I NEED a drink...

How come it is when you really need a drink, it is not allowed??? I have to share a quick story from this morning-at least I can find some humor in it already! I was being a nice wife this morning and got up before Chris left for work to make sure he had lunch. I told him I would take the trash out (since today is trash day). So, I went through the garage and took the bin outside. When I returned, the garage door into the house was closed & locked. My sweet & adorable Connor decided to lock me out this morning! What a way to start the morning!!!

Luckily, I borrowed a phone from a neighbor to call Chris. Of course, Chris does not answer (it is a number he doesn't know). I call again, he answers-I ask him if we for some amazing reason have an extra key hiding in the garage? Nope, no such luck. I am begging Connor to open the door, but no such luck. After trying that & trying to open the door with a screw driver. I walk around the house looking for the "perfect" window to break & ask Chris if he has a preference? His response, "Any are going to be expensive, it doesn't matter!" Finally, I got in! Not sure if Connor finally unlocked the door or if I was successful with the screw driver!

New item for to-do list: Go make extra keys to hide outside and give to neighbor :)

Lesson learned! If it wasn't for this baby, I think I would be enjoying a bottle (or maybe even 2 bottles) of wine this morning :)

Thank goodness it is Friday!!!

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Ash Wednesday!

Not a good day to start Lent...I don't think any of us sleep more than a couple hours last night. I had the great idea that we would take Chris to work, then Connor & I would go to church at 8am, then to my doctor appointment later in the morning. Well, not getting much sleep doesn't do me very well at all. And to top that off, we are 'giving up' eating out! Which isn't that big of a deal for us, considering we don't eat out much at all, but unfortunately that does include Starbucks! Needless to say, we didn't make it to 8am mass. We will try again for the noon mass, but that is during naptime, so I am not hopeful.

So, after a LONG night, we couldn't even stop by Starbucks this morning, which we really needed! So, we broke out the Starbucks bottled Frapp's we had in the pantry-not quite the same, but helped! And to make matters worse, all I wanted for breakfast was biscuits & gravy (with sausage, of course)-but again, since it is Ash Wednesday, no meat. And I made Stew (more soup-like, it wasn't very thick) for dinner last night, I just made sure there was no pieces of meat in it, so Chris could take it to work for lunch.

We did try to get our Starbucks fix by having it both Saturday & Sunday this weekend and getting pizza. And by the way, we will not last until Easter with our not eating out, we are realistic...once the baby comes, we will need Starbucks and if the hospital food isn't edible, I can guarantee I won't be eating that :) So, at least we are realistic in our expectations/goals.

And to top things off, as a way to try and get Connor to talk and say words, I have been holding out on cereal until he says cereal. It has already been a week and nothing! And he LOVES cereal for breakfast, snack, anytime-so I thought for sure he would just give in and say it already. I think it must be a battle of the wills-only time will tell who gives in first. Although it is more work for me trying to come up with a different breakfast option and snacks for him, I am trying my best! Wonder where he gets is stubborn behavior from....

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Lots to Do!

Connor loves to wear our shoes around the house-apparently he wanted to feel 'girly' in mine. He thought it was hilarious.
Connor is ready to play catch...he sets all the fish on one couch for us, then waits for us to throw them to him on the other couch.

My lazy boy watching TV.

Playing with Shamu & Rainbow Fish!

Just being cute!

Lounging with zebra on his bare belly-wonder where he learned that from...

Lots and lots to do! The real countdown has started...5 more weeks! Now I think I am realizing I have more things to do than I possibly have time to do! I came up with my master to-do list, which is to be completed before March 30th. Which would give me plenty of time if I didn't have to cook, clean, play with Connor, rest every 15 minutes..oh and sleep. My list is 2 pages in a word document! And for some reason it keeps growing & growing and I haven't been able to check more than 2 items off yet...yikes! And to think this is just my "have to get done" not "want to get done" list.

We had a good weekend, but it went by way to fast, as usual. Saturday, we got up and were suprised by a very light layer of white snow outside, but it didn't last long. We ran errands all morning. Babies R Us was our first stop to look for a new crib mattress and some other baby items. I guess I am just cheap (with some stuff anyways) because I saw a really cute changing table pad for $25, but told Chris I would just make one, the same thing for a new Boppy pilllow cover. Chris just rolls his eyes at me! We had to be home to watch the Cougar basketball game...they won, so it was a good day! Then we went to a friends for a "Sweet 16" Birthday Party...for their DOG! It was pretty funny-Connor made the dog a card and was excited to give it to him and enjoyed the cake and even the party hat.

Then Sunday, Connor & I went and ran more errands and did some shopping, we left the house around 9am and didn't make it back home until around 3pm. We decided to let Chris have some quiet time to get his homework done! How nice are we?!? However, I think he ended up just getting frustrated with the homework, but atleast Connor & I had fun shopping and found some fun stuff! I even found a new changing pad cover for just $6, much better than the other one that was $25, I don't think I could make it for $6, so I could justify the price :) And I also found some Babylegs, which I absolutely LOVE, but Chris hates. But I found some 'not so girly' ones and they were a great price, so I couldn't pass them up! Connor was good the entire time-I was amazed! I did take along some good treats, but really I only used them as rewards, not as a bribe! :)

Last week, I tried a new version of Mac & Cheese using gorgonzola, mozzarella and parmasean cheeses...Chris & Connor were not fans of it. So, Sunday night I had to make my normal Mac & Cheese and Fried Apples, of course. (My all-time favorite meal) They were happy with it and liked it much better than the 'sophisticated' version-darn boys :) In fact, Connor liked it so much for about the first 10 bites he didn't even chew it, he would just swallow the shells whole...we were laughing so hard, we didn't know how to explain to him to chew it, finally he started eating it 'normal', but it was pretty funny!

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How to Post a Comment...

I think I figured out how to post a comment:

*at the bottom of the post, click on 'comments'
*then in the box that says 'leave a comment'-type whatever you want
*type in the 'word verification' in the box below
*then, under 'choose identity', select 'name"
*then click "publish your comment"
*and you are done!

I just finally figured this out, I thought you had to log-in and have an account and everything. I know a few of you have asked how to do this. The e-mails are just fine too.

Have a great day!

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Pass or Fail?

We had Connor's speech evaluated this week, but it isn't just talking, it has to do with communication and other developmental skills as well. And he has to below 50% overall in all areas to quality for help (I guess that is what you call it). So, suprisingly when the lady was here doing the test, Connor listened to her and (for the most part) did everything she asked, he just didn't use words-no suprise there. He could sort out all the shapes and colors when she asked him to-which I was completely suprised, since we have never really done that, especially not with cards, just mainly objects. She tried to make him ask for more, but when she told him he had to "ask", he of course went mute and finally she gave in...she said, that darn smile is just too hard to resist! So, at least it isn't just me :)



So, I am not sure if I was wanting him to do good or do poorly. He can communicate with me/us just fine, he has a funny way of letting us know what he wants. I can understand him 98% of the time, which I know is why he doesn't talk. However, when this baby comes (only 40 more days), I think he will have to talk! And he hardly ever gets frustrated if we don't know what he is asking for or telling us what he wants. So, we should get his test results next week :)



And the questions they ask Connor and me are a lot of times stuff we would never think of teaching Connor, so it is good for us to think of different things. Some of the questions were:

* Does he help set the table for dinner? Well, I didn't know a 2-year old should be doing that-but now he does & he absolutely loves it. And it is pretty entertaining to see his placement of items.

*Can he draw a straight line? A circle? Never tried, I was just happy with him coloring, which he loves to do on a daily basis. Didn't know I was supposed to be teaching him to draw shapes, I thought scribbling was enough.



So, atleast from all of this, I am getting some ideas of what else we should be teaching him.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day breakfast of cinnamon rolls, heart shaped pancakes & toast, fruit, and of course Starbucks!

Connor enjoyed the heart shapes.

The Valentine's Day quilt is finally finished! I did finish it Friday afternoon, so I made the Valentine's deadline :) It turned out cute, now I just need to learn how to quilt the "correct" way!

Connor loves to push his animals around in his new little play baby stroller, still wants nothing to do with his baby. Oh well, it was worth a try!

The is what cupid left for Connor-balloons and a basket full of treats!

Cupid must know he loves Madagascar 2, Penguins, coloring books, stickers, and all kinds of animals :)

To help learn body parts, we give Connor a sticker and tell him which body part to stick it on...looks like he knows them :)

Even his feet!

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Nice day!

Well, this weather is too nice here for the time being, anyways. It was 74 degrees here today, a little breezy and overcast, but we were able to play outside this morning and all afternoon, which is always a plus. However, we are supposed to have rain and thunder storms tomorrow and they are calling for snow on Thursday-gotta love this crazy St. Louis weather.

The sun was out for a bit yesterday, so I decided to wash all the cloth diapers (Yes, we will be using cloth diapers for this baby boy!). So, I put them in the sun yesterday until it got really windy. Did the same today, so they should be nice and clean. I also made my own detergent for the cloth diapers-hard to tell if it really works since they aren't dirty, but I am sure time will tell. It is hard to find detergent without soap or enzymes, so I am hoping this will work!

I have made laundry soap in the past, but wasn't impressed with it, so I will be giving it another shot, altering the recipe this time. But I first have to find some bar soap. But I did manage to make some dishwater detergent that seems to work pretty well!

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Is quilting for me???

I am still working on my Valentine's quilt, also known as my "practice" quilt. For good reason! I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I cut out all my squares using scrap fabrics I had, somehow came up with measurments of 3.5 inches for each square, and placed them in a pattern. That was the easy part! Once I started sewing them all together, I realized I had to press them...hmmm...press to the dark side or press the seams open??? I went with pressing the seams open! Oh my! I definitely should have done bigger squares-I am not a fan of ironing anyways! This too way too long to do. But it was finally all done, I had the front of my 'quilt' done. I showed Chris (proud as can be because it actually looked pretty good). Then, I confessed that I had NO CLUE what to do next! How do you put the quilt together???

After seaching on google, I found how to make a "quilt sandwhich", but that was it. No good instructions and I had already taken my quilting books back to the library. So, then finally last night I figured I would just go for it! I really didn't want to hand quilt, as I know I don't have to patience, skill or time for! So, after searching and searching if my sewing machine would be able to handle it (which I never figured out), I just went for it. But, how on earth do I quilt??? Straight lines, how far apart? I was at a loss.

So, being stubborn and not wanting yet another project to be left unfinished, I just started sewing, or should I say quilting?!? Laughing the entire time because I know this is not how it is supposed to be done. What do you do with the thread? I am pretty sure you don't backstitch & that is all I have ever done. So, here I am just "winging it". I am about half way done, but don't have the energy for it tonight, so it will have to wait until tomorrow night! And the binding...oh my! I don't even know what I am going to do for that yet either! At least I have until Saturday, as Saturday is Valentine's Day!

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Food Obsession???

So, apparently this weekend has been all about food...or that is what Chris makes of it. Yesterday before going to the zoo, I had come up with a grocery list of things from Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, whichever we were going to stop at on the way home since we were close by. Chris asked, "How do we go through so much food? I never see Connor eating." He said this looking at my growing belly! So, he was implying that I eat all the food, which is fine by me, I have good reason too :) So, we get home from the zoo and store, I start some bread dough in the breadmaker to make 'pigs in a blanket'-they just sounded good even though usually I can't stand hotdogs. So, I am making those, but also put some acorn squash in the oven. I asked Chris to put the 'pigs in a blanket' in the oven to bake, when he went to put them in the oven, he didn't notice the squash, I had to yell at him that there was something else in there...then, this lead to, "What else are you making?" I told him that squash just sounded good, so we were also having that. Boy, would I haven't gotten a dirty look if I would have made the brownies I was planning on, but just ran out of time. Then, after dinner we had grapefruit that we sliced in half, put a little brown sugar on and broiled, it was delicious!

So, then today, we went to Costco and bought more food, mostly fruits & veggies...but since they only sell in bulk, we have a lot! So, I come home and we have pretzels with a beer cheese dip for lunch, then I decided to eat a plate of tomatoes with salt & pepper, but didn't offer any to Chris since he doesn't like tomatoes. Then, he looks at me and ask, "Now, what are you eating?" I told him to be careful, I might start hiding food around the house! Then for dinner we had salmon, which we grilled outside on the new cedar planks we got for Christmas, it was really good! Then for dessert we had grapefruit again! And now we are munching on a pound of rosemary cashews we roasted! YUM! I definately got my omega-3's today, guess I will have to wait to eat those 5 avacados until tomorrow!

So, Chris came to this conclusion: No wonder Jenn doesn't get anything done during the day, she is in the kitchen cooking and eating all day. Which is pretty much true, but hey, I only have a few more weeks to use this baby as an excuse and it isn't like I am gaining "too much" weight, so I have to do it now while I still can :) Anyways, we just have laughed about this all weekend b/c I really do eat all day long and quite random stuff as it has ranged from strawberries to avacados to grapefruit to hotdogs to broccoli to icecream-at least most is healthy! Chris has always laughed about how much butter, cheese, flour and milk we go through-now I guess he is realizing the reason! I guess it is sad that we buy carrots, celery, oranges, bananas, grapefruit, kiwi, onions, apples, potatoes, and avacados in bulk at Costco, but we very rarely ever throw any out!

And one more funny bit about our weekend: Connor has been such a picky eater lately, so I dried pears, bananas, and kiwi on Thursday and Friday, well, Friday, he ate all of the bananas, all of the kiwi, and lots of the pears in addition to having a fruit smoothie and a few blueberry muffins. Well, poor kid was in the bathroom a lot that night and Saturday morning. I finally figured out why, when I realized how much fruit he had really eaten...at least 6 (but problably more) kiwi and our smoothies were a mix of oranges, blueberries, kiwi, strawberries, banana, and raspberry, plus all the dried pears and bananas. That sure is a lot of fruit for a Connor-man!

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Zoo Fun in February!

Connor & Daddy looking at the the penguins! Connor loves to show you how the penguins walk funny!

Not quite sure what Connor was doing, I think he may have been hopping, we asked him to show the kangaroos how to hop.

This is one big kitty! The tiger was just sitting looking at us.

Baby giraffe and mama giraffe, the baby isn't so small any more.

The penguins were so pretty, we may just have to watch Happy Feet soon!

The zebras are still my favorite!

A big elephant!

Bear playing with the ball!

Baby tiger! Doesn't look like a baby!

The weather yesterday & today was AMAZING! It got up to 68 yesterday, so Connor & I spent as much time outside playing as possible! And today it got up to 70, what a treat to be able to go to the zoo in February and not freeze! We all had a blast! And can you tell, I still love our new camera??? I had so much fun taking pictures!

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Lots of Activities

Well, we have been busy with lots of activities from play dough to helping me bake breads to making Valentine's Day cards and decorations. We are hoping the weatherman is correct in saying it should be a high of 59 tomorrow and Saturday...we are planning a trrip to the zoo.

And for some reason, late last night, I decided to begin a new project..a Valentine's Day quilt. What was I thinking?!? It is small, but the idea started as pacemats, then a table runner and now a quilt. Hmmm...this was really well thought out, we will see how it turns out.

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Happy Groundhog's Day!

Happy February! Happy Groundhog's Day! Wow-I can't believe it is already February. The first picture is evidence that Connor is ALL BOY! He uses his oven on his play kitchen to park his toys. He does love playing with all his food and cooking, but loves to make us eat the play carrots...wonder where he learned that from?!?

We had a pretty uneventful weekend! Chris' big task was to fix our car...and by Sunday afternoon, it was fixed :) After a lot of google searches and trips to the auto store! He ended up having to change the spark plugs and heat coils (?). I think anyways, he had more fun trying to explain to me that there were 4 spark plugs since we had a 4-cylinder car. Guess, I really don't know anything about cars! But it turned out much cheaper than taking it to the dealership, so we were thankful! What would we do without the internet???

Almost all our snow is gone, so sad! But the good news is, it was warm enough yesterday to get out car washed...so now it is sparkly clean (and running well). So, I like our car again...there was a few days where I had my doubts :)

Sunday, I went to Michael's and went crazy on scrapbook paper...so, looks like that is my new project for the week/month! I have to get baby's pregnancy book completeted (or at least put together) before he is born. So, hopefully picking out new paper will help me get motivated :)

It must be someting about the first of the month where I revisit my New Year's Resolutions. I haven't done so well on the organizing thing the last half of January, but I am determined to start again. Last night, while dealing with the battle of bedtime with Connor, I managed to go through all our bathroom stuff under the sink and in the closet, so that was a great start. And I want to make (sew) some really cute storage cubes for organizing everything from the boys' room to our bathroom stuff (go figure, another project). The one thing I have been great about is trying new recipes: I have a new love for my bread machine, I think I am finally figuring out how to use it (use the dough cycle only). I made some really yummy garlic knots with mozzarella cheese & some delicious pretzels. I also experiemented with chicken chili last night & it turned out really good. It was VERY spicy-I was happy! YUM! Connor even enjoyed dipping his chips into it, even though he had to take a drink of milk to help with the 'heat' after every bite. Guess he does like spicy food!

Well, off to make some banana pancakes for breakfast!

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