Catching Up For the Holidays

It's been a long time since I've posted so I've got some catching up to do.

Carter's Next Step
My little boy is growing up right before my eyes. Now, his vocabulary consists of the following word (or variations thereof): uh uh (no), all done, hot, ball, cat, dog, mama, dada, uh oh, Targent (for our dog Sargent), and many more that I haven't quite deciphered yet. With his growing desire to socialize we decided it's time to enroll him in a school program. I spent the early part of December visiting different programs in our area and was shocked at the prices. INSANE! For 2 half days per week it's going to cost us $500 per month. That is a significant amount of money to expose your child to social opportunities. So I guess this is the start of what people are talking about when they say children are expensive. Up until this point, our baby expenses haven't been remarkable. Diapers are about $40 per month, clothes are inexpensive, we haven't gone crazy buying toys, and since he started eating the same food as us, any extra food cost is minimal. I also now understand why one parent in many two parent households decides to stay home when any proceeds from a job would all go to pay for childcare. INSANE! And then we wonder why there is a such a discrepancy in early childhood education between poor and wealthy families. Not many can really afford these prices. Especially when talking about multiple children. Fortunately, we can afford it but we are not happy about the cost. With that being said, Carter is all set to start school in February. I'm really looking forward to seeing how he adapts to the new environment.

Family for Xmas
I volunteered to host my family for Christmas Dinner on December 23rd. When I extended the invitation, I wasn't expecting many to accept since traveling to my house would involve a 4 hour drive from MI. To my surprise, one after the other, folks said they were coming. In all, we had 17 people, including us, and everyone crashed at our place. I didn't think we could pull it off but it worked out perfectly. We had a total of 4 air mattresses, 3 beds, 2 couches, and 1 crib in use. Dinner was also fun, although folks started hovering around the kitchen in true Canady fashion and then started picking from the Honeybaked Ham. Luckily we had lots of hands in the kitchen so I didn't have to do everything myself. Here's what we had on the menu:

2 Racks of Lamb (perfectly prepared by my husband)
Honeybaked Ham
Mac & Cheese
Pasta Salad with Cheese Tortellini, Broccoli, Olives, Cherry Tomatoes, and Pesto
Green Salad with Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Blue Cheese Crumbles, and Croutons
Corn Casserole (a specialty of my Aunt Margee)
Berry Salad with Strawberries, Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, and Fresh Mint
Salmon and Potato Casserole
Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Dried Cranberries and Toasted Pine Nuts with Balsamic Reduction
Hawaiian Rolls

After dinner most of the group went to see Mission Impossible in IMAX but with my history of falling asleep at late night movies, I passed and instead did some late night xmas shopping at Target.

Everyone but my dad, stepmom, and my great uncle headed home so they could be back by xmas morning. I finished up my xmas shopping (in true Tara fashion) and then we continued our Canady family tradition of eating a nice dinner out on xmas eve by going to Ruth Chris. The food was predictably yummy and on our way out, the table next to us complemented Carter on his good behavior. What they didn't know is Carter is always good when there is food involved. CC and I decided to see the American version of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and were both slightly disappointed (me more than CC). As CC put it, it was "Daniel Craig playing Daniel Craig." For anyone who cares, the Swedish version is better.

Christmas morning was all about Carter James. It was a lot of fun watching him open gifts and play with his new stuff with excitement. This was a big change from last xmas when he was only 6 months and didn't really know what was going on. He got so much stuff from other people that we didn't really get him much. Here are some pics.

The folks left after Carter finished opening his gifts and the Doss clan spent the rest of the day veg'ing out and watching the Matrix trilogy. We were so pooped that we didn't even feel guilty about our laziness and were just glad we had some left overs and didn't need to leave the house.

It was another great Christmas holiday. We really enjoyed having the houseguests and were happy that we could accommodate everyone. My stepmom commented that she had such a great time that we should host the dinner every year. Screeeeeeech! While we had a great time, I had to put a stop to that suggestion immediately. It was a lot of work and not something we're willing to commit to doing every year. Next year, I'm looking forward to having dinner at someone else's house.

Carter's 2nd Haircut

Since I missed Carter's 1st haircut I felt the need to capture his 2nd haircut on camera. He did pretty good and didn't start to squirm until Jimmy was almost finished. His facial expressions are hilarious. Enjoy the pics.

Banana Bread Recipe

The only bread I have ever made from scratch is Banana Bread with many variations. It's clearly my favorite but I do want to try to make a Zucchini Bread and an Orange-Cranberry Bread. If you have any good recipes for these or other breads please pass them along. The Banana Bread is fairly easy and quick with a prep time of about 25 minutes and a bake time of 45-60 minutes. I came up with this recipe by picking and choosing certain ingredients from several recipes I reviewed and then adding my own twist.

Here's the recipe:

1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 very ripe bananas (the peel should almost be black), mashed
1 ripe banana, cut up into small pieces
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash the 2 very ripe bananas in a small bowl. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract to the bananas, stir until combined, and then set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. In yet a separate bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs until fluffy, about 3 minutes (you may use a hand mixer instead of whisk). Drizzle in oil as you continue to whisk. Then add butter and whisk until combined. Add banana mixture to egg mixture and stir with a large spoon just until combined. Add cut up banana pieces to the mixture and stir lightly (this is a trick I learned from my mom; it really adds an extra burst of banana flavor). Fold in flour mixture to the egg/banana mixture in three equal batches, stirring until there is no visible flour after each batch. Once all the flour mixture has been folded in, pour the finished batter into a lightly oiled or lined loaf pan (I just spray it with Pam). Bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Bread is done when you can stick a fork in the center of the loaf and it comes out clean. Definitely eat a slice while it's still warm with a little more butter. Indeed...butter makes everything taste better!

Variations: To make Sweet Potato-Banana Bread substitute the 1 cut up ripe banana with 1 small or 1/2 large sweet potato or yam, cooked and mashed. You can also add walnuts, raisins, or dried cranberries to your liking.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the bread but here's one of Carter because he's just so darn cute.

Pure Exhaustion Part II

In the last 6 months I've run two half marathons and competed in my first triathlon. I also try to go to the gym at least 3 days a week. I should be in pretty good shape...right? So why am I so exhausted every time I have to get Carter ready to go somewhere. Could it be because he fights me on everything? He doesn't want to get out of the bathtub; then once I get him out of the tub he doesn't want to put any clothes on; then once I get him dressed, he doesn't want to put on any socks and takes them off just as quickly as I get them on; then he doesn't want to get his hair brushed and tries to run away from me as soon as he sees the brush in my hand; then he doesn't want to go down the stairs and instead, either wants me to carry him (even though my hands are full with purse, diaper bag, etc.) or he just sits on the top step playing with the child gate; then once we finally make it to the door he doesn't want to put on his coat (mind you it's 40 degrees outside) and unzips it as soon as I zip it up; then he doesn't want to put on his shoes and vigorously kicks his feet as I put them on and tie them up; and finally, he doesn't want to put his arms through the straps on the car seat. By the time I get him strapped in, put on my coat and shoes, and get in the car, I'm usually out of breath and have broken into a light sweat.

How can such a little person require so much energy? The funny part is that Carter thinks the whole thing is a game. He's doesn't seem to be behaving this way with ill intent. Especially, since he's laughing and giggling the whole time. So no matter how frustrated I get sometimes, I just have to laugh it off and keep it moving. That is...until we reach our destination and he has taken off both his shoes and socks and I have to stand outside in the cold trying to put them back on. C'est la vie!

Pure Exhaustion

Whew! That's the sound that came out of me when I finally sat on my couch at 8:22 this evening. I don't have many days on the go so today definitely took the wind out of my sails. My day went a little something like this:

7:45 am - Wake up to Carter's calls to come get him out of the crib
8:20 am - Shower
9:20 am - Leave the house for sorority meeting
12: 35 pm - Leave sorority meeting and head home
1:05 pm - Arrive home, hug and kiss husband, take two advil for killer headache, and take a 30 minute nap while Carter is still napping
1:45 pm - Take Carter out of crib and get him dressed
2:00 pm - Feed Carter lunch
2:20 pm - Head upstairs to brush Carter's teeth and wash his face
2:25 pm - Put gifts for birthday party in gift bags and sign cards
2:40 pm - Pull out of driveway headed to 1st birthday party
3:05pm - Arrive at 1st birthday party, play on gymnastics apparatus, eat snacks/cake, sing happy birthday
4:45 pm - Leave 1st birthday party to go to 2nd birthday party
5:00 pm - Stop at Kmart to buy gift for 2nd birthday party
5:35 pm - Arrive at Chuck E. Cheese for 2nd birthday party, more playing and eating
7:30 pm - Leave 2nd birthday party and head home
8:00 pm - Arrive home, change Carter into pjs and put him to bed
8:22 pm - Crash on couch and open my laptop

Now that was a full day but we had a lot of fun. I have a feeling more of my days will look like this as my little social butterfly continues to grow. I better stock up on some protein smoothies and vitamin C to keep my energy up.

It's My Birthday

Well folks today marks my 32nd year in this world (at least in this lifetime) and while I'm not that big into birthdays I have already had a great celebration. When Jimmy asked what I wanted for my birthday my response was "romance and seduction." With Jimmy's busy work schedule and an almost 18 month old "romance and seduction" are not in our everyday repertoire. Jimmy tried to play dumb and acted like he didn't know what I meant but in the end he came through with flying colors.

We drove to my parents' house in MI for Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving morning while Jimmy and I were sitting on the couch relaxing, he turns to me and says "I was thinking about surprising you with a trip to New York for your birthday but I thought it would be too much." At first I didn't believe him but then I was slightly annoyed because he should have kept that to himself. Then he asks "would you have liked that?" to which I respond "uh...yeah." "We can still go," he says as he starts looking for flights on his iPad. Long story short, we flew to New York City early the next morning leaving Carter behind in the loving care of his grandparents.

We stayed at the Double Tree in Times Square which was the perfect location for sites and shopping. We spent most of the day Friday shopping and walking up and down 5th Avenue. The streets and stores were packed as was to be expected. I couldn't imagine having a child(ren) in all of that. I would be afraid of losing them. I almost lost Jimmy. I had to hold on tight to his hand just to make sure we didn't get separated. After I found a cute outfit to wear for dinner that night we headed back to the hotel to change and meet up with my little bro Clinton and friend Freddie. We ate dinner at an Asian Fusion restaurant called the Ember Room. So delicious. We had Chocolate Ribs, Deep Fried Oysters, Korean BBQ Beef Fried Rice, and more. Then, stuffed, we walked over to 48 Lounge, which was a cool lounge with super-expensive ($15-17) drinks (welcome to NYC). From there we headed to Taj II where a friend was hosting a party. Mind you, I had been up since 5:15 am and was exhausted. Jimmy teased that I'd be ready to crash by 10:30 pm but I said I wanted to hang at least until midnight. So as soon as midnight hit I politely whispered to Jimmy that I was ready to go. We left Clinton and Freddie to party the night away and called it a night.

Saturday, we slept in a bit, grabbed a quick Starbucks breakfast, did some last minute shopping in Soho ( such a cute area) and then headed to Busker's bar to watch the U of M v. Ohio State football game. A fellow Michigan alum hosted the viewing party so there were plenty of Wolverines to cheer on the team. Jimmy was talking a lot of mess but in the end his negativity wasn't enough to derail the team and we beat Ohio State for the first time in 7 years. Go Blue!

The victory was a fitting end to the trip and after the game we headed to the airport. We got back to my parents' house just before 10 pm and Jimmy being the machine he is decided to drive back to Indy that night. We packed up Carter and hit the road. We got home just before 2 am. The last thing I heard Jimmy say was "I'm not even tired" followed by his snores. We had the perfect Sunday at home watching football all day.

I had a great weekend with family and friends and can truly say that ROMANCE IS NOT DEAD!

2 New Recipes

Here are two new recipes to try. One is a simple baked tilapia and the other is for white sangria. The tilapia recipe is my own and the sangria recipe is from Gina Neely (I found it on foodnetwork.com).

Baked Tilapia with Basil and Peppers

This recipe is super easy and healthy too. All you need is tilapia filets (how every many you want), fresh basil, red/yellow peppers, lemon slices, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Start off by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. Then rinse off the tilapia and pat dry with paper towel. Place the fish in a glass baking dish. Put on your desired amount of salt and pepper (you only need to season one side of the fish), place the cut up peppers and basil on top of the fish, drizzle with olive oil (you want just enough to coat the fish), and place one lemon slice on each piece of fish. Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Squeeze the lemon juice from the lemon slices on the fish before serving. This dish is quick, easy, and oh so delicious. I usually serve it with steamed rice. You can always substitute the basil and peppers for your preferred herb and topping. For instance, I've also made this with rosemary, capers, and tomatoes.

White Sangria

I made this for the first time last weekend for my mommy group. The ladies loved it and Jimmy loved it too. Be careful because even though it tastes sweet, the alcoholic content is significant and you will feel a buzz. Here are the ingredients:

2 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc

1 cup of Peach Schnapps

1/3 cup of honey

1 Granny Smith Apple

10 or so Strawberries

1 Orange

Handful of Seedless Green Grapes

7-Up

Combine the wine, Peach Schnapps, and honey in a glass pitcher (or whatever you're using to hold the sangria) and stir to combine. Cut up the apple, strawberries, orange (leaving on the peel), and grapes and add to the mixture. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours so the fruit can soak up the sangria. Serve over ice with a splash of 7-up on top.