Month: December 2017

A Dang-Near Perfect Weekend

This past weekend was SO fun. Honestly, it was probably as close to perfect as weekends with a two-year-old get.

Sona worked Saturday (which WASN’T perfect), but she got off early. Finn and I went  lazed in bed until late in the morning, ate breakfast in bed, and then went to his swim lesson, which he loves.

Each year, Chicago has a holiday-themed CTA train, complete with Santa! The train was scheduled to stop at our local station at 4:00 on Saturday evening. So, I’d been telling Finn that he would have to get up early from nap to go see it.

Usually, he is such a crank when we wake him up from nap-time, but he woke up a little early on his own Saturday, and I heard him saying “Santa train!” on the baby monitor. He’d never gotten up, dressed, and out of the house so quickly.

Sona met us at the train station, where we waited anxiously for Santa. Finn was SO, SO excited. It was adorable.

I COULD EAT THAT FACE.

Santa showed up right on time, and Finn was starstruck. We decided to ride the Santa train, but we only did for one stop. It was PACKED. I mean, like we couldn’t even move. I thought for sure that Finn would freak out, but he was so happy to get candy canes from the elves on board that he behaved himself.

After riding one stop north on the holiday train, we hopped off and crossed the platform just in time to get on the southbound train, which we decided to take down to Wrigley for the Chriskindelmarket.

We have always done the Chriskindelmarket downtown, but it gets ridiculously busy. Like, last year, we were packed in like sardines. It’s just not fun when you can’t even move your arm to bring your steaming hot boot-full of glogg to your lips. And it’s not safe for Finn when it gets that crowded. Luckily, they started another market at Wrigley Field, this year, and that’s just 5-10 minutes from us. It was great!

We actually got a table (something that NEVER happens downtown), and it was warm enough for us to eat outside).  We chowed down on bratwurst and schnitzel and warm pretzels with cheese. But Finn was most excited about the hot chocolate, especially since he got his very own snowman mug. He was determined to handle that thing on his own, much to Mommy’s chagrin. She tried–in vain–to help, but he wasn’t having it.

There was a jumbo screen playing old Disney cartoons, which Finn thought was AWESOME.

But not as awesome as his hot chocolate, of course. LOOK AT THE SIDE EYE he is giving Sona. He’s totally thinking, “Don’t even think about touching my mug.” It cracks me up.

We finished our market adventure with hot mini donuts and a new squirrel ornament, which we let Finn pick out from a vendor who was selling hand-made felt ornaments. That’ll become a tradition, I think.

On Sunday morning, we woke up, had breakfast in bed (again), and then headed to the Garfield Park Conservatory, which is one of our favorite–FREE!–spots to hit up in the winter. We told Finn we were going to “the jungle.”

If this photo had taken any longer than 5 seconds to capture, he would have been swimming with those fish.

He spent most of the time running around like a crazy man, but that’s why we took him. He needed a warm place to burn off some energy.

He worked up an appetite with all of that running. Sandwich break!

This photo so perfectly captures his goofyness. He’s taunting us, here.

We ended the weekend with long naps, some cleaning, leftover tacos, and a fresh haircut.

Only 7 more sleeps until Christmas!

How Our Cookies Crumble

If you follow us on Instagram (@allthefinn), then you know we’ve been doing quite a bit of baking this week. And by “we,” I mean “I.”

Honestly, I can’t quite think of anything else that so appropriately signals the end of my school semester (just submitted final grades–wut, wut?!) and the beginning of holiday break that a few marathon days of back pain-inducing cookie making.

I’m taking a break from binge-baking today, but I thought I’d share a little about what I bake–and how I tackle it all.

Each year, I have a few standards that I always make. Then, I like to mix things up with some newer recipes. All in, I typically bake 8-10 different kinds of cookies, and we usually end up with around 500 cookies in total.

Fun fact: I don’t even really like cookies. But I  like baking for people who do like cookies. So, I go crazy.

Between family visits, a wife who is a cookie fiend (and now a preggo wife who is a cookie fiend), a toddler, and various get-togethers, we end up eating our fair share at the homestead. Sona also takes several batches to work, and we hand them out as gifts (just dropped off two tins at our local UPS store, today).

This is the haul from my first day baking, this week:

(Excuse the crappy iPhone photos. When you bake this many cookies, you could care less about fussing with a fancy camera.)

Starting at the top left, there are:

Pecan Snowball Cookes: These are new this year. I’ll be totally honest in admitting that I only did them because I wanted a round cookie to add variety–and because they are fairly easy.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip: Okay, if you click on this link, the first thing you’ll notice is that my cookies look NOTHING like the ones pictured. Something went wrong, y’all. These are still a very good basic chocolate chip, and brown butter makes everything better, but I kind of wish I would have made the Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip cookies that I’ve made for several years. I was just being lazy. The latter are definitely superior. Maybe I’ll make them next week.

Almond Cream Cheese Spritz: These have become a must-have, and they are Sona’s favorite. (My third favorite.) The recipe is straight out of the instructional booklet that came with the cookie press I bought last year. (I checked to make sure this blogged version is the same.) I add 2 tsp of almond extract because DUH. It makes everything better.  I’m obsessed with this OXO cookie press. You can make like 30 cookies in 3 minutes, and they always look professionally made. It took a few trials to get the cookie press cookies perfect, but here is the trick: everything must be cold! Use a silicone baking mat on your cookie sheet (I never cook without out). Put the baking sheet (with mat) either in the fridge or, if you live somewhere as cold as Chicago, on the porch. Let it get reallllllly cold–like 10-15 minute. Then, the spritz cookies will perfectly stick to the baking sheet–and not the press–when you punch them out. Then, after your cookie sheet is full of perfectly-shaped cookies, chill them again for another 5-10 minutes. Making sure they are really cold before baking ensures that they will hold their shape. I always split my dough in half and do two different colors/shapes.

Spicy Chai Snickerdoodles: This is the base recipe I used, and then I added a ton of spices. I didn’t measure, if I’m being honest, but I added roughly a 1/2 tsp of each of the following: white pepper, cardamom, clove, allspice, ground ginger. I also added a full tsp of cinnamon into the batter, in addition to what I used to roll the balls in. They are really, really good, but I wonder if they’d be even better had I added extra spices to the rolling mix (cinnamon/sugar), too.

And here’s the haul from last night:

Peanut Butter Kisses: These are my favorite, and they are the cookie I most associate with the holidays. They also happen to be the easiest. Counting the Hershey kisses, these cookies only have 4 ingredients. I follow the linked recipe, and I usually add a tbsp or two of flour. I just think the texture is better that way. That said, my cookies ALWAYS crack. I think PB cookies are kind of supposed to crack, though. So, I don’t really mind. A lot of people add the kisses after baking, but I really prefer to add them before. They taste kind of toasty–and delicious–that way. One tip: DO NOT use fancy, homemade, “natural” peanut butter. You want the classic stuff, otherwise they will be an oily mess.

Rosemary Orange Shortbread: These are my second favorite cookie.  I follow the recipe linked, but I add the zest of an orange. You can also use the same base recipe–minute rosemary and orange–and add Earl Grey tea and lavender. SO GOOD. They do need to be rolled and cut, which is the biggest PIA, but I follow the same chilling tips as with the spritz: chill pan, chill cookies before baking. That way, they are easier to cut and they hold their shape.

Almond Joy Chocolate Crinkles: Follow recipe and add 2 tsp almond extract and 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes. These are so fudgy and rich. They are also pretty easy–easy enough that I let Finn help me with the final steps. (See photos of him covered in powdered sugar.) Since I love almond/coconut anything, these may have to go into the regular rotation.

Here are a few more that I still plan to bake:

Cherry Almond Thumbprints: I make these every year. They don’t keep as well. So, I’ll wait and make them a little closer to Christmas. I like to use sour cherry preserves instead of raspberry, and if I’m feeling extra spunky, I’ll do a dark chocolate drizzle.

Coconut Brown Butter Cookies: Enough said.

Ginger Pecan Oatmeal Crisps: These were some of the first cookies I started baking, and they were Sona’s original favorites. I could never get perfect squares, as pictured on the website, but they are delicious and texturally very different than any of the others.

Christmas Crack (AKA Saltine Cracker Toffee): It just ain’t Christmas without it.

What are your favorite holiday recipes?

Tree Trimming & Menorah Lighting

Look at me, blogging two days in a row! The semester must be winding down. 🙂

To be fair, this post is pretty much just a photo dump. We’ve been racking up a ton of holiday photos, lately, and I want to share some before it gets out of hand.

So, here are photos from two special nights over the past couple of weeks: the night we put up our Christmas tree and last night, which was the first night of Hanukkah. This is a multicultural post, y’all, cause we’re a multicultural family like that.

Let’s start with the tree-trimming, which is always one of my favorite nights of the whole year. Sona and I actually went to get our tree earlier in that week. We just figured it’d be easier to choose it, haul it home, and put it in the stand without Finn at our feet. We were right.

But we made sure he was around for tree-trimming, even if he wasn’t that interested. And we made sure to have lots of snacks, of course.

Sona got start on the lights at the top.

And Finn tried to blow out all the candles we had lit.

I swear I helped with the lights–between photos. 🙂

As we’ve done for the past 10+ years, we ordered pizza (just like Kevin McCallister).

 

 

Mischievous little elf.

For the first time, I did ribbon on our main tree instead of garland.

Finn played with his toys while we decorated.

Let’s not talk about how long it took to get our very-heavy star up there.

The end result:

Fast forward a couple of weeks. Last night was the first night of Hanukkah, and I wanted Finn to participate in lighting the candles.

He was into it.

But mostly, he was into the chocolates he got at the end.

“Want some, Momma?”

Have I mentioned that I love this time of year?

Baby Deux, Part 9: The Numbers

Disclaimer: If you aren’t actively trying to conceive or immensely interested in fertility, you should probably stop reading right this second. If you choose to continue, I must apologize for the boredom–and for the onslaught of acronyms–that’s sure to follow.

Disclaimer #2: We’ve had a lot of questions about how we ended up with a successful pregnancy, mostly from other same-sex couples TTC (see, acronym). I want to provide answers to those questions because I know how hungry we were for similar answers during our own process. That said, it’s important to underscore something: Sona and I haven’t cracked the code of conception. Our answers may be helpful to some, but they aren’t meant to provide a step-by-step instructional for how to get pregnant, obvs.

Also, if this post shows you nothing else, I hope it shows you this: Pregnancy is a miracle, yes. But conception? Conception is science. Nothing but science. There is a bit of chance and luck involved, too–but it’s all about whether or not you are lucky enough to time the science correctly. Knowing this, for some reason, helped me cope. It prevented me from internalizing outcomes too much. It kept me from constantly asking, “But why? What does this mean?” If we didn’t get pregnant, I knew there was a very pragmatic reason why: We didn’t get the science right, that time.

So, let’s get to those numbers, shall we?

Before we zero in on how we conceived, I’ll go global. In the past year, leading to this pregnancy, we did a total of 8 IUIs over the span of 11 months.

We spent $8385.00 on donor specimen (sperm) and around $3500.00 on fertility clinic-related expenses (IUIs, ultrasounds, etc.). OUCH. Goodbye, vacation.

Sona took approximately 120 digital ovulation tests. We used these: Clearblue Digital Ovulation Test, 20 Ovulation Tests.

She also took about half as many cheap-y ovulation tests, once we realized that the CBE tests were sometimes inaccurate. I think that doing both of the tests alongside one another really helped us nail her ovulation timing. Here are the cheapies that we used: AccuMed® Combo 50 Ovulation (LH) & 25 Pregnancy (HCG) Test Strips Kit, Clear and Accurate Results, FDA Approved and Over 99% Accurate.

She took her temperature every single morning for nearly a year.

We did a single IUI for 4 cycles and we did two IUIs for 2 cycles, including the last one.

We saw 4 different doctors at 3 different practices: a women’s health center, an LGBTQ clinic, and, in the end, a specialty fertility clinic.

We got pregnant with the latter.

Sona was pretty religious about using Fertility Friend to track her cycles. It’s a really helpful app, and we strongly recommend it! Here are her charts from October and November, just so you can see the various patterns–and discrepancies.

 

She menstruated from October 26th-30th.

On October 30th, she got baseline bloodwork.

On November 2nd, she started taking 50 mg of Clomid, which she did for 5 days.

On the morning of Wednesday, November 8th, she went in for bloodwork and an ultrasound.  Her LH was 26.14 and her E2 was 522.

She had one 18mm follicle visible in the ultrasound.

That night, she did a 250 mcg HCG trigger shot at 6:45PM.

According to ovulation tests, she peaked the next morning, November 9th.

On that same day, she did her first IUI at 4PM.

The second IUI was at 7:15AM the following morning, on Friday, November 10th.

So, we did our IUIs roughly 21 and 37 hours after the trigger shot. We are pretty certain that she ovulated late Friday evening.

A week prior to inseminating, Sona’s progesterone level was 0.91. She started taking 200mg of progesterone each night, beginning on November 11th, which was the evening after the second IUI. Her levels immediately rose to 35 and have consistently hovered at around 41 since conception.

Currently, as of today, the fetus is measuring 6.5 weeks old, which puts our due date at around August 3, 2018–one week before Finn’s 3rd birthday.

And that’s all we’ve got, folks. If you made it this far, I’m impressed. I could barely get through half of this post in proofreading.

Still, I believe–as I’ve said many times–that knowledge is power. The more you know, the more empowered you are to make decisions for yourself, your body, and–hopefully–your baby. I hope this is helpful to some of you on your own journeys.

(Couldn’t resist.)

What Finn’s Getting From Santa This Year

I think it’s time for a not-so-heavy post, and this is it! We have 18 days left until Christmas (!!!!!), and we are in full holiday mode over here. Now that Finn is a little older, he seems to better understand all of this Christmas stuff. Last year was fun, but I think this year is going to be a riot. He’s just at a really fun age for all things Santa.

“What’s Santa say, Finn?” “Ho, ho, hoooooooo.” You know, he kind of gets it.

It goes without saying: Christmas shopping has been really fun, this year. Of course, Finn has pretty much every single thing any 2-year-old could ever want. So, the challenge is finding gifts that will be useful, exciting, and won’t just sit around, collecting dust and adding to the clutter.

We also tried to choose things that really align with his current interests: anything with wheels, art/creativity, and stuff that allows him to burn some energy, especially during the winter.

Here’s what will be under the tree Christmas morning, some from us, some from Mimi and Pops, and some from Santa:

1. ALEX Toys Active Play Monkey Balance Board

I think he’ll like this. He’s started taking an interest in balance-oriented things at the local play rooms.

2. JellyDog Inertia Toy Early Engineering Vehicles Friction Powered Kids Dumper, Bulldozers, Forklift, Tank Truck, Asphalt Car And Excavator Toy For Children Kids Boys And Girls, Set of 6

It is no secret that Finn is absolutely gaga for all things with wheels, especially construction trucks. He can literally name them all. And we don’t know enough to discern whether or not he’s right.

3. The Pigeon Wants a Match

The pigeon books are his favorite, especially Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (surprise, surprise). I think he’ll be really excited to have a little pigeon of his own.

4. Blue Horse Hopper, Pump Included (Inflatable Space Hopper, Jumping Horse, Ride-on Bouncy Animal)

A few of the YouTube videos he watches feature this thing, which gets rave reviews, and he LOVES watching other kids jump on it.

5. GP – NextX Magnetic Drawing Board For Kids – Erasable Colorful Magna Doodle Drawing Board Toys for Kids Writing Sketching Pad – Gift set with 5 Shape Stamps and Lovely Sticker

This is a good toy to take in the car, to restaurants, etc. I think it’ll come in handy.

6. Hape All-in-One Wooden Kid’s Art Easel with Paper Roll and Accessories

This is the primary gift from Mimi and Pops. Finn really, really loves it when we set up an art project for him, which we don’t do nearly enough. Hopefully, this will encourage more of that.

7. Play-Doh 24-Pack of Colors (Amazon Exclusive)

He has been SO into Play-Doh, lately. We feared it at first because, well, MESS. But he’s actually really good at only playing with it on his little table in the kitchen, and it keeps him busy for extended periods of time.

8. Play-Doh Classic Tools Playset

See above. I love this these tools are simple, wooden, and easy to use.

9. Step2 Thomas the Tank Engine Up & Down Roller Coaster

This is the gift that, once I saw it, I just couldn’t pass up. I texted it to Sona early one morning, and she responded with something like “No way in hell!” I ordered it like 5 minutes later, returning another bigger gift we had purchased for him. I just couldn’t resist. He is going to go BANANAS. I–I mean Santa–will definitely win Christmas morning with this sucker, even if it is a little impractical.

Baby Deux, Part 8: Our First Ultrasound

This morning, we all got up super early to make Sona’s first ultrasound appointment, which was scheduled for 6:50. Since she has to go to work after and wants to try to get there as close to her 7:00 start time as possible, she always nabs the first appointment.

I wanted to be with her, of course, but daycare doesn’t open until 7AM (Finn usually gets up at around 7:30-8:00 and doesn’t get to daycare until 9:00 on a normal day), we had to take Finn with us. At first, he wasn’t too happy about being roused so early, but he rallied later. (This is one of those days when it’d be realllllllly nice to have a grandparent nearby.)

To make matters worse, he woke up with a blaring case of pink eye: eye swollen shut, redness, a lot of yellow gunk. Needless to say, it wasn’t exactly a stress-free start to what we were hoping would be a special morning.

But it was nothing that a little medicine, a blueberry muffin, and Frozen on the iPad couldn’t fix. We were a sleepy and crusty caravan, but we made it to the clinic on time.

Once we got to the doctor, we had to wait about 5 minutes before Sona got called back for bloodwork. Luckily, they let Finn and I (and the iPad and the muffin and Monkey) tag along for all of it. Finn held Sona’s hand while they drew blood, which was the sweetest thing ever. She’ll get her progesterone levels tested for the next few weeks, apparently.

After that, it was time for the ultrasound. Since it is so early, they do a vaginal ultrasound, and they told us not to expect to see much, yet. I think Sona really just wanted confirmation that SOMETHING was there–and by “there,” I mean in the appropriate place.

Luckily, pretty much immediately, the ultrasound tech located the gestational sack, which is measuring exactly as it should be for 5 1/2 weeks, and right inside the sack, just as they hope to see, we got a clear view of a yolk sack.

It was all done in about 10 minutes, but it was actually really nice to have all three of us there. Finn was perfectly behaved the entire time (which is always a gamble, obvs), and we got yet another reassuring sign that things are progressing in a positive way.

As it stands, the due date for baby #2 is the first week of August–just a few days before Finn’s birthday.  It’s still very early, of course, but we continue to be cautiously excited.

For now, I have to go run and shower. I have a week and a half of classes to go before the end of the semester (insert praying hands emoji, here). Sona ended up having to take the day off to stay home with Finn and his crusty eye. We are getting a very tiny glimpse into what life with two kiddos will be like: even when you want to stop and revel in the glory of one, the other is going to be running around like a mad-man,  demanding your attention (and your antibiotics), and making sure every surface of the house has been contaminated.

We’ll take it.