The Talens' Tales

Now that I am home most of the time, I have been experimenting with a lot of new recipes. I am probably also a bit inspired by the different cooking shows I have been watching while I feed Joash. If I had a TV, and I could only have one channel, I would pick The Food Network. Anyway, to give some structure to my experiments, I picked one of my cook books, marked all of the recipes that looked good, and then when through and tried all of them. I think that my husband would say it has been a fun and successful experiment. Some dishes are certainly better than others, but for the most part, we have been trying things we never would have before. But last night was my first big flop. I made a Cheesy Polenta Bake and I was pretty excited about it because they make polenta all of the time on Iron Chef. It is basically a cornmeal based batter and cheese. It looked pretty good from the outside. When I stuck the spoon in to dish some on to my plate, I was surprised by the...

Joash certainly loves his frog's legs. Maybe all of that Iron Chef I have been watching while feeding him is rubbing off.

Look at this photo. No posing by mom here. Joash did this himself. He even nicely placed his hands on top of each other. We are waiting for spring to come to the Island. It certainly looks like spring outside right now, but the minute you step out the door you are quickly reminded that it is not spring yet. Joash is not quite himself these days. We rejoiced that he slept so long one night, but then we realized he had a slight fever. So it goes. Now the fever is gone, but things still are not quite right. He doesn't like to nurse as much right now,which is really frustrating.  I am trying really hard to nurse until he is 6 months. But if this keeps up much longer, I think my tune will change and we will try some cereal. I am very excited because in less than one month my mom and sisters will be hear for a visit. Hurray! We are all looking forward to it.

M(om): Joash, Can you believe you are 5 months old already? J(oash): Of course mom! Look at all of the stuff I can do! M: What can you do? J: You know mom. I smile at you. I laugh sometimes. I like to make a laughing face, and I am working on getting sound to come out all of the time. And I can roll over. M: You can? How come I never see you do? Why do you only do it in your bed? J: I just don't like to show off, Mom.   M: Okay. So how about bath time?  J: I am starting to like them more and more. You saw me kicking and splashing a little bit. I think it will be more fun when it is warmer out. M: Any other new stuff? J: I am getting really good at sitting with support. I like that I can see everything around me and I don't have to bend so far to get things into my mouth. M: Care to talk about sleep at all? J: Well, I have figured out that I don't really need to cry to fall asleep. (Why are you jumping up and down with joy, mom?) It got really tiring after a while, so no...

Last night I got together with some other ladies for a Latte Night that our pastor's wife puts on. I am not a latte fan, so she nicely makes me hot chocolate. Last night I tried a white chocolate hot chocolate which was awesome. Those of us who come can bring a treat if we like, and everyone wanted the recipe for mine. So here it is, from the Better Homes and Garden web-site. easy candy bar treats ingredients 1/2   cup  butter 1/3   cup  unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4   cup  packed brown sugar 1/4   cup  milk 3-1/2   cups  sifted powdered sugar 1   teaspoon  vanilla 30     vanilla caramels, unwrapped 1   tablespoon  water 2   cups  unsalted peanuts 1/2   cup  semisweet chocolate pieces 1/2   cup  milk chocolate pieces directions 1.  Line a 9x9x2-inch or 11x7x11/2-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over edges of pan. Butter the foil; set pan aside. 2....

Joash does not laugh a lot yet. His face looks like he is going to laugh quite often, but no sound comes out. But, his opa was able to get the most giggles out of him we have ever heard, and we managed to get it on video. A few things to fully understand the video. We were just about to leave Wilbert's parents home on Sunday afternoon. Wilbert's brother, who is at college in the States, called with his girl friend, just as we were leaving. Wilbert's other brother's girlfriend was visiting for the weekend and she comes in at the end of the video. Enjoy some of Joash's laughs!

When people see Joash, they most often comment on his big blue eyes and his hair. Right now, Joash has some pretty unique hair, I think. From the front, he looks pretty normal. Just like a baby with a lot of hair. And in the back, he has the typical baby bald spot. The sides, however, are a little interesting. This is his left side. Very long and thick. And his right side. Short and thin. Hopefully one day this will all even out. Whenever we do his first hair cut, we might only need to cut trim the hair on one side of his head.

A little conversations with Joash. Granted, it is a little one sided, but then you can pretend that you are talking to him. It seems he finds some new noises every day, which are mostly fun to hear. The one that is not so fun to hear is his scream he does now when he his upset and over tired.

Well, here is how I found Joash this morning. Happily laying on his tummy. It seems yesterday he decided he would rather sleep on his stomach, though I am not sure he totally likes it. He did wake up much more often last night than normal and he is having a tough time falling asleep for his nap right now. Hopefully he finds the way he likes to sleep soon, or becomes much better at getting from his tummy to his back.

"Hi everyone! Look at me sitting up with support from this Boppy pillow! And I love my links. I can hang on to them so easily and try and put them in my mouth. And you know what else? I have a US passport now. Now if I could only figure out how to sign my name on page three..."

As a lover of words, I enjoy learning about the origins of words and why we use the words that we do. I think that was one reason why I found Deeper into the Word by Keri Wyatt Kent to be an interesting book. Deeper into the Word is a look at 100 words found in the New Testament. Kent looks at both the context of these words in Scriptures and also original language root of the word. Each word is given a few pages of attention, causing a reader to look at that word in scripture with new eyes. Kent is clear in the introduction of her book that this resource could be used as a reference book, a devotional or a platform for a reader’s own word study. I found this book insightful and enlightening. I am looking forward to reading this book again as a devotional. The information and thoughts about the words that Kent gives deserve a slow, thoughtful reading and reflection. I appreciated how well researched this book is. Kent pulls from a wide range of scholars to add depth to her writ...

"My name is Joash. See, like on this cool tag blanket." Have a wonderful Friday!

Sometimes (though a very small sometimes) a baby's life looks good. You get fed, held, lots of praise for a simple smile and then you get to sleep. As you can see, Joash can sleep just about any where. It is nice to know that if he is tired, he will fall asleep in the car and 90% of the time stay asleep once we take him into the house. Since this most often happens around a nap, we just let him stay in his seat, rather than risk waking him up by taking him out and putting him in his bed. And most often his hat ends up over his eyes, which is pretty cute.

Yesterday we made the trip to Halifax to report Joash's birth to the US government and apply for his US passport. We were pleasantly surprised by how well the trip went and how smoothly the process went at the Consulate. We had a morning appointment, so we left early in the morning. I fed Joash just before we left, so he slept the majority of the way down there. We arrived at the Consulate about an hour before our appointment, but we went in anyway and explained that we had an appointment and we knew we were early, but I needed to feed my son and would just like to sit in the waiting room to do that. So, we were allowed in and they actually got started on our process about a half an hour before our appointment was actually scheduled. Since we had everything we needed, we just handed it all over and all was well. We were finished by 10:30 AM, so that was great. We did find it a little odd though how it is set up. I imagined we were going to be called into a office and sort of inter...

First, a little update. As you can see, Joash is starting to enjoy the ExerSaucer. Second, Joash had his second round of immunizations yesterday and he seems to be doing fine. He slept extremely well last night, so that was nice. Third, as you can maybe also see in the picture, I think Joash has his first cold. His nose started to run last night. So, I am just keeping a tissue handy and trying to keep that nose clean. But, here is my dilemma. I know that most people who regularly read my blog love to see the pictures of Joash. But, as Joash gets older, I find it difficult to know what to take pictures of. For a while all of them were of Joash laying down and smiling. Now, we are moving into the ExerSaucer phase. I feel like all of my pictures look the same. But, I am pretty sure most of you don't care too much, so I will just keep trying to take pictures and maybe some creative inspiration will hit and I will find some new things to take pictures of.

"This is my new favorite thing to do - rubbing my hair with the back of my hand." Coffee Break was on yesterday. Hurray! An hour late, but we still had it and that was great. Joash couldn't quite last through nursery. He was tired and hungry, so they came to get me. I was settling in a chair to feed Joash when I noticed that all of the other six kids in nursery were girls. I looked down at Joash and said, "You were the only boy? Did you have a good time with all of the girls?" A big smile broke across his face. He already knows he's got it made.