Saturday, April 6, 2013

The Babies of Catan

The weekend started on Friday night (as it often does) and a late night getting home and convincing the babies to go to sleep. Elliott, uncharacteristically, has required more attention in that department than normal. We suspect he is going through an uncomfortable teething period though he doesn't really show any signs other than giving off high-pitched squeals and only being comforted by sleeping in bed with us.

Lobster Club with Watercress, Bacon, and Avocado on Toasted Ciabatta

I picked up some discount lobster tails at the store and made these sandwiches for dinner on Friday night. Normally "cheap" and "seafood" are two words I try to keep a good distance from each other but these were some beautiful lobster tails. I boiled them, then put them on toasted ciabatta with watercress, bacon, avocado, tomato, Old Bay, and a sauce of mayonnaise, ketchup, relish, mustard, and hot sauce. I served them up with some pickles and Cape Cod potato chips. We used to eat Cape Cod potato chips all the time growing up so I was excited to see them at our local store. What better way to enjoy lobster than with some authentic potato chips named after a cape that actually has no cod.

Firestone Walker Wookey Jack

To accompany this dinner I opened this Wookey Jack from
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. This was a black rye IPA and it was very nice. My only concern is that the label is signed by David Walker, Matt Brynildson, and Adam Firestone. If this Brynildson guy was so important then why did they name the brewery after the other two guys and leave him out?

It turns out that Matt Brynildson is the brewmaster. That made me feel better. I thought that maybe he was some guy that got the shaft when they named the brewery.

Apple Strawberry Oatmeal with Chopped Mango

For breakfast they Wombats had oatmeal with strawberry, apple, and chopped up bits of mango. We've taken to putting chunks of food in their pureed foods now and they seem to really enjoy eating it. Once we got over the initial fear of them choking on a piece of avocado it's been really good for them.

The Wombats' First Toast

Elliott's First Toast

Martin's First Toast

We also made the babies their first toast for breakfast with a little butter. They really enjoyed this one. Strangely I think this was their first wheat to date. We looked everywhere for a wheat cereal for babies but they seem hard to find. I found one by Gerber on Amazon that looked sort of sketchy, like it was a box leftover from the mid 1990s that they were still trying to get someone to buy so I opted to take them on a tour of other, more hippie-style grains instead like millet and amaranth.

That's right. Our are babies who eat amaranth before they ate wheat.

Martin in Baby Prison

Due to Martin's new found climbing skills I spent this morning adjusting the crib so that he would hopefully avoid crashing down onto the floor any time soon.

New Baby Prison

He was momentarily amused by his new prison. Then he cried. Then he passed out.

Mummy Son Dance Time

Martin slept for several hours while Elliott wasn't much interested in a nap, though he was interested in mandatory dance time with Mummy.

Another day, another wine store with some babies.

After lunch and activities we took them out for a really long walk and ran errands, hoping that they would drift off to sleep. Instead after a trip to the eyeglass store, the post office, CVS, the shoe repair shop, and the wine store they were still both wide awake.

Martin with BFF Paul

For dinner Paul and Caolan stopped by and Martin was mystified by Paul. This isn't saying much since all babies on planet Earth are, for some reason, captivated by the sight of him. Don't get me wrong, he is a handsome man, but I'm not quite sure what it is that all babies and children find irresistible. Personally I find him to be one of the funniest people I've ever met but I can't imagine that his particular brand of humor would be understood by your average baby.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe babies understand his humor on a deeper level than I do.

Martin Learns How To Turn Light On and Off

Martin Learns How To Turn Light On and Off

At some point in their visit Martin leaned over toward the light and learned something new: if you pull the string it turns it on and off!


This discovery made for perhaps the most exciting ten minutes of Martin's life so far.

Labne

Paul and Caolan brought over this labne, a Middle Eastern yogurt spread. I had never heard of this before and it turns out I have been missing out on something delicious!

Hop-Ruiter

For beer with this tasty spread I opened this bottle of Hop - Ruiter from Scheldebrouwerij in Belgium, and inexplicably with a .nl website address. We also ordered Italian take out and I found this to be a suitable accompaniment. Perhaps Chianti may have been more appropriate but I thought this aggressively hopped Belgian beer was far more enjoyable. It had an lemony effervescence that was quite pleasing. I was sad to learn that this beer was only brewed once so I guess I'm never enjoying another bottle of it.

If I had known this before I had it I may have savored it just a bit more.

Paul and Caolan brought one more thing with them to dinner . . .

Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan! We'd been wanting to play this game for years. I think I first learned of this game five years ago and ever since have wanted to try it out. Since we apparently are both extremely passive about things we really want to do it didn't happen until they brought it over for us to play for the first time as the delivered promise from Christmas.

I won the first game thanks to my incredible ore cities and they let us keep the game.

Settlers of Catan

On this night I became a true Lord of Catan!

No comments: