Pumpkin Pickin'

This past weekend, Hubby and I took the kids to a local pumpkin patch. While we were able to choose a nice pumpkin for Zeke's carving project, I would NOT recommend this particular location due to the overpriced activities (not letting us in to look at the displays because we didn't want to take a sick baby out in the field and corn maze) and the overall rudeness of the woman selling tickets.

Anyway, all that aside, we did select a pumpkin and brought it home. Hubby was actually able to find a very cool website that let's you choose your pumpkin's features and put together a printable stencil! You'll need to sign up for a free account, but I think it's worth it.

So the boys set things up on the kitchen table, stencil taped to one side of the pumpkin, and went to work. Zeke was very helpful for the first few minutes, after which he got a little distracted. (Ahem!)

I asked Hubby to save the pumpkin seeds for me. I've seen recipes for roasted pumpkin seeds that sounded interesting, and I found a few on my all time favorite recipe website allrecipes.com that looked good. There were a LOT of pumpkin seeds taken out of this bad boy!

And after Zeke and Hubby finished taking out all the pumpkin "guts" and carving the face, we ended up with a rather cheeky looking Jack-o-Lantern that Zeke likes to keep in his room as a sort of night light.

I make sure to extinguish the tea light as soon as he nods off, however. :)

Since it's been so long since I've posted, a quick update on the rest of the family goings on:

• Gabe has been sick for the past week. Dr. J confirmed it is NOT the swine flu (which is awesome), but he's had a stuffy nose and lots and lots of coughing. He is on the mends now.
• We have started Gabe on squash and peaches mixed in with his rice cereal now. It took a few tries with the squash, but he took to the peaches immediately. I wonder why!
• Zeke is transitioning up from preschool to the pre-K class this week. He likes the fact that all the books and toys (and kitchen center) are new to him. He's such a nerd like his momma! LOL
• Hubby is still driving his truck. We miss him being gone so much of the week! :(

I guess that's about it. Zeke's having his Halloween party and Fall Festival at the daycare on Friday. This should be fun! I volunteered to make cupcakes again. Will update with all that soon!

Eating Cereal!

Gabe is finally old enough to start trying baby cereal. YEAY!! The very first attempt was not a big success because he was rather fussy with tummy trouble. However, our second attempt (pictured here and in the video to follow) was much better. I'm having flashbacks now to when Zeke first started on cereal and how it seemed we just couldn't feed him fast enough! The minute you moved the spoon away from his mouth, he went to fussing. I couldn't figure it out at first, thinking perhaps he was still having gas issues or some other tummy ailment, but then I realized it was because he was so used to having that continuous flow from the bottle. And once the spoon was gone (albeit for just a couple of seconds), he thought I was taking his food away from him. Poor thing!



Big brother Zeke wanted to help Gabe with his first (well, really second) cereal attempt. He just loves to help out in any way he can, which is sweet. I'm glad he enjoys his baby brother so much!







Here's a bit of video footage of this milestone event...

Zeke feeding Gabe baby cereal

All in all things are going well in that department. We've been eating cereal in the evenings for the past 3 days now, and last night he finished everything I made! We'll probably increase the amount a little bit at a time, but he seems to be learning how to eat from a spoon pretty quickly.

I've already picked up several jars of stage 1 baby foods for Gabe. It's kind of an exciting time for us, now that we're moving onto foods other than just formula all the time! I'm happy for him. *grin*

One thing that won't be so hot: the poopy diapers. :-\

One More Thing to Worry About: The Silent Killer

A couple of days ago, our carbon monoxide (CO) alarm went off. Specifically, the alarm started screeching somewhere around 4:45 a.m. Luckily for me, I was already getting ready. Unluckily for Zeke, he was up an hour early. After silencing the alarm, things seemed to be ok, but when we came home in the evening, the alarm was going off again. The odd thing was I'd turned off the heat before I left in the morning, so nothing was actually burning.

I called our gas company to check us out for leaks. We have liquid propane, and it seemed odd that propane (not having been burned) would leach CO into the house.

I vented the house and took the kids out for pizza, which Zeke was happy about. I, on the other hand, was worried. Even though it turned out we didn't have a leak, and the heating unit appears to be working fine now without setting off the alarm, it still worries me that we are all so prone to this "silent killer," especially in our sleep. It makes me even more nervous now that there are small children in the house that can easily succumb to the effects of CO in their systems.

Let me pause here and strongly recommend anyone using fuel other than electricity to heat their homes, go out and get one of these CO alarms. It's just a few dollars, but the peace of mind is priceless!

We're about to face the start of the cool weather now, and I'll be curious to see if that alarm decides to go off again. I'm thinking it might have had something to do with the fact that I just recently started heating my house rather than cooling it. It could have been something burning off.

Either way, I'm going to have to keep an eye on this one. This is dangerous stuff we're playing with!

A Rough Start

Do you sometimes find yourself going through your day thinking, "I should have stayed in bed"? Well, today was one of those days for me. Allow me to explain.

I started off the day on time. I got up at the usual 4:30 and got myself ready, ate some oatmeal, then fixed a bottle for Gabe, which he started at 5:00. By 5:30, he was done, burped, diaper and clothes changed, and grinning and ready for school.

Zeke was a different matter entirely.

After I finally got him out of bed, which was no easy task, he insisted on wearing one of his "muscle" shirts. These sleeveless t-shirts are fine in the summer, but it was chilly this morning. Try explaining that to a stubborn 4-year-old! I told him he wasn't wearing that, and he was to put his clothes on that were on his bed while I got everything else ready. Somehow it was now almost 6:00 a.m. and I was getting dangerously close to being late out the door.

At 6:03 a.m. (now 3 minutes late leaving the house), Zeke wanted oatmeal for breakfast. So I nuked some water in the microwave, made his oatmeal in a to-go bowl, and proceeded to pack up Gabe's bottles and extra clothes. Zeke still didn't have his clothes on, just his pants, and said, "Momma, my thigh is hurting."

What?

It was nothing. He finally got dressed and was out the door with his bowl of oatmeal. He finally snapped out of his whiny mood. Don't you hate that? Kids will start whining and it's like they just can't stop! And the more frustrated you are, the more they whine!

We finally got on the road about 13 minutes late. This is a big deal because I have a bus to catch. As we're rolling down the drive way, I realized I left my wallet with my debit card, cash, and driver's license in the house. Great! I looked down and saw I had less than 1/4 tank of gas left, which is not enough to drive to Nashville and back in the event I miss the bus. So I'd have to come home to get some money to buy gas to get to Nashville and back, and then I'd be late for work. Well, I was on a mission to get these kids to the daycare and myself to the bus stop as quickly (and safely) as possible.

I didn't pack my lunch today. Being late, I just figured I'd pick something up instead. Wrong! Can't do that without any money! Can't get money out of the ATM, can't make a withdrawal at the bank because I didn't have my ID or debit card either. I did have $1.16 in my pocket, so I could have gotten a cheeseburger at McDonald's. But I wasn't in the mood for McD's today.

My saving grace: $6.18 left on my work debit card (we use our ID badges and can get 10% off at the hospital cafeteria if we use our card). I was able to get a slice of pizza and a small salad and water and still have 29 cents to spare! WOO HOO!

Things are finally looking up. I'm going to get to leave an hour early today, too, because I've gotten a bit of overtime this week. Nice!

That gives me an extra hour to run errands before I pick up the kids!

Wonderful. LOL

Miscarriage on Twitter?

I'm sure a lot of you folks have seen this all over the Internet. The biggest, shocking news is this 43-year-old business woman tweeting about her spontaneous miscarriage while she's in the middle of a meeting.

HELLO?? Have you no class??

I get that she's relieved for her own personal reasons, but come on! Isn't there some sort of moral (cyber) line we're just not meant to cross? Tweeting about it is supposed to be ok?? Is this some kind of a sick sign of the times?

If this doesn't scare you, you may have issues of your own.

There are many women out there who have gone through this experience, myself included, and would never dream of being so dog gone flippant about it. Yes, miscarriages happen, and yes, sometimes this is what people want. I get that. I don't knock people for that. But I think the reason why this woman is catching so much flack about it is because of how seemingly insensitive the means of her communication is coming across. Tweet about the awesome deal you just got at the mall. Tweet about being stuck in traffic. Tweet about how you overslept and are running late for work. But let's face it--some things are just meant to be left alone.

In my opinion (and I'm an expert on my opinion, so if you don't like it, bog off!), this woman needs help. She overstepped some boundaries here, and while she clearly is thrilled with the news, I find her offensive regardless of my views on abortion. Regardless of whether she wanted it or not, the bottom line is a miscarriage marks the end of a life. Show some freakin' respect!

I'm not sure who brought this particular tweet to people's attention, but I have no sympathy for the tongue-lashing she's getting over this.