Friday

On This Day of FairyTale Romance

I worked last night and my fellow employees, females of course, were counting down the minutes to The Royal Wedding.  I know that this is an important moment in history and the world has joined together to watch these two people in love, so I feel like such a weirdo because I'm just not into all the details.  I think that it's sad that so many celebrity couples just don't last and I feel that only time will tell if the money spent for this one day was actually worth it.

Tonight Munchkie's Daddy showed me this clip he had DVRed for me and this was so touching.  This is true love.  This is what we should strive towards.  The words "for better or worse, in sickness and in health" are way more important than the thousands of dollars spent on the dress the words are said in.







I hope that it touches you as much as it touched me.  This is a real fairy tale romance.

Monday

A Day in the Life

I wrote most of this in the car on the way to my inlaws for Easter. I thought I would share a day in the life of Munchkie's Mama. And then I wonder why I'm tired.....

4:45am Alarm goes off, press snooze
4:47am Feel guilty for pressing snooze, so put glasses on.
4:50am Get out of bed and go downstairs
4:55am Take preassembled French toast casserole out of fridge, mush up defrosted fruit and put on top and sprinkle crumb topping over. Put in the oven.
5:05am Go back upstairs to Munchkie’s room and administer nebulizer treatment.
5:15am Put on exercise clothes and get DVD ready to go.
5:17am Put scrubs in dryer on wrinkle release setting because they were wadded up in the bottom of a laundry basket.
5:20am Begin torture aka Jillian’s 30 day shred.
5:35am Pull casserole from oven, resume work out.
5:55am Dripping in sweat, grab apple and quickly eat while getting ready for shower.
6:05am Take shower, dry hair, get ready.
6:32am Finish packing suitcase for Munchkie and I.
6:3 5am Run upstairs, flip lights on to wake Munchkie’s Daddy up and yell, “I’m late I’m really late get up get up get up!”
6:37am Come back downstairs, grab lunch, put on scrubs, sweep bathroom and kitchen for anything missed or left behind.
6:39am Put shoes and jacket on.
6:41am Dash out door with casserole, work bag, and tote with change of clothes.
6:58am Arrive to work and make it upstairs as fast as I can.
7:01am Swipe into work one minute late.
8:32am Have already realized that I forgot something, call Munchkie’s Daddy.
12:45pm Sit to eat a salad.
2:10pm Call Munchkie’s Daddy to see how things are going.
6:23pm Realize that I told Munchkie’s Daddy to bring the eggs, but not the egg decorating kit. He says he’s already got it.
7:33pm Get out of work, change clothes and walk out.
7:38pm Do some slight rearranging of car to fit self and more stuff into the car that already has two adults, two dogs, one toddler, two suitcases, three Easter baskets, Easter basket contents, medical supplies for the wheezing toddler, and several storage tubs to store at inlaws.
7:39pm Insert “Elmo’s Potty Time” into DVD player.
7:40pm Ask Munchkie’s Daddy about everything you can think of that might have been missed.
7:49pm Resort to fast food for dinner because there aren’t many options.
8:35pm Give Munchkie blanket, doll and Elmo and say it’s night night time.
8:53pm Realize that the Easter dress your mother in law made is hanging on the back of Munchkie’s bedroom door.
8:57pm Call work to laugh about it, because what else can you do.
9:01pm Tell Munchkie she’s not funny and that it’s night night time.
9:03pm Explain to Munchkie that we can’t go home yet to go night night because we have to go see Nana and Grandpa.
9:04pm Explain to Munchkie that her Uncle is away at college and will not be there.
9:10pm Tell Munchkie it’s night night time.
9:13pm Put pillow inbetween driver and passenger seat to form a wall.
9:15pm Tell Munchkie to go night night.
9:17pm Realize that Munchkie is dripping in sweat in her fleece pjs.
9:18pm Turn on cold air and start shivering.
9:20pm Begin to ignore Munchkie.
9:45pm Search gps for area stores.
10:08pm Arrive at Walmart.
10:16pm Try to hold back tears when there are no dresses to be found.
10:17pm Find dress on way out of store and figure out which is the lesser of the evils while envisioning the beautiful pink and white checked dress hand made with love.
10:18pm Join what seems to be one of many never ending lines.
10:34 Listen as the cashier states “You would think people didn’t realize that stores were open tomorrow” and reply “Well my excuse is that 2 hours into our trip to my inlaws we realized that my daughter’s Easter dress my mother in law made is sitting at home” then have cashier say “What is your problem mom can’t get things together?” Tell cashier “My problem is that I woke up before 5am, worked all day until 7:30pm and then started on the road” Cashier replies ”Ok, well you probably should have gotten it ready for your husband ahead of time.”
10:36pm Finally get out of Walmart feeling like the worst mom ever and resume travels.
11:25pm Soothe a crying Munchkie back to sleep.
11:55pm Soothe a crying Munchkie back to sleep.
12:24am Soothe a coughing, crying Munchkie back to sleep.
12:49am Tell Munchkie that it’s ok, we’re almost there the neb treatment is coming soon.
12:58am Arrive to inlaws. Run inside, set up neb machine.
1:03am Administer neb to a very cranky and sleepy Munchkie.
1:17am Literally fall into bed.
6:15am Alarm goes off, wake up and shower.
Happy Easter

Sunday

Happy Easter

On this Easter morning the pastor (Munchkie's Grandpa)shared this with us. You can't help but smile and realize how amazing it is that so many people from so many backgrounds can get together on an early Easter morning to share in celebration of the resurrection of Christ.



Munchkie's Grandpa says that after last year there were over 100 cities worldwide who were going to be participating this year. I can't wait to see videos!

I am so happy to post this, my 100th post, with such a positive message!

HAPPY EASTER!

Monday

The Monster of All Cookies

If you have not heard of Monster Cookies, then I don't know how you have survived life to this point of time.  These cookies are basically every delicious thing baked into lumps of amazingness.  Lent is almost over and I have been thinking of all the things that I can do and have once the forty days of sacrifice are up.  Monster cookies came to mind because they have peanut butter, chocolate and oatmeal, a perfect blend of sweet and salty.  I decided to make some tonight and take some into work with me tomorrow night, then freeze the rest and take with us to Munchkie's Grandparents's for Easter.

We went to the store for the ingredients and on the way Munchkie was so excited.  She kept saying, "make cookies!  Yeah, make cookies!" Then her face lit up and she said "make cookies like Mimi! Uncle Yushin  likes cookies (nodding her head)." So I said, "Yes, Uncle Justin does like cookies, you're right." To which she replied "send Uncle Yushin cookies?  Yeah!  Send Uncle Yushin cookies!"  So we are going to send a package to both of Munchkie's uncles I think, since they are away from home.  So with Munchkie's help we made some hopefully yummy cookies (do you have any idea how difficult it is to not try the batter, or the product of your baking?).  I pulled from a few different recipes because I wanted to eliminate corn syrup, cut down on the butter, stuff like that, but don't think that makes these cookies healthy.  One of the great things about Monster Cookies is that you can put whatever delicious things you want in them.  Most of the time I've seen chocolate chips and M&Ms as a staple, but you can switch it up to whatever you think sounds good.

Monster Cookies
  1. 6 eggs
  2. 2 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  3. 2 cups granulated sugar
  4. 1 teaspoon salt
  5. 2 teaspoons vanilla
  6. 4 teaspoons baking soda
  7. 28 ounce jar of creamy peanut butter
  8. 2 sticks of softened butter (yes this is cutting down)
  9. 1 bag M&Ms
  10. 1 bag semisweet chocolate chips
  11. 1 cup crunched up pretzels
  12. 9 cups quick oats

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. (Parchment paper is my new favorite thing!  It's so great, you don't even have to wash whatever you baked on, you just wipe it down, dry it off, and put it away.)
  • In a large mixing bowl, or Kitchen Aide mixer, combine eggs and both kinds of sugar until creamed together.
  •  Add in the salt, vanilla, baking soda, peanut butter and butter.
  • Gently add the M&Ms and chocolate chips.
  • At this point in time you have two options.  If you are using a large enough mixing bowl, you can continue to add the ingredients. If you are like me, and started in your Kitchen Aide, then you need to transfer the dough into a larger bowl.
  • Mix in the oatmeal and then the pretzels.  

  • Drop onto cookie sheets at your desired size, but keep them 2 inches apart.  I tended to go smaller, but they are supposed to be monster cookies.
  • Bake for 8-10 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE! They are supposed to not look done.
  • Let stand on cookie sheets for 3 minutes before transferring to wire racks to fully cool.
  • Once completely cooled, store in airtight container or ziploc bag.
While these cookies are super easy, and fast to mix up.  They are called monster cookies are several reasons.  One of which is because it makes a monster batch.  I ended up with 86 cookies.  This is great for me because I have several plans for these cookies, but unless you plan on sharing or are practicing for competitive eating, you might want to cut the recipe down.  They do however, freeze quite well, and I intend on freezing most of mine for the next 6 days until I can enjoy sweets again.

Tuesday

A Sheltering Tree

Friends are so great.  Sunday one of my good friends and I went to a Cherry Blossom Festival in the Little Italy part of town.  It was cold and there was only one tree with actual blossoms on it, but it was nice to walk around, look at the venders, chat, drink some horrible church lady coffee, watch older couples dancing to the band backing up a Frank Sinatra imitator and enjoy the fresh air.   
Sometimes you need to just take a break for a little bit to enjoy the simple things in life.  I am so thankful for all of the wonderful friends I have in my life.

Friendship is a sheltering tree.  ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Friday

Goooodbyyyyyye Diapers....... I hope!

Last week when Munchkie's Daddy and Munchkie came to pick me up from work Munchkie's Daddy was telling me about how Munchkie had pooped in her diaper that morning.  So I said to her "Munchkie why did you poop in your pants?"  to which she responded while shrugging her shoulders "diapy on."  At that moment I knew that there was no need for diapers anymore.  Munchkie was perfectly capable of using the potty, but knew that she could be lazy and go in her diaper, so she did.  At home we had been trying to use undies, but at daycare we were sending her in diapers because I was afraid she would have too many accidents.   They finally told me that I needed to stop confusing her, that they are called accidents for a reason.  So, we sent her in underwear on Thursday.  I have at least 5 pairs of underwear, 6-7 outfits and 7+ pairs of socks in her bin at daycare, just in case, as required.  But I was still quite nervous.  And GUESS WHAT!  She came home in the exact same pair of underwear and pants that we sent her in!  I was so excited and so proud of her.

Today, I had several errands to run, but knew that I couldn't confuse her with diapers again.  I decided to be prepared and go with the understanding that my plans might change very quickly.  We first had to go to Target after dropping Munchkie's Daddy off at work.  Two stops to the potty there, with no results, but we left dry, so that was ok.  At Target I purchased a "piddle pad" for her car seat.  I've learned several times what a pain taking apart that carseat is! A waterproof pad couldn't hurt right?

During our parent-teacher conferences (yes, for our 2 year old), Munchkie's teacher said that it's a good idea to keep a potty in your car for times that there isn't a bathroom available or the public bathroom option is scaaaaary.  We obviously followed the experienced teacher's suggestion and put a small potty in the back of our car.
Today I got it all ready for our day of activities.  I have a small bucket of extra undies and a bucket of extra pants.  A waterproof mat and the toilet all set up.  I also have a package of wipes specifically for the car.  The best part is, we didn't even have to use it!  Yay!  We went through our entire day without any accidents!

Munchkie even said one time when we were just approaching the frozen food aisle "potty time Mama."  So I of course raced to the customer service to leave my cart, raced to the bathroom and came out of the experience with dry pants.

Now, I am completely expecting accidents to happen.  But I think that we have an underwear wearing toddler on our hands now.  I am so proud of her and so glad to be close to ditching the diapers.  I know we haven't been as dedicated to the potty training as we should have been probably, but it seems that now Munchkie is really ready.  She can tell when she has to go, and almost every time we put her on the potty she does go.  Sometimes we hear "too working!"  which translates, "it's not working," and so we give her something to drink and try again in a little while.

We also started using the sticker chart because I have found stickers all over our house in all kinds of inappropriate places.  On walls, washed onto shirts, on pieces of furniture and in coffee cups.  I hope that soon we will have this whole chart filled.

Anyone have any additional tips for potty training?  Since we are just winging this and trying to figure it out for ourselves, any advice is MUCH appreciated!

Tuesday

Change is Everywhere

You might have noticed a few changes to my blog recently.  I haven't decided if I'm finished making changes or if I will make a few more.  It's that time of year, things are changing outside, things are changing in our fam, cleaning out and changing wardrobes.  So why not my blog?

One change that I did want to point out was that you can now receive my blog posts in your email inbox.  This is one thing that I actually won't change again.  I do post on Facebook most of the time, but now you can read my posts without having to search Facebook.  There are a few other changes you might have noticed, I am trying a few things out to see how they do.

We'll see how I like the changes, just wait, there might be more soon.

Eat, Knit, Grow: Stuffed French Toast

I think breakfast is my favorite meal. I love stuffed french toast, so I will have to try this out. I don't know that I would necessarily consider this to be healthy however.

Calories 404
Fat 11.4g
Cholesterol 5mg
Sodium 425mg
Carbohydrates 61.1g
Dietary Fiber 6.5g
Sugars 28.8g
Protein 17.6g

Eat, Knit, Grow: Stuffed French Toast: "A few weeks ago I was in DC having a girls weekend, when the topic of breakfast came up. After about 30 minutes later, an idea was born for ..."

Saturday

Aquarium Day....... Again....

I have been reading a book that my good friend sent me "I Don't Know How She Does it" by Allison Pearson and while I can relate to a lot of what is happening in the book, it also makes me feel so much better that maybe I do hold my life together.  I have laughed quite a bit in understanding of the situations and feel like there is finally a book I can relate to while being a working mom.  The pure exhaustion, intense guilt of going to work and desire to "make up" for the time spent away from family.  The book makes me feel legitimized in my feelings and helps me know that I am not the only mother who both loves and hates her job at the same time.  I hate to go because it's so hard to leave but when I'm there I love what I do.  Still, I think of the sacrifices that could be made to stay at home,  not leaving my daughter in the care and control of someone else.

In the book the main character, Kate Reddy, talks about what an awesome responsibility parenthood is.  She says that YOU decide what to teach your kids.  It's up to YOU to help them form their beliefs, morals and ways of life.  What you say, your children believe and your life is an example to them.  She talks about how hard it is to not want your kids to drink juice, but then you aren't there every day to enforce these rules, someone else, that you are paying to grow close to your child, is the one who decides how the rules are followed through.

Now all this to say that I have been overly sensitive lately about having to go to work and leave my daughter in the care of people whom I barely know.  I am giving them my daughter and my hard earned money.  Something seems slightly wrong about this.  So in my guilt, I have been trying to do fun things with Munchkie on my days off.  We have gone to the aquarium weekly for a couple of months now because she loves it so much.  We went to get our car washed several times in the last couple months just for fun, and I let her walk along beside me in Target because I want the time we spend together to be happy memories for both of us.

This week when we were at the aquarium I noticed (and obviously was bothered by it, or I wouldn't be blogging) that the other moms were giving me this look.  We go first thing in the morning, just minutes after the aquarium opens, on a weekday when there aren't many people there.  The moms look at me and give me this look.  The only way I know how to describe it is "Aren't you just so glad that we get to stay home and do things with our kids?  We are providing so much more to them by staying home and enriching their lives with outings such as the aquarium."  I really am not imagining these looks.  At first I thought I was just crazy, but then I realized that every single mom gave me that look.  And the two dads that were there with their children had almost guilty looks on their faces.  Probably similar to what I was feeling, the "I work so much and spend so little time with my children that I take them to places like the aquarium so we can have a good time together and talk about it for several days afterword while I continue to work and not be home."  I wanted to punch these moms in the face and tell them that they have no idea.

While Munchkie and I were at the children's touch and explore tank, feeling sea stars and crabs, there were three moms, with their kids running around uncontrolled, talking.  I overheard their conversation and had to roll my eyes.  They were discussing the academies they were applying to get their kids into.  The one mom asked if they had been to visit a certain academy and the responding mom waved a hand in the direction of a crazy young boy running around saying "well I don't know if we would be able to get in because we have to work on such and such."  The boy couldn't even talk yet.  Seriously?  You spend your days discussing what you have to work on with your preverbal toddler to get them into an academy so they can be ivy league material?

This reminded me that there are many positives about the life we live.  Munchkie goes to a daycare where she is surrounded by kids of many different backgrounds and ethnicities.  She is learning to work well with others, use manners, share, respect those around her and look up to children older than her. She is well loved and knows that Mommy and Daddy can relax and have fun with her. We both work and she sees that working is a necessary part of life.  Munchkie understands that household chores are shared by both Mommy and Daddy.  She knows that she does not get everything she asks for and that she needs to work to achieve her goals.

While it still kills me to go to work, I also know that we have our priorities straight.