The results are in...

So my sweet co-workers indulged me in a totally random survey the other day, and the results are as follows:
Chocolate - 5
Maple - 1
Peanut butter - 3
Peppermint - 2
Pumpkin - 1

Now the question is, what does it mean? Stay tuned! All will be revealed in due time...

Cooking Makes Me Happy

I've always loved cooking, but now that I'm a mom and a wife I find real pleasure in being able to provide for my family by making great food. Maybe it's a little June Cleaver of me, but hey - it makes me happy...

Lately I've been on a real slow cooker kick, but this week I decided to go old school and make some quicker recipes. Thanks to my best friend Jody I was inspired to make chicken pot pie tonight and it was delicious! Basic recipe:

• Lay a pie crust into a pie pan
• Pick the meat from the bones of 1 roast chicken from the grocery
• Combine meat with 1 can cream of chicken (I used low fat/low sodium) and 1 can cream of potato
• Add veggies you'd like - I chose carrots, celery, onion and peas
• NOTE: I used all fresh veggies except the peas, which were frozen. I sauteed them slightly before mixing them in just to soften them a bit.
• Layer into a pie pan and top with pie crust
• Bake at 400 for about 30-45 minutes - until pie crust is browned and contents are bubbly

It was that easy, and totally delish. While the pot pie was baking, I also made Baby F some more apples and pears. The boy LOVES his fruit! I want to thank my dear friend Ashley for giving me two baby food books as gifts at my Book Club book baby shower. I love the books and find great joy in making Baby F's food from scratch. It tastes delicious and is very economical!

Okay, enough June Cleaver for tonight. Off to plan my next cooking adventure!

Bookworm In Training

I love the fact that when my husband reads to my son before bed he reads him the title, then the author, then launches into the story. Not sure why, but I think including the author adds a little something.

We love reading to Baby F and he really loves his books! My personal favorites are the Berenstain Bears books, but thanks to my amazing Book Club Girls who held a very meaningful book shower for me before Baby F was born, we have been introduced to a whole host of kid books that I wasn't familiar with before. Everyone was asked to bring their favorite childhood book (or books) to the shower and believe it or not, there wasn't a single duplicate! It tells me that we are all truly book lovers, even though "Book Club" is more often focused on drinking wine, eating cheese and talking about everything except the book.

I have referenced a particular research study a lot lately, so I wanted to note it here. The study shows that children raised in a home with a 500-book library achieve on average 6.6 more years of education. Amazing! We have a pretty healthy collection of books - and now we have even more reason to continue to expand our collection. Outside of the Berenstain Bears books, some personal favorites in my collection include classics The Great Gatsby and Lady Chatterly's Lover; beach favorites such as The Other Side of the Story and Watermelon by Marian Keyes; childhood staple The Little House on the Prairie series; and a favorite love story from my college years, Coming Home.

My husband has totally different taste in books, but together we're hopefully turning our little man into a bookworm all his own. Can't wait to see what his favorites end up being! I found some Bobbsey Twins books for him that were mine as a kid. I loved them... Wonder if they'll translate to today's kid when he's old enough to read them? What are some of your favorites?

I'm in the Navy!

I spent a blissful afternoon with my BFF Jody today celebrating our two birthdays (she on Nov. 20, me Dec. 4 - just two weeks apart!) We first stopped at Common Grounds for a delicious sandwich and some drinks, then on to the Oxford for mani/pedis. Believe it or not, this was Jody's first pedi and she loved it!

I saw an ad for something in a magazine recently where the girl had navy blue nail polish - so I decided to give it a try. OPI has this cool color called Russian Navy, and I love it! I got it on my toes and fingers and it looks really cool. Only problem is that it's not very forgiving, and I already have a nick on my finger nail that you simply cannot miss. Oh well - it's going to be fun while it lasts!

While the afternoon was lots of fun - nothing can beat the giant smile and jumping around "welcome home" that Baby F did when he saw me walk in the door! That kid is really cute... Wonderful birthday weekend all around!

Gaining Perspective On My Bir-s-day

Today was my birthday (or bir-s-day as my Hungarian grandmother says...) and it was a really nice day! Baby F "slept in" until about 7:30, then we all hung out in bed and opened cards and presents and played with the wrapping and envelopes (okay - that was just Baby F...) Once we finally got moving we had breakfast at Toast in Cherry Creek and then jetted off to Target to shop for holiday gifts for some children we "adopted" through the Denver Police Department.

We adopted three kids this year and it just breaks my heart to read their gift lists. While there are some fun gift requests (makeup for a 13-year-old girl, wrestling toys for an 11-year-old boy), there are also some that no kid I knew growing up would ask for, like a winter coat or shoes. Yes - we might have asked for a trendy coat (I remember the year I got my first jean jacket for Christmas - score!) or the latest style of shoes, but these kids are asking out of necessity, not to be trendy.

This year my entire perspective on the holidays has changed. Perhaps it's being a new mom, or maybe it's a part of becoming more socially aware, but it truly feels better to give to those in need and to simply enjoy being with the ones I love, celebrating all of the wonderful blessings we're so privileged to have. I hope the joy I get from giving to those in need passes along to Baby F.

A Day To Be Grateful

Today was a day full of things to be grateful for:

• This morning I dropped Baby F at school where he smiled like crazy at his teachers and friends when we arrived. For his love of school and all that he's learning, even at this early age, I am grateful.
• I also dropped two bags of baby clothes, some diapers Baby F outgrew and extra wipes at The Denver Rescue Mission. I simply cannot fathom what it would be like to be homeless or in need - particularly with an infant. For the fact that I have never had to contemplate this reality, but also for the fact that I can give and have been motivated to do so, I am grateful.
• I had an impromptu lunch date with my dear friend Carrie today. We met through work more than 10 years ago and we still work together today, although for a different employer than where we started out. For the fact that Carrie is in my life, and that we share so many wonderful friends and now years worth of memories, I am grateful.
• When I picked up Baby F he immediately smiled at me, and didn't stop smiling even when I dragged him to the grocery store instead of straight home. For his shining face and light in his eyes, I am grateful!

So many things to be grateful for this holiday season - I hope you are enjoying your blessings, too!

Cry Me a River...

So - this has been a rough week for Baby F. He had a fever the first part of the week which has finally gone away only to be replaced by a cough and serious stuffed nose (for Mommy, too, which is great.) To top it all off, we're still weaning - which is getting easier, by the way - and we have also started trying a bit of the "cry it out" method of getting him to go to sleep. I really didn't want to take this approach, but the doctor advised us that at 6 months old he really should be going into the crib awake, not nursed to sleep, as he would only continue to freak out when he wakes up at night because he doesn't know that the crib is a safe place to soothe himself to sleep.

It's amazing how many opinions there are on how to get your kid to sleep - and no preparation for how awful it is to survive the crying that comes with the path we've chosen. But, I'm happy to report that in about a week of working on this he went to bed with only about 5-10 minutes of crying tonight, much of which was actually babbling and wasn't a freaked out cry at all. Hoping he sleeps well tonight, and looking forward to getting to bed myself soon! Nighty night, blog world!