Flashback Friday Make-up (Wed)

Today's Flashback Friday Make-up comes to you from one of our favorite activities: our International Dinners! We take turns with two other couples, Diane & Eddie and Adam & Ericka, to throw dinner parties with an international menu. We pick the country out of a hat after everyone has had a chance to make his/her vote. Then one couple hosts and does the main course (which often includes a signature drink) and the other couples make either an appetizer/first course and side dish or a dessert. We make sure to have plenty of the regional wine, as well as the local music for the country whose cuisine we are celebrating. We always try to remember to bring a printout of the recipes we made so that we can create them at home if we wish.



















This photo is from our very first International Dinner, South Africa! Raph and I hosted, so I made the main dish, bobotie. It's made with ground beef and plenty of spices such as turmeric, curry powder, and cloves. It's delicious and I've made it many more times (the most recently just last month - unless you count tonight! I have the meat defrosting as I type).















Food, friends, and fun!

International Dinner Follow Up

FIASCO!

We left our house at 5:30 to make it to the dinner at 7:00. Markus fell asleep in the car, and woke up when we got to our friends house (after 7:00 -- traffic really sucks). He knew he was in a different environment with different people. At first it was okay, but then he wanted his bottle around 8:30 or so, which was normal, but he didn't go to sleep right away. He then started to get upset and crying. I told Sandra that she should go eat dinner and I'll try to get him to sleep. It wasn't working and then I started to get upset as well. Here are the factors that were at play:

• He normally poops two or three times a day, but hadn't done so all day
• We were in an apartment that had an oven on all day (cornish hens - WOW so good) and it was very hot.
• New location and he just slept an hour or so before we got there

Sandra then came into the room to help and Markus promptly spit up a few ounces as he was choking on his own tears from crying. Now we were both uncomfortable and wondering if this was a good idea. How do parents do this?

Then he let out a massive S-bomb, which made us feel great! lol. We could then eliminate an upset stomach as the problem. We fanned him and consoled him and it seemed to work. Sandra stayed with him and I went to finally eat my dinner. The dinner was pretty amazing, but it was difficult to focus. I felt embarrassed, but in no way was I made to feel that way. Everyone was so supportive.

As if that wasn't enough, after 10 minutes, Markus started crying again. This time Sandra was with Ericka and Diane and I stayed at the table. Again, it was hard as hell to stay focused when my little guy was in the next room crying. It was at 10:30 that Sandra decided to put him in the car seat and give him one of his favorite toys -- Henrietta. It worked. He finally calmed down enough to fall asleep. We enjoyed the rest of the night until about 1:00. Well, by enjoyed I mean we were interactive while having a giant anxiety pit in our stomachs from time to time.

Afterward Sandra and I were glad that we went through the experience because we learned a lot. We have to continue to take Markus out to different places, but we should probably get there a little early. Markus doesn't like to mess around during his bedtime. In fact, we went to a birthday party the next day for a few hours in the early afternoon and it was fine.

So, that was the experience. Slightly different from our plan (have him fall asleep soundly at 8:30 in the pack n' play). =)

Here's a picture of Markus with Henrietta:

Happy 3 Month Birthday

Markus has moved from "newborn" status to "infant" status today! Happy 3 month birthday!

Today's cellphone picture (Sandra sends me one each day) :



In other news, we're planning on moving back home this weekend (President's Day on Monday), so we're excited about that. We're finally hosting our international dinner (Mexico) on Sunday, so we HAVE to be there! Our friends have been nice enough to give us a pass. Twice.

I also had the camcorder shipped to New Jersey to avoid paying sales tax (don't worry IRS, I will report it on my 2009 return next year), so we won't have new video until this weekend.

I also realize that we only update this post once a week at best, which is crazy because I can't believe how fast time goes. My commute is 1:45 each way right now, so I leave at 6:30 and don't get back until around 7:30. I'm also at the mercy of the train schedule. The weekdays go by quickly. This will improve once we get to Cranford, so I'm looking forward to spending more time at home playing with Markus.