Month: May 2013

Categories
Motherhood

Mother’s Day

Husband came home Saturday night after being on a work trip to CA for two weeks. It was the longest we’d spent apart since we met 9 years ago. It was also the longest he’d been away from the babies by far. He missed us & we were very glad to see him too.

As I’d mentioned, I was lucky to have my dad helping out while J was gone. And we were lucky that my mom drove back & forth on the weekends & cooked enough for most weekday meals in between. That also meant they were still in town Sunday.

It was very special to spend my first mother’s day with outside babies with my mom here too. We shared cards in the morning. Jason gave me a new 50mm DSLR lens {yay for actually being able to take pics in my dimly lit den!} & the babies via my MIL gave me a sweet bracelet. Mom, Lucy, Zach & I went to church then picked up Boj’s on the way home. No big cooking for us!

I did make Lucy & Zach purees for the week & heated up a chicken soufflé casserole {recipe post to come} that Mom had put together Sat. Mom & I took Lucy & Zach for a walk around the neighborhood with a dual purpose: a much needed nap for them & getting them out if the house while their Dada & Pops put together a water table & play coupé {birthday gifts for next week}.

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Jason snapped the below photo of my favorite part of the day though.

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Both L & Z have been close to/almost/kinda/maybe putting m & a syllables together for a week or so. But no ‘mama mama’ & never to me. Until Sun evening! I put Zach down to take out dinner out of the even & pull out dinner from the fridge for them. As I walked away he screamed out ‘mama mama!’. I whipped around, scooped him up & cried! My tiny lil guy called me by name, y’all!!

Hope all my mother readers {moms, moms-to-be, grandmas, aunts, pet moms & those praying for motherhood} had a great day!

Categories
Reading

Fever & Labor Day

Fever by Mary Beth Keane is my books clubs’ September pick. But it became available from the library quickly & even more amazing, I found time to make it there to pick it up before my hold expired.

Fever tells the story of Mary Mallon, who you might know as Typhoid Mary. The author does a great job telling Mary’s story. Making us see her as the human, the lady with real feelings & sense of self behind the scary nickname.

Before Fever, I didn’t know that much about typhoid nor the sanitation of NYC in the early 1900s. I also thought all the discussion of the working class was very interesting. I wasn’t familiar with North Brother island & that sick & seriously ill were isolated like they were.

If you’re interested in reading about the person behind the typhoid headlines, read Fever. But don’t wikipedia her first if you want to be surprised. I did & then it took away some of the book for it. I still thought it was very interesting & a good book.

Labor DayLabor Day had been passed down to me when a friend moved. I’m pretty sure it sat untouched on my den floor for a year before about a month ago I snatched it up.

I read the book in under a week while pumping. It wasn’t a can’t-put-it-down thriller, but I liked it none the less. Labor Day takes place over {you guessed it} Labor day weekend in a small town in the northeast. It’s told from the perspective of a coming-of-age boy in regards to how a chance meeting on this weekend changed his life.

It was good. Not great in a over the top super memorable way. But I’m glad I read it.

Categories
Motherhood

A New Definition of Fun

When I think back on the first months of mothering preemies to now there’s no comparison. I think back to where we were once too busy for anything including sleep. Too busy dealing with all the changes, all the challenges, all the hardships, all the life to find but fleeting moments of joy.

Not to say that now isn’t still hard, as it is, but these new challenges, new situations {like solids & adding in formula} I can roll with & they keep me on my toes. But these days are also filled with so many more moments of fun.

I think we’ve reached very fun age. These last months as Lucy & Zach are interacting more & more & sponging everything have been wild to watch. To be there the moments they push toy/walk for the first time. They walk holding our fingers. They open mouth laugh while being tickled & copy cat us making funny faces.

After my mom left last weekend, she was sad saying on the phone that she’d be missing out on the fun my dad & I would have with the babies this week. My dad laughed & said it’s hard to call this fun. {He’s the one who’s picked up handling laundry, dishes & bottle washing while I’m at work these two weeks. And also giving morning snuggles & Zach’s bedtime routine.}

After they hung up, I laughed & said to Dad, this is my version of fun. Playing with a tiny kitchen. Putting balls on a play table. Feeding babies. Making bottles. Washing diapers. Putting Lucy & Zach to bed. It’s now my evening fun. And what choice do I have? As I said, this is my life; I have to call it fun or go a lil crazy.

Hard but Fun
Wrangling two babies while I make bottles is crazy, hard & fun!

So as I juggle holding & hugging two before & after working a full time day job, paying bills {including still fighting with my health ins company & hospital over maternity bills} & making dinners, I can say that not every moment is fun. Trust me, Lucy was the only one really having fun still being awake Sunday night at 1030p! But it was fun that she was blowing raspberries, making kissy fish faces & clapping she was so impressed with herself afterward.

That is my new defition of fun. And I’ll take it.

{Today marks one year since Zach’s water broke which was the catalyst that began my 2 weeks of bed-rest followed by their birth. Be prepared for more sappy posts as I reflect on their first year here & my first year of motherhood.}

Categories
Reading

The Silver Linings Playbook

After getting so much movie buzz, my book club decided to read Matthew Quick’s novel & discuss it for our May meeting. I took advantage of kindle’s $4.99 sale since the weight list at our library was crazy long. This is the first book I’ve bought in a while but it was worth it IMO.

Silver Linings Playbook follows the story of Pat, a guy recovering from mental illness. He’s trying to find his footings after being released from a mental hospital & moving back home with his parents & without his wife. He’s experiencing ‘apart time’ from his wife & doing everything he can to better himself. The story follows along this journey as he’s looking for the silver linings in his life.

I haven’t seen the movie & have heard it’s not as good as the book {most aren’t}. After reading the book, I can’t imagine Mr. Eye Candy Cooper as Pat, but I still want to see the film. I’ve also heard that a big scene that the entire book leads up to discovering is shown in the preview. That’s weird.

I’d recommend Silver Linings Playbook to pretty much anyone. Philly natives & Eagles fans would enjoy it. Dads & sons. People with ties to mental illness. It was a quick read & one I kinda missed reading after I was done.

Categories
Babies Food

Cooking for the Babies

With our ‘getting Lucy & Zach to eat’ struggles behind us, a new challenge has emerged: having enough on hand to satisfy them.

I’ve made it a goal to attempt to give them healthy, wholesome food. Preferably organic & homemade when possible. That’s not to say that they don’t eat their weight in puffs & yogurt melts out of plastic cans. And for busy weeks & traveling & dining out, I’ve purchased organic baby food pouches {I like the Happy Baby ones}.

Even though I’ve mentioned on LWM what they’re eating, I thought I’d share that again & include a few recipes.

Thankfully, as they are edging closer & closer to 12 months, the list of ‘no no’ foods is almost gone. To be honest, that’s been a little hard to keep track of.

Lucy & Zach have yet to try nuts {including peanut butter}, honey, & beef. I gave them strawberries last weekend for the first time. They’ve had all fruit including blueberries & melons for a while. We’ve stayed pretty clear of desserts & sweets, but they have tried bites of froyo & baby arrowroot cookies.

Way before Lucy & Zach arrived, I won a Fresh Baby So Easy baby food making kit. Included in the kit was a DVD on making baby foods {which I never had time to watch}, two baby food trays, & a baby food recipe book that I use all the time. I was gifted the Baby Bullet system at a shower along with an extra tray of storage containers.

Between the Baby Bullet & Fresh Baby recipe books, I haven’t really looked further. I stuck with single food purees until the last month. I microwave steam peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, spinach, califlower, brocoli, blueberries, pineapple, mango, pears with a little water until soft. {Already soft foods like avocado & bananas just get tossed straight in.} I puree whichever food in the Bullet with a little milk or formula added before freezing in trays or putting aside in the bullet storage tubes in the fridge.

Foods they love together I’ve started combining in the Bullet to make my life easier. I mix warm blueberries with ripe bananas {& mix that combo in plain yogurt!}. When I added too much milk to peas recently, I steamed frozen chopped brocoli & pureed those together.

Tuesday night I saved myself a step & pureed steamed spinach & sweet potatoes together as well as spinach & avocado. They babies loved the spinach/sweet potatoes with a little applesauce mixed it.

Weekend breakast for L & Z often is waffles {either homemade or Eggos}, shared between the two of them & served with sliced fruit. They like Cheerios too which is what they often get around 8a at daycare.

My mom arrived Sunday to drop off my dad {who’s staying with me while J’s working in CA for 2 weeks}. Mom had been given a recipe for munchkin meatballs from a coworker. Harris Teeter had organic ground chicken $2 off, so we used chicken instead of turkey & baby carrots vs one big one. Zach & even Lucy love these meatballs! Zach ate 2.5 Tuesday night! I have to admit I tried one & they are awesome. These might be a new munchkin staple at our house.

She also brought leftovers from a couples shower Saturday night including a twist on baked beans. We offered those to the babies & they adored them. Perfect for tiny hands to grab a bean & also for us & daycare to spoon feed.

As you can guess from above, we still mostly give Zach & Lucy separate foods from us. That’s my next goal: to have us all eating most of the same things. I don’t think they’re quite ready yet, but they will be soon. As I find with most things kiddo, as soon as I get used to & feel like I’m “getting it”, they’re close to being ready to move on & leave purees behind.

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