Roly Poly

Just laid down on the  blanket.

Like a dutiful mother should be, I always lay my baby down on a blanket for tummy time. Well, always maybe stretching it. Instead I lay her down for tummy time most of the time or maybe it would be more accurate to say fairly often. Anyhow, despite my short-comings in this area, my lovely Grace has learned how to roll over.

The first time she rolled over was when she was four months old, a mere 10 days from turning five months. Of course I was thrilled as I watched her roll from her tummy to her back. I pulled out the video camera and hoped I could get her to do it again on film. I could not. However, I did take a picture and texted it to her father and grandparents. Naturally the next step was to express my pride on Facebook. What good mother wouldn't do that? (Please note that I am being sarcastic.)

Within a minute, she has rolled onto her tummy.

The next day, Grace topped herself by rolling from her back to her tummy.  This small little roll stunned me. I didn't expect her to do that move so quickly, but she did. From that day forward, she kept practicing her rolls. At first she mainly rolled from tummy to back, but eventually started rolling more from the back to the belly. She has even woken me up a few times because she has rolled onto her belly while asleep. She wakes uncertain as to what happened and gets frustrated.

Now, we have quite the roly poly baby girl! A couple of days ago, she did her first 360 and I actually caught it on video! Stunning. She will now roll herself from one end of the room to the other. She doesn't roll back because as of right now she only rolls to her right. I'm sure left rolling will happen at some point. One amusing thing about her new discovery is watching her get frustrated. There are times that she will be laying on her belly all frustrated because she wants to be on her back. Yet, she rolled herself onto her belly. It is like she doesn't know how she is getting there. I'm sure she will figure it out, eventually. 

After nearly 10 minutes (or less), she has rolled almost the length of the room

I guess this means she may be crawling soon. Oh boy!

Shredded Beef Tacos: Crock Pot Delight

I love Mexican food. Anytime I see a recipe for Mexican food, I am likely to pin it, especially if it looks easy.

Yesterday, I decided to try a brand new pin (I usually go with older pins first), slow cooker shredded beef tacos. My type of recipe, Mexican and slow cooker. It ended up tasting good, but there are a few things I will tweak in the future.

The first thing you need to do is create a rub out of 2 tsp. chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, and 1/2 tsp smoked paprika. I subbed regular paprika for the smoked version because that was all I had on hand. Then you are supposed to rub the spice mixture all over 2 lbs of beef, in my case a chuck roast. 

Notice the large jar of garlic? Yep. That is my shortcut.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I didn't feel that the rub was enough to get over all the meat. If there is a technique I'm missing, please let me know. The rub I had made was only enough to go on one side...barely. So, I mixed up some more rub. The next time I do this recipe I plan on tripling the rub so that I have plenty of rub to cover the meat. I'd much rather end up with a bit extra than scrambling to make more. (If you triple, you would need 2 Tbsp chili powder, 1 Tbsp cumin, and 1 1/2 tsp paprika.)

Once the rub is applied, heat up 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet and sear the meat on each side. Searing should only take 1-2 minutes per side. Put the meat in the bottom of you slow cooker. Add your minced onion (1 small) and minced garlic (4 cloves) on top of the meat.

The food in the crock pot ready to go.

You will then add 1 cup of beef broth or stock to the skillet, deglazing the pan. Add 2 Tbsp of tomato paste to help thicken the broth and 1 tsp of chipolte powder. The pinned recipe says to add a chopped chipolte pepper into the recipe. I did not do that and instead went with her substituted suggestion of the powder. However, the 1/2 tsp did not give the beef much flavor or kick so if going with the powder, I would add the full teaspoon.

The beef all shredded and ready to serve.

Once the sauce has thickened, after 3-5 minutes, pour it on top of the meat in the crock pot. Cover the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. After it is done cooking, take out the meat with a slotted spoon. Shred the meat and serve with flour tortillas (or if you prefer, corn) and all the fixings. Another thing you can do is use the meat to make beef quesadillas.

We really did like this dish. I just want to add a bit more kick and flavor to it in the future. One thought was that I might add cayenne pepper to the rub or even include the chipolte powder in the rub. 

Ready to eat! (The quesadilla was made for my toddler.)

Shredded beef tacos with all the fixings!

Another successful pin! 

My Tiny Dancer

My toddler loves to dance. She danced long before she was able to walk, much less crawl. As soon as she was able to sit up, whenever she heard music, she would bounce to the music.

I take great joy in the fact that she loves music and loves to dance. It brings a smile to my face every time the music motivates her to move. I long ago resolved that as soon as she is old enough I will get her started with dance lessons. Since the majority of places require that your child be at least 3, we have another year of waiting. Until she can start lessons, though, I encourage her dancing.

Ginny usually will start dancing the moment she hears music. Some mornings she will wake up and the first word out of her lips is "dance?" as she points out the radio in her room. Dancing is a daily enterprise for my little girl.

Recently, Dancing With The Stars started their new season. It has been a favorite of mine for a long time. We introduced Ginny to the show for the first time on premiere night. Ginny's bedtime had been 7 p.m until a few weeks ago when we changed it to 7:30 so she had never seen the show before. Ginny was completely enamored. She was more than happy to dance along with the show until she had to go to bed. Last night, I resolved that I can no longer watch DWTS live. Ginny loves the show so much, I feel like it is unfair to only let her watch the first 30 minutes. So, starting last night, I have started DVRing it so she and I can watch the show together the next day. The side benefit of this for me is that I don't have to watch Disney, Jr.