Baby Baby Baby

I started packing up Sophia's old baby clothes today. At 3 months she's in her 6-9 month clothes and I can't believe how much she has grown. I also can't believe what David and I have found ourselves talking about this last week...having another baby! A month or so ago the idea petrified me. I was tired, weary, depressed and fat. (Being an overweight exhausted mother of a newborn is a great form of birth control.) Then, miracle of miracles, Sophia started sleeping through the night. Once she reached 2 months she started her AMAZING routine of going to bed around 5:30-6 and waking up around that same time in the morning with David and I. It's crazy how sleep can revolutionize your whole outlook on life! Suddenly being a mom wasn't all sleepless nights and self-sacrifice, it was, and is, a lot of fun! While I'm not ready to have another baby yet, I still have 20 lbs to lose 'till I'm back to my goal weight, I'm looking forward to when we get to again. Liz, my mass producing older sister, and I are thinking of alternating years. Her first was October 2008, mine was July 2009, her next one will be May 2010 so that puts ours somewhere around June 2011. We'll see how parenting Sophia and life ends up panning out=)

Feet

For the last week I've had a writing assignment looming over my head that has kept me away. Between taking care of Sophia and my husband, and trying to write another article, on Starbucks=), I've had little time to write anything for fun. With my daughter asleep and the other piece done I finally have a free minute. Sophia discovered her feet yesterday! She wanted nothing more than to play with them all day long and so that's what she and I did. It's amazing to watch her grow and develop and discover new things. With each new thing that she discovers she can do, she gets happier and more excited with herself and life. Watching her enthusiasm is an inspiration and motivation for me. She needs nothing more than two feet and a warm smile to send her into a fit of giggles. I am rediscovering myself and an innocence I had lost as I see life through her new eyes. While I may never have as much energy as she does, even with daily doses of coffee, I can have as much joy and wonder; a good goal for my day.

Food...Yum

Before I was married I put together a cookbook of all of my favorite recipes. During the later months of my pregnancy, and even more since having Sophia, I hadn't felt up to doing a lot of creative cooking. As I said in an earlier post, most of my dinners have been some variation of an easy chicken dish. Now that Sophia is three months old, I feel like I have a better handle on things and want to start making some of my favorite recipes again. (David is very excited about the prospect of some variety in his meals as well=) I thought I'd share these recipes with you all incase you too could use some new culinary ideas to add to your repertoire, so I created Mommy Needs Her Food (http://mommy-needs-her-food.blogspot.com/) as a companion sight. I'll be adding to it all the time and feel free to post your recipe ideas as well. Bon Appetit.

(Check on the right side of this blog for a link directly to the page.)

My New Home

Today has been a handful. Sophia wanted to snuggle all day which is adorable and cozy but also kept me from being very productive. As a result of my arms being full of baby, the laundry and straightening didn't get done, but my blog got moved to it's new home. A lot of people had been having trouble finding my blog due to the fact that my old web address spelled coffee with 3 "e"s (I don't think Sophia was sleeping through the night in those days). To avoid further confusion I thought I would just change it, but it ended up being a much bigger project than I anticipated. I have come to realize that I am not very computer savvy. Well, now that my blog is all straightened out, I'd better get my house in order. It seems so much more peaceful when it's clean.

Yummy

I cook almost every night but it's always very simple things. I seldom have the time to whip up anything more than couscous, a vegetable, and chicken. Yesterday however, David put in a special request for his favorite dish, my chicken enchiladas. Now this is not my chicken enchilada recipe, it's my friend Lesley's recipe, but since I make them I get the credit=). A night when David will be around to watch Sophia for me, I plan on making this dish and HIGHLY recommend everyone try it! It's a husband pleaser.

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (plus additional for the dish)

1-2 cloves garlic

4 scallions (white and tender green parts) chopped

1 (15 ounce) can black beans drained and rinsed

1 chipotle chili pepper in adobe sauce finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Lime juice

1 cup diced cooked chicken

4-6 large tortillas

2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese

1 cup green (tomatillo) salsa

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees; oil an 8 or 9 inch square baking dish.

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the garlic and scallions and cook, stirring for about 1 minute. Add the drained black beans and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes. Using a potato masher, or the back of a wooden spoon, mash the beans. Add the chipotle, salt, cumin, and lime juice and cook, stirring constantly, for about 1 minute. Add the chicken and toss to combine; set aside.

Place a skillet over medium-high heat. Heat the tortillas, one at a time, until softened and flexible, about 10 seconds per side. (I skip this step.) Working one at a time, spoon approximately 1/6 or 1/4 of the black bean-chicken mixture along the center of the tortilla, then sprinkle with about 1/4 cup cheese. Roll the sides of the tortilla over the filling and place it in the baking dish, seam-side down. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.

Sprinkle the rolled tortillas with the remaining cheese and pour salsa over the top. Bake the enchiladas until warmed through, about 20 minutes.

Growing Up

I try to write my blog every night but it's amazing how little time I have these days. My daughter is staying awake longer and longer and always wants to play. She's almost three months old and is starting to realize that there are a lot of things she would like to be able to do that she can't do yet. As a result of this, she wants my husband and I to help her do all of these things. Whenever I hold her against my chest she wont let me just hold her, she needs to push with her legs so that she's standing on my lap. I've also taken to letting her stand on my lap and then bouncy her into the air while singing the Tigger song. Now when she stands on me, she starts bending her knees and trying to push off to bounce on her own. She also is trying to roll over whenever she's on her tummy. She made it half way over this last week before getting stuck on her arm. She was not happy. I'm excited for when she can crawl and talk, but in the back of my mind I can't help but think that if I have no time now, how much less time will I have then? I think I'll just appreciate and live one day at a time.

I'm Losing My Hair...YEAH!!!!!!

My hair is falling out. I remember reading in my Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy, which I would highly recommend, that this could happen but I didn't know it would be this much! It's AMAZING!!!! I doubt most women feel this way about hair loss but you have to understand what my hair is like. If I don't blow it dry and straighten it my head looks like a giant q-tip. In high school I was playing ping pong at my parent's house, and the ping pong ball got stuck in my hair...true story. At least when my hair was long the weight of it helped to tame it down, but now that it's short (see earlier post about my daughter vomiting in my hair) it is extra froish. I'm hoping that a couple more months of this hair loss will finally get me "Normal People Hair". Fingers crossed.

Reading

When David got home from work tonight he took Sophia so that I could get dinner ready with both hands. (I have found that two hands are indeed better than one.) He read her a couple books and then decided that since she is now 2 months old, she needed to get cracking on learning her ABC's. He found a Fisher-Price website that goes through the alphabet and it kept Soph absolutely entranced for about 20 minutes. With David and I both being big readers, we're trying to get her accustomed to it too. I don't know how much she's getting out of all the books we read her but we're enjoying rereading them=).

http://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/games/abc/

Sigh

Tonight I wanted to write an uplifting entry full of witty anecdotes about my two month old and life as a mother but I'm afraid I'm all anecdoted out tonight. I feel stressed and overwhelmed. I had a doctor's appointment today and had to get my script filled afterwards and my daughter was being less then cooperative. Thankfully my mother and sister were with me to lend some helping hands. There were no helping hands on the way home during rush hour however. My daughter decided that she was desperately hungry so I had to contort my arm around the back of the seat to feed her her bottle as I was driving. (I don't recommend doing that by the way...my elbow is still angry at me and it's probably not very safe.) Upon arriving home my dog decided that he needed to be let out immediately while Sophia decided that she too needed to poop. Needless to say, both did their thing and I cleaned up after them. Hopefully everyone will settle down soon and I can figure out something to eat and some way to unwind. I think decaf tea might be good tonight.

Meal Times

Sophia drank around 40 ounces of milk today. I have no idea if this is a normal amount or not, but I can tell you it seems like an awful lot to my poor breasts! I can't seem to keep up with how much she wants to eat. For her last feeding I had to give her formula because I just didn't have anything left. I spent around 5 hours pumping and then feeding Sophia today. It's amazing how much time and effort goes into something that seems like it should be so easy. Since Sophia has stopped throwing up after every eating (see earlier posts), meal times have become some of my favorite times of the day. I love curling up with my daughter and seeing how happy and content she is because of me. I wish she'd give my breasts a little chance to rest, but if this is helping her sleep through the night I think I can live with it. (Here's hoping she doesn't decide to start eating more.)

The Dog From Bewitched

My dog is scarily similar to Gladys Kravitz, the nosy neighbor on Bewitched. He is constantly staring out our windows and shrieking about the littlest disturbance that he sees. Today he was running from window to window letting me know that cars were driving by, kids were being let out of school, and that there are, in fact, other dogs in our neighborhood. My daughter is blissfully unaware of his barking. Thank heavens she got used to it all those months in utero or that dog would be spending lots of time in the windowless laundry room. The only problem is that while the barking may not bother her, it bugs the heck out of me! I wouldn't mind if he was informing me of something exciting like a nose-twitching neighbor or a wise-cracking Uncle Arthur walking down the street, but there is never anything that good. If you've seen one yorkie you've seen them all. I think maybe we need to move to Walden Pond so our nosy, and noisy, little puppy doesn't have anyone to spy on. Gladys may be funny to watch, but she sure would be annoying to live with. Trust me.

Windows

David and I are currently battling over the windows. He is constantly walking around opening them all up and I am continually closing them. He seems to think that the fresh air is good for Sophia. I can see "fresh air" being very important if you were in, say, a TB Swine Flue infested room, but our home is relatively germ free. Between the Lysol wipes, Clorox Clean-Up, and hand sanitizer, I feel pretty confident that our house does not need the purifying power of the fresh air. Since it is currently 50 degrees and fairly breezy, I think the open windows are much more likely to cause Sophia to catch a cold then keep her healthy. She has already had one and I can't take using that blue bulb sucker thing on her anymore. I think this really comes down to my husband being an outdoorsman and me being more of a four walls sort of girl. Since I don't see either of those things changing anytime soon, it looks like our windows will be getting a workout. Current state of windows: closed. Current state of husband: napping. We'll see how long it takes for the first to change when the latter does.

Today

Some days are really hard for me as a new mom, and some days seem so easy and wonderful. Today was one of the easy wonderful ones. I woke up at 5:30 to pump while David hung out with the baby. I then fed her as he let out our dog, got dressed for school, and made espresso. When David left for school I put on the Today show and Soph played in her bouncer, had tummy time, ate again, and hung out on her play mat. I was starting to feel worn out so she and I went to Starbucks where I indulged in a grande nonfat no whip 2 pump pumpkin spice latte. YUM! After that we came home and I read her Guess How Much I Love You, Oscar's Rotten Birthday, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. She then ate and hung out in her crib laughing at her mobile while I got out of my pjs and straightened up the house. I grabbed some cheese and crackers for lunch and then we took a nap together until David came home. Heaven is a peaceful day with coffee, a nap, and no tears.

For My Daughter

While holding my daughter this afternoon, I was flooded with so many things I want her to grow up knowing. I want her to know that thunderstorms aren't scary, they're cozy and a great backdrop for snuggling on the sofa with a good book. I want her to know that it's okay to try at something and fail. I want her to know that I will always stay up late to hear about her dates, and will have a shoulder for her to cry on when that one boy doesn't seem to like her. I want her to know that being a girl is fun, but it comes with a lot of responsibilities. I want her to know that she is a mystery which will never happen again, a miracle which has never happened before (e.e. cummings). I want her to know that I will help her find the right shade of cover up when she's worried about her acne, and will let her know how beautiful she is even without it. I want her to know that I wont be mad when she drops a plate full of spaghetti on my white carpet. I want her to know that every boy comes and goes except for one, but girlfriends will stay with you forever. I want her to know that thinking for herself is important, and it's okay to question and challenge and disagree. I want her to know that respect for herself and others is one of the keys to happiness. I want her to know that I will never be more than a phone call or coffee date away. There are so many more things I want her to know, and that she will know, but for now I am more than content with what she does know...that she is loved. That's what it all comes down to in the end.