What's in your stuffing?

Thanksgiving is around the corner and the grocery stores will be packed with people over the next few days. Guess how many grocery trips we'll make leading up to the big feasting day? No fewer than 5 is my guess.

Between forgetting stuff and limitation of our cold food storage, many trips are in store.

In an effort to limit this I always make my shopping lists. I love a good list to calm the chaos in my head but for some reason this year I've stalled out. I'm tired, I'm intimidated by all that needs to happen (cleaning, everyday stuff, entertaining guests, mom's birthday, etc), and I'm undecided on a few things like....THE STUFFING!

This is the first Thanksgiving in a long time that I'm cooking the traditional Turkey dinner for a crowd. Usually we have beef as we are also celebrating my parent's Birthdays so I cook whatever my dad wants which is always beef, and I'll cook a mini thanksgiving meal for just my small family at some point during the week. I always make the standard celery stuffing which is very tasty but I always hear about other bread stuffings so many other families have so I may veer off my usual path this year and looking for ideas. I've had oyster stuffing and some with sausage which the person who made it loved sooo much but I didn't really, preferring the kinda boring but yummy celery laden variety.

What's in your family's stuffing?

Inconsolable

LilMiss has night terrors, day terrors and anything in between terrors. It happens at night and sometimes during the day when she wakes(or doesn't really wake) from a nap.

Have any of you found triggers when/if your kids had night terrors?

The other night she appeared hot so I changed her jammies while she kicked and screamed, and once she cooled down she passed right out and was out the rest of the night.

Today as she was screaming in my ear after waking up too early from a nap and she suddenly said she had to pee, continued to scream with snot and saliva dripping from her face while on the potty, and after getting up she said she wanted some banana bread and magically she was all better.

I've read some people say TV will cause them, others say any change can be a trigger for their kids.  Admittedly she watched a lot of videos today and her Grandma is visiting so a few things have shifted a bunch this week.  Who knows.  Those little developing brains keep us on our toes.

2.5 going on 13

'Super cute', 'Sweet', 'Adorable', 'Awesome'; All words I regularly gush when I'm talking about LilMiss.

And in the last few weeks I have added 'cheeky' and 'ornery'.

She's still a loving sweet girl but man the tantrums, the blatant rule breaking, the laughing when mommy is at her wits end, the WHINING, the repetitively asking for something over and over again, the refusal to share. Ahhhh

On top of it all, we're potty training and I really really want to be all cool and supportive with accidents but man at the end of the day when everyone is tired and it's past LDs bedtime and he's screaming, I do not always keep my cool. Especially when I find panties with poop in them from an earlier accident (cool lost on the person who left them there not the one who pooped in them). And then tonight with the 3rd pee accident of the day as she pee's in the closet. Maybe I was disappointed as we had had no accidents for a week even during the night and naps. I got cocky. I seem to loose it more with regards to her fighting hand washing. That's not an accident. That's being 2. I hate when I loose my cool. Ugh the guilt.

I am not looking forward to 3 or 13. Can I get a patience upgrade please?

Any Progress is Progress

We've made some good progress on the Dump Zone aka office recovery aka finding a guest room in the land of clutter. And my parents said we can borrow a new queen bed they just bought for their guest room so we don't have to make any quick decisions on a bed/sofa bed when we think we may need to move our bedroom assignments around soon or move all together. And I'm sure The Guests will enjoy that bed more than a sofa bed. Score!

We are so deadline driven. We've been wanting to tackle that office for a while, so it's nice to have a tangible deadline. Of course we've cleaned/organized/purged in there before but we seem to just mess it up again.
Man we really need less stuff.

"Dealing" with the Dump Zone

Part of preparing for The Guests includes cleaning up our dump zone of a home office and figuring out how to make it a guest room for at least 2 adults, and maybe one young lady but that's likely pushing it.

By dump zone I mean, anything we have in the house we don't want the kid to get into, it goes in there. Any papers to be filed or to be dealt with in some way... in it goes. boxes and boxes of networking cables, old routers, hard drives, all things computery really, there's a mess of it. Crafty/sewing/artsy stuff, I'm not sure where but its all in there. The cat litter box? it's in there too.

Total dump zone.  Even if there is a drawer for a specific type of item that drawer is a mess or overflowing so you can't really close it.  There is a lot of stuff that has been shoved into the closet or in cabinets and mushed so a lot of ruined stuff too which is painful to see.

Eric and I have an issue where we can't just buy one or a few of something we think we'll want more of. No, that would be smart. We buy a bunch of something or one of every color just in case. Or a sampling of different brands to see what we like best, most of the time with the intention of doing returns. but instead, it all just ends up in the office or in the garage/attic (the other dump zone).  Sigh.  TOO MUCH STUFF!

My "desk"

So "dealing" with the mess is what we've been doing in the brief moments when both kids are occupied, happy or napping which doesn't happen often or for long periods of time.  At the moment I really want to just throw it all out.

Don't even ask me what The Guests will be sleeping on once we make the space.  That's still TBD. ugh

A Call for Meal Ideas

I have house guests for the next 2 weeks. One week is just adding my Mother In Law to the chaos here but for the other week we also have Eric's sister's family staying with us. That's 3 more adults, and 2 girls (13 and 8). Never mind the a accommodations/bathroom/transportation resources part and ending the visit all happy and still family....how am I going to feed everyone?

I imagine every other day grocery trips as I only have a side by side fridge and a chest freezer (currently empty and unplugged).

As a fun bonus, the girls are all picky eaters and Eric's sister prefers no pork (which is the main meat in this house), and any other meat be sourced from farms practicing free range, organic, humane husbandry and really she and her mom prefer vegetarian or fish based meals. Oh yea, and I'm not rich either.

Please pass on any ideas you have for easy to prepare meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner!). And also prep ahead type stuff. I have almost a week of MIL help before the rest arrive so she can at least entertain the baby (I hope) while I do as much prep stuff as I can. Tough part is LilMiss is going to want to help the whole time too. Weee

I don't even want to think about the dishes. OMG
Thanks!

The One With No Title because I'm too tired

Super short post today. I am EXHAUSTED and LilMiss threw an epic fit when Eric tried to read her stories instead of me. Man this MAMA everything thing is heartbreaking. Do we "give in" and give her what she wants? So hard this one. Doesn't help there was almost no nap today and very little eaten and it was an hour past her bedtime.

2am Update: she just woke up and screamed for what felt like a very long time. I assumed Eric was with her but no. So I just got her back to sleep and then LD was crying as I got back to my room.
I shall go cry now too.

Today was a lovely day to visit friends we haven't seen since I was pregnant with LilMiss. It was great watching our kids play and LilMiss was introduced to the world of Disney Fairy movies and legos. We're in trouble.

It was nap time for the puppy and LD.

And away goes $ down the drain

We rent.
Our landlord gives little care to our costs to live here.
Insulation is little to none.
Windows are old and drafty.
The water heater is electric.

I turned on the space heater in my room weeks ago since I'm back here with the baby and it's the worst in terms of heat retention. But last night the central heating has been turned on and likely will not turn off for a few months.

Oh how I want to move.

MAMA!!!!!!!

LilMiss has become exceptionally clingy to me lately. I expected it after giving birth to her brother but now, 3 month later it is hitting hard.

"Do you want to go to the playground with daddy or go with me..."
"Go with you Mama!"
"But you don't know what I'm doing"
"GO WITH YOU!" And the tears and foot stomping begin.

Anytime I'm doing something not involving LD, "Help you Mama? I want to help you!"

And lately I've been getting LD to bed earlier so I can be a part of her bedtime but it seems to have backfired as now she doesn't want me to leave...as in she wants me to sleep with her. And the screaming to the point of gagging begins.

Last week I could tell her "Mommy is going to bed give me snuggles!" And she'd run to me and hug and kiss me and say "Night! See you morning!" And then run back to her daddy for her bedtime routine of teeth and hair brushing, stories and songs.

She's been waking in the middle of the night screaming for me. Waking from naps screaming for me. Has a tantrum if I'm not the one making her a snack or a meal.

It's kind of awesome to be so needed/wanted and then again ....

Quick Exit

For the last week or two (I honestly don't remember) we said goodbye to diapers for LilMiss and went cold turkey to panties. Oh yea, that's right. I'm talking potty training!

She'd been using her potty off and on for about 6months but nothing consistent and we weren't pushing it. Just the occasional prompting. We certainly didn't think we'd be want of sound mind to deal with a newly potty trained kid when we were bringing home a newborn so we put it off.

Then more and more kids in our playgroup started doing it and many with some serious and quick success so we went for it and really she was ready. There are often accidents when we're out but at home she's 100% solid.

Today was of course no exception to that rule. After dance class, playing in the park and then lunch out a kids gotta go but she's so afraid of public bathrooms she just won't do it. Eric tried. But while they were at a bookstore, while I was having lunch with co-workers, it happened. Enough to fill her shoes and leave a puddle. "Daddy I'm wet and cold!" She said and Eric looked down to see this puddle an he just grabbed her and ran. (Hand meet head).

He swears it was a teeny tiny puddle. But uh. Ewww! (Plus now he's wet too since he picked her up)

I've learned to bring at least 2 changes for her but now I am packing shirts for him too.

Tough Neighborly Situation

So our neighbors, whose dog was attacked by a raccoon, have gone to the city to complain about our backyard being overgrown and a harbor for rodents and the city has fined us. There are blackberries growing along the fence mixed with invasively growing ferns. The city fined us without seeing it.

Um yea. Thanks. Hope your dog is ok. Glad we offered to help during the attack and after and were willing to put ourselves in danger.

This is the 3rd time they've had the city fine us for various yard related things. We are renters with a landlord who doesn't care about the property to do anything to help deal with the wildly unmanageable and fast growing invasive weeds in the front and the invasive ferns and blackberries in back. We don't want to put too much $ into this place but are expected to "maintain" it. How do you maintain weeds?

We've put mulch in the front to deal with the lack of lawn/weed patch but there is no match for the weed growth once the rain starts. It's mainly oxalis which looks like clover and you can't really mow it and it puts up flower stocks which do grow high enough to be considered by the city to be too tall. Trouble is if you mow it it looks even worse. And oxalis cannot be removed without removing like a foot deep of soil and its everywhere. Drop one little bulbette and you've still got them. There was only dirt there during the oxalis' dormant period (summer/fall) so I'd hope the mulch would be an improvement. Alas the neighbor still complains the landlord should put in a lawn. I don't think they have any idea the effort/$ involved in that.

We know we need to cut back the blackberries now that the season is over but need to retrieve the chainsaw from my parents. We were just discussing when we could do this a few days ago. But now it stings that someone is making us do it RIGHT NOW!

They must be blaming us for the raccoons and therefore the attack. There are no raccoons in the small blackberry thicket. Maybe a cat but no Raccoons. Sigh.

Before we moved in I told Eric I was concerned about maintaining the yard but he assured me it would be fine. Easy stuff. I don't think he banked on the effort kid care takes and having neighbors who care enough to call the city regularly. Also...Eric likes the weeds as opposed to bare dirt.
He now says....maybe a barren yard of grass would be easier to maintain. Sigh sigh sigh.

Explaining democracy to a 2.5 year old

My LilMiss loves her some TV. We limit her programming choices more than we limit the amount of it currently. One of her new favorite shows is 'Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood'. It is a spinoff of Mister Rodgers Neighborhood. Kind of a continuation of the characters in the land of make believe as seen through their kids, yes Lady Elaine has a daughter! It's pretty adorable.

Very timely, last week's episode was on voting. We've used their catchy tunes and story lines to attempt to explain the process to LilMiss. She still doesn't get that just because you voted for A doesn't mean A will win the vote. She's 2, it's still all about her and what she wants when she wants it. We'll keep working on the concept.

Today we talked more about it and that Mommy and Daddy were going to go vote on a very important contest. Eric described the president as the mommy or daddy of the country we live in. I chuckled only because I had tried explaining it earlier and just said its a very important person who has to makes lots of decisions and choices. She was more focusing that she'd get to go with us.

Today came and the time got going by really fast . Getting up late, Playgroup in the morning, groceries and lunch, nap, dinner and bam we're speed walking to the polls with 2 kids with 50minutes until the polls close.

I showed her the ballot machines and having to pick boxes representing my choices but she wanted to help and that got tricky. Instead it was time to run around outside with Daddy :)

In the end, we voted and she got an evening walk and maybe some of the stuff going on stuck in her spongy head. We'll see how it goes next time we ask her to make choices or she and her friends want to do different things.

Poor Pup

I had thought of a number of lovely topics or stories to write about for today but my brain and heart are now hurting for my neighbors, whose blind sweet dog was just attacked by a raccoon. By the sounds of it, the raccoon did not let go for quite a few minutes.

Eric tried to help (and ripped the chain lock off our door in the rush to assist) but he was torn if he should run into/through the neighbors house without warning.

Elizabeth came running to me saying she was scared and at one point hid under the table.

Not thinking, I ran outside holding the baby and handed him off to Eric as if I could somehow help more. Of course then realizing I just left my scared daughter hiding under the table by herself.

Cosmo, my cat who hasn't been feeling well today and I thought I'd be taking him to the emergency vet tonight, seemed to perk up with the excitement and then proceeded to freak out along with the rest of us, also cowering under the table.

They took the dog to the emergency vet. I just hope he's ok.

Time for some introductions

Since it's been a while since I posted and I had forgotten my daughter's pseudonym so I went back and read some old posts. LilMiss. That's right. I'll try to remember that. Of course I also just put up her picture which I don't remember if I had some rule against doing...oh well.

On to introducing our new member of the family and the little guy currently asleep on my chest/lap ( I really should put him down in his bed but he's just so warm and cuddly!). In writing, I refer to him as LD, short for 'Little Dude'. I called him this in utero so it has just stuck. We learned he was a he at my 13week ultrasound and confirmed at the 18 week ultrasound and he's been Little Dude ever since, well except to LilMiss who refers to him as 'Baby Brother'. We're a very literal family (her stuffed animals are also named Kitty, Little Bear, Big Brown Bear, Pig, Blue Dog.... You get the idea)

LD is actually named after our siblings which we didn't have intentions of doing but when you get handed a deadline of "I need the birth certificate form filled out in 30minutes" when we thought we had a few more days we kind of panicked. This idea of naming him after my brother and Eric's sister had been bounced around for a while but we couldn't settle until the deadline hit. Naming your kid after a sibling seemed odd and confusing at first but now it just makes sense for him. I think it also helps us since we live far from our siblings and miss them both. Brings them a little closer.

LilMiss and LD's first meeting

Been Busy

Umm yea. So I've been busy.

My baby girl is now 2.5years old and I had a baby boy who is now 3months. Crazy!

Trying Again

I've missed Blogging. There I said it. I continue to read the exact same blogs I've read for years...let's say 6 or so years. I've added very few to my feed reader since the hey day of blogging but I still enjoy how you can really get a sense of who a person is and what they are dealing with in a post longer than a Tweet or Facebook update (granted some of my friends really need to stop with the book length status updates!). Of those few blogs I follow, even fewer are still actively updated. It's just not the thing to do anymore, or life gets busy, or more that social media has just changed a lot in the last 5 years.

I still think up post ideas, though not nearly as frequently as i once did, but now have even less time to sit and write. A few years ago I slowed down with my own blogging and moved over to Facebook claiming that was all I had time for. Then onto Twitter because sometimes my brain is chatty and I want to share little things too frequently for Facebook but still no chunks of time for writing a post (for some reason a blog post must be long and well planned and thought out in my head) . And then came Instagram because ...well the babies and food were the most exciting things going on in my world since I work too much and it's easier to share those things with photos. And that brings me to today when I have some time on my hands in the middle of the night when there is little to photograph in the dark and Twitter goes silent and Facebook? Well I still just don't have much to share there ... Not sure why.

It's November again and I figure I'll try out NaBloPoMo one more time. What the hell. Why not. And just like the procrastinator/always late person I am, I am starting on day 2.

Hi blogosphere. Did you miss me? Heh. Hello? Anyone still out there?

Testing Testing

This is a test to see if this thing is still alive and kicking because I have been missing the blog. Missing writing. Missing reflecting. Missing remembering! And darn it, I miss my peeps too. I'm tired of just lurking. I'm ready to participate again.