Sleep, Jump, Eat

Enzo is napping in his crib so I thought I would take a moment to post an update. I'm sure I will get this started and he will decide to wake up and I will need to finish later. That is my life these days. It is a lot of start and stop. This week our house is pretty quiet as Felipe is in Oregon for work. I am no longer scared of his work trips as I've figured out how to run things pretty smoothly while he's away. It also helps that Enzo is now sleeping through the night. I smile as I type this because a baby's "sleeping through the night" and a sane adult's sleeping through the night schedules are nowhere near the same. Enzo goes to bed around 7 PM and wakes to eat anywhere from 3 to 5 AM. He then goes back to sleep until approximately 7:30 AM. So, he sleeps, usually, for a good eight hour stretch. But, since I cannot get myself to sleep until at least 9 PM, that means I only get six hours. I will not complain though since it is a far cry from the two hour stretches of the early days. Yes, Felipe is gone. We miss him but he'll be back to play with us all weekend so it is really not that bad.

This was before Felipe left. Enzo getting some undivided papa time.

I think I've mentioned in the past how much we love our walks in Vondelpark. It has been a very mild winter so we've been able to take full advantage. Right now they are doing all sorts of maintenance work to get ready for spring and when Enzo is awake I like to point out the different types of machinery to him. The problem with this scenario is that I don't know the difference from a tractor, bulldozer, or thingy that moves rocks. I know, I'm from Nebraska and I really should know these things.

Not sure what you would call this but it is blue and the man operating this piece of machinery is working to make the park pretty for spring....hopefully not too many people are eavesdropping on our conversations.

The poor guy is going to be playing with his friends and as he sees a crane, he will be like, "look at that huge tractor with a hooky thingy". It reminds me of the David Sedaris book that I read a few years ago where he talks about how his father taught him the wrong sounds for what each animal makes. At the time it made me laugh and I am reliving this with my child, only I am not intentionally teaching him the wrong names for maintenance equipment. I may also be teaching Enzo the wrong animal sounds because I know the English sounds, yet we are in the Netherlands so will his International friends think he is crazy with the sort of sounds that his rooster makes? We have a book that reads "Mr. Brown goes moo like a cow" and I always like to add, "or if you are in Amsterdam the cow says Boo".

He is such a happy little guy. Hanging out in his crib while I put clothes away.

Like I said earlier, Enzo did wake up and it's been a week since I started this post. Papa is back and we've had some firsts since I started this post. Last week we had a playdate at another baby's house and Enzo got to try out their jumperoo. He liked it and I've been pondering a new gadget for him at home so as soon as we got home, we went onto Amazon and ordered Enzo his own. It came on Friday morning and he was jumping by Saturday!

This is him trying out the friend's jumperoo.

Here is a video of Enzo trying out his new toy at home. He still has a few things to learn but so far so good.

The other big news around here is regarding Enzo's new found interest in everything we are eating. I've been reading a lot on the internet about solid food introduction. I really wanted to wait until six months but since he is so curious and showing other signs that he is getting ready, I decided to start introducing a small amount of fruits and veggies. I think I am still going to try and hold out on the rice cereal until 6 months, but we'll see how it goes. For the first food I decided to introduce pear. They are very easily digestible, low acidity, and are low on the list to cause an allergy. I also happened to have one in the fruit bowl. I steamed it a bit to soften it up and pureed it with a little breast milk so that it would still have somewhat of a familiar taste. After the first reaction of "what is this?" he seamed to really enjoy his pear. Below are some photos to document the momentous occasion. Ha ha.

Here we go.

"Not quite what I expected."

"Why are you all staring at me?"

"Okay, that was tasty"

"Give me some more, now!"

Best caption wins!

"That was delicious!"

I think we ended on a happy note.

Oatmeal Apricot Coconut cookies

Thanks to a nice Christmas gift from my in-laws and Enzo starting to gain some independence, I have slowly started to bake again. The other day I made some cookies that I am calling Oatmeal Apricot Coconut cookies. I adapted the recipe from this blog that I found randomly, http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/chewy-oatmeal-cookies-with-coconut. I don't know if I would call my cookies chewy, but I did think they were pretty delicious.

A rainy afternoon calls for an espresso and cookie in the afternoon.

A few people have asked me for the recipe so to share it, and to help me find it later, here it goes.

Ingredients:

1 cup of coconut oil
1 cup of flour
1/4 cup of almond flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of maple syrup
2 large eggs

2 cups of flaked coconut

3 cups of quick oats

1 cup of apricots finely chopped

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit or 170 degree Celsius. Cream together coconut oil and sugar until lightly colored and smooth. Add maple syrup and mix. Next, add in your eggs one at a time, beat until fluffy.
Whisk the flour, almond flour, salt, and baking soda together, then beat into the butter mixture, adding flour bit by bit until it's completely added.
Next add in your coconut and oatmeal, mixing slowly on the lowest setting of your mixer. Last, add the chopped apricots.
Drop by rounded teaspoonful onto a greased or parchment paper lined (my preferred method) cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are a light golden brown.

Enjoy!! 

Of course, I'll throw in a little Enzo update. He is such a cool, little observant boy. Monday, we went to a playgroup and he was inspired by the slightly older babies and rolled over from his back to his tummy for the first time. Of course, when we are home alone, or with dad, he has no desire to repeat this party trick. I also try to play music throughout the day so we aren't sitting in a silent house. To my surprise, he loves Mozart. I've tried Bach and other classical music and he doesn't seem to enjoy them as much as when I play Mozart. I find it very interesting. He also loves dance music, however, he may love mommy dancing around the house with him more than he actually likes the music itself but I will keep believing it's the music.

This photo cracks me up. We were getting ready to leave the house for a walk. I think he has some room to grow in this "comfy" outfit.

He loves his chair! I've resorted to putting him in bibs because he has been drooling soooo much lately. They are also good when he spits up. 

My baby is 4 months!

This weekend Enzo turned four months. I am amazed how much he has grown and how the little newborn baby that we brought home months ago is turning into this sweet, mellow, baby that seems to really like us. I'm not going to lie, I think we kind of like him too. Okay, maybe we LOVE him a lot!!

The 4 month Scrabble photo. He's quickly outgrowing his blanket.

At 4 months, Enzo still loves bath time and walks outside in the park. He still hasn't rolled over but those legs are moving and once he figures it out, we'd better be ready to chase after him. He is constantly looking around not wanting to miss a beat. We have been going to post-natal yoga and he is finally letting me get in some exercise. He loves flirting  looking around at the other babies and mommies. Enzo also loves his own mommy, and while I find it quite flattering I don't want him to turn into a total mommy's boy so we are working on him being more comfortable with others. 

I set up his travel high chair so he could sit up right at the table with us. He loves it! I also find it funny how quickly all kids learn the game of throwing their toys on the floor for us to pick up.

We had a lovely, and exhausting, trip back to the US for the holidays. We started out in Nebraska where Enzo got to meet his aunt and uncle and lots of cousins. He loved all of the attention and I think they were quite smitten with him as well. He loved his little cousin Macy and would give her lots of smiles. She was a big help with bath time and holding him while he napped. After Nebraska, we flew to San Francisco to ring in the New Year with friends. We had a great time but, of course, the stop over was way too quick and we didn't get to see everyone. Next time we hope to see those that we missed! We got photos taken while in San Francisco which turned out really good. Below are some of my favorites. Vero (check her out at http://www.verosuh.com/blog/) shot our wedding and we were excited to see her again and have her capture our growing family. Enzo was such a trooper and the fog lifted just in time.

Our morning was spent making silly faces and noises to coax a smile out of our little man.

These little feet will not be little for ever but for now we will enjoy them.

Humpty dumpty sat on a wall...

You looking at me?

Love this city!

Enzo getting in some cuddles before we finish the shoot.

Sleeping

Waking up. Big yawns.

And smiles! This will count as his 3 month photo. He was one day shy.

Why is a crying baby so cute?!?!

After San Francisco, we ended our trip in Irvine at Felipe's parents' house. He got to meet his great aunt and uncle from Brazil and practice his Portuguese. The weather was unseasonably warm and dry so we soaked in as much vitamin D as possible while we were there.

Now we've been back in Amsterdam for almost a month so we are definitely adjusted. It took a few days to get back on schedule but wasn't as bad as I anticipated. We are missing all of our friends and family back home but we were happy to come home to the friends that we've made so far and it felt good to catch up.  Until next time and I promise not to wait so long!