i promise i'm alive

I know, I suck.  It turns out that if you only get two hours of sleep each night for weeks, you spend your spare time closing your eyes.  That, and I've kind of been on a picture-taking hiatus, from my Big Girl camera anyway.  There's something about living in a moment without taking a picture.  Amen, amiright?

Easter was phenomenal.  Both my boys worked it as if we bounce around like bunnies and eat chocolate every day of the year.  Oh yeah, we do.

I'd post some family pictures (we did look adorable) but I look three months prego in all of the shots.  It might have something to do with quitting my personal trainer and eating whatever I want the past two months. 

Wow, I really do suck!

One thing I have been doing right (and always strive to do right) is being with my boys.

Spring break has been amazing so far, although tough as usual.  How do you SAHM's do it?  It's like every day is wonderful, but by 8 o'clock you feel like you've run a marathon.  Connor is sitting up on his own and crawling.  Yes, crawling.  I just wasn't prepared for my five-month old to be crawling yet.  I've kicked it in high gear to get all the small toys thrown stored away - I'm going to have to buy one of those psycho-mom octagon fences where I can throw Connor if I need to grab a beer cook a meal or something.

Anyways, I'll be back with more randomness as soon as I get back to work next week, starting with thoughts on the newest "cool" thing to do with your friends, which is painting a picture.  Have you seen that?  Everyone is going to painting parties and going home with some dumb picture like it's high school art class.  I cannot think of a worse way to spend my time.  Obviousy art class wasn't my gig.

See you soon!

what i feed my toddler

If you're lucky enough to have children, feeding them (especially a two year old) could quite possibly be the biggest battle of your life.  One day they love scrambled eggs, the next day they throw them on the floor.  All they want is dessert:  "But I want ice cream"  "Eat your dinner then you can have ice cream."  (Takes one bite) "Okay I want my ice cream."  "No dude, eat all of it."  "But I just want the ice cream."

YEAH, ME TOO.

Fortunately for me, Patrick is a pretty decent eater.  And by that I mean he will try almost anything and he's also pretty good about being bribed.  (Mother of the Year right here.)  When feeding a toddler, I think the key is to just put it on their plate.  Even if you're 99.9% positive your child will not even glace toward asparagus, just cut it up and put it on there, and do it over and over.  Kids may not like something the first time they see it, but if it keeps coming around they're more likely to give it a shot.  There is nothing more annoying than a kid that will only eat hot dogs, french fries and macaroni & cheese.  It's not the kid's fault, it's the parent that is enabling them.  Just put it on their plate.

That being said, if you're responsible for feeding a child/children, sometimes you just want some ideas.  You're sick of making the same lunches and dinners time and time again.  I decided to take some shots of the types of meals I put together for Patrick.  Trust me, I understand it's nothing special.  I'm not trying to be anything but a normal, exhausted Mom that's attempting to get some semi-nutritional food into my kid's stomach.

So if you're lacking in the idea department, maybe these will inspire you.

By the way, if you need real family dinners, here's what's on my menu this week:

• My parents got me a cookbook for my birthday written by my new idol:  "The Pioneer Woman."  I'm going to try her favorite meatloaf.  Have you guys seen her blog?  It's amazing.  She's amazing.  
• I made these creamy taquitos a few weeks ago and I'm dying to make them again.  If you like chicken and cilantro they're right up you're alley.  They're really kid-friendly too - just go easy on the chili powder.
• A craving for Chipotle has me wanting to make this sweet barbacoa pork that can be put in the crockpot and left on all day.  Super easy to put together in the morning before a day at work.  Or even easier, just go to Chipotle.
• With Jeff not eating sweets until Easter, I've calmed down in the dessert department, buuuuuut...I will be picking up my new Pampered Chef brownie pan any day now so I'll have to try these brownies for a crowd.  The crowd will include:  Patrick and myself.  

catching up

Before the boys got sick, this is what happened.

classic birthday selfie.

• I turned 29.  Jeff keeps giving me crap for being in the last year of my 20's.  It doesn't feel super, but it doesn't feel bad either.  In fact, it's much easier to remember that I'm 29 - there was something about the 26, 27, 28 age that made it hard to remember.  Does that mean I'm close to thirty?
• I bought myself a present for my birthday.  I'd been wanting one of those "statement" necklaces for quite some time and ran into (the one pictured above) at Target.  It makes me feel like a real woman, and that was my exact intention.

• Jeff turned 30.  That evening, I made some of his favorites:  ribeye steak, frosted cauliflower and fruit pizza.  I have been using the same recipe for fruit pizza for years and really wanted to change it up this time, so I called our last book club host and asked for the recipe she used (thanks Heather via Meghan!).  It's much lighter and tasted simply divine.  Despite giving up sweets for Lent, Jeff got permission from me to scarf it down.  Who do I think I am?  St. Bernadette?  Whatever, I just kept saying "it's our birthday week."

Fruit Pizza

2 tubes of sugar cookie dough

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 container of cool whip

assorted fresh fruit

Bake cookie dough according to package directions (I flattened mine out on my Pampered Chef stone - it took 19 minutes).  Let it cool completely.  Blend cream cheese, sugar and vanilla.  Fold in cool whip.  Spread over cookie and top with fresh fruit.

• This guy.  I knew as soon as I wrote the post on living stress-free with a toddler that I was completely setting myself up, and it happened.  My kid went nuts.  Certifiably.  I mean, Patrick has his bad moments every single day, but nothing like this past weekend.  He was out of control.  It actually scared me.  Dumping milk all over the dining room floor, climbing on the washer and taking things out of the cupboard to put in my floor plant, pulling folded washcloths out of the cabinet onto the floor, getting stuck in Connor's exersaucer, running towards the road, out of control.  Then someone told me.  Have you heard of antibiotics causing hyperactivity in toddlers?  Patrick has been on amoxicillin for a week so I immediately looked it up and found a plethora of information on this side effect.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.  

• We took our first trip to the park this spring.  Spring!  Yessssssss!  It felt like the dead of winter, but hey, when ya need fresh air you get it any way you can.  However, right now it's 63° and sunny so I'm outta here!