Misc.

So here are the banana muffins from the Rachael Ray magazine. I do not recommend them. While they do taste good, for some reason they stick really badly to the muffin papers. I'm not sure why. I followed the recipe exactly and put in choco chips instead of raisins, which was one of the options. If anyone knows what causes them to stick so badly please let me know.

Here's a picture for my fellow Eagle fans. I know it's not NFL season, but he fits this now so he is wearing it now. You may notice that all the current pics of him have his fingers in his mouth. I guess this is better than that darn binkie his big brother is addicted to.

On that note, big brother went to the dentist for the first time and the good news is there were no cavities. The bad news is the binkie has messed up his bite some. We are stricted ordered to get rid of it so the Easter bunny is going to take it in exchange for a really awesome basket full of toys and candy. I've been talking this up since the dentist visit but I'm still getting some resistence. I am hoping to be very surprised by an easy transition.

And finally, we went strawberry picking this morning. We had a blast. There is a playground on the farm with a big giant pile of sand that Curtis loved playing in. I'm thinking we need a sandbox in our backyard now. They also have a zip line which I was very impressed that Curtis actually did it over and over again. My little dare devil. Of course we picked a ton of strawberries and ate strawberry milkshakes and hotdogs we cooked on sticks over an open fire. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so you'll just have to enjoy this pick of the berries rinsing off in my sink.

T

Lasagne

I made a veggie lasagne from scratch (sort of). Well, the sauce was from a jar but otherwise....and DH actually liked it.

Today I'm trying a recipe for yogurt banana muffins from the latest Rachael Ray issue. I'll let you know how it goes.

T

Hello there,

I have very blue eyes and love being outside. I smile a lot and also really like sticking my tongue out at people. My big brother is so nice to me and Mom and Dad are really happy that he isn't jealous at all. I know we are going to be best of friends. When I'm not nursing or sleeping I like to just sit and suck on my fingers. Mom has been too busy to post here lately so I figured I'd come and tell you bleaders a little about myself since I'm half the reason she's so busy. I sure do love her since she takes good care of me but I'll try to give her a little free time sometime soon so she can update you guys more.

Love,

Clark D.

disgusting

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080218/ap_on_bi_ge/slaughterhouse_abuse

This is why I will no longer eat beef.

T

double stroller

When I was pregnant with Clark I went to the annual sale that the Orlando Metro Twins group has. I saw this older version of a double stroller there for $20 and looked it over. While I was looking the ower came over and said that she was not going to take it home and that I should make an offer if I was interested. I really didn't think I'd need a double stroller as Curtis is really wanting to walk on his own most of the time now and I have several slings/wraps I use with the baby, but I was thinking this might be nice for theme parks and such. It rides really smoothly so I offered $10 and we were all happy. So far it hasn't gone anywhere but around our block. Usually Curtis asks to get out and walk half way around and I oblige, but it is kind of nice to have it and the kids sure do look cute in it together.

I am so glad I was able to talk Curt into having a second child. I can't imagine Curtis w/o his baby brother. He loves him so much already.

T

Happy Valentine's Cake

Today we made a heart shaped cake for Valentine's day. It was really good. Curtis' favorite part is the choco chips that he decorated it with. One for the cake one for me was his motto.

T

pro photos

Here is a taste of what we got from our session two weeks ago with a pro photog. I won a drawing months ago and got a session and a disc with what I thought would be maybe 20 of the best shots. Instead I got over 100 shots and a lot are really good. Curtis is so photogenic and we got many good family shots too. We might do this again nect year with tax money since it went so well. If you're looking for a photog in the metro-Orlando are check her out.

T

Update and Apple Muffins

I recently realized that I have very few pics of the boys together. So today Clark had his 'I love my big brother' bib on so I figured I'd snap a few shots. This one turned out kind of funny. Curtis looks goofy and Clark looks so serious. I'll post more at a later date.

So I will guility admit that I found this recipe as I was about to throw a half full tub of whole milk yogurt away because it was several days past date. When I saw this recipe on the side of the tub I realized I had all the ingredients, including one sad red delicious apple that had been sitting in my crisper for too long. I shredded the apple instead of chopping it, and the muffins turned out really good. Perfect for a sweet breakfast or a good snack. They're pretty healthy too aside from the sugar added.

T

What a game!

Well, I was off on the score huh? It was a great game. I didn't really care who won so I was just glad it was slightly action packed. I'm happy for Eli Manning but sad for the Patriots (especially Junior Seau). Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the chili I made but the good news is there was only a little chili and one cornbread muffin left after we ate. We had MIL and FIL over for the first half and the chili.

Also the banana bread was great. It turned out I thought I had 3 bananas but only had 2 so I substituted about 1/4 cup of applesauce for the third banana and it was so yummy and moist. I put some choco chips in and even Curtis ate it up. I'm making another batch this week and plan to add both choco chips and flax seeds to make it a touch healthier. Here's the recipe I used. I'll take pictures of the next batch to share later this week or next.

This weekend there was a great article in the Orlando Sentinel about local restaurants buying more local organic produce. It was refreshing to read that more people are trying to stay local. I'm in the works of planning a garden this year and hope to supplement our produce purchases with some fresh stuff from our own yard. Look for future posts about this.

Tomorrow is my first time since Clark was born as being the helper mom at preschool. Clark will be two doors down in the nursery but I'm a little nervous about leaving him. The way it works is they come and get you if he needs to nurse so I'm sure they'll come get me at least once during the 3 hours. I'm actually kind of looking forward to being in the classroom again so I can get back on track with what Curtis is learning now. I know it's mostly art ans singing and playing but I feel like there is much I could learn from the teacher there. I'll let you know how it goes.

T

32 Patriots 24 Giants

That's my prediction for the game tonight and now here it is on the record. I just made a big old pot of chili and we're excited to watch. Unfortunately I don't like either team so I could care less who wins.

T

Smiles and Cookies

Yup that's good old Clark D smiling there. I just put him on his belly on a whim the other day and he loved it. Curtis always hated being on his belly as a baby, but then again he was a pretty miserable baby anyway you put him. Clark D, on the other hand, is so happy and smily most of the time. "They" say you should give your baby "tummy time" to help strengthen neck muscles and such for a few minutes every day.

Curtis and I made some more cookies this week. These are Martha Stewart's ice box butter cookies. I made the dough on Saturday and then on Monday I cut them up and let Curtis place them on the parchment lines cookie sheet. These are one of my husband's favorites. Very easy to make a bunch of dough a head of time so you get almost instant satisfaction come baking time.

Right now I have Paula Deen's banana bread in the oven. I'll let you know how it turns out. I seem to have manifested a lot of her recipes into my life lately and they are all good. A neighbor made this and shared a slice with me yesterday and since I had the ingredients and a craving and both boys are napping I figured I'd try it. It was really easy to make and true to Paula Deen style uses butter instead of oil. I had to tweak it a little and I'll let you know how and why later when we see if it's any good or not. The big reason I wanted to try it was that Curtis ate a piece and said he really liked it. With any other recipe I've tried for banana bread he's always said no. Of course maybe it was just because some other mom gave it to him. We'll see.

T

Infant Gemstome Massage etc.

Just wanted to share something. I've been sitting with Clark a lot now-a-days on the bed giving him belly rubs. Lately his stomach is very gurgly (if thats a word) and he seems to have tiny periods of fuss and pain. So this afternoon I felt it gurgle and I took him on the bed with my collection of gemstones. I don't have many that aren't in bead form, probably less than a dozen. So I took them one by one and rubbed them in clockwise circles on his belly. I've been told clockwise circles help digestion. So he seemed to really calm down a lot and get peaceful for citrine and yellow topaz. I looked these up and liked what they were for and then noticed that they are both considered birthstones for his birth month of november. Pretty cool that he seems to already feel connected to his birthstone(s). He's now sound asleep and I keep catching him smiling in his sleep. Another funny thing I found on that website is that Clark has yellow topaz as a birthstone and Curtis has blue topaz as a birth stone. Next chance I get I'm going to try to get a blue topaz from the gem shop and see how Curtis reacts to it.

So today started rocky because I was a little tense about this photographer coming. See I won a raffle for a free photo shoot and a disc with 25 best pics on it. We had her come this morning to do baby and family portraits. I always get tense about pics because I've felt like I take a terrible picture and never really have many that capture the good moments in our lives (until now). There is a negative story about my wedding which we have about 3 good photos of that I still have bad feelings about. But I won't get into that. So I took some rescue remedy but Curt and I were still snapping at each other and I was stressed about Curtis' pants not fitting and my hair being frizzy and the weather being cold and almost rainy. Well, the photographer was great and we got a bunch of great shots and as we finished up the first few rain drops fell. I'm expecting some great pics and I'll be sure to share when they come in 2 weeks.

Now I'm looking forward to an evening of bonding with Clark as Curt is taking Curtis to the monster truck show. Funny thing is a friend got them tickets and was going with them and his son who is 6 months older than Curtis but he backed out at the last minute so now it's just DH and Curtis going. It's a little drizzly so we got them ponchos and I'm wondering how Curtis will do with all the noise, but they are going to try it out for a little to see how it all goes. So Clark and I are getting to spend the whole afternoon and evening together bundled up inside on a drizzly cold day, and honestly I can't think of anything else I'd rather do right now.

Off to make some tea.

T

Cookies

Here's what Clark D looks like now.

So I picked up a gingerbread man kit at an after Christmas sale for really cheap. I thought I'd try letting Curtis bake cookies with me and didn't want to invest too much money since I figured more would get on the counter and floor than on the pan. I've heard all these stories of women baking cookies with their toddlers but wondered how my little tazmanian devil would do. Last weekend we let Daddy go to the movies with a friend and once Clark D was asleep Curtis and I had fun making and eating some of these. He had lots of fun stirring the dough and also enjoyed using the cookie cutter. The dog also enjoyed it since she got to lick all the dough off the floor that Curtis spilled.

Florida vs. California

We have them on the citrus but unfortunately I have to admit that they have us on the avocado. These Florida ones are not nearly as good and flavorful and buttery as the California hass variety I get at the Publix.

Stay tuned for info on sweet potato pie. That will be my next challenge but I'm not sure when I'll accept it. I'm still trying to shake this cold that hit us all hard here. Hence the wonderful fresh picked and squeezed orange juice day in and day out right now.

T

Pumpkin Pie

So it all started on thanksgiving. I became obsessed with pumpkin pie. See we went to my IL's house and Clark was only something like 3 weeks old. So they did the whole thing and we just showed up to eat since we were all still pretty disheveled from the birth and all. Dinner was good but there was no pumpkin pie! I was devastated, but being the polite person I am I ate the apple pie they served with a smile.

That week I had seen Martha Stewart make a Libby pumpkin pie on her show and it seemed simple enough. So I waited until my Mom came to visit and I bought all the ingredients and I planned to make one while my Mom was here figuring she could help me distract little ones if they woke from their naps mid pie making. Well, that pie turned out great. We all ate it happily with whipped cream on it every night until it was gone.

Now, this beautiful pie I made about 2 weeks ago when I continued to crave pumpkin pie. It was so easy the first time that I knew I could do it alone. Plus I still had a pie crust left, so there you have it. Isn't it a thing of beauty? I am drooling now just looking at it.

T

Charity Raffle

Recently an internet friend of mine passed away after a battle with cancer. She left behind a husband and two children. There is a raffle at this site with some really great items and all the proceeds go to this wonderful mother's family. Please check it out. All raffles are only a $1.

T

new year

Anyway I'm feeling a little gittery today. Could it be because I've had so much sugar (pumpkin pie, birthday cake, 1/2 coke, power bar, 1/2 bagel)? I'm making a cup of herbal tea right now to try to counter the effects. I'm sure it isn't good for Clark either. I'm trying to get used to the fact that as a bfing mother everything I eat effects him.


This leads to my new years resolution. I've been thinking about it a lot. I have lots I want to accomplish but the big thing is my diet. Lately it's gone to pot. Definitely too much sugar but also too many processed foods and I shamfully skip meals and get so hungry I snack on junk all day. It is harder with an infant and a toddler but most of it is just laziness. So #1 goal is to slowly refine my diet and that of my family (I might be nuts on that one).


#2 is organization (I know it's cliche). I've been in a real declutter mode lately. These sugar jitters help with that at least, keeping me cleaning and organizing. Since December is a big gift month for us I went through the toy box yesterday and made three piles. There were the keepers, the trash, and the stuff to donate. Now when I add all the stuff that is still under the tree it won't be so bad. Still I plan to slowly get rid of more and more throughout the year. there is just no need for kids to have as much as we do and so much of it is noisy plastic junk. Curtis has more fun with acorns and play dough than most other things (yes the play dough stuff was the best gift this year for sure).


So now that I've laid it all out there, time to get to it. The cleaning and orgnaizing will be easy compared to the diet stuff. I'm just terrible with food self-control until now, but that will change slowly and gradually over the next year, I am confident!


Clark really smiles at me now. Every once and a while I decide to give him a little sponge bath. I put him on the bathroom counter on this spongy bath pad thing and wipe him down with clear water and shampoo him with special baby shampoo. Today when I did it he looked into the mirror and saw my reflection and smiled so big at me. I stood there smiling back at him for several minutes of heaven!


Wednesday in the Target a woman stopped me and said, Your boys are beautiful!" I was beaming. Life is so good. Both boys are napping now and I'm off to my tea to calm down some.


Tara

3rd b'day

2 weeks ago Curtis had a great b'day party at CEC.

Today we exchanged gifts with my DH's side of the family. I made most of the gifts yet forgot to take pics for the blog. Bummer. Just trust me there were some great handmade gifts and next year I'll try to document better since I won't be preg or with a newborn during the holiday.

T

Santa 2007

MIA

Just a tase of things this holiday for us. I've not been much into blogging lately but I'm sure I'll be back here regularly eventually.

Tara

What we've been up to

Clark enjoyed his first Thanksgiving.

Curtis loves his baby brother.

Not much sleep lately so I haven't been posting here as I try to nap when I can. Clark is great and Curtis is doing fine too. We're excited about Curtis' 3rd b'day this friday!

Tara

Brothers

Clark Daniel

I didn't realize I had less than 12 hours to go when I asked Curt to take this pic.

Clark is less than a day old here.

Our family just hours after birth.

Tara

Clark Daniel

was born 11/11/07 at 3:13am

7lbs 4 oz after less than 4 hours of labor

he's super cute and looks like his big brother only he has dark hair

pictures coming soon

update

Halloween was great. Here are some pics to highlight our family fun.





No I'm not in labor yet. I am now 3 cm dialated and he is fully engaged. I've had some bloody show since yesterday but no contractions. It could be tomorrow or it could be in two weeks.

Tara

2 cm

At my MW appointment today I found out I'm 2 cm dialated already. We both know this doesn't mean much since you can stay this way for weeks but it does give me hope that I won't go over like I did with Curtis. At this point in that pregnancy I was still shut tight.

We need to get my car vacuumed and my infant seat installed this weekend. Also I'd like to get the sports stuff off the baby's room walls and find some more fish themed stuff to put up. Otherwise I feel pretty prepared. I have a box of newborn diapers, a bassinet next to my bed already, and two boobs ready to give milk. Maybe we'll think about packing the hospital bag this weekend too.

I still think I have a few weeks but better safe than sorry right? It's such an exciting and magical time!

Friends

We have visitors this weekend. Curt's best friend from college is down from NC visiting with his 4 year old daughter. Yesterday the four of them went to Seaworld and Curtis and Lauren had their faces painted. I stayed home since I'm big and uncomfortable and had a nice relaxing day watching my favorite cooking shows. Apparently Seaworld was doing a Halloween every weekend this month and the kids got to have their faces painted and got to go trick-or-treating at several stations throughout the park. Curtis had his face painted like a monster and had lots of fun growling at me when he got home.

T

Less than 4 weeks to go!

Traffic and such

Well, I've been a little mia here lately. No real reason just having trouble getting comfy at my computer desk. I can't wait until we get a laptop. That is supposed to be our Christmas gift to each other if all goes as planned. This computer is probably 7-8 years old and have very little storage and runs so SLOW.

I thought we had our first day of fall today since it was so cool this morning but it has definitely warmed up now. I think it's mid 80's now even though it was in the 60's this morning. Maybe it'll cool off faster this evening. We're having pot pies tonight for dinner which is kind of a fall dinner. It's Curt's favorite brand and they were 50% off. Lately I keep my eyes peeled for easy to make and clean up after dinners for obvious reasons. By dinner time I am a bunch of braxton hicks contractions and washing dishes is near impossible.

Curt and I are actually daydreaming about moving to a sleepy little town in the mts of NC. He's hating his job lately and I got stuck in two weird traffic situations today which got me thinking about how frustrating Central Florida traffic is. I think we'd be so much happier if he had a different job and we didn't live in such a trafficy (is that a word) area. His friend Ryan from NC is coming down next weekend and he has been discussing an opportunity with Curt for a job with him up there. I guess we'll see what he has to say...and of course we couldn't really move until the baby was a little older...but the daydreaming is nice.

They had all of sand lake road closed with cops and school buses everywhere when I went by today. That's the road the high school is on and I went by around the time school gets out and was diverted around a different way by a cop. I'm really hoping it's not anything bad. My neighbor, who has a son in the middle school, told me they have gangs there and some other stuff and these are also things that make me want to get out of this area. Orlando seems to be going down hill fast with gang and random crime.

Ok, well, enough negative stuff. I had the morning off since Curtis was in preschool and I cleaned all of our floors so now while he naps I can rest up.

Tara

Beading

I made this necklace a week or two ago as a gift for a friend. I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out. You can see the picture from my pattern-a-day calendar that was the inspiration. I found it funny that it was actually difficult to do a random pattern. I am so used to making everything into a pattern that I had to try hard to stay random and found it almost a struggle. It is funny how so much of our lives is patterned and how much of a refreshing struggle it can be to embrace true randomness.

I have reached a point of boredom lately due to the fact that I have some physical limitations, what with being all big and pregnant now. I go from feeling so magical and appreciative of my baby growing inside of me to feeling so frustrated with the limitations on my physicality right now. The wonderful thing is knowing that it is all temporary and I will be jumping and running again soon, but this also makes me a touch sad since that will mean that my time of pregnancy will be over and I will most likely never experience this again. Life is full of duality and I guess the key is to focus on the positive as much as you can. So in that light, I am very happy to be nuturing this baby inside of me and I feel very blessed to have had this magical experience twice now in my life.

Tara

September Vacation

Here I am, belly and all, in a bathing suit at the B&B. I'm the same size I was when I gave birth to Curtis yet I have 7 weeks to go!
Here we are on the dock on the back of the B&B. Dig my belly button! Can you believe we've been married 5 years now!?!?
This is our little sitting area outside the room.
This is the pool area right on the bay at the back of the B&B. We never swam in the pool but we did swim in the Gulf twice.

So there's a little recap in pics. We had lots of fun and got to see dolphins in the gulf right in front of us jumping and everything, and we also saw sting rays along the edge of the water a few times. We ate tons of seafood and stayed in bed until 9am when breakfast was served each morning. We found two cool gem stone shops and I had so much fun looking at all the gem stones and bought a couple to bring home for me and some for Curtis too. All in all it was fun but I don't think the hormones of a very preg woman are made to be separated from her son for long. I missed Curtis sooooo much.

September has been a rough month for us and it's going out with a bang. Curtis has Bronchiolitis. He was just getting sick the day we got home. He finally slept through last night and seems a touch improved today so I'm a little less on edge now. I'm really looking forward to October as a sort of new begining or fresh start. The weather here has changed a touch for Florida. We have cooler breezes and it's not killer hot...just plain regular hot. In the morning and in the evening it is down right pleasant outside. I'm daydreaming of pumpkin pie and crisp apples and cool evenings on the porch which require long sleeves.

Tara

Catching up

I have a lot to catch up on and I'll do a little now if I can. I had a great visit with my Mom and she's now safe back in her home so I can post about some things I didn't have time to post about before she came.


As promised here are the before and after pics of Curtis' big boy room. This used to be our guest/craft/office room. I've had some trouble finding places for all of the stuff we had in there and my closet is now filled with not only clothes but a filing cabinet and office supplies. You can see Fani the cat lounging in the before pic and Sebastian the dog with Curtis in the after pics. We've changed the curtain since this pics was taken since my Mom made one for the room but otherwise it's pretty much the same. The desk was made by Curtis' Paw Paw (Curt's step-Dad).


















Secondly, we went to Seaworld a few weekends ago. It was HOT! By the time we left I was having Braxton Hicks contractions and my feet hurt so much. Curt put Curtis on every kiddie ride and some seemed scary but Curtis loved them. He's already a thrill seeker. Must take after his dad.























Well, Curtis is up from nap so that's all I have time for now. More later.

Tara

First Day of Preschool

Here he is on his first official day of preschool. The preschool assigns each kid a special tote bag with a shape and color on it to match the cubby they get there. It wasn't really the first experience since it's a coop and I was the helper Mom on the first day. So Tomorrow will be his first day w/o me being there. I'm a little nervous but I know he'll have fun. The teacher is great and he seemed to really enjoy it there, and I think I'll enjoy having a little time two days a week to do errands or just rest.

Tara