B.S.C.

too much time on my hands

quick digression...if eric doesn't pick a movie from on demand soon, i WILL fall asleep. 

i know because i bought six of these puppies.

and did this to them

then i roasted them and scraped our their insides. pureed the insides and made these

yummy pumpkin scones, which the glaze should have been thicker.

i froze 4 cups of puree in individual containers.

today i made whole wheat spiced pumpkin pancakes.  they weren't bad, but i would have liked them more if they had been a bit sweeter and more pumpkin-y.  gracie ate one and was full. She liked them ok.  annie hated them and looked like she was going to throw up.  But, i've stopped taking offense to that since she does that with most foods save the following

Kraft mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, french fries and salmon.  get my point?

aside from loving salmon, garlic mashed potatoes, brie and tapenade, her palate isn't quite refined yet. oh and of course she loved the $20 round of triple cream cheese from the cowgirl creamery.  ( we all did actually and it's a good thing i can't find it in any of the local markets.)

i've also baked two batches of brownies and some snickerdoodles this month.  

like i said, too much time on my hands.

next up a different snickerdoodle recipe tomorrow. 

i had a *shitty* afternoon, literally and figuratively, on both fronts. i'm going to go pour my second glass of wine and watch me some ironman 2. yay, eric chose a movie. 

night.

 

**update- i just realized i also made two pumpkin cakes and a wine cake this month.  i really need to find a job**

who knew that sending annie

to kindergarten would give me such a wealth of blog material?

not me. nope. i sure didn't know.  

i'll start with gracie first though.  i seem to talk about annie all the time, and that's not necessarily a good thing.

gracie was so excited to come home yesterday and practice her piano lesson.

she also read her library book in one night so i took her wednesday morning to get some new books.  she picked two american girl books and i encouraged her to get little house in the big woods. i thought it was something i could read that both girls would enjoy.  and i have to say, i'm really glad that i am reading it to them.  so we could, you know, discuss the parts where laura wakes up and finds a dead deer hanging in the trees.  or when they butcher the pig and fill the bladder up like a balloon so they can play with it. 

good job, mom. 

fortunately they both find it very interesting and we talk about it several times while reading, ensuring that it will take approximately a year to read the entire book to them. 

in other gracie news, that thing...you know that thing i've been blogging about for over four years now.  is decidedly improving.  as i am saying that i am crossing all crossable parts that i haven't jinxed her, me and the situation.  keep her in your prayers, please.

on to annie.

for her homework last night we were to read a book and then she was to write some words about her favorite part of the story using inventive spelling.  now, we all know how that went the other night.  she actually thought she was just supposed to draw a picture about her favorite part, so-always the thinker-chose a book about zhu-zhu pets cause "I  CAN DRAW A HAMPSTER"

and of course i was so proud that she chose a book with such great educational value and literary quality.

and of course she thought her hampster drawing was "horrible."

could she be more of a turd?

then i made her think of some words about her favorite hampster. she did pretty good, though gracie gave her the "a" in hap for happy.  it was KILLING her not to help. 

things started to fall apart from there. so much so that they lost their privilege to watch 10 minutes of muppets in space.  

surprisingly, annie did want to do her thursday worksheet.  she had to write her name 7 times.  which was fine until i told her that she needed to write a lowercase 'e' rather than her standard upper case 'E' that didn't go over very well.  WE (and when i say WE i mean she) have some trouble with the lowercase 'e'

i rest my case.

but, trying to be positive, i encouraged her for at least trying.  

"put a STAR by your favorite mama."  

so i do that. 

"put a SMILEY FACE by your next favorite."

seriously?  that's stretching it a bit.  it was hard enough to find a good one for a star.  but i did and she drew a little smiley face that really isn't all that far off from looking like her 'e.'

then it all REALLY, REALLY fell apart.  she was a TIRED, TIRED girl.  gracie was a little out of whack too.  i ended up stomping out of the room with a goodnight and a door slam.  not my finest moment, but they were so beyond reasoning and i was so pee'd off.  

after a few minutes, we all made nice.  

we had a much better bedtime tonight.  

can i tell you how happy i am that eric will be home tomorrow night, even if it's just for the weekend. we've been minus daddy all week and we're all missing him. 

so glad it's almost friday!

more tales from the poop files

with a pee story mixed in.

last thursday the girls and i headed over to the townhome so we were there by ourselves all day friday.  

not being ones to waste time, we headed to the pool at 10:30.  

approximately 10 minutes later, annie peed on the floor of the pool bathroom.

thank you for cement floors, floor drains and sand/water bucket toys which i used to rinse the pee down the drain. 

an hour later gracie said she had to poo. after running in to the bathroom only to discover she had had a poop leak, annie runs into the bathroom and 

wait for it...wait for it...

pees on the floor again.  

so i've got one kid on the pot with poop all over her bottom and the other standing in a puddle of pee.  

i decided the poop situation was more dire and prayed silently that no one would come in to the bathroom and step on the pee floor or see me washing out the swimsuit bottoms since g gets so mortified about anyone discovering her issues (rightly so).

and then it was wash away the pee take two.

again, thank you for showers, cement floors, floor drains and sand/ water bucket toys which i used to rinse the pee down the drain. 

i looked annie in the eye and very seriously said, 

"if you pee on this floor one more time, you will be done swimming for the day and you WILL NOT get in the pool tomorrow."

she did not do it again.

apparently if you're too busy playing you don't have to stop to poop

annie was outside this evening with gracie and the neighbor kids.  they were playing really hard and it was GREAT. 

she came through the back door at 8.  

"mommy i think i pooped my pants."

huh? "just a little bit? get into the bathroom?  do you have to go more?"

i got my answer when i started to pull her panties down and felt soft poop roughly the size of a tennis ball.  or course her sandals were still on so in the process of pulling her panties down, it got all over her bottom, on her legs, shoes, on the wall, on her hands, on my hands and on the toilet seat.  

really annie?  you THOUGHT you pooped your pants?

it was awesome.

i'm a sucka' for

book fairs.  we have hundreds of books, but that doesn't seem to stop me.  we made a trek to the book fair at gracie's school yesterday. both girls got to pick out two books...but i ended up letting them get three and then momma got to get some too.  sometimes momma gets really tired of some of our books.

i picked out this one.  i am also a sucka' for cute, cute illustrations. i didn't even look at the content.  surprisingly it turned out to be kind of funny and we all cracked up at the end.

i think annie got my "always judge a book by it's cover" (not people, just books) gene because she walked in, went straight to the back and picked this book.  i thought to myself "really? are you sure."  and i LOVE it.  i'll surely be taking it with me whenever it is i head back to work.  it's a great book for working on "why."

we had a great afternoon, the three of us.  annie and i picked up gracie from her half day and spent an hour at the local ceramic place.  they each picked a piece of pottery to paint.  gracie a frog for "penny creek frogs" and annie a little bird house.  both look smashing. can't wait to see them once they are fired.  we made a little stop at frost for some sugar and fat.

which forced me to run on the treadmill for an hour while the girls played at the neighbors.  

they are now in bed and here i sit. nose in the computer, wasting away my evening, when i could be crafting, baking or reading or at least watching some mindless tv.  eric's at the opening sounders game. i hope that he is having a great time!

ps--gracie told me that she had a HUGE (her eyes got really big when she said HUGE) poo at school today and she took care of it herself. no leaks.  this makes me happy as she's still a little backed up.  she's been eating a ton of fruit for the fiber this week, but i'd run out of her supplemental fiber fruit leather from trader joe's, so she was still lacking all the grams she needed.  picked those up today and hoping this weekend gets her back on track.  

i found her

 this girl has had such a hard time lately. we've had a hard time together.  it's not fun to hear "go away" when you're having a heated moment with your 7 year old.  i don't know if it was getting into the routine, the constipation and constant leaks, the ear infections and reduced capacity to hear...maybe it was a combo of all these factors combined. so we're doing the following:

***started 2 sticker charts-1 for NOT fussing about NOT having enough time for free play on weeknights and 2-for NOT fussing about the fact that it's time to get ready for bed. worked like a charm. the last two nights have been dreamy

***getting PE tubes.  just waiting to hear from the scheduler.  and, like everything, that takes time.  i'm being patient. 

***saw her pediatrician yesterday about the constipation. while we were waiting for the doc, gracie says "I HAVE TO GO!!!"  i rush her to the potty and she goes..no leak. of course we are so excited we report this to the doc.  (it's classic that once we get home and have dinner, she leaks and can't go any more)  but anyway, doc felt her tummy and didn't feel a big ball o' poo in her rectum.  she felt new poo on the ascending colon and some hard old poo on the descending colon.  not a ton. we decided against the x-ray, but she gave me and order for one if the leaks aren't getting better in about a month. we decided that even though she's still leaking, feeling the urge to go about 7 times out of 10 IS progress.  for almost the last 3 1/2 years, she's been feeling NO urge. the last two weeks, i've been giving her a laxative on friday nights, just to clean out anything that built up over the course of the week.  doc said to keep doing that.  so, i kind of feel like there is a plan

***gracie gets really down on herself when she leaks. so i've been trying to focus on a)the positive aspect of her feeling the urge or b)  if she didn't feel the urge, how she can't quite feel the small poos yet, but she can feel the big ones. 

that picture is of gracie at her art class. i don't think i've posted any photos of that.

but really, the reason i started this post was to note that i think i'm getting my sweet girl back a little bit.  the other night, when annie had one of her bad sleep nights, gracie suggested they get bunk beds so annie could share her room with her.  then two mornings ago, after another bad sleep night, eric got up to go to work and found gracie had crawled into bed with annie so she could sleep. 

 yesterday, annie's snow globe broke.  it was a big one and let's just say the mess was not pretty. annie was telling gracie about it before bedtime.  gracie left the bathroom and headed to her room.  i passed by her room on my way to get something and peeked in. she looked up at me with big brown eyes as i caught her reaching for her little snow globe.  when i came back, gracie had given her snow globe to annie.  my heart melted. 

what i love about this kid is how she does stuff like this, not to make herself feel better or to get praise from me but just to make someone else feel better.  

SHE...

chalky face and all, is making me crazy with her sleepless nights. she's still up 2-3 times a night coming into our room.  i walk her right back to bed. she fusses and then i hear her moving around, looking at books, talking to herself, up to the bathroom. she told me the other day that she lays in her bed and looks up at the ceiling, frightened. we're kind of at our wits end because she needs the sleep. she gets cranky by the end of the day.

she's on a sticker chart for staying in her bed all night. it's NOT working like a charm, so we had to start a new chart--working on learning to read--so she'd get a sticker every day for something.

the good news is that today if friday so she gets to sleep with sissy.  maybe we'll get a whole night's sleep.

oh and if you missed my facebook post...last night we were getting in the car after the doc visit and preparing to head to art class. annie was all turned around looking out the rear window, sucking on a lollipop from the doc.  (it's great to be a little sis when your big sis gets a wart frozen off)

me: "annie, what do you need to do when you get in the car?"

annie: "throw up lollipops?"

for your reference, the correct answer was sit on your bottom and attempt to put your seat belt on. sigh.

happy birthday dear bloggity-blog

Three years ago today, I started BSC.  I guess you could call it my "blogaversary." But that sounds a bit cheesy, doesn't it?

Menu Monday or in this case Menu Tuesday

monday was pizza left over from the football party for eric and the girls, caprese panini for me.  Dinner was halfway prepared when eric came home EARLY...6:00 pm (i nearly passed out). He assumed we'd have pizza.  No complaints here. 

tuesday a repeat from last week of the cooking light pulled chicken bbq sandwiches. 

wednesday mongolian beef of course i forgot the rice noodle so back to the store i go...i didn't write it on my list, sigh

thursday ziti with spinach, cherry tomatoes and gorgonzola sauce

friday chicken and cheese enchiladas

saturday garlic ginger shrimp-a recipe from the magazine Health, nov 2009

sunday pasta with roasted vegetable and arugula, from martha's FOOD mag

I planned way ahead this week.  Toot-toot for me.

Yesterday, Gracie had an appt with the ENT.  She had ZERO pressure in her right ear and negative pressure in her left ear.  She's getting tubes again. She's thrilled. I am hopeful that addressing this issue will help her attitude.  She's been VERY emotional this year. I know some of that's normal, but I also think between her ears hurting/not hearing very well AND the constipation, she's got to feel uncomfortable. 

Annie got to see the doc too. For her 5 year checkup.  It was great and she didn't need a shot.  She was as happy as a clam about that.  She was 44.5 inches tall-81st %tile and 45 pounds-77th %tile.  And like a good doc, Suzuki asked about Gracie and of course i lamented about the encopresis.  I'm taking her in on thursday. I asked for an x-ray to see if a ball o' poo has built up again in her. If you'd like more info about that you can go here.  We learned lots of great information about the subject from this clinic. We physically went there and it was extremely helpful until the visit where she told us that we needed parenting classes and therapy.  If you know Eric and I well enough, you can only imagine how we responded to that.

anyhoo, we'll see how thursday's visit goes.  

Our little neighbor friend gave these shoes to Annie last week. She has worn them about every other day, no matter what the outfit.  I have completely given up on helping her pick her clothes.  She now looks like a raggedy miss matched muffin every day.

both girls

gave me a run for my money this evening.

i opened my corona light BEFORE dinner was made. 

 it's funny how eric called on his way home and asked how the day was going.  "great!" i said. as i was on the phone, annie displayed some less then desirable behvior by throwing an apple on the counter when she discovered i had cut a piece off. 'I WANTED IT WHOLE" she screeched.  picture eric laughing on the other end of the phone.  

not funny.

i grab her arm tightly and lead her bottom to the entry and up the stairs to her room.  she's still screeching when she leans over and PUTS HER OPEN MOUTH ON MY ARM.

i seriously about shit myself.  

how old are you?

she didn't bite but the mere fact she did that enraged me to a level that you can't understand...well, if you are a parent you can...

she proceeded to have a fir in her room for the next 20 minutes.  

after i de-escalated the situation, gracie had a poo leak in her pants that was a total mess. sigh. 

i sent gracie up to wash her own bottom in the tub.

i go back to chopping up dinner. out of the corner of my eye i see annie bobbing up and down but for some reason it doesn't register.  a mere seconds later, i hear a crash.

that little turd was jumping on the couch and fell off the end and landed in a little space between the side of the couch and the entertainment hutch thingy and the little round side table. if you have been to my house you know that space is really small and she managed to land right in it. 

now if you are a nice parent your initial reaction might be to go over there and comfort her. i'm not a nice parent.  

i was torn between laughing my arse off and being totally pissed that she was jumping on the couch yet again... something i don't allow (but clearly my punishment has not been harsh enough).

first i lit into her about NOT jumping on the couch and then i comforted her and then  i laughed silently when she was pressed up against me. 

leave it to annie to do something like that. 

another good round of dinners this week. last night's rocked the house.

 spaghetti with caramelized onions and radicchio only i left out the radicchio. and i used less black pepper and less red pepper.  it was soooo yummy.  it made a lot and i thought "great, i'll have some left over for my lunch tomorrow." apparently eric really liked it because i didn't have any for lunch today.

tonight's dinner was great too.  carne asada tacos with avocado pico de gallo. 

 

and the pulled chicken sandwiches were a hit too.

annie just put herself on the couch and covered herself up with a blanket.  she's intently watching a killers concert. i hope that brandon flowers' hot voice can lull her to sleep.  a girl can dream, can't she?

sprinkle no 15

stacy julian's sprinkle this week is to share a recipe with a friend. in her blog post she writes about how particular recipe's remind her of particular people. this recipe reminds me of my friends, Kay C. and Jen. it's super easy to make and really yummy. i've made it for birthdays, showers and dessert after a dinner party.

Wine Cake

from the kitchen of Kay C., who got it by way of her mom i think??

preheat oven to 350

spray a bundt pan really well with cooking spray

combine 1 package of yellow cake mix, 3 oz of vanilla instant pudding, 4 eggs, 3/4 cup oil, 1 tsp nutmeg, 3/4 C sherry wine

mix on medium until smooth

put in pan and bake for 45 minutes.  make sure it cools before you turn bundt pan over.  i like to put it on a pretty cake plate and dust the top with confectioner's sugar.

in other news...

will it EVER snow here this winter?

 taken dec 30th near mission ridge

i'm not sure if it will but i know this is annie's poopy face after having just had to drop her drawers and poop in the snow after which i wiped her with a plastic sandwich bag.

 that was funny. addy had to go potty and being two wasn't too keen on peeing in the snow.  eric drove her and cass up to the ski resort and left kim, gracie, annie and i at the make shift sledding hill.  awhile into them being gone, annie states she has to poop. NICE! i was like,  you have to go here. so i undid her bibs, had her wrap her arms around my neck. i held onto her waist with one hand while i pulled the bibs out of the way...that could have been a disaster...and she went to it.  not having any napkins or anything i wiped her with a sandwich bag from lunch. the guys came back 5 minutes later.

GRACIE: miss gracie came home early today. her tummy was not well. a few trips to the bathroom and she was so embarrassed she wanted to come home.  maybe the fiber is working. 

on that note...i have a date tomorrow. a coffee date with a friend who has a child with encopresis. i am so excited. so excited to commiserate and swap stories and talk about action plans. 

LOSING MY MIND:it only took me 10 minutes to figure out my turbotax password.  i really need to write that down somewhere.

EATING THIS WEEK:

monday: pork, cashew and green bean stir fry (sub chicken for pork) annie refused to try the chicken. i waited her out, she tried it and sure enough, she liked it.

tuesday: ham risotto with sugar snap peas -this was good but kind of salty.  would use a different ham next time

wednesday: shepherd's pie

meatless thursday: pasta with roasted vegetables and arugula --from the current issue of martha's FOOD

friday: i spaced friday. i bought stuff to make Quick chicken noodle (from the current issue of cooking light) soup for the girls in the event they wouldn't eat my dinners and it threw me off i guess. duh. looks like i'll be making another trip to the store this week.

so far it feels like january

has been a whirlwind. 

sunday we went to olympia to visit with family in town.

monday gracie had an early appointment with the ent.  i don't think i'll be scheduling any more early appointment the first day back to school after a two week break.  it was a bit of a struggle to get the girls out of bed.  two weeks of going to bed at 10 r later did not serve them well when i was trying to put them to bed at 8:30.  the ENT pulled out a HUGE ball of bloody wax, gracie's ear tube and suctioned out MORE wax. i am not sure how she could hear at all. poor kid. once it was all out the doc could see fluid in her ear. now she's on antibiotics which she fusses and whines and doesn't want to take. it's going to be a fun two weeks trying to force those down her.  if her fluid isn't gone by the next visit in 3 weeks, it's tubes again. a prospect gracie is SUPER excited about...NOT.

after getting annie to preschool, i ran some errands then headed to eric's office to pick him up so we could head to olympia for his aunt's memorial.  it's always hard to say good bye.

today finally felt semi normal though the girls were exhausted and arguing by the end of the night.  surprisingly annie still couldn't get to sleep.  i think she finally passed out around 9:30. she's such a pill.

one little word

last year i did this. my word was patience. namely patience with the girls. i think i had more overall compared to prior years. they might not agree...

this year my word is....

FIBER

yes, it's no "breathe" "live" "story" or whatever really meaningful word people choose, but it's what our family needs for 2010.

i chose this word because it is clear to me that FIBER is the only ticket to getting gracie out of her current predicament. we'll hit the four year mark in july if the encopresis continues. neither of us want it to.  last week, while at the townhome, gracie kind of had a break down about her potty situation.  she was embarrassed that we were asking her to sit on the potty in front of cass and kim and talking about it with them. she also expressed her sadness that her neighbor friends know she has a potty problem. 

my. heart. literally. broke. for. her.

it was awful.  never have i wanted  more to be able to turn back the clock to when she was 1 or two and look for the signs that she was constipated so i could change her course. 

so we've got a fiber chart going. one- so i remember how much she's had throughout the day and two- to show her that, even if she doesn't want to eat that gross raisin bran or fruit leather enriched with fiber, that she HAS to because it's the only thing that keeps her regular.  miralax alone does not work. along with tracking the FIBER, i am going to try to be more discreet about her situation.

kay C. this is for you....

it's all the photo cards we got this christmas. ( hi kristie and steve- love seeing your beautiful faces peering out at me. )

i think kay c. just fell to the floor in shock. you can pick yourself up now.  

kay C. has made a couple of these now so i can't take credit for the idea. it came as quite a shock to her when i confessed at our yearly scrapapalooza that i DO NOT save the photo cards people send us at christmas time. last year i had two year's worth of my best friends photo cards and upon looking at them i thought "what the hell am i ever going to do with these, they're really just cluttering up my scrap room" and i threw them away.  

after feeling very ashamed when my best friend discovered that i threw away her photo cards, i felt compelled and actually looked forward to starting fresh and making my own little album of photo christmas cards.  so there you go...

last night i went to LUKEWARM YOGA. the new mind/body studio at the club opened yesterday.  the grand opening was not without flaws. the heater would not go past 77. it was supposed to be more like 100. still it was fabulous and i can't believe i waited a whole year to go again, but i refused to pay another membership when you already have to give your firstborn to the club. 

a gal that's in a lot of my work out classes was there also.  we chatted before class. it was her first time and i told her that i had only been once-a year ago.  after class she said to me "you're really flexible, how many times have you done this again?" "once"  yes, i am flexible.  it's the only thing i can do well. to which eric says "lucky for me!" oh, he's so funny.  i think after a few months of regular hot yoga, i'll be able to bend like a "twisty bobcat pretzel"

 can you name the movie that's from?