As we speak, we have a new baby in process and Ben couldn't be more excited. In six months, Ben will be the proud papa of his very own wine! Oh, you thought I meant Joshua was going to be a big brother?! HAHAHA...sorry, no. I can barely handle all the curveballs Josh is throwing us. There's no way we're ready for another one yet. Ok, so back to our new "baby". :) For Ben's birthday, Joshua and nana and I got together and pooled our resources (Joshua paid for most of it) and bought Ben an experience. A make your own wine experience. 
He started out by measuring & heating the water, soaking some clay & stuff into the water and putting it all in a bucket: 
Then he added the grape juice. He chose to make an Australian Shiraz. The juice was super concentrated and very sweet, but still yummy. 
Joshua watched the whole process from his car seat and seemed to approve! 
The next step for Ben was to measure the specific gravity and then add some oak chips to simulate aging in an oak barrel. 
Finally, he added the magic ingredient to bring the wine to life - yeast. As soon as he sprinkled it on, the wine started to bubble & you could see it react. It was really neat! 
Finally, Ben put the lid on the bucket, labeled it and trusted it to the care of Casa Vin'Arte. 
We go back in a few weeks to do the next step. All in all, Ben will go back four times to complete all the steps necessary and then he'll bottle it. He'll end up with between 24-27 bottles of wine and it will age in the bottle for between 6 -24 months. It's really exciting to watch the whole process and be able to taste the wine as it ages. How fun! :)
Joshua is still trying to adjust his sleeping schedule, which is miserable for everyone. Today, his schedule looked like this:
He started out by measuring & heating the water, soaking some clay & stuff into the water and putting it all in a bucket: Then he added the grape juice. He chose to make an Australian Shiraz. The juice was super concentrated and very sweet, but still yummy. Joshua watched the whole process from his car seat and seemed to approve! The next step for Ben was to measure the specific gravity and then add some oak chips to simulate aging in an oak barrel. Finally, he added the magic ingredient to bring the wine to life - yeast. As soon as he sprinkled it on, the wine started to bubble & you could see it react. It was really neat! Finally, Ben put the lid on the bucket, labeled it and trusted it to the care of Casa Vin'Arte. We go back in a few weeks to do the next step. All in all, Ben will go back four times to complete all the steps necessary and then he'll bottle it. He'll end up with between 24-27 bottles of wine and it will age in the bottle for between 6 -24 months. It's really exciting to watch the whole process and be able to taste the wine as it ages. How fun! :)Joshua is still trying to adjust his sleeping schedule, which is miserable for everyone. Today, his schedule looked like this:
8pm last night: fall asleep
12:30am: eat, play, cry, fall asleep
4am: wake up, fuss, cry, eat, laugh, try to play, refuse to burp
5am: fuss, cry, refuse to sleep
5am - 6:30am: cry. cry a little more. fake mom & dad out by falling asleep but waking up as soon as laid down. mom & dad finally give up and just get up.
7am: fuss, cry, fall asleep while eating
7:30am-10:30am: sleep.
10:30am-6pm: eat, play, cry, fuss, refuse to sleep, repeat
6pm-6:45pm: cat nap on daddy
I don't have a whole lot of hope that tonight will be much better, but a girl can dream, can't she? I'm not sure if not sleeping is due to starting to teethe, or if it's because he's trying to cut out a nap, or if he just wants to mess with us, but if anyone has any advice on what to do to help my son figure out his sleeping schedule, we're open to ideas! Even without sleeping that much though, he's a happy boy. All this not sleeping is leading to an abundance of cuddles, which makes mommy, daddy & nana very happy. We're so blessed to have such an easy going little one. And when we're at the end of our rope and can't take one more minute of crying, he smiles or giggles or gives kisses or brings his little hand up to stroke my cheek and it's all better. Amazing how something so little can hold so much sway over your heart, huh? :)
1 comment:
Oh yeah, you're gone. You're putty in his hands. My advice: time to let him cry it out. Feeding time at night is all business, no play. Lights out, no talking, just feeding and back to bed. Then, in the morning, I didn't budge until 7am. They learn! :)
Looking forward to you sending us a bottle of wine for all that great advice!
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