Thank God for Sunshine

And warmer temperatures. And Wiggleworms! Today was our first baby music class put on by the people at the Old Town School of Folk Music. It was awesome. There are four babies and moms that come and it meets in the Hyde Park Art Center just three blocks from our house. We sing songs, the babies play under a parachute while the moms make it move around and blow their tiny baby minds, they play with bubbles, and best of all they get to hit a humongous drum. Seriously, there's a huge drum, called 'The Gathering Drum' that they get to whack at with their little tiny hands. Lily is an expert at this. She is very much into whacking things right now. In fact, if she can whack one object with another object it pretty much makes her day. All of the moms are affiliated with the University in some way or another, and they all live in Hyde Park. I even exchanged phone numbers with a woman who lives just up the street from us to go for a walk sometime. This was sort of a big deal for me. (If you're reading this new friend, I'm totally normal and not anxious at all.) 


I've been trying to make mom friends, but it just isn't going very well. I went to a couple of play groups in the area, but it was just strange. It seems like baby groups tend to attract the people that are trying to do everything they can to get their baby into Yale. And are very proud that they are doing it. I mean, yes, I'm trying to do everything I can to help Lily be a happy, well adjusted person but I'm not speaking three languages in the home, going to five different baby groups each week for baby socialization, and analyzing every milestone as ahead or behind the average baby. I am feeding her healthy, home made food, reading to her, singing and playing with her, taking her interesting places and going for walks/jogs/runs almost every day. We randomly do some baby sign language when I think about it, which is probably less than once a day, so I'm not really banking on that working at all. I feel like I turned out pretty ok and I didn't watch any Baby Einstein videos. I feel like love and attention is all they really need for now. 


For some reason, thankfully, the Wiggleworms moms aren't like that. At least not that I noticed in our first class. I'm very excited to have something to go to each week again. And I'm more excited that it's close enough for us to walk to. And I get to walk home with a friend.  

Week 16

I ended up at 170. I really wanted to be able to say 169. I was hovering around that number all week, and then there was Easter. I'm close though. Since Lily just turned 9 months on Saturday, I've been thinking a lot about being back in the 160's, where I was before I was pregnant. I know they say 9 months on and 9 months off. Well, I was there in February. Two, almost three, months later I'm trying to claw my way back there. I'm having a really hard time eating right. I feel hungry all the time, and since this blessed cold and rain won't go away all I want is warm comfort food. (I know it's not that cold, but it's just so dreary.) Sigh. I'll just keep plugging along and try not to eat cheese at every sign of hunger.

M: Upper 3x15 @ 5lbs
T: Lower
W: 1 hr cheesy dance cardio video.
Th: Core
F: Upper and lower 3x10 @ 7.5lbs
S: 3 mile run 32:04, legs felt heavy
S: rest

Easterness

Happy Easter! I made a chocolate mousse cake to bring to my mom's house. The crust was made with dark chocolate, butter, crushed up shortbread, and sliced toasted almonds. The cake was made with chocolate, whipped cream, and Frangelico. It was a really easy recipe that I managed to screw up twice. I didn't account for the high water content of the hazelnut liquor and it made the chocolate seize up. So I had to rescue it with some extra cream. I decorated it with some white chocolate lace that I hand piped, marzipan eggs that I piped small decorations on, edible flowers and mint leaves. I think it turned out quite lovely. 

Here's a closeup of the egg and flower on the very top, and so you can see the intricacy of the lace better. I really liked this technique. It's super easy, but turns out very elegant. I printed out a lace pattern that I liked, taped a piece of wax paper onto it, melted some white chocolate, and then traced the lace pattern with the chocolate in a piping bag. I let it harden over night then flipped it onto the cake and peeled off the wax paper. Voila! Chocolate lace!

Here's a shot from the top of the whole thing. I love it. 

And no Easter is complete without an Easter Basket. 

9 Months!

Lily is 9 months old today! I feel like she's really grown up a lot in the past month. According to our home scale she's 15.5 lbs, but I'm not really sure how accurate that is. She is really close to crawling. She can get up on her hands and knees and she's got the leg movement down but can't figure out how to move her arms forward so she ends up falling on her face. Then she alligator crawls from there. But she sure keeps trying! She's also thinking about pulling herself up on things. She does a little baby plank/downward facing dog with her hands up on things. It's pretty cute. She also has two new teeth on the top, making four total. 

And we finally got her a crib. When Lily went on her nursing strike she was sleeping pretty soundly, but was also a little torpedo next to me. Since she's gone back to nursing she is still having moments of squirminess. We were originally going to sidecar it to the bed, but it's not quite the right height, so now it's in the corner of our room. So a couple of nights ago she fell asleep on my lap as usual, and we just laid her down. She woke up a little bit, but after a few minutes she just went back to sleep. And then proceeded to sleep for the next 7 hours. It was glorious. Then she did the same thing the next night. I haven't felt this good since I was 5 months pregnant. Last night she wanted to be in bed with us again and that's fine. We're just playing it by ear. She lets us know when she wants to sleep with us and when she wants to sleep alone. Here's a picture of her in her new digs. 

This afternoon the weather was so glorious we just couldn't stay inside for any length of time. We all went for a run this morning, then grocery shopping, then I took Lily to the park later in the afternoon. I decided to put her in a swing for the first time. She loved it! I just had to take a video of her laughing and squealing the whole time she was in it. I love it when she kicks and crosses her little feet.

Who needs cable?

When we moved to Chicago we decided that we weren't going to get cable. Most of the things we watch are on network TV, and our Wii could stream anything we wanted from Netflix. Also, we can hook up my laptop to the TV to watch things on the big screen that we can only stream from other websites. This has been working out great. 


Two weeks ago our 5 year old BluRay player died. So we replaced it with a new one that has it's own WiFi connection. So awesome! Netflix looks way better, though it is a bit slower. AND we discovered the amazingness that is Hulu Plus. Omigosh this thing is cool. Hulu Plus is great because we can watch current TV that we've missed, and it's basically like having cable. Except you can watch whatever you want, whenever you want. And you can create your own little marathon because they have entire seasons of shows. You can also stream some movies, and more interestingly, there is a whole section of exercise videos. 


I love cheesy videos for days when it's crappy out, or I don't feel great but know that I'll regret not doing anything. I'm also a huge fan of yoga, but I'm not very good at coming up with my own practice. Classes here are ridiculously expensive (oh how I miss you Yoga Oasis!) and someone has to watch Lily. I get bored doing the same video over and over again, they can be kind of pricey, and the library doesn't have a great selection. Being able to just do it at home and switch it up anytime I want is perfect. Seriously, it's worth the small monthly fee just for this. 


We can't watch EVERYTHING we could dream of because a lot of the premium channels don't allow their content on Hulu and it also doesn't have any sports, but that doesn't bother me. I can wait for Dexter to come out on DVD and I don't watch sports. Anyway, this wasn't a paid advertisement. I just love it so much. 

Photo Dump

It's been a while since I posted a bunch of photos. So here are some. 

Lily got a shape sorter toy last week and the top part is the exact same size as her head. She doesn't mind wearing it as a hat if you put it on her. 

Lily loves broccoli. She'll eat it plain, but if you mix it with a little bit of shredded cheese she can't get enough of it. As I was steaming some for her the other day, there was some extra so I gave her a piece to play with. I usually throw it in the food chopper before I give it to her, so this was her first encounter with an intact floret. She thought it was great fun and enjoyed gnawing on it. 

I've been running with Lily in the stroller. She always falls asleep and looks super cute. No sooner do I switch from the uber warm down stroller liner to the lighter fleece one then it goes and snows. So I have to add an extra blanket and put her in a warm outfit again. 

Here she is all dressed up for Joe's birthday. She loves to poke her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. She's also taken to licking and smacking her lips after every bite of food that she really likes. It's like watching a cartoon eat. I have no idea where she learned it from because Joe and I certainly don't sit at the table doing that as we eat. 

Lily loves her raincoat. 

This is my favorite shirt ever. It's a little onesie with a pair of aviator sunglasses and a pocket printed on it. And I totally want this jacket in my size. 

Here's Lily with my brother Erik. She thinks he is one of the funniest people ever. The hat is my dad's. 

That's probably all the cuteness you can handle in one post. I can't believe what a happy baby Lily has turned into. She loves to laugh and dance and eat. She also is a huge fan of snuggling with Joe, especially when he's wearing a big soft hoodie. Things are going pretty good and despite the snow, I'm hopeful for a good upcoming week!

Happy Birthday Joe!

Joe's birthday is today! He is 29. In one more year he will officially be old. We've pretty much been celebrating since Thursday. Saturday we went to the Chicago International Coin Show out in Rosemont and then had dinner with Joe's parents. Of course I made a cake. This is a dark chocolate cake with hazelnut cream filling and fudge chocolate frosting. It was pretty tasty. I made the hazelnut cream filling with Frangelico, a hazelnut liquor, and chopped hazelnuts. After icing the cake in the fudge, I added a large pearl border on the bottom and a medium pearl border along the top edge to coordinate with the small chocolate dots on the bow. I made the bow in my last cake class. It is a 50/50 mix of gumpaste and fondant. I added a little bit of yellow to give it an ivory hue. I like the simplicity of this cake. It's just perfect for Formality Joe.