Summer Salad

I was inspired by this post to experiment a little for dinner tonight.

I REALLY need to go to the store...but before I do that I HAVE to make a list to shop - both for dinners and for our camping needs. And I haven't made the list yet. Have to do it tomorrow.

But as I was leaving the yarn shop, I realized that I haven't made grilled cheese for a while and that meal only required a quick stop at the neighborhood market for bread and fruit. Not wanting to do the fall/winter side dish (tomato soup) I tried to think of a summery side dish to go along and settled on a pasta salad...heavy on the vegetables but still much lighter than soup.

Usually, I follow a new recipe exactly (or nearly exactly) one time and then change it up on future occasions. But not wanting to shop (and having little time) meant adjusting based on my kitchen contents and seasoning it to taste as I went.

I mixed together 2 cups cooked cavatelli pasta, 1 head of broccoli (cut up and blanched), 1 diced red bell pepper and 1 diced tomato. I drizzled in some olive oil and mixed it all up. Then, while stirring, I added some salt, pepper, lemon juice, garlic salt and dill. And then a little more olive oil and mixed it together well.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and had a little bit more while cleaning up the kitchen post-kid-bedtime. It was nice and light and summery thanks to the lemon juice and dill, but the flavors of the veggies came through nicely.

I think it could use a little cream cheese. I'm not sure if there is a good way to add it, but I think the flavor and just a little of the creamy texture would make this salad perfect in my book. Does anyone know - if I add the cream cheese to the pasta while it is still warm will it mix in well?

I might try it with canola mayonnaise, since I know it will mix well...but it isn't quite what I think the salad needs. Although I forgot about the parmesan in the original when I was throwing it together tonight. That would be a nice touch as well. And it might be the way I go if I bring it to the 4th of July picnic we're attending, since there will be a time delay between preparation and consumption.

I always like adding something new to the rotation...even if Heather refused to taste it...and Todd made an awful face & said "no like it!" That just means more for mommy, right?

Whee!

Time continues to rush by in a whirlwind that is hard to express. I feel like I've been thinking about things I want to post a lot lately, but there always seems to be at least a few higher priority things on my to do list. And next thing you know it is the end of the day or an hour past the time I wanted to go to bed...

To get myself back in the swing of posting, I'm going to try to do quick snippets (kind of like my FB status updates), just to get something up here again. I hate to even suggest this...but when the new iPhones come out, R is getting one and I'm getting his old one, so maybe the ability to do quick posts from my phone will help me develop some new habits. (And bonus, I'm counting the new phone as his Father's Day present! :-) Not sure if he knows that...)

My random list from March is still pretty accurate. But there are a few new tidbits.

- Todd's favorite foods are fruit, meat, pizza and bread. He'll tolerate other stuff, but lately I'm noticing that he is much less willing to try anything that goes on his tray. Sometimes he'll try new things after a few bites of fruit or he'll let some noodles in while he chows down on the meat sauce...but some times he is clearly NOT willing to each some of the food being offered. I tried to enjoy his openness to food while it lasted. Looks like we've got two picky eaters in the house now.

- Todd is all about pointing - this started soon after his birthday. Wait, what? You say. Yes, he had a birthday and I haven't documented it in the least. And here we are more than a month past. Ahem.

Anyway, he's been pointing a ton, which is helping to curb some of his new toddler behavior. We've entertained the frustration territory where he knows.what.he.wants and can't tell us. Some use of pointing and signing "more" helps, but there is definitely some toddler angst brewing in our formerly "always easy going" guy.

- Todd's words: kitty was first and he still calls all animals kitty, but it's a process. :-) Other new words include ball, duck, mama, dada and uh-oh. I get the sense that there are probably a few more, but as a second child you just don't get the same kind of undivided attention and child #1. But you do have a constant source of entertainment and much more TV access than your older sibling did at your age, so I think it all evens out in the end.

- Since we were feeling like things were going smoothly (!) and we had a lot of busy weekends coming up, a few weekends ago we took away Heather's diapers. It was clear from her experiences in underwear that she had the ability to 'hold it' until she got a diaper on and could keep her underwear dry for hours at a time. For fear of significantly embarrassing my future teenage daughter and because I don't want to rehash all of our struggles...I'll just say that Heather is wearing underwear at home and putting all of her pee in the potty when she's with mommy and daddy. Why she refuses to use the potty at daycare or do #2 in the potty is something we can't quite comprehend or bribe her into doing. With busy weekends, we're currently playing the waiting game and hoping that she decides to go the rest of the way on her own. And I'm thankful that there was at least some positive result to our weekend of struggle.

Her tenacity and stubbornness is certainly inherited and will serve her well as an adult. No matter how frustrating it is as a 3 year old.

- We've added a new movie into the obsession rotation - one of my favorites. The Sound of Music. Awesome. And we continue to look forward to taking her to see Toy Story 3 in the theater. Though we still need to figure out who will watch Todd while we go...

- My knitting and crochet mojo has returned full force. I'm trying to use any evening time I have for sewing/mending projects and project finishing to avoid having any more projects that are 95% finished. I need to make some evening time for photography while we still have a little light after the kids go to bed. Or to let Heather help me on the weekend during on of Todd's naps.

- Speaking of Todd sleep, the improvements continue. 3 nights of the past week he has slept the entire (and I mean entire) night in his crib from bedtime to wake-up. And most of the other nights, the wake-ups have been minimal or short-lived. Bedtime has been a little bit of a mixed bag, but since the generally trend is all about improvements, I'm not complaining. I just need to go to bed earlier once we get through the yard sale this weekend.

Back to work, etc.

Comments and Observations:

1 - Pumping is MUCH less stressful when you're getting more milk than you need on a daily basis. It's a combination of having a stronger supply this time and Todd taking less at daycare than Heather did. I'm very thankful and I hope it lasts. I pumped almost as much as I need for all of tomorrow in today's first session. Of course, I hesitate to say that for fear that Todd will suddenly want a lot more at school...but given the way he's been cluster feeding with me I'm not too worried.

2 - We will not speak of Todd's sleeping habits for fear that the good will end. I'm still tired because I can't get to bed as early as I would like and his bedtime is still adjusting, but I'm not complaining. And as we approach 4 months all of my fingers and toes are crossed...


3 - My knitting mojo is back in full force. It's almost debilitating since my desire to knit far outpaces my available time. It's great to have bus knitting time back and to be getting caught up on podcasts, but I know that having lots of projects in the works right now would be too much for my overwhelmed brain. So I'm not casting on until I do some finishing, and the daydreaming about new projects is almost more than I can handle. I also don't want to stop knitting once I start. (Just one factor in not going to bed as early as I should - although knitting helps to calm my brain and fall asleep faster once I turn off the light, so that part is positive.)
I managed to upload some knitting photos this weekend. So those of you on ravelry can go check them out and my next post solely about knitting will probably have pictures. Probably.

4 - I saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince this weekend. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although I don't think it will be my favorite movie in the end. It's a little difficult to judge since I spent quite a bit of the movie mentally comparing it to the book. Once I get a few more viewings under my belt it will be a little easier to judge it as a movie in its own right. But overall, I think it got the general feeling and important points of the book right. I know that others were unhappy with the ending, but I wasn't. I found that in the book I needed a mental rest between the major death and the battle that follows, the kind of rest that one can't get while watching the movie. So I liked that the movie minimized the battle and allowed the end of the movie to be about mourning and preparing for the battles to come.

The only change in the movie that I noted that I didn't like was that Dumbledore and Harry never discussed what the other horcruxes might be or the importance of Voldemort picking objects that were his "trophies" or otherwise valuable to him. I think that's a critical piece that Dumbledore figures out and shares. I assume that we'll be shown how Harry figures that out on his own in the next movie, but that was the one missing scene that bothered me while watching the movie.

Now is not the time, but I am feeling the urge to re-read HP7 soon.

5 - I'm on Season 7 of The West Wing. I started rewatching the series soon after Todd was born and borrowed all but the first season from Mom and Dad. I finished with Season 5 when I returned to work and am making more progress during Todd's cluster feeding. Also, the oppressive heat and humidity this weekend helped because I didn't feel like doing anything...even when he wasn't nursing.

I've really enjoyed rewatching the series. There were a lot of small moments that I had forgotten and a lot of minor players rediscovered. I now know why John Locke looked familiar when we started watching lost (military advisor to President Bartlett in later seasons) and it was fascinating to see Sun's "boyfriend" and father play a North Korean pianist and his handler, respectively. I should have kept a running list of interesting actor sightings, but didn't think of it at the time. I had also forgotten before I started Season 7 that a CMU alum I "knew" was a member of the Santos campaign team. Those darn CMU alums are everywhere!

6 - I think the only thing to report about Heather is just how big she looks. There are moments when you just see little girl and there is absolutely no baby or toddler to be found. R captured one of those moments at the playground this weekend. I think part of it is how long and lean she's getting and part is just from all that she can do. It's really fabulous to watch.


Despite her older appearance, she's totally refusing to sit on the potty and is still clinging to the pacifier as a strong comfort object. (We had a little success with PT, but she's reverted to refusal since Todd started at daycare.) For right now we are reminding ourselves that she won't be using diapers and pacifiers forever and the transition of "sharing" daycare with Todd has definitely affected her, so we won't be forcing any changes right now.

I think the hardest moments are when we are on a "schedule". Trying to balance some happy, relaxed minutes together or letting Heathr do things "all by myself" with the need to keep things moving on our busy weekdays. There is little leeway in our Monday through Friday routine, but allowing for a little flexibility helps keep everyone happy. There is always a happy balance we are trying to acheive...and the needs will just change again when Todd gets older and more mobile.

7 - My family has experienced a few losses in the past four months. I'm finding it very difficult to write the condolence cards. I stared at the blank cards for a bit this weekend. I've been told that its better to say something that's not quite right than nothing at all, but it still feels pretty impossible. It's much easier to get caught up on thank you notes, but of course I didn't do that either...

8 - Thanks to everyone who has inquired about the past two weeks. The return to work has gone pretty well for me. Enough work to keep the days from moving too slowly. But not so much work that I'm feeling totally stressed or overwhelmed. Things are kind of slow right now, but we're short listed for a large project that would really help the firm out financially. So if you could all keep your fingers crossed that we get this big job, it would really improve the job security for all of us.

I'm still not totally on track with the meal planning thing. But there are meals in the freezer and I'm 10 times better at it than I was before maternity leave...so I'm happy with my progress and that I've added a few recipes to my repertoire. In the past couple of months I've made meatballs, banana bread, pot roast, lasagna and pancakes (not on the same night!) for the first time and my confidence in the kitchen is up. I am a happier cook when I don't have to look at a recipe every five minutes, and even happier when I can improvise with the ingredients I have. So I expect that meal planning and nightly cooking will get even better as my skills and experience improves.

Of course, all three of us still love easy things like mac'n'cheese and frozen ravioli...so its not like I need to turn into a nightly gourmet. ;-)

Italian Cuisine at 2

If you ask Heather what she had for lunch today or what she wants to eat for her next meal (even breakfast), her response is likely to be "baba-oh-yee". AKA ravioli. :-)

But, of course, the linguine with meat sauce that I made the other night for dinner was not up to par. She just ate the grapes. Toddlers!

Hopefully she can find something acceptable to eat tonight. We have a birthday party to go to at an Italian restaurant...

Yum

Thanks to inspiration from Amanda, I made a yummy dinner tonight.

I warmed up some olive oil and sauteed a handful of pine nuts in it. Then I added in a can of diced tomatoes until it began to simmer. I put in some garlic powder, oregano, pepper and salt and let it all simmer for a few minutes. Then I added a (drained) can of cannelini beans and some parmesan cheese. I realized a little late that I had some green beans I meant to use. Next time I'll cut them up and put them in with the tomatoes. This time I added them in and put the lid on while it all simmered together. I served it over pasta. Yum!

Dinner

This is not really a food blog, but I like to write down meals that work so that I can look them up someday. And since I've gotten a few nice tips from my friends, it would be nice to share the wealth. :-)

Tonight I made a frittata.

I sauteed garlic in EVOO and then added cubed potatoes. Once they were browning I added broccoli florets and some more EVOO, salt, pepper and basil. A few minutes later I added some cooked pasta (spinach linguini) and then 8 beaten eggs. I stirred it a little to make sure the egg was well distributed to hold it together. Then I sprinkled the top with shredded cheddar, reduced the heat to medium-low and covered the dish. After 10-15 minutes the cheese was melted and the egg was cooked.

You can try a variety of vegetables, mushrooms, pastas and spices or just use up leftovers in the refrigerator. :-)

Yum! (and Heather agreed)

Quickly

Ummm...let me see if I can be coherent on 4 1/2 hours of sleep. I'm pretty sure there is something about Heather that I have been meaning to post and keep forgetting.

Oh well. I'll remember someday.

I do want to tell you that Heather LOVES pasta. Spaghetti sauce, pesto sauce and mac'n cheese will be eaten enthusiastically. If anyone out there has any great sauce recipes with healthy ingredients (especially with interesting vegetables) I'm all ears.

This weekend I thought it would be nice to let her try out the toddler crayons she got for her birthday. After spending some time banging the little plastic animals together that act as the crayon "grips", she set them aside and focused her attention on the paper. :-)

So industrious and serious!

Since a few people have asked me, here is a little update on my progress and it isn't great. I ended up working rather late on Friday night and spending much of Heather's nap time doing work, too.

So, I dealt with the items in the upstairs hallway. I dealt with half the clutter in the foyer and made a minor dent in the dining room. I did a couple of loads of Heather's laundry and made a quick pass through her clothes to pull out what's too small.

I didn't go to bed as early as I would have liked and was up too late last night working.

I travel for work this week and have other deadlines, so the insanity will continue through most of this week.

And with that, I have to get back to work...

Freedom

I realize that there are a couple of improvements in my life that I haven't written about yet. The more recent, is my freedom from motrin. I haven't taken any in several days. I'm not totally pain free, but I only feel significant twinges now and then. And this is the news even though I've mostly been too busy to stretch over the past week. I was noticably sore after my day long marathon of meetings in Bradford, PA on Monday, but I think (hope) this painful post-partum chapter is over.

The other bit of freedom is my diet. I've slowly added back into my diet the foods that I thought might be bothering Heather early on. Nothing seems to be bothering her anymore, so I'm no longer factoring that into my diet. I even had my first glass of wine a couple of weeks ago. The ability to order whatever I want to eat, and not have to consider my nausea, the baby inside me or Heather's stomach is quite the weight that has been lifted!

It's been a busy week. My trip for work went well, but I don't think it helped my supply any to go longer stretches without pumping or pump so irregularly. But I managed to pump some extra today (and plan to tomorrow), and I'm sure that will get me back on track.

It's possible that I've stated this before, but it bears repeating. The fact that I'm still nursing makes being back at work harder. There is the obvious time needed for pumping, but it is also the fact that I nurse her before I leave and want to get home in time to nurse her for her fifth feeding of the day (assuming she eats all three bottles at daycare). So whenever I need to go in late (like Friday because of Heather's pediatrician appointment), I still want to leave on time and then I have hours to make up. Not that I want to go to work on the weekend... Luckily, at the moment, I have some reading I can do at home, but this isn't always the case. I'm not trying to complain, really. I'm glad that I'm still able to breastfeed Heather. It's just one more layer of stress and trying to keep everyone happy. :-)

Lastly, about Heather's 4 month appointment. Everything looked good. She weighed in at 12 lb, 14 oz and her length is 24", with 40 cm head circumference. Her weight is 25th percentile and her height is 35th percentile. She seems to have met all of the milestones that he was concerned about. And he recommended waiting on starting cereal and solids until 6 months. She doesn't need the extra food, especially since she is still pretty small. Frankly, I'm relieved. I really don't want to add anything else to our plates right now. :-)