Applicable Sunday Inspiration:

Eh, it's not the hardest.  Just regular hard.

Teething Woes

Sweet Leo Walden is teething...again.  I hate teething.  Correction:  I absolutely LOATHE teething.  That sounds a little crass, but it's the only time that some crabby little monster comes in and possesses my sweet baby.  What is good (and bad) for us is that this crabby little monster only really comes out to play in the middle of the night.  Poor  Leo.  We're going on day 4 of middle-of-the-night painful cries, but last night was much, much better than the others.  There are a couple of things that we have learned:

1.) Leo is not a cry-yourself-back-to-sleep baby.  He has no self-soothing mechanism (pacifier, thumb, etc.)  I am his soothing mechanism.  Honestly, he may as well just have the umbilical cord still attached.  Even though Adam has really stepped up to help out, it's usually me that Sweet Leo prefers, especially when he doesn't feel well.  In a selfish way, I am flattered.

2.)  Early intervention is the key for this one.  Patrick could easily wake up and get himself back to sleep, even if he fussed for 10 minutes or more.  The longer we hold out on Leo, the more inconsolable he gets. 

3.)  This will pass.  Once our great little sleeper, sleeping through the night at 5-6 weeks old, we know he has it in him.  The restlessness has been going on for a couple of weeks now, with the last few days being the worst, but we know it can't last forever.  At least we hope it won't last forever.  Certainly, he won't be waking up in the middle of the night looking for his mom when he's 18.  If that happens, I probably won't be quite as flattered as much as creeped out.  (I'm kidding...kind of.)

To Patrick: October 21, 2010

My Dearest Patrick:

Little do you know how much fun I had tucking you in tonight (for the fourth time, but who is counting? Secretly, I love it when you get out of bed to come and see us.)  Repeatedly tucking you back in, however, is not usually fun, but you were in a rare mood and this was an exception.  After telling you the story about the ghost named Oscar who lives at Grandma and Grandad's house and likes to play with soccer balls three times in a row (thanks, Mom!), and practicing your new prayer twice in its entirety, you were ready for bed.  What you said on my way out the door, however, is what makes me write this.  In your tiny little voice with your tiny toddler lisp, I heard, "You are the cutest mom I have ever seen, and you are the best mom in the world."  I don't know where on earth you would have heard that, and it really doesn't matter.  You are going to score some major points when you grow up if you've learned to talk to girls that way.  You made this tired mom a happy one tonight. 

I love you, Buddy.

Mom

PS- Thank you.

Roasted Stuffed Pumpkins

When I was sixteen, I gave up meat for Lent.  Going 40 days without something tends to make it a habit, and my taste for meat was tarnished.  For about 6.5 years, I was a pescatarian, until my taste for meat suddenly re-appeared with a vengeance right before my 22nd birthday (I actually remember the moment--sitting over dinner at The Aristocrat on February 14th, 2001, the night before I left for my semester abroad.  Strange how moments like that stand out.)  From about 25-28, my diet included way more than the normal amount of protein.  In fact, most of my meals were almost entirely protein.  I dropped a significant amount of weight eating this way, which is probably why it continued for so long.  Eventually, the high-protein diet got old.  Then Leo was born, and for some reason, my taste for meat was tarnished once again.  I am in the process of moving our family back toward the pescatarian lifestyle, though not a strict one.  I know the boys like their meat, and there are some dishes that include meat that I really enjoy.  Not a whole lot at this point, but some still.  I have found that I really, really like sauteed tofu, by which Patrick and Adam are completely disgusted, so I keep the tofu to myself.    A recent trip to Trader Joe's provided entirely meatless options for this little family.  So far, no complaints, though I know Adam misses the meat a little.  (I want to clarify that I am not at all opposed to Adam's diet and I would never try to impose my tastes on him, which is why I don't protest when he picks up  Meat-Lover's pizza periodically on the way home from work.)

Recently, I learned that quinoa is a good source of meatless protein, and I really want to try to make it.  I found this receipe on the Super Healthy Kids blog (see link to the left) and am more than just a little intrigued.  These sugar pumpkins, or pie pumpkins, are pretty inexpensive, despite the pumpkin shortage this year.  I believe this dinner might be hitting the table this weekend.  Patrick will flip over eating out of a pumpkin, and I'm hoping that this is good enough that Adam may warm to the idea of a meatless dinner.

To prepare the pumpkins:

•Cut top off pumpkin
•scoop out seeds (so much easier than scooping out a Jack-O-Lantern!
•Place pumpkins in oven safe dish with pumpkin lid.
•Pour water into bottom of dish
•Cover tightly with foil
•Bake at 410 for 30 minutes.
•Take out of oven , drain water, and fill pumpkins with stuffing.
•Return to oven with lids and foil and bake for 20 more minutes. (No water in dish this time)

You can fill the pumpkins with soup, or any sort of rice concoctions. Our Stuffing was: Quinoa and Black Beans. Recipe:
•1 tsp olive oil
•1 chopped onion
•3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
•1 cup uncooked Quinoa
•1 3/4 cup chicken broth
•1 tsp cumin
•1 cup corn kernels
•1 can black beans
•Garnish with avocados

Sauté onion and garlic in oil. Add Quinoa, broth, cumin to pan. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add corn and black beans when Quinoa is cooked.

Some Sunday Inspiration

Exactly one year from today, I will walk out of my last class of nursing school (assuming that I will have class on Friday, but that's a minor detail.)  Regardless, one year from today, I will be finished.  While that seems like an official eternity away, it begins a countdown of sorts.  This past year has gone quickly, and here is to hoping that the next one does, as well.

As of this past Thursday, I finished MedicalSurgical Nursing II, which came as a bit of a smack in the face, but which turned out well in the end.  Actually, it turned out better in the end than I even planned for, which is a nice little surprise.  Tomorrow, I start OB/Peds, for which I am so excited and nervous at the same time.  From what I understand, the class is pretty tough.  Not everyone has made it through, but the majority has and that brings me hope.  If there is anything that nursing school can do to a person, it's to make them constantly second-guess their ability to complete anything, and I have fallen prey to this.  As academically confident as I used to be, the opposite is almost the case these days.  I had never experienced test anxiety until just a few weeks ago and...wow...I feel it.  Nonetheless, chances are that I will get through.  It might be a bit bloody, but not impossible.

On a completely different note, these last eight weeks brought more than just a little grief from schoolwork.  We had a little bit of glee.  Most importantly, we FINALLY got little Patrick  potty trained.  A-men.  I can't even take credit for it.  Here is how it happened:

Scene: 8:30am on a Tuesday morning.

Patrick:  Mom, will you change my diaper?
Mom: Maybe it would be a good idea to not wear a diaper today.
Patrick: Ok.
Mom:  Ok?  So you think that you can use your toilet today?
Patrick: Ok.
Mom: Ok?  Really?  You'll do it?  If you do it, I will buy you Spiderman underwear.
Patrick: SPIDERMAN UNDERWEAR?????  I get Spiderman underwear???  Ok, I can do it.   

And that was it.  That's it.  He had not a single accident in two days, and has had less than ten since then, and that was probably just a little less than a month ago.  He did get the Spiderman underwear, as well as the Ironman, Wolverine, Hulk, Nemo, Cars, Buzz Lightyear, and Wall-E varieties, and he's as happy as can be.  Two weekends ago, we survived our first road trip, sans diaper and it was an absolute success.  That kid never fails to impress me. 

His mouth also has a way of impressing...er...surprising me, as he is quite adept at putting things together.  For example, the term, "Just re-LAX" has made it's way into our home whenever we insist that so anything with a bit of timeliness, as well as a few other choice terms that may deem my blog content "inappropriate."  He likes anatomy quite a bit.

I have some new pics to add, but it's getting late and I'm a sleepy sheepy.  I will do a photo summary of the start of our fall later on this week.

The Washington Post

Mere minutes ago, my sister-in-law posted this to my Facebook page.  I loved it so much, I had to steal it and post it to my blog.  Though I would like to think that Tacoma is not, in fact, serious, and that this letter was just a joke, I know better.  Well done, Ms. Hax. 

Job Hunt

So, the job hunt has started.  I am a year away from graduating (God willing), and I desperately want to find a health-care related job to get this show on the road a little early.  So far, applications have been submitted to two hospitals located north of our fine city, and one more will be submitted to a hospital on Indy's North side.  (Future plans are to move...wait for it...north, of course.)  My fingers are crossed, as are Adam's.  This one-income business is for the birds.