Rece update

I have several posts drafted in my mind, just haven't taken the time to write them, so I am going to try and start knocking a few out. First as always is Rece. Or simply "man" as Jeremy and I call him. As in "how did Man do at school today?"

He will be 21 months old this weekend. I am not sure what is crazier that we are in the second to last month of 2010 already or that my son is going to be 2 years old in three months! Here's the thing, he looks and talks like he is going on 3, so I have long sense gotten over him not being a "baby" anymore but it's still amazing to think he has been in our lives for almost 2 years now. Here is what he has been up to:

He is somewhere around 34 inches tall and just weighed in at about 29 pounds. Which I was relieved by since I feel like he hasn't eaten anything in 4 weeks. (This is obviously an exaggeration, but sometimes that is how it feels)

He is finally off the preavicid and not having any issues with reflux!

He says some funny stuff, here are a couple of his latest:
- He will grab a cup and pretend to be drinking - when you ask him what he is drinking he says "having a coffee".

- "I boogers in my nose" when you wipe them out he says "I see them?"

- He often talks about people coming to see him, since our family is always coming to visit. He will say "Grandma coming to see you?" (you meaning "me"?) or "Bubba Coming?" (Bubba is my dad) The latest is : "Santa! - he coming!"

-One morning I woke him up from a dead sleep and he says "What's daddy doing?" which he says every morning. But then he followed with " Daddy Poopin?, Me see." Boys.

-When getting my flu shot, he sees that I am going to get a poke and yells "No Mommy, Get Up!" He was so sweet I thought he was going to cry when he saw I was going to get a shot.

He is obsessed with Thomas the Train.

He is also very interested in the "going potty" he mostly just wants to sit on the toilet and pull paper off the roll. But now he has added making a "psssssssssssssss" noise when he sits there. And he talks a lot about getting the pee-pee out - but we haven't see any in the toilet as of yet. He will have a down right fit if we don't put him on the potty when he asks.

He had a pretty nasty cold a couple of weeks ago, but it never went to his chest (hooray for flow vent!) It may have stuck in his sinuses, still TBD.

It has been a good fall so far and I can't wait to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with my "man".

Crock-Pot Gourmet? Please share!

Now that fall and winter (eeek!) are here we have basically stopped grilling which is where 90%+ of our dinners came from this summer. It also helps that Jeremy does almost all of the cooking in the summer. NOW we are back to our normal rush around after we get home from work feeding Rece and trying to figure out what we are going to have for dinner. That type of "meal planning"....or lack there of doesn't always lead to the best food choices. So I am making a conscious effort to better plan for and shop for our dinners - taking that a step further I want to start using a crock-pot to cook a couple of dinners per week. So I researched and waited until this little bad boy went on sale:

I got it for $35 with my Kohls cash! The best part, it can be set to cook on low/high etc for x# of hours and then it will switch to "warm" . This is key as I have dried out many a chicken dish trying to get the timing just right between the crock-pot and my commute. And it also has a temperature probe function if you are cooking a roast it will heat the meat to the proper internal temp - and then again, magically switch to "warm". Anyway, I am super excited to try it out.

That is where I need YOUR help! I have Crock-pot book that is really uninspiring, and there are of course a zillion recipes online but what is better than tried and true recipes that you know and love. Please share your fave recipe, link or book that makes you a Crock-Pot Gourmet!

Thanks in advance!

Fall Festival

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Rece in NYC

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3-0

I turn 30 tomorrow.

How did this happen?

I am not consumed with thoughts of "getting old", having said that I can't believe 30 years have come and gone. Where does time go? So many milestones have come and gone. Here are some thoughts I have pondered.

- I have been a mommy for almost 2 years
- I have lived in PA over 3 years
- I have been a wife for 5 years and we have been together nearly 10!
- I have been a homeowner for almost 6 years
- I have been working in my career for 6 years after Graduate School
- I have been able to drink (legally) for 9 years
- I have been able to vote for 12 years
- I have been out of High School for over 12 years
- I have been driving for 14 years

That is where time goes...and I can't wait to see what the next 30 holds.

Rece News

The little monkey is going to be two before we know it, here are some updates:

- He is so much steadier on his feet than even a couple of months ago and wants to run everywhere.

-His hair has lightened over the summer and has a tint of red to it

-We struggle with his pinching and hitting when he gets frustrated. We have taught him that it is not nice and to say "Sorry" and give a hug if he is not nice. But that seems to have backfired since he is so good at the "Sorry" and hug part, he seems to think he can just check that box and move on...

-He is remembering things, everything. And then he talks about it over and over and over again when he recalls something. The things he remembers are amazing to me.

-He is repeating phrases a lot more now - every day we tell each other "Bye-Bye & See you later" and we also will get the "Had a dood day!!" (ie. Have a good day)

-He will tell you who he played with at day care and what they did. It is most often, Piper, or Liam or Eli and their favorite pastime is "running"

-He went through a few week phase where he was a BEAR at bedtime, luckily that has passed and he is back to his normal bed loving self. We did add two stuffed animals to the routine during that time, and now he has to have both "Bunny and Bear" when he goes to sleep.

-He is perfecting the tantrum. I think his strategy is "practice makes perfect" - not cool.

-He has discovered his fingers fit in his nose, and there are "burgers" up there. Since Jeremy and I did not dedicate teaching time to this skill, I would like to think his booger picking buddy from day-care, whomever that might be. Again - not cool.

-He is on a Flovent Inhaler for the fall and winter to protect his airways from inflammation and hopefully keep every cold from needing a chest x-ray to determine bronchitis or pneumonia He had a cold earlier this month and it was a normal kid cold. I couldn't believe that is what it could be like!! No trips to the ER- WHAT!?! ;-)

-We are also in the process of weaning him from prevacid. We went to a 1/2 pill each day for a few weeks and now we just took him off completely. His reflux has been good, we are crossing our fingers it will stay that way.

-He has started to say "I love you" - I.heart.him.

What we did this summer!

Ahhhhhh, the days of fall, I LOVE fall. Summer is okay and all, but quite frankly there are days when I loathe the heat. To me, the best part of summer is that Jeremy is off of school and our mornings are not as rushed, and because Jeremy is home most of the week, he has time to do enough things around the house that it frees up our weekends to spend as a family.

We had an absolutely wonderful summer. Here is a snapshot of our fun times:

- We spent lots of time at Spring Creek Park playing on all of the slides etc. and even spent some time in the very cold creek.
- We took advantage of our new deck and new grill spending lots of time using both.
- We took a long and FUN trip back home to Michigan where we:
-Went to a Michigan Wine Fest
-Rece spent a whole week + with both sets of Grandparents
-Jeremy & I went to Myrtle Beach
- We all spent some good time at Lake Isabella with Family

- We went to State College Arts Fest and the People's Choice Arts Show in Boalsburg
- We went to NYC: Central Park Zoo, Times Square, Rockefeller Center and spent the weekend with Carly in NJ.
-We watched daddy play baseball at State College Spikes Stadium
- We went to a Penn State Tailgate as a family
-We went home to Michigan for Labor Day weekend which included another week with the Grandparents for Rece and a stop in Cleveland at the Children's museum on the way home.
- Rece grew, and grew and grew. and did not have 1, not 1, cold all summer! It was great!!!

Here is to a fall as wonderful!