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I love guacamole. My love affair with this delicious dip began when I was pregnant and the only thing I wanted to eat at any given time was salsa and/or guacamole. Sadly, I didn’t know how easy it was to MAKE guacamole at the time and thus my guacamole craving was only satisfied once Crystle made it for me!

That’s totally not my image, by the way. I am way too lazy tonight to take a picture of my guacamole. Plus it’s in a tupperware container and yeah. Presentation’s everything! Without further ado, here is what has evolved into …

Kim’s Guacamole Recipe

• One avocado (the ingredients below are PER AVOCADO if you’re using more …)
• 1 tbsp plain yogurt
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 clove garlic, crushed, chopped finely, or pressed
• 1 tbsp chili powder (for kick!) OPTIONAL, but highly recommended!
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Peel and pit the avocado. Break it into smaller pieces and stick it in a bowl. Dump the other ingredients in and mash everything together with a fork. If you want it smoother, you can puree the avocado first, but I don’t mind it a little lumpy.

That’s it! Seriously, this takes all of five minutes and it’s just the right amount of guacamole for one person (Brad doesn’t like it … thank goodness!). If you’re using salt-free tortilla chips like I do, you’ll want to add a bit of salt to the dip, but I’ve found that if I’m using regular salted tortilla chips, I don’t need the added salt.

Enjoy! And let me know how you like it

Both of these videos were taken on Tuesday night. I have a million and a half that I need to upload, but these are killer cute and they’re actually current, so I thought I’d upload them first

Gwen Enjoys Blueberries! from Kim Schell on Vimeo

Stacking Fun! from Kim Schell on Vimeo

I had to get these things into the blog for record purposes, but I’ve been busy and haven’t been able to.

On April 4, Gwen’s top right front tooth popped through the gums! Surprisingly, that tooth came with very little sleep disturbance. The one beside it though? It’s really close to coming through now and is giving her lots of troubles. She’s still sleeping better than she was a month ago though!!

On Friday night at our weekly potluck, Gwen ate spaghetti! You have no idea how amazing that is, since Gwen hasn’t really even eaten whatever we eat for dinner. She loved picking up pieces of spaghetti and enjoyed quite a few bites off my fork with sauce and meat on it. Yay, Gwen!!

Yesterday, she ate wild blueberries (loved them!! What a fun, messy finger food!) and some grapes. I love having more fruits that I can give her, especially due to her low veggie consumption … I’m hoping to rectify that by buying some frozen peas … I think she might eat those. She’s been eating more and more at mealtimes … now we just have to get a good mix of food in those meals instead of the exact same things every day ro every meal

Oh my goodness. Her eyes. Sigh.

Today, I think Gwen made her first attempt at saying “Hi”. We always say Hi/Bye (depending on which is more appropriate) when she waves and today when we were saying Hi to daddy, she actually made a noise that sounded like the cutest “H-iiiiii”. A couple minutes later, when we were saying Bye to daddy, she kinda made a “buh” sound. I’m wondering if this is the beginning of first words! Such a cute little voice. Oh. And those giggles we’ve been waiting so long for? Very worth the wait I’m trying to get a video with her giggling on it.

Alright, I’m off to Goodness Me! to pick up the avocados I forget to get yesterday … it wouldn’t be such a big deal if I didn’t have them, ya know, if Gwen ate a different veggie, but I don’t like to skip the avocados because it’s the only one she gets!

So on March 12, we went for Gwen’s 9 month check-up. Everything was 100% fine until I asked to know what percentile Gwen was in, since my doctor’s office has never told me. I shouldn’t have asked. According to their records and Gwen’s current weight, she had all but dropped off the growth curve. My doctor, who previously - even Gwen’s weight had been taken - was not concerned about Gwen’s growth or development started telling me the most irrational things … Read the rest of this entry »

Please pray for a friend, Julie-Anne, whose 4-year-old son, Mathias, is quite ill.

Gwen has become so fun lately! Not that she wasn’t fun before, but now she’s really interactive. We can chase her around on our knees. I can hide behind the couch and she’ll come find me. If I walk to the kitchen, she’ll follow me. She has learned to pull up using my legs, so now she crawls over to me, pulls up and hugs my legs.

She loves to point and wants a label for EVERYTHING. She spends most of the day either crawling, pulling up, or pointing. Generally it’s a mixture of two of these things. POINT “that’s outside” POINT “mommy’s knitting” POINT “couch” POINT “train” POINT “Daddy!” So fun.

She LOVES to walk while you hold her hands, or rather, while she grips your fingers. I love that pic because she so often looks like a little grown-up but in that picture, she definitely looks like a baby! Gwen also loves holding onto things and motoring. She’ll lug around that green cup everywhere she goes - dragging it while she crawls or scoots, and gripping it white-knuckled while she pulls up.

My little girl still loves to read, thank goodness! Brad and I both enjoy our books, so I’m glad that she’s inherited an interest in books. Plus, it’s one of the only times the child is still!

Gwen is the apple of my eye and even though I don’t always find it easy to be a mommy, or even to like being a mommy, when I look at this little girl, my heart swells and I feel like I can’t possibly contain the amount of love that I have for her. Things aren’t always easy, and they’re promising to get more difficult as time goes on. But when it comes down to it, we’re having fun, aren’t we, Gwen?