I've had a couple of blog posts on my mind. The problem is that both require me to get into a certain mindset. They'll probably take me hours to write. I used to easily do that, but I don't have the time or the initiative most days to do it now. Trust me, I'm not complaining. I do find, however, that those posts seem to be keeping me from posting at all. They're lurking on the edge of my brain. I think to post, realize I don't have the time to do those in particular, so I don't at all.

I obviously need to find the time and get those words out of my head.

Things are great here. Sera is just a joy. Every day she adds words and now sentences to her vocabulary. She is so independent and so smart. And she's getting so big. She has completely lost the baby look. She's a little girl now.

A little girl who likes to get her way. We had our first "tantrum" the other day. I wouldn't let her have some Gerber Fruit Snacks. They're like crack to her. I grabbed a banana and told her she could have it. I left the kitchen and went to the living room. She stayed in the kitchen a few more minutes. I called her to join me, and she came to the doorway between the hall and the living room. She stood there crying. When I told her to come to me, she flung herself to the ground crying. I told her to come to me again, and again she ignored me. I went to her and picked her up. She kicked and pushed me away and wanted nothing to do with me. I told her she needed to come to mommy when I called her. I then carried her to the sofa and placed her in the middle. She sat there sobbing while I sat next to her. After a few minutes, she grabbed my hand, pulled my arm around her, and scooted over to snuggle in while still doing that post-sob breathing. After another minute, I peeled the top of the banana down and held it to her. She started eating and we sat together. I think we had our first time-in.

Her favorite game is still pretend. She still loves her dolls. She plays with them for hours. She puts them to sleep, changes their diapers, cuddles them, feeds them, etc... She has a new doll that has become her favorite one.

Yep, it's her daddy. Her new favorite game is called daddy nye-nye. She makes him lie down on the floor with the top part of his body on her sofa bed. She grabs pillows off the sofa for him to put under his head, and she covers him with one of her key-keys (blanket for the rest of us). She'll sit there rubbing his back and shushing him to sleep. He likes this game a lot. He gets to lie there and pretend to sleep. As you can see, she also likes to lie there with him.

Today, she told him to "upwego", which is her way of saying sit up. She then placed her bib around his neck and started feeding him pretend food. It'll be interesting when she decides she needs to change his diaper.

She's also very excited about being able to climb into the rocking chair. She loves to rock and can now rock herself endlessly.

Shadow is her biggest love and her darkest nemesis. He knocks her down, beats her head with his tail, and steals her food, and she loves him dearly. Just as long as he doesn't lie on her key-keys or climb on the sofa or lie next to mommy or lie next to daddy.

We were home again today because of the wackiest winter weather. Yesterday, it was 51 degrees and we had thunderstorms. I went out for mom's night out to meet some fellow moms. I made a quick stop at the grocery on the way to pick up some Raisin Bran on sale. I had to run inside the store as it was pouring rain and the parking lot was flooding. It was still in the high 40s. Two and a half hours later, I left the restaurant to find temps in the low 30s and snow. This morning it was 0 with a windchill of -20 to -30. The news said that the temperature dropped 51 degrees overnight and the windchill dropped 74 degrees. That's a huge change. And the good news keeps coming. We're expecting 4-8 inches of snow tomorrow night. Woo Hoo! Is it spring yet?

What a Ride

Sorry for disappearing this week. It's been a bumpy one. Sera's had a cold since last Friday and had not slept through most nights since, until last night. On Wednesday night/Thursday morning, she woke up at 2:30 and NEVER went back to sleep.

Well, that's not true. Our alarm went off at 5:00, so Jim and I got up to get dressed. He was in the bathroom showering while I was sitting at my dressing table in our bedroom. Sera was on the bed playing with the video monitor. After a few minutes, I realized that the white noise hadn't changed in volume and she hadn't made a sound. I turned around to see her sitting up against my pillows, the monitor held on her lap between both hands, and her head tilted back, mouth agape, and sound asleep. I just shook my head at the irony. We lay in bed in the dark for 2 1/2 hours and she stayed awake. I had the lights on, and the TV playing the morning news, and she falls asleep. I took the monitor; she slid down the pillows and rolled over. I let her sleep until 6. She woke as I was changing her diaper.

Yesterday was also a long day at work. We had meetings after school. Sera is usually very good while I'm meeting with my department. Yesterday, she was into everything and calling mama nonstop. She was so overtired. We had two quick errands to run, so we decided to stop and eat dinner. We didn't want to waste anytime cooking when we were going home so late. We stopped at our new favorite Chinese restaurant, and tried all new dishes. Each one was absolutely fantastic. Sera ate almost an entire bowl of egg drop soup, plus a ton of shrimp and steamed rice. We actually didn't want her to go to bed early because we really wanted her to sleep through the night.

She went to bed on time and slept the whole night through. That means that Jim and I also got to sleep the whole night through. We were all so happy that we were giddy in the car this morning on the way to work. That's especially impressive when I tell you that it was -5 degrees this morning with a windchill of -21.

I meant to get a recipe together last night for Favorite Ingredients Friday, but the lack of sleep fried my brain. Today's theme is Superbowl Sunday. Go check out Overwhelmed with Joy to see what everyone else came up with today!

And The Winner By TKO Is...

Miss Sera!

Scene: Sunday morning lying in bed. The television is playing, either Sesame Street or Doodlebops. Daddy is snoring away. Mommy is trying to catnap, and Sera is watching TV.

Mommy closes her eye. Something excites Sera so she stands up and falls backward, intentionally. The back of her head meets mommy's right cheek bone.

Result: All day yesterday it hurt to move my face. Today, I'm sporting a nice bump and lovely blue shading across my cheek bone.

We had a surprisingly nice weekend. I say surprising because Sera was a bit under the weather. I think she saves these days for the weekends. She ran a fever Friday night and we ended up spending the entire night in the recliner in her room. Saturday night, she did better. She slept until 4 am. I sat with her in the recliner for an hour before heading back to our bed. Hence the above story. This morning, she woke at 4:45 am. I brought her right into our bed, and for the first time ever, she went back to sleep. All three of us slept like a log until....are you ready for this?.... 8:00 AM. Hallelujah!

Sera adds new words daily as she now imitates anything she hears. Here's some of what she said this weekend.

I see you became I see daddy or I see mommy.

At dinner on Saturday, she was saying everyone's names as we went out with the Fisher Clan.

Applesauce

Yeah became yesh (that actually happened a week ago)

I said no! This is said with attitude. It cracked me up because neither Jim nor I have ever said this. I think she must have heard it at daycare. One of the women who runs her room has her son in the class, too. I'm betting she said it to him.

And tonight's winner. After she gave me a goodnight hug and kiss, she reached for daddy. I passed her to him and she told him, "I kiss mommy." She then leaned towards me said it again and pursed her lips for another kiss.

How I love this little girl.

Favorite Ingredients Friday!

Some weeks these Fridays just sneak up on me. I forgot to go through my recipes at home, so I went online to find something. I've enjoyed any recipe I've tried from Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals show. Some more than others, but none were awful. Since we're expecting to have a high of 6 tomorrow, I thought a nice warm soup sounded good.

I've had versions of this soup, mainly a green pepper version, and always loved it. The reviews were excellent. One person substituted ground turkey and brown rice to make a healthier version that she said was excellent. You can read all the reviews here.

Stuffed Cabbage Stoup

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 cup raw white rice
1 quart plus 2 cups chicken stock, divided
1 1/2 pounds ground meatloaf mix (a combination of beef, pork and veal)
1/2 teaspoon allspice, eyeball it in your palm
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander, half a palm full
2 teaspoons smoked paprika, eyeball it in your palm
Salt and pepper
1 bay leaf
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, thinly sliced with a vegetable peeler into strips then finely chopped
1/2-3/4 head Savoy cabbage, thinly sliced
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 cup tomato sauce
Handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
3 tablespoons dill, finely chopped

Heat a sauce pot over medium-high heat with 2 turns of the pan of extra-virgin olive oil, about 2 tablespoons. Add the rice and toss to coat in oil. Add 2 cups of chicken stock, bring up to a simmer, cover and cook for 16 to 18 minutes or until the rice is tender.

Heat a deep pot over medium high heat. Add the remaining extra-virgin olive oil, once hot add meat and begin to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Season the meat with allspice, coriander, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Add bay leaf, onions, garlic and carrots. Cook veggies 2 to 3 minutes to begin to soften them, then add cabbage and wilt it down a bit. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, and remaining stock and cover the pot. Raise the heat to high and bring the soup to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Once the rice is cooked, add to the soup and continue to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in parsley and dill, adjust salt and pepper to your taste, and serve.

Go visit Overwhelmed with Joy for more fantastic recipes!

Past FIF recipes:
Raspberry Pie & White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pie
Breakfast Granola
Shrimp Creole
Lazy Man's Lasagna & Apple Cake
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Jim's Favorite Jelly Cookie
Eye of Round Roast
Mozzarella & Tomato Sandwich
Marcia's Taco Soup
Chicken Parmesan Casserole
Cajun Baked Catfish
Jim's Snickers Pancake
Crawfish Monica
Grilled Meats and Vegetables over Saffron Orzo
Crockpot Red Beans
Better Than Almost Anything Cake
Fruity Sangria
Outrageous Brownies
Enchiladas de Pollo
Lescó
Catalina Chicken
Croissant French Toast
Corned Beef
Sloppy Joe, Mac 'n Cheese Casserole
Shredded Chicken
Baked Bean & Burger Casserole
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
Crab Rangoon
Sausage con Queso and Ro-tel Cheese Dip
Blueberry Multigrain Coffeecake
Banana Bread
Bananas Foster
Old-Time Beef Stew
White Chocolate Snack Mix
Gorilla Bread
Ginger Shrimp
Roast Chicken
Tex-Mex Chicken Taco Soup
Shrimp Mold
Pasta Puttanesca
Pork Milanese
Pumpkin Dip
Oven-fried Chicken
Best Bundt Cake Ever
Hot Dog Casserole
Chicken & Rice
Peanut Butter Fudge
Omelets in a Bag
Shrimp Boil
Apple Cheese
Pulled Pork BBQ

Rock On, Dude - Updated

In late November/early December, Sera started something new. I didn't note this as one of her firsts because I thought it was awful. The first time I saw it, I ran into her room and picked her up. This, of course, woke her up. It was hours before I got her back to sleep. I did a lot of online research and spoke to some people. I learned it was fairly common.

Sera is a head banger. Now, I gave this post a silly title and found a silly graphic because I'm finally convinced that what she's doing is somewhat normal and not some awful attachment disorder sign. I still hate it.

Sera bangs the side of her face into her mattress in a steady rhythmic beat. It usually lasts about 30-60 seconds at a time, but it's the longest 60 seconds I've ever experienced. She still goes to bed easily and happily, and she wakes up happy, but in between...

It seems to be her way of soothing herself back to sleep. She'll sometimes slam her legs into the mattress instead, but it's usually her face. If I'm holding her when she's sleepy, she says, "rock me, mama." She definitely likes to feel rhythmic movement when she's falling asleep.

The head banging is scary because it's so hard. She lifts her entire head up and slams down. The miracle is that she isn't all bruised and bloody.

It stopped for weeks. We saw it initially and then it stopped. We shared a room on our trip for a week and it never happened. It started again about two weeks ago. I became concerned because it was happening every night. On Monday night, I kept track. She was banging her head about every two hours. Every time she did, the noise would wake me. We were both suffering from interrupted sleep.

Tuesday morning, I called our pediatrician and took her in. I wanted to rule out ear infections, sinus issues, anything that could be causing her discomfort. We did. The doctor suggested we try giving her some Tylenol or Motrin just before bed. She said if there were some discomfort happening, this would help alleviate it. She also gave me a prescription for an antihistamine to try next as it is often used on toddlers who do this.

Last night, she only banged her head once, and this morning she woke up much happier and more rested.

Why am I feeling relieved? Because she's not doing this while she's awake. She's not doing this out of anger. She's not doing this for attention. It does not appear to be attachment related. It may be a learned self soothing behavior, but it appears to fall into the normal toddler behavior spectrum.

We'll keep to our routine and hope this ends soon.

UPDATE: We made it all the way to 4:30 AM with a banging incident on Thursday night.

Over The Shoulder Boulder Holder*

Somehow over the years I decided, quite unintentionally, that my personal needs weren't the priority, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Once upon a time I got my hair cut every six weeks and highlighted every 12. At the same visit, I'd get a manicure, but I did my own nails every Sunday night. It was how I prepared for my work week. Twice a year, I'd replace the majority of my wardrobe. I'd go on a big shopping spree every Fall and every Spring. I never even gave any of this a thought.

I think it started when we were caring for our niece. We had just gotten married and bought a new house. I was also transitioning from a career in hospitality to becoming a teacher. Tuition ate up a lot of my budget. I started tightening those purse strings when it came to the frivolous extras.

Even after it was just the two of us again, I had become stuck in my thought process. If we had extra money, I could always think of something that was more important to spend it on. During our adoption wait, extra money went towards the adoption or buying ahead the things we'd need or taking mini vacations while we still could.

Since Sera came home, extra money goes to her. She is always far better dressed and groomed than I am.

I haven't had my hair cut since March, and that's the last time I had to color done, too. Luckily, I'm not really gray yet. Either that or my eyes have failed me enough that I can't see all the gray. It's probably the latter. I bought two sweaters and one pair of pants for the new school year.

What made me think about this? The giddiness I felt when I put on my brand spankin' new pretty rose bra this morning. Last week I went crazy and ordered FIVE new bras. I bought the standard beige and black, but I also got one in rose and one in blue. Yep, I live dangerously.

The old bras are and all their holey-ness are heading to the nearest landfill. They deserve to be retired. After all, they put in about six years of hard work.

I can't blame this on being a mom as I've only been one for nine months. I can't blame my husband because he's the first to tell me to treat myself. Why do I consider my personal needs such a low priority?

*Can you name the movie where this song is performed?

Laundry Assistant

I was going through some of my photos over the weekend and found these. I took them after we got home from our Christmas trip. I still had piles of dirty clothes all over my bedroom floor. Sera started "sorting" the clothes for me. She would pull out a pair of pants or a shirt and correctly identified each one as mama's or daddy's. Then she discovered the laundry basket. She soon realized that playing in it was a whole lot more fun.

Greener Grass

I've mentioned before how Sera doesn't like to wear shoes or socks, or slippers for that matter, at home. Apparently the rules change when they're "mama's shoes."



I have to include the outtakes. This was the first time Sera actually acted like she was posing for the camera. She's usually indifferent or worse. If she sees you trying to take a picture, she'll stop laughing or playing or doing whatever she's doing and turn her back. The majority of the pictures I get of her are when she doesn't realize it. Today, she kept trying to put her face in front of the camera before I even had it ready to go. I couldn't resist snapping the pictures to see what I'd get.

Too Fast!

September 8, 2007

January 9, 2008

Grab Those Tissues

I saw this video on Harlow's Monkey blog. It's incredibly touching, and it made me very sad. Sera will probably never have this reunion. I wonder who mourns for her?

Favorite Ingredients Friday - Pie Edition

Much to Jim's chagrin, I don't make pies very often. I usually don't think about them, plus I've had some major pie disasters. Here are two recipes, however, that were awesome. The first comes from a local restaurant. It's Jim's favorite pie there. The second is a Paula Deen recipe. I made it a few years ago for Thanksgiving, and it was a big hit.

Das Dutchman Essenhaus Raspberry Cream Pie

2 baked 9-inch pie crusts

Raspberry Pudding
1 cup water
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1 small box raspberry gelatin
3 cups fresh raspberries
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

Heat the water and sugar. Mix the cornstarch, salt, water and lemon. Add to water, sugar mixture. Boil until mixture is clear. Add gelatin and stir to dissolve. Add raspberries and cool.

Vanilla Filling
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
3 cups milk, scalded
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Place 3 cups milk in kettle. Heat to scalding.

Mix cornstarch, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, egg yolks and 1 cup of the milk. Slowly blend into hot milk, stirring constantly until thick. Cool.

Pour 2 cups Vanilla Filling into each pie shell. Place 2 cups Raspberry Pudding on top of Vanilla Filling. Top with whipped cream.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pie

Ganache:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream

Filling:
6 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream, plus 3/4 cup, whipped soft
6 1/2 (1-ounce) squares premium white baking chocolate, melted
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
2/3 cup roasted, chopped macadamia nuts
1 pre-baked deep-dish (9-inch) pie shell

Garnish:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 to 2 ounces chopped macadamia nuts

Ganache:
Place chocolate chips in a metal mixing bowl. Bring cream to a simmer over medium heat. Pour simmering cream over chips and stir until melted. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.

Filling:
Beat cream cheese and sugar with a handheld electric mixer until smooth. Scrape bowl with a spatula and mix in 1/3 cup heavy cream. Add the melted white chocolate, zest, and nuts and stir just until incorporated. Fold in the whipped cream. Spread into pre-baked pie shell and level off using a rubber spatula. Put in freezer until frozen.

To finish pie, place the ganache in the microwave on low for no more than 10 seconds at a time. Stir after each warming, until ganache pours loosely but is not even close to boiling. Be very careful when warming chocolate, as it will burn very quickly when heated in the microwave. Once chocolate is scorched it is unusable. Spread warm ganache over top of frozen pie, smoothing to the edges with a spatula.

Garnish:
Beat cream and confectioners' sugar with a handheld electric mixer to stiff peaks. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe edges of pie with whipped cream. Sprinkle macadamia nuts over top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

If you read the reviews for this pie, you might be afraid to make it. Ignore the complaints about the sugar. When they first posted this recipe, they accidentally changed the amount of sugar from 1/3 cup to 2 1/2 cups. That's what people are complaining about when they say it was grainy or had too much sugar. It's such a good pie.

Go visit Overwhelmed with Joy for more fantastic recipes!

Past FIF recipes:
Breakfast Granola
Shrimp Creole
Lazy Man's Lasagna & Apple Cake
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Jim's Favorite Jelly Cookie
Eye of Round Roast
Mozzarella & Tomato Sandwich
Marcia's Taco Soup
Chicken Parmesan Casserole
Cajun Baked Catfish
Jim's Snickers Pancake
Crawfish Monica
Grilled Meats and Vegetables over Saffron Orzo
Crockpot Red Beans
Better Than Almost Anything Cake
Fruity Sangria
Outrageous Brownies
Enchiladas de Pollo
Lescó
Catalina Chicken
Croissant French Toast
Corned Beef
Sloppy Joe, Mac 'n Cheese Casserole
Shredded Chicken
Baked Bean & Burger Casserole
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
Crab Rangoon
Sausage con Queso and Ro-tel Cheese Dip
Blueberry Multigrain Coffeecake
Banana Bread
Bananas Foster
Old-Time Beef Stew
White Chocolate Snack Mix
Gorilla Bread
Ginger Shrimp
Roast Chicken
Tex-Mex Chicken Taco Soup
Shrimp Mold
Pasta Puttanesca
Pork Milanese
Pumpkin Dip
Oven-fried Chicken
Best Bundt Cake Ever
Hot Dog Casserole
Chicken & Rice
Peanut Butter Fudge
Omelets in a Bag
Shrimp Boil
Apple Cheese
Pulled Pork BBQ

Ho Ho Ho

My husband has brainwashed my child. Part of their nightly routine includes watching an episode of Teen Titans on dvd. They can sing the theme song. Jim sings the verses and Sera joins in with Teen Titans in the appropriate places. It might sound something like EEE III, but we know what it means. She's got the "let's go" part down pat.

Tonight, Jim had parent conferences so I put Sera to bed. We went up to her room earlier than usual, so I thought we would watch The Little Mermaid. As I put her pajamas on, she started asking for EEE III, but I told her we were going to watch something different.

We started the movie and she was enjoying the doggie and the pish. King Neptune then made his appearance and Sera started saying, "ho, ho, ho." I told her that it wasn't Santa but the Little Mermaid's father, King Neptune, and he just looked like Santa. In the next scene, he jumped in his carriage and held the reins. This time when she said ho, ho, ho, I threw my hands up in the air.

After about 15 minutes, she looked at me and said EEE III again. She was sitting on my lap and we were rocking. I told her that we'd have to change the dvd to watch Teen Titans. She jumped off my lap, went to her TV, opened the door, pushed the open button for the dvd tray, and was holding the dvd out to me before I even got the dvd case open. I put the Teen Titans dvd in. She heard the music, giggled, ran back to the rocker, and told me to siddow. After I sat down, she turned her back to me, raised her arms, and said, "Up!" She snuggled back, demanded her kie kie (blankie), and told me to "rock me."

This girl knows what she wants. Though she's still a bit confused about that whole ho, ho, ho thing.

What A Difference A Week Makes

Remember this? This was last Thursday. Take all that snow, add two days with temps hitting the 60s, severe thunderstorms, and you end up with this.

This is a picture of my school. As you can imagine, classes were cancelled for today and tomorrow. That's good because the temps are back down into the 30s, and I think that's a bit chilly to swim to school in.

That means that Sera and I had an unexpected day off. What to do? Of course, the call came about 15 minutes before I left. That means Sera was awake and dressed. Well, dressed at least.

Then she decided to torment Shadow for a while.

We then headed to Mickey D's to crash the playgroup. It was great to see everyone again. We'd seen some at Breakfast with Santa and others at the Halloween party, but we hadn't been back to a regular playgroup date since school started. I didn't get any pictures because Sera was very focused on eating all four of her chicken nuggets and half of her apple slices. She finally headed over to the play area, but didn't really play much. She doesn't see the other girls enough anymore. I'm sure it will change when we start going back regularly next summer.

After playgroup, we headed to the mall. Can you guess what we did?

Maybe this will help?

Yep, I had her ears pierced. It went really well. Don't let this face fool you. She was pouting because I told her she had to give me the lollipop stick before going to play. Right after the piercing, I took her to the play area. After I took this picture, she handed me the stick and took off to play. She was laughing and having a great time. The ladies who did the piercing were great. They measured carefully, got the guns ready, and did it at the same time. It took her about 30 seconds to react, and I think that was to the noise more than anything. They had that lollipop unwrapped and in her hands in seconds.

We then bought some hair bows, a new pair of shoes (Sera finally hit a size 5!), shared a strawberry julius, and headed home. She crashed tonight. This was a big day.

Now what am I supposed to do for an encore tomorrow???

Spicy Girl

Sera is an eater. She might skip an occasional meal, but she is usually a pretty good eater and not picky at all. I've talked before about her loving her vegetables, carrots, peas, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, corn. You name it. It's all good.

I guess it shouldn't come as a big surprise that she eats the most when we go to Chinese restaurants. Though it really shouldn't matter as she'd had nothing but formula until we brought her home.

Tonight we tried a new Chinese restaurant. It opened near our home where another Chinese restaurant had been. The old one had been decent, and then it wasn't, and then it closed. The new one is a second location of a locally owned restaurant. It's called Jade Garden. The first location has been written up several times for its food, plus they won a local poll for the best Chinese in the area. We'd been meaning to try it for ages, but never did as the first restaurant is off our beaten path.

When we walked in, we were very pleasantly surprised. The remodeling job was beautiful. The place has a new and very pleasant ambiance. We were there very early, so we had the place to ourselves. Not a bad situation when eating out with a toddler. Jim got his standard egg roll, while I ordered egg drop soup. I thought Sera might enjoy it, and I always like it. The food came out, literally, in minutes. Jim's eggroll was delicate and delicious. It was the best eggroll I've tasted around here by far. My soup was also delicious. We ordered two dishes for our main meal: Amazing Shrimp and a rice noodle dish that I've forgotten the name of. While I was dishing up the rice noodle dish for Sera, Jim got started. He took one bite of the shrimp and told me it was Five Happiness good. I tried it, and he was right.

Five Happiness* is/was(?) the name of a wonderful Chinese restaurant in New Orleans. They used the highest quality ingredients in every recipe. The chicken was always white meat. The beef and pork were never grizzly and always tender. It was located in an area that flooded during Katrina, so I don't know if they reopened. I hope they did.

We've been on a quest since I moved up here in 1999 to find decent Chinese food. Mandarin House was the best one for years, but a little pricier than it should have been. It was not Five Happiness good, but cost more. In the last two years, we found a few other places that were good. One is called Great Wall. It's a little out of our way, but we've never had a bad meal there. The other is the little local place I've blogged about before. Also good, and very inexpensive, but neither of these quite hit the Five Happiness bar. They were, however, so far superior to the majority of the Chinese food options around here. All the rest served gelatinous frozen glop.

Jade Garden hit that bar. The Amazing Shrimp was truly well-named. It was spicy and tangy and sweet. Sera was enjoying her noodles until I gave her a bite of the shrimp. I wasn't sure if she'd like it as it really was quite spicy. She immediately demanded more. She was eating it as fast as I cut it up for her. Every now and then she'd give a wiggle, grimace, stick out her tongue, and drink some milk. Then she'd dive right back into the shrimp. She ate six shrimp before she was done. She then ate the more of the egg drop soup. When the bill and the fortune cookies arrived, she dropped the soup and demanded cookies. She ate hers and half of mine, and still wanted more. I offered her the rest of the soup and she ate every drop. She ate more than she's ever eaten in a restaurant. In fact, she ate more than me tonight. Even the owner was impressed when she saw Sera eating the shrimp. She came over to chat with us several times. She's from a village near Beijing, while her husband came from the Guangzhou area.

If you're local, I can't recommend Jade Garden on Nappanee more.

When we got home, Sera spotted the bananas on the kitchen island. She immediately started chanting, "Nina, nina, nina." That's her word for bananas. I was not going to give this child a banana after all she'd eaten. I gave her one dried banana chip, and we called it a night.

One more thing, all that snow? Gone. We're now flooding. Our temps hit the 60's the last two days. We've had thunder storms and tornado watches. The geese were swimming in the parking area behind my school's football stadium. We're right on the river bank. If it continues to rise tonight, it will flood one of the electrical boxes and we'll have no electricity at school tomorrow. This will mean no school. What a wacky weather week. This picture was taken by our local news this morning. It's an apartment complex 10 minutes to our west.

*Yay! Their website is up, so I assume they're back in business.

Veddy Veddy Interesting

http://www.gotoquiz.com/candidates/2008-quiz.html

I'm not going to post my results on this quiz as I decided long ago to leave politics and religion off my blog. I will say that my results surprised me as my number one candidate according to this was not someone I'd seriously considered. My current number one and two candidates instead came in as three and two on this quiz.

Precocious

Sera is becoming more and more her own person, which is a polite way of saying she's becoming ornery when she doesn't get her way, which is another polite way of saying we're definitely hitting the "twos."

On our way home tonight, Jim and I were discussing the recent changes in her behavior when I remembered something that happened on the drive home from Atlanta last week. Sera wanted out of the car. She tried chanting up, up, up and out, out, out, but neither had worked. Her new tactic? She made a raspberry type of noise and then started shouting, "Bahpoo." Bahpoo, by the way, is Sera's word for diaper.

You gotta love that girl.

Favorite Ingredients Friday!

Every year I do a lot of baking and cooking for and during the holidays. This year? Not so much. Sera has a thing right now where she must be with whomever is in the kitchen. It cuts down on cooking time. It's not just that she must be in there with you. You must also hold her. I am very limited as to how much I can do with only one hand free.

Since homemade goodies usually comprise the majority of my gifts to co-workers, etc..., I needed to come up with a quick option. I combined two granola recipes I'd found and filled up some Chinese to-go containers I had bought at Michael's after-Christmas sale last year. The bonus was that I took the leftovers to Callaway with us. My contribution to our family Christmas breakfast was vanilla yogurt, frozen berries, and my granola. An easy contribution when you're a 13-hour drive away.

Breakfast Granola

1. 8 cups oatmeal
2. 1 cup nuts (I used slivered almonds)
3. 2 cups dried fruit (I used cherry-flavored Craisins)
4. 1 cup honey
5. 2 sticks butter
6. 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.

Toss oatmeal and nuts in large disposable roasting pan*.

Pour honey into small mixing bowl; add butter. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring, until butter is melted. Add vanilla.

Toss honey-butter mixture into oatmeal and nuts. Spread evenly.

Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Remove from oven, and add dried fruit**. Let cool completely before storing in air-tight container.

Throw away your roasting pan.

This was quick and easy to do even with a toddler underfoot, and it was delicious, too!

*Not exactly green. You can use your regular roasting pan, but during the craziness of the holidays, I enjoyed being able to dispose of my mess.

**I misread the directions and mixed my dried fruit in before baking. It came out just fine.

Go visit Overwhelmed with Joy for more fantastic recipes!

Past FIF recipes:
Shrimp Creole
Lazy Man's Lasagna & Apple Cake
Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Jim's Favorite Jelly Cookie
Eye of Round Roast
Mozzarella & Tomato Sandwich
Marcia's Taco Soup
Chicken Parmesan Casserole
Cajun Baked Catfish
Jim's Snickers Pancake
Crawfish Monica
Grilled Meats and Vegetables over Saffron Orzo
Crockpot Red Beans
Better Than Almost Anything Cake
Fruity Sangria
Outrageous Brownies
Enchiladas de Pollo
Lescó
Catalina Chicken
Croissant French Toast
Corned Beef
Sloppy Joe, Mac 'n Cheese Casserole
Shredded Chicken
Baked Bean & Burger Casserole
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
Crab Rangoon
Sausage con Queso and Ro-tel Cheese Dip
Blueberry Multigrain Coffeecake
Banana Bread
Bananas Foster
Old-Time Beef Stew
White Chocolate Snack Mix
Gorilla Bread
Ginger Shrimp
Roast Chicken
Tex-Mex Chicken Taco Soup
Shrimp Mold
Pasta Puttanesca
Pork Milanese
Pumpkin Dip
Oven-fried Chicken
Best Bundt Cake Ever
Hot Dog Casserole
Chicken & Rice
Peanut Butter Fudge
Omelets in a Bag
Shrimp Boil
Apple Cheese
Pulled Pork BBQ

Sit 'n Spin, Baby

You sit and spin your way, and I'll do it mine.

Winter Wonderland

Views from my front door. This was about halfway through the snowstorm when we had a lull. Jim had already dug his car out once. We never measured our snowfall, but the town 10 minutes to our east got 19.5 inches and the town 10 minutes to our west got 16 inches. We're somewhere in there. We've been snowed in for three days. Jim usually shovels as we don't have a snowblower, but his back has been bothering him. He always resisted getting a snowblower because we really only need one about 2 or 3 times a year. We called a service to come dig us out of this one. They didn't get here until almost 3:00pm today. As soon as that drive was clear, we were out of here. I didn't care if we just drove around the block, I needed to get out of the house. Instead we went to Target and then dinner. Tomorrow, we go to price snowblowers.

A New Day, A New Year

This is the view outside my bedroom window. We had 11 inches of snow fall overnight with another 4-10" forecasted for today and tonight. Wooeee! Luckily, we have no where we have to go today. Jim did a grocery run yesterday so we're set. It's a good day to snuggle in at home.

I'm a big ole copycat, so here's my year in pictures just like every other blog out there. 2007 was a wonderful year for us. We're looking so forward to 2008. We wish all of you a wonderful 2008 as well.

January

This a a picture of the matching room at the CCAA.

February

On February 2nd, we learned that our daughter was Liang Xiao Sheng.

March

As we waited for TA, we received this updated photo of Sera.

April

On April 2nd, Sera was placed in our arms. That picture is my avatar on the blog. Here is one a few hours later when we got her back in our room. The poor thing was so hot. Daddy had to work a long time to get this smile. It would be days before we saw it again.

May

Daddy & Sera playing airplane in the grocery store.

June

Sera masters walking with a little help from a friend.

July

Chillin' in the pool in Gulf Shores.

August

Finally conquered the scary seahorse in the backyard.

September

I love my butterfly rocker!

October

Can we party in the street every night?

November

The infamous sock glove. It's all the rage, but on one hand only, please.

December

This month gets two 'cause she's too cute! The first one was our nature girl enjoying the woods at Callaway Gardens last week. The bottom one was from Jim's birthday party at our favorite local restaurant, Eddie's.

Happy New Year 2008!