Still here

My apologies, faithful readers. I have not forgotten about you and am still writing here. Or at least thinking about writing here. I have lots to tell you about and lots of posts I've been thinking about writing. Just been busy here.

I've been meaning to tell you about Silas's preferred method of eating now. It is to distribute food along the floor and then lie on his belly and vacuum them up with his mouth. He did it first with the cheerios that I had left on floor following breakfast. Apparently I wasn't fast enough preparing lunch and he was hungry NOW! so cheerios for lunch too. Later instead of eating the cheese or banana set out on a plate for him he decided it would be much more fun and nutritious to eat the hard, dry, uncooked lentils I had spilled near the stove. He discovered there is an end table in the living room that is the perfect height for this mouth vacuuming and spread out popcorn along the edges and walks around the table sucking them up. I was going to title this post "Bobbing for Broccoli," as this was the only way he would eat the broccoli and couscous we had for lunch last week.

I also had a post I was going to write titled "Birthday Presents Unite!" I was going to tell you all about the wonderful presents my family sent for my birthday and how they transformed a dreary, blustery, miserable day into a snug, toasty, cozy day of whole grain baking, classic movie watching, and neck warmer knitting.

And speaking of birthday presents- King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Book- it's wonderful. So far I have made the whole wheat fudge brownies, tortillas, apple cinnamon peanut bars, pumpkin cranberry bars, biscotti, challah, graham crackers (with barley flour), banana crunch cake (with oats), rhubarb coffee cake, Easiest 100% whole wheat bread ever, and pumpkin bread. See, I told you I had been busy. I probably wouldn't make either of the bars again but everything else is definitely staying my repertoire.

Silas is down to nursing only 2 or 3 times a day. It's some kind of Christmas miracle! Although it is making me kind of sad that nursing may be coming to an end soon.

He has been super cute the past week though, He's starting to say more and more "words." I swear he said raisin at breakfast this morning. And when he points to things he asks "Dees ees?"
He learned the dog and baby sign at my sisters house and makes those whenever he hears or sees a dog or baby( or doll or child) respectively. He also will sit down on the floor expectantly when he asks for food and I say OK. He plays with his train set! Actually puts the engine and the car together with their little magnets and pushes them around the track. He hasn't quite figured out how to put the track together yet, but he hands Orrin pieces and directs him where to put them.

I went to a cookie exchange last Thursday and came back with a recipe for really yummy chocolate and nut meringues, called Wasps Nests. This weekend we went for a bike ride, had lunch at a nice pub called Allens and did some Christmas shopping in Kilkenny. Sunday, Orrin went mountain biking in the rain with some friends from work and Silas and I ate pancakes and snuggled. Yesterday I went over to friends house and made buckeyes, those peanut butter and chocolate candies. I love them but I have never made them before. They are really easy, if a little time consuming.

I'm almost done with Christmas shopping and we're flying to Chicago on Saturday! We still have to figure out how to get to the airport and avoid paying the 160 euro for parking the car there. We also have to get tickets to go to London so we can visit Aunt Emily's family.

But I can't can't wait to get home and see everyone!