D&D With The Candidates

So, to lighten the mood a little, I found this great website on one of my favorite forums. What would happen if the candidates for the presidency sat down to play Dungeons and Dragons with America as the Dungeon Master? It would probably go something like this.
Best to you all,
Amanda

Sad News From A Friend

I just found out in an e-mail that the father of one of our best college friends passed away this morning. It was actually a long time coming. His father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer around the beginning of this year, and his prognosis was not good. The fact that he lived through the summer was a true miracle. He was in home hospice care for the last few months of his life. Our friend and his mother took on the responsibility of caring for him at home, and I admire my friend greatly for his courage and steadfastness throughout the ordeal. I just got off the phone with my husband, who had also received the e-mail and immediately called him. Funeral arrangements have not been completed yet, but once we know time and location, we'll try to go and be there for our friend. B said that he seemed to be taking it very well along with the rest of his family. They had more time with their husband and father than they thought they would, which I think will help them through the grieving process. I couldn't imagine losing a parent at this stage in life, and my heart goes out to him and his family. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.
Namaste and best to you all,
Amanda

Happy Labor Day!

Our little family has had a fun three day weekend, so far (well, at least V and I have). The worst part about it is it's been B's first call weekend for his office. Because of the number of physicians in his group, he only has one weekend call a month. It just so happens that his first one ended up being scheduled for Labor Day weekend. While he was busy delivering babies and seeing patients in the office and hospital on Saturday and Sunday, V and I spent time with some college friends of ours. We went to a zoo on Saturday, and though it was very hot, he had a great time, especially when we made it to the little water park area. Really, it was just a bunch of fountains and fun structures that squirt water everywhere, but it's the perfect thing to have in the middle of a zoo in the summertime. Not only did the kids love it, but I saw many parents (me included) getting thankfully drenched by the cool water. I had an extra change of clothes for me, and I had put V in his swim trunks and swim shirt before we went to the zoo, so we could just walk right into the "splash zone" and have fun. Besides that, we had some fun checking out the exotic animals. The tiger was especially active that day, and he "talked" to all of the people observing him. It was one of the most amazing sounds I'd ever heard. I can see why one wouldn't want to encounter a tiger in the wild! After the zoo, V and I hung out with our friends and just had fun relaxing. Yesterday, our friends came to our house to try to spend time with B, as well. He was still on call and spent most of his time in the hospital trying to help a woman deliver her first baby. Our friends, V, and I ended up going to the mall, then crashed at our house for a bit, and then went back out for dinner. Luckily, B finished up at the hospital around the same time we finished dinner, so he was able to enjoy the take out we brought home and got some time with our friends before they left to go back to their house. B went into the hospital this morning to round on patients as he usually does when he's on-call the day before. It turns out that when a doctor in his practice is on-call for the entire weekend, they don't have to round on patients on Monday morning. He didn't discover this until he ran into the physician who took over call from him. So, he came back home earlier than expected this morning, and he has the rest of the day off! Yay! We've been lazing about in the family room watching TV and playing on the laptops. The only plans we've made for today are possibly setting up V's Elmo sprinkler outside, so he can play in the water, and later, we're going to a Labor Day get together hosted by one of the other physicians in B's office. I think it's supposed to be a welcoming party for us, but I'm not sure who all will be there. It should be fun, though! I'm looking forward to getting out and socializing a bit more, especially since I haven't seen B's colleagues in a long time. It'll be nice to get to know them and their families better. Well, I better get off the computer and get showered and ready for the day! Here are a few pics from our weekend. Hope you all have been having us much fun as us!
Best to you all,
Amanda

No Sleeping Baby Pics, Today. Sigh...

I hoped V would stay in his bed last night, but unfortunately, it didn't happen. I woke up in the middle of the night to him crying in the hallway. When I finally made it out of bed, he had managed to creep down the stairs to the main level of our house, which is where the formal living room, dining room, and kitchen are located. The house was completely dark, and I don't know how he didn't run into anything, but I was able to chase him down and bring him back upstairs. He was pretty scared. I don't think he realized B and I were in our bedroom, and he must have been looking for us somewhere else in the house. I tried to rock him in his room, but it didn't work. I kept falling asleep in the glider, and he tried to fall asleep, but he was just too restless. He wriggled out of my arms at one point and ran down the hall to our bedroom. So, I gave up and put him in bed with B and I. Unfortunately, he was still kind of awake and all over the bed between us. I got up to use the restroom, and when I came back to my side of the bed, V had taken over my pillow. I'd had enough at that point and decided to just let him sleep there, while I went back down the hall and fell asleep in the guest room. B woke me up after his alarm went off to let me know he was going to get ready for work, so I moved V over to B's side of the bed and hopped in myself. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew it was around 8:00 am, and I was pretty much awake. So, that was our night. I guess I was a little too hasty in my hopes that V would transition well into his room. It's going to take a lot longer than I expected, and I think we're going to have to put a baby gate up in his doorway, so he doesn't end up roaming the house in the middle of the night. We'll try again tonight and see what happens.
Hope you're all getting better sleep than us!
Amanda

Transitions, transitions...

It's 10:30 pm, and I just put our son to bed. His OWN bed. In his OWN room. That's right. On Tuesday night, my husband decided it was time for V to start sleeping on his own. It's been a long time coming. We've been co-sleeping since V was born, mostly out of necessity. B really needed his sleep during residency, and the easiest way to get it was to allow V to sleep in our bed with us, instead of putting him in his crib and letting him cry it out. It's not that we didn't try transitioning him to his crib. It's just that our son is one of the most determined babies I've ever met. There were a couple of times during B's residency when I tried to get V to sleep in his crib while B was on-call at the hospital. The one time V finally did fall asleep, he had cried for about 2 hours straight, and even though I went and checked on him every few minutes or so, there was no way to console him except to take him out of the crib. Once he was asleep, I decided to go to bed myself. That meant I had to walk by his crib over squeaky floorboards. He didn't stay asleep for very long, and I gave up and let him go to bed with me. I didn't try transitioning him after that, even though V kept getting bigger, and our queen-sized mattress seemed to be getting smaller with the three of us piling in together every night. Personally, I didn't mind co-sleeping, especially when I was nursing V. It made it very easy for me to sit up and breast feed him while we were in bed, and then, put him right back down next to me and go back to sleep. However, after he was weaned around 14 months, co-sleeping started to seem less desirable, mostly because V is a very light and restless sleeper, and he kicks, too! Honestly, I don't think I've slept through the night since before I got pregnant. That's almost three years of waking up at least once every single night for some reason or another. My husband and I have been ready for a long time to have our bed and our room back to ourselves, but we just couldn't find a way to do it without a lot of tears on both sides. Then, we moved to our new house. V still co-slept with us for a while, until our good friends loaned us their toddler bed. To make the transition easy on our son, we put the little bed next to my side of our queen bed. I started putting V in the toddler bed during his naps, and when that seemed to work almost immediately, we decided to try putting him in it at bed time. It wasn't a complete success. There were still nights when he would wake up wondering where he was and crying for us. He got to the point in the early mornings sometimes when he would just wake up and climb into bed with me. Then, B started practicing medicine at the beginning of August. We knew that he would be on-call at least once a week for his office, and though sometimes he would spend most of his call in the hospital, we also knew that there would be times when he would be home and get calls in the middle of the night, which would not only wake him up, but V and I as well. This past Tuesday happened to be one of those nights. B had planned on moving V's toddler bed into his room last weekend, but we were really too sick and lacked the energy to do anything about it. On Tuesday, when B got home, he decided that would be a good time for transitioning V. He knew he might not get very many calls, but he couldn't be absolutely sure he wouldn't get any at all. So down the hall the toddler bed went. V actually seemed a little excited about it because he already loves playing in his own room. It was like another toy for him! After dinner, he went into his room and climbed under his comforter and laid there while I read him a book. He was only playing, but it seemed like a good omen to me. When he finally fell asleep that evening, I went ahead and put him to bed in his room for the first time. B and I went to bed around 11:00. Then, about ten minutes later, B got a call from a patient who was in labor. Since it was already so late, he decided he would just sleep at the hospital after the delivery instead of coming back home and possibly getting called to work again. I fell asleep soon after he left. Then, around 2:30 am, I heard V crying. I went into his room and noticed his eyes were closed, but his pacifier had fallen out. Once paci was back in his mouth, he seemed to be totally asleep. I didn't hear anything from his room again until about 5:30 am. At that point, he was crying and sitting up in his bed, so I brought him to bed with me for the next couple of hours. I felt on the whole that his first night in his room went fairly well, and I hoped that it would only continue to get better for all of us. Unfortunately, that didn't happen last night. He was only in bed a couple of hours before I heard him crying. When I went to check on him, I found him on the floor in the hallway outside of his room. Rocking him and holding him just didn't work, and he ended up in bed with us for the rest of the night. None of us got any good sleep. V tossed and turned and kicked, and when B's alarm went off this morning, V woke up and just wouldn't go back to sleep, which was what I wanted to do! The rest of the day, we were both kind of tired, but V managed to have a good nap in his own bed this afternoon. I'm hoping tonight he decides his room is an okay place to sleep, and B and I can finally have our bed to ourselves! It may not happen, but hey, it never hurts to hope. And, now, to bed. If V's still in his room asleep tomorrow morning, I'll take a picture for proof and post it in celebration of another successful transition in his young life.
Best to you all, and good night!
Amanda

The Terrific Twos!!!

As my mommy friends Kristin and Beth (and countless other mommy bloggers) share all of the wonderful things their little kiddos are doing as they grow, I've decided to get in on the act and write down some little tidbits about our son, so I can remember them when he's a rebelling teenager. He's been two years old for almost an entire month, and it's amazing how much he's changed even in just the last few weeks. Here are some of the things he says and does that I just love:
--Every time he plays or hears music from a toy or the TV, he starts dancing. It's that wonderful "bouncing baby" kind of dancing, where his legs move his whole body up and down and side to side. He also has a great twist going on with his arms, sometimes!
--He sings now too, which brings joy to my heart, since I've loved to sing my whole life and wanted to pass that love on to him. He doesn't have a lot of words right now, but if you listen closely enough, you can make out "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and the "A, B, C" song through all of the great gibberish. Also, the theme song to "Blues Clues" is a favorite of his, complete with sign language. If he's watching the show, he'll even get into his "thinking chair" (the couch) at the right point in the song. He'll do most of the signs to "The Wheels On The Bus" when I sing it with him. He likes to sing with the "Yo Gabba Gabba" guitar we gave him for his birthday.
--The park is his favorite place to play. There's a great playground for 2-5 year olds close to our house. He's finally comfortable with going down the slides on his bottom AND all by himself! He also likes to play in the little house, dig in the sand and wood chips, and bounce on the "bumblebee", a riding toy.
--He likes to walk up and down stairs like a big boy, instead of crawling up and down them. Sometimes, he waits at the top or bottom, so he can ask for "helppee" (help, please) and take my hand. He would rather hold our hands and walk around while we're out shopping than sit in a cart. However, I'm not comfortable with that when it's just me and him, right now.
--V loves to have his daddy chase him around the island in the kitchen or around the larger circle of our foyer, living room, dining room, and kitchen. If B hides behind a corner and catches V off guard when he gets close, V jumps and laughs and laughs!
--V's favorite things to do at home are build with blocks, play basketball, color with crayons, play with trucks and trains, play with his Mr. Potato Head, and watch most everything on the Noggin channel (besides singing and dancing).
--He's starting to show a little pretend play ability, now. I caught him riding on one of his trucks yesterday and saying "vroom, vroom" as he pushed himself around the kitchen floor. If he picks up a baby doll or stuffed animal, he rocks it as if it were a real baby. Also, he likes to pull my wooden and plastic spoons out of drawers in the kitchen and "drum" on things like the oven!
--He loves for me to read to him, and I've caught him reading to himself a few times, too.
--He's starting to torment our cat now (like when he tries to sit on her), but for a while, he would go up to her, put his hands in her fur, and say "Ickle, ickle, ickle". At first, we thought he was saying her name, Julie. It took me a little while to figure out that he was actually trying to tickle her! He'll still try to tickle us, occasionally, and he loves to be tickled himself.
--He knows how to count to the number 2 (and possibly higher, though some of the numbers are still gibberish to me), and he will point to numbers and letters in books or on objects, like when he pointed to the letter "A" on our toothpaste tube, this morning. He can point to all of his facial features as well as his belly button, fingers, and toes when prompted. He knows the sounds some animals make, especially ducks, frogs, cows, dogs, sheep, and horses. He'll say the word "No", but he'll nod for "Yes". Also, he'll show you where he wants you, himself, or other things to be by tapping on something. For example, if he wants me to sit on the couch rather than in the chair, he'll go to the couch and slap the cushions until I get up and switch locations.
Here are his more recognizable words and phrases:
Mommy, Momma, or sometimes just, "MOM!"
Daddy (for a while, he would say something like "cacky")
Baby
Papaw and Nana (when prompted)
Up ("uppee", which I think means "up, please")
Help ("helppee", again, meaning "help, please")
More (with the sign for it)
Grapes ("bapes")
Apple
"Oh, man!" (I love this one. I'm sure he got it from me.)
"Wheee!"
"Jump!"
"One...Two...Go!" (He said this today before going down a slide at the park.)
Strawberries ("stawbees", one of his first harder words)
Cake! (There's no questioning this one!) ;)
Cookie
Chips
Quack (more like "cack, cack"), moo, ribbit (more like "ruh, ruh", like he's grunting), oink (sounds like his "ribbit"), woof (more like "woo, woo"), and neigh
"Choo, choo!" (for both the sound and the word "train")
"Vroom, vroom!"
"Chee!!!" ("Cheese!", every time the camera's turned on him, which is a lot!)
"Bye!"
If I say "Hello, Baby," sometimes he'll reply with something that sounds like "Hello, Momma." It melts my heart every time.
"Blues Clues" ("Bues Coos")
"Yo Gabba Gabba" ("Gabba")
And, finally, the dreaded "Why?". I don't know if he's just saying the word to hear it or actually asking the question. He does tend to say it a lot when he's told not to do something.
I'm sure that's not a comprehensive list, but it's what I can remember right now. I'll try to post more of his changes as they come to me and as he grows. Oh, and it's definitely not been all terrific. We've seen the "terrible twos" numerous times, already! I just hope by writing down all of these wonderful things about him, I'll kind of forget about the other stuff. ;)
Best to you all,
Amanda

Dinner In Under 30 Minutes? Sure! Why not?

I'm no Rachael Ray, but I do love it when I can find something to make for dinner that's (mostly) homemade AND takes less than a half an hour to finish. There are a lot of great cookbooks on my shelf full of easy, quick recipes. Sometimes, I get in a rut and make the same things a couple of times a month because I know my hubby and son will eat them. However, there are also those times when we all just want something new and different. Finding new recipes usually requires a search through my many cookbooks and then, questions to Hubby regarding what sounds good. I submit the following dinner recipe, which was utilized to great success last night. We don't eat a lot of lamb, mind you, due to cost and the novelty of the meat to our family. However, when a great lamb recipe comes my way, I really can't pass it up.

Apple-Glazed Lamb Chops
found in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book
Prep: 10 minutes
Broil: 7 minutes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup apple jelly
2 teaspoons prepared mustard or Dijon-style mustard
8 lamb loin chops, cut 1 inch thick
1/2 cup chopped apple (1/2 of a small)

1. For glaze, in a saucepan heat and stir jelly, mustard, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and dash pepper.
2. Trim fat from meat. Place chops on the unheated rack of a broiler pan. Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat for 7 to 11 minutes for medium doneness, turning and brushing with some jelly mixture once.
3. Stir chopped apple into remaining jelly mixture. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 1 minute. Serve with chops. Makes 4 servings.

Some notes on the recipe:
-I used 2 large shoulder chops instead of loin chops, since that's what I could find at the store. I cut each chop into thirds, and though they were a little on the small size, they worked out fine for us and became very tender after 10 minutes under the broiler.
-Apple jelly can be found in the jam/jelly aisle of the grocery store. I always knew there was something called apple butter, but never knew they made apple JELLY.
-I used Dijon mustard and a Red Delicious apple for the sauce, and I sprinkled the Red Delicious with fresh lemon juice to keep it from turning brown after it was chopped. Both worked extremely well.

For the side dishes, as the chops were broiling, I whipped up some Parmesan couscous, thanks to the quick cooking variety provided by Near East. It's like quick cooking rice, where you boil water with the accompanying spice mix, add the couscous, cover, and let it sit for 5 minutes. Also, a bag of Cascadian Farm organic frozen broccoli cuts was thrown into the microwave for four minutes, a little salt and pepper was added, and voila! Dinner was served. There were rave reviews from Hubby and, silently, from our son, who actually ate his meat along with everything else, something that rarely happens. (I noticed him eating the apples from the glaze first and thought he was going to skip the meat altogether. However, once one bite of lamb made it into his mouth, he quickly cleaned his plate. Yay!)

Hope this helps give you another answer to the question "What's for dinner, tonight?" I'll add more useful recipes to my blog as I come to them, later.
Have a great Sunday everyone, and I'll see ya when I see ya!
Amanda