Potty Mouth

Colin's potty training. And He's just turned 3, and it seems like the tantrum gods have poured out their rains on me all at once and all I've experienced this morning are stomping, the word 'no', crying, and all around toddler pms.

But, he had his moments. He still went poo on the potty, and as he was doing his thing and analyzing the product (like all men do), he had an epiphany.

He said to me, "Mommy, I'm making a poo poo snowman!".

The Story of a Pinata

I haven't blogged in a while. Well, there were 2 kids with birthdays in February, so you can imagine how busy it has been. For Colin's birthday, I asked him what he wanted. He was allowed to wish for ONE thing. I was thinking of a toy. Or a game, or going somewhere special (like Koko's) or food. He loves treats, Pocky or really - anything he wanted I thought I was able to guess and just go out and buy it. Well, he told me. He wanted.... a piñata.

Seriously kid? A Piñata??? Where, and what and how do you know about piñatas?

Regardless, he is one of the apples of my eyes, and I would do just about anything for this boy. Even a frikkin Piñata. So, here is the story, of a triceratops piñata.

It didn't start off very promising. I was a bit deflated, as it started to look like a flying pig with a cape blowing in the wind.

I then asked my neighbour to use their newspapers - I was going to fix this thing, and do some serious plastic surgery. A nose job here..

A butt implant there....

some horny additions

And a final coat of tissue paper and paint makes it a for shizzle rizzle be-dazzled piñata.


I actually let Colin paint something abstract on it afterwards. And, instead of letting 3 year olds bat it to death (my poor husband would probably lose several appendages), I had a trap door with random strings for them to pull. I'll post the final photo from the party in a later blog. But this is all I have for now. Enjoy!

Cara Climbs.... everything.

These are the places I have discovered Cara this morning so far. I've turned away to do just a couple things, and have come back on separate occasions, to find her:


inside the ottoman

on top of Colin's art table

on top of the filing cabinet, tinkering with all the crap on our computer desk

Note the markers she found, and has inside her mouth. This is actually the second time she did this today, and the first time I found a huge cube of paperclips spilled, and her gnawing on a few of the paperclips.




She's an unstoppable beast.

Easy Cooking: Sticky Lemon Chicken

Don't you love delicious, easy, and one-pot(pan) meals?? Well this is surely one that will keep the husband happy, the guests talking, and your kitchen clean.

I've actually known about this recipe for ages, but recently just remembered it when I had a ton of chicken I had to use up.

I don't really follow a lot of chefs, but this is Gordon Ramsay's recipe. He's a bit of an OCD freak in the video, he claps his hands (a lot), looks like he's been a little medicated and high-strung... but hey, if I think I can even attempt something like this, you know that it's lazy mom friendly.

Ingredients:

8-10 Chicken thighs (you know I always go for these - they're cheap)
salt & pepper
soy sauce
Sherry (in Gordo's recipe, it calls for Sherry vinegar. I only had Sherry, and vinegar, so I just put 2 together)
Rice Wine Vinegar
2 Lemons (slices, and another one for juice)
fresh thyme
water
honey


What to do:
1. season the chicken, and then fry if skin-side down. if your pan isn't big enough, do it in batches. you want a nice delicious crunch golden skin.. mmm... and if you're a health diet freak, i'm sure skinless will be fine too. but hot dang... fried skin is so good.

2. turn chicken to brown other side (and drain the oil)

3. add soy, sherry, vinegar, lemon juice, and thyme. use your judgement on measuring these - it's up to you if you want it saltier, more sour, sweet... etc. I'd recommend anything between 2-4tbsp of each.

4. put a slice of lemon on top of each chicken, then slap a lid on and let it cook for... 7-10 minutes.

5. Open up the lid, put some honey in it... and let it cook for a little bit longer 1-2 minutes, and then take the chicken out.

6. Technically the meal is done, but if you want to go the extra mile - reduce the remaining sauce, add butter, more honey, and then pour it over your chicken.

It's so freaking good, and so freaking easy. Here's the video if you want to watch good ol twitchy Gordo make it.

He's not a Pumpkin

Both Cara and Colin were sitting nicely and watching tv. I went up and said, "Hi, my little pumpkins."

Colin responds in his usual Colin way, "we're not pumpkins. We're cats."

The Significance of Hand Cream

Marriage is hard.

It's something that Joe and I recently discovered, and are now trying to work on. We are works in progress, and now our marriage is a priority, and something we are vowing to put effort into every single day.

Life gets comfortable, the relationship with the one person you live with and see everyday - becomes routine, and you co-exist. When the kids come along, you may mistake 'teamwork' for marriage, but it's not. The busy-ness of it all with the kids becomes a great excuse for exhaustion, tiredness, and lack of attention to each other.

Joe and I got comfortable, and we realized that's not where we want to be, and are taking the steps to make things better. We're re-prioritizing, and our marriage comes before the kids. They need parents that are in love, and have an example of daily forgiveness, compassion, repentance, reconciliation, and intimacy. They need daily examples of Christ's love for us, and our marriage is the one thing they witness everyday.

So, in an effort to make our marriage better, there are some small changes. For example, Joe started holding my hands more often. He noticed something - we haven't paid attention to each other, and he hadn't noticed my hands had gotten so cracked and dry after all these years of cleaning and dealing with the kids. I'm not the kind of person to go out and buy creams either - I don't wear makeup, and blow-drying my hair is considered 'effort' in my books.

My hands were dry and ignored by me and by Joe. He bought me some serious hand cream (Body Shop) as we were meandering around the mall last night - I lathered it on, trying to restore all the dry cracked skin. I kept telling him how much I did like it - I kept rubbing my hands, saying they were so much better and silkier. He told me he hadn't realized how much work my hands did. My hands, like our marriage, have been ignored - we are trying to restore it again. And with a new sense of appreciation for each other, we're going to keep working on our marriage.

Didn't realize $12 hand cream meant so much to me before.

Cara Plays Peekaboo

So, just as a warning - I'm talking in my 'talking to a baby voice', combined with annoying 'Peekaboo voice' with overtones of 'proud momma'. So please bear with that... other then that, please enjoy watching Cara learn the art of Peek-a-boo-ing.