Good Luck for Unlucky Numbers

The boys didn't sleep terribly well last night. We didn't do a very good job at helping the matter by keeping an incredibly poor mental record of who had eaten and well. It felt like every 20-30 minutes one of them would wake up, I'd go get them, we'd feed them, and then return them to their crib. After 20-30 minutes this would all happen again and we'd say, "Wait, who just ate? How much did they eat? Did you give them a bottle? I didn't give them a bottle. Oh crap."

Then we'd just sort of feed them until they fell asleep.

This resulted in all parties having a pretty rough night. Maybe it was the excitement over seeing Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. Maybe they were just nervous about the stalled Fiscal Cliff negotiations. At any rate I'm hoping the absence of any horrible New Year's Eve programming and the tentative Fiscal Cliff deal will result in a much better night's sleep to start off 2013.


The Wombats ended the last few days of 2012 and begin the first day of 2013 with a startling discovery: they have feet! They have been fascinated by this fact the last few days. This is cute to watch though frustrating whilst trying to change their diapers.


To bring in good luck to the new year I made black-eyed peas, something I've never gotten around to doing on New Year's Day before. I cooked up some garlic, onion, red and green pepper, and leftover Christmas ham with some blacke-yed peas that I soaked overnight with a little thyme and cumin. I also made collard greens which I cooked with onion, garlic, cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. I served them both with leftover rice from the Indian food the other night as well as slices of cornbread which I buttered and browned in a pan.

I wasn't sure I actually wanted to eat this while dealing with our baby hangover but after a few bites I was very glad I made it and devoured my entire plate. Perhaps it is good luck. If the babies stop trying to grab their feet while I change their diapers and also sleep 12 hours a night for the rest of their infancy I will know that the black-eyed peas thing is not merely a superstition.


For beer Jen and I split this Blonde d'Achouffe from Brasseurs R.J. in Montreal. This was a present from Jen's father on one of his cross-continental loops he performs several times a year. This was a spicy Belgian style strong ale which has just about everything it needs to win points with me. It was a delicious way to start the new year. Here's hoping for many more Belgian ales in 2013. And no more foot-grabbing.

Maybe if I give them enough Belgian ale in their bottle they will be too stupefied to grab at their toes anymore. I think I read something about that in a Dr. Spock book.