Holy Smokes

This week has been a week.

First business trip is complete. It only took two babysitters (a million thanks to Auntie Em, and Sina!) to help make it happen, but it is done.

I went to San Antonio for a meeting with our ad agency. I left at 4PM Tuesday, and was back around 9PM Wednesday but it felt longer than that. Nate and I got all new appliances in the kitchen Thursday, but found out it didn't come with install, so Nate is working on that.

The rest of the week has been spent catching up at work, catching up at home and prepping for this ridiculous easter egg hunt that we are hosting tomorrow. We are talking 22 kids under the age of 5. It should promise to make a great blog post.

Anyway, that is my story this week. Luckily, we cashed in on a baby gift that was given to us last summer....a week's worth of a personal chef, so we have been eating well without the cooking. A-mah-zing.

Caption This.....

Mealtime.
One of my favorite times of the day.
Also, one of the most challenging (for me anyway who is always working on my patience skills..)

I love it because it is so fun to watch Matilda discover new flavors. Like red lentils, roasted red peppers and quinoa, mango, asparagus, and always pear.

I love watching her learn how to use those little fingers. I even love how ridiculously messy she gets.

The patience part comes in because this child, as previously mentioned, is particular. She wants to feed herself.

But her effectiveness rate is lower than where her hunger bar is set.

So, we do a dual approach...she feeds herself and the Mama feeds her with a spoon.

Now, she has set rules with this spoon.

If it is filled with something she doesn't like, you better have some pear on the end or she will not take it.

If you don't get the spoon up to her face fast enough, and she if frustrated with her hands, she gets creative.

Now this look is my favorite. It is VERY predictable. If she is chewing, or just doesn't quite feel like another bite and you put the spoon in her face, she turns her little head away from you and makes this face:

                                

And no, that isn't a bad picture. She always closes her eyes and leans back, as if to make herself believe if she closes her eyes it will just go away.

So tell me, what do YOU think she is saying?

9 Months

Nine Months has brought:

Kissing

It started with her giving kisses to her bath toys every night, and now I get lots of kisses too. Daddy, not so much yet which of course does NOT sit well with him. 

Waving....

 (although it more of an inappropriate salute at this point)

Strong Preferences at the dinner table.

 As in, do NOT hold the spoon in front of this girls mouth if she isn't ready for another bite. She will let you know. I am sure this is to my parent's delight as I was quite possibly the world's worst eater growing up.

She weighed in at 19 pounds, 2 ounces. 27.5 inches.

At 9 Months, I am proud that I can (finally) say that she is rolling over. Yes, most Moms are probably touting their 9 month old crawling or walking. No we are not worried about it. We are relishing in it. I told Nate that I think we will get to feel like she is a 'baby' just a bit longer not having her mobile.

Although the rolling over has posed problems for her weekly pics.

The ninth month also brought her first serious little rash (described as infant psoriasis by the ped) that we treated with a little steroid oil.

Her 2nd ear infection.

And the first time we had to use a glycerin supposity to help us, ahem...get things moving.

I never thought I would EVER in a million years say we have a good sleeper, but the last few weeks have been stellar. 

Sleeping over 12 hours a night, and taking 2 GREAT naps on the weekend. Finally starting to outgrow that 3rd nap.

It is so fun introducing more and more foods to Matilda. She LOVES pear--seriously would eat it for every meal, but also loves Mango, nectarine, asparagus. We just started some cauliflower, lentils and red peppers too. So far so good. (although some have to be masked with pear :) )

Matilda really loves reading right now too. She especially likes storytime with Daddy because he has much better silly voices than me....

I love watching her with other kids the most. She absolutely loves other kids. Adults--not as much--they get the skeptically concerned face. But kids, there is kicking and clapping and grunting and laughing. A little social butterfly. A particular social butterfly.

Whirlpool Suite

As I was going through our excessive digital photo history (seriously, how does one manage so many pictures?), I realized I forgot to share one of the best parts of the WI Dells.

With two bedrooms, and three kidlets we were in a slight conundrum over where each would sleep. Finn got tucked in with Grandma and Grandpa. Leo slept with the Ekern sisters and their spouses.

But what about poor Matilda?

Not exactly the coziest of accommodations, but some people pay big money to have their own private whirlpool suite.

Plus since she continues to go to bed at an unreasonable hour--like 6:15PM--it was her own little respite and she slept straight through both nights like a champ.

Workin' for the Weekend

"Everybody's Working for the Weekend...."

These lyrics are taking on a painstaking reality for me the last few weeks, and I am guessing for some time to come. The in's and out's of each day begin to run together, and feel the same.

Get up, get ready, get the baby ready, get food ready, drop off, work, pick-up, feed teh baby, bathe the baby, nurse the baby, bed time, feed yourself, get caught up, catch some Zzzz's.

I fear that I am missing out on little moments. Scratch that. I KNOW I am missing out on little moments. Because Matilda is in daycare 8 hours a day. And because the time I have during the week is miniscule.

 I put all this pressure on making the weekends feel special. I try to hang on every moment. And I constantly question whether or not I am getting everything I can out of each and every moment. The outcome is living in the past and not the now.

I know this will be a forever battle with my self. My working self. My mom self. My working mom self.

So, now I am trying to savor the little things. Like every day when I shut the trunk door of the car after getting all of the bags packed up and go to open Matilda's door to get her out, she is already giving me the BIGGEST smile and kicking those little feet because she knows what's coming: a kiss on the nose from mama.

Fresh Food Fast: Episode 7

Potatoes Anna.

A deliciously simple side dish, made especially perfect by cooler evenings.
NOTE: we made this prior to the ridiculous heat wave, just getting around to the blog part of it.

Of course it is delicious because I just found out it uses a fair amount of butter, and lets be honest. Butter can make anything taste pretty good.

It's a winter keeper!

Work It

It was the annual 'work weekend' in our house. Which meant that the parental units headed north and my Dad put Nate to work. This year's big project was repainting the kitchen and building new pantry shelves.

Although the color of the kitchen is still TBD (waiting for the final coat before finalizing my opinion), it feels so good to get some of these big projects done. Plus it doesn't hurt to have some friendly march madness competition going on behind the scenes.

The boys may have had all of the hard labor, but us girls were busy too. We did some raking...

We did some party planning, errands, grocery shopping, blinds-cleaning and, we did our best to enjoy this ridiculous 80 degree weather. In March. We are talking about flip flops, tank tops, and sunscreen in Marcn.

So we taught Matilda how cool bubbles are.

And we went on a nice long walk around Lake Calhoun. Between the ooo's and ahh's for Tundra and that "she is so cute" observations for Matilda, I have concluded I can never send Nate to Lake Calhoun with a baby and dog by himself or he may just never return.

I will post pictures of the kitchen once it gets done. As a little teaser--picture one whole wall in chalk-board paint. Fun times. Now, I wonder if our budget allows for a part-time chalkboard artist to come to my house each week?

Translation Tuesday: Full Meal Deal

What originally stood for an unlimited amount of access and classes to our favorite gym, has now morphed into something quite different.

The Full Meal Deal refers to the treatment of my luggage for the workday.

Yes, luggage.

You see each morning I have a backpack with my work stuff in it, a lunchbag for myself, a bottle/food bag for Tillie, my pump bag, and somedays diapers/wipes/back-up clothes as the need arises.

That is a lot of crap to schlep on top of carrying an almost 20 pound baby.

So, the full meal deal was born. Originally the full meal deal included Nate taking all of my bags out to the car, and starting it up to get it nice and toasty for us. He would do this before hopping on his bike while Tillie and I were getting ready to go to work.

Now that the weather is nice out, I suppose it is like a 'half' meal deal since I don't need the car started. But seriously, Nate is basically a part-time sherpa in the mornings.

Wet and Wilderness

It was the annual family trek to the WI Dells this year.

It proved to be three times as fun with three kids.

Every time we get these cousins together it is more and more fun to watch them all interact.

Finn is always the provider of smiles from Matilda.

Leo really likes that Matilda has lots of taggies just like him.

But is not as big of a fan of Matilda when his Mama is holding her.

Matilda was very content to sit and people watch all day.

And really, isn't that half of the fun of going to the Dells?

I mean the tattoo spotting alone could fill up an entire day.

Matilda cracked very very few smiles while at the pool.

She totally enjoyed herself.

Just wasn't a big fan of all of the adults around.

Loved smiling at the kids though.

If I hear one more comment about how serious she is I think I might explode.

Looks at this crew.

Finn still was not up to braving the "bucket" three years later, but he wasn't for lack of activities. Wave pool, basketball pool. So much fun that it tuckered this little guy out.

Tillie has taken to giving kisses, which Leo was happy to reciprocate.

Kissing cousins. Only cute until they are about 8 years old, right?

Fresh Food Fast Episode 6

Looks can be deceiving. Which is absolutely the case of this dish:

 

Because, while I understand that this Green Curry Chicken looks less than appetizing, that is the photographers fault, and not the recipe.

This recipe was pretty delicious for how healthy it was (minus the cocunut milk), and as a side bonus it brought me straight back to our Thailand trip.

It was also very easy. Emily got another cooking lesson, although to be totally honest the cooking lessons aren't very good. They aren't hands on, and usually come well before or after the meal is ACTUALLY being cooked. Less than effective for sure.

Here is a link to the recipe in case you are interested: http://www.marthastewart.com/342480/green-chicken-curry.

Contrary to what the blog reflects, we have been doing lots of cooking and lots of new recipes. It's the finding time to blog about them that is the problem....

A Very Happy 31

 From High School sweet hearts that went all out for Nerd Day....(I swear we had to try REALLY hard to pull off these looks)

to your 21st birthday (and who can really remember that)...

I am happy that we have celebrated almost 14 birthdays together.

And you are only 31.

I can't wait to keep the celebration going for many, many more years. 

Happy Birthday Nate!

To The Moon and Back

Times 2.