52:9:Potty

Around our house...

We love to go potty!

Remember when I said be careful what you wish for in reference to hoping Claire would pick up some new hobbies?  Well, along with climbing out of her crib, Claire has now started to take potty to a whole new level.

Background... Claire has been able to tell us for over a month now that she is poopy.  She will actually request a diaper change.  Awesome... or so I thought.  The doctor was very impressed at our last check up and mentioned that if Claire was willing to talk potty, we should encourage her.  Give her words for "tinkles" (oh we call it pee.  I've tried to make "tinkles" a thing, but I said ONE TIME I had to pee and it stuck) and "poopy".  She also mentioned we could get a trainer toilet and put it in the bathroom.  Not to force Claire to start to use it, but to get her used to it being there.  And of course, let her go to the bathroom with me and tell her about what I'm doing.

So what did I do about this conversation and sage advice?  Nothing.  I reveled in the fact my kid could tell me she needed a diaper change (how much does THIS cut down on sniffing her booty in public?).  But I didn't really want to start potty talk or potty field trips.  Unfortunately, Claire had other ideas, so now I have a constant bathroom companion.

And then...

Claire started stripping (removing pants, diaper, shoes, whatever is in her way) and pottying.  Normally at day care during nap time.  Whoops.  The crazy thing is, she'll do this with a dry diaper.  She has to have planning and skill to get all those items off (and thrown out of the crib, too, by the way) and then she squats in a corner and potties.  She also did this in the bathtub just before she got out this weekend.  We said it was time to get out, she made a move like "hang on a second" went to the side, squatted, and peed, then wanted out.

I'm not planning on actually potty training until maybe this summer.  We just want to keep the lines of communication open since she's interested in it now (I realize that she isn't ready to actually become potty trained--she doesn't have the bladder size or control).  But I also realize that it doesn't hurt to get her familiar and comfortable with the idea.  She needs skills like being able to sit on the potty for an extended period of time (tonight it lasted almost five minutes... whoa!).  She also needs to be able to hold her tinkles... something she definitely cannot do during naps or night time. 

So tonight after her bath she ran back to the bathroom and got on her toilet so she could reread her bath-time book.  I yelled for Matt and he snapped some shots using his phone (sorry, you can't stage everything!).  I just thought it was funny how only a week ago I was running out of ideas for pictures and whala!  My little girl is all grown up!  Be careful what you wish for!

Very serious reading going on here, folks.

So pleased with herself!

And yes, I am sitting on the adult potty, but the lid is down and my pants are on!

52:8:Climb

Around our House...

Things just got real!

We obviously need to move the rails to one side.  Because she just climbs these, too!

Claire climbed out of her crib this morning!  She's been climbing on the couch (and off the couch) for weeks, but we didn't think anything about it.  At our last doctor appointment, Claire's pediatrician noticed Claire's climbing antics and mentioned that once she could climb out of the crib we needed to switch to a toddler bed... she noted that Claire's climbing abilities were a little "early".  Well.  Not to be one of "THOSE" moms, but apparently she is.  Because this morning all I heard was a little chatter, then a huge bang, then lots of crying.  And when I ran to check, she was out of her crib, her toy (from the crib) in hand.  Her and Puppy (I've got my eye on you, Puppy, I'm hoping you didn't tell HER to do this!) had escaped and fallen on the floor.  Thank goodness Claire was okay, but we put her back in the crib to see if she really could (or would) climb back out.  And sure enough, she did. 

So we took the front of her crib off, bought some toddler rails, and I guess we'll see.  She's so young to start this (not even 16 months!) but we can't risk her climbing out and getting hurt.  Life just got really interesting, though.  Let's see how our child-proofing skills hold up to this!

NASCAR Returns, and an Open Letter to Dale Jr....

This is one of my favorite blogs.  I crack up at her drawings and stories.  So I decided to take a page from her and illustrate the combined joy and desperation/depression/anger, etc., that comes with NASCAR season and take to my blog to write an open letter to Dale Jr. 

We are a house divided.  I am a loyal Tony Stewart fan (have been since Home Depot, baby!).  Matt is a loyal Dale/Dale Jr. fan. 

Last year we spent a lot of races angry because both our drivers did a lot of stupid things.  Then, something miraculous happened... Tony started winning races...

And while Jr. still wasn't winning... Tony went and won half the races in last year's Chase for the Cup...

 

And then Tony had the nerve to win (in a tie breaker, Matt will never let me forget he only "tied" but won on a technicality .... of more winnings... but I'll get locked out if I say that) the NASCAR championship.  Dale Jr. sadly placed 7th.   

 

So during the off season, Matt watched a lot of classic NASCAR races to relive the glory years of when Jr. was a top driver and he became a fan...

 

But then soon the season started gearing up and talking about Jr.'s win-less streak and things got kind of ugly around the house.

 

Because when you talk losers, you have to talk winners, and guess whose favorite driver did a lot of winning last year?

 

And then, the Bud Shootout happened, and even though Tony didn't win, he almost won, which is good enough for me because I just like Tony.  He's kind of my NASCAR husband.  He should definitely hang out with me sometime and I'll buy him one of those Schlitz things he drinks.

 

So now we're gearing up for the season opener, Daytona.  I've heard about 100 times that this is Jr's year.  I've heard about 100 times that Tony won't get hit by lightening twice and Danica sucks and it's all Tony's fault.  And then Matt brings up again how Jr will probably win Daytona.  So.  Here's the letter...

Dear Dale Jr, 

I know there are a lot of things involved with winning.  Sometimes after we haven't won in a long time, we start feeling down about things and then winning gets even harder.  However, winning feels better than anything.  Real wins are even better than "moral victories" because that's just a code word for "I lost again, but I didn't lose as bad as I usually do" and that doesn't do me any favors for the week.  

I don't care that by winning a few races Tony can't win those races.  Even though I love Tony (and I really really do love him), I also love my husband and I love a happy household.  You have a lot of fans who are very loyal to you.  My father-in-law loves you, too.  A lot of people (namely Matt and his father) will be very happy when you win.  And then I'll have this whole week of happiness... and if you win again the next week, that'll be TWO weeks of happiness (in the meantime, Tony, you'd better be getting second place... or else).  

You don't have to win the championship.  You just need to win a few races this year.  And not lame Nationwide races, either, those don't count.  I'm talking Cup races.  I'm talking Daytona.  So.  I need you to win.  I don't care how you do it.  Bribes.  Whoppers laced with laxatives.  Lock the port-a-potties.   Throw thumb tacks out on the track.  Win Daytona.  

Yours in winning,

Melissa

PS... I know this seems monumental, but we will totally buy you beer and tell you wonderful stories and hang off your every word (and bring Tony, because I'm going to need something to do, too).  My cousin Kyle changes tires, he can totally make this happen.  So win.  Please and thank you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Even though this is Claire's second Valentine's Day, I feel like it's the first one she can really participate in.  She's got a wonderful new group of friends now at her new day care, so I wanted to share the love.  I spent a long time searching for the perfect Valentines for her friends this year.  I was thinking crochet, but I just couldn't find the right, special item.  SO I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and found this awesome tutorial.  I got some hand-me-down crayons from a co worker and went to work! 

Our 2012 Valentines!

I didn't take any pictures of the process (silly me) but I did learn a few tricks.  First, you really need the top to melt completely.  It didn't do it in the 15 minutes that the tutorial suggested, so I kept my eyes on them and waited until it was all liquid on top.  That doesn't color well, but the top in the oven is the bottom of the crayon and if they aren't melted enough, the top of the crayon won't fit the mold. 

Cookie?  Cookie?  That's all we hear these days...

After making all the crayons for Claire's new friends, of course she wanted to put together a Valentine with a special message.  She decided on "you color my world" but I went ahead and wrote it on them for her since her writing skills are still a little shabby.  Of course, I plan on giving Claire all the artistic credit on this one, but I just hope that no one's disappointed they aren't cookies!  Claire was kind of disappointed about that... until she got to color for the entire afternoon!

Coloring is fun!  Happy Valentine's Day!

52:7:Color

Around our house...

We like to color!

Claire occasionally likes to pull out the crayons and paper and draw.  Right now she's mostly into modern expressionist scribbles, but Momma helped her with this so she was trying to copy drawing hearts.  She was really excited to try out her new heart-shaped crayon that I'll have to share in another blog post.  Of course, she was mostly excited because since it came out of the oven, it must be a cookie... one little nibble proved her theory wrong, so she resorted to scribbling with it on the paper instead. 

I love how interested she is in the different colors of the crayons.  She looks at each one and enjoys picking her favorites to use.  Then of course she has to run around with a few and we have to chase her before she accidentally graffiti tags the walls, but it's just so darn cute she gets so excited!

Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Ball Tutorial

Welcome to my first cooking tutorial!  Since our awesome Superbowl party food was such a hit, I thought I'd share my not-so-secret recipe for my chocolate chip cream cheese ball.  I originally used a recipe from Taste of Home, but I've modified it so much, I regret giving people the original recipe (because that's a sneaky thing my grandmother would do--give you the recipe, but not have it quite right, and you're forever wondering why your dip, although delicious, isn't exactly like mine!)

First, assemble your ingredients:
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened (I use fat free)
1/2 cup butter, softened (that's one stick)
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3/4 to 1 cup powdered sugar (add to taste, some folks think 1 full cup is too sweet, but I think 3/4 is too bitter still)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar (dark can look like spots, but will taste the same)
1 cup mini chocolate chips (consider using mini M&Ms or any small bits of chocolate candy--don't add big chunks!)
Lots of chocolate animal crackers

Next in a bowl put together your very soft butter (I always nuke mine for a few seconds, not to melted, but just to be super soft), soft cream cheese, and vanilla.  I use a hand mixer, but I'm sure a regular stand mixer would work fine (just bigger cleaning and usually I use my stand mixer for the "bigger" jobs).

Beat this until fluffy and blended.  If your butter is too cold, it'll chunk up.  Not a good thing.

This is fluffy... if you've got chunks you can nuke it for a few seconds or let it sit and get to room temp

Next gradually add your sugars.  I typically put in all the brown sugar and measure out my powdered sugar in 1/4 cups--and ONE 1/4 cup, and if you're being clean, drape a kitchen towel over your mixer and mix on slow.  Then I add in the rest of the powdered sugar in another 1/4 cup.  That way when you hit 3/4 powdered sugar, you can taste it to see if it's sweet enough (sneaky!!)  Mine wasn't on this, so I added the full cup.

Throwing a kitchen towel over the mixer keeps your kitchen powder sugar free!  I do this with my stand mixer, too.  Flour, powdered sugar, light mixes--also mix on SLOW.  A towel can only do so much!

Nice and creamy... if your powdered sugar is chunky, you may want to sift it first, but mine was fine, so I didn't bother.

Then, put your mixer away.  I always blend in chocolate chips with a spoon or a spatula.  Otherwise it'll build up in your blades AND might smush your chips... which although tasty, doesn't make it pretty.

mini chips are the best size for this... big chips make for hard to dip dips.

So now you've got your dip!  Usually I stop here and don't bother to make a ball.  People can dip out of the bowl just fine.  However, if you're trying to impress (and oh, I was) you can take it to the next level by making a ball.

First refrigerate the dip for 2+hours, covered.  Scoop chilled dip out onto saran wrap, careful to have lots of it ready.  Form the dip into a ball, using the saran wrap to form it (it won't stay in a firm ball, but that's okay).  Refrigerate for another hour (and/or throw it in the freezer for about 15 minutes, but only if you know you won't forget it!)

In the meantime, crush up a few handfulls of chocolate animal crackers.

For extra fun on this step, imagine the animal crackers screaming for mercy

When the dip is ready, unroll it gently from the saran wrap and roll it in the crumbs.  Now it is a full on cookie cheese ball!  You don't have to use chocolate, but I think it's the best.  Also you don't have to dip with chocolate animal crackers--you can use graham crackers, Teddy Grams, whatever you think is fun.  (If you change the dipping medium, you can crush that up as coating just as easily).

Now your ball is ready for any event!

Oh NOOO!!  Who dipped?

Just watch out, you might have loved ones sneaking a dip before the party because it's just that good!

Dip thief, caught red handed

52:6:Look

Around our house...

We are looking for spring!

 

Claire certainly likes looking outside these days!  She wants to see what's going on outside!  On this particular day, Claire was waiting for Grandma to come over and we told her she was on the way which meant Claire immediately ran to the door to start watching for her.  She also likes to peek out the back doors which are French doors so she has a view as well. 

At our new sitter we even saw a squirrel looking out her big windows (and all the kids had to come and look... and lick windows... what IS with the licking?  Is it the Windex?)  But Mr. Squirrel was cool because he was fearless, even faced with an army of window-licking toddlers all staring at him.  He had a nut and was eating and there was NO stopping him!

Anyway... since Claire can open and close doors now (eek) looking outside is a fine alternative to escaping so I'll let her enjoy and just keep cleaning all those cute hand prints off the glass!