He's not even 2 yet!

Connor has been infected with a horrible condition. He has caught a case of the terrible twos. It’s true! The first symptom we noticed was confusion. He insists he is “all done” with his meal but when I try to get him down from the table he then cries because he wants to eat. This disease must affect brain function. It migrated from there to the voice box. It seems he has no control over the volume of his voice and his vocabulary has been reduced to only one word. “NO!”. Unfortunately, there is no cure. We simply have to let it run it’s course, which experts say could take up to 2 years. I’ve heard at it’s worst it can cause full body meltdowns which are triggered by the slightest bit of frustration. I might have to quarantine him until he is 4.

But seriously, transitions are hard for everyone, at any age. Going from a baby to kid is a big deal. Figuring out you have a voice and choices. Things you like and things you don’t like. It’s an interesting time for a little guy. Then you have rules of society that you are still figuring out. When you can be loud and when you have to be quiet. When it’s ok to throw a ball and when it isn’t. When you can run free and when you must sit still. It’s hard. I know the transition from kid to grown up is even harder and takes longer. I just finished mine the other day.

Blooms

Something in my care actually bloomed! That’s a first. Well, other than my children of course. But kids are easy, they cry if you don’t feed them. Even as I write this I had to stop to make some chicken nuggets. I had a little blond boy at my feet saying “eat, eat”. It is then that I realized it was 40 minutes past dinner time. Oops. Where was I? Oh yeah, my orchid. I got it for free at this new grocery store near my house. They were giving away flowers, how cool is that? But anyways, this orchid had four flowers. And now it has five. There is another one that looks like it might bloom too. That is if I can remember to put it outside once in a while.

Maddy played outside today by herself. I guess she is old enough. The rules are: Stay in the cul-de-sac, watch for cars, and never ever go in anyone’s house under any circumstances. She wanted to go ask her friend a few houses over to come out and play. I was watching her from the window. I’m not exaggerating when I say it took her 20 minutes to work up the courage to knock on the door. She came back home three times for some moral support. We even practiced. Finally, she knocked and the little girl came out to play. Success!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I'm on my annual diet. I will stay on this diet til March and lose 10 pounds. Then I will get frustrated and quit. I will then spend the rest of the year gaining and losing the same five pounds until the holidays. At which point I will totally give up and gain 10. Rinse and repeat.

Woot Woot!

I painted my bedroom today. I love it. I don't have a very good record for picking out paint I actually like once it's on the wall. Only one room in the whole house hasn't needed repainting. The kitchen. Maddy's room and the spare room both have been repainted. The family room needs to be repainted but hasn't been yet. And Connor's room, eh, it's ok but I'm just not feeling it. I'll repaint it when he gets a little older. So I was pretty nervous. But I love it. Here, I'll post a pic.



It took exactly one gallon of paint. We kept saying how close it was going to be, how much it was going to suck to have to stop and go to Home Depot just to finish one square foot of wall space. But it finished it. I was using the brush to get the last bits out of the can to finish the touch ups. Of course now that we have cleaned up I can see all kinds of touch ups that we missed, but I am without paint. Oh well. When you come visit please don't look too closely. Especially around the door frame. :)

Connor made me laugh so hard tonight. He has one of those wooden train whistles and we were trying to show him how to use it. We could get him to blow air if the whistle wasn't near his mouth. But as soon as we would put it up to his lips he would just say "woot woot". OMG I was crying. Finally he would blow air but not hard enough to make any noise. Then he would hand it back so slobbery you could barely stand to put it to your mouth. But he was so cute, I had no choice but to wipe it on my shirt and continue on. He did eventually get a little bit of actual whistle blowing noise.

Ok, my recipe of the week. I got a Rachel Ray cookbook for Christmas and I'm very inspired. So I made this the other night. I actually diverged from my weekly menu and made a special trip to the grocery store just to make it. I know... CRAZY!

The sauce is to die for. I loved it. And if you notice it uses apple cider vinegar. So I now have a use for the bottle I bought to make that bad "Apples and Chicken" recipe I made a few months ago. Double bonus.

Honey Mustard BBQ Chicken

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Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 red onion chopped

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup prepared honey mustard

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon curry powder

Chicken

4 pieces bonelss, skinles chicken breast

4 bonless, skinless, chicken thighs

Vegetable oil

Salt and peper

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Directions

1. To make the sauce, place a small saucepan over medium-high heat and add vegetable oil. Add red onions and saute, 3 to 5 minutes. Add vinegar and cook to reduce by half, 1 to 2 minutes. Add brown sugar and cook 1 minute to incorporate. Whisk broth, honey mustard, all spice, and curry powder.

Coat chicken with a drizzle of oil and some salt and pepper. Place chicken on hot grill and cook 4 to 5 minutes, then turn. Baste chicken liberally with sauce and grill another 5 minutes. Turn once again and baste. Cook 2 or 3 minutes more, then transfer chicken to a platter and serve.

Santa claus is coming to town.

I am terrible at the Santa thing. I probably can't even list all the mistakes I've made. First of all I pointed out Connor's power wheel to Maddy at the store and told her that we got it for him for Christmas. Forgetting that Santa is bringing it. I had to cover it with a lame "I"m just kidding. Maybe Santa will bring it." Then, the wrapping paper that I wrapped all the Santa gifts in was left laying on the kitchen counter for like a week. Oh yeah, no chance she saw that! Plus I didn't think to pick up different gift tags so Santa's gifts will have the same tags as ours. Funny how me and Santa have the exact same taste.

Despite my ineptness Maddy still totally believes. This is THE year. The one she will remember for the rest of her life. Unfortunately Santa isn't bringing any of the gifts she asked for in her letter. But I bet you $100 she won't remember what she wrote come Christmas day. Next year will the last hanging on Christmas. The one where you have some serious doubts about Santa but still want so much to believe. I played a trick on Santa that year and told him that my stocking was the red and white one and I told my mom that I wanted the red and green one. I think you know how that ended. But hey, we still have this year. I can't wait!

Today we watched Elmo's Christmas Countdown and there was a lot of singing in it. Afterwards Connor was walking around the living room making up a song with facial expressions and hand movements. It was adorable. It ended with "bye bye DeeDa, bye bye DeeDa". (bye bye, Santa) Those were the only words we could understand. awwww. He is so fricken cute.

Oh the fun we can have.

Connor's ear infection seems to coming along nicely. He slept through the night last night. For the first time in at least two weeks. We are both beat. Yesterday he took a 4 hour nap, and don't think I missed the chance to leave a full body impression in the couch.

We have a Super Wal-mart near our house. The buzz on the street is that it is the biggest Wal-mart in the state and its only been open since August so it hasn't really caught on yet. It's my own personal Wal-mart. Complete with fully stocked shelves and helpful employees. (ok, I'm exaggerating on the helpful employee part). It's awesome. We went there this morning and it was empty. Did you know that the lights in the freezers are on motion detectors? Neither did I. This was quite a source of amusement for us today. I would push the cart down the aisle and the lights would come on just ahead of us. It was really cool. haha. Connor was loving it. By the time we would get to the last aisle the first aisle would be dark again so we could do it all over. Connor would point to the dark freezer and say "on" and the light would come on. It's a magic Wal-mart.

Nothing like some hot chocolate to cheer you up.

Do you ever get so bored that you can't even think straight? I did yesterday. I just woke up bored. It was the kind of bored where every little thing that makes you get off the couch is a huge irritant. Like "UG...I can't put a movie in for you. I'm too busy being bored." I was so busy being bored that I didn't even take a shower. Which is too bad cause that could have killed a lot of time. Hair removal alone would have taken me 30 minutes. Never mind the cleaning I could have done while I was in there. I bet I could have created a plume of chemicals big enough to make the neighbor's eyes sting. But instead I laid on the couch with a pillow over my face and got frustrated with the kids for wanting lunch.

But today has been more productive. I took Connor to the doctor's. I really felt like an idiot. He isn't sick. He really doesn't even have any symptoms that I could list. I just wanted to know if he had an ear infection or not. Then when they are making the appointment they ask questions like "why do you feel he has an ear infection?" Ummm... no reason. I just think it. I could almost hear their eyes roll. But the thing is that he has never gotten sick and not gotten one. He was sick last week and just hasn't been himself. Nothing dramatic. Just off. When we got there I got the same "you're a freak" vibe from the nurse (purely my imagination I'm sure) when she took his temp and it's 98.6. But Connor DID have an ear infection. I was right. And Connor did soooo good. It was the best doctor's appointment we have ever had. He even let them weigh him! That's huge. He only cried when the doctor looked in his ears and then stopped right away. I was so proud.

Oh, I didn't do a new recipe last week. I also never told you that the pork chop recipe from two weeks ago was pretty good and really easy. I've made it again since then. This week new thing is hot chocolate. I've actually already made it so I can tell you right now... it rocks! Perfect for the holdiays.

SPECIAL HOT CHOCOLATE

1 (6 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. water
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tub of cool whip
Hot milk

Combine chocolate morsels, sugar, water, and cinnamon in large measuring cup. Microwave at medium 2 to 3 minutes or until chocolate is melted, stirring twice during cooking. Cool to lukewarm. (takes about 20-30 mins)

Gradually mix cool whip and cooled chocolate mixture together. Chill. Chocolate mixture keeps well in refrigerator in covered container up to 1 week.

For individual servings of hot chocolate, place 1 cup milk in serving mug. Microwave at high 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Do not boil. Stir in 1 rounded tablespoon chocolate mixture until smooth. Chocolate mixture will yield 15 to 18 cups of hot chocolate.

Injury after injury

Connor had a rough night last night.

I was doing the dishes and he pushed one of the kitchen chairs out into the middle of the kitchen. I don't know why. I really wasn't paying attention to him. I just heard the chair go across the floor. I guess he was trying to see what I was doing. He climbs up there and I don't know what happened but when I looked over at him he is falling head first. I mean he is seriously upside down. His whole body is straight and is feet are pointing towards the ceiling. He lands on his head and the rest of his body all hit at once. He is sprawled out flat on his back. And screaming. Considering the event it was a relatively quick recovery. I picked him and we went and sat on the couch together. He screamed, I cuddled and before long he was pushing me away. So I go to finish the dishes.

I don't think I even washed one dish and he goes zipping across the family room. When he gets to the couch he starts screaming again. I figure this is just leftover from a moment ago. You know, maybe he saw the chair in the middle of the floor and had a flashback or something. He was fine a minute ago so I leave him to work it out on his own. But he doesn't stop. Larry goes over and picks him up to find his foot bleeding. Not bleeding a lot, bleeding the absolute least amount that something can bleed. But he had a cut on his toe. On the bottom right where the toe meets the foot. In that little chubby crease. So again, he is screaming and won't walk on it. You can tell it hurts. We would get him calm and then he would go take a step and start crying again. It had a little skin flap so Larry took him upstairs to put a band-aid on it. I think getting the band-aid was more traumatic than getting the injury. OMG I could hear the screaming from the kitchen. So finally they come down. Each with a band-aid on their toe. Connor kept showing it to me. Which was the cutest thing ever! He would sit down and hold up that cute little foot with his toes all spread out and point to the band-aid and say "cut". Then he would point to Larry's foot to show me his. So proud to have a band-aid just like Daddy.