Weekend Recap

Friday started off with Elliott and I meeting some friends at Bellaboo's.  This place is awesome and I see us going there a couple of times a month in the future.  It is a hand's on imaginative learning center. There are a bunch of different themed rooms; water play, building blocks, train room, art room, face painting room, pizza parlor, grocery store, reading room, dress up room, and a play place type room with a ball pit and different physical obstacles.  Bellaboo's also has an interactive kids kitchen/diner where they teach children how to "cook", and a theater.  We were there for three and a half hours and didn't hit all the rooms.

We left at 2:30pm, so we missed the window of opportunity for nap time.  Elliott slept on the 10 minute ride home, but once we got home and I tried to put him in his crib, it was over.  I made an awesome pork chop dish that evening, and I will post the recipe (at least so that I can remember it, lol).  Elliott ate a whole pork chop, a whole sweet potato and some rice and broccoli.  Which is a lot of food, and a lot of meat for a kid that doesn't really like meat.

Saturday was spent relaxing at home.  Since Friday was a busy day, I wanted to balance it by hanging out and home and playing.  I got some school work done, but nothing else interesting to report.

Sunday of course was the Superbowl.  We were invited to a party, but the logistics just didn't allow for us to go.  The game didn't start until 5:30, and at that point, it is time for Elliott to start winding down for the night.  So, we made some buffalo chicken dip together for our "party" at home...Elliott helped:

He is actually a really good helper.  Last weekend, he helped me make muffins and we both enjoyed the whole process.  So today, I pulled up a kitchen chair and let him dump the measured ingredients into the mixer.  He tasted everything along the way; based on mom and dad's tastes it is no surprise that my kid likes spicy foods :)  The picture on the right is after he tasted the dip with the Frank's Red Hot added in.  Notice his little tongue sticking out.

Beyonce's halftime show was the hit of the night for Elliott.  He danced for a few seconds, but for the remainder of the performance he ran in a circle and clapped.  It was hilarious.  Once again, I should have taken some video, but we were too busy laughing.  The picture above is how I found him after the halftime show.  He went in his room and climbed up in his rocking chair.  I guess he wore himself out!

I hope everyone else had a fun weekend.  It's already Wednesday, so the next weekend will be here before you know it!

The end of my four day weekend

Normally on Sunday nights I don't dread the next day because I have a short work week.  Tonight though, I am really bummed about going back to work in the AM.  The last four days with Elliot have been full of giggles, hide and seek, dancing and playing trains.  I adore this age.

I did have a small parenting snafu last night though.  Darrell's birthday is this up-coming Thursday, and we decided to go out to dinner as a family to celebrate.  Ever since Elliot was little we've been taking him to restaurants and have never had an issue.  However, when we got the Mexican restaurant last night, he refused to get in his high chair and let out a frustrated scream.  We tried to calm him down with crayons, our phones- basically anything within reach.  Nothing worked.  People were staring.  I tried explaining things to Elliott, and Darrell got up and walked around the restaurant with Elliott to distract him.  When they got back, he still refused to sit in his high chair, and wouldn't even sit in the booth with Darrell.  He wanted to run around.  I got frustrated, put on my coat and made us all leave the restaurant.  I wasn't sure what else to do!  Luckily we drove about 10 minutes and stopped at another establishment, this time a family diner, and Elliott sat and ate with us.  It ended up being a nice night.

I've also found myself immersed in my new workout routine.  Every Sunday and Wednesday during Elliott's nap time, I do 30 to 45 minutes of Pilates.  If anyone is interested, look up Pop Pilates on YouTube.  I know that in a few months I will have toned up and shed some pounds, but right now I am sticking with it for the mood boost.  I've noticed a positive difference in my mood, and I've only been doing this for two weeks.  My energy levels are high and I am all around much happier.  I thought about taking a quick nap while Elliott was napping, but I forced myself to do at least a half hour of Pilates.  Once the half hour was up, I added on a 10 minute ab burner.  The need for a nap passed.

For dinner tonight, I made Parmesan crusted tilapia, garlicky green beans and baked potatoes.  For the fish, I used this recipe.  Instead of the paprika and parsley I used Emeril's Bayou Blast seasoning (for a bit of a kick) and some breadcrumbs.  It was excellent!  Elliott didn't try the fish, but he ate the green beans with gusto.  His appetite has waned the past few days, which is normal for toddlers.

We also Skyped Aunt Lindsey this afternoon.  Elliott sat on my lap and waved to my sister and smiled like a goof.  I got a banana out of the kitchen and he said banana for her, and tried to feed her a piece of the banana through the computer, which caused giggles all around.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and try to make the best of the upcoming work week :)

Snow Play

I broke out Elliott's snow pants and boots, and set him free in the snow.  He was really just happy to be outside, and to be honest, I think the snow was a hindrance to him.  He wanted to get in his buggy and ride, but obviously the snow didn't allow that.  I need to get a pull behind sled (and some snow boots for myself, tennis shoes were not cutting it).  In the bottom two pictures, a flock of geese were flying overhead and Elliott was fascinated.

This next item may be common knowledge to everyone, but I thought I would share anyway.  I usually make some variation of eggs for breakfast for the two of us, but I feel like he may be getting tired of eggs.  The past couple of days I've made French Toast for breakfast.  Well today, we were running low on milk.  So, I combined an egg, a bit of milk, vanilla, cinnamon and a huge spoonful of Greek yogurt on a plate; stirred to combine, and then let the bread soak it all up.   The Greek yogurt adds some extra protein to French Toast, and you can't taste it at all in the finished product.  Also, I cook my French Toast in coconut oil.  It smells like heaven, but unfortunately, you can't taste the coconut :(

AND, congrats to Angela for winning the giveaway!  Angela, I emailed you earlier today, but if you didn't receive the email leave me a comment and we will go from there.  Thanks for following this goofy little blog from the beginning!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

OMG...snow

I used to check weather.com religiously, but they never seem to get the forecast quite right, so I stopped checking.  Bad move.  I went to bed around 11 last night after doing some homework, and it was cold outside but no snow.  Today I woke up to around 8 inches of the white fluffiness.  I was actively pissed when I opened the blinds and saw the snow because I had a few errands planned for us today.  Our neighborhood streets didn't get plowed until about 11am, so I decided to just stay indoors with Elliott. We will get our errands done tomorrow.

I made french toast and grapefruit for us this morning.  I was surprised that Elliott loved the grapefruit.

It is hard to believe that he has gone from this:

To this:

While he was napping I did a Pilates workout off of YouTube, and damn, it killed me.  The video has you do 3 minutes of cobra push ups, and I was shaking by the end.  After the workout I went to make a salad and I was having trouble cutting the lettuce.  CUTTING LETTUCE!  Pilates FTW!  I have a post drafted up on the awesomeness of Pilates...it will be posted next week.

I also watched my 6 year old niece for a couple of hours tonight while her parents did the parent-teacher conference thing.  I've mentioned it before, but Elliott goes nuts when he sees his cousins.  They had a ton of fun- they colored and played hide and seek.  Unfortunately, Elliott is at the "possessive" phase of toddlerhood.  He is too young to understand sharing.  If his cousin tried to touch any of his toys, he got really upset and grabbed them away from her.  He did this with the crayons that she brought over as well.  I tried to talk to him about it, and encourage him to share...I think I am going to need to call in the experts on this one though.  When I was pregnant with Elliott, my mom bought me an excellent book called Your Baby and Child, and I've been going to it for advice ever since.  It covers birth to age five.  If any of you have any advice about this stage I would love to hear it!

Speaking of books...a couple of days ago I purchased a couple of child development books.  The first one is the Toddlers Busy Book, which contains 365 activities to do with your child.  I figure that this will really come in handy during the next couple months while it is snowy, cold and all around crappy outside.  There are some obvious ideas in the book, but most of them are very good.  I'm not the most creative person in the world, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I could use a little help coming up with fun projects to do with Elliott.  It's easy to sit and play with him and talk to him, but I am sure that he will get bored during the winter months.

The other book I purchased was a major let down and a waste of $10.  The book is titled "Brain Rules for Babies", and I was hopeful that it would really get into the development of children's brains and how I can tap into that information while I raise Elliott during these crucial years.  The book got excellent reviews on Amazon and is one of their best selling books on toddler development.  It does have some decent advice, but most of it is super standard information that you find anywhere.  Also, the writer, who is a molecular developmental biologist, throws in too many personal anecdotes and not enough science as far as I am concerned.  I'm only about halfway through the book (I skimmed the first half while I was putting Elliott down for his nap, if that tells you anything).  If I change my mind about the book I will let you know.  In the meantime, if any of my readers have any child development books or blogs that are worthwhile, PLEASE let me know!!

House of Guys (and the Story of Stuff)

First of all, I may have let out a squeal of excitement at the grocery store when I found this:

Goat cheese crumbles FTW!  My salads will be sooo happy...

Last night, Darrell made a big pot of turkey chili (he makes the BEST chili; no recipe because it's a bit different every time he makes it).  I got home from work tonight and Darrell and Elliott were at the kitchen table- Elliott in his high chair- both with bowls of chili, using tortilla chips as spoons.  Can I say that I was both amused and appalled?  Living with guys is interesting for sure, but mostly awesome.

Spring semester started this week.  I'm trying to get ahead (and STAY ahead) with the readings and assignments.  So far so good, but I always start out with a bang and fizzle off mid-semester.  In my Economics of Environmental Sustainability course, we were asked to watch Story of Stuff and write a discussion post.  I thought I would share this video with you guys, because it is pretty eye-opening.  The video is about 20 minutes long and the narrator is excellent.  In a nutshell, the video discusses our consumer economy and how it is detrimental to the world's natural resources, our health and our happiness.  My description probably makes it sound like a drag to watch, but it is not a stale lecture at all.

One of the topics discussed in the video is how corporations make products obsolete in order to keep us buying their products.  A good example of this is Apple products.  Now, I own a handful of Apple/Mac products, so I am not getting all "holier-than-thou" on you guys.  We've all noticed, though, that you buy a version of an iPhone (for example) and 6 months to a year later another newer and cooler version is released.  This is perceived obsoleteness.  If you own the old version of the product, you are no longer "cool" or "in touch".  I work with a lot of middle managers & white-collar workers, and when a new Apple product is launched there a buzz throughout the office...who will be the first to get the new product?  And I can't deny that they are awesome!  But, a lot of natural resources go into these products and at the end of their life they will most likely end up in a landfill.    If you want to read more about what kind of natural resources go into our smart phones, and the people that mine these resources, then check out this article:

Your Smartphone's Dirty, Radioactive Secret

Hey, knowledge is power and change begets change right?  So, kick back with a beer and watch Story of Stuff...and be sure to recycle that bottle :)

A Year of Blogging (+ a little giveaway)

So I started this little blog a year ago...Jan 18, 2012.  It began for me because I was kinda bored and thought a project might be a fun way to kill some time.  The holidays were over and school hadn't started yet, so I was able to put some time and effort into the blog in the beginning.  It sounds strange to say that I was bored with a six-month old, but anyone who has had kids knows that 6-month old babies are not nearly as awesome and active as 18-month old toddlers.

I had a few other names for the blog in mind.  They were already taken so I settled on Hazelnut and Cinnamon, which is a total nonsense name (but they are two of my favorite flavors!).  The name doesn't describe my blog at all, but at the same time it makes perfect sense because my blog has no focus whatsoever.  I can't really categorize it; it's not a weight-loss, recipe, how-to or parenting blog although I do include bits and pieces of all of those things.  

Really, this space has ended up being valuable to me because it's been a journal of our past year.  I don't have nearly as many scraps of paper with recipes written on them because I write them all down here.  I'm able to post videos and pictures of Elliott.  If I want to see what we were up to last year in March, I can easily do so.  

Even though I never intended for this blog to become popular and have dozens of readers, I have cultivated a little community.  I really appreciate the comments I get on my posts.  My top three posts over the past year were:

Slow Cooker Greek Yogurt

Cinnamon Sugar Zucchini Muffins

Happy Halloween + Train Conductor Costume

As a little thank you to my readers/commenter's, I'm going to host a little giveaway.  I'm always looking to add new blogs to my reader, and new books to my Kindle.  Leave me a comment and let me know what your favorite blog or book is (or both!).  I will use a random number generator to pick a winner, and will email the winner a $15 Amazon gift card.  This giveaway will end on Friday, January 25 at noon.  I will announce the winner on my blog on Friday.  

The Perfect Day

Oh man, today was awesome.  Elliott and I got up, I brewed a strong pot of coffee and made us some breakfast.  I make a variation of this breakfast a couple times a week, and it is worth sharing:

Corn tortillas, eggs, avocado, lettuce and a hefty dose of sriracha for me.  Eggs, avocado and refried beans for Elliott.  He often gets the deconstructed version of the meals that we eat.  I like to make sure that he tries all sorts of new foods.

After breakfast we played and cleaned, then I put him down for a nap and jumped in the shower.  When he woke up from his nap we headed to the grocery store to pick up a few items for the dinner we hosted tonight.  Man, it was 45 degrees and SUNNY out.  I could feel my spirit lifting.  I, like many people, suffer from a mild form of seasonal depression so the sunshine pulled me right out of my funk.  On the drive to the grocery store I listened to a song over and over again on repeat...something I haven't done since my early twenties.  The song is "Hungover and Hard Up" by Eric Church.  He has been on the country scene for awhile now, but I haven't tired of his music.  My little obsession :)

YouTube: Hungover and Hard Up

Around 5pm, two of my sister-in-laws came over with their kids.  I made lasagna, a big green salad and chocolate frosted brownies.  They brought the vino.  When the first cousin arrived, Elliott let out a huge screech and started dancing around the living room.  I let him stay up well past his bedtime.  I figured that he deserved it since he has been more or less cooped up in the house while he was sick this past week. 

I've said it before on this blog, and I will continue to say it:  friends and family make life worth living.  Tonight reiterated this fact for me.  Good friends, good food and plenty of wine.  The perfect day.