pizza, beer, and homemade organic baby food (not all together, of course)

spending the past 2 days at home with the munchkin were nice, and fun (i can't get enough of those giggles and cuddles), but it is good to be back at work as well. all in all, he did very well schedule wise, so i was able to get some work done. i'm definitely looking forward to getting him back to our normal schedule; hopefully it helps with his night sleeping as well. he has definitely been off for the last week or so; he has been getting up a LOT (last night being the worst yet). he just seems restless, and he does eat... but we need to get better about keeping him away from the bottle at night to regulate his feedings. he needs to eat during the day!! bryan and i discussed this morning how we need to solidify our approach and communicate to each other better. we tend to not alert the other to his last feeding, so when he wakes and it's the other's turn to get up, we just go ahead and feed him... plus after being up and down 5 times by 3am, memory becomes pretty fuzzy. so we've devised a plan, and starting tonight, will be better about putting it into action. hopefully oliver complies. :) it will take a period of adjustment, i am sure, but he is a good baby so i think we'll be ok.

tuesday night, bryan fulfilled a fantasy of mine and made me homemade pizza. while he is normally afraid of all things flour, his pizza dough recipe is perfected, and to be coveted. light, fluffy, incredibly flavorful - it is the stuff of dreams. topped with his tangy, rich tomato sauce, perfectly bubbled mozzarella, and some pepperoni, it's hard not to devour the entire pie (we didn't bother trying to resist). i had the new glarus hop hearty I.P.A. with it, and while i probably wouldn't pair that beer with pizza again, it was pretty delicious. in true pizza house fashion, i cavalierly skipped my vegetables. aren't hops a plant??

after bryan and i wrapped up work yesterday, we bundled the baby up for a short walk. the weather had warmed up into the 40s, so we figured it would be good to take advantage of it. ollie was a bit fussy as we were getting set to go, but as soon as that stroller started moving he calmed down. the sun and wind were a bit much for him (he's still not used to that yet), but he seemed to enjoy it anyways. he ate a big bottle and took a really good nap once we got home.

last night for dinner, i took some flat iron steaks we had from peapod, and made a rub/marinade with ground chipotle peppers, smoked paprika, hungarian paprika, oregano, salt, dark brown sugar, fresh crushed garlic, olive oil, and cider vinegar. cooked these off (medium), and sliced them thin; laid them in warm corn tortillas, topped with shredded red cabbage, thinly sliced tomatoes, and pickled red onions. bryan also put some of my homemade bread and butter jalapeno pickles on his; i skipped that extra heat. the steak was phenomenal. so tender and juicy, and very flavorful. i have added 4 more to my next peapod order. :) i think the tacos would have been better on flour tortillas (the recipe i based the idea on called for corn; plus, that is all we had) and with some mexican crema. still, not complaining. :)

eating solids has been going fairly smoothly all week. we feed oliver a bottle an hour or so before cereal time, so that he is not super hungry and thus less likely to get frustrated. he does seem to get a little frustrated, though, in that he is used to a constant stream of milk and with the cereal, he has to wait for me to load up the spoon and feed him. so perhaps feeding him cereal sooner after his bottle would work better. he does seem to gobble it up pretty good; far less than half ends up on his face. :) i'm hoping that as we increase the amount he gets, he gets more used to spoon feeding, and less frustrated. and hopefully, more sleepy at night. wish us luck tonight.

this weekend, we plan on buying a new [much needed] mattress. bryan is set on getting a king size, which i suppose makes sense (it'll fit more kids than a queen). i'm definitely looking forward to hitting up the outlet mall, at least. we're also attending a csa open house, sponsored by slow food wisconsin. we loved our csa in atlanta, so we're really looking forward to buying a share here in wisconsin. although, i have been choking on my tongue a little when looking at how much it will cost us. the ones here are far more expensive than what we paid in atlanta; then again, the ones here are run by the farms themselves and are leaps and bounds more organized (our atlanta one was run by a flaky guy who had never done anything like it before and had, often, to supplement from the farmer's market and god knows where else). we'll probably buy half a share, in hopes that we get our own garden in this spring as well (which, in all reality, we better get moving on the plans for). we'll see. we may end up with a mountain of vegetables. i can always make my own baby food with the extras, though, so i'm excited for that. homemade, organic baby food - is he a lucky little devil or what?