Monday, April 2, 2018
Monday, March 26, 2018
Monday, March 19, 2018
Weekly Family Photo #30
This is where we spend a lot of time: gathered around the island in the kitchen, cooking, chatting, eating. I love this picture.
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Reed: 10 Months Old
This little guy is now ten months old:
Sadly, he celebrated with his first cold, which lasted more than a week. Thankfully it wasn't anything serious and he kicked it pretty quickly.
-At 10 months and one day old, he (finally) crawled. Just a little one hand, one foot, one hand, one foot movement but he did it three times that day. Thank heavens for technology: as soon as he first did it I put my phone on video and captured his second time. Then we Face Timed TJ (at work), and he got to watch him for the third time. The next morning, I told TJ he ought to get Reed to crawl before he left to work, so TJ dropped his keys on the ground six feet away and Reed crawled right to them! He is on the move.
-We aren't sure whether he'll be right or left handed: he often uses both. I can't get over those chubby little hands, the way he points with a single finger, or gingerly grabs something he wants to eat.
-His crawling is good proof: Reed ADORES keys. He will chomp and suck on them for as long as we let him, screaming when he take them away (like when we need to put them into the ignition...)
-Almost every night before I go to bed I go into his room, lean way over his crib railing, tell him I love him, and kiss him over and over and over.
-We gave swimming another go and he loved it! I can't get over how cute his little swimsuit is.
-It is so fun to see Parker (his cousin) absolutely ADORE Reed. Every time we see Parker he makes a beeline for Reed and asks how he's been doing. He holds him as long as he can.
-He is becoming more and more curious! In a busy situation he watches, watches, watches and around the house he grabs and eats anything he can get his hands on. I turned around in the kitchen one day and was surprised to see the full carton of eggs on his lap (he pulled it across the counter, where I was sure he couldn't reach it!) He's started opening and gnawing on drawers (I'm considering calling him Beaver) and thought he hit the jackpot when he crawled into our closet and found all the shoelaces.
-We call him Bugga, Brother (though he isn't one, ha), and Reed.
-Reed still loves strings and cords, reaching for (and now crawling to) them whenever he can.
-We downloaded some audiobooks onto my phone and have started listening to those in the car.
-Reed has figured out how to pick up and feed himself Cheerios. We end up with probably 60% on the floor and 40% in his mouth, which is progress. :) He is getting to the point that he wants to feed himself, but he can't do it very well yet: sometimes we feed him together (with me holding the food in his fingers, ha!)
-Reed is still great in his stroller! The weather has been colder over the past month so we haven't gotten out as much, but as it's warming up we are spending more and more time out there. He has started telling me stories sometimes while we walk, but for the most part he is just a silent observer.
-Grandma Milar said that last week was the first time she ever saw Reed smile. I think she's joking, but he really is a serious baby, almost always just watching people. He laughs with us but even when he's happy with others, he typically just stares with a serious face.
-Reed does this funny thing of putting his foot up on whatever is close by. Sitting by a wall playing with his toys? His foot goes onto the pile of toys or even six inches up the wall. Nursing? His foot is on my shoulder. Grocery cart? His foot is out of the leg hole, propped up on the side of the cart. It cracks us up.
-He definitely understands the words "Show me how you kick." When I put him in his crib for a nap or bedtime I usually say that and he smiles, lays down, and kicks, kicks, kicks. :)
-Still no stranger danger, which is great! He will happily go to most anybody and let them hold him. He doesn't mind when we leave him with a babysitter. When he was sick he wanted me to hold him, but usually he is just fine with whomever.
-Reed has started caring if he's alone, crying when I leave or (now) crawling after me into the other room. One night in particular he was up crying in the middle of the night. I set him on his bedroom floor to go to the bathroom and through the mirror I watched him: tired, sick, and bawling trying to crawl after me. It was such a sad sight it about broke my heart!
-Every once in a while Reed will repeat back whatever noise we make to him: I have a fun video of me saying "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah" and him repeating it. :) He also echoed TJ's singing to him, which was fun.
-His cold has really messed up his sleeping schedule. :P We're back to being up 3-4 times a night, which is rough on all of us. Hopefully with his cold gone he'll be back to restful nights soon!
-We have decided to live wild and go to Paris together, with Reed. We got his passport ordered, crossed our fingers, and it delivered 15 days later! It's pretty darling.
-He tried ice cream for the first time. He likes it.
I just read through his 9 month post and almost all of it is still the same: while some things change quickly, it appears others don't! He still loves to be swaddled, enjoys watching motion, and sucks on his quiet book. He yanks off his socks, sucks on his shoes, and loves to bathe. His tooth count is still 8 and he leans (almost out of my arms sometimes) for what he wants.
Also, we still love him. We really, really love him. We spend lots of time just staring at him, talking about how beautiful he is, or how happy he makes us, or how grateful we are that he's ours.
-At 10 months and one day old, he (finally) crawled. Just a little one hand, one foot, one hand, one foot movement but he did it three times that day. Thank heavens for technology: as soon as he first did it I put my phone on video and captured his second time. Then we Face Timed TJ (at work), and he got to watch him for the third time. The next morning, I told TJ he ought to get Reed to crawl before he left to work, so TJ dropped his keys on the ground six feet away and Reed crawled right to them! He is on the move.
-We aren't sure whether he'll be right or left handed: he often uses both. I can't get over those chubby little hands, the way he points with a single finger, or gingerly grabs something he wants to eat.
-His crawling is good proof: Reed ADORES keys. He will chomp and suck on them for as long as we let him, screaming when he take them away (like when we need to put them into the ignition...)
-Almost every night before I go to bed I go into his room, lean way over his crib railing, tell him I love him, and kiss him over and over and over.
-We gave swimming another go and he loved it! I can't get over how cute his little swimsuit is.
-It is so fun to see Parker (his cousin) absolutely ADORE Reed. Every time we see Parker he makes a beeline for Reed and asks how he's been doing. He holds him as long as he can.
-He is becoming more and more curious! In a busy situation he watches, watches, watches and around the house he grabs and eats anything he can get his hands on. I turned around in the kitchen one day and was surprised to see the full carton of eggs on his lap (he pulled it across the counter, where I was sure he couldn't reach it!) He's started opening and gnawing on drawers (I'm considering calling him Beaver) and thought he hit the jackpot when he crawled into our closet and found all the shoelaces.
-We call him Bugga, Brother (though he isn't one, ha), and Reed.
-Reed still loves strings and cords, reaching for (and now crawling to) them whenever he can.
-We downloaded some audiobooks onto my phone and have started listening to those in the car.
-Reed has figured out how to pick up and feed himself Cheerios. We end up with probably 60% on the floor and 40% in his mouth, which is progress. :) He is getting to the point that he wants to feed himself, but he can't do it very well yet: sometimes we feed him together (with me holding the food in his fingers, ha!)
-Reed is still great in his stroller! The weather has been colder over the past month so we haven't gotten out as much, but as it's warming up we are spending more and more time out there. He has started telling me stories sometimes while we walk, but for the most part he is just a silent observer.
-Grandma Milar said that last week was the first time she ever saw Reed smile. I think she's joking, but he really is a serious baby, almost always just watching people. He laughs with us but even when he's happy with others, he typically just stares with a serious face.
-Reed does this funny thing of putting his foot up on whatever is close by. Sitting by a wall playing with his toys? His foot goes onto the pile of toys or even six inches up the wall. Nursing? His foot is on my shoulder. Grocery cart? His foot is out of the leg hole, propped up on the side of the cart. It cracks us up.
-He definitely understands the words "Show me how you kick." When I put him in his crib for a nap or bedtime I usually say that and he smiles, lays down, and kicks, kicks, kicks. :)
-Still no stranger danger, which is great! He will happily go to most anybody and let them hold him. He doesn't mind when we leave him with a babysitter. When he was sick he wanted me to hold him, but usually he is just fine with whomever.
-Reed has started caring if he's alone, crying when I leave or (now) crawling after me into the other room. One night in particular he was up crying in the middle of the night. I set him on his bedroom floor to go to the bathroom and through the mirror I watched him: tired, sick, and bawling trying to crawl after me. It was such a sad sight it about broke my heart!
-Every once in a while Reed will repeat back whatever noise we make to him: I have a fun video of me saying "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah" and him repeating it. :) He also echoed TJ's singing to him, which was fun.
-His cold has really messed up his sleeping schedule. :P We're back to being up 3-4 times a night, which is rough on all of us. Hopefully with his cold gone he'll be back to restful nights soon!
-We have decided to live wild and go to Paris together, with Reed. We got his passport ordered, crossed our fingers, and it delivered 15 days later! It's pretty darling.
-He tried ice cream for the first time. He likes it.
I just read through his 9 month post and almost all of it is still the same: while some things change quickly, it appears others don't! He still loves to be swaddled, enjoys watching motion, and sucks on his quiet book. He yanks off his socks, sucks on his shoes, and loves to bathe. His tooth count is still 8 and he leans (almost out of my arms sometimes) for what he wants.
Also, we still love him. We really, really love him. We spend lots of time just staring at him, talking about how beautiful he is, or how happy he makes us, or how grateful we are that he's ours.
Monday, March 12, 2018
Weekly Family Photo #29
What you can't see in this picture is the hole that Reed BIT through my shirt. Rough. I haven't checked to see if his sock made it through this unscathed.
Monday, March 5, 2018
Weekly Family Photo #28
This is a pretty low key picture because Reed was sick and had just spit up all over the himself and me. His poor little nose is running too. On the bright side, this is his first time being sick, which we're glad about!
Friday, March 2, 2018
International Food [1]
TJ and I love the Great British Bake Off. After I was diagnosed with celiacs we took a little break, but we're back at it. It's been so interesting to hear the different flavor combinations people use, often related to their heritage or their travels. We've both been pretty impressed by how little we know about flavors around the world. :) Because we love trying new things, and because there is so much to try, this year we are trying to make one dish each week from a different country. Here's what we've tried so far:
1. Vegetarian Bibimbap (Korea) - we got this from our America's Test Kitchen vegetarian magazine (isn't America's Test Kitchen the stuff??) and made it two weeks in a row. It's definitely best fresh and when it's fresh we really love it!
2. Avgolemono (Greece) - this is a lemon chicken soup recipe that we've made probably three times in the past six weeks. It's fabulous. We don't add the vegetables back in but we shred the chicken and add it at the end. Also, we've just used chicken legs instead of a whole chicken which has been fabulous. Recipe here.
3. Shakshuka (Tunisia) - another ATK one and we loved it! This is quick, flavorful, and cheap (as the protein is eggs). It reminds me of a dish we used to eat in Spain but is much faster to make.
4. Chicken Pad Thai (Thailand) - we had our neighbors over to help make this and I was pretty concerned the kids wouldn't touch it after smelling the fish sauce. They surprised (and delighted) me by loving it. Hooray! Another ATK recipe.
5. Moroccan Tagine (Morocco) - I bought and preserved meyer lemons in January just for this recipe. :) Next time we'll put twice as much into the dish. I loved the mix of flavors and textures in this dish: it's the perfect example of why we wanted to focus on international cooking, as it's not something that we would typically make but it was great. The texture of the slivered almonds was lovely, the apricots and craisins were fun to find, and the small bites of chicken were perfect. We'll make this again, especially since I dropped the tupperware the leftovers last night, shattering the glass and ruining the food we had left. :P Instead of coucous (which has gluten), we ate it with millet, which was a great substitute (good idea, T!) Recipe here.
1. Vegetarian Bibimbap (Korea) - we got this from our America's Test Kitchen vegetarian magazine (isn't America's Test Kitchen the stuff??) and made it two weeks in a row. It's definitely best fresh and when it's fresh we really love it!
2. Avgolemono (Greece) - this is a lemon chicken soup recipe that we've made probably three times in the past six weeks. It's fabulous. We don't add the vegetables back in but we shred the chicken and add it at the end. Also, we've just used chicken legs instead of a whole chicken which has been fabulous. Recipe here.
3. Shakshuka (Tunisia) - another ATK one and we loved it! This is quick, flavorful, and cheap (as the protein is eggs). It reminds me of a dish we used to eat in Spain but is much faster to make.
4. Chicken Pad Thai (Thailand) - we had our neighbors over to help make this and I was pretty concerned the kids wouldn't touch it after smelling the fish sauce. They surprised (and delighted) me by loving it. Hooray! Another ATK recipe.
5. Moroccan Tagine (Morocco) - I bought and preserved meyer lemons in January just for this recipe. :) Next time we'll put twice as much into the dish. I loved the mix of flavors and textures in this dish: it's the perfect example of why we wanted to focus on international cooking, as it's not something that we would typically make but it was great. The texture of the slivered almonds was lovely, the apricots and craisins were fun to find, and the small bites of chicken were perfect. We'll make this again, especially since I dropped the tupperware the leftovers last night, shattering the glass and ruining the food we had left. :P Instead of coucous (which has gluten), we ate it with millet, which was a great substitute (good idea, T!) Recipe here.
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