Twice Baked Christmas

For Ariel's first Christmas, she had the chance to celebrate twice. Lucky girl.

Colorado: We celebrated with Eric's family the Sunday before Christmas, as we were headed to my parent's house on Monday. We had a very tasty meal, courtesy of my Rachel Ray cookbook (I love this girl)! It was a radicchio salad, which I didn't care for and a gnocchi, chicken sausage dish with a blushing cream sauce. For dessert, we had Holiday Parfitinis, (scoop strawberry ice cream, creme de menthe over top, a healthy squirt of canned whipped topping and a cherry, garnish with pirouette cookies) delish!

Ariel, of course, made out like a bandit. Some of her highlights were a reindeer beanie, clothes, a Vtech laptop (she really enjoys slamming the lid shut) and some requested books. Eric got me a pancake griddle that makes smiley face pancakes. It sounds silly, but together we put away a small country's portion of pancakes. I got Eric a pair of Mario Bros. pj's to go with the Super Mario Bros Wii game we got. We enjoyed our day and Ariel went all day with no fussing, even though she only had a 15 min nap all day! No, she didn't sleep all night either.

the loot opening gifts first laptop

New Mexico: We made to to good ol' Alamogordo late Monday night and enjoy the laid back pace that is the southwest. Eric managed to maintain his running regimen (over achiever) and I tried to sleep as much as I could. Christmas day was a bit hectic, as my sister flew in from Florida that morning and Ariel took a super late nap. We opened presents about 2 pm. Laugh, it's funny. We ate the traditional fare of glazed ham, potatoes, mac 'n cheese, and green bean casserole. My mom made her beautiful ribbon jello, which is always on of my personal favorites and her Indiana rolls, which Eric could have single-handedly eaten. Present highlights were lottery tickets (Eric won $70 plus 3 tickets), cupcake cookbook (the things you can do with cupcakes nowadays), and step/start walk 'n ride. I was able to catch up with some friends from high school as well during this visit.

shake it or eat it santa arrived Vicki lends an elfing hand

What a way to close out the year. I hope that 2010 has more wonderful memories in store for us.

The Little One Stopped for Heavenly Seven

It seems that as soon as we start bragging about Ariel's sleeping, she gets the final laugh and changes everything on us. How sweet she is. Well, our little princess isn't crazy about solids. Most of the time, she cries when we fee them to her, even the purees. It wasn't until recently that we decided that she just doesn't like the rice cereal . . . or peas . . . or green beans . . . or anything that isn't a fruit. Great. She inherited mom's sweet tooth.

Right now, she is working on rolling from tummy to back and getting onto her tummy from the sitting position (without the face plant, of course). Ariel's sleep habits are still a battle Eric and I tend to lose, but we fight the good fight anyway. She sleeps GREAT during the day, but once 7 pm rolls around, our little princess turns into a toad! She gave Eric's parents a run for their money, when they babysat one evening. We are very fortunate that they are masochistic enough to want to watch her at night again. "One of these days she'll sleep", I keep telling myself, "One of these days."

We survived Ariel's first cold, minor upper respiratory junk that she caught on Thanksgiving (must have gotten it from a certain pickle someone gave her . . . inside joke). Other than that, Ariel is status quo. She continues to like story and Jumperoo time. She is partial to the board books, as she has a thing for eating paper. Church is one of her favorite places to go. So much going on, it really keeps her entertained. The other parishioners enjoy her smile each and every Sunday.
On the horizon this month: First Christmas X 2, First New Year. Please enjoy this month's pics.
Roar! The Abominable Fleece Girl
Christmas Peek-a-Boo
China Doll If you give Ariel a stuffed mouse . . . Eric and I out celebrating a friend's birthday

Fire in the Hole

Let me just start by saying, that I consider myself a competent, knowledgeable, and able-bodied home cook. So you can imagine my astonishment when I inadvertently tried to burn down the kitchen.

Here's the story: For our wedding, Eric and I received a wok as a gift. I'm a huge fan of Asian food and the wok soon became my favorite piece of kitchen cookware. However, I damaged the finish the first time I used it, because, like a dummy, I didn't read the cleaning directions. Oh well, I thought. The thing still works. This simple fact comes into play later.

Last night, I prepping dinner for a chicken and cashew stir-fry. While dredging the chicken in flour, I have the wok heating. After awhile, I notice black flakes in the bottom of the pan. I just attributed this to damaged interior. So I get my trusty oil and put in my hot pan (as instructed by the recipe). I turn to get my chicken, when I hear a "whoosh." I screamed as I was suddenly cooking a wok full fire. Now this is one of those times when having a good swear word would be handy and aptly appropriate. Then the scenario turned into a scene from a movie. Where one person is in the midst of chaos, while another party is oblivious to the carnage. I.e. . .

Eric: Nicole, is everything ok?

Nicole: (glancing between fire and back door, fire and sink) Umm, yeah.

Eric: You cut yourself did you?

Nicole: No (watches in panic-stricken awe as the ventilation hood gets singed and hopes they don't end up on the evening news)

Eric: Are you burning the food?

Nicole: Not exactly (turns for the fire extinguisher)

Eric: But you're ok.

Nicole: Uh huh (ready to pull the pin, when flames suddenly die)

Smoke alarm goes off

Here's what I think happened. I think the wok was TOO hot and this started to flake the damaged non-stick finish. When I put the oil in the pot, the flakes started to cook at a rapid rate and the excess heat caught the oil on fire in spectacular fashion.

Pride aside, everyone is ok. It took thirty minutes of open doors and fans to get he smoke out of the house. Eric said I did it on purpose to get a new wok (well, I actually want a new kitchen). I thought about asking Santa for a new one. But for the safety of all parties involved, perhaps he should just skip this one on my list.

Side note: Somehow, this picture looks almost exactly like my kitchen at the height of chaos. There has to be something said about flies on the wall.

Running Library

We now have a new feature on our blog: Eric's running library. Since Eric has qualified for the prestigious Boston Marathon, he's been ramping up his weekly running totals. So to kill two birds with one stone, he's been "reading" audio books during his runs (5-14 miles).

On the right hand side of the blog, will be the running library (we might rename this, maybe something with more pep). A letter will appear before the title to denote Eric's ranking of the book. This is followed by the title, author, and genre.

He's been killing some books lately, so we thought it would be nice share with all of you. In case you are of the reading variety. If you have any suggestions, we're all ears.

Monkey & Bananas

Ariel had her 6 month well baby check up yesterday. She is 25 inches long and barely 16 lbs. Really, only 16 lbs? She dropped from being in the 50% for weight to the 38% (based on age). She should be weighing in closer to 18 lbs. So what happened?

Grazing.

It seems that Ariel was eating too frequently and just snacking all day. Her peds said she was "abusing" me. Great. Our homework is to go 3-4 hours between meals. The hope is that she'll eat more and start gaining a few more rolls. Everything else is on the up and up.

Last night, we started Ariel on her first solids, aside from cereal. We chose bananas left by grandma. We don't have much int he way of mashable baby food, so I was glad to have this on hand and not have to run to the store.

My mom bought us a baby food mill, so I washed the colorful and complicated apparatus and made Ariel's first baby food. After I got the hang of what the mill was supposed to do, it was so easy. But man what a learning curve. I didn't think I was that slow.

Ariel dug right in with the bananas, trying to take the spoon from Eric and feed herself. Dinner was a very frustrating battle for Daddy and baby. I am loathe to say that Ariel might be a sensitive child and a bit of a drama queen. Just like her mother. Wonderful.

Next food on the horizon: avocados. Maybe Ariel will share an avocado or two and Eric and I can have some guacamole. Ole!

The Little One Stopped for Crazy 6

I know that 8's are crazy, but Ariel change in attitude isn't going to wait until January. So the little one is six months old now. She is now able to roll over from front to back on both sides, eat yummy rice cereal for dinner, clap her feet while grasping her toes, and sit up independently. Ariel also experienced some firsts: serious flirt session with a boy (Eric was not happy about this), snow storm, and Halloween. She's actively teething, but no teeth have made a grand entrance yet. Oh yeah, she's finally sleeping through the night. Hooray! Now if we could just get to bed on time.

Speaking of Halloween, we actually took our little Pikachu out. We went to visit a handful of neighbors (really just to show her off). Ariel had a trick-or-treat bucket and the neighbors were more than happy to plunk a couple pieces in. Now, since Eric and I are Halloween chauffeurs, we take a 25% commission each on candy. I now, we're expensive. But that includes a driver, door-to-door service, and a stellar introduction.

Here's what we're looking at in the next 30 days: baptism, 1st Thanksgiving

Here are some pics from the last month. Ooh, Ahh and enjoy
pumpkin patch

snow bunny

maniac on the floor!

no poisoned fruit here

daddy's girls

Halloween loot

puppy love

sloppy kiss !

First Bite

According to Ariel's pediatrician, we aren't supposed to start her on rice cereal until next week. That was fine, until we had "Night of the Ever-Waking Dead" (just in time for Halloween). Ariel woke up five times last night and ate 4 times out of the five. I'm not sure if her teeth are bothering her or if she was just a very hungry caterpillar, but in any case, no one got much sleep. This translated into a very grumpy little girl ( and a not-so-happy Mommy) this morning. I don't really know what to do, but I'd better figure it out soon or we're all going to be walking around like zombies.

We decided to give the rice cereal early. Ariel didn't seem to mind the soupy concoction in her mouth, but then she didn't seem to enjoy it either. The box directions say to make the cereal soupy, but wouldn't this make it more like breast milk? Where the texture? I think we'll make it a bit thicker tomorrow. Anyway, enjoy the pics and video as Ariel experiences her first bite of "solid" food.