Margot's Room

While I posted some progress along the way I never posted pictures of our finished nursery. I am so happy with how her room turned out. It is bright and cheery. We spend a lot of time in there and it's such a happy place in our home.

I'm amazed at how well this room came together considering how randomly we seemed to acquire everything.

Furniture: We had to special order our crib. It is the Jennylind crib by Divinci. My Mom found the dresser at a garage sale and Chris sanded it down so we could paint it white. The rocking chair was in my Mom's garage and the book shelf is a hand-me-down from my Step Mother.

Bedding and linens: My Mom made all the bedding. Her and I picked out the fabric and she put them all together. She also made cushions for the chair and two baby Afghans that match. My friend Beth made the curtains for me after I was put on bed rest.

Details: The chandelier was sitting in my father and Step-Mother's garage along with the two lamps. Katrina also helped me make the pom-poms. I bought the picture frames at Ikea. And the basket (full of stuffed animals) was left over from a gift (it had houseplants in it).

In total all we had to buy was our Crib, picture frames, the dresser and paint. In total I think we spent around $400.

Tuesday Night Dinner

I am so excited about this recipe. It was fast enough for a week night but yummy enough for company. This recipe comes from who else but the wonderful Jamie Oliver. Really the man can do no wrong. I don't think Chris and I have been unhappy with a single one of his recipes. They are always just so good!



Dry grilled chicken and noodles with herb broth, cilantro and red chili*

2 chicken breasts
dry rice noodles
boiling water
5-6 cups of homemade chicken broth
1 inch of fresh ginger, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch fresh cilantro
2 fresh red chili, seeds removed.
2 fresh limes
soy sauce
bok choi, remove course stems and roughly chop

Heat cast iron grill pan over med-high. Pound chicken breast 1/4 inch thick and season with salt and pepper. Once grill pan is hot add chicken. Bring water kettle to boil. Place broth into sauce pan along with garlic and ginger, bring to boil, reduce to a simmer. Cook chicken 4-5 minutes on one side before turning over. Cook 2-3 minutes on second side or until chicken is cooked through. Set aside. Place rice noodles into large bowl. Once kettle is boiling pour boiling water over the noodles. Stir around with chop stick to make sure they are submerged in water. Check periodically (should take 5-10 minutes) until they are soft but not mushy. When done, drain and divide into 4 bowls. Finely chop your cilantro and chili, set aside. Place bok choi into simmering broth. Cook just until wilted, divide into bowls over noodles. Slice chicken and divide it among four bowls. Ladle broth into each bowl. Squeeze fresh lime juice onto each bowl, along with some soy sauce and garnish with cilantro and red chili.

*Adapted from Jamie Oliver, The Naked Chef. Ingredients and flavors are the same. I altered the recipe to simplify it a bit and speed it up. For even more simplification you could simply poach the chicken in the broth.

Reading

I am reading the letters of John and Abigail Adams. They are fascinating. Abigail Adams is one of my hero's. I loved this quote from the second letter:

"Let us, therefore, my dear partner, from that affection which we feel for our lovely babes, apply ourselves, by every way we can, to the cultivation of our farm. Let frugality and industry be our virtues, if they are not of any others. And above all cares of this life, let our ardent anxiety be to mould the minds and manners of our children. Let us teach them not only to do virtuously, but to excel. To excel, they must be taught to be steady, active, and industrious."--John Adams

some kind of party

It is almost my wonderful husband's birthday. Next week he turns 27. This will be his fourth birthday since we were married and the fourth birthday party I have thrown him. I look forward to throwing his party each year. It's usually not a huge affair but it's a fun chance to bring together our friends and celebrate Chris. And since Chris is wonderful, kind, loving and fun everyone loves to celebrate him.

This year...per Chris' request...we are having a Le Miserables themed birthday party in honor of the fact that Chris has finally finished the epic french masterpiece. Among Chris' many talents is reading horrifically long historical novels. Since we've been married he has completed War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov and now Le Mis.

Chris with a 2 week old Margot--reading Le Mis

Chris with 7 week old Margot--still reading Le Mis

To celebrate we will have the musical on in the background and our menu will feature classic french cuisine appropriate for young french revolutionaries. Our party also will be family friendly--no whisky tasting this year:)--now that we and several of our friends have children with bedtime routines.

On the Menu:

Cheap red wine

French baguettes

French cheese

French Onion Soup

rustic berry tart

Snow Day!

Yesterday started like any other Wednesday. The alarm went off and we woke to find Miss Margot once again in our bed. Chris got in the shower while Margot and I promptly fell back asleep nursing. Chris got out of the shower, woke us up with the light, and realized once again that his clean shirts were still on the couch were I folded them. But on his way to retrieve clean clothes he discovered...SNOW! Lots and lots of snow, 6-7 inches with it still coming down. A few minutes later our power went out.

In truly classic Chris fashion we immediately reacted. Really, the boy scouts would have been proud. Chris retrieved flash lights and lit candles. I bundled Margot and myself. We brought all of our necessities, phone, blackberry, blankets, diapers, wipes, hats, toys and the activity gym into our bedroom where it was a cozy 70 degrees and settled ourselves, Margot and her activity gym on our bed.

It was quickly established that my office was closed. Then we analyzed the situation. How long would it stay warm without power? At what point might we have to leave? Where should we go? What were we going to eat? What about the freezer? Could we cook breakfast on a camp stove? Would the toilet flush?

Fortunately the power came back on a few hours later. We decided to take Margot out to experience her first and maybe only great snow storm.

Margot was not a huge fan of her snow suit.


But she did like my funny snow dance--the things I will do attempting to get my child to smile for the camera.

The view from our front porch.

Our rather buried little house.

Margot, like her mother, does not like the snow--in fact we only made it about a block to our Friends Luke and Kayun's where we stopped for some much needed hot chocolate.

We spent the rest of the day safely indoors playing, napping, nursing and doing laundry.

Margot You are Four Months Old

Dear Miss Margot,

You are four months old! I can't even believe how fast time goes by. It seems like just the other day you were a tiny fussy little thing and now you are a big happy grinning baby.

This month you have learned so much. You have started to laugh, grab your toys, put things in your mouth, suck your thumb and roll onto your side. You continue to talk non-stop I think you are going to be a chatty little thing. You are a very social baby and you love to meet new people unless it's after 6pm then you'd just rather hang out with Mommy and Daddy.

You have adjusted really well to Mommy going back to work. You take your bottle like a champ and are so excited to nurse again at the end of the day. You just love going to Grammy's house while Mommy is at work. You play and talk and smile all day.

You continue to love to play in your activity gym and bouncy seat. You also love walks in either your stroller or the Ergo. And you love love love your bath time and baby massages.

You have been sleeping in your cradle now for a whole month and you go right to sleep each night. You still wake up A LOT to nurse in the night but we are hoping you will start to go for longer stretches now that you have adjusted to the new schedule.

We have started our Birth to Three Incredible Infant class and you love to go and see all of the other babies. You especially love the singing at the end of the night.

You are such delight to be around. We love you so much--

Weight: 13 lbs 9oz

Height: 23 1/2 inches long

Clothes: 3-6 months and 6 months

Tuesday Night Dinner

For the second installment of my Tuesday Night Dinner series I made spicy black bean cakes from the Martha Stewart Every Day Food: Great Food Fast book. If you don't have this cook book you must get it. It is full of great weeknight recipes.

This recipe was a huge hit. It took 40 minutes start to finish although it might have been closer to 30 if I hadn't done the last half with a squirming baby on my hip. It was easy, yummy, and cheap. But perhaps best of all it was just a nice change.

You can find the recipe here. I made a few modifications most notably I used one can black beans and one can kidney beans (rather than two cans of black beans) just because I only had one can of black beans. I also added scallions to the lime sour cream as well as the jalapeno and lime. This wasn't spicy so for some heat next time I might leave some of the jalapeno seeds in. I served these with green salad with ranch dressing because that was the dressing we had made. I think it would have been really great with a citrus based vinaigrette instead. My only complaint about this recipe is it dirtied a lot of dishes.