Funny

Funny that I have my alarm set for 6:30 every morning so I can wake up and be productive before the W wakes up, but I have never actually been able to sleep that late. It becomes a chore to turn off the alarm every day, but I refyooose to change the time.  Our rooster has been crowing at 4:30 AM. This beautiful hour in the morning is sponsored by the durn virus that prevents W from eating more than a few bites of anything.

Also funny that 16 months of sorta decent parenting can melt away with 5 days of please drink anything and please watch more tv you are so sick.  W begs me to watch Elmo and Mighty Machines all day.  Eventually I give in and turn it on, but then he asks me to switch it to the other one within 5 minutes..and then to the other one...and then to the other one - Lala, no Brmm Brmm, no Lala, no Brrm Brmm.   We need to cut the TV cold turkey even if it causes the shakes (for me).  Also, he begs for juice which means anything in a juice box that he can make a huge mess with.  Fancy cups can't compete with the magic of the cardboard box with straw insert.

Funny that the highlight of my morning is picking out what scent will be in our house.  Today is Scentsy Two Harbors.  I liiiike.

Not funny that I am already having anxiety about moving and changing our routine and meeting new people and and and 20ish hours in the car with a 16 month old.  I like change as much as your average 84 year old.

Tonight some food trucks are coming to our hood so that means no dinner cooking for me!  Should be fun.  Also, W and I ran to the liquor store yesterday...seriously, we took our huge jogging stroller inside the store lined with delicate breakable expensive bottles. Worth it, yes. Those spicy grapefruit margaritas are even better than you would think!

Monday Funday

Mooonnndaaayyyyy. 

I wish it was the afternoon so I could try these Spicy Grapefruit Margaritas that Eat, Live, Run posted today. 

Isn't this the best running quote ever?

Came across this recommendation on YouTube last night.  Is this guy for real?

Carry on with your Monday Funday people. 

The Never Random Barf

Wyatt had what I thought was a random barf on Wednesday last week.  Wrong da dong dong doooong! Turns out that was the beginning of high fever, napping 6 hours a day, poor pitiful pookie.  We were doing the Tylenol and Motrin at the same time to bring down the fever.  Fever is in the normal range as of today (hooray) and he is attempting to eat and drink a little bit.  Makes me so sad to see him like this.

On Friday, he asked to go outside but he didn't want to walk around.  He just wanted to sit in a chair.  Every time I asked him if he wanted to walk around he just shook his head no.

Some part of me feels like if he is suffering, then I need to suffer so I refused to turn off the baby monitor most nights because I wanted to hear him moan and sleep-cry.  Well last night I was done with that. My compassion has limits! Virus be gone. 


With all those mondo naps, I got in more hours of work than usual.  I purchased Thrift Shop and have it playing on repeat. I cooked Homesick Texan's Austin Style Black Beans...pretty close to this one but the cookbook version is vegetarian and has a few less ingredients. I think its the chipotles in adobo that give it the awesome flavor. Also, did you know that 145 is the new temperature for pork?  Well it is...so I made this pork prime rib and it was soooo good and about $5 for 2 lbs!

Celebrating the first night I don't have to set an alarm to give Wyatt meds by going to bed early. Good night internetty.

Wyatt Has Friends in High Places

Wyatt's bestie Collin made his debut in the modeling industry!  Check out the cover of the BabyTalk magazine.  What a guy.  We can say we knew him back when.  No wonder all the ladies flock when we go to lunch together. 

Conversation this morning...

Wyatt: Up, up, up
Janet: I can't wait for him to be able to get onto the couch by himself
Hunter: <<Lift Wyatt up and put on couch beside him>>
Wyatt: << Fall over backwards onto floor>>
Wyatt:  Waaaaahhh!
Hunter: Are you sure you want him to be able to get onto the couch by himself?
Janet: Sigh, guess not.

Citrus Recipes Please

My dad shipped me 50 lbs of his homegrown citrus.  Awesome, right?  Very funny that I live in Florida and request citrus from my Dad's backyard. 

Let me see if I can list the varieties....Grapefruit (from a store bought seed that grew the biggest best tree), Mars Oranges, Tangelos, Bloomsweet Grapefruit, Louisiana Sweet Orange, Valencias, Meyer Lemons, other variety of Lemon.  My favorite that he grows is the Owari Satsuma, but satsumas don't ship.  I had to stuff myself while in town for Christmas. 

We are eating an orange and a grapefruit a day. I have made John Besh ambrosia.  His secret is adding simple syrup.  I already told you about the Chicken Cutlet with Orange and Arugula that I made. 

Most recipes I find call for frozen OJ concentrate or orange marmalade.  I want the real deal. 

A few I want to try....

Orange Brownies by Paula Deen (looks more like sheet cake to me)
Grilled Chicken with Dijon and Meyer Lemon
Brazilian Lemonade (with lemons instead of limes)

Send me your orange and lemon recipes please.  The fewer ingredients the better since I am moving soon. 

Winter Runnerland

I signed up for the Moms Run This Town Winter Runnerland 10K. It's a virtual run, but I am running out of time since it ends 1/31.  Time to runny run runnnnn.

I will attempt to make this post less boring by providing pics from some of my previous non-virtual races.

Swim

Bike

 

Run

My run picture is from mile 24ish of a run and I think I was groaning out load with every step. 

Have You Ever Juiced a Cucumber?

We had an internet outage, but thanks to companies that work Saturday and Sunday we are back in business. 

Step 1: Book carpet cleaning as part of our move out requirements.  Good luck getting toddler food reject splatters out of this carpet Sears!

Step 2: Find this recipe for dinner. I modified almost everything, but it came out muy excellente.

Step 3: Write this post.

Less than one month until moving day.  Movers don't move liquids (especially open ones) and only the cool ones move open cooking items like flour, sugar, etc.   That means we are in full blown use everything we have mode. 

I was looking for a cucumber martini recipe and found this one that is very tasty.  The drink reminds me of summer!  Yes, I have summer all year in central Florida, but that is not the point.  I still want to celebrate it.  Give it a try if you have the winter blahs.   The key ingredient is cucumber puree/juice. 

Peel the cucumber, chop it into chunks, put it in a blender or food processor with a little bit of water and blend until smooth.   Strain the liquid out and you have some magical cucumber juice that you can keep in the fridge for a few days.

I had plenty of extra cucumber juice after martini night, so I started to mix it into my water during the day.  Cucumber and lime juice...good.  Cucumber and sliced strawberries in water....good.  Cucumber juice with seltzer/sparkling water...great!

16 Months

Stats
Around 20 lbs
6 top teeth, 6 bottom teeth, incisors on their way
Size 4 diapers.
Clothes size 12 and 18 month.

Eating
Eats almost everything we do except I have to exclude jalapenos and hot sauce from all of his portions!  When can I start introducing this?
Loves blueberries, bananas, eggs, avocados, cheese, rice, pickles, olives, chicken nuggets, any kind of pasta.  He finally eats tacos and quesadillas.  Yes!  We still snack on cheerios. Do they ever get too old for this?


Sleep
Two naps a day around an hour and a half. Still not sure we will ever make it to 1 nap, and I am ok with this.
Same routine....we read about 3 books and then hum twinkle twinkle before laying down.
Bedtime is from 7:30 PM to 6:30 AM.

Skills
Sliding down the slides by his big boy self.
Picking up on routines...when Daddy comes home he points at the tv and sings because he knows Hunter is going to turn on the music.
He knows the signs for we are about to leave...bags packing, shoes on, drinks refilled because he says bye bye without me telling him we are leaving.
Picking up on words...I don't know if he knows what they mean, but he is a good repeater.

Dislikes
Doing things he doesn't want to. As of last week, we hit tantrum city.  Every diaper change, car seat buckle, stroller strap down, clothes change is a physical brawl.  Phase, please leave us soon!
Food on his tray that he doesn't want to eat.  It MUST go on the floor.
Me picking out his clothes.  Most of the clothes he picks out have brmm brmms on them. 
Strangers that are not female.

Likes
Reading books
Dogs
Outside, outside, outside
Parks
Digging in the mulch, dirt, sand
Dump trucks
Being around other kids
Roll call (mama, yes?, dada, yes?, mama, yes?, dada, yes?)
Cars, trucks, bikes, tractors, buses, airplanes, helicopters...brmm brmms in general
Elmo
Lightening McQueen (he says Vroom) - man the marketing people know their stuff

Willie Nelson Wants You Back

Well blog readers, we got our orders and are heading back to Texas in a month or so.  I am excited to head back to Texas, but I am really going to miss what we have here (fun, friends, the best weather, more parks than I can count).  I am not ready to say goodbye to Florida yet, so I am going to put that off.

The stress level is still low because the company pays to pack and move us.  We don't have anywhere to live yet, but hopefully that will get worked out soon.

One of my friends mentioned this song when I told them I was moving back to Texas. 

My fave lyrics from the song below for you:

Come back to Texas
Its just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
and forget all about the Lonestar State
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
and I've got every slow dance saved
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway

Troy Aikman wants you back
Willie Nelson wants you back
NASA wants you back
and the Bush twins want you back
Pantera wants you back
and Blue Bell wants you back

For now, I need to build my to do before I move list, eat lunch with my buddies as many times as possible, and hang out with my fellow mom clubbers (wha whaaaa)!  

Spicy!

We found a salsa that is labeled hot that is actually hot! This one tastes great even though I am not usually a big fan of the habanero.  Too sweet? Or usually paired with sweet things? 

Mrs. Renfro's Habanero Salsa

While we are on the topic, check out what John Besh has in his My New Orleans Cookbook.

Basic Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette

1/2 cup pepper jelly
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon chile paste
1&1/2 cups canola oil
salt to taste

Can't wait to try this one with some of our pepper jelly!

New Year, New Gear

I paused on running long enough to feel slightly out of shape.  Boo.  Christmas vacay, plus a little sickness, plus laziness.

Yesterday I got back out there.  I had new gear to test out!

Hunter got me the Oakley Half Jacket 2.0 sunglasses in carbon.   Even better, he got me the G30 lenses. I don't know what those lenses are officially good for (although Hunter has rambled a little bit about it to me).  They aren't too dark, but I don't have to squint in full sunlight. You can wear them when the sun is not all the way up or is setting. You can wear them in the shade.  I really like the lenses.

He also got me these socks and a new racer back running tank.  I had to pull out the next pair of my tenny runners too.  New year, new gear!

Side note...I think Wyatt missed running too.  Apparently sitting in a stroller causes him to reflect on how to be a better toddler.  He was a perfect angel after the morning run and entertained himself off and on.  I can think of no other reason.

Day 1, Check

Day 1 solo parenting, check! I would call it a success.  Slept late, 2 naps, allowed me to do the dishes after dinner. Now if I can just get him to play blocks without me. That is the one toy that someone else HAS to play too.  Don't ask me why...I can't figure it out either. 

I captured portions of our day on my iPhone so if you want to see a messy house, shaky video, and cute kid then this is your lucky day.

Let's rock day 2, shall we? 

Monday Funday

Husband is ditching us for out of town work for a few days, so Kid and I are going to have to find lots of ways to amuse ourselves.  Of course Kid passed his cold onto me and of course Kid keeps getting low fever off and on so our options are limited. 

I do let Kid frolic at the park, but once he gets all red and sweaty and I can't stop coughing we head home.  I suppose this means more trips to the Target and the Goodwill for air conditioned entertainment? I suppose I can still go running or walking. That is free of charge.  Cough cough.

I got Husband this Infrared Oil Less "Deep Fryer" thingy ma bobber for Christmas. I can't wait for him to try it. I hope it's easy to clean. 

We made The Homesick Texan's Dr Pepper Pork Ribs yesterday and they were tasty, but a little too syrupy sweet.  Might have to stick with just brown sugar next time.   Regardless, this is a pretty good method for cooking ribs in the oven for those that are doing the condo living.

Well Kid is about to wake up so time to start the Monday Funday.   Happy day to you!

My Cookbook Haul

Check out these 2 cookbooks I got for Christmas.  I want to cook ALL of the recipes.

John Besh - My New Orleans

Lisa Fain - The Homesick Texan

Seriously. I sat down with the books and some tabs and almost tabbed all of the recipes.  Undo tabs, cook whole book. :)

I just got word that Hunter and I are going to socialize tonight...without a kid...as in there is a babysitter.  Meaning...I am going to do my hair.  Probably put on some makeup.  Wear some of my clothes picked out by my personal stylist.

This is a miracle...especially since Wyatt is on day 6 of eye crusties / nose snotties.  Poor guy has a cold.  He is eating and sleeping pretty good so I willn't complain...not even a tiny bit...not even when I have to wipe yellow eye goop out of his eyes many times a day. 

I found a new fun beauty website for moms (I suppose others may care) here.  My favorite blogger that doesn't know I exist had her 3rd kiddie.  I like to watch this vloggers favorite product videos.  She has a toddler and 2 month old so covers a good range.  I like to type random sentences and provide random links.

Christmas Pics

Boys, sticks, n dump trucks...nuff said

Diggin the chair Unca Mason made

M&M hats for the entire family by SuSu!

Hunter, Eli, and Joseph driving the new Go Kart

 

 

Eli's first wreck

Uncle Stephen, Dylan, and Wyatt on Christmas Day

A new bicycle to grow into for Dylan

Wyatt's first horsey ride

Brmm Brmm Gifts

Wyatt must have been a good kiddo because he got some serious gifts for Christmas this year.  So many great ones, but here are a few of the items Wyatt got for Christmas that either he loves or I love. They go Brmmm Brmmmm!

The biggest baddest steel dump truck you can find.  The older cousins figured out the awesomeness of these trucks.  You can sit in them.  You can push them around. You can fill them up with blocks.  We already have a few new scuffs in our walls thanks to this one.

A book of Brmm Brmms that rhymes.  The construction crew even gets a lunch break.  I love it.

A construction silver ware set with a plate.  Ha ha!  We have been warned by family that it is less about eating and more about playing, but it is too cute!

Shoes....Brmm Brmmm

And a home made crochet Kubota with a front end loader.