Monday

Sadie had a vaccination appointment scheduled for late Monday morning. I have been anxious about this appointment because since her last checkup, Sadie has developed a minor fear of the doctor's. She HATES having to take her diaper off there to get on the scale. Freaks her out. Knowing that it was just a vaccination appointment, I was pretty sure she wasn't going to need to be weighed but I was still nervous that there was going to be a lot of screaming, yelling, and resisting.

On Sunday, I explained to Sadie that we were going to visit her doctor the next day and that it was going to be fun because the nurse has lots of Elmo stickers. She was in good spirits on Monday morning and kept mentioning going to "Dr. Rudolph's" (which is what she calls her doctor... not sure why since that it no where near his name). I could tell she was nervous once we got to the waiting room but she quickly got distracted trying to get everybody else's attention.

The nurse called our name and we went up to the exam room. I plopped Sadie on the table and she looked really, really nervous. She was very quiet and whenever she wanted to ask me something, she'd whisper her question. When her doctor entered the room, Sadie quietly said that she needed to get down because she forgot something in the car. Nice attempt at escaping! Sadie silently resisted lying down on the table but I was able to distract her enough so that she could get her shot. She let out an "ouch!!" and made a sad face but no tears. Sadie then sat up and was all smiles again and wanted to know where the stickers were. This girl will do anything for a sticker.



I was so proud of her and how strong she was. I could tell she just wanted to burst into tears and go home but she fought it and got through it all on her own. We celebrated with a cup of ice cream at Cold Stone. Being that it was a Monday afternoon, we had the whole place to ourselves! Sadie picked vanilla and wouldn't share. She earned her ice cream this morning and I wasn't going to argue.




We strolled around town and then hopped in the car and headed to the book store to pick out a new Curious George book. When we pulled into the parking lot, I found Sadie fast asleep in her car seat with her stickers strategically placed on her face. Our little wackadoo.



She woke up just in time to play with the new train set at Barnes & Noble and pick out Curious George Makes Pancakes since Curious George and making pancakes with Daddy are two of Sadie's favorite things.

Our week on Instagram...

A Very Biting Week

The theme of this week has been biting.

Sadie started off our week by biting the top of her bottle and then scaring me into thinking she ate it (of which I'm still not entirely sure) and then she ended the week with biting Sophie's ear off (as in Sophie the giraffe... this is when I realize the week could have been much, much worse if Sophie had been a friend). She was sitting on my bed chomping away on Sophie as I folded laundry and then pronounced that she ate Sophie. Her words exactly were "Look at what I did!" and then proceeds to show me Sophie minus one ear. I asked her what happened and her response was "I ate it. Smoosh smoosh smoosh!". I'm completely horrified. Completely. And now we are waiting for said ear to pass. Lovely.

Here is the rest of our week in pictures.

Our week started with the bottle biting incident which led to my removing all bottles from the kitchen and making a quick transition into sippy cup training...


Sadie relaxing in her "boat"...


Sadie and I walk to Story Time at the library on a chilly Spring morning...


Sadie loves to find her name and stick it on Miss Amy's board at the start of Story Time...


Sadie working on her rainbow masterpiece at the library...


Sadie is enjoying a gorgeous Spring day in our backyard. Lots of dirt digging, tricycle riding, and rock finding.


We have made big strides in our sippy cup transition this week. Besides her bedtime bottle, it has been all sippy cup all week.


Sadie in her stroller on a walk home from town after purchasing our Powerball tickets. Sadie and I are doing all sorts of dreaming.


Holding hands with her bestie as they leave the park...


Tells me that she will be right back and she drives off in buybuyBaby...


Sadie picks out big girl utensils and is enjoying her first meal with them. She's so excited that she insists on using the spoon, fork, and knife to eat her pasta.


Sadie figures out how to climb her changing table. She's so proud and I am petrified.


Our azaleas bloom (finally)!


Ending our week with the Sophie ear incident. We will miss you dearly, Sophie.

Sippy Cup Training

Transitioning Sadie from a bottle to a sippy cup has proved to be one of the bigger challenges of parenthood so far. She knows how to drink from a sippy cup so it is not a developmental problem and therefore, I was okay with her using a bottle if that was her preference and what brought her comfort. I breastfed for almost sixteen months and chose to transition Sadie to a bottle instead of a sippy cup because I thought it would make the transition easier on Sadie (which it did)... it also probably led her to be twenty-eight months and still using a bottle. I still think I made the right choice for us and don't regret it... however on Monday, on a car ride to Target, I went to pick Sadie up out of her car seat to head inside to pick up some diapers when I noticed she had bit off the entire top of her bottle. I was horrified and panicked that she ate it.

After coming to the conclusion that she had not swallowed the bottle top, I made the decision that today was the last day of bottles. While in Target, we headed over to the sippy cup aisle and I let Sadie pick out two new cups thinking that if she was part of the process, she'd be more apt to use it. That trick usually works with food... if I let her "help" cook it, she will usually be more inclined to eat it. When we got home, I distracted Sadie with some toys on the back porch while I removed all traces of her bottles from the kitchen. I replaced them with all of the different sippy cups I have purchased along the way and sanitized the new ones we just bought at Target in a pot of boiling water. I then asked Sadie if she wanted something to drink in her new sippy cup. She enthusiastically said yes and three days later, she is still drinking from her sippy cups and will only mention her bottles first thing in the morning and at night before bed. So far, so good.

Pinterest Wednesday: Quinoa and Asparagus Salad

I should probably be calling this feature 'Quinoa Wednesday' with all the quinoa recipes I have been pinning and posting.

This week's recipe is so good. I could eat this stuff all day long. Love, love, love! This recipe was adapted from Stephen Roberts and the original recipe was found at Examiner.com. I picked it because I was making lemon chicken for dinner and needed something to go on the side. I had some fresh local asparagus and wanted to use it up so when I saw this recipe, I had to try it. I made some slight variations based upon what I had in my fridge and pantry.


Grocery list...
2 cups of chicken stock
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1/2 T kosher salt (the original recipe called for 1 tablespoon but that felt like a lot)
1 bunch of asparagus, chopped
1 T of Tarragon (the original recipe called for a 1/2 cup of fresh dill but I didn't have any so I went with Tarragon)
5 gloves of garlic (the original recipe called for 4 but I love garlic)
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
juice and zest of one lemon
salt and pepper, to taste

How to make this Quinoa and Asparagus Salad...
In a large pot (I used my Le Creuset french oven), boil the chicken stock and then add the rinsed quinoa and salt. Once boiling, reduce the heat to low, cover pot, and let cook for about 10 minutes. Add the chopped asparagus into pot and give it a stir. Put the cover on the pot and let steam for another 10 minutes. While the quinoa and asparagus steam, heat up your olive oil in a small pan and brown your whole garlic cloves and then let cool. Add the tarragon, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and cooled olive oil to the pot. Smoosh your garlic with the back of a knife and stir into the pot. Serve.

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For more on Pinterest Wednesday and to see past projects/recipes, visit my Pinterest Challenge page here!

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Celebrating being a mama

My third Mother's Day marked the three year anniversary of finding out I was going to become a mommy. I remember everything about that day and make Matt hear the minute by minute details whenever May 12th rolls around. Mother's Day turned into an entire weekend of celebration thanks to my husband. He took Sadie with him on Saturday to run some Mother's Day errands which allowed me to get my hair cut for the first time in well over a year. Coming from somebody who religiously got her hair done every two to three months, this was a big deal. When I returned home to an empty house, I had no idea what to do with myself. I don't think I've been alone in the house since Sadie has been born. I attempted relaxing on the couch and catching up on Grey's Anatomy on the DVR but then the skies darkened and I started receiving text notifications from the Weather Center about a severe storm moving through the area. A blinding rain mixed with hail started falling and I spent the rest of my relaxing afternoon with intense anxiety and wanting to have my baby safely back home. The thought of her on the road in this weather made me crazy but within minutes, Matt's car pulled into the driveway and I raced to the door to give Sadie a 'squoosh you until you can't breathe' kind of hug.

Sadie woke me up on Sunday morning alternating between saying "Happy Mothers" and "Happy Birthday". Daddy handed her some cards to give me and then oatmeal and a cup of coffee were served. We relaxed on the couch watching HGTV until it was time to hop in the car to head down to Princeton for the afternoon. We stopped for lunch and headed to a store to pick out some new picture frames for our family room wall. The store was sold out of the ones Matt had his eye on and Sadie turned into a monster so we regrouped, went back to the car for the stroller, and tried again. Still no frames but we were able to stroll through the store without Sadie breaking anything. We showed Sadie the university and told her this was college. Her response was, "no, this is a castle.". She was pretty firm in her stance so there was no arguing with her. She then told us she wanted to go to college with mommy and daddy. I'll be sure to remind her of that when she is seventeen.

Sadie was beyond exhausted when we returned home so there was no getting a 2013 Mother's Day picture together. She wasn't having it and I hate forcing her to sit for pictures when she isn't up for it. Oh well. We got her tucked into crib early and then Matt and I sat down to the delicious dinner he cooked up for us. He first served pears with sliced parmesan cheese drizzled with honey. So good. Next up was orichette with broccoli rabe and sausage. This is one of my favorite dishes that Matt makes... it is seriously good. For dessert, Matt bought me stuffed cupcakes from an AMAZING bakery in Nutley. They were mini cupcakes so you can have several (right?)! One was even named 'Sexy Sadie' after the Beatles song we named Sadie after... pretty neat! My favorite was a tie between the red velvet and the oreo cupcake.

Our week on Instagram...

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A stroller nap

I thought it was funny, after writing about Sadie dropping her afternoon nap, that this happened today...

To nap or not to nap...

We may be reaching a moment I've been dreading since Sadie was born... the dropping of the second nap. She is giving me mixed messages. Sadie clearly needs her afternoon nap. If we are out in the car and it is anywhere near one or two, she'll be out cold in her car seat. I have absolutely zero problem getting her to go down for a nap at home in her crib. She snuggles up with her dolls, asks to be made cozy warm, and then drifts off to sleep. Putting her down for a nap is super easy. The problem comes later when we try putting her down for bed. Her bedtime routine starts around 7:45p... diaper change, pjs on, vitamins, prayers, a bottle and a book or two (or three) with Daddy, and then she would fall to sleep. That last step has become progressively more difficult in the past few months. After Matt tip toes out of her room after tucking her in, she will yell for me to make her cozy warm and then she'll keep yelling for us to get her something whether it be a book, another doll, a blanket, or her latest "I need... something". Sometimes she wouldn't fall asleep until after nine.

I've experimented over the past week with dropping the nap and it has dramatically improved bedtime. She gets tucked in and is out cold within minutes. Matt says she yawns and snuggles up to him while reading bedtime stories. Without the nap, Sadie was becoming very whiny come five o'clock for the first few days which is not really in her nature unless extremely exhausted, which she clearly was. I've been able to manage the whine with snuggling on the couch and reading a book when it is rainy or by taking late afternoon walks.

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Here is the rest of our week in pictures...

Spring exploding in our front yard...



Stealing peppers from my chopping board. It is impossible to chop vegetables with Sadie around... she just keeps grabbing, grabbing, grabbing. She has never met a pepper or onion she didn't like.

Need to wake this little muffin up to go to Story Time at the library. She usually ends up in our bed while Matt is getting ready for work (and occasionally at 3 in the morning).


Sadie loves to glue!


Sadie made this pretty flower at the library completely by herself... while I was digging in my bag for antibacterial lotion after spotting a little boy with pink eye in her class.

After Story Time at the library, Sadie decided to kick back and read a magazine.


We headed next door to play with the neighbors on Tuesday afternoon. As the mommies chitchatted, Sadie was busy eating dirt and dumping it all over herself.


A much needed bath was had as soon as we returned home. I couldn't see the bottom of the tub after she got in. She had dirt in her diaper and up her nose.


We got some much needed rain on Wednesday which made us both feel a little lethargic. Lots of snuggles in bed while watching Curious George. The skies cleared for about an hour or two and we raced outside for a nice walk.


No afternoon naps means sleeping in late (which means past 7) in the morning. I enjoyed a cup of coffee on a very rainy morning before my little wackadoo woke up. I could get used to this.


Happy weekend!

Pinterest Wednesday: Slow Cooker Chicken Curry

I am always looking for good slow cooker recipes. I love using my slow cooker but I have so far only found a handful of recipes that I like to use in it. That is why this chicken curry recipe from The Lemon Bowl popped out at me while I was mindlessly on Pinterest the other day. Matt and I love curry and ordered it out all the time while we lived in Hoboken. In fact, for my birthday last year, Matt stopped off in Hoboken on his way home from work to get me some from our favorite Indian food restaurant. I have wanted to find a good curry recipe that I could make at home but all of the recipes I found had so many ingredients and most of them were unusual ingredients that I would most likely not reuse in other dishes... until I came across this recipe. So easy and SO good. I mean really, really good. When Matt walked in the house after work, he immediately said the house smelled delicious.


Without further ado, here's this week's Pinterest Challenge recipe.

Grocery List...
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
15 oz tomato sauce
2 T curry powder
1 t kosher salt
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1 cup green peas
2 T lemon juice

How to make this slow cooker chicken curry...

Get your slow cooker out and mix together your coconut milk, chicken broth, tomato sauce, curry powder, salt, and cayenne pepper (we like spicy so I added a little more than a 1/2 teaspoon). Next add the chicken, onion, garbanzo beans, and sweet potatoes. Gently stir all the ingredients together. Turn your slow cooker on to low and let cook for 8 hours. The Lemon Bowl's recipe says you could also cook on high for 4 hours but I never have much success when I do that... I always think it tastes better when you cook on low heat. 5 minutes before serving, stir in your peas and lemon juice.

I served this over white basmati rice.

Please check out the The Lemon Bowl's site for her notes and nutritional information... and for her other DELICIOUS recipes! I could probably do a Pinterest Challenge using recipes solely from her site!

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For more on Pinterest Wednesday and to see past projects/recipes, visit my Pinterest Challenge page here!

Are you on Pinterest? Follow me here!