Wai-ter, I Would Like The Pe-Can Piiiiie

What a busy few weeks it's been! Turkey day went off without a hitch. We deep-fried our turkey for the first time, and our house didn't burn down so I'm calling it a success. I make pecan pie a la Mark Bittman and it was fantastic. It was thickened with eggs and a little bit of sugar as opposed to the traditional glop of corn syrup so it had a wonderful nutty flavor instead of being sickeningly sweet like others I've tasted.

Just before going in the oven

My mother and father-in-law celebrated with us, and she taught me how to make her pumpkin rolls, which was really fun, and not as intimidating as I thought it would be. The trick? Turn it out immediately and roll it in a tea towel to cool. You know I would have waited for it to cool and then you'd find me hours later crying and cursing the cracked and crumbling mess as I tried to roll it. 

I listed my java jackets on etsy again, and have sold 18 so far! It's been fun to experiment with embellishments and textures, which is a good thing because if I was just doing the plain stockinette ones all the time....YAWN!

I made a cute pair of mittens, and modified the thumbs so that they can be peeled back for texting. They're modeled after the mittens Bella wore in the first Twilight movie.

I am also super excited that my licensing for the Pepperberry Knits Hannah and Josie Newsboys is complete, so I can now make them for re-sale. They are a super fun and relatively quick (don't laugh, Michele) project that was intimidating initially because of the steps (namely a brim with interfacing...seriously, it doesn't take much to make me doubt my abilities), but have been simplified by the designer by picking up stitches instead of seaming. I started on one for my friend last night, and the band is complete. My camera isn't picking up colors as well as I'd like, but you get the gist. I'm calling it Sublime in Lime on my ravelry project list.

Big J and I are interviewing a baby-sitter tonight so that we can attend our first 'professional' Christmas party, and I'm pretty excited. Hopefully she doesn't turn tail and run, because I've already bought a cute dress, I'm going to the trouble of mopping the floors just before she comes over so that she doesn't leave with fur boots and I might even take the time to clear the gourds from our front porch that have gone from decorative to decomposing almost overnight.

Locked and Loaded is done and blocked and I'm seriously considering keeping it for myself...we'll see...

Lastly, I'm starting Game On! again today with my bestie so that we can be happy with our Hawaii pictures. May the force be with me. My running group from Worcester started up again, so I've been following their program from afar. So not the same thing, but motivating nonetheless. I'm starting to think seriously about a full marathon this Spring or early summer prior to getting pregnant again. I really want the cool 26.2 tattoo that my running mates got on their arches after completing the Cape Cod marathon in October. Oh, and I want the amazing sense of accomplishment, too, of course!

All In The Family

Tonight, I got out my Kitchen-Aide, buttermilk, softened butter, eggs, German chocolate...yes, it's birthday cake time again. This weekend, I'm headed to the family abode to celebrate my mom and oldest sister's birthdays. I have been making the birthday cakes for the last few celebrations because I love to bake. This time, my sister requested the cupcakes I made for H's party (Billy's Bakery Vanilla Vanilla), and my mom said she would love a German Chocolate cake.

The weekend we celebrated my dad and niece #2's birthday, I'm sorry to say I punked out and made cakes from a mix. Not this weekend, said I. So, right now my kitchen smells divine as the first round of cakes is baking.

It has been busy, busy, busy over the past month. I have been at H's school for everything from random check-ins at recess to collecting money for a fundraiser and punching cards for a fun physical fitness program that a parent created for kids to participate in during recess a couple days a week.

Now that the play room couldn't be mistaken for a Chernobyl fall-out zone, I hosted the very fist play-date at our house this week that was just for Charlie. I have been having so much fun with him, as H is in school, and have to admit that even though I have a large soft spot for him; he's going to be 'the one'. He is stubborn. I know. My child? Stubborn? Get out!

On to the next. J completed his third half-marathon two weeks ago, and last week I went to Boise to visit my college room-mates and ran in the Barber to Boise 10k with one of them. Before I left, I finished the Serenity blanket, and have scheduled a post for November 7th (after it's given to its intended) so stay tuned. I'm so happy with how it turned out. It's definitely the most complicated pattern I've completed thus far, while being so simple at the same time.

Recent reads include Ape House by Sarah Gruen, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (highly recommend it), and am in the middle of Run Like a Mother (love, love, love and follow them on facebook and their blog) and The Graveyard Book, which is aimed at children 10 and up, but so was Twilight, so hold your comments.

I have discovered how much I love having a dog. He is essentially me in dog form; afraid of the dark, needs to be with people, and has gastric issues that he's not afraid to share with the crowd. Getting crop-dusted by him has become a regular part of my morning coffee routine. Mmm. Good to the last drop.

I'm smack in the middle of a pair of socks (my first with a pattern other than ribbing) for that same patient friend, and next up is the Josie Newsboy, an uber-cute child's version of the Hannah newsboy hat. Both of which I need to complete before I head out to visit my besties in Woouhstuh the first week of November.

I am SO excited to run with my group again, I can't even stand myself. It's been very bittersweet to watch them train for the Cape Cod Marathon for the last four months, being so proud of them, but also knowing I'd be right there with them if I were still in Massachusetts to be swept up in the whirl of comraderie and suspended disbelief. Alas, I am where I am, and happy to be here; time to organize my own Walla-Mamas running group. If Moses won't come to the mountain, right?

Halloween is right around the corner and, of course, I volunteered to head up the party for H's class. I've got visions of sugar cookies and cupcakes dancing in my head. Yes, each child will have little pumpkin cookies to decorate with their own little portioned out ziploc bags of frosting. I. Am. Out. Of. Control. I know.

And, la piece de resistance: Charlie peed in the potty for the first time tonight! M&M's for everyone! (except me, who's smack in the middle of a round of the Game On! diet with my sistahs and best friend)

Whoops, the timer's dinging so that's all the time I have!

Photo of the Josie Newsboy is by Heidi Hennesy of Pepperberry Knits, designer of said pattern who hails from Boise, Idaho. (yay for local artists!)

Party Time

I saw this post on Rockin' Mama and found the one sentence that should be in every training resource: "Someone once told me that everybody they’ve ever known is potty trained, which means that our chances of being successful with our son are pretty much guaranteed."...If only it were that easy to keep the perspective when you're in it.

I am very happy to announce, however, that the pity I mean potty party at our house is winding down...stickers are now only awarded for successful number 2's as numero uno is under control once he realized it's an activity where he not only gets to stand up, but that he is sanctioned to hold and aim his parts while doing so.

I was wiping off the outside of the toilet bowl with some of the GreenWorks wipes that I'm testing out for MomCentral, and the realization that this is just the beginning of the bathroom messes struck me. Oh, the joys of raising boys!

Crouched in the Fecal Position

Today, J installed the BumGenius diaper sprayer that I ordered from amazon, and was declared 'defective' by J before we left on our trip. After talking to "Support Guy" at The Mini Shower, I was pretty certain that it was more operator error than defective product. Sure enough, it now works like a dream. Well, I guess it's all in perspective because I'm not sure at what point in my life I let the purchase and successful implementation of a diaper sprayer be a highlight, but alas...

I went grocery shopping after being gone for 2+ weeks, and filled our cupboards and fridge to the gills with foods that would help support our resolution to be a healthier family. I was a little shocked that after following my meal plan shopping list, along with some lunch and breakfast staples, that I had not let my weak self take over and buy the ice cream that was on sale. That's right, I got home with the only "dessert" in my bags being three boxes of fat free instant pudding. On that trip, I got some of H's favorites; clementines ("baby oranges"), grapes, bananas and "cheese from the bag" (shredded cheese). Apparently we need to offer a little more cheese from the bag and white meat chicken nuggets because the by-product of our ships in the night parenting style today was that H had a Fiber One granola bar and two clementines for breakfast with J. Then when I awoke from my post nursing-all-night stupor and tagged J out to have a nap before work, I let H have two more clementines when H George (because he is anyone but himself these days) assured me in monkey-speak that he'd not had any yet today.

Two Numero Dos accidents in the underwear later, and I was pretty sure that he'd told a little white lie about the oranges.

For our big meal of the day, I served a vegetarian lasagna with applesauce and green salad...yes, our first Meatless Monday. All H ate was the applesauce and some grapes. He was mid-sentence talking to J and got a little teary...it's so nice when the kids appreciate your culinary efforts. But, wait..."Are you pooping?!" I yelled with surprise...yep. No shame, just let it rip at the table. Awesome. J got to take that one for the team, as I ate my cup of chocolate pudding. However, after H knocked over the glass of milk he was drinking beside the table, after being told about 4,000 times to sit down, he was relegated to his room.

All too quiet in there, I went to check on him, and noted the bow-legged saunter of a bull-rider, and knew he'd poo'ed again. Awesome. He looked at me and said "My pee makes polka dots! Isn't that silly?!" Yes, that's exactly what I'd call it. It's so silly, when you spatter your carpet with pee.

H is now in the tub, and will be wearing a diaper for the remainder of the day. He'll not be eating anymore fruit today as we finally put two and two (well, actually it was 4 number twos) together after examining what he'd actually eaten all day.

I would recommend the sprayer to any cloth-diapering or potty-training parent. Now maybe I need to invest in a stool to sit on while crouched over the toilet bowl spraying out all of H's underwear and C's diapers, it's a bitch on the ole back. I can say, however, that it sure beats the dunk and swish. Ahhh...remember the days when crouching over the toilet bowl was the direct result of having too much fun?

Thank god for hot water, anti-bacterial soap and hand sanitizer.

Something Fishy...

Yesterday, I took H to the New England Aquarium in Boston with Alex and her boys. Initially I was going to take both kids, but then realized that J would be home from work long enough that I could take just H and have a little one-on-one time. I feel like I've been pretty disconnected from him lately. Our personalities, I'm learning, are fairly similar so now that he's coming into his own, we're really butting heads.

From the Jellyfish in the bottom to the Octopus in the top, H behaved like a dream and I felt the closeness to him I've been craving. We got to watch the vet do a little surgery on a new sea turtle that had been hit by a boat, and the scuba diver (or 'screwdriver' as H kept calling her) was feeding all the fish in the big center tube...lots of fun to watch!

He used the potty twice at the aquarium, and Thomas (the Train, not John Thomas a la Trey) stayed dry the whole visit.

After the requisite hour and a half at the aquarium, it was across the street to Legal Seafood to have a nice lunch. I know, I know. It's a little weird to feel a hankering for crab cakes after spending the morning looking at ocean life, but what can I say? It's some of the best seafood in the city. We had planned to walk to Mike's Pastry for cannoli (sing. cannolo, but who ever eats just one?) afterward, but ran out of time so "had" to settle for some Boston Cream Pie at Legal.

I could tell immediately that our server had kids, as she brought crackers out right away, and when only one child ordered a Shirley Temple, she brought cherries for all three. The food was great, the service was better, and the kids sat in a booth, sans boosters or high chairs without threat of being shoved into one for bad behavior.

After lunch we took turns shuffling the kids to the bathroom before making the trek home. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but H is a little sensitive to loud noises like the vacuum cleaner and now, I've found, public toilets flushing. Luckily he was sitting on a toilet with a sensor and he's the world's wiggliest kid. Each time he'd relax enough to go potty, he'd move to the side just enough to set off the sensor and the toilet with flush with roaring water, making him tense enough to make a diamond...awesome. After happening three times, he decided he just didn't need to go, so I took my turn and gave him one last shot. No dice.

At least he liked the automatic sink and paper dispenser...we'll have to work on the toilets.