I know what some of you are thinking: “Wow – only 2 dates in 8 months?  How sad.”

And then the mothers out there are thinking, “Wow – 2 dates in 8 months?  How awesome!”

We think more like that second group – it’s pretty awesome that we’ve been able to go on 2 dates, especially considering that none of our family live nearby and most of our friends either (a) have children themselves and aren’t able to come stay with Joe in the evening or (b) work really busy jobs or are going through major life changes.

This time around we left Joe in the capable hands of our friend, Priscilla.  Priscilla does work a busy job and even lives a good bit away from us, but she was willing to babysit anyway – bless her!  We put Joe down for bed at 7pm {his usual bedtime} and headed out shortly thereafter.

Sad to say, but this is the best photo of the two of us that I could find:

I’m not looking at the camera.  Chris is making a weird face.  In other words, a typical picture of the two of us!  It could be worse.  This was my other option:

Now we’re both making weird faces!  I did get one of just me, sans sunglasses.

We had a good time.  We ate dinner at a little downtown place called “Agents & Merchants”, or just “A&M” for central city dwellers.  If you’re thinking about going there, I’d recommend getting a reservation.  We did that, and as it turns out it was a good thing.  All of the tables were full, and the server actually had to ask a couple at one of the tables to get up so that we could sit down.  Awkward!  By the time we finished, there were 3 couples loitering nearby and as soon as I stood up, one of the women moved in and took my chair.  I guess that’s a good sign, though – people really want to eat there!

I ordered an Amstel Light {first time I’ve had one of those in over 2 years – they’re just not that common in NZ} and Chris decided to get some caffeine with a kick: espresso + Bailey’s.  We split 3 of the tapas plates: chips {fries} + aioli, bread + dipping sauces, and grilled Eggplant Parmesan.  All three were delicious, though Chris enjoyed the eggplant more than me.  Something about the sauce didn’t sit quite right with my palate, so he finished it while I drank the rest of my Amstel Light.  All in all, it was a good dining out experience.  We had good food, nice drinks, and fast service.  The only drawback was the noise – very loud music – and the smoke.  We were seated outdoors, though, so you kind of have to expect that.

Afterwards, we decided to walk back up Queen Street towards the movie theater rather than catching the free CityLINK bus.  Chris was keen to check out the newly opened New World supermarket on Queen.

That’s right – our 2nd date, and we spent part of it visiting a new supermarket.  We were curious!  And besides, we wanted to buy a few snacks for the movie, so why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

We finally headed out for the last half of our date, arriving at the movies with about 5 minutes to spare.  We took our assigned seats {yes, our movie theater has assigned seating – some people prefer this because you can book online and choose your seats, but I have to go in person to buy my tickets, anyway, in order to get my employee discount and avoid paying $16 per ticket} and watched “Moneyball” with Brad Pitt.  Chris liked it.  I wasn’t over-the-moon about it, but I won’t spoil it for any of you who might be considering going to see it.

 We got back home just before 11:30pm.  Joe slept the whole time and Priscilla had enjoyed a relaxing, albeit slightly boring, Friday night in our apartment

I’m hoping to make these date nights into a regular thing.  It’s important for us to spend time together without Joe and focus on keeping our relationship healthy.  I don’t see date night turning into a bi-weekly or even monthly sort of thing, but bi-monthly would be great!

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How about you parents out there?  Are you able to do regular date nights?  Is it something that you’d like to do but haven’t found the time for yet?  Are you, like us, living far from family and don’t have a lot of people that you can rely on to watch your little ones?  What sorts of things do you do instead to keep your relationship strong and stay in touch with each other’s lives?  Have you thought about teaming up with some other new parents, perhaps creating a babysitting schedule where you rotate and take turns so that you’re all able to have the occassional night out?  Do tell!

Manuka Honey & Spice Clusters with Flakes

I’ve seen the “Be Natural” range of cereals in our local grocery but since Chris is the primary cereal eater, I usually go off what he suggests rather than picking other options.  I was keen to try this box and to see what his take was on it as well.

I was impressed with the ingredients list – lots of fibre, lots of whole grains, and no processed sugars that I could see.  Here’s an up-close view of my bowl, shortly before digging in:

If you look closely, you can actually see the cardamon pods.

And here’s what my bowl looked like about, oh, 3 minutes later:

Delicious.  It reminded me somewhat of gingerbread and chai tea, only in a cereal bowl.  I’d even consider giving it to Joe once his digestive system is able to handle honey.

Naturally, I had to get Chris’ opinion as well.  Here is he mulling over the flavours:

It didn’t take long for him to decide that the Manuka Honey & Spice Clusters combined to make one yummy bowl of cereal!

His exact words were that it “seems healthy” and had a “good blend of textures”.  He also praised the fact that it “doesn’t disintegrate in milk”.  His only bit of constructive criticism was that it “could be a little sweeter”.  Of course, this is coming from a man who will occasionally eat chocolate for breakfast, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in that last comment

Overall, I’d recommend this cereal.  It’s healthy, tastes great, and as Chris says, “doesn’t disintegrate in milk”.  What more could you want from breakfast food?

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Please note that I was provided with a box of “Manuka Honey & Spice Clusters with Flakes” + three $1.00 off coupons for the same by the “Be Natural” cereals & snacks company.  However, I would never write something that I didn’t agree with.  If this cereal tasted bad, then I’d tell you.  All opinions in this post are honest and our own.

It’s a one-day course {6 1/2 hours} next month at a local school.  I’m really looking forward to it.  I think that at this stage, as a beginner, I need to do an in-person class rather than an online one.  I don’t do well asking questions via chat!

Why did it take me so long to sign up for a class?  I had all sorts of reasons – not a nice enough camera, not enough time, blah-blah-blah.  At the end of the day, I realized that I was being ridiculous.  I got a new, nicer camera for Christmas, so that took away one of my roadblocks.  I now have a baby, which added a roadblock and made me have even less time.  Life isn’t going to get simpler or easier or less busy anytime soon.  I’m really glad that I signed up.  A little nervous, but definitely excited

You turned 8 months old this week.  As I mentioned on Facebook, how on earth did that happen?!  It seems like just a short while ago we were remarking on the cute, hours-old newborn noises that you were making in the car on the trip from the hospital to Birthcare.

Less than 24 hours old

Nowadays, you are all over the place and such a joy to be around.  As I told your daddy, “He’s the kind of baby that makes me want to have another baby”.  I’m glad you’re such a happy little guy!

Movement

You have been working on your crawling every day.  You do the “army man crawl”, where you hoist yourself up on your arms and scoot your tummy across the floor.  This works quite well for you, actually.  The other day, I put you in the lounge and went to the other end to make myself a cup of tea.  By the time I’d poured myself the tea and turned around, you’d moved across the carpet and were reaching for the DVDs.  I have a feeling that it’s time to start baby-proofing things!

Of course, crawling isn’t the only thing that you’re keen to try.  You also love to stand and “walk” with our assistance.  In fact, you’d rather be standing than sitting.  The last time we were at Wriggle & Rhyme, I had to hold you up on your feet for most of the session.  Whenever I tried to put you in my lap, you’d cry, but as soon as you were standing you’d begin to coo, babble, and smile at the baby next to you.  You’ve gotten to be so good at standing that I’ll even leave you unassisted for a few minutes while I’m doing something else in the room.  You don’t mind.

Eating

We started you on 3 mini-meals just yesterday.  Right now, it’s probably 55/45 breastfeeding/solids.  You eat many of the same things that we eat, just without any added salt and making sure that it’s not too spicy.  I’ll usually pulse it once or twice with the hand-blender if it’s too much for you to chew {still no teeth yet!}.  Here’s an idea of what you might eat:

• Breakfast – Half of a cooked egg + a few chopped slices of mandarin, or perhaps a homemade spinach/spirulina/potato pancake + a bit of homemade applesauce
• Lunch – Usually whatever we had for dinner the night before! Yesterday, you ate a mixture of cooked beef mince {ground beef}, soft pasta, silver-beet {Swiss chard}, onion, fresh ground pepper, and some cumin with a “dessert” of homemade applesauce
• Dinner – Again, it’s usually whatever we are eating.  Last night you had a mixture of beef mince, fresh diced tomato, corn, lettuce, a tiny bit of cottage cheese, and “dessert” of homemade peach puree

One of the cutest things about this new phase of solid food?  You, sitting in the high chair, with your foot propped up on the tray.  You do this all the time and it’s so adorable!

You’ve gotten to be pretty good about that fine finger grasp and picking up food.  You make a mess sometimes, but it’s all part of the learning process

Talking

No words yet, but you definitely have your own language and know how to use it.  You love to say “ba-ba-ba”, “da-da-da”, “brrrrr”, “tsh-tsh-tsh”, and sometimes just shriek for joy {or in irritation!}.  You’ve also recently started this thing where you get so excited that you sound as though you’re hyperventilating.  We can copy your noises, then you copy them back to us, and we copy them back to you… it’s pretty fun to interact with you in this way!

Sleep

You take a nap in the morning and a nap in the afternoon.  The morning nap is about an hour, hour and a half.  The afternoon nap is around 2 – 2 1/2 hours.  Come 7pm, you are ready for bed and then generally sleep straight through till 6/6:30am!  I kind of love that you’re an early bird.  It makes me get up and get going in the morning rather than sleeping in.

Other Bits and Pieces

This last month had a period of about 5 days where it was just you and me, little guy!  I was a bit nervous how it would play out, me being the sole care provider 24/7, but it went really well.  I had been praying that I would have an extra measure of patience for that time, and I did, thank the Lord.  We only had one “major” rough patch – it was a particularly hot day and you hadn’t slept well the night before or during your nap times – but overall, it made me more confident in my ability to care for you.

You’ve also had some more time with your daddy, as I’ve been working a bit longer at the hospital.  I’m still just doing odd shifts here and there.  You love hanging out with him.  As a matter of fact, today while I was at work the two of you caught the bus to the beach at Mission Bay.  This was your first time to sit in the sand at the beach {rather than just being walked on the beach in your pram} and you couldn’t get enough of it.  Your daddy had quite the time trying to keep an eye on you, the picnic rug, the video camera, and make sure that you weren’t eating too much sand.  I’m glad that he and you are able to hang out like that

And because you can only see so much in pictures, here’s a little video of you {about 2 minutes} showing how well you do at standing, pulling yourself up, and talking.

I love you, sweet baby boy!

So delicious!  If you’d like to give them a try, just follow the recipe below:

• 4 whole wheat tortillas
• 2 C spinach leaves, chopped
• 1 medium red onion, diced
• 1 red capsicum {bell pepper}, roasted and chopped
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, roasted with olive oil + salt
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese {about 1 1/2 C}
• Crumbled feta cheese {about 2/3 C}
• Red pepper flakes
• Olive oil

Brush 1 side of each tortilla with olive oil.  Place oiled side down on a work-space, and layer half of each tortilla with Mozzarella, spinach, onion, black beans, tomatoes, capsicum, feta, and a bit more Mozzarella.  Sprinkle with red pepper flakes.  Fold tortilla over, forming a semi-circle, and cook in a skillet coated with non-stick spray.  Flip after a few minutes, till both sides are golden-brown and cheeses are melted.  Cut each semi-circle into wedges.

Enjoy!

Modified from this recipe.

PS – If you’re thinking that oven-roasted tomatoes and capsicum are too hard, think again!  All you do is take a pint of cherry tomatoes, slice them in half, toss them in 2 – 3 T of olive oil with some sea salt sprinkled on top.  Spread them on a baking sheet and broil for 15 minutes.  For the capsicum, just cut it in half, scoop out the insides, place the halves with cut-sides down and press them flat with your hands.  Brush with olive oil and broil for 15 minutes.  Once finished, peel skins off the capsicum.  If you want, put tomatoes and capsicum on the same baking pan and broil together to save on time!

Yes, we were just in the States but Chris headed back over there for work-related travels.

We really missed him!  Having him gone made me realize a few things, probably the least-important of which was this:

Chris is – gasp – not the one who does this to the tube of toothpaste!

It’s true – we’ve been married for over 7 years and I’ve always assumed that Chris was the one who left the big gob of blue goop on the tube.  No, my friends – it’s me.  The tube was cleaned off on the morning of the day that he left, and this is what it looked like when he returned.

Oh well.  Learned something new about myself

Seriously, though – it’s great to have him back.  Our family isn’t complete without him here!

If only it were permissible for adults to go around dressed in the same fashion!  It might help cool some of the tempers that have been simmering in NZ these days surrounding the whole “breast vs. formula-feeding” issue.

It’s not a new issue, really.  The “breast vs. formula” debate has been going on ever since formula became a popular alternative.  This latest flare-up surrounds a brief, seconds-long clip of Piri Weepu {famous NZ rugby player} feeding his baby girl with a bottle while appearing in an anti-smoking PSA.  The local La Leche League expressed concern that this was undermining the “breast milk is best” position of the NZ government {who was running the anti-smoking PSA}, and the clip was pulled.

Naturally, this was cause for a revolt.  It’s ridiculous, really.  In one camp, you have LLL who’s aim is to promote breastfeeding while providing support and education.  In another camp, you have parents who feel targeted for using formula.  There’s likely a 3rd camp out there as well, but for the purposes of this post, I’m only going to focus on those two.

I think that most people in Western culture have heard at some point that “breast is best” and know that breast milk is the ideal, the same way that most people realize that drinking during pregnancy is a bad idea and that smoking around children should be avoided.  However, as someone who almost exclusively breast-feeds {I do occasionally give Joe expressed milk in a bottle and we’ve started to introduce solids}, I get irked when people are staunchly for or against one side or the other.

I believe that God created a perfect world, and that we as women were designed to be able to breastfeed.  Unfortunately, that perfect world and that perfect design were mucked up.  The end result is that things don’t always work as they were originally intended.  We have problems like complicated births, c-sections, failure to thrive, prematurity, food allergies, and a whole host of other issues that can affect both a woman’s ability to produce milk and a baby’s ability to ingest it.  That doesn’t even begin to factor in things like needing to return to work in order to help support your family, a situation which can be so stressful that your milk supply dries up entirely.

Do I think that women and society should strive to support breastfeeding?  Yes – absolutely.  It’s the perfect food for our babies in an ideal world.  But like I said, that ideal, perfect world no longer exists.  That’s not an excuse to throw up our hands and say, “Oh well!”  You should ask questions.  Go to a local LLL meeting.  Call up a lactation consultant.  Educate yourself. Talk to your doctor or midwife.  Most women that I know who have used or are using formula aren’t doing it solely for convenience’s sake – they’re doing it because they attempted to breastfeed and for a variety of reasons found that they were unable to do so.  And unfortunately, at some point or another, these women feel shame or guilt as a result.

You are not a bad parent because of feeding your child formula.  It would be far, far worse to choose not to feed your child.  I’d even say that it would be far, far worse to work yourself into exhaustion while trying everything in the book to breastfeed, leaving you stressed, miserable, and unable to cope with and enjoy your new baby.  Anyone who says, “Tsk, well if you’d only tried X, Y, and Z, then you’d be able to breastfeed successfully” is presenting an incredibly simplistic answer to a very complicated problem.  It’s not always that easy.

So, feed your baby.  Love them.  Listen to what experts tell you.  Try your best.  Then move on.  If someone criticizes your choice {which to me, the idea of a stranger coming up to you and shaking their finger at how you feed your child is just bizarre} then give them the attention they deserve: none.

1:50am – Bad start to morning – woke up with a terrible headache, ended up getting out of bed, being sick, taking Panadol (Tylenol) and drinking some water

2:30am – Back to sleep

6:30am – Awake with Joe. Decide to nurse him in bed because of being so tired.  Chris has already left for work, so it’s just him and me.

6:50am – Get dressed, make bed, and check email

7am – Start laundry, fold cloth nappies, drink a big glass of water

7:30am – Empty dishwasher, re-load dishwasher, and clean up the kitchen

In case you were wondering what was going on with Joe all this time, he was playing in the lounge, “reading” books, and listening to his records

7:40am – Start the kettle, pump a bottle for Joe, read to Joe, and pour myself a cup of tea

8am – Joe starts to have a meltdown – time for his “second breakfast”!

I was watching a documentary on NASA while nursing him.  The photo below makes it look like it was some cheesy B-movie about space invaders, but I promise it was scientific!

8:15am – Hang some of the laundry, play & sing with Joe, change him, and dance around to “Hokey Pokey.  What?  Don’t you dance to the “Hokey Pokey” in the morning?  You should.

Put Joe in his Jolly Jumper for a few minutes while finishing the laundry…

9am – Read “Where is the Green Sheep?” to Joe, nurse him one more time, and put him down for his morning nap

9:10am – Run on treadmill

9:55am – Shower, start 2nd load of laundry, called and texted with friend who was in labor, put together a quick grocery list, checked email, collected library books/CDs to return, and took out a chicken to thaw.

10:30am – Joe is awake!

Take him into the lounge and quickly finish hanging the laundry and put away any dry items while he’s still smiling and happy   Play with him once everything is up on the rack.

10:50am – Sunblock application in preparation for our walk outside later.  Got to put it on at least 15 minutes before going into the sun.

11am – Nurse Joe.

11:15am – Head out on errands to library, cleaners, and grocery.  First, have to get all of this…

Down these…

Just imagine what it’s like on the way back up, when I’m bearing groceries and a shirt from the cleaners!  Thankfully, it’s only this 1 flight of stairs before reaching the lift, and then down to ground level.

Ready to go!

Joe had fun at the library, though you wouldn’t know it from this photo:

12:30pm – Get home; burning up from carrying Joe + pram + nappy bag + groceries + library books + everything else but the kitchen sink up those stairs.  Rue decision to wear jeans in summer.

12:40pm – Nurse Joe, then feed him some solid foods.

This is what he was eating.  Looks gross, but it tasted so good that I wanted to eat a bowl of it myself!

Joe’s food was a meal that we’d had for dinner last night.  I just pulsed it once or twice with the hand blender so that it was a thick, lumpy mash, added some cottage cheese, and about 1/8 – 1/4 of a tsp of spirulina powder.

This is what Joe looked like when he realized that he had eaten all of his food and none was left in the bowl:

What a face!

1:00pm – Joe has some play-time while I try to eat lunch.  I get about 2 bites in before Joe sees what I’m doing, lunges for my fork, then bursts into tears because he can’t have any of my spicy homemade chicken.  Sorry, Joe.  I end up putting away the food and playing with Joe on the nursery floor.  Let’s just say that I’m glad that I have a cheap cell phone, because Joe loves to bang it on the floor!

Working on crawling…

1:50pm – Put Joe down for nap and work on Bible study

2:30 – 2:45pm – Eat a not-so-healthy lunch of corn tortilla chips; have a spoonful of Nutella for dessert

Side Note: In the 8+ years that I’ve known Chris, he’s been telling me about how great Nutella is and that I should try some.  I finally tried some this week after being given homemade chocolate hazelnut spread.  Wow – so good!  And so bad!

2:45pm – Napped {normally don’t do this, but pretty tired from waking up in the wee hours of the morning and being sick}

4pm – Joe is awake, and so am I!  I change him, nurse him, put away the remainder of the laundry, put a chicken in a pot of water to boil, and play with Joe.

4:30pm – Chris home – we chat about our days while he plays with Joe as a I check on the chicken.

5pm – Fed Joe more solid foods; ended up rearranging freezer while pulling out some things for him so that I could fit my 16 C of homemade chicken broth in there.  We don’t have a big freezer, so I’m constantly rearranging things:

Bottom drawer w/ homemade chicken broth and applesauce, fruits + veggies, and bottles

This is the top drawer, pre-organization…

And here it is after…

Chris ate his dinner during this time, too.

6:00pm – Bath time for Joe!

This was also when I ate my dinner.  Chris finished Joe’s bath time responsibilities by drying him off and changing him.  I scurried into the kitchen to try out a new recipe – hummus melts.  Unfortunately, I was in such a hurry that I made two mistakes.  Can you guess what they are?

Mistake #1 – this was supposed to have hummus, then spinach, and then cheese.  Mistake #2 – was supposed to use mozzarella cheese, not cheddar/tasty cheese.  Whoops.  It was good, but too cheesy and not quite as healthy as it should have been.

6:30pm – Story time and nursing Joe once more before he goes to bed.

7pm – Joe is asleep!  Hurriedly pick up the lounge, then finish the chicken, de-bone it, chop it, and measure it into 2 C servings in Ziploc baggies for the freezer.  Decide that I want something sweet, so I make no-bake chocolate peanut butter cookies.

Throughout the chicken de-boning/chopping process, Chris was like this:

However, within a few minutes of starting to mix up the peanut butter and chocolate, he says, “Whatcha doin’?” and ambled on over.  Hmm.

About the cookies – these are always hit-or-miss for me.  Last time I made them, they were great.  The time before, they were soupy.  This time, I got to the last cup of oatmeal and thought, “Wait… did I already add all of the oatmeal?”  Decided that I did, then second-guessed myself and added a 1/2 C just to be safe.  Turns out that I hadn’t added all of the oatmeal, so they were a bit runny, hence storing them in the fridge!

8:15pm – Write a post, play around with HTML on blog, upload pictures and videos while watching “NCIS” on DVD with Chris

10:00pm – Start dishwasher, head to bed!

Thanks for joining us!  I’d love to see what a day in your life looks like, too