Angel Boy

A sweet morning with my boy in blue. 

He wasn't in a particularly smiley mood, but he was just so sweet. He's almost 11 months old, and before I know it, he'll be a year old. Wow. Love to see his personality coming out more and more each day. This boy is going to do something special in his life, I just know it.

Reasons why you don't need to clean your house...

So... I flooded the bathroom area in our master. Totally my fault. I'm so mad at myself. 

The sink was not draining well (it's separate from the toilet/shower area) and I bought some draino today. I dumped the draino, waited and then started running the water down. Well, you're supposed to run hot water, so once I saw that the water was indeed going down the drain, I left it on to heat up and run a few minutes. Then I started making dinner... forgetting about the running water. When I finally remembered it about 5-7 minutes later... there was water everywhere. I heard a squish from the carpet as soon as a walked in our ROOM! And water was rushing down the vanity. Anyway... I called maintenance... gotta love being a renter and first the maintenance guy came and then he called the carpet guy. Long story long... we had to push our bed to the side, disassemble our massive desk and move everything into half of the room so they could pull up all the padding and now we have three fans going. They also ripped out a ton of the baseboards. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID! They come back on Friday to redo carpet/padding and Saturday to do drywall and baseboards... or maybe that's reversed. Not sure. It's such a big mess, all because of my thoughtless mistake That's what I get for trying to multi-task. 

But aside for our house being discombobulated (after a day of very productive cleaning and organizing)... we are thankfully renters and we don't owe anything even though it's my fault. Thank goodness. Dang... I was so looking forward to a relaxing, early bedtime. At least {arker enjoyed complimenting the construction guys on their tools ("That's a nice hammer. Cool screwdriver."). Plus, we put Austin to sleep in Parker's closet (without P knowing), and they both slept through the night:) Well, maybe Austin cried some, but not loud enough to wake up Parker. This morning, Parker wanted to go see Austin, but I didn't want him to know that he was in his closet, so I said he was "at Grammy's." That satisfied Parker's curiosity. When I finally got Austin up and came out to where Parker was, Parker said, "How was Grammy's?"

This week I had been in ultra cleaning mode. I cleaned the floors and windows vinegar, went over all the baseboards, swept the garage, cleaned the oven... and now everything is a disorganized, dusty mess. So, there are two lessons to be learned. 1)Don't leave the faucet running, unattended. 2) Don't even bother cleaning your house... bad things will happen defeating the whole purpose of your cleaning.

The boys

Austin is on the go all the time. It's so cute seeing him set his sights on something and go after it with all his energy. I love the back of that little brunette head. 

 He pulls himself up on all furniture with ease.

 These are brothers who really, truly love each other. They can evoke laughter from each other like no one else can. They sing to each other. And I love how Parker reprimands him using statements that I have made to him in the past.

I feel like we've turned a corner with Parker. He's been in a much better mood lately. I can curb tantrums more easily and he is using his words a lot more. We still have our ups and and downs, but wow... I see a really little boy coming out in him as he is maturing day by day. I love seeing this side of him.

What are we eating these days?

Austin has improved in his eating skills a lot lately. He still has issues keeping baby food in his mouth, but has done great with actual solids. He has a great pincher grip and feeds himself very well. He loves cheerios, other cereal, teddy grams, animal crackers, cheezits, cheese, small veggies, and ICE CREAM! He knows a good thing when he sees it. His most favorite thing of all is applesauce from the to-go pouch. He sucks that thing down in no time. 

 And of course, Austin loves eating any of Parker's scraps which end up on the chair or ground. Some people have a dog to clean up their messes. We have Austin:)

 And what have Pete and I been eating? The Girl Scout Angels came to our door selling cookies on Sunday. Best day ever. He prefers Samoas while I love Tagalongs. It's a perfect world with Girl Scout Cookies in the house.

Utterly random

Parker was making breakfast with Pete the other day and I walked into the kitchen. Parker asks me, "Hey... want some eggs, Babe?" He is his father's son:)

A few weeks ago, Parker unrolled a BRAND NEW roll of toilet paper. Usually I wold just toss it out of frustration, but given that it was BRAND NEW I decided to wad it up and use it... I am happy to report I used every last square of that wadded up role yesterday. Small victory.

Parker hasn't had a full blown tantrum in three days! I've been able to talk him down before it's escalated every time. Whoo hoo! I told him how happy I was that he was making good choices and he replied, "That makes mama so happy. I not knock over Austin. I not throw things. I not slap mama on the face..."  At least he knows the way to my heart.

Several months ago, Parker poured rice in our oatmeal container. I did my best to get rid of the rice, while not having to dump out all the oatmeal. Since then, every oatmeal dish I make (oatmeal, cookies, crisps, etc...) has traces of uncooked rice in them. It re-angers me every time. It may be time to just start over with a new container of oatmeal. It's not worth my angst:)

How cute is Austin? I think he has the same sports gene that Parker does. He loves to throw the ball around all day long. I love how giddy this boy is. What a little sweetheart.

Pete has done a great job keeping up his healthy routines since starting work. I'm so proud of him. He's lost almost 30 pounds in all. Wow... didn't know he had that much to lose. He looks great.

I had a conference call with U of M yesterday for work. They asked how California was and I boasted that we were at Legoland on Monday and it was at least 75 degrees. They were shocked that it could be 75 degrees warmer than where they are in Ann Arbor. It never got that cold when we lived there, thank goodness. Got out just in time:)

Legoland was so fun on Monday. Pete didn't have to work, so we had a leisurely, sunny day. It was awesome. Here's a pic of me and my green pants twin.

 Austin reppin' Cal Poly. At Legoland, Pete saw a toddler in a Cal Poly shirt and asked, "You think she goes to Cal Poly?" haha.

 Fun on the boat ride. Parker was passionate about the big bad wolf made out of legos!

Meal plan for this week

I've gotten out of the habit of posting our weekly meal plan, so here you go:

Monday- Taco bar (with shredded beef from refrigerated section of Costco). If I have time, I'll also make these chipotle chicken tacos as an option for filling.

Tuesday- Fettuskinny alfredo

Wednesday- Taco soup- if we have left over shredded beef then I'll throw that in there. If we don't have any left, I'll do potstickers and rice since that's already in my freezer. PS... the individual meal portioned brown rice bags that they sell in the freezer section of Costco are delicious. 3 minutes... really good brown rice.

Thursday- Chicken lettuce wraps. Never made these, but they look good. I also have a more teriyaki tasting marinade recipe that we've used in the past, so we'll see what ingredients I have on hand come Thursday.

Friday- And then for a little light soup (hahaha). I have tried making broccoli cheese soup once before in the beginning of my marriage, and it didn't go well. At that time, I didn't realize that when you make a roux and add milk, you have to stir and stir and stir and boil and boil before it starts to get thick. So, I gave up prematurely and we went to Applebees instead:) It's time for another go. Maybe even with homemade bread bowls if I'm feeling adventurous.

Saturday- Out

Sunday- Cordon Bleu Casserole... new recipe. But very similar to a rolled up version I've made before.

Monday- Baked ravioli... new recipe. We'll see how it goes.

As far as treats go... I want to try these in the next few weeks:
Lemon Loaf Cake
Brownie layer dessert


I just realized something as I was looking through cookbook compilations and blogs and other websites... I don't like recipes named for people I don't know. I don't want to eat Beau's Clam Chowder. I've never met Beau... I don't know if he can cook... I don't know what his tastes are... I'm just not comfortable with that. It's fine if you say, "Oh this is my favorite clam chowder recipe that my uncle Beau used to make." But please, don't name it Beau's Clam Chowder like that is supposed to send me running to my kitchen because it's BEAU's recipe! Random though... my apologies for that rant.

Party time

Park's best bud Carter turned three last week, so we went to the park for his construction themed party. It was so fun. Trucks on every table, as centerpieces/play things...

 Birthday boy!

 Becky and Carter's sister Abby. So gorgeous!

Favors... home depot tool belts and little cars. 

 Trying to get one last pic of the boys together... not easy.

We love you Carter!

Things that make me smile...

Parker was rough housing and landed on Pete's glasses, causing a screw to come out, and now he only has one ear piece on his glasses. Doesn't stop him from wearing them though... plus he has excellent peripheral vision. 

Austin is really a doll baby!

 First loaf out of our new bread maker... thanks Scott!

 Parker got a flu bug last week (for the first time in his life) and I was left cleaning up barf for a while... gross. It was all I could do not to vomit myself. Austin of course wanted to be right in the action, so I had to put him in the pack n play while I cleaned. He was so content in there.

 Parker loves Papa!

 My mom watched the boys the other day. They can't get enough of her. When Austin sees her he literally lunges at her!

 Parker has been having bad dreams, so he'll often come in our room at 4am and either tell us he's done sleeping or that he wants us to sleep in there. Well, after several nights of sleeping on the floor next to his pack n play, we finally laid down a twin mattress. That makes for a much better situation for me at 4am. In addition, it makes a great trampoline/reading place/cuddle place/tackling mat.