Happy Girl

When Grace starts smiling and cooing, the whole world stops. Michael and I drop everything to play with her and talk with her until she's had enough.

Gazing at Daddy's face.

And there's the grin. Look at the way those eyes start to disappear, just like Daddy's.

Her signature tongue out look.

These are the moments in the day that make all the exhausting hours more than worth it. We're both smitten!

Chernobyl Strawberries

Why do I garden? Produce tastes better when picked at maturity. I love to watch the process of growth. It's nice to get outside. I can grow food that is expensive or that can't even be purchased in a grocery store. It's satisfying to eat food that I grew myself.

It's also fun to see all of the crazy shapes fruits and vegetables take when they aren't produced commercially. Here are some of our strawberries from our strawberry barrel that look like they've survived nuclear fallout! 

Check out these too.

And speaking of fruits and vegetables that are hard to find in grocery stores, I just got seeds for Romanesco broccoli in the mail! I've been fascinated by this fractal vegetable since college, but have never actually seen it in real life, so we're going to grow it! 

It Feels Like Christmas

When you wear spit up on a daily basis and often smell like sour milk, it's nice to wear a super cute pair of shoes. I recently picked these up at Kohl's. And the best part is that between the sale, the 20% off coupon, and my gift card, they only cost $3!

Pre-baby, I read about thirty books a year. I assumed that when Grace came, I would have to severely cut back on my reading. I was totally wrong! Caring for a baby means lots of breastfeeding which means lots of sitting still which means lots of time for reading. Since holding a baby and a book is a little tricky for me and since I've always kind of wanted one, I recently used some stocked up birthday/Christmas money to buy a Kindle Paperwhite. I love it!

What have I been reading? "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan (very interesting), "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein (not so good), and the cookbook "Deep Dark Chocolate" (very hunger pains inducing).

My in-laws also recently splurged and bought us this awesome BOB jogging stroller. I can't wait to get back to my evening runs and I can't wait to do the 5.5 mile hiking trail right by my house again, but this time with Grace!

Harvest

I tried to grow flowers twice. Both times I failed. Then, Grace came along. We didn't tend to our garden, the weather warmed, and three of the winter leafy greens bolted sending wispy yellow and white flowers high over our garden.

I suppose I have found the most successful flower growing formula for me: plant veggies + don't take care of them = flowers!

The fact that the whole garden was trying to go to seed clued us in to the change in seasons, so we're in the process of transitioning our garden from winter mode to summer mode. We harvested the edible parts of the bok choy, Chinese broccoli, arugula, and snap peas and ripped out the rest of the plants. We harvested lots of carrots and beets too.

By the way, beet greens are edible and delicious. When they are young, throw them in a salad along with other greens. When they are mature, follow these instructions:

1. Blanch the greens in boiling water for two minutes and then cool them immediately in ice water. To use the stems, chop them up and blanch them for a little longer than the greens.
2. Lightly brown finely chopped garlic in olive oil, then sauté the greens and stems in oil and garlic.

Any edible greens can be cooked this way!

Michael is outside right now working on the summer garden. It will include two types of squash, several varieties of peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, and other yummy plants. Pictures and a post to come!

Baby Cousins

Growing up, I had two girl cousins close in age. During our childhood and teen years, the three of us lived in Portugal, Illinois, Colorado, Indiana, Texas, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania... and I may still be forgetting a couple of states. Since we lived so far apart, we didn't see each other often, but when we did, we had a rollicking good time being too noisy and writing and performing plays for the family that we thought were comedic gold but were probably horribly boring!

Back in October, Michael and I learned that our baby on the way was a girl, and two days later, we got a most exciting call from my brother and his wife saying that they were going to adopt a little girl who was only a few days old. Given my close relationship with my cousins growing up, I was so thrilled that Grace was going to have a girl cousin just a few months older than her!

This past week, they finally got to meet.

Grace looks very concerned. I guess she doesn't know yet that Lilianna will be her friend!

I love this series of pictures. Lilianna looks cute as a button, as always. Grace looks, well, interesting. (We love you, baby girl!)

Sleeping cousins.

I am so thrilled to get to watch these two grow up together!

The Painter Prophet

The afternoon before Grace was born, exactly a month ago today, I had a brief interaction with a stranger that I will never forget.

That afternoon, I went to get my smog check done for my DMV registration. There was a middle aged man painting a sign for the business. I happened to be sitting right next to where his paint supplies were gathered on the ground about twenty feet from where he was working. So, as I waited for the smog check to be completed, he would come over near me to get a new paint color or supply and then back up his ladder to continue working on the sign.

At one point, he chatted with me a little and asked the usual questions about the pregnancy. Boy or girl? How far along? When he asked, "Do you have a name?" I told him we weren't telling people yet, not even strangers! He seemed slightly disappointed and after chatting a little more, he went back to work, and I hunkered down into my smart phone to pass the time.

A few minutes later, he shouted something to me that sounded like "drinks." I couldn't hear what he was saying over the noise of the generator right behind me. "What?" I yelled back. He shouted it again, but I still couldn't hear. I noticed that my smog check was almost over, so I hauled my big, pregnant self out of my chair, walked over, and asked him what he said.

He looked me in the eye and said, "Grace. Is her name Grace?" My heart leaped.

I played it off saying something like, "That's a nice name. We haven't picked a middle name yet, so maybe we'll use that." But, then I had to ask, "Why did you think her name was Grace?"

"Something just told me it was," was his reply.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. "Well, you're right. Her name is Grace."

"Really?!" He responded. "Well, Amen!"

"We named her after the grace of God," I explained. He again responded with a resolute, "Amen."

My smog check was done at this point, so I paid the business owner and said goodbye to the painter prophet. On my way out, I used my cell phone camera to snap the above picture of him working away.

Michael and I treasure this story and have been telling it to all sorts of people. We believe that this interaction was God's gift to us, His way of saying that he sees and he knows our daughter. Michael and I have experienced God's grace in our lives in countless ways, so we could not think of a better thing to name her after than His incredible grace. The stranger's "Amens" felt like God himself was saying "Amen" to our daughter's name.

I can't wait to tell Grace this story.

The First Two Weeks

Our baby Grace is two weeks old today!

Shout out to her for hanging in there with parents who have no idea what they're doing. Shout out to us for not killing her!

The past two weeks have been overwhelming, exhausting, and full of joy. I didn't know that you could experience those three emotions so strongly all at the same time.

Here are a few highlights and lowlights and inbetweenlights from the past two weeks.

• Rocket Girl. She came out with a bang and has been super chill ever since. Our rocket girl now sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. She slept so much the first few days that she lost almost 11% of her body weight, so we were put on a very involved feeding plan. But, she's doing great now and together, mommy and baby are getting better at this super difficult thing called nursing.
• Music. Gracie loves it when we sing to her. It calms her down when she cries and it wakes her up when she's supposed to be eating. What songs have we been singing the most? Well, the Fung Brothers, Amazing Grace, Daddy's Baby Girl, and a song about the Triceratops that I learned in 2nd grade.
• Cuddling. I absolutely love plopping Grace on my chest and snuggling her tiny body and smelling her. I cherish those moments. Who knew that someone that poops and spits up so much could smell so good?
• Awake time. Since she's asleep so often, Michael and I soak up the times where she opens her gorgeous eyes and takes in her surroundings.
• Family and friends. I have never felt so well cared for. We have a platoon of people caring for us. Michael's parents have come up a few times and my mom flew in for two days. All three slaved away for us. We've also had friends bring meals, run errands, and support us with encouraging words and prayer. I feel like we would have literally died without the help. We have more help coming our way over the next month. Thank God.
• Milk & OJ. In the past ten days, we drank over four gallons of 2% milk and four cartons of orange juice.
• ER trip. When she was just shy of four days old, I reacted badly to medication I was on for post-labor pain and so Michael, Grace, my mom, and I spent about four hours in the middle of the night in the emergency room. In the end, everything was fine. A few thoughts: it was my first trip to the ER ever, I hated having my fragile four day old around such sick people, and it was amusing being with my mom (a nurse practitioner) in the waiting room as she diagnosed people's illnesses ("That kid has croup.") and what should be done to treat them ("He'll be fine, but he needs a nebulizer quick.") and sure enough minutes later, the treatment happening.
• Poop. Grace once shot poop 3+ feet in the middle of a diaper change when Michael's guard was down. It's anyone's guess how far it would have gone if the mirror hadn't stopped it. That same night, she also rocketed poop into Michael's face. We were only a few days in and so deliriously exhausted that we had no choice but to bust up laughing!
• Daddy's girl. Who does Grace look like? There have been many moments where I feel she looks like Michael and exactly zero moments where I think she looks like me. She has my feet and ears. So far, she seems to have Michael's eye shape, skin color, and hair color. She is the prettiest thing I've ever seen!