An Amazing Day

It's late at the end of the day on Sunday and Andrea and I are sitting here talking about how amazing our Easter has been.  Truly amazing.  We enjoyed a long, leisurely, rainy day with Annika and Emily.  Homemade eggs benedict and sweet potato home fries filled our brunch plates and mimosas and hot coffee overflowed from our cups. Matzo and jam were available for snacking as a nod to Passover.  Annika and Emily told and very long, detailed, and engaging story about the Old and New Testaments, Jesus, the Jews, Christianity, and Easter.  Gospel played in the background all day long.  There was some knitting and some walking in the rain.  And, most delightful of all, Elliot was extremely happy and engaged for the whole day.  Laughing, hugging, kissing, squealing, playing.  There seemed to be no end to his delight, or in how delightful he was.

It helped that he had the coolest Easter basket ever.  Eggs filled with freeze dried strawberries, bananas, and Snackimals animal cookies that were yummy snacks and made great rattles, too.  A new book called A Color of His Own, by Leo Lionni.  A horse, a polar bear and a panda and a new stuffed Bunny.  Oh my!

His three new animal friends were a gift for Elliot from his SG, Annika, but he picked them out himself.  While at Target recently we went rounds about which animals she should get for him for Easter, finally deciding to just let him pick for himself.  I walked him back down the aisle while she and Andrea lined up a row of different animals on the floor.  I put Elliot down, he crawled straight for the animals, picked up the panda and crawled away with it.  I pointed him back towards the animals two more times and each time he clearly made one choice out of all of the animals and crawled away with it.  This is how the horse, the panda, the polar bear came to be Elliot's newest friends.  

As for his Bunny, this is my newest creation for him.  I nearly pulled an all-nighter last night trying to bring what was in my mind to life.  And I am so happy that I did.  I just love the end result.  (Hilary, do you recognize those bunny legs?  Your rainbow socks live on!)  After I was done with the Bunny's photo shoot I went on to make one more accessory to complete his look:  a cape with a letter E (for Easter, of course) tied round his neck.  It was the perfect finishing touch.  

Thanks to Annika and Emily for filling Elliot's day full of love and happiness.  Thanks to Elliot's nan for his Easter raincoat and his Amuma for another pair of the cutest knitted overalls you've ever seen (more on those later).  Thanks to his Nana the Great for all of his Easterific gifts (swim trunks and shirt for the summer, bubbles, and a big bouncy ball).  And thanks to Andrea for working so hard with me to make this little baby's life so wonderful.  It's worth every minute, wouldn't you say?

Sushi Train

I don't know why we've never done it before, but we went to a place that serves sushi on a conveyor belt for the first time today.  You sit at your table and watch all of the little plates go by and pick off which ever ones you want to eat.  Then they charge you based on the number and color of plates you have.  It was so fun!

Elliot loves eating off chopsticks.  In fact, if he's being picky at home and not eating his food, often we can get him to eat if we just feed it to him from chopsticks.  Chopsticks with your sweet potatoes, anyone??  Luckily, he and I like the same kind of sushi, brown rice with avocado and cucumber, so we just shared. But today we were adventurous and also tried the sesame balls with sweet bean paste inside and they were delicious!  Both Elliot and I ate them all up. 

He and I were finished eating and he was getting a bit fussy, so I walked him over to where the cooks were preparing the sushi.  They had quite a production line set up.  They just made plate after plate of sushi and added them to the conveyor belt.  Elliot charmed them and they let me take their picture.  They even gave Elliot a cream puff, which he happily had a taste of.

Hot Pot 'n Sushi, you are our new favorite place.  So much fun!

Pine Cone Picnic

Last week Elliot and I had a Mumma-and-Baby picnic in the park.  I promise he ate a healthier dinner than just pine cones, although you couldn't tell by looking at the pictures.  The picnic menu was actually veggie cakes, stir-fried carrots and zucchini, and mango.  For entertainment, we had our own skateboarding trick show, performed by some youth right directly in front of us.  Elliot was mesmerized!  Thankfully, he's on the mend from his HFMD, but I can't wait until he's healthy enough to be out eating pine cones with me again.

                              

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes?

Nope.  Hand, Foot and Mouth... 
Disease, that is.  Yep, after 24 hours of a 101 degree fever and not being able to nurse because it was too painful to swallow, a quick trip to the doctor ended in a diagnosis of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease for Elliot.  Isn't that just the worst name?  I think made even more worse by the fact that it ends with the word Disease.  And that there's also something called Hoof and Mouth Disease that cows get, so it conjures up images of Elliot growing dirty cow hooves on his hands and feet.  But while the doctor said it "hurts like the dickens" in his mouth, it's actually just a common childhood virus that brings with it a fever and little blisters on and around his hands, feet and mouth.  And, the sad and painful part is that his mouth is full of the blisters, too.  He's starting to nurse better now, but still can't really swallow solids with out crying out in pain.  So sad.  Today is day two of the worst of it.  Our plan is to stay home, get lots of rest, nurse as much as possible, and cross our fingers that the next five or so days of the virus pass quickly and painlessly.  Here's a picture of Elliot right now.  I'd say we're off to a good start.  Send us lots of good thoughts that it stays that way.

Kiss

Be still, my beating heart.

Do you see him holding my finger?  Swoon.

Elliot Loves His Lolly

We had one fun-filled weekend!  A trip to the East Portland community pool, an evening walk up Tabor with The Vegans to enjoy the Saturday sun with some snacks and wine, an ever-so-amazing breakfast at Simpatica (thanks, Hil!), and a two hour Sunday-afternoon-family-nap that was absolulty heavenly. 

Elliot is pretty sure that his favorite part of the weekend was the lolly that Hilary brought for him to the picnic.  Although Elliot has had the pleasure of tasting one lollypop before this one (who are we to get in the way of a man at the fallafel cart, a baby, and a blow pop?), this one was by far his most lolly-licious experience.  And, thanks to Hilary, it was of course vegan, gluten free, fruit juice sweetened yumminess.  Just right for Elliot.    

Could He Get Any Sweeter?

There are few of the sweetest things that Elliot has been doing lately that no photograph can capture.  So you'll have to put up with this pictureless post, because I just have to share.

Anyone who was with me during the first few months of Elliot's life knows that nursing was hard for me.  It wasn't what I was expecting.  Mechanically it was fine.  Elliot always had a great latch and my supply has always been fine.  It wasn't that.  It had much more to do with the emotional/psychological/physical halt that I had to come to each time I had to nurse.  That dramatic STOP in my life was not easy, and one that I wasn't completely prepared for.  Not to mention that, in the beginning, I joked that I would have to tatoo a message for him on my bicep because that's the only part of me that got any eye contact or attention from him when he nursed.  You can imagine how elated I was when he finally began looking up at me--his blue eyes looking right into my blue eyes.  And the first time he reached up and grabbed my nose the tears spilled out of me onto his sweet little face.  Getting that exchange felt so gratifying.  All I needed was a little bit in return.  And now, nursign is just nursing.  It's no big deal.  He does it all the time, anywhere (one could even say everywhere), and it's just no prob for me anymore.  And he's so interactive.  He smiles at me and grabs and my nose and will sometimes use his one, pudgy pointer finger to try to pick a freckle off my chest.  Aned lately he's started doing the all-time sweetest, most endearing thing that he's ever done.  Using that same pudgy, baby pointer finger, with my breast still in his mouth, he'll reach up and gently stroke my eye lashes.  If I blink really fast while he's doing it a smile creeps onto his face and a twinkle lights in his eyes.  And if I lean over and give him a butterfly kiss on his face with my lashes he arches back and squeals with absolute delight.  It is just the sweetest thing.


A second thing Elliot started doing a while ago was saying Mum-Mum.  At first it was really clear that he was saying it when he wanted to nurse.  Now it seems like he says it anytime he wants any sort of comfort at all.  It's both sweet and heartbreaking.  Sweet when I'm right there and can nurse him in response.  Heartbreaking when I've heard that he's been calling out Mum-Mum all day while I was at work or when he calls out from his crib in the middle of the night with a sad, weak voice... "Mummmm-Mummmm."  We've never settled on our mom names.  Andrea is most often Mama and I end up being Mama, too, because that's just what we say.  But I have always wished that we had different mom names so that when Elliot is verbal he can distinguish between the two of us.  Now that Elliot has started saying Mum-Mum for his nursing mom I think it seems just perfect for us to call me Mum, Mummy, or Mumma.  Finally, my mom name!


And lastly, the silly little sweetie has started doing that thing where you run your finger over your lips, up and down really quick, while you make a "ahhhhh" sound and it makes your voice sound all silly, bubbly, underwater-like.  Do you know what I mean?  It's a hard thing to describe.  "Bluh-bluh-bluh-bluh."  You know?!?!  Well he learned how to do it all by himself.  We never taught him but he now does it to himself for the fun of it or will do it if we run our finger over his lips.  So stinkin' silly and sweet.  This little baby.  I can't get over how cute he is.  

Kitchen Fun

A few pictures of the boys from last week having fun exploring on the kitchen floor.  There are just some afternoons when a few cooking utensils, some plastic containers, and a couple of potatoes are exactly what you need to get you through.  And, yes, Max's sweatshirt does say 'Captain Awesome'!

It felt strangely familiar as I took these pictures. A quick look through the Mixed Baby Greens archive and I found this from January. 

I Feel Like I'm Being Followed

Bye Bye Baby Bath

Hello Big Bath!

Elliot finally grew out of the plastic baby tub that he used to use. Andrea (who gives him his bath every night) knew he was getting too big when started standing up and grabbing the faucet, the shampoo, the razor-- anything he could get his hands on.  Not to mention that he was, litterly, spilling out of the little tub.  We tried to take it to Value Village with another car load of donations but were told they can't take anything "you can put a baby in or on."  I thought that sounded reasonable.  Anyone in the Portland area need a baby bath?  Elliot has moved on to the big leagues and he's not going back!

DIY: Baby Legwarmers

I have this thing, where I get really anxious and worried when I see a baby's lower legs being exposed when their pants are bunched up while they're being held.  I'm sure it's fine.  No baby has ever suffered that much from having cold legs, but something about it makes me so uncomfortable.  So I've always thought that Baby Legs were the best idea ever--legwarmers for babies, brilliant!  And I was sure that when I had a baby I'd buy a dozen of them to go with each of his outfits and his little legs would never be cold.  

Well, Baby Legs cost a bit of money and, in reality, we've made-do with the one pair of hand-me-down Baby Legs that we got from Andrea's co-worker.  That is, until one day last week when we were getting ready to head out and Elliot's Baby Legs were nowhere to be found.  As you can imagine, panic set it.  Saved only by my genius idea... to make my own baby legs!  

I simply got an old pair of my socks and cut off the feet.  They worked perfectly!  Here he is modeling them without his pants on (which is, by the way, one of my favorite baby fashion statements ever!).

And now I've taken it one step further.  A quick trip to Target and a few pair of $2 knee socks, and Elliot has the most rockin' baby legwarmers ever.  

It's so easy, just cut the foot off of any pair of your socks, regular or knee length, and give the cut edge a little stretch with you fingers to make the ends curl.  It's that simple.  Baby legwarmers for all!

Veggie Oat Cakes

I found my all-time favorite pancake recipe.  It's so good, so easy, and so healthy.  The bulk of the batter is cooked oatmeal--not dry oats, but yummy, full, cooked oatmeal held together by pancake batter.  It is truly the best pancake I've ever had.  And, it turns out, Elliot is quite fond of them, too!  He likes them plain, or with strawberries, blueberries and bananas mixed in.  Or, his new favorite--Veggie Cakes!  I substituted half of the white flour with whole wheat and added corn and shredded zucchini and carrots.  I made a big batch and froze a bag of them.  He eats them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Wouldn't you??!?

Oatmeal Pancakes (from Joy of Cooking)

Whisk together:

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat in a separate bowl:

2 eggs

Add to that:

1.5 cups cooked oatmeal*

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

Quickly stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients.  
Fold in any fruit.  I once added walnuts it they were amazing!  
Cook as you would any pancake.

Veggie Oat Cakes

Whisk together:

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat in a separate bowl:

2 eggs

Add to that:
 1.5 cups cooked oatmeal*
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons melted butter

about 1/4 cup each frozen corn kernels, shredded carrots, shredded zucchini

Quickly stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients.  
Cook as you would any pancake.

*Oatmeal note:  to speed up the preparation, I put 1 cup of whole oats and 1.5 cups water in a bowl in the microwave for 3 minutes while I'm mixing together the rest of the ingredients.  It's quick and they come out perfectly ready to add to the pancake mixture.

Elliot Patrick Geraghty hopes everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day!

          

   

Hike of the Month :: March

The March hike-of-the-month out of the Portland Monthly magazine took us to Lacamas Creek Park in Camas, WA.  It was a gorgeous wooded trail that followed the river... at times peaceful and meandering, at others swollen and spilling over falls. 

We knew the trail was taking us to something called Round Lake, but we didn't know we'd happen upon this most beautiful, serene lake with a trail to follow all the way around. 

It was so inviting it was all we could do to keep from jumping in, especially when we found this rope swing.  You'd better believe come summer I'll be posting pictures of us swinging and splashing!

But, given the drizzly spring day, we stayed cozied up in our jackets and just spent some time gazing out at the peaceful scene.

For the most part, the 4.3 mile hike was pretty easy, but there were a few hills that we hit once Andrea strapped Elliot onto her back.  I love her getting a helping hand in this picture.  Elliot's even throwing his weight into it (pun intended!).

The four of us had so much fun.  Well... once Elliot took his nap for the first half of it, he had fun.  Oooh, those dimples... oh my!

I just love this baby so much.  He makes all of our outings so much more fun!