Recipe: the easiest dip on the planet

I fucking hate this iPad. Or maybe I hate blogger.

One of the two just deleted my entire post ... so, sorry this is not witty but its easy so that counts for something.

Ingredients

• 1 block (8oz) cream cheese (fat free doesn't melt as well, just an FYI)
• 1 can chili (vegetarian is fine if you're into that)
• Shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Directions

1. Melt cream cheese in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring frequently
2. Once melted, add chili and stir frequently until fully mixed and heated
3. If desired, transfer to an oven-safe bowl and top with shredded cheese
4. Broil on high until cheese is bubbly
5. Serve warm with tortilla chips or fritos 

http://pinterest.com/pin/89860955035150496

http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/01/chili-cream-cheese-dip-or-ghetto-dip.html

London Claire is ten months old

For what it's worth, I started this post when London hit ten months. That was almost three weeks ago. Fail. Do you know what's harder than being a SAHM to an infant who's into everything? Being a SAHM who's selling her house, whilst having an infant who's into everything and a very high-strung dog. I know, excuses excuses.

By grammatical standards, I think this is the month I have to start using numbers and not spelling it out, but I'm going with "ten" for consistency's sake. Our little angel is ten months old, which thankful seems easier to swallow than nine months, except for the fact that her first birthday is only two months away so I need to get planning STAT.

Age: today, ten months and almost three weeks
Height: I have no idea where our measuring tape is. Or anything else, for that matter
Weight: 20lbs 8oz
Hair: lighter, longer, thicker and doesn't seem to have as much red. She has one wiry white hair in the back of her head which is so funny
Favorite outfit: too many! All her summertime dresses and rompers are so cute!! I love her polka dot halter dress, pink tutu dress from aunt sissy, the bandana dress. She is wearing 18mo in some things and that blows my mind.
Sleep: on a good day, she's sleeping 7:30-6:30, nursing, and going back to sleep until 8am. Taking 2-3 naps depending on the day and our schedule.
Eating: loves blackberries almost as much as strawberries. Jalapeño chips and spicy bean dip?! She still really likes mandarin oranges, and enjoys pears, frozen peas (like her mama!) and black beans (she'll eat half a can!). Refuses a bottle but does great with water in a sippy including a straw sippy cup.
Illness: she had a rough time with a combination of pollen allergies and teething, but seems to be back to normal, with four teeth broken through in total (bottom middle two, left top eye tooth and top right front). She did have quite a fall last week and ended up with a huge goose egg on her noggin, but was fine (minus a faint bruise) the next day. Mama, of course, was not fine.
Development: She gives kisses, waves goodbye (and sometimes hello). Claps in certain songs (if you're happy and you know it, etc). Imitates and says a LOT of words when she feels like it, including "oof oof" as a response for "what does a dog say".
Movement: Stands for several seconds and stood from sitting by herself for the first time - and now does it regularly. She's taken as many as two / three steps but not if she realizes she's doing it. Pulling up on everything, walking while only holding one of our fingers, and trying to climb (stairs, high chair, anything dangerous).
Favorite toy: she loves the walking toys loaned to us by friends, the plastic clapper from her aunt Kiki, and she still freaks out over the giraffe! She also loves the giant lion stuffed animal my dad got her. Her absolute favorite, though, is Spider-Man. My sister got her a Spider-Man bubble machine and she couldnt care less about the bubbles but carries that plastic Spider-Man like its her child.
Funniest habit: she'll normally only give Ben a kiss if I kiss him first.
Firsts: she got to meet farm animals! Bunnies, chicks, turkeys, horses, cows. So cute!
Best moment of the last week: she has learned to pick up her bows and put them to her head. So proud!!

London Claire is Nine Months Old

I know I'm really late on this. And I know I have been slacking in the blogosphere lately. You're probably like "she's a SAHM, what else could she possibly be doing?" and if you are asking that, you've obviously never been a SAHM. Especially not one without a computer. Yeah, I'm writing this on our (read: ben's) iPad and it's not easy. Also not easy? Getting anything done with a nine month old. But here I am, so let me catch you up on my best girl after our first full month together.

Standing in her crib.
Wearing booties that belonged to mama.
You know, the usual. 

Age: nine months, twelve days (fail)
Height: 28.5in
Weight: 19lb 14oz
Hair: it's finally getting long enough to put it in pony tails and even pig tails! We got the best bows as a gift from our next door neighbor and she doesn't mess with them at all. Headbands are a struggle sometimes but for the most part she leaves her hair accessories alone, because she has no choice.
Favorite outfit: her Easter dress, of course! I've had it for months and she and I were both so excited about it. Today's outfit was also adorable, a little denim romper from old navy that my mom "Gorgeous" got her for Easter.

Refusing to sit in the shopping cart

Sleep: praise The Lord, it's a freakin miracle y'all - this child takes three naps a day. Sometimes they're a fight, but after a month of being really strict, I feel like web finally made progress and our days are so much better for it. She was hardly napping in daycare, so I made it my number one goal to get her an trained once I was staying home with her and It. Was. Hard! Much harder than slee training, but now she wakes up at 7am, nurses and then goes down for a nap around 8/8:30, sleeps for an hour/hour and a half. Then she's up until around 12:30, sleeps for 30min to an hour, and back down again around 3 or so. Then down for the night at 7:30! So blessed all our hard work is paying off. Sleep / nap training blog to come!

Eating: we haven't found anything she won't eat, other than boiled egg yolks (she's her daddy's girl!). Favorite foods include strawberries and scrambled eggs. She eats breakfast after her morning nap around 10, lunch around noon and dinner around 5. Still exclusively breastfed, ah thank you! She's doing great with a variety of sippy cups and thusly doesn't want anything to do with bottles.

Illness: we have had struggles with constipation and are currently battling a nasty case of diarrhea and accompanying diaper rash. It's heartbreaking. My normally very happy, easy going baby has been having periods of 15+ minutes of inconsolable crying the past few days. I think it's a reaction to mandarin oranges, which she's had before but I've heard citrus can cause some nasty trash.
Development: the pediatrician says she is right on track based on her nine month appt. her exact words were "she's perfect" (duh!). She has great fine motor skills and seems to be hitting all her development milestone according to the doctor. She waves goodbye and hello, and screams at the top of her lungs, sometimes because she's mad But mostly because she likes the sound of her own voice. Very chatty and loves picking up things and figuring them out. She crawls up me and kisses my face in the morning, which melts my heart every time. she has started copying me by referring to things as "dada" and "na dada" (not dada). And she got her second tooth, which she's been using to bite me with when she nurses.
Movement: she has been pulling up on everything and cruises all along the furniture, sometimes with one hand, but never stands by herself for more than a second or two. I'd say we're still a ways off from walking, but she wants to walk and loves to get down and walk with our fingers. She is crawling fast now and that means I can't turn away from her for a second, which means I'm completely exhausted by the end of the day. But in the best way possible - I love seeing her explore new things. She's also started climbing up stairs - scary!

Favorite toy: she has become obsessed with my keys. It's hard to keep her entertained with actual toys now that she's into everything and wants to play  with cords, outlets, the dog's water bowl, etc. we did get a new soft carrier, the ergo, which she and I both love!
Funniest habit: she points at things / people. She was doing it at church at the ushers, such a flirt. She points at her daddy and he points back like E.T. It's adorable.
Firsts: visit to the aquarium, haircut, Easter

Best moment of last week: Easter, of course. She went to the nursery at church for the first time a few weeks ago but I couldn't send her for Easter service so she sat with us, entertaining (most of) our neighbors. She looked adorable and was so excited to see all her Easter baskets - three of them! - yesterday morning and then again today.

Our little family at church on Easter 

Ten things you may not know about me

1. My best friend and I both started drinking coffee at 25. We also both had mono in the 10th grade. We've been through just about everything together, yet she still sends me thank you notes.

2. My husband and I both hate sweet potatoes, to the point that we won't even feed them to our daughter. My uncle guilted me into eating them when I was four and I threw up all over the thanksgiving table.

3. I've competed in cheerleading with a broken tailbone, and also with a dislocated elbow.

4. My first real experience with death was when my Sunday school teacher died of cancer - I was five. My father encouraged me to "go give her a kiss goodbye" and her cheek shocked me. After that I refused to attend funerals for about 10 years, and I'm still really freaked out by death and dead bodies especially.

5. My happy place is a toss-up between Round Pond, Maine, Bean Station, Tennessee or the beach with my best girlfriends and their husbands. I guess the common theme there is that I love to be by the water, even though I refuse any and all water sports.

6. I didn't turn 18 until I had completed nearly a full semester at college, because I never went to preschool and instead started kindergarten when I was four.

7. I've visited seven countries in ten years: Aruba, Bahamas (x2), Spain, Mexico (x2), Italy, England and France.

8. I wasn't allowed to listen to pop music until I was in junior high. We grew up on Christian music and oldies. To this day, I typically listen to one or both of those on long car trips by myself.

9. The first thing I ever cooked was macaroni and cheese from a box at age 8. I forgot to drain the water before adding the cheese. Luckily I've gotten better at following a recipe, because I love to cook.

10. I spend an embarrassing amount of time sitting in my car, drinking a large diet coke from McDonald's and playing Candy Crush while the baby naps. Those moments of silence are surprisingly refreshing.

Recipe: Otto-Inspired Shrimp Tacos

I hate fish tacos. HATE. But I love shrimp tacos and I've been dying to make Whitney's recipe since she posted it. You can find hers here: http://ottospinkelephant.blogspot.com/2012/06/shrimp-tacos.html?m=1 and follow her adorable blog while you're at it.

I was inspired by the avocado & mango sitting on my window sill to do it this way and oh. my. gosh. So delicious! The perfect summer recipe - just grill the shrimp!

Ingredients
1 lb medium raw shrimp, peeled & tails removed
3 tbsp honey
1.5 tbsp habanero hot sauce (you could use any hot sauce you like here but I happened to have / love the habanero)
Black pepper to taste
1/8 cup olive oil
1 avocado, diced into bite size pieces
1 mango, diced into bite size pieces
Lime juice to taste
4 medium tortillas
Sour cream
1 tbsp taco seasoning
Shredded cheddar cheese
Fresh salsa

Directions
Marinate shrimp in honey, hot sauce, olive oil and black pepper
Meanwhile, mix avocado, mango, like juice and black pepper
Mix sour cream with taco seasoning
(You can do all of these things ahead of time; the lime juice will help the avocado keep from browning)
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat
Drain shrimp marinade and pan-fry until pink / opaque and slightly browned on edges
Dish into tortillas; top with cheese, sour cream, salsa & mango / avocado mix

Day 1 as a SAHM

Another post I started months ago and never got around to posting ...

London and I woke up well-rested and happy after a full night's sleep. After quietly nursing and changing the baby, I tiptoed downstairs to make Ben breakfast and take care of the dog. I curled my hair, applied makeup and put on my best dress before Ben even woke up!

Ha ha ha and if you believe that I'll tell you a story about the Easter bunny. Here's what day one REALLY looked like.

London has been sick since Friday night and has been waking up every two hours at night. Needless to say, Ben & I are exhausted. I nursed her at 4am because I couldn't take the crying anymore. Thankfully she went back to sleep from 5-6:45, then woke up fussing. I got her ready for the day, put on yoga pants and brushed my teeth, accepting the fact that clean yoga pants and a ponytail would be as good as I'm gonna get today. We played for a little while until she started rubbing her eyes. Laid her down for a nap; she screamed for twenty minutes (despite me checking on her twice) and then proceeded to scream for an additional 45 minutes after I got her up. When she was finally consoled by the remote, I didn't ask questions.

We shared a pear and a strawberry yogurt for breakfast while I managed to unload & reload the dishwasher and she feed Lucy nilla wafers. She pooped through her leggings. She screamed while I changed her diaper, rubbing her eyes again, and was unable to be consoled by nursing. So, against my better judgement (because what's motherhood if it's not doing everything you swore you wouldn't?!) I rocked & sang her to sleep, tiptoed out of the room and thanked The Lord that she was asleep in her crib.

I started prepping dinner and folding the laundry (that has been sitting in the dryer since Friday morning) when I saw her stirring. God must know I need this, because by some miracle she didn't wake up for another thirty minutes or so.

I called Ben at 2pm asking when he would be home from work, and practiced amazing self control by not opening a beer before 5.

We're both fed, clothed, clean (ish) and happy, so I'm calling today a win. I'm more exhausted than I ever thought possible but happier than I've been in months.

Surviving the First Weeks

(y'all, forgive me. this post was started months ago ... way back in July ... and I never posted it. shame on me. that's what sleep deprivation / trying to navigate new-mommyhood will do to you. I hope it still makes sense!)

Instead of an updated "London Claire is Three Weeks" post, I wanted to do a special post. I was inspired by Page, who did a similar post months ago, and have been holding ideas for this post in the back of my head since the day we brought London home. And I want to make sure I get this up sooner rather than later, mostly for two special ladies I know who are about to welcome their own sweet babes.

(how'd that work out? good intentions, y'all, good intentions. lucky for me, we always have more friends who are about to welcome new babies into their homes, so hopefully this post will do someone some good, somewhere. if nothing else, it'll be a good reminder for me if / when we have another baby, Good Lord Willing)

Of course, I can't skip out on updating y'all on our girl, but I'll keep it brief. She's been "diagnosed" with reflux and we've started her on Zantac, so hopefully our sweet baby will get some relief soon. In case you were wondering what reflux looks like in a three week old, it's evenings of inconsolable crying, vomiting, swallowing and then crying after burps, and refusal to be laid flat on her back. It is un-be-lievably sad to hold your newborn while she sobs and know there's nothing you can do. But we're trying to fix her, poor thing. In happy news, she's currently 9lbs 2oz - obviously the reflux is not stopping her from eating. And she's starting to wear some of her 0-3 months clothes, which makes mama sad and happy all at the same time.

Now then, back to the task at hand: surviving the first weeks of motherhood. I am certain that this list will change and grow as London changes and grows, but here's where we are after three weeks - the top ten things that have made our lives so much easier.

1. Boppy Pillow
   This is a staple on all the registry suggestion lists, and for good reason. I didn't pack mine in my hospital bag initially, but I asked my mom to go get it the first morning. I can breastfeed without it, but it certainly makes things a lot easier on my tired arms. And it's really sweet when London falls asleep eating and just lays on the Boppy "milk drunk" as we call it. Get at least one extra cover for it - because babies are messy, for real.
   the boppy is also great for when baby is first learning how to sit on his/her own
2. Video Monitor
   We went back and forth on whether the video feature is worth it - trust me, IT IS. I'm sure there's any number of brands that are great, but I like ours because it has zoom / pan, and you can independently control volume and video. So a light sleeper like me can just tap a button (almost like a snooze button - which could be dangerous) and turn the video part off and on. This is great for that first night your baby sleeps a ridiculously long time (5 hours?!) and you wake up freaking out that she must not be breathing. Not that I did that, of course...
   if we were buying another one, I might choose this one because it shows the temperature. I go in every night before I go to bed to make sure she's warm enough.
3. Sleep Sack
   Ben & I watched Happiest Baby on the Block before London was born - I highly recommend it - and utilize pretty much all of the 5 S's to soothe her. Neither of us was particular good at swaddling (that, or L is just a baby Houdini) but we love the sleep sack, especially for middle-of-the-night, half-asleep re-swaddling after diaper changes.
   I recommend multiple sizes and fabrics depending on the season your baby is born. we used these religiously until she was four months old and starting rolling over.
4. Mobile
   My friend Sloan had told me that black & white contrast is the easiest thing for babies' eyes to see while they're still learning to focus, so I picked a mobile that featured just those two colors. L has loved it almost from day one. She hangs out in her crib and we just keep restarting the mobile over and over again while she lays staring at her sheep - it's pretty adorable.
5. Sleep Sheep
   This is another one of the "hot" baby items, and there's a number of different white noise machines, but we love the sleep sheep. It's strapped to the crib, and has a variety of sounds and volumes (we use the ocean one). L's godmother bought her a travel sleep sheep, which I keep in the diaper bag at the advice of my mom - it has saved us during more than one car / shopping meltdown, and it will definitely be coming overseas with us!
   when sleep training, the sleep sheep proved to be a downfall because it shuts off after 30 minutes. we ended up using the homedics sound spa with "rain" because it stays on all night.
6. Swing
   My mother-in-law is the queen of all things consignment, and got this swing at a yard sale to keep at her house. After seeing how much London absolutely loved it, I begged her to bring it to us in a fit of desperation (sleep deprivation will do that to you, among other things). She is sleeping in it as we speak, and has been for two hours. Again, it has a mobile, which she loves, and it's so cozy - perfect for a little snuggly newborn.
7. Bouncy Seat
   This and this alone is responsible for all of my weekday showers since Ben has been back to work. She sleeps in it, with just the vibration feature, or "plays" in it, with the animals & lights going. It's great for babies with reflux especially, because it's on an incline. And all things vibration are holy in this house. That sounds dirty, but you know what I mean. Or maybe you don't - my baby loves vibration. That's all.
8. Burp Cloths
   Someone told me at one of my showers "you can never have too many bibs" ... wrong. You can. We do. But you can NEVER have too many burp cloths. We have a variety - nice ones that are embroidered with her name, some hand-me-downs from Sloan that are really thick and absorbent, and some cheap ones that are really cloth diapers but we use them for everything, from wiping up spit up off the floor to laying on the changing pad (so we don't have to wash the whole thing every time she pees or poops all over the place. which is like daily, in case you were wondering).
   try to get some that are thicker than these; they sort-of fold up in the dryer
9. Muslin Blankets
   These things are stupid expensive so I didn't register for them but thank goodness Sloan is smart enough to know I needed them, so she passed down a few. They go everywhere with us. Covering the carseat to protect from sun, draping over me & the babe to nurse, swaddling in a pinch when she won't nap out on the go. They're awesome, and well worth the money, promise.
   great for playdates when baby is learning to roll over - you can throw it on the ground so s/he isn't laying on a dirty carpet in a public place
10. Gripe Water
    Poor little London got the hiccups all. the. time. when I was pregnant and it didn't stop after she was born. This gripe water is like magic. I'm not sure if it's just sugar water creating a placebo effect, or if it's just the act of quick swallowing, but a few drops almost always get rid of her hiccups right away. And a baby without hiccups is a much happier baby!