Seven Things I Loved about Living Near Amanda & the Kids June 7, 2011

My SIL Amanda Hutchison has been posting a list of seven things on the seventh day of each month in her blog Where the Child Things Are.  It sounded like a good idea, so I’m devoting my first Seven on the Seventh post to Amanda and her kids, Katherine and Thomas.

1. Sunday lunch with the whole family

   This has been a tradition in my family since I was a child.  As a girl, we would go to lunch with my Carlton grandparents immediately following church on Sunday.  Scott and I would argue over who got to sit next to Grandpa and many warm memories were created around the tables of the local restaurants in the La Porte/Deer Park/Pasadena area.  Now that I’m an adult, this tradition has continued at we’ve been meeting up with Amanda & kids, Grandpa, and Mom & Dad on Sundays when everyone was in town.  Lunch out is much more physical when there are 3 pre-schoolers involved.  It’s been fun.

2. Bluebonnet / Blue Bell Ice Cream Trip

   This year Julie and I met up with Mom & Dad, Amanda & Kids in Caldwell, TX to see the land that Scott and Amanda purchased, as well as, to get some photos of the kids in the Bluebonnets.   We ate lunch at this great local place and drove out to Scott & Amanda’s future home site.  The bluebonnets were less spectacular than in previous years, but still pretty cool.  The best part of the trip was Dad’s impromptu move to take us all to the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham.  YUMMY!

3. Cowboy Boots…

   From glittery sparkly silver cowboy boots to the traditional leather cowboy boots in toddler sizes, I’ve seen this crew with the most amazing cowboy boots ever.  My brother’s family who has lived all over the country makes my Texas family look like a bunch of city slickers.  Oh wait, we are city slickers…

4. The question “Why?”

   Katherine’s faithfully asks “why?” to everything around her.   Her brilliant, inquisitive nature is inspiring and exhausting.  If her career as a princess, artist mermaid does pan out, I bed she’ll be leading research somewhere in the world.

5. Juan pushing his “little buddy” Thomas on the swing at Mom’s House

   Katherine, Thomas and Julie all love to run around in Grandma’s backyard. Thomas especially loves to swing. We’ve always referred to Juan as a baby charmer and Thomas has definitely taking a liking to Juan. Whenever Juan is around Thomas insists that Juan carry him and love on him. Lucky for Thomas, Juan really loves his little buddy also.

6. Cousin Sleepovers with Katherine

   So far we’ve had two cousin sleepovers where I invite Katherine to stay the night at our house. We do the typical sleepover activities that make the evening so much fun like eating pizza (and other junk food), watching Disney movies and staying up past bedtime.  Our first cousin sleepover also included a visit in the morning to see the Easter Bunny complete with face painting.  While Julie is probably too little to remember all this fun, I’m hoping that Katherine and I have created some memories to last a life time.

   Note:  For my friends who might be interested in starting a sleepover tradition, I’d strongly recommend that if your niece leaves her electric toothbrush at your house that you check the batteries before she come back over to claim it.

7. Celebrating Birthdays and Holidays together

   It’s been so nice to casually celebrate almost an entire year of birthdays and holidays together. I’ve got wonderful memories of Katherine running around at Julie’s 1st birthday last Aug when they first arrived in Texas. I remember fondly the great pumpkin event when after some significant hub-bub Aunt Robyn didn’t realize that the pumpkin patch was closed after work prompting the party to move to Chick-fil-A. This Christmas was amazing.  I’m always going to remember 3 silly giggling kids fumbling over one another in the bounce house and Katherine spending the entire present opening time playing with her sticker book from Julie. Christmas was quickly followed by the visit from Scott in early January and family portraits together. Time with Scott is always special and treasured. The Memorial Day pool party and feast that Amanda hosted for the Hutchison side of the family this May was so much fun. This weekend marks the last birthday celebration together during this extended trip. Appropriately, we’ll be celebrating poolside with Katherine who turns 5 in June and Thomas who turns 2 in July.

While I’m thrilled that Scott will be back from Iraq soon and that his family will be reunited after a difficult year apart. I can’t help but selfishly feel a little sad to see Amanda and the kids head back to Hawaii after all the fun we’ve had together in Houston over the last year.  I’ve heard both Amanda and Scott say that is situations like this you can either be sad for a long time and fret over the pending departure of loved ones or you can live in the moment and enjoy every last drop of time when we are together.  I’m trying hard to take this advice to heart and live by the later.  It’s been a great year! Amanda, I love you!

Redemption and the Whole Enchilada May 27, 2011

In an attempt to save some moolah and also eat more diabetic friendly, I’ve been trying to cook dinner at least once a week for my family.  I know that many of the Super Moms out there are laughing at my goal because you cook a meal for your family every night and maybe eat out one meal a week… Well, that’s why you are a Super Mom.  Congrats!

My husband had raved several times about these chicken enchiladas that one of his co-workers had brought to work.  I really wanted to make something that he would enjoy (and also secretly wanted to impress him with my mad culinary skills) so about a month ago I called Jenny up to get the recipe.  Jenny is one of those Super Moms mentioned earlier in this post who politely giggled at some of my rookie questions like how do you boil chicken.   (FYI, boiling chicken is as easy as dropping chicken into a pot of boiling water. DUH! Why didn’t I already know that?!)  She also encouraged me not be so nervous because in addition to being a Super Mom, she moonlights as a kind, thoughtful friend.   

So… I attempted making the dish.  As with many of my cooking attempts, Juan ate the food politely commenting that there was ”a little too much cheese” and that “Jenny shreds her chicken.”  Then the next day he “accidentally” forgot to take the left overs that I’d packed for his lunch, which ended up the basura.  I’ll admit it, these were not the best enchiladas ever, but they were not THAT bad.  I felt pretty down that the meal didn’t meet up to my expectations, especially since I was trying to do something special for him.

Fast forward to Wednesday…

Juan was working late and picking up Julie from the MIL, so I’d decided that I was going to try to redeem myself by attempting the elusive enchilada recipe once again.  I stopped working at 10 mins til 5pm to start prep work on the meal (and to watch the last 10 mins of Oprah’s last show ever for the rest of time or at least until she starts a new show on the Oprah Network.)  This time I doubled the amount of chicken and shredded it to ensure that I’d addressed any cheesy complaints from my previous attempt.

Bottom line… The enchiladas were AWESOME!  Juan who had earlier admitted to eating a hamburger in anticipation of another Robyn cooking disaster actually liked it and we both enjoyed them again for lunch on Thursday.  Sweet Redemption!  I’m one meal closer to Super Mom-dom.

Here is the recipe including my tips to avoiding my mistakes the first go ’round.  

Jenny’s Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

- 8 in flour tortillas
- 2-4 T Butter
- 2 bricks of Philly cream cheese
- 1 medium yellow onion chopped
- 1 can of chopped green chilis (found in the Mexican food aisle, near the canned jalapeno)
- bag of frozen chicken tenders
- 1 container of chicken stock
- 1 quart of heavy creme
- 4 c of shredded Monterrey jack cheese

Grease your baking dish and turn the oven to 350 degrees. Fill a large pot with half chicken stock and half water and boil the chicken. 

While the chicken is boiling, get started on the cheesy mixture.  You’ll need to cut the onion into small square pieces, then melt the butter to a large skillet and saute the onions.  Once the onions start to turn translucent add the can of green chilis and stir until the mixture is warm.  Next add the cubed up cream cheese and 1c of the Monterrey Jack cheese. Stir constantly to make a yummy creamy mixture, it’ll be the texture of melted queso dip when all mixed up.  Trick from Super Mom Jenny: You may need to add a little bit of the chicken stock from your boiling chicken or the heavy cream to keep the cheese mixture creamy.  The melty cheese should be thick but fluid. 

Once the cheese is smooth and gooey, turn the heat on the stove to low under your cheese and check to see that your chicken is cooked done.  The chicken should be white all the way through and should tear pretty easily.  

Next take the chicken from the boiling water (be sure not to burn yourself) and shred it using 2 forks, toss any grisly nasty parts.  Add the shredded chicken into the cheesy mixture and stir throughly.  I did this in batches, but I don’t think it really matters.  The consistency of the mixed chicken & cheese should be a solid, but messy.  

Next take a large spoon and drop a healthy spoonful or two of the chicken into each tortilla so that it’s filled from end to end.  Roll the tortilla  around the chicken and place the enchilada seam down in your greased pan.  You’ll repeat this step until all your enchiladas are filled and your filling is gone.  I ended up with ~12 enchiladas.  You can limit the amount of chicken in each tortilla if you need to spread it out into more servings.

Now it’s time to add the rest of the Monterrey Jack cheese and create the sauce.  Sprinkle the remaining 3 cups of shredded cheese on top of the enchiladas, so that the tortillas are  completely covered.  Drizzle the heavy cream over the top of the shredded cheese covered enchiladas.  Once everything is cooked the heavy cream will mix with the melted cheese and soak into the tortillas to make a nice sauce and keep everything moist.  

Finally place the pan in the oven to cook.  Since everything is technically already cooked, you just want for the cheese on top to melt and for all the ingredients to heat back up.  This takes about 20-25 mins. 

For an extra special treat, once everything is cooked and looking good turn on the broiler on your oven for 2-5 mins and let the cheese on top brown up.  Once you’ve turned on the broiler, DON’T WALK AWAY!  You can burn the top quickly if you don’t keep an eye on things while the broiler is on.  Once the top looks like something from the Food Network, take the dish out to cool a couple of minutes, then serve and ENJOY! 

This one is great for dinner, even greater as left overs the next day!

The Famous Pastrami “Standwich” March 13, 2011

As a child, my father ruled the kitchen in our house.  With Dad it was all about tastin’ good and I was (and still am) all about that! 

He introduced me to this amazing sandwich that I’ve rediscovered in recent weeks.  You start with 2 slices pumpernickel bread, add whipped cream cheese on one slice and deli mustard on the opposite slice.  Top the cream cheese with dill pickle slices and stack it up with beef pastrami.  Cut the sandwich in half and chow down.

It’s not the most healthy option, but it’s definitely yummy!

Julie’s favorite words March 12, 2011

A couple weeks ago Juan pulled up my blog and was reading posts from the time during and immediately following Julie’s birth. It was really eye-opening for me to see him enjoying the memories that I’d captured in writing of a time that feels like a million years ago, but in reality was only 18-24 months back.

As a parent it’s really amazing to see how much development has occurred in my little monkey in such a short amount of time.  I suspect that this tremendous growth exacerbates the feeling that time is flying.  I want to revive posting on the blog in an attempt to capture more of those moments so  Juan and I (and maybe Julie) can relive them later.

Today, Julie has a tremendous vocabulary.  It seems like everyday she is saying something new… Well, in reality, it’s more like we are figuring out what she’s been saying to us for a while. 

There’s added complexity in identifying her words because we’ve successfully implanted Spanish into her daily speech.  She now clearly asks for “agua” and “papa”, which translates into “water” and “food” for my fellow gringos.  I’m thrilled at the possibility that she’s going to grow up being bilingual. 

Some of her other favorite words include:

• Elmo – the sun rises & sets with thoughts related to Elmo, we talk about him  A LOT! 
• “B” – translates in to “Brutus” or “Big Bird”
• Mama
• Da -Daddy
• Dog, Duck, Quack Quack
• Dor – Dora 
• Cheese
• Eye, Nose
• Shoe
• Wow, Uh Oh
• “Ah Ah Ah” – laughed like Count VanCount on Sesame Street
• “Mi” – which last night I figured out is Mickey Mouse
• No – which has become the answer to all yes/no questions
• “Touchdown” – Juan’s verbal gift to Julie for Superbowl weekend.  She now says this anytime she sees football on TV and raises her arms in the touchdown pose.  It’s really cute. 

Screaming Banshees and Cheerios December 8, 2010

My response to Adventures in House Hunting Part Deux.

This morning I read a post from my good friend Laurie that reminded of my shopping trip last Sunday with my 15 month old. (We’ll call her Julie.)

Julie had not been feeling well and and to demonstrate her general unhappiness with life she was actively resisting a much needed nap.

When we first arrived at the store, she started dancing in the shopping cart to the Christmas music, duping me into believing that this might actually be a productive trip.

She strategically waited until we were in the far back of the store with enough merchandise in the cart that I couldn’t just abandon it, before she stated screaming like a banshee.

I offered her a sippy cup, which she threw with attitude on the floor. I offered her a toy, which fell to the same fate as her cup.
I offered her some Cheerios, which she accepted under the condition that I let her hold the bag.

For those less experienced with young kids, be aware that toddlers only land food in their mouths about half the time. Allowing her to feed herself in the store meant that we were going to litter the store Hanzel & Grettel style with Cheerios. I’m not forced to decide between screaming baby or the Cheerio trail. (Sorry to the employee that eventually had to clean it up, I tried to get all the stray Cheerios up as best I could.)

We make our way to the check out, which only had 2 lines open and 20 people waiting. Julie eventually empties the bag of cereal and recommences screaming.

I’m embarrassed that she’s been screaming for so long and that I’m seeing all the same faces who witnessed the tantrum earlier with the sippy cup. I’m humiliated that she’s made a mess in the floor with her cereal. I can feel the people around me glaring that I need to get my child under control.

But more than the embarrassment and humiliation, I’m feeling guilty that my little one is feeling bad and I’m forcing her to stay in the check out line when she is clearly communicating to me that life in her world is not ok.

I picked her up in my arms and started quietly singing her favorite songs to her to calm her down.

Parents in today’s society definitely need to take a more proactive stance on discipline. I want my daughter to grow up with manners, grace and poise, unlike many of the other children I’ve run across in recent history.

Parenting unfortunately is not black and white.  On Sunday, the right thing for me to do was to love on my baby, even though from the perspective of an outsider she was acting spoiled and out of control.

Sometimes pretending that your pre-schooler didn’t just yell “You smell like Poop!” at a complete stranger that you are trying to convince should rent your apartment is better than than kicking off the melt down that commences following a discipline session. Maybe the comment about baby sitting was more the icing on the cake of the Dad’s blog post about his humiliating experience attempting to rent out his apartment, while he gave his exhausted wife a well-deserved afternoon off to complete her Christmas shopping sans the screaming banshee.

Top 10 Ways to Avoid Sleep February 19, 2010

Julie is perfecting her methodology for not going to sleep. This post captures some of her best strategies.

1. kicking her feet
2. holding her feet straight up in the air
3. attempting to grab her feet with her hands while laying on her back with your feet straight up in the air
4. holding her arm up in the air (this one is great because you know that if she starts to doze off her arm will drop and instantly wake her up!)
5. rotating your hand in a motion comparable to a beauty queen wave and looking at your hand
6. flailing your arms to the right then the left
7. crying and on occasion using real tears
8. rolling around from side to side
9. playing with her blanket using her hands & feet
10. laughing at Brutus or her daddy

Monkey Retrieval Unit December 31, 2009

When Julie was first born she would snuggle up into a little ball on my chest and let her arms hang free to her sides. It reminded me of a monkey and sadly for her the name has stuck. Juan and I both affectionately call her our little monkey.

Juan has taken this nick name to the next level. When he & I are both working days, he typically pick ups the baby at her grandma’s house. I’ve been little blue about returning to work so to cheer me up my sweet husband will call me from the road after work to let me know that the “Monkey Retrieval Unit in route.”

Once he’s got the baby in the car and is headed home, I’ll get a second call to inform me that “the MRU was successful and the monkey was safely retrieved.”

I don’t know why, but this is so funny to me. I don’t know if it’s because he’s so serious about it or because he does it consistently every time he picks her up. Regardless, I’m entertained.

Just imagine… One day my child will probably be traumatized and devastated that her parents thought she looked like a monkey.

Fire Truck Santa December 19, 2009

For those who did not grow up in Deer Park, Fire Truck Santa is one of the coolest holiday traditions of all time. It’s really a shame that Santa’s social calendar is too busy to also make the rounds in Pearland.

Each Christmas, the Deer Park Fire Dept dresses up the truck with Christmas lights and parades through all the neighborhoods in town blasting its sirens & Christmas Music while the firemen throw out candy and Santa waves and wishes everyone a “Merry Christmas!”

For a young child, this is the coolest, most exciting thing ever!!!!! The best part about Fire Truck Santa is the anticipation that he’s coming… My mean mother would make my brother and I go to bed, as if you could sleep knowing that headed toward your house was a huge FIRE TRUCK with LIGHTS and SANTA and most importantly CANDY!!!

My bedroom faced the front of the house so I would just sit in my bed staring out the window until Fire Truck Santa was close enough that my parents would let us throw on our shoes & jackets, just in time run out in our pajamas to greet Santa and elbow the neighbors for candy.

Again, one of the coolest things ever!

Baby Droolianna, the early teether November 6, 2009

Yesterday I renamed Baby Julianna… Droolianna. We suspect that Julie has started the teething process. The last couple days she’s been drooling and chewing like a rabid dog.

Droolianna is only 9.5 weeks old, so it’s a little early for her have started this process. Typically babies get their first teeth around 4-6 months, but it’s the only logical explaination for her excessive drooling.

Yesterday, I had set her in her bouncer on the kitchen table so we could work on her scrapbook together. I looked up to see her going to town on the edge of the headrest. I promptly pulled it out of her mouth and replaced it with a pacifier. She tends to prefer her hands & fingers over a pacifier, but I’ve been trying herd to her her hands out of her mouth. (I’m losing this battle.)

Breast Cancer Scare Super Soaker Mammograms November 4, 2009

A couple weeks ago I went in for my 6 week postpartum check up with my OB/GYN.  Technically it had been 7 weeks, but my doctor was out with the H1N1 flu.  I find something ironic about the doctor canceling appointments because she has the flu, but that’s a story for another day.  I expected the appointment to be short & sweet and had planned to run an afternoon’s worth errands once everything was done.

At the end of the appointment, I asked the doctor to take a quick look at a blue mark on my left breast.  I’ve had the mark since I was young and had recently noticed a couple of tender lumpy spots at the surface of the skin.  I attributed this to normal tenderness associated with breastfeeding but thought it would be smart to let her know about it.

The doctor was more concerned that I expected and immediately set me up an ultrasound.  She sent me down stairs for the scan with the expectation that it was probably nothing, but merited a closer look.  I was mildly concerned but the doc seemed to think that this was more precautionary than anything else so I didn’t think much of it.

With Julie in tow, I walked to the radiology dept to check in.  After an hour of waiting I was called back for the ultrasound.  I started to get nervous when the tech started asking me questions about the blue mark and my family history of breast cancer.  She then said that she was going to get the doctor to take a look… the doctor came in and redid the exam.  This was a similar experience to when the ultrasound tech was concerned about the amniotic fluid levels during my pregnancy, which prompted the early birth of my daughter… Needless to say, my mild concern was quickly escalating to very serious concern.

The doctor redid the ultrasound… and immediately sent me to get a mammogram.   She said that the surface of the breast looked ok but that she’s never seen anything like this and that the ultrasound was not able to penetrate beyond the top level of tissue.  This doctor spends her entire day looking at ultrasounds of breast tissue so my “very serious concern” escalated to the level of borderline upset with a peppering of light tears. 

I was very impressed with the staff in the mammography dept.  They were very sweet along with the 40-year-old+ women in the waiting room for the annual exams.  I was a bit of a mess thinking about what I would do if I was diagnosed with breast cancer with a 7 week old baby.  This mini-freak out was compounded by the recent loss of a high school friend from breast cancer who had given birth to a baby girl 2 week younger than Baby Julie.  Click here to read more about Sara.

Keep in mind that I’m breastfeeding  and had already spent over 4 hours in the hospital without getting to breastfeed the baby.  (Don’t worry I gave her a bottle.)  For those unfamiliar with lactation, after several hours without feeding the baby your boobs get FULL… not full but FULL.  I would compare my mammography experience to squeezing the trigger on a fully pumped up super soaker water gun.  Fortunately, the tech was really cool and quickly diffused a potentially humiliating situation for me.  She chuckled while she cleaned up the milk splattered room and made jokes about how jealous she was that I was so successful with my lactation.   

To make a long story short… Everything was clear on the mammogram.  The doctor wants me to come back in 6 months once I’m done breastfeeding for another scan just to make sure that everything still looks good.