Summer Salad

Here is another quick and easy recipe I saw from the blog "100 Days of Real Food."

This is a perfect summer salad - an easy side-dish or a great addition to a potluck. Holden did not enjoy it (most likely the garlic flavor), so this is definitely more for adults.

The original recipe is below, and I have put my changes in italics. Enjoy!

Lime-Cilantro Quinoa Salad
Salad
-3 cups cooked quinoa (1 cup dry)
-3/4 cup dried fruit (I omitted the dried fruit)
-1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted (I omitted this because Holden is too young for nuts)
-1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
-1 bell pepper of any color, diced (I used red)
-1 can black beans
-1 can corn
(Note: I wanted this to be more Mexican, so that is why I added the beans and corn)
Dressing
-1/4 cup lime juice (make sure to get at least 2 limes)
-1/4 cup olive oil
-1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (I only had spicy brown, it turned out fine)
-2 garlic cloves, minced (I only used 1 and thought it was enough garlic flavor)
-Pinch of salt
Directions
1. Mix all salad ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. In a separate, smaller bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients.
3. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix thoroughly.
4. Eat or store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Pink Panther

Holden loves anything soft. If something is soft, or even has a soft spot, he sticks his left thumb in his mouth, puts the soft item near his face and makes a, "mm-mmm-mmm" noise (aside: I made that same noise when I was a baby).

These soft items have included our cats, touch-and-feel puzzle pieces, my bathrobe, blankets, stuffed animals, and in particular, my pink pajama pants.

Holden LOVES my pink pajama pants. He will pet me when I wear them and if they are free, he will take them around the house with him. I have to keep them in a high drawer or else he would get them every day to snuggle.

He is so in love with pink pants that on Sunday, while waiting to get a prescription filled, he saw a woman in pink pants and went up to her and started petting her leg. We quickly scooped him up and apologized. Thank goodness he is still so young and she was very forgiving!

Quick and Easy Recipe

While I do not have any pictures of my own, I finally tried a recipe from The Pioneer Woman. I've heard so much about her and have seen many friends link to her on Facebook and blogs, so I checked out her site and the Sour Cream Noodle Bake caught my eye.

Ree does a great job of giving you step-by-step instructions with amazing pictures, so it was simple to make and follow along. My only mistake was not heating the water while cooking the meat. Otherwise, everything was super quick and super easy.

Everyone really enjoyed eating it, including Holden (which equals success in my book!), and we had leftovers for lunch. I served ours with some garlic bread. Enjoy!

High Chair Relaxing

If you come over to our home, you will probably see Holden eating like this - feet up and on the table. Nathan and I started seeing signs that Holden is ready to start eating with us, so, we brought his high chair in, and Holden immediately put his feet on the table. How can I blame the guy? He just wants to relax while enjoying his meal.

Here is Holden enjoying hamburger and sweet potato rounds!

Now, don't worry those of you who swear by Ms. Manners and the method of starting where you mean to go. We are in the process of teaching Holden that feet stay down at the dinner table - but only because Nathan and I are not as flexible as he is ;)

Sick

This past week the entire Sandell family fell sick. Holden started the trend, but soon enough, Nathan and I were feeling the bug, too.

Our afternoon started off just fine, but just before we put Holden down for his nap, he started becoming restless and whiney. Usually Holden runs to his crib for his nap and is excited to go to sleep and be with his Lambie (yes, I know just how lucky I am!). Not this time, though. He was restless during his entire nap, too, and then at around 4:30PM he woke up crying, which he never does. Nathan was visiting friends who live out of town, so I rushed in and discovered a huge mess in Holden's crib. We immediately went for the bath, and as I cleaned him off, he finally calmed down and stopped crying.

Holden has never been sick in his crib before, so I was a little nervous and called Nathan to come home. It was the right decision because Holden threw up on me about an hour later. All I could do was ache for my little boy at that moment. I think as a Mama, one of the worst feelings you can have is that of helplessness when your child is in need. I could not make that sickness just go away and that was a terrible feeling.

After five more fits of throw-up, countless diaper changes and lots of snuggles, Holden finally began feeling better on Day Four. The bad news was that Nathan and I got sick that night. By God's blessing, my mom lives close by and I called her very early in the morning to be our back-up. She dutifully came over and watched Holden, helped out with the housework, and brought us fluids. I love my mom!

It took us about three days to get over our bug, and now, we are back to our healthy selves! We didn't snap too many pictures of us as we were sick, but there was a funny moment when I tried to feed Holden a mango popsicle to keep him hydrated. He loves mangoes, and the doctor suggested popsicles, so we were surprised, and amused, that Holden did NOT like the popsicle and even threw it on the carpet, and under the chair. He wanted to make sure we knew he did not approve!

Pushing the popsicle away from him

Taking the popsicle

"Gimme that popsicle!!!"

Crying and taking the popsicle over to the chair...

...because that is where yucky popsicles belong!

Splish-Splash

Yesterday, Nathan and I took Holden to the pool for the first time. It was a short trip because we know we have to get Holden acclimated to this "really big bath" before spending an hour plus at the pool. (Have I mentioned that we have a very cautious child?) Holden really did enjoy the water, but he definitely had a death grip on Nathan's chest hair! Next time we will bring his float along, and a few toys, and see if he likes the water even better.

Here is some video I captured of Holden "swimming" with Nathan:

Welcome Back...With News!

If you notice the date on my last blog post, it was in February - four months ago. A lot has happened during those four months, including a first birthday. You might think I feel extremely guilty, but Holden had an ear infection on his birthday, and he will probably thank me for not posting pictures of him looking sick and miserable.

Back to February. Nathan and I said yes on New Year's eve to going on a mission trip to Africa this summer, and February was when planning began. There were a total of seven couples going, and we had our first kick-off meeting Friday, February 18th. We met the team, introduced ourselves and were getting more and more excited by the minute. There was just one tiny problem - I was late (yup, that kind of late).

My body had just gotten back to normal in January (I went a total of 17 months - love nursing!), so when February was a little off, I wasn't too worried about it. But with Africa becoming more and more a reality, and money needing to be put down, I thought I should double check just to be sure.

Nathan and I started laughing at the possibility of me being pregnant, and then I stopped when I saw the "pregnant" word on my little pee stick. Holden was only nine months old at this point - how could I be pregnant again?!?

Everyone in our family was surprised and a little shocked. Two kids under two, two kids in diapers, just the idea of two kids. For me, I did not think I would be ready for this task, this "promotion" as Nathan called it. Honestly, I selfishly stayed in a state of shock for about three months. God's plan was not my plan. We were supposed to be going to Africa, not having another baby. We were supposed to be enjoying our little boy, not having another baby. I was selfish and I was scared.

God's grace, power and strength are amazing, though, and I am feeling more and more confident by the day. This baby started kicking much earlier than Holden, and baby has reminded me how much joy and love I have in my heart to give him/her. I look in amazement at how far Holden has come, and I am becoming more and more excited about meeting our newest addition.

I am just about 21 weeks along now, and due October 22nd. I do not know the gender of our baby, but Nathan does, so ask him if you want to know - - but keep it a secret from me!

Meet the newest Sandell: