Ahhh, the Catholics

From Wendy ....
Pen loved day 2 of school, too! hooray! And is coming home with
religious songs already. Yesterday, she says: `Hi Mummy, Peace To
You', with actions.
Today, this song: `God be in my heart, God be in my mind (i think),
God be over my shoulders' . There's no wasting time with religious
instruction!

Week 28 Today

This week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She's also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

From BabyCenter.com - I get a cute email each week. I love the way they compare the baby to a fruit or veg in terms of it's growth. Fun to guess. I think we have successfully guessed it once.

From Meggie (Part 2)

That's her in the picture. Have you seen them in the streets? Supermodel Meggie.

Beets with Chile and Lemon

For Caroline and her co-op food box (filled with beets). Not one for the kids. Let me know if you make and how it tastes. Looks pretty.
Recipe here

From Meggie (Part 1)

She sends the craziest emails..

When I'm feeling blue, I look at this photo and say to myself "meg. Count your blessings.
Think of all those poor, sick fountain pens in hospital". And I
realize just how lucky I am.

(the fountain pen hospital is opposite our apt and Jodie sent her the picture (Jodes is staying with us at the moment - only in NY right??!)

Pen's First Day at Big School

So cute. She looks so wonderfully excited. Can't believe the size of the school bag. And how Australian does that hat look?

Vietnamese Salad

Courtesy of Gwyneth and her GOOP newsletter ...

Vietnamese Salad
Serves: 4
Time: 15 minutes
Toss the bok choy, cabbage, watercress, carrot, herbs, cucumber, chili and 1/4 cup of the peanuts together with enough dressing to
coat. Serve sprinkled with the remaining peanuts and whatever protein you like.
4 large bok choy leaves, rough bottoms discarded,
stems cut into 1/4” bias and leaves shredded
4 big leaves Napa cabbage, shredded
1 bunch watercress (discard thick stems), roughly chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
the leaves from about 8 stems each basil, mint, cilantro, roughly chopped
1/2 small cucumber, thinly sliced on the bias
1 red Thai chili (or more...or less), thinly sliced
1/2 cup roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped
Vietnamese Dressing (see recipe below)
grilled fish, shrimp, tuna, chicken, or tofu for serving (optional)
ingredients
preparation

Vietnamese Dressing
Serves: 4
Time: 5 minutes
Mix everything together.
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sesame oil
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
2 tablespoons finely diced red onion or shallot
ingredients
preparation

Sweet Potato Fries

Yum. And baked so not too bad.

Recipe here

Happy Australia Day

I know how I'll be celebrating.

Ina's Cape Cod Chopped Sala

Can't find a picture, but this looks delicious. Although I pretty much love everything she makes.
Has blue cheese in it, which I would leave until the end as I don't eat it, but the other ingredients, arugula, walnuts, apple, bacon, dried cranberries are right up my street. As is the citrus-y dressing:

Ingredients
8 ounces thick-cut bacon, such as Niman Ranch
8 ounces baby arugula
1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced
1/2 cup toasted walnut halves, coarsely chopped (see note)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
6 ounces blue cheese, such as Roquefort, crumbled
For the dressing:
3 tablespoons good apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup good olive oil
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place a baking rack on a sheet pan and lay the bacon slices on the rack. Roast the bacon for about 20 minutes, until nicely browned. Allow to cool.

In a large bowl, toss together the arugula, apple, walnuts, cranberries, and blue cheese.

For the dressing, whisk together the vinegar, orange zest, orange juice, mustard, maple syrup, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper in a bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.

Chop the bacon in large pieces and add it to the salad. Toss the salad with just enough dressing to moisten. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and toss well. Serve immediately.

Dots

You may remember I posted about these coat hook dots a while back. Got them and they are so pretty in the flesh. They may have to wait until we move to a bigger place, but until then, I shall admire them in the box.

J. Crew

Nick and I love J.Crew. In summer, I seem to live in flip flops, but these metallic boat shoes look rather nice and comfortable. Shall investigate.

Paris

My only photo of Paris. Lucky it's a lovely one.

What We Are Watching

Nick and I both had a tummy bug recently, nothing good about it except on the second night we finally had the energy to watch some telly. We got stuck into Bleak House, ordered from Netflix. Great BBC adaption of the Charles Dickens novel. New nothing about the story line, but it is great if you love a English period piece. We have seen two of the three discs. Can't wait for the next installment.

Only In Oz

The tragic headline: "Player Fights with Fan, Ballboy Wets His Pants." A Brazilian tennis player was physically restrained during a fight with a female heckler, while American Donald Young's match waited 40 minutes while they blow-dried the court.

"The ball kid peed on himself. It was unfortunate," Young said.
"It took a while to replace him. Then they had to put the sawdust down, or whatever you put down when somebody throws up.
"Then they had to use the blower (to dry the court) but the blower had no gas in it, so that took even more time."

Haven't watched any of the Australian Open, but must do.

Sammy The Seagull

This time as a print. Lovely.

Nice Mirror

And I wouldn't mind this bedroom either.

Glee

We just finished watched the season finale of Glee. A must watch, feel-good show about a glee club. Wholesome, with positive messages and great writing. Jane Lynch is in it, Nick and I think she is hysterical (see picture above - she was in Julie and Julia and 40 year old vigin. Plays the same, sarcastic character but she does it so well.
I think it starts in the UK later this month, not sure about Oz, but definitely worth watching.

Connor

Here's the lovely Connor, sporting a brand new haircut courtesy of dad. I don't think Daddy should give up his day job, although he is looking cute as can be.

I really don't need another tote. I have quite a few, but do use them all. This is a bit of fun for the summer. And a bargain at $20. Maybe for the summer..
Available here

Cute Dolls

From Romp. They are called Naomi and Sophie and are handmade in the Netherlands.

Artwork From Phoebe

Nice Bed

What a lovely looking bedroom. Can't remember where I found it - but I think probably Remodelista - one of my favourite blogs. Love the colour palate and how uncluttered it all is.

Sheets

I love these sheets from Pottery Barn. Love eyelet. So pretty. I'm unnaturally obsessed with bed lines and unfortunately, we only have one bedroom - I sometimes think it's why I want a house rather than an apartment!

Ouch

From CNN

Beijing, China (CNN) -- Li Jingchao learned the hard way -- be careful what you stick up your nose.
The 14-month-old boy was playing with chopsticks when, his doctor says, he fell and one of the sticks pierced his nose.
"It touched upon the deep area of his brain, four centimeters of the chopstick was inside his skull," Dr. Sun Wei told CNN.
Jingchao's mother, Zhao Guilu didn't see what happened -- she was in another room at the time, but came running when she heard her son crying.
"I was washing dishes. I rushed in and saw him lying on the ground. He couldn't stop crying and I noticed a chopstick stuck in his nose."
She went to a local clinic, but doctors there warned her it was too dangerous to try to remove the chopstick because it may cause massive bleeding. Zhao was frantic and called her husband. A relative offered to drive them from their small village, hundreds of miles to a hospital in Beijing.

"I thought at that time, it is all over, my boy will die," said his father Li Guanglai. "During the 10 hours of driving I felt depressed. I could barely breathe. I looked at my boy and his right side was numb. He was paralyzed."
Neurosurgeons, including Sun prepped for surgery but they feared removing the chopstick would rupture an artery. The little boy's head was shaved and they were ready to open his skull to control the bleeding if necessary.
But when they pulled the chopstick out -- nothing. It simply came straight out, much easier it seems than how it went in.
"I never thought it would be this successful." said his dad. "I would say this hospital gave him a second life."
Doctors said if the chopstick had gone any further in it would have caused life threatening bleeding and if it was a little more to either side the boy may have been permanently paralyzed.
"The position of the chopstick was very, very lucky for him," Sun said.

I Bought

I'm seeing how expensive this baby thing is already - and we haven't even really purchased anything yet. Also, luckily, and most generously, we have a million offers of stuff which is definitely going to help. One thing I did buy is this Serena and Lily sling. You may remember it from a post ages ago. We got the pale blue one with the pink lining above, but the other picture is cuter as you can see the baby.

Bread Maker

We got a bread maker for Christmas from Nicks' dad and step mom. Great, but as you can see, I still have a long way to go. Tastes good, but super dense. And I don't think I will be winning any awards for its beauty. My second loaf looked even worse if you can image. Quite the shock after making my own light and delicious, lovely looking loafs. Not hard to make by hand (and electric mixer) but takes hours of effort. This, you just chuck it in and away it goes. Shall keep you updated.

Happy New Year

Seems a long time since I posted, I guess I got rather slack last half of 2009, this year hopefully it will be a bit better. And, I am guessing a bit more baby focused. UK/Paris was great, alas, hardly any photos. If only I spoke French - would be great to have an apt there, just the prettiest city in the world. Miraculously, despite some major power eating, and 3 course breakfast, lunches and dinners involving too much rich food, we managed not to put on any weight. Another reason to love France. Meanwhile, after our trip to India, Nick and I packed it on. Tragic. Week 25 today - flying by.
xxx