Making a comeback

at least, that's what I hope to be doing. We have a plan: for me to morph into a stay-at-home mom (SAHM for those of you not hip to the mommy-blogger lingo) by October of this year, at the latest. nervous{squee} We're working on ways to save money and cut down on spending, including saving energy, less eating out, and family cloth. Totally kidding about that last one, guys. I don't mess around with the miracles of modern indoor plumbing and its accoutrements. Anywho, I hope to come back here more frequently, with more updates about life with toddler, both while working and while working my arse off at home. To remind myself, here are some of the things I had planned to write about, but didn't get to yet: - the burrito's feeding habits - recycling toddler toys - trying to get him to sit on his potty - buying him a baby doll - his love of babyfirst tv - his budding vocabulary, including his immense use of the Klingon language (entitled "From dog to doch") - climbing everything and using the windowsill as his own personal gymnastic beam In closing, here is a picture of the kid to keep you coming back for more:

Home Safety - "childproofing"

What, I haven't been here for months, you say? Pssh. I'll just ignore that for now and come back to it in another post... ::distracts you with glow sticks::

I pull out pages and dog-ear magazines to be saved for later - things I want, rooms and colors and fabrics I like, crafts to be made, recipes to test. Pinterest has been great for this, as now I can recycle those magazines and pages and my husband will not have to burn the house down (oh wait, it was me who threatened that...). I'm totally kidding - we will NOT burn the house down, lurking insurance people.

So I ran across one that I just had to write down, as i can't really pin an article, and secondly - I have no idea from what magazine it came. Oops.

Home Safety - here are the suggestions it makes:

ENTIRE HOUSE
Safety locks on windows
Outlet covers
Smoke & Carbon Monoxide detectors
Corner protectors & edge cushions
Cord Shorteners
TV/DVD guard
Safety gates
Tips - keep batteries and purses out of reach. Keep space heaters away from baby.

We don't have extra safety locks on the windows currently because it's winter and they're ALL locked regularly. The only ones he can get to would be our bedroom windows, and I won't leave him in there unsupervised unless they are locked.
Outlet covers, smoke & CO detectors - CHECK. And Hubs changed the batts a few weeks ago.
Corner protectors, edge cushions - the only thing I can see him running into that has a sharp corner is the TV stand, and there is currently a bag of clothes from Hubs' SIL living there. I can't really think of any other sharp edges in our house. We don't have a fireplace, so I don't need to block it off with 18 baby gates (you know I would).
Cord shorteners - the only place he is left unsupervised where there are cords is the living room, where we have a lamp on the end table, our computer chargers, and the phone plugged in. Since we're geniuses, we put a baby gate in front of the whole thing, lol. And, I remixed it with the help of some velcro straps to make NOTHING stick out.
TV/DVD guard - you're looking at her. Er, listening...reading...her?
Safety gate - (see cord shorteners.) We have one at the basement steps, because right now the heat is on and that door is open. We have one at the end table, and one at the top of the stairs which can be used either in the hall to keep him away from the bathroom, for when we have the space heater on there before we give him a bath (it gets shut off if he is in there), or can be used at the top of the stairs with a little finagling - has to be VERY tight.

NURSERY
Screw-in door stoppers to keep doors from closing and locking
Finger pinch guard on doors and toy boxes
Crib rail teether
Baby monitor

Since our house was built in 1925 (yes we've had his bloodwork done, no signs of lead), most of our doors don't actually close. Getting the dingy, dust-hoarding carpet out and Killz-ing the bathroom was a priority when we bought it, lol. I have a planer, but didn't get there yet. So, the screw-in door stoppers to keep them from locking? Not necessary; we don't have any doors that lock other than the front and back. And the story of the front door locking is for ANOTHER POST ENTIRELY.
As for finger-pinch guards? he's learning now to close doors, and how they work, and I am of the school that he should learn what happens and not have to keep a contraption on the door until all of our (present and future) kids are in college.
Our toy box is actually a Longaberger laundry basket which we re-purposed for that, so no shutting of any lids there!
Crib rail teether - He hasn't chewed on his crib yet, hopefully he won't! But if he does, I will revisit this topic then, because our crib has a ledge for a rail.
Baby monitor - check. Got that one before he was born. Still use it if he's playing in his room or taking a nap somewhere throughout the house.

KITCHEN
Cabinet locks & drawer latches
Appliance knob covers & latches
Stove & burner guards
Tips: Keep cleaning products and sharp objects out of reach. Keep a list of important and emergency numbers handy. Never seat baby on the counter. Turn pot handles to the back of the stove.

The only cabinet in our kitchen which is currently latched is the under-sink one which has the cleaning products, trash bags, and vases. All of the other cabinets (two total) either have tupperware, which I let him play in, much to my husband's chagrin - I think it's totally cute when he sits in the cabinet and bangs plastic lids on things and sees how many ice cube trays he can fit in my iced tea pitcher. he's a toddler. it makes him happy. Or, they contain his food, bibs, and cups, which is semi-impossible for him to open currently due to the construction of the cabinet (1925, remember?) and the type of handle - cup drawer pull. There are only two more drawers within his reach, the muffin tin/cookie sheet/cake pan drawer, which I'm *pretty sure* I'll hear the second he pulls something out, and the pot holders and bread drawer. No harm there unless he tries to smother himself in pot holders. Or pretzels and graham crackers, which are currently the only things in my bread drawer, because I'm THAT person who keeps her bread in the frig. And spells refrigerator frig for short.
But I digress. Appliance knob covers - all of my appliances have no knobs within his reach - controls are on the back of the stove, and it's a glass-top; dishwasher buttons are on the top of the door, and there's a lock.
Stove & burner guards - I will have to look into something like this for when he gets a little taller, because we do have a glass-top and if he goes to put his hands up there it may hurt him. Obviously I've been teaching him "HOT" and not to touch, but y'know...toddlers.
Emergency numbers - on the frig, and I have a "babysitters' info sheet" with a dry-erase marker too.

BATHROOM
Toilet latch
Bathtub soft spout cover
Nonskid tub mat
Cabinet locks
Childproof containers
Tip: Keep all medications securely out of baby's reach.

I'm going to check on toilet latches this week, and am getting a whale-y cover at tarjay as well. We don't need a nonskid tub mat yet, because I'm still using his tub - it's ginormous, but uses less water than filling the whole tub, and has an incline so I can rinse his head w/o getting water in his toddler eyeballs.
Cabinet locks - we only have one cabinet in our bathroom, and it is currently held closed with a jack-o'lantern hair tie. SOOOO, yes I need to put latches on that one.
We have all of our medications in the kitchen in our medicine box in the cabinet above the sink, so he won't be able to get to them for another year, and hopefully in that time I will have taught him that climbing on the counters is NOT GOOD and will get you a seat on the TIME-OUT BENCH and possibly NO DESSERT. Or something.

Well, hopefully you have enjoyed that foray into my shopping list for this week, heh heh.

Woot woot, dinner party

So I was pinning stuff (if you haven't heard of pinterest, search for it...and don't blame me), and I came across a fall menu for a dinner party. I was immediately intrigued and FB-messaged these girls I know and was all "hey, we haven't gotten together lately...whatcha doin this weekend?" sly, right?

And of course one of them is on pinterest so she was enjoying my dinner party pins, which included this little gem here. I was perusing the menu as well, which included:

Fig and Goat Cheese Bruschetta

Grilled Chicken and Pesto Farfalle

Chardonnay

Caramel-Apple Cheesecake

Coffee, tea

Oh God...it was like a fallgasm. And only after I pinned and read and re-read the recipe for the chicken and pesto farfalle did I realize...I made it already. In 2008.

See?

Hmm. Well at least I know it's good! So I volunteered to do the pasta and dessert, and the ladies volunteered to fill in the rest. Mags baked bread (we had the leftover bread tonight, it made our hamburger helper blush), and Lars came packing heat with some fan-freaking-tastic cheese with roasted vegetables in the cheese - yeah, I know, I thought cheese was only for hiding pills you want the dog to take too - and scallops with an apple-cider reduction. I think. She basically just waved her hands in the kitchen and things danced and sang like in Beauty and the Beast. I heart my friends.

Anyway, I digress - to the cheesecake:

Caramel-Apple Cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (about 8 cookie sheets)
1 tablespoon egg white
1 tablespoon water
Cooking spray
{I did not measure the egg white, and added too much, and ended up coating a spoon with butter and pressing my crust down that way because it stuck to my fingers}

Cheesecake:
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup light sour cream
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 (8-ounce) blocks 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1 (8-ounce) block fat-free cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs

Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons half-and-half
1 3/4 cups thinly sliced peeled Granny Smith apple (about 8 ounces)
Dash of nutmeg
{and I totally forgot the half-and-half too...so I substituted my coffee creamer}

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. To prepare crust, combine the first 3 ingredients in a bowl; toss with a fork until moist. Press mixture lightly into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 6 minutes. Remove from oven; cool on a wire rack. Wrap outside of pan with a double layer of foil. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.
3. To prepare cheesecake, place 1 3/4 cups sugar and next 7 ingredients (through fat-free cream cheese) in food processor; process until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time; process until blended. Pour cheese mixture into prepared pan. Place springform pan in a large roasting pan; add hot water to larger pan to a depth of 1 inch.
4. Bake at 325° for 1 hour or until cheesecake center barely moves when pan is touched. Remove from oven; let stand in water bath 10 minutes. Run a knife around outside edge of cheesecake. Remove pan from water bath; cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 8 hours.
5. To prepare topping, combine 1/3 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons water, and lemon juice in a small, heavy saucepan; cook over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Cook 4 minutes or until golden (do not stir). Remove from heat. Add butter to pan; gently stir until butter melts. Stir in half-and-half. Cool slightly.
6. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add apple to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in sugar mixture and nutmeg. Serve topping with cheesecake.




I used my mom's trick instead of the water bath - bake as usual, after one hour, turn the oven off, put a stick in the oven door, and let sit for one hour. And of course, there was a crack down the middle...but I covered it with not-quite-caramelized apples so it was all good.

Verdict:

Pumpkin cookies!

yay for baking again!

now, let's see...for what did I make this glorious recipe...??? I think it may have been just for fun.
oh wait - bake sale!

I bought a Taste of Home fall baking catalog/book/wasteofmoney last month at the store and bookmarked recipes that looked good. I failed to realize that the pumpkin cookies I marked were full of *gasp* raisins. And as you all know, they are just humiliated grapes.

So, I looked for a new one. And I found...these babies! They did the trick. Next time, however, I may look for something that features the pumpkin flavor more prominently. And I totally did not make them as cute as the spirally frosting picture.



but they still get...

Baby's First Fever

Two weeks ago, we thought the burrito had a cold. When the mucus in the corner of his eye got worse, we took him into the pedi - pinkeye. UGH. And eyedrops, double ugh. We put them in when he was sleeping or otherwise distracted, 3x/day. He had a 7-day round, so it wasn't too horrible. But add that to the cough?

She had given us a script for additional meds in case the cough got worse...and after bringing him back to bed with us and hearing him cough two nights, we filled it. So it was meds 2x/day in addition to the drops for a while!

His cough let up some, and I recall saying something at work about this being the second time he was really ill (barring the baby cold earlier this year) since he was born - which I was thankful for, since I know some kids who have constant ear infections, sinus problems, breathing problems, etc.

And then? The universe heard. And sent me this weekend! Hubs worked, and I had a dinner party planned with friends, so I was doing errands and such. When we got home on Saturday, he was still warm, so I took his temperature, and around noon on Saturday he was at 100.3. Niiiice. First fever! Administered acetaminophin, made dinner, he ate like a pig, and his temp went down a little.

Sunday? temp went up to 103 in the afternoon, just in time for my friends to get there. Hubs called the on-call pedi, and they said in babies sometimes the degree of fever is less important than the symptoms. He was eating, drinking, and filling diapers normally, so we continued with the tylenol and fed and watered him normally.

Of course, this morning, he was at 100.2, and I called daycare and heard something about 101 or higher, so I thought he was good to go. We got all packed up and walked in, only to be told that I misheard the policy and they won't take them until they have 24 hours fever-free. Crap. And I can tell he was upset walking back out, because he gets so excited going in. Having the daycare lady say that you can see it in his eyes, and the he looks awful didn't help either.

I wanted to keep him home this morning, but I didn't want to be influenced by my mommy-instinct to stay home, curl up and cuddle the kid. I know they're always worse in the AM too. And, I'm out of sick days at work. I just felt awful when she said that. So, the kid is currently passed out on the floor. He's been sleeping for over 2 hours now, and his head feels normal and not hot at all, so I'm hoping the sleeping is doing its job and the fever has broken.

First Haircut!

We took the burrito for his first haircut today! I had been putting if off, because 1) there's no way he's that old and 2) his curls were so cuuuuuuuute. But necessity won over the curls - we had been pushing his hair out of his eyes for weeks, and the back of his hair was touching his collar (gasp! not that! says my boot-camp-loving husband)...so I caved.


We took him to a place about four blocks from our house (so lucky to live in an area that has a "main street" with businesses like this!) that specializes in kid's cuts. It's called...wait for it...Kids Cuts. They have a couple chairs that are of varying height and design - burrito's had a wheel on the front. I was surprised, he was kept amused by that until almost the end of the haircut! We just had it trimmed, as I'm not a fan of buzzing little ones, and I love his hair. Towards the end when it was time to bring out the clippers he was getting a bit fussy, so his daddy held him for the clipper portion of the cut. He did great overall. And he looks like such a little boy now. *sniff*

such a head of hair.

Look, everyone!

all done! with new little-boy hair!

first birthday pictures

For your viewing pleasure!

The burrito the day before his party, with his present from his uncle, a new John Deere lawn mower:
















At his party, "opening" his presents - or, watching the other kids open them. And, checking out a toy with daddy.
 
 



 













The presentation of the cake: momma and dada blew out the candle.

 Time for cake!!