Catie's First Birthday!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Refrigerator Attack

Every time I open the Refrigerator, she comes running! The old birdcage...this is the site of not one, but two bloody bites from the Chester...whom she still loves enough to have chosen his name for her first word! And since she can eat solid food now, she sometimes shares with him!

So Much, So Big!

I'm not sure there is much to say. My smiling child is the joy of my life. Here she is, already 10 months old and 21 pounds! Her hair is stright in front and curly in the back. Keeping her and my husband smiling is the meaning of my life now. I've finished my PhD comprehensive exams with the help of my husband and mother. She came out and watched Catie for three weeks while I studied. I never would have passed without her.

Life has seemed a blur since then. We took a fabulous trip to the Dominican Republic with my friends Laura and Phil and several of their friends for their 10th wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe it has been 10 years since their wedding convinced me I needed to move to Maryland.

Here is our Easter 2009 Photo. What a Cutie!

Here are our girls, Maddie, Samantha and Catie...Lizzie's Angels and mine.

I can't believe this was Christmas! It was only three months ago and Catie has grown so much! Post Partum Depression was rough throughout the summer. But, 40 lbs and 2 passed exams later I am ready to start working on getting back in shape, physically and psychologically.

So, there you go! A whirlwind catch-up.

more video

Catie wears a hat

Gaining Weight!

I've only been in LA for a week and three days, and Catie has gained 1.75 lbs! She now weighs 12.1 lbs. Wow! I'll post some more videos for everyone to see :-) We are having such a great time with all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Almost a Smile!

She almost smiled for the camera.

More Video of Catie

Good morning Catie!

More Video of Catie

Here is a little video of Catie going through a range of expressions!

Short Video of Catie

This is a little video of Catie I took today. I wanted you all to see what I watch all the time!

Catherine Elizabeth Seagrave

I thought I had a lot to report last time I wrote. This time, I've had a baby!

I never could have known how much I would love this little bundle, or how much time could be taken up just staring at her little face. When I look at her everything else seems to fade away.

It was 6:30 am Friday morning when I assumed I was in intestinal distress due to too much sushi Thursday night. Funny though, the pains seemed to be very regular, about 2.5 minutes apart! I went back to bed hoping it would just go away. But it only seemed to get worse, and more regular. Hmmm.

I called my parents who were staying close by. My mom encouraged me to get to the hospital. I thought it might be better to wait a few hours. Thelabor and delivery nurse seemed to agree that I should wait at least an hour before calling back. By then, the phone had rung at least four times--both sisters calling!

At 10am, fater packing and calling the hospital, Mom, Dad, Patrick and I climbed in the car and went to St. Mark's, me having contractions every 2-3 minutes the whole way.

Patrick was so supportive, holding me through the contractions and helping me feel comfortable.

Our tirp was cut short when the nurse told me I was only 1 cm dilated, and that my contractions were not strong enough to be real labor. It would seem that I was not really in labor yet, and she suggested I either take a bath and try to relax it away, or walk around and do squats to try to bring labor on. (incidentally, this advice cost my insurance company $500). It turned out I didn't need to do either. We went to breakfast at Mimi's instead, and I continued to have even stronger contractions 2-3 minutes apart until I just couldn't sit there anymore and Patrick took me home. There the contractions continued to get stronger until finally we went back to the hostpital at about 5:30 PM. We didn't take pictures this time. After 11 hours of labor, I was now shaking pretty hard through them and was in no mood for ceremony. This time we parked at the door and were led to a room on entry.

My first words to the nurse were: "I don't want to do natural childbirth anymore." I'd had enough nature. Unfortunately the anesthesiologist had just gone into a c-section and we waited until 7:45 pm for the epicdural By that time the monitor showed my contractions, still 2 minutes apart, were at the top of the scale and I was dilated 6 cm, so I don't mind thinking I have a pretty good idea of what childbirth feels like. The epidural was great. Patrick and I called a few peope, I took a nap, Patrick had dinner, and we watched Ella Enchanted while I labored peacefully.

At 1:00 am it was time to push. I was doing pretty well, but Catie wasn't budging and her heartrate seemed irradic. The doctor scared me by talking baout c-sections and foreceps. Maybe his plan was to scare me into pushing harder, because after that everything seemed to move much more smoothly...until we noticed about 2:00 that the epidural bag was empty!

So we continued on, hoping she'd come out before the drugs wore off. At 3 am it appeared that the drugs were pretty well worn off and the anestheiologist was busy. Everyone says I pushed really well. Patrick was a great Coach and Alicia (my nurse) was very encouraging, and Dianat he midwife did a great job keeping me pushing throught he end of each contraction. Only a small episiotomy was necessary. The epidural was finally refilled at 3:15, just minutes before Catie squeezed into the world all pink and beautiful. Patrick quickly cut the cord as the NICU team whisked her away to sucktion her lungs and I waited the longest 10 minutes of my life, being stiched up as I watched my baby on the other side of the room.

Finally patrick carried her back to me and I got to hold her for the first time. It was love at first sight.

Catching Up

Whew! Well, I got married, helped my husband move in, got the thank you notes out, met my deadline for my two Fall articles, got pregnant, had morning sickness for three months, and failed to acheive the advanced proficientcy on the French translation exam for the second time...all since I wrote last!

Things have been pretty crazy around here, to say the least. My biggest acheivement this semester has been fixing 150 wedding photos in photoshop and getting them inot books for my relatives. I have posted some below. Enjoy!

To Brie or Not to Brie...Part 2

To Brie or Not To Brie…Part 2
By Jennifer Large Seagrave, Wine and Cheese Reviewer

Reprinted from Relationships in the City, August, 2007

Last month I promised to follow up my article on brie with one on delicious alternatives to that very popular cheese choice. Often, though I like the simple earthy, milky flavor of double crème brie, I want to present something a little different to my friends. When I want a great cheese in Salt Lake City, and I want to try it before I buy it and to know that a knowledgeable service person will be there to help me, I always go to Liberty Heights Fresh on 11th East and 13th South.

That’s exactly what I did as I was preparing to write this article. My favorite cheese monger, Antonia Horne, helped me make three exciting cheese selections. I grabbed some anise-flavored flat bread, dried figs, a few olives, an apple and a bottle of Mondavi Zinfandel, and ran over to my friend Juliane’s house for a tasting extravaganza.

We started with L’Edel de Cleron, a lightly washed rind cheese that looks and feels a lot like brie, but is wrapped with a strip of bark and made with a mountain recipe similar to a wonderful raw-milk cheese known as vacherin (small cheese). L’Edel is often called “faux vacherin” because its recipe is similar to that of Vacherin Mont D’Or, but the pasteurization of its milk not only allows it to be sold in the US, but also makes its flavor a little less intense than a true vacherin, which is generally reddish in color, taller and smaller than a wheel of L’Edel, and whose center ripens into a runny ooze perfect for dipping and pouring over fruit and bread.

When I was cheese buyer at The Pasta Shop in Berkeley, CA, I had the opportunity to sell Vacherin Mont D’Or and I can say with certainty that no L’Edel de Cleron I have ever seen or tasted was as pungent, runny, or spectacular as the Vacherin. However, I can say that it makes a great substitute for brie if you are looking for something a little different.

The bark wrapped around its rind, sometimes reported as spruce, sometimes red pine or fruitwood, lends an earthy flavor to the cheese. The center is often very soft and creamy, though I haven’t seen it runny. A mushroomy flavor develops as it ages, and a slightly tannic bitterness provides a counterpoint to the rich cream. I paid about $7 for a good sized wedge of this cheese. It was best with a few garlic stuffed green olives.

The next cheese we got into was another soft, washed-rind cheese, this one made closer to home in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is called ColoRouge, by MouCo Cheese, and while it has certain characteristics similar to French muenster and Livarot, it is an American original. Awarded Best Washed-Rind Cheese by the American Cheese Society in 2004, it is a unique treat not to be missed.

Slightly bitter, with a hint of the pungent barnyard, the reddish colored cheese is molded into a small disc and packaged in a special breathable foil wrapper. The hand-ladled rounds are “smeared,” or rubbed, during a two-week aging process in order to help them develop their red color and distinctive flavor. I chose a particularly young disc, though more aged ones are also very good—softer, maybe even runny, with stronger earth and mushroom flavors.

I tasted butter and cheddar flavors when we tried this straight up with green apple slices. It would go great with just about any picnic food, and the wrapping makes it easy to tote and spread. At $6, I felt like it was a great deal.

Finally, Juliane and I opened the plastic container holding our La Tur. Made in Italy's Piemonte region, in a dairy near Alba, La Tur has been the talk of American cheese circles for at least eight years, and rightly so. It is out of this world.

The creamy, ivory-colored cheese has a thin, natural rind, and comes in a tissue-thin paper cup, sometimes inside a plastic container that holds any juices that run off of it. The texture of even a young La Tur, aged just ten days at the dairy, is similar to triple-crème brie: amazingly supple and velvety.

Made from a mixture of lightly pasteurized sheep, cow and goat’s milk, La Tur’s flavor is more complex and pronounced than the other recommendations I have made. Spread on flatbread and served with calimyrna figs and our red zinfandel, it was outstanding.

This selection is not for the faint of heart, as its aroma definitely will fill your car and kitchen. I keep my left-overs in the plastic container it comes in, in a paper bag, in a Ziploc bag, in my cheese drawer, and I can still smell it when I open the refrigerator door. However, as most aromatic cheeses, its odor is much stronger than its taste. The crème fraiche, herb and mushroom flavors are clean on the palate and leave a long lasting, buttery finish.

At about $10 per cup, these little cheeses make a memorable addition to any creative tasting or party. Your guests will definitely remember La Tur.

You can find out more about MouCo cheeses and Liberty Heights Fresh on their websites at http://www.mouco.com/ and http://www.libertyheightsfresh.com/. If you have any cheese or wine questions or suggestions, please email me, Jennifer Large Seagrave, Wine and Cheese Reviewer, at jenn.large@utah.edu. Happy Tasting!