He Made it a Whole Year

My bitty baby is now a year old. He survived the year, something on occasion ,I wondered if he would. Cause with the two big boys constantly in his face spreading the plague and H1N1 germs, one of them picking him up and dropping him on his head, a spill out the front door thanks to a big brother, another whom thought it was funny to push him over when he got to a standing position, I thought the idea of him NOT making it to his first birthday was a slight possiblity.
Exhibit A: After falling out the front door.


But thank you Lord! He's still here. And he's so cute.
Exhibit B: Cute!


I find myself when I scoop him out of the carseat, or the crib so thankful that God has blessed me with my third little boy. His soft little head, and giant blue eyes make me want to kiss him all over. And I do. He'll only tolerate the kissing for a short time, so I will kiss him all I want for now.
I'm sad a little. He was so teensey compared to the other two, now I think he surpases them both at a year old.
Today we went to lunch with Grandma (B, J and me). To celebrate a little early, I let Gram give him her ice cream cone. It was hilarious. I usually save sweets for the first birthday, so this was appropriate, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. We'll see how his stomach enjoys it in a little while (the kid is lactose intolerant).
Exhibit C: First Icecream.



At one year J:
-Eats well, only table food. When he doesn't want to eat, the food gets thrown on the floor in a violent fashion.
-Sleeps through the night. (although last night he woke up at 1 am to celebrate his birthday a little early).
-Takes two solid naps most days.
-Is constantly on the go. Climbing stairs, crawling everywhere, pulling up to stand.
-Says "uh oh" consistently after he drops something (all of my boys have done this as a first word of sorts). And that's it. A few weeks ago, I thought he said 'ball', but he hasn't said it since. He does say "bye" sort of, and "Dad", but not consistently.
-Claps his hands on demand only sometimes.
-Does "so big" only sometimes.
-Favors Daddy.
-Loves music. He dances when his groove comes on the radio, and after you sing him a song, he sings one back. Its really cute, and I keep trying to get it on camera/video, but he's camera shy.
-Is quite extreme in his reactions to things. Goes from zero to crankfest in 3 seconds.
-Continues to be high maintenance from the hours of 4pm till bedtime. Which is my most favorite time of day.
-The kid is fearless! (except he is now afraid of the bathtub and I can't figure out why). He crawls up the playground equipment across the street and goes down the slide head first without stopping. I'm scared at what he'll do walking!
-He's a blessing! Although somewhat unexpected, he was probably the most healing gift God has given me. The day I found out I was pregnant with him, God removed so much anger from my heart. In an instant. His name means gift of God, and he truly is a gift. All my kids are gifts. I know. I was desperately trying for B and Q. God's timing with J was perfect. He was born just after my mom was finishing chemo, so she could be around to help, and so I would be able to go to appointments with her without lugging a newborn, or trying to find a sitter for 3 boys. He has been a delight (most days)
I am shocked that a year has gone by. I do miss my tiny baby. I cannot bare to post a picture of him as a newborn, cause it gives me the fever. And I know that makes me crazy to want another one.

Pinterest Observations

So after being on pinterest a while now, I have noted the following:

1. What is up with owls? Who died and decided they are the 'in' thing now?
2. Same thing with all things S'mores? S'mores are good and all, but really?
3. I am not in any way fashion forward, nor do I care to be. Nor do I want to spend time dreaming up outfits and searching them on the Internet. I just bought a pair of 'skinny jeans', that's about as current as I get.
4. Ruffles are apparently in, as well as boots. (I have to admit that I have recently bought several ruffled shirts to go with my skinny jeans, I hope I can pull it off).
5. Grey is the new wall color of choice. (I happen to like this one and will most likely be painting my whole house this color shortly).
6. Tiny animals are all the rage.
7. People have too much time on their hands if they are decorating their laundry rooms. I should take a picture of mine and post it on there, just to get reaction.
8. I wish I could get remarried so I can do all the cool ideas out their for weddings these days. (Relax, I'll just marry Scott all over again, after all, he IS my best friend and all;)
9. Mason jars are 'in'. Good thing too, cause I own a lot. (does that make me cool?)
10. I also found out thru Pinterest that Janet, does not like buttons. She's weird.

I Just Joined Pinterest

I have been wanting to 'join' pinterest for a while. I get on there and look at every one's pins at least once a day, and its interesting and fun. Well, I finally bit the bullet and clicked on the "request an invitation" link. Request an invitation? Like its some exclusive club that I have to pledge for. Irk #1.
Then when I filled out the 'request form', it put me on a waiting list. Irk #2. Really, a wait list for this exclusive club, pshaw!(if that's how you spell it). After I got that message, I was greatly displeased and thought, whatever! I ain't joining.
Then I was looking on pinterest and really wanted to pin something I saw, but alas, I could not. For I was not a member. So, I whined to Shay who sent me a private invitation to join. This when I got irk #3.
When I got Shay's invite to pintrest, I could immediately sign up (its all in who you know!). Well, when I went to sign up, there's NO way to join if you don't have a gosh darn Facebook or Twitter account (and shay, I actually e-mailed Pinterest to find out). I believe my words at this news included expletives. Bad words I can't type. Or abbreviate. But you get what I mean.
Then I was all set NOT to join Pinterest just on principle. But it happened again. I was looking at something cool and wanted to 'pin' it, and I couldn't. So what did I do?
I joined freakin' Twitter. I'm that desperate to join Pinterest.

I'm even more convinced now that Facebook will somehow rule the world and take it down with one fell keystroke one day. (I'll send a tweet when it happens).

The Sixth Family Member

Lately, Q has taken to drawing pictures. Lots and lots of pictures, and they are mainly of his family. Or construction vehicles. But the pictures of his family are the most encouraging to me. In 90% of his drawings of his family, there are six people present. Dad, Mom holding J, Q, and B and the biggest family member is God. Lord, how thankful I am that YOU are that real to Q.

Two weeks ago, Q drew pictures of the family (six in all). Each had its own piece of paper which he taped to the basement walls and ceiling using bandage tape.
Don't you know, they all fell down the next day, expect for one. This one.


Q picked up on it right away. "Look MOM! Only God's picture stayed up!" I wish I had said something as to why I thought that was so, or made a big object lesson of it, but I didn't. I let the picture stay up. Its still there now.

I love how God speaks to me through my kids sometimes. Knowing that I am in God's family is so awesome. Knowing that God is that real to Q too, beyond words. I'm thankful.

Whirlwind Weekend

This weekend, Q had a four day holiday. I had, months ago, thought to schedule something to do as a family. Like, a mini-vacation to the beach or something. But then I ended up blowing money at the dentist! Yuck. Both boys went this time, and you have to pay out of pocket and then get reimbursed at our awesome ped's dentist. (which Scott has now banned me from...like I secretly bought a Coach bag there or something). But it was a big bill, huge really, and it squashed my dreams of a weekend away. But then we got our reimbursement back from our insurance company, and it ignited my dream once again. So in a last minute effort, I tried but failed to find a place to rent to get away to. (but I have a lot of leads for some fun places to try next time we have a long weekend to piddle away some cash).
But! I could not fathom staying home all four days and not do anything so we did the following:
1. Went to the Zoo. (for free! My mom has a pass). This was cool.
2. Had dinner with my Dad (for free! He felt he needed to pay Scott back for the hours of work he has done for him lately. And well, hey, I'll help him ease his guilt by going to dinner).
3. Had breakfast out.
4. Went to the Crayola Factory, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed.
5. Had 10 people over to watch the first Phillies game of the playoffs.
(I haven't had people over in ages, but I felt like we needed to do it so we could get to know people in our care ring better and it went OK! I actually enjoyed myself.)
6. Went to church.
7. Did nothing on a Sunday afternoon and enjoyed it.

I almost convinced Scott that we should go apple picking on Sunday. But when I mentioned it, he looked at me like I had two heads and asked nicely if we could just stay home and relax. So we did. I was glad we did too cause the boys took long naps and I did get a chance to chill for a bit.
It was a busy weekend. Next weekend, I will be by myself with the three kids. We shall see how that goes.!

Thank Me Later Thursday!

So, its Thursday, and I thought I'd bless you again with my geniusness (and sarcasm).
Today, its a practical thing for food storage.
Again, this is not an original idea, my friend Barb introduced me to it.
I was at her house and she was cooking us some burgers and grabbed her ground meat out of the freezer to thaw and it looked like this.



"What? That's genius Barb!" I said. I couldn't wait to get home and buy 5lbs of ground meat to employ my new method of meat freezing!
Instead of leaving the meat in the brick-like form that it is when you buy it, you put it in a zip lock bag and squash it into a thin disk. This aids in a quicker thawing, and more space in your freezer! I'm sure everyone else knows about this, but I just found out about it, and was so happy about this new method of ground meat storage I had to share it just in case you didn't know about it. Seriously, it thaws sooo fast this way.

Now, what to do with your thawed ground meat? The possibilities are endless.
Meatloaf, mini-meatloaves, meatballs, sloppy joes, Shepard's pie, tacos, chili, soup. I always have a ton of ground beef and ground turkey in the freezer.

Here is a completely original recipe I make and my kids LOVE. Really love, like, "Oh MOM! You made Turkey Meatloaf?!! I love you." (if you know my kids and their eating habits, you know this must be some good meatloaf. Scott and I like it, its not gourmet, but tasty and healthy. And honestly, I find great joy when my kids eat my food and like it and ask for more, it makes food taste better.

Kate's Kid Lovin Turkey Meatloaf.

About a pound or more of ground turkey
1 egg
3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 apple peeled and grated
1 carrot peeled and grated
1/2 or less a small onion peeled and grated ( probably use less, cause the onion can get overpowering and yuck!)
1/2 cup or more grated cheddar cheese

Mix all that stuff together in a bowl and toss it with your hands till well combined. Now you can slap it on a roasting pan or a lipped cookie sheet (line it with foil first so you don't have to clean up later.) and form it into a loaf (don't put it in a loaf pan, the fat won't escape and it will be nasty and take for ever to cook) Bake at 375 till its done. I use a meat thermometer to know when it's done. It takes about 45 minutes. (ground turkey is done when a meat thermometer reads 165')
OR
You can spoon it into muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for about 15 minutes. (again check for doneness).
Sometimes, Scott will make a glaze for the top, which I will put on half of the loaf, cause the kids don't like ketchup.
He mixes ketchup, honey, hot sauce and cumin together and slathers it on. I don't know how much he uses, but just start out with about a 1/4 cup ketchup a couple tablespoons of honey and hot sauce and cumin to taste.
Or you could put more cheese on top at the end and bake it a little longer to melt the cheese.
Tasty Stuff.

You can thank me later.

Have Mercy!

My almost 11 month old baby boy J has learned two things this week. Two things which make me nervous.
He can now climb the stairs.
He can also squirm out of the belt in the shopping cart.
I found this out by turning around in Target to look at something, only to turn back around to find him standing up, facing backwards in the cart. This is not a good thing. Q never did this. B did, but not till later.
This child is much more gross motor advanced than the other two, by all means. (B was still seeing an occupational therapist for his "delay" at this point).
I have a tradition of doing a first birthday theme based on the child's first word. Well, I have a month til J's birthday, and he has yet to say a word. He is too busy being 'busy' to talk. I'm scared. Scared that he will be walking in two weeks and climbing out of the crib in three weeks. Ha! Have mercy!

Look at him! Doesn't he just look like trouble?