Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Really? Even more snow?

Last Sunday we had a big snowstorm (big for this winter) - about a foot of snow between Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. We took a couple pictures, Chris shoveled, we briefly introduced Cora to the magical white stuff, and we all had apple pancakes. It was a fun weekend.

But, now the next big snow storm is coming...tonight...in the middle of the week. Not as much fun.

Two sure signs that the storm is coming:
Twin Cities weathermen grinning with fiendish glee.
Students developing "family emergencies" en masse and having to miss class.


Tuesday, February 27, 2007

The Joy of (Grilled) Cheese


Today I played hooky from my office hour and instead met Chris and Cora for lunch at Snuffy’s - a little burger and malt shop in St. Paul. They got there ahead of me and when I walked in, Cora had this look of amazed surprise on her face. Well, it was an unprecedented occasion.

Chris and I had our burgers, mine with onion rings, his with french fries, and split a chocolate malt. Cora has been eating a lot of "people food" lately - she loves rotini and egg yolks and toast and meatballs (oh boy does she love meatballs!) - so we got her a half a grilled cheese sandwich just for fun. She hasn’t been too excited by cheese yet, but we also had back-up baby food.

No need for any back-ups. She ate the entire half sandwich, except for the crusts, tiny piece by tiny piece. I would cut up a bunch of pieces for her, set them in front of her high chair, and eat some of my lunch while she ate hers (I love this new self-feeding trend!). Chris and I took turns sneaking in bites of pears, too.

It was great - Chris and I got to eat and talk, Cora got to try a fabulous new food, and we were a happy little family.

About half way through the sandwich Cora grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes and squealed with delight. A little like in the photo above (from last Sunday morning), but with a little bit more earnest mania.

Yes, Cora, there is nothing better than going to Snuffy’s.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

BACON-AID


It is surprisingly hard to take a picture of the outside of your own ankle.

Homemade Baby


Although Cora has never been too excited about most of my homemade baby food, preferring the ultra smooth texture of mass processed (albeit organic) baby food (reminiscent of people preferring storebought ultra white bread to the grainier and hardier homemade loaves), I have found something I can make that she will like.

Clothes!

At least until she turns thirteen and realizes that MOM is not, as a clothing label, as cool as she has been led to believe. First effort: a pinafore and pants. Both were meant to be big on her and really be more along the lines of summer wear. The pinafore will work fine for this. The pants maybe not. At least on this first pair, the waistband needs to be a little looser, and I think the seam allowance is probably a little too wide. Still...she's pretty cute in it!

Finger food is all the rage these days. She has started insisting on having things to feed herself while she is being fed her very smooth and pricy food. How does she insist? By mock-screaming in between bites unless she's able to sneak a puff or cheerio. And she prefers puffs - picks out and eats the little stars before the oaty-o's. Actually, I prefer the puffs, too.

As you can see, we continue to wear hats to the table, despite all the rules of good manners. She is a true daughter of the West.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Valentine's Day - Romance or Vomit...your choice.


Unfortunately for everyone, Cora's first Valentine's Day began late the night before with strange noises coming from her room that apparently involved creating a lake of banana-squash-aloha mango chicken vomit in the crib. We arrived on the scene of her biological art installation sooner than she expected and she was forced to deposit the final addition to the lake down my pajama top. It was late and I was very tired and my only really coherent thougth was, "Man that is some warm barf."

The day wasn't too bad once I realized that solid food was not going to stay down (I realized this at breakfast as I lifed her out of the suddenly-swamped high chair - I'm a quick study). So we spent the day just nursing and drinking juice and water bottles. She was cranky and clingy but still trying desperately to smile at me from time to time. Poor girl.

She is better today, no longer barfy (thank goodness!), and over the course of the day her appetite came back. I'm looking forward to a return to all normality tomorrow.

On the plus side, Chris stayed home from choir practice (hymns just don't sound as sweet when the baby's just puked on your clothes, I guess), we had a great steak dinner and a yummy bottle of wine. I know Chris really loves me because he not only got me a chocolate bar, but also band-aids designed to look like bacon strips! (Picture coming soon, I promise!)

Saturday, February 3, 2007

9 Month Birthday!



Today Cora turned 9 months old. She likes to do things in an orderly fashion, so this was also the week that her 6-9 month size clothes began to fit a little too snugly and the 9-12 month size clothes to fit not quite as loosely. She's starting to wave more clearly (oh, we say, all that spastic arm movement before was actually proto-waving!) and crawl pretty quickly. Earlier this week I converted her fishy playmat into a tunnel. She observed this process closely and approved of the result.

After her nap today we spent some time in her room. She played with the toys I had moved upstairs (and so she sees them less often) while I changed the crib sheet and went through some of her clothes. I found a bunch of hats in various sizes, mostly from her summer outfits, and tried them all on her. Each time I took a hat off her she cried, and each time I put a new hat on her she smiled. So, she wore a hat throughout her lunch, and as you can see, that made her pretty happy.

Here in Minneapolis it is (probably literally by this time of night) freezing. When I went to book group this morning it was -13...if you add in wind chill, closer to -25. So, we are keeping Cora indoors this weekend. She doesn't seem to mind.

In honor of Cora's birthday I made a lemon meringue pie (my first!), which is made up almost entirely of things she can't have: citrus, egg whites, large amounts of sugar. Oops! I guess Chris and I will have to eat the whole darn pie.
Cora's special treats tonight were some multigrain penne and some Jasmine Chicken Luau from Healthy Times, a company whose ceareal she's been eating. When we ran out of multigrain cereal and no one had it in stock (from either Healty Times or from Earth's Best, our other favorite organic company), I decided to order it online. And found all this great jar food. Now I am hoping to find somewhere in the Twin Cities that carries Healthy Times jar food, because she really likes all the varieties we've tried, but shipping baby food isn't cheap!