post-op cuteness + etc.

I feel like I have quite a few different things to write about, so I'm going to go straight to bullets:

"have YOU seen my hat?"

1. Recovery-Recoop
Steve and I were both prepared for Hendrik to be down and out for a good three or four days post-op, and so, we are in no way prepared whatsoever for a full-on-hyper little kid. He is full on on fire these days, and if you didn't notice the redness or puffiness or darkness in and/or around his eyes, you'd think the only thing he was suffering from was a cupcake overdose. Seriously. And so it's been quite the challenge getting him to take it easy. He'll sit and be quiet through a good book session (we bought him some new Don Freemans - A Rainbow of My Own, Earl the Squirrel, Beady Bear) and then proceed to jump on the futon, jump into the couch, and run everywhere in between. All of that said, we are trying. And even though we could have used a good dose of mellow toddler, we are both much relieved that he is happy and feeling good. Fingers crossed that the healing isn't negatively affected by a bit of hyperactivity.

2. Boston Marathon
What is wrong with people? I could litter this part of my post with thoughts and reflections and a lot of unsuitable and inappropriate language, but since there are lots of other people already doing that, I'll move on to #3. 

3. Craft Project
Does every summer bring a new crafty craft project? Kind of! It's unplanned though - I mean, we don't plan to have a new DIY artsy thing each year, even though we do (check out past projects here and here). This one that I've sort of started is a french memo board, and it's going to live above the desk by the dining room table (the perfect place for a home office, no?). I thought about buying one, and then had no luck at walmart or winners or michaels, and the ones on etsy were a bit pricey, so I figured I'd make my own.

4. Meals
I thought I'd recap what I've been cooking, since I sometimes forget and I'm always interested in what other people make and eat for dinner. So, some of the (dinner) meals I've made since we've been back from Vancouver:
- Salmon (Orange-Glazed) with quinoa salad (quinoa, roasted pine nuts and cranberries), and zucchini (steamed then sauteed then parmesan-cheesed)
- Pancakes and Bacon Dinner (THE BEST pancake recipe, from the back of a milk bag, posted below)
- Tomato soup, biscuits, hearty sa-lad
- Pulled pork sandwiches with spinach + berry + candied almond salad
- Cashew chicken (from this cookbook)
- Halibut Florentine

and that's all I can think of for now.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
2 cups milk
3 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter or vegetable oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Combine milk and oatmeal, let sit for 10 mins, then add eggs and oil. Combine dry, add to wet, cook, enjoy.

5. Alana
Speaking of meals, check it:

food! teeth!

Meal staples are squash and yams, and there's always applesauce on the go in the fridge. Other bowl-full-of-mush ingredients include avocado, banana, chicken, beef, lentils, blueberries, pear and hmmm... that might be it. She also makes a big wonderful mess with those mesh food bag things, stuffed with canteloupe, mango, apple, pear and blueberries. Yum.

I love these two! Alana, coming up on 7 1/2 months

6. Sleeping
Sort of happens. Really, I shouldn't talk about it all for fear that it'll get worse, because I suppose it could. No, I'm sure it could. The last two nights have been a bit better in that Hendrik hasn't woken up more than once with his full belting cry-scream, and I've only had to feed Alana once each night (knock on wood for me, please). She wakes up three of four plus times, but has managed to keep her cries calm enough that we, lying in bed, convince ourselves that she'll settle herself down; either she does just that or we fall asleep, completely deaf to her cries. Anyways, I think I hope I think it's getting better. And daytime sleep is also a bit inconsistent, but I usually manage to get them afternoon-napping at the same time for at least a little bit, and when I do I feel uber victorious about it.

7. Presents!
Steve got me an early birthday present - a Soda Stream! I love it, and there's not too much more to say about it. I love it. And Hendrik loves his new collection of orange hot-wheels track, complete with jumps and ramps and whatevers, Steve's old collection is getting some serious action on the new track - fun fun. PLUS, there's a new quadruple decker car garage, complete with twisty ramps, a car wash and a gas station (more detail-oriented pics to come). The boy is happy!

And lastly, (and I can't believe I almost forgot to write about this) Alana had her first crawl today! It was totally singular - as in there was one self-propulsion that happened - but it was still crawl-esque.
Eek!