Date, Dr, Milkshake, and Apples

I was doing so well at blogging every day.  Until last Thursday.  Killed me streak I had going, which is lame.  I love building the momentum.

Although I did have quite the busy week last week.  I had two night meetings in a row (Monday and Tuesday) where I really didn't get to see Henry at all.  Then Wednesday night, I had to take some work home and work on that for over an hour.  It was time to turn away from work and focus a little on my family.  So that's what I did.

Here's what I have been doing for the last 5 (ish) days:

Thursday night, Phil and I went on our first real date since February.  That's way too long to go between dates, we know that.  But I deal with a fair bit of guilt in regards to asking people to babysit/leaving Henry anymore than I have to.  However, I know that putting energy into our marriage will pay off so much more in the long run.  I'm working on it.  Thursday was a great reminder.

Here's to hoping it doesn't take 8 months for another date.

Friday morning we noticed that Henry's stitches still hadn't fallen out, even though they should have. In addition, his eye brow was starting to look a little swollen.  That meant we were back to the doctor's office to get his stitches taken out.  While holding him down while they did that was awful, so was trying to entertain a toddler while also trying to keep him from touching anything.  Thankfully, Phil was with me to help.

{Thankfully the doctor didn't walk in while we were doing this}

We topped off an excellent appointment by getting Henry his first of 2 flu shots.  When he saw the needle, he started crying.  I would feel bad, except that he would be so much worse if he actually got sick.  About 5 seconds after the shot, he was fine.

When I was little and had to go to the doctor to get something unpleasant done (shots, tests, blood draw), my mom would always bribe me by saying, "If you are a brave girl, we will stop and get a happy meal on the way home."  To my knowledge, it worked every time.  In fact, to this day I reward myself if I am a brave girl at the doctor's office (this became quite tricky during all the cancer appointments.  I got a LOT of rewards).  However, getting unpleasant things done at the doctor's office really doesn't bother me.  Therefore, I plan to use the same bribery on my children.

So Henry got his first milkshake!

We stopped by the office (because I had to go back to work) and Henry decided to share his milkshake with Papa.  I'm sure Papa loved the backwash.

Thanks to some great planning, we got to spend the whole weekend together.  We decided to take advantage of the great weather we were having and went apple picking again.  Henry was much more interested this time.  He kept trying to pick up the apples off the ground and put those in our bucket.

This week looks like it will be a little less hectic (no night meetings for me).  I am looking forward to maybe starting some crafts, after I tackle this:

When faced with the choice of folding laundry or spending time with my guys, it was a pretty easy decision.  Hence the gigantic pile of laundry.  I'm sure I will be done folding it right about it is time to do laundry again.

Toddlers are hard

Raising a toddler is HARD.

My mom says between 1-3 is the hardest age (teenage years aside).  You can't really reason with them.  They don't understand consequences all that well.  And you can't really bribe them either (there's no "take two more bites and you can have dessert").

I don't know what Henry's deal is right now.  He swings between being super happy and throwing feet-stomping tantrums.  It's awesome.

My mom keeps mentioning that perhaps this is just his personality (and it drives me nuts when she says this), but I refuse to accept that.  He eats whatever I put in front of him one week and then won't eat hardly anything the next.  He is super sweet and kind and then the next week his keeps biting me.

Yesterday at daycare, he was upset when I put him down so I knelt down and was giving him hugs.  He then proceeded to walk 5 feet away from me to push another baby.  Grumps galore.

{This is what it looks like close to nap time}

Dinner time is especially challenging for me.  I waffle between wanting to get him to eat anything and feeling like I am negotiation with the enemy.  If I give in and make him something different until he'll eat, am I teaching him that he will always get his way?  Or is he too young for that?  I don't know.

Is it teeth?  Is he growing?  Does he have a cold?  All of the above?

His hands are constantly in his mouth.  He has a rash on his cheeks.  18 months clothing doesn't fit anymore.  And his nose is a faucet.

So it is probably all three.

But I want my happy, sweet boy back.  Maybe after cold and flu season is over, I guess.

Until then, we will trying our best to not pull our hair out (especially at dinner time).

Henry's favorite band

A couple of months ago, daycare asked us to bring Henry's favorite CD to class.  Every other parent brought CD's filled with children's songs and nursery rhymes.

We brought Carbon Leaf.

In case you were wondering, they are Henry's favorite band.

Can a baby have a favorite band?  I am going to say yes because he does.

Ever since his birth basically it is the one thing that is sure to calm Henry down.  He would be screaming in the car, the second he hears Barry's voice (the lead singer), he would instantly calm down.

Middle of the night scream fest... Carbon Leaf.

You might think I am exaggerating.  I'm not.  Here's proof:

EVERY. TIME.

And some more proof:

Youngest fan?  Maybe.

Just to be clear, Phil took this video while I drove.  Safety first.

I could have WAY more evidence since he gets upset almost daily in the car (he's not a morning baby) and I use Carbon Leaf DAILY to keep my sanity.

We have seen Carbon Leaf in concert almost every time they have been in Portland and we are very excited that we get to go see them again this week on THURSDAY!  We would take Henry but the concert is in a bar.  I'm pretty sure that is frowned upon.

We just aren't going to tell him.

So in case Carbon Leaf happens to be reading this... THANK YOU for being the only thing that soothes my son in the car.  I'm grateful beyond words.

Pinterest: You win some, you lose some

Online tutorials/recipes... they can go either way sometimes.

When it comes to recipes, I prefer using allrecipes.com.  The recipes are rated and people can post their own tricks and tweaks.  But I took a chance when I saw this pin:

{Recipe found HERE}

I followed the directions, including the hints...

They looked good.  And smelled great.

They weren't crispy.

I may try to make them again, using another hit listed in the recipe of using 1/8 cup of pumpkin.  I think before then I will have to make regular krispie treats for Phil.  They are his favorite (along with brownies, in case you wanted to know).

We will put these in the Pinterest FAIL column until further notice.

But more often than not, Pinterest doesn't let you down.  And that was certainly the case for this:

{I have no idea why this picture is so crooked}

I used THIS tutorial and it worked great.  It took 20 yards of 4" burlap ribbon on a 18" wreath frame. I am so excited about this because I really like wreaths (which is random when I say that out loud) but I HATE the idea of paying a ton of money for something that you change so much.  So this one, I can just switch the embellishments on it to move it from season to season.

Pinterest WIN.

Still to be tested this week:

Honey Barbecue Chicken Meatballs from HERE.  They look promising.

5 Things Friday

HellOOOOOOOO Friday!


First, I wanted to say WELCOME to any readers from September F A R M!  Hopefully I will keep you sufficiently entertained with this little blog.  I'm not going to lie... I kind of love blogs.  It's like reality T.V. for the internet.  I'm hooked.  Reading.  Writing.  I'm a fan.

Here's this week's 5 pieces of randomness...

1.  Phil and I were driving home the other day and we past a lemonade stand.  We didn't stop, but it did catch our eye.  In addition to lemonade, they were offering KIX cereal and Bud Light.  Did I mention these were like 8 year olds?  I'm pretty sure there are laws against that.

At least per state liquor laws, they were selling food along with their alcohol.


2.  While making dinner tonight, Henry found the oven mitts.  And then he put them on himself.  And then walked around with them on for like 5 minutes.  It was pretty cute.

3.  Tonight during dinner, Henry was in an AWFUL mood.  Something must be bothering him... teeth... stitches... I don't know.  But this isn't his normal self.  Anyway, the only thing he would eat was grapes.  So grapes, he was having.

Until he was done with them.  And then he threw them on the floor.  Taylor and Cotton have gotten very smart since Henry started feeding himself.  During mealtimes, they are right under his highchair (it doesn't help that we had to cut back their food because they were both getting a little extra padding) and grapes are BAD for dogs.

It's something about the skin causing kidney failure.

As can be expected, the second the grapes hit the floor, the dogs were all over it.  I leapt (leaped?) to my feet, yelling a slow motion "NOOOOOOO!!!" and pushed Taylor out of the way before she could get to the forbidden fruit.

Basically I saved her life.

I'm expected her to throw me a parade through the backyard tomorrow.


4.  My new glasses came!  My prescription has changed enough to make me squint almost all of the time and it was really annoying.

{One day I might figure out how to take a decent selfie.  Don't count on it}

As you can see, they are as different as night and later that night.  I really know how to step out of my normal routine.  I actually wanted to get something with a little more substantial frame to it, but I chickened out.  Not to mention these are from Warby Parker and were only $95 including the frames AND lenses.  PLUS they are plastic which means they might be a little more Henry proof.


5.  I was trying to wait until Christmas, but after getting yelled at Wednesday morning I decided I needed to do something nice for myself.  And that meant getting one of these:

{Similar to this one.  But cheaper}

I floated the idea past Phil and he was ALL for it.  He's pretty much for anything that will help me relax.   It was only $25 at Target, so I am pretty sure it was worth it.  He also let me by a bathtub pillow.

My bath was divine.  I read while deep conditioning my hair and doing a mud mask.  And I felt so much better when I got out.  Totally worth it.

Happy weekend!

Leadership

A part of my job sometimes includes speaking in front of people.  Sometimes this is at public hearings, in front of neighbors who never like what I have to say.  Sometimes it is in front of just a few people at government meetings.

Sometimes neighbors will get up and basically call you an idiot for what you said.  And sometimes the government officials you are speaking to will call you an idiot.

For both scenarios, you don't really get to defend yourself.  You have to just sit there, nod your head, and take it.

I hate that.

Like public speaking isn't hard enough, I think it is even harder when you know you are going to get swung at.

At that's not figurative.  The police have been called to a public hearing I was a part of before.

One of my biggest challenges as a young engineer is proving my knowledge in a room of older engineers.  My age definitely works against me.  And the worst thing I think I could do when I am being hit with rude comments and misinformation is get worked up or let my frustration show.

Meetings aren't the only place my age plays against me.

I am the youngest person at my company.  By at least 7 years.  Some of our employees have been working there for over 20 years.  Literally, I was 4 when one of them started working for my dad.  They have seen me grow up.  I worked there answering phones a couple of summers.  I did all of my internships there.  They have seen me at my not-so-finest, when I didn't quite have the most professional behavior.  It is really hard to undo all of that history and I struggle a little with how to go from answering phones to being a leader within ten years.

Which is why I am so glad I am going to be participating in a Leader Development Series for the next 8 months.  It's 2 hours a day, one day a month, for the next 8 months.  Each month is a different topic, from public speaking, to effectively running a meeting, to finding balance and time management.

When I spoke to one of the organizer's for the series, he told me to be prepared to be uncomfortable and to be ready to push myself.

Thanks for the warning I guess.

But in all honesty, I am ready.

It's not going to be easy for me.  I mean, engineers aren't known for being the most outgoing.  But I am committed to getting the most out of the series as possible.

The organizer also told me to prepare to be "more awesomer".

A part of me feels like I am starting to hit my stride a little bit at work.  I still have so much to learn and so many ways to improve.  But my confidence is starting to grow and grow.  And I am ready to develop my professional skills outside of the technical spectrum.

So wish me luck!  I'm not exactly sure what will be involved at our first meeting today.  Maybe we will be doing trust falls or something.

Rocking Horse

A long-time client ours made Henry this wonderful rocking horse last year after he was born.  It is the kind of toy that you keep forever, in my opinion.  It is picture perfect.  The quintessential baby gift.

To protect it from the dogs, we put it up in Henry's nursery and told ourselves we would get it out for him when he was older and could use it.  I also told myself that instead of a thank you note (which I am terrible at writing), I would get a picture of Henry on the rocking horse and send it to the man who made it.  That way he could see Henry's enjoyment for himself.

Last week, Henry found the rocking horse in his room.  He picked it up and tried to carry it downstairs.  We didn't let him carry it down the stairs.  This was before the stitches were required, but I am fairly certain letting him carry them down the stairs would have had us at the ER a day sooner.  Once we got it down the stairs, Henry sat on the rocking horse and hasn't stopped rocking.

{I seriously need to learn how to properly use my camera.  

Henry's cuteness makes up for the poor photography I think}

I think we have a new favorite toy.  And that's good because I officially retired his trampoline.