Boi's Birthday Week

I'm awful, Peanut is sitting on the floor next to me playing a counting game on his iPad. But I have so much prep to do, and I'm procrastinating by looking up recipes. That's right, it's birthday week! Boi's birthday week that is. Mine was pretty damn good, I had to beat down some stress and a severe introvertism flare up, but at the end of the day I was a happy girl.

Peanut's gone through a lot of change lately. He's got 16 teeth now (just cut 2) and grew a half an inch. Yesterday's new thing was meowing at the cats, today's new thing was sitting on the chair and saying 'around' to get me to spin him. :) I love that the new stuff is coming faster. He's such a great kid, and he rocks at throwing, climbing, stepping down off of high things, running, and he really wishes he could jump, just hasn't quite figured it out yet. He can kind of do it, but it's more of a running jump, not a push off with both feet jump.

Oh yeah, Boi. Tomorrow morning is strawberry banana pancakes. I'm going to make the batter tonight so the flavors can really seep in. Then I'm making homemade pasta dough tonight too, and tomorrow we'll have that for lunch before work, which I will send him off with zucchini bread... which I'm also planning on making tonight.... ok, if one has to go, it'll be making the pancake dough tonight. Oh yeah, I'm going to cheat for half a day. It's so hard to stay wheat free all the time. I'm best off without it, but I can't make this stuff and not sample it.

On Wednesday we're actually celebrating. I might make pancakes again... I don't know, I haven't figured out a second breakfast. Maybe a fancy egg dish, I can try the maple souffle. Then we'll have Grandma B's fluff somewhere in there, and I was thinking ratatouille. I got the eggplant at the farmer's market and the summer squash appeared today (Thank you Herc!). If it wasn't so stupidly hot, we'd have chili for dinner. But 90 degree weather doesn't sound like chili, so I'm thinking corn on the cob, it should last two more days I think? I'll make lots of pasta dough so we can always have a side of some herby pasta. I also plan on putting happy post-it notes up all over the house, make him keep pulling them down from everywhere and get happies.

He's in bed now, a little earlier then I planned, but he spilled his milk, then sat in it, so his diaper was soaking wet. Rather then put a new one on for 20 minutes... I had to really drag out story time though, as he wanted out of the tub 5 seconds after he got in. So I let him run around and we read 3 loooooooong stories.

This was from Friday, we were playing catch. Turns out Peanut just wanted to officiate though.

Zombie Baby...

Zombie baby doesn't need eyes to eat your brains... So that's all.

Fun Times 'Down South'

What a nice 3 day weekend! Especially after such a stressful week. It all started off when our walking buddy IR, Peanut and I went up, sort of around and back down the mountain. The most intense I've been in a really long time, especially with throwing my back out and dealing with leg cramps. Alas, all weekend since I've been hobbling around until they get stretched out, so every time I stop moving for a bit, they start to hurt. But we had some great swimming and sand fun at Pike Lake, then visited with FIL, slept like crap, then the next morning went to Madtown and hit up the farmers market. Loads of fun, didn't get much (we got there late) but still some fresh pasta, some golden beets, oyster mushrooms... and a yummy mango smoothie.

Then we took off for the zoo. Peanut was fascinated with the seals. I recited the seal part in the 'Is Your Mama a Llama' book and he could not get enough of them swimming around. Even the giraffes were nothing. We rode the carousel and the kiddie train, he adored those, fed the goats, squee, fun! And then it was clear he was fading fast. So we decided to head to Blue Mound while the getting was good. He pretty much napped the whole time we were there. We took turns wandering up towers and poking around while the other person kept their eye on him in the car. Life with kids. So we didn't get to see much, and my legs were aching, and apparently I was burning, so we didn't stay too long. We'll have to go back next year to see the Cave of the Mounds.

I suspect he's growing, he had another rough night last night and has been extra clumsy. He's out with Boi getting a few odds and ends at the grocery store and getting a new fuel line for the lawn mower. Maybe it didn't like getting extra cold in our non-insulated garage. Making potato and kohlrabi soup tonight, got something special in mind for dessert. Taking it a bit easy this weekend on the food front, but I'll make sure the boys eat everything up so that tomorrow we're back to clean eating.

He's getting better and better at mimicry (when he wants to of course) like we told him he was eating pasta and he repeated it back, and I asked him to say sandbox to open it up and he did his best again there. It's pretty exciting, it feels like we're on the cusp of some really great talk breakthrough. Though I'm sure we'll just continue on in the normal fashion :)

The lawn mower broke again :( But the boys took a bike ride and I perfected a video, which I will be happy to share with you. It's 'the best' of his videos from August thus far. With some editing, I'm sure you don't really want to see more then like 20 seconds of Peanut spitting into the sunlight ;)

From the road

We're on our way to Madison from Milwaukee today. I've been strong with soda, but exhausted this morning from Peanut crying half the night I caved to half a can. If only I liked coffee! Oh well, work in progress. 

Peanut had fun yesterday, I messed up and took us to a state forest instead of a park.... But oh well.

Here he is as my riding companion yesterday. Rear facing still so I have to climb back, but front seats are so two years ago ;)

And playing at the beach :) I'll get videos up later, but my phone charge is low. I just meant to post yesterday and I didn't. So expect a good one on Sunday!

Wacky Wednesday

Mid Swing

Today is Uncle A's birthday! So we are planning a fun filled evening of video chatting with him. In the meantime, on Wednesdays we try to have a lot of crafty fun. We got going a little slower this morning with Boi home (I like to just let him do what he wants unless I actually have a timeline) but I have things set up for after he wakes up for nap now that he's at work. And I'm sneaking in some cleaning, since we did a ton of cooking yesterday and it only got so clean last night (though props for Boi for helping clean up after work).

Last night we were looking for something fun to do too, and Peanut hasn't been eating well (teeth, I saw a new one broken through this morning actually) so I figured it was an excuse to make the boys some brownies. I considered healthy brownies... but that didn't happen. So Peanut had fun tasting things. I tried to let him help me stir, but I still can't get him to do more then stick the spoon in and try to eat it.  Soooo I went for a different tactic.

As I was making it, I dipped my finger in sugar and let him suck on it. Yum! Then we tried again with cocoa powder, yuck! Then I did sugar and cocoa powder. Yum! And I told him about how we mixed everything together so that things would taste even more amazing together. I didn't quite get to how bitter vegetables add complexity to meals though, as he pooped, and it was messy, so we went upstairs and he took a shower and I finished when Boi came home a bit into bathtime. I don't think he would have cared for that additional lesson though anyways.

He picked out the apple himself!

Ok, it was his birthday. I didn't publish this so now it's MY birthday month. HAHAHAHA! Day one of my birthday month I'm eating ice cream and I have Peanut at Grandma's house for the day. Really that's just because I have work and my back is still in pain. Last week I had 2-3 days of Boi and Grandma's major help in taking care of him and it helped my back loads, but I hurt it again Monday, and it's just been getting worse since. So hopefully I can kick it this time. Well, not kick it. But you know.

That's enough time on my butt, time to keep the old back limber and get up and do some cleaning. Then we can just have lots of fun tonight when he comes home! I like having fun.