Sleep, oh precious sleep

Napping during our mini-vacation to the Ocean

Now, Bug has been sleeping 12 hours from day 1. Granted, those 12 hours have always been quite choppy. Waking every 2 hours, then every 3, then every 4. Now, as we inch up to 5 months, I can safely say that Bug sleeps through the night. Not the 6 hours through the night but the full 12 hours. Occasionally he will wake about 5 or 6 for a quick dipe change and feeding but then it's right back to bed! The problem? Well, as a momma this makes me a bit sad. Is it weird that I miss our precious nighttime feedings? Those quiet moments in the middle of the night, when it is just him and I. The quiet sound of him swallowing, the sweet touches as he grasps onto my hand while he eats. The snuggles that inevitably follow his feeding just before I lay him back down. Is it weird that I miss not getting a full night's sleep? I THINK NOT! So the other night when Bug began stirring, not the full blown waking up but just a stir, I let him stir for a few minutes then padded over to his room. I smiled as he smiled at me, I hugged tightly as he hugged me when I picked him up and we sat in that comfy recliner I barely sit in anymore and I enjoyed the sound of his suckling. I felt a slight tinge of sadness when I laid him back down and he drifted off to sleep on his own. My big boy!

Rainy day

It's a rainy day here in the Pacific NW. Big surprise, right? I think Mother Nature has decided to bring us fall early. At least that is what the weather and the trees think. I keep looking outside to yellow and orange leaves cascading down. The air feels like fall. Starbucks has released the fall favorite, Pumpkin Spice Latte. I am ready to decorate my home with reds, oranges, yellows, pumpkins, leaves and everything Autumn! I even have already begun planning our trip to the Pumpkin Patch in a few weeks. Yep, fall is here early and I like it, no I love it!

So does Bug, formally Baby K9, who can wear warm fleecy pullovers in the fall and snuggle up close to mom and be warm! I was thinking yesterday that calling him Baby K9 was like we had not decided a name for him yet and we were just calling him Baby. It didn't fit. Now that we have come to know him, he is my bug. Sometimes my Snug-as-a-bug, other times my Stinker bug, and often times he is just my Bug. So from here on out on Blogger he will be known as Bug.

I have 2 blogs I would like to share with you. The first, I stumbled upon. I don't even remember how, but I just remember it was late in the night and I was blog surfing while feeding Bug. I ended up reading for over an hour. Now, her posts are encouragement. They bring laughter. Bring the Rain, I love the song, I think that is what first perked my interest.

The 2nd, is from Matt of Sanctus Real. If you haven't heard, their newborn son has recently had open heart surgery. The blog follows his story from the beginning of finding out to now. I wanted to share so more people could be praying for them. God hears them all! If you read some of the more recent posts you can see how amazing the story already is and how full of answered prayers it is. Bowen's Heart will bring tears to your eyes. Well, it did mine, so if you are a major cry baby like me, you will definitely cry when he read their story!

Romans 10:9-10 Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

The random post

Totally random thoughts today.

photo credit

I feel like I am becoming lazy. My typical day so far is wake about 8 with Baby K9, change him, feed him and play until about 10, change him, feed him and put him down for a nap. Then I shower. Here is the problem with this routine, I feel lazy and then we don't get out of the house until after his nap and he really does better if he is late on his first nap rather than his 2nd. When I do errands later in the day he gets a much later in the day nap and then is just fussy and up late at night. I feel bad. It's my fault! So, my plan is to get up an hour before him and shower. We are beginning to get a fairly set wake up time so I feel this is possible. Then when he gets up I just need to dress him and feed him and we can take off. During his nap I can spend some time in the Word and exercising. Both, things I much need! Day 1 of this new routine: FAILURE! He woke an hour early, I changed him, fed him and then he wanted to cuddle so I took him back to my bed where we both fell asleep for about half an hour. It was sweet. It was a moment I loved and am so grateful I was home to enjoy! Hopefully, Day 2 goes a little better at mom getting up early and getting going. We'll see.

In other news, my almost 5 month old is rolling all over the place! He has figured out how to use his legs to help him move about his crib and turn on his crib toy. He has also figured out, sorda, how to roll over! He does it best when he is naked. I videoed it, it will be a fantastic video to have later in life! Here is a photo the first time he rolled from tummy to back. He was so proud of himself:

(sorry  for the grainy pic, I used my phone and you can totally see my shadow in this!)

Now, I had another thought last night. How do you decide whose home your child will be allowed to play at without you? Do you limit your child to homes where you know the family personally and they are Christians? Do you allow your child to go to their friend's homes, knowing their family are not Christians and they may be exposed to some questionable ideas? I really am curious. I have a friend and they decided their children just do not have sleepovers at all. That way they are not picking and choosing and they do not have to worry about what movie or video game their child may be playing at someone else's home. Thoughts?

Here is Baby K9 at the Ocean last week, so stinkin cute! (The outfit, by the way, is 12 months! Granted his CD makes him a bit bulkier in the bum, but he was wearing one of his trimmer BG flips here. So not that much bulk!)

In other randomness, OK9 is at Refresher this week. One of the sessions was Officer safety. They had to watch a dozen or so videos where the Officers were not as safe as they could have been and it resulted in very sad outcome. I thought this was an awful session, but see the wisdom in it. You learn from other's mistakes. I also thought the general public should see these videos. It may change their perception. In any case one story OK9 told me that really stuck out was the story of the Officer who stopped a car for some reason. The Officer was yelling at the guy to get out and you could see the guy loading his gun (the bad guy.) The Officer, hesitant to use force because he had recently received flak from the public, did not shoot. The bad guy shot him and he died. A perfect example of why our men and women in blue cannot hesitate for even one second. I say with a fair amount of confidence that had the Officer shot the guy the public would never have understood. Do they understand now, now that he lost his life because he didn't use the force he is allowed to?

The Officers in our state our partnering with educators to go to Washington in support of funding Early Education. Preschool. I am so impressed with our LEO's taking this huge role of support here. They know that Early Ed can greatly decrease the chances of them arresting that child later in life, along with the many, many other important roles PrK serve in a child's life. It is the beginning foundation of learning, it sets the stage for all other later learning. Children entering Kinder who had PrK start off ahead of the game and are proven to have a higher success rate in school than those who did not have PrK. Now, obviously, we can't all afford private PrK. That is why we need our government to fund it, just like they do Public school. My hats off to our local LEO's for taking this huge step and supporting Education! Until then, make sure you are taking time to do some early learning with your child under 5. It's never too early to start! Read to them, play with them, talk to them! Get them in some playdates or playgroups. Heck, just take them to the park! Go outside, kick a ball around, run! Use everyday experiences as learning experiences. Early Learning should be fun, it should look and feel like play. We know that is how 0-5 year olds learn best.

Finally, after watching the Doctors yesterday (Yes, I watch. No, I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan!) Anyway, Dr. Jim Sears listed the dirty dozen, fruits and vegetables that the pesticides cannot sufficiently be washed off from and can even penetrate the skin. These are the foods he recommends buying Organic, especially if a young child will be eating them. There is a chemical in the pesticides that has been linked to ADD/ADHD in children. No new news, but a good list to have. Especially for me as I am beginning to make some of Baby K9's foods and need to be aware of what I am buying! The whole point in making his food is so I can control what he is ingesting. He did say you can safely buy other fruits and vegetables non-organic and can sufficiently wash the pesticides off or peel the skin without concern it got in the food. Here is the link:

The dirty dozen and clean fifteen

A few things I am most passionate about

1. JESUS! I am a bonafide Jesus Freak. Well, I think I could be more on the freaky side, but I love Him! He has been the constant, never let me down in my life. He took me when I was broken and full of sin. While I was still sinning (Rom 5:8-9.) He doesn't love me just some of the time, He loves me all of the time (Rom 8:39.) He has these amazing plans for my life, (Jer 29:11) plans that I have seen come together already and plans that I can't even begin to dream about. He fills my heart with joy every morning when I seek Him, He comforts my sorrow, He cradles me in the safety of His wings (Psalm 91:4.) His word is full of promises to me, I just have to read them.

I want everyone to know Him. To feel His love, to know the hope I have in Him.

photo credit

2. Cloth Diapering. If I can do it anyone can! I realize not everyone wants to and for some it really is not a viable option. I get that. However, everyone should try it. It's like we tell our kids about their veggies, you at least have to try them! They are so easy, keep my Baby K9's bum rash free, give his cute lil bum the air it needs, are soft, comfortable, stylish (have seen the cute colors and prints?), for boys can lessen infertility later (don't believe me? Look it up. Wearing a sposie is comparable to men wearing tightie whiteys.), they are "green" and the biggest bonus.......will save you $100's of dollars, maybe even a $1000 in diapers! Woo hoo! I started my stash with 18 Bum Genius 3.0's from Nicki's diapers. They offered free shipping and I received 2 pair of baby legs. At the time I ordered they were out of BG's, but I received my order within a couple of weeks.

3. Car seat safety. I may be more passionate about this one than CD'ing. It is that important. It truly means life or serious injury/death in a car accident. Why do we settle for the minimum here? We should not. What I ask myself is "If I was in a car accident, could I live with finding out there was more I could have done to keep Baby K9 safe and I didn't?" It's one thing to not know. Now you will know, what will you do? Some may decide to rear face longer or turn the seat back rear facing. Some may write this off as crazy talk. Some may put their little 40 pounder back in a larger weight limit forward facing seat. Some may not. Some may get a harness for that booster. Some may not. Either way, it is your choice as a parent. I just want to give you all the information I can. I can't choose for you. I won't even blink twice at your decision. I just want to give you all the facts.Your Ped may not have them yet. Very soon here, 2 will be the new 1. It has been for quite some time but just recently is getting the attention it deserves. Honestly, until I married Officer K9, I wasn't as passionate about this. I believed in extended rear and forward facing but not until I heard the stories did it sink in. It amazes me more LEO's and Fire/paramedics don't buy into this safety idea. When we did our car seat check, the Fireman said the same thing. It shocks him when his co-workers turn at 1 or before. He will call them on it, because they see the dangers. The excuse, same one I have heard, but they want to be turned around. Seriously? The child has only been rear facing, they don't know any different! Besides, is his/her safety worth convenience? Many new car seats are coming out on the market with higher weight and height limits to accommodate the new recommendations. Many are reasonably priced. Just do your research before you buy and as always, try the car seat out in your vehicle. You have to be comfortable with installing it and it must fit correctly in your car. Always do a car seat check. It takes 20 minutes but is worth a life. Anyone can read a manual to install the seat but you will learn so much more from the tech that the manual doesn't tell you.

I am getting off my soap box now but will leave you with some links worth your time. Don't let my opinion persuade you, do the research yourself. I did, it's what brought me to my decisions.

Warning, you may cry.
Kyle David Miller Foundation

AAP changing Rear-facing recommendations

Seattle Mama Doc

And finally, our friends, the crash test dummies child is in this one:
Joel's story

In case you are wondering, we have already purchased Baby K9's convertible. Yes, we are far off from needing it, but the one we picked was on a screaming sale! His infant seat accommodates up to 32 in and/or 35 lbs. I have a feeling we will reach the 32 in pretty soon here! His convertible has one of the higher height/weight limits for rear and forward facing, 35 for rear and 65 for forward. They have others out there that will accomodate up to 80 lbs! It was the only choice for us.

Dear Deer,

You have been nothing but pests in our yard since June. Now, OK9 seeks to hunt your brotherling. I hope he gets one, a big one. I won't feel bad as I eat him up just like you ate up my fruit trees, hostas, eggplants, squash and tomatoes.

Yep, OK9 has gone hunting. We miss him. We won't miss him so much if he comes home with a huge load of deer meat! The two above have made their home in our neighborhood for a few months now. They enjoy all the fruits and veggies we have all planted. A little too much. They have expensive taste. If he could, he would shoot them!

While he has been gone, Baby K9 rolled from tummy to back! yay! I just put him on his tummy like I do each day and he immediately rolled back to his back! Now, he by no means has mastered this skill yet, but it was fun for mom and baby! In 2 or 3 days when OK9 returns, he may have it down! We'll see. He changes so fast, I don't doubt it's possible to happen that soon.

Some other milestones we have achieved:

Sitting up, unassisted, in his Bebe Pod. He officially enjoys it now!

Getting tired while sitting up with mom face plant.

Sucking thumb and toe at the same time. Multi-tasking. Wait, that isn't a milestone, is it? It's just cute ! He got really mad when I propped him back up, taking away the toe. He actually went back for more. Oh boy! Mom was so happy he isn't walking yet and therefore his toes are not germy!

Burrito, it's what's for dinner!

Tonight I made burritos! From scratch! They were delicious. This dish turned out so yummy I had to share. I have not received word from OK9, but I am suspecting he will agree. He took his to work for dinner. This turned out to be the perfect "on-duty tonight" meal. I prepared it earlier in the day while Baby K9 was snoozing and then baked it just before OK9 needed to leave for work. I packed it up with all the fixings and he can easily reheat it when he gets a break for dinner. Perfect!

I got this recipe from the Taste of Home best loved casseroles, Fall 2006. MIL K9 gave it to me. I must say, not many of the recipe's caught my tummy, I mean, my eye. This one did. I love Mexican food! Who doesn't? I think we have some sort of Mexican dish each week. I try to make them as healthy as possible without messing up the taste too much.

The recipe:
Okay, the gal who posted this recipe said her mom always made it with homemade burritos but she makes it with frozen ones. I decided to try my hand at homemade. This is how I made them, if you have a good burrito recipe or know your favorite insides, you can easily substitute. I'm sure it's fine with the frozen ones too.

Serves: 8-10
For the burritos:
2 chicken breasts, boiled then diced, sliced or shredded (whatever works for you)
1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies (or not)
taco seasoning or other for chicken
1 can of black beans
1 hot pepper (optional, I used a pastillo), diced
Monterrey jack cheese, shredded or cubed
Cilantro, chopped
Burrito size tortillas

The sauce:
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can (10 oz) enchilada sauce
1/2 cup milk
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese or cheddar cheese, divided
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
1 cup sliced black olives
1/2 cup sliced green onions
6 cups shredded lettuce
sour cream (optional topping)
salsa (optional topping)
avocado or guacamole (optional topping)

In a bowl toss the chicken with taco seasoning and diced tomatoes. Lay tortilla flat and add some cheese, chicken, more cheese, cilantro, beans, hot pepper. Wrap up burrito style. (You will see how much inside stuff works for you, if you add too much the burrito won't wrap up nicely.)

Arrange burritos, seam side down, in a greased 13x9 baking dish. In a bowl whisk the soup, sauce and milk until blended. Stir in 1 cup of the cheese and the chilies. Pour over the burritos. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, olives and the onions.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 30-35 minutes until bubbly and slightly brown. Serve on a bed of lettuce with salsa, sour cream and avocado/guacamole, if desired.
Enjoy!

Smorgasbord

This will be a smorgasbord of a post today.

I have been reading all these debt stories and it is inspiring to say the least. I had put myself on a budget years ago when I was single. It needed to be done. It's too easy to overspend when it's just you. I had a lovely worksheet that my bestie's hubby made for me. It worked. I knew what I had to spend for groceries, gas, outings etc each month. Once we got married we knew our goal was for me to stay at home with the babies, when they came. I suppose we are blessed that we married later in life because we both had settled the majority of our debt. We didn't enter this marriage with a mound of it. We spent the past year planning for me to be a SAHM. By that I mean, we did not live on my income, at all. I think that is another blessing we had. We used it to pay down what debt we had. Many were completely paid off. We are now left with one car payment, student loans (endless!), OK9's credit card (not much, we paid alot of it down) and of course our mortgage. Doable. The student loan payments just plain suck. Oh well! So in any case, we didn't live off my income this past year so we know we can this. My income was the means to pay off debt and it also allowed us to have fun this past year. We ate out, alot. We put alot of money into our yard-which was needed! This Christmas we completely spoiled each other. We put a huge chunk in savings to buy the things we needed/wanted for Baby K9 and to have that savings around. OK9 likes to keep one months worth of mortgage in savings at all times. I agreed. Yet, we still reached our paying off debt goal. Okay, we probably could have paid more but...well, ya' know. Now, I have gotten away from my original thought. I have read of the envelope system. Well, OK9 and I tried that last fall. The problem-we live out of town and not near a bank. By time we use to get to the bank to take out the cash it was a week after payday. It didn't work for us. I just was really good at remembering my budget and sticking to it. Now that I am officially not working and we don't have an extra cushion we need to stick to our budget, tightly. We want to utilize the envelope system to help us but run into the same not near a bank issue. My solution, write the budget on each envelope and as I spend it on my debit I will subtract it from the envelope. I'll let you know how this works. My life has been a budget and thrifty spending. I think this will work for us. Our envelopes-coffee for OK9, gas, groceries, baby needs. The baby needs one will be pretty low. I don't have to buy diapers and I don't have to buy food!

My next thought are these really cute diapers we saw today at Central Market. It's similar to a Whole Foods. They sell Gdiapers there. I had heard of these but never saw them. They are so cute! I love that I can buy them locally rather than ordering online and waiting for a week or so. Looking at them and thinking ahead, we thought they would be great for potty training. Anyone have any experience with them? Cute colors too! No, we didn't buy any. Especially not any that look like this.

photo credit: lilsugar.com

Adorable, right? They do come in cute prints for the boys too, I just couldn't resist the ruffles. These dipes offer washable, biodegradable liners or compost able.

Finally, tonight I made an awesome meal, one that felt like we were out to dinner! It was exoticish. I found the recipe in the Food Network magazine that MIL K9 gave me last week. It Vol 3 No 7, September 2010. It included the mouth-watering, delicious, Italian pasta known as gnocchi! I learned how to make it! Super easy!!! Must love mushrooms though. There is no leaving them out.

The recipe: Gnocchi with wild mushroom ragu (can be found by clicking that link.)

Here are the highlights:

Rolling the dough for the gnocchi-Mmmm!

The cut gnocchi getting ready to freeze

The finished product! Delicious! OK9 picked up the crab cakes to the left at Central Market today and sauteed them up for us! We served them with a spicy jerk sauce.

Now, if you want to see real pictures, go here.

I do not pretend to be a photographer by any means. I always see other's blogs with beautiful pictures and I just don't have that special know-how to do it. Oh well. The food tasted good! I never concerned myself with looks. It's what's on the inside that counts, right?  

Here are my modifications to the recipe:

1. My gnocchi dough had some lumps in it. As I rolled it out I picked out what I could then just decided who was really going to complain to the chef? OK9? I think not! Not if he wants dinner again.

2. We ended up with 2 full meals of gnocchi and leftovers. I froze half of them. This was def a meal with plenty for a family of 4, 5 or 6!

3. Mushrooms. Boy, those fancy ones are expensive and not easy to find! I found regular mushrooms at our local Safeway along with Cremini. The Oysters were expensive! So I decided to buy Portabello instead, I was able to buy just a couple. Today, we found Oyster in bulk at Central Market so I bought 1/4 lb for under $2. It was perfect! You really can use any combination of mushrooms you can find.

4. I used the whole tomatoes but ended up with leftover tomatoes. I felt it was a waste and could have achieved the same desired ingredient using crushed.

5. I did not use mascarpone or mint. I didn't have either and it seemed a waste to buy them just to use a little bit. The cheese especially is expensive! We topped ours with Pecorino-Romano and were happy.

6. You can buy individual bottles of white wine that equal a cup for $2.25 at IGA. If you live near one. I am sure you can find this at other grocery stores too, if you are like us and do not drink wine.

This was delicious! I would totally make it again! We both loved it! It was fairly easy, just make sure you have the veggies and mushrooms prepped before beginning. I didn't. It felt like I made a fancy meal you would only order in a restaurant. It was different. It was unique. It was a perfect night for a perfect dinner. Now, OK9 has started our movie and I can feel the looks of "Get off the computer already!" Must go!