Mommy Mondays: Sweet Little Sixteen

It's that time again - time for an update on what daily life is like with a 16 month old.  Or at least what my daily life is like!

6:28 am: Thatbaby wakes up for the day.  Which means Thatboy and wake up for the day.  Thatboy hops in the shower while I nurse Thatbaby.

6:42: Thatbaby hangs out with Thatboy while I take Thatdog and head for a run.  Ever since the early winter nights cut down on my running after works, I've returned to my old habits of running in the morning.

What my trail looks like on a foggy Monday morning

7:06: My turn to get ready!  I shower, blowdry my hair, and get dressed.  Around this time, Thatbaby starts asking for breakfast, so I put my getting ready on hold and we head to the kitchen.

7:38: Thatbaby helps me make breakfast.  This morning we have smoothies (frozen fruit and yogurt).  He likes to press the buttons on the blender.

And he LOVES to drink his smoothie.

8:09: We're done with breakfast and I head back to finish doing my hair and makeup.

8:22: I put up our laundry.  Mondays I do a load of whites.

8:25: Time for Thatbaby to get dressed so we can head out for the day.

8:34:  Leave for daycare/school!

9:02: I arrive at work.  Today is filled with going over a client's documents and preparing for one of the gagillion depositions I have this month.

12:00: lunch time!

chicken parmsean with saffron rice and roasted broccoli, apple slices, and a nutrigrain bar

3:49: Surprise visitor!  Thatboy had a dentist appointment and decided to surprise me with a caramel apple cider.

5:05: The workday is over!  I head home.  Normally I pick up Thatbaby from daycare, but because Thatboy had the dentist appointment, he picked up Thatbaby.  Which meant I got to enjoy a nice, long phone conversation with a friend.

5:18: Arrive home from work and give Thatdog a little walk.

5:30:  Make dinner!  It's soup night - sausage, potato, and kale to be exact.  While the soup cooks on the stove, I throw the whites in the dryer, make our lunches for the next day and wash all the dishes.

Grownups get sandwiches with spinach, cheese, hummus and pesto, banana, apples, a granola bar and goldfish crackers.  Babies just get the sandwich, apples, and banana.

 6:36:  Dinner Time!

 Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

8 cups chicken broth

1lb Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp chipotle chile powder

1 head of kale, ribs removed and chopped

6oz chicken sausage, sliced

grated Parmesan

1. Heat oil in a large pot. Add the onion and cook until transluscent.  
2. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, just about another 30 seconds.  
3. Add chicken broth, potatoes, salt, and Italian seasonings.  Bring to a boil and cook for about 20 minutes.
4. Mash the potatoes into the broth with a fork (or a potato masher if you havev one - I don't). 
5. Stir in the chile powder, kale, and sausage. Bring back to a boil, simmer and cook for another 10 minutes, or until the kale is tender. 
6. Sprinkle with Parmesan before serving. 

6:57: I clean up the dinner plates and make cupcakes and frosting for Thatboy to bring in to work.

I also get breakfast ready for us for the next morning - overnight oatmeal!

Thatbaby is gaga for this stuff.  He put away 3 bowls the next morning

Thatboy does bedtime routine with Thatbaby: bath, pajamas, and storytime.

7:39: Bed time for babies!  I head in and give Thatbaby one last nursing session before bed and then put him to sleep.

 
8:01: I finish up with the cupcakes - frosting them and getting them ready to go.

8:26:  It's me time!  Thatboy's already on the couch, so I join him and we catch up on The Mentalist while I surf the internet and catch up on my blog.

9:30: We head to the bedroom.  Night y'all!

Summer in Feburary: Spaghetti con Zucchine Alla Nerano

Mother Nature sure pulled one over on us here in Southern California.  It's been so cold the past few days that everyone's complaining. Because we've forgotten it's still winter.  Because the past few weeks the weather has been warm and downright balmy!

Oh how quickly we forget.

It's always fun to get a warm spell in winter.  To head to the beach and remind yourself it's January.  Or to make a pasta dish that screams summer. A pasta dish with a light sauce (that doesn't involve lemon!)  A pasta dish with a great summer vegetable.  A pasta dish that, according to Thatboy tastes a million times better than it looks.  No matter how long we've been together, he still is hesitant when he sees a dish relying heavily on a green veggie.  Bu this was delicious enough for him to seek seconds.

Spaghetti con Zucchine alla Nerano (From More Than Burnt Toast)

1-1/2 pounds zucchini, sliced into 1/8-inch-thick rounds

salt

olive oil

1 pound spaghetti

2 - 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced or minced

1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
black pepper

1/2 cup grated Provolone

1. Put the sliced zucchini in a bowl and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Toss to coat.
2. Heat 1/4 inch of olive oil in a pan and fry the zucchini until lightly colored.  Transfer the fried zucchini to a paper towel to drain, but reserve the oil.
3. Cook pasta according to package directions. Right before the pasta is done, add half of the zucchini.  Drain pasta, but save 1 cup of the pasta water.
4.  While pasta is cooking, add the garlic to the olive oil and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant.
5. Add basil and the other half of the zucchini to the oil and garlic.  Cook for another 30 seconds.
6. Toss the sauce with the cooked pasta.  Add the cheese and toss, adding as much of the pasta water as necessary.

Meat for My Men: Fettuccine with Sausage Ragu

My boss and I were heading home from a client meeting when he apologized for keeping me away from my family on the nights I work late.  In truth, I don't mind it when I know in advance, so I can plan meals for the boys.  And I told my boss as much.  We discussed the types of meals I usually leave for them, and a lot of times it's pasta. I confided that lately I've been doing a lot of lemon pasta, even though Thatboy doesn't like it, because it's a little different from the typical marinara.

My boss asked if I ever made meat sauce, and I realize that I don't. Since that time, I've started working some meat sauces into our menu.  Thatboy loves sauces with meat and it's a nice change for him! 

Sausage seems like a natural choice for a meat sauce.  Maybe that's because growing up we often had sausage with our pasta.  This is a great, easy, sausage sauce and it made enough for dinner and a couple of lunches!

Fettuccine with Sausage Ragu (as seen on Journey of an Italian Cook)
1 pound fettuccine
3 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
14 oz beef broth
3 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 28-ounce can San Marzano whole tomatoes, drained

 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup milk 

1. Cook the fettuccine according to package directions. 
2. Soak the mushrooms in the beef broth for 30 minutes. 
3. Melt the butter in a large skillet.  Add the onions and cook until transluscent.
4. Add sausage and cook until browned.
5. Add the wine, mushrooms and broth, tomato paste, and tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook for an hour.
6. Stir in the nutmeg and milk and simmer 10-15 minutes.
7. Toss with the fettuccine and serve.

Super Snacks: Faux-Ritos

Our Superbowl traditions are probably our least healthy of the year.  To begin, it's one of the very few times we order pizza to be delivered to the house.

Secondly, Thatboy uses it as a time to indulge in soda and Doritos.  We really don't keep junkfood in the house.  Our freezer is completely devoid of ice cream.  There are no chips and cookies in the pantry.  And the only drink in our fridge is milk.

But for the Superbowl?  Well, it's an easy concession to make when it occurs once a year.   The only problem is Thatbaby is much more aware this year than last year.  And he wants whatever we have.  And while I am more than willing to make a concession for Thatboy, I don't think my young son needs Doritos and soda, even once a year.

So I got it into my head to try and make my own Doritos - so I could control the ingredients.  It sounded easy enough, all I had to do was make tortilla chips and coat them with a cheese powder.  I just had to figure out how to make cheese powder from real cheddar cheese.

Luckily someone responded to my query on a message board and pointed me in the right direction.

1. Preheat your oven to 200.  Spread about 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 1 hour, then blot with a paper towel and bake for another 2 hours.

2.   When it's done you'll have a nice, hard, cheese crisp

3. Break up the cheese crisp and pulverize it to a powder in your food processor or coffee grinder.

4. Raise the heat of the oven to 350.  Cut up some corn tortillas into eighths.  Place them on a baking sheet and spray with cooking spray. (If you're not serving these to your toddler, sprinkle with salt) Bake for 10-15 minutes.

5. Remove the chips from the oven and place in a brown paper bag with the cheese powder.  Shake to evenly coat the chips.  (You can also add some other spices like chili powder, cumin, whatever you'd like!)

So Thatboy had his Doritos and rootbeer, and Thatbaby had some coconut water and Faux-ritos.

And the verdict?

Well, to be honest, most of the chips were dumped on the couch or fed to Thatdog, but at least he showed no interest in the Doritos!

It's Electric: Date Muffins

Thatboy is not a runner.  When he was just a crazy kid he tore apart his knee skating.  After surgery he never went to physical therapy and so to this day...well, let's just say he's a good person to know during a zombie attack, because you'll definitely be able to run faster and longer, leaving him behind for the hoardes.

So usually his participation in races is limited to cheering from the sidelines.  And he does a fantastic job of that.  He's participated in a couple of runs with me if we go in a group that's walking, or if I walk with him.

When I got an email about The Electric Run, I knew it would be one Thatboy would be interested in.  A night race, filled with glowing, neon, and blacklights.  Music, night, and lights, Thatboy has been calling it The Rave Run for weeks.

It took us FOR-EVER to get to the race.  We live 6 miles from the course, and it took us almost an hour and a half to get in.  And then there was another hour waiting as each wave was let on to the course.  By the time we got to the start line we were all kind of in foul moods.  Luckily the course perked us right up.

We were all decked out in our glowing apparel - even Thatbaby!

In addition to glow wands, sticks, bracelets, necklaces, and glasses we also had fun with light up LED accessories.

Thatbaby loved looking around and taking it all in.

A lot of these kind of races have weird mascots (like the creepy Unicorn at the Color Run).  The Mascot for the Electric Run is "Stick Man."

There were different "zones" throughout the course that played with various aspects of light.  I loved this shadow area that changed different colors.  I kept trying to get a good picture of the shadows, but ended up with a pretty cool picture of Thatboy instead.

Unfortunately because it took us so long to get started, Thatbaby fell asleep shortly after the race started and slept the whooooooole way through.

There were giant tubes to run through that lit up and changed colors.

And they made a very big deal about the upside-down parasols.  Actually there was quite a bit about the course that was a little "Alice in Wonderland."

Like the glowing orbs in trees.

Which made for an excellent photo opportunity.

And Thatboy loved the warehouse - he had been hoping we'd get to go through it as soon as he saw those giant balls in the window.

And we also got to go through two different tunnels that were lit with black lights or flashing lights.

And the finish line was glittered with disco balls!

The race was tons of fun - even if Thatbaby did miss out on it.  Thatboy and I had a great time, but paid for it the next morning. We felt like kids again, but we can't really be kids again.  Because after a late night filled with lights and music, we couldn't sleep in like we were used to.  Thatbaby was up and at 'em at his normal early hour.

Thank goodness I didn't have to worry about breakfast!  If you're trying to keep a toddler entertained so you don't have to get out of bed, then it is best to keep muffins at the ready.  These date muffins are one of Thatbaby's favorites.  I love dates instead of raisins and apparently my son has followed suit.

These were inspired by the date cake I had made earlier, but in muffin form they are far more convenient.  And I was pretty glad I had these handy.  Because Thatboy and I?  We are getting old my friends.

Date Muffins

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup dates, chopped

1 Tbsp butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1. Preheat oven to 325.  Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.  Mix 1 cup of boiling water with baking soda and dates.  Let cool.
2. Combine butter, sugar, salt, eggs, and flour in an electric mixer.
3. Add the cooled date mixture and beat until well blended.  Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full and bake for 45 minutes.

Mommy Mondays: 16 Months

 

 

(Leftover from 15 months)

Weight: 24lbs 8oz (+ 17 lbs, 1 oz)

Height: 32" (+ 12")
Head: 18.75" (+ 5.45")

Sleep:  Sleep remains pretty much the same.  When he's not sick or teething he'll sleep through, but we've had a lot of sick and teething nights.  The nice thing is that even when he has been waking, it's only been one time.  He's been taking some really long naps at daycare lately (2.5-3 hours), but on the weekends we're still trying to stretch those napes to 2 hours.  Have I mentioned that daycare is magical?

Eating: Thatbaby has mastered the spoon!  We have yogurt for breakfast and every morning he happily sits and feeds himself his yogurt.  He also is finally over his "no meat" phase.  He's back to eating just about everything again (except green leafy vegetables.  He picks anything non-lettuce like out of his salads and leaves the leaves)

Best Moment: Thatbaby going sledding!  He really is turning into such a boy - he spends his weekend mornings "surfing" on our bed, he loves Thatboy's skateboard, and he loves going down hills in the sled or his little cars.  Hearing his little giggle and giant smile while cruising down the hills is totally amazing.

 

Monthly Wisdom: This month I want to remind you about development.  And that each child develops at their own speed, concentrating on different areas first.  I love the fact that Thatbaby's daycare class is predominately babies born in October - so I get to see the wide range of development first hand. It's easy to see that with teeth - something we all accept happens at different times.  So try to think of everything like teething.  Some children will get teeth (crawl, walk, talk, read) very early, and others will start teething (crawling, walking, talking, reading) late.  But they all do it eventually!  There are very few children in high school without teeth!

Goals for the Upcoming Month:
- Still the babysitter.  Seriously, when am I going to get my stuff together!  At this point, it's kind of a joke, right?

Things Thatbaby is doing:
- We've got some more new words: Bottle, help, hat, and hot, and star.
- Another new tooth, bringing our total up to 10!
- Thatbaby's newest sign is "help" which he does as he says the word, proving that sign language doesn't necessarily impede language.

- Yoga.  Thatboy and I had joked that Thatbaby had been doing what looked like downward dog for a while.  And then I read his daycare report one day that said he enjoyed yoga that day, so I spoke with his teacher.  She confirmed that she had been working on Thatbaby's class at practicing yoga and Thatbaby was loving every minute of it.  He can do downward dog, tree, frog, cobra, and happy baby!  Thatboy loves it, because Thatbaby has become a much better "bed surfer" since Thatboy can tell him to go from "cobra" to "tree" and stand up on the board on his own.
- Slides - Thatbaby goes down the daycare slide all on his own!  He still likes a hand to hold on non-daycare slides, but it's a start!

-  Stairs - Thatbaby has been pretty good at crawling up stairs for a while, but he's now starting to walk down stairs on his own, by holding on to a banister.  We still help out or carry for tall/long flights of stairs, but on short ones, like on climbing structures, we let him at it all by himself.  He gets such a look of pride doing it on his own.

Clips and Cuts: Veggie Enchiladas

I'm not one of those people who is blind to the fact that their child may not always be so attractive.  Luckily Thatbaby has grown out of his little old man stage, but currently he is full force in the scruffy, scruggly, living in a garbage can stage.  Due primarily to his hair.

I've been trying to convince Thatboy that our baby needs a haircut for a while now, but Thatboy has been resistant.  He wants Thatbaby to have long flowing locks.  I'm not against long flowing locks, but I'd prefer our child not have perma-bedhead.

This weekend I finally convinced him, so off we went for Thatbaby's first haircut!  The entire process made Thatbaby very nervous.  He was fine until he realized that he wasn't allowed out of the special car and then he started getting upset. He must have signed "all done" about 50-60 times.  And he spent half of the time pressing his face against mine.

But the end result was completely worth it.  A nice, clean cut boy who doesn't look like a relative of Albert Einstein.

In keeping with our idea not to use food as a reward, we took Thatbaby out for a different kind of treat after his haircut - a trip to the playground!

It was a little cold and wet after the previous day's rain, but that didn't stop Thatbaby from taking advantage of all the playground elements.

Eventually we dusted off his wet and sandy pants and headed home so Thatboy could head out for a lunch date.

Thatbaby and I had our own lunch date.  We munched on leftover enchiladas and discussed current events, recent movies, and sounds animals make.  These enchiladas were much more appealing as a lunch than dinner.  At dinner, Thatbaby opened them up and just ate the inner filling (the kid loves corn and beans).  At lunch he devoured 2 enchiladas - every bite of them!

 Veggie Enchiladas

2 Tbsp olive oil
3 tsps cumin
1/4 cup Flour
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
3/4 cup water
3 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
One can black beans, rinsed and drained
8 oz frozen spinach
1 cup frozen corn

12-16 corn tortillas

1. Preheat oven to 400. Spray a baking dish with cooking spray. Heat oil in a large saucepan.  Add 2 tsp cumin, flour, and tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.
2. Add the broth and water and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.
3. Combine 1/2 the cheese, black beans, spinach, corn, and remaining cumin in a bowl.
4.  Pour just enough of the sauce to coat the bottom of the baking dish.
5. Heat tortillas and place about 1/3 cup of filling in the middle of a tortilla.  Roll up and place seam side down in  the baking dish.  Repeat with all the tortillas and filling.
6. Pour the remaining sauce on top and put remaining cheese over it. Bake for 20 minutes.