Leaps & Bounds

My title is in reference to Greta who is definitely growing by leaps and bounds. It really seems like this last month lots of stuff has clicked with her. Her most recent accomplishment is sleeping for 10-12 hours without getting up. She's done this 3 nights in a row and hopefully I won't jinx myself by posting about it. Last night & the night before she did wake up and made a few noises but quickly put herself back to sleep. Graham and I feel like completely different people after getting a few nights of uninterrupted sleep...especially after horrific vacation sleep. I always thought vacationing was about relaxation - with a baby, not so much. Our house was in Florida in the central time zone so Greta was an hour ahead the whole week. (We decided it was too much trouble to move her to the new time just to move her back.) The getting up at 5:30 wasn't so bad since we kept our bodies on eastern time as well except she got up about 50 times each night. The room she stayed in never got particularly cool and my little girl is very hot natured. And although it was probably the darkest room in the house it was still lighter than she is used to napping/sleeping in so that also disturbed her. And even though we had her sleeping in the pack and play for 2 weeks prior to leaving she just didn't sleep well in the pack and play there. All of this added up to a week of not so great sleep for all 3 of us. Thankfully upon our return home she gratefully sank into her crib for some much needed quality sleep.

Crawling & Cruising are her next accomplishments. She's been army crawling combined with rolling with some success for about a month now but on vacation she really started zooming. She also started crawling on all fours more whereas previously she would get up rock a bit and then get back on her belly to move around. Lately she's been army crawling to locations around our house she can pull up on and then cruising around the furniture as much as possible. She's still a bit unsteady so she does land on her little behind quite often but she's getting better at it. If she keeps up this rate she'll be walking before I know it.

Because she's pulling up now we had to lower her crib to the next to the lowest setting as she often greets us standing up when we go in to get her. She's also started playing in her crib when I lay her down for naps and when she gets up. That's a welcome change to going to sleep and waking up crying.

No "real" talking yet...or I'm not convinced it is real talking. She said bye-bye to Aunt Julie one day but hasn't repeated it. She says hey to us a lot but I don't think she understands what it means. She also says ma-ma-ma a lot but I think she just enjoys the feel of the words and doesn't understand who ma-ma is.

Greta has also cut her naps back from 4 hours to 3 (2 1.5 hour naps). She seems to handle the difference in sleep pretty well so I don't push her to stay down longer. Speaking of naps, my sweet one is up so I must end this post.

A Lot of Hot Air

Freedom Weekend Aloft took place this weekend in Simpsonville not far from our house. We were treated to quite the show with balloons flying over. Scroll down for the excitement.

At first the balloons were just in the distance. We watched for a while but went in to feed Greta her dinner.

Afterwards, I heard strange sounds outside and went to investigate. The air was full of gorgeous balloons flying just overhead.

This balloonist came down for a landing and yelled for people to hop on his basket when he touched down. Graham handed Greta to me so he could run to help.View of the balloon from our driveway. Also includes our very prolific coreopsis. We planted it one year and it has come back each year from seed. This year it is huge and we'll have to trim it back as all my other perennials can't get any sun.


I loved this shot of the inside of the balloon.

More pictures can be found here!

I'm feelin' Italian

I've got a super easy and tasty recipe for Biscotti I wanted to share. Giving credit where credit is due, Julie discovered this and she and I have made it several times. Biscotti is one of my favorite things since it's fairly low fat (depending on what you add to it) and you usually don't eat a ton. It's also a wonderful accompaniment to a cup of coffee or tea. This particular biscotti is only 72 calories per slice and 1 gram of fat. My changes are in red.

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup slivered almonds, chopped and toasted I toast first and then chop to a fine powder, almost a flour, in my mini food processor.
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
1 egg white
Vegetable cooking spray (optional)

Preparation

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine vanilla and next 3 ingredients; add to flour mixture, stirring until well-blended. Dough will be super sticky!

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly 7 or 8 times. Shape dough into a 16-inch-long roll. Place roll on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, and flatten roll to 1-inch thickness. I turn out onto my baking sheet lined with parchment (no cooking spray), shape there, and skip the kneading. It's way too sticky to move from the counter to the sheet after shaping.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Remove roll from baking sheet to a wire rack, and let cool 10 minutes. Cut roll diagonally into 30 (1/2-inch) slices, and place, cut sides down, on baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 325°, and bake 10 minutes. Turn cookies over, and bake an additional 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; let cool completely on wire rack.

Yield

2 1/2 dozen (serving size: 1 cookie)

Baby Bling

Before I had Greta I informed Graham it was traditional to present the new mother with a present after giving birth...like a thank you present. Time passed and I never received anything which wasn't his fault, he wanted to get me something I wanted and I hadn't decided on anything. Well I finally figured out what I wanted. For some time I had been looking for a nice ring for my right hand but wasn't sure what stone/design I wanted. A few weeks ago I found what I had been looking for and have been enjoying wearing it for the last week or so.

Detail Shot

Less you think Graham and I are rolling in the dough it is a "simulated" diamond but boy does it look oh so real. Another upside to it being simulated is I'm also getting matching earrings. Just keep this between us ok? Everyone else can think it's real diamonds and platinum.

People Pictures from the Picture People

A few weeks ago we took Greta to the mall to have portraits taken. It was also the first time Graham and I had gotten professional pictures since our wedding. It didn't go as well as I had hoped. I should have scheduled a bit later in the day as Greta didn't get a good nap before the pictures so she wasn't as agreeable as she could be. Normally she loves sitting up but that day, she would only stand. She really didn't want to do pictures on her own, much less let Graham and I have pictures alone. Lessons for next time: pick a better time, take Aunt Julie to hold Greta while Graham and I have pictures alone and possibly change her outfit. I'm thinking of trying again around 9 months. The good news was we didn't have to pay a sitting fee and we did get some really nice pictures out of it. Sorry for the logo across the pictures and these are unedited and uncropped so the actual ones we got are formatted better. However, you can still see how nice they turned out. :-) Oh & if you click on these they come up not near as grainy. Must be bloggers compression of the images.

Momma & Gretys

Sweet Baby Girl

My favorite of Greta

Family Picture

Another Favorite. I love her inquisitive look.

Daddy & his girl

Greta showing off her pushup skills

Towards the end - you can tell she is tired and not enjoying it.

2 More family pictures

Answer Time

Aunt Fran wins the prize! I bought a pair of pants at Ann Taylor Loft for 3.88. Julie so kindly gave me a 15% off coupon so after that and tax I came out around $3.50. They were originally $59 and I found them on the clearance rack. I didn't check the price when I picked them up - I was just browsing and trying on for fun. In the dressing room I finally looked at the tag and about fell over then decided it must be a mistake, perhaps a price sticker from another item of clothing. They fit well (and doesn't clothing always look better when you get it for a deal)? At the checkout they indeed rang up for 3.88 and the girl made sure I knew I couldn't return them because they were "final sale". I assured her at that price I would not be returning them. They are similar in color and styling to this pair of pants.
I can assure you that in future I will be frequenting the clearance rack for more final sale bargains. I always check there but usually just browse through not looking at prices unless something really catches my eye. Now I will be checking those prices more carefully.

Pop Quiz

What item of clothing can you purchase brand new for under 4 dollars, tax included?

Answer will be posted in a few days.