Wordless Wednesday: A Visit With Baby Eli

Friends Chris and Anna came to visit us this weekend and we got to see how big Eli had gotten since we last saw him at 1 week old. A lot bigger! He is now 4 months old. He is sweet, laid back and adorable! Sadie loved him!

Sadie getting a kick out of Eli jumping with her.

Studying each other.

Handsome Eli!

John with Sadie and Eli. No sibling comments please.

Lenten Fridays

Our Lenten scallops. :)

The past couple of weeks I haven't done much creative cooking due to an annoying cold that just would not go away. I blame all the little people around me who like to cough, wipe their noses with their hands, then touch anything I come into contact with! Seriously though, when you have kids, don't you get sick a LOT?! In the past two years, I have had more colds than I have had in at least 5 years! Sadie will get the sniffles and be done with it. Me, I'm down and out for the count. Luckily I'm not pregnant or nursing, so I can dope myself up on cold meds to my hearts content, not like the first 14 months of having a kid, where I just had to suck it up. And whine a lot to John and my Mom. So, back to the title of the blog. Now that the endless cold is over, I feel like cooking again and I have been trying to take advantage of the "no meat on Friday" Lent rule and have interesting meals I have never cooked before. (Which I don't get why you can eat fish if you can't have meat.... but that's neither here nor there.) So yesterday I made an Ina Garten recipe (surprise, surprise) that has of course been in my recipe collection, never made, for years. It was Scallops Provencal with Herbed Basmati Rice. Yum, yum, yum! Besides the tedious chopping of all the herbs, the meal was really easy. And scallops cook in no time, so it was fairly quick to make too. I always thought I didn't like French food, but maybe I do. At least some of it. The sauce had white wine it in, and it gave me an opportunity to try a new wine as well. We had gotten this delicious bottle of wine from a friend (thanks, Ed and Allison!) and I have been looking all over for the brand- Snoqualmie- but haven't had much luck. So the local liquor store ordered me some, but he ordered the wrong kind, he got a naked organic chardonnay..... I bought it anyway, just to try. And it's delish! I love this wine, it doesn't give me a headache! And it's not expensive either, an added plus. So, hurray Lent! Thank you for breaking me out of my Friday night pizza routine!

Wine makes everything better. Even food.

Wordless Wednesday: Playing Dress Up

Go Rhode Island!

My friend Sarah introduced me to Crazy Burger years ago when we were roommates. This place ROCKS! Homemade sweet potato fries, homemade ketchup, plus amazing and creative burgers! For vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters alike. :) And guess what? I just saw on someone else's blog that it was featured on the Food Network on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. How cool is that?! So I posted it on here! Go Rhody! Take a look and go have a crazy burger!

Wordless Wednesday: Something I Found Yesterday

(Either Sadie's Irish side is really coming out or John is trying to tell me something. Had to laugh when I saw this! And yes, it's misspelled, thanks to the cats for losing letters. Happy St. Patrick's Day!)

Wordless Wednesday: Girlfriends Having a Blast

Good News, Good Weather, Good Meal

WOW. Bangles galore. Sadie can't decide which to wear first!

What a wonderful, sunny, spirit-lifting weekend. It actually felt like spring. I drove by the bank time/temperature sign and it said 56 degrees! We walked in the sunshine, ditched the hot coffee for iced, went to the park for the first time in months (squeals of delight from Sadie), and just soaked up the sunny rays and reveled in the mild temperatures. Is mother nature just being a tease? Most likely. It is New England, after all. Newport isn't known for their springs either. We seem to go from a long, cold winter and then, bam, it's summer. Every year though, I hold out hope for a nice spring. Who knows? Maybe this will be the year of the early spring. We even went to a surprise birthday party for John's boss, Ron, where Sadie instantly made herself at home as soon as she saw all the balloons scattered around. "Balloons!!" Oh, and the tortilla chips. She licked the salt off them one by one, then gave them back to the nearest person. "All done." Oh, Sadie girl. She bonded with Ron's sister, Lisa, when Lisa let her play with all her silver bangle bracelets. That is heaven for Sadie- TONS of bracelets! And she was so engrossed in her new surroundings, John and I got to sit back, relax, chat with good people and drink some good wine. Not a bad weekend, eh?

Our salt addict. She hears the crinkle of a chip bag a mile away and comes running.

On Sundays, if there is time and motivation, we like to try a new meal that we wouldn't have time to make on a week day. So, I opened up my Ina cookbook, and after much deliberation over what delicious dish to make, we decided to try her Chicken Stew with Biscuits. Panadda and Charlie- that gift has gotten so much use!! I love that cookbook! Well, after almost triple the amount of prep time stated and dinner at 8:30pm, a delicious chicken stew was served with, oh yes people, homemade biscuits on top! I have to give it to Ina, she has the best recipes. Sure, it calls for two and a half sticks of butter.... but that must be what makes it good! Laurie- what would I have done if I hadn't gone to that fateful Halloween party last year where you made that amazing dip and told me all about the wonder that is Ina??!

Hell ya those are homemade biscuits! Woot!

I saved the best for last. The good news. Sadie had a doctors appointment and a weight check today. Drum roll please....... She gained 1.5 pounds this month!! That is by far the most she has gained on her own and it was very much needed. Little by little, we will get back on that growth chart! At first I thought either I was reading the scale wrong or had her last month's weight wrong. But it was neither, it was honest to goodness weight gain. We are amazed and so elated about this. I was just hoping for a few ounces and no weight loss. How nice is it to be pleasantly surprised like that? A great end to a great weekend. Keep it up, my angel!

Our Budding Artist

Intently drawing on her easel.

Sadie has been loving coloring for awhile now, but it's just been her getting used to the crayons, loving to scribble, seeing all the colors and have us draw things with her. But lately, that is changing, she really is trying to draw objects now. Yesterday was the first time I saw her really draw an object- and recognize what it was! It is no surprise the first thing she drew was none other than her most favorite thing in the world- a balloon! She is obsessed with them! See the picture below: She intently drew her orange balloon (yes, it is upside down, but c'mon she's not even 2!) and proudly told me "balloon!" I am so proud of her! She must get it from John, he's really good at drawing, puts me to shame. I can't draw to save my life. (Note the purple octopus on the paper.) Now she draws them all time, even telling me "big balloon!" and "little balloon!". My little artist!

Sadie's Famous Orange Balloon. She's a modern artist, don't you think?

Wordless Wednesday: Proof I Did Not Jump On The Vampire Bandwagon Now

Circa 1998, with fellow vampire gal, Kim. Yes, those are special fangs we really had to search to find. They rocked.

(P.S. Disc 4 of True Blood came today. Doing a happy dance!)

My Girl!

This girl never fails to put a smile on my face! Last night before bed we were playing with stickers and she would tell John and I what picture was on each sticker and then stick them on either herself, John, or me- as shown above. I had a face full of stickers by the time it was done and she thought it was pretty funny. :) She is changing so much lately. Her vocabulary is really growing and she is starting to really have "conversations". Much of it is babble and is still hard to understand, but a lot of it is pretty clear- she gets her point across! She loves to tell you what she sees or what she wants. The other day at a play group, a mom asked her if she wanted to have "tea" with her as she set out the fake tea set. She looks her right in the eye and says "i want coffee." HA! Takes after her mom :) She is also starting to assert her independence a lot more. The other day, she took her hair clip out of her hair and threw it on the ground. I told her not to do that and leave it in her hair and she comes back with "I don't want to." What?! HA! I was so shocked it came out in such a perfect sentence that I missed that she was now starting to talk back to me! She concentrates so intently on drawing now, telling us she is making a balloon or umbrella or water, etc. It's adorable and amazing to see her grow and develop. That's it, just a post to say what a little sweetheart she is!