One of Those Days

A little devil came in the middle of the night and took the place of my angel child. This devil decided it would be fun to only take a 25 minute nap this morning. He thought it would be delightful to throw all of the pots and pans (and lids) all over the kitchen floor over and over again. He agreed that an afternoon nap was in order, but only slept for slightly over an hour, before discovering that if he reached just far enough, he could turn on the light in his closet, which would send out light through the cracks in the door. Upon this discovery we decided to remove the lightbulb instead of moving the crib for fear that the latter would just encourage him to try to climb over to the light switch.

The devil wasn't finished after his nap. We went to a friend's house and planted some flowers. Then we made a quick to the store for some sunscreen and some lettuce. Screaming at the top of his lungs with a gigantic smile on his face made him happy, along with chewing on the outside of a cantaloupe. Gross.

What could a little demon accomplish in just thirty minutes before dinner? Try taking the house phone, playing with it, pretending to talk on it, and then throwing it in the cat water. He just stared and stared and stared as the electronic face started to flash and become jumbled. I fished it out, and it is now drying, but I doubt we will be able to salvage it.

Little devil child went to bed a bit early tonight. He didn't make a peep as I laid him in his crib. I hope J finds his way back tomorrow.

Shoe Fetish

J's newest thing is handing me my shoes. It doesn't matter where I am in the house. He will run and find my flip flops and insist that I put them on. Upside down. This is not always easy, as he has little patience and they must be put on immediately. Once I have the flip flops on, he races and grabs a pair of sandals. I haven't figured out if I am supposed to take off the flip flops or attempt to put the sandals on while wearing the flip flops. I've also tried wearing one sandal and one flip flop, but none of this makes him satisfied.

This evening the husband was mowing the lawn. J wanted to go outside and watch, so he ran to the back door and began pointing and grunting. I asked him if he wanted to go outside. Again, he pointed and grunted. Finally he decided that I was moving too slowly, so he huffed, bent down, grabbed my shoes and placed them at my feet. "Hurry up, Mom! We're missing the show and it's all your fault!" We immediately went outside and he was happy.

I wonder if all this means he will have a thing for heels and slingbacks when he gets older?

A Weekend of Yum!

My dearest cousin M gave me a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine. I decided that I just had to make the meal on the June cover and the dessert on the cover of the April issue. We are having our friends K and C, along with baby Z over to share some margaritas, stacked chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, and lemon meringue ice cream pie. I've been busy since last night getting things ready and I can't wait to put everything together. I'll post pics of the whole process and the results later.




Later....
Oh man, was it good! Dinner couldn't have been better. We were stuffed and had plenty left over. J loved the enchiladas and kept using the sign for more. The only thing he handed back to me was a large poblano pepper slice that B tried to feed him.

3 lbs tomatillos and jalapenos, Lots of cilantro, mint, parsley

Ta Da!


Dessert





Lemon curd on toasted pecan crust, Meringue on top of ice cream and lemon curd



Completed torched pie and a yummy slice!


The next morning....

Today we went to a barbecue at K and C's to help celebrate their new house and Memorial Day. I brought a Lemon Yogurt Cake- a Barefoot Contessa recipe recommended by S. This was also a multiple step process, but much easier. Cake batter, cook the cake, allow sugar and lemon juice to soak into cake, then glaze with confectioner's sugar and lemon juice. It was delicious!





That's probably all of the cooking I will do for awhile. Although we do have steaks waiting to be marinated in the fridge....

Clapping and Spices

A couple of things that have recently happened.

After months of prompting and getting nothing in return, J finally claps his hands. Yes, most children do this much earlier, but not J. He was holding out on purpose. Whenever I asked him to clap his hands, he would grab my hands and clap them together. Or, he would slap his knee. He stomped his feet on command with no problem, but he was not going to give mama what she wanted.

Last week, J fell on the lawn. He picked himself up, looked at his hands and clapped them together. I caught him and started cheering! Now he claps at everything. We sing, "If you're happy and you know it" and he does everything I say (clap, stomp, touch your head, shout hooray--he doesn't shout hooray, but he picks his hands up over his head like he is cheering). It's been a lot of fun. And, this is a great distraction when I am changing his diaper. For this week, anyway.

Our other favorite pasttime is playing with the spices. Our spice racks are on the inside of the pantry door. J loves to take them down and examine them and shake them all around. He can't take off lids yet, so we are safe. For now. His favorite bottles of spices are crushed red pepper and a mixed melange of peppercorns. He also likes to shake the bottle of shrimp and crab boil. The spices are great for stacking, placing in pots, moving over to the shelves on the pantry, and rearranging on different spice shelves. I think I need to look into getting him his own toy kitchen stuff. I don't mind him playing with the pots and pans, but the spices could get really messy one day. The only problem is that I don't think he will be fooled by something fake.

Mohawk

This was after the bath, but I can't figure out how to post these in order.

Just having some fun in the tub.

Oh well, I never pretended to know what I was doing!

It's been a bit of a grumpy day. Something must be in the air. Everyone I've talked to today has a cranky wee one.

The Music Man

J decided recently that he loves to listen to music. Correction. He has always enjoyed music, but now he has to have it on all the time. He loves to bop his head along. When he wants music to be played, he starts bopping his head back and forth. When the music shuts off and I look at him, he bops his head some more. If I didn't know him, I would seriously think he had some mental issues with all that bopping. He also dances all over the place and stomps his feet with these giant steps. He looks like he is traveling in slow motion as he turns in a circle and stomps. It's so cute.

His favorite music? Raffi. I'm seriously ready to burn the Raffi cds. We listen to "Baby Beluga" at least 10 times a day. Oh, and he also loves one that talks about shaking hands in any language. If you stick your hand out while this song is playing, he will run over and shake your hand. That makes all the Raffi a little more bearable.

What's that? Change the music? I've tried. For awhile we were able to sneak in a little bit of the Beatles and sometimes we can listen to Bruce Springsteen in the car (but only if it's tracks 5,6,7 on the Seeger sessions cd). Since we will no doubt argue about music later on in life, I'm not going to fight with this one while his only arsenal for arguing is "aaaahhhhhhh!" I'll just listen to that whale song one more time. I know, I know, what would I expect from a kid named J.

One Lucky Mama

I had a fabulous Mother's Day with my little family. Actually, it was pretty awesome. It started on Friday afternoon when B volunteered for a full afternoon of J watching and let my mom (who was visiting for the week) and I go to San Marcos to go shopping. One afternoon is not nearly enough time to get to all of the great outlets they have there, but it's a good start. We didn't let our time go to waste. I got some new tops for going out, two pairs of shoes, a skirt, wrapping paper/bags, gifts from Bath and Body Works for dental assistants at B's office, some Under Armour tops, and margarita glasses and mix as a babysitting gift for B. It was a successful trip. We stopped back in Austin to have dinner at 219 West, which has a fabulous, daily happy hour that includes 1/2 price appetizers and drinks. We're not talking your average potato skins here. We had spinach and arugula salad, seafood beignets, tequila shrimp scampi, and caprese burgers. Took the leftovers back for B. It was yummy. I love that place. It makes so much sense to do happy hour from 5-9. We just got our order in on time!

On Saturday we spent some time playing with J and then Mommy got to go sit in B's office while Daddy worked on a patient for about an hour. I needed to be there to make sure nothing happened and that she wouldn't come back and sue him for harassment or something. Isn't that awful? My mom and I then went to a local tea shop for a mother/daughter afternoon tea. It was just delightful. We were a little pressed for time because B had a soccer game and I got nervous when they started serving us soup (not traditional afternoon tea fare). But that was the only individual course. Everything else came out in a tiered tray. The scones were terrific, as was the lemon curd. The caramel tea we chose smelled so good and went perfectly with the dessert dishes. The winter white earl grey went well with the tea sandwiches. Got home in time for B to go to his game and play 95% of it. Shared margaritas and sat on the patio that evening. Good day.

Mother's Day was terrific. B let me sleep in a little bit, but J decided to sleep until 7:15 on his own (a whole hour later). I lazed around and listened to the two of them play and decided to make my presence known around 8 when I heard them on the back patio. J was playing with the hose, his sleeper unzippered, his diaper off (we were nursing a yucky diaper rash and he was airing out.) He got so excited when he saw me and the two of them came in to wish me a Happy Mother's Day. B left for a few minutes and then stole J and a laundry basket. He plopped him inside, along with a picture, a book, and card. The picture was a feet collage that he made with J the day before. I'll have to post a picture. I just love it. The book is called Fearless Women. It's actually a book about middle aged women, but B bought it for the title and the before stories, since that is where he sees me. It was such a sweet morning.

After J's nap, we headed to a beautiful brunch where the mimosas flowed along with anything else you wanted. We had a fabulous time. J loved eating all of the "kid" food (macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, fruit, turkey. We also let him have his first taste of ice cream. Needless to say, he loved it.) We spent about 2 hours at brunch, eating, taking turns letting J play host to other arriving guests, feeding J, and just being together. Such a good time.

We napped for a little while and then it was off to a baby shower. I know, you're probably thinking, "Who has a baby shower on Mother's Day" but my friend T is pregnant with her second child and never had a shower for her first. Her family is in Iowa, and most of our families do not live here either. So it was nice for us to get together for a few hours. It was at a spa, so I had a pedicure before the shower. My feet were three months overdue for maintenance (no time for that sort of thing anymore). It was great to chat, design onesies, and share mother stories. I am so lucky to have found such a great group of mama friends down here!

I am so lucky to be a mama to such a wonderful little boy. He is just an awesome kid with a great big, wonderful personality. I had a fabulous Mother's Day weekend and am so grateful for my little family.