve, and the poor boy was stuck with an ear infection at the time.  After the infection passed though, our little ball of energy was back and growing so fast.  You hear it all the time as new parents, to enjoy every bit because they grow up so quickly, but it's hard to grasp how fast it truly happens until it's right there in front of you (or past!) He now has four teeth which is taking some getting used to.  I giggle every time he flashes a big smile and I see the half-in teeth on his top gums. I love it so much!  He has learned to clap, wave hi and bye, walk while pushing his walker or holding onto furniture, and he's starting to dabble in standing alone.  He is as vibrant and outgoing as ever.  He is eating pretty much everything, but I think chicken and avocado are his favorites.  And cheese, who doesn't love cheese?  The one thing we have trouble with are noodles, because he either has trouble eating them, or doesn't like them ( I don't know how that's possible) but I can't tell which.  I think he wants to eat them but they slip right out of his mouth.  He babbles a lot, says dadadada and mamamama but never really at us so we aren't counting them as a first word yet.  I'm pretty sure he knows who goes with each name but must not feel like humoring us.  He does, however, crack up every time we say "mama" or "dada".  Oh well, in his own time!  The boy is busy. And so loving and affectionate. As Eric and I watched Henry play during bath time tonight, snuggling under my chin when he got out of the water, he told me that it's just sort of painful, the extremely intense love we feel for our baby boy.  Painful sounds like the wrong word, but it really is such a big love it nearly hurts.  You know what I mean? He is the greatest joy to us.

Sock throwing

Long Time Traveller

Ok I just realized that maybe talking about the butt of a chicken and intestines of an elephant isn't the most lovely way to start off the week. So here's a song I've been enjoying a lot this week! I like really mellow music and this song is just that. I think these women have beautiful voices, which makes it easy to listen to this really simple melody!  Happy Monday, everyone!

Oh dear grossness.

Have you all seen this photo?  (Check out the article to go with it) I read online, "can you guess what McDonalds food this is?" and I thought oh yum, strawberry soft serve! Except no. That, my friends, is McDonalds chicken.  The lovely stuff that goes into a chicken nugget. Barf. I like to get fast food every now and again when my stomach begs for greasy food but I have known about the chicken for a while and never get it, I usually just go for burgers.  But I've never actually seen what it looks like before it gets molded and dyed and shaped into a nugget and now after seeing this, I think my ties with the golden arches will have to be severed. I can't get past the fact that it looks like elephant intestines and that inside that pink paste, is some chicken meat along with a chicken beak, butt, foot, etc. It just makes me feel bad.
If any of you love McDonalds chicken nuggets, I'm okay with that! Just clearing that up since I have just slammed them entirely.  I speak only of my opinion and wanted to share this tidbit for anyone out there wanting more information.  Or for anyone who just fancies a gross picture every now and again, even if still planning to eat the final product. 

Pinterest In My Kitchen

Oh, how I love Pinterest.  It's a bitersweet love, as sometimes I look at it and feel depressed about all of the wonderful things on there I cannot seem to make or have, but sometimes it is just the most wonderful way to relax and get ideas.  Sometimes I find the perfect craft idea, or recipe, and last night was one of those times.  I feel so good every time I try a new recipe, and when it turns out delicious, that's obviously even better.  I decided to make beef and broccoli last night.  It was easy and holygoodness it was so tasty.  Beef and broccoli is an old favorite of mine from the days when I'd get chinese takeout.  But to be honest, I haven't found anywhere up here that has takeout that I enjoy (except a few of my favorite thai restaurants, yum!) I blame a restaurant in Iowa that has been around as long as I can remember, and no chinese food has ever matched up since.  I suppose you could say I've become a takeout snob.  But that is beside the point.
The point is, this recipe that I found on Pinterest is so so good, that it can definitely hold me over until the next time I visit home and get some of my favorite food from that wonderful place. (I always put on a disgusting display when it comes to how much I can eat when I go back there! Have to make up for the months I'm away) I've never known how to perfect that wonderful sauce, and now I've learned and I'm so glad! I wonder if I can convince the hubs to have it once a week...  It ended up being a very affordable meal, as many of the ingredients are things we generally have on hand.  Soy sauce, flour, sugar, garlic... Yes, yes, yes and yes! There are a few others in there, but essentially we just had to buy beef and broccoli which cost a total of eight dollars.  I served it over quinoa, since we had it on hand and I'm trying to use it more often since it's a healthy option.  The recipe specifies low sodium soy sauce, and I would second that.  We only had regular and it turned out wonderful, but it was definitely a little salty.  Yes I just said that. The one who uses way too much salt on a regular basis.  Didn't phase us too much, it was just too dang good!
For dessert I made another great Pinterest find, mini apple pies/turnovers! They were so easy, and such a treat.  I'll have to keep reminding myself that they are just that, a treat, and fight my urge to make them nightly.  I put them together in a total of five minutes, and it took me no longer than that to polish them off!
I cut the recipe in half, because I didn't feel like we each needed to eat eight of them and I wasn't sure how they'd reheat.  We had two left over though, and I can tell you they reheat beautifully :) I had them at work with a cup of coffee and they were just as good as they were fresh out of the oven.  The only thing I changed was using smart balance in place of butter because I don't usually keep butter aroudn, and it worked just fine.  Next time I might try using some agave nectar instead of sugar to make them a little "healthier".  I guess using the word healthy is a stretch, so I'll say to make them a little less unhealthy and a bit more fit for my desire to eat them every single night.  

Photo via Pinterest





Photo via Pinterest