A lion, a tiger...but where's the bear? Oh my!

Halloween 2010 has come and gone.

Yup, it's only Oct. 29, but I can say that Halloween is done, thanks to our wonderful County's annual "tradition" of having trick-or-treat night on a Thursday night "to cut back on mischief," or some lame excuse like that. All I know is that it's tough being a dual-working family (with one parent who works 25 miles away downtown and the other in an industry who is rushing to get their concrete poured and their builds up before the dead cold, dark short days set in) who have to rush to pickup from daycare, get home and feed, clean (notice how I didn't say bathe) and dress their kids for a 6pm candy-begging start.

We made it home on time, with our own personal pan pizza in hand to shove down into our hungry bellies, and were able to stuff both boys into their costumes before the fire trucks blew their horns to let the world know that it was time to turn on your lights and get ready for the greedy little, sugar-hungry mongers. And their equally obnoxious parents, who complain that I didn't have my candy ready at 5:59:59 and who fail to correct the rugrats when they demand, "gimme a bunch!" (Whatever happened to "trick or treat, smell my feet?", which, by the way, was the obnoxious version of "gimme a bunch" back in the olden days of the 80s...)

My boys made me proud. My little lion was perfectly content to sit in his stroller, watching everything around him; for 75 minutes, there wasn't a peep out of his little mouth. My tiger happily ran back and forth and up and down the stairs saying, "trick or treat," with the occasional reminder to thank the treat-givers. It was awesome to see that some of our childless neighbors decorated their properties and garages in the Halloween spirit.

As for my bear...well, he was very content rationing the candy from our driveway, beer in hand.

So while we have been invited, and will join, some good friends for their neighborhood trick-or-treat on Halloween night, to us, this Halloween is officially another one down and dirty in the history books.

Bring on the turkey!

Fall brings renewal

September is on its way out....and this is my first post of the year!

It's been a year of ups and downs, and I really debated whether or not I was going to keep up with this journal, of sorts, because of all that has gone on.

To start off with, two weeks into the new year, I was handed "my papers." So, at 32 weeks pregnant, I was laid off.

My head swirled for a good few weeks. At first, I panicked. I felt somewhat depressed and unwanted and I questioned my ability as a writer and a marketing professional. After I did all that I could do to try to get back on my feet (re-writing resumes, signing up for every online job bank, signing up for PA Unemployment, establishing a freelance business, and applying for jobs left and right), I resigned myself to enjoy the last few weeks of my pregnancy.

Then came the realization that I was now, indefinitely, a stay-at-home Mom! And I panicked again. I was not cut out to be a "SAHM"! Unlike a lot of Moms, I defined myself by my work, not by my kids. I honestly was scared. Here it was, winter in Pittsburgh and I was holed up in the house with an almost-three-year old! With the help of my husband, I put on my best smile and decided to make the most of my last few weeks as "Mom and Gavin." We went to the Aviary; we went to indoor play areas at the Mall and Burger King; we watched movies; played play-doh and trucks. In between, I had a couple of interviews and, to my surprise, the time flew!

Next thing I knew, I was being told baby #2 was measuring very big and a c-section was being scheduled. My Mom, God Bless her, flew in just in time to help us, and baby boy Conall Adam was born on March 15, 8lbs. 6oz., 21 3/4" (definitely not as big as doctors had expected!).

Here is a picture of all of my boys together, the day after Conall was born. (I think Conall is smiling because he already knew Gavin's voice!)

My Mom stayed with us for 3 weeks to help me with healing and the adjustment of having two children. Her visit led right up to Easter, and my Dad drove up as well to help us celebrate all of the new life around us.

The spring and summer continued to fly as I took care of two boys (neither who would nap!), continued to build my business, and continued to look for jobs. We did a lot of visits to the backyard and the park (as much as the intolerable heat would allow a newborn baby, anyway), did a Zoo trip and a lot of errands - anything to get out of the house some days!

Finally, in late August, I landed a job as a proposal rep for a large bank. The team setup seemed very similar to what I was doing before, although the services offered were completely different. I've been in my position now for almost 3 weeks and am dealing with change yet again! But all is going well so far.

2010 has been a huge learning experience for me. I've learned that my patience level was worse than I originally thought, I learned that Lion King helps make for a great quiet time for a toddler who gave up napping one month after the baby was born, and I learned that I can handle getting two kids fed, bathed and in bed by myself.

And finally, I learned that unconditional love from ALL of my boys (along with a toothless smile and a toddler bear hug) will help me get through anything and it will always renew my spirits.

So much to talk about!

A lot has happened since the last post! Wee man has moved from his crib to a toddler bed, thus learning how to sleep walk, fall out of bed and sleep on the floor, and try numerous times to get out of nap time. *sigh*

Gavin has also learned that he is going to be a big brother in March! We're hoping for a St. Patty's baby (not only for the Irish tie, but because I would like to go a bit early this time around). LOL We're very excited and, via a Prantl's burnt almond torte goodness, we did find out O'Guppy #2's gender. *secret* So far, we're fortunate to all be healthy and happy.

We've had Labor Day at the beach (and our first visit with Grammie and Papa in almost 10 months); Halloween (he was an alligator/dinosaur - that's still open for debate); Thanksgiving again with the grandparents, who drove up here; my (and my Mom's) first Black Friday shopping experience (which was quite triumphant and envigorating!); and now Christmas!

And we've officially entered the "terrible two's" - and before I go further, yes we have been informed that three is actually the new "terrible two," so we apparently have a lot more to look forward to in the future. Lucky us.

Wee man has been stretching his independence, along with his lungs, tears, and meltdowns. It's maddening, to be honest. But we're double-teaming him and learning to pick our battles. Like tonight, we left him to have fun in the bathtub (which is a mere 20 feet from our living room). After about 10 minutes of babbling, we realized he had gotten quiet. Too quiet. So, Daddy tiptoed down the hallway and peered in. Everything seemed quite fine, until further inspection proved differently. Not only did the bathroom smell really good, but there were a ton of bubbles in the tub. I mean...a TON. It seems that 2 empty shamppo bottles were not enough to play with, someone had to empty another - a brand new one. *bang head off wall*

Despite some trying moments, however, wee man is so much fun. He talks up a storm in 4-5 word sentences, his favorite being, "what's that this one?" (translation: what's this?) Other favorites include: "i mad." "i do myself." "swiper no swiping!" (channeling Dora when he doesn't want you to take something from him) and "i sorry," when he knows he did wrong and knows he's in trouble. (He tends to use this one a lot - too much even."

Then there's the 2:30 a.m. visit to our room with an innocent "Nap time over, Daddy?" question. Uh, not quite buddy. Funny kid, I tell you.

I'll be trying my hardest to keep this updated, as I want to make sure we record most of Gavin's sayings and doings to bribe him with one day. Until then, slainte!

Children of the Corn

And now, for your viewing enjoyment, wee man's first experience with the Cob:

Not sure.....

Giving it a try.....

Success!

Wake up!

First off, it's time to wake up this blog! It has been a crazy summer between work and trying to get outside and enjoy the nice weather while it's here.

Secondly, we've come to realize that we have a 27-month old that isn't fond of being woken up by us. He'll sleep until 7 or 7:30 on a work/school day, but then be up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:30 on the weekends.

Here is the calm before the storm:

Once we get sleeping beauty to stir, we hear moans and groans and "No! No Daddy/Mommy - go away!"

I swear he's 2 going on 20. *sigh*

"Bye-bye pee pee"

Behold the 2-year old: the walking, talking, fingerprints-on-the-glass, chubby grubby funny eating machine. He is the jack of all things "toddler" and yet the master of none. Slowly, he takes on this masterpiece called life.

And so, the next step of life in his world means mastering the golden throne; the porcelin god; the loo; or, in toddler language, the potty.

For a few months now, we've been intrigued by the potty. The word "privacy" has not existed in our house, and guests are warned to lock doors behind them. We've gone through the motions anytime Gavin brings up the word potty: we run to the bathroom, take off the pants, take off the diaper, and put him on the training seat. Unfortunately, with the wee one ranking in the 97th percentile for height and weight amongst his peers, the training seat is a bit....snug. So, up we go onto the "cushie tushie" on the toilet.

For those of you lucky enough not know what a "cushie tushie" is, let me enlighten you:

Attractive decor, huh? We've spent the last few months following toddler cues: pulling at the diaper, endless rants of "poopy Mommy," pointing to the toilet with an "eh" sound, flushing, and trying to stick limbs into the shimmering water. (No, it's not a water table, son.)

Yesterday, however, 2+2= 4. My better half picked up wee one from daycare yesteday and was told that Gavin had, not once but TWICE, asked to go potty and was successful! Granted the one time all needed body parts weren't tucked into the right places and he came home in different pants than he went to school in....but we'll take it!

Three more times last night, at home, we successfully visited the potty. Two of the times he even gave warning, "pee pee coming!" Ahhhh that's my little news reporter in the making.

So, we've officially embarked on the next level of toddlerhood. I guess we installed those hardwood floors just in time, huh?

A blessed life we live

We've been working very hard on getting wee man to learn good manners. This, of course, includes "thank you," "please," and "excuse me." Outside of needing prompting to be polite 90% of the time, he's doing pretty well (as showcased this morning when I was in the way of his breakfast and I got a "scuse me Mommy" with a stiff-arm shove in the leg).

"Bless you" is another popular polite phrase that our son has taken a hold of quite fervently. This means that if you snort, cough, burp or sneeze in his presence, he will say, "Bless you Daddy/Mommy."

Yesterday morning, the little guy was walking down the hall and coughed. After a moment of silence, we heard a wee voice say, "Bless you Davin." To which the husband and I quickly replied, "Bless you Gavin."

I guess Daddy and Mommy need to work on their polite manners now!

Where did 2 years go?

Today is wee man's 2nd birthday! Oh my...where has the time gone?

April 28, 2007:

April 28, 2009:

Happy birthday, my dear little boy. Thank you for all of the joy and laughter you have brought into our lives. *hugs*

Silly drivers

So for those of you that know me, I'm originally from NJ. Born and raised for 18 years in the Garden State (stop the snickering...). That also means I learned how to scare....er, I mean drive in that state as well.

It's no surprise I'm more on the aggressive side of driving (though I do try to tell people I'm just a very "defensive" driver - I mean, if you're not aggressive while driving in NJ, you'd be roadkill!).

Driving home from picking up wee man from daycare yesterday, I came across a stupid driver - turning on red while the opposing traffic (aka: me) had the turn light. I wasn't impressed, and while I would have liked to tell the dust bunnies in my car what I really thought about the stellar move, I refrained since the little guy was in the backseat. So, instead of the string of expletives I would have used in my pre-Mommy life, I chose to blurt out "bad car!"

To which my innocent toddler replied, "Bad car...silly dwyvahs!"

Apparently his father has been curbing his Irish tongue too, and prefers to blurt out, "silly drivers" at....well, you know....silly drivers.

From the mouths of babes...

Hoppy Easter!

We hope everyone had a fantastic Easter weekend! Here are a few shots from ours, including wee man's first egg hunt:

the Easter basket:
and all ready for Easter Mass:

This is what we do at daycare

I think it's safe to say that we're still in the climbing stages of toddlerhood. Last month, his teacher was telling me how she turned around to see my perfect, wee angel in this rather awkward situation:I don't know if this is the teachers' way of practicing calisthenics, or a game of, "If you can fit into this space...."

The other kid looks like she's eyeing him up, doesn't she? Good luck getting him off the shelf, kid. Good luck.

More recipes to share

I'm part of an online community of great women, and one of things we like to share are different recipes. I recently picked up on a couple of winning recipes in our house from these amazing ladies (I don't want to post their blogs here, since I'm not sure if they would be okay with that), but I have to give a shout out to Michelle and Becky for the following recipes:

Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole (adapted from Cooking Light)
1 TBSP olive oil
1 cup diced onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb chicken, shredded (original recipe called for soy chicken)
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese or taco cheese blend (original recipe called for light taco cheese)
14 corn tortillas, quartered
20 oz green chile enchilada sauce1 can green chiles, chopped and undrained
1 tsp chile powder
½ tsp cumin

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until soft and translucent. Add undrained chiles and sauté for another two minutes. Mix in shredded chicken.

Add cumin and chile powder to green enchilada sauce, stir to combine. Ladle 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a baking dish. Lay ½ of the tortilla pieces over the sauce, overlapping them to make a solid layer. Add chicken/onion mixture, sprinkle half of the cheese over the chicken mixture and then ladle another 1/3 of the sauce. Top with remaining tortilla pieces, sauce and cheese. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes, uncovered.

Serve with light sour cream and cilantro.
(I adapted this further, by using only one 10 oz. can of enchilada sauce and mixed 10 oz. of mild salsa in with it - this purely by mistake since I forgot to buy 20 oz. of the sauce! I also cooked whole chicken breasts in the skillet first, since I knew it would be easier to shred cooked. I left it slightly uncooked in the middle, figuring it would "cook up" in the oven.)

Smothered BBQ Ranch ChickenRecipe:
4 chicken breasts
3/4 cup BBQ sauce
3/4 cup fat free ranch dressing

Mix ranch and bbq sauce together- pour over chicken in frying pan. Let simmer for 30-35 minutes until cooked. Top it with shredded cheese, a sprinkle of chopped bacon, and a handful of chopped scallions.
(I again adapted this, since my evenings are hectic enough feeding the wee man and all of the other things I have to do once I get home from work: I Pam-ed the bottom of an oven dish, placed uncooked chicken breasts in the pan, covered with the sauce, and covered with foil. Put in the over at 350 for 30 minutes. At 30 minutes, remove foil and sprinkle shredded cheese on top of chicken. Bake until cheese is melted. Top with scallions when you remove from oven.)

Enjoy!!

I love new things...

Introducing, our new couches and living room!

Even Heidi looks thrilled, don't you think?!

Finally, we bought a new ceiling fan for our dining room:

If all goes well at the gargae sale we're having later this Spring, maybe I can get a new kitchen table too!

Anyone looking to buy a decent, 5-piece kitchen set or nice loveseat to help me reach my new goal?! Call me!

Random musings of a toddler (oh and molars suck too)

The last few days have been rough - the incessant whining, the constant drooling (well that's been going on for 5 months now so we're used to that), the interrupted sleep (meaning whining all night), a low grade fever, and constant junk being expelled from tiny nasal passages.

We finally nailed it last night, though - it's the molars! I took a quick peak (before the chomper could bite me) and saw two top molars - only half-way out, meaning one side of the tooth was showing, the other was still hiding. Owwwwwwwwwwww.....

So we took matters into our own hands last night and channeled decades of ancestor parents before us: we brought out the good Irish whiskey. Within a minute of drenching his gums in this liquid gold, wee man stopped whining and was running around like a happy, wild Banshee (and no, he wasn't drunk). Awww sweet relief for us all! We had to do a rinse and repeat around 10pm, but we got a night of sleep out of the deal. And someone woke up very happy this morning too!

He was saying goodbye to Daddy while we were still in the house and laid a big wet one on both my mouth and Daddy's before my coffee mug was even in my hand. On the drive to school, I decided to boycott his Babies Laughing nursery rhyme CD (don't get me wrong, it is cute, but it's getting old) and put on the soundtrack to the movie Mama Mia! On the song "Money Money" all I could hear was Gavin singing, "Mommy, Mommy." Ahhh that's my sweet boy!

This got me thinking that I NEED to start journaling all of his new words and phrases, since some of them are just too funny. The current favorites are:

e-i-e-i-o (he wants his music on)
carseat
daddy truck
mommy car
gotcha
I got it
uh-huh (usually in a pathetic, semi-dramatic tone)
phone (in case we didn't hear the phone ringing 4 inches from us)
papa (any man over the age of 50 with graying hair)
Louie (his stuffed lion)
guha-guha-guha (his blankie)
Daddy, boom boom boom! (accompanied by shaking of his arm - this represents Daddy hammering)
tank you and pease
I bach (accompanied by a shaking of his forefinger to tell us he'll be right back)
tubbie
baby
wah-wah (water) or juice
milk
cup
caukie (coffee)
Tom and Cincie, Buhwayce (Bryce) and Eesa (Lisa) (all of the neighbors)
Meow (he thinks that's the cat's name)
I sorry
And so many more.........the list is getting long!

But, my personal favorites are:
"I broke it." Followed immediately by, "Daddy fix it." (Poor Daddy gets to fix a LOT of things around here.)

And "Davin" for his name (Gavin).

From the mouths of cute, snot-nosed babes......

It's a good day to be Irish!

Well, 50% Irish anyway. But wee man will take it with being both an Irish citizen and American citizen - the kid has the best of both worlds!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, friends!

He likes it!

A day at the park...

Spring is finally starting to peak it's pretty head around the corner here in Western PA. On Saturday, temperatures reached almost record-highs of 74 degrees! Since the husband is still tackling home improvements, and it's hard to keep wee man out of his hair and tools, the two of us ventured out to a local park. After a few minutes of hesitation, Gavin took off like a champ and showed no fear in tackling the slides, as you can see:

Oh to be a kid again, huh?!

Top Chef

So, the husband and I love cooking shows - especially Gordon Ramsey's Hell's Kitchen and Top Chef. I wish I could think more off-the-cuff when it comes to cooking, like the chefs on these shows do.

What I really struggle with though, as a working Mom, is just plain getting a hot dinner on the table during weeknights. I keep falling back on the good ol' stand-bys: bruschetta chicken bake, tacos/fajitas, meatballs, spaghetti bolognese, kielbasa, lasagna, bbq porkchops, meatloaf and perogies.

Every now and again I venture out with shrimp or some other fish.

But we're both getting really tired of it. So, if any of you have nice, easy meals to share with me, please let me know!

I'm slowly making progress, though. Last night I did try something new. I knew some of the ingredients that were in our cabinets, so I went to www.allrecipes.com, entered a couple of ingredients and voila! I ended up making this (with one minor ingredient change):

Artichoke Chicken

INGREDIENTS
1 (15 ounce) can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup mayonnaise (used a can of low-fat creamed chicken instead)
1 pinch garlic pepper
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the artichoke hearts, Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, and garlic pepper. Place chicken in a greased baking dish, and cover evenly with artichoke mixture.
3. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink in the center and juices run clear.

It turned out really well, and the husband was quite happy to have something new. (And we decided to add another can of soup and artichokes next time.)

Bon appetit! (And remember to share your recipes!)

Ireland

Here are a few pictures my sister-in-law sent me from our trip to Ireland. It was a chilly, but beautiful day that these pictures were taken - the perfect opportunity to let Gavin outside to stretch his legs!

My husband's brother and his family have a beautiful house overlooking a serene lake. (Tomas, myself, Gavin and cousin Michael, driving the bike):

Gavin and Michael:

The boys on the tractor...or "truck" as Gavin is obsessive about: