Here is Zeb (who has the computer and mouse totally figured out already) showing Ike his favorite letters on starfall.com.  Both of these kids love their letters and each other.  Ike idolizes Zeb more and more each day.  He follows him around and begs to play with him.  He grabs onto the backs of Zeb's shirts and then gets dragged down the hallway as Zeb tries to escape. His very favorite thing to do right now is give big family hugs to each of us.  He'll run from Zeb to Kent to me tilting his head on our shoulders while hugging and saying "ahhhh".  We have it on video- I just need to upload it onto the blog!

 I wish I had something more noteworthy or picture worthy to blog about- but our lives are pretty normal right now.  We are all happy but both kids are moderately sicko.  Zeb is getting breathing treatments regularly due to coughing and wheezing while Ike has the same cough but without wheezes.  It's been awhile since we've had to do breathing treatments so often and Zeb is NOT happy about it.  You'd think we were actually scraping his throat with a razor blade or something the way he's been screaming about it.  I'm sure our neighbors are going to call DCFS soon.

Here he is with Thomas and Ben.  He loves for me to take pictures of his trains and then look at them all.

Kent is about to get much busier with school starting tomorrow and I am just doing the regular Leisy stuff.  We'll try to do something more exciting this week- but no promises. Oh- and my phone is busted! Sorry to anybody that's been calling.  I can't tell when I get calls sometimes- and other times I can tell but can't hear.  T-mobile has sent another phone and it should be here this week sometime (free since it's under a year old!  hooray!!).   I know I've been missing calls like crazy but it should all be remedied shortly :)

PBS scored gold with Zeb on their newest cartoon.  He LOVES both dinosaurs and trains, so "Dinosaur Train" is his favorite show right now.  He's even got his own Dimetredons, t-rexes, and brachiosauruses riding his dino train around the house.  He's so funny when he talks about the dinosaurs and uses their names. Can you see the little Utah Raptor he has poking out of the train's chimney?

 

This is why I can never get the house clean!  these rugrats migrate to me when they can tell I'm trying to get something accomplished. Ike LOVES to empty the dishwasher and Zeb loves to make water messes all over the counters.   If I decide to work on another room, they just follow me there too. ahhhh. they make me crazy. 

Luckily besides making me crazy they also make me smile now and again. 

This is how zeb falls asleep every night.  With one leg up and crossed over the other- and lately with his blanket up over his head.  He also goes to bed by six-thirty almost every night because he's stopped taking naps.  I used to terribly miss the naps but now I think I enjoy having child free evenings with Kent more than I enjoyed a few child free hours during the day.

 

Ike doesn't get any cute pictures today because he was nasty crabby.  We even skipped playgroup because of it.  I'd say it's teething- but that's always my excuse for crabby babies and half of the time no new teeth arrive.

Here's a cell phone pic I sent to Kent so he could get a taste of his unpleasantness.  Anybody want a baby?

what a splendid day.

There are VERY few things in life that make me happier than saving money.  And today we saved a bundle. $168.46 to be exact. With parts- diagnostic- and labor, the dryer repair was going to cost 200 dollars.
I'd been shopping around for the dryer part we needed and was pretty discouraged that we were going to have to shell out ninety bucks for the element.  And then I found appliancezone.com.  $24.59 plus $5.95 shipping. I ordered it yesterday at noon and it showed up on our doorstep today at two!  that's crazy fast.  I have nothing but AMAZING things to say about appliancezone.  Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.
I have even more amazing things to say about Kent. He had the old one out and the new one in place in a matter of minutes.  Our dryer works again for a mere (comparatively) thirty bucks. Our clothes and towels are back to being soft and fluffy and that's worth celebrating. If anybody's dryer goes out- just call us. Kent says maybe he should have gone into dryer repair.

And also today Ike found a new love. Ketchup.  Although I can't blame him- I love it too. The kid somehow managed to get a hold of a little cup of ketchup while we were playing with friends at the new mcdonald's kids zone today.  He's in to everything. He's the destroyer. 

I think I got frostbite on my ears today (and other complaints)

Okay- so it wasn't that bad -but it's pretty cold here right now.  Ike and Zeb were both a little grumpy about it.  Every time we stepped out of the house today Zeb would scream at the wind to go away and then beg me for his "glubs" to keep his hands warm.  He really really doesn't like wind.  And poor Ike.  The kid better figure out how to breathe with wind blowing in his face or he isn't going to make it in life. And I just want snow if it's going to be this cold.  All of the snow melted over the weekend and now Toledo looks like muddy gray march but feels like bitter cold January.

And check out my clothes.  I know I'm doing something wrong here. There's got to be some way to make my clothes soft and fluffy even if we air dry them. Somehow I did it in Russia. Kent made it happen in Brazil!  What can we do?! 

 Our dryer decided to stop drying this weekend and now we are stuck with sandpaper rough clothes because we are just hang drying them over kitchen chairs!  The towel I used after my shower today nearly grated my skin! It was absolutely terrible.
Luckily we figured out what was wrong with the dryer (who knew I married a handyman?!).  Kent took off the back and figured out that it's just our heating element.  We ordered a new part and should have it here within a week. Let's just hope we can follow the instructions on "dave's appliance repair.com" and get it fixed properly :)  Anybody out there replaced a dryer's heating element before and have words of advice?  Wish us luck.

Oh, the ease of a good eater.

He loves it all. I am trying so so hard to NOT make the same feeding mistakes with rugrat #2 that I did with rugrat #1.  My advice- NEVER introduce hot dogs.  It took us MONTHS to "de-hotdog" Zeb.  Ike's only bad habit is cheese.  I can deal with cheese.  At least it isn't full of nitrates.

We've been so lucky. He loves whole grain pasta- whole wheat bread- tomatoes- all sorts of fruits and veggies- meat, etc. You name it- he'll eat it.  I realize that he's not even one quite yet but we are already leaps and bounds ahead of where we were with Zeb at this point. I'm sure he'll start refusing foods pretty soon but we are shoving in all of the good stuff while we can!

In the meantime we are still trying desperately to help rugrat #1 (Zeb) branch out. We have been making lots of progress lately.  Spinach loaded (thanks for the tips, mum) pure fruit smoothies (he thinks its green tinted ice cream!) and homemade pizza with all sorts of pureed veggies in the sauce.  Oh- and he actually thinks that veggie burgers are hot dogs.  I'm still looking for ideas on how to get him to eat better.  Any great hidden food suggestions?  or tried and true kid friendly recipes?  I need more help!

And speaking of Zeb and food- The other night we were at the Schlotzsky's drive thru (1.99 pizza nights on saturday) and Kent had just finished ordering.  The worker repeated our order and then asked "would you like to order anything else?" to which Zeb piped in from the backseat- "Yes! chicken nuggets, please!".  I'm not kidding.  We don't go out to eat that often- but if we do Zeb usually gets chicken nuggets. I can't believe that he was paying that close attention to what what going on. Too bad they don't have chicken nuggets.  Once we got home he had his usual dinner of half an apple and a bowl of multi grain cheerios.

Somebody is excited about the front facing carseat.

 the novelty and excitement wore off as soon as he figured out that it's MUCH harder to fall asleep in.  The poor kid moves his heavy head back and forth with closed eyes searching for a place to rest his noggin so he can doze.  No such luck with this car seat, kiddo!

it's a phone pic- sorry about the image quality!

every stinking cupboard and drawer.

Yet another reason this age is ridiculous. He LOVES to make messes and empty anything he can get his hands on.  If he gets a box of crackers, he shakes and shakes until they are every where.  He opens every drawer in the house and grabs and throws until there's nothing left to chuck.  His favorite cupboard is the bowl cupboard.  He thinks the bowls are hats. He's already shattered one glass bowl. He's also chucked a jar of baby food so hard that it shattered, too. 

Oh, and in better news- remember this post I did a year ago?  It looks like cap'n crunch listened. I bet they got thousands of e-mails requesting its return- don't you think? Who doesn't love this stuff?!?!? Kent found it for me tonight at meijer. On sale even. I am so happy.  Can't wait to eat my bowl of sugar and artificial flavors and colors. Don't worry- I'm not counting it as breakfast. It's my treat for the day.

 

check out that dirty look.

This kid can give crusties with the best of them.  He's getting funnier and funnier, too.  It's just so amazing to see his vocabulary and grammar improve day after day.

He came running into the front room yesterday, roared, and then flared his fingers at me.  I asked him if he was a Velociraptor and he giggled back, "No, mom! You're so silly. Not a losaraptor,  I'm a Utah Raptor".  One of his books talks about Utah Raptors and their sharp talons.

We were at the grocery store a bit ago and Kent took him to see the lobsters- to which he responded "dad, these lobsters are making me nervous. Let's get out of here".

He officially no longer calls Ike, "Ike".   Just tonight he said- "oh, no!  It's the monster baby! run! hide!"

Whenever I ask him to do anything lately- his response is always, "I'm too busy instead, mom".

And he's pretty on top of the music scene these days.  Every time he hears Poker Face or Bad Romance, he yells- "Mom! It's 'Laney Gaga' singing!!"

Every morning he bids Kent farewell with a plethora of different goodbyes. His list keeps getting longer, too.  "Bye! Adios! Ciao! Da svidanya! Poka! Hasta Luego!" and then he often finishes it off with "go give people shots, kent!"

And just recently he got a toy echo microphone thingy and he jabbers into it ALL DAY LONG.  He'll pop out from behind doors and yell  "It's time for the curtain call!!". We think it may have come from Little Einsteins but we aren't entirely sure.

I LOVE that he speaks.

Kent adds:

I especially love when Ike the monster baby chucks things under the stove and fridge and Zeb screams out, "Oh no! It's gone forever!!"

He really says Tchau and not Ciao. It is the Portuguese goodbye, NOT Italian!

- Kent

poor little Z.  We've nicknamed Ike "the destroyer".  Like I've previously mentioned, he finds great joy in obliterating Zeb's tracks, car shows, block towers, etc.  Here is Zeb in the aftermath.  Hands over face, completely heartbroken.

And the thing is, at age 11 and a half months, I feel like Ike's actions are rather deliberate.  Luckily his calculated annihilations aren't meant to devastate Zeb- they are simply meant to destroy his carefully orchestrated plans.  Unfortunately Zeb doesn't understand the workings of an 11 month old and takes it VERY personally.

Really- Ike just walks up to meticulously arranged train tracks and wreaks havoc. He kicks and grabs and chucks and just waves his hands through the toys until there is no resemblance of Zeb's creation.  It's pretty funny.

Zeb has gotten pretty good at suggesting to me that Ike needs timeout or that it's time for him to go down for a nap.  He's also pretty good at running to his room to play and slamming the door shut.  Let's hope Ike learns to play nicer down the road or the next 17 years could be long.

In the meantime we've been trying lots of activities that put Zeb up high or that include both kiddos. Lately Zeb is a reading fiend and that's helped a lot.  Any suggestions for teaching toddlers how to read?  I'm not sure he's quite ready, but I may as well work with him.  We work on starfall.com and small book programs from the library- and I've requested the leap frog "learning to read" dvd from the library, but we'll see how it goes.  He knows all of his letters- and even many letter combos like ch, sh, th, etc., but he doesn't love to put letters together yet.  He's great at word recognition (he can read words like mom, dad, stop, go, walmart, meijer, etc)- but I want to work on putting new letters together to make words.  Any suggestions from seasoned parents would be much appreciated! thank-you thank-you!

Thanks, MLK.

Amongst the myriad of important reasons that I owe MLK a vote of thanks is hidden a small one. Kent was home all day today.  Nothing better than a three day weekend to make me happy. I must bask in the enjoyment just a short while longer before holidays become days where I miss my favorite person rather than get to spend extra time with him.  Zeb and Ike are also quite grateful.

Too bad we were mostly excited to sleep in and didn't get to AT ALL on ANY of the three days.  Saturday we were up at seven (which technically is sleeping in). Sunday at six. This morning at FOUR THIRTY.  Seriously. Will I ever get my sleep back?!?!  Why are my children plagued with strange ailments and pains and coughs and bursts of energy that ALL manifest during my much needed and loved REM sleep?  Didn't they teach us in high school that constant interruption of REM sleep can result in terrible things?  That I may go certifiably crazy or just drop dead if it keeps happening?   I shouldn't complain.  Ike is waaaaay better than Zeb was and usually we only have 1 or 2 bad nights a week.  Plus, my kids are happy and healthy.  And I'm usually those two things, too. But, really! It's hard. It's one of those rotten parent sacrifices that we really don't have much choice in making.  Because- trust me- if I could sleep through this screaming banshee baby, I would.

come play with me!!

That's his favorite phrase right now.  "Hey kent, come play with me!" He's full of all sorts of great phrases and funny quotes.  Tonight he said the prayer while the missionaries were over and he blessed the Sheriff.  I think they are still trying to figure out how we know the Sheriff.

This is a picture of him celebrating a friend's birthday.  Cupcakes are one of the few sweets he'll never refuse- usually he'd rather have a pretzel or whale cracker.  I'm not sure what the goofy face is all about.

I feel like just in the past few weeks he's (zeb) grown up tremendously.  Today at church we were walking down the hall and he stopped- looked at us- and said "Hey Kent and Leisy, see you guys later" and then took off.  He's been calling us Kent and Leisy A LOT lately.  I don't correct him because I'm sure it will pass and it's pretty adorable.

And speaking of growing up- this other kid is RIDICULOUS.  This is a picture of his back because that's ALL that I see these days. He's constantly running away, getting into the toilet, and causing his older brother much grief.  He idolizes zebbo. He sits at his feet and fake laughs to get his attention.  When that doesn't work, he starts destroying his railroad tracks and stealing his cars.

I just can't believe that he isn't one yet.  He has been running for almost two months now.  Zeb wasn't this mobile until 14 months.  I'm already burned out at church.  How will we survive the next six and a half months?!  Any tricks for at least making it through sacrament meeting?

And is it just me or is it impossible to keep kids' faces clean at this age?  I look like such a delinquent mother.  He's always got snot or food or SOMEthing stuck to his face.  Don't zoom in on this last picture.

 Lately, I feel like I have NO time to blog!  I've been reading more than usual and I think that's taking up more of my "down" time.  Yesterday I taught seminary, finished a long book, worked out, went to gymnastics for Zeb and Ike, cleaned the house, made dinner, and then went to cooking group.  It was a crazy great day and I took NO pictures.  Taking pictures has become more difficult for me because I have my nice camera and I don't want to to take it everywhere with me- but my old camera is somewhat temperamental (and the pictures look so bad to me now!) that I just don't use it much. I'm a picture snob.

Our cooking group topic was soups and stews.  I love soups and stews but I think I've taken every one of my soups and stew recipes for other topics.  So, last night I decided to branch out.  I am a sucker for sweets and am always disappointed if there isn't anything sugary at cooking group.  I decided to do a dessert soup!  I thought it turned out deliciously!

Chilled Berry Soup.  I read lots of different recipes and then melded them together to create this one.  Everything can be increased or decreased to find desired level of sweetness and consistency.

3 cups frozen unsweetened strawberries
1 c frozen unsweetened raspberries
1 container plain (or vanilla or fruity) ff yogurt
1/4-1/3 c sugar (to taste)
1/3 cup orange juice (can be increased/decreased to taste)
a little bit of sour cream.  mmmmm!!
dash of cardamom (or ginger or Cinnamon since I don't have cardamom)
diced sour cream pound cake (bundt cake or pudding cake or whatever you call it)

liquefy in the blender and serve chilled.  It can be frozen and re liquefied- but it needs to be a little warmer to make soupy.  Top with pound cake croutons!! 

do-over?

Don't you ever just wish for a do-over on your day?  that was yesterday- which is why I never posted.  It started out rottenly at 5:30 AM. Both kiddos got up and then seminary was a disaster.  I won't even blame that on my rugrats, though. Those teenagers made me want to scream. I love them and I love seminary- but sometimes they can be OBnoxious.  This morning was MUCH better, however.

Luckily Kent's day was canceled.  He went to school half day and then came home.  The kiddos both took loooong naps and I just sat and read a book while Kent studied. It was a definite needed break and an answer to prayers. There's nothing like reading a good book.

Then- I convinced Kent to go to my "extreme boot camp" class with me at the Y.  I thought for sure he'd be the only guy- but there were three others. Kent offered me a Y membership for Christmas TWO Christmases ago- but I decided not to get it (I was about ready to pop with Ike and didn't think I'd be getting tons of use out of it before warmer weather when I could be outside) until just a few months ago when the cold weather hit and it became too cold to keep running outside.  It's the greatest gift ever.  Free babysitting every day!  Who wouldn't want that?

Yesterday morning was also a little crazy because upon returning from walking group- Zeb had a major meltdown about wanting to stay out and play in the snow. He was crying for his snow pants and begging to ride his bike outside. We went inside and put him to bed instead.

  We'd gone out and played the day before while Ike was sleeping and he was in HEAVEN. He demanded to take his gloves off so he could play with his tractor, though.  We went in shortly thereafter because he said his hands were "so hot".  When he gets really cold he tells me that his fingers and toes are hot.

These pictures are from a few days ago.  Zeb is really such a good little kid- but he definitely has his 2 year old moments.

And here's a delicious new recipe we tried out. One of my goals this year is to try new recipes.  If they turn out tasty I'll be posting them.  If you have any suggestions- send them my way.

Spinach-Tomato Pasta. SO SO SO EASY!!!

We actually halved the sauce recipe (I listed the ingredients halved) and then added marinara sauce to make it  a bit healthier.

4 chicken breasts
1/2-1 box whole grain pasta
1/2- 3/4 c chicken broth
1 tbs garlic
small onion
4oz (half pack) red. fat or no fat cream cheese
bunch of fresh spinach
lots of cherry tomatoes sliced
Marinara Sauce 

Get your pasta boiling.

Cook up frozen chicken breasts in a pan stovetop with garlic and onions.  Season with salt, pepper, and any other seasoning you want.  As they finish up, cut them into pieces and add the chicken broth. Once it's warmed up, add the cream cheese and bring to a simmer.

In a separate pan, saute sliced tomatoes and fresh spinach with a little bit of onion/garlic/olive oil.

Drain pasta and combine ALL ingredients.

we're back and it's back.

We're back!!

We've returned home from a three day mini excursion.  We took care of some friends' kids while they were away for the weekend and we had a fantastic time.  With the exception of having nine people in sacrament meeting (four of them being wiggly little children)- things went off without a hitch.  I can't wait until my kids are old enough to play games- and help do dishes- and just have conversations with us. And if my kids can be even half as well behaved as these kids were, we'll be in heaven.

We had a lot of fun goofing off, playing the wii, laughing LOTS, staying up late and playing games. Here we are enjoying a game of curses- NOT my favorite game- but I did have fun playing it.  We also taught the kiddos how to play scum.  Did I mention that I can't wait for my rugrats to get older?!

Zeb woke up this morning asking to go back to Mia's house- and then when we went to the gym he asked if we could drive in Mia's car instead of ours.  He's a little disappointed that we're back to normal boring life with just mom and Ike.

And, it's back. my hair has returned.  After I had Ike, it started falling out like CRAZY -way worse than it ever did with zeb.  I was mortified. It was thin and stringy and nast-o.  Plus, it was disgusting to clean up.  The vacuum was always clogged and our bathroom was impossible to ever be totally clean of it.  I thought I'd be bald by year's end. Finally, about three months ago, it stopped falling out and started actually growing back.  Only- look at this.  This picture doesn't even do it justice.

I seriously have little one-two inch hairs poking through my longer hair all over MY ENTIRE HEAD. it looks like I stuck my finger in an electric socket.  Any suggestions?  This is going to take at least another 4-6 months to grow out. I am going to get a haircut this week- and perhaps it will help, but for now it just looks likes there's a rooster on my forehead.

his third hand.

Zeb ate EVERYthing he could get his hands on at this age. I'd find all sorts of strange papers and stickers and hair balls in his diaper.  We don't have that problem with Ike. Instead, he just puts everything in his mouth to get a feel for it or transport it. And then he just spits it out elsewhere.

I find wads of paper or foil or wrappers in his cheeks at least 3-4 times a day.   And if it isn't something small, it's something big.  He walks and crawls around the house with large objects in his mouth constantly.  It's potentially very dangerous and makes me slightly worried.  I have to check his mouth regularly.

bird baby

Since little Ikey was born we've always thought he looked a little birdlike. His upper lip hangs over his mouth and forms a beak.  Kent swears it must be an Oswald thing because all four sisters (Metta, Daysa, Laney and I) can make some pretty goofy looking faces by manipulating our lips (I'll have to get a picture next time we are all together).  Kent's claim was clearly cemented into fact when Ike started making a very strange face at meal time this past week.  Beware- it's kind of creepy.

Here's our little birdy.  I really think I should send the picture into Ellen.  Doesn't she have crazy baby pictures on there?  Or I could enter it into an ugly baby face contest- or something.  It totally creeps us out- especially once we caught it on camera and could stare at it in detail.

He does it all the time now.

another recipe for my file.

 I absolutely love allrecipes.com.  They have a feature where you can just type in the ingredients that you have and it spits out recipes to make!  You can even input ingredients that you DON'T want in your recipe. It's a dinner miracle, really.  It makes me crazy to come up with new dinner ideas- so if you have any- please send them my way. 

Here's a dinner we made last week. It was fabulous.  My (many) changes are included in black.   The picture doesn't look much like ours because we cut our chicken smaller- used diced tomatoes instead of sliced- and added had no fish sauce or red paste- but you get the idea.

Burmese Chicken Curry (Gaeng Gai Bama)

Ike LOVED it.

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (or 1 tbs!)
  
• 8 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken meat, cut into large pieces
• 2 tablespoons red curry paste (did NOT use)
  
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1/2 cup (low fat!)coconut milk (increased to about 3/4 -1 cup)
  
• 1/4 cup pureed tomato (we did tomato paste)
  
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce (did NOT use)
  
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges (1 can diced tomatoes works wonders!)
  
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• 1/2-1 package frozen peas
  

Directions

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a medium skillet over low heat, and stir fry the shallots until browned and tender.
2. Place the chicken in the skillet with the onions and oil, and stir in the curry paste and curry powder to evenly coat. Pour in enough water to cover (we only added about 1/4 cup water here), and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover skillet, and simmer until the chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.
3. Stir the peas, coconut milk, tomato puree, fish sauce, sugar, and 1/2 the tomato wedges into the skillet. Cook and stir over low heat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Mix in the remaining tomatoes, and continue cooking until tender. Top with cilantro and the fried shallots to serve.

bowling.

Last week while we were out shopping, Zeb happened upon a tv that was showing a bowling tournament. He was so excited about it that we decided we had to take him to do the real deal.  He's bowled with little kid stuff before- but he'd never seen a real bowling alley or a real game until he saw it on tv.  Friday night we went out to the bowling alley as a family.  When we told him we were going- he was beyond ecstatic. 

We even found him a six pound ball that he could actually pick up and carry himself.  Kent did have to help him lift it onto the ball stand, though.  We tried a frame without the stand, but Zeb's ball didn't even make it halfway down the lane before it creeped to a stop.  Plus, he loved pushing the ball down the ramp.

Ike drove us crazy trying to walk onto the lanes and grab bowling balls all night.  I am NOT looking forward to these next few months. A walking baby is NOT my favorite thing to deal with. It makes church nearly pointless- and creates ALL sorts of messes and hazards around the house!  At least he's not a crying baby or a bad baby, right?!

 Zeb's 88 (he had bumpers that went down when it wasn't his turn) ended up beating Kent's score of 83.  I took the game with a 92.  We obviously don't bowl!

This is what happens when you don't prepare your two year old with the news that the Christmas tree gets thrown out to the curb.  The kid was completely devastated.  He screamed and wailed for a good ten minutes about his "chwistmas twee".  It was pretty funny.  Do all kids react this dramatically? I think Zeb may have a flair for drama. He must get that from his dad.
Kent also screamed and wailed for ten minutes during the ordeal. His shrieking was due to the fact that the tree turned deadly.  It totally dried out and skewered him like crazy while he was trying to get rid of it.  I watered it EVERYday but I guess that's what we get when we buy a 14.97 tree.  It was totally worth the savings, though.