Ode to Greg and Some of My Favorite Things

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Fae has started sleeping better! 4-5 hour stretches at night, for the past three nights.
The first night I thought it a happy fluke.

On the second, my body got excited about going out of sleep depravation and tried to get in a bunch of REM episodes, but I kept getting woken up.
Each time, I would check the baby but it hadn't been her, so I'd groggily lie back down, yet it would happen again, and again. By 6am I see the door slightly moving and realize it had been Greg all along waking me, not Fae. I go out to find him dejectedly lying down in the shower, having gone through an extremely tough episode of food poisoning :-(.
We let him recover yesterday - he needed it badly. And it gave me the opportunity for some quality time with all three kids!

The third night - last night - Fae stayed true to plan: 5 hours, then two 3 hour sleep cycles! Jackpot - I got sleep too! 

I woke up with Gaius running in the bedroom at 7:30am to tell me that "my chocolates were Snickers"?!! And that he got his chocolates too! It took me several minutes to figure it out:

Greg had woken up early and remembered the Romanian tradition of Moș Niculae, who comes the night of December 6 and leaves treats in your shoes if you've been nice! 
So this morning he "let Mos Niculae in to do his thing", then got breakfast ready for the kids, had them eat and get dressed, arranged for Mara to be picked-up from home for school by lovely friends (thank you!!), prepared her school snack and backpack, set an alarm for me to wake up a few minutes before Mara's pickup, and took Gaius to school on his way to work. 
What a Dad!

So here I am, happy as a clam this morning!

And with enough energy to do even more happy things! So after Fae's morning nap I put her in the gym and spent some quality time cooking a delicious meal of fresh wild scallops with maitake frondosa, shallots and garlic!

Am in love.


Here's my awesome garlic crusher that's tremendously easy to clean, among with my favorite 67 layers of Japanese steel which made the shallot slicing nothing short of a dream.
Fresh wild scallops delivered yesterday with GoodEggs - this service is a huge boost to my happiness! And the lovely sunflowers from our thoughtful friend Emily who brought over some sweet hand-me-down baby clothes for Fae yesterday:

All cooked together in the best mushroom-cooking saucepan:
At this point Fae was calling me back - she's so sweet with her long kind "Aaaahs" instead of crying! So I picked her up in the Maya wrap, so I can continue my short cooking escapade:
Mommy's special supply of Pacific kosher flake salt (from a small Ocean-to-Ocean pack) to deliver those mini explosions of flavor on the scallops, backgrounded by Greg's miraculously floating bowl which slowly rotates with Mara's eternal flower bouquet:
Happy December 6th, everyone! I won't lie, I had seconds after this plate:
I'll end it with the sweet poem that my mother - Grandma Buny - composed just for us this year and sent it fresh this morning to my phone:

Mos Nicolae

La ceas de seara, în amurg
Venea un Moș mergând cu sarg
Ducând cu el  un sac usor
Ce-avea să-l lase în pridvor

Cand toată lumea se'odihnea
Pe lângă ușa el trecea
Catand ghetuțe de copii
Pentru a pune jucarii

Dar pentru cei mai nazdravani
Mai mici sau maricei în ani
Aduce și o nuielusa
Și-o pune lesne lângă usa

La întrebarea ce urmeaza
Cand toată lumea este treza
De au răspunsuri potrivite
Găsesc surprizele primite

Iar daca'au fost mai neatenti
Poate un pic mai neglijenti
Li se arata "nuielusa"
Iar ei promit "acus, acusa"!

La mulți ani! 

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