Just Austin

Sitting like a big boy
Can you see the drool??
He is pushing up so far
John thinks this outfit is girly, but I think its so cute!
His elephant was being mean :)

Austin rolled over

We have been hoping Austin would roll over for MONTHS. Most babies roll over by the time they are 3 months old. Austin used to hate tummy time, so he was never on his belly except when he was asleep. This made it difficult for him to get enough time to practice rolling over. We would put him on his belly and he would put his head in the floor and scream! So anyway, not much fun.
All this changed last week. He has gotten SO strong and has started to push his torso up. Then on Wednesday I went into his room after he woke up and he was on his back! The only way this could have happened is if he rolled over. Unfortunately we don't have one of those video monitors so neither John nor I saw it. Wednesday night John was watching Austin while I played volleyball and Austin did it again in his crib. Again neither of us saw it.
Today Austin did it again in his crib. AGAIN we didn't see it. So we took him into the living room and now he has rolled over at least 6 times in the living room AND we saw it and video taped it! Yay! It took him until he was one week shy of 6 months, but that is ok. He seems to wait until he has the strength to do it easily. He doesn't want to struggle on the floor to do it. He rolls over with such ease :)

Baking

I have been in a baking mood lately. Good for my taste buds, not for my hips :). Anyway we went to the store last weekend and bought a ton of lemons. So I've been making any kind of bread or dessert that has lemon juice. I NEVER knew how much better things tasted with real lemon juice instead of bottled lemon juice. The most recent thing I made came from a blog I subscribe to. The blog is: http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/
She is a Texan who lives in New York and she is constantly putting recipes up on her blog. This is the first one I've tried even though I've been reading her blog for months. I have to say I will DEFINITELY try more of her recipes.

Here is the recipe.

Sour cream pound cake with ruby red grapefruit
Ingredients:
1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ruby red grapefruit zest
1/4 cup ruby red grapefruit juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 eggs, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Powdered sugar

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a 12-cup tube pan.

Using a stand mixer, cream the butter until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar, and beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the grapefruit zest, grapefruit juice and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.

Add the eggs to the batter, one at time, mixing each one until it’s well incorporated. Slowly pour in the sifted flour and mix until the batter is smooth and fluffy. Stir together the sour cream, salt and baking soda, and then add to the batter, mixing until well incorporated. Pour batter into the pan and bake for an hour and 30 minutes, or until an inserted knife pulls out clean.

Cool the cake for 15 minutes and then invert onto a platter. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm.

Yield: 16-20 servings

Note: This recipe can be divided in half and baked in a loaf pan. You can also flavor this with lemon, orange or lime juice, using the same amounts. For a bit of crunch, you can add to the batter 1/2 cup chopped pecans or 1/4 cup poppy seeds.

Date Night

John and I went to a neighborhood restaurant called Hot Chocolate. It was SO good. It was so nice to get out. This was our second date since Austin was born. My friend Patty watched Austin. I had dark hot chocolate with soy milk for my drink. It was amazing. Then for an appetizer John and I had the special at Hot Chocolate which is their homemade pretzel bites with cheese fondue. I had scallops and John had salmon for dinner. We also ordered a side of their famous mac n cheese. Then for dessert we had creme brulee. I have to say when we leave Chicago I will miss being able to walk to places like that.
Anyway, John and I had a great time together. One side note though. John almost had a bad night. Haha! This is because I had been asking him for a week to make a reservation. He calls Wednesday night and they only have a 5:45 available. He didn't take it. He calls Friday night and they don't have any openings. Patty got here at 5 and we left the house a little after 5:30 on Saturday. When we got the the restaurant around 6 they said there was an 1.5 hour wait for a table but we could take the last two seats at the bar. THANKFULLY you could eat food at the bar or I would have been so mad! I HATE when John procrastinates. Oh well, it all turned out great.

Snow Removal

This is how Chicago removes snow. This is taken from my living room window.

My Little Valentine

I love his little faces! He has such a personality.

Peapod vs. Jewel

John and I have been getting groceries from Peapod, an online grocery store that delivers groceries to your house, since I was 8 months pregnant. We have been wondering since then if we were spending way more money than we do at our neighborhood grocery store Jewel (Albertson's for people in the south). Well I ordered groceries on Saturday night and when I got to the screen on Peapod where I chose the delivery time, they didn't have any left for Sunday. I had already put all our items in so I knew how much we would have spent. It was $72 before tax and delivery (which is $6). I didn't want to wait until Monday so I told John "Lets go to Jewel on Sunday and see if Peapod is way more expensive than Jewel". So yesterday Austin and I walked to Jewel and John drove. We were getting too much to bring it all back in the stroller thats why we needed the car. The weather said it was 45 so I wanted to walk. BAD idea. Although it was the first day in like 3 weeks that we were above 32 barely any of the 2.5 feet of snow had melted. I was walking on the sidewalk and there was a path dug out, unfortunately for most of it my stroller was wider than the path. Anyway, needles to say we didn't walk home and we won't be taking a walk until the end of the week when HOPEFULLY the majority of the snow has melted!
So we walked up and down the isles and Jewel. I pushed the cart and John pushed the stroller. We get to the checkout line and the total was $76. So basically Peapod cost $4 more (when you include delivery) AND you don't have to go to the crowded grocery store AND we (John) don't have to carry it up four flights of stairs AND we don't have to fight for a parking spot AND we don't have to go out in the cold... you can see where I'm going with this. I LOVE PEAPOD and have now convinced John that we NEVER EVER have to go to Jewel again! Yay! From now on we shop at Costco and Peapod only.

Some pictures

Austin and John outside after the blizzard. Austin looks so happy!! Haha
Austin and Grey playing together
Austin and I
Austin on our way to his baby dedication at church
Austin and I after the blizzard. SO much snow

The Little Gym

Austin and I joined the Little Gym with my friend Ashley and her daughter. I've been so excited about going. We've been twice now and we were snowed out once. So, its been 3 weeks. The first week Austin was so sleepy because the class is at 2 pm. I have no idea why they scheduled our age group to meet at 2 in the afternoon, but that's what they did so we go. I tried to get him to sleep early and he just wasn't interested so he was a mess. I have "mommy cards", which are business cards with Austin and my information on it for play dates. I wanted to pass them out but was SO embarrassed because he cried so much! Haha!
Week 2 we were snowed in. So yesterday was week 3. OMG he was even worse! This time he didn't have an excuse. He took an hour and a half nap before we went. I was so excited thinking he would be better. The class hadn't even started yet and he was screaming his head off. He wouldn't do anything until the last 10 minutes then he decided it was ok and had fun... GRRRR. So I'm hoping as he gets more familiar with it he will enjoy it.
The funny thing was it was the domino effect. As soon as Austin started crying then another baby would cry and so on. At one point almost every baby was crying...ALL because of Austin. How embarrassing! The thing is Austin is such a good baby, hopefully he will show his true self next week.

Winter

I'm so ready for winter to be over. It is supposed to be above freezing this weekend, which will be the first time in a long time. I hope some of this snow melts! The news was saying last night that this is one of the coldest winters on record and we have had a TON of snow so far. I wouldn't mind it so much except that I HATE having to dig our car out and since we have a tiny car we can't fit in a lot of spots right now without doing some digging to get our car back in.
The blizzard of 2011 is John and I's first blizzard in Chicago. We found out that when Chicago gets really big snow storms, everybody saves their spot with some kind of lawn furniture or something you don't want. So if you do move your car when you come back all the spots are filled with lawn chairs or other miscellaneous items. It is SO annoying. We have chosen not to follow this rule and John moved someones lawn furniture the other day so we could park. John was so worried someone was going to key us.

Beaba Babycook

We bought a Beaba Babycook when I was still pregnant. I just got it out this week because Austin is finally old enough to eat fruits and vegetables. He has had so many skin issues that the doctor said we need to wait 5-7 days before we introduce a new food. At this rate I feel like he will never try every fruit/vegetable, but oh well. So far he has had sweet potatoes and carrots. I have made both in my baby food cooker. Its so easy to use and it makes just the right amount. I haven't started making extra and freezing it yet because our freezer is literally full of breast milk. I will have to wait before I can start freezing his vegetables. Anyway he loves them and it make me so happy because I made it for him.
Although, I might have fed him too much a couple days ago because he has been constipated for a couple days, so I'm trying not to get too over zealous.

Super Bowl

We went to my friend Patty's house for the Super Bowl. I had Austin all decked out in Dallas Cowboys gear. The Super Bowl WAS in Dallas even though Dallas wasn't in it :). Anyway I made a chocolate cake for the party. It was by far the BEST chocolate cake I have EVER made. Here is the link to the recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe/index.html
I made the cake exactly like it said to and I used the frosting recipe for the frosting (except I used milk chocolate for the frosting), but John wanted a chocolate fudge center. So, this is the recipe I used for that:

Chocolate Fudge Filling

6 squares semisweet chocolate

3 tablespoons butter

7 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

In a small saucepan, add the chocolate squares and butter. Cook over low heat until melted.

In a bowl, add the melted chocolate, milk, vanilla and stir until well blended. Add in the confectioners' sugar and mix until filling is smooth and easily spreadable.

I put all of this in between the two layers so there was a pretty big layer of fudge. The cake was so moist! OMG now I have to come up with another reason to make it again!