Attempt 1 - Fail 1

I see alot of other bloggers out there who cook with their kids.  I think I always thought I'd be the kind of mom who did that, but I don't.  Maybe it's because I have the kind of kid who would rather throw all the magnets from the fridge into the kitchen sink, so I have to dig them out of the garbage disposal - but either way, I've never attempted to have Adam help me in the kitchen.

Also, I don't BAKE much.  I cook dinners and that's about it.  and maybe breakfast on the weekends. 

At any rate - this evening, I decided "let's make cookies!"   FUN!

So first we washed our hands, because God only knows how many nosepickings have occured in the last hour...

Then I pulled out our kitchen stool thinking "he's gonna totally dig sitting on this!"  only...not so much...

(top pic taken with no flash - bottom pic taken with flash - apparantly the lighting in my kitchen SUUUCKS)

He pitched a fit and ended up smacking his head on the tile counter. Awesome.

It is at this point that I am thankful hubs bought this cookie mix, because no way am I doing from scratch when a toddler is involved. 

I let him pour the mix into the bowl, which goes pretty well...
I crack an egg into a bowl to let him add to the mix -

It didn't make it......

At this point hubs came home and AJ decided he wanted daddy and he was no longer interested in making cookies, so I cleaned up the egg and put in the rest of the ingredients.
We brought him back in for the grand "flipping of the switch" which he was fascinated with..

For about 2.4 seconds and then he wanted "DOWN MAMA!"
It was at this point I realized it was after 6:30pm and I was so focused on the cookie project, I forgot about dinner.  So I quickly covered the dough up with plastic wrap and stuck it in the fridge. 

Then I opened every cupboard in our kitchen searching for a quick meal, and then picked up the phone and ordered pizza.  HA!
Hubs drove the few blocks to pick up the pizza and in the meantime, AJ looked at me and goes "cookies done?"
ummmmm, NOPE!  LOL
Maybe tomorrow kid...maybe tomorrow

Rainy Daze

I love the rain.  Sometimes I think I'd be right at home in Seattle or somewhere up there in the Pacific Northwest.
Tonight, we rented Toy Story 3 and put a fire in the fireplace.  All three of us snuggling on the couch with all our critters nearby and blankets to cuddle with.
Everything was perfect....until that darn fire decided to snap, crackle and pop.
The dog jumped up in a panic and started pacing around and Adam started crying and holding his hands to his face.
So guess what you can do to stop a fire from crackling?  Ummmm yeah, not a damn thing.  HA!
Made for an interesting evening.

At least we got an extra hour today - wahoooo!   But bummer for getting dark at 5pm...

1-2-3 GO!

Last Tuesday we went to our local Grace church to watch a pinewood derby race.  My neices are involved with Awana's and this was something fun for all the kids to do.
We arrived a bit late, but when we got there, my oldest neice Keeley dragged Adam off to sit with all the kids and watch the cars go down the ramp.

 

It was all very official with a computerized finish line and everything - very cool

Keeley won first place for best design - a chocolate bar, that looked so incredibly real

and Abby's car was a piece of bacon - she LOVES bacon, so this was hilarious

(sorry about the picture quality, it came out too dark so I had to adjust it a bit)

 

                                        Sleepy kid who is up past his bedtime...and in dire need of a haircut

I have a soft spot for these pinewood derby races because when my brother and I were little, we did this too.  We belonged to a church group called the Caravans, and I had a pink car named "flower power" who was super fast and won first place in speed.  My brother won first place for design which was a firetruck (totally awesome with a ladder and everything).   Ironically, my mom just recently brought over a big bag of stuff I had stored at their house and in it, was my car, missing two wheels, and my trophy!  It's dated 1984 which means I was 7 years old.  Crazyness.

Fall Foodie

I love fall.  I love the cooler weather.  I love the feeling in the air.  I love the big oversized sweatshirts I get to wear.  I love comfort food.  I love a good soup with a crusty bread.  Problem is, I love all those yummy creamy soups with a zillion calories.
My mom used to make this Butternut Squash soup, and I love it - so I wanted to share!  I don't have an actual recipe or amounts...or times...it's kinda hard to mess up to be honest.

First, cut some butternut squash in half and bake until fork tender

While squash is baking, slice up some leeks and saute them in either a little bit of butter or a bit of chicken stock or both ( I use both)

When squash is done, scrape out seeds and toss.  Scrape out chunks of squash and add to leeks along with more chicken stock

Let simmer on the stove for a while
I used to have to transfer this to a stand up blender which was a pain (and messy!), but now I have an immersion stick blender which I LOVE and makes this task much easier.  (picture taken before fancy stick blender).  Soup should be pretty thick at this point.

Put back on the stove and depending on desired consistancy...add more stock...also throw in some seasonings like salt, onion powder, garlic...all the stuff you like.  Make it till it tastes the way you want!

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some chives (crumbled bacon is delicious too!)

voila.

I usually make a huge pot of this and either simmer it all day in the crockpot, or I'll bag some up and freeze it for later. Hubs isn't much of a soup guy, so I'm the only eater of this one in our house :)

Cheers

Brussel Sprout Saga

I never liked Brussel Sprouts as a kid...nor did I like cabbage of any kind, even cole slaw.  But now, as an adult, I like cole slaw (although I'm picky about it) and I love the cabbage boiled with corned beef, so I decided to give brussel sprouts another shot, since essentially they are itty bitty cabbages right?

Adam and I went to Trader Joes yesterday and they had these brussel sprout stalks there looking just like these: 

And Adam was all "Trees, mama, look TREES!"

So I figured now was as good a time as any (and since they are so cheap this season) to try and like these little guys.

I went home and googled for a recipe.  I had heard that roasted brussel sprouts will convert anyone who doesn't like them because it changes the flavor rather then steaming them, so I found one on Cooking Light called Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Ham and Garlic.

Healthy, and sounded delicious.

Okay, so basically it called for brussel sprouts cut in half in a baking dish with olive oil, garlic, chopped ham, lemon juice and salt and then roasted in the oven for 30 minutes.

Then you sprinkle parmesan and bread crumbs over the top before serving.

Sounded good and looked good, only they weren't so great.  They were edible, but definately missing something.  They were dry, and not very flavorful.  Hubs tasted them while I choked down a whole serving. Then I wrapped them up and stuck them in the fridge figuring I could docter them up for lunch the next day.

Which I did...and I sent hubs the following email:

so I ate the rest of the brussell sprouts for lunch.  Those things weren't half bad with butter, salt, lemon and more parmesan added...LOL
So much for that whole "healthy" aspect eh?
I'm gonna toss that recipe and call it a giant FAIL

And then I thought "how lame am I?  he's not gonna give a crap about the damn brussel sprouts"

(course he's had jury duty for the last 3 days, so he's bored out of his mind)

Only I was wrong...he responded with the following:

You don't have to call it a fail, I liked the roasted aspect of it  I just think it needed a little more flavor and some taste would have been good. The parmesan cheese made it a little bit better taste wise but the dryness of the sprouts and the cheese caused the feeling similar too licking a sand dune. (I should say a tasty dune).apparently there has been a good reason why Brussels sprouts have been unpopular with the younger generations. In fact last night's meal brought up some obviously repressed memories for me. I had flashbacks of crying at my parents table pleading with them to "please don't make me eat that, it tastes like feet". This of course then brought up memories of the ill treatment my sister forced me to endure. So let's not think of last night's meal as a failure because while the dish itself lacked any hint of taste or flavor -  we must try to think of it as a chance for therapy. A rare chance at being able to confront the pain we went through as children. If you plan on making this dish again I have some suggestions.  The sprouts have a unique taste that would be better accompanied with something tangy like basalmic vinegar . If you roasted them the way you did and had a sauce of some sort it would have been great. We should try it again sometime. And next time you desire some therapy may I suggest a kidney bean or a liver
Love ya

Ummmmm, allrighty then hubs.  I underestimated the amount of boredom he must have been experiencing.

Do you see what I'm dealing with over here?  LOL!

(for the record, I tried to give AJ a sprout and he shook his head and said "no thank you mama, I no like it" - so hey, at least he was polite about it! hahaha)

Aquarium fun

After the airshow, we headed over to Monterey where we met up with our friends Jill and Chris and their son Devin.  They live up north about 5 hours away, so we don't get to see them very often - but they are very good friends and we always wish they lived closer. 

We all went to Bubba Gumps for dinner (delish!) and stayed at a hotel that night.  The next morning we hit the aquarium.  We've been dying to take Adam there beacuse he is going through a mild Shark obsession and loves all things fish related.  We were glad Jill and Chris could come too because the boys have alot of fun together and are good buddies. 

(Devin is 9 months older then Adam, but dude - check out the size difference! - course he has two tall parents and Adam has two short parents, so there ya go)

Adam was in awe from the very beginning...eyes wide open taking it all in - running everywhere

They have this big circular room where the fish are swimming all around the whole thing and it's so cool - he loved that room!

The Jellyfish room is my favorite.  I want to sleep overnight in here it's so peaceful

It was a gray and rainy day out there, but still - that bay is so pretty

Adam would NOT leave these globes alone - we had to drag him away

I love this cool industrial walkway they have that goes from one side of the aquarium to the other. 

It's funny, I've been to this aquarium a few times before - but this being my first time with my kid - I saw it from completely new eyes and it seemed SO COOL.

                                     "Look Mama!"

"SHARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRK!"

You guys, this kid could not have been more excited to see a real live shark.  It was so hilarious and fun to watch - he just never got tired of watching them and shouting SHAAARRRRRRRRRK!  every single time

Here is a short video of him shouting SHARK!  hahaha

The boys loved this wave simulator they had there - it was a tunnel that you could stand under and the water would come crashing overhead onto a glass window, the boys LOVED it - and both would do countdowns and then shout "WHOA!" when the water washed over. 

Then you can go outside and watch it from that point of view as well

 They have alot of really neat kid areas too - all places I skipped the times I've gone before!

Side story:   In the turtle exhibit there is a little cubbyhole that kids can crawl into and see the sea turtles up close.  Well, I crawled into the hole - then Adam crawled into the hole - and then HUBS crawled into the hole and totally let one rip and of course since he was sitting in the entrance, we were trapped and I'm covering my mouth shouting "EW" and adam's going "TOOTER!  STINKY!"  and hubs is laughing like a 10 year old boy.  He finally lets us out and we crawl out of the cubbyhole only to find Jill and Devin walking up and I'm all "hey Jill, check out that cubbyhole" and they crawl into the stench.  Apparantly I am a 10 years old too. 

Anyway, it was a super fun day - Adam had a blast and we'll definately be going back!

Watching Da Planes

Around the beginning of October, we decided we needed a little family getaway.  We left our house on a Sunday morning and headed up to Salinas.  Not really a vacation spot, but we decided to go to the air show up there at the local airport.  We arrived shortly after the show itself started, but the police had lots of streets blocked off and we got stuck in a NIGHTMARE of traffic.  By nightmare I mean being directed to dead ends and sitting in a not-moving car with a screaming toddler, while watching the F18's flying by and realizing we were missing some of the best parts of the show.  We almost abandoned ship a few times, but since we'd already paid for our tickets, we stuck it out and after literally an HOUR in traffic, we finally arrived - albeit ready to write a letter to the city and complain about how stupid their traffic directors were.
We weren't sure how Adam would do since air shows are really loud - but he loves planes and at first sight of a small plane doing tricks, he was shouting "AIRPLANE!  AIRPLANE!"  and super excited. 

  

  At one point we were watching the Thunderbirds fly in formation.... which was amazing!

(love this picture!)

(short video of them flying)

Then one plane did a surprise fly by which was really close and really loud and the whole audience was shouting "WHOA!" because it scared the crap out of all of us - nobody saw it coming.  Adam FREAKED.  I couldn't even hear him crying, and I was holding him - it was that loud! 

He pretty much remained crumbled in my arms after that until we decided to high tail it outta there.  Where we encountered another traffic debacle as they had everyone re-routed to drive through residential streets with stop signs as they left the show.  Really dumb.  Nothing like being stuck in traffic and having to drive veeeeery slowly through a neighborhood where everyone has bars on the windows and security doors.  I even saw an entire front porch caged in.  Oh my. 

All in all, a cool show - but the traffic issues sort of put a damper on the whole thing.  

First of all....

They won!  They won!  The Giants WON the World Series!  WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

We've been watching all the games possible (except for the first two games while we were out of town, but we were able to stay informed of the score) - and even went to chili's last night after trick or treating and sat in the bar so we could watch Game 3 - ha!   I'm so proud, go Giants!

Okay, now that I got that out of my system...

I did it.  I signed up for NaBloPoMo.  This means I have to post every day this month.  Yikes.

I have all kinds of posts rattling around in this head of mine, but I'm not disciplined enough to actually sit down and POST anything.  So I figure this might help, and I might win a cool prize in the meantime.  Thanks Alison for the idea! 

Halloweeeeeeen

Here was the plan:
Purchase dinosaur costume for the boy

Put boy in dinosaur costume because he loves dinosaurs, no problem

Make dinosaur egg treat bag to match

Have fun on Halloween trick or treating with other costumed kidlets.....


Here is what actually happened:

Try to put boy in costume

He proceeded to scream "I NO LIKE IT!" and escaped my attempts to get him to try it on

Spent several days wearing dinosaur head going "ROAR - Adam!  Don't you want to be a dinosaur?  ROAR!"

To which he would reply "yeah momma!"

But then would run away screaming when I tried to put the darn thing on

My mom and I actually HELD HIM DOWN and got the costume on (come hell or high water I was determined to at least wrestle him into the thing) during which we almost peed ourselves laughing so hard and tormented the boy as he was screaming "NONONONONONO! I NO LIKE IT!!!!" and then found the zipper and bailed on that bad boy right quick.

Grandparents tried, neices tried, aunts tried...was.not.happening.

Thus enters Plan B:

A close up?

aaaaaand the treat bag to match:

We headed down to the village to trick or treat with my nieces and he got dragged around by Gracie who showed him the "ropes" about getting candy, while we got lots of comments and laughter about his "costume". 

Oh well, there is always next year right?

Happy Halloween everyone!  I love this holiday because it means I can shove candy into my piehole and not feel guilty about it :)

Note to Self...

Don't give the child lotion to "play" with during a diaper change, (despite the screeching and unbelievable strength and squirmability of said child...do they make 2T straightjackets? cause I'd be all over that...)  even if you THINK he can't get the darn thing open because he will at some point run off and you will forget he has it until there is 5 minutes of silence and you realize with great dread that you will probably be cleaning up a mess of some sort.  Silence equals disaster in the house of a toddler (or maybe it's just my toddler, although I doubt it)

Immediately following the taking of these pictures would be me chasing this little monster around the house who proceeded to touch EVERY FRICKIN THING he could before I could get the lotion off his hands.  Damn he's fast.    Thank God for baby wipes is all I'm sayin...

Starting it all off right...

Yesterday, I turned 33.  For some reason, I feel like this is a birthday I just want to shrug off like it never happened.  Total ambivilance.  I'm not sure why I feel that way, I mean I still get carded when I buy alcohol for pete's sake....but the more I get INTO my thirties, the more I notice those tiny lines around my eyes....and on my forehead....and it's a slippery slope.  Hello Oil of Olay!
BUT, my lovely family and friends insist on reminding me about it...and have all been very sweet.   I got e-serenaded (ahem alison)...had many facebook messages and texts and phone calls...it's been awesome.  My dad called me yesterday and goes "I realized today that I was 33 when you were BORN, and that's just wierd"  - HA!
So I spent the morning working and then I went up to visit with my dear friend Ashlee and her two boys.  Later in the afternoon Adam and I headed to hub's workplace and we went to Red Robin's for dinner.  Some people have grimaced and said "THAT'S where you want your birthday dinner?"  and I emphatically said yes because of several reasons:

-I don't have to dress up
-I can eat a delicious juicy hamburger which I haven't had in a while
-three words - garlic parmesan fries
-It's just the right combination of loud and quiet
-It's kid friendly what with all the stuff on the walls and the crazy carpet that hides all the bits of chicken strips my kid casually tosses on the floor.

I had a blue cheese burger wtih garlic parmesan fries and it was deliciously fabulous.
Tonight we are getting together with the rest of my side of the family to have dinner and dessert.  Should be a good time!

This morning, it was rush-rush-rush to get Adam off to school.  My phones were kinda busy this morning, so I got into the car after dropping him off and made a bunch of phone calls...then I hopped on the freeway and headed home to bury myself in paperwork.  I was just going past Pismo when my car started sputtering...and I thought "oh crap....".  Our gas gauge has been busted for a while, so I go by milage - only recently my boy has figured out how to push the button that resets my milage.  Ahem.
So luckily, I got off the freeway right at the top of the hill on Hwy 1 - and my car died.   There wasn't any traffic at that hour of the morning, so I coasted through the stop sign and headed down the hill into downtown pismo hoping to go as far as possible just on momentum...hahaha.  It worked out great actually because I got all the way into downtown and pulled over into a parking space.  I was only about 5 or 6 blocks from a gas station.  
I hoofed it down there, bought a gas can - filled it up - and got back to my car.   I now have a full tank and mental note to make sure I check my milage more often in case little fingers get curious again.
WHEW!    An interesting start to my October 1st....