For this second child, I was again hoping to avoid having to attend one, since we don’t need all that much stuff (except boatloads of diapers and wipes).  But again, my beloved sister promised that she could make the experience better than I feared.

Last Saturday, due to what could briefly be described as “flooring/flooding issues” at my sister’s house, a shower was held for me at my house.  Honestly, it was the best baby shower ever.

First, Rhiannon had decided that the shower would be a “Supper Shower”, which meant that all who attended would bring a few ingredients which would be combined to create dinners which I could freeze and use after the baby arrives when I have no motivation to cook.  I got to decide what people would make and my sister divied up the ingredients among the attendees.  Then my sister and I hunted down vintage aprons for gifts for everyone to wear and then take home.  (Ebay, as it turns out, is a treasure trove of funky vintage aprons.)

We found several large lots and when they arrived there was even a little tiny one that could be tied to the cutie:

Anna in Her Apron

Don’t worry though, we didn’t make her cook; Anna and her daddy headed off to the park with her friend Timothy and his dad, Steve.

Anyway, everyone showed up at my house with their assigned ingredients and after a brief period of “who wants to work on what?” all the ladies filled my kitchen making dinners.

Here’s the best part, my lovely friend Andrea showed up with a pedicure kit and my friend Cassandra had a new bottle of nail polish in her purse that I liked much better than the ones I had in my drawers.

So, while other people cooked and made meals, I sat on the couch and got this done:

Toes

How awesome is that? When it was time for lunch someone brought me my plate (I was drying after all) and then Rhiannon and my friend Shannon managed to make a small pan of lasagna that Mike and I had for dinner for the next two nights.

In the end I went out to my freezer in the garage and gloried in the fact that I now have: 3 meatloaves (I had managed to make myself one a few weeks ago), a large pan of lasagna, two dozen turkey meatballs, two Swiss Enchilada Casseroles, a Shepard’s pie, and a casserole of mac and cheese that my mom made a few weeks ago.

Along with the store bought pizzas and anything else I might have the energy to make in the next few weeks, we should be set for several nights of very little effort on my part for dinner!  Thank you to my sister who planned it and she , my mom and my friends who showed up, cooked, and cleaned my kitchen!  It was truly the best baby shower ever!

Today I will tackle the topic “Describe the best vacation you’ve ever taken.”

Mike and I were married in mid-November of 2004, but at the time, due to school and work schedules, we weren’t able to go on our honeymoon until Christmas.  A few days before Christmas we fled Colorado to Victoria, British Columbia.  I have been blessed with close relatives who have a vacation home outside of Victoria on the south side of Vancouver Island.  It is a beautiful home, where Mike and I took our first vacation together before we were married, that looks out from a high cliff over the ocean and across to Washington.

We were picked up at the airport and driven to Sooke, the closest town to the house.  We stopped on the way at the best meat shop in town, where we picked up steaks, sausage, and other things for our time at the house.  When we arrived at the house it had already been stocked with sandwich makings and some basic food – we were so well taken care of that visit!

One of the best things about the house is that there is a long stairway from the top of the cliff where the house is located down to a small private beach.  When we arrived Mike and I dropped our bags and climbed down the stairway to the little rocky beach.  When the waves crash upon the shore the sound of the rocks rolling up on the beach is almost like the sound of thousands of little hands clapping.  It’s a calming, wonderful place to spend time.

Close to the house there are many beautiful trails to hike on, through tall redwood forests that end up on the beautiful beaches of Vancouver Island, some rocky and some sandy.  For the next few days Mike and I spent time sleeping late, reading, watching the sights from the huge windows in the house and hiking the trails.  Mike spent a lot of time taking some of the most beautiful pictures he’s taken of the forest, the beaches, and the ocean.  It was quiet and calming and just what we wanted in a vacation.

Before Christmas we drove into Victoria where we stayed one night at a hotel that overlooked the harbor.  We had a fancy dinner at the restaurant on the top floor, shopped for each other’s Christmas presents and walked around downtown Victoria enjoying the Christmas lights.

We had a quiet Christmas eve and Christmas watching movies, reading our new books (we love giving books to each other) and enjoying our first Christmas as married people.

During our stay we mostly ate at home, but we did visit our favorite pub in Sooke, whose garlic mayo topped burgers are truly awesome, and a beautiful restaurant on a cliff point that overlooks the ocean.  Basically, we hiked, we read, we ate out a little, Mike took lots of pictures and we enjoyed the beauty of our surroundings.  It was the perfect “down time” vacation.

Don’t get me wrong, it was not a flawless vacation.  The car that belongs to my relatives broke down the day of our arrival and we had to deal with that mess and driving around a stranger’s car (we were loaned the car of someone who lives down the road). And the refrigerator stopped working, but we didn’t notice for a few days until there was a smell.  When we discovered that it had stopped working we moved as much as possible to the small wine refrigerator, but we lost most of the meat that we had purchased.  When we couldn’t have the roast or Scotch baked eggs we had planned on for Christmas we resorted to some steaks from the freezer, only to have the grill run out of gas just after we put the steaks on to cook.  But these were minor things, and could not compare with our lovely vacation.

Since then I have been back to the house once, with Mike and our friend Jen, and Mike has been back several times since to go salmon fishing with my father, uncle and my grandfather, before he died.  I miss the house, the ocean and the green of the Northwest greatly, especially these days with the sights of British Columbia on t.v. so much.  With the kids we won’t have that kind of vacation again for a long time, so I’m glad we had that time to really be together, relaxing and doing the things we love – it was by far my best vacation ever.

On to the cake… When asked what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, Mike responded “Either a carrot cake or a bundt cake with pudding in the center.”  Now I grew up in the 80’s when bundt cakes with pudding centers could be easily made from a mix you could buy at any grocery store – but alas this is no longer the case.  Now, you’re on your own with this baking masterpiece, and I decided not shy away from the challenge, even though I awoke the morning of Mike’s birthday with a sore throat and some sniffles…

After hunting around on the internet I decided to go the route of making a cake batter, throwing half the batter in the pan, adding my own pudding, and then topping that with the rest of the cake batter.  Most of the recipes I found for the search terms “pudding bundt cake” were simply really moist cakes with no pudding center, so onward ho! to baking experimentation!

For the cake I decided to make my mother’s chocolate sourdough cake recipe, since I needed to use the sourdough anyway and it’s a wonderfully moist chocolate cake.  Sourdough, as I may have mentioned before, is like a refrigerator pet; it requires that you use it and “feed it” at least ten days, or you will ruin it.  I’ve let it go way past ten days and had it survive, but when I open my sourdough crock my punishment is a stinky mess with brownish liquid on the top – essentially the sourdough gets really bad gas…

So, early on the morning of Mike’s birthday, still in her sleepy suit, Anna helped me stir up the beginnings of the cake batter: sourdough start, water, powdered milk and flour.

Anna stirring sourdough

This mixture must sit and “ferment” for at least four hours – you know when it’s done when there are visible bubbles in the batter.

Later in the day I made the pudding portion of my project, planning on letting it sit in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour before I added it to the cake batter.  For the pudding recipe I used my tried and true “Double Chocolate Pudding” recipe from “Short and Sweet”, by Melanie Barnard.  I love this book by the way – I haven’t made a lot from it, only the pudding, the No-Bake Ginger Cheesecakes, Butter-Pecan Bread Pudding, and the Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles, but all of them have been good, take barely any time at all, needed very little tweaking, and have been made and re-made…

Melanie Barnard’s Double Chocolate Pudding

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups light cream (after never finding light cream I have used either half-and-half or 1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole milk with great success)

3 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt.  Gradually whisk in 1 cup of the cream until smooth, and then add in the remaining cream.  (Once I made the mistake of not reading the recipe and doing this over heat on the stove – DON’T DO THAT – bad pudding happens).  Once the mixture is well mixed put the pan over medium heat and cook, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil.  Continue to whisk and boil for 1 minute.  (Now here’s the kicker – Barnard’s recipe says it should take “about 5 minutes” for the pudding to thicken and come to a boil.  I myself have not ever had mine thicken until at least 10 minutes have passed – so be patient.)

Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate and vanilla (there are no instructions after this, but I don’t stir it in – I just leave the chocolate and vanilla on the top).  Let stand for 5 minutes until the chocolate is melted, then stir gently until the pudding is smooth.  If you stir too much though, the pudding will thin.  Mine generally looks like this after I’ve stirred in the chocolate and vanilla:

Pudding

If you’re not throwing this in a cake the pudding can be easily divided into 6 small desert bowls and refrigerated.  It can be served in as little as 20 minutes, or kept for up to 8 hours before serving.  Honestly, I still have some in the fridge 4 days later and it’s still yummy!  I threw all but two small desert bowls worth into the fridge to use for the cake and then proceeded with the rest of sourdough cake.

Once the sourdough cake batter had bubbles in it I added baking soda, sugar, salt, cinnamon, eggs, vegetable oil and melted chocolate chunks to complete the batter.  I greased and then floured the bundt cake pan and poured most of the batter into the pan.  Then I put a “tunnel” of pudding in the batter, as shown here:

Cake with pudding

I then put the rest of the cake batter on top and put the cake in a 350 degree oven for 55 minutes. I couldn’t use the “clean toothpick” rule with the pudding, so instead I looked for the other sign that the cake was done, which is to look for the cake pulling away from the edge of pan.

After I had put what I thought would be enough pudding into the cake there was plenty left over, so I began pouring it into desert bowls.  Problem was, Anna was “helping” me with this process…  Instead of foolishly trying to get her away from the pudding, I put a little into one of her food bowls and gave her a spoon.  Here she is just starting to eat her share of pudding:

Clean Anna

Note how relatively clean the little cutie is at this point….

And now, for the “after” picture where Anna is, well, NOT clean…

Chocolaty Anna

So, what did I do with her in all her chocolate messiness? I still had to work on the cake and clean the kitchen, so off Anna went to one of her favorite play places:

In the sink

Ah, kitchen sink, you are my savior! I can pop the kid in the sink, get the kitchen cleaned and work on cake at the same time!

After the cake had cooled I made a ganache for the top of it.  Ganache is a lovely simple frosting that makes a shiny chocolate surface and tastes really good at the same time.  Simply put 3/4 cup heavy cream in a saucepan on medium and when it has just started to bubble take it off the heat, add 8 ounces of chocolate and stir until the chocolate is melted. The ganache will be beautifully smooth and shiny.  I just had to take a picture of the Ghiradelli chocolate I used to make the ganache – the gold wrapper reminds me of the “golden ticket” in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory…

Ganache chocolate

After letting the ganache cool briefly I poured it over the cake in what I hoped was an artistic manner that produced a pretty cake.  Here I am with the finished product saying a little “please let there be a nice pudding center” prayer before I cut into it:

Finished cake

Alas, the pudding had sunk to the bottom, or rather the top, of the bundt cake.  The cake was lovely, but the pudding was just under the top surface of the cake. With the ganache as frosting, the top of the cake became a sort of death by chocolate nightmare – but don’t worry – it’s still really good to eat.  Since I have been eating a piece of cake every day since Friday, I have a feeling that at tomorrow’s doctor appointment there will be no weight loss for me!

Preggo 31 weeks

So we all know I was overweight before I got pregnant, but it does really suck to go into the doctor’s office (which is now every two weeks) and get weighed.  Yesterday (when this picture was taken) I opted for contacts instead of my glasses in the tiniest hope that it would shave a few ounces off my weight gain.

But, heck, I had a bad week last week so I turned out to have lost weight instead of gained since my last appointment.  I’m supposed to be gaining weight now for the baby – at any other time in my life weight loss (@5 lbs) would have been just grand.

Pele does seem fine anyway and I am happy to report that there is one nice thing that resulted from all that vomiting I did last week.  At my last appointment the midwife was a little worried that Mr. Pele was still head up, banging his forehead on my rib cage, not where he needed to be in preparation for his impending birth.  But apparently if your mommy/host throws up for 5 hours straight you might become perturbed enough to flip yourself head down to get away from the direction of the chaos…  Let’s just hope he stays there so I don’t have to go out and find another stomach virus to catch.

We are now officially at 31 weeks now, with 9 more weeks to go.  I’m doubtful/praying that we have less than that, since Anna arrived at 37 weeks and if the kid makes it to 40 weeks I will be in the hospital for Anna’s birthday.  Double yuck.

On a lighter note, my midwife (whom I love – she was great for Anna’s birth) told a story that really freaked me out.  We discussed that the second time labor is likely to go faster than the labor with the first kid.  My labor was 18 hours last time, so I’m okay with shaving a few hours off that time anyway.  My midwife told me “my first labor was 12 hours and the second was 37 minutes.”

Hold on there! It takes me 30 minutes to get to the hospital!  Oh, that is just not good… Don’t worry though, I will not be naming my child, “CRV” or “Element” after the car in which he’s born.  That would just be tacky.  Perhaps we should rent a Lexus in a few weeks just in case – that sounds like a nice prep school rich kid name – instead of an “I was born in a car” name!

The week started out really well.  Monday I felt good, Anna and I were both recovered from a cold, and the weather was sunny.  We trooped off to our Monday morning music class, walked the dog, went to the park, and had a good nap.  It was all going so well! For dinner I was a little tired, but I managed to prepare a new tilapia recipe, basmati and a nice spinach salad.  Four bites into dinner things turned sour and I just didn’t feel right.  And thus begins my unpleasant week…

For the next three hours I experienced some um, severe stomach and intestinal issues, to put it delicately.  At around 11, when I could no longer keep even water down and I was having contractions, we finally called my OB doctor.  We were told to head to the hospital without further adieu.  My brother-in-law, who was fortunately up late working, came over and stayed on our couch listening to Anna’s baby monitor while we trooped off to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital at midnight, we checked into the Labor and Delivery department, a seemingly unending 20 minute process that was made worse by the heat in the admin office and the woman’s perfume, which made me even more nauseous.  I have no idea what cruel person finds it necessary to make you answer questions about your insurance and fill out billing forms while you are obviously ill, but I think whoever thought of the process is related to the Marquis de Sade. The printer jammed, the copier jammed, the printer ran out of paper, hot air blew on me and I still didn’t throw up – kudos to me!

Long story short, we were in the Labor and Delivery department for 6 hours.  I threw-up so much I raised a nurse’s eyebrows, got three bags of i.v. fluid, had contractions 2-4 minutes apart (caused by severe dehydration), got anti-nausea medicine and anti-contraction medicine.  I was not able to sleep due to being hooked up to an i.v., a contraction monitor and a baby heart rate monitor and Mike had barely any luck with the make-shift bed/chair in our room.  We made it home by 6 a.m., just in time to hear the first chirps of Anna who had slept through the whole thing.

Anna became sick later that morning and Mike and I traded trying to take care of her and trying to sleep the whole day.  For the next few days no one really felt well, we all were exhausted, and Anna watched way too much t.v. while we tried desperately to sleep even for a few minutes.  Mike was able to work from home on Wednesday and went to work on Thursday, only to come home to me having more contractions, and I forced him to work from home on Friday, just in case another trip to the hospital was needed. Sadly, although friends would have liked to help, all offers of help were ended with, “but we don’t want to get sick.”  Come on! Don’t you too want to have this very fun stomach virus?  So we were on our own…

Friday we all started to finally feel better and a little more rested.  Yesterday, Saturday, we ventured out to get diapers and other things we were in desperate need of, and had some fun at the park after Anna’s nap.  Our week that began with such awful sickness is finally over and I’m thankful. This experience, although unpleasant, has certainly put things in perspective.  When I complain of my hip pain or heartburn, Mike now gently says, “At least you’re not projectile vomiting.”  Truer words were never spoken…

Friday, my sister and I packed the kids in the car for a day at the Stock Show.  I told Anna that we were going to see “animals” and she got pretty excited and said “elephants!”.  I’m not sure if she was disappointed, but we did see lots of horses, cows, bunnies, chickens and even some guinea pigs…

The highlights at the Stock Show for the kids are the rides however.  Here are Anna and Brendan waiting in line for the little train ride – we made Brendan hold Anna’s hand – which he did begrudgingly, and then promptly let her go as soon as the ride was open.

Waiting for the train

I got a shot of the kids in the train as it went by, I have video too, but here’s the kids on the little engine:

Riding the train

After the train ride, it was off to the pony ride.  They strap them in pretty good, but don’t worry, I walked alongside Anna just to make sure she didn’t fall off.  She held on pretty well and seemed to like her horse, Dr. Pepper.

Riding Dr. Pepper

As we walked around the grounds we found a huge tractor, far bigger than my camera could capture.  We stuck the kids on it for a nice photo of them looking frightened of the big wheels.

On the big tractor

It was a long day, Anna had a late and short nap and after nap I let her play in the sink – it’s one of her favorite things to do.  And then since it was so close to dinner time I just put the plate of ham and cucumber next to her and let her eat dinner from the sink.  Good times!

Dinner in the sink

As always, let’s start with the cutie.  Currently, the cutie is sick and cranky.  Wednesday night Anna woke up crying 6 times, probably due to the fever of 102 that she had.  Thursday I took her to the doctor where they said her throat looked red and icky – a strep test came back negative but we are waiting for more detailed lab results.  They sent me home with an antibiotic prescription and instructions to keep her medicated with ibuprofen and Tylenol.  Due to her sore throat Anna is enjoying a diet of yogurt and other soft foods while we wait out whatever this is that she has acquired.

As it turns out, Anna is obsessed with Christmas lights – absolutely loves them! Requests for “Christmas lights” come from the back seat of my car every time we go anywhere – day or night.  So, last weekend we took her to Zoolights, which is the Denver Zoo all lit up with lights in the shapes of animals.  Since it’s night time there weren’t many animals to see, but the elephants and giraffes were inside and were the highlight of the trip.  We got a good picture of one of the few moments Anna would stand still while we were there:

Anna at Zoolights

Pretty soon all of the Christmas lights will be gone and Anna will be very disappointed.  It’s hard to explain to her about something that will happen “tomorrow”, let alone not for another 11 months.

Recently Anna found in my drawer some old mascara and cover up.  I think I was blissfully folding laundry in another room while she decided to do some make-uping of her own…

Anna's first make-up attempt

She knew that the things she had found went around your eyes, so she aimed there, and fortunately didn’t poke herself in the eye with mascara.  We’ll work on proper application tips later.

Anna was also recently introduced to lollipops when her cousin brought some over.  They were kind of huge and I got a great shot of Anna looking like a rocker with a microphone while she tried desperately to keep the whole thing in her mouth:

Lollipop girl

As for me, I’m pregnant, large, running around after a toddler and just generally exhausted.

Under the Big Top

If you only look briefly at this picture you might say – “Oh look, the circus came to town! Oh, no wait…”  Some jerk maternity clothes designer thought it would be HILARIOUS to design pajama pants for pregnant ladies that make you look and feel like you are the Big Top! Not only that, but they are flannel! Oh so sexy!  I have no idea where the top is for these pajama bottoms, having borrowed almost all of my maternity wardrobe from my sister, but I wouldn’t wear the top anyway, because then I would really feel like I needed some popcorn and cotton candy to complete the outfit.  Unfortunately, these are the only comfortable pajama pants I have right now.

I attempted to resolve this situation by heading to my local “Super” Target only to discover that the maternity section consists of 4.5 racks stocked with either fancy short dresses or camisoles.  Apparently Target thinks that pregnant women are either going to parties or laying around waiting for our breakfast in bed to be delivered… Screw you Target!

Anyway, the kid is kicking a lot and has earned himself the nickname “Pele”.  He seems to be healthy and growing well – although I have an ultrasound check in a few weeks to make sure his kidneys are okay due to a size difference in the two of them in the last ultrasound.

As for Mike, he returned yesterday from the “Big Beers Belgians and Barley Wines Festival” that he attended in Vail with his friend Nate.  Sadly, neither of them took any prizes home from the homebrewing competition, in which they both had beers entered, but it does seem like they had a good time anyway.

Mike is looking forward to having another “brew day” – the initial brewing of a beer takes an entire day – soon.  I got him a gift certificate to his favorite brewing supply store for Christmas and I’m sure he’ll come up with some new and fun recipe to delight all those around him who drink beer.

Mike is also getting over a nasty chest cold, that has been hanging around for several weeks now.  This hasn’t stopped him from going to hockey though and his weekly racquetball league starts up this Thursday.  Perhaps all that chasing after a ball will kick the chest cold out this week…  Wish him luck.

And that’s all the news that I can type while Anna is still waking up.  I’m off to bring her some milk and some antibiotics and start our day.  Take care everyone!

Each year as I start my (always belated) Christmas shopping one of Lehrer’s songs begins to run in my head, his “Christmas Carol”.  The lyrics have some great lines, such as, “God rest ye merry merchants, may ye make the yuletide pay”.

I thought I’d share it with all of you for a little laugh as you do your Christmas shopping…

First, Anna had her first haircut last Saturday.  I took her to a special kids’ salon where they have special riding toys for the kids to sit on during the haircut.  Anna picked out a purple dinosaur and then gripped it tightly looking shocked for the whole thing.

First haircut

Luckily the woman was quick and only snipped enough to make Anna’s hair even all around.  She was able to get a ponytail and a bow in Anna’s hair before we left as well.  We took pictures of the new haircut afterwards and another picture of the bow, which we haven’t been able to get in Anna’s hair since.

Cutie with new hair

The new ponytail and bow:

Bow in hair

On Monday, our friend Laura came down with her daughter Piper, for a play date.  Piper is only 5 months old, so there’s not a lot of playing together that Anna can do with Piper, but still it’s always nice to get together with another mom.  We played with the girls, ate grilled cheese and coconut cake for lunch and generally had a good time.  Anna got out some of her new cookie cutter set, which we just use as toys, and decided maybe Piper would like to see them.  She would take one out, tell Piper what color it was and then put it on top of Piper.  Poor Piper was covered by the time Anna was done with her:

Piper covered with cookie cutters

On Thursday, our friends Angie and Steve dropped their son Timothy off at our house for a play date while they went to rehearsals for the symphony, where they play violin and tuba, respectively.  Timothy is one month younger than Anna and we see he and his family quite regularly for play dates.  Kids at this age don’t really play together, but you can occasionally get them to play in the same area and do the same thing at the same time.  I caught them playing with the crayons at Anna’s drawing table:

Drawing with Timothy

I wish I could have gotten a good picture of Timothy, but I wasn’t quick enough and neither of the kids stayed in one place for more than a minute anyway… All-in-all, it was a busy week, but we had lots of fun and it was great to see friends.