Adventures as a New Stay-at-Home Mom

I've never liked cooking.  It takes so much time and effort--and the product of all that time and effort is gobbled down far too quickly.  If I spend an hour or two working on something, I don't want it to disappear in less than ten minutes.

Many of my friends have told me that I will like cooking more now that I am a stay-at-home mom.  They say it's no longer a chore when you actually have time in the day to plan and prepare the meal.  Plus, it's "rewarding" to know that you are making something delicious to be enjoyed by your family.

I decided to test their advice, and I've attempted to make two meals in the last several weeks.

Attempt #1: Chicken Pot Pie

Attempt #2: Sloppy Joes

I don't know if it's the oven or just me...but neither of these meals turned out too well.  The experience was rewarding for neither me nor my family.

Something that I do love is baking!  Baking is the best because the entire process is edible--from chocolate chips to cookie dough to finished product.  Yesterday, I made cookies with my nephew, Callum, and we had much more success than I did with either chicken pot pie or sloppy joes.

Yes, I am wearing Callum's chef hat.

Callum also appreciates the cookie dough...in fact, he was eating so much of it that I had to scold him.  After telling him to stop about five times, I said it a bit more brusquely, and he started to cry and ran to his mom.  She was snuggling my baby (who was super fussy yesterday) on the couch, so she suddenly had two little criers on her lap.  I think she loved it.

It's so nice to have family in town now that Noah is here.  I have a cold, and it's hard to get better when you aren't getting too much sleep at night, so Sarah watched Noah for me yesterday while I took a long nap.  While I was sleeping, she tried to take some photos of him with her fancy camera.  He wasn't so thrilled about the "posed" shots.

I am still planning to blog all about the experience of Noah's adoption, but it feels like a daunting undertaking, so I haven't even started yet.  Maybe I'll get to it by his one month birthday.  He had his two week doctor appointment yesterday, and he is porking up quite nicely.  He was 7 lbs 4 oz when he was born, and yesterday he was 8 lbs 7 oz.  Little chubber! :)  They stabbed his heel to take a blood sample, and he was super ticked off.  I think that might be why he was fussy for the rest of the day.  Poor guy.

Overall, I think we are adjusting well to our new life.  Ryan is working crazy hours, so he's not around as much as I'd like, but when he is, he sure loves his little dude.  I found them napping together on Sunday, and it was about the cutest thing I've ever seen.

I get lonely being home all day and part of the night without Ryan--I don't really have any friends here yet--but Noah keeps me company and Ryan assures me that his super busy schedule is only temporary and he'll be around more once his current rotation is over.  In the meantime, thank goodness for my sister and sweet little Noah!

Life is good.