Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A Look Back: February 14-20

Valentines' Day morning was full of sadness, but the evening was fun.  Presents before dinner!

On Saturday, Garry and Amanda enjoyed a long overdue date with a delicious dinner at Upland and a movie at the IU Cinema (Metropolis shown with a 15 piece orchestra).  Ezra played with his Aunt Effie and Uncle Squash for a few hours.   He especially enjoyed throwing rocks in their creek.
Amanda is enjoying Mediterranean spiced seitan. Doesn't it look meaty?

Over the weekend, Justin Bieber cut his locks, but Ezra doesn't think this look is over quite yet.   

Monday, February 14, 2011

Sunday, February 13, 2011

A Look Back: February 7-13

On Monday, Garry attended a reading by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Michael Chabon.  Garry has been enjoying Chabon's fiction for years and was happily surprised to learn Monday morning that Chabon would be speaking later that same day.  In addition to reading from one of his early, unpublished novels, Chabon also answered questions about being a writer.  His answers were often interesting because his professional and domestic life seem so intertwined.  Rarely does one hear a professional male speak so often of his family when discussing his work.  Chabon's thoughts on being a husband, a father, and a son can be found in his collection of essays, Manhood for Amateurs.  Garry's and Ezra's thoughts on the book can be found in this post from October 2009.

The remainder of the week, Ezra and Piper spent many hours rehearsing a synchronized dance routine. They are looking for an agent and hoping for a world tour.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Got Milk?

Ezra loves milk. He drinks whole milk with gusto and enthusiastically eats yogurt, cheese, sour cream, and cream cheese. I was concerned that transitioning Ezra from drinking exclusively breast milk to a combination of cow’s and my milk would be difficult, but the introduction of dairy was easy. He took a bottle of cow’s milk and never seemed to notice the difference. It is well known that breast milk adopts flavors from foods a mother has eaten. I think Ezra’s introduction to cow’s milk was easy because he’s used to drinking milk that tastes different at each meal. Cow’s milk was just one more taste. I know of several breastfed infants all of whom transitioned easily to cow’s milk. I know fewer infants who were formula-fed, but in the case of my coworker, J, introducing milk as an alternative to formula was difficult. I think it comes back to taste. Formula always tastes the same.

As the battles wage between breast and formula feeding, all this makes me think the dairy industry should get behind breastfeeding. I say this mostly in jest, but honestly it might be good for business. Garry and I, former almost-vegans (it was so hard to give up goat cheese!) now have a gallon of milk, a quart of yogurt and a wide selection of cheeses in our fridge every week. While I’m not about to start drinking milk, cooking and baking with whole milk has revolutionized my food life. I’ve discovered whole milk yogurt is delicious, whole milk makes a wonderfully creamy scrambled egg and quick breads made with whole milk seem that much sweeter. At this pace, I might have to eventually wean myself from milk!

I’m curious to know if introducing cow’s milk is easier for babies fed breast milk than formula. Admittedly, I’ve only based this idea on Ezra and handful of other infants and so far it holds true. So I’d love to hear from other parents about your experiences. Was your infant breastfed, formula-fed, or a combination of the two, and how easy was it to introduce cow’s milk? If readers know of any literature or websites that talk specifically about this idea, I’d love to hear about them. Thanks!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

A Look Back: January 30-February 5

What have we been up to?  We discontinued our Week in Review almost a year ago, but recently  decided we missed sharing some of the simple things that summarize our week.  So, we are reintroducing our quick summary of our week with "A Look Back."

Garry shaved off his Winter Beard (this photo is from mid-January, not at the beards' height) just in time for . . .
winter storm, after winter storm.

To help warm us up, Amanda and Ezra had a soup cook-off.

Ezra has been super excited about going to daycare, and no longer cries when we drop him off.  Although sometimes he cries when we pick him up.

And, Amanda's boss gave Ezra this great sweater.  Ezra can tell you about it . . .

You can now follow Postilius on Facebook by liking our page.

Our photo album has now been updated to include December and January.