Baby State of Affairs: 5 months

Theme for the month? Baby on the move! Yes, baby burrito has become more mobile. He's mastered flipping from front to back and has started flipping from back to front this past week. He enjoys pushing of with his legs but hasn't learned to move his arms at the same time so he pretty much does a face plant. Pretty hilarious. He sits well supported on your lap and even sits on his own momentarily before toppling over. In terms of hand eye coordination, he reaches out and grabs things quite well now. Still not sure if he's teething or not, but he's certainly drooling a lot.

We're continuing to feed him 6.5 oz bottles during the day. His sleep patterns are consistent in that he will get sleepy about 2 hours after being awake, and he sleeps about 10-11 hours at night, sometimes with a night feeding, sometimes not. Unfortunately the amount of time he naps is pretty inconsistent, leading to rather random nap times and sometimes bedtimes. Will work on getting it more regular in the next month.

Spitting up has been better, which helps the laundry situation. However, on poop days (usually every other day now) he frequently has blowouts, which does NOT help the laundry situation. HIs hair has been slowly growing back, and seems to be a bit lighter in color although it could be my imagination. We'll see. His eyes are also turning color. You can see more and more brown coming through the middle of the iris. Can't wait to see the final result!

Overall super cute happy mellow baby. Sure when he cries, he WAILS, but hey that's what babies do right?

Juggling

Life with a baby is quite the juggling act. There's craziness at work (meeting after meeting while trying to squeeze in time to actually code and run to the mother's room to pump) and there's craziness at home (cook, clean, feeding/changing/entertaining/rocking baby).

It used to be that weekends were a time to rest and refuel for the work week. Now our weekends pass by in a baby haze with hardly a clue where the hours went. Ah, what a difference.

The good news is, we're constantly rewarded for our efforts with adorable smiles and feisty antics. Max's ongoing development never ceases to amaze me. In the last week, he's pretty much started sitting up. Hooray! He's becoming such a big boy now. Can't wait to see what's next...

Scooter

In the last couple weeks, Max has started scooting around the floor. He pushes his feet and knees forward a lot when on his stomach (sometimes face plants), and seems more wiggly than ever. Precursor to crawling perhaps?

Also I got a baby cam so we can see what Max is doing when he cries at out night without getting out of bed. It's funny to watch him fling his head and body around till he finds a comfortable position. One time I watched him scoot a 180 in his crib over the course of an hour. Crazy baby!

Butternut Squash Galette with Gruyere

This weekend I made a butternut squash galette with gruyere. I found the recipe on Cooks Illustrated and thought it looked quite tasty. The filling was easy to make but the dough took a little extra time. Definitely something you have to be motivated for, but still not too bad. I ended up making too much filling so it was quite stuffed but I didn't mind. Overall, a yummy dish for the weekend. If you want the recipe, just ask and you shall receive.

The rest of this weekend was spent cleaning and organizing the house. We finally got our kitchen back (did I mention our neighbor's pipe burst in our shared wall and we had to have our kitchen and part of the living room gutted and the walls dried? What a pain). I took the opportunity to break in the Indian spice containers that Badge got me as one of my bday gifts. I filled it with all the delicious spices that Maya brought last year. Looking at this has inspired me to cook some Indian food this week. Stay tuned....

Exercise Mania

Last week I did pretty well with the new exercise regime. I ran 3 miles on Mon, Wed, and Sat, and then did yoga Tues, Thurs, and Sun. I was supposed to run today at lunch but decided to skip out since I had to take the afternoon off to take Fred to the vet (poor cat has some sort of upper respiratory infection). My body probably needs a break since I'm pretty sore from Sunday's yoga class. Hopefully that means I'm finally building back some muscle.

Here's your random cute Max picture of the day. I love this one.

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti

Last week I made chocolate hazelnut biscottis. They're crazy addicting. I think I ate 5 a day till they ran out. These went so quickly I didn't even get a chance to take pics.

I originally found this on food network many years ago but it looks like it's no longer there. Luckily I found a forum somewhere that had it posted. Whew. Blanching the hazelnuts is a pain in the ass. Every time I do it, I'm left with about half still-skinned nuts. Hopefully I'll figure out a fool proof way to do this one day. Otherwise, the recipe is easy-peasy.

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
courtesy of Gourmet Magazine

Recipe Summary
Prep Time: 20 minutes Cook Time: 50 minutes
Yield: 30 biscotti

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup blanched hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter and flour a large baking sheet.

In a bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until combined well. Stir in flour mixture to form a stiff dough. Stir in hazelnuts and chocolate chips.

On prepared baking sheet with floured hands from dough into two slightly flattened logs, each 12 inches long and 2 inches wide, and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Bake logs 35 minutes, or until slightly firm to the touch. Cool biscotti on baking sheet 5 minutes.

On a cutting board cut biscotti diagonally into 3/4-inch slices. Arrange biscotti, cut sides down, on baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes. Cool biscotti on a rack Biscotti keep in airtight containers 1 week and , frozen, 1 month.

Home Cookin'

Badge and I have been enjoying Jiyi and Mom's wonderful Asian cooking. Tonight, we had the most amazing chicken cooked with ginger, scallion, garlic, soy sauce, and chili bean paste. I don't know what else went into it but it was pure goodness. To accompany, Jiyi made her delicious tofu. We also had veggies and red rice.


Below is a meal from last week when Monkey was still here. It's pretty much what I've been eating since giving birth.


You would think with all this healthy food, I'd be losing weight like mad. Sadly that is not the case since I've also been baking up tons of sweets. To combat the baby fat, I've decided to adopt the following work out regime:

Mon/Wed/Fri - run 3 miles at work gym
Tues - after work yoga at studio
Thurs - morning yoga at work gym
Sat or Sun (or both if ambitious) - yoga at studio

Sounds like a lot but you should really see my sweet tooth these days!

Till Next Time

How quickly vacations pass. Monkey has already left back to Portland and Jiyi will be leaving next weekend to return to Taiwan. So sad!

I really hope we can live near Monkey one day (preferably next door). She is the best. Don't know what I'd do without her. I also hope we can return to Taiwan often so Max can get to know his family there (and so Badge and I have opportunity to eat our way through the country). Till next time we're all together again!

Happy Birthday Jiyi

Last Monday, we celebrated my aunt's birthday by taking her out to Kensington Grill. The food was delicious as always. I really wish we lived closer to this restaurant. I would frequent it often.

We had a smorgasbord of small plates, including calamari.


Baba ganoush with tomato jam bruschettas.


Seafood cioppino.


Truffle mac n cheese with panko crust.


Gorgonzola tots.


Duck steamed buns.


Shrimp and waffle.


For dessert, Jiyi got a complementary creme brulee. We still ended up getting three more desserts (snicker torte with gelato, chocolate pot de creme, and banana bread pudding), even though we really should have just ordered one. Oh well, that's what birthdays are for!