2 Years Old

 

We have a 2 year old.  Wow.  To say "time flies" is an drastic understatement.  I didn't think it was possible for me to love any age more than I did little, sweet, newborn Ben - but my love grows in leaps and bounds and I now don't think it will be possible for me to love any age more than I do this one.  TWO.

 

(However - when I ask him if he is my little baby, he still enthusiastically says "uh huh")!!

 

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Meal Planning: Week of September 23rd

Review from last week:

I made a different butternut squash soup than I had been planning on.  My friend Hilary walked me through the way she makes it, with apples and spices, so I made it her way and it was delicious!  I found a similar recipe here.  Sadly, Greg wasn't a fan - but I'll try it out on Ben again soon.  I absolutely loved the way my house smelled the entire day it was cooking.

The maid-rites and sweet potato fries were SO good.  The only problem I found was that if you cook the meat according to the recipe, it dried out quite a bit.  I stopped it at least 7-8 minutes sooner and even then it was dry.  Ben, however, dipped the meat in ketchup and could NOT get enough.  He ate his entire plate and then started in on mine.  I will definitely make this one again, especially for Ben.

 

The Santa Fe Chicken was excellent and incredibly easy - m y favorite kind of recipe!  We mixed some of the Trader Joe's jalapeno/cilantro hummus and a little cheddar cheese into it and put a "southwest" dressing (aka olive oil and lime juice) on our salad.  I didn't have black beans like the recipe called for, but I used the great northern beans I had and it was still good :)

 

 

Plan for this week:

Saturday: We are going up to Kate and Dan's house (rescheduled from a couple weeks back) so no meal planning for us that day. :)

Sunday:  Ben turns TWO on Tuesday, but we wanted to have a weekend day dedicated to celebrating our little guy.  We decided not to do a birthday party this year (bad mom?) but trust me when I say he will be spoiled with gifts and love and attention (as he is every day of his life) :)  We are planning to head to the zoo (weather permitting) followed by a late lunch at Chuck E. Cheese, and then then ice cream cake (and maybe a salad, too) for dinner :)  

Monday:  Smoked BBQ Pork Tenderloin. 

Tuesday: Ben's birthday!!!  Cheeseburgers at home.

Wednesday:  Pizza chicken and salad

Thursday: Maid-Rites.  I have all of the seasoning and the sandwich buns for this, so we will have it a second week in a row :)

Friday: Lemon Chicken with Artichoke Hearts

(Almost) a Year of Meal Planning

 

Last November, I thought it would be a good idea to start planning our dinners each week.  When I started, I really wasn't sure how long I would be able to keep up with it.  I knew that if I could plan ahead, we would likely end up with more hot meals on the dinner table.  And with Ben starting to eat solid foods around that time, my goal was to try to incorporate a wide range of ingredients in order to stimulate his little taste buds.

 

My innate desire to make and keep lists drove this for awhile.  Our obsessive Top Chef watching propelled the mission along even further.  Finding recipes that Greg and Ben liked (and began to request) is what really motivates me today.

 

Over the past 11 or so months doing this, I have learned SO many little things about cooking that I had previously written off as "too hard" or just hadn't made a priority to learn.  I have become more confident in following a recipe.  I am starting to learn a bit about substituting ingredients.  I am more comfortable cooking meat (although I still tend to ask Greg to handle that part).  As a family, I feel like we are learning a lot more about what we like and don't like, so it's easier to target recipes that will taste good to us.  I'm learning to shop and menu plan around items we have in the fridge.  My cooking/time management has become a lot better.  (Read: take a few hours to wash/chop fruit and vegetables for the week instead of doing it every.single.time you are making something).

 

I still have a ton to learn.  What has surprised me most is how satisfying making a meal for my family has become.  While I'm clearly no Martha Stewart, hearing Greg tell me "you can DEFINITELY make this one again" or hearing Ben say "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" and watching him devour a plate of food feels worth it.   

I made a new little friend last night

 

Max Nikonov was (finally) born early Saturday morning!!  It feels like we have been waiting for him forever.  Since late August, I probably have annoyed Maureen with a text or an email daily checking the status - which I should have known better, only makes waiting worse on the pregnant person! 

 

Last night, I was able to spend a couple hours with Maureen, Vitaliy, Maeve and baby Max and hear all about the experience of him entering the world!  Holding him quickly brought me back to those first few days with Ben - the funny little facial movements, the little squeaks as he slept, and holding his tiny hands and feet!  What is so strange to me, however, is how much I have forgotten how to hold a baby that small!

 

Welcome to the world, Max - I'm looking forward to watching you grow up!  XOXO

Recent Videos

Ben has been cuttin' a serious rug these days.  Every time we put music on, or if he even hears a snippet of a song, he will dance and then often clap when the song is over.  So cute.

 

 

Last Friday night, Greg and I took Ben to Elevated Sportz down the road in an attempt to burn off some energy.  Greg is always so good about chasing Ben all through this kid maze - taking about 5 turns for each 1 of mine.  Ben loves it SO much.

 

 

 

Ben's vocabulary has really taken off in the past couple weeks.  He is getting SO much better about imitating us, and is even spontaneously throwing words out there a lot more than he used to.  I'm not even sure if I have a complete word list of his yet, as it seems like he is adding them too rapidly for me to keep track.

 

In the car today, he pointed at a school bus that I didn't even realize was next to us and said, "This is a bus"!  I captured him simply saying "bus" a few days ago, when it was a somewhat new word of his.  Now, we hear it all the time :)

 

 

Ben is also a big fan of saying "this is dada" and pointing at Greg, a picture of Greg, or something that belongs to Greg.  I'm pretty clear on the fact that we are entering into the "dada phase".

 

He also has added:

 

Ball

Water ("ah-ter")

Bumpy

Bee (bah)

Meal Planning: Week of September 16th

Review from last week:

 

Instead of chicken gyros, we opted for smoked BBQ chicken with peach/mango sauce.  Delicious.

 

 

The creamy tomato basil soup was really good, too.  I used less than half of the cream the recipe called for, but I didn't notice much difference!  I took half of it over to Rachel's house and Greg and Ben ate it at home.  Greg told me Ben ate an entire bowl of it, and said "dip" every time he dipped a cracker into it :)

 

 

The steak and eggs recipe was delicious, too, and took approximately 7 minutes total to make (if you don't count the time I spent burning the first round of bacon, nursing my minor burn wounds from splattering oil on myself from the pan, and trying to get all of the residual smoke this created out of the kitchen. Still, worth it).

Recipes for this week:

 

Sunday: Cod, Tomato/Lemon Quinoa and roasted asparagus.

Monday: I have a butternut squash that I purchased mistaking it for a spaghetti squash, so I'll be giving Butternut Squash Soup a try.

Tuesday: Maid-Rites and sweet potato fries - I read about this recipe on another blog, and OMG it sounded good.  And since it's apparently a Midwest recipe, I figured Greg would approve.

Wednesday: Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken

Thursday: Cobb Salad Pizza 

Friday: Left-Overs or out to eat.

Work Retreat at Suncadia

 

On Monday afternoon, I got on the road and drove to Suncadia for my 2 day/2 night work retreat.  Our staff of 16 (who is spread all across the state) only gets together about 4 times a year.  I really only have the opportunity to see my coworkers who are based at the HQ on a regular basis, and there are only 7 of us - of which many are often out for meetings, travel, or working from home.  It is kind of amazing what technology has allowed us to do in terms of operating a business in such a disconnected way, at least in terms of face to face time.

 

However - there are some things that really do require time together, and sometimes, it's best to do that away from the day to day distractions at home.  We also have a new employee, my boss, so it was the perfect time to get away, focus, and put together a plan for the 4th Quarter, along with our goals for 2014.

 

I had been put in charge of organizing our retreat - finding a (somewhat) central location, reserving rooms, organizing "fun" activities, and getting the food and drink squared away.

 

After several of our choices closer to the middle of the state had been booked, we decided to go after Suncadia - who just happened to have had space for us.

 

We all arrived on Monday afternoon at various times.  After checking into our (amazing) condos, a few of us grabbed a drink and took in the spectacular views.



 

Next up, I had organized a cooking demo.  Our entire team took part in assisting the (hot) Suncadia chef in preparing an Italian feast.  He later clued us in to the fact that he had already pre-made our entire meal, and that often times, the food these groups prepare gets eaten by the staff ;)  Probably a good idea.



4 of our Project Managers

 

Me, Shauntel, and the chef

 

 

 

Linda, me, Shauntel and John (our Prez)

 

 

The entire IW team enjoying our meal.

 

The next day was a full day of meetings.  THIS was the view outside our conference room.  Luckily, we had several break out sessions that required small group work - so we got to hit the patio for those.

 

On Tuesday evening, we had dinner and drinks out on the lawn at sunset, followed by S'Mores around the campfire.

 

 

 

 

At the end of the night, Patric treated us to some piano tunes.  At all of our conferences (really, whenever he can get his hands on a piano) he will play for us - all improv, always impressive.

 

To answer your questions:

 

Yes - we got a lot of work done.

 

Yes - we enjoyed our fair share of wine.

 

And yes - I enjoyed the shit out of that giant soaking tub :)