A FIRST FOR EVERYTHING

The past month has been a crazy one… hence my lack of blogging. Luke and I have been in South Africa for a little over 3 weeks, and Jake joined us last week just in time for Christmas. It’s been so great to see my family, and to see my mom and dad enjoying this time with Luke. The trip however has not been easy. It took most of the first week for Luke to settle in to SA time… so sleep was very minimal for me. Just as we were both beginning to settle in nicely, Luke got sick, so sleep was even less in my favour. My sweet boy had a burning fever, a red, swollen epiglottis (in his throat) and his stubborn ear infection flared up again. So, we had round 3 of antibiotics for the same ear infection we have been fighting for over a month, and he had a dose of cortisone. Fortunately, it seems we have now finally beaten the infection, and Luke is well. 

This trip has been filled with ‘firsts’ for our little boy.
It’s the first time he has visited with his Gogga and Pops (my parents) and the rest of my family.

MEETING HIS GREAT GRANNY AND GRANDPA

PLAYING WITH GREAT OUMA

We have had some entertaining moments on our vacation too. 

One example is when I asked my brother, 'Uncle Jarryd' to watch Luke for a few minutes while I finished getting ready.
This was the result.

Christmas was a lot of fun. We had a great family dinner on Christmas eve, followed by our gift opening.
Christmas morning was all about Luke. We all gathered around nice and early for Luke to open his presents.
What a spoiled little boy. For the first couple of gifts, he was pretty interested in the paper, but he soon got bored with that, and was only interested in taking the baubles off the Christmas tree. 

 

Yesterday, we decided to take Luke to the beach. Luke doesn't like the feeling of grass under his feet, so we weren't sure how he would react to the feeling of the sand. To our surprise, Luke LOVED every minute of it. He walked with his Gogga down the beach, toward the big, splashing 'bath' he could see at the end. We decided to let him stand in the wet sand and wait for the water to come in and touch his toes... Luke however doesn't appreciate the cold Atlantic any more than we do, and burst into tears when the freezing water reached his feet.
He did love playing in the sand though, and proceeded to swallow a mouthful.

 So, our adventures in South Africa will continue for 3 more weeks. I am EXHAUSTED, and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again when I get home, but we are loving all the family time we are having here, and we are enjoying watching Luke enjoy all of these 'firsts'. I am so grateful that my family has been able to share in some of his growing up adventures. 

Arachnology 101

Ok, so after doing my post on the spider we saw in the back yard, I decided to do some homework on the internet and try to identify what it was and find out if it is harmful or not.
Well, surprisingly enough, it didn't take me very long with my 'degree in Google' to make a match.

Our scary neighbour is a

 Black-and-Yellow Argiope (Argiope aurantia)

Very common throughout North Carolina. They are also known as the garden spider (since they're very common in gardens) or writing spider (for the patterns in their webs). They catch large insects in their sturdy webs, including grasshoppers and butterflies. They are harmless to humans.

This is the identifying picture I used. Although the spider on my photo isn't as yellow in colour, it has the same patterns on it's back and same colouring in it's legs etc.

And that ladies and gentlemen is my lesson in Arachnology for you.

EENSY WEENSY SPIDER

Today we were outside, and spotted this awesome spider web, with the spider and it's prey still on it.
I took a few pictures. I thought they came out pretty cool.

TURKEY FOR TWO

Today is Thanksgiving.

We have only been in North Carolina for a month, so we don't have any friends to spend Thanksgiving with, and we weren't going to be able to make it to Utah to spend it with family either. I was fine with the idea of just doing 'nothing' for the day, but Jake was insistent that we go all out, and have a real Thanksgiving turkey dinner. I thought it was kinda a silly thing to do for just two of us, but I am really glad he didn't listen to me and went ahead with his plans for dinner.

So Jake spent the morning in the kitchen cooking his first ever turkey, and all of our delicious side dishes, while I finished painting Lukes room (It's finally done - pictures to come soon)
The dinner turned out GREAT, DELICIOUS, DIVINE, YUMMY!!!
We enjoyed a quiet afternoon together (well as quiet as it can be with a 6 month old. LOL)

This is suppose to be 'TURKEY FOR TWO'...  lol... we have left overs for a week.
It was so good.

Luke joined in on dinner, with his special Thanksgiving "Gobble Gobble Til You Wobble' bib.

We of course couldn't have a Turkey dinner without a pumpkin pie for dessert.

This was my contribution to the menu - my first pumpkin pie. I can't however take credit for using the most complicated recipe, but then again, any smart person would choose the easiest recipe that tastes just as good, so I will take the brownie points for my 'pie making intelligence'

So, the day was a great success. We are stuffed and did indeed have a 'Happy Thanksgiving'

I'M A BIG BOY NOW

Luke is progressing over to a booster seat now. He has shown a lot of interest in our food for a while already, so I am starting to allow him to have finger foods, usually at our dinner time, so he is kept occupied while we eat.

He mostly just mushes it around in his hand, or gets far to much to chew in his mouth and gags, but he seems to enjoy the new tastes and textures anyway.

Last night, Luke had avocado on toast in his new seat. He LOVED it.

ZIPLOC OMELETS

So the other day, I got an email from my sister with a ‘recipe’ for Ziploc omelets. 

Last night was a ‘quick dinner’ night, and I had a few pieces of bacon in the fridge that needed to be used, and what better to make with bacon, that eggs… so I decided to try out the Ziploc omelets.

Now, I love a good omelet, but I can’t for the life of me, make one in a pan without it turning into scrabbled eggs. For those of you who have mastered the art of pan omelets… congratulations – this post isn’t for you. For the rest of us spaz’s who need a little help, here is how to get a tasty omelet the cheating way.

Here’s how you do it:

Get as many Ziploc bags as you need omelets, and crack 2 or 3 eggs into each. (I used 3), then add whatever fillings you want. We had green pepper, cheese and tomato with some pepper, Italian herbs and salt.

Zip up your baggie, and shake, shake, shake until everything is nice and mixed up.
(I beat the eggs in a bowl before putting them in the baggies to make sure they were beat properly, then I poured them into a bag, and added the filling ingredients.)
 
Next, get a pot of boiling water, and put your omelet baggies into the pot. Then you just wait until they are done… about 15 minutes.
 
When they are cooked, cut the top of the bags off near the omelet, and roll the omelet onto your plate. Voila… easy omelet!

It worked out pretty well.
 
(I know, VERY NUTRITIOUS dinner)

Some Handy Suggestions: (These came with the recipe email I got)

1. Mix up your omelet the night before and put it in the fridge, then pop it into a pot of boiling water while you get ready for work in the morning, and by the time you are ready, your breakfast is done…

2. If you have people over, let each person write their name on a Ziploc baggie, and create their own omelets with a variety of ingredients.