Sketti 'n Meatballs

If you can see this video, you'll see how much Kaden loves spaghetti. The way he sucks it in with gusto is probably my favorite part. The digging for meatballs... not so much. But as long as we time it so the shower comes immediately after dinner, it's all good!

Key Lime Pie- for Quicas

* note to family and friends, one of my postcard pals requested a recipe from my hometown. Key Lime pie seemed appropriate, but I couldn't fit the whole recipe on the postcard, so I figured it was easiest to post here. Maybe you'll be adventurous and try it too?

Key Lime Pie
( from: www.reluctantgourmet.com/keylime )

1/2 cup fresh (key) lime juice
4 tsp grated lime zest (do this before juicing limes)
4 egg yolks
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
11 graham crackers
3 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp melted unsalted butter

Whisk together egg yolks & lime zest.
Beat in milk and then the lime juice. Set aside at room temp until it thickens
Preheat oven to 325
in another bowl, crush graham crackers into crumbs, then add sugar.
Add butter to crumb mixture, and stir until well blended.
Pour crumb mixture into 9 inch pie pan, firm across the bottom and up the sides.
Bake for 15 minutes (until light brown) - remove and cool.
Pour lime filling into crust, bake another 15 minutes (until it's set but wiggly).
Remove and cool to room temp, then refridgerate at least three hours.
Top with whipped cream before serving.

Yogurt is good for the skin...

inside your nose.

I hope.

Happy First Birthday!!

We're in PA on Kaden's actual birthday, which called for birthday pancakes. My Dad used to make these- I think for sleepovers and other special days. A first birthday qualifies :)

Big guy now!

He really DOES like pancakes!

The end of a three hour birthday nap (hurray)!

Of course, the good effects were probably cancelled out by the 10:30pm bedtime.

But hey, there's only ONE first birthday

-even when we spend 2 wks celebrating-

and we haven't had a meltdown.

yet.

Baby Talk- A Video

Enjoy!

And don't worry about the videographer- despite the cliffhanger ending, she's fine!

He's A Winner!

Remember how we won a Earth's Best package from Amy over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess? Well, it arrived yesterday!! It was quite a day, what with the case of organic formula, Jim's Valentine present and our suprise package coming !! Kaden is already enjoying the good stuff:

Above, he's enjoying the jars of food. Below, he's having fun kicking inside the box and wearing the bib...

And here he is enjoying (aka chewing up) one of the best books around. Yes, I let him chew on almost everything except the actual box (deep paper cuts are no fun at all) and the plastic (obvious, I know).
You can't see the juices too clearly (stacked in the back). It was a pretty neat package. We already feed him the rice cereal from Earth's Best, so it'll be good to see how he likes the other stuff. It'll have to wait a few weeks, though, as I actually made some sweet potatoes (one of his faves) and green beans for him (he hates those- actually started gagging after 2 bites!). Tonight I've got a late meeting, but hope to cook up some apples afterward. Oh, the meeting! Gotta run, folks. Have a WARM and happy weekend :)

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I'm stealing this, as so many things, from Aimee at The Mother Load. Actually, most of the blog ideas are stolen from other, better bloggers. In fact, I sometimes restrain myself from stealing another idea because I don't want to be a, uh, stalker type...

2. Facebook is amazing! It's also a time-sucking vortex. I mostly respond to others, but still have so many online friends that it's impossible for me to keep up with them. So it takes even more effort to find the ones I want to chat with. And the applications?! Let's just not go there...

3. OH! I WON A CONTEST! This is super big news since I rarely win stuff. Amy over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess hosted a giveaway and I won! It comes with all this cool Earth's Best baby food- like 24 jars of baby food, 8 jars of baby juice, a bib and one of my favorite books: Guess How Much I Love You with Big and Little Nutbrown Hare! Yeah! Thank you Amy for hosting and thank you EB for the cool giveaway! Okay, so a random number picked my comment to win- still, it feels pretty cool.

4. Speaking of baby food-- Kaden REALLY doesn't like avocados. I tried a few more times after the video below, but his faces kept getting worse, his protestations a bit more frantic. The thing that sealed the deal for me was the look of utter bewilderment he gave me after his second taste one day. Okay, Kade, we'll move on to bananas. (But I'll try the good green stuff in a month or two!) Who needs fruit, though, when you've got such yummy toes?

5. Being a green mama - yeah. I'm fairly certain I'm a mama by default, but the green part? Not anywhere near what I'd like. We are feeding him organic foods,and will try an organic formula soon. The food so far is homemade, though I figure the EB stuff will also come in handy for traveling and what not. But the diapers? He looks so adorable in the cloth ones. And I feel so fantastic when I put one on- soft for his bum, good for the earth... so I feel pretty fantastic until I feel wet, because I can't get the hang of checking them more often. Yup, I've got a 80% leak rate due to my inattention! We're not giving up, but I'm feeling pretty discouraged that none of my ideas are panning out... and the reason they're not working is my lack of willpower/work on it.

6. It's raining today. Right now, actually. And 60 degrees. So no outside play today.

7. I love my husband. He - and you- don't hear it often enough. He just ran out to the store in the said rain to pick up some needed stuff. And he rearranged his work schedule so we could get house stuff done. And he just walked in- with a bonus frappacino as a goal reward for when I meet my deadline this weekend. Plus, you should see him with Kaden!

Guess this wasn't quick afterall. Oh well, have a good weekend anyway! Look for some Super posts on Sunday ;)

Avocados

Mikey Likes it!

And so does Kaden !

Note Jim's strong, gentle grip - needed to prevent little hands knocking the spoon away!

ps- ignore the bib above- we don't wear that in public.

Below, the tongue thrust reflex in action...

On a more serious note, please pray for Jim's dad, Dave, who's going in for surgery first thing Tuesday morning. A planned "minor" thing, but still... prayers for health & recovery would be great. While you're at it, also offer one for those battling cancer, including 2 family friends in Florida and 2 friends of our cousins in Ohio. Thank you!

Does Kaden like to eat cereal?

I'll let you decide...

Is he waving off the camera? or the cereal?

Notice the hand, grabbing the spoon below.

There were 2 spoons in the package, one for the baby to hold while the parent feeds him with the other. Not such a good idea, as our smart little man was trying to fit BOTH into his mouth...

Each taste got a similar look to this....

But he kept grabbing for the spoon and taking more bites!

After this, he finished off a bottle, and for the past 60 minutes

has been napping in his Nana's arms.

I don't know about him, but if he sleeps this good after every 'meal',

I'm LOVING the cereal!

More details than you probably care about...

Here Kaden is having fun on his surfboard - actually a "tummy time" activity mat, but the tummy photos weren't as cute. He's settling into a night routine, eating around 8pm, midnight, 3am, 6am, and then around 8am. So during the night, he goes 3-4 hours between eating and has been fairly good about sleeping in between.

During the day, not so much! Then he'll eat about every 2 hours- sometimes stretching it to 3 hours, sometimes wanting a snack after an hour. He's got LOTS of awake time during the day now- unfortunately, most of it is spend staring at me. He will take naps, from 20-90 minutes. He's also *starting* to agree to time by himself (i.e. not being held) as long as I am within view. He seems to like the bouncy chair and being outside- sometimes just being by a window is enough.

Tonight we visited our friends with the twins. It was a nice trade- their mom got to hold the baby, which she loved, and I got to roll around and giggle and play, which I love. The kids seemed to enjoy it too- Kaden spent some time watching the twins play (the little girl in particular). His attention span is shorter than theirs, of course, but still. And when we left, both Nick & Lexi gave him a soft kiss on the head, which was very sweet.