Chocolate Dora's & Toothpaste Caps

Two recent stories from life with Emily...

One day last week Emily asked to sit on the potty around 4:30pm. This has been occurring sporadically--mostly just b/c she wants a piece of candy corn, which is currently the reward just for trying. She actually wanted to sit awhile, so I left to quickly attend to something else. By the time I returned she had put on a new "Dora" (Pampers Easy-Up) and almost had her pants back on. She had been eating chocolate covered raisins as a snack, and in the process a couple got smashed on the floor. Seizing the opportunity of a perfect object lesson I picked them up, dumped them in the toilet and flushed. Little did I know. Around 7:30pm I was getting the bath water ready and did a quick Dora check. I saw that it was dirty, so I told Emily to lay down so I could take it off. She started talking about "chocolate Dora's". Sure enough, when I removed her Dora the only thing it contained was 6-8 very melted chocolate covered raisins. If it weren't for the distinct smell of chocolate you would have never known. :op

Also starting last week Emily plunged forward with training toothpaste on her toothbrush (I know--I should have done it a LOT earlier.) She loves it a little too much, so we had to establish a reasonable number of times her teeth needed to be brushed and required assistance with the toothpaste. She was a little too quiet upstairs one day, and when I went to investigate I found toothpaste (gel really) dribbled all over the sink, a distinct fruitiness in the air and Emily jabbering about the cap and the drain. Indeed, I could not locate the cap. After awhile I removed the long drain cover tube thing and discovered that she had either accidentally or purposely dropped the cap down the drain. It's a wide cap designed to stand the toothpaste tube on end and is just slightly smaller than the diameter of the drain. I immediately tried to float it up like the last drain victim (see toothbrush story) by running water. It would float up about halfway and then get stuck just out of my reach. The water would back up in the sink and slowly drain away, taking the cap back down with it. After several attempts the cap sunk all the way to the bottom where it got stuck and remains there today. The only way to retrieve it and unclog the sink will be to completely dismantle the 60-year-old plumbing pipes. Not something you want to casually do. Seeing as the sink is currently used relatively little it is not high on the priority list. Sigh. For the record, the toothpaste and Emily's toothbrush are stored on the top shelf of the medicine cabinet with a mirror that opens towards the toilet. That means the only way to get at it would be for her to stand on the edge of the tub, step on the plastic storage drawer unit and then step up on to the edge of the sink where she could swing open the mirror and reach the shelf. No place is safe and unreachable for Emily!

Zucchini monster

While I was in NW Iowa this weekend I acquired this monstrous zucchini from my sister-in-law. My sister cut off a chunk for herself that she estimates will yield 6 cups of shredded zucchini. I took the rest home along some recipes from my sister. I hauled my portion out yesterday. After skinning it and scooping out the spongy pulp/seeds from the middle I ended up with 14 cups of shredded zucchini. I've never really baked with zucchini before, so I was excited to try something new. I made 4 loaves of bread and a chocolate zucchini cake. They turned out decent even though I have a psychotic oven. The remaining 8 cups is now in my freezer for experimenting at a later date.

It's funny how you can try and mentally justify that what you're eating is "healthy" because it contains vegetables. In reality, between the oil/butter/sugar the bread & cake recipes are probably the nutritional equivalent of a glazed doughnut. Even better is considering the bread a decent breakfast. The only real difference between the cake and the bread is 1/4 cup of cocoa and the fact one is baked in a 9x13 pan and one in loaf pans. Moral of the story: If you want to eat cake for breakfast, bake it in loaf pans and call it "bread". :o)

P.S. If anyone has any tried & true zucchini recipes please feel free to share. They can even be healthy. ;o)

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Some people might be nervous about coming back after leaving their husbands home alone for four days. I'm usually excited to return and see what he's been up to. Not only was the house perfectly picked up, the floors freshly vacuumed/mopped/swept and a big bowl of popcorn waiting on the stove, but he also had three other surprises.

#1 Honey-Do List
I had left a pretty big "honey-do" list of small projects and Austin got most of them done. One of them included installing a working doorbell. I knew he was working on the list because he called me on Friday night from the attic. He had been doing some stuff there and when he went to open the door the door knob broke off on the inside. So he was locked in. The window to the roof wouldn't open either. Thankfully, he still had his cell phone in his pocket since he usually leaves it on the dresser after changing out of his work clothes. It took four phone calls to find someone who was available to come over and let him out. It would have been a long, cold weekend otherwise!


#2 Basement
We have been chipping away at unpacking and putting things away in the basement. However, there were still too many things that Emily could get into if left unsupervised. Austin made the final push to at least organize the remaining boxes/things. Now I can put together a play area for Emily. :o) Here are pictures from just after the move and when I got home on Sunday.

#3 New Grill!
This was the best surprise. I had really been missing a grill. Our gas grill in Denver was a direct hook-up that we inherited and stayed with the house when we moved. It was a piece of junk anyway. I had researched grills using Consumer Reports and picked out this one from Home Depot. I even checked last week and casually mentioned that there were two fully-assembled ones left in stock. ;o) And now one of them is ours! I have already purchased some specialty brats from Fareway for the inauguration on Friday.

Austin is gone on a four-day business trip this week. I hope to have some surprises of my own ready when he returns. :o)

Photo shoot

Just before leaving for home we had a new family friend do a photo shoot to practice for a photography class she is taking. Emily cooperated better than I expected, but Lincoln was a bit of a grump. Then again, I would be too if someone woke me me up from a nap, stuffed me in a fleece hoodie and plopped me down in damp leaves in 35-degree weather! I was thrilled with the results, though, and am having a very hard time picking favorites to get printed. Here is a sampling...

The full photo shoot can be viewed in a folder within our October 2009 Winkflash folder. If you would like the login information or need a reminder please contact me.

Full family weekend

The kids & I just got back from a four day trip to NW Iowa to visit lots of family. We went to six different houses and three people came to my parents' house. It was a great time visiting everyone and actually was relaxing at the same time! The highlight of the trip was meeting our new nephew/cousin Ryan. He makes Lincoln look really big!

It was pretty depressing waking up to snow on Saturday morning. This was the scene from the front window of my parents' house. I hadn't really packed for that. Most of it had melted by the end of the day, but it snowed again after we left for home.

We celebrated my sister Abbie's birthday on Saturday. I also got the chance to catch up with a really good friend from college that I hadn't talked to in 4 years. Plus I did a little solo shopping at a local consignment shop. :o)

Are you ready for some MNF?

Lincoln is...Go Vikings!

Two Cute!

Curious George Live!

As an early birthday present and special treat, Austin & I took Emily to see Curious George Live! at the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids on Saturday afternoon. Austin's parents graciously made the trip up from Waukee and then rode along with us. They walked around the mall with Lincoln while we were at the show.


It was a pretty cute show. Emily brought along her stuffed George and spent a good part of the time jumping around. However, about 30 min. into it Emily said she was "all done" and wanted to go home. There were enough surprises and interesting things going on to make it to the end. Judging by the way she tucked herself in and fell asleep at night, though, I think she really enjoyed it. :o) (You can't tell, but the brown fleece blanket covering George has Curious George material on the other side.)

Sharing stuffy noses, etc.

Emily & Lincoln shared the first of what is sure to be many colds this past week. They were both extremely mild, but still disruptive. Lincoln has been worse since this is the first time he is experiencing a stuffy nose--mostly just when laying down to sleep. That has meant he wakes up a lot (like 5x/night) because he's frustrated he can't breathe normally through his nose. Add to that a toddler who has also been waking up in the middle of the night for various random reasons and that equals a VERY tired mommy!

On the brighter side, both Emily & Lincoln took a 3-hour nap at roughly the same time on Tuesday afternoon, so I was able to spend 2 hours in bed, too. God provides! Lincoln is also starting to take longer naps during the day. Yesterday was 2 hours in the afternoon and today was 1 1/2. Progress!

I haven't witnessed it in person, but Lincoln can definitely roll over to his tummy now because I found him in that position twice today in his crib and he was not happy about it! :o)

First "Boote" cousin

We are excited to welcome the first cousin on the Boote side! Ryan Andrew was born on October 1 and measured 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 21 inches. Congratulations Courtney & Adam! We can't wait to meet him in person next week. Lincoln is going to have so much fun growing up with boy cousins on both sides of the family his same age!