Valentine memories

Charlie at work

For Valentines day, Charlie traditionally cooks me something fancy. Since he mastered The Steak a few years ago, that is typically my request. He can cook a filet mignon better than any restaurant I have ever eaten in. First he figured out how to produce perfect just a shade over rare steaks every single time, and once he perfected the art of dusting them with powdered porcini mushrooms before the initial sear, that was the final straw. I will only order it out again under duress.

This year he has been trying to cook more with courses, and I just asked for a surprise. There have been some amazing mushrooms lately at Pike market so those became the theme. And for the second time in my life I ate truffles. We each wore a baby into the market because we knew there was no way to survive in there with a stroller. I was tucked in a corner by the mushrooms while Charlie ordered from our favorite produce stand, and I knew it was him behind the truffle order. One of the guys at the shop came out and was putting various mushrooms in bags and then proceeded to delicately sniff every single northwest truffle before picking the one he thought was best.

First course: porcini truffle mustard with coppa and taleggio cheese

second: oyster mushroom, arugula, and sweet garlic fettucini (full disclosure: I was the pasta maker. That is one of my jobs when Charlie cooks)

third: pork, savoy cabbage ravioli with a crimini/shiitake mushroom sauce

fourth: a salad of raw mushrooms, parsley, shaved truffle, and abbaye de belloc cheese

finally, maple mascarpone cheesecakes with walnuts

Oh, it was so good. Photo credits go to Ido, and tablecloth credits to my grandmother's wedding tablecloth. It's one of those cloths that could only have been made in a previous generation....cream shot through with a shimmer of gold.

snowy boys

I managed to find enough minutes to take some photos today. It is snowy outside so there's actually light in the house!

Happy babies in the sunshine

Charlie took the boys at 7am so I could get a few hours sleep. When downloading photos from the camera I found some he had taken while the sun was rising.

Why no, I was not trying to roll over onto Dash's face! Really!

The boys have incredibly blue eyes.

I took this video the other day of Dash with his little squeaky mushroom man. It is especially soft and easy for him to smush and shove in his mouth. Then he slobbers all over it and makes it squeak.



Snowy morning wiggles:

shaken, not stirred

I had one hand free, and Charlie filled it with a divine chilly martini.

five months

Five months consists of:

- Lots of giggle parties. Once you get Dash going you don't even have to touch him. The more you laugh the more he laughs and it makes you laugh even more and on and on. Liam likes to alternate between laughing and supersonic squeals of glee. When we get to Hawaii I think he fully expects dolphins to leap from the water to his call.

- Chubby boys. They are wearing 6 month clothing and in some things pushing the nine month envelope. What round bellies! What incredibly long legs!

- Advances. Liam can now roll over from his front to back with minimal effort. He is exclusively a stomach sleeper now, and as soon as I lay him in his crib he flips over and shoves a fist in his mouth. During the day he props himself up on his elbows and regards the world. Dash is more hesitant. He has enough strength to support his head for a little while, but hasn't quite figured out how to flip over yet.

- Enjoying defying gravity. Liam especially will give you a great big gummy grin and probably some drool if you dandle him up in the air above your head. Dash also thinks it's quite fun. Fitness bonus: I am bench-pressing many pounds of babies many times per day.

- Sleeping. Sort of. There's still no real nap schedule. Some days I'm lucky if there are a couple of 15 minute naps. It is obviously un-cool to sleep at the same time. But with relative regularity around 6.30pm at night both boys eat and their eyes get droopy and they are willing to sleep in their cribs. Of course, they're still waking every few hours to eat but usually I can convince them to go back to sleep. After 5 am though, all bets are off. When they wake up to eat then I am greeted with wide button eyes in the relative darkness of the bedroom and know that there will be no more sleeping.

- Toys. Both boys are loving anything they can cram in their mouths or stare at. A squeaky giraffe, plastic beaded necklace, my fingers, whatever is at hand. Dash has shown himself to be a textile man and will amuse himself by stuffing his mouth full of one of the muslin cloth squares I've made for him. Liam is more drooly and likes something substantial, perhaps something in a blue plastic cookie ring.

Cuteness:

Dash does some belly yoga

Liam with his giraffe

boys

Boys being cute:

Liam reading his book while Charlie looks at a cookbook

Liam power naps

Dash in the sunshine

Liam with his much loved "biscuit"

Dash looking tough before a walk through the neighborhood

I put these sweaters on the boys today that I lovingly made, to realize that they have already pretty much already outgrown them. Damn!

Cat toy? Baby toy? Who knows! They love the thing.

chewy

Oh were the boys ever crabby today. We ended the day just trying to get to 7pm. Liam spent the last 45 minutes demanding that I dance and jiggle and bounce constantly or face The Dolphin Scream. Then thankfully it was time for pajamas-eat-bed and after an hour of tossing around they were finally blissfully asleep.

liam also gnawed on his discus. Just imagine the squeak-squeak-squeak sound that his busy little gums make on it for added hilarity.

And we adults (Charlie's mom is visiting) cooked some hamburgers and piled them high with all sorts of condiments on top of homemade ciabatta rolls. The bread was mostly a success. I started the biga last night and managed to pretty much burn out our weakling kitchenaid during the kneading process today (12 minutes at speed EIGHT). It's a good thing my bread book gave specific directions on how to use the mixer and how it would probably walk off the counter at that speed. The dough is way too wet to knead with your hands and the mixer did indeed shake and shimmy and wobble all over the place. By the end of the time, the motor was responding with the same speed at positions 6-10 so this may be the end, beautiful friend. Then I kind of forgot to add salt to the dough but other than that the rolls puffed up beautifully and baked up smelling wonderful and when I took them out of the oven there was the sweet sound of crackling tell me that they were crispy and delicious. Next time: add salt.

tasty, just add well-salted butter.

eight cells

One year ago today, the boys consisted of eight cells apiece. Two days later, they were these:

baby's first picture

And today they were these:


enjoying talking to the stuffed octopus and wiggling like crazy.

Dash also enjoyed his first dance in the Merry Muscles