All is Well

I wanted to give everyone a update on the lives of the weary travellers.
After our wonderful time in Louisville for Emily's beautiful ordination we flew to Phoenix to visit my sister.
Esme must have picked up a bug on the plane because she spent all day Saturday throwing up. She felt a little better on Sunday but started throwing everything up again on Sunday night.
By Monday morning I was worried enough to take her to Urgent Care where they kept her for four hours as she threw up every bit of liquid I could force down her throat. The fun part here is that my sister came to urgent care with us as well since this bug is highly contagious and Esme had gotten 5 out of the 7 adults in the house sick as well.
Since she couldn't produce any urine for Urgent Care to check her dehydration levels I had to take her to the Emergency Room.
Luckily they sent us to a really great hospital on the West Side of the valley where they have a Children's ER called Mendy's Place. The staff were great, the got an IV in Esme's arm which trust me was no small feat (one of our nurses was this small stout Latin American woman who kept saying "strong like bull"). Esme was a serious fighter and the other nurse thought it was hilarious that she could tell Esme was offended by her putting this thing into her arm.
We were only in the ER about three hours while they gave her anti-nausea medicine and fluids. They said she was only mildly dehydrated and that it was good I had caught it early.
The craziest thing is that as the day went on you could see these extremely dry patches of skin develop all over her body... by this morning they're all gone and she's on her way back to her happy self.
Everyone in the house is feeling well again thanks to their own anti-nausea and anti-diarrhea medicine and the best news of all is that little seventh month old Cameron was one of the two people untouched by this plague!

More pictures and much more fun new from our travels soon to come...I just wanted to get everyone an update.

One little poang...so much love

We'd like you to meet most of Esme's entourage...
from the left: gogo, dolly, baby and (the most recent addition) roxy
apparently everyone is a fan of Word World!

If you can make it there...

We had a great visit this last weekend to where else but New York, New York!!
Esme and I were lucky enough to stay in our friend's (the Vroon's) apartment where Esme took full advantage of her friend Isaac's baby gear by not only playing with all of his toys (hope we got all the banana out of the toy box Julie :)) but she also took a nap in his crib...let me try that once more just in case anyone didn't catch it the first time...Esme took a N-A-P in a C-R-I-B...I know I could hardly believe it myself (the ups and downs of our sleeping life are a whole other post but I just had to share that very exciting tid-bit!)
Anyway... we started our exciting trip with a new haircut for mom documented below...
Of course our first order of business once in Manhattan was a stroll through Chelsea Market where Esme found the perfect hat to complete her Manhattan look...

Friday night we had a great dinner with Uncle Steve, Auntie Anna, Uncle Nathan, Auntie Veronica and Grandma Bette...I think we all must have been as tired as I felt because there are apparently no pictures to document our lovely meal from my favorite NY takeout spot Spice.
Saturday morning Esme and I walked up to the corner and shared a croissant and OJ from LaBergamot for breakfast before meeting up with Auntie Anna for some shoe shopping and heading off to Central Park where we met up with not only the rest of the fam but the pugs as well.
Esme was in seventh heaven running around the park with Grandma Bette and enjoying her first ice cream bar of the season (well maybe her first ice cream bar ever...)

The running did include frequent trips back to the group to check on the pugs...
We capped off a great day with a meal at our favorite restaurant Cafeteria, Esme has been frequenting this NYC hotspot since before she was born and when she was a baby their loud music made it one of her favorite places to sleep. It must remain one of her favorites as she spent the duration of the meal spinning around the corner of our corner booth like a little top and stacking the three ramekins our friend Anne-Lane's dinner came in as if they were mac and cheese blocks that she was playing with.
Esme and our friend Anne-Lane at dinner...
After an exhausting dinner topped off with blackberry cardamom margaritas (I don't need any of you to remind me I gave up alcohol for lent...this was an occasion, personally I think blackberry cardamom margaritas are an occasion all of their own) We decided to stay one more night in Manhattan and made the great journey back home on Sunday missing father daddy's sunday morning sermon...oh well, there will be many more where that came from :)

As I was parking the car after our return Andrew decided he should style Esme's hair for our Sunday night potluck...I swear I can't leave those two alone for a minute...


I have to throw in one last picture from today of Esme lounging in her new Poang chair...where does she learn this stuff?

granola

So there is not a ton in the food area I've done lately that I'm really proud of but yesterday I (well Esme and I really) made THE BEST granola!
I made granola for Christmas, to give as gifts, and it was pretty good...at least I heard that people ate it. I made another batch after that and it was edible. I was proud just because I made it, and I forced myself to eat it (also because I made it) but I'll be the first to admit it was not great.
Yesterday's granola however, totally different story!
I'm even going to post the recipe...
I took:
3 cups of oats
1/2 cup of slivered almonds
1/2 cup of raw pecan pieces
1/2 cup of roasted cashew pieces
(all from Trader Joes)
I think I also added almost 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
obviously you could substitute whatever nuts you like best, these are just what I happened to have.
add 1/3 cup vegetable oil
then use the same measuring cup unrinsed to
add 3/4 cup honey
stir these ingredients together and cook at 300 for 30 minutes stirring or turning or something resembling that every 10 minutes
I used a baking pan that has a little higher lip than most cookie sheets to keep my stirring a little cleaner.
After I pulled them out I put them back in the original bowl and added as many craisins as I thought I wanted.
Then I gave it a stir and left it to cool, I came back to stir it about 3 times over the course of a couple hours...oh and to steal bites but I pretty much left it so that it would clumpy as it cooled.

I'm definitely a fan...now we just need to make more yogurt so I can eat it all up!

Esme was a very good helper, especially where the fallen sunflower seeds were concerned

The finished product

a brief update

It's been too long.
I realize when I get too busy I forget to have something to say.
And we've been busy, just with normal life.
Trying to get into a nap and bedtime schedule.
This week there were two church events during the week for Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, which, while wonderful sort of threw a wrench in our works.
Esme is adding words like crazy, her favorite right now is "No" and she has recently learned the trick of throwing herself to the ground on her bottom when she doesn't want to do what I'm requesting...I thought we were still a long way from two but apparently not so far.
Part of our new bedtime routine is teethbrushing and I think she must ask 5-7 times a day for "tee" she loves brushing her teeth (boy did she not get that from her mama :))
Esme just got her own little poang from ikea (it is soo cute) and she loves sitting in her chair with her baby watching Word World (I love it too!)
Here are some pictures of nothing particularly important...just life.

Esme and her "hat hat hat" (always said in a whisper)

Esme and Baby

Andrew and I dressed up for a formal Valentines Day event

A sneak peek at Isla's present (which I will someday mail)

An exhausted mama cuddling her first two babies