Lunch

Around lunch time, Mike grabbed my hand and dragged me into the kitchen.
I asked him, "Are you hungry?"
He answered, "Yes. Eat."
Not having any other ideas for lunch, I asked him, "Do you want peanut butter and jelly?"
"Yes!"
Then he grabbed the handle of the door to the fridge and pulled. Nothing happened, so I helped him. He grabbed the jelly and handed it to me, but before I could close the door he grabbed the ranch dressing. "Dit!" (Mike language for "Dip") Okay, whatever kid. I set the jelly on the counter and tried to take the ranch from him and put it back in the fridge door. He hung on tight. "No! Dit!" So I let him hold it. Then I got out the peanut butter and a slice of bread. I made him a sandwich, cutting it in half for him. I put it on a plate and set it on the table. Then he handed me the ranch. "Dit!" Okay, okay, fine...I squirt a little ranch onto his plate, then was finally allowed to put it away. He climbed up onto his chair, and devoured the whole sandwich, dipping it in ranch before, and saying, "mmm!" after each bite.

I don't remember if he's ever eaten every bite of a sandwich before.

No More Bink Update

So far so good.

He hasn't asked for it at all today.

Yay!!

AnnaMarie and Triscuit!!!

Or anyone else with toddler boys like Jaxon and Keller...

How do you get bright pink nail polish off the carpet? (Is it possible?)

Don't his toes look great??



PS That's not all of it...there is also light pink and clear on the carpet, but those don't show up as well in pictures. ;)

Bring on the tears...

Why? It's because last night we decided to get rid of the binkie. Yep. All Gone.

He asked for it a couple of times before bed, but understood what I meant when I said, "Nope, all gone!" This morning he had a hard time when he first woke up and couldn't find it, but he got over that after about a minute.

So far it hasn't been too bad. He usually only asks for it when he's sleepy, so we'll see how it goes from here!

"The best pot roast I've ever had."

That's what Joshua said about dinner tonight. So, I thought I'd post my recipe so I could make it again sometime, and maybe someone else will be able to use it too. Joshua's favorite food is pot roast, which means two things: a) I already knew what his answer would be when I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, and b) he's probably had a few good pot roasts in his life to be able to classify it as his "favorite".

Anyway, here's what I did:

First, I poured some baby carrots in the bottom of the crock pot.
Then I chopped up about a tablespoon or two of butter on the carrots, plus some salt and pepper.
Next, I put the meat on top of the carrots. It was a Cross Rib Roast. (The guy at the store said is similar to a Chuck Pot Roast. I'll trust him.) This one happened to be 2.9 lbs.
Then I sprinkled a packet of McCormick Pot Roast seasoning on the meat. (It came with a bag to use in the oven, but I opted to do crock pot instead.)
Then I spread a can of Cream of Mushroom Soup over the meat.
Last, I filled that now empty can halfway with water and poured it in the crock pot.

Then I put the lid on, turned it to low, and let it sit for about 6 hours.

It took maybe 5 minutes to prep. I didn't even have to chop carrots since I just used baby carrots. I also made some instant mashed potatoes to go with it, nothing special there.

I guess it turned out pretty good. :)






PS Joshua's birthday was actually yesterday. He's an old man of 26 now. ;) I was going to make this dinner for him yesterday, but his family wanted to celebrate with him so we put it off until today. Nicolette BBQed some hot dogs, and we just hung out and played Guitar Hero World Tour until it was time to go watch Joshua and Jefferson play softball. Joshua was pretty excited that his whole family would come watch his game on his birthday!

Sleepy Boy

It was about 12:30 pm, his "normal" nap time. His sleeping schedule hasn't been "normal" for a couple of weeks. So this is "weird".

We have had a lazy morning, just laying around, watching Madagascar 2, and snacking on things like leftover quesadillas and guacamole. We had finally gotten around to taking a shower together. (I know exactly where he is, and I don't have to give him a bath. Two birds, one stone.) I had promised him we'd take a dog for a walk after we took a shower. He's always getting the leashes out and saying "Hay-ee? Dah? Puppy?" In fact he had done it this morning, but I wasn't going anywhere before I had my shower. After the shower, he asked for his bink, then went upstairs. I noticed it had been quiet for a few minutes, so I went to check on him...I found him asleep, on the floor, by my closet. There WAS a pillow and blanket there (among other things...like a pair of shoes and a pillow case) and I guess it looked like a good place for a nap!

Little Guitar

This little guitar was actually a toddler toy in a kids meal.

He's saying "guitar" by the way. :)

Bowling

We took Mike bowling for the first time tonight! He loved it when it was his turn, and hated it when it wasn't.

Here are a few pictures, some are kind of blurry because he was so excited to do it again!

Mike's New Favorite Word

"Dee-do".

(Thank you)

He says it all the time. I love it.

You help him get dressed. "Dee-do." You help him put his shoes on. "Dee-do." You find his "diss" (drum sticks) for him. "Dee-do."

That reminds me of something else he does that I think is super cute. When he's looking for something, he raises his hands, palm up. (I tried to get a picture, but he's not cooperating.) He does that every time we walk out of a store. "Wheh dah?" (where car?)

Oh, and he can say his own name now too. It sounds like "Mite"

What an awesome kid I have.

A Weekend in Vegas

We had a pretty relaxing weekend in Vegas. Now a whole lot of excitement, just a lot of sleeping, eating, and hanging out with each other.

We flew in Friday night after dropping Mike off at my parents' house. He was playing cars with Aunt Cristal when we left, and was happy to say goodbye then go back to playing. ha ha Saturday morning we slept in, then slowly made our way to the buffet in the Luxor. Brunch was still going on, and it was really good!

Then we signed up for a tour of a new resort being built down the street. We spent a few hours of our afternoon there, with sales people trying really hard to get us to buy a timeshare. Joshua wanted to do it, but I had to be the mean one and say NO LET US LEAVE!! ha ha It was worth it though. We got two free tickets to a show for that night, $75 off of dinner, and $50 for the poker tables. Here we are waiting for the shuttle to take us to the tour.

We had been wanting to go to a nice steak dinner and we thought that the $75 would cover a good chunk of it...boy were we wrong! Our bill was $150! We were glad we only had to pay for half of it, and a $35 tip for the great server, of course. The food was amazing. Totally worth the money.

Joshua's 20 oz Ribeye, fries, and custom dipping sauces.

My 8 oz Fillet Mignon and amazing mashed potatoes. I also got a cesear salad, with real anchovies. It was actually pretty good!

I don't have a picture, but Joshua took that $50 to a black jack table. As soon as that "fake" money was gone, we left the table and walked with $100, after less than 10 minutes!

Sunday we finally got to walk around the strip before catching our flight home, and take a break at the Oxygen bar. It looks funny, but it actually felt pretty good!

Just two days away from a weekend of minimal responsibility!

Woohoo!

You have no idea how ready I am for a vacation. Even just a weekend one because we can't afford to take more time off work. (More in the job security department than the money department, even though that is also an issue.) Last May, Mike's birthday weekend and Memorial day weekend, we took a "stay-cation" and spent the weekend at Nicolette's house. Before that, for my birthday (January 2008), we (along with Nicolette and Jeremy) spent one night in Wendover....aaaand...that's the extent of our vacationing since July 2007 when we went to Oregon and Washington for two family reunions. It is now April 2009!

Between jobs and school (on a side note, I am happy to report that I passed my Flash class last month, so THERE!) it's hard to take time off. Even a few days off puts us behind. We finally just took the plunge and I requested this weekend off at work. That's three days of work I'm missing, three days of pay. OH WELL. Thank goodness for tax returns, right?

We have flights to Vegas booked. We're not wasting a second of our time on driving. The 9 pm flights are considerably cheaper, and we have to wait for Joshua to get off work anyway, so that's when we're leaving Friday night and returning Sunday night. A room, for two nights, at the Luxor is also booked. My parents are ready and excited for their favorite (and only) grandson to spend the weekend with them. My brother in law Jefferson is ready and excited to take care of our dogs for us. Those are the important things, taken care of. Beyond that, we don't really have any plans yet. It'll be nice to just get away, knowing that Mike (and the dogs) are ok, and just do whatever we want to do. Nowhere we need to be, nothing we should be doing (not a single diaper needing to be changed!), and the weather being in the 70's instead of the 30's. ha ha.

Sure, I'll miss Mike, but it will be nice to have two nights of sleeping straight through the night. :)