Choice and Chocolate Fondue

I had a whole post written out about my rotten day yesterday.  In it, I complained about waking up to stinky diapers smeared around the crib, unknowingly sending Fearless to preschool with strep throat, finding out about someone having a blatant disregard for my input and feelings, and Miss B hating the annual Valentine's Day Fondue Dinner.

It was whiny.  It was complainy.  It was a rotten post.

Before I could finish my gripe session, I had to go pick up T-Man from school.

The sun was shining.  The weather was perfect for opening the sunroof, rolling down the windows, cranking up the radio and singing along.

And as I sang The Plain White T's very singable "Rhythm of Love" at the top of my lungs (much to the dismay of Fearless) and felt the warm spring air...I snapped out of my complaining funk.

Sure, a bunch of bad things happened all in one day--all on the one day that love should abound--but it is my choice to feel the love.

One of my favorite quotes from the Harry Potter books is from Dumbledore, "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." 

So maybe I don't have the ability to have the picturesque pottery-barn-Norman Rockwell-Valentine's Day I had envisioned.  But I do have the choice to feel happy or not. 

And I chose happy.

So instead of the intimate look at all the not-so-great parts about this past Valentine's Day, I'll leave you with the highlight--Chocolate Fondue. 

Seriously, I love that stuff.  And, as if chocolate fondue wasn't a treat on its own, T-Man and Dr. C made it so I could take a break.

The love of my family and chocolate covered fruit--what more could a girl want on the Day of Love?

S'mores in January

At our house, there are no rules when it comes to "seasonal cooking".  Right after Dr. C and I got married, we were the neighbors that were out on the porch grilling during a snowstorm.  Nothing can quite compare to some nicely marinated and grilled stakes and portobello mushrooms you have prepared while wearing full-on snow gear.

Our little ones have picked up on our love for cooking whatever-whenever and they convinced us that we needed to make s'mores in the fireplace.  I must admit that I was pretty easily swayed.

(Please overlook the image quality...I have been experimenting more with my camera...which means that some events have pictures that are not-quite-perfect.  I'm learning though!)

Miss Banana had a death wish strong desire to climb into the fireplace, so we had to plop her into the circle-of-neglect to keep her safe. 

We made sure she still ate her share of s'mores.

I've decided that s'mores in January taste just as good as the s'mores in July.  In fact, anytime I get to make fun memories with my kiddos, it's a winning recipe in my book.

Picky Eating and Some Amazing Skills

*This is another one of those gross parenting stories...if you don't like those, feel free to skip it!  But, if you'd like a real picture of things that go on in my household, read on, my friend.  Read on.

Fearless is an extremely picky eater.  The only foods I can guarantee he will eat have to either be 1) fruit 2) pepperoni pizza or 3) something with honey on it.....and even at that he pretty much has to be blindfolded and plugging his nose to take a bite.  I seriously have no idea where the kid gets the energy that he has because it certainly doesn't come from his food intake.

To top it off, Fearless has an extremely sensitive gag reflex.  As in, he can make himself throw-up at will. 

Nice. 

Picky Eater+ Strong Gag Reflex = Seeing Lots of Dinners Twice. 

This combination is especially lovely when we eat dinner at other people's houses...like the time right after we moved to The South and Dr. C's boss had us over for dinner and I quickly learned how to use my body as a shield to protect some family heirlooms brought over from Sweden from being covered with some ABC pasta. 

Ahem.

Last night, we had enchiladas for dinner.  For Fearless, this was a cause for major distress.  They had red sauce.  They had shredded lettuce on the side.  They had (heaven forbid) poison  black beans! 

Oh, the torture!

My rule is that he has to have four bites.  He can choose which four bites--he can drink as much water as he wants in between bites, but he does have to have four.  And last night I was in no mood to deal with the whining and whimpering and gnashing of teeth that usually comes with dinner...so I informed him that if he made himself throw up, he would be heading straight to bed for the night. 

(Sounds harsh, I know, but if you dealt with your child throwing up at will whenever you weren't serving something drowning in honey, I bet sending your child to bed wouldn't sound bad.)

He made it through dinner. (Hooray!) But as soon as he got down, the wailing began--"Enchiladas taste SO SO BAD!!  I'm ALLERGIC to them!!  I'm NEVER NEVER NEVER eating enchiladas again!!" and so on.  Sigh.

We eventually got him calmed down, got ready for bed and I figured the drama was over for the night.  Little did I know that at 3:15AM, I would be receiving some serious super-woman-mom training.

Dr. C and I were asleep--deep asleep when the door to our bedroom flew open and Fearless made THE sound.  That "I'm About To Toss My Cookies" sound.  

Instantly, I popped up and before I realized what I was doing, I had leaped out of the far side of the bed and to the door in a single bound.  I grabbed Fearless, and in another amazing moment, we were back across the room, around the corner, and into the bathroom.  I threw open the toilet just as Fearless was beginning to open his mouth.  It was no small feat--from dead asleep to saving my carpet from stomach contents in a snap. Zero to 60mph in less than .5 seconds.  I was pretty proud of myself--I bet my high school track coach wished I had had that sort of agility and speed back then!

As soon as he was finished, Fearless proclaimed, AGAIN, that he was allergic to enchiladas and that he would NEVER NEVER eat them again.  Apparently, he had woken up, thought about how much he hated enchiladas, and made himself throw up.  Lovely.  At least I didn't have to clean up the carpet.

Medical Adventures with Miss Banana: The Swallow Study

On Monday, Miss Banana finally had her swallow study done.

I was not looking forward to driving three hours to The Big City, then sitting at the hospital all day for the study and the Dr. Guts appointment afterwards, then another three hour drive home. So Dr. C took pity on me and took her to The Big City himself. (I really think his entire motivation for doing it was to ensure that I didn't stop at Target or Kohl's while in The Big City. So I'm not sure that he did it for purely altruistic reasons.)

Anyway, thanks to my wonderful husband, I unexpectedly found myself with four, childless hours. During which time, I worked in Santa's workshop. (Yes, I know it's only August, but Santa's work takes F-O-R-E-V-E-R.) I love being with my kids, but those hours were fabulous. Thank you, Dr. C.

Okay, back to Miss Banana.

Dr. C and Miss B had to leave the house at 5AM to get to The Big City in time for the study. Since Miss B wasn't allowed to eat or drink for 4 hours before the test, we just snatched her out of bed and put her in her carseat, hoping she'd fall back asleep on the drive. Um, no such luck. Good thing she is a very mellow baby because by the time they got the test started, she was happy but starving! They gave her a drink, some pudding, and some cracker/pudding mixture all laced with barium to check out what was going on in her when she swallowed.

She sucked down her drink with no problems.

She slurped down the pudding without a hitch.

It was the cracker/pudding combo that gave her a bit of an issue...apparently she slurped down the pudding and then stored the crackers in her cheeks squirrel-style, until she could mash it with her tongue (instead of using her teeth). This isn't entirely surprising--we've witnessed her squirrel eating before. The technician didn't seem to think that it was a major problem and that she would just grow out of it, but we will still be practicing with the chewy tube more, just in case.

Dr. Guts met with Dr. C afterward and said he thinks Miss Banana is doing fabulous and that there are no signs of aspiration. (Hooray!) She still is having reflux issues, but with daily Prevacid, we seem to be keeping that under control. We'll go back in 3 months for a follow up about that.

I'm relieved that she doesn't have any aspiration problems, but it still leaves me wondering why she got so, so many respiratory infections last winter. Maybe it was just a hard winter? The world may never know.

In other news, Dr. C ended up stopping at Kohl's and buying a new shirt on the way home.

Maybe I should have gone after all.

A Chef and His Dog

This is Puppy. 

T-Man has been carrying him around since he was born.  Puppy is well loved and practically a member of the family.  He has even been photographed in some of our family pictures.  (Mainly to avoid a massive crying/puffy/tear stained face/ meltdown right before pictures. But don't tell T-Man that!)

Puppy has amazing skills too...and knows just about everything and has done just about everything.

"Mommy, have you ever seen a purple cat riding a motorcycle?"

"No."

"Well Puppy has!"

I think I get beat out by that little dog every time.

Puppy is T-Man's alter ego---much like Calvin and Hobbs--although the roles are reversed for these two--Puppy is the wild-thrill-seeking Calvin while T-Man is the voice-of-reason Hobbs of the relationship.

Anyway, one of their latest adventures features forays into cooking.  While at my parents for Spring Break, T-Man told my mom about the recipe for Chinese Pizza that he and Puppy created. My mom wrote it down verbatim...everyone better go get their pots and pans ready...this one should be interesting tasty.

T-Man’s (and Puppy’s) Chinese Pizza


"1 cup of eggs

First you crack them and mix them and then you have to cook them.

Then you do the bacon.

That goes on the bottom.

Bake the bacon for two hours.  (Please keep a fire extinguisher handy for this part!)

Then you put some cheese on them when it’s ready.

Then 2 bags of pepperoni circles-mixed with circles or triangles.

Then some milk-you mix it with some sugar.

Then you put it in the oven and cook it for 10 minutes.

Then you put on all the toppings that you want, like ham,

You can do as much stuff as you want.

It’s a recipe for dogs to eat-it’s poison for cats and humans-

And any animal that’s not a dog."
 

Uh-huh.  Yum.


*Legal Disclaimer: No one here at Life As We Know It is responsible for anything that happens if you follow this recipe.
 

New Foods

Miss Banana is starting to eat solids a little more regularly now. She tried them for the first time about a month ago, so these pictures are a little old—sorry! Her speech therapist, Ms. Mouth, did the honors of giving her the first bites.

I'm not sure that Miss B was super impressed with rice cereal, but since then, she has shown that she loves squash, will tolerate sweet potatoes, and hates green beans.

I am learning all about new tools and things to use to help children develop good oral-motor skills.  I didn't know that there are 4 different spoon presentations--with the boys I just scooped the food onto the spoon, stuck it in their mouths and hoped for the best.  Ha! I have know idea how they learned to eat correctly.  Anyway, Miss B seems to do best with the side presentation or the front-straight-in-straight-out presentation and she loves her Maroon spoon and her ARK probe.

If you want to learn more about great tools for early oral-motor development, Down Syndrome New Mama has a great post about it.

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Report from my first week in the South

As many of you know, I had never even been to the South until we moved here last week. Here are my observations/experiences in the past week.

1. I can now add Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama to my States-Traveled list. We are heading down to New Orleans in Sept. for the BYU vs. Tulane game, so then I will be able to add Louisiana to that list.

2. The whole roadkill-armadillo thing is FOR REAL! I had no idea--I thought it was just some random red-neck type joke...I didn't realize (until this past week) that there really are lots of armadillos running around that get hit by cars all the time. Random, I know, but since I have never even seen an armadillo before, this was news to me.

3. I have been called "ma'am" and "honey" more in the past week than in the rest of my life put together. I was also told that I was "good breeding stock" but that story needs to be told in person.

4. The South comes with GIANT grasshoppers. Seriously, we saw one that was about 4 inches long and 2 inches tall...Fearless was not so fearless when he saw it; he came running to me screaming at the top of his lungs. Turns out it was only the exoskeleton and our realtor told us they get bigger than that. Um, great, considering what we saw could be misconstrued as someone's small pet. Also, I have had a painful introduction to fire ants.

5. I still don't know what butter beans are, but apparently they are a hot item in the school cafeteria because T-Man's teacher made sure to warn us that sometimes they run out before the class gets their turn at lunch.

6. We at dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Harvey's that had one of the best steaks I think I've ever tried. YUM-O! Also, I'm dying to try a place called "Petty's BBQ"--a shanty with a big tent set up next to it filled with of picnic tables. It looks like it's been around since the 1950s but it has those big rounded grills and lots of yummy-smokey-meat smells coming from it. It looks like it is right out of the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes".

7. You have not truly experienced humidity until you have been to the South. We swim to the car every morning and swim back to the house in the afternsoon--in the 2 minutes or less that it takes to get from the car to inside the house and vice versa, we have totally melted. I am looking forward to fall and winter though; I have heard that the coldest it gets down here is in the 40s--which to the locals is apparently "bone-chilling cold." Right. After Nebraska's sub-zero windchills for days on end, I can handle the 40s. In Nebraska, when it gets to the 40s, we started breaking out the short sleeve shirts and opening the windows to let in the warm air!

This is just the short list, but I have the feeling that my Southern education has just begun.

Follow-ups

Because I'm new to the blogging world, I'm still learning how to do everything. I did figure out how to move the pictures to where I wanted them, (Thanks Kristy!) But I still have no idea how to respond to people's comments, or, do you respond to people's comments? Or is it just understood that you don't? I have no clue, so in my effort not to offend anyone, here's my follow-up post.

My marathon training is going well. Last week, I did 17 miles +warm-up and cool-downs which is my highest weekly mileage for long time. I did more than that before I got pregnant with Fearless, but I was also running twice a day then, which is completely not feasible at this stage in my life! Last week I did all my miles on my treadmill while the boys were sleeping, I know it's not the same as road runs, but because Dr. Corn is gone a lot and we only have a single jogging stroller, I have to do what I can. I'm going to start running with my running partner, Andrea, again tonight, so we'll do more outside runs when our schedules and the weather allows. Andrea and I were thinking about doing the St. George marathon, but because Dr. Corn will have to be in Houston the day after that one--we didn't think we could work out those logistics. (Sorry Abi!) So, we're planning on either the Indianapolis or the Kansas City marathon that is on October 18th. Plus, that will give us a few more weeks to train, which is always a bonus.

As for the brownies, according to T-Man, toothpaste on brownies is NOT a good thing--he was very suspicious of them and only had a few bites. I guess the gourmet aspect of the brownies was lost on him. Dr. Corn, Fearless and I really like them though, so I would recommend them. Here's the recipe:

Bottom Layer:
1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4.5 oz)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, beaten
1 (16 oz) can chocolate syrup
Cooking spray

Mint Layer:
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons fat-free milk
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 drops green food coloring

Glaze:
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. To prepare bottom layer, lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and salt; stir with a whisk. Combine granulated sugar, egg substitute, 1/4 cup melted butter, 2 tablespoons water, vanilla, eggs, and chocolate syrup in a medium bowl; stir until smooth. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture, stirring until blended. Spray a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray, pour batter into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 23 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center come out almost clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. (My tip: make sure this is totally cooled before you do anything else, otherwise, it's hard to spread the next layer on. The bottom is supposed to be like a rich, fudgy brownie, so check it carefully at the end to make sure it doesn't overcook and dry out. I had to cook mine a little longer than 23 min., but my oven is also circa 1922, so that was probably why.)
3. To prepare mint layer, combine powdered sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter, and next 3 ingredients (through food coloring) in a medium bowl; beat with mixer until smooth. spread mint mixture over cooled cake. Refrigerate bars for about 10 minutes. (My tip: Don't make this until the bottom layer has cooled and you are ready to put the mint layer on, otherwise the mint filling gets a little stiff in the bowl.)
4. To prepare glaze, combine the chocolate chips and 3 tablespoons butter in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until melted, stirring after 30 seconds. Let stand 2 minutes. Spread chocolate mixture evenly over top of mint layer. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Cut into 20 pieces. Enjoy!

It's a matter of taste

On the cover of Cooking Light magazine this month, there is a picture of these amazing-looking fudgy, mint, 3-layer brownies (brownie on bottom, then a green mint layer, then a chocolate glaze on top). I thought I would go all out and try them for Family Night on Monday; thinking I was putting extra effort into our FHE treat instead of just using our normal brownie-from-the-box mix. I got them all ready, and when the treat time came around I was excited to see how they turned out. Here were the reviews:

Dr. Corn: "Tastes good!"
Fearless: (With a mouthful of brownie and a chocolate-glaze mustache)"More, peez!"
T-Man: "Mommy, why is there toothpaste on these brownies??"