The Ugliest Veg In Town...

Getting my blog post published early yesterday was so nice!  Ayden and I got the grocery shopping out of the way so now we have to whole weekend to enjoy the Kentucky Derby and some family time!

Leaving the grocery.
He prefers for his legs to dangle from the Moby now.
Even more of a conversation starter now!

While at the grocery we purchased the ugliest vegetable in existence...

Hello, celery root!

I peeled it: 

Sliced it one way...

then another...

Threw all the pieces in a bowl and tossed it with this stuff:

(EVOO, sea salt, paprika, cayenne and garlic powder)

Baked them in the oven on 400* for about 20 minutes or so:

And ended up with some pretty good "french fries"

We were surprised with how good they were!  They had a similar consistency to real french fries and only had a slight hint of celery flavor.  I think the garlic, paprika and cayenne did a pretty good job masking it, though, because David said he couldn't taste celery at all.  I think next time we make them I'll cook them a little longer so they'll get a little more crispy.  Who needs potatoes when you have the ugliest veg in town to make fries from?!?

We ended the evening with a beautiful sunset:

The pic doesn't even do it justice...

My two favorite boys!

We were in bed by 8:30 for some reading and all asleep by 9:30.  It was glorious!

Today went by so fast!  Ayden was up about every two hours last night.  I have to admit, I'm more than ready to get back to 3+ hours at a time!!  As I was up with Ayden in the middle of the night, I was skimming through The No-Cry Sleep Solution.  I decided to look in the index for "growth spurts" to read the author's thoughts on the subject and came across an interesting tid bit.  Right in the same section as growth spurts, she also mentioned that babies can have interrupted sleep during developmental milestones.  Apparently they wake up with an urge to practice it in the middle of the night.  Funny that I read that the day after Ayden mastered rolling over...  There just seem to be so many reasons that babies don't sleep.  It's a wonder they every manage to get any at all!

We woke up around 7am, had the dog to the groomer by 9am (YAY for *less* shedding!!) and then came home and took a nap together.  Ayden slept for an hour and a half!  I snuggled with him the whole time but only managed to doze for about a half hour of it.  Even though David and I both feel that I should make napping a priority after a night of poor sleep, I just kept thinking of everything I should have been doing instead.  Oh well...  At least I got to savor some amazing snuggle time with my little love.

Our cutie in his first outfit of the day...

second outfit of the day...

When Ayden woke up, we put dinner on in the crock pot:

Went to pick up the dog at the groomer then headed to teach dance.

Napping in the swing to the sounds of loud music and tapping :)
<3 LOVE how he's holding onto his little giraffe <3

After skimming through The No-Cry Sleep Solution last night, I decided that we needed to do better with a bedtime routine.  We were planning on starting next week but the opportunity arose tonight!  I caught him after his first yawn, took him to his room, dimmed the lights, turned on his soother/projector, changed him into his nighttime diaper and massaged his legs while I talked to him quietly about our day, and then put him in his crib.  He watched his projector for a while, sucked on his hands a little, fussed maybe twice then rolled over on his belly and fell asleep.  And that was that...  I felt so proud of both of us!  This is what we've been working towards.  He fell asleep at 8:45pm and it'll be fun to see how long it lasts.  Even if it's just 30 minutes it is a step in the right direction!  Now David and I are going to have a little Netflix date night and I think I might pump to give Ayden a "dream feed" without getting him out of his crib. 

Such a big boy already! 

~Sarah