I’m determined to finish this blogging exercise, even if it takes me forever.
Blog Activity, Day Four
Seven Things That Cross Your Mind A Lot
1. I can’t believe I have a daughter. I’m a parent. Whoa.
2. What should we have for dinner?
3. I need a vacation. Where should we go to next?
4. What do people see in The Real Housewives, The Kardashians, Paris Hilton, Kate Gosselin, [fill in the blank with other reality stars]? I don’t get why these people are famous.
5. I wish there were more hours in the day. And that I had endless energy to go along with that. There is so much I could get done.
6. Why can’t laundry do itself?
7. I wish exercise was more fun.
From the day she was born, it’s been clear that Nora is our child. The resemblance is uncanny. Except she’s not a mini me… she’s a mini him.
Ask almost anyone and they’ll say that Nora looks just like her daddy.
The funny thing is that people tell me this, and they say it apologetically. Like I’m going to be upset that my child looks like her father. Um, I chose to have a baby with this man, people. He’s my husband. Clearly it’s not something to be angry over?
When Nora was born, I wasn’t immediately struck by her resemblance to Michael. I was pretty sure she had his nose, and my mouth. Before bed that first night in the hospital, I was lying there, staring at her every feature, and I laughed so hard when I got to her toes, because… they are totally Michael’s toes.
But then someone commented on the blog birth announcement, saying she looked just like her daddy, and I thought, “Really?” It wasn’t that I disagreed, it was just that I was surprised that someone could see it so clearly and so quickly.
At our first pediatrician’s appointment, the doctor approached Nora to examine her and stopped short in her tracks and said, “Oh my!” She took a step back and looked at us, and before saying anything further, inquired, “Who do you think she looks like?” I said, “Everyone keeps telling us she looks like him!” and I motioned to Michael. The doctor said, “YES! EXACTLY like him.” :)
I think it’s adorable, really. And the more time I spent studying little Nora’s features, the more I started to see it. I still think she has my mouth, but that might be just about it… at least for now. I’m curious to see how she develops as she grows.
Last week, I suddenly had a memory of a photo of Michael as a baby, one we had used in our photo slideshow for our rehearsal dinner more than two years ago. In my head, I could see him and, well… he looked just like Nora. Or, rather, Nora looked just like him in the picture. On Saturday, I pulled out the DVD slideshow to take a look, and show my in-laws as well.
I was so, so right. See for yourself:
Nora, 2010
Michael, 1981
Even the fingers are the same. And the hair. I swear, if I didn’t know any better, someone could present me with that photo of Michael and I’d think it was my baby girl.
This puts a whole ‘nother spin on “Daddy’s Little Girl.” And I love it. :)
A few weeks ago, when I prepped a bunch of meals for freezing, one of the things I made was spaghetti and meatballs. Well, more accurately, I made meatballs and sauce.
When we do pasta night at our house, we typically go with pasta and marinara sauce (out of a jar. I KNOW). If we do spice things up and add meat to the dish, we generally choose to make meat sauce, since it’s quick and so tasty.
My husband has been begging for homemade meatballs for months, so when it came time to plan for frozen meals, I finally added them to the list. I had bookmarked a recipe at Annie’s Eats a long, long time ago, so I went back to that. It was relatively simple, so we bought enough ingredients to double the recipe–to make one batch for eating right away, and another for freezing to eat after the baby was born.
The end results are meatballs that are tender and flavorful, and a great, traditional sauce. The great thing about sauce recipes is that you can adapt them to your tastes. Add whatever spices you like, add more or less, and make it into what you want it to be. For us, we added a bunch of crushed red pepper because we like a little spice.
If you’re looking for a basic spaghetti and meatballs recipe to become a dinner “staple,” this could be it. Give it a whirl.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
(Source: Annie’s Eats)
Ingredients:
For the sauce:
– 2 tbsp. olive oil
– 1 large yellow onion, chopped
– 4 cloves garlic, minced
– 1 (28 oz.) can tomato puree
– 1 (28 oz.) can tomato sauce
– 2 tsp. dried parsley
– 1 tsp. dried basil
– 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
– 2 tsp. salt
– 2 tbsp. sugar
– 1/2 cup of water (or more)
For the meatballs:
– 1/2 cup bread crumbs, divided
– 1/4 cup milk
– 1 egg, lightly beaten
– 1 tsp. dried parsley
– 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
– 1 clove garlic, minced
– 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
– 1/4 tsp. salt
– 1 lb. ground beef, pork and veal mixture (or 1 lb. ground sirloin)
For serving:
– Freshly cooked spaghetti
– Shredded Parmesan cheese
– Minced fresh basil
Directions:
1. To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion to the pot and saute until tender, 5-8 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, stirring, about 1 minute. Add the tomato puree, tomato sauce, parsley, basil, oregano, salt and sugar. Add water to thin the sauce out to your desired consistency (I would estimate that I add about 1/2 cup). Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Let simmer for at least 2 hours.
2. To make the meatballs, in a medium mixing bowl combine 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs with the milk. Let the bread crumbs soak for 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and mix thoroughly. Form the mixture into meatballs (I usually get about 20-25 out of one batch). Add the meatballs to the simmering sauce about 45 minutes before the sauce will be finished cooking. Cover and let simmer until the meatballs are cooked through, 35-45 minutes.
3. Transfer freshly cooked pasta to serving dishes. Top each serving with sauce and meatballs. Garnish with shredded Parmesan and fresh basil, if desired.
We kept our baby name choices a secret throughout my entire pregnancy, even though we were pretty much 100% settled on them from the very beginning. We never even opened a baby name book, as we had a boy’s name and a girl’s name already in mind from conversations we had before I even got pregnant.
The secrecy drove a lot of people crazy and sometimes we got questions as to why we were doing it that way. The thing is, we just REALLY wanted the surprise–with both the baby’s sex AND the name reveal. It was also nice that we never got any unwanted “feedback” about our choices since we didn’t share them to begin with. (Although, now that it’s been revealed, we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive reactions we’ve received!)
Now that Nora is here, we’ve gotten a lot of questions about her name. Why we chose it, what it means, and most of all… what was the boy name choice?
And, well, I can’t help with that last question. :) We had so much fun keeping the names secret from everyone that we’ve decided that we’ll likely do the same thing next time, too. And that means we won’t be revealing our boy name choice, just in case we want to use it for a potential future baby boy. Sorry, people.
But for Nora…
We don’t really know where Nora came from. We’re not sure where we heard it, or when we first discussed it. It’s just a name that we discovered at some point and decided that we both really liked it. We knew that when it came time to name our kids, we didn’t want anything super popular, but we also didn’t want anything completely unique or obscure. We like nice, “normal” names.
Depending on your source, Nora means “honor” or “light.”
Our choice of Grace for a middle name has a bit more of a story behind it. When I got pregnant, we were already decided on the first names, but we weren’t sure what we were going to do for the middle names. One thing we did know was that we wanted to use family names. We discussed several different options over the first several months of pregnancy.
I really wanted to honor my great-grandmother, who died in 2002 at the age of 96. She was greatly loved and respected and we all cherished her as a member of our family. There was so much to love about her, as she had the best personality. It’s actually really fitting that I’m telling you all about her today, as September 20 was her birthday.
My great-grandmother’s name was Madeline.
As much as I love the name Madeline, it didn’t seem to fit quite right (Nora Madeline), plus it seemed a bit long for a middle name–especially when put with our last name. One day, I was thinking about my great-grandma and remembered the stories about her nickname–Gracie.
My great-grandfather (whom I never met, as he died before I was born) always called his wife Gracie. Back in the 1950s, there was a show called “Burns and Allen” that starred George Burns and Gracie Allen. Apparently, my great-grandparents loved this show. On it, Gracie Allen played a really ditzy character–and to tease her for her own (sometimes) ditzy nature, my great-grandfather dubbed my great-grandmother “Gracie.” And it stuck.
And so I came up with the possibility of using Grace as the middle name for Nora. I asked Michael if he liked Nora Grace, and as it turned out, he loved it.
Next thing we knew, our little Nora Grace was born. And although it may not be as obvious a connection as using her real name, our daughter’s middle name was chosen in recognition of the matriarch of my family, one whom we miss very much.
Happy Birthday, Grandma. I hope you are looking down at Nora with a smile. I know you are part of the group of angels who sent her to us, and for that, I thank you so, so much. I love you.
In all, 167 people entered the Heather Drive Baby Pool. Thank you to everyone who participated; it was really fun to see the guesses pour in and added to the excitement while we anticipated the arrival of our baby.
The results were mathematically calculated by ExpectNet. The most important aspect of the guessing was the baby’s sex–if you were wrong about that, you had no chance of winning! Then the other elements were taken into consideration as well, and everyone was given points for their guesses based on how close or far off they were. The object of the game was to actually get the LEAST amount of points.
Without further ado, the winner of the Heather Drive Baby Pool is…
CHRISTIE FROM TENNESSEE!! :)
To refresh your memories, Nora was born at 3:29 a.m. on 9/11/10, weighed 6 lbs., 10 oz., and was 20 inches long.
Christie correctly guessed that we were having a girl, and also guessed the correct birth date. She was also pretty darn close on the baby’s weight and length. Way to go, Christie!
If you’d like to see how you ranked, you can check out the Heather Drive Baby Pool page to see all results.
Christie is the winner of a vintage apron of her choice from Etsy seller Terrace Hill, and the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book.
Congrats to Christie, and thanks again to all of you for playing!
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
