Mommin' It Up!

January 21, 2013January 21, 2013

Words I Never Thought I’d Hear

Saturday Bobby called me into the kitchen with a “Hey, you got a second? I want to show you something.” When I walked into the kitchen, he was holding one of those over-the-door shoe organizers which is weird, and he said, “So, I was looking around on Pinterest…”

Umm, WHAT? Did I hear that right, honey? You were looking around on Pinterest? Am I talking to my husband or one of my girlfriends? I. Am. Confused.

“I know, right?” he said sheepishly. “Anyways, I was looking at kitchen organization ideas…”

We struggle with counter space in our small kitchen, and Bobby took it upon himself to find a good solution for our large amount of kitchen tools – spatulas, tongs, ladles, etc. were overflowing from the holder I used for them. So, the MAN got on Pinterest and figured it out!

Ta-Da!

He attached this shoe organizer to the inside of our very large pantry doors. More than enough room for everything!

Now I just need him to actually organize the hodge-podge of completely un-ordered food in our giant pantry.

Anyone wanna come help?

I know. It’s ridiculous.

But anyway, the moral of the story is, LADIES! Get your husbands on Pinterest! Stuff’s gonna get done!

Is the man in your life on Pinterest? Or is Bobby a pioneer in that arena?

January 18, 2013

Out of House and Home

I know that it is undeniably true that “every kid is different” but Jonah – Jonah seems to be a different species entirely than Joshua and Sophie sometimes.

For one thing, he eats. A LOT. Joshua and Sophie up to the age of five both ate “barely enough to stay alive” as I used to say. Sophie’s still that way! And she is SO picky!

But not my Jonah. He is the definition of a bottomless pit. He eats meals, he eats snacks, he whatever he can get his hands on whenever he can get it. At his two-year check up last week (in which he weighed in at only 27 pounds, 45th percentile) his doctor asked me how many snacks he ate a day. “I don’t know,” I said, “Probably 3 or 4.” The doctor then said, “I’m gonna ask you to cut back on that to one snack a day.” AND I LAUGHED. “It’s all GOOD stuff!” I protested.

Despite my penchant for sugar, I give Jonah healthy stuff. Yesterday he consumed two whole apples, three whole bananas, a bowl of plain yogurt with a strawberry mixed in, countless grapes, a bunch of diced ham, some Rice chex, countless plain raisins, and countless dried pineapple and papayas.

The one thing I cannot get him to eat is VEGETABLES, of course. But we are working on it. I can get him to eat corn…mixed with beans and canned tomatoes in one of our family favorite recipes. It’s too bad, he used to eat EVERYTHING but he has become picky in that regard.

We’ve also decided to take Jonah gluten-free, and this is day five of that venture for us. The reason? Well, for one, I have to eat GF and my husband is eating GF with me out of solidarity. So taking one more person off gluten wasn’t that hard in-house. But the real reason is that recently Jonah has been waking up from both naps and in the morning PISSED OFF. Just mad, mad, mad for no reason, and throws a big long crazytown fit that boggles our minds and usually lasts about 30 minutes.

Since I know that a gluten intolerance can manifest itself in this kind of way in kids, I decided just to try it. We took him off gluten on Sunday, and he hasn’t thrown a fit since Monday.

Could be coincidence, but I’m going with it for now!

So anyways.

My kid eats a lot. And now eats a lot gluten-free. So PLEASE SEND dollar bills or grocery gift cards to the Jonah Appetite Satiation Fund of America!

(Not really, peeps. No one sue me.)

Do you have big eaters in your family?

January 17, 2013

Just tell your brother you love him, dammit.

Sam and I seem to be having all sorts of adventures on our drives home this week. Today’s installment is less nerve-wracking and has a less happy ending than Monday’s, however.

I’m driving along, minding my own business, when Sam pipes up from the back.

“Mommy, why doesn’t Kate like me anymore?”

Annnnnnd cue my heart shattering into a million pieces.

Of course I’m immediately all “Kate loooooves you, honey! You’re her brother!” but he’s having none of it. “She always calls me Whiny Pants.” So being the genius I am, I decide we’re going to call Kate up at home right that moment and let her set the record straight.

Because there’s nothing like putting an 8 year old on the spot.

I’m certain she’ll rise to the occasion, though, so we call her. On speaker phone.

Did I mention I’m a genius?

“Kate, your brother has something to tell you,” I said. “I love you, Kay-Kate!” he yells.

*crickets*

I have no idea what to do at this point, so I don’t do anything. We sit in silence until Sam finally says “Don’t you have SOMETHING TO SAY BACK TO ME, KATE?”

“You want to ride on my back?” she says.

At this point I want to reach through the phone and ring her little neck.

The conversation went downhill from there, and Sam never got the confirmation he needed that his sister does, in fact, like him. Actually, I think I confirmed his belief that she does not.

Yay me!

The thing that kills me, though, is that she does like him, and sometimes they get along so beautifully. There’s nothing in the whole wide world I love more than to hear them laugh together. I just wish I could make that happen with more regularity.