Christmas fun

It's been ages since I've posted here....I just can't keep up with my photography blog, this blog, family life and work!

Yesterday we made gingerbread houses. The kids loved it. Mostly the sneaking candy part, of course. At the end: stickiness on every surface, children giddy with sugar.

The afternoon started out great. Some tea, some quiet.

Then we moved on to gingerbread decorations.

And I moved on from tea to Bailey's and cocoa.

Building.

"Here, Mom. I don't want any more of these."

Snow on the roof.

Moving on to bigger snow.

The first time I had Spam

Kimbap. I'm pretty sure the first time I had Spam, it was hidden in a Kimbap roll in Korea. Sadly, my children will not be able to claim the same defense. For breakfast this morning: waffles and fried Spam, courtesty of Daddy.

It's been a long weekend. I started feeling ill on Friday morning, and finally called Tim and told him I couldn't pick up the girls from school. I had a fever and chills, and felt awful. It seemed like something I'd had before, but I'd always been able to kick it on my own. This time I wasn't so lucky. I got a second fever/chills spell in the middle of the night on Friday, and I realized I wasn't going to recover on my own. We went to the ER on Saturday morning, and they confirmed my suspicions: mastitis (an infection). Overall, it was probably the best trip to the ER I've ever had; I was checked in and sitting in triage within 5 minutes of being there, and was tucked into my own room shortly thereafter. Tim took the kids to lunch and then brought them home, while I stayed for fluids, antibiotics and an ultrasound. All is well now, for the most part.

Now it's time to recover from being out of it for 2 days. Every room in the house is an absolute disaster, I don't remember the last time the children were bathed, and we have no food. I don't think there is a spare inch of space on any countertop, and clothes are piled everywhere. It doesn't take long for things to spiral out of control. I'm not trying to make Tim look bad - he has been a hero through all of this, and the kids probably had more fun with him than they've had in ages, playing all sorts of games, and ... trying new food. Today he took the girls to their first movie: The Princess and the Frog. I was sort sad that I didn't get to be a part of this adventure, but it sounds like they had fun. And it's funny how much earlier the younger children get to do things: I could not have imagined taking Kate to see a movie at age three.

Waiting in the ER. Tim packed up a huge bag full of toys and art supplies to keep the girls occupied, and everyone ate tons of snacks.

Kate Blagojevich.

We just told her she looked like she slept well.

Getting creative with dinner

It always happens: I go to the grocery store (alone!) for milk while Tim watches the girls, and 45 minutes later I return with ... a few more items than were on my list. Yesterday, that meant trout.

I was wandering slowly through the deli/cheese area, where I picked up some shaved turkey breast, ham and salami, and found myself facing the seafood department. Flash of genius: we don't have anything for dinner! Let's have fish! Instead of having the nice fish people fillet my trout for me, I bought them whole (or semi-whole: innards removed). I figured I would show Kate what a whole fish looked like, quickly and cleanly fillet all the fish, and fry them up for a tasty dinner. Kate was intrigued by the whole fish. I told her I bought Nemo for dinner and she was downright enthusiastic. [Later, after returning from Home Depot, Kate mumbled something about Nemo, and Tim asked her if she wanted to watch Finding Nemo. "No, I want to eat Nemo." Classic.]

As I prepared the pecan-flour mixture and egg wash, I had Tim look up how to fillet a fish. Before he found a site explaining it, I went at it with my knife. The fillets weren't pretty, but I thought I did a decent job with it, until I cut two of my fingers. Tim then got to try his hand at filleting. The fish turned out great, and the girls LOVED it. Looks like fish is back on the menu, boys.

Not the best time to grocery shop

We went to Costco today right before lunch. I gave Kate a choice: Costco or storytime at the library. She chose Costco.

Result:

What's for dinner?

I don't know what we used to eat for dinner. I know that sounds a little crazy, but consider this: we were sick from Thanksgiving until Christmas, and I think we ate soup or pancakes on a regular basis. Then it was Christmas and New Years, with fancy meals that I cannot duplicate throughout the year. Not long after that, we took a vacation to visit family. That vacation was actually very useful in helping me figure out new and exciting things to eat. For instance, we are having Carrie's chicken bake tonight, with potatoes and carrot souffle. Tabitha introduced us to flank steak, which we hadn't eaten since probably before the last time we got sick. I don't know what happens, but whenever we move, have a long vacation, or are sick for any period of time, I completely forget what to make for dinner. Weird, huh? As a result, I think we have been eating a lot of fish sticks, macaroni and cheese, with a frozen crock pot meal here and there to shake it up. There you go: I don't even know what we've been eating for the past 2 weeks! It's terrible. In my defense, Tim's been working like it's tax season lately, so he hasn't been around much to inspire my meals. And the children suffer. Sigh.

I know at one time I used to make Katie's chicken curry (yum), and we ate a lot of quesadillas. I also made Joanna's southwest chicken about once a week because it is so delish. Beyond that, I am at a loss. What's for dinner at your house?

Breaking a bad habit

Ugh. I might need professional help. I am starting to wean Claire, which means I need to start weaning myself off of a littany of things:

• regular snacking, often on sweets


• automatic second helpings of food


• my 2-a-day dessert habit


• and blatant disregard for my caloric intake
  

Claire has been the best weight-watching program I've ever tried. Even when I was pregnant with her, I only gained 29 pounds in 39 weeks. That pregnancy was over the Christmas holiday season, and although I ate many a sugar cookie, I don't think I gained more than 3 pounds in the last trimester. After she was born, I lost all my baby weight by the time she was 4 months old. I lost an additional 10 pounds in subsequent months. I didn't diet. I didn't exercise (minus running a mile here and there while we were in Oregon in July). I just nursed her 4-5 times a day, and fat flew off my thighs and onto hers. Don't hate me, girls. (I say this even though I would have hated me, but it was literally beyond my control.) Which sort of makes me wonder about weight.

With Kate, I gained 38 pounds in 37 weeks. It took me 7 months to lose all but one pound of baby weight, and then I got pregnant again and started gaining weight. With Kate, I exercised. I ate healthy foods every day, and I limited my sugar intake. It makes no sense to me.

One thing I did lose from the first pregnancy to the next, however, is my curls. I used to have curly hair. Now my locks are mostly straight, with some wave. I miss my curls. But, curls or weight? I have a feeling most will say weight. What would you choose: great hair or a thin figure? Now that I have lost the weight, I want the curls back, of course. What? I can't have it both ways?

Curls + 37 pounds, many of which I apparently carried in my face. And my arms. Good-NESS.

Anyway, I now am the not-so-proud owner of some bad eating habits. For instance, it's naptime, and minutes ago I found myself in the kitchen scrounging for a snack. I paused, mentally, to make sure I was actually hungry, and then I wolfed down a couple of mint-mini Three Musketeer bars. *cringe* I looked through the pantry and nothing looked appealing. I opened the fridge and quickly looked away from the Costco birthday cake staring at me. I slammed the door. I settled on a 100-calorie pack of microwave popcorn, of the kettle corn variety. It was okay, and I do like that they finally came up with a size of microwave popcorn that I can consume in one sitting, but it didn't really hit the spot. I'm still debating about having at least a forkful of that cake. Tonight I will wander aimlessly from room to room, restless until I have a bowl of ice cream and/or some cake in front of me...and now you know why I might need professional help. Suggestions? What do you snack on?

Dinner out

I didn't cook all weekend (with the exception of macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, but does that really count?), and it was a welcome break! I like to cook, but the clean-up part afterwards is not my favorite way to spend time, so going out to dinner is always a nice change.

Last night we went out to Peter Piper Pizza. We will probably not be going back. I had never been there before, and thought it would be a fun place to take the kids. It's supposed to be like Chuck E. Cheese's, but it was just sort of blah. The pizza took an hour (at a kids restaurant!) to arrive, many of the games were broken, the food was not very appetizing, and they didn't serve milk. No milk at a place that caters to kids. Um...? Kate enjoyed the experience, but next time we'll try Mr. Cheese's place instead.

Tonight we met my sister and her family at Takamatsu, a Korean and Japanese restaurant that we haven't been to in almost a year. Jess and Mike had never had Korean food, and they were up for trying something new, so it was fun. We sat on the Korean side where they have tables with range-tops built in, and we cooked our own bulgogi and galbi. Mike also got a steaming bowl of bibimbap, which Claire ate greedily. Jess and Mike tried every one of the kimchi bowls placed on our table, which was impressive given that tonight they included itty-bitty fish as part of the feast. I tried them in Korea and I was not happy to have done so. Jess said they weren't bad, so maybe they were different than the ones I had, but I didn't try them this time. Kate did not enjoy the meal much, and apparently ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when we got home, but Claire loved it. She ate rice, bibimbap, potato kimchi, bulgogi and galbi. Not to worry - I didn't give her any soju with dinner.

Tomorrow I will be stressed out with packing and planning for our trip to Michigan. I am dreading the flight, but it will be great to see family and friends. See you back here next week!

French toast casserole

By popular demand, my take on Paula Deen's baked french toast:

French Toast Casserole

1 loaf French bread, sliced, or 1 loaf sliced white bread
8 large eggs
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Dash salt

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and beat with a rotary beater or whisk until blended but not too bubbly. Dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture for several seconds until it is soaking. Arrange bread in a buttered 9 by 13-inch flat baking dish, overlapping the slices.

Praline Topping

1/4 pound (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Combine all praline ingredients in a medium bowl and blend well with a fork. Spread over bread. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake 45-60 minutes, or until puffy and lightly golden.

*Note: this recipe feeds a small army. I halve it for our family of 4, and it works out pretty well. When halving it, use an 8x8 or 9x9 pan.

How cute. Also: for the love of God!

Last night Tim called at dinner time to help ease Kate into her nighttime routine. She talked to him for probably 2-3 minutes. She didn't hang up! She didn't press any buttons! She listened, and had a conversation about the stars and the moon. This video caught the tail end of the conversation when he apparently had hung up, thinking she had put the phone down.

"No screaming, Claire! No!"

Then:

Oh dear. It's 3pm. The girls are still talking. It's a night week, so Tim won't be home to field crabby babies. Crap.

On a positive note: 3 Musketeers Mint Minis with Dark Chocolate. I think I accidentally ate the whole bag.

I made that

I haven't made bread in a really long time, mostly because it takes forever, it rarely turns out well, and I have 2 kids. Did I mention that it takes forever?

Niki sent me an article and recipe months ago about how to make a tasty loaf, the kind with a thick, crunchy crust and chewy middle. You know, the kind you get in France. Or the kind you pay half an arm for here at some pseudo-French bakery and try to eat every last bit of it in one day before it turns into a giant crouton. What, you don't do that? Come live in Tucson for awhile and you'll learn to.

Anyway, this recipe. It has four (4!) ingredients, which you probably already have on hand. You mix it for about 15 seconds and then you let it sit. Then your turn it over a couple of times, let it sit some more and then bake it. Seriously. No kneading. No! kneading!

So, rush to your kitchen and make sure you have these staples on hand:

3 c. flour (any kind will do, but I used all-purpose white)

1/4 t. yeast

1 1/4 t. salt

1 1/2 c. water (the recipe in the video calls for 1 1/2, the written recipe calls for 1 5/8. I have only tried the 1 1/2 c. thus far)

Now for the complicated part:

• Wash your hands so you can mix everything with your fingers. It's more fun that way, and also anyone who walks into the room will think you're working harder than you are.
• Put all the dry ingredients (all 3 of them) in a bowl and give them a run-through with your fingers.
• Pour the water in.
• Remove your rings unless you want to bake that kind of bread with a surprise ring inside.
• Mix the dough for about 15 seconds, or until everything looks...mixed.
• Cover it.
• Let it rise for 12-18 hours (recommend 18, maybe longer - my bread was flatter than I had hoped for).
• Sprinkle a cutting board with flour and pour the batter onto it.
• Fold it over a couple of times.
• Return the dough to the bowl and let it rise another 2 hours. Or do what the recipe says and let it rise on a towel (maybe that's why mine didn't rise as much as I thought it would?).
• Heat your oven and a covered baking dish to 500*.
• Pour the batter into the hot dish and bake, covered, for 30 minutes (I baked it for 25).
• Take the lid off and bake for another 15-30 minutes, or until it looks so good you want to burn your fingers off in an attempt to eat a chunk straight out of the dish.
• Patience! Let it cool before you slice into it and shove large pieces slathered in butter and raspberry jam into your mouth. Whuh?.

Update: I made my second loaf, this time with 2c white flour and 1c wheat, and with a heaping 1/4t of yeast. I think I like the rise I got this time better since I used more yeast. And the wheat aspect is good as well. Also, I baked it at 500* for 25 minutes, which was better than 515* for the same amount of time. My 'lid off' time is significanly lower than theirs: I baked this loaf for 10 minutes with the cover off, as opposed to 15-30 minutes that they recommended. I plan to add fresh rosemary to the next batch, per Niki's advice.

Belgium has won

I bought my waffle iron a decade ago at a garage sale. It was brand new, and it cost $5. Over the past year, the griddles have started to become sticky, and I cannot get the stick off. And even though I add oil to the batter and/or the griddle itself, the first waffle (and sometimes more) sticks to the iron, and I end up with this:

Little bits of waffle, scraped off the pan in tiny chunks. The waffles still taste fine, but they don't have that nice square, in-one-piece appearance that most people prefer. Yesterday I made waffles and Every! Single! One! of those damned things stuck to the griddle. I have put off buying a new waffle iron mostly because I am cheap, and also because the majority of waffle irons in stores today are of the Belgian sort. Big squares. I don't really want Big Squares. I want normal, tiny-squared, in-one-piece waffles. So I am here to announce that Belgium has won, and I will be purchasing a new waffle iron. Pllllllb.

On the topic of Halloween. Is this not the cutest? Foot ghosts! Love.

Also: it is no longer fall. I was wrong. It was a temporary nip that was in the air. Today it will be 95*, and there is enough humidity that the swamp cooler isn't working. On the up side, it is mid-October and we are still swimming in the pool.

Oh, Dear. And: what's new here

It's 3pm. I put Kate to bed at 1:35. I know that it's outside of my window of nap heaven, but I was late picking her up from daycare, and late getting her back for precious nap time. Claire started rubbing her eyes at about 1:50, so I put her down, too. They are still awake. Still! Awake!

I just went in and told Kate to lie down and go to sleep. Claire looked up with expectant eyes. I picked her up (she had backed herself into the corner and was stuck) and she started smiling at her sister. I couldn't tell if it was a "Ha! Mom picked me up and not you!" smile, or a "You are so funny, big sister!" smile. I leaned Claire in real close to Kate for a kiss, and they both started giggling. Cute, oooglie, girlie, baby giggles. So Cute. Love.

As for what's new:

Kate is going through a growth spurt. Is this normal for 2-year-olds? She is eating like crazy. I don't know if it's because we switched her from whole milk to 1%, but she is eating like a big kid. We're talking a whole hot dog, 3/4 of a cup of peas, a whole sippy of milk, some cheese and some chicken. At one sitting! Whereas she used to just eat a quarter of a sandwich for lunch, she'll now eat a half a sandwich, a cup of fruit and some milk, and still seem to be hungry. Some of you might think I'm making up the part about the peas. I am not. How did I do this? It's a bit of a game: I pour peas from the spoon in the big bowl directly onto her little spoon and she shovels them into her mouth, all the while asking for more. Big spoon to little spoon to mouth. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. She ate half of Tim's portion (in addition to her own) the other night.

She is also talking up a storm. Hurricane force! Here is a mini translation guide:

• Ohhhh-tay, Mommy! = Okay, Mommy! (that was easy, huh?)
• Beee = big
• No sugs! = No slugs!
• Wheh yu goin Mommy? = Where are you going, Mother?
• How 'bout... = How about....(usually followed by "playdoh", "too-tee" [cookie], or "outtide" [outside])

As for Claire, she has gotten 4 teeth in 2 weeks (2 on top and 2 on bottom). She is still in swimming lessons, but will finish on Thursday because her instructor is going on vacation. She is almost able to flip herself over a good portion of the time when on her belly, but not quite.

She is also keeping some solid food down. Imagine my distress on Saturday when she bit into a grape and swallowed half of it without chewing it first! We were at a party and I had forgotten her mesh bag, and thought I would share some grape with her anyway. I thought she would suck the juice out of it, not bite into it! Of course this was silly thinking on my part. But. She kept it down, along with the baby food carrots I fed her the day before.

So today I gave her some teeny chunks of banana. No vomiting. Of course, this brings up (pun not intended) my current dilemma. I sort of don't want to feed her solid food yet. And it's totally for selfish reasons:

1. I weigh 7 pounds less than I did when I got pregnant with Kate. This is not because I've been good about eating right or exercising like an aerobics instructor. This is all Claire, baby. And I love eating my peppermint patties and chocolate cake. Not to mention Swistle's brownies.
2. Stinky poo. I used to sing 'Smelly Cat' to Kate ('Smelly Kate' in my version) after we started her on solids.
3. Umm, I guess those are my biggest reasons. But she seems to want real people food so bad that I am starting to give in and give it to her. Stinky poo and all.

Ahhh! 3:15 and it is silent! Yesssss.

Trial; Also: is it the weekend yet?

I've been sneaking teeny bites of vanilla yogurt to Claire. Don't worry: no one's been looking, and therefore she's kept it down. I think it's like the dieting thing. If no one sees you eat that hot fudge brownie sundae with whipped cream and 2 cherries (what?), no actual calories are consumed and therefore you do not gain any weight. So, it's been Claire's and my little secret. Anyway, she keeps grabbing for my fork of citrus chicken, or trying to divert my peppermint pattie-laden hands to her mouth. I am certain that she is not supposed to eat poultry or chocolate at this point, so I opted for carrots this afternoon instead. It's been an hour. She is sleeping, so either when I hear her wake up she will be lying in a puddle of orange guck, or she'll be happy as a clam and arching her eyebrow at me as if to say, "Why haven't you given me more of that good solid food yet?" My response will be, of course: because.

Are there anymore carrots in here?

Jen & Claire.

Claire, Tim & Kate after breakfast.

Today is the birthday of the Air Force. Personally? Woo-hoo. But, to celebrate, we went to breakfast together this morning on base. As in before swim lessons. Before 7am. Before any of us were truly awake. Dear God I am tired. It's been a long week, especially since neither Tim nor I had a weekend last week. Right now both of the girls are sleeping. And what am I doing? Blogging. I have a serious problem, folks.

I did it!

I've been debating cutting my hair for a long time. Cutting my hair, not just trimming. I don't know why; I've just wanted to try short hair. So here I am! I dropped Kate off at daycare, and took McLaren with me. I thought for sure when I went to pick Kate up she would have some kind of ... reaction ... but no. Nothing. She just ran to me to give me a big hug. "Mommy!" Claire, I'm not sure about. I think she is skeptical, but I at least still sound the same, so I think she's accepting me. My husband, I'm not so sure about. I like it, though. That could change when I have to do it myself. My hairstylist can make any cut look good in the shop. Me? I'm not that patient or talented. I hope I haven't ruined my hair.

We're all starting to feel better. There's still a lot more snot around here than I like, but we're on the mend.

Yesterday Kate fell in the pool. I was already in, and close-by. She was reaching for something in the pool, and suddenly: splash! She kind of tumbled in, and bit her tongue and (I just realized this afternoon) also scraped her chin on the way in. But I was really calm. I think it helped that I was right there in the water already, in case she needed help. She floated to the top in no time and righted herself on her back. After some coaxing from me, she flipped over and grabbed my hand, just like in swim lessons. Awesome. That is why we are going through the pain of swim lessons. Way to go, Kate!

My friend Amie commented the other day that she envied me a little on the family front. I understand her thoughts, but just wanted to give a glimpse into my daily life:

Tim got home on Tuesday. Then he had to work late last night, so it was just the girls and me for dinner again. This is not meant to tell you that Tim is an absentee father; it was just pretty much mealtime standard.

Imagine a rectangular, glass-topped table. I sit at the head of the table so as best to see and attend to both girls. Kate is to my left in her booster seat. Claire is in the highchair on my right. Kate eats a few bites of food with her utensil, and then tilts her head to the side cutely and wipes her garlic pasta-covered little fingers across the table, stopping momentarily to admire her work. She then stuffs pasta into her mouth, forgoing the nice fork I have provided for her.

Claire nonchalantly drops her plastic cup off the side of her tray and then looks at me sideways as if to say, "gonna pick that up for me, lady?". She sucks her thumb noisily, eyeing my bread, and converses with her sister:

Claire: Mmmma!
Kate: ABC, weeeee ah way home, icky pea! Icky pea! Icky pea! UH-OH. Icky pea! Mommy beee (big) hug. More dip, Mommy! More dip more dip more dip! (shoving bits of olive oil-covered bread across the table at me) UH-OH. (bread dropped on floor) Ice keem cone! Ice keem cone! Aaah done, Mommy, aaah done. Git dow! Git dow! Aah done!
Claire: Aah Mmmma! Mamamamamama! (banging cups)

Tim arrived home right as the girls were settling down to bed (post dinner, post clean up, post bath, post teeth brushing, post story time, post whining about not wanting to go to bed, post endless runny noses...). They were so happy to see him, and quieted right down after he tucked them in. How do you like that?

What was I thinking?

I gave McLaren some banana tonight. I was making dinner, and Kate was ... being Kate, and I was tired and hungry and I thought, hmmm, how about some banana? Yes, it was in a mesh bag. But hello! bananas don't have juice! They are just pulp! They are just solid! And we all know how she does with solids. I fed it to her at 6pm. It's now 7:40pm, and I figure I have about 20 minutes before the barfing begins. I just now checked on her, and there is no vomit. Can you feel the tension?

For those just joining us, Claire has some trouble with solids. She started out just fine. She downed a whole box of oatmeal cereal and a whole box of rice cereal. Not in one sitting, c'mon. But over the course of what, about 6 weeks maybe, she ate like a champ. Then one night, she ate peas (after successfully having eaten them before) and she woke up with her head completely encrusted in them. Pretty much ever since then she has been unable to keep solids down for more than 2.5 hours. Seriously.

We've done 2 ultrasounds on her abdomen. The first one showed fat in her liver. I chalk that up to Dion the wonder tech. As a result of his ineptitude, Claire had to have blood work done to make sure her liver was okay. It is fine, one giant arm bruise later. The second one came back normal. No problems. No pyloric stenosis. No nothing. Next we are trying some sort of upper GI thing where she has to drink some fluid as they probably x-ray the crap out of her. Joy.

I'm sort of tempted to just wait a month and see if she can eat solids when she's 8 months old. I just don't know that all these tests are worth the heartache and pain that both McLaren and I will go through. Also, the tests are so expensive. Crazy expensive. Her lab work last week? That drawing of blood billed $180, of which TriCare paid $27 (I mean, really, it's a vial of blood). The ultrasound cost $762. Good God. When Kate had her UTI, they wanted to do all sorts of tests on her, too. Turns out she is normal, but I feel like we put her through hell to find out. Is it silly to want to wait this out? I mean, it does seem like something is not right. She used to be able to eat solids, and now she cannot. But she is certainly gaining weight, so I don't know that we have a really big problem right now.

7mo of chub. Is it Claire or Kate?

5mo of that same kind of chub... who is this?

*** 9:30pm update ***

Claire is sleeping like a baby! There is no puddle of banana goo under her chubby little face! I don't know that I'm in the clear yet, but it's been 3.5 hours!

Eww, eww

A few days ago, I had the brilliant idea to start bribing Kate with candy to get her to use the potty. She has a crush on M&Ms, so I bought a package of the dark yummies that were on sale at Target. I also bought a bag of Reese's peanut butter cups, because they sounded oh-so-good. I just opened one foil-wrapped candy, thinking what strange light was filtering through my windows that made the wrapper look yellow-ish. The candy inside was a bit gooey, and stuck to the paper cup, and I thought I smelled the sickly sweet scent of bananas. Dying for some peanut butter and chocolate, I ignored both of these warning signs, and popped the gooey mess into my mouth (as good as you can 'pop' a melty chocolate glob). No sooner had I done so when I had the sinking realization that that crazy banana smell was not a figment of my imagination: there truly was banana in my Reese's peanut butter cup. ICK. There is not much that I dislike more than banana-flavored things. Gross, gross, gross. I just downed a (small) fistful of Kate's dark M&Ms to try to get the taste out of my mouth, but it's still there, taunting me.

The house is so quiet. Everyone is asleep. Claire has been sleeping for almost 3 hours now. She likes to flip over onto her belly and suck her thumb to sleep now, and I guess it's doing the trick.

Claire is cracking me up now. She yells (YELLS) when she wants attention, or when she is tired. I found out the latter today at the commissary when I took too long to shop. She was very vocal about her feelings.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to keep up with the constantly changing baby clothes? I feel like every other week I'm pulling clothes out of the girls' drawers because they don't fit anymore. Then I come across some cute little outfit that will just barely fit for a week before it's too small. Organization tips? What do you do to stay organized with your kids' stuff?

Bust

Swap meets look the same in every country.

We went to the Tanque Verde swap meet this morning in hopes of finding some patio furniture. Some of our friends have some awesome deck furniture that they got in Nogales, Mexico, and I want some. Tim's barber had mentioned that there is a store from Nogales that sells at the meet and we figured that would save us a trip to Mexico. We were wrong. We got there at 9:30am in hopes of beating the crowds and the heat. Wrong again on both counts, sort of. There were no crowds, because at 9:30am it was already 96*, slightly humid, and few vendors were open. I think we must be off-season. I bet it's a great place to shop during fall, winter and spring. So we packed up the very hot kids and headed back home. Guess we'll have to wait for it to cool down before we get that furniture.

Peas smile.

Claire got to try peas yesterday. She liked them, I think. Of course, of the 32 photos I took of the event, this is the only one in which she is smiling. But, she is also super-serious baby, so who knows for sure.

Thank you to all who sent me emails with ideas of how to shop with 2 kids! There are some great ones, like taking the old car seat with me just to use in the store, and leaving the kids at home with dad while I shop. I like the second idea best.

I think I'm going to luck out on most of it, in any case. We are headed to Oregon next weekend to visit Tim's family for the month of July. I should have either someone to watch the kiddos for me, or be able to wear Claire in the bjorn because it will be a lot cooler there. By the time we get back, I hope Claire will be sitting up a lot better in the cart so she can just use the floppy seat. By the way, the floppy seat is perhaps one of the most ingenious baby inventions ever. If you have a baby and do not own a floppy seat, I highly recommend you find one.

Multi-Tasking Gone Awry

Mmm, very burnt cookies.

I am not very good at this multi-tasking stuff. Obviously. I put cookies in the oven during naptime yesterday and completely forgot about them. I started to smell a sweet-ish smell and wondered if some remnant of food was burning in the oven. I knew it was on, as I had just made a batch of cookies. I wandered into the kitchen to check that oven to see what was cooking on the bottom or stuck to one of the racks. And what did I find? A dozen cookies that I must have put in there at least 30 minutes ago.

I don't need to eat them anyway, so I guess it's a good thing. We decided we're going to Mexico next weekend, and silly me didn't think about how that was only about 10 days away...not really enough time to get into bikini-shape. But we are headed to Rocky Point for 4 days, over Mother's Day weekend. It will be our first 'family vacation not visiting other family'. I hope that doesn't mean it's going to be hell. Be sure to check back here over the next week as I write about how stressful packing for 2 kids under the age of 2 is, and how the lack of trunk space in my car is causing much grief.

Progress

We now have new wallboard up in our shower, and a new vanity.

Mike is starting to tile, and I think he still plans to be done by Friday. Sweet.


We had a busy weekend of parties and shopping at Lowe's. The squadron Christmas party was on Saturday night and we had a pretty good time, although we left early. No dancing for me this year, thank you very much. That's the last thing anyone wants - a pregnant woman shaking her booty on the dancefloor.








Kate had fun this weekend, too:

My Daddy is cooler than Britney, Mom!

Red jello. After which she needed a bath.

We also watched the last episode of Battlestar of the season, and Tim found this video on the web that had me laughing outloud. It's funnier if you've been watching the new BSG, but check it out.

Broccoli and More

A couple of weeks ago I made broccoli for dinner and Kate started to try to say it. She's getting better at the word, but it still sounds more like 'braw-wi' than 'broccoli'. Still, we know what she means, and it's just cute to hear her say it. She loves the stuff, too. I'm not sure if she's using it as a butter/salt delivery device, but I'll take it. Braw-wi has now become one of her encompass-all words, meaning that she uses it for things she likes. Cookies, for example, are braw-wi. So is cheese.

One of Kate's favorites: Mom's Christmas chocolate chip cookies.

I've also started bribing my daughter to use her signs. She knows several, but refuses to use them. Except when she wants something very badly. Then, then I can get her to sign 'more', 'milk' (don't even get me started on what she thinks this sign is - I totally blame her Dad for the hand-waving that passes for milk), or 'eat'. We've been working on 'more' by using cookies. She only gets more when she uses the sign, and it's working! Isn't it great? I'm becoming one of those moms I swore I'd never be: letting my child have sugar, turning on the DVD player while I'm trying to make dinner (this still doesn't work; the kid has no interest in TV except to touch the buttons and hear me say 'no touch' repeatedly), and letting her play with my cell phone more and more, just to keep her from whining about it. I'm sure all of these things will backfire, but sometimes it's worth it to have some (temporary) quiet. Yesterday I think I let her do all of the aforementioned things. When Tim got home, she wanted to cuddle with him; I guess she's not feeling quite right, or maybe she just missed her Dad. It's so hard to tell.