I'm putting up pretty much anything I want to comment or talk about over at my blog so iffen you care, that's what you should read.  Between blog, Facebook, Twitter, and kids, I just don't have time to think up extra stuff to put here.  At least right now.  :)

Current Mood: tired

I started a blog, god help me.

http://twokidsandabeagle.blogspot.com/

In the last 7 days Jamie has:

• started crawling
• pulled up on the coffee table for the first time
• gotten his first haircut
• cut his first tooth (bottom right center incisor).
• learned how to sit back up from a crawling position.

Holy.  Crap.

Current Mood: impressed

This weekend we held Jamie's baptism.  It wasn't a huge affair by any means but it still involved gargantuan amounts of work on my part.  I've spent the vast majority of the last 10 days cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and then doing some more cleaning.  The event was planned such that the baptism was at the church and then we had a luncheon afterward at our house so I had to have the place in good shape or I was going to feel like an ass.  So I really tried hard to get things under control and keep them under control as far as the cleaning and clutter were concerned.

Beyond all that, I had to plan for the food which basically involved me ordering deli/fruit/veg trays from the local grocery store because with everything else I just did not have time to do it all myself.  We also ordered cake from the bakery that made our wedding cake.  So yummy!  Adding to the confusion, my parents were staying with us during the event with their dog and about 4 days prior to the event, we added in four more people when we decided to put up our friends Anna and Casey and their two kids as well.  Due to a shortage of hotel accommodations nearby they were stuck out at the airport which was wholly unacceptable.  So, we had them stay with us.  They were also the godparents so we really felt as though we had to help.  So, instead of there being just the regular 4 people living in my house, there were 10 people and 2 dogs.  Can you say crazy?  I knew you could.

As we moved closer to Saturday, baptism day, things got crazier and crazier with the to-do lists and the people arriving.  My sister-in-law and her daughter arrived on Thrus and I pulled Liam from daycare on Friday so that he could play with his cousin all day.  Thank God they did not stay with us but at my in-laws house.  Then Friday afternoon my parents arrived and Friday night Anna and Casey got in.  To top it all off, Scot spent Thursday afternoon in the local ER due to an unfortunate and inadvertent exposure to nuts that got him a jab in the thigh from his Epi-pen and a ride to the hospital from me.  He was and is fine but it, of course, was really not the excitement we needed two days before the world descended on us.

The day of the baptism was hectic from the time I set foot to the floor.  First thing in the morning at 6:30 am, I got up, got Jamie (who was waking up) and hopped into the shower while he played on the bathroom floor.  Got myself dressed and decent and then headed downstairs to get the day started.  I had several things to do before Jamie went down for his morning nap at 9 am and I snuck out to the grocery store to pick up the trays of food.  So, I got breakfast read (yummy french bakery croissant!) which involved setting out the boxes, cleaned up the kitchen a bit, set up some stuff in the dining room, took care of kids and people as the woke up and trickled in, pumped breastmilk for baby's breakfast and bottle later in the day, etc etc etc.  Then, after J went down for his nap Mom and I headed out to pick up trays.  We got the deli tray just fine and then they realized that they FORGOT to make the fruit/veg trays.  I nearly punched someone in the face.  They said "we'll get it done for you in 5 minutes" so Mom and I picked up a few other things that we needed and then picked up the other trays.  Luckily for them, they made it right and did not charge me for the trays since they fucked up.

So, we came home, I stashed the food and then headed upstairs to get dressed and put on makeup.  As I was headed up to do that, my in-laws arrived for enjoy some french pastry so we had a houseful.  At around 10:30 we all headed off to the church for the 11 am service.  Had a bit of trouble with traffic but still got there just fine.

Service was lovely.  Minister did a great job and Jamie was a trooper.  Nary a cry or a whimper out of him - he took it all in stride.  He spent much of the beginning of the service sitting with me in the front pew blowing raspberries so loudly that he practically drowned out the Minister.  Poor Anna could *not* keep a straight face.  :P

Liam, however, did not do so well.  He didn't want to go to the church, didn't want to participate, spent a bunch of time whining and crying and ended up spending the majority of the service lying face down in a pew at the back of the crowd.  He absolutely refused to participate even when every other kid there did.  I don't know what his deal was but he just wasn't interested.  I gave up and ignored his little problem and enjoyed it anyway.

Afterward we headed back to the house and I was a crazy person setting up lunch.  Once that was ready to go, I whisked Jamie upstairs for a bottle (since I was wearing a dress that was simply IMPOSSIBLE to breasfeed in) and to get him changed into a nice outfit that didn't involve a dress.  ;)  We had 23 people at the house for the luncheon (including ourselves) so it was kind of a madhouse.  But it was very nice, I got to visit with most everybody and actually managed to find 5 seconds to eat.  Liam was still being difficult but Scot took to the brunt of that issue and I really didn't have to deal with it.  The kids fell to playing with each other and the adults chatted for a bit.  Around 2 pm things started to break up and people started trickling home.

Eventually it got down to my parents, Anna, Casey, and the kids and we just sort of rested as much as we could for the rest of the day.  I made a HUGE batch of pasta for dinner and the Anna and Casey had to head back to Ohio.  We got our kids to bed and promptly collapsed.  I've spent much of today trying to recover.

I still have work around the house to do in terms of cleaning up but the whole things was very very good.  I'm pleased.  :)

The one regret I have is that my sister did not come and it stems less from her missing this particular event and more from the fact that Jamie is 7 months old and she still hasn't met him.  This was a bad weekend for them and I knew they probably wouldn't be able to make it.  It's also a very long way to come between the end of school on Friday and the beginning of school on Monday.  I completely understand that.  But Jamie's 7 months old now.  You're telling me that in 7 months time you couldn't find one single, solitary weekend in which to come see him?  Even just by yourself, without hubby and kids?  I feel like an afterthought in my sister's life and sometimes that really hurts.  Sometimes I can accept it with grace but right now I feel rotten about it.  I made time when both her girls were born and I was early pregnant with Liam and sick as a dog when her youngest was born.  Supposedly I'll see her sometime over the Christmas holidays for a very short stint (probably an overnight on their way back from MI) so she'll get to meet him then but it still hurts that it will take her 9 months to meet my kid.

I have a big long post to write about Jamie's baptism but I'm phenomenally tired right now and can't really string together all those words.  Promise to spend the time soon.

For the time being, it went very well and was a smashing success.  :)

Current Mood: exhausted

Jamie is now 6 months old and it's about time I got back into the swing of things domestically, don't you think?  To that end I've been a crazy cleaning lady for the last several days.  After a year of slacking off (due to pregnancy and infancy) it's really hard to do!  So, I've been cleaning out this corner and that corner, trying to keep up with the clutter and doing my damndest (sp?) to not let the toys take over the house.  Liam is some help in that department but he still has be prodded with a pointy stick to get him to help.

Finally, last night I sat down, looked at my cleaning rota, and rewrote it.  I now know what cleaning job I need to do each day and whose laundry has to be tackled each day.  Hopefully this will save me from days in which I do 13 loads of laundry all at once.  Ick.

The whole point of this, of course, it to get to a space wherein I can run through the house in an hour or so each day (some days more depending on the jobs to be done) and take care of the chores.  Leaving me time to do everything else that has to be done that isn't cleaning. :P

It's sick that I've put my college education to such a use but what else am I going to do?  I've reach my limit in living in squalor.

Current Mood: busy

And anyone else who wants it but I really doubt there is anyone reading this journal besides Trista and Dan.  :P

Pasta Rustica (garnered from a Williams-Sonoma catalog)

2 tbs olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 lb chicken or turkey sausage, casings removed
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1 can (28 oz) tomatoes in puree, tomatoes coarsely chopped, puree reserved
Salt, to taste
1 lb penne pasta
1 1/4 cups ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded fontina or mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

In a Dutch oven over medium heat, warm oil.  Add onion and cook until golden, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 min.  Add sausage and cook, breaking it up into bike size pieces, until no longer pink, about 6 minutes.  Sitr in basil, oregano and red pepper flakes.  Add tomatoes with puree and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 10-12 minutes.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly oil baking dish.  Bring large pot of water to boil over high heat, salt the water, add pasta, sitr well and cook until barely al dente, 10-12 minutes.  Drain well.  In LARGE bowl, toss pasta with sauce, ricotta, and fontina.  Spread in prepared baking dish and sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano.  Bake until cheeses are melted and tips of pasta are crusty, about 30 minutes.  Let stand 5 minutes.  Serve hot.  Serves 6-8.


I use a can of crushed tomatoes and it works just fine.   Also, I never measure the spices, just toss in until it looks good.  :)

Current Mood: hungry

Sometimes it's amazing to me just how quickly a month passes.  It doesn't seem like it's been a month since I posted.  Please forgive my lapses.

Jamie seems to be doing a bit better on the sleep front.  I gave up and made him cry.  He figured out the nights pretty quickly but the naps took a lot longer.  He's still not perfect on naps but since I can't seem to find an actual nap schedule for him that's probably not helping.  He is also teething like mad and I keep thinking he's going to break his first tooth any day now.  So, it's kind of hard to make him cry when he's in pain.  But at some point it's going to be time to bite the bullet and just make him learn this 100%.

Liam is *finally* starting to expand his diet.  It ended up that no matter how much cajoling and bribing we did the only thing that made him start trying things was "try this or you're not getting dinner."  So far we've tried strawberries, plums, fishsticks, champagne grapes, risotto, and I think there's a few more.  The only thing he really disliked was plums.  And he's totally digging the fishsticks.  It's getting easier to get him to try things and he's eating better at mealtimes.  He's also grown a half inch since May.  No wonder we can count his ribs.

I picked up and took the kids to MI to visit my parents for 5 days.  We had a really nice trip and got to spend some great time with Mom and Dad.  The kids both traveled really well.  They behaved in the car and the new sleeping arrangements didn't make their sleep immediately fall apart.  It was sort of like picking up my life here and transplanting it there for 5 days which is the by far the easiest trip I've had.  It was also J's first long car trip and I was so proud of how well he did.  We went to the zoo while we were there, visited with a friend of mine that I had lost touch with and then reconnected with on Facebook.  So it was great to see her.  The rest of the time we just hung around the house and relaxed as much as possible.  My parents were really glad to see us and I didn't have to endure too many right-wing rants from my Dad.  (Phew!)

Scot stayed home while I was away for a number of reasons but it's just as well he did because he was sick the whole time I was gone.  He had a virus and he was also fighting (still!) daily headaches.  It's a saga but we're hoping that he will have half a chance of getting this under control when he sees a headache specialist in September.  In the meantime he's just trying to get from day to day, function at work, and collapse at home.  This is leaving me doing a lot of solo parenting but there's not much I can do about it so I'm trying to deal.  He feels rotten about the situation as it is and me complaining about it is only going to make him feel worse.

We're going to OH in the end of Sept to visit some friends of ours for a long weekend.  This is going to be our only vacation this summer.  I am glad to get away and glad to see them but a little stabby given the fact that we could have had the chance to split a beach house with Scot's sister and parents (and had all the grandkids together) if anyone had bothered to mention it to us before it was too late.  I didn't find out about the fact that they were doing this until 2 days before my in-laws left so I totally felt like the last kid picked in gym class.  It makes me so stabby because that's the kind of vacay we would be willing to do this year except for the fact that when done by ourselves is it is not vacation for me and is, in fact, more work than our regular lives.  If anyone had thought to invite us, we could have had a NICE vacation this year in which I had some sort of help with the kids.  STAB. STAB. STAB.

That's about the extent of things at this point.  I have a headache so I'm going to hang this up for now.

Current Mood: stabby

Jamie has hit a wall with sleep.  He *was* doing really well - he'd go down by about 9:30 every night and would be up about twice a night to eat, up for the day around the same time as Liam.  He would go back down after eating without a problem.  Now, he's up in between feedings and can't sleep without constant physical soothing from me.  It's exhausting.  Last night, I was up for two and a half hours in the middle of the night trying to deal with him.

During the day, he naps in 30 minute increments.

I know what's happening.  He can't soothe back to sleep on his own so when he reaches the lightest portion of his sleep cycle, he wakes up and then needs me to get him back down.  But, he can't stay asleep when I do get him to sleep.

I want to sleep train him but he's only 4 months old.  I keep reading crap on the web about how it's totally wrong and you'll ruin your relationship with your child, you'll teach them that Mommy abandons them when they cry.  I know this is a load of horseshit because I sleep trained Liam at 7 months of age when I couldn't stand the deprivation anymore and he certainly doesn't think Mommy abandoned him.  I'm just worried that J doesn't have the proper mechanism developmentally to be ready for sleep training.

He has a ped appt next week for his check up and I will certainly be asking about it then.  I just worry that I won't be able to make it that far.  Having a baby that won't sleep makes me seriously panicky in the middle of the night when I know I have to get up and be with Liam.

I just want to get some decent sleep.  I'm beyond weary of my life being what it is.  Between the 4 year old have the attitude problems of a 14 year old and my infant refusing to let me get any decent rest my life is really very little fun.  I *know* that it will get better and that this won't last very long in the grand scheme of things, it's still a pain in the ass to deal with now.

Sigh.

Current Mood: tired

The last movie I saw was "Up" and it was good.  Squirrel!

Tags: writer's block