Deliciousness!

I had a task to do. My darling sister took on a project of making our stepmom her favorite dessert, Tiramisu. Tiramisu is not difficult but it does require a few steps, and a lot of uncommon ingredients. Jackster (sisterface) had to get her wisdom teeth pulled so I decided I would take the cake. All puns aside, I truly wanted to take on this monster job and do it well. I also love baking so I thought it would be funsies to try it. 

Here is the finished product.

But, as luck would have it, I had extra espresso and Kahula soaked ladyfingers. So, being the master of the cake bite (thank you, Bakerella) I added the rest of the Mascarpone, mixed it together and voila I had the filling for the truffle. I then melted down some bittersweet chips and dunked away. I added a few sprinkles of cocoa powder and they were finished. I tend to get carried away when experimenting with desserts so I tried out a shard recipe I had seen and also did some doodling with my piping bag on parchment paper. All in all it was a (sorry) sweet success!

A Tiger Who Has Earned Her Stripes

Your body is not ruined.

You are a goddamn tiger who has earned her stripes.

This is one of the most recent pictures I am using for inspiration while working out and eating healthily. I have had two babies in five years. So, of course my body looks a little different. Things...hang differently. Places are fuller and less lean. This doesn't mean I am disgusting or unattractive. I keep reminding myself that Lily is always watching and imitating me. It will be the end of me if I ever hear her say things I have said to myself in the mirror.

I am happier now than I have ever been. I am fulfilled beyond my wildest imaginings. That being said, I am also more... let's just call it stripey. I am more ready to call people out on their boohockey. I can readily accept that there is enough in this world that is unfair and I can do nothing about it. But there are small injustices I can try to right to make this a better place for my babies to grow up.

Yesterday, at the Y, I was gearing up for a workout. My darling dad called to confirm he was picking up Lily and we arranged a time to trade off the booster seat so he could do so. I took the phone into the front part of the locker room by the couches and tables and magazines. Now, nobody had explicitly stated "no cell phones" but I had been there enough to know it was frowned upon. I also knew, however, that all my belongings were strewn all over the bench and I was half changed so I just took it to a place that felt communal and phone safe. The phone call lasted 38 seconds and was done with me facing beige cement walls the entire time.

Boy was I wrong about it being no big deal. Two middle aged busybody biddies actually flagged down a Y employee and I heard them whispering to her that "SHE is on her phone!" It was the anxious loud whispering that little kids do when they are nervously telling on another child. They even pointed to me. After I got the perfunctory rules of the gym oration by the Y staffer, she turned and left. She was probably getting back to whatever she was going to do before the gray haired natters waived her down. 

When the locker room door closed, I turned to the tattletails and said, "Seriously... Seriously??" While nodding my head, eyebrows raised and apparently looking so menacing that they dared not respond. I wonder if it was my pink Ipod or my Harry Potter devil worshipping ringtone that got them so in bunches that they were incapacitated to even speak to me. They exchanged worried glances and looked all over as if hoping that I wasn't talking to them.

So I said, "Next time I need to arrange a ride home for my daughter I will be sure to rush outside so don't worry." Again, no response. Actually at this point they were gently nudging each other and shuffling toward the exit. I then rocked some amazing cardio and lifted heavier weights than I have in over a year.

And so the timid cub has become an intimidating and starkly striped tigress. Watch out next time we meet in the streets... I may cross the crosswalk without permission. Because I am CRAZY like that. 

And it helps my workout to call people out on their nonsense. 

Rahhhhrrrr.

Personalities

Having two children leads to comparisons. It is as simple as that. You can either deny or embrace it, but it is a fact of life. When you have your first child, everything they do is unique and important and singularly perfect. When they smile for the first time, laugh, eat solid foods, poop in the potty... all the happy moments of parenting come with a flourish of newness and importance. When the second comes along you begin to have the strange sense of appreciation and critical analysis occurring simultaneously. I realized this the other day when I decided Finn was going to start eating purees. 


I wanted to wait until the recommending 6 months, but then I realized I have always let my instincts win out over vaguely terrifying medical articles and so I went about feeding my son. I bought squash and sweet potatoes. I intend on making my own foods for him but wanted to test run a couple before investing the time in steaming, pureeing, freezing, storing a food type he was going to Kidwell* on me. So the comparisons started when I realized that I had started Lily on solids on January 4, 2008. It was the same month and day only 4 years later that I began foods with Finn. 


That was where the similarities ended, friends. Mark used to have to pin Lily's flailing arms down when we fed her. The real possibility of the little princess smacking liquefied carrots all over the floor was something she deemed worthy of her utmost endeavors. Finn on the other hand grabbed the spoon and like a tractor beam pulled it steadily toward his gaping mouth. The weirdest part was the look in his eyes. It was menacing yet calm, like a criminal mastermind watching his plans for world domination coming to fruition. He was intent on getting that food himself because clearly I was either too simple or too mean to get it to him fast enough. I would get the food in his mouth then dip into the bowl for more and he would start whimpering. I was wondering if he didn't like it and was less than thrilled with the whole idea. Then I realized that he was only starting to cry when I was moving the spoon away from him. I had to set the bowl under his two chins and quickly dip then insert. It was more like keeping the food coming at a constant flow rather than bites. I had a flashback during this inhalation of squash of earlier in the day when I saw spoons that held the food inside this canister attached to the handle and laughed at them in the Target aisle. 
"Hahaha! Who would need a rapid delivery system for baby food! They're just babies!" I guffawed pompously. 
Ha. Ha... harrrumph. Me. That's who.




*Kidwell: verb- to reject a food based on appearance and principle based on it's inherent health value to humans. Example if a food is in the vegetable or fruit group the likelihood of being Kidwelled is quite high. 

Lily's first foods/Carrots/1.4.2008

Finn's first foods/Squash and Rice Cereal/1.4.2012

Hiatus

Hello friends!
Sorry for the extended lack of blog posts. I had a baby. Then Lily started 4K. Then we were all sick for the month of November. Then came Christmas and now we are in the new year. 2012. We had a lot to be thankful for in the past twelve months. Chronologically I suppose we could say we celebrated Mark's last birthday in his twenties, my last birthday being pregnant, Lily's fourth birthday, Finn's miraculous entrance into the world, our five year wedding anniversary and Christmas with two beautiful children. Honestly, there is no better feeling than contentment at home. I am so blessed and feel so honored to be a wife and mommy to the loves of my life. 
We had a very perfect Christmas morning this year. Finn slept through it. Mark made coffee at 5am and we waited to hear Lily's footsteps coming down the stairs. She kept us in suspense until around 7am when we heard the familiar thump, thump, thump of a sleepy little girl making her way downstairs. She peeked her head over the banister and Mark and I were standing in the living room staring at her. This NEVER happens so she immediately raised her eyebrows in interest. 
"Dad? Is it Christmas?"
"Yes, honey."
"Mom? Is it??"
"Yes, baby."
...
"DID SANTA COME?!"
The sleepy thumps morphed into swift and precise toe touches on the remaining steps as she made her way to the tree. Presents gleamed in the glow of the tree's lights. She smiled at us and our Christmas wishes were realized.


Truly this story sums up our year. Our family is complete and we are so very blessed.


Here are some snapshots of 2011

It's a Windsday

Windy days are inevitably very funny days or very bad days for us. Our dog, Molly, chases leaves. She chases them with all the vigor of a drug addict chasing that next high. I am not exaggerating. Literally if there are leaves blowing, Molly is on alert. She chases them without regard to cars, people, yard boundaries, walls... you get the picture. Her habit could get her killed, not unlike most dangerous addictive behaviors.


So today is windy. That is an understatement. It is a no fun to be had, blustery, blow you down kind of day. So the only outdoor trip I have taken has been to the mailbox. It was a fortuitous excursion too because our state tax return from Wisconsin came today. I was excited to get my grubby hands on it so I ripped it open while walking back to the house. Now for those of you who don't know, my mailbox is maybe 20 feet from my house. Not a big deal to walk there and walk back with all that I gather from Mr. Mailbox. Today was a different story. My freezing fingers fumbled the check and it blew straight up into the sky and twirled around out of my grasp. It did a plastic bag dance a la American Beauty and I was not in jumping distance. So picture this... Molly is leaf hunting and I think to myself that she will help me since this rectangular piece of paper should spark her interest. NO. Not at all.  She ignores my calls for help and continues to stalk dead blowing leaves. I am jumping up and grabbing for this rather important document and it is swirling out of my grasp. 1) I am wearing cut off sweatpants that are holy and held together by dirt and safety pins. 2) I am wearing slipper boots. 3) I am fat and pregnant and not in good leaping and chasing shape. So I end up trying to dive on this damn check as it blows away from me. I miss. Then I feel like stomping it might stop it's motion easier and I miss several times. Luckily, yes, I did eventually pin the sucker and pick it up. I look at my house and there is Lily standing in the doorway laughing at me. I think Molly was too. And probably most of the neighbors.


Also a funny incident that happened today was on behalf of Lily's new found modesty in front of company. She has been taught that when people come over you should have pants on. Yeah, we are giant prudes. She was watching a show on PBS where they are generally located in a classroom. Well during this episode school was off for the day and all the kids from class were coming over to one boy's house. Lily was flapping her arms and whapping me with something. I was chatting with a girlfriend and was unsure of what the emergency was. I glanced down and noticed the object hitting me was her pants and she was frantically looking at me and then back at the TV. I realized too late that she was trying to get me to put her pants on before the friends came over to the boy's house. She was just sure they would see her without her pants and that was completely unacceptable. She actually bolted upstairs in tears sobbing at me that she was "so embarrassed!" because I didn't get her pants on before they got there. I felt bad but could not stop laughing silently as I apologized for my clear lack of tact and urgency in this delicate situation.


Happy Windsday!

Thawing and Planning

Have you ever noticed that when Spring finally drags itself out from behind Winter you start to notice how run down everything looks? I am sure this is why there are concepts like Spring cleaning and projects. Well, now I know why this season brings on a whole host of new tasks and lists and mini-renovations for us to do. And by us I mean mostly Mark and his dad. I can't "re-drywall the new baby's room" I don't even know where I would begin. I can paint it though. Maybe... more on that later. I tasked myself with taking on the minefield of Molly's poop piles in the front yard. This is to say that I left the much larger and fuller backyard for my strong virile husband and his masculine purple latex gloves.


I must admit the whole baby having a penis thing is really throwing me off. Mark and I are still discussing name options. I cannot decide on a manly-slash-baby color for his bedroom to be. Not to mention that I am still quite unsure what to do with a little thingy in the diaper department. The whole concept is foreign to me. I mean do I make his room stylish and sweet according to what I like? I did this with Lily's room and it came out beautiful. But are my tastes going to turn my little man's room into a metro mess? I love the thought of having a son. A little brother for Lily is going to be amazing. But I am just going to need a crash course in having a boy. I feel like this journey is begun and guided by the decisions I make with his bedroom. So with that in mind, I consulted the father unit. Mark just told me to paint it blue. I argued that if we use the bedding we had for Lily that was brown and green it won't suit to paint it blue. Then he said to paint it brown. When I began hemming and hawing about this idea he stated that he had no further input since all his suggestions were clearly being discarded upon utterance. Which I thought was really rude and that he should stick it out and help me. ;)


What I have now is all girl. All girl. All boss. All me me me. Lily is the princess of the world. She loves to call the shots. Last night she actually told me (while I was explaining to her why she needs to eat all of her dinner because she is not getting a snack afterwards) that I needed to "get this under control". She has decided on several names for her baby brother "Mazin" which is a combination of her two friends' names Mason and Isaac. Lately she has thought "Alex" for the lion from the movie Madagascar. She is just thrilled with feeling the movements of the baby in my belly. She played him some music from one of her little Fisher-Price toys and he kicked her hand. I've never seen a more genuine look of surprised glee. She is already surprising me in what she understands and is looking forward to with the baby on the way. Like she asks which way the baby is positioned so that she can kiss his forehead. She asks how much room he is going to take up... "is he going to take up all of your tummy then move to your back?!" She is already very sweet with little babies that she has been around. Mostly I am just excited for the two of them to meet.


Enough of this sweet tender moment stuff. I better get back to my endless list making and plan creating for Mark's projects. And any ideas are welcome on this paint color idea... 

A BOY!

We have a clip from the first ultrasound. We have a 90% positive result from the doctor that he is a HE indeed. This ultrasound was a 2D with 3D enhancement clips. The following video is a 40 second clip of the 3D portion. It was such an amazing experience. We had Lily along with us and she did pretty well. She was underwhelmed when she was told that it was a boy though. The doc actually said he didn't want to tell us the gender while she was in the room because he didn't want to make her mad. She started crying in the car and said, "I don't want a boy brother. I want a girl SISTER!"

Unfortunately the umbilical cord kept being in the way of the region we were trying to look at. So we are going back for another looksee in a few months. Sorry this post is short. Enjoy the video!