one of a kind finds

Yesterday at the One of Kind Show I tried to buy something for myself.... really. I tried. But it seems that even when I try to shop for myself these days, I end up buying things for Sara instead!

I picked up this cat puppet from Diabolo Puppets - it's so much fun and Muppet-like, I think she'll love it. It will be a gift for her first Christmas!
And it didn't exactly fit the budget, but I couldn't resist this adorable "Gorgeous Garden" caterpillar dress from Red Thread Designs. It's actually an investment (Ian would cringe to hear me say that...) because it will fit from now until Sara's about 4 years old - first as a dress, then as a tunic top. The colours and fabrics are amazing!

And for me? All the free food samples, and one jar of red pepper jelly to pour over goat cheese for a Christmas dinner appetizer.

sweet sounds

Sara has started babbling some consonant sounds this past week, and it's so adorable. Our conversations go a little something like this...

Me: Do you have a story to tell Mommy, Sara?

Sara: Baa baa bwaw ba waaa baba!

I love it. She also tried to put her beloved Sophie the Giraffe or soother in our mouths, which must mean she really loves us!

As for her night waking, I wish I could say that has been resolved. Our doctor seems sure it's behavioural based on what's been happening. She checks out fine, and if it was teething she wouldn't settle as soon as one of us picks her up... it's like she's waking up and wanting one of us, especially me. We had a couple of nights that were back to normal, then last night she woke up after only 20 minutes crying really hard. Ian was at work, so I waited a bit and then tried some Gripe Water solely for the purpose of ruling out any digestive discomfort. I've even started a food diary just to see if there's any correlation between sleep and meal size/combos (at dinner in particular.)

She was quiet, so I lay her back down and sat beside the crib. She started to cry again and pushed her hands and feet through the crib slats to reach for me... it went against every maternal piece of me to not pick her up and comfort her, so we almost had both of us in tears! She quieted down after a few minutes, and I slowly backed out of the room trying not to trip over anything or make unnecessary noise.... but I couldn't fool her. After another nearly half hour of intense crying alternating with snuffling as she tried to go back to sleep, I had to go back in. That's when I smelled poo in the air! I picked her up, changed her, held her for a minute and put her back into the crib, and she fell alseep immediately for the rest of the night. So... was it the poo that kept her awake, and I let her cry needlessly? Was the poo from crying so hard? Regardless, it was hard not to feel like an awful mom.

Tonight she has woken twice so far, the first time for about 10 minutes, and then for about 5. We haven't picked her up, just rubbed her tummy or rolled her to her favourite sleeping side. And there seems to be no connection to her diet today, which was 100% tried, tested and true. So confusing.... this is one phase that I can't wait to get past!

sunday night fever

On one of the warm days last week we went to the park - Sara loves the swings!
And here she is with her daddy, rocking her new pink Robeez winter boots. That's her Xmas stocking in progress in the background.
We had a stressful couple of weeks around our house, and poor Sara has been having some rough nights. Teething? Really NOT fun for the whole family. Then again, as much as I pretend to have the mommy instincts fully developed by now, I really have no idea whether we're dealing with teething again or something else.

During the day she seems fine and is napping well, but last week for 4 nights in a row she sobbed and screamed when we put her to bed. It's just so unlike her, she's normally a great sleeper. At first we tried picking her up and cuddling her, which didn't seem to help, so we thought hmmm.... another tooth (#3) coming, perhaps? We gave her Tempra starting on night 2, and eventually after an hour or so she fell asleep either from exhaustion or because it worked. Then, on Fri. and Sat. night she was back to normal. Actually, we took her to visit friends on Saturday and our intention was to leave after dinner to make sure she got to bed at a decent time. We weren't going to venture a sleepover after how the week had gone! But... sometimes us mommies need a break, and a "short dip" in the hot tub while the boys watched Sara turned into a 2-hour soak and girl talk session! When we came back in, not realizing how long we'd been outside, Sara was sprawled out sleeping on the couch with her books strewn behind her... I'll post the picture we took when I get it from them, it was hilarious. Anyway, we got her home and into bed just fine. We thought the weird phase had passed. Until last night...

I put her to bed without any issue at 7:30pm, and she woke up crying pretty hard at about 10pm. I made sure she had her soother, but she started screaming and arching her back... she was inconsolable until I picked her up, and then she buried her face in my neck and fell fast asleep. I put her back in the crib after about 15 mins, and ... well, it started all over again. We put her between us in our bed and she stopped crying but proceeded to babble and grab our faces like it was playtime. I tried cuddling again but the cycle continued when I put her down. I gave her a small bottle -- no help. Magical Tempra -- no help. Seeing if she'd just fall asleep -- no way. Finally we dug out the old standby, Gripe water, thinking maybe she had stomach pain, and after about 20 mins she went back to sleep. By this time it was 12:45am.

It's so unbelievably frustrating when you don't know what's wrong or how to fix it, and you begin to feel like none of you will ever sleep again! As much as I would like to assume it's just teething (although we can't feel or see a new tooth), I can't shake the feeling that maybe something else is wrong. I was even wondering if she looks more pale in the last few days. Maybe she has a bug, but she's really fine all day. Maybe I'm feeding her something she can't tolerate, although unless it's meat I can't think of what it would be. Moms excel at worrying, so our big outing for today will be to the doctor's office this afternoon.

In happier news, I finally got around to re-doing my web site... I love my new Mac. I was limited to the iLife software but it was so easy and I'll be able to update the site much more often. It looks ok on our computer, so here's hoping it does everywhere else too. If not, maybe don't tell me today... please and thanks :)

on Santa's good list

It's been a bit of a whirlwind around here, so until I get to a proper post, here are some photos of Sara in her spiffy 1st Christmas dress - in our family tartan, no less - SO cute. I can't bring myself to post it publicly, but there's also a great one where she's lifting the dress up over her head. It makes me laugh, but her daddy is mildly horrified by it.

Christmas will be so much fun this year!

RR's turkey meatloaf... oh my asiago gravy

First of all, I'm still getting over the shock of looking outside to see a coating of s-n-o-w all over our yard this morning... but my disappointment quickly turned to gratitude when I realized that for the first year in a long time, I wasn't going to be stuck in 2 hours of traffic during the first morning rush hour snowfall of the year! Joy! Instead, after Sara went down for her first nap, I curled up on the couch with my coffee to watch - gulp - Rachael Ray. Yes, I have been watching her lately... my co-workers will no doubt find this amusing, but really, she is surprisingly much more tolerable than Regis and Kelly at 9am.

Today she made a recipe that looks so good I have to share it, and it will be tried out in our house soon (without the tomatoes or quite as much garlic...) It's comfort food, it's healthy, and it fits our increasingly sad maternity leave budget!

Turkey Meatloaf With Creamy Asiago Gravy, Roasted Broccoli & Tomatoes

Ingredients

• 1 head of garlic left whole plus 2 cloves, grated
• Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
• 1 cup milk
• 1 slice (about 3 inches thick) of crusty bread or 6 slices of sandwich bread
• 2 pounds (1 package) ground lean turkey breast
• 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
• 4 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, to taste
• 6 shallots, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 large head broccoli or 2 small heads
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup milk
• 2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) good quality, shredded Asiago cheese

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Yields: 5-6 servings

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Preparation

Serve the meatloaf with roasted garlic cheese gravy and the roasted broccoli and tomatoes alongside.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Cut the top off the whole garlic bulb, drizzle with EVOO and rub into skin. Double wrap the garlic in foil and roast 20-25 minutes in the oven or toaster oven.

While the garlic is roasting, place the bread into medium size mixing bowl and pour the milk over it. Let it soak for 5-10 minutes.

In another medium-size mixing bowl, add the ground turkey. Make a deep well in the center by punching the meat with your fist and fill it with the 2 cloves of grated garlic, soaked bread, poultry seasoning, sage, nutmeg, shallots, Parmigiano-Reggiano and egg.

Mix the meatloaf ingredients together, form a long, thin, oval-shaped loaf and transfer it to a sheet pan. Drizzle the loaf liberally with EVOO, and roast for 45 minutes, until it reaches an internal temperature of 165ºF.

While the meatloaf is roasting, work on the broccoli and cherry tomatoes: Trim the very end off of the broccoli stems with a peeler or a paring knife, removing the thick fibrous outer layer of the broccoli stems. Cut the broccoli lengthwise into large spears that look like long, skinny trees and place them along with the cherry tomatoes onto a sheet pan. Drizzle everything with EVOO and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer to the oven during the last 30 minutes that the meatloaf is cooking.

For the gravy, place a medium-size saucepot over medium heat with the butter. Mash the whole roasted garlic cloves until they are nice and smooth, and add to the butter. Once the butter melts, whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the chicken stock, then the milk. Allow the mixture to thicken, about 2 minutes, then stir in the Asiago cheese. Once the cheese has melted, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

1st Halloween

Sara's first Halloween costume was adorable, our little pumpkin looked so cute!
After getting dressed we had some tears because she's in the process of dropping her third nap, which used to be at 5pm, but she wouldn't take a catnap... so we just had quiet time before venturing out. When she was all smiles again, she played with Daddy.Then we headed out...
I took her across the street to visit her aunt and uncle, who gave her a cool toy phone, and then the neighbours, where she picked out some candy for mom and dad.... after dinner she enjoyed greeting some trick or treaters at our door. We got the ultimate compliment on Bert and Ernie - a little boy went to get his dad from the sidewalk and brought him back to look at our pumpkins.
Of course Sara spit up on her costume a few times, but her costume was fleece with big folds so it stayed relatively contained! Fortunately she saved this for the privacy of our house.

We didn't get as many trick or treaters as usual, so it looks like now I'll be spending a lot of time eating candy while Sara's napping... eating candy while Sara's playing....