I'm such a mean mommy

In preparation for my spa day on Sunday, I epilady'd my legs. (for those of you who don't know the epilady is a hair removal device that has these spinning tweezer things and I use it in between waxings) I dumped the removed hair in the toilet and the next morning when Ry saw the hair he asked why it was there. I told him that Mommy cut some hair and put it in the toilet. He looked up at me and said, "is it because I play with your hair?" I felt so sad for him, he looked so sad and guilty.  He's always playing with my hair and getting his sticky fingers in it and it drives me CRAZY.

This halloween Rex and I dressed up as hippies for a party we went to. We of course were sporting the traditional peace sign necklaces. Driving home on 101 the other day Rylan shouted out "LOOK A HIPPIE!!!" I of course did not see any hippies in the middle of the freeway. Yesterday we were making that same drive and at the same spot Rylan yelled again "LOOK A HIPPIE!!!" this time I notice that we're right next to Autobahn Motors... a MERCEDES dealership. I guess the Mercedes logo DOES look like a peace sign... Also anyone with an afro is also a hippie in Ry's eyes.

Who's the boss?

Meowzer was sittig on the fireplace when Ry told him, "GET DOWN"I looked at him with a look that clearly said "who says you're the boss?" He looked right back at me (as Meowzer jumped off the fireplace) and he said, "I'm Meowzer's mommy so I telled him to get off"

Macaroni and cheese

For you Ms. Alanna!

I don't measure so much so sorry for the funky measurements

a bunch of mushrooms (I like shitake the best, and by bunch I mean use however much you want)
a little more than half a thingey of bacon (I think they come in 12oz packs)
one onion cut in half and then sliced thin
splash of white wine (whatever you have in the fridge)
1 quart scalded milk (I use 2% because that's generally what I have but whole tastes better)
1/2c flour
6T butter
12oz. Gruyere cheese (I just buy like a pound in brick form and shred it)
4 cups any kind of cheese (I buy pre-shredded Mexican blend and have it on hand at all times so this is usually what I use)
EVOO
salt
pepper
nutmeg
1lb pasta take two minutes off the cooking time (to make it "healthy" I use whole grain and no one notices because its smothered in cheese)
buttered panko/Italian breadcrumbs (I use progresso Italian breadcrumbs and mix in panko. They sell an italian panko breadcrumb but I like the texture with regular breadcrumbs mixed in too)

the way I do it only uses two pots (one for milk and one to make pasta and cheese sauce) and one pan but you can do this all faster using more pans...

caramelize the onion in a little bit of EVOO (not fully caramelized you're going to cook it more later), this takes forever so start them first and then chop the rest of your stuff. Clean and slice mushrooms, grate cheese, chop bacon... are the onions done yet? If not pour yourself a glass of wine.. once the onions are almost a caramel color remove from pan and toss bacon in. Cook the bacon until crispy. This takes a while too so grab a magazine. Once the bacon is crisp use a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel (or not, if you want to leave the fat there go ahead) Cook mushrooms and onions in bacon fat. Once the mushrooms are softened add a splash (a big splash) of white wine. Cook until wine is mostly absorbed and set aside.

In the pot you boiled the pasta in melt butter, add flour and cook 3 min, slowly whisk in hot milk and cook until slightly thickened. Add a big dash of nutmeg, a pinch each of salt and pepper (I think my pinches are about a T.) Slowly add cheeses stirring with a wooden spoon (you should have the cheese sitting out at room temp while you cook and they'll melt faster) once all cheese is incorporated add bacon, mushrooms, onion and pasta and mix well.

Pour into baking dish and top with buttered breadcrumbs (melt 2T butter in bowl and toss in breadcrumbs, 1c of each type depending on how much surface area you have, I like lots of crunchy topping so I do a big baking dish 9x13 I think)

bake at 350 until hot and bubbly and toasty on top

When I make dinner the night ahead I make myself a snack sized one JUST to test it out  and make sure it's not poison :)

The other night we were driving to meet some friends for dinner at cheesecake factory and now that its getting dark earlier, it was dark by dinner time. The trees lining the street were covered with lights. Rylan voiced what was in my head "oohhhh how BEAUTIFUL" I smiled at his sweet innocent voice taking in the simple joys in life.

Last Saturday I made my usual weekend breakfast of banana pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs. Since its been a while that I've been able to enjoy a meal without having to get up to get someone some more of this that and whatever, I decided to lay out everything on the dining room table. I call everyone to breakfast and when Ry sees the spread he said "Oh wow thats BEAUTIFUL!" The kid was truly moved by bacon and eggs.

Yesterday I was getting ready to go out to dinner for a friends birthday and I was using a curling iron to straighten my hair. When I released a curl Ry said "ohhhh what is that? are you going to do it again?" I said "it's a curl buddy, and yep I'm going to do a few more." At this point I rolled up another section of hair and released it "see?" I showed off my curl to Ry. He said "thats beaut-... oh not yet" He wasnt too impressed with half a head of curls

Today I went to get a massage with my sister in law down on Santana Row and we got kara's cupcakes. When I got home Ry ran up to me at the front door and asked "what did you bring me mom?" I happened to be carrying a bag with dinner and the cupcakes were on top of that. Ry noticed (of course) the pinkbox and exclaimed, "Cupcakes!!!!!!!" he wanted to show me the cupcakes and of course when I opened the box he said "oh thats BEAUTIFUL!" I had to agree

more potty training

Ry working on a full sleeve tattoo

Potty training is an ongoing "thing" in our house. With Colton coming, and Ry being a BOY I haven't pushed the matter much. My sister in law mentioned that she thought he was ready and she wanted to throw him in cold turkey a couple weeks ago. Of course I agree to it because she has him most of the time anyway so why not. Apparently he's good for her and pees in the potty or bushes whatever (I think thats her success secret, he's allowed to pee in the bushes when they're playing outside) At home with me he absolutely refused. After our trip to Ohio I decided I'd work a little more on trying to get him PT'd. We went to Party City and picked out a treasure chest and he went around picking out little party favors and candies to put in the treasure chest. Today he was in underwear ALL day, we have a rule, you get a toy for poop and candy or sticker or tattoo for pee. He had been eyeing a plastic horn and wanted one so badly but couldnt seem to produce a poop. When Rex came home this afternoon he had to poop. Ry (who has no sense of personal space) of course had to go in and visit with his dad. Ry was coaching Rex through his potty experience saying "you get to choose a prize from the treasure box!" "good job Daddy! you're doing it!" When Rex finished his business Ry took him to the treasure chest and said "now you get to pick out a prize!!" Rex, always wanting candy played along and said "sure I'll have a candy!" and rifled through the chest looking for some sour patch kids. Ry said to him "you can have a horn!!! because you poopooed you get a HORN!" Obviously dissapointed when Rex pulled out a candy Ry said again "don't you want a horn? you can have a horn!" Poor Ry really wanted his daddy to pick that horn and share with him.

Flying with two kids under three

My cousin recently got married in OH and I haven't seen various cousins or aunts and uncles since I got married in '07, so of course I jumped at the chance to fly over there and see everyone. Rex didn't really want to go and we didn't have the money to fly us all out there anyway so he got to stay home. Since Rex wasn't coming my mom reluctantly volunteered to help me take the boys on the plane. 

We flew Delta and they charge $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the 2nd but you can have one carry on and one personal item per person. Rather than pay $50 roundtrip for a big bag I thought that since I had to pay for Ry, and he gets a carry on plus personal item, I'd just cram everything we need into two carry on bags. Which in theory would totally work. My mom ended up checking a bag and I put two dresses plus a small cooler of frozen milk in her bag. But everything else I was able to cram into those carry on suitcases (I'm pretty impressed at myself for packing two children plus myself into those small bags and my mom had to use a giant suitcase plus carry on for herself) 

So there we were Rex dropped us off curbside and it was my mom, myself carrying Colton in the front pack, Rylan in a small umbrella stroller... and our luggage. We had one large bag, three carry on suitcases, three personal items (large backpack for me, small backpack for Ry and a tote for my mom) sweatshirts for me and my mom, blankets for the boys, and two carseats. We got a cart to take us to the check in counter, and checked in ONE carseat and ONE large bag... which meant we still had three carry ons, three personal items, sweatshirts, blankets, a stroller and one carseat... and we had to get this all through security. The people in the security line were very friendly and let us go through the family line so we didnt wait in the big long line (what a relief) My mom is such a stress case though and tried to rush through the whole thing just throwing things on the conveyor belt. She worried too much about people behind us and it just made me more agitated. From the point of us having to break everything down; taking out our liquid ziplocks, laptops, taking off jewelry, taking colton out of the carrier, taking shoes off, it must have been at least a 30 minute process getting everything put back together. 

The flight was good, it was a full flight and they asked for volunteers to check their bags (for free) and we jumped on the opportunity because we knew it would be a nightmare getting the bags on the plane. My aunt also caught the same flight we did so she could help with the baby wrangling. We caught a redeye and both kids slept through most of it. Ry cried about halfway through wanting to get out of his carseat, so I let him out for a bit and he got to sleep on my lap. Once we got to Ohio my sisters were there waiting at the airport for us so they got to help us carry our luggage and kids. 

You would think that having such a traumatic experience wised us up for the flight home and we would pay the $25 to check our bags... nope.. we struggled through security all over again, and even worse we didn't check our bags at the gate and had to struggle down the plane with ALL that luggage. Luckily my aunt took the same flight home as well and she helped a LOT. As soon as we got home I told Rex "when we go to disneyland we are CHECKING our luggage" At least we're flying southwest and the first checked bags are free. 

the missing keys

Last week on my day off with the boys Ry and Colton were both being especially devilish. I thought that I must have been overtired because REALLY could they be THAT bad?? But no they really were THAT bad.  Ry was having fun taking small toys and putting them in various boxes, drawers and back packs. I was preoccupied with cleaning and taking care of Colton, so I was just glad that he was keeping himself busy in that moment. It was pretty cute because he was even pretending that he was cooking his toys. On one trip to the kitchen I noticed that Ry had my car keys in a drawer. I grabbed them out and said "Don't play with Mommy's keys! They're not a toy!" he said "HEY!!! I was cooking that!" I was annoyed and put the keys on the table and walked away.

Later that night (around midnight) I started getting my things together to start work the next day. When I was getting my purse together I realized that I didnt have my car keys. I immediately went to the drawer that I saw Ry putting them in earlier. They werent there. I went through all the little boxes that he was hiding his toys in, no dice. I went through the other drawers that he put toys in, I found some random cars but no stinkin keys! I turned the entire kitchen, dining room, living room, laundry room, bathroom UPSIDE DOWN and still NO FRIGGIN KEYS! I even take the garbage bag out and jiggle it to see if I hear keys. I dug through one layer got grossed out and quit there. Rex was annoyed at me at this point because I was making so much noise and had the audacity to turn the hall light on so I could see into our bedroom and search near my bed. (no keys there either) I took my cell phone and lit up the drawer in Rylan's end table, still no stinking keys. I'm completely stressed and tired at this point and pretty much have a nervous breakdown, and I just go to bed. In the morning I still can't find my keys and I take Rex's beat up pickup to work. (which puts me in an even worse mood because the thing drives like crap)

Once at work I call Rex and ask him if he interrogated Rylan when he woke up (he was still sleeping when I left) and Ry said he remembered playing with them but didnt know where he put them. GREAT. At this point I figure its a lost cause, I assume they're long gone in the garbage or something, so I call Mitsubishi to see about getting a new key. They told me I have to have my car TOWED to them so they can match the microchip. This just keeps getting better and better right? There's no way I'm towing my car 20 miles so they can get a stinkin microchip, so I say that I'll wait until the weekend and if I still can't find the dang things I'll cough up the $$ and get towed.

When I got home from work Rex tells me that he bribed Ry with candy if he found the keys. Ry understands that he wants CANDY and thats about it. He knows how to find something if he knows where it is, but he doesnt know how to look for something that's lost. I decide to retrace my steps a bit and remembered packing the boys' bag of clothes for their week at daycare. I opened Ry's shirt drawer and I THINK I hear a jingle of keys... but nope not in that drawer, but I have HOPE. The next drawer I go to is his sock drawer and lo and behold there they are. I have never been happier to see my keys before in my LIFE. I'm so lucky to have looked in there because since I had already packed their bag for the week, I had no need to go in their sock drawer. And who knows when the next time I would've gone in there because the weekends are when I do laundry so I usually just grab the socks fresh out of the dryer. Rylan was upset that I had found them and he wanted to re-hide them so he could "find" them again and get some candy.