Mental Cleansing

Today is one of those days when I look at the bits and pieces of baby rice cakes on the floor and dishes in the sink...and I think....it can wait. So, with all of the things that I should be doing I will instead use this time to share the random things that have been going on around here lately.

• After a long time without caffeine...I am back to old habits. I now have a diet cherry Pepsi...EVERY day! I even throw in some coffee and tea into the mix as well. Even though I know this isn't healthy...I am definitely enjoying the needed boost.
• I am looking forward to the month of December! There are so many great events going on in the city, and I hope to go to as many Christmas related things as possible!
• Speaking of daily, less than healthy habits....can I add in a muffin or two a day. Yes, they are served in our building for breakfast! So, I've been making daily trips down...don't worry...still losing weight though :)
• The other day I was thinking about New Year's Resolutions...and I realized I have absolutely nothing that I want to work on in 2013...is this good? bad? sad? odd? I don't know...but maybe something will come up.
• We have started deciding what activities Mia will be doing next year...and it already looks exhausting. Swimming, two Japanese lessons, and various play groups...plus we will be starting this program that you do at home (you know language skills, music, etc). This may sound insane to some of you....but what do you cut? Please tell me if you know. Here is my logic....she is Japanese and needs as much exposure as possible. So, we can't cut those! Swimming is really for safety and so she won't be scared of the water...and have you ever met a Japanese kid that can't swim well? I didn't think so....and then the home program because we want to make sure we have focused quality time with her every day...and of course play groups for....well play....but any advice would be much appreciated.
• We recently decided to forgo cable and instead get an antenna and Netflix...plus anything else we need DVD wise can be checked out from the library (they have everything!)...this has been such a great, great idea. It saves money...quite a bit...and it prevents us from parking ourselves in front of the TV all day everyday flipping through channels.
• I've decided that if I were a religious person, I would be Mormon...seriously those are some dedicated folks...and I think if you believe in something, then you should go all the way...hahaha...
• On that note, we have decided not to take Mia to church. I would hate for her to have the idea that other religions are wrong...or that if you don't believe in a certain thing then you are somehow less than others...so we will try to expose her to several belief systems to have a understanding of different faiths, people, and ideas.
• Finally, my mother is coming to NYC in a few short weeks...should be a lot of fun :)

That is all for now folks.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Friends, we really did have a great first Thanksgiving here in NYC. I took quite a few pictures, but they really don't even cover the half of it. 

Everyone of course wonders if we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade...and we decided not too. 3 million people up at 6 a.m. to line up to watch the balloons just didn't seem like a good idea this year. So, we decided to do the next best thing. We headed down to the Museum of Natural History on Wed. afternoon to watch all of the balloons being inflated, and it was such a great idea.

Here are the Macy's staff blowing up Santa. I'll admit we didn't watch them do the entire thing because it takes forever!

Mia had just woken up so wasn't really sure what was going on...hahaha

Buzz Lightyear all ready for his big flight!

Mia yawning in front of the Macy's balloon...you could tell she was very impressed.

After walking around and seeing all of the classics like the Pillsbury Dough Boy and Ronald McDonald, we headed back to the apartment, and I started cooking for the next day. In all honesty, I found Thanksgiving cooking actually quite easy. Lots of just throwing things together in a pan and then baking...so no stress at all really. Here are a few photos of our family dinner.

Mia on Thanksgiving Day...supervising all of the last bits of cooking to be done.

Getting ready to eat all of this yummy goodness.

Butchering...I mean carving...the turkey.

You may notice a few things in these pictures. 1) Our table runner was a collection of gym towels and 2) Our serving dishes were all disposable or made of plastic...hahaha...yeah we actually didn't figure in the whole serving of the meal thing...we kind of completely forgot about what we would need to eat it after it was cooked....haha. So, next year we have vowed to do better.

After our Thanksgiving lunch, we lounged around and watched Netflix and waited for meal two! Yes, we actually went to someone's house and ate Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of new (to me) people...which was pretty fun...but didn't want to bust out my camera with a group of strangers and put them on the blog....haha.

Anyway, we had a really relaxing four days...and we even made a Starbucks run and drank a peppermint mocha (well I did at least)..OMG...can't wait to go get another one! Completely random side note...I know...anywho... hope everyone also had a great holiday weekend.

Mia at 7 Months

Dear Mia,

You are now 7 months old...and a few days...oops.

You are weighing in at 19 pounds and 4 oz which still puts you at 90% for weight...and you are getting taller...now up to 75%... a long ways away from not even on the chart yet!

This past month you have been quite the busy gal. You have started swim lessons with daddy...and you are even going under the water now...like a pro. You haven't cried once...yet...and daddy said he can see gold medals in your future...hahaha...no pressure though.

You are also loving your music lessons. You love hitting the tambourines and shaking the little hand bells. The teacher said you especially seem to be interested in the violin. It was so funny watching you pull the big bow across the strings.

Finally, you finished up your Japanese class this past month. You love this class the most, so I'm sure you will miss it along with your little friends.

In this last month you have also been getting more and more mobile. You are pulling yourself all over the floor and finding all kinds of things that you shouldn't be playing with. Cords seem to be your all time favorite toy at the moment. Your favorite food right now is probably cottage cheese with fruit...and you aren't too sure about cucumbers.

It has been so great to be able to introduce you to so many new things since last month...and it has been even better watching you learn and enjoy everything around you.

Love you to the moon and back,

Your Mommy and Daddy

Baby Minestrone

Yes, it has once again been a good long while since I've been on this blog here of mine....and I have no good excuses....hehe.

Anyway, so when Mia turned 6 months old, it was time to start solid foods. The doctor recommended rice cereal, followed by Level 1 foods...blah blah blah. I was a little bit disturbed by the fact that I was indeed recommended to feed my little baby all processed foods. I mean have you ever tried baby food? It is completely disgusting and rarely tastes like the food that it is named after...and why are the bananas pink?? If you have to turn it pink to preserve it...then no thank you...Rant finished.

So, here is one of our favorite baby food recipes for a 6 month old. (I'm assuming that from the above blurb...everyone can assume that we are making Mia's food...as we make our own. I am a housewife...so I do understand that I have the "luxury of time?" on my side.)

So, here it goes. Cut up some cabbage, onion, carrots, and potatoes (a couple of tablespoons of each) and add about 200 ml of water. Boil this lovely veggie mixture for about 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the next step...but it's simple...remove vegetables from the liquid...reserve the cooking liquid since this is now a vegetable broth...how easy.

Next, you need to mash up the vegetables. I use a wooden mortar and pestle...no fancy baby bullet required. I also had a steamed piece of broccoli left over so I mashed this up to on its own to add with the other veggies.

Spoon some of the vegetable broth over your mashed vegetables..and you have a tasty soup...even tastes good as an adult I must say...though I would prefer it to be a little chunkier...haha. By the way...the white stuff is a rice porridge.

I guess I should add...be practical...you are feeding this to a baby...so of course this is NOT a soup served hot!

Does anyone else have any good baby food recipes??

Halloween 2012

We had such grand plans for Halloween. We were going to go to the Pumpkin Festival in Central Park, the pumpkin patch in Queens, and then the parade in Riverside Park...well we all know that none of that was possible... so we had to go to Plan B.

First, Mia actually didn't wear this on Halloween...but here she is in her first costume... picked by Ten. He said it would be cruel to dress her up in the pig costume I liked...agreed...and he didn't want to choose the lamb costume because he doesn't like the taste of lamb really...so that is how this bunny was chosen...odd...I know.

On Halloween we lit our Jack-O-Lantern...

...we also read quite a few books. Here were some of our favorites...

Also once we realized that we would be stuck in the building on Halloween, we signed up to accept Trick or Treaters. We had a grand total of 16...not terrible but definitely not like  a small town where you get a bunch of kids I'm guessing...but that just meant more candy for me :)

Anyway, so that is how we spent our Halloween this year.... hopefully next year we will be able to do a little more...weather permitting.