YUM

Dear Mom,
I love your bread recipe. We ate almost a whole loaf with dinner (yikes!) and I almost had it for a snack at 11 pm, but decided carbs at 11 pm in addition to all I ate for dinner wouldn't be the best idea. I can't wait to eat more of it tomorrow. It was so yummy with tomato soup.

And on that note,

Dear Jon's Mom,
I love your tomato soup recipe. I nearly had it for a snack at 11 pm, but decided I should eat fruit instead. Alex even enjoyed it (on his wagon wheel pasta that is. I'm tricky like that). I can't wait to eat more of it tomorrow!

Overflowing with helping

I think the phrase "Can I help?" is the phrase I've heard more than any other this week.

Today, Alex wanted to help me with "my work". I was working on photoshop today. I should have pulled up Paint on the laptop and a picture for him to work on to help me. I think I will have to enact that strategy next time.

We also made cookies. Alex was unrelenting all day that we needed to make cookies. Unfortunately for him, I used a box kit and so there wasn't a TON of helping to do.

Yesterday I was sewing and Alex wanted to help. He plopped himself down on my chair and started turning the wheel, watching the needle go up and down. He tried to put a bobbin in. He pulled on the thread (I was there to tell him to not pull on it too much). He found some scraps and lifted the presser foot up and down countless times.
He also helped put pins back in the box after I took them out as I was sewing. I taught him about seams and the foot pedal (he wanted to know where the one for my other foot was :) ) and being careful to keep our fingers away from the needle and the pokey end of the pins. And he actually stayed there and enjoyed the time and I got a good amount of sewing done (I had Kaitlyn in the mei tai, so she was a dream).

Then I went to go feed Kaitlyn and left the needle threaded and Alex really went to work on my scraps. Nothing really hard to fix, but I did have to rethread. Not a big deal. And it was just so cute that he was "sewing" and loving it that it didn't bother me at all. I would yell from the other room, "what are you doing?" and he'd answer, "just sewing!"

I was worried about him doing something without me in there supervising though, so I closed the door and put a handle guard thing on it so he couldn't go in without me and that made him MAD. He was having such a great time sewing.

Looks like I really do need to get a toy sewing machine.

Kitchen Helper

Alex was beyond cute today.
I was emptying the dishwasher and he goes, "are you keening up mama?!"
I told him that I was and he goes, "can I help you?!"
He was so eager and happy to do whatever I asked him!
Plus just the way he talks is cute. He has a cute little voice and so many cute inflections.

He also helped me make dinner. I was making chicken noodle soup and he was so excited to help!

First he helped push the button to chop the onions. Then he counted out carrots to put in the chopper (he was really into that!), put them in the chopper, and then helped press the button for them. He thought it was the coolest thing ever! I have to agree that chopping veggies in that thing is pretty much awesome.

After the carrots, we did the celery. He didn't even say, "but I don't like celery", which he says whenever celery is mentioned.

After chopping the celery into super fine pieces (so that I wouldn't hear "i don't like those geenn fings" and have to pick them all out), he asked me, "what's next on the list Mama?"

I then showed him the lines on the butter and we counted 4 and cut them off and into a pan and then measured 4 tablespoons of flour into a bowl. I used the butter and flour to make a rue for the homemade cream of chicken soup, which, by the way, is super easy. I may never buy canned soup again!

Alex took a break while things were cooking and came back to put noodles in the pan to cook, which is one of his favorite things to do.

He was so excited when the soup was done and sat right down at the table! It helps that he REALLY likes chicken noodle soup.

The soup was a little hot, so I put an ice cube in Alex's bowl. Alex was pretty interested in why I was putting ice in it so I explained that ice is cold and it helps to make our food cooler. I told him that we can put it in things like soup or oatmeal. This led to him calling our chicken noodle soup chicken oatmeal soup. Silly boy.

Most amazing feat of the night: he happily ate the chicken AND carrots in his soup! Even after insisting earlier when I told him we were going to make chicken noodle soup that he just wanted noodles.

Alex really likes almost everything he eats,he just insists that he doesn't like things sometimes. I was happy that I didn't have to prod him to get him to just try the chicken or carrots and he ate them all on his own!

A good dinner with a sweet helper followed by an early bedtime (thanks to no nap) made tonight quite enjoyable. Fingers crossed for a whole week of happy evenings.

Potty talk

Alex just ran into our bathroom to go pee and then announced that he was going poopers as well.
In the middle of going, he yells out to me, "you want to come watch me mama?" I say, "umm no I don't but I can listen to you right here."
He then tells me that I can stand on that blue thing (bath mat) and watch him.
I'm not giving in.
He then says, "that was a big pooper!"
He continues to insist that I come watch him and I continue to refuse.

He finishes (in record time for him!) and after wiping him he goes to flush and goes, "That's lots of poopers!"

Such a boy.

Is it Christmas yet?

Our conversation after reading a bedtime story:

Alex: Is it Christmas now, Daddy?

Me: No, it won't be Christmas for lots of days.

Alex: Is today lots of days?

Me: No, today is just one day.

Alex: Um, I want today be lots of days.

Me: Sorry, today is just one day. Do you like Christmas?

Alex: Yes!

Me: Why do you like Christmas?

Alex: Betuz I open green presents!

Me: Who gave you the green presents?

Alex: Santa!

Me: Who gave you the other presents?

Alex: Mommy and daddy!

Me: Where did you open presents?

Alex: My house!

Me: And where else?

Alex: Diana's (my youngest sister) house!

Me: And where else?

Alex: Dama C's house! And Dama C's house is Dampa C's house. And he come to Dama M's house! And Dampa M's house!

Me: That's right, and remember we have to be nice so Santa will bring us presents and because Jesus was nice to everyone.

Alex: Yeah! And you need be nice so... Santa bring you presents! And Mama be nice so... Santa bring her presents!

So as you can see, we've all been put on notice this year.

Obsessed

Alex has a food addiction. Beyond the M&Ms and most candy that is.

Bran Muffins. Otherwise known as muffin cakes (as all muffins or cupcakes are called around here). Here he is eating one while we took a picture of the cute toys Kell sent for Kaitlyn and Alex.



I mixed up a huge batch that keeps in the refridgerator for 6 weeks earlier this week and it's nearly gone. I usually cook 11-15 at a time and I've cooked that many pretty much every night this week. That means that between the 3 of us, we would each eat 4-5 in a day. I can tell you that I don't eat 4-5 every day.
Alex is constantly requesting muffin cakes and snacks on them ALL day long.
I don't mind at all. I'd rather him be eating bran muffins than fruit snacks. At least he'll be regular with all of that fiber coursing through him. :)

And since I'm talking about healthy foods, a few other healthy things I'm liking include putting peppers in more stuff (we had some on our BLTs the other night), using spinach in the place of lettuce (on our turkey sandwiches and on the BLTs), and I got a bunch of frozen fruit yesterday to make smoothies and popsicles. Guess what secret ingredient I'll be throwing in the smoothies... spinach.

It was fun to look up some new healthy snack ideas to try out as we try to phase out and replace the fruit snacks that Alex is always asking for these days.

And I'll randomly leave you eith this picture I took of Kaitlyn and I since it's just cute.

Alex has a new trick too!

See that happy boy? He's so cute. And so nice. And so Texas. (lol... I need to find that video and post it so you know what I'm talking about).
Anyway, this boy has one more reason to be happy.

He's wearing UNDERWEAR at NIGHT and keeping them DRY!!!

Go Alex!

High Rollin'

Yesterday, just a day before she hit 2 months, Kaitlyn decided to show off and rolled over from her tummy to her back.
I was taking some pictures of her in various cloth diapers to compare how fluffy her bum was in each of them and in the midst of the photos, she decided to roll herself over. She did it 3 times, so it wasn't just a fluke!

Here are some pictures of her in her cloth diapers!

Just a sidenote on the ear infection

I thought it was funny that 1- Alex has never had an ear infection and 2-he's only been on anitibiotics once and that was when he was 18 months old, and here's Kaitlyn with an ear infection and on antibiotics at 7 weeks old.
Hopefully this is not an indication of the future with Kaitlyn and sickness!

Making me laugh

Just because Kaitlyn loves the sling. Some days I just have one on me at all times ready to pop her in whenever she's ornery.
Enjoy! (in all of it's cheesiness!)

General Update

My complaining about 3 year olds must have done something because Alex is back to being mostly pleasant.
He really is pretty cooperative and I think his sweetness far outweighs his sourness (as long as he gets enough sleep!). I love all of the cute things he says and does!

Kaitlyn is growing fast! She's looking more like a baby and less like a newborn. We discovered that all if her fussiness from early last week and the night we stopped in El Paso on our way home was because of an ear infection. Now that she's on Amoxocillan, she is much happier. She LOVES to smile and just let out her first squeal on Monday. Very cute. I put some pictures of her up on Facebook. Here is the link to see them. (you don't have to belong to facebook to check them out).

I think we're all about over the sickness... minus Jon. He came home early yesterday and is home today. I think he' been to work about 5 days in the past month. :)

The organizing/cleaning bug is softly nipping at me, so I'm going to try to take advantage of the motivation and get some projects done and get my house looking all pretty! That reminds me that I should probably set some resolutions... Hmm..

Overall life is good and would be so much better if we all were completely well!

Some crafty things you could make

I always like sharing links of things that I find useful! Here are a few that I liked while I was reading Craftzine's blog (seriously... you have to subscribe to this blog. It's awesome!)

*Here is a tutorial by Jaimie at Prudent Baby for making a nursing cover. I always knew it was easy (thus why one should NEVER pay more than $10 for one)! Of course, you could always do as I do and just not use a cover at all. I'm a "rebel" like that. :) I think I may make one just for the sake of having one. I can't bring myself to spend money on something I'm not going to use that often. And umm... have you seen my fabric stash lately?
While you're over at Prudent Baby, check out some of Jaimie's other stuff. I'm thinking her cute blog will be added to my Google reader shortly!

*If you're in need of a calendar, here are some cute ones that you can download and print for free compiled by Lee at Threadbanger.

*Tutorial by Dolci Odille at Once Wed for fabric poms. These are so so so cute! I'm sure many have seen the tissue paper poms that Martha made. Those are great, but I love the more solid and soft look that these have.

*One Pearl Button shared this great idea for making magnetic paper dolls.

*And for a whole bunch of fun tutorials, check out So You Think You're Crafty (I particularly love the Snow Ruffle Pillow by V and Co. and will be making one to go in Miss Kaitlyn's room.) There are still 2 more weeks of competition left, so there will be a few more tutorials coming up.

And The Long Thread was ever so wonderful and posted her top 100 crafty tutorials on her blog. If you picked out 52, you could make a new project every week. Hmm... That sounds fun!


So Mom, when you're bored and feel like making something, we should paruse the internets for you to make something fun so you're not stuck in apron land! :)

And a reminder, as always, there are tons of links over in my side bar of cute things to make and be inspired by. Enjoy!

Some pictures I took a while ago

Just some pictures I took of the girl back when she was about 3 weeks old that I edited and am finally getting around to showing off.

So I used to work at a daycare...

...and one of the things I learned is that I was NOT a fan of three year olds. It wasn't just the particular kids at one time that biased me... I got to watch some of my sweet 2 year olds go to the 3 yr old class and they were not so sweet anymore. I blame it entirely on the age.

So why the beef with three year olds? They know what they want and they stick to it. It's harder to distract them with something else when they have their mind made up. They still throw tantrums, but they seem to be more intense. They know how to push your buttons. They aren't afraid to be defiant and yell NO or GO AWAY at you. And since they want to do their own thing, nearly everything you ask them to do is met with a no in some shape or form. I think they become pickier too... maybe it's just the need to say no thing.
Add to all of the fun stuff above that we get a full out break down if we even attempt to put Alex in time out since we've never really had to use time outs before (his behavior could easily be corrected verbally).

Anyway, 3 year olds are just a joy. And parenting them is even more fun.

Mom, remember when I told you before I was even married that my kids would be coming to live with you from the time they are 3 until they are 5 (4 isn't tons better than 3 in my book)? Ya... you may have a little boy on your doorstep by the end of the week.

*Please note that Alex is also very pleasant, but I have a hard time with him with the ornery moments outnumber the pleasant. I know that I just need to find ways to better deal with the orneriness in ways that work for him*

On being healthy

Alex is sick for the almost 6th consecutive week. It seems like he gets better for a few days and then another cold sets in. I am so ready to be done with his boogers.

Kaitlyn still has a stuffy nose. She's had the booger thing going on since week 2 of her life. She's beginning to tolerate the booger sucker since it's used on her so often. I am so ready to be done with her boogers.

Jon makes fum of my constantly leaky/drippy nose in the winter. This year is no different. I am so ready to be done with my boogers.


In other healthy news, Jon went to Wal Mart today to get us some healthy food. I'm pretty sure that I have thrush (probably from being on antibiotics when I had mastisis), so in order to get rid of it, I need to eliminate tons of stuff (mainly carbs and sugars) from my diet, which means that my life will be full of salads and other veggies, eggs, and meat. Funny thing is that I'll pretty much be doing phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. This is good seeing as I would love to lose my baby weight quickly. I miss my cute jeans. Jon has some baby weight of his own that he'd like to see gone. Now if only I could convince him to take salads for lunch for a couple of weeks instead of his peanut butter toast staple.

Anyway, back to the Wal Mart bit. Jon was going to get us some spinach and they were totally out! He was also going to get some celery and... gone. So he got us some collard greens for 25 cents. Neither of us have ever had collard greens. But as Jon said, "they looked like celery at the bottom and they were only 25 cents!". I guess if we hate them we aren't out much.
Apparently, everyone has decided to make eating healthy their new year's resolution and raided Wal Mart. Hopefully they aren't out of spinach at Sprouts tomorrow. :)

And since I'm posting photo cards...

FINALLY (again, because I had to edit for the blog), here is Kaitlyn's official birth annoucement!
If you want a real printed one, let me know!