Friday, January 27, 2012

Friday Roundup


1. Leland had his 9 month check up. His stats are : weight- 19 lbs 1.5 oz, length- 27 inches, head 45.6 cm.  Everything is around the 25 %, so he is a small guy, no worries.  His length and weight are bit on the lower side of 25% and his head is on the larger side.

2. It is taking me forever to get through my current book.  One it didn't get interesting until about 300 pages in (but I am determined to read it) and two I am swapped with school readings.

3. These videos are hilarious. Shit toddlers say.  One by Mommy Shorts . One by Suburban Snapshots.


4. I am so grateful to have a wonderful healthy baby.  This momma's heartbreak is awful to read about.  Makes me want to hug my baby a little tighter.

5. I have several new articles up at 2ndGreenRevolution.  You should totally check them out.

6. Leland is becoming less sensitive to dairy, this means I get to eat ice cream again! And that makes everyone happy.

7. Leland 'dances' now.  If you haven't watched this video you should because it is super cute.  But I won't make you listen to me sing forever, so if you just watch the first 30 seconds, you get the idea.  And if you are a true champ, you will watch the whole video because there is also some cute clapping in there too.


And I am going to end there because I can.
Have a good weekend. I will be doing lots of school work. Hopefully.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Wake up call

So there have been a couple of mornings where we sleep until 8 am, and I am always so thankful...

Until someone decides not to take a morning nap.

So now I set an alarm for 7 am, everyday in order to have two naps.

Sometimes you have to do what is best for baby or momma's sanity and give up those wonderful days of sleeping in. 




Because really we are both much happier when there are two naps in a day versus one.

Monday, January 23, 2012

What we Ate: Meixcan lasagna

I was going to be all fancy and make this recipe from Pintrest.  But then I decided that was too much work and I already had the ingredients, so I made this...

Mexican Lasagna, on the left, messy but delicious (sorry for the poor picture)

Leland had a broken down version: cheddar cheese, black olives, refried beans, wheat tortillas, kiwi

Ingredients:
1 can refried beans, or if you make them at home- 1 cup dried pinto beans cooked and then pureed, cooked with bacon grease and onion.
1lb ground buffalo
6-10" whole wheat tortillas
1 cup salsa
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chopped black olives
1/2 cup green onions

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.

Once everything is prepped you get to start layering it all.  Grease a 9 x 13 pan.  Put two tortillas on the bottom of the pan.  Then put all the meat on top of the tortillas, with the meat juice or grease.  Then add a third of the salsa and spread it over the meat. Add two more tortillas on top and add the can of refried beans.  Add another third of the salsa and smooth over the beans.  Then add the last two tortillas, and last bit of salsa.  Cover it with all the cheese, olives and onions.

Bake for 25 minutes with foil on top, then broil to finish it off.

We served this with purple cabbage with salt, pepper, lime juice and avocado oil and avocado on top.  it was really good.  A key element was keeping the meat with the meat juice.

When I first made it I didn't think it was going to be that great, but after my first bite I was changed, it was amazing.



Glasses

There are many side effects of pregnancy.

  • weight gain, and weight that hangs around
  • stretch marks
  • hair loss
  • go up a shoe size
  • change in hair color
  • loss of vision
I was lucky enough to not get any stretch marks or have my show size increase but my vision did change.

So now I am lucky enough to own a pair of glasses.




Leland hasn't minded too much, he seems not to touch mine as much as Jeff's but we will see how it progresses. 
In the first two photos he is clapping and the last one he is mad that he can't touch the keyboard.

I think I look studious, what do you think?

p.s. I may have always wanted a pair of glasses and now I do. 

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Backtrack

And here is the post where I eat my words.  Remember me saying only a couple a days ago how thankful I was for Leland still not crawling

Yesterday after play group Leland decided to laugh in momma's face and crawl toward the cat food.

Proof!



Commence full on baby proofing.

Also if you are bored this weekend I uploaded many more videos onto our YouTube page.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Lightroom

The Christmas gift I was most excited to start playing with was Adobe Lightroom 3.  Super excited to receive it from the in-laws and  I finally got around to installing it.  I sat down the other night and decided to start exploring and somehow I wasted the entire night, umm wow.

I am going to have to limit myself on how many photos I edit with it and how many nights a week I edit.  Otherwise I will never finish that thesis that needs to be written.

Here are some edited photos:





But some photos are best left unedited:
 I have the most photogenic cats ever, they constantly pose for me without my asking.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Embrace the Camera

A few photos from the past week that are my new favorites.

 A visit to the Botanical Gardens.
 Mission to make a baby happy while getting dinner ready.
Exploring a food desert in Denver, photo courtesy of my adviser.




Wednesday, January 18, 2012

9 months

I have always enjoyed my time with Leland, even when all he did was eat, sleep and poop.  Because he was super cuddly then, how could I not enjoy that.


But now he is becoming really fun.  Like giggling at funny things (like crazy cats) and babbling and being more interactive.  I can only imagine it will continue to get better as he gets older.


The other night while skyping, he was giggling hardcore every time I said the word 'crazy'.  Too funny.  It makes me laugh when he giggles like that. 


This past week he has learned to pull himself up consistently, how to get into a sitting position on his own, say: dada, lala while babbling.  And has gone back down to nursing 5 times a day instead of he every two hours (thank you).

...but still is not crawling and has no teeth (thank you).

But seriously, how has 9 months flown by?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Dependent

I have mentioned before that Leland sleep with us at night.  Usually I put him to bed somewhere around 7:30pm and then go to bed myself around 11pm.  This works out well since around 11pm he his begging for some milk.


I have also found that when he doesn't wake up at this time, I can't fall asleep.

I need him to nurse so I can fall asleep.  Otherwise I lie there awake for about an hour not able to drift off into dreamland.

Does anyone else experience this?

Monday, January 16, 2012

What We Ate: Kale Pesto Pizza

A week ago we made some kale pesto.

1 bunch of kale
1/3 cup of toasted walnuts
1/2 cup Parmesan
1/2 cup of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

We originally made some for pasta and sauteed mushrooms, but then we had extra.  So I came up with an idea for pizza.

And it was amazing.


Ingredients:
1 large recipe of pizza dough
1 lb ground sausage, cooked
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
4 purple potatoes, thinly sliced
olive oil
kale pesto, see above

First you make your dough.  Which by the way we had to use beer dough since we ran out of yeast and Jeff forgot to tell me, it is sub par to real yeast dough, but is okay.  Spread the dough onto a pan, we generally use a jelly roll pan and it takes up the entire sheet. 

Set your oven on a really high temp, like 475 degrees.  

Then you spread olive oil and pesto on the dough.  Then you take some mandolin sliced purple potatoes and place them on top of the pesto and more olive oil. 

Add some already cooked Italian sausage on the pizza.  We used ground, but you can use sausage still in the casing. 

The best part comes next, CHEESE! I used peppered goat cheese and shredded Parmesan.  Then top it off with more olive oil.  

Bake for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are done, just make sure to not do it too long and have a burnt crust.

Enjoy.

It is amazing, you should really try it.

Oh, and I meant to add caramelized red onions on the pizza, but forgot to even cut the onion, it would be a great addition but is still amazing without.





Friday, January 13, 2012

Leland's box

I had been giving Leland random things to play with that are not necessarily toys because he loves it.  His favorite item is my keys.  But after seeing Kristin's post from Project:BABY I decided to make a whole box worth of items.  Genius idea! 

This has been an essential item for getting lunch together, getting ready to leave the house, any other random times where I need him to stay preoccupied and not be clingy.

So what is in Leland's box?


 The cats are constantly trying to steal items out of the box. 
 From the top:
- ipod running holders, one for a regular, one for a mini
- extra set of keys, we still have keys to our parents' houses
- running watch (I use to think I was a runner, I know better now)
- highlighter, some of these items are currently safe for Leland but may have to be swapped out and he gets older and learns how to take caps off.
- old K-State ID
-old thermometer
- key tag
- combination lock
- pens and a pencil (I made sure to take the eraser and lead out of the equation)
- old insurance cards
- old cell phone (with battery removed)
- binder clip
- protractor
- shoes that don't fit
- lotion
- string
-he is holding a tube of chapstick as well

It is safe to say he loves it and if I ever find something new to add I do because this boy gets bored easily.  


Thursday, January 12, 2012

What we Ate

After seeing many posts from ohdeardrea showing Things on Toast and What Marlowe Eats, I decided to start my own re-occurring post of What we Ate.  This way I can show multiple recipes at once.  I am constantly trying out new recipes, and it is a little must to post them all separately.   Only the best will be featured by them selves.

 Almost every morning Leland eats a banana, he is getting real close to eating a whole one himself. Piglet! I am been on an oatmeal kick lately, trying to eat healthy. 
 Every since dabbling in vegetarianism, I prefer my chili veggie style.
Curry Noodle bowl was good and interesting.  It is a combo of Thai and Indian curries. 
 {recipe}

Monday, January 9, 2012

TAT: Playroom

Toddle Along Tuesday is back! For this week the topic is showing your play areas/rooms in your house.  In our tiny house, we have two play areas.

1. Leland's room.  We play in here first thing in the morning and throughout the day.  I have to switch it up for him or he starts to get bored.  We have two main buckets/holders for toys, both were purchased at Target while on sale.  The mirror is a key element in this room, he loves it.


2. The living room.  This is where all his books are and a small number of toys are kept (really we have too many toys and don't know where to put them all!).  These toys are all stored in a magazine holder that has been around the house for many years, but recently got re-purposed to hold toys.  This is also where Leland has a shoe box full of random things, a post with more details coming soon!  He also now gets to play with the keyboard I fried. 




If these two areas get boring, we also check out mommy and daddy's room and play at the bookshelf there, or we try and get out of the house.  The older he gets the harder it is to entertain him!  We will soon be purchasing Denver Zoo, Children Museum and Botanical Garden memberships to help with this.  We also regularly go to the library and have a weekly play group.  I am looking forward to it being nicer outside so we can go play at the park.



Sunday, January 8, 2012

Contest

Do you all remember this photo?  It is hilarious.  Ilana from Mommy Shorts is having a photo contest for the playoffs.  And while the Chiefs did not make the playoffs, Leland's photo is still in the contest!  So please go to the Mommy Shorts Facebook page and vote for Leland by liking the photo.  If he gets the most votes he wins a NFL jersey! How sweet is that!?

So please, pretty please, vote and spread the word.  Leland will thank you all if he wins.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Resolutions

I have many resolution or plans for the new year.  Hopefully I can actually stick to some of them.  

Personal
- stretch: I really need to be better about stretching on a regular basis.
- garden: have a bigger garden and be more proactive with it.
- books: read one book a month, this may be a bit of a challenge with my crazy school semester that is coming up
-photography: continue taking a photo a day of Leland and try to expand my photo subjects beyond Leland.
-be a better mom and wife: improvements can always be made

Food
-try to buy everything organic, local or seasonal: we already buy our produce organic and local when possible.  I need to be better about buying seasonal products.
- eat less meat, chocolate and sugar: we limit ourselves to one meal a week with meat, but I still feel like this is a lot
- be better about making everything from scratch.
-try to freeze and can produce when it is in season for year round use.

Sustainable
- be more conscious about buying products: try to buy used, or items with less packaging, or items that were made locally/sustainably
-try to use the air conditioner as little as possible this summer

Leland's resolutions are to be happy, healthy and eat as much as possible.