For You, Grandma Young!

I've been lucky to have the best grandma in the world - so Quincy and Max have the best great-grandma. She always spoiled me (she bought me my only pair of Girbaud jeans in Jr. High, and my leather jacket). She still spoils me, but now she's spoiling my kids too. She's always sending us packages, and Quincy loves them. It's too bad she can't be here to see how much we enjoy them. More importantly than all the things she's given, she's been a friend, one of my best friends. She's a great example to me too. For a long time she was a big Diet Coke drinker, she'd get her big 64 oz mug filled in the morning and sip it through the day. We never would have thought that she would give it up, but then one day she just quit cold-turkey. She likes to quote an old radio drama - Helen Trent. She says that sometimes she's "dashed against the rocks of despair, but she fights back bravely." These are for you Grandma, we love you!

One of the things that grandma sent this time was a cute mini-lunchbox. She also sent a bag of gummi bears which Quincy put in the lunchbox. Yesterday I went up to find Quincy in bed with the lunchbox full of gummies.

If you and Julia go to "Bed, Butts, and Beyond" today, think of these little butts :)

What is wrong with me?

This morning Quincy and I were downstairs. After a while we heard Max playing in his crib. He was just babbling, not crying or anything so I kept reading the blogs that I was checking out. Quincy kept reminding me that Max was awake and I should go get him - I kept telling her I would in a minute. Finally in a tone of complete exasperation she says "Oh, get him! What's wrong with you?" What a perceptive little girl.

Parmesan Italian Chicken

On Sunday Israel caught me taking pictures of food in various stages of preparation. "What are you doing?" he asked - he really seemed perplexed. I felt a little sheepish, I am by no means a chef, but I just said "Cooking blogs are really popular right now." The answer seemed to satisfy him. Anyway, here's on of our favourites for chicken. It's a hybrid of two different recipes - Parmesan Chicken from a church cookbook, and Weight Watchers Cheesy Italian Chicken. I don't have exact measurements for most of it - it just depends on how many pieces of chicken you want to make. The coating mixture will cover at least 12 breasts, so I make up a batch and use what I need, and then store it in the fridge for next time. To make just plain Parmesan Chicken, mix up the crust and just put it on the chicken and skip the rest.

Crust

3/4 Cup Corn Flakes - Crushed ( I like them quite finely crushed)

3/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese (the kind that comes in a tubular container)

1 pkg Original Ranch Dressing Mix

Mix all ingredients (I do it in a ziplock bag) and set aside while you prepare the chicken. As follows:

Cut a pocket in the chicken breast. As with humans, some chickens have flatter breasts than others, so sometimes it's hard to make a pocket - but do your best. The Weight Watchers recipes suggest you hammer it flat and then roll it all up, but I hate doing that. Fill the pocket with the following:

A sprinkle of salt

A sprinkle of dried oregano

Chopped Mozzarella Cheese (the orginal recipe called for a "cheese stick" but I like using regular cheese cut up in cubes - I'm not sure why.....)

Chopped Green Pepper - 1 to 2 tablespoons per breast

Once the pockets are stuffed, melt a little butter or margarine ( I usually do 5 or 6 pieces of chicken, and for this I use about 2 Tablespoons of margarine) and brush or drizzle it over the chicken.
Sprinkle crust mixture over chicken to coat.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

Thanks for Being Honest Julia......Finally

Tonight I was talking to my sister Julia about the Cafe Rio Pork I had made for dinner. I have actually never been to Cafe Rio, but she has and she really likes the pork - so every time I've made it for her I thought I was doing something really nice. Anyway, I was telling her how I know of like three different recipes for it, and I was thinking about trying a different one than usual. That's when she said "Oh, that's good, because the one you make doesn't really taste like the real stuff." She then let me know that she had never told the truth because she didn't want to hurt my feelings - Ok, Julia, thanks for being a sweetheart. Next time, you can just be honest though. Now that I think about it - I probably would have done the exact same thing....like how I didn't tell mom for forever that I don't really like her spaghetti sauce....
One thing I'll be real honest about - Julia is an AWESOME aunt.
ok - got a spamish comment......republishing this without it....

Handsome Maxwell

We've had a rough week with this little guy - he had three teeth come in within the space of about 6 days, and he's got one more that's almost there. As you can imagine, he's been a little grouchy. Good thing he's so cute to balance things out. I do believe he is proof that men are wimpier than woman - I don't recall it ever being this bad when Quincy was getting teeth.

I did find the perfect "teether" though. I was sitting by him eating a piece of celery and he seemed so interested that I handed one to him. It was cold, and he seemed to really enjoy it.

Here's the boy doing what all mothers love - saying mama. Ok, so he's probably not really saying that on purpose, but I'm going to count it anyway.

Prayers

Quincy's starting to understand prayer a little more - she's started to really grasp that you can ask for specific things that you need. This morning I was getting ready to take her to her little preschool group, and we were talking about being nice to her friends. She was being a little ornery, as she sometimes is, so I said:

"You know Quincy, everyday I say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help you be nice to your friends."

She promptly went to the table, bowed her head, folded her arms and said:

"Heavenly Father, please help me be mean to my friends."

She made up for it tonight though, when she gave this one:

"Heavenly Father, please bless me that I love my mom. Please bless me that I love packages. Please bless me that I love visiting grandma and grandpa. Please bless me that I can be nice to my friends."

Looks like there's a little package hint for you there grandma! I really had to try hard to hold in my giggles.
Here's Q-U-I-N-C-Y makin Max laugh.

Movie Game, Expanding the Genre

Lacey's awsome. She got the line from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I live firmly by that idea - that the neck can turn the head any way it wants to.
Now, I've decided to expand the genre a little bit, because, lets just be honest - Quincy rules the TV now, not me. So her type of movies are playing much more frequently than mine. DON'T PANIC - I will still specialize in chick-flicks, but every now and then I'll throw in something different to mix it up. Here we go:

"This much I knew, if you are what you eat then I only want to eat the good stuff. But to my dad....."
"Food is fuel - get picky about what you put in the tank then your engine is gonna die. Now shut-up and eat your garbage."

Good Luck!

Behavioral Breakthrough

Yesterday I took Quincy to childrens story time at the library, as I always do. After story time, Quincy headed straight for the game box and grabbed the little tin of dominoes, as she frequently does. She brought them over to the table and began playing - things were going well. Then a little girl spotted the dominoes, and came over to take a closer look. I began to feel tense. I saw her watching with interest, inching closer and closer. My palms got sweaty. Eventually she took a seat at the table, and began talking about the little rectangles. My heart started pouding. I began to visualize what was about to happen. The little girl would make a big deal of trying to get some dominoes, and Quincy would make a bigger deal of not sharing the dominoes - a deal involving calling names, scowls, and general bad behavior. I knew how it would play out. We've been working on sharing skills for a long time now, but as with any child, it's been a hard concept to grasp. I dread these kinds of situations, because I am never quite sure how to handle them, and I always end up feeling like I did a bad job. Usually I force Quincy to share, kicking and screaming the whole time, and then think to myself - 'I was just nicer and fairer to this other kid, what about my own kid?' What to do....Quincy did have the dominoes first, and she was playing nicely by herself. As I was frantically trying to compose a battle plan in my mind, Quincy grabbed a handful of the dominoes and said "Here mom, hand these to her." I nearly fell out of my little toddler-sized chair. In a total state of shock I passed over the dominoes. When the girl asked for a few more, Quincy kindly obliged. Wow. I'm still bursting with pride for her.

As I haved started along this path of motherhood, I have been struck by the little "nobody told me" moments. Nobody told me that I would cry the day Quincy outgrew her "coming home" outfit. Nobody told me how much I'd miss the 'just the two of us' closeness I had with her, once another baby came along. Nobody told me (or more likely I didn't believe them) how hard it is to teach about sharing. Nobody told me what a happy day it would be when I would realized that the concept was finally grasped.

I know there will probably be more sharing fights, on days when she's just not in the mood - but for now, I'm just so happy to know that she'll do it sometimes. Way to go Q!

Movie Game and Pathetic Confession

Jayne got the last movie line - Failure to Launch. Good job Jane - I thought it might be you who got that one.

Here's something new:
"Ma, Dad is so stubborn, what he says goes 'the man is the head of the house.'"

"Let me tell you something, the man is the head, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head any way she wants."

So here's my pathetic confession. The reason why I slacked on the movie game lately. Israel and I splurged with our tax refund and bought a Wii. This was a big thing for us - Israel came from a home that didn't have TV, and my family had TV but no video games. Yes, we are both pretty big rebels. Anyway, I got hooked on the game Pirates of the Carribbean. So hooked, that yesterday I conquered the whole game. At first I would play at night after the kids had gone to bed, but it made me so I couldn't sleep - I was thinking about fighting and hearing the music in my head all night. So then I started playing while they were napping in the afternoon. A pretty big waste of time - but then again it's good to have fun, right? Anyway, yesterday afternoon was the big day, I conquered the game. So now I'm back to blogging.