Most days, when I think "Oh, I should run to the store", it really could go either way. Usually we can make due for another day if I don't feel like going. But today? The cats are out of food. There are three little kibbles left in their bowl and when I threw in a piece of turkey lunchmeat to tide them over this morning, they practically laughed at me.

Argh.

So I will be bundling Ben up and bundling myself up and off to the store we will go. And I have a short window of time to do this too, because, eventually, Neurotic Cat will get angry that there is no food and pee/poop in/on something that is NOT the litter box. Luckily, his punishment of choice lately has been the basement bathtub or just outside of the litterbox on the laundry room floor. (a few years ago, it was our BED, which, I'm sure I do not have to tell you, is NOT cool) He is truly an irritatingly vengeful cat.

Mean Cat will just meow loudly at me all morning and keep ramming his head into my leg, followed by the ceremonial biting of the ankle, which really hurts. Then he will go off somewhere and claw something... lately it has been the new airplane rug in Ben's bedroom. That REALLY ticks me off.

These cats used to have real names... (Milo - Neurotic Cat, Anakin - Mean Cat (appropriate that he has Darth Vader's name, no?)
But it's way more fun to call them NC and MC. I'm pretty sure they already hate me anyway since two years ago when I brought Ben home and screwed with their happy feline world.

It is bitterly cold outside... so Ben and I are making no plans to leave the house today. It's cold enough inside! I don't really want to experience the OUTSIDE.

We've played with the rice box, jumped off the chair onto some cushions on the floor, played with toys, listened to music, had a snack... I'm quickly running out of entertainment ideas though which means it's almost naptime. ;)

Why can't it just be WARM!?

**update** 1:30 and naptime has still not commenced. We have fingerpainted, watched tv, played in his room and had lunch.
*I* am tired. Why is he not tired?

...an hour (or more!) of toddler joy!

Thanks to Jane for the box o' rice idea!

Our annual passes to the aquarium are up in April, so we thought today would be as good as any for quick trip to see the latest addition to the place. It's an Australian theme...

We thought it would be much more interesting than it was. It was really small! (they worked on it for something like two years)
Benjamin enjoyed it though... he just pressed his nose against the big tanks and said "Nemo! Nemo! DeeDo! (Dory)" over and over...



After that, we did a quick run-through of the rest of the aquarium. It was pretty crowded, so we didn't see mcuh or stay very long. The anemones were a big hit though.


I stopped to take the picture and Tom and Ben walked off. I turned around and grabbed the arm of some strange man thinking he was Tom. That was awkward. Gah.

Then we had lunch at Johnny Rockets and stopped for canollis at the Vaccaro's counter in Harborplace. Do you know that they also have canolli CAKE?! (drool) When we sat down to eat them outside, I tossed one of Ben's crackers onto the ground just to see if any birds would come over so Ben could see them.
BOY did they come. This picture doesn't even do justice to the sheer number of birds that came for that one cracker.


We were instantly surrounded and they were even hovering in front of us. I gave Ben a cracker to throw, but he wasn't quick enough and a seagull tried to take off his finger. Note to self: don't do that again.

So we had a fun day... I have spent the rest of the day trying to put my blog back in order after the great template apocolypse of 2006.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.


No. They. Haven't. Stop LYING to me!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Um NO they haven't, Haloscan. You lie!

My comments still don't work and lots of my sidebar stuff is missing... but at least I'm somewhat presentable. Sheesh.

Yeah. Oops. I guess I'll be working on this template tonight. Ugh. For now, excuse the mess.

I have a self-imposed policy in my house against buying cookies/cake/pie/anything sweet at the store. It's for my own good because my weakness for these things is frankly beyond help, especially if they have chocolate as an ingredient and it's at the "end of the month", so to speak. (We also don't buy chips because Tom has THAT affliction... he'll eat the whole bag in two days if they are around!)

Ask my husband. On more than one ocassion, he has gone to grab a cookie or something after dinner only to have me say, "Ooo.... yeah... sorry... I ate them all."

So the deal is, if we are going to have cookies/cake/pie/anything sweet in the house, it has to be homemade. Then at least I have to work for it.

Today, I got a craving for M&M cookies. Hopefully there will still be some left when Tom gets home. :

Talking more. Getting into more trouble. Growing out of his clothes. Throwing more tantrums. Listening a little better. Can be bribed to do almost anything with an M&M. Yep. That about sums it up this month.

To borrow a term coined by Jen's mom, Ben has been taken over by an imp. He is not himself today. I offer the following as evidence...

Gymboree... normally the kid gleefully participates in the entire class. He goes along with whatever imaginary task is the theme of the day. (Today it was "mailman day" and they had to deliver "mail" and boxes all over the place) Today, all he wanted to do was hold two pieces of "mail" and roll around on one of the mats. He wanted nothing to do with circle time, nothing to do with the parachute and if I tried to engage him in said activities, he did that "limp body" toddler trick and slipped right out of my arms. If I forced the issue, he screamed his head off.
It was all very weird. He normally LOVES parachute time with the bubbles and the singing. LOVES it. Not today. :(

As I was putting his shoes on to leave, he stuck his finger in his evil ear (the one that keeps getting infected) and said "Owee" a few times.

WE WERE JUST AT THE PEDIATRICIAN'S OFFICE YESTERDAY! They did a fluid check with the elctronic machine thingy and the doctor looked in his ears with the scope and said everything looked fine. COuld he REALLY have another infection this quickly?

OR...

Does he know that with medicine he gets M&M's and am I being played?

I doubt that... I mean, a toddler wouldn't make up that his ear hurts... but I have to wonder.

For the moment, I am just watching and waiting.

The password is coming back later today. Info will be the same as before. :)

That wonderful Naptime Gourmet website has come through for me again. ;) Imagine that.

We're having this tonight but I'm apparently missing a few brain cells today because I forgot to put it in the crockpot at noon when I was supposed to. So I'll be revising the recipe for the skillet, which is fine, because my skillet rocks the kitchen, yo.

Don't forget to visit and contribute to our quickly growing collection! Gosh, I'm annoying. ;P

Flurries... small ones. Not a blizzard. No need to slam on your brakes or drive 12 miles an hour on 695. Really. Honest. And this is coming from a total snow-driving phobic.

Just returned from taking Benjamin to a doctor's appointment to check his ears. All is well in that department AND I think he's slowly warming up to the doctor. The screaming was minimal today and he was pretty quickly consolable. It's really amazing how many things you can bribe a kid to do with a handful of M&M's.

Afterward, we stopped at the store and when I asked him about the doctor's appointment while we were walking, he said, "M?" and then said "ahhh" and opened his mouth wide (like the doctor asked him to do). This candy is magical, I tell you.

Not so much different from every other day. But I was lacking a good title for this post.

This morning we tried out a Gymboree music class. Let me tell you people, Gymboree music kicks Kindermusik's butt all over toddlerland. Ben LOVED the class and was into it so much that he didn't even notice all of the normal Gymboree climby stuff he wasn't allowed on today that he has been allowed on every other time we've gone there. (for our Play class) He rocked out with some crazy drum and morocca skills and then danced to some big band music. Sadly, he's only a week shy of being too old to be in that particular class; and the next level music class there may or may not ever get started. Probably a good thing since after purchasing the new BAV (see comments on last post for acronym explanation), we are temporarily po'. Very po'. We will cotinue to be po' until April 1 when we rid ourselves of the third car payment a.k.a. the mobile money pit with the VW logo on it.

After that we stopped at the post office and mailed off Sweet Pea's gift. Jen hasn't popped yet and though I'll probably see her in the hospital after she DOES pop, I wanted her to have the gift NOW darn it... because it's CUTE.

Ben is napping and I'm off to watch Oprah (which hopefully is not preempted by the snoozefest Olympics a-freakin-gain) and knit. I am going to do this in lieu of cleaning the festering, icky upstairs bathrooms because I'm tired and because I can. :P

OH, the Dr.'s office called today and wants to schedule a "follow-up" appointment. I'm now thinking maybe those three sips of coffee misrepresented me and my stellar 28-year-old, healthy, whole-wheat eating, soy milk and skim milk drinking cholesterol. Shoot. Now I'll have to confess that I lied to the lab tech when she asked me if I fasted.

Grumble grumble...

We've been out all day since Tom had the day off...

This morning, I drank three sips of coffee before I remembered I was supposed to get bloodwork done BEFORE I ate (the standard cholesterol yada yada stuff... NO I'm not pregnant and let me repeat that once again for you... NO. I. AM. NOT. PREGNANT.). Hopefully those three sips won't make my results come back looking like I'm a 90-year-old chain smoker who eats KFC ten times a day.

After that, it was off to the car dealership because some silly light that looked like a triangle with an exclaimation point and two squiggles came on in the van and apparently meant they needed to fix the tire pressure. They also forgot to give us floor mats and then they forgot AGAIN, so we are still floor matless. One thing about buying a car... once they have your money? The service really takes a nosedive. They held us hostage in the showroom for an hour and a half. At first, I was very careful about not letting Ben climb in and out of the cars. After about 20 minutes though I decided the more I let him abuse the interiors of their shiny cars, the faster they'd find a way to get us out of there. So climb, he did. He also emptied their water cooler. Hey, the kid was thirsty.

Then Ben napped while Tom played on his laptop and I cleaned around him. (sorry, STRAIGHTENED, there is no "cleaning" when Tom is home on a three-day weekend, it's pointless)

After THAT, we dropped Ben off with his grandparents so we could have a belated Valentine's Day dinner. Lots of driving back and forth since we took him to Tom's parents in one direction, ate dinner in the complete opposite direction (back near our house) then drove back, with a stop at Tom's brother's house to drop some Pampered Chef stuff off to my sister-in-law, doubled back to get Ben and then back home. The van needed some highway miles... gotta break in the new engine, right? ;)

As for the van, it's apparently very amusing to some that I am driving it. I have yet to drive to my parents' house and NOT see my mother laughing as I pull into the driveway. My friend Mandy also seems to find this very amusing. She will not find it as amusing when I visit her at her house that is on the world's narrowest street and proceed to sideswipe all of her neighbor's cars AND take out her mailbox. ;)

In other news, 7th Heaven is not on tonight and for that I am sad. It has been preempted by Agent Cody Banks. Gag. I am growing very weary of these shows that run one new episode, followed by six weeks of reruns. It's just WRONG.

I'm making these this afternoon in hopes to sneak more vegetables into Ben.
They might be good... or they might be very VERY nasty. I can't really tell yet from just looking at the batter. Hrm.

WAKE UP HEALTHY MUFFINS
2 c. flour
1 c. wheat germ
3 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2-1 tsp. salt
3/4 c. oil
4 lg. eggs
1 3/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. honey
2 c. grated carrots
1 c. grated zucchini
1/2 c. crushed pineapple, drained
Sift dry ingredients together and set aside. Put eggs in large bowl and beat lightly. Add oil, sugar, honey and mix well; then add rest and mix well. Add dry flour mix to egg mix and mix only until moist. Fill muffin tins 2/3-3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Makes 24 large or 30 regular muffins.

**update** They are not bad! And they passed the toddler test, which is what counts!

Two days ago it was in the mid 50's. I barely needed a jacket outside. Today?

It's 15. Degrees.

That's -9 for those of you in Celcius Land.

Unless you are under the electric blanket in a sweatshirt, even our HOUSE is cold, despite the heat being on 75.
(and thus, our bill being through the roof)

Please. Send spring. Now.

We did it. A Chrysler Town and Country. She is very pretty... silver and shiny and all new smelling with no Cheerios crunched into the seats or milk stains on the floor. (yet) I actually haven't driven it yet since I have test-drive phobia. It's hard enough to drive a car at first when you're not familiar with the way it feels, much less trying to drive said car with a sales guy yammering on and on the whole time about the sound system and the intermittent wipers. I did test out the passenger seat though and approved of the ride. ;)

Anyway, for the moment, we currently own more cars than we have drivers in this house. We will be remedying this situation in about a month when we send the Jetta back from whence she came. (good riddance!)

**update** I just took my first test drive... LOVE. IT. It drives a lot like my little car. My only problem so far has been backing out of my parking space. I haven't yet gotten a feel for how big my back end is! I'm paranoid I'm going to ram right into something.

I think we're going to buy a minivan today. I wonder if there will be some kind of ceremony to officially welcome us into soccer parent land? Do these things come with your choice of "My child is an honor student at..." or "Baby on Board" bumper stickers?

Speaking of that, I saw a great bumper sticker in the grocery store parking lot two days ago:

"My low fat mom can beat up your low carb mom"

I know a decent portion of my readers live near me, so I thought I'd share my local find of the day. A good doctor! I have a great gyn, (Dr. Colleen Fitpatrick for anyone who is looking for a gyn) and I have a great new obstetrician lined up for whenever she may be needed (Dr. Aziz, though I haven't actually met her yet). But since I got too old to see my pediatrician (yeah, um.. ten years ago), I hadn't ever found a primary care physician. Anyway, thanks to Val for the recommendation of Dr. Ann Morrill.

Her office is easy to get to (and bonus, 5 miles from my house). There's plenty of parking. And the office staff? Friendly! (I know, wacky concept, right?)

You should all know that I'm the world's biggest spaz in a doctor's office. My blood pressure shoots through the roof, I break out in a red rash all over, I forget why I'm there and whatever questions I had. And I'm pretty sure I talk so fast I can hardly be understood It's just bad. I once had an ER doctor hook me up to an ekg monitor for a half hour because my heart was racing so fast. (I was there for a totally unrelated reason)

Well, this time, I still got the rash and had the insane "get the paddles ready" blood pressure. But this doctor was just so calm and casual that I really felt very relaxed (despite the physical symptoms saying otherwise).

Anyway, enough rambling. She's awesome. I'm so happy to have finally found a doctor I can call for everyday things. If you live here, go see her.

OH, and she scored even MORE points when I discovered AFTER the fact that she has a website (linked above) AND email. I'm two for two now with finding new doctors who like and use the internet. (our new pediatrician has email too) Hooray!

(no, I'm not talking about those two pregs I mentioned in my last post... yukyukyuk) ;)

I'm going for a physical today. Want to know when I last had a physical? I'll give you a hint: I was still seeing a pediatrician. Um yeah. I figured it was about time. Though I do figure having been pregnant and therefore having seen a doctor at least once a month for almost a whole year has to count for something.

Gah.

Wish me luck... and that my white coat syndrome will stay away. (doctors always think I have high blood pressure because when I'm in their offices, I always DO... even though when I take it myself, it's actually LOW)

I'm on Babywatch...

... waiting for Jen to call to say she's on her way to the hospital... so far nothing. But I know it's coming any day!

... also waiting for Claire to post that she has popped.

These pregnant people can't possibly stay pregnant forever... when is the next full moon?

Yes. That's what I have decided Benjamin is. The child can TALK, I tell you. He will say words ONCE and then never again... ESPECIALLY if we act like we're very excited about whatever word he just said. My mom's friend Hope calls him a "closet talker". And he totally is. He will say his godmother's name, "Debbie", look at me a grin and then run off. But... he will NEVER say it if you ask him to and he will NEVER EVER say it in front of her.

Oh and his newest "frustrate the heck out of his parents" word thing is to blink his eyes twice when he means "yes". I have NO idea where he got this, but after much testing of the theory, which was originally his grandmother's, we have determined that is EXACTLY what he is doing.

Meanwhile, we do have ONE new word this week. "Happy", which he picked up from the Beatles song, "Obladi Oblada"... first line "Happy ever after in the marketplace..."

The rest is all signs. Lately, if he is coaxed and if he's in just the right mood, he will now put signs together into useful phrases, such as, "More milk please", "More water please".

What are the signs for "More WORDS please"?

:: sigh ::

Benjamin has a newfound obsession with Beatles music. His favorites are "Obladi Obladah", "Octupus' Garden", "Get Back", and "Let it Be". His true passion is for Let it Be. I think he thinks it's about the LETTER B. He requests it 25 times a day, "B?" "B!"
Very bossy with the music, he is.

At least he has good taste, I suppose!

It's time for this week's Naptime Gourmetplug. Lots and lots of great new stuff was added this weekend! I've also added links on recipes to any reviews that were done. Should be helpful.

I'm also still working on complete menus to post. But having trouble deciding how to format them.. but they're coming... someday.

My current favorite is this. It was a challenge to make with Ben in a bad mood, but it was really REALLY good.

I'm making this tonight. I'll post a review tomorrow!

We're not technically celebrating today because um, it's Tuesday! Tom is at work and by the time he gets home, what's the point? So... I'll be making a nice dinner tonight. But we'll celebrate for real this weekend and actually go out somewhere where we can have adult conversation and someone will bring us our food. We generally don't exchange gifts on V'day (cards yes, gifts no). I mean, all of our birthdays are right around the corner. Just seems kind of redundant.

I'm spending today with my LITTLE Valentine, who is in an adorable mood so far. He and his octupus puppet happily accompanied me to the mall and we got him some new shoes! (not for the Octupus, that would have gotten expensive, eight legs and all)

The shoes have trains on them and they light up. Ben actually picked them out himself. Well, he picked firetrucks, but they were out of those. And the trains seemed to make him just as happy.

The kid can barely walk now because he spends so much time watching the shoe lights. Yes, do try and picture it. It's funny. Also, I was shocked and slightly embarassed to learn that his old shoes were two sizes too small. Seriously. They should revoke my mommy license for that. I probably permanently crumpled up his toes or something. ;) But who knew a kid's feet could grow two sizes in six months?! SHEESH.

After we got his shoes, we sat down and watched the Family Fun Day singing from the top floor (no crowds up there). They did three songs that are at the top of The BenjaminTop 10 Hit List right now, so he was happy.

Now there is napping ... and napping is always good.

Off to get some things done around the house. Happy Valentine's Day!

A few weeks ago, I posted about how I seem to be sharing a baby monitor frequency with someone. Sometimes we hear phone calls, sometimes the baby crying, and last week, I overheard the mom playing with the baby... SO sweet. More recently, mixed in with all the crying and baby activity, we've been hearing a lot of what sounds like hammering.

Soooo yesterday, Ben and I were outside in the snow. We wandered directly across the street because the people who live there have a dog and Ben just thinks dogs are a riot. So we were standing there talking about the "puppy" and the girl who lives there came up to say hello and asked if Ben wanted to borrow their sled. I can tell she is such a NICE person... made a mental note to walk over there when the weather gets warmer. I know she just had a baby in August... THEN, she starts talking to our other neighbor about how they are working on their kitchen... how her father in law was over helping install the new floors.... I hear the banging coming from the house. Upon taking Ben back inside, I continue to hear banging... ON THE MONITOR.

Holy crap. It's the same people we are sharing the frequency with. THAT is the girl I've been listening to all this time. Now, I just feel BAD... and a little worried... because if I can hear HER... oh geez. She's probably heard Tom singing. Ohmahgah.

Found this recipe and am going to make it this afternoon. The boy will eat anything that looks like bread as long as I smear butter on it, so this just. might. work.

I found another one that is WAY more complex, but involves carrot and zucchini... maybe another day.

OATMEAL-CARROT MUFFINS

1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 c. oatmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. salt
1 egg
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 toddler size jar carrot baby food

Combine dry ingredients (first 7), then add moist ingredients, stir by hand only until mixture is moist. Do not over stir. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake 15 to 18 minutes at 350 degrees.
Makes 12.

I need some sneaky food ideas for Ben. He hasn't eaten a vegetable in I don't know HOW long... in fact, his daily menu usually only consists of some combination of the following:

* oatmeal
* yogurt
* chicken nuggets
* English muffin pizzas
* whole wheat toast with butter
* Cheerios
* Mini Wheats
* Ritz crackers with peanut butter

At the moment, he is boycotting:
*pretty much everything else... including, but not limited to...
* Peanut butter and jelly
* cheese
* eggs
* any kind of meat other than chicken nuggets
* fruit other than the ocassional banana


He won't even drink JUICE, people.

So I need help... recipes for things I can hide vegetables in, that sort of thing. Please? Pretty please?

I just bundled up Ben. Bundled up me. And a half hour later... we finally got outside... we played and took pictures. The pictures were hysterical because the snow is almost up to Ben's chest. However, my camera ATE those pictures. I didn't find this out until we came inside and I desnowsuited Ben. Argh. I might just toss him out on the deck with just his coat in little while to get a picture of him waist deep in white stuff.

He was very cute though. Not at all thrilled about being unable to walk in it. So we went out to the street, which is mostly clear and he wandered up and down, supervising the shoveling efforts and telling anyone who would listen that there was "Snow!" and "Puppy!" (one of our neighbors has their puppy outside)

Where's Tom you ask? Heh. Why he's the designated shoveler, don't you know? I don't own boots (why?!) so I can't stay out there for very long before my toes start to get cold, wet and frostbitten.

**updated** I did it. I redressed him and tossed him out on the deck, sans the wet gloves. (please don't call cps on me, he was only out there for 2 minutes) ;) The drifts on the deck aren't quite as comically deep, but you get the idea.

It's at LEAST a foot... even Ben woke up this morning, looked out the window and said, "Snow?"

Still waiting around for the snow to become the major weather event they have been hyping. So far, I am not impressed. We made it to my inlaws' house tonight and back with no problem at all. It LOOKED bad out the back door, but the roads were just wet. I guess that's the good kind of snow, huh? It's pretty, but doesn't cause a big mess or keep you from doing what you need to do. We'll see what develops overnight, but right now, I am sticking my tongue out at the snow and saying nanny nanny boo boo!

Your Birthdate: March 16

You're incredibly introverted and introspective. You live inside your head. You spend a lot of alone time meditating and thinking. People see you as withdrawn, and at times they are right. You are caring and deep, but it may be difficult for you to show this side of yourself. Your strength: Your original approach to thinking Your weakness: You tend to shy away from others Your power color: Pale blue Your power symbol: Wavy line Your power month: July

Our weekend is being threatened by "Winter Storm Watch 06!" So annoying. We had plans this weekend that involve the purchase of lots of asparagus that I may have find a use for other than its original purpose. Either way, I have to go to the store TODAY, since our usual shopping day is Saturday and things are running kind of low. I'm sure I'll hit the toilet paper/bread crowd... though it IS early, so I'm holding out hope that most of them are at work.

At least Ben might get a chance to actually USE his snowpants and boots before he grows out of them!

I just went on Mikasa.com to order two new salad plates to replace two I broke over the last couple years. From all the "Item no longer available. Please contact us and we'll find this item for you" notes all over the place, I'm guessing they are retiring my pattern. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

I still need so many pieces! My butter dish broke! My salt shaker broke! I need four more mugs! I need the bread and butter plates! The gravy boat! The soup tureen! And I really could use four more place settings. (just in case hell freezes over one day and I decide to do dinner for 12, ya know?) I'm all in a tizzy. I ordered my salad plates... I'm hoping the rest of it lasts long enough for me to get a piece a month for awhile so I have everything.

Stupid companies... why do they have to "retire" things? My silverware is a retired pattern too so I'm stalking the internet for four teaspoons that have grown legs and walked away.

Argh.

So much for early morning panic though. The boy is up and now I have to figure out how to get a teaspoon of medicine down his throat. (he acts like I'm pulling his toenails out)

Yup. Another ear infection. Looks like we caught it early though. So the toddler pharmacy is now well stocked with Tylenol, Motrin, prescription ear drops, an antibiotic, AND teething tablets. We're good.

I'm going to owe my house to the doctor with all these co-pays!

I seem to NOT be sick. (knock on wood) I'm thinking my queasiness was just another thing related to the aforementioned cramps.

OH, and I updated the boy's birthday list. The wagon was taken... (and I had put the wrong one on the list anyway. The right one is HALF as much $$)

I'm pretty sure Ben has another ear infection... he has been stuffy this week and just this morning, started sticking his finger in his ear and saying "owee". He also tilts his head and says it. I figured better safe than sorry, so we're off to the pediatrician at 1:30...

... that's IF I haven't started puking by then. My stomach has been queasy all morning. (No, for the love of pete I am NOT pregnant. See reference yesterday to the massive, horrific cramps) I feel like just going into the bathroom and gagging myself to get it over with.

Okay, so yeah... I'm SO over germ-infested winter. Let's move on to hot, humid, healthy summer, shall we?

**updated** The wagon has been spoken for. Also, the one I had on the list was the wrong one. Apparently it had AIR tires and is twice as $$$ as the regular radio flyer one. Just in case anyone else was going to put one on their kiddo's bday list! :)

Benjamin has a birthday wishlist for those family and friends who might be thinking about getting him something for the amazing feat of turning 2. Benjamin's mommy would prefer we all just have cake and call it a day... but I guess that would be sad. So, if anyone is interested, here is his list

Some things I couldn't find to put on it that I'm sure he would love would include:
* a kids play tool set (he has a wooden one that is nice, but I'm thinking something with a little tape measure and a tool belt or something) He doesWe do NOT want anything huge like the Little Tykes workbench or the equivalent.

* books books books!

* puzzles puzzles puzzles!

* cd's -- we have all the Sesame Street ones and most of the Veggie Tale ones. But anything with good toddler music on it would be wonderful. The kid loves him some music and mommy needs variety. ;)

* a child-sized guitar. NOT the Wiggles one, NOT the cheesy Elmo one, a real, miniature guitar. I know they have one at Wal-Mart. He would just think this was the coolest.

Of the things on his list, the little wagon is probably top priority. (though pricey, so Tom and I will probably end up getting it for him post-birthday) He just loves going to my parents' house and riding around in their wagon. He'd do it for hours if we let him!

Bad news. The Toys R Us close to my house is closing after like THIRTY years of being there.

Good news. They are turning it into a Babies R Us!!!!!! (bouncing around with glee!)

Ah yes. This is something for all the mommies in the vicinity to celebrate! (sad, I know)

Today we went over to the mall for Family Fun Day. This is where hoards of toddlers and their stir-crazy parents sit through four stories until finally FINALLY Miss Julie starts with the singing. I almost had to tie Ben down but thankfully, just in time, she started singing Wheels on the Bus and all was well with the world. After that, comes the stroller derby where we all try to escape at the same time. Good times.

I also managed to get myself some new bras. Hooray for me. The woman at That Place with All the Skanky Red Teddies laughed at me when I ran in and asked her where the plain white bras with no padding were. She showed me. I said "I'll take three!" And we were off. I did stop to grab some 5 for $25 underwear on the way out. Can't resist the 5 for 25 deal but I pretty much just grabbed the first five pairs I saw. Hey man, when you have a cranky toddler you have to be efficient with your shopping. I hope she didn't hate us too much for leaving that trail of Cheerios. Oops.

Home now and the boy is NOT napping. I'm in labor having major HORRIFIC cramps and really just want to lay down. But, the boy child does not have a well developed sense of empathy yet for his fellow humans.

And so it goes... and so it goes.

Background: Ben had been playing with some cups and a pot of water while I made dinner, so he was soaked. I changed him into his Ravens jersey and some sweatpants. He found one of Tom's baseball hats laying around and put it on backwards and wouldn't take it off. So this is what Tom came home to.



Incidentally, we thought it'd be funny to teach him how to say, "Yo Yo Yo!" while wearing this outfit. So that's what he's been saying all evening. ;)

I searched high and low for something new to make for dinner tonight. I ended up finding this. Yes. It SOUNDS yummy. But it seems every time I try to bake chicken, it never quite works out the way it should. I'm kind of a paranoid meat cooker... always afraid of undercooking and the result is usually Chicken A La Shoe Leather. I'm much better with stir frying/skillet cooking chicken. We'll see though... going to give it a try.

Also on our menu this week, The Impossibly Easy Chicken Pot PieReally. I swear, it's the easiest thing you'll ever make next to PB&J.

This roast was such a hit, we're trying it again.

And then of course, the old standby, spaghetti. I'm saving that one for a particularly stressful toddler day.

But... The Naptime Gourmet needs more recipes! Everyone run over and contribute a new favorite! Please? Pretty please? Those of you who haven't joined but I know can cook (*cough*) Krystyna), I'm sending you an invite email so you can contribute too! And Mandy, you have good stuff in your cooking arsenal AND you already have an invite to TNG, so where are all your good recipes? Hrm? Hrm? Now, if only I could get my mother-in-law on here to contribute her recipe for salmon with pesto baked in phyllo dough...

(Jen coined that term and I'm going witih it because right now? It's just too fitting)

Ben is still being weird. Unfortunately, his "weird" involves bedtime/nap issues. He hasn't been going to bed until 10 or later for almost a week now. And he won't stay in his crib... he's in and out of our bed all night and it's really wearing on all of us. He does have another mild cold, so I'm trying to wait that out and see if the constant sick/not being able to breathe through his nose thing is the problem. But other than that, I am at a loss for what has sparked the sleep problems. There is screaming. There is the ceremonial tossing of everything from his crib. It's just awful. He used to be so easy about bedtime!

His big boy bed will be here at the end of the month, so maybe the change will help the situation. I sure hope so... because without sleep? I am not all that great at this mommy thing... I tend to solicit too much help from the Disney Channel and Sesame Street.

Introducing.... the Midget Chef
Cooking's Still Cool When You Need a Stool!

Apparently, our friends from the pacific northwest have sent the rain east. It has not let up ALL day. I kept saying, "When it stops raining I'm going to go clean up the deck/run to the store/various other things" Well, I haven't done anything because it hasn't stopped.

Here's a fun little story from today though. Last week, when it was really windy, our trash can blew away. This is nothing new. It happens a lot on trash day. Usually we find it a little ways down the street and that's that. This time, it disappeared. The next trash day, there were two out on other parts of our street that looked like ours, so we claimed one.

Today I went out back to put some trash in it. Oh my lawwwdy day! The stench of death. And I don't mean like just icky trash smell. I mean it smelled like something that had once been living was now NOT living and was, instead, fermenting in the can. It's a smell I'm familiar with from my retail days where we'd often find very VERY dead mice here and there. (note: if you ever purchase those chocolate candy-making discs from Michaels? CHECK the bag for chew marks and holes FIRST)

Oh, and the death smell got IN. It took over the basement and then crept up onto the first floor. Horrid, I tell you. We had to open the patio doors and light candles all afternoon. I think it's gone now...

We are now calling it the Death Can and needless to say, come trash day? We will not be reclaiming it. We'll find another one to steal. ;)

(if I had categories, that is)

... anyway, apparently my child knows how to use an ATM card. Benjamin is wandering around the living room right now with my expired check card "swiping" it in every crevice he can find. It's very funny. And he also does the "insert and remove quickly" move like I do at the gas station pumps. So funny the things they pick up on! I'm glad he doesn't know my pin code!

Yeah. He's still being weird. Seriously. The kid hardly said a word to me yesterday. I tried to play with him ALL DAY and he'd barely give me the time of day. Not that he can even tell time yet, but you get the idea. He ended up in bed with us again last night for awhile and prior to that, freaked out when it was time for bed. Who took my kid and exchanged him for surly Grumpy McGrumpy Pants?

The ladies on my mommy message board had lots of interesting thoughts on the topic ranging from he's just bored to he's not feeling well to I must be pregnant. I know.. whoa... backup! One of them said when her little girl Ben's age was acting strange that her daycare lady said that the mommy must be pregnant, that kids can sense something is different. Another woman chimed in with the same theory. Okay, so I'm pretty sure that's not the case. But how weird? And if I DO, by some strange miracle turn up pregnant this month? I'm going to die of freaked-outedness.

I guess it could be true... that babies can sense something is off? I once saw a Discovery Health Channel bit about dogs being able to smell cancer? So who's to say babies can't smell pregnant hormones? LOL.

I'm not putting my money on this theory. I'm still waiting for/expecting him to projectile vomit lunch all over me one afternoon in the near future.

The toddler is not himself. Hasn't been for two days. I'm hoping he's not getting sick again because that was NOT fun times.
He was up three times last night and is now residing in Tom's spot in the bed. (Tom left for work already). Very cuddly, very cute. But now I'm stranded here in the bedroom until he decides he is finished with his beauty sleep. I can't even really wander off to the other upstairs rooms... our bed is really high (I almost need a little boost to get in!) so I have visions of a broken arm if he decided to try and fling himself off it as he is known to do on the couches.

I hope so! Whew! Sorry for the blogerruption, I just needed to go underground for a bit. While I'm here, I'm going to clean up the place a little... give the toddler a big boy room online, too.