It's been awhile!

Well, first, here's the boy. Doodlebug is just over two years old. He'll be 27 months tomorrow!

I've been exploring new recipes these last few weeks, and it's been really fun to expand the food repertoire. Healthy and creative, and tasty too, these have become fast favorites with our little family!

Recipe 1 - Baked Chicken and Orzo

Oh my goodness. What deliciousness! I made this because I was bored of my regular rotation and I had a house-full of people to feed (the in-laws were in town for awhile). Of course, with a toddler, food is always a challenge, but Doodlebug ate this one up, especially the orzo. He just loved it! It was hard to not overcook the chicken. I was easily phased by this one because you do not precook the orzo. It cooks while in the oven, so I set the timer for longer than suggested because I just wasn't convinced. But it turned out beautifully, aside from dry chicken. :) I will definitely be making this one again. And the fresh sage is a must. Really added great flavor to the dish.

Recipe 2 - Soy Sauce Drumsticks

Wow. Just Wow. First off, if you can, marinate this one over night. Make sure to, as the author suggests, score them once or twice on each side, because that marinade will just soak in and you have less of a chance of drying out the meat inside. 

This is so good! I served it with rice and a garden salad. It was a fantastic meal and again, we will add it to the regular rotation. Do make sure to turn them every 7 to 10 minutes or so so they don't burn. And they do taste better the next day!

Future recipes on the menu for the next week: 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins

Baked Chicken Fajitas

Turkey Stuffed Peppers

Now, I am going to school for wine, so at some point I hope to tell you what wine I paired the meals with and how it tasted! For now, with summer, beer and hard cider have been tasting very good. And strawberry margaritas.

A better attitude

I was chatting with a friend online, and mentioned how I was done with 2013 already.  With financial stress, my back issues, and the three of us going round and round with colds and flus...

She responded with "You said the same thing about 2012, too.  There have been some really good things that have happened for you guys already in 2013!"

And you know what?  She's right.  April has been full of surprises, despite my back issues and Wesley's current cold.  It would be inappropriate to share online right now, but it's safe to say some really good things are happening.  And there's lots of potential for even more good things if Matt's next project takes off (more on that when the Kickstarter begins).

So, you want to know how I'm doing?  I'm really good.  Wesley only wakes up a few times a night and, when not sick, goes right back to sleep after a bottle.  He is very opinionated, interested in everything, and is trying to climb the furniture.  He is happy, healthy, and strong willed.  He is the best thing in my life, for sure.

Matt and I are doing well, too.  He surprised me with a date a few weeks ago - came home early, had lined up everything, from the babysitters to dinner and the movie.  It was wonderful to have some time for just us.

While one day of daycare is gone, I still can take Wesley to her house on Mondays, and then my sister comes on Friday afternoons to watch the boy so I can get work done, go to the gym, etc.  This will certainly cut down our childcare expenses!

So yeah, things are good.  Still hard, money is still very much a struggle BUT we have our health.  Our house.  Food on the table, and heat in our house.  Loving family and friends.  Really, we are truly blessed, and I need to remember that when the road of life gets bumpy.

Sick Sick Sick

I can't remember a year when I've been sick this much, and where so many of my friends and their kids are just as ill.

January and February was a stream of colds and the flu.  Wesley was sleeping through the night for a stretch, so that was helpful.

But then, one weekend in March -  last weekend - he threw up.  Just a couple of times and both were such isolated incidents that we didn't really think anything of it.

However.

Late Monday night/early Tuesday morning, I fed him a bottle, and as I was leaving his room, I got hit hard with overwhelming nausea.  Out of nowhere, I felt the need to throw up almost immediately.  But instead, I got some crackers and sparkling water, ate a little, and went back to bed.

Nope.  Throwing up ensued.  And our poor son had never heard this awful noise from an adult before so he totally freaked out.  At least the first two times.  By the time I ran the bathroom for round five, he was sleeping like a champ.

Around 3 or 4 am, Matt emailed his boss, said he'd be late to work.

At 6:30am, Matt got up to go to the bathroom.  I sat up, felt the need to upchuck again, and ran straight to the kitchen.  That's when Matt heard a thud and ran to find me on the kitchen floor.  I had fainted.  I woke up dazed and confused, sat up, and started throwing up again.  That marked seven times in seven hours, to which Matt responded "I'm taking you to the emergency room."

After seven hours in urgent care, including an ekg and a CT scan, 3 bags of saline to get me rehydrated, and some anti-nausea pills, the doctor still didn't know what was wrong with me.  I had to go see my physician the next day to find out.  It was Norovirus!

Needless to say, these last few days I haven't been very hungry.  I usually live to eat, but these days I have been eating to live.  I'm still pretty weak, and very tired.  My boys were absolute champs in taking care of me, I'm very luck to have them in my corner.

All in all, avoid Norovirus.  It's miserable.

Happy First Birthday, Wesley!

Every day the baby disappears, and the toddler is emerging...

Life Without Facebook

As most of you know, I gave up Facebook for Lent.  I had Matt log in for me once, and take care of something, and that was it.  I happened to see that I had 194 updates and 3 messages.  In just two weeks!  People, that's just crazy.  It's been clear to me for these last few weeks that I spend WAY too much time on Facebook.  After the end of March, I'm going to keep it off of my phone.  I'm spending more time getting things done, quality time with my family, and my life feels much simpler.

The only thing I don't like about it is that it's harder to keep in touch with people.  There are a few that I only connect with on Facebook, like Lena.  I miss sharing photos with those closest to me, especially of Wesley.  But Matt updates me on the big stuff, like our college acquaintance getting a new position in Seattle (Congrats, Louis!).  I continually tell him to be on the look out for an update regarding a friend of ours expecting a new baby.  I know I'm missing a lot.  But then, I also cannot keep in touch with 650 people. I think I'm going to have to remove quite a few people from my friends list, even though I know who everyone is, I don't talk to or keep up with all of them.

Wesley is doing great.  He's crawling all over the place, I spend much of the day just chasing after him.  He's interested in everything, pulls himself up wherever he can, and has started walking side to side when he's pulled himself up on the couch or coffee table.

I cannot believe I'm going to have a one year old as of Sunday.  CRAZY!!

Holiday Weekend

Last weekend was President's Day Weekend, and we headed to Aberdeen to visit our dear friends, Jeff and Tina, and their two daughters, Natalie and Alanna.  It was wonderful to get out of town and relax for a few days.  I took a nap every day, Wesley was well cared for whether it was me, Matt or his Auntie or Uncle looking after him.  Even his cousins liked playing with him.  Matt and I even got a lunch date, which was wonderful.

Sunday we finally made it out to the beach, which was supposed to be the nice day.  It was a bit blustery and rainy at first, but the weather finally cleared up enough to where we felt like we could take Wesley to the beach.  And he LOVED it!  Matt insisted on putting Wesley's hands and feet in the water, Wes couldn't get enough.  He was so excited to see the ocean, to feel the (icy) cold water on his skin.  We then quickly hurried back to the car and got his wet, sandy clothes off, at which time his lips turned a little blue.  We got warm clothes on his little cold body, wrapped him in blankets, and in no time he was back to his normal, happy self.  (Binkies help too.)

I can't wait to go back to the beach, and on our next family vacation.  We had such a good time!

I should also point out that he was fussier than usual.  Turned out he had a major growth spurt and sprouted two new teeth - the seventh one is out, the eighth is on it's way.

Wesley Pictures

I have our trip to the coast to write about and post pictures, but for now, I leave you with some super cute photos of my cute cute son.  :)

And if you can believe it, he'll be ONE YEAR OLD in just a week and a half!  I'm loving this age.  He's so interactive and responsive.  A little sponge, soaking up the big big world.

Giving Up Facebook - Day 1

I'm not really a religious person, but I decided to challenge myself this year and give up Facebook for Lent.  Hubby changed my passwords and I un-synced (if that's a word) Facebook from my phone.  I've already realized how it's such a part of my life.  Check email and then check Facebook.  I've caught several moments with Wesley, and thought "Oh, I need to take a picture and post it to Facebook!"  Well, I can't, so I find myself enjoying the moment.  Or, I take pictures with our real camera, and I can email them to friends and family and/or post them here.

Already, this decision is forcing me to interact more and more with my son and husband.  No longer do I check my phone incessantly for Facebook updates, or get "caught up" with friends and family.  And by "caught up", I mean there's no conversation.  If I don't comment or "like", there is no guarantee to that person that I've actually taken the time to read what they have to say.  And I don't like that.  I grew up in an age where there was no internet, no Facebook, no cell phones.  We were forced to talk to people, to leave messages (heck, my parents had a party line, people.  I'm totally dated), to visit face to face or on the phone.  I wrote letters, for Pete's sake!!  I want to teach my son that it's OK to interact with people face to face, that there are many ways of communication, not just through the computer.

 I can already tell I'm going to be learning a lot about myself...this just the first day!

Visit With Friends!

Tonight our friends Michael, Emily, and Brandon came over for dinner.  We made the soup and salad, they brought bread and beer.  Everything was home-made and so delicious!  We parents had the best time talking, laughing, and watching our boys play on the floor.  Until they both decided they'd had enough and it was bedtime.

Brandon is the first baby/kid that Wesley has really interacted with.  Even when they were just getting out of the car in the driveway, Wes started stirring, and I'd like to think that it was because he couldn't wait to see his buddy!

Wesley is full on crawling now, and getting faster every day.  Walking isn't far away.

Help me.

Almost 11 Months!

Oh, my cute cute boy.  Where has the time gone?  You are so sweet, funny, and have so many new skills:

• Sitting up on your own;
• Pulling yourself up;
• New funny faces, including "scrunch face" that happens while you're eating;
• When feeding yourself, you rarely miss your mouth now;
• You HATE broccoli.  One piece in your mouth and you cry until we take it out;
• Making a hissing sound with all FIVE of your teeth (2 on bottom, 3 up top).

 You are so much fun and changing so fast, I can hardly keep up.  You bring us so much joy.  I love you!

Merry Christmas!

Promises to Wesley

In light of the recent tragedy, I'm stealing this idea from a good friend of mine - thank you, Melanie, for the idea.

Dear Wesley,

I promise to love you unconditionally;
I promise to always be here for you, whether you're running to or away from me;
I promise to teach you to love all, be compassionate and thoughtful, to think before you speak;
I promise to do my best to let go, whether it's at your first day of daycare or at your high-school graduation;
I promise to try to not meddle;
I promise to teach you to be responsible, to do your chores and homework, and to take care of others because you want to, not just because you can;
I promise to give you the tools to believe in yourself, that you can be anyone and anything you want;
I promise to teach you the value of being a member of our society, to give back, to be part of being something bigger than yourself;
I promise to make introduce you to different cultures, to surround you with different types of people, music, art, food, to make sure you know that there is a big world out there for you to discover;

And the biggest of all, I promise that I will always see you as my baby boy, and I will take care of you as long as you will let me.  I will love you forever, even after I'm gone and you have a family of your own. 

Love always, forever and ever,
Mommy

Copyright: Alexander Lawrence

 

 

9 Months Old!

Ohmygoodness!

NINE MONTHS OLD!!  How in the world has time gone by so fast?

You are starting to crawl, well, sort of.  It's a combination of pulling yourself on the carpet, military crawling, and rolling.  You're not terribly interested in crawling.  If the object of your desire is too far away, you'll look around for something closer.  You are definitely my kid.  :)

You have some separation anxiety, and there are a few people who you don't really care for, including your god-father, Steve!  I've come to the conclusion that the majority of men in your life don't have beards, but Daddy does.  And so does Steve.  So I think it's not so much that you're scared as you're confused.

You love people, still.  You love to smile, but laughing doesn't come easily.  Until, I found the pop-up book.  With the jumping frog.  And started saying "ribbit" every time it jumped.  Oh, what joy ensued!



You had a doctor's appointment today - 18 pounds and 10 ounces!  The doctor is very pleased with your progress.  Everything looks good, and no shots!

We had a good Thanksgiving, except we forgot your booster/high chair thing, so dinner was a little awkward, as you tried your hardest to grab everything in sight, including dishes and silverware.  Everyone loved you, and you just yummed up all the attention.  

You are STILL not sleeping through the night, but you are an easy baby during the day.  Very patient if we're late with meals, so pleasant when we are out and about.  You just love to observe what's going on.

We had a bit of a rough time, you and I, in November with Daddy being gone on set.  You are so happy he's home, and so am I!

I love you, my sweet sweet boy.  I can't wait for your first Christmas.  It's going to be magical!

Love you lots and lots,
Mommy

8 months old!

Dear Wesley,

It's 2:30am.  You've been up for TWO HOURS.  Please go to sleep.  Daddy is filming, and can't get up with you, which means you and I are in this together.

You are sweet, loving, patient, curious, energetic, and so happy (and want to crawl so desperately).  I love you my darling boy.  But you Dad and I would *really* appreciate it if you could just sleep more than 2 hours at a time.

I will feed you if you're hungry, change your diaper if you've pooed your pants.  But I won't play with you in the wee hours of the morning.

I'm sorry we had a rough night tonight.  I'm sorry I had to let you scream.  You must be going through a growth spurt - 7 ounces in less than two hours!  I also drugged you with some ibuprofen in case your teeth were bugging you.

You're asleep now.  Sweet dreams, buggaboo.  I love you. 

Love,
Mommy

My (Precious) Meows

PJ has been part of our lives for nearly 10 years now, since he was 3 months old.

Quinn has been in our family for 9 1/2, since she was a wee kitten.

Both are addicted to me.

After we moved, and I was working full time, and in plays, PJ decided he'd had enough and started spraying.  Long story short (and thousands of dollars later), we moved him into the garage.  Then Wesley was born, and Quinn wizzed on the downstairs carpet, and she too was moved into the garage.

(For those of you wondering about Bean, well, she is fine and loves Wesley to pieces.)

PJ and Quinn have peed in several corners, and since we are storing my in-laws things, Matt and I have been trying to find a solution.  We can't give them away, I mean, who wants cats who have emotional problems and spray all over the place?  I refuse to put them to sleep, as they aren't sick.  And I don't have time to retrain them to come back into the house.  And they show no interest in wanting to come back in.

PJ is also deathly afraid of the outside.

So what does this mean?

Well, PJ is just going to have to adjust.  Hubby and I talked about turning the chicken coop into a cat shelter, but we (a) don't know how and (b) don't have the time. 

So.

I did some research on Amazon.  Turns out there are outdoor kitty shelters that can house up to three cats.  Fully insulated, and some even have a microwavable heating pad that stays warm for up to ten hours.  What about food and water, you say?  Well.  There are such things as warm water dishes, so the water doesn't freeze.  And we can just get an automatic food dispenser.

Now, there is a tom-cat around, and I'm not sure how Quinn and PJ will fare with him.  Bean tries to kick his butt through the window, but he seems like a scardy cat to me.  Hopefully that won't be an issue.

But we don't have another choice.  This is our last resort. 

I can only pray that they figure out how to go to the bathroom outside, and not on the siding.

Oh crap.  The garden. 

Sigh.

Attitude Adjustment

I've discovered that 3pm is my witching hour.  Not Wesleys.  Mine.  I get so tired and pissy, and desperately want to sleep.  Of course, this is when Wes sleeps for only 30 to 40 minutes, and I wake up grumpy and ticked off. 

I want to be grateful that I managed to get even 30 minutes, when many moms do not.

I want to enjoy my son at this age, because every day he gets older and changes. 

I want to relish in taking care of him and doing the little things.

I want to let the laundry and dishes go.

I want to pick-up writing on my SLO blog again so I can have something that I define as "mine".  I miss writing and researching about one of my favorite spots in the world.  There are several times when I feel like I'm losing myself, and that's not good for me or my family.

I want to be grateful for the help that I do have.

I am grateful that my son is, for the most part, happy, patient, loving, and curious.  I want to nurture those traits.

I want to be content. 

7 months old!

Dear Wesley,

You are still a baby, but you are having more and more "little boy" moments, and it both delights and saddens me.  You are inquisitive about EVERYTHING and always want to be part of the action.  Whenever I take you out in public, there is at least one elderly woman who just fawns all over you.  You flirt with anyone who smiles at you. 

Your bottom teeth are coming in!  Poor little dude, your mouth hurts more and more, so we go back and forth between ibuprofen and teething tablets.  While I miss your gummy smile, those teeth are pretty darn cute.  I just feel bad that you're so uncomfortable.  But you're not in pain all the time, usually before bed and occasionally during the day.  You've only had one really fussy day due to teething, so I can't complain.

You are really rolling around now, it's your main mode of transportation.  You can roll around on the living room floor quite easily, but in your crib...not so much.  You get stuck in corners, or your limbs get caught in the rails.  I have to go to IKEA now and get you a bumper since that's where we got your crib and their bumpers actually fit. I'm really not looking forward to taking you to IKEA but I really don't have another choice since Daddy is working more and more in Seattle. 

Oh man, you so desperately want to crawl.  It's sad and cute.

We are working on getting you on a schedule.  We wake you up between 7 and 8, with your first nap being around 10, second nap at 3, and bedtime between 7 and 8.  I had to put it into my Google calendar, because otherwise I won't stick to it.  And you're responding very well.  Despite being up for an hour tonight, you've been asleep since just after 6:30.  You started talking in your sleep again and woke me up, only to fall back asleep which is why I'm up now.  :)

I love watching your little hands explore objects.  They are all over your toys, a dish rag, your high chair, a blanket, anything with texture that makes noise is instantly amazing.  And your facial expressions are priceless.  Those eyebrows!!  What a ham. 

My darling boy, words cannot express just how much I love and adore you.  You laugh and love and smile so easily.  I love you, my wonderful, happy son!

Love,
Mommy