That's What She Said.

The big 1.0!

2009-07-13T14:50:00.009-04:00

Ella turned one yesterday! We had a nice little party with some friends and Grandma and Pop. I was worried about how Ella would do around all the people, since she sometimes freaks about a bit in large crowds or around people she doesn't know that well, but she did great! All the kids were really good, actually -- no tears from anyone until the very end :)

I made the cake myself (although Jon was on standby, ready to go buy one if disaster struck). I have to say, I was pretty happy with how it came out! I did wind up baking two, though, as the first one cracked really badly and wasn't really usable.

Ella had her own cupcake, which I didn't make. I didn't figure it was worth a whole box of cake mix just to get one cupcake for her...and after all my test runs, we're REALLY sick of cake around here. It take a lot for me to say that...I like cake :)
Once we let her loose on it, she didn't get TOO messy, which Jon and I predicted. She's a pretty tidy eater, surprisingly.

At the end of the day, we had one crashed-out baby girl.

Jon and I can't wait to see what the next year brings :)

The Natural Science Center

2009-07-10T22:17:00.005-04:00

Since the weather was pretty nice today, and we (or more specifically, me) were itching to get out of the house, we took Ella on the first of what I'm sure will be many trips to the Natural Science Center. We made the mistake of going a little too close to nap time, so there was some periodic grumpiness, but overall, we had a nice visit.

They have completely redone the "animal discovery" (read: mini-zoo) area since the last time we were there, and I was impressed with it! It all looks really nice, and there's a decent variety of animals there.

We saw maned wolves, tortoises (which came RIGHT up to you...and they were huge!), and a tiger, amongst others.

As we were walking down the path to the tiger enclosure, we could see him pacing back and forth in front of the fence. Suddenly, he let our a roar, and jumped and lunged at the fence -- holy crap! The gibbons up the hill went into a screeching fit. It was pretty impressive -- and intimidating. I couldn't get a really good picture of him, because he was constantly on the move.

Piggy-tails!

2009-07-09T17:57:00.001-04:00

Veggies live in the fridge.

2009-07-05T22:03:00.003-04:00

We'd had this weird smell going on in the pantry for a few weeks. It was getting worse and worse over time, to the point that it would smack you in the face as soon as you opened the door, and it would linger after the door had been shut. You could even smell it in the living room. It was RANK.

Jon and I both had poked around in there a bit, and hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. We typically don't keep anything really perishable in there, so as the smell progressed, I began to really fear that there might be SOMETHING in there that I didn't want to see. Like something dead.

Today, it was SO bad that we decided start taking stuff out to try and find the culprit. Logic said to start at the bottom shelf, so Jon pulled everything out. Nothing down there but onion skins. Certainly not the source of the stench.

Next shelf up -- nothing. I was thinking that maybe something had gotten stuck towards the back, but we weren't finding anything.

The next shelf was the one we use most often, with the bulk of our canned goods. We occasionally keep some potatoes and garlic in there as well, but they go pretty fast. Jon rustled around for a minute -- I wasn't really expecting him to find anything on that shelf.

Suddenly, I hear Jon say, "Eww...we have a winner!". He pulled out a bag with the remains of what appeared to be 3 red onions. Oh, it was rancid. I have no idea how long they had been in there, or even WHY they were in there to begin with!

Seriously repugnant.

So, now I'll be taking care to make sure that any vegetables brought into the house go into the fridge. Maybe even the ones that don't even need to be in there. Just to be safe.

Obligatory update

2009-07-04T18:56:00.004-04:00

I guess it's pretty bad when my own husband is telling me I haven't updated my blog in awhile.

I'm not meaning to be neglectful, it's just that there's not been anything to report. I've been working, Jon's been working, Ella's been crawling and pulling up on any and everything, and has even started cruising a tiny bit! So she's probably been the busiest of us all.

More teeth are starting to make their way in. This time, she's definitely noticing it, and is not particularly happy about it. Evenings tend to be rough, and last night, she woke up screaming about 45 minutes or so after we put her to bed (that *never* happens). I was working, so Jon sat in with her until she settled back again, which took about an hour and some Baby Tylenol.

I think I forgot to post about the 2nd trial cake I did the week after the first disaster. 100% improvement! I did sort of cheat and bought a shaped pan, but I made up for that by making my own fondant and buttercream icing! Looked good and tasted great! If I can pull it off again next weekend, I'll be in good shape!

This is as clean as it gets these days.

2009-06-29T10:09:00.001-04:00

This is actually pretty good for me, really.

Happy birthday to me!

2009-06-24T13:48:00.003-04:00

Having a nice, quiet day so far. Jon handled the baby duties this morning, and I got to sleep 'til 11:30, which was fabulous.

Looking forward to my b-day dinner tonight at Gianno's!

Things I've learned this week:

2009-06-18T22:46:00.002-04:00

-Kool-aid with Splenda tastes the same as the sugary stuff.
-Dexter is just as good the second time around.
-Having the store do my shopping and only having to go pick it up is so so nice.
-It doesn't take much to get people whipped up into a full-on, foaming-at-the-mouth frenzy.
-I really like the song "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles. Something about the seagull noise.
-Honesty truly is the best policy.
-Grilling is the best way to cook food.

Cake wreck indeed.

2009-06-14T19:53:00.005-04:00

Let me say first, I have a new-found respect for all bakers everywhere.

In all my infinite wisdom, I decided it would be a good idea to bake a test cake before attempting Ella's actual birthday cake....just to make sure that I could do it like I wanted. I'd found a pretty simple idea online, and I felt like I could probably do it without much problem.

Unmitigated DISASTER.

Problem one: I couldn't get it out of the pan. I greased and floured the pan before baking. Did my cake care? Noooo. It wasn't budging.

After many smacks and drops of the pan onto the counter, I managed to dislodge a corner. From the rest of the cake. Well, that's okay. I can sort of fit it together and use a little frosting like mortar, and it'll work out. Fine.

Finally, the rest of the cake is out. It's got a huge bubble on the top from baking, so I grab my serrated knife, and proceed to smooth it out. I've seen this done 100 times on TV. This was actually the most successful part of the whole thing. I managed to get it pretty level.

Once that was done, I cut the cake into the shape I wanted. This went okay, aside from the part that was broken off from before. Jon was actually able to recognize what it was, so I figured that wasn't too bad.

Now it was time to frost. (I should mention here that I'm not making this from scratch -- cake was boxed, frosting was canned. I'm not completely crazy.) I know how to SPREAD things onto a surface. I know how. But when I started to frost this cake, it went downhill so fast, my head was swimming. Crumbs all through the frosting, holes being ripped in the cake...just awful.

This shouldn't be this hard. Should it? Is it possible that I'm so incompetent that I can't even FROST A CAKE? I thought momentarily about taking a picture to you can see the train wreck that it is, but it's THAT embarassing.

So it looks like Ella's first birthday cake will be a Costco special. At least they're yummy.

11 months!

2009-06-12T23:05:00.002-04:00

Special delivery

2009-06-10T16:47:00.004-04:00

So, this is what I found in the mailbox today.

Yikes. Certainly not what I was expecting.

I shudder to think how long she's probably be in there, and how often I just stick my hand into the mailbox without looking.

And yes, that is an egg sac.

*shiver*

Good Eats

2009-06-06T18:40:00.003-04:00

Ella has been a great eater ever since we started her on solids. I can't think of a single food, in fact, that she didn't like. The past couple of weeks, though, have been a gastronomic adventure! She's tried:

-Tofu
-Strawberries
-French Fries
-Baked Beans
-Pancake
-Mango
-Toast
-Kiwi
-Veggie Pasta

And she loves all of them! I love seeing her chow down on new foods...I was really nervous about moving her to chunks of food, since she still really only has 2 teeth, but she does great! I hope her enthusiasm doesn't wane as she gets older.

Give us a kiss, luv!

2009-05-27T18:37:00.001-04:00

House a'fire (again)!

2009-05-26T15:31:00.002-04:00

So, I set the stove on fire. In case you're keeping track, that would be the 2nd time since we've lived in this house that I've done that.

I'm not that bad of a cook, really. We just happen to have a super-crappy stove. (That's right, blame it on the equipment.)

I was actually in the kitchen (although back to the stove) when the fire broke out. Lucky thing, I guess, or the whole house might have gone up in smoke.

We now have a nicely singed dish towel, as I didn't have any baking soda to toss on it. Guess I'll pick some of that up at the store today.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, that toilet paper commercial where the puppy calls himself sexy really gets under my skin.

House of Pain

2009-05-22T19:26:00.004-04:00

We're all falling apart.

I had a headache for about 3 days straight. That's finally dissipated.

Jon has been having horrible, immobilizing back pain for about 2 weeks. He went to the doctor yesterday, and he has a torn muscle. I don't have personal experience, but I'd say that's not something you'd want to deal with any place in your body, but particularly not in your back. He's on an anti-inflammatory and muscle relaxer, which seems to be giving him some relief.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed Cosmo had a sizable growth on one of his front legs, and he had also developed a sporadic limp. We had the lump removed, and the vet's pretty certain that it's just a fatty growth and is unrelated to the limping (although he has pretty serious hip dysplasia and secondary arthritis in his back end), which is good news. He has a couple of stitches in his leg, though, and even though he's bandaged up, he wouldn't leave it alone and was trying to lick and chew at it. So poor Mo is doomed to the satellite dish for the next 9 days or so, until his stitches come out. He just crashes around, with no concept of how big the radius of his noggin now is. I feel bad for him, but it's sort of hard not to giggle.

I guess we're more or less on the mend, though.

And just for the sake of cuteness....

10 months!

2009-05-12T19:05:00.003-04:00

Chompers!

2009-05-11T21:09:00.002-04:00

Can you see 'em in there?

Crock Pot Cookery.

2009-05-10T22:54:00.002-04:00

I've tried two new Crock Pot recipes in the past 2 days! Just call me Kelly Homemaker...I can throw ingredients in a pot and let 'em cook.

Recipe #1 was Garlic Crock Pot Chicken:

1-1 1/2 lbs. chicken pieces
1 c. packed brown sugar
2/3 c. vinegar
1/4 c. lemon-lime soda (7UP diet or regular)
2-3 T. minced garlic
2 T. soy sauce
1 t. pepper

Place chicken in crockpot. Combine other ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

This would have turned out better than it did, except for the fact that when I wrote the recipe down, I wrote a TABLESPOON of pepper. In case you'd never had a look at a tablespoon of pepper, it's a lot. So it turned out really, um, peppery. Aside from that, thought, it wasn't bad. The chicken was a little dry (I used 3 breasts), so next time, I'll probably add a little chicken broth as well. Despite my heavy-handedness with the pepper, Jon thought this one was good. "Three and a half stars," he says.

Today, I tried Amazing Pork Tenderloin in the Slow Cooker:

1 (2 pound) pork tenderloin
1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
1 cup water
3/4 cup red wine
3 tablespoons minced garlic
3 tablespoons soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place pork tenderloin in a slow cooker with the contents of the soup packet. Pour water, wine, and soy sauce over the top, turning the pork to coat. Carefully spread garlic over the pork, leaving as much on top of the roast during cooking as possible. Sprinkle with pepper, cover, and cook on low setting for 4 hours. Serve with cooking liquid on the side as au jus.

I thought this one was better than the chicken, although I wouldn't call it amazing. I couldn't find our fresh garlic, so I just used garlic powder. I went a little easier on the pepper after the previous day's experience. The pork came out tender, and had a good flavor. Even though I was happier with this meal, Jon wasn’t as impressed, and actually preferred the chicken. “Two stars” was the rating for the pork.

I would cook both recipes again, with a few tweaks.

An eventful couple of weeks.

2009-05-05T23:16:00.002-04:00

Ella's been busy lately!

In the past 2 weeks, she has:

-started teething. She's got 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top coming in right now.

-learned to sit herself up.

-started crawling. She'd been trying for so long, and she finally got it!

-started clapping. This she just started doing out of the blue last weekend.

-become somewhat more interested in the sippy cup.

She's also starting to TRY to pull up. Sometimes I'll go to get her out of her crib, and she'll be pulled up on her knees at the side.

We need to start some serious babyproofing. We've got safety plugs in the outlets and most of the cords out of the way in the living room, but we need to get some cabinet locks and baby gates. And soon.

New trick #2...and why we're now in trouble!

2009-05-03T12:57:00.000-04:00

Ella's new trick

2009-04-27T19:59:00.000-04:00

Ella's 9-month stats

2009-04-25T15:11:00.002-04:00

-Weight: 19 lb 8 oz (50th percentile)
-Height: 27 1/2" (50th percentile)
-Head size: 18 1/2" (97th percentile)

She wasn't so happy and cooperative about getting examined this time as she has been in the past. More typical baby than typical Ella, I suppose. She didn't have to get any shots this time, but she did have to have her finger pricked for a blood draw, and I guess that's just as bad.

She's got TWO teeth coming in now! Both of the bottom front teeth are on the move. She's been just great about it. If I hadn't actually seen and felt both the teeth myself, I'd never have known she was teething at all.

Still not crawling, but oh-so-close.

Ella's favorite hideout:

2009-04-20T21:34:00.003-04:00

Under the coffee table.

ETA: I forgot to mention when I posted this initially - she's finally getting a tooth! We were beginning to think baby dentures might be in our future. But she's got a bottom one coming in -- woohoo! She hadn't been fussy at all, so we weren't expecting it.

Awesome. I heart playoffs.

2009-04-15T08:40:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T15:00:00.002-04:00

And happy 9 months!