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.*

A fun new toy!

I've just dicovered this fun new online photo tool called Picnik. Its like photoshop for dummies and its great!*

Check out what you can do in less than 5 minutes:

Have fun!!

*I have no affiliation with picnik, I just stumbled upon it and love it!

Baby, its COLD outside!

Last night was the coldest night of the year, and holy cow was it cold! I was so bundled up for the train this morning that I looked like the kid from "A Christmas Story," but at least I was warm. Dr. F and I were also very good and worked out before the Little Man woke up this morning. I swear, that is the only time of day I might possibly get a work out in, it just sucks that its at 5:30am. Moving on...we had such a wonderful weekend, complete with hanging at Aidan's favorite place, the children's museum, with our neighbors and an old school date night like we used to do in our apartment: put little man to bed, wear favorite sweat pants, snuggle on the couch with some mango and wine and watch a movie. We watched Inception and I only have one way to describe it: "mind fuck" WOW, it was AMAZING. We haven't been able to stop talking about it since the second it ended. Go see it if you haven't. Seriously. Happy Monday!

This kid loooves the carousel...and always names his horse "Peanut"

Aidan and his second cousins on my side. I love how close in age they are!

Can you tell we're related? Me and my cousin Pam

I love this picture. I love this man.

Yay cousins!

Back to Basics

As the mommy-cook extraordinaire at our house, I'm very focused on making sure my family eats home cooked, balanced, healthy meals. This means meal planning and making as many things as I can from scratch, as well as figuring out substitutes for different ingredients (however...I will use real whipping cream and full fat butter on Thanksgiving etc...splurges are def OK!). This also means that I've begun to read more and more about harmful hidden things in food and packaging (no BPA in our water bottles or coffee mugs!).

Well, last night I came across this article in Prevention Magazine, which is a pretty legit source. Its all about 7 foods you should never eat; some if it is common knowledge (ie avoiding farm raised fish) and some of it was novel (to me, at least) ie microwave popcorn?!  Additionally, I often cook with canned tomato products to make my homemade pasta sauce and chili...but now I'm thinking about learning how to can my own. Anyone out there do any canning? I'm thinking it might be a good project for next summer when I can actually have a small garden in my backyard...but I am a total novice, so any tips or ideas are appreciated. It also doesn't hurt that this idea appeals to the cheapskate budget conscious side of me :)

Christmas into the New Year

I've loved reading about everyone's Christmases and New Years so here's a bit of our own.

We traveled to VA where we visited both Dr. F's family and mine (so convenient that they live in the same town...usually, but that is a topic for another day). The Little Man was also sick and woke up at 2:30am on Christmas morning with a fever and refused to go back to sleep...he didnt sleep through the night the whole time we were in VA...sweeet!

 What was sweet was the romantic night away Dr. F and I got to enjoy. When we had our marriage blessing this spring several cards were stollen off of the gift table as well as or video camera...that had all manner of things on it like Aidan's birth (the pg version), his baptism, our ceremony, Aidan's first Christmas...you know, nothing major. Well, nothing was ever recovered so the hotel gave us a complimentary night. They even gave us a discount for their restaurant and a bottle of wine with glasses from the vineyard where we got engaged! Nothing makes up for loosing the camera with all of those videos, but we sure enjoyed a romantic night out and ordering room service for the first time!



The night we were engaged. It was perfect!

 We also celebrated a 30th wedding anniversary of some of our best family friends. It also happened to be in the same ballroom we had our reception in! Of course, Little Man was looking studly in his bow tie and argyle sweater.

Little Man was only so happy in his bow tie.

We also visited with my grandparents and finally headed back to Philly. It was SUCH a welcome change to come home that we didn't even mind having to shovel out a parking spot. We had a nice visit, but we were all so happy to sleep in our own beds. I even had to wake Aidan up each day last week because he wanted to stay asleep when it was time to go to school. Dr. F also hit the ground running by reporting to the hospital at 6am each day through yesterday (including New Years Eve). We did manage to stay awake *barely* till midnight: just long enough to drink some delicious champagne (thank you MF!!)



Yes, I am indeed in my pj's. We are wild and crazy!

Finally, we capped off 2 weeks of family with a visit from my cousin and her kids. What a blast! Our boys are so close in age and it was awesome to see them playing together. We are so bummed they live in Boston and we don't get to see them very often.
                                     

2010 was a good year for us despite the loss of my grandfather in June. We had so much to celebrate and be thankful for. I'm looking forward to no less excitement in 2011.