last few days

Our little guy lost his first tooth this week. Unfortunately he swallowed it during the night. The next day we printed out a cartoon tooth and put it under his pillow the next night. The following morning he was surprised to find a couple fun things under his pillow.



Last night a friend and I went out to dinner and then to Color Me Mine. I had not been there since college. While I think it's a little overpriced, I love the atmosphere. It is quite relaxing to just paint and talk. We had a really fun time. I think it was the first time of our entire friendship we hung out without kids. :)



Today was Cameron's "big day" (or so he told several people). We dropped Kendall off with my mom, then after a lunch out, took him to see Cars 2. He was insistent on bringing his three Cars toys with him and we spent the ride home asking his "friends" all sorts of questions about the movie. While we did get a few, "Wow! This movie is really long!", overall he did great and really enjoyed it.



So a solicitor just came by and knocked on our door. He then proceeded to look in our window...twice. I was VERY irritated by this. So I opened the door and very firmly, but kindly told him so. I was surprised he still went ahead and gave me his pitch after that. :)

a few cute kid things said

Cam:
*As we were walking out of the library today, I was explaining to Cam that I couldn't find his rabbit books, but that we would look again next time. He was getting rather grumpy about it and I told him he needed to stop. After some silence he said, "Mom, I'm sorry for my bad attitude." He has been doing this a lot lately and it just melts my heart that he takes the initiative in saying it and really does change his attitude immediately following it. The kicker was when he then said, "Can you hug me?". Wow. for a kid who has never been big on affection, I about fainted. So cute.

*I've been helping at our church's kids' camp this week. I take Cam and Kendall to the preschool class while I'm away. It's difficult because I have to drop them off at the same time in the same room. Kendall cries when I leave, making Cam upset. He has told me several times he would rather her not go at all. :) On the drive today he asked her, "Kendall, are you going to fuss a long time or a short time when we get there?" This evening, after he helped me put her down, he looked in her crib and said, "Kendall, if you fuss when we leave, I will NOT come in and see you in the morning!" :)

Kendall:
*One of the first things she said this morning when I went to get her up was, "The clock says 40 minutes". I died laughing. Only the sibling of a numbers/time obsessed brother would even know a sentence like that!!

weekend

Saturday we headed up to Oak Glen for a hike. It wasn't one of our better ones as Kendall was wanting to be held most of the time and it wasn't exactly a cool day. :) I think we've decided to just take Cam for a while until we think Kendall can handle walking more on the trail.

Today we went to Victoria Gardens for a while. Normally we end with the Bass Pro Shop, but Kendall had been complaining of a tummy ache and was a little lethargic. We were at least able to hit the carousel on the way out.

Sorry it's blurry. Chris took it with his phone as we were zooming past. :)


Tonight was a splurge meal for Chris and I made this recipe. It was kind of a disappointment, as are a lot of the fettucini alfredo recipes I've tried. I feel like they are too salty, not creamy enough, or just don't have that rich flavor you want. If anyone has an awesome recipe (the real deal, not low fat), please send it my way!

p.s. Do you know how much proscuiutto costs??? Try $12 a pound!!! Luckily we only needed 1/3 of a pound for this recipe. And to be honest, I prefer bacon for taste as well as price. :)

*I'm not sure if I've posted this meatloaf recipe before, but it is SOOO good. It's very moist and also super good wrapped in a tortilla as leftovers.

Taco Meatloaf
1 lb. ground beef/turkey
1/8 cup taco seasoning
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 cup shredded cheese

Mix together and mold into a loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes (check after 30, depending on your oven). I actually made it in the crock pot so I wouldn't have to heat up the kitchen. I won't even try to give you the time since my crockpot is very weird and runs super hot.

*Yesterday Kendall and I were waiting for Cam to get out of speech. I was talking to another dad about the preschool class his son was in. He said the kids were pretty severe. One of the students was 7 years old and wanted to just sit and eat crayons most of the day. My heart broke for the child, but also for the parents. It's so hard to not get angry at the seeming unfairness of it. How much those parents long to just connect even a little with their son. While I can somewhat relate to them in worrying about Cam and how he'll make his way through life, I simply have no clue what they must go through day in and day out, while the rest of their friends are probably attending their kids' baseball games, going to the beach, etc.

*Kendall has started getting a kick out of spitting, as in spitting out her prune juice all over her clothes. It's really fun.

*Operation "eat as a family" commences on Monday. I've written down our dinners and bought most of the ingredients. I'm doing the staples I know they'll like except this one new recipe I found.

*One of my least favorite parts of summer is having to put sunblock all the time on the kids. Yesterday we were at the park and I really didn't want to go through the process, so I had us play in a more shaded area, just so I could avoid it. :) I think it's a hassle, plus it makes them so greasy for the rest of the day. I know it seems like such a minor thing, but for some reason it's a pet peeve. :)

"station activity" and fingerprints

I think I've said before that Cameron isn't always the best at independent play. My mom had an excellent idea of having different activities on a chart that he had to complete. I knew he would REALLY get into a chart where he had to check off something upon completion. So I hyped him up for "station activity" (not sure why I couldn't think of a more creative name). He LOVED it. I listed several activities for him to do (read books, mazes, play with race cars, etc.) and he checked off each after completing it. At first I told him he had to set the timer for 5 minutes for each one, but he wanted to continue even after the timer beeped, so the whole thing lasted more than an hour!! It was awesome as I got to work in the kitchen the whole time and just had to help now and then. I don't think I'll do it every day as I think he'll get sick of them after a while, but it will definitely make another appearance this week! :)





This morning we headed to Fingerprints Youth Museum in Hemet. I was a little hesitant when we walked in as I think I had higher expectations, but we ended up having an amazing time!! I think (from what I've heard) it's probably like a low scale Pretend City (in Irvine). The kids loved all the little stations such as a grocery store, bank, house with complete kitchen, life size ambulance they could climb in, etc. I loved watching Cam pretend so much and Kendall was just in hog heaven the entire time. A mom there told me about an even better one in Temecula that I'm excited to try sometime.

Digging for dinosaur bones.


This was Cam's favorite station. He loved playing "cashier" and Kendall equally loved shopping for the groceries. Take a look...

*I didn't take ANY pictures of our second half of the week, but it was very fun. Wednesday I did some much needed deep cleaning, which felt VERY good. Thursday we drove to the Camarillo area to Chris's aunt's place. That afternoon Chris golfed while I shopped (with great success!) and had a very, very enjoyable time of reading at Starbucks. I'm not sure why this part was so enjoyable...maybe because I never do it. I'm reading Jane Eyre for my book club, so it helped that I had a WONDERFUL book to pass the time.

On Friday we drove to Santa Barbara and had a nice time walking around and eating at our favorite restaurant there. Saturday morning we packed up and headed back to the kids. We were both so anxious to see them and our little reunion didn't disappoint. They were sooo hyper and it was such fun to see them again!

We stayed the weekend and got home this afternoon after one of our better car trips. It was a great week for Chris and I, but it's also nice to be back home and ready for our normal routine again.

*At Kendall's 2 year check up, we found her iron levels were low. They gave me a list of iron rich foods and one of the best ones was Cream of Wheat. I wanted to make sure she didn't write it off on her first taste so I put a little more brown sugar than I normally would have. Luckily she loved it. Hopefully making that one of her breakfast staples will help a lot.

*I've been doing some research on fun things to do with the kids now that Cam doesn't have school. I found a cool museum and a new hiking trail area I'm excited to try.

*Very excited for the new Cars movie. I'm hoping to get my mom to watch Kendall so both Chris and I can take Cam.

*OK, I'm off to make some dessert. It's my last night of "vacation eating"...ahhh...so sad.

While we were in Vegas, I shared with Ana my thoughts about my kids' eating, family dinners, meal planning etc. While she was sharing with me that sometimes cooking dinner can be hectic in getting it all on the table amidst two kids, I found myself envious of her because I've been a big wimp when it comes to the "family dinner". So here is the deal-- Chris and I eat dinner each night, just the two of us. The kids eat before they go to bed. Once they are in bed, Chris and I have our dinner. I've always felt the main reason for eating dinners as a family was to connect, talk, and bond. However because Chris works from home, we are together as a family far more than is typical. We get a lot of family time during the day, whether that is outings or just spurts of time Chris takes a break from work and comes to play with us.

Because of this, I haven't felt badly about eating separate from the kids in the evenings. To be honest, I LOVE not feeling rushed or stressed because Kendall isn't eating. I like not being constantly interrupted or explaining to Cam why he has to take four bites of his hamburger, but the bites have to INCLUDE the meat. I also love not being in a frenzy around dinner time trying to get it all ready with them running around (I always prep their dinners during the day so I can just heat them up right beforehand). However I've come to realize three things:

1. I think both kids (Kendall in particular) have become so picky due in large part to the fact that they don't SEE Chris and I eating. Dinner is where you get the most variety of foods. They don't see us eating and enjoying those foods. I think this plays into their rejection of a lot of things.

2. Because we only eat with Kendall for breakfast and lunch, I have never forced her to stay in her chair for longer than when she is done eating. While I don't expect her to be able to sit the whole time, she needs to sit for longer than the two minutes she lasts when I plop something down in front of her that she doesn't like.

3. I end up feeding the kids things I know they'll eat...since I'm only making their meals. And why they are healthy, I KNOW I'm not exposing them to enough variety.

So while I'm not quite ready to pull the trigger on "family dinners" tomorrow, I know it needs to happen...