Whitening my teeth by candlelight.

I seriously could never be Amish.

We have no power and I really like Sunday night television.

I realize I just wrote an entire post on how I am motivated not to watch crap on tv and do other more life enhancing productive things but…a little background noise never hurt anyone.

Plus, doing things in the dark takes twice as long.

And, I can’t do laundry without power, dishes, cleaning, and anything else remotely productive.

I could go to bed early, that is healthy.

But the sooner I go to bed the sooner it is Monday and then I have to go to work.

Meh, I guess I will just keep playing games on my phone.

He looks cute even by candlelight.

How to keep a baby occupied while remodeling your home.

If you figure it out please let me know.

 

Edible Sandbox

I was inspired the other day by a summer recipe for Sandbox Pudding.  The idea is very similar to Dirt Pudding if you have ever seen that done.  Basically cookies are crushed up and layered between pudding and it gives kids or adults the illusion that he/she is eating dirt or in this case sand.

But I had a thought…

What about just making an edible sandbox for my little Linc.

He puts everything in his mouth, so why not at least make it tasty?

Here is what I did:

Step 1: Put a box of vanilla wafers (graham crackers work too) in a ziploc bag with 3 oreos and CRUSH them.  Stomp on them, hammer them, whatever.

Step 2: Put the crushed up cookies into the Bullet to make them into a sand like consistency.

*** If you are lucky enough to have a food processor you can skip steps one and two and put the cookies straight into the processor BUT you will miss out on the fun of crushing your cookies in a ziploc.  It’s up to you.

Step 3: Put your “sand” into a container or sandbox and add sand toys.

Step 4: PLAY! and if your kids put it in their mouths…oh well 🙂

Lincoln at 10 months.

Still crawling

Can pull himself up to his feet

Cruises around the furniture

Loves to be “walked”, he actually cracks up the whole time

I think I’m his favorite 🙂

Had hand-foot-and mouth this month (epidemic in our county, yuck)

He has started to communicate non-verbally and knows one sign and does it consistently, “all done”

Loves music

Only wants to feed himself, don’t even think about giving him food with a spoon

Loves his dog Kato

Is a huge fan of going on walks in the stroller

I think his favorite food is the mac and cheese from Panera, he could eat two full bowls in one sitting

Has 6 teeth now, 2 on top and 4 on bottom

Hates getting his diaper changed and often says “all done” through the entire thing

Loves fruit, oranges pineapple and bananas are sure favorites

Likes Costco samples- who doesn’t 🙂

Is pretty needy, if you go a few minutes without paying attention to him he will let you know

He is still very good natured, he smiles a ton, and wants to be held and loved by everyone

* I don’t know how I should do this, but he just turned 10 months yesterday, so these are actually 9 month things….

Happy Memorial Day!

I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Memorial Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did.  ~Benjamin Harrison

Bang Bang goes the Gun

I have been a little MIA lately but in my defense, things have been more than a little crazy.

Last Wednesday Isaac and I had just sat down on the couch to eat an amazing feast of hot dogs and chips when we heard several pop pop pops.

At first I thought it was fireworks but unfortunately for Isaac, he knew exactly what those noises were.

“Get the baby, get in the bathtub. NOW!”

It is pretty surreal feeling to grab your kid and run for the safety of your bathtub.

The strangest  part of it all was the haze after the storm.  When the gunfire stops and neighbors and friends all feel safe enough to peer their heads out of their doors to see what has happened.

Police.

Shells.

Questioning.

What did you see?

Talking.

Did your house get hit?  No, but so and sos has two bullet holes through their new babies nursery.

Quickly packing your car with your baby, dog, and a few essentials just in case it happens again.

I can’t explain it.

I knew this neighborhood was not perfect but I did not think it was dangerous.  I live a block away from one of the states best hospitals and medical schools.  A street in front of us is full of college students, our street is full of families, and the block or two behind us can get a little rough.

I guess the rough drifted down to our street last week.

Even if this is an anomaly, we are staying with Isaac.

I move into my new home in less than a week (hopefully, the bank keeps pushing this back).

All will be normal again soon.

 

 

 

 

How to make baby food for the busy, cheap, or just plain lazy.

Let’s face it, I don’t have any time and I have even less money.

I always thought moms who made their own baby food were fanatical, crazy healthy, and didn’t have anything better to do than waste their time doing something someone has already done for them.

I apologize.

Not that I don’t think the above applies to some, but certainly not all.

When Linc was sixth months old, I ran out of food.  It was about 8:30 at night and I had just come home from conferences or some other event that took all night and the little squirt was hungry.

And the cupboards were empty.

This is when I learned that making baby food was not only super easy but I also eventually realized it was much MUCH cheaper too.

This is my recipe to easy baby food for the busy, cheap, or just plan lazy.

1. Buy a large bag of frozen vegis from Costco or if you don’t belong to Costco, Walmart has bags of vegis for about 88 cents that work just as well.
2. Buy  Ziploc Zip-n-Steam bags or buy the off brand.  If you are going for cheap defiantly the off brand
3. Place your bag of vegis in one of the bags and follow the cooking directions
4. Nuke it
5. Take it out and put it into a blender or bullet (you DO NOT need a fancy baby food blender or baby food bullet, they all work).  If you are looking for super quick I would go for a bullet (much easier to clean).  I have one my mom gave me that she never used and I just keep it on my counter.  Love it.
6. Blend
7. Feed and Store (freeze well for two weeks)

Depending on how full you filled your bag you will have enough food for a day or two.  And it only takes about 7 minutes!!!

Glorious.

I also do this same exact thing with bags of frozen fruit (super cheap at Costco).  The only difference is that I don’t steam them I just let the fruit thaw or even blend it frozen.

So easy, and so so cheap.

Take it from me, I am not an over achiever.  This is not difficult and it saves me tons of money.  Plus I know that my kid is getting healthy non-processed foods.

I feel so vindicated.

He bit my nipple.

Maybe to some people this may not seem like a big deal, but I am not those people.

The kid bit my nipple.

More than once.

This is a new trend over the last 3 days, he seemed to acquire this awful habit around the same time he became mobile.

I’m not a fan.

In fact, if this continues he is about to become very thirsty.

I just can’t have people biting my nipples, even if it is my son.  But that poses a pretty big problem for me.  Linc won’t take a bottle any more and he won’t touch a sippy cup.  The only liquids he gets during the day come from me.

How do I do this?  I feel like I have breast-fed enough, he is 9 months old now and he is biting me.  How do I wean the kid from my tit?  Seriously, any advice is welcome.  I think it is time, I just don’t know how.

***Just a little disclaimer.  I am sorry that I have to ask all these seemingly stupid questions, but all of my friends are twenty-five and single.  Breast feeding isn’t really their expertise.  I think I need to find a mommy group or something, but for now, this is it.

Weekend To-Do List

• Clean my disaster of living room
• Clean the disgusting bathroom
• Dust
• Do the dishes
• Go through my extreme tower of mail from the week and pay my bills
• Do the 3 HUGE piles of laundry from the last two weeks (that is right mom, if you are keeping track, no laundry has been done in this house since you left)
• Clean out the Gerber Vanilla Stars that spilled into my purse/diaper bag* a week and a half ago
• Make a grocery store list
• Go to Costco and see if I can find anything on said list for cheap
• Go to Walmart Market for the rest
• Put away groceries (I loathe this)
• Fold laundry (also loathe)
• Put laundry away (lets be real this will not happen, and the clothes will remain folded on the love seat for a week before I get sick of it and actually walk them a room away to put them into drawers)
• Make baby food for the week (a little ambitious considering I have been pretty lazy about this lately)
• Drive to the gym and cancel my membership because I just bought a treadmill (yay!)
• Touch base with friends in some way shape or form (probably lunch or something)
• Find a few minutes for myself (check, this is it)
• Do all this while keeping a baby happy, healthy, entertained, well fed, and napped

Welcome to the weekend…

Whoever said this was time off was crazy.

Literally

crazy.

At least someone is getting some rest…(my brother’s dog, Dragonlips)

 

A Saturday morning routine.

Thank goodness it is the weekend.  I need some time to just veg, be with my son, clean the house, pay my bills, go grocery shopping, and regain my sanity so that I can keep going for another 5 days until the weekend comes again.

Don’t get me wrong I LOVE my job, but it is still a job.  I still have to wake up early, it can still be stressful, and it is still work!  Love it or not.  I love the weekends more.

I am already feeling slightly restored.  Linc and I slept in until about 8:00 a.m. and now we are settling into our Saturday morning routine.

Play in bed.

Feed little Linc.

Turn on the television to some home improvement show and chill while Lincoln plays on the floor.

Ahhh….

I don’t know what it is about a home improvement show on a Saturday morning but I think I have developed an addiction.  I don’t think I could watch these shows at any other time during the week, but Saturday morning, glorious.

My favorite is Moving Up.  The premise of the show is that it follows three families as they “move up” into larger homes, the trick is they are moving into each others homes so in the end the families go back to their old home and see how the new inhabitants changed it.

Typically they hate it.

It is awesome.

So that is what I am doing right now.

By the way, Lincoln has now started pulling himself up on the coffee table, which is also cheap entertainment for me.  I love watching him try to work his way up there.

Crazy little boy.

I love watching him grow up.  At times at can be bittersweet as I miss the last stage of his life, but it is so fun to watch him learn new things it is hard to be too upset about the fact that my baby is becoming a boy.