My First Mother’s Day.

Yesterday was my first Mother’s Day. Well, technically I guess I could count last year, since I was pregnant at the time, but since it wasn’t public knowledge yet we didn’t celebrate it.

KU hijacked Mother’s Day for many of us by scheduling Commencement on May 13. My first thought was “who wants to spend Mother’s Day with thousands of strangers in a hot stadium, competing for attention with the graduates.”

My second thought was “this is brilliant— what a great way to make sure so many moms get to spend the day with their kid.”

Dave’s little sister graduated from KU yesterday, and a bunch of his family came to town from Oklahoma, Manhattan and the Wichita area for the occasion. His parents spent the weekend with us and got lots of grandparent time with their newest grandbaby. They even babysat on Friday night so we could have a night out with friends at the Jason Boland concert at the Granada. (It didn’t take much arm-twisting for them to agree to this.)

This Mother’s Day was the first one in a long time that Dave’s mom spent with all three of her kids. I spent the entire day with my baby, wearing him in the ErgoBaby carrier (LOVE IT. If you have a baby, buy one.) to watch his aunt walk down the Hill and then watching him smile all afternoon while his relatives passed him around.

It was a wonderful first Mother’s Day.

Congratulations to Stephanie and all the other graduates, and thanks for sharing your day with the mothers. And congratulations to three lovely ladies who made it Facebook-official yesterday that they’ll become moms this year: Nicole, Heidi and Anne!

My Favorite Salad.

I’ve been trying to eat more healthy food. Last week, I made an effort to go home for lunch at least three days. I enjoyed a salad, sandwich and sunshine on the deck by the pool, tossing a tennis ball in the yard to keep Lucy entertained and away from my food.

Here’s my current favorite salad:

Here’s what’s in it:

• Gorgeous mixed greens from Avery’s Produce at the Lawrence Farmer’s Market (I found great tips on how to keep lettuce greens fresh for at least a week here).
• Mandarin oranges (something I don’t think I’ve ever bought before)
• Sliced red grapes
• Crumbled feta cheese
• Dried cranberries & slivered almonds (a pre-made pouch of salad topping from Dillon’s)
• Raspberry vinaigrette dressing

That’s it. It’s fresh and delicious. I don’t know any numbers or points or anything like that, and I don’t really care. It’s got fruit and dark leafy greens in it, so that’s got to be worth something!

Back from the Blogging Break.

It’s been almost two months since I posted here. A whole pile of things contributed to the break: taking care of a baby, returning to work after maternity leave, adjusting to a new schedule and, especially, frustration at the repeated hacks on this blog.

Fortunately, my friends at Philsquare fixed the blog problem. If you have website drama, call them. They’ll help. Unfortunately, Philsquare couldn’t help me out with the rest of life’s craziness.

So, what’s happened in the last two months?

• You might remember my plea for recipes. Many of you stepped up with ideas, recipes and websites. So far, the biggest success we had was a big pot of chili (without beans, of course!) that provided dinner and lunch the next day, as well as two frozen bags for future dinners. I know that the biggest hurdle to get over is planning weekly meals; once I can do that, it’ll be easier to get on track with shopping and cooking. We’ll get there.

• I went back to work! This is my eighth week back at work and it almost feels like I never left. Almost. We’re slowly getting in the groove of a new morning routine that includes more miles in my (still short) commute, and one day I’ll actually get to work on time. As much as I loved being home all day, every day with a baby, I have to admit I enjoy being around adults again and feeling productive. Oh, and earning a paycheck.

• Cooper started daycare, turned three months old, and then four months old. We love his daycare. Five days in, he got sick. Of course he did— all the babies at daycare were sick! We think it was RSV, that’s what most of the other babies had, but our doctor doesn’t actually test for it because it doesn’t change their protocol. The pediatrician ordered breathing treatments, the baby screamed a lot and then he learned to sit through them quietly.

• The house is still under construction. That is all.

Look how much he’s grown!

Four month stats: Weight, 17 pounds 10 ounces, 91st percentile. Height, 27.5 inches, 99th percentile (!). Head circumference, 16.5 inches, 47th percentile. So, we have a very long non-bobbleheaded baby who weighs a lot but it’s in proportion to his body. He’s a full six inches longer than he was at birth. And he’s in size 3 diapers.

Realization: While I love my iPhone camera (especially the Camera Awesome app!), and I use it to take most of my pictures since it’s practically attached to my hand, the dSLR takes way better pictures even though I don’t really know how to use it.

The blanket in the laundry basket was a handmade gift from our friend Susan, and another friend Rochelle gifted us with the clever monthly stickers for the onesies. Thanks, ladies! The baby-in-a-laundry-basket idea is from Pinterest, of course.

Wanted: Quick, Easy & Healthy Recipes

I need help!

Our little family HAS to change our eating habits. We eat at strange times (dinner at 9 p.m., anyone?), we often skip breakfast (especially Dave, since he pretty much skips mornings altogether), and we eat at restaurants, especially fast-food, way too often. It’s just easier and more fun. But that needs to change; not only for financial reasons but for health reasons.

I know it’s a matter of changing our habits. I need to plan meals better, have a regular grocery shopping list and stock our kitchen with the proper ingredients. I have a thousand and one cookbooks, and they all intimidate me. I know HOW to cook, but the recipes in cookbooks always seem to be made up of ingredients that normal people don’t have on hand, or meals that take four hours I don’t have to prep and cook. Plus, I’m not going to run out and buy some random ingredient for a recipe when I’ll never use it for anything else.

Lunch is going to be the hardest meal. It’s way too easy to run across the street from my office and grab something from the Union, and it’s more appealing than eating something I brought from home that’s been sitting in the fridge for four hours. Luckily, I live close to work, so I can run home for lunch and cook something. But I’m also hoping to visit Cooper at daycare during lunch sometimes, so I also need lunches I can make ahead and take along.

So, what I want are ideas from real people. People I know and trust. What are your go-to recipes for breakfast, lunch or dinner? I’m looking for meals that are healthy but fast. Point me to your favorite websites, your Pinterest boards or wherever you save recipes on the internet. And if anyone has a fantastic way of planning meals for the week, I’m all ears.

A Mysterious Baby Bonnet.

Shortly after we brought Cooper home from the hospital, a small package arrived in our mailbox. It was addressed to “Master Cooper” which I thought was cute and very old-fashioned sounding in a charming kind of way, and it didn’t have a return address on it.

I opened it to find this:

It’s a sweet little handmade baby bonnet accompanied by a poem that reads:

I’m just a little handkerchief,

Quite square, as you can see.

But with a stitch or two Ramona made

A bonnet out of me. 

I’ll be worn home from the hospital

Or on the Christening day.

Then neatly pressed and folded,

I’ll be carefully paced away.

On her wedding day the bride must have

Traditionally something old…

Good luck, good health, and happiness

It brings her, so it’s told.

Then what could be more pleasant

Than to unpack little me?

To snip a stitch or two and find 

Her handkerchief I’ll be!

And if I’m first worn by a boy,

He’ll surely someday wed.

Then he can give his lovely bride

The hanky once worn on his head. 

No note, no explanation of where it came from. The name of the woman who made it is on the poem, along with her phone number, so I thought about calling her to find out who sent it. But then I decided the mystery is kind of fun. Maybe this is some kind of newborn baby tradition that I don’t know about?

Local Love: Philsquare

I haven’t posted anything here in awhile. Partly because I’ve been busy feeding and changing a baby and trying to keep up with mountains of laundry (maternity leave is hard work, people), but also because my blog was hacked. Yep, hacked.

I logged in last week and the dashboard looked weird. I didn’t know what else to do, so I googled “WordPress dashboard looks weird.” Apparently, I’m not alone. Lots of stuff popped up, ranging from suggestions I didn’t understand to the big “H” word.

I tried a couple of the things I didn’t really understand, and then I called Philsquare.

Philsquare is a local business that provides coding and digital solutions. What does that mean? They help people build websites. They also host workshops and do all kinds of other things. I was lucky enough to meet Phil, the founder of Philsquare, through Twitter three years ago.

It didn’t take Phil long after he dug into the code of my site to figure out it had been hacked. He deleted things, recreated things and worked whatever magic , and before too long my site was back to normal. I still have to clean up a few things, but at least the dashboard looks normal again.

If you need help with your website, call Philsquare. Whether you’re just getting started and don’t really know where to begin, or you need something more advanced, they can help you out. One thing I really like is that Philsquare offers basic WordPress classes at a very reasonable rate so that people like me can set up a website.

Many thanks to Phil and his team for getting this site fixed! I guess I don’t have an excuse for not posting anything now, except a baby and the never-ending pile of laundry.