Update on the Boys

TW is almost 5 months old. He has recently learned to roll over from back to front. Now that he has discovered this, he “practices” almost every time we put him down. He gets frustrated, though, when he rolls onto his tummy and can’t get back to his back. We think he’s working on getting his first tooth. He’s not drooling much, but likes to bite HARD on anything he can get, and we can feel a new bump under his gums. He kept me up all last night, so I'm running on fumes today. He was up literally every 45 minutes crying and fussy. It will be nice when his poor little tummy can handle more.

Moochy's favorite things lately have been singing “Popcorn Popping” and the “ABCs”. In fact, this week we discovered that he knows almost all of his letters by sight. The other day Mooch pointed out the “I” on my shirt, which said, “CHAMPION, Promises Kept” (a sweatshirt for my brother’s band). He then proceeded to tell me EVERY letter on my shirt, and only needed help with the “H” and “S”. We knew he knew some letters (G & W are his favorites), but didn’t realize that he could point them ALL out. We are continually impressed by his ability to remember things; a quality which I am convinced came from his dad. Often I will tell him before his nap or before bed, "You can have that after your nap," or "We'll do that tomorrow when you wake up." He'll wake up and immediately ask for whatever it was (a cookie, to play Mario Party, or whatever it was that was promised). No wonder he's so difficult to distract! His favorite book right now is "Big Dog, Little Dog". And lastly, one of the best things is that Moochinator will FINALLY let me sing to him without covering his ears and saying no. He went through this phase where he didn't like it when anyone would sing to or around him. It lasted about 6-8 months! Now he'll actually ask for me to sing again and again. I love it.

I really should be doing laundry.

I have a pile in my living room that needs to be folded and put away, but I thought I'd write a quick blog about our day. Today Allen got a ride with a co-worker, so I had the car. It was nice to get out with the boys. We went to the SuperMall to do a little shopping. I got some jeans for myself, some work clothes for Allen, and Easter outfits for the boys. After that, I took Mooch to the new play area. It was great. He loved every minute of it.

On the way out, we stopped at Kids Cuts for a haircut for Moochy. The little boy before him cried the whole time, and I was really worried that Mooch would do the same (especially after seeing him cry). Mooch man usually HATES getting his hair cut. The sound of the clippers scares him. Fortunately, the clippers they had were really quiet, and Moochy behaved so well. No tantrums! Yay! I think the guy may have knicked Moochy's ear a little too, but he didn't make a sound. He just played with the steering wheel (a plane) and ate his dumdums.

The guy asked me how I wanted it styled, and I said I didn't care. So, he spiked it down the middle. Then he pulled out the orange gel. I refused it. But then Moochy said he wanted it, so I thought what the heck. Since he behaved so well (and it WASHES OUT) I said ok.

After that we got some pizza (for Mooch) and Chinese (for me). Moochismo loves pizza. But what 2-year-old doesn't? Here are some pictures. Poor little guy was so tuckered out after all that. And of course, Toh had a good time too. :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Milk Problems

Lately Toh-Toh has been doing really well. He's been going down to bed before 10 p.m. for the past two weeks. Horray! I think it's because I've been much better at keeping dairy out of my diet. Yesterday & last night were bad, though.

Every once in a while I'll give Toh a bottle of soy formula because I've been trying to save up a stash of "mom juice" for when I wean Toh-Toh. Well, yesterday I tried to give him a bottle. He really doesn't like bottles and will only take them every once in a while. Well, yesterday was one of those times he didn't want one. So, he ended up getting about one swallow of soy formula. A couple hours later he threw up ALL OVER me. And it wasn't just the normal spitting up, it was vomiting. He kept throwing up for about an hour after that. I felt so bad for the little guy.

So, I'm starting to think that Toh may be allergic to soy protein as well as cow's milk protein. The reason I say this is because this happened once before (or so I think). Last week I gave Toh a bottle of soy formula and put him down for a nap. When I got him up I realized that he was soaking wet. His crib was drenched and so was the boppy pillow he was laying on.

If it gets worse I may have to eliminate soy from my diet as well. What will there be left for me to eat!?

To make matters worse, and maybe TMI, I think the 150 ounces of milk I have stashed in the freezer may be bad now. I tried to give Toh-Toh a bottle of it this morning, and he made a face like it was bad, which prompted me to taste it. Yeah, I know, weird, but I had to know if it was bad. I've heard that some people have problems with extra lipase in their milk which causes the milk to break down and go bad once it's frozen. I just about threw up after that. So, now I'm hoping my whole stash isn't bad...

Pork & Vegetable Lo Mein

We had this last night for dinner. It was excellent, so I thought I'd share the recipe. I thought it was just as good as ordering out for Chinese food. I can't take credit for the recipe, though, because I got it on my favorite website (recipezaar.com).

Pork & Vegetable Lo Mein

3 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces spaghetti, cooked al dente and drained
1 lb pork tenderloins , sliced thinly into strips (chicken would work too)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 cups prepared coleslaw mix (or 2 cups of shredded cabbage & 1 cup of shredded carrots)
2 stalks celery, chopped (or bok choy)
2 sweet bell peppers, chopped (I ended up using 1 green bell pepper, and it was still good)
1/3 cup soy sauce

Directions:

Heat 2 T. of Olive Oil in skillet or wok. Sauté pork, onion, garlic and pepper flakes until meat is no longer pink. Remove from the pan and keep warm.

Add remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and sauté coleslaw mix, celery, and peppers until crisp tender. Add cooked spaghetti to veggies.

Stir in soy sauce and add pork mixture back to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes or until heated through.

This can easily feed my family of 3 1/2 for two days! I didn't really measure the spaghetti out, though, so I may have added more than 8 oz.

We decided...

to leave out the treadmill & just go with the bike. Our house isn't big enough for both. We went to Sears yesterday and got our recumbent bike. It's really nice and I'm excited to use it. It's even quiet enough that I can use it while the boys are napping.

Speaking of naps... I think I'll go take one since Moochy & TW are both asleep... One of the benefits of having 9:00 church.

Shopping List

Here's what I'm going to do with our tax return:

1. Pay off one of my student loans

2. Get a camera

3. Get a treadmill (for me)




4. Get a recumbent bike (for Allen, but I'm sure I'll use it too)




5. Get a couch (we gave ours away when we moved from Cheney)

6. Get a new outfit

7. Save the rest

Thank you,Toh-Toh, for getting us a better refund this year. :)