I bet you thought I forgot

It is almost the end of the week and I haven’t posted yet, so I assume you all thought I wouldn’t remember to post this week, but you were wrong!  I actually just ran to the computer to jot down a couple things the kids have said in the last 10 minutes that had me laughing out loud. 

At the moment they are playing together with these plastic math links I got them a while back.  They are little plastic rings that link together so you can do patterning and stuff.  Anyway, they have a huge snake and are chasing each other all around playing some sort of game.  I had to get on their case about jumping on the couches and Anthony’s response was “you can’t put us in time out for being cute.”  My response was “oh yes I can!”  His response “oh, ok, we’ll stop, but you can’t put us in time out for having fun, right?”  My response “what do you think?”  They haven’t touched the couch since, not even to sit. 

Nicolas’ new favorite song is the wheels on the bus.  We sing it in the car all day long and I try to add funny verses whenever I can.  His newest favorite verse was actually created in an attempt to draw attention to his ornery attitude in the car the other day.  It goes something like this (sung to the tune you all know and love) “the Nicolas in the car says, NO NO NO, NO NO NO, NO NO NO, the Nicolas in the car says NO NO NO all through the town.”  He sings it to himself all day long and of course adds his own take such as “The Nicolas in the potty goes poop poop poop, etc.”  Yes, that one surprised me since he hasn’t actually done that yet, but at least he is thinking about it. 

Oh, it is like a sitcom around here sometimes and in the midst of losing my mind sometimes, just sometimes, I can step back and see the humor in the fact that all three kids are running around in their underwear with Fun Dip stain all over their hands and faces. 

I am finding that while I enjoy having three fairly self sufficient children I sometimes miss the predictability of infants and toddlers.  I don’t miss the sleepless nights and innumerable diapers, but I do miss being able to put them down somewhere and they can’t move from that spot, or putting them in a bouncy while I made dinner or cleaned the house, or put them in (are you sensing a pattern here, I miss having control of where they go and what they do).  But at the same time I love seeing their imaginations and creativity blossom and I especially love watching and listening to all three play together as buddies.  Nicolas is finally part of the melee and he is loving every minute of it! 

So, there, I didn’t forget to post this week and feel like I have a million more stories I could tell but can’t recall at the moment.  But I am blessed, I know that, with three healthy and vibrant, oh so vibrant, children.  It often feels like too much, but in a good way. 

As promised..

Pictures of my latest culinary creations for the kids.  I made homemade cheese crackers ( goldfish) and nutrigrain bars.  I am not sure I will make either of these recipes again.  The crackers were a bit spicy for the kids, so next time I will just keep those flavors out, and the bars were a little too sweet, if that is possible.  They ended up more like a dessert than a snack bar.  I found another recipe for those that I will try once these are gone.  They are yummy (yes, I tried even though they aren’t on my diet).  The last picture is of my first attempt at knitting a cable pattern.  I had to start small, it is really complicated. 

one more thing…

I just wanted to post a few pics of our trip to Julian this weekend.  It was just for a few hours but we had a good time.  It is always nice to get away from the city and see a simpler side of life.

 

What the kids are eating

I am a woman on a mission; to feed my children the healthiest food I can on a budget and without losing my mind.  So, yes, we still eat honey nut cheerios, but I have started making my own fruit leathers and goldfish crackers.  Since I love baking, I am also making bread too.  The funny thing is, a lot of this desire started when Joe and I started our diet.  I had to learn some new recipes and get creative in order for us to stick to our guns and achieve our goals.  In the process I have learned a lot about cooking, where food comes from, and what I want and don’t want to put in my body or my children’s bodies.  It is overwhelming to put it mildly, but important enough that I am determined to make as many things from scratch as possible. 

So, my first snack was fruit leather, pretty easy.  I used apples, again, really easy.  The kids LOVE it, and i feel so much better about it being just apples and a little sugar rather than some apples and who knows what else. 

My next thing wasn’t new, but it was a new recipe.  Wheat bread for sandwiches.  I have tried this before and been really disappointed so I wasn’t expecting much, but this bread turned out great!  Even better is that it is so full of nutrients that the kids eat one sandwich and are DONE rather than asking me for two, which usually happens with store bought bread.  So, I finally found a recipe I really like and that doesn’t have a lot of sugar in it either.  (The loaf is almost gone!)  I am also learning a lot about low carb cooking and how to create similar tastes and textures from different foods.  Our new fave is fake mashed potatoes.  You use cauliflower instead and add some cream cheese, mozz cheese and parm cheese and process it in the food processor.  Then you bake it until it is turns a little brown on top.  So yummy in fact that we ate it too fast for me to take pics of it!  You can also make a rice substitute from cauliflower as well.  I haven’t tried it yet, but you better believe I will.  So, our little family is learning how to eat and snack healthy and I think it is paying off.  I feel like the kids aren’t asking me for snack as often because the snacks they are eating are full of protein and nutrients rather than empty calories (and I considered myself a pretty strict mommy for the most part, no chips or soda or sugary things.)  So, 2010 will be the year of eating well for the Spinozzi family. 

My next attempt is homemade cheerios and graham crackers.  Pictures to come later.

What the kids are doing and saying

Alright, week two of blogging is underway.  I am not counting my Dolce Dishes in the blogging goal, just FYI.  So, what has happened this week that is blog worthy?  It seems like every time something happens and I think, oh, I should go blog that right now, I don’t.  So, I will try to remember. 

First off, I got my house cleaned.  It is amazing to have your entire house cleaned at one time.  That hasn’t happened in a long time.  I can maybe get one room done a day and then by the time the entire house is done I have to start over!  So, this is such a treat.  However, it also reminds me out grossly inadequate I am as a housekeeper.  I will use the kids as an excuse.  I just don’t have the time to really deep clean anything.  Someone needs a diaper, or a snack, or a band aid, etc etc.  Or it could be that it just isn’t my forte.  Probably a combination of both.  So, the house is clean and I am happy.  We also were able to buy a new carpet steam cleaner for Joe’s office and test it out here.  It works really well!  Not as great as a professional cleaning of course, but it gets the spots up and cleans the high traffic areas really well, which is all I wanted in the end.  So, for now my house is like a brand new home.  Well, almost.  Nicolas promptly spilled an entire glass of lemonade on my freshly cleaned kitchen floor the day the house was cleaned.  And you know how sticky that is, and how hard it to get it all up.  I am still finding sticky spots.  Oh well.  It was nice while it lasted.

On to the kids.  Anthony has started a new program at school where they bring home a book each day and they can only return it after they have read the entire thing.  The teacher helps them pick a book that is at or slightly above their reading level, so Anthony’s books have been kind of lengthy.  He has read each book in a day so he can return it the following day and get a new one.  He is really enjoying this system.  Before it was hard to get him to do his at home reading, I think because he has already read all the books we have, so this is much more interesting for him.  We have learned about Spy Tools and Dangerous Jobs, and of course, Sharks!  He is doing so well in school and really loves it.  He comes home every day with a smile and a ton of stories. 

Dom is loving school too and it is exciting to think about how much he will excel in Kindergarten next year after being in the program he is this year.  He will go to Anthony’s school and he can’t wait.  We are gearing up for spring sports, namely soccer at the YMCA.  They will do the spring league and hopefully after that we will know better if that is a sport either of them really like or if something else might be better for them.  I also plan on signing them up for karate again and also putting them in an art class.  They both have the “gift” as Joe calls it.  With a grandma and two uncles who are artists it isn’t a surprise, but they both spend a lot of time drawing and coloring and really enjoy creating. 

Nicolas, Nicky, little devil, what have you.  The kid has officially entered the two’s, even though in 2 months he will be 3!  He is by far our most stubborn and I don’t think potty training is helping anything.  I know this too shall pass but it is rough going, especially when you are in Target and he has thrown himself on the floor in a fit and you are kind of frozen as to what to do.  Now, he is still adorable and smart and wonderful too. This morning we were getting dressed and he has started caring about what he wears.  Neither of the other two were ever like that.  So, I picked out his pants and he wanted to pick his shirt.  He walks to the closet and pulls down a nice button down shirt and brought it to me and said “I want to wear church, mommy”.  So, he looks super dapper today in his “church” shirt.  Also this morning we took him potty and had to take off all his jammies and diaper so he was naked at the end of it all.  We put his pull up on and then I asked him where his jammies were.  His response, “I don’t really know.”  Such a comedian. 

It is a busy, crazy, wonderful life we lead here in San Diego.  more to come…

New years resolutions

Joe and I make a list of resolutions each year.  We have yet to keep any of them, so this year we didn’t make a list.  However, I have made a few personal goals that I would like to meet this year.  The first was learning how to knit.  For those who might be confused with the things I already make, I crochet.  Knitting scared me, so it was my goal to conquer it this year.  My mom and dad were there for the initial portion of this goal.  It wasn’t pretty.  I was cranky and annoyed and wanted to give up almost immediately.  But then I remembered how I felt about crocheting at first; the same way.  So I stuck it out.  First was a small, and slightly irregular, washcloth, but I finished it.  Then I started a baby blanket which was just one stitch over and over, I figured that was easy enough.  I am still working on that.  Then I discovered that I could make cute little neck warmers really fast if  used thicker yarn and bigger needles.  Hallalujah!!  I could finish a project in one night, just like crocheting.  So, here are the first examples of my knitting capabilities as of January 23rd, 2010.  While I have sort of achieved my goal of learning to knit, I would really like to get good at it, good enough to say I am a knitter.  So, there you have it.  My first goal of 2010 is met.  my other personal goal was to blog once a week.  I feel like our lives are moving so fast and the kids are saying and doing so many amazing, hilarious, and important things that if I don’t document them they will forever be lost.  The funniest thing that comes to mind right now is about Nicolas.  He gets a lot of press, but that is because he is still in that adorable stage of learning to communicate.  So, we are potty training.  So far things are going well.  He will pee in the potty no problem.  Of course it is getting him to do “the other” that is proving difficult.  For those of you who know my children, you remember that Anthony had a “poop fish” (a toy fish that swam on it’s own) on top of our entertainment center for almost a year before he decided pooping in the potty was ok.  So, Nico as an entire Hershey’s chocolate bar (he will get a few pieces the first time he poops).  It is up on the counter in the bathroom so he can see if every time he goes.  The other day after he had successfully gone #1 I asked if he wanted to try going #2.  He said yes, then promptly got off the potty.  Then he saw the chocolate bar.  He wanted some, of course.  I reminded him that he had to poop in the potty to get the candy.  Then I asked him, “what do you have to do to get that candybar?”  His response, “get a ladder.”  The candy has been moved into the medicine cabinet and out of site. 

Ok, so, keep my honest about blogging weekly.   

Oh, here is some video of what the storms did to our yard.

Happy New Year

New year, new me. That is my goal. I am not sure what that means exactly, except that I am currently trying out the Atkins diet. For those unfamiliar, it is low carb, hugh protein. Now, I am not a sweet tooth by any means, but after two weeks ALL I WANT IS A CANDY BAR! But I am sticking to it. I feel like regardless I am eating less and that has to be bett for me anyway. Luckily Joe is doing it with me so that makes it a little easier. And not to worry, I am not making the kids follow this diet. They are eating all the goldfish and peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches they want.

Speaking of the kids. I am feeling so lucky to be the mother of three boys. Just in the last few weeks I have seen all 3 of them grow up so much. Nicolas is trying to learn how to use the potty. He knows that if he finally poops in the potty he will get a chocolate candy bar. But he is willing and trying and that is all we can ask for at this point. In addition to learning the basics of the bathroom Nicolas is just a riot to be around. He is communicating so much and learning so much and I have this sneaky feeling the kid is going to be on TV someday. So many of the things he says sound just like a commercial. Part of that is the wording, but it is also his inflection. He has always been really expressive and it is becoming more and more apparent the older he gets. For instance, this morning he was eating an orange and said, "wow mommy, this is juicy!" while he held up the orange to show me. Now, he certainly has his two year old moments. It seems like all the toys in the house belong to him and should you mistakenly try to play with one you will suffer his wrath. And it isn't just toys, he finds cell phones, keys, cameras, you name it, if he finds it, it is his. The kid lives by the creedo "finders keepers, losers weepers." But mostly he is just so much fun to be around. His laugh and sense of humor are infectious and if you know him then you know he has that look, the look that says I am thinking things you can't even imagine, and I ain't tellin any of you what they are!

That brings me to my other two amazing boys. I get asked a lot by other mothers of two boys or two girls, how doyour boys play together? Well, the truth is, they play together so well that I often forget to encourage them to invite other friends over! They have a built in play date everyday. And Nicolas is even getting in on that action now too, which is fun to watch. Of course they have their moments, as all siblings do, but for the most part they are best buddies and find it difficult to be apart sometimes. If I do plan a playdate it has to be here or else one or the other gets really sad and feels left out. The other night Anthony fell asleep downstairs because he wasn't feeling well so we just let him stay there until we went upstairs and Dom could not fall asleep in their room without Anthony there. It was really sweet. They take care of each other, teach each other new things, and encourage each other. They are also really into this new kids show called "Big Time Rush" which is about a group of guy friends from MN who form a band and move to CA. They sing a song the boys LOVE! They sing it all the time and Joe and I keep having visions of our three being on stage someday as a band of their own. Speaking of singing, we got Nicolas a kids' MP3 player for Christmas. It is like a radio so they can carry it around. Originally I put some songs for Nicolas but then the boys had the great idea of putting theme songs to their shows on it, and themes to Star Wars and Indiana Jones, stuff like that. So we have all sorts of TV show themes on there and they run around the house singing them all day long. It is so hilarious.

To end, here is the funniest thing any of the kids have said lately. The other day we were eating lunch and Joe asked Anthony a question about something. Anthony answered and asked if he was right. Daddy said yes and Anthony's response was "my brain was right! thank you brain!"