Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Baby Chores

Gus is totally obsessed with the vacuum. He comes flying from wherever he is the second it comes out. He MUST hold onto the handle and "push" the whole time. It is so funny because at this age Reese was still crying and I had to hold him on the couch while Kyle vacuumed. Gus has his little tongue out half the time because he's working hard, you know.
Since Gus makes it seem so fun Reese actually participates some now too. I think this is mostly because he realizes Gus is "a baby" and can do it, so he should too.
I think Kyle will be happy when Gus can just take over the job, because it kind of elongates the whole process now.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Plague

The plague hit our home. Reese woke up about midnight one night hacking and wheezing. He seemed like he might cough until he threw up so I took him in the bathroom where he spent about 10 minutes hacking over the toilet. His fever was 104. UGH....so we took some ibuprofen and turned on the shower steam and then went out on the porch to breathe the cold air. Eventually he fell back to sleep. The next day he laid on the couch watching tv all day. He awoke from his nap crying hysterically, fever 105. So I called the pediatrician. They were able to fit us in. They decided it was croup from the parainfluenza virus (since normally croup has a lower fever.)We spent about 5 days with the super high fever before it finally tapered off. Then the snot came...ugh it lasted forever. I found these forehead things called Be Kool, that are gel-like stickers. They were very cool..he said they made him feel better.
In the middle of this Kyle got 3 days of flu symptoms. I washed my hands so much they were about to crack off. But it worked because I only got a couple of days of sore throat, no actual cold or flu. Hooray. Gus just got mild runny nose. This was all back in the second week of March.
Now, of course, the plague got me. I had a week of headaches, went to the eye doctor thinking my prescription must have changed. It barely did. Turns out it was a sinus headache, then the snot came...ugh. I am really hoping today this is the last of it. This is spring break and we had big plans. I don't want to have to reschedule everything!



Monday, March 28, 2011

Menu Plan Monday


During my blog lapse I was actually still menu planning. We discovered a new awesome recipe. I don't really know the rules of posting non-original recipes. Mine comes from Mark Bittman's Food Matters cookbook. At first glance I thought this cookbook had a lot of weird food in it. But each recipe we try we really like and makes me feel more open to some of the weird recipes. In fact I just found one and I thought "hmmm, this seems so normal, why did I think it was weird?"

"Cannellini with Shredded Brussels Sprouts and Sausage" from FoodMatters Cookbook
3 TBSP Olive Oil
8 ounces Italian Sausage (I use 6 ounces)
2 TBSP minced garlic
red chile flakes to taste...in another recipe he discusses the different ways to had heat, flakes, chili oil, hot sauce, peppers etc. and how each one adds it's own unique flavor but is really interchangeable in any recipe. I would NEVER have veered from the recipe before reading this. Dumb, huh? I find flakes give hot spots, so I add Arizona Gunslinger liquid to get a more uniform seasoning throughout the dish. ANy hot sauce you like will do.
salt and pepper
1 pound brussels sprouts, shredded or roughly chopped
1/2 cup white wine or water (I use the wine)
2 cups cooked cannelini beans drained. I used 1 1/2 cups dry pintos

1. (Paraphrasing) Put oil in skillet over medium. When hot add sausage, brown and break into
small bits. Add garlic and chile flakes (hot sauce), cook for a minute or so.
2.add brussels sprouts and wine, stir frequently, cook until tender but crunchy, about 10 minutes. Salt and pepper.
3. add COOKED beans, stir occasionally, taste and adjust seasoning. I took the photo before adding beans because at this point I thought it would look really pretty with white beans, but my pintos were kind of ugly. It totally looked fine with the pintos.
He suggests serving over a cooked grain like farro, bulgur or cracked wheat. We just aren't ready for that level of crunchy granola-ness. So we just ate it in a bowl with no grain.

EVERYONE gobbled it. Even Gus:
On the menu this week:
Monday: Beans and Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Sausage
Tuesday: Baked (in marinade) Pork Chops, brussels sprouts gratin
Wednesday: Chicken Tetrazini, green beans
Thursday: out
Friday: Stirfry with brown rice
Saturday: Tortellini with peas and cream sauce
Sunday:
Veggie Soup (I just make my own concoction of whatever we have: carrots, celery, onion, mushroom, diced tomatoes, green beans, peas, chicken and beef stock, small soup pasta and a little sausage. A salt-free seasoning like Mrs. Dash table blend, Turmeric, paprika, salt and pepper.)

Check out other menu ideas at Organizing Junkie.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Music Man

We record a few superhero cartoons and Scooby movies on the tivo. If I am sitting and watching I'll fast forward through the commercials. If not, Reese watches them. ugh. He discovered a "movie" he wanted to watch during the commercials. It was comcast's ad for Taylor Swift On Demand. So we went on YouTube and found the video in the commercial. "Mine" is the title but Reese calls it "put your arm for the first time" ha ha! The line in the commercial he heard over and over was "You put your arm around me for the first time." Reese wants to watch over and over again. Every time he tells me "I like her white dress", "OOO baby!!" and "He's 4 just like me!" These are the scenes of their wedding, new baby and 4th birthday cake. It cracks me up. He loves it. He also loves the Megamind dance to Michael Jackson's "Bad", so he watches Bad and Beat It too. It is so funny listening to him sing along. Whenever Kyle is in the car he plays those on his iPod and Reese just belts it out and dances in his car seat. Hysterical!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Brotherly Love

We are experiencing much more frequent cooperative play at our house. Yes Gus is somewhat demanding that he gets what he wants, when he wants it, but it is so lovely when Reese actually has some patience with him. They frequently play together doing the same activity. Gus is probably just parallel playing, but Reese is really trying to include his brother. I'm so happy they enjoy each other.
Tonight Gus had a fit at bedtime (unusual). It turned out he needed to give his brother a kiss goodnight before he could go to bed without complaint. Awww...so sweet!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Superheros

Literally every single day superheros invade my home.

Gus is operating the Iron Man full helmet with great skill these days. His little hand is pushing buttons that makes it talk. The other hand is holding the Indiana Jones whip Poppop helped Reese make at their last sleepover. At his feet is an Optimus Prime mask. All heros and their gear are welcomed here.It is so funny to me that Gus has gotten into the costumes so much earlier than Reese. I guess a boy must do what his big bro does as soon as he notices it's happening. Of course, gus has to have the legs and sleeves cuffed since all the suits are Reese's size.

But we wear our suits for all occasions, work and play.

They are shockingly agreeable when it comes to sharing. This is Reese in the full Iron Man suit and helmet. The Iron man suit was actually Reese's very first dress up costume.

On this day Reese declared Gus as Superman to be his Spiderman sidekick. I'm not sure what comic book Superman fans would have to say about that or about the Man of Steel riding on a cow. Reese is very into having a sidekick right now. Gus is just happy to be included in the fun.
The Batman suit came from Santa who I assure you searched high and low at a not Halloween season and paid top dollar to acquire said suit. I loathe it as it is ill-fitting (HUGE, hard chest, super skinny arms and legs). But both of the boys love it. Now we need Robin. The new Young Justice Robin has a way cooler suit than the old Robin. I hope there are costumes next Halloween.
So this is how we spend our days, hurling webs and leaping tall buildings (ottomans) in single bounds.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Catch up

So let me pick up where we left off, um, a month ago!! Whoa! I've been a blog slacker. I last blogged immediately following Reese's birthday.

He turned 4!!!
My dad came to visit for the big event.
He went home with a some cold germs and we went back to our regularly scheduled programming.