After we got back from picking Analise up at school today, it was naptime in our house.  Most days, Analise naps on my bed, and I lay down with her until she falls asleep.  Lately, though, she’s been wanting to skip her naps, which I let her do every now and then (and the bonus effect of this is a much quicker, early bedtime!  If we can tolerate the tired, whiney/crying attitude that often crops up in the late afternoon without a nap…)

Today she laid down next to me and said, “Just a short nap, Mama?” 

“Sure,” I said. 

“When can I get up?”

“After you rest, sweetie.”

“How ’bout I decide how long?  I’ll tell you how much time I want to rest for.”

Easy enough, I thought, since she still hasn’t grasped the hours/minutes/time concepts yet.  “Ok.  How long do you want to nap for?”

“Thirty hours, Mama.  How’s that?  I’ll nap for 30 hours.” 

I stifled my laugh.  “Sure thing, sweetie.  That’ll be great.”  That might start getting me caught up on the accumulated sleep debt of 5 years of bad sleep!

Naptime only lasted 30 minutes, but that means bedtime should be a breeze tonight!

Enjoy the glimpse of our weekend!

Playing at the playground during the bike race…

A rare, sweet moment of being siblings.  There are VERY FEW pictures like this one.  Makes my heart burst 🙂

Brian leading one of the early laps in the race.

The finish sprint.  Brian’s got the red helmet just to the right of center.   More photos and his race report on his blog.

From last week.  I just got a new short haircut, and Analise was dressed in her pink and brown rodeo attire (essentially boots and braids 🙂 ).  She didn’t get the whole self-timer photo concept.

Friday evening, Brian and I got to go out with our friends, Lennie & Kim, for yummy Mexican and a relaxing dessert evening at church.  I’m so lucky to have a good babysitter in the family 🙂  It’s a real treat to not have to deal with dinner and bedtime AND be out with adult conversation and company!

Saturday morning we had homemade waffles, and then the kids and I headed out for a walk in the lovely cooler weather (at least cooler to us… 60’s in the mid-morning!).  We walked all the way to the bridge and fed the fish, and collected acorns on the way home.  Then we hurriedly got ourselves ready for family pictures with Brian’s parents and brother.  Um, that didn’t go so well.  Analise was grumpy and she said she “couldn’t smile because she couldn’t remember how”.

We had good naps, and then we joined Brian for a quick trip to the bike shop.  Somehow, we ended up picking up ice cream before we heded home for dinner.  Hm 🙂  I had invited Brian’s parents over for spaghetti and homemade breadsticks, the usual pre-race fare.

Today, we headed to church to work in the kids’ classroom for the early service.  We headed straight from church up the Interstate to Brian’s bike race in Dalton, GA.  The 3-hour trip seemed much longer, as the kids were not entertained by anything… not food, music, coloring, movies, books or toys.  We were all very happy to arrive at the quiet downtown race course!

This was the perfect bike race setup for me with the kids.  They had a bouncy house, and Analise and Josiah were nearly the only kids bouncing, for more than an hour.  They were thrilled.  We snacked on animal crackers from the “racer hospitality tent”, as we headed over to watch the race.  The course was short, and located on a nice little park that more than entertained the kids for the whole 40 minute race. Brian did great – 4th place!  I’m sure he’ll write more on his cycling blog.

After the race, we picked up dinner for the kids and Brian, while we headed down the road to Rome, GA where I was going to meet a friend.  Darby and I had a great time catching up at a burger place.  It was a nice addition for me in a  busy day.  Not surprisingly, the kids were happy to stay in the car watching movies and resting after their bouncy-busy-play day, while Brian worked on the laptop with them.

The trip home wasn’t nearly as long, as the kids were asleep the whole way.  Whew!  We were only gone 11 hours, but it felt like the whole weekend!

More funny-ness from my boy.

At dinner, we were having this Crockpot Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes and Coconut Milk, and both kids had chicken and rice to eat.  Josiah also had carrots.  Two days ago, he opened the fridge, took out the bag of whole raw carrots, and started eating one, telling me, “I wike cawots, Mama!  I wike cawots!”  And after I washed and peeled it, he munched on carrot sticks all afternoon.

Tonight, though, he pushed them away, and said, “I don WIKE cawots.”

“Josiah, you liked carrots yesterday!  Try your carrot.”

“I don WIKE cawots, Mama!” he said, as he pushed them away.

I nudged him towards his chicken.  “Have some chicken, Josiah.  And some rice.”  A couple seconds later, he pushed his plate away, and said vehemently, “I WON’T give up, Mama! I WON’t give up!”

Brian and I were chuckling under our breath, and Josiah kept saying, “I WON’T give up! I WON’T give up!”

After about 10 repetitions of his battle cry, we were laughing out loud.  We weren’t sure what it was he wouldn’t give up on, but he wasn’t going to back down!

Later, at bedtime, I called him into his room to get ready.  “I WON’T give up, Mama!  I WON’T give up!”  He’s going to be a tenacious little man!

There have been so many things lately that I’ve wanted to write down about Josiah.  I just wish all our far off family and friends could enjoy a fun little conversation with my blonde-headed boy.

• “Um, yes.”  If you ask him something, he often answers, thoughtfully, “um, yes”.  So cute
• One of his favorite things to say is “I wuv you, Mama”, “I wuv you, Daddy” (though sometimes he accidentally says “I wuv you, Mama” to Brian, too.  Still very sweet!), and “I wuv you, Sister” (his most common name for Analise).  We hear this so many times during the day, but I promise, it doesn’t get old.  I know that eventually (probably sooner rather than later) we won’t be hearing it as often as we like.  Today at church during the kids program, he turned around to the people behind us and said, “I wuv you”.  They were charmed 🙂
• Both Josiah and Analise had a great phone call with Grandma Sandy the other day.  She was thrilled to be able to have good (ie, not rambling, comprehensive) conversations with both of them.
• “Oh, sank you!”  He’s so polite.  Whether it’s me taking him to the park or giving him a glass of water, he’ll say “Oh sank you!”, full of gratitude.  “Sank you, Mama, sank you.”  I hope he never outgrows the politeness.  And if we say, “You’re welcome”, he’ll say “yo welcome!” right back.
• He can count all the way to 14.
• I’ve caught him several times reading a book, saying “Wapon da time…” (which, I believe, translates to “Once upon a time…”).  I guess all the reading of his sister is soaking in!

This is such a fun, fun age.  I just recently realized that Analise was this age right after Josiah was born, and I feel that I missed alot of her at this stage, because I was so busy with Josiah.  She also started going to preschool at this age, and I really didn’t have a lot of one-on-one time to appreciate all the little developmental things that were happening.  It makes me sad to think I was too sleep-deprived to notice her sweet moments at this age.

But I am LOVING getting to know Josiah as a little person, watching his personality develop, and spending more one-on-one time.  We go out and about a lot more now that Analise is in school, and he’s gotten to be a very easy-going little companion… especially if I finish the running-around with a trip to the playground!

Yesterday was exactly like that.  We’d been to several stops, and he’d been great.  He even indulged me in a long (well, long with a child.  Maybe 30 minutes?) walk around Kohl’s.  He rode in the cart/stroller, munching on cereal bar and raisins.  I’m sure the Kohl’s employees were wondering about the little black “droppings” in the clearance section.  I knew it was time to go when he climbed out of the stroller in the underwear section, and climbed up onto a shelf in the wall, burying himself behind the panties 🙂  He didn’t want to leave, actually, but that’s when I mentioned the playground, and he was all ready to go.

So I swung by Starbucks so I’d have something to enjoy at the playground.  I ordered an iced caramel latte, and as we were driving to the playground, I swirled the icy drink around to cool it off and mix it up.  Josiah heard the ice in the cup and said, “It’s gone, Mama.”

“What’s gone?”

“The coffee is gone.”

I decided to play along.  “Oh no!  What am I going to do?”

“You get some more.”  Haha.  Yes, dear.  In our house, there’s always more coffee to be had 🙂

At the playground, he started running off and stopped to turn back to me.  “Come on, Mama!  Come on!”  Sweet, sweet words.  I love that the playground isn’t enticing enough to pull him away with out me.

Though he’s nearly outgrown it, we still have times where he wants to rest on my chest.  I loved those baby times of him sleeping chest-to-chest to me.  I love that he still finds quiet, comfort and rest snuggled up next to me.  No matter how tired or busy I am, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to hold my big baby boy so close.

I don’t have too long this morning, but I thought I’d share all that’s going on in my kitchen today.

I’m in charge of dinner for a Life Group of 19 people this evening.  It probably won’t be that many people, and we’ve been trying to plan simpler meals to make it easier on everyone.  I’m also sending some food with friends who are visiting a mom who just had a baby.  So, I’m making tortellini soup (um, quadrupling the recipe in 2 big stockpots!), a double batch of homemade breadsticks (I used this recipe to make thick crust pizza last week and it was GREAT!), and a batch of these yummy, Blondies with Chocolate Chips & Walnuts.

Good eatin’!

Back in July, I tried out a new recipe for Cracked Potatoes, using both this skillet recipe and this oven recipe.  I, personally, love potatoes in any form, so they both were tasty.  But the skillet version was a bit better.  The one problem was that when you “crack” the potatoes, they start to fall apart.  So I winged it, and created my Skillet Smashed Potatoes that were AWESOME.

• Potatoes – small ones, Yukon gold or red, boiled in salted water until a knife slides in, but not super soft (15 min?)
• Take potatoes from pan, “crack” with the bottom of a glass, trying not mash it too much.
• Heat 2-3 T extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of a skillet.  Add 2 tsp minced garlic, and saute until it starts to brown.  Remove most of the garlic bits with a spoon so they don’t burn and bitter.
• Add the potatoes, and let them fall apart, if they do.  Cook for 3-4 minutes on one side.  Season liberally with garlic salt and cracked pepper.  Turn the potatoes over, and let them break apart.  Cook another 5 minutes, until small pieces start to turn golden brown.

Enjoy!

Analise has always enjoyed games.  She’s amazing at playing Memory.  At first – probably a year ago, when she’d just turned 3 – I’d let her win, until I realized she was better than me.  We play the Hungry Caterpillar game, Chutes and Ladders, Blokus (mostly just making designs with the tiles), and Dora Dominoes.  She’s slowly learned about taking turns, but often she doesn’t get parts of the game.  For example, with Chutes and Ladders she really wants to land on the slide, which takes you backwards down the board, instead of towards the winning space.  And she likes to spin the spinner until she gets the number she wants.  We don’t mind playing her way, because it’s all fun and games 🙂

Tonight we tried Uno for the first time.  First off, Analise didn’t nap today, so she was a little teary as it was nearing bedtime.  She did really well keeping track of her cards.  She caught on to the aspect of laying a matching color or number.  We were all down to just a couple cards.  But when Brian’s turn came around and he had to draw and draw and draw to get a card to lay, Analise burst into tears.  She wanted to get more cards, too.  Brian happily passed some over to her.  We told her she needed to get rid of the cards to win, and she cried that she didn’t want to win.  So we gave her more cards, a whole handful, and she giggled through her tears.  We played on and on, giving Analise extra cards, everytime we both got too many.  I was sure if she just got down to one and experienced the thrill of yelling “Uno!” she’d want to win, but we never got that far.  And after I won, she was more than happy to hear that she “won” with the most cards.

You’ve got to know when to hold ’em… and know when to pass them to Analise!

Updated – right after we finished playing, I went downstairs and posted a note to my facebook account while Kristine was unbeknownst to me posting this blog! Here is my version of the story:

So Kristine and and I are pretty competitive about things – games usually end up in intense battles. Analise just came down the stairs and asked if I wanted to play “Tigger and Pooh”. I stop and go upstairs to investigate and find her and my wife getting ready to play a game of uno using a tigger and pooh uno deck of cards. They deal me in and we are off! Everything is going well. Analise has picked up perfectly on the concept of either matching the color or the number shown on the card just laid down. So everything is fine until Analise plays a card that I can’t match. This also happens to leave her with only two cards in her hands. As I keep on drawing more and more cards without finding a match, Analise starts to wail and sob because I am getting all the cards and she only has two. We try to explain to her that she is about to win. “But I don’t want to win!!!” she sobs. So I come up with a solution: every time I draw a card that doesn’t match I’ll just give it to Analise – and I toss in half of my huge stack of cards for good measure. Well, that doesn’t go over too well with Kristine so she gives Analise a lot of her cards, too – leaving the two of us to duke out. I’ll wrap it up by saying that Kristine and I both make it down to “uno”, but she ends up winning when Analise plays a 7 (out of order) which Kristine also has in her hand. Analise is happy because she has the most cards when the game ends. That’s uno with my wife and my 4 year old! Now it’s back to work.

Man, there’s been some good eatin’ goin’ on around here!  Let me see if I can summarize it all…

• Ham & Gruyere French Bread Pizza – Yum.  Super easy.  The gruyere was a little pricey, and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it with the strong smell.  But it was very good.  I might opt for a little cheaper fontina, swiss or baby swiss next time.  Delicious!
• Deconstructed Lasagna – More or less the ingredients of lasagna, but without the work.  The red sauce was AMAZING, probably due to the red wine.  (Tip, we don’t drink much red wine here.  I bought the little 4-pk of bottles, perfect for the occasional use.)  The white sauce was good, but I might add more garlic and stir in more parmesean.  It need a bit more flavor.  We used whole wheat lasagna noodles, and it was EXCELLENT, and fairly easy!
• Powerball cookies – Easy, quick, fun kid recipe.  Not too bad for you.  I subbed ground flaxseed meal for the wheat germ.  They were tasty little bites!
• Blondies with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts – Wow… these were awesome.  I’ve not enjoyed blondies before, but these were amazing!  I even used all whole wheat flour with no problems.  Cut them small so you can have 2 without feeling bad 🙂
• Crockpot Fried Chicken – I actually didn’t use the crockpot bc the chicken wasn’t thawed early enough.  But baked in the oven, this was tasty.  I’m anxious to try it in the crockpot, my best friend in the kitchen!  Oh, and this blog is full of amazing crockpot recipes!

Ok, I’ve got bread in the breadmaker, and Josiah’s in the kitchen playing with his rice bin, and I hear rice pitter-pattering across the floor, so I’d better go see how big the mess is.  Thank goodness it’s just a quick sweep to clean up!

What a weekend.  We had a fabulous time.  So much I could say, but I think I’ll let my 25 pictures (out of nearly 250!) speak for themselves.

Our stretch of beach (Seagrove Beach, between Panama City & Destin, Florida)

Our condo… We were in the top right apartment.

Our view from the balcony.  It was so relaxing and refreshing to sit out there.

My two fun boardwalk pictures, from our short jaunt over the first evening when we arrived.

My beach babies… they loved it.  Analise could have stayed on the beach all day.  Thank goodness we walked over once on Friday evening when we arrived, 3 times yesterday, once last night to hunt little ghost crabs with flashlights (probably the most fun of all!), and twice today.

This was Analise’s favorite way to enjoy the surf 🙂

Josiah was determined to move the beach, shovel by shovel, from one place to another.  He carried one shovelful of sand for almost our entire morning walk!

Analise and Lauren had so much fun together.  I’ve got lots of cute pictures of them running in the sand and surf laughing and playing.  It’s so easy to get good pictures at the beach!  And we always had a bucket for our seashell collecting.

The beach angels!

Anna, Analise, Lauren and Josiah splashin’ it up in the surf.

Josiah and Anna spent a lot of time digging.  In this photo, poor Josiah had just gotten a bucket of sandy water dumped on him.  Analise was trying to help.  I’m not sure if it was Josiah’s fault for sitting in the hole they were filling or Analise’s for dumping it on him.

A couple “wildlife” photos.  We saw dolphins jumping, jelly fish washing up on the beach (making today’s splashing more dangerous), and lots and lots of pelicans.

We took our little-used bike trailer (Thanks, Poppa Dale!!) with us, and I rented a bike for the day.  I haven’t ridden since California, let alone pulled a trailer with kiddos, but thankfully you don’t forget how to ride a bike 🙂  I pulled Anna and Josiah, and Kim pulled the older girls.  What a blast!  We had so much fun cruising around!  Makes me want to start riding more around here, in spite of the steep hills!

Really, it was a fantastic weekend.  The Moons were so awesome to share their condo with us.  We’ve done so much travel for cycling, this was a relaxing trip to just enjoy being somewhere… definitely a nice change!  Brian and Lennie rode 60 miles yesterday and 50 miles today.  Kim and I got out a bit each day by ourselves, and the kids, of course, always love being together.  The girls had a “sleepover” in their own bedroom, and they did great.  We enjoyed fresh steamed shrimp from a nearby fish market and watched a couple non-kid moives after the little ones collapsed into bed.  Today we wrapped up the fun times with a trip to the ice cream shoppe to soothe the kids sadness at saying goodbye.  I’m already looking forward to our next beach vacation!