sopapilla cheesecake bars

Mmmm.... I got this recipe from the Nest, eons ago. Gonna make it this weekend for the lake. As far as this girl is concerned, any recipe that calls for crescent rolls instead of handmade dough is a dream! These are divine.


SOPAPILLA CHEESECAKE BARS
2 (8 oz.) cans crescent rolls
2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese
2 cups granulated sugar, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla, divided
1/2 cup margarine (1 stick)
Cinnamon

Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Press 1 can crescent rolls into the bottom. Blend the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar and 1 tsp vanilla and spread over top of dough. Put the second can of rolls on top of the cream cheese mixture. Melt margarine and add the other cup of sugar and teaspoon of vanilla. Spread over top layer of dough. Sprinkle cinnamon generously over the top.Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until bubbly and bottom crust is slightly brown. Cool, slice and enjoy!

Note: You will definitely need to go running after this one!

puppy love

bella, needless to say, we all love you!

I love Marquette

Last night was such a great game for us against UConn. We suffered two terrible losses, however. One was Dominic James, our number one scoring player, who sadly probably ended his college career last night. Two was the game, getting beaten by the number 2 Huskies.

Why was it a great game in my eyes? MU stepped up, despite losing James in the first few minutes of the game and hustled and just looked STRONG. I think the Eagles of Crean's day would have gotten completely deflated after losing such a key player, but with new coach Williams, things continued as normal. Let's hope we can finish the rest of the season strong. It's sad that we are losing our top 3 senior guards, with not much of a bench to back up to for next season, but my buddy, Jimmy Butler is looking good, no?

Watching MU this season has been such a joy for me as it reminds me just how much I love Marquette students. When I went to Marquette, our team was lousy and no one went to the games. It is such a different atmosphere, now. I love the silliness and enthusiasm and downright bright dry humor displayed by today's student section. The big rotating heads with random pop culture icons, the student dressed up as Chewie from Star Wars wearing a MU basketball uniform, and lest I forget the Marquette Snuggie costume that was in the stands last night. Nice!

2 nights in a row!

Baby boy slept for another 11 hour stretch last night. Oh ye of little faith, mama! Are we on to something? I just can't get over it that we didn't do anything to bring on these actions. It's like he heard me talking and decided he'd throw me a bone.

Can I just express my gratitude for hand me downs? I went through sacks of clothes from JM's two boy cousins this morning and we have such adorable spring and summer clothes coming on. If he must grow up, then at least he will be doing it in plaids and stripes.... I love how boys clothing is so timeless. Cousin Evan's clothes are from 5 years ago are still just as cute. JM is wearing this madras shirt today from the Evan 2004 collection and it makes me want to go out and pick daffodils and order personalized Easter baskets and get out the seersucker. Yay for spring!

I am making a huge sacrifice for lent: Facebook. It's going to be really hard, but I guess that's the point. I've prayed about it and I think this will be good for me. Wish me luck!

Mama: 1, Baby: 4

Update on our sleep situation. Last night, completely on his own, Peanut slept from 7 until 6:30. Nice going, son! Funny thing was that I planned to start sleep training this morning. I even went to bed early last night. Mike always says I am pessimistic (I prefer realistic), but I have a feeling he might wake up again at 4 tomorrow morning. We'll see!

For the record, we are starting to think that our little guy may have a Dennis the Menace thing going on. That is, he is so innocent, but just a little bit naughty. 1. I walked into his room today and little monkey was jumping on his bed. He's only 9 months old! I really hope that he can't jump over the top rail, but I imagine it would be pretty hard to do. 2. We were at the Monogram Lady today buying baby gifts and he pulled over a large display of wallets, much to the chagrin of the ladies who worked there. 3. Yesterday and today, he speed crawled with no diaper on across the floor giggling because I couldn't catch him. Naughty naughty! Love him.

AC: beauty

Family picture

2-22-09 park pics 001
Originally uploaded by our "nut" house

We are the worst about taking family pictures. Sadly, these days we rely on the Charismatic Minimalists for the majority of our portraiture. Gotta get better about bringing the camera on our outings!

Anyway, we joined Sea and Que and R. for a little midday hike on the greenbelt yesterday. Fun times!

Baby: 1, Mama: 0

I just couldn't do sleep training this morning. He has a runny nose and seemed to need a little TLC. Will there ever be a good time to start Ferber between the teething and the illnesses?, MB muses. :(

Update: Reducing Junk Mail

So last year I had a post about how annoyed I get with all the magazines we receive and how horrible it is for the environment.

I found Catalog Choice, which lets you pull yourself off of mailing lists and promised that I would follow up to tell you if our mail volume went down. Well, it did. A lot. For about 6 months. Now, we are getting them again, so I had to resubmit our requests. Apparently you have to really try hard to stop the mail clutter with these people. Isn't life hard enough? Jeez.

If you want to curb your junk mail, check it out.

4 am wake up call!

The past two mornings I've been snug in my bed until the precious hour of 4am, when JM has woken up. This is how it goes. Waaaaah (soft).... MB thinks "maybe he will go back to sleep?" and rolls over... Waaaaaaaaah! (louder).... MB thinks "be strong, let him know who's boss".... 15 minutes in total pass, then WAAAAAH, I MEAN IT!!!!... MB sighs and kicks leg over and climbs out of bed, goes into room, gives a dose of Motrin in case he's in pain.... and offers bottle full of water... child drinks a half ounce, turns his head and seems content, so MB leaves. 15 minutes pass of silence, and MB just getting back to sleep, and the wails start again. MB goes in and does the shush pat (a great techique- btw, comforts him every time). Again, baby is contented and happy, snuggles up with his lamb and turns on his side signalling that he's ready to return to sleep. MB goes to touch the door handle and baby starts crying again, thinks "does he just want to hang out with me?" and sure enough, going back to shush patting makes him happy, until I try to leave. He cries again, but this time, I say "too bad" nonverbally, leaving and let him cry... He quiets down again for 15 minutes and the cycle begins again with WAAAAAAH! Yesterday and today, this has continued for approximately 90 minutes until 5:30, when I decide to say screw it and nurse him. He snuggles up to me so close and is SO sleepy during these feedings and goes right back to sleep afterwards until 7:15.

I am not sure how to make this stop. This has been happening for a while now and he'll break it for a few days with giving him just a little water, then start again a week later. Is it his teeth? Suggestions are welcome!

9 months old!

It is hard to believe that another month has gone by. This whole experience of parenthood has been a whirlwind. Just the other day, I had to buy new pajamas for the boy and realized that 12 month PJs were in a whole new section of Babies R Us. They barely had any with footies in that section! I almost cried.

Our lamb is growing up. He barely fits in his 9 month clothes anymore and is constantly doing new things. Some of his favorite current pastimes include: being pushed or pulled on a little car or wagon, standing (for some reason getting him to sit is hard sometimes now), being pushed on a swing, eating (his favorites are spaghetti and meatballs that I mash up in the blender, cheese, yogurt and i swear you could easily win his heart by giving him a bowl of bananas), exploring the cabinets, screaming with glee, crawling, and touching buttons on remote controls and phones. When you get down onto his level and imitate him, play peek a boo or put your face close to his and kiss him loudly, he will laugh and laugh. If I am laughing and holding him, he will laugh, too (guess he wants to be a part of the joke). He loves being read to and will listen intently for longer than you'd think. Just yesterday for the first time he pulled himself up to standing on the dishwasher (such a nice boy, he wanted to help me unload) and this morning I heard him crawl into the bathroom and went in there and he was standing up holding on to the bathtub. Crazy! Lately, he is a bit more defiant in that when I put him down for bed, instead of laying down and going right to sleep like he used to, he now springs right back up and sits in his crib, "unwinding" for a while. His vocabulary is still pretty limited. He says dada, baba and just yesterday said mama. All day I kept saying, "Mama?" to see if he'd do it again and he'd look at me with a blank stare. He said it again today, but I don't think he knows what he's saying quite yet. I am surprised he doesn't say Bella, for as much as he delights in Bella the dog's every move. Bella is quite smart to be afraid of him! She remains gentle with him and licked his face this evening, but smartly went running when he tried to join her in her dog bed.

He drools constantly and goes through numerous bibs every day. He also continues to leave his mark, with spit up spots all over our carpeting. When does this teething thing end? Our sweet boy gets quite discontented with the teething and has been this way for a few weeks now. I sure wish they'd all get in. Right now, he has top and bottom four completely in, one on the top halfway, and the other top middle one just broke through. His gums are all swollen and I'm starting to think that I might have to get some Orajel, even though most peds don't recommend it. The poor thing. His non-teething personality is so much more pleasant. Don't get me wrong, he is still easygoing, but for the past two months, everytime he has a tooth, he is hard to please and gets bored after about 10 minutes in one place, so I have to move him all around the house all day long to keep him happy if we are at home. I really hope I'm not spoiling him, by keeping up the constant entertainment. We continue to have opportunities to "get out" and see people every single day and JM seems to appreciate this as much as I do. We are mostly at home, but a single outing to meet someone for a walk or coffee once a day is really nice. I am thrilled with the ladies that I've met via the Meetup playgroup, the St. T playgroup and the Nest. We continue to love our music class. We are not bored. At all.


We are still breastfeeding quite a bit. I am not ready to stop and cringe thinking about Mexico in a little over a month. I might be bringing the pump!




pics: with his new sandtable (thanks Nana and Poppa), in his new 'big boy' pajamas (waaaaah!), standing up on his own for the first time

He crawls... he stands!

Happy 9 month birthday to JM! Yesterday he pulled himself up to stand and today he did it again, so I think he's got it! Here is a little day in the life video. Enjoy!

AC: love

thrilled

i am thrilled. just thrilled.

not thrilled because my son has some sort of creepy crud that has rendered him unhappy, impatient, not sleeping nor eating well and generally malaise-ridden for the past three days. today he was crying in the child care at the gym so they had to come and get me to take him home, a parenting first. believe me, this is one that i don't want to repeat. as i am trying to keep up with my zumba dancing, i see one of the ladies coming back to the aerobics area, searching. was it for me, i pointed to myself? (thinks, "no, no, no") "yes," she says. "he's been crying SO hard." ugh, what a terrible parent. he was a little grumpy when he woke up, but i'd never intentionally take a sick kid to the gym, was what i wanted to tell them. sure enough, he felt hot, and when we got home, his temp was 100.7.

moving on, he's fine. i am thrilled because well, according to the pediatrician, he is not infected with anything. (okay)

AND, he has gained 4!!! pounds in the last two months. FOUR!

At almost 9 months, he weighs 18 lbs 11 oz. which is almost 19 pounds, for those of you who didn't know.

so so much time i have spent worrying about his weight....and now the little nipper has made it up to the 10th-25th percentile range!

when will i ever stop worrying? probably never. anyway, the ped. says to keep giving him tylenol to ease his fever and possible pain. it's hard to see him not being himself. hopefully he'll be happier and well tomorrow.

Love bug

Love bug
Originally uploaded by our "nut" house

Happy Valentines Day!

Love,
The Love Bug

Crappy blogger checks in

I am sorry for being a crappy blogger lately.
I will try to post more than once a week.
God has blessed me lately with a lot of things to do. I feel like I am coming into my own with my new life as a stay at home mom.
Just this week, I had my first coffee date with a cool lady from my meetup mom's group.
And, we went to our first playgroup through the church mothers group.
I am working on my "mom networking" trying to make new friends.

JM is a mess. He must have a tooth coming in, because he's been waking up in the early morning hours, ready to party. He was screaming bloody murder at 4:30 this morning... and this was after I caved and fed him when he woke up at 3:30. Generally he sleeps from 7-7 and wakes up at 4 to eat and goes back to bed. I know I need to break him of the 4am feeding, but I just don't have the wherewithal to do it. He seems to be doing okay during the day, but I have to constantly keep changing things up for him. He gets antsy very easily after about 10 minutes of playing with something. In the past few days, he's been using his knees more to crawl and has started pulling himself from sitting to knees.

We may be taking a trip to Mexico in early April and leaving the wee one for 5 days with Mimi and Grandpa. Whereas the thought of reading a book on the beach and drinking a pina colada to accompany my guacamole and chip breakfast is extremely applealing, my heart is already breaking a little bit for the thought of leaving John Michael and even more over the idea that this could be the end of our breastfeeding relationship. He will be 11 months at that time and I cannot imagine pumping down there... I think I've mentioned this before, but I hate pumping more than anything and I'd have to find an adapter, so part of me thinks the timing of this trip could mean it's time to stop.... We'll see how I feel in April about the feeding thing, but I guess more than anything I am saddened about the idea of going away and the thought that he might have to live without me for 5 days, which I know is really egocentric and prideful. It's going to be hard to leave him, even with his trusted grandparents. Since I don't want to be one of those parents who never takes a trip away from their child, and all of a sudden has never left their side for 3 years (which now that I am a parent, I can see how this becomes easy to do), I guess we may as well rip off the proverbial band aid and see how it goes. Either way, I know the economy is crap, so hopefully this is the right decision to make all around. Whether or not we go, it's fun to make plans.

AC: purpose