Since all of our friends and family are so spread out, I thought it would be fun to do a little 'expectnet' guessing game. This is a website where you can guess the sex, due date, weight, and time etc. of the baby. Points are awarded based on difference from actual stats and the winner has the least amount of points. Maybe I'll get it together to even have a prize. (a load of dirty laundry?)
Go to
http://www.expectnet.com/
and the game name is
ElenaSibling
Then enter your guess!
So that everyone starts on the same page -
Elena was born on her due day (May 8th) and weighted 6 lb 8oz (exactly the same weight as me!) and was 19 1/2 inches long.
Discuss!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Talented Friends
A few days ago we received this beautiful sweater in the mail.
It's the first gift that our baby has received and we can't imagine a more special one. Our friend Heather (the foram and knitting goddess), knit this sweater for Dos. It's washable wool. It's as if she anticipates we'll need to be doing lots of laundry. Hummm. In addition to being hand knit and having beautiful buttons, the purple wool was dyed with grape kool aid. How 'k'ool is that! I held the sweater up to my belly for sizing. Dos has some growing to do, but started kicking up a storm. Whether that was in approval of the wonderful stitching or the grape flavoring, only time will tell. Elena was at first trying to convince us that the sweater was actually for her. Luckily Heather anticipated such a problem and found some dutch licorish which was included to make an easy switch. Thanks so much Heather!
It isn't quite true that this is the first baby gift. I did buy a sweater for the baby in Chile. It was in honor of Dos' first trip overseas and I couldn't resist the little scene. See:
I however did not knit this in my spare time. I picked it up in a tourist shop and hid it away in my luggage. And Maurits, my good friend from Utrecht who was in the field with me (and the only one who knew about my little incubation secret - it seemed like a good idea that someone in the Atacama desert should know - brought a joint gift for Elena and the baby of wooden shoe slippers).
It's the first gift that our baby has received and we can't imagine a more special one. Our friend Heather (the foram and knitting goddess), knit this sweater for Dos. It's washable wool. It's as if she anticipates we'll need to be doing lots of laundry. Hummm. In addition to being hand knit and having beautiful buttons, the purple wool was dyed with grape kool aid. How 'k'ool is that! I held the sweater up to my belly for sizing. Dos has some growing to do, but started kicking up a storm. Whether that was in approval of the wonderful stitching or the grape flavoring, only time will tell. Elena was at first trying to convince us that the sweater was actually for her. Luckily Heather anticipated such a problem and found some dutch licorish which was included to make an easy switch. Thanks so much Heather!
It isn't quite true that this is the first baby gift. I did buy a sweater for the baby in Chile. It was in honor of Dos' first trip overseas and I couldn't resist the little scene. See:
I however did not knit this in my spare time. I picked it up in a tourist shop and hid it away in my luggage. And Maurits, my good friend from Utrecht who was in the field with me (and the only one who knew about my little incubation secret - it seemed like a good idea that someone in the Atacama desert should know - brought a joint gift for Elena and the baby of wooden shoe slippers).
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Dinner with the locavores
Nothing worse than a convert...and we have found religion. Can we get an amen from the foodies?
What is a locavore...well wikipedia has a useful entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_foodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_food)
A locavore is someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles. The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to produce their own food, with the argument that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locally grown food is an environmentally friendly means of obtaining food, since supermarkets that import their food use more fossil fuels and non-renewable resources.
And according to the wiki gods, locavore was even chosen by New Oxford American Dictionary as the word of the year in 2007.
In Santa Cruz, local food is basically the way it is. You know those strawberries you bought at Kroger - they came from Watsonville. And probably the lettuce too. So when its fresher, easier, and, lets face it for grad students, often cheaper to buy it from the farmer at the market, it's not a hard sell. If the Santa Cruz Farmers Market was our baptism, then our CSA box was our first communion. CSA (Community Support Agriculture) is a concept where you buy a share in a farm ahead of time. Then for the whole growing season, you get a box of fresh produce. We belonged to a wonderful CSA called Two Small Farms (http://www.twosmallfarms.com/). What a great experience; we ate all kinds of things we never dreamed of thanks to the box and helpful recipes. Elena was just a year old and wean onto sauted fava beans and organic strawberries. We learned that the farmer workers were legal and had benefits and healthcare (and weren't migrant because of the long growing season, they were able to live in one place). The only bad thing is that strawberries have been ruined forever. (sort of like the Dutch and cheese...)
We took a little break from the local food movement in Europe (excepting the cheese and tulips, of course). But came back for our confirmation in Blacksburg. We've been lucky to fall into a place where we can get wonderful local foods...we buy local grass feed/pasture raised beef, chicken, eggs, pork, turkey and lamb from Shadowchase Farm and Weathertop Farm. Crowes Nest Farm keeps us in the berries. And the climate is perfect for everything from peaches to apples to blueberries. This year we even put in our first garden since Santa Cruz (more on that later, but the squash have already taken over). It's become very important to us to support our local farmers, help preserve open spaces and farm lands, eat as much 'organic' (what a loaded word these days!), and help elena (and soon dos) know where their food comes from. Jake and I both firmly believe that sustainability is not just a fad, but a responsibility.
Last weekend when Dinny first arrived, we made a Sunday dinner. Almost every in the meal was regional...except the sugar, celery & carrots, and wine. The flour was ground in North Carolina.
We had Herb (our name for all thing poultry) a pasture raised chicken from Weathertop Farm (http://www.weathertopfarm.com/) that we picked up the Shannon Family ourselves. Pop it into a ziplock and they freeze quite nicely. Herb was cooked in Schlemmy (our Schlemmertopf German Clay baker - possibly one of our most used wedding gift from my great Aunt Jeannie). Did you know that you can just put a frozen whole chicken in the thing and two hours later is it falling off the bone and looking like this?
Amazing.
We had salad from the garden and a medley of yellow squash and snap peas. All from our garden.
Dessert was a cherry galette. The cherries were from the next county over - sadly, it was the last weekend of cherry season, and I just figured it out. I will not make that mistake next year. This was our only opportunity for cherry dessert.
I'm in love with the galette. It was made from the Martha Stewart pate sucree recipe, mounded with cherries tossed with toasted almonds and a bit of sugar, then baked up. Wow. I made another one with blueberries two days later. Basically, I could eat just about anything wrapped in pate sucree.
So come on over. We'll feed you up good!
What is a locavore...well wikipedia has a useful entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_foodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_food)
A locavore is someone who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles. The locavore movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to produce their own food, with the argument that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. Locally grown food is an environmentally friendly means of obtaining food, since supermarkets that import their food use more fossil fuels and non-renewable resources.
And according to the wiki gods, locavore was even chosen by New Oxford American Dictionary as the word of the year in 2007.
In Santa Cruz, local food is basically the way it is. You know those strawberries you bought at Kroger - they came from Watsonville. And probably the lettuce too. So when its fresher, easier, and, lets face it for grad students, often cheaper to buy it from the farmer at the market, it's not a hard sell. If the Santa Cruz Farmers Market was our baptism, then our CSA box was our first communion. CSA (Community Support Agriculture) is a concept where you buy a share in a farm ahead of time. Then for the whole growing season, you get a box of fresh produce. We belonged to a wonderful CSA called Two Small Farms (http://www.twosmallfarms.com/). What a great experience; we ate all kinds of things we never dreamed of thanks to the box and helpful recipes. Elena was just a year old and wean onto sauted fava beans and organic strawberries. We learned that the farmer workers were legal and had benefits and healthcare (and weren't migrant because of the long growing season, they were able to live in one place). The only bad thing is that strawberries have been ruined forever. (sort of like the Dutch and cheese...)
We took a little break from the local food movement in Europe (excepting the cheese and tulips, of course). But came back for our confirmation in Blacksburg. We've been lucky to fall into a place where we can get wonderful local foods...we buy local grass feed/pasture raised beef, chicken, eggs, pork, turkey and lamb from Shadowchase Farm and Weathertop Farm. Crowes Nest Farm keeps us in the berries. And the climate is perfect for everything from peaches to apples to blueberries. This year we even put in our first garden since Santa Cruz (more on that later, but the squash have already taken over). It's become very important to us to support our local farmers, help preserve open spaces and farm lands, eat as much 'organic' (what a loaded word these days!), and help elena (and soon dos) know where their food comes from. Jake and I both firmly believe that sustainability is not just a fad, but a responsibility.
Last weekend when Dinny first arrived, we made a Sunday dinner. Almost every in the meal was regional...except the sugar, celery & carrots, and wine. The flour was ground in North Carolina.
We had Herb (our name for all thing poultry) a pasture raised chicken from Weathertop Farm (http://www.weathertopfarm.com/) that we picked up the Shannon Family ourselves. Pop it into a ziplock and they freeze quite nicely. Herb was cooked in Schlemmy (our Schlemmertopf German Clay baker - possibly one of our most used wedding gift from my great Aunt Jeannie). Did you know that you can just put a frozen whole chicken in the thing and two hours later is it falling off the bone and looking like this?
Amazing.
We had salad from the garden and a medley of yellow squash and snap peas. All from our garden.
Dessert was a cherry galette. The cherries were from the next county over - sadly, it was the last weekend of cherry season, and I just figured it out. I will not make that mistake next year. This was our only opportunity for cherry dessert.
I'm in love with the galette. It was made from the Martha Stewart pate sucree recipe, mounded with cherries tossed with toasted almonds and a bit of sugar, then baked up. Wow. I made another one with blueberries two days later. Basically, I could eat just about anything wrapped in pate sucree.
So come on over. We'll feed you up good!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Red, White, and Blue...berries
We started off the 4th with a heavy dose of the blue and headed out to meet Kirsten, Brad, and Xander at Crows Nest U-Pick farm for some recreational blueberry picking followed by a massive gorging of blueberry buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup for brunch.
It was a ton of fun, mostly because the bushes are so laden with fruit, that we picked for an hour and came home with two and a half gallons! That doesn't even count what Kirsten and Brad picked.
The kids had fun, the berries were at their level, although Xander specialized the 'tummy storage method.'
Brad had a hard time leaving, he just felt compelled to 'pick one more.'
Of course, home for pancakes.
Later we met back up for the concert in the park with fireworks. We had a lovely picnic dinner. Followed by an exciting second desert of kettle corn.
The kids were not impressed with the fireworks - way to loud (and it was 10pm!) but the adults were impressed with the town fireworks - they lasted almost 30 minutes.
More grandparents?
That's right. It hardly seems possible that there could be more grandparent visits - but it's true. Elena's daycare was closed for holiday the first week of July, so Dinny came down to help. Then Richard came for a long weekend. It was really great to have them here. A huge number of to-do's on the list got marked off. Elena's room has curtains. We decided on a bed for our room (although Jake has become partial to the mattress on the floor). Our dryer is no longer a fire hazard. There are bookshelves in the basement. Dinny even packed the Ironing Fairy and the huge pile of long sleeved (read not summer time, so we don't have to iron them) shirts was much diminished. Elena's baby doll got new duds. We had dinner in Floyd and celebrated the 4th of July.
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