Grilled Cheese and Company

I am stealing the name of one of my favorite local establishments with this post!

Last Saturday we hosted a family potluck through my mom's group themed around Grilled Cheese sandwiches. Families brought different kinds of bread, cheese, meats, sides, and desserts. We all created our own masterpieces, pressed them into paninis, and chowed down. In between all that cheesy goodness, the kids played like rockstars. Noelle and the big kids headed down the stairs with a swoop while Kellen and his mostly slightly bigger friends hung upstairs with the grown ups. It was nice to meet a lot of the dads from the group and I think everyone had a great time. Grilled cheese will definitely be my go-to food for future potlucks - it was awesome!

Cold Turkey

The past week, three of the four of us have had colds. Thus far, Noelle has been spared so maybe there is something to this whole immune system getting super strong after 3+ years in daycare. The rest of us have been sleeping pretty poorly. This is partly my fault. Kellen has always been a snuggler, is always sick, and is a super light sleeper. So while I can count on one hand the number of times we have let Noelle sleep part of the night in our bed since she was a newborn, Kellen is in our bed for part of the night more often than not it seems. Yes, I know this was a bad idea. And it totally was not my plan. But it happened and now I am trying to break this habit. It wasn't too bad until last night when K decided that he was done being in his crib at 11:30. Often when he wakes up we can give him a pacifier and he lays back down. Last night, when I went in he already had a pacifier and was standing up wailing. When he saw me, he flung the pacifier across his room. I gave it back to him, along with two others, and he threw all three through the slots of his crib with determination. Um, yeah, that was on purpose you little manipulator. You have no fever, there is no snot shooting out of your nose, and your breathing is fine. So no I am not cuddling with you in my bed to help you go to sleep after you do that.

So we are finishing up our colds and we are going cold turkey (sort of) on pacifier use. K is 16 months and while I don't think that is particularly old to have a pacifier, I am done with it. He uses it a lot less in the day than he did up to a year or so, but it is time to get rid of it for good during the day. Night might take a bit longer (I am hoping B makes that final leap while I am away at my conference in April!) but starting tomorrow morning there will be no more pacifiers outside of nighttime sleeping in Kel's life. And no more cuddling him back to sleep in our bed unless it is a special circumstance! Kel you are 16 months now. Time to be a (little) man!

Three.Five

Today my baby girl is 3.5. And my little boy is 16 months. I can not believe how fast they are growing! Noelle is blossoming into a beautiful little girl. I can't believe how grown up she is looking these days. I feel like it is happening overnight - slow down world! But since I can't make things go any slower, I'll just record a little info about my princess on this milestone half birthday.

Noelle is a great big sister most of the time. She absolutely adores Kellen and is really helpful with him. She likes to get things for him, tell him what to do, play with him, read with him, etc. She also loves him so much she prefers to keep him awake all day at daycare, but that is another story. She looks out for him and is trying to teach him things like colors, parts of the body, etc. with me. I trust her enough at this point that I'll let the kids play together in her room or in the basement for a bit while I cook or do chores because I know she is really careful about making sure he is ok and there isn't anything around that can hurt him. Watching Noelle interract with K is definitely one of my favorite parts of being a mom.

Noelle is also really self-sufficient in many ways. She picks her clothes out, gets dressed, and puts on her shoes in the morning, brushes her teeth, cleans her room, puts things away, gets food out, etc. Of course we need to prompt her to do some of these things on occasion, but she does them no problem and has been doing them for quite some time. There are certainly times when Noelle is needy (mostly when we are paying attention to her brother, cooking, or it is the middle of the night and she needs to go the bathroom) but otherwise she takes pride in being a big girl that does stuff.

Noelle absolutely loves school and learning. She now can identify all the capital and lowercase letters, knows all the letter sounds, can tell us what words start with, and can do some simple sounding out of words. She can count to 30 (19 is sometimes a problem), can do simple addition and subtraction up to about 6 or so, and is starting to work on telling time. She also is getting pretty good at opposites and rhyming words. Noelle is less good at writing/drawing. We are working on holding pencils correctly and making lines and shapes. She is decent at writing her first name but we are still working on making that prettier and smaller! Noelle has inherited her parents' personalities and gets frustrated easily when things don't come easily on the first try. We are working on that too and it is definitely our biggest challenge with teaching her new things that aren't easy!

Noelle is very social and has lots of little friends at daycare, school, and our mom's group. Actually another mom just told me after learning my daughter is Noelle that her son is talking about her after school. First crush perhaps? Her imaginary brother and sister are gone and while she changes who her best friend is constantly (other than Kel), Evie, Nathan, Emme, and Katushka are all current favorites. Her grandmother is probably her favorite person that doesn't live here and she loves calling and skyping with my family and Bryan's mom. The phone with other people is harder for her - her attention span for the phone with others just isn't very long!

Noelle is finally fully potty trained. She has been wearing underwear to bed the past week and it is going well. Noelle also is listening better, helping more, and being nicer most of the time. She certainly still has her moments particularly when she is tired, but overall the terrible twos and torturous first part of the threes are over. Sort of like naps are over. Oh well, you win some, you lose some!

Some of Noelle's favorites right now are the colors yellow and purple, the fresh beat band, tinkerbell movies, music and dancing, looking at pictures, reading Dora and other books, and running around at playgrounds or riding her bike when it is nice out. She mostly plays with whatever toys Kellen gets out which is nice!

So that's my big 3.5 year old in a nutshell. Love you, sweetheart!

Auto Show

On Sunday we headed down to the Baltimore Auto Show at the convention center as a family.  I found a great living social deal and knew Bryan loves cars and Noelle loves pretending to drive, so what could be better? I didn't count on the 4:55 am wake-up call from one child and 5:30 from the other, so while we made it through church and the first part of the show with no problems, there were a few obstacles in the form of grumpiness during the second part. But we still had fun and ended the outing on a high note with a visit to the Ford robot. Noelle and Bryan danced and cheered, and Kellen and I hung back and talked with friends that we ran into. The only problem with the car show - it made us want another new vehicle!

 B looks happy in a truck. Maybe we'll even get another one some day!

 A truck would allow another place for these two to play around. Of course only when parked!

 Yay, that's not a lot of leg room if my 22 pounder can hardly fit!

 Flash forward 13 years. Scary!

 Yes, I was there too.

 Noelle gets serious about her driving.

And the Robot. Equipped with Ravens' gear and everything!

*And yes, Noelle has a favorite outfit. And a favorite shirt for her brother. We did wash them between Fri and Sun wearings!

Fabulous Friday

Friday morning began with big girl Noelle waking up with dry underwear. This was huge for us as it was her first time wearing underwear to bed in almost a year. I was so proud of my daughter and I told her we could have a special lunch celebration after school. So I dropped Noelle off at school, got excited for our pizza lunch, and headed over to Storyville for my first big Friday morning excursion with Kellen that didn't involve shopping.

Kellen and I had a great time playing. By far his favorite part is the seats in the train that bounced up and down!

Kellen also was a big fan of the food market where he could shop for fruits and vegetables and play with money!

We met up with one of our friends there. Baby Johnny is 2 days younger than Kellen, about 7 pounds heavier, and definitely a few inches taller. It is definitely easier to see how little my guy is when he is next to his friends!

We left Storyville, picked up Noelle at school, and headed over to Peace a Pizza for lunch. Noelle and Kellen shared a slice and a cookie and I had half of a personal pizza that was super yummy!

After pizza we played at home for a bit during what should have been nap time (Kellen's 40 minute car nap was it for the day - oh well!) and then had some friends over for a Valentine craft playdate. I forgot how loud 6 3-5 year olds and their little brothers and sisters could be! The kids made bracelets and decorated with stickers and foam pieces. They had a great time!

It was a fabulous Friday and it ended with another night of Noelle staying dry in big girl underwear. I love Fridays!

My Valentine

Saturday morning Bryan took Noelle to one of our favorite places, Home Depot, for their monthly kid workshop. It was their first time going but definitely won't be their last. They got settled in, Noelle put her apron on, and they began hammering and tooling to get things together. Noelle was able to do quite a bit of the project - Bryan got the nails started and then let her do the rest. Then she picked out her favorite colors, yellow and Raven's purple, and painted her masterpiece. The complete project - a Valentine holder! She was very proud of her creation and loved spending time with daddy. I think she especially loved that K was a little too small to attend.

Here is her masterpiece:

And my little builder:

They'll definitely be back in March as Noelle already has her eye on the race car the kids will be making!

Citrus!

Inspired by our Moraccan and Maple Syrup themed meals of 2012, the last Saturday in January I hosted moms from my group for a themed dinner revolving around one of my favorite winter trears, citrus. Ten of us got together and everyone contributed one drink or dish for the dinner. It was a great mix of moms I know well and moms I have just met a few times and the dinner was delightful. We had a lot of fun (perhaps a bit too much!) and the food and drink were excellent. Here was our menu:

Cocktail: Citrus Cantina Cooler

Erin mixes up her concoction!

Appetizer: Citrus and Blue Cheese Bruschetta

I don't even like blue cheese and I loved this! Caitlin, the grapefruit made the dish!

Soup: Winter Squash Soup with Citrus-Mint Pesto

Lisa did an awesome job with her soup, especially since she was our pinch hitter for the night!

Salad: Strawberry Citrus Salad with Homemade Lemon Dressing

Oops, forgot to take a picture of the salad til it was almost gone. And not sure where the dressing was in the picture. The bottle was for those who didn't want the yummy lemon dressing Nancy made.

Main Dish: Lemon Chicken

My lemon chicken was pretty good, especially since it was my first attempt ever doing something with chicken thighs. Maybe I should branch out of the chicken breast box again sometime!

Side Dish: Citrus Green Beans with Toasted Pine Nuts

Laura's green beans had a nice orange flavor. And she wasn't even the only one to toast pine nuts for the evening!

Side Dish: Lemon and Cherry Orzo Salad

Julia's orzo was a hit! Yum, cherries. Yum, cheese. Yum, lemon. Yum, arugula.

Dessert: Lemon Cloud Cake (and Blood and Cara Cara Oranges)

Becki's lemon cake was light and a perfect end to the night. As were our "drunken" oranges, that is oranges splashed with Prosecco.

Red and white wine selections from Melissa and Lorena rounded out the menu. Delish! I am excited for our next themed dinner event this spring - Ginger!

(Please excuse the photography in this post. Someone *might" have dropped the camera in the snow as her son tried to waddle in to the street. It *might* have been about the 10,000 time it was dropped. My husband *might* be getting me a new camera that is permanently attached to me to assure this does not happen again in the future!)

I Missed You Mommy

This is how my daughter greets me most evenings these days. In one short sentence she makes me grin while also blinking back tears. The past few days a ton of articles have been going around on Facebook - what not to say to working moms, stay at home moms, people in general. Some are nicer in tone than others, like the one about how I'm not failing as a mom mostly because I care whether I am failing or not. And at almost every mom's night two topics are sure to come up - child birth (why must we tell the same labor war stories 20 thousand times after drinking wine?) and working verses staying home. I have chosen (and let's be honest, it has partially chosen me) to work. I am home with my kids all day three out of seven days a week. Not horrible but not ideal. I pay another person to help me raise them. And I am ok with that. Most of the time.

Yes, I could probably stay home. Bryan could get a different job where he is making more and has cheaper health insurance. But then he would be working more and seeing us less. And he would feel pressure as our sole bread winner. And I would feel pressure to cook gourmet meals, actually do the Pinterest crafts and kid projects I pin, and keep my house spic and span. I wouldn't feel like I could leave for mom's nights after he was at work all day and I would feel guilty for being ready to hand them over when he walks through the door as I am many Fridays. We are type A perfectionist people, and we'd throw ourselves in to trying to do our seperate roles as perfectly as possible. As dual parents and workers we don't really have that luxury. I like to say I am really good at doing lots of things not super well. Because whenever I am in one place, I feel guilty about not being at the other. I love playing with my kids Fridays, but I know my work life doesn't really come to a standstill so I check email and respond to my colleagues throughout the day. But I also send my kids to daycare when they have colds, not because I don't care, but because I have already taken eight sick days in the last six weeks and things need to get done in the office. I spend part of my work days on the phone trying to figure out pick-ups and doctor appointments and just seeing how my kids were when they woke up since they are often asleep when I leave in the morning. I am sure my colleagues get sick of hearing about my little people, and I know my kids get sick of my laptop and phone. But in the end, no matter how much I sometimes wish things could be different, I know this is right. For us. But not for everybody.

And I see the good of being a working mommy missed each day. First, my kids get to play all day long and learn from others. They love people and are outgoing, independent, beautiful people. Second, Bryan and I can relate to what the other person is feeling when we are both pulled in two directions. We share the same kind of exhaustion and I think he is more involved in our kids' lives than many dads not just because he wants to be, but he has to be. And this week Noelle told Bryan she wanted to grow up so she could get married, have babies, and be a scientist (yes that is what she thinks I do - science education is a tough concept I guess!) so while I don't think you can have it all perfectly, perhaps I am teaching her you can have it all pretty well. And maybe it will be easier for her generation. I can hope!

There are tough moments. Lots of them. They call 6 pm the witching hour for a reason, and of course those 60 minutes are about 2/3 of what I get four days a week. And getting up at 5 and to work at 7 is never a picnic either, but what I have learned from talking to friends and family, and what these articles have reinforced, is parenthood is hard and amazing all rolled up in to one, no matter what choices you make. So really, all any of us can do is do our best. The best for our kids, for our spouses, for our jobs (whether they be in or out of the home), and for ourselves.

If you figure out how to do everything well, let me know, but in the meantime I am just going to have some exhausted fun getting by and enjoy the hugs and greetings I get from my daughter and son each day.