this was posted on facebook and flickr, but not here, so i figured i’d throw it up. we only hope that she can be entertained so easily for the rest of her life. ;)
this past weekend i was on somewhat of a mission to cook/bake something new, something i’d thought about but never attempted. i flipped through some cook books, but found nothing, then went to the internet. as always, i found something that both sounded good (it was delicious!) and had good reviews. i wish i could take full credit for it, but i can’t. i’ll leave that to “big daddy,” wherever he may be.
here’s what i started with:
after i (and mom!) peeled those apples, i diced them. i chose to dice them a little chunkier than what i interpret as the definition of “diced” from the recipe because … well, because i wanted to. that’s one of the nice things about cooking: making the executive decisions of what to include, exclude, or add more of.
when ellie was born, bryn’s friend daniel came to the hospital to meet the baby. with him he brought her a small beanie baby, a bear to be exact. his name is baby bear and he’s the only thing ellie has truly become attached to. she’s never been a pacifier user or a thumbsucker, a blanket holder or other stuffed animal lover. but once baby bear was introduced it was love at first sight.
he’s become her favorite bedtime companion and an all-around good friend. he even let’s her chew on his ears, face, and tail.
we never thought anything of it until the discoloration started. no worries, right? just wash him! um, yeah, that’s called a temporary fix. after a wash he looks and smells almost brand new, but it takes all of two nights for him to turn brown again.
you might be wondering why we don’t just buy a new one. unfortunately for ellie, she fell in love with an older man who was headed for retirement. that’s resulted in our formerly $6.95 friend becoming our $47.95 friend. yes, you read that correctly. the man is now retired and a very expensive date. but hey, he looks great for his age.
i feel terrible for her, but i fear this may be her first encounter with heartbreak because there’s no way i’m spending that kind of money on a new one and, at this rate, he’s going to disintegrate.
ok, so what it’s april? who cares? if you’re like me and love anything pumpkin, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is, it’s always pumpkin time. with that in mind, i took advantage of some time to myself the other day and spent some of it in the kitchen. yes, i like to bake. i do a little cooking, too, but nothing fancy.
last fall i bought a bunch of pumpkin purée (no, i don’t do it from a real pumpkin) because it goes quick that time of year. turns out that i never got around to making anything with it, so i had a lot in reserve. since most breads are often very simple, yet very good, i decided that would be the way to go. so i did.
here’s the recipe i used. it turned out pretty well. i’d definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a quick loaf of deliciousness.
ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup pumpkin purée
1/2 cup olive oil
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
directions
1. preheat oven to 350°f. sift together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.
2. mix the pumpkin, oil, eggs, 1/4 cup of water, and spices together, then combine with the dry ingredients, but do not mix too thoroughly. stir in the nuts, if desired.
3. pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. bake 50-60 minutes (I doubled the recipe to make two loaves and it took about 65 minutes) until a butter knife or toothpick poked in the center of the loaf comes out clean. turn out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
i suppose ellie reached a hand-eye coordination milestone recently: throwing. things never go very far, but she’s definitely throwing. and i use the term “things” very generally because she doesn’t seem to discriminate when she throws. if it’s small and close by, it’s flying through the air in no time. this includes such things as pieces of quesadilla, raviolis, and a variety of toys, to name a few.
ellie put on a recent display of this new talent while tossing around the new sesame street figurines we bought her. she loves them, but it’s really hard to tell from watching this.
in other news, today marked a huge milestone for her: she went the entire day without a bottle. zero. zilch. nada. nothing. she drank all of her milk from a sippy, and ate her raviolis with a fork.
our little baby is growing up!
she also had her 15 month well baby check-up where we found out that her height is in the 50th percentile (a whole 2 ft. 6.5 in.!), her weight is still in the 95th percentile (25 lbs. 8 oz.) and her head circumference is … off the charts, but there’s no cause for concern since the rest of her is so big. our baby is just proportionate.
go ellie!
this kid kills me. she hates things on her head: ribbons, bows, any sort of hair clip, head bands, hats, WATER. you name it, she doesn’t like it. she’s even started to pull her hair out on occasion. well, one thing she loves is the bath (who doesn’t, right?) and she loves to splash. one recent bath resulted in a soaked mommy, so the next time around she got out of the way and busted out the camera.
ironically, while she doesn’t like water dumped on her head or getting in her eyes, she can’t get enough splashing, which … that’s right … gets water in her eyes. you can even tell she’s getting annoyed. but does she stop? no. why would she?
one thing we’ve always worried about is how bruiser, our cat, would behave around ellie. from the day we brought her home from the hospital we’ve kept a watchful eye on him whenever he walks by her or even looks at her. to date, it’s hard not to give the guy credit, he’s been pretty good with her. there have only been about three instances where i wanted to kick him half-way across the room because he’s swiped at her or given the indication he was about to pounce.
well, the worst habit he’s developed over our eight years with him is a penchant for unprovoked attacks. he has jumped and latched onto bryn’s leg in the middle of the night for no reason, bitten her (and sometimes me) again, for no reason, and generally been a little shithead seemingly out of the blue. this has always pissed me off and it’s why we’ve always been skeptical of him when around ellie.
this finally came to a head last night when, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, he lunged at ellie’s little chubby arm and latched on with his sharp teeth. she cried, of course. i kicked him square in the ass, of course. and bryn consoled and made it all better with some ice chips (which ellie loves to eat) and an awesome elmo band-aid.
now whenever the band-aid is visible she points to it or touches it and talks to elmo. it’s really pretty cute, her first band-aid. i’m sure there will be many more band-aids but, as far as bruiser is concerned, he has been warned: one more incident like that and he’s gone. nan and pop might be getting a new cat soon.
