Los Garrido: April 2009

Emma's Haircut

Thursday, April 30, 2009

About a week ago, I just got sick of waiting for myself to find someone to cut Emma's hair, and I decided to do it myself. I MEANT to take off 2-3 inches, but I kept messing up and it kept getting shorter and shorter, until it looked like this...

And I don't think I could do it again, seriously it was just luck, so if any of you have a great kid hair-cutter suggestion, I'm open to it!

Chocolate Pancakes

Last year I bought a book called Deceptively Delicious about sneaking healthy foods into your kid's diets. I used it to make about 5 recipes and than gave up. Emma nor I wanted to touch any of that junk.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a new book from The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue series in an attempt to give this concept a second chance. I don't know about your kids, but I can't get Emma to eat anything green unless it's candy.

So I was absolutely delighted to see Emma eat not 1, not 2, but gobble up 3 of these chocolate pancakes. What's sneaky about them? They have spinach, blueberries, and whole wheat! Even me and Emmanuel ate them, and they tasted good. I've been cooking recipes from this book ever since, with 100% success rate. If your kid won't eat veggies, has allergies, or if you need some healthy on-the-go breakfast recipes, this is the book for you! Check out her website (click on chocolate pancakes) for some free recipes, including a healthy cake recipe!

Garden Update

Friday, April 24, 2009

With the rain and sun combo we've been having, a lot of growth has been happening in the garden. My cilantro has sprouted a second stalk straight up about 1 foot. My tomatoes continue to grow and look healthy as ever. My peppers are a little troubled because of the low lows we've had this month, but I have high hopes for them. And herbs are so easy! All of my herbs are healthy and producing well. I love them because I bought them as transplants and they were ready to harvest then. So whenever I need rosemary, thyme, parsley, cilantro, or basil, I just go out and snip away! And I waste so much less than I would buying it in the store. At least that makes me feel better. But I am worried about my beans and peppers...

The garden about a week ago when it was rainy.

A beautiful young cuc.
(Great pic, Sam!)

What the garden looks like now.

Ben is 6 Months Old!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Ben is 6 months already. I feel torn between my selfish side and my mommy side because I want him to grow up and sleep through the night and walk and play with his sister and run around in the backyard, but I want to keep him little and snuggly and sweet forever and ever!

Ben's personality can be summed up in one word. Jolly. He's always happy and only complains, not cries, when he's hungry and tired. He's rocking up on all fours and scooting backward. He's working on sitting up by himself. He can roll both ways. He really likes drooling and chewing whatever he can get his hands onto. No teeth yet, but we just started him on solids, so I bet they'll come in a month or so. He's pretty consistently getting up once a night to eat, and he usually goes right back to bed. It took a few months of training, but I can lie him down in his crib and give him his pacifier and he'll just fall asleep on his own.

Ben has been such a blessing in our lives. We are grateful for his ever-smiling self and his sweet, loving spirit. Here's to another 6 months of milestones and fun!

My New Garden

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Early in March I got serious about wanting to start a vegetable and herb garden. I was in the research phase when some of our buddies came over for dinner. Before I knew it, we were digging up the backyard, buying equipment, and setting appointments to get the 2 yards of dirt we needed. It was hard to get started - it was a lot of hard manual labor and it took time we didn't think we had. I've said a million times that I wish I had a TX gardeners for dummies book. I really have no idea if this is going to work. But I had to give it all I had and set it up the best I knew how from my reading. So this is the picture-story of the setting up of our new garden: