weekend report

what a great weekend.  and we didn't go to the lake... or take a trip... or do anything "fun"  but it was still a great weekend.  because lots of nice little things add up to a great weekend.

right now, i am sitting at the computer, nursing a sweet baby, sipping on sweet tea, and i just finished eating these fried squash blossoms. nice, huh? 


{I think my husband's version last weekend were slightly tastier and far more beautiful... but it isn't surprising since he is really talented in the kitchen...I always tell him that he would make a far superior housewife.}

These are very yummy and easy to make... just pick them when they are open, wash out any beetles, and pull out the stamens.  Then stuff with feta, fresh basil and garlic,  twist shut, and then dip them in egg and flour.  This is where I think I strayed from my husband's approach.  I think that he made a batter, with the egg, milk, flour, bread crumbs all together.... but i could be wrong. {he's on call at the hospital right now... so I am opting to not bug him about my minor inquiries while he might be dealing with life and death situations. literally.}  I dipped mine in egg, then in flour and whole grain bread crumbs.  I think that he used the white bread crumbs.  His batter was lighter and fried up better.  Like I said, he has better kitchen instincts.  I credit it to genetics.  My mother in law has the same ability to whip up tasty things with no recipe.  I on the other hand...  I need to follow the recipe to a t...get comfy with the process and then add my own twists...

nonetheless, they were tasty.

and this morning has been full of housework {maybe that would normally not be nice, but after  you have a baby, getting back into the swing of things is wonderful}

I attempted but failed to get back on my schedule last week... so I will try again this week.  Each day of the week has a list of tasks associated with it... and for the last month, they have been halfheartedly completed in an untimely manner.  Today, I am getting a jump start on it.  how many loads of laundry do you do a week?  It has been consuming me today... it's a 6 load day.

but I also got outside to the garden for the mid-day watering duty.  yes, it is that hot.  the plants need a drink at noon so they won't die... gee, we need rain.  I did get to pick these little guys.  the first tomatoes of the season.



I got to go outside with mr. pickles by ourselves because sweat pea was napping... we had some nice one on one time. he's been coming up to me all week long and saying, "mama, i love you"  melting my heart, I tell you.


The weekend started off on Friday night with some alone time with Savannah because Faustino took Ethan with him to the hospital to turn in paperwork... and that evening, after dinner, Faustino gave me a break from Ethan's bedtime duty... It was nice.

The next morning... we woke up and Faustino got his bike ready to go riding... and Ethan thought it was very exciting - wanted to help - and loved the helmet.  {in pj's with top inside out... see above paragraph}  Was DEVASTATED when he didn't get to go.





But Nana and Papa {my parents} were coming that afternoon, so he perked up.  They brought my grandmother, Mom-mom to meet Savannah.  We had a nice visit and then braved the crowd at Joe T's...I enjoyed a margarita {my first in nearly a year}  and I did indeed nurse Savannah {under a nursing cover - not hippie style} while drinking my margarita... I know, mom of the year, right??  {please people, no rude comments on how terrible a person I am}

Some photos from the visit.  I really thought I took one of my mother holding Savannah... but I guess not.  Really need one of those for her photo album...







On another note entirely, this is Colonial weekend... and I am strangely sad not to be involved, justas I have been every year since my stint there.  but it is only the tournament i miss --i assure you!!

sweet baby girl

simple food

do you cook dinner for your family?  I haven't had to for the last month.  between the miracle of a care calendar, where yummy food shows up on your table 3x a week, and a mother-in-law that knows how to make good stuff to eat... and a sister-in-law that has had us out to her house on two separate occasions for dinner... well, you get the picture.  we haven't been hurting for food.

but tuesday night, i cooked.  however, i cooked simple food.  I chopped and prepped the minimal ingredients during a rare everybody-is-sleeping moment... and then prepared it a little later...  i don't know where the recipe came from... and i know that i changed it up as well-- i don't remember what it was really supposed to be.  but it is easy, and good.  and the leftovers {if you have any} are wonderfully tasty...  So without further ado, my recipe for Simple Sausage, Peppers and Potatoes.

Step 1 -- very roughly chop:  3 bell peppers, 3 small-medium yellow onions, and 6 or so red potatoes


Step 2 -- brown 1lb-1.5lbs italian sausage and drain {my sausage is homemade but any italian sausage out of casings would work... and my sausage is super low fat... so lucky me doesn't need to drain it!  in fact, i actually add a little olive oil...}


Step 3 -- add onion and peppers, cook covered over medium until vegetables begin to soften


Optional additional step -- give screaming babeikin a paci over and over again to attempt to calm her down... try to do this before toddler does the same thing in a more rough fashion...




Step 4 -- add potatoes, cover and cook until tender... this is what it should look like when it is done... it makes its own gravy...


Step 5 -- add cheese to taste and serve.  the best is parmigiano reggiano... but Braum's only had the italian mix... so, that is what i went with...


Super easy.  I wish I could say that our peppers were from the garden.  They weren't -- ours are still growing.  I bought these at Braum's.  Faustino did come in and add a small lilac pepper from the garden.  it is a very pretty dark purple.  too bad I didn't photograph it raw... it looks green when you cook it.  {I am sure that is a bummer to TCU fans thinking they could sport their school spirit with their cooked purple bell peppers.  sorry, folks.}

I also cooked these lovelies... they were quite tasty.


I am sure that you could add things to the recipe to make it more complex... but there is something so nice about food that is easy...  let me know what you think about it if you decide to cook it...

squash blossoms

are delicious.



faustino picked them, stuffed them with feta and then dipped them in batter and fried them.  this was news to me until a few weeks ago when a friend mentioned she had them sauteed... and then Martha fried them on her show.  So Faustino fashioned his own recipe.  I will figure it out, reproduce it, and post pictures and the recipe... mmm...

Anyway, where was I while the cooking was happening?  I was bathing the rugrats and trying to pull myself together for family photos.  He was in the kitchen.  i sure do wish that it only took me 10 minutes to get ready... at least he shared his creation with me...

Hopefully our photos turned out well.  During the photos, Savannah pooped on Faustino in a major sort of way...  is she hazing us?? 

annie

anabel and ethan  

he talks about her all the time.  she was one of ethan's sweet classmates this year... but now it is summer.  and I know that he will miss sweet, spunky annie.  his teacher said that they had the same sense of humor.  oh, little boy... how you are growing up!!  making friends all on your own... 

tomorrow i'll go get a new color ink cartridge so that i can print this picture for him.  he went nuts when he saw it on the computer.

the state of things...

i am still adjusting to my new normal.

this is where i should insert a picture of savannah crying.  but i won't because she doesn't really look all that cute when she cries.  you can't see the big blue eyes, her face gets red... and she makes scary faces.  Ethan even has told me - "baby sister cranky, mama."  yes, i know.  hmm... i must be telling him that he is cranky...interesting when you hear little mouths repeating what you say...

anyway, I prefer to think of her like this:  after a feeding... happy and sleepy


I really prefer to think of her like this when she is pooping on me.  Unbelievable.  I'll spare you the details, but I assure you, it is unbelievable indeed.   And the laundry!  Sheesh! 

we had a great weekend.  really, really, great.  I think that I might be a little biased on how great the weekend was because I got 5 consecutive hours of sleep since april 27th.  and that, my friends, was life changing.  And the 5 hours were not because my hungry baby decided to take a long snooze.  It was because my husband fed her 2 pumped bottles.



I had gone 2 and a half weeks on very spotty sleep.  I was very low functioning.  I was highly caffeinated.  You will see no photos of me.  Instead I'll take photos of this little guy:





notice the booboo on the cheek?  by the end of the weekend it morphed into his first black eye... a preschool injury.  Thank god it wasn't on my watch!!  He didn't seem to be too affected... and little boy booboos are sort of cute...

Also this weekend, Faustino worked in the garden.  It is amazing that it has grown so much.  We are going to have a ton of produce if things keep heading in the same direction.  There are 17 tomato plants.  Sue... please teach me the domestic art of canning...






a tiny green bean growing up the trellis


our watermelon plant grew almost 6 inches overnight.  no kidding. 


anyone need lettuce??


i could just eat this little guy up... my sweet baby boy

Also, this weekend my sister moved to Fort Worth... we had a brief visit with my parents... they had their hands full with the move... Rachel, will you send me those pics please?  thx....

Oh, and for record keeping sake... Ethan learned how to ride his tricycle while I was in the hospital having Savannah... {have I mentioned that?? losing my mind and too lazy/tired/apathetic to check prior posts} and his new thing is to walk up to Savannah and offer his hand, saying "pleased to meet you"  He has a funny cadence when he says it and I crack up laughing every time...  And for the record, he has been a really great helper.  We have only had one random act of violence... a bop on baby's head after a sweet kiss... and some curious near misses {fingers trying to go in nostrils, etc.} but all in all very sweet.  {take note - this means that unless Ethan is down for a nap or asleep, I cannot leave her unattended... i.e. she can't sit in the bouncy seat in the living room with Ethan while I clean the kitchen... and if she is in the kitchen with me, I have to be able to get to her quickly if Ethan walks in}

Bye for now... I think someone needs a diaper change... oh - and p.s.  no more newborn sized diapers.  She was 9 lbs, 4 oz at her pedi appointment on Friday... meaning she's gained around 2 oz per day.  This little lady knows how to eat...

a little of this and a little of that...

So today, I really was all alone.  No visitors, no food drop off, no sweet mother in law on her day off {like yesterday, praise the lord}, or husband because he is on call...

... and I went to Target.  By myself.  Successfully. 

Okay, so new mom's of just one baby... I know that you might think it is daunting to just get out of the house with your new bambino.  I get it... but let me tell you that adding a toddler in the mix really does change the dynamic of your errands.  I just keep telling myself to enjoy the simplicity of two kids, because three would be even more chaotic interesting at Target.  Let's just say that Ethan wanted to push the stroller and was adamant that I not help at all.  Ethan doesn't know how to steer very well.  It was a long trip.  At least she slept and he had fun.

And since Daddy was on call tonight, we had frozen pizza... a special treat for Ethan.  Here he is showing off his train that my mother's cousins sent him.  He colored it on his own... I told him that it was awesome... and now that is his new favorite word.  Here he is being goofy at dinnertime.



I tried to take photos of my sleeping beauty, but she wasn't feeling so photogenic... granted, the photographer was distracted by this little monkey and wasn't really trying to get a good shot... but look at those lashes!





Silly little monkey kept wanting to look at the picture... i wouldn't have even taken one yet and he was dying to "see it"

~

And a bit of last week... 

Early in the week, while I was praying to go into labor on my own, I was nesting and crossing things off my list.  I finished my little project for Jenn's sweet baby, Carson.  I have been meaning to gush on and on about how much I love hand embroidery, but I'll save it for another post.   Here are the photos of the finished product... makes me want another little boy!






And last week, I took a rare picture.  Faustino went into Ethan's room and saw this:



My little baby.  I think I had a complete my-baby-is-growing-up meltdown right then and there. 

Gotta go nurse the baby... let's hope that she sleeps a little bit better tonight...  

allow me to introduce sweet Savannah Leigh

Savannah Leigh

April 28, 2010

1:14 in the afternoon

8 pounds, 7 ounces

20.5 inches

Now for the long winded story...

Last Wednesday morning, April 28, a very nervous me went to the hospital early in the morning to be induced at 39 weeks.  Induction made sense for us... I was "ready" physically, and with my husband's crazy schedule, we needed her to come sooner than later.  Still, I didn't really feel like it was all that natural to be induced and sort of wanted her to come into the world on her own timing.  Looking back, there are pros and cons for me.  Will I do an elective induction next time around?  Maybe...

Pros:  quick pain relief, deliver at an easier time of day, schedule care for older child

Cons:  very anxiety provoking (no contractions to distract me from worrying about everything), must have pain relief relatively quickly because it is very uncomfortable to not be able to move around during contractions, not natural in the least and will always wonder when she would have decided to be born

So all in all --- no big deal.  With Ethan I labored all day long, from 5am until he was born at 20 minutes until 7pm... so I was very tired.  Then, they had to get you to a new room, you had to eat, and all the other blah, blah, blah postpartum stuff.  We didn't get to rest until after midnight.  With Savannah, I must say, we got to bed that night at 9:30 or so, and I think that extra rest helped...a lot.

It was a great labor and delivery... she was born after 6 pushes through two contractions.  And she was bigger than anyone (except me) imagined... and was EXACTLY the same size and length as her big brother (even at hospital discharge).  And everyone was shocked at her blond hair and eye lashes... especially after Ethan's dark mop of hair...

She nurses like a champ, she sleeps well (albeit she wants to be snuggled to do this) and she is a really sweet cuddly baby.  And for the most part, Ethan enjoys her, too.

Some photos:


one last maternity shot...  thank god no stretchmarks on my tummy...


our new addition


Ethan meets his 'lil sister (I swear, I don't think he really gets that she has a name... although, he totally understood that I had to go to the hospital to have his little sister - just about floored me that he explained that to my mother in law the morning we were gone!!)


Ethan in his big brother t-shirt, playing with the gift Savannah bought him - a big rig


Welcome home, Savannah


He really missed us... just about broke my heart. 



Isn't she dainty??  Faustino helped me out and dressed her in the hospital while they were going over dismissal info with me... I was impressed with his skills....




just a couple I snapped of her yesterday while she was snoozing.  I promise, I will take more soon.


Also, for the record, Yesterday (monday) was my first day alone with the kids... Savannah had an 8:15 doctors appointment (weighing in at 8 lbs, 1 oz, I might add)... anyway, on my first day, I totally cheated and farmed Ethan out for a play date by 7:45 am.  So technically today is my first day solo... So far, so good.  I hope that having a Starbucks bearing friend stop by for a visit this morning doesn't count as cheating... 

more later... I have a baby that needs cuddling and a bigger baby waking from a nap...