Baby: His first year... in numbers

The best thing about having a financially-minded husband is that we track all of our spending (this is how we found out that we ate out way too much during my pregnancy).  So in honor of Wesley's 1-year anniversary in our financial books, I've put together his numbers ... because of course he has his own category and sub-categories!

Food: $1250 (formula is expensive, this alone should be a motivation to breastfeed longer next time)
Diapers: $680 (we shouldn't have to buy anymore of these, my cloth diaper stash is set)
Clothing: $400
Other (like classes, necessities): $650
Babysitting: $2000

Final Cost for Baby's First Year: $5000

That's a whole lot of shoes mama could have bought! Totally worth it!

One Years Old

One year ago this evening, I had my baby boy (Relive the memories here with my birth story).

The ever elusive "they" say that time flies the first year, but I never believed them. The first few weeks alone seemed to drag on and on... sleep deprivation helped the dragging. But once we got into a rhythm ( say 5-6 months?), the days just started ticking away like seconds, and before I knew it summer rolled in and my baby turned one years old.

To celebrate, we had a birthday party for him on Saturday -- our house was packed with family, friends, and kids and I can't even imagine what it would have been like if everyone could have made it. We had a lot of good food - courtesy of my mom - and a cute birthday cake, balloons, and games for all the kids. Wesley wasn't bothered by all the people (quite the opposite), but we kept forgetting to feed and change him (so busy with everything).

"I like this shirt!"

On his actual birthday, we went for breakfast at the hospital (the scene of the crime) - where they have amazingly good, cheap food. I thought it would be cute to go back - some people may find it weird, but I have a soft spot for that place (everyone was so nice). Later that day we all went to the Zoo and then to my mom's for another round of Happy Birthday and cake.

At the Zoo

Wesley already seems like an older kid, babbling away and playing with all his new toys. What a year this has been... Happy Birthday my sweetie pie!

Gastronomique Society: Suburban edition

Another meeting cooking of the Gastronomique took place last weekend before the holiday, and we were the hosting house! We're so lucky to have this great group of friends to share this "communal" meal with!

We set up the table and citronella candles in the woods (aka our backyard) and had margaritas and ceviche to start. The ceviche was halibut and that was Matt's baby - he was so excited about this dish inspired by Rick Bayless and it was delicious (might be on the menu for some future parties).

The theme was red, white, and blue so all our food represented that with red, white, and blue chips to dip into the ceviche, and red, white, and blue cold soups as our next outdoor course.

White vichysoisse, red gazpacho, and blue blueberry soups

flank steak with a tomato relish, a blue potato, and some white horseradish butter.

lime infused watermelon circle, plums with basil, and a mixture of cheese on top a Parmesan crisp with berries

We hired our babysitter to watch Wesley and our friend's kids, so we could enjoy eating, drinking, and talking as much as we wanted.  At the last Gastro, Wesley did not want to sleep (too much going on) so we had to leave earlier, but this night went past midnight (I believe). Thank you for babysitters!

a cherry brownie with a cherry on top, vanilla ice cream, and for the blue ... flambee!

4th of July

We spent a beautiful weekend in lake Geneva for the 4th, opting out of fireworks since it was Wesley's bedtime. It was a nice quiet weekend where we spent our time between our house, the park downtown, and at the pier with my family.

11 months old

Wesley is 11 months old. Wow. 

The last month has been huge for us because Wesley started crawling right after he turned 10 months. I'm not concerned that he was a late crawler, but it made us spoiled to not have a mobile baby for so long that this month has been hard on us. Running after him as he approaches the stair (we still don't have a gate), as he crawls after the cats (they will nip him), and climbing up the dining room table (which is shorter than him so he bumps his head on the table).

This last month he also really started eating real food. He still likes purees, but everything says he needs to start eating textured foods. He'll eat almost anything, so I've given him pasta, fish, meatballs, mangos, refried beans, turkey, cheese ... so far so good.

His big thing now is to point and go, "Huh?" He loves pointing at the ceiling fan and lights. And he does it so often if you say, "Where's the FAN?" he'll point upwards.

And he loves to be read to; not that his attention span is long, but if you get a book and put him in your lap, he's really interested in the pages and tries to turn them. He likes "Pajama Time", "Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See" and I like reading "Potty" to him.

On the downside, his naps are almost non-existent these days unless you hold him or sleep next to him in our bed. We stopped the swaddle at nine months and since then he hasn't been able to get back to napping those 2-hour stretches unless held. Maybe 1/2 hour max in his crib, but he's still tired. It's been a battle and I have the bags under my eyes to prove it.

Dinner @ the Girl & the Goat

My birthday dinner was Thursday night, reservations were made 2 months in advance for a 5:15 p.m. dinner for 2 (which eventually was changed to a 5:45 p.m. reservation for 3).

This was our 3rd reservation at this "hot spot" - the other 2 made while I was on maternity leave and never materialized due to "baby pain" and "baby stress"  -- in that order. So Matt surprised me with another reservation I couldn't possibly make an excuse not to keep - my birthday.

My mom joined us and we were happy again to have her because we wouldn't have watched Top Chef if it wasn't for her nagging to us how great it was and telling us in detail about each episode that we decided, we better just watch it with her And we got hooked. And that's who owns this restaurant, the winner of the Season 3 Top Chef. Last year we went to Sprout (another Top Chef contestant's restaurant) and in 2009 we went to Topolobampo and Graham Eliot (Top Chef Masters). We want to keep on doing these dinners, the three of us, but we're running out of Top Cheffers. (Not to fear with the number of great restaurants and chefs in this city, but it was fun to do all the Top Chef people).

Dinner was fabulous, but as I said at one point, "I'm turning too suburban, this is a little adventurous for me." Beef Tongue, Pig Face, lamb tartare ... I'm not that crazy into weird meat cuts.

Matt with the softshell crab, tuna, and asparagus

 The menu was parceled out into 3 sections: Veg, Fish, Meat. And a separate daily special of Bread, Oyster, & Goat. All the dishes are small so they are to be shared. (Although the cost would lead you to believe they were very large dishes). So we decided to pick 3 Veg, 3 Fish, 2 meats, and 2 dessert for the 3 of us.

I didn't get pictures of everything, so here's a quick low-down (Go to the menu here)

Veg:  Asparagus with bleu cheese and radishes, Pan fried Shishito peppers with miso, parmesean and sesame seed, and chickpea fritters with alot of delicious stuff I can't remember but it was GOOD. (found the menu it says: chickpeas fritters . romesco . hazelnut hummus . sesame . goat feta)

Chickpea fritters

Peppers

Fish: Seared tuna with lamb sausage and blueberries, SoftShell crab with a sort of squash slaw, and salmon tartar with fried squash blossoms.

Salmon tartare

Meat: We went all GOAT and got goat loin with root veggies and confit of goat belly with lobster. Wow.

Goat loin

Dessert: A chocolate cake with caramel and shitake gelato, and pork fat fried ganache filled donuts with blackberries. Help me.

DESSERT!

The place was not what I thought - first off it was a large space and can fill a lot of people, so it was loud, almost too loud for conversation. It was also, at the same time, homey and down to earth which clashed with the crowd (the trying so hard to be urban hipster people I love to hate).  It was definitely the place to be and at 5:30 p.m. the place was hopping. The waitstaff was really helpful and we took her suggestions and they were on. The only thing was that she thought the peppers were not hot and I thought they were. Expect to pay a lot but it's the kind of food you won't get anywhere else (or else not prepared in this way). Great location too on Randolph. Bathrooms are all individual - very cool.

Is buying your own birthday cake sad?

This morning I went to the village bakery and ordered my birthday cake. I felt fine and confident as I wheeled the stroller in with one hand, hot coffee beverage in the other, the smell of danishes and donuts silently adding calories to my thighs through inhalation.

When the nice lady asked me what the cake should say, I replied, "Happy Birthday and my name is R---." 

"Oh it's for you? You're buying your own birthday cake." Understanding, gentle smile. Yes, I am buying my own birthday cake. I've been buying it for myself for a long while now... (Remember Birthday #33?)

Then I started thinking, if I don't buy my cake, who will?

My mom? Sure, add another task to her already long list of things to do in her lifetime. And besides, she used to make my cake when I was little, she'd probably say her obligation to the party was met when she wrote me out that check and put it in the card.

My husband? I don't think they make "cake genes" in male. I can just picture him saying, "What?" if I were to ask him to get me a cake. Plus there are too many decisions in cake ordering for men to go through (chocolate or white, buttercream of whipped cream, which of the 25 fillings will you like... that's greek to men)

The cats? The baby? I'm running out of potential cake buyers here ...

So that leaves just one person. Me.

I buy my cake, Matt's cake, the baby's cake... and any future inhabitants of our house can be assured that I will be at the bakery buying their cake well in advance of their birthday... because, well, because they make "cake genes" in female unfortunately.