Valentine's Day 2011

Jacob's brother Ben & his wife Kalie came to visit for the weekend, so Kalie and I celebrated Valentine's Day with our men on Saturday. We had heart-shaped pizzas & caesar salad for dinner and then watched a movie after Naomi went to bed. I was a little nervous about how the heart-shaped pizzas were going to work because we had to start with rectangular dough, but they actually turned out pretty good!

The HuHot Mongolian Grill

When Jacob's family was helping us move our things into our new place, Lorenzo (Jacob's dad) noticed the HuHot Mongolian Grill right down the street and asked us to test it out for him and report back. We were happy to oblige, especially since it meant a free meal for us!

So here is our unofficial Romney Restaurant Review (I'm loving the alliteration):

The HuHot was not your traditional "order from a menu" type restaurant, so at first I felt a little self-conscious and uncomfortable. When I go out to eat, I usually prefer to be seated, order from my menu, and have my food brought to me so that I don't ever have to leave the security of my table. It's the reason that I've never really liked buffets--they force me out of my comfort zone by requiring me to wander the restaurant in search of what I want to eat. Maybe that sounds weird, but that's me. I also prefer booths instead of tables, because I feel too open at a table, like everyone in the restaurant can see me. Booths feel more secluded. But that has nothing at all to do with this post... just a random fact about me!

So back to the HuHot... the food is set up into three buffet-like stations. At the first station, they have different kinds of meats (all uncooked) cut into thin slices--sausage, pork, chicken, beef, lamb-- as well as different types of noodles. So you grab a bowl and throw in whatever strikes your fancy. At the second station they have vegetables, like cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, and those tiny corn cob things that are often in stir-frys (I obviously have no idea what they are called). So you plop some veggies into your bowl to pretend that you're healthy or something. Then at the last station, you create your sauce. This is the station where you can really get crazy. They have around a dozen already prepared sauces in addition to a bunch of make-your-own-sauce ingredients, and you can mix and match to create your own little concoction! It was exciting and also a little terrifying to be in charge of making my own sauce. My first time around, I stuck with a few ladels each of two prepared sauces, but I got braver later on and made some of my own creations.

Finally, after you've covered your bowl of goodies with at least 5 ladels of sauce, you hand your food to the grill-man to fire it all up. He takes a couple minutes to cook the food, and then he hands you your plate of stir-fry yummies.

It was delicious! Jacob went up twice, and I went up three times (I am a breastfeeding mother, after all). Jacob even fed Naomi a little from his plate, and she loved it, too. Overall, we'd say the HuHot gets 4 stars out of 5... 5 stars is reserved for especially awesome restaurants, like Fogo de Chao in Kansas City. Oh man, that place is amazing! But we're reviewing the HuHot Mongolian Grill here, so enough about that.

And actually, I might be inclined to up my HuHot rating to 4.5, because their menu gave us a chuckle.

(In case you can't read it, the menu says, "How to Pillage like the Mongols. Step 1: Prepare for battle. Step 2: Control your destiny. Step 3: Pour on the flavor. Step 4: Advance to the grill. Step 5: Take back the bounty. Step 6: Relive the conquest.")

P.S. Although I wrote this review today, we went to the HuHot weeks ago! So don't be thinking that we were breaking the Sabbath... I promise we went on a weekday.

My Baby Girl

Today, Naomi took her first step. I say "step", not "steps", because it was only one. She let go of the plastic bin she was holding onto and took one step so that she could hold onto the edge of the couch. I know, I know... that probably seems pretty insignificant to you, but it was the first time she has ever tried to walk without maintaining a grip on something! And to her parents, it was exciting.

I can't believe how big she is getting. I can't believe that in less than 2 months we will celebrate her first birthday. I already miss being able to hold her while she sleeps, like I could do when she was a newborn. I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have in the moment, because she would only sleep if we held her--she screamed as soon as we made any attempt to put her in her bed, and it was frustrating and exhausting. But now, she will only sleep in her bed or her carseat. Every once in a while, after I've nursed her in the middle of the night, she will fall asleep while I am still holding her. On these nights, I sit in her room in the dark for a little while longer, treasuring those peaceful moments with my baby. I want to remember everything about those moments... exactly how I was feeling and what I was thinking and how beautiful she looked as I held her in her sleep. She is growing too fast!

Naomi makes us laugh all the time. About a week ago, Jacob was changing her diaper on the floor in her room, and I was around the corner putting on makeup at the bathroom mirror. I heard Jacob say, "Hey, come back here!" followed by a little giggle from Naomi and some shuffling noises. So I popped my head out to see my naked baby, laughing and crawling as fast as she could away from her Daddy. She looked back at Jacob to see him coming after her, and with more giggles began crawling even faster. It was the first time I remember her really playing with us.


Two days ago, I was sitting on the couch while Naomi played on the living room floor. The space heater was sitting a few feet away, and I had forgotten to unplug it like I usually do when Naomi is roaming. She was curious, as most babies are, and she somehow managed to turn it on. I guess the sudden noise of the heater scared her, because she started whining and crawled over to me as fast as her little legs could bring her. Then she wrapped her little arms around my leg in a death grip and turned to glare at the heater. It was so cute.

She will respond to her name, and not only when Jacob or I call her. She even turned when the doctor called her by her name at her checkup yesterday. She hates the word "no", or she at least hates my tone of voice when I say it. She is already a little drama queen and will frequently throw mini tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants. She hates to get her diaper changed, and whenever possible, Jacob and I have to work together so that one of us can hold her down while the other changes the diaper. When he isn't home I have to hold her down with one leg while I change her, but even so, she usually wriggles her way out of my grip. She is strong! She accidentally kicked me in the eye one day when I was trying to dress her after her bath, and it hurt for hours afterward.

She is stubborn, and frustrating, and silly, and smart, and beautiful, and I can't even begin to explain how much I love her.


My little Naomi-girl.

This is what happens when I ask Jacob to dress Naomi:

He dressed her in a striped summer dress with striped pants from another outfit and purple socks (which is the one color that wasn't on the dress or the pants).

She is still as cute as a button, but what an outfit! I love the dress & pants separately, but they were not meant to go together.

I'm pretty sure that this is what husbands often do to get out of a task in the future--they think that if they do something badly enough the first time, they won't get asked to do it again. But I know your secret, Jacob! You still have to help dress Naomi. :)

SNOW!

I used to absolutely LOVE snow. It was beautiful and magical and fun. When it snowed, I would become giddy. It made me inexplicably happy. It didn't matter what else had been stressing me out or going wrong in my life or getting me down... Life was great, because it was snowing!

Then I graduated from college and got a job and a car, and snow was no longer this wonderful, magical thing. It was terrible. It caused the roads to be unsafe and scary, and it doubled my commute to work. It forced me to spend ten minutes scraping my car in the morning before I could even start that commute. Instead of erasing my stress, it created more stress. I had entered "the real world", and there, snow was just an annoyance.

But snow has started to bring me a little happiness again. A major snowstorm hit us here in Missouri yesterday and lasted most of the day, and although I wasn't giddy, I was definitely pleased! As a result of the 18 inches of snow that fell in Columbia, the University of Missouri is closed until Friday! This means that I got to have my husband at home with me ALL day yesterday and today, and I will get to keep him home with me all day again tomorrow!

Here is the view out of our back doors (that big colorful building in our backyard is Burger King):

And here is the view out of our front door:
I put on my boots so that I could run out to the car to get our water bottles, and then I saw this wall of snow. My favorite part is that you can see the indentations in the snow from the door.

We took Naomi outside today to play in the snow for the first time ever! It lasted about two minutes. I don't think it was her favorite thing in the world, but she didn't seem to hate it. We came inside so quickly because I was worried about Naomi's hands getting cold--we didn't have anything to put on her hands except for some cloth mittens that got cold & wet as soon as she touched the snow. We didn't have boots for her, either, so we put her feet in little ziploc baggies before putting her shoes on. I felt a little like white trash as I was doing it, but it kept her feet dry!

Getting Naomi ready:

Ziploc baggies:

First time in the snow!

Daddy & Naomi (she is licking her coat):

Mommy & Naomi (don't judge me, I have no makeup on):

Someday I hope that my crazy love for snow comes back, but for now, I am at least enjoying being snowed in with my little family!