Potty Crisis

Okay, really not a crisis. But we need advice over here, asap! We've decided to take on potty training this weekend. We're on Day 2. Day 1 was a toughie. I need counsel. Here's the status thus far. Thanks to Melissa, who gave a good report on how potty training went in their house. It was helpful.

-We decided to do potty training this weekend. Not because E was ready, but because we were. He's 2-1/2 & changing diapers has become a miserable battle for all of us. Plus, we could stay home this weekend, which won't happen again for a while. We're moving in 2 weeks, and things are going to continue to get even more hectic. I know it's not advisable to do potty training in the midst of changes, but we didn't feel like potty training at my parents' house (who we're moving in with). So here we are.
-Usually, I've done tons of preparation on this kind of thing. But this time, we just went ahead full blast with little preparation.
-We've been watching tons of tv, Elmo's Potty Time, rewarding with Smarties, wearing cool underwear, and loading him up on lots of juices.
-We've had successes, and accidents. He hasn't gone #2 yet. I think he's holding it in.
-He's basically never told us he has to go. We've just been asking & with bribery (tv or treats) he'll sit on the potty.
-He's sitting on the potty & watching a ton of tv. I'm not sure that this is the best decision, but it's his main motivation to try to do.

I'm really not sure what the best way is to do this. ANY tips, web resources, or advice would be appreciated!

From Our House

5-1/2 WeeksEthan says, "I'm a dead bug!"

Toddler Crafts

You know what makes a mess? Dying pasta with a toddler. You know what else makes a mess? Finger Paints! Today, Ethan had some of his toddler buddies over for a bit of finger painting. Preparation: 1+ Hour. Actual Duration of Fingerpainting: 3 Minutes. We all had fun anyway. Radnor was the only one that fully embraced the mess.
But I think the highlight of the morning for each kid was the recycling truck. I didn't get all of them in the picture, but they all stood in awe, just like this.

"I Want Stickers."

"I Want Stickers.", "Can I have Stickers?" I hear this every waking hour of every day. Sometimes every waking minute of every hour. It's the first thing he says in the morning, and the last thing he asks for at night. AHHH!!!! I think I may go bonkers! (Photo totally unrelated to story at hand, but just had to vent!)

Awesome.

Do I have a big sign over my head that says, "Hit me. I have insurance!" ?

My car was hit in a hit & run accident a few years ago. A car ran into my house a few months ago. A few weeks ago, a truck hit our gym. Last week, a car decided to pass me as I turned left into Amanda's house, hit my car, causing about $1,000 worth of damage. Sweet.

Side note: What's the point of a poll, when it's tied the whole time? Good grief! Seriously, it was 5 to 5, 10 to 10, now it's 24 to 24! It's not helping me make my decision!

Nashville Scene Readers Poll

Time to vote again for the 2008 Nashville Scene Readers Poll. Hey, give us a vote! And vote for your other local faves (Baja Burrito, anyone?).

Here are some good categories for us:
129) Best Place to Meet Single Guys (if you're a single lady, i promise it's where you want to be!)
170) Best Place ot Take Kids when it's Raining
231) Best Fitness Center/Gym
Vote Now

Pendant or Planter?

Okay, last time I bug you people about this flour sifter. But you've come up with such good ideas. I'm thinking the most suitable for our space (& easiest) would be a lighting fixture or a planter. I'm taking a poll (see top right corner) to see which you like the best. I can't decide! Here are a couple of pictures to give you an idea. Keep in mind, these are just to give you an idea.

Planter - We would mount it on the wall & put various fresh flowers or plants in it.A pendant light fixture to hang above the farmhouse sink we'll be getting.What do you think?
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Preschool

I can't believe that Ethan has started preschool! He's getting so big!

Whole Lotta Bakin' Going On

I've been baking a lot lately. It keeps my toddler's hands busy, (no knives or raw meat!) and I can strap on the baby bjorn if KB is getting fussy. Here are some yummy treats that I've discovered recently. All dairy/egg-free.

White Cupcakes & Chocolate Cupcakes - both delicious! (didn't use nut extract though)
Vegan Cornbread - I added a bit more sugar
Virginia Clise Rolls- they are stored in the freezer & I thaw a few out for dinner or to have with butter & jelly as a yummy treat.
Baked Tofu Sticks - a perfect lunchbox treat, courtesy of Martha. Little fry-sized treats to dip in spaghetti sauce. Ethan is really good at helping make these too.

Sesame Street

Yesterday, Ethan found a little piece of cardboard trash & asked, "Is this Sesame Street?" I guess it's safe to say he's a visual learner!

Ethan Can't Eat Eggs

How perfect! Author Nadine O'Reilly is coming out with a book called, "Ethan Can't Eat Eggs." O'Reilly is also author of "Peter Can't have Peanuts."

House Advice Needed

Okay, we're designing our kitchen, and will be completely moving out & getting started in September! So I need some advice from you, my blogging friends.

1) Do you know any local custom Cabinet Builders? We've met with one, but would like to get other quotes. We're going for a flush inset cabinet, like one of these.
2) Should we paint our house? We have to replace the brick on the whole left side (front & back) of our house. We may not be able to make a match. Lance is lobbying hard to paint it & save the trouble & money from the beginning.
3) Still debating what to do with the flour sifter! You guys gave me some great ideas, but just wondering if there are other ideas I should consider! It's about 11x13 inches.

3 Weeks

Has it really been 3 and a Half weeks? Time flies when your hands are full!Can you see that cowlick? She's got a serious swirl in the front of her hairline. Poor girl, that's thanks to me. She'll never be able to wear bangs either.

Lavender Sachet

About a month ago, I dried out some lavender from my yard. I finally got around to making a little sachet & filling it with the lavender. I embroidered a few flowers, and sewed it into a little heart. Now my clothes don't have to smell like spit up all the time!

Here's the conversation I had with Ethan, while I was sewing it.
"Did you make that heart?"
"Yes, I did."
"How cute! Did you color the yellow, pink & white?"
"Yes, I sewed the flowers on there."
"Good job! It's pretty. It's beautiful."

Cantaloupe!

So the mystery plant that popped up in our new fence row of irises is most certainly a cantaloupe plant! We have about 7 cantaloupes growing. So far we've finished off one of them, and they were TASTY! Now that was some easy & fun gardening. My poor husband, who thrives on order & symmetry, has been patiently enduring the crazy sprawling cantaloupe plant. The other day, he said he was actually glad that he never dug it out. It was just that tasty.

"Katie Belle Blue" by Townes Van Zandt

We'll be listening to this song often in our future. It's too soon to tell if our Katie Belle has blue eyes too. I hope so...then this song will be just perfect.

Ready to Rebuild!

Good News! It looks like our busted up house will be fixed soon! It's a good thing, too. We were days away from having a sign put in our yard & the number of days that had gone by without a settlement from State Farm. A local news station wanted to do a news piece about us. We're SO glad we didn't have to go that route. But no one handling our claim was calling us back! It was seriously beyond ridiculous. Finally, Lance lit up the phone lines, calling supervisor after supervisor. He finally got in touch with a State Farm VP. That finally did the trick. After 3-1/2 months of waiting to have things go through the proper channels, we got the issue resolved the same day he talked to the VP. Lesson Learned? Unfortunately, with insurance claims, you've gotta rattle some chains to get things resolved.

The Settlement: They aren't giving us the amount of our first contractor's estimate, but they are giving us what a second contractor estimated to complete the work. Hopefully that will cover all the repairs. We don't have the check in hand yet, so I'm a bit nervous posting this, but everything should be finalized! Now it's time to move again! We plan to move out early September. Ahh!

Best. Vegan. Cookies. Ever.

Dairy/Egg/Nut-Free. Delicious.

A friend made these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies for us a month ago & I've been making them about every other day since. Go make these today. Make sure you don't leave them in the oven too long. Much better when they are a wee bit soft.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 c. unsweetened dutch-processed cocoa powder (i used regular cocoa powder)
1 teasp. baking soda
1/2 teasp. salt
2/3 c. canola oil
1 1/2 c. sugar
4 teasp. ground flax seeds
1/2 c. soymilk
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 c. semisweet vegan chocolate chips

Preheat oven 350 degrees Sift flour, baking cocoa, baking soda and salt
In separate bowl, mix oil and sugar. Add ground flaxseeds, soy milk and vanilla. Mix well. Fold in flour mixture in batches until a stiff dough forms. Add chocolate chips to finished dough. Roll cookies into 1 inch balls and flatten into disks about 1.5 inches in diameter. Place on cookie sheet 1 inch apart - they don't spread out much. Bake 10 min.

Chair Cover - Before & After

For the longest time, I've been staring at this ugly plastic bag that I put underneath Ethan's booster seat to keep the chair clean. So Ethan went to play with his cousins today, so I finished up this chair cover from some linen remnants I had. Ahh!!! I'm so glad to be rid of the plastic bag!! Now I can just take off the slipcover & wash when needed.

More Pics

a picture from the hospital Our latest pasttime - waving at cars driving down the road. Don't worry - we're holding hands!!

Note to Baby

Dear Baby Girl,

The hours between 5 pm and 5 am are called "nighttime". They are for sleeping. The hours between 5 am and 5 pm are called "daytime". They are for playing & being awake. I guess no one told you. Hope this clears things up.

Love, Mommy.

Baby Side-By-Side

My babies, each at 1 day old. In real life, I don't see many similarities, but here they definitely look like brother & sister!!

Back Home

I'm trying to resist all urges to post the same picture over & over of our little girl in slightly different poses. We are settled back in at home, and we are...umm...Sleepy. Things are good, just your typical new baby sleep deprivation is already kicking in. Ethan loves her & thinks she's pretty great. He wants to give her hugs & hold her all the time. He says, "Her hair is black and Her eyes are black."A few weeks ago, I made the mistake of mentioning a gift that Katie Belle was going to bring. Every time we mentioned KB, E would say, "She has a gift for me?" Finally, we got to give it to him. He was pretty thrilled.

Here She Is!

Katie Belle Brock

Lance here...

Katie Belle was born this morning at 7:10am. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and is 20 inches long. She has chubby cheeks and black hair.

Carrie started having contractions yesterday (Saturday) at 2pm or so. We went to the hospital at 10pm with pretty regular, strong contractions. They sent us home at midnight because not enough was happening. Oh, and they gave Carrie an Ambien which was a bad idea. We went back to the hospital at 3am with serious contractions and no sleep but of course she was SUPER sleepy (thanks, Ambien). She was a trooper and did it without the epidural in part because they kept telling her the hard part was over (for four hours).

Lance

Singing ABC's

I have NOTHING to say these days, except that I'm growing impatient. Induction is scheduled for Tuesday, so that's when she'll arrive, if she doesn't decide to come sooner. So in the meantime, here's a cute little video that I hope you enjoy. Check back later for baby girl pictures!

Ways to Save

Still no baby...But on a completely unrelated note, Do you know of websites/blogs that offer tips on Ways to Save Money? One that talks about discount days or free stuff or cheap meal ideas, etc, etc? I know there are tons of the web out there that talk about these things, but I just don't know them & I'm looking for new ideas.

I know it's late in the summer, but here are Ms. Cheap's free summer stuff to do in Middle TN. There is so much free fun around here, she had to break it into 2 pieces! So to get the ball rolling, here are 2 links to save you money. Free Summer Fun 2008 - Part 1 and Free Summer Fun 2008 - Part 2

Or, maybe you're so thrifty, you don't need a website to jump-start the brain! If so, What are your favorite things you do to save money?

Funny Things Heard Around our House

Still here. Here are a few stories I've been meaning to share...

Story #1: A few months ago, I got a new Kitchen Aid food processor. Ethan looked at it and said, "It's a Nissan!" Have you ever noticed the similarities? Me neither.

Story #2: While eating french fries, Ethan took a thin fry, folded it in half & said, "Look Mommy. An Acura!" This boy knows his car logos...

Story #3: Today, he said nicely & without whining, "Mommy, I don't want to go to Target." So I said, "Well, maybe we'll go get a bagel after we go to Target." To which he replied..."I don't want a bagel. I want CARROT JUICE!" Of all the things he could request, this was his heart's desire. So the boy got carrot juice...(Although the diaper on the day after carrot juice is not pleasant.)

Another House Update

Since I haven't updated about our house situation lately, here goes...It's been 3 months since the car hit our house. We are still living in it. Still no work has been done. We are still waiting on insurance to get resolved. Meaning...we are waiting for State Farm Insurance to give us what we're owed to repair the house. There is an enormous discrepancy in what they say it will cost, and what our estimate said it would cost. We have no idea when we'll be able to move out & get started on work. We now have a lawyer, and there were some positive signs of moving along, but things have slowed down, all over again.

Up from the Compost

Anyone know what this is? It's the fun part of composting...this was SOMETHING that I threw in there last year, but I don't know what! It looks like maybe a watermelon or cantelope? It keeps growing & growing...

Q Time with E

Counting Down - 9 days until the official due date...We've been enjoying some nice quality time with our boy these days. Over the past week, we played outside,we enjoyed popsicles,we took e for his 1st climbing outing at the gymdad & ethan fixed the car,and they & took some naps.Tonight, we went to see Wall-E. It was Ethan's first time to a movie, and he did great! What cherished memories!

CSA Wraps Up & Bierocks Recipe

This week was our last week of our CSA. I knew there was no way I'd keep up with all these veggies when the baby arrived, so we pre-arranged to cancel our membership early. This week, the 1/2 share had cantaloupe, jalapeno, banana pepper, new potato, garlic, onion, cucumber, green pepper, green onion, eggplant, corn, red cabbage, some herb and (what I think is) a lemon cucumber.

Also, I found a good use for all the cabbage...BIEROCKS! They are a German Meat Turnover (although my German friends hadn't ever heard of them). I used ground turkey instead of beef. And they combine some of my favorite things...
1) Something that our whole family can eat! (as long as the bread dough is dairy/egg-free)
2) Something that can be individually frozen & eaten later.
3) Making good use of CSA Veggies
4) Finally using up food from the freezer! (Frozen Bread dough from these Calzones!)

Noses are Red...

I know I'm biased, but I'm pretty sure my son is a wizard at coloring. And by the way, the nose is always red.

More Pretty from Etsy.com

I love the internet. Such pretty things can be seen from the comfort of your own home. Like these personalized cards, from Sarah + Abraham's etsy shop. Or this little jacket, made from a vintage tablecloth, from Posie's Boutique. Cute cute cute!And while Im on the subject of etsy, they are having online video tutorials nearly every day this month, on a different craft. Next week, you can learn Metal Etching, Screenprinting, Appliques and more!