"honey will you make me blueberry muffins for my birthday?"

Happy Birthday to my Amazing Wonderful Husband. 

I love you!

Here we are celebrating his 27th birthday in 2005.  I will let you do the math :)

last year in 2011 with our BFF Paxton

And 2012, The Happy Family. 

We took Amelia to her first Rays game today.  She's already seen her cousin Wyatt play baseball and her cousin Molly play softball too, so she's pretty well versed on the rules of the game, so she decided to sleep through most of this one, but still got to chat with lots of nice people.  Fun to see what a baby will do to even the most macho man sometimes  We had fun  :)    

To Die For Blueberry Muffins  from allrecipes

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
3/4 c white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 c vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 c milk
1 c fresh blueberries
1/2 c white sugar
1/3 c flour
1/4 c butter, cubed
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease muffin cups
Combine 1 1/2 c flour, 3/4 c sugar, salt and baking powder.  Place vegetable oil into a 1 c measuring cup.  Add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup.  Mix this with flour mixture.  Fold in blueberries.  Fill muffin cups right to the top and sprinkle wit crumb topping mixture.
To Make Crumb Topping:  Mix together 1/2 c sugar, 1/3 c flour, 1/4 c butter and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon.  Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
Bake for 20-25 minutes in preheated oven

Crockpot Curry

Well my first attempt at crockpot curry didn't turn out half bad.  I just winged it and it was so good that I want to get the recipe written down now so I have it for later.  Eventually I want to get away from canned soups, but I'm new to the crockpot and like the convenience.  Maybe I can substitute heavy cream instead one time to experiment, but in the meantime, I'm too hungry to risk not having anything edible after 6 hours of waiting.  (By the way, the house smelled so good while this curry was cooking that I filled up on snacks while waiting for it, and it was still delicious when I was full)

1 1/2 lb boneless chicken breast, frozen
1 can coconut milk
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of chicken
2 Tbsp curry powder
1 heaping tsp Thai spice from my favorite Thai restaurant Sukhothai (I like it hot!)
1/2 pkg chicken bouillon
lots of cracked pepper
1 chopped white onion
5 stalks chopped celery
1 10oz pkg frozen spinach
5 small red potatos peeled and chopped into 1/2" pieces
Combine and cook on high 6 hours, then shred the chicken and serve over brown rice. 

Next time I may substitute chick peas for the potatos for more protein and less starch.

Transition

I am about to transition back into a working mommy in T minus 2 days.  Saturday at 5 I step back into the real world.  We are sure to be very busy and I am sure I will be very rusty, so hopefully I won't have too much time to dwell on how much I miss my peanut.  I'm doing a short night and will be home by 10:30 so hopefully my boobs don't explode during that time.  I've gone for longer periods before but always while sleeping.  I have a feeling that running around at work the entire time is going to feel a little different that laying in bed exhausted and comatose.  I went and got measured for comfy nursing bras (you don't want to know what size they put me in, which turns out is one size too small after a few hours with a sleeping baby) so that should help out. 

Grandma will be driving from Orlando every Saturday to stay with my angel, which is quite the hike for her, but I think she is so excited to spend time with her first granddaughter that she would drive to California and back to do it.  And words can't express how thankful I am to have someone Amelia and I both love and trust to take care of her!  THANK YOU GRANDMA! 

While I transition back to work my girl has a transition of her own to make.  Up until this week she has been sleeping in her bouncer seat every night.  I've tried to put her in her crib or bassinet but she will only tolerate them for short naps during the day.  At night she is not a fan of laying flat on her back.  And she rejects the swaddle like I reject poached eggs so that's no help.  But a few days ago I woke up to this.

I don't know how to post the video without making it a link.

So it is time for my big girl to learn how to sleep on her back.   A couple of baby steps later and I am ecstatic to announce that I have a back napper!!!

Now I need to transition to becoming a better picture adder because there is too much cuteness to fit into such a small picture but I can't figure out how to make the iphone pic bigger on here. 

Food

Becoming mom has changed the way I eat.  I can't just hop in the car and pick up Thai food every day anymore.  And I no longer have time to buy a variety of fresh ingredients for a recipe and spend time preparing a nice dinner in the kitchen to serve hot and fresh.  I shop, prep, cook and eat all around her schedule now, not mine.  It is important that I do this well because I am exclusively breastfeeding so essentially all her nourishment comes from me and what I eat.  I have to make sure that not only do I eat enough even though I don't have much time, but that I eat enough of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff.  I will swear to my grave that part of the reason she's so stinking cute is because of all the snickerdoodles I ate when I was pregnant with her.  But now that I see her and actually watch her belly grow instead of mine I have more motivation to snack on healthy things like cheese and fruit.  Don't get me wrong, I still indulge a lot, after all, I am supposed to eat 600 calories above a typical prepregnancy diet.  The key is balance. 
Amelia was born 2 days after Christmas so 2011 was the last year we celebrated as a couple and not as a family of 3.  I was huge and uncomfortable, but still had an amazing holiday shared with family and with all the excitement of what was and is to some.  Brian and I received the best gifts for expectant parents from everyone in our family. Among lots of other things we got a camcorder to record her milestones, and an iPad to store those videos.  We got worlds largest bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee which kept Brian functioning during those first few weeks when he had to do all the housework and diapering while I recovered from surgery.  And I got the best gift of all for a new mom, a crock pot.  (Insert here the heavens opening up, a chorus of angels, and light shining down on my amazing new kitchen gadget!!)  The crock pot has become my lifeline.  Brian broke it out first, on New Years Day, and made black eyed peas .  I've since made pork tenderloin and lots of other delicious meals, at my convenience.  I just kind of search recipes and pick my favorite parts of them based on what I have handy, and see what I come up with.  I've made stroganoff, chicken chili, london broil, beef stew and lots of other stuff.  But my favorite is the best breakfast ever, from my new favorite blog, The Yummy Life.  I put this in the crock pot before bed and wake up to a delicious healthy breakfast.  The leftovers (if there are any) go in the refrigerator and I have a delicious healthy snack for later.  If possible it's even better warmed up with a little milk in the microwave. 
So anyway, from time to time I will put on here some of the dinners I manage to prepare that are the best successes, but for now it's time to go feed my beautiful little girl.  This morning she will have steel cut oats and a delicious orange with her milk.

A Day in the Life of a New Mom

This might be fun to look back at in a few months to see how life changes. 

At 7 am I hear sweet little noises coming from the nursery so I crawl out of bed and sneak in.  I pick her up out of her bouncer and nurse her for about 15 minutes, burp her, and tuck her back in.  I head out to the living room, have a glass of water and hop on the computer and chat with my brother in NY about how I managed to get her to sleep last night by driving her all over town in the truck.   Then I decide to go lay back down in bed but I hear more sweet noises so I go get her and bring her to bed with me and we snuggle and she nurses again for about 10 minutes and we both doze off until hubbys alarm goes off at 10.  He's got to go to work because it's Valentines Day and it's the most important day of the year at the Cheesecake Factory!  So we go into her room and I pump 5 ounces while holding the sleeping baby and playing Scramble With Friends on my iPhone.  Hubby comes in and kisses us goodbye (what a sight he sees here).  Once done with the pumping I put her back in her bouncer to doze off and I go label and freeze the milk, wash the pump parts, and put dinner in the crock pot.  Slow Cooker Pepper Steak ,  (I'll let you know how it turns out).  Get the kitchen cleaned up and sanitized and go peek at the baby.  She's content.  OK good, I have time to go to the bathroom.  I pee, wipe the sink free of hubby's shaving remnants, straighten up the bed, pick up the clothes off the floor and bring them to the garage where our washer and dryer are.  Peek at the sleeping baby.  Then out to the living room to pick up our glasses and blankets and things from last night. Peek at the baby.  She's asleep.  It's noon.  I snap a picture.  I will blog for a few minutes, hop in the shower, throw clothes on and put hair in a ponytail and feed and change the starving baby.  We'll put on her Valentines Day outfit and hop over to CVS to print out dad a surprise Valentines Day card (shhh!  Don't tell!).  Then we'll come home, she'll have some milk, I'll have some pepper steak, and we will dance around the living room and play and wait for dad to come home and hang out with us.  Bedtime is unpredictable still so I will leave that part blank.  Right now I'm at the part where I hop in the shower.  Happy Valentines Day from me and my beautiful sleepy baby girl :)

Bathtime!!

Amelia had a bath today and as promised, here is a blog post devoted to my little sweetheart.

And no one wants a cold peanut after a bath so she asked if she could wear her cute hat to keep her warm.  Of course I said yes!

Nursery Updates

Yesterday Grandma came over and me and her and Dad popped Amelia into her Baby Bjorn and took a trip to Ikea. (Mom didn'[t have a lot of time yesterday for hair or  make up, or to lose 20 lbs, so this is what we are dealing with right now)... but doesn't baby look SO CUTE???  She slept the entire time!

 We had a fun afternoon.  Ended up spending more money than we planned, and Dad wound up spending more time putting stuff together and hanging up safely in the nursery than he planned, but this morning it all paid off, because Amelia has the coolest room ever now. 

We'll start with the gate.  Since Stifler has been marking his territory there he has been banished. I understand his jealousy, but Amelia and I enjoy tummy time in her room and do not appreciate the smell of jealous dog pee.  So we got her rug properly cleaned and sanitized, and dad installed a gate that opens like a door so we don't have to step over it.



Then he hung some shelves to give her teddy bears more room to play.

He got mom a night stand to put her pump on and with drawers for her to keep her photo book materials to work on while she's pumping or has any down time.  (Can't forget the pink knobs). 

He also installed our internet camera so we can monitor her while (if) she sleeps in her crib.  It's pretty awesome, you can even watch her from his Android phone and my iPhone.  AND he hid the cords in the wall so it's not an eye sore. 

Wonder how long it will be before she makes us remove the camera from her room?  I really hope she doesn't grow up too fast, because look at all these cute tiny things  mom gets to dress her up in now!! (All stored in the new drawer organizers we picked up at Ikea)

OK that's enough about her nursery.  I  promise the next post will be all about the SWEETNESS that is Amelia!!