Weekend Fun

BUGGY spent her weekend crawling into (but not out of) the bottom of her Exer-Saucer. She cried for Daddy's help when she was ready to come out.

"Where's Buggy? There she is!"

Bugaboo the Adventurist.

Buddy has refined his palate to enjoy the most exquisite and rare of all delicacies, his foot.
 

Buddy the Zombie ate his foot.

Don't worry, he has another one. At least he does for now.

So far, Buddy has sampled every foot in the Family.

Buggy had a small medical issue. She and Mom took a trip to the doctor.

Buggy is ready to go see the doctor.

Poor Buggy required a prescription. She is much improved now.

Buggy gets extra huggy-lovey during feeding that day.

Buddy decided to stress test Dad's heart. Having slept on his back since his sixth week, Buddy suddenly decided to try a different position (side sleeping), and after a prolonged nap, he was not easily roused. Dad observed his face buried in the loose sleep sack. Dad gently shook him, Buddy did not respond.

Adrenaline poured into Dad's stomach.

Buddy eventually waved an arm. But the adrenaline would take a while to clear Dad's system.

How did you spend your weekend?

She Knows Her Name...

...and it is Buggy!

Liesel was spending time in her Exer-Saucer with her back to Dad repeating her syllables, "Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, ha ha!" Dad had Mom's last comment fresh in his mind. They call the kids by their nicknames (Buddy & Buggy) or other cute names, the kids don't know their real (formal or informal) ones.

Dad tested this. He repeated her babble, "Bah, bah, bah, baby." She did not respond.

He called her by her informal name, "Liesel." She did not respond.

He carefully measured his voice to imitate the two previous tests and called, "Buggy."

She promptly turned and smiled at him. Coincidence? Perhaps.

Fruit

EJ shows off his yellow sleeper.

Mom thinks he resembles a banana.

Mom with her banana and strawberry

Update: Venturing Out in the Cold and Clean Feeding

WELL, Snowmageddon was a bust (so far this year, but if we revert to the mean we'll have some monster late season snowstorms yet). However, the kids needed to get dressed for the cold to venture out to the pediatrician, so of course the New Family parents over dressed them (it was a calm 28 degrees and they were moved from a heated house to a heated car to a heated doctor's office and back again).

Ready to keep 'em warm.

Dad has learned how to feed the Twins such that he and they create a minimum of a mess. To you experienced parents, his "discovery" will sound amateurish, but he was really excited to figure it out.

Barely there. Can you see the green veg on her face?

The "secret" is simply to offer only the quantity of food their little mouths can hold. It is about half a baby spoon sized spoonful. Also, Mom pointed out that adding oats to the otherwise thin pureed food thickens it and also helps reduce the mess.

Update: EJ finished his fruit and wanted his picture included in the post.

Resemblance?

Son in 2012

Mom in 2006

Weekend Fun

HOW the New family spent its weekend:

Here already? Amazon.com shipped the dolls really fast!

Mom loves her's.

Dad's baby doll came too.

They came with interchangeable binkies.

Let's play dress up with them.

 Liesel looks like a boy in the photo above. It is the pants.

Tired already? Let's check the warranty and return policy.

This one is tired too.

 How did you spend your weekend?

Another Food Post

WELL what can Dad say? Its food! We all eat it.

This dish is called spagagna (spuh gon yuh), as in the combination of spaghetti and lasagna. Its a casserole that the New Family Mom thought up and Dad assembled.

Note the fried noodles.

The genesis of the dish was, as usual in the New Family home, a need to consume leftovers in a creative way. Dad had previously made spaghetti sauce with sauteed red and yellow bell pepper, baby Portabella mushrooms, and yellow onion. While Dad would eat this low carb dish alone, Opa was invited as a guest for Sunday dinner and Opa needs pasta like fish need water.

Boiling spaghetti noodles is not hard, here are some tips for preventing the noodles from sticking.  The rules that apply to egg noodles apply to spaghetti noodles.

Once boiled, Dad remembered a dish he made regularly before he was married and when carbs were a much larger part of his diet. He called it fried spaghetti because he would toss the noodles into in a pan of hot oil for a few minutes before serving. The frying gave them a nice texture. So, he did that here.

Today he replaces the oil with cooking spray. It more uniformly coats the noodles and he uses less to accomplish the same effect.

He then browned some ground beef, and added a can of tomato paste and sugar to taste to the sauce.

Next, he placed the noodles in a oven safe dish and covered them with the sauce. Finally, he topped it a an Italian three cheese blend and heated it at 400 degrees for about 5 minutes. That was disappointing. Most pre-shredded cheese blends do not melt uniformly or brown very well. Whole milk mozzarella is best, but he did not have any on hand. The provolone Mom brought home would have been a nice alternative, but she wouldn't go along with the idea.