Two steps forward one step back

The Monkey has been a great sleeper most of his life, but in the past week he has reverted to fussing all the way to bed. For the past several days we've had to rock him to sleep, or let him scream, or rub his back and sing him songs until he finally goes out. Tonight, it only took me about fifteen minutes of singing and cooing with him in bed to get him to fall asleep and he was out by 8:15pm, but about twenty minutes ago (around 10:15pm) he came thumping down the stairs, wandered into the living room, climbed up onto the couch next to me, leaned over, and fell back asleep. I've been reviewing some student work and he has been a little restless next to me, but has stayed asleep. His little head is warm against my side, and every once in a while he breathes a quiet child breath that wheezes out his nose. And now, I hear his brother's feet on the stairs. I think everyone is feeling like they need some company. So, off to bed for all of us.

Sunny Days... Sweeping the Clouds Away...

The Monkey's birthday is coming up, so while in Columbus yesterday we stopped at the Science Museum to check out the new "Sesame Street: The Body" exhibit.

"Elmo!"
"COSI!"
The Monkey chanted all day as we ran errands. And he b-lined it for the entrance once we actually got there.

Mr. Baseball's favorite part was about digestion, including, you guessed it: bodily function sounds. (Of course!) And the Monkey's favorite part was Elmo's World,( a house designed with a crayon, for those of you who haven't seen Sesame Street lately). We all liked Hooper's store with real registers and lots of fake food to play with.

Fun fun fun fun fun!

*And yeah, the Student and I wore the same thing. But it was an accident, we're not into that couples coordinating outfits kinda thing!

Halloween Party 2008

Trick or Treating

Cranberries-are-awesome Genes

At my house dinner is often planned a month in advance. But today was busy and I didn't have anything planned. So this afternoon I threw some frozen chicken in the oven and mixed some whole frozen cranberries, onion, ketchup and brown sugar into a pan on the stove (I vaguely remember some ingredients from mom's cranberry chicken). The onions softened up and I dumped it all on top of the chicken in the oven after 30 min and let it bake for another 30 or so.

I couldn't decide then, potatoes or rice, and came up with mashed potatoes using vegetable broth instead of milk. Oh and some green beans on the side.

Watch out Rachel Ray!

The kids gobbled it up (shocking since I frequently want to throw my dinner plate across the room right along with the monkey when it comes to pleasing him) and went on and on about how it was so good and they want me to make this for dinner every night and I'm the best mom and I make great dinners etc etc. I even got and unexpected squeeze from Mr. Baseball!

I guess I've been stifling my food creativity all this time and I didn't realize it.

Or maybe it was just magical cranberries. I LOVE cranberries*, just like my dad. Maybe the kids inherited the cranberries-are-awesome gene passed through two generations now and they'll rave about anything I make with cranberries in it!

I'll make some cranberry orange bread and let you know...



*In case anyone wondered I also happen to love THE Cranberries. As in the band. Yep, these guys:

Pumpkin Patch

Freedom! Let me run, mom!

A little nervous about the hay ride

Smiling for the camera (and a jealous friend in the background?!)

The pumpkin patch got rave reviews around here. We were able to pick pumpkins from the patch, ride on a hayride and managed to keep ourselves from getting lost (well at least not for long) in the corn maze. This was followed up by a stop at the "castle park" with a wood playground, you know the kind we all loved growing up? The boys thoroughly exhausted themselves and by the time Mr. Baseball went to bed he had a fever. Whoops, maybe a little too much fun packed into one day.