The 5 Facts Instagram Fad

Madeleine, while becoming a much better sleeper, likes to be awake for random, long pockets of time...especially at night. I figure since I'm up, might as well write a blog post.

Apparently, there is a fad on Instagram and Bonnie from Life of Bon has challenged her readers to do it. She challenged us also to write our love stories too. (I'm working on that one) Maybe if she keeps up this challenge thing, I'll start updating a lot more frequently.

Anyway, I don't have Instagram or even a smart phone (my phone barely calls), BUT I do have a photo of me, and I have 5 random facts too. And since it's a family blog, you get 5 things about each of us. 3 times the fun.

Michele

1. I hate coconut. This wasn't always so, I used to love it. But then my sister turned 1. My mom picked out a cute coconut bunny cake. At 3 years old I wasn't impressed, and since then I hated anything to do with coconut.

2. My first steps were taken at Neiman Marcus. (I picture me walking towards a cute pair of Oscar de la Renta shoes. I think those shoes would motivate any kid to walk.)

3. I have had the same email since I was 8. Since I moved so many times, I've kept the same email, just in case one of my friends from way back when wants to contact me.

4. I have actually done over 100 of my pins on pinterest.

5. I weighed more at my wedding than I did when I walked in the hospital to give birth to offspring.

Matt (dictated to Michele)

1. He has a scar that looks like Wolverine stabbed him in his leg.

2. He can do a heelflip on the skateboard.

3. He failed 7th grade biology.

4. He loves watching The Nanny with the baby.

5. He hates eating chips straight from a bag.

Baby

1. She hates being dirty.

2. She sounds like a train engine when she eats.

3. She has gone to 4 different malls in the 5 weeks that she has been alive.

4. She doesn't wake up when we bump around her car seat.

5. When I put the guitar in front of her, she sat there plucking the strings. She was shocked some noise came out of it.

PJs and a video

A few moments of our week...

In my sewing class I'm taking at BYU (I decided just to take a class for fun this semester to help me get out of the house), we made pj bottoms this week. I made baby matching bottoms. Oh yes just helping her be my little clone. 

When baby is awake, I have no idea what to do with her. She can only do so much tummy time. Then, I remember one of my friends gave her baby girl a manicure when she was 2 weeks old. I looked at her little nails and realized that even if I was sure it was okay that baby probably would end up chewing off the nail polish, there was no way I could paint those little things. That is a picture of her pinky finger next to mine. Her's is about the size of the tip of a ball point pen. I kid you not. It's tiny. 

Also baby learned a few new tricks this week. 

One is sleeping!!! We love it. She sleeps pretty awesome now at night (well most of the time). We stick her down and she'll sleep for 5 hours, eat and then sleep for another 3. We are still tired, but not from her but from our own bad sleeping habits.

And here is a video of her other tricks...smiling and making noises. She's usually like this in the morning. She was going on and on for like 10 minutes today...which was good, because it took me about that long to figure out the camera. 

(There is sound...you just might have to turn the volume up pretty loud)

And last but not least, we helped my mom put together stuff for my sister at the MTC, which you can read at her blog...here.

Thai Curry Noodles

Look at those little eyes. So cute, so innocent, so alert...especially since they are supposed to be asleep. 

I thought since I was still up, I would share a quick recipe we tried for dinner tonight. 

This is the first recipe we have tried in a long time. I think the last one was fried chicken while I was 5ish months pregnant, since I was craving it, and we didn't feel like going to the store. My goal this week is to eat 3 meals a day. It will be quite the stretch. More often than not, Matt will come home starving, only to find me equally hungry...so we run to In-n-Out for burgers and fries. So the fact that I ate 3 meals today and tried a new recipe, I feel like an overachiever  (okay, I found it and had Matt cook it, but that still counts right?)

Matt and I love Thai food. Two times ago, when we went to my favorite little Thai restaurant Matt's dad ordered some Thai noodles. They were so yummy, and I decided I wanted to make some at home. This recipe isn't the more traditional recipe I'm guessing, but it was so good and only took 30 minutes to make. (And for bonus points, it used up all the broccoli in the fridge) 

Thai Curry Noodles

• 2 tsp. vegetable oil

• 1 chicken breast

• 1 c of green onions, chopped

• 1/2 of a white onion

• 1 bunch of chopped cilantro
• Dash or 1 tsp of ginger (we chop ours)

• 2 Tbs. yellow Thai curry paste

• 1 tsp. curry powder

• 1 tsp. ground turmeric

• 1 15-oz. can of coconut milk

• 5 oz of rice noodles

• ¾ cup chicken broth

• 2 tsp. light brown sugar

• 5 cups broccoli florets

• 2 limes

(Note: The next time I made this, I added mushrooms, bean sprouts, mushrooms, and baby corn. More veggies. :) )

Cut up chicken and add to oil in medium pot over medium-high heat. 

Then sauté onion, green onion, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and baby corn in oil 2 minutes. Add cilantro, curry paste, curry powder, ginger, and turmeric, cook a minute or two. 

Next stir in coconut milk, broth, and brown sugar, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium, and cook 5 minutes. Simmer 10 minutes. (If you don't do this long enough, like I didn't, the water doesn't cook off enough and you'll need to add another tb of curry.)

Cook rice noodles in large pot of boiling water. Add broccoli to pot for last 2 minutes of cooking time. Drain, and add to curry mixture sauce stuff. Mix well and serve with lime.

Food in tupperware on the floor = one classy food photo :)

PS Here is the other recipe for Thai Green Curry soup that I made for Riley's and Mollie's farewell.

Fashionistas

This week Baby and I decided to channel our inner Fran Fine.

"If it's not half off, it's not on sale."

Matt treated me to a weekend of shopping. I needed some new clothes after the baby was born and he was sweet enough to notice. I didn't notice how direly I needed them until after my first shopping trip on Saturday night. I walked in the door, and  Matt said, "Aren't those my pants?" 

"Huh, I guess they are." The sad thing is I thought those jeans fit better than normal. (They were actually staying on my hips.)

Shirt: Banana Republic
Jeans: Chicos

I spent Saturday night and all day Monday going through racks of clothes (after all I had 9 months worth of shopping to catch up). I was surprised every time that these normal non-maternity clothes were fitting! Banana Republic and Ann Taylor were having amazing sales. I was so excited. Those stores actually have clothes that can kind of make me look like a grown-up. (Every time I take Baby somewhere, people give me that look of "Aaaw, its' okay. You're being such a good big sister.)

My hair has even been feeling pretty grown up. I constantly seem to have this new kind of hair gel called Spit-up of the Baby. It really keeps that hair glued in place, and it seems to replace itself the second I wash it out. It's pretty amazing.

Madeleine on the other hand decided to wear vintage 80's baby clothes this week.

This lovely piece is from Matt's mother. 

And this one was from my mom. It was the dress I wore home
from the hospital. 

We look pretty fancy, eh? Maybe one day Madeleine will grown up to be fashion blogger, inspired by this blog of course. :P

4 weeks

We had too much fun with tummy time today.

She's such a cutie. We have too much fun together.

Milestones:

Hit 9 lbs

Can hold her bottle

Swat out her binky

Meeting Baby Dinosaur

This week Madeleine met Baby Dinosaur.

It was not planned.

Matt was at school, and I was starving. (I don't think I'm coordinated enough to have a wiggly baby in one hand and a knife in the other.) So I stuck Madeleine in the crib, and out of desperation that she would stay happy while I made a sandwich, I stuck Baby Dinosaur right by her and ran out of the room. I figured I had about 2 minutes tops to make my lunch.

Surprisingly, it was quiet the whole time I was in the kitchen. (I was even able to cut up a tomato and avocado!!) I was pretty shocked. When I walked back in, I saw that Madeleine was happily growling and swatting at Baby Dino. It was so funny. She sat there growling at him the whole time I ate lunch, watching her from my bed. She even stayed entertained long enough for me to take a few pictures. 

Oh and here are some other pictures from this week. :)

I would update what Matt and I do all day, but we are basically just Madeleine's slaves. We both get to leave to go to class, but other than that we are at her beck and call. We really love it though, and she pays us well with cuddling and weird baby faces. :)

Another week

She is still looking pretty cute at 2 weeks.

This week...

She realized that eating is good. 

She likes cuddling with Matt while he reads chemistry textbooks out loud to her. 

She has learned crying gets our attention.

She likes to drastically change her sleep schedule. 3 hours here, 8 hours there. 

(We aren't complaining though.) 

She loves music and driving in the car.

She  probably thinks her mom is crazy, because of all the pictures I take of her.

Matt and I are doing great. We have both taken her out on our own and she's still alive. Matt checks in with me through out the day to make sure I haven't killed her. I'm way more relaxed now that she's born. Being pregnant was more stressful, since most of the pregnancy I couldn't poke her to make sure she was doing okay. Matt, on the other hand, worries about her all the time. It's really cute. I love how much he loves her. On another note, I'm fully recovered. I went running on Monday for the first time. I love my post pregnancy body. I feel awesome. :)

Today, my brother, Riley left on his mission to LA. It's pretty crazy that I only have one brother at home, and he might be leaving in April-ish! Anna is also probably leaving on a mission around then. That is pretty crazy that we'll have 4 missionaries out from our families! We are really excited for them even though we are going to miss them a lot. 

1 week

We survived the first 10 days! And we are still completely in love with her. 

A few big milestones this week:

• First shopping trip (Target)
• Gained all her weight back that she lost (Babies usually lose up to 8% of their body weight the first week)
• Learned to sleep in her crib
• Can flip herself like a fish (not flipping over, more like an inch worm. It's cute)
• Grew 2 whole inches!

As far as parenting goes, Matt and I are loving it. She's a really sweet baby and we have had so much fun as our own little family. Our apartment is so cold, so we all bundle up in our bedroom with our space heater. Matt has started calling it the inner sanctum. She loves sleeping on Matt's chest, so we have watched a lot of The Nanny while cuddling. Matt and I can't get over how cute she is. We both take turns saying "Hey, look at her, she is so adorable!" or "Can you believe we get to keep her?" This picture was one of those moments. Matt had been holding her after she ate, and I looked over and started giggling. Matt couldn't figure out what was so funny, so I grabbed the camera and took a picture so he could see. It's one of my favorites. 

We are both kind of sad that on Monday real life starts again. Matt starts school, and I signed up for a 3 credit sewing class that is twice a week. We really love being together. Matt has been so busy since we got married, and this break was really the only time since our honeymoon that we just got to hangout together without a long to-do list hanging over our heads.