are you sure it's only 7pm?

Tonight I bring you an iPhone post because Piper has had a rough day, I need a little bit of an escape, and I don't dare try to leave the room to grab my laptop to possibly mess up this moment of tranquility. This morning I had 1 of 3 final exams this week and with the shortened schedule I was back home by 12:30p. From the moment I walked in the door and all throughout dinner preparation she has been non-stop upset. The type of day that has you irrationally threatening a human who can't even comprehend what you're saying. You better stop crying before I send you to bed without dinner!

If you thought there was any moments peace, you'd be thinking incorrectly. 

Hungry? Shouldn't be. Thirsty? Shouldn't be. Needs a nap? Definitely but she doesn't believe so. 

Finally around 4:45p she finally took a nap. A sleeper hold may or may not have been used to achieve these results. It totally was.. not used. But as days like these go, she was awake less than thirty minutes later. Luckily by this point dinner was already in the oven so I wasn't sent straight to the point of wanting to rip my hair out and we were all able to eat in peace. 

I'm hoping that we will experience a turn around in the next few hours before bed, but if we don't I will surely have lost my mind. 

Woo-sah. 

Leia

lights before christmas

The weather this Winter has been extremely mild. Mild is putting it lightly; this past week I don't think we had one day that dropped below 50°F. The past two Winters were so horrible that they made me wretched to the point where I'd be happy to never experience snow again. So needless to say this one is sort of refreshing, especially being from The Mitten. But you know it's due to global warming, right? Yeah, and at this point I honestly don't think there's much that the current inhabitants of Earth can do, so we might as well enjoy activities that in past years would have frozen our asses off!

We debated between The Detroit Zoo 'Wild Lights' and The Toledo Zoo 'Lights Before Christmas' (but they go until January so I'm sort of lost on the name) since they are both within the same proximity but we ultimately decided to head south to Ohio. It's our zoo of choice during the summer so why not visit during Christmastime? 

I swear to you the construction at the Michigan/Ohio border has been going on for three years with no noticeable progress; this along with everyone and their mother taking advantage of the 60°F weather made for bumper to bumper traffic for the one mile to the zoo as soon as we got off the freeway. This was made complicated due to a four year old that needed to use the bathroom RIGHT NOW. Up to the right I could see a Burger King, but our lane was only moving an inch every five minutes. Murphy's Law, right? As soon as I got over to the left lane it came to a stand still and the right lane started chuggin' right along. Shoot me. Now no chance of me getting over to the Burger King or back into the queue of zoo traffic.

After speeding in the left lane for what seemed like hours, there were absolutely no gas stations or restaurants in sight and I started debating about pulling over and letting her pee on the side of the road. I was so dumbfounded; here we are on a main road with no where to stop! We finally cut through a neighborhood to find another main road and SUCCESS. Ironically it ended up being a Burger King. Thanks, Universe. But hey! No accident and I couldn't have been more proud of her.

Knowing it would take us more than an hour to get through the line of zoo traffic that we had quickly passed in the left lane, I decided to check out the zoo website to see if there were any other entrances. Wouldn't you know it, there is! We ended up just across the street on the edge of an off site lot which was a little sketchy but I figured, "When's the next time I'll be Ohio.. let them ticket me!" I'm positive we saved at least 45 minutes by going this way and finding a different lot than going back through to the main entrance.

And hooray, zoo lights!

December 13, 2015: This is one of the few times where they were both smiling/looking at the camera.

Honestly, to have them both in light sweaters in December was a nice treat. We were able to walk through the zoo and not have to worry about getting frost bite or having to scramble to the indoor cafe for something warm to drink. Piper was confined to the stroller for most of the trip but she had fun with the lights that were at her level. And hey, they aren't my lights to mess up muhahhahaahaha. Really, she did no damage though. 

I haven't done much with the girls this Christmas season so I hoped this would be a special trip for them. Next on our list is a trip to see Santa. Kennedy is not so excited and I think she would rather die than tell him her Christmas wish. Take 2014 for example:

IF LOOKS COULD KILL.

Naughty or nice?

Leia

pre-school parent teacher conferences

I didn't think this was something that would be a part of Kennedy's first year of school, but hey! The bigger point of the conference is that it serves as the mid-way assessment point for the early kindergarten waiver.  The city we moved from had a few pre-school programs but they were mainly expensive ass daycares or Sunday school type programs housed within churches. Neither of these options seemed like the best choice. The pre-school she's in now is Monday-Wednesday 9a-12p and it's located within the elementary school that she would attend kindergarten at. Major win in terms of familiarity. 

I am proud to say that her teachers had nothing negative to say about my little lady, and overall she is at least average in all areas of evaluation.

"We have really enjoyed having Kennedy in class; she has an easy-going, carefree, and fun spirit. She is extremely helpful to her teachers, and has a lot of energy."

Honestly it was one of those statements that reaffirmed things for me as a parent. I slowly let out a deep breath I didn't realize I was holding. Not just in the sense of the bias' you feel towards your kid being the latest and greatest, but that we have created this individual who is a good apple. It lets me know that even though she occasionally throws us an attitude curve ball or has a bad listening day that we have done something right.

Besides going over what skills she is excelling in, what areas need more focus, and whether or not we are aiming for kindergarten next year, I shared a couple great laughs with her teachers. The main one came when we were discussing the developmental area of Social Studies.

"Kennedy seems to have a great knowledge of herself, her family members, and where she lives. She understands her role in the class room . . . She gave a very detailed description of her house and the long porch where the chinchilla lives."

November 9, 2015: "There's a chinchilla living on my front porch."

Not only do we not have our chinchilla on the front porch.. we don't even own one! Her teachers questioned her about it because they obviously thought it sounded odd, but she was insistent that this was true. During conferences they said they had meant to ask us when Kennedy first talked about it and it slipped their minds until they reviewed her projects from the year. I literally had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. That girl's imagination is a force to be reckoned with; I think this probably stemmed from one of her first visit's to A's house after playing with her pet gerbil.

When I asked her about it afterwards, she didn't have much to say about it. I think enough time had passed that the fantasy had dissolved. Hilarious nonetheless, though. I love that girl of mine.



Fun fact: chinchilla's cannot vomit.
Leia

night time potty training: an update

So, two days ago we decided to throw in the towel on this issue. I don't know if the kid sleeps too heavily, is afraid of the dark, has an over active bladder, or if she's just lazy (gross); but over the 9 nights we went without a Pull-Up she only woke up dry once.

ONCE.

Maybe I am expecting too much from her, but I think we set her up for complete success!

Each night she was cut off from beverages around 7pm (pending she wasn't on the verge of dehydration) and I got her out of bed to go pee before I fell asleep - usually between 12:30a-1:30a approximately 3-4 hours after she is initially put to bed. At this time she was usually still dry and would always be able to go to the bathroom. Mathematically speaking I don't understand how her bladder could need to be emptied again! But lo and behold, between the hours of 2a-8/9a she would wet the bed.


HEAVY SLEEPER:

 Each night when I would wake her up she is extremely zombie-like. Muttering nonsense, unable to stay on a straight path, and wanting to lay down in the bathroom. One of the nights she was sitting on the toilet and she asked if she could hold Piper. I told her she would be able to once it was 'wake time' and she responded, "No, now." Oh, what a sweet, seemingly drunk big sister.


AFRAID OF THE DARK:

She has never had a problem coming to our room at night if she needed us or couldn't sleep. Even at our old house when her room was upstairs and she had to come down to the main floor in almost pitch black! We also leave the bathroom light completely on for her and again: it's right across the hall from her.


OVER ACTIVE BLADDER:

She has had a couple bladder infections and while she was 2 she actually had a renal ultrasound done to check for urine reflux (the scan came back normal). She is currently not complaining or showing other signs of having a bladder infection.


LAZY:

I don't know if you recall the night I first took her Pull-Up's away. If you don't, I'll remind you. We were reading stories, cleaning up her room, and playing on my phone before bed when I asked her to try to go potty one more time. She walked to the bathroom and then quietly told me that she accidentally peed in her Pull-Up. MADDENING.

I'm on the fence between sleeping too heavily and lazy. She is a very sound sleeper but I also feel that if you are peeing some part of your brain is awake. Am I the only one?

Turd.

No matter the reason, we are currently trying to devise a better reward/incentive system that will hopefully encourage her to get out bed and wake up dry. I don't want it to be something that will end up spoiling her and it needs to be something that can be cycled out once she's continuously dry in the morning. I am obviously not going to reward her forever for a behavior that is necessary.



"I, too, has to break pee. Or as you calls it 'Number 1'. We also has the 'Number 2'."
Leia

mid-week meal share: cinnamon roll french toast bake

It's a "tasty breaksfast" recipe! Tasty recipe being in quotes because of how ours turned out haha, not because that was my source. Anyhoo, here's what we had for a late breakfast today! Cinnamon roll french toast bake!

*Hooray for a fancy picture post! One of my coworkers let me borrow a fancypants camera lens to see if it's something we're going to splurge on or not, so beware for my corny attempt at food blog quality pictures!*

Cost effective: yes, most of these items are things already in your pantry.

Easy to concoct: cut, whisk, pour.

Nutritious: if you're an elf.

Here's what you'll need:

Yepp, I bumped into the cutting board as I was trying to take a picture but in keeping with the theme of the blog, I left it. Shit happens.

per the recipe:
2 cans of cinnamon rolls
6 eggs
½ cup of milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup maple syrup

per me:
2 cans of cinnamon rolls (the skinny, 8 roll size)
6 eggs
½ cup of milk
2 tbsp vanilla extract (OOPS)
2 tbsp cinnamon sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
 
2. In a large measuring cup I combined the eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon sugar. I always try to do this so I'm not dirtying a bowl OR making a mess by trying to pour liquid out of a container that doesn't have a proper lip. I don't even know if it's called a lip in the first place? A spout? Fuck.

3. Open up your cinnamon rolls and begin cutting them into bite sized pieces and set aside the frosting. This seemed like a sinful act at first. Cutting up precious cinnamon roll dough?! When I opened up the can I thought I grabbed bacon bit rolls by mistake. Like, right?

 4. Melt your butter and pour into a 13'x9' dish.
5. With the help of an eager four year old, place your cinnamon roll bites into the buttered dish. Both of these assistants are available. Please text or call if you're interested in a booking.

                         

 6. Once you have a layer of cinna-roll-bites in your dish, pour egg mixture evenly on top. (This is also when you'll add the maple syrup if you're following the original recipe)

7. Place in oven for 25 minutes.
 8. Once it's hot and fresh out of the oven, add the frosting on top!

9. Enjoy (hopefully)!

So ours did not turn out so brilliant. I thought at first it was due to my error in misreading tsp for tbsp for the vanilla, but I left out an entire cup of maple syrup so I don't think it would be due to that. Either way, the bake didn't seem to turn out soggy in the video but ours were disgusting on the underside. It wasn't necessarily soggy but there was a definite layer of egg on the bottom, which is something I should have anticipated, but didn't. Of course, I took this personally. Luckily I had two kids that will eat most anything that has frosting on it.

Piper is clearly in breakfast bliss.

It would probably kill Kennedy to just smile normally once for the camera, but hey she was asking for seconds so I wasn't about to argue with her.

I was able to make it more edible by scraping off the bottom layer (I gave it to the girls after doing this).

My LOL moment in preparing this dish was when I asked Brendon to help me.

Blurry? Yeah, I was too busy cracking up.

See that shit eating grin? Yeah. I grabbed out a small bowl to melt the butter in. I asked, "Hey would you mind getting the glass baking dish from the cupboard, and grabbing the butter out of the fridge for me?" He obliged, and then I said, "Thanks, and when you're done could you put some butter in there and throw it in the microwave?" *pointing to the small bowl I had already pulled out*

Again, he kindly said yes. When I turn around from bite-sizing the cinnamon rolls, I notice that the bowl was still empty so I ask where Brendon put the butter.

Bahahaa, I didn't realize he didn't see my motion towards the small bowl so the entire baking dish ended up being placed in the microwave.


So again, if you're going to try this one, I'm not sure how to alter the recipe. Adding less egg mix? Cooking longer? Who knows. Let me know if you figure it out, please.



Basically it was french toast quiche.
Leia

a week in the life

Let me just say I am ready for this week to be over and it's only Tuesday. My brain and emotional state are constantly at odds with each other: freak the fuck out or checked-out. This week will be one for the record books but next week is slightly better! It marks the end of the Fall semester and I will have a sweet, much needed holiday break. Three entire weeks off of school!

Here's my week and all my hoopla.

SUNDAY DONE!

8:00a

Wake up with Piper who is mostly sleeping through the night but has traded it for waking up at the absolute crack of dawn.

9:00a-1:00p

Try to make breakfast and lunch in-between entertaining Kennedy and Piper. Attempt having adult conversations with Brendon and try to keep all details together about what needs to get done over the next few days.

1:30p

Shower and get ready for work.

3:30p-12:00a

Worky, work, work.

*6 total hours of sleep available pending I instantly fall asleep when I lay down in bed*

MONDAY DONE!

7:05a

My alarm goes off at this time. Any other Monday morning I snooze until it's much too late to complete anything before rushing off to lab.

8:00a

ANATOMY LAB FINAL! This is why I couldn't take any chances with the pesky snooze button. Oh sweet baby jesus how happy I am to report that it was my last early Monday, and I am happy to say that I got an 88/100! 

10:00a

CHEMISTRY LAB FINAL! Still haven't gotten my grade back from my professor yet on this little number, but I think that I did well.

11:30a

Leave school to go pick Kennedy up from pre-school.

12:15p

Home safe and sound with Kennedy. Now, what's for lunch?

1:30p

Haha, you thought I was going to take the time to shower for work.

3:30p-12:00a
Back to the old grind.

*7 total hours available for sleep*

TUESDAY ALMOST DONE

7:45a
Early morning Piper wake-up call! Sure to be there when your alarm was set to go off in 15 minutes.

9:00a
CHEMISTRY LECTURE EXAM 3! I do not have high hopes for the outcome.

11:00a
Anatomy lecture.

12:30p
Math. Review for exam 3 which is on Thursday.

1:30p
Class gets out a little early so I rush home so I can eat and change there instead of at school/work.

3:30p-12a
You guessed it. Twerk time!

*7-8 hours of sleep depending on Piper and alarms set to get Kennedy off to pre-school*

WEDNESDAY

*Brendon's alarm is set for 7:50a*
Wake up, though I usually lay in bed with Piper while Brendon gets up and helps Kennedy get ready for school and to get breakfast in her belly.

9:00a
Drop Kennedy off at pre-school for her last day of her school week.

9:15a-11:55a
Help Brendon clean up the house, entertain Piperpants and lounge around if the universe permits.

12:00p
Pick Kennedy up at school.

12:30p
Okay, so I'm going to shower because I have advising appointment set-up with EMU's nursing school adviser.

1:45p
Advising appointment at Eastern. My fingers are crossed that everything looks good to apply in May 2016.

3:30p-12:00a
If only my bills would pay themselves and I wouldn't have to do this 4 times a week.

*blah, blah, 7ish hours of sleep available*

THURSDAY

*who knows when the mystical Piper alarm will go off*

9:30a
Chemistry: review for the final exam for next Thursday.

11:00a
Anatomy: review for the final exam for next Thursday.

12:30p
Math. Exam three.

2:15p
Home for the afternoon! Hoping to get some wrapping done. The only decoration we currently have out is our christmas tree.

7p-9p
Dinner, getting the girls ready for bed. Maybe I'll get to catch up on some TV!

?p
We all know I will want to go to sleep the second the girls are knocked out, but that is most likely not going to happen for there is too much to be done from the beginning of the week.

FRIDAY

9:15a
Kennedy's pre-school conferences. I think it's sort of hilarious that they do conferences for 3-5 year olds BUT this is the midway mark of their school year and it serves as the first assessment to gauge whether or not Kennedy is ready for early Kindergarten next Fall.

10:00a
Home time!

4p-9p
Core training exercise class at school. 5 hours (today, and 8 hours tomorrow) of torture is better than going once per week, right?

SATURDAY

9a-5p
Core training exercise class at school. This is the stuff of high school. Why on Earth do I need a physical education credit to graduate from college?!

6p
Possibly take Kennedy to Akira's second birthday party. If I'm being honest with myself I will probably be too exhausted and on the verge of death to even consider.

Yeah, this was pretty boring. But hey, that's what every other week of my life has been since the beginning of September and I'm pretty damn proud of myself for keeping it together. Every time someone complains about how tired they are or how they don't have time to do anything, it makes me laugh to myself. It's not a cute laugh, it's the maniacal laughter of a lunatic. I've got a couple novels picked out to consume over my three glorious weeks away from school. I have 100% confidence that I will finish them all and be extra upset when the Winter semester rears it's ugly head on January 6.

Brace for impact.

Leia

detroit poop city

 

See this smiling, happy baby? Brendon would have gladly traded her for the day yesterday. This little one was a poop chute and her poor little butt has the diaper rash to back it up. We aren't 100% sure what caused her belly to turn against her but it was on the hour like clockwork throughout the evening. Score one for being at work when this happened, score one hundred for Brendon for keeping the fort clean and sanitary.

Recently we have been trying to cut dairy out of her diet to see if it will help her sleep through the night and so far it has been a HUGE success! Initially we put her on plain almond milk but after tasting said almond milk we upped her to vanilla soy milk because after tasting plain almond milk, serving it to my toddler almost seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. This poop incident doesn't seem to be related but she's not really big enough to rummage through the cupboards or refrigerator to get into something she wasn't supposed to.

Luckily today her stomach and diaper rash were on the mend with the help of:

 This morning I sporadically let her run around in her birthday suit, but frankly I didn't want to spend my day searching the carpet for pee. Bad mom? Possibly, BUT Palmer's and Vaseline are looking out for me. Truthfully I don't know if it's recommend to put cocoa butter on diaper rash but judging by the type of skin it heals I would say yes. But hey, you might want to consult your pediatrician before using my method for healing.

Gotta love our little Piper Pooper.

Leia