Grammy's Bday

We celebrated Grammy Carol's birthday today with brunch at "William's House."

What we ate:

Breakfast pizza

Fresh orange juice

Mixed berries with yogurt

Birthday cake

What Logan ate:

Yogurt

Grammy looked resplendent in an orange-and-blue outfit (Go, Illini, go!). I hope it's hereditary to look 15 years younger than you really are.

Grammy holds Ollie:



Grammy and Wills let 'em eat cake:

Seven Scary Minutes

I knew this day would come. This morning in a flurry of getting the boys out of the car and into day care, I locked Logan in the car.

All is well...it was about seven minutes from my realizing I'd done it to me pulling him out. Logan thought the entire thing was a huge game of peek-a-boo, so he's fine. But my hands were shaking and my heart was pounding for most of the morning. Aunt Emily calls it "Mommy Head": when the "what if" thoughts start racing (What if the car was on? What if we were in a parking lot instead of at day care? What if it was really hot out?).

The day care staff rallied like soldiers when I burst in the door asking for the phone. Those folks are good in a crisis, I don't think this is the first time they've seen this. The director went out to stand by the car so Logan would not get scared (this is how the peek-a-boo got started). A teacher from the infant room came out to get Ollie from me and bring him to his room so he would be safe in the scuffle. A third teacher got the fire department on the phone in case I could not reach Larry.

Anyway, Daddy drove up in his shiny red car moments later to save the day, and now Logan is happily announcing that "Daddy fixed the car!"

Breathe.

Keeping Up with the Neighbors

Logan recently insisted we move his chair near Oliver's high chair for meals. He wants to "sit with Baby Ollie" and point out interesting things to him, such as the movements of the neighbors.

Logan is obsessed right now with the neighbors with whom we share a back fence. We glimpse them occasionally in their kitchen and can sometimes see them playing in their tree house. Unfettered by limited access, Logan has created a rich life for them and keeps us abreast of their activities, including:

Being home (this is hard to argue with)

Drawing with blue and green crayons (interesting...)

Eating (again, hard to argue)

Turning on the lights (possibly, but not with the single-minded obsession with which this activity is carried out in our house)

Dinner for Two

Logan and Wills dine a deux.

A Hat Trick of Miracles

Oliver "met" (read: squirmed in the vicinity of) fellow St. David's NICU Class of 2008 grads Truman and Creed Heaston today. The first time all three have been together. They missed each other at the hospital by about two weeks. From left: Truman (recently awakened from a nap and thus a bit cranky), Creed and Oliver.



How great it was to hold Creed and Truman, having only met them previously in the NICU encased in their isolettes. They feel and look like regular ol' babies. If I didn't know the history (all too well) I'd have no idea what they've been through. I can hardly wait for the future play dates of these three.

Update: The Heastons' take on our visit. By the way, Miranda and I chose these post titles completely independent of each other.

Tell It Like It Is

Indeed.

Breakfast Challenge Week 3 Results

Today we switched from the savory recipes to the one sweet one for our Bills Breakfast Challenge of cooking all of the breakfasts in the recent Esquire issue on great breakfasts to cook and places to eat.

Today's breakfast was Banana Bread French Toast. I made the banana bread last night and whipped up the french toast this morning.

As with Week 1 and Week 2, a decent breakfast but nothing special. The whole did not taste like more than the sum of its parts. A good recipe brings the ingredients to a new level.

Thus ends our Bills Breakfast Challenge, as we are 0 for 3 in finding a life-changing recipe and we really miss our pancakes.

Specific comments:

Amy: "I would have liked the bread toasted more than french toasted."

Larry: "It's OK."

Logan: Claimed to be excited for "french toast" (he's never had it) until he got a look at it, asked for cereal instead.

Oliver: NA, ate bananas.

Is it a keeper?

What's to keep? No magic tricks here.

Grapes

Logan, do you want some grapes?

Want grapes!

What's the magic word?

(Pause for thought.) Mine!!!!

Comfy Little Monkeys

Last week Oliver received a jaw-droppingly beautiful gift from our friend Nic (actually made by her mom). This quilt is embroidered with monkeys and little pillows, and the words to the song "Five Little Monkeys" are embroidered around the border.

This is the only time it will ever be seen on the floor, it's far too beautiful. We're investigating methods for hanging it on Ollie's wall at least until he has a big-boy bed (years away) and is less likely to spit up on it.


Logan also received a special gift of two pillowcases with embroidered monkeys and his name. Although Nic's Momma didn't know it, Logan has just recently begun using a pillow, so it could not have been better timing.


You can see the monkey detail a bit closer here. Like the quilt, they are almost too adorable to use, but I feel a little less wary because they can be washed pretty easily. I could not have created something like this if it were literally my full-time job for a month. It's an instant heirloom.

Spare a Dime?

If you're getting a tax refund this year or still sitting on a little stimulus money, please consider throwing just a bit of it the way of the March of Dimes via the Heastons, our fellow NICU survivors and parents of former preemies (and now extremely robust infants) Creed and Truman.

The March of Dimes preemie parents' community was a huge comfort to me during the dark days of 2008 (as were Miranda and Roger Heaston, come to think of it). Their Web site has comforted numerous scared and confused parents and the research they fund has helped give countless babies a fighting chance.

Etc. etc.

It's a good cause. Donate here.

Breakfast Challenge Week 2 Results

Another "meh" entry for week 2 of the Bills Breakfast Challenge. I guess there is a reason people don't "read Esquire for the recipes."

For week 2, we turned the breakfast recipe into dinner tonight, reverting to our family fave, pancakes, on Sunday. Thumbs sideways for Bacon and Egg Fried Rice. Like our week 1 entry, it was OK but nothing special.

Specific comments:

Amy: "Tastes like rice, bacon and eggs."

Larry: "Too eggy."

Logan: Would never touch anything that weird looking, ate peanut butter and jelly, yogurt and pears.

Oliver: NA, ate applesauce.

Is it a keeper?

No. We'd just make bacon and eggs before doing this again.

Color Combos

Bathtime with Crayola bath markers.

Logan, what do red and blue make?

A circle!

Um...what do yellow and red make?

BLUE!

What do blue and yellow make? (And thinking to self: Why am I even bothering with this line of questioning?)

Chocolate!

Breakfast Challenge Week 1 Results

This morning we began week 1 of the Bills Breakfast Challenge with Griddled Bacon, Egg and Cheese sandwiches.

The verdict: Tasty, but a lot of work for the results. We could have made scrambled eggs, bacon and toast with less work and had equal enjoyment.

Specific comments:

Amy: "Tastes fine but nothing special."

Larry: "Mmmmph, good."

Logan: Too impatient, demanded pancakes instead.

Oliver: NA, ate applesauce.

Is it a keeper?

Meh. Nothing really special going on there.