Baby C standing on the sofa

Cecilia loves to stand, I recently discovered that she like to stand on the couch and look out the window. Enjoy.

The Swing War- Day 4-update

The baby fell asleep for her afternoon nap!!! I was totally shocked and amazed. I left her in there for about 20 minutes and she talked and then fell asleep for an hour. This is the first time she has taken two naps all week. Could this possibly be the turning point? Do I dare hope?

Swiss Family Robinson

I once read that it is really good to sing to your baby. So I sing to her as we are getting ready for bed and most naps. It is part of the calming down routine. Most times I just make up a song, but I'm not very creative so they usually end up to be about the same. But the other day I was humming along and stumbled across the "Oh Christmas Tree" song that is sung in Swiss Family Robinson. I'm sure it is a typical English song, but my only association with it is the movie. That really made me want to see it again. I decided it would be a good one to add to our children's video library so I bought it. When it came in the mail I was so excited to rewatch it. What a classic. There are a few scary parts so we may save it for when our kids are older. I'm sure PETA hates it for some of the scenes as there are a lot of animals stressed, not hurt I'm sure, but stressed. But I digress. There was one part of the movie that I laughed so hard my stomach hurt and I wanted to share it with all of you. I can't figure out how to take a clip from YouTube and modify it. So you'll just have to fast forward this one to 6:33 to get to the scene I'm talking about. If anyone knows how to modify this clip let me know. Enjoy!

The Swing War- Day 4

Cecilia took over a two hour nap in her crib this morning!!!! I was so excited! I finally won a battle! Maybe this is the turning point of the war. We had one interruption where I went in and soothed her back to a drowsy state and put her down and she fell asleep. I was so surprised! Afternoon nap... not so great. But it is partially my fault because I was running errands and messed up her timing. At that point it is kinda like attacking a city that has huge walls, sometimes it will work but it takes a lot longer. At this point I think I will retreat and try again tomorrow. One more day to try to get two naps back. Tomorrow decides the outcome of the war, only two last great battles left!!! I can't wait for peace one way or the other.

The Swing War- Day 3

I had to call in reinforcements. Cecilia woke up early, and took a one hour nap in the morning. I was about to loose the war so I needed some fresh troops. If I knew history well I could make some analogy about the US coming to the rescue of France in WWII or something. But history has never been my strong suit. So Shaun took a turn for what was supposed to be the afternoon nap. Early to bed again. Two more days and then she has killed too many of my citizens (nerves) and I wave my white flag and try again when she is 2 years old :) There has to be a better way...

Why do we love food?

In the midst of Katie's battles at home with her worthy, non-sleeping opponent, I've decided to jump in with a slightly more colorful fare: some recent foods we've been more than pleased with. We've decided to start taking close up pictures of our food, which makes it way more pleasant to look at. But for now, our amateur photography skills will have to suffice.

First, we have our bowl of peeled tomatoes. My mouth starts watering just by looking at these amazing beauties. We crushed most of them up to make a modified version of this eggplant parmesan recipe.

This is the eggplant parmesan. It tasted fantastic but the picture is really lacking...

The other thing we did with our tomatoes is throw them down with some fresh mozzarella, basil and some olive oil. Dash some sea salt and cracked pepper on there and you have one of the greatest things on earth: caprese.

We had a few friends over last week for a limon-roasted chicken Mexican dinner.

Finally, we needed to document some of our favorite things to do with summer's fresh peaches. Katie likes to snack with peanut butter on toast topped with sliced peaches.

Shaun, however, prefers to go straight peaches and cream. (The crappy Quaker oatmeal packet is definitely not what I'm talking about here). I'm talking about peaches so ripe the skin peels off in one tug. I'm talking about peaches so juicy you don't even realize it's already dripping from your elbow when you finish peeling them. I'm talking about peaches so sweet the only way to make them better is to pour a little half and half (you're just asking for trouble if you start actually eating them with real cream) in a bowl and eat them a slice at a time.

The Swing War- Day 2

Where has my sweet happy baby gone who didn't cry and would put herself back to sleep when she woke up in the middle of a nap? I left her behind in the swing with her sane mom.