Mine!

The first week of my watching Emily, Bean was just enamored with her. She followed her everywhere, copying everything she did, watching in awe when Emily'd play with her toys.

The second week Bean was beginning to be 'over it' and became quite whiny whenever Emily would touch her toys or stuffed animals. She'd come over to me and whine and point in Emily's direction as if she was tattling on her. "Mooooooom..... she's touching my stufffffffff!!" or something like that. She'd run to me, lip pouting and make whiny noises and put her head on my chest, hugging me tight with her arms. She didn't like what was happening, but didn't know how to fix it.

This week she has learned a new word: Mine! Accompanied with her other new favorite word: Hey! I'm pretty sure that I hear Bean exclaim, "Heeeeeeeyyyy!!!" and "MINE!" more often than anything else.

Girlfriend is all about sharing and playing with other kids when it's an occasional occurrence. Playdate? No prob! Playtime after storytime? She rocks at sharing! Interacting with kids at the park? She's the queen of taking turns.

But all day, every day, in her own house? She's OVER it.

 playing next to each other

 Heeeeeeeyyyyyyyy!!!!!!

Momma!!!! Mine!!!

I know part of the issue is that she's gonna be 2 in less than a month. The other part of it is that up until I started watching Emily it was just me and Bean all day (save for Library Storytime and playdates). She is used to me being there at her disposal, she's used to her toys being her toys, she's used to doing her thing on her schedule.

I try to remind her, every 5 minutes, that she needs to share. That she can play with Emily. That it'll be fun to play with Em. I reassure her that her toys are fine, that Emily is allowed to play with them, that she has 200 other toys to pick from. When all else fails I just rub her back and tell her that it's ok, while I wait for that melt down to pass.

It's all just a big adjustment and I'm sure she'll get the hang of sharing me and her things just about the time that Emily starts school and then Bean will complain about being bored. Ha!

Happy Birthday Grandpa

Today would have been my Grandpa's 85 birthday if he were still alive. I wish he was. I wish I could call him and poorly sing into the phone. He would have chuckled and brushed it off, making some comment about how old he was. I would have insisted that it was a big deal. He would have argued. I wish Bean and I could Skype with him today. When he was sick my mom set Skype up on his computer so that we could 'see' each other from opposite sides of the country. He got to 'see' Bean when she was a little bity baby thanks to Skype. I tell her stories about him all the time, but sadly she'll never remember him. I'm thankful for the memories I have of him. I miss him like crazy. I wish I could tell him Happy Birthday and have him respond in his gruff manor. I wish he was turning 85 today.

This picture is from my wedding ♥

I love you, Grandpa! I'll be thinking about you all day today. xoxo

I've become a working stiff

Ok, not really, since I don't leave the house and punch in and out on my time card, but I have started working - hence my lack of posts.

Today is the beginning of the 3rd week where I'm watching my cousin Emily. Emily is 5.5 years old and until she starts Kindergarten at the end of September I watch her from 7:30a-5:30p while her mama is at work. We've been keeping very busy and by the time her mama picks her up in the evening I'm busy with dinnertime, then bath time, then bedtime and THEN I'm too pooped to get on the compy and write out a blog post. To summarize we've been doing as of late; we go to story time at the library every Monday, swimming in the apartment complex's pool at least 2-4 times a week, doing arts and crafts projects like making sun-catchers, painting bird houses, making bracelets, doing 4th of July crafts like making red white and blue place-mats, bald eagles and fireworks from hand prints, reading stories, building with blocks, etc etc etc. Not to mention, just the daily stuff like meal time, nap time, and running errands is a lot more work with two kids!

Here are some pictures of what we've been doing while I've been watching Em during the week.

I wish I had more pictures to show, but alas, another thing that falls by the wayside now that I'm caring for two kids (besides my hair and makeup) is the picture-taking. I'm much more worried about making sure no one is running into the street, every one is buckled in, no on is choking, WHY IS SHE CRYING?!, making sure no one is losing an eye from toys being tossed across the room, no one is harassing my dogs, making lunch, cleaning up from lunch, cleaning up glitter, DON'T EAT THE GLUE!, making sure naptime happens, etc., to pull out my good camera and snap pictures. I also just got Emily signed up for activities through the city's parks and rec department so next week things will be a lot busier with driving here and there to her dance, swim and theater activities!

I suppose, if Jeff and I were to have any more kids Bean would be about Emily's age when we had a toddler running around, so if nothing else this is good practice!!

It's naptime now, if I don't get Cars or Tangled playing soon the older chickadee will never fall asleep - gotta go!

Vegan Bean Burger

Tonight we tried a new recipe. I was impressed! Vegetarian burgers are expensive, and usually really disappointing. I had been searching Pinterest for a couple weeks for a good recipe to try as my very first homemade veggie burger, one that my cheeseburger-loving hubby would at least try and possibly, hopefully, even like. This recipe succeeded!!

The recipe I used was found on Daily Garnish and has an insane number of good reviews. I made a few adjustments in order to use ingredients I already had in the fridge/pantry, and it was good as I made it. Next time I'll try to have the ingredients that she calls for on hand so that I can compare the original recipe vs. the one I came up with tonight.

Vegan Bean Burgers

Ingredients: (makes 6 burgers)

• 2 cans black beans (rinsed and drained) I used one can black beans and one can great northern beans
• 2 carrots, grated I used 1.5 zucchinis 
• 1/2 cup dry rolled oats
• 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds) I used walnuts
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon I think next time I'll use less cinnamon, it was good but strong tasting
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander I used cumin
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder I used garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper

To Prepare:  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Next, add the oats and pepitas to your food processor and grind until coarsely chopped.  Let it run for roughly 10 seconds.  Grate the carrots (I sliced the zuccs really thin with a knife, leaving the skin on, and then tossed them in the processor), and then add to your mixture in the food processor.  Add 3/4 of the beans, all spices, and the olive oil.  Once all of this is in the food processor, give it a whir and mix it all together. (My food processor is super tiny, so I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl and then put them in the processor in 4 batches.)

Spoon mixture into a mixing bowl and then fold in the rest of the whole, reserved beans.  Wet your hands and then form into 6 medium sized patties.  Place patties on a non-stick baking sheet (on tin foil with non-stick spray), and bake at 300 degrees for 40 minutes, turning once in the middle  (I tried turning them after 20 mins, but they were still way too soft. I flipped them at 30 mins and then it took another 20 mins before they were done. All ovens vary, so start with her original cooking times and go from there.).  If you want to grill these, pre-bake them for 30 minutes at 300, and then throw them on the grill to reheat and get a little extra browning.

I didn't even think to try to take 'real' pictures, but I did take a cell phone picture to send to a friend. I'm posting it so that you can see the burger isn't some crazy weird color, thanks to the beans and walnuts it is actually colored sort like meat. Thanks to the food processor there wasn't lumps of veggies for my hubby to grimace at and pick out. No, it doesn't taste like a hamburger, but it's still a really good bean burger full of protein and low in fat for a summertime meal alternative.

Birthday Wreath

I made another new wreath!!!

My birthday is July 22, Bean's birthday is August 9, so I thought it'd be fun to make a birthday wreath that could go up right after the 4th of July wreath comes down, and stay up until the Halloween wreath goes up.  (Patriotic Wreath I made)

I really like making different wreaths for different occasions and holidays. I like that I can personalize them for my tastes, and I like that they're relatively inexpensive. I think the most expensive wreath I've made cost just under $30 for all the materials.

This birthday wreath was extremely easy to make (it was a bit time consuming though), cost about $24 for all the materials, and I really love how it turned out.

That beauty has approximately 480 balloons pinned on it. It's by FAR the heaviest of all the wreaths I've made, but I love that I have it now. I'll be putting it up the week of Jeff's birthday in January as well; everyone in the fam should get special birthday decorations to make them smile, right? Right!

Bedtime tradtions

I would imagine that most moms/parents have a set bedtime routine for their littles. Every night since forever I've done the same routine at Bean's bedtime.

Bathtime. (some days if we're running late or if we didn't DO anything we'll skip this)
Brush teeth.
Put diaper and PJs on.
Snuggle on the couch while having her bedtime bottle.
Go to her room where she kisses her Daddy goodnight.
She and I sit in the glider and I recite from memory her bedtime story:

I Love You Through and Through
I love you through and through.
I love your top side, and your bottom side.
Your inside and your outside.
Your happy side, and your sad side.
Your silly side, and your mad side.
I love your fingers and toes.
Your ears and nose.
I love your hair and your eyes.
Your giggles and cries.
I love you running and walking.
Silent and talking.
I love you through and through,
Yesterday,
Today,
and Tomorrow, too.

Then I tell her, from the book, The Help:
You is kind.
You is smart.
You is important.

I know the grammar isn't correct, but the message is truer than true.

Then we give kissies and I lay her down in bed.

Lately it's been more and more obvious how big she's getting. When we started this routine my baby's head was cradled in my right elbow and her feet were draped over my left hip. Now she sits straddling and facing me. Her knees are bent, she lays her head on my chest and the top of it touches my collar-bone. She moves her hands to demonstrate the words in the bedtime story, she agrees with each line from The Help quote by 'uh-huh!'ing out loud. She will be two years old in 5 short weeks. My baby is slipping away from me and is being replaced with a kid. I hope that she'll want to continue on our bedtime routine even after she gets moved into a big girl bed. Even when she's too big to snuggle on my lap. Even when she starts school.

Her first year felt like it took a long time to come to a close, but this second year has literally flown by. I'm afraid that if I blink she'll be grown. She won't want me to recite I Love You Through and Through or kiss her in front of her friends. I'm having a serious case of 'where did my baby go'-itis.

For now I'll cherish our bedtime routine. I'll smile and laugh as she acts out the story while I tell it. I'll soak in her kissies and let her linger as long as she wants with her head on my chest. I love our routine, and my sweet Bean. I just can't focus on the fact that she'll be a big kid before I'm ready for her to be.

***********
4th of July was today. We had a good day having a family BBQ at my aunt and uncle's house. It was HOT outside and because of how hot and dry it's been (and all the fires around Colorado) fireworks were forbidden. It was a fun day and a quiet night. I hope everyone had a fun, safe holiday as well!

Finger painting in the tub

It's been SO hot here lately, I don't want to go outside and Bean runs herself ragged in the heat until her cheeks are bright red and she's a sweaty, limp-noodle shell of her normal self. I have been trying to think of things to do inside, but she's been getting bored easily.

I had bought some Crayola fingerpaint and had a genius idea: Let her go paint crazy in the bathtub! The paints are washable, right? So why not let her paint the tub and herself and then just wash it all down the drain when she's had her fill?!

Yesterday, an hour before lunchtime, that's what I decided to let her do. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do at first, but it didn't take long for her to jump in. She had the tub and herself covered in no time! I think she loved to have the paint squishing between her fingers, she loved seeing the colors bright on the wall and on her skin. She was entertained for over an hour with only 4 blobs of finger paint. I will definitely be doing this again!

I was relieved when the paint did wash off easily. The paint that had dried came off with a quick swipe of a wet washcloth and the paint that had dried on her skin came off with her normal baby bodywash (California Baby) - no scrubbing required!!