cutting teeth

River's toothless days are gone.

Over the past few days, he has been cutting in his two bottom teeth, and battling the same cold with cough and congestion that the rest of us have had. We haven't been getting much sleep.

But a stick of celery does wonders.

My mother-in-law suggested it, and Carolyn used celery for Grace when she was teething. I could never convince Liam to chomp on celery when he was a baby, but River? He likes it. A lot.

 
And he also likes being held nearly all of the time lately. This is how we cooked dinner last night, sans camera. I had left the Ergo carrier in the trunk of the car, which was on its way home from work with Gabe. So we used the sling and it killed my neck. But it was better than a screaming baby.

 Today, he has another helmet appointment. Just a check up. Hopefully, I'll have progress to report.

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Christmasing - part 6

Sunday, the day after Christmas, we checked out of the hotel in the morning, stopped at Trader Joe's (again) for some groceries to take home, and headed to the Fox Theater.  
The architecture in that part of St Louis was amazing. If it was up to Gabriel, and if he wasn't suffering through a sudden bout of the stomach flu, we would have spent the day walking around to admire all of the buildings. 
 But we had a show to catch. And we were running late because that is just how my family does things... 
 We squeaked in through the gate and into our seats just before the curtains opened. The Fox Theater is gorgeous. We had center seats just a few rows back from the stage. Close enough for Liam to notice everytime Tia Molly entered the stage, which was basically every scene.  
We weren't allowed to bring a camera into the main theater, so I sent it backstage with Molly. Here are some pictures she captured. Unfortunately, we don't have any of her and Rebecca's performance, but you can see a clip of it here.

 

 

 
 

 

 After the show, we went to the City Diner just a few doors down from the theater. 


 

 
 
 Then it was time to say goodbye and drive home.
 
It was an amazing trip. A trip that wouldn't have been possible without my sister's generosity. Thanks again, Molly.  

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Christmasing - part 5

Christmas morning in a hotel room is a very different experience, but stockings filled to the brim, a pile of presents, and even a small little tree go a long way. And Christmas is magical for little people no matter the location. At least it was for Liam. 

Since we had an adjoining room with my mom and brother, we set up "Christmas" in their room after we put Liam and River to bed on Christmas Eve.

In the morning, we went next door and Liam and River got straight to work opening their gifts. 
 We went together with my mom and Molly to get River this walker wagon. Both boys love it: River enjoys standing up with it, and Liam is enjoying pushing River around in it. Let's just say it's a good thing River is always wearing a protective helmet... 
 
Rather than buying and bringing gifts for all of the adults, we decided to instead exchange names for stockings. That way, everyone got a number of small gifts, but it was all still quite manageable.

 
 

 I was going to do these same photo collages for my mom and I as well, but I ran out of time. I thought I'd go ahead with the post anyway... 

 

After all of the stockings and gifts were opened, we all rode the elevator downstairs for Christmas breakfast. 
 


 
 
 Rebecca was smitten with River, and he didn't seem to mind one little bit.
 
 Later that evening, we went out to dinner at Ranoush, a Syrian restaurant in the Delmar Loop. We decided on a  middle eastern restaurant since basically everything else was closed for the holiday. It was a good choice.

 The food was delicious: Falafel, kibbeh, tabbouleh, fatayer, hummus, baba ganoush, warak inab.   

But, as Forest was quick to point out, all the different flavors were best wrapped together in one pita.  
River thought the pita part was great. 
 
And so did Liam. Although his favorite part of the evening was the belly dancer who shimmied her way around the restaurant, stopping at our table several times to Liam's delight. He clapped and squealed with glee, but didn't want to get up and dance with her when she offered.
 
 And my favorite part: the baklava. Mmmm...

 After dinner, we drove to Santa's Magical Kingdom, where we were dazzled by millions of lights. Well, Liam was dazzled, everyone else in the car kept telling me to drive faster, and I couldn't help but think about all those watts of electricity for a bit of entertainment. 
 
 And that is how we spent the day. Gabriel has already said that next year we aren't going anywhere for the holiday, but it was fun to something different.

I have one more post to go, and then we'll wrap this whole thing up.

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resolutions and blueberry muffins

Gabriel and I have been planning our new year's resolution for the past couple of months.

You see, we have a problem. A TV problem. Even though we don't own a television.

Every night, once the kids are in bed, we drag the couch over in front of the computer and watch several hours worth of shows.

I don't think that watching shows is a bad thing. During my entire pregnancy with River, we were hooked on Law & Order SVU. And since Netflix has all of the seasons available for instant view, Elliot and Olivia became two of our dearest friends. Snuggling up on the couch every evening for another episode or two or three or four became a kind of comfort food for us. Entertainment without the mental effort of investing oneself in a new show with a new story. And once River was born, that chung-chung became a kind of lullaby for him while he dozed on the end of the couch before we all went upstairs for the night.

Good times.

When we decided we needed a break, and new years seemed just the motivation we needed, our initial reaction was But what are we going to do in the evenings?

And therein lies the problem. We have a hard time coming up with anything else to do besides plunking ourselves down in front of the computer every evening.

I am convinced that there is more to life than passive entertainment.

So what are we going to do instead?

We plan to read more books together. We plan to do more crafting. We plan to subscribe to yoga today and get in some evening exercise.

Mostly, we plan to find other things to do. For the next year. After that, we'll see.

.....

So now, here we are. New Year's Day. 2011.

And to celebrate the day, I made a favorite blueberry muffin recipe with the last of the summer blueberries we picked in Tontitown and tucked away in the freezer for later in the year.

Another thing I want to do more of this year is sharing the recipes I make and love because that is what is best about good food: sharing it with others.

Blueberry Muffins

The original recipe came off of a Hodgson's Mill flour bag, and it's my favorite for a Saturday morning breakfast or afternoon treat. They aren't heavy or overly sweet. And they use baking oil rather than butter. Gabriel prefers them with all white flour and sugar sprinkled on top, which is the way we went today. I sometimes substitute in whole wheat flour for some, or all, of the all-purpose flour, which turns out a heartier muffin. And sucanat sugar is good, too. You can also swap in other fruits for the blueberries (cranberries, cubed apples, peaches, even raisins or chocolate chips).

Makes 12 muffins.

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk or milk alternative (almond, soy, etc...)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper liners.

Mix flour with 2 tbsp sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl (I use my 2-cup pyrex measuring cup), combine egg, milk, 1/4 cup sugar, oil, and vanilla. Add to flour mix and stir just until moistened and combined. Fold in berries.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins. Sprinkle with sugar if desired.

Bake for 25 minutes or until tops are golden brown (it usually takes mine closer to 28 minutes). Remove from pans and serve immediately, or cool on wire racks.

.....

Happy 2011.

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Christmasing - part 3

Tuesday of last week, my brother Forest flew in from California and was able to stay until yesterday. We had a lot of fun just hanging out, Liam especially, although River was also charmed by him. And River is usually wary of anyone who isn't me, Gabriel, or Grammie. But he sure loved his Uncle FoFo.

And Uncle FoFo loves Hugo's in Fayetteville. Okay, we all do. 
Forest slept on the couch in the livingroom, which was loads of temptation for Liam from the moment that he woke until Forest rolled himself out of bed several hours later. How he was able to sleep through all of the commotion, I have no idea. But he definitely did not sleep through the bacon Gabriel cooked on a cast iron skillet atop the woodstove one morning. Forest said it was the best wake-up ever. 

 
 Liam had his fair share of candy corn.  

We made Christmas cookies and Liam helped with the frosting. Can you tell?
 
Holiday snuggling.

 Brotherly loving.

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Christmasing - part 4

  We arrived in St Louis Friday evening, just in time to sneak into Trader Joe's for some essentials before they closed for the holiday. After getting the necessary tea, coffee, soy milk, and dark chocolate-covered almonds with fleur de sel and turbinado sugar, we checked in at the Omni Majestic downtown. 

The snow was falling. The streets were empty. We walked around the corner to a pizzeria and had a not-so-traditional Christmas Eve dinner. It was wonderful. 

 
Molly arranged for me and Gabriel to have a room with our boys that adjoined with my mom and Forest's room(Linda opted not to join us for the trip. She also opted to leave rehab. Both decisions make me sad). We were on the 5th floor and Molly and Rebecca were on the 6th floor, which made for a lot of elevator rides.

Staying downtown for the holiday was in itself a surreal experience. The streets were empty. No cars. No people. Perfect for exploring.

Liam was thrilled with all of the snow, and always wanted to build more smowmen.  
Winter wonderland.  

We all loved the snow, but Grammie just does not like to be cold. 
She and River both preferred being snug and warm inside.  
 
And then we'd bundle back up for more trips outside...

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