Full time Mom

I have to admit, I love being a full time Mom and however painful those six nights a month are, they are so worth the 24 or 25 days and nights I have off for the rest of the month. While working is a real necessity for us, especially since despite being a little less mobile than I once was, I have discovered how wonderful on-line shopping can be. AND, I have another human being to shop for. It's almost better than real shopping (except for the whole being able to see and try on things in person) because after that click of the mouse, a few days later, a little post-its appears on our mailbox-- surprise! you have a package! its like christmas or your birthday, except better because its just a random day you get gifts... Anyway, where was I? the necessity of work. Yes, I take from my mother, I know how to spend money, and thus, I need to work or else we will starve. And these days, I eat like a cow because... well, pretty much, because I am one. I even have a little calf to pump my milk. And our little calf loves to drink.

Speaking of our little calf, I am trying to savor these baby moments I have with him. He's growing fast, though, and continues to explore his surroundings (i.e. puts everything in his mouth).

Lost in his surroundings...

Despite enjoying these moments of babyhood, I keep finding myself continuing to wish that he would get old enough to eat solids. Now that we have the Bumbo, we eat as a family at the dinner table every night and I REALLY want to sneak him food.

I guess my fear of him choking or just the fact that he's just not ready for solids outweighs the fact that I want him to eat beef and pork chops and string beans (or pain perdu and bananas for breakfast as pictured above) but I'm ready to feed the kid more than my boob. I'll be honest, I'm looking forward to spoiling the kid rotten. He's my first, and its my right. I already picture myself getting him a treat every time we go out... a cookie from DiBruno brothers... Pocki or gummy treats from the Chinese grocery store... I'm ready to fatten this kid up with more than milk.

Despite the unsubstantiated previous fear that being a stay-at-home-mom would be boring and would make me feel unproductive, I find the absolute opposite! Being a full time mom makes me feel extremely productive. Having Miles makes me need to get things done in a specified amount of time before the kid starts BUGGGGIN' OUT. It makes for pretty good efficiency. And since I'm home, the dishes are (almost) always clean, laundry (almost) always done, the apartment is clean(er than usual), AND, i've been able to cook meals (the one real truth). This makes me happy. This week has been a bonus week as Aaron has been home more than usual and we have been able to hang out, cook together, be a family.

We've done a bunch of cooking, and in classic Hamilton style, we find an ingredient and build a meal around it. This week's dinner and dessert specials have featured Fava Beans, Apples, Pumpkin, Short Ribs, and tomorrow we feature OxTails. Perhaps we should open up shop. The fava beans proved to be labor intensive from the start. We found the fresh fava beans (yes, Aaron did ask me if I had G6PD deficiency beforehand) and then found the recipe: Fettucine and fava beans with pancetta and escarole. While worth the work, it did require 3 more trips to 3 additional different grocery stores-- (wegman-s fava beans, pathmark- fettucine, dibruno bros.- pancetta, whole foods- escarole) not to mention the double shelling of the beans. who knew fava beans were so high maintenance? No picture. Already in the belly.

A sample of our pies:

Dutch apple pie a la mode

Pumpkin pie. Aaron won't let me eat till tomorrow because we just ate above already. boo.
Beef short ribs and brussel sprouts.

Food styling needs some work...eh?