Slow cooker

Santa brought me a slow cooker for Christmas.  It's the size of a small boat and arrived dented on one side but I'm too lazy to exchange it and the functionality isn't affected so it fits in well in my kitchen.  I should mention that part of the reason I got on this whole slow cooker bandwagon was because everyone told me how EASY they are.  Dump the ingredients in, turn on low or high, and come back in 4-8 hours for a delicious meal.  What's not to love, right?

So, for my first recipe I decided to try this healthy and EASY-SOUNDING chili recipe from WebMD.  I got excited when the 3-step instructions were:

1.) Put all ingredients into slow cooker; turn on low or high and cook accordingly.
2.) Go do something creative.
3.) Before serving, taste for seasoning adjustments.

What I neglected to realize is that someone (i.e. ME) was going to have to wash, peel, and chop the 8 different vegetables, as well as saute the garlic and onion and brown the meat before simply "putting all the ingredients into the slow cooker." 

So, two hours later that prep work was done and 5 hours after that our meal was ready.  Never mind that it happened to be 8:00 p.m. by then and I had already fed Audrey instant mac 'n cheese because she couldn't wait any longer.

I'm not giving up on the slow cooker yet.  But clearly I have a lot to learn.  And for the time being I'm reverting back to my trusty Cooking Light 30-minute 5-ingredient cookbook that is more my league.  The chili was good though.  And yes, it feeds a small army.

My poor nose

T is going through a super cute phase of loving to sit on my lap. I love it. He is also super obsessed with this uberly boring video, “Mighty Machines,” so sitting still with me might be partially due to the hypnotizing effect of watching trucks and trains on TV. Ok, he would sit in front of it all day long if he could.  (The obsession is to the extent that the hubs just bought him another 4 Mighty Machines videos out of desperation because we might just poke our own eyes out if we have to see a diesel engine filling a railroad train up with gas one more time).  Anyway, he likes to sit on mommy’s lap, we’ll leave it at that.

Sunday morning, he was being a good boy, so I turned the trucks video on for him. He came and plopped down on my lap – and inadvertently head-butted me in the nose with the back of his head with all his might. Man oh man, I saw stars. And it still hurts. I keep asking the hubs if it looks broken to him, but he tells me unless there was blood, it’s not broken. I ask if it looks crooked now, and I get the feeling he’s not taking me seriously. I know I don’t have a delicate nose, but ouch!

On the bright side, this might be my Jennifer Aniston-style excuse to get that delicate nose one day.

Taking the plunge

Clearly I have some blogging catch-up to do!  Well, we're back from Brazil, back at school and work after the holidays, and finally taking the plunge on the dreaded potty training.  I had been waiting for some magic sign from Audrey that she was suddenly ready to potty train seriously but that is clearly not coming so it's time to take a stab at it. 

Because I feel lost and clueless as to how to even begin this process, I checked out the only book I could find at the library, which happens to be a how-to on potty training girls, so things are already looking my way, right?  Of course, I'm about a quarter into the book and already getting depressed because the author keeps talking about how easy girls are to potty train and how this whole thing should be a breeze that's over in a few days.  And I keep picturing my child running around the house butt naked screaming, "diapers ARE for big girls!" and then peeing on the floor and wondering when the easy part starts.

Anyway, we went to Target this morning looking for the following:

- a reward chart
- stickers
- Pez
- a new potty
- a stepping stool to the toilet
- big girl underwear

We found everything but the reward chart.  I know it's super-lame that I want to buy one already made but I'm lazy.  I'm not crafty.  I need all the help I can get.  I'm not even sure a reward chart will work with Audrey (beyond a day or two) but she recently became obsessed with Pez candies after getting them in her stocking (ahh, grandparents) so I thought maybe if that were the reward we could get somewhere.  Just don't tell her dentist.

The book told me to get Audrey involved in all of the purchasing and picking out of potties, etc. to get her interested and excited for potty training.  She did pick out the potty this morning but then told me she wanted to take a nap and pretty much passed out in the cart so I'm still waiting for the interested and excited part.

 

 

In the meantime, I'm thinking up a reward chart for mommy as I may need some rewarding and motivating of my own when I'm cleaning up the 10th accident of the day.  This is when a full-carpeted house (bathrooms and all - who does that?) is your worst enemy.

 





Magical Mommy Powers

So, sometimes there are moments that I just want to remember as being so darned cute.

We just wrapped up a stretch of a good month or so, where every night, when got back from our daily walk, T and I would go and visit the “Magic Light.” This magic light is a lamp post about two houses down the street from us on a timer – whereas all the others on our street turn on at dusk every night.  So, we walk hand-in-hand down to this Magic Light, bang on the lamp post and say “Magic Light ON!” Eventually, the light comes on – and receives an amazed gasp, a huge smile, and a happy scream from the little guy. It's totally magic. And I swear, it's been the highlight of his days.

Needless to say, we'd spend a good 5-10 minutes out there at the same lamp post every single day waiting for mommy's magic powers to kick in, the timer to cycle through, and the light to go on. (Our neighbors must look out their window and laugh at our ridiculousness on a daily basis.) The magic light craze even caught on with the other toddlers on the street. Who doesn't love a magic light? Seeing his face light up in pure excitement that we personally got the light to go on (before it goes “night night” and cycles through its dark period again) is worth it.*

Hey, I'm fully aware that I'm not going to be this cool to him forever, so I’ll gladly keep using my magical powers where I can! 

*Especially because a "I don't wanna go inside!" tantrum usually follows immediately after.

The little man turns 2

Hard to believe it, but my little man has officially turned the ripe old age of 2.

It's been a busy couple of weeks (in between the not-sleeping stints)...First, T's birthday party was a couple weeks ago at a kiddo gym. Thanks to the hubs' convincing, we decided to do the party out of the house this year --- and it was a fabulous decision if I must say so. An hour and a half of 15 kids under the age of 3 running around in controlled chaos for an hour and a half...followed by pizza and cake...without any clean up.  T was a bit hesitant to let loose at first (me thinks there's something a little overwhelming about a roomful of people all about celebrating you) -- but I think he had a good time.

Flying high-birthday boy!

His 2-year doctor appointment and first dentist appointment came this week. 80th percentile for height, 83rd for weight (surprisingly....my little chicken-legged child is sturdy-boned!) and a zillionth for head size. Ok, maybe his head isn't quite that big - but he takes after both his daddy and mommy, so it's up there.  T flirted a little with the doctor and showed off his truck book, so the appointment was a success.   Next came the dentist. The waiting room was pretty much the hit of the day. T managed to find every single toy with wheels and lined them up across the room. I think the kid would have stayed in that waiting room all day long if he could've.  However, he wasn't really into the idea of the hygienist all up in his mouth, but we got through it.

Just halfway through the "line up" exercise.

And yesterday -- that was T's actual big day. So we spent the day doing T-focused stuff. Starting with opening some Christmas gifts he didn't quite have the patience for on Christmas day. Next, we trekked to the Science and Nature Center, where he got to see all sorts of animals and dig for dinosaur bones. Adorable. Lunch, was pizza -- where T re-established his love of ranch dressing on pizza (gross) but this time without the allergic reaction.  Dinner, was nachos -- topped off with the largest bowl of ice cream that I've ever seen -- and the most adorable sugar high to follow.

Digging up some dino bones

What better way to cap off a birthday than double-spooning 10-scoops of ice cream?

So a great year, capped off by some pretty darn cute celebrating. Happy birthday to my sweet, patience button-pushing, snuggle-bunny, independent, momma's boy, clone of his daddy -- little 2-year old man!

The toddler bed change-up

So, we did it. We switched T's crib over to a toddler bed. How's it going? A work in progress, we should say. Saturday was the first night. He was so tired after his birthday party* that he went to bed without a peep and didn't give the open side a second thought.** Tonight, same thing.*** The nights in between, however, have been filled with varying degrees of tears, lying down on the floor by the door, with fingers peeking underneath. However, huge improvements from last week: the tears only lasted 30 minutes or so at the most -- and, when he was ready to give up, he actually got back into his bed (thank you toddler rail!) and went to sleep.  Glorious, peaceful, night-long sleep.

In his bed.

I think this is going to work out.


*Recap to come eventually...

**Of course, that was following nap time, which was his first time in the toddler bed and hilarious to watch on the monitor. Before finally settling down to sleep, he climbed out the high sides and back in through the open sides again and again as if to say, "Why are they making this so easy for me?"

***Update 6:25am: I jinxed us. He went to bed without a peep but proceeded to stand up and turn on his little aquarium on the crib for soothing noises from 12:30-1:30 constantly...and continued through the night....culminating with nonstop tears a little before 6 until it was time for him to get up for the day. Darn powers of jinxing!

The hubs making the big switcheroo.

Sleep boycott update

How did last night go, you ask?

We’ll break it into two parts 

Part 1: Bedtime

Awful.

Crib escaping.

Hour and a half of hysterics.

No sleeping on the floor like I had hoped.

Mommy fail – I couldn’t take the screaming and caved. Went back in, and put him back in his crib. Four times. While yelling.  

Wouldn’t listen to me. Wouldn’t listen to grandma.

So my dad goes in. And T lies down for my dad to rub his back, stops crying, and is literally asleep in about two minutes.

Partially infuriating, partially heaven sent.

Part 2: Through the night

My mom and dad took one for the team and took the video monitor so I could attempt to get more than 2 hours of sleep in a night.

T slept.

The dog slept.

The cats (seemingly) slept.

I SLEPT.

I might just consider begging them to stay over one more night...Obviously this week has turned me into a wuss of a mom and I cannot seem to handle the toddler and pets without reinforcement. Hubby, come home soon!