ringing in the new year

max rang in the new year by deciding to sit up unassisted.  so now when we plop him down somewhere, he whips out his little hands and turns into mr. grabby.  he is so excited to be fully mobile and play with pace--he watches everything pace does, and grunts or squeals with excitement!  and we're excited to watch these boys become best buddies!  

max has turned into a little baby bird at mealtime!  he eats three meals a day and nurses 4-5 times in a 24 hour period.  when he wakes up in the morning he has a fruit with yogurt, after his morning nap he has fruit with cereal, and after his afternoon nap, he has prunes and veggies with cereal.

grains:  rice cereal, oatmeal, barley, lentils

fruit:  cherries, blueberries, pears, peaches, papaya, mango, prunes

veggies:  sweet potatoes (#1 favorite--he jumps up and down when he sees me with orange in the bowl), regular mashed potatoes, peas (another fav), winter squashes

have made but have yet to try: apricots, cantaloupe, beets, quinoa

absolutely dislikes: avocado 

we have to get the leg shot in the jumper chair, to compare with pace's little jumper legs.  i think i could slip pace's legs in and out of this jumper about as easily as pulling a carrot stick through...something wider than a carrot stick.  max requires a little assistance.  i almost need a shoehorn when trying to pry him out of the bumbo... 

most of the time max pulls his feet up for some hang time

pace rang in the new year scooping.  if it's too cold to scoop dirt outside, we're inside scooping board game pieces (dice, trains, etc.).  one day i was getting dinner ready in the kitchen, and i guess pace wanted to be nearby.  so he scooped all the dice that were in the computer room, pushed the excavator all the way down the hallway and dumped the dice into a pile in the living room area.

david rang in the new year going for a run in some new treads.  isn't he cute in matchy-matchy jacket and shoes?!

he was also slightly astonished watching oprah's interview with armstrong.  ha ha...just kidding.  we're of the opinion that sport is so doped up, everyone was doping illegally, so lance won on pretty much a level playing field.  

i rang in the new year trying to make my great-grandmother's traditional czechoslovakian apple strudel.  i was really excited to follow the recipe and feel like i was doing something from my roots. i put together the dough and then worked on the apples while the dough had to rest for 30 minutes.  

back to the dough.  hmmm....this looked nothing like the soft, pliable bread, cinnamon roll, or pizza dough i am used to.  it was one big solid, oily mass that smelled like play dough.  i called my mom to ask if this was what it was supposed to look like.  she laughed and said yes, and to "just have faith!  it'll roll out--just keep brushing oil as you're rolling it out and it'll work!"  

the recipe said to roll out the dough into a very, very thin 36x36" square.  i was very skeptical from the beginning.  it simply didn't look or feel right.  and faith has never been my forte.  i looked up other "czech strudel" recipes online, and although many of the recipes were similar, others were more pie-like.  and all of them looked like very thin pie dough when rolled out.  nothing like this:

or this:

or this...no matter how much oil i brushed on it.  this slab of dough had so much oil brushed on it, it probably could have gone tanning in the bahamas.  but my mom said to just have faith, so i did.

and miracle of miracles--here's what i ended up with!

ha ha...just kidding.  i chucked the oily playdough and ended up using some extra pizza dough i had from making dinner.  it tasted fine, but definitely not crispy and flaky.  i had a bunch of leftover filling that i mixed with some blackberries i had in the freezer and made a yummy crisp.  we'll try again when my mom comes out to visit.