Oh. Yeah, You!

Just after Thanksgiving, we received an invitation to a Christmas party. It isn't the only invitation we received, but it was the only one that confused me. It was addressed to the entire family, but it wasn't one of my friends.

I assumed it was one of my husband's teacher colleagues. I know many of their names, but not all of them. I'd never heard of Susan or Don, so I hung it up on the calendar board and left it for my husband to deal with.

A week or so later, I asked him about it. He had never heard of them either. Now I was getting a little creeped out. I checked the names again. I took a look at the address to see if maybe it was someone from Mister Man's or Little Miss's preschool or daycare classes, but no dice.

How did they get our name? And our address?

I never did RSVP, as I wasn't really sure of the etitquette. How do you call someone and say, "Hi, we received an invitation to your Christmas party, and we'd love to come, but ummm who the heck are you? We're trying to figure out where we know you from." If anyone has the Emily Post on that one, let me know.

Needless to say, the season got busy, and somehow the 2009 calendar somehow got hung over the invitation, and I forgot about it.

Well, until this this morning anyway. I suddenly realized where I'd heard the name Susan X from. Don I still wasn't sure of (they had different last names but were co-hosting the party). She's one of the wardens at our new church.

Yep, our nice, friendly church that we love so much. Ahhhh. The lightbulb has gone on finally. So ummm next year when they invite us to their party after we never RSVPed this year and just blew them off, I'll know why we got the invitation.

And I promise to call them to let them know whether or not we're able to attend. Now that I know who they are and all.

It's Another Half Birthday!

We celebrate half birthdays around here. My mom always celebrated ours when we were kids, and I've continued the tradition. My husband thinks I'm nuts and that I'm making up half birthdays, but that's ok -- we don't have to celebrate his! I remember taking cupcakes to school on my half birthday and other kids doing the same, so someone else must know about this.

For us, the rules of the half birthday are that there are no presents (and my parents broke that one this year, of course), but that the half birthday child gets to choose what we eat for dinner and what kind of cupcakes he or she wants. Yep, cupcakes. Cakes are for birthdays, and cupcakes are for half birthdays. It's our thing.

Today is Little Miss's half birthday. I can't believe she's three and a half already! And sometimes it feels like three and a half going on fifteen and a half.



For dinner, she insisted on her non-dairy cheese pizza. I found vegan cheese recently at the natural foods store, having discovered that soy cheese actually contains milk proteins (umm, hello people!). It's not exactly cheap, but I make homemade pizzas -- crust and sauce included -- for my family at least once a month. Poor Little Miss missed her pizza.

I tried to convince her that I should make something else -- pancakes, homemade chicken tenders, French toast, crock pot pork. Nope. I had made the pizza on Thursday night, and there was NO way I was going to talk her out of having her special pizza again. So pizza it was again.



I made three pizzas. There were six of us. I had one piece. Yep, one single solitary lonely piece. The wee ones each ate over three quarters of a pizza themselves. You'd think I hadn't fed them in a week. Nope, it must be that I'm such a good cook (ha!). Fortunately, I'm able to scrounge for myself fairly well.



I also found a recipe for dairy free banana cupcakes and managed to talk Little Miss into wanting banana cupcakes for her birthday (sucker!). I was a little worried about how they'd turn out, so I tossed in some cinnamon "just in case." They actually turned out pretty well. Mister Man ate three small ones, my dad and husband each ate two and a half of the big ones, and I enjoyed my cupcake, as well.



Little Miss licked the frosting off her cupcake, nibbled once at the top of her cupcake and announced that she didn't like it. Great. These were the cupcakes I had baked that I was planning to freeze so she could have some cake to take to birthday parties instead of having to skip out on the treats there. At least I got a test run in. I guess someone will just have to eat these cupcakes. And I'll have to do more baking. I hate it when that happens....

And yes, my parents totally ignored the no presents rule. Remember that dollhouse we finally opened up on Thursday? Well, it now has a "functioning" kitchen with all the appropriate appliances. That make noises. Wheeee! There would have been more, but the kitchen was the only piece from the set that Toys 'R Us had when my mom went there. Bummer!



Do you like the decorations we used for the cupcakes? They're from the Superheroes Matching Game that Mister Man got for Christmas. The wee ones absolutely love playing the game and even better is playing superheroes with the figures. Gotta love the games that have multiple uses, right? Little Miss was insistent that she wanted Spiderman on her cupcakes to decorate them, and I had the brilliant idea to use these guys. She was thrilled. Phew!

What other family traditions do you have? Do you celebrate half birthdays or anything like them?



PS I finally got the pics to upload. Yay!

Is Your House Like This, Too?

For her birthday, a group of my friends gave Little Miss a dollhouse. I never opened it, thinking that a) she's probably too young for a dollhouse and b) we already have so many toys, we don't really need any more.

On Thursday, my mom opened it up and started putting it together. Those last four words still crack me up. My mom isn't exactly the most mechanically inclined person I know. She can't read a map, and the way children's toys provide instructions work about as well for her. It was rather entertaining to watch her try to put it together -- or rather to hear her, since I was working while she was doing this.

It finally all came together, and this has been the favorited toy for both the wee ones ever since. What, you say her birthday was awhile ago? Well, yeah it's true that her half-birthday is tomorrow. But I really didn't think she'd be interested in it. I was wrong.

It comes with a mom and dad and two babies. They have a swing, a slide, a kitchen table and chairs, and I think that's it. After the wee ones had been playing with it for awhile, my mom turned to me and asked, "Do you suppose they might make any furniture or anything for this dollhouse?"

I'm a smart alec. "Nope, this is it. They decided they didn't need to make any more money off this franchise. It's really a shame though, isn't it? They don't even have a bed to sleep on." My mom agreed with me. I sighed and pointed out that it was made by Fisher Price. I probably don't make enough money in a year to buy the acessories the company provides.

Regardless, the wee ones are quite content to play with it as is. They have the house completely in order.

This is the kitchen where everyone eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Apparently they don't fear carbon monoxide poisoning, as the gas grill is in the kitchen.


After dinner, the babies go up to their room. It's the nursery, according to Little Miss.



Then, the mommy and daddy walk up the stairs to their bedroom. I've decided the babies must fly to the nursery, as Little Miss didn't need them to walk up any stairs -- not even the set of stairs to the second floor before flying off to bed.


This is the mommy and daddy bedroom. I found it interesting that the mommy and daddy sleep head to toe. In our house, Mommy and Daddy sleep in the same bed with our heads facing the right direction. Eh, she's three.


And this is Sir Topham Hatt's bedroom. He is apparently a boarder in the dollhouse, and he brought some of his friends from the Island of Sodor with him. Ahh, this explains why Harold the helicoptor and friends were around the kitchen table eating with the family!


And this is Snowy's room. Yes, the famous Snowy the bear who wears underwear that Little Miss steals to wear on her head. He is apparently also a boarder who sleeps in the bedroom next to the mommy and daddy. Do you like the Thomas underwear and bowtie? Apparently he takes his socks off for bedtime though, as those aren't on him at the moment.


The rest of the trains sleep in the trailer in teh back yard. Lucky for them, they each have their own compartment (just like those creepy hotels in Japan!) with their names labeled so no one ever gets confused. Gotta love the little bit of hillbilly in Little Miss. It comes from her father's side of the family, just in case you were wondering!


After they'd been playing with the dollhouse for awhile, I asked Little Miss if she had named any of the dolls yet. I was pretty sure she had, and her vehement nod confirmed it. I was expecting more "Snowy, Snowy, Snowy, Snowy." Nope. "This is Michelle X. This is Little Miss. This is Mister Man. And this one is Daddy X." Yep, apparently I have a first and a last name in Little Miss's world, but Daddy... he only has a last name. Awwww, how sweet.

With as much fun as they've been having with the dollhouse, I'm really wondering why I didn't open it before. Then again, ask me next week if they still even notice it sitting in the middle up our upstairs hallway!

Yes, We Have No Bananas!

I went to the store yesterday to pick up some things. My two stores of choice are Costco (Hello, my name is Michelle and I'm a Costcoaholic) and Caputo's, which is a fresh market store near me. Essentially, that means that they sell things I eat much cheaper than Dominick's or Jewel.

I look at the flyer for Dominick's, and they're selling avocados 2 for $3. And strawberries are on sale for $3.99 per pound. Romaine hearts are on sale for $1.39 per pound. Oooo, and tangerines are on sale for only $1.29 per pound.

Then I check out Caputo's. Avocados are $0.59 each. Strawberries? $1.79 for a one pound container. Hmm. Romaine? Three organic hearts for $1.39 (way more than a pound there). Tangerines are also on sale. How much, you ask? Why they're $0.49 per pound.

The list goes on and on. I do head to Dominick's periodically to pick up things like yeast and pasta, as they aren't always cheaper at Caputo's, but that's really about it. I feel ripped off every time I walk into Dominick's ever since I met Captuo's.

Back to my point -- and I promise, I did have one. I picked up the items I needed at Caputo's -- some grapes for $0.89 per pound. Their yummy potato gnocchi for $0.99 per container. Tomatoes for $0.49 per pound. The aforementioned romaine hearts and avocados. And I made a mental note to come back to pick up a few more things before the Super Bowl party I'm hosting.

I paid for my items and started to walk out the store. A store employee rushes by me to help an older gentleman with a bag and bring it to him. I step aside to let him through. When he comes back the other way, he excuses himself, and I turn to watch. He's rushing back with a second bag. I sorta wondered what was so fragile and/or heavy in the bag that he couldn't hand the older gentleman both bags at once, but whatever.

Again, the employee excuses himself. No problem, I say. Then I realize that he's handing the bag to me. Umm, what? Please take this bag of bananas as our way of thanking you for shopping at Caputo's. Oh. Now it makes more sense. I thank him profusely and walk out the store.

Then I notice that the bag really is pretty heavy. So I check it out. It is full of bananas. There are eight bunches of bananas. Fifty-three bananas. I counted after I got home. There are four people in my house, and one of the four of us doesn't like bananas after they've turned yellow (guilty -- I only like bananas when they're mostly green and before they start to get sweet).

Seriously, check out the massive stockpile of bananas -- and this is after my mom took the largest bunch home with her and the wee ones each ate four bananas and my husband ate a few.



I still have twenty-seven bananas sitting here. What do you do with that many? The wee ones will be on a banana kick for only so long. And my banana recipe doubled to make two loaves only calls for, at most, four bananas.

I'm digging through my recipes to find something else to make. Lots of something elses to make. Little Miss's half birthday is on Sunday. We'll be having dairy free banana cupcakes. I'm making banana bread. My uncle has a really great banana brownie thing with cream cheese frosting that I think I can duplicate. I'm going to have to find the banana mousse recipe I'd mentioned awhile ago and haven't made since. I think I'm still going to have bananas left after that.

I don't really want to freeze this many bananas. It would be nice to be able to put something else in my freezer besides these prolific yellow treats. And the wee ones no longer think mashed up bananas spread on toast is such a special treat, so that idea is out.

Help! Save me from drowning in bananas. What else can I make?



PS Yes, I will be posting a banana recipe on this week's Tasty Tuesday. Let me know if you have a preference, and I'll try to accomodate.

PPS The title is one of my grandfather's favorite songs ever. It turned up on a CD someone made for a one year old's birthday party, and the wee ones immediately started singing it when they saw our bounty. I love kids' songs that don't make me want to poke my eyes out with toothpicks.



It's not quite the right version, but this was the closest I could find to "our" song.

Welcome, SITStas!

Welcome SITStas! I'm so excited to have you all visiting today, and I hope have fun poking around. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to clean more, but I'm still walking around one-handed. I wa planning to cook a whole feast for you, especially this new guacamole recipe I found is my current favorite.

At least I have the two wee ones -- Mister Man and Little Miss off to school, so it's a little quieter around here right now. They tend to entertain me. And drive me nuts. Then again, so does work, and yes, I'm working today, so it might take me awhile to get back to all your lovely, beautiful comments.

I've got a lot of posts out there, from my very first one where I found out why you want to change your water filter to more current ones reminiscing about my pets and learning about knife safety.

If you really want to make my day, come on back soon (or just you know, make it easy on yourself and boost my ego by following me...). I hope you enjoyed your visit!

In all seriousness though, if you are able to donate blood, please go donate now. Because of the weather and company layoffs, blood banks are way down on usual donations and are particularly short on O neg and B neg. Elective surgeries are being pushed back, and they are praying for no traumas. Find where you can donate near you (800 GIVE LIFE -- 800 448 3543), and make a difference! In fact, Manic Mommy's having a blood drive contest right now where you can actually win a six day vacation to Sandestin in Florida, among other great prizes. What more motivation do you need?

And You Thought All Girl Scouts Were Good....

I told you a couple weeks ago how I got my very first pet, Caesar. She was so special to me and was the best cat a little girl could ever ask for. She wasn't my only pet though -- considering I have two cats right now, I suppose that's obvious.

Anyway, like most girls, I was fascinated by horses. When I lived in Belgium, there was a barn just down the road from us, and a friend of mine Kiersten Grashofer -- I can't believe I remember that name! -- owned a horse named Melody that I got to see every once in awhile. Unfortunately, my French wasn't good enough to take lessons at first, and by the time it was good enough and a new session was starting, we were moving back to the States.

I immediately started riding after we moved and loved it more than I could have imagined, much to my mom's chagrin -- and that of her pocketbook! That was third grade, and I kept riding until I was pregnant with Little Miss. I'd still be doing it if I could find the time and justify the expense.

The summer after fourth grade, I had the opportunity to choose what camp I wanted to go to. Whoo! What a responsibility for an nine year old. Ok, so it wasn't so hard. My mom handed me the catalogue of Girl Scout camps, and I found the one that was horseback riding.

Oh, what a joy those two weeks were. I had so much fun riding and grooming and just hanging out around the horses. The other girls did, too, although they were less interested in the horses than I was.

Their favorite game was Stick 'Em.

Like every barn -- or almost every barn -- they had barn cats. It helps to keep the mouse population down, which reduces disease et al. And when you have barn cats, there are constant litters of kittens since barn cats are rarely spayed and less often neutered. And they tend to not live that long, so the new kittens keep the population stable, sadly. (I just realized I made a pun!)
This barn had six kittens. They were only a few weeks old, and oh! were they cuddly and soft and cute. Many of the Girl Scouts liked to pick up the kittens and toss them at haybales to see if they'd stick. Yep, that was their favorite game.

I was appalled. When I found what they were doing, I cried. And for whatever reason, the counselors did nothing about it. After awhile, my resolve grew.

When my mom arrived to pick me up at the end of the two weeks, I told her that I was taking two kittens home and was going to save them from this life of misery. My mom isn't exactly an animal person, and we already had a dog and a cat at home.

I begged. I pleaded. I told her of the torture these cats were going through, of how the girls laughed at the poor mewing kittens flying through the air before thrusting out their claws in a panic on the haybales to keep from falling four to six feet to the ground.

My mom finally relented and allowed me to take one kitten home. It was really hard to choose only one to save, but one finally called out to me. Luckily, one of the counselors knew how to tell boy from girl -- my mom had obviously learned from our last encounter.

The poor little kitten was gently placed into our car, and we began the drive home. She hid underneath the seat the whole way, mewing softly but never moving.

By the time we arrived home, I had found a name for her. I named her Copper Top because she never stopped. And yes, this was in the days prior to the Energizer Bunny or that may have been her name. Considering her blaze orange coloring, many people assumed I named her Copper because she was copper. Sadly, no.

We took her to the vet to be spayed and get her shots. That's when we discovered she had fleas. Lots and lots of fleas. Oops. Sorry, Mom. I swear I didn't know. Fortunately, we quickly rid ourselves of the fleas, and life was happy.

While Caesar didn't love Copper, they tolerated each other pretty well, and all was good. After Caesar died, you could tell that she missed having someone around. My mom wasn't about to gete another pet though, and I lived in a college dorm, so she was stuck.

When I finally moved to an apartment off campus, I brought Copper with me. I lived alone, so she was a great companion and was so happy to have me around all the time again.

Even at the age of eleven when I brought her to Chicago, she was still head shy. Eleven years of a gentle and loving home with me and my family, and the poor cat still flinched anytime someone approached her too quickly from the front with a hand out. She never got over being picked up and thrown at haybales over and over again.

I sometimes think about the other five kittens that I couldn't take with me. I wonder how many of them stayed at the barn. I wonder if the Stick 'Em game persisted with other groups of Girl Scouts. I wonder if any of them ever had a family to love them....

Knowing that I was at least able to save one kitten who had a long and happy eighteen years with me before she passed away one afternoon has to be enough. At the age of nine, I didn't have the power to do more. The injustice and wrongness of it still burns in me though.

Can I Freeze Them?

Today, my mom watched the wee ones for me for a bit while I ran out to get some stuff done that badly needed doing -- like getting my stitches removed -- without trying to wrangle the wee ones. Small children and surgical instruments just don't mix.

When I returned, I had run a bunch of errands, including picking up more vitamins for Mister Man (Little Miss has her own vitamins that are dairy free -- seriously, who ever would have dreamed that even vitamins have dairy in them?). Mister Man gets two kinds of vitamins. We give him the normal kid all around vitamin, and he also takes flavored cod liver oil, which is supposed to help a lot of things from brain development to sensory regulation and more.

When I first gave the cod liver oil to him, I didn't want to call out anything wrong to him or make him feel different from Little Miss, so I called them "brain pills" figuring that a) it was partly true and b) that he'd feel special in a good way rather than singled out. The brain pills moniker has stuck.

Needless to say, this played into both cute moments with Mister Man today.

Mister Man is a reader. And he has a fantastic memory. Once you read a book to him, he's pretty much got it down pat, so don't go trying to skip any words or otherwise cheat. Or ... in my mom's case, don't mispronounce a word. He'll catch it. And very seriously, he'll turn to you and say, "Grandma, would you like me to get you some of my brain pills? I'll share them with you because it seems like you need them."

Yeah. That's my son -- always thinking of others. My poor mom couldn't keep a straight face to even attempt to answer him.

Mister Man was at preschool when I arrived home with everything, so I put away the groceries, restocked my Band-Aid supply (for the cut still), and put the vitamins on the counter with the current supply.

Shockingly, Mister I-Don't-Miss-A-Trick walked into the house after he got off the bus and stopped to get a drink before we ran out to the chiro. Walking by the counter, he of course saw the new vitamins.

He carefully picked them up and shook the bottles to verify that yes, in fact the bottles were filled to the brim and I had purchased new vitamins rather than just putting random vitamin bottles on the counter to mess with him (ok, that's my own personal interpretation... but he really did pick them up and shake them).

I got a very soulful look from mister Man before he broke out into a joyous grin. "Mommy," he decleared oh so earnestly, "you're wonderful! Thank you so much for buying me my new vitamins. I was going to run out this week, you know. You're amazing."

Really. How can you not love the boy? I got amazing and wonderful in one breath from him. It really takes that little to please him. And I'm going to hold onto this little bit of happiness the next time he has a meltdown because he got too hungry or too tired.

And as a side note, he actually did know that was going to run out of vitamins this week. On Saturday, he'd poured out the brain pills, counted them and then determined that if he takes two pills a day (which he does), that on Thursday of this week they'd be all gone. And he counted his remaining basic vitamins and realized that he'd run out the same day and have just a half a vitamin left for Friday (a remnant from before we realized Little Miss had a dairy allergy and she had the same vitamins but just a half instead of the whole one). Needless to say, he found this very disturbing. That's my little planner.

I know this age of cuteness is going to pass and the days of them saying nice things will quickly turn into attitude and doors slamming, but I'm hoping the wee ones give me enough of this little gems that I can store up the warm and fuzzies to get myself through the pre-teen and teen years. Wish me luck!