Finding Mommy

thank you sam's club

For the pretty decent smoked sausage, yummy sauce and the fascinating 10 minutes I was able to spend with my 3-year old while she quickly ate and was off again!  During this 10 minutes I was dazzled by her amazing stories of love and marriage.

Me:  So Princess what happened at school today that was fun?

Princess:  Alex (a boy who she is not too keen on and she often tells me that he says she's not his friend) came up to me today and said "will you marry me?" and I said "No, I won't.  I'm going to marry Ky."  Ky was in the woods playing.  And I went in the woods to find him.  (Note: I'm searching my mind to figure out where there are woods at school because I believe she's still answering my question).  But I couldn't and along came my Fairy Godmother.  And she said she would help me find my prince.  So she looked and looked and looked.  And then she found Ky and we lived happily every after.

Me:  That's a great story.  I think I'm going to write that down.  (I got up and grabbed a pen and paper).  So Ky was in the woods playing...

Princess:  And Izzy and Olivia came along.

Me:  Okay, why don't we write that first one down and then the new one.

Princess:  Okay.

So I finished writing down the first story.

Princess:  Once upon a time, I went to find Ky.  And then Izzy and Olivia comed.  And then Princess comed.  All of us were searching and we couldn't.  Then 3 Fairy Godmothers comed and said "Can we help you?"  And we said "Yes!"  And they said "You can go by yourself and we can come later."  And then I found Ky.  And he walked and walked into the woods to his home.  And I went there too.  And Ky found his mom.  And I found my mom and sister and dog and daddy.  And we lived happily ever after.

There was a bit of argument on the end of that story because she kept changing it as I was writing.  She was also talking over me as I repeated it, but that's the ultimate ending of the story (they all ended with Ky and Princess happily ever after, it was just whether or not to add in the family).  Can you see a theme here?  Princess has moved on from her Evan-crush to her Kyler-crush.  I'm hoping this changes by the time she's a teenager.  I'm not sure I can handle a boy-crazy teen!!

soda update

Well my attempt at getting soda out of my life failed after two days.  Or should I say instead, I went two days without soda!  Next time I'll do better.  The glass is half full, right?  Also, on the positive side, I did not pack up my children and leave the comfort of our house for the sole purpose of getting a soda.  But I did take advantage if we were out of the house already.  Oh well. 

Monday I will be visiting a local gym and am seriously thinking about joining this time.  I'm feeling a bit of mommy guilt at the prospect of putting my children in child care so that I can go to the gym, but it's getting to the point where I can't do ANYTHING!  If I try to workout at home, the children climb all over me (and I have to worry about bumping into the littlest one).  Princess does not enjoy being confined to a stroller while I walk around the mall, neighborhood, etc.  And I suppose Mouse doesn't really like it either.  It's not much of a workout when you have a 3-year old walking beside you and a 1-year old screaming her head off because you're not walking fast enough for her to fall asleep.

This week Mouse has barely been napping making it even more difficult for me to get stuff done around here.  I can get her down for maybe a half hour nap and that's usually by driving around in the car or holding/nursing her.  If I try to put her in her crib she immediately hops up and starts screaming.  And I'm definitely not going to let her cry it out.  Why?  For starters I would NEVER have considered letting Princess cry it out.  And did I mention that Mouse has a very sensitive gag reflex?  She's been feeling a bit under the weather with either a cold or teething and every little thing upsets her.  I've been doing my best not to upset her too much (which, quite frankly, I'll probably regret later) by letting her do just about anything she wants.  I was very unsuccessful in my attempts on Thursday and Mouse worked herself into such a frenzy (in a matter of minutes) that she threw up on me 3 times!  I mean, like 3 separate times...she threw up her breakfast, lunch and then bedtime milk ALL OVER ME!  Some days it's really fantastic being a mom.  I feel like I still smell!

So that's pretty much been my week.  Hopefully we'll all feel better next week and I'll make it a bit longer without soda!

last soda, I promise!

Today, as I drove through the McDonald's drive-thru to get another "last Coke," I thought about my aunt.  She has always been a smoker and as long as I can remember, I've given her a hard time about this.  We all know that smoking is bad for us and I never really understood why it was so difficult for her to quit.  Aside from being unhealthy for yourself and everyone around you, I've always disliked the smell of smoke.  I'm very sensitive to odors (I dont' even wear perfume because it gives me a headache and all of my lotions are fragrance free), so the smoking always drove me crazy!  And I always made sure she knew it.  Her response to my prodding was usually something like this "It will be my New Year's Resolution...I'm going through a really hard time now, but in a couple of months I'll try again..."  I thought that if she kept putting it off it would only be harder and that the excuses weren't helping her any. 

Now I find myself in the same position, except that I drink soda (and Coke to be specific).  While it doesn't directly affect those around me, it is not a healthy habit.  And I'm definitely not setting a good example for my kids with the constant "I NEED my morning Coke."  I decided to quit drinking soda sometime around last Thanksgiving.  I did really well for about 2 months.  Then I got a cold and wanted some icey goodness to make me feel better (I know, excuses, excuses).  I've relapsed and now my habit seems to be even worse.  Before, I was satisifed with my morning soda, but now I want more.  I'm craving sodas all day long! 

This may seem a trivial thing to some, but I hate this feeling that I absolutely HAVE to have something.  You know that feeling...like I'd-be-willing-to-pack-up-two-kids-in-the-freezing-cold-during-a-snow-storm-to-get-my-morning-soda kind of thing (yeah, we live in Wisconsin).  It's not a healthy feeling and I'm tired of telling my 3-year old that "this will be my last Coke because it's not good for me."  Or "no you can't have any because it's not good for you."  So I'm admitting that I have a soda addiction and this will be the last soda...for real!  Please hold me accountable. 

mini pizzas

I do my best to make creative snacks for Princess when she's the snack friend at preschool.  My first idea for the Valentine's Day theme snack was to make heart-shaped banana chocolate chip muffins (a Cook Yourself Thin recipe).  This idea did not work out!  I had not yet tried the recipe so I made a trial batch before our snack day and while I liked the muffins, I decided they were not 3-year old worthy (they were a bit bland). 

So my next idea was to make heart-shaped mini pizzas.  I could not find my heart-shaped cookie cutter but did have a round one so they got round pizzas.  I bought a roll of Pillsbury pizza dough and rolled it out on a cookie sheet.  I then cut out circles with my cookie cutter - I was able to get 15 from one sheet of dough.  I first tried baking the circles on a cookie sheet but they turned out too flat for 3-year olds to add sauce too.  That would be way too messy! 

My next thought was to bake them in a muffin tin.  That worked out great!  I set the oven at 375 degrees instead of the recommended temperature on the pizza dough instructions.  

 

I made my own pizza sauce:  Heat one tsp of olive oil in pan.  Add 1 clove finely chopped garlic and saute for a few minutes.  Then add a pinch of oregano and saute for another minute.  Finally add one 15 oz can of tomato sauce and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

I took the crusts, pizza sauce and shredded mozzarella in for Princess's snack day.  The kids loved it and I thought they were pretty tasty too!

Note:  I've tried making my own pizza crust before, but have not found a recipe we like.  If anyone has a good recipe, please pass it on. 

my baby turns 1

Our little Mouse turned 1 yesterday!  I can't believe it's been a year already.  We celebrated with our family and friends on Saturday with a zoo animal party.  Both of our girls had a blast.  Mouse hardly stopped smiling and Princess told me at the end of the night that it "was a really fun, good day!"  I sent out lion invitations that read "Please join us for a roaring good time as we celebrate Mouse's 1st birthday!"  Here's what the front of the invite looked like:

As usual I went a bit overboard on the invitations and spent hours cutting everything out.  For Princess's 1st birthday I made Blue's Clues invitations (I cut out each of Blue's spots and glued them onto a larger picture of Blue- it took forever).  We did minimal decorations for the party...some green crepe paper for grass, zoo animal beach balls from Oriental Trading), jungle table cloth and zoo animal plates, cups, and utensils from Target.  The kids played Pin the Nose on the Lion.  We tried to get Mouse to play, but she was more interested in pulling the stickers off of the picture!  I had some animal masks available for the big kids to color and wear.  I made a giraffe cupcake cake with chocolate and  white cupcakes.  The frosting was a cream cheese frosting and a bit thick - perfect consistency for this purpose!  Oh and did I mention it was super yummy!  Here's what the finished cake looked like:

Mouse loved the frosting, but didn't care for the cake much.  She seems to struggle (gag) a bit with anything of that consistency...bread, cake,etc.  Princess loved it!  I made some of the cupcakes blue at her request (we've been reading Pinkalicious and she always asks for blue instead of pink cupcakes) and she was so excited.  She asked if she could have a cake like that for her birthday party which, by the way, will be a Tinkerbell party (she's been asking for a Tinkerbell party for her 4th birthday since September).

Overall it was a great celebration for Mouse's first birthday.  We're so grateful for the wonderful family and friends that joined us for the party and all of the emails and phone calls we received.  It's been a wonderful year!