Friday, April 27, 2012

One Measly Hour

One Measly Hour


My husband travels a lot. Okay well, he's BEEN travelling a lot. For the past 6 months to be exact!
Can you imagine.....okay well of course you can't because we don't REALLLY know each other. BUT for the past 6 months, my husband has been driving 3 hours to the construction site that he is overseeing and it has been stressful for me. I thought his project was going to be over a couple months ago but nope!

Some days, he leaves at 5:30am to get there at 8:30am and drives back home the same day, getting home around 8:00pm. Usually that is on a day when he is trying to prevent himself for being down at the site for 3 nights in a row. For the majority of the past 6 months, he'll do 4 days and 2 nights at the project site. (I'll let you do the math on that one).
Sooooooo, I am with our boys all.day.and.all.evening. In the mornings we go out somewhere and in the afternoons we do some learning and a little bit of tv with meals, snacks and naps in between.

Just my luck, they sometimes don't even have the same nap schedule or one wakes up before the other one, leaving me with a measly hour or hour and a half to myself. I can reach my wit's end VERY quickly when I've had to deal with whining over ridiculous things all day starting with brushing teeth. I wonder if whining just suddenly stops at a certain age. ::daydreams::

This is going to last another 6 frick-fracking weeks. Seriously y'all....?!? I have been patient and tried to maintain my sanity, since it IS his job and he still comes home and is an awesome hubby and father, and he's trying to go up the ranks at this company, but damn this has been stressful!

Some days I feel like I just want to run not walk to find a job, but then I look at these boys while their heads are down concentrating on whatever they are playing with and my heart flutters.....right before I start google searching for job openings on my phone.

Sorry I've been somewhat of a crappy bloggy friend. I promise to do better in the coming weeks! Have you ever had something take you away from blogging for a long period of time? If so, what was it?

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Talking To A Toddler Nonstop Is Exhausting

I almost thought this was a pattern and that he was a genius....

I am soooo proud of my 2 year old son! He "graduated" from speech therapy. There was no graduation, just an evaluation of how he solved puzzles, played with blocks and found pictures in a "Where's Waldo?" kind of way.
His scores were off the charts and ahead of his age for cognitive skills, gross motor and fine motor skills, but in speech, his scores put him at an age-level of 27.5 months. He turned 28 months yesterday....so for the most part he's right where he should be with his speech.
YAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!.
 
::whispers:: 
except pronunciation

 **Sidenote-- I always found it weird to count in ages, but doctors and therapists do because toddlers pick up new physical, verbal and mental skills and abilities by the month, literally.

Anyway, he has made 18 months worth of progress in a 12-month period. Of course, I knew my boy was a genius/smarty-pants, but I also knew he was behind on his speech. Being a new mom and a stay at home mom, I would always do things for him and give him whatever he needed without really making him ask for it. He was such an EASY baby though. I mean he was the most laid-back baby ever. He never whined or screamed, so I just kept him on a schedule, not really "talking" to him about the schedule though (like what he's going to eat and drink or where we're going to go). I just was not one to talk to babies like they're my friends ---> I was still in a working woman's mindframe.....like basically, 'Where are the adults?'

Needless to say, I am proud of myself too. ::blows on nails::

My 1 year old on the other hand is NOT easy. As a baby, he would whine and yell and always want to be held or in the same room with you after 3 months! I would have to take him to the bathroom, shower or just listen to him yell until I was available. Now, he's still a yeller, lol. When he wants milk or juice, he'll come under you whining and pushing, so my natural response is to sharply say, "Say milk or juice." He has about 50+ words already, but would still rather whine sometimes. Since I don't like to be yelled at, I make him say the words, unlike when my oldest never yelled and I never said any words. Buuuttttt he also has his brother to mimic and is his most favorite teacher of everything.

Speech delays are not just for kids who watch too much tv. Too many people make that assumption. I think it has more to do with how much they are around other kids, like daycare, or how much their parents talk nonstop to them if they stay at home. After awhile, I realized my son's speech therapy was for me. It helped teach me how to talk to my toddler nonstop. And talking to a toddler nonstop is exhausting.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Social Media Changes Suck

In life, the only thing constant is change.....

......but at least can the social media apps stay the same?!?

Sheesh! I can't find anything!

I've been a bit neglectful to my blog and all forms of social media.....still trying to stay somewhat active when I can, but apPAAAAREntly not enough because I really don't know where anything is.
Annnndddd, I've got to find a replacement for Picnik, wahhh!

"Breakfast Gone Wild" Food Network-style

I love to watch a couple shows on The Food Network, but my favorite is a show called Big Daddy's House. My hubby and I saw this particular episode, "Breakfast Gone Wild" and just had to make some of the food we saw.
Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, so I have to use the image provided on the Food Network website. I thought I would've made these again and been able to take a picture before posting this......but, nope.
When I make this again, I'll be posting pictures just for the hell of it!

BREAKFAST CUPCAKES
~pancakes in the form of cupcakes
Picture of Bacony Breakfast Cupcake Recipe
Directions from The Food Network 
  • 6 thick-cut slices good quality bacon
  • 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
  • 4 cups prepared pancake batter
  • 8 ounces mascarpone
  • 1 cup confectioners' sugar
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Prepare a cupcake pan with canola oil spray.
Prepare a broiler pan and place the bacon on the pan. Cook until well crisped, about 6 minutes. Remove from the oven and reserve 1 tablespoon bacon drippings.
Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F. Mix the chives into the pancake batter and pour into the cupcake tins so that they are 3/4 full. Bake for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, add the mascarpone, confectioners' sugar, maple syrup and the reserved bacon drippings. Stir well to combine and set aside. Crumble the cooked bacon and set aside.
Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let cool on a cooling rack, about 10 minutes. Frost each cupcake with the bacon icing and sprinkle with the crumbled bacon.
****These directions and ingredients made 24 cupcakes. We didn't use any chives, only because we didn't have any at the time. We made 12 with heavy bacon crumbles and 12 with light bacon crumbles. They were all delicious! My only modification for next time would be to add some dry jello pudding powder to make it more moist. (Pancake batter is a tad more dry than cake batter.)

SAUSAGE, RED PEPPER AND FETA FRITTATA
Picture of Sausage, Red Pepper and Feta Frittata Recipe
Directions from The Food Network 

Frittata:
  • 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup chopped onion
  • 1 pound hot Italian sausage, casings removed
  • 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano
  • 1 cup chopped roasted red peppers
  • 8 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • Pinch of smoked salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Sour Cream Sauce:
  • 1 bunch fresh chives, chopped
  • 1 lemon, zested and juiced
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the frittata: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
In a large ovenproof saute pan over high heat, add the olive oil, onions, sausage, garlic and oregano, stirring frequently to break up the clumps. Add the roasted peppers and cook about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cream, feta cheese, smoked salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into the saute pan and bake until the eggs are set and golden brown and the frittata pulls away from the sides slightly, about 35 minutes. Remove the frittata from the oven and let cool about 10 minutes.
For the sauce: In a small bowl, combine the chives, lemon zest and juice, sour cream and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Cut the frittata into pieces and serve with dollop of the sour cream sauce.
 ****This was absolutely delicious. We didn't have any chives but everything still came out delicious. It was so hard not to eat all of it without sharing! This recipe made about 2 frittata pies. My hubby made this and it was finger lickin' good!
 
 
Bon appetit!!!!
 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Easter Weekend With An Egg Hunt

I had such a good weekend because my brother flew down to visit us.
He had a lot of fun with his nephews. My brother is 2.5 years older than me but isn't married nor has any kids....but from the time he spent with my boys I can tell he will be a great dad.
Anyway, we had an egg hunt after church with my friend's daughter, but since it rained we had to have it inside which wasn't nearly as fun. All in all, the church message was great and so was our 'chill' weekend.

His egg hunt at school.



After church, before the rain.
The Easter bucket I made for the kids...but the candy is for the parents, ha!
The colorful eggs are at the bottom. And though you can't see it, behind the cross is a tiny dinosaur that was placed in the eggs with fruit snacks and tiny squish balls (behind the baseball egg). We stuffed 18 eggs total so they all had 6 to open and play with but of course they opened them, took the toys out and left all the eggs scattered for me to clean up. Thank goodness my husband did the dishes----> we served a brunch that I hope post the recipes to later in the week.


What did you all do Easter weekend?