Monday, May 24, 2010

Randoms.

Ben's having a nap and I'm procrastinating folding this load of laundry that's sitting beside me on the couch. My toes are cold, I have the fire on and all I want to do is curl up with a book and veg. So, instead I'll blog and tell you what's up with La Casa Beesley recently and then maybe get around to cleaning my house.

Most of this won't really be news to any of you. I'm pretty sure all the people that read my blog are my friends on FB. As it turns out, I like to talk about myself so ha. I'm blogging anyway.

First, Susan came out for her annual visit. She was here all of last week and left on Sunday. We didn't do a whole lot while she was here - Nick & I mismanaged our funds this month and we were running extremely low on cash while she was here, so we didn't have the moolah just laying around to go out and do much. That and it's hard to do much with Ben. We did get our traditional pedicure at Two Rivers and had lunch over at Rembrandt's. We did some shopping, and she subbed at a Bunco game (more on that news later), we drove up to Bogus to see the snow and take some pictures, did a bit more shopping and just general hanging out. Watched some movies (Twilight, New Moon and The Blind Side). Drank margaritas on the deck with a fire. Played with Ben a lot. We're already planning her return trip. Originally, she wanted to come out in September but then I said how I'd love for her to be here for Ben's 1st birthday so it's likely she'll come in December instead.

So I've subbed 3 times in a row for Bunco now and they've asked me to become a regular player. I'm so excited! It's something to look forward to once a month that's not being a mommy or being a wife - just me! :-) Hopefully Nick's school schedule continues to cooperate and he doesn't have any Thursday classes (I know he doesn't for summer but who knows about fall or winter). It's my turn to host it next month and I know I'll make myself nuts trying to decide what to do. Susan & I talked about some possible themes and I'm pretty sure I have it picked out.

Ben's up to new things all the time. He's getting a lot better at sitting on his own. He still needs supervision he takes random nose dives for the floor but he's getting better. We've been to the Little Gym twice now and he seems to enjoy it. That kid is fairly fearless - I wonder what sort of shenanigan's he'll get in to when he's older. The napping problem I had not too long ago seems to have corrected it self and he sleeps like a champ now. He went through about a week and a half or so phase of sleeping all the time so we'll see how he does this week - maybe it'll even out to his old schedule. We're trying out new foods for him - as you read in my previous post: peas are on the "yuck" list for now. I'll try them again in a few weeks maybe. So far that's the only food he really doesn't like. He's had sweet potatoes, carrots, apple sauce, pears....I feel like I'm missing one. He REALLY likes pears - no "yuck" face at all when those were introduced. Just today I started a 2nd rice cereal feeding.

He's busy testing out new sounds. Right now his kick is screeching at the top of his lungs. It's ear shattering but incredibly cute and honestly I don't mind it one bit. He thinks it's super funny and so do I. He's blowing a lot of spit bubbles and was gurgling in the back of his throat but that was replaced by the screaming. I keep saying "mama" at him and he keeps looking at me like I'm a lunatic. My very favorite new thing he's doing is that he's starting to hold up his arms when he wants to cuddle. And cuddle he does. He gives hugs now - well, I don't know if they're really hugs but it feels like one and that's all that matters to me. The most annoying new thing he's doing is biting while nursing. I read some where that if that happens, I'm to break the latch and tell him "no biting mommy"....uh sure. I've done that. It doesn't work. So if any of you more experienced mommy's have any advice for me on this one, I'd sure appreciate it. if it gets worse or more frequent, the nursing is going to come to a stop and he'll get his food from a bottle.

We're working on rolling all the way over. He can roll from tummy to back - he's not too keen on it and doesn't do it very often but he does do it. he's a CHAMP are the back to side and actually is able to scoot himself upside down in his crib (so his feet are were his head was). A few times while sleeping, he's rolled from back to tummy (twice now) but he wakes up crying when that happens so I know he's not doing it on purpose. He gets about 3/4's of the way there during awake times and then rolls back on his side.

So that's it, I believe. This pile of laundry is shouting my name now and Ben should be up from his nap any minute now.

Until next time...! :-)

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Ewwww

So the picture above is from a few nights ago when we tried peas for the first time with Ben. He didn't care for them that night, so I put them away, moved on to carrots and called it good. Tonight I brought back out the peas to try again. I saved them until after the rice cereal so that if he refused the peas, he wouldn't refuse all food (which he's done before). He was tolerating them fairly well, ate about half of them with much encouragement. A bite of peas goes in.

There's that face (the one above) again.

Then a HUGE shudder of disgust.

Then he gagged.

Then he gagged again, even harder.

Then, what can only be described as a truly Exorcist style moment occurred.

A giant, gooey, disgusting river of bright green peas and white rice cereal flooded out his mouth.

And all over his shirt.

And pants.

And high chair.

And my hands.

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Yum.

Easy Ham & Cheese Quiche:

Preparation:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 10 inch pie plate with Crisco or butter.
Ingredients:
1 Cup Diced Ham
1 Cup Grated Swiss Cheese
1/3 Cup Finely Diced Onion
2 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup of Store Bought Biscuit Mix
1/8 tsp. pepper
4 eggs
Put ham, swiss cheese and onion in bottom of greased pie plate. Put all of the milk, Biscuit Mix, eggs and pepper in blender together. Blend together for 1 minute and pour over the ham, swiss cheese, and onion mixture in pie plate. Bake for one hour until golden brown. Remove from oven and let the quiche rest for ten minutes before serving.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mother's Day

My very first Mother's Day. I have to say, it was pretty awesome. It started out like normal, I got up and got Ben changed and fed. I started the coffee and started unloading the dishwasher when Nick got up. He prepared our Mother's Day Brunch (super yummy quiche, fruit salad, pecan tassies, pancakes, sausage and MIMOSA'S!!!) and we headed over to my mom's to meet up with my brother and his family to celebrate. My mom wasn't feeling so great (she had chemo last Monday and it always wipes her out by the following weekend) so our visit was short but super sweet. Got a huge box of Whitman's chocolates from my brother's family and a nice card from my granny.

After that we headed home and had a little lull to the day. Ben napped for about 2 hours, so I just mostly sat on the couch and vegged (watched Cops - great Mother's Day programming, right? ha ha). Nick cooked up some pork for pulled pork sandwiches, which we enjoyed at the park. That was a bit of a...well, it was almost a disaster. We headed out to Settler's Park by our house, found a nice tree to sit under and lugged all our stuff over. No sooner did I spread out the blanket and set Ben down when this other family staked claim RIGHT beside us (and rudely, too. dude walks up, throws down some folding chairs - not exaggerating, he literally threw them and comes back with 5 or 6 other people). Not exactly the relaxing picnic experience we had hoped for...not to mention that I'm just not that friendly and I freaking hate it when people park right on top of you. So we gathered up our stuff and went over to Storey Park and had a REALLY nice time. We ate and played with Ben in the grass and took a zillion pictures.

Ben was pretty tired by that point and fell asleep almost as soon as we put him in the car seat. We drove through Dairy Queen and I got a Peanut Buster BLIZZARD - SO good! Then we came home. Since Ben was still asleep and I wanted him to nap, we saddled up Sadie and took a stroll through the subdivision. Ben woke up about half way through but just enjoyed the scenery.

After that the festivities were pretty much over. Switched up Ben's food tonight and added some sweet potatoes to his rice cereal. I don't think he liked them. I'll give 'em another go tomorrow and see if he likes them any better. He's such a cutie, even when he's making the "yuck" face.

Nick got me the sweetest hydrangea (my favorite flower) and a really cool necklace. I actually got the necklace yesterday - FedEx was supposed to deliver it to my mom's but by the time she got to the door (again, she's sick and moves slow) the driver had given up and was already in the truck. Apparently he saw my mom at the window (they exchanged eye contact) but he didn't find it necessary to come back. Yet another reason why I dislike FedEx. Anyway, they wouldn't be coming back until Monday so after we had lunch with my mom on Saturday, Nick drove out to FedEx and picked it up. It's like a family tree type deal with our birthstones on it. The one Nick liked the best came with 4 stones so he got amethyst for me, diamond for him and then two of the blue topaz's for Ben. Nick's plan is to switch out one of the topaz's for our next baby. :-) I also got a mother's day prize from Susan yesterday - she sent me the coolest shower caddy from Thirty-One - it's black & white polka dot just like my purse! Very cool indeed.

So that was my first mother's day. I hope all my mom friends has as nice a time as I did!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Frustrated.

The last about week and a half Ben has suddenly refused to nap. Since I am actually seeking advice on this, lemme give y'all some back story. First of all - the schedule we had is not MY schedule for Ben. It's Ben's schedule that he naturally and organically came up with - I just helped him to maintain it. For a while now, he's been up between 6:30 and 8:00 every morning. I change his diaper, he eats and then goes in his play pen to play and poop. He seems to eat just about every hour for almost exactly 10 minutes each time. After about 2 or so hours of being up, he was ready for a nap, so down he'd go for roughly an hour. Some times a little less, some times a little more. As long as he woke up smiling, I knew he was good for the next 2 hour stretch.

Recently, he's still eating about every hour, still waking at the same time but is refusing to nap unless I hold him for nearly the entire nap. This is super frustrating. On Friday he had one two hour nap and was good for the day. I figured, okay - his schedule has changed and that's cool with me. One two hour nap is awesome - I can get a lot done in 2 hours. So Saturday we tried that. Saturday he did not nap at ALL. Clearly he NEEDED to nap as he was rubbing his eyes and was cranky and napped while he nursed but didn't want to be put down for a nap. Yesterday I thought we were back on track as he did take his first morning nap, in his crib, for an hour, uninterrupted. But that was it. No more naps until he had a complete and total melt down at my parents and napped for about 45 minutes after bawling hysterically.

Now, my kid isn't much of a crier. He fusses and whines but he doesn't often break down and sob. You've all seen the pictures - he's a pretty happy go lucky kid, and usually full of smiles. So even while he's refusing to nap - he's fairly cheerful about it. I say "fairly" because again - eye rubbing and general fussiness ensue when he's past the point of needing a nap.

Today I tried the old "let him cry it out in his crib" trick while I showered. That was a complete and total failure. Not only did he indeed, cry his little head off while I showered but has still yet to nap.

I sure would like him to have some sort of nap at any point during the day. I NEED that break to shower, eat lunch, waste time on FB and just have some quiet time. Is he just beyond needing naps? What are some of your tried and true tricks?

Help.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Joys of spring

Spring is springing... Let loose the Avians of War!





The Robin depicted in this image is not the Robin in question, he is merely an unpaid actor. Any resemblance to the actual Robin, or relatives to the Robin is purely coincidental.



For the past few days Sarah and I have been noticing a Robin taking quite an interest in our pergola. He's been showing up with all sorts of grass, twigs, twine, you name it, to make a nest. The first few days I would just go out and remove what little of the nest he had made. Unfortunately, this did little to deter this Robin. We have some prime real estate in the world of birds. It's covered from the rain, close to the house so it will stay warmer during the cold nights and cooler during day.


I had to up the ante, just removing his debris was not enough, so I stuffed a loosely rolled piece of foil in the corner. I naively thought that this would be enough to keep the Robin away. But this is no ordinary Robin, he wasn't going to be put off so easily. I later found the foil ball in yard when I was mowing... fail. Time for another strategy, I still thought foil was a good way to go, so I wrapped the support beam with foil, and splayed it up the wall and in the corner. This didn't help at all, in fact I think it made it easier for the Robin to build his nest. When I pulled the foil down he was stuffing the debris into the foil, tricky bird.


This morning when I woke up there was debris in the corner again, but there was also a sparrow and a dove casing the place to try and steal this Robins spot. I wasn't going to let ANY bird have this spot. I'm sure his mate is pissed at him. "Why isn't my nest done yet? I have eggs to lay. Mabel is in her nest! I should have mated with Erwin, he's got a two story nest!" In a way, I feel for the guy, but he's not nesting right above our back door.


Finally, Sarah suggested putting up some ribbon to dance in the wind. It's not the actual bird deterrent foil, it's Christmas ribbon. So far it seems to be doing the trick, we'll keep you updated. Here are some pictures of the adventure.







Picture of the debris






Picture of our latest attempt to deter the Robin







Not the Robin in question.







THIS is the Robin in question.






Caught red beaked!