Out of the stroller

Following up on my promise to take Fletcher out of the stroller more often resulted in some fun moments today at the zoo...

Second Child Syndrome

Dedicated to Fletcher. And only to Fletcher.

Sydney gets a lot of attention. She requires a lot of attention. Fletcher is quickly falling ill to the Second-Child-Syndrome. That has become increasingly evident as I prepare for an important project.

I realized after 6 months, I should probably get started on Fletcher's baby book. It's amazing how quickly you forget the details and important milestones of the first few months. Especially for the second child.

For me this baby book thing is a little more complicated than filling out some pre-printed form in a bound book. And even that is tough to do when you have multiple kids. But this complication is entirely of my own creation. When Sydney was born, I couldn't find any baby books that I really liked or included everything I wanted to record and chart. So I decided to make my own - I proclaimed I would scrapbook the first year of her life! That was when I was feeling all hormonal and motherly and nesting and not considering there would be more children (hence more baby books) to follow. Then reality struck. I am not creative in a crafty sort of way, nor do I have patience for crafts, nor had I ever scrapbooked. What was I thinking?

It is only due to the persistence, craftiness and scrapbooking supply mecca of my good friend Lauren Stuckey that Sydney's first year is, in fact, recorded. I finished it just a week before Fletcher was born. The process was long and arduous and very frustrating at times. But also totally worth it. Sydney's book is beautiful.

But now that Sydney has a very personalized book, I feel the self-imposed pressure do the same for Fletcher.

As I began organizing my things, it only took a quick glance to realize poor Fletcher's book had a lot to live up to.

And another quick glance through my iPhoto albums to realize this was going to be extra challenging.

Most photos of him include his sister or are simply of him hanging out in his carseat/stroller tolerating whatever adventure it is Sydney is enjoying to the fullest.

The zoo

The rodeo

Crawfish boil

Ice cream Friday

If these photos weren't book ended by pictures of Sydney having all the fun, I wouldn't be able to identify where he was in that moment. At this point I'm thinking I could create a page of the day of his birth and then a collage of stroller shots and be done. Nice.

Sadly, Fletcher's second-child-syndrome isn't just evident in photos. He is regularly hanging out on on his playmat, in his bouncy seat, exersaucer or (insert any other baby contraption into this sentence) while life happens around him. He is partly to blame. He is my chill baby! Just happy to be here. He'll give you a big smile simply for being in the same room. He has a great smile. And if you smile back, he'll probably bust out laughing. He laughs a lot. It's infectious.

Plus he weighs a ton! It's not easy to carry him around for long. Think I'm kidding? Go grab a 20lb bag of cat litter or dog food. Carry it on your hip for a few minutes and you'll begin to get the idea.

I am convinced this is why he refuses to even try to hold his own bottle. Because when he's eating, someone HAS to hold him. Unless we let Sydney help. Notice him looking at daddy behind the camera as if to say "help me."

Second (and third and so on) kids always get the short end of the stick. There are albums full of me (the oldest) as a baby. A few of my sister, Ashley (2nd child). But without the memory of her actual birth, we might think Jami (3rd child) didn't join our family until roughly age 3. I'm determined not to allow that to happen but photos of Fletcher in the car seat are just not going to cut it.

Here and now I'm vowing to pull him out of that stroller more often for a better shot! And to get creative on my own and fill up that baby book even bigger than Sydney's.

Uh. Ok. Maybe that's going a little far.

An Easter Tradition

As long as I can remember, my mom made hot cross buns at Easter. When I was in college and even as an adult, she would ship a small batch of them to me every year. So the Easter after she passed, it just felt wrong not to make them myself.

Now, I must confess, mom's hot cross buns were not the most delicious things you've ever eaten. In fact, several members of our family weren't all that crazy about them. Traditionally hot cross buns are made with candied fruit. Yep. Think fruit cake. Eck. And they could be kind of dense. But there's something about tradition and they just always felt like home and Easter to me.

After making this same dense, candied fruit bun on my own, I decided to do a little research and try to find a better recipe. I don't think mom would be offended. After all, this was the woman who must have tried 100 different blueberry muffin recipes over the years to find just the right one. And she did find just the right one. Maybe I'll share that recipe later.

I tried this hot cross bun recipe two years ago, have made a few of my own minor edits and think we have a winner.

First, you need a lot of time. It's not super complicated, but the buns have to rise - twice - totaling over 2 hours.

Second, you must have an electric mixer with a dough hook. I'm sure it can be done, but I just can't imagine accomplishing this recipe without a mixer.

Third, set aside 2 eggs and 1/4 cup butter (4T) to let them come to room temperature.

Heat 3/4 cup milk until warm (not scalding) - about 25-30 seconds in my microwave. Add one package of dry yeast, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and stir. Set aside until the yeast gets all comfy and foamy like this - roughly 5-10 minutes.

This is probably the most important step in the whole recipe. If your yeast does not do this, throw it out and go to the store. It's probably old. Old yeast leads to dense buns!

While the yeast is foaming, get out your mixer and combine 3 3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Once the yeast/milk is all foamy, slowly add that to the flour/spice mix while it's running on low. Add two room temperature eggs, one at a time. Then add the 1/4 cup softened butter. If you aren't already using the dough hook attachment, switch it out now. Let the dough hook knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic. About 5 minutes.

Take the dough out of the mixer and put it on a lightly floured surface (it will be all wrapped up around the hook - just slide it right off). Begin kneading the dough by hand, incorporating 1 cup of craisins. This is the toughest part - the dough should be really elastic. Almost rubbery. Just keep at it and eventually you'll get all those little craisins folded in. Some might pop out toward the end, but that's ok.

Put the ball of dough in a bowl with a little bit of oil in the bottom - just enough to barely coat the dough. Turn it over in the oil a few times, cover with plastic wrap or a towel and put in a warm place. The oven (turned off) works well. I put mine outside on the patio table.

Let the dough rise for roughly 1 1/2 hours. It will double in size and look something like this.

Punch the dough down and divide into 16 equal balls. For me, it's easy to ensure equal sizes if I divide it into half, then each into half again so that I have quarters. Then get 4 rolls out of each quarter. Confused? Just do whatever works for you.

Place the 16 balls onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Brush them lightly with an egg wash made of 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of milk.

Cover and set aside for another 30 minutes to rise.

Take kitchen shears and snip the top of each bun to make a cross. Honestly, this step could probably be skipped. It really doesn't make a difference in the final product. But I'm a sucker for the details when baking.

Brush the buns with the egg wash mixture one more time and pop them into a 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes.

Set aside to let them cool and try to keep your family from eating them all at one time. But they are seriously yummy when warm and fresh from the oven.

Once they have cooled, if they haven't all been gobbled up, brush or pipe icing made of confectioners sugar and milk on the top. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup confectioners sugar and 1 tablespoon milk for the icing. You can make it a little thicker with more confectioners sugar if you prefer.

And there you have it. Hot cross buns. We ended up making two batches this year and probably could have made a third. They don't keep well for long so plan to eat or share them within a day or two. If your family is at all like mine, that won't be a problem.

I hope you are inspired to try these for yourself next year. And that you had a blessed day with family, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. He is risen!

Happy Easter!

Slave Driver

We may have just experienced one of the most beautiful weather weekends ever! Blue skies, highs in the 70's/80's and - get this - 8% humidity! I know here in TX the air is a little drier than I've previously been accustomed to in the bayou and marshes of LA and FL but this set some kind of record.

Enjoying the weather on Saturday, I got out and did a little weeding in the mulch around Sydney's swing set. I mean, seriously, the thought of doing manual labor outside without breaking a sweat the second I walk out the door is completely foreign to me. I just had to go test it out for myself. Sydney was delighted with the project and joined in... mainly throwing perfectly good mulch into my weed bucket. But who cares. It was beautiful, she was having a ball and thrilled to be spending time in the gorgeous sunshine.

On Sunday, still enjoying the magnificent weather, we went back outside for some playtime. Or so I thought. In case I had forgotten my real obligation, Sydney brought me one of my gardening gloves. Then the other. Then the bucket.

So we weeded.

Slave driver, that one.

Crawfish Boil!

We have some seriously awesome neighbors who are awesomely serious about their crawfish boiling!

They don't mess around!

A pool of crawfish. Literally.

Thrilled to be here.

Think anyone will notice if I take a closer look???

Here crawfish crawfish crawfish...

GOTCHA!!!! No fear.

When not bobbing for crawfish, Syd really enjoyed her first bounce house experience with friends.

Mmmmm. Time to eat!

The kids were not as thrilled about their options.

This looks like fun.

There was even a crawfish cake!

Delish!

Yep, I'm still here.

The kids came home exhausted, filthy and completely happy. A big thanks to our generous and fun neighbors for a great family event. Can't wait until next year!!!

Note - A look back at Sydney's very first experience with crawfish last year. She's come a long way. I wish I could say I have an equally cute "first crawfish" photo of Fletcher. Sadly, he suffers from second kid syndrome.