Baby State of Affairs: 7 months

I just realized I never posted a 7 month update! Oops. Let me try to recount how things were looking at the 7 month mark...

Sleep - Still taking 2 naps a day. Was consistently waking up once a night ever since he got sick. *sigh*

Food - Eating 2 meals a day (1 meal of puree and 1 meal of rice powder). Taking 3 bottles of 6.5 oz milk during the day, and a night time feeding from mama before bed.

Teeth - He's got 2 teeth ahhhhhh!!! Baby Burrito sprouted a tooth around the 6.5 week mark. Then he sprouted his second just after turning 7 months. Crazy! Thankfully he hasn't been nipping at me with his new appendages. Hopefully that continues to be the case.

Mobility - Getting more and more agile. Started scooting a bit on his belly.

Social - He pretty much giggles at anything now. Loves to jump up and down in his jumper. Seems to have no stranger anxiety at all since we've pretty much been passing him around to total strangers (new relatives in LA, friends at Kara's party).

All together - super cute!!

Vaca Sans Baby

Two weeks ago, Badge and I took a vacation sans baby. It was long overdue (we hadn’t taken a week off work since our Taiwan trip two years ago), and we had a fantastic time. Here’s what I remember.

Sunday morning was pretty chaotic. After Baby Burrito woke up and ate breakfast, we madly dashed about packing up odds and ends. The Prius was stuffed to the brim with our luggage and baby gear, but we managed to hit the road without forgetting anything. There was a funny moment when we turned around and expected to see Henry strapped to the baby seat instead of the baby but luckily that was not the case. Baby Burrito entertained himself pretty well for the first hour, then got tired, fussed/cried, and passed out for the rest of the ride to grandma’s. Upon arrival, Badge and I promptly unloaded said baby, and scurried off to El Pollo Inka for some lunch (yes, we brought grandma back some food). After resting up in the afternoon and giving baby lots of kissies, we officially began our vacation.

Sunday – Downtown LA
After checking into our hotel in Little Tokyo, it was off to dinner at Osteria Mozza. After some sleuthing, we tracked down the montepulciano wine from our last visit and ordered a bottle. For apps, I got burrata bruschetta and Badge had buffalo mozzarella with salami salad. So tasty.


Of course, we ordered the orrechiette with sausage and panko topping, which was just as epic as I remembered. For entrée, I had lamb and Badge had ravioli, and for dessert we split flourless chocolate cake and some fruit thing, which escapes my memory at the moment. It was good though ☺.


Monday – Monterey
That morning, we hit the road bright eyed and busy tailed. It was a long drive up to Monterey but nothing we couldn’t handle. Many tunes and a couple rest stops later, we pulled up to Jabberwock Inn, the bed & breakfast where we were staying. First off, I should note that I’ve never stayed at a b&b so I wasn’t sure what to expect. As soon as I walked in, I was won over. Very cutely decorated and owned by the nicest couple. After dropping off our stuff, we visited the aquarium, which was conveniently within walking distance.


The exhibits were great, although I was surprised to find the aquarium smaller than expected. We were able to visit all the exhibits in a couple of hours. Great chance to practice photography (even though most of my pics were blurry because those bugger fish are fast).




We went back to the b&b for cocktail hour (wine and strawberries), then it was off to dinner at Passionfish. After consuming copious amounts of seafood (oysters, crab cakes, scallops, fish), we decided to end the night with a movie. I convinced Badge to watch the Hunger Games, which turned out to be quite good (side note: how is this movie PG-13 with all the violence?).


Tuesday – San Francisco
The next morning, we drove to San Francisco and attempted to have lunch at So (remember those noodles I was obsessed with?), but they were CLOSED and weren’t reopening until the day after we left. What the hell?? So instead we had sandwiches and quiche from a coffeeshop on the corner which was actually quite tasty. After checking into our hotel in Japantown (apparently Japanese hotels are a great place to get special rates), we immediately took the bus to Union Square and swarmed Barney’s. The poor sales reps didn’t know what was coming (side note: I haven’t really been shopping since before I was pregnant so this was a long time coming). With our wallets significantly lighter, we hightailed it to the Mission where we met Maya, Brian, McClain and his gf for dinner at Chilango. Strangely enough, the food wasn’t nearly as good as the last time we went (Maya commented they can sometimes be inconsistent), but the dulce de leche cake still made my day. After dinner, Badge and I went to Maya and Brian’s new home in Nola (super cute) and hung out.


Wed – Sonoma Valley
On Wednesday, we headed back to Union Square to be picked up for our wine tasting tour. Badge booked us on Terrific Tours after deciding the last thing we wanted on our trip was a DUI. Again, we weren’t sure what to expect but it ended up being…well, TERRIFIC! The tour guide Dan was super knowledgeable and personable. There were 4 couples in total and everyone was really nice and low key. We visited 3 wineries (Larson, Bueno Vista, and Homewood), stopped in downtown Sonoma for lunch, and went to another wine tasting room (Roessler) while there. We bought a hefty number of bottles as we went. The piece de resistance was the port at Homewood. AMAZING!!




The tour was an all day affair, ending in a ferry ride back to San Fran. Suffice it to say, I was pretty tipsy towards the end. Once we dropped off our wine purchases and sobered up a bit at the hotel, we went out for sushi, followed by a comedy show. The opener was a very awkward very unfunny Asian kid. Luckily, the second act was better, and the main act was pretty hilarious. After the show, Badge convinced me to walk to North Beach for some late night pizza.

Thursday - Berkley/Oakland
During the day, we decided to go shopping again (I know I know, we had a major itch to scratch). Maya met up with us for a couple hours which was fun. For dinner we booked it over to Berkeley to dine at Chez Panisse Cafe (couldn't get reservations at the dinner room in time). The food was simple and well executed. At this point I stopped lugging my big camera everywhere so you'll just have to settle for the iphone pics.


Friday - Santa Barbara
Friday mostly consisted of driving back down the coast. We got to Santa Barbara around mid afternoon and grabbed Mexican grub at La Super-Rica.


After checking into our hotel (a hipster motel actually), we walked around downtown and got a quick glass of wine from a local tasting room. Then it was off to dinner at Bouchon where we had FANTASTIC french food, and happened to sit next to Maria Sharapova. Go figure!

Saturday - Redondo Beach
In the morning, we rolled out of bed and right over to Float Day Spa for a massage (me) and gentleman's facial (Badge). Then we drove to Thousand Oaks to visit Namita, Kal, and their adorable baby Aria. After a lovely homecooked breakfast, we made the trek back to Redondo Beach to see Baby Burrito! There was much rejoicing when he finally woke up from his nap and graced us with his presence. We promptly whisked him away to Kara's birthday party which was a great time (with great eating). Badge and I ended up spending the night at mom's before packing everything up, baby included, and driving back the next morning.

Fabulous trip. Can't wait to do something like this again! Many more pics here

Welcome Molly

Last weekend, I got to meet the newest member of the family, Molly!

Kris, Si, Sophie, and Molly drove down from LA to visit. On Saturday, we all got together at Spike and Frog's house for Indian food and general festivities. Tons of cuteness everywhere I looked. At just 1 month old, Molly seemed so tiny! Holding her made me all nervous again, as if I hadn't just gone through the experience. How quickly the memories fade. She's got the most beautiful blue eyes, and whereas Sophie looks exactly like Kris, I think Molly looks exactly like Si.


The cousins were quite cute playing with each other. Here's Sophie posing with an unsuspecting Max (no idea why she likes to pose with her mouth wide open, but it was hilarious).

Bagels: Take 2

This week, I made bagels again, only this time using the standard size and boiling for only 30 sec each side. I should have baked them longer but I was super paranoid about them getting hard like last time, plus we were late for Molly's Welcome party (post to follow). Oh well, they still came out delicious. Much better this time around.

Next time (yes I'm still in pursuit of the "perfect" bagel), I will boil for 1 min each time as recommended and bake a little longer. Also, I'll be sure to use fresh yeast. I used some from a previously opened packet and didn't feel like my sponge poofed as much as last time.

Seriously though, these are great. Why would you ever buy bagels again?

Butter Ball

Bagels!

I've never had any interest in making bagels. It seemed like too much work. I thought, how could homemade ones possibly be better than bagels from a bona fide bagel shop?


Well, a couple of weeks ago, my coworker brought in some homemade bagel bites that were stuffed with chocolate. Sooo tasty. He convinced me it wasn't too much work and sent me the recipe. I was committed.

Last weekend, I made my first attempt. It ended up being a three day process, mostly due to my own poor planning. I would typically perform the next step late at night, only to realize later that the following step would take a few more hours to complete. That outta teach me to read the whole recipe carefully in advance. The bites/bagels (I made both) turned out to be delicously crisp and chewy on the outside but perhaps too airy and fluffy on the inside. It wasn't the texture you come to expect from a bagel.

This weekend, I decided to try again. This time, I used Peter Reinhart's bagel recipe which I found on Smitten Kitchen. Actually both recipes are quite similar. You start with a sponge of yeast, water, and bread flour. Then you proceed to make the dough. After vigorous kneading (you will save yourself sore arms with a KitchenAid) and rising, you make donut shapes and let them rise a little more. Then it's off to the fridge.


The next day, you boil the bagels for a couple minutes.


And then it's off to bake until golden (pic below is pre baking).


My second attempt was much better than the first. The insides of the bagel were much more substantial without sacrificing the crisp and chewy exterior. I did end up baking these too long due to some extenuating circumstances with an uncooperative baby, so they came out a bit too hard on the outside. Luckily, the inside was still soft and bready. Next time, I will make full sized bagels instead of the minis. There's no point making smaller portions if you end up inhaling five mini bagels. Not that I ended up eating five...er...Also, rather than baking the next day, I'd do everything in one go. Refrigerating overnight seemed to deflate the bagels slightly.

Next weekend shall be my third attempt at which point I hope to achieve the perfect bagel. Till next time!

A Whole Lot of Milk

Since giving birth over six months ago, I've amassed quite a lot of milk in the freezer. I stopped counting once I got past 300 oz but if I had to estimate, I'd say there was 500 oz in there. Generally, I've been giving Max freshly pumped milk rather than doing FIFO from the freezer. However since I'm still producing about an extra bottle a day, it quickly adds up.

This afternoon, I decided to do a quality check on the milk. I took the oldest bag (dated 11/24, coincidentally my birthday!) and defrosted it. Smelled suspect. Tasted (yes I took a sip) very suspect. I immediately grabbed a bag from end of Dec. No smell, but still tasted a little strange. I then grabbed a fresh bottle from the fridge and tasted for comparison. No strange taste at all. Now in full paranoia, I grabbed a bag from early Jan and a bag from late Feb. Neither smelled but the Jan bag still had a strange taste while the Feb bag didn't. After some googling, it sounds like most frozen milk will taste different. It's not actually bad unless it smells like sour milk. In that case, I would say the milk up until late Dec has gone bad but the milk after was fine. Nonetheless, I made the executive decision to DUMP IT ALL. Well, up until mid Jan at least. I mean if there's even any doubt, why risk it? Plus it plain tasted weird. I know I wouldn't want to drink that milk if I were a baby.

So I proceeded to clear out about 200 oz of milk. I didn't count but it sure filled up my sink so lets just say it's a lot. Here's how the freezer looked afterwards.



I wasn't particularly upset to be throwing it all away, probably because my milk supply is still going strong. It was strange looking at that volume of fluid and thinking "wow my body produced that". Then again it's not horribly surprising given the volume of waste a human body is capable of producing in a day.

I'm still aiming to continue breastfeeding until 9 months. I'm not going to lie, it's really tough finding time to pump at work and I still get random milk blisters/clogged ducts, but Max loves his milk and who am I to deny that chubby little burrito ;)?