Baby Love From July 2011 Frumpy Zone/Richmond Parents Monthly

Baby Love
By Colleen R. Lee
As I approach the third year of my fourth decade, I have come to the realization that very soon, I’m going to be too old to have another baby. For some reason, this fact has caused me to become obsessed with babies. I see them EVERYWHERE. That wouldn’t be so bad, but each time I see one, I start to cry. It’s starting to become embarrassing.
The worst episode was at my youngest daughter’s dance recital. The first three groups to perform were the tiny toddlers who were swathed head to toe in brightly colored tulle and had giant flowers perched on their heads, making them look like they just stepped off the pages of an Anne Geddes book. As I watched these chubby cherubs smiling, their tiny arms raised over their heads, trying to lift up a leg without falling over, tears were streaming down my face. No sooner would I dry my eyes, another group would toddle onto the stage and I’d start crying all over again. At one point, the littlest flower got scared and stood on the steps of the stage with her mother, and her four year old brother, kept pushing her back onto the stage. While my husband was cracking up, I was sobbing even harder. My husband just sadly shook his head at me – after thirteen years of marriage, he’s used to my strange idiosyncrasies.
I’m sure there’s a psychologist ready to jump in right about now, nodding sagely, and saying, “Oh, that’s just classic Blah, Blah, Blah, due to the fact that you are coming to the realization that soon your body will no longer be able to produce children. It’s a natural grieving process.” Do I want another baby? Absolutely NOT! BUT…there are days when I miss how little and dependent my kids were on me. I miss that soft baby smell, the soft hair at the nape of their neck. I miss the newness of their smiles – each one a precious jewel that out sparkled the sun. I miss those quiet times when my babies fell asleep in my arms and how my soul would be soothed and my world would be perfect. (Great, I can’t even write this paragraph without the tears starting again!)
This is where I have to mentally slap myself and say, “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? REMEMBER THE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS, THE LEAKY DIAPERS, THE NOISE, NOISE, NOISE, NOISE! REMEMBER THAT YOUR WALLS STILL HAVEN’T RECOVERED FROM THE CRAYON SCRIBBLING STAGE. YOU WOULD HAVE TO START CARRYING A DIAPER BAG AGAIN. YOU WOULD NEED TO REDO THE OFFICE AND TURN IT INTO A NURSERY. YOU WOULD NEVER, NEVER, NEVER BE ABLE TO LOSE THE BABY WEIGHT AT THE AGE OF 43! YOU WOULD HAVE TO GET ANOTHER MINI-VAN!”
Then I blow my nose and I’m fine…until I see another baby and a tiny voice in my head says, “Who cares? It would be worth it.”

First Printed in the July 2011 issue of Richmond Parents Monthly

Colleen's Clean Out the Cabinet Trail Mix Cookies

Looking for a new cookie recipe for summer? Tired of all those half opened bags of snacks that are lingering in your kitchen cabinets? Well, my ‘Clean Out the Cabinet Trail Mix Cookies’ are a delicious solution to this problem.
Follow your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and add whatever snacks are hanging out in your kitchen cabinets. For my cookies, I added:
½ bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ bag of milk chocolate chips
½ cup of cashews
½ cup of walnuts
1 jar of shelled pistachios
1 container of dried whole cranberries
Mix everything together and bake! They were AWESOME!

To Run or Not to Run (First print in April 2009 Richmond Parents Monthly)

Since the Monument Avenue 10K is right around the corner and I still have never entered, I thought you would enjoy this reprint from a couple of years ago.


I’m ashamed to say that I have lived in Richmond for 17 years and have never participated in the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K Race. In fact, the closest my family and I have ever gotten to the race, was 2 years ago when we accidentally stumbled across the marathon during our monthly trek to Rainbow Donuts… a great local donut shop on West Broad St.
Of course, only in the Frumpy Zone can you hear this conversation:
“Look at all the runners, kids.”
“Are they running to the Donut Shop?”
“No son, they’re just running.”
“We better hurry Daddy, before the runners take all the donuts with sprinkles.”
At this point, I eyeball my husband’s gut and my ever expanding waistline and sigh.
My husband says, “We should do the race next year.”
I smirk, and say, “Remember the Smoky Mountains.”
At this point my husband shudders and says, “Never mind.”
To understand our marathon aversion, we need to travel back in time, to when the Frumpy Zone was a nebulous cloud just starting to form into the twisted galaxy it is now, to when we were a simple family of three – not five. We were vacationing in the Smoky Mountains and decided to hike a 5 mile trail which we had done once before – when we were just a couple. But this time we would bring our 2 and a half year old daughter – without the stroller.
How hard could it be? She only weighed 25 lbs. We figured we could easily take turns carrying her if she got too tired. Oh, how young and naïve we were.
As they say on SpongeBob…2 HOURS LATER…
Chests heaving, muscles cramping, and cursing our stupidity, we found out the hard way that while 25 lbs. doesn’t seem like much when you’re carrying a sleeping child from the car to the bed; uphill on rocky, root infested terrain, 25lbs. feels like 250 lbs. It took us an entire day to complete a trail that should only have taken 2 hours.
Years have gone by, and the Frumpy Zone has fully developed. Our youngest child – age 4 – is almost able to make it through the Rockwood Park trails without whining, “Mama, carry me.” Rainbow Donuts has sadly closed its doors, but the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K is still going strong. Perhaps next year we’ll find the courage to participate… or maybe we’ll discover another local donut shop.

The Magic is Back, Baby!

Something about a snowy day makes me want to bake cookies. However, for the last 4 years, I seem to have lost my 'cookie magic.' No matter how hard I've tried, my cookies have just been horrible- usually burnt or dry- something. My husband just shakes his head and says, "When we were dating, you used to make the BEST cookies."
(Hmmmm, I'm thinking that phrase may be perhaps a euphemism for other things best left untouched in this blog.) Well, when we were dating, of course my cookies were AWESOME- I didn't have anything better to do.

Today, when I saw the beautiful snow covered trees, I was filled with the cooking making urge, so I decided to try a new recipe for chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. I put them in the oven just as the kids were heading out to play in the snow. When I took them out of the oven, I could not believe my eyes! They looked AMAZING! Perfectly shaped,golden brown, not too crispy, just a tad chewy. They tasted even better than they looked! The best part was that I got to enjoy my warm cookies and coffee in utter peace and quiet while the kids were outside playing in the snow.

I don't know what happened but my 'cookie magic' has returned, much to my husband and children's delight.

Great Recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1/2 cup of softened butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 & 1/3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
milk chocolate chips (I used 1/2 bag)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat butter, peanut butter together. Beat in sugars, then eggs and extract.
Fold in flour, baking soda and salt. Add chocolate chips.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned.