Lack of Blogging

I realize that it has been “forever” since I have blogged. I get so distracted by different things going on in my life and the blogging goes away… And when things are going on in my life I really want to blog about them all. I fear that I have forgotten some very important things that have happened in the past few weeks that I would have blogged about. Sad. But here I go and will write as much as I can remember. My brother Tim was here visiting from Korea. Yippie!! It was so great to see him. I think it has been about a year and a half since I had seen him. He came in on Sunday last week. And since Jakob had a birthday party to attend, he went with Daddy, and Aiden and I went to Newark to pick him up. Getting to Newark was pretty easy, our good friend Steve lent us his GPS and it got me there safe and sound. The trip home however, was TORTURE! After picking up Tim from the airport we stopped to get a bite to eat and get Aiden some chow – he was screaming in the backseat like he was being tortured. We ended up in little Portugal in Newark. Interesting neighbourhood – little scary. But we had a really good burger and Aiden ate quickly, then back in the car and off we went. So the hour and a half it took Aiden and I to get to Newark, turned into a three hour and a bit trip to get home. We sat in stop and go traffic getting over the g*#da** George Washington bridge. It was a very painful trip home. Not exactly how I wanted to welcome Tim. But what can you do. So we finally got home, had a great dinner (bbq’d by my hubby) and hung out. Jakob was very excited to see his Uncle Tim, and had to show him everything. Tim and Jake were inseperable. He wanted to do everything with Uncle Tim. We had a good few days. We went to the Aquarium, where Jake had to see and show us all everything. We hit the Skateboarding Park. Jake stood on the sidelines and shouted for Uncle Tim to be careful. And then he stood on the skateboard while Tim pushed him around. We did some shopping, some time at the beach, had some great meals, went for ice cream, and just hung out together. It was a good visit. It was too bad that Jason had to work such long hours and didn’t get a whole lot of time with us. But what can you do? That’s the way the cookie crumbles. Then came the dreaded day when we had to take Uncle Tim back to the airport to head back to Korea. I was not going to go the same way that we did picking him up. On a Friday morning we were destined to get stuck in all kinds of traffic getting there and coming home. Luckily I was able to change Jakob’s daycare day and he was in school on Friday. So Aiden and I would be taking Tim back to Newark. We plotted out our route the night before and agreed that we needed to get going early, real early. So Aiden, Tim and I headed back to Newark to take Tim back to the dreaded airport at 6:00 am. Now that may not sound to early, but I didn’t sleep well that night, and Aiden decided (after several nights of sleeping all the way through) that he needed to get up at 4:30 and stay up til 5:15ish. So there really wasn’t any going back to sleep for me. I needed to get up and get going so that we got out of there on time. And we did. The route we took was so easy and so smooth – not a single bit of traffic. Sailed all the way there! The goodbyes were tearful. And I was surprised to see him standing on the sidewalk waiting for Aiden and I to leave. It was so sweet. We waved and didn’t say goodbye – we said see you at the wedding. But that is a whole other blog. More to come… stay tuned for “don’t chew on the dog!”. Love big, Bake often

Tania

Tim and Aiden at the bowling alley...

Tim and Jakob at the Aquarium...

Tim teaching Jakob how to Skate. . .

Veggie Brownies

I am going to post this on both my blogs – this one is good for baking and for mommies! Brownies made with veggies! I will admit that as I am typing this I have not tried them. But wow, do they ever smell yummy. I can’t wait to try them, and usually I would be digging into them as they were still warm, but the recipe says that they need to be completely cooled before the spinach taste dissipates. So the taste testing part will have to wait. But in the meantime here is the recipe for those interested. I got it from “Deceptively Delicious” cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. I have been reading it again and am on a mission to make more good for you dishes for my family. I had purchased a “log” of chocolate chip cookie dough to make with Jakob last week. I realized that it was still in the fridge yesterday and thought to myself “oh no, I had better make these soon”, and much to my disgust I read that the expiration date wasn’t til the middle of SEPT!!! So it got me thinking about all the preservatives in food. I have promised myself and my boys (all three of them) that I will do my best to make as many things fresh and from scratch that I can. I am going to see how much more organic products we can afford to switch to when grocery shopping. I already do a little bit of organic purchases, but there is a lot more that I could do for us. And I really do have more time to make more homemade meals – I just have to get myself more organized and plan ahead. But that is a whole other blog. So let’s get back to the recipe: Brownies 3 ounces semi sweet chocolate ½ cup carrot puree ½ cup spinach puree ½ cup brown sugar ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 2 tbsp trans fat-free soft tub margarine spread 2 tsp vanilla 2 large egg whites ¾ cup all purpose flour ½ tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt 1. Preheat the oven to 350. Coat an 8x8 baking pan with cooking spray. 2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or over a very low flame. 3. In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes. 4. Whisk in egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon. 5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 bars. Remember – leave them to cool completely before eating. The cool info about these is that each brownie only has 133 calories and each has a whopping 3 grams of fiber! And each is packed with antioxidants! Cool, eh? So that is my tasty, healthy treat for my family.

Tornado Pooper

Ok, so the potty training is going, just going. It has been challenging, but we have had many more successes than accidents. Today was hilarious. It had been about half an hour since Jason had left to take Jake to play next door. Our neighbours were having a bbq and invited us to come over. Aiden was crashing, and I really wasn’t feeling up to socializing. So Jason took Jakob over for a quick visit before he headed out for his boys night out. Here I was sitting on the couch with a very sleeping boy in my arms, and suddenly the door flew open, Jake came running past us, and took off for the bathroom. Jason came in a moment or two later. Apparently Jason had been talking with Mike while Jakob played and all of a sudden Jakob took off, opened the gate to their yard and came running to the house, through both front doors and off to the bathroom. I thought something was wrong, but he was fine. He just needed to go to the bathroom! He ran full speed, got to the bathroom, took off his shorts and underwear and POOPED on the potty! So he took off because his body told him he needed to poop! I have never been so proud! So tonight I will call him the tornado pooper as he came through the living room like a tornado and pooped. It was fantastic.

From the mouth of Babes

It wasn’t a great afternoon. I had a very clingy six month old attached to me and didn’t want to be left alone. So as I was listening to Aiden cry, I was getting Jakob’s dinner ready (read heating up leftover Chinese in the microwave) and I was calling to Aiden that I would be there in a minute. I put Jake’s dinner down in front of him and commented on how I was going crazy or was going to lose it, or something like that. I didn’t realize that Jakob was paying attention to what I was saying, but he sure was. He came out with the most profound statement. He said “Mommy, you can never give up”. I can never give up. Hmmmmm. How true. What exactly did he mean by that. Can I never give up on him and Aiden? Can I never give up on being a Mom? Of course not. But how does he know that? It has to make you think about how their minds work. What was he thinking that I would give up on? But back to their minds. Jakob has come out with some very thoughtful comments before. I, unfortunately, have forgotten most of them. But this one, oh this one will stick with me for a long time. We all have moments when we wish we could quit, that we could just give up when it gets too hard. But we can’t. I can’t. I have to take a breath, step back, pick up Aiden, sit with Jakob and have dinner, kiss my husband goodnight as he leaves me with the clingy boy and the “profit”, and smile as I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. So, don’t worry Jakob, I’m never going to give up.

Clever Boy

Jakob loves his tv. He becomes a little zombie and gets sucked into the shows like his father. And he likes to be able to hear it. There is a lot of extra noise in our house these days, with the fans, air conditioner, Aiden, etc. So there is some competition for the tv to be heard. And when Aiden is bouncing in his exersaucer there is even more noise. Aiden likes to bounce a lot. So when he is in it there is a lot of noise. So much noise, that the other day Jakob got very frustrated with the noise and the fact that he couldn’t hear his show. I happened to be in the kitchen washing dishes and getting dinner ready. I could hear Jakob telling Aiden to be quiet. Aiden, having no clue, giggled and jumped louder. So Jakob did the only thing he knew to get Aiden to be quiet – he came to me and told me that “Aiden is tired, you need to put him in his swing so he can sleep!”. Too funny. But I understand. The swing is SO much quieter than him jumping up and down in the exersaucer! Tricky little man, but clever.

The Squashinator

I am not sure why, but Aiden found his squash tonight to be quite entertaining. He would take some, blow a raspberry and giggle with every bite. Very amusing, but not too much went in tonight! Oh well, we had a good time anyway! Here's a video of it!

Update

It has been forever since I have taken the time to blog, it seems. The past week flew by. Jake had his surgery. And I started a very detailed blog about the day and got half way through and then didn’t finish it. I thought about finishing it now but would rather catch up to now. Jake did great with his surgery, recovered like a champ, and has been fine since. Except the sleeping. He seems to be able to hear better and now hears all kinds of slight little noises in his room and is convinced that they are monsters. So we go in, turn on the flashlight and look around the room and make sure there are no monsters in the closet, the corners, and under the bed. We did put the night light back in the room but I took it out tonight because it puts out too much light and I think it is adding to the problem. So we will see how that works. So last weeks update that should have been blogged was Jake’s ears. But this weeks is all about pottying. Jakob was pull-up and diaper free today. He did great. Peeing all the time and having no problem with his pee. But pooping is a different story. He held it in until we were out and about. So within 5 minutes of being in the Dr.’s office he was under a chair and lying on his back pooping! I had just turned my back for a minute to sign some paperwork for the office. And voila – POOP! I was trying so hard. And Jake was doing so well. I thought we had it. But it’s only one little accident. I have to not let it bother me or make a big deal out it. So we ended the day with 4 pee breaks in two hours. And went to bed with a pullup. Tomorrow is a new day. And I am so happy that we are at this stage. I have been waiting for that “moment” when you just know that it is time. And today for some reason when I woke up I knew it was the day. So I went for it. Now there is no turning back. It’s ON! Wish us luck.