Wordless Wednesday...

Happy Birthday, Sesame Street!

Yes, today the classic show celebrates it's 40th year!  It's hard to think that when I was but a wee one, the show was only in it's first decade!  Yikes!  Thank goodness we've both come a long way!

For a sweet stroll down memory lane, check out Courtney's tribute to the show.  Share a favorite memory!  You know you have one.

How To Ruin Roasted Pumpkin Seeds....Twice

Here is the perfect recipe for ruining 4 pumpkins worth of seeds.  Pay attention to the details...I mean if you mess this up, you may end up with edible roasted seeds.  And who wants that?

Step One: Give the seeds to me.  You're more than a third of the way to the end results.

Step Two: Enlist the help of much younger and inexperienced chefs.  Ones who require a step stool to reach the bowl to stir, will squeal and run away at the sight of slimy seeds, and try to lick the salt off the cookie sheet are preferred.

Step Three:  Use arbitrary amounts of ingredients.  Some melted butter...a splash of Worcester Sauce...plenty of salt. 

Step Four:  Place in a pre-heated to a random degree oven for an undisclosed amount of time, like, "'till they're done". 

Step Five:  At a point no where near the middle of the cooking time, try to flip over the seeds and shake 'em up.  Ignore the ones that fall off the tray into the bottom of the oven.  Those ones will burn away eventually and people will assume you use the oven way more than you do.

Step Six:  Temporarily forget about the seeds in the oven.

Step Seven:  Take out the charred remains and in the hopes that they taste better than they look, try one.  If they taste like burning, you did it perfectly.

In my case...Step Eight:  Throw away the first batch and do the exact same thing to another batch 2 weeks later.

Enjoy!

These Booties Were Made For Walking

Oh, what a journey. At Baby Trey's 3 month "well" visit, his pediatrician thought he was showing signs of low muscle tone. When lifting Trey up, he (Trey, not the doctor) should have been trying to resist by pushing down with his arms. Trey was more like a rag doll being lifted....rag doll may be a little strong, more like a cute Cabbage Patch Doll...Anywho, the doctor did a few more tests with Trey and thought he might be showing signs of having fluid on his brain! Yikes! He recommended that we set an appointment with the Neurology department at Children's Hospital.

Now, normally, we feel like doctors are pretty quick to recommend random referrals (allergists for a few sneezes, ophthalmologists for not being able to read the chart because both eyes were covered, etc.) and thus, we readily ignore such advice. While we weren't overly concerned, it wouldn't be prudent to ignore a neurology referral. Trey could hardly be faking a large head circumference. So we set up the appointment, and as we were expecting...we waited in the aptly named waiting room for hours. Finally, a doctor checked out Trey and the head of the department came in and checked him out and lo and behold...Trey was perfectly fine.

At his 9 month "well" visit, Trey's regular pediatrician (freshly back from her maternity leave) mentioned the low muscle tone, too. That, coupled with the fact that Trey could only roll over and sit up if put in a sitting position prompted her to suggest that we contact The Alliance for Infants. A whole team of therapists came to our home and played with and observed Trey and determined that while he scored very high in most categories, his gross motor skills were below average and he could benefit from weekly physical therapy sessions. Enter Miss Jenny....

I admit I had my doubts...I'd never worked with a physical therapist before and had no clue how one could make a baby do anything, let alone meet a whole list of goals. But, Miss Jenny shows up faithfully every week and does her magic. By magic, I mean exercises and stretching and games. And wouldn't ya know it, Trey immediately showed signs of improvement. Soon he was able to get into a sitting position by himself...then back down...then pulling himself to standing...then pick up a toy without plopping onto his bum...then crawling...then cruising. Now here comes the BIG one, walking. Trey likes for Mommy to carry him everywhere and Mommy kinda likes that Trey likes for Mommy to carry him everywhere...Mommy doesn't really like the actual carrying part, but he's so dang cute. He just learned to say "Hold you!" while extending his arms to me. How can I resist? Ah, but I must.

Check out our big walker now...







"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under Heaven." - Ecc. 3:1

Time to Tango!

Tango on over to Megan's blogeroni for a recap of the top 18 on SYTYCD! Join the Sisterhood...

Glad that's over!

A few posts ago, I mentioned being stuck between a rock and a hard place. I was involuntarily volunteered to be homeroom mom for Joe's first grade class. My first task at hand...the Harvest Party! Now, even though fall starts in September and the class party is held the Friday before Halloween, please do not confuse it with a Halloween celebration. That mistake is frowned upon. Halloween is strictly taboo now-a-days in most public schools.

At Open House, I overheard 2 moms chatting about the said Harvest Party and wouldn't it be great to do the same craft again this year? Ya know, the canvas Trick-or-Treat bags that the kids can decorate themselves to take out on Halloween? Huh. I distinctly remember this craft from the year before...because at the playground after school a mom was outraged at the Halloween-ness of the craft! I mean, yelling and grabbing it away from her kid outraged. Great. Also, during Open House, another mom shared with me that they do not celebrate Halloween. We don't celebrate it at our house, either, but I'm not willing to shed blood over a craft...

Visions of confrontation danced through my head! My anxiety was mounting as the days ticked by. How do I tell these two friends that we can't do their craft? What if they get mad at me? What if they shun me? Okay, I don't really care about the shunning part...in fact, I kinda welcome it...but that's a different story. The easy answer is that it goes against school policy and a letter was sent home clearly stating the anti-Halloween guidelines. But still. Awkward. They don't know me...they've been friends for at least a year now. Who do I think I am, telling them they can't do their craft? They did it last year. What's the big deal? See how I built this up in my head?

One of the "bag" moms cut me off at the pass by sending out an email before I could even call her! My pulse went up as I read her suggestion of the bags and didn't I think it was a good idea? And she would be happy to get all the supplies for it. So there it was. The gauntlet was thrown. I had to respond. Time to man up. I replied that the president of the PTO suggested a sweet craft. A photo frame with a leaf shaped opening, and foam leaves to glue all over. She even went into the classroom and took a picture of each kid and had them developed.

Then I waited for the bomb to drop. I was expecting angry hate mail, dirty looks in the hallway....her reply was....."Sound great! Thanks for taking care of it!" Huh? It's going to be that easy? No resentment? No indignation? No writing nasty thing about me in a "slam book"?

Yeah, that was it. Turns out, they're really nice moms that just wanted a nice party for their kids. Me too, moms, me too.

The kids had fun decorating their craft, enjoying (peanut free!) snacks, and playing a game involving 2 pounds of candy corn to win (non-Halloween related) prizes and taking home monstrous bags of treats. Glad that's over!

Now, can we talk about why Joe's classroom has to be kept at 99 degrees at all times?

Welcome to the party, November!

After reading Courtney's most recent blog post (and no, it had nothing to do with SYTYCD) I was SHOCKED, STUNNED, BESIDE MYSELF....oh alright, I was slightly more informed than I had been before reading it, that November is Na-Blo-Po-Mo month. Weird, right? What? You don't know what these strange letters mean when put together like this? Allow me to translate. It means National Blog Posting Month. Bloggers are challenged to post something new everyday. Everyday???? I have a hard time remembering how many kids I have everyday. So. maybe post more often? I'll try.

Today, the most exciting thing I have to share with the inter-web world is that I read in a magazine that your laundry detergent may be making you fat. That's right, kids. Laundry detergent. Stop eating it, for crying out loud! Aha! Tricked ya! No one eats their laundry detergent! That would be silly. There are ingredients in the perfumes and dyes that could be triggering some hormones to be released in your brain that slow down your metabolism, or cause you to want to eat more.

When I get on The Biggest Loser, I'm so using that as my excuse. "I'm sorry, Jillian! I can't help it! I just have..to...do...my...laundry!"