Birthday Cake Nightmares

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Casey

Friday night, 2:30am. I wake up to Bug yelling and crying, which happens very rarely. I get up and go into his room to hear him sobbing, “I want to go back to my birthday party and finish my birthday cake.” Not thinking that it was a bad dream, I tried to explain to him that he did finish his cake (you know, a week ago) and to go back to sleep. This happens two more times before a glass of water calms him down enough to go back to sleep for real.

When he woke up in the morning, the first thing out of his little mouth is, “My birthday party was ruined because I didn’t finish my birthday cake.” It was then that Hubby realized that he must’ve had a nightmare about not finishing cake. Hubby then proceeds to explain that dreams are just pictures in your head and they are pretend and yadda yadda and tried to recap his actual birthday party, wherein Bug did finish his birthday cake. The birthday cake that we, in fact, brought home to be finished at a later date. I’m not sure Bug bought it.

These, folks, are the things my kid has bad dreams about. My child that is obsessed with superheroes and villains and Ninja Turtles. He has nightmares about unfinished birthday cake, which just goes to show how much he loves cake. Just like his Momma.

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Instawhat Week of 6/9

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Casey

Bugger’s 3rd birthday was last Sunday… woot! We had a superhero party at the beach and had a grand ole time. There will be an actual, for real post on the party later this week. This is Bug wearing his pinata as a hat. It is also my new favorite picture ever. Silly boy.

Summer in Florida means that it is bright & sunny in the mornings and early afternoon with a rain shower rolling in around 4:00 or so. Then it clears up for sunset. Generally speaking. Not this year. Well, at least not for the last week of May and the first week of June. Thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea, we had something like 10 straight days of grey skies and rain, rain, rain. It felt like we were in Seattle, just way warmer. It was depressing. Bug and I spent some time playing in puddles because playing inside was no longer fun after so many days!

The upside of all that rain was 1) maybe the water table was raised enough to where we won’t have any water restrictions this summer and 2) my rain lilies are SO HAPPY.

Peanut butter jelly face! This is how my son eats (and has always eaten) his sandwiches: he separates the two pieces of bread, scrapes all of the peanut butter off and eats it, scrapes all the jelly off and eats it and then eats each piece of bread. This makes for a messy lunch. And, also, a long lunch.

This wasn’t on my Instagram feed this week, but on my work’s. Strawberry Napolean. I’m sharing it here as a sneak peak for my next recipe post. I’m photographing it at work today, so hopefully I’ll have it posted next week! Talk about perfect summer dessert. This, folks, is it.

Oh My Zulily

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Casey

Ok, so I discovered Zulily quite some time ago. Like a couple of years ago, actually. I have bought a couple of things for Bug there, like some shoes and a jacket and a shirt here or there. Here’s the thing, though. I didn’t realize the full potential of Zulily until I found out that we were having a girl. Let’s be honest here… shopping for boy clothes is just ok. We get by just fine with clothes from Target for Bug. He’s a basic shirt & shorts & tennis shoes kind of kid. No need to shop at boutiques for stuff like that. Shopping for girls? A whole different story.

1. The possibilities of cuteness are unlimited.
2. Boutiques automatically become so much more fun.
3. Zulily is my new best friend. Especially since I don’t believe in spending a lot of money of children’s clothing.

Wait, what? You haven’t heard of Zulily? Let me enlighten you. They have new deals every day on all kinds of kids’ stuff. And there is a ton of stuff. Mostly clothes & shoes, but also toys and costumes and fun stuff like that. They don’t just have kids’ stuff, though. They also have clothes, accessories & shoes for mom (including super cute/reasonably priced maternity clothes!!) and stuff for the home. I get their daily email and lately I’ve been clicking on it nearly every day to see what adorable baby girl stuff I can find.

Here are just some of the few adorable things I found today. Not that I bought all of this, mind you… I was mostly just dreaming. Mostly.

I’m not the kind of girl that is super into pink and ruffles and tutus and smocking and even dresses for that matter. I was a tomboy growing up and I kind of envision my little girl being the same way. That being said, I can’t help but want to dress my baby girl in super adorable, pretty things. I love these shorts outfits because they are cute and feminine without being dresses or skirts. And, yes, I realize that the one of those shirts is full of ruffles. I can deal with a few ruffles! The best part about all of these outfits… they are all between $12.99 – $14.99. That’s a pretty good deal!

Even though I’m not totally about dresses, I obviously can’t help myself every once in awhile. I usually like really bright colors, but this gray dress from Calvin Klein is too precious to ignore. And, at $12.99? Yes, please. Those adorable orange flats are only $7.99, too! That’s another thing about Zulily… often the brands are good, recognizable brands that are just on sale. The couple of things that I’ve ordered from brands that I hadn’t heard of were great quality. Zulily prides themselves on selling boutique brands at reasonable prices.

Again, with the dresses, but seriously. How stinkin’ cute is this whale dress ($27.99) and these little shoes ($12.99)? I die. I have to say, the only not good thing about Zulily is that you can’t choose how quickly your items are shipped. Each featured brand (of which there are like a dozen every single day) is on sale for 72 hours, and after the sale is over, they place a bulk order from their supplier. So, it might take 2 weeks to get your order. But, I’m ok with that. I just know that if I’m looking for an Easter outfit, I need to shop for it early.

I mentioned this at the beginning, but they also have toys and games and whatnot. Bug loves these magnet boards. They’ve gotten us through several car trips. We bought ours in a store for $10 apiece, and the same exact ones are on Zulily this week for $6.

Anywho, if you feel that uncontrollable urge to shop for clothes for your kid or your grandkid or your next door neighbor’s kid or, heck, my kid (or if you really like browsing, like me!)… click here to sign up for Zulily. You won’t be sorry. Your husband might be, but you won’t.

Instawhat: Week of 6/2

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Casey

I kind of forgot to take pictures this week… mostly because I spent a lot of time a)working b) playing and c) preparing for Bug’s 3rd birthday party. So, the first picture you get this week was actually part of my restaurant’s Instagram week, but I figured it was appropriate due to the fact that I’d like to post the recipe here soon. Feast your eyes on fresh blueberry cobbler. This was our dessert special for the weekend. And we sold out. Twice.

We took Bug on a family to see Epic last week. He loved it. There were battles, good guys and bad guys. Pretty much the best movie ingredients for Bugster. Oh, and popcorn. So, we take our almost-3-year-old to a 7:00 movie (his bed time is usually between 7:30-8:00) and at the end he says, “Can we go to another movie now?” At almost 9:00 at night. Kid’s a movie boy for sure… just like his parents! Anyways, Hubby made him a Leafman helmet & shield out of some beer boxes. Because every kid needs a beer box costume, right? And, yes, he has socks on his hands. They were his gloves, obviously.

Instawhat: Week of 5/26

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Casey

After not running for 4 months, I’ve been trying to get back to it… I’m attempting to run once a week. Don’t worry, my doctor says its okay and I’m taking it really easy. My run last week was on an ominous day. Actually, every day for the past week or so has been rather ominous… lots of gray clouds and threats of rain with only sporadic bursts of actual rain. I love running on days like this. The sun isn’t beating down on you, there is a little bit of a breeze and the sky is so interesting to look at.

Bug started swim lesson on Saturday! Ok, short run down on Bug’s swimming progress over the last year:

Beginning of last summer (exactly 2 years old) – Bug LOVED the water. He would hold himself under as long as he could, jump in off the side all by himself (with someone there to catch him, of course) and by the middle of summer would even swim underwater from you to the wall about 4 feet away. He had a swim vest thing that barely let him float and he’d kick all around the pool wearing it. We’re all, he’ll be swimming by himself in no time! No lessons needed!
End of last summer (2 years, 4 months old) – Bug realized that water is something he maybe, possibly should be afraid of. Awesome. Refused the swim vest. Absolutely no jumping in. Wouldn’t leave the steps… not even holding on to Mom & Dad. He would still put his face under, but only from the second step down.
This spring (April – 2 years, 10 months old) – First pool excursion since last year (finally warm enough). Bug would go into the water holding onto me for dear life. He would also jump in, but only if I held both of his hands.

Back to swim lessons. I fully expected him to freak out as soon as the teacher pulled him into the water. I think I knew that he actually wouldn’t freak out, but I prepared myself for it. He did fantastic. He was excited the whole time, and each time he was in the water, he did exactly what the teacher instructed. Now, she never let go of him, but he didn’t hold on like crazy either. He had another lesson on Sunday and did just as well. She dunked each kid underwater and he came up smiling. I would like to mention, though, that my child definitely was the least attentive while sitting on the steps waiting for the other kids to have their turns. Not that he was intentionally disruptive or misbehaving, but there was a lot of splashing and talking involved. Credit that to either a) he’s the youngest in the class or b) he’s Scary Uncle Adam’s nephew.

Threenagers

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Casey

Oh, Threenagers.

Terrible Twos is a term that everyone uses… warns you about. As soon as you say you have a two year old, people knowingly look at you and say, “Oh, those Terrible Twos.” Well, folks of children who are not yet three… those people are wrong. ALL WRONG. Sure, Bug has gone through some rather annoying phases over the last year, but none of those phases were quite as frustrating as the beginning of the three year old year. And he’s not actually turning three until Sunday.

You see, the problem with three year olds is that they are at those beginning stages of thinking they know everything. They feel like they’ve got a pretty good handle on this whole how to live life thing. Three year olds really like to get their way, if they don’t, they will pout and scream and cry about it. Yes, kind of like a teenager. Glad you got that.

A good example:

The other day, Hubby and Bug decided to draw me a picture. It was very sweet. They drew me a house. Hubby drew the house, Bug colored it in. Hubby drew the roof, Bug colored it in. Hubby drew the grass, Bug colored it in. Hubby drew a door, Bug flipped his shit. “But, I WANTED TO DRAW THE DOOR!” Ummm, okay. So, Bug takes the drawing, runs into the other room and throws it as hard as he can. Which 1) isn’t very hard and 2) it’s paper, it’s not going very far.

As a parent, moments like this surprise you. This is not normal behavior for my son. Or, at least, it wasn’t. He’s still a really good little boy, and freakouts like this still don’t happen all that often, but they are definitely becoming slightly more frequent. In fact, just last night, at dinner, we told him he couldn’t have dessert unless he finished his dinner. Immediate tears. Seriously, dude? Part of you wants to laugh and the other part wants to hold it in because you don’t want to make the situation worse.

The other part of the Threenager bit is the independence streak. I get this. I get that he wants to do things by himself. I like that. I think that is a wonderful thing. What I don’t like is that if I have accidentally started to do something for him, something that he now wants to do on his own, he flips his lid. Things like climbing in and out of the car seat. Or pushing his trike… the one where his feet barely hit the pedals.

The other not-so-awesome thing about toddler independence is that everything takes ten times longer. I mean, things take longer with kids anyways… getting out the door with a baby takes approximately 5-15 minutes depending on whether or not they poop as soon as you lock the front door. Getting out the door with a Threenager who wants to do everything himself and then whines when you try to hurry him along? Approximately 15-30 minutes. Unless you just pick him up and drag him to the car kicking and screaming with no shoes because he wanted to put them on by himself even though he hasn’t figured out how yet and you are already running late because he eats his breakfast at an elderly snail’s pace and you don’t want to send him to school without a decent breakfast. Whew. That happens a lot at my house, obviously.

At least he makes up for it with lots of sugar, hugs & kisses.

I’d love to give you some advice on how to deal with a Threenager, but we’re still figuring that one out. The same basic rules apply in our house that have always applied… you misbehave twice and you’re in time out. First time’s a warning, unless there is violent behavior involved (thankfully, this rarely happens). Then, you don’t get a warning. We do our best not to tolerate whining and to encourage good manners. We ignore tantrums, though true tantrums have, thank God, always been few and far between with Bug. So, for now, Hubby & I are continuing with our original strategies. If they start to not work and we do some drastic discipline change, I’ll let you know.

How were your kids at Terrible Twos VS Threenagers? Any advice?

Instawhat: Week of 5/19-5/25

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Casey

Wow. It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these posts! We had a busy week last week. We started off in Raleigh on Sunday for Scary Uncle Adam’s wedding! It was a wonderful weekend full of friends and family and exploring a new city. And also welcoming a new sister (Aunt Kristin) to our crazy family. Bug was the cutest ring bearer I’ve ever seen, of course. Funny side story: during the ceremony, the pastor (Kristin’s father) said something that made the congregation chuckle. Bug bursts out with the loudest, fakest laugh I’ve ever heard, which, obviously, makes the entire congregation crack up. Love this kid.

We split up the drive to Raleigh over two days, but we drove back in one fell swoop on Monday. 13 hours with all of the required stops for a toddler to stretch his legs and for a preggo to pee. Bug was SO GOOD in the car. He never once complained or asked to get out and he never once fussed about having to get back in the car after stopping for a break. We were so proud of him. He fell asleep at about 9:30… an hour-ish before we got home… holding his foot.

Somebody (not me!) taught Bug how to roll Play-Doh into snakes! He is very proud of this skill and we spent a good twenty minutes rolling numerous Play-Doh snakes that afternoon.

Nine times out of ten, if you ask Bug what he wants to do today, he’ll say ,”Go to the libary.” (Hard word for a little guy.) We really only have one free day a week to do whatever he wants (Thursdays, if you’re interested), so about every other Thursday we go to the library together. We return our books from the previous trips, find some new books and look through them before checking them out and then usually going out to lunch. Ten times out of ten, the books he chooses contain superheroes and/or Ninja Turtles. Someone might be obsessed.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of catering a wedding for a dear friend of Aunt Annie’s. Let me start by saying that Hubby & I adore the family we catered for. Hubby is close friends with the Jenny’s (the bride) oldest brother, who is one of the nicest guys I know. Jenny’s mom is a nurse and was a lactation consultant at our county hospital when Bug was born… she was sweet enough to bring us dinner one night after Bug was born and was so open to any questions I had about breastfeeding. I texted her often those first couple of weeks! This was our prep area in the kitchen… catering for 175 people is tough, and we had a couple little hiccups, but we had so much fun! It is always such a treat when I get to cater for people that I know and love. That being said, Hubby and I are still recovering from working until 3am that night!!

You Probably Thought I Died

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Casey

Well, unless you follow me on Instagram or Facebook. Then you probably know that I am actually still alive. There’s been a lot going on around here the last several months. Blogging added unneeded stress to my plate, so instead of letting it stress me out, I chose to take a break. And, I’m glad that I did. But now, I think (key word here: think) I’m ready to jump back on that horse again. Also, I keep writing posts in my head and I really need to get them down onto paper (theoretically, obvi) before I forget!

So, what’s been going on?

1. January through Mother’s Day is high season here in Southwest Florida. I run a restaurant. Add those two together and you get a lot of hours worked by me and my fellow coworkers in a four month time span. There were a lot of eleven and twelve hour days, with most of those hours spent running around like a crazy woman. It was stressful and tiring, but I couldn’t be more thankful for one of the most successful seasons that we’ve had in years.

2. We found out in early February that I’m pregnant! YAY! And, we found out last week that we’re having a girl! Double YAY! Especially since Bug has been convinced he’s getting a baby sister from day one. I’m not sure how he would have taken it if his little sibling was to be a brother. This is actually the main reason for my not blogging. Baby girl has worn. me. out. I pretty much spent every possible “waking” moment from February until April napping. I had days where I almost didn’t make it through an 8-hour day shift at work because 2:00 = involuntary naptime. Most days, I’d even fall asleep on the couch after eating breakfast while waiting for Bug to finish his breakfast. I was pathetic. On top of being just plain exhausted, I had a nasty sinus infection that lasted for close to a month. I was miserable, cranky and pretty much at my wit’s end. Thank God for patient husbands and antibiotics.

3. If you pay attention, you might know that I play guitar. Well, in December, my good friend Emily talked me into trying out for the worship band at a church that hadn’t actually started yet because they, at that point, had zero musicians. I reluctantly agreed. Considering that I had never played (or sang) in front of anyone other than family, it was a big deal. Once I met the group and we started practicing and then playing at services (our church launched in late January), I can’t imagine NOT being a part of the worship team. Hubby, Eli and I have become part of a very special family, and we are so thankful for that. Our worship team practices every Wednesday night and plays at services on Sunday mornings. We’re a mobile church, which means that we don’t have a building of our own. We set up at 8:15 in the auditorium of a local elementary school for 10:30 service, and then we have to have everything broken down and out of the building by 12:30. It’s a lot of work and time, but it’s more than worth it!

I have lots of things to share with you all: Bug is in his big boy room, all done up superhero style; Bug is almost three and is certainly acting the part; new recipes; pregnant musings; preparing for a little girl to join our family.

It feels good to be back!

The Things He Says: Volume 3

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Casey

“Momma, you’re my girl.” Melts me every time. Though I do have to say that it was slightly cuter when he still pronounced girl “goilla” (kind of like gorilla but without the ‘r’). Just now, like 3o seconds ago, I told him that he was my boy and he replied, “And you’re my best girl in the world.” Little boys are awesome.

Quite awhile ago, we were having our snack in the driveway on a warm, sunny day. Bug sighs as he sits down and says, “It’s a nice day.” And, he was right.

He wants to name his baby sister “Brocto Doc.” He likes to make up words. Big imagination, that kid. The funny thing is, he actually remembers that he made up that word. He’s been calling her Brocto Doc for days now.

Instead of Ninja Turtles, Bug says “Minja Turtles.” My mom was trying to get him to say it correctly and said, very slowly to him “Nin-ja.” In reply, he said, very slowly, “Tur-tle.” She stopped trying.

This morning in the car I told Bug that he was getting too big. His response? “No, mom. I’m just a little bit big, but you’re so so really big!” I think it may have been a compliment?

Instawhat: Week of 1/27

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Casey

So, I forgot to post this stuff last week, which is actually okay since I also forgot to take a single picture on my phone last week. Which, really, isn’t a bad thing. We had a great week and focused more on each other than the pictures

My favorite foodie event of the whole year is Forks & Corks, which is put on by a local restaurant group that we belong to called the Sarasota Originals. Forks is held in the courtyard of the beautiful Ringling Museum and consists of about 50 local, independent restaurants as well as about 70 vineyards from around the world. The coolest part to the wine enthusiasts (my dad & I included) that attend this event is that many of the winemakers and vineyard owners come to our town to represent their wines. It’s like meeting celebrities. Tickets go for $85 ($150 for VIP)… this year, they went on sale in early November and they sold out of 1200 tickets in THREE HOURS. Amazing. Luckily, we get to be one of the restaurants there. We served pork belly with edamame fried rice and a sweet soy drizzle. We were named the Best of Show. No big deal. We also drank a lot of amazing wine. While we served food. Also no big deal.

Bug loves helping wash the car. He’s getting pretty good with the hose. Also, it was warm enough on a January day to actually play in the hose. Be jealous.

Just doing a puzzle in my underwear. With my tummy hanging out. Big man.

The Baker Bee