Small Successes

So we got Connor on the potty again. He was being his insane indecisive two year old self, going back and forth between wanting to sit on the potty and being traumatized by it. So finally we just put him on it against his will and the moment his booty touched the plastic he was fine. Larry sat in the bathroom reading to him and I went into the living room. After about 20 minutes they both come running in all excited. Connor peed! Well, no actual pee came out but it almost did. Larry said he was just sitting there and all of a sudden he got a big surprised look on his face. We are pretty sure something happened down there. Either way we made a big deal about it. I’ve seriously never seen Connor so proud. Larry called him a “big potty boy” and his face just lit up and he said “yeah!”. It was adorable. I think once Connor decides that he wants to be potty trained it will happen really fast. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.

I don’t know what my problem is with not posting the new recipe. Last week's recipe was Apple Streusel Muffins. They were very easy and yummy. I’ve made them again already. They are the perfect use for that last apple that no one is going to eat. Which is really my goal for learning how to cook. I want to be digging through the pantry and find a can creamed corn that everyone forgot about and say "Oh, I'll just make blahbbity blah with it". I will consider myself a good cook when I can just whip something together from pantry remnants.

Down with diapers!

We had a big day around here yesterday. Connor sat on the potty!! He didn't do anything but he sat there with a naked booty. This is a big deal because until today he would get mad if I even asked him about it. Until about two weeks ago he would yell "NO!" and run out of the room if I even said the word "potty".

Yesterday he was farting a lot (nice I know!) so I thought maybe he was going to poop. I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty and he actually said yes! So I put him up there and he didn't like it at all. So I took him back down and got a diaper out. He didn't want to put a diaper on either. I made it clear that it was either a diaper or sitting on the potty. He couldn't walk around half naked. He picked the potty. I was so surprised. He was very nervous and I held him until he got comfortable. Then we sat there and read books for like 30 minutes. Finally I got bored and figured this wasn't going to happen, so we got down.

But still... such progress!

You might live with a two year old

You might live with a two year old...

If you have ever screamed at the sight of something being flushed down the toilet… you might live with a two year old.

If you consider graham crackers a healthy lunch… you might live with a two year old.

If you know the full morning line up on PBS, Nick Jr., Disney, and Noggin… you might live with a two year old.

If you have ever wiped someone’s nose against their will… you might live with a two year old.

If you have ever found your keys in the bottom of the toy box… you might live with a two year old.

If you have ever had your wallet drenched in milk… you might live with a two year old.

If you have ever said “It’s ok, it’s only pee”… you might live with a two year old.

If you are a master of reverse psychology… you might live with a two year old.

If the nicest restaurant you eat in has a play area… you might live with a two year old.

If you use the word ‘potty’… you might have a two year old.

If you have ever asked your husband if he wants to go ‘night night’… you might live with a two year old.

If you start putting your shoes on 20 minutes before you actually have to leave the house… you might live with a two year old.

If you have ever found a cup of milk by following the smell… you might live with a two year old.

If you have ever sniffed someone’s butt… you might live with a two year old.

If you have ever found cheerios in the couch cushions… you might live with a two year old.

I could go on and on. Please add your own!

Draining

What is it about school that drains your desire to learn? I start out every semester with such enthusiasm. I do all the reading, pay attention during class, I take good notes, I care. But then by mid-terms I’m calculating the minimum amount of work that is required for me to get my desired grade. By finals I've even redetermined what my desired grade is. It’s sad. I’ve heard “education is not the filling of a bucket, but he the lighting of a fire.” However, I come pre-lit, and they throw a bucket of cold water on my flames. Not all at once, but drip by drip. Assignment by boring assignment, they put out each and every flame until all that is left are cold wet ashes.

I took Connor to get his pictures taken today. I had quite the internal debate about whether or not I was going to take him. But in the end guilt won over and we went. He did such a good job. He was very excited to get his pictures taken. Slow to warm up as always, but once he got comfortable with the photographer he did really well. He even let her pose him and stuff. I took his bear, C.B., with us so he could get some pictures taken too. They came out cute.

Picture by scui3asteveo.

100 posts!

This is my 100th post! I'm so excited. Our Easter was pretty boring. Connor was excruciatingly cute while looking for Easter Eggs. He really got into it. But in honor of my 100th post I give to you...

A letter to my body:

Dear Body,

First and foremost I want to say thank you. Your service over the past 30 years has been much appreciated. Thanks for everything you do to keep me alive and healthy. The digestion, blood flow, and breathing are all very helpful. I know there are thousands more functions you perform everyday of which I’m not even aware. Thank you for those. Mostly, thank you for keeping my babies safe while they grew from microscopic cells into chunky, kissable babies. I know it was wildly uncomfortable and lots of hard work. I understand that you were tired and overworked so I forgive you for the stretch marks. But the sagging boobs, was that really necessary? I think you did that just out of spite.

I’m sorry that I don’t always respect you like I should. I eat things I shouldn’t. I don’t wear sunscreen as much you would like. I don’t exercise nearly enough. I know… and I’m sorry. I am trying to do better.

I also have some requests. Could you please do something about the dark circles under the eyes? I’ve also noticed a few gray hairs, please make sure this doesn’t continue. Also I need you to let go of the extra fat that has been hanging around. I ate that food a long time ago. Get over it already. We will both be better off.

Love, Soul

Easter Eggs

We painted eggs yesterday. I love painting eggs. It's so fun. It's really the only part about Easter that I like. You know, other than the chocolate. I always leave one in a dark color long after we have cleaned up. Leave it in there for a few hours so it comes out really dark. That's cool. I did learn you can also use lemon juice if you don't have vinegar. The colors come out a little lighter, but it's good to know because I never have vinegar laying around.

I also bought a bag of kisses to eat while we painted the eggs. But I wasn't really looking and I accidentally got ones with almonds inside. No one in the house likes them, which is fine by me cause I love them. hehe. I promise I didn't do that on purpose.

I hope everyone has a great Easter.

I didn't know they had Angels at the zoo.

I was the recipient of a very generous act today. My neighbor, Sarah, has a season pass to the zoo. Since Maddy is on spring break this week she offered to take us all to the zoo for free. But this wasn’t the generous act, keep reading….

We get to the zoo and it is packed. I could tell as soon as we parked Sarah was having a bad mommy day of the worst kind. I felt bad. I’ve totally been there. We’ve all been there. It was just one of those frustrating days where every thing goes wrong.

We unload five kids, two strollers, and countless bags and walk about a half mile to the entrance of the zoo. We stand in line for about 20 minutes before we realize that we are in the wrong line. So we move over and stand in a different line. We finally get to the front and Sarah realizes she doesn’t have her wallet. So we move our caravan over out of the way and she runs back to the car to find it.

Sarah comes back from the car without her wallet. It’s lost. She is more upset that ever and starts digging through her bag on the verge of tears. She can’t find it. I feel terrible for her. We obviously can’t go into the zoo if she doesn’t have her wallet. Besides, she needs to get home and cancel her cards. So we tell the girls that we won’t be going inside. Maddy starts to cry her big dramatic attention getting cry. The hands over the face sobbing that she has been perfecting for the past six years. Which seeing Maddy all upset just makes Sarah more upset so she starts to cry, which makes me start to cry. So we are all standing there crying, but also laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

Just then a woman leans over my shoulder from behind and takes my hand. She says something like “Here, take your kids to the zoo.” I look down and she has handed me $100 bill. I’m not kidding. $100! I couldn’t believe it. I tried to give it back but she wouldn’t take it and I was so shocked that I didn’t really do anything. The whole thing just made me cry even more. I go back to the lady who is almost at the front of the line now and I insist that she take it back. I tell her we are not going to the zoo either way and we really are fine, we don’t need the money. I’m saying this all though tears mind you. I was laughing and crying and shaking. I was just totally blown away that someone would do this.

So we left the zoo. When we got back to the car Sarah did find her wallet, luckily. So that worked out. We ended up going to a park and having a picnic. The zoo just wasn’t meant to be.

BTW: We have the money set aside and will do something fun together.

And on the recipe front. I did make a new one this week but I never posted it. There was a delay because I set up a new site to keep all my recipes on and then I can just link to it, rather than post the whole recipe every week. So now I can just say....

I made Lemon-Thyme Chicken this week and it was awesome. I'm going to make it again asap!

Hello?

What is so upsetting about Mommy being on the phone? I know this is a universal issue. But seriously, what is the problem here? Is it because they know you aren’t paying a lick of attention to them? Is it because they know they can’t get in trouble? Are they jealous? Maybe its all three.

I had to call the cable company today and the moment the phone touched my ear Connor started flipping out. I was in the kitchen and he was fussing, so I try to walk into the living room so that I could hear the guy on the other end and Connor starts full on crying. So I go back into the kitchen and beg Connor to be quiet. I try all the tricks. I move a chair up to the light switch so he can play with that. I gave him my cell phone so he could pretend he was on the phone too. I sat on the floor with him. Anything and everything to try to get this phone call done in peace.

And the customer service person never really cares. They just keep right on talking even though I know they can hear him screaming. I only caught every other word but think it was enough. I’m pretty sure I got done what I needed to get done.

Then Connor is just fine the moment I hang up.

What?

We had a lack of communication this morning. We do this quite a bit. Larry took the day off today because he had some errands to run. I was going grocery shopping and some other stuff. We had talked last night before bed that we both wanted to get going as early as possible and that it would be best if we all left the house at the same time.

Fast forward to this morning and both of us are just milling around not leaving. I'm on my computer wondering why he isn't leaving, and he is on his computer wondering why I'm not leaving. Finally after almost an hour of this I realize what is going on.

"Are you waiting for me to leave?" I ask.
"Yeah."
"Well, I'm waiting for you to leave."

So we wasted an hour this morning just because of a silly lack of communication.

Speaking of miscommunication. Last night I said "I way over ate today" but Larry heard "I weigh over eight today". He couldn't figure out what I was talking about. I thought that was pretty funny.

Spring

It has been so unbelievably gorgeous the past few weeks. We have been able to have all the windows open every day and we have been playing outside a lot. Which is so nice. Last Thursday we were outside for like 4 hours. It was great. When Connor wakes up from his nap we go out into the front and lay on a blanket under the tree and wait for Larry to come home. Which sometimes we are out there for like an hour, but it's fun. I don't get bored. Connor walks around and finds interesting and disgusting things to play with and I just lay there and look at the brand new leaves against a perfectly blue sky.

Maddy is on spring break this week coming up. I'm kinda dreading it. No alone time, not even naps. I don't know how I'm going to get through it. I'm sure it won't be as bad as I'm imagining. It will probably go really fast. Maybe it will even be fun.


I don't consider myself as having allergies but yesterday I was miserable. I took some allergy medicine but, much like my epidural, it only worked on the right side. The left side of my face kept right on leaking. I had to take my contacts out and wear my glasses. Connor has never really seen me in my glasses and he kept thinking they were a camera. He thought I was taking his picture. haha. He is such a crack up!

Connor's two year check up.

So I took Connor to the doctor today. He needed his two year check up and his very last shot until he's five. The poor thing hates the doctor but he loves to go "bye bye" so it was really sad. He woke up in a wonderful mood and I asked him if he wanted to go "bye bye" and he was so excited. Then we walk in to the "little room" and he starts bawling. I felt so bad. He was crying and saying "ears, ears", because the only time we ever go is when he has an ear infection. But he calmed down and was actually good during the exam. Then I had to lay him on the table and he knew what was coming. He started doing the silent breathless cry. But he recovered quick enough.

So one funny thing. My doctor just moved to a brand new building they just built. Last month was the first time I had ever been there. It's not really clear where the door is because the whole front of the building is just panes of glass. So I go walking up and there is a door that says "Patient Entrance" on it so I go in. Inside it's all still construction looking, like unpainted drywall and stuff. So I'm kinda wandering around not sure where to go and I ask some lady "Where do you check in?" and she says "Did you come in that door?" and I'm like "It says Patient Entrance on it." So whatever, I find my way and everything is fine. Then I leave out the same door, but when I get outside I look and it says "Patient Entrance" with an arrow pointing to another door. Then I get there today and I noticed the sign on that door now says "NOT a Patient Entrance." haha. I guess I wasn't the only one.

Oh, but Connor is the 75th percentile for both height and weight. Pretty good.

Carbonara

Maddy got in trouble at school yesterday. She had to "sit on the wall" during recess. I guess her best friend was playing with some other girls and Maddy was jealous so she told her friend she was "playing with those uncool girls". Yep, she got in trouble for saying someone wasn't cool. lol. Boy, things have sure changed since I was in school. But it's good. I don't want her being like that, plus it gave us an opportunity to talk about it.

I made Carbonara last night. It is my new recipe of the week. I like doing them on Monday because I'm too excited to wait til later in the week. I'm such a dork. It was really good. The recipe calls for quite a bit of garlic. I put the whole amount in but really, it was too much garlic for us. The kids didn't like it. Maddy said it was spicy. Next time I'm going to use about half as much and go from there. It looked so good I forgot to take a picture of it on my plate, so this pic doesn't do it justice. Here it is....

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 pound rigatoni
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 pound pancetta, chopped. (I had to look this up online. It's Italian bacon. I just used regular bacon)
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
5 or 6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup grated Romano cheese
And handful of finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish (optional)

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Add a liberal amount of salt and rigatoni; cook to al dente, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and pancetta. Brown pancetta 2 minutes. Add red pepper flakes and garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes more. Add wine and stir up all the pan drippings.

Beat yolks, then add 1 large ladleful (about 1/2 cup) of the pasta cooking water. This tempers the eggs and keeps them from scrambling when added to the pasta.

Drain pasta well and add it directly tot he skillet with pancetta and oil. Pour the egg mixture over the pasta. Toss rapidly to coat the pasta without cooking the egg. Remove the pan from eat and add a big handful of cheese, lots of pepper, and a little salt. Continue to toss and turn the pasta until it soaks up the egg mixture and thickens, 1 to 2 minutes. Garnish wit parsley, i desired, and extra cheese. Serve with green salad on the side.

What exactly is "the business".

We had a small set back on the thumb sucking front. When I picked Maddy up from her dad's house Lexi told me she checked on Maddy during the night and she was sucking again. Darn it! I had just asked her how she was doing with it too. And she said she was doing good, of course. So we are back to putting the yucky nail polish on her nails.

She came home from Shaun's house just beat. I could tell the moment I walked in the door to pick her up cause she was sitting on the floor wearing nothing but a pair of underwear and bawling her eyes out. And it was the high pitched whiny cry that means she is overtired. I didn't even have to ask if they gone to the zoo like they planned. I already knew. I guess they also went to grandma's house and went swimming, which explained the nakedness.

Then today at Wal-mart some old lady was right in Connor's face asking him questions, which just makes him uncomfortable. But she said he was cute and looked like he was "full of the business". That made me laugh. He is "full of the business", that's for sure.

Disturbance

The cops got called on my neighbors yesterday and it was great. There are some kids that drive a go-cart/ motorcycle thing back and forth, back and forth. It's super loud and annoying. It scares Connor which is really sad. Every time they go past our house he comes running to me on the verge of tears.

They had been out there for like an hour yesterday and we were really reaching our limit with it. Larry had gone out and motioned at them once to stop but they didn't. Less than 5 minutes later the cops were here. It was awesome! They pulled in right as the kid was going by the entrance to our neighborhood so he stopped him right there. Caught red handed! Seriously, I was loving it.

So hopefully that is the end of that... but I doubt it.

Picture this

Here are some more awesome pictures that Maddy drew in art class. Aren't they cute? I love that she colored the face red. Really adds to the intensity of the yelling. I doubt she did that on purpose but still...

So Connor was a sleeping fool yesterday. He slept til 9:00 and then took a three hour nap in the afternoon. How nice! Hopefully he is back on track now. This ear infection was a real bugger. He has been on the meds for almost a week now and just yesterday was the first day when it seemed like we had our Connor back.

He is so fascinated with letters, I know I've mentioned this like a dozen times but now he is focused on learning the lower case letter and the sounds they make. He knows the sound "K" makes and knows lower case "i" and "g" at least. He is going to teach himself how to read by the age of 3, I swear. I would like to state that I do nothing to teach him any of this. I encourage him by telling him he is doing a good job and when he brings it up I ask questions to see what he knows but I don't make an effort to "teach" him. It is totally "Connor led".

So I'm still getting up at 6:00. It is making the day go a bit smoother, but I don't know... I'm really tired. I'm not sure if it's worth it yet.

From no pizza to no sleep

I never mentioned how the not eating pizza scheme worked. I would say I had moderate success. I did lose about 2.5 lbs but I also ate pizza three times. Gasp! Once was totally on accident but the last two times I did it on purpose. Sorry. I knew I wasn't going to lose the required five pounds so I kinda gave up. Besides, what was really getting thin wasn't my belly, it was my wallet. Getting other stuff instead of pizza was costing me almost twice as much.

So I have a new experiment. I'm going to get up at 6:00am every weekday so I can get a head start on the kids. YIKES! I'm going to give it a month. I might sleep til 7:00 on Wednesdays and Fridays because I have school til 10:00pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we'll see. I just have a much better day when I can get my head together before the kids wake up. So I'm going to try to make it a habit. Today was the first day and it was ok. It wasn't quite as productive as I was hoping cause Maddy got up at about 6:35 and talked to me the whole time. So we are going to have to do something about that.

For this week's new recipe I conquered my fear of the chicken cutlet. The "cutlet" is such an undefined term I never knew quite what it was. But I took my regular chicken breast and cut it in half lengthwise. I hope that was right. Either way, it came out great!

Zesty Chicken Cutlets Parmigiana

1 pound of spaghetti

Quick Marinara Sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 pinches crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cans (28 oz each) crushed tomatoes
15 to 20 leaves fresh basil, roughly cut or torn
A handful of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Chicken
The juice of 3 lemons, or several tablespoons bottled lemon juice
1 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Romano cheese
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
Freshly ground black pepper
A pinch crushed red pepper flakes
A handful chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 & 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast cutlets
2 cloves garlic, popped from skin and left whole
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced.


Start a big pot of salted water to boil for pasta. Cook according to package directions, until al dente.

Meanwhile, throw your sauce together by heating garlic and crushed red pepper in olive oil in a pot over medium heat. When the garlic speaks by sizzling in the oil, add tomatoes and fresh herbs. Bring to a bubble, reduce heat, and let the sauce hang out over low heat while you prepare the cutlets.

Squeeze lemon juice into a shallow dish. Mix Parmigino, bread crumbs, black pepper, red pepper, and parsley on a large plate. Turn each cutlet in lemon juice, then press and coat in breading.

Heat 2 whole cloves garlic in olive oil in large skillet or frying pan over medium heat. When garlic sizzles, remove cloves and saute chicken cutlets for 4 minutes on each side. When the cutlets are done, arrange on an oven proof serving dish covered with a layer of sauce. Dot each cutlet with a little more sauce and a slice of fresh mozzarella. Place platter under broiler to just melt cheese.

Take warm platter right to the table. Toss drained spaghetti with remaining sauce. Serve spaghetti and a green salad as side dishes.

A perfect day

We had an awesome weekend. Seriously, it was the best weekend I’ve had in a long time. We didn’t do anything extraordinary or anything. It was just really nice. For one thing the weather was absolutely gorgeous so we were able to have all the windows open. I don’t know why that puts me in such an awesome mood, but it does. It makes me feel like a little kid on summer vacation.

On Saturday we all went to Tumbleweed park and actually had fun. I didn’t spend my time criticizing other parents or wondering how much the park cost to build. Instead, I enjoyed spending time outside as a family. I had put sunscreen on the kids and they smelled like aloe mixed with sweat. Ok, that doesn’t really seem like it would smell good, but it definitely reminded me of being a little kid. By the time we left we all had that been-out-in-the-sun feeling of tired. You know the one. Where you skin is dry and hot and all you want to do is lay down on the couch and take a nap. So we went home and cooked hamburgers on the grill. Larry and I each had a beer (yes, I’m going to call my wine cooler a beer, ok?) and we all hung out together in the back yard. And the kids were being… you know… good. And to top off the perfectness of our afternoon, when we brought the burgers in from the grill the fries in the oven had 4 seconds left to cook. 4 seconds! How perfect! Stuff like that never happens around here.

Not to be a downer but Connor does have another ear infection. Which brought up a subject at the doctor’s office that I had been hoping to avoid. Tubes. Yikes. The doctor wants me to make an appointment with the ENT to have Connor evaluated for tubes. I will because I’m a good mom and I think I should at least go and hear what he as to say. But I can tell you right now, I’m going to be a hard sell. I mean, we are talking surgery here. I’m just not down for that.