Peach update

Peach finally went in for her 6 mo doctor's appointment today.  (yes, she is over 7 month now...)  I can't remember the exact numbers, but she is taller than average and weighs less than average- much like The Frog.

She's been sick this past week, but is finally about over it.  Hopefully our family is done being sick for awhile now...  Despite all that, she's generally happy and easy going.  She spends most of her time rolling across the room and getting stuck in weird position.  She's been having a bit of trouble sleeping the past few nights, but I finally let her cry herself to sleep and she did great last night :)  I never had to let her cry before because she never did but I think the sickness has thrown her off.  She got two shots today, and I was amazed at how well I handled it.  It helped that she hardly cried at all- I think her brother has toughened her up quite a bit :)

Fishy Faced Fam

For some reason, Peach has started this funny habit of making a fishy face, but it took me quite awhile to get her to perform for the camera.  After a lot of coaxing

(this is The Frog trying to do it...)

success!

Holy Footies, Batman!

My favorite footie pajamas got a hole in the toe. :(  

Maybe I should clarify that these are The Frog's...

They're still perfectly good aside from this one problem.

Unfortunately, there are holes in the top and bottom, otherwise I would have tried to replace the sole.

Instead, I was forced to amputate.

After hemming the raw edges,

good as new!

You Know You're Sleep Deprived When...

you find yourself falling asleep while reading picture books out loud.

More Pictures I Forgot to Post

I refused to buy baby shoes for The Frog.  Babies don't need shoes.  They can't walk.  Their feet only need warmth, not protection.  

Well, I got these beauties as a hand-me-down and they are one of my staple baby items now.  I don't know if other people's kids have this same problem, but socks DO NOT STAY ON my babies' feet!  The Frog finally could keep them on once I discovered the Circo, double-fold ones (Target), and once he got a little bigger, Old Navy and Walmart socks stayed too.  Not for Peach.  She has really long and narrow feet (like her mom) and I've only had ONE pair of socks (that we got as a hand-me-down and have no brand listed.  DARN) that would stay on (and they're now too small). However, put on a pair of socks with these little shoes and BAM.  warm feet!  It's been amazing!

Here's a little shot of teeth.  It's so hard to get them to show off their teeth for other people/cameras.

My little climber with my main man.

Jay got a new toy recently- a steering wheel so he can play Gran Tourismo 5 for realsies.  He was putting them on the coffee table and it wasn't doing it for him, so I built a stand for him.  It was really fun.  I felt like the dude on "This Old House".  However, it wasn't built to withstand the wheel and the weight of a 2-year old and the wood split.  (I should have added braces on the side).  Jay decided to go with a more expensive, yet durable metal one.  (It's nicer too because it can collapse).  Here's my handiwork and the culprit.

Doesn't he look adorable?

Even though none of the McCarthy's are really sports fans, we do all own a Red Sox cap.  This past week, The Frog wanted everyone in the family to wear theirs, and so we have been, for several days.  Right here, he's swapped with Peach.

The Frog got sick last weekend, and on Pi day I came down from taking a shower and I found him like this:

To give you an idea of how miraculous this is, he has only ever fallen asleep unexpectedly ONCE in his entire life.  YES- even when he was a baby.  This kid LOATHES sleeping and so when I saw this, I knew he was really sick.  Turns out he had a fever, so we spent the day bundled on the sofa, watching movies and drinking OJ.  It seemed to have worked because he was himself the next day with a little cough (that didn't slow him down a bit).  Unfortunately, I think his little sis now has the same thing.

This is actually a rather old picture, but it illustrates one of his favorite activities as of late- soaking himself with water playing in the kitchen sink.  I figured, while he's at it, why not let him do the dishes?  I gave him a bunch of (clean) non-breakable items and let him "wash" them.

We start young with the slavery around here...

You know you're living with a toddler when...

the toilet paper in every bathroom has clearly been unrolled and rolled back on again.


or worse.


(at least he offered to roll it back on...)

I can't believe I almost forgot...

Happy Pi Day!

PS. I actually posted this at the exact right time, but then realized a day late that I posted it to the wrong blog somehow...  So I deleted it from there and am cheating and back dating this one.  But I really DID remember on time!

Flourless Chocolate Decadence

Last Saturday we celebrated Lindsay's birthday and for dessert, Melissa and I shared their flourless chocolate torte. It was amazing. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Not just because it was amazing, but how could it be flourless? I NEEDED to know. So, on a whim, when I saw that The Joy of Cooking had a flourless chocolate cake recipe, I had to try it.

Soooo glad I did. Definitely one of my top 5 desserts ever.  Turns out, its basically just semi-sweet chocolate, butter and eggs (you whip the whites and fold them into the other 3 melted together).  The batter looked like mousse.  (Which reminds me... another chocolatey dessert I've been meaning to try...)  The cake doesn't look that amazing, but it kind of has the consistency of those one dark chocolate truffles you can get at Costco- do you know the ones? (I can't remember the brand, but they come in a gold bag)  No need to chew because it just melts in your mouth.  Sooooo gooooood!  I think next time I will bake it in a 9-inch cake pan instead of the 8-inch because it kind of overflowed over the edges of the pan, which means I HAD to eat that part so I could get the cake out :)  (and it made a messy looking edge...)  Long story short, I think I've found my new birthday cake of choice!

PS if I didn't fear copyright infringement, I would post the recipe here. Let me know if you want a copy of it :)

Appreciation for thing of the past

I went through a box in our garage today...  This is a box of things, mostly from my Senior year of High School, that I packed away before going off to college.   And then once I had my own permanent place, my mother (basically) threatened to throw everything from my bedroom away unless I removed it immediately.  So I packed up this box, without examining its contents, and placed it in a forgotten place in our garage.
Full of who knows what.
Well now I know what.
Really really important things I just knew I'd want to save.
Like all my AP class notes/assignments/tests.
And all my awesomely folded, secretly-passed-during-class notes.  (written in unreadably, brightly-colored ink)
Random ballet poses (some of which I still think are cool, but what do I do with them?)
a super creepy picture of my old physics teacher?!
Some birthday cards (why did everyone seem to know about my 17th birthday?  Emily Laverne?  Was it you?)
And all my NSYNC related items.

Even though I am throwing away MOST of it, it's funny that some of it I still can't part with.  (okay, you got me.  I'm keeping my calc stuff...)

However, I found something SO amazing.  SO fortuitous!  SO unappreciated!  Something I had totally forgotten about.  Something that I actually complained to Jay about, wishing I had had enough foresight to create.  Something so important that I will never ever throw away.
EVER!
A photocopy
(yes, you heard me)
of my

belly button!!
(along with photocopies of my hands (I forgot about that ring I used to wear all the time), socked-foot, and hair/cheek.  I seem to recall now that my parents recently got a copy machine.  So I, of course, had to try it out.  And then, evidently, save the evidence of this momentous occasion for my posterity.)
Seriously!  I can't believe how lucky I am!  I was so sad after my pregnancy with The Frog that I never appreciated my belly button before it became this sad, deformed, droopy, wrinkled looking mess.  (and I didn't think it possible, but it's worse now after Peach...)  And I could hardly remember what it used to look like.  How sad to forget a part of yourself like that.
Lo!
Now whenever I need to feel good about myself- relive the glory days of my perfect little high school body, I have my time-machine.
Now whenever I need to really prove a point to my children about what I sacrificed for them, I will have hard, cold, evidence!

Only one question remains.  Where could one appropriately frame and display such a picture?

Kid Conversation

I walk into the library and The Frog has taken the cushions of our Ikea Poang chairs (love those, by the way) and is jumping on them.
Me: Hi, [The Frog].  What are you doing?
The Frog: (pointing at the cushions) I'm doing games with those.
Me: Oh.
The Frog: Yeah.  It's called Gong Pong Goo Goo Fong (Paraphrased- It's hard to recall exactly.)
Me: Wow!  That sounds Chinese.
The Frog: *nodding head very seriously* Yes.  It IS Chinese.