INGREDIENTS (for each ramekin)
Butter (for greasing of ramekins)
1 1/2 Tablespoons Quinoa
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Milk
1/2 teaspoon Garlic
Pinch each of Thyme, Salt and Pepper
3/4 cup fresh spinach roughly chopped
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Generously grease 10oz souffle ramekin with butter.

In a bowl whisk together quinoa, eggs, milk, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.  Stir in spinach and majority of cheese reserving some for on top.  Pour mixture into prepared ramekin(s).

Using whisk jiggle ingredients to help the quinoa settle to the bottom prior to baking.  Then cover with foil and jiggle (like you are trying ot release air bubbles in a cake batter).  Place on a cookie sheet (to catch overflow) and place in the oven.

Bake until the egg is just set about 30 minutes.  Remove foil and sprinkle remaining cheese on top and cook for another 5 – 10 minutes until the eggs are nice and puffy and the cheese is melted and just starting to turn brown.

Let cool for 1 minute, and serve in the ramekin or run a knife around the edge, turn out onto a wide flat spatula and then onto a plate.
 

This recipe is great for breakfast, I served with a side of sausages, but also made a nice dinner with a side salad.  It is also gluten free and vegetarian!

Lauren and I were outside, she was wearing an appropriate sun dress.  Since I was tackling the junipers I was wearing clothing from head to toe with only my face exposed and really I should have had that covered too.  I was hot, and not in a good way.  I was dirty.  I was smelly.  I was a mess.  I took a break sitting on the front porch steps in the shade drinking water when Lauren came and tried to climb onto my lap for a cuddle.  Perfect timing.  No not really.  I said to her, "Please don't climb on my lap I am hot, sweaty and dirty."  She just looked at me.  I said, "Momma's yucky and I don't want you to get yucky too."  This time she looks at me and says, "No mommy, not yucky, just mommy."  So am I always yucky? Or was that a compliment?  Who knows, it made me laugh though.

Then about an hour later I needed to use the little ladies room, Nathan had gone in to do something so I told Lauren she needed to come inside so mommy could go potty.  She came running up and whispered in her voice loud enough that everyone (not that there was anyone mind you) could hear, "Mommy just go pee in the grass!"  I told her, "I'm not going to go pee in the grass."  She says, "I'll show you how!  Come on!"  I told her, "Ok you go first."  Her response.  "No thanks, I use the potty."  Apparently the grass is only good enough for the dog and mommy.

So what is a person like me to do.  I want what I want, so it has been frustrating me.  I went back and forth thinking of buying the curtain panels (but they are kind of ugly in my opinion), finding other fabric that kind of matched, but more coordinated, to make my own comforters, looking for other sets, but nothing was really THE thing I wanted.

Fast forward another year and I found online a reversible red comforter at Target.  Red on one size, a tan color on the other.  The price $19.99.  Couldn't beat the price.  They had them in stock at our local store, so we went and looked and thought they would work well.  We bought two (not making that mistake again) for the bunks, and took it home.  The red matches PERFECTLY and the tan goes really well with the other brown tones in the valance.  Plus it is a little shimmery so it looks almost like the satin fabric the original set is, and is machine washable.  Check, check, check.  So for now, Lauren is using hers and she and loves it.  The extra mis-matched smaller blankets have all been put away (less clutter).  Evan likes them too but anything soft and smooth is cool by him.  Next projects will be to buy sheets and pillow shams from our sheet company in the chocolate brown that matches the brown again and will finish the bed.  I love that we order our sheets from a company so we can buy individual pieces.  Twin fitted and flat with a King size sham.  Lauren likes that a king size pillow goes across the whole bed.

I also want to make a canopy for the top bunk and frame for the bottom of the top bunk with some sort of fabric with stars, because Lauren wants to sleep under the stars so I told her I would.  I figured I should do both bunks or when Lauren transitions from bottom to top bunk she isn't going to like that Evan then gets the stars.

Also because there is College back to school "stuff" (read junk) everywhere they had something useful!  Crates for $3.50 that fit perfectly under the bottom bunk in colors that matched the kids rug (pink, green, turquoise, but not brown or white).  And in went blocks to one, wooden toys into another, cars into a third, and tucked nicely under the bed clearing up the floor space.  Momma is happy.

Then a few days later after lunch (and just before nap time) she comes up to me and asks, "Whatcha doin?"  I respond, "Drinking water."  She looks at me and says, "Cooking?"  "No," I reply.  "Yes" she says.  "Hotdogs and Pancakes.  Please?"

So does this mean she was hungry and eating what she had available or that she thinks beans and rice and boogers are about the same and equal in their yumminess?

Height – 30 inches 95th percentile
Weight – 23.4 lbs 90th percentile
Head – 46 cm something around 75th percentile we think

Other recent beautiful things.  After nap yesterday as she often does, she came out and gave me a HUGE cuddly hug and a kiss.  I was holding her while standing and gave her a huge hug back and told her "I am going to miss when you are too big to pick up and hug like this."  She pulled back and looked at me, gave me another kiss and said, "Me too mommy."  Ahhh, melt your heart doesn't it?

We are still in a pushing phase, but getting better maybe?  She still pushes her brother over, but then sits him back up and hugs him and tells him its ok, and gives him a kiss.  She still gets in trouble for the pushing though.  She loves her little brother so very much.  She likes to hold his hand, and when he pulls her hair she takes his hand and rubs it on her own head and says, "Soft, baby.  Gentle, baby."  But never gets mad.

Just in the past two weeks she has had a language explosion.  It has been crazy, we went from being worried that she was delayed to being blown away by the new words phrases and expressions she has been using.  It is so funny how kids do things in spurts like that.

Our biggest problem at the moment, she loves to cook.  She knows how momma cook things.  She can get the fridges open.  She can get the flour and sugar open, she knows knives cut things.  We've had a few small accidents, but I know it is only a matter of time before there is a HUGE mess in the kitchen.  I like having a sous chef though.  She helps me count ingredients, stir, break eggs, grease pans.  She thinks it is great fun, which helps, most of the time.

Quirks?  She is full of them.  Soup must be smooth, not chunky, unless it has beans in it.  The immersion blender is my friend on that one.  Sandwiches still can't be assembled, the components must be separate.  Cheese is a food group.  Beans must be whole.  She will not eat meat unless it is in tube form (sausages, hot dogs, etc) but they have to still be in the tube, no cooked sausage mince or cut into rounds, and bacon, girl loves bacon, which so does her mom.

I could go on for days about my baby girl.  She is so amazing.  Every day I see her learning, growing and growing up, my daughter, my beautiful daughter.

He is following his growth trend line beautifully, and they think he measured his head incorrectly at the last appointment as it spiked up, but it is now on the trend line again. So here are his official measurements:

Weight:  21lbs, 2oz 90th Percentile
Height:  28.875" 95th Percentile
Head:  45 cm 75th Percentile

At least he is proportionate right?  So yes, he is big, bigger than most, but not all!