Finally updated!

For bird, while talking to bird, in preparation of seeing said bird....tomorrow.

Terrible three's and the tantrums that follow!

I know that I have been terrible about blogging, but I am changing that as of right now! Our little "Devil and a candy wrapper" Lauren (a.k.a. Nonie, the nickname that we love and that she gave herself!) is hell on wheels! I want to document her actions to show her later in life and for me to maybe, just maybe, find a pattern to her horrendous behavior.

Today is the perfect example. The last time I took Lauren to the zoo, I just let her run, no stroller. That was a HUGE mistake. Today, I took her with the stroller. SHE WAS GREAT, until we were doing the last thing, the merry-go-round. She usually LOVES riding it, but today, she had a super sonic meltdown! Right as it was about to start, she started the pulling moms hair-pinching-hitting-biting phase of the tantrum. At this point, I jumped right off of the ride with her and hightailed it outta there! Surely it was embarrassing, but the kind man noticed my frustration and refunded my money as I was exiting the area! Holy crap, getting the kid in her stroller to get her to the car was a fete and some more pulling moms hair-pinching-hitting-biting ensued. I literally rode home with the music blaring and windows open to drown out her wailing in the back seat. Luckily as I pulled onto our street there were two police cars (who knows why they were there) and I told Lauren that they were there for her and they were going to take her away. Everything came to a halt and she stopped her actions and ran right inside.

After we were inside and washed up, Lauren said that she was hungry. She never tells me she is hungry, in fact, she rarely eats at all, so this was shocking in and of itself. She ate a great lunch of left over’s. I guess I am just going to chalk up her actions today to a low blood sugar. I don't know if that is the case, but it is something to check in to!

Slacker 101...

Yep, that's me! I know I have said this in the past, but darn, I am terrible at keeping all of you up to speed on all things Lauren. With her 3rd Birthday rapidly approaching I NEED to put these things in writing so they do not become lost in the depths of my brain!

Speaking:
Lauren has really progressed in the vocaublary department. At her 2 year check-up, Dr. T suggested I get Lauren into speech therapy just to check on what/how she was doing. While she far surpassed other in the comprehension department, she was really lacking in the expressive department. We decided to enroll her in Early Intervention program that comes to your house and suggests things to do with her to get her to speek. The main purpose of EI really was to get funding through the state for speech therapy because our insurance does not cover it (just like ALL insurance companies, but that is another discussion.) Around 2 1/2 one of the therapists said that between now and 3 is usually when the biggest change would occur, and BOY DID IT! She did a complete 180*. We got her retested and to quote the Therapist "There is no reason she should have to come back to speech!" Phew, relief. That is the background, here are some of the results:

~ Lauren has now nicknamed herself. When you ask her to say Lauren, it comes out Nonie. I LOVE IT!
~ While stubbing my toe the other night, I said "ahhhhhh" and she followed with "damnit!" Lovely, just lovely.
~

Education & Experiences:
Oh boy, I would say this is the biggest change this past year! We were lucky enough that when I got promoted that we had a babysitter that would come to our house. After A LOT of back and forth, we decided that this babysitter was no longer a good fit so we let her go. This left us in unheavel! Thankfully we had family and friends that would fill in while I hunted for a sitter or daycare. There were times that I had to put her in a drop-in day care and I hated the place! I mean, it would good for an hour or two, but not for extended periods of time. I then reached out to my friend who happens to be a pediattric nurse practitioner and very reliabe and trustworthy. She was in the same boat as I was only a couple of months before. She suggested I try her girl(s) and while I know she is as particular as I am, if not more, that if she was comfortable with her daughter (who is Lauren's buddy) being there all day, then I could be too. So I took her one afternoon to try it out and she did just fine! I signed up that very day! For the first couple of weeks, she would through screaming fits to the point that they would have to come outside to get her, but now, she slaps me high-five and away she goes!

Sometimes you just gotta...

1.) Scream! That is what I sometimes (ok, most of the time) want to do. Not because something is necessarily wrong, but because it just feels good to let it all out. The frustrations of everyday life can get the best of us, whether we want to believe it or not, they do. It is just a good way to let it all out.
2.) Throw something, anything. This usually falls into the category of a dog toy so our joyous puppy can just back the eff off of me and leave me be, but ya know, dogs will be dogs and people will be people. The end of Marley and Me, as I watched last night, sums it all up so perfectly.
3.) Call it a day. When the above two options just really aren't options, one must call it a day and hope for a fresh start in the morning. It usually always happens for me, and for that I feel quite lucky (if that's what it is and not just sweeping it all under the rug for another day, wait, maybe that's what it isn't) I usually feel better.

Coffee after 5 o'clock?

Who would have thunk it! I never would have thought of myself as an all day coffee drinker, but now, I think I am. Back in the day, caffeine used to have the reverse effect on me, the more I drank, the more tired I became. Now, I get the nice "buzz" and then it wears off and I crash, but I get another cup! It's like I need to get my "fix" or something. Is it laced with crack? Must be, because I LOVE THE STUFF!

Sheer Destruction

Boy, was this weekend fun! Not so much. Not a lot going on other than on Sunday, Lauren decided she didn't want to nap! She had some not-so-quiet time in her room. When we put her down for a nap, if she naps, great, if she doesn't but is quiet and playing by herself, we are fine with it. Until we open the door and find this...

I foresee her room being rearranged yet again!

P.S. With not napping and going to bed a little early, she awoke at 7:15 this morning. I was SO hoping she would sleep in! Not so much! Grrr.

Adios Kindle...

While great in theory, not so much needed. The $150 is going to be well spent elsewhere. Also, you can't beat the smell of a new book! Can't get that with Kindle now can ya?!

Really?! Just one Oreo?

Nothing really new and exciting going on here...So I will just ramble!

Work, back at it after a month off, yipee!

Lauren, still not eating, nothing, nada, zip, zilch. Well, that's not entirely true, she does eat some things, they are just not what I would prefer her to eat. She will occasionally put something in her mouth only to take it/spit it out one millisecond later. She is slightly anemic and needs her iron, but how can she get it when she doesn't eat meat? I do supplement with vitamins and such, but I would so much rather her eat the good stuff!

Winter, I hate it, I want it to be over, I. WANT. SPRING! (oh, and a new patio to boot!) Therefore, I have begun my Spring Cleaning in hopes that that darned groundhog was correct... Even though he determined our fate in the middle of our biggest snow storm the year thus far, I can't trust his judgement!

I'm making my lists of flowers and veggies I want to plant. I hope that the veggies will have the same effect they did last year with Lauren. She would go out, pick it and start munching on it like it was the best thing ever. Then again, she used to eat everything under the sun, but now, not so much.

Duplo-Blocks. Are. Everywhere.

Laundry never ends.

The kitchen is always messy.

The new dog is driving us nuts!

Really, did I just take one Oreo out of the package and think I would be satisfied? Who the heck was I kidding... I went back for 3 more!

Testing....

I'm making some pretty updates to my blog, this a test, only a test! Happy snow day everyone!

Desperately trying everything...

The past few months around here have been nothing short of a headache in the meal department. I mean, I am totally going to be losing my mind any second when it comes to putting something good in Lauren’s mouth… let alone her chewing and swallowing it as opposed to her spitting it out.

Since I have been at a loss, I decided to try something new, something out of me element. I have the “Sneaky Chef” and “Deceptively Delicious” cookbooks, but let’s be honest; I didn’t feel like doing all the prep work, today anyway. So I looked around the internet for some ideas on sneaking something low maintenance into brownies. Who doesn’t love chocolate? I couldn’t find anything involving what I had on had, carrots. Again, I will be honest; I gave up my search quickly. So, I went into the kitchen and just started grating up the carrots, man that is some work! I got out the necessary items for the brownies and I went to work.


I mixed the ingredients according to the package and then I just started throwing in the grated carrots. I would say I used over a cup, I just eyeballed it. In my opinion, you can’t even see the carrots in the sticky mix…

Poured into a greased pan and baked. Since there are carrots in there, you kind of have to keep an eye on the progress; I would say these took about 35 minutes to completely bake. (Just stick the toothpick in the middle to check, duh!) And this is what you get...

At this point, I would usually be done with the brownies because I for some reason am not a frosting on brownies kind of girl, but I decided they needed it! At let me tell you… it made all the difference! See…


You can barely even see the carrots, or taste them! Lauren gobbled them up, of course, they’re chocolate! But the biggest test would be Aaron. I didn’t tell him I was making them so it was a nice surprise when he got home. Me being unable to keep a secret, usually, I managed to do so this time. I didn’t say one word about the hidden secret, and let’s be honest, I didn’t want to give it away that I was up to something. After a few minutes, he tried it, and LIKED it! Jackpot! I then told him what was in them and he said “You can’t even taste it!” Bingo, my whole point!

In the end, the only that really made these brownies different was that they were more “cakey” of a brownie, but not a huge difference. I am sure this won’t be my last time making these in this house! I urge you all to try… and enjoy!

P.S. I'm hiding everything but the healthy stuff in this house...