Happy Birthday, E-Man

Today Evan turned two.  On one hand it feels like the last two years have gone by in a blink.  On the other, well it's been a long two years.  He has been a sweet little guy (typically), but he has not been easy. 

We started the day out going to Dunkin Donuts for a special treat. 

After donuts we went and ran some errands to get ready for tomorrow's party.  It's not going to be anything big, but I think I really like the fact that we made it Sunday evening.  We had all day today to prepare and we were not rushed at all.  I still have most of the day tomorrow to get things together.  Much better than a Saturday afternoon. 

Once dinner was finished we decided to give E-Man his gifts from K-Girl and ourselves.  First up was K-Girl's...

(Lightning McQueen, King, and Chick Hicks cars)

(Doing his impression of Lightning McQueen)

Next was Mommy and Daddy's present...

(Yo Gabba Gabba figure set & DVD/CD)

And call it coincidence or whatever you may, but as he was opening his presents The Ting Ting's Happy Birthday from Yo Gabba Gabba came on TV.  He was so excited...

Here's the You Tube of it, because well I just love The Ting Tings and I'd like it to get stuck in your head too. ;)

And here he is with his booty...

Oh and there was one more thing.  We went to Toys R Us last night to pick up a big wheel for E-Man's present, but once we were there we saw the Power Wheels.  K-Girl has wanted one for well for a long time.  E-Man was at a birthday party last week that had one and he fell in love.  We decided that we'd get them a pair.  K-Girl's birthday is in one month so it will be an early present for her.  There was just no way we could give E-Man his and wait for K-Girl.  Here's E-Man in his...

Unfortunately the batteries need to charge for 18 hours before the first use so we were unable to let them drive them today, but they are ready to go tomorrow. 

And since tomorrow is cake, we decided to go out for birthday ice cream this evening. 

I think E-Man has had a very good birthday.  Now onto the party tomorrow.  More pictures to come.  ;)

Kindergarten here we come

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

K-Girl's last day at preschool was on Wednesday. She's officially going to be in kindergarten come fall. Madness! I'm not sure when that happened. It's going to be a long summer though. She's the kind of kid that on Tuesday and Thursday when there is no school that she is bored to tears by 10 am. The name of the game will be to stay busy for our sanity's sake. She wanted to get her teachers a thank you gift so we decided to do the traditional flowers. I took her to the nursery and she picked out the flowers all herself and then we came home and she made them cards as well. She wrote "Thank you!" on the front, on the inside wrote their names and signed them herself, and then she decorated them as well. She was quite proud of them. She told me the message she wanted me to write, but I took care of that since it was quite a bit of writing. Here she is the morning before school...

She asked me to get a picture with her teachers as well...

She absolutely adores her teachers.  It's funny to think that at the beginning of the year she was all scared to go to school because she was afraid of the "gray curly-haired lady".  I told her she had nothing to worry about.  ;) 

I got a little choked up when it was time for pickup and all the kiddos were coming out of the room giving the teachers hugs.  It's hard to believe that another year has passed.  Wasn't she just hugging her 3 yr teacher good bye?! 

I feel bad that it was so rainy and chilly for the last day as well.  There is a big field right by the church and the parking lot that K-Girl calls the play yard.  The kids all play there for a little after school lets out when it is nice out.  It helps burn off some of the energy from sitting still.  It didn't seem right that we had to just walk out to the car and leave on the last day because no one was staying to play.  She's made a lot of good friends that it will be sad to see go.  Hopefully we'll be able to stay in contact with some of them and of course there will be many many new friends made this fall.  Much like all of these milestones, it's bittersweet. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

And a quick E-Man update so not to leave you all hanging...

We went to the pediatrician on Tuesday for a follow up.  The doctor looked at him and says he looks perfect.  He seems to think that the hospital may have jumped the gun on calling it pneumonia.  He said because he never really was coughing and because his lungs sound absolutely clear that he just doesn't see it.  And then to add insult to injury the stupid hospital didn't bother sending over the copies of everything like they said they were going to.  So therefore my doctor had to speculate rather than see for himself.  The doctor thinks that the passing out was caused by just the rate at which the fever came on and that it was just a virus that caused it.  The Husband called the hospital though and hopefully got everything squared away.  E-Man has his 2 year well check on Monday so hopefully they will have the info and I can ask the doctor to look at it and see what she thinks.  But as for now, E-Man is fine.  His temp broke after 2 days and you wouldn't have a clue he was ever sick at all. 

Tofu Tuesday #11

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Tofu Tuesday is the place to share all of your vegetarian secrets. If you have a great recipe to share, a product to rave or rant about, or anything that has made being a vegetarian easier for you please share it. (And vegans, please jump in too!!) Feel free to grab the little button over there to the right. After you post come back here and link up down there with Mr. Linky. Make sure to link to your Tofu Tuesday post and not to your main blog address. I'm looking forward to reading all your posts!

Last night I tried a new recipe. I made Nutburgers. The taste was good but for some reason the mixture came out way too wet and they would not stay together. I'd be willing to give them another shot though. The kids were both afraid of them, but K-Girl did try a bite and it didn't kill her either. ;) Unfortunately I don't have a picture, but I promise you that mine didn't look anything like the picture on the link. If you try them, I'd love to know how they turn out for you.

Nutburgers

An all-time favorite meatless burger. The nutburger is tasty, satisfying and filling, without leaving you with the heavy feeling after eating a beef burger. And it's healthier too!

1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
2 eggs
1 cup toasted wheat germ or cooked rice
1 cup parsley, finely chopped
3 stalks celery, minced
1 onion, minced
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 green or red pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp basil
2 tsp curry powder

Mix all together in a big bowl, drop batter into patties in hot olive oil in skillet. Use just enough oil to cover the pan bottom. Cook until golden brown. Serve on a bun just like a hamburger, with red onion slice, lettuce tomato slice......the works!



Mr. Linky is currently down so please add a comment with the link to your TT post of you are playing along. :) Thanks!

E-Man visits the ER

Oh what a night. 

Tonight was our normal Thursday night meal swap with our friends/neighbors.  It started off much like any other Thursday evening.  However, E-Man had these funky red marks on his face.  He had them since he got up from nap.  Honestly it looked like when I was at the park this morning that I forgot to put sunscreen on his nose and he burnt, but then there were more spots than just his nose.  Well after refusing dinner, then a hotdog, and finally some birthday cake I started thinking something was up.  I mean seriously, what kid passes up birthday cake?!  Well I assure you it isn't mine.  ;) 

So I felt him and he seemed a bit warm to me.  Devon gave me this book to help figure it out, and the first question was if he was running a fever over 100.4.  I took his temp (under arm and it was 100.8).  Well that book didn't help from there on.  But he started getting really snuggly and then really sleepy.  I was starting to really get a bad feeling about him and we were going to call the pediatrician.  Then he started losing consciousness.  It was all I could do to keep him awake and his body was completely limp.  I started to panic while The Husband called the ped.  They told us to take him to the ER.  Thankfully our wonderful friends kept (and ended up giving a bath to *THANK YOU!!*) K-Girl for us and we rushed off. 

On the way to the hospital E-Man kept nodding off and his breathing was really fast.  He also started chewing his tongue which worried me that maybe he was having an allergic reaction to something and was swelling.  We just couldn't get to the hospital soon enough for me. 

Once we were there they really did move quickly.  We didn't have to wait too long for him to be seen.  They took us back to the room and checked him out.  They took his temp and it was 103 something.  They wanted to get ibuprofen into him as soon as they could.  Meanwhile, preparing that he may have a seizure if his temp continued to climb so quickly, telling me that he would probably have to get x-rays, an IV for fluids, and possibly even a catheter to check for a bladder infection.  I was in tears worrying about all of this.  Finally a nurse comes in with the syringe of meds.  I tried to get E-Man to take them, but he was fighting it and just as I got the last bit in he threw up multiple times.  At that point we had to move on to a suppository to get the meds into him.  Once they were in he fell asleep for a good long while on my chest.  It wasn't that good kind of sleep, instead I was constantly watching him to make sure he was still breathing. 

Then they took us back to the waiting room to wait for the next thing.  At that point The Husband decided to go home and take care of K-Girl and get E-Man and myself clean clothes.  His parents came in to sit with her until we got home.  While he was away they called us back for the x-rays.  If you have not experienced x-rays with a wee one consider yourself lucky.  They had me place him in this contraption that resembled a form of torture instead.  E-Man was screaming and I was crying right along with him.  There's this table with a hole cut out and a little plastic seat resembling a bicycle seat in it.  You put them down into that and then there are these two pieces of curved plastic that closes around him keeping his arms tight above his head.  They velcro closed and keep him stationary.  Awful thing.  Necessary, but awful.  Once those were over we got to sit in the waiting room again...until they called us back for take two because the side view didn't turn out well.  Finally after that we got to go back to the main waiting room to see what was next. 

The Husband got back and by this time the meds had started kicking in and E-Man was feeling a bit better and begging me for a "Na" (snack/drink).  The Husband got him animal crackers out of the machine and he had an entire sippy downed in no time.  With him acting like himself again we really hoped that we wouldn't have to go through with the IV or anything else.  We went back to the other room and the doctor checked him out again.  His temp was down to 101 at that point and she told us that they found what looks to be some spots of pneumonia on the chest x-rays.  (They read them but a tech will double check them in the morning to make sure everything checks out and that is correct.)  So she said we would not have to go through with anything else.  We were given a prescription for antibiotics to treat that, directions of how to control his fever, and told to get with our pediatrician on Tuesday to check how he is.  In the meantime if he gets worse we are to get back to the ER. 

Finally at 11:00 tonight we got home and were able to put K-Girl to bed.  E-Man waited for his daddy to go get the meds so he could get the first dose in his system and some Motrin before bed.  At 11:30 he was finally able to go to bed.  Now all is quiet, except for the pounding in my head.

Oh what a night. 

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Tofu Tuesday #10

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Tofu Tuesday is the place to share all of your vegetarian secrets. If you have a great recipe to share, a product to rave or rant about, or anything that has made being a vegetarian easier for you please share it. (And vegans, please jump in too!!) Feel free to grab the little button over there to the right. After you post come back here and link up down there with Mr. Linky. Make sure to link to your Tofu Tuesday post and not to your main blog address. I'm looking forward to reading all your posts!

This week I'm sharing with you all Crockpot Ravioli Stew. (You all can click there to visit About.com for the original recipe and their picture of the meal.) Yep, Vegetarian AND a crockpot meal. I love crockpot meals. They just save so much time at dinner time. We served this to our friends who are not vegetarian and they were happy with it as well. Kids weren't a huge fan, but they all at least picked out the Ravioli noodles to eat so there is something that the kids liked about it.

Here's my picture...

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours,

Ingredients:
* 2 cups sliced carrots
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 (14 oz.) cans vegetable broth
* 2 (14 oz.) cans Italian style diced tomatoes, undrained
* 18 oz. can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
* 1 tsp. dried basil leaves
* 1/8 tsp. pepper
* 9 oz. pkg. refrigerated cheese stuffed ravioli pasta
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation:
Combine all ingredients except ravioli pasta and Parmesan cheese in 3-4 quart slow cooker. Cover crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours until carrots are tender. Increase heat to high and stir in ravioli. Cover crockpot and cook for 6-8 minutes until ravioli are tender. Sprinkle with cheese and serve. 4 servings

My modifications and comments...

1. I used frozen carrot slices to save time.
2. I did not have time when I got home to be able to cook this for 6 hours. I had more like *almost* 4. What I did to make up for it was that I steamed my carrots while I was getting everything else prepared so that I was SURE that they would be tender. Then once everything was in, I cooked on high for 4 hours.
3. I doubled the recipe and it FILLED my crockpot. I mean like at the end when I added my ravioli the lid would not go back on. So in turn I cooked the ravioli separately and then put them in, let them sit while I got drinks and all that and then served.
4. I doubled it but only used one onion for the entire thing. That was PLENTY of onion. I may have used a larger onion, but I don't see using a whole onion for a single batch.
5. I did not use refrigerated ravioli. I used frozen Rosetto Small Round Cheese Ravioli. And it called for 9 oz. which would be 18 doubled, but I used a whole bag which is more than that. I would definitely use more than 9 oz. It just makes more of a meal to me.
6. For the parmesan cheese, I used Kraft Grate-It-Fresh Parmesan Cheese. It's fresh but easy. You can pick it up in the dairy section (it's between the butter and the other cheeses in our store).
7. I don't agree with 4 servings. When I doubled this recipe it served 4 adults that (I think all went back for seconds) and 4 children as well. AND we had enough for two more large adult helpings with the leftovers.
8. My final comment about this recipe is that it is one that when it sits as leftovers in the fridge it will get really strong. I ate it on day 4 and honestly I would have had it the next day if I had known this.

Tofu Tuesday #9

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Tofu Tuesday is the place to share all of your vegetarian secrets. If you have a great recipe to share, a product to rave or rant about, or anything that has made being a vegetarian easier for you please share it. (And vegans, please jump in too!!) Feel free to grab the little button over there to the right. After you post come back here and link up down there with Mr. Linky. Make sure to link to your Tofu Tuesday post and not to your main blog address. I'm looking forward to reading all your posts!

I'm a little short on time today as I'm actually doing some cleaning. My house doesn't know what to think about this. ;)

Where do I go when I'm out and about and need something to eat fast?

First choice is Panera for their Tomato Mozzarella Panini. It's delicious! It's a grown up grilled cheese. It has fresh tomatoes and mozzarella on it along with fresh basil and a tomato pesto. YUM. All of this is on ciabatta bread. Definitely my first choice if I'm out.

Another option if you're out and about is that Burger King does carry a veggie burger these days! Did you know that? So that is an easy alternative as well.

Honestly your choices are even greater if you eat salad and you're not quite as picky as myself. But if all else fails there's always a large fry. Seriously healthy, huh? ;)

So what do you have to share this week?

The Sisterhood Weekly Weigh-In #2

This is the second week's weigh-in. I have a confession to make. I haven't shredded for 3 days. :( First was because I did something to my shoulders/upper back/neck and it hurt bad. I figured after 12 straight days I would take a day off. I don't think that's too bad. But then the next day I went away and wasn't home till 10:30 and then I needed to mop the floor. Yesterday was just plain laziness though. But I'll do it again today during nap time. I am not going to let myself give up just because I missed a few days and I'm not feeling sore anymore - no excuses.

I moved up to Level 2 after 10 days of Level 1. It's kicked my butt. I was looking forward to it with a certain level of fear. It's was not misplaced. She's sadistic. ;) I went from being able to keep up with the full exercises and moving up weights to 5 lbs back down to my 3 lb weights and I'm barely keeping up with the modified versions of some of the movements. It's brutal. I mean really, double jump ropes?! And I thought the chair sitting with the v lifts or whatever she calls them would be decent, but OW! And "plank pose" is now a cuss to me. ;) Of course now that I skipped 3 days, today is going to be worse. Hopefully after another 3 or 4 days I'll be able to keep up better and maybe by the end of this 10 I'll be keeping up with the regular versions. I'm not holding my breath though this time. Like I said, brutal.

Last week's results can be found HERE. This week I'm...

• weight - 155.7 (-2.3)


• bust - 35 1/2 (no change)
  


• waist - 37 (no change)
  


• hips - 39 1/2" (no change)
  


• bmi - 24.4 (Normal weight = 18.5-24.9) (-0.3)

So my measurements didn't change this week, but I lost some pounds so I'm more than excited about that. In the past two weeks I've lost a couple inches and a couple pounds. Now back to it hard this week and maybe I can lose a few more of each. :)

Tofu Tuesday #8

Brought to you by...
Kaci@Ellyphant & Kelli@Gohn Crazy

Tofu Tuesday is the place to share all of your vegetarian secrets. If you have a great recipe to share, a product to rave or rant about, or anything that has made being a vegetarian easier for you please share it. (And vegans, please jump in too!!) Feel free to grab the little button over there to the right. After you post come back here and link up down there with Mr. Linky. Make sure to link to your Tofu Tuesday post and not to your main blog address. I'm looking forward to reading all your posts!

A simple substitution this week.

Eggplant for veal or chicken.

Eggplant has always been one of those foods that I've been scared of. I mean it's purple, it doesn't look easy to prepare. It's a vegetable. *L* It's just scared me.

But one thing that I have enjoyed has been veal parm or chicken parm. Yeah, that won't fly. So on a Thursday dinner swap we were introduced to eggplant parm.

Holy cow! YUM!

Now I had prepared out of the freezer section eggplant, not the real fresh stuff so I can't speak for all of it. AND I ordered an eggplant parm sub shortly after my first delicious eggplant experience and that was gag-alicious, but the stuff from this box is GREAT.

Image Credit - www.MichaelAngelos.com

Breaded Eggplant Cutlets Italian-Style from Michael Angelo's You can get them at Sam's in the freezer section. It's a huge box, but I'm alright with that. I think I may make some with our Cheese Tortellini that we're are having for dinner this evening. Yum!

***There seems to be a Mr. Linky issue today. If you're participating just post in the comments for the time being. If it is working later today we can link up then. Not sure what the problem is.

Hang it out to dry!

It's time again for Gift of Green's Clothesline Challenge! This is what started my obsession with line drying last year. I'm looking forward to getting started again this year. It's been chilly, but I've totally been shown up by a neighbor in the back of us. They have been hanging wash outside when it's nearly freezing out. I need to get to it. I've committed to line drying 9 out of 10 loads of laundry which is Advanced in the challenge. Hopefully this will also help me get back on top of laundry.

If you want to join in the challenge head on over to Gift of Green and sign up in the comments by clicking this nifty little button...

You can also follow my progress over to the left <---- right under "Players of this Crazy Blog".