My little fishy

We went out of town last weekend and Preston went swimming for the first time in the hotel pool. He LOVES taking a bath - his feet kick like crazy and his hands slap the water so I was hoping he'd enjoy the pool experience which he did! I bought him a pool floatie, swim diapers (duh!), swim trunks and a sun hat. The pool was indoors, but he needed to look dapper for the ladies :) He wasn't too sure what to do at first but then started kicking and splashing and laughing. He got lots of attention from the hotel guests.


We stayed at a new place this time and were most unimpressed. It's a big name hotel (starts with an 'H'), but we prefer our usual place (Best Western). Our usual place was booked full so we had to find something else that was close to the college campus and the 'H' looked nice online. It did have some good features. We were on the 8th floor (there were 9 total) and had a good view out of our floor to ceiling window. I dread elevators, but I wasn't going to walk up and down 8 flights of stairs multiple times a day carrying a baby and 5 bags. The lobby was gorgeous though - there were white lights in the trees and water fountains all around. The best part was the Starbucks on site - they offered any grande drink for $1.50 with a student ID. We took them up on that offer - yum! We won't be staying there again, but we'll definitely go back for another caffeine fix. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I do love froo-froo sugary liquid in a clear cup with a green straw....especially at a killer price! :)

BRAND NEW CAR!!!!!!

I went to Home Depot to look at refrigerators and came home with a brand new car....not from HD though ;)

The car dealership was across the street so I impulsively drove through the lot on my way home to just 'see what they had'. Next thing I knew, I was test driving a new car. The smooth ride, the new car smell, the barely driven 16 miles, the leather seats, the shiny exterior, the fancy dashboard....I fell in love. We got a great deal on it. I turn into another person when I'm buying a car - I don't know who she is or where she comes from, but she gets the job done and gets what she wants!

We got a 2011 Mazda CX-7 Touring. I still need to go refrigerator shopping though :)

Hamburger cookies

I made these hamburger cookies for April Fool's Day. They were so easy and so fun to make....and they're vegetarian!

Hamburger Cookies

• Nilla wafers


• Mint cookies (I used Keebler)


• Coconut


• Red and yellow frosting


• Green food coloring


• Water


• Corn syrup


• Sesame seeds

Place Nilla wafer flat side up on cookie sheet. Add mint cookie and put in oven for a minute just to soften the chocolate and adhere it to the Nilla wafer. Tint coconut green with food coloring and a few drops of water. Sprinkle on chocolate cookie while still warm to make 'lettuce'. Add red and yellow frosting for 'ketchup and mustard'. Brush top of Nilla wafer with corn syrup and sprinkle on sesame seeds for the top bun. Press onto frosting.

5 months old

Our little buddy is now 5 months old! We decided to do 2 big events on his big day.

#1 - we gave him his first bites of rice cereal. I made it myself using whole grain brown rice. He seemed to like it ok, but he was more fascinated with the spoon.

Yummy! Spoons are cool!Oops! Stuck the spoon in too far! ((GAG))

#2 - we started a sleep learning method called "The Sleepeasy Solution". We've been rocking him to sleep every night and we decided to teach him how to fall asleep on his own. I have a friend that used this with her son and it worked like a charm so she let me borrow her book so we could try it. It was also approved by our pediatrician at our last visit. We put him in his crib at 8:40pm (yes, I know that's too late!) and he cried off and on for 3 hours - yikes!!! It wasn't a frantic cry, more of a wimper. We've always swaddled him when he goes to sleep so we think he'd fall asleep and then move his arms and wake himself up and start crying again. After 3 long hours of this, we decided to quickly swaddle him and put him back in his crib. It worked and he didn't make a peep after that. I wish we'd done that earlier! We'll slowly start to unswaddle him as the days go on so he doesn't become dependent on that to fall asleep. Hopefully tonight will go smoother :)

Here's a cute picture of him playing with his feets. He's just started grabbing them and he can almost get them in his mouth.

Mega blister

I went for a walk with a friend a little over a week ago for the first time. I was excited about getting out in the beautiful weather, chatting with another adult and spending time with our 2 babies that are about the same age. I decided to wear a new pair of socks because they looked extra cushy and I thought that might be beneficial on a long walk. I won them several years ago at a healthclub and have never worn them. They were low-cut but were higher in the back which is supposed to prevent the sock from sliding down into the shoe. We started our walk and all was good. Then a few minutes later, it felt like I got a small rock in the back of my sock. I causually tried to shake my foot as we were walking but it wasn't going away. A little fact you may not know about me: I don't like to show that anything's wrong. I will hide pain. And this time was no different. I never said anything to my friend, but when we stopped to cross a street, I reached down and tried to brush away whatever was in my sock. For the next hour, I was in pain, a lot of pain. We talked and walked and she never knew anything was wrong (I'm good like that!). We went back to her place and I drove home. I took off my shoe and sock and found the mega blister. I've never had a blister this bad and have never seen one this big. It HURT!! I threw the cushy, new socks in the trash and got bandaged up my my army medic husband.



This was the blister a few days later. The fluid inside turned blackish/purple. I taped a quarter above it just as a size reference. I put a special blister band-aid on it and when I took it off, it broke the blister open. It's much better now and I can wear tennis shoes again as long as I keep a band-aid covering the raw, open hole.

I'm going for a walk today with a different friend and different socks :)

Irish Dinner

This is the dinner I made for St. Patrick's Day this year. I just love making themed meals. We had a little leprechaun as the centerpiece :)

• Shepherd's Pie
• Steamed cabbage
• Irish soda bread
  
  
  
  
  I've never had or made Shepherd's Pie before so I looked up several recipes and then combined several of them to make something that sounded good. It's basically ground beef (I used soy), veggies like carrots, peas, onion and celery and then potatoes on top. We all liked it! I used a pastry bag to pipe the mashed potatoes on top to make it fancy and then put it under the broiler to give it color.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Preston got all dressed up in green for St. Patrick's Day. I bought this outfit way before he was even born - we're not Irish, but we like to celebrate the holiday.

Talking of Irish...

I made homemade Irish Cream Brownies with Irish Cream Frosting (http://www.littleshamrocks.com/Irish-Cookie-Recipes.html#IrishCreamBrownies) and delivered them to my hubby's work today. They were yummy! I'm making an Irish dinner for tonight. Shepherd's Pie (never had it or made it), steamed cabbage, Irish Soda Bread and some of the brownies I kept for us.

Preston cracking up

Video of Preston cracking up as I was making funny faces at him. I love hearing that little laugh :)

17 weeks!

Preston turned 17 weeks yesterday. He'll be 4 months old in just a few days. He's getting to be a lot more fun now - he loves to smile and laugh and we do everything we can to make him do both. He's very ticklish too which is fun for all of us. He rolled over from his tummy to his back for the first time on February 16th. Some days he'll do it over and over and some days his arm gets stuck and he can't quite get all the way over. That's his first big milestone! Here's some pictures from our photo session yesterday:

A special dinner

One year ago today I told my hubby that I was pregnant. It was one of the most wonderful days of my life and I will never forget it. I made him a special dinner with 'baby' foods to see if he would pick up on the clues. He didn't.

Portabella burgers
BABY portabella mushrooms
BABY swiss cheese
BABY carrots
BABY spinach salad
Ice cream with pickles (we didn't eat them together)
BABY Ruth candy bars
Decaf iced tea

And I rented the movie 'Baby on Board'

I gave him a box to open after dinner - it was filled with 4 positive pregnancy tests and a due date calendar. I had all the tests upside down and he had no idea what they were until he started turning them over. It was so much fun to watch him finally realize what was going on. It was a great night.

To celebrate our 1 year baby anniversary, I'm recreating this same dinner for tonight. And, no, I'm not pregnant :)