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elbereth_elentari
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Name: Heather
Birthday: 1/4/1981
Gender: Female
Interests: Books, astrophysics, music, karate ;-) Strong Bad.
The astoundingly beautiful world that God has given us, and the incredible people in it.
Expertise: I'll get back to you on that...
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
8/26/2004
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| I'm supposed to be working, but I just watched Teddy roll over (from back to front!) for the first time!  Yay Teddy! It took him about 10 minutes of very uncomfortable looking contortions before he managed to get his arm out from under him, but he did it! Sadly, I don't think he's terribly thrilled, cause now he's on his tummy... 
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| Just in case anyone is still reading this blog...
Teddy Bear turned 3 months old on Tuesday, so I thought it might be time to
do an update. 
Since my last blog post was about sleeping, I'll start with that. He has gotten much better, of course. He has become wonderfully easy to put to sleep at night --- I put him in bed between 10:30 and 11:00, and he lies there and plays until he falls asleep (which can take 30 seconds or 20 minutes). Sadly, his schedule the rest of the night is fairly unpredictable. For example, Tuesday night he went to bed at 11 and woke up at 4:30, 7:30 and 9:00. That was great. Last night he went to bed at 10:30 and woke up at 1:30, 4:30, 7:30 and 9:30. That was less great. I'm not sure how to get him on a regular sleep schedule, nor am I sure that it's worth the effort at this point. We might try something more proactive in June, when Joel is done with his teaching at Pomona and could deal with any night time drama which might ensue (he doesn't know this yet, though).
In other news, Teddy has been smiling for several weeks, which is lovely. He's also talking up a storm and using his hands more intentionally. Anything he can grab goes into his mouth, and if there's nothing else around, he's trying to jam both fists in. It's adorable. He's been able to bear weight on his legs for a couple of months and desperately wants to be able to move around. Just this morning during tummy time on the bed he managed to push himself up on his forearms a couple of times, turn a quarter of a circle and actually scoot forward a bit. Granted, moving is easier on the bed because his feet and knees get more of a grip, but I swear this kid will be crawling before we move in August. I, of course, think he's advanced in just about every area, but since he's my first I don't have much to go on (although according to the website I was looking at yesterday, he's got pretty much all the skills of an average 4 month old). He is all kinds of fun, though, and a pretty happy baby as long as I'm around. He also did pretty well with all his Indiana uncles and cousins last week. I'm glad he has such a big family --- between the two sides he has 4 grandparents, 7 uncles, 4 aunts and 7 cousins (two of whom are less than 6 weeks younger than he!).
Joel and I are both very excited about seeing this little one grow up. We love you, Teddy Bear!
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| can somebody tell me how to convince a two week old to go to sleep at night without 2-3 hours of coaxing? He's been taking progressively longer every evening to decide to settle down, and last night it required a drive aroucd the block at 1:30. We can't keep doing this --- I'm so tired of dreading bedtime and being frustrated and angry with my little one. suggestions, please?
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| Argh!!! I've been having contractions on and off since at least 10:00 yesterday morning. This morning around 3:00 they got strong and long enough (~90 s) that I couldn't sleep, and got up expecting to head to the hospital within the next few hours, even though they were still about 8 minutes apart. And then they faded to short ones every 30 minutes or so, and I went back to bed. I'm grateful for the extra sleep, but seriously, can we just get going with this, now? Grr!
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| and only because I suspect that this may be the outbreak of some frustrated nesting impulses (get the baby's room ready? Um. Maybe we can clear out a dresser drawer for him to sleep in...  ). Or maybe it's because I'm completely overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to get done in the next two and a half months (!). In any case, I've been doing massive (for me) amounts of baking in the past few weeks. Mostly I've been making bread (from the very fun "Artisan Breads in 15 Minutes a Day" book), but last weekend I bought a large can of pumpkin. I wanted it to make pumpkin muffins for Joel's breakfast on Friday, since he has to leave at the ungodly hour of 7:30 (after getting home at 1:00 the night before). However, the recipe only called for a 1/2 cup of pumpkin, and Albertsons only had 24 oz cans when I was shopping, leaving me with... lots of leftover pumpkin. Which I all too often put in a tupperware and leave in the fridge until it evolves into a sentient life form, develops space flight, and runs off to Mars with fruit salad that's been waiting around since Easter. (Note, this method of cleaning out the fridge takes a VERY long time). ANYWAY. I was determined to use it all this time. So Saturday I made pumpkin pancakes. And experimented with making our own pumpkin spice cream for coffee. And subjected my poor husband to curry pumpkin soup (he loves pumpkin in desserts and baked goods --- not so much in main dishes. Something about it's relationship with squash.) And with the last few tablespoons I made a half recipe of pumpkin spice-cranberry-almond-pumpkin seed granola bars. I discovered this granola bar recipe a few weeks ago, and have now made three variations of it (the bars go with me to the office so I don't run down to the coffee cart for M&Ms every day...).
INGREDIENTS- 3 cups quick-cooking oats
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1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
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2 tablespoons butter, melted
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1 cup flaked coconut
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1 cup sliced almonds
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1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
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1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
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In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sweetened condensed milk,
butter, coconut, almonds, chocolate chips and cranberries with your
hands until well blended. Press flat into the prepared pan.
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Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on how
crunchy you want them. Lightly browned just around the edges will give
you moist, chewy bars. Let cool for 5 minutes, cut into squares then
let cool completely before serving.
The first time I just used old bits of trail mix and stuff out of the freezer for the mix-ins. Which was OK, but the granola bars tasted somewhat, well, old and freezer burned. Then I tried the pumpkin spice, which was better, although I think the cranberries made it a little weird. THEN I had a stroke of brilliance. Chocolate chips, sliced almonds and dried cherries (Joel's suggestion) with a couple tablespoons of peanut butter and a little vanilla mixed into the sweetened condensed milk. Oh my goodness. Way too good to be healthy, but at least lacking in the artificial crap that's in most store bought granola bars, right? And definitely better than M&Ms.
OK, that was my random, rambling recipe post. Back to work.
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