Misadventures of a Maniacal Mom

Happy New Year

2011-01-05T15:01:00.003-05:00

Happy 2011.

Here's to a year of love, laughter, health and success.

I'm going to focus on my family and my business and my personal relationship with myself.

I'm going to focus on inspiring my children to be all that they can, they are already so much...they fill me with pride daily.

I'm going to focus on my husband and helping him be happy and calm when he is at our home.

I'm going to focus on my business becoming more successful and am going to try and grow it every day.

I'm going to focus on me and what is best for me, finding my center and inspiring it from within and with help from the outside - excercise, food and positive influences.

I'm not going to focus on the negativity or those whom are negative around me.

I never update this..

2010-12-03T23:57:00.002-05:00

We all know I'm bad at it...

But I know I used this to discuss my early mom days...prior to those days of a 'diagnose' even... wow it's been a while.

I even tried another blog for a while...whatever I'm a maniacal mom plain and simple.

BTW...tonight we had a dance party...it was fun. We had a great time and then suddenly Aiden wanted no part of it, but Conor and I were having fun so I told Aiden to go ahead and go in the other room and watch a show if he didn't want to play with us.

I didn't know he was bawling his eyes out.

I didn't know why.

(I still don't)

He came in and said "Mom I'm sorry, it's all my fault." Bawling his eyes out (and I could tell at that point he had been for some time).

What's your fault?

Why are you crying?

Don't you know you are the best boy?

The best boy ever who everyone always says is so well behave and who mommy loves more than the sky above and the world beyond???

Don't you know???

been a while

2010-02-01T08:50:00.002-05:00

We all know I suck at this.
Anyhow, Today marks the first day of February, my favorite month. Not sure why it's my favorite month, it always has been and I think it's because my birthday is at the end of the month. I think it is one of those residual things from when I was a kid and birthdays were such an awesome thing. Not so awesome when you are over that 30 bridge...but whatever.

Anyhow...randomness for you - meals for the week (I did the month and shopped for it...woo) are:
Slop, Sausuage/Peppers/Onions, Stuffed Shells, Chix w/ Rice and Veggie, Pizza, Crab Cakes (may be postponed due to functions on Sat. night) and Pollo Relleno.

Today is Monday and I have no am appointments so must get back to my cleaning routine. Monday includes daily cleaning and a focus on the den and upstairs bath. :D

Later gator.

The Best Christmas Tree Skirt

2009-12-02T09:06:00.006-05:00

Okay, here are the cast of characters for the best Christmas Tree Skirt .. ever. Promised to become one of your most prized possessions, even in all it's not so perfect glory...which makes it even more Perfect IMO.

First off...You need a few supplies. Not many though promise.

1) Boring ol XMas Tree Skirt...Plainer the better...this is just a piece of polyester cut into a circle shape, I got it somewhere for dollars.
2) Paint. I used the kids green crayola paint the first few years, I don't recommend that as it starts to fade and this year I had to go over it with some green puff fabric paint (which I put on with a brush so it wasn't puff). I used just a basic black acrylic paint this year, it's darker and will stay longer. You can not wash this so don't bother with mixing it with the textile medium as per the paints probable recommendations.

3) Black Sharpie to write the names and the year. And something to go over that. Again I used a fabric puff paint, this one is a gold glitter paint.
4) A paper plate.
5) The hands or feet of your featured subjects!
6) Lots of towels - paper or rags like I use...this project is messy. :D

So I bought the skirt for like $2 as I have said before. I cut a line down the middle of one side so that it would easily wrap around the tree (yours may already have this because I think most do, but again, it was $2).

I decided that that my slice mark was the 'middle' and I choose to have a separate side for each kid.

You could group yours together by year, alphabetical order, child preference (kidding), what have you.

I'd try and place them as close together as possible though, as you can see I did not do that at first and now I'll regret not having the space later....though I think the 1 year old may have had something to do with that in 2008. ;)

Anyhow, put your paint on your paper plate. I added some water so it wouldn't be so thick.

Put your skirt down on a flat surface, towels at the ready.

Have the kids press one hand in the plate. Make sure when they lift it off the plate it is evenly covered and that if anything is going to drip it drips back on the plate (otherwise you have to do creative hand placement to cover the drips that land on your skirt) ;)

Have them hold it over the skirt, fingers splayed (is that really a word splayed?) and help them press it down gently.

Press over their hand and each finger so all the paint transfers (if you use the watered down acrylic it transfers really well).

Have them gently remove their hand and wash it...or give them a towel. It depends on the age of the kid, younger the kid, the faster you should wash that hand!

Then repeat with the other hand.

Write their names underneath (or have them do it if they can write - which again will make it even more special one day) and the year with sharpie.

Go over that with the gold puff paint.

Let it dry for at least a half hour (especially the puff paint).

And voila. Best Christmas Tree Skirt Ever.
PS - It doesn't photograph well due to the textures of the paint (since hands aren't smooth) so just be aware it's even cuter in person. :D

2009-12-02T09:06:00.001-05:00

Honestly...

2009-12-02T09:05:00.002-05:00

This is my 101 post. Sweet right? I've only not updated since oh...June. Whatever...totally suck at this. :D

Butter

2009-06-02T07:28:00.004-04:00

I'm under the weather.

So when my husband came home last night from work I decided to go lay down a bit, lest I spread swine flu to my entire family (not really but well, I can be paranoid).

I came out at one point to find out why my almost two year old was screaming "Mom Mom Mom Where are you???!!!" and found a butter wrapper on the floor.

This scenario has played out before:
1. Butter was removed from the fridge by crazy one year old.
2. Butter was unwrapped by crazy one year old with great fine motor skills.
3. Dog was fed said butter.
4. Dog barfed.
5. I cleaned up melted half digested butter off my kitchen floor.
6. Everyone was wicked excited.

So of course I yell to my husband..."have you seen butter???!!"

And of course he looked at me like I had six heads.

Me: "Butter, there's a butter wrapper on the floor."

Him: "No, haven't seen it."

Me: "Damn dog probably ate it. Uggggh CONOR!"

Him: "That sucks."

Me: "You're dang straight that sucks because now the dog is going to puke again and I'm going to have to clean it up. What were you doing while Conor was out here pealing a stick of butter feeding it to the dog?"

Okay, so that was an inappropriate thing to say because Conor is super stealth super fast genius child (said so I don't kill him) and could probably do things a professional illusionist only dreams of. He was however sitting in the den playing video games w/ Aiden.

Then I look in the den.

And sitting straight up on the arm of the couch NEXT to where my husband was sitting was a pristine unwrapped stick of butter.

Then I laughed my ass off.

And the worst thing, hubby had no idea why I was laughing. He didn't even SEE the stick of butter even after I lost my crap laughing at it.

A diagnosis.

2009-02-17T14:00:00.003-05:00

(I'm not going to give excuses for the looooong time away, I'm here right now and we'll all just have to get over that month + hiatus)

Aiden has a diagnosis. It's kinda what we were thinking all along, he is on the autism spectrum and he has a disorder known as PPD-NOS.

Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is a 'subthreshold' condition in which some - but not all - features of autism or another explicitly identified Pervasive Developmental Disorder are identified. PDD-NOS is often incorrectly referred to as simply "PDD." The term PDD refers to the class of conditions to which autism belongs. PDD is NOT itself a diagnosis, while PDD-NOS IS a diagnosis. The term Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS; also referred to as "atypical personality development," "atypical PDD," or "atypical autism") is included in DSM-IV to encompass cases where there is marked impairment of social interaction, communication, and/or stereotyped behavior patterns or interest, but when full features for autism or another explicitly defined PDD are not met.

It should be emphasized that this ''subthreshold'' category is thus defined implicitly, that is, no specific guidelines for diagnosis are provided. While deficits in peer relations and unusual sensitivities are typically noted, social skills are less impaired than in classical autism. The lack of definition(s) for this relatively heterogeneous group of children presents problems for research on this condition. The limited available evidence suggest that children with PDD-NOS probably come to professional attention rather later than is the case with autistic children, and that intellectual deficits are less common.

Christmas and Budgets

2008-12-30T13:00:00.002-05:00

We all had a great Christmas. It was good for us to open presents at home and the boys loved their toys. Aiden is still continuously playing with his 'guys' so way to go! Conor is a nut and doesn't play w/ anything for an extended period of time yet...w/ the exception of knives and batteries.

Gearing up for the New Year I'm excited to enter into a Forget the Joneses bootcamp. :) Wahoo~! I hope I can be successful w/ it and hoping some of my friends join as well for that extra support.

We start on Thursday and will be having a 21 day spending freeze.

Yes I'm still fired...

2008-12-23T10:24:00.003-05:00

For being a slacker blogger. Perhaps it'll be a 2009 thing to try and do it more frequently...like more than 10 times a year.

Anyhow...wanted to share this sweet Furoshiki instructional image:

For those of you like me who have yet to finish wrapping (or started) and would like to be a little more green this year. :) (Personally I have to use what I have...next year I'll be greener, I promise)

Banana Bread

2008-10-12T14:40:00.004-04:00

I just made the best GF banana bread!

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
4 med, ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
1 teaspoon milk
2 cups Wendy Wark's flour mix (I'll share that in a bit)
1/2 teaspoon xanthum gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Oven - 350, 5x9 pan (butter it)
Cream butter, sugar, vanilla
Beat in eggs one at a time
mash bananas with a fork (w/ milk) and set aside
combine flour, xanthan gum, baking soda and salt in a bowl
blend dry ingredients w/ the banana mixture into the creamed mixture

Put batter into pan, bake for one hour until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack in pan for a few minutes and then turn out of pan to cool completely on wire rack...attempt to wait for it to cool before you cut it, but if it's half gone before it cools...well that's ok too (since that is what happened here). LOL

For the flour mix -
1 cup brown rice flour
1 1/4 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup potato startch flour
2/3 cup tapioca starch flour
3/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons xanthan or guar gum

(I actually used 3 cups of brown rice flour and omitted the white rice and sweet rice flours)

An update...

2008-10-03T11:19:00.005-04:00

Well I spend so much time spouting off about 'serious' issues that I'm not talking much about 'us' these days. Though I guess we are quiet serious.
I think it's because I am unsure where the line is on what is too personal to put out there in blog land?
Or perhaps because I don't want to sit down and think about it all?
Or is it that if I put here, it becomes permanent, therefore real...and not something that I just think about or discuss in hushed whispers.

Here's a recap version, it will still probably be really long but I promise, it's actually the 'quick' version. Back in April, Aiden's ped recommended a neurological assessment. For those that don't know, Aiden has had Early Intervention, Speech Therapy and inclusion preschool...so we've covered our basis for the most part. We contacted Hasbro and Children's Hospital. Hasbro said "No." Period. They don't take our insurance and won't see us. Children's said "Okay, we don't take your insurance, we will still see you, please expect to pay $3,000 upon walking in the door and oh yeah, there is a 19 month waiting list." Around this time we also had Aiden's second TEAM meeting, which is the one that qualified him for preschool. I asked what they felt about the neurological assessment. This was in a meeting with the head of the Early Learning Center, the woman who gave his educational assessment (later to become his teacher), the Occupational Therapist, and two of his Speech Therapists. They said, they felt that with the addition of Preschool to his IEP that it was enough and we didn't really 'need' the neurological assessment. Sweet...works for me. Honestly, in the back of my mind I think I knew that it shouldn't be that easy, but I didn't need someone to tell me twice, and well I was wrong for that.
Fast forward to last month. Aiden had a private assessment with a local Speech and Language Center and of course qualified for more services (two sessions a week for 45 minutes per session of one on one speech w/ the therapist there). This is on top of the one on one session he receives once a week at school. The therapist asked if we had had a neurological assessment for him. I went through the tale told above. He said he noticed some 'markers' (this was after I told him about Aiden being on a GF diet because it helps his behavior) and said that he encourages it, because if we do get an 'official diagnosis' than he will be able to qualify for more services.
Aiden is very intelligent, we all know that. But he is very scripted and memorized and unable to comprehend part of a sentence/direction and tries to answer/respond as best he can w/ limited info, he has an unusual intonation pattern and doesn't know how to respond to new situations, he also has echolalia and some phonological errors...anyhow...all this is okay when you have to list your colors, numbers, shapes (planets, presidents, national landmarks) but when there is a direction such as 'circle the tree above the line' only parts of that are heard/understood. So he would either circle the line or circle a tree, not necessarily the one asked. Mr. Aiden is also a bit of a perfectionist. Ask him if he wants you to draw a picture for him, sure. Here are examples from two particular occasions - First occasion - he requested Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night. I'm not joking. Second occasion - requested a picture of the Great Sphinx. He gets upset if they don't look like them. He wanted to draw Starry Night and got VERY upset that it wasn't coming out right. OK, you are four dude...you aren't going to recreate VanGogh the first time you try...sorry. I don't think anyone could! He wanted to play Piano when we were on vacation and we said, sure let's show you how to play a song - no, I don't want to play Mary Had a Little Lamb - I want Beethoven, like this - And he starts humming Beethoven. Forget it when it comes to writing. We are trying to get him to write his name, he'll have no part of it...he tries a few times and then gets so upset that his A looks more like a Mountain than an A that he refuses to continue. I told him it was okay, it doesn't have to be perfect, we are just practicing, nope...nothing is working. He is in the third week of school and now waking up refusing to go...because he is facing challenges that he can't complete. Or at least can't complete perfectly. He is four. My happy boy is turning into someone who is using avoidance rather than the face possibility of failure, this is not the school career that I want for him.
He is actually home today from school, he has an ear infection. We went to the ped earlier this morning and will have a script for him in a bit.
Conor is being Conor and we will be headed Early Intervention soon, we still aren't talking.
Oh and I did finally fill out all the paperwork to get Aiden into Children's Hospital for his neurological assessment, this is the paperwork I had to gather to send in with it:

-Early Intervention
Developmental Profile 10/19/06
Developmental Profile Update 06/07/07

- Public Schools
TEAM Meeting Summary 12/04/07
Special Education Eligibility Determination 11/29/07
IEP 11/29/07
Speech and Language Assessment 11/26/07
Progress Report 03/10/08
TEAM Meeting Summary 4/15/08
Occupational Therapy Evaluation 3/28/08
Educational Assessment 3/24/08
Speech and Language Update 4/03/08
IEP 4/12/08
Progress Report 08/04/08

– Speech, Hearing and Language Center
Initial Speech and Language Evaluation 9/12/08

Thankfully, when Aiden started Early Intervention I decided to keep a binder with all of his formal assessments so I had all the info handy. I'm going to do that with Conor too, just in case. We also had paperwork that the school had to fill out and send in - so I believe four of his teachers met and finished all of that.

It's a lot of work.
It's frustrating.
It's depressing.
It's necessary.
It's going to be okay.

From Green Blog - Congrats on your Dodo Palin!

2008-10-02T14:00:00.004-04:00

Sarah Palin Wins 2008 Rubber Dodo Award

The former unknown Alaskan Governor who is now running mate with John McCain and, maybe, soon even Vice President of the USA has been awarded the 2008 Rubber Dodo Award.

It is the Center for Biological Diversity that this year gives their unflattering Dodo Award to Sarah Palin. Why? Because she “has sought to remove endangered species act protection for the polar bear, suppressed and lied about state global warming studies, and denied that global warming is caused by greenhouse gas emissions.”

“Governor Palin has waged a deceptive, dangerous, and costly battle against the polar bear” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Her position on global warming is so extreme, she makes Dick Cheney look like an Al Gore devotee.”

“All global warming deniers are eventually forced to suppress scientific studies, and Palin is no different,” said Suckling. “To maintain her ludicrous opposition to protecting the polar bear in the face of massive scientific consensus, Palin stepped over the line to lie about and suppress government science.”

“Palin’s insistence that Arctic melting is ‘uncertain’ is like someone debating the theory of gravity as they plunge off a cliff,” said Suckling. “It’s hopeless, reckless, and extremely cynical.”

You can read more about the award and why the Center for Biological Diversity gave the award to Sarah Palin here.

The Guardian has even more shocking news about Sarah Palin and her fight against polar bears. They reveal that Sarah Palin got help from known climate change deniers and the oil company ExxonMobil “to back efforts to stop polar bears being protected as an endangered species.”

“In official submissions to the US government’s consultation on the status of the polar bear, Palin and her team referred to at least six scientists who have questioned either the existence of warming as a largely man-made phenomenon or its severity. One paper was partly funded by the US oil company ExxonMobil.”

Kert Davies, research director at Greenpeace US, says that this “shows that she is completely out of touch with the urgency of the climate crisis.”

Tonight is Sarah Palin’s big debate night against the Democratic Vice President candidate Joe Biden. If you want to know more about the two candidates’s stances when it comes to the environment we got all you need to know: Sarah Palin’s awful environmental record and why the League of Conservation Voters Hails Joe Biden.

By Simon Leufstedt

5.4 Earths...

2008-09-30T15:14:00.007-04:00

We need 5.4 Earths to sustain us. What? Huh? What do you mean?

I mean, we need 5.4 Earths to sustain us. We are using 5.4 Earths resources to sustain us...hard to imagine right? Sounds weird right? We only have one earth right?? Oh yeah...that IS right. We DO only have one Earth. Have I mentioned that we need 5.4 Earths to sustain us? Are you getting it yet?

However, this year as of September 23rd we used all the resources that the Earth can produce this year. That means we are already using next years resources...and you think we aren't borrowing from our children?

From Green Blog...

Earth Overshoot Day Happens Earlier Every Year

As of September 23 we humans have used all the resources our earth can produce this year. That means we are borrowing resources from 2009 and that we are literally consuming our children’s resources.

And as each year passes Earth Overshoot Day happens earlier and earlier. Last year Earth Overshoot Day happened on October 6. Then we consumed 30% more natural resources than what the earth can reproduce under a whole year. Now in 2008 that number has increased with 10% as the Global Footprint Network expects us to use 140% of the Earths resources.

“Globally, we now require the equivalent of 1.4 planets to support our lifestyles. But of course, we only have one Earth. The result is that our supply of natural resources — like trees and fish — continues to shrink, while our waste, primarily carbon dioxide, accumulates.”

Some countries contribute more to these numbers than others do. If everyone lived like a resident of the following countries we would need this many earths:

* United States 5.4 Earths
* Canada 4.2 Earths
* United Kingdom 3.1 Earths
* Germany 2.5 Earths
* Italy 2.2 Earths
* South Africa 1.4 Earths
* Argentina 1.2 Earths
* Costa Rica 1.1 Earths
* India 0.4 Earths

What do you think? How can we manage to overcome our increasing consumption rate and overpopulation? And how can one personally contribute to ending the Overshoot Day?

So what are those other countries doing? Or what are they NOT doing? What are YOU doing? Think about it.

Please.

Foreign Policy...

2008-09-30T14:00:00.005-04:00

I've decided that since I grew up in Maine, and I went to Quebec w/ my French Class freshman year, and I was president of my freshman class and vice president of National Honor society and I lived near Bangor International Airport (do you know how many world leaders have been through the airspace over my head growing up?!) - I therefore have foreign policy experience. Period.

Does anyone think this is in our future at this point?

Hmmm...look it's the VP candidate for 2024!

For Kara - Picture of Bread from Bread Machine

2008-09-30T13:04:00.003-04:00

Different breads come out differently - so I'd experiment with your recipe if you do not like how it comes out in your machine.

From left to right I have a Rye Bread, Parmesean Pepper Bread and Gluten Free Flax bread.

The Rye Bread and the Parm. Pepper bread were made in the same breadmaker and are actually the exact same 'size' loaf - 1.5 lbs. They were made in a breadmaker that has a sideways pan. Rye was made on Sunday and Parm. Pepper was made on Moday. Obviously they look VERY different and well, they should - they are different types of bread.

The GF bread was made in the breadmaker shown previously (a standup pan) - also made on Sunday (had dueling breadmakers going). It's an extremely heavy bread (you would be too if you had all those ingredients) and it was very very humid here after the whole hurricane storms we were getting...so it's kinda sad looking...hehe...tastes the same and well the kids don't care anyway.

Hope that helps Kara! If you need some recipes, let me know - as you can see I make non GF bread too! :)

Making Bread...

2008-09-25T10:34:00.008-04:00

I have had a few people ask about the process of making bread here at the Mahoney's. For those who don't know...we are a Gluten Free Household (except hubby). With two young boys, bread is something we go through quickly...so I make my own. Store bought stuff tastes rather horrific and store bought mixes grow $$ fast (that means expensive, they don't grow money - unfortunately). So here is the process...

I use a breadmaker and have a container where I keep the majority of my bread supplies, so I can just pull it down when it's time to make it (I also keep the recipe in there).

Here are the cast of characters (yes there is a lot).

I mix the dry ingredients in a bowl first, then add it to the breadmaker after I have put in my wet ingredients. Since I've pulled out all those crazy ingredients anyway, I also do up two batches of dry ingredients only (no yeast) in zip locks so that in a few days I don't have to bring out all those ingredients again...this way I only have to pull out all the ingredients about once a week.

Here is the recipe:

Put wet ingredients in the breadmaker first:
3 large eggs
1 2/3 cup water
3 tablespoons corn oil
1 teaspoon vinegar

In separate bowl - the dry ingredients:
1/4 cup brown or white rice flour (I use brown)
1 cup tapioca flour (I buy it by the case from Amazon)
1 1/2 cup corn flour
1/2 cup flaxseed flour (or meal I use meal - keep it in the fridge to keep it fresh)
1/2 cup skim milk powder
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
2 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum (this stuff is pretty $$ but you don't use a lot and it's a necessity for most gluten free recipes so make the investment! You can't skip out on this!)

Add dry contents to wet and mix (I don't mix because my breadmaker does it for me). With your finger make a depression and add 2 1/2 teaspoons gf yeast. Set breadmaker on whole wheat, light crust and press go.

If you use your breadmaker every three days like I do, it will start to look like mine. It's okay...it's not dirty, it's just bread (and burnt remnants of crazy bread that took over the breadmaker once...we scratched that recipe)...Don't waste your time trying to get it to look like new again, it's not going to happen.

Be sure to drink copious amounts of coffee

Just an update...

2008-09-18T10:59:00.003-04:00

I've only been doing this a few days...cloth diapering sucks. But not giving it up just yet, because I need to give it a few weeks to get the hang of it (and get more supplies...I've started making my own diapers actually and the one I made last night worked quiet well).

Not using the dishwasher is okay but there are times I'd rather just pop stuff in it than stand at the sink scrubbing.

There are items that have been invented by society to make things 'easier', but also to convince us that these things (household'chores') are an inconvenience, we can do better things with our time...like...watch TV for example and see all those commercials for those disposable items that have been invented by society to make things 'easier'. Do you see where I'm going with this? Whatever happened to the time that one took pride in the care of their home, feeding their family, etc, isn't that as important or even more important than the car we drive, the clothes we wear, the title of our job? Is it such a 'chore' to show that your home, your belongings you work so hard to obtain, the place where your children play, crawl, sleep - is it a chore to show that that is a place that is filled with love and deserves as much attention and MORE so actually, then television??

Just curious.

Holy crap I did it.

2008-09-15T20:34:00.004-04:00

I bought cloth diapers. I had some anyhow, but bought those G diapers and stuck an old cloth one in it instead of the disposable ones they come with (yeah ten disposables and two covers for $25 eek) but I think the cover will work with cloth diapers, well we'll find out huh since boy is in bed for the night with one on...he was rather giddy about it...or about the fact that he was finally going to bed after his mom schlepped him all over the place tonight (not so good w/ the no driving thing but hey, I actually never said I wouldn't drive), I'm not really sure which. However he was quite happy.I feel kinda weird about it, like I'm breaking some sort of law/rule or something...how totally twisted is that?

So I want you to read this (forcing you since if you are reading my blog you have to, right?):

The No Impact Philosophy
None of the practical questions about no impact living would be relevant if my wife Michelle, my daughter Isabella, our dog Frankie and I intended to approach the challenge by becoming ascetics. Until now, we have been your typical convenience-addicted, New York City take-out slaves. Asceticism is not a realistic way forward, not for my family and not for the world.

Saving this planet depends on finding a middle path that is neither unconsciously consumerist nor self-consciously anti-materialist. The idea for No Impact Man is not to be anorexic but to be abundant, not to be eco-efficient but “eco-effective,” in the words of the environmental scientists William McDonough and Michael Braungart.

In their book Cradle to Cradle, McDonough and Braungart discuss the Menominee tribe of Wisconsin, who have harvested wood for sale from their forested land for many generations. In 1870, the Menominee inventoried 1.3 billion standing board feet of timber on their 235,000 acres. Since then, they have harvested nearly twice that amount—2.25 billion board feet. Considering the “clear-cutting” methods of the corporate lumber merchants you hear about, which completely strips land of its trees, you’d expect that the Menominee would have barely a single tree left, not to mention any forest wildlife. In fact, they have 1.7 billion board feet left, more than they had in 1870, and a thriving forest ecosystem.

That’s because the Menominee tend to cut only the weaker trees, leaving behind the strong mother trees and enough of the upper canopy for the arboreal animals to continue to inhabit. They have figured out what the forest can productively offer them instead of considering only what they want to take from it.

This is largely how every other species on earth lives—in harmony with the environment. Lions neither starve themselves nor gorge to the point of wiping out the gazelle population. Instead, they promote the health of the gazelle herd by culling its weaker members and preventing herd overgrowth which in turn prevents overgrazing of the savannah. Animal waste does not poison the ground but fertilizes the soil so that it can produce more vegetation for the animals to eat. Bees feed on the pollen of flowers but far from damaging them they provide the crucial service of pollinating them.

This is what I mean by “eco-effective.” The philosophy is based not only on restricting consumption but on changing what is consumed so that it actually helps or at least does not hinder the world. If bees had the idea that they wanted to save the planet, they would not go on crash diets and start eating less pollen. They would continue to live their lives abundantly, because their lives are already eco-effective.

That is the philosophy Michelle and I hope to realize during our no impact experiment. The emphasis will ultimately not be on tightening our belts so that our consumption does not poison the earth—although there will certainly be an element of that—but on trying to change our consumption patterns so that our abundance helps or at least does not harm the planet in the first place. We will, like the Menominee, figure out what our world can productively offer us rather than considering only what we want.

My new hero...that was taken from No Impact Man

See, you want to go buy cloth diapers now too don't you? Even if you are a little frightened....

Oh and don't tell my hubby, he was totally a No on the whole cloth diaper thing...hmmm guess someone has a surprise in store...

Oh and another 'oh'...um yeah, I'm grounded for buying the cloth diapers new (12 diapers and two covers) but shoot me. I'll get some more covers second hand...it's not that gross...you think those from a diaper service are all new? No. Thank you very much.

The Mahoney's are turning GREEN

2008-09-15T13:01:00.004-04:00

I have been trying to be earth conscious for some time now...recycling, changing the lightbulbs, no papertowels, etc...but now I'm pretty sure I may drive us all crazy. But, we'll see. It's worth a shot and I'm happy to try anything once to see if it's doable, even if we have to alter our 'convenient' ways...just to make this world a better place for my boys, and their children in return.

Yesterday I put myself and hubby on the Opt Out list and took our name off lists for distributions of Catalogues...so hopefully within a few months our junk mail accumulation will be far less...We get so much! No joke! And most goes into the trash (shred first) or burned because our recycling doesn't take paper...crazy right? So, I'm working on making a shift and figuring out where I can take our paper because we accumulate a lot of it.

I'm challenging myself to not use the dishwasher for a week. GASP!

I will not buy anything new, only second hand as far as clothes, toys, etc. go (except for underwear and socks...blech).

AND I'm even going to give cloth diapers a whirl...yup! Just have to work on how to get them, where to get them, what I need, etc.

Oh and we've started switching off surge protectors...what doest that take an extra five seconds? So as of right now the downstairs is all off, the playroom is off and the living room...sweet right? Because, here's another new thing...NO MORE TV (during the day to start, I'm not sure I can give it up Cold Turkey)but typically I used to have it on for background noise, one on in the playroom, one on in the living room and sometimes...one on in the bedroom...ALL AT THE SAME TIME! I know, horrible!

So...here you go...here's a new fun thing to watch and snicker at...I may just drive us all crazy...but hey, saving the Earth is a Team Sport ya know?

I want to point out...

2008-09-11T21:25:00.006-04:00

That my two boys are very different. I have had a small blond boy in this house for over four years now...two of them for a little over fourteen months and here is one of the (many) ways they are different. Not different in a good way, not different in a bad way...but different.

For the first time in the phase of my life that I refer to as 'Mommydom' there are toys EVERYWHERE. There used to be toys...all over the place because well, we had a lot. So when moms complained or mentioned that there were toys everywhere I was like..."Yeah, my house too...there's too many...get the kid a book!" Um, nope, that was a misinterpreted meaning to that phrase.

By everywhere...they mean...everywhere. For example, we spent the majority of the day today out of the house...and when we were in the house...the wee one's were either eating or sleeping (my kind of day!) however, upon my nightly clean up this evening I found:
In the kitchen - a stuffed pink pig, a truck, a large plastic fish and I'm sure there was a ball- because there is always a ball.
In the bathroom - there was a block, a Lightening McQueen and Superman was in the sink...hmmmmm
In the living room - more stuffed animals (dog is actually the culprit for the stuffies as my kids have many but do not play with them...dog on the other hand is quiet enamored with them and well..we are hoping that changes when he gets fixed - you do the math), more trucks and a yellow car....
In the hall - a half eaten chicken...uh huh. Yup, it's a toy. Plastic chicken from the boys play kitchen and well...damn dog!

I'm not even going to talk about the recycling all over the house...plastic bottles in my bed, one under the desk and even the egg package in the hall...oh and for some reason, my gym bag is now dumped on the office floor, the office trash is dumped out...and in the small trash can is a spoon...taken from a drawer in the kitchen. Nope, not even going to talk about that.

That doesn't sound bad right? Well let me tell you, I cleaned up before we went to the library and I believe Conor was on the prowl for all of 32 seconds before I convinced (read wrestled) him to put on his pajama's and a new diaper. Aiden was walking around with his new books from the library (One on India because he requested a book on the Taj Mahal and the other one is about Mount Rushmore...he went to bed hugging that one - I have no idea where he comes from so don't look at me...I hated geography and social studies and all that...shudder) so let's not think he has anything to do with this. He is also why I held the previous misinformed definition of 'toys all over the place'...NOT TO MENTION the fact that they have a playroom that I lock ...errr...I mean have them play in all day when they aren't eating or sleeping (at least I try to and kinda 'wish' I could lock them in...shhhh). So a word to the wise...all you moms out there who are also misinformed...be prepared!

Oh and by the way...when did this kid get tall enough to put things in the bathroom sink??? Man I'm in trouble...gypsies boy...Gypsies!!!

Fired...

2008-09-10T20:55:00.002-04:00

I'm totally fired. Like super duper fired...No call...No Show...Fired.

I've been super behind in this blog thing huh? Like there's no way to catch up.

Stuff happened. Things were awesome. Some stuff was probably crap.

My garden has bloomed, gone crazy and is probably going to die from frost soon.

I have pictures but they are over there (nods head in direction of office down the hall) and hubby has this crazy arse set up working for him and I can't even go on the computer. Seriously. Crazy. For some reason there is the regular old desktop computer (you know, monitor, mouse, keyboard, computer down there on the floor) and in front of said monitor and said keyboard is *gasp* another keyboard...wireless...in front of said mouse is *gasp* another mouse...what the!! Oh and wait...I have to hit the second mouse to get the screen to pop up and use the second keyboard and oh wait...they aren't even attached to the computer...there's a laptop over there in the corner that these suckers are running and displaying on the monitor...Why? What's wrong with the laptop? What's going on? Why? Why? Did I say, WHY? So confuddled...me...

Boys are good. Update on boys - Aiden (4 now) happy as ever...doing his thing, going back to preschool and has a private speech consult on Friday to possibly get private speech therapy outside of the therapy he already gets at the Early Learning Center...woo. Conor (this many - 1) is freaking crazy! Love that kid, he cracks me up...but weeeeeeeeeee he is BUSY, TROUBLE, add a bazillion other words of that sort here and it will start to describe him. Spirited...is that the word now? He's a pain in the ass. But awesome, incredibly awesome (love ya kid but seriously you are a pain in the ass - I can say that a. because you probably will never read this - who thinks I'm going to keep this up until the kid can read? and b. if I do keep this up until you can read, you will forgive me, because I haven't sold you to gypsies yet over the past five years....trust me, the thought is there.

Dog is crazy and he really thinks he is one of our kids. I have to keep reminding Sam of that. He is super young...but he's whacked and thinks he's a child. I just have to remember that and give him lots of love...not throw him out a window or something.

Welp, I know you are fulfilled now. Finally I have updated my blog and you can breathe a sigh of relief to learn...um...nothing cause really, my life is all about the same sh*t different day. I get so bored of my own life I can't even talk about it...so let's think for a moment how enthralled you must be right now. Thanks though! I appreciate you taking a peep.

*PEEP*

Yup, digging in the trash again...

2008-06-20T20:47:00.007-04:00

And here is what I got...

Ok, I wasn't really 'digging' in the trash, so please don't get too skeeved out on me.

I found these two dejected items (the lamp and the table) on the side of the road...in a ditch actually, covered in dirt and grass and sad sad sad...sitting in front of a house that is not nice...not nice at all (lots of mean signs - No trespassing and just broke down looking)...

Anyhow, here is what the table looked like...(click on it, make it big...blech!!)

Yummmm!!!!!

Here is what the light looked like...um well I forgot to take pics before I started spray painting...but notice the hideous gold and the sad sad lampshade.

Not bad for free...I just have to play around with the accesories some more...and no the clips (if you noticed them) on the lampshade are not staying, that is just until the glue dries. Oh and the lamp works even!!

PS - here is how the first picture really looked before I had to lighten it a ton so you could see the details...it's 9pm, not a good time for natural lighting... Go ahead, click on it for a close up (notice the whole in the wall we inherited from the previous owner and never fixed - used to have my dresser there) and the missing paint behind the chair from the boys rocking that thing like crazy into the wall the other day...and well a ton of imperfections...go ahead...I'm not scared notice them. But also notice how cute that golf fabric is, I've been wondering what to do with that! Oh and hubby says the lamp may end up in his office at work...I guess I'm not so silly after all picking up trash...

Oh and does anyone have a solution for spray paint trigger finger???

Oh and I made that little box, man I've been working on that for years...I'm still not done...the pattern is 'burnt' on...it's one of those things (wood burning) that I tend to put on a back burner for a long time...get it burner...man I'm hilarious.

Trash to...uh...treasure??

2008-06-18T15:21:00.003-04:00

So I saw this on the side of the road.

Brushed it clean, Spray painted it cream - but not thoroughly so as to make it look a little 'weathered'

And put it on the wall as a 'message board/bulletin board' in my office.

What do you think?
Shall I pop it back on the side of the road?

I was thinking I needed a little message board above my desk and well hey, free is better than whatever I would have spent being the usual consumer that I am...Use it people! Don't throw it away, make something new, something beautiful...all it takes is a little bit of time (and spray paint). Be a little green, a little thrifty, a little creative. Just think, this guy would be still sitting in a ditch somewhere, waiting to be thrown in the back of a trash truck...instead he's happily on my wall, holding my pretty things and notes about life.

Stash Busters!!!

2008-06-15T14:04:00.002-04:00

{Like Ghost Busters...come one sing it with me}

Ok my husband thought I'd lost my mind when I said I was stash busting...

I have one hundred thousand yards of random fabric that I have done nothing with...because I am weird. Here's the deal...I buy fabric I love, some I like, some I buy because it's cheap...and I look at it and admire it and think about how much potential it has to be something awesome, something beautiful. And then, I pack it away because I'm petrified that I'll F it up...create some wonky looking beastly thing that needs to go under the bed, or eaten by the dog and there goes my beautiful full of potential fabric. Silly right?

Yeah...I agree...

So I started to play around...I bought some plain white tea towels from the XMas Tree Shoppe the other day (love that place lots of trouble!) - only $1 each.

Stash buster! Go get some scraps (or cut them off yards) and voila...new pretty...towel. Ok, almost pretty. One of the reasons I have a hard time w/ my final products is I'm such a rush that I barely measure once...much less twice...and things end up wonky because of it...oh well...They work right? Cute right?

I was reading THIS BLOG last night and found this super cool idea to do with scraps...so of course I had at it...hers are gorgeous, mine is wonky...and I threw it on my dresser w/ too many frames behind it and I totally need to dust/washmirrors/frames/clean...whatever...

It's a little busy...so I may have to find a different location for it. Notice the fabric underneath it though...from the stash...i need to cut it to size but threw it on there to see how it would work, I like it I think, better than the top of that dresser which has seen better days and wasn't worth the cheap money I spent on it (I think I'm still paying for it actually on a credit card somewhere).

Oh and I also stuck some fabric in those two candle holders that are missing their middle child...(broke - dang kids)...because I never light candles in them anyway...

I do have to find something to do for window treatments in that room....I soooo want to paint it (lots of wood!) but I think window treatments will resist that urge, as painting it would probably take an entire lifetime and then I'd hate it and wish it could be it's natural wood again and well, that will never happen.

Thayer Family Burial Yard...

2008-06-14T17:23:00.009-04:00

I had mentioned a few days ago to some friends about a burial ground down the street from me and the funky things that happen here in my home. We have had weird occurances specifically with Conor's room, and his music...two different mobiles that played music...both with issues going off and playing music, with noone in the room (before Conor was born) or in the middle of the night when he was here...to the point of not shutting off no matter what we did, until we took it apart completely and removed it's batteries...oh and this was after it stopped working for weeks. Anyhow, that was a long spooky story that the small ankle biter attached to my leg probably won't let me get out...so let me show some pictures. (You can clicky the piccys to make them bigger...but your music will restart...bummer)

So here is what you see from the street. Down there, on the right...

What you don't see anything?

Nothing? Let's move closer...

Still not sure? See that sign? Little bit of a path?

Yup, that sign... Read it? Thayer Family Burial Yard...ca 1732

Here, let's get a little closer:

And some real close ups...

And do you see those ones that look blank? I thought they were too old, or maybe never carved because they are small and small signifies children, usually infants...but when I got around to the back of the burial yard I saw that they were carved...on the backside...only with initials, I'm still guessing that they were infants, especially since S. Ella D.'s was so pronounced and she passed away at a two years old.

I have to say I was pretty at peace looking at these. In wonder yes, awe perhaps that they are pretty intact for how old they are. There are some that are sad...especially the one entirely broken...others have fallen, most so you can still read them, one I couldn't...but it seems they are left alone by vandals or kids, or kid vandals, which is a nice thing. It had been very hot walking there, and I was sweating on my way back, but while I took these pictures I was nice and cool and a great breeze had picked up.

Honestly, it has taken me seventeen years to upload these pictures...Not only has the ankle biter gone to bed, I'm pretty sure he's off to college soon... I do have a ton more pictures I'd love to share, they all probably look the same to you...yup hey, there's another grave, but I totally find this interesting don't you?

But alas, I have no more time on this computer as I have to go get ready to take Ankle Biter to med school...few more pics though...while I do my hair... ;) ...

Notice the family behind my house...notice behind my family is a fence...

Yes I realize it's nasty back there behind my fence but for some reason there is no way to get back there besides jumping the fence and I get poison ivy just looking at it but wait... hey what is that back there?

Yup

My blankie...

2008-06-14T10:25:00.002-04:00

Hi, my name is Theresa.
I'm 30 years old (gasp! when did that happen?!)

And I have a blankie...

A sad...tired blankie...

Made with love by my nana...Nana was my dads grandmother...his fathers mother...she made one for all of us...I'd saying using her 70's cast off fabrics from the look of things...Please note the patches that have shrunk...oops! And those that are worn...awwwww...and some that are even missing!

It is definately not pretty by any means...but I love it...I heart it so much I sleep with it every night...yup, even at 30 years old...

Jinxed!

2008-06-03T15:04:00.004-04:00

I just commented that I was shocked that Conor had taken a 2.5 hour nap so far this afternoon...hit return and I hear him crying from his room....Ahhhh more later than, must go rescue the little prince.

Ah, prince had his foot caught in his crib...poor Prince. But I rescued him, good Queen that I am. He is now in a dry diaper and wrestling with his brother. Most parents wouldn't allow their ten month old to wrestle with a three year old...but Conor actually holds his own quite well, if anything it's Aiden who needs to buck up a bit. Conor is 28 lbs of pure meat. LOL

So I've become a bit obsessed w/ The Pioneer Woman. I haven't looked at real estate in Oklahoma yet (will do that next) but man she makes me want to take the bull by the horns literally with this whole getting back to basics mentality..

But perhaps I should be able to get the dog inside when I call him first and try and get the cat to stop pooping under the deck...you know before I tackle a cattle farm.

How does your garden grow?

2008-05-31T15:16:00.006-04:00

We are finally seeing some progress in the garden. Yeah!

My tomatoes and green peppers are doing well and finally the carrots and squash are peeking through. ;)

The rhododendron is looking pretty and starting to blossom.

Oh and of course here is a pic of Superman and his Dog...

Recipe - Gluten Free Sloppy Joes

2008-05-17T17:31:00.001-04:00

Dinner tonight for the hubs and I - GF sloppy joes, made from scratch (the canned stuff is GF too but I didn't have any)

INGREDIENTS

* 1 pound lean ground beef
* 1/4 cup chopped onion
* 1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
* 3/4 cup ketchup
* 3 teaspoons brown sugar
* salt to taste
* ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef, onion, and green pepper; drain off liquids.
2. Stir in the garlic powder, mustard, ketchup, and brown sugar; mix thoroughly. Reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

I serve it over rice, therefore making it fully GF.

Planting...

2008-05-17T14:00:00.002-04:00

Got some plants in the ground today! Yeah! Finally can remove the seedlings from my counter in my kitchen.

We have four garden boxes. In one I planted three tomato plants. One has three green pepper plants. One has three rows of carrots and two 'mounds' of cucumber plants. The last has squash and sunflowers as an added bonus. :)

I transferred my hydrangea from where it was located, as that is now where the compost will reside and that's that for today. I still havne't planted my morning glories along my fence because it currently is housing some serious poison ivy, and well we know how well poison ivy and I get along...NOT WELL! I'm surprised I don't have it from looking at it. Shhhh the possibility is still there...

I need to catch up...

2008-05-16T16:58:00.003-04:00

I've slacked on the blog. I think I got whacked with a bit of 'bummed' post op for the boys. I know it was a right decision, though Aiden's recovery was a bit tough. Lots of crying lots of pain and lots of hair pulling on my part (so much so I cut it off!) ;)

Anyhow I'll have to update later, as Mr. Conor has decided he's quiet angry for no apparent reason to anyone over three feet tall, so I have to go figure out his deal.

Oh an article to read - later...funny right?
How to Stop Procrastinating

Home from surgery.

2008-04-30T17:10:00.002-04:00

Let's see, we left yesterday (Tuesday) at 5:15 am and headed to the hospital. We arrived and were all checked in by 6:32 and Sam and I got our visitor badges and the boys got their bracelets. (They put Conor's on Aiden at first, the first & only time any incident of confusion occured). They sent us over to pre-op where they started talking to us about everything (anesthesia, surgery issues, etc) and took the boys stats and we put them in their matching pajamas. The staff at Children's is amazing, so they brought the boys some toys to play with and kept them entertained.

Conor and I went in first, I carried him into the OR, held him in my lap while they put the mask on and he went to sleep. Then I went back to pre-op to hang out with Daddy and Aiden. Within five minutes one of the anesthesiologists was back to say - he's done! Tubes are so easy. After a few more minutes their doctor came back and let us know how he did (fine) and went over the paperwork we had left for Aiden. A nurse came out a few minutes later and said one of you can go to recovery to be with Conor. So Sam went to be with Conor and Aiden and I waited a few more minutes and were lead back to the OR. After he was put to sleep (a struggle let me tell you!) they took me right to recovery where I hung out with Conor. Conor was already awake and had already drank half a bottle they had provided. He finished it for me (doesn't eat well for daddy) and they said we could put him in his pajamas and give him a formula bottle. He drank that no problem, they came over, gave us his ear drops, had his sign his discharge paperwork and he was done. We stayed back in recovery while we waited for Aiden. Conor was a little fussy due to gas (from the gas) but was himself by the time Aiden was brought back, which was at around 8:45.

Aiden came out of anesthesia like he went in, screaming. And they probably wouldn't have had us witness how he was feeling had we not already been back there. They at least let closed the curtain between us and we only had to hear him for a bit, he was not happy. After a few doses of morphine he was in a better place...though still pissed as all hell. I went over to his side to be with him and try and calm him, there was only one point where I almost had to leave because I was going to cry. Conor heard his brother cry and was crying and when Sam brought him over, the look on his face broke my heart as he was staring at his brother...so Sam took him back over to the other side of the curtain.

By 9:15 we were ready to go up to his room. Once he was all situated in his bed, hooked to his machines and got his IV hooked back up to his port he was out in no time. Sam ran down to the cafeteria for me and got me a salad since their options are minimal being a smaller version of Children's Hospital and they didn't have much to choose from that was GF. He came back up and he and Conor went home, they were home by eleven. Conor was great, blabbering a lot more than usual as the boy can finally hear clearly. I got a little bit of a nap and Aiden woke up at a little after eleven, he woke up much better this time! He's been great ever since, except when we got home. He actually had salad for lunch yesterday, which his nurse was absolutely shocked about...he would have preferred chips though and kept asking for them. He thankfully was never sick and he was up and about pretty quickly...he wanted to go, wanted all his attachments off and wanted to get out of there pretty quick yesterday. But we found him a wagon and he and I went for walks around our floor. They are not really an inpatient hospital, so it was nice, there were only four kids there over night, all of us patients of my doc and all tonsillectomies. They didn't have as much to do as the regular Children's Hospital in Boston, and the caf closed at two and they had no GF options for Aiden's menu really so we had scrambled eggs at each meal (not that he ate anyway), but this way we had or own room.

The kid is so sweet. He did great with the nurses, was very good and did everything they asked. He slept great last night. His O2 levels kept dropping and going back up but his alarm kept going off because of it so they had to adjust the levels his O2 goes alarm goes off at or we'd be up all night. Of course he chose this time to no longer to use his diaper, even overnight while attached to the IV so we had to have the nurses come down and un attach us to the monitors and IV's all night so he could use the bathroom! So funny to wake up dry when you are attached to an IV! At one point I was coughing (I have a sympathy sore throat I guess) and he said "Are you okay mommy" in the middle of the night, so sweet. His voice sounds a little different, I guess his uvula is extremely swollen according to the NP and she said he'd probably still snore for a few weeks while that goes down. Anyhow since we've been home he hasn't really wanted to swollow, so we are making him drink more often so it doesn't get all nasty back there and keeping on top of all his meds. His meds, Conor's drops...I think I need to write myself a schedule. Conor is all over the place and into even more trouble than usual...this balance/hearing thing has him excited. LOL

Thanks to everyone for thinking about us and all your prayers and well wishes.

Staying up late and cake for dinner. :)

2008-04-28T19:01:00.002-04:00

The boys have their surgeries tomorrow. We have to be there at 6:30 am and no food past midnight for them (including formula) and nothing but clear fluids until 4 am. Which is tough with Conor because he gets up for bottles at night to alleviate ear pain. So he's staying up late. :)
Aiden had cake before he had dinner. He's being spoiled too since he won't be able to eat any really good foods for a while.
A quick update since I still have to get us all packed.

Some more pics...from Reiley Photography

2008-04-24T13:34:00.010-04:00

http://www.reileyphotography.com

The owner of this photography studio (Reiley Photography) is one of the members of our moms group so we had a kids at play photoshoot at the park last week. It was a lot of fun, here are some shots of the boys.

Happy Earth Day

2008-04-22T16:07:00.002-04:00

We went to Capron Park today for a "Party for the Planet" w/ the moms group. It was fun, a bit crowded, but Aiden had a good time and Conor enjoys people watching like his momma so he was cool with it. :) Afterwards we went to BJs to get a crap ton of stuff. I needed formula, so figured I may as well stock up while I'm there.

Conor's labs all came back normal, so I'm happy we don't have to worry about any of that...but we are still going to keep him gluten free, at least for the time being. It is actually working out well with both of the boys and I'm happy to say Conor has slept through the night the last three nights, something he hadn't done in quiet a while!! Hopefully I haven't jinxed myself.

Last night I made homemade GF Chicken Nuggets - They came out okay though I think I need to figure out some seasonings to add to it to spice them up a bit, a little bland. :) Aiden ate them though, and even ate his mashed potatoes. He's been great about eating lately since I do the block trick with him now. I put blocks (building blocks) on his left hand side stacked in a pyramid, for each bite he takes, he gets to move a block to the right hand side and do whatever he wants with it (he makes a train, pyramid, or just moves them) and this way he knows VISUALLY how many more bites he needs to take - 1 bite = 1 block. I have gotten him to try so and eat so many new foods this way, its working out wonderfully! Conor isn't an issue, he'll eat anything you give him, mostly things he shouldn't.

Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken Nuggets from Glutenfreeda.com

Servings
Makes about 12 nuggets
Difficulty
Easy
Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless
Mozzarella cheese, cut into 1" squares
Salt
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
1 cup gf flour
1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
Toothpicks
Directions
Place chicken breasts between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and flatten with a kitchen mallet. Cut flattened breasts into 2 or 3 strips lengthwise depending on size of breasts. Cut each strip in half.

Sprinkle each chicken piece with salt and place a square of cheese in center of chicken. Roll chicken around cheese so that cheese is completely covered with chicken. Hold in place with a toothpick. Repeat for all chicken pieces.

Beat egg with a fork, add milk and blend. Pour egg mixture onto a dinner plate.

Pour flour onto a separate dinner plate.

Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over
medium-high heat. When oil is hot, dip chicken pieces into flour, then egg mixture, then flour again and carefully place in skillet. Brown nuggets on all sides.

Remove to a plate with a paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Remove toothpicks and serve immediately.

A quick update...

2008-04-18T13:19:00.002-04:00

Gluten Free Chicken Nuggets are a success. They are round, so cut is better to get rid of that 'looks weird' factor and they aren't as tasty as the greasy bad for you stuff. Only 11 come in a box and they are a bit $$ so use sparingly and in case of emergencies. I'm going to try and prefect a recipe. ;)

Gluten free boys

2008-04-17T15:55:00.004-04:00

The boys are going gluten free. The decision has been a long time coming but made final yesterday after Conor's nine month check up with his pediatrician. He is doing well size wise, he's 24.4 lbs and 31.5 inches. Big boy all around. :) His feet are now being seriously effected by this skin issue he has and he has red raw blisters forming between his little toes. We did a test of all common allergens today and the pediatrician and I decided that it is time to make them both gluten free. So far so good. Last night we ran to Whole Foods and stocked up. Aiden ended up having GF waffles for dinner, but had a nice GF mac and cheese for lunch today, it was great that I got to eat it too! I made the Mac and Cheese using Tinkyada pasta (Fussilli)and a couple of slices of cheese (3 to be exact) a little bit of milk and some salt and pepper. Pretty good actually!

I went out today and bought a Breadman cool Touch Automatic Bread Maker and am using one of my new boxes of bread mix in it right now. It is Gluten Free Sandwich Bread Mix from 365 (Whole Foods). Its cooking now, so we'll see how it works out. I'll update.

** I'm an idiot. I am not telling what I did. But the bread would have been good if I wasn't such an idiot...but like I said, i am...so I'll have to just buy the mix again some other time and I'll share the results.

On a good note, Aiden ate a great dinner of gluten free grilled cheese sandwiches, made on Tapioca bread in my new TFAL Avante Sandwich and Waffle maker (using the sandwich maker option obviously). They were actually really good and didn't burn or anything as Tapioca bread usually does for me on the burner. He didn't complain as he ate two sandwiches! (He also had some fruit too)

Piccys...

2008-04-12T14:34:00.002-04:00

I haven't added any in a while...so here's A LOT!

First day and Bloodwork

2008-04-11T16:58:00.002-04:00

Aiden had his first run through with preschool yesterday. He went in at ten (his usual start time is nine) and came home after speech at twelve. I didn't speak to his teacher yesterday, since I saw Ms. Tricia when I picked him up but she (Ms. Sara) called today and told me that he was very willing to do everything they asked and he had a lot of fun and enjoyed himself. I figured he would. He's good like that...especially when he's not home! HA!

While he was at school Conor and I went over to the lab and got his bloodwork done...poor dude. They had such a hard time finding his veins. We got his results back today and all is well, except he has elevated triglyceride levels. We will discuss that next week, but Sam tells me that Aiden had the same thing...huh I completely forgot about that!

Today I had a bit of a breakdown, not sure why, I'm just tired I guess and not sleeping so that doesn't help. I tried so hard to go to bed early the other night and got into bed at 7:30 and never fell asleep until after midnight. Uggg so much for that effort. I got a little nap in this afternoon while Conor was asleep and Aiden fell asleep too, so that was good. Aiden is asleep still, Conor is destroying things and I'm doing the smart thing of updating my blog, instead of starting dinner and preventing the boy from knocking over the trash...

Chop off his ears...

2008-04-09T20:53:00.003-04:00

Conor has another ear infection...after over three weeks of amoxycillion (well interrupted w/ a dose of Zithromax at the beginning due to an ear infection that wouldn't leave). I noticed the other night he started to tug a bit on the right ear and he is being pretty fussy at night. Wanted to take him in yesterday but they were closed so we went this morning and YEAH...ear infection number one million. I swear. I just don't know what to do anymore...he has another month until his surgery. UGggg. So we are off the amox, as it wasn't working anyway and he has another script for Zithromax and a lab sheet for a liver panel since he's looking a bit orange...and they aren't sure if it is his diet or if his liver is pissed at the amount of antibiotics the kid has been on over the last four months. Uggg uggg uggg I feel so terrible. For him and about this.

Aiden starts preschool tomorrow. It's not a full day, but he'll be at school for two hours straight without mommy there! Im sure he's going to have a blast.

I got a ton of books today for a great deal. $13! for 25 books!! We went to a book sale this afternoon at a library in East Providence.

I bought 7 kid books for Aiden (some kid encyclopedias, some classic books like Dr. Seuse and Abiyoyo) and the following for me:
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Poisonwood Bible
The Hours
A Thousand Acres
Snow Falling on Cedars
Almanac of the Dead
Turtle Moon
Daughter of Fortune
The Last Time They Met
Sea Glass
Songs in Ordinary Time
Romola
Summer Sisters
Angels & Demons
The Amateur Marriage
The Memory Keepers Daughter
The Jane Austen Book Club
Cavedweller

I had them in a stack in front of me, trying to choose which one to read when Sam called, he's on his plane on his way back from DC (they haven't taken off yet) and I told him to pick a number 1-15. He picked twelve and the twelfth one in the stack was The Hours...so I guess I'm starting on that one.

That's all for now...

A new Meal...

2008-04-07T17:06:00.004-04:00

Trying out a new dish tonight. I'll update w/ how it was:

IT WAS GOOD! Def. will make again, next time I think I'll use a clove or two of garlic, I like a little more of a garlic kick. :)

Artichoke Chicken

INGREDIENTS

* 1 (15 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
* 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 3/4 cup mayonnaise
* 1 pinch garlic pepper
* 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the artichoke hearts, Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, and garlic pepper. Place chicken in a greased baking dish, and cover evenly with artichoke mixture.
3. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink in the center and juices run clear.

Right now it is still cooking, thus no update. But as I sit here feeding Conor the kid is fussing and pulling at his ears. ARE YOU SERIOUS? He has been on Amoxycillin every day for almost a month now to PREVENT ear infections until his surgery and he is still going to get them?? Ugggggggg I can't say for sure he has one, but I'm guessing he does, we'll know tomorrow I guess...I'm going to take him to the ped. Ugggh uggggh double uggggg

Aiden had his last day of language group today w/ Ms. Kristina. Since he will be starting school this week he will no longer be going to see her on Monday afternoons. :( It'll be great for him but I know he enjoyed his time with her. His language group will now be on Tuesdays in his classroom and his other therapist (Ms. Tricia) will be coming in. I still haven't completely broken it to him that he's going to be going to school...he'll want to go that second...

Sam took today off so he could work around the house. ;) He started on our garden boxes and they are almost done...we have them cut, drilled and stained for the most part. Then will come the easy part of assembling them and filling them. :)

Well only twelve minutes left on that chicken so I best assemble some more side dishes... :)

Have you seen this???

2008-04-07T11:11:00.001-04:00

Seriously! Tramp Stamps for kids. WTF is wrong w/ our society?

How funny...

2008-04-06T13:09:00.001-04:00

Today's Church Sermon was about Silence. Discussing how we are never silent and when we are silent, that is when we learn so much, hear so much, are so much, become so much, etc. Funny timing considering my post last night. Anyhow, more later but now I'm going to go prevent Conor from destroying everything in sight....

Noise.

2008-04-05T19:55:00.003-04:00

Sam and I have been enjoying John Adams. It's a great story and amazing what the founders of our country (and their wives) accomplished, even at such young ages (John Hancock was in his thirties when he wrote and signed The Declaration of Independence for example). And we were discussing how many things we could probably accomplish if there wasn't so much 'NOISE'. No TV, No Computer, no constant interruptions and thought pollutions. I know for certain I'm pretty addicted to the computer and the TV as well...and I've at least realized that and am trying to make a change. I have started to attend a UU Church and wanted to share this recent article from the Spring Addition of UU World. It touches a bit on my thoughts on the matter...its something I'm going to work on for our family...though I doubt my belly button is ready for a trip to the backyard...just yet.

Establishing connections with self, family, and the earth.
By Louise Nayer And Virgina Lang
Spring 2008 2.15.08

The sun rises, an enormous ball of fire thousands of miles wide, yet we hardly notice. Alarm clocks buzz unmercifully in our dark rooms and, as if on automatic pilot, we do our morning duties, alone or with family, only subliminally aware of the magic that has just occurred. The sun has risen once again and the darkness has vanished, but we have not been a part of it. How can we see the magic in each day and connect with the natural world, our fellow humans, ourselves?

When many people are struggling simply to survive, we are constantly bombarded with hollow materialism; stores stay open seven days a week, beckoning us, and demands of work and family far exceed our ability to respond. In our hearts, we know that something is missing, that we are not fully present in our own lives, that the carousel of busyness and consumerism is spinning faster and faster, placing in jeopardy the very earth on which we live. We have traded lighted candles and soft shadows for the neon glare of computer screens and the bleeps and blips of our technological toys.

We seek a certain numbness to quiet the fears of a post-9/11 world. We live in a time of terrorism, natural disasters, and the fear of global warming. We are understandably overwhelmed, but this is precisely why we need to be especially vigilant about deepening bonds with family and friends and encouraging hope in all our children.

How, then, can we reclaim the very part of us that makes us human? How can we establish a loving pace amid the rush and chaos?

We met twenty years ago at the Blue Danube Café in San Francisco. Our meeting was coincidental. We found out we knew people in common from the East Coast and realized, as we got together more and more often, how much we had in common and how much we both wanted to build a community embracing family and friends, young and old—especially children—in our circle of love.

We are not looking to replace ancient truths or the community and faith that can be found in a place of worship, but we have found useful and heartfelt ways to express ritual and ceremony in lives that embrace blended families and differing backgrounds and lifestyles. We believe that we all have family, however we choose to define it.

We believe our everyday lives deserve celebration. As our world grows more complex, it takes more thought to do less. Through simple ritual and ceremony, we slow down and open our eyes to the beauty and meaning in our lives, awakening to the natural world and the richness of our relationships with others. When we take time to see the sun rise and set, to really see the exploding colors of the universe, we awaken ourselves from cynicism and despair and open our hearts to the mysteries of nature, our bodies, our lives.

Expression night at home

We are all attached
like tiny red and white carnations
whose stems touch
at the bottom of glass.
—Louise Nayer

Growing up in Greenwich Village and later becoming a poet, I have always had a house full of artists and writers. I moved to San Francisco to be part of the poetry community, immersing myself in workshops and readings. Over the past fifteen years, working full-time as an English professor and raising children, I have found myself going to readings less and losing some of that inspired, magical community that gave me so much.

In an attempt to bring more creativity into our lives, my family has started a monthly gathering at our home on Bosworth Street where both seasoned artists and novices can share their work. Everyone is an artist, so no one is turned away! Our art has included sculptures made from lemons and oranges, piano recitals, poetry and prose readings, and a computer calendar art show.

As people become increasingly fatigued from the pressures of work, this regular gathering adds magic to the month. I have been surprised and pleased at how many people ask, “When is the next Bosworth Café Night?” and how excited they get about practicing a piece on the piano or learning a new song to sing.

—L.N.
What you need

*

Invitations with dates for the next six months
*

Food and drink brought by everyone

What you do

Send out flyers marked with dates for the next six months. You can make a Café Night logo or an unusual flyer using your street name.

When people arrive, serve the food and drink. Afterward, sit in a circle in the living room. Ask one guest (a different person each time) to bring a poem, a passage from a book, or a song to begin the evening. It can be something written for the occasion or a favorite song or poem.

Then, begin the sharing time. Keep the performances to ten minutes per person so that people will want to return to the next gathering. Encourage one another, whether the person is a first-time poet or a widely published author. This is a time to remember that the creative spirit lives in all of us. End the gathering by holding hands and passing a squeeze, each person focusing on the beauty of what has been presented that night.

Rite of spring

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready to break my heart . . .
—Mary Oliver

Spring explodes in Pennsylvania. It comes with an urgency and a will that is unstoppable. Ready or not, it spews forth armloads of brilliant forsythia, then scarlet azaleas, lavender rhododendrons, milky-white dogwood, and deep-grape Siberian irises.

In springtime, life pours from the earth without our having to do anything. It is a wonderful time to remember that we are not in control of nature, yet we are part of it. We deserve to be here just as much as the trees and flowers, not dominating the natural world but in a state of conscious participation with it.

—V.L.
What you need

*

A place of privacy outdoors
*

One of your favorite poems about nature

What you do

Find a comfortable spot to lie face down on the ground. Let your body fully relax as it blends with the earth, and simply lie quietly, feeling the dynamic, life-giving power below you. A practice of the Q’ero Indians of Peru includes letting your navel come into direct contact with the ground to meld with the earth, considered the navel of creation. This simple, childlike posture can offer a profound experience of connection and peace. Stay as long as you like and breathe deeply.

Just before bed, read one of your favorite poems about our connection to nature. The words will help you sleep well and savor the magnificent gift that is spring.

PreSchool Here We Come

2008-04-04T07:15:00.003-04:00

I had Aiden's Team Meeting yesterday. Previously he was diagnosed w/ a Communicative Disorder. He had reduced auditory comprehension and expressive language vulnerabilities. He has an IEP with the school system and has been receiving outpatient speech services for this since November. One of his speech pathologists, who is also his case worker, pushed to have him further evaluated, due to difficulties they were having and things they 'noticed' (his oddities) while trying to work with him. He had an Educational Assessment which showed he does have vulnerabilities in self-social awareness, direction/position, time/sequence, and most of these vulnerabilities were also evident in the auditory comprehension area. However, his school readiness component he scored in the advanced classification, in the 91st percentile. Quiet the discrepency to go from 91% to 9% and 5% (his other scores). He had an OT assessment as well, that also stated that if she removed the auditory component and just showed him how to do something (instead of showing AND telling) he would do it fine...something about that auditory comprehension just throws him all off. With his OT results there was such a huge discrepancy (over 20 months) between the two tests that they just didn't know what to do with him. His speech pathologist (Kristina, he has two) had herself, Tricia (his other therapist) and myself fill out Children's Communication Checklist 2. Typically they can't score it until the child is over four, so she couldn't use it formally, however if she were able to score, she said it would have shown a serious delay. Because of that, and his other auditory issues, it was discovered that Aiden also has issues
with Pragmatic language. Which is something that his speech therapists can't help. Sooo long story short, he qualifies for the ELC Preschool now and will be starting NEXT WEEK! He will be going T/Wed/Th from 9-11:30 and during the summer will only be going two days a week from 8:30-10:30. They asked if I wanted him to take the bus (eek!) but I declined, I'm SO not ready for him to be on the bus.

Here's a recent pic of the boys.

Green Clean

2008-04-01T18:27:00.002-04:00

This morning while Swiffer WetJetting the kitchen floor, Conor thumped by - crawling away and I thought...EEEK! Danger! Chemicals! On the floor! Touching his hands! That go in his mouth!!! And....from there it became a mission for the day to get all natural items to clean my house with, and remove the 'dangerous' ones. I am a SUCKER for cleaning products. So this is going to be really hard for me. Wish me luck! White vinegar, baking soda, corn starch and lemon...here I come!!

Boys are doing well btw, Aiden finished up his testing last week so we'll see what his results have to say for us on Thursday. I think they will be leaning away from the ELC preschool and a 'regular' preschool recommendation. AND my insurance won't cover neurological testing to see 'what else is going on' so it will be $3,500 out of pocket and the waiting list is 13 months...maybe by then they will cover it??!! At least if gives me time to fight it.

We are sitting...AND crawling...

2008-03-19T15:59:00.004-04:00

Weee! Conor can now get from a laying down state to a sitting state...quiet well. He did for sure the first time on Monday night, after his bath, while I was dressing him of course which makes it super easy on me. ;) He has been working on crawling for some time now, but he's officially a crawler, even if it is only three or four 'steps' forward at a time, he's making progress! We have to watch out for this one, he's into EVERYTHING. This morning it was the dog food..uggg. Currently he's on the floor below me while I sit on the couch with Aiden watching Maya & Miguel. I'm pretty sure he's trying to eat my ankles...they aren't that tasty...but he's cracking up. To each their own.

It's a rainy yucky day out. Conor, Aiden and I went to the gym this morning. Then to the grocery store to get him some more babyfood (I have slacked at making it lately) and back home. No naps really today...just a few minutes for Conor this morning. Uggg I hate days like this. Somehow if Sam was home, both boys would nap at the same time for hours I'm sure. Figures right?

Buns of flab!

2008-03-15T17:56:00.002-04:00

Need to work those buns!

I went to the gym today (Yeah! It's been awhile!). Did 20 min on the treadmill (only a mile) and 25 mins on the bike (4 miles) and stretched and that was it. (Showered too weee!) I came home and checked out Exercise TV on onDemand and found a little booty work out that I can do when watching tv and stuff (I guess that is when I'm not on the computer as it would be hard to type lying down).

Not much else happening today. Just did some tidying around the house and normal Saturday stuff (normal chores, etc).

Dinner tonight is Stuffed Green Peppers. If anyone needs the recipe, post a comment and I'll share it. :) Good stuff. :)

Friday - already?

2008-03-14T16:30:00.003-04:00

It doesn't seem like Friday already?

Today we started out day w/ a trip to the pediatrician. Shocker - $20 and an ear infection.

However, we did get a script for 60 days of Amoxycillin - to try and prevent any more ear infections until Conor's surgery. First 30 (actually 28) days of antibiotic - $10.

But that was all we spent today and I consider those requirements.

We came home and Conor was asleep so Aiden, Chester and I went out to play for a bit (half hour). It was nice to get some fresh air, gave me a new perspective and I think it boosted Aiden's mood as well. I did a little bit of raking - goodness there is a lot of that to do! I didn't put it anywhere but in a pile, so I'm sure we'll end up with some winds and it will be back all over the yard again.

This afternoon, after lunch and Conor's nap we went to Poncin Hewitt Fields for a bit. Aiden was so happy to have some time on the playground. Conor, not so thrilled about sitting in his stroller, but he was good as long as there were kids running by. Aiden chased the older (?) kids and laughed and did echo speech but not really any interaction on their part. He had a blast though, laughing his head off...and they didn't seem to mind, so that's a good thing.

Came home and Aiden had some computer time, Conor took a quick nap while I prepped dinner. Tonight we are having pasta w/ sausage sauce. MMM

I totally didn't stick to my meal plan this week, but I did make one, but I didn't buy anything that wasn't on our lists special for meals this week so I guess that's okay. I think I need to make sure I do my shop prior to making the meal plan, that way I can focus the plan on what is on sale. Man, this frugal housewife stuff is hard. LOL

Oh we also got a referral to Hasbro and a number to call for Children's for a formal communication assessment for Aiden. I probably should have thought of doing this a year ago, but I guess late is better than never right? Ped brought up a good point of what if he does well on his assessment and we are left w/ there being an obvious issue and no where to go from there. Good point. I guess I figured he'd certainly qualify for the ELC preschool. We shall see where that gets us. Today was a good day for him though, I think because I kept him busy. This morning was a little trying on me...I pretty much had decided I was running away by 10 am. Getting dressed was an issue. First he put his underwear on through the leg instead of the waist, then he put his pajama's back on before he put his jeans on, then he completely lost it when I told him he had to put his shirt on himself. All the while, Conor had traveled across my bedroom (I put him in there so I could get ready) and unplugged the alarm clock...this kid is going to be trouble.

I've already failed...

2008-03-12T16:45:00.003-04:00

So the other night when I said that there was going to be no more spending, well I went out yesterday and bought this:

The Dirt Devil Broom Vac. I did use a gift card towards it ($17.50 of it) and used cash for the rest, which was cash I had left over from Limo Night...soooo can that no count? LOL

I did well at BJ's though and $32 worth of savings on coupons (which covers the cost of the broom vac really!) and another $30 off from bottle deposits (we had six water bottles to go back and I didn't get any new ones). I totally stuck to my list and actually removed a few items that I decided were nonessentials.

Soooo...that's my update. :)

Oh forgot to report...

2008-03-10T20:51:00.002-04:00

Conor has mild hearing loss and no ear drum vibration due to fluid (not exactly on the zero line, but between zero and one...pretty damn low) so they are both currently scheduled for May 13th - but I'm trying to get that moved sooner...

Budget Budget Budget

2008-03-10T20:46:00.002-04:00

Aaaaa! We are sinking! Can you believe that $1200 a month goes to CC debt? YUP! And because so much is going to that we keep running it up because w/ DH only getting paid once a month we start to run out of money by the end of the month and groceries need to go on the old CC.

Soooo time to stick to that budget and be honest with myself and have a no spending challenge. ONLY buy what I need and what is on my 'list' as far as groceries, etc. goes. I will have to cheat once this month, since we will have to get the boys stuff for Easter.

But happy to report that I spent NO money today since I was supposed to go to BJ's but the boys through a holy fit - both were exhausted - so I ended up coming home instead. But, I do have to go there tomorrow...as well as the grocery store and the dentist.

Gotta go fold some laundry, I only have like 1 million loads to catch up on from hell week last week.

An update...

2008-03-05T18:10:00.002-05:00

I haven't updated in a while. My bad!!

So here is a quick update of our Family:

Sam - Sam is doing well. Is crazy busy with work. I think it makes him happy though to have something challenge him, and then be really successful at it. He is currently on a flight on his way back from Omaha. I had forgotten to ask how today went - oops! Since he called quickly to give me his flight info, since his original flight had been canceled. He works a lot lately and is extremely swamped right now with a ton of stuff going on, hopefully he'll make it through and all will calm in his life again soon.

Aiden - Aiden bowled for the first time today. He had so much fun! He is actually pretty good at it, granted we used bumpers and even a guide sometimes, but he enjoyed himself thoroughly and totally understood the point. He went and saw Dr. Lichameli on Monday and he agreed that it was indeed time to get those tonsils out!! His apnea is really bad (I took video of him sleeping the other night, if I ever figure out how to hook that thing up to the computer I'll have to share it) and he is just exhausted, all the time. Last night for example, he fell asleep at quarter after six and slept until 7:30 am. Poor guy.

Conor - At Aiden's apt. on Monday, Dr. L asked if we had any questions, I showed him Conor's written ear infection history and asked if he thought he needed tubes. Dr. L said, how about I schedule their surgeries for the same day...um that's what I thought. So we are headed back to see Dr. L tomorrow- this time Conor gets to be tortured and get him a hearing test, etc and we will hopefully schedule both of their surgeries soon. I'm nervous of having them both under anesthesia on the same day, but it does make sense after all to schedule them both - for convenience and convenience with follow up visits as well. Other than the ear issue, he's doing well. Happy little guy who still only can go backwards, but he is getting so frustrated and getting up on all fours that I know crawling will be soon.

Me- Same ol same ol w/ me. Actually I'm awaiting my last pap results. Damn me for being celebratory w/ the nurse pre-apt and actually 'suggesting' that maybe I could now schedule paps once a year instead of every six months since it had been 8 years that I have been 'cancer free'. It appeared to my doc that things didn't look good, but he would wait to see the pap results and will probably have to schedule an endometrial biopsy and a colpolscopy/biopsy of my cervix. Weeeeee All old hat but still not fun. Oh, and I'm 30 now...

Chester and Chicago - Chester is getting big, he's getting his adult teeth in. He had some vaccines today. He weighs ten pounds and is officially 20 weeks old. He still hangs out in the corner but has gotten good about going out in the backyard and staying out there and playing and coming back up onto the deck and to the door when he wants to come in (or through the screen like he did yesterday when I left the glass door open). Hehe. He's a very smart dog. Chicago is the same as he ever was. No updates on him, though he does appear to be handling the dog better.

We have a new family member. :)

2008-02-15T21:35:00.002-05:00

His name is Chester Copperpot (for those that don't know a Goonie reference).
He is five months old and is just a doll! Really shy but he comes out of his shell when he is outside and playing with Aiden. Aiden ADORES him. So happy we got him. All he wanted today was to go outside and play with the dog (no trips to Mars mentioned AT ALL!).

Here is his piccy:

Awwwww. :)

I also got a few soaps done tonight. They are cute!

It is NASTY out there.

2008-02-13T14:36:00.004-05:00

N-A-S-T-Y NASTY!

Poor hubby this morning was well on his way to the office when he had to pull off due to a broken windshield wiper, he then had to return home to take the truck...all in all a nice almost five hour commute. All the more reason I'm sure he'd love to move closer to work. I am disheartened by that as what we can afford closer to Cambridge is going to be small. :(

Anyhow, I'm glad I rushed him out his winter coat or he would have been soaked. I just went out to rescue our trash can (we lost one already this winter from the wind) and our recycling bins and was soaked to the bone within minutes. At least I was smart enough to put on a ski jacket and winter boots and only had to change my pants. BLECH.

We are having a movie day. All hunkered down in the family room watching movies on the projector. :) Right now we are watching Meet the Robinsons. Aiden LOVES this movie. He calls it Meet the Robibus. I enjoy it because it has a great lesson. I am excited for the boys to be a bit older so we can foster/adopt. I feel the need to help out that 'kid' out there. But really feel it would be an injustice to my own children if I do it before they are older. Not to mention I'd prefer a younger child vs. an older one for my boys.

Need to find some more inspiration...if any of you would like to help me out by showing me some sites or threads and what have you about parenting/mothering/etc I'd love to check them out. I'm trying to become the best mom I can be for my boys. I'll admit that I had a terrible model so I'm doing this all from scratch. I'm finally embracing this whole stay at home mom thing, it has taken me long enough you think? My most important job is mommy.

** Updated to add that Aiden had some QT. While the CMan was down for his nap we played a game of Chutes and Ladders (I won hehe) and then made some Chocolate Chip Cookies, two batches, one for me (gluten free) and one for Sam and Aiden. He really helped make them, so that was wonderful. I will add pictures later, but right now the desktop puter is dead. :(

Puter is fixed. YEAH!

I think there is a light...

2008-02-12T11:48:00.000-05:00

at the end of the sickness tunnel. I think that Conor is on the mend. He had some rice cereal this morning and didn't immediately vomit. He is primarily having the big D, but at least that means some nutrition is getting into his system (hopefully). Yeah! It has been a long week.

Aiden has a head cold and is being really clumsy (bruise on his chin and on his head into two days) uggg. He claims that his ears don't hurt though, so I don't think he has an infection throwing him off balance, he is just a spaz.

On a business note, I had had a drought as far as soaps were going. However, I got a bulk order for 20 bride and groom soaps, which sparked four more bride and groom soaps and then two baby shower soaps! Weeee!! Not to mention I have a friend coming by in a few to pick up two Valentine Soaps for her sons for tomorrow. :) Sweet! I'm going to make a few for Aiden's speech pathologists for Thursday (perhaps that will spark even more orders...we shall see). Especially since my Etsy shop has been dead dead dead lately.

Eating lunch while the weee one naps, best get to it!!!

Remember your children...

2008-02-11T09:11:00.000-05:00

I was directed to this post via another blog. It is a wonderful reminder.

"Less is better. Little things done daily are better than grand plans. Give your children lots of tiny moments. When they approach the computer turn your chair around and look them in the eye and if you find more in their eyes than on the screen get up and take them on a nature walk or read a book to them." It will all still be there when you return.
http://dominionfamily.com/blog/2008/01/buenos-noches-mis-amigas/

Sick day...

2008-02-08T11:55:00.001-05:00

Well not literally. Wednesday night Conor started throwing up around 7 pm....and continued until midnight. He had three really big vomits (TMI sorry) and then continued w/ bile, poor guy. I put him to bed in his old carseat carrier in our bed and I'd hear his stmach start to gugle, I'd sit him up and have him spit up/throw up into a towel or diaper rag...then switch them out and have them ready for the next time. He was so tired, he'd scream for a second and fall right back asleep. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well. Finally around 4:30 pm I noticed him moving, he was trying to sit up or move around in his seat so I knew he was finally feeling better. I took him out of the seat, laid him on our bed and gave him 4 oz of pedialyte, because up until that point he wouldn't take anything. He wanted more, but I didn't want to shock his system and make him sick again...so I held off. Yesterday he was better, just had diarrhea and was fussy...I had to hold him all day as he took naps off and on throughout the day. Last night he slept in our bed again so that I could keep an ear out, and good thing as he had a very bad diarrhea episode around 5 am this morning. He hasn't had any solids and hardly any formula but I'm trying to get him to take some, along with the pedialyte. He woke up this morning with a high fever and now has a green runny nose, he's been hit for sure, and hit hard. Poor guy. I'm hoping he'll have some solids today...going to try some rice in a bit. Thankfully Aiden is still feeling just grand...let's keep it that way huh?

Super Tuesday

2008-02-05T22:15:00.000-05:00

I voted. :) Did you?

Then, I went to the grocery store and spent $52 but saved $49!! SAWEET! I get so excited about my savings. Hehe. :) All that was mostly just shopping the sales, and well I also am doing a buzz (BuzzAgent) for YoBaby (and Yo Mommy but our stores don't carry it) yogurt so I had coupons for free yogurt for Conor. WEEEE...

Earlier today we celebrated MardisGras w/ a playgroup at Fayes. It was good. Aiden is so exhausted lately...time to get those tonsils out! Our apt. is on March 3 for our consult, I hope Dr. Licamelli schedules our surgery soon after. Aiden's last surgery was in September (I think??) of '06 so it's been a while since we've had one, he's older now, I hope he handles it okay. This will be surgery number 4. Poor dude.

Conor was a superfuss today. His teeth are certainly bugging him. He stopped his antibiotics two days ago so I'm praying that this fussiness isn't the start of yet another infection, otherwise I'll ask Dr. L. for a two-for-1.

Why am I so bad at this?

2008-01-30T22:22:00.000-05:00

When I was younger, I used to write. A Lot. My parents swore that some day I'd be a writer. My English/Language Arts/Creative Writing teachers LOVED me and I still have my writing folders from grades 6,7,& 8. Geek right? Yeah per usual. Anyhow, I've always wanted to write a book and for some reason I can't even keep up with my blog...why in hell do I think I could write a book? A blog is easy, it's recounting my life, my daily events (errr...weekly, maybe even monthly? man I really am bad) and for some reason I can't even do that, what makes me think I could write a book? Not to mention, my brain is made of some sort of mush these days. I'm exhausted and can't sleep all at the same time. I'm sure it looks very similar to what I feed Conor on a daily basis...pureed with weird colors (seriously I fed the kid pears mixed with green beans tonight because he won't eat the beans alone - eww).
Talking to my sister tonight about the frustration of Aiden's imagination limitations... (he can imagine that the chair is a spaceship however cries when the spaceship doesn't really take off) She informed me that Aiden may look exactly like my husband, but he has my brain. Heh? Say what? She brings up a very vivid memory of hers (she is six years older) of me throwing the greatest hissy fit on the face of the planet under the kitchen table due to the fact that my mother wouldn't take me to the castle to go see my imaginary friends. I remember that hissy fit. So it must have been huge because I was three or four years old. I remember throwing my Mac and Cheese on the floor (first time I had been given Ketchup with it, I recall what it looked like on the linoleum)and freaking out screaming about my mom not taking me to the castle to see Johnny, Wonny, Conny, Fonny, Sonny, etc...or what I affectionately call the 'Onnies'. My imaginary friends lived in a castle, which was really a cool looking old church, in downtown Bangor, Maine. What child has imaginary friends that live too far away for her to visit on a regular basis? My dad did take me to that castle once and I was too afraid to go in, because Grover, in an armored suit, was standing behind the door. Okay there's all sorts of issues in that revelation. I don't think I ever met my imaginary friends and they lived too far away, separation anxiety issues much maybe? So yeah, she was right, he does have my brain. Thankfully my brain is on the normal side of crazy so I have hope for his future.
Speaking of being on the normal side of crazy, I'm not really sure how my sister and I are normal. As I grow older I find out more and more about my family and seriously there is probably a text book out there or two that could be written, I'm sure they could provide a pharmaceutical company plenty of business to not need to supply to anyone else...ever. Ten shades of crazy, and thankfully, I don't speak crazy. Well except that whole Onnie thing...

So on to the kids. Aiden still is on his Mars trip, not trip as in voyage because that is what he'd prefer. Not so sure how to deal with that except for the hope that one day he will grow out of it. Conor is sitting!! Yeah!! It doesn't last very long but he's soooo happy he's doing it...as am I because he WANTS to sit, he'd like to run actually...we'll get there eventually, probably too soon.

I want to go to SPEECH!!!

2008-01-24T19:44:00.000-05:00

Last evening when putting Aiden to bed I told him about his day today, we do that every night just to give him a heads up on all the fun stuff that will be happening when the sun comes out. (Not everything is told to him though or we wouldn't hear the end of it)So I told him, tomorrow we are going to go see Ms. Tricia, we are going to Speech. He was so excited, he repeated, "We go to Speech when we wake up. When the sun comes out we go to Speech." So this morning, his eyes opened and he said, "We go in the car, we go to speech." Wooohoo. He loves speech. Which he does love speech but he's never talked about it like that. He of course preceded to ask about it every five minutes until we left at eleven. FUN.
I figured something was up when we pulled onto the street that the school was on and he said, "No mommy, we can't go to school, we have to go to speech." I said, "I know, speech is at school remember, we are going to go see Ms. Tricia." All went well, he went off with Ms. Tricia but when she brought him back he was in TEARS. She had told him, it is time to go home. He said, no it's not time to go home, it's time for speech. She informed him that she was speech and speech was all done for the day, didn't they have fun...which he did, but still cried, NO GO HOME. GO TO SPEECH.
Complete meltdown. We tried for about fifteen minutes to figure out what his definition of speech was, what did he do there, where was it, etc. Nothing but tears. Lasted quite a while until I pulled the McDonalds card. He had his cheeseburger and french fries at home and requested to take a nap. Which, I couldn't let him do because it was about time to take Conor to the pediatrician (Diagnosis - Ear infection number five since December).
Fast forward to this evening. Sam is at work still (it's almost 8pm). So we did nebulizer & a bottle with Conor after his dinner and he went to bed shortly after six. Aiden got to play Sonic for a little bit (after a day with no TV weee) and had his dinner. After dinner we came into the office to find some space coloring pages. The kid LOVES space. So we printed out a picture of Earth and a picture of a space shuttle. We were coloring Earth and he choose green for the US because of the grass, and colored that in. He wanted to color S. America blue because it's water, so I had to get his Globe out to look at it, he decided to switch to Orange and color in Africa. He said, "That's the desert." I was shocked. I said, "Yes that's right, that's the dessert." He said, "it has lots of sand, like the Speech." EUREKA! I have to call his speech pathologist in the morning. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have figured that out until next summer...
Time to put him to bed. Peace out.

Be the change you want to see in the world...

2008-01-21T15:47:00.000-05:00

I full-heartedly believe in this statement and for some reason over the past 29 years, I'm not sure how much of a difference I have made. So recently, with this bearing on my mind, I've taken the time to become a 'social activist'.

It started with signing up to be a member of Human Rights Watch, then Unicef and most recently The World Wildlife Fund. I've written letters to congressmen re. The Child Soldier Prevention Act of 2007, joined The Tap Project, signed up for Earth Hourand today wrote letters to appropriate people re. a few issues the WWF has taken up on...including stopping importion of illegal woods into the US, rewriting the 1996 biological opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which concluded that no coal mining operation in the United States would ever jeopardize threatened or
endangered species listed then or in the future, cosponsoring the Bristol
Bay Protection Act (H.R.1957/S. 1311), which would permanently protect
Bristol Bay in Alaska from offshore oil and gas leasing and
development, cosponsoring the Great Cats and Rare Canids Act (H.R. 1464/S. 1033)and delaying Lease Sale 193, for oil and gas drilling
rights in the Chukchi Sea, until the potential impacts on polar bears
and other wildlife can be determined and until adequate oil spill
safety measures can be put in place.

None of these were hard to do, nor did they take much time out of a busy day...just a thought for anyone who would like to 'be the change you want to see in the world.'

Now, time to make a loaf of bread, fold some laundry and solve my family hunger issues...ie make dinner. ;)

Sunday...

2008-01-13T19:58:00.000-05:00

Ok I figured I'd at least update on what is up with today and then can backtrack on all the stuff I haven't updated on in the last...oh...whatever. LOL

Anyhow, today was actually rather productive for me. Sam was hungover all day because of being at the game last night, but he was good enough to watch the boys for a bit while I went out to the gym for a bit. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical (which is only 1 mile), and a ton of weights...bunch of different stuff...

I also made one makeup bag today (made one last night too). Want to get a few of them made and then put them up on my etsy site. I also am almost done with my crochet ball...probably will finish that tonight. I just finished nine soaps, so they are setting up. Plus normal household stuff...have I mentioned how much I love my new time saver of clipping dirty socks together. It makes folding whites soooo much easier.

Well I'm going to try and finish my ball and perhaps make a few bracelets too...I've hit a craft kick I guess.

Oh I really want to make these: http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/blog/cloth_shoe.pdf

Aren't they the cutest??

Some tips...

2008-01-03T15:26:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share these...just tips I've picked up along the way and some of my own. Only a few today but I'll be sure to add more.

Aiden is potty training (as I may have complained about previously). His issue is that he's afraid of the dark, if I'm mid giving Conor a bottle (as it seems I always am when he's going potty) then he is left screaming at the bathroom door saying he has to pee and it's too dark. We have a light switch with four switches on it and the decision is just too overwhelming I think. So we sat and picked out a few small stickers to label the right switch. One sticker for on and one for off. Works great! (Though we went to a friends house and he was upset that the stickers were missing from their light switch...so everyone must do it now...hehe).

I picked up a tip in a book recently of clipping together socks (dirty ones) w/ those small colored clothes pins. I've seen to do it with safety pins, but that takes forever...so I went out the other day and picked up two packages of clothes pins at the dollar store, assigned red to Sam, blue to me, green to Aiden and told them if they want their socks back from the laundry they have to be clipped together when dirty. I just did my first load of whites with them clipped and man what a time saver! When Conor gets big enough to have his clothes washed with ours I'll assign him blue or red, because it will be obvious they aren't Sam's or mine. Not only are they all paired already, I also know whose is whose quickly by looking at their colored clip! Just had to share for those of you that hate pairing socks.

Bad blogger Bad Blogger!

2007-12-30T12:42:00.000-05:00

Lots to update, Conor is rolling and enjoying Solids.
Aiden has started speech two times a week and has an IEP in place with the school
Christmas happened.
New Volunteer project - The Tap Project.
New resolutions and 'rules' for a cleaner happier house - Aiden has chores now and we have new house rules...

I'll give more info at a later time I'm sure but now I need to go empty the dishwasher.

Smells like...like...like Cheeseburgers!!!

2007-11-29T16:55:00.000-05:00

Aiden cracks me up.

So I'm making dinner and cut up some onions...the kids dietary repertoire consists of peanut butter jelly/grilled cheese/pasta/mac and cheese/ hot dogs and waffels...he doesn't eat much. Anyhow, I was cutting the onions and our conersation proceeded as such:

A: "Mmmmm smells yummy"
Me: "That's what onion smells like. That's an onion."
A: "mmmmmmmmmmm" Sniffing...He then comes up and sniffs me.
Me: "What does mommy smell like?"
A: *thinking, comes in for another smell* "Chocolate."
Me: "Oo, I smell like chocolate? Cool."
He then smells himself and declares : "TREATS!" Treats aren't so shabby either, I mean on the whole spectrum of things to smell like, chocolate and treats, neither one of those is a bad thing.
I then asked him what Conor smells like, he ran over to Conor's swing, took a big whiff and said "CHEESEBURGERS!!"

Beat...

2007-11-23T20:53:00.000-05:00

I'm super tired this evening. I slept miserably last night on the floor at Sarah's...and then was up at 5:30 feeding Conor and went shopping. Cool being all done Christmas shopping though! Go Black Friday! Keene was cool to shop, it was a little crowded, but not near as bad as it would have been if we had stayed here. I hit Target, JC Penny and KB Toy today. :) All done for the boys, they are going to be super spoiled this year. :) Oh well. I'm actually excited for Christmas this year. :)
Well, like I said I'm beat. So I just finished cleaning up and I'm going to take a shower and head to bed.

Penises...

2007-11-21T21:43:00.000-05:00

So along with potty training is the fun realization that 'we' have a penis and it is 'fun' to play with.

Today I have two entertaining instances of this...

First, we picked up a cheeseburger and some fries before hitting the grocery store because I knew it was going to be insane in there and well, we all need something to distract our three year old from time to time. So he ate his fries, most of his burger and I look down and say, hey...there's more burger left you want this? And I notice his hands are in his pants...I immediately thought, oh no, he's pee'd in the shopping cart. "Do you need to go potty?" I say. "No, no potty mommy"..hands still in pants. "Ok, well maybe you should get out of the cart right now." Trying to change the subject, the action that's going on...do I really want my three year old playing with himself in my shopping cart next to the bag of Tostitos?? No...no not really.

So...fast forward to a few minutes ago, yes it's almost ten...the boy has been watching Aladdin in bed, he's being good and quiet, so I just let him be. I heard the end song come on and started walking down the hall...where I hear "Go pee pee mommy" in a quiet voice...I walk into his room and he's taken off his zipped footy pajamas AND his diaper (we still use a diaper overnight) and was playing with himself again, I'm sure he was angry, we had put a few obstacles in his way to getting to his 'fun'.

He's too young for this. I know he's not...I know it's curiosity and it feels good and it's healthy and all that, but he's going to be obsessed with that thing for the next what...100 years? Can't he have a few more days of innocence? Can't I?

Gobble Gobble!

2007-11-21T16:28:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving day is upon us! We will be heading up to Keene, NH in the morning to spend it at Sarah's house. They are all very excited to spend some time with Aiden, as goes the message that was relayed to me by Sam today. I'm sure they are excited to spend time with Conor as well...I mean who wouldn't want to spend time w/ a constipated teething four month old?? Ray of sunshine that one. ;) He's doing well with eating though, perhaps too well, thus the constipation. He had his first meal on Saturday and has done well with Rice Cereal, Applesauce and today's fun introduction...PRUNES! I was going to introduce Sweet Potatoes tomorrow as a special Thanksgiving treat, however, I think the prunes were more vital. He's got a digestive track like his brother, poor dude. Aiden always had constipation issues...now if I could only get him not to go in his underwear...He is doing really well though with peeing on the potty. :) :) Yeah for potty training!
I just making some stuff for tomorrow, I made a gluten free apple crisp, a artichoke dip and sausage stuffed mushrooms. MMmmmmm. I am going to try out some GF stuffing too, if it tastes okay I'll bring some with me.
I have to say Aiden is the cutest thing. He just stumbled out of the playroom after waking up from his nap. He fell asleep on the way home from the grocery store so I put him in his bed, he woke up w/in an hour, but came out here, went pee pee then moved to the futon in the playroom and fell back asleep. He's wearing his cousins handme downs...a turtleneck and a sweatshirt that look really cute on him right now...hehe.
Well...monsieur fussy pants needs his bottle..please pray the prunes work soon... :)

Poop Poop Everywhere and I have a Rash...

2007-11-14T20:25:00.000-05:00

Be WARNED this deals with A LOT of poop talk...

Soooo we are potty training.
I decided that there are no more diapers, no more...I was going to buy a new package the other day and thought, JEEZ these are expensive...And I have to buy some for my four month old and some for my three year old...odds are the four month old isn't going to potty train any time soon, so I came home and told Aiden, "There are no more diapers." Voila. Okay, so not really voila. Things have been going OKAY...Could be worse, could be better.
Some days we have had no accidents, other days we have run through every pair of sweatpants Aiden owns(which is a lot)...then there are really fun days like yesterday and today.
So Aiden was playing Sonic yesterday and I told him that he had to go try and go potty, he went pee and decided he had to run off and go back to playing sonic, I told him he had to try and poop...he said no, didn't have to go...
Fast forward to ten minutes later, I look in to check on him and he's standing playing Sonic, which is very odd because normally he sits in his bean bag chair. At his feet was, you guessed it, poop. Two piles of poop...he says to me "Awww Aiden, why you poo poo on the floor." Leaving me to believe the kid knows better...So I said, "Give me the controller, get into the bathroom." He hands me the controller and I immediately regret that exchange, because it's covered in poop. Covered. As are Aiden's hands. As is Aiden's train table. As is the carpet. As is the inside of Aiden's pants, his socks, his legs...AAGGGGHHHH!!! So Mommy Was Very Angry. I informed him of this, no more sonic until Saturday - he had to go in, sit on teh potty, then take a shower...I had to clean him up and the rest of the free world that was covered with his excrement.
Fast forward to two hours later...he is standing in the corner of his playroom 'reading' the Sonic instruction manual. Corner of the Playroom = Poop...it always has. I told him "Hold up! Don't Poop!" (mind you he had just pee'd about fifteen minutes prior)...I thought I had been smart...he's been going without underwear because I really wanted him to be aware of the sensation that he's not wearing a diaper or anything else, therefore shouldn't pee (or poop)...BUT I put underwear on him because at least it would catch the poop right? WRONG. Poop was on the floor...under his feet to put it more specifically...smeared into the floor with his lovely white socks...yum. I put a stop to it immediately, told him he needed to go to the potty NOW and shuffled him in there...there was a little bit of poo in his underwear, how the rest of it escaped is beyond me. I proceeded to tell him he was in so much trouble, sit on his Diego potty while I go clean up the poop...When I got back to him he had basically filled the potty...So I'm thinking the kid doesn't feel well, so I lay off on his punishment.
Today he did great. He asked me to go to the potty when we were at Amy's house...he held it while we shopped, he held it for the ride home and his nap...well I hear his door slamming and go and check on him and he says "Oh no mommy...Poop" His pants are around his ankles and I'm assuming he HAS to poop, because at a glance there was no poop within his pants, I saw his underwear, yes it was wet, but there was no poop. So I plop Conor into his crib, who proceeds to scream about that situation...and rush Aiden to the potty...I started the tub for him and had it full...(Oh his shower this morning is a whole other story...) took off his pants while he was sitting on the potty thinking he was there too poop...As I pull of the pants, poop goes flying across the bathroom, it was almost as if it was slow motion..."Noooo!!!" Big nasty poop flies into the tub, onto the tub and onto the floor...Shoot me now. Conor is screaming at this point and Aiden pipes up with "Mommy is Angry"...Mommy is beyond Angry my boy...So I clean up all the poop but I still fall apart, I think I just hit a breaking point, I told Sam I was looking for a job and seriously started to look for one...I'll put them in daycare, someone else can take care of this potty training stuff because I can't hack it!! Obviously the thought was fleeting, however I did look for almost an hour...all while Conor screamed, Aiden repeated 'Mommy is happy? Mommy is happy??" He always says that after he has done things wrong...uggg...I felt horrible but I seriously started to cry quite hard, I think I just hit a breaking point. Damn potty training.
This morning While Aiden was in the shower, he says to me..."I need soap"...I look in the shower and he's squeezed the body wash onto his leg...I showed him how the loofah with make the soap bubble and that he is not to use anymore soap...I got dressed and went back in and heard the distinctive sound of an empty squeeze container, why yes ladies and gentleman he had emptied the whole bottle of soft soap into the shower with him... Ugg

Oh and about my rash. I'm allergic to yardwork...it's official. It isn't poison ivy, because no one else has gotten and it we can't seem to find it, but it's poison something. I noticed it on my hands on Monday, yesterday I noticed it on my forehead, tonight at the gym I noticed it on my face by my nose and came home to realize, oh yeah, it's on my EYELID! Uggggg! So I scrubbed down the laptop, only place I can think the oil may still be and I'll have to go to the doc tomorrow for some steroids. FRICKEN FUN.

I had forgotten..

2007-11-05T13:12:00.000-05:00

To mention that I joined a gym on Saturday! It's rather pricey, $40/mo plus childcare - putting me at over $60/month but I think I'll take advantage of it.
I went on Saturday for an hour, did 20 mins on the bike and 20 on the treadmill and did 30 leg presses at 60 lbs...Went back today did the same except I increased my level for both the bike and the treadmill and also added some leg curls to work the backs of my thighs...lord knows they need it.
Aiden and Conor went to the childcare today. It was nice to just veg for an hour and not have to deal with either of them...I know that sounds kinda cruel but it was a good escape. I also was able to shower all by myself and knew my boys were being taken care of. :)
I hope to go back tomorrow and work on my top half...arms, abs, shoulders, back, etc and give the legs a break. I'm going to try for an every other day schedule. :)

Football Sunday...

2007-11-04T21:44:00.001-05:00

Conor still isn't happy about that tooth...

He's too cute huh? Poor dude.

We went to Pam, Art and Zach's for Halloween night. Jen, Smitty and Noah, Marie, Chris and Ian, MaryEllen and her BF and of course Pam, Art, Zach and Mr. and Mrs. Kelly and even Mrs. Kehoe were there. It was fun, Aiden had a blast going around from house to house. He LOVES HALLOWEEN. He repeated it often...Mommy, I likea the Halloween...hehe...So cute. He'd go and say TRICK OR TREAT and THANK YOU and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! at each house then RUN to the next one. Noone was allowed to put the candy in his bucket, they had to hand it to him and HE had to put it in. Conor just hung in his stroller, he loves being outside so he was all chill...:)

Tonight we had Marni, Chris & Grace, Faye, her hubby (drawing a blank now on his name...eek), Colin & Morgan and Kari, Gavin and Nate over to watch the game. It was close but Pats won. They kiddos had fun. Grace is a doll and Aiden and Nate did their typical thing...hehe...they are goofie boys but have a lot of fun together. Aiden has started an "Aggressive Lean" is what I termed it...he knows to keep his hands to himself, but he will lean in real close to the other kiddos and prompt them to hit or push him...totally an antagonizer...uggg...but he'll look at you like what, I kept my hands to myself mom...Gotta put a stop to that!

Anyhow, I'm beat...gotta go to bed. :) I bet Sam is sound asleep downstairs...he was a bit 'buzzed'. Hehe...

Yeah for teeth! Or Booo actually...

2007-10-30T15:40:00.000-04:00

Conor has his first official tooth busted through...Surprise surprise it was a MOLAR!! No wonder he's been so miserable lately...I knew he was upset and teething, but I didn't realize it was a molar...I had felt the front four...but that was it... Yeah for a big boy~ He's also officially in 6-9 month clothes now....

Some recent piccys...

2007-10-27T22:29:00.000-04:00

Mostly from Pumpkinfest...

Some recent piccys...

2007-10-15T09:22:00.000-04:00

Our trip to Maine, visit to the Fire Department and some shots of Conor:

Monday...

2007-10-15T09:06:00.000-04:00

I have been feeling like complete poo lately and I think it's the gluten free food I've been eating, my body adjusting to the bread and stuff, I don't know how else to explain it but that's the newest thing I've done is introduce that.

The boys are doing well. Conor has been sleeping through the night most nights...Aiden still is having such a hard time. He wet through badly this morning and he was up from that point on quite upset, he woke Conor so I had to feed Conor (which I did in bed because I felt like I was going to vomit) and that made Aiden freak right out. Sam changed him and tried to get him back to sleep but he wouldn't go...so he's been up since 5:30.

Conor has been cooing a lot lately and has started to giggle when you tickle him. It's too cute...I can't wait to hear that little voice for real...He's starting to hold up his head when you sit him up so that's another milestone we are about to reach...yeah! :) He's too fricken cute for words sometimes.

Sick :(

2007-10-04T11:08:00.000-04:00

“ Ability is a wonderful thing, but its value is greatly enhanced by dependability. Ability implies repeatability and accountability. ”

Unfortunately I have a cold coming, I'm trying to fight it off, cancelled our plans for the day and am downing the AirBorne, which according to it's website is gluten free, however I had a gluten reaction a bit ago and I'm not sure what it could be too, as I had creamcheese and celery for breakfast, a salad w/ GF dressing and just started on chicken soup that I made (cause I'm sicky) and I know it doesn't have any gluten in it, sooooo...??

Oh well.

Anyhow, we were supposed to have dinner w/ C&M this evening however I cancelled since Sam has been sick all week and I'm sick today, I'd rather not spread my germs. Thankfully Conor has only been waking up once all week during the night, except however for last night where he got up twice and Aiden was up three or four times. Oh well, this will pass one day...I've gone three years without sleeping through the night, what's a few more...hehe...

Well, I'm going to finish crocheting the hat I'm working on...just feel like working on new things but need to finish things before I move onto something new...so I started a new hat yesterday and want to desert it, but it deserves to have me finish it...hehe... :)

Cool...hehe

2007-10-04T09:37:00.000-04:00

One week...

2007-10-02T12:49:00.000-04:00

I have been strictly GF for a week now (well a week and two days) and I'm happy to say the hand and feet numbness is no longer an issue...every now and again I have a problem, but not continual like before. I'm slowly trying to make sure that I really am 100% GF and stay that way.

So, going through my day...here are the products I use, now I am doing the research and have found:

Mentadent - Gluten Free :)
Hand Soap - Soft Soap - Gluten Free.
Tresemme - EEEK...My conditioner contains gluten. :(
St. Ives Collagen Elastin - my favorite lotion - CONTAINS gluten :(
Tide is GF as is Downy Simple Pleasures
Shampoo - using White Rain right now and it is GF (their mousse and hairsprays are NOT)
Frizz Ease Mousse - GF (thank god~)
Face Wash - still researching my AcneFree, St Ives Apricot scrub has wheat in it but I don't think the target brand does, I don't see it in their ingredients and will send them an email, Clean And Clear is good
Nature Made Vitamins - Gluten Free
Yasmin - BCP's are GF :)
Tums - NOT GF
Tropicana Juice - NOT GF (Pure premium is okay)
Some nonstick pans have gluten in them... :( Not to mention I've cooked gluten products in them, so I need to get some new pans for my stuff... :(

Ok Ok

2007-09-23T23:08:00.000-04:00

I'm back to being GF.
Starting today.
I can't deal with my hands and feet being numb all the time anymore...that's one of the main issues. So I pulled out Dangerous Grains and my GF book and it's funny, people on the message board have been talking about it lately as well, so it's interesting the two coincided.

Tonight I made NoSagna. Good stuff. Had a banana for snack and of course lots of water. We'll see what tomorrow brings. :)

Goofy Faces All Around

2007-09-23T12:40:00.000-04:00

Man I suck at this. I said I would.

What's been going on....hmmm...

First AF hit in a year, that's no fun.

Conor is getting big and smiley. Whenever you say his name he lights up like a light...

Aiden is loving him and finally hugged him for the first time. He cracks me up daily even when I'm completely frustrated by him.

I took out some unfinished projects, finished a knit hat, started and finished a knit scarf and am knitting another one.

Busy week ahead of us, Playgroup @ Faye's tomorrow, going to Faye's on Tuesday as well, Playgroup here on Wednesday, nothing on Thursday and another playgroup @ the playground on Friday. All fun stuff! Woo! :)

PS - Still not gluten free...

Gluten Gluten you evil Minx...

2007-09-10T21:29:00.000-04:00

She'ssss baaaaccckkkkk....

gluten intolerant girl at her finest.

After my raving review at the dentist today I decided to see if there was a correlation between teeth decay and celiac disease and DING DING DING...there is. THAT explains a lot.

Also, it's here, it's happened, it has taken three months for the joint pain, numbness (all the time now) in my hands and feet and abdominal pain to return (not to mention the fun bathroom adventures). Oh pasta, it was good to have you back in my life, cookies and crackers too...but alas, we must bid farewell. *SIGH* (Oh let me also add the irritability is back with a vengence as well)

Sooo I'm going to have a gluten goodbye celebration over the next week while I ween myself and then prepare for detox. Oh joys. I may not even make the next week but we have a TON of items in the house right now that are def. not gluten free...Well I guess I should just say no right. I just need to do some planning for me...my alternative menu and fun stuff like that.

Not looking forward to this at all. NOT at all.

2 Month Check up

2007-09-10T19:27:00.000-04:00

Conor had his two month checkup today, which unfortunately involved three vaccine shots and the oral vaccine for Rotavirus. Needless to say, he is not a very happy camper this evening. Poor guy. His left thigh is really bad since that's where he had two of the shots...it's swollen and red all the way from his hip to his knee...poor dude. I put him in a long sleeve onesie to try and avoid his pajamas rubbing up against his thigh. He is doing well though, he looks great and all is well. He weighs 12 lbs 13 oz, up from 9 lbs, 14 oz from his last check up a month ago...He is 25 inches long, up from 23 3/4. :) Poor kid though, I really hope he feels better by tomorrow. I remember this with Aiden, it was a rough night the first time, we were up all night and the only thing that consoled him was his swing. We were supposed to go to a playgroup at WWI Memorial Park tomorrow, but we may not go if he's not feeling better (or if I get no sleep).

Today we went to a luncheon thanking Julie for putting the playgroup together...since she is the one who started it and ran it for the past year. I'm so happy to help out now and organize the 0-12 month and 3+ playgroups. It's a lot of fun. Our moms group is pretty big too, we have 144 members.

Unfortunately I also went to the dentist today...something is up...I have 8 new cavities, from six months ago!! The dentist said it may have been from my pregnancy, something about the PH balance of my saliva, it may have to do with my diet as well. Who knows, it just sucks because now I need 8 fillings! 8!! Uggg... It's not like I drink a lot of sweet drinks or anything, I have a soda perhaps once or twice a week, if that...and I put a lot of creamer in my coffee, but I only have one coffee a day, sometimes two! I don't eat a lot of candy or junk either and I of course brush my teeth and all that...ugg...

The drama continues...

2007-09-06T16:21:00.000-04:00

Today we can not pick up puzzle pieces because we are sick and want cookies...complete with fake sneezing and coughing...

I said "Oh, well if you are so sick then maybe you should go to bed...we'll clean up later after you get up and feel better."

Response: "I'm not sick mommy...I'm sad....AhhhChooo"

Convention on the Rights of the Child

2007-09-06T10:58:00.001-04:00

Our country is run by evil...

"UNICEF’s mission is to advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. UNICEF is guided in doing this by the provisions and principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Built on varied legal systems and cultural traditions, the Convention is a universally agreed set of non-negotiable standards and obligations. These basic standards—also called human rights—set minimum entitlements and freedoms that should be respected by governments. They are founded on respect for the dignity and worth of each individual, regardless of race, colour, gender, language, religion, opinions, origins, wealth, birth status or ability and therefore apply to every human being everywhere. With these rights comes the obligation on both governments and individuals not to infringe on the parallel rights of others. These standards are both interdependent and indivisible; we cannot ensure some rights without—or at the expense of—other rights.

A legally binding instrument

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights—civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. In 1989, world leaders decided that children needed a special convention just for them because people under 18 years old often need special care and protection that adults do not. The leaders also wanted to make sure that the world recognized that children have human rights too.

The Convention sets out these rights in 54 articles and two Optional Protocols. It spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere have: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The four core principles of the Convention are non-discrimination; devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and respect for the views of the child. Every right spelled out in the Convention is inherent to the human dignity and harmonious development of every child. The Convention protects children's rights by setting standards in health care; education; and legal, civil and social services.

By agreeing to undertake the obligations of the Convention (by ratifying or acceding to it), national governments have committed themselves to protecting and ensuring children's rights and they have agreed to hold themselves accountable for this commitment before the international community. States parties to the Convention are obliged to develop and undertake all actions and policies in the light of the best interests of the child."

http://www.unicef.org/crc/

The United States is one of only two countries in the world that have not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Somalia—a country without an internationally-recognized government—is the other. The Children's Rights Division has focused its efforts on U.S. practice in three areas that fall measurably short of standards included in the Convention on the Rights of the Child—conditions for children in the justice system, detention of children by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and the use of children as soldiers.
http://hrw.org/children/us.htm

Ishmael Beah -

2007-09-05T22:03:00.000-04:00

Tonight I went to a discussion at my college by Ishmael Beah, author of "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier". Wow. All I can say right now is Wow. I have been suffering some serious insomnia lately, so I do not want to comment on it right now because my over tiredness could never do it justice and I can't speak as eloquently as I wish to on the subject of child soldiers, okay not eloquently...that's not even the word I want to use. This man is 26 and he is being the change he wants to see in the world, I need to do the same. A lot of discussion was focused around the fact that so many people see people doing nothing, so they do nothing. This is true...This quote from during Hilters Regime was one I had never heard before, but I want to put it on here, I will comment more at a later time when I have my mind about me better...

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

Here is a link to an article Ismael wrote for the New York Times. More on this at another time...btw, I've already informed Sam that we are adopting a Child Soldier one day...

Moms..

2007-09-05T16:51:00.000-04:00

I've been completely absorbed in my moms group lately...I'm having such a great time with it. I've scheduled our latest playgroup at the local fire department, they will be showing off the fire truck to the 3+ crowd. I can't wait for our first 'crafternoon' and am hoping it goes off without a hitch. :) I've gotten a lot of compliments on my ideas for my recent playgroups and that makes me even more excited! I have moms whose kids are three saying they can't wait until they are three years old! I'm such a dork! LOL I've made a good friend with a few of the ladies and am looking forward to making some more, Aiden gets along really well with the other kids and has a blast so that's great.

This morning we went to a playgroup at the park close by...Aiden skinned his knee and arm pretty bad but he had a good time. :) Tonight I'm going to Stonehill with Marie for a book discussion, should be fun. :) Some adult time is always great!

I'm just rather stumped on some playgroups for the Infant group...I want to have a signing group but need to make sure I have a working video before scheduling it. :)

The Drama of Being Three...

2007-09-04T08:58:00.002-04:00

I was just down stairs changing over laundry when Aiden came down to ask to play Sonic (XBox). He had been playing nicely all morning so I figured I'd give him a few minutes but told him that he needed to help me with the laundry - just help move the stuff from the wash to the dryer...not a huge task, I was there helping him but told him he needed to help with chores and cleaning up around the house. He refused. Down right refused and started to cry. So I told him he needed to either help so he could play Sonic or go to his room. He said "Go to room!" BAWLING...so I said okay, go...He replies with "See you later" through his tears and heads up the stairs. I finish and meet him on the stairs where he is repeating..."It's soooo far away...It's sooo far away." Ahh, it's tough to be three...

Toxic Baby and Peanut Butter & Jelly

2007-09-01T15:49:00.000-04:00

Conor was just sitting on my lap and did his poo for the day. Now that he's mostly on formula he only goes once a day, vs. once every ten minutes (seemed that way) with breast milk. OMG He's toxic. TOXIC! That was one of those diapers that immediately went into a plastic bag and outside into the trash can. I really wanted to get Sam to change it, but considering he was in the middle of painting the side wall of the garage I didn't think he'd go for it. When I came back into the house and was changing over the laundry I realized that I could still smell it, not one of those it's burned into my nostrils forever smells, I meant it was still 'with' me. AND I was right. The smell permeated my dress and was stuck to me...I just had to douse myself with fabrize (I could change but this dress is sooo comfy...hehe). Now I need to burn down the room he did it in...uggggg Maybe I should try and get that breast milk supply back up. LOL

Can I comment on Uncrustables. I mean seriously. I was looking at them in the frozen food isle at the grocery store today and wondered what the hell the point of those were. I mean really...convenience? Is it really hard to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Have we gotten that lazy?? And we spend how much on them??? Iif you are buying Uncrustables you need to sit down and think about maybe donating some of that to charity...and slow down huh - not that tough to make a PB&J...sorry Smuckers.

Slacker...

2007-08-31T08:15:00.000-04:00

See I'm already slacking off! LOL...

So an update...yesterday Conor, Aiden and I went to Slater Park in Pawtucket. It is a really cute park, we'll have to go back sometime. We went with the Infant and up playgroup, where the intent was a mile and a half walk...I guess I didn't realize that. Without a double stroller, you can guess how successful that was...No way Aiden was going that long but he did do well. We actually ended up walking with a mom who had a two year old and an eight month old, and both decided perhaps it was best to turn back (since the moms had whizzed ahead of us without toddlers in tow) and just hit the playground. Hehe. Aiden got tired on the return trip and she had a double stroller, carried her eight month old and pushed Aiden and her two year old...very sweet of her. So I did make a new friend out of it. Aiden did too! Conor napped the whole time. Hehe.

Comcast is coming today to give us a new modem, we are upgrading to having phone service (we'll also have HBO and Stars too - all cheaper than what we currently have.) I also switched out our cell phone plans and think I've cut our bill in half...not bad eh? So just by making a few phone calls I saved us at least fifty bucks a month. I did buy a new phone yesterday. I'm a dork and was excited about that...since we haven't had a home phone since oh...2002! Ahh, it's like I've gone retro. I need to call all our docs offices and such with the new number. :)

Not much else going on. I'm just working on the house today since I have to be home for the comcast guy anyway...and wait for Sam's new XBox 360. So I'm doing a fifteen minute day (crap forgot to set it this time). Except for when it comes to the boys of course, can't time that. LOL

I'll have to post the pics of our newest crafts. We didn't do any yesterday since we had such a big day at the park, but the day before Aiden painted his very own vase and I made him some slipper socks. :)

Crazy Sexy Cancer...

2007-08-29T21:27:00.000-04:00

I'm watching this show right now. I didn't update anything today, so thought I'd at least put a little bit in. Tomorrow we have a playgroup at Slater Park. This is a good documentary thus far. Sam thinks the title is foolish, I think it's great, perhaps it depends on what side of the fence you sit on. Granted she has a very rare stage 4 cancer and mine was a rather 'common' stage 1 cancer...it's still a club I belong to, or well did, hopefully I won't again...but the fear is still there...Anyhoooo...

I need to pick up some of these bracelets and give them to friends, I forget to order some, I love them...I see them quite often, most are always given as a gift...I've never encountered anyone who bought their own...so I'll have to give some out. :) Mel's Bracelets

Homemade Play Dough...

2007-08-28T17:59:00.001-04:00

Aiden's face is ALWAYS dirty. It's a fact of life.

We made No-Cook Dough this afternoon - I'm trying to make sure he 'unplugs' for the majority of the day, so when he starts begging for Sonic (XBox) or Noggin (Computer) and nothing works, it's time for a new craft...Todays was Dough. ;)

New recipe - 1 cup of flour, 3/8 cup salt, 3/8 cup hot water & food coloring. I let him stir the flour and salt together, I added the hot water (from the bubbler so not really much work for me) and stirred. Voila. We kneeded in the colors (note to self, don't allow Aiden to squeeze in the colors the yellow and red were a bit much!) and the more you play with the stuff the better it becomes. :) He used his cookie cutters (the worst cutters in the world btw, see that peuny three? I swear they would make the worst cookies) to cut out shapes, he always needs a tree with a star on top. Then when we were done we put it in a Tupperware in the fridge, should last a week. :) Now he's having his computer time and I'm going to start dinner, Conor is in his swing...ahhh...

I think I need to learn to Meditate...

2007-08-28T14:47:00.000-04:00

By means of meditation we can teach our minds to be calm and balanced; within this calmness is a richness and a potential, an inner knowledge which can render our lives boundlessly satisfying and meaningful. While the mind may be what traps us in unhealthy patterns of stress and imbalance, it is also the mind which can free us. Through meditation, we can tap the healing qualities of mind. - Tarthang Tulku

Tuesday...

2007-08-28T08:50:00.001-04:00

Good Tuesday morning to you. Last night Conor did well and woke up at 1:30 and 4:00. :) He was being so fussy before bed I wasn't sure what he'd do last night. It was an odd day all in all since he was awake so much...I did a ton of cleaning up yesterday but by nightfall, it was a mess again...uggg.

Aiden never napped yesterday and was up for quite a while in the middle of the night, then up early this morning...which means I'm in for quite a day. I think as soon as everyone is fed and changed this morning we'll head over to the playground. I'll run him early so he'll take a long nap this afternoon.

Conor is sitting next to me smiling away...he's not old enough to actually 'smile' yet so I love it when he does it on his own, it's really charming and I hope his real one is the same, it's so precious. Poor kid though only wants to poop. He has a hard time with that. I remember Aiden having the same issue, but Aiden's got really bad as he got older, I'm hoping that that doesn't happen with Conor.

Aiden's imagination has taken over. It's really funny to hear him in his playroom acting out scenarios with his toys. Yesterday he had food on the brain, he ate ten different times I think. He ordered a pizza with pickles on it on his little cell phone=he doesn't even like picles. Unfortunately he keeps putting his toys in his mouth. 3 years old and he starts putting things in his mouth now. Last night Sam says to him "Take that out of your mouth, it's probably from China." How true.

I only pumped twice yesterday and the last time was at four pm, this mornings pump only resulted in six ounces so it means I'm on my way to drying up...woohoo. I feel bad for wanting that to happen, but it makes life easier.

Sam says if his horses come in (i.e. the market) then he's getting a mandolin so he can play two songs, "You are the Everything" and "Gin and Juice". He wants to be able to play the mandolin in the garage during parties...you can imagine my reaction to that one...laughter. Perhaps if there were three songs, not two. LOL But he also said maybe we could go on Vacation in December to Clearwater, FL, where there is some seminar I wouldn't have to go to. That would be nice, we've never been away together - except with friends on group vacations.

I need to do something about the spiders here, my house is a scene from Arachnophobia lately. Out my front door there are two webs, one on either side of the stairs that spread from the top of the steps to the trees, Sam said he saw a bug fall in there the other day and the spider come out and grab it then go back into hiding. I think he's got his own room in the basement or something, it's a serious web. They are all over actually, the webs. I sprayed down the back porch yesterday since there were webs all over it, between every rung. They are also taking over Aidens play areas...as well as the egg sacks being all over the place. Inside the house is no better...uggg...damn things. I know spiders eat other bugs and all and are a 'good thing' but when there are a million of them, it's a bit much.

Well I should get some breakfast and get some cleaning up done.

Starting over...

2007-08-27T09:21:00.000-04:00

Completely new blog here, again...well reason being is I've changed my email from AidensMommy to MaMahoney2 - I'm a Mom to 2 Mahoney's now...not just Aiden. So before I used to have to log out to update my blog and though it was a two second process, it was monotonous all the same. Therefore, new blog.

I've decided I need to start updating either every morning or evening, think I'll do it? No...me either. But I'm going to try.

A recap of the weekend - Saturday Sam went to a bar crawl, so Aiden, Conor and I went shopping starting at 11 am. It was so hot. I got some good deals at Burlington Coat Factory and then we went to the mall for a bit so Aiden could see the dogs and play in the playplace. He has a great time there, though the kid REALLY needs that stranger anxiety. He ran up to every adult there, climbed in most of their laps, jumped on some old woman (I think he scared the crap out of her). Most people he'd go up and say "Hi. How you doing?" He's like a mini Joey from friends and likes picking up adults or something. You'd think he got absolutely no attention from myself or his father. I just kept walking around, carrying Conor, apologizing to adults, telling Aiden to slow down and stop running over all the other kids...he went up to two little girls with beads in their hair and started playing with it - like beating the hair around, so embarrassing. I apologized to the girls and told them that he REALLY liked their hair. There was this cute little brown haired girl named Abbey there. I had noticed her eyeing Aiden for a while...then she started calling his name "Aiden, oh Aiden"(I had called him so many times I think people who worked at the stores nearby knew his name). And she started chasing him around, she was very ga-ga over him. She told me her name, that she had turned five the day before and that she liked Aiden. He is pretty cute. ;) We left the mall and both boys were asleep, so to keep cool a bit longer we went to Joanne fabric, Aiden asleep in the seat part of the stroller and Conor in his carseat in the bucket part...Everyone always comments how lucky I am that they both sleep when I shop, it's true I am...Aiden is very good at sleeping during shopping...hehe...and it helps that they take up the entire cart so I can only peruse, can't buy anything, no room for it! LOL

Yesterday we went to Lincoln Woods State Park. Aiden, Conor and I had been there on Friday but it was the first time Sam had been. We were there only for about two hours, but it was long enough. Unfortunately there was no running water yesterday, so that kind of skeeved me out. I mean I realize that there is a lot of going to the bathroom going on in that lake since there are so many kids in it, but that meant there was even more, since there was no using the bathrooms...gross! I never went into the water though, Aiden and Sam had a great time swimming around. :)

When we got back I had to return three shirts I bought on Saturday since they didn't fit, and Conor and Aiden don't make it easy for me to try things on. So I told Sam I wanted to go to the store, he wanted me to bring Conor and leave Aiden home with him, after a minor meltdown, it was agreed that yes, yes I do need a little bit of time alone. Ahhhh fun. Thankfully though I was able to go to BCF and return the three shirts and get three pair of jeans. I got AWESOME deals! Three pairs of jeans that retail over $250 for $36! Gotta love it. :) You have to really search there, but you are bound to find hidden gems every once in a while. I had no idea what size I was, so spent a lot of time trying things on, but thankfully found some that fit and the size wasn't too drastic to make me want to give up and go home. Hehe.

Last night I worked on the bedroom, put all my sweaters away, reorganized my dresser and packed away clothes that I just unpacked...hehe...I had pulled out all my non maternity clothes and put them away and then realized there was no way they would fit...so a foolish little cycle. I still need to finish cleaning up in there...along with the rest of the house...Not much longer until I host my first playgroup.

Last night Conor was up at 11:30, 1:15, and 5:00. Doesn't sound bad but the 1:15 was a killer...hehe. I got up and prepared Conor's bottle while he still was crying a bit in his room. So Sam got up with him, took the bottle and said he'd feed him...SWEET! I went back to bed...for 45 minutes...Sam came in and told me that he couldn't get him to eat...so I fed him his bottle, he finally went down at quarter after three. For some reason Conor refuses to eat for Sam. Not sure why that is...He didn't eat at the 5:00 either, three sips and he fell asleep for Sam - but the original issue there was he had wet through - so I got up with at 6:15 and he finally ate his bottle. He was up for three hours after that, he's starting to be awake more frequently...which is good...but I need to figure out how to keep him entertained, keep Aiden entertained, keep the house clean and keep myself Sane. HAHAHA...right. ..

Well, time to get some more done around the house. This morning I've done some laundry, cleaned the kitchen and that's it...it was kinda cool this morning, but it's heating up again and getting humid. Gotta look at my daily chores and figure out how to get back on track, I haven't been following my schedule since Conor was born.