Just another week

A pretty low scale on the interesting meter this week.

For the food part of it, we had chicken and wild rice in the crock pot, which i actually lost the recipe for and had to kind of make it up, but it still was really good. And the best part of it, Ryan loved and kept asking for more carrots. We made sun tea yesterday, which I have not made in years either. I am not a huge tea drinker, but have already had two glasses of that."

We have really been having some wicked storms lately. High winds, blowing rain, and lots of lightening. I love thunderstorms. I will admit that I am a little (Matt would say a lot), scared of them. I won't let Matt leave when one is coming. But that have been some weird intense storms. I came home from work on Monday and Matt arrived about the same time I did, and he noticed that something was missing off the deck...our huge umbrella! He went and knocked on some doors to find out where it could have blown to, after a little investigating, we found it. It was two doors across the street, in their back yard. The thing is huge and heavy to carry. I don't know how this happened! This is no small cheap umbrella, it was like $600 from Seasonal Concepts. (don't worry we don't have that kind of money anymore, I would so spend $600 so much differently now!)
We were supposed to go ride the Metro Link to the City Garden on Tuesday morning with some friends. But those storms hit us pretty hard again. They decided not to go, but it was to late for us, we were already there waiting for them when we were told they weren't coming. But we couldn't leave, how do you tell a 3 year old boy who's life revolves around trains (and Toy Story 3), we aren't going to ride it anymore?!? So since it was just me and Ryan we decided to board it anyway, and ride about 4 stops down and turn around and come back. He was in train heaven. It was really cool just the two of us. So more or less we got up early, packed for all day, rushed to get Harrison dropped off, traveled 20 miles to the Metro Link, stood in the lightening storm, waited for the no-shows, boarded the train, and all for a 35 minute ride to where we began! But some how the unexpected was fun!

Yes, this is Kung Foo Panda! Yes his head is touching our ceiling! Only my husband would stuff this into his car and bring it inside, make us hide outside in the 100 degree weather while he 'tried' to set him up, and bring us back inside all to see the reaction of his son's face when he see's him!
One really good piece of good news we received this week was the letter from the school district reenacting the pre-K program. We are just stoked about it! He did get into Headstart for this fall because he received a referrel from his speech counselor. Now with this, he can go where we wanted him to! So registration is this Wednesday, and if it is all true and what we think it is, we will call Headstart and get him out of there program. God has so been with us for this whole adventure! We were really excited about Headstart, but the school he will go to now, will be in the AM, and it's right down the street from us. So no bus ride, and no giving up on naps...just yet. So this is going to be so much better. Plus hopefully we can keep the same SLP we had last school year.

"we have 2 shirts, mama"

This week was nothing fancy, a little bit of time, but nothing fancy. Just an old but not forgotten lasagna recipe. It was good, and I know now that the egg that is supposed to go in the cheese mixture is okay if its left out! I got the full thing made and right before I put it int he oven I remembered the egg. Opps! But hey it was still really good, so I don't really know the purpose of the egg, and what it was supposed to do to the cheese anyway?!? I also made cheese stick bread from a Bisquick recipe. It was a little dry. We have been Bisquick crazy lately. We go through a box a week, and you just can't go generic on Bisquick!

An FYI: The taco bake last week was made by Matt, not me, I told him I would give him credit and I totally forgot.
We also made some oatmeal/cheerio cookies. Yes they taste as good as they sound. Definitely a kid cookie, so yes Ryan loved them. They went to maw-maw's the next day. Ryan also made Miss Tami some homemade banana bread for her birthday. He loved smashing the bananas. He also kept eating the batter of both saying yummy...maybe he has picked up to much from watching mommy over time.When I was almost done with my pregnancy I came to the realization that the boys can wear matching cloths! I have no idea why it took me so long to come up with this but it did. And I will tell you what, it was like winning the lottery when I realized it. I was so excited. But most of the cloths that I could find to match was when Harrison got a little bigger...LIKE NOW!!! So Saturday started it all, and both yesterday and today they were samies...I just love it. And today in the car Ryan looked at Harrison and said "hey he has my shirt" then holds up two fingers and says "1, 2 shirts, we have 2 shirts mama" then became very excited about it. So ofcouse I went a little crazy with it all.




Just a cute picture of my dad and Harrison!
Well t-ball is finally over! I loved it and I loved the fact he was old enough to be on a team. But we hated going, it took a lot of convincing to get him to play, this is the absolute worst I have ever seen him act. I mean kicking and screaming. But he did like to bat and run the bases, but that lasted 2 minutes, he just really disliked being in the field. So Saturday was our last game, it was kinda sad it was over though. They all got medals. He was so proud. I guess that is all that matters, because my thought was "proud of what" he was a brat playing. But proud we stuck it out and did not quit. He just loves his medal. He was worn it all weekend to show everyone. He even had to have his picture taken in front of everything with it. He wanted me to keep going!

Poor Har just hates his tummy time. He doesn't get much of it, mainly because I forget to lay him down, he is either in his swing or excisaucer. So the other day I decided to make him stay on his belly for 5 minutes. This did not go so well. He cried. But he has to build those muscles some how, I think he is just like his brother in some ways. He is just content on his back. I know a lot of babies aren't near sitting yet, but have been rolling for weeks. And we are the opposite of that!
We were so excited we had nothing to do today, but of course we couldn't just stay home and do nothing. Mainly for the fear of letting Ryan watch to much TV and him trying to boss us around all day, and then it turn in to arguing all day. So we decided to ask my parents to go the Mills with us. And they now have a train that runs around the mall instead of a circular track. He loved it, it was a special time for him and his grandma.


Tonight we decided to go to Matt's parents house for some BBQ and some swimming. This was really exciting because it was Harrison's first time in a big pool. He is a splasher, something else I can't stand. Maybe I'm a little pickier/high maintenance than I thought :)

We have a new activity for the pool this year. Run around the pool, jump in when we want, then swim back over to the latter and do it all over again! That would be Ryan's new activity. He is really good at it too. He has loved water since day one! Let hope we get that lucky with Harrison too. He seemed to, he was in the water about 45 minutes, a little long I know, but he was just chillin'!

???

When I go through out my week, I have so many good blog entries, and some very funny stories. Once I finally force my self to sit down and do these, they just are not as good and funny! I was really pumped to do this all day, but now I sit here at 9:39 pm wishing I was in bed. I am so tired, and there is still so much I have to do, I just now have the dishwasher going for the 3rd time this weekend. How do we do it, how do we get so many dishes so fast?

The worst part about right now is, while I type I am listening to Harrison scream. Scream like someone is ripping his arm off. This is sooo hard, one of the hardest things I think I have done as a parent. I didn't have to do this very much with Ryan. He has now been crying for 13 minutes. I have already went in there once after 5 minutes of crying then 10 minutes, I gave him the rest of his milk he did not finish at 8:15. So now what?!? This has happened 3 nights in a row now. And each time it has taken about 1 1/2 hours to get him to go back to sleep. We had no problems laying down tonight like we did the last 2, but dang it, I forgot my phone in there and I got a text, then an ambulance went by. So I am really mad at my self too. I am going to give it 6 more minutes then I am going back in...

Okay enough of the pity party!

So this week was a fun good meal. I made Taco Bowls. The bowls were grands biscuits, baked in mini loaf tins, I didn't have custard tins, like it said to use. Then when they were down baking we just filled them with our taco fillings of choice. They also suggested using chili beans, so we used them along some rice. It was really good!
We all went to the Musuem of Trasportation last Monday since we all had it off. Ryan loved it, and we all had a good time, and we even decided to become members. It will give something for the boys and I to do during the week if we get bored, especially this fall when it gets cooler out. I think Harrison really enjoyed himself as well.



We finally got that forever needed bubble machine. He is always wanting me to blow bubbles, so here we go, we got something that I don't have to do, something to keep him busy without me. Well not so true, the first day I guess he wanted to see if it could make sand bubbles too!
Harrison also received a new food today. He was supposed to get it Monday, but I guess 6 days later is better than not at all. It was all about that good intention again, that never made it to the table. I made him some carrots today, he seemed to really enjoy those better than the greenbeans I made for him. Once again, he is just so much harder to feed than Ryan was. He is just so messy. I need to quit worring about it, and let it be. He is just going to be that messy baby...but a cute messy baby!

This along with some other things...Harrison started sitting. I just sat him down and poof he was sitting. Which makes me wonder how long he has been able to do this. Just another thing the poor baby has been neglected on. And he sits so well, and for a long time. Ryan is really enjoying this new phase, its more play time for him. And he thinks its so funny when he falls over. We are trying to show him how to help him sit back up. But he pulls on his head and shirt and lets him drop again and laughs and says "baby fell again". Thank goodness Harrison didn't mind cause it had us all laughing. Shame on us as parents.


Oh, I have one other thing that makes me a great mom. We were at Wal-mart on Saturday afternoon with my parents, hoping for the extra care and EYES with the kids. We went to lawn and garden to check out, Ryan was in my parents cart since I could no longer stand him, and I was checking out with Harrison in mine. I looked back at my parents and my mom has her hand over her mouth looking at my dad saying " I don't know what to do!" I look over and Ryan is in the middle on top of a 6 foot charcoal stack with a huge smile of achievement. Oh the embarrassment, everyone's eyes were on me, and I know they were all thinking " my child would never had made it that far", or "my child never would have done that". When did something like this turn into embarrassment and not concern for the safety of your child? Is it wrong to have wished he at least would have stubbed his toe on it, and felt a little bit of pain to understand the reality of how much pain he could have caused him self? In stead he is nothing but proud of himself. Now on the other end of it, as mad as I was at him, I couldn't help but laugh when I told Matt the story. It was really cute to see him up there. But, he will never know that!

Cheater, Cheater, Pumpkin Eater!

I was a cheater this week, well at least at the beginning of the week.

We had a roller coaster of a week. I worked a lot this week. I am not used to working this much, and boy did our home life show it. But that was okay, until Thursday night...I came home and our house was 84, and it was like 80 outside. Go figure right, not only is this going to happen over the weekend, but of course over a holiday weekend! It was pretty cool sleeping that night, but of course we got the smell the sweet aroma of SKUNK while we so desperately tried to fall asleep. We did finally get it fixed mid afternoon on Friday. We just had to replace a part and get more refrigerant. All is cool now...ha ha ha!

My mom called me on Monday and told me they had a dinner for us. Which is weird by itself. My father made them a taco casserole, which sounds fabulous. But my ever so observant father bought HOT SAUCE instead of salsa. So you know where this is going...see picture below. That is a huge bottle of HOT SAUCE, not salsa, and all that is gone is in the casserole!!! Yeah they each took a bit, then it became ours. And whew, was it hot, we had to add stuff to it, I used it as a filling on a soft shell with added beans and cheese, and sour cream for the cooling effect. 3/4 of it got frozen. It made me cry, but IT was good! So that was our new meal for the week.


"Toy Story 3, Toy Story 3" and interprarite dancing/sneaky moves is all that has been going on at my house all week. We took him to see the monvie last week. To say the least he loved it. We took Harrison with us, and the both of them did fantastic. I was very proud of them. Well except for Harrison's blowout mid way through the movie. but was all say there from the beginning to the end. And some one needs to tell them...not so many preview, you almost lost us then!



This week Corie invited us over to her house for playgroup so the kids could swim. It was a nice change of pace. Ryan actually burned his back a bit, he never burns, he always tans right away just like his daddy! His back is tan now. Poor Har is going to burn just like me!!!


I was given this 'easy' recipe for oatmeal bars. Well it didn't go to well, they were super mushy. I doubled the recipe, and maybe I should not have. So that was a waste, it tasted good, but it just wasn't edible.
We decided to make pancakes this morning for breakfast, and we added chocolate chips, I tried a smiley face for Ry...go ahead and laugh at it too, Matt did!

While making breakfast, we saw a recipe for chicken strips on the Bisquick box. WOW were they good, that was our lunch. They were super easy and low in fat, no breading or grease, you just bake them. It was really easy, so that will be made a lot now, even Ryan ate them, so that's huge.This week might have been a bummer on cooking, but I did pretty good today. Harrison even got new food today. I decided to go ahead and give him some food. We made him green beans. Once again, Harrison is so different from Ryan. Harrison is just so sticking messy. He is just yucky. Not only that, Ryan loved food since day one, not Harrison, he even quivers when he is eating it, but he ate the whole bowl. It was just about 2 tablespoons, but it wasn't easy feeding it to him. I wish I knew how to download videos, because that's where the action is! He likes to confiscate the bowl and spoon from me. He is such an aggressive eater!