Sunday, May 24, 2009

Elijahisms

So, Elijah pulled ligaments in his shoulder. We made a water slide in our back yard and he fell off the ladder climbing up to the slide. I think his shoulder hit the base of the slide and that's how he hurt it as badly as he ddid. We spent Friday night at the ER, 5 hours total. Good times. Actually, the kids were super cute sitting next to each other on the bed watching Scooby Doo on the DVD player. Thankfully this wasn't a rush out the door to the ER kind of thing so I was able to go prepared for the long haul.

Well, after we settled into the waiting room at the ER I said to Elijah, "I'm so sorry Elijah. I didn't realize you hurt your arm so badly. I thought you were just being a crab apple." He said, "No. I was a sad apple."

He didn't really complain about his arm after he hurt it. He cried like normal when he falls, and it was dinner time so I thought he was just tired and hungry. It wasn't until he was going to bed that I realized it was really hurt. He complained about it after climbing into his bed. He was crying because he put pressure on it and it hurt. Poor thing.

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He has also been telling me that he doesn't want to grow up lately. He wants to stay little so I can hold him forever.

This morning he told me that growing up was not "working out for him." But, after talking about it for a bit he said, "If I grow up and my legs get long I can reach the pedals and drive a car right?" He was better after that realization.

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He has been super polite lately. He and Madelyn will be playing and he'll say, "Will you excuse me for a minute please Madelyn?" He needs a bathroom break. It's so sweet when I hear him say it!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Who Am I?

I never enjoyed cooking. It was a chore. I didn't like it. Once I was home with my babies I had to figure out how to cook since I really had no excuse at that point. So, I did what I had to do. I was just proud of myself for evolving from the processed chicken and biscuit dinner you can buy that are pretty much already made for you.

I just get so sick of making and eating the same foods. Well, recently it seems that aliens have come to earth and replaced my hate-to-cook-self with a wow-I-can't-wait-to-try-that-recipe-self. It's weird. I just saw a recipe for homemade noodles and thought, "Oh, I can't wait to try that!"

Wait, what? I turned around to look for who else may have thought that that I just heard their thoughts.

No one is here. It's just me.

I even bake now too which baking used to be such a boring waste of time for me. Ugh.

Mostly, I was just thrilled to have people cook and bake for me. Now it's all different. I used to just pick up whatever food to eat while I was out. Now I think things like, "Oh no. I can make something else that will be even better at home." Wait, what? (You know the drill.)

So, why am I like this now? I have explored this and this is what I have found.

I discovered www.PioneerWoman.com. How can you not want to try her recipes. She takes the best pictures of the food and it is SO step by step it is hard to mess it up.

Also, I inherited some kitchen pans and supplies from Dan's grandmother. They are selling her house and we were able to pick some things we might need. Having more than one potand mixing bowl makes a difference when you want to try different recipes, and yes I did only have one pot and one mixing bowl. No wait. I did have 2 bowls, but one I kept in the laundry room for dirty rags from wiping up my babies.

I have been trying to make healthier things for my family too using more natural ingredients and trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup. Can you believe it's even in a can of kidney beans!? Crazy.

And lastly, my kids are older. I can focus a little more on cooking. This makes a huge difference. Before it would be squeezing in dinner during whatever happy occupied moments the kids had.

So, come over and enjoy some home cookin' while it lasts! I don't know when the aliens might come back and replace the new me with the old me.

I should also mention that Dan has been loving life.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Bad Guys

I offered Elijah his spiderman laptop to play with tonight to help him settle before going to sleep. He had a 2.5 hour nap which is highly unusual. He is sick right now though so he definitely needed it. Anyway, I offered it to him and he said, "No thanks. I've had enough of fighting and trapping bad guys for now."

Even super heroes need breaks at times.

Our Weekend Getaway (Summed Up)

Fabulous. No kids. Cute little house. Perfect. Fog. Cool. Movies (@ 4 p.m.!! and on - who does that?). Good wine. Yummy coffee (made by hubby). No cooking. Yummy food (whenever we felt like eating, not based on bedtime schedule). Time to have conversation, giggle, laugh heartily. Driving around like teenagers. Walking. People watching. Staying up late and sleeping in. Flirting. Doing nothing. Ahhhh ... life with no schedule. It was wonderful.

Back to reality now.

I realized this weekend that I am good for about 24 hours and then I am ready to hug my kids again. I loved being away, but I know they would have had fun too so I can't wait to go back to the beach with them. Hopefully the weather will be nice when we go back though so we can do more outside. The kids would have gone nuts this weekend if they were with us because we couldn't really play on the beach and only minimally in the yard.

This was so crazy. We were dripping with water after being on the beach due to the thick fog. I have never been in a fog like that before where you are literally wet after being in it. It was crazy.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Things I want to Remember

Yesterday was cloudy, 61 degrees, and rainy. When Madelyn got home from school and the kids were playing outside Elijah insisted he needed his jacket and gloves. He was thrilled too when he found his winter hat. He put it all on and then ran outside in his barefeet.

The best part was when he brought all his clothes to me to help him put it on and then said, "Oh, will you excuse me for a minute please?" He ran back to the office and got his milk. He came back and said, "I just needed to get my milk." It was polite and grown up sounding. There is hope for my boy yet.

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Madelyn is so tender-hearted, always has been. Elijah has been sick this week (as has Madelyn), but as Madelyn was getting better Elijah was getting worse. She has been feeling his head, stroking his hair, trying to tell me what she thinks he needs, asking if she can take his temperature. She will be a good mommy one day. I could just hug her all day long.

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We are going away this weekend to the beach. My mom will be here with the kids. I know that they will be in good hands, but it's always a bit hard to leave my kids behind. I actually was planning on taking them with us, but Dan thought it would be a good anniversary getaway for us. I agree, but it is still hard to leave them. So, this morning the kids and I were hugging and taking turns with knock knock jokes. Mine always ended up being something about hugging the kids. Madelyn said she was going to hug me forever and ever. I always tell her when I hug her that I could just stay like that forever. She giggles and tells me all the things she needs to do that she can't quite do with her mother attached to her. Then I remembered I had to get her to school! Oops.