Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Challah French Toast

How have I gone this long in life without trying this? Soooo good!
To make some at home (once Passover is over) take four large eggs, 1 cup of milk, dash of salt, 2 tablespoons of sugar, some vanilla extract and cinnamon (if you like that kind of thing)
Serve with powdered sugar, maple syrup or whatever else floats your French toast boat!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

On my own




All of my helpers have officially left the premises as of Monday 3/21/10 4pm. (That's hubby the first two weeks, my mother in law week three and my mom week four)

Now it's just me, puppy, baby and the judgmental conga line in my head...

Status report day one- everyone has survived without any permanent damage, despite no internet, no TV and no electricity during lunch. Let's see how this brand new momma fares during the rest of the week.



Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Five things I thought before I became a parent



Before I became a parent I said some silly, silly things...here are some of them in no particular order:

On baby necessities-
Then: Who needs a glider rocker? I mean what a waste of money on a butt-ugly-doesn't match-anything-you-own piece of furniture.
Now: Dear, wonderful, (lent by my neighbor) rocker, I love you, please don't ever break, I don't know how I would nurse without you.

More on baby necessities..is it necessary to have all of these necessities?
Then: Diaper wipes warmer? I mean seriously? This baby is in need of her butt wiped by warm wipes instead of regular ones?
Now: Umm can we warm the changing pad we put her on? (Anything to stop the screaming.)

On balancing the needs of a dog and a baby-
Then: (commenting on suggestions on how to prepare your dog for the arrival of a new baby) Having a screaming toy baby to prepare your dog seems a little excessive, I'm sure our furry baby will adjust to a human baby just fine!
Now: Why is our dog hiding under the kitchen table refusing to come out? Why is our dog running into the walls on purpose? Uh-oh.

On parenting-
Then: All I'm going to do for the first six weeks is feed the baby booby, I'm sure my husband can do the rest.
Now: Cue obnoxious laugh track. Delusional mommy to be, what were you thinking?

On my appearance-
Then: I won't worry about losing the pregnancy weight until at least six weeks postpartum, I mean they don't even clear you for exercise until then right?
Now: Must break every mirror in house. Must not wear clothes...just get a muumuu for now and all will be fine.



Saturday, March 13, 2010

Developmental milestones....

A: dude I'm three weeks old? Did you expect me to walk and talk by now?

Aliza is three weeks old now and there are no significant incidents to report...and no news is good news right? And while it would be nice if she would learn to change her own diaper (or at least stop screaming until she turns purple while we change it for her) overall life with a brand new baby is pretty swell. We did not put our baby "on a schedule" but she seems to have one of her own, at least for now. And I could report that she only wakes twice at night and lets us sleep for three or four hour stretches at a time but I don't want the other mothers to stone me. Other than that we poop and such, eat and such and fuss and such. She is super duper close to smiling at us, for now she smiles absentmindedly during feedings and sometimes right before she starts to wail! I can also report that she has more control over her eyes and responds to sounds as well, this is both good and bad news as every little noise can wake her up. My favorite newborn reflex is the "stick em up" hands that she exhibits every time she is startled, like a little bandit, pretty hilarious.

Cloth diaper report- we are using two dozen infant Chinese pre-folds (from Nicki's Diapers), five x-small Thirsties covers (three from Nickis and two bought in a panic when we realized three just wasn't enough from Sew Crafty Baby- an awesome mommy run store with free shipping!) We are washing them on a Whirlpool front loading HE machine and are using the "whitest white setting (which includes an extra rinse) with BioKleen detergent...everything is going pretty well in this department, once you get the hang of it cloth diapering is easy and baby seems pretty content, everyone should try it, it's not that hard!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Two Weeks Old


I still can't believe we made one of these littly itty bitty beings from scratch, from scratch people!

Aliza is two weeks old today and to celebrate we took some newborn photos of her with this talented lady, Eden Thome. Eden was so patient with us as the session took just a little longer than expected...okay so our booger cried for three hours before settling down enough to allow us to take photos of her and Eden just smiled through it all and reminded mommy to be patient.

The best part was that Eden was able to capture this smile from her, now to be fair she is not smiling consciously yet but still, how cool is that? Right before this photo was taken I asked my sweet little daughter to grace us with her first smile. Her response? A loud fart/poop! And about two seconds later this happy with herself little grin! Yup, nothing wrong with her sense of comedic timing.