Menu Plan Monday - Week of August 7th

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::

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!

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

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!

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

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

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!