Threes

Three things I've been contemplating lately:

1) All bad things happen in threes. This is definitely true for me. Yesterday was moving along rather painlessly when we got an urgent call from hubby that we had to get to the bank and do a money wire by the time the bank closed. This turned out to be rather inconvenient at the time because we had just arrived at a play-date with some friends and had to make an unexpected exit. This threw both kids into a tizzy over the unscheduled interruption. Both decided they were too tired to sleep and so hungry they must scream. On the way to the bank, the stereo in the car went out and by that I mean would turn on but not play at all. This further frustrated the kids who are accustomed to repeated verses of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and listening to "Pop Goes the Weasel" till any sane person would want to puke. Upon arriving at the bank I had to do some phone call research to determine where best to transfer the funds (long story, don't ask). To keep the stinkers at bay I passed out some goldfish crackers and a firm reminder to the oldest on how to share. About 5 minutes into what would turn out to be half an hour of phone call conversation the air conditioner went out (it was about 94 degrees outside). And by went out I mean began to blow hot air on all of us. By the time we entered the bank I was severely frazzled, hot and quite frankly, fed up. I was taking no crap from any trainee-teller and got referred to a senior associate who served me quickly and efficiently. The best part about bad things happening in threes? Once the third one hit (ala, the AC issue) then the rest of the afternoon was long but moderately uneventful.

2) How often are your taste buds supposed to change? I think I heard once it was every seven years. I must be off schedule because I am well past 28 and not yet 35 but recently have developed an appreciation for all things hot. Specifically, I rather enjoy horseradish and wasabi, which, up until about a month ago, would have been on my short list of foods to avoid at all costs. In high school I had a thing for chicken bullion (as found in top ramen), in college it was mustard, and just out of college I made it my mission to find the best salsa recipe due to an overwhelming love of cilantro and tomatoes (which all through school I hated). As a kid I remember looking at "old" people and thinking they ate such gross stuff and as it turns out, I must be "old" now because I find myself making choices any self-respecting 7-year-old would never touch.

3) I miss my sister. Visiting with friends who don't live close enough sometimes makes it even worse. Don't get me wrong, I rather enjoy any time I get to spend with friends, but it reminds me of how I wish she lived close enough so that I could share those kind of meaningless moments with her too. There's just something that you can't replace about a person you used to beat up (and get beat up by), who wouldn't let you on her side of the car, and who had to sit through all the same bus rides and summer days and parent conferences and other meaningless events of your youth.

Onward and Upward

Now that our little guy has finally begun to walk on his own (not mastered yet, but working on it), he has decided to take on more difficult challenges. He sees his sister doing things and just feels compelled to try to keep up. It's alright little buddy, spoons are pretty tricky...keep working on it...


PS, this post is overdue. I've been trying to get this uploaded since Sunday but after about 10 hours of attempting to upload, I realized that the size was too big so I had to go back and convert it.

Breakfast with Jay

We have our buddy, Jay, over for breakfast in the mornings these days. He comes over a lot lately. He's a big peanut lover so we keep some on hand for him. No, he's not an elephant...

What's for Dinner?

I absolutely love my Marlboro cookbook. Don't get me wrong, I abhore smoking and do not condone it even in the slightest. However, I DO appreciate a good meal on the barbeque and this cookbook is FULL of good ideas. My favorite is the Steel-Toed Sirloin. You take some top sirloin and put it in a plastic bag. Add to the bag a mixture of OJ, soy sauce, garlic & ginger. Marinade and let it get happy overnight (or at least an hour) then grill about 8 minutes, serve with mashed potatoes and corn and OOh La La!

What's for Dinner?

Tonight we're doing a little asian inspired salmon dish for dinner. I'll be using about a pound of salmon and glazing it with a mixture of hoisin, soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger and red pepper flakes. I'll roast it at 450 for about 10 minutes or so, toss some scallions on top and roast for about 5 more minutes. It's only 300 calories a serving and if I serve it with broccoli and some brown rice it's a totally health conscious meal that's still yummy.

My little hams

My baby girl's newest obsession is taking pictures with the digital camera. She is relatively careful with it so I condone the activity. For the most part I get pictures of the dog's tail or the bottom half of my desk. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to get the back of her brother's head. As a result of the activity though she has also become excited about me taking her picture. I get frequent requests and am happy to oblige. This morning was different and I got quite the adorable shot out of it.

Mom's Night Out

Last night I got to have a moms' night out with some friends at a sushi place down the hill. We all had way too much to all-you-can-eat and it was very good food and lots of fun. Hubby watched with kids with another mom's husband and kids so we were happy to see minimal disaster when we got back. All moms need a night like this every once in a while.

Camping

We got home last night at 11:30 PM so now, 14 hours later I've finally finished unloading the car and cleaning up the disaster that was my house. I still have 4 loads of laundry to do (sigh).
It was totally worth it though because we had a great time. It was an 6 hour drive up there so luckily they both slept most of the way. My little girl caught her first fish (3 casts, 3 fish!) and her brother slept in his first tent. She didn't want to actually have to touch the fish though once it was reeled in and he woke up about 8 times per night but I'll take what I can get. Both kids got to have roasted marshmallows, get spoiled by everyone, get DIRTY DIRTY DIRTY, which are all part of the camping fun.
We were joined by two grandparents, two great-grandparents, an aunt, an uncle, a great-uncle, and three other families of friends. The best part about that (other than all the fun of course) was there were lots of people willing to play with the kids. That left some time for Mommy & Daddy to go hiking alone together. We did a 11-12 mile hike through Yosemite, which was beautiful.
And now it's back to the comfort of our routine and naps and playtimes and yes....laundry :)

Grandparents

Happy Grandparents' Day! The kids send their love to all four of their grandparents and all of their great-grandparents too!!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Camping Trail Mix

Since we're going camping this weekend I decided to make some trail mix to munch on while we're communing with the trees (and hopefully catching fish).

This mix is so easy to make ahead of time and so yummy that it might not last past the trail head. I love it also because I basically clean out whatever remnants I have left in my cupboards that are taking up space.

I've revised a recipe I found online a little bit. Alright, take 6 cups of dry ingredients (I used corn bran cereal, pretzels, goldfish and cheerios). Put them in a crock pot with 2 cups of dried fruit (I used blueberries, raisens & bananas). Add to that 2 cups of nuts (I used almonds, pumpkin seeds, and a few other random nuts left over from other things). Pour on top of that a small mixture of melted butter, vanilla, sugar and a little water, just so it eventually kinda sticks together. Let that get happy in the crock pot on high for 2 hours, stirring once or twice depending on how carmelized you want the stuff on the bottom to get. Set it out on some parchment paper and try to beat off intruders long enough for it to cool. So easy and so worth it - YUM!

Stages

Not that I want to jinx anything, but we're working on a little more than a week now of no diapers for our little sweetheart girl. She's doing such a good job, with only a couple understandable slip-ups. Mommy's ever watchful and she's doing a good job of reminding me when I forget. She's very excited each morning to choose between her Tinker Bell, Elmo and Hello Kitty panties. Life's decisions are fun for a 2-year old.

Mister personality on the other hand, has chosen to forgo the option of going sans-diaper in favor of a sillier stage in his development. He has discovered his tongue and will gladly expose it to anyone in the vicinity when he's got your attention. For the time being, it's cute. Mommy's got this illusion in her mind however, of him at 40, still sticking his tongue out. Let's just say this is unquestionably temporary whether he likes it or not.

The birthday boy

For those of you who could not join us for the big day, here's a short scrapbook of what we did for our big one-year-old's birthday.

Kids Day

Today the kids got a quite a treat. We went to town and had no errands to run. It was all fun and games for them. First we went to a playdate at a gym especially for kids where they both were allowed to run themselves ragged for as long as they could. Then after a quick lunch we headed to the pool with friends and spent the afternoon splashing and playing. From there we went to meet Daddy for dinner on the patio at the club. To round out the fun filled day we spent the last couple hours before bedtime playing out back on the new swing set. They are both now exhausted - mission accomplished :)

Swing with Us

While we were gone on vacation last weekend the kids stayed with Nana & Grandpa. Among the many treasures they brought home with them (like fancy-shmancy Hello Kitty panties) was an enormous swing set. We were supposedly on the calling waiting list for one but apparently we fell off of the list somehow but luckily N&G were also on the list and avoided our blackball fate. After a few days (yes I said DAYS) of assembly and some veiled-attempts at disguising four letter words the masterpiece is finally complete. There's also a basketball hoop on the side that's hidden in the picture. It seems our daredevil daughter prefers the swing that resembles a horse while little mister is partial to the double-bench swing. It goes without saying that they both have fallen off already and have the bumps and scrapes to prove it. Both kids wear them like red badges of courage though and got right back on the swing.

A Day at the Pool

This afternoon we met Daddy at the pool when he got off work. The weather was beautiful and everyone had a good time. Our little lady is becoming a pro at swimming with the water wings and does it all on her own all over the shallow end of the pool even though she can't touch. The young man is enamored by anything spherical right now and when he sees anything he'll chant "ba ba ba ba..." until it is retrieved for him (thus the red ball in the picture). The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if our lab could have come with but she had to stay home. You can't please everyone I guess.

What's for Dinner?

This is one of Daddy's favorites: Thai chicken pizza

It's not spicy, even though the name suggests otherwise. Here's what you do. Bake a Boboli bread shell about 5-7 minutes (brown & crisp). Meanwhile, cook some chicken and shred then add some sliced mushrooms, sliced pea pods, and shredded carrot in a skillet until vegis are just tender, about 2 min. Add some sliced green onion.

Take the bread shell out of the oven and spread with peanut sauce then top with skillet mixture, sprinkle with chopped peanuts and cilantro and you're good to go. 1/2 an 8-inch bread shell is about 300 calories and oh so yummy.

Time Flies

On Monday we went to a playdate and one of the moms had a 5 month old little boy all curled up in her baby carrier and cuddly and adorable. I couldn't help but think how far removed my baby girl and little man have come from that point. This morning I was looking at them and thinking how big they've gotten and "where has the time gone?" Every time I look at them they seem to be bigger than the last time I looked.

We're total believers in the idea that the older you get the faster time flies. Our theory is that you have a longer relative lifetime to compare it to (a month to a 1 year old is 1/12 their lives but for us it's almost 1/400th of our lives) so it seems less significant. I don't know how true it is but it would explain how summer break in grade school seemed to last forever and now June July and August have passed for me in a blur. All that's left of all those times are great memories and pictures. So I took their pictures again this morning to catch this moment in our lives.

Bubbles

Two nights ago my little girl came to us while we were playing cards at the table after dinner and requested a little bubble time on the deck. Having about an hour before betime, and knowing it was 80 degrees on the deck (as opposed to 90 in the house) we agreed. The kids are particularly fond of bubbles even though neither of them have figured out how to blow just right and use the bubble wands. Luckily we have the bubble maker that cousin J bought them that they can make bubbles with by just pulling down on the handle. Both kids can do it and they both had a ball.

Mobility

Of course, everyone says a kid needs to crawl first. And everyone says a kid will walk on his own development schedule. My little man will walk behind a walker and has been for about 5 months now, will take 4 steps unassisted, and crawls like an Olympic athlete (hey, the compete at walking, why not crawling?). He still refuses to go the distance on his own though. Luckily, at almost 14 months and not walking, big sister's there to give him a lift.

What's For Dinner?

Two words that make me happy.....FAJITAS and Crockpot!

I'm going to slice up about a pound of sirloin and throw it in the crockpot with cilantro, tomatoes and whatever I can get from the spice cupboard (probably chili powder, cumin, coriander & garlic). Cook that on high about 3 hours then add some sliced onion, bell pepper and jalepenos (we'll pick those out later for the kiddos) and cook for about another hour. Drizzle some lime on it then serve it all on warm tortillas with a little light sour cream, ...mmmmm.... not bad for less than 250 calories a piece.