Helping with Chocolate Cake

Erik loves cake! He also loves to "help" me bake. Today his help consisted of sticking his hands in the batter (before the liquids were in it) so he was laid off. I still paid him for his help though with a spatula of dough to taste. Since our house is egg free the batter is safe to taste which Erik finds very enjoyable!

16 weeks 3 days

Here are my belly shots at 16 weeks 3 days. I don't really have a big belly yet -- although I am significantly wider than normal. I am going to try to wear the same outfit throughout for a comparison.

Building blocks

Erik loves building towers and knocking them down.  Here is an example of that.  

Silly Erik

Erik is such a fun little boy.  He has been a little under the weather this weekend.  Last night he had a fever of 101.3.  He is teething and got his MMR last week which may explain the fever.  He doesn't have a cold, is on antibiotics for an ear infection, and is acting healthy so we are not very concerned.  Even though is isn't feeling perfect he is acting normal.  Here are a couple of videos showing his sillier side.  Enjoy!

Erik  loves having his ears looked at with an otoscope.  This surprised the doctor quite a bit as most kids his age HATE it.  He loves taking medicine as well.  This am he was playing with a syringe and enjoyed giving Victor shots.  Very cute!  I also liked playing with syringes as a child -- even got called to the principals office once because of it!  :)

More recipes

Monster Cookies: (Paula Deen)

1/4 cup raisins

1 cup chocolate chips

1 stick butter, softened

1 12 ounces jar creamy sunflower butter

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

Ener-G egg replacer for 3 eggs (bought at Whole foods)

2 teaspoons baking soda

4 1/2 cups oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine egg replacer and sugars in large bowl.  Mix well.  Add salt, vanilla, peanut butter, and butter.  Mix well.  Stir in chocolate chips, raisin, baking soda, and oatmeal. 

Drop by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto greased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Do not overbake.  Let stand for 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Egg/Nut Free Cooking

As most of you know Erik is allergic to nuts and eggs. Therefore, I have spent a lot of time trying to figure how to make everything I would normally make without eggs/nuts and still have it taste good.

A number of my recipes have been requested by friends (thank you!) -- both with and without allergies. I thought the easiest place to put them would be on my blog. I may not have time to do all of them tonight but some of my favorite egg/nut free recipes are chocolate cake, oatmeal pancakes, monster cookies, and carrot muffins (very healthy!).

Erik enjoyed blueberry oatmeal pancakes this morning. He LOVES pancakes. Here are some photos. (He wasn't very cooperative.)

OATMEAL PANCAKES:

1 cup flour

1 cup quick cooking oats

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup oil

1 banana

Blend ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth. Cook on a griddle. Erik likes them best with a few blueberries added to each pancake. Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE CAKE: (Aunt Janet's recipe)

3 cups flour

4 tablespoons cocoa (I usually add more)

2 teaspoons soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups cold water

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons vinegar

3/4 cup salad oil (I usually use a little less)

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Make three holes -- place vinegar, vanilla, and oil in each hole. Pour water over the top. Mix thoroughly with a spoon. Spread evenly in a 9 x 13 pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

I usually make chocolate frosting -- using butter, cocoa, powdered sugar, and milk. You can follow the recipe on the back of the cocoa container.

I love this recipe and so does everyone I have ever shared it with!

Indoor Play

I have to start this blog by reminding you of how much I love being able to stay home with my baby boy!  Admittedly though some days seem longer than others.  On those days (like this morning) we sometimes get creative.  This morning Erik grabbed an umbrella off the counter and brought it to me.  He was desperate for me to open it.  Being that it was one of those "longer" days I decided that it wasn't too dangerous to allow a 16 month to play with an open umbrella (under close supervision of course).  He was thrilled!

Baby Chen #2

I am happy to say that I am feeling much better now. I am still more tired than normal -- I try to lay down for 45 minutes while Erik naps but MUCH better. The nausea is significantly better as well. Although, I don't think I feel much different this pregnancy (aside from different cravings) I have enjoyed this one more.

I was estactic to be pregnant with Erik (as we are with this one) but not prepared for how one feels when pregnant. This hit Victor and me hard last time. He wasn't sure what to do with an exhausted, sick wife and really wasn't sure he liked having to cater to my whims. Not that I can blame him.

This time around we were prepared, knew it was temporary and very worth it. Plus, as parents we are much less self centered at this point in time (than we were 2 years ago). This time Victor almost seemed to look forward to helping me in any way possible (much more work than last time since we have a one year old). He helped a lot last time too but it was pretty clear he didn't look forward to it. :) As a result this time around his tired, nauseated wife was a MUCH less crabby wife since her husband was so helpful and loving. Me being less crabby made him more happy to help and therefore we had a much more successful first trimester! I am very grateful that we have been able to grow together during the past three years and have learned how to communicate effectively and work together well as a team. (At least most of the time -- we still have some dumb arguments -- don't worry!)

I have started to grow now -- my clothes still fit fine but stomach is NOT flat! At 15 1/2 weeks this is expected though. I have gained about 2 pounds which is about where I was last time as well. Baby is getting more active. Some days I hardly feel it at all but other days the kicks are pretty obvious. I love being able to feel the baby! It reassures me that everything is fine.

I will try to post a belly shot soon -- but I need to take one first! I have my 16 week appointment later this week -- after that I will be scheduling the "big" ultrasound. Hard to believe we are almost to that point already!

I hope you are all well!

Teething, Ear Infections, MMR, and more

This was our first week with a normal schedule in a LONG time. Since the beginning of November we have either been traveling, hosting people, dealing with morning sickness and fatigue, preparing for my PA board exam, or sick. So I am very happy to have settled back into a normal pace.

Overall we had a good week. I started taking Erik to swimming lessons again. He LOVES them. At the of the class I told him it was time to go and he kept signing "more, more." Our kind instructor said the next class was pretty empty and invited us to stay for it as well. Erik giggled and laughed through the next class as well. Very fun and cute! I am glad he likes the water, as so many kids are scared of it.

Erik had his 15 month check up -- yes I know he is 16 months. The month of December was too busy though so I didn't have time to take him in. He is 23 pounds 5 ounces (25%) and 32 inches (50-60%). He is following his curves well.

He still had fluid in his left ear though so he is on a second round of antibiotics. He loves taking medicine of any kind so that is not a struggle but I will be happy when I can stop drugging him.

He has also cut 3 molars this week (not fun -- think whining, crabby, poorly sleeping baby). I can feel one of his canines as well so I suspect that will be coming next. Fun, fun!

On top of teething and fluid in his ears he also got his MMR shot Friday. I am not sure which of the three caused it but Friday night he screamed inconsolably for two hours. Poor baby -- we finally calmed him down by letting him suck on a pedialyte popsicle and rocking him. He seemed crabby and tired Saturday as well but was back to normal today.

We have pushed his bedtime back to 8 pm and put him on a one nap a day schedule. We did this because he seemed to like getting up at 5:30 am everyday. As much as I love spending time with him I prefer he sleep a little later! It seems to be working pretty well as he has only gotten up before 6 am twice in the past 10 days and has slept until 7 am 3 or 4 times. Lets hope this pattern continues!

Erik has picked up some new words during the past couple of weeks... Elmo, kitty, Wow, Brrr, apple, up (with a P on the end). He also added night-night and stinky to his signs. His enunciation is still poor but I am excited that he is trying out new words.

Erik is a fun playful little boy. He loves to spend time with us -- and to help out. He has fallen of a kitchen chair twice under my watch (bad mommy) so he now has to help us while strapped in the high chair. He doesn't enjoy this as much but less risk of a broken collar bone that way....


He also loves pens. Usually we don't let him have them but one morning I was a little lax. He was playing with the pen and decided to stick it in his overall pocket for safe keeping. He actually didn't quite get it in the pocket so it fell through down to his legs but I got a couple shots before that happened. Do I have a future engineer or math professor on my hands? We will see....

New Year New Attitude

I have never really made any new year resolutions as I usually try to live a pretty healthy life anyway and when problems arise try to fix them when they occur not just at the beginning of a new year. Erik, however has seemed to develop a new attitude to go along with the new year. We are not sure if this is positive change. Let me know what you think!









We did seem to be able to help him have a better attitude by letting him help me make muffins. He loves to help! It is fun to let him dump things in -- even if some ends up on the floor and the muffins are quite as good as they might have been otherwise.

Let's hope Erik's new attitude is short lived just like most New Year's resolutions!

Santa Claus

Happy New Year! I hope you have all had a fun Christmas and New Years. Ours was busy. This week has been nice because Victor was home Thursday and Friday and we had pretty quiet days. I was needing that I guess because Victor let me sleep in this morning and I slept until 10 am. I can't think of the last time I did that. The past two months have been very busy for us though -- we have been to Wisconsin twice, hosted the Chen's and Li's for Thanksgiving, I took my big board exam, endured the stomach flu, pink eye, and ear infections, plus was not feeling well due to being pregnant. All in all they were good months but I am tired!!!

Wednesday evening some friends in our neighborhood had us over for a kid friendly News Eve party. We live in a really wonderful neighborhood and love our neighbors so it was fun to see everyone. Erik likes to be in environments with new toys and likes to play with other kids so he had a great time too.

Tonight we visited our friends Matt and Bonnie. They have a two year old daughter Keira -- sometimes Erik and Keira just ignore each other but tonight they really played together and seemed to enjoy each other which was nice. Bonnie is 30 weeks pregnant with twins and on bedrest -- she is doing well. We are looking forward to meeting their new babies.

This week I have also started to feel better --still have waves of nasuea throughout the day but not as intense and no vomiting. The fatigue is also much better. I am still tired (hence sleeping until 10 am) however I don't feel like I have been drugged with Benadryl so much anymore. I have started to feel the baby move a little -- not kicks just flutters but that is exciting. That is about the same time I felt it with Erik.

I don't have a lot of photos from this week so I thought I would show you some of Erik with Santa a month ago. He wasn't real excited to sit on Santa's lap but he didn't cry and let me walk away from him so a photo could be taken. Most of the other one year old were screaming their heads off. Good job Erik!