Gosh, it feels so good to spend a couple days doing nothing. Am I right? Now throw in some homemade donuts, baby snuggles, dinner with friends, AND homemade cheesecake and you’ve really got my attention. Remember how I said we would be cleaning this weekend? I lied. I didn’t clean a single thing (except the dishes) all weekend and it was AMAZING.
On Friday morning Stella had her six month checkup and vaccines – she handled them like a total champ. She’s right around the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference. The doctor also reassured me that her head shape was in fact, not cause for concern. For the past few months I’ve been obsessing over whether or not she was suffering from torticollis and, subsequently, a flat spot on her noggin. Apparently she’s perfectly fine and I’m just a crazy lady. He gave us the go-ahead to start solids. I think Stella’s ready, too – she’s definitely more interested in watching us eat now!
After a quick nap for Stella, we went to a spouse event for Kyle’s company. I met a few lovely new ladies and spent an hour or so chatting about our babies, soon-to-be babies, hometowns, husbands, and more. It was so wonderful to interact with adults, even if it was just for a little while. Stella had a blast, too! She passed out not even five minutes into the drive home.
After drooling over Donut Day Instagram posts all afternoon, we decided we should make some donuts. Of course, we decided this around dinner time, which meant we were up pretty late frying, glazing, stuffing, and devouring donuts. We made jelly donuts and cream-filled donuts. Some we coated in granulated sugar, some we dusted with powdered sugar, and some we dipped in a chocolate glaze. They were delicious and so much fun to make! Why can’t making a salad be as fun as frying balls of dough in oil and rolling them in sugar?! We used this recipe for our dough, this recipe for the chocolate glaze, and this recipe for the cream filling. In hindsight, I wish the cream filling had been a tad lighter and less like a buttercream. Next time, I think we’ll look for a recipe that calls for whipping cream!
Saturday we decided to see what Stella thought of peas. She seemed a little confused at first, but the lack of gagging and/or vomit makes me think she kinda likes them! We even managed to keep most of the peas out of her hair, with the exception of a tiny drop. It could be all in my head, but I think she’s already sleeping better – even if she’s only getting a couple spoonfuls of solids a day. After three days of peas, the plan is to move on to sweet potatoes. I’m so excited to see what she thinks of all these new foods! We will receive some store-bought purees with WIC; however, I’m also toying with the idea of making some homemade baby food. Please feel free to share your favorite recipes!
One of my favorite things to do is watch Stella and Kyle play, cuddle, ‘talk’, etc. This little girl just loves her daddy so much! He can make her laugh anytime, anywhere. One of her favorite things to do these days is kneel on the couch and kinda lean on Kyle. She’ll play like this for a good while! She also really seems to enjoy watching Milo play now. She’ll reach out for him and laugh when he wags his tail or brings her one of his toys. The bond that these two will share as they grow up warms my heart. There’s nothing sweeter than a child and their dog.
Saturday evening, we lost power for a little while. It was getting a tad stuffy in the house, so we went for a walk around the neighborhood as a family. It was so nice to get outside and get moving together. It was surprisingly warm for 8pm – summer is most definitely here in the desert! We finished up our walk just as Stella fell asleep in the stroller. Luckily the power came back on before we went to bed. God bless whoever invented air conditioning. Fo real.
Sunday morning we woke up to a surprise! Our sweet little Stella had rolled over from her back to her belly while we were sleeping! She was grinning from ear to ear when I went over to her crib. She looked so proud of herself! In under a week’s time, our little baby has rolled once from belly to back, and once from back to belly. Before I know it, she’ll be sitting up on her own, scooting, crawling, pulling up, walking, running…graduating high school…getting married…How long do you think I can go without blinking? Have any other mamas found a way to slow down time?!
We spent our lazy Sunday lounging at home. We FaceTimed some of our nieces and nephews in Louisiana while I made my very first cheesecake. I threw together a strawberry topping, too. That sucker was pretty dang tasty, but sorta ugly. I blame my spring-form pan. It was just a tiny bit too small for the recipe I used. I should have left out some of the filling – I think it would have set better had I done so. Kyle wanted it to be a little heavier, but I liked that it wasn’t super rich. If you want to give it a whirl, I used this recipe for the cheesecake. For the strawberry topping, I used one 16oz bag of sliced frozen strawberries, one cup of sugar, two tablespoons of lemon juice, and one quarter teaspoon of vanilla. I just simmered all the ingredients together on the stove until they reduced down to a thick, syrupy consistency.
We took our somewhat ugly cheesecake over to our friends’ for dinner and dessert. We ate, drank, and relaxed until it was time for our kiddos to hit the sack. As our time in Twentynine Palms winds down, we are soaking up every opportunity to spend time with the friends we have made here. As excited as we are to move closer to family, saying goodbye to our Marine Corps ‘family’ is tough. I sincerely hope we can stay in touch with everyone!
Now the weekend is over. Monday is here. Kyle has gone back to work and class. Milo, Stella, and I are catching up on laundry and all the cleaning that didn’t happen this weekend. If anyone wants to come take the cheesecake leftovers away from me, that would be greatly appreciated.
Amanda Douet 