actual food i've actually tried from Pinterest

I love and hate Pinterest.  At the moment I am loving it.  Since I'm a housewife at the moment I have tried to step up my game and try some new recipes.  Does anyone else get stuck in a recipe rut and make the same things for weeks on end without thinking about it?  One of the frustrating things about Pinnie is that it's a great resource for ideas but they're useless if you don't try any of them  So I have started making a couple of recipes a week that I've pinned, mainly to prove to Sam that I'm not wasting hours on Pinterest but actually accomplishing something.  Here are the ones from the past two weeks.....

(Via here)

Crockpot Cashew Chicken

What a darn good idea, if you have a crock pot.  Ours broke.  But I followed this recipe and just cooked it at a low heat in the oven for about 3 hours and it was delish.  We will most definitely eat this again.  I don't often cook with nuts so it felt slightly exotic to make something with cashews.  And it fit right into my current recipe criteria which are ease, speed and tastiness.

(Via here)

Baked Brie Dip

Holy moly, this was good.  Sam and I both were moaning in ecstacy as we devoured it.  I used half a camembert which was more than enough for a starter for the two of us and also that way I can make it twice:)  The only thing I did differently with this was one was to blend the garlic, tomatoes and herbs before layering it with the cheese to make it smoother.  Another recipe that was easy, fast and GOOD.

(Via here)

Peanut Butter Mug Cake

I was desperate for something tasty, and desperate for this to work.  I don't know if I did something wrong or if our microwave is just bad but it was a disaster, it did not rise or become cake like.  I am intruiged by the idea of a mug cake and would love to find a recipe that works.

(Via here)

Baked Quinoa Broccoli Casserole

  I was a little late hopping onto the quinoa train so I am still testing it out in different forms.  Baked is best in my opinion.  This was pretty good and got the thumbs up from Sam which is always nice.  I used cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of broccoli because that's what I had and it was pretty good.  Fast, easy, tasty.  Yes.

(Via here)

Santa Fe Chicken Salad Wraps

These were really good, a nice combo of flavors and textures.  They met my expectations, we both liked them and I'll probably make them again. 

we went to the beach

There are some decent beaches within two miles of our house, but the best ones are a little further south.  This week we went to Putsborough in North Devon for the day.  Sam has 6 weeks off for summer holidays and the weather has been amazing, sunny and in the 70's, so we have been making the most of it.  It was Maya's first time to put her little toes in the Atlantic--the ocean that separarates her two homes.  She got to play in and eat some sand, and Sam and I got to bask in the lovely sun and get a little tan!  It was a beautiful relaxing day for all three of us. 

It always amazes me, a very non-dog person, that people bring their dogs to the beach, allow them to get in the water, roll in the sand, get on the blanket and slobber all over them, but this time I realized that a baby does the exact same thing.  The key is to have a beer or ice cream available, then you care a little less about the sand in your crevices.  I was putting a diaper on Maya today and when I openend it up a bunch of sand came out of it.  That's because while Sam was dragging all of our stuff across the beach loaded onto the stroller, which seemed like a good idea at the time, it collapsed and everything fell on the ground so the diaper bag was full of the horrid grainy stuff, but while he got a little annoyed I opened my Corona and Ole'! it was no problemo.  I look forward to going back next week!

treasure

I recently put together a treasure basket for Maya.  Treasure baskets are a way for babies and toddlers to enjoy heuristic play--exploring every day objects that are made up of different textures, shapes and sizes.  Basically stuff from around the house that will be more interesting than plastic toys.  They have a few of these baskets at the childrens' center we go to and Maya is always fascinated by things like sponges, wire egg cups and wooden spoons so I decided it was time to make one for her to play with at home.  It took me about 5 mintues to grab a bunch of different things and clean them before putting them into a spare basket that is low enough for Maya to reach into.  I now am always noticing things that she would be interested in, things I didn't really consider beforehand. 

The first thing she usually does is to empty the basket completely so that all the objects are spread around her, then she examines (and of course chews on) each one. 

 She will spend so much time playing with the items in her treasure basket.  This morning she spent 30 minutes exploring happily while I sat nearby watching.  She does not spend that much time playing with any of her other toys, so it's incredible to me that these every day bits and bobs really capture her attention.  She is absolutely fascinated by this stuff!

 Today she was fixated on the silicone muffin cup.  She played with it for about 10 minutes, just turning it around in her hands, dropping it and picking it up and making sure it was sufficiently covered in slobber!

 Ideally the basket should be filled with lots of items to stimulate baby's senses, and not many plastic things.  I have included a few plastic items that are a bit different from her other toys, and of course a spoon because she is always eager to hold her spoon when we are feeding her. It amazes me that she can already do that, and that she always puts it in her mouth the right way! 

In Maya's Treasure Basket:

A couple of plastic measuring cups

Lavender sachet

Silicone muffin cup

Wooden rings

Koozie

Bath sponge

Snack cups

Woven napkin ring

Champagne cork

Tupperware lid

Pestle

Baby spoon





 

Other cool things to add would be pine cones or big sea shells, some shiny or sparkly fabric, velvet, leather, silk or fur, something metal like a tea strainer, bell or small whisk.  Lots of ideas!  I will probably encourage her to play with the items in her treasure basket only once a day, I don't want her to get bored of them, and I will continue to add and take away items as she gets older (I'm not sure how the cork would survive once she has teeth!).  I guess this will keep her occupied until she is able to empty the cabinets in the kitchen and play with the pots and pans!



in the garden this year

a little eye candy

I never get tired of looking at flowers, the more colorful the better in my opinion.  I only wish I knew how to grow them, or what they are called.  These roses smell so so good, but my favorite by far are the fox gloves, I imagine a little fox coming along and actually putting it's paw in the flowers to keep them warm.  Yes warm, because it is still chilly here.  We haven't even officially turned off our heating for the 'summer'.  

we're back. with a post about food.

Has it really been over 4 months since I wrote on the old blog?  That's terrible.  I will be honest though, I never intended this to be a baby blog, and since baby stuff is basically all I do right now I have refrained from writing.  It's also been a really nice break.  Blogging can be really frustrating and I get annoyed with how long it takes to process and upload pictures. But this is also a blog about our lives, and since Maya is a MASSIVE (and noisy) part of that now I will include the little tot but try not to overshare.  You're welcome.

So, she's 7 months old next week. When I look at her now, sitting up and rolling over, I can't believe she is the same baby who only a few months ago laid very still and only made slow motion little movements. She eats real food now too, as you can see.  

Thankfully the whole feeding thing has gone really smoothly, she has liked every single thing I've given her.  From butternut squash to spinach, peaches to raspberries.  We have done a combination of the regular old pureed food and a little bit of baby led weaning.  Baby led weaning is a really silly term for letting the baby feed herself--so we give her little sticks of things like soft apples, avacado and cucumber to gum (she doesn't have any teeth yet) and she loves to do it.  It's so fun to see her try different tastes and textures.  I dreaded the whole messy food business but it's been really enjoyable for all three of us, and since I made a ton of food and froze it in advance it's been really easy and convenient, even when we are out and about.  Now Sam gets to participate in feeding time (and I can have a little break!) and Maya gets to expand her palate.  

 We already have some rituals.  Mays sits happily in her chair while we get the food ready and heated, she gets really excited too because now she's learned what's happening.  She likes to rest her feet on the bar of her high chair, nice and comfy.  She does a poo EVERY SINGLE time, usually right after we start to feed her, which I think is astonishing because it literally happens every single time and it must be the most horrible and uncomfortable time to do that, strange right?  But there you go.  Is that oversharing?  Sorry.

Say hello to little broccoli brows.  Food gets into all of her little creases and crevices, especially her nose.  And she has to touch everything these days.  'forget about this sweet potato, give me that camera, it looks tasty.'

We do still do a few things that aren't baby related, however.  Sam and I have found time to go on a few nice dates, and our garden is also flourishing thanks to me actually being around to take care of it this summer. We have grown cucumbers for the first time and there are so many of them, I'm going to have to learn how to make pickles. 

28 photos later...

Besides growing a human being in my body, I also kept up with this little project, and after seeing them all together like this I'm really glad I did. This is documentation of the greatness of my girth from the first week I noticed I looked different to the actual moment before we left for the hospital to have Maya--from 10-37 weeks. Thank you to my ever patient husband and photographer who kindly ignored my requests to make me look skinny.

the one about poop

There are three things you can be certain of as a new parent--you will be knocked off your feet with a staggering love for your baby, you will not sleep as much as you want to and you will find that within a matter of days, if not hours, poop will become a contstant companion. The part of your new life that is not already consumed with feeding, rocking, playing with and taking an ungodly number of pictures of your baby will be spent dealing with what comes out of the baby.

In one of our pre-natal classes when the instructor told us that newborns could go through 10-12 diapers a day I thought that was a comical overexaggeration and I chuckled at her funny joke, if only to be polite. As it turns out, some newborns, mine for instance, can actually meet that number and exceed it on a surprisingly regular basis. Why? Why? In fact, she was born with the incredible talent to dirty a diaper while it was being changed, amazing. At first I thought, "What a clever little baby I have! How quick she is! How cute!" But after a few instances in the darkness of night, under the veil of exhaustion, when I didn't think it necessary to open my eyes while changing a diaper only to find upon getting back into bed that I had poop actually on my person and when I checked the baby she was also partially submerged in the substance--only then did the amazement fade. The dismaying part of finding poop on yourself in the middle of the night is not that EW poop is gross but that you have to waste precious minutes of sleep changing yourself and the babe. Changing diapers can be enjoyable too! I get to play with her little toes and tickle her tummy and since she started smiling diaper changes are so much more fun, I think she knows that it's a funny situation and usually smiles and giggles away the whole time.

A foolish new parent will leave the house for the first time without carefully mapping out their intended route and making note of where the diaper changing facilities are along the way. Foolish indeed. It is also foolish to assume that there are diaper changing facilities in all bathrooms in all stores in all public places. False! There are not. At least not in this country. (I intend to make notes of baby-changing-friendly places when we are in Texas in April and I'm hoping that Chick Fil A is one of them because I plan on spending a nice chunk of time there.) Nothing strikes fear in the soul of a new parent more than being out with a baby whose diaper has failed you and not being able to find a place to change her, especially in the winter when a park bench will not do. I once saw a mom with terror in her eyes lurch into the Starbucks I was sitting in, empty the contents of her diaper bag at a table and change her little baby there and then. I don't think I have the audacity to do that, but then again I haven't needed to yet. Maya has been changed in the car on a few occasions.

Speaking of changing rooms, enter one and you have entered a whole new world previously closed off to you because you had absolutely no reason whatsoever to go in one. On our first time out with Maya, Sam and I came to the point of no return where we had to change her diaper and so we sought out one of the two known baby changing facilities in the town where we live. Upon stepping into the chamber we were immediately assaulted by the strangest of statements, "OOoooOOOoooOOOHHHHh WHAT A BIIIIIIG POOOOOOOO!!!! Mommy's little boy is soooo gooooood WOWOWOWOWOWWWWW Looook at THAAAAT!!!!!" and I couldn't believe that this was part of our new life, that exclamations like that are completely normal. I have made some very close friends in changing rooms since, even if those friendships only last for as long as it takes to change a diaper. You always leave knowing how old the babies are who were in there, their names, their approximate weight and how well they sleep at night. Oh how we miss little Martin from the service station on the M4 between Bristol and Swindon who we met on the way to London! We will never see him again, yet I will always wonder if that top tooth ever came in! Sweet little Floella from the changing room in town who had just turned 4 months and had pooped all over her last change of clothes that her mom brought with her! What a cheeky little monkey she was!

Back to that first day in a changing room: Maya, the very child I kept safely within my body for 8.5 months and lovingly laboured with for over 24 hours, decided to launch a full assault on her sleep deprived and naiive parents when we were at our weakest. She had been saving up for just the right moment--already feeling nervous about doing this out for the first time I slowly took off her clothes and her diaper with anxiety rising up within me, which was when she began her attack by spraying poo on my hands which meant that I had to take my eyes off her for a few seconds to wipe them clean, meanwhile she took the opportunity to projectile poo over my clothes and onto the floor at which point Sam, who had previously been taking a power nap propped up against the wall, came to my rescue with more wipes, and while we were trying to clean that up she started peeing, drenching herself and both of us in the process. What a rat! I literally did not know what to do, I had never seen such a mess with a baby in the middle of it, I took a step back and hopped from one foot to the other and had a very slight freak out until Sam had gained control of the situation with almost a whole pack of wipes and all of the diapers we had ventured out with (like 18). Come to find out these occurances were not at all unusual and Maya sneak attacks often, but ever since that first time we have been prepared with great big towels and buckets of water and full hazmat suits (which can be seen in Exhibit A below). Always always always be prepared. Be over-prepared.

One last observation (I don't want to go overboard here and gross anyone out, although I'm sue I probably already have--sorry), but isn't it just amazing the sheer velocity at which a tiny doll sized human being can expell their lunch?? The distant targets they can hit? And at what angles! I have been changing Maya before and got her cleaned up ready to go and then noticed a puddle a few inches off to the side, at a 90 degree angle, perpendicular to her body. It must just be a baby skill, I know I can't do that!

Exhibit A

the big M

So, I'm a mother. That's still weird to say. But it means that in a very short period of time I have become overwhelmed by an indescribable amount of love for a tiny creature, occasionally speak in a strange high pitched voice, use terms like "bott-bott" for bottom (why??), am unfazed by poop and other previously repulsive bodily fluids (so much so that I have actually gone back to bed at 3am knowing there was a drop of poop on the duvet and didn't give a rat's you know what), get annoyed when loud cars drive by because they might wake the baby and often do (bleeeeping bleep bleep bleeeeep), get highly distressed when Maya wont go down for a nap and then look at pictures of her when she's sleeping because I can't wait for her to wake up, melt into fits of tears when she smiles at me, and generally think about her all of the time. It's great:)

I'm not sure if other moms would agree with this but I often feel that motherhood is like being bipolar--one day everything goes perfectly and you have so much confidence in yourself and your baby is happy and you're feeling on top of the world and the next day any small thing could set you off like you realize how exhausted you are and can't remember the last time you took a shower and the baby wont take a nap and you feel like a terrible mother. Maybe it's just me? On the bad days it's important to have a baby daddy who brings chocolate home from work and reminds you that your baby is happy and healthy and that he thinks you're doing great. Good or bad, it's the most beautiful, challenging, fulfilling thing I've ever done. The best job ever. When I peek into Maya's crib every morning and see her sweet little face smiling up at me I wonder why I didn't do this before.

She's Here!!

Our sweet girl, Maya Hope, arrived two and a half weeks early on December 14 at 7:35pm weighing in at 5 pounds and 12 ounces and measuring 19 inches! We are so happy and excited to share this first special Christmas with her as a family of 3. She is a sweet happy baby and has made our world complete. We are totally in love.

Happy holidays!!