Is this thing on?

I sure hope not! This is now going to be a place where I store my otherwise offline recipes. Here's the first!

WORLD FAMOUS (7^TH FLOOR FAMOUS?) CHEESEBURGER TURNOVERS

INGREDIENTS

·        1# ground beef

·        1/4c. yellow onion, diced

·        1t. garlic powder

·        1t. onion powder

·        1t. black pepper

·        salt, to taste

·        4 oz. (ish)  Velveeta

·        Rhodes frozen dinner roll dough (can substitute with any frozen bread or pizza dough, but I like the convenience of the pre sized rolls.  Refrigerated Grands Biscuit dough, puff pastry sheets or pre made refrigerated pie dough would also work well)

·        Egg wash (optional) - 1 egg mixed with 2T. H2O

·        Optional add ins - chopped blanched broccoli (or thawed frozen), crumbled cooked bacon, sautéed mushrooms

INSTRUCTIONS

Thaw dough, covered with plastic wrap,  on a sheet pan in the refrigerator overnight.  I like to line the pan with parchment paper and spray it with PAM first to prevent sticking.  Pull thawed dough out and let sit at room temp for about 1 hr., until roughly doubled in size.

Saute beef and onion together until cooked through.  Turn heat off and season with garlic and onion powders, pepper .  Give it a good stir then add the Velveeta to the mix while it's still warm.  Taste, then add salt if it needs it.  Mix in any extras (broccoli, etc.) and set aside to cool.

On a lightly floured surface, either roll dough out, or gently stretch by hand, into thin rounds approximately 5 in. across.  Place about 1/4c. of the cooled filling in the center, fold over and seal using your fingers.  Place on parchment lined baking pan.  Brush with egg wash (optional) and sprinkle with poppy seeds, sesame seeds or Everything bagel spice.  Let sit for 20 min. at room temp while oven heats.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake for 18- 20 minutes, or until golden. 

Click here to read more!

365 days ago

One year ago today, just around now-ish, I was hooked up to pitocin, covered in monitors and was 23 hours and 53 minutes away from starting the biggest adventure of my life.

That is all. :) Click here to read more!

Will's Third Month

William's third month began with my starting to figure out the whole at-home mothering thing and ended with it abruptly being taken from me as my maternity leave ended. While I can now say that being a working mom is not only survivable but probably also good for me and Will in many ways, at first, it was very very difficult.

I mean, who would want to not spend all day with a tiny little guy who is testing out his vocal chords, cooing like a little angel and batting adorably at toys hanging above his head???

Although, the third month did not entirely consist of 24/7 cooing and adorable body movements. There was also fussing and the beginning of our many-month-long streak of constant wondering if every inexplicable scream, shriek or wail was teething-related (note that Will did not get his first tooth until he was over 8 months old - such rookies we are!!). In our defense, drool appeared at this stage, which seemed to support our theory, until I read that salivary glands really step up drool production at three months. :)

So the swing and the bouncy chair were critical elements of our keep-Will-happy strategy. And there was lots of walking around while holding him in our arms (his head on our shoulder and NO SITTING on our part! - amazingly, he was extremely particular about the way he was held).

Sleeping in the third month was still in increments of less than 2 hours each, which was tough overnight but made going out to dinner after work possible. And so Alex and I did that, knowing that such freedom would soon come to an end. Going out as a little family with a tiny baby is such a happy memory from that time.

And while I tried not to, I spent a lot of time during Will’s third month thinking about how much I would miss him when I went back to work. I tried to focus on taking in every moment and creating as much quality time as I could with my little man – walks to the park, long conversations by the Boppy, and cozy naps in the glider.

And then I did go back to work, and I did miss him…tremendously. The transition from maternity leave to life as a working mom was a tough one but was not nearly challenging as I thought it would be. Eventually the toughest part was functioning during the day on very minimal sleep, but we got through that too (spoiler: there is indeed good news on that front in the fourth month)!

Fortunately again, I wrote the following letter to Will so I do have some fresher/more of-the-time memories than the ones above that I'm trying to piece together from emails and chats. :)

Dear Will,

I shouldn't be surprised that you're three months old, but I am. The evidence is clear. I am back at work. You are in daycare. These are the things that happen at three months of age, but I find myself asking how a quarter of a year already went by.

I used to dread the thought of you growing up, getting bigger, losing your newborn infant tininess. And while I loved you as a tiny baby, you are so cool now. The smiles you give me, the "conversations" we have when you lay down on my lap, and the strength of your little body are amazing. I cannot help but think that today is the most sublime day of your life, but then again, I think that every day.

Today is our third day apart. I miss you terribly while I am at work, and I spend my days watching my slide show of your pictures on my computer. I take comfort in the fact that you seem to love daycare. This morning, when I brought you into your room at "school," you reached for the floor the moment you saw your little friends and your teachers there waiting for you. I don't know about that - I might have to teach you to scream and cry and pretend like you are going to miss me while I am away for my sake - but mostly I am happy that you seem to like it there.

The next item on our agenda, little man, is sleeping. You have gotten very good at laying down in your crib and going to sleep - you just do not like to stay there in the middle of the night. We'll work on it. I have faith in you. I just hope next month I am writing about what a fantastic sleeper you are! Ha!

Love,
Mommy

Here is a video of the little man's third month. Enjoy!



Some statistics on Will's third month:
Firsts - First trip on an airplane! It was to Florida to introduce Alex's grandparents to their first great-grandchild. Will even got to fly in first class - what a fancy baby! :)
Favorite thing to wear - The same thing as daddy - he told me so!
Nights slept through - 0 this month, leaving the grand total at 1.
Biggest pet peeve - Having to get ready for bed before eating (this pattern of screaming post-bath continues until about a couple weeks ago). Click here to read more!

Will's Second Month

If Will's first month was, like, forever ago, his second month was at least a very, very long time ago. I certainly remember a few more bits from the second month than the first, but as I reflect on the pictures and videos, he still seems like a very different little person.

My memories of Will's second month are mostly a blur, dotted with angry attempts at tummy time, lots and lots of eating, and the most beautiful smiles I had ever seen. And in between there was sleep. Sometimes there was less sleeping and more crying. Sometimes there was lots of crying. Sometimes I cried too. I won't lie - sometimes that second month was tough.

Tough as that month was, and bald and suffering (a bit) from baby acne though Will was, I still love watching this video. Will, in my humble opinion, was simply adorable. You be the judge:



Some statistics on Will's second month:
Starting length/weight - 22.25", 10lbs, 1oz
Ending length/weight - 23.5", 12lbs, 13oz
Biggest pet peeve - Having to stop eating to burp
Favorite drug - Mylicon
Nights slept through - 1 (Spoiler alert! This number doesn't increase for a while.)
Other milestones - Seeing the bugs on his swing, batting at the toys in his gym, and smiling!! Click here to read more!

Will's First Month

Let me start by saying that it is really weird to be writing about the first month of Will's life, because that was, like, forever ago. I barely remember it. And that's the problem. If I don't write it now, what little I remember will disappear and forever be lost. I cannot let that happen.

Fortunately for me and my increasingly weak memory, I wrote a letter to my little man on July 22nd:

Dear Will,

I cannot believe that you are already one month old. In some ways, I am shocked by how quickly time flies, and I want to keep you tiny and bundled in my arms forever. In other ways, I am so excited for you to grow up so we can go to the park and play together, read stories, and share cupcakes from Sweet Mandy B's. I spend a lot of time these days eagerly anticipating our the great fun we'll have as a family together.

For now, you are still a bit of an enigma to me. There are days when you eat peacefully, gaze lovingly at me and sleep easily. Today is one of those days. Thank you. But there are also days where you scream loudly, fuss inconsolably and sleep, well, never. That was yesterday. I think. I've already forgotten it. The pediatrician told us this afternoon that you'll get angrier before you get happier. Your father and I are braced for all kinds of excitement in the coming weeks!

You're still learning to move your arms and legs and fingers and toes in the wide open space of the world you now occupy. Sometimes you shake your limbs violently, sometimes your fingers dance in front of your face in graceful patterns. I usually assume these movements and gestures are random, but the frequency with which you raise your middle finger to me while you nurse has me somewhat concerned. I keep telling myself that it's just a random gesture, and the graceful, random movement of your hand that just happens to result in the one finger salute is your way of communicating that your content.

We need to work on your communication skills.

This first month has been a bit of a roller coaster. Since you were born late at night, you didn't spend very much time in the hospital before we were shipped home. As a consequence of being rushed through, you gave your parents a bit of a scare when you didn't pass two of your initial screening tests. But a couple weeks and a couple trips to Children's Memorial later, the doctor called to tell us what we already knew deep down...

You are perfect.

We are so lucky to be your parents.

Love,
Mommy

Looking back at the pictures from Will's first month, it strikes me how much he has changed and developed, how new and foreign he appeared in those first few weeks, and how little I remember. Our pediatrician told us it would be a blur and that we wouldn't remember the bad stuff, or really much at all. He reasoned that if people really remembered a lot about the first month or two that no one would have a second child. The implication was not solely that the first months were that bad but also that the following months were so worth it. And they have been.

I was taking an inventory of some of our early videos of Will. The difference between to little boy who lives in our house now and our new-to-the-world, alien boy from last summer is great, but I love him then and now all the same. Here's a taste of what I've been looking through as I remember.



I hope you enjoy it! Click here to read more!

Remember when?

Remember when I used to post here? I used to cook and travel and take pictures and do other stuff and write about it here. Back when life on Southport was really just about me balancing my personal life with my working life. Back when Alex and I were DINKs...

And now? My life is a million times more interesting and I've kept it to myself. Sorry about that. :) Little William is the center of our worlds, the focus of our free time, and when he is asleep, we're cleaning up after him, editing pictures of him and planning out his future. Because we are parents now, and that's what we do!

Fortunately for me, things are a bit slow at work this week, so I've decided to catch up what few readers I might have on our activities and Will's growth and development into the best (!) little (!) boy (!) in the world (!). (We're so lucky to have been chosen to raise this one. Honestly.)

So where was I? Ah yes, it was November, Will was almost 5 months old, and he was just working on sitting up. Now he babbles, he crawls, he claps, he pulls up, he cruises (I haven't seen this one yet, but we hear he did this at daycare the other day), and generally speaking he makes us smile and count our lucky stars non-stop. It's the smiling and counting that has really gotten in the way of my blogging.

So perhaps some catch-up is in order. Let's start with looking at how big he's getting!








Next time, I'll start working through a month by month recap. It's probably more for my own sake (I don't want to forget this stuff!!) than for your enjoyment. I apologize in advance. :) Click here to read more!

Nablopomo = FAIL

It started Friday night. We went out (!) for a friend's birthday! And we had a great time. (Nanna Maggie was kind enough to babysit.)

We got home at 11pm and by the time we got organized to go to bed, it was midnight (!).

I woke up the next morning and thought to myself, oh, shoot, I didn't blog last night. Maybe I could post something quick this morning and back date it to yesterday...

But then an adorable little man who is working on sitting hopped on my bed and took precedence over my schemes.

Almost there........................................................................and he's got it!!

And I think that was the right answer. Hope everyone had a great weekend! Click here to read more!

Apropos of yesterday's post

You win this time, Gap Give and Get. You win this time...


Uncles Chris and Patrick should be proud.

Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!
(Extra points to anyone who can name the early 90s phenom who first uttered those words before looking at this!) Click here to read more!

I have a problem

Hi, my name is Kathleen and I'm a shop-a-holic.

[Hi Kathleen.]

I'm pretty sure if our mailroom guy at work* has to deliver one more box to my desk this week, he will call me and tell me to deliver it myself. And he would be justified in doing so.

I like shopping for things. I always have. Not crazy, spending beyond my means shopping, but I always got a warm fuzzy feeling when I found a good deal, discovered the perfect gift or assembled a cute outfit.

Then this adorable little man entered into the equation.


And I LOVE shopping for him. Oh boy I do. I can't control myself. It's the perfect combination of finding a good deal (tiny clothes cost less and are often on sale), giving a gift (sort of) and assembling a cute outfit (a well-dressed baby is the best accessory, right?).

Let me describe a scene: I sit at my desk, absorbing the barrage of information from my Bloomberg, responding to emails, perhaps reading a research report or memo on my screen. Bee-boop! - My Google notifier pops up to let me know I have gmail - oh, nice, a sale at Ann Taylor! I should check that out soon. Bee-boop! 30% off at Banana Republic, hmm, do I need anything there? I'll look later. Bee-boop! Bloomingdales Friends and Family - I should do some shoe shopping. I probably need something!

I'm totally in control of my shopping addiction. Until... Bee-boop!

O. M. G. Janie and Jack is having a friends and family sale!!!!!!! These shoes are the cutest shoes ever.

I need them. Oh, and look a line of dinosaur-themed clothing!

I NEED that! Um, er, Will NEEDS that!!!

Bee-boop! Gap Give and Get!! Holy crap! I love Baby Gap and Old Navy has great jeans and I saw an ADORABLE Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt there the other day that I NEED, I mean, Will NEEDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I seem to misplace my self-control whenever I get an email about cute clothes. It's almost like the baby clothing stores know that. It must be why they keep emailing me - I have a problem.



* I send packages to work because I don't feel good about leaving them at my front door at home during the day. Our poor mailroom guy suffers the consequences. Click here to read more!

A couple more pictures from Sunday

Because it's late and I'm attempting to be crafty tonight (didn't turn out that well, so it's nothing worth blogging about), here's a couple pictures from Sunday that I haven't shared yet!

Will can almost do the tripod thing, but the tipping over follows pretty quickly after the cuteness:


So then I let him lay down, because that's cute too. Or at least I think so. :)

Click here to read more!

Who knew the world was so tasty?

William has taught us a lot in his 4.5 months.

Our wise little man

Particularly that you should give everything a try at least once before you reject it. And by "a try" I mean "a taste."

That goes for hands, toys, mom's arm, dad's knuckles, your toes and, of course, monkeys.

Click here to read more!

A+ Parenting

We had a great day with Will today - he sat with us at our (recently reclaimed!) kitchen table while we ate homemade waffles, we went on a nice long walk together and visited his newest little friend (only 1 week old!), we sang lots of songs (The Itsy Bitsy Spider is a favorite, but we also sang a little bit of the Unicorn Song), and he practiced grasping skills with his rattles and toys.

But then we were sitting on the Family Room floor and Will simply could not turn away from the Bears game that was on the TV.

Me accepting the defeat of my baby-entertaining skills at the hands of the TV

So I let him watch it a little bit. Yep, my four-month-old baby watches TV, people. And he LOVES it!

So who wants to nominate me for mother of the year?? ;) Click here to read more!

What are you afraid of, Alex?

Quick post today. Alex is at a work event tonight, so I'm holding down the fort here. :)

He was kind enough to take Will upstairs with him while he was getting ready so I could finish some things downstairs. Of course, then there was the predicament of how to transport an infant while wearing a tuxedo. Here's what Alex came up with:


The bib and cloth diaper - the belt and suspenders of spitup-free baby transport.

Clever, but silly. :) Click here to read more!

Sleepy face

Perhaps one of the best things about being a mom is watching a little person's personality develop from scratch.

Little Will started out as an adorable screaming blob who, like any newborn, ate, slept, and pooped on a continuous loop - day in, day out - and that was about it. At first, our job as parents was to learn how to take care of a baby.

But over time, our jobs shifted from learning how to take care of a baby to knowing how to take care of our baby. In the beginning, everyone knew how to take care of our baby better than us. Now, no one knows how to take care of our baby better than us. And I love that. Little Will is turning into a little person with little quirks of his own, and I get a front row seat to their development.

Which brings me to his latest and my current favorite: sleepy face.


Ahhhhh, sleepy face. It happens when I least expect it. I turn to see what my quiet little man is up to and bam! this is what I see:



big blue eyes, focused intently, staring me down. What is happening to me mommy? Why do I feel like the world is slowing down? Why does my body feel so heavy??

It's ok little man. Take a nap. I'll be here when you wake up so you can show me your next new trick. :) Click here to read more!

Missing October

The walk home today was miserable. Freezing cold, blowing wind, pouring rain. Yucky yuck yuck. On days like today, I couldn't care less that my 3/4 mile walk home from the train is "good for me." Instead I wish I lived in my office so I could turn to my colleagues at the end of the day and say "if you lived here, like me, you would be home right now!" And they would be jealous because they had to go outside into the cold, windy, rainy yuckiness, and I didn't.

So as I bend my inside-out umbrella back into shape and wait for my pant legs to dry, the pictures from last Saturday seem extremely appealing.


Beautiful, right?

Last Saturday, Alex and I joined my brother Chris for lunch at our local pizza place. On the way home, we were struck by how gorgeous it was outside. We couldn't help but stop at the playground by our house to see if Will would enjoy a little time in the bucket swing. He was unimpressed (but also a little tired).

Ah, how I pine for October! Click here to read more!

Solids!

Will had his four month check-up last week. He's getting to be a very big boy - 15 pounds, 3 ounces and 26 inches tall! So his pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to try solids with the (not so) little man.

We started on Saturday.


So far he is a great eater. His first foray into solids was oatmeal, which he thought was just fine (of course, this kid thinks his bib is quite tasty also, so maybe he doesn't have the most discerning palate).

After oatmeal came sweet potatoes.

And much like Oprah, he thinks sweet potatoes are pretty awesome. (Thanks to the Soup for making me aware of this gem!)

Tomorrow we find out if he has a similar love for peas. :) Click here to read more!

A Starter Halloween

Halloween usually isn't a big holiday in our house. We always buy candy (and end up eating a lot of it because our street isn't big for trick-or-treating); I wear my Halloween t-shirt; but that's about it.

We weren't quite ready for covering our fence in fake spider webs, pumpkin carving, hanging ghosts from the trees or dressing up ourselves, but I don't think Will noticed yet. :) This year was a great starter Halloween for us. Next year, we'll be ready for the big time.

This year, we started with an adorable child,


put him in a pumpkin patch,

He's not angry, he's bracing for the wind. It was WINDY that day!

and dressed him in a costume.




I think we did pretty well. I can't wait for next year! Click here to read more!

It's November 1st!

I should at least try to blog once during NaBloPoMo, right? :)

Adorable as the little guy looks in my post below (No Clothes for YOU!!), I fear I may be leaving the internet with the impression that I haven't dressed my child since that fateful day of many outfits.

Since then, the little guy has grown a lot, going from this:



To this:



And lots of stops in between.















Clearly, I've been too busy taking pictures to blog about them!

OK, that's enough for tonight. I'm saving up some more to talk about tomorrow. Maybe I can make it longer than November last year (no large feat). :)

So Patrick - are you satisfied???
Click here to read more!