Death of a Jack-o-Lantern

First off, my apologies for being MIA for several weeks.

We have been a busy bunch around here. But it's been fun. My sister, Mary, visited a few weeks ago and we had much fun. (It's practically impossible not to have fun when she's around.) She hadn't been to Albany yet, and I hope it did not disappoint. :)  She was so sweet to cook for us some and babysit Jonathan one night so Jon and I got a date! Woohoo! :)

We also had a long-awaited visit from the Alligoods! They were some of the fortunate fans who witnessed Bulldog domination down in Jacksonville and they came through Albany on their way home! We didn't mean to wear matching clothes... guess we were just in the spirit.

I've had a little break from rotations, so I've been busy in the kitchen trying to get ahead to make our weeks easier in the future! The casserole pictured below was absolutely fantastic. Since it's just the two of us, I split the casserole into two dishes and stuck one in the freezer for later! Definitely a good cold-weather comfort food. (Plus you don't use anything from a can, so it's healthy!)

Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

Today was also a bean-cooking marathon. We've found beans to be a great way to get protein while keeping the grocery budget manageable, so I like to cook big batches and freeze them in can-sized portions in Ziploc bags. We now have over 15 bags of black and kidney beans in the freezer! (Alluding to the gaseous connotation that beans carry, Jon very sweetly asked me, "I don't know if girls would do something like this, but you should take a picture of all these beans and put it on the blog! ...I didn't take a picture.)

I've also made chicken stock (most of which we've already used up) and baby food, which is another post for another day...

Family photo before church.

The last thing I will share with you today is our first pumpkin carving endeavor.

I love fall. It's definitely my favorite season (along with most of America). Cool weather (sort of, in GA), beautiful leaves, football ... and pumpkins. Pumpkin breads (I will share my favorite recipe soon), pies, lattes, roasted pumpkin seeds, and Jack-o-Lanterns, of course! We did not carve a pumpkin last year because we were living in an apartment. Apartment life can be awkward when it comes to holidays. There are no real rules on what's fair game as far as outdoor decorating goes. Someone should write them. Wreaths are okay. Doormats are okay (except ours stuck out in front of the stairs to go to the next floor and it made me feel weird). But what do you do about the poor naked bushes outside who really want to wear spider webs or lights? Who knows? No one really has ownership of them. So naked they remain.

But I digress. We no longer live in an apartment, and we even have a little front porch thing, so I was bound and determined to have at least a jack-o-lantern this year.

We started out right and got a pumpkin from Publix for $5.99. One day we'll be cool and not as poor and take Jonathan to make pictures and pick out a $60 pumpkin from a real farm. My dear husband and I decided to be patriotic and carve a Georgia 'G.' I say "we." Really it was "he." He did all the work. Even scraped out the gook inside (which was an act of love for him).

Start with a good knife. And a scary face.
(Our neighbors called their kids inside.)

Carved! (Notice the toothpick on bottom left - that was to keep our 'G' from falling.)

The man and his art.

So this was all two weekends before Halloween. Yeah. Oops. I didn't know that was really early. So when I realized that it was, I consulted my trusty friend, Pinterest, for a way to keep it from rotting. The article I found seemed very logical:

1. Create diluted bleach solution and spray all over the inside and cut surfaces of the pumpkin. (To kill any bacteria already there.)

2. Cover inside and cut surfaces with petroleum jelly. (To keep any new bacteria from getting in.)

Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, it doesn't work. Our poor pumpkin didn't even make it to Halloween. Perhaps we were not thorough enough in our bleaching or jelly-ing. Who knows? (The bacteria do.) But the ending wasn't pretty or pleasantly aromatic.

Have any of you had success in protecting your jack-o-lanterns?

We were excited about the little cold spell we had and got out our cool football beanie!

(Yes, I'm wearing a fluffy pink robe.)

A Day in the Life

I don't know about you, but I can be a nosy individual. I like to know what other people do. Especially moms. When it's your first kid, the "what do other moms do?" question plagues you. Not that there are too many different ways to feed, diaper and make a baby nap (there are a few ways though!), but it's just affirming to read or hear how other moms do things. Having some sort of frame of reference makes me feel much more comfortable. So... because I have, since Jonathan was born, scoured other blogs and websites to find such information, I thought I'd attempt to satisfy someone else's curiosity and share what our day-to-day life is like! (Some of you may need to stop reading before you fall asleep - I don't claim that this is universally interesting information.)

My schedule changes every 5 weeks (and sometimes every day), and Jon's usually every 4, since we are both on rotations. But this is our current schedule (every day has its variations, of course).

6/6:30am   Wake up and feed Jonathan. (He is currently sleeping through the night and eating every 3 1/2 - 4 hours during the day.) Eat breakfast, shower, get ourselves and Jonathan ready for the day.

7:30/8:00   Take Jonathan to his babysitter's house.

8/8:30   I get to the hospital and work up any patients I have. (Jon usually is there by 8 as well.)

9   Meet with my preceptor and go over our patients.

10  Time to breastpump! (for those of you who read my last post, I am still pumping 2-3 times while at work, which usually gives me enough for one or 1 1/2 bottles for Jonathan - I am supplementing what I lack with Similac Advance formula, so usually that means one formula bottle every day or two)

10:30   Rounding with my preceptor and the on-call physician in the three ICU units.

12/12:30   Lunch and/or a random meeting.

1:30   Catch up on my patient workups and/or present my patients to my preceptor.

2   Reattach myself to the pump. Finish any work at the hospital.

3/4   Pick up my sweet baby! (The best part of my day.)

5/6   Make dinner and feed Jonathan. We clean up dinner and play with Jonathan for awhile and then Jon reads a story to him before he goes to bed.

7:30   Jonathan goes to bed.

7:30-9   Jon and I do our respective work, which is usually reading pharmacy-related articles. Plus any chores that need to be done (wash clothes, cloth diapers, kitchen cleaning, pack lunches, mow the grass...)

9-10  Hang out with my husband (we usually eat ice cream and watch FOX News or episodes of The Office). :)

10pm  Feed Jonathan one more time and then put him right back to bed. Then we get to bed ASAP!

(3 weeks old) This is one of my favorite pictures of him sleeping. He rolled over onto his back but it didn't wake him up! His hair is the kicker. :)

We are a Babywise family, so we do the "Feed, Wake, Sleep" cycle. For those of you not familiar with the book, wake time follows feedings so that sleep doesn't become dependent on his feedings. I have been very pleased with this approach - he is GREAT about going down for a nap or to sleep at night. I lay him in his crib while he is awake, give him a paci if he wants it, and he usually doesn't even cry. (If he does, we usually just pat his back a little and he calms down.)  So, he eats every 3 1/2 - 4 hours, and usually stays awake for 1 1/2 - 2 hours (from the time he gets up to eat) before going back down for a nap. Eventually he will move to just two naps a day, but he's not quite ready for that yet.

We are quite busy and exhausted, and sometimes I get grumpy about it. I certainly never envisioned my life looking like this. I would rather be home with my baby, taking care of my family without other stressful demands on me. But, I also believe that God only allows things into the lives of believers that are for their good. So whatever He wants to accomplish in all of this chaos and frequent bouts of tears must be best. And I just hold on to the hope that it's temporary.

I'm off to make some dinner! We are having almond and brown sugar crusted tilapia, grits, and trying brussel sprouts tonight! Never made those before! I'll let you know how they turn out... :)

Breastmilk Woes

So, here's what's going on in the Alligood house. Jon's work, per usual, is busy, but this rotation is slightly less demanding than the last one. (hip hip hooray!) He's learning about pharmacy informatics, which is basically how to utilize computers in the world of pharmacy. It all goes over my head! I am on my last week rotating at Walgreens and will be at the hospital doing critical care for the next five weeks. My bright spot in this is that I will get to see my hubby on occasion during the day! Jonathan will be nearby soon, because we got good news that he's now #4 on the waiting list for the hospital daycare! I have so enjoyed him being with Sandi and will be kind of sad when he's done there. But I'm sure she'll be ready to get her crew down to just four kids instead of five. :)

Playing on his new car playmat from his great-grandmother Mimi.

My current Mommy Dilemma is what to do about Jonathan's food. He is three months old and has been exclusively breastmilk-fed up until this past weekend when we had to give him a formula bottle. Thankfully he didn't seem to mind one bit and gulped it all down. But all the books and articles and opinions ("Breast is best!") produced a small amount of mommy guilt. I've not been able to pump as much milk at work as before, and it was getting more difficult and stressful to have enough for him while I'm away. I've started pumping more frequently to try to increase my supply, so hopefully that will help a bit. I have to say, though, that while I felt sad that he was eating something other than my milk and that I wasn't able to make enough for him, it took some pressure off of me to know that I can scoop that smelly stuff out of the can and he wouldn't be hungry. It was definitely putting a strain on me and my time at home with my boys to feel like I always needed to be attached to a pump. So for now, I am pumping and getting as much milk as I can, and doing the rest as formula.

The next decision to make is when to start "real" food for Jonathan. Several friends have recommended starting with a little bit of rice cereal in a bottle. The only drawback to this, in my opinion, is that I wouldn't be able to nurse him at night (which is apparently the ideal time to give it him so he'll sleep like a rock!). Moms, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. When did you start cereal/food? And what types of food did you start with?

The kid will obviously eat anything!

Lastly, I just want y'all to know what an encouragement it is to me to read your comments. As we go through life in general, but especially as mothers, community and building each other up is so important. And sometimes that means a deep spiritual conversation or prayer time together, but other times it's just nice to know that other people get pooped on too! :)

Seeking Rest

In an effort to maintain my credibility as a psychic, I have been quite the sporadic blogger, as previously foretold. But hopefully no one holds it against me. I will do my best to catch you up on the happenings down here.

Jon has just finished his third rotation of the residency. He has nine total. He has to do a big research project by the end of the residency so he's been working hard on that. He's collaborating with an infectious disease physician and also an ID pharmacist, so it would be great if the study gets published afterwards! But no big deal if it doesn't. He's been running nonstop for the last three weeks though, putting in 70-hour weeks, and I am ready for him to get to rest. Hopefully that will happen soon.

My "work" has been going well. I miss Jonathan, of course, but I really can't complain other than that. I'm handling the compounding at the Walgreens I'm at, as well as giving immunizations (get your flu shots!) and other pharmacist-y things. :)  My preceptor has been very understanding and has allowed me to pump twice during the day at work so I'm able to keep breastfeeding. I realize that the stigma about formula among breastfeeding moms is probably a little hyperbolic, but I am doing my best to keep Jonathan breastfed as long as my body and rotations allow me (don't worry - we won't have a breastfed 9-year-old). ;)

My sweet friend AmyLynn took some [professional] pictures of the three of us on Saturday, and I can't wait to see how they turn out. See her blog for a sneak peak soon!

Photo by AmyLynn Titus

The Ingrid Michaelson song "Keep Breathing" has been playing on my iTunes as I write, and I have to confess that there have been more moments than not lately where I feel like that's my motto. We came into this year anticipating some hard and exhausting times, but I have often felt inadequate for the things the Lord has brought our way. Physically, emotionally, and spiritually, I feel spent. This past Saturday, we had a women's brunch at church, and one of the elders' wives shared some words from Matthew 11. In this chapter, Jesus promises,

"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (vv. 28-30)

This is such a beautiful promise, and certainly comforting to a tired and weary soul (i.e. yours truly). But what did He really mean? My friend shared Saturday from a Spurgeon sermon on the passage. He said that the first rest spoken of is "given" to us, and is salvation. We do nothing to earn that. There is an eternal rest promised to those who trust Jesus. I am certainly looking forward to that. :) The second rest is one that we "find," and it is found when we take His yoke upon us. When we "learn from Him," becoming like Him, gentle and humble in heart, we are able to accept graciously the yoke He gives us. And the word picture of a yoke can't help but bring to mind the image of a team. Jesus, who will never leave or forsake us, is in the yoke with us doing the work we've been called to do.

This spoke to me profoundly on Saturday. And oftentimes in those profound moments, the task seems so clear and simple. But even since making my inward resolution to be gentle and humble and trust the Lord, I have struggled. As is usually the case with obedience, it's a decision that has to be made over and over and over. Which is where another passage comes in that has been of comfort to me lately:

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

Hebrews 10:35-36

I hope these truths encourage you as they have me. I'm certainly thankful for His word, which is "truer than my circumstances," as my mom likes to say. :)

As always, Jonathan wants to say "hi." :)

Playtime with Dad while Mom was at the brunch. They did great together!

He kept all of his smiles inside until our photo session on Saturday was over. Naturally.

Sitting with me outside as we blog. He's really into his hands these days.

How Now, Brown Couch

Anyone who ever plans to let children (or clumsy adults) into their home should own a brown couch. We didn't know this when we invested in our new-to-us couch a few months ago, but being inadvertently wise is a strength of mine. ;) Jonathan has managed to poop on it (twice), which really means he pooped on my lap and it ran down onto the couch. And today, when I saw a glob of gooey brown stuff on it, I assumed it was more of the same. But then my brave husband took a whiff of it and diagnosed it as a melted chunk of the Hershey's Special Dark chocolate bar we shared last night. Phew. Nevertheless, poop, chocolate, coffee - all have taken a spin on our (sort of) new couch. I am just fortunate that they are all the right color: brown! Thus, my conclusion that brown is the most appropriate color of furniture for this season of life.

Many of you know that this week was my first week back to rotations since Jonathan was born. I didn't cry quite as much as I thought I would, but it didn't knock my socks off either. Jonathan, of course, has done just fine. I keep reminding myself that this is a great age for him to be away from me because he won't even remember it. And he seems to be having a blast at the McFarlins'. :) My rotation is at a Walgreens here in Albany, and I'm in charge of doing all the compounds at the store. This is most appropriate since this is what I did at the job I had all during pharmacy school. So thankfully it's something I'm familiar with. My preceptor is fantastic, too. She has a 7 month old little boy, so we share stories and talk about being mommies. Definitely a good way to transition back. I will be glad when next summer rolls around though! Jon's work has been pretty busy lately, but he's such a trooper, staying up until 2 or 3am many nights to finish everything he has to do. He's enjoying the work, but I think we'll both be glad when we're done with this year's schedule.

Here's a video of him "dancing" in his bouncy seat last night while we were eating dinner. Mom and I decided that he's still so skinny because he's burning calories left and right!

Keeper of the Ear Bling

Okay, okay. I know I'm not hip enough to say "bling," but let's be real - "earring holder" just doesn't sound cool. Being the novice crafter that I am, I can't help but get excited over my latest project, even though it only took approximately 6 minutes to complete. (Baby steps, okay?)

As previously mentioned, I purchased all my supplies at Hobby Lobby. They include only:

• 8x10 picture frame
• 1/2 yard of lace (you don't need all of it, but I bought extra in case I accidentally tore it or wanted to use it for something else)
• Hot glue gun (I'm now a proud owner)
• Decorative plate holder

There were basically two steps, so to respect your intellect, I'll save you from the step-by-step photo tutorial. ;)  (Side rant: has anyone else ever been the teeniest bit offended when someone posts step-by-step directions to something that's common sense? Like when "measure ingredients" is its own step in a recipe. Gee, I was wondering what those random fractions next to the list of ingredients were for...)

First I disassembled the picture frame - all I used was the actual frame. Then I folded my piece of lace in half because I wanted it to be sturdy (if you can even use that word to describe lace), and I cut it to fit the frame. All I had to do then was hot glue it on the back and let it sit for a minute. I bought a pretty plate holder to make it stand up on my dresser. Pictures below...

The old one and new one. (See why I needed to update?
Neon had enough time to go out of style and come back in. I feel old.)

Displaying my bling, er, earrings.

The only thing that's not ideal is that the back of the plate holder puts pressure on the lace. I thought about finding something supportive to put on the back to support it and protect the lace, but  I haven't gotten around to implementing a solution.

Has anyone else tried their hand at one of these?

Jonathan says he hasn't and never will. What a man.

"I prefer to wear fierce animals."

This is How We Play

Try not to be jealous of my cinematography skills.

Since When Is Being "Crafty" a Good Thing?

I am so proud of my little guy. He slept almost 12 hours last night and we had to wake him up this morning to eat! Jon went in to get him and said he was just lying happily awake in his crib sucking on his fingers. That's been his latest accomplishment - substituting the ever-present fingers for the elusive paci. I know some people would rather use a pacifier since you can take those away, but Jonathan seems to be very partial to his fingers. He will occasionally knock the paci out to get to his fingers! Even such small things are so exciting when you watch your child learn to do them. It's fascinating! He hasn't been able to find his fingers consistently because he wasn't coordinated enough, but now he can bring them to his mouth when he's on his stomach (which is easier because they're next to his face) and on his back. I'm so proud of him! Plus, that makes it easier for him to get himself back to sleep. Hooray!

Yesterday, J and I went to Hobby Lobby, which has become one of my new favorite stores. I used to be very wary of crafty, fabricky stores. Michael and Jo-Ann seemed to be in conspiracy against me. But I've since gotten over it. It started with buying some decor items (which look even more fabulous when they're 50% off!) and I feel that I'm now being sucked into the DIY vortex. I have a long way to go, mind you. But there is some serious satisfaction in making/doing something yourself. The line must be drawn somewhere though - Jon and I have agreed that, in the future, some things are just worth paying someone else to do. In the name of happy marriages. (Don't ask us to paint any furniture for you.)

So anyways, yesterday's Lobby purchases included navy blue dye (I'm too cheap to buy new, color-appropriate scrubs for my rotations, so I dyed my old ones!), baskets to organize J's explosively chaotic changing table, and supplies to make myself a new earring holder. My old (as in college-dorm-room old) earring holder is still functional, but it's lime green with pink sequin polka dots. I even bought a hot glue gun. [eerie music plays while pigs soar high in the sky]

Here are pictures of J's "new" changing table (it's actually the one my mom bought when I was born!). The baskets fit his cloth diapers perfectly!

The lotion is sitting on top of the wipes because the little closing clasp is broken. :)

Two baskets for the cloth diapers and one bigger basket for burp cloths and pajamas.

"I can't believe you did that for me!"  Aw, shucks. ;)

Disclaimer: I am aware that the Bumbo seats have been recalled due to babies wiggling out of them (and I have ordered my complimentary "safety restraint repair kit"). I don't think my little dude will be going anywhere anytime soon yet though. Depending on how tired he is, he does pretty well sitting in it and holding his head up!

"Aren't I the cutest ever?!"

Out on the Town

This has been a very social week for Jonathan. Tuesday, we drove to Camilla so he could meet Jon's grandmother who lives there. We arrived at the retirement home just as they were all having lunch, so everybody got to meet the baby and I think they enjoyed it very much. :)  After that we went next door so that all the gals I worked with on my first rotation could love on him a little bit.

Great-Grandmother Audrey and a yawning Jonathan.

Yesterday, we had a "playdate" (for the mommies) with some church friends in the morning - J loved getting to be around some people more his size. They have a baby boy who is a couple months older he is, and a precious little girl who's three. (I hope Jonathan gets a sister next!) Then we went and bothered our sweet neighbor to help us with our washing machine that had decided to stop with a tub full of water and clothes. (Don't know what he did but it works great now!)

Then last night we had dinner with our friends from church, Will & Clare. They are expecting a baby girl pretty much any day now! Apparently someone was praying for our church's child population to increase because there are about a bazillion babies either running around, figuratively speaking, or in utero. We love it! :) Clare was so sweet to make dinner (a delicious baked Greek chicken dish!) while simultaneously carting around her full-term child - can I get a cheer from all the moms? - so I, the very un-pregnant one, pathetically offered to contribute a salad to the meal. Not wanting my already small contribution to seem too effortless, I grabbed my oversized wooden salad bowl and piled in all sorts of goodies! Here is the final product.

I tossed a spring mix blend with avocados, strawberries, slivered almonds, goat cheese, freshly ground black pepper, and topped it off with a homemade avocado-lime vinaigrette! I normally don't make homemade dressings because I usually think they're too much work, but it was really fun to make this one, and not too hard at all. I sliced a Haas avocado, mushed it up with a smidgen of olive oil, white vinegar, salt, pepper, the juice of two limes, and added a little agave nectar for some sweetness. It was different and refreshing! Today I had salad leftovers for lunch and added a few pieces of grilled chicken to make it more filling. I didn't have enough leftover dressing, so I drizzled it with my new favorite go-to combination: olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and agave nectar. It's the perfect blend of tart and sweet!

Sorry, I can't help talking about food.

Jon was so thoughtful this morning and told me to sleep while he got up, fed J a bottle, changed his diaper, put an adorable (matching!) outfit on him and laid him back down for a nap. All before I rolled out of bed. Do I have a great husband or what?? I think our son is looking more and more like his daddy...

Toothbrushes and Apple Pies

My sweet baby turned 8 weeks old yesterday! I think he was disappointed there wasn't a party because he cried off and on most of the day. Sometimes you just gotta get it out of your system, ya know? It's amazing to me that he's been out of the womb less than two months and has already learned so many new things. He is smiling more and more every day. It is absolutely the most adorable thing you've ever seen. A genuine, toothless, ear-to-ear grin that will melt your heart. We like to have "conversations," especially right after he eats and is most happy (takes after his dad). He moves his little lips so earnestly, trying to make a sound, and seems so pleased with himself when he succeeds.

Jon and I weighed him the other day (using the good ol' hold-the-baby-and-subtract-your-own-weight method) and he was 8 lbs 13 oz. Just thought you'd want to know, Dad. ;)

We've been fairly busy around here lately: long residency hours for Jon, eating dinners with several of our new Albany friends, and I've just been swamped with all of the TV-watching and chocolate-eating lately. ;) Ha, ha. I do enjoy taking advantage of nap time when I have a few minutes to chill and get things done. It's slightly overwhelming to think about having to get the same amount of house-related work accomplished once I go back to rotations in two weeks. But I'm certainly not the first person to tackle such a feat, and I won't be the last. So I'll just drink an extra glass of Power Mom Juice and make it work. And we might eat Chick-fil-A more often.

Speaking of rotations, I found out recently that I will be able to work four ten-hour days at my next assignment, which means a whole extra day a week with my favorite boy in the world! I'm doing a compounding pharmacy rotation at Walgreens. And we have finally made official arrangements for his daycare until he gets into Family Tree. My friend from church, Sandi, is going to keep him at her house during the day. Jon and I are so excited about this. They homeschool four wonderful kids, and even though Jonathan is only a couple months old, I'm really happy he'll get to be around their family. Maybe he'll pick up a few things. :)

Yesterday, I noticed that my beloved razor had a little mold growing in its crevices, so I decided it would be admirably frugal of me to boil it in some water to clean it instead of buying a new one. While I was boiling a whole pot of water, I figured I might as well throw our toothbrushes in too. (I'm finally coming around to the fact that germs do exist even though you can't see them.) I write this to educate the rest of the population who is also unaware that plastic warps when exposed to high heat, because Jon's poor toothbrush emerged mangled and unusable. I really wish I'd taken a picture. My brush and my razor were both fine, but Jonathan and I picked Daddy out a new one on our grocery store outing later.

I have to recommend this recipe because I have made it several times now, and it has been yummy every time! (Not every recipe of mine can make this claim.) We enjoyed it again after a scrumptious dinner at David & Maryanna's house last night. I found it in an edition of Southern Living last year, and it's one of Jon's favorites now. Just make sure you use a non-deformed toothbrush after eating it. ;)

Skillet Apple Pie 

• 2 pounds Granny Smith apples
• 2 pounds Braeburn apples
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 (14.1-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts
• 1 egg white
• Ice cream

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350º. Peel apples, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges. Toss apples with cinnamon and 3/4 cup granulated sugar.
2. 2. Melt butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat; add brown sugar, and cook, stirring constantly, 1 to 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and place 1 piecrust in skillet over brown sugar mixture. Spoon apple mixture over piecrust, and top with remaining piecrust. Whisk egg white until foamy. Brush top of piecrust with egg white. Cut 4 or 5 slits in top for steam to escape.
3. 3. Bake at 350º for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly, shielding with aluminum foil during last 10 minutes to prevent excessive browning, if necessary. Cool on a wire rack 30 minutes before serving. Serve with vanilla bean ice cream.

Laugh Until You Cry... Or the other way around

This week has already been full of funny and interesting stories. I will share two of them with you.

Jonathan has found his voice and likes to use it often. Babies should seriously come with some kind of diagnostic or instruction manual. (Is that what people mean when they have their placentas "read??") I've read the books, heard the experienced advice, and I think I'm half decent at figuring out what's wrong when he cries. Mommy instinct or something. But lately I swear he is just "expressing his opinion" as his grandmother Suzie calls it. I wonder where he gets his opinionatedness from... Hmmm... ;)

Naptime fussing seems to be a preference of his, and I just got back from trying, once again, to calm him down so he can sleep. My go-to line is, "Jonathan Miller, it's time to sleep so we can grow big and strong." Apparently he wants to stay very small and weak. I walked into his room and patted his back, and it felt a little cool in there to me, so I decided to cut the fan off. Pretty much every electrical appliance in our house has some quirk. All the lights flicker (I like to think of it as the special "candlelight" setting), our dishwasher takes like five hours to run a cycle, and the microwave sometimes turns on by itself. Well, the fan in his room isn't controlled by a switch, so you have to pull the little cord thing, and every time you do, it feels like the whole fixture is going to come tumbling down. So I carefully pulled the cord but accidentally pulled it once more than I meant to and it turned on full blast (don't you hate when you do that?). So I gave it one more good yank, and off came the little pully-cord thing! So I was standing there with a screaming baby, the fan cord in my hand, and a thunderstorm booming outside. It was a most appropriate time to take a (very) deep breath and sing that song from my childhood, "Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry..." It sounded better when the turtle or whatever critter on my video sang it.

Jonathan has been doing pretty well during church, and I haven't tried to put him in the nursery. Assuming all would go as planned [cue uproarious laughter], we decided to do the same thing this past Sunday. On the way out the door, I asked myself, "Should I bring the diaper bag?" And answered, "Nah, he'll just sleep the whole time like usual." Well, what did my adorable son decide to do? Yes, that's right, he did not sleep. So, not wanting to be disruptive, I quietly scooted out with him and decided to take him to the nursery. I pretty much threw him into the room and hurriedly said to the sweet ladies working in his room, "I'm so sorry, all I have is his paci, but he should sleep the whole time and you won't need anything." I guess I was just flustered or nervous because I'd never left him in the nursery, but I went back to my seat and tried to be a confident mom. (You definitely have to pretend these things sometimes.) About 30 minutes later, I checked my phone to see how much longer I had to worry if he was torturing the poor nursery workers and I had a text from one of my friends who was watching kids in another room. She said Jonathan was fine, but he had a blowout in his diaper and it had gotten all over him and wanted to know if it was okay for him to stay in his clothes. Being the experienced moms that they are, I don't think it bothered the ladies keeping him too much, but of course it felt like an epic Mom-fail to me. I rushed back there after church was over and found him, perfectly content, and wearing a borrowed diaper from his baby buddy John. Thank goodness for our sweet friends at church. :) I vowed to them and myself that I would never be without his diaper bag again. Pinky promise.

Being a mom for just over 7 weeks has required a good bit of humility, a sense of humor, and truckloads of patience. Maybe that's why God decided for me to become one earlier than I planned... :) And even if my Jonathan Jr. screams through his next 23 naptimes, I don't think it could make me love that little booger any less.

In his vintage little john-john outfit that he "christened" in the nursery.

"What, Mom? How could you ever be mad at me?"

8/11/12 The Week in Pictures

Hooray for the weekend! Here are some shots to summarize the week:

Making my own chicken stock for the first time!
I used the carcass from the chicken we ate last night.

"Swiss Chocolate Cake" - I made this to take when we had dinner
with friends from church the other night!

You know, just doing what we do.

The newly Jon-installed diaper sprayer to clean up the messy ones.

It works!

More to come on the diaper sprayer installation. It only took Jon 20 minutes or so and it works great! It'll save me the time of running the diapers through a rinse cycle before washing them.

Snoozing with his Daddy.

Snuggling with my little monkey after yet another traumatic bathtime.

And just for kicks, this is us at our wedding rehearsal one year ago today!

Eve of the Weekend

I just put this chicken in the oven, grabbed a Diet Coke - the drink of champions - and sat down to catch up on this here blog thing. Side note on the chicken: cooking a whole chicken used to intimidate me (well, the part where you pull the nasty bag of chicken organs out still makes my stomach churn), but when I saw this recipe and tried it last Fall, it was a total success. The only skills it requires are knowing how to measure a few spices and quarter an onion. I can handle that. It has to cook for ~5 hours, and the first time I made it, Jon and I decided it would be very efficient of us to stick it in the oven while we went to a baby shower... an hour and a half away. My poor mother-in-law thought we'd gone batty. Our apartment was thankfully still standing when we returned and we had some tasty chicken to eat!

We have been looking forward to this weekend for awhile. Jon had to work last weekend, so he hasn't had any time off in 12 days (but who's counting??). We are excited to rest and relax! This Sunday is also our 1 year anniversary! We are so blessed to have fantastic friends who have offered to keep Jonathan for us, and we actually get to go out Saturday AND Sunday nights! Some of our sweet friends from church are keeping him while we go to dinner tomorrow night. They have four wonderful kids and I couldn't feel better about leaving him with them. And our dear, dear friends Maryanna and David (the newlyweds!) are watching him Sunday while we go see the long-awaited Bourne Legacy. I feel kind of spoiled that we get to go out twice, but Jon and I will really enjoy getting to be together.

Jonathan seems to be learning new things every day! He has started smiling more often and he's learning how to coo and grunt very well. :) He seems to be finding his hands more consistently now and likes to suck on them. We've been using a pacifier (I personally like the MAM brand - they don't have the little ring on the front that he can use to pull it out of his mouth!) but I would rather him learn to suck his thumb or his fingers. You don't have to remember to take those with you and they don't fall out of his mouth!

One of our new favorite playtime activities is "swing dancing." I put on the Big Band/Swing music channel on the TV and we dance around the living room. It calms him down so quickly and even puts him to sleep sometimes. Reminds me of countless dances with my Daddy to "It's My Turn Now," by Steven Curtis Chapman.

A huge answer to prayer happened for us this week. A friend from church found out we were looking for somewhere for Jonathan to stay until he gets into the hospital daycare (which I will say more about in a minute), and she mentioned that her neighbor might be interested. I didn't hear anything about it for awhile but it was in the back of my mind. I have to go back to rotations in less than a month, and I was starting to worry a little more about where he would go. I visited another daycare in the area and it wasn't terrible, but it just made me sad to think about having to leave him there because it seemed like their only objective was for the kids to survive the day. When I visited, they weren't playing with them, and there were so many kids and only two ladies in the room! So this place would have worked temporarily if we needed it to, but I really wanted an alternative. Out of the blue, my friend from church called (I didn't even know she had my number!) and said her neighbor mentioned it to her again and asked if we still needed help! I was so humbled that the Lord would hear our prayers and choose to give us exactly what we asked for, when He could have given us much less and it would have been fine! She has three kids of her own who are all in school, so she is well-experienced and seems absolutely precious on the phone. Nothing is finalized yet, but we are meeting her next week and I'm so excited! The Lord is so good and faithful. Thank you to those of you who were praying about this situation!

I also visited the Phoebe Putney employee daycare, The Family Tree, last week. We've heard such good things about it, so we got Jonathan on the waiting list as soon as Jon started working at the hospital full time. It finally occurred to me that I'd never even seen the place and should probably check it out even though it has a good reputation. The moment we walked in the door I felt at home. Kim, the receptionist, was so warm and welcoming and knew all the kids by name. She showed me around and we got to go in one of the three infant rooms. One of the ladies who works in there came over immediately and introduced herself and started telling me about what they do in there. She said, "We only have 18 months to develop those synapses so we do our best!" She couldn't have said anything better to impress the nerd inside of me. They have a curriculum for the infants that stimulates them and helps them learn all the little baby things they have to learn. The staff actually gets down on the floor and plays with them, and all the rooms have screened-in porches for the kids to play on so they can get fresh air! The other great thing is that I will have two rotations at the hospital, so there's a good possibility I'll be able to go see him and even breastfeed on my lunch break. I've been dreading having to leave him, but I felt so much better about it after I visited The Family Tree! The lady told me it would probably be a couple of months before he gets in, but it'll be worth the wait!

Fuzzibunz Hanging Diaper Pail (we have a yellow one)

We are still really enjoying cloth diapering. I ordered some more BumGenius OS 4.0 today to round out our supply. I've been reading about some of the finer points of CD'ing, such as removing odors that don't come out of the diapers and keeping the stink at bay until you wash them. I've been using the hanging diaper pail from Fuzzibunz which I love because it's waterproof and has a zipper at the bottom so you don't have to touch the diapers when you dump them into the washer. The only small problem is that the top is open, so it's hard to keep the smell down in his nursery. I've read that a lot of moms use a couple drops of essential oil in the pail to minimize that. Has anyone had any luck with this? I'm taking suggestions!

Jonathan Smiles

Wannabe Hippies

We like to consider ourselves "conservative hippies." I guess it's becoming sort of the "in" thing to do - "go green," eat organic, recycle, etc. Our weirdness and desire to be adventurous and experiment with things (legal things, mind you) has grown exponentially since we got married. We got more than a few questions when we started making our own yogurt (maybe I will share details of this in another post). We love juicing kale and apples to make odd-looking green concoctions. We like to bike places when we can. Our last date night in Athens involved a trip to Trader Joe's to stockpile things to bring back to Albany. :) My next hopeful experiment is to start making my own laundry detergent (these small creatures turn your house into a laundromat!). All that to say, our latest and greatest success as hippies-without-the-pot has been cloth diapering. Below I will share a few of my reasons for wanting to cloth diaper:

1. It's cheaper - you can buy "one-size" (or OS) diapers that grow with your baby until he or she is potty trained!
2. There's a lower incidence of diaper rash with cloth diapers.
3. There are so many options now that you aren't limited to folding and safety-pinning.
4. The diapers are cute, so they complement my baby's cute bottom very well.

Some of you have asked about which cloth diapers we've decided to use, so I thought I'd post a few thoughts about them! As previously mentioned, we did a diaper trial through The Natural Baby and tried out several different kinds before we invested and bought more.

Some of the ones we tried include BumGenius 4.0 Pocket Diapers, BumGenius Freetime AIO, Fuzzibunz OS Elite, Flip OS, Kissaluvs AIO, Thirsties diaper covers and prefolds.

I had heard great things about the Fuzzibunz and BumGenius pocket diapers from friends of mine and felt pretty sure we would end up using some of those. But I'm glad we tried some others so that my feelings would be confirmed and I also discovered a new one I liked!

The BumGenius Freetime AIO is a perfect cross between a "regular" all in one (AIO) and a pocket diaper. The thing that's great about pocket diapers is that the pocket holds an absorbent insert (or two inserts for overnight absorbency) that can be removed when you wash the diapers so it gets extra clean. The regular AIO's are just as the name implies, one continuous piece that does not separate at all, much like a disposable diaper. There is less surface area exposed when you wash them though, so I don't feel like they get as clean.

The BumGenius Freetime combines my two favorite features of the pocket diaper, customizable absorbency and separate layers for extra surface area when washing, with the convenience of an AIO. The diaper has two "inserts" that are attached on one side. One insert, or flap, is attached at the front of the diaper and the other at the back, so the flaps overlap. The flaps are also foldable, so you can fold one end over at the front (for extra boy protection) or one at the back (for girl protection). The convenience comes in the fact that these extra layers are sewn into the diaper itself, so there's no stuffing involved. These are usually the first ones I pull out of the dryer after I wash them since they're ready to use immediately.

I have been very pleased with the BumGenius 4.0 OS and Fuzzibunz Elite OS pocket diapers as well. We've had much fewer leaks than we did while using disposables! They just feel so soft, too, so I feel good putting them on my sweet baby's skin. We opted for snap closures on all the ones we've bought since I feel that those will hold up longer than hook-and-loop (Velcro) closures, not to mention they will be a little harder for a bigger baby to take off!

I hope this has been helpful for anyone considering doing this and informative for anyone who is not currently in need of diapers!