The Week Recapped

Man, I have been busy! Once I get into a routine, I find it difficult to figure out how I did anything else before "this." It always amazes me. I've learned that I'm a crummy housekeeper. I'd rather play with Ellie, and then play on the computer while she's napping than actually do anything around the house. Maybe it's a good thing I work so that the house doesn't get so messy during the school year.

So this week, Little Miss Brainy and I played in the house, went for walks, and even did a stop at PetSmart. We don't have any pets..... so what I decided is that this way, E can see animals and I don't have to have the commitment! (I have commitment issues. hahaha) So we go in and head to the fish first. I think E spent a good 15 minutes staring at those guys and saying things like, "OH!" "HI!" "WOWOW!" and "YAY!" It was darling. If she could have figured out a way into that water, I'm sure she would have taken it. She liked the birds, and the rats and mice, but definitely not as much as those fish! She didn't seem at all interested in the cats for adoption, nor the dogs getting groomed. It was all about keychains, doggy treats and fish! Pretty cute.

So let's see...we got our produce box this past Tuesday. We had lettuce, lettuce mix (this is usually just smaller leafed, different varieties of lettuce--it's pretty good), cilantro, potatoes, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, celery, 2 sweet onions, and blackberries. You guys, I am not a blackberry lover. I have never found a blackberry that I've said "This is IT!" to like I have with strawberries, cherries, and raspberries. So I threw them into some pancakes this morning and drizzled honey on it. It wasn't perfect, but definitely better than eating them regularly.




I was putting dishes in the dishwasher, I went to the kitchen table to get the rest of the dishes and I found this. I laughed and took pictures before I took her off. Heeelarious!


Look at those AWESOME glasses! They're Baby Banz and they're supposed to stay ON a kid's head. Not mine. She ripped them off after about 45 seconds, which is about 43 seconds longer than the first time she tried them on!


Doesn't she look so grown up?? Where did my baby go?!


And I can't remember if I mentioned in the last blog or not, but we have a walker! I cried. :) I cried for sheer happiness and realizing what a sheer disaster is to come, but I'm going to love every minute of it, cause if I don't, it'll go by too fast!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Dog Days

This week has been *H.O.T* needless to say, we hung outside a lot. Did you know that it's near impossible to find a sand and water table anywhere around here?!? I had to improvise. I grabbed a storage container from the attic and we filled it up with water. Elisabeth had a great time. She preferred trying to drink out of the hose. The first day we played, she also felt it necessary to get IN the container! So get this, I'm sitting there, taking cutie pictures of her cause she kept putting her little leg up on the ledge and then BAM she plops in. I was grateful for a shockproof/waterproof camera! Elisabeth wasn't hurt or anything, I think she was pissed at getting into such cold water! Anyway, add that to my "awesome mom moments."

So now that I've been home for a week, I've run out of *things* to do with Elisabeth. We go on walks, go to the library- it had been too hot for the park, but I plan on doing that this week. What else do people do with little busy bodies??

And speaking of busy bodies, today, Ellie has been walking around the house! Just little bits here and there, but she's been walking, all by herself! I'm pretty excited for her! And her teeth are ALMOST in- and THAT I'm very excited for, just so that she won't be in so much pain anymore. Cuttin 4 teeth in a row couldn't feel good for anyone!


Smile!


mmm nom, nom, nom!


Totally random- I made strawberry shortcake cake and it was *divine* seriously. Probably worth the 10lbs I'll gain from eating it.


Daddy let me get in my tub with my diaper on- we learned those diapers can hold a lot of water! (so why do they leak at night?!!)


I love the hair!

Summer Vacation and Fava Beans

Apart from Thursday and Friday being reserved for math training, my summer vacation has started! I took most of the day off on Friday and realized how difficult it is for me to get back into the "being at home" Maddy. I took a nap and just hung out at the house all day. I'm sure I'll clean the house eventually, but I'm soaking up the not having to do anything-ness while I still can.

I'm excited to cook good, healthy food, and I'm excited to spend lots of time with Elisabeth. This should be a pretty good summer (despite having a difficult time with allergies)

So on to pictures:

Remember those 2.5lbs of fava beans we got in our CSA box on Tuesday? Well, I finally got around to making something with them today. I had 3 recipe suggestions to use with them. 1. was to eat them like edamame...we decided we could do that any time, so we went for a Mediterranean dish, and a favas with lemon and yogurt.



Here's when I was shelling them. The pod was unlike anything I've experienced before...it was fuzzy inside. These beans were giant! It reminded me of the giant level on Super Mario Bros. The farm suggested scoring the surface of the pod so that popping them out of their skin would be easier.

I had to blanch them for 3 minutes then put them in ice water.


This is what they looked like with their shell off. They tasted similar to peas/lima beans
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This was the fava beans with lemon and yogurt. It has sauteed garlic, onions and fava beans. Then the "dressing" was lemon juice, oil, salt and yogurt. Drew really enjoyed it and he thought it was similar to having a baked potato. I felt it was missing something and wasn't overly impressed.


This was the "Mediterranean" dish - it was fava beans, garlic, onions fresh parsley and tomato sauce...I just added rice so we'd have something else to eat. The recipe said to use diced tomatoes, but I didn't have any, so I used some pasta sauce. If we were to do this again, I would probably wait and use tomatoes because like all pasta sauce, everything tastes like the sauce.

If I were to do that one again, besides the tomatoes rather than pasta sauce, I might cut up the beans, or even toss it with some spaghetti. Elisabeth liked it though!

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She's getting pretty good with a spoon! I found out that the delicious champagne mangoes stick well to those spoons- she can flail her arms and it still says stuck until it gets in her mouth! Impressive!

STRAWBERRIES!!! She ate both of those strawberries! I was impressed!


Daddy showing baby how it's done...


We've been working on just having binkies at nap times. I had left the room to do whatever I was doing and it got quiet. I went in her room to check to see why it had gotten quiet. She had gone to her crib, taken TWO pacifiers out + her blankie and somehow managed to get to the other side of the room. Doesn't she look guilty!? hahahahaha Love her!