3 comments 26 January 2008

When we walked into Erik's Deli today for lunch a nice older gentleman smiled at Elliot as we passed by his table. Later as we were nearing the end of our dining experience the same gentleman came over to us, looked at sweet Elliot, tickled his little foot and said, "Keep Smilin', soon you'll be paying taxes".

Elliot accompanied Dale and I to a fun and delicious night of German Food with friends. Our waiter was quite enjoyable in an unusual sort of way. Near the end of the evening he was struck by how good Elliot had been and asked if he was always so happy and mellow. We responded (proudly) yes and he said, "he will be a great surgeon or an Eastern Religious Leader".





2 comments 22 January 2008

Just when thought Elliot was 98% over a bad cold, he goes and develops Hand, Foot & Mouth! Poor little bear! Thankfully he has not developed blisters in his mouth (OMG - can you imagine!) and he is in great spirits (if it weren't for the spots on his itty bitty hands and feet you wouldn't even know he was sick). It just kind of sucks to get sent home on your first day at your new daycare (a spot openened up at the original place we were hoping for...more on that decision another time). We new as working parents that we would have to take "sick days" to care for our little one, but as my dear hubby said, "I just didn't think it would happen so soon". We didn't even have a real "disaster plan" set up yet...but thankfully Grandma can take tomorrow, Dad will take Thursday and I'll take Friday...hopefully Elliot will be ready to start his new daycare next week.

4 comments 18 January 2008

Hugs are great! There have been many days over the last 14 (yes, I said 14!) years that Dale has made me stop in my tracks to get (&give) a hug. All of a sudden the stressed, rushed feeling would melt away and everything would be peaceful and wonderful, if only for one magical moment. In the last few days Elliot has learned to hug and it feels SOOOOO good that I don't want to let him go! I bet this means he'll be ready to snuggle in no time! Give someone a good long hug today!

1 comments 16 January 2008

While I maternity leave I discovered this thing called the Internet. (yes, I am know I am an IT Manager!) BE (Before Elliot) I would spend my days discussing applications, networks, servers, websites and when I was not discussing them I would be writing about them, corresponding via e-mail about them, and so on. So when I would get home at night, the last thing I felt like doing was "surfing the web". Essentially, I never found "enjoyment" in the internet and would only "log-on" for banking, to check e-mail or to purchase something. AE (After Elliot) I starting logging on for enjoyment, reading blogs, the newspaper, finding art for our home, letting myself essentially wander from site to site aimlessly. As my maternity leave was nearing an end, I started getting sad about the internet world I had come to love and would now have to leave behind.


On my first day back at work I realized that I needed non-work related things to occupy my time while I pump! Now I have 3-15 minute breaks each day where I get to "check-in" with the rest of the world! And unlike at home, my 15-minutes of internet usage will not get interrupted by a baby, a pug, or a husband - it is real me time! I guess on some level it has helped with my transition back to work, by not completely disrupting the world I was living in at home. I feel like I really began investing in my personal life (home, family&friends, hobbies) and figured that going back to work would disrupt that - thankfully I was wrong!


What I Ate Yesterday:


*Cereal - I have started putting Joe's O's in my cereal mix, they are just like Cheerios but saltier which works great in my mix but has stopped my hubby from buying them for himself because they are not so good solo!
*Soy Mocha
*Persian Food - overall the food was great, but I didn't like what I ordered (a Persian stew) which is more of a reflection on my tastes than their food. If you are ever in the neighborhood you must try the Mast-o-Moosir which is a yogurt spread that is DELICIOUS!
*A chocolate truffle
*Some tasty 'pineapple pastry packaged treat' straight from El Salvador - yum!
*Leftover Chili Con Carne & bread



Great recipe we tried this week: Chicken & Peppers

This is one of the first times that I didn't measure everything precisely (I was in a hurry) and it turned out GREAT! I left the Thyme and Marjoram out of the marinade (prob. would have been better, but still great without it). The vinegariness of this meal was amazing! Make sure to add plenty of red pepper flakes! We used toasted wheat bread (good wheat bread, nothing flimsy), toasted it in the toaster oven adding sliced mozzarella instead of fontina so it got all melty too. I doubled the recipe so we had plenty of leftovers (tastes good rolled into a HF tortilla too :)) We served it with a simple side salad of mixed greens, tomato, cucumber and a quick dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and garlic.

4 comments 13 January 2008

I was in the shower today thinking about the bike ride I just finished (my first ride on my new bike) when I recalled a conversation I had with my dear husband many years ago. I was 'struggling' with my weight then (similar to now) and I told him (attempt to spin my down moment into an up one) that I was actually lucky because my body is telling me that I need to eat better and to exercise whereas he needed (years later) his father to have a heart attack and to hear his cholesterol was high (borderline, but he was only 30) in order to 'eat right & exercise'. We often remark about the fat person ordering a venti-carmel frap, extra caramel, extra whip at SB. And today it occurred to me that we never remark about the skinny people who order those same beverages. I consider myself (even when I am thin) to always be a fat person and realized today that I almost turned my back on my people. So the next time you see a fat person eating a giant burger or having a second helping of something indulgent, don't forget to look for the skinny person doing the same thing because at the end of the day it is our health we should all be worried about.


What I ate today:

Cereal
Soy Mocha
WW Eng Muffin with PB, Morningstar saugsage patties
Dbl Tall 1/2 Caff...
Chili Con Carne with Beans (recipe of the week - halfway decent, quick and freezable)
1/2 mini-bread loaf (sounds like more than it is, I swear)
Some tasty Amaretti cookies

6 comments 09 January 2008

Last night, seconds after Elliot had made what I hoped was his final cry to sleep (so sad, huh?) Thomas began barking and I began my whispering yell reminding him that the baby was sleeping. Often Thomas gives little barks and nothing comes of them, but last night his barking led to our doorbell ringing. I turned on the porch light, peered through the peep hole and decided it was safe to open the door. A woman asked if I was Amy and when I said yes she announced she had a delivery for me. I looked beyond her at her car and wondered what it could be and just as I was about to inquire she began rolling the most beautiful bicycle into our home, "It's from Dale" she said. As I admired in awe this beautiful specimen, she asked me if this was for my birthday, Christmas, or just because and I smiled at her and said, "Just because".

Isn't she a beaut?!

Can Dale be any sweeter?!

BE (Before Elliot) I would exercise regularly - at least 3 times a week (ther
e were times way back when it would be 5-6). And although it started out as a way to eat more food, it soon became exactly what I needed to stay sane. AE (After Elliot) I ran out of time (and energy) to exercise. I tried taking walks, but it never stuck. Though I'd rather be outdoors, the gym was technically an option except hitting the gym at 8pm was no longer something I had the energy for and my DH (Dear Husband) doesn't get home before 7:30 and don't even suggest the early morning or I will give you a very dirty look. I tried to go back to Yoga (I was addicted during my pregnancy, but 10:30am is an odd time on Saturday (I loathe activities that suck up 1/2 a day by the time you are done, home & showered).

On Septemb
er 30th, 2007 (technically BE, but just barely before he started baking) I "competed" in a Triathlon Sprint and I learned two things: I can do it & I love riding a bike (didn't really bond with the swimming or running as much though I love running a whole lot more then I ever thought I could). On weekends when we weren't training as a team I would find myself doing more biking than anything else. I loved that I could just hop out of bed onto my bike and go somewhere (when I would run I would hardly make it out of my neighborhood before it was time to turn back. I would admire road bikes of my teammates (I put road tires on my mountain bike), but decided to test my long-term commitment before shelling out the big bucks for one of my own. I came close to buying one shortly after the race and then we found out I was pregnant and my mind got busy with new ideas of how to spend our hard-working dollars. My DH really wants me to get my sanity back (and stop being mean to him) and knows (as I do) that if I can just hop on my special new bike on the weekend mornings, everyone will be much happier (everyone could have been happier if I hopped on my old bike except it was recently stolen, so no longer an option).

What I Ate Today:

Cereal

Soy Mocha (the long awaited picture of the 2go mug I bought at a SB in Hawaii)
Chicken salad, HF tortillas and lf white cheddar (assembled and eaten while pumping in my office at work)
Dbl Tall 1/2 Caff...
Chickenless Chicken Nuggets, HF tortillas with lf white cheddar, BBQ sauce
A few nibbles of some leftover Thai



3 comments 08 January 2008

Happy Tuesday! Today was my first FULL day at work and I guess I understand better what Moms mean when they say how hard it is to go back to work. For some people I think they mean leaving sweet baby in somebody else's hands. And though leaving my scrumptious little bear was not the easiest thing to do (even I had to grapple with it for a while), for me it boils down to two pains: energy (amount & lack-of) & waking hours (with respect to babies day). Let's start with energy. I am not one of the more fortunate Moms to have a baby that sleeps through the night (sometimes, but it's not predictable), so this gets at the obvious lack of energy. As for the amount of energy, this is speaking to the extra stuff required to get out of the house in the morning. I used to be able to wake-up at 7:15 and be out of the house (homemade Soy Mocha in hand) by 8. This morning I woke at 6:15 and only with dear husbands help was I able to be out of the house by 7:45 - I am so tired I can't even do the math - but that is A LOT longer. After I feed my sweet boy, I put him in bed with Dad while I get ready (aren't they cute?!). Once I am ready, sweet little Elliot needs to have his "pants" changed (by "pants" I mean diaper), dressed into something cute, "eat" his cereal (i say "eat" because we don't think he has actually swallowed any yet). While Dad does the dressing and feeding (the cereal), I need to pack the breast-pump, milk storage bottles, pumping accessories, cool packs for transport, my own lunch, make my coffee, "eat" my cereal (I say "eat" because it is really more like inhale), load the new family car (check out E in the driver's seat!), and pray I didn't forget something. I have made a morning checklist because it would be REALLY bad if I forgot Elliot's food OR a particular pump accessory that would result in an inability to pump (boobs could explode). Once we are on the road things are pretty good, unless of course the sun is out at which point I spend most of the drive trying to creatively shade my son without suffocating him! Unfortunately my work day does not wrap-up until 5:30 (at the earliest) and Elliot has chosen his bedtime in the 7 o'clock hour which means by the time we drive home, I give him some food, we have a total of 15 minutes of play time before he starts rubbing his eyes. And so while he sleeps I eat a little dinner, wash the bottles, storage containers, & pump parts, prepare the bottles for tomorrow and prepare to do it all again tomorrow (sort-of, tomorrow will be a 1/2 day). I know we will all get used to it, adjust, learn short-cuts, etc....but whew, I am wiped! Tomorrow I will tell you about the surprise that arrived on my doorstep tonight!


1 comments 03 January 2008

I cannot believe so much time has passed! Our first Christmas with Elliot was wonderful, though I think for him it was just fun times with family and friends. Dale was off the whole time between Christmas and New Years so it felt very much like vacation. Generally when we have breaks like this I often feel regretful at the end because we didn't "do" anything. Dale has to listen to me saying, "I wish we'd hung out with so & so" or "we should have organized that room" or "we should have gone somewhere"...but this year I really felt fulfilled. We had lots of friend and family time, lots of snuggles with Elliot, I got some Mom time while the boys went gallivanting around town and I even outfitted my office with some IKEA goodies to make my return to the work world a little brighter! Baking took a turn for the worst, but hey there is always next year. I managed not to gain any weight Christmas week, tomorrow we'll see if we are finally on a downward trend again. Yesterday was my first day back at work, and it was good. It felt good to get dressed in work clothes and I actually enjoyed driving the familiar and forgotten path between Fremont and Belmont. Dropping off Elliot was much easier than I expected, I didn't cry. But I did hug him hard when I picked him up. Today was my second day and though it was good for me, my sweet boy had a hard time. I guess today maybe he realized going to this new place was not a one-off, and thus he decided to cry and not eat. But I hear it can take a week (plus or minus) for babies to transition, so I am optimistic. Though I am enjoying my return, I am exhausted...last night I was asleep at 9 (though I was awake again at 10:30 for feeding time). There were some many pictures I could have added to this post, but I am going to shower and crash now, good nite.

What I Ate Today:

*Cereal
*Soy Mocha
*Spicy Tuna Roll, BBQ EEL and Avocado Roll with spicy sauce
*HF Tortilla, LF cheese and Morningstar sausage patties
*Steak sandwich with leftover steak, LF swiss, BBQ sauce, greens and a side of baked Kettle Chips