When I saw there was an opportunity to review a crock pot cookbook, I was excited. When I saw it was a kids’ cookbook, I knew it was too good to pass up! Fix-it and Forget-it is not an unknown name to me; I have one of their other crock pot books upstairs in my kitchen. I’m a fan of my crock pot for many reasons, not the least of which being that it’s so easy to let Eric help me cook with it. I received a free copy of the book from the publisher, and Eric and I went to work!

I’ll admit that I was expecting very kid-ish recipes. What I found when I opened it up was not a cookbook with kids’ recipes; it was, in fact, a cookbook for kids. Aside from an introductory page titled “For the adults,” the book is written for kids who want to learn how to cook something of their own. As a result, the beginning of the book is a useful introduction to cooking overall: how to use a crock pot, how to measure, how to follow a recipe, etc. Even as a veteran cook, I learned some tricks reading through it, and there was a super-useful conversion key in there that I have been wanting for years! Cups to tablespoons, tablespoons to teaspoons, the smaller measurements that I can never find on other conversion charts. The entire thing is written in a very kid-friendly way without coming off as patronizing – a fine balance – on pages that are doodled on and pieced together in a way that looked very much like my own notebooks when I was a kid.

Once I’d read through the introduction, I was able to dive into the recipes. Again, I was surprised! These are not crock pot hot dogs and grilled cheese; there are great recipes with few ingredients and easy preparation. The book covers breakfast through dinner, including snacks and desserts, and I found recipes in every section that made me drool and made me stop and think, “Why didn’t I think of that?” From basics like Lasagna and Mac n Cheese to out-of-the-box wonders like Pizza in a Bowl and Gooey Chocolate Pudding Cake, this has already become a staple in my kitchen, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of these 50 recipes. There are honestly very few that I’m not interested in; being a picky eater, many cookbooks only offer about 1/3 of their recipes to me, but I think there are only 2 or 3 in here that I doubt I’d make. It doesn’t just look good, either – I’ve made 5 or 6 recipes already, and none of them have disappointed.

If I had one thing that was glowing to say about the recipes, it’s that they are big. Most make 8-10 servings, and for my family, I’ve halved most of the recipes and still come up with leftovers. (Though I’ll admit, I did not half the Gooey Chocolate Pudding Cake recipe. I mean, how can there ever be enough of that??) Of course, a few years from now when the boys are out of the toddler eat-like-a-bird phase, I’ll probably be making the full recipe just to keep up with them!

So, if you like to use your crock pot, get this book. If you have kids that want get in the kitchen, with mom or without, get this book. If you like delicious recipes with easy prep and few ingredients, get this book. Seriously – just get this book. It’s due to release in October, and you will love it.

In a conventional way, it’s far too early for Danny to start school. I mean, the kid is only 2! Never mind that, though; since when do we stick to conventional, especially with Danny? Our deaf school has a nursery class for 2-3 year olds, and Danny’s first day was Wednesday! We dropped Eric off at pre-K (which is an entirely different thing to get used to… The kid is in pre-K!) and hit the road.

I’m very excited to see if nursery class makes some changes for Danny. I’m hoping – very cautiously – that this could be what finally breaks the damn and gets him to progress. I’m working with him too, but there are days I wonder how much he’s willing to do for me versus someone else, especially surrounded by other kids his size doing the same things. I had these grand plans of getting there right on time, helping him get settled into the new room, and watching his first day through the observation window to see how it goes.

Then my tire blew.

Yep, first day of school, and Danny spent the first hour he was supposed to be in class sitting on the side of the highway with his mom trying to find anything in the car that would entertain him, because we got tired fairly quickly of watching (and talking about) the cars and trucks flying past us.

By the end of it, I was dirty (from digging out my spare), Danny was bored mindless, and both of us were just a little irritable. I was beyond relieved when my knight in shining armor arrived at last.

Danny did get a kick out of “riding” as he jacked the car up and, later, back down. I was more ready just to get back on the road. Danny had already missed any acclimation time the other kids would have gotten to get used to the new room, new people, new school. I had a mud flap still hanging loose and dragging and a crabby toddler that I was about to make even more crabby by dropping him off and running.

In the end, we both survived the first day of school…and the second, which was filled with tantrums and a total lack of desire to follow the group. I know this will improve, and I know he’s being fully 2, but I think I’m going to give up the whole “watching school” idea for a while. I don’t think I do anyone any good sitting there obsessing over every little thing I see. Let him get comfortable, learn the routine, and settle in; then, maybe, I’ll be able to check it out.

For now, 3 mornings a week, I am settling in somewhere with a laptop and a good book…and maybe going shopping now and then. Hopefully, while I’m unwinding, Danny will be learning lots and lots of delicious language, so that he finally – finally – starts to talk.

(Though he’s saying Mama now. SCORE!)

Despite the ridiculous heat we’ve been having lately, on Saturday we went to check out something that’s been on our list of things to do all summer. The Botanical Gardens here in town have a pretty cool exhibit set up in their dome – and since it’s in the dome, it wasn’t quite as terrible in there as it was outside. (Yes, you heard me… The tropical dome was actually cooler and more comfortable than it was outside. Ugh.)

The boys were on an adventure! A winding, pebbled path led through thick foliage, pretty flowers, and waterfalls of many sizes, and Eric and Danny were both off to explore. But what’s the noise they hear in the background?

Be careful! There’s dinosaurs in those trees! The sound environment pretty much sucked to talk to Danny about any of the cool things we were seeing, but he enjoyed walking through it all and seeing everything there was to see. As for Eric, he thought it was the most awesome thing ever.

Every time I pointed out a dinosaur, Eric had two reactions. The first reaction was to gasp in delight and get super excited; the second was to demand my camera, because my little budding photographer had to take a picture of every dinosaur he saw.

Once we got through the jungle, there was an awesome air-conditioned room with all sorts of toys, puppets, puzzles, costumes, and many other things dinosaur to play with. Eric had an absolute blast playing with many of the toys; have I mentioned how much I love this age? He’s finally old enough to do all the cool kids things out there! (Or at least…to do a lot of them.) He’s interested in them all and participates appropriately, instead of doing the toddler “I’m going to run around and just kind of be here” mojo he always used to work.

Sort of like Danny’s mojo. His two favorite things in the play room? The doors that were on sensor and would open and close for him, and the penny spinner thing for donations.

(You have to admit, those things ARE pretty cool. Kids of all ages love them for a reason. After a couple goes at it, if I gave Danny a coin, he put it up on the ramp and actually did it right – at least until he put his arms down and blocked it or tried to fish it out.)

We loved it, totally loved it. If the weather had been better, we probably would have explored the gardens a lot more too… Both boys were enjoying the freedom to walk around and explore outside, but both parents were melting!

I said goodbye to someone on Wednesday that I have known and worked with for 6 years, and will likely never see again.

It’s the end of another week, and there are only 2 more weeks until I’m done working in the office and beginning my life at home with the kids. Now, that’s a bit of a misnomer, because the first week of August I’m taking a trip out to visit Nat, but it’s still a big deal, a big milestone.

2 more weeks!

Suddenly, it doesn’t seem very far away. I remember how long it looked on Monday, how far away it seemed, but in not very long one of those weeks is over and I’m staring down the home stretch. I’m ridiculously excited, more than a little nervous, and slightly overwhelmed by all the expectation I’m placing on myself for what will happen once I’m done.

The excitement is by far the biggest part right now. I feel like I’ve been working toward and building toward this moment forever. In reality, it’s been months; I mean, we made this decision back in March, and now suddenly it’s only a couple weeks away! Once in a while it all hits at once that I am almost done, and this huge smile crossed my face, a bit of a bounce enters my step.

Now, that all being said, when Ed stopped at my desk and hesitated, it felt a little odd. A little rough. “So, uh, good luck. I’m happy for you; you’ll be missed.” It hit me all at once, right in that moment, what the personal side of this is. I don’t think I’ve really felt that part yet, because while I’ve known I’m not going to see most of these people again, it’s always been in a “but I’ll see them every day for months still” kind of way.

Quitting my job, staying at home with my kids, is awesome…but it’s also a little bittersweet. Just a little. Ed I didn’t work with very closely or often; it’s going to be hard when I walk out of here on the last day, saying goodbye to the people I’ve worked side by side with 5 days a week for 6 years. I sit back now and then around the office, laughing and smiling so hard, and think to myself, I’m going to miss this.

Of course, it’s so worth it, and I still can’t wait.

Things are nuts – absolutely bonkers. Everything is going full speed ahead, and I’m left feeling like I’m running in front of the train just trying to keep up.

It’s officially less than a month before I stop working. My replacement in the office started a couple weeks ago, and it’s been a whirlwind of training and co-working while we wait for her computer to arrive that leaves me pretty wiped out by evening.

Eric is every bit of 4, even though he doesn’t turn 4 for another month. He’s full of attitude and stubbornness, and far worse now than he ever was during the “terrible twos.” The rewards are much sweeter at this age though; he’s always learning, always imagining, and always talking. Seriously, he talks non-stop, narrating everything he’s doing and thinking. A sticker with an anchor becomes a way to summon a band of friendly pirates to do his bidding; a pillow on the floor is a pool of water than he jumps into and creates a super big splash. He’s sweet, protective and loving to his brother when he isn’t body slamming him on the futon, and just bunches of fun.

Danny is…Danny. He’s trying my patience like only he can and wearing me out. He’s gone through another quiet spell, where he doesn’t really want anything to do with us, and doesn’t say much, and doesn’t do much, and I’ve been being a full out CMV mom with the worry and fear. I’ve worked past it by this point, but he’s still hit the terrible twos like Eric never did. That being said, he’s always full of spunk and laughter and joy. He’s still a music lover, his latest being singing “ai ee ow oh” – that is, “Eyes and ears and mouth and nose” after I sing “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” to him. He loves to stand on my lap and jump up and down (um, ouch!), and has started taking to the TV to watch a few shows too. He’s figured out how to open pretty much all the doors in the house (to the bathroom…bedroom…etc), and has discovered that if he sits down and uses the bottom of the gate to the office, he can get it open too. If only he would apply that kind of innovation and dedication to talking!

As for me, I’m just tired. We’re going to the park, the library, and all sorts of fun stuff through the week, and have the Moog parent workshop this week. Eric’s birthday, my being home much more, and a trip to visit Nat all wait for me at the end of the month – if I can only make it that far!

I was given the chance, a little while ago, to do a product review on a DVD that jumped out at me the moment I saw it: Baby Goes Pro. My boys and I had some fun once we got it, and they were even kind enough to offer a second DVD that I can give away to someone – learn more about that at the bottom of the review!

About the DVD:
This DVD was the brain child of an Olympic gold medalist and a soccer mom with the purpose of introducing sports to young children. An animated monkey, Emkei, teams up with professional and high level collegiate athletes to introduce some of the basic movements of five sports: tennis, soccer, baseball, golf, and basketball.

My thoughts:
The tag line on the DVD is “Inspiring a generation to move.” What isn’t to love about that? As a mother to two young, active boys, I am very committed to keeping them active in a world that is so full of video games, TV, and sedentary activities. I popped this DVD in and was quickly drawn in by the original music and cartoon Emkei.

The DVD plays through 2 distinct sections for each sport: in the first, Emkei stretches and prepares for each sport in an animated environment. The song – sung by kids – is definitely catchy and age appropriate; it’s one of those simple, upbeat tunes that mothers around the world find themselves humming to themselves when they least expect it! Danny absolutely loved the monkey; any time Emkei was on screen, Danny was glued! The second section shows fairly close up footage of common motions in each sport, like kicking for soccer or shooting for basketball. They are very careful never to show a player’s face, which avoids babies’ attention from getting drawn to the face, but makes some of the actions (like the golf swing) a little difficult to really get across. However, this works to the DVD’s benefit for some activities (like the golf putt) where the ground level view clearly shows what is being done. Of course, Danny loved watching the little golf ball roll toward him and drop into the cup!

Baby Goes Pro is definitely better with parental involvement, which they highly encourage. Inside the DVD case there is a note recommending parents watch with their children, and along with Emkei popping in from time to time, the sports footage has flash cards and words that appear on the screen to prompt parents. This is not a DVD you’d use so you could run and get some chores done; the sports footage has no sound except for some pleasant, age-appropriate music, so in a language-rich environment like my house (where we talk about everything), I spent the time narrating. “Pass. He’s passing the ball. See how he throws it? Pass. Now he’s catching. Catch! Catch the ball! Good catch!”

To reinforce, the DVD also comes with a Flash Cards bonus feature that you can pull up and go through with your child, which I thought was a nice touch.

My recommendation:
For a toddler, I think this is a great find and a good way to spend some time together on rainy days! The concept of wanting to get kids interested in sports at a young age is a fabulous one. The front of the DVD recommends it for children under 4, and I would definitely recommend it for the 1-2 age range; Eric (who turns 4 in a month) and I did get some conversation out of this DVD, but he quickly grew bored during the sports footage and wanted to go do something else. Baby Goes Pro is a great introduction to some pretty common sports, and if there’s one in particular you want to get your child involved in, this DVD along with the “tools of the trade” (a soccer ball, a ball and bat, etc) is a great way to help show them how to get started. The music is fun and age-appropriate, the segments short enough to keep a young child’s attention, and my younger son thought Emkei was the cutest, funniest character ever… He would literally bust out laughing any time Emkei swung on screen and ran away.

The giveaway!
Want one? Well, you’re in luck, because I’ve got one for you! Just leave a comment telling me which of the five sports your child is most interested in, or which you’re most interested in for your child: tennis, golf, soccer, baseball, or basketball! Come back Friday evening – June 25 – to see if you’ve won!

*This DVD was given to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.

“Leftovers night” is a way of me saying “my fridge is full, and I’m too lazy to cook.” Basically, all the stuff I’ve made through the week, packed up, and stuffed in my fridge for later has two options: it goes in the trash, or I call it quits on cooking for a day and it goes in our stomachs. Being a big fan of not wasting food, and not wasting money, I opt for the latter myself.

The problem with this is that there isn’t always the best kid food available on leftovers night. Tonight they had an option of lasagna (which Eric tried the first time around and declared yucky) or pork fried rice (which, in the hands of my children, ends up 80% on the floor and 20% in their mouths). So I turned it to them, or at least Eric: I asked him what he wanted for supper tonight.

“Pizza!”

Hm. That didn’t work out so well. There’s no cheese pizza in the freezer, the only type of frozen pizza he’ll eat, and we’re certainly not calling up Domino’s for my 3 year old’s craving. So, I sat, and I thought. Full fridge. No pizza.

Why not make some?

Digging around in the fridge, I came…close enough: the last few flour tortillas, some mild salsa (in the absence of any kind of open tomato sauce), some thin sliced deli turkey, and about 1/4 of a bag left of shredded cheddar. This combination had two benefits. The first is that it could be made into the much-requested pizza; the second is that Eric could make it with just a little help from me.

He pulled over a chair, I slapped a tortilla down on the counter, and we went to work. I spooned out some of the salsa, dodging any chunks of anything in it, and he spread it around the tortilla. I tore up the turkey and he set it on top of the “sauce.” Then, he grabbed a huge handful of the cheese and sprinkled it carefully dumped it quite haphazardly on top of it all. One frying pan with a lid and a couple minutes later, the cheese was melted, the turkey appropriately hidden (because he won’t eat toppings he can see), and the tortilla had become a cracker-thin crust.

Honestly? I expected my little creative burst to turn into a spectacular failure. As it sat in the frying pan, I was already warning him off. “We’re going to try this, Eric,” I told him, “but if you don’t like it, I can make you something else. Do you want chicken nuggets?”

I shouldn’t have worried. It turned out awesome. I couldn’t even taken a picture of it without Eric reaching for more. Three times while eating it Eric came up to me and announced, “Mommy, I like this!”

Danny, staring on hungrily, got a quesadilla that looked a whole lot like a pizza. Cheese, salsa, and “shredded” turkey, minus the lid on the frying pan, plus a quick fold. All of the yumminess, much less of the mess factor for a 2 year old that likes to dump food over the edge of his tray when he’s done.

Talk about an International supper – Eric had Italian (sort of), Danny had Mexican, I had Chinese, and dad had… Well, dad hasn’t eaten yet. All of that, and I only pretended to cook. Not bad, huh?

It’s 3 weeks into having our garden, and nothing is dead yet!! That alone is a vast improvement over last year. While the fruits – or rather, vegetables – of our labor are far off still, Eric announced quite correctly today that, “It’s growing, Mommy! The plant is getting bigger!”

Every day, when we get home from work, Eric says it’s time to go water our garden. He’s right, too; as long as it’s not raining, we go out, check for weeds, and water the plants in our back yard. He’s really keeping interest and excited to water it grow. Danny, of course, is less than enthused; he’s more likely to wander off and climb the small hill into our neighbor’s front yard than he is to help with the garden. It makes our trips out there … interesting, to say the least. Maybe by fall he’ll care, or more likely next year.

On inspection today, our carrots are starting to sprout up a little, all of our plants are alive, and some of them are even growing by leaps and bounds! Some of them are doing better than others…

…and some are just barely hanging on.

I don’t know what happened to that little guy, but he’s definitely the runt of the litter, which is funny considering he and the first one that’s taken off so well are the same kind of plant! (Maybe. They’re either both cucumbers, or one’s a butternut squash and one’s a zucchini squash. Yes, I’ve forgotten already… I’d forgotten within hours of planting them. I’m good like that.)

So far, so great. Our hanging strawberry plant is holding its own; being the first year, the crop isn’t going to be stellar, but berries keep popping up and ripening, so that’s a win! We get to eat them too; they’re a bit tart (just like Mommy likes them!) and Eric is always so excited to take a nibble of a berry we grew ourselves.

Of course, one thing I remember every year as I start to spend more time outside is my love-hate relationship with mosquitos: they love me, and I hate them. My body especially hates them! In the 5 minutes I was outside today weeding and watering the garden, I came back with 5 mosquito bites. Now, I don’t just get mosquito bites; I get Mosquito Bites!! With two exclamation marks!! I present the evidence, taken less than 5 minutes after the bites occurred, with no scratching, rubbing, or touching of any sort:

I went outside to grill some burgers (pre-cooked, so they took 4 minutes) and snap the pictures for this blog entry, and I got 2 more bites.

For heaven’s sake, just let me be outside, you little bloodsuckers.

For Mother’s Day, I got a bit of time to myself as I enjoyed the sunshine and planted my garden, round 2. Last year, I started with great intentions, but unfortunately the results were less than stellar… I got a few baby carrots out of it, but nothing else. First the bunnies ate half the garden before we got the fence up around it, then the surviving half thrived until it took a mysterious turn for worse and went from green and lively to brown and dead in a couple of days.

It was sad.

As I recounted the tale, I could tell that the second generation of plants was cowering before me, uncertain of the fate it faced.

Cucumbers, green and red peppers, butternut and zucchini squash, and a watermelon plant all went into the garden this year, along with a row of carrots. Somewhere in my alone time, Eric slipped out into the yard, and he helped to finish off the planting. He’s been learning about plants and growing things in preschool, and he was thrilled to be involved in the garden this year! We also have a hanging planter of strawberry plants, and we go out every day to look for weeds, water the plants, and look for red strawberries that we can pick. We should have our first couple of berries soon!

It is a garden full of much love and little skill, and I have very hesitant optimism that we’ll fair better this year than we did last year. We mixed in a bunch of Miracle Grow garden soil this year to add in with the river dirt we got last year, and hopefully that will give the roots a little more room to breathe. I’ve done plenty of reading to prepare my assault, and have learned some things I didn’t know last year about maintaining a good garden, how to feed, when to hoe, that sort of thing.

I’m hoping between that and the extra time Eric and I will be able to spend on it this year, we might actually reap the fruits of our labor.

Maybe.

It is no secret that I love books. Just look around my house – my husband and I are both huge readers, and we may as well have a library of our own.

I spent every summer for years at the library participating in the summer reading program; I remember walking down to the library with my mom so excited to see what I would find that day! I remember exactly how our library looked, where my favorite sections over the years were, the way they decorated for the program when I was small with the huge panorama that you could move your little flag pin along as you read more books. I remember the room in back they used for programs, and the faces (though not the names) of a few of the librarians who were there with me through the years. They knew me by name, and I knew them.

I sometimes wonder, if I’d been able to work through high school at that library instead of the huge, less personable one downtown, if I would have considered becoming a librarian.

I try to pass this love on to my children, and so far, it seems to be working. Danny loves to flip through the pages of books, and Eric often comes up to me and asks me to read him a story. If I can’t, he will sit by himself with a book in his lap, turning the pages and telling the story to the best of his memory, making up his own from the pictures when he doesn’t know it well enough.

All of this is why, when I walk into a book store and see a huge display promoting the latest e-Reader, a little part of me dies inside.

I love technology. I have a website, I play computer games, I moderate a forum, I participate in a mailing list for CI parents – for heaven’s sake, I found my husband online. I carry a cell phone at all times and am not sure how I ever lived without my iPod Touch to help me keep my schedule and plan my meals. But there is just something…sacred…about books that I hate to see them be sucked into a tiny little screen, downloaded off the Internet instead of stacking up on a shelf, colorful and enticing and shouting, “Read me!”

Maybe it’s the magic of sitting in a secluded corner, finding a dog-earred page, and spending some time with nothing to interrupt you but the sun coming in the window over your shoulder and some music playing softly in the background. I love the texture of the pages, the comforting sound as each one turns, the ability to flip back with ease to remember something or flip forward for a peek at what’s to come. I love being able to glance and see how much more of the book there is to go, and being able to take a quick read in a doctor’s office with no loading time, no opening a case and unlocking a screen and opening an app.

Maybe it’s how much in awe I am the first time I step into a new library or book store and see rows upon rows of shelves full of new worlds to explore. Maybe it’s the mounting excitement as my arms fill with books, until I can no longer hold any more and can feel just how much there is for me to read, to learn, to enjoy.

Maybe it’s just the joy at seeing one of my children, with no prompting or encouragement, sitting in a cozy corner, turning the pages of a book, as I have done so many times.

Compared to that, an e-Reader just seems so flat and lifeless.