Boring banana bread

I've been making a lot of banana bread recently, and eating a lot of it, too. You see, my husband hasn't been the biggest fan of many of my recent loaves.

There are so many different banana bread recipes out there and I have a difficult time sticking with just one. For a while, though, I was pretty faithful to Banana Bread with Cinnamon Crumble Topping. It is really very good. Definitely NOT healthy.

But, a few weeks ago I had some crystallized ginger I wanted to use up, and I saw a recipe for banana bread with crystallized ginger and chocolate chips that sounded pretty good, so I gave it a try. Well, according to Matt, I might have been too generous with the ginger and not diced it up finely enough (it's not easy to get those sticky chunks into little pieces!) He said it was more like gingery bread with a little banana.

So I ate all but one piece of that loaf.

Then, a week or so later, I felt as if I owed him a loaf he liked. So I nixed the ginger and found a recipe for banana bread with chocolate chips. I had about 1/3 of a bag of jumbo chocolate chips in the pantry and the amount of chocolate chips it called for was "as much as you like." Works for me!

Well, according to Matt, I was definitely too generous with the chocolate chips and the result was chocolate bread with a little banana.

I ate and enjoyed most of that loaf.

Yesterday, I decided to give it one more try and found a plain Jane recipe for banana bread with walnuts. No ginger, no chocolate, only walnuts.

According to Matt, this one tastes great! Even if it is a little boring.

Do you want to hold the baby?

I'm really looking forward to holding our baby. I know this goes without saying, but I feel that I need to say it because it's accompanied by a confession - I don't always look forward to holding other people's babies.

It's not that I don't want to! I love newborns and infants. To all my friends who have had children, know that I think yours are adorable and are just begging to be held, rocked and cooed over.

It's just that I don't usually feel up to the challenge. For me, when I'm with a new mom and she's holding her peaceful, content baby and then asks me if I want to hold her, the first thought that usually runs through my mind is "Why ruin a good thing?!" Here you have this baby finally quieted down and satisfied in your arms, as only a mother can do, and you want to pass her off to me, who's probably only logged 53 minutes of baby holding time in her life, and risk getting her all riled up and into an inconsolable state?

To me, this does not seem like a good idea. I really don't want to be that person who made the baby cry. Of course no one will blame it on you, but come on - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the baby was perfectly fine in mom's arms and most likely would have remained that way if she just stayed put.

Yet, often I will still say "Yes!" with a big smile and hold out my arms, while I'm really sitting there thinking "What position am I going to hold her in" or "Wow, her head seems wobbly but I feel like she's old enough to support her head - what should I do," or "Hmm, 'mom' seems to be looking at me funny - does she not like the way I'm holding her baby, but is too polite to say anything???"

Now that I'm typing this confession, I'm realizing that it might indicate I won't be one of those moms who lets other people hold her baby. And let me just assure you - you are more than welcome to hold my baby. You also have complete freedom to say "No thank you!" Believe me - I will understand.