This is a great way to watch TV

Reminds me of that scene from Notting Hill.

The Third Child

I realized today that poor Mitchell is so neglected on the blog. It's basically because he naps three hours a day, he's not a new baby, and he's not starting anything new right now (in terms of school, activities, etc.). But, he is starting so many new things! Here, I gave him a spoon and container of yogurt just to see if he could feed it to himself without making a huge mess. And you know what? He's probably a more tidy eater than Jack and Holly Grace both!And if you're having trouble being a tidy eater with a spoon, you can always just drink your yogurt.

Guess what's growing in our backyard?

All that work that we put into our garden ... and this is what we find growing in the backyard (not in the garden!).

Yep, that's right! It's a teeny tiny watermelon! Last summer, when our house was still under construction, we brought a watermelon out one evening. We paid no attention to where the seeds landed. Well, a couple of weeks ago, a little plant appeared in the middle of the dirt that we like to call "the backyard". (We haven't laid sod yet because of the watering restrictions due to the drought.) I thought it looked suspiciously like some of the vines growing in our garden and left it there. Sure enough, baby watermelons have begun appearing! We wonder if they'll be worth eating! Any tips out there on growing watermelon?

Week of Firsts

We had a big week around our house last week. Jack had his first day of first grade. The workload is significantly greater this year than last. There was a lot of coloring (I didn't realize how much!) in kindergarten. Not so much in first grade! Which is nice, because Jack wasn't a huge fan of the coloring, anyway. Jack really likes his teacher and I think we're going to have a great year.

Holly Grace had her first dance class. It's a 45 minute combo class - tap, ballet and tumbling each for 15 minutes. There are six little girls (all 4-5 years old) in her class and they couldn't be cuter. Those tap shoes are the shiniest I've ever seen!

Charlotte learned to smile last week, although I couldn't have been lucky enough to capture it on film. She's not making a big habit of smiling yet, either, but we see one every now and then.

Big Promotion

Jack tested for and was promoted to Yellow Belt at TaeKwonDo last week. He is very proud of his accomplishment. This is him with his teacher after the awards ceremony.

New photos

I took some B&W photos of Charlotte today. Here are a few of my favorites.

Gaining

Charlotte was 8 lbs. 6 oz. at four weeks (up from 6 lb. 13 oz. at 2 weeks). And, her cord finally fell off at exactly one month old. I thought she was going to go to Kindergarten with that thing on her tummy. Ick.

Last night she slept from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.! Grandma (from Kentucky) and Uncles James and Matthew are in town, though, so I didn't go right to bed at 10 after she ate. Rats. I missed out on seven straight hours of sleep.

Lots of Hot Air

So John is home on paternity leave (thank you, Capital One) and Jack and Holly Grace spent the better part of an hour trying to make a hot-air balloon out of K'Nex, a plastic bag from SuperTarget and a blow-dryer. John took pity on them and helped them make one that would be more inclined to fly out of a Chick-fil-A cup lid, fishing line, birthday candles and a produce bag. So we get set to light the candles ... Jack and I are holding the edges of the bag out and John is reaching under with the lighter. He lights all four of them, then a little four-year-old voice begins singing, "Happy birthday to you ... happy birthday to you ..." It was hilarious!

"But did it fly?" you ask. Well, not exactly. At first. But it did stand up straight as it filled with hot air.

Then John decided to ditch the lid and candles and just hold the lighters under the bag.

Oh, here it goes!


Ladies and Gentlemen, we have lift-off!

My children and I are so lucky to have this man in our lives.

Meatloaf Part II

Years ago, when I had just moved out on my own to a micro-house in Kress, Texas, I called my mom to get her recipe for meatloaf. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "I need your recipe for meatloaf"
Mom: "Okay, sure. Just mix your ground beef with an egg and some crackers in a bowl-"
Me: "Wait, how much ground beef? How many crackers?"
Mom: "As much as you have - probably about a pound. Crackers - I don't know - 20 or so? Not quite a whole row of saltines."
Me: "Okay, mix it how?"
Mom: "Just smush it up with your hands and shape it into a loaf"

and on and on this went. Till we got to the best part.

Me: "Okay how long do I bake it?"
Mom: "Well, gosh, Crissy. I don't know ... until it's done!"

So, here it is, the recipe as I've made it for over ten years now and as my mom has made it since my childhood. It's different in that the sauce is separate, not mixed in with the beef. It's easily doubled and I usually double it to feed our family. Also, if you double it, you obviously stand a much greater chance of having leftovers, and therefore, meatloaf sandwiches the next day.

Meatloaf
1 pound ground beef
20 saltine crackers (in a pinch you can use bread crumbs)
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Crumble up the crackers and smush all three ingredients together in a bowl. This is a great job for your kids if you have the patience of a saint and don't mind them (and your countertops) getting a little messy. Add salt and pepper if you like. Form the mixture into the shape of a loaf. Place in a 9 x 13 pan and bake at 400 degrees until done. :) It usually takes about 30 minutes for a 1 lb. loaf; 45 minutes or longer for a 2 lb. loaf. I try to make the 2 lb. loaves thinner so they take less time. You will know it's done if it's not pink when you cut into the center. Unless you like your meatloaf rare. Then it's done when it IS pink in the center. But I don't know of anyone who likes their meatloaf rare.

While the meatloaf is cooking, make the sauce.

Sauce
1/3 med. size bell pepper
1/3 onion
1 small can of tomato sauce

Chop the bell pepper and onion into whatever size pieces you like. I generally chop them pretty large so that, on the off chance that one of the kids actually wants sauce (most of the time they don't), they can pick out the chunks. Saute the onion and pepper on medium heat in butter, margarine, vegetable oil, or olive oil in a small saucepan. If you have some fresh garlic, you can throw that in, too. When the onion and pepper are crisp-tender, add the tomato sauce and heat through.

I don't know why all three of my kids love meatloaf, but they do. The older ones don't care for the sauce, though - they like it dry. Good luck!

Why I Love Meatloaf

1. Six ingredients total - and I almost always have them on hand
2. My kids love it. I mean, [fighting for the last piece] love it
3. No crumbs, no mess, no spills. I don't have to sweep under the table when they're done eating.

Can this be normal? We're talking meatloaf here! Let me know if you want the recipe. Perhaps it can work miracles in your house, too.

24

Okay, are we the only people out there who haven't watched this show? John added it to our Netflix queue and we got the first four episodes about two weeks ago. We started watching it and became totally addicted! If you don't know what 24 is, it's a TV show that chronicles the events of one day in the life of Federal Agent Jack Bauer, starting at midnight and continuing for 24 episodes (one for each hour of the day) . So we finished all 24 episodes (it took us almost two weeks to watch them all, after the kids were in bed each night), and John said, "Do you think Season Two is out on DVD yet? Or was last year the first year of the show?" So those of you who watch 24 are laughing out loud right now. Yes, we realized that the first season of the show was actually in 2001 when we finally looked at the DVD case and saw when it was recorded. Okay, so we're losers. But now, the pressure! We have, like, 4 more years worth of 24s to watch! That's almost a hundred hours of television!

But here's the real kicker ... John is always annoyed with me when I don't want to "commit" to watching a movie, yet I have no problem sitting down and watching two episodes of my favorite TV shows that we have on TiVo. Still two hours, just not a movie. Why is this? Why can't I commit to watching a movie? We can't figure it out. But I don't have any problem at all committing to watching twenty-four hours of programming. Maybe because it's broken up into small one-hour episodes? It's crazy.

So, we won't spoil it for those of you who have not seen the first season of 24, but, my gosh, what a twist at the end!!! We are still reeling over it!

A New Woman

Wow, I feel like a new woman today. I fed Charlotte early (9:30 p.m.) last night and then we went to bed at 10:00! I woke up briefly at 11:00 because she was "gritching" around in the bassinet, but she went back to sleep, thankfully. I was just up once at 3 a.m. for a little bit to feed her, then she went right back to sleep. John and I were both up at 6 a.m. (it's trash day!) and I actually got a shower before I had to feed her! Mitchell and Jack slept in (till about 7:30) and Holly Grace actually woke up in a great mood.

We have an appointment with a pediatric dermatologist today for Mitchell and I will be braving a doctor visit with four kids by myself today. This should be interesting. I'm sure I'll be packing lots of snacks to keep little mouths busy.