Great website

I found a totally cool website today and will be placing a sizable order with them; its called Zazzle and I stumbled upon this site that has tons of t-shirts because of the great shirts on Lesley's blog. I am going to be doing some damage there I can tell you! My favorite right now is "Pimp my slide" and "IPood" for Ben. Isabella likes the Barbie shirts( of course) and if they don't have any t-shirts that you like, you can make your own. Totally worth checking out

www.zazzle.com

Potty Diaries Act III - By Jove, I think she's got it!

We have had a month of success with no accidents with regards to potty training, and now I am so very happy to report that Isabella is fully POTTY TRAINED!!! (picture this me doing a victory dance in my pj's -- OK, that's a little scary, but you get the idea ;) )

Matt and I are over the moon that she figured it out and is actually really good at all the bits and pieces that go along with the business of going to the bathroom by yourself -- well, except for the part about taking off her clothes and running around naked the first chance she gets. Not surprisingly, her new word is "nudist" :-)

We rewarded her good behavior with a toy of her choice, and of course once we got to Target, she said that she would like a lollypop!! Matt and I told her that she could pick out a toy and after much persuading by us she did; I think we wanted her to have a reward more than she did, so for now we can check the box on that challenging part of parenthood.

Maddie McCann and other sad turns of events

I have taken a couple of days off from blogging because I was feeling a little lazy to sit down and type, but I have had all these thoughts bouncing about my head and needed an outlet.

I feel for the parents of sweet little Madeline, but let's get back to the facts here, people! These are two highly-educated, reasonably well-off people who made the decision to leave their 3 children alone, asleep, with the door open, while they went off and had dinner with friends; not only that, but from what eye witnesses have said, it did not sound like the first time that they did that on their vacation.

Did it not occur to these people to hire a babysitter? They were in a resort area, and I am betting that babysitting help could have been found. Secondly, takeout dinners - does that concept ring a bell?

I hope that Madeline is found alive, but I have serious doubts about her parents; I even have doubts about whether the other children should be allowed to stay with them. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about this -- we too know people who have left their children alone while they have gone over to neighbor's houses, and have used thier baby monitors to listen for their children. This whole ugly, sad tale should be a cautionary tale to everyone: no one knows if Maddie wandered off to find her parents, or if someone came in and kidnapped her (which leads to the question of why not take the younger kids as well?)? In the end, it's Maddie and probably her siblings who ended up paying the highest price in this whole unfortunate series of events.


I am by no means the best parent out there -- after all, I did mention on a couple of occasions wanting to list my kids on Ebay when they were more than a handful, and my daughter did lock me out off the house and the car -- but I am terrified of what the kids would do if I was gone even for a little while; it's not a chance that I am willing to take. If anyone out there knows whether it is a crime to leave your kids alone while you go over to the neigbors for awhile, will you let me know? Is that child abuse? I can't imagine that this is something that the law would allow you to do.

OK, now here's the other part that I don't get -- why have people like J.K. Rowling, David Beckham and Richard Branson chosen to make this their cause? Yes, I understand that all of these people are parents, but the cynical part of me is wishing that missing children all over the world would warrant such attention as well!

(Hey, like I said, this is the cynical part of me talking and sometimes it's hard to shut her up)

This by no means is an attack at Maddie and her parents, but I am curious as to why people have forgotten how this whole sorry tale came about in the first place.

Stewed Tomato recipe found! :)

This weekend we went apple picking right outside of Charlottesville, and on our way we stopped at Michie (pronounced "Micky", btw) Tavern, which happens to have God's own recipe for stewed tomatoes.

By some combination of wits, charm and outright desperation, I somehow managed to get their recipe for stewed tomatoes; actually, it was a very nice woman working in the gift shop, after hearing me recount my numerous attempts at replicating their recipe, who brought me aside and graciously shared their secret ingredient, which was....leftover biscuits! That actually makes sense if you think for a moment that back in Jefferson's day they wouldn't want to waste anything, especially all of those biscuits that went stale without plastic bags or refridgeration.



For those of you who would like to try this out, it's actually a great recipe to have, especially with the holidays coming up. It's something different, tastes delicious, and uses up all those stale biscuits you've got lying around the kitchen. ;) Please let me know if you try it and we can compare notes.

Jefferson Stewed Tomatoes

• 4 cups of tomatoes quartered (can be fresh or canned)


• 1/2 cup of sugar (I tend to use a little less of the sugar)


• Salt and pepper to taste


• 6 stale biscuits (or scones for my friends in SA and the UK); they have to be stale so they don't become dumplings
  

1. Put the tomatoes and sugar into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, slowly simmer until tomatoes are mushy.


2. The biscuits need to be broken into small pieces so that they can thicken the sauce later on.


3. Add the biscuits and stir constantly until its well blended.


4. Add salt and pepper to taste and there you have it.

One more funny anecdote -- when I got back into the car, Isabella was a little upset at me because she thought that I was leaving Aunt Lubsley (Aunt Lesley) behind; she remembered that we went there with her godmother the last time we were in Charlottesville and was upset because she thought we were leaving without her. We explained that Aunt Lesley did not make this trip with us and was safe at home :).

My kid says the funniest things

I feel like I should be writing to Bill Cosby about the funny things Isabella says; her little mind works in mysterious ways...

Bathtime for Daddy

Matt and I were busy this weekend working on the house, and at one point we both decided a break was in order. We were both in the living room and Bella decided to crawl onto Matt's lap for a cuddle; once there, she leaned over to give her dad a kiss and quickly drew back - she then said in a very loud voice "Daddy, you need a bath!" Apparently, it was hot work and Matt had gotten a little sweaty! Matt looked at me and we both laughed - kids do tell the truth.

Car Picnics

After all the work was done, we decided that we should take a break and head out to Williamsburg, since we still had some school clothes to buy for Isabella. Once we were on our way, Isabella asked if we were going to go to Sonic for dinner, and we said OK. Well, once we got to Williamsburg, the heavens opened up with the most spectacular thunderstorm! Not like that was going to stop us -- we still went to Sonic and got some dinner. Isabella was very excited because we were having a 'car picnic' -- she absolutely loved it, and has decided that we should have car picnics more often.

Bella Arnone, Time-Out Patrol

Another day, Bella, Ben & I were at the UPS store and there was one other person in front of me who was taking an annoyingly long time to get her package shipped. This woman kept asking more and more questions until even the lady helping her was becoming exasperated. Isabella was playing with a puzzle that they had there, and Ben was chewing on a teething toy, and behaving quite well for the amount of time that we had to wait.

After what seemed like hours, the lady's transaction was being totalled, and she then began complaining about the price. I sighed loudly, and Isabella looked over at me and said, "She needs a time out Mommy, she's not nice!" If I could have turned bright red, I would have -- honestly, the lady was being a bitch and did indeed need a time out. I looked at Isabella and explained that since there was a wait, would she like to go to Panera now instead of later; of course, she said yes, and I was able to escape a very embarassing situation.

When we went back, the sales ladies told us that Isabella's perfectly-timed verbal smack down made their day, and Isabella was rewarded with a lollipop!

Ow, you might want to have a doctor look at that...

As you know from previous posts, Matt and I have had on hell of a month, and I for one am glad that our house is almost back to normal. Since we have been working really hard on repairing the house and Matt is also putting in long days with work, we both have not been getting a lot of sleep either because Ben has been sick and teething for the past six weeks!

Keeping this in mind, imagine Isabella going upstairs to tell her father last Friday that lunch was ready. When Matt came down, he told me that she sat on his lap, looked into his eyes, and informed him that his eyes were cracked! (They were bloodshot from looking at a computer screen for a couple of hours and lack of sleep).

Got Neck?

Bella and I were putting together a puzzle on the floor of her room, and she had her chin resting on the top of her chest. At one point, she sat up and touched her chin, and then her chest, and said "Oh no! Oh no!"

When I asked her what was wrong, she said, "I lost my neck!"

Once again feeling her chin and then chest, I explained that her neck was still there just that it was hidden when she touched her chin to the top of her chest. I helped her feel her chin and chest and then her neck, she looked at me and said "Mommy, you helped me find my neck!" (LOL - supermommy to the rescue)

The search for stewed tomatoes

You would think that living in the south, we would be able to find these at every grocery store; not so, I tell you!

These have become my new culinary obsession, and it all started a month ago with a visit from Isabella's godmother Lesley (this was just before the water pipe incident). We went to Michie Tavern in Charlottesville to have lunch, and for those of you who have not been there, it's an awesome place to visit and the food is delicious! When we were there, we tried some of their stewed tomatoes, and it was the best thing I have had in a while. Needless to say, I have been searching and searching for a recipe, and have yet to find one that can even come close to what they make.

Matt has been my test kitchen; I have been trying to recreate this recipe, and he is great about trying the results and offering comments. I am currently of the opinion that I have to go up there and see if I can find a cookbook that would explain how to make it; or barring that, get them to sell me some of that stewed tomatoes, its not a tough trip to sell because there is a great apple orchard there that makes the one of the most delicious apple pies I have had, you know come to think of it... I see a trip to Charlottesville in my family's future

We're back

Its been a while since I posted anything and this was my original post:

Everyone is finally germ-free and our house is coming together; we even had a good friend, Chris from San Diego, visit. Things upstairs are still a bit of a mess, but I am using this time to get rid of things that we do not need -- the Salvation Army is going to benefit from our 'purging" LOL. In the midst of all the cleaning, painting and laundry, Benjamin's other tooth cut and Isabella decided to give her self a 'princess haircut;' luckily, she cut her hair of one side and not in the front, and I was able to repair the damage. She also is blessed with thick curly hair, so no one can tell what happened :). Hopefully, we succeeded in getting across that it was not a good idea to cut your own hair; I can't see us buying her one of those Barbie dolls that lets you trim and style their hair for an while.

Now, my revised post is apparently we are not germ free - the bloody things keep lingering in our house, but the rest of the stuff is almost all done, just a couple more things to fix up. We are now tackling chores that should have been accomplished a month ago, including the jungle that is our backyard; even our dog had become an expert at swinging a machete to clear a path to her favorite spot in the backyard! But on second thought, dogs with machetes is probably not a good idea, especially if she becomes interested in getting other kinds of bones (yikes!)... ;). We also found out that Ben had developed an allergy to our dog and so now we are trying to find her another home :(. Matt and I are really heart broken as Jesse is a fantastic dog and we have had her for 51/2 yrs but Ben has been really sick and having problems breathing. So, the search for Jess's new family is on, I will keep you posted on how it plays out