Feeding Time for Miss Lucy

It's a little hectic here tonight, between Nick throwing spaghetti at us, the torrential rains, and the delivery of our new living room set. Our whole downstairs is in disarray, since we have to move everything around and try to get the new slipcovers on. So my post tonight will be short.

Tonight, I'm going to post a quick video from yesterday, when Nick and I visited his GG (short for great-grandmother) and her puppy, Miss Lucy. Nick was fascinated by her food dishes, and he had a great time moving her food back and forth between the dish and a bucket. He thought he was being very helpful.

My grandma also introduced Nick to something new: twizzlers. We'd never given him red licorice before, but GG pulled it out while I was trying to hold Nick down to change his diaper. He quieted right down and ate the whole piece. Nick loves his GG.  :)

Oh, and here she is. . . the cutest puppy in all the land. My grandma thinks she looks silly with one ear up and one down. I think it's charming.

Madame Linda's Birthday Dinner: Part One

For my mom's birthday in July, Greg and I decided to do something different. We invited my mom and stepdad, along with my sister and grandma (and her puppy) over for a French-themed dinner. My mother is a definite Francophile, and my stepdad has taken her to Paris several times. We wanted to do something special for her, and hopefully that's what we achieved. I took lots of pictures, so I think I'll have to do two posts for this birthday dinner party, one about our preparation and appetizers, and one about the dinner and dessert. My sister did a post with more pictures from this day, if you'd like to see them.

First, I created a menu. . .
(click to enlarge)

It was harder than I'd thought to put a beret on Nick's head, but I managed. By the way, neither Greg nor I are fluent in French, though we both had several years of high school French. I used an online translator.

Greg used his Williams Sonoma French cookbook to plan the main course and side dishes, while I planned the appetizers, baguettes, and dessert. We ended up picking some pretty complicated recipes, but we wanted a challenge. This menu was definitely a challenge, but it was kind of fun for Greg and I to work together to create something special.

The baguettes were easier than anticipated, although they took hours of rising before they were ready. I ended up making four baguettes, and all of them were gone within 24 hours, so I guess that means that they were good. I adore baguettes fresh from the oven, and I was surprised at how much mine tasted like the ones I had in Paris. I will be making them again, often.

Here is the appetizer course, which was: 1.) shrimp and tomatoes (from my garden!) sauteed in garlic butter, and 2.) slices of homemade toasted French baguette, with a layer of melted goat cheese, rosemary, and thyme (spices fresh from my garden). This was all that was left by the time I thought to take a picture of the appetizers. Nick devoured everything, and was even licking goat cheese from the bread, saying, "Mmm!" Can you see him sneaking more bread in the picture above? By the way, the birthday madame is seated in the center part of the couch, in the pink. My stepfather is sitting on her left, and my grandmother on her right. My sister is the one with the camera, laughing at Nick's antics.

















Greg planned the main course, which was Coq au Vin with french green beans and a potato casserole baked with Gruyere cheese. Our whole kitchen smelled divine while the chicken was cooking, and Greg worked very hard. We had all of the burners going, plus the oven, for much of the afternoon.

I thought the potatoes were cooked perfectly, and the Gruyere cheese added something unique to the dish. I told Greg we should double the amount of cheese next time--it was that good.

Just looking at this picture of the Coq au Vin cooking makes my mouth water. I want to try more wine sauces, now that we've tasted this one.

I told Greg that he can make this recipe for me, anytime. The sauce was so good that we defrosted some chicken breasts the next day and used the sauce on them. The chicken was tender and moist, probably because of the sauce.

Greg has been watching a ton of Food Network lately, and I think he's getting a lot of ideas. Hey, as hobbies go, my husband's isn't too shabby.  ;)

Tomorrow I'll talk about the actual dinner and, of course, the dessert.

Schaumburg Farmers' Market and Lunch at Maggiano's with G.G.

On Friday, Nick and I took a little trip to visit my Grandma Dorothy, who Nick calls G.G. We wanted to go to the farmers' market in Schaumburg, and my grandmother brought her dog, Miss Lucy, who weighs only slightly more than a hamster. I think Nick was mildly jealous, because instead of everyone fussing over him, they were fussing over the adorable puppy. "Oh, she is so cute!" Nick was not used to being second fiddle. I somehow think that he won't adjust well when we eventually have a second child. He is always the center of attention.

I've always been pretty close to my grandmother, who is only 41 years older than me. People often assume she's my mother when we're out and about, and that Nick is her grandson. She is always proud to announce that Nick is her great-grandson. I always try to go up and visit her whenever I can, especially during vacations and summer.

The Schaumburg Farmers' Market was nice, medium-sized but with some pretty good vendors. It was smaller and not as complete as the Saturday markets in Lisle and Wheaton, but there were still quite a few local farmers and some great samples. The samples are always Nick's favorite part of  farmers' markets. I bagged a tart from the French nuns, some havarti and gout goada cheese from a gourmet cheese vendor, a nice bunch of green onions, and some fresh broccoli. Lucy (the puppy) got some doggie socialization time and about forty compliments. After the farmers' market, we went to drop the puppy off before going to lunch. She was ready for a nap, after playing with Nick to the point of exhaustion. Nick was still raring to go, though.

We went to Maggiano's for a nice Italian lunch. They told us that the servings were all half portions because it was lunchtime. We decided to order two dishes and split them so that we could try two things. We had meat lasagna and chicken spinach manicotti with alfredo sauce. I also ordered some asparagus with garlic so that we'd have a vegetable. The waitress warned me, "The baby might not like the asparagus, since it has a lot of garlic." I told her not to worry, because Nick eats nearly everything. He likes garlic, too.

The asparagus, in fact, was his favorite part of the dinner. He ate at least five or six spears of the stuff. Nick enjoys anything shaped like a french fry, and this includes green beans, string cheese, and asparagus. He kept waving the stalks around like little flags, but he ate a whole lot, garlic or no garlic. I love the picture above because of the way Nick is holding the asparagus in front of his face, showing me. "MMM," he kept announcing as he grabbed for another stalk and shoved it in his mouth.

The food was pretty good, and the atmosphere was nice. It was just noisy enough for Nick's chattering not to bother anyone. When they brought our food out, we were astounded. If these were half-size, lunch portions, what must the dinner portions look like? I ate less than half of the food and still felt very, very full. We weren't too full to try some tiramisu, though. Can you see it all around Nick's lips? I thought he might not like it, because tiramisu has a kind of coffee flavor, but Nick loved every bite. I asked the waitress to take our picture before we left.

We thought we'd go back to the house and let Nick take a nap, but he wasn't having any of it. He wanted to play, plain and simple. Most of all, he wanted to play with the puppy. "Puppy!," he'd announce as he pointed towards her. "Soft," he'd say as he stroked her fur. Nick wasn't always gentle, but the puppy was surprisingly tolerant and Nicholas wasn't quite as rough as he is with the cats.

Nick and Lucy are on the same scale, size wise. She comes up to about his waist if she jumps on him, and I think she likes his smaller size, because Lucy just can't leave him alone. When he walks with her, it's as if an adult were walking with a medium sized dog. Miss Lucy was extremely active all day, and she even walked down with us to the park, using her leash correctly. My grandma was very proud of her.

But Nick never did take a nap. That's something I'm going to have to work on-whenever I go somewhere, I can't get Nick to sleep at all. He was mad at me when we had to leave, too, because he wanted to stay with GG and the puppy. Poor guy was plumb tuckered out by the time we got back home. He slept nearly 13 hours last night, so at least he got caught up. We'll have to make a point to go and visit again before the summer is over.

A Pool, a Party, and a New Puppy (Part Two)

Okay, the party is next. I'm going to tell you about how my family celebrates birthdays, and I even looked up some information on birthday traditions. See, I'm a teacher, and I have an uncontrollable urge to research.

Anyway, Nick got to sit on the laps of both birthday girls during the whole candle/cake/singing thing. He's still trying to figure out the concept of blowing out the candles. Here, you can see Nick sitting with his Great-Grandma Dorothy, (GG) during the singing. I think he looks somewhat bewildered as to why the cake is on fire. I suppose many of our customs may seem weird to him. You know, it is kind of weird that we put lit candles on a cake. Happy Birthday GG!

I actually looked it up, because I was curious. It seems that the practice of putting candles on cakes comes from the Ancient Greeks, who used to bring cakes to the temple for the goddess of the moon. I guess they'd put the candles on so that the cake would glow, just as the moon does. Then, later, Germans put one candle on a cake in honor of the light of life. I do believe Nick was just wondering why nobody cared that the cake was on fire. He sure looks like he's trying to figure the whole thing out. Happy Birthday Auntie Mandy!

Above you can see Nick wondering why we set the cake on fire a second time. We do something strange during birthdays, on my mother's side of the family. When we sing the birthday song, we sing 3 verses of the song. We've done this as long as I can remember, and I never knew why. In fact, I can remember being surprised when I'd go to my friends' birthday parties and they'd only sing one verse. When new people come to birthday parties in my family, it always confuses them, because they think the song is over, and then we keep singing.

I had to research where the other verses came from, and I think I've figured it out. "May the Dear Lord Bless You," comes from a Catholic version of the Happy Birthday song, which makes sense since my family has Catholic roots. "May You Live A Hundred Years" is a translation from the Polish version of the song, "Sto Lat." That makes sense, too, since we come from Polish roots.

Now Nick, he doesn't care about any of this. At least not yet. But you know what he does care about?

Yup. Ice cream. He cares a whole lot about ice cream. Nick is doing much better with a spoon, too, although he makes quite a mess while eating it. Yes, that is a towel wrapped around his neck.

I suppose I'll have to show the puppy pictures tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday. My grandmother just bought this adorable puppy named Lucy, and she weighs only 2 pounds. She is a Yorkie, and the cutest doggie ever. When I saw her, I said, "That's not a dog, it's a hamster!" Seriously, I've actually seen rats larger than this dog, when I worked in Cicero. But the dog was definitely cuter. I'll show lots of pictures tomorrow. Oh, and photo credits go to my sister, Amanda Wiatr.

A Pool, a Party, and a New Puppy (Part One)

Last Saturday we went to my mom and stepdad's house for a triple party. It was to celebrate my sister's birthday, my grandmother's (Nick's great-grandmother, or GG's) birthday, and father's day (for Nick's Grandpa Ray). My sister took a ton of pictures, so I think I'm going to have to do a few posts for this one. Today I'll start with the pool. Can you tell that Nick loves being outside, nearly naked, and wet? When he saw the pool at grandma's house, he got all excited. I can imagine him thinking. . . "You mean I get to play with this water? And you won't get mad at me if I splash it? That is awesome!" Auntie Mandy spent much of the time snapping pictures of Nick, and she got some really good ones.

And splash he did! There were these little squirty balls, and Nick kept getting everyone wet with them--including himself. Everyone just sat around and watched as Nick climbed in and out of the pool, splashing the whole time. He has become our entertainment. After awhile, his diaper started blowing up with water. You'd be amazed at how much those things can hold! So we took the soggy and heavy diaper off and let him run around naked for a little bit. He loved that. I think most toddlers get a kick out of having their diapers off. I guess I'd feel the same way if I had that many thick, absorbant layers on all day, every day.

I think he must've gotten cold after awhile, and about that time Grandma Linda got a big fluffy towel and a cup of milk. The world must be very strange for Nicholas lately, since he hasn't been going to the babysitter's house and the only people he sees are adults. Poor guy.

All of these pictures were taken by my sister, Amanda Wiatr, who is an amazing photographer. Yes, she does do freelance photography work, including weddings and family photography. Mandy is especially good at taking pictues of kids and animals, and her rates are very reasonable. She can be contacted either through her Facebook Page or by email at amandawiatr@yahoo.com if you're interested in getting a quote.

Anyway, after Nick's little swim, we went inside for cake and played with my grandma's new puppy for awhile. I'll write more tomorrow, and show some more great pictures. I'm going to end with this picture, which I adore because Nicholas looks so contemplative. I wonder what kind of deep thoughts he's thinking. . . perhaps he's figuring out the secrets to world peace. Or deciding whether to pee on the patio. Or internally debating the nation's energy policy. Nah, he's probably dreaming of ice cream. If my boy is anything like his mommy, he wastes most of his deep thoughts on food.