dia de los muertos

Yay, my brothers were just here this week. We had a fun filled weekend with my brothers in town and the last thing I wanted to do was go to work today! Here's a run down of many of the fun things we did this week while we had visitors.
My brothers arrived on Wednesday afternoon and my mom was surprised by the fact that both of my brothers were here we had all successfully not spilled the beans about my little brother coming along for the visit. Whew, that was a close one, especially because my mom had up and decided she wanted to buy my little brother a plane ticket to come visit around Christmas because she really wanted to see him, so we had to do a little fancy foot work to keep her from booking him a flight!

Naturally my parents made plenty of meals that are family fav's, such as lasagna, turkey, chocolate chip cookies, and sun shine eggs. And if that weren't enough food we also had a number of meals of tasty Mexican food ranging from Super Fries at Nico's to Zivaz Chicken Mole Enchiladas, to Tortes on the side of the road from Molcas. yum. (Gotta go for a serious run tomorrow!)
Also we fit in a lot of fun activities, we did the mini-golf and arcade one day, then we all went bowling the next. And the grand finale of the visit was of course Tucson's All Souls Procession for Dia de los Muertos. We had the best time there, all dressed up and walking in the parade in honor of our loved ones who have passed away.  Oh, I also can't forget some of the other fun stuff this weekend-- we (finally) got new phones, my little brother got his first (and second) tattoos, my big brother painted awesome jungle characters for baby's room! Great stuff, can't wait to do it again!

Here's a great website for information about Tucson's awesome All Souls Procession:
http://www.allsoulsprocession.org/

Have a safe flight home bros!

blossoming understanding

My baby is going to be 14 months old next week. This is a really neat time to spend with him because it seems like every day/week he learns something new.

About a month ago he finally got the hang of walking, and now he's mastering the advanced techniques such as walking fast, turning, walking backwards, walking while carrying objects, even spinning circles (aka dancing). The combination of his increased speed and new height is making it harder to keep things out of reach from his little paws. It's only going to be a few short months before he can reach the counter top in the kitchen; he can already reach the edge of the bathroom counter top.

The little turkey is also able to climb. We have thankfully broken him (more or less) from the bad habit of standing on the oven drawer handle and holding onto the oven door handle. He thought this was a cool place to hang out and a convenient way to try and reach whatever was on the stove top! yikes! Just the other day after I told him it was time to go for a walk I came back into the room after tying back my hair to find he had climbed up into his jog stroller and was already sitting in it --ready to go mom!

Another endearing habit baby boop has developed lately is carrying around clothes or shoes. He walks around with the item and calls out who it belongs to, with surprising accuracy I might add. He even seems to know which area of the body the clothes are worn on as he sometimes tries to put them on. That reminds me, he's also been spotted walking around with the breast pump held to his chest calling out ma-ma?

This morning as I was finishing the dishes I turned to grab a towel to dry my hands only to see boop carrying the dish towels down the hall way. I was curious so I watched him and sure enough--the boy

feeding the baby phở

“Here baby. Here’s the straw,” my wife lured our little son. I looked over just in time to see my one-year-old son suck some brown liquid with tiny green chunks from a paper cup through a clear flexi-straw. My jaw dropped.

“What’s that?” I questioned.

She said with a blank stare, “phở.”

“Through a straw?” I asked. “How is he drinking meat and noodles through a straw?” My wife glanced at me with that what-planet-is-my-husband-from stare.

She asked me, “do you see any noodles in the straw?” It was a good question. I didn’t see any noodles, but I was still astounded that the baby was “drinking” phở. He looked at his puzzled dad and smiled.

“He likes it honey,” my wife retorted. “Don’t rock the boat. He can drink his phở if he wants.” She was right. As long as he was enjoying it, which he was, there was no reason to object. With my chopsticks, I pincered a savory mouthful of noodles and slurped it into my mouth. It was clear that my wife, the baby, and I all were enjoying this meal with whatever utensil suited our abilities.

For those of you that don’t know, phở is a delicious Vietnamese noodle soup that is typically composed of rice noodles and tofu or meat in a tasty beef broth. Rumor has it that the dish is a Vietnamese

mad about pink

Cinderella Ate My Daughter -Dispatches from the front lines of the new girlie-girl culture written by Peggy Orenstein

Peggy Orenstein writes . What first interested me in this book was the story I heard on NPR about the new book. Then recently I went to the library and it was right there on the shelf. Hey I’ve heard about that book, I thought as I grabbed it and added it to be too big stack of books. I really love going to the library but have the tendency to check out more than I can actually read in the little free time I have.

All in all I enjoyed reading this book. I liked the author’s style and the balance sge provided between light hearted humor and solid research was just right to keep me turning the pages. This book looks at changes that have occurred across generations and explains that a lot of these changes are being driven by the marketing departments of some big name corporations.

motherhood—the beginning

Leading up to the birth of a child things are measured in trimesters.  And I’ve heard of the first three months of your newborn’s life being called the 4^th trimester. That got me thinking, it sort of makes sense to continue with the trimester concept for your baby’s first year. From my experience there are drastically different stages that somewhat correspond with three month time frames. Furthermore, if this is your first child, this is also a time that you are rapidly learning how to be a mother.

During the first three months after your baby is born they will be the most amazing little lump you will ever lay your eyes on.  Don’t get all uppity, you know it’s true. They just don’t do anything! They need you 100% and can’t communicate their needs any other way than crying. As a new mother you will be thrust into a new life abruptly to put it mildly. I don’t think a person could ever be fully prepared for it, but I guess all the inconveniences of pregnancy do their best to ramp you up for the big leagues. You will be a walking, talking, human feeding machine. My son only nursed for a few minutes per feeding so I usually was nursing him hourly. And that was round the clock.

With time your infant gradually becomes more and more alert and able to connect with you. I found that after your child gets to be about 3 months old I felt I could really enjoy him so much more. I was getting (a little) bit more rest and was more comfortable with nursing and caring for his needs. Also in addition to gaining skill and confidence as a mom my son was also gaining the ability to see things more clearly, smile, coo, look at toys and hold his head up on his own. Might not sound like much, but we’re talking baby steps here.

In the 3-6 month trimester we worked on ground mobility—a lot. My son went from lump status to being able to hold his head up for longer periods while doing ‘tummy time’ and so he was able to play

Stirabout; how do you like your oats?

In case any of us needed a definition; Wikipedia defines Oatmeal as ground oat groats, or a porridge made from oats (also called oatmeal cereal or stirabout, in Ireland). Oatmeal can also be ground oat, steel-cut oats, crushed oats, or rolled oats.

Stirabout? I love it. I think I may have to adopt it.

While this dish is possibly the most common, dare I say mundane, breakfast around, in our house we have a few simple twists that can make your run of the mill bowl of oatmeal much tastier.  I'll list some of our techniques and I implore you to get a little wild with your oats, you may just concoct something that's a keeper.

1. Shhhhh.
   My father's secret is to boil the water before you pour the oats in.  Now, this sounds like it wouldn't make much difference at all, right? Even I have to admit that the results are quite pleasing to the palette. Although this distinction may not be detected by everyone, waiting to add the oats until after the water boils results in less goo in your bowl and a delicate texture as the individual rolled oats have been allowed to retain some of their structure.
2. Fruit.
   I ain't just talkin' raisins here. We regularly hit up our pantry for a variety of dried fruits to add

something to talk about

I pretty much always have something on my mind.  Something to talk about, that I am eager to share with others.  My mind rarely rests.  So here I am sitting still, at the computer, but my thoughts rarely 'sit still'.  My favorite method to put the thoughts at ease is to simply write them down.  It seems to me that if I write it down it's ok if I forget about it because I can just look at my reminder note.  For the most part this works out great for me, except for the random little notes of tasks that I don't take care of in a timely manner which lay around collecting dust.  Because, as I said before, if I toss out the note I'll forget about doing that task which I have obviously been avoiding doing!
It occurred to me recently that I might just have some thoughts in common with other folks out there.  And that those people might also enjoy reading some of my thoughts and ideas.  These days my themes tend to be about the baby, motherhood, cooking, other house work, the job, bargains, and well, life in general!  I've put together mama bloggie as a place where I can share my thoughts with you.  Since having my first child almost a year ago, I find that I am always on the look out for tips.  Be it a bargain or some way to easily make something I will likely need anyways, or just a tip about the way I tried to do something. More so now than ever before these tips from others can be life savers, or at least time savers!
Being new to the whole mom-gig there's constantly stuff to decide and figure out.  Having a place to share what I've learned and learn from others is what I would like to create here.  Please don't be shy about chiming in!