"Finger Food'

I made the most delicious dinner last night. It was a recipe from this last issue of Gourmet Magazine for Chicken tostadas. and it turned out just like the photos. It wasn't quick like they said, a lot of prep but well worth it. It was so easy though that I am using the chicken and sauce again tonight and mixing it with pasta instead of making tostadas. It was very versatile.

I had to use a jalapeno pepper in place of a Serrano Chile because our supply of Chile's is pitiful around here. But it still worked.

I know that Uncle RaRa and I devoured ours. We used our hands and just chowed down. It was quite messy but scrumptious. J is a Midwesterner and I have found that they (sorry for generalizing and please feel free to put in your 2 cents if you think I am wrong) don't like to eat with their hands. You know, we grew up picking a lot of crawfish, shrimp and crab so it's just second nature to me. I even think J eats ribs with a knife and fork. But believe me, some things are just easier when you classify them as finger food. Then you can go to town without any utensils getting in the way.

We went to Commander's yesterday for Uncle RaRa's bday. He sent us home with a chef's hat for W. W thought Master P would enjoy wearing it.


Today we just played outside in the backyard. We were going to Daneel park but P took a long morning nap so W and I went outside to play with the new water guns.


I pulled out the trusty Mexican blankets from J's bachelor days and let Master P hang out with us when he woke up. It was actually a blast.

Here's Master P relaxing.

and W taking a rest in between water gun fights.

For baby Kate

Another friend just had her new little baby. Welcome to the world Baby Kate!

Having my second baby was an exercise in patience. It was hard and I don't know how I got through the first few weeks (well, yeah, I do. with the help of J, W and my friends and family) but now I can't imagine not having Master P in my life. Anyway, the point of posting is that hearing of the new life entering into our world made me nostalgic for a tiny little baby. Not for long, just for a second but there's nothing like a little baby looking up at you so hard. Sometimes the intensity of the gaze makes you think that they've known you forever and others it's like they are desperately trying to figure you out. Whatever it is....what I do know is that babies are miracles.

I haven't shared a photo of P man lately so thought I would. Here he is in all his chunky baby glory. (We have a gazillion hand me down bibs. This day he was "Jack")

More about Toxic bottles

I finally gave in and bought some glass bottles. Only because when I was at Babies R Us the other day I noticed that Dr. Brown's were now in glass. I am still not totally sold that the plastic ones are poisonous and if it's true it's kind of hard to avoid it all... What with plastic sippy cups, plastic bowls, plastic water bottles, AHHHHH!!!!!!. I figured that I would buy 4 and atleast alternate them with the evil plastic ones to eliminate Master P's exposure to the toxins. They are still sitting on my counter in the packaging waiting to be sterilized.

Alleluia moment Number (I'm just guessing) 100

I have a lot of Alleluia moments. I'm sure we are way past Alleluia moment number 100 but I decided to start keeping track of them and thought 100 was a good number. You can read about another moment. and another one. We had one last night.

W is not an eater. and all of the experts who give advice on "how to get your kid to eat" don't know anything. I can't make it look pretty or make it fun by making funny faces with ketchup or make it "fun" by giving him something for dipping. None of it matters. He won't even try a bite. Most things I know he would like but he won't even try it.

I tried to trick him last night by calling the pizza (Amy's pizza), cheesy breadsticks. He loves the ones from Reginelli's. He was not fooled once he saw the tomato sauce oozing out and messing up his fingers. I panicked and like always rushed around trying to find a way to make it more appetizing for him. I know this is the reason he's a picky eater. It's my fault. and I did it yet again. Until I was just too tired. I cut it into squares and put it on the ottoman and rolled it in front of his easy chair while he was watching Elmo (this is awful, right? Letting him watch it totally in front of the tv on my new furniture) and left the room. A few minutes later I peeked in and there he was with tomato sauce all over his face smiling. I came out of hiding and he said, "Good!". This was the Alluluia moment! I could hear the angels singing. He ate the whole personal pizza. Now I know it's not the best thing he could be eating but that Amy makes a mean pizza. The crust is whole wheat, the tomatoes organic and well, W could not have said it better, "Good!".

I am so tired of making grilled cheeses. I am even more tired of making the real chicken nuggets from Whole Foods that take 30 minutes so Amy's pizza was the next best thing. I'll say it again. Alleluia.

Microsoft Life Cam

For Christmas I got my parents a Microsoft Life Cam
so that they could see the Little Buddy and Master P while they were away. We finally got it hooked up and OH MY GOSH! I feel like I'm on the Jetsons. It is so much cooler than I ever thought. My dad got his end working after a lot of hoo-rah and he popped up. W was sitting on my lap and immediately said, "Papa!". Now I don't look too attractive on the Life Cam but I am definitely hooked. I highly suggest it especially if you have family who can't see your kids often enough.

An early father's day cheers.

I just finished reading Kate F.'s blog, one of my favorites and it reminded me of my fabulous dinner I made the other night. So New Orleans and so good albeit a big rich. J didn't enjoy it as much as I did being a midwesterner and all but it sure brought me back to Saturday morning's when I was a kid and my dad would make fried green tomatoes for us.

The reason I thought of making it is because my tomato plant is producing a buttload of tomatoes and 4 of them we picked off weren't ripening to red so I just fried them up with yellow cornmeal, salt and pepper, that's all and made Shrimp Remoulade to go on top. I wasn't sure that the Remoulade was up to par (I had to make 2 batches) so I didn't plate it as I envisioned with the shrimp on top of the tomatoes.

But cheers to Dad for raising me to be a good ole fried green tomato fryer. One of many, many, many reasons that I love him.

winners, losers, boozers, lookers and hookers

Some new words to add to W's vocabulary. I have "I love this bar" by Toby Keith on a cd and W picked up the words quickly and pretty much it's all he likes to hear. I guess I'll have to stop playing it when he's old enough to know what the words mean but for now it's actually kind of funny to hear him singing it with such gusto. and then say, "Sing it again!"

What are we up to? Not much and you'd think I were super busy what with this lack of posting. J and I went to Cancun and had a blast despite the "tropical storm". The boys had a great time with Uncle RaRa and Aunt JoJo, Mimi and Papa and Jessie and G. I worried about leaving them for nothing. W didn't even want to talk to us on the phone. I was really worried about Master P being pissed at me when we got back. We left W for the first time at this age and he wanted nothing to do with me upon our return. They grew so much while we were away. Seriously. P was so much bigger, clapping and babbling nonstop. and W was talking so much more too probably because everyone else can't read his mind like we do.

So the summer's here and no one is going to camp and we are left to our own devices. So far it hasn't been too bad. OHHHHHHH!!!! But the big news is, is that W pee peed on the potty!!!!!! Yes, all on his own. We were about to take a bath and he said he wanted to pee pee on the potty. I rolled my eyes and thought, yeah right. So we pulled out the potty and lo and behold......I was speechless. Then I started yelling and jumping up and down. It was quite the event.

Anyway, I try to plan my days. If you are in the same boat as me, with nothing to do, it's the best way to go so you don't lose your mind. I plan something for every morning. If it's a simple morning activity like going for coffee or going to the playground then we come home and paint or do something else. But it is definitely nice to know what we are going to do. Our options are...
swimming, Parenting Center (although we haven't yet done this because they are well for the first time in eons and I can't stand the thought of having them sick again), going to get coffee and a cookie either at the coffee shop or after driving the car at the grocery store, playdates, Children's Museum. I'll add the park in there if it's in the early morning. Story time at the Library is always good too.

I'm under the weather-Zicam seems to be working-so I'm signing off now. I'll be back more regularly over the summer.