Today I met with Elijah’s 1st grade teacher for the anticipated Parent/Teacher conference to discuss his progress in school so far. It went very well! I am very proud of our boy! He is doing great in all areas, especially reading and writing. A momma likes to hear all the good things her baby is accomplishing.

I am glad I got to meet with his teacher, because my impression of her has now changed. In the beginning she seemed to be extremely hard on the children. Too hard. Some days Elijah would be very nervous to go to school for fear he was going to get in trouble for not doing or saying things right. Not too long ago he was in tears since he could not find a little apple book he made out of cut paper. He thought he had to return it to class and he was frantic searching the house. We never found the book, so I wrote his teacher a note hoping that would soften his punishment. He never got in trouble…but as any protective parent watching their son crying because he was scared what his teacher would do, I wasn’t sure if I liked his teacher very much.

Mrs. Perry admitted she was harder on the children in the beginning of the school year to establish the “rules”, but I think things are more relaxed now. Turns out she is very sweet and from her comments today, I can tell she is a very caring teacher.

Like many women during pregnancy I have had many cravings, but mine tend to last the whole pregnancy long.

When I was pregnant with Elijah I could not get enough tamales, Mexican food in general, slushies from Sonic or Water-n-Ice, and seafood (mainly crabmeat and shrimp). With Jonah I craved hummus, edamames, pizza, french fries, and banana bread (specifically Emma’s recipe). I know these sound really gross together, but I did not eat them all at one time. ; ) With this pregnancy I haven’t had as many cravings as before, but I have had two specific ones so far; Chinese potstickers and sweets (mostly cake, pies, and anything chocolate).

So, I have been trying my hand at some good old home cooking and have discovered some great recipes. My favorite so far are the Vegetarian potstickers (dumplings) and Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies recipes I pulled off of the Smitten Kitchen and Allrecipes websites.

Vegetarian Dumplings
Adapted from Alton Brown

1/2 pound firm tofu
1/2 cup coarsely grated carrots
1/2 cup shredded Napa cabbage
2 tablespoons finely chopped red pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions
2 teaspoons finely minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves
2 minced cloves garlic (Deb addition)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil (I replace 1 teaspoon with hot sesame oil — delicious)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
35 to 40 small wonton wrappers
1/3 cup chicken stock or water

Preheat the oven to 200°F.

Cut the tofu in half horizontally and lay between layers of paper towels. Place on a plate, top with another plate, and place a weight on top (a 14-ounce can of vegetables works well). Let stand 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, cut the tofu into 1/4-inch cubes and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the carrots, cabbage, red pepper, scallions, ginger, cilantro, soy sauce, hoisin, sesame oil, egg, salt, and pepper. Lightly stir to combine.

To form the dumplings, remove 1 wonton wrapper from the package, covering the others with a damp cloth. Brush the edges of the wrapper lightly with water. Place 1/2 rounded teaspoon of the tofu mixture in the center of the wrapper. Shape as desired*. Set on a sheet pan and cover with a damp cloth. Repeat procedure until all of the filling is gone.

Heat a 12-inch saute pan over medium heat. Brush with vegetable oil once hot. Add 8 to 10 potstickers at a time to the pan and cook for 2 minutes, without touching. Once the 2 minutes are up, gently add 1/3 cup chicken stock to the pan, turn the heat down to low, cover, and cook for another 2 minutes.

I made a bunch of these and froze them. They keep really well in the freezer and are great for a quick meal/snack. I have since modified the Vegetable dumpling recipe and added ground chicken for Ben’s benefit since he is not a fan of tofu. Both turned out so good that I have not had the desire to go out to P.F. Chang’s for their overly priced but extremely delicious vegetarian and chicken ones.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

This week I am going to make chocolate cream pie and pumpkin pie. I will post the recipes if they turn out good!

I have really been neglecting our blog lately, but honestly I haven’t had the energy to do much more than trying to keep up with the daily tasks that demand my attention. So I am going to attempt to catch things up in the next few posts…

Last week I received positive confirmation via ultrasound that I am indeed pregnant. Our new addition should be arriving in mid-March 2010. I was in my 12th week when the ultrasound pictures shown below were captured. I am now currently in my 13th week and still have not gained the energy I once had and took for granted.

I must admit I have known for several weeks now and both Ben and I were stunned by this completely unexpected “development”. However, there was no denying it after many, many pregnancy tests, bouts of morning sickness, unpredictable moodiness, and complete lack of ability to complete normal daily functions without having to sit down (or lay down) and rest.

Elijah is beyond excited for another baby in the family. He is hoping for a baby sister. So far Jonah is indifferent, but we are sure he is not ready to give up the benefits of still being the “baby”. Though, he does kiss my belly when we ask him where the baby is. In turn he wants us to kiss his belly, because he thinks he has a baby in his belly too. We can’t fault a two year old for not knowing how things really work.

Yesterday marked the last day of Elijah’s first week of 1st grade. I’m sure as with most schools the Elementary school he is attending has been going pretty easy on the children for the first week; the workload in class is very light and he hasn’t had homework so far. So Elijah is thinking 1st grade is a breeze. However, we parents know it will only get harder as the year progresses. Only slightly harder I think since it is still only 1st grade, but for a 6 year old it may get challenging at times.

He was very happy to have a few of his kindergarten classmates join him in his 1st grade class. And he really likes his teacher Mrs. Perry. He said she talks calmly like Mrs. Young. I give Elementary teachers a lot of credit. They sure have an abundance of patience!

Here are some pictures of Elijah on the first day of 1st grade.

I'm leaving, on a school bus, don't know when I'll be back again!

Raiding mothers gum......always!

On Monday Elijah goes back to school. I am excited for him to start 1st grade and get back into a daily routine. Routines are good for all of us! His 1st grade teacher will be Mrs. Perry. I have heard really good things about her from my neighbor and from Elijah’s kindergarten teacher Mrs. Young. Although I wished at the end of the last school year Mrs. Young would have been his teacher again, I am happy he will get the opportunity to meet and get to know a new teacher.

The summer really flew by. Our summer started with a wonderful visit from Morgan – continuing with a family trip to San Diego (Sea World and beaches) and Arizona (visiting family and friends) – followed by a 10 day visit from Kenzie, Kaelyn, and Zack. We also spent a lot of late, late nights hanging out with our friends. You cannot beat the great Indiana summer nights of sitting around a fire-pit roasting marshmallows, eating smores, chatting, and occasionally spotting fireflies. The July fireworks (Indiana folk don’t just shoot off fireworks on the 4th; they last the whole month long) were great too.

As summer ends we have many new memories to reflect on and we look forward to the upcoming fall memories we will make.

On Monday Kadie Day moved away. Kadie was Elijah’s fellow kindergarten, bus, and play buddy. For about a year Kadie, her Grandparents, and her cousins were our neighbors.. A few hours after they left on their road trip backed to Florida to reunite with their family, Elijah was so somber and sad. On a quiet drive to Target Monday afternoon Elijah broke his silence to tell me he really missed Kadie already. In the first picture Elijah and Kadie are trying to smile but you can see Kadie is sad about her last day here. The second picture is all the children enjoying their last jump together.

Goodbye Kadie Day. We will miss you.

YAY, Morgan arrived today for a summer visit to Indiana. We are so excited to have her here with us for the next 2 1/2 weeks. We wish she could stay longer, but we will take what we can get! Elijah and Jonah are already following her around like love sick puppies…It’s so cute to see how much they love and missed their big sister.

With a lot of help from my parents I finally got two 4 x 4 “square foot” gardens set up.  It was quite a sight to watch my dad carrying the heavy bags of soil, compost, and peet moss from my car to my backyard. Late Thursday night we mixed the soil, compost, and peet moss together and added the twine to separate the sections of the garden and yesterday afternoon Elijah and Jonah helped me plant all the seeds and pre-started plants.  I am so excited to start seeing our herbs and veggies grow, but I am even more excited to start harvesting our own produce.

(I think I owe my parents some of the first harvests.)

Here is a layout of what we are growing:

Here is a picture of the garden today:

You may have noticed in the bottom right square of one of the gardens there are crumbs of some kind.  I think Jonah thought dumping the tortilla chip crumbs in the garden will help the plants grow.

I will post some pictures later on when things start growing in.

Friday May 22nd was Elijah’s last day of Kindergarten. Yay!!  Unfortunately, he was unable to go to school to celebrate.

On Tuesday night Elijah started complaining about a sore throat and on Wednesday morning he woke up with a high fever.  He continued to have a fever (low-grade and high) on and off, however he was getting a lot of rest on Wednesday and Thursday and we hoped that he would be able to go to school on Friday.  I am such a worrier, but I figured he probably had a cold (or flu) so of course I gave him Motrin and Tylenol every 3 to 6 hours, kept him sipping water, gave him lots of hugs, and applied the necessary cool wash clothes to comfort him and bring his temperature down.  By Thursday afternoon Elijah was acting like he felt SO much better and he told me his throat wasn’t hurting that much.  I had even called his teacher Thursday night and told her Elijah was feeling much better and we couldn’t wait for us all to attend his Kindergarten graduation celebration Friday morning.  Sadly his sore throat persisted and by Friday morning around 6 am he had a 103.2 temperature. 

Later on that afternoon I stopped by Elijah’s school to pick up his things and drop off a present for Elijah’s teacher (an apron we made that says # 1 Teacher with an apple logo made in vinyl). After briefly speaking with a school administrator I found out strep throat was going around the school.  Of course I immediately called his Pediatrician’s office and managed to get him in right away.  Surprisingly he protested and insisted he was fine.  He really did not want to go to see Dr. Hodson.  He was so apprehensive. —I am not sure where this started from, but Elijah gets so worried when he has to go to see a Doctor.  For some reason he is afraid we will have to leave him there.  (It may be related to Jonah’s stay in the hospital).—

SURE ENOUGH he has strep.  AND we found out Saturday morning after discovering hives and a red rash on his hands and feet – Elijah is allergic to Amoxicillin.  He is now on another antibiotic and he is doing so much better.

I feel so bad he had to miss the last few days of Kindergarten.  Thankfully his WONDERFUL teacher Mrs. Young provided him with a Kindergarten Memory book chalked full of pictures and special memories from the school year.  She even gave him a CD full of pictures of his classmates. There is no wonder why she was name TEACHER OF THE YEAR.  I only wish she could be his 1st grade teacher too!

Here’s to a fun and HEALTHY summer!!!