Weekend brunch

My parents visited this weekend, and it was a whirlwind weekend of visiting and eating. Jeremy and I pulled together brunch Saturday morning of muffins, an omelet for many and a platter of fresh fruit.

Pumpkin muffins
From Fresh Every Day: More Great Recipes from Foster's Market

Makes 12 large muffins

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated or ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
2 large eggs
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups golden raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray muffin tin.

Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together in a large bowl.

In a separate large bowl, stir the sugar, butter and eggs together. Stir in the pumpkin puree, milk, and raisins and pour into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir until the dry ingredients are just moistened; do not overmix.

Using a 1/3-cup measure or ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the muffin tins. Bake the muffins on a center rack for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Country French omelet
From Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients

(We adapt this recipe by making 1.5 times the ingredients - it typically serves 4-6)

1 tablespoon good olive oil
3 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup (1-inch-diced) unpeeled Yukon Gold potatoes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 extra-large eggs
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a 10-inch ovenproof omelet pan over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook for 3 to 5 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is browned but not crisp. Take the bacon out of the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate.

Place the potatoes in the pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue to cook over medium-low heat for 8 to 10 minutes, until very tender and browned, tossing occasionally to brown evenly. Remove with a slotted spoon to the same plate with the bacon.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat the eggs, milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper together with a fork. After the potatoes are removed, pour the fat out of the pan and discard. Add the butter, lower the heat to low, and pour the eggs into the hot pan. Sprinkle the bacon, potatoes, and chives evenly over the top and place the pan in the oven for about 8 minutes, just until the eggs are set. Slide onto a plate, divide in half, and serve hot.

Full circle

Earlier this year, my family and friends participated in the March for Babies walk along Chicago's lakefront. I am not sure how, but this connected me directly to the executive director of the Chicago office of the March of Dimes. I started receiving emails from her and I found myself volunteering to serve on the host committee for a reunion of NICU families, doctors and nurses at Prentice Women's Hospital at Northwestern Memorial.

Today was the reunion. I was there early and chatted with my fellow volunteers. The other mothers and I told our preemie stories in stats - how many weeks gestation, how many weeks we were in the NICU, and how old our children are now. And I realized I was a bonafide member of the family-centered care committee now for the NICU at Prentice, a volunteer opportunity I will surely relish in the coming months.

It's a pretty good day in my book when I can thank and hug the NICU nurses who provided loving care to Jossie. One of our favorites, Juanita, was as excited to see us as we were to see her. She held us up while we were in the NICU - she encouraged me to stay home for my safety during the Chicago blizzard and she was there to discharge Jossie on her last day in the NICU, tightly rolling up blankets to put in Jossie's car seat to keep her snug.  She has a set of twins who were born at 34 weeks, so she gets it. 

It is no secret that I was pretty sad after Jossie's birth. It was part-baby blues and part-this lack of control of my baby's birth. Perspective and time have allowed me to move on. And I'm so glad I have. I'm so glad to be here, given an opportunity to share my grateful thanks to the doctors and nurses and to lend a helping hand to new NICU families. And my kids are healthy. I feel so fortunate.

Book review: "Bringing up Bebe"

I admit: My parenting style is a weird hybrid of working-outside-of-the-home mothering and attachment parenting. This week alone, I left two mornings before the kids awoke and I discovered that Jossie calls Maria "Mommy." And then there's my other side - I nurse Jossie still; Jack sometimes sleeps with us; and I baby-wear.

Weird.

Parenting is messy. This is no perfect equation. 

I just finished a good book that gives one viewpoint on parenting called Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman. And since it's two weeks overdue at the library, I thought it was high time I shared my thoughts with you on this good read.

The author is an American living in Paris, and the book details her observations on French parenting - mostly those of educated Parisian parents. This is not a how-to guide book to parenting - it's a collection of observations with supporting research and humorous anecdotes.

My favorite idea was that "...autonomy is one of a child's most basic needs." (p. 256) The Parisians give their kids a sense of responsibility and ownership of their own feelings, starting at a very young age. They guide their children but don't do everything for them. And from infancy on, there is an emphasis on strict sleeping and eating guidelines.  There are few kids' menus in French restaurants, the author observes; children to learn to eat what their parents eat.

I also liked the idea of parents still remembering they are individuals and are emotionally separate from their kids. Kids will have disappointments in life, and we can't always be there to make it right. But we can give them the right tools to be sage (French term for wise) to rely upon themselves.

Maria, one of my personal parenting gurus, always says that you if you set expectations for children, they will rise to them. This book speaks to that - expect more and you will get more. This book details the respect had for Parisian children as individuals, even from an early age. They believe that this respect and trust are recipe for a happy life.

This book has a lot more - details on letting children explore new things and take classes so to not to get a higher SAT score but to discover the pleasurable things of life. There are also thoughts on publicly provided childcare, giving mamas more opportunities to balance work and family.  This book is not the end-all in parenting, but it's a good read. You can never have too many perspectives on parenting, no?