Snow and Sounds


Well, yesterday it snowed for the first time! I wish we got more of it in the DC metro area but I'm sure others around here don't agree. This is a place where a couple inches of snow closes schools for two days. Whatever! I like my snow. Sadly there was not any accumulation yesterday; it was very brief and light. No matter the size, it still got me excited for this winter and made me think there was hope of getting more than the standard couple of inches. I think this area is due for some heavy snowfall...bring it on. Hopefully we'll get a chance to use our new fire place!

Lately it seems that Eva has been developing at a rapid pace. She's been breaking out all kinds of single consonant sounds, your standard 'ma', 'ba', 'pa', etc. In addition she's started to experiment with consonant combination and it's got me excited. I am expecting to hear what resembles a word any day now. So the verbalization seems to be right on track and crawling is coming along too. Eddie and I made the mistake of leaving her somewhat unattended on the floor for a few minutes...when we checked up on her she was in the middle of the living room reaching to try and grab a paper off the coffee table. She's quite skillful in the art of rolling (that's how she got to the table) and is pushing up more and more onto her hands and knees. I read the other day that some babies don't crawl but roll or scooch then just walk. Hmmm, don't think I'm ready for that. Teeth are still a mystery. In the mean time I'm enjoying lots of gummy kisses which she seems to want to give out without restraint. Fine by me, it makes me feel so loved. If you see me and I have particulate matter or a crusty patch on my cheek you can just assume it's courtesy of Eva.

Next week, as we all know, is Thanksgiving! YAY! Fall and the holiday season is by far the best time of year. Sweaters and snow, turkey and family, Jesus' birthday...hellooooooo, great season. Anyway, we'll be traveling to see family next week and I'm not looking forward to it one bit (the traveling, not the family). Car trips aren't so bad it's just the traffic that gets me down. I'm praying that God blesses us with a smooth, fast and uneventful trip. We're leaving Tuesday mid-day to head up to MA and my family. We'll spend Thanksgiving day there and then head over to NY to spend a few days with Eddie's family and go home from there. I've been compiling a mental list of all the things we'll need to bring. This is our first Thanksgiving with Eva and the list has probably tripled since last year. Along with our basic clothing we now need to anticipate everything that Eva will be needing. Food, clothing, toys, bibs, burp cloths, seating, blankets, pacifiers, teethers, and so on. This is one of those times I wish we had a wagon or a van. Regardless, I'm happy that we will get a chance to see family and spend a little time catching up.

Words, Prunes and Savings


There have been a few things that deserve mention on the blog in the past week. Friday morning was a very special time. I was in bed feeding Eva before I had to get ready for work and Eddie was just laying there with u
s. He leaned over to say hi and was looking at our beautiful gift from God. All of a sudden, Eva stopped eating to look at her Daddy, reached out and put her hand on his and very softly said, 'Da Da'. It was one of the sweetest moments we've experienced as parents. She then turned her head away from us both and softly, almost inaudibly, said to herself, 'da da da' as if to make sure she had gotten it right. She then resumed her gaze at her Daddy and touched his face and again said, 'Da Da,' but more confidently and louder this time. Needless to say Eddie's eyes were not dry.


This past weekend Mom and Dad LaBombard were in town for a visit. We had a nice time relaxing together and the guys got a couple projects done. Our car now has new headlights that will hopefully pass inspection and help to get our car registered so my poor husband can stop being pulled over by the cops. They also wired up our living room so that our surround sound works. I was very impressed with how smoothly these projects were completed and happy that they didn't result in frustration for all parties involved. Mom L. and I headed to Bloom on Saturday to take advantage of triple coupon days while the guys spent time together and Eva napped. I had yet another successful coupon-using experience minus a few issues. I also took a second trip on Sunday afternoon to use up the remainder of the coupons I'd neglected to bring with me on Saturday. This time my trips yielded the purchase of about $115 of goods for....$10. Unfortunately I could have saved more but due to poor planning on my part I missed out. I'm not too upset since I still made out like a bandit. I'm really happy also because I didn't compromise by purchasing products that didn't live up to our standards just because it was a 'good deal'. I always struggle with that aspect of bargain shopping.


This morning I decided to try and feed Eva some
of the very cheap prunes I got over the weekend and you can see how much she loved them from the picture below.


Eddie and I actually tricked her into eating some more so we could snap this picture. Then we proceeded to laugh at her while she recovered from the horrifying prune experience. (I know, we're terrible parents) Needless to say I had to mix up some peas and cereal for her so that she actually ate something for breakfast. At first she cringed with the expectation of the prune taste but then proceeded to say 'MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM' as she ate each bite of peas. At least she likes her veggies!!

Halloween

I know this is a little late but I wanted to get the pics of Eva from Halloween up. Great Aunt Gigi gave her this cute white and orange striped outfit complete with pumpkin socks and rattling pumpkin slippers! We had about 30 trick-or-treaters come by our house. I bought mini pretzel packs rather than chocolate and Eddie was concerned that we were going to be 'that house' in our neighborhood. I just didn't want to hand out stuff that I wouldn't eat myself. Why should I pump kids full of high fructose corn syrup? Yuck.

Super Savings at KMart

I owe many thanks to Money Saving Mom! She recently posted about Double Coupon Days at KMart and I was able to score big! I'd been saving coupons hoping for a good sale to come along and this was just what I needed! I knew the coupons would come in handy but being relatively new to the 'game' I had no idea that stores would double coupons up to $2!! I feel like I made out like a bandit scoring $47 worth of goods for $12.


I got 2 bottles of shampoo, 2 bottles of conditioner, 1 bottle of body wash, a 3 pack of soap, 3 tubes of toothpaste, 2 packs of cough drops, 4 boxes of cereal, 1 bottle of lotion, 1 bottle of dish soap and 1 bottle of dishwasher rinse agent.

It feels so good to save so much and know that it's benefiting my family. Thanks again Money Saving Mom!!

Baked Apple Goods


Well I finally got around to baking some yummy apple treats! I decided that I was tired of making the same old apple or banana bread so I flipped through the index of my cookbook on Wednesday to see what kind of apple-y goodness I could concoct. A Carmel Apple Cake caught my eye. I didn't have the caramel ice cream topping it called for so I made my own variation of a caramel sauce and it worked just fine. The cake was delightfully moist with a nice tang of Granny Smith apples to contrast the would-be overpowering sweetness of the caramel. It seemed to be more of a cobbler or crisp, minus the oats, rather than a cake but it was still very yummy. No complaints here. Eddie actually decided it is going to be his new birthday cake.


Wednesday evening I was excited to show Eddie this new treat that I had made when he arrived home from work. He said it smelled and looked great but he was hoping for some apple bread... Soooooo, Thursday I made apple bread. It was delicious and moist with the subtle flavor and crunch of pecans.


We picked up a gallon of cider while we were at the orchard so I decided it would be a neat idea to try to make some apple cider pancakes. The flavor was good but the texture was kind of weird. When I tried to flip a pancake the side scrunched in on itself. Aside from being mildly deformed they came out good. I caramelized some apples to go on top and I think we both enjoyed those the most. Next time I will just make regular pancakes and put caramelized apples over the top.


We still have plenty of apples for some more cooking adventures. Who knows what yummy things await!