Pickles

Well, this has just been a blog writing kinda week, hasn't it?

Since Matthew began crawling around to follow me he has always been excited when I open the refrigerator. I suppose the big bright light and colorful bottles and such are very attractive to an infant.

On the bottom shelf on the door are two water bottles and a jar of pickles for sandwiches/hamburgers. This jar of pickles was like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for Matthew. As soon as he hears me open the refrigerator door he comes racing over and reaches for the pickle jar. Today was no different. I was getting dinner ready (homemade chili!) and I reached in the fridge for garlic, and of course Matthew came rushing over. Well, I didn't get the door shut in time and Matthew was able to once again grab at the jar of pickles. This time, he was successful at knocking it over and when he knocked it over the lid came off with it!

This was extreme excitement for him. He instantly tried to splash in the pickle juice. So I grab him away from the pickle juice spilling everywhere, with the garlic still in my hands and I plop the garlic on the counter and then set Matthew down in the living room. I grab a few hand towels and start cleaning the mess. All the while, I hear Matthew squealing in excitement and rushing back in the kitchen. Chris jumps up to grab him and gets him just in time.

Silly boy. So after a couple of months of grabbing at the pickle jar it apparently slowly loosened the lid. At least that's my explanation, because we honestly haven't used those pickles in a while. Matthew has been the only one to touch them. He's such a nut. So now, after nine months of life, Matthew has a nickname that may or may not last a lifetime. We'll see how long it sticks. But for now, we are definitely calling him Pickles. It's only fare, my parents call Devon Puddin', but she doesn't have a funny story to explain it though.

Everyone says it, and now I'm joining in the chorus that "Boys are definitely different!" I can't help feeling like this may be some sort of "payback" from Chris's childhood, but then that doesn't seem fair because I'm the main one chasing after him. Oh well. I wouldn't trade my little mischievous boy for anything!

Get Ready!

Well, when Devon first started school I wrote an ode to Mrs. Hygh her teacher. And let me tell you she has lived up to expectations!

Devon got her second report card and is doing excellent. She has improved on her two N's (needs improvement) from the first six weeks. She is also proficient in over half of the curriculum now. But that is not the good news. The good news is that she is ready to start reading!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited to see that little note from her teacher. I've been waiting for this for so long. I tried working with her this summer, but she wasn't into it so I put it aside because I wanted to wait until she was ready. So now I have the green light!

Last night I let her pick a book and asked her of she wanted to help me read it. She looked a little confused but still said yes. I told her to look for the words "I" and "A" and to help me read them. She jumped right on that like a dog on a bone. It was so fun.

I'm going to try adding a new word every other day for her to "help me read" and just go at her pace. As much as I've been longing for this, I don't want to make it feel like a chore. It's just another way for us to have something special to do together and I'm so happy it's finally time.

9 Months!!!

So Matthew is now 9 months old! And he is quickly becoming quite a busy little boy. He's a speed crawler, he loves pulling up on anything within reach, and has recently become a fan of rearranging the chairs in the kitchen by pushing them like a walker.

He is such a happy go lucky kid. It's amazing. He has stayed in the church nursery twice for an hour and has done just fine. He's just so much fun. He's starting to enjoy playing games like pass the toy back and forth, and of course the gravity game. Good thing he has a patient big sister to continue picking up the toys he drops to keep the game going as long as he wants. He gives kisses and is starting to wave.

I took him to his 9 month check up today and he's doing just great. His weight did drop down a pound, but his doctor wasn't too concerned (but I was). We just need to vamp up his calorie intake. I've been given permission to let him try eggs (most of the time you wait until they are 12 months), because those pack some serious calories.

He's been a little bit of a picky eater, not a good sign for a 9 month old. He just isn't wild about pureed food. Most of the time I have to put a Gerber fruit or veggie puff on the spoon with the food for him to eat it. He wants the real stuff. He loves bits of banana, pinto beans, bread, pumpkin, sweet potato bits, yogurt and will eat anything dipped in spaghetti sauce, especially beans.

I'm really hoping that giving him enough food will also help with him waking up so often at night, because he won't be hungry. That's the theory, let's hope it works.

"Cake or Death!"

Haha. It's always good to start a blog with an Eddie Izzard quote!

Well, the last three years I have been wanting to make Devon's birthday cake myself, instead of buying the heavily sugared and not so creative ones from the store. But obviously that never happened for various reasons. So I began looking at cake websites online a few days ago to get some ideas when I came across a dinosaur cake! It gets even better though. I actually didn't look difficult to replicate.

Tuesday night we had a Neighborhood Watch meeting and I used that as an excuse to make a cake and practice creating a dinosaur. Of course I just bought a box of Betty Crocker mix, my main objective was to shape a cake. And here's what I created.

I know. It looks more like a turtle than a dinosaur, but I did learn a lot from this experience. First, when you try to frost the inner part of cake it crumbles, which is incredibly irritating. Second, once you frost the head of the dinosaur it is too heavy to stand up. More irritation. Third, it's definitely going to need some candy decorations to look like a dinosaur and not a turtle. Some spikes to transform it into a stegosaurus should work well.

I am definitely going to try this out one more time before his birthday. Now I need to figure out what to make Devon. I saw a very cute way to make the very hungry caterpillar using a couple of cut up bunt cakes, but I'm still open to ideas. If I can figure out how to make a Magic Treehouse cake that would be AWESOME!! Since that is more than likely going to be her birthday theme.

The End Is Near

As most of you know, I'm a big advocate for breastfeeding. Even though I'm broken and can only feed on one side. I wanted to go the full recommended 12 months with Devon but only made it to 9 months because I got thrush and Devon weaned herself. I was pretty bummed.

Then Matthew came along and hasn't really had any issues like Devon, so I have been really hopeful about making it all the way to 12 months. Well, here comes a hurdle and boy is it a whopper. I seem to be producing less milk. So I run to the health food store and grab some good ol' Fenugreek. It helps a little but not enough to relish the side effects.

Matthew nurses every two hours, which is no big deal, I'm used to it and I understand that it is because I can only nurse on one side. It's been this way since we brought him home from the hospital. He would still sleep really well at night, having a first sleep stretch last anywhere from 5 to 9 hours. But the last few weeks, he wakes up every two to three hours at night to nurse. Uhg!

At first it wasn't too bad, but now I am really starting to be effected by this. I'm constantly tired and I'm pretty grumpy throughout the day. Not good for the family. Not good for me. So the idea of giving him a bottle of formula keeps being thrown at me and I really tried to resist. But my well-being is continuing to dwindle and I don't want to be a grumpy Mom or grumpy wife for three more months.

Today I tried to give him a bottle right before his afternoon nap. After twenty minutes of resistance by Matthew I was pooped and caved into nursing him (actually us) to sleep. Then tonight I tried again to give him a bottle to put him down. Still lovingly holding him close and rocking him, but still he resisted. He finally just passed out without drinking anything.

So now I am consumed with guilt. I feel like I just starved the kid and it just doesn't feel right to wean him while he's kicking and screaming (literally). What's a mom to do (*sob*)?

Bed Time Schmed Time

Well, today was exciting! It was very chilly and it was a Saturday which means Farmers Market day, Hooray!! My favorite. We get out there and it is so windy that most of the vendors took down their canopies, but I wasn't worried because we were all bundled up.

Matthew had on two pairs of socks, sweat pants (that are huge on him!), a onesie, a sweatshirt, a beanie, and he was snugglied to me with a blanket over him. We were warm. Devon was sporting her new coat I bought on Friday while she was in school. I'm so proud of myself for paying attention to the weather forecast and snagging a coat before they were all gone.

So we walked around and got the veggies we will need for next weeks meals and had some lunch. Then we headed over to the library for new kid books and cook books. I'm two pages away from starting on spiral number three for all my recipes. Then back to home. It was almost one by the time we got home and we were all pretty pooped. I made some grilled cheese, since we ate lunch at 10:30 like Devon is used to doing at school and then Matthew was ready for his afternoon nap.

I popped in Cars and we all snuggled on the couch. Matthew was the first one asleep, nursing knocks him out quick when he's tired, then me and at some point Devon even fell asleep. It was cute! I woke up at the end of the movie to both my sweeties sleeping on me. It was heaven. But I knew I would have to wake them up. It was 4:15 and if they nap too late, then they won't got to bed. So we woke up and then went to wake up Chris.

Tonight I went out on a limb and made something I wasn't sure Devon would like at all. I made crunchy chicken and blackbean tacos. Turns out if you put anything in a crunchy taco shell, Devon will eat it eagerly!! I'll store that bit of info for future meals. Every bite she took, she dramatically mmmhed. It was great.

So now, it is 8:30 and while I should be having quiet Mommy time, Devon is now hanging out in the living room reading her knew library books because she is not tired. Big surprise there! So I'm going to join her on the couch and read her the new books until 9:00 and then I will have to put my foot down for bed time. It's ok to fudge the rules from time to time, it's all for the love of reading!

Granola! I Love You!

Today was a good day for baking. It was cool enough outside to leave the backdoor open with the screen shut so the oven wouldn't heat up the down stairs.

But before my baking fun began, I went to Sun Harvest, which is like a mini Central Market, to grab some Fenugreek and check out the bulk bins. Boy did I hit the jackpot! Well, that's exaggerating a bit, I just happened to find a few items that central market didn't carry in bulk. I snagged a mother-load of organic rolled oats, some barley (for baby food), sliced almonds (mmmmmm) and lots of wheat germ. The wheat germ was definitely the best buy. I got about one and a half times as much as you get at the grocery store for about $4 for only $0.55!! Woot!! Sorry I get excited about bargains. It runs in the family......

So back to the granola. I got the idea a couple of days ago to make my own granola bars when I realized I would have to go back to the grocery store to get more for Chris because he is working seven days straight this week and I didn't buy enough during my last grocery visit. So I went to one of my favorite recipe websites (http://www.allrecipe.com/) and browsed about the different ways to make it.

It really isn't as complicated as it sounds. You just mix everything up and slap it in a baking pan. I don't know why I assume most things would be more difficult to make from scratch. Perhaps the food industry has something to do with it. Have you seen the commercial stating that peeling a potato is hard work??? It takes like five minutes to peel enough potatoes for mashed potatoes! Slimey corporations.... Sorry. Tangent.

So yeah. I did it. I made my own granola bars and they're pretty yummy. They turned out a little crispy for my taste, but that's my fault for not checking on them. Mine are flavored with honey, craisins and almond slices. Oh boy, tastey and healthy! Don't you just want to grab one?

Obamanos McCain

Last night I got less than five hours of sleep. Despite this, I feel rested and I'm in a great mood. Matthew was having trouble getting to sleep because tooth number two is starting to emerge, so he went to bed three hours later than normal at 10:45. I didn't mind too much because I was glued to the tv all night watching America make me proud.

I was truly concerned over the possibility that Obama would not win due to ignorance or fear of having a black president. I am truly in awe of what has happened. I feel like the enormity of this has not been realized. Obama has fulfilled the dream of millions. His governmental changes may never have the impact that this one accomplishment will have on our future. Our children will grow up with a hero who beat the odds, who broke the divide and who will (I hope) revitalize America's passion for fulfilling dreams.

Now I know I have done my share of razzing McCain, but you've got to give the man credit too. He is also responsible for bringing out people's passion to vote. Reawakening our value on the power of democracy. Obama gets most of the credit though (wink!). Go ahead America, stand up and celebrate!! Change is coming and I'm not talking about policy.

Bi-Yearly Illness

Well, this weekend I was sick as a dog. I haven't been sick for just about two years, so I suppose in the grand scheme of things that's not too bad. I was pretty miserable though. And as Chris loves to remind me when I'm sick, "Misery loves company, but you're driving me crazy so go to your room!" Yeah I was quarantined to my room so I wouldn't spread the disease.

It started Thursday of last week. I had a bit of a sore throat, but nothing horrendous, little did I know that was just the beginning. Friday, it's much worse. So I try to be proactive and go to the doctor to get some meds early before this gets too serious. However, there is no help with the medical profession, because it's a virus and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. Grrrrrrr.

Friday night I try my darnedest to suck it up, so I don't spoil Halloween. Devon and Matthew get all cuted up but I stayed in my pajama's. Chris took Devon trick or treating in our neighborhood and Matthew kept me company at the front door to pass out candy, which I had never done before. As the night grew later, I started getting worse and worse. To the point where I specifically remember telling Chris, with tears in my eyes, "I don't want to be sick anymore."

I don't know what happened, but my body was literally body slammed by the virus. I was sweating, then shivering, and I could feel my throat swelling up. My body felt like it was bruised on the inside, it hurt so much. Misery.

Saturday, the body aches were considerably better, but all the other symptoms were there. Sunday my main problem was my throat and the same goes for Monday. The whole weekend just flew by and I kept getting confused as to what day it was. Chris was a real trooper taking care of the kids, you know keeping them happy and bringing Matthew to me when he was hungry.

I don't remember a lot, but here are a few random memories that did stick.

• Chris baked a cake.
• Matthew came tapping at the bedroom door all by himself. (ADORABLE!!)
• I watched some episodes of Dexter.
• I slammed down some serious OJ.
• Oh yeah, and looking at my throat in the mirror with a flashlight.

Five days later, my throat still hurts. It hurts to talk, eat, and drink, even to swallow my own saliva. But I don't feel nearly as bad as I did, so there's the good news.

A Contemporary Samaritan

Saturday Devon's school had a Fall Festival where each grade had a game booth set up and the kids could play the games for 50 cents. Devon had a blast and even saw a few of her friends there.

Well when it was time to go Matthew was pretty pooped and fussy. So I put him in the car and he got even more mad, because he is not a big fan of the car seat. This made me flustered, so I was trying to start the car to cool it off, then I tossed the stroller in the back and hoped in the car to leave. Luckily it is only a 5 minute drive from the school to home.

We get home and I'm excited because I get to get fussy Matthew out, but then a horrible realization came to me. I had left my purse on top of my car and left it there because I was in such a hurry to hop in the car and get home. So of course it didn't make it back home with us.

So we turn around to go back to the school and it is not on the ground where we had parked. So I went inside to ask if anyone had turned in a purse. Nope. So we drive the same route we took looking for my purse on the side of the road. Nothing.

Let me tell you, I felt so lousy and horrified. I couldn't believe I did such a bone head thing like driving with my purse on top of the car. So I call the bank and they canceled my debit and credit cards, so no one can get a free ride on our money.

Then I went to the police station and filled a report. Luckily it was an officer I knew from the Neighborhood Watch, and he was telling me how someone took his wallet from his house when he had a party and spent $3,000 in four hours. Yikes!!! It made me feel a little better that I wasn't in that boat. But when I told him my drivers licence and social security card was in there he just looked at me. Uh oh. Apparently I just handed someone all they needed to steal my identity to get a credit card, buy a car or even a house!! This really made me miserable. But luckily my parents were there to help me feel better and Chris did an awesome job cheering me up, while picking on me too.

I tried not to let it ruin my weekend. Sunday after church we went to our churches fall festival on the capital grounds. While we were sitting there enjoying some barbecue Chris gets a phone call from Reel Flix, the movie rental store in Manor. Apparently, someone called the store because they found the membership card in my wallet, which was in my purse on the side of Highway 290.

That's right!! A sweet old lady saw me turn onto 290 with my purse on my car and watched it fall on the ground. She turned around and picked it up. The reason it took until Sunday afternoon to find me was because she couldn't figure out a way to contact me, until she thought to call Reel Flix.

Isn't that awesome that there are still honest people out there. Hooray for contemporary good samaritans!!!!!

Test Kitchen #2

Well, I did more cooking from scratch last night. I made chimichangas! Which I have done one other time, but they weren't too fantastic. But last nights batch was awesome. Chris was very impressed, which is hard to do. So Hooray for me!!!

These had beans, meat and cheese, and yes I do mean my homemade "refried" beans that are not fried. Devon even liked them, until she heard me call it a chimichanga instead of burrito. Why that made a difference I'll never know, but she sure did finish it.

Test Kitchen #1

Well, for the last couple of months I have been collecting tons of new recipes and many of them oddly enough call for the ingredients of fall. Such as squashes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, mmmm. I have had a butternut squash hanging out in my cupboard for a few weeks and I've been pretty anxious to use it in something.

Monday, for some insane reason, I decided to go ahead and cut it up to encourage me to use it soon. So for dinner Monday night I decided we were having pasta with butternut squash and brown butter sauce. So I take the cubed squash out of the refrigerator and pop it in the oven and start cooking the pasta and the sauce. Well, I wasn't very confident with how the sauce turned out so I didn't use it. I just put a couple of spoon fulls of butter on the pasta after I drained it and then added the squash and mixed a pinch of nutmeg.

The verdict. I think the squash should have been cubed a bit smaller (my bad) so it would have cooked a little more tender. BUT it did look so appealing that Devon popped a piece of squash in her mouth without me having to make a bargain for her to try it. She said she didn't like the way it felt in her mouth. Once again my bad. But she did eat all of her pasta which had little tiny bits of squash on it from mixing, so haha she ate it without knowing it, even if it was just a little bit.

I liked it, but I didn't eat all the squash because it wasn't cooked enough for my liking. Oh well, next time I will know better, which is good because hopefully next time Chris won't be sick and will maybe try it. Good thing I worked the kinks out. Now I just need to get a handle on cooking sauces. Anybody want to volunteer to teach me?

Keeping Our Roots

I know I'm probably 80% Italian and Chris is around 50-70%. We like pasta, and especially pizza. The other night when Chris had to go into work early and wasn't able to eat dinner with us I took to easy route for dinner. I simply made spaghetti with butter and parmesan cheese. Easy. Cheap. And one of Devon's favorite meals. I also took this opportunity to let Matthew play with some noodles and have a little taste.

Of course he loved it. What baby wouldn't want to make a big mess and eat it up at the same time. Devon and I got a big kick out of watching his amazement and the faces he made.

Why? Why? Why?

Most people consider me to be a hard ass about allowing what and when Devon can watch tv or movies. And I'll admit it's mostly true. I am especially picky about what she can watch (there are rating for a reason people!) and how often. Most of the time, probably 90%, she doesn't watch tv on school days. Now she only goes in the mornings right now, which is why I am "nice" 10% of the time. But when she does start going to school everyday and eventually has real homework, she will be used to not watching tv on school days and will spend her time after school being a kid and playing, and completing homework. No one will ever be able to convince me that doing otherwise is beneficial. So cut it out! Seriously.

I don't judge people who don't use this same method, so don't worry. It's ok to be different, just respect when others won't agree with you. There's nothing wrong with disagreeing.

I saw a commercial this morning during the news for a new version of the v-smile. For those who don't know what a v-smile is, it's a video game system with games fit for three to six year olds. It is made by v-tech a popular children's educational toy company. When I first saw this a few years ago I instantly asked how much Nintendo or Sony payed to get this product on the shelves.

V-tech claims that it teaches your child while they play, and you know what they're not lying. It does teach the kids. My problem is that it puts kids in more solitary conditions lessening their social skills, and it gets kids used to overly visual based learning. How often do you hear about ADD or ADHD increasing in children. You're three year old can learn the same things the old fashioned way, through playing, being read to, and experiencing the world. A simple trip to the grocery store can replace just about every bit of information your kid will learn from the video games.

Now to the new version of the v-smile. It basically is a preschool version of the Nintendo wii, which I secretly love. The wii, not the v-smile. As a fan of the wii I don't necessarily believe that it is superior because it gets people "active," it's just made for people like me who used to turn their remote control while playing Super Mario Brothers. Basically this v-tech and even leapfrog products state that they can be educational, and immediately people grab them. When did people decide it's ok for a machine to spend so much time teaching our kids? Is this going to create a disconnected generation of people who cling to things instead of people? Or is that what we have already become?

Oh Baby the Places You'll Go

Well, little Matthew is getting dangerously close to being eight months old. Seriously, in four days. He is such an awesome little guy though. Always happy and gives away smiles to anyone who asks. We both hit a big milestone this weekend. He stayed in the church nursery for an hour while I was in Sunday school. And he did really well. I, however, was a nervous wreck, clinching my cell phone in my hand to make sure I didn't miss any vibrations. Luckily I had alot of support from the other moms in the class who knew exactly how I felt.

Also, Matthew is become a little climber and instead of describing his expeditions I will demonstrate it with a montage of pictures. All of these were taken just within the last two weeks.

Here we have Matthew climbing up on the lego table.

Instead of going around the box, he just went over it. Was this the path less traveled?

He absolutely loves climbing over people!

This is definitely my favorite age (of children in general), from now until about two. This is when everything is new and demands exploring. The simplest of objects can become powerfully stimulating. It's just amazing to watch the learning process unfold.