Puff Pastry, Puzzle, and Playing Babies

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Happy Tuesday, everyone! The past few nights have been great in terms of Maddie’s sleep (and ours!), thank God.  We had a rough couple of nights culminating to Saturday when Maddie woke every hour.  At around 3, she woke and I was able to shush her back to sleep. I tried to go back to sleep, myself, but I couldn’t drift off.  My mind was just waiting for the next whimper and it finally did come again at around 4:30.  I got up again and couldn’t get Maddie back to sleep this time around (I think she could sense that I was stressed/tense), so Phil got up and took over.  I went into our guest room sans monitor or any other distractions and finally was able to fall back to sleep after a few minutes. It was just awful.

Daddy and Tigger! My parents brought this back from Disney World for Maddie.  Tigger was always my favorite character. 

Thankfully, the past two nights have been wonderful.  We have been putting Maddie to bed later, again (at around 10-ish), and I think it is working better for all of us.  She has woken up once or twice the past 2 days, but always before midnight.  I have to give Phil props here. He is so much better at waking at night to take care of Maddie and he really takes charge in this regard.  For some reason, I am really bothered by nighttime wakings - - they just seem to effect me very poorly, but Phil can withstand it more.  He has been so wonderful in taking care of Maddie at night and I am so grateful for him. 

Our weekend was really nice.  I spent all day baking on Saturday, making my so so so delicious rye bread again for our lunches this week. I also gave puff pastry a shot.  It didn’t turn out exactly as I had hoped, but it was still delicious. 

I didn't get a picture of the puff pastry cheese danishes, but here's some french bread I made the previous weekend.  I am going to gain so much weight.....  Haha! 

I got up at 6:30am to start on the dough for both and had them both packed in the oven at around 3:30pm.  What a long day of baking! Then, Phil smelled burning….. my poor cheese danishes were charring.  It was such a disappointment to see something that you spent so much time working on ruined in an instant.  Thankfully, I was able to salvage half of them and we had them for breakfast on Sunday.  I think I am going to try this again with a different recipe.  Maybe I didn’t get the yeast right, but they didn’t seem to puff as much as I had hoped and were a little flatter than expected.  Still yummy, though!

Shortly after that fiasco, I walked into the living room to find our dog, Maybe, eating my puzzle.  Seriously? She has a weird obsession with paper towels, napkins, and apparently puzzle pieces.  This was, yet again, another huge disappointment since Phil and I apparently chose the hardest puzzle EVER to try to put together. I was committed to finishing it, though, and I would say that we had done probably about 75%. Well, not knowing how many of the pieces ended up in my dog’s digestive tract, I decided it was time to throw in the towel.

Puzzle discarded.  Most of it has been tossed in the trash, the rest is, well, fertilizing my backyard.  Hehehe.

Sunday morning went smoothly after a restless night and Phil and I made it to church on time.  Woohoo! Afterwards, we headed to Phil’s mom’s house and spent a couple of pleasant hours with her.  We chatted the time away and then had to leave to visit my parents.  We were celebrating my sister, Laura’s, birthday and had a great time. Maddie was fussy because she hadn’t had a good nap with all of the travelling, but after a quick 20 minute cat nap, she was ready to play with her cousin, Dylan! It was so cute seeing them interacting. 

10 1/2 month old Dylan and 6 1/2 month old Maddie. 

The library program is over for about a month, so I am disappointed that I have to wait a while before getting Maddie back around the other babies.  She is changing so much! She actually reached out to touch the birdie hand puppet that sings the name song and she seems so interested in the books.  She let Miss Wendy hug her goodbye, too! I am looking forward to hearing from one of the moms who apparently has a monthly play-date with a bunch of her mom friends.  I guess that is coming up in early March, so we’ll see.  She is 8 months pregnant, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets cancelled. 

Grandma Jones and Baby enjoying each other's company. 

OK: quick running and Bible memorization updates: Running is great! I have increased my speed to 6.3 mph on the treadmill (~9:30 per mile), which is crazy fast for me.  I have been doing 4 miles at that speed a few times a week.  YAY! I know I’ll probably slow down when I get outside finally, but I am happy with my progress, nonetheless.  I also will be done memorizing Titus 2 today. I only have one verse left and then I’ll be onto the final chapter. I am hoping to have the full book memorized by the middle of March.  Praise God!

I just have to add this picture from the previous weekend when we visited my family. My dad made sub sandwiches and Maddie showed off her stylish zebra print dress.  Maddie just loves her Auntie Meagan (left) and Nonna (middle). 

Well, I am going to go jump on the exercise bike and put in my 10 before sleeping beauty wakes up.  Have a great day, everyone!