After taking a long hiatus (since I was pregnant and too sick most of the time) I’m cooking dinner again! But with our crazy commute and a baby I really don’t want to take too much time making dinner but at the same time I want to eat something yummy and healthy. It also means I have to start meal planning since even the time I have to go grocery shopping is limited. So I’m going to start planning my weekly meal plans and sharing them here for anyone else who’s interested in quick dinner ideas. I plan on doing most of my shopping at Trader Joe’s so hopefully you live near one too! Oh and also I only have to cook 3 days a week since we’ve deemed Tuesdays as our eating out night and Thursdays we eat at the in-laws.

I rarely cook anything twice so I can’t really tell you if the following recipes are good or anything. They just sound quick, easy, and tasty to me so I’m going to give it a try! Happy cooking!

Monday
Prosciutto, Mozzarella and Roasted Red Peppers on a Bagel (A TJ’s recipe posted on a forum so no link but here’s the “recipe”)
Toast bagel. Top bottom half with sliced prosciutto, a few slices of the presliced mozzarella log and a couple spoonfuls of the sliced tricolor roasted red peppers (in a jar). Drizzle with EVOO and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with freshly ground sea salt. Top with other half of bagel.
Probably add a salad and fruit on the side. If you’re wondering what I do with the rest of the bagels I eat them for breakfast the rest of the week or freeze if I get sick of eating bagels.

Wednesday
Melon and Fig Salad With Prosciutto and Balsamic Drizzle – I don’t think figs are available right now so I might have to leave that out. So sad…I love figs in my salad! And I love that TJ’s sells the melons pre-cut for me so I can just toss them in my salad. We’re trying to eat a salad at least once a week. Hopefully this is filling!

Friday
Mark’s Spaghetti with Brooklyn Clam Sauce – Probably going to make the white version (without tomatoes) and add fresh basil and possibly mushrooms

Just a quick update so I remember what happened this past month!

This month was kind of a blur. For once we didn’t go anywhere and had no big events happening. Weekends were filled with playdates, shopping, and boyrobot’s basketball games. She said her first word – “mama” and has in general been babbling a lot! We have been eating out with Emma a lot more which is nice. She’s just become in general a much more pleasant baby. She gets fussy when her diaper is getting changed or if she’s really tired but other than that she is such a sweet and happy baby! I’ve spent a few days with her by myself and it’s been so fun! I remember when I was on maternity leave it was so stressful being by myself with her and I was so scared to leave the house. Now it’s fun and I look forward to any adventures I can go on with her…I imagine this will just get better the older she gets…I seriously can’t wait.

Now for a photo dump.

We had another playdate with all of Emma’s friends…she loves being with other kids!

Here she is with Thomas who is practically the same age!

So happy that Emma will have all of these friends to play with growing up!

And all the mamas and their babies…these ladies have been such great support for me whenever I had any mommy questions.

Emma’s 1st superbowl. She was rooting for the 49ers of course!

This picture is so fuzzy but it’s one of the few pictures that show her cute little teeth!

New milestones:
1. clapping hands
2. drinking out of a straw
3. first word – mama!

I know….finally…a post that’s not baby related! :) I’m on jury duty this week so I feel like I have so much more time! I thought I would post some Friday Links…forgive me if some of them are old.

A boy and his marmot friends – seriously….so amazingly cute. is this even real??

Bill Gates annual report for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – it’s amazing how much they’ve been able to accomplish when running a charity like a business. inspiring!

findation – this website is so cool (for girls!)!!! it tells you what shade you are in other foundation brands if you tell it the shade you are in the brands you already know.

I’m not a look a like! – people who look like they could be twins or at least related…but are NOT!

Scammers write poorly worded emails to intentionally weed out smart people – oh that makes sense now

and a couple of videos…

Engaged: The Invitation (so funny if you’ve planned a wedding!)

Paperman – a sweet short story nominated for an Oscar. You’ll see why!

How blind people dream

8 months! Seriously?

This month brought more trips and another plane ride for Emma. She has become quite the jetsetter! I’m so happy she has been such a great traveler for us. We have one more trip planned this year but it’s not until August. I wonder if we can squeeze in another trip until then???

We started off the month with Emma’s first trip to Vegas. I was really worried about the road trip there since Emma doesn’t really like the car but she did surprisingly well! We mostly stayed in our suite but since the place we stayed at was so nice, I didn’t mind! I love travelling with our friends because they all are so loving towards Emma. She actually knows most of them now so I get a break as everybody takes turns holding her. Unfortunately, I barely took any pictures on that trip for some reason! We took one group photo but Emma had already fallen asleep for the night…so in honor of her we did a picture with everyone making the Emma face (the face she makes when a white guy is holding her…ha ha)

Here is one of daddy taking a break from gambling to read Emma her favorite book “Baby Faces”!

The rest of December was all about celebrating the holidays.

I was really looking forward to Emma’s 1st christmas but to be honest, she was just too young to really enjoy anything! We didn’t even officially get her a present…but don’t worry she got things…I just wasn’t patient enough to wrap it up and wait until Christmas to give it to her!! :) Many of our friends and family provided Emma with plenty of gifts too. Among her loot she got an activity center, a bunch of clothes, books, shoes, a pacifier, stacking blocks, and money! I did not do much with her this Christmas but I have grand plans for her when she gets older. I have visions of starting all of these “family traditions”.

I started with one this year in which I got her a bright pink mini Christmas tree. I am going to hand make an ornament for her each year to put on the tree. For her first year, I decided to just make the tree topper. I also made a tree skirt and a garland to hang on the tree so it wouldn’t look so bare these first few years. I hope she likes it! Maybe as she gets older, she can help me make the ornaments.

Emma’s 1st Santa picture!!!!

For Christmas, we flew to Oklahoma to be with my side of the family. My sisters, niece, and nephews met Emma for the first time. While there, it snowed on Christmas so Emma got her first taste of snow! Like everything else, she was indifferent heheh.

Finally! A decent family photo thanks to my brother:

New milestones for Emma:
– Can sit up on her own now
– Eating more solids. So far she hates prunes and blackberries. She loves loves loves yogurt melts, rice crackers, rice and carrots, oatmeal and avocados. She is definitely turning out to be a picky eater though. She will usually only eat 3 or 4 bites of anything…sigh…I can already see mealtimes are going to be a struggle with her!
– Cut her 1st tooth! She actually has 2 teeth now on the middle bottom
– 1st haircut. Well I don’t really count it as an official haircut but boyrobot cut her bangs because they were getting so long and no clips would hold them in place because her hair is so fine
– Much more mobile now but still not crawling. I notice she rolls a lot more now and will roll to get where she wants to go.
– Says da-da-da-da-da a lot
– Plays “pat-pat”. This is where you hold out your hand and tell her to “pat-pat” and she will give you 5!
– Waves bye
– Experiencing separation anxiety. She is definitely a lot more clingy with me nowadays. If I am around she wants me to hold her. If someone else holds her, she will whine a bit.

Some more pictures:

On Christmas day, we took a ton of these photos…they are probably my favorite pictures to date! Here are just 3…her facial expressions crack me up!

Opening presents. She was more interested in the wrapping paper than the gift itself! hehe

Here are some outtakes from our Christmas card photoshoot:

She was SO miserable. I felt so bad for her because we had to take so many pictures because the lights we used were blinking lights so the lighting was different in every photo!

Emma puts everything into her mouth!!

A picture with one of Emma’s newest friends…Sydney, who even though is much younger is practically the same size as her!!

My little Emma Boo. She makes me laugh every day and has become such a curious one!

I used to think I wasn’t much of a baby person and that I couldn’t wait til she was a toddler or a small kid more. But now I think I know why people love the baby stage so much. It’s the stage when you can do no wrong, they don’t talk back, and they just purely love you so much! Sure…it’s hard when this little person depends on you 100% and going out right now isn’t the easiest thing to do but we are managing. She has finally started reaching out for me and currently I think I’m her favorite person. I am cherishing these times because I keep imagining when she’s older and starts getting embarrassed by me, thinking that I am ruining her life, or finally realizes that dad is way cooler and more fun than mom. She’s so smiley right now it’s beyond cute! She still greets me every morning with the biggest smile like I just made her day. I have started noticing when she wakes up, she will keep turning back and forth from me to boyrobot to see if either of us are awake. Her fidgeting eventually wakes me up and when she catches one of us with our eyes open she laughs. SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that she is so happy right now. I also used to count the day when I could stop breastfeeding her and wouldn’t have to pump anymore at work. Now I feel like the 1 year mark (when I plan on stopping) is coming so fast! I will really miss our nursing sessions when they finally come to an end. Oh Emma…you are growing up too fast for mama!!!!

Emma’s 6th month was an exciting one. Lots of weddings, travelling, and a taste of her first solid food!

We started the month with her first plane ride on her first international trip! She did so good on the airplane. So many people came up to us afterwards to tell us she was the best baby.

Emma reading the safety guidelines on the airplane.

It was a great first vacation for Emma. The hotel had a really nice pool area where we hung out a lot. We bought Emma a baby floatie.

Just hanging out in the pool. NO BIG DEAL.

Catching some rays

We were there for a friend’s wedding (which was the most amazing wedding ever!!). Here is Emma all dolled up. It’s her 2nd wedding! She looks so grown up in these pictures for some reason.

The wedding had those white lanterns that all of the guests got to light up and send up into the air. So cool! And they had fireworks! These are Emma’s first fireworks since she was asleep when 4th of July fireworks went off this past year.

While in Mexico, Emma also had her first boat ride! This girl is having so many life experiences at such a young age isn’t she???

We celebrated Emma’s first Thanksgiving with boyrobot’s family. There’s a really cute picture of Emma with the 2 turkeys but it’s on boyrobot’s brother’s camera and I forgot to ask for it! The only picture I have from that night was when we gave Emma her first taste of solid food…some yams! She didn’t like it though :(

Turns out she seems like she might be a picky eater like her father. She also does not like apples and pears. But she does like bananas!

(Not sure why the video is all stretched out when I uploaded it to Youtube…but it’s too late for me to try and figure it out!)

Emma started sitting in the bumbo this month and can sit on her own for a few seconds. I think by next month she should be able to sit up by herself and hopefully start crawling! Crazy!! Every time I look at her old pictures it seems like a totally different baby. She’s changed so much. It’s just all going so fast!!!!

We put up the christmas tree recently. I can’t wait to celebrate Christmas with Emma! I even got her her own mini pink christmas tree that I plan on decorating with a handmade ornament every year. Hopefully I can find time to do that! I can’t wait to celebrate the holidays with her. It’s our favorite time of the year and I’m sure it will become hers too! I can’t wait to start some family traditions with her. Fun!

It’s funny but before I was pregnant I NEVER ate breakfast. Now I can’t go a day without eating breakfast! It’s become my favorite meal in fact. Here are 3 easy to prepare breakfasts I’ve been enjoying.

1. Overnight no-cook refrigerator oatmeal

I use the recipes listed here. In particular, I’ve tried the blueberry and the raspberry one. In this picture, I’m making a non-dairy version with almond milk and soy yogurt….I can’t wait to try it and see how it compares! The original is pretty good. If you like chewy foods this is great because the oatmeal and chia seeds absorbs all of the liquids and gets chewy. I love that you don’t have to cook anything and I can prepare it the night before after Emma goes to bed. Then in the morning I just grab a jar and go! Also love that it’s another way for me to use up my healthy chia seeds!

2. Crockpot oatmeal – Again, another oatmeal recipe that doesn’t require any cooking! This uses steel cut oats (my fave!!). Whenever I eat my oatmeal this way I always prepare it savory with soy sauce, sesame oil, and even sometimes an egg. Reminds me of eating congee!

3. Egg sandwich – I just recently learned (like this past year) that you can make an egg in the microwave. Whaaaaat? When I discovered this it literally changed my life. Or mornings at least. All you do is spray a bowl with non-stick, crack an egg and whisk it, and microwave for like 1 minute (maybe even less if your microwave is super strong). You get something like this:

(Picture from thekitchn.com since I didn’t have a chance to take a picture myself)

So it’s not the best scrambled eggs ever but the time and ease it takes to prepare this can’t be beat. I usually toast some bread (which I save in the freezer so I always have some on hand), spread some mayo on the toast, and add cheese with the egg. Totally easy egg sandwich!

Do you guys eat breakfast? What do you usually eat?

PS. This has nothing to do with breakfast but if you go to Trader Joe’s you must try their Creamy Toscana Cheese with Cinnamon. They were giving out samples today and at first I thought EW but was quickly swayed. This cheese is so yummy!! I gave some for my coworkers to try and we all agreed it was like eating Christmas Cheese. Highly recommend!

Did you ever watch Jimmy Kimmel’s Halloween video last year? The one where he had parents tell their kids that they ate all of their halloween candy and to film their reactions? Well he did it again this year and the video is just as funny!

Those kids at the end just kill me with their sweetness. Especially that little girl at the end!!! SO CUTE!!!

Anyways, speaking of cute..we just celebrated Emma’s first Halloween! Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I just LOVE decorating for Halloween.

Look at my homemade, creepy wreath!

Our carved pumpkins. Emma requested Hello Kitty! :)

We have started throwing a Halloween party every year where our friends come over and we eat and watch scary movies! This year we had a hot dog/nacho bar. I also made these jello eyeball shots!

Fun stuff.

We took Emma to a pumpkin patch and took some pictures of her in her pumpkin costume.

She cracks me up. She couldn’t get over her legs in those tights. I think she was wondering why her legs were now orange and black. She couldn’t stop looking at them!

A lot of you have seen this picture where she’s making a stink eye face. Well here is the same picture but her all smiley :)

And now for her official Halloween costume! I know there are only a few years where I’ll have complete control over her costume so I really wanted it to be unique and/or homemade. I also knew I wanted her to wear a wig. So I came up with this!

Emma as Hermione Granger and her muggle parents:

Up close

You can barely see it but she is wearing a cape which was handmade by me and also a scarf that I knitted for her. So glad I got to put some personal touches on her costume! Every time I look back at her Halloween pictures I totally crack up. Mission accomplished. I know one day she’ll look back on these pictures and also laugh. Or just think how mean we are to dress her up for our own amusement. :)

For the actual Halloween day, we put her back in the pumpkin costume since it was much warmer and I didn’t know if she would stand wearing that wig for more than a few minutes hehe. Even though Emma is too young to go trick-or-treating, we still took her out with her cousins. Her look in these pictures also crack me up!

Emma looks like all she wants to do is chew on Xander’s hand (she loves to chew on hands!!)

Here she is thinking “I’m a pumpkin..no big deal…”

I so can’t wait for next year when she will be 1.5 years old and fully walking. If we have this much fun with her when she’s a baby…I can only imagine what next year will be like! These are the moments that make being a parent so exciting for me. I love creating these memories with her. :)

I can’t believe Emma is 5 months already!! I have a feeling I will be saying this with every update. They really do grow up so fast! She feels like such a part of our family. I barely remember a time when she was not with us. Although sometimes I am still shocked at the thought that I am a mom. Every month, I marvel at how much I love this little person. The more she shows her personality the deeper I fall in love. I remembered when I was pregnant, my coworker wrote in a card to prepare myself for a love I’ll have never experienced before…so true.

I feel like Emma has finally left the “baby” stage. As in she is much easier to take out and is crying a lot less! She is still the happiest in the morning. Her first smile of the day is the sweetest thing ever. She always wakes up with a smile! I used to not be a morning person but nowadays you will find me up at 6:45 on the dot (Emma’s internal clock has been a great alarm clock!). I look over at her and she instantly breaks into a smile and I absolutely melt. every. single. day. LOVE! It sure makes waking up early a lot easier.

Here’s what’s new with our little Emma:

– Had her 4 month vaccinations and she took it so much better than her 2 month ones! So happy. Nothing is worse than watching your little one get her shots.

– Started rolling!!! So excited that I caught her first roll on camera. It’s so cute watching her struggle!

– Had her first playdate. We are so lucky to have a bunch of friends with babies around Emma’s age…it’s going to be so fun for them all to grow and play together!

– Went to her first basketball game to watch daddy play

– Holding, batting and grabbing at toys more

– Super drool-y and loves to blow bubbles. Perhaps teething? Sometimes she drools so much that her whole front shirt is soaked!

– Loves to self soothe by chewing on her hands (I think 70% of the pictures I took this past month her hands are in her mouth hehe)

I try to take at least one photo on her actual month “bdays” and this was her on her 5 month:

Lovelovelove her!

A few weeks ago I turned 33. It’s weird to write that. 33 seems like such an old number. I still feel like I’m in my early 20s! Every year my age feels more distant to me. Like…am I really 33? I just can’t believe it.

In honor of my new age…I’ve come up with 3 goals. (because there’s no way I could accomplish 33 goals!)

1. Eat 101 salads. I love Mark Bittman and I’m so inspired by this list of salads. Each salad takes 20 minutes or less and offers enough variety that I won’t get bored. It will help me to eat healthier, bring my lunch to work more, and sort of cook since I’ve pretty much stopped cooking since having Emma. I also want to try buying the ingredients for my salad at the local farmer’s market each week.

tomato, watermelon, basil, goat cheese, and vinaigrette

2. Start a Project Life scrapbook. Watching the video is probably easier than having me explain it. I’ve been reading a lot of bloggers who do Project Life and love it and it really got me excited. Especially this blogger. Her PL spreads are so amazing! I really wanted a way to capture photos for Emma. I remember flipping through my family’s photo albums and how fun it is to reminisce. So much better than looking at photos on the computer! And this method of scrapbooking seems very straightforward and not as time consuming as a typical scrapbook. I’ve already ordered my binder and pocket protectors. I’m actually going to do one focused on Emma’s first year and if I like it a lot I may start another one in January focused more on our whole family. I would love to do an album for every year but that may be too ambitious. Anyways, I can’t wait to start!

3. Open an etsy store. I’ve had a lot of ideas of what to sell but I’ve never actually gone and tried to sell anything. Even if it’s just one product and nobody buys it, I would like to open up an Etsy shop before I turn 34.

Aside from these physical goals…I also want to remind myself to try to better myself always. I need to be more patient. To enjoy each moment in the present. To love and cherish boyrobot and babybot to the fullest. To appreciate my parents who are aging way too fast. To become braver and make new friends. And to be more genuine and thoughtful towards all relationships in my life.

And because these pics made my day…random photos of Emma!

Ugh…I’m supposed to be doing these every month but I keep lagging! Where does the time go…

2 more days until Emma is 4 months!!! Every day she is getting to be more fun and is starting to show us her personality. We are enjoying her so much. I can’t believe how much I love this little person. I tell her every day how much I love her even though she doesn’t even understand me. One day she will though! Here are her milestones since her last 2.5 month update:

– went on our first family “vacation” to Carpinteria for my friend’s wedding. she was so well behaved for the most part. I remember being so nervous about the whole weekend but it wasn’t bad at all! she even slept through the night that weekend for the first time ever. unfortunately, since that trip her sleeping has taken a nosedive. here is a picture of her in the photobooth at the wedding… don’t you love the wig? :)

– right after this trip i went back to work. i realized that i’m not really a SAHM type. the transition has been very smooth. of course i miss emma but this way when i do see her i enjoy every minute!! unfortunately, she has been having a hard time adjusting what with having to take the bottle all day. she really hates it but is starting to get better. but she eats very little during the day and chooses to wait for me to come home to nurse instead. night times have been brutal. she used to wake up once a night…now she wakes up 3-5 times a night! Sometimes with only an hour between feedings! but since she is small for her age and we are worried with how much she is drinking, i am definitely not complaining about waking up to feed her…i just want her to eat as much as she will any way she can. but hopefully as she adjusts more to the bottle she will drink more during the day! we did take her to the dr to make sure she is still gaining weight and she is right on track.
– one of my cousins got her to laugh for the first time! now I can get a laugh out of her pretty easily and she is the smiliest baby ever. practically anything will make her smile. if you look at her she will smile. it’s so fun to play with her right now.
– she has become super drool-y and loves to blow bubbles like crazy
– she started to hold her head up during tummy time

– she’s finally started to hold onto and bat at her toys! we just got her a little elmo with chewable hands that she loves

– last time we weighed her about 1.5 weeks ago she was 11 lbs and 8 oz
– her favorite thing is to chew on her hands
– she can almost roll over!
– got her a passport! we are going to turn her into a jetsetter like us :) her hair was especially crazy that day…

– she is starting to look more like a boy. that might be because we keep dressing her in her cousin’s handmedowns ha ha. can’t wait for her hair to grow longer!
– she is starting to babble more and sometimes she is so loud! i wonder what she is saying? :)
– she has started hating being in the carrier which sucks because I love wearing her. hopefully when she gets a little bigger she will like it again.
– at least she is better in the carseat now! it used to be that she would cry hysterically in the car every time but now she only cries if we’ve been in the car for a long time, she is cranky from being sleepy and can’t sleep, or she has a poopy diaper

hmmm…I think that’s it! I can’t wait to see what the next month has in store for us!