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A few weeks ago, Josh, Benjamin and I traveled up north to visit my Oma, since she could not travel to see Benjamin. It ended up being a few hundred dollars cheaper to fly into Philadelphia instead of Newark, and since Josh and I had never been to Philly, we opted for that choice.
We woke up at 4 am to get to the airport on time, so naturally, once we were fighting and frustrated at the airport (neither of us are morning people, and we did forget to pack a couple of things...), we found out that the flight was delayed. Knowing that all we had was time, we walked around (very grateful we brought Ben's jogging stroller, which we had debated) the airport and got some breakfast. I tried to feed Benjamin in a more empty part of the airport (covered up of course).
A couple of hours later, we boarded the plane. If Ben is tired, he normally refuses to sleep and is grumpy. If he is not sleepy or teething, he is a happy baby - as long as he has interaction. He has a limited attention span with toys and likes to move around. In that way, Ben takes after both of us. Josh and I cannot stay at home for an entire day without getting "cabin fever" - it appears that Ben has the baby version of that characteristic. I had packed some compact baby toys into his diaper bag, to help the time go by.
So we all get on the plane, and we keep two bags underneath our feet - 1 with my purse, camera, iPod and our books. The other bag was Ben's diaper bag. We took out a bottle of pumped milk from home (which, almost 4 hours later, was about to "expire") and a bottle nipple, and placed them in my bag for easy access. We sat down and got settled. About a minute later, Ben got cranky so we started looking in my bag for the bottle. The nipple was nowhere to be found (we still do not know where it went!). So we had ask the man sitting next to me if I could get out of the seating row. I opened our carry-on (which had my breast pump and extra bottles), but this already aggravated me - the one thing about my role as a parent that really frustrates me isn't:
- lack of sleep (although I would love to not wake up multiple times each night),
- spitting up all over me (this week Ben is sick, so that happens more often) or
- even the new lack of availability for social activities (we have yet to find a babysitter nearby for last minute plans)
... it is being disorganized! No matter how many times I create to dos lists or update my planner, things like this tend to happen. Maybe one day my brain will return to me :). However, that morning had many "forgetful" moments so I was anything but calm... especially since I was nervous about how Ben would handle the flight.
Luckily, Ben was exceptional during the flight. He started teething when we were delayed on the runway, so we gave him some Tylenol. He had no issues during takeoff. Ben did not even cry! He did make LOTS of cute noises, as in the past month he has become extremely talkative. The odd thing was that some people around us were rolling their eyes when he was making the cute noises; I guess they didn't realize that the alternative option of crying would be much less tolerable!
Ben moved all around my lap and Josh's, and even enjoyed looking out of the window of Josh's seat. He was particularly captivated by the pattern of the interior walls of the plane.
You could tell that at some points, he was completely content. In Josh's lap, he moved into what we call his "lounging Buddha" pose.
A couple of hours in the air, and we finally landed. While the plane was heading to the gate, Ben did get a little restless, but that was to be expected. As first time parents, we thought of how this first flight with Ben would turn out. The one thing we didn't expect was that Ben would get less frustrated than us!
Soon after, we picked out our luggage and headed to the rental car pick-up. After some frustrating issues there (which VERY luckily, Ben slept through), we were finally on the way to our hotel. Since we arrived a few hours later, the huge rainstorm (which caused the delay) had passed.
Arriving to our hotel - the Hyatt at Penn's Landing, we felt better already. It didn't matter that we were extremely hungry - we'd get something soon. We were able to relax on the King Size bed for a little while, watch some TV and decompress before a more cramped afternoon of sightseeing.
When I have free time, I enjoy baking - usually cookies. I've never really made pies, but a posting on the Cookie Madness blog caught my eye - a Key Lime Pie recipe that did not call for eggs.
The recipe could not have been easier (I bought a crust), but I would like to see how the pie would have tasted if frozen instead.
After reading a Houston Chronicle article about how lobster has become more affordable, I decided to try a related Lobster Mac n Cheese article.
Unfortunately, cheaper lobster does not mean that it was easily to cook with - I could only find live lobster, and I'm not into that much preparation on a weeknight. Josh and I decided to use crab meat instead.
The recipe called for a lot of cheeses and was very rich and tasty. That being said, the extra cost of the cheese and crab didn't make it any more filling than our typical mac and cheese with roasted tomatoes.
It's not that uncommon for me to use leftovers, particularly rotisserie chicken, in frittatas. A couple of weekends ago, I made one us one that Josh really liked.
This frittata included Italian flat leaf parsley, roasted red pepper, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and rotisserie chicken.
Very colorful and filling - but not too filling. A satisfying dinner with fairly little effort.
A couple of months ago, I posted about a Spicy Calamari Stew. I really liked how quickly the stew came together, but didn't like the texture of the calamari. Shrimp was on sale at the grocery store, so I added it in place of the calamari. I also swapped a can of tomato sauce for a can of tomato paste and water in the same amount. Then, we added artichokes and whole wheat pasta.
The result was a comforting, fast meal - something that takes very little effort AND makes great leftovers! This is already a weeknight go-to meal for us.
Like the original, you can't go wrong having garlic bread to soak up the extra sauce. I now make it with garlic ciabatta bread. There's never any bread left!
Every few days, we've been experimenting with new foods for Benjamin. After carrots, we started with peas. He was really starting to get used to the spoon thing. Now we expects food immediately when placed in his high chair! At Ben's 6 month appointment, his doctor visit notes included a recommendation to eat meals with us. He still continues to nurse, but Josh and I really like having him sit with us at dinner, even if it means my dinner gets cold occasionally!
Ben seems to constantly develop, and this month is no exception. He takes more and more of an interest in playing with toys and with books. Books with paper pages get mangled, so I've come to really appreciate the cardboard ones around.
A couple days after we introduced peas, we then gave Ben sweet potatoes. I think it is his favorite so far! He readily eats them, more than he'll do with peas (sometimes he will eat them, other times - not so much).
Now that Ben sits up on his own, he even enjoys hanging out on the couch (right next to parents who are supervising him, of course!). Here he is during the NCAA tourney games!
Ben seems to concentrate and analyze EVERYTHING around him. Here he is with his toys, but he's doing the same all of the time. Now during our walks, he is wide awake, absorbing everything within his line of sight. If I walk by without talking directly to him, he gets upset!
We are trying to introduce Ben to sippy cups. I found one that's almost a hybrid between a bottle and sippy cup, and Ben seems to understand it. However, the odd, unexpected thing is that he does not like white grape juice (diluted with water).
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