Picnic

It was so nice yesterday that we took our afternoon snack outside. Hooray for spring/summer like weather!

And hooray for Cheerios!

And hooray for my touch that takes pictures as fast as an SLR camera. Fast but not better! Hooray!

And finally, hooray for getting a few good photos before having an unprovoked meltdown!

Nursing in percentages

This is a post about mom stuff. Then again, 95% of what I post these days are mom posts so let's continue. And let's keep talking percentages. Dexter is 100% off formula and 100% off the bottle. He is 98% weaned from nursing. That last 2% is the bedtime feeding. The feeding that we (yes, even Josh), are too terrified to get rid of for fear that he will protest noisily and for an undetermined amount of time. We are afraid that taking it out of his bedtime routine will mess with his sleep which will then mess with our sleep. A chain reaction. An imbalance in The Force.

I'm certain he doesn't need it nutritionally as he is a tiny garbage disposal when it comes to meals and whole milk. He attacks Cheerios like he's eating a rack of lamb and chugs his sippy cup like he's been crawling through the desert for days. So really the last 2% is more for us and less for him. Okay, it's all for us. 100% for us and for sleep. Maybe 101% for me because I am the mom and have been known to get weepy about weaning. Although nursing a toddler isn't really my bag either.

The plan was to kick it by his first birthday...then it was the weekend following his first birthday...and then the next week after that. I wonder if we're making a mountain out of a molehill. Perhaps Dexter won't even flinch at a bedtime routine sans nursing. Or perhaps he will scream like a banshee when he figures out he's getting cut off.

The only outfit I own

I have been living in my red jeans and striped top. I am like the girl from Seinfeld that wears the same dress every time Jerry sees her. The thought crosses my mind that perhaps I should skip the outfit this week because surely everyone has noticed that I am wearing the s!*# out of it because they are RED pants so they don't exactly scream discreet and forgettable. But I'm in love and you can't reason with a girl in love. And so I wear this outfit--again--and there is a little pep in my step and a tiny grin on my lips. Well, not in this particular picture since I was concerned that someone would walk in the bathroom while I was taking a picture of myself and it would be an awkward encounter with nervous giggles. But take my word for it, there's a lot of pep and grin going on.

Brussel sprouts and their sweet redemption

I didn't think that I liked vegetables for a loooong time. For the first 18 years of my life I considered myself a strict carnivore. Then Joshie said, "Stop being a baby and try mushrooms/peppers/broccoli/asparagus." Actually it was more like, "eat this or starve, weirdo." And that is how I tiptoed into one of the major food groups.

Most recently, I tried brussel sprouts. They are a serious veggie in my opinion. Broccoli is child's play compared to brussel sprouts. They are the veggie that you are conditioned not to like when you're a kid. You never heard any kid say, "we're having brussel sprouts tonight, yahoozie!" And then one day not too long ago, there they were in our kitchen, tossed with walnuts and bacon and smelling kind of good. And then there they were on my plate getting pushed around by my fork while I braced myself for a "green" taste. And then I speared one and took a bite it and it was crunchy and not green tasting at all. It was good, like "Perhaps you are not a vegetable at all, dear brussel sprout, and what a shame you were misclassified!" good.

And now I can say, "we're having Brussel sprouts tonight, yahoozie!"

And now you can too, here's the recipe.

Brussel sprouts with bacon and walnuts
as prepared by Joshie and adapted from Muscle & Fitness magazine

1 lb. Brussel sprouts
4 strips of bacon
1/4 cup of walnuts
Salt and pepper

Fry bacon and walnut pieces together in ovenproof skillet until browned. Remove from heat and set aside in bowl. Remove stems from brussel sprouts and cut in half. Place brussel sprouts in same ovenproof skillet and season with salt and pepper. Bake in oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Add bacon and walnuts to sprouts and bake for additional 10 to 15 minutes.

First birthday

Ah, the first birthday party. It ended up being fairly low key but there were times that I thought all my blogs and Pinterest would just up and carry me away with their fantastic decorations, stunning ideas and adorable themes. Then I was reminded that I am cheap and lazy. And so a little get together with just family it was. And a homemade yellow cake...and oversized balloons...and a rainbow colored garland. Okay, so I did gather a few ideas from Pinterest and other blogs. As I mentioned previously, I made this cake but used the mini cake tutorial for Dexter's cake, (although her instructions don't include knocking the can over and spilling batter in the oven, whereas my version includes such an event and a lot of four letter words), and I found the garland template here. Our house is roughly the size of a matchbook so we went to my dad's house in favor of more room and less crazy canine. The photos were taken by my sis-in-law Dawn who saved the day when it came to documenting the event.

It was a good day. A little exhausting, but good.

Things I shouldn't say: a composition built from guilt

I shouldn't say that we skipped church today for no good reason. I shouldn't say that generally speaking we have had a pretty rocky track record when it comes to going to church lately. I shouldn't say that my for no good reason reason is partially my fear of not being able to contain Dexter in a carseat since he has graduated to the kind that you leave in the car now. I also shouldn't say that the other part of my no good reason reason is that I'm lazy. I shouldn't say that I wasn't willing to go to mass for an hour but spent a good 45 minutes deciding what fabric and trim to make St. Patty's Day chaps out of at Hobby Lobby yesterday (more on that later). I also shouldn't say that the idea of not knowing what the appropriate response is anymore-"and also...with your spirit?"-is kind of annoying. I also shouldn't say that I bet that 90 percent of the folks at mass, myself included, haven't the foggiest what consubstantial means.

There, I said it.