Burgers

Even though there is STILL snow in our backyard, we decided to have burgers this weekend.  Not just any burgers, but homemade sliders, with homemade buns!  Hilary's Mum told us about a great potato burger bun recipe from Cook's Illustrated that she uses for burgers, so we gave it a go!

It's been a long time since we've made bread, but I think we are bitten with the baking bug again.

We had 3 different styles of sliders.

Bacon, cheddar and dill pickle.

Avocado and spicy Thai  pickle

Blue cheese and caramelized onions.

My favourite of the 3 was the Blue cheese and caramelized onions.  Hilary also made plain burgers for Liam.  When we were in the Dominican he was eating 4-6 sliders a day from the burger bar.  We didn't have a lot of hope that he would like them at home, but we thought we would give it a shot.  He scarfed both of his down in minutes and asked if next time we would make him 4!  You got it buddy!

7 pounds

These days most of my blogging is about weight loss, not weight gain.  But today we are celebrating a gain of SEVEN pounds!

and no, I don't think all the weight gain is hair.

Liam went to the doctor today for his regular checkup and we are happy to say that he has gained 7 pounds in the last 6 months.  This is a huge accomplishment.  Usually we leave these appointments celebrating a gain that is measured in ounces.   His last "big" gain was more than 2 years ago, with a whopping 33/4 pounds.

He continues to be in the 10th percentile for height but today's gain has pushed him over the 25th percentile for weight.  He's never going to be a tall kid - his parents were 5'2 and 5'11, but he does continue to grow and thrive.

Food continues to be an adventure, with the repertoire of things he enjoys remaining fairly limited.  We have noticed in the past few weeks that while the kinds of food hasn't changed, the quantity of food he eats has been growing.  In Liam's case, every calorie is a good calorie, so we go with it, even when it's meant making Transportation Noodles at 9:00 at night.

Six

Liam GAINED 6 whole pounds since his last 3 month check up. And is now measuring 4 foot 3 inches tall.

Because of the nature of some ADHD medicines, Liam sees the doctor every 3 months.  She always checks his growth.  At best he has gained weight in increments measured in grams.  Most visits though he would lose.

I don't know what the secret formula was this time, but we have certainly noticed that he has been hungry more often.  We still struggle with food choices, but this week he has embraced turkey breast, something we are very happy with.  Toast continues to be our go to food, and of course he eats lots of fruit every day.  School lunches might just push us over the edge, as the choices hes willing to eat at lunch are so limited.

So for today we celebrate the gain and hope that the trend continues and that the boy continues to grow.

Three and Three Quarters

3 and 3/4 pounds  or 1.7 Kilograms, as the Dr. announced (and I was glad to see that she had to use the calculator to figure it out too).

That is how much weight Liam has G.A.I.N.E.D. since our last paediatrician visit in September.  More then 1 pound a month!  This might not seem like a lot for an active, growing boy, but considering that he had LOST weight on every previous visit (albeit very small amounts, but losses still), this is great news!

We still have food issues - the number of things that he will eat can be counted on both hands, but slowly his appetite has been increasing.  He now eats 2 Mama Burgers from A&W and not just one.  Even one was way up from the days when he would only eat the bun from a Baby Burger.

We are going to try some new medication for the ADHD - something that is NOT in the stimulant category so that his appetite will hopefully continue to grow and that he can start having better, longer sleep.  It's not unusual for me to go to bed close to 11:00 and find him still awake when I go to turn his light off and then have him up when my alarm goes off at 6:30.

Hopefully the transition to new meds will not be too bumpy.  He only has a few days of school left before the winter break, so any rough patches will likely occur at home.  Oh joy!  But if it helps in the long run, I'm sure we can make it through.

Movie "Orphan" makes me vegetarian

When the movie Orphan first came out it was talked about up and down on the adoption blogs. This post isn't going to be about the adoption angle of the movie. So many other people have said it so much better then I can, whatever their feelings on it.

This post is how watching the movie has caused me to revert to my vegetarianistic ways.

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Hilary and I are woefully behind in our grown-up movie watching. Newest Pixar, Disney or Imageworks ? You betcha we've seen it. Movies with plots, no animation and actual actors? Not so much. So when Liam went out for dinner with a friend tonight, we figured Hey! we might actually be able to watch a whole movie. Uninterrupted. With naughty scenes and grown up words even.

So we started going through the On-Demand list that our cable provider offers. The list kinda sucked. We narrowed it down to 2 - Orphan or Taking Pelham 123. Hilary wasn't in the mood for a smash'em up-blow'em up movie, so Orphan it was.

The movie was okay. It was kinda slow and since we already knew what the ending was, any suspense was sort of lost on us. But being classified as a horror movie it had it's share of creepy music, people jumping out from behind things and some guts and gore. Now I don't mind guts and gore for the most part. I'm good with real live situations involving blood and injuries, I can watch surgeries on TV without being squeamish. I just can't watch anything that I can equate back to food.

I have to confess: I have food "issues".

Can you hear Hilary laughing right now? "Issues"? She thinks that's a rather mild word to use to describe me and my food. Words that she may use include: botheration, nuisance, aggravation, annoyance, just to name a few.

Left to my own devises I would be vegetarian. Except for bacon. Or steak. Or hamburgers. The trick is that none of those food items even remotely resemble what they came from. And if I start letting myself think about where they came from and the processes to get them to my table, well then, I'm done with those too for awhile.

In our house though Hilary is the domestic goddess. She does the shopping and the cooking, so by default she plans the menu. She is very good to me though. If we are having something she knows I have "issues" with she will prepare in such a way that I can eat it. Or she'll just cut up my food for me before she serves it. That folks, is LOVE.

Anyway, back to the movie.

There is a scene that involves the rather brutal killing of a pigeon. And since it's a horror movie, they show it in all it's gory detail with a synced up squelchy soundtrack.

yeah.

We of course started watching the movie before dinner. We had planned on having sloppy joe's. Wanna know what I had for dinner? Fruit and chocolate. Hilary has kindly frozen the rest of the sloppy joe mixture for another day, long in the future, when I will have hopefully gotten these images out of my mind.

Tomorrow is New Year's eve. And since we live on the East Coast and it's currently Lobster season, guess what we will be having for dinner? And for some reason, I'm just fine with hacking crustaceans apart on my plate. As long as I'm not in the room when Hilary cooks them, she takes the feelers off for me and no bit of shell EVER gets in my mouth, then I'll have a wonderful feast.

Maybe I have more "issues" then I thought!

Happy New Year everyone!

Cooking Help needed!!!

I've mentioned several times Hilary's awesome and yummy cooking abilities. You've seen pictures of her Indian feast, Sunday Brunch and very cool cakes. Hilary comes from a line of strong amazing women who love to cook and who passed these traits on to her. I do not come from this same stock. Cooking has never really been my thing.

But next week it is going to be "my thing" and I need your help.

I'm on vacation next week, spending the week at home with Liam while Hilary goes to work everyday. So it only makes sense that I have slippers and a pipe ready for her at the door and a home made meal on the table after her long day at the office. Except, what the hell do I make?

Shout out some ideas! Share some recipes, post some links. I'll take any help I can get.

I do have food issues however. I cannot deal with most meats. If I can identify any sort of anatomy it's out (so chicken legs = BAD, boneless, skinless chicken breast = GOOD). I don't want to slave all day in the kitchen with prep work since this is my vacation too and Liam and I may be out during the day. We have no food alergies, we love spicy food and enjoy foods from all nationalities (except my own! I will never understand eating pig feet, Tourtière or french fries with gravy and cheese curds).

So folks please lend a hand. or if your local, come on over and help out.

Dinner update:

An hour before dinner was even set to be served we had tears about it! (Liam’s, not mine this time!) He asked what we were having for dinner so I told him “Noodles, vegetables and pork chops”. Instant hysterics! “I don’t like that! What am I having? Do I have to eat that?” I kept an even keel and told him that we were not making him something different, this is what the family is eating and he should eat as much as he needs to so that he won’t be hungry.


Well, one lesson learned: Make sure to talk to Hilary BEFORE dinner about what approach to take so we can both answer with the same approach.


I had thought that we should just put food on the plate, put the plate in front of Liam and that’s it. If he asked if he had to eat it all then I would answer “only you know if you have eaten enough, so you decide how much to eat” in my most loving, supportive, non-judgement Mama voice. And I did do that. Only I hadn’t told Hilary that I thought we should try this approach. It just happened that his question wasn’t directed specifically to me, so Hilary and I both answered at the same time. And she answered with what has been our standard “you have to at least try everything on your plate” approach.


In the end he did try one bite of everything, including the parsnips. He did not gag or cry, and only grumbled a bit. Overall I would have to say that it was a pretty successful dinner!

Feb. 19, 2008 ~ Today's the day....

that I won't let food issues with Liam become a problem during dinner.

I want Liam to learn to enjoy food. I don't want it to be a chore, something you have to do in order to get something else. I want him to embrace flavours and scents and cultures the way that Hilary and I do (but maybe without the extra pounds! :) )

But it's so hard! To sit next to your child while he consumes a single elbow noodle for diner and declares himself full!

So tonight I will present him his dinner and trust him to listen to his body. If he is full he is full. If he doens't like something he doesn't have to eat it beyond trying it, after all I wouldn't put up with someone forcing me to eat something I don't like, so why should he?

Wish me luck!