2 Months!

At 2 months Peanut:

~ weighs about 13.7 lbs

~ is 25 inches long

~ Favourite word is "ah-goo"

~ Usually will sleep from about 11:30pm until 6:30am (knock on wood!)

~ Loves to be sung to

~ Favourite thing ever is his mobiles

~ HATES Tummy Time

~ Doesn't like to nap unless being held, but eventually gives up the fight :)

~ Smiles and talks a lot. If not smiling and talking, then crying or sleeping. 

~ Starting to grab onto my shirt, necklaces and hair...time to start wearing a ponytail. 

~ Is the most awesome baby in the whole wide world...I can spend hours just watching him. 

xoxo

French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese Sandwich

I am the type of girl who always buys the same brand of bread. Always. I think it must be because I just continued buying what my mom always bought. In any case, I always buy Dempster's Whole Wheat. Hubby always wants me to get the bread with all the delicious grains in them, but for some reason I just always want the comfort of my Dempster's Whole Wheat. 

When I received an email telling me about the new line of Dempster's breads, I was intrigued. After all, it's my go-to brand. I received a coupon for a free loaf, and went to the local grocery store to try it out. The new line is called Dempster's Country Originals, and it's free from artificial preservatives, colours and flavours. They also have no high-fructose corn syrup and are made with 100% Canadian wheat. Sounds awesome, right? I have to admit that a little part of me was wondering if it would taste bland (that artificial stuff is in there for a reason, right?!), But you know what? It was the same delicious taste I was used to. I even went out on a limb and bought the 12 grain, much to Hubby's delight. This will be my new standard purchase for bread. It was delicious, and I love that it's a healthier choice. 

I guess because it is starting to look a lot like fall lately, I have been thinking and dreaming a lot of French Onion Soup. However, our weather has been hot and nice still (which is strange for Calgary, honestly), so I don't feel like I can make it for dinner. It would be like cheating on Summer with Fall. So instead I decided to try something I have never done before, which is create something to eat completely from my own head. I almost always use some sort of recipe when I cook, even if it's just as a base. I thought about what I love most about French Onion Soup, which is basically the cheese and the crouton. So, behold! It is my very own recipe for a French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese Sandwich. We had a left over beef roast in the fridge, so Hubby's half of the sandwich had beef, while mine did not. I prefer to let the cheese be the star. Mmm...melty cheese.  Enjoy! 

French Onion Soup Grilled Cheese Sandwich

2 tbsps butter

1/4 of a small onion, sliced

2-3 dashes of worchestershire sauce

1 tsp of red wine (optional)

1 slice of roast beef (optional)

4 slices of Swiss cheese

2 slices of Dempster's Country Original's 12 Grain bread

Melt 1 Tbsp of butter over med-low heat. Add the onions and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until soft and brown and delicious. Add worchestershire and wine and cook for a few more minutes until most of the liquid is absorbed. 

Oh sweet caramelly goodness! 

In another pan, melt the remaining 1 Tbsp of butter over med heat and place a slice of the bread in the pan. Top with 2 slices of Swiss cheese, the onions, the roast beef (if desired), 2 more slices of cheese and the last slice of bread. Cook for a few minutes until golden, and then flip. Once the bread is golden and the cheese is ooey-gooey and melty, you are ready to enjoy! 

New Baby + Kitty =

It's been a while since I've had a Kitty story. Truth be told, she's sort of gotten the raw end of the deal since Peanut arrived. Hubby's parents came for a visit and his mom said that Kitty was looking "a little ragged". Truer words could not have been spoken. 


I was wondering how Kitty would adjust to having a baby in the house. She has always been an interesting sort of cat. She loves attention, but only on her own terms. If you ignore her, she finds a way to get your attention. Usually by being incredibly annoying: boxing a gift bag, attacking a small plastic item and batting it across the wood floor, trying to crawl into a super loud plastic bag, jumping on your lap while you are trying to do something, or scratching at our nice leather kitchen chairs. Since my labour was so unexpectedly long, poor Kitty was home alone for 3 days. When Hubby finally came home the night Peanut was born, I am sure she thought she had been abandoned and was angry at the intrusion into her new kingdom. 


The first time we brought Peanut home, she ran to the door all happy to see us, until we put down the car seat. She freaked out. But being curious to a fault, she slowly crept up to check him out. The second she got close he let out a little squeak and she tore off down the stairs. Since then, she has made a sort of peace with the little man. She is super protective over him, however she refuses to get too close. She will get as close as possible to him without actually being near him. She goes to the edge of our bed and peaks over the edge of the basinette to check on him, and if he is crying she gets upset and looks at us like we are the worst parents EVER. 

Baby gift bags? Hardly. More like super-awesome Kitty forts!

However, she is suffering from a severe lack of being the centre of attention. The laser pointer hardly ever comes out anymore, and her annoying list of attention-getters has been getting more and more elaborate. Specifically, she has taken to NEEDING cuddles in the middle of the night. And only from me. She jumps on my stomach and then crawls all over me trying to find a spot to get comfy. She crawls up by my head, then down on my chest, then usually perches herself on the most awkward place possible, balancing precariously on my shoulder or hip or some other ridiculous place and begins to purr her little Kitty face off. Needless to say, this didn't go over well when I was getting up every hour and a half to nurse and was severely sleep deprived. However, it became very clear that any attempt to thwart her plan would be met with renewed determination to get what she wanted at all costs. Her tiny Kitty brain becomes so focused on something that she will stop at nothing to get it. So now, I give in and just let her pretend to sleep for those 20 minutes on my bent knee, even though I know she is just trying with all her might not to fall off. 


So basically, I have now become the most wanted person in the household. Peanut cries in the middle of the night, so I get up and nurse him and cuddle him back to sleep. Just as I'm about to fall back into the blissful abyss, Kitty leaps up and starts her balancing act. Once she finally has enough, Hubby rolls over and throws his arm over me for a cuddle. 


It's hard not to feel loved in a house where cuddles with me are so in demand. 

Essential Baby Items: The Stretchy Wrap

It's pretty overwhelming all of the gear and products and "must-haves" for your baby. If you recall in my previous post, I was pretty overwhelmed with all the selection while I was pregnant. Well, after having my little Peanut and getting a couple of months of this mom thing down, I can safely tell you what I think are the "must-haves" for us. I thought I would highlight a different item that we love every now and again. 


This first one is by far the front-runner. I don't know what we would do without our stretchy wrap. It's honestly saved our sanity about a billion times over in the last couple of months. 

When I was pregnant, I really wanted to get a wrap. I had visions of me carrying my little babe around all day and getting a million things done around the house while still giving my child the attention he needs. Hubby was not so convinced, and neither was my mom. I think they both thought it was a rather "hippy"-type notion. But I insisted, and we were very lucky in that we received one for the baby shower. During our prenatal class, we had a little section about carriers, and we got to try a couple of them out. That is when Hubby really jumped on board. He practiced putting the wrap on about 5 times during the class. I think he just needed a visual to understand what the heck a long piece of fabric could really do, you know? 


Anyway, after Peanut's arrival my vision of wearing him all the time sort of went down the toilet due to my c-section. Thus, it fell to Hubby to try it out. After the first night of crying baby, he tried the wrap and lo and behold! Peanut fell instantly to sleep. Since then, the wrap is Hubby's go-to for calming the babe. It honestly is a miracle-worker! I can wear him now that I am all healed, and it has never failed to calm him down, and usually it puts him right to sleep. It also makes going out and about really easy, since it can be sort of cumbersome to use a stroller at times. We have another carrier too (the Ergo), but the wrap is our go-to for this age. 


We have a MamanKangourou wrap (a Canadian brand, I believe), but I know that the Moby wrap is a very popular brand as well. I was rather surprised at the price for wraps, since they are essentially just a long piece of fabric. However I do believe in this instance it is worth it's weight in gold. Okay, wait, that's a crappy turn of phrase for this situation, since they barely weigh anything...basically I am trying to say that they are worth the price. And I am really cheap. So you know it must be good. 

Instant pass-out

Change is in the air...

I've just had some exciting news! Up Mommy Creek has been nominated for Ninjamatic's 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards! So very cool. Head on over to check out some of the other nominees. What an honour! 

I also wanted to mention that I am working on a bit of a make-over for the blog, both in design and content. Peanut has now arrived, bringing new changes; I get to freak out about baby things instead of pregnancy things now. Also, the blog is starting to become a bit more than just my own ramblings which only my mother reads. 

Design-wise I would like to make things a bit more pulled together; more simple and streamlined. However, I am definitely not a web-designer. Nor do I really have a good grasp of even the basics of web-design, so it's a bit of a process for sure. This is a big challenge, and I think it will take some time for me to tackle it, but I will try! 

Content-wise I am trying to make things a bit more structured. So moving towards weekly "features", set times for giveaways, etc. For example, I am hoping to start incorporating things like meal planning and adventures in working off the baby weight...along those lines. Basically, I would like to be more accountable to the blog, and to make things easy and user-friendly for all who read it. This will slowly start to be implemented over the next few weeks, hopefully. Any suggestions on what you would like to see more of (or any of?!) on Up Mommy Creek? 

How to Find the Time?!

Well, I have been doing this mommy thing for 6 weeks today. It's so hard to believe that our little guy has been around that long! The first few weeks were definitely hard. It was hard to adjust to the all-consuming job of being a parent. It was also hard to recover from the c-section and it was definitely hard adjusting to breastfeeding. Now, I feel like we are much more confident as parents, and also that Peanut is developing his own personality. It's so rewarding when you get a huge smile from him when he looks up at you. Awww...

I was so incredibly lucky to have Hubby home for the first 6 weeks. He went back to work yesterday, and so I am now officially a full-time stay-at-home mom. It is a little intimidating being all alone all day without someone to take a "shift" with the baby. Yesterday I managed to sneak in a (very short-lived) bath, and was able to do the laundry and wash dishes. That was it. Oh, and I read a few chapters while he was feeding...multi-tasking is a new mom's best friend! It's just a shame I am not that good at it yet! 

Up until now, every attempt I have made at blogging is thwarted with a vengeance.  He could be perfectly content smiling and cooing up at his mobile and the instant I hit "compose post" he is screaming.   My baby has a problem with me giving my attention elsewhere. Not good. The only reason I am writing this right now is because he passed out while eating and I sneakily transferred him to the bassinet. Luckily he has my sleep temperament and he doesn't wake up very well in the mornings. Actually, we are eerily similar in this regard; right down to the grumbling and eventually crying when we have to wake up... :) 

One of our tricks to get him to sleep: play some Bob Marley. Works every time.  Our little Rasta baby...

So, I have this vision of how my maternity leave is going to be: I will have the house perfectly clean, delicious baked goods and gourmet dinner prepared every day, baby perfectly happy and intellectually stimulated. I will work out every day and wear super cute outfits, while having time to blog and start sewing and crafting more. Rrrrriiiighhhhtt. 

I think I need to take inspiration from one of my favourite movies "What About Bob" and concentrate on the baby steps. That will help me to either a) start to adjust to this new routine or b) ruin the life of Richard Dreyfuss and his family and also go sailing. Only time will tell!