I Can Still Make Lunch

Sorry to be in absentia this week. I thought I'd been spared the new parent blinding fatigue I always hear about. Luciana goes to bed around 6:30 or 7; I go to bed around 9:30, and even though I wake up with her a few times a night, by the time I get out of bed around 6:30 I usually have accumulated 7 or so hours of sleep. Sometimes a little more if I go to bed at 8:45 (has happened) or she sleeps til 7 (has also happened). I've, for the most, part, felt rather, shall I say it, rested. But this week I got slammed. I heard the tiredness was cumulative, but I thought that meant that each day I'd feel a little more tired. For me it was Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine (so I thought I was fine) then BOOM--hit by a truck. I have barely been able to complete a sentence, much less apply myself to something I hope will be semi-interesting to anyone reading this.

Pause for photo-op. Here's my little bird at 6 1/2 weeks, and if I didn't sleep at all for the next fill-in-the-blank- many months she would be worth it.

bloomers a gift from Auntie Kristina from this delicious kids' clothing company

However, I thought I'd share 2 things which I learned this week:

1)you can make a really nice lunch for another mom in less than 20 minutes. I'll show you how.

2) Worrying is just my way of trying to control things. I don't always understand what is going on with my baby, so the illusion is that if I find things to worry about somehow I'll get the situation under control. It's an incredibly draining way to pass the time. I hope that you pass up each and every opportunity to worry that comes your way, baby-related or not.

My friend Julie had baby Otis 12 days after Miss Luciana came into the world. All four of us are Leos, so there are many playdates of the wild kind in the future. I hadn't met Otis and hadn't seen Julie since the babes were born, and they came over for a visit yesterday. If another new mama comes to me, the least I can do is feed her. Here's how to make a lovely lunch on no sleep with very few dirty dishes:

1. Thaw some dried cherry muffins from the freezer you'd made the week before. To make dried cherry muffins, use any blueberry muffin recipe and sub dried cherries. Serve with plum jam (or any jam) and butter. (I am not able to make any more jam this summer that I know of. It's too time-sensitive/I need to be at the stove watching and stirring. My child doesn't nap reliably during the day and yeah right I'm making it at 8 at night. A personal tragedy which I will try to recover from.)

2. Cut some pita bread into triangles and serve with the hummus and olives in your fridge. Maybe some of Desi's preserved lemons if you have a friend make them for you.

3. Place sheep or goats milk cheese (since we all know cow dairy is tough on a lot of babies, mine being one of them) on a plate and serve with truffle honey. Yes, TRUFFLE HONEY.

4. Make these 2 salads:

For the beet one:

Roast beets in the am while you play with baby. Find a moment to skin them before they get too cool. Remember not to touch anything precious while hands are covered in beet.

Quarter beets and toss with whatever vinegar you like--I used sherry--some olive oil and salt. I went crazy and used black salt. That counts for crazy in my life these days. Slice an avocado and gently toss in.

For the corn one---stolen shamelessly from my friend and personal chef Mandy:

Shuck as many ears of corn as you think the 2 of you will eat into a bowl. Add some chopped or cherry tomatoes (I grew these!--the one garden-friendly thing I did this summer), some lime juice (for 2 ears of corn I used one lime) and a small handful of chopped cilantro. You could do avo in this too, but I figured since it was in the beets I'd skip it.

Put all on table and eat while the two babies sleep, one in his new friend's swing, the other in her Moby on Mama.