I think I have issues with spontaneity. At least in some facets of life... Dinner time is one of them. When I'm working 40 hours per week and coming home to two needy little people (three if you count Craig), I have no choice but to plan ahead and be organized about dinner time. I have turned down many an impromtu-dinner-invitation (mostly from our parents) because I already have a meal prepped/made and ready to go for that evening. Craig sees this as a flaw and insists I need to be more spontaneous. (Note: he has no part in meal planning or prep... just the eating.) I try - really I do. But it's just not in my nature. I'm a planner. And what would happen on those nights that I decide to just fly by the seat of my pants and then we don't get a dinner invitation AND the kids are extra high maintenance? We have to scramble to throw something together and it's generally not as healthy and the kids are crabby and out of control. I have no interest in making that a regular routine in our life. But I'm working on it occasionally. We went to Craig's parents on Monday night after an invitation on Sunday morning. So I guess that's progress! But I think my spontaneity will have to come in other areas of life and motherhood... like, for example... building a tent in the living room with blankets or finger painting on placemats with yogurt. :)
So Christmas is upon us and we have parties (read: meals) planned for Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Therefore, I only have prepped 2 meals prepped for the week:
-Sausage Rataouille (http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/sausage-ratatouille-784976/) - sausage, eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, green peppers, and of course garlic and herbs. Yum. It says to serve it plain but I served it on penne pasta. I'll give you 3 guesses as to how many people in my family ate this without complaint... ONE... ME! And it was delicious. Craig ate a little but complained about the eggplant and zucchini. Will ate exactly one noodle, one sausage round and one tomato and that's it.
-Chicken and Asparagus on bow tie pasta - recipe courtesy of my friend Sarah. I've made this once before and it goes together so easily but looks so fancy. Probably will use this for Saturday.
-Raspberry Oatmeal bars, bean dip with chips, and breakfast brunch casserole for parties.
New for Soph: possibly something with wheat (pasta, wheat germ, cheerios) and probably cooked, whole peas.
Have a Merry Christmas everyone!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Choo! Choo!
What better way to trim the tree than to encircle it with a model railroad and train set.
Last year, with his grandson reaching the age of 18 months and developing (as most boys do) an obsession with all modes of transportation, "Big Papa" Riedeman went out and bought a brand new Lionel Train Set to put up around the Christmas tree. Will always loved listening for trains going by outside- watching in awe and pumping his arm in the air while saying "choo choo!" So a train inside the house? That's just too cool. But now that he's 2 1/2, he has an even greater interest and appreciation for the miniature locomotives.
On Monday night, we went over to visit the Riedemans and Papa and Will got to set up the train set. Will is Papa's little "mini-me". (They're even coincidentally dressed alike in these pictures.) And it is such a pleasure to watch the two of them interact. Papa is such a natural with Will. He is patient and calm and he explains things so perfectly for Will to understand. His voice always carries an easy tone and he often lets Will lead the conversation and try to figure things out on his own. Will responds so well to him and they just seem like they were meant to be good buddies.
Sorting out the pieces
The track is up and now it's time to test out the wiring
Papa explains to Will how the lever makes the train move
And you can see Papa's pride as Will watches with excitement
Will gets to take a turn at pressing the buttons to make the train whistle. The engine even blows steam!
"Choo! Choo!" he says
You'll notice the red train car is hauling Will's Thomas-the-Train sticker around in circles :)
Soph came along too, of course. She mostly cruised the coffee table and played with her toys.
Papa brings out more toys for the kids
Soph takes a turn at riding the awesome high chair/rocking horse (remember from Thanksgiving?)
Daddy arrives after work and he and Will set up little block towers for the train to "crash" into. Sounds morbid, but Will thought it was so exciting!
Sometimes he couldn't resist knocking over the tower himself before the train made it to the demolition point.
Also, as an aside, we did take the Rudolph cookies to the sitter's today:
And we have four Christmas parties this week (one of which was this past Sunday), so I'm just going to combine them all into one post early next week.
Just 3 more days till Christmas!!! We're getting so excited!!!
Last year, with his grandson reaching the age of 18 months and developing (as most boys do) an obsession with all modes of transportation, "Big Papa" Riedeman went out and bought a brand new Lionel Train Set to put up around the Christmas tree. Will always loved listening for trains going by outside- watching in awe and pumping his arm in the air while saying "choo choo!" So a train inside the house? That's just too cool. But now that he's 2 1/2, he has an even greater interest and appreciation for the miniature locomotives.
On Monday night, we went over to visit the Riedemans and Papa and Will got to set up the train set. Will is Papa's little "mini-me". (They're even coincidentally dressed alike in these pictures.) And it is such a pleasure to watch the two of them interact. Papa is such a natural with Will. He is patient and calm and he explains things so perfectly for Will to understand. His voice always carries an easy tone and he often lets Will lead the conversation and try to figure things out on his own. Will responds so well to him and they just seem like they were meant to be good buddies.
Sorting out the pieces
The track is up and now it's time to test out the wiring
Papa explains to Will how the lever makes the train move
And you can see Papa's pride as Will watches with excitement
Will gets to take a turn at pressing the buttons to make the train whistle. The engine even blows steam!
"Choo! Choo!" he says
You'll notice the red train car is hauling Will's Thomas-the-Train sticker around in circles :)
Soph came along too, of course. She mostly cruised the coffee table and played with her toys.
Papa brings out more toys for the kids
Soph takes a turn at riding the awesome high chair/rocking horse (remember from Thanksgiving?)
Daddy arrives after work and he and Will set up little block towers for the train to "crash" into. Sounds morbid, but Will thought it was so exciting!
Sometimes he couldn't resist knocking over the tower himself before the train made it to the demolition point.
Also, as an aside, we did take the Rudolph cookies to the sitter's today:
And we have four Christmas parties this week (one of which was this past Sunday), so I'm just going to combine them all into one post early next week.
Just 3 more days till Christmas!!! We're getting so excited!!!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sophia is 8 Months Old!
Despite my begging and pleading with her, Sophia refuses to slow down in the "growing up" department. She just keeps on growing, changing, learning, and developing. And she gets sweeter and more beautiful each day. I just love her to pieces!
As I mentioned in a previous post, Sophia's current fascination is pulling up on everything. But as of last week, she's now "cruising" on the furniture too! She pulls to a stand on the couch or coffee table and side steps up and down it to practice walking! She CAN sit up on the floor, she just never stays in that position for longer than a few seconds because she doesn't like sitting still.
I know I've also mentioned this already, but Sophie has gotten her first two teeth since her 7 month birthday. The bottom right one popped through first on Thanksgiving Day and the bottom left about a week later. A runny nose came along with the teething, as well as a little difficulty falling asleep a few times, but overall she's managed pretty well.
She's tried several new foods and hasn't really found anything she doesn't care for yet. Hooray! Hopefully starting with a wide variety early on will help instill good eating habits for her.
Our chatty little lady babbles quite a lot these days. Her favorite is "ba ba ba" over and over in varying decibles - sometimes staccato, sometimes a smooth drawl. Also recently she's been waving her arms around and putting them above her head. She actually appeared to be timing a "wave" with saying "ba ba" (though I'm sure that was coincidental) so I've been waving and saying "hi" and "bye bye" to her a lot.
On to pictures... her hair has really grown! So I finally broke down and bought her some really neat hair clips. They're designed for fine hair so they have a great no-slip texture on the inside.
I think she approves of her future big girl clothes!
"Can we open this drawer too, mom?"
Sibs
As I mentioned in a previous post, Sophia's current fascination is pulling up on everything. But as of last week, she's now "cruising" on the furniture too! She pulls to a stand on the couch or coffee table and side steps up and down it to practice walking! She CAN sit up on the floor, she just never stays in that position for longer than a few seconds because she doesn't like sitting still.
I know I've also mentioned this already, but Sophie has gotten her first two teeth since her 7 month birthday. The bottom right one popped through first on Thanksgiving Day and the bottom left about a week later. A runny nose came along with the teething, as well as a little difficulty falling asleep a few times, but overall she's managed pretty well.
She's tried several new foods and hasn't really found anything she doesn't care for yet. Hooray! Hopefully starting with a wide variety early on will help instill good eating habits for her.
Our chatty little lady babbles quite a lot these days. Her favorite is "ba ba ba" over and over in varying decibles - sometimes staccato, sometimes a smooth drawl. Also recently she's been waving her arms around and putting them above her head. She actually appeared to be timing a "wave" with saying "ba ba" (though I'm sure that was coincidental) so I've been waving and saying "hi" and "bye bye" to her a lot.
On to pictures... her hair has really grown! So I finally broke down and bought her some really neat hair clips. They're designed for fine hair so they have a great no-slip texture on the inside.
Love this one...
I think she approves of her future big girl clothes!
"Can we open this drawer too, mom?"
Sibs
She has vaseline on her chapped, little nose. They were riding the rocking horse together. :)
Snow!
Okay... so it was just a dusting... but it was our first of the season and we didn't hesitate to go out and play in it!
Will's cool mittens from Grandma & Grandpa Riedeman match the coat from Griffin! Dad rigs up a "mitten-keeper-onner" (LOL).
Attempting snow angels:
Soph came out to watch for a short while:
Didn't know you could mow the snow, did you?
He's saying "snowball". And that tiny thing in his hands is his snowball -LOL.
It's getting chilly! Time to come inside:
Soph observes as I make her lunch: we're doing the rice, lentils, carrots and applesauce again today.
Saturday was a perfectly relaxing day. We just hung in and hung out.
In the evening, Craig went out with friends for their annual "Guys Shopping Trip". And Casey & Wes brought the girls over for an evening pajama playdate. Will is getting to be such a good big cousin/brother. He brought each of the girls a toy to play with from the toy bin and then got down and crawled around on the floor with them and sang songs.
Uncle Dub and Aunt Casey brought an early gift of books for Will and Sophie to open.
Will helps Sophie open her present :)
Just a few links left on the countdown chain! Christmas is almost here!
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