December

By the time Thanksgiving is over, Christmas shopping is in full swing and I get inundated with custom jewelry orders.  I'm not complaining, just explaining why I haven't have time to recount in great detail the nuances of our daily life on this here blog.  Having a business at home that works well with our family has been a huge blessing, and I am so thankful that it's FUN unlike say, medical coding. 

In order to feel like my life in December is not all about jewelry and a toddler I have taken breaks here and there to decorate for Christmas and bake.  We have a Christmas tree (a real one at that) for the first time in years!  Oh yeah, I forgot I already told you that.  My favorite ornaments are those we've brought home from our trips to Bermuda, our Caribbean cruise, Montreal, California, Florida, our honeymoon (Williamsburg, Okracoke).  And I like the ones from my childhood like this jar-lid ornament from preschool thirty years ago. On the back is a frog made of fingerprints and I still remember making it.

Our favorite cookies (double chocolate with white chips and either peppermint crumbles or Craisins) have gotten easier; I used to make them from scratch and now I just buy the envelope mix and stir in the extras.  I would like to know, however, why one can't purchase pre-crushed peppermint candy.

Even though I've taken breaks to embrace Christmas amidst the busy-ness, I've been kind of stressed (ask Steve).  But now that my jewelry order queue is finite (the deadline was Sunday) I feel like I can relax a little and enjoy my family and friends again.  So if I don't get right back to blogging about our household minutiae, know that we are all doing well and enjoying much yuletide cheer.

11 months

Olivia's clapping is still very cute... and she knows it.  She'll be getting into something she shouldn't and I'll say, "Ah ah ah" or "no" and she'll turn around and face the other way... and clap.  Like, "See how cute I am?  You forgot I'm being naughty."  ("No" has started working as long as we're not in her face like "Boo.")  Yes, it's high time we baby-proofed our house.  How do you keep little ones from playing with lamps and cords, though?  They're like baby magnets.

Livi has started standing on her own a little.  She'll pull up on a side table or footstool and I'll say "Yaaaay" and she'll clap, free-standing for a few seconds.  Then I'll say, "Come here," and she'll sloooowly crouch down and crawl the nine inches necessary to reach me.  Until this week when you held her hands to help her walk, her legs would just noodlize and she'd sit down.  Mandy & Jenni have taught her to move her feet, so now she does the Nazi march.  Interesting, since her wave (hello and goodbye) resembles a "Heil, Hitler."  And she has blue eyes and light hair... I digress.  Livi was "helping" my dad unload the dishwasher last night and then he closed the door and she was still standing.  He held out his arms and she shuffled toward him.  So for his sake, I'm going to say he was the sole witness of Olivia's first steps. 

OJ likes to stroke her hair while taking a bottle, almost like a pre-nap milk trance.  Stroke, stroke, and then she'll stroke what's left of my hair, or my sleeve, and now?  Now she has started stroking her beautiful long eyelashes.  Stroke, stroke, until she's pulling the lid off of her eye.  It's hard not to laugh.  I need to get her a pelt.

I was reading Bunny and Me (thanks, Cherie) to Livi this evening and, instead of trying to engage her in the dramatic story line ("Come back, bunny!"), I just started identifying objects.  When I get to the page with the ball, I say, "Ball?" and she points to it.  And, of course, Riley comes running from wherever she is, thinking somebody finally wants to play ball with her.  I realize if I were to say, "Bunny?" Livi would probably still point to the ball, but I'm going to enjoy this moment.

Olivia used to sleep from 8pm-8am.  Recently she's been testing us by getting up at 6:30.  I noticed her hands and feet were cold when I got her up the other morning, so the next night I left her onesie and socks on underneath her sleeper and she slept in an extra hour.  The following night I double-bagged her (put a larger sleeper on overher regular one) and she slept in again.  What do you normally do for a baby in winter?  She's not going to keep a blanket on.

Feeding Olivia has its ups and downs.  Some days she'll take cereal/yogurt/baby food from a spoon, other days as soon as she sees the jar or bowl she starts screaming.  It may be just as well because baby dinner foods all contain orange/yellow veggies which have likewise colored Livi's nose.  So I give her finger foods to eat and she sloooowly gets some in her mouth.  She'll eat some, play with the rest, and then get bored/fussy and refuse to eat any more.  She has discovered the fun in squishing things, dropping things on the floor and, even more fun, letting Riley eat from her hand.  I liken Olivia feeding herself to someone picking crabs.  You do it for the taste, for the experience, but you always have other things to eat for nourishment.  Her favorite food is cheese (same as Riley) and next she likes crunchy bready things and sweet things.  My mother-in-law suggested still-frozen peas, and those went over well with everyone because Olivia just eats them since they won't squish. We're still working on "getting" sippy cups.  She chews on the straw kind, and the spout kind seems to deliver more fluid at a time than she can handle, so she gasps or gags.  But she's getting it slowly.  At the 1-year mark I'm supposed to switch her over to whole milk from formula, and that makes me think she's going to starve.  Hopefully by then she'll be eating more finger food.

Burger me

Steve and I love a good burger and, being good little scientists, decided to do a little experimenting on the grill this summer.

We saw a new-to-us way to form thin, flat patties on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Line a jar lid with plastic wrap and press the meat in. That way it doesn't crumble at the edges or get over-handled and tough. We used 70/30 ground beef because we wanted them to be juicy. Two large, two small. One of each for each of us. (This was before Olivia was eating solids.)

I like the way Jake's cheese is just warm and not melted into oblivion on the patty. So for one of mine I had Steve add it to the patty just after he took it off the grill, and my other cheese slice went right on the toasty bun.

Action shot. The other three Kraft regular American "cheese product" slices are waiting in the wings.

Seasonings were Lawry's seasoned salt and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. (My dad pronounces that in two syllables: Worschur. Rhymes with oyschur. That's how they pronounce oyster in Tidewater Virginia. Oh, and Sam and ham are said with two syllables -- Sayam, hayam -- and Charles is one -- Chawls. And there's no R in the middle of Richardson or scarf, but there's an L in the middle of chimney -- chimbley -- and water has two Rs - worter. I digress. It's precious, and I hope I can remember my dad's accent forever.)

Drool. I want a burger.

The results

The small one in the back is about to go on my cheesed bun, and the big one in the front was my other one. Steve's bigger one didn't last long enough to have its picture taken. We decided the lid size used for forming needed to be warehouse size (4"+) in order to make a burger the size of the bun. We actually measured the shrinkage, which was the same percentage for both sizes and, unfortunately, a significant figure (which I have since misplaced but you can tell from the photo). We're not burger geniuses, but we think the shrinkage is due to the 70/30 mix with a lot of the volume having melted away.

We ought to have another round of experimentation to see if a different ratio would yield better results, perhaps with meat from the butcher instead of the grocery store. (What kind of scientists are we with no control group?! Horrors!) And ultimately we're not using a flat griddle to squish them flat so we know these will never be quite like Jake's, but they were much better than the traditional American backyard burger patty that measures about as tall as it is across.

Riley volunteered to help us eat after we take our measurements next time. You know, for our heart health. Thanks, Riley.

As a side note, I want you to know that we don't normally put this sort of effort into meals. When Steve is traveling I tend to eat something like yogurt for dinner, and when he's home we tend to eat out because cooking is just not a priority and restaurant food just tastes so good. So in case you're thinking I'm Martha Stewart, please know that 99% of the time our dinners aren't noteworthy. And if we do make something good you know I'm going to tell you about it. (If you're looking for archives, some stuff is on my other blog).

Up next in the food category: BBQ ribs, baby!

And re: the title of this post, are we the only ones who watched the show Ed? Bowling alley lawyer Lawyer who happens to own a bowling alley. Ten dollar bets. Anyone?

Rolling over

Sorry - I've been pretty busy lately. My computer came down with another virus (thanks so much, McAfee) but I got a remarkable amount of work done while it was gone, so I'm going to try instituting Laptop Lid Closing more often now. Notice how ambiguous that is. I am not very disciplined in that department. (And yes, if you follow that link and wonder, I am already saying, "Those were the days.")

Miss Olivia and I took advantage of the nice weather this weekend by getting out of the house... Computer Shop, Simply Charming Boutique, Babies-R-Us, dinner with Grandpa, church, Lowe's, Michael's, Pep Boys...

I washed my own car for the first time in years with green dish soap and a leaky hose. And then I got all the stuff I needed... Carwash soap/wax, hose gaskets, hose caddy, Rain-X, tire shine-er, wheel cleaner...

Okay, a little excitement: Olivia has started turning over to her front. She still has an arm stuck underneath her, so then she turns right back over to her back if she leans in that direction. But it's something I'll probably want to look back on when we have our next kid, so I'm posting it.


Oh, and? As soon as I wrote out my disclaimer about the arm, she rolled over for real and then fussed because she was stuck on her tummy, reverse turtle-ized. But, Riley won't roll over even if you try to make her, so give Olivia another point.