Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Good Sleep, Bad Sleep, and Paella!

Last night was a triumph. Jen successfully put the babies to bed around 8:00 PM and we did not hear a peep from either of them until 5:00 AM. This would have been even better had we gone to bed before midnight, however, we will take what we can get.

Martin Asleep in Bed

The guys often transition into our bed at some point during the early morning. Jen has set a firm time of 5:00 AM. Often times a fussy baby will become relatively docile and fall asleep quickly after being transplanted to our bed. We just try to use this foolproof technique only as a last ditch effort. It must be the warm embrace of Mum and Dad that is so great at getting the guys to sleep.

Either that or our bedroom has a carbon monoxide leak.

Another Successful Afternoon Nap

I picked them up from day care where, apparently, they had barely napped at all. Before having to take them with me to pick up my car at the service center I put them both down for a nap. Lately they've enjoyed taking turns with one being the napper and the other showing no signs of fatigue. Can you spot which one is which in this photo?

Brasseurs Illimités Simple Malt Golding Pale Ale Britannique

One reason we got to bed so late last night was because I decided to have this Golding Pale Ale Britannique, another beer from Brasseurs Illimités. I intedned to just enjoy a quick beer before bed but ten minutes after pouring it the head was still rocketing up out of the glass making it look more like an ice cream cone than a beer.

The beer was very good but now I know for next time to give myself a little more lead time if I intend on drinking it in the same evening that it is poured.

Martin Having Corn

Elliott with Corn

Tonight the Wombats tried something new: corn. They really liked it. It was hard to tell if that was because it was really good or if they were just starving to death after having a 90 minute freak out session prior to Jen getting home. Magically after Mummy returned home they were giggly, snuggly, and charming. Prior to her arrival they were screaming and crying so badly that they were hyperventilating.

I guess this was just to balance the scales of baby justice after having such a great night last night.

Sippy Cups

They have been waking up early lately and have been hungry in the middle of the night. I advnaced a theory that maybe they were actually thirsty and not hungry. As it's extremely dry in our apartment I thought maybe we should give them some water before bed. It always seemed really weird to me that babies don't really drink. Sure, they have milk all day long, but never a glass of water. Tonight we figured we'd start them on water to see how they handle it.

Wombats' First Sippy Cup Experience

It went about as well as could be expected.

Elliott "Drinking"

Elliott was able to figure out how to put it in his mouth but didn't quite figure out how to extract any amount of water from it.

Martin "Drinking"

Martin mostly ignored his cup but occasionally would bash it into the tray of his high chair before tossing it onto the floor.

Success!

Seafood Paella

While this debacle was going on I put the finishing touches on dinner. In the interest of time I have been much more interested in quick-and-easy one pan meals lately. So it was that I put together a quick paella. I browned some garlic, threw in onion and pepper, chorizo, seared some chicken thighs, scallops, and shrimp, added some chicken stock from the freezer with saffron threads, added some chopped tomatoes, added some Valencia rice, littlenecks, and let it simmer on the stove until it was ready.

Microbrasserie Charlevoix Flacatoune

What better way to counter this Spanish meal than beer from Quebec? Specifically I opened this Flacatoune from Microbrasserie Charlevoix. This was a very, very nice Belgian-style pale ale. Maybe it was the stress of the lead up to dinner or the fatigue I was feeling but this was one of the more enjoyable beers I've had in a long, long time.

With the babies in bed and New Girl on the television we can only hope that we get as good a night as we did last night. Since the babies did next to no napping today you would think they'd sleep like logs -- I don't believe in the term 'sleep like a baby' ever since living with two babies -- but babies' sleeping habits do not often follow any form of logic. Life would be so much simpler if babies followed some sort of predictable pattern.

Or if they were just not so stupid that they couldn't figure out that they were tired and how to get to sleep on their own.

Dummies.

4 comments:

uberlours said...

Outstanding looking Paella.

Unknown said...

Thanks! It wasn't too shabby. Jen complained that the rice wasn't yellow enough though.

uberlours said...

She can be her mother's daughter

Anna Schafer said...
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