Stromboli

I had to blog about it because it was the best one I've ever made. It turned out awesome. I made it half vegetarian and half meat, as you can see. We had it with salad and it was delicious then and just as good the next day left over for lunch. Even my 3 year old ate a slice dipped in pizza sauce!

T

Standing!!!!

The pic is blurry because I had to be quick, but he did this all by himself yesterday. I couldn't believe as I watched him grab the playtable and pull one leg up and then very focused pull the other up. Right after I grabbed the camera and snapped the pic he fell over. Then he proceded to try over and over to pull up on everything and anything all afternoon. He was really fussy and I am guess this new developmental leap is making him feel crazy right now. I can't believe it. Curtis was at least 2 months older when he did this for the first time. He looked so tiny standing there and his legs look so short. I wonder how much longer I have before he is standing on his own and......gasp....taking steps!

He'll be 8 months tomorrow!

Beach Day

Ok, last post for today I promise. I'm playing catch up with my camera.

Curt took Mon and Tues off for the long holiday weekend and we went to the beach Monday. It was fun. Curtis had a blast playing in the ocean and Clark ended up falling asleep ontop of Curt. Unfortunatley I got sun burn. I'm so good about sunscreen everyday, I swear. I got there and put it all over but couldn't get my back. So I thought to myself, "As soon as Curt is done I'll get him to get my back." Well, Mommy brain kicked in and I totally forgot and now I have a beet red back that stings so badly! Thank God for Aloe. I know God was planning things when I realize that aloe grows so well here in FL, the sunburn capital of the US.

T

My Guys Ate Cauliflower!

Can you believe it? I didn't tell them. I made the recipe from Jessica Seinfeld's book for "fried cheese sticks". It's half pureed cauliflower and half cheese coated and fried. I served it with pizza sauce to dip and let them have at it. They didn't come out super pretty like the sticks in the book, and next time I think I'll shape them into balls instead, but they were pretty good.

Curt kept asking why I made them. I guess my little smirk gave me away as he got suspicious. I finally told him and even my "super taster" husband admitted that he couldn't taste the cauliflower at all. He did have to add that it smelled terrible while I was steaming and pureeing it though!

T

Homemade Teething Cookie

Clark has been slowly getting more interested in solid foods. He kind of skipped the puree food stage, since he has 4 teeth now and can kind of chew a little. He has been eating green beans and cut up cooked sweet potato. I tried toast, which he wasn't really into and then decided to try this recipe from wholesomebabyfood.com. It is made with infant rice cereal, which he never really ate. It's high in iron. I have read that breastfed babies are sometimes lower in iron after 6 months when the iron store in mommy's milk gets low so I figured I'd try these. He kind of plays with them and chews them a little, but mostly just makes crumbs.

T

Bunk Beds

Check out what we got. A local kid's furniture place went out of business and they had everything 50% off. So I went up and fought the crowds and got these cool bunk beds. The plan was to have them as two single bed, but when Curtis saw them he threw a fit and begged to have "a up top bed". So this is how they will be in his room until Clark is ready to get into a bed. Then we will take them apart and Clark will move into the one on top since it has a rail around most sides. I'm hoping he'll be ready to move in sometime this winter but maybe more like next spring. Then I will have a guest room/sewing room/office and Curt will no longer be working next to my bed!

T

swim lessons

Curtis and I are learning to swim. Actually my lessons are now over and he is still learning.

I never really learned to swim as a kid. Mostly we spent time in the ocean where I grew up in NJ and I was always a touch anxious in pools for some reason. So I signed up with the city for lessons and a young college kid taught me how to tread water, float on my back, and yes...I learned to do the forward crawl. I'm pretty good at it now after 2 weeks of lessons but I don't have much endurance. I feel successful though because I just really wanted to be more confident in the pool, since I now live in FL the state where every other house has a pool.

Curtis was kind of nervous for his first two lessons but now, in week three, he is very confident and has even come very close to floating by himself. You can't beat these lessons as they are 4 days a week and two weeks for $25 for city residents.

T

wist list

I'll add to it many times I hope. I keep forgetting these great ideas or suggestions I get so maybe this will help.

http://www.wists.com/Taradactyl3

Father's Day

Father's day was a little like mother's day around here. First, I got to sleep in (I have the best husband). Secondly, Curt took Curtis canoeing on the Wekiva River, so I got some good Mommy/Baby bonding time with Clark. Thirdly, we got take out so I didn't have to cook!

Curt did get some cool things too. I made him white cupcakes with white icing, per his request. He also got the aforementioned canoeing trip. On top of all that he got this cool hand made frame and foot and hand print casts.

It was a good day for all!

T

Amaranth

Amaranth is an ancient grain that the Aztecs used to eat. Apparently some of them also used to mix it with blood from sacrifices and make little voodoo dolls of it so the settlers banned this grain in hopes that it would stop the sacrifices. Luckily for us a few of these ancient people keep growing it in secret or we wouldn't have it today. It is full of protein and, the reason I'm experimenting with it, is gluten free.

A local mom just had baby #4 and she is gluten free so I made this amaranth with mushroom tomato sauce for her. The recipe called for spinach too but it really tasted good this way too and I was out of spinach. Next I plan to try to pop it as I've read you can pop it like popcorn and it is much more nutrient dense then corn is.




This is a chocolate torte I made. It's basically a big round chocolate brownie with chocolate glaze on it. It was definitely not gluten free, but sure tasted great with whipped cream.

T

Sprouts

I started sprouting now. The pics are a little blurry, but basically I took one after day 1, the middle is from day 4 (the last day), and the last is some on my sandwich for lunch today. It was so easy and amazing really to watch how much just a little tablespoon of seeds makes. My new Pediatrician told me to do this. He said they are packed with nutrients and I'm eating them and I'm going to try his suggestion of blending them into a puree and adding them to the kids food (and maybe the hubby's too but don't tell).

T

Petting Zoo

Sorry I've been MIA. Just not having much time to blog lately.

A friend of ours had a petting zoo at his house for his 4th b'day party. It was fun. Here we are with a poney named Sissy.

Win an Ergo

Win a Free Ergo Baby Carrier from Along for the Ride

Enter to win. Ends 5/30/08...

but I plan to win it ;o)

We went on mini-vacation

Almost everything went wrong with the trip, and I'm not kidding. So here I sit with ear infections and pink eye everywhere trying to recover. Curtis did have a blast on the 60 foot waterslide at the hotel. He loves the pool which is why we are signing him up for swimming lessons next month.

T

I donated my hair

Yes, it's true, although I'm still having trouble believing it myself.

Check out what we got

Curtis' Paw-Paw (Curt's step-father) designed and made this for us. We used tax money to pay for all the lumber etc. He is an architect so that is why it looks so cool. Curtis loves it!

Trip to Brevard Zoo

Our local zoo is nice, but small, so sometimes we like to go to the Brevard zoo for a change. At the Brevard zoo they have giraffes you can feed and lots of other exciting things. This weekend they had a cool dinosaur exibit. Curtis loved it so much we went through 3 times. He also really liked the train ride, but was very prepared for the whistle. He's a little sensitive to loud noises and...well...I guess that train whistle was a little loud for him.

T

Green cookies

So the other day we were driving home and Curtis said, "I want to make cookies." So I said we could maybe make some if I had some ingredients. I asked him what kind he wanted and he thought for a moment before saying, "Green kind". So I had the ingredients for butter cookies, and the funny thing was I had a book out from the library that week called "The Cookie and Biscuit Bible" so I found a very basic butter cookie recipe and added a little green food dye. I did half in blue too, (my color choice). We had fun.

Treasure Map etc.

Remember last year's treasure map. Well, here is this year's version. I really liked the vines I painted on last year's map in the feng shui bagua colors. This year I put the colors behind the pictures and it looks simpler but maybe a bit more organized. Lots of fruits and veggies on this one. Also I wrote an awesome manifesto for this year and all the wonderful things I expect. Writing this was very therapeutic for me and put me in a great place mentally. I taped it onto the back of the map and plan to read it over regularly.



Curtis found a new friend today. Here he is with Willy the woolly worm. They were really inseparable for a while and it took some cajoling to get him to let him go free and get into the bath this evening.




Oh, and Clark seems to like sweet potatoes. I told you he takes after his mother!

T

Spring weather and food

I took this picture of Curtis out on the Strawberry farm and when Curt saw it he said it's one of the best pics I've ever taken. So now I'm sharing with you.

Also a few of you guys asked for the zucchini bread/cake recipe so here it is. We always called it zucchini bread but on the recipe card it says zucchini cake. I told Curtis it was zucchini cake and he woofed it down!

Zucchini Bread/Cake

1 c. veg oil
3 c. flour
3 eggs (or egg replacer)
2 c. sugar
2 c. grated zucchini
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. nuts (flax seeds work well too)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
optional 1 c. choco chips

Beat eggs until fluffy. Add oil, sugar, vanilla, and beat. Add zucchini and dry ingredients. Add nuts or chococ chips if using. Grease and flour two loaf pans and fill. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

Spring!

As you can see we are enjoying Spring a lot here.

After Christmas I got a freezer Jam kit for 75% on sale. I saved it until Strawberry season because it called for 4 cups of crushed fruit. After going strawberry picking for the second time this Spring I decided to make my own Strawberry jam. Curtis loves this on sandwiches with peanutbutter.

Also I have to thank my Mom for her awesome zucchini bread recipe. This has always been my favorite. I make a lot of banana bread, but honestly it can't hold a candle to this wonderful treat. With zucchini in season and on sale for 89 cents a lb I couldn't help myself. I'm sure as soon as some space becomes available in my little freezer I will make a bunch more to freeze.

T

All About Food

As you can see, Clark had his first taste of baby cereal. His new PED ok'd giving him some food so I tried it and to my surprise he really liked it. He doesn't eat a lot but he does seem into the act of eating from a spoon.

We all went to the Farmer's Market this weekend and I got an eggplant for cheap. I decided to try to make some eggplant parm. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but to my surprise my meat and potato loving DH ate two helpings of this. It was really good but it gave me a little indigestion and took a long time to make so it will probably only be on the menu on very rare occasions.

T

one more for fun

You are 69%* floridian!

You often find yourself getting road rage at "snowbirds" AKA old people from up north that do not know how to drive. You are also aggrevated by New Yorkers who b---- about everything.

How much of a floridian are you?
Make a Quiz

now this one is kinda weird

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland   "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
The South
Boston
The West
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

NJ

You Are 76% New Jersey!

You are definitely Jersey. Well done, my friend. You are most likely from this great state, and you fit right in. Odds are, you love being Jersey!

How New Jersey Are You?
Make Your Own Quiz

Easter

Here I am the day before Easter with my two guys. I've been complaining again that there are never any pics of me so Curt has been trying to get more. I like this one as Curtis has a "I am the big brother shirt" and Clark has a "I love my big brother" bib on.

Curtis gave up his binkie, with a bit of strife, and got an awesome basket of goodies. We're on day #2 of being binkie free and he is napping now and didn't even ask for it today! Hooray!

Clark got a basket from the Easter Bunny with a box of rice cereal and a cool seahorse glow doll. He'll be ready for rice cereal in a month or two now. I can't believe how fast time goes.

Church was great as always. Here we are all dressed up in the lobby. I can't tell you the struggle to get all 4 of us in nice clothes and to church on time. Thank God normal church service is casual!

And one more of my babe and me. I really do like this pic of us. I'm so glad to have a few with me in them now!

T

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