Breakfast for dinner (and other weekend highlights)

It's Sunday evening and I'm recovering from our jam-packed weekend. Who do we think we are- a couple of D.I.N.K.s? Lots of stuff happened. Edie had some memorable moments, including her first foray into the world of solid food. Awe.some. Some babes start eating earlier (like Edie's cousin Camden) but our pediatrician gave us the green light at 6 months. Edie ate a couple bites of rice cereal enthusiastically, then I think she got exhausted. It was pretty entertaining.

I'm looking forward to Edie's culinary adventures. For some reason I think she is going to be a good eater, which is a long shot, because Dave and I were collective awful eaters growing up. But our girl has had a healthy appetite since the moment she was born (in the hospital we called her Edie the Eater). We'll see!

Speaking of eating, today I had breakfast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast was oatmeal, lunch was bacon, eggs, and baby carrots. Dinner was gluten-free pancakes, real maple syrup, chicken sausages. Breakfast is the best meal of the day, so why not keep eating it?

Yesterday we celebrated Dave's grandma Edith's passing. She was a great woman who lived to be 100! Throughout her life she was very devoted to her family, the quintessential t.v.- watching, card game-cheating, mashed potato-making grandma. Dave has really fond memories of growing up near his grandparents, which is a wonderful thing to have. We're lucky that Edie got to meet her namesake last summer. It's my favorite memory of grandma Edith.

Lastly, we took a family outing to this great indoor pool and swam around with Edie. Dave is a total ham- going through the water features, blowing bubbles, making faces...I think he might've had more fun than her.


It was a good, crazy weekend by all accounts.

Camo Baby

Can you find the baby in this picture? She's conducting a covert operation.

"Just not now"

I went to Crossfit tonight after putting the little girl to bed. It was a good one- warm up consisted of tossing a medicine ball with a partner, then dips and pull-ups (5 sets of 3, each). The workout of the day was called Helen. Crossfit has all these 'Girls' workouts- not sure why they're named Fran, Helen, and Angie, but they'll put you in your place. Helen is a 400 meter run, 21 kettlebell swings, and 12 pull-ups, three times, as fast as you can.

Dave and I have each been going twice a week, because that is all we can accommodate budget- and time-wise. We flirt with the idea of going more, but there is no childcare and really no extra money laying around to pay for it. Believe me, I've checked.

You can't progress when you workout twice a week. You can maintain, but you can't really improve. I'm jealous of the other women who are beating me. My latent competitive edge comes out, and I'm up against women who go three or four times a week. I just have to tell myself, "Not now". I know that the time will come when Edie's a bit older, we have more money, or we find a Crossfit that has a kettlebaby room.

I try not to get down about it, because it's great that I'm still going at all. Any time something pops up that I want- new work clothes, skis, an iPhone, I think "Just not now". I've chosen to work part-time, and I love spending time with Edie, so I wouldn't trade my work schedule for more money (besides, that would require additional daycare tuition, so it's just a vicious cycle).

What I should do is dedicate one more day to doing Crossfit workout at my house. Maybe I'll weld some old coffee cans to a lead pipe and pump iron in our decrepid shed. Or buy a used running stroller now that Edie is 6 months, and go running on our days together. That actually sounds pretty good.

Kale, glorious kale!

Our Paleo experiment was informative, an exercise in creativity, and oddly appealing towards the end. But we are done with it, at least for now. Yesterday I checked out our grocery budget from last month, and yep, we're done. As I told my friend Erin, it's like going on a lobster, Kobe steak, and truffles diet. It's just not practical at this time.

Dave and I both enjoyed eating more veggies. Just heat up some olive oil, toss in some salt, and voila-- delicious kale! Or eggplant! I also made some sweet-potato fries more than once. But the meat-eating was a little OOC (out of control, for the uninitiated). So yesterday I made a sandwich and fell back into the Barca-lounger with a sigh of relief that I didn't have to spend quality time with the stove in order to eat.

For now, we'll aim to shop the perimeter of the grocery store, eat foods with the fewest number of ingredients, and limit refined sugar. But we already knew that!

In totally unrelated news, I'm really enjoying my job, and Edie is really enjoying her feet. I get to work on some marketing and graphic design stuff, and Edie gets to explore uncharted body terrain. 2011 is starting off fine, just fine.