Sunday, November 7, 2010

Baking

As mentioned previously, I have started to really get into baking, specifically cookies. I have been bringing in anywhere from 2-4 batches of cookies into work per week for the last 3 and 1/2 months now. It has been getting pretty fun! When I am not able to make cookies for a couple of nights, I even start to go through cookie withdrawal :(

My inspiration has been coming from this book. While not every recipe works exactly as billed (the s'mores cookies were a pain), almost every cookie I have made from here is awesome!

Today, I made cookies called "top-heavy heavenly hash." I have to say, they look pretty impressive! The chocolate cookie on the bottom is crisp and crunchy with marshmallows and walnuts and chocolate chips piled on top. They were surprisingly light!

I made these cookies a couple of weeks ago, entitled "lemon ginger cookie sandwiches." These may be the most impressive cookies I have made so far. Also very yummy.

The other thing I have been baking pretty consistently are biscuits. These are Betty Crocker's biscuits with 1 cup of Tillamook cheddar cheese added in. Oh man are these a great breakfast!


The best part is that Izzie still likes to help me "mak-a coo-kies a-day!"

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Family Pics from the Summer

Over the summer, we had some family photos taken by the same photographers who did our wedding. They also did some family photos for us last summer, which we absolutely loved.

Here are a few selections...









Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween

Last year for Halloween we were in Oregon and Izzie was still too little to go out and Trick-or-Treat. This year, we were pretty sure that she would be interested.

A few weeks ago we ordered her costume online - a Jessie costume from Toy Story! She has really enjoyed watching Toy Story ever since we went to see her first movie - Toy Story 3.

We were a little worried she wouldn't want to wear the costume, but after a successful dry run yesterday, everything went pretty smoothly.

We decided to go over to Matt's parent's house for Halloween as our street doesn't seem to have many kids nor decorate for Halloween. It ended up being a good choice because the street was completely empty when we got back home this evening.

Izzie ended up having a great time and even kept wanting to go back out! She was pretty cute and even occasionally said "trick or treat." Mostly, she just said "oh, welcome!" when she was supposed to say "thank you." Oh well. She did throw in an occasional "bye bye" and a "see you later" now and then, which was pretty cute.

On to the pictures!



Izzie waiting for her chance to go out while another neighborhood grandkid stops by.


Izzie's turn! She insisted upon carrying that Ty pumpkin around.


Getting some candy!


Check out what I got everyone!

It was pretty successful overall!

Matt is afraid she will want to go Trick-or-Treating tomorrow.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Making cookies

For the last couple of months, I have been baking cookies and bringing about 75-85% of the batches to work to share with the other doctors and the nurses. One of the best parts about it is that Izzie really really likes helping bake the cookies. She will stand up on our step stool right next to me and help me dump the cups/teaspoons of ingredients into their appropriate containers. She also likes to help stir up the dry ingredients after I have thoroughly mixed them (I guess I wasn't thorough enough). Sometimes I catch her licking her finger and sticking it in the flour (oh well). Her favorite part is, of course, when she gets the beater after the mixer has finished mixing the dough.

After I have cut the cookie dough or spooned it onto sheets, she sits on the ground with me and watches the cookies in the oven - for a little while. Then we play in the kitchen and wait for the cookies to be finished cooking.

It has been a lot of fun to bake with Izzie! At our old place, we really didn't have room to bake, and I very rarely got the mixer our to make anything. Here, our kitchenaid sits in the corner on the counter and I just slide it out to make something. :)

The people at work have really liked my baking prowess as well - usually I try to bake something a couple of times per week and everyone seems to think that the cookies are pretty tasty. I certainly like them.

Anyway, I have really enjoyed my newly-found baking hobby, and Isidora really likes to bake with me :)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Episode VI: Return of the Dadi

Yes, I did just go there with the title.

Anyway, as I have not posted on our blog in quite some time, and as my wonderful wife has subtly and not-so-subtly hinted as such, I am finally getting back into posting.

Bree has covered some of the pertinent info, but here is some more!:
Bree's birthday was the 24th. I will follow gentlemanly form and not reveal the age of my spouse in this space, but I like to think she had a nice birthday celebration. The main event this year happened the weekend before the actual day, as we were able to take advantage of a fabled Golden Weekend (weekends where call schedule for residents lines up perfectly and they get the entire weekend free) and take off to a bed and breakfast, leaving Izzie with my parents. It was called Amber House, and was very nice and relaxing. It was located in the town of Rocheport, MO, just outside of Columbia, home to the University of Missouri (or Mizzou as it is known). Unbeknownst to us when we originally were planning the weekend, there was something of a wine festival going on that weekend, which we lightly participated in. Not only that, but the sleepy town of only 200 or so had two very good restaurants. The more fancy of the two was the Blufftop Bistro, owned and run by Le Bourgeois winery. The second, more urban and laid back, was called Abigail's, and boasts a new menu every day. All in all it was a very nice getaway, and Bree really liked her present. Oh, and I also picked up some nice earrings which I happen to think she likes very much.
As of now, the house is pretty much set and stuff works. The last major item, just purchased and installed, was the garage door opener. The wife is very very pleased with this, as we no longer have to manually open and close it. It's like we've joined the 20th century or something.
The stay at home saga continues for Izzie and me, and lo, some transition has definitely occurred since last I blog'd thereof. Izzie now has fully changed over to napping in the afternoon, usually around 1 o'clock. This means Daddy's routine must change, too. For example, instead of exercising on Wii Fit (yours truly has lost something like 8 or 9 pounds and is way more pro
ud of himself in the mirror, but seems to have plateaued at around 140, not that anybody is complaining) while Izzie naps, I usually try to fit in what I can while she is awake, with our without Wii.
The usual daily routine starts somewhere after 5 but before 6, at which point I get up to groggily make coffee and breakfast for Bree. At this point Bree has already done her own workout routine downstairs at an absurdly early time and is usually in the shower or perhaps already out. Doctors are workaholics.
Izzie tends to wake up right after Bree leaves for the hospital, so then the two of us have breakfast. Lately I have been trying to get us out of the house more, and with Izzie napping in the afternoon, the time before lunch is when this happens. We sometimes have to just do errands like go to the grocery store, but we are able to do fun stuff as well. Whether we go out or hang at home, Izzie and I usually eat lunch around 12:30 and then she gets tired around 1 or so. She still naps for around 2 hours, after which we find something to do until it is either time to get started on dinner, or Mama gets home.

Today's excursion was a simple one. We took the new umbrella stroller (I keep leaving the big stroller at my parents' house) and walked around the neighborhood to the nearby MacDonald Park. Picture time!

Artist's rendition of Izzie and I walking across the soccer/baseball field to get to the playground. Just imagine the stroller folded up and held under my arm instead of an enormous samurai weapon, and it's pretty dead on. It was kind of hard to take a picture of us walking across the field but I'll bet it was cute, so this will have to do.

Trying out the new stroller. And sticking out tongue. Precious.

Swinging. Weeee!

After swinging for a while I asked Izzie if she wanted to play in the jungle gym area or go back in the stroller. Surprisingly, she preferred stroller. So we made our way back home and had lunch. It became clear that Izzie was getting more and more tired, so a little after 1 she finished lunch and took a nap. And here I am blogging about it.

As the above pictures were from my phone (except for the one from the Lone Wolf and Cub samurai movies) I'll end today's post with more recent and cute Izzie pictures from said phone. Engage!


"I've decided I need to wear Daddy's apron."


"What? Am I being cute or something? Woody and Buzz need to get clean too, you know."


"Daddy says this car runs extremely well when you consider that he used to play with it with uncle Ben when he was little. I would prefer something with a few more horses and maybe some bigger rims, but for a first car it's not too shabby."


"Usually I knock daddy's block towers down before they get anywhere near this tall. This time I let him get to 19 blocks, and let his hubris be his own undoing as he tried for 20. Heh, heh, heh..."


Post-call nap time. Awwwwwww.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Story of the Day

Today when Isidora was lying on the changing table after her bath, she grabbed her hands together and said "Peased to meet you!" This was shortly followed by slapping her hands together and saying "High five!" and then "poun it!" (pound it, or a fist bump).

It was pretty cute.

Update

So as I am sure everyone can tell, I have been pretty busy. Taking call every fourth night sure does take a toll on blogging! I have been having a great time at work and I really do love being there, even though it is pretty exhausting.

Here is a brief update on Isidora - she can now count from 1 to 12 (!) and she says "I love you too kisses!" when I tell her, "I love you." She is more active and playful than ever (of course). She most definitely has her own opinions about what she wants and when she wants it. Her favorite things right now are trains, Toy Story ("Woody Jessie Buzz!") and Goodnight Moon ("nigh-night moo-nah").

She and Daddy are having a pretty good time at home, though she can sure be a handful at times. And, she is finally transitioning to afternoon naps! It's about time!

Anyway, hopefully I can convince Matt (and myself) to keep up some more frequent updates.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Counting update

Isidora has continued learning her counting since I last posted on the subject and now frequently counts, "two, free, foh, figh, sih, nigh, ten!"

Only three more numbers to go!

Also, she has started saying "a, b, c"


On a side note, Isidora went pee-pee in her potty! Yay!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Bee-ball

Isidora has followed in her father's footsteps in being really excited about baseball. Now, whether or not this is genuine remains to be seen, but for now she really enjoys saying things about baseball.

Whenever we see baseball on television, Isidora points and says "bee-ball!" And then runs around saying, "Go, Aow-ber!" (Go, Albert, as in Pujols). Occasionally she even gets upset when it goes to commercial and says, "Moh bee-ball?"

This morning, we were watching highlights of the game against the LA Dodgers from last night and I said, "Hit it to Manny!" (Manny Ramirez). To which Isidora said, "Hih ih to Man-nee!"

What a good girl.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Counting

Recently Isidora has started to say numbers. She most reliably says "wah" (one) and "two" when associated with one or two cookies, respectively. In the last couple of days, though, she has started to say more than just "wah" and "two", she has counted all the way up to six!

Mostly what she does is say the next number in the line. I will say "one" and then Isidora will say "two, free" (two, three), sometimes she will then say "foh, figh, sih" (four, five, six). Matt even caught her counting straight to five a couple of days ago.

Getting so big!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

July 1st

Generally, as a new intern I should be in the hospital on July 1st, busily seeing patients, writing notes, and trying to figure out what I am doing. Instead, I am on my development rotation. This means I go to various clinics and other sites around Saint Louis and have a lot of "reading" time. So, instead of waking up at 5 or earlier like most of my other classmates, I got to sleep in for the first time in weeks, have a nice relaxed breakfast with my family and sit and watch Isidora play for a few hours. After this I will get ready for the day and get to work at noon for noon conference then go over to my clinic assignment for the afternoon. What a day.

Matt gets to mow the lawn.

Here is a picture of Isidora from the House Staff Picnic a few days ago.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Chicken Coop

This morning while I was getting ready for work, Isidora brought me her Duplo chicken coop and said, "Oh! Is foh bock-bock!" (Bock-bock is one of her words for chicken).

To this, I replied, "Oh, is that your chicken coop?"

Isidora then said, "Chi-ka coo."

Watch what you say, folks.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Father's Day Weekend

This weekend we celebrated our last weekend before I go back to work. Yesterday we went to the Cardinals game with Matt's parents. It was a 6 pm start time so Isidora did pretty well through the first 2/3 of the game (and then we went home). She started saying "bee-baoh" (baseball) a couple days ago, so she was even a little interested in the game, for a while at least. Juanita also taught her to say "go, go Aw-bur" for Albert Pujols. It was pretty cute. Here is a fun video of Izzie playing up in the Redbird club again. We did get to sit in our seats for 5 whole innings!



Today we spent most of the day over at Grant and Juanita's house watching the World Cup games and relaxing before tomorrow. Matt got some fun Father's Day presents too!

Sitting with Papa, reading a book.

Matt's Father's Day present - a bunch of Craftsman tools and a tool bag.

Isidora dancing :)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

2nd Cousins

As I mentioned, we recently spent a week up in the Northwest visiting family. While we were visiting my Grandmother, my cousin was able to visit with her daughter, Kaylee, who is just under a year older than Isidora. Kaylee gets very excited to see Isidora, but unfortunately, we don't get to be up there that often (and it is only going to get worse!) I am really glad they got to spend some time together.



They had a great time playing and running around the dining room. It was a lot of fun to watch them play together.

Studying

Orientation for residency starts on Monday and in preparation I have been reading a couple of training manuals - PALS and NRP. Matt was kind enough this afternoon to watch Isidora while I got some good reading in, that is until Isidora climbed up the stairs and poked her little hands out the cat door and started saying, "heh-oo?" (hello). She was very excited to see her mama again but she was also excited to ask for a "kee-koo pees?" (cookie please). After Daddy got her a cookie, she decided to climb up on my chair with me to do some reading.

Sitting nicely while Mommy reads some PALS out loud.

This is boring, Mommy, where are the pictures?

I will miss all the time I get to spend with my little Goo-Goo Bean!

In case you were wondering, the swivel chairs were great for reading!

Friday, June 11, 2010

World Cup

Sorry for the long absence, we have been in the Northwest visiting family for the last week. We had a great time and got to see a lot of people while we were there. I promise there are pictures coming soon!

Today is the first day of the World Cup! Yay! So far I am not impressed by either Mexico or South Africa, but we will see what the second half holds.

I did want to share a link that my dad shared with me - it is a World Cup calendar, and I think it is pretty neat. Enjoy :)

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Before and after: Isidora's room

The before and after here is pretty remarkable, I think. Mostly because now Isidora has a room! Prior to moving into our house, Isidora's room was located in an enclosed hallway that had a nook just large enough for a mini crib. Nothing else of hers was actually kept in that room - her dresser/changing table was in the living room, as was the rocking chair, her clothes were in a closet in the living room, and her toys were everywhere.

When we moved, not only did Isidora get a room, but we were able to bring over some extra furniture from Matt's parents house that Juanita had bought before Isidora was born. This meant that instead of having a mini crib, we were able to upgrade to a full-sized crib!

Here is Isidora's crib in our apartment. I really liked the wall stickers in her "room" and I loved that it was quiet and dark in there.

Here is a shot of her room from the living room. As you can see, there is not much space in there.

Isidora did like her room, but she really didn't spend much time in there. She did love the mirror, though.

This is a repeat shot of the messy living room. You can see Isidora's changing area in the corner.

Isidora's room was painted in a light blue, and rather than trying to pick out a new color for the room, we decided that the color would work well enough, and it would help the room not be overly girly. We decided to decorate her room in pink and green, but we also added a little red. Here is Isidora's new room:

We still have the same dresser/changing table, as well as the same wall stickers and diaper stacker. The crib is new and was at Grant and Juanita's house. The hamper is also new, and was a find from Babies 'R Us.

This is Isidora's rocking chair, you can see a couple of the pictures that used to be above her changing table that are now framed in white.

This is Isidora's new rug and story time area. Every night before bed, we read a story to Isidora, which used to take place on our bed. The big red pillows were something that my mom made for me when I went to college and we thought they would be a great story time area, especially after we found the run with the red accents. We wanted a small rug for Isidora's room that had pink and green in it to help tie the room together. We found this rug also at Babies 'R Us, and we were happy that it allowed us to add a little red to the room (one of my favorite colors). The lamp was a mix and match lamp from Target to add to the little pop of red in the room.

Here is a shot of the inside wall of her room. This set of drawers and hutch were also in Grant and Juanita's house. I really like the new hooks on the wall (Command hooks) that my mom picked up for Izzie. The green bucket was a baby shower gift that I thought made a really cute trash can in here.

Another new purchase for Isidora's room were the curtains. One thing we were worried about was the change in amount of light in Isidora's room. She was used to her room being almost completely dark and now she was going to have a front-facing window in her room. So, we picked up these green curtains at Target. We also put up some pull backs (Elena, David and Katee did) so that we could easily open and close the curtains as well some blinds (Dad did) to darken the room even more.

This is the inside of Izzie's door which is not solid, but rather a bunch of window panes, so we bought this simple curtain (which my mom hemmed for us).

I really like that Isidora has a closet now! I had a hard time finding space for her old clothes in her apartment, so they were just stacked in various corners. Fortunately, the bins we bought to put them in fit perfectly:

Her clothes are stacked on the side and all of her dresses finally have a real home. We were also able to find her shoes a nice home - before, they were usually under an end table or somewhere in our room.

Another thing I really like about Isidora's room is all of the wall stickers that my mom meticulously put up on the walls for us (after I meticulously pulled them all off of the wall). The accents are all over the room and I really enjoy them!

So far Isidora really seems to like her room and I am really happy that she actually has a room. She has adjusted to her new space and loves going in there.

Only the yard is left!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Before and after: our bedroom

As I have mentioned before, our bedroom in our apartment was more of a multi-purpose room than a bedroom. It also doubled as our office with both of our desks and two book shelves, as well as a play area for Isidora (but then again, what wasn't a play area for Isidora in our apartment?). The only reason we could fit this much into our room was because it was a huge room.

One of the things Matt and I have focused on in the new house is having adult spaces and kid spaces, and this was one of the places that I think we made a huge improvement.

Here is a before picture - you can see Matt's desk, the door to the bathroom, Isidora's play area, and our television. There is just sooo much stuff in this room!

Here is a shot of the bed and part of my desk. Again, stuff everywhere.

In our new house, while our new bedroom is fairly large, I am pretty sure it is a little smaller than the one in our apartment. However, there is no office or play area or anything like that. It is just a bedroom!

Here is our bedroom as seen from the door. We have two sets of windows in our room, this set looks out into our back yard. The pictures above our bed were in our entryway in our apartment, and with the addition of some inexpensive frames, now adorn our bedroom.

This is looking at the wall that faces the bed, where we have my dresser. We also put my wooden chest in here that used to be in the living room (you couldn't see it because of Isidora's stuff) and we purchased a new hamper and trash can for the room (our old hamper was in our closet and was the one I had from college, not very attractive).

This was taken from the other side of the room, looking at Matt's dresser which belonged to his parents. It was sitting out in their garage and was used as Ben's work bench. It will be nice to have such a beautiful piece of furniture in our room!

Here is the final corner of our bedroom, with the door to our closet and another view of my dresser. Both sets of curtains and rods were in our old apartment (one set in the bedroom, one in the living room).

Here is a shot of our closet before we filled it up with clothes. It is kind of an odd arrangement, but it has worked well so far - we put the clothes we use more often in the front, and things like dresses, suits and off-season stuff in the back. Most importantly, it is much bigger than our old closet, and our clothes are no longer spilling over into the coat/linen closet.

Not much more to go - only Isidora's room and the yard remain :)