Revisiting Potty Training

It's been way too long since my last post.  I completely missed my blogging first anniversary!  To be completely honest I have been a little overwhelmed in the adjustment back to work.  It's one thing to get used to work, but it's another to get used to an hour long commute and work.  I'm just not an early morning person and these 5am mornings are really starting to get to me.  I've been fighting something off for the last couple of days.  Made soup tonight with homemade chicken broth, pouring down the fluids and taking vitamin C.  Hopefully I can shake this soon!


We have slowly been settling into a schedule and getting into the routine of life, leading us to realize that the time has come to reintroduce potty training.  Thankfully I have a few days off and so we are going hardcore potty training.  I had the timer set for every 30 minutes and we went to the potty each time the timer went off.  We did really well and had no accidents until we had to leave the house.  I really need to go to the grocery store, but knew that was out of the question.  I absolutely had to send a fax, so I put Munchkie on the potty and then we dashed out the door to the Staples down the street and just as I was dialing the fax number, she says "Oh no Mommy!  I pee in my pants!"  So I finished what I was doing and we had to go out to the car to change her clothes.  This was then followed up by two more accidents and then she did really well all afternoon until dinner.  The night was finished up with an accident during dinner.  Completely our fault, she was playing with her food instead of eating it and I knew that if we took her out of the high chair, it was going to be all over with dinner.

Tomorrow is another day and we will tackle this, spreading the time on the timer out by five or 10 minutes each time.  Hopefully by Thursday we will have potty training mastered enough to wear underwear to daycare.  With six or more changes of pants and underwear, of course.

Time Off

I'm starting to get a little depressed.  I was so excited to have a month off of work during our move and now that month is rapidly coming to a close.  I had such high hopes to explore the area and spend time with Munchkie but I have been dwelling on the fact that I have to go back to work soon.  I think that since Munchkie has started her childcare, I am spending my days alone and it makes me sad.  I am here with time off so that I can spend it with her.  But instead, I am home, and she is under the care of someone else. 

I know that she is having a lot of fun and talks about all of the kids that she plays with.  I know that she needs the interaction with other kids and the time away from family to learn in other ways.  However, I also know that I like to spend time with Munchkie.   I think she's getting tired of my "lovin" but she still gives me hugs and kisses when I ask.  We also have been snuggling on the couch when she gets home. 

I'm hoping that by writing out my fears here, I can get past them and get my behind into gear.  I have just over a week left of my time off and I need to make the most of it instead of dwelling on the time that I don't have off.  I need to stick to my room a day organization and do things like make it to the DMV to get a new license.  Hopefully tomorrow's post will have pictures of my completed bedroom.

New Home: Munchkie's Room

My goal is to post a room a day this week.  This means that I need to get a room a day organized and decorated.  I am starting with Munchkie's room because it's so important for her to feel some normalcy in her life.  We've noticed that while she is one of the most adaptable kids you'll ever meet, she has been showing signs of the stress in our lives.  We have been having quite a few laying on the ground screaming moments and as we understand, it's usually due to a loss of control.  The busier we were, the more these moments reared their ugly faces which was incredibly inconvenient since we would be busy, but it was a very important reminder that we need to provide more normalcy.  So I did all I could to get her room together first. Here is the completed for now room.

No Princesses Here

I have a little pet peeve.  No.  Not a little one.  A HUGE pet peeve.  I can not handle the little divas of today.  I can not handle when I go into a store and see little girls throwing temper tantrums in the aisles and their tired mothers' give in to them to avoid a scene.  Because with each "compromise" a girl realizes that she has control over her parents and that she can continue to throw a fit to get what she wants.  I spend a lot of time hoping and praying that I am not that mother in one of those aisles.  I can not handle the mentality that each girl is a princess who should get whatever she wants.  The phrase "treat her like a princess" does not mean to give into her every whim, as most people think. 

A few weeks ago when Munchkie and I walked into her classroom there was someone visiting who made a comment about Munchkie being such a little princess and recent events started to come together.  I had seen this parent in the classroom several times and a few day prior to this Munchkie came home, found a blanket and put it on her head.  She pranced around saying "I a pin-sess Mommy!  I a pin-sess!"  and I told her then "We don't have princess in this house, so take the blanket off your head or pretend something else."  See, pretending to be a princess today is very different than pretending to be a princess when I was growing up.  I used to pretend to have tea parties, I loved the Disney Princess movies and spent hours in my great grandmother's old heels wearing my mother's old dresses.  However, the lessons I learned from the Disney Princesses were not lessons of being entitled and privileged but of overcoming difficult times- which everyone has, including princesses. 

So today, when a nice Italian man said to Munchkie "oh aren't you a little princess" to which she energetically agreed, I refrained from stating the thoughts in my head.  I wanted to shoot off that she was not a princess, we didn't believe in princesses, she has manners and respect for others around her.  But I refrained and instead smiled, said "yeah she's a crazy" and kept walking.  In my head I began to think about how I was going to combat this princess mentality.  Because I will not have a diva with a princess mentality.  I will continue to enforce manners, treating others with respect, and selflessness and hope that I can help form a beautiful girl who exemplifies these qualities..

There's An App For That

We recently switched cell phone companies and thanks to an amazing deal, were able to join the world of wireless at your fingertips.  I love being able to send off an email when I think of something I want to tell someone.  I love being able to respond quickly to an email.  I love being in a store, remembering something in the circular that I wanted, bringing it up on my phone, showing the employee who then finds the item for me.  But most of all, I love having apps on my phone.

Right now my favorite is a game for Munchkie.  It is so great, she wants to play with it all day long.  The app is called "Where's Mommy?" and it's description is "The Photo Game You Create."  What you do is take pictures of anything you want, ad it to the app and then record your voice saying "Where is <fill in the blank>."  Then for the game the screen has twelve pictures on it and your voice gives the commands.  The child then taps the corresponding picture and this continues until all twelve items have been found.  I spent most of the morning taking pictures of everything I could find around the house, from food to toys to shapes to animals.

I have a doctor's appointment on Friday, during nap time in which she has to come with me.  I am hoping that she likes the app so much that it will keep her occupied and happy for the length of the appointment.  I think I will soon become one of those moms who can't imagine life without her phone.  It keeps our lives together with the calender, updates all my contacts from my email account, keeps me linked to the wireless world AND entertains my child.  You can't beat that!

I Not Food!

Today I received a call from Munchkie's daycare teacher saying to give her a call, or we'd chat when I picked her up.  When I received the voicemail I was already walking out the door to go get her, so I figured I would just wait until I got to the school.  The whole way there, I was panicking, did I do something wrong?  Did I send the wrong thing in her lunch?  It didn't sound urgent, so I figured she was safe and ok.

When I got to the daycare the aide was there with the remaining kids and looked down at the floor as she said "She got bit today"
I said "Oh, ok, that's no big deal."
She said "No, she got bit by a kid, not a bug."
I replied "Oh I figured, don't worry about it, she's been bit by dogs several times, we just tell her to rub it and move on"

The aide said that the funniest part was that Munchkie said "I not food!" after she was bit, as if to indicate that you are only supposed to bite food.

Because the daycare doesn't want parents to get upset with other kids or blame other parents, they never tell who the offending child is.  Even if a virus is going around the classroom, they don't say who the first snot faced kid was.  So naturally, when Munchkie and I show Munchkie's Daddy her bite, he says "you got bit?  Who bit you?" and being the good daughter she is, she totally sold out the kid. 

Even though she was completely fine and when I asked if I could see her owie, she went to reach for her foot (not sure what owie was there!) so it obviously didn't bother her.  I felt bad for her.  So after dinner we went for ice cream.  She had no idea why we were going out for ice cream, but she was loving figuring out an ice cream cone for the first time.  She was loving it so much that she had to strip down to her diaper for the ride home.

This is a day that I knew was eventually going to come, but still dreaded.  While I completely understand that these things happen, I want to make sure that my daughter was not the one provoking the situation.  I know kids will be kids, but I hope that she will learn to share and be kind to others.

I Actually Won Something!

I am so excited!  I went to check my email before I hopped in the shower for work and there in my inbox was the subject "you won the snack bags from Homemade Mothering!"  Yay!  I had almost forgot that I had entered Homemade Mothering's Contest.  I have seen many reviews on reusable snack bags, but couldn't convince Munchkie's Daddy that they were worth the price.  I think that FREE Itzy Ritzy bags might help.  I am getting two free bags, and I get to choose my three favorite patterns. 
 I can't wait for them to come and although my comment that helped me win the bags was  

My daughter’s favorite thing to say now is “take it us” and she will hold whatever it is up to her cheek. This would be perfect for me to say, if it can fit in the bag, it can come with us. Whether it’s her sunglasses, a random Melissa and Doug pretend food, small book, crayon or anything else she decides to love at that moment.

 I think it will also be used frequently in Munchkie's lunches to daycare.  We tend to use a lot of ziploc bags to daycare because the foods I send are mostly finger foods.  These will be great to replace ziploc bags.

I am so excited and so thankful to Homemade Mothering for a contest that I actually won!

Regression

I picked Munchkie up from daycare today and ended up staying for a little bit talking with her teacher.  They document everything the children do from each minute they sleep, to each bite they take as well as every time they go to the bathroom.  My poor Munchkie had wet herself at least 6 times, sometimes just minutes after sitting on the toilet.  Yesterday morning by the time I woke up there was a pile of dirty wet clothes from her multiple accidents. This started happening last week after she would go an entire week without an accident.

It's amazing how much your own feelings can influence a child who doesn't even comprehend the feelings her parents are feeling.  Right now I can not even comprehend all that is going on in our life.  There have been way too many stressors and way too many tragedies in our lives lately.  I feel like every time I log onto Facebook I see something else that adds to my prayer list and brings tears to my eyes.  I don't understand why these things are happening to those I love, but I will continue to pray for the families of those going through difficult times.

I am also praying for peace and comfort to my own family.  We are taking a several day hiatus from potty training, knowing that we will be traveling and celebrating the life of a close family member.  We are hoping that upon our return we will be able to restore a happy, positive, peaceful environment to our home and begin the potty training process over again. 

I am going to continue telling myself that regressions happen and it is not my fault that Munchkie is being influenced by the feelings of her parents.  As a parent you want to protect your child from the negative things in life, but no matter how hard you try, they are touched by it.  It kills me to know that my tears and my sadness are directly relating to her accidents, but I also want Munchkie to understand that emotions are not something to be hidden and covered up.  I want to teach her that in difficult times we "pay to Sheshus (pray to Jesus)," in good times we "pay to Sheshus" and with his help, we can overcome all of the hurt and stress in our lives.

Two Going on Tween

With all the change that is happening in our lives it feels like things are moving so fast.  I feel like my life is rapidly changing and evolving into something unrecognizable.  I am overcome with all kinds of emotions every day.  The array of emotions include fear, excitement, anxiety, sadness, anticipation, and stress.  Tonight I was watching TV and there was a commercial for Mother's Day and I actually had to choke back tears.  There was a teenager in the commercial and I had visions of my little Munchkie as a teenager.  It feels like life is moving so fast that this day will come much sooner than I would like.  Each day Munchkie is expressing more of an attitude and temper tantrums that really show she's no longer my little baby.  This is such a difficult realization.  I know that I am being a little overly dramatic about her being a teenager soon, but things are moving fast.  I just love my Munchkie so much and even though each day seems better than the last, I don't want the days to fly.

How do you savor each moment?  How do you prevent the days, months and years from flying by?

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.

Happy Birthday Munchkie!

My feet and back are killing me from standing in the kitchen for the last 5-6 hours working on Munchkie's birthday cake.  Munchkie's Daddy had the living room covered with play kitchen parts, instructions, screws, boxes and tools.  I think we are finally almost ready to go to bed after an exhausting evening of prep work.

My little oops is two.  I just can't believe it.  I can't believe how fast the last two years has gone and how much our lives have changed.  Since I have been reminiscing in my head, I thought I would share a little of Munchkie birth day with you.  I have been trying really hard not to cry for the last several days. I think I have been doing a pretty good job of holding it together.  Posting these pictures is definitely going to make me loose it though.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUNCHKIE!!!

March 12, 2009 12:44am 8 pounds 20 inches

Love at first sight

My precious bundle of joy

Yep, I'm crying.

Homemade Playdough

A while ago Munchkie made homemade playdough with her Nana and Aunt.  The playdough is still doing good and she enjoys playing with it.  Munchkie's Mimi emailed me the recipe because her preschool kids love to play with this playdough as well.

Homemade Playdough

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 3 teaspoons oil
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 packages Koolaid (unsweetened)

 

1.  Mix dry ingredients together.
2. Add water and oil.
3. Knead.
4. Can be kept in a ziploc bag for months.
5. Refrigerate for a different texture.

Change

While I like to say that I am quick to adapt to change, the truth is that I'm not.  I may not be like my grandparents who have the e-machine we all got them for Christmas one year in their spare room closet because they don't want a computer.  I have embraced the technology age, as you can tell, and don't know how I would live without my computer, cell phone and DVR.  However there are other changes that I balk at.  Right now we are preparing for quite a few changes in our lives that are quite stressful for me. The change that I did not even think would be a problem is the one I have been dwelling on the most lately.

Munchkie is turning two.

I know that I'm being slightly ridiculous, but I'm really struggling with this. I have been looking at old pictures, watching old videos and pulling out some tiny little clothes.  I just can not believe that two years have gone by so quickly.  I always thought two-year-olds were still babies and that it wasn't until they were closer to kindergarten that they became "kids" but that's not the case.  Or maybe Munchkie is closer to kindergarten than I want to admit.  Either way, there is no longer a baby in this family.  I think that because I work with infants and toddlers I see these little babies and realize how big Munchkie really is.  She helps me cook, wipes up her own messes (don't worry, I clean up after her), can put her dishes in the sink, picks out her meals and clothes, and knows every word of every song on her Raffi CD.

Munchkie's Daddy might say that I have "baby fever" and that may be partially right.  Mostly I'm just mourning the loss of my baby.  My baby that would cuddle with me and fall asleep in my arms.  My baby that was so tiny and dependent.  My baby that needed to be fed and clothed.  My baby that was chubby and immobile.

I think part of my mourning is because I know that it will be several years before there is another baby in our family.  Yes, did all of you out there read that.  It will be several years before there is another baby in our family.  Munchkie's Daddy has five more years of school left and I can't even begin to imagine being the breadwinner, keeping up with Munchkie, holding a home together while being pregnant and then supporting a family of four humans and two canines while Munchkie's Daddy is in school.  Not happening. 

And so tomorrow we take Munchkie to get her picture taken for her second birthday, thus starting her birthday celebration.  We will be celebrating her transition from babyhood and I will try not to let my mourning effect my smile.  I will have fun enjoying this stage in our lives.  I will sit and play with my little girl who tells me what to play and how she wants to do things.

Funny Munchkie

I love the conversations that we have had lately with Munchkie and the funny things she has said.  I wish sometimes that I could videotape everything. Here are a few funny moments that have happened lately.

Sitting at the dinner table the other night we were telling Munchkie's Nana about how she is such a big girl at school (daycare) and sleeps on a cot.  Munchkie (knodding her head) says yes she sleeps on a cot.  She said "sheet out" "on cot"  "sheet big sock" "yes big sock" "cover and bunny" and Munchkie's Daddy thought she was just saying words.  All of the sudden I realized that she was telling us that they take their sheets out of their pillowcases (big sock) and make their cots each day, then she has a blanket (cover) and bunny to sleep with. She was telling us all about sleeping on the cot.

Me:  Munchkie do you want to move into a new home?
Munchkie: Yeah ok!
Me: Where do you want to live?
Munchkie: Baby Harper, yeah ok!
Me: You want to live with Baby Harper?
Munchkie: Yeah!
Munchkie's Daddy:  What features (yes he said features) do you want in your new house? What do you want in your house?
Munchkie: ummmm, Baby Ryan!
Me:  You want Baby Ryan in your house?
Munchkie: yeah, ummm Baby Yay-na, Emmy n Efan baby, Elmo!
Munchkie's Daddy: so basically you want babies and Elmo in your new house?
Munchkie: yeah ok!

Munchkie was eating broccoli and took a bite, then looked at me and said "Abby brok-e Elmo brok-e" and I had to think for a minute but then realized that there is a scene in one of the Sesame Streets where Abby says she doesn't like broccoli but then other people tell her how they like broccoli and so then Abby sings this song.  You can not tell me that she doesn't learn from Sesame Street because I wondered why she had this sudden interest in broccoli and eats it over things like mac and cheese.

This morning Munchkie woke up and was sleeping in a pack 'n' play in our room so she stood up and looked at us.  She popped her little head over the side and said "go shopping? go shopping?" We had said we were going to go shopping tomorrow and she was excited.  Apparently so excited that she thought about it immediately when she woke up.

No matter what you are doing or where you are Munchkie says "doing?" asking what you are doing.  I ask her all the time what she's doing, sometimes because I am trying to figure out what she's playing and sometimes because I want to make sure she's not in trouble when out of eye sight.  So sitting on the couch, taking a bath, eating dinner, or riding in the car, you'll hear this little voice say "Mama doing?"

She will be playing in the living room, then come find you and say "sit Mama, sit" and then goes and pats the floor next to whatever she is playing with.  She wants us to sit and play with her and it's absolutely impossible to continue whatever you were previously doing.

And last but not least.  My heart skips a few beats when Munchkie comes up and says "kiss Mama" and then "la lou!" which means love you.

Little Girls Gone Wild: Why Daughters Are Acting Too Sexy, Too Soon

This is quite scary. Especially since I'm the mother of an almost-two-year-old girl. I don't want her to end up on a pole or in a rehab facility. I guess I need to start thinking about how I'm going to combat this.

Little Girls Gone Wild: Why Daughters Are Acting Too Sex y, Too Soon

Bop the Bunny meets The Big Girl

So I was beyond excited when Munchkie successfully used the Elmo potty.  I spoke with her teachers at daycare and they said that potty training at daycare starts with her being able to pull her own pants and diaper off. She is perfectly capable of taking her pjs off, and yesterday her poopy diaper (that was a fun mess).  I decided before I showed her how to take her clothes and diaper off, I needed to make sure that she is really going to potty train.

My goal was have Munchkie potty trained and pacifier free by her second birthday.  I realized that if she became potty trained, she might regress if the pacifier was taken away.  So even though I need to jump on the chance to stop having to change diapers, I want to make sure that it's for real.

So we went on quite an expedition today to get to a Build-A-Bear Workshop (obviously I pay such good attention at the mall closest to us that I didn't realize there wasn't one and had to ask where there was a Build-A-Bear).  Several years ago I had read in a magazine a suggestion of using Build-A-Bear to wean off of pacifiers and I always wanted to use it when I had a child of my own.  However, I realized that it was basically going cold turkey, so we are also going to incorporate the technique that my own parents used on me.  Each night they would cut little pieces off of my pacifier, and I am going to do the same with Munchkie.  Tonight Munchkie cried for a few minutes, but fell asleep after just a few minutes of crying (could have been that she didn't take any nap today) and hopefully will stay asleep.

Since I'm working the next four days in a row, and I don't really remember the last time I worked days, I hope that Munchkie sleeps through the night pacifier free.  Next week we will go hardcore into potty training.  Because in a month from tomorrow, she will be two.  How did this happen??? 

Stuffing her bops into the bunny.

Using the peddle to add the stuffing.

Deciding that it's perfectly stuffed.

Hugs for Bop the Bunny while enjoying Big Girl Smoothies.

Bop the Bunny takes her place in Munchkie's crib with a bop in each extremity.

So proud I could cry (and did)

This morning I was checking my email after getting home from work and Munchkie was standing next to me, all of the sudden she looked up at me and said "Elmo potty?"  I said "do you need to go sit on the Elmo potty?" She said "yeah, ok!"

So we went to the bathroom and sat on the potty.  Then she PEED IN THE POTTY!  She said "Yay!  Pee pee in potty!  Sticker!  Yay!"  Then I said "are you all finished or do you want to keep trying?"  She said "keep trying!"  and so she sat there and POOPED IN THE POTTY!

The cheers in our bathroom were probably pretty similar to sports bars across Wisconsin last night.  As soon as she was finished she reminded me that she got two stickers, a "peepee sicker, poopoo sicker, 1, 2"

I was so proud of my little Munchkinroo!  It may have been the exhaustion from last night being my third night in a row at work, but I was so overwhelmed by how grown up my little baby is.  She's not a little baby anymore.  Not at all.  She can tell us when she has to go potty.  I'm just so stinkin proud.  What a huge accomplishment.  Now if only we could get rid of that bop (pacifier)........

Yummy Tummy!

We've been playing all morning since we are snowed/iced in.  I'm hoping that it will be safe enough to venture out when Munchkie wakes up from her nap so we can get some supplies for a homemade playdough recipe Munchkie's Mimi emailed me after the last failed attempt.  Munchkie found an a-bin (apron) and was playing with it on so I asked if she wanted to cook something.  Of course she said yes and literally ran to the spot on the kitchen counter that she gets to sit.  I looked through a super cool cookbook Munchkie's Aunt gave her for Christmas and found a recipe that we actually had the ingredients for.  We made something that I can send with Munchkie for lunch tomorrow at daycare too.

Broccoli Trees in Haystacks from Oscar's Good-For-You-Greens

1 small broccoli crown, broken into florets
2 tablespoons water (I used frozen broccoli and so I skipped the water, defrosted the broccoli and cut the "trunks" off)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole grain cornmeal
1/4 cup sugar (I used 1/4 cup honey)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup low-fat milk
2 eggs
1/4 (1/2 stick) butter, melted (I used 1/4 cup melted coconut oil)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Grease 12 standard muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.  Place the broccoli and water in a microwaveable dish.  Cover and microwave on HIGH or 2 minutes or until crisp-tender. (I used a mini muffin pan because that was all that I had, and just ran warm water over the frozen broccoli until defrosted.)

2. Mix together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. (I added the honey with the wet ingredients)
3. Stir together the milk, eggs and butter in a medium bowl.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Stir until just moistened.  Spoon 1 tablespoon of batter into each of the muffin cups.

5. Place one piece of broccoli (a "tree) in each cup.

6. Spoon additional batter into each cup, filling them about 3/4 full.  Bake 15 minutes (10-13 for mini muffins) or until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean.  Cool in the pan for 5 minutes.  Remove to a wire rack.  Serve warm.

This is the super cool book!

"Munchkie are they good?"

"Yummy tummy! Yummy tuuummmmmy!"

Nakey Baby

I'm not in the best of moods this morning.  Not a lot has gone right in the last week or so.

First my computer died last week.  You press the power button and the power button lights up for 3 seconds, nothing happens and then the light goes off.  Cool.  For someone with a computer/internet addiction, this has been difficult to say the least. 

Then just two days later I woke up, went downstairs, turned the water on to brush my teeth.  A trickle came out and then nothing.  After multiple times turning all of the different faucets on and off, I realized that it was true, we had no water.  This continued for four days.  Four days without running water.  Nothing like no running water for you to realize that constant internet access is not a basic necessity of life.  Running water however, is.  At least there was a lot of snow outside, we melted snow on the stove in our lobster pot and then used that to flush the toilet, give the dogs water, etc. I decided that simple living is not all that it is cracked up to be, at least not for me.  I enjoy taking a shower, having clean clothes and washing my dishes in a dishwasher.  The return of running water after literally shocking the frozen pipe with a pipe defibrillator was a very happy day.



http://www.rohitn.com/images/green/water_faucet.jpg

Today another disastrous thing happened in our life.  I actually think I might rank it almost as high as having no running water.  This is how I was greeted with this sunny Monday morning.

I heard Munchkie awake and calling out so I went into her room. (Background: Because we are not morning people, we have been getting out of bed, handing her a couple books, and going back into our nice warm bed.  She has enjoyed this, reading quietly in her crib for sometimes over an hour.  In fact, the mornings that we have to go somewhere she is usually crying for books as we are getting her ready.)  I hadn't put my glasses on and so couldn't actually see anything.  I walked into her room, grabbed a few books, and turned around to hand them to Munchkie.  In my extremely blurred vision I could tell something wasn't right.  I said "this cannot be happening" and ran into my room to get my glasses.  Munchkie Daddy said "what is going on?"  I replied, "I need my glasses because I don't believe what I think I just saw." 

After rushing back into Munchkie's room I realized that the terrible image I had barely seen was even worse with clear vision.

Munchkie had unzipped and pulled off her pajamas.  She was then working on her diaper and it was only attached on one side.  Apparently this morning Munchkie woke up and decided that she knew how to use a zipper and remove clothes.  How can this be happening to us?

I then was in the kitchen making some breakfast when Munchkie came walking into the kitchen, pjs off to her ankles and dragging behind her.  Diaper off and in her hand.  Unbelievable.  She did this yet another time, this time walking around with nothing but the rice paper liner from her cloth diaper stuck to her leg before I took the nakey baby upstairs and got her dressed for the day. 

What are we going to do now?  I am so fearful that we are now going to wake up to a complete mess every morning.  Because Munchkie's Daddy doesn't like buttons, almost every single pair of pajamas are zippered.  That way it's easier for Munchkie's Daddy to put on, and now easier for Munchkie to pull off.  Fantastic.

Pulling my hair out!

Me: Munchkie what is this?
Munchkie: Bim bim (Big Bird)
Me: No that is crayon on the wall, that is not ok.
Munchkie: Bim Bim color
Me: You cannot color Big Bird on the wall.  It's not ok to color on walls.  Only on papers.
Munchkie: Color Bim Bim (knodding head).
Me: You can color Big Bird on paper.  Not on walls.  You cannot do this.
Munchkie: Color Bim Bim paper knodding head)
Me: Yes you can only color Big Bird on paper.

It is incredibly difficult to discipline your child when they are so excited that they drew Big Bird.  Munchkie was so proud of herself and her artwork.  She was so adament that it was Big Bird that I could hardly keep a straight face.  Thank goodness for Magic Erasers!