Crazy week means we need cake

Yes, it's been a crazy week.

I had some big tests on Monday including a diabetes test. It happens to be the 6th time I've taken this test, which requires fasting and hours of waiting and blood taking. The good news is I've heard nothing back and no news is good news I think.

Then we finally bought a new car on Wednesday night, keeping us out very late and putting us all in bed way past our bedtimes. I'm really happy with the car and I'll get a picture and post about it sometime soon.

Then of course there was the sadness of Sept 11th on top of me hosting a play date at my house, which both made me a little anxious. On that day Clark happened to turn 10 months old too and that made me a little sad to think of how fast he is growing up right before my eyes. I'll take a picture this weekend so we can mark the occasion.

So I guess it's not too much of a surprise that we were all burnt out by last night and ended up waking up to colds. Clark has been snotty since Thursday and now we are all following in his footsteps. I can only hope that it's a quick little bug that our strong immune systems will bust out in 24 hours tops.

So earlier this week we tested out our new pumpkin cake pan. Curtis really loves Halloween (and cake). It is clearly his favorite holiday, although I'm sure Christmas will soon win out once he understands it fully. He just loves to read books about halloween and talk about it and check out the bats in the sky at night etc etc. I got this cake pan at Ross for cheap and we tested it out with a simple chocolate cake recipe that I glazed with a simple powdered sugar glaze. We didn't want to frost it since then the features wouldn't come through clearly. We only ate half before we got burnt out on it and gave a big chunk to my FIL who is always happy to sample my home baked sweets.


Here is Curtis helping with the mixer. He is a surprisingly great egg cracker.



Of course we had to test the batter.



And here is the finally product.

My little student

That's right...we ended up putting Curtis into preschool at The Complete Soccer Academy. This is their first year doing preschool, but they have been doing clubs and after school care for two years now. There are only 4 kids in the class right now but they have room for 15 and I'm hoping at least a few more enroll since Curtis is a little social butterfly. He gets all the regular preschool stuff plus one 20 minute soccer lesson and one 20 minute yoga lesson each day. It's more than I wanted to pay but priced lower still than most of the other places around here that I checked into. I sure hope this works out and that he likes it there this whole year. We both have been making each other a little nuts lately with our boredom.

Tara

Inpromptu Beach trip

Yup we decided to book a room at our favorite spot on the beach very spur of the moment last week. Curtis was really excited to go down the water slide again and we had great weather and there were no crowds at all.




I had a blast playing on the beach with the kids making drip castles and sitting in the waves.




My little dare devil 3 year old begged me to let him go on this ride over the Daytona Beach Pier. I had my heart in my throat the whole time they were up there and when they got down they both said it was scary.

Tara

Yum!

Clark wanted to help Curtis and I make brownies!

Complete Soccer Academy

There is a new preschool in Apopka run at the Complete Soccer Academy. They held an open house last week that we went to and Curtis loves the place. I did seriously consider sending him, but it just doesn't look like it will work out for a few reasons, but....he sure did have fun playing during the open house. It's all indoor soccer which he loved playing, and as you can see, he also had fun lining up the colorful indoor soccer balls.

T

Some thoughts on addiction and marriage

I used to struggle with addiction. If there is such a thing as an addictive personality, I had it. I think for me it was about low self worth and low self esteem. I had to keep myself busy and full with substances or people so I wouldn't face the fact that I didn't believe I had any worth as a human being.

Once I hit my rock bottom I did face that and it wasn't something I just took on and moved on from. There was a long period of time where I wrestled with my own personal demons.

Now I'm in a completely difference space. In fact I believe my non-co-dependency is actually having a negative effect on my marriage. I'm at a place in my life where I do crave alone time and as a mother to two young children I don't get it much. So when they are both alseep or playing I push my husband away so I can go inward with myself and pay myself the attention that I distracted myself from all those years before. Obviously this doesn't make my husband happy, and he is a very touchy feely lovey dovey guy to begin with. I then end up feeling guilty for taking this time for myself and not forcing myself to cater to his emotional needs before my own.

I know this is also all tangled up with my hormones, as there are times of the month when this is a big issue and other times when there is no issue at all. Can you guess which time we are in now? LOL

Yes, We're Fine

Hurricane Fay seems to be just skirting central florida inland. The poor east coaster are getting a run for their money, though. We are only suffering from cabin fever because it's been rainy and windy for 48 hours. I'm so glad she's going around us!

As for me..well recently I've been doing a lot of thinking about my diet and excersize routine. After finding out I'm both underweight and way below what I should be for bady fat content I then found out that Clark only gained 4 ozs in over 3 months. He dropped from 20th %tile to 5th %tile. While I know a lot of this is genetic and I will never have 'big' boys, I also am thinking since his main source of nutrition comes from my breast milk, that my low fat %tage is affecting the fat content of my milk. In laymans terms I make skim milk.

At this stage Clark still has a lot of developing going on and needs good fats for it. So I am sad to say I have to quit running. This same thing happened before when I started running again. After 2 weeks I lose 3-6 lbs and when you weigh 100 lbs that's a lot. Cardio just isn't good for me, so no triathalon next year either. So I'm probably going to quit the gym and use that money each month for extra food (I'll get to this) and getting Curtis into a preschool (sooner the better). I'll still do my morning walk, and believe me walking 1-2 miles while pushing two kids in a double stroller is actually a decent work out.

I'm also looking at my diet and realizing it's a little high in carbs and low in fat and protein. It's much easier to add good things for me than to subtract bad things so instead of focusing on eliminating carbs, like I've done in the past and failed, I plan to add lots of lean protein and good healthy fats to my diet. I am adding cheeses and yogurt, avocado and lean chicken and fish, and eggs too. I'm also researching protein powders for smoothies, so if you know of a good high protein tasty one let me know.

I hope this all goes well and I hope Clark and I start to look and feel better (although I can't imagine him looking any cuter than he already does...see...

Wish me luck

Win a Beco Butterfly Baby Carrier and Beco Toy Carrier from Along for the Ride.

I plan to win.

Clark D.

So you want to know what Clark D has been up to lately.....

Stevie Wonder lyrics

It seems to me like most days can be summed up with some lyrics from a Stevie Wonder song. Sometimes I look at my sons and think 'isn't he lovely'. Or some days I feel like I'm living in a 'past time paradise'. Or sometimes I think that love is definitely 'in need of love' today.

Tonight I come to the end of the day and I just know I need to go 'have a talk with God'. I crave some organization to all my thoughts. For several nights now I lay in bed so physically tired and yet my mind goes over and over thoughts of encounters in person, on line, on the telephone. I replay how it went, how it should have gone, how I wish it had gone, until it's 4am and the baby is waking up to nurse.

Tonight I want to lie in bed and have that talk with God, and ask him to organize these thoughts and file them away in the great big file cabinet that is between my ears. Keep them in some manila folders somewhere just in case. Lock the cabinet so they can't come flying out at the least opportune time only to scatter dust and send me careening back to my past and my poor interpersonal relationship skills.

On nights like this I want to tell God about it all. I want to gossip to him and brag to him and cry on his shoulder until it's all gone and I can just be empty...and happy...and free. I want him to be there to listen completely without any judgment, or distraction, or advice.

And then I want to sleep a deep dreamless sleep and wake feeling so restored and well rested.

Longer out than in

Here's a picture of Clark I took on tuesday. He turned 9 months old on Monday, so in this picture he has officially been out of me longer than he was in me. It makes me both happy and sad. He's just a delight to be around, one of the cutest and most easy going babies I'm sure. He laughs and plays with us (including big brother) and one of the best things about him is he will sit with us at the dinner table and eat and eat and eat, allowing us to actually get a little food in too. Curtis is still not very good with mealtimes and has never liked eating. Even with his appetite, Clark is still a skinny guy.

It's in the genes, for sure.

I just had a consult with a personal trainer at my new gym and after seeing my body fat % and BMI he told me to stop running and start eating and lifting weights. This doesn't make me too happy and certainy doesn't bode well for my goal of doing a mini-triathalon next year. I'm still mulling it over. He also recomended that I get my thyroid levels checked so I guess I'll have to call the doctor soon. Ugh, I hate doctors.

Ok, enough whining from me, just enjoy this cute pic of my little baby.

T

Kitchen Stuff

My kitchen is fully functional, as you can see. I made these delicious pumpkin oatmeal muffins yesterday (check out the flower from my rose bush as decor). I was stressed out and when I'm stressed, I bake. It helps me to get grounded and relax and then I also get to gobble down carbs when I'm done. These are pretty healthy for the most part and I love pumpkin.

It's almost pumpkin season and I'm so ready. August is hard in the south when we know we have at least 2 months of hot weather left. I'm feeling the cabin fever, but at least I'll be out having fun in December and January when all you northerns are snowed in ;)



So while it is functional, it is ugly. I asked my "worker dude" (that's what he calls it) to fix up my kitchen for me. The actual plan is to paint the ugly cupboard and get a new counter. We also need a new dishwasher and oven since ours are only half working now. I love to cook/bake and I'm so sick of this ugly, half working kitchen.

breastfeeding explained by Big Bird

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3DWRhfNm4c

Lunchtime

Just in case you want to know what my lunch company looks like.

Curtis never used to like peanutbutter and jelly but he asks for them everyday now. I guess it's true what they say about toddlers and food jags.

Clark enjoys unsalted saltines, cheerios, banana bread, zucchini bread, canned pears, bananas, cream cheese or cottage cheese on toast, etc etc. For dinner he'll eat sweet potato chunks or green beans with toast or crackers. He loves to eat (unlike big brother) and will sit for a good half hour just putting food in and chewing it up (also unlike big brother who hardly lasts 10 mins at the table). But he's still a skinny guy at hardly 17 lbs.

T

A Husband's Self-Portrait and Sleep

My husband is an artist. He doesn't like to call himself that and he doesn't even like telling people about his hobby, by I do. I think he's really good at it. He paints in our garage into the wee hours of the night on weekends and still gets up before 8am with us to enjoy family time. He had this self-portrait hanging on the back porch to dry and I notice how he was wearing a blue shirt that day. I ran and got the camera and begged him to post it on my blog. Don't you think it really captures something?




Another evening we took our regular evening walk only to find that BOTH boys had fallen asleep on the way home. This is what parents of young children call a jackpot. It was so nice to skip the long bedtime routine for once.

Tara

Curtis IV

At the RDV Sportsplex, which happens to be where the Magic practice, they have an area where you can compare your hands and feet to the players. He's no NBA player, but we know God made him just perfect!

T

Cloth Diapers

I'm seriously considering switching to cloth diapers. Did you know it takes 500 years for a disposible diaper to decompose. Think of all of the diapers I have put into our landfills just sitting there.

Wouldn't it be nice if I could win this contest and not have to invest in a start up kit?

Tara

Worm Farm

A couple weeks ago we went to visit the local worm farm with a moms group. Curtis and his buddies had fun learning about how worms are good for our earth. They got to make small worm farms out of plastic bottles and got 6 pet worms to bring home. They also planted 2 bean seeds in worm enriched soil. Unfortunately the bugs got to one of the sprouts before I could spray them with castor oil soap, but the other little bean sprout seems to be doing great.

T

Writing

I'm so proud. I wrote Curtis' name today in chalk and then he wrote a letter C and said he wanted to do the rest. So I read each letter off to him and he wrote them one by one. I think it turned out really good for a 3 year old.

T

Ice Skating Pics

See below for video and explanation of these pics.

T

Ice skating

Our neighbor wanted to go ice skating with her daughter and she invited us. I figured, what the heck and I got a babysitter for Clark and we set out in her mini-van with sweat pants and sweat shirts in Florida in July. It was so funny when we got there. I was cracking up. We were slipping and sliding all over, but we had fun. I'm going to try to post a video and then I'll do some pics later if the video works.

T

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.