rain rain go away

Last night Kasey woke up twice and then for good around 6:15am, although I can't complain because I know there are worse sleeping habits out there, it was rough going from a few whole nights to this. Even yesterday she woke up once but we slept in until 7am so it made up for it.

Kasey generally refuses to nap during the day also- I don't mind because I love having her around - but when she is exhausted she is not a happy camper.

 

Rainy day today - Kasey and I did some workouts indoors,

made pesto..

We tried twice to make hamburger buns for dinner, but something went very awry...
A major disappointment...
It took us 2 tries to realize our active yeast was no longer active :(

I tried to get Kasey to nap in her crib - didn't work the first time - although she hung out for a few minutes here and there happy watching and chatting it up with her mobile...the second time it worked! I did have to wrap her in the moby first until she screamed it out but then we had success for a whole 30 minutes!

found her like this in her crib the other morning - guess she moves around in her sleep

I honestly did not know what to do with myself! Would I shower (I hadn't gotten a chance to yet), clean, eat quickly... the possibilities were endless. 30 minutes is rather quick though all I did was answer some cheer emails, sent some new ones out, cleaned up the kitchen a bit and then I tried a different hamburger bun recipe. I thought the buns would not defeat me - but they did...

We made meyer lemon ice cream, based off this recipe. I just happened to have 2 cups of open half and half that wouldn't have lasted too much longer so this was the basis for the recipe. I also had the 2 meyer lemons I hadn't used yet. We will see how it turns out, I am going to let it freeze overnight but then I have some fresh blueberries to garnish it and it sounds pretty good if you ask me!

older photo but adorable

We are hoping for a better day tomorrow...

Kasey-girl

Kasey is talking all the time now! Which I love - I just wish I knew what she was saying!

The PB granola didn't turn out great and I followed the recipe perfectly so between that and having a lot of food we just can't finish I haven't been baking too much this week. We did go to Trader Joe's yesterday and bought meyer lemons - so I made meyer lemon curd yesterday. Halfed this recipe! Yum. Glad I saw how easy it was to make- would be perfect for filling on my Vanilla Almond Cake I make in the summertime. The weather felt like summer again yesterday so I thought this would just keep it going...

Some major developments this week:

Kasey seems to possibly be teething...(play at your own risk)

and rolling...

Went to spinning again today - when I came to pick her up I got upset and decided I didn't think I wanted her to go to "babysitting" for a while. She is just so little and I prefer to know the people interacting with her. But we will see how long that lasts because exercising is really nice too...

I love the personality that is emerging in this little girl and all the time we get to spend together. I am really getting a knack for taking pictures of me and her, although having a private photographer around to document our lives would be nice also. Here are some of our latest (very pink) adventures:

love this munchkin so much!

weekends

Kasey cheered on Cabrini Friday night to win their 3rd CSAC championship! What a little cheerleader!  She may have slept entirely through the LOUD 2nd half. It was a great start to the weekend...

And I love weekends! When you don't work weekends they are actually even better than when you do work! You get a break from the boring week because there are actually people around!

Kasey (and I) got some major Andy time this weekend, despite that he had to chaperone a middle school dance last night and is at baseball right now. The rest of Andy-Kasey montage will be at the end of the post.

Yesterday was cold! I can't even believe it was so nice last week since yesterday was just bitter! We tried not to go outside too much. Once Andy left for the dance, Kasey and I went to check out our guilty pleasure, Toddles and Tiaras, on demand but of course they took it away from us! How are we supposed to get our fix of terrible mother-daughter relationships now!

I tried putting Kasey down about 7 times between 8 and 10pm before she went down for good - in the meantime we made cookies and some spiced almonds...

she wanted to go to sleep but refused to leave my side...

I obviously cannot follow any recipes but I based the cookies off of this, found on Pinterest. I ended up using 3 tablespoons egg white from a box for the 1 egg and used 4oz of apple sauce, I also used regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and mixed in 1/2 cups raisins and sweetened coconut. They were good- nice and chewy - I have of course been eating them all day. I am on such a coconut kick since I got my Samoas last week.

so we baked cookies...

modeling the Olio salt if you cant tell...

We got the almond idea from this website I found. My parents had brought me some specialty salt on Friday (in addition to specialty olive oil and balsamic vinegar) from their trip to Alexandria so I wanted to use it with something. I didn't have fleur de sel anyway and used Olio's Citrus Thai Ginger salt in place - I also made 1/2 the recipe. I decided to make some candied almonds too and used the same idea to make some candied almonds - 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon + 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice.

Today Kasey and I decided to try out a new granola recipe. It is Peanut Butter and Honey flavored with some extra add-ins! I can't wait to try it. We halfed the whole recipe since there are only 2 people in this house that can eat it. Again some substitutions, no wheat germ in this house so I used half almond flour and half ground flaxseed for that portion. I also added in 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut, obsessed I tell you, and 1/2 cup golden raisins. Instead of pumpkin seeds we used some slivered almonds and we didn't use any dates. I love granola recipes because they are super easy to manipulate and make with whatever you have on hand.

Can't believe the weekend is over... Kasey and I don't have too much planned this week
I am definitely looking forward to working again, just a little bit, so we have some more structure to our days. If only it was socially acceptable to bring your baby to work everyday with you...

 Can't wait to next weekend....

spinning

So in case anyone is going to make the mocha frap - I have a revision - I tried it today with just 1 tablespoon sugar and it was perfect, so you don't need the extra tablespoon.

I treated myself to another mocha frap today because I went spinning this morning. I am the person who works out purely so I can eat - oh well. But really I do love spinning, I feel like it is a great workout and I hadn't done it since about a week before Kasey was born! Kasey also went to "babysitting" for the first time :( at the JCC. My master plan was Kasey would be asleep at babysitting and no one would touch her or take her out of her carseat - not so much. Kasey was all smiley and awake when we got there, I almost turned around to go home. The "babysitter," an older grandmotherly woman also asked to take her out first thing - there goes my plan. What was I going to say - no? She clearly would have gotten restless in her car seat. But I talked myself into leaving her - it would only be 45 minutes I said and I will be in the same building and there are no other children in "babysitting" so these 2 caretakers have her all to themselves.... I obviously cried as I walked the stairs/corridor/maze to spinning class but it felt great to workout and she was perfect when I returned. I am pretty sure she just hung out taking in the surroundings while I was gone - there were about 5 children besides her there by 9:45 when I got back. So although I won't be going to work out every day - I think it would be good to treat myself to spinning once a week - I am excited because next week I am going to go to a class run by Eric - who was the spinning teacher at the Y whose classes I went to my whole pregnancy - he was one of the 1st people to even know I was pregnant, possibly before close family!

Of course she fell asleep right after we left the gym...

Sleeping update - Kasey slept from about 8:15 to 2:45am - and then she came in our room to eat and sleep for the rest of the night. So we are not totally there yet with the sleeping in her nursery all night thing - but she is doing really fantastic!

Anyway off to cheer for Cabrini in the championship tonight, Kasey got all decked out for the occasion!

Go Cavs!

summertime...

Aaah summer! This weather is such a tease and I feel like summer will be here any day now! I love being able to dress Kasey in outfits instead of the sleep and plays we wear when it's a bit chillier! 

We have been up to a lot of things in the past few days:
Saturday- went for a hike
Monday - hung up some pretty pictures in my room, took first daytime nap in crib
Tuesday - went to a basketball game, Grandma and Grandpa visited
Wednesday - Grandma taught me to put Sophie in my mouth, Hung out with Pop-Pop at work while Mom had an interview (yay)

Kasey has been doing great in the crib too! She slept through the night for the 2nd night in a row last night! I do miss her being so close and in our room but getting a full nights sleep is nice also. She was up around 6am I already feel, at 3pm, that we have had a full day. Since it was already 50 degrees by  7:30am, Kasey and I took Annabelle to the dog park this morning. Annie got to run around and exert all her energy by 8:30am -it was great!

Before the dog park I made a quick summery smoothie for breakfast an Almond Banana Smoothie. It was delicious, usually I make chocolate banana peanut/almond butter smoothies - but the chocolate over powers everything and this was refreshing. 

Then as a treat, since today is so gorgeous, I made a mocha frappuccino! I based it off of this recipe. Here is what I did:
1 cup almond milk
4 teaspoons espresso powder
2 tablespoons sugar
Dribble of chocolate syrup
1 tablespoon chocolate whey protein powder
Handful of ice cubes
Blend
Add topping: Whipped cream and extra chocolate syrup






I got both those ideas with pinterest...obsessed I guess. We also had this for dessert last night, way too heavy and large though - would have been perfect to split. 

We had a diaper malfunction and had to take an emergency bath... It was great! I love giving Kasey a bath and although the malfunction sucked I got some adorable bath time shots. She was extremely talkative in her towel after and is getting to be such a little person!

Now we just have to wish summer comes quickly!