Too much Food Network

You know you've been watching too much Food Network when you see Giada whip up penne with treviso and goat cheese twice in the same week. (and by the way, for any Giada fans out there, is it just me, or is she always cooking with penne, and never any other kind of pasta?)

I'm normally not much of a TV watcher, but sometimes I just need a diversion when feeding Emery ... ok, a lot of the time. :) My rotation is basically made up of Good Morning America, any show revolving around buying or selling a home on HGTV (which pretty much sums up all of their shows) and practically any cooking show on the Food Network.

Paula Dean is starting to drive me a little crazy though, despite the fact that I'm moving south and should be warming up to all things buttery, creamy, cheesy and greasy ... and Giada is too, especially with how she always has to articulate her ingredients with an Italian accent and starts every sentence with the word "now."

Today I rediscovered a cooking podcast that I don't often get a chance to listen to (Spilled Milk) and am thinking that podcasts might need to replace TV, at least for a little while.

A happy reunion

I'm trying to reassure Matt that he's not missing too much of Emery's life as he works in Chattanooga during the week and visits us on the weekends. However, a friend did jokingly point out that he missed half her life while in Chattanooga last week.

Still, I don't think he missed too much other than her putting on a few ounces and getting a little cuter with each passing day. This week her only new trick has been spitting up.

We're thrilled that we get to go down to Chattanooga with Matt next week for a visit, leaving us only one short week on our own again before we make the move!

Beds

Emery likes her day bed (and night bed for the time being) AND Mom and Dad's bed!

Emery Campbell Doescher

Born Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 11:30am.

6 pounds, 10 ounces

19 1/4 inches

She has already captured our hearts entirely! More pictures and videos of our little girl soon to come!

I can't believe it

I think between Matt and myself, we've said "I can't believe it" about 331 times in the last 24 hours, because yesterday, Matt accepted a job offer at Volkswagen that will take us to Chattanooga, TN!

Matt's been looking for a job since mid-September and in October, we began to get VW and Chattanooga on the brain. Both make sense for us in so many ways, and now that it's finally happened, we're stunned. There were days when something like this happening just felt impossible, but we kept hoping and praying for a miracle. And I took a lot of deep breaths.

Well, we got our miracle, and another miracle is (hopefully!) quickly on its way .... Baby D is due in just under a week. We can't believe it!!

Boring banana bread

I've been making a lot of banana bread recently, and eating a lot of it, too. You see, my husband hasn't been the biggest fan of many of my recent loaves.

There are so many different banana bread recipes out there and I have a difficult time sticking with just one. For a while, though, I was pretty faithful to Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping. It is really very good. Definitely NOT healthy.

But, a few weeks ago I had some crystallized ginger I wanted to use up, and I saw a recipe for banana bread with crystallized ginger and chocolate chips that sounded pretty good, so I gave it a try. Well, according to Matt, I might have been too generous with the ginger and not diced it up finely enough (it's not easy to get those sticky chunks into little pieces!) He said it was more like gingery bread with a little banana.

So I ate all but one piece of that loaf.

Then, a week or so later, I felt as if I owed him a loaf he liked. So I nixed the ginger and found a recipe for banana bread with chocolate chips. I had about 1/3 of a bag of jumbo chocolate chips in the pantry and the amount of chocolate chips it called for was "as much as you like." Works for me!

Well, according to Matt, I was definitely too generous with the chocolate chips and the result was chocolate bread with a little banana.

I ate and enjoyed most of that loaf.

Yesterday, I decided to give it one more try and found a plain Jane recipe for banana bread with walnuts. No ginger, no chocolate, only walnuts.

According to Matt, this one tastes great! Even if it is a little boring.

Do you want to hold the baby?

I'm really looking forward to holding our baby. I know this goes without saying, but I feel that I need to say it because it's accompanied by a confession - I don't always look forward to holding other people's babies.

It's not that I don't want to! I love newborns and infants. To all my friends who have had children, know that I think yours are adorable and are just begging to be held, rocked and cooed over.

It's just that I don't usually feel up to the challenge. For me, when I'm with a new mom and she's holding her peaceful, content baby and then asks me if I want to hold her, the first thought that usually runs through my mind is "Why ruin a good thing?!" Here you have this baby finally quieted down and satisfied in your arms, as only a mother can do, and you want to pass her off to me, who's probably only logged 53 minutes of baby holding time in her life, and risk getting her all riled up and into an inconsolable state?

To me, this does not seem like a good idea. I really don't want to be that person who made the baby cry. Of course no one will blame it on you, but come on - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the baby was perfectly fine in mom's arms and most likely would have remained that way if she just stayed put.

Yet, often I will still say "Yes!" with a big smile and hold out my arms, while I'm really sitting there thinking "What position am I going to hold her in" or "Wow, her head seems wobbly but I feel like she's old enough to support her head - what should I do," or "Hmm, 'mom' seems to be looking at me funny - does she not like the way I'm holding her baby, but is too polite to say anything???"

Now that I'm typing this confession, I'm realizing that it might indicate I won't be one of those moms who lets other people hold her baby. And let me just assure you - you are more than welcome to hold my baby. You also have complete freedom to say "No thank you!" Believe me - I will understand.