Roly Poly!

Look who learned to roll herself over this weekend!  I put her on her back on the floor, turned around, and when I looked back she was almost all the way over to her tummy (just with one arm pinned underneath).  By the time I got my phone to try to take a picture, she had done it.  (See triumphant photo above.)

And then she wouldn't stop.  Here are a few more shots from her practice rolling session.

Since Jillson didn't roll over until she was 6 months old (and I think Madelyn was similar), I wasn't expecting this so soon from Bronwen.  What amazed me is that she nailed it so quickly.  I remember her big sisters practicing flinging their legs around and getting frustrated for days and weeks at a time.  But Bronwen, she did it once, looked around, and started rolling all the heck over the place. Go, baby, go! 

It's a long video, but worth it for anyone obsessed with baby development.  (Okay, that would be me and my mother.)  The video was shot only a few minutes after she had taught herself to roll over for the very first time. I love her!

Cocktail of the Month: Pina Colada

If you think last month's cocktail sounded too complicated to try (it really isn't!), then you will love this one. No rocket science here, nor no recreation of the wheel. Just simple yumminess.

There are only three things in a proper pina colada: rum, coconut, and pineapple.  

Most recipes favor pineapple juice, but I find this too sweet.  I decided to use pureed, fresh pineapple and loved the result.  (I did not strain the puree, so technically this is a pina non colada, or something like that.)

For the coconut, you are looking for "cream of coconut." Not coconut juice or coconut milk or coconut cream.  Rather than scouring the Thai or Indian or Ethnic aisle of your grocery store, head to the "mixers" section instead, where the margarita mixes and such are.  There you should find several cream of coconut options, none of which (I am sorry to say) are low-cal or low-fat.  At least fat derived from coconuts is a relatively healthy fat... But I digress.  I opted for a brand with a squeeze bottle so that storing leftovers would be easy. (It is.)

I've used both dark rum and golden rum recently. I'm sure light rum would also be just smashing.

Finally, I did use my margarita blender for these, which is a fancy blender that first shaves the ice before blending it in with whatever you have in your blender. I highly recommend shaved ice for a pina colada, but if you don't have a way to shave your ice, you can easily use a regular blender, or even just shake your ingredients and serve on the rocks. The cocktail is so yummy that you needn't hold back on trying it due to lack of shaved ice.

Pina Colada

Makes 1 large serving

1 cup fresh pineapple, finely diced

2 oz. cream of coconut

1.5 oz. rum

Place the pineapple, cream of coconut, and rum in the blender. Fill the hopper on your ice shaver with ice, make sure your settings are for one serving, and let 'er rip.  (If you are using a standard blender, my guess is that you would be need about 1 cup of ice. You might need to play with it to get the correct proportions.)

Can easily be made virgin style (which I did for Madelyn and Jillson) simply by substituting something else for the rum. Any juice or water would be fine; I happened to use milk. Jillson loved it; Madelyn prefers her fresh pineapple unadulterated.

I think pina coladas are a great choice for the dead of winter, providing a sweet, little, tropical escape in a glass. Ahhhhhhhh!

Four Months

Check out Little Miss Personality up there. Can you believe it? Here I am with my monthly photo shoot pics for Bronwen Eliza. Never mind that I feel as though I only just posted her three-month photos yesterday. Time is flying!

I've been working on a scrapbook layout that has three pictures of me on it (bear with me, there is a point here): one when I was 15, one when I was 25, and one when I was (am) 35. This last picture, taken in the hospital when Bronwen was born, looks like it was four years ago to me and also just four days ago. Time is a wacky, wacky thing.

The part of me that feels that hospital photo was taken only four days ago barely can grasp how quickly our babies grow and change and become something totally different from what they were only a few months ago. It was just a few days ago (right?) that I was holding her, teeny weeny, in my arms. When she did nothing but nurse and snooze.

Now, suddenly, she has personality.

As I sit here at my desk typing up this post, Bronwen is on the floor of our bedroom, lying on the "baby gym" mat, the same one her sisters used.  She is telling a puffy fabric rainbow and a jinglebelled sunshine thingy just who is in charge.  She is rolling around.  (This is reminding me that earlier this week I laughed hard when I heard, from the other room, the Gutsy Dad say to Bronwen, "That's right, baby, you kick that flower's ass!" Thankfully no big sisters were around to repeat that one.) But she does love to bat at her toys with her hands and feet. She fingers the crinkly ones in deep concentration. And she loves to growl at them.

She responds to her name and grins in delight when you look at her. She weighs 13 pounds and 13.5 ounces, so she has not yet doubled her birthweight.  Close, though.

Couldn't resist including this one. Love that belly.

I wish you a wonderful weekend,

Love,

The baby-besotted Gutsy Mom