Monday, October 22, 2007

I'm "delight"-ed

When I got pregnant last year, one of the first things to go was my sense of smell. Within a few weeks, my sniffer went from enjoying various scents and perfumes to rejecting any and all fragrance. Seriously, at some point I was reduced to using only my philosophy Cinnamon Buns 3-in-1 (I could tolerate some food scents) and Curel lotion. I had to be very picky about which hair (Paul Mitchell) and body (Product Body - Joanna's unscented products truly are unscented and very luxurious!) products I used. I will say that it is definitely a challenge to find unscented products, but that is another post for another time, perhaps.

Once Squiggles was born, my nose gradually came back online, but most of the perfumes that I wore before he came along still made me a bit queasy (our emotions are very strongly tied to scent, after all). So my new mission was to find a perfume.

I spritzed and sprayed and sampled, but nothing really struck my fancy. Then one day, while out at the mall, I spied a new Pleasures fragrance from Estee Lauder: Pleasures Delight. Now, I loved Pleasures back in the day, and I eventually came back to love Pleasures Exotic (a great summer fragrance), so I thought I'd give this new incarnation of the classic a shot.



Simply put, I enjoy this fragrance. It makes me feel warm and cozy and sophisticated, like wearing a comfy cashmere sweater, if I owned a comfy cashmere sweater (I don't know how well spit-up would come out of cashmere, so I'll stick with cotton for now). According to Estee Lauder's official website, Pleasure Delight's notes are:

Top Notes: Juicy Pomegranate, fresh Greens and dewy Freesia combine with the fruity taste of whipped Strawberry Meringue to delight the senses.

Middle Notes: A heavenly bouquet of flowers enriches the heart. Soft petals of White Peony and Lily blend with fresh Muguet and tender Heliotrope to create a delectable floral confection.

Base Notes: Warm, delicately sweetened notes of Sugared Rose Petals, tempting Caramel, fluffy Marshmallow and Vanilla meld together, forming the delicious dry down. Touches of Patchouli balance the creamy gourmand feeling.

I don't know that I get the greens and freesia on top, or even the flowers in the middle (for which Pleasures is so well known). On me, this almost instantly jumps to a vanilla/caramel/marshmallow extravaganza, with a (surprisingly) nice hint of the patchouli on the drydown. I say surprisingly because I am almost never ever a fan of patchouli. Chef likes this on me, too, except at the end of the day he's not a huge fan of the patchouli; he keeps asking what smells like Patches Atchison, an old boss of his.

All in all, I definitely think I've found a winner. I purchased a holiday set that included a 1.7 oz EDP and a small purse-sized spray that I've relegated to my travel bag so I won't ever forget to bring it with me. Be sure to check it out next time you're at the Estee Lauder counter!

First Bites

Yesterday, we decided to feed Squiggles his first bites of cereal. Why? Well, he hasn't been napping very well for the past few days, and there have been a few instances where he'll still want to nurse after a feeding but doesn't really eat anything - he just kind of hangs out there. Granted, these things may all be attributed to teething (we saw white gums on top yesterday!), but we decided to try cereal and see if that either helps him or shocks him into napping and eating better.

So after lunch, my MIL and I went to Target to get the "supplies" while Chef and my FIL picked up our new La-Z-Boy chair (muy comfortable!). First, I picked up a big, honkin' box of Gerber rice cereal. I say honkin', but I think it's really only 16oz. That's still a lot of rice cereal, especially considering that we'll only mix up a tbsp or so at a time for the little guy. Still, I had a coupon for $2 off a $2 Gerber baby food purchase and the 8oz box wasn't quite $2 and I'm proving that I'm frugal.



While I'm on the cereal subject, Target had a sign on the shelf stating that the Gerber Organic cereals had been recalled due to "potential choking risk". I'm not sure how one could choke on extremely runny cereal, but it seems some of the cereal clumps do not fully dissolve in liquid, thus causing the choking risk. Be aware, be safe!

The next feeding must-have were some spoons. Squiggles' Great Aunt B gave him a beautiful sterling silver loop handle spoon, but I think I'll let him play with it once we get the hang of this whole feeding thing a little more. I ended up getting a package of Gerber infant spoons. Long, slim handle; small, flat spoon covered in different colors of silicone. Very nice.



So, the big moment. We made sure to have the camcorder set up so we could capture this moment for posterity. I ceremoniously measured out one tbsp of cereal into a small stoneware ramekin. I carefully poured in a few tbsp of warmed breast milk (I thought of using milk straight from the tap, if you know what I mean, but the image of me hovering over and aiming into the ramekin made me giggle too much - and, yes, I realize that wouldn't be the best way of doing that). I lovingly stirred the concoction. With camera running, we cooed and encouraged and told Squiggles what a big boy he was. And then came the first bite. He accepted the bit of cereal on the tip of his special spoon and promptly looked over at Chef as if to say, "You're letting her DO this to me?" Or, as my MIL said this morning, "Come on, you're a chef, can't you make this taste any better?" So hilarious! We tried a few more bites, but eventually, Squiggles' disgust moved from his face to his hand, and he began to bat at the spoon every time I brought it near his mouth. All of this was followed by a hearty nursing session.

We will be trying again this evening, of course, because we know it will take some time for him to get used to this. I will try to post a snippet of the video from last night and/or a picture from tonight's trial.

Friday, October 19, 2007

I'm so excited...

...and I just can't hide it!

We received a city newsletter in the mail the other day. I rarely read these things. A community participant I am not, so I usually just throw them into the recycle pile. But this particular city newsletter had a blurb on the front about recreation classes, which I have desperately been trying to find (it's not as fun schlepping to Cville just for a dance class now that Sarah left), so I flipped through it, hoping to find a ballet class or something.

What I happened to see was far more exciting.

Right there, in the list of new business coming to the city (those who have applied for zoning/business licenses) was...wait for it...SEPHORA! OMG, The Greene is getting a Sephora! I am beside myself with excitement right now, even though I know most of my friends and family won't be quite as jazzed as I am. Thankfully, Squiggles is still way too young to care if his mommy drags him into a makeup store!