Thursday, August 29, 2013

brooke's bakery

i baked my first pie.
that's right people,
i'm awesome.
 
 
everything was from scratch.
the crust.
the filling.
and i used peaches off the tree.
 
i know,
you're impressed.
you might be feeling the need
to refer to me as betty crocker,
but i'm trying for something even better.
i'm going for my mamma.
the next linda turner.
 



 





 
 
ps- the crust is the hardest part.
i screwed one up and threw it away.
good thing it only takes three ingredients.
 
(you can tell it was all crumbly and wouldn't stay together.)
 
want the recipe for the crust?
then you can do whatever filling you want.
 
vegetable oil pie crust:
1 1/3 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 C vegetable oil
3-4 Tbsp cold milk
 
sift flour and salt together.
mix oil and milk together. beat with fork until combined.
make a well in the center of your flour and add milk mixture.
mix with a fork until moistened.
roll in a ball.
refrigerate 30 minutes.
(if you want crust on top, you have to do this twice)
roll out between 2 sheets of plastic wrap.
carefully place in pie plate.
peel back wrap and gently fit into pie plate.
add your pie filling.
place your second crust piece on top.
cut off extra and flute edges.
cut slits for it to breathe.
bake at 450 for 15 minutes,
then turn down your oven to 375 and bake for an
additional 40 minutes.
 
and that's it.
not nearly as hard as i thought it would be.
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

grab a tissue

someone else wrote this.
but i had to share.
you can see her original post here.
it's titled: a promise to my daughter.
 


I’m tired and she’s tired. And she’s been weeping with frustration, her face a smudge of red cheeks and snotty trails. I go down on my knees beside her little, chubby legs. They’re curving over the edge of her green froggy potty stool and she is glaring hot blue eyes into my face. I reach for her and she swats at me and doesn’t accept the comfort I know she wants. I gently take her hands and pull her up. Her tender self all frustration and sweat and nakedness melting into me. I cup her with my arms and my words and slowly stroke those damp curls back from her cheeks.
I’ve got deadlines and to-do lists and no clue what to make for dinner. There is one quiet window before the boys come home and we’re hoping to snatch a ten minute nap. But she’s inconsolable for reasons she can’t put into two-year-old words yet and I’m on my knees reaching for her.
I will always come, baby.

She’s in my arms and slowly beginning the ritual of stroking my right arm. Her curls are warm and sweaty and that pudgy baby cheek fits just under my chin.
I will always come.

I dance with her slowly – the rock and roll of motherhood – and I know this is a promise I can stake my life on.
I will always come.

When you forget your lunch. When you are sheep number 5 in the Christmas play. When you take up the recorder and bleat all the way through the Easter service. When you get that bad hair cut. When you think you want to be a beauty queen. When you swear off fashion altogether.
I will come.

When the mean girls make you want to shrivel inside your skin. When a teacher intimidates you. When you intimidate the teachers. When you think you can sing and try out for a musical, when you get laughed at and people point fingers at your hair and your shoes and your too bony hips.
My darling, I will come.

When that boy breaks your heart and you’re stranded at a college miles away, I will come. When the internship you thought was part of your calling falls through. When a friend gets sick. When the car crashes. When you have more long distance charges than you thought possible. When you run out of gas, chocolate chip cookies and faith.
I will be there.

When you say your “I dos,” when you you start your happily ever afters, when none of it quite feels like you thought it would. When you don’t know how to pick a mattress, when the sofa is in the wrong place, when you regret what feels like signing your life away to someone else. When you keep on keeping on. When you remember how to say sorry. When you need a safe place to say how cliche you feel all “barefoot and pregnant.”
I will so be there.

When the baby won’t sleep and the world’s on fire with sleep exhaustion.
Sweetheart, I will come.

When your husband’s out of work. When you’re down to one car and have moved in with his in-laws. When your job threatens to break your heart. When toddlers make you question your sanity. When you realize that you’ve made the worst mistake a woman can make. When you’ve run out of tears and still the tears keeping coming.
I will come.

When you move and move and relocate again. When you pack boxes and dreams and hope. When your life is a world of duct tape and questions.
I will still come.

And when your home is warm and your heart is full. When you’re at peace. When you need someone to share the joy, to watch the kids, to admire the dimples. When you want to remember that old recipe, when you still can’t pick a sofa, when you wish you’d never said yes to the dog. When you don’t know where you’re going. When you’re the most sure of yourself you’ve ever been. When you’re holding onto faith with just your fingernails. When you’re singing, “Jesus loves me this I know” and you mean it with every tiny, beautiful, miraculous part of your DNA, always I will come.

One hundred different ways I will come when you call. I will rock and roll you with my love and the promise that I will help you get back on your feet. I will hold your hand. I will rejoice. I will babysit. I will pass the tissues. I will wash the dishes. I will come.
Tonight. Tomorrow. And the day after. And after. And then some.



i cried because i know when these things have happened to me,
my mom came.
and i cried because i know when these things happen to brette,
i will go to her too.
 
 


Sunday, August 25, 2013

gymnastics

crib gymnastics.
is it a sport?
because i'm pretty sure
brette is getting the gold medal.
 


 
these are three different mornings.
how is she moving around so much while being swaddled?
 
what a wiggle worm.

Friday, August 23, 2013

keeping up


part of my deal with ronnie about
staying at home with brette
was me selling my abilities to keep the house together too. 
the laundry.
the grocery shopping. 
the cleaning.
the errands.
i was a bit worried about being able to do it all
and also take care of a baby too. 
but luckily,
i have had a pretty great transition.
not to mention a super helpful husband...
(or ocd, you pick)
it helped me to schedule out my days.
mondays i clean and do some laundry.
tuesdays i visit jaime and the girls.
wednesdays i finish up laundry.
and thursdays i run errands.
she sleeps all morning and i use that time to do stuff around the house.
(or i use it to shower and get ready if i know we have plans that day) 
in the afternoon we run errands and ronnie is home by 4:00. 
but lets be honest,
i do have those days where i need to get stuff done
and brette wants my undivided attention. 
so i have found two ways to get around it. 
the first item i would recommend is the ring sling.
you can find them on etsy,
but they can get expensive - up to $70. 
i just bought some fabric from hobby lobby and
had a family friend make me one. 
brette loves to be wrapped on me. 
she either spends the time looking at everything
or falls asleep instantly.
i use it around the house to clean
or if i'm running errands and she wants out of the carseat. 
 
(ring sling)
 
the second item is a portable swing. 
we use our big swing a lot,
but its so nice to have the smaller one too that we can take outside.
if ronnie is washing the cars or if i am mowing the yard,
we can take her with us and be hands free. 
she loves being outside so we can easily get
30 minutes to an hour of "free" time to get some outdoor chores done.
 
notice i made no mention of dinner?
ronnie normally takes care of that
or i get out one of my freezer meals.
and that's my last recommendation.
prepare meals ahead of time.
its fast, easy, cheap and healthier than the drive-thru.
i can't tell you how much we rely on these.

for me, it helped to have a plan.
 

 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

state fair

 
since the state fair is only 35 minutes from where i grew up,
i make sure and make an appearance every year.
what's better than the rides, the lights, the food, the concerts and the beer gardens?
its one of my favorite summer events.
this year was a little different though.
i took my whole family and
instead of showing up at 6pm,
we were leaving by 6pm.
and instead of concerts and beer,
we did petting zoos and funnel cakes.
 
it was still a lot of fun
and it was nice to see madeline go crazy over the horses.
the babies did wonderful too.
they rode in the stroller or were wrapped on jaime or i.
i even found a nice little garden spot to nurse Brette
and a hay bale to change her on.
 
and yes,
we might have had one of those white trash "you-brought-your-baby-in-a-bar" moments.
but in my defense,
we needed a shaded spot to sit and eat our funnel cake.
the beer gardens won.
so i did get a little dose of my old time state fair
and ronnie had a couple beers.
hope no one minded our parked strollers while we listened to some country karaoke.
 
yee haw.

(giving eden some time to stretch her legs)

(madeline wore my DAD'S shirt from when he was a boy. a true cowgirl.)
 
(ronnie and brian totally enthused about the kids center)

(leaving the beer gardens... with our babies)

(changing a diaper and talking to grandma)

(madeline watching the horses)
 
(brette sleeping on me in her adorable sun hat)

(mammas and their wrapped babies)
 
 

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

health and wellness

we've had a rough couple days.
i've been sick these past couple weeks
and managed to pass it along to brette.
she woke up sunday with a horrible cold
and diarrhea.  
not awesome.
 
i asked my mamma friends for advice
and we came up with this plan:
 
aspirate the shit out of her nose
keep her propped up
well hydrated
and i sent ronnie to the store to load up
on baby vicks and a new humidifier.
it seems to be working.
she's not over it,
but she's definitely getting better.
the first night she threw up twice from the phlegm
so i had her sleep in our room the last two nights
just so i could hear her if she was coughing or choking.
but she's back to her room tonight
and doing just fine.
(ps- the night she threw up twice, she didn't even wake up.
i went in there. wiped her up. aspirated her nose. and laid her on a new pad.
she slept through the whole thing.  a total sleeping champion.)
 
meanwhile,
i had a set back of my own.
i think since brette was sick and
not as interested in eating
i developed a clogged milk duct.
let me tell you,
those things hurt.
i was walking around with a golf ball sized lump.
i read online, called my doctor and got advice from my sis-n-law.
basically nurse like crazy, pump, massage, and try a warm compress.
i've been doing all of that for the last two days.
plus i've been getting up in the middle of the night to pump when i normally wouldn't
and sleeping with a heating pad.
finally, this afternoon, it let down.
brette choked when the dam was broke and
i've never been so happy to squirt my daughter in the face.
and just like that, it seems to be healed.
thank jesus.
 
 
 
i'm just happy that we both are on the mend.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

shot through the heart

brette got three shots
in her little legs yesterday.
i thought it was going to be worse on
me than her,
but truthfully, i think she hated it just as much.
 
it was one of those instant cries
where her face turns red and no
sound comes out because she is losing it.
i told her to breathe, which was a mistake,
because then she started screaming.
literally screaming, not crying.
it was high pitched and crazy. 
its definitely a different sound when
a child is in pain.
then came the crying.
when we got home i let her take a nap on me.
it lasted over two hours - which is huge for her
and gave me some uninterrupted snuggle time and computer time.
(as pictured below)
then daddy brought home some tylenol
and we actually had a good night.
i think the marathon nap plus the meds helped a lot.
today, she was a little fussy and running a slight temp.
 i gave her another dose of tylenol
and things seem to be on the mend.
 
 
i'm glad we don't have to do that again until october.


 
what did i do with all that time on the computer?
(besides blogging and checking facebook) i joined
parents as teachers and registered my family at the
catholic church so we can move forward with B's baptism.
 
 
more on both those things later.





Tuesday, August 13, 2013

brette: two months

two months and a lifetime.



growth:
she weighs 10lbs 5oz (48th percentile)
her height is 22in (50th percentile)
her head is 39cm (75th percentile)
 
she's still in size one diapers
and is finally wearing 0-3 month clothing.
she can still wear some of her newborn outfits,
but i have so much 0-3 month stuff that
i've been putting her in those for the last two weeks.
she has some control of her neck and head.
she can lift it and move it side to side,
but we are still using tummy time to help strengthen it more.
she has definitely filled out over the last month.
she has chubby cheeks and little rolls on her legs.
her eyes have turned blue - we'll see if they stay that way.
she no longer looks like a newborn,
but a precious baby girl.
 
sleeps:
she sleeps in her crib every night and has
since she was 5 weeks old.
i was putting her down at 10:00,
but she was so exhausted by 8:00 it was a miserable
couple hours just getting us there,
so now i put her down at 9:00
and start our bedtime routine at 8:00.
she is still sleeping through the night like a champ.
she normally wakes up somewhere between 6:00 ad 7:00,
i feed her and put her right back down and she sleeps again
until 9:00 or 10:00.
its so nice.
i feel like if you get a good nights sleep,
the rest is cake.
but it does keep ronnie and i from having much of a social life.
we need to be home by 8pm in order to get her to bed
and i don't start my day until around 10:00.
the one thing that is lacking is naps.
i think she sleeps so much at night
that she is pretty much awake most of the day.
i might get a 2 hr nap on a good day,
 and that's only if she's being held.
but most of the time she takes three 45 minute naps.
that is why she is so exhausted by the evening.
i'm still working on getting her down for a good afternoon nap in her crib everyday,
but so far, its a no go.
 
eats:
she is still on the boob diet.
i feel like she still can't go more than
3 hours without nursing again
and that's only if she's had a nap in there.
if she's awake the whole time,
she'll only go two hours before she's ready again.
and keeping with our routine,
she still takes a 2oz bottle every night before bed. 
 
plays:
she is cooing and talking all the time now.
she smiles at you and can make eye contact.
she can hold your finger and has quite the grip.
she loves to be sang to
and still loves the outdoors.
we also started using the stroller.
she goes for at least one walk per day
and depending on how hot it is,
we might go on two.
she loves jeep rides and use them
to pass time in the evenings during witching hours.
this totally makes ronald happy.
we've been using the jeep now more than ever
and i think i've seen all the back roads between here and lone jack. 
 
firsts:
she had her first stroller ride.
her first sleepover.
her first shots. (wah wah)
her first cold.
her first injury.
(i managed to cut off -what felt like- half her pinky when trimming her nails.
i was devastated. she was bleeding and crying. mom of the year over here.)


its been so fun watching her change
and start to interact with us.
i can't wait to see what the next month brings.


 
 
 
want to compare?
go see brette at one month to see the difference.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, August 12, 2013

life's rough. wear a helmet.

brette is two months today.
we did her photoshoot this morning,
but her check-up with the pediatrician is tomorrow
so i'm going to wait to post her update
until i have her new stats.
 
but i do have a question/concern
that i didn't know if anyone else
has any thoughts on.
 
head shape.
i know FOUR mammas on facebook
whose kiddos ended up having to wear
a helmet because their heads were getting flat one side.
to me, four babies that have this seems like a lot 
so i now i'm nervous that it is a pretty common problem.
one i would like to avoid.
 
since i saw it happen to others i was trying
my best to make sure and rotate which side of
brette's head she would sleep on.
i would literally sing "from the window to the wall..."
to help me remember if it was time for her to face
the window or the wall when she lays in her crib.
i was like sandra bullock in the proposal - you can watch it here.
 
but now, brette has control of her head and neck
so even if it's a night to face the wall,
she ALWAYS faces the window.
i keep putting her down and she keeps moving her head.
so now i'm afraid she is going to have a flat head on one side.
i mean really.
i wish she would just stay still when i put her down.
 
so am i being a complete control freak?
should i even worry about this?
 
here i am watching her on the monitor,
as she moves her head to the window.
dang it.


 

Thursday, August 8, 2013

chicka chicka bang... bangs

what happens when
you've been watching too much
of the hills and the kardashians
 
and
 
your daughter is still asleep
at 10 and you've been up since 8?
 
you cut bangs.
duh.
 
i was messing with my hair.
it started off with a braid
then i thought i should dye it,
but i figured i would get started and brette would wake up
so i got out my hair scissors.
 
 


i kinda like it.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

outings

i've calculated it up
and out of the 8 weeks we've had brette
i've only been away from her for four hours.

i left her with my dad for an hour while my mom and i ran errands.
i left her with ronnie for an hour to get dinner and rent a movie.
and on friday, ronnie and i had our first outing together,
a couple hours at a tractor pull.


 
my mom and dad watched her and it was nice to go somewhere just the two of us.
however, i left and went back home by 8:30 and ronnie got home at 11:30.
i wanted to be back in time to feed her and put her to bed.
when i was leaving, i was telling ronnie that i kind of wished i could stay,
but i wanted to go just as much.


(this is brette's first sleepover and first time in her pack n' play.
she did awesome and slept 9 hrs.)
 
i've missed 4 hours out of 1,344 she's been here.
that sounds crazy.

its hard trying to find a balance.
wanting to be with her all the time
and knowing that i need to make time for myself as well.
not to mention, giving ronnie the chance to spread his daddy wings
and have her all to himself.
so in that regard,
i've joined a sand volleyball team.
they play once a week for a couple hours on tuesday nights.
it starts in a couple weeks and it will give ronnie
that chance to have a daddy daughter night.

cross your fingers that
we will all enjoy our time together... and apart.
i'm nervous.

 (bird mouth)

(louie is patiently waiting his turn)

(staring at her papa)

 

 

 
 



Friday, August 2, 2013

F off

this is just what i was afraid of.
attitude.
already.
she is sending me a clear message
 

 
happy friday!
 


[i was nursing, so i tried my best to save you from any awkward boob moment]