Lucan: 4 Months Old

My baby boy is 4 months old. It breaks my heart just a little bit. It also surprises me how much I still don't know, but yet how much more comfortable I get with being a mom with each passing day. It's a good thing that Lucan doesn't realize his parents have no idea what they are doing.

Lucan continues to be a healthy, growing baby. He weighs over 16 pounds and is close to doubling his birth weight.

• We moved into size 2 diapers as the 1 1/2 were starting to make Lucan look like a sumo wrestler.


• I think we're at the tail end of his 3-6 month clothing already. A little ridiculous. We have all of these long sleeved sleepers he's never worn because it's so hot outside and our daycare provider keeps her house on the warm side (side note: can I dictate what temperature she keeps her house at or make her get a flu shot? I kind of want to. I have to reign myself in sometimes)


• His hair in the front is growing in thicker. Lucan kind of looks like he has old man hair with some strange comb-over thing going on. It's getting long on the sides and the top of his hair sticks straight up. My mom says that my hair always stood straight up too :) Must be an Asian thing.


• Lucan made his longest road trip to date: a weekend trip to Minneapolis and a stay in a hotel! He did fantastic, despite getting really irritated about being in his carseat for so long. He went shopping with me and my mom, but Lance is convinced that Lucan needs to start his training as a Twins fan early on and should go to the game with the boys next year. We'll see. I can't see how a 14 month old is going to have a great time at a baseball game, but maybe that's just me ...


• Because we could never convince him to take a pacifier, it appears that Lucan is substituting his fingers as an object to suck on. I used my thumb, so maybe this is a hereditary thing.


• Lucan has become incredibly drooley. Drooley enough for me to put a bib on him during the day just so he doesn't get a wet spot under his chin and on his clothes.


• We introduced Lucan to his first lovely, Gerry the Giraffe. Lucan really enjoys drooling on him.


• Bath time continues to be fun time! Meaning, I get soaked. Lance is always concerned that all the water Lucan splashes out of his bathtub is going to warp the wood flooring.


• I've become the queen of booger patrol. Me and the nasal aspirator, we're BFFs. Of course this also means that Lucan doesn't want to be my BFF when he sees me pull out the snot sucker. I'm not sure if my baby is just extra special or what, but his nose always seems to be clogged up.


• Lance put Lucan in nursery at church for the first time last Sunday. He put him in there against my will. We thought we had given pretty clear instructions to page us once he woke up so we could feed him, but I guess there was some miscommunication because I went back after Sunday school, Lucan was just hanging out with the old ladies. It ended up being kind of bad because by the time he got fed, he was bordering on starving and crabbiness.


• Lucan has really good neck control, but doesn't appear to have any interest in rolling over. Lance tries to encourage rolling, but Lucan just gets stuck on his side. And then he gets tired, so he just lays on his side awkwardly. It's actually really funny.


• Up until recently, we had been doing Lucan's feedings at 6AM - 9AM - noon - 3:30PM - 6PM - 10:15PM. We're in the process of trying to drop Lucan's last feeding of the day and it's been a little rough. We are trying to move his feeding schedule to 6AM - 9:30AM - 1PM - 4PM - 7:30PM. So far, Lucan gets unbelievably cranky after I pick him up at 5PM and won't go down for a nap. Once he reaches the point of no beyond, he has a hard time settling into nursing and eating without wanting to cry in between gulps. We're at a loss as to how best manage his feedings. I do know this - 12 hours appears to be too long in between feedings for him. This morning L was up at 5 am. Yippie. If anyone has any suggestions, send them my way!


• Here's a funny story: we were out to eat and I took Lucan into the restroom to change his diaper. A complete stranger commented about how adorable my daughter was and offered to hold her while I used the toilet. Okay, so 1) Lucan was wearing blue - head-to-toe. 2) What kind of mom lets a complete stranger hold their baby while they go to the bathroom? Well meaning woman, but completely wrong. On so many different levels.


• All in all, Lucan is a lovely baby and a blessing. Despite his post-work crabbiness, he's easy-going and mellow. He must get that from Lance. We can't go anywhere without someone telling us how cute he is. I would start to think the world is filled with liars, but it's true. Lucan is adorable. Just ask complete strangers.

Without futher ado, Lucan's 4 month pictures.

He's getting more rolly-polly, chubbier chipmunk cheeks, longer, and crazier hair.



The only smile we got the entire time.

Here's an idea of the great lengths Lance goes to try and elicit a smile.

"Weeee!"

"I'm falling!"

"I'm flying through the air ..."

"Oh, Dad caught me. Thank goodness."

"Ugh ... I feel a little sick now. The room is spinning. I'm falllingg over..."

Semi-Homemade Pizza

It's somewhat pretenious of me to label this as "homemade" as we bought pre-made pizza crust and used jarred alfredo sauce. But my oh my, was this tasty in a non-healthy way. If you've ever had Papa Murphy's Gourmet Vegitarian pizza, it's very similiar. You can load it up with as many vegetables as your husband will allow. If it were up to me, we'd have artichokes, broccoli, and zuchinni on this. But since it wasn't up to me, we edited the veggies, added chicken, and it was still great.

Chicken & Veggie Alfredo Pizza
1 pre-made pizza crust
1/4/- 1/2 c. alfredo sauce
cooked & diced chicken
diced tomatoes
fresh basil
fresh spinach
mozzerella cheese

1. Start with your pizza crust and layer ingredients in the following order: sauce, toppings and then finishing with cheese.
2. Bake according to package instructions
3. Enjoy!

Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy. Fantastic pizza.

Outdoor photo session

Last Sunday after church and after Lucan's afternoon nap (which consisted of 45 minutes - not nearly long enough if you ask me), we had a little fun backyard photo session. Lucan had his Sunday best on, a Ralph Lauren outfit courtesy of Josh and Nicole. Let me tell you, all of Lucan's super cute clothes are gifts from Josh and Nicole. Nicole took it very seriously when I proclaimed that if I wasn't going to have a girl that I could dress in pink tutus, that at the very minimum, I was going to dress my son like a prepster. They've definitely aided in this endeavor. My son has yet to wear John Deere clothing.

My work BFF, Kristen, is obsessed with trying to figure out if Lucan looks more Asian or Caucasian at any given time. In these pictures she said that she thought he looked more Caucasian. She's a funny girl.

We started out with Lucan on his tummy. We were really impressed with his head control. This picture was taken early on - you can tell because L is still smiling and not annoyed with tummy time.

"Hi Mom! I'm adorable!"

After 5 minutes or so, Lucan was tired. So he laid his head down to rest and then Lance proceeded to try and convince L to roll over. It didn't work so well.

"Help! I'm a turtle stuck on it's side! Save me!"

"Is no one going to help me? Fine. I'll just lay here on my own."

"Sweet relief. Someone flipped me over."

"Oh Daddy, you are so funny. There's no one else who makes me giggle like you do!"

"Uh oh. I'm sitting up again. Time to demonstrate my awesome neck control."

"Awww thanks mom. I know I'm precious."

"AHHHH! Mom is trying to eat me!"

The last picture is compliments of Lance's awesome photography skills. I said I wanted a new mommy-baby picture and instead Lance decided to take a picture of what looks like a carnivorous mom trying to devour her young. Thanks honey. Obviously the best picture of the day.

Tomato Bruschetta

One word. Yum.

We made tomato bruschetta several times this summer and enjoyed it every time. I really love making this because it really lets the tomato and fresh basil shine through. And it got rid of some of the tomato and basil abundance.

I remember, early on in my cooking endeavors, thinking that bruschetta was kind of time consuming to put together. The tomato dicing must have intimidated me. But now, in all my kitchen glory and experience (ha! you should have seen the mushroom reduction sauce I tried to make last night, it looked vaguely reminiscent of cat vomit, anywho ...) I find bruschetta to be one of those easy appetizers to put together in 10 minutes. Dice a few tomatoes, chiffondale some basil, throw in some minced garlic, add a splash of balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Easy peasy, lemon breezy. Toast some french bread that has been lightly sprayed or brushed with olive oil. Let the tomatoes sit a minute before topping each slice of toasted french bread and you have a 10 minute appetizer! (okay, in all actuality it probably takes closer to 15 minutes, but 10 minutes sounds so much more appealing)

A fun take would also be to include a little bit of Parmesan cheese to the mix. Non-think-ahead Kara never remembered far enough in advance to grab some before all the prep work was basically done.

We've taken this to meals at a friend's house and had this as a stand alone meal when we've felt lazy. There's no reason you have to spend $8.99 to have this at a restaurant when you can easily throw this together at home - enjoy friends!

Tomato Adventures

This is our first summer we've had any sort of tomato harvest to speak of. I guess when you've prayed for five years for tomatoes, God answers. Interestingly enough, in our answered prayer, God decided to deduct green peppers from the equation. Perhaps he knew that we are having a hard enough time keeping up as it is. I've had two bags of green beans sitting in the fridge waiting to be blanched for who knows how long. I do miss green peppers though. They're probably second after tomatoes for things we use the most of out of our garden.

Getting back to tomatoes though. While we haven't had a "bumper" crop to speak of, we've had more than we've ever had before. We were given a yellow tomato plant from one of Lance's co-workers that did quite well. It produced large, perfectly shaped tomatoes. The only difference I really noticed between your traditional red tomatoes and the yellow ones, was that the yellow ones might be slightly sweeter. Slightly. Out of the garden we were also able to harvest roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and your traditional large red globe tomatoes. Our cherry tomato plant did amazingly well. Picking hundreds of cherry tomatoes starts to feel like punishment after awhile, especially when you are hunched over, standing awkwardly between plants, trying not to crush tender roots while leaning precariously trying to get that one cherry tomato just out of reach.



This year we decided that our canning adventures would be limited to diced tomatoes and salsa. We never really had enough large tomatoes at one time to can, so we had to supplement with tomatoes from Lance's parents' garden and my parents' garden. Combined, we had tomatoes coming out of our ears.

In true Lance and Kara fashion, we devoted an entire weekend to tomato canning, following the recommended guidelines from Iowa State extension. It made me hate life just a little bit. The kitchen was sweltering with gallons of boiling water and tomatoes simmering on the back burner. I felt like I blanched mountains of tomatoes. We don't use a pressure canner, so one batch, start to finish, probably took close to 2 hours. For a jar of tomatoes that I could purchase for around 70 cents. Yep, I'm still weighing the cost savings on that one. We did applesauce last year because you can noticeably taste the difference between homemade and store bought. Diced tomatoes? Not so much. On the second day we also did salsa, following a tested recipe from Ball. It did not call for salt. It needed it. Now I have quarts and quarts of salsa that needs salt. Fantastic.

What will we can next year? No idea. Some sort of fruit? Green beans? Or maybe ... we won't can at all. Shhh ... don't tell Lance (actually I can't even blame Lance. I seem to always get this itch to try something new every summer, so it's always partially my fault too)

Up next in tomato adventures - bruschetta.

Matchbook Magazine

Here's a link to the latest style e-mag, Matchbook Magazine. Check it out for some fun finds!

Lucan: 3 Months Old!

Here are Lucan's 3 month pictures 10 days late :(
Lance and I both had insurance exams to cram for and pass last week, so I'm a little behind on things. Lance is also taking classes again and hogging the computer so I have limited access. (Just kidding Lance, I fully support your pursuit of higher education!)

My little man is getting so big and I love this stage of his life.

• Lucan weighs a little over 14.5 lbs approximately.


• He is getting so much hair! All of the hair he does have stands straight up! It is growing in thicker in the front too. I love his hair, it makes him so cute!


• He's wearing 1-2 sized diapers. We're at the end of that size, I'm sure we'll be moving into size 2 diapers shortly.


• He is fully into 3-6 month clothing. I can't believe how much sizes vary from brand to brand - Gerber 0-9 month onesies look like spandex on him. Lance jokes that they cut off Lucan's circulation. Lucan is long too, some of his footie pjs are already too short.


• He is still sleeping through the night (I recognize we are very blessed). We did move him up to the large Swaddleme sized blanket.


• We're still breastfeeding and have made strides over the last month. Persistence pays.


• My favorite time with Lucan is when I've finished burping him and he just sort of snuggles on my shoulder. Lucan gets lots of kisses during this time.


• Lucan is getting so strong and has so much more neck and head control.


• He loves kicking. I'd list it as one of his favorite things. At Miss Cindy's house she has this toy where Lucan lays on his back and when he kicks the base, the toys on top make musical noises and flutter. This has translated into him madly kicking in his bouncy seat. He has to get strapped in otherwise he'll basically slide himself half-way out of it.


• Lucan is really enjoying bath time right now too. I think him kicking in the water is very entertaining and he likes to see the splashes and his daddy's worried face when water is going everywhere. I just happen to think it's really precious. I also think that Lance is worried about Lucan wanting to play soccer someday!


• Lucan is fairly consistent about pooping. Lance recently got pooped on and Lucan has produced some major blowouts - one which desecrated his car seat. Unfortunately Lance was by himself for that blowout and I think it made him a tiny bit spazzy :)


• We are still doing 6 feedings a day - 6 am - 9 am - noon - 3 pm - 6 pm - and 10:15 pm. Lucan averages about 4.5-4.75 ounces per feeding.


• Lucan has made a couple of roadtrips - one to Sioux City, another to Sioux Center, one to Omaha and this weekend we'll make the longest trip yet to Minneapolis. Needless to say, I'm worried about this weekend as it will also be the first time we've stayed with Lucan in a hotel. But he's done really well with the past car trips, so let's pray he keeps it up!


• He has really found his voice and there have been a couple of occasions that we've found him laying in bed chattering to himself. Looks like this guy is going to be a talker!


• Lance and Lucan watched a Baby Einstein video for the first time on Sunday. It was the baby's first sounds video - I think that Lance learned more than Lucan (he learned how to say hello in multiple languages) and was more entertained than Lucan. Lance gave me a play by play recall about one of the puppets Lance found very funny.


• We gave Lucan his first lovey - Jerry the Giraffe. Except Lance keeps getting it wrong and calling Jerry, Gerome. Sigh... it's probably a miracle Lance gets Lucan's name right :) Lucan does love Jerry and will hold on to him tightly with his little clutched fist.


• Lucan does this funny thing of raising his right fist into the air and just holding it there.


• We've started using his ErgoBaby carrier and Lucan seems to like being toted around in it. I'm planning on using it some this weekend when we are shopping at the Mall of America, so I suppose that's the true test.

So without further ado, here are the pictures of my squirmy, non-smiley baby. Lucan really smiles quite a bit, but only when I'm not trying to take his picture. Go figure.

"Hi. I'm Lucan."



"Mom, I've fallen over! Save me!"



"If I stick out my bottom lip and be cute will you stop taking my picture?"



"NO MORE PICTURES!"

(that seriously was the last one I took. I tried to catch him smiling on three separate occasions. Obviously it didn't work out so well)

Sneak Peek: Lucan's 3 month pictures

Oh good Lord. Trying to convince Lucan to not fall over and get him to look at the camera is proving to be quite the challenge. Going through this month's film has been quite the trick. I have newfound respect for those photo people who take kids' pictures at Target.

Here's one of my favorites, but not really suitable to document his growth.


"I'm falling! Someone please save me!"

Black Bean Salsa

One of my firm beliefs is that dried cilantro tastes nothing like fresh cilantro. Dried cilantro is gross. Fresh is fantastic. I can accept dried basil and thyme in most things. I cannot accept dried cilantro. There is a drastic taste difference in the two and this recipe would taste less like summer freshness with dried cilantro.

This salsa is the epitome of summer yumminess. Juicy ripe tomatoes, bright lemon zip, the firm crunch of green peppers and the tang of fresh cilantro. The only thing that doesn't sing "summer" is the canned black beans. I have no idea how to get fresh black beans out of my garden - actually there's no way to get a lemon out of my Iowa garden either :)

Without further ado, black bean salsa!

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 lb tomatoes, diced

1 large green bell pepper, diced

1/2 c. onion, diced

1 lemon, juiced

1/4 t garlic salt

cilantro, to taste

Mix all of the ingredients together and then let sit for about an hour to fully meld flavors. Enjoy with tortilla chips!

Like mother, like son

Who can turn down a foot long corn dog?



Not even baby!



One of my Iowa State Fair staple foods is a corn dog. They taste the best at the State Fair for some reason. Really, I have lots of ISF staple foods. If given the opportunity, I'll get a taco salad from the Cattlemen's Tent, a cup of chocolate chip cookies, strawberry taffy, and a peppermint ice cream bar from Bauders. However, I do not recommend eating a foot long corn dog and an ice cream bar in the time span of one hour. I felt like throwing up afterwards.

Lance and I did the mega-fast forward version of the State Fair this year, spending only 2.5 hours one evening after work with Lucan. The whole thing was a little nerve-wracking as the moment we stopped moving, Lucan would scrunch up his face and get a look of "I'm-really-tired-and-I'm-not-sure-why-I'm-still-awake-but-I-am."

Maybe next year we can be a bit more leisurely with our State Fair adventure. It seems impossible to believe at that time Lucan will be toddling around and trying to steal my corn dog from me! Maybe we can even do Little Hands on the Farm. If you get a chance, ask Lance about his experience with that endeavor :)