Friday, February 26, 2010

16 Months and "Perfect"

Of course we all know that Aaron isn't perfect. (Nobody is, right?) Today his pediatrician called his development perfect. I wouldn't call it perfect, but he is doing GREAT!

When we think back to last year around this time (I didn't memorialize it on here, but was definitely thinking about it earlier in February) that Aaron had just spent a week at Children's Hospital and his tortocollis was really bad, it really is remarkable that he's above and beyond the developmental milestones for his age now.

His physical development is good, especially in the last weeks since he saw the Allergist and started his new allergy treatments. He's gained a pound since then! He has grown 4 inches since November. FOUR! I knew he was getting taller (can't open the kitchen drawers over top of his head anymore) but four whole inches?! That's a lot. He has only gained 1 pound 2 oz and has fallen off the chart for his weight/age, but who can blame him? His doctor's remark was, "Well he's growing taller and running all over the place, plus he's been sick quite a bit, it's no wonder he hasn't gained much. It isn't concerning to me at all. He's growing fine." His head is still small, only in the 10th percentile overall, but it must not be affecting his brain development!

His social, verbal, emotional, and motor skill development is excellent. He's doing everything he should be doing and then some. His pediatrician was quite impressed with his speech. Not only does Aaron know a lot of words, he's also very articulate. He loves being around and playing with other kids and he's really good at running, climbing, playing with legos, and using a fork. (Gross and fine motor skills.)

He didn't get his MMR vaccination today, like we had planned. He's allergic to eggs and it never crossed my mind! He's had other vaccinations (namely the flu shots, regular and H1N1) that were grown in eggs without noticeable reactions, but his pediatrician decided she'd rather we wait and talk to Aaron's allergist again before we proceed with the MMR. She said, "Just call me a paranoid mother, I guess, I just don't want to take any risks now that we've finally got him breathing better."

She's great. I love her. She's an excellent pediatrician.

He did get the Chicken Pox vaccine today, I guess that one is ok for kids with egg allergies? I was trusting her judgment. I'm going to google it as soon as I'm done typing.

Overall: great appointment. Aaron's a superstar. (But we already thought that.)

I really hope neither kid picked up anything awful there today. We've been "feeling good" for about a week. I guess we're due for the "next round" of whatever... I didn't let them out of the stroller and bathed them each in sanitizer several times, but we were still THERE... icky.

Videos of Aaron Talking

I know I could upload them to blogger and put them here, but I don't feel like uploading them again. I'm having technical difficulties and can't find the "code" to embed the youtube files here. So you'll just have to go to YoutTube to see them if you haven't watched them already.

There are 2 talking videos and since I shot them, I have remembered several more words that Aaron says that I didn't catch.

Video1
Video2

Also, I wanted to remind you that now is the perfect time to sign up to walk with us for the March For Babies! All you have to do is click on Aaron's feet on the right side of your screen. It will take you to the page where you can sign up. We'd love to have you on the team! If you're walking with another team, we'd love to hear about it.

Today Aaron has his 15 month well-visit at the pediatrician. (He's 16 months, I know... we had to cancel it twice because he was sick.) I'll update with his stats later on.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

My Very Own Recipe: Lime Chicken & Rice

I'm finally doing it. Thanks to Molly Piper's call for low-fat recipes and my inability to find my already written recipe, I'm finally putting it right here for the world to see.

Backstory: Roger and I were working out a lot and trying to get healthy one winter. We were eating chicken and rice for dinner 3-4 nights a week at least and we were just plain tired of chicken with only salt and pepper. One day I made chicken fajitas and as I was making it, I thought, "hmm. I wonder if we could use the marinade for the fajitas to flavor the chicken bites we're eating all the time?" And thus it was born. Lime Chicken and Rice. Just ask Roger, it's one of his favorites! If I've given you this recipe before and the measurements are slightly different, it's because I never had a "recipe" for the chicken, I've always just dumped and poured and hoped for the best. The good thing is that you don't have to be very precise with this recipe. It comes out tasting good every time. (Well, except for the time I tried to sub lemon juice for lime juice because we didn't have any more lime juice... yeah, don't do that.)

Ingredients:

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts (you can even use frozen ones w/o thawing them) The same amount as you would use to feed your family if you were grilling it.
Olive Oil- just enough to coat the bottom of the pan
Salt & Pepper- a dash of salt, couple grinds of pepper
Chili Powder- 1/2 to 1 tsp. (you want to cover the chicken and turn the lime juice orange, start with the 1/2 tsp the first time you make it, I think. I'll measure the next time and update this when I do.)
Lime Juice- 1/2 cup (you may need more depending on the amount of chicken you are using. It should come up about 1/2 way on the chicken, definitely don't cover the chicken entirely with it.)
Cilantro- cut up and sprinkled on top- optional.

Method:

Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces. Heat olive oil in a pan with a lid on medium high (I use a dutch oven, but a big skillet w/lid would work, too) Brown chicken in oil, add salt, pepper, chili powder, and lime juice, stir to coat evenly. Cover with lid and turn heat down a bit. (On my stove I brown on 8 or 9 and turn down to 7.) Let simmer in lime juice until it is evaporated, stirring occasionally. It usually takes 15-20 minutes. Turn heat off when lime juice is gone and let the heat of the burner brown the chicken a little bit again. (Be careful though because it burns easily at this point.)

Serve with Rice & topped with Cilantro.

Notes: You can increase the size of this recipe as much as you want. Just make sure you increase the spices and lime juice accordingly!

I start the rice in our rice cooker before I start cooking the chicken. It all finishes at about the same time.

Please let me know if you liked it or if you had problems with the recipe!r

17 Weeks Pregnancy Update

Not a whole lot to share. Good Appointment this morning even WITH both kids. Ian was supposed to go to school this morning but the public schools had a 2 hour delay, which delays the start of preschool until 10am. My appointment was at 9:45 so I couldn't drop Ian off. Oh well. Both boys were very well behaved... unlike Aaron LAST time when he was so misbehaved my blood pressure was through the roof!

My blood pressure was a little high for me today, but within the normal range. That's good because after my really high reading at the last appt I was having to take it at home and record the readings. I guess I don't have to do that anymore unless I want to.

I lost a pound. I'm not sure how that is possible with our trip to Florida and the fast foods on the way there and back and my bowl of ice cream for snack every night.

My belly is measuring right on. The baby's heart rate was 150 bpm. We scheduled the "big" ultrasound for March 3rd.

So if you want to "guess" the gender publicly you better do it now! Maybe I'll send a prize to one of the people who guess correctly! Everybody is doing contests these days, right?

Mostly still pudge going on in the belly area, but I took this this morning. 17 weeks exactly.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Sometimes it Pays to Pay

I'm not one to jump right to hiring help for house things. I don't like to pay people to do things I can do myself. But you saw what our driveway looked like after the recent storms. There was just no way for me to do it. Or Roger. Or anyone who only had a shovel.

So I turned (on the suggestion of a friend) to Craig's List. I love Craig's List, but honestly, hadn't even thought about it for finding a person to come clean our driveway. I had called a couple of landscapers/plowers and they all told me that due to the overwhelming demand, if I didn't already have a contract they couldn't help me. (That's not very good for business, in my opinion, but I guess I am not in the business so I don't know.)

Anyway, today a guy name Greg came to our house and snowblowed, shoveled, and salted our driveway! It was glorious (to me) to stand at the window and watch as someone else cleared all that crazy snow. It would've taken me days at the rate I was able to do it on my own (one shovelful a day, approximately.)

In the end, he asked for $35 and I gladly handed him a check. It was great. And I'm so glad I did it.

(In case you are wondering... Roger was fully supportive of my decision to pay to have someone come. I guess he didn't really have a choice though, since I didn't tell him before the guy was already working. :-) I'm glad he didn't mind. I guess it can be a Valentine to each other!)

I'd also like to add, that I could see/hear at least 3 neighbors blowing their own driveways today. It makes me really sad to know that nobody has offered to help us. It is obvious (to anyone who regularly sees who is going and coming from our house, like neighbors...) that Roger is not here right now. His car was parked in the snow-filled driveway for a week and then moved to the street where it has been since Sunday. I've only left the house once since Sunday. Why wouldn't anyone offer to help us? If I had a snow blower and my neighbor was pregnant and had 2 little kids and her driveway wasn't shoveled, I'd help her. I'd have done it long before now. Did you know that when I was 7.5 months pregnant with Ian (visibly, obviously pregnant) we had a decent sized snowfall and I was out shoveling all by myself. My neighbor across the street blew off his whole driveway and then got in his car to go somewhere, he intentionally turned the wrong way and went around the cul-de-sac so he could stop in front of my driveway and say, "You know, You really shouldn't be shoveling in your condition." He never offered to help. He is 2 houses down from the lady who lets her dog dump in the end of our driveway any time she can.

I really don't like this neighborhood at all. Hopefully nobody looking to buy our house reads this.






Monday, February 15, 2010

Welcome home from Florida!











I took these pictures today. When we got home yesterday, the driveway was completely covered in snow. We shoveled the side Roger was able to shovel before he left (that only had a bout 8 inches in it) and did as much as we could do of the other side.

I'm seriously trying to find someone to plow the rest out for me. Know anyone?

We're supposed to get 6 more inches between today and tomorrow. I just can't imagine! There's noplace to PUT the snow when you're shoveling it!

And this is what our patio looks like:

Thursday, February 11, 2010

"Junior Museum"

Panama City has a Children's Museum. We went there today and the kids LOVED it. Ian, who has been *SO* stubborn the last few days had the best time and didn't fight us at all when it was time to leave. He got right in his seat in the car, let Papa buckle him in, and didn't fuss, whine, or scream about anything! It was SO nice to have the "regular" Ian for a change, instead of "vacation" Ian, who is really not a joy to be around at all.

Of course now, he's not taking a nap, so the day is going down the crapper fast.


^there's a snake in there?






^"stand next to the dinosaur and let me take your picture!"
(That's the "best" shot of the 3 I was able to snap before they ran away)


Real live boat right inside!


And a grocery store!


Putting on a puppet show

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Alligator Lake











We didn't see any Alligators at Alligator Lake in St. Andrews State Park... but Ian sure was looking for them.

Sand Dunes Make Natural Slides














March for Babies 2010

Although I'm going to be crazy pregnant, we'll be walking!

We'd love for you to join our team and walk with us, or if you can't come on May 23rd, please give a small donation to help us raise money for the preemie babies!

We need your help!

Just click on the sidebar MFB image and get started. THANKS!

If you are walking in another venue or with another team, we'd love to know! Leave a comment and let us share together.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Bliss

Play Do'h


It's delightful.

Wherever the Gulf Winds Blow Us



It might not be warm enough to swim in the sea, but we're enjoying the sun, just the same.