Are you ready to procreate?

 family  9 Responses »
May 042011
 

I just Googled “best age gap between children.” (BTW, there is no answer to that question.)

I knew that my baby fever would eventually return as Avery grew but it has hit me HARD. My darling only child is now a toddler; she has some lingering baby attributes but they are fading with each passing day. She is still in diapers but we will be starting the grueling, soul-crushing, messy ritual of potty training very soon. To say that I am so over diapers would be an understatement. I need a break from giving my paycheck to Pampers.

How do you decide how far apart to have your children? Where’s the sweet spot? Is three years too close, or is it just right? How about four? Also? Having two young children apparently isn’t easy (well no shit). One of my friends has an almost-three year old and a six month old and she pleaded with me to wait to have a second baby. She struggles with post-partum depression and anxiety so her issues, albeit common, aren’t necessarily ones that I’m going to have. Every mother’s experience is different. However, I don’t want to be overwhelmed by having two children so close in age. Even if Avery is out of diapers she still can’t really fend for herself. She knows how to take off her socks but putting them on is a  skill she has yet to master. Obviously she can’t cook for herself but she does know how to get into the pantry and get her snacks which are thoughtfully kept on the bottom shelf. Maybe I just have a hard time seeing her as a functioning human being. When I look at her I still see my wittle bitty baby. Her face still has that pink-ish glow and her ‘strawberry’ is still prevalent. Her hands are slight and delicate. On the other hand (pun totes intended), she is very much NOT a baby anymore. When I watch her I often forget how little she used to be. Avery was only 5lbs 8oz when she was born and she has stayed on the small end of the scale. She has never fallen off the growth charts but she’s gotten close (in weight, not height and definitely not head size).

She is growing into a remarkable little girl. Now, isn’t it my job as her mother to give her the best life experience possible? In my opinion that means that my little peanut needs a sibling. There are so many things that she will learn about herself when she becomes a sister and I want to give her that gift.

Besides, I have a younger sister and I love the hell out of her. She is my best friend and it would make me crazy-happy if Avery and her brother or sister were to become close.

So, how do I go about planning for baby number two (who, from here on out, will be referred to as Hazelnut. Avery was Peanut so the next one has to have a nutty nickname too). Aside from the obvious making the baby (I totes know how to do that), this go-round will be different than last time. I plan on going back to work once I have the baby. This alone adds challenges that many mothers face. I also would like to lose fifty pounds. I have lost seventeen pounds so far but still have over thirty pounds to go. And of course, the thing that holds many back from expanding their family? Money. We want to build up our savings. Now that we have two incomes we are adjusting and trying to play catch-up and will start putting money into our savings account and leaving it there FOR REAL THIS TIME.

We can build our savings and pay off our debt while I’m pregnant but we want to at least get it started.

There are some ancillary tasks that I would like to accomplish before getting pregnant: get my half-sleeve tattoo done, renovate our master closet and Avery’s closet, and go to Disneyworld. All of these cost beaucoup dollars so we’ll just have to see.

Basically, we want to be ready in all aspects of our lives before we start adding to our family.

But can you ever be truly ready?

I may have bit off more than I can chew but that’s okay because it’s labeled and in my freezer.

 meal plan monday  4 Responses »
Apr 202011
 

In an attempt to make our (my) evenings less stressful Jacob and I decided to create a meal plan and then COOK IT ALL AHEAD OF TIME. Genius, right?

Let me start from the beginning which is really about six weeks ago.

My family’s entire world was turned on its head when I got a full time job outside of the house. I would be working a traditional 8-5 schedule which was a relief because I’d have the evenings to spend with Avery. However, this meant that everything I would normally do throughout the day I had to accomplish in the two hours between coming home from work and putting Avery to bed. This doesn’t give me a lot of time and even though Jacob kind of does some house work in the morning his main focus is getting Avery up, fed, dressed and entertained until it’s time to take her to her nanny’s around noon. Avery is not a demanding toddler but mornings are for cuddling and it’s hard to vacuum and put away laundry when the world’s cutest little time suck is curled up on the sofa in her footie pajamas. Since I know that this is his predicament (Oh, the tragedy! Snuggling with a presh two year old while watching Mickey Mouse and eating oatmeal and eggs! His life is so! Fucking! Hard!) I am somewhat lax about him doing housework. Sometimes it annoys me when there are OBVIOUSLY tasks that could be done but often it is a lost cause to nag him about it.

/tangent.

Basically there aren’t enough hours in a day to do the bare minimum in order to keep our house relatively tidy and our stomachs full. This is where our meal plan comes in.

On Saturday I sat down and Googled recipes and viewed  sample meal plans. I have never prepared meals in advance so I wanted to make sure that I did it right lest we fill our freezer with inedible sludge. Once I finalized our meals for the next two weeks (minus weekends which are less structured and often involve pizza or take-out) I made a grocery list. I love making lists. It gets me high. Well, if I’m using a Sharpie it does.

Because Jacob is truly a good guy and knows how stabby I get at Walmart on a Saturday (it’s really the worst time to go and I don’t know why I do it) he opted to stay at home with Avery while I did the shopping. Smart move. Besides, shopping alone is therapeutic and, above all else, faster. So, so much faster than dragging those two along. You have no idea.

In addition to buying food I also purchased some aluminum baking pans with plastic lids. I don’t own ten casserole dishes with lids so I opted to go this route. That way, I can stack the meals in my freezer and when it’s time to cook one of them I just have to take off the lid and throw the pan into the oven.

I would love to make some joke about how it seemed like a good idea but ended up being a waste, or a mess, or my kitchen caught on fire. But I can’t. This was literally the best plan I have ever executed. The cooking went smoothly. Jacob grilled the fish and vegetables on the patio while I baked lentil burgers and sweet potato fries in the oven. We were cooking machines; after four hours of cooking we had so much food that Jacob said that he felt like we cooked too much. Au contraire, I told him, it looks like a lot but once we put it into the pans it will all make sense; trust me. We set the pans out on the kitchen table and, using my meal plan as our guide, put the foil-wrapped grilled noms into the pans. Some adjustments were made but for the most part we stuck to the original plan. Once the meals were in their respective pans I labeled them and put all ten into the freezer. It was a beautiful sight. Sure, we cooked our asses off but now all I have to do when I get home from work is preheat the oven, toss the pan into the oven and cook that bitch for thirty-ish minutes. BAM. Dinner. No cookware to wash, no stress.

So far it is working perfectly and I couldn’t be happier with my reclaimed time. Instead of cooking dinner when I get home from my hour-long commute home I get to focus on what’s really important- LAUNDRY.

And she can cook!

 meal plan monday  4 Responses »
Apr 172011
 

Today hubby and I cooked; we: grilled, roasted, baked, sauteed, steamed, boiled and pureed our meals for the next two weeks. There are ten hard-boiled eggs peeled and waiting for me to pop into my lunchbox and take to work every morning. There are portioned-out containers of tuna salad and baggies with lentil burgers and the more exotic salmon burgers (I am going to either love or hate those). Every dinner is in its own aluminum pan ready to be put into the oven when I get home from work. I will not have to do any cooking.

Hubby also made hummus. It’s garlicky as hell so if you are a vampire do NOT let me breathe on you. We will eat the death-by-garlic-breath hummus with baby carrots and celery sticks (not pita chips, wah wah).

I am excited about this week. I won’t feel stressed out about having to hurry home to make dinner so that we can eat by 7pm in order to stay on our earlier-than-normal-but-now-it’s-the-new-normal bed time routine. This? Is exhausting. It’s draining to work all day, spend over an hour in the car, come home and try to entertain the toddler while cooking dinner. Last week we ended up ordering pizza one night and there were a couple of nights where I cut up some fruit and cheese for the toddler and didn’t even bother to eat or feed my husband. He’s a grownup and can fend for himself but I ended up not making anything for myself because I was just that tired. On those nights my dinner consists of coffee and bites of whatever I give Avery. It isn’t satisfying in the least but hey, I didn’t have to turn on my stove!

Since the weather has turned warm I have been craving grilled fish and vegetables. Since I don’t know how to operate the grill and don’t care to learn that means that it’s all up to Jacob to do it. His work schedule doesn’t exactly allow for him to take time out of his evening to work the grill so by having him do the grilling now instead of later I get all of the grilled tuna and salmon I can stand without having to do it myself. Win!

Since we usually buy groceries every two weeks we decided to prepare two week’s worth of meals. Thankfully there is enough room in my freezer for eight of the ten pans (tomorrow and Tuesday are in the fridge, ya know, just chillin’) along with my containers of tuna salad and boiled eggs.

I will not be going out to lunch this week or next week. Restaurants kill my diet and I have been backsliding HARD. To say that I’m disappointed would be an understatement but rather than dwelling on it I’ll just move on and focus on the positive changes I’ve made. I will get to eat freshly prepared foods without having to do any cooking (just reheating in the oven) or cleaning. Not only will I be less stressed out but I can spend time with my kiddo instead of cleaning up the kitchen. Bonus!

If you are curious about this process fear not! I will be posting my meal plan, recipes, photos, etc., all this week. For those of you who are interested in the nutrition information I will share that as well. You know I count calories so I may as well include it, right? I’m here for you, readers. All four of you.