Week 31: Homemade Spaghettios

I'm on edge.

My dreaded, held-off-as-long-as-possible umbilical hernia surgery is tomorrow morning.

I mean, I have had this since about 8 weeks pregnant with Evan.  And he'll be a year old in a few weeks.  How that's possible that he's just about a year old is beyond me.  So, I figure I can't put it off too much longer.  Only in the summer is it possible for me to take a good week or more to heal properly.

And so, the day has arrived.  I'm going to go out and get some ice cream in about an hour and then that's it for food until sometime mid-day tomorrow.  Assuming all goes well.

Oddly enough, I feel like this...thing...tomorrow signifies the end of the summer for me.  I can't swim for several weeks.  So much for places like the rec center, splash park, a friend's swim club.  Not like we can go to these places anyways with this unusually cool weather.  I'm not supposed to pick up my kids for at least a week.  Seriously?  Great timing with my overly snuggly baby.

But, I'll survive.  Considering this is surgery #4, it's safe to say this is not my first rodeo.  I just hope Scott can step up to the plate.  He's got some big shoes to fill over the next week.

In preparation for this event tomorrow, I spent a lot of last week getting as many things as possible done off our to-do list.  With some rainy weather on Wednesday, Scott took the opportunity to take Sean to see Turbo at the theater.  We figured it would be a good test to see how he'd do since the movie had been out for a few weeks already.  Planes comes out this weekend!  Can't wait to take Sean next week sometime!

Friday, the weather was finally nice.  And by nice, I mean gorgeous.  We packed up the new van and headed over to Greenfield Village.  It was the first time we'd gone all summer since we got our membership in the spring.  I loved it!  I think we all did!  Horses, turkeys, old fashioned cars, a carousel, and yummy treats.  What's not to love?

My parents finally got home from Europe that afternoon, so they stopped by for some good ol' American food like homemade patty melts, sweet potato fries, and blueberry pie.  I was in a cooking mood...

The rest of the weekend was just spent doing things with family and friends.  Scott took Sean to the Home Depot workshop Saturday morning, our friends stopped by Saturday night for a few drinks, and Scott's sister and her kids came by Sunday afternoon to go in the bounce house, swim in the inflatable pool, and on the play structure.  It was a great weekend!

Over the weekend we decided to try out the new deck and take the kiddie picnic table out of the garage for lunch outside.  So, I finally got the chance to try the homemade Spaghettio recipe floating around Pinterest.  We've never given Sean Spaghettio's from the can before and truthfully, I've never tried them either.  So, I don't have much of a comparison here, but it was good enough that Sean finished off three bowls full!  Too bad Evan isn't much of a pasta/spaghetti guy...

I can't please them all!

• 8 oz ditalini pasta (or other small pasta)
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, pressed
• Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
• 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water, to al dente (about 10 minutes).

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or large saute' pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until just fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato sauce, water, tomato paste, salt, pepper, sugar and butter. Heat, while stirring, until the butter is melted. Slowly stir in the milk, then turn the heat to low. Simmer at low heat for 10 minutes. 

Stir the shredded cheese into the soup until melted. Drain the pasta and transfer to a serving bowl. Pour as much of the tomato sauce into the pasta as desired; stir to combine. (I don't like mine extremely soupy, so usually have about 1/3 cup of the sauce leftover.)

Perfect pasta shape for little fingers, easy to make, and resulted in some leftovers too!  I'd say we'll be making this again and doubling the batch to freeze some.

All this time we're spending outside enjoying our new deck, led Sean to find a caterpillar!  And what perfect timing with Evan's "Very Hungry Caterpillar" birthday party only two and a half weeks away.  Caterpillars are on my mind...

Online is telling us it's only going to turn into a moth, but it's still going to be fun to watch the process!

Until next week...

Evan is 11 Months!!

11 Months

20 lbs. 4 oz.

29"

Big boy Evan is on the move!  Well, when we encourage him to be.  He took his first steps almost 3 weeks ago and since then we've gotten him to go across the length of a room.  You can tell the more we work on it with him, the stronger he gets.  It's even more fun this time around to have Sean there cheering him on...or standing in the way so he can get some attention too.  Ahhh gotta spread the love around!

We finally made it through a healthy month (knock on wood)!  He has not had one single doctor appointment the entire month of July.  No colds, no ear infection, no stomach virus, nothing.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nada.  I know this is probably going to bite me in the butt in a few days, but hey, I'm proud of this milestone just as much as his walking milestone!

Despite his somewhat early need to be walking, he's your typical 11 month old: pointing at things, clapping, getting into anything and everything including cupboards and floor vents, cruising around whether it's walking or crawling, climbing on top of things, antagonizing his older brother and dog, giving snuggles every few minutes just to make sure we're still there, and making all kinds of babbles.  He's such a love bug!  He's really into wrapping his arms around your neck and giving hugs, nuzzling his head into your shoulder.  Ahhh so cute!  I'll take as many as I can get.

Life is good.  We've got him on a schedule.  Eating and napping at virtually the same time every day.  It's great to finally be able to predict and schedule things around my day.  Except that it seems like someone is constantly napping starting at 9:45am and going until 4:00pm.  We're trying to get Evan to take his morning nap in the car or stroller so we can at least get out and do things.

He's eating really well!  In fact, he's been able to eat some dairy items like yogurt and foods that have dairy cooked in them.  I'm still on the fence about eggs.  He had a small reaction on his face today after eating a scrambled egg, but time will tell.  I can't keep up with how much this boy can eat!  He's obsessed with fruit.  Especially grapes.  I can't cut them up fast enough before he's banging on his high chair tray for more.  I made some yummy yogurt and fruit popsicles that he loves in the mesh feeder for dessert!  

Other big news this month:  he's sleeping through the night.  Shhhh...I don't want to jinx this great thing we have going.  Mid-July I reached a breaking point.  With the new school year rapidly approaching I knew I didn't want to have him getting up in the middle of the night again.  So, one night, I said screw it.  Let's get started.  We decided to try crying it out...again.  But, modified.  We would go in every 20 minutes to soothe him with a pat on the back or calm words.  We wouldn't pick him up.  Night one:  3 hours with multiple times of us going in there and me eventually breaking down, picking him up, and giving him a bottle filled with water.  Night two:  45 minutes with us not going in there at all.  Night three:  sleeping through the night.  Now we've had a few nights since then when he didn't sleep through the night and it took a little over an hour to get him back to bed with going in there and soothing him.  But, we've not given him a middle of the night bottle since we started.  And I think we've found the key to success:  ensuring he has two naps during the day.

I'm ecstatic.  Scott is relieved.  This has been a long almost 11 months of interrupted nights of sleep and moments when I thought I'd lost my mind if he woke up again, but I think the worst is over. In fact, it seems most his "baby" tendencies are coming to a close.  With just phasing out the bottle and switching to whole milk ahead of us, soon we'll be referring to him as a toddler.  How is that possible?!

Stats:

• Size 3 diaper.
• 12 month clothing and finally fitting into them the way he should be.
• Down to about 21-24 ounces of milk a day.  He has a breakfast bottle, a mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and bedtime bottle.  Yay!!
• Definitely eating three meals a day like a champion with tons of new favorites like grapes, quesadilla, zucchini coins, pancakes, and soup!
• Sleeping through the night!!!!
• 2 naps at 9:45am and 2:45pm that are usually an hour and a half each.
• Bedtime between 7:30-8pm and waking at 7:30am.

Favorites:

• Playing with items in the dishwasher as I load/unload it (kid items of course).
• Taking off the floor vent/air duct vents.
• Grapes!
• Elmo - we have a rock and roll Elmo that sings with a Cookie Monster keyboard he loves.
• Playing my piano!
• Getting into Bailey's food and water bowls and splashing around.
• Wagon rides!
• Practicing walking.
• Reading books (or trying to destroy them...).
• Snuggling.

This will be another month of big change as we try to tackle the transition to a sippy cup and eventually the transition to whole milk instead of formula.  Of course, I'm dreading that one the most since I don't know if we'll need to do soy milk, but one day at a time.  Today I'm loving the fact that we have a happy, healthy adorable little baby to snuggle with every day while we're off this summer.  And today, he's still a baby.  I need to just enjoy that and embrace it because my days with babies are quickly coming to a close.

With a very special birthday party in 3 weeks and his actual birthday on labor day this year, it's the perfect way to end the summer celebrating my little guy!  I'm feeling very blessed tonight.  I love this little pookie to pieces!  

Week 30: Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole!

I ate my words today.

Yes, that's right.  That's my new minivan.  You know?  The one vehicle I said I wouldn't be caught dead in.  I'm now the proud owner of a 2013 Chrysler Town and Country.

Scott is still bug-eyed over what took place a few mere hours ago.  He traded-in his beloved Charger for a minivan.  I never thought I'd see the day.  The Jeep is now his and I'll be cruising around in my mom-mobile.  You really can't deny the many wonderful qualities this has to offer: DVD player, Nav, stow-and-go seats, automatic sliding doors, a back-up camera, and a heated steering wheel to name a few.  A heated steering wheel I tell you!?!?!  How can one resist that?

Okay, I'll calm down.  Because I have other news.

Our deck is finished as of yesterday.  Done!

Clearly, we need some patio furniture, a cover for our grill so we can finally put it outside, and some flowers or potted plants.  But, that's all on the agenda!  We're going to turn that lousy piece of grass in the front into a flower garden since there's steps on both sides of the deck.  I'd also like two potted plants on either ends.  But, just to have a deck is amazing!  Scott and I have sat in those sweet lounge chairs we've had since our Clawson days every night since there were enough boards on the deck to cover the length of the chair.  Now, if only I could find some time to soak up the sun during the day...

Since Scott worked most of last week to get the deck done, I was on kid duty.  No problem, considering we were experiencing fall weather in the middle of the summer.  What better time to take a trip to the botanical garden in Ann Arbor?  Nothing like packing jackets in July.

Saturday, we started with our usual Farmer's Market and muffins followed by a trip to Troy for a Build and Grow Workshop at Lowes that we've been meaning to go to for the past six months!  It was so cute!

Lunch, naps, and finally a trip to the rec center to swim for the rest of the afternoon until we grabbed a carry-out from Leo's for dinner on our way home.  Evan had his first taste of lemon chicken rice soup...not sure he loved it as much as Sean did/does.  They are so different!

Other honorable mentions from the past week would be some of the crafts I got around to making in the evenings.  In case updating Evan's baby book, working on his first birthday party, making 2 birthday slideshows for the boys out of the million pictures I took over the last year, and now planning Sean's birthday party isn't enough to keep me busy in the evening, I got around to making a Pinterest project I've wanted to make since we re-did the boy's bathroom.

I also felt motivated to make some cow letters for Sean's farm theme party we're having at Three Cedars Farm this fall.

$2 wooden letters from Michael's and a black sharpie did wonders.

One of the meals I made this week was new and something I recently pinned on Pinterest.  Cheesy Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole.  I made this when the boys went to their "one school day" for the week while Scott was working on the deck.  It was a hit with everyone, but Sean.  But, then again, his eating habits have declined significantly the past six months.  He thinks chocolate cookies are an acceptable meal.  Ughh...

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 white onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
3 carrots, diced
2 tablespoons garlic, minced
2 cups cooked chicken breast, shredded
1 cup white rice
16 ounces wild rice
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup vegetable broth
4 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
Garlic salt
Salt & pepper

I love that there's no cream of whatever in this!

And I totally cheated and forgot to take pictures, so I'm using the original photo from the website.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat oil, onion, celery, garlic, and carrots in a pan over medium heat for 10 minutes. Prepare wild rice and white rice according to package instructions.

Stir in chicken, rices, and a dash of salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Reduce heat to low.

In a medium pan over high heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour, vegetable broth, and a sprinkle of salt & pepper. Continue to whisk until boiling. Add 2 cups of the shredded cheddar and continue to stir until melted. Transfer chicken and rice mixture to a greased 9×13 baking dish. Pour cheese sauce over rices and top with remaining cheddar. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

This was delicious and will make a great recipe for the fall and winter!  We had tons of leftovers too that tasted just as great the second time around.  I'll definitely be making this again.  Yum!

Okay, I'm off to go program my presets and hide all kinds of things in my stow-and-go compartments.  I finally get to make use of those pins on Pinterest about things you should have in your car for kids now that I have all this space!

There are these boys...

There are these boys who stole my heart.

They call me mom.

Seriously, my heart is melting when I look at these pictures from the Botanical Garden in Ann Arbor the other day.

How did I get so lucky?

Week 29: Greek Yogurt Apple Dip

My quest this past week:  toddler foods and snacks.

That's right.  I'm cooking for two toddlers now.  Since Evan is refusing to be spoon-fed for the most part (except yogurt and fruit purees because that kid could crush those down in a second), I've had to resort to many of the recipes I made Sean when he was a year old, plus some new ones.

Like this one.

Greek yogurt, peanut butter, cinnamon, and honey.  That's it.  Anything that calls for four ingredients that we always have on hand is a must-make in this household.

1 5.3oz container of vanilla greek yogurt
2 tablespoons of peanut butter
1 tablespoon of honey
1 tablespoon of cinnamon

Done.  Slice up an apple and enjoy.  Everyone loved it.  Except Evan, of course.  No peanut butter or honey for at least another month or so.

Other things I've been making for the boys this past week include apple turkey loaf, sweet potato fries, zucchini coins, toddler muffins, and broccoli patties.  I also, for the first time, used my star shaped popsicle maker kit and made these fruit and yogurt popsicles.

These are my frequently visited websites where I spend at least 30 minutes a week trying to find new things I can make the boys:

www.weelicious.com - you can subscribe to a weekly email or download the app to your phone.

http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/index.htm#.Ue3QLo3qnEY - the ultimate website for baby led weaning or making purees.

Pinterest - obviously.

Parents and Parenting: The Early Years magazines.

Not only was it a boys cooking week, it was just a boys week in general.  We had four days in a row of play dates at lots of local spots!

We went to Tiny Town with a good friend, Marla, and her two kids.  As much as I love the idea of this place, I hate how crowded it gets and I especially hate parents that use that place as a time for them to socialize on the sidelines with their girlfriends while their kids run around like crazies.  Seriously, I'm not there to babysit other people's kids, nor should I need to step in and tell two boys to stop throwing balls at Sean's head and face while their mothers were sitting 10 feet from them.  Ughh...so we packed it up and came back to my house.  Much better.

The following day we had Amy and Eric come over after afternoon naps.  We made grilled chicken tex-mex salads and quesadillas for dinner and let the kids play outside in the pool.  It was really cute to see Evan and Brielle finally old enough to interact with each other.

The next morning we were off bright and early to meet up with my good friend, Kristen, her two kids and her nephew who is about to turn 3 at the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum.  We picked a perfect day to go since the art fair was going on.  The museum was all ours!  Lucky for us, considering we were attempting to entertain 5 kids ages 4 and under.

Finally, on Sunday morning I met up with a good friend, Lisa, and her daughter, Avery, who is two weeks younger than Evan.  The heat streak was over and it was a refreshing morning to get out and about.  Too bad Sean woke up on the wrong side of the bed...crabby patties.  Seriously.

I absolutely loved this week just focusing on the kids and their needs.  By Sunday, I think Sean had reached his limit of moving from activity to activity, but it was great to see my friends and let the kids all play together.
This week we don't have as much planned, but I'm itching to get out to Greenfield Village on Wednesday or Thursday since the temps are hovering around a perfect 75 degrees!  I'd also like to get to the Ann Arbor Botanical Gardens since it's free and there's so many cute things for the kids to do outside.  Maybe we'll bring a picnic lunch with some of these new meals I made for them.  Our deck should be done by the end of the day tomorrow.  Life is good!

'Til next week...

If you can't stand the heat...

don't decide to build a deck during the hottest week of the summer.  Seriously.

Temps over 100 degrees with humidity?  No problem for Scott.  He's on a mission.  We finally threw out all the quotes we were given by different companies for various types of material decks and got in touch with a family member's friend who was more than willing to help teach Scott the ropes of doing it himself.  Considering this would cut the cost by more than half, we were all for it.  Plus, Scott loves being Mr. Handy Man around the house.  And let's be honest.  Candy Crush and Ancient Aliens need a rest.

Step 1:  Rip out all of the bricks we had laying down and pull up the grass.  The only before picture I could find of the area with bricks from last summer.  Clearly, I don't like to photograph this section of our yard...hence the need for a deck.

Step 2:  Level the soil and dig holes for the foundation beams to be put in.

Apparently, playing in the holes is quite fun.  Especially when it stalls and prolongs bedtime because mommy has to run in and get her camera.

Step 3:  Have the materials delivered from Lowe's.  This was a highlight for Sean as he got to watch a big truck come right to our house and watch a forklift drop the materials.

Another hour or two moving each beam of wood into the garage overnight until Scott's ready to get started on the foundation tomorrow morning.

I cannot wait until this project is finished!  It has been something we've wanted since we moved in two years ago next month and it will really allow us to enjoy the backyard a bit more since we can finally put our lounge chairs out, buy some patio furniture, and plant flower beds around the deck.  I'm envisioning family dinners on the patio next summer with the boys already!

As if working on this project isn't enough, we're still dead-set on selling Scott's Charger and leasing a Town and Country mini-van.  We've posted his car on AutoTrader and we've parked it at a local elementary school that gets a lot of traffic that drives by it.  Tonight, I'm posting it on CraigsList.  We have one guy who is going to do a test-drive this week and my fingers are crossed we're able to sell it for more than the trade-in value as it would pay for the materials of the deck with the extra cash.  Either way, it's a win-win to get rid of the Charger.  We can use the money to pay off what little we owe on the Jeep, get us into a larger, safer car, and get into a way lower monthly payment on only one car.  Hallelujah!

In the meantime, I'm trying to relish in the last month or so of summer before we're back to school and daycare full time.  The boys have been keeping me on my toes, that's for sure.  My lower back is sore, I'm exhausted, and I have a whole new appreciation for stay-at-home moms.  But, seeing these smiles is what really keeps me going.  Today, we conquered the hands on museum while Scott worked at home and tomorrow, we're off to the zoo!  We are so ready for this upcoming week of temps in the 80's!  Although, I have to admit.  I've enjoyed the need for going to splash park, the rec center pools, and even our kiddie pool in the back yard every day to cool down...