7 months old!

DSCN3432
Originally uploaded by our "nut" house

Right before Christmas, JM officially became 7 months old. He continues to bless us with his presence. In the two weeks since his last doctor visit, he had gained almost 2 pounds, which is his biggest gain ever, so as of the 7 month mark he is almost 16 pounds, still little for his age, but we'll take it.

His favorite things these days are:
-Eating! He eats 2 heaping tablespoons of oatmeal or rice cereal with fruit for breakfast, a lunch entree and vegetable and a dinner with a vegetable and more cereal with fruit. His grandparents and aunts and uncles commented that they had never seen a baby eat so much. He continues to breastfeed and takes one last bottle of formula on top of that before bed.
-Crawling around! Well not quite crawling in the traditional sense, but he can pull himself around to things he finds particularly interesting. He seems to be especially motivated by things he is not supposed to put his mouth on, like electrical cords, cell phones, remote controls, magazines and newspapers.
-Sitting up. He can sit unassisted for a long time! This takes us into a whole new big boy world... now that he can sit up in the bathtub, in a high chair or shopping cart, etc.
-Mr. High Maintenance. We aren't sure whether it's some new teeth coming in or what, but the past few weeks he's been a little, er, high maintenance. He will be happy with a toy for a while, but then needs to move on to the next thing. We tap danced for him last night as a joke. We feel like we are his subjects and he is the king!
-Bathing. JM loves his nighttime bathtime with Daddy. If he is grumpy, he will usually be re-energized by his bath and alert a little longer. His new favorite "toy" is his little boypart, which he finds quite fascinating. :) I am sure some day he will die knowing I posted this to the internet.
-Singing loudly. The kid has found his voice and astounds us with his strong vocal cords. Recently in church, the man in front of us turned around smiled and said "where did Mr. Loud go?" after Mike had to take him for a walk because he was talking so loudly. He wasn't crying, but rather making a lot of noise. Why does he only do this in church? Hmmm...

We had a great first Christmas... and the past few days have been quite a whirlwind, so I'll save those memories for the next entry. A highlight for JM this break was meeting the infamous Annabel, who was in Texas from NJ for her Christmas with her grandparents in Marble Falls. Annabel was very kind in sharing her toys with JM and showed us how she could scoot across the floor and was very understanding when JM spit up all over the place and his mama had her beer knocked over. If Annabel will have him, perhaps a future girlfriend for JM?

I can't put my arms down!

I can't put my arms down!
Originally uploaded by our "nut" house

We somehow went from 80 degrees Sunday to 32 yesterday. What is the deal with the crazy weather? It happened last week, too. No wonder we all have the sniffles. We had no food in the house yesterday, so I bundled up JM in his "Chicago clothes" so we could go to the store. My mom bought him this bunting specifically for our trip to see Great Grandma and the S's in a few weeks. I giggled putting him into it. Does he not look like the kid from a Christmas Story? He kept smiling at me and trying to put his arms down, but he couldn't do it. He is so sweet!

I am so very thankful that we live in a warm climate. We got to the store and JM was sweating and grumpy in that bad boy. Going anywhere is difficult under normal circumstances. You have to pack for anything. Add on winter hats, mittens, etc. and it almost makes you not want to leave the house. It is such a pain to get them all bundled up. How you guys do it in the Midwest, I don't know. We are spoiled down here. The good news is that being cooped up has led to Christmas baking for me. Yesterday I made toffee and Santa's thumbprints. Today I am going to make more sugar cookies. Post race indulgences are on. By the way, it greatly disturbs me that a fit 29 year-old died in the Dallas Marathon the other day. How does that happen?

AC: Harmony

Sitting pretty

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Originally uploaded by our "nut" house

Little one is really sitting well these days. I think he's got it!

And does he not look so chubbers in this picture? It's going to be so much fun spending Christmas with him as part of our family this year!

AC: Love

Running the Rock

I ran my 5th half marathon today, The Dallas White Rock Marathon.

Around four this morning, my sweet baby started crying and that was the start of the day. As I returned to my bed at Mike's parents' house after feeding him, I could hear strong wind blowing up against the house and knew that it was going to be an interesting day. Sadly, I was unable to go back to sleep and we got up at 5:20, ate some peanut butter toast and coffee, left JM with Mike's parents and took the DART down to the race. It was really fun riding public transportation instead of driving to the race. There were quite a few other runners in their garb on the train and in the air you could feel the pre-race anxiety and sense of camraderie. We had to wait about 15 minutes for a transfer and quite a few people bailed on the Dallas public trans. and just walked, but not us. :) The wind gales were still blowing as we approached American Airlines Center. We went inside in search of some indoor bathrooms, but the lines were long, so we went back out the door towards the lovely port-o-lets, then dropped off our stuff at the bag drop and headed for the shoots. By the time we got there, they were singing the national anthem and we were off soon after. I will admit, I felt confident at the start. I trained quite a bit for this race, running with the stroller during the week and up and down hills in our neighborhood and thought it was going to be a challenge, but not too bad.

From the start, I could tell it was not going to be my day. It was humid, for one. My face got hot and I felt sluggish straightaway. The mile markers weren't very visible, so I completely missed timing my first two miles, so I had no idea how fast I was going. We started off with the 4:15 marathon pace group and since my goal was 2:00 (6 min. behind my PR), I wanted to get in front of them, so tried to pick up my pace a little around miles 2 and 3... at the Mile 2 water stop somehow completely lost Mike for the rest of the race. At mile 3, I found the 2:00 pace group and ran with them, really pushing myself to keep up. I hung with them through Highland Park and as I was starting to breathe hard, decided to screw it and run my own race. Normally when I run, I don't find my groove until 3 or 4 miles and I rarely breathe hard. Today I felt bad up until about mile 6 or 7 and was feeling the humidity and had heavy lungs the whole race. At 6 miles, I decided to just run for myself and then felt a little better. At mile 11 on the Katy Trail I literally laughed out loud because the wind was blowing so hard up against me, but at least at that point, I knew the end was near. I can always talk myself through the last 3 miles, envisioning the Town Lake trail loop... and sure enough, it was over. I was a dork and put my arms in the air at mile 13 and whooped upon seeing the American Airlines center signage.

It wasn't my favorite race, in case you couldn't tell. The course was fine, but it just wasn't my day. It wasn't my town. I didn't run with Mike. No family or friends were out there cheering for us. I also made the mistake of putting my iPod on shuffle so I was hearing all sorts of random slow songs and it took every ounce of energy I had at the end to hit the forward button to shuffle past the Dreidel Song from John Michael's seasonal songs CD, etc. I crossed the finish, got a glass of gatorade and went directly down the stairs into the AA Arena and got a gigantic Michelob Ultra and a bottle of water, stretched out and climbed back up the stairs, went outside and found Mike by the bag pickup. We had another beer, saw M.Eddy at the food area and hit the road.... Celebrated by reuniting with dear son (whom I miss entirely too much when away for hours) and inhaled some "All the Way" pizza at Campisis with Karl and Wendy and Joe and Brookie.

What is the deal with the weird weather this week? This morning it was already 62 and by this afternoon it was close to 80. Too hot for running and especially for running in December! I am sore. Very sore. Full marathon sore. We had cheese fries and burgers from Burger House for dinner and I am drinking a Jack and Coke with my feet up and am just now remembering that I have been up since 4 am. That's right, 4 am. I am a mom now and I am quite proud of myself for doing this with a 7 month-old. Even though I finished at 2:05, I am happy with it! Update: They lost my race results, so didn't update my time until today (2 days later). I actually got 2:01:05. I'll take it!

ready to run?

we leave tomorrow to run the dallas white rock half. wish me luck! it's been a LONG time since I've run 13.1 miles.... I am excited and feel ready!

AC: love

p.s. JM has a bug. nothing terrible, just a bit cranky and a little fever. I took him to the doctor today and they weighed him and he's gained a pound in two weeks! go, son, go!

My first snow!

My first snow!
Originally uploaded by our "nut" house

It was not kidding you 84 degrees yesterday when we were doing some Christmas shopping at the outlets in San Marcos. Today, we woke up to SNOW! JM wasn't sure what to think about this crazy weather...

No more sugar cookies

Whilst my man was off tracking television shipments this weekend, I was baking... and baking and baking... He loves sugar cookies and requested frosted ones as my first Christmas cookies of the season. They took for.ev.er.... like literally all day between the rolling of the dough and the frosting, but I have been stuffing myself with them since and must say they are worth every minute of time I spent.

Sugar Cookies (courtesy of Allrecipes)- makes 8 dozen!

2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour (or 5?)
1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, mix oil, butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until creamy.
Mix together cream of tarter, baking soda, flour, and salt. Add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Chill dough for 15 to 20 minutes.
Roll dough out, use cookie cutters to make cute shapes, and place on greased cookie sheets. Sprinkle with sugar before baking.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 8 to 10 min.

Notes:

• I didn't mix anything separately and they turned out fine... a soft, sort of salty sweet cookie. You can really taste the butter.


• My dough was a little sticky so I added a whole cup of flour!


• Tip! I rolled out my dough on parchment paper and also used the paper underneath the cookies to bake them. Much less mess to clean up with the rolling and decorating.
  

Frosting- Land o' Lakes Best Buttercream
3/4 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
6 cups powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup half and half

1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar and salt alternately with half & half and vanilla, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Stir in corn syrup.

• Notes:
  This frosting is SUPER creamy and fluffy, not to mention sweet. It really accents the sugar cookie well, making it extremely addictive.

I literally cannot stop eating these cookies. I will make them again!

Doth he love the TV more than me?

The H's have entered the digital age of television.
Never have I seen my beloved this way. Not when we got engaged. Not when our son was born. He spent over a month researching the different models that were out there. Numerous Sundays were spent perusing the paper to check ads to find a low price. After Thanksgiving, he decided the time was right and carefully made the purchase, ultimately buying our 52 inch monster online.... then tracked its journey to us daily, then added on a BluRay player and joined Netflix for HD movies. Yesterday, he worked from home to wait for its delivery. The first night, Monday, we just had to watch it, and since we weren't hooked up for satellite yet, he dug out some rabbit ears to see which stations we could access sans satellite (our local PBS station rocks in HD- never have I seen Barney so clearly!). He then took this morning off to be here for the satellite installation and carefully watched the Dish man's every move, tracking cords through my kitchen and along the carpeting in the living room. Watching the Mavericks game this evening, he paused the DVR and commented, "even frozen you can see the sweat beads!"

... I am enjoying this! The man drives a 10 year old car and never does anything for himself. It's fun to see him acting like a little kid. I love you, honey!

Cutest.baby.ever

Cutest baby ever
Originally uploaded by our "nut" house

I know I am biased, but is he not the cutest baby ever? I really can't believe I got him to smile like this....so that you can see his adorable two little bottom teeth! Sometimes lately he is so happy that he gets this crazy giggle/scream. He was doing it today after we got back from running and I had to go run and get the camera. LOVE HIM!

Bird-day 2008

Well, I survived my first time hosting Thanksgiving.

The day went pretty seamlessly. We survived the 5 mile Austin Turkey Trot (note to self: do not drink 5 glasses of red wine the night before next year). There were no fights nor burned items. The bird I prepared (my first turkey!) came out nice and moist. We had at least 3 items containing processed cheese on the table. Finally, everyone left by 8pm. A success, I'd say....

Mike's mom's dressing turned out pretty damn good.... Here is what I did:

Dressing a la Pattie- serves 10

1 square pan of baked cornbread

1.5 loaves of french bread dried overnight (put the oven on warm and then turn it off with the bread in overnight)

5 cans of chicken stock

1 stick of butter

1 C celery

1 C onion

1 egg, beaten

Cut up cornbread and tear dried french bread into bite-sized pieces and toss into a large bowl or pyrex type dish. Melt a stick of butter in a separate pan and saute the celery and onion until clear. Beat an egg and mix into the bread mixture. Heat up your chicken stock on the stove in a separate pot and then add it to the bread mixture, adding the celery and onion and stirring and stirring for about 5 minutes until it gets to a soft, almost oatmeal-like consistency. Mike's mom stirs it until the bread is completely dissolved and it looks really runny. Cover the top with salt and pepper to taste and let it marinate for a few hours (I let mine sit overnight- making this a 2 day process). I cooked my dressing in the bird and it came out delicious and soft with all the turkey juices. You can also cook in a separate pan, making sure you spray it with Pam first at 350 for about an hour. The mixture will harden with cooking.... Yum!

AC: Trust