An Italian twist on an American tradition

Our Thanksgiving Meal:

Appetizers - assorted Italian cheeses and meats, anti pasta, shrimp cocktail, bread, and fruit

Dinner - Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes (garlic), green beans, my Dad's cranberry crush, Caesar salad, and rice balls (not pictured)

Desserts - Pumpkin pie, peanut butter cake, apple and ricotta pie, run cake, make-your-own-Napoleon, Italian candies

Luciana - 7 months

I don't think that I am ready for our little girl to be growing up so quickly.

She had yet another busy month. We had a few Halloween parties, and she had 2 costumes: a strawberry and a monkey. I couldn't resist either, and they were cheap, so I was justified, right?

She is sitting upright on her own like a pro now. I am able to take her grocery shopping with me and she easily sits in the cart without any issues (of course she rides in the comfort and cleanliness of one of those cart covers).

As I type, she is sitting on the floor playing with a toy. However, she gets distracted by the base of the ironing board and somehow makes her way over to it without crawling. So obviously, we have to keep an eye on her at all times now. The days of laying her down knowing that she is not going anywhere are long gone.

She is even standing on her own as long as she is holding onto something for balance, like the couch or her easel-toy. Although she is not totally able to climb to her feet on her own yet, she is trying, and can get to her knees. Therefore, we lowered her crib mattress this weekend. It's better to be safe than sorry.

She is still a thumb-sucker, but not as much as before. However, she has found another body part that she likes to suck almost just as much - HER BIG TOE! It's hilarious!

She is spitting raspberries all the time, and laughs and smiles non-stop. She is just simply a happy baby and I am just simply a happy mommy!

We are really looking forward to our first Thanksgiving as a family, and we hope that all of you have a great Thanksgiving as well!

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Spoke too soon

Totally jinxed myself.

My neighbor was watching Luci today. John typically takes Luci over there in the morning, and then they venture across the street to my house for lunch. When they came over today, much to their surprise the fridge was on the fritz again!

John had just fixed the water line of the refrigerator on Saturday afternoon, and I was thinking as he was fixing it: Maybe we should just leave it alone and go without the ice maker. I should have spoken my mind, I guess.

So the line was shut off, the water was dried (both thanks to my neighbor calling in reinforcements from other other neighbors), and the dehumidifiers are running again.

Ice and cold water from the fridge are luxuries...they are not necessities.

No more wet floors

After a weekend of windows open, 3 dehumidifiers running, and constantly moving the frig around the kitchen to evenly dry the floor, I think that we are done with our efforts.

The musty wet wood smell is gone. But our floors are "peaking," which is a term I learned from the restoration guy who I spoke to the other day. He recommended that we should just leave the floors alone for a while. He explained that they very well could go back to normal on there own. He also said that a lot of homeowners make the mistake of trying to the fix the problem with sanding and refinishing too soon, and then the wood contracts, and then the another problem which opposite of peaking.

So we are going to wait until after the New Year and see if the peaking is resolved. If not, then we are going to call them to come and check it out.

I was kinda hoping for an excuse to completely redo the kitchen...Oh, we have to get the floors redone? Well, that will be paid for by the insurance company and since the kitchen is going to be under construction, we may as well go the whole way and get it all done at once. Don't think that's going to happen. Bummer.

Relaxing day off?

Yeah, right!

First off, I was wide awake at 6:30. Although I technically slept in for 2 1/2 hours compared to my usually weekday wake-up, I was still disappointed. John was getting ready for work and Luci was sound asleep.

Then John opened our bedroom door and stopped dead in his tracks. "Did you leave water running last night," he asked me with his eyes wider than I have ever seen them. He knew the answer to this question, but I think was hoping for the ridiculous answer.

We ran downstairs to find that the water line to the refrigerator split and was spraying water all of the kitchen. I then ran to the basement to turn off the main water source and grab towels while John figured out where the line was in the basement ceiling. In the basement we found that the water was seeping and part of the basement carpet was wet too.

In these minutes, I am thinking - WTF! If I didn't have a day off, I would have found this much sooner and we wouldn't have such a mess on our hands now. But John informed me that there was no way that the water was gushing out longer than 30 minutes or so, or else it would have been worse.

We cleaned everything up, I bought a dehumidifier, borrowed another one from my parents (one in the kitchen and one in the basement), and I called the insurance company...just in case.

Did I mention we have hardwood floors in our kitchen? Yeah, now it smells like wet, musty wood on our first floor. I just hope that we don't develop any mold.

I still have to get into the shower! I wish that I had tomorrow off too so that I can recover from today.

Boogie Wipes

With yet another cold on the run...these are GREAT!

They alleviate the screams when I need to wipe Luci's nose and clean the crusties that I HATE all at once.

Multi-tasking a la Jill!

There is nothing that I hate more than pumping as soon as I get home from work when all I want to do is hold Luci and play with her. But there have been occasions when I get home and she has just had a bottle or it has been too long since my last pump that I need to pump ASAP.

My friend Jill mentioned in one post about pumping while on the drive home from work. As I was getting into my car on my way home one day, I was dreading the thought of pumping as soon as I walked into the house. Then I thought of Jill...clever girl! So, I hooked up the pump right then and there, emptied my boobs on my way home, and was able to give Luci the attention that I want to give her after hours of separation.

Thanks Jill! You rock!

Internal Alarm Clock

Luci didn't get the memo about the time change.

Despite successfully maintaining our nightly routine at the regular time, she is still waking up at her usual time, which is an hour earlier than ours.

This really doesn't affect me that much (except on the weekends) because I am long gone, but John's morning routine has been interrupted.

Hopefully over the next few days (or weeks) she will revert back to waking up between 7 and 8 instead of 6 and 7.