It Started Out With Panic Over a Cocktail Napkin

15 years ago I frantically searched for a cocktail napkin and a pen. You see, we did not have cell phones then.

The bar was closing and I had just met a really cool guy. He liked racquetball. Plus they hadn't turned the lights on yet.

We went on a couple dates. We went out for a while.

We looked like this:

We broke up. Our lives went on. We moved to separate ends of the earth. But he always stayed with me, somehow. Somewhere.

10 years later, we looked like this:

Sometimes when I hear him on the other end of the phone I close my eyes and remember how desperate I once felt listening to his voice and wishing he were closer.

Then I remember that he is now. And has been for the past 5 years.
We look like this now:



All I have to do is look at my children. That's the best anniversary present ever.

Happy Anniversary, honey. You're still my favorite.


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It Started Out With Panic Over a Cocktail Napkin

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2010/02/it-started-out-with-panic-over-cocktail.html

I Am A Sucker

I found myself sitting on my mother's couch this weekend ogling at a new fantastic contraption on yet another tv infomercial and decided something.

I'm a sucker.

I get captivated by these things because they look so wonderful and fantastic and they make it seem to me like I must have this. YESTERDAY!

And when another one of these things pops up on the television, I find myself watching the infomercial from beginning to end. Multiple times. Even if there's something better on. Because we have a dvr.

(In fact, I really should turn this off. But it's still on. Because I must see what else it can do!)

Just so you know, I knew the Magic Bullet Blending System infomercial by heart.

My husband would catch me watching it and I'd flick off the channel and he'd give me that look that says, "I know what you were doing."

It blends guacamole! It makes salsa!! You can make an omelette in 30 seconds! All of these cups are microwavable! You can make frozen drinks for everyone and all the lids are different colors so you will never mix them up!

What I also heard: "If you buy the Magic Bullet Blender, every single day will be a party!!"

My most recent acquisition was this:



The Big Top Cupcake. It makes a cupcake that's 25 times the size of a normal cupcake. It's so ridiculous I had to have it and I got it for Christmas. It.looked.magical. So magical that I can't even remember the actual name is "Big Top Cupcake," I call it the Magic Cupcake thingy. I would stop and watch the commercial where ever I was. I talked of this to my parents. My sister. My husband. All the people who would too eventually get caught up in my infomercial madness.

Because we all now have the Magic Bullet Blending system.

Alas, the Magic Cupcake thingy is only just ok. (I'll save you from yourself if you're like me.) I can't actually get it to look like a cupcake. I made one for Christmas so that we could gather the children around and sing to Jesus for his birthday. And someone crassly referred to my cupcake creation as a 'Jesus nipple.' I know. It's just so wrong there are no words and I'm pretending that by crossing it out, it's like I'm not really saying it. Because I'm sure the person who said it's going straight to hell. They know who they are.

So anyhoo. Back to my infomercial addiction.

Yes I own the Magic Bullet Blending System, even though when I excitedly mention the words "Magic Bullet," people do not initially believe I am speaking of a device that you use in the kitchen. (I do wish they'd change the name.)

I even have the upgraded version that came with a giant blender. So I have all those little cups, PLUS a big blender (which was what the original version was lacking -- and believe me when I say how annoying that is when I'm trying to blend a lot of something only to be able to blend a little bit of something lots and lots of times.)

But I made the children's babyfood in it, tomato sauce (which has become legendary on my legendary Margherita Pizza), guacamole, mango salsa (there was that one terrible incident when I didn't know you should remove the seeds from the jalapeno first...) Oh the memories. This contraption I still very much use and love. I still have yet to use it at in a party situation for mixed drinks because I am now the person who used to make babyfood and now has less of a need to make mixed drinks (or maybe more reason, depending on how I look at things...)

The Perfect Brownie pan I was initially excited about because it appeared to make a whole bunch of brownies that were all corner brownies! Corner brownies!! I can't believe they make such a thing! I would do anything for a pan that makes all corner brownies! Anything!

But while the pan does indeed make a perfect brownie each time, all the corners are not as crispy as the real corners, so that, too, is only just sort of ok. To spare you from yourself too.

There's also that infomercial for the "Your Baby Can Read" thing which looks amazing and I feel like a bad parent every time I watch it because I've forked over money for the Magic Cupcake and the Magic Bullet, but something educational that can better my children? Nah.. (I'm terrible!) In fact, I'm so terrible that while skipping through the channels on one of those mornings where there are only infomercials on, I spotted a device that makes your boobs look fantastic and lifts them and it makes them look like you've had surgery without the surgery! (Did you know size "B"'s can droop after children? I know. Right? It's awful.)

Well we were passing through the commercials (my husband had the remote) and he passed by this thing, I asked him to stop, we watched, we went on and saw the "Your Baby Can Read" thing but I was still stuck on the "boob" thing and said, "We really need that!" and my husband thought I meant the "Your Baby Can Read" thing, which is what I should've meant if I were a good parent, and then he stopped when he realized I didn't mean the educational thing and said, "Oh, you meant the boob thing, didn't you?" And called me out on it. I know. I'm terrible.

I even got stuck watching an entire hour of one of those Time/Life music CD shows all on the classic country because I am secretly captivated by June and Johnny Cash and wanted to see the little snippets the infomercial had on them. And then I got caught up in the other music and briefly believed that I needed this CD series, too. Because you know, it's not available in stores!

But now I have my sights set on this: The Redi-Set-Go.

It's like an inverted George Foreman grill (which we have). You can broil a steak and onions in it, but there's also an insert that makes omelettes, or if you pour batter into it, you can make little chocolate cakes with chocolate bars inside of it! There's also an insert with little holes so you can make pancakes, little muffins, cakes, potato and egg thingies, and really this is why I'd want this pan, for the insert with the holes!

But I suppose they make something like this already, right? It's called a "muffin pan." And I have a hundred of those.

So I guess I'll skip this one. Even though it still looks really cool! And I'll longingly watch its commercial. That is, of course, until the next cool thing that comes along.

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I Am A Sucker

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2010/01/i-am-sucker_3064.html

O'Christmas

You may have noticed my sporadic postings lately but I have to say, in the O'House, we're having the best.time.ever this season. The kids are finally at the age now where they "get" it and it's so much stinkin' fun!

So here's what we've been up to in a post best told by pictures.

I'll start at the beginning where we made O'history here by getting our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Turns out it totally beats getting it the week before Christmas (who knew!?) Though I have to say, watering it and keeping it from being kindling/and/or a fire hazard has been a challenge. Ya know, because of my extensive history of neglecting foliage and starving it to death and all...

Me and my little mens decorated.

But I should really take an updated picture of the tree because it now has only ornaments on the top half. The ones on the bottom half have been destroyed by a certain two-year-old with an affinity for glass Christmas bulbs. The rest of the bulbs I intend to keep have been moved out of reach.

So then we had two birthdays. One child turned 2 and the other turned 30-something (oh, I kid, husband, I kid!) and he requested we take the kids to Disney for his birthday so we did.

Where I promptly learned that Florida, though normally above 70, can turn 40 and rainy in 1.2 seconds and only on the one particular day you want to actually do something. I also re-learned the importance of restocking the diaper bag snacks. Because above is the face you get when a 3 year old is at Disney in desperate need of breakfast and it's now approaching 9 o'clock in the morning and you're hoping to scootch in to have breakfast with the characters without reservations.

Then, we did (hurrah!) and I learned that someone loves the characters...

And someone doesn't.

(I know, you'd think I'd have been a little more consoling and less paparazzi here, right? Mom of the year.)

Then, a day later, everyone was sick. Probably from waiting in lines at the theme park where Sherm the Germ hangs out on all those metal rails and whatnots, and well, despite the amount of hand sanitizer used, made it into a nose or a mouth anyway via thumb or forefinger I'm sure.

Yeah, that was a great couple days.My kids were like caged animals. I did my best.

After that was done, we went back to Disney because we had tickets to the Christmas parade the week before but it was too cold and rainy. Turned out pretty cold and rainy this night too, but it was fun anyway. And honestly, Disney at Christmas at night is just simply magical.

Seriously. Beautiful. We loved every minute of it and the kids who normally go to bed at 7, lasted the whole night long without crankiness even.

Plus we got to see one snowflake. Mr. Disney made it. It wasn't real. Shhh. Don't tell.

(I also learned that my son is afraid of automatic flushing toilets and will refuse to go, even if he's busting at the seams and hasn't gone for 8 hours and has had water, juice, chocolate milk and several cups of hot chocolate, until we find a regular DIY flushy toilet at a random Hess station at midnight.)

Then one night, Santa came through our neighborhood riding around on a firetruck. (Boy with all that work to do, that guy really seems to have a lot of time on his hands.)

Then another night, we got our jammies on, put hot chocolate in our sippy cups and went driving around to look at Christmas lights.

And then we saw Santa again where someone wasn't so sure about him and was caught giving him the stink eye.

And I learned that the automatic flushy toilets at the mall were just as bad as the ones at Disney. We thought it might spell trouble for Santa because of the pee-pee dancing I saw in the line, but Santa made it out ok and we found a DIY toilet at Dillards. FYI on the DIY.

Then, the coolest thing ever happened. A couple of elves popped in for a visit from the North Pole! Turns out they like to get into trouble at night.

They TP'ed the place one night.

And made forts.

They also had a "snowball" fight in which the living room was covered in big and little marshmallows that were subsequently attacked by a 2 and 3year old and devoured before I could take a picture. OK, they didn't eat all of them. But close.

The elves will be returning to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. We'll be sad to see them go, they've been a lot of fun to have around and the kids wake up every morning wanting to know what mischief they've gotten into.

All of this of course is in addition to the shopping and the baking and the getting up at 5:30 in the morning to get to Toys R Us for a Zhu Zhu Pet or 3 (which I totally scored) and two more family birthdays and whatnots.

But we've truly been having a great time. The best part about this year is proclaiming myself "stress-free." I promised I'd slow it down this year and even though December has gone by in a blink, we all took time to stop and smell the poinsettias. So far.

Did you have a holiday "philosophy" this season? Did you stick to it??

Whatever happened, I hope you have or had a happy holiday everyone, whichever you celebrate!

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O'Christmas

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2009/12/ochristmas.html

Fall Favorites: Batman and Robin Costume

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this a million trazillion times or not but I'm a huge fan of Fall. It's my favorite. Ever. I'm like a little child about Fall like children are about snow and Santa. Oh, the falling leaves (that we have to use the blower on every other day), the smell of the leaves (come to think of it that means I like the smell of dead leaves and that's a little weird), the crispness that eventually makes it to the Florida air... which also means warm clothing!! Actual pants! And sleeves!! (I am a northerner at heart.)

There's something about the Fall that makes the craftiness set in. Along with my obsession with pumpkin anything and the smell of apples and cinnamon and having to decorate the mantel and burn pumpkin spice-scented candles whilst also having the cinnamon plug-ins throughout the house...

I like to bake and I recently picked up sewing and I love doing tablescapes, so for the next couple weekends I'm going to share some of my ideas that I've picked up, from Fall (mostly pumpkin-related) recipes to Halloween costumes and Thanksgiving tablescapes. I live for this stuff and I troll magazines obsessively and cut out pictures and articles and dvr Martha appearances on the Today Show and pretty much totally obsess over these things. My mom calls me when anything fall-deco-related is on or happening somewhere, anywhere.

So this week, (since Halloween is rapidly approaching) I'm going to show you how to make a Robin costume for pretty cheap (and also because there are a million Batman costumes out there but no Robins! None! No where is there a Robin except for online.) and it took me no time (which was good because I didn't have any.) This for a 2t toddler. Go ahead, compare away! (What do you think?)

Now, the batman costume was pretty much store-bought (found at Wal-Greens, miraculously, for about $15. I know. Giving total credit to the mother-in-law who spotted it one day.) But for Robin, I wasn't a big fan of what I saw online (plus I was in a rush) so I put it together myself.

What you shall need:

-1 spool of 1 inch thick yellow satin ribbon

-green duct tape (yes, they make green duct tape. Believe that? I found it at JoAnn Fabric, totally by accident on my part but solving the problem of green shoes and I'll get to that later)

-plain white onesie

-Kelly Green RIT dye (also found at JoAnn Fabric)

-Size small red tee-shirt, needs to be a bit bigger on the child so as to be a vest

-Fabric glue

-One yard yellow satin fabric

-No-fray fabric liquid

-Black felt with sticky back (JoAnn Fabric)

-Precut yellow letters in package ($3 at JoAnn Fabric though if you trust yourself to cut an R out of yellow felt for about 70 cents feel free. I'm crafty, but not that crafty.)
-Velcro with sticky back

-Any boots in the world that fit your child that you don't mind putting green duct tape on. I used a pair of fireman boots we already have. I'll let you know Nov. 1 if the duct tape leaves marks behind)

-A plain black headband/ear warmer to be used as a belt (dollar section of JoAnn Fabric)

-One sheet of yellow foam with stickyback

-black eye mask (not guaranteed to stay on). It's not in this picture. Probably won't be in many pictures.

How I did the vest (aka red tee shirt): I cut the shirt straight down the middle in the front. Then I cut the arms of shirt off at seam. There's your vest. I folded all the edges on the arms and down the center where I cut, then used fabric glue for "hems" to clean up all along the areas that were cut so there is a nice edge. Let dry. Then, I cut about 10 small strips of the satin yellow ribbon the same size and fabric glued them to the shirt, connecting one side of the shirt to the other (see above). I glued them at equal distance all the way down the shirt. Then I cut a circle out of the black felt with the sticky back (I used the ribbon spool as my template, it was about 6 inches in diameter.) Then I glued the yellow "R" into middle of circle and stuck the sticky circle onto the top left side of the vest. $10 (cheaper if you do an R yourself). Of course, now I have an abundance of yellow letters I haven't used, so if you want to borrow any, let me know.

Directions for onesie: I have never dyed anything before and probably did it wrong, but I figured it was a white onesie, it will definitely take on the color of this dark dye no matter how badly I screw it up. So I tried to follow the directions on the dye box and I dyed the onesie kelly green. There is a little bit of a tie-dyed look to it in places but you can't tell with the vest on so whatever. Anyhoo, I'd have found myself an actual kelly green onesie or leotard 'cept I had no time to run around and do that. So I bought a plain white onesie and dyed it in about 5 minutes. Kind of. $5

Directions for crazy duct tape: I covered up a pair of fireboots we have with green duct tape. Try as you may to keep the folds and the wrinkles out of the tape; I couldn't but whatever, they're now green boots and he won't take them off. They must be magical. Oh sure, they kinda look taped, but where am I going to find kelly green boots in two days? $3 duct tape (already had the boots.)

Directions for cape: I measured my child for length of cape (ours goes to about mid-calf in the back). At the top, I left a semi-circle for his neck, and left room at top right and left edges for the one-by-one inch squares of velcro. Once the cape was the shape I wanted and the edges were all nice and even, I stuck the velcro pieces on and then tried the cape on the child to make sure it was loose enough. (I also used my trusty sewing machine to sew on the velcro pieces for insurance, but you don't have to, it's pretty sturdy.) Then, I used the anti-fray liquid all along the edges of the whole cape, let stand for 30 minutes, then cut any frayed edges off. Amazing stuff that anti-fray liquid!! Recommended to me by a wonderful helpful lady in Wal-Mart a couple months ago. $10

Directions for belt: The headband actually fits my almost 2-year-old as a belt! I had no idea what I would use for the belt until I was about to check out of JoAnns and I walked past the dollar section. Sweet! I held it up to his little waist and voila! A belt! So I cut out a square "belt buckle" out of the yellow foam and sewed it on the front. (If I happen to want to be a miner next Halloween I could put the "belt" around my head.) $1.50.

I happen to think it looks pretty sweet! Plus I avoided shipping which is always a plus.

By the way, the reason they're dressed up already is because we were going to a little Halloween thing at our local zoo. But it was pouring. And plus my oldest had a fever out of nowhere. So we let them dress up and they trick-or-treated in the house by knocking on our bedroom door, the laundry door, and their bedroom door (because you gotta mix it up!) You can see me handing Robin his "treat" in the picture above.

Next week, I'll have an AWESOME costume if you're pregnant and have a husband who will dress up for the low cost of a few beers and a pregnant designated driver . This costume cleverly incorporates the belly. And if you're not pregnant, that's ok because you can see me and my belly in this crazy costume and the lovely husband I talked into matching me.

Among the other things I'll feature are great Halloweenie party fare, of which I continue to add to my repertoire.

I also just want to state for the record that Saturday, the high here is 77. Finally Fall is here.

Fall Favorites: Batman and Robin Costume

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2009/10/fall-favorites-batman-and-robin-costume.html

Potty Training

A few of you asked me about when to start potty training so I thought since it went so smoothly at first for me and then all of a sudden, it didn't (in fact our lovely trip down Potty Lane Road turned into quite a wild ride over here for a while), I thought I'd open it up to everyone to give their two cents on the matter. So mommies everywhere, got some advice? Please do share in the comments. Inquiring minds so indeed want to know! Meantime, here's what I think:

(**Personal disclaimer: I support everyone with their own opinion on the matter, even if it's different than mine. Whatever works for you is the right thing for you, I do not judge.**)

For me, personally, I think it's time to start potty training when a child is able to know when they are pooping or are about to poop and can say the words poop or pee, because that means they will be able to learn how to go about their business and will even be able to tell you if they need to go. Communication is a big plus in potty training, to me.

This, for us, was when my oldest was 2 1/2. Some, like my younger one, may be ready for it sooner. (I'll let you know when I embark on that trip.) But my older son's school recommended the book Diaper Free Before Three. Now, I didn't really go with the whole potty train a 9 month old thing as the book advocated, because honestly, I was already cleaning up a bunch of poop off the floor at age 2 1/2 and I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have read all the poop and pee cues right for my 9 month old and therefore I'm pretty sure poop would have been a much larger part of my life for a much longer period of my life and pretty much, that wasn't for me, but you can feel free. But I really did love the book for the rest of its potty training advice, and do highly recommend it.

But right around 2 years old, we did do some prep work. We had gotten a musical potty just to sit on with and without clothes, just to have him get used to sitting on it. I would read to him and we would sing songs and nothing ever really happened. I wanted the potty to be a happy place. Then we bought a child potty seat to go on top of the big potty and sat him on that, both with and without clothes. Not expecting anything, just sitting on it a few times a day to get him used to it.

Then we officially started the "training" during the Thanksgiving break last year when he was 2 1/2. I, as the book advised, literally just stopped using diapers cold turkey (mostly, anyway, and how's that for an unintended Thanksgiving pun?) and it really did work for us, because within three days, he was going pee pee on the potty and his teachers were in awe of my amazing toilet training skillz.

Little did they know of course, that the poo was a whole different story. It was hit or miss for a few months with poo, but the pee was a complete success. We had no diapers at all during the day, we made scheduled potty trips so he wouldn't go too long and have an accident (he did still need prompting to go) and we put him in a diaper at night and during naps. Because he was on kind of a poop on the potty strike, he saved his poop for his naptime mostly, when he was wearing diapers. How coy.

But a few months later, he started to wake up dry, so we eliminated diapers entirely.

This is around the time the poo issue came back with a vengeance and the poopy potty strike occurred and we had a lot of underpants casualties. Then came out every imaginable tool from every imaginable resource. The charts, the stickers, the potty dances, the bribery rewards, the trip to Chuck E. Cheese (yup! wasn't above bribery here), and mommy may or may not have lost her cool (and I will tell you first hand that did NOT work in our favor so I advise you to refrain from yelling even if it is the 143rd poo patty you've cleaned from the floor because it has rolled out onto the floor and he is laughing and it appears that he is now doing it on purpose.)

The other book that I read cover to cover in one sitting, is the one I turned to in desperation, when we had some setbacks, and it was called, and quite fittingly so, The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Potty Training Problems.

It suggested that I have him take a more proactive role in cleaning himself up, if he is old enough to do so, and guess what? That worked like a charm. Turns out he thought it was hilarious when Mommy cleaned him up, but not so hilarious when he had to do it.

So, in sum, what worked for us? Quitting diapers cold turkey (so as to not confuse the child with going back and forth from diapers to undies although many books will agree that naptime and bedtime for diapers is ok until they start waking up dry, but you can go with your gut.) Our school was also against pullups but I do know that plenty of people have had success with them. And also, be aware, when it seems like your child is old enough and completely knows what he is doing and how to do it and he still poops his pants, remain calm. It can get quite frustrating, and if you have a sensitive toddler like I do, the poop strike will only get worse if you get upset.

Along with helping in the cleanups, I am not ashamed to say that I rewarded him with a little candy for successes, which many people frown upon but I don't care, he works for candy and I'm ok with giving him one tiny candy corn for a poop in the potty. You can judge away on that one, but we're accident-free for a couple weeks now and I can see now that we're done. Finally.

Officially, diaper free around three-and-a-half. It took 10 months total.

So no, he or she won't be walking down the aisle or graduating in a diaper, I promise. We, despite our few setbacks, are proof of that.

So come on moms, what worked for you? What didn't? Whose advice did you take? What books did you use? Please share!

Potty Training

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2009/09/potty-training.html

Hooray for Kashi! And their generous giveaway!

Did you know that Kashi made pizza?

I, for one, did not.

And I'm a Kashi girl. I love their cereal, I love their waffles and all sorts of other goodness. Their seven grains are always on a mission in my house and I appreciate their mission. Very much.

I didn't know they had pizza until one day when I was waltzing through the frozen food aisle with the blessed harmony that is two toddlers sitting next to each other in a green racing car cart hitting each other and trying to steal each others' free cookies they just got (for being good) at the bakery.

And I saw a sign that would make any girl turn and look: the buy one-get one free sign. Oh yes. Speaking my language.

What I didn't expect was the beams from heaven shining down on this particular case of frozen food, carrying the heavenly Kashi Pizza from whence I had no idea about.

Kashi Pizza??? You mean to tell me Kashi has pizza???????

So normally the pizza is 6 bucks and it's the size of a DiGiorno. But with flatter crust. But these were on sale for $3 so I got two of them! I got a cheese and tomato, and a roasted vegetable.

The first one we ate while watching the inaugural balls. And can I just say, slice of pizza heaven, here????? The same goes for the veggie version. The sauce was incredible, the crust was crispy and chewy (at the same time! I love that!) and the vegetables were delicious! They tasted like they were marinated overnight. I can't even tell you the last time I was this excited about a frozen pizza. Seriously. It was ridiculously good. I've told all my friends and family about it and my mother-in-law went right out to buy it and agreed with me. Frozen pizza heaven. If there were such a thing, this would be it.

Ok, now for the calorie count. A serving is 1/3 of the pizza (about two slices) and is 250 calories. I can do that! You splurge and have another piece? That's not so bad either. The tomato pizza has 14 grams of protein, and the crust contains whole wheat flour. This is the most healthy, delicious pizza I have ever tried. Pair it up with a salad and you've got yourself a Friday night splurge without the splurge.

This is just another one of those things that I found on my own and had to rave about because that's what I do. And so I decided to write Kashi to tell them how much I love their pizza -- and we're getting to the good part here -- and I wondered in my writing if they'd send one of my readers a coupon for the free pizza.

Unfortunately, they said they don't normally do that -- but they WILL send one randomly selected winner a mega-sampling of Kashi products, which includes the following:
-A box of Apple Orchard Granola
-An assortment of Go Lean Bars
-A box of TLC Crackers
-A box of TLC Cereal Bars.

Can you believe that??

So here's the deal. You can get this giant smorgasboard of Kashi products if you:
1) Leave me a comment telling me which Kashi product is your favorite and/or if you've tried this pizza before.
2) The contest closes Wednesday, March 18, at 8pm e.t. and the winner will be announced Thursday.
3) You can get another entry if you subscribe to my feed. (Leave a separate comment if you do.)
4) And another entry if you blog about the contest and link to it. (Leave another separate comment if you do that.)

Contest is open to bloggers and non-bloggers -- you just have to make sure I have a way to get a hold of you, either through a blog or an e-mail address (or both).

So that's three shots at winning! And if you haven't tried their pizza, you must. You must you must you must. Enjoy!

Hooray for Kashi! And their generous giveaway!

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2009/03/hooray-for-kashi-and-their-generous.html