Monday, March 28, 2011

cooking for grammie

We have been super busy with life lately. Nothing new or in particular but we have not had much down time to visit family. We see lots of David's extended family weekly at church but mostly it is just in passing. We haven't spent much time with Grammie (David's Grandmom) so we decided to invite her for dinner last night. I wasn't sure if she would come or not but she said yes and we had a wonderful time. When you invite a grandmom for dinner the stress of what to cook really sets in. Well atleast it did for me. So I asked David and he picked chicken carbonara, this is a dish I have made a few times and it is really yummy. Then I started thinking about dessert. I found a cookie recipe in my parenting magazine that looked yummy and little man and I could make them together. The recipe was easy and the cookies came out soft and good. The recipe said to frost the cookies and make sandwiches with them, but we just made the cookies. Cake Mix Cookies - 1 box yellow cake mix, 1 Large Egg 1/4 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup buttermilk. Combine all ingredients and mix on medium speed in electric mixer. Shape 1 inch balls flatten slightly and add sprinkles. Bake until cookies are golden and firm 8-10 min at 350 degrees. After we finished the cookies I put some italian herb bread in the bread maker and enjoyed the smell of fresh baking bread for most of the afternoon. When Grammie finally arrived Little Man was so excited to see her he showed her all of his favorite toys and ran around like a crazy man. Before Grammie even tasted dinner she asked for the recipe. She was in a great mood and I am so glad that we invited her for dinner. It was a wonderful night and Little Man went to bed a little later then usual because we didn't want the fun to end.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Manners and Redirection.

So what do you do when your 2 year old cries because you tell him he is not allowed to watch a show? How about when he asks "A show please, mommy?" or worse "Dinotrain please mommy?" Boy do I feel like the meanest mommy in the world,he used his manners and everything. Well my answer is to put on music and declare its a "DANCE PARTY" We then danced and sang and were simply silly! It got his mind off the Show and I had fun dancing around with my little man. I recently read in a magazine about how you can avoid saying NO. If your child wants a cookie before dinner, you can say " After you eat a healthy dinner you can have a cookie." I feel like the past two years I have become pretty good at getting little man to move on from something he thought he wanted by redirecting him. As he grows bigger and gets smarter he will start to figure out what I am doing, but for now I will distract him while we are eating and somehow feed him all of his turkey while he is busy trying to scoop applesauce on everyones plate. When he realized he ate all his dinner he even clapped. I am really enjoying being a mama!!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Disney World

I am blessed beyond understanding! My mom's birthday wish allowed for me to have a fun and exciting time too. When my mom asked if we would like to meet them in Disneyworld for her birthday I was excited but not sure if it would all work out. Unfortunately David was not able to take the time off work to join us, but little man and I flew down to Orlando to celebrate my mom's birthday with her and Tony. We had a wonderful time and it is so fun to see Disney through the eyes of a 2 year old. He is talking more and more and everything was a train - the monorail, tram, parade and most of the rides. He loves trains and we rode the train in Magic Kingdom several times and the small $2 per ride train at down town disney. He rode that one all by himself. It was funny to hear all of the adults around the $2 train comment on how cute the little boy was going all by himself. I spoke up once and told the sweet ladies he was mine and he didn't want mommy to ride with him. They were just amazed that he wasnt afraid and how small he was. The joy on his face to be a big boy and ride all alone on the train made me feel a little better about not being allowed to ride with him. He had such a great trip and I did too. I am thankful to my parents for taking us along on their vacation and I tried not to spend too much time thinking about how thankful I am to be little man's forever mommy. I only cried once while watching him sleep waiting for the parade. I am in awe of the love God has poured out on me and my entire family by allowing us to be little man's forever family.