A few errands

My lovely and wonderful sister offered to look after baby D this afternoon so I could run some errands without her, and I had to take her up on it! I'm glad that D still fits into her portable carseat, but I had a bit of heavy lifting to do anyway. Literally about two years ago, my dad and I were cleaning out my grandparents' storage locker (at their request- we weren't thieving), and came across an old sewing machine in a carrying case. My dad said I could keep it, and it's moved houses with us, remaining unopened until this week. I've been noticing a lot of easy-looking sewing projects on various blogs, and while I prefer to hand-sew, I'd like to re-learn how to machine sew since it looks more polished. So today I took the thing to a sewing machine hospital (no joke) to find out what it needs and how much that would cost.

The guy helping me was not particularly kind or welcoming; he opened up the case, fiddled around a bit with the machine, and told me it just needed a tune-up and some oil. Which would run me about 99.99$. I thanked him for his time and left promptly. I'll have a look around to see if I can find cheaper service elsewhere. I wouldn't have minded giving him the business had he been more courteous or even vaguely interested.

I also stopped by Value Village, where they've reorganized the layout again, but this time it looks much more put-together. In the housewares section (which I used to avoid, but now make of point of visiting first), I found a couple of little ice cube trays with lids which will be perfect for freezing baby D's food! I didn't really want to repurpose our sole ice cube tray for her biz, so I was delighted to pay only 1.99$ apiece.

After my errands, I picked up D and headed home, arriving just minutes before Hubby did. We had a lovely (albeit brief) evening cooking dinner together before heading out to our evening events: Bible study with the guys for him, and watching my best friend's soccer game for me and D. Tomorrow night will be a family night, because we've been missing each other far too often this week.
Tonight's baby pic is brought to you by the number 8, which is the number of months baby D is now! And her favourite activity of all is getting up to various shenanigans by crawling.

Roast vegetable and bean stew

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across a bunch of vegetarian dinner recipes and I've been trying them out this week. We had Tomato Clafoutis on Sunday, Cheesy Linguine Stuffed Peppers yesterday, and then tonight we had the best one so far: Roast Vegetable and Bean Stew. It's so good that I can't keep it from you. Healthy, hearty, savoury, frugal, and surprisingly quick to make for a stew- everything I look for in a dinner recipe. We hadn't even finished eating when Hubby gave me a high five and approved the new addition to our menu rotation. (Did I mention he's a highly selective eater?)

Original source: Best Health magazine (shout-out to Alicia!)

I adapted it a little so that I didn't have to buy anything out of the ordinary, and I'd encourage you to do the same. Also, I had a terrible time finding vegetable stock! Food Basics did me wrong. It wasn't with the regular bouillons but rather in the international foods aisle.

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
2 potatoes, scrubbed and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp Italian herb seasoning
2 Tbsp vegetable oil [my dietitian sister would tell you olive oil isn't heat stable and shouldn't be used for cooking]
2 cups vegetable broth
1 19oz can of beans (pinto, navy, garbanzo, whatever you've got), rinsed and drained

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large bowl, toss vegetables with oil. Spread out on a 9x13 baking dish or roasting pan and sprinkle with herbs and garlic.
Bake for 20 minutes, then broil on low for 10 minutes. (This is instead of baking for 30 minutes and flipping them halfway through. I don't like flipping.)
Add beans to baking dish and pour vegetable broth over top. Bake for another 30 minutes or so. (Alternatively, turn the heat down to 350, take a nap, and have dinner ready when you wake up.)
Serve with whole wheat toast and cheddar cheese planks to make it a complete meal!

Seriously good. It would probably adapt nicely to whatever vegetables are in season where you live. Do yourself a favour and make this next time it's cold and dreary. And maybe listen to Glee's version of Hello while you're at it.

Sweet swimsuits

Most of what I buy for baby D comes from consignment stores, and that's when I buy her anything at all. We've been extremely blessed to have generous family and friends who love to buy her clothes, and we have neighbours across the street whose daughters are just a bit older than D, so she gets their hand-me-downs, continuing a tradition that we had in my family. I always loved getting castoffs from cousins and family friends; it was like a store coming to your house, and everything was free. And usually in good condition, too.

I was debating what kind of swimwear to get for baby D, as the spring has been hot this year, and this is before summer even officially starts! I'm hoping to make good use of friends' pools and community splash pads. My first thought was that a two-piece would be nice, because that would make a swim diaper easy to change. After pricing out swimsuits at Walmart (9$ and up, almost entirely with licensed characters such as Disney Princesses and Dora) and Joe Fresh (8$ and up, mostly solid colours or patterns), I chose a 12-18 months' size sweet pink tankini for 14$.

I had also checked out my favourite local kids' consignment shop as well as a big consignment sale held at my old school a few months back, but the swimsuits were either neon or looked worse for wear. However, I did find a cloth swim diaper on clearance for 5.99$ (reg. price 19.00), and it was almost exactly what I wanted for her! I hadn't seen any in a plain solid pink, they always seemed to have some loud print and I thought that would show through her suit. Either way, I didn't want to buy expensive disposable swimming diapers, because even those won't keep them from peeing in a pool. And if it's only going to keep poop in, I'd just as soon go with a reusable one that I can wash with her other diapers.

Well, clearly I should have waited, because the next time I went to a different consignment store, there were swimsuits aplenty, and cute ones, too! My mom bought a little strawberry one (size 18-24 months) for baby D as a gift for 2.99$, and it was from- you guessed it- Joe Fresh.

Next came the hand-me-downs: a friend from church had one (size 6-12 months) from just last summer that no longer fit her little girl, so she gave it to me. Also Joe Fresh, also adorable.

And finally one more came from our neighbours: a pretty blue number, this time from Zellers, but size 18 months and in great shape!

We had our first pool party today, and baby D wore her strawberry suit with the swim diaper. The diaper fits perfectly, but the suit is still a bit big. In all fairness, she's only 8 months old as of yesterday, so that's not too bad. D loves the water, and she had a great time splashing around with three other babies and their moms. I'm looking forward to more fun days like this! Bring on summer.

Cooking for a baby

Baby D has been on solids for a solid two months now, and I can hardly believe the progress she's made. Her first meal was boring rice cereal, and very messy at that. I thought about making my own, but Registered Dietitian sister advised me that it's wise to stick to commercial cereals for their added nutrients, notably iron. The women in our family have anemic tendencies, anyway. We also made use of a few jars of store-bought baby food, which D just loved! She had squash, carrots, peas and sweet potato from jars.

Then I decided it was time to try making my own food for her. My first attempt involved steamed sweet potato (did you know it takes a really long time to steam sweet potato?) and about ten tiny Tupperware containers, two of which are still in the freezer. She hated it at first, because it was too watery and even though I pureed it as much as I could in the food processor, it was no match for Gerber. Every few days, I'll microwave it, dump it through a fine mesh strainer and see if she's up for it, and lately she's been fine. Next time, when I tackle carrots, I'll boil them and puree them without draining the water first. I was thinking that steaming would keep in more nutrients somehow.

D loves fruit almost as much as life itself! She's had mashed bananas and avocados (both of which are great nutritionally but stain like you wouldn't believe), and saucy apples and pears (which I peeled, chopped, boiled and pureed). She makes the cutest bird-mouth face when she wants more of any given thing! Applesauce and pear sauce are among the first foods she's eaten cold, and she gets a bit confused initially, then remembers how delicious they are. She's also had plain yogurt (cold), and without fail, she makes terrible faces between bites, temporarily forgetting that she likes what she's eating.

The costs of having a baby on solids haven't been too bad yet. A box of cereal lasts for three to four weeks, depending on how often she eats it, and they're only 3.50$-3.99$. I've also bought rice rusks for her, which are 2.99$ for a box of 24 (and she'll have one or two a day at most). It definitely helps that the produce I cook for her is what we would buy anyway, with a few exceptions. Believe it or not, I had never made anything with avocado before, so when I bought a bag of them, I decided to make guacamole from my trusty Clueless cookbook. It was unbelievably good, and I had it three days in a row! Did everyone else know that guacamole is just a bunch of scrumptious vegetables chopped up and thrown together?

Baby D still nurses a fair bit (including right now, which makes typing a bit awkward, as she is partially sprawled over my laptop), and that's fine by me. If it works out, I'd like to continue until she's around a year. There are all kinds of benefits for the immune system and such, plus it's pretty convenient and makes for some nice bonding time. Even if we're out, I pretty much always have a nursing cover with me, so there are no scandals.

Overall, I'm enjoying this feeding stage more now than I was at the start of it. Initially, it seemed like such a hassle to get her buckled into her seat, find a bib, prepare her food, make sure it was cool, and then proceed to let her smear it all over her face and clothes. She still makes a mess, but she's much more skilled at eating and, coincidentally, I'm more skilled at feeding her.

And now, a gratuitous shot of Baby D enjoying some juice at the cottage with Grampa. (Note to any parents: apparently you're not supposed to give babies citrus fruits or juices on account of their acidity. We were late getting the memo.)

Paint: A rock & roll band

It's a pretty amazing thing to watch someone live her dream. I had the opportunity to do just that on Friday night.

My university roommate, Mandy, is an amazing person to begin with. We hit it off on Day 1, wiping away tears after saying goodbye to our loved ones and hello to each other. She was a guitarist majoring in math, I was a French major dabbling in singing, and we figured our don put us together because we were the messiest Christians on our floor. One time, a friend walked in and looked around, out of genuine curiosity, asked "How do you live like this?" Mandy and I performed in pretty much every coffee house we could, doing songs like Still Fighting It by Ben Folds, Beautiful One by Jeremy Camp, and a medley of Forever Young/Golden Girls Theme. We got to know each other's families, and have kept in touch over the years, largely due to the other equally awesome friends we made at St. Jerome's.

Once a year, we have a cottage weekend at our friend Meagan's, and this past year, Mandy brought out her guitar and played us a song that she wrote. She also let us know that she had plans to audition for a band. There are a lot of people who say they want to be rock stars when they grow up, but Mandy was serious. And this fall, she joined indie rock band Paint.

The band is composed of several really excellent musicians: Robb is on lead vocals and guitar, Mandy rocks out on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Marcus mans the bass, and Chris kills the drums (Hubby, also a drummer, was duly impressed). We caught their live show downtown on Friday night at a local club, and it was pretty unbelievable. You know when you go see a band for the first time, and maybe you only know one or two songs of theirs, and you're counting down to those songs? This was not remotely like that. They brought incredible energy to the stage, fun banter, and an engaging radio-friendly sound. It kind of makes you wonder that when there is so much out there that's contrived, how a band with such genuine talent can be relatively unknown. Mind you, that's changing pretty quickly: in the few months since their latest incarnation, they won a fan favourite contest from 102.1 The Edge in Toronto, and just wrapped up a two-month tour of Ontario and Quebec.

Watching Mandy onstage was obviously a huge source of pride for me. She's an introvert like me, but at the same time she looked completely natural rocking out onstage with her bandmates, and even engaging the audience between songs (including offering a shout-out to hubby & I up on the balcony). I wondered what Paint had been like without her! Afterwards, we hung out by the merch table and got caught up on each other's lives while I happily sported my newly acquired Paint shirt (which I have worn every day since). I am so thrilled to see her living her dream!

Driving home that night, I felt very blessed indeed to be living my dream as well. I wanted to be a teacher from the age of ten, but I have wanted to be a wife and stay-at-home mom for as long as I can remember. Now, at 26, I have the most supportive, helpful (not to mention good-looking) husband ever, who is working hard to support our family as he moves towards his career goal; I have a beautiful, endearing daughter who is growing and changing every day; I have wonderful friends who love me even though my house is messy and I don't always keep in touch; I have a faithful Lord who loves me even more than my parents and husband do (which is pretty hard to fathom), and provides for all of our needs. In the more difficult moments of life, these are the things I hold onto.

Musings on motherhood

Last year was my first Mother's Day, but this year's celebration has been more meaningful. A year ago, I did stand up in church when they asked all the moms to, and I took home a flower like the other moms did. I didn't have much of a belly at the time, and even though I definitely was a mom, it didn't feel as real because I figure most moms know their children's names and birthdays. Now that baby D is here and has been for 7 months, the day has greater meaning for me. And not just because we had her formally dedicated at today's service.

The more D grows and changes, the more admiration I have for my own mom. Every stage D goes through brings different challenges and delights: when she was a newborn, I loved how she smelled, and how much she slept, and how she only cried if she needed a feed or a change; I wasn't a huge fan of not being able to put her down, even for a few minutes, without her crying (a swing remedied that situation). When she was a bit older, I loved her first smiles and giggles and noises, although it was really tough getting her to sleep in her crib- she hated being away from us and screamed for up to an hour. Now, she's in a really awesome stage: she's loving solid food (but I do still nurse her several times a day), she babbles a lot (and I know it's way too early to read into this, but she does seem to say mamamamama when she looks at me and dadadada when she looks at her dad), she can sit and is very close to being able to crawl. At the same time, she still isn't great in the car, and has been waking up a lot in the middle of the night lately.

Being a mom, I've learned, is a pretty tough job. You don't get sick days, but you can sleep in and take naps when needed. You don't have as much free time, but you get to see your kid grow and change every day. (And I really love being there for all of her milestones.) You have to learn how to prioritize and multitask like never before. You have to intentionally ask for help and make time for yourself, not to mention time for you and your partner. You have to be willing to share your child, but in return you get to see the people you love, love your kid. You sing silly songs and make ridiculous faces just to elicit a toothless smile or a sweet giggle, and you get to see others do the same.

Mom, I have no idea how you did this with 4, but I'm looking forward to finding out. For the moment, though, I have my hands full with one.

My mom, her mom, D's mom and D.

Humourous things that happened in the past 5 minutes

1. Me: Wow, my pants are really high right now. [In my defense, I had started off sitting up straight and had slowly slouched down, while my pj pants remained in the same place.]
Hubby: Let's measure from the top of your waistband to the bottom of your bra... oh look! Less than 2 inches.

2. Me: "What snacks were brought?"
Hubby: "What?"
Me: "What snacks were brought?"
Hubby: "What you just said to me sounded like German."