God moment and Baby B's kissing face

So I spent the few brief moments I had to myself all day long trying to write a post about the Advent devotional I read last night. It touched a chord with Hubby T and me and I wanted to share it. But for some reason my brain is not working right today. So I'll work on a good Advent post another day.

In the meantime, here's my cool God story of the day. On Saturday Baby B and I were shopping at Costco. They had some fleecy footsie pajamas for sale, which look so cute on Baby B and they were only $6! I really wanted to get him a pair but I resisted, because he doesn't really need them and they're not in our budget. I was a little bummed but had moved past it. This morning my sister called me and the mom of the baby she nannies for offered to give us the 10 twelve-month sized footsie pajamas that her baby has grown out of. Whoa! I love experiencing God's faithfulness in unexpected ways.

And here's my silly Baby B pictures of the day. My baby brain games book says that babies love to look at themselves in a mirror, and you can play all sorts of games with them pointing out body parts, etc. My baby likes to kiss himself when he looks in a mirror.



And when you take the mirror away, this is what his face looks like!



Now tell me who wouldn't want to kiss that?!

Over the river and through the woods...

Okay, so we actually went under a bay rather than over a river, and we drove through more suburbs than woods, but to Grandmother's house we did go for Thanksgiving! Hubby T and I have not been at my parent's home for Thanksgiving since we've been married, so it was very nice to relax at my childhood home and enjoy their holiday traditions again, and to share them with Baby B!



I love to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. My favorite parts of the parade, the Broadway show acts and the Rockettes, are all on in the beginning, so I focus on those and then keep it on in the background while helping my mom cook. My contributions to our dinner were peeling lots of squash and making this delicious Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tart. It's like pumpkin pie except better, unless you're my sister, who is a pumpkin pie purist. I don't think we'll ever agree on this Auntie A, but I'll say it again because it's my blog and I can - my dessert is better!

I'm not sure if my family had more fun with Baby B or if he had more fun with them. After all, it's not everyday that you get to share your rice cracker with your adoring Grandpa...



...or eat from a silver spoon (literally) with your adoring Gramma...



He had all grown-up food for Thanksgiving dinner, some roasted vegetables, extra cooked apples from the apple pie and he tried mashed potatoes for the first time! He made a terrible "this is disgusting!" face after his first bite. He makes that face after trying everything for the first time though, so I don't think he actually dislikes mashed potatoes. He did like the tiny bit of pumpkin banana mousse tart I gave him though. I guess sugar makes everything taste good, no matter how old you are!

And now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, our family can finally move into the Christmas season. There will be much more on that in the weeks to come, but for now, here's a little preview - Baby B's Christmas pajamas!!



Silly baby, he has no idea what's coming. But it's going to be fun!!

Exciting day!

Today is an exciting day. My first thought when I woke up this morning was, "Wow! Baby B slept until 5:52, amazing!" My second thought was, "Twilight tonight!!" Yes, I am a ridiculously enthusiastic Twilight fan. Go ahead and judge if you want but I am not ashamed.

We also woke up to our first frost of the fall on the ground this morning. Baby B didn't notice though, he was too busy playing with his toys after breakfast. (And yes, that bright orange beer stein that he is holding is one of his toys.)



I love this toy corner of the kitchen. This morning it distracted him enough that I could enjoy my warm bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar, raisins, and homemade cranberry sauce for breakfast without a baby fussing at my feet for attention. Although that didn't last for long...remember when I was telling you how he likes to pull himself up on our legs now and hold on? This is what that looks like from my perspective -



Or, from a different angle -



Today is also exciting because it's been three days in a row where I've been able to get Baby D to nap in the morning! We've been really struggling with that for a couple weeks. I guess this is the stressful part of my "job", trying to get a baby who I know is tired to calm down enough to fall asleep. Anyway, morning nap time is back, at least for today, and we are all happier.

After the morning nap we went grocery shopping, which doesn't sound all that exciting but it's an exciting challenge for me. You try fitting half a week's worth of groceries in a cart filled with two babies. They were both very helpful when it came to unloading the groceries at home.



Now they are both sleeping, again for a little bit (score!) so I have a couple minutes of down time before the rest of my exciting day continues. Auntie A is on her way up to hang with us and then go see the movie with me tonight. Hubby T is staying home to babysit but I got him Captain Planet from the Redbox to watch so he can't complain too much. Plus, I'm making a homemade hawaiian pizza for dinner. I love having so much fun stuff to look forward to in my life and hope each of you do as well.

When Mama P is sick

Head colds stink. Last night I went to bed super achy and super stuffy, hoping that a good night of rest would make me feel better. This morning I woke up a little achy and still pretty stuffy. But thanks heavens for Tylenol Cold - today was a lot better than I thought it would be - although we still had to take it pretty easy. Here's a picture of what our day looks like when Mama P is sick...

Baby B and I wore sweats all day. I love having a job that allows me to wear sweats when I don't feel good. Especially when they become covered in snot by 8:30. Imagine what they look like by 4:30!



We didn't go shoe shopping like I was planning for today. The boys were really disappointed, especially Baby D.



We forgot to put on bibs when eating, and by we I mean me. Baby D got halfway through breakfast before I remembered his bib and Baby B got completely through lunch with no bib. I didn't even realize it until we went up to his room to play after lunch and thought, "Huh, why is his shirt so dirty? Oh geez, did I forget to put a bib on him too?!"

The boys had a lot of free play time, meaning I sat or laid on something close by and watched them play with whatever they wanted, including Baby B's swing. (I can't believe how small an amount of time it's been since he fit in this thing!)



And finally, for dinner tonight we let Baby B feed himself some freshly cooked acorn squash. Which led to squash all over his clothes. Which led to baby nakedness in the kitchen.



Which led to this adorable frog bathrobe:)



He looks like a little boxing champ when it hangs open:) Hopefully he can box these colds away so that we can both feel better soon!!

What's new

Tomorrow Baby B will be 10 months old! Although he hasn't crossed any new major milestones recently, he is doing a couple "new" things.

One of his favorite new activities when he wants our attention is to crawl over, pull himself up on our legs, and hold on.



He's in the process of sitting down in this picture, but I'm sure any of you who are parents know what I'm talking about. The funniest part of all this is that when he's holding on, he will move with us if we move. There's no escaping!! For example, yesterday, Baby B was gently poking Baby D in the face. (I try to stop this whenever I can, but sometimes pokes get through.) So Baby D started getting fussy and when I scolded Baby B and pushed his hand away, he started crying too. So I picked up Baby D to comfort him, which prompted Baby B to pull himself up on my leg and cry harder. So, with two babies clinging to me and crying, we very slowly inched across the kitchen to get to the high chair so that I could put Baby D down and then pick up Baby B. Fortunately it was lunch time, so some cheerios and puffs cheered those babies up pretty quick:)

Baby B has also started making kissing sounds! He doesn't make the kiss shape with his lips, but the sound is a kiss sound. He imitates us if we do it, so we're having fun making kiss sounds at him and having him "kiss" us back. I can't wait until he gives me a hug and kisses my cheek for real, but for now I'll take this.

On a not so exciting note, Baby B has a crazy red skin thing going on around his mouth. At first I thought it was happening because the air is drying out as it gets colder and with all the saliva around his mouth, somehow it was irritating the skin. Baby D's mom suggested yesterday that he might have a teething rash. That's hard to know for sure since he doesn't have any teeth yet but completely possible. We're using some baby aveeno lotion to try and keep it in check, which is kind of working. Fortunately it doesn't bother him at all, but he looks very red!



And if the tired eyes in this picture don't tell you, Baby B is also coming down with a cold of some sort:( His nose started getting runny late yesterday and has gotten worse throughout the day. I think I startled another lady at the grocery store this morning when I almost shouted, "Yay for Mommy! We do have boogie wipes!" when I remembered that there were indeed boogie wipes in the diaper bag and I wouldn't have to wipe his nose with pieces of our clothing to get through the shopping trip. The quote of the night from dinner table tonight was, "Oh, sorry bud. I didn't mean to get that booger in your eye." It's okay Hubby T, wiping a baby's nose is tricky when they don't want you to:) I'm coming down with a version of what he has as well, so we both took 2 hours naps this afternoon. Hopefully there will be plenty more of that tomorrow and not as much this -

What have you done to help the world today?

"For every Eye Pledge taken, VSP^® Vision Care will donate an eye exam and new pair of glasses to a child served by a Boys and Girls Club.* The Eye Pledge is easy to take and doesn't cost you a thing! Take the Eye Pledge now and help a child."

Okay, I know this might sound like an advertising gimick, but it's not. All you have to do is go to this website and click a button that says you pledge to take care of your eyesight, something I bet every reader of this blog already does. And with that one click, you help out kids in need.

I read about this on another blog and thought, "I never would have known about this if I hadn't read this blog. Maybe I should put this on my blog so that other people will read my blog and think the same thing."

So, have you done something to help the world today?

Four things

Both boys slept for at least 1.5 hours this afternoon and both went down without any fuss whatsoever. Victory for Mama P!!

Because both boys slept, I had time to make these delicious muffins. And they're filled with veggies, so they can be consumed virtually guilt free - awesome!

At dinner tonight Hubby T told me, in all seriousness, that he couldn't wait to look at the precinct data in our area to figure out how our town voted yesterday. Yes hubby dear, I will agree with your Facebook post - you are a government dork.

I finally bought Baby B a winter hat yesterday. And yes, it is even cuter in person. Now we just need some good winter weather to test it out in (Colorado in January anyone?!:)

Ode to Little Boys

Even when you wake up at 4:30 in the morning,
I love waking with you to greet each day.
I rub the sleep out of my eyes and rise (mostly) with a smile
because there's no more rest when you are ready to play!


Baby B was here!

Reading poems, reading books,
so many words for you to learn!
The only thing that could be better
is if you would someday learn to take turns!



Causing mischief at every turn,
I have to keep a pretty sharp eye on you.
But I don't mind, not one little bit,
because what could be better than looking at you two?!



Someday I know you'll both grow up,
you'll be big and strong and tall.
But until then, I'll love playing with you silly babies,
who make me the happiest and luckiest mommy of all.

Weekend update

Baby B wanted to begin this post by saying hello to everyone!



We had some fun waving at breakfast this morning:)

We had a pretty good weekend. Friday night we hosted our small group at our house, which I love doing. In order to better accommodate our guests, Hubby T and I decided to take down the baby gates that normally limit Baby B's mobility around the downstairs. In the process of taking the gates down, this happened -



Okay, I know the picture is a bit blurry, so allow me to translate. The paint stuck to the edge of the baby gate post, and the dry wall stuck to the paint. When we removed the gate, the paint and dry wall came with it! Ahh!! And now we have a hole in our wall. Lovely.

On a more positive note, we received the professional pictures we had taken of Baby B on Friday night, including our first family portrait!!



I know it's a bit silly to take a picture of another picture, but I'm so happy to finally have a family picture of the three of us in our home. I can't wait to get frames for the rest of the pictures because they turned out so well!! All the credit goes to this awesome friend.

My biggest worry about this weekend was the daylight savings time change. As all mothers who have lived through a daylight savings time change know, babies do not react well. They wake up whenever they want to wake up, regardless of what the clock says. Since Baby B has been waking up around 5:15 lately, I figured it was inevitable that I would be woken up at 4:15 this morning by my very loud baby. And I was right. We let him babble in his crib till 4:45 (and by we I mean me because Hubby T is a heavy sleeper, I try not to hold it against him). Then I brought him into our bed to feed him and - Alleluia - he fell back asleep! It was a minor miracle that all 3 of us were still in bed at 6:30 this morning.

And, just because no blog post is complete without a couple more pictures of Baby B...this is what he wore to church today!



Ignoring the drool spots, I love baby sweater vests:) All he needs is a pair of baby glasses and he could be a little college professor!



I wish words could accurately describe this moment last night. He thought it was funny to pound on his tummy, kind of like Tarzan. What a silly boy:)

Happy tummies

We had an awesome dinner tonight that was too delicious to keep to ourselves. The pork tenderloin and carrots were good but pretty unremarkable. What made the dinner blog-worthy was the Roasted Pear & Apple Sauce (see recipe below). You will never want to serve plain applesauce again after having this. Also it makes your house smell amazing.

For dessert we had some leftover Brownie Pudding (from Barefoot Contessa's Back to Basics cookbook). I made this last weekend and it seems to only get better with time. It is one of my favorite chocolate desserts and it is super easy. Trust me, your life will be better after trying it, really.

We have happy tummies in our house tonight:)

Roasted Pear & Apple Sauce from how easy is that? by the Barefoot Contessa

Zest and juice of 2 large navel oranges
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 lbs sweet red apples (approximately 8 apples)
3 lbs ripe Bosc pears (approximately 7 pears)
1/2 c. light brown sugar, lightly packed
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the zest and juice of the oranges and lemon in a nonreactive Dutch oven. Peel, quarter, and core the apples and pears and toss them in the juice. Add the brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon and cover the pot. Bake for 1.25-1.5 hours, until the apples and pears are tender. Mix with a whisk until the sauce is smooth but still a little chunky. Depending on the ripeness of the fruit, the apples will likely fall apart and the pears will break up but stay chunky. Serve warm or at room temperature.