Dining In

One evening we decided to have an impromptu picnic on the carpet. Gabriel seemed to enjoy the concept of eating outside of his high chair. We even took the precaution of putting a towel down first. As you can see from the picture, our precaution didn't help much. It was a fun experience, but we think we're going to try the next picnic outside!

Summer Living

I realized this morning that I have not posted a blog all Summer. In order to make up for this, I thought I'd do a sort of Summer in retrospect. So here are some of my favorite moments from the Summer and a short bit about what we've been doing.

Keeping the peace in our community.

Yes, I DO like sweet potatoes.

Hanging out with the girl next door.

Bonding with Papa.

More girl time. Saying goodbye to Molly.

Taking the Harley for a cruise.

Discovering the sprinkler. Who knew he'd like it?


Lounging in the pool.

Climbing trees.

Visited the aquarium. He was fascinated by the jelly fish.

Down on the farm.

Gabriel may agree with his Papa that Denny's IS the greatest place on earth.

First visit to an amusement park.

Saw a parade. Went to see the horses up close afterwards. Although he likes them in his Touch and Feel book, he wasn't as fond of them in person.

And totally wore ourselves out playing in the Summer sun and water.

It's been a busy, exciting and adventurous Summer. Even more so, exploring everything for the first time with our son who is doing his own three-legged crawl, trying to walk and learning something new every day. And the Summer is not yet over ...

Five Favorite Italian Words

My friend, Lori, over at Cradle and All tagged me on this post. Lori did such a great job on hers that I wanted to have something equally inspiring to share. My Italian, unfortunately, is very limited, and what I do know I don't seem to be able to spell. However, in the spirit of good sportsmanship, I shall give it a whirl.

1. Mezzo - This may not seem like that exciting a word to you, but I was thrilled to find out how to say half. Considering that a kilo is equal to 2.2 pounds, I kept coming home from the market with a lot of fruit. The use of this word cut my fruit purchases in half -- literally.

2. Come stai? Actually more of a phrase than a word, but I love these two little words. One, because they were two of the first words I learned in Italian. Two, because they open a world of conversation. Even if they remain two of the only words I know, most of the Italians I have met remained thrilled that you make half an effort. Or should I say a mezzo effort?

3. Stanca - An all purpose word. If you're ever doing less than bene when someone asks you come stai, this word seems to be a sufficient response. It also seems to cover the situation well when baby boy is being fussy and I don't know how to tell them he's teething. Although recently I learned that has something to do with dente.

4. Allora - I swore when I first heard this word that I would start using it more often. It means "then" or "now then." I'm not sure when I would use it exactly, although the Italians seem to use it when moving on to their next point or trying to get everyone's attention. Personally, I just think it sounds neat. Especially when Andrea says it with his Australian accent.

5. Capisce - To this day I can't help but laugh every time I hear this word as I think of Rick Moranis and Steve Martin who say "capeesh." Actually, the verb is pronounced "cuh-pees-kay" but like a lot of other Italian words, the ending gets a bit slurred. Which is why everyone still tells each other "graw-zee!" "Don't say it. It hurts my ears when you say it."

Now I'm supposed to tag a couple of people for this post, so I shall tag my sister who was attempting valiantly to learn Italian before her visit and my friend Roni if she still drops in on my site. For now ... Ciao!

Keeping the Distance Out of Long Distance

My sister asked me to write something on this topic quite a while back. As you can see from the date of this post (versus the actual post date) it was quite a while back. What is it they say about good intentions? Which is probably a nice segue into my chosen topic ...

Before I start writing, allow me to say that none of this comes from a preachy perspective. I will assure you that any input I have on this topic is from experience and not from a degree in Relationship 101. One of the main lessons I have learned is that just because it works for me does not mean it works for everyone. The amazing thing about relationships is that they are all so unique and it takes something unique to keep each of them going. With that said, allow me to offer some suggestions for those of you attempting to keep a relationship going while many miles apart ...

First of all, and I can't stress this enough, you have to make a decision at the beginning of the relationship. Whether you are 3,000 miles apart or just separated by the activities of daily life, there has to be a decision that you are together as a couple. No matter what comes your way, you're going to work through it. I know this sounds elementary, but that basic decision will carry you through many a rough time when it just seems easier to give up. Or, times that aren't so tough when you just seem to drift apart. Either way, it's work. Hopefully this is as preachy as I get, but I know this was the hardest part for Ben and I. Deciding that no matter what came our way there was no walking away.

Now here were some of the fun things that Ben and I did to keep things rolling through the separation:
1) Ben and I got on the same cell phone plan. This allowed us to talk for as long as we wanted every day. If one of you is overseas, this option doesn't work, but it isn't bad for in the States. Overseas you may want to look into a plan like Skype.
2) Using and abusing that cell phone plan, Ben and I got on the phone and played board games. Being the computer age, you can also exercise that option online through sites like Yahoo games which allow interactive play.
3) The circle book was a great idea on the part of my husband. Here's the concept ... One person starts the book. You can write a letter, put in a picture, compose a poem ... whatever makes your own personal heart soar. Then mail that book to the other person. That person will add something to the book and mail it back to you. At the end of your separation you will have a sort of journal of your thoughts, hopes, prayers and dreams while you were apart.
4) Along those same lines, I did a scrap book for my husband to take with him on deployment. I figured if I didn't want him looking at other women, I'd send him along with reminders of me. It was based on a calendar concept, so he had a new picture for each month.
5) My sister and her husband actually inspired this one. One year for Christmas I sent him a sort of Advent Calendar of presents. It started on the first day of Christmas and went to the 25th. Each day had a number that corresponded with that day of December. For example, the first day was one book to read. Day 12 may have been a 12 ounce coffee mug. Day 15 may have been 15 pieces of stationery. I honestly don't remember them all right now, but it gave him something fun for the month of December and I had fun getting creative.
6) Care packages are always a plus. I like baking, but you can also send little things like stationery and stamps, razors, a favorite soap, a nice loofah, etc.
7) Use this opportunity to talk. Since we couldn't do the physical things in a relationship like go to dinner or snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie, we talked about things that were important to us. Some nights we talked about where we wanted to go in the future, some nights we talked about where we wanted to live down the road, some nights we just covered issues that we had never taken the time to talk about before. There is an immense blessing in having time to talk which is something that often gets pushed to the side in the rush of every day life.
8) Plan a romantic weekend somewhere. Try to find a weekend where you can both get away and meet up somewhere. It's like a little honeymoon.
9) If number eight isn't possible then have a date night apart. I know this isn't quite as nice as a date night in person, but here's the concept. Both of you pick a spot to go. It can be a restaurant you both love, a park bench or just a place to stare at the moon. Take the time to write each other a letter during that time. Write about what you would be doing if you were there with each other right then. Plan on doing those things when you get back together and anticipate that moment.
10) Keep a thankful journal. Log down each day at least one thing that you are grateful for about that person and one thing you are grateful for in your relationship. One thing about being separated is that it should give you new appreciation for the person you are without. Hold on to that journal for the rough days. A relationship savings account, if you will.
11) Do a top ten list. This is one of my husband's and my favorite dates. We both made a list of our top ten favorite movies and top ten favorite books of all time. If you want, you could do it with songs, poems, sermons, whatever. We then exchanged our lists and watched all the movies and read all the books on the other person's list. Afterwards, it gave us a new topic of conversation.
12) Plan a date. If you can't do the weekend together now, plan the ideal weekend for the return. Anticipation is a great spice to a relationship. And then make it happen.
13) Communicate, communicate, communicate. One of the advantages to our modern world is that there is a plethora of ways to communicate. Send an email, write a letter, make a phone call, get on skype, use MSN, but keep those lines of communication open.

This is a baker's dozen worth of ideas to help you get started. They were some of the ones that worked for us. I can't emphasize enough that now is a good time to remember what adds that spark to your own personal relationship. Remember what it was that brought you together in the first place and take time now to renew that bond. When you get back together, you can be grateful for the opportunity even if the separation was hard.

Baby versus Cat

My cat and my baby have a lot in common. It may seem wrong comparing my only child to the family pet, but it is, alas, a statement of fact. Let me give you some examples.

1) Both of them put everything in their mouth that is within their reach.
2) They both like small furry objects.
3) If it is moving, and within grasp, they will more than likely grab onto it.
4) They can both be tempermental for no apparent reason.
5) Although they may disturb your sleep often, it is not advisable to disturb their sleep.
6) The same rule applies for eating.
7) They both eat several small meals a day.
8) Bath tub equals good time.
9) Jing and Gabriel are soft, warm and cuddly.
10) They're a bit quirky, but I adore them both.

I'm sure I could think of more examples, but these are probably the top ten right now. My son is quite fond of our kitty cat. He seems to find her quite amusing. One night, for no expected reason, he started giggling at the sight of our kitty. He and Ben proceeded to "chase" Jing around the house while Gabriel laughed. Unfortunately, Jing wasn't quite so amused. Now here's the really funny part ... our cat ran. This may not seem like a big deal to those of you who don't know our cat, but she's been known to tree grown men. And here she was running from our five month old son. Well, at least one of them was having fun.

That's the Plan

Baby Boy is doing pretty well with sleeping. He goes to bed at 7 p.m. every night without fuss. I can not tell you how many times Ben and I have thanked God for that little blessing. He wakes up once a night. Not horrible in the grand scheme of things. His clock, however, seems to have gotten stuck at this four a.m. time slot. Rise and shine is at 6 a.m. every day. And every morning my son insists upon rising between 4 and 4:45 for a little snack. We've tried everything at this point. We've fed him more before bed at night, we've fed him less, we've put him to bed earlier, we've put him to bed later, we've tried not feeding him and just rocking him or patting his back, we've tried letting him cry, we've tried getting him up for a late night "topper" ... I can't tell you how many things we've tried. He's stuck. I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to be breastfeeding my son at 4 a.m. for the rest of our natural born lives.

We've talked with him about this. Ben and I set him down on the changing table and explained that if he sleeps for just one hour more, he can get up for the day. He'd be happier, Mommy would be happier, everyone would be happier! So for now on he is going to sleep until 6 a.m. and then get up and eat. That's the plan. He smiles at us in the most accommodating manner and continues to alert us to his presence at 4 a.m.

Recently my son came to me and said, "Mama, I'd like to discuss the current nap arrangement. Up until now we've been doing a four nap a day schedule. However, I have drawn up a three nap a day schedule which I believe will work better for everyone involved. I would appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to review the notes I have here." I looked over what he had and he was right. Three longer naps were working much better than the current four short ones. So, now that's the plan.

I like to pretend that I have some element of control over what's going on in my household. Really I do. Truth is that I make grand plans and someone else works it out. We all know that most of the time it's God telling me that my schedule just isn't His. Letting go is probably one of my biggest challenges as a Christian and as a human being. God works with me on this one continually.

I'm going to admit now in this very safe little format ... I have no clue what I'm doing as a Mom. If you haven't figured that out yet, I really don't. I'm enjoying every moment of it, but admittedly, I am just along for the ride. However, it's better not to let the world in general know this. If nothing else, if I put on a false bravado, it keeps interfering individuals from giving me reams of unwanted advice. It's really good sometimes to pretend I know what I'm doing. In the interim, I'll go on making up my little schedules and getting things accomplished when I least expect them. For now, that's the plan.

A Hard Day's Play

A perfect moment in time ...

Gabriel's Fashion Parade

My sister has just about every piece of baby clothing known to man. It's true. And they're nice clothes, too. The kind that make you feel like you just stepped into a children's book. So you can imagine how excited I was when my sister generously agreed to allow me to borrow all those darling baby clothes. Although it wasn't a stipulation, she did ask if I would be kind enough to take a few photos of Gabriel wearing said clothes. I kept meaning to do it, kept meaning to email and well ... here I am. In the end, I have decided to post the pictures on my blog instead of sending an email. I figure that it will be quicker, my blog is more able to handle multiple pictures and I will get in my required Gabriel photos. Three in one. Gotta love that. So without further delay, the Gabriel Fashion Parade ...

Gabriel was getting ready for church. Unfortunately, we didn't realize we had dressed him backwards. Ooops!

You'll notice a lot of his pictures are on his changing table. It's because he likes the changing table. Honest. And I like this outfit. So much so that I'm still trying to squeeze him into it even though it looks more like shorts by now.

Oh my ... Well, this was Gabriel just hanging out with me. Needless to say, we don't have to roll up the sleeves on that one anymore and he's getting too long for me to hold him like that.

My family has seen this one before, but it's one of my favorites. Button and I were at the playground and took a few minutes to hang out in the sun in the grass. I actually dressed him in this outfit yesterday. My husband said it's no longer Christmas and I need to stop dressing him in this, but trees are year round, right?

This picture doesn't do the outfit justice. There's little teddy bears on the collar and it's absolutely darling. However, I like this photo of my son on his playmat. He was just figuring out how to lift up his head and shoulders.

Ben swears I torture Gabriel with some of these photos. I thought he looked cute in the bear ears! This is the same outfit as earlier, I just wanted to show you that we can get it on correctly when we focus.

As with most fashion shows you can order any of the outfits shown here by indicating the model number and making checks payable to "Gabriel's College Fund." Oh wait, that's right, these are my sisters and I'm supposed to return them all. Well, let's keep this between just us ... After all, things get lost in the mail all the time, don't they? :)

The Value of a Cabbage

This post was inspired while making dinner the other day. Normally, I do not buy cabbage. Not that I have anything against cabbage, it just doesn't happen to be a food for which I have a lot of use. Plus, while I am breast feeding, it's not the best thing for breast milk. About a week ago, though, I had a craving for fish tacos. I think a friend mentioned them and it sounded so good I decided I wanted fish tacos. I looked up a recipe online and trotted off to the store for some cod and cabbage.

Now it only took about 1/8 of the cabbage to make fish tacos for two people. That leaves a lot of cabbage left over. What to do with all that left over cabbage? Some people may think "just throw it out", but at the price of produce, I just couldn't bring myself to do so. As mentioned earlier, I don't find myself using cabbage a lot, so I was really stumped. Ben came up with the brilliant idea of making stuffed cabbage. Another recipe I've never tried, but how hard could it be? Making stuffed cabbage used up about half of what was left of my leafy vegetable. Good progress and good stuffed cabbage!

I was down to about 1/3 of the original head and still had no idea what to do when someone invited me to a cookout this weekend. Well, what's a cookout without the cole slaw! Perfect. I threw in a carrot, and a few ingredients from the cabinet, and instant bring along dish.

Amazing. For someone who had no use for an entire cabbage, I had now used up the entire head. I couldn't help but think to myself how economical that head of cabbage was. Originally, a lot of vegetable was going to waste and I ended up coming up with three meals for something that cost less than a dollar. Now that's value.

Insalata d'Arancia Rossa

This is a long overdue post to my sister. When we went to the Ricotta Cheese Workshop we finished off the day with lunch. After all, it wouldn't be Italy if the day didn't conclude with a large meal. One of the dishes they served was an orange salad with sausages. My sister had asked me for the recipe for this dish and I have been trying desperately to get it. One of the gentleman here never got back to me on the recipe, but he did disclose that you made an orange salad and added cold sausages to it. That sounds easy enough. I don't have a recipe for orange salad per se, but I do have one for blood orange salad. Here is my stab at the orange and sausage dish. If someone tries it out, let me know how it goes ...

(This is an entirely gratuitous picture of my son which has absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned recipe. I include it solely because I have been accused of not posting enough pictures of my son. Now, on with the recipe ...)

Sausages and Oranges
Begin by going to your local butcher and buying some good sausages. If you don't have a local butcher ... find one. If you must *sigh* go to the market and buy some sausages from there. It won't be the same, but I suppose one must do what one must. Cook the sausages until nicely browned and cooked through. Allow to cool.

Cut four oranges into bite-sized pieces. Mince two garlic cloves and mix with chopped Italian flat leaf parsley, red pepper flakes and black pepper to taste. Generously drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Toss.

Arrange sausages on platter. Serve with orange salad on the same platter.

Happy Birthday, Kathy!

My sister has this wonderful tradition of posting about family members for their birthdays. Since she does it for everyone else, I thought I would post for her this year. When this goes up, it's probably going to say February 3 on it. This is just because I started a couple of days early to make sure it made it up by her birthday. Kathy's actual birthday is February 5, so be sure to wish her a Happy one! In the meantime, on with the post ...

If I remember correctly, we are first supposed to give a short history of said individual. I'll go past that part and direct you to her blog over at Art's Chili instead.


Next we'll go onto the things we appreciate about her:

Ben - "Her parenting abilities. The Wachter children are all well behaved, intelligent and healthy, which is a direct reflection of the way they are being raised."
Diann - "My sister is one of the most generous people I know. If she had a dollar to her name, and you needed it, she would give it to you. But she's not just monetarily generous. She also gives of her time, talents and wisdom without hesitation."
Gabriel - "I like the fact that she shares her cold hands and her jewelry. She also reads me stories and doesn't mind if I'm a boring date."

Blessings for the coming year:
Ben - "Wishing her good health."
Diann - "To find joy in each and every day even if they don't bring happiness."
Gabriel - "Happy memories with your family."

We miss you, Kat and Zia ... Wishing you all the best for this birthday.

Making Time

Sleep has become a high priority for me these days. I hate to sound so selfish and shallow, but it's true. I've gotten almost desperate on this subject. I've considered, amongst other options, drugging my child, drugging myself, finding a neighbor with a guest bedroom that is unoccupied or even going on a girl's weekend away just so I could sleep the entire time. Can't you see it now? "Hello, Milan! Hello, hotel bed!" I didn't claim I was going for life of the party, I just said sleep. Point being (did I say I had a point? I'm too tired to know ...) that if I'm giving up any possibility of sleep these days, it had better be for a particularly good reason. And it's amazing to me how my concept of "good reason" has shrunk rapidly.

Last week my husband wanted to go on a date. This is probably the first time since we've been dating that my husband has suggested a date. He planned what we were going to do and found a babysitter. I felt like going on a date about as much as I felt like shooting myself. Then I thought about my sister and all the times that she is tired and still goes on a date with her husband. It's all about fostering relationship, right? Doesn't it figure that as we snuggled up in the back row of the theatre, a very lonely gentleman took the seat near us and began chatting happily away. So much for our first evening alone. Despite this, we still had a wonderful time. And it was good to have that time for just us.

This past Monday we took advantage of the three-day weekend to take Gabriel to see his first snow. We figured there's not a lot of babies who can say their first snow was on Mount Etna. On the way up we managed to take a bit of a detour through one or two small towns, but eventually we got to the top. A short visit indeed. Gabriel wasn't much of a fan of the snow and cold blowing in his face. Our outing consisted of a few snapped pictures and back into the car for the drive home. Again, despite this, I'm so glad I went.


They may not be important moments in the grand scheme of things, but they're awfully important to me. I want to know that we took the time to foster our relationship and capture some special moments even while we were floundering around trying to figure out parenting. Making time is worth missing a little sleep.

A Little Bit of Laughter

I heard my son laugh for the first time the other day. I have no idea why he was laughing or how to get him to do it again, but it was amazing. Some days I have days like today. For one reason or another (and no, we have yet to figure out what triggers this) my son decides he doesn't want to sleep. He took half a morning nap, no afternoon nap and spent most of the day being cranky. Finally, about 2:30 this afternoon, he fell asleep in my arms. Everything that I've been trying to instill in my son about good sleeping habits went out the window right then as I balanced it against my son actually getting some much needed sleep. For two and a half hours I just sat there watching him sleep. My back ached. I was tired. My son slept. And somehow, the fact that I was uncomfortable really didn't matter. I know this sounds cliche, but it's also the truth. For those two and a half hours, I just sat there watching that sweet little face and thanking God for my precious baby boy. I thought about that darling little laugh of his and the sweet smile I get when he's actually slept. And I thought how one day I would be so grateful for that time holding my son in my arms.