happy st. patrick's day everyone! oliver's middle name patron saint (in honor of my uncle patrick). hope you have plans to celebrate well tonight. mom and dad are coming over for some homemade corned beef, sauteed cabbage, buttered red potatoes, guinness, and mom's soda bread. i have been dreaming of that corned beef.
our weekend was busy and exhausting, but we got everything accomplished that we set out to do.
friday after work, i went and picked up shannon from her friend's house, who came into town for a surprise weekend visit. we arrived at mom and dad's just as they were leaving the house for a movie, and they were totally shocked. mission accomplished! :) needless to say, they happily canceled their movie plans.
bryan spent friday evening tending to the smoker. i brined 2 briskets in preparation for st patty's day: one for corned beef, and the other for pastrami (which is what happens when you brine and smoke a brisket). the homemade pastrami is unequaled. i was never a pastrami fan until i had our homemade version. now i am a die hard fan. i dream of thick slices of smokey pastrami nestling up to some sharp cheddar cheese.
we also put our new oliver nighttime routine and rules into effect friday night. we've done lots of reading and talking to people, and the thing that always strikes me about parenting in general, is that you can read everything you want, and it may all seem like common sense, but when you have a crying baby, putting into practice what you thought you learned isn't quite as easy (and suddenly much of it seems contradictory). :) one of the main things we gleaned from our reading last week was that at his age, he needs 11.5 - 12 hours of downtime at night. since we get him up at 6:30 every morning during the week for day care, that would mean he should be in bed by 7pm at the latest. we had been getting him down at 8pm. so by moving his bedtime up an hour, we helped to ensure that he was getting to bed before he started to get over tired. that seemed to help A LOT. also, someone i went to high school with is getting her doctoral in child development specializing in regulation and infant crying, so she has been giving me some GREAT advice/tips/knowledge on the subject. it was so good to hear that he won't put up a stink for no reason, and that while it may be hard to tell the difference at 2am, the baby knows if he's crying just to fuss or if he's hungry - it's his only way of communicating, after all. bryan and i did better tracking our actions at night, and communicating. we observed each other's methods so we could come together a bit more on that too. for the most part, he was on a solid 4 hour schedule. he did have a fit of gas on saturday night; but we worked through it and i found that having him upright relieved some pressure some where and he was able to settle down to sleep. sunday morning, he even sat alone in his crib and babbled away happily to himself for a good 30 minutes. all in all, he did very good with his eating schedule and much better on the sleeping front as well. i think we're making progress. :)
saturday morning, we left ollie with mom and shannon for awhile while we drove to kenosha to go mattress shopping at a furniture outlet. we picked a king size simmons set, which is HUGE compared to our old queen. we did get an extra firm, and after sleeping on it for the first time last night, bryan isn't so sure he loves it as much as he thought he did (i was so tired i barely noticed). we do have 30 days to exchange it if we so desire, so we'll give it a week. either way, it is nice to lay on the bed and not roll towards a dip in the middle. ;) after we made that purchase, we zipped through the prime outlets so i could exchange some pants for oliver, and buy myself some pants that fit, then hurried to get oliver and head downtown to pick a csa.
slow food wisconsin hosted a csa open house at the urban ecology center. multiple farms from around the state set up tables to give information. we reviewed materials from all of them, and spoke to many of the farmers, and in the end chose JenEhr Family Farm. their biggest draw is that their pick up spot is at the west allis farmer's market, which is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from our house. some of the other farms didn't have any spots in town, which just doesn't work for us. they were one of the few certified organic farms present, which was a big plus in our eyes. the farmer we spoke with as well was very personable, and we got a great vibe. their materials were well presented. they also offer members the ability to come and pick their own strawberries and tomatoes during the appropriate seasons, which will be a lot of fun. we bought half a share, so will be receiving a full bushel every other week. we are SO excited for the season to start, in june. i can't wait to see what we get with each pick up, and hopefully to develop a relationship with the farm.
we had so far managed to make it through the day without disrupting oliver's eating/napping schedule, and he did us the favor of conking out almost immediately in the car, and even continuing to sleep as we stopped at the first grocery store to begin our food shopping. he awoke at the next store, still feeling rested and not yet hungry, so we zipped through and headed on home so as not to break the schedule. we made it home in time to have some play time and cereal eating time, right on schedule.
mom, dad, and shannon brought over some singha thai take out for dinner. this is easily our favorite thai place, hands down, and is the perfect place to fall back on when we don't know where
to go. i have said it before and can't say it enough: BEST SPRING ROLLS EVER. their menu is expansive, and while the pad thai is my usual favorite, i ordered the spicy catfish. mom had gotten it last time we were there, and it was outstanding. it is my new favorite. the catfish is battered and fried, and served in a mildly spicy red chili sauce with green beans. i am not a big fan of catfish, but whatever they do to this fish works - it's seriously addicting. i had a hard time not eating all of it so i could have some leftovers for lunch today. :) shannon had cashew chicken, which was very flavorful and packed with giant, perfectly toasted cashews. bryan had some very spicy green curry pork, and dad had some yellow curry chicken. mom had some peanut beef, which was spicy as well, and had a slightly vietnamese taste to it. we had some italian double chocolate gelatto and red raspberry sorbet for dessert. i had seem them at the grocery and said, gee wouldn't they go well together? turns out i was right.katie texted us to see if the tornado had hit hannah's area; we had NO idea what she was talking about, having been on the go since 6:30 that morning, and were shocked to learn of the tornado that ripped through downtown atlanta friday night. we immediately thought of our friend chris, who lives but a few miles outside of downtown. we saw sunday morning that the tornado went straight through his neighborhood and destroyed many homes and buildings. when we got in touch with him sunday afternoon, we were relieved to learn that he was all right, and that while a tree fell on his house, it appears to have caused minimal damage. his yard is a disaster, though.
sunday, we couldn't quite get our schedule in line with the baby's, but in the interest of our sanity we favored his and eventually got it together. we attended palm sunday church, which is always an interesting one to me; the service starts out on a joyous note with the palms, but the passion gospel is always so depressing (and LONG). i was surprised to see that most of the music was organ heavy; we didn't do much joyous celebrating, and i was rather relieved that the passion gospel was a simple reading, and not the 40 minute drama i remember from my youth. all in all it was pretty disappointing, but since we're not all that big on organized religion to start with, we can't be too surprised. :) next year, i think i'll take bryan to mom's church so he can see the palm walk, which is a pretty neat procession, and we'll just slip out before they get to the gospel and all that heavy stuff. i guess we're just in it for the entertainment. ;)
after church, we both had lunch on our minds, so we zipped home to bake the strata i had prepared the night before. i layered potato chive bread, usinger's beef ring bologna, and mozzarella cheese, drowned it in an egg custard, left it overnight, and baked. it turned out pretty tasty, and there wasn't much left over. i packaged up the leftovers for mom, as she doesn't get a chance to eat ring bologna, but loves it. i ran out to do some quick target shopping (we were in the danger zone with the diaper supply), and once oliver woke up from his next nap (right on schedule; what can i say, he's a great baby), he and i got all packed up and headed out to spend some time with shannon before she left. his next expected nap time coincided with her departure time, and when his eyes began to droop, i got him in the car and lulled to sleep; made a quick stop at home to drop him off then headed back out to buy some new pjs and onesies for oliver (he keeps growing), and sheets for the new bed, as we didn't have any king size ones. oh darn, i have to buy all new bed linens. :)
the bed arrived last night, and the delivery guys were nice enough to keep it down so the baby didn't wake up. the bed looks great in the space; it fits the room much better than the queen did. bryan is going to build me a headboard to upholster, since we don't plan on buying new bedroom furniture until sometime next year. so that will be a fun project for the both of us.
we made mushroom swiss burgers for dinner last night and ohhhhhhhhhhh yum. bryan
cooked the mushrooms in butter, and finished them with sherry (one of my favorite flavors). i picked up some emmenthaler; i wanted something a little more biting than your generic deli swiss, since i like that depth of flavor better. no mustard, no mayo, no lettuce, no tomato, just some seriously caramelized onions: we really wanted the sherry and cheese to shine through, and they did. it was the perfect end to the day. we watched eddie izzard's sexie, which was amusing as always ("Um er, so the breast thing, so as a transvestite it’s my job, right eh, just wearing breasts..."). GAH i can't wait to see him live. :)i woke up around 3am feeling incredibly sick all of a sudden, but whatever it was seems to have passed through. i must have caught a stomach bug on one of our 77 errands over the weekend. tis the season. luckily, it seems to have passed by bryan and the baby. i debated staying home to catch up on sleep but then i may just want more. so i had a cherry coke for breakfast instead. :)
i hope everyone enjoys their st patrick's day. and remember while celebrating tonight:
"cha deoch-slàint, i gun a tràghadh!"
"it’s no health if the glass is not emptied!"
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