No Excuses

Last time I had a good excuse for not posting for a while but that is not the case now. I have no excuses. I wasn't really in the mood for it and now I have so much to share it's overwhelming. So first, a little about me for a change. I got a new cell phone that I am pretty excited about. My old one would just randomly turn off and on whenever it felt like it so it was time for something new. By the way, that phone was the replacement one because the previous one just started vibrating one day and would not stop unless you took the battery out. No Nokia phone for me this time. I'm getting used to all the features on the new one but I really like it so far. And it stays turned on so double bonus. I went to a meeting that the city was holding for the development of property maintenance standards and it was kind of fun to be in the planning world again and as a citizen this time. Best of all, I got to listen for a while and say what I wanted to say but then I didn't have to stay and listen to the crazies. And I could roll my eyes at them if I wanted to. One lady wanted to outlaw lighter fluid because she didn't like the smell and "people use too much of it to start their barbecues." Wow- that's pretty crazy and I heard quite a lot of crazy stuff in 7 years working in city planning. I miss it, but I love being home with Rex. I was going to try and get on the Planning Commission here but at the last minute decided not to because it's just not the right time for our family. I will one day though- unless I end up working there.

Rob and I had a very nice anniversary. We had to take a picture because it really made us laugh. On Feb 2, 2007, we were in Carmel getting married. On Feb 2, 2008, we went back to Carmel for anniversary. We went to the beach where we were married and ate dinner at the restaurant where our reception was held. This year?



Oh yes- we went to the Red Lobster that is about three miles from our house. AND we used gift cards and coupons. Seriously though, we really did have a nice time and it only cost us 5 bucks. A friend came to the house and stayed with Rex and we had a good time being out and about all by ourselves. It was only the third time we've been out to eat in a restaurant since Rex was born so we enjoy the very rare chance to do that. He hates the carrier so there is no way to take him to a restaurant until he gets just a little bigger and can sit in a highchair and eat with us.

Rex's latest thing is blowing and spitting while he is eating. Super. When I tell him no, he can not do that while he eats, he just gives me the cutest smile and giggles and makes it very hard for me to keep a straight face. I'm sure I will toughen up soon though because I'm getting tired of cleaning it all up. He is not crawling yet but he keeps working on it. He gets his legs going pretty good but just can't get anywhere with it. He has figured out how to roll over on his side and wiggle forward then he rolls back on his stomach. He keeps repeating that to move forward which is a lot of work and doesn't get him too far. Very funny to watch though! He has been drinking out of a sippy cup for a few days now. We tried with water first and he screamed and just got so excited. When we tried to give him water in his bottle, he flipped out and hated it. I guess he was expecting milk/formula with the bottle so that was why that did not work. But he loves water and apple juice out of his cup!



This post has gone on for a while now so I guess I should wrap it up. I'm supposed to host Bunco again tomorrow night since my turn in December got snowed out. So of course, there is snow again in the forecast for tomorrow. I hope it doesn't get canceled again!

Behind The Scenes

I am not a bad blogger- just one busy working on trying to better her blog! I've created a website on my computer but I'm trying to figure that whole process out of getting a domain and then publishing my site. And Rob doesn't want me to spend any money. Hmm. I had one plan and it did not work out. I'm working on the next plan which is pretty labor intensive but I have high hopes. I've never saved any of my 161 postings (now 162) and so I'm having to go through and save them all. I will be saving them all from now on though, I promise, because this is a pain in the butt! Has anybody out there ever "reformatted" their digital camera? If you choose to "reformat" your camera, you will lose all your pictures. You can ask my dad about it- he's done it. Twice. I don't know what I'm doing really and I'm afraid of doing something like that where I end up losing the last two years' work in the process. So.. there's been lots of work going on with the blog, but it's all been behind the scenes stuff!

Here's a picture of Rex from about two minutes ago-



He's doing really great these days. He's totally a pro at rolling over in any direction. He sits up pretty well on his own but you still have to be close by because he will start to lean too far in one direction and then fall over. He hasn't yet grasped the "it's time to stop because I will fall over if I go any further" concept. He does not seem to have any interest in crawling yet which is okay with me. I'm sure he'll be cruising around in no time and I will really have my hands full then! You can see his bottom two teeth in the picture there and he's been working on getting the top two in for the last two weeks. The first two just popped right through but this next set of two are taking forever which has made for one crabby little dude. Not crabby all the time but a little here and there. Rob has been sick the last week- he's feeling pretty good today and seems to be over it- but that made for two cranky dudes in the house. And that made me pretty cranky because I was trying to help them and they would both just crab at me. I'm glad things seem to be looking up today.

The weather was really nice this weekend (highs in the 40s) but it's getting a little cold again for the next few days. Last year, it was just bad-cold all the time. This winter we seem to be getting some nice breaks in between which makes the bad days a lot more tolerable. In the last few weeks since I blogged, we had a record-setting cold day where the low was -29 and it was -45 with the wind chill. Brrr.

Today is our two-year anniversary. It's been an eventful two years, that's for sure! We are very blessed and thankful for everything we have and all the experiences we've enjoyed in that time. As Rob would say, it's pretty cool.

Roll With It

So it turns out I was right- Rex was very close to rolling over. He finally rolled all the way over on Saturday! I had been trying to entice him to roll over with toys but they didn't work. I grabbed the shiny silver tv remote (that he's not allowed to have but always wants) and held out for him and what do you know? Flip- he went right over! Hmm. I just had to find the right motivation, I guess. We had him roll over again and again all weekend and he's pretty good at it now. He hasn't figured out though if he puts it all together and keeps rolling, he can actually get places. Having a baby who stays where you put them is pretty nice but it's fun to see him start to be mobile too. I took some video of it but this damn Blogger website has been giving me error messages for months when I try to upload video. I meet all their requirements but still can't get it to work. I'm frustrated and about done with this. It's a good format and pretty easy to use but they just have not made things very easy for Mac users. Not that I'm done with blogging but...

I am working on something else for the blog and a whole new deal for it. My Mac has programs already on it that would be wonderful and far less irritating for my blogging. I am not going to say too much because Rob and I are still discussing things and I am trying to do something I know nothing about. It may be a while before you see any changes but I just wanted to put it out there that you may visit soon and find something going on with the blog that will surprise you.

Motorboat

Rex loves to make the "motorboat" sound ALL the time. From first thing in his crib in the morning all the way to his final bedtime routine, he will do the motorboat. There are a few variations of it and it's all pretty funny- the best part is that it does not get on my nerves like the coughing noise did. He had his 6-month check-up last Monday and everything went great. He is a very healthy boy who weighs 21 pounds and is 27.5 inches long. I don't agree with the length measurement because I measured him to be about an inch longer and it means he only grew one quarter of an inch in two months and that just isn't right. Anyhow, the doctor talked to us about feeding him and we have a new routine now. He gets rice cereal and a fruit or veggie twice a day. We just finished trying out carrots which went far better than the green beans. Since he ate the carrots with no incidents, we're moving onto squash today and he'll be eating that for the next several days. Here he is trying out the carrots for the first time.

Off to a good start with the carrots...



Despite this funny face he made when trying them, it turned out he liked carrots a lot.



He's working a lot on rolling over and sitting up on his own but we still aren't quite there with either yet. I swear the rolling over has got to happen in the next few days though because he is so close.



The weather has been pretty good around here lately. Saturday evening we got some freezing rain and everything has been real icy but it should melt today as the high is supposed to be 30 degrees and it is really sunny out there. That means it's time to get out there and get my groceries and take care of any other errands that need to be done!

I tried a new recipe on Saturday and it was absolutely the most disgusting thing I have ever made. Ever. It all went straight into the trash and Rob and I both spit out the bites we had in our mouths. We always try to eat healthy so I thought this would be a good dinner for us. I found a recipe in my Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine and it sounded like this Asian steak and noodle salad that I loved at the Something Fresh restaurant in Visalia, CA. This recipe had the Asian, beef and noodle elements but it turned out to not even be close. It was horrible. I've made things before that did not turn out as well as I hoped but at least they were always edible. Not this though. I'm going to keep looking for a similar recipe though because that salad from Something Fresh was delicious!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Iowa!



We have a lot more snow on the ground now but it's not snowing today. Or at least not yet. That picture was taken in our backyard almost 3 weeks ago and it came out so nice for our Christmas card. We had a fun morning with Rex opening all his presents and Rob and I even had a few to open too. But mostly, Rex had all the presents.



I think we wore him out by the time we were done with the presents.



I made a bunch of goodies to give out to our neighbors and Rob took one of the tubs to work. There were mini doughnut muffins, "garbage" cookies, Ghiradelli ultimate double chocolate cookies, eggnog sugar cookies and white chocolate/pretzel/peanut bark.



I wanted to make us personalized stockings so about a week before Thanksgiving, I went out and purchased my supplies. I got Rex's mostly done but then I was not real sure I like it so I stopped. Last night I decided I wanted to finish them so we each had our own stocking Christmas morning. I'm so glad I did because they turned out pretty cute after all!



I am not even sure what we will be having for dinner- we have a few options so we will see how we feel at dinner. I did so much cooking while my parents were here, all the baking I just mentioned and then I made a roast last weekend too so I never got inspired to cook a big meal for Christmas day. Anyhow, its just a nice lazy day around here. We hope you all are having a nice day too with your family- Merry Christmas!

New Tricks

Rex has a few new tricks these days. He likes to pull his socks off:



He likes to turn over and grab everything off his diaper caddy when I try to change him (it has been relocated now):



He has a new funny face that he makes- there is also a loud snorting noise he makes when he does this and it all is absolutely hilarious.



He also likes to blow raspberries at you and make a whole assortment of crazy noises with his mouth. And the louder he can get, the better he thinks it is. He has learned to make the "ma" sound and does that to where he sounds like he is saying "mama" but he does not know what he is doing yet. I think Rob thinks we practice that all day at home but I swear we don't. He'll be on to something else soon enough and eventually he will learn how to say "mama" and know what that really means. We're still working on two more tricks- rolling over from back to tummy and sitting up by himself. He's getting pretty close to accomplishing those so be looking for pictures of that to be coming soon (I hope!).

The Weather Outside is Frightful

The weather outside is frightful. The fire is, indeed, delightful. But we had so many plans and I just did not need it to snow right now!! My parents were here visiting for a week and luckily they got out okay. They got a pretty good dose of snow and cold though while they were here! We all enjoyed their visit and had a nice little Christmas celebration their last night here. Here they are spending some time with their grandson.



So I was supposed to host Bunco at my house last Friday night. I went out Wednesday and bought all my supplies just in time for all the craziness to hit last Thursday. We ended up canceling it. Boo. I had to cancel my dental cleaning for last Thursday afternoon because of snow and possible ice. It did not start snowing until later so I could have made it but it's just so hard to know. Rex's 6-month old pictures were scheduled for 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and we had to cancel that because of the snow and blowing snow. I was able to take him today because it actually was not snowing for once. Of course, it was -3 degrees (and I think about -20 with the wind chill) out then so I had to bundle us both up and take lots of extra precautions to try and protect Rex from the weather as best I could. We've had blizzard warnings, ice storms (very little of that thankfully), snow, blowing snow, sleet wind and all kinds of craziness. Brrr. We stayed in our jammies for a while Saturday morning since there was no way we were going out anywhere. Here's Rob and Rex hanging out on the couch that morning.



Rex turned 6 months old on Saturday so we bought him some big boy food to eat. We got him green beans, peas, carrots and bananas. We tried the green beans tonight. Here's how it went.

He was definitely interested in them to start with.


We thought it was going well.


But then Rex just totally broke down into a puddle of tears and screams. Apparently, he doesn't care for green beans. Glad I bought 3 more containers of them.


We made him rice cereal after the meltdown and he couldn't have been happier.


We decided we will wait until his 6-month check-up that is scheduled for next Monday before we try feeding him food again. We'll talk to the pediatrician about how we should go about feeding him and tell him about our experiences this far. He fell asleep after the rice cereal and a bottle- I think we just wore him out today.

Sleepy Boy

Good luck trying to ever get Rex to take a nap- he will fight it to the end, just like I used to do. It seems the trick to getting Rex to take a nap is to just wear him out and let him sleep where he crashes (as my mom learned to do with me). It turns out the kid can fall asleep just about anywhere. Like after working on rolling over and sitting up during tummy time...



Or while playing in his jumperoo (I did take him out of the jumperoo and moved him to a more appropriate location for napping as soon as I took this picture)...



And while running errands around town in the car with mom.



You'd think with all that napping going on, he must be partying like a rock star at night. Umm, no. He sleeps about 9-10 hours every night in his crib. Yay for having a kid who's a good sleeper!!

Recipe Rundown- The Good, The Bad and The Sound-Good-But-Have-Not-Tried-Yet

I have been cooking a ton since becoming a stay-at-home mom. I really enjoy it and have discovered some things that I think everyone should try and things that I think no one should try. Here's a quick rundown.

Winners

Asian Lettuce Wraps- Rob said it was in the top 3 of best meals I have ever cooked. I also made some Mu Shu Chicken Wraps from my Dream Dinners cookbook and some steamed rice which were both good but the lettuce wraps were killer. And I don't like Chinese food. If you follow the link to the recipe, make sure you read through people's comments to find the sauce to make with the wraps because that's awesome too.

Fall Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette- I love me some Gorgonzola cheese. I'm not too adventurous when it comes to soft cheeses but that stuff is tasty! The dressing is sooo good but read the reviews because everyone says to cut back on the vinegar. I didn't cut back enough and had to add more of everything else so it still came out great.

Doughnut Muffins and Cinnamon Bread Pudding- Both recipes came from the Gooseberry Patch Christmas Cookbook I recently got. I'm not really into their knitting or craft stuff nor I am into the country look for my home but they have some excellent recipes in that book and those are two of the best- at least that I have tried so far. The muffins tasted just like cake doughnuts. Mmmm.

Weight Watcher Oven Fries- I love french fries and you might think I would be skipping them while I am dieting now. But you'd be wrong. These are so good and they are only 3 points a serving! Recipe is found in this cookbook. I also made the pot roast from this cookbook which was excellent- despite the fact that it caused my first ever kitchen fire. I blame it on a terrible dutch oven that has tried to burn the house down before. I have never had any problems like that except when I use that pan. Said pan has now been turned over to Rob for use on one of his future projects where it will be treated badly, as it deserves.

Losers

Whoopie Pies- From my December issue of Better Homes and Gardens. They looked so Christmasy and really had that "Wow" factor that I thought would be good on plates of cookies to give away. However, they don't taste very good and they are some high-maintenance cookies. Because of the cream cheese in the filling, they have to be refrigerated and are only good for 4 days. I can see why their popularity died out decades ago.

Gorgonzola and Herb Steak- This was from Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals show. It looked so tasty and easy when she did it but I smoked us out of the house trying to grill up the steak in a pan on the stove. Such a bummer because as I mentioned earlier, I love Gorgonzola.

Things to Try

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies- Martha and Paula Abdul made these this morning and they looked so yummy and far less labor-intensive than most of Martha's recipes. Since these are not exactly on the Weight Watcher approved list, I should probably only make a half-batch since a full batch yields 90 cookies!

Sweet Potato Cupcakes- I have seen recipes for these twice lately and they sound so good. Not sure if I will try the Better Homes and Gardens version or JustJenn's version but I'm sure either will be great.

In non-food news, my new camera arrived on Monday! I got the Canon SD790 and I am loving it. And, of course, on Tuesday I found the charger for the old camera. I think Rob's suspicious but I swear I did not know where it was and thought it was gone forever. Hee hee. No, seriously, I really thought it was gone. You'd think this post will be full of photos but I have not gotten any onto the computer yet. I think I have a picture of Rex at least every 5 minutes since I got the camera so there will be plenty to share next time.

Thanksgiving Review and Photo Updates

Thanksgiving Day was really nice at our house. It was a little chilly outside but no snow like we had last year on Thanksgiving. We cranked up our new pellet stove though so it was toasty warm in our house. We watched some of the parade on tv in the morning. Rob worked on getting the new bookshelves together in the living room and hanging the tv on the wall while I cooked the dinner. He did help a little- he cut up the apple for the stuffing but when he cut his finger doing that, we decided maybe I should just work on the food while he worked on his projects and watched Rex. We had a menu similar to last year- turkey breast, mashed potatoes (they may seem a little crazy- I had never heard of putting cream cheese in mashed potatoes- but they were the best I have ever had), cornbread/apple/sausage stuffing, sweet potatoes (just used large can of sweet potatoes instead of acorn squash), green bean casserole, cranberry jello salad and crescent rolls. Tons of food for two people but to cover everyone's favorites, it's necessary.




Rex's latest favorite thing to do is make the coughing sound. He's not actually coughing, it is just a new noise that he likes to make. Over and over and over... Rex is getting the hang of eating now. Most of it is actually getting swallowed instead of it coming right back out and landing on his bib. You just have to be careful of flying arms because he gets pretty excited sometimes and there have been a few times the bowl and/or spoon have almost been launched from the highchair.




And finally, our projects. Now that the stove is in and running and the bookshelves and tv are also in place in the living room, we can finish getting that just the way we want it. It's not quite there yet but it's getting better all the time- looking better and being more organized.



The "trucker bath" as it was known has been done for a while but I just never got pictures up of it so here are some.

Before:


Rob putting down the floor tiles ("You're a bad, bad tile and no one will ever love you!"- just kidding.):


And the vastly improved "Guest Bath"- it's kind of hard to tell in these photos but trust me, it's way better now:


There used to be a cabinet with doors here but we took it down to install open shelving which works much better for us. Now we have a place to store laundry baskets and Rex's bathtub.


Update on the camera situation. We still have not found the charger for our camera so most of the photos above were taken using our videocamera which I now know takes horrible still shots. I had to doctor the photos up a bunch and still some are not so great. We can't decide what to do about the situation. I am still in favor of getting a new camera but I've yet to convince Rob. You can't find a charger in stores because the camera is 4 years old and is certainly out of date. I spent $350 on it and you can get a better one now for $120. I will keep working on Rob though and hopefully we'll get a new one for Christmas!