Happy Birthday Dr Seuss!

So today is Dr. Seuss' birthday and if he was still here with us he would be 108! In his honor I have to share a great tradition that I saw on Pinterest a few months back. It was originally tagged from lisasworkshop.blogspot.com where she explained this tradition she "stole" from her friend. Below is how she summarized it.

When her son was young my friend purchased a copy of “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” by Dr. Seuss.  Throughout the years she secretly gave her son’s teachers the book to sign at the end of the school year.  They left notes, poems  and some just signed their name.  When her son graduated from high school she presented the book to her son at his party.  With the party going on all around him he poured over it, going over each page, each signature, each note.  

Believe it or not I don't think I had ever read Oh The Places You'll Go! until last night! Jack and I borrowed it from the library a few days ago and he wanted me to read it to him last night. Even though he's a wild 20 month old, he'll sit still for the longer Dr. Seuss books with no problem. (Just a testament to the skill and genius of Dr Seuss) ☺ As I read it to him I fought back some major tears, I couldn't believe how good it was! I just savored the moment;  snuggling on my lap was an amazing little toddler, sitting there quietly in his bedroom, reading to him. As I read it, I couldn't help look to the future and think of all of the things he has in store for him, both good and bad. As a Mommy I just want to protect him from all of the bad and help him to see his potential. I want him to be happy and successful, but most importantly I want him to know and love God. I want him to know how much God loves him and recognize and be thankful for that. I want him to love people as Christ loves us and be willing to stand up for what's right. I pray that he can look to me and Tom as an example, and that he sees our love for each other and for him. Being a parent is a scary job and it seems as though as they get older it gets scarier. Scary, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's definitely worth it, and luckily I know that I can trust that God has everything in His control, even my sweet little boy.

On and on you will hike.
And I know you'll hike far
And face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with great care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot from your left.

A New Addition to our Family

Now don't get too excited! It's just a fish ☺ Another baby will come, but not quite yet.

Over the weekend we showed Jack Finding Nemo for the first time and now he's OBSESSED with that movie as well as all fish. This morning Jack and I headed over to Peggy Wood's Pet Emporium up the street from our house. As you may see from their website, they have reptiles as well but I figured I'd brave the risk of seeing a snake for my boy's happiness. You may not know this about me yet, but I am terrified of snakes. So much so that if I watch Aladdin I have such a hard time when Jafar turns into a snake I have to look down. I can't even look at a  picture of a snake in a book without getting the chills. When I parked in the back I met a man that worked there (possibly the owner?) and he assured me that I would only see a snake if I went to a specific part of the store, not where the fish are luckily. Jack and I walked around looking at all of the pretty fish and then a dog caught his eye in a room beyond the fish. The gentleman told me that that's also the room where the snakes are, but if I didn't look to the right I wouldn't see them. He was even so nice to block my view walking into the room so that I wouldn't accidentally get a peek. We looked at the dogs for 2 minutes before I couldn't handle it. I was sweating and felt like I couldn't breathe, just knowing that there was a snake (or possibly more than one) in the same room as me. Ughh, just thinking about it freaks me out right now.

We picked out this beautiful and very lively blue beta fish and brought him home. Jack was fascinated watching me put him into his new bowl and kept saying "fii fii" and "waa waa" (fish and water... he doubles every word he says) ☺ I put the fish on the kitchen table so Jack could get a good look at him and he tried to put his hand in the water to touch him! What a stinker! Luckily he didn't get his hand in the water more than this picture captured and he won't have an opportunity to do that again since the fish will kept be out of his reach. We still need to name him. Any suggestions?

Yummy Modified Thai Fried Rice Recipe

So I had some leftover rice I was trying to figure out what to do with. I was talking to my sis-in-law and she told me I should look up a recipe for Thai fried rice. After searching around online a bit I found this recipe over at realthairecipes.com After reading some of the comments under their recipe it seems as though maybe it's not 100% authentic since it doesn't have fish sauce in it. Well, I didn't have fish sauce on hand anyways, so I went for it. I made some changes so I thought I'd share my recipe with you here. Warning, this recipe isn't super specific as far as measurements. I usually just gauge how I make food depending on how it looks, smells and tastes as I go, so bear with me I'm not a cookbook author. :) 

Ingredients:

• 3 T. Olive oil (divided 2T. and 1T.)
• 1 cup sliced onion
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• 1 lb. of uncooked chicken breasts
• 2 1/2 cups cooked rice (About a day old is good since it's better if it's a little dry apparently)
• 4 diced roma tomatoes
• 2 T. Soy Sauce
• 3 T. Sriracha chili sauce
• 2 eggs cracked into a bowl but not stirred
• about 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 5 chopped green onions
• 1/2 cucumber chopped
• 1 lime quartered

Directions:

1. Prep all ingredients. Chop, mince, slice and dice all of the veggies. Cut the raw chicken breasts into bite-size, thin slices. If the rice is cold from being refrigerated heat it up a bit in the microwave so it's closer to room temperature.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil on high until hot. Add the sliced onion (don't add the green onion yet). Stir well and when it’s softened add the garlic. When the garlic is slightly browned add the chicken. Stir well. Keep flipping the chicken until it’s white on all sides.
3. Stir in the rice and tomatoes.
4. Add the soy sauce and Sriracha and stir well.
5. Push the rice to the outside side of the pan so that there's an open hole in the middle. Add the remaining 1 T. of olive oil into the hole and drop the 2 eggs into the hot oil. Let set for a minute or two then stir it all together. Make sure that the eggs are fully cooked as you continue to stir everything together.
6. Stir in the cilantro and green onions. Turn off heat.
7. Serve with a quarter of the lime and some cucumbers on top. 

This recipe made 4 entree servings. Also, I'm not completely sure how much of the olive oil, soy sauce and Sriracha I actually used since I just added it as I went, so you may want to use your better judgement depending on your tastes.

I hope you enjoy it! I know I'll be making it again soon. :) Please feel free to comment or ask questions if there's anything you'd like to me to clarify.


And for good measure here's a video of my sweetie :)

Fun in the Rain

This past Monday we had a storm come through that was definitely needed. Of course since then we've had sunny weather in the high 70's. But still the rain was really nice. Tom spent the majority of the day drawing so Jack and I took advantage of the rain and played outside for a bit. We got bundled up and headed out!

 Jack kept telling us "waaa, waa" which is how he says water :)

As always picking up rocks and sticks! He even picked up a few worms...gross.

Video of us playing outside

After getting drenched outside we came in and stripped down. He was just wearing his onesie. :) We sat on the couch and looked at the rain outside.

We finished off the evening by putting space jammies on and reading some books. Look at that face, he is so sweet! 

I love his little profile, I just wanna kiss his nose!

My Kid Is Spoiled

Seriously, as I was preparing Jack's dinner tonight I thought to myself, "Man, this kid eats really well. If I ate what he did I'd be skinny."
Today his menu consisted of
     Breakfast: Fruit, spinach and yogurt smoothie. Oatmeal.
     Lunch: Turkey. Mozzarella. Peas and Corn. Applesauce
     Dinner: Spinach, ham and cheese quiche. Eggplant. Pears.
     "Dessert": Graham cracker with peanut butter.
He really is spoiled. He's never eaten a jar of baby food in his life (once when he was 9 months old I had to try since I didn't have any homemade with me and he refused) everything he's ever eaten has been fresh ingredients and homemade. I don't puree much for him anymore, but certain veggies he won't even try whole, but loves pureed, like carrots. I don't know if the next kid will get this kind of treatment so I figured I might as well do it while I can. Back to my original thought though, I want to eat what he eats. Why not? I'm making it anyways right? Don't know if I'd eat pureed sweet potatoes mixed with oatmeal, but at least if I eat the same foods it would be good for me. Don't get me wrong, we eat pretty healthy, fresh foods and I don't plan on doing the "baby food diet". But, I know I don't eat nearly as many veggies and fruit as I should, especially compared to how much Jack eats. So that's a new goal for me this year. Eat more fruits and veggies!! I'm so inspired by Kath over at KERF and if you haven't checked out her blog I encourage you to see the journey she's been on to get and stay healthy. Here are some pictures of the boy enjoying his yummy food :)

This was taken mid-December, he was practicing feeding himself applesauce with a spoon.  He's actually gotten pretty darn good at it lately! He doesn't really even make a mess anymore!

 This last one was taken a few days after Christmas. I know it's terrible quality, but I love his big grin and the way his hair was standing up :) Eating some scrambled eggs that had ham mixed in since he wasn't willing to eat the ham by itself, which is why there's a pile further in front of him.