The Good Stuff

{Semi-} Wordless Wednesday

2012-02-15T11:27:00.000-05:00

Jack insisted that we invite Bear Bear to join us for breakfast this morning. Bear Bear gladly accepted our invitation and was a perfect gentleman, waiting patiently on Jack to finish his breakfast so they could play together.

Menu Plan Monday - Week of February 12th

2012-02-13T08:11:00.000-05:00

::dusts off the old blog:: Last week I didn't feel like I had enough going on {sarcasm} so I decided on a whim to change up my blog a little bit. New name {more fitting as the original came about when I was newly married}, new design, it was time for a little change! I also added new contact and follow buttons. If you're subscribed in a reader click through and check out the changes!

Sunday: Chipotle Sweet Potato Corn Chowder

Monday: Bourbon Chicken with Broccoli and Brown Rice

Tuesday: Valentine's Day! Penne alla Vodka, Harvest Salad, and Crusty Bread with Heavenly Chocolate Mousse for dessert!

Wednesday: Chicken Tikka Masala (CrockPot) with Brown Rice and Naan

Thursday: Turkey Pot Pies (from the freezer!)

Friday: Chipotle Bean Burritos

Saturday: Leftovers/Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

This Week

2012-02-09T13:05:00.000-05:00

Oooh, this week. It has been a crazy one.

It's my fault mostly. I took on far too much and I knew it was too much at the time I agreed to do it, but when I accepted all the cases I did I was just all, "MONEY!" and now I'm dealing with the logistics of actually earning that money, which isn't quite as fun as the paycheck itself.

Anyway, 5 conference calls to prepare for hearings, 6 completed hearings, and 4 days later I've come out the other side. My family is fed and clothed and things around the house are {mostly} kept up with. Additionally, my sanity is still {mostly} intact at this point and our savings account will be several hundred dollars richer once I receive my paycheck. Busy, busy, busy!

Other things of note:

Our taxes are mostly done as of Sunday - Federal and State have both been filed. Once I get at least one of those refunds back I'll file our local taxes because we always owe and I want to pay out of the money we'll be getting back from our other filings. Good stuff.

On this same note, WHY does all the tax stuff have to be so hard, hmmmm?! They want everyone to file taxes, yet they seem to make the process as hard and as difficult to understand as possible. I refuse to pay someone else to do something I can do myself so every year I muddle through preparing everything on my own. It's worth it in the end, but I develop a headache every time. Simplify, people. Simplify. Oh wait, that would be directed at a governmental body so... don't think that's happening anytime soon! On a better note, I have discovered that being self-employed {as I am now with my little part-time/contract gig} and working out of my home is pretty much awesomesauce when it comes to tax time.

The invites for Jack's 2nd birthday party (WHAT?! I'm going to have a 2 year old in just a few short weeks?! Impossible, I say!) were mailed yesterday and, late as always, we're starting to formulate some ideas for his party. We have invites, we have a place to host it, we have a date and time. That's the important stuff, right? Now we just have to figure out a few fun decorations and some food and we'll be good to go. Now that I've gotten through this crazy week my attention will be turned to party planning! Two weeks is enough time to put together a whole party... right? Right!

Sooo glad we're headed towards the weekend, but Mark has had an equally busy week and thinks he might have to go into work on the weekend. Whomp, whomp. Let's hope this is not the case!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of February 5th

2012-02-06T10:30:00.000-05:00

It's going to be a very busy week for me so I've planned simple dinners that don't take a lot of time or effort to put together.

Sunday: At friends' house for the Superbowl, I'm bringing Buffalo Chicken Dip

Monday: Leftover Lentil Tacos with Queso Blanco Dip

Tuesday: Clam Chowder with Cheddar Bay Biscuits

Wednesday: Buffalo Ranch Chicken Wraps with Ranch Potato Wedges

Thursday: Tomato Alfredo Pizza - carried over from last week

Friday: Leftovers/Out

Saturday: Apps night! Making a couple of dips/bites for dinner.

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com.

Wordless(ish) Wednesday

2012-02-01T15:26:00.000-05:00

With a toddler in the house sometimes you find food in strange places. Like on the top of said toddler's fire engine. Apparently Jack's bread crust needed to take a ride.

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 29th

2012-01-30T08:08:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Italian Subs (I have meats leftover from the Stromboli I made that need to be used up!) with Roasted Cauliflower

Monday: Tortellini-Sausage Soup with Focaccia Sticks for dunking

Tuesday: Chicken Alfredo Bake with Egg Noodles and Roasted Broccoli

Wednesday: Baked Buffalo Chicken Taquitos with Salad

Thursday: Lentil Tacos with Queso Blanco Dip

Friday: Tomato Alfredo Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers/Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

(Nearly) 23 Months!

2012-01-27T15:02:00.000-05:00

Jack will be 23-months-old tomorrow.

How is my baby on the edge of being 2 years old already?! I should be used to the way time flies at this point since I've been trying to keep up with it for nearly 2 years now, but really? It continues to baffle me! There's some sort of breakdown in the space-time continuum once you have kids. Plenty of people will tell you how quickly your child's babyhood will pass you by, but what they fail to mention is how 24-hour increments just fly by at warp speed! The same 8 hours that used to draaaaaaaaggg on when I was sitting at a desk all day are gone in a blink now that I'm chasing a toddler around at home!

What's nearly-two-year-old Jack up to?

Within the last few weeks to a month Jack's vocabulary has exploded! I think this stage of development is one of my favorites mostly due to his rapidly expanding vocabulary. It never gets old hearing him discover a new word.

Prior to a month or so ago Jack's vocabulary was lacking. He had a few core words that he used a lot, but his speaking skills seemed to be kind of stagnant. Now, his passive-verbal skills were growing by leaps and bounds. He understood EVERYTHING, he was just kind of quiet on his end. But now his speaking skills have officially begun to catch up with his passive understanding. He discovers at least one new word or sound everyday and it's tons of fun!

A few of his favorite words:

MaMa
DaDa/Daddy
Belle Belle
Ball
Car (oh man, this one should really top the list. I hear this all. day. long.)
Buzz
Elmo
Eggies (Eggs)
Blueberries (still his favorite food, he's able to say this with impressive clarity)
No (a favorite of toddler's everywhere :-/ )
This
Bus (one of his favorite vehicles to play with)
Bye/Bye-Bye
Grapies (Grapes)
Go
Off
On (side note: he's starting to get really good with using off and on properly relating to the lights mostly because he likes to be the one to turn them off and on :) )

So far no phrases/sentences, but definitely lots of new words. He's to the point now where he'll at least try to repeat just about anything you prompt him to say.

A few new(er) words that have been getting a lot of play lately:

Kitty
'Nana (Banana)
Moomb! (Boom!)
Hi
Bapple (Apple)
Cheese

And random numbers and letters. He seem to particularly like "E", and T, and the number 8. I feel like Sesame Street: today's Jack update is brought to you by the letter's E and T and the number 8! :)

His favorite topic is cars. He talks about cars all day long. We have no idea what he's actually saying, but it's definitely his favorite topic of discussion. Often throughout the day we will hear: (unintelligible toddler babble) car. (more babble) car (babble). Caaaarrrr ::points to toy car or outside where he sees a car or wants to see a car:: It's really cute.

One funny thing is we can't get him to say truck. If you ask him where his truck is, or to get his truck, etc. he'll go get it right away, but he will only refer to trucks as cars. It's so strange considering how many words he wants to try out right now that he won't attempt truck and the term is used often in this house will all the vehicles lying around to play with!

Always a truck nearby

Anything with wheels are his favorite things to play with. Right now, he seems to have three favorites out of his collection: A firetruck Santa brought for Christmas, a little school bus that he got from family for Christmas, and the little pickup truck and trailer that my dad and brother brought home for him last year from a trip they took. He spends all day pushing these around and lining them up along with all his other vehicles. He loves to watch the wheels move and will lay down on the ground and cock his head to the side to watch as the wheels roll as he moves the vehicles back and forth.

Another favorite game is playing Ball in the Hall with DaDa. Jack will say "ball" over and over until Mark complies with heading to the hallway to kick the ball back and forth. If that doesn't work he'll just grab on to Mark's finger and drag him to the designated space. Sometimes a nearly 2-year-old just has to take things into his own hands!

Jack has also discovered TV. Mark was off work quite a bit around the holidays and he introduced Jack to a few different movies that were being shown on TV - Up, Cars, Toy Story, and Toy Story 2. Jack LOVED watching these movies. Of course he doesn't have the attention span to sit and watch a whole movie or anything, but he really likes when we turn them on.

Mark definitely spoiled him with TV during his holiday break and I've had to reign it in since! For the holidays Jack got Toy Story and Cars 2 on DVD. Toy Story is definitely his favorite and he asks to watch "Buzz" all the time. I can't believe how attached he is to this movie and how quickly it happened. Usually Mark will turn Toy Story on and let him watch a little bit of it while I'm making dinner. We quickly learned he's not able to watch his movies after dinner because then he's far too wound up to go to bed.

Watching some music videos in the morning

After his naptime I will usually turn Sesame Street on while we're waiting for DaDa to come home. Jack still likes Elmo as well. He also seems to like the (super boring, to me) shows that PBS has on in the mornings/early afternoon like Barney, Calliou, Angelina Ballerina, and Cat in the Hat. I usually turn on whatever show is on after he has his lunch/before naptime. These shows don't seem to wind him up the way Toy Story does. He doesn't sit and watch these for any length of time, but he does periodically stop to check in with the shows while he's playing and he loves anytime there is music happening. He cracks me up by singing "Go Go Go Go" along with the song from the Cat in the Hat.

Eating. Oh, eating. This continues to be our biggest struggle. I try my hardest not to let Jack know that I worry about it because I do not want this to be a power struggle. I remind myself often that all I can do is present reasonable food choices to him and then it's up to him what to eat and how much, but it's SO hard not to worry about those choices! Some days his eating is definitely better than others. I try to look at his intake over several days to a week because I know it's a lot to expect at this age that he'll eat a balanced meal 3 times a day, every day.

Eating with his Elmos on!

We had a window of 2 weeks up until about a week ago where his eating was MUCH improved. I really thought we had reached the light at the end of the tunnel! Whereas before he wouldn't even attempt new things, he was trying all sorts of new items and liking them! Those two weeks were such a gift for me because I didn't have to worry about what he was/was not eating and if he was going to have to live off the same 10 items for the rest of his life. And then this week hit and not only has he clamped down on what he'll eat again, but he's back to throwing food, which hasn't been an issue for months now. *sigh* One step forward, two steps back.

The aftermath of Jack's meals lately. And also muddy paw prints courtesy of ankle-deep (do dogs have ankles?) mud in our backyard. Yuck.

And of course liking something one day certainly doesn't guarantee he'll like it tomorrow! The things we can usually count on him eating is pretty limited, but thankfully he at least likes a few things from every food category so I feel like even though he's not eating a wide variety of things, his diet is pretty balanced, especially for a kid his age because I know that the pickiness is pretty normal. I still try though. Every night I try to get him to eat what we have and present him with a variety of choices. One day my efforts had better pay off!

Also related to the food front we finally weaned him off the bottle. We did this... right around 22 months. Obviously we held off on this for a while. I think I'll do a separate post on this whole process, but it's... going. We're still in transition 3 weeks or so later. In hindsight I don't know if it was the right thing to do at this time, but it's done now. Since we've taken away the bottle he refuses to drink any milk despite our efforts. He does drink water from his sippy cup (and has for a long time), but he won't take any milk. Even though I'd be much happier if he did, I'm not overly worried about it as he does eat plenty of dairy products otherwise. This whole situation is still a work in progress.

And sometimes Elmo needs a drink too.

Because of the lack of bottle situation his sleep schedule is kind of all over the place. It takes longer (sometimes a lot longer) for him to go to sleep at night and while at this point some nights are fairly painless, there are nights where bedtime is a long, drawn out struggle and late to bed = late to wake up = late to nap and really his schedule is just really inconsistent right now. Once he IS down, he consistently sleeps about 12 hours, or so. He still takes an afternoon nap and sleeps probably 3 hours on average. He's a good sleeper, once he's down :)

What else?

He finally moved up to the largest size on his one-size diapers. I think most kids are on the largest rise before now, but Jack has a tiny hiney and he's never had large thighs. Those two things combined left him on the mid-rise setting for a very long time! That's good though because I feel confident that his diapers will definitely fit up through potty training and I know that sometimes kids outgrow the one-size diapers too soon.

Thankfully, we don't have much to report on the tantrum front. Yes, Jack will get frustrated and make a show of very dramatically falling limply to the floor/crying/hitting, but he very, VERY quickly realizes when it's not getting a reaction and ends it. Usually his "tantrums" last less than a minute. Just a very dramatic show to try to get some attention. Depending on the situation I will first try to acknowledge the situation to see if it helps and then employ the "ignore" tactic.

For example, if he's upset because he doesn't want to go to bed I will say something like, "I understand that you're having fun and want to continue playing, but it's naptime now. We will come back out to play with your toys after you have rested!". If he's just being totally randomly, unreasonable it's time to ignore it. So far, "validating" his feelings hasn't seemed to matter a fig, but I do think it's a good habit to get into. I'd like to make it a point to try to communicate to him that his feelings are okay, but his actions are not. Who knows if that point will ever get across, but I try. This whole parenting thing is really hard. It would be SO much easier if there were "right" answers to everything.

We haven't started any form of time out/punishments yet for undesirable behaviors (hello, hitting and throwing things!). I don't know when/if we will start using something like this, but I feel like he was definitely too young before now. I'm still not sure if it's the right time for it yet, but we'll see and address situations as they arise. He can definitely exhibit some naughty behaviors and the whole discipline issue scares me (see above: no one right answer, parenting is hard).

Life right now is filled with lots of giggles, fast-moving toddler legs, and new discoveries!

The Savage Awakens

2012-01-25T12:43:00.000-05:00

I found this bare-chested savage bouncing around in Jack's bed post-nap.

Taming the Toys

2012-01-24T19:56:00.000-05:00

Today I traded valuable time during Jack's nap for a less cluttered family room.

I previously mentioned that the next big project for our house would be clearing out the office in order to turn it into a playroom for Jack and his ever-growing collection of toys. Before Christmas we had all of his toys strategically tucked around our family room. A ride-on firetruck next to the chair, a basket of long-outgrown baby toys and a pile of random things on the other. Another riding toy, a few balls, and a Little People farm set tucked next to the TV. And so it went until every out of the way space was filled with toys.

Then came the holidays.

Jack must have been a very good boy this year because our very generous families gifted him with plenty of new big boy toys to entertain himself over this long Winter. And suddenly, our strategically tucked away toys started slowly creeping towards the center of the room until it felt like the family room was NEVER picked up.

We do not have a large house and our family room is our only living area. It's where Jack plays. It's where we spend our days. It's where Mark and I unwind and watch TV after Jack's tucked into bed for the night. And although I don't mind tripping over toys during the day (hey, a toddler lives here, it's going to look like it!) I do want our adult time in the evening to be free of the clutter that I've spent all day looking at, tripping over, and playing with alongside our little boy!

Eventually I got so tired of looking at the toys that were completely invading over our family space that I was motivated into action. We spent the last two weekends working on clearing out the office (again, see: toddler lives here, it's taken us much longer to complete this reorganization project than it would have in the Land Before Baby!) and we've pared things down, and found places to tuck the things that were stored in there, and we are mostly finished with clearing it out. We have a few boxes to move and we still have to get the desk out of there so we can replace it with a yet-to-be-acquired toy box, but we've made enough progress to allow me to move the bulk of his toys into his new playroom.

So naptime today was spent sorting through toys and boxing up what he's outgrown. I really disliked this task. First, it was just not fun. I should have taken a picture mid-toy sort. My family room was laughable. It was a big task because I've put off doing it all this time so we had baby toys up to the new items Jack got for the holidays. I had to sort everything and also make sure that I matched all the little blocks/balls/pieces with the right toys so that I didn't pack anything up without all of its parts. Then I moved the couch and the chair to make sure I got all the little pieces out of hiding and vacuumed behind/underneath while I was at it.

But second, it was just another sad reality check. One that I didn't need with my little boy's 2nd birthday already looming over us. This is the first time I've had to pack up outgrown toys and I had to say goodbye to the little baby toys that Jack first grasped with his little baby fist. His first favorites. I remember sitting on the floor and playing ~~with~~ at my 6-month-old baby with these things like it was yesterday! How has the time passed so quickly?! I do not like it. I want to pause time. I don't want to admit that my baby is getting so big, so fast!

Ultimately I ended up with a large storage bin filled with all his cast-off toys. I also packed up his music table and another decent-sized toy and just by doing that it really freed up some space! But then I moved most of his things to the bins we designated in the office and WOW! We have a family room!

I'm just giddy with excitement about getting some space back and his toys all having a place again. Hopefully we will finish up the remaining tasks in the ~~office~~ playroom this weekend. I'll post some pics once we get everything accomplished!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 22nd

2012-01-23T14:27:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Breakfast for Dinner - French Toast and Bacon

Monday: Panini with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday: Creamy White Chicken Chili (CrockPot) with Corn Bread

Wednesday: Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Bake

Thursday: Creamy Chicken with Black Beans and Corn (CrockPot) over Cilantro-Lime Rice

Friday: Stromboli

Saturday: Leftovers/Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 15th

2012-01-16T14:33:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Homemade Chicken and Noodles over Mashed Potatoes

Monday: Out for my sister's birthday!

Tuesday: Mongolian Beef (with mushrooms and broccoli added) with Rice and Baked Crab Rangoon

Wednesday: BW3-inspired Buffalo Ranch Chicken Wraps with Ranch Potato Wedges

Thursday: Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Bread

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers/out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Stephanie: 1, Universe: 1

2012-01-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

2012 was poised to begin with a bang for me.

The very first week of 2012 I had 3 hearings scheduled, a play date to be hosted, and 3 days prior to the new year my car, which had recently had work done, without warning nearly stranded me.

Amazingly, these things all took care of themselves.

The car that nearly stranded me held it together long enough so that I could make it home without having it towed. Further, I managed to make it 25 miles away to my parents' house the following day so that my dad was able to fix the problem with a $4 part. Yes, FOUR DOLLARS. I was ecstatic considering the way the car was acting it seemed like a lot more than a $4 issue! After replacing that part, my car was running perfectly again. Win!

I had hearings scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tuesday's hearing was rescheduled. Following a 10 minute phone call with my client, Wednesday's hearing was cancelled as they decided to withdraw their appeal. Then, I got notice that Thursday's hearing had also been withdrawn, this time by the opposing party. Not only did my calendar open up, but I got to bill full price for 2/3 cases. WIN!

My calendar opening up led to me having much more time than I had previously anticipated to clean and prepare for our play date, which went off without a hitch. More winning!

I completed the first week of 2012 feeling quite smug and hoping this was a sign that this year was going to be great!

Not so fast.

The second week of 2012 dawned with my car crapping out again. AGAIN. I honestly don't know if it's coincidental or related to the previous issue. All I know is one minute it was driving fine (again) and the next, I was pulling over to the side of the road (again). Luckily, after re-starting, things seemed to have improved and I was again headed out to my parents' house and made it the rest of the way without issue. I arrived, let the car idle - fine. Shut it off. Turned it on again - fine, let it idle for a bit - fine. Maybe it was a fluke? Maybe? (Not likely.) My dad later turned it on and said he wasn't even able to keep it running at all at that point and had no idea what the problem was. FABULOUS. Somehow, I have a feeling this is not going to be a $4 fix. I'd love to be proven wrong on that point though.

Same day: our sometimes working, sometimes not water heater chose to not work (again).

Next day: I can't find a special key that my dad gave me to make a copy of my car key with. It's specific to my car and apparently not cheap to replace. I SWEAR I knew right where that thing was. Apparently not.

Monday dawned with a plumber visiting our house to (again) take a look at our (again) non-functional water heater.

A note about this very frustrating situation: our water heater was put in as part of the purchase agreement when we bought our house 5 1/2 years ago. It's only 5 1/2 years old and mostly still under warranty. The last year has found us with an uncooperative water heater, which apparently only works when it feels like it.

We've had to do far more work on it than a 5 1/2 year old water heater deserves. The good part of that is the parts have all been under warranty. The bad part is the labor is not. Labor is expensive.

In the last 6 months - 1 year we have sunk at least $500 (and multiple headaches) into this lovely piece of equipment. Since then it works most of the time. Until it doesn't. And I can't tell you, after the number of service people we have had in our house, and the hundreds of dollars we've paid to have it fixed, how immeasurably frustrating it is to turn on the faucet only to find that we don't have hot water (again). No one can tell us why it will go from a 6 month stint of zero issues to the pilot light not being able to stay lit after a single cycle. So we spent two (more) days of lighting the darn pilot light 30 minutes prior to needing hot water (again). ::bang head:: ::bang head:: ::bang head::

SO Mr. Plumber comes for another visit. He re-lights the pilot light, he watches, he turns on the faucet, he runs some hot water, he waits. It's staying lit now (of course it is!).

As he's telling me he has no idea what the problem is and we'll just have to keep an eye on it (Stop me if you've heard this one before! Okay, stop. I've heard it. Har. har. har. <-- not amused.) poof the light's out before the tank is finished heating. Oh goody, this is new.

Mr. Plumber looks concerned. He tells me this is not good (I could have told him this). He goes to check on things again. He tells me the good news is, he knows what the problem is now! The bad news is it's relatively expensive to fix! Oh, yay.

Mr. Plumber goes out to write up an estimate, he gets on the phone to figure out the deal-io with the part in question. He comes back. More good news: the part is still covered by warranty (again, I mean really, in the 5 1/2 year life of this stupid water heater we have replaced every part except for the actual tank, which holds the water to heat it.), the bad news: the labor is not. This fix will cost $350 for labor. (&T^&*(()&^%^&09760-(*&^

I haven't been secretive about our hope to sell our house sometime before the end of this Eon. What I haven't mentioned is there is another problem with this water heater (of course, it's the bane of our existence), something having to do with a pipe. It is not fixable. The only fix is to replace the whole thing. (Have you gotten the impression that we just have bad luck with this? Because we do.) This problem is getting progressively worse. How will we know when it MUST be replaced? Simple. That's when the pipe bursts and we end up with water gushing everywhere. At least it'll be clear cut!

So I ask Mr. Plumber, "Mr. Plumber, how long do we have before said pipe bursts and we end up with water gushing everywhere?". Mr. Plumber doesn't know and doesn't wish to make a guess. Will it last at least a year? Oh no. No where near a year. I can't give you an actual date or anything, but I think you're looking more at a couple of months max before the thing blows, more likely a few weeks.

So, here's what we're looking at first thing Monday morning: No hot water, plumber at the house, a water heater, which even if we patch it together is going to be a ticking time bomb.

All things considered, we made the decision to go ahead and replace the whole. stupid. water. heater. rather than paying $350 to patch it up (again) and then end up with either something else wrong with it in a few weeks (which would anger me immensely!) or a burst pipe (this would also anger me, or it may push me over the edge into just losing my mind completely, in which case, I likely wouldn't care about this or anything! Maybe a perk. I'll place that in the "pro" column.).

$1200 later (don't worry, they gave use a little discount for being a repeat customer!!! :-/ ) we're the proud owners of a functional water heater. For now, anyway. If this one goes bad I'm just going to plan on heating water over an open fire in the backyard Little House in the Prairie-style and totally renounce water heaters all together.

So, good news: working water heater. Bad news: $1200 poorer.

Good news: Water heater has been replaced, we won't need to do this shortly before selling our house. Bad news: We will never be able to afford to move because we just spent $1200 on a water heater!!!

Ugh.

Thankfully Monday was pretty much the low-point of the week. I guess it's good that we hit the low-point early, right? The week didn't really get better from there, but it didn't get much worse. All of our remaining appliances seem to be working (at least for the moment).

Also on Monday (after spending all morning dealing with The Water Heater Episode) I had a conference call. I baked bread (why? I don't know. SO not the day to do it.). I parented an angry toddler who didn't want to nap. I was over the week by the close of the day.

The rest of the week was also busy.

Tuesday: Hearing and conference call, see Monday for toddler's state of mind.

Wednesday: Two hearings, again, see Monday for toddler update.

Thursday: Not so bad, I played catch up. Monday's attitude still largely in effect for toddler.

Friday: Going better. Until afternoon hit and I started getting sick. WHHHYYYYY?!?!?!?!!

Saturday: Thank goodness Mark was home. That's all I have to say.

So here I am. I still seem to be fighting something off. I'm really hoping I just wake up tomorrow feeling better because I really don't enjoy being sick. Clearly I don't have time for it.

So, in conclusion...

Week 1 2012: WIN!

Week 2 2012: Lose :(

I think the message being sent to me by the Universe is clear: don't count your chicken before they've hatched. One good week means nothing and 2012 will be full of plenty of ups and downs.

Let's all cross our fingers for a better week 3.

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 8th

2012-01-09T08:20:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Dinner at parents' house

Monday: Buffalo Chicken Chili with Celery and Blue Cheese Dressing to dip

Tuesday: Chicken Parm Meatball Subs with Baked Kale Chips

Wednesday: Pork Carnita (CrockPot) Bowls with Cilantro-Lime Rice, Black Beans, Pico de Gallo, Cheese, and Sour Cream

Thursday: Chili Cheese Dogs with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Friday: BBQ Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers/Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of January 1st

2012-01-02T09:37:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

Sunday: New Year's Day! Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

Monday: At parents' house for dinner

Tuesday: Zuppa Toscana Soup with Olive Garden Copycat Breadsticks (I stashed a few breadsticks in the freezer last time I made some up so all I'll have to do is defrost and bake them off!)

Wednesday: Turkey Pot Pie (from the freezer) with Salad

Thursday: Creamy Chicken Taquitos with 'Refried' Beans (CrockPot)

Friday: BW3-inspired Buffalo Ranch Chicken Wraps with Ranch Potato Wedges

Saturday: Leftovers/Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie

Starting the New Year with a New 'Do

2012-01-01T12:02:00.000-05:00

Before

After

It feels SO short, but as you can see from the 'after' picture, it's still collarbone length. But cutting off 10+ inches of hair is quite a change! And it was time for a change.

I most often wear my hair long, but I've had it at pretty much every length at one time or another. I don't think I've ever made such a drastic change all at once though, but I did it for a good reason. I'm donating my hair to the Beautiful Lengths program, which provides high quality, real hair wigs, free of charge to women suffering the effects of cancer.

Yay for a fresh look to start the New Year and for the opportunity to give my hair to a good cause!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-31T16:28:00.001-05:00

This year Jack was a little more aware of the holidays than last. Considering he was still just a 9-month-old baby last year and not quite yet mobile he was definitely able to participate in things more this year as a 21-month-old toddler!

We had a whirlwind two weeks involving 4 Christmas celebrations and 2 more holiday gatherings.

Although Jack did seem to be more aware of the holidays than he was last year he still didn't quite understand the concept of presents. He did like getting new things to play with, but he was quite happy with the first thing he laid eyes on and didn't really partake in unwrapping anything. It was a lot of fun shopping for him this year though since he has developed his own interests.

Christmas at Grandma A.J.'s house the week before Christmas

Christmas with Mark's dad and step-mom the next day

Hanukkah at my parents' house

Where Let's Rock Elmo made his appearance. As you can see, Jack was really excited!

It's like the REAL Elmo was there!

Presents under our tree on Christmas Eve!

Christmas Morning at our house:

Checking out his new firetruck that Santa brought

Still playing with the firetruck, totally uninterested in looking at anything else.

With some prompting he started to dig into his stocking.

Annual bow-on-the-head picture

Last year's:

I die at the cuteness. Look at how little he was!

Hoarding vehicles in the beanbag chair

Playing Mega Blocks with DaDa

Sneaking treats from the table at Great Grandma's house on Christmas Evening

Enjoying his spoils

Open it DaDa! He wanted EVERYTHING opened and taken out of the box right away!

We were busy and although we also had a lot of fun, I'm certainly looking forward to getting back to our daily routine.

We'll have a nice low-key, relaxing evening tonight as we're planning to stay in to ring in the new year by ourselves after all the excitement of the holidays!

2011 has been another great year for us and I can't wait to see what 2012 holds! Happy New Year, everyone!

Tidy Home Tuesday: New Year's Edition

2011-12-27T20:27:00.001-05:00

It's been about a year since I completed my Tidy Home Project and checked in (am I the only one who can't believe it's going to be 2012 in less than a week?! Crazy!) so I thought it was about time to update my cleaning schedule to better reflect my needs and check in here to talk about how the housekeeping has been going for me.

Here is my updated Cleaning Schedule for 2012:

Click to enlarge

You can find a blank template to make your own {HERE}.

It's very similar to my old one. I switched a few things around to accommodate diaper laundry three days a week rather than two, which I stared doing back in June. I also added one additional task: De-cluttering trouble spots.

This refers to places like the kitchen table and top of the bookshelf in the family room (the final frontier of toddler-free space) which seem to attract all manner of clutter like moths to a flame! I swear... I feel like every time I turn around the clutter multiplies! Anyway, I'm planning to make sure the 'trouble spots' are clear every Monday because a lot of the accumulation seems to happen over the weekend and if I make it a point to tackle it at least once a week then there's no option for the clutter to get out of control!

And of course, these chores are in addition to the "everyday" (and in some cases multiple times a day) tasks like doing dishes/emptying the dishwasher, wiping down counters, making the bed, and of course there's spot cleaning that happens regardless of what day it is, like when the toddler feels like the floor is more in need of decor than his tummy is food.

I've found that the tasks I have listed, the way I have them grouped together, and the number of times I have them listed work really well for me! When I follow my plan it allows me to do a little bit each day to keep up with things rather than waiting until it's obvious something needs doing right now and then feeling overwhelmed and rushed, which was the whole point of the chart in the first place so it's definitely working out well!

Overall I feel like I've been doing a good job with keeping up with the cleaning. 'Good' is not 'perfect', but then again, I'm never going to be perfect so I'm pretty happy with the way things have been going. Back when I switched to doing diaper laundry 3 days a week I really should have updated my chart at that time because I didn't stick to the schedule and therefore didn't have that added help to keep me on track. Despite this, I still feel that I've done a pretty good job of keeping up with things and I pretty much started doing things the way my updated schedule reflects.

The laundry is done on time and often put away (this is something I could work on, I get it washed and folded right away, but then it sometimes sits around in the basket. I don't know why, considering the hardest parts are done, but putting away is no fun!). Diaper laundry has never been an issue because it's not really an optional kind of thing.

I've been vacuuming every Tuesday and Friday nearly every week, I could dust more often, but it's been getting done at least bi-weekly or when I really fail, once a month when the dust starts becoming a big eyesore (oops!).

The bed is made nearly everyday. Weekends (and the past week when we were all kind of on Christmas vacation) are a little harder, but the bed is made nearly every weekday. It's rare when it's not.

I definitely think I've been doing a good job keeping up with the dishes. Mark takes care of doing the dishes after I make dinner, which he's always done and is a HUGE help! But I deal with dishes all day long and I also have to empty the dishwasher nearly every single day (sometimes twice :-/)! Considering this is my least favorite chore (probably because it's never ending!) I feel good about my efforts to stay on top of it. Not to mention, this is definitely something that if you don't keep up with it you pay the price because then you end up with a full dishwasher, dishes sitting in the sink waiting to be washed, and dishes that you've just used for a meal with nowhere to go. Then you're stuck playing catch up for days!

I've been doing okay, but not great with sweeping the kitchen floor (it's so hard to keep up with! Besides, when I sweep it it gets messy again next time I cook or feed the toddler so :shrug: ) and I could definitely do better with mopping and washing the rugs. Definitely room for improvement there.

Menu planning gets done every week and lately I've been making a real effort to get it done on Saturday rather than leaving it til Sunday morning, and grocery shopping gets done every Sunday.

Our next cleaning/organizing project: turning the office into a playroom for Jack!

The BEST Cinnamon Rolls and Other Holiday Baking

2011-12-26T16:29:00.003-05:00

One of the best parts of the holidays is enjoying lots of treats guilt-free! It's all part of the festivities, right?! As a result, I have a few new tried and true recipes to share :)

I have to just go ahead and say, a photographer, I am not. I can't take good pictures even when I try, but I didn't even try with these. I just snapped quick pics in the midst of the baking frenzy so just imagine how good they actually look in real life because, trust me, all of these treats not only look better in-person, but they taste phenomenal!

Monster Cookies

Winner, winner chicken dinner! I would have to say these are the best cookies I've had recently (although, there are several close runner ups ;) ); substantial, chewy, and the oatmeal-peanut butter-chocolate combo is beyond yummy! And an added bonus, using red and green M&Ms make them festive for Christmas, but using any other color can make them festive any time of year! You MUST try these!

Pecan Snowballs

A great snowball cookie! Some recipes completely pulverize the nuts, but I liked that this recipe calls for bigger pieces of pecans. This cookie is nice and buttery!

Rugelach

I made these for Hanukkah as we celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas in my family. These turned out wonderfully! If you've never had Rugelach it's kind of more of a pastry than a cookie, I'd say. It has a nice buttery, flaky dough which can be filled with any number of things: fruit, chocolate, nuts, or even poppy seed paste! I like to make mine with apricot preserves and walnuts or pecans. I follow this recipe for the dough, but when it's time for the filling I just spread on some apricot preserves and finely chopped nuts.

Not pictured, but definitely worthy enough to note: Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Pie

And now, onto THE cinnamon rolls!

Cinnamon Roll-y Goodness

I adapted these cinnamon rolls from the famous Clone of a Cinnabon recipe found on Allrecipes.com. It's one of the most highly rated recipes on their site and has 5 stars out of a possible 5 based on more than 4500 reviews! That HAS to be a great recipe, right? Right! This is my second time making these and they are gooOOOD! I adapted the recipe to make the dough without the bread machine the original instructions call for and I made my own frosting this time, which I prefer to that provided as part of the recipe. I like to bake off half and freeze the other 6 rolls to make later. My adapted recipe is below.

The BEST Cinnamon Rolls

Yield: 12 rolls

Ingredients:

1 cup warm milk (approximately 100 degrees F)
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4 - 4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar, divided
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

Frosting:

4-ounces (1/2 block) cream cheese
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon milk

Directions:

Add yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar to warm milk. Stir and set aside to allow yeast to bloom (this will take approximately 5 minutes).

Meanwhile, to the bowl of a mixer (or just a large bowl if you're making the dough completely by hand) add 4 cups of flour, salt, a scant 1/2 cup of white sugar, eggs, and butter. Once the yeast has activated, add the milk/yeast/sugar mixture to the mixer bowl. On low-to-medium speed allow ingredients to combine (add additional flour, a few tablespoons at a time, up to an additional 1/2 cup as needed) and then continue allowing dough to knead for about 8 minutes.

Once dough is finished kneading, remove bowl from mixer, cover with a towel, and set aside to rise. Tip: I like to allow my doughs to rise in the oven with the light on. It provides just enough warmth to help aid the rising process. Allow dough to rise until doubled in size (1- 1 1/2 hours). Tip: check the dough to see if it has risen enough by pressing 2 of your fingers 1/2-inch into the center. If the indentations remain after you remove your fingers the dough has doubled in size and is ready for the next step. If they disappear, the dough needs more time to rise.

Once the dough has doubled in size, turn dough out on lightly floured surface and cover with a towel. Allow dough to rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile, combine brown sugar and cinnamon for filling.

Roll dough into a 16 x 21-inch rectangle. Spread dough with melted butter (I like to use my hands for this) then sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture leaving a 1-inch strip on one of the long sides bare.

Roll the dough tightly going towards the side with the uncovered 1-inch strip.

Once rolled, gently squeeze the log to make it even. Pinch seam closed (this is why you leave the 1-inch strip uncovered, so it seals well!).

If you have ends that are uneven or aren't well formed cut a bit of the extra dough off so that the log is even. Gently cut log into 12 cinnamon rolls using a serrated knife or unflavored dental floss.

Place rolls into lightly greased baking pan (I use 2 8-inch rounds since I only bake off 6 rolls at a time, you can also bake all 12 in a 9 x 13-inch pan).

At this point you can do a few different things:

     -If baking immediately: cover and let rise until nearly doubled (approximately 30 minutes).

     -If baking the next day: cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. When you are ready to bake, remove from the fridge 30 minutes - 1 hour before baking to take the chill off. Then, bake as usual!

     -If freezing for future use: cover well with foil or combo of foil and plastic wrap and place in freezer. When you are ready to bake take them out the night before and let them sit on the counter to defrost and rise. Then bake as usual!

To bake: Bake at 350-degrees for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Tip: to check doneness of yeast bread tap the top. If it sounds hollow the bread is done! Cover with foil if the rolls seem to be getting too brown, too quickly.

For frosting: combine all ingredients and mix until smooth. Frosting can be made while rolls are baking, or it can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen until ready to use.

Menu Plan Monday - Week of December 25th

2011-12-26T14:27:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Christmas! Homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we'll be at a family gathering for dinner

Monday: Beef and Noodles (made with leftover beef from French Dip Sandwiches) with Carrots

Tuesday: Cheddar Ale Soup in Soft Pretzel Bowls with Roasted Broccoli - carried over from last week

Wednesday: Beer and Brown Sugar Kielbasa (CrockPot) with German Potato Salad

Thursday: Chipotle Bean Burritos with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Friday: Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza with Salad

Saturday: New Year's Eve! Not sure what our plans are yet.

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie

Santa Experience 2011

2011-12-23T23:09:00.000-05:00

We headed to one of the local malls this morning in an attempt to take Jack to see Santa. Mark and I weren't too sure if we wanted to attempt this, but when we asked Jack if he wanted to go he kept saying "Santa", nodding yes, and pointing. I think he was more excited about the prospect of 'going' than anything else as, unlike his momma, this kid loves to go and do and be out of the house! With our hearts melting from his affirmative response we made the trek to the mall.

On the drive over, Mark predicted that there would be a long line, he likes to anticipate the worst and be surprised if the situation ends up being better than expected. I reminded him that we visited Santa last year under the same conditions (late morning, during the day, the week leading up to Christmas) and there was NO wait. Granted, it probably wasn't actually Christmas Eve Eve or the Friday before Christmas, but I had high hopes.

We had little trouble finding a parking spot in one of the garages, which we thought was a good sign, only to enter the mall greeted by a mile long line of kids waiting to see Santa. Apparently, 98.2% of all people at the mall at that time were expressly there to visit with Santa just as we were :-/

Although Mark would have been happy turning right back around and heading home we ultimately decided we'd just take a spot in line and see what happened. Mark immediately left us to scout out the line situation and came back with bad news, it was LOOOONG! According to one of Santa's elves we could expect an hour to an hour and a half wait time.

About 10 minutes into waiting Jack decided he was bored so Mark held our place while I took him for a lap around the mall in his stroller. We returned to line, waited a few more minutes, and then did another lap. When we returned Jack was no longer amused with the line situation. Mark took a turn walking him around while I held our place and once they returned from their walk Jack went from silently disapproving of the situation to full on meltdown in about 3 seconds. Even worse, we had only moved about 10 feet up in the never-ending line in the 30-40 minutes we had been doing this dance.

Faced with a Toddler Emergency of this magnitude we did the only thing we could and removed him from his stroller (I know, he was never getting back in that thing, but he was screaming, there was no other option). I walked him up near the area where Santa was and Jack kept crying and pointing towards Santa. When I asked him if he wanted to see Santa he nodded yes through his tears *heart breaks* I explained to him that we had to wait in line if he wanted to see Santa (as if he had any clue what I was saying) and in the meantime, the parent whose kid was next in line to sit on Santa's lap casually mentioned to me that they had waited more than 2 hours to get to that point in the line.

At this point we decided to throw in the towel and snapped a cell phone pic for photographic evidence of our 2011 Santa Experience. Good thing too because no less than 2 minutes later Jack started signing that he was hungry and I had committed Mommy Sin #1 by only having about 8 Cheddar Bunnies in my bag and a sippy cup of water. I was definitely counting on there being no wait to see Santa.

So, we went to lunch instead, which was a much more fun experience than standing in line for 2 hours to see Santa. I was excited to see how Jack reacted to Santa considering how excited he seemed about the whole thing, but chances are, with the age he is, he probably wouldn't have wanted any part of Santa's lap if we actually made it to that point.

Lesson learned. Next year we will have to be sure to attempt a Santa visit a little earlier!

Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve!

2011-12-22T12:58:00.002-05:00

Nope, no echo in here. It's 3 days 'til Christmas and no, I'm not finished with Christmas shopping/preparations. I'm thinking I'll work on some things today and make one last shopping run tomorrow. Maybe throw in a little grocery shopping to tide us over to the Monday after Christmas when I can do our food shopping for that week.

By the way, this week has flown by! As I mentioned in my last post we've been crazy busy! Thankfully yesterday was much more relaxed and today should be too. Tomorrow will probably more craziness since I'm going to be finishing up Christmas shopping, but thankfully I don't have much to get.

In the meantime, some cuteness:

Notice the toddler fingers in the tree. He's like, "maybe if I smile my parents won't notice that I'm touching this".

Actually, the tree situation has been better than expected. That's not to say we don't have to remind him multiple times a day not to play with it/pull ornaments off/move it around, etc., sometimes, it seems, he just can't help himself. But for the most part, he's been pretty good about it.

We decorated one night after he had gone to bed and the next morning when he woke up he seemed pretty excited about all the new decorations. He kept pointing to everything and babbling about it. I am, however, glad that we didn't get the stuff up earlier. We won't have as much time to enjoy the decorations, but we also won't have to worry about Jack messing with stuff for more than a week or two. A good strategy for this year, I think.

Weekend Recap: Pre-Christmas Christmas Edition

2011-12-19T20:30:00.000-05:00

The holidays are fast approaching! How do I know? Because we are B-U-S-Y: BUSY!

Thankfully, Mark usually takes some time off around the holidays to burn through vacation. Unfortunately, he usually plans for the week leading up to Christmas and the last two years has found us with family Christmas celebrations before that point. Early last week Mark decided to take an extra day off and scheduled Friday off in addition to this whole week. THANK.GOODNESS. he did that!

Friday arrived with hardly any Christmas preparations on my part (we didn't even get our tree up until Thursday night!), which was totally fine since our first Christmas celebration wasn't until the NEXT DAY! Oy.

I left the house around Noon to hit the stores hard and finally made it back home around 4.30pm or so. My 4+ hour shopping spree involved: Target (where I didn't get everything I needed), Trader Joe's (which was PACKED, I tell you! Doesn't anyone work during the day anymore?! Sheesh.), Bed Bath & Beyond, JoAnn Fabrics, Wal-mart (which sadly oddly was the least crowded store, this at a place which is usually a nightmare), the gas station, and then I was planning to hit another Target, but then realized it was 4.30pm on a Friday and getting on the freeway would be a suicide mission. I was exhausted anyway so I opted to head home instead.

Mark picked us up a pizza for dinner because, did I mention already?, I was e.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d. from the shopping nightmare I was just forced to endure! I don't really enjoy shopping in-person. Once we got Jack down to bed I addressed Christmas cards and then it was bedtime.

Saturday, I spent the day working on Christmas gift projects. Of course that took longer than expected (it ALWAYS does) and Mark took care of wrapping gifts while I got ready to go. We had fun at our Christmas celebration at Mother-in-law's house and then as we were leaving I realized that I never did see the gift that I had spent all afternoon working on... "Mark, you DID put the towels in the gift bags, right?" ... "RIGHT?!"... "Uh... no." Yep, totally left them sitting in our kitchen. Did I mention we already had to leave 1/3 of the gifts out as ~~the UPS man~~ Santa was a little late with his delivery. Maybe his sled broke down? Christmas gift FAIL.

Do other adults have it more together than us? Certainly they must or everyone would just give up on exchanging gifts at Christmas for fear of losing their mind in the process! So, some people will be getting 3 nights of gifts from us! Christmaukkah? Best of both worlds!

Saturday night I meal planned, chose recipes for the holiday baking I was planning, then I stuffed the diapers that I had managed to wash earlier in the day and then it was bedtime, again.

Sunday: Wrote out my grocery list. Went grocery shopping. Came home and baked a pie and cookies and got ready to leave again (all at the same time), put myself and still-warm baked goods in the car to head up to Brother-in-law's house for Family Christmas Celebration 2.0. We were only 25 minutes late, which is pretty good for us me. Christmas was celebrated, more gifts exchanged, 2 of 3 parts of Sister-in-law's gift was given, and then we headed home. I put in a load of laundry and straightened up the family room while Mark cleaned the kitchen. We enjoyed pie and then it was time for bed again.

Monday: I was determined to have a more relaxing day! I had back-to-back conference calls scheduled at 10 and 10.30am, but was hoping to be "done" for the day by shortly after 11am. I called in for my 10am call only to end up having to reschedule for later in the afternoon. Fail. I completed my 10.30 call without any problems. I then went to sort through the mail and was greeted with an extra special Christmas miracle: a bill from my primary care provider from 3 years ago. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. I put in a call to them and am still trying not to lose my mind while waiting for their office manager to call me back. AWESOME. Can't wait to deal with that!

Fed Jack lunch, ate something for the first time today myself, then we reworked our budget for the coming new year, paid off our last credit card (YAY!), put Jack down for his nap, and it was time for my rescheduled conference call. Completed the call, Mark went for a haircut while I baked off some more cookies and did another load of laundry. Shortly thereafter Jack woke up from his nap, I made dinner, we ate, I mixed up another batch of dough and set it aside to chill, Mark cleaned up again. I have another load of diapers ready to stuff as well as those two loads of laundry that I washed waiting to be folded. And I still need to bake off those cookies!

Tomorrow we have a cookie exchange playdate to attend (YUM!), Mark's going to lunch with friends, and then I have a doctors appointment scheduled. While I'm out I'm planning to go to (hopefully!) 1 last store (another Target) to finish up my Christmas shopping, I have more cookies to make and bake and then a holiday gathering at my parents' house.

Wednesday, I have hearings at 10.30 and 12.30am, Mark has an appointment, and then we are DONE! D-U-N: DONE! At least for a few days and hopefully by the time all the celebrations and craziness picks up again we will have at least caught our breath!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of December 18th

2011-12-19T19:45:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Family holiday gathering, I'm bringing dessert: Chocolate Pecan Bourbon Pie and Christmas Monster Cookies

Monday: Shepherd's Pie with - carried over from last week

Tuesday: We have a cookie exchange playdate to attend! I'm bringing Pecan Snowballs. Dinner at my parents house for a holiday celebration. I'm bringing Rugelach.

Wednesday: French Dip Sandwiches (CrockPot) with Kale Chips and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Thursday: Cheddar Ale Soup in Soft Pretzel Bowls with Roasted Broccoli

Friday: Buffalo Chicken Pizza - carried over from last week

Saturday: Christmas Eve! Not really sure what we're doing yet... maybe leftover, or out, or maybe we'll do some appetizer type stuff.

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Tuesday - Week of December 11th

2011-12-13T17:36:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Out

Monday: Homemade Tomato Soup (from the freezer!) with Grilled Cheese

Tuesday: Turkey Lasagna with Sage and Three Cheeses with Roasted Brussels Sprouts - carried over from last week

Wednesay: CrockPot Taco Soup

Thursday: Shepherd's Pie with Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Warm Cider Vinaigrette

Friday: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Christmas at MIL's house

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of December 4th

2011-12-05T22:37:00.000-05:00

This edition of Menu Plan Monday is brought to your by Tom Turkey! Alternatively entitled 'Week O Turkey!'. I made a nice big turkey on Saturday and now we have LOTS of leftover turkey meat to enjoy throughout the week. I also made turkey stock from the bones and scraps and I'm really looking forward to utilizing my $0.59/lb turkey for frugal meals.

Not only am I using a lot of the meat for meals this week, I'm going to splitting these meals into two and putting half in the freezer so they're ready to go for easy weeknight meals on those nights where I just don't feel like cooking. It happens :) I'm sure that even after eating turkey all week in various ways, I'm still going to have leftover turkey to freeze on it's own for future uses as well as leftover stock. Good thing Mark actually really likes turkey. I'm really enjoying how much use I'm going to get out of this bird! Well worth the $12 I spent on Mr. Turkey.

Sunday: Leftovers from our Turkey Dinner!

Monday: Leftover Turkey and Swiss Panini with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday: ~~Chicken~~ Turkey Pot Pie with Salad

Wednesday: Having friends over for a game night - we'll have snacks, the boys will have leftovers.

Thursday: Turkey Cranchiladas with Fajita Sweet Potatoes

Friday: Turkey and Brown Rice Casserole with Roasted Broccoli

Saturday: Turkey Lasagna with Sage and Three Cheeses with Roasted Brussels Sprouts

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of November 27th

2011-11-28T08:26:00.000-05:00

Sunday: Crustless Chard Quiche with Autumn Chopped Salad

Monday: Chicken Alfredo Bake with Whole-Wheat Noodles and Roasted Broccoli

Tuesday: Ranch Pork Chops (made with homemade ranch seasoning mix) with Roasted Cauliflower

Wednesday: Zuppa Toscana Soup with Olive Garden Copycat Breadsticks

Thursday: Turkey Dinner - we didn't end up having time for it last weekend so we'll be having our turkey dinner this week!

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Out/Leftovers

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Black Friday

2011-11-27T15:22:00.002-05:00

{via}

I've discussed before how much I love getting a good deal. I'm definitely thrifty and I'm always on the look out for the best prices I can find on things that we need. So it may come as a bit of a surprise to you that I'm NOT a Black Friday shopper. I have my reasons.

I feel like Black Friday is all about impulse buys, which are not a good idea if you're trying to get the best deal. Yes, there are loss leader items that are highly advertised to entice people to the store, but unless you're going to bust out your pepper spray or set up camp on Wednesday night to await the store opening on Friday you're unlikely to get one of the big ticket items. You're more likely to be pushed into an impulse purchase after standing in lines for hours because if you waited that long are you really going to head home empty-handed? Unlikely. Are there good deals to be had? Sure. But it takes a lot of planning and research to make sure you're getting the best deal on something and you still have to wade through all the crazies and be out shopping at 3am. No thank you.

I'm likely to get just as good a deal on the items I'm looking for at a later date as long as I keep my eyes peeled for sales and remain patient.

With that said, even though I never plan on shopping Black Friday, I always seem to manage to end up making purchases. This is because I do look through the ads to see if there is anything I want/need that are a part of the sales and if there is THEN I make my move. I don't just go out for the heck of it, assuming I'm going to get the best deal (not that this is what ALL Black Friday shoppers do, but I think it's what oftentimes happens).

2 years ago we got our vacuum (which was one of the best investments ever!) for a great price. At the same time, we also got a deal on our bedding set.

This year I took advantage of some online shopping and got double cash back with Ebates, which as an aside, I highly, HIGHLY recommend signing up with Ebates. They pay you a percentage of your total if you click through to the retailer you're already planning to shop at through their site. On Black Friday, I got as much as 10% cash back at some stores. I saw they were offering even than that from other retailers. It's really a win-win situation since you would be shopping anyway. I would expect they will have sweet deals for Cyber Monday tomorrow as well. Doooo it!

I hit up Target Saturday afternoon after all the crowds had already lost interest and picked up a 550-thread count sheet set for $35. That's a great price! We have been in the market for a new sheet set for... well, probably months now. We had two sets that we rotated that were purchased about 3 1/2 years ago when we got our new mattress set after our wedding. I would expect sheets to last longer than that, even with heavy use, but despite purchasing them at the same time AND paying quite a bit for them (around $65 with coupon at Bed Bath & Beyond for 500-thread count!) one of the sets has become really worn, ball-y, and the elastic is totally shot. Annoying! I was totally not looking forward to buying the same set again. So yay for new sheets at a great price!

I also picked up a set of Mega Blocks ($10, regularly $19.99, I haven't even seen a better price on Craigslist), Elmo Slippers ($5, regularly $9.99), and a heavy fleece jacket ($11.98 on clearance, sale price $15, regularly $16.99) for Mr. Jack.

I got everything I was interested in from the Black Friday sales without having to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to fight crowds and crazy people AND I didn't even have to leave my house on Friday :)

I am looking forward to seeing the deals offered tomorrow for Cyber Monday. I'm definitely an online shopper!

Did you score any great deals this weekend?

Menu Plan Monday - Week of November 20th

2011-11-21T21:13:00.000-05:00

Woot! Thanksgiving is this week! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. A holiday about getting together with family and eating without the pressure of gift-giving? Yep, I'm all over that!

Sunday: Turkey Pumpkin Chili

Monday: Salisbury Steak with Baked Potatoes and Roasted Broccoli

Tuesday: Veggie Enchiladas (from the freezer!) with Restaurant-style Mexican Rice

Wednesday: Copy-cat IKEA Swedish Meatballs over Whole-wheat Egg Noodles (I've actually never had these, but apparently they're good enough for Food Network Magazine to create a copy-cat recipe!) with Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Thursday: Happy Turkey Day! I'll be making Classic Green Bean Casserole to take to my family's house for Thanksgiving and we'll have Pumpkin Pancakes for breakfast to tide us over til the main event!

Friday: Out/Leftovers

Saturday: This year is special because we're having our own little Thanksgiving! I made a turkey breast dinner for us last year, but this year we're going all out and I'll be cooking my first bird! We want leftovers and I plan to freeze a lot of the meat and make turkey stock with the bones. Yum!

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted at OrgJunkie.com

20 Months!

2011-11-17T22:36:00.002-05:00

Jack is 20 months old! I can't believe he'll be two soon!

He's all about testing boundaries right now which although it seems really fun for him, isn't so fun for me! I spend my days trying to keep him out of trouble, and trouble is his middle name at this point. He doesn't particularly care for (or acknowledge) the term "no".

He's definitely hit a picky stage with food. We went through a couple weeks where I just didn't know what to feed the kid! He was down to only wanting to eat a few things and even those things he changed his mind about day to day. Talk about frustrating! Lately he's gotten a little better, but he still changes his mind day to day as to what he likes and what he doesn't like. Gone are the days where he'd eat anything and everything! Although, this seems like a pretty normal stage for a toddler so I'm pretty thankful he at least eats some things from every food group. Although... he doesn't like meat. At all. But at least he can get his protein elsewhere.

Jack's favorites right now are yogurt, applesauce, and grapes. He also seems to really like eggs, toast, cheese, bananas, oranges, sweet potatoes (that I cut into fry-like shapes, season with lots of yummy spices, and bake!), grilled cheese sandwiches, and PB&J sandwiches. Those are all things I can reliably get him to eat. There are other things that he'll sometimes eat and sometimes he won't touch. It just changes day to day, but at least there is a list of things we know he likes!

Eating Eggs and Toast

Dip-dip! Jack recently discovered the joys of dipping!

On the positive side, in the last week or so Jack has had an explosion of words! I've known it was coming for a while and although his passive verbal skills were clearly growing by leaps and bounds, Jack just didn't have much to say. Within the last week he has started saying a lot of new words and he's experimenting by repeating a lot of sounds and trying to mimic a lot of what we say. I think he's going to be a little chatterbox in no time :) Just recently he has started to say:

No
Yes
Go! (usually to the dog... no idea where he's heard that...)
Bye-bye
'Nana (banana)
Daddy ("DaDee" instead of DaDa)
Eggs
Bibby (his bib)
Baby ("BayBEE")
Ball
Ear
Baa (sheep)
Moo (cow)
Moon (which sounds a lot like "moo", definitely need to pay attention to context on this one!)
Yesterday he came very close to saying squirrel!

A apologize that the clip is sideways (oops!), but here's a video of Jack saying "baa!". It's pretty cute!

And of course he's doing lots of babbling.

And even more importantly he has finally started nodding yes! Before, everything was no. It's a lot easier to figure out what he wants, or is trying to say when he can indicate yes and no!

He has also started making an "I don't know" gesture where he turns his palms up and kind of shrugs. He doesn't actually say "I don't know", but he makes a sound that sounds like that's what he's saying. It's really adorable! I'm not even really sure where he picked it up.

He loves to look outside every night after dinner for the moon, and he also gets excited when he spots airplanes which happens a lot because we're near an airport.

He's still really into trucks and I would say his little pickup and trailer are his favorite. He really likes playing with his ball, sitting in his chair, coloring, and reading books too. He LOVES watching Sesame Street and is of course enamored with Elmo like many of his cohorts. He loves dancing too.

Coloring!

We hit a rough patch with sleeping a few weeks ago, but thankfully he seems to be a little bit more back on schedule and going down easier. There were a few days where he really fought his nap and a couple of days where he ended up not napping at all even though he was clearly tired. Last week, he was up around 7am everyday, which I think was influenced by the time change. I guess he's just enjoying our days so much he doesn't want to waste time sleeping!

I've also noticed that Jack seems to be moving into a stage where he's very particular about things. He knows how things are supposed to be and doesn't like if they're not that way. For example, we have a floor lamp and a table lamp in our family room. If we turn only one on he keeps pointing at the other one until we turn it on because that's how it usually is!

And he also knows a lot of his body parts. When he feels like humoring you he can point to his:

Head
Eyes
Ears
Nose
Mouth
Toes

He also really enjoys pointing things out on his stuffed animals, on us, or even on people on TV :) He usually chooses to point to eyes, or even more often ears.

He finally gives kisses and hugs! He started doing this a few weeks ago and it's probably the sweetest thing ever! I had to wait a long time for it, but I get lots of lovin' now! Jack also likes to kiss his stuffed animals and have his stuffed animals kiss other things/people, including the dog :-/


He found the remote to our ceiling fan.

And of course enjoyed playing with it.

Playing at a local indoor play area. He loves anything he can ride on!

Stacking!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of November 13th

2011-11-14T16:55:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning feeling better than I have in the last week and a half so although I'm still not 100% I'm hopefully on the road to recovery! I'm sick of being sick!

Sunday: Leftover Pot Roast Sandwiches with Roasted Green Beans and Mushrooms

Monday: Crustless Chard Quiche with Salad

Tuesday: Chicken Alfredo Bake with Roasted Broccoli

Wednesday: Parmesan Tilapia with Roasted Cauliflower

Thursday: Creamy Chicken with Black Beans and Corn (CrockPot) over Cilantro-Lime Rice

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: OUT

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted at OrgJunkie.com

Works for Me Wednesday: Saving a Few Pennies

2011-11-09T09:59:00.000-05:00

Yep, still sick over here. I'm so over it. This has been the longest week in the history of weeks already and guys? It's only Wednesday. Oy vey. Jack has decided that his personal prescription for momma getting better involves 7am wake up calls. Not the week for it, kid. So yeah, abnormally long days + sick momma + bored, stuck inside toddler = no good all around. No idea why he's rushing to greet the day every morning. I'd prefer to stay in bed all day.

ANYWAY, even though I'm dying a slow death over here I thought I'd share with you one of my penny saving tips. I'm all about saving the pennies! I really think saving a few pennies is worth it because it really adds up and every little bit helps when you have a tight budget with little wiggle room. And the bonus of this tip is, not only does it save a little bit of money, but it ends up actually working better!

I use my dishwasher as a drying rack:

I have the "heated dry" turned off and once the dishwasher finishes running through it's cleaning cycle I just open it up and pull the racks out and allow everything to air dry. Let me tell you, I've found that not only does it save money and energy, but it actually works BETTER than the heated dry option! Now, we have an older dishwasher so I don't know, maybe newer dishwashers have a better drying option, but when I let the dishwasher do the heated dry thing everything still comes out wet. I'm pretty sure it's because there's still all that moisture trapped in there from the dishwasher running, you know? So, opening it up and letting it air dry actually works out better because the stuff gets drier. Especially all that plastic stuff that really holds on to the water. It's really a win-win!

Next time you run a load of dishes try it for yourself!

Halloween Fun!

2011-11-08T12:21:00.000-05:00

We visited the Pumpkin Patch a few weeks back to pick out some pumpkins for Halloween. Mark's mom came with us and Jack had a blast!

Jack and DaDa

Jack and MaMa

And for fun, this is our picture from last year:

Look at how little he was! I was still wearing him in the Moby. Same hat, by the way :) I think he was 7 months old here.

All together now.

Jack did not wish to look at the camera. He was looking at all the pumpkins and was very anxious to get down and explore.

And of course nearly all of the pictures I took ended up being of the back of Jack's head. His only interest was running through the pumpkin fields as quickly and crazily as possible. He didn't even watch where he was going so he spent all day tripping over the vines. He would hardly hold our hands, of course. At least he enjoyed himself.

And the result of all our hard pumpkin picking work:

Guess who Jack was for Halloween:

Elmo!

Like many of his cohorts, Jack is enamored with Elmo right now. It's quite cute! So, Elmo he was!

Here are some before pics. You know, before he transformed into Elmo ;)

He wore his Elmo PJs under his costume to keep warm!

He loved this little flashing pumpkin that Grandma AJ gave him

Elmo! I think it goes without saying that it's really hard to get a decent pic of this kid right now, but I'll say it anyway.

Okay, let's go, people!

He was our handing out candy assistant.

And last year:

Squee! So little! He would have been 8 months old here.

Mark took him around to a few houses to Trick-or-Treat, but as we had assumed, Jack was unimpressed. And also, a lot of our neighbors did not hand out candy. LAME.

Anyway, we had a great Halloween and I'm already looking forward to next year when Jack will probably be more into celebrating the holiday!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of November 6th

2011-11-08T10:16:00.001-05:00

Err... Menu Plan Tuesday. Fail. Immediately following my triumphant return to blogging I seem to have been attacked by a nasty cold. I've been sick since last week :( I'm really going to work on getting some pics from the Pumpkin Patch and Halloween uploaded.

Sunday: Leftovers

Monday: Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries and Roasted Broccoli (this is the first time I've tried roasting broccoli and it was really good!)

Tuesday: Parmesan Tilapia with Roasted Cauliflower

Wednesday: Pot Roast in the CrockPot with Cauliflower "Mashed Potatoes"

Thursday: Chicken Queso Soup

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: OUT

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of October 30th

2011-10-31T09:51:00.001-04:00

Annnnd we're back! Sorry for the improptu bloggy break. We've been busy around these parts just living life, but hopefully I'll be able to manage some updates around here! I can't believe the first day of November is tomorrow! This year is just flying by and heading into the holiday season I know time will seem to go even faster, yikes!

Anyway, back on Menu Plan Monday. Hubs has been asking that I get our menu posted again because he likes to be able to reference it throughout the week :)

Sunday: Crustless Chard Quiche with salad

Monday: Happy Halloween! Chili with all the fixin's!

Tuesday: Burgers on the grill, I think I'll top them with sauteed mushrooms and onions with sweet potato fries

Wednesday: Chipotle-inspired burritos

Thursday: Chicken Cacciatore over Spaghetti Squash

Friday: Pizza - I'm going to try making it on Cauliflower Pizza Crust!

Saturday: Out/Leftovers

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Cloth Napkins

2011-09-21T16:55:00.000-04:00

I feel like I've been working on this project forevah! I finally finished a set of cloth napkins!

This was not at all a difficult project and the sewing portion of it didn't take long at all, but the cutting took a bit of time and then I spent what felt like decades pressing the seams! I actually had to split it up into three sittings.

Also, I learned that starch is your bestie when doing something like this. I'm still feeling my way around sewing and being such a beginner I don't realize some things that apparently everyone else just KNOWS like the fact that if you don't starch a seam like this during pressing it's going to take twice as long AND once you discover starch, you're going to have to go back and redo all the pitiful seams you did originally.

STARCH!

Don't forget it. You'll thank me later.

So anyway, yes, the pressing took a long time, but obviously this is yet another learning experience for me and I'm quite happy with how things turned out! I've been wanting to make some cloth napkins for quite a while. We use cloth paper towels (that's an oxymoron, but you know what I mean), or the more trendy name: "unpaper towels", and are so happy with them, but we've been continuing to throw money away on paper napkins because I knew that I wanted to DIY a set for us and hadn't made time for it before now.

Well, NO LONGER!

Because look at these babies! Aren't they the cutest cloth napkins you've ever seen?!

I even chose a fabric that matched our kitchen.

And another reason that it took so long is that I made FIFTEEN of them. That's a lot of napkins. But I wanted to be sure that we had enough and you have to think, some days we eat 3 meals as a family, so we could easily go through 6-9 napkins right there and I don't want to have to wash them everyday.

I even did some very fancy schmancy (to me, at least!) mitered corners on these. Definitely a learning experience, this project.

I highly, highly recommend whipping up a set of these. Cloth is where it's at. They're not at all difficult and you'll end up with something very useful, cute, and inexpensive that will save you money!

This whole project cost under $5. I never would have been able to purchase 15 napkins for that price. I bought 2 yards of 100% cotton fabric (Originally $4.98, on sale for 50% off) and I had all the rest of the supplies including coordinating thread (look at me building my sewing stash!). I used Skip to My Lou's tutorial. I cut my fabric into 12" x 12" squares, which left me with a finished size of 11" x 11". I'm finding it to be a good size, and it maximizes the number of napkins you can get out of a yard (or two) of fabric.

Here's what they look like opened up from the back:

And my fancy mitered corners:

And in their new home ready to go:

Oh, and another tip if you're planning to do this project, don't forget to pre-wash your fabric! That way you don't end up with any unexpected shrinkage or wonky seams or anything. I discovered that tip in time for my last project :D

SAHM turned WAHM

2011-09-20T13:21:00.000-04:00

Woo-whee! It's been a busy few weeks. If you've noticed, I've been a little absent around these parts and it's because... I'm working again.

Not that I wasn't working before, because trust me, chasing a toddler and tending a house IS work, but I'm talking about the paid type of work. The kind of work where you perform a task and someone else pays you... in money. It's a nice setup.

The work I'm doing is super, SUPER part-time and 100% from home so basically, perfect for me and my situation and I'm doing the same work I was doing P.B. (pre-baby) as a hearing representative. Although it's not at all a big time commitment (probably 1-3 hours per week depending on how many hearings I'm doing) I'm still trying to adjust to working something else into a day which already leaves me tired by the time evening rolls around.

Actually, this whole opportunity really just fell into my lap so I couldn't really refuse it because of how perfect it is for me. A friend that I used to work with (not at the company that I worked at P.B., but the place BEFORE that. Same industry though.) contacted me to let me know he had heard through the grapevine that a company was looking for someone to contract with to do just a couple of hearings here and there so he thought of me and gave them my name. He put me in touch with the proper person and when we spoke, they loved me (naturally ;) ) and so I'm working for them. With them? I guess I'm kind of working for myself as an Independent Contractor, yes? Anyway, they're paying me and that's all that really matters, right?

I've been doing this for about 3 weeks now and I've been doing 1-2 hearings per week. The way this process works is I set up a pre-hearing conference call to prepare the witnesses for the hearing (I usually try to schedule this the day before) and then we do the hearing (it's an administrative hearing conducted by telephone) at the scheduled hearing time.

The pre-hearing conference call can be scheduled whenever is convenient for all parties and so far, I've been able to get all of those completed during Jack's naptime (perfect!). The only drawback is the hearings are scheduled anywhere from 8am-8pm. Although a large portion of that time is either when Jack is sleeping or Mark is home from work to distract Jack while I'm busy, there is a portion of time where I may be on a very important call with a very persistent, and sometimes needy toddler nearby.

The good thing is that Jack's usually pretty happy playing on his own for spurts of time at this point. The bad thing is, he's still a toddler who doesn't understand that the world (or at least my world) isn't always able to revolve around him. I've done two hearings while he's been awake and the first hearing was a little trying because he couldn't quite figure out why I was out of the room for so long. The second hearing went considerably better, so I'm hoping as we go along he'll just kind of catch on and allow me to be in another room for a bit. Hearings are scheduled for 45 minutes typically. So it's a decent stretch of time, however, he does play on his own for that much time anyway, but it's a little different being TOTALLY unavailable unless there's a REAL need for me, vs. I'm in the adjacent room and working on something as time allows, you know? I'm hoping all will continue to go well and improve.

So far I'm actually pretty pleased with this whole situation. Despite at times having to juggle a bit it's not a huge time commitment at all (let's face it,1-3 hours a week is pretty much nothing, but it is hard to HAVE to do something mid-day rather than just fitting things in around the house when I have a free moment) and it's fairly flexible. Even though I wasn't looking for anything it's pretty perfect for me and it's nice being able to flex my brain a little bit again. Going into this work again I felt like I remembered nothing, but thankfully it's all coming back very quickly! It doesn't hurt that it's pretty easy money and they're paying me quite well. We'll see how it goes, but I'm planning to stick with it at least for the time being.

Menu Plan Monday - Week of September 18th

2011-09-19T10:49:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Burgers on the grill with Cheesy Potatoes

Monday: Burritos

Tuesday: Cheesy Beef & Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower

Wednesday: Chicken Gyros with Soft Wrap Bread and Greek Salad

Thursday: Steak Fajitas

Friday: Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

Saturday: OUT

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted at OrgJunkie.com

18 Months!

2011-09-13T16:54:00.001-04:00

Jack is 18 months old!

18-month check up stats: 25lbs 5oz (50th percentile), 33 inches (75th percentile)

I'm finding that he's full of sugar and spice right now. Although there are some AWESOME things going on at this age, like his expanding vocabulary and the way you can just tell that his little brain is a sponge by how quickly he catches on to things, I am finding that this is quite a difficult age! He's sure keeping me on my toes.

I honestly think that a lot of the problems that we're experiencing right now are attributable to the language gap we're in. He understands A LOT, but he doesn't understand everything and he certainly hasn't caught on to cause and effect and although he now realizes that he can sometimes communicate with us, he doesn't yet have the language skills to express everything to us that he wants to. I think that in another few weeks a lot of our problems will start to become easier as we get better at communicating. Communication is definitely our main issue right now. Well... that and the fact that he certainly has an opinion now. A STRONG opinion ;)

But all of this is normal, I'm sure, and I guess it's part of the joy of parenting a toddler.

Jack is definitely enjoying himself right now. I recently saw a few diagrams of an experiment that was done with toddlers. A playroom was set up and then kids were let into the room and observed and their average movements were diagrammed. The picture of the path of an 18-month-old was all. over. the. place. and with no rhyme or reason. This is Jack completely! And then at the age of 2 the path is a little less crazy and at the age of 2 1/2 the path is much more defined and much less areas are visited. At the age of 3, only like 2 areas were visited in the whole room.

As you may have guessed Jack is definitely inquisitive these days and is into everything. Luckily for him, he's taller now and can reach even more new cool stuff. The only problem is he doesn't quite understand why Momma and Daddy like to spoil his fun. To him, plugging and unplugging an electrical outlet seems like an awesome game and we just don't want him to have fun. See where the misunderstandings come into play? :D

A huge milestone we've reached this month is eating with utensils! He's doing really well and I'm liking it too because although it does take a little longer for him to eat, he's getting better at it everyday and he seems more likely to try things and enjoy them if he's feeding himself with a fork/spoon because he thinks it's really fun. He's definitely showing signs of entering the stage where he wants to do everything on his own.

Here he is enjoying some yogurt:

And this is a very rare example of him wearing a bib. I think it stayed on for about 3 minutes total. He will. not. wear a bib. He's not too messy of an eater, thankfully, but with this whole learning to use utensils phase mealtimes have become considerably messier. He still won't wear a bib :-/

Jack has added a few new words to his repertoire of MaMa, DaDa, and BehBeh (Belle, our dog) - Car (which he says like Kah... really a strange word for his first deviation from immediate family members, I think), and very recently Nana (my mom), Papa (my dad), TaTa (my brother), and KyKy (his cousin). We're trying to teach him his name but so far if you ask him if he can say it he shakes his head no. Silly boy!

He recently started saying their names when, brace yourselves, he had his first overnight visit with them! Yes, this was a HUGE step for me us. Mark and I attended a wedding last weekend and we dropped him off for the afternoon and evening with the instructions (to my mother who has been wanting him to stay the night since he was oh... 3 days old) to go ahead and try to put him to bed if he was tired before we were able to leave the wedding. That happened so he ended up staying the night. It was also the first time he had napped at their house. And of course, the little stinker that he is, he was on his BEST behavior, no crying, no tantrums, slept like an angel, yada yada. Essentially, he totally played the game and is obviously looking for an invitation to stay again.

Speaking of sleep we've hit yet another sleep regression, which by the way, why does no one tell you about sleep regressions? I totally thought that once he started sleeping through the night as an infant (which he did REALLY early on) we'd be gold. Ha.ha.ha. Sometimes babies have sleep regressions and it sucks. Jack has been right on schedule for all the others, but I had no idea they also happen this late in the game. Let me tell you, they do. This sleep regression hit the week leading up to him staying with my parents, which had me really nervous, but again, he was on his best behavior there.

For several days to a week he was having trouble going to bed at night. We've had no issues with this for a VERY long time. He actually seems to really like his bed and any time we've had sleep troubles in the past they've always manifested in wake ups overnight. The trouble we had with putting him to bed was not fun at all for anyone concerned. Thankfully after a few nights it seems to have passed. However, he's waking up early again like he was doing a handful of months ago and that's no fun for anyone either. This has been going on for about 2 or 3 weeks now so I guess we'll just have to ride out the next few weeks and then hopefully he'll get back on track. That's what happened every other time at least.

We've been having lots of fun. He loves to watch Sesame Street and especially Elmo. I don't know why Elmo is such a draw for toddlers, but he really is. Jack loves Elmo. It's scary how quickly kids become attached to a certain show/character. He still loves to read and his favorites this month have been Trucks which just has pictures of all sorts of big trucks. Not as enjoyable to read for me as it appears to be for him! And he also really likes Harry the Dirty Dog right now. He's also starting to take an interest in doing some puzzles, which is something new and fun. Usually he just wants us to put the pieces in for him, but lately he's been doing it himself and doing a really good job!

His favorite toy right now by far is this little truck and trailer that his grandpa and uncle brought him back from a trip. He carries these things around all day, every day. They're never far. And although he knows how to hook up the trailer by himself he really likes for me to do it a hundred times a day.

Here's Jack playing hide-and-seek with the front door.

He loves to play hide-and-seek, or maybe it's closer to peek-a-boo really, but either way. He hides his head with a blanket and if you say, "Where's Jack? I don't see him!" he will stand super still and start giggling like you can't actually see him. Then he pulls the blanket off his head and laughs.

He thought having a monkey hanging from his neck was really funny!

And some pics from a recent trip to COSI. Dada took the day off work and was able to come with us for the first time!

He loves to play with the wheelbarrow.

Uh oh, may have splashed himself in the face...

LOVES the water area, of course.

And this is what Jack likes to do while I'm making the bed, although he doesn't usually hold so still. I think he was being a little shy since I had the camera.

Menu Plan Monday - Week of September 11th

2011-09-12T09:24:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Grilled Beer Brats with German Potato Salad

Monday: Chicken Fajitas - carried over from last week. It ended up raining for most of the week so we didn't end up grilling

Tuesday: Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Homemade Tomato Soup with Gruyere and Caramelized Onion Panini

Friday: Burgers on the grill with cheesy potatoes

Saturday: OUT

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of September 4th

2011-09-05T15:34:00.000-04:00

Sunday: We had a late lunch so I didn't make dinner.

Monday: Labor Day! Mushroom Swiss Burgers with Bacon Ranch Potato Salad and Baked Beans

Tuesday: Veggie Enchiladas with Chips and Salsa - carried over form last week

Wednesday: Corn Chowder with Beer Bread - taking advantage of the cooler weather to usher in Soup Season while the local sweet corn is still available!

Thursday: Chicken Fajitas with 'Refried' Beans (from the freezer)

Friday: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Saturday: OUT

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of August 28th

2011-08-29T08:30:00.002-04:00

As Summer wanes we're trying to get in as much grilling as possible while the weather is still nice! All too soon it'll be cold and we'll be craving the heavier comfort foods of Winter.

Sunday: Ribs, Cheesy Potatoes, Sweet Corn, and Peach Cobbler for dessert

Monday: Mushroom & Swiss Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday: Grilled Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Ranch Potato Wedges

Wednesday: Veggie Enchiladas with Chips and Salsa

Thursday: Spinoccoli Pizza

Friday: Chipotle-inspired Chicken Burritos

Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Cell Phone Shopping is a Joke

2011-08-28T20:29:00.001-04:00

I've been due for a cell phone upgrade since... I don't know. A while. Maybe February? Anyway, I was due for a cell phone upgrade a while back and at the time we had very briefly looked at what was available and I decided that I was happier with the phone I had (an enV 2) and therefore elected to just hang on to it until it didn't work anymore.

Of course they seem to be quite sneaky about these things, and being eligible for a discounted phone upgrade every year or two, phones seem manufactured to only last about that long.

Here we are are a few months later and the buttons on my phone started to have problems. They were wearing out and when I'd hit about half of them it was as if I was hitting them twice, instead of once. So... for example, my text messages would look like this: Whhenn aaree yyoou coominngg hoome? Which is annoying. Not to mention, the "reply" button did the same thing, so if I received a text message and hit "reply" it actually registered it as my hitting it twice, which meant that every time it sent a blank text message that I would have to cancel out, then go through the process to open a new text message to send. SUPREMELY annoying and ineffective. Can you tell I spend more time texting than calling? Because the call features were fine :P

So anyway, all things considered I determined that I had reached the point of no longer being happy with my improperly functioning phone (which magically began to malfunction shortly after upgrade time, go figure.) and this weekend we set out to get a new one.

Every other time we've shopped for phones it has totally not been a problem. We go to the store, play with the phones a bit, I pick one that I like (usually because it's a pretty color...) and we're on our way. Not so, this time around.

We live near a major shopping area in town and we usually go to the Verizon store there. It's often really crowded on weekends (how many people could possibly need to shop for new phones at the same time? A lot, apparently.) so we elected to visit a new location that was just as close, but it was a smaller, independently owned shop that ended up being less crowded (we were the only ones there actually, which was really nice).

We told the salesman what I was looking for (basically just a replacement for what I already had) and he directed us to 3 phones (which they call "feature phones". I have no idea what that actually refers to, but they're the non-smart phones). Three. In the entire store. The rest of their stock were all smart phones. And I think one of those three was the only one that even kind of fit with what I was looking for. Not only were these 3 phones not as nice as the one that I currently had, meaning the "feature phones" didn't have as many features as the phone I purchased 2 1/2 years ago, but they were more expensive than the nicer phones they had, which of course, happened to be smartphones.

So, because I didn't want to pay more for a crappier phone than I already had (of course they probably did have working buttons, so I guess it depends on what you're looking at to determine, which is "nicer") we started to look at the cheaper smartphones they had.

They were obviously really pushing them. In addition to appearing to actually take a step BACK in the technology of their other phones, the smartphones with all the features I wanted (which, hello, I'm not even asking that much! I want a QWERTY (full) keyboard for texting as well as picture and video capabilities. Nothing more than what I had in the phone I purchased 2 1/2 years ago!) would cost either $49 or they'd be absolutely free, PLUS if I upgraded to a smartphone from a "feature phone" I could send the old one in for a $100 rebate. Sounds like a great deal, right?

WRONG.

Because even though the phone is a great deal upfront, you HAVE to purchase a data package to go with it. Trust me, I asked. I don't understand why they have to dictate that you get the data package (which is basically just internet access), but they do. Wait, no, of course I actually do know why. They have it set up to where you have very limited options and the "smart" choice is a smartphone from which they make an extra $30 a month off of you. The data package would increase the bill for just my cell phone from $50 (which I already think is too high) to $80 a month. EIGHTY DOLLARS A MONTH for a single cell phone! I think that's crazy! Yes, you get "more" for that extra $30, but I don't actually NEED internet on my phone, so it's $30 for just something extra, that I don't even necessarily want. I mean... if it were there, I'd use it, but I definitely don't need it nor to I care to be forced into purchasing something I don't want/need.

Am I the only person who doesn't think it's fair to be forced into increasing my bill by $30 a month, or do people just usually accept this as totally fine? Because I'm beginning to think I'm alone here.

So, we left the Verizon store we were at and headed over to the more crowded one because we wanted to see if they had a bigger selection and they usually have their display phones activated so you can actually play with them to see what they're like. They did end up having one more "feature phone" that the other location didn't have, but they didn't have any of the smartphones I was interested in because "they're a corporate store so they only carry the newest phones. The ones I was looking at were already outdated". What they were actually telling me was they only carried overly expensive phones that I wasn't interested in and I'd have to go back to the smaller, independent retailer if I wanted a better deal.

After we returned home, me with a sour taste in my mouth from the idea of being forced into a higher cell phone bill, I researched the two phones I was interested in and neither received reassuring reviews.

I was left with the following decision: Choose a "feature phone" that didn't have the features I was used to and pay more for it ($79), but keep my same monthly bill, OR choose the smartphone (which was free), and get a $100 rebate for trading in my old phone, but be forced into paying a higher monthly bill for something I didn't even want.

I wasn't impressed with either phone after reading the reviews and either way I went I felt like I was getting a bad deal and didn't have much choice about it. I really hate being put in that position and I was not happy, to say the least.

Mark and I discussed it further and he remembered seeing a commercial for Virgin Mobile advertising their new Beyond Talk plan, which starts at $35 a month. Because we weren't happy with what was happening at Verizon (who we've always been with) and I'm the only phone involved now (Mark's is paid for by his work), we decided to look into switching carriers. We checked things out online and liked what we saw, so while Jack was napping I ran up to Best Buy to look into it further. They carry phones and plans for Sprint, Virgin Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T.

I talked to a really helpful salesman, chose a phone that I liked (that got awesome reviews online), and purchased my plan. With Virgin, the phones are a little more expensive upfront (the one I picked was one of the nicer options at $149.99), but the monthly bill is WAY more affordable, which made me feel okay about investing a little more upfront in the phone. I'm on a plan with unlimited web, data, messaging, and email and 300 talk minutes a month for $35. It's the lowest plan available, but it should be fine for me as the most talk minutes I've used in a month is right around 150. I text way more than I talk. But, if I need more minutes, I can pay $45 for the same plan, but with 1200 minutes instead of 300. Still less than what I was paying for JUST talk and text with Verizon, and much less than the $80 I would have been paying for a comparable plan with them.

And, the other great thing is there is no contract, it's month-to-month, so if I try it for a month and decide I don't like it because of lack of coverage or something (it's on the Sprint network, so I'm hoping it'll be okay...) I can just return the phone (I have 30 days to return the phone to Best Buy with no restocking fee, compared to the $35 restocking fee I would have had to pay with Verizon if I had returned the phone within 14 days) and look into other options. We're out nothing for trying something new and we certainly don't have any reason for staying with Verizon. We used to have unlimited text messaging grandfathered in with them for $5 a month, but when our contract was up in February they said they could no longer offer that option at that price. Nice, Verizon. Nice. So, again, absolutely no reason to remain loyal to them. They certainly haven't remained loyal to us as customers. And the helpful salesman at Best Buy was even able to set up my Virgin Mobile account so that I was able to keep my same phone number! So nice. Oh, and they will transfer your contacts for free at Best Buy. If you want Verizon to do it (you can do it through their website, but if you want them to handle it for you in-store) they charge $10 even though it takes them about two minutes to do. Lame.

Also, if anyone is interested in switching to Virgin Mobile, they are offering a deal right now where if you purchase a phone through their website before Labor Day and activate a Beyond Talk plan by October 4th they'll credit your account in the amount of $25 as a bonus for being a new customer. I'm kind of bummed that I missed out on the $25 credit (okay... a lot bummed), BUT I needed to purchase through Best Buy because I was able to get insurance on the phone through them ($19.99 for 2 years, if you purchase the insurance through Virgin it's $5 every month, so I'm saving money in the long run) and hai, I have a toddler. I can't have a phone without insurance coverage because if he gets a hold of the thing, I can't guarantee it's going to work afterwards :-/

So... in conclusion. Verizon sucks. I'm wholly underwhelmed with their business practices right now. Virgin Mobile has an awesome alternative with their new Beyond Talk plan and I hope it works out for me. If it does, I'm going to be saving money in the long run. I'm going to be calling Mark from various points around the area for the next month to make sure I have adequate coverage :D

We're back!

2011-08-24T15:56:00.000-04:00

We're back from vacation and I can honestly say, I think this is the first time that I've ever been more tired upon return than when I left! Vacationing with a baby is definitely a whole different experience than as an adult couple. We did have LOTS of fun though, and I'm so glad we did it!

We visited Myrtle Beach, SC which is over 600 miles away from us. We drove and it's just shy of 11 hours one way. Mark and I have made this trip and stayed in this location a few times before, and I visited as a child with my family, but this was Jack's very first trip! It was also his very first time sleeping away from home, which we were pretty nervous about.

We left really early Friday morning. Our plan was to get the car packed, sleep for a few hours, and then leave. Of course reality laughed at our plans as usual and with the crunch of everything we needed to get accomplished before leaving we were packing the car at about 10pm. Mark finally called it a night and demanded sleep shortly after 11pm. While he slept I continued packing and getting things ready to go. He was doing the driving so I knew I would be able to sleep in the car and I don't do well with "power naps" anyway. A little amount of sleep just makes my body crave sleep more!

When planning the trip we had talked about leaving at Jack's bedtime and driving all night to get there for optimum chances of Jack sleeping through the ride. We had concerns about how he'd do being stuck in a car for so long as we've never attempted a trip like this before. We decided against this option for two reasons: one, we'd arrive much earlier than our scheduled check in time, but also, Mark didn't feel comfortable driving all night with no sleep. It's kind of funny now because he obviously didn't get much sleep on our compromise plan either!

So anyway, Mark slept from about 11pm-1am and then I woke him up as planned. We finished packing the last minute things that I had been working on, scooped Jack out of bed and gathered the essential things from his room that we weren't able to pack until last minute and we were on our way at 1.45am!

When we got in the car Jack was so confused! He was looking at all the stuff packed in the car and pointing and saying "Huh. Huh?". We found out that while traveling with a little one you basically have to bring your whole house. Mark's truck filled up quickly. Last time we made this trip (right before I got pregnant actually!) I think we brought two suitcases and a cooler, total.

We were hoping he'd go right back to sleep since it was the middle of the night, but that wasn't the case. He was up for a while before he conked out again. Basically, he kind of napped on and off the whole car ride. He was awake for much more of the time than we were hoping, but it ended up being totally fine because he hardly made a peep the whole ride! Although... around 4.30am he did start signing "all done" to me (I assume with being in the car!) and I had to unfortunately tell him that we still had a long way to go!

Jack and I caught a few winks of sleep (he more than I...) and we stopped for breakfast around 8am. We changed his diaper, his clothes (we put him in the car in his PJs), ate, and refueled and then we were back on the road. Jack spent the rest of the time looking out the window (he's still rear-facing and did just fine), playing with the books and toys I brought to give him in the car, and napping periodically. He was doing so well that when we were able 3-4 hours out from our destination we decided to forgo stopping for lunch as we had planned and continue on. I fed him lunch in the car and when we were about 1 1/2-2 hours away he ended up falling asleep for another little nap so it worked out really well!

Overall, the drive down went beautifully and way better than we were expecting!

When we arrived at the hotel, Jack immediately found his favorite location in the room: the balcony.

This kid was in-out-in-out-in-out the whole time! He must have gone between the room and the balcony 100 times a day! He loved it out there and thankfully he only threw one toy overboard that Daddy had to go retrieve. Oops!

We did plenty of eating (as usual)

Jack's first hushpuppy

He didn't seem overwhelmingly impressed.

We spent a lot of time at the beach. More than we ever have before, actually. When we went by ourselves we visited the beach, but spent most of the time at the pool, lounging and reading and napping in the sun. Those days are surely gone!

Jack loved the sand and loved to walk all over the beach visiting with people and making friends. I was mildly worried he'd be scared of the ocean (it's kind of big and loud for little people!), but that wasn't a problem. It wasn't his favorite thing, but he didn't seem to dislike it.

Periodically he'd run up to the very edge and let the water get his toes. The funny thing was that he'd watch the surf as it came and went and he'd lean into it so much so that he'd fall over so if he got any closer than the very, very edge, one of us had to make sure to hold him up so he didn't accidentally fall and get a mouthful of water!

Jack's first visit to the ocean!

Standing in the surf with Daddy.

And he did a lot of running. Maybe he has a future on the remake of Baywatch?

Back to the surf.

At least we're all in the picture so you can see we were all there... :-/

Playing in the sand!

Sunglasses!

My biggest worry going in was sleep! I feared that none of us would sleep for the whole week and we were very pleasantly surprised to find that it really wasn't an issue. He slept in his pack-n-play in his own room. We kept to the same pre-sleep routine as much as possible and brought his white noise machine along.

The first night he did cry for about 10 minutes. I hatehatehate to hear him cry, but I knew that he needed to get settled on his own. After 10 minutes he went to sleep. I thought maybe he'd wake up overnight and get upset again, but we were again pleasantly surprised when he slept clear through!

The next day, we laid him down for a nap at his usual time and he cried for about 10 minutes then went to sleep. He slept for a bit, but was back awake again very quickly. We finally gave up on the nap and went to get him to discover that he had a dirty diaper. Parenting fail. We had no idea that's why he wasn't sleeping as he's never had a dirty diaper in bed before! It was a common theme though as he often woke up on vacation with a dirty diaper. Weird.

The second night, he cried for about 5 minutes before falling asleep, and did the same at nap. By the third day and night he didn't cry at all, he just laid right down and went to sleep. It was a much easier transition than we were expecting and we were very happy that it went so well! He didn't get quite as much sleep as usual, he was up a little earlier and didn't take quite as long naps, but overall we all got enough sleep, it went smoothly, so I'm certainly not going to complain!

The one hiccup that we did have was on the 4th day of our trip. We woke up and had breakfast and Jack played in the room for a short time, then we got ready to head to the beach as usual. We got to the beach and Jack was unhappy, kind of fussy, and didn't seem to want to be there. He was sitting with Mark and laid his head on Mark's chest and looked like he was getting sleepy, which we thought odd as we had only been up a short time. We were just discussing whether we should just let him chill out like that for a while, or if we should head back up to the room to let him rest and then he threw up all over the place! Well... all over Mark really. Not fun.

So, we headed back up to the room, popped him in the shower, and then he sat with me wrapped in a towel out on the balcony. All he wanted to do was snuggle, which is very unlike him these days. We knew he was feeling badly, and very shortly after he got out of the shower it was clear that he had a low-grade fever going on. ::cue panic::

Of course Mark and I were worried that he was getting sick. We were worried how sick he would be, how the rest of our trip was going to go, how the drive home would go with a sick kid, what we were going to do with a sick kid in a hotel room half a day away from home.

So we did the only thing that we could do, we snuggled and eventually we moved inside to our bed. Jack laid with us for a bit just watching TV and then he fell asleep on the bed. Again, very unlike him as of late. He's at an age where he's so excitable there's no way he'll just fall asleep with stuff going on around him, but sleep he did. We took it easy that day and stayed in. He just snuggled and slept on and off all day long. Late afternoon he woke up and threw up again (on Mark... again. Somehow I came away unscathed, good boy!) and then he went back to sleep. His low-grade fever persisted. Early evening he woke up and seemed to be feeling better. He didn't feel as hot and got down from the bed to play for a bit. Despite sleeping all day, he was ready to go to bed at the same time as usual.

We were worried he'd be up overnight feeling sick again, but he woke up the next morning and seemed totally fine! It was like it had never happened at all. It was really strange, but we sure were thankful! So we took it easy a second day and instead of going to the beach, we popped him in the stroller to walk around and do some casual shopping. He was totally fine the rest of trip! Phew!

The trip home was uneventful. He was a little more agitated than when we were heading down. He was still really great and managed the trip well, but we did stop for both breakfast and lunch to give him a break from being in the car.

We're SO glad to be home (Jack included. I know he missed his bed!) and although we made some great memories we really could use a vacation from vacation!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of August 21st

2011-08-22T10:00:00.000-04:00

We're back from vacation and more than ready for some yummy home cooked meals! As nice as it is to not have to worry about cooking dinner or cleaning up afterwards or emptying the dishwasher everyday (sometimes twice!), restaurant meals get old quickly!

Sunday: Panini with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Monday: BLTs with Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

Tuesday: Beer-marinated Grilled Chicken with PW's Crash Hot Potatoes and Sweet Corn

Wednesday: Fish Tacos with Mango Slaw and Restaurant Style Salsa with Chips

Thursday: Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches with leftover Mango Slaw and Salsa

Friday: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Out

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of August 7th

2011-08-08T08:30:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Burgers with Baked Sweet Potato Fries and Sweet Corn - carried over from last week

Monday: Pollo Loco - Mexican Chicken and Rice with 'Refried' Beans (from freezer)

Tuesday: Panini with Baked Potato

Wednesday: Shrimp Tacos with Corn Salsa

Thursday: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Friday: OUT!

Saturday: OUT!

I'm linked at Menu Plan Monday hosted by OrgJunkie.com

::vacation dance::

2011-08-05T18:53:00.000-04:00

Woohoo! We're leaving for our very first family vacation soon and I'm SO excited! I've been looking forward to this for a long time and it's definitely a much needed break away from real life! Wheee!

Okay, BUT for the very first time, I'm not just blissfully excited about vacation... I'm also just a little bit nervous about this whole thing. Because it's our first family vacation. Read: this is Jack's first vacation and additionally his first time sleeping away from home. See why I'm a leeeetle nervous?

And on top of that, we're going to the beach (WATER! Lot's of water to keep an exploring toddler from falling into or... jumping into when we aren't ready for it), which also happen to be about a 12 hour (!!!) drive away (12 hours! In a car. With a baby!) from our home.

Well, if nothing else, you certainly can't accuse us of not just jumping right in and doing things 100%... right?

So, we'll be gone for a week (with a baby who possibly won't sleep for any of those 7 days) with 2, count them, TWO(!), 12 hour car trips in the span of that week.

For what it's worth we'll be doing the drives mostly overnight (hopefully Jack sticks to his usual sleep schedule ::pleasepleaseplease::).

Are we crazy? Will anyone be sleeping or enjoying this vacation? Please say yes.

I think my *biggest* fear, surprisingly enough, is what will happen when we return home? Jack's back to having an awesome sleep schedule and I just don't see him sticking with it while we're on vacation (at least I don't expect him to). When we return home can we expect that he'll get back to his sleep schedule in a reasonable amount of time? Or will he punish us by never sleeping again nevereverforever? Because that doesn't seem like much fun for anyone.

Anyone with experience vacationing with a toddler want to weigh in and share your experience? Any tips for keeping our sanity?

17 Months!

2011-08-03T12:36:00.002-04:00

What's Jack up to this month?

He has started to show interest in feeding himself with a fork so he's been practicing that. He does pretty well with it, but of course, as with anything else in the life of a toddler, he only wants to do it when he wants to do it. That's okay though.


Eating Waffles of Insane Greatness, which really are great. Fork in one hand, and telling Daddy "all done" {with pictures} with the other. This kid is serious about his waffles and wasn't amused with getting his picture taken.

Speaking of food, he's still doing pretty well. He's still on a serious berry kick and will literally eat half a pint of blueberries in a sitting before we have to cut him off because a) how many blueberries are too many for a 17 month old? I don't want him turning into a blueberry a la Violet Beauregarde, and 2) blueberries ain't cheap and this kid kills them in 2 sittings.

Jack hasn't added any new words to his repertoire, but I have noticed that his passive language skills are improving by leaps and bounds. He understand A LOT of what we say now. He's knows the names of a lot of things, and can do things if you ask him to. Well... IF he wants to. He's still a toddler so often he'll act like I'm not talking to him when I'm well aware that not only can he hear me, but he understands exactly what I'm saying. Ah well. He can point to his mouth and nose when asked (when he feels like it), and will kick if you ask him to. He likes to point out different things like Mr. Monkey, which hangs above his changing table. Asking him to point it out entertains him for about .02 seconds while getting his diaper changed :-/

He looooves to dance. He will stop whatever he's doing and dance if you ask him to. He also dances at really random things like a commercial jingle, and OF COURSE if I sing a song he loves it. Because, what can I say, I'm just a fabulous singer. He usually claps afterwards as well! Or... sometimes halfway through the song. I'm SURE he's not trying to nicely tell me I should stop singing ;) I usually turn music videos on in the mornings while he's playing so he can intermittently dance along. He really likes it and has his favorite songs. And of course, I turn Sesame Street on for him in the afternoons and he just loves that show! He loves Elmo's World, which I think is probably the favorite part for every toddler, yes? But he dances along to all the songs and gets up close to the TV to point things out and yesterday he even giggled at something that happened, which was cute.

Sleep is good. He's been sleeping about 8.30pm to 9am overnight and still naps from 1 to 4pm in the afternoons.

Oh, here's something we struggle with all day, everyday. ::tears hair out::

Dumping his "spill proof" (Ha.ha.ha.) sippy cup is one of Jack's favorite past times. Why?! All day we go back and forth with this. Jack wants his cup so I give it to him. He drinks it for a minute then he immediately flips it over and starts shaking or tapping the water out and looks right at me waiting for a reaction. I've tried telling him "no", which of course does nothing, and then taking it. And I've also tried having no reaction except for to calmly walk over and take it from him. He used to cry if we had to take it, now it doesn't even seem to phase him. Any suggestions on how to handle this and get him to STOP spilling the contents of his cup everywhere? Because it's really frustrating. I can't keep the cup from him because he needs to drink, but every time I give it to him it ends with the game of him spilling it and getting it taken away.

Grrr...

Moving on...

I'm sure the biggest accomplishment of this month, according to Jack, is finally being able to climb on the furniture. He's been trying for a while off and on and obviously we haven't encouraged it because I don't particularly enjoy him having this ability, but a few days ago he finally got it and he's been up, down, up, down, up, down, ever since.

Yep. He's obviously very proud of himself.

And it took him about 2 seconds to realize he can now reach the stuff we hide on the back of the furniture.

This puts us in quite a quandary because the final frontier has now been conquered. There has been an evolution of where we keep things that Jack can't play with like our drinks, computers, camera, the aforementioned sippy cup that he can't help but spill everywhere, etc. First, we were still able to keep this stuff laying around anywhere. And then he became a little mobile and we had to make sure the stuff was sitting in the center of the coffee table so he couldn't reach it. And then he started pulling up on things and we had to move stuff to the furthest corner of the side table to keep his fingers from reaching it. And then he could reach that so we started putting stuff up on the back of the furniture. And now... he can reach that. So. Yeah, we're kind of out of places to put things. I need like a 5 foot high shelf that goes around my entire family room. It'll be a while until he can reach things that high, right? Probably not.

So now he spends a lot of time in Daddy's chair:

Just chillaxin' with my Woo Woo {Firetruck}

What's back here?

Oooh, yes...

Victory is MINE!

I'll just sit here and ponder my plunder.

And now I will JUMP!

What? I might fall off? Nonsense, woman. Does this face look like it believes you?

Other fun activities:

Stacking blocks. He can stack 5 block tall towers! And he can also throw his blocks all around the room :-/

Riding his rocking horse that Grandma A.J. gave him.

He recently discovered the rocking horse. It was being stored in our office next to the dog's cage. He saw it one day and started waving at it and making the sound that he makes when he sees an animal. perhaps he thought it was another dog since it was in the same room where Belle "lives"? So, I brought it out and he didn't really know what to think at first, but then he decided it was pretty darn cool! And even though he's still a touch small for it he loves to ride {with assistance}.

And playing on the iPad with Daddy. Maybe Angry Birds?

He has also discovered that spinning in circles is entertaining:

Menu Plan Monday - Week of July 31st

2011-08-01T14:18:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Ribs with Classic Mac & Cheese and Sweet Corn - carried over from last week

Monday: Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries and Broccoli Salad

Tuesday: Leftovers/Out

Wednesday: Shredded Buffalo Chicken Wraps with leftover Broccoli Salad

Thursday: Cobb Salad

Friday: BBQ Chicken Pizza

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Saturday: Leftovers/Out

Wet Bag!

2011-07-30T18:11:00.002-04:00

My sewing abilities seem to be improving slowly but surely.

Last year, I initiated myself into the world of sewing with a minky cover for Jack's changing table pad (which turned out really well!) and a PUL pail liner for his diaper pail (which turned out to be functional - still going strong! - if not the most beautiful thing ever).

For Easter this year I made Jack a sock monkey, which was half hand sewn and half machine sewn, that I was very happy with!

I don't have pictures of the other projects, but I do have a shot of Mr. Sock Monkey:

Pretty cute, huh?

For my next trick I made a lined wet bag! This sewing project was considerably harder than my previous attempts and involved a zipper - definitely new territory - but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! Again, maybe not the most beautiful wet bag ever, but I think it'll be nice and functional.

For those who don't know, a wet bag is a waterproof bag made to hold wet items. In this case, it will be holding used cloth diapers. We already have a small Planet Wise wet bag, which we've been really happy with, but it only holds a maximum of 2 diapers.

It's perfect for a few short hours away from home, but I often find myself wishing we had not only a secondary bag for when the first one is dirty, but also one that has a little larger capacity for when we're away from the house for an extended period of time.

A medium wet bag in the brand we already have costs $16.50 plus shipping. Not overly expensive for the amount of use you get out of it, but I decided I'd try my hand at making my own!

Here are the results:

Looks pretty good to me!

I used Skip to my Lou's Lined Zippered Pouch Tutorial to help me figure out what I was doing.

I ended up with a wet bag which is 12x16-inches with a PUL inner, and cotton outer. I expect that it will hold 6-8 used diapers.

Cost breakdown:

~ Cotton outer fabric - already had this left over from another project
~ PUL inner fabric - already had this left over from making Jack's pail liner
~ Zipper - $1.19
~ Zipper foot - $6.60. I did buy a zipper foot for my sewing machine with this particular project in mind, however since I'm sure I will be using it again in the future and isn't specific to this project I don't really think it should be counted toward the total cost of this wet bag, even though Mark does :P

So $1.19, if you're me, $7.79 if you're Mark

Either way, I definitely saved some money and gained some sewing confidence!

Next up, cloth napkins!

I think we're in agreement here

2011-07-28T22:30:00.000-04:00

There are opposing sides on a lot of issues that affect women, but one point I think we can ALL agree on: swimsuits are The Devil.

Amiright? Because I'm pretty sure I am.

And the most frustrating part for me is I don't even mind wearing a bathing suit! Heck, I even like it because if I'm wearing a bathing suit it means that I'm at the beach or at least near some form of water and I love being those places so bring it on! But that's only half the battle. The part I hate is the darn suit itself! Or rather, finding a suit.

I'm certain that males control the bathing suit industry because I'm SURE women haven't created this situation for themselves.

First, let's look at the cost. Bathing suits are the most expensive piece of nothing we have to purchase. They can't cost much to produce yet most places have their suits priced at $100 OR MORE! That's insane! I'm 100% convinced they're priced like that because they know that once a woman finds a suit that she feels okay in they'll be willing to pay any price for it! $178.99 for a scrap of fabric that doesn't draw attention to my mom pooch? SOLD!

It's highway robbery, people!

Secondly, are swimwear designers under the impression that all women, regardless of size otherwise, are an A-cup? Because my experience is that nearly every woman would enjoy a little more support for The Girls in their $180 suit. Those annoying sewn in "soft cups", which, let's be honest, are really just the deformed cousin of shoulder pads, that move around and do nothing just ain't going to cut it with with my DDs. It's laughable that that's the "supportive option".

Apparently the industry is under the impression that woman are actually a bunch of pre-pubescent girls and we usually wear bras on a daily basis just for funzies. Would it kill them to put in some underwires? I suppose it would cut into their 425% profit margin if they did, so there's that.

Don't even get me started on never being able to find anything in my size at a store. I can find larger sizes, I can find smaller sizes, but there must be a lot of people out there who wear the same size I do because I feel like it's *never* available! I don't even try anymore.

If there's one thing you really don't want to shop for online it's a bathing suit, yet with the limited options that are in stores to begin with coupled with the fact that I can never find my size in what they do offer I'm forced to. It's really hard to choose a swimsuit without trying it on.

It doesn't make it any easier to shop when the ladies modeling the suits are super tanned, toned, extra-smalls (the kind of girls who wear a 00 <-- that is not a size! It the double negative existence of a size! Ugh, don't get me started.) being photographed in perfect light with a light breeze blowing their hair in an alluring way. This doesn't give me any idea what a suit is going to look like on me. How about a moderately accurate representation of the suit by depicting a more realistic person wearing it? Just a thought.

And what's the deal with style options? Or lack there of. In our society women are told that they're not good enough. We have to cover up and hide our bodies because they aren't skinny enough, toned enough, tan enough, they're just not enough. And then, we have to pay for our $180 suits that we spend the whole time feeling TOTALLY uncomfortable in because if we don't look good enough in our daily clothes why in the world would we expect to look good in glorified underwear?! That leads to not feeling good which can ruin any outfit. I think that a lot of women would appreciate a wider range of bathing suit style options.

Some people want more coverage, modesty, or support and this is true at ANY size so why can't we have more options? Aren't consumers supposed to drive the market? The traditional brief-style suit just isn't going to look great on everyone. Just like skinny jeans don't look great on everyone (err... very few actually. When will that trend end? Soon, I hope.). The point is that every woman should have the opportunity to feel great in what she's wearing and typically swimsuits are every woman's nightmare. It's no wonder!

Honestly, while shopping this year it seems like they're starting to make some positive strides with swimwear design. They now offer swimdresses, skirtinis, and one-pieces that are actually cute and fashionable and don't look like they're made for old women. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with being an old woman, but I'm not one and I want a full coverage option that isn't going to make me look like I shopped in someone else's closet.

It doesn't seem like much to ask considering the amount of money I'm paying for a darn piece of stretchy fabric.

Can you tell I've been bathing suit shopping today? :P

Where do you find cute suits for a reasonable price?

I don't want to sound conceited or anything, but... I'm kind of a big deal

2011-07-26T10:50:00.000-04:00

I have a very special ability, which should not be taken lightly. I can conjure a torrential downpour out of the clear blue sky! I should really charge for these services and start predicting the local forecast or traveling to drought-stricken parts of the country to help them out. This special ability should not be squandered. Because it seems like without fail, every time I hang a load of laundry on the line outside BAM! magical downpour!

Now, I guess I should disclaim that I live in Ohio, which has apparently become land of crappy weather and if it's not cold and snowing then it's hot and raining. No in between. It seems like most days this Spring and Summer have been either rainy, or with a chance of rain/severe thunderstorms, which makes it oh so easy to plan considering it might be bright and sunny all day, or there may be some random lightening and hail coming at you, but HEY! We're spontaneous like that! We're a fun folk, we Ohioans.

Look! I'll play local weatherperson! Ahem. Today it'll be face-of-the-sun-hot outside with 95% humidity and a heat index of 105-degrees. We may or may not experience a deluge of rain, lightening, and hail at any point during the day with no warning so make sure to hang on to those umbrellas!

Last Monday, with scattered or isolated (or whatever, just the whole it may or may not rain thing) showers/thunderstorms in our forecast, I agonized over the radar projections and because it wasn't looking so good out, I went ahead and dried diapers in the dryer. Of course after I did that it cleared up, became sunny, and never ended up raining. Forecast fail.

Wednesday, it was bright and sunny all morning. No rain in the forecast (for once!) and I'd been keeping my eye on the radar periodically which showed clear skies for our area! So, I put diapers outside. I should just accept at this point that Mother Nature hates me and really enjoys raining on my parade... er... diapers as it were, but I like to pretend like the weather doesn't revolve around me.

Several hours later I notice that the sky has suddenly gone from sunny to cloudy. As I'm looking out the window it gets even more ominous looking and I just know that a storm is about to hit. So I go to bring up the radar on my computer and before I can even get the thing to load it starts raining. I immediately jump up and run outside (why? I have no idea. What am I going to do?) and once I'm out there (getting rained on) I decide I'm just going to take the diapers down. I get about 5 items off the line before I realize that I'm outside in a total downpour complete with thunder and lightening and that my attempts are futile as not only is all the laundry already totally soaked at this point, but now I am too.

This all happened in the course of about 5 minutes and as I sit watching my diapers getting soaked I just *know* that in 10 minutes, it's going to be bright and sunny again and my head is going to explode because I swear, more than half the time this happens to me. If I skip hanging things outside, no rain. Hang things outside? RAIN. I cause teh rainz I tells ya!

And the real kick in the rump is how counterproductive this whole situation is. Had I just taken the clean diapers from the washer and tossed them directly into the dryer I would have had dry diapers by the time the rain came through. Because I decided I was going to take advantage of the "nice" weather and hang diapers outside I had to go out in sweltering heat and humidity straight out of the Amazon Rainforest, trying all the while not to perish of heatstroke, to get the diapers hung on the line just to have them soaked by rain and have to bring them in to put in the dryer ANYWAY, which, by the by, ended up taking a cycle and a half to even get them dry because they were so wet! So I wasted time, energy, and sanity on this ultra-rewarding endeavor of mine. Gotta love days like that!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of July 24th

2011-07-25T11:44:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Dinner at parents' house

Monday: Bourbon Chicken with Steamed Veggies and Brown Rice - carried over from last week

Tuesday: Chipotle-inspired Chicken Burritos

Wednesday: Hot Italian Sausages with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Thursday: Leftovers/Out

Friday: BBQ Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Ribs with Classic Mac & Cheese and Sweet Corn

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Cloth Diapering a Toddler... Part 3

2011-07-20T14:03:00.000-04:00

In my third and final (I hope!) installment of my experience with the challenges of cloth diapering a toddler I'll share my new working wash routine!

In Part 1 you can find our leak-free nap/night time solution.

In Part 2 you can follow our battle with ammonia buildup.

During my ammonia battle I tried stripping, I tried using more detergent, I tried hopping on one foot, while pouring the detergent in over my shoulder, and singing Yankee Doodle Dandy. Nothing was working and I was FRUSTRATED. Laundry should not be this hard, people.

I also tried a few additives like Bac-Out and vinegar, my detergent already included washing soda, borax, and OxyClean, but ultimately I realized it was time to try a stronger detergent.

A note on detergents: When I first started my cloth diapering journey (waaaay back when in early 2010 ;) ) the general consensus was that you needed special cloth-friendly detergents, you needed to use as little of these gentle detergents as possible on a whole load of dirty diapers to clean them, and complicated, frustrating wash routines were the norm.

Over the course of my cloth diapering journey there has been a noticeable shift in this thinking. Now, cloth diapering moms are more likely to rebuke the boutique options and advise frustrated mamas to just wash their cloth diapers in whatever detergent they are using on their clothes!

That's quite a change, huh? Well, I don't know that I'd go so far as to recommend you use just ANYTHING, but I do agree with a few points of this new doctrine:

First, cloth diapers are merely fabric. Yes, some of them can be relatively pricey and of course we all want to protect our investment and have our diapers last as long as possible, but they're not made of diamond encrusted lettuce leaves. They're fabric, just like all the other laundry we all toss into the washer without another thought. There are some special considerations, but you don't have to handle them with kid gloves.

Second, cloth diapers are poo-catchers. They're dirty. In fact, they're the dirtiest things you're ever going to wash and because of that, they REALLY test the limits of detergent and washing machine capabilities. If you want to know how well a detergent or washing machine really cleans, ask a cloth diapering parent because they have REALLY tested its limits! Because they're so dirty they aren't the easiest things to clean.

And third, your wash routine doesn't have to be complicated. There are so many detergent options out there and they are all going to work differently for every individual depending on your needs and most importantly the quality of your water! It's going to take some trial and error, but find what works for you and don't worry about what anyone else has to say about it!

There are now plenty of mamas coming out of the woodwork saying that they've been using commercial detergents for multiple years, though multiple babies, with the same diapers with great success! There are lots of mamas who still really like the more boutique-y detergents and haven't seen any issues. All of this to say, there are a wide range of experiences and there is no single detergent in existence which everyone is going to love.

There are a few things I would advise you to consider before using just any detergent off the store shelves:

First, especially with smaller babies or babies that have had skin reactions in the past, I'd be hesitant to use commercial detergents with fragrances or enzymes because they can cause skin irritation. If you use a detergent that contains these ingredients on their clothes hopefully it won't irritate them if used on their diapers, but since they're going to be wearing these diapers pretty much 24/7 and they'll often be wet, if they're going to experience a reaction it will be with diapers! Some babies are totally fine with it though, so I wouldn't rule those things out, just exercise caution and keep an eye out for any irritation.

Second, I wouldn't use detergents which contain fabric softener. That is something that because of the nature of the product will cause your diapers to lose absorbency - not something you want with diapers!

After considering a few options I decided to try using some All Free & Clear Powder that I already had sitting in my linen closet that I had picked up on sale. I was nervous about the outcome. It was like the very first time I had washed cloth diapers all over again!

I purchased a 40 load box for $1.99 with a coupon combined with a sale. At that price, it costs about $.05/load, however, I don't use a full scoop so it actually costs between $.03 and $.04/load. Pretty darn good if I can keep finding it at that price!

The most important thing is that it works! It works!!! ::happy dance:: If you've ever struggled with getting your diapers clean you'll understand how exciting this is!

It gets everything clean and it comes out smelling like nothing, just like it should! No ammonia, no stinkies! I'm a happy cloth diapering mama again!

I've experimented a bit and found that I need to use 3 tablespoons for best results (Note: I have an old-school top loader, which I love, by the way, despite the fact that it's probably as old, or older than I am!). 2 tablespoons wasn't quite enough and the diapers don't come out smelling totally clean. 3 tablespoons is just right, things get nice and clean but I'm not using too much and ending up with buildup or tons of bubbles that I have to employ multiple extra rinses to wash out!

In addition to switching detergents, I've changed my wash routine slightly in that I'm now washing 3 times per week vs. 2. I had always washed on Mondays and Thursdays, but again with the more concentrated, stronger, toddler pee, it doesn't help the situation for used diapers to sit around for a long time so now I'm washing 3 times a week - Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We'll see how this schedule works and tweak it if need be. The diaper laundry really isn't that big of a deal and I'm stuffing the same number of diapers regardless.

Also, I used to only do a cold pre-rinse and then a hot wash. Now I'm doing a cold pre-rinse and a hot wash, followed by an extra cold rinse. Another thing I've changed is when doing my rinses I've been setting the load size to medium (vs. large) because my load size is a little smaller when washing 3 times a week. You still want to set it to the largest load size during the actual wash cycle as it will help the diapers get cleaner, but for rinsing purposes, there's no need to use more water than necessary!

I'm doing the extra rinse post-wash now because with my old detergent I didn't need to worry about it rinsing clean. Now that I'm using a harsher commercial detergent, I want to make sure that I'm getting all the soap out so we don't end up with any buildup issues or skin irritation. And as always, I line-dry whenever possible to not only save money and energy, but also to take advantage of the power of the sun for helping keep things fresh and stain free!

So, in summary, my new wash routine is this:

Monday-Wednesday-Friday

Cold rinse, no detergent, set to medium load
Hot wash, 3T detergent, set to large load
Cold rinse, no detergent, set to medium load

Line-dry when possible, or toss in the dryer on medium heat

Something to note about All Free & Clear Powder - most cloth diapering parents have seen some sort of detergent chart which lists out detergents and rates them based on their compatibility with cloth diapers. Most commercial detergents don't rate very high for one reason or another (usually enzymes, optical brighteners, fabric softeners, scents, and/or dyes) so they should be used with caution.

All Free & Clear Powder rates 3 stars (average; not the best for cloth diapers) on the Pinstripes and Polka Dots chart due to optical brighteners. Optical brighteners are a concern because they can buildup in diapers (optical brighteners are designed to buildup in fabrics to give the illusion of brightness/whiteness) which can lead to repelling (the diapers not absorbing properly) and of course it's an additive that can potentially cause irritation with baby's skin.

I've been using it for 4 weeks with great results, but since everyone's needs and experiences are different it may not work as well for you.

This experience has taught me that the very hardest part of cloth diapering is finding a working wash routine. It's hard because it's frustrating and really there's no way to figure out what works without some trial and error. Everyone's needs, situation, and experiences are different. What works for one person won't necessarily work for the next for a variety of reasons. Most often, the type of water you have will largely affect your wash routine and detergent choice.

Because everyone is different it's difficult for anyone else to really help you find the perfect wash routine, but my advice if you are struggling is to keep trying new things. You WILL find a routine that works for you. You WILL find the right detergent or additive that will allow you to pull clean diapers from the washer every time, but it may take a little while to get there.

I was lucky in that we found a routine that worked for us very early on in our cloth diapering journey, but our situation changed and our needs changed and I found myself struggling. It's frustrating, but it's okay. Just keep trying new things until you find what's right!

Epilogue: What a novel, eh? Imagine living it! :D

Cloth Diapering a Todder... Part 2

2011-07-19T13:56:00.000-04:00

Let's talk about The Stinkies. Now that we've got the leak situation under control this is our new battle.

Recently, we started getting the dreaded ammonia smell in the mornings. If you're questioning whether or not you have an ammonia problem then, good news, you don't. Because if you have it, trust me, you'll know it! It smells like ammonia, but quite noticeably it also feels like your nose is burning off if you catch a whiff of it. You certainly don't want this against your baby's skin for 12+ hours because ammonia buildup can cause burns on your baby's bottom!

Ammonia buildup is an indication that your diapers aren't getting clean enough. Often, the diapers will smell clean coming out of the washer/dryer, but once they are wet and new urine meets with the ammonia crystals from the old urine that has been left behind - BAM! you've got that lovely ammonia smell.

Now, a note, some people get nervous about ammonia buildup and think they have it when they don't. The ammonia smell is only a problem when you can smell it right after your baby wets in a diaper and/or when you're taking a wet diaper off your baby. Obviously, if a used diaper sits around long enough it and your diaper pail is going to start smelling of ammonia. That's not a good thing, but it's not an issue. It is an issue when a "clean" diaper is wet in and immediately smells of ammonia. That's the situation which indicates buildup.

So, now that we know what ammonia buildup is, how do we fix it? It seems that this is going to be quite the battle for us because Jack is a heavy wetter. Ammonia issues occur more often in toddlerhood because toddler pee is different than baby pee. Because they hold it longer it's more concentrated and it has things in it that a baby who doesn't yet eat solids doesn't have. Additionally, if your child is a heavy wetter there is going to be more urine and more chance for problems! As a result I've come to the conclusion that because toddler pee is stronger and yuckier it requires a stronger detergent to combat it and really get the diapers clean.

I've been experimenting for a while trying to find a new wash routine. There are a lot of suggestions out there because everyone has a different routine that works for them and their particular situation. A lot of people struggle with finding a working wash routine at different points in their cloth diapering journey because it does depend on so many different factors.

I started out using a homemade detergent. It worked beautifully for a full year and I'm quite sad that this is no longer the case.

Once I realized we were having problems the first thing I tried was stripping my diapers. Stripping is the process of removing any buildup or gunk that may be hiding in the diapers causing problems. There are several ways of doing this and I've tried many of them. I utilized a few different stripping options this go around to fix the ammonia problem.

First, I tried blue Dawn. That didn't work for this problem.

Photo courtesy of The Small Town Mom

Then, I tried boiling my inserts (a tutorial can be found at The Small Town Mom) (another note: all of this ammonia buildup and gunk talk is really referencing my micro-fiber inserts. Because of the type of diapers and inserts we use, most of the problem that arise have to do with the inserts, not the "diapers" (shells) themselves). That did work, very well actually, but it was a terribly long, involved, messy process. HUGE pain in the tush. And because it didn't really correct what was causing the problem after all that work, we returned right to the same problems as before.

Then, I tried increasing the amount of the detergent that I was using. I was using 1 tablespoon in the main hot wash, so I upped that to 2 tablespoons. Well, that only made things worse. Not only did I have an ammonia buildup issue, but then we ended up with a detergent buildup issue, which led to the general stinkies. This required more stripping.

This time I utilized RLR and because I knew a large part of our problem was due to a detergent buildup that fixed the problem right up, pulling all the left-behind detergent out of our diapers. But we still had an ammonia problem on hand. ::bangs head::

Still with me?

Then, I took a leap and tried bleach. Yes bleach. It's kind of a naughty word in some circles, but sometimes a situation just calls for the Big Guns. Cottonbabies (the manufacturer of the diapers we use) actually recommends using up to 1/4 cup of bleach once a month to keep your diapers fresh. As I discovered on my ammonia-fighting quest some sort of antibacterial agent is necessary periodically for proper diaper cleaning. This is more so true when using the more natural, eco-friendly, or boutique detergents as they do not typically have anything in them that will kill bacteria. Obviously, this is necessary with diapers especially if they're used to diaper older babies. When a child is younger and their waste isn't as complicated or concentrated it isn't as big an issue as it can be when they are a little older and problems start to arise.

So I moved forward with the bleach and it worked! I just used 1/4 cup in the hot wash and then added a few extra rinses to make sure it was all washed out of the diapers. Bleach is okay to use on PUL because it is a color-fast fabric. The bleach will not affect the color, but because you don't really want to test out just how well it will retain it's color I suggest letting the washer fill completely and then pouring in the bleach once it starts to agitate so it can evenly disperse (they say to add it before the diapers, but because I start with a rinse I'm not pulling the wet diapers out so I can start the hot wash with an empty washer).

The bleach got rid of the ammonia problem, but only temporarily. I still needed a better solution because I don't want to have to use bleach in every load (it's a pain because it takes more water and time and not everything can be in the wash at the same time if I'm using bleach because although PUL is color-safe I have other things like wetbags and cloth wipes that are not).

Next, I tried stuffing Jack's night time diapers with pad-folded flats in place of the micro-fiber inserts that were part of our leak-free sleep solution. Flats are the cloth diapers of yesteryear and, I must say, our grandparents were on to something!

They're not as fancy or quite as easy to use as some of the more modern cloth diapering options, but flats are cheap, absorbent and super easy to wash because once they're unfolded they are a single layer of fabric! Plus even though they're the cheapest cloth diapering option out there, there are so many ways to use them. Because of these benefits they're really experiencing a resurgence among cloth diapering parents who are tired of dealing with the problems and sometimes complicated wash routines caused by synthetic materials like micro-fiber.

Flats are super versatile because you can choose from so many different folding options and pin or Snappi them, or you can pad-fold them and stick them straight into a cover or use them to stuff diapers like I do. The only thing to note is that with flats, there is no waterproof material so unlike with a pocket diaper or all-in-one you will need to use some sort of cover to make it waterproof.

Anyway, we're now stuffing Jack's nap and night time diapers with flats to replace the micro-fiber. His nap diapers are stuffed with one pad-folded flat and one large sized hemp insert. His night dipes have a pad-folded flat and 2 large sized hemp inserts. Once we started doing this it fixed our ammonia situation. I think so much pee was getting absorbed by the micro-fiber inserts in his nighttime diapers that I just wasn't able to get them properly cleaned because of the way they are made.

So we finally got our ammonia situation squared away, but we were still having general smell issues from the diapers not getting clean enough, which meant I still needed to find a new working wash routine.

Stay tuned for Part 3 tomorrow where I will share my new wash routine and detergent choice.

Menu Plan Monday - Week of July 17th

2011-07-18T09:12:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Ribs with Classic Mac & Cheese and Sweet Corn Bread Muffins - carried over from last week

Monday: Bourbon Chicken with Veggie and Brown Rice

Tuesday: Whole Wheat Pasta with Broccoli with Garlic Bread

Wednesday: Italian Subs with Green Beans

Thursday: Steak Fajitas with Chips and Guacamole

Friday: BBQ Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers/Out

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Jack - 16 months

2011-07-15T18:10:00.000-04:00

Yikes, I'm way behind! We've had a busy few weeks - lots of family stuff surrounding July 4th and Mark's and my birthday, getting outside with Jack when it's not face-of-the-sun-hot outside, hiding inside from the heat when it is, and just normal day-to-day-things are keeping us busy! Keeping up with a toddler who has a never ending source of energy (the secret to which he has yet to share with me) wears me out pretty good and by the time his naptime rolls around and I eat lunch and get the household things done I can do done I want to veg out on the couch or the deck (if it's not face-of-the-sun-hot out) with a book, which is what I have happily been doing.

And oh yeah, add to the long list of things in/around our house which are either broken or in the process of breaking, my camera bit the dust. I have a thrilling rant to post about that if anyone would like to hear it (probably not.), but I guess we will be investing a nice chunk of change in another one that will work for a few years and then die because that's what things do now. ANYWAY.

Here's what Little Man has been up to the last month or so.

He's learned how to kick a ball! He's always really loved playing ball, but he has now figured out he can kick it with his foot. It's super cute to see him do it because he kind of walks along with the ball picking his leg up really high to do these exaggerated kicks!

He's a busy little boy and into everything! He spends all day just going from one thing to another. It may look disorganized or random to an outsider, but he's clearly on some sort of mission that the rest of us just don't know about yet! He moves about with a purpose and is very serious about all the things he must get done in a day like pull out every book he owns, scatter his toys about the room, dance in the window, and play with the dog. These are his duties and he takes them very seriously!

Something else he loves to do is sit in his little chair. It's one of the first things he drags out in the morning and it makes its way around the room throughout the day. Often, he sits it in front of the window and spends time looking out side like a little old man keeping an eye on things!

And sometimes he likes to sit and read his books to himself. I'm sure he knows what he's saying even if we don't!

And of course his chair also ends up in front of the TV too.

Jack is doing really well with eating. Berries (especially blueberries) and grapes are definitely his favorites. We have to hold off on giving them to him until he has eaten other things otherwise that's all he would eat!

I hesitate to type this out because I'll probably jinx us (and if it does, I'm never commenting on his sleep patterns again!), but Jack's sleep has vastly improved this month from what we were seeing last month. He's back to sleeping about 12 hours every night. He usually goes to bed between 8 and 9pm and wakes around 8am. Of course the exception to that is on days when we have somewhere to be, it seems like the has a sixth sense about these things, he will sleep inordinately late. The next day, back to 8am wake ups! But I'll take it! Predictable sleep in 12 hour increments? I don't think I can really ask for more than that!

When I go to check on him before Mark and I go to bed for the night I often find him in some pretty funny positions. This is a recent one:

And he's still napping well. He's still taking one nap a day usually from about 1-4pm.

Jack really enjoys being outside. He loves to ride in the stroller on walks and run around the backyard. I picked up a toddler swing at a consignment sale back in the Spring (when it was still cold out!) and Mark got around to hanging it from one of the trees in our backyard. Jack loves it!

We took Jack to see his first parade on July 4th. He's been really into cars/trucks lately especially fire trucks. He even makes a "woo woo" sound like the sirens! He does this a lot. Sometimes we hear him making the siren sound over the baby monitor right after he first wakes up in the morning. So we thought he'd enjoy the parade and seeing the firetrucks. When we first got there he was not happy. He was definitely kind of scared and I don't really blame him. It's kind of odd that everyone is just standing around on the street and big vehicles are going past and it's noisy. But after bit he warmed up to the whole thing (as long as we held him of course). Unfortunately the fire trucks were at the front of the parade while he was still scared. Maybe he'll enjoy it more next year!

We were on our way home at the same time they were setting off the local fireworks so we stopped to watch (even though it was late and past Jack's bedtime!). Jack seemed to enjoy them. He was tired, of course, but he did watch the sky pretty intently and pointed at a few of them and laughed when I "ooh"ed and "ahhh"ed.

And here's a random silly shot of Jack underneath the laundry basket. He pulled it out from one of the bedrooms after I had emptied it and then somehow proceeded to flip it over and put himself underneath it. And then he scooted around like that.

Menu Plan Monday - Week of July 10th

2011-07-11T17:41:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Out

Monday: Parmesan Tilapia with Roasted Cauliflower

Tuesday: Cobb Salad Sandwiches with Baked Sweet Potato Chips

Wednesday: Chili Cheese Dogs with French Fries and Green Beans

Thursday: Chipotle Bean Burritos with Chips and Pico de Gallo

Friday: BBQ Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Ribs with Classic Mac & Cheese and Sweet Corn Bread Muffins - carried over from last week

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of July 3rd

2011-07-04T08:11:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Dinner at Mark's mom's house to celebrate our birthday!

Monday: Dinner at my parent's house to celebrate our birthday!

Tuesday: Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos with Mexican Rice and 'Refried' Beans - carried over from last week

Wednesday: Tomato Pie with Salad - I don't think Mark's going to be on board with this one. Don't worry, I'm making it up to him the rest of the week with good food he likes, but I'm sure he'll be having something else. Maybe some sausage on the grill?

Thursday: Pepperoncini Beef Sandwiches with Twice-Baked Potatoes

Friday: Leftovers/Take Out

Saturday: Ribs with Classic Mac & Cheese and Sweet Corn Bread Muffins

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of June 26th

2011-06-27T08:11:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Grilled Hot Italian Sausage (from the farmers market!) with Baked Potatoes and Zucchini

Monday: Baked Chicken Chimichangas with Deluxe Tomatillo Sauce with Fresh Tomato Salsa and Corn - carried over from last week

Tuesday: Tuna Noodle Casserole with Peas

Wednesday: Mom's night out with friends! Mark and Jack are on their own for dinner.

Thursday: Grilled White Pizza with Caramelized Onions and Garlic Scapes

Friday: Burgers on the grill with Baked Sweet Potato Fries and Broccoli Salad

Saturday: Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos with Mexican Sour Cream Rice and 'Refried' Beans

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Cloth Diapering a Toddler

2011-06-22T19:42:00.000-04:00

I'm quickly discovering that cloth diapering a toddler is different that cloth diapering a baby.

The first year of our cloth diapering journey was simple! We just chose a diaper we liked, established a simple wash routine and went on our way. I had heard tales from other cloth diapering mamas struggling to find the perfect wash routine and I always felt bad for them, but I was thankful that we didn't have any trouble!

Well, come to find out, although some people do experience struggles early on, a lot of problems arise once baby enters todderhood.

Right around the time Jack hit a year old we started having trouble with leaks overnight and sometimes at nap time. When he was a young baby we were using his bumGenius 3.0s stuffed with the one-size microfiber insert for both day and night time. Easy peasy. Eventually, he got to the point where he needed more absorbancy overnight so we started stuffing his night dipes with the one-size microfiber insert plus the smaller microfiber doubler the diapers came with. This worked for a while, but then suddenly it seemed that nothing worked. He leaked more often than not and I found myself trying to find an overnight solution for a heavy wetter.

bumGenius 3.0

Microfiber doubler on left.
One-size microfiber insert on right.
Photo Source.

After trying a few different things (including a new style of diaper - a fitted diaper with a wool cover, which is supposed to be a bulletproof option for overnight. Jack promptly leaked straight through!) we found that the winning combo for us was his BG 3.0s stuffed with the one-size microfiber inserts plus two large Joey Bunz Hemparoos.

Joey Bunz Hemparoos in Large, Medium, and Small.

That's A LOT of absorbancy, but that's what he needed. Once we shoved three full size inserts into his poor diaper the absorbancy was right (and his hiney was big!), but it was causing a little bit of a gap in the legs and we'd still have occasional leaks as a result of that. Within the last 2 months or so, it seems Jack has had a growth spurt or something which has eliminated the gap which previously existed so finally NO MORE LEAKS! Yay!

In addition to a better fit on his overstuffed night dipes, I feel like he actually doesn't wake up quite as wet in the mornings. I think this probably has to do with him getting bigger, but still taking in about the same amount of liquid in a given day so proportionally he's drinking less than he was when he was smaller. Make sense? I don't know, but all I care about is waking up to a dry baby in the mornings!

Anyone who has trouble with leaks like we did (and is frustrated, like we were), I definitely recommend that you try some form of hemp. It's super absorbent, relatively trim, AND the nice bonus is hemp has natural antibacterial properties so you won't end up with any of The Stinkies, which often occur with microfiber. Also, it's an environmentally friendly option because as a crop, among other things, it's naturally resistant to disease and insects, which eliminates the need for pesticides and herbicides!

So, cloth diaperers, be aware that you baby's needs will change as they grow and your mission is to keep up with their changing needs! This may take some trial and error, but there are a lot of options out there and you WILL find something that works for you.

Or your baby's needs will just change again and you'll be looking for a solution for something else. Right now we're battling ammonia and trying to find a new working wash routine. It's definitely the most frustrating cloth diaper related thing I've delt with to date.

Suggestions on how to handle this situation are welcome! Except for recommending Tide, I'm aware that this is really popular right now, but I'd like to only switch to that as a last resort. :D

Menu Plan Monday - Week of June 19th

2011-06-20T13:47:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Dinner with family for Father's Day

Monday: Chili Cheese Dogs with Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday: Chipotle-inspired Chicken Burritos - carried over from last week

Wednesday: Four Cheese Baked Penne (from the freezer!) with Green Beans and Garlic Bread

Thursday: Baked Chicken Chimichangas with Deluxe Tomatillo Sauce with 'Refried' Beans and Corn

Friday: BBQ Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers/Take-out

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Tried and True Recipe: Chipotle-Inspired Chicken Burritos

2011-06-16T18:20:00.000-04:00

We love Chipotle around here, but we really make an effort not to eat out too often. Although Chipotle is a fairly cheap option and it's not too bad for you (well, the stuff IN it isn't so bad, the size of it is!), I can make a similar meal at home for about half the cost of take-out and no one has to go out in rush hour traffic and stand in a line out to the door to pick it up!

These Chipotle-inspired burritos will definitely be on our regular meal rotation from now on!

To make a Chipotle burrito the way I like it you will need the following:

Pico de Gallo
Cilantro-Lime Rice
Seasoned Grilled Chicken
Black Beans (Canned or homemade, I cook mine from dried beans in the CrockPot), heated
Burrito Shells (I like to use whole-wheat, but use your favorite homemade or store bought variety)
Cheese (Monterey Jack would probably be closest to what they have at Chipotle, but I used Cheddar Jack)
Sour Cream

Start by making the Pico de Gallo so that it can chill while you're making everything else.

Pico de Gallo
a Stephanie Original

3 Plum Tomatos (or other small, ripe variety), seeded and diced
3 tbsp. Red Onion, diced small
1/2 Jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed, diced small
2 tbsp. Cilantro, finely chopped
Juice of 1/2 Lime
1/2-1 tsp. Kosher Salt (to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine. Chill at least 30 minutes - 1 hour prior to serving.

Next make the Cilantro-Lime Rice.

Cilantro-Lime Rice
Recipe courtesy of C+C Marriage Factory

1 cup Basmati Rice
Juice of 1/2 Lime
2 cups Water
1 tsp. Salt
3 tbsp Cilantro, chopped
4 tsp Vegetable Oil, divided

In a medium sauce pan, add rice, water, 1 tsp. oil and salt. Turn heat to high and boil until most of the water evaporates. When the water just skims the top of the rice, reduce heat to low, cover, and continue cooking for 15 minutes. Shut off heat and keep covered pan sitting on burner for additional 5 minutes. Remove from burner and fluff rice with a fork. Stir in remaining ingredients: lime juice, cilantro, and remaining 3 tsp. of oil.

While rice is cooking have your husband (or DIY if you know how ;) ) heat the grill and cook chicken. I take some boneless, skinless chicken breasts season with homemade taco seasoning, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and then Mark does the rest. After chicken is cooked, cube it into bite-sized pieces.

To make burritos, to a shell add rice, chicken, black beans, pico de gallo, sour cream, and cheese to your heart's delight. Wrap it up, eat, and enjoy!

Jack - 15 Months

2011-06-14T16:39:00.001-04:00

I'm a little late on this as Jack is about 15 1/2 months now and with the rate that he's changing, advancing, and learning new things, 2 weeks is HUGE in his world!

What is Jack up to at 15 months?

So far, his only words are still "MaMa", "DaDa", and "BehBeh" (Belle Belle), but is babbling more and adding new sounds to his repertoire. I think we're going to be hearing some new words very soon!

He still loves to play with trucks and other wheeled toys, but instead of just pushing them back and forth he has now figured out how to push them along while crawling with them.

He can now climb onto his riding toys unassisted and is rapidly figuring out how to scoot himself around.

He's proficient at moving backwards, but is still working on forward motion. He can move forward, but it's pretty awkward. He kind of walks with the giant riding toy between his legs!

As you can see in the above picture, and as I've mentioned before, he experienced his first black eye :(

After several months of them being there, Jack discovered the corner guards that we had on the corners of our tables to protect him from potential injury. Of course, once he discovered their presence he decided they didn't go with the rest of the decor and that just wouldn't do! So the morning of his discovery he proceeded to take a few moments to use all of his might to rip each one of them off of their protective perch. I tried reattaching them during naptime in hopes that he had tired of his game, but no dice, if he sees them back in place he just rips them off again. What to do about that?

I'm in big trouble now as he has discovered how to remove his diaper when he deems it necessary. He pretty much deems it necessary whenever he has access to it, and often through clothes he tries to remove it as well.

The other day, this is what I came upon when I went to get him after naptime:

This would be a diaper without a baby.

And this is a baby without a diaper.

Neither is a good thing.

I really loved seeing his little hiney running around in just a t-shirt and diaper, but I guess that's not really going to happen anymore. We have diapers with velcro and diapers with snaps. The velcro doesn't stand a chance, but he's even figured out how to pop the snaps.

He loves to go for walks in the stroller and be outside. He also likes to dance and will dance to anything from songs on shows to short jingles during commercials! He'll sometimes dance even if you sing a short, silly song to him. I LOVE this!

The other day, we were watching Sesame Street and they showed a segment with step dancers, Jack LOVED it and started dancing right along:

We watched that part several times because he was having so much fun!

He signs "more" (usually he just means he's hungry/wants food) and "all done" (he does seem to kind of understand what this sign is now. He uses it when he doesn't want to do something - like during a diaper change! He also uses it towards the end of meals. Sometimes he signs "all done" and then proceeds to take a few more bites and then is really done. Sometimes he signs it and he's really done, but he does seem to use it at the end of every meal now.

And of course the signs that he knows have to do with food, he's a pretty good eater! If it's something he really likes, he's a GREAT eater. Right now, his favorite food is definitely blueberries, followed closely by strawberries. I think he'd eat either until he turned into a berry!

Yep, that's strawberry face and fingers!

He also really likes bananas, cheese, yogurt, any type of crackers, he loves grilled cheese or quesadillas, toast, and eggs. He also really likes potatoes and sweet potatoes. Oh, and pizza. The kid loves pizza, but really, who doesn't?

Those are things he will ALWAYS eat, but generally, he'll usually eat whatever we're eating, at least some of it. I really try to make it a point to not feed him the same things over and over because I want him to like all kinds of food.

He's still taking 2 bottles a day, one before nap and one before bedtime and he drinks water out of his sippy cup during the day. He loves his sippy cup!

Sleep. Oh my. Sleep has been all over the place lately. Remember last month? When I talked about how awesome he was sleeping and how he was FINALLY sleeping through the night and had a schedule like clockwork and it was OH SO AWESOME!

Jack now laughs in the face of that schedule.

At this point, I even wonder if maybe I just imagined the whole thing and he was all over the place at that time, just like he is now, but I was so frustrated that I just created a happy place in my head. I don't know, but whatever was supposedly going on then, definitely isn't now!

Shortly after I posted his 14 month update, he started teething with his canines and sleep went right out the door! Yeah. Not so happy about that at all! Since then... I can't even tell you what his schedule is right now. Thank goodness, he's still napping regularly, usually 1-4pm. He takes a great nap, I'm very lucky! But overnight?

Well... a few weeks ago, he was waking multiple times overnight and getting up early, like 7am. Then, he started getting up once overnight (time varies), and waking up SUPER early, like 6-6.30am. This is the kid who last month had just started waking at 9am and prior to that slept the whole morning away! 6am? The 6am wake time did not produce a happy baby. He was NOT ready to get up and spent all day very fussy. I don't blame him, I was feeling fussy myself!

After a few weeks of that, last week he decided to start doing his overnight wake up around 5-6am, he'd take a bottle and go back to sleep (thank goodness!) and then wake up at a more reasonable time, but sometimes he'd even sleep super late, like 10.30-11am. He was all. over. the. place.! It was so frustrating for me and for him and it just wasn't good.

The last two nights (::knocks HARD on wood::) he has gotten back on schedule (or what I guess his schedule should be. Who knows.) and slept about 8.30pm until 8.30am. Whoa! The past two days have been Heaven for everyone. I hopehopehope that this is him turning a corner and going back to something that we can all be happy with. I guess time will tell, but anyone who wants to send the sleep fairy my way, or a few positive vibes, I'd really appreciate it!

As I mentioned, he's definitely teething with his canines. Surprisingly, sleep (and tiredness from lack of sleep) seems to be the only thing affected. He doesn't seem to be in too much pain during the day and is happy if he gets a good night's sleep, but a peek into his mouth right now tells a different story. It looks like all of his canines are coming through all at once and his mouth is a mess. Those suckers look painful! Anyway, hopefully they'll all be through soon and things can get back to normal!

Some more pictures:

He loves to play when I go to get him from his crib. He throws himself all around and rolls trying to get you to tickle him and he loves to play peek-a-boo with his blanket. He hands it to you so you can throw it over his head!

This is how Belle and Jack spend a lot of their day. Looking out the window to see what's going on.

Jack loves to wear DaDa's hats!

And he tries to put them on himself. He can't quite get it yet, but he tries!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of June 12th

2011-06-13T23:20:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Cook-out with family to celebrate my cousin's college graduation!

Monday: General Tso's Chicken with Brown Rice and Green Beans - carried over from last week

Tuesday: Grilled Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Ranch Potato Wedges

Wednesday: Chipotle-style Burritos with Grilled Chicken, Cilantro-Lime Rice, Black Beans, Sour Cream, Cheese, Avocado, and Homemade Pico de Gallo!

Thursday: Smoked Sausage with Pierogis and Veggie

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers/Out

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of June 5th

2011-06-06T08:45:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Chipotle-style Burritos with Grilled Chicken, Cilantro-Lime Rice, Black Beans, Sour Cream, Cheese, Avocado, and Homemade Pico de Gallo!

Monday: Grilled Italian Sausage (Local, from the farmers market!) with Broccoli Salad and Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday: Parmesan Tilapia with Roasted Cauliflower and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Wednesday: Grilled Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Asian Slaw and Ranch Potato Wedges

Thursday: Dinner out to celebrate our 3-year wedding anniversary which is Tuesday! Mark is off Thursday and Friday for a long weekend!

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: General Tso's Chicken with Brown Rice and Green Beans

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Pinterest - My New Obsession

2011-06-03T13:51:00.000-04:00

Pinterest pronounced "interest" + a "P", but pronounced "pin-interest" in my head is a virtual pinboard and it's so easy and so fun to use!

Here are some of my boards. Click to enlarge.

Basically, you set up an account, download a little button to your browser window and then anything you come across on the interwebz that strikes your fancy whether it be a recipe, how-to tutorial, decor inspiration, an outfit, WHATEVAH! You click your "Pin It" button and then you put it in the correct category/board on your virtual pinboard account and voila! You'll be able to recall that baby pronto when needed!

It's kind of like an advanced form of "bookmarking" or "favoriting" or whatever you used to do.

And everyone needs to play because you can follow people on Pinterest and they can follow you and then you can steal each others pins or like or comment on things one another have pinned and it's kind of like sharing clothes but so much better!

But, when the people you follow aren't quite as obsessed as you and you've already browsed all their pins, re-pinned what you like, you can also browse the whole Pinterest sight to find things you like.

Seriously, I'm spending way too much time on it, but it's so much fun!

Anyone on Pinterest? I'd love to follow you! Leave me a comment with your link!

If you'd like to join, because like I said, everyone else needs to play too for maximum fun value, I can send you an invite (it's invite only, I'm just exclusive like that ;) ) so you can get addicted just like I am! Just leave me your email address in the comments so I know where to send it.

Disclaimer: Although I can wish upon a star and hope, this post was nowhere near sponsored by Pinterest, I just love it and think you should too!

Our Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-01T15:04:00.000-04:00

We got a lot accomplished over the long weekend. And by "we", I mean Mark. Obviously someone has to ~~direct~~ take care of the baby.

On Friday, my niece Kylie came to play. She loves Jack SO MUCH that she can't seem to keep her hands off him. Basically, she thinks he's a doll that she can pick up and put places and Jack puts up with quite a bit from her because he loves her back. However, in the midst of their playing, a gentle nudge from Ky turned into Jack losing his balance in the wrong location and he fell face first into the windowsill of our bay window.

The result:


You were supposed to be watching me. I'm so disappointed in you, Momma.

His first black eye :(

Honestly, I think it looks worse than it is. He only cried for a minute or two. I've seem him get far more upset over seemingly less serious injuries. He got over it pretty quickly, but I didn't. It hurts my heart to look at his poor little face right now! I suppose I'm going to need to get used to it though. I doubt this will be the last black eye he ever gets, probably not the last we'll see during todderhood :-/

On Saturday we visited the farmers market. Still a little early for a lot of produce, but we did pick up some local grassfed beef and a few plants - basil, cilantro, and 2 zucchini.

Mark worked on stuff outside and mowed the grass. All of the plants we have are planted now and Mark built a second small raised bed to go with the one that we had last year.

On the left is the new box with 2 zucchini plants. We're probably going to add a few smallish plants to the front half of the bed, but not sure what yet. The bed on the right is filled with 5 tomato plants, which my Dad brought back from a recent trip to Tennessee. We had plants from the same nursery last year and they did beautifully. Hoping for more success this year!

And here are my little herb plants:

I think I'm just going to stick with Basil and Cilantro this year. Those are the herbs that I cook with the most anyway and last time I tried to grow herbs it didn't work out very well. If these do well this year I'd love to grow some more varieties next year!

Mark also fixed my laundry line. Apparently he didn't dig the hole quite deep enough when he put it in last year and after leaving it to fend for itself over Winter when we should have taken it down and the weeks of rain also known as "Spring" around here, which flooded our backyard it was looking very sad. It was leaning really far to the side and if I hung stuff on it unsupported it would literally just fall over. Line-dry FAIL. I was able to use it by propping it up with a patio chair for stability, but now that the ground has finally dried out Mark was able to actually fix it and I have a nice sturdy clothesline now!

Bad cell phone pic, but this is how my clothesline started the Spring. It got worse from there. Timmmmmber!

Much better!

Jack spent some time walking around exploring the backyard. This is one of the first times we've let him in the yard because well... it rained for about 6 weeks straight in Ohio and even when there was a break in the rain and we could get outside the backyard was a swamp.

He's still trying to figure out how to navigate the rougher terrain of the outdoors. This was pre-mow so the grass was a bit long and of course the yard isn't perfectly flat like he's used to walking on everywhere else. He has to learn how to pick his feet up more when he walks. He's starting to get the hang of it, but he's getting some help from DaDa here.

Sunday, I went grocery shopping for the week and visited Half Priced Books to pick up some new reading material for Jack. I'm sure it's hard to believe but we needed some new blood in our stack of books because I'm a wee bit tired of reading the same stories 50 times an hour. They were having a 20% off everything sale so I got some great deals! Later that evening, after his nap, Jack and I went out to my parent's house for dinner while Mark stayed behind and cleaned the carpets. They were in desperate need of a good cleaning and are in a much improved condition now.

Monday, we went to Kohl's and got Mark a few new clothing items, Jack got some sandals that he hasn't yet figured out how to walk well in, and I got some new tennis shoes because I hated the ones that I had.

I kept telling myself that I'd like them more after they were broken in a bit. Intermittent wearing over the last year or so is probably sufficient enough breaking in time and I still hated them. I'm angry at Nike because clearly they make goofy fitting shoes. My new tennies are pretty - they have pink laces! - even if I did have trouble choosing between this pair and one other and Mark and Jack were rushing me. You can't rush this type of decision. I was probably rushed when I picked out my last pair and that didn't work out so hot.

Jack finished off Memorial Day in the right way, with a dip in his pool for this first time this year! The last time he was in this pool he couldn't even sit up on his own yet!

When I first put him in he was excited and he plopped right down and I guess the water was still too cold because he freaked out :( Whoops! I felt it with my hand first and we had it sitting out in the sun, but how it feels on your hand is a little different than how it feels when you're sitting in it! So, I had to drain out some of the water and add a teapot's-worth of boiling water and then all was fine. Once he realized I wasn't trying to dunk him into too cold water again he had a great time!

Oh, and also, this didn't happen this past weekend, but two weekends ago I finally sold my pre-baby car. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm sad to see it go, which is silly because I literally have not driven it in about a year. It's been stored at my parent's house and we tried to sell it last summer, but it was a whole process because I was still paying it off (Note to self: avoid car loans in the future. They're a pain the rear.) so, we decided to hang on to it until it was paid off. We finally got things in order and paid it off a few months ago, and then the car needed some TLC because it had been stored for a while AND THEN we finally put it up for sale and found a buyer and now it's gone. I'm glad to have the money though. The money is going to do a lot more for us than a car that I can't drive on a regular basis and has just been sitting around for a year! I'm still sad to see it go. I'll get over it though.

And we're trying to get a family vacation planned for this year. I don't know if this is brilliant or insane. Possibly a little bit of both, but people go on vacation all the time with toddlers, right? Right. So... we'll see what happens.

Whew! So that's what we've been up to recently! Because it hasn't been raining I've been outside as much as possible. Jack loves to take walks and I enjoy sitting outside in the sun for a while reading while Jack's taking his nap. I'm really enjoying the nicer weather! Of course it's face of the sun hot now, but it's better than endless rain!

Jack just turned 15-months-old (crazy!) on Saturday. Stay tuned because I'm going to get an update posted soon with copious amounts of pictures detailing what Mr. Jack has been up to lately!

Menu Plan Monday: Week of May 29th

2011-05-30T15:54:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Dinner at my parent's while Mark cleaned our carpets

Monday: Memorial Day! Spicy Italian Sausage (local, from the farmers market!) with Broccoli Salad and Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Tuesday: Lentil Tacos

Wednesday: Burgers with Cheesy Potato Casserole

Thursday: Grilled Asian BBQ Chicken with Lime-Cilantro Rice with Pineapple

Friday: Asian BBQ Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Buffalo Ranch Chicken Wraps with Ranch Potato Wedges

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of May 22nd

2011-05-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Burgers with Best Ever Potato Salad

Monday: Tortilla, Bean & Cheese Casserole with Corn - carried over from last week

Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner: Spicy Chicken Breakfast Biscuit with Sweet Potato Home Fries

Wednesday: CrockPot Santa Fe Chicken with Cilantro Lime Rice

Thursday: Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches with Fries

Friday: Fish Tacos with Mango Slaw

Saturday: Leftovers/Out

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com

The rant which must be ranted.

2011-05-20T08:46:00.000-04:00

Oy, this weather. This weather is slowly killing me! I don't think I can take one. more. day. of icky, gray, rainy, yuckiness outside my window! This terrible weather is zapping all of my energy and motivation and keeping me locked into the Winter ho-hums despite the fact that we're actually heading toward the end of May!

And aside from the fact that I can count on a single hand the number of nice days we've actually enjoyed this year, what makes me even more bitter is knowing that we're totally missing Spring. By the time this epically gross ickiness moves out we're going to find ourselves smack in the middle of hot, humid weather.

One of the great things about Ohio is the 4 distinct seasons. Well, I should say that what USED to be nice about Ohio was it's 4 distinct seasons because last year we only had 2 seasons: HOT and COLD and it seems like this year will be more of the same.

After experiencing our last snow of Winter in APRIL, which I'm pretty sure is actually supposed to be part of Spring... after all, the saying is "April showers (showers, not snow) bring May flowers", at least that's how I learned it... we've blown through most of Spring while being deluged by rain, rain, and oh, more rain. Occasionally, Mother Nature will mix things up a bit and throw in a random severe thunderstorm with a sprinkling of hail, or if she's feeling particularly hormonal, a thoughtful 3am tornado warning; that's when the REAL party starts.

Last week we actually got a little bit of a break in the rain, but it was of course hot and humid and the forecast called for "scattered showers and thunderstorms", which should really be re-named "Don't even try to plan anything because you have no idea what I'm going to throw at you now! Muahahaa!".

Lucky for us, we ended up with some sunshine to enjoy, but with the threat hanging over our heads that a random pop up storm could happen at any minute. Thankfully, we were able to get outside for a little bit and I even carved out some time during Jack's naps to just sit outside, in the sun, with a book. Since we're going on about 7 or 8 months with hardly a peek of sun restocking our bodies with vitamin D is actually a pretty important need to consider!

It's as though my Ohio born and bred body is programmed to accept 6 months out of the year with lack of sunshine, but once Spring hits it expects to enjoy some quality time in the sun and fresh air. It is not happy with the lack there of this year and my energy levels, motivation, and mood have definitely taken a sucker punch right to the kisser.

*Le sigh*

Well, the forecast is looking... ~~up?~~ not as dreadful as this past week as today is calling for partly cloudy (woot! No rainz!) and tomorrow is, drumroll please, supposed to be mostly sunny! But enjoy it while you can folks, because after that there's possible rain in the forecast as far as the eye can see.

*grumbles*

At least I can be thankful that we haven't been plagued with deadly tornadoes or flooding like other parts of the country. Go, us?

I need a vacation to somewhere sunny!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of May 15th

2011-05-16T13:56:00.000-04:00

Sunday: Sloppy Joes with Mac & Cheese

Monday: Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos with Mexican Sour Cream Rice

Tuesday: Turkey Kielbasa with Pierogies and Steamed Broccoli

Wednesday: Tuna Casserole with Green Beans

Thursday: Tortilla, Bean & Cheese Casserole with Corn

Friday: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers/Take Out

For more menu planning ideas check out OrgJunkie.com

Menu Plan Monday - Week of May 8th

2011-05-09T08:03:00.001-04:00

Sunday: Dinner with family

Monday: Grilled Steak Fajitas with 'Refried' Beans and Mexican Rice

Tuesday: Mom's night out with friends!

Wednesday: Cheesy Beef & Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower - carried over from last week

Thursday: Mark has a work function, I'm on my own

Friday: General Tso's Chicken (CrockPot) with Brown Rice

Saturday: Chicago-style Pizza - Mark's cooking!

For more menu planning inspiration and tips visit OrgJunkie.com

14 Months!

2011-05-03T14:42:00.000-04:00

Jack is 14 months and officially a toddler!

He has made some major developmental strides this month, the biggest probably being that he's WALKING! That's right, Mr. Jack is toddling all over the house now!

He had been on the cusp of walking for a little while. You could see a few weeks ago that he was really starting to lead off things pretty far and it was as if you could actually see that he was thinking about it, "can I actually let go and keep moving?", but he'd usually just drop down to his usual scoot to get where he was going. Eventually, he'd gotten to the point where he'd lead off of things and then let go and just be standing by himself! If something was nearby, he'd reach for it and then continue cruising along, if not, he'd then drop down and scoot away.

Eventually, he progressed to where he was cruising along holding on to something and then he'd get to the end, let go, and take a few, very small shuffle steps to the side, but no forward motion and he didn't get very far at all.

All that changed on Tuesday, April 19th (that's right, I'm documenting the date here, because I'm not very good about keeping up with his baby book :) ) he took his first real steps. Earlier in the afternoon we were visiting my grandparents and Jack took a step or two forward on his own. By that evening, he took a few real steps back and forth between Mark and I a few times, but then it was bedtime and he wasn't in the mood for anymore walking no matter how excited we were for him to do it!

I honestly didn't expect that he'd take off so quickly after his first real steps. Jack has always been a very laid back baby and is slow to warm up to things. I think it's just part of his nature, so I expected that he'd be at the "few steps" stage for a while before he really had the desire to start walking around a lot.

Boy was I wrong about that! He woke up the following day and was all over the place! One of the very first things he did that day was walk from our couch to the TV stand (a distance of about 4 feet). I was amazed by his progress! He spent all day excitedly toddling around, VERY proud of himself, but because our family room is so small and because he has quite a few large toys in it, he was able to toddle in between resting points. So, he'd go from the coffee table to his airplane push toy to the window and was able to have breaks in between.

The day after that we visited my parent's house, which is much bigger than ours and he was happy to show off his new skill set by toddling all over the house. He was even going from room to room and quite enjoying his new found mobility. And that's all she wrote! He's an official walker now and it seems to be his preferred mode of transportation. He's quick too!

Here's a video clip from the very first day he was really walking around. You can see that he's very proud of himself:

Also this month, he has *finally* decided to start feeding himself! And I'm not talking about utensils, I'm talking about with his fingers. Prior to this we just couldn't get this kid to self-feed regardless of what we tried! It was pretty frustrating, but we knew that it was something we could encourage, but that he really needed to figure out on his own. Well, finally something clicked and he figured out that he could do it himself and he started taking food from us and putting it in his own mouth. That was HUGE!

Maybe a week or two later he had progressed to eating food from his tray when we put it there. It's SO nice! Not only is it easier to feed him now because it's not 100% hands on (i.e. I get to eat dinner at the same time he does, well... kind of, rather than feeding him until he's finished THEN worrying about myself!), but he's more interested in eating. I'm sure it's much more fun now!

So, with him beginning to self-feed he has been eating a lot better and trying new things. I'm now in a weird transition of trying to figure out what to feed him and he's not making it easy! One day he'll LOVE something and then I think, hey, I've figured out something he really likes to eat! Go me! And I try to give it to him the next day and he's all like, Woman! What are you trying to give me?! This is gross! Be gone with you and your stinky food!

But all in all he's doing much better and definitely eating more as well as a bigger variety of things. AND the other bonus to his improved eating...

He's sleeping through the night! ::happy dance::

He has slept through the night every night for about 4, or so weeks now.

He's firmly in a new schedule now and it's quite nice! He kind of gave up his "morning nap", but he's never actually taken a morning nap. He used to sleep through the morning and when he was a little younger he would wake up pretty late, like 11.30am late and his two naps a day would often be an afternoon nap and then another nap in the evening followed by bedtime during the 8 o'clock hour. He has been steadily pushing back his waking time and now his schedule is pretty firmly set as 9am wake up time, 1pm naptime (from which he wakes up anytime from 3-5pm depending on the day), and 8 o'clock hour bedtime. Some nights he's ready for bed right around 8pm, others he doesn't seem tired until closer to 9pm, we usually just let him tell us when he's ready.

As far as bottles go he's still taking 2 bottles a day - one before nap and one before bed. I'm not in a huge rush to get rid of either because it does seem like we've finally got the whole food intake thing under control. It's still new, so I don't want to switch things up too soon! He's also still taking half formula, half milk in his bottles, so the first thing will be to switch over to 100% milk and then we'll see about the bottle situation. I don't mind that he's still taking these 2 bottles as he's not going to bed with them, or walking around the house with them, or anything like that. If he starts trying to change the way we do things then we'll probably make a move to take away the bottles, but for right now we're keeping them.

Jack can say "MaMa" and "DaDa", but lately all he's wanted to say is his new word - "Beh Beh" which translates to Belle, our dog. He loves our silly dog. He thinks she's greatest thing since sliced bread, which is saying a lot because he quite likes bread. I'm pretty sure he learned her name because I spend all day ~~yelling~~ politely asking her to be quiet and quit barking. Now, when the dog starts barking (which only happens about eleventy million times a day) Jack will immediately look at her and start saying "Beh Beh". Great. Note to self: figure out silent way to quiet dog so the next thing Jack picks up on isn't the ~~yelling~~ politely asking.

In addition to learning the dog's name, he's starting to babble A LOT more. He's really trying to imitate sounds and obviously carries on conversations in his own baby language. I love to hear him go on and on. He's definitely becoming more vocal.

He's also starting to imitate a lot of what we do and try to show him. It's suddenly become much easier to teach him things. It's as though he now understands that we're trying to show him how to do something. He has a toy that we got him for Christmas that he enjoys playing with quite a bit. It's a caterpillar that you push down on it's back and it rolls itself across the room. Prior to now, he has just pushed it around without pushing it or chased it after we pushed it, but the other day I worked with him for a bit and showed him how to do it himself. A few times of me modeling the action and then helping him to push down on his own and he's figured it all out! It's really fun to be able to show him how to do things!

He's also pointing. Well, kind of. He likes to point at things, but he doesn't use just a finger yet, he points with his whole hand. It's kind reminiscent of the model ladies on the Price is Right.

I've started to really work on a few sign language motions with him. He's beginning to imitate "more", but he hasn't really used it in context yet, but again, it's really exciting to see that he's starting to imitate thing that we're showing him!

Everyday it amazes us just how big he is now!

He loves to play with Beh Beh

And here are a few pics from his 2nd Easter!

He got a rubber ducky, sock money, sunglasses, sun hat, and some plastic Easter eggs in his basket!

Hmm... what's in here?


Let's just dump it out!

A close up of Mr. Monkey:

Oh... AND he's starting to try to take off his clothes. Just the other day he accomplished this:

And yesterday morning when I went to get him from his crib he had his arm out of his PJs. I may have a streaker on my hands!

AND he's also figured out how to climb up into our bay window. I'm surprised it has taken him this long, but... uh oh!

Can't wait to see what next month brings us!

Menu Plan Monday - Week of May 1st

2011-05-02T13:28:00.001-04:00

We didn't do very well with sticking to the meal plan last week so we'll be carrying over quite a few things to this week.

Sunday: Chicken Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches with Steamed Broccoli

Monday: Lasagna with Garlic Bread and Green Beans

Tuesday: White Bean Chicken Chili (CrockPot)

Wednesday: Panini with Sweet Potato Fries

Thursday: Burritos

Friday: Cheesy Beef & Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower

Saturday: Chicago Style Pizza - Mark's cooking!

I'm linked at OrgJunkie.com