Mama's Boys

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

2012-01-30T22:20:00.002-06:00

This post is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

(i couldn't help myself)

(sorry if that song is stuck in your head for the next 2 days)

(kind of)

We eat a lot of bananas around here, so in an effort to mix it up a bit, we tried a few new ways of eating them. Since they were pretty good, I thought I'd share.

1. Baked. We took 3 bananas and cut them lengthwise (but not all the way through). We then spread butter and brown sugar inside the banana and baked at 350 F for 15 minutes. Lincoln liked these, but I thought they were waaaaaay too sweet (and I LOVE sweet, so that's saying a lot).

2. Banana Ice Cream. This has made the internet rounds, so you may have already seen this. Basically, you take a bananas, cut it into slices, freeze it, then blend it up in the food processor. Voila! Ice cream. It really is the texture of ice cream, which is pretty cool. We've dressed it up by adding a scoop of unsweetened cocoa powder before blending which is good.

The version pictured above is actually the leftover baked bananas. I got all fancy and called it "Banana Brulee Ice Cream." Lincoln got all fancy and added Christmas sprinkles. He wins.

I thought it was delicious. As I said, it was way too sweet just out of the oven, but after being frozen and blended, it was great. So if you make the baked version, try freezing some and making Banana Brulee Ice Cream (with sprinkles). Definitely the way to go.

3. Banana Sundae. This was a simple way to appease Lincoln since we had no frozen bananas to use to make ice cream.

Melt some peanut butter, stir in some unsweetened cocoa, and BAM. Instant sundae topping.

Lincoln chose to add raisins to his sundae (after being told sprinkles weren't an option...)

Bananas topped with peanut butter chocolate and raisins. Toddler approved.

Enjoy!

Italian Meatball Subs

2012-01-23T23:15:00.000-06:00

Lucas requested Italian Meatball Subs for his birthday dinner. We had never made these before, so I had to scour the internet for the perfect recipe. Found it! This recipe made enough meatballs for six meals--that's right, six! I made a full batch and froze about half of it for later meals. We will definitely be doing this again!

The recipe is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I didn't make any changes, so just follow the link if you want to try it! We did add salami, pepperoni, and provolone cheese slices for some bonus Italian flair, but that's optional...

I also made Lucas a cheesecake. This was my first time ever making a cheesecake--Lucas assures me it was delicious. I have tried and tried to like cheesecake, but just can't get over the fact that it tastes like cream cheese (which I hate), so I took his word for it. List of foods I also won't eat: sour cream, mayonnaise, ranch dressing. And mushrooms. And olives. (That's all I can think of...)

The cheesecake is also from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Great recipes there!

Nine is Fine

2012-01-18T21:41:00.000-06:00

Another month older. If I think about how close his first birthday is, I will almost certainly break down into tears. Every day he seems older and older and less and less like my little baby. SOB! So, before we cue the water works, let's see what this little guy has accomplished this (very busy) month.

I mentioned last month how much this guy loves his bath. Here's some blurry evidence. Please note ~~how completely safe~~ totally fearless he is. This is a pretty typical bath--Bennett attempting to cruise along the edge, Lincoln playing with some glow sticks, lights off (ok, maybe the glow sticks and lights off were a one time thing; but, the cruising is very much typical!). We recently purchased a non-slip bath mat for the floor of the tub to make things a little safer and to help bring down our blood pressure.

I already posted this picture, but c'mon. How was I supposed to leave it out of his nine month post? He is wearing bear ears, holding an American flag, and smiling with the chubbiest cheeks ever. Obviously, it belongs here.

I rarely clean the house during the day anymore, because Captain Destructo below pretty much just follows me with his path of destruction after I clean anything. Here he is systematically emptying my cabinet after I put the dishes away. It works better if you actually work from inside the cabinet, you know.

First Christmas! Since we were out of town on Christmas day, we had our family Christmas at home on the 23rd. We are pretty much swimming in toys, so Mr. B was the lucky recipient of this monkey towel. Look how thrilled he was! (note: the donut maker in the background? Grandma got that for Lincoln. Never too young for appliances!)

Climbs on everything. EVERYTHING. Dishwasher, stools, fireplace, stairs...we had to teach him to turn around to safely go down the deck stair after he dove head first off a few times (once landing in a wading pool full of rain water. yes, we should have put the pool away after summer. don't judge.). He can now go down one stair like a pro. He's never tried more than one, but I bet he'd pick it up pretty quick.

I also already shared this picture, but I find it hilarious, so here it is again. Lincoln really is giving Bennett a hug here. Awwwww! They are playing together a lot more. Lincoln does get frustrated since Bennett is instantly drawn like a moth to a flame to whatever toy Lincoln has. If Lincoln picks up something new, Bennett will drop whatever he is doing to check it out. It is cute, but I understand how it is frustrating to Lincoln. He is really good about offering Bennett a different toy, but Bennett is not really good about accepting it ;)

Yay, leaves! In the 5 years that we've lived here, this is the first time we've ever had enough leaves on the ground all at once to rake. Usually we kind of skip fall and the leaves just drop so slowly that we never really rake them (they just get mowed over or blow away). This year, we had about a week where we were raking daily (ha! by we, I mean our friend Kari's girls, who we paid to rake our yard).

Someone got some new teeth! Tooth number two (his bottom left) started coming in on December 30th. Tooth number three (his top right) is still working on breaking through, but we've been able to see the white since Sunday. Poor guy!

He loooooooved this tunnel at Luvie's house. Good times.

I think I mentioned he skipped over purees in favor of small bites. He's pretty good at feeding himself. Since these pictures were taken, he has figured out his pincer grasp. It is still at a rudimentary level, but getting better. Favorite foods are bananas, puffs, butternut squash, cheese (sharp cheddar), and avocado (by far his favorite...especially in broth). He has also tried (and some of this might be repeated from last month...): sweet potato, carrots, blueberries, applesauce, blueberry applesauce (blends!), broccoli, potatoes, black beans, northern beans, and oatmeal.

AND! We have yet to catch it on video (well, kind of. I have one, but you can't see his feet, so it doesn't really count), but he took his first step on January 13th! He has done it multiple times, and once even took two, so we know he'll be walking soon. He is super sturdy just standing in one spot...he'll just stand and stand and stand, and usually fall down, but every once in awhile he'll take that step. Now I just need to be ready with the camera (and remember to keep his feet in the shot!).

happy 9 months, Mr. B! Love you!

Keema Beef Curry

2012-01-16T22:28:00.001-06:00

We've been making more and more Indian dishes around here. Lucas got me this cookbook for my birthday last year, and we've been using Patak's curry pastes (found at most grocery stores) for when we want a quicker meal or don't have all the spices on hand to make our own blends. This recipe was found in the January 2012 issue of Food & Wine. It was good--a little bland, but that was probably due to me using the wrong type of curry. The recipe called for Madras curry; I used yellow curry. Also, though I remember buying fresh ginger, I could not find it anywhere and had to resort to ground ginger. But, we liked it enough that we'll give it another try! I served it with jasmine rice and homemade naan (using the dough from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. So easy...so delicious!). I also made homemade ghee that I used to cook the naan. If you haven't tried that, I recommend it! I'm no pro, so I'll just link to the tutorial I used instead of trying to explain it ;)

Keema Beef Curry
adapted from Food & Wine, January 2012

Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon ghee (or neutral oil, if you don't have ghee)
1 lb. ground sirloin
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger)
1.5 Tablespoons Madras curry powder
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 large or 2 small white potatoes, cut into 1/2" cubes
1.5 cups chicken broth
14.5 oz can unsweetened coconut milk
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes in their juices
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:
1. Heat the ghee or oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add ground sirloin and cook until brown.
2. Add the onion, garlic, curry powder, slat, and pepper. Cook until onion is soft.
3. Add the potato, chicken broth, coconut milk, and tomatoes with their juices. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium heat and continue cooking until potato is softened.
4. Crush some of the potatoes (I used a fork) and add the peas. Cook 2-3 minutes more.
5. Serve over rice and top with cilantro. Naan makes a great side dish!

Enjoy!

2012 Olympic Marathon Trials

2012-01-14T23:13:00.001-06:00

We had the privilege today of attending the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials in downtown Houston. I have never attended any type of Olympic event before, so I was thrilled when I found out the marathon trials were here this year. I was so glad to be able to take Lincoln so he could see first hand these amazing athletes who will be representing our country in the Olympic games this summer. The talent and dedication to the sport was so amazing with the field of runners today.

The weather was absolutely perfect, too. 42 degrees F at the start, warming up to mid 50s. Gorgeous. The course was modeled after the course they will run in London, meaning it was a loop. The runners passed by us a total of 4 times, which was so cool. In between passes, the organizers had set up a mini Olympic Village at Discovery Green. Lincoln was issued an athlete's badge (all free!) and participated in different events. He got a stamp after completing each event and then received an Olympic towel at the end. He loooooved it. Especially the table tennis. We could've easily spent hours there.

If you get the chance, please attend an Olympic trial event--or the Olympics. To see that caliber of athlete and know they will be representing the USA is simply amazing. What a great day!

Pictures, and lots of them:

1: Men's field, 2: Lead women's pack-Desiree Davila in front, 3: Women's field, 4: Lead women's pack

Left: Balance beam balancing Right: high bar hanging--all by himself!

Soooooo strong!

The cuteness of this baby is more than I can handle.

Left: it's a little big now, but he'll grow into it...Right: table tennis!

My superstar athlete!

The finish! Meb Keflezighi was first (left), Ryan Hall second (right). Abdi Abdirahman was third, but our picture didn't turn out.

The women heading towards the finish: Shalane Flanagan (first), Desiree Davila (second), Kara Goucher (third).

A Day in the Life

2012-01-13T21:25:00.001-06:00

This was an e-mail I sent to Lucas yesterday. He said I should post it as a blog entry. So, here it is. In case you were wondering, yes, we do have hard days around here ;)

here is our day thus far.

(Awwww, sweet brothers. The death grip means "i love you.")

6:58: MAMA! IT'S LIGHT OUTSIDE. I WANT TO GET UP. (Bennett is soooouuuunnnnnd asleep. He sleeps through this, and me yelling back to Lincoln to come into our room).

7:00: I manage to convince Lincoln to lay down with us until Bennett wakes up. I am amazed that he is actually under the covers and laying still.

7:04 We hear a strange ripping sound. I ask Lincoln to see what it is. He looks over the edge of the bed and yells "IT'S POOP! Wembley has a poopy diaper! Mama, get it."

7:05 We are all up now. Wembley is outside. I am cleaning up what is left of a poopy diaper from who knows when and where since bennett didn't poop yesterday. It is under our bed and the gel has all come out, so we are off to get the vacuum.

7:15 Our entire bedroom is now vacuumed, including using the hose attachment to vacuum under the bed. We decide to vacuum the entire house, since we are already vacuuming.

7:20 Bennett decides he is still tired and doesn't want to be up yet. I carry him during the rest of the vacuuming while Lincoln runs in front of me depositing pieces of lint he finds for me to vacuum up in front of the vacuum.

7:35 Done vacuuming. Then I find more places I missed, but Bennett is not having it. Lincoln has to poop.

7:40 Make Lincoln breakfast. He requests a show and I give in since Bennett is so grumpy.

7:45 Bennett poops. I go to change him and it's contained! A victory! I give him a toy to hold and take off the diaper. He flings the toy at my head and plunged both hands into the poop. I yell, "NOOOOO!" and try to move the diaper out of the way. He starts kicking and manages to get his whole leg in the diaper, so now he has poop from his ankle up to his pelvis. His hands are both covered in poop that he is now smearing on his stomach and he is beginning to reach for his head. I grab both of his hands, so now my hands are covered in poop, and try to begin to clean this mess and what's left of our dignity. Clean up ends, get the baby dressed, and go tell Lincoln I am putting Bennett down for his nap.

8:15 Bennett is asleep. I go find Lincoln, who is finishing his show and breakfast. We start playing the elevator game and get through 3 rounds before Bennett wakes up.

8:40 Bennett is awake. I was going to put him back to sleep, but Wembley decided to jump off the bed and shake instead.

8:45 2 more rounds of elevator!

9:00 We decide to hang the pictures in the bathroom. Find the hammer, nails, and level and get it done. I am so excited because it was easy, no crying, and everyone is still happy.

9:10 Lincoln goes to put the level away while I straighten up the bathroom. Bennett follows him. The garage door slams and Bennett is screaming. I run out there and Lincoln is standing next to Bennett starting at him while Bennett pounds on the garage door. I ask Lincoln if Bennett's fingers got caught in the door. He says yes, but I determine they really didn't, Bennett was just upset he couldn't crawl around the garage. Lincoln is set on giving Bennett Thomas Ice (note: Thomas Ice is our ice pack for "owies") anyway, so we do.

9:20 Lincoln asks for second breakfast. I get him another bowl of cereal and raspberries, making this breakfast 2.5 since he also ate his own and half of mine earlier. Bennett and I play while he eats on the couch.

9:28 Lincoln is done and asks to put his bowl in the sink. He spills the bowl and the rest of the milk in the kitchen before he gets to the sink and it splashes and now he has milk all over his face and hair. He is wailing, and I assume this is because of the milk everywhere. I help him clean it up and put his bowl in the sink and he is still crying and screaming something but I can't understand him. He finally calms down enough to say he wanted to carry the milk to the sink. I give him his bowl back and he screams nooooo, I was LOTS of milk to carry to the sink. Essentially, he wants me to pour new milk into his bowl to carry to the sink and dump out. Nope.

9:35 Tantrum over, we start the elevator game. Again.

9:45 I write this email while bennett plays and lincoln hangs from my neck.

10:00 break while lincoln poops again.

10:10 We finish cleaning the bathroom. In the span of the 3 minutes it takes to vacuum, Lincoln manages to stuff the shower curtain into the tub 4 times. It is still in there since I got tired of fixing it. I try to put vacuum away but Lincoln insists he want to vacuum more. Bennett and I come to Living room and I start to finish this note. Lincoln vacuums about 30 seconds more then declares he is done and mama come put the vacuum away.

And that is how the first 3 hours of our day have gone.

Melted crayon sun catchers

2012-01-12T21:03:00.002-06:00

We are part of an art coop with a group of other moms with kids Lincoln's age. Each week we rotate houses and do a different project. This week we hosted and the kids made these melted crayon sun-catchers. It was a quick project, which is good for short attention spans, and pretty kid friendly. Yes, it involved the use of a hot iron, but I do believe it is important for kids to use real tools under adult supervision. I think it teaches them safety and allows them more opportunities to explore when not limited to kid's tools. Teacher Tom talks about how using hot glue guns opened up new avenues of creativity with his preschool students here.

To make these sun catchers, just gather up some crayons, a pencil sharpener, waxed paper, an iron, and 2 towels (or paper bags).

Peel back the paper on the crayons and sharpen them over a plate/bowl/whatever. Group the shavings by color, if you like.

Tape a square of waxed paper to the table and allow your child to place the crayon shavings wherever he likes on top of it. Keep it to a thin layer, or the crayons won't be translucent when they melt.

Place another square of waxed paper on top and place the squares onto an old towel.

Place another thin towel or piece of craft paper on top of the squares (to protect your iron from melted wax!). With your iron on medium heat, press down on the waxed paper for several seconds. Check to see if the crayons melted. If not, repeat. (note: it took us about 3 passes of 5 seconds a piece)

Peel back your towel and admire your work!

You can cut your sun catcher into shapes (Lincoln chose a square, below). We also punched a hole and threaded yarn through to hang them, but you could just tape them to your window. Enjoy!

(and bonus! you can totally play "what do you see in the crayon meltings...like a creepy snowman who is totally staring at me in the above picture. Anyone?)

i heart faces: best face from 2011

2012-01-09T23:18:00.001-06:00

Buried in the leaves--in December! Mr. B had a blast!

Check out other entries here!

January Goals

2012-01-05T22:09:00.001-06:00

January Goals

Instead of resolutions this year, I am setting monthly goals to accomplish. It seems like a lot, but a lot of them are 1 day tasks or things that can be done in a short amount of time...

Food

Make homemade mozzarella cheese
Start Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
Make homemade ravioli

Books

Finish The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

DIY

Cat toy for Suki
Make liquid bath soap from bar soap

Finances

Set grocery budget and begin purchasing gift cards to buy the groceries each week to help us stick to the budget.

Home

Clean out garage

Health

Reduce sugar intake

2011 Recap

2011-12-31T22:40:00.000-06:00

I slacked a bit on the blogging this year, but I think we can put together a decent recap:

January: Travelled to Omaha and saw SNOW!
February: We all survived the flu. Blech.
March: Got ready for a baby
April: BABY!
May: Mr. B is one month, Lincoln made sand playdoh
June: Mr. B is two months, grew a garden, discovered baked oatmeal
July: Mr. B is three months, sweet sweet Lincoln, 4th of July
August: Mr. B is four months, balance bike redo
September: Bennett crawls, double birthday, first day of MDO
October: Pumpkin patch, Mr. B is 6 months old, my cook-off experience
November: Thanksgiving in Omaha, 7 months of Mr. B, a Lincoln update
December: Lincoln's first Christmas program, Mr. B is 8 months, Lincoln is THREE!

I thought it might be interesting to find out what my most viewed posts have been this year as well (after seeing this done on several other blogs...).

Top 10 most viewed posts. Some of these are strange.
1. Link to a Printable Teething Chart (this post is 2.5 years old, yet the most visited post on my blog....by a lot. 350 more views than #2).
2. (which is equally strange) Earth Week Giveaways, Continued. This post was from April 2009 and was a giveaway for a Boppy pillow. Why in the world are people still reading that post???
3. Welcome, Bennett Action!
4. Magnetic Chore Chart
5. Baked Oatmeal (nice! Now I want to make this for tomorrow...)
6. Lucas' guest post tutorial on how to make a diaper sprayer
7. Stuffed monster toy tutorial
8. I ♥ faces entry: Cell phones
9. Tall Paintings
10. Chicken lettuce wraps and Asian noodles

Most common search terms leading to my blog.
1. our lincoln log
2. baby teething chart (there you go. although, i just ran that search term through google and had to click through 16 pages to find my blog. those are some dedicated searches.)
3. teething chart (again)
4. http://ourlincolnlog.blogspot.com (really? i suppose that is just user error in missing the address bar?)
5. baby teeth chart (come on now...)
6. cavatini
7. stuffed monster tutorial
8. teething record chart
9. i wrote to the zoo to send me a pet (i cannot imagine how many google search pages it took to get to my blog for that one...)
10. lincoln log blog
(and for good measure) 11. printable baby tooth chart

Next up: goals for this year. Life, blog, and otherwise.

Eight is Great!

2011-12-27T09:30:00.000-06:00

Apparently, the traditional gift for being married 8 years is copper. Lucas was the lucky recipient of a shiny, copper penny this morning. True love know no bounds.

(photo credit: Janine McClintock)

I love you, Lucas. Best eight years of my life.

I have a 3 year old!

2011-12-25T22:09:00.000-06:00

Lincoln turned 3 years old last week. SOB. How did he get so old?? We celebrated his birthday with an Art birthday party a week earlier since having a birthday so close to Christmas can get hectic.

Our Art Party went something like this:

Cherry Limeade birthday cake!

(a peek at the inside...drool...)

Birthday boy--ate every last bite.

All the kids painted their own canvas--everyone had his own unique style!

I spy lots of glitter glue!

Salt dough ornaments and a tape resist canvas drying.

An unexpected party hit was this old fence board-turned balance beam. The adults had nothing to do with this set-up, it was entirely kid orchestrated :)

When I said every kid painted a canvas, that was a lie. The birthday boy spent most of the party "mowing" our yard while wearing sound-proof headphones. I think the only paint he touched was at the car station...

I forgot to take pictures of the kids actually doing art at the party (Bennett was fussy during most of it). These were pipe cleaner/bead candy cane ornaments.

The aftermath from the canvas painting station--tempera paint, egg cartons, and sooo many paintbrushes.

We dipped tennis balls in paint and threw them at the fence. Amazingly, only one made it into the neighbor's yard (where it will remain forever).

This was a fun station--we dipped cars and trucks in paint and sent them down the ramp. This was even fun enough to attract the mowing birthday boy over for a few minutes.

Thanks to everyone who was able to come and celebrate with us!

Mr. B is 8 months old

2011-12-18T23:40:00.001-06:00

I know, I don't believe it either.

We have done a mostly terrible job of taking pictures of Mr. B this month. (edit: nevermind, just found a bunch of pictures my mom sent from Thanksgiving...thanks!)

This month:

Flew on his second airplane ride to Omaha for Thanksgiving.

(Lincoln and Bennett playing in the playhouse at Grandma's)

Really began to enjoy taking a bath (for the first time). He has always cried in the bath. We discovered this was because he really wanted to be free to crawl around and splash instead of stuck in the little baby bathtub. Now that he is in the big tub with Lincoln, we have to pry him out of there. It is a little nerve wracking for us parents since he is fearless and tends to climb and drive and try to swim...but hey, no tears!

(so cozy after his bath)

Bennett has become a little bit stranger shy lately. He takes awhile to warm up to anyone other than me or Lucas. The other day he cried for 45 minutes at our good friend Kari's house while she was watching him during Lincoln's Christmas program :( He does warm up eventually, though (see below with Grandpa). I remember Lincoln went through this same this at almost the same age (at 7 months, actually...). His didn't last very long, so I don't think Bennett's will either.

Tried new foods. Bennett has decided to skip over purees (hated them...cried, spit them out, fussed...). He would try to chew them, so we figured we'd just go straight to small bites of food. Worked great! He eats avocados like nobody's business (especially loves them in chicken broth), steamed carrots, butternut squash, bananas, steamed apples, sweet potatoes, chicken, oatmeal, and puffs.

Laughs and laughs and laughs!
Still a horrible sleeper. Below, you can see him taking one of his "naps" on the floor at my parent's house.

Has stood without support for several seconds at a time. Pushes a box around, but hasn't taken a step by himself yet. YET.

(meeting a new friend at the Children's Museum in Lincoln)

(he loooooved this baby area at the Children's Museum. Played happily there for a good 45 minutes.)

Will eat anything and everything (sampling the delicious flavorings of our closet, above). He is especially drawn to cords and outlets.
Talks--so much. Da-a-da-a-da, mamamamama, AAAAA-dah, and loooooots of raspberries!
Ridiculously hard to change this kid's diaper. Seriously, it's like a workout.
That tooth that started coming in at the end of last month is finally all the way here. Yay! No sign of #2, yet.

There's more, I'm sure. But for now, happy 8 months, Mr. B!

Radvent Day 13: Performing

2011-12-16T23:22:00.004-06:00

Below is the prompt for today. I'm basically taking the word "performing" and using it as an excuse to share with you Lincoln's first Christmas program. ADORABLE.

The video is about 4 minutes long. I left all 4 songs in so that family could see it. If you'd rather not watch the whole thing, I recommend skipping ahead to 1:18....so cute.

Radvent Day 12: Creating

2011-12-16T23:14:00.000-06:00

Things I create:

FOOD. Mostly food. I could spend all day in the kitchen, gladly. I'm hoping to spend a day baking Christmas cookies this week. Lucas and I love trying new things for dinner, too. I admit, I do rely on ideas from cookbooks, blogs, or magazines, but I almost always alter them. I've also been dabbling in gardening the past few summers. The heat here can be brutal to plants, but I managed to have some good luck with my peppers this year.
SEWING. I like sewing, but don't do a ton of it (mostly because it's hard to do with Bennett crawling underfoot). In the past couple years, though, I have managed to improve my sewing skills from "pillowcase" to "quilt," so that's something. Sewing clothes is still something I haven't really mastered, though. Maybe a goal for the new year?
MISCELLANEOUS CRAFTS. Wooden growth charts, picture frames, holiday decorations, etc.
MEMORIES FOR LINCOLN AND BENNETT. I'm hoping this blog serves as timeline they can look back on and remember their childhood.

Radvent Day 11: Resting

2011-12-14T22:42:00.003-06:00

(image via princess lasertron)

I give myself permission to rest because I take care of 2 boys all day long who don't nap at the same time, therefore leaving me with no down time until lights out at night. I need rest because those boys wear me out!!!

Radvent Day 10: Writing

2011-12-14T22:35:00.001-06:00

I like to write, but I don't make time for it. Writing these responses to the Radvent prompts is more writing than I have done in a long time. I haven't done ANY creative writing in years. Creative writing always feels like an excessive use of time for something that just I am going to see. I used to attempt to write short stories, but would never finish them. Although I like to write, I think I enjoy telling stories from real life better than the creative process involved in fiction. That's not to say I wouldn't LOVE to write a children's book someday (seems to be a popular dream, but why not?). For now, though, I'll probably stick to writing blogs posts about my kids, food, and life in general. It's pretty entertaining most days :)

Radvent Day 9: Influence

2011-12-14T22:15:00.000-06:00

Moving on!

1. Sr. Jeanne O'Rourke. Sr. Jeanne was my high school cross country coach and campus ministry director. More than influencing my love for running (no, I haven't run in almost a year...but that is mostly baby related. Ok, and maybe climate related. Maybe mostly climate related...), she also instilled in me a love for service. I only hope I can pass that love along to Lincoln and Bennett.

2. My husband. Lucas has influenced my humor, my musical tastes, the books I have read, and the movies I've watched. He makes sure I am caught up on current events and I owe every single shred of political knowledge I have (which isn't much...by no fault of his, just due to my brain's inability to care about politics) to him.

3. My brother. I always viewed my brother as about 100 times cooler and more fun than I could ever hope to be. He is outgoing, I am the very definition of introverted (please note: I am not shy. I was usually labeled as shy growing up, but I'm not. I AM introverted. There is a difference.). I use to worry that I wasn't "cool" enough to hang out with my own brother, but luckily he wasn't as insecure as me and made the effort to invite me to do stuff (thanks, brother!). Jeff, like Lucas, greatly influenced my musical taste. By inviting me into his circle of friends, I learned a lot about being myself in large groups (hard for us introverts!), not worrying about what others think, and how to have fun.

4. Sam Groom and Kari Niedermaier. I considered myself "semi-crunchy" even before we moved to Houston, but Sam and Kari pretty much cemented my way down the path of "granola-crunchy" parent. Sam invited me to watch a viewing of "The Business of Being Born" at her house before I was even pregnant, Kari was our amazing child birth instructor (if you're in Houston, hire her!). The fact that Bennett was born at home in our bedroom, and that I was even aware that was an option, is something I completely credit to Kari and Sam. So grateful!

5. My mom and grandmas. For letting me experiment in the kitchen. I can't really pinpoint who individually I would credit with my love for being in the kitchen, but I have memories of cooking with both grandmother's and of course with my mom. I'm just glad I was allowed to use the stove :)

Of course, this is a short list of my influences. I could keep going, but I'm already 6 days behind on these posts. Must. Keep. Moving. Forward...

Radvent Day 8: Comfort

2011-12-14T21:20:00.001-06:00

Still playing catch-up....

My comfort zones:

Staying Home. More often than not, I will choose staying home rather than getting out and doing something. Lucas tries to get me to go out and spend an evening at a coffee house, but I usually end up spending the evening here instead. I'm better about getting out on the weekends, or even during the day with Lincoln and Bennett. Evenings are just hard for me to get motivated when my pajamas, the couch, and a mug of hot chocolate are calling (plus a poorly sleeping baby).
No Background Noise. I love listening to music, but during the day I almost never turn in on in favor of a quiet background. I wish I would put the music on, though--Lincoln loves it, I love it, and it would be good to start exposing Bennett to our favorite dance grooves. I also usually forget to bring my iPod in my car and get stuck listening to the radio more often than not (although, NPR is always a good back-up)
Working with kids. I love working with kids and can't imagine ever having a job where I don't. As a speech-language pathologist, I technically can work with both children and adults...but the thought of working with adults kind of makes me want to hyperventilate.
Staying up late. It is rare that I go to bed before 11 or 12. I just CAN NOT make myself go to bed early. I know 11 or 12 isn't super late, but it is late enough that it makes waking up with the early rising children hard. If I were to go to bed early, I would pretty much lose any down time I currently have. Lucas and I have about 2 free hours each night after we finally get the boys down (peppered with intermittent wakings by Mr. B). Should I try to go to bed early, I would lose any free time at all. Getting up earlier isn't currently an option (for me, anyway...Lucas is able to get up early for work, of course). Since we co-sleep with Bennett, when I get up, he gets up. So waking up early to try and have some "me" time would result in having some "me and Bennett" time, since he'd be waking up too.

Getting outside my comfort zones:

Since going to bed earlier isn't going to happen, I'd like to shoot for turning that music on during the day--especially now that it is Christmas music season! I'm already working on getting out more, so we'll leave it at those 2 challenges for now.

Radvent Day 7: Travel

2011-12-10T17:27:00.001-06:00

I love this prompt because it gave me an excuse to pull out some of my old pictures and finally get them scanned in the computer!

I love to travel, and Lucas and I travelled quite a bit before Lincoln and Bennett were born. Currently, we mostly travel to visit family, but as the boys get older we plan to do a lot more exploring of new places.

One of my most memorable traveling experiences was after my sophomore year of college. I spent 6 weeks in Breton (Brittany), France through the International Volunteer Program (which apparently is no longer in existence...). (Fun Fact: I minored in French in college. Also, I speak French with an awful accent. Seriously. I was told on a regular basis in France how difficult I was to understand. That was cool.) In order to be accepted into the volunteer program, I had to do a phone interview in french. In French! I hate talking on the phone in English, so that interview made me want to puke. Somehow, despite my horrible accent, I managed to get into the program AND graduate with that French minor. Amazing.

I was assigned to work at a residential home for adults with cerebral palsy about 10 kilometers from Rennes (Vern sur Seiche). Myself and one other volunteer shared an apartment and walked to the home every day where we assisted the residents with daily tasks (meals, showers, dressing), accompanied them on outings (including one bizarre trip to an exhibit on the history of rats in France...), and just spent time with them.

The first day we got to France, we were taken to a town called Pipriac. Turns out the residential home also had a location there, and they were hosting there annual motorcycle ride for the residents (complete with sidecars). My roommate and I woke up in the morning, went outside, and were handed helmets. We were then pointed in the direction of a bike and told to get on. I don't even think my driver told me his name. My first day in France and I am riding on the back of a sidecar motorcycle as a part of a motorcycle parade through the French countryside. We rode about 2 hours. Whenever we went through a little town, all the people of the town lined the streets and waved and clapped as we rode past. It was a little surreal.

The picture on the bottom right in the above college is of some of the residents practicing for their performance of the musical Hair. It was awesome.

The residents were incredible. I learned so much from both them and the employees that worked there. Our lunches everyday were events...not in that we ate gourmet, but that they lasted at least 2 hours and were served in courses. I loved it--the pace was so relaxed, everyone took their time, and we ended every meal with bread and cheese (fresh from the bakery). LOVE. All the residents were so happy to help me improve my French, and they loved learning English from me and my roommate. I was also privileged to work a bit with the speech-language pathologist that worked with the residents. Since this was my major, I was really grateful to be able to assist her. We did some work with augmentative communication devices, which I found fascinating.

Two of the residents I met were working on trying to increase handicap accessibility throughout Brittany. They were very interested in how accessibility worked in America and took many notes on what we told them. Their biggest struggle was that doorways were often too narrow for the wheelchairs to fit through. They told us how difficult it was to find an apartment in Rennes that was wheelchair accessible, and on one outing I saw how disappointed two of the residents became when they discovered their wheelchairs would not fit between the rows of slot machines at a beachside casino.

The director of the residence arranged for outings or special visitors for the residents at least once a week (while we were there, anyway...). One day when I got to work, the residents were really excited and wanted to show me the "race car." They took me outside and there were these 2 super fancy sport cars (I know nothing about cars, but the one I am sitting in above is a Lotus. I felt like I was riding about 2 inches off the ground) and I was told to get in one of them. Off we went, at an alarmingly fast pace, through the french countryside!

Only related to the previous story in that it involves cars, but funny enough, the next morning when we arrived to work, we found everyone getting ready to load onto the bus for an outing. All the residents kept telling us it was going to be like the Indy 500. I remember being super excited because they all seemed so pumped to be going. You can imagine the letdown when we pulled up to the racetrack and I saw the "racecars"--go carts. Yep. They really did have uniformed drivers racing them, and the residents got to take their picture with the winner. Crazy stuff.

The people we worked with were so generous with us. We had offers almost every weekend to come stay with one of them at their home, or the home of one of the day residents (the residence hosted several adults with cerebral palsy during the day that went home to their own homes at night). Dominic (above left) was kind enough to host us at his apartment in Rennes. He took us to his favorite pub, and his assistant (helped him around the house, cooked, etc.) made us an unforgettable dinner (escargot, and a ham sandwich that he fried in mayonnaise....yeah, not all our meals were memorable for being good!). Not pictures, but one of the traditional drinks of Brittany that was offered at many of our meals and was always a go-to at the pubs is cidre--bascially alcoholic apple cider. Pretty tasty!

One of our assignments while there was to put together a program to teach the residents a little about American customs. We enlisted their help to make a puppet show telling American tall tales (Paul Bunyon and Johnny Appleseed), played BINGO, put together a lunch consisting of sandwiches, fruit and veggie trays, and apple crisp, and painted American flags.

I LOVED the city of Rennes. It was beautiful and full of such character. I loved getting to experience from the point of view of the locals that we stayed with on the weekends. In addition to staying in Rennes, we also met up with my roommates former penpal (Juliette), who invited us to her family's summer home on the Ile aux Moines. The Ile aux Moines is an island on the Moriban gulf that is only about 6K long. Juliette's family home (more of a compound...it was amazing! Three separate homes right on the water at the tip of the island) was gorgeous. Juliette and her father picked us up by boat from the bus station in Vannes. On the island, the family had a jeep to get around, but mostly we just rode bicycles. I loved loved loved the Ile aux Moines. It (and Brittany in general) has a Celtic history. While French of course is the dominant language, we also heard people speaking and saw many signs printed in both French and the Celtic language of Breton. Breizh is the Breton word for Brittany, and it was printed all around, including on bumper stickers. The Celtic influence was also evident in the Breton flag and the triskell (triple spiral) that was prominent everywhere. One of my favorite souvenirs was a triskell necklace I bought on Mount St. Michel. We attended a little festival on the Ile aux Moines where we learned a traditional Celtic dance complete with traditional musicians. The picture on the right above is my roommate and I seated on an ancient dolman--Lucas and I also saw these when we visited Ireland a few years ago.

We also met two local guys from Vern that invited us on a weekend excursion. We went back and forth on whether or not to go with them (I mean, we had just met them and they were inviting us to drive several hours with them to a place we had never been...), but I'm so glad we did. We visited the beautiful Mont Saint Michel (in Normandy) and the walled city of Saint Malo. Amazing.

We ended our trip in Paris. I had been once before (in high school), but my roommate had never been. We only had a day, so we tried to hit up as much as possible in that day. We stayed across from Montmartre, ate dinner there, got up the next day and took the subway to the Arc de Triomphe. From there we walked down the Champs Elysees all the way to the Louvre (that's a lot farther than it looks, just FYI. Just looked it up and it is 3 miles. No wonder it felt so long!), soaked our feet in the fountain in front of the Louvre, took the subway to Notre Dame, toured Notre Dame, took the subway to the Eiffel Tower, and ended the day back at Montmartre for our last dinner in Paris.

I would love to go back to Brittany someday. The experience of spending those 6 weeks there, pretty much on my own, has shaped the way I want to travel in the future. Experience the culture from a local's perspective. Find the traditional experiences. Learn how the culture works. Lucas and I would love to take the boys on an extended vacation or even live for an entire year in Europe at some point. Who knows when or where, but I can't wait!

Radvent Day 6: Starting

2011-12-08T23:56:00.001-06:00

I am still behind on the Radvent prompts. Lincoln's birthday party is this Saturday (ack! 3 years old! Must resist urge to go wake him up and rock him like a baby...), so after that I will have my evenings back again. Well, sort of...back as much as Bennett will allow, I suppose :P

Lucas and I aren't big spenders (and with that, Hey, Big Spender will be stuck in my head for at least the next 2 days...). We don't have much debt (just the house and Lucas' student loan), we don't go out much, we pay our bills on time, etc. We have a savings account. But, even with all that, we don't really track our money very well. We have always had the basic outline of a budget, but we very rarely check to see that we stay in those lines. I got good at checking it for awhile, and then once I saw that I was blowing our grocery budget out of the water every month, I just stopped checking (to be fair, I had set our budget pretty low...and hadn't adjusted any for when Lincoln began eating normal sized portions, nor when Bennett started solids...I was trying to feed 3.5 people on a budget for 2--and I DON'T coupon). It wasn't like it was draining our bank account--we weren't using the entertainment budget, I had waaaaay too much budgeted for baby expenses, and other categories were likewise not getting used, so the grocery over spending never really mattered. But, it would be nice to have a better grip on those funds. There is college to save for, vacations we'd like to plan, and retirement to fund since social security will probably not be available by the time we need it...

So. My goal:
Plan out and stick to a monthly budget
-Categorize all expenses
-Redo budget amounts for categories in which we always over/under spend
-Create savings accounts for both kids
-Create an account to save for future traveling
-Discuss purchasing giftcards with a set amount for each week's grocery shopping trip to curb overspending.

Radvent Day 5: Drawing

2011-12-06T23:17:00.001-06:00

I am behind a day on the Radvent posts. Hopefully I can play catch-up tomorrow, but for now, here is yesterdays prompt:

I always keep a small, unlined journal by my bed. I use it to jot ideas down, make lists (mostly make lists), or write down things that happen during the day that I want to remember (e.g., funny things Lincoln says). I am a big list maker--love to see those items crossed off as they get done/bought/packed, etc. In college, I used my day planner in the same way. All my assignments, or meetings, or activities got put in the planner, and crossed off as I completed them. Success! I finished something!

Here is a brief glance into the world of my "journal." Since I've already mentioned I have the artistic ability of a preschooler, I will not be apologizing for the quality of my drawings :)

This was my original plan for our backyard garden. We went as far as digging out the grass and defining the shape using that black garden edging. We never did plant any flowers because that magnolia tree drops leaves like a layer of carpet everywhere I have drawn a flower in the above picture. Year round. Our backup plan was to simply mulch the whole thing and put planters on top of the mulch. It has taken us one year to get half of it mulched. Yay for procrastination?

This is a sketch of our bedroom when we were trying to figure out how to get Bennett moved in with us. It pretty much turned out exactly as this sketch shows, except the crib is not really as enormous as my drawing might have you believe.

These are my current notes for Lincoln's upcoming birthday. It is an art themed birthday bash, and these are my ideas combined with stuff I've found on Pinterest. There are 6 pages of notes for the birthday (food lists, guests coming, art ideas, etc...). I'll probably use about half of it :)

This was a do-to list I had going before Christmas last year. We went to Omaha, so a lot of it was done in preparation for our trip. Check marks mean done, line through the item means I didn't do it. My method for marking things off changes by the page...

Radvent Day 4: Caring

2011-12-04T22:30:00.001-06:00

This year, I am focusing on a couple of things in the realm of "caring."

1. How my reactions to things affect my kids.
Lincoln absorbs everything. The other day, I dropped something and kind of flipped out about it. That night at dinner, Lincoln dropped a container of Bennett's little puffs onto the floor and they all spilled. Lincoln also flipped out--big time. I wonder if I had reacted in a calm manner to dropping my item earlier if he would have imitated that reaction instead. I am now choosing to put some careful thought into how I react to things. Dropping something on the floor doesn't warrant flipping out--we should save that kind of reaction for when we can't find any chocolate in the house or discovering Community is being placed on hiatus (kidding).

I have been modeling calm reactions to minor injuries (say, stubbed toes or a tiny scrape). Lincoln tends to cry and cry when he gets any type of minor injury, and then asks us for ice whenever he remembers said injury, up to a week later at times. He also likes to point out his injuries to everyone we run into (example: walking into mother's day out, we pass the music and exercise teacher. Lincoln: "Look! I got an owie on my finger. I got it at Winton's house." repeat each time we see them for the next 2 weeks.) I have been trying to model calmly saying, "Ow!! I got an owie. Oh, but it looks really small. I think I can still keep (doing whatever I am doing at the time). Yay!"

2. Taking care of myself so that I am a happier person around my family.
I've already mentioned this a few times, but I really do feel like a better and happier person when I make time to do things by myself. Problem is, I rarely remember that. Lucas is always telling me to go to a coffee shop or something, but I feel bad leaving the house since Mr. B is such a bad sleeper. But, I have been trying to improve on this area during the past year. Definitely a work in progress.

Radvent Day 3: Fascination

2011-12-03T22:05:00.001-06:00

(FUN SIDE NOTE: This is my 400th blog post! Kind of exciting, eh?)

I think it is easy to take this prompt and answer the question in terms of others (that person is so fascinating! I wish I knew more about her!), but incredibly hard to apply to yourself. It is hard for me to imagine what someone would find fascinating about me without resorting to self-deprecation ("who is that fascinating woman pushing that shopping cart? did she actually come to the store with half her nursing bra unhooked? scandalous! her life must be wrought with excitement!").

In truth, I actually have been making more of an effort to dress better (meaning, I have put away the jersey skirts and t-shirts...at least until the real Houston heat returns. You're welcome, Lucas.). I recently bought 2 pairs of pants that actually fit me--both in the waist and length (sidenote--I have been walking on the hems of my pants for years because I have always hated the way petite pants fit...until I discovered the petite section at Ann Taylor Loft. They fit amazingly, and have the bonus feature of not making me feel like I'm wearing high-waisted, ankle skimming pants). (second sidenote--yes, I realize I could have been hemming my pants. I offer you laziness and a sewing machine that can't handle denim as my excuses). I cleared out my closet of clothes that I haven't worn in ages and have been trying new ways to wear the things I have left (e.g., wearing a dress as a blouse with a skirt). It's actually kind of fun...

Dressing nice might not in itself make a person fascinating...but I think it does show that I am learning to care for myself a bit more.

Because I really want to make an effort to write a meaningful response, I am going to try and come up with at least 2 interview questions....

Q1. Cooking seems to be a passion of yours. How do you find time to cook and bake for your family?

A1. I make time because it is something I love. We try a lot of new recipes for our dinners, and yes, sometimes I misjudge the time involved and we end up eating 2 hours later than usual, but the result is almost always worth it. Lincoln and I love baking during the day, too. It is pretty difficult to tackle any big meal or baking endeavor while Bennett is awake, or if Lucas isn't home, simply because he is ridiculously mobile and will almost certainly end up on top of the kitchen stool or stuck between a chair and the wall while I am covered in flour and need to wash my hands before grabbing him as he lays there, stuck and crying.

Q2. You seem to come up with lots of fun ideas to do with your toddler. Where do you find them all?

A2. I don't happen to be artistic at all, but I do seem to be able to come up with lots of toddler and preschooler friendly art projects and activities (perhaps that is an indication to you of just where my artistic abilities lie...). I credit all my time working with my preschool speech students (my favorite age!). Having to come up with games and therapy ideas at a moment's notice (when I had a caseload of 77, therapy lesson plans could sometimes be a bit "skeletal"--meaning I'd pick a goal to address, and fill in the game/materials when I got there!*) started to be second nature. Granted, we don't have the plethora of toys available in a preschool classroom at our home, but we manage :)

*unnecessary disclaimer*: no kids were short-changed therapy due to lack of planning. I actually think it is better to use the materials and activities already happening in the classroom/home/wherever therapy is taking place! The children are already familiar with it and therapy can be more effective than if you have to introduce a new toy or game. *secondary unnecessary disclaimer*: unless your goals have to do with adapting to new environments/changes/etc., of course.

(I'm done now. I could *disclaimer* myself all day, here....)

Radvent Day 2: Balancing

2011-12-02T23:14:00.001-06:00

How do I do it all? Pretty simply, the answer to this question is a firm I DON'T. Not even close. But, I really like to think I can (don't we all?). I have a chronic case of "list overkill." On a typical weekend, I will think the following is an achievable list of tasks to accomplish: 1) Clean the kitchen, 2) Sort through our closet and pull out things we don't wear anymore, 3) Have a garage sale, 4) Make eight, 6-foot tall wooden growth charts by burning the lines and numbers on with a $10 wood burning tool from Wal-Mart, 5) Grocery shop, 6) Take Lincoln to the park, 7) If there is time, pull out weeds from our back garden and re-mulch it.

My list overkill usually leads to me being way disappointed when I only accomplish one --or maybe two, if I'm really on a roll--items from the list. Lucas tries to talk me down from my massive to-do lists, but I just can't stop.

Last January, I made this chore chart to help me keep the house in better order. And it worked! I only tackled one or two chores per day, and at the end of the week I got to see all the little magnets moved below the line. After Bennett was born, the chore chart may have taken a little hiatus, but I am pleased to announce that it went back into rotation this week! I found that if I tackle the two jobs right after breakfast and before Bennett's first nap, I have a higher likelihood of actually getting them done. No one is fussy yet, we usually don't have anywhere to be...it's just a good time of day for getting things done.

I am going to keep my to-do list for this weekend at a manageable level. Here goes:

1) Clean the living room.
2) Put out the Christmas decorations.
3) List items on Craig's List.

(It is pretty hard to stop at three. I won't lie.)

Radvent Day 1: Challenging

2011-12-01T20:56:00.001-06:00

I just wrote a long blog post about the poor sleeping habits of Mr. B. Then, I deleted it. When I was rereading it, it just felt like one big, long whine fest. Yes, lack of sleep is challenging, but I am tired of complaining about it (ha! "tired"--get it? pun!).

Instead, I am just going to leave the "why I am grateful" part. Bennett is already 7 months. 7 months!! Before I know it, he's going to be one. Then 2. Then, old enough that he isn't going to want me to put him to sleep (sniff, sniff!). I am grateful for the chance to snuggle with my baby. Grateful for the fact he does sleep when we go to bed all the way until morning (usually...). Grateful for the sweet baby sounds when he is waking up in the morning. Grateful for these baby years, even thought I'm tired.

And now, time to post this. Mr. B will be up soon!

We're Back

2011-11-30T21:14:00.001-06:00

We got back last night after spending the last week up in Omaha visiting my family for Thanksgiving. The only pictures I took are on my phone...so for now, our trip in bullets.

Total number of flights: 4
Total number of diapers changed on the plane: 0 (way to go, Bennett)
Restaurants visited: Qdoba, Upstream Brewery, Dixie Quicks Public House, La Casa (take-out), Jones Bros. Cupcakes, Runza
Pounds of meat cooked by my mom on Thanksgiving: 25 (roast turkey, crockpot turkey, ham)
Museums visited: Lincoln Children's Museum and the Durham Western Heritage for the lighting of the Christmas tree
Hours Lincoln spent playing in my parent's basement: soooo many. How could he resist? My mom turned it into a grocery store/kitchen/house/space shuttle/helicopter/pool table/tricycle zone of fun!
Average number of times Bennett woke up after we put him down for bed each night and before we went to bed: 3 (a significant portion of our evenings were spent trying to keep him asleep...)
Number of mindless TV shows watched: not enough! (my parents have cable...the land of HGTV, Food Network, Discovery, and more...so much more than our antenna!). We were fortunate to get sucked into a few fantastic marathons of Storage Wars, American Pickers, Pawn Stars, and Law and Order.
Lincoln's favorite phrases: "We going to Omaha?!?", "Grandpa/Grandma, I want you to pway wif me in the bassent!", "No, I wanna eat breakfast/lunch/dinner. I jus' wanna pway in the bassent."
Cutest Lincoln word on the way home: "shucacahgo" (i.e., "Chicago")

Tomorrow, it is December. DECEMBER. How the heck did that happen?

Here are some goals for the month:

1. Blog everyday. I'm going to try my best to participate in Radvent series over at Princess Lasertron. I started last year, but didn't make it the whole series. I am going to try again, though!

2. Daily random acts of kindness. This is our goal for Advent this year; I have some good ideas (mostly taken from other blogs...), but am hoping to come up with more with Lincoln's help!

3. Be more patient with Lincoln.

4. Take more "me" time (Lucas has made me promise I'll take at least 2 nights a month to myself...I have a problem remembering to do that...)

5. Make Lucas an amazing cheesecake.

Mr. B is 7 months!

2011-11-20T21:01:00.001-06:00

This month Bennett has:

Had his first taste of solid food. So far he has sampled sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, apples, squash, chicken, pears, peaches, and....puffs. Out of that incredible list, the far and away favorite are the uber healthy puffs (ha. uber healthy.) Oddly, his second favorite food has been the chicken.

Can push around a box or walker toy from room to room.
Laughs hysterically.
Holds a ukele in the proper position and actually strums the strings.

Loves to listen to music and the guitar.
Wore his first long-sleeve onesie and footed pajamas. Then 2 days later went back to short-sleeves and shorts.
His first tooth finally started poking through 2 days before the month ended. (it has now been almost a week, and it still isn't all the way through. HURRY UP, TOOTH.)
Smacks his tongue and always has it hanging out of his mouth :)

Got a new insert for our his car seat. Amazingly, it actually helped. I was extremely skeptical, but it has been a huge change. He will ride happily short distances and fall asleep so much easier. He still doesn't like long rides, but who does, really? Before you ask...yes, it has been tested for crash safety :)

Sleep update: apparently, you can still have a sleep regression even though you are pretty much the worst sleeper ever. Tonight, for example, Bennett woke up every 15 minutes for the first hour and a half he was down. Ri-dic-u-lous.

First Halloween! He was a one-eyed, furry, blue monster.
Finally likes to take a bath! We discovered he just really wanted to be sitting up by himself in the big tub instead of in the infant bathtub. No more tears=more frequent baths=cleaner baby. :)

Happy 7 months, Mr. B!

A Little Lincoln

2011-11-14T11:19:00.001-06:00

When Lincoln sees something little, he says, "it's a widdle, tiny wod! It's so fyute!" (all little things are cute to Lincoln).
Lincoln spent half a day carrying around one of my old flip-flops over the weekend. First it was a basket of fish, then it was a telephone. I'm not sure which incarnation it was when he insisted on bringing it into the restaurant for lunch (yep, that IS in fact a flip-flop our son is playing with...).
When we see another person (note: all people Lincoln does not know are referred to as "neighbors"), Lincoln will walk right up and tell them some really interesting details such as "I dot a widdle scwatch on my hand. I dot it a Winton's house!" or "I dot new pants! Mama buyed dem at the store for me!"
Lincoln is obsessed with his finger nails.
Order is very important to Lincoln (as it is to most toddlers). Example: Lucas backed his truck into the driveway the other day instead of pulling straight in so that he could unload something from the back. Lincoln freaked out because it was parked the wrong way.
Things that cause Lincoln to freak out: Bennett touching his food, not being able to get his shoes off, Bennett pulling his hair (BIG time freak-out material there), not having candy for breakfast (not a problem now that the Halloween candy is gone), spilling something on himself (e.g., water, yogurt, other foods...).
Besides the freak-outs, which really are just typical toddler behavior, Lincoln is the sweetest kid ever. He loves hugs, talks in the sweetest baby talk to Bennett, and gives Bennett kisses on his head.

He is learning to share like a pro. His friend recently had a birthday, and Lincoln picked out a few of his own toys to give him along with the rest of the present. He was soooo excited for Rowan to have his motorcycle! Also, we gave the rest of our Halloween candy to the soldiers abroad (the city was collecting it for care packages). At the Veteran's Day ceremony we attended, Lincoln kept saying, "the soldiers are eating my candy! They really like it!"
He still loves school. There have only been a handful of days that he has not wanted to go, and even on those days he perks up when we get there. We've only had one day when he cried, and I think it was because one of his teachers was out sick and he didn't know the sub.

He loooooves books. He recently started reading them aloud by himself at bedtime. He likes for us to read our own book simultaneously, but really we just watch him because it's so stinkin' cute.

Inspiration Room at The Handmade Home

2011-10-26T12:30:00.001-05:00

I recently was one of the lucky winners of a room inspiration board at one of my favorite blogs, The Handmade Home. I sent in some pictures of the room of my choice (hello, long and narrow, hard-to-define, front room!) and Ashley whipped up this amazing design in 2 days. TWO DAYS. If I'd had, let's say, 4.5 years to come up with something, it wouldn't have looked anywhere near as good (wait, how long have we live here?).

You can check out Ashley's amazing inspiration board here! Please leave her a comment to let her know what a good job she did. Her blog is full of great DIY ideas, too (like this pendant light, or this sweet double loft bed).

THANKS, Ashley!

i heart faces: Let them be little

2011-10-24T23:28:00.002-05:00

Figured I might as well enter this week since the theme happens to fit about 97% of my photo library...

Here is Mr. Amazing Eyes--he seems to be contemplating something deeply important here. In reality, he was chewing his granola bar. Extremely focused, nonetheless.

More entries here!

Rocking Chair Makeover

2011-10-24T13:17:00.000-05:00

I found this old, well-loved rocking chair at a garage sale in the neighborhood. It was only $3, so I bought it, brought it home, and stuck in the garage until I had time to fix it up. Fast forward two years later....

(I am short on time, long on projects I'd like to accomplish)

I sanded the chair down and then accidentally left it outside during the one time it has rained in the last oh, 5 months? Yep. Anyway, the rain caused some weirdness to happen with the coating on the chair (i.e., it all flaked off and could now basically just be brushed away with a towel), so that made my job a bit easier. Not that I recommend leaving untreated wood out in the rain--not so good for the wood. We also had to repair the top right spindle on the chair. It was broken in half and just tied together with some twine, so we (and by we, I mean Lucas) reattached it with some tiny screws. Good as new!

I gave the chair a coating of spray on primer, followed by 2 coats of Rust-oleum Ultra Cover spray paint in Aqua. After everything had dried, I finished up with a clear topcoat and added a cushion from the summer clearance at Home Depot plus an adorable baby. If you try this at home, baby is optional.

This chair will be for outside use on our deck. The paint job is good, but not great--thus regulating itself for outdoor use. I will probably bring it inside if it should ever rain here again (not holding my breath for anytime soon, of course), just because I don't exactly trust my topcoat. I'm a novice spray painter, and I've seen what water did to this chair the first time around.

(also-please disregard the dead lawn in the background. no rain=watering restrictions=dry and dead grass=thriving chinch bug population).

The Pumpkin Patch!

2011-10-23T00:30:00.000-05:00

"We going to da pumpkin patch?!?"

Lincoln was pretty excited to learn that we were headed out to the pumpkin patch. He may have reminded us about it about 100 times. Sometimes it is better to wait until you are actually in the car on your way to a place before telling you children where you are headed. Not that I would know from experience, as I almost always cave and tell Lincoln the fun things we are going to do the next day while he is getting ready for bed the night before. I have almost zero will power.

Duck races! These were a huge hit last year, and just as exciting this year! We also had Lincoln stand in front the growth chart. Almost to the 3, big guy.

Petting the goats.

He looooooves ducks.

Mr. B was there, too! That's a lot of orange, Mr. B.

Lincoln and I rode the barrel train. Lincoln held onto those horns the entire ride. He kept saying, "I having so much fun, mama! Whoooaaaaa! Da wheels are turning!"

I'm gonna touch 'em.

Giddyup, my metal swine friend.

That's a sweet ride, right there.

This slide was super fun. I would like to have one in my backyard. Lucas?

I think Bennett's face is pretty awesome here. "Where the heck is my sno-cone, huh??"

You'll notice there are no pictures of any pumpkins. We actually never made it out to the field--way too much fun on the rest of the farm. All the way to the pumpkin patch and no pumpkin to show for it. But, I think that happy kid in those pictures still had a great time. We'll get our pumpkin closer to home this year :)

Half a Year/6 months of Bennett

2011-10-21T21:40:00.002-05:00

Bennett has now been around for 6 entire months. Half of a year. And he has been crazy intent on leaving "babyhood" in the dust. I was telling someone the other day that I feel like I really only had 2 months of baby time time with Bennett. Ever since he hit 3 months, we haven't been able to keep him still. No laying on his blanket on the floor, lazily playing with his toys. Nope. I have to either have him tied to me while I move around the house (in a carrier, of course!!), or be in the same room with him to prevent him from falling off the fireplace, eating Lincoln's micro machines, or dumping Wembley's water. I remember this stage from Lincoln, only we had a lot longer to prepare for it with him. Bennett gives a hearty "pssssssh" to the typical schedule for developmental milestones. Our pediatrician thinks he'll be walking by 7-8 months. Eek.

From the past month:

Bennett was pulling up last month, but he is cruising now. Around the crib, along the fireplace, along the windowsill, couch, you name it.

First road trip--all the way to Dallas. He slept the first leg (to College Station), then slept half the second half and cried for the rest of the trip. Boo. It was sad :(
Babbling--adah-adah-adah-bllllllllllllfffffff. LOTS of raspberries.

BIG laughs, but he is kind of stingy with them. Things are usually funny only once. Lincoln gets the biggest laughs from Bennett. He is much more easy going with smiles. Lots and lots of smiles!

Sleep--no big changes. Still crappy.
Favorite toy: rubber snake.

He is way interested in food. We gave him his first taste on his 6 month birthday--banana. He was unimpressed. A few days later, he was blown away by sweet potato. So good!

Lincoln loves playing with Bennett in the pack and play or on our bed. Bennett has also started "chasing" Lincoln around, following him under the kitchen table or around corners, smiling the while time. Yay, brothers!

Looking more and more like the bigger guy. A lot.

We're glad you're here, Bennett! We love you and can't wait to see what's in store for the next 6 months!

Aetna Healthy Food Fight

2011-10-17T22:59:00.002-05:00

This past weekend was the Aetna Healthy Food Fight Cook-off in Dallas at the State Fair. My first public cooking experience! Woohoo! I had a great time. Lucas and his mom were so kind to document the day for me...

At my station, ready to cook! I used every last leaf from that basil plant.

Being interviewed by the host before we started cooking.

Toasting up some almonds.

Floating baby!

More interviewing.

Shelling some edamame...lots and lots of it. At home, I used already shelled edamame, but they weren't able to find it for the cook-off. After shelling the whole bag, I was still 1/3 cup short!

Lincoln hanging out while I cook.

Man, those are some cute kids.

Presenting the finished dish to the judges. Pretty sure I should have done much more talking then I actually did...that giant camera there was a little unnerving.

The presentation.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to participate. It was a lot of fun and definitely something that was on my bucket list (although, it has now been revised to WIN a cook-off...). I'm hoping next year that voting will not be a part of the scoring process. I went in knowing I didn't have the numbers in the voting category to have a chance to win (it was a ridiculous 25% of the final score), but am glad I went anyway. Thanks to everyone who voted, wished me luck, drove 7 hours in a car with 2 children, attended the State Fair on a hot and humid day with about a million other people, and otherwise supported me. I appreciate you :)

My Kids

2011-10-05T23:29:00.003-05:00

I have cute kids.

This guy? He doesn't sleep much. But, he makes up for that by making faces like this and cracking up at silly things like Lincoln shaking his head or someone sneezing.

And this kid? His eyes are a-maz-ing. He is at this really awesome age where everything that comes out of his mouth is hilarious. For example: "I donna wick the toilet." To which Lucas responded, "No! We do not lick toilets." Lincoln: "I da twy it...." in a really sweet, sing-songy voice. (He then proceeded to lick the toilet, which was not hilarious).

He is also testing lots of limits-running ahead of us down the street, climbing up the dressers, climbing into and out of Bennett's crib...

See those mischievous eyes??

Mr. B! Such a happy guy. Lincoln calls him Twubby Teeks (Chubby Cheeks).

Just after this picture, he threw the donut and stood up. Today, Lucas saw him cruise along the rail in the crib. The walking...it is coming.

Happy Kids!

This Week's Menu

2011-10-04T22:47:00.003-05:00

Dinners:
Ground Beef Gorditas (from The Pastry Queen) (I can't wait to try these) (I seriously thought about them like 10 times today) (If they aren't good, I might cry)
Pesto Pasta
That's as far as I've gotten...

Lunches:
Annie's Mac n Cheese (I added grape tomatoes to this today and it was a nice change), pasta salad, cheese and crackers, peanut butter and jelly, green smoothies

Breakfasts:
cereal, yogurt and granola, pancakes (frozen, leftover from a special someone's birthday...)

Snacks:
Homemade oatmeal cream pies (yep), clif kid's z-bars, grapes, strawberries, raspberries (side note: i have sent raspberries and strawberries in lincoln's lunch twice now, and he only eats the strawberries. when he gets home, i offer him the rest of the raspberries, and he eats them all. weird).

Menu Plan

2011-10-04T22:38:00.001-05:00

This is last weeks...I'm behind on my blogs, but I liked some of these new recipes and don't want to forget them for future menus.

Dinners:
Chicken Dijon (Food & Wine, September 2011)
Sausage and Lentil Stew (Food & Wine, September 2011)
Waffles
Turkey Burgers

That's all. New week's menu up next.

sleeeeeeep

2011-10-03T00:00:00.001-05:00

Have I mentioned that Lincoln is now the world's most awesome sleeper? Well, he is. He goes to sleep on his own (we lay with him and sing songs/tell him stories for 15 minutes or so, then leave the room), wakes up briefly for a bathroom break when we go to bed, then back to sleep until morning. Amazing, considering he started off as the world's most awful sleeper. He did not sleep through the night until age 2. He did not fall asleep on his own until after Bennett was born. He was a terrible, terrible sleeper. And now he is awesome.

Bennett, on the other hand, started off as the best sleeper ever! From the time we put him down, he would sleep 4-5 hours, wake up to eat, back down for 2-3 more, up to eat again, and sleep until morning. It was beautiful. It was magnificent. It was short lived. If we were grading him, he has fallen from an A+ down to a D-. I'll stop short of failing him, but if he wakes up before I finish writing this blog, I'll probably reconsider...

A good sleeping day for Mr. B looks a little something like this:

7:00-7:30ish: Bennett starts squirming around and flapping his arms, usually smacking me in the face and/or pulls out my hair. Goooooood morning!

8:30-9:30ish: It's time for nap! First, I nurse him. Sometimes I get lucky and he will fall asleep nursing, after which I can just lay him in the crib. Most times, he finishes eating then pulls himself to a standing position just because he can. Phase 2: Bennett is popped into the mei tai and worn around the house. If he particularly squirmy, I turn on Bright Eyes (The People's Key). It's kind of like a baby tranquilizer. Once he is asleep, into the crib he goes.

8:45-11:45ish: Bennett will wake up anywhere from 15 minutes to 1.5 hours after I put him down. It's kind of a crapshoot. Once he wakes up, he is up. Scaling crib walls, doing log rolls, crawling around the crib...there is no going back to sleep at this point.

2:00ish: Another nap. See above for how this goes down.

(note: there are sometimes other mini naps in there...they aren't consistent, but if they happen, they are around 45 minutes long...a single sleep cycle, basically)

4:30-5:00ish: Bennett is exhausted. We are now faced with the dilemma of either keeping him awake through dinner until bedtime or letting him take a catnap. We have tried both, and neither one seems to help him at bedtime. So we kind of just do whatever we are feeling that day.

7:00-8:00ish: It begins. We do the bedtime routine: bath (not daily...), fresh diaper, new onesie, night-night to Lincoln. I take Bennett and nurse him. He rarely falls asleep this way, so then Lucas or I will wear him in the mei tai. If Lucas has him, he plays guitar until Bennett is asleep. If I have him, I push play on the CD player (I have listened to The People's Key more times than I care to admit...). Once asleep, we put him in the crib.

5-10 minutes later: We hear the crib creaking and peek in the room. Bennett is standing upright and peering at us through the crib. He will then either try to scale the wall to jump out or fall down and hit his head. We pick him up. Sometimes if he is still groggy enough, we put him back in the mei tai or nurse him again to try and get him back down. Sometimes if he is bouncing around and clearly wide awake, we take him to the living room to wear him back out.

30-60 minutes later: Repeat bedtime. Put him in the crib.

15-20 minutes later: Bennett is awake again. He stands up, then falls down and bonks his head. Pick him up.

Bennett now gets to stay up and do P90X with us. This may seem like a punishment for him, but in reality it is a punishment for Lucas and me. Have you tried exercising with a 5 month old crawling around your feet? Not easy, friends.

10:00ish: Bennett finally falls asleep. He is in his crib. Lucas and I finish exercising/watching TV/whatever and get ready for bed. We get in bed and Lucas goes to sleep. I attempt to sleep, but end up just laying there because I know the second I fall asleep, Bennett will wake up.

11:30-12:00ish: Bennett wakes up (I knew it!!!). I pull him into bed with us, nurse him, and there he stays until morning. Unless, he doesn't. Sometimes he wakes up around 3:00 WIDE AWAKE and ready for the day. He will be squealing, rolling around, climbing over us....This results in Lucas or I having to wear him around the house until he is asleep, because 3:00 is not an acceptable wake up time. I've walked him for up to 2 hours some nights.

To answer some questions in advance:

1. Do we ever let him just cry himself to sleep?

I don't do cry it out (just personal choice), but even if I did, I am pretty convinced it wouldn't work. As mentioned above, if Bennett wakes up, he stands up and then either tries to climb out or falls down and hits his head. I don't really think leaving him in there by himself is very safe.

2. Does he like to rock?

No.

3. What's a mei tai?

It's a baby carrier.

4. What have you tried?

I started an experiment today to see if Bennett would fall asleep on our bed if I just laid there next to him (I felt our bed was safer than his crib--in his crib, he falls and hits his head on the hard sides). He laid there a long time, just talking to himself, rolling back and forth, scratching his fingers on the sheets. I could tell he was getting tired. Then, he started crawling around the bed. I had to stop him from getting too close to the edge, so I would pick him up and lay him back down. Then he started scaling the head board. At this point he was super tired. I laid him down again and he sprang back up on all fours and crawled around like a crazy person. He was headed for the head board again, but I don't think he knew what he was doing and was about to smack his head into it, crying the whole time. I finally laid him down again and let him nurse...he was asleep in about 30 seconds. I put him in the crib. 5 minutes later, he woke up, stood up, and tried to climb out. Other than that, we haven't tried much. He is still pretty young, so sleep training wasn't even on the radar.

Here's what I know. I know eventually he will be an awesome sleeper like Lincoln. I also know that we need more sleep. I will keep trying with my experiment outlined above. I think if he could fall asleep laying next to me, then I could eventually move farther and farther away and he might fall asleep by himself. To be clear, I don't mind nursing him at night, and I don't mind bringing him in our bed, but I would really like him to stay asleep more than 15-20 minutes at a time. Also, any ideas how to tell a 5 month old to stop standing up because you are going to fall and hit your head?

Please share your stories of terrible sleepers. I need to know I'm not alone here.

This Week's Menu

2011-09-21T23:08:00.001-05:00

Dinners:
Taco Salads with corn
Turkey Burgers and Grillin' Beans
Waffles
Ziti with Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms, and Feta (found on Pinterest!)

Lunches:
Mac n Cheese, jelly sandwiches, leftovers, out to lunch with Lucas at Wael's Cafe

Breakfast:
cereal, leftover birthday pancakes, baked oatmeal

Snacks:
Clif Kid's Z-bars, grapes, birthday cake!, banana ice cream (Pinterest, again)

He's Crawling!

2011-09-21T23:01:00.000-05:00

Real, alternating knees, crawling.

5 months, and 2 days.

Aetna Healthy Food Fight

2011-09-20T15:29:00.000-05:00

I have a recipe entered in the Aetna Healthy Food Fight contest and am humbly asking for your votes. In order to get to the actual cook-off round, I need to be one of the top 48 voted for recipes. In my region (Dallas), there are 90 entries. So, I pretty much just need to be in the top half of votes!

This is a vote daily type of contest, and you do need to register to vote (only once, then you can just go to the site and click vote after that...). Voting goes from today through October 3rd. The link below takes you directly to my recipe, or you can do a search for it by name: "Lemon-Almond Pesto Pasta with Edamame and Arugula." I will probably be sending reminders via Facebook and Twitter. It will probably get annoying. I apologize in advance. Being in a cook-off is one of my life goals--I'd love your help to make it happen!

Vote Here for Kelly's Recipe!

5 Months (and 31 years...)

2011-09-18T22:38:00.003-05:00

It's a double birthday today! Bennett is now 5 months old (what?!), and I am now...older than him. Lincoln told me I am 3 and old. Pretty darn close. 31! Last year I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish before I turned 30. 5 items, no problem right? To date, number of items completed=zero. Fail! I have a new plan for this year (I took year #30 off from goal setting. I know my limits.), but I haven't had the time to write it up yet. Maybe I'll get to it tonight; maybe not. I can do what I want! It's my birthday!

Meanwhile, Bennett has been all about accomplishments this month. In fact, this morning he led off the day by pulling himself up to a standing position in his pack and play. I think he figured rolling, crawling, sitting up unassisted, and holding himself in the downward dog position like a pro just weren't enough. This is a birthday, people! Bring your "A" game!

Other momentous events this month:

"I'm gonna cram this whole fist in my mouth."

As mentioned above, he can crawl, scoot, and pretty much roll his way across any room, flooring, obstacle, and person in his path. He has launched himself into a brick fireplace, gotten stuck under a couch, rolled on top of some (very pokey) matchbox cars, and rolled a scooter across the living room with one arm.

"I'm gonna eat you, wipes! Get in my belly!"

He sat up for the first time by pushing himself from his tummy straight back into in upright position on 9/5/2011. Yesterday, he discovered he doesn't need to use his hands to support himself anymore since he has been doing P90X with us at night and has super hero core strength. Pretty bizarre to see a baby this small sitting up in the middle of the living room.

"Look, mama! It's easy! I'm gonna jump right out of here!"

First airplane trip. My uncle Paul passed away early this month. Bennett and I were able to get a flight up to Omaha to be with family and attend the funeral. This was Bennett's first trip out of the state, and I was pretty nervous since (as I've mentioned before), he is not a comfort nurser. With Lincoln, all I had to do on the airplane was nurse him and he'd fall asleep. I had to get a little more creative with Bennett. This included requesting my own row on every flight (we flew American, and no flight was ever full), holding the pacifier in his mouth during takeoff and landing, changing his diaper in the tiny airplane bathroom after he pooped 10 minutes into the flight (TWICE.), squeaking the giraffe over and over again, holding him up to the window, and practically forcing him to nurse at one point to stop a 20 minute crying spell (cause by changing his diaper in the tiny airplane bathroom...). He did manage to fall asleep, eventually, and we were even complimented on how well he did on the flight (I guess they must have missed the crying?), so over all, no so bad!

"I could stand here all day."

Bennett met lots of new family while we were up in Omaha. I didn't have my camera with me, but I'll see if I can get my mom to send some to post here..
Flapped his arms! All the time! Flap! Hit the table! Hit the floor! Hit his own face and wake himself up!

Taking a break from flapping.

Sleep update: I have already mourned the loss of my amazing sleeper and moved on. This new sleeper that has taken Bennett's place goes something like this-down for the night at 8. Up at 8:20! Down at 9:00. Up at 9:30! Just in time for P90X with mama and daddy! Down at 11:00. Up at 12:30! I bring him into bed with us and he is restless and/or nursing most of the night. Sometimes if I have to get up to go to the bathroom, he wakes up and then needs walking around until he falls back to sleep. So, I try not to do that...

"P90X. I hate it...but, I love it."

Laughs, smiles, and babbles. He's a talker, that guy!

"You gettin' all up in my bidness?"

Got a new carseat...today, actually. He's been for two rides in it so far, and slept both times. Fingers crossed it isn't a fluke, but rather the magical powers of Britax.

Lucas made me an amazing s'mores birthday cake. I love s'mores.

He must really love me, that guy!

The only candle we had in the house was a letter "Y". Happy "Y" day!

And, I would be remiss if I didn't post a picture of this new birthday breakfast tradition: cake batter pancakes and hashbrowns. It's a beautiful thing.

Happy Birthday, Bennett (and me!)

First Day of MDO

2011-09-16T23:33:00.000-05:00

Lincoln started attending a Mother's Day Out program this fall. I was on the fence for a LONG time whether or not to enroll him in the program (waited so long in fact that we got the last spot in the class on the worst days--Monday/Friday, in case you were wondering. Why? Because out of the school year, there are 6 Mondays and 6 Fridays on which there is no school (holidays...there are actually more days I didn't count, but they are enveloped in Christmas and Spring Break, and thus affect everyone, not just the M/F peeps). That's 12 days of school we pay for that we don't get to attend. We switched our days to Monday/Wednesday (thanks to whichever family dropped out of Wednesdays, thus opening a spot for Lincoln!) and automatically have 6 extra days of school. Cha-ching!) End rambling.

Anyway, I readied myself to cry for days on end once school started (my baby! he's too little! *sob*), and then somehow, miraculously managed to hold it together. Nary a tear was shed, by either mama or the little guy. I think it helped that he was SO excited for school--how could I be sad when he was literally sleeping with the thermos we bought him for his lunches because he loved it so much?

Morning of:

These pancakes started off as blueberry, but became blueberry chocolate chip, because who can deny their first born child chocolate chips on the first day of school? If I'd had whipped cream, and he had asked for it, you better believe I would've piled it on...

First day of school picture! Backpack, thermos, and lunchbag, check!

Lincoln headed straight for the monster trucks when we got to the classroom. He looked a little worried when we left, but he did fine!

I made Lincoln a napmat, since they take naps at mother's day out. Wodats! I was really doubtful that Lincoln would do any actual sleeping on this napmat...the way it works, all the kids lay down on their mats on the floor next to each other and somehow go to sleep. When I went to pick him up on the first day, I was blown away because every single kid in that room was sound asleep. How in the world???

Lincoln was so sound asleep when I picked him up the first day that every other child had picked up their mats, packed their backpacks, and left the room. I had to wake him up, and he was soooo groggy. School wore him out! Highlights of the day: exercise ("I do a pull-up!), singing songs, and using his new napmat.

So, there we go. My baby is growing up.

Green Smoothies

2011-09-13T23:33:00.003-05:00

Lincoln is waaaaay into samoovies (smoothies). We make them for lunch at least 3 times a week.

The process:

Lincoln wakes up from nap saying, "Mama, let's go make a samoovie! Need all da inbredients!"
We run to the kitchen and get out the blender and Lincoln's stool.

We add all our "inbredients": this particular one has frozen strawberries, pineapple, and mango, blueberries, raspberries, spinach, a tiny bit of lemonade, and water.

Blend it up! It's gonna be a widdle woud! (Lincoln runs into the other room at this point while I blend).

Enjoy your samoovie!

(Note: our blender is a Kitchen Aid 5 speed. It works great for what we blend--we do have tiny flecks of spinach, though. Doesn't bother us, but just fyi. It was either tiny flecks of spinach or spend Lincoln's college savings on a Vitamix. Flecks it is!)

This Week's Menu

2011-09-12T22:11:00.001-05:00

Hello, poor neglected blog.

I have lots of excuses as to why I haven't updated in so long, but I'll spare you the litany. Instead, look! We're going to eat this week! I'm sure you probably are, too, so if you need some ideas, please help yourself. Speaking of food, I'm hungry and there is a bag of chocolate chips in my pantry (and soon, they will be in my mouth).

Dinners:
Pasta Primavera and cantaloupe
Balsamic glazed porkchops with sweet potato fries
Chicken stir-fry and rice
Chicken lettuce wraps
Pasta with pesto cream sauce

Lunches:
cheese and crackers, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, green smoothies, quesadillas, jelly sandwiches, Annie's mac n cheese

Breakfasts:
ce-ro-ro (cereal) and milk, wogit and fwunchies (yogurt and "crunchies"--granola), baked oatmeal

Snacks:
Clif Kid's Z-bars, fruit, chocolate chips (if I don't eat them all tonight....)

Mango Salsa

2011-09-02T23:16:00.000-05:00

After a big lull in blog posting due to a lack of time and sleep, I am determined to get at least 2 posted soon. Bennett has gone from scooting to basically crawling, and I have no documentation since I use my blog as our only baby book (Lincoln actually has a paper baby book, but the only parts filled in are from his birth...). But first, a recipe.

I have a bunch of recipes just waiting to be published, but this one seemed the most timely since tomatoes should be in season (not here of course...you have to have weather under 100 degrees to have tomatoes). I DO have peppers, though! So the above salsa was made with red bell peppers and jalapeños from my garden and tomatoes from my mom and dad's garden (mom was visiting from Omaha).

Printable Recipe Here!

Mango Salsa

adapted from a recipe of my brother's

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango, chopped

2 medium tomatoes, rough chopped

1 small, sweet onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 sweet pepper (red, yellow, or orange), diced

2 jalapeños, diced (use more if you like a hotter salsa)

1-2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, minced

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine mango, tomatoes, onion, garlic, sweet pepper, and jalapeños in a bowl.

2. Whisk together balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Pour over vegetable mix and stir to coat. Stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper.

Serve with tortilla chips!

This Week's Menu

2011-08-23T22:55:00.001-05:00

Bennett has decided he never needs to sleep. This makes me tired and much less likely to blog. Also, he likes to be carried a lot during the day because he is grumpy, because he never sleeps. I spy an easy solution to this problem, but try telling that to an overtired, teething, nearly crawling 4 month old.

I didn't post a menu last week, but believe it or not, we did eat. Amazing, I know.

Dinners:
Lemon Basil Pasta with Edamame (recipe coming later this week, if I get some sleep)
King's Pizza (we have a Groupon to use)
Dos Toros tacos with corn on the cob
Chicken korma and brown rice
Waffles with fancy butter (we splurge every so often and buy the good stuff...meaning the really high butterfat kind)
breaded porkchops with roasted red pepper sauce and pasta

Lunches:
leftovers
green smoothies (this has become our new favorite lunch...Lincoln calls them "samoovies")
cheese and crackers

Breakfasts:
Cereal, yogurt and granola, maybe baked oatmeal if I feel like it

Snacks:
goldfish crackers, cliff kid's z-bars, mango salsa and chips

Four Months of Bennett

2011-08-19T23:15:00.001-05:00

How four months have already past is beyond me. Bennett seems to be growing overnight.

Lincoln and Bennett are best friends already. Bennett lights up when Lincoln is around--he smiles and scoots towards him. Lincoln has taken to patting him on the head, and especially likes for Bennett to read books with him in his room before nap.

Bennett has really been making eye contact and following people's voices recently.

He's also been on the move...as in he will cross the living room through a combo of scooting/crawling. The past few days he's been on his hands and knees rocking back and forth. Am I going to have a crawling 5 month old?!?

Lucas went to Portland for a conference this month. He was gone 5 days. When he got back, Lucas said Bennett had noticeably changed. THAT'S how fast this kid is growing.

Bennett has also become quite vocal--screaming, squealing, babbling, blowing bubbles. It's awesome.
Sleep...sigh. We were doing soooo good on the sleep thing--down for 5 hour stretch, up to eat, down for 2-3 more hours, up to eat, down for another 2-3, up for the day. And now...it makes me sad just to think about it. We no longer have the 5 hour stretch at the beginning. It varies from 20 minutes (!!!) to 2-3 hours, mostly leaning towards a 1-2 hour time frame before he wakes up for the first time. Then he wakes again an hour or two later again. Then he is restless the rest of the night. Naps are pretty restless, too. We've gone from getting a good 2-3 hour nap, plus a handful of shorter 30 minute-an hour naps to a bunch of short 30 minute naps. If we're lucky, we'll sometimes get an hour and a half. Sometimes he'll only nap 2-3 hours total the entire day. GET SOME SLEEP, BENNETT!!!!

This is one of Lincoln's favorite new poses for the camera.

That's Baby McGrabsalot reaching for Lincoln's hair. He'll grab onto anything within reach--hair, toys, pillows, burpcloths, hamburgers (Lucas' lunch was nearly a causality the other day), his own shirt...and all of it is aimed at his mouth. We think he is teething--he will gnaw your finger until is actually gets painful!

Bennett has also become a huge fan of his jumper--Lincoln, too, actually. They both spend a lot of time in there :)

Happy 4 Months, Bennett!!

Oh, and 2 bonus videos:

Sunprints

2011-08-19T21:38:00.000-05:00

I have about 20 posts in a backlog waiting to be written. I figured I'd start with this one, since it has actually been waiting since...August 2010. Yep, that's a year ago. I need more time in the day.

Sunprints are a crazy easy project--all you need is a sheet of construction paper and some objects from your yard or around your house!

So easy even your dog who that just barely passed obedience school can do it! (seriously...Wembley isn't the sharpest crayon in the box. I think the instructor passed him so we wouldn't have to retake the class, thus ensuing another fun filled 8 weeks with Wembley!)

Place the objects wherever you like on the paper. Make sure you leave it somewhere that will get direct sunlight for a few hours--I think we left ours out there for 2 (during nap time).

When you go back out, remove the objects and check out your newly printed paper!

You could stop at this point...this would make great wrapping paper. Or, you could give your child paint and stretch this into another art project. We obviously chose option #2.

Have fun!

Balance Bake Makeover

2011-08-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

A few months ago, I scored a sweet deal on a balance bike for Lincoln on Craig's List. These babies run for around $100 new...I got Lincoln's for $30. Bam! As you can see...it was a tad on the girly side. Lincoln surely didn't mind, nor did I, but we decided that we'd ask Lincoln if he'd prefer a different color and use that to gauge if we should paint it or not (note: we were painting it anyway...Lucas said it was way too girly...I was just trying to play it like we were all about the gender neutrality. You know, progressive parenting and such. Which we totally have no problem with at all. Just so you know, we would have let him keep it purple if he wanted. He chose orange.)

Lucas took the entire bike apart and taped it up real careful-like, then broke out the spray paint. Orange! Orange wheels! Orange seat! Orange splash guards (you know, for toddler off-roading...)! The swirls and crowns were just stickers, so we peeled them off. The handle bars are rubber, so they remained purple. Orange and purple! They totally go together!

(yep, that's a dead hydrangea. It's dry here. Watering restrictions dry. Worst drought ever, they say. As in EVER--since they started keeping weather records ever. We need rain.)

Lincoln picked out the helmet himself. I showed him the whole page of options, secretly hoping he would pick the black helmet with "DANGER" emblazoned in red across the front. For obvious reasons. He went with the white one with stripes. Three times (I really pushed the danger one...) in a row. So, white stripes it was. Lucas says I should have made him "choose" the danger one. Eh.

He likes it! "I'm gonna wide my bike! Mama, put my helmet on. Mama, put the kickstand up. Mama, pome (come) wif me!" We're still working on the independent riding thing...

Why I Won't Delete My Facebook Account

2011-08-05T07:00:00.001-05:00

Every so often, I notice a status update in my Facebook feed from someone stating that they are deleting their Facebook account, or taking a break from Facebook, or giving Facebook up for Lent, etc. I'll be honest...I've had a Facebook account for awhile (I think 2007?), but at the time I joined I remember that it seemed everyone else had already made the switch over from Myspace. I actually felt like I was a late adopter. I was resistant at first...but gradually grew to like how easy it was to upload pictures, find out what my friends were up to (my family were all much later adopters...in fact, my brother just dove in this past May), and keep track of the organizations and stores I like.
The concept of giving up your Facebook account (whether permanently or temporarily) is one I just can't wrap my head around. It actually makes me sad when I read that someone is stepping away and I'll tell you why. First off, I should mention that it hasn't nothing to do with Facebook itself. I'm not singing the praises of Facebook, Inc.; it just happens to be the current platform that people are using to stay connected. I have been able to connect with friends and family on Facebook that I haven't seen or heard from in years. Honestly, if I hadn't found them on Facebook, I probably wouldn't have ever seen or heard from many of them again. Some may say that that alone is a reason to get rid of your account...if you weren't going to have those people in your life in the first place, why bother? I say that is exactly why you should bother. I am grateful to have all of these people (that means you!) in my life again...even if just virtually. I live far away from my hometown. Getting glimpses of life from back home, even in snippets 420 characters or less, is fuel for the soul. Hearing about new babies, career moves, and accomplishments makes me proud. Reading about other mamas dealing with temper tantrums or sleepless nights helps me get through the day. Funny links or Facebook pranks make me laugh. I even love to read your new recipes and book suggestions (and you know I post enough of these myself, so I hope you love them too...).
Sometimes people say the reason they are giving up their Facebook account is because they would rather connect with people in person or on the phone. I personally think that is a crappy reason to delete your account. What about your friends who don't live in your same town (or even if they do live in your same town, but work nights/live 40 miles away (hey, it can happen in Houston!)/etc. and can never see you), but would still like to be a part of your life? As much as I would like to connect with you face-to-face, unless you're buying me a plane ticket, it isn't going to happen. And phone calls? Who has time for that? If I had to connect with all of my friends (or even just the close ones!) on a regular basis on the phone, I would literally have no time for anything else and would have to hire a nanny for my children. The obvious argument here is, "if you can't make time to call them, are they really someone you want to keep in your life anyway?" And my answer is YES. I DO want you in my life, but I am probably not going to make the time in my schedule to call you every week (or month...I am pretty bad about phone calls in general).
Another reason I've seen for giving up "The Facebook" is that it is a huge time suck. I agree; it can be. But really...that is an easy fix. Delete your phone app, games, whatever you need to do...but keep your friends. Your inability to manage your time on the internet is not a valid reason to cut people off from your life. (Too harsh? Sorry.) Again, I'd like to point out the obvious argument-"maybe I want to cut people off from my life. Maybe I'm tired off sharing details about my life with everyone and their mom." Again...I think that is a crappy reason. That is where trimming your friends list to people you DO care about and want to keep informed about your life could be useful. I realize that offering that advice could get me cut from some lists...and honestly, that will make me sad. But, if that keeps you connected to the people you really do care about, then by all means, cut-cut.
I realize this sounds like a huge advertisement for Facebook. But honestly, I don't really care if it's Facebook or Google+ or Myspace (ok, probably not MySpace...), I just want some way to stay connected to my friends. And right now, Facebook is "the" way to do that. So, please consider keeping your account. I (and many others) would truly miss you if you leave. That's why we're your friends; we like you in our lives. So trim your friends lists, cut your games, hide your annoying ad pages, and keep us in the loop. Thanks.

Garden Update

2011-08-04T21:33:00.001-05:00

Despite the heat, my garden isn't completely done for this year. I will admit that the tomatoes have slowed down (is it possible to slow down from a production of 10 total?). I haven't had any new fruit on the cherry tomato plant at all for about 4 weeks. There are 2 almost red ones ready to pick, then that will be the last of them (for now...I'm hoping to carry the plant through the heat and get a fall harvest--if that's even possible. haven't really researched it beyond my wishful thinking...). The one on the left is my Heirloom Cherokee Purple. For the longest time, I had nothing on that one. Now, I've got a good dozen fruits about the size of an apricot each. About half of them have brown spots (maybe sun scald), but the rest look great. There are also a bunch of blooms that look promising. So I may luck out with some there! Also, the plants are outgrowing their bamboo trellis. I have ordered a steel trellis that will hopefully take care of this mess...

My other tomato plant (above in the terra cotta pot) is a hybrid intended for high heat and humid climates (read: Houston). That one is a complete dud. Every single bloom has fallen off, it looks sickly, and bugs love it. Boo.

As you can see, my peppers are stinkin' amazing. I've never had luck with peppers. This year, I've got sweet peppers and jalapeños! Woohoo!

"Feed me your tomatoes or I'll eat your first born child. I'm that big."

And this disgusting thing, my friends, is a hornworm. I try to catch them when they are wee little babes (about the length of a penny), but sometimes they just blend in too well, until I find half a branch missing and finally see where they are hiding. Seriously, they look exactly like leaves. As you can see, I have removed the entire leaf. What's that you say? Couldn't I just remove the worm and allow the plant to keep its branch intact? Are you out of your mind?? I'm not touching that thing! That thing is longer than my finger, and it bites. I remove the whole branch, then send it to a watery grave down the toilet. I hope you don't have these in your garden. They are the stuff of nightmares.

Garage Sale Finds: Vintage Glass

2011-08-01T23:35:00.000-05:00

Behold, my recent garage sale scores. I may have a slight addiction to vintage glassware. I am slowly replacing all of our glasses with thrifted printed glasses.

The pink depression glass piece is a candy dish I found at a sale in our neighborhood...the lady had bought a box of glass at an auction, but only wanted the bottles. My quick research online tells me it is a Jeannette cube glass most likely manufactured between 1920-1933. I find it amazing that I purchased a possibly 90 year old candy dish at a garage sale. Depression glass is fascinating to me.

The pitcher and cups are probably not that old...but I like them. And I now have way less room in my cabinets.

This Week's Menu

2011-07-31T22:39:00.000-05:00

I didn't post a menu last week because we hardly cooked...in fact, we didn't even grocery shop. I went to the store today and remembered that I hate grocery shopping on Sundays. The store is ridiculously crowded because everyone else is doing their grocery shopping for the week, too. Blargie!

Dinners:

Lasagna

Soba Noodles with Shrimp & Broccoli

Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce

Pasta with Sausage, Basil, and Mustard

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

(hellooooo week 'o carbs!)

Lunches:

leftovers, Annie's Mac n Cheese, quesadillas, green smoothies

Breakfasts:

cereal, baked oatmeal, yogurt and granola, bananas

Snacks:

cliff kids z-bars, blueberries, grapes

Milk Art

2011-07-28T23:32:00.000-05:00

Lincoln and I tried out this art/science experiment a couple of weeks ago after seeing it on The Artful Parent. It goes really quick, so we did it a few times. It would be a great way to use up milk that is about to go bad!

To start, pour a shallow amount of milk into a pan--we used a 9x9, but really, it makes no difference at all what kind of container you use...bowl, pan, pie plate, avocado green tupperware bowl from the '70s...you get the idea.

Drop food coloring into the milk. We found it worked best to hold the food coloring high above the milk so it made a bigger dot. Do as many dots as you like.

Drop a single drop of dish detergent into the center of the pan (really, you don't need much...) and watch the colors move! It goes fast. I gave Lincoln a toothpick to move the colors around after they slowed down. Another way to do the experiment is to dip a cotton swab in the soap and place that into the milk instead of just dropping the soap in--we'll give that a shot next time.

We also decided to make some prints since the colors made such a cool design. I took some pieces of paper and just laid them lightly on top of the milk and paint, picked them up, and let them dry.

If you are interested in the science behind why this works, I found this description here:

"As soon as dishwashing soap is added, the drops of food coloring and the milk rapidly mix together. The soap is made of molecules that have two ends: a fat-friendly end and a water-friendly end. One end of soap attracts the fat in milk (the non-polar end), and the other end attracts the water in food coloring (the polar end). The food coloring mixes with the milk because the dishwashing liquid acts as a bridge between the two."

Try it! It's easy, quick, and pretty entertaining.

this Week's Menu

2011-07-18T22:33:00.000-05:00

Can't believe I am still managing to keep up with this...

Dinners:
Fish with miso marinade, cranberry almond couscous
Zucchini Bowtie Pasta
Spinach, feta, and red pepper alfredo pizza (I froze leftover sauce and peppers from last time, so just have to make the crust)
Roast chicken with baked zucchini coins and homemade biscuits
Curry chicken and basmati rice (using leftover roast chicken)

Lunches:
leftovers
Annie's mac n cheese
whole wheat bagel pizzas
bean and cheese quesadillas
meet Lucas at Bullritos

Breakfasts:
Baked oatmeal with cherries or strawberries
yogurt, fruit, and granola parfaits
cereal
biscuits and jelly (leftover from dinner)

Snacks:
grapes (these cost me $7.00!!! this week...should have weighed them before putting them in the cart), strawberries, cherries, bananas
cliff kid's z-bars
crackers and cheese
popcorn

Bennett-3 months and counting

2011-07-18T22:11:00.003-05:00

I have been operating under the impression that Bennett would be 3 months tomorrow, but it turns out he actually hit the big 0-3 today. Long story short, I need a calendar. Do they still sell them this late in the year?

In the past month Bennett has:

Rolled over--front to back and back to front. Today he actually attempted to log-roll himself towards Lincoln's dump truck. He made 3 full rolls before getting caught up in the lambswool rug. Pretty impressive.
Grabs ahold of items and aims them towards his mouths--favorites include burp cloths, hair, a stuffed cat, and linking rings.
Similar to the above, he has also discovered his hands and feet and attempts to eat them both.

Grown. We call him "The Chubbers." This attempt at a family picture nicely features his double (sometimes triple) chin. Being that big, one might be inclined to believe he is attached to mama eating all day long. Surprisingly (even to me!), this is not the case. Bennett is an "all-business" nurser. He'll eat when he is hungry, finish in about 5-6 minutes, and that's that. He WILL NOT nurse for comfort. If he is fussy or accidentally gets bopped on the head with a ball (not that that ever happens....ahem), my first instinct is to nurse him. This usually results in a blood curdling scream and a violent arm flailing. I have really had to adjust my comforting techniques this time around because Lincoln was all about the comfort nursing. Until this week, I could count on one hand the number of times I had nursed Bennett to sleep. He nearly always nurses, then pulls off awake, after which I walk him in the mei tai until he is sleepy. Half the time Lucas puts him to bed by playing guitar. He's even been known to fall asleep just laying next to us with his thumb or pacifier in his mouth. All this is so foreign to me, that I quite often search online to make sure it is normal...(it is...but I'll probably still keep checking...)

Bennett LOVES Lincoln. He just grins every time he hears Lincoln's voice or sees his face. Lincoln really likes to pat Bennett on the head and say in this really high, squeaky voice (which I can only imagine is his impression of my voice...sigh) "hi beddett! you happy beddett? need a toy, beddett?" He also thinks is is fun to hold or carry Bennett "by himself." Lucas or I always hold on, too, but Lincoln somehow thinks he is doing it all alone. :)

Bennett had some visitors this month. My mom came down for a couple weeks at the end of June. Unrelated to Bennett, but Lincoln called her "Buddy" almost the entire time she was here. The minute he opened his eyes in the morning, we heard "where'd anoder buddy go? let's go play toys, buddy!"

Aunt Breanne came to visit, too. She, too, was called "Buddy" during the duration of her stay. (Lincoln looks less than pleased in this picture, but it was the best one of all 3 of them looking at the camera...).

Bennett and Lincoln both got to visit Mission Control at NASA during the final shuttle (Atlantis) mission. This picture is in front of the International Space Station flight control room. The shuttle flight control room looks the same, but our picture didn't turn out.

Bennett can propel himself about 3 feet by pushing himself off his toes and "launching" forward. He has also turned himself in a complete circle using this same technique.

Someone opened the drool floodgates. He is either teething or trying to help provide water during the drought here....

This kid babbles constantly. Soooo cute.

Sleep: mostly good. At night, anyway. It is rare that we don't get a 4 or 5 hour stretch once we put him down at 8(ish). He wakes then to nurse, then goes back down for another 3-4 hours, nurses again, then sleeps until morning. Every once in awhile (like last night, yawn), Bennett wakes up after nursing instead of falling back to sleep. As in, wakes up. Wide-eyed, cooing, laughing, smiling, how-can-you-possibly-ignore-me-i'm-so-cute wakes up. Last night he did this from 12:30-1:30, and again from 4:45-6:15. I usually just lay him on the bed next to me and let him kick and punch until I am so tired I can't take it any more and wake Lucas up (who is somehow able to sleep through Bennett waking up, nursing, throwing a party, and punching him in the back). One of us will wear him in the mei tai until he dozes back off.

Happy 3 months, Chubbers!

Caprese Quesadillas

2011-07-12T23:21:00.000-05:00

In our quest to expand our lunch options, we tried out this take on quesadillas last week. YUM. I think this will be a lunch time staple during the summer. I have fresh basil growing in the garden and we have been making pesto and these quesadillas with our harvest. I have tomatoes, too...but they are still all green. I've picked maybe 8-10 cherry tomatoes so far, but the heat here makes it difficult for the fruit to set. I'm hoping to keep the plants alive through the heat of the summer and hopefully get a fall tomato harvest. We'll see.

(Click here for the printable version!)

Caprese Quesadillas
created by Kelly (http://ourlincolnlog.blogspot.com)
inspired by Real Simple

Ingredients:
2 flour tortillas
4-6 cherry tomatoes, halved
handful of fresh basil
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (grate your own! it melts and tastes better!)
olive oil for the pan

Directions:
1. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Brush pan with olive oil.
2. Place one tortilla in the pan and top with cheese, tomatoes, and basil. Top with second tortilla.
3. Cook until cheese begins to melt and bottom tortilla is golden brown. Lift with spatula, rebrush pan with olive oil if needed, and flip to cook the other side.
4. When the other side is golden brown, remove from pan and cut into 4 wedges (I like to use a pizza cutter).

This Week's Menu

2011-07-12T15:30:00.000-05:00

Dinners:

taquitos

spaghetti and salad

hamburgers on the grill

pasta with pesto cream sauce (soooo yummy!)

honey lime chicken enchiladas (new dish this week)

Lunches:

Annie's mac n cheese (obviously a favorite around here)

Cheese and crackers

bean and cheese quesadillas

toast and honey

leftovers

Breakfasts:

yogurt parfaits with homemade granola (strangely, the recipe i used has been taken down since saturday when i made it. i went to link to it, and it was gone! hmmm.)

baked oatmeal (again. it is delicious.)

homemade biscuits with jam

Snacks:

grapes, cherries, bananas

mini cherry pies (maybe...)

cliff kid's z-bars (always)

I need some new lunch ideas. Have any good ones??

My Tenderhearted Boy

2011-07-10T23:46:00.001-05:00

Lincoln is constantly amazing us with his huge heart. He is such a fantastic big brother to Bennett. As soon as Lincoln sees Bennett in the morning, he says "Bennett happy? He smiling?". He always makes sure Bennett has a toy or something to look at when he is in the bouncy chair or on his lambskin rug.

When Bennett is crying, Lincoln tells us to "make Bennett happy!"

On Sundays, Lincoln goes to the "class" while we are in the service. Towards the end of service today, my friend Annette brought Lincoln into the service to us. He had been crying (very unlike him) and Annette said he wouldn't let any of the teachers pick him up or tell them what had happened. They said he was pointing to another boy in the class, but they weren't sure why. The first thing he said to me was something about Bennett's pacifier (which was in my purse, so I was confused...).

Eventually, we determined that he was telling us that "a fwend (the boy in his class) took baby Beddett's pasafidet". Our guess is that the boy must have had a pacifier and Lincoln thought he had taken it from Bennett. This upset him so much that he just broke down into tears. (*disclaimer...we aren't for sure that is what happened, but that is what Lincoln kept telling us...).

I just know that Lincoln and Bennett are going to be best friends. Lincoln already watches out for his baby brother. They are both the sweetest boys I know.

On the 4th of July

2011-07-08T23:11:00.000-05:00

To celebrate Independence Day this year, Lucas took Lincoln to see the fireworks put on by a nearby city park. Many of the fireworks shows were cancelled this year due to the dry conditions, but this show went on as scheduled.

Bennett and I stayed home. The fireworks were way past his bedtime.

Lincoln and Lucas set up camp in the back of Lucas' truck.

The parking lot was behind the park.

Lucas told me when the first firework exploded, Lincoln practically flew across the truck bed and locked his arms around Lucas' neck. Apparently he is terrified of fireworks. "it's a widdle woud daddy. it's a big woud! go to wintin's house!"

(translations: it's a little loud, daddy. it's a big loud! go to lincoln's house!)

Pretty!

Watching from the safety of Daddy's truck...but still a little nervous.

Look at those eyes :( Lucas says at this point, he picked Lincoln up and they walked around the parking lot together. He said Lincoln did better that way...

Boom!

Unrelated, but here is Bennett "playing" with the toys that Lincoln brought him. "Need a toy, Beddett! Need a fwicket! Need a diraffe! Need anoder wod!" Bennett will be busy for awhile :)

(translation: need a toy, bennett! need a chicken! need a giraffe! need another one!)

Spinach, feta, and red pepper alfredo pizza

2011-07-07T19:21:00.001-05:00

This is based off a delicious slice of pizza I had from Whole Foods when I was up in Omaha visiting one time. Sadly, we don't live close enough to the Whole Foods in Houston (wait, I think there are maybe 2 now?) to visit very often (read: ever). Whole Food is actually a Texas based company (Austin). Houston is the 4th largest city in America. And yet...we have only 2 Whole Foods and no Trader Joe's (booooo!). So, since I don't have ready access to this pizza, I had to try my hands at duplication. I think it turned out pretty darned good, if I do say so myself!

Note: This makes extra alfredo sauce. I freeze it in the snack size ziplock bags--5 Tbsp. per bag. That way I have sauce ready to go when I want to make this again. You could also use it on pasta the next night and get two meals out of it...

Print Friendly Version (NEW!!!)

Spinach, Feta, and Red Pepper Alfredo Pizza
created by Kelly (http://ourlincolnlog.blogspot.com), but based off recipes from Money Saving Mom and The Picky Apple.

Ingredients:
Pizza Crust (use your favorite recipe, or see the one I use below)

Alfredo Sauce:
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
4 Tbsp. all purpose flour
1 cup milk (2% or whole)
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (or pecarino romano)
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
dash of black pepper

Toppings:
~1.5 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (highly recommend grating your own cheese! Buy the ball of mozzarella instead of the prepackaged shredded cheese--it melts AND tastes better!)
1/2 cup baby spinach leaves
1/3 cup roasted red pepper, thinly sliced (I buy these from the olive bar in the deli area at my grocery store. You can also find them jarred in the specialty Italian section, or you can roast your own)
1/2 cup feta cheese

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. If you are using a pizza stone, place it in the oven while the oven preheats so it is warm. If you are using a metal pan, spray it with cooking spray.
2. Prepare the crust dough (see recipe below if needed)
3. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan on the stove over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, salt, and pepper and cook 1 minute. Whisk in the milk, adding a little add a time. As it thickens, stir in the cheese. Remove from heat.
4. Roll out the dough into a circle big enough for your pan. Place dough on hot pizza stone (you can sprinkle corn meal first, if you want) or your prepared metal pan. Spoon the alfredo sauce on top--I use about 5 Tbsp. for my pizzas. You don't want to use too much, or the crust will be soggy.
5. Top pizza crust with the mozzarella cheese, spinach, red peppers, and feta cheese.
6. Bake at 425 for 15-18 minutes, or until cheese is melted and slightly golden.

Crust Recipe
from Money Saving Mom

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. kosher salt
2 Tbsp. oil (olive or canola)
2.5 cups all purpose flour (i sometimes substitute a cup of whole wheat for part of the all purpose...but for this particular pizza, i actually prefer all purpose)

Directions:
1. Combine yeast and water.
2. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and whisk together. Pour the water/yeast mix on top and stir to combine. Cover and let rest 5-10 minutes.
3. Knead dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes, or until smooth.

Tall Paintings

2011-07-04T23:18:00.001-05:00

Lincoln is part of a little art coop that we formed with a few other moms and kids around Lincoln's age just after Christmas. We meet weekly and find a fun project for the kids to explore or create...if they want. Lincoln tends to participate in the project for a few minutes, then runs off to play. Painting is usually an exception for him; I can keep him interested for much longer when any type of paint is involved.

This particular project--tall paintings--has been making the rounds on some of the art and preschool blogs that I follow. I first saw it on Teacher Tom's blog, and thought it would be fun for our coop, but wasn't sure if we could pull together enough paint and wood without spending too much money. Tall paintings are based off the work of Holton Rower. His work is beautiful, you should take a look!

A little online research led me to find out that leftover latex wall paint is perfect for this project. We happened to have several cans leftover from our house in a closet, and I also picked up 2 sample cans from Home Depot for 50 cents a piece (my only expense for this whole project!). The wood scraps came from our garage; they were leftovers from when Lucas built our built-in bookshelf. I didn't even have to cut them, which was pretty amazing. I used liquid nails to hold the pieces together, and we were set!

We poured the paint into dixie cups for the kids to use--they were just the right size and amount of paint for our boards. The red paint you see in the pictures was actually a beige color that I attempted to dye with food coloring. It looked really pretty and swirly, but if I tried to mix it in, it kind of just became absorbed into the paint...so if you try to use food coloring, I'd recommend just lightly swirling and leaving it at that!

The only direction we really gave to the kids was to pour it onto the wood. I demonstrated once and then let them have at it! They really caught on quickly, and in addition to pouring directly on top of the "tower," we had puddles on the base, some splatter painting, and lots of dripping over the sides. They really made the project their own. I should mention that all the kids are various ages of 2. This was great for that age, and would be great for all the way to adults, I imagine (I wanted to make one, too!).

(our board was at a bit of a slant, so we caught the drips in extra dixie cups and then re-poured them)

Two notes: 1) Since it is latex house paint, we did this outside and we wore clothes we didn't care about ruining, just in case. The kids did put their hands in the paint, but it washed off cleanly with water and soap...with the exception of the paint dyed with food coloring. The red food coloring left stains on hands (of course, it eventually does come off). 2) These things take FOREVER to dry...I believe ours took 5 days, though it may go faster if you live in a less humid environment. It is still a little tacky to the touch, so I plan to give ours a clear lacquer coat before we hang it up in the house.

Mixed Berry Crisp

2011-07-04T22:22:00.001-05:00

We don't usually have dessert with dinner unless we have guests over...and lucky for me, my mom was recently in town visiting, so I had an excuse to make as many sweets as I wanted in the name of being a good hostess. This particular dessert we have had twice. I'll go ahead and try to justify that by pointing to the ~~sugar coated~~ fresh summer berries. We have been gorging on all sorts of berries around here due to great sales at our grocery store. Raspberries are $1.00 a box this week! According to my belly, that is $8.00 well spent.

This mixed berry crisp is really quick to put together. If you don't have individual ramekins, you could make one big crisp in a 9x9 pan or even a round cake pan.

Mixed Berry Crisp
created by Kelly

Ingredients:
filling
1.5 cups blueberries
1 cup raspberries
1 cup blackberries
1-2 Tbsp. corn starch
1-2 Tbsp. sugar

topping
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 c. flour (I used 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 all purpose)
3/4 c. quick oats
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. butter (cold)

Directions:
1. Combine filling ingredients in a bowl and stir gently to coat the berries with the sugar and cornstarch.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, quick oats, and cinnamon.
3. Cut the butter into small cubes and cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter (or forks, or your hands...) until crumbly.
4. Divide berry mixture evenly between 4 ramekins*. Top each ramekin with topping mixture.
5. Place ramekins on a baking sheet (to protect your oven against bubbling over berries) and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until berries are bubbly.

To serve: top with homemade whipped cream or ice cream...both are delicious!

*Notes: You could also make this in a 8x8 square pan if you don't have ramekins. Increase the baking time to 40-45 minutes if using the 8x8 pan. If you do use the ramekins, please note that you will wind up with extra topping. I placed mine into freezer bags, tossed it in the freezer, then pulled it out again a week later when berries were on sale again. It froze great! Good thing to keep on hand if you need a last minute dessert!

This Week's Menu

2011-07-04T21:45:00.000-05:00

We are keeping it simple this week. My mom was here visiting the past few weeks and just went home yesterday, so I have to readjust to cooking without someone here to entertain Lincoln and Bennett while I'm in the kitchen :( So, lots of leftovers and no new dishes this week!

Breakfasts:
Baked Oatmeal
Cereal
Yogurt, granola, and strawberry parfaits

Lunches:
Tomato, basil, and mozzarella quesadillas (didn't get to this last week, so trying again...)
Annie's Mac n Cheese
Cheese and crackers
leftovers

Dinners:
Fried chicken (from Kroger deli), baked beans, and watermelon
BBQ pulled pork in the crock pot
Baked tortellini and garlic bread
Hamburgers and baked beans
leftovers

Snacks:
watermelon, peaches, grapes, strawberries
Cliff Kids Z-bars
Mixed Berry Pie and homemade vanilla ice cream (leftover from 4th of July)

This Week's Menu

2011-06-28T22:07:00.000-05:00

I've been trying to write this post since Sunday, but keep getting distracted...

Breakfasts:
cereal
chocolate chip banana bread
baked oatmeal
toast and honey

Lunches:
Annie's mac and cheese
leftovers
tomato, basil, and mozzarella quesadillas
plain tortillas (for Lincoln...he could eat an entire bag)

Dinners:
Orzo with roasted vegetables and feta with bread
Steak frites
Spinach, roasted red pepper, and feta alfredo pizza
General Tso's Chicken
Taquitos

Snacks:
Cliff Kids Z-bars
grapes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries
watermelon and raspberry sorbet
green smoothies

Baked Oatmeal

2011-06-23T22:48:00.000-05:00

Oatmeal. Not really a big fan. It's a texture thing for me.

But then I saw a recipe for baked oatmeal. BAKED OATMEAL. It is genius. Why had I never heard of this before now? If you hate oatmeal, try this. I would eat this oatmeal every day. Every day, I say. It is perfect in every way. (you can thank Hop on Pop and Green Eggs and Ham for the sweet rhymes).

Note: this recipe says to refrigerate over night in order to set the oatmeal, but I've read elsewhere online that is ok to make in the morning and bake right away. i haven't tried that, so if you do, let me know how it works!

Amish Baked Oatmeal

original recipe found at Food.com

Ingredients

1/3 cup melted butter

2 eggs

3/4 cup brown sugar (update: we have been using 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup honey instead...)

1.5 tsp baking powder

1.5 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. milk

3 cups oats (regular or quick)

Directions

1. Combine the egg, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well so there are no lumps.

2. Whisk in butter, milk, and oats.

3. Pour mixture into a 9x13 pan greased with butter or cooking spray.

4. Cover and refrigerate over night.

5. In the morning, uncover and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, or until set in the middle.

6. Serve warm with milk if desired.

Enjoy!

This Week's Menu

2011-06-22T15:39:00.001-05:00

I was inspired by Money Saving Mom to start making a post for my menu plan for the week. I like how she links to each recipe (if available)--I think that will be very handy to have all the links for the week in one place, so I am not scrambling and doing a google search at the last minute. I'm starting halfway through this week, but here you go:

Menu Plan for June 22-June 25, 2011

Breakfasts:
Cereal
Baked Oatmeal
Breakfast Tacos

Lunches:
Grilled Cheese
Bean and Cheese Quesadillas
Annie's Mac and Cheese
Peanut butter and jelly roll-ups

Dinners:
Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Asian Noodle Salad
Roast Chicken with wild rice and zucchini coins
Black Beans and Rice
Carla and Johnny's amazing tamales

Snacks:
Cliff Kids Z-bars
Grapes
watermelon frosties
mixed berry crisp

If you have your menu posted somewhere, please link to it! I'm always looking for new recipes!

Bennett-2 months already!

2011-06-18T21:18:00.003-05:00

Mr. Bennett has somehow already grown to be 2 months old. Does NOT seem like it has already been that long!

In the past month, Bennett has:

Taken up thumb sucking. I am on the fence as to whether or not to be happy about this. On one hand, the kid is an amazing self-soother. He puts himself to sleep (and back to sleep) simply by popping that chubby little thumb in there (or chubby little wrist, either one works). It is adorable. But since we never had to wean Lincoln from thumb sucking or pacifiers (both of which Bennett loves), I am unsure of how that will work.

Taken up cliff diving. Nearly every time we put him in the Boppy pillow on his tummy, he launches himself over the top and onto the carpet. He does this so often that Lincoln now asks "gonna jump out?" as soon as we put Bennett near the pillow.

Grown some hair! Peach fuzz, to be exact.

Met his Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lindsay.

Became a beach baby.

Started reaching towards toys and people.

Played toys with Lincoln (super baby safe toys, as you can see by the micro-machines positioned just so by Lincoln especially for Bennett).

Smiled! And laughed a few times, too.

Happy 2 months, Bennett! We love you!

Answers and the Ward Family Band

2011-06-12T22:57:00.001-05:00

Sooo, apparently the game was much easier than I anticipated. Everyone who guessed got the answers correct. And I even tried to pick the pictures where they looked the most alike! :)

I've been working on uploading videos to Youtube. We have quite a backlog, so I'll try and link to a few a week to catch up. First up: The Ward Family Band, featuring Lincoln on drums and Lucas on guitar. Watch and you can say "you knew them when..."

A Game

2011-06-08T22:52:00.002-05:00

People have told us Bennett looks a lot like Lincoln. For fun, let's see if you can figure out who is in each picture below...

Please place your guesses in the comments! If you KNOW the answers, please don't make it obvious. I'll put up the correct answers on Friday :)

(note..i changed some of the pictures out from when i originally hit publish 5 minutes ago. i noticed a few giveaways that i had to take out)

Summer Garden

2011-06-06T23:35:00.001-05:00

I got a late start on my garden this year. I decided to keep it simple, and do all container plants this year. No weeding, easier to water, and able to be moved around on the deck so I can pull them into the shade when we have 100 degree heat (which is turning out to be waaaaay more frequently than I would like).

May 19, 2011

Cherokee Purple and Cherry tomatoes in the Growbox, jalepenos in the brown pot, a hybrid tomato plant bred for heat and humidity in the terra cotta pot

June 3, 2011

Added some tomato cages and some basil

June 6, 2011

Going to need some more bamboo for the tomato trellis....

Also, added a red bell pepper plant

So far, this is the best my garden has ever looked. It makes me nervous, like at any moment it is going to implode. This morning when I went out to water, I found about 30 aphids on the bamboo trellis. Of course I went into panic mode and picked them all off. Then I obsessively went outside every hour to check for more of them. I am also paranoid about horn worms--last year I found 7 on one plant. Disgusting. I still cringe when thinking about them-blech.

Everything has gotten huge--with the exception of the jalepeno plant. That one just baffles me. It is the exact same size as when I planted it, but still green and healthy. It is even starting to flower. Do jalepenos stay that small?? I need to do some research...

Better Hearing and Speech Month {Cont.}

2011-06-04T00:11:00.005-05:00

Yes, I realize it is no longer May. But, I figured why not continue the posts anyway since I already have all the pictures ready to go? So....here is part 2. If you missed it, find Part 1 here.

3. Book: Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley

I was introduced to this book in undergrad (at Truman State!). It was a huge hit with the preschool kids. It is such a fun book--each page "builds" a new part onto the monster, and then each part is taken away as the reader tells the monster to "GO AWAY!" Potential goals to target: artic-/g/ is repeated, body parts, colors. Sample text:

"GO AWAY, scraggly purple hair!"

"GO AWAY, two little squiggly ears!"

......

"And DON'T COME BACK...until I say so!"

(and a bonus sample: "But, YOU DON'T SCARE ME!" and, the Lincoln version, since it is his favorite line in the book: "NO NO SCARE ME!")

4. Therapy Tool: The Egg Game

This is a great use for the dozens of plastic eggs you might end up after attending your neighborhood Easter egg hunt, the city Easter egg hunt, and your church Easter egg hunt with your 2 year old. Lincoln is a hardcore egg hunter. If you aren't crazy egg hunt enthusiasts like us, then you can buy bags of plastic eggs for about a dollar around Easter time. You will need a dozen plastic eggs and an empty egg carton.

You can fill the eggs with just about any item you can find. Potential targets: insects, colors, letters...basically any vocabulary target the child might be working on that you can find it in miniature! I have found mini farm animals and jungle animals at the dollar store. Lincoln really likes putting his micro machines in them, too.

When I used this game in therapy, the kids always got so excited. I'm not sure if it was the anticipation of finding out what was in the eggs or what, but no matter how many times we played it, it never seemed to get old! We always shook the egg first, then tried to predict what we would find inside. It was also good problem solving to figure out how to open the eggs...sometimes those things are stubborn!

5. Therapy Tool: foam window stickers

For this game, all you need is a window (or a mirror would work, too), a shallow dish of water, and some sheets of thin art foam (found in the craft department in most stores...). Potential therapy targets: colors, vocabulary, directional prepositions ("put the square under the star"), multistep directions ("Find the star and the circle and put them at the bottom of the window"). For Lincoln, we cut out simple shapes (star, square, circle, etc.). He also requested I cut out a sphinx, but unfortunately mama's art skillzzz are a bit lacking so instead he got a triangle with a circle on top. It's pretty much the same thing. Instead of cutting out the shapes, you could always cut out a bunch of squares or circles and just draw a picture of your target word on the shape in permanent marker. To stick the foam shapes to the window or mirror, just dip them in water and press them to the window. The kids think it's magic!

There may or may not be a part 3 coming up...not making any promises :)

Better Hearing and Speech Month

2011-05-26T23:03:00.003-05:00

The following sentences just came out of my 2.5 year old's mouth: "Let's go put it on the special bed! I did it!" (for context, he was talking about putting the clean laundry on the bed in the spare bedroom. we call it the special bed because he had to sleep there when we were all sick with the flu in February and we wanted to make it more "fun" for him). These sentences are awesome: contractions, pronouns, an 8 word phrase, use of an adjective, past tense, and a prepositional phrase. All that learned just from exposure to language. Because I am a speech-language pathologist (SLP), I get crazy excited every time I hear a new part of speech from Lincoln. Speech acquisition is amazing!!

(a note: that paragraph just took me nearly 10 minutes to type, because while I was writing it, Lincoln was simultaneously pushing the arrow keys and moving the cursor all around the screen.)

The month of May is designated as Better Hearing and Speech month, which you probably weren't aware of unless you happen to be a speech-language pathologist, audiologist, or have child receiving speech or hearing services. As a speech-language pathologist who is not currently working, I thought I would "celebrate" by sharing some fun therapy ideas here on the blog. Even if you aren't an SLP, these are fun games and books to use with your kids--Lincoln is a big fan of them all!

I am going to divide this into 2 posts, just because I keep thinking of more things to add and it was getting out of hand :)--

1. Book: I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont

This is one of my favorite books for use in therapy. Potential goals to target: vocabulary (body parts, colors), rhyming words, increasing sentence length, pronoun "I", artic sounds [g, p, n, m] are repeated on every page, and predicting. It is awesome and kids love it! A sample of the text:

"So, I grabbed some red, gonna paint my......."

"HEAD!"

"Now I ain't gonna paint no more."

2. Therapy Tool: Backyard Bugs

These bugs were one of my most popular therapy games with the preschool students. Potential therapy goals to target: matching/categorizing/sorting (colors or type of bug), vocabulary (insects), counting. Game ideas:

Place artic cards around the room and tape or just set a bug on top of each card. Give child a fly swatter and net and have them 'swat' each bug, place it in the net, then say the word on the card a set number of times.
Sort bugs into piles by type of bug or by color.
Have child follow directions with the bugs. Good way to work on directional prepositions! (e.g., "Put the blue spider ON the box").

One Month Old

2011-05-18T13:00:00.000-05:00

One month already! Bennett has been such an awesome addition to our family. Lincoln has really latched on to him. He worries when Bennett is not in the room ("where baby Bedett go??"), he insists on keeping blankets on him ("need da covers!"), and he is constantly telling me to change his diaper ("dat a poopy diapet? need a fwesh, kween one!").

Bennett's first month on earth has been quite busy.

He spent a night at the hospital for treatment of jaundice (a full blog report of that incident is forthcoming). Below is Bennett under the bili-lights. And yes, he looked even more sad in person :(

One thing we have noticed this past month is how STRONG Bennett is. He can already hold his neck up for 2 minute stretches during tummy time.

This kid can make some AWESOME faces.

Watching Lincoln interact with Bennett is so much fun.

Lincoln has a renewed fascination with the floor gym. He gets in there with Bennett almost every time, and even spends a good amount of time in there when Bennett is NOT there. The picture on the right followed one of the cutest interactions I have ever seen. I had left the room to get a diaper and hear Lincoln say, "Here you go, baby bedett! Need a toy! Uh oh! Need a burffwoth (burp cloth)!" When I came back in the room, Bennett had a toy dump truck sitting by his head and Lincoln was wiping his face with the burp cloth. My heart exploded.

The picture on the left speaks for itself. On the right, Lincoln is taking Bennett's temperature. For some strange reason, he thinks it is super fun. Bennett is kind enough to put up with it.

Bennett's first bath was in the kitchen sink. He did really well! Lincoln shared his yellow duck with Bennett for the bath.

Bennett has been a really good sleeper so far. Sure, he wakes up every 3 hours or so...but he goes back to sleep after he nurses. Amazing! This is uncharted territory for us, and I am sure by writing this I am jinxing our good fortune. We have had a few nights where he will just be wide awake from 3:00-5:00 AM (last night was 4:00-5:30...), but he isn't crying, which makes it much more tolerable. He is able to sleep through quite a bit of noise, and almost anywhere we let him (pack and play, on our bed, in the swing, in the sling, in the carseat...).

The past 2 days, though, we have had a lot of daytime fussiness. I'm hoping it is just a growth spurt. We'll see!

And finally, a few pictures from today (his actual one month birthday):

Sand Playdoh

2011-05-17T14:52:00.001-05:00

My friend Carla shared this link the other day, and Lincoln and I decided to whip up our own batch of sand playdoh one afternoon to test it out.

First, we got Bennett situated in his bouncy chair. Please ignore the missing plank in our deck. We replaced our sliding door and had to remove the plank to fit the door in. It's just a temporary ghetto look.

Okay, for the playdoh start with 1.5 cups of all purpose flour (note: do NOT use bread flour. I'll explain later...).

Then, measure out 2 cups of clean sand. (note: do NOT use wet sand. I'll explain that later, too...)

Add 1/8 cup vegetable oil to the sand/flour mix and stir together.

Pour in 1/2 cup of water, and continue mixing. You'll need to mix by hand when it becomes too difficult to stir. (note: please notice how the cup is in focus and lincoln is blurry in the photo below. thank you, awesome new camera).

At this point, you should be done, but if you are like us (don't be like us!), you may be staring at a bowl of sand soup. Our mistake was using wet sand, then adding water and oil to it and expecting it to produce a dry dough. I have a newborn baby and haven't been sleeping much, and I will use that as my excuse for every mistake I make for at least the next 6 months. ANYway, due to the wetness of the sand, we had to add an additional 2 cups of flour. That is a lot of extra flour that could have been used in my kitchen for actual baking.

After ~~wasting~~ mixing in all that extra flour, we finally had something resembling playdoh! Please note that we only made a half version of the original recipe...and it made a ton of playdoh (even before the extra flour...). The texture is really gritty (obviously), so we played with it outdoors to prevent scratching the table surface indoors. Not sure if it actually would scratch the surface, but better safe than sorry!

Lincoln had a good time playing with the sand playdoh. When he was done, I just put it into a ziplock bag to save for another day. Then we checked on Baby Bennett.

He was getting squirmy.

Now, if you recall, I issued a warning above to avoid using bread flour in your playdoh. I am not sure if using bread flour was our downfall, or if it came down again to using wet sand, but either way...our sand playdoh turned into a goopy, yeast bread dough type bubbly mess overnight. I was scared to open the bag, so I threw it directly into the trash. It looked like that friendship bread starter that gets passed around from time to time...and playdoh should not look that way. So, if you have to use bread flour, just make sure your sand is dry.

Repeat after me: USE DRY SAND.

That's all--2 posts down!

Art Area Updates

2011-05-17T13:08:00.000-05:00

I haven't written a blog since I posted Bennett's birth story, so to ease myself back into it I am about to produce a bunch of short, easy-to-write, picture heavy posts. I'm also trying to ignore the guilt building up with how many posts I have written about Bennett compared to Lincoln at the same age...

Up first: some updates I've made to our art area. Below is the full view. As you can see, I finally got the butcher paper hung above the easel. Only took me 3 months.

We have added some small storage boxes from IKEA for holding markers. The cup holds crayons. Paper towel roll is for erasing the chalk table.

Above Lincoln's table we have hung the following artwork (clockwise from top left): Photograph of Lincoln at 1-year old by Homeshade Photography, fox and snail print by Paper Sparrow, and dot painting by Lincoln.

Paper was starting to just pile up on the floor, so we bought some stacking file organizers, inspired by the mail center at the Main St. Mama's house (where I lived junior and senior years of college) :) Lincoln helped me decorate them. For the top one, we used Mod-Podge to glue fabric letters on to spell Art! and the one below is Lincoln's abstract glitter glue art.

The 3rd file holder can be seen below and is a finger painting by Lincoln that we cut into shapes and Mod Podged onto the front.

Whew, one blog post down! And both kids are still asleep (a minor miracle). We'll see if I can finish another one before someone wakes up...

Welcome, Bennett Action!

2011-04-24T09:55:00.001-05:00

Bennett Action joined our family on Monday, April 18, 2011 at 2:15 pm. He weighed 7 lbs., 5 oz. and measured 20" long. Born on his due date!

Birth story....

On Tuesday, April 12, Lucas and I were convinced the baby was coming. I had about 4 hours of contractions--but, unfortunately they stayed about 8 minutes apart and died out without getting anywhere. Lucas spent the whole next day at work paranoid that I was going to have the baby at any moment, but I did not have anymore contractions until Saturday, April 16. I had nearly 5 hours of contractions that were about 5 minutes apart--bounced on the birth ball, walked, took Lincoln to an Easter Egg hunt, bounced some more, and then watched them die out around dinner time. No baby, but they felt strong enough that I was convinced he wouldn't be waiting too much longer!

On Sunday, April 17, we went on a walk and again tried to bring back the contractions. Apparently, though, the baby knew he was coming the next day and gave me a break because they never did pick back up on Sunday.

On Monday, April 18, we had our 40 week prenatal visit at 9:00. My midwife, Bernadette, did a check at my request and said I had dilated to 4+ centimeters, was 75% effaced, and baby was at a -1 station. I requested that she do a gentle membrane sweep--my opinion is that it will work if baby is really ready, and won't if he isn't. Bernadette said that one side of the bag of waters had already detached, so she really only swept the other side. It took about a minute and was a little painful, but very manageable. From there, she sent us home and told us to call her when contractions were 3-5 minutes apart (she was certain the baby was coming today!).

Lucas, Lincoln, and I swung by the store on the way home to pick up a few things. I had a few contractions at the store, but didn't bother timing anything. The car ride home was pretty uncomfortable--especially the last mile or so, which seemed to have developed about a billion (yes, a billion) more potholes and bumps in the hour we were gone. Once we got home, Lucas went to put Lincoln down for his nap and I bounced on the birth ball and walked aimlessly around the house :) After about 30 minutes of that, I figured I should start timing the contractions--they were around 5 minutes apart at that point.

Lincoln decided a nap was really not in his plan for the day, so he got moved to the couch and situated with "bob da buildas skyscwapet" (Bob the Builder Skyscraper). Lucas began filling the birth tub, and I decided that I really liked holding onto our kitchen counter. It had become the most comfortable thing ever--not sure how I had never noticed before. Bob the Builder's background music was beginning to drive me crazy, so before doing something I'd regret later (like throwing the remote through the TV to shut him up), I went and locked myself in the nice, quiet bathroom...where I suddenly discovered that the bathroom counter was now the most comfortable place in the house. Contractions were now 4 minutes apart. I was doing great--the 4 minute break between contractions was a long enough break that the contractions themselves were totally manageable. As long as I could lean on the counter and occasionally have someone press on my back, I was good. I practiced my visualization techniques and could swear that I felt the baby moving down when I pictured it. At this point, I heard the doorbell ring.

Lucas came and knocked on the bathroom door to tell me that Shannon (the student midwife that would be assisting Bernadette) was here. Apparently, neither Lucas nor I had our phone ringer on and they had been trying to call us. When they couldn't reach us, they thought maybe we had already had the baby and just decided to come on over. I felt bad, but it ended up being a good thing that she had come already. Shannon asked how far apart contractions were, and I told her about 4 minutes. She watched for a few, then said she thought they were a lot closer than 4 minutes. She quickly checked me and I was almost 7 centimeters and 90% effaced. This was about 12:30, I think. She called Bernadette to tell her, and Bernadette said she was already on her way over.

I went back out to the kitchen for some gatorade. At this point, I now needed someone to press on my back for each contraction. The most comfortable position was still leaning on something--counter, wall, couch, etc. The contractions were getting closer together and stronger, but I was able to breathe through them pretty easily. I used a hypnobirthing breathing technique to breathe in and lift up for a long breath, then breathe out long and slow. I am not describing that very well. Anyway, it worked GREAT.

Lucas was getting Lincoln some lunch and a bag packed for him to go to our friend Kari's house. I told Lucas that I couldn't take the sound of Bob the Builder anymore, and he needed to turn it off now. Luckily, Lincoln had finished his lunch, so Lucas was able to this with minimal protesting and got Lincoln and Wembley loaded up in the car and over to Kari's. By the time Lucas got back, Bernadette had arrived and he helped her bring all the equipment into the house. The birth tub was filled and Shannon asked me if I wanted to get in. I declined (I had spent a long time in the tub during labor with Lincoln and felt it slowed my labor down, so I was scared of the same thing happening. Despite being assured that I was far enough along that it wouldn't slow me down, I still didn't want to get in yet...).

I moved to the living room floor and got on my hands and knees for awhile (this was at maybe 1:30?). Lucas pushed on my back during contractions, which were coming every 2 minutes of so and were pretty intense. I felt absolutely fine in between them, though, and was laughing at Lucas' jokes. Lucas reminded me that I told him to tell me to pee every hour, so as much as I didn't want to move, I got up to go to the bathroom. I made it to the bathroom, had a contraction, peed, then decided to go look at the birth pool. Shannon asked if I wanted her to check me to see if I was ready to push. This was around 2:00. I didn't believe that I could possibly be that close to pushing, so I said no, I'd wait a little bit. I still couldn't make myself get in the birth tub, either. Lucas came in the bedroom and then all of a sudden, I hit transition. I had 2 long, painful contractions. Lucas and Shannon tried to push on my back and I told them not to touch me. I was suddenly burning up and nauseous. Then, just as the second hard contractions ended, I felt the baby shift and I knew he was coming NOW.

I told whoever was listening that I wanted to push, and then just did. I was standing up in our bedroom, leaning over our dresser--only about 3 steps inside the bedroom door, and about 2 ft. from the birth tub. Lucas was standing next to me in the doorway, and Shannon and Bernadette were scrambling to cover the floor with towels and the tarp because we have white carpet and I apparently was going to have the baby right there. Bernadette asked where I wanted to have the baby (assuming I wanted to step 2 feet to get in the tub), but I said I couldn't move. So on the next contraction, I pushed and felt a ton of pressure. There was a "pop!" and the waters burst. That was a new feeling for me, since last time they were broken in the birth tub and I didn't notice. There was some slight burning, which I registered as the "ring of fire"--only, it was nowhere near as painful as it had been with Lincoln, so I didn't really think it was the "real thing." The next thing I heard was, "your baby's head is halfway out!" so apparently, my judgment was a bit off. I pushed again and the rest of the head was out, followed by the shoulders and body. Lucas said, "you did it!" And then, the baby cried! It was 2:15. Lucas had to run to get the camera (he didn't think the baby would come so fast--he said he thought he had at least 3 more hours!) I turned around to see the baby and Shannon and Bernadette were wrapping him in a blanket to hand him to me. I delivered the placenta about 2 minutes later and moved to the bed with the baby.

From the time I had my membranes swept to the birth was a little less than 5 hours. I pushed for a total of 7 minutes. The labor was fast, and with the exception of those 2 contractions during transition, very very manageable! I was amazed. Because of how fast he came out, I did have some 2nd degree tearing, but since I tore much worse the first time, I was fine with it.

We had our names narrowed down to 2--and decided he looked like a Bennett. Bennett, Lucas, and I hung out for awhile while Bernadette and Shannon cleaned up. Then, I had the amazingly fun experience of being stitched up (sarcasm!) and Bennett and I took an herbal bath. Lucas worked on draining the (unused) birth tub (sorry!!!!). The midwives headed out around 5:00.

Lucas went to get Lincoln to meet his new brother around 8:00. Lincoln was so excited! He ran into the bedroom saying "baby bedett!" (Kari had practiced with him) :) Lincoln gave Bennett a kiss on the head and gave me a flower he had picked from the yard. It was maybe the sweetest thing I'd ever seen.

We are doing great, Bennett is a champion nurser, and Lincoln is the world's greatest big brother. I am SO happy we had a home birth and wouldn't have changed a thing about it (except, maybe save Lucas the trouble of setting up the birth tub...) :)

Ta-Da!

Blarney Stones {St. Patrick's Day Cake}

2011-04-11T08:54:00.001-05:00

I promised this recipe almost a month ago. Just goes to show, I always keep my promises! (ha--I think what it really shows is how much I've been slacking on the blog front...).

These little, delicious, sweet-and-salty cake squares are a once a year treat around here. Why? They are a liiiiiiittle labor intensive. But, absolutely worth it --don't get me wrong! Saving them for St. Patrick's Day every year makes them even more of a treat. Plus, they are called "Blarney Stones," right? And wouldn't it seem strange to eat "Blarney Stones" on a holiday like....the 4th of July? Just not the kind of Irish festivity called for by these treats.

Blarney Stones {St. Patrick's Day Peanut Cake Squares}
adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients:
Cake
4 eggs
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Icing*
7.5 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup milk
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. salt
crushed salted roasted peanuts (24 oz. jar)

Directions
1. Butter or spray with cooking spray a 9x13 pan. Line bottom with parchment paper for easier removal. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl until lemon colored.
3. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the egg mixture, beating on low speed until combined.
4. Mix in the milk and butter.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched. Remove and cool on a wire rack (let cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert onto rack).
6. When cool, cut into squares (I cut mine into 24 equal squares). Transfer squares to a cookie sheet and place in freezer at least 4 hours or overnight.
7. After cake is frozen, prepare icing. Mix together powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt.
8. Crush peanuts (we placed in a big plastic bag and crushed with a hammer--see visual below!) Pour crushed peanuts into a shallow dish, like a pie plate.

9. To ice--remove a few cake squares at a time from freeze. Important!! Do not remove them all at once!! They thaw quickly and that will make them MUCH more difficult to ice. The best method I found to ice these: hold a cake square on 2 opposite sides. This should leave 3 sides left to ice (yes, I know a cube has 6 sides, not 5...you don't ice the bottoms!). Spread a layer of icing on the 3 exposed sides, then dip those 3 iced sides into the crushed peanuts. Now, you can switch your hold to 2 of the sides that are now covered in peanuts. The peanuts provide you something to hold so that you don't cover your hands in icing while trying to ice the remaining 2 sides. Finish icing and coating the square in peanuts, then return to tray in freezer to set while you ice the rest. This is the most time consuming part! But, once you taste them, you'll be glad you spent the time :)

10. After the icing has set, remove from freezer and store covered. You could also transfer these to a plastic freezer bag and store in the freezer if you don't plan to eat them all at once or want to make them early. They freeze really well!

*Note: this makes a LOT of icing. I put the whole recipe on here, but next time I'll probably just eyeball the measurements. Just know you'll probably have a lot leftover if you make the full batch. Also, the original recipe calls for 6 cups of peanuts. We used 3 cups (24 oz.) and had leftover.

Enjoy these! I hope you take the time to try them sometime. You will love them :)

Irish Brown Bread

2011-03-22T23:11:00.000-05:00

We went all out for St. Patrick's Day this year. Usually, wearing green is about as celebratory as we get--but this year we baked not one, but TWO St. Patrick's Day treats! And both were amazing. Perhaps second only to the St. Patrick's Day we spent actually IN Ireland...that is kind of hard to top.

First St. Patrick's Day treat: Irish Brown Bread. Have you had it? It was served at every B&B we stayed in when we were in Ireland, and it was amazing. This recipe below is close, but not quite authentic. It has to do with the type of flour used. Irish flour is ground a bit differently, so the texture of the bread isn't quite the same. I used plain whole wheat flour, but there are places online you can order Irish style whole mill flour (here, for one).

Irish Brown Bread
adapted from the book Ireland Memories by Patricia Preston

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup wheat bran
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1.5 cups buttermilk
2 tsp. olive oil
1 egg

Directions:
1. Butter or spray with cooking spray a bread loaf pan and preheat oven to 300 degrees F (yes, 300!!).
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, wheat bran, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, olive oil, and egg. Add to dry ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon. Batter should be like a thick cake batter. If needed, thin with a bit of buttermilk. Stir lightly and quickly so that the batter remains light and airy.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for approximately 1 hour.

Tomorrow: Blarney Stones!

List Update

2011-03-22T16:39:00.000-05:00

Got some more items crossed off!! Items in red are started but not finished...

Install new sliding glass doors. (finished 1 out of 2!)
Pick out a name for the baby (why is this so hard??)
Move dresser from Lincoln's room into our room and fill with newborn clothes and diapers. (don't worry, Lincoln still has another dresser...).
Paint Lincoln's room and hang up robot pictures
Order Lincoln's present that "baby brother" will give him after he is born
Order this nursing gown
~~Order prints from Etsy for baby's corner of our room~~ This! And this! So cute! And, her shop is currently buy 1, get 1 free, so even better!
Arrange for house to be professionally cleaned before the birth (they are coming April 4th!)
Make and freeze some "snack" foods (peanut butter banana muffins, lemon poppyseed bread, etc.) to have on hand for during the birth (for midwife, birth assistant, and Lucas...I'll probably stick to something less "heavy" in case it decides to, ahem, return for a visit.
Think of a new name for this blog (sigh). Lucas warned me not to name it Our Lincoln Log. "What will you do when we have a second kid?" he asked. So practical. I have no idea, especially since we don't even have a name yet for the second kid. Hmmmm.