Babies and construction

The last few weeks have been super busy, but lots of fun and you know we never like to stop moving around here. I hosted a baby shower for one of my 5,000,000 pregnant friends and made this delicious spread:

Cucumber Sandwiches!

My wonderful hubby continued our Valentine's day tradition of making me a delicious dish for dinner. We snuggled up with full bellies and watched the Social Network. It was AWESOME!

I've also really gotten into making my own bread. I am sick of looking for bread that doesn't have a gazillion (yes that is a real number) of preservatives and additives. It's also super expensive. I don't have a bread maker and its a little time consuming, but holy goodness, there is nothing like fresh, homemade bread. Not to mention, it only costs about 50 cents a loaf to make myself. We are converted!

And because you know we can't just do one thing at a time around here, we are in the midst of a bathroom reno and basement upgrade. Dr. F needs a study/work area and we need to move Little Man from his crib into a big boy bed. Currently Dr. F's desk is in the Big Boy room and we'll need the nursery sooner or later (nope, still not pregnant, but in the next year or so...hopefully!). Oh, and did I mention that our basement is very unfinished and completely unleveled? Enter my Dad and Dr. F concocting a plan to level part of it themselves. You know what, 30+ bags of concrete and 36 hrs later, they did a pretty good job!

Framing out the area

Getting water to mix the concrete

Hard at work...and man, was it dusty!

I rewarded the guys with an apple pie

Don't you love my sweet apron, sweat pants and hot pink slippers? I thought so :)

And LM's hand prints will forever be in our basement :)

Oh, and that other simultaneous (although as yet, unfinished) project? Well, our house is old, as in only has one tiny bathroom and its on the second floor, old.BUT, we also have a laundry room on our first floor, almost unheard of in our neighborhood,or anywhere in Philly, really. So we decided the only thing to do is to (hire a contractor to)convert our laundry room into a 1/2 bath/ laundry room combo. This means that I got to pick out a new washer and dryer that stack (HELLO, this is so awesome I can hardly stand it) and we got all new appliances for the bathroom. IT IS AMAZING. The first step was to have the plumbing put in, which involved jack hammers and lots more dust. Then they put in our new toilet and sink and built a wall for a hallway (and bathroom privacy, obvi) and while this project is taking about a week, I'm like a little kid on Christmas morning. Can't wait to show you the finished product!

Dr. F inspecting our freshly jackhammered floor

Happy Friday, everyone!

what do you do when....

You reach the end of the internets before 11am? You promptly eat every hidden snack in your desk, including lunch and think, "Today is going to be a loooong day"

What would you do for a grilled cheese?

Warning: this post is potty training related and poop will be discussed!

From the time LM was weened off the boob at approximately 13 mos and transitioned to milk and solid food, he's developed the most amazing, if not concerning, ability to hold a #2 for 4-5 days at a time. He eats tons of fruits and veggies, we avoid the BRAT (banans, rice, cooked apples, toast) foods like the plague, he gets a cap full of Miralax in his high fiber oatmeal EVERY MORNING and he has an Activia yogurt for snack every day. Slowly but surly things are getting better and as we transitioned from whole to 2% milk and we're able to verbally reason with/encourage him to go. We've also loaded up on stickers and he gets one as a reward each time he has a BM.

In addition to his #2 issues, the kid has only peed on me ONCE in his whole life. Unheard of for boys, I know...and I can't help but wonder what other kinds of control issues he'll have later on. Anyway, with the advice of our pediatrician, we've been encouraging him to pee in the bath (dont worry, urine is sterile!) and even that has been a struggle. Warm, running water isnt even enough to convince this kid to go!

However, since he's one of the younger kids in his daycare class, he's been very inspired by the older kids going to the big boy potty. In a recent turn of events, Dr. F suggested a game of hide and seek and told LM to go hide and make poopies. Well, what do you know? The kid actually did it! This is now pretty much part of our after dinner routine. Mommy, Daddy and LM hide in different places in the living room so LM can go. *ohh the things you do as a parent!*

On Sunday, LM declared he wanted grilled cheese for lunch, but having withheld for a few days, there was no way I was giving him cheese and toast. Dr. F told him "If you want a grilled cheese, you have to make poop." LM promptly hid in his favorite spot in the kitchen, did his thing, then came back to the living room and said "I can have a grilled cheese now!"

ANNND the icing on the cake? He told me he wants to wear big boy Thomas (the Tank Engine) underwear which I promtly ordered from from Amazon and he actually peed on the potty last night before his bath! I can hear the angles singing...maybe we really on our way to the promised land of no diapers! at least during the day for now

In a fantasy world...

Call me old fashioned, but in my fantasy world where money is no object, I would stay home, make babies, be crafty, have a neat house, dress fashionably and cook amazing meals every night for dinner. Guess what, we dont live in that world. Soooo I have a rotating list of about 20 meals that are easy to make the night before, my house is barely passable most days, and the last one...welll, I complained about looking hefty in some photos and Dr. F, in his sweet sweet way said "well, youre clothes arent all that flattering." Thanks baby, I know I've never had great fashion sense and with this body that hasnt been stable in oh, 3 yrs...its hard to keep my fashion under budget and flattering at all times. Oh well, at least its almost the weekend. Yes, I said almost because as far as I'm concerned, once we're over the Monday hump, it is almost the weekend.

I'm staying in my crib today because its the weekend

Is exactly what Little Man said to me this morning. I wish kiddo, I wish! Oh and did I mention, he actually slept until 7:15 this morning!? We bought a timer for a light per Ab's suggestion and I think just buying it bought us some good karma... and we have it as a backup should someone revert to 4am wake ups.

This weekend was crazy and a lot of fun. We had a hot date night on the couch with Iron Man and a few brewskis. On Saturday we headed to Ikea to get some ideas for LM's big boy room and some decorating ideas for our house because we are kicking it into overdrive. We picked up some great bedside lamps and let me tell you, they have absolutely transformed our room...and for only $20! Now that is my kind of make over!

Yesterday was the Super bowl and we decided to have a party. Dr. F and I LOVE LOVE LOVE entertaining and since we had LM, it got so much easier to invite everyone to our place for a party then it was to pack him up and head out and cut our evenings short by bedtime at 7:30pm. Well, we ended up with somewhere around 20 people in our tiny house and I can honestly say that I never saw a single second of the game or commercials between stuffing my face with taco bean dip and chatting. The most amazing part of it all, we were in bed with everything cleaned up (except my crock pot which is soaking in the sink), by midnight!

One of my favorite things was how we combined my friends from work, Dr. F's friends from med school, our real estate agents, whom we've become great friends with, and our neighborhood friends. We had such a good time and may have to make this an annual tradition.

I'm super tired, but Monday is 1/2 over and I've got another fun weekend coming up. Happy Monday!

Play Dough

I'm not sure what Aidan's deal is lately...he's been waking up around or before 6am and this is quite the departure from 7am. I know, I was getting spoiled, but still!? Yesterday he woke up at 4am yelling "Mommy, I'm awake! Come get me!" I tried every trick in the mommy book including telling him the sun is still sleeping so he should be too. Nothing worked so by 7am I was prepping dinner for the next day, the dishes were washed and we were on our way to a productive day. This would have great if daycare wasn't on a 2 hr delay. Not only was Aidan missing a chance to sleep in, my time to work out was totally shot and let me tell you, I'm feeling like the Pillsbury Dough Girl over here.


* side note, I've come to realize its not that I eat poorly at all...I just like to eat, I'm bored at work so I eat, etc etc. Maybe that's why I can't loose those last 5-6 lbs. Or maybe its because I'm a stress eater and working full time, being a mommy and a wife full time etc are just really stressful and in a previous life I would have burned away my stress at the gym on a daily basis... I'm just too tired now. UGHH. Whatever, I should stop making excuses but its just so easy when there are a plethora of legit ones to choose from*


Anyway, this morning was Dr. F's first morning home in over a week thanks to working nights in the critical care unit and it was amazing to have him home! He even helped push me out of bed to get a workout in at 5:45am and guess who was awake not 15min later.... WHY!? Fortunately, LM was super pleasant and was so much fun playing and stretching out with us...until breakfast that is. Let's just call it exploration, but that kid was groping his oatmeal like it was play dough and slinging it allll over. A few time outs later he was building towers with his cheerios and pineapple and I was wrangling him to get his shoes on for school. Let me tell you, the screaming and tears were impressive. We haven't had a full on temper tantrum like that in awhile. That kid just stamped his feet and cried hot angry tears because I would't let him play with his food. *Aidan means "little fire" in Gaelic...at least I know we nailed it!* I know, I'm a bad mother, so I did my best to ignore the negative behavior and redirect, while packing lunches and trying to make sure we all got out the door on time. I WAS SO THANKFUL Dr. F was home and doing an awesome job helping to make it all happen. Its days like this I'm reminded we can handle anything as a team. Now LM is at school, I'm at work and Dr. F is at the "hopsital" and I'm praying LM gets a great nap and dinner will be a lot less exciting.

*I also confessed to Dr. F on the way to daycare that sometimes I wish I could just let my emotions out like LM, he just chuckled at me.*