Friday Night Pizza Night

Fridays are a little crazy for me. Fridays are my grocery day, my day to leave the house clean for the weekend... And the day I take The Accountant, aka my husband, to work so I can have the car. Some days I manage to squeeze a shower in before running him to work and doing the grocery shopping. Some days I'm just hoping in the shower at noon.
On a day as busy as Fridays are, I need a quick and easy meal. We really try to stick to eating out only once a week. That means no fast food on Friday. And we really aren't into the frozen food thing. Once in a blue moon, in lieu of eating out we'll pick up something frozen ahead of time so we can stay in all day and not really cook... But if I'm going to eat that badly, I'd rather just eat fast food.
Typically, we don't have a lot of leftovers, either. I try to cook an exact amount daily, or just enough that The Accountant can take it to work with him for lunch.  So Fridays are a great day for home made pizza.
At this point you're probably thinking that I'm going to say I use tortillas, or pop-n-fresh crescent rolls or something. No thanks. I wouldn't spoil a perfectly good pizza like that. No siree Bob. It's amazing, but in reality home made pizza takes maybe 15 minutes of work. Here's how I do it.
In the afternoon I find myself 10-15 minutes to throw together bread dough. I like to use a regular white bread dough recipe. I find it makes an amazing crust. I know it sounds like a lot of work already, but honestly, if you've ever made bread dough you know that it takes maybe 5 minutes to get the ingredients together, and another 8 minutes to kneed the dough. From there, it just has to rise. My work is done. Almost. Once the dough is ready, I throw the sauce on the stove to simmer.
I like my sauce to cook as long as it can. It's a really simple sauce, just a can or two of tomato sauce, garlic, onion, oregano... Then you can put in whatever else you like. Diced tomatoes, green peppers, pepperoni, mushrooms. All of these will make your sauce richer and more flavorful. Even if you put them all in it, it takes maybe 5 minutes to throw together. From there, add some water, and leave it on low to impregnate the flavors into the sauce. It's so easy I do it while Sirenita is eating lunch. And then I neglect it all till right before I leave to pick up The Accountant. Before it's time to go, I shut off the sauce, plop the dough onto a cookie sheet, spread it out to cover the sheet, and throw it in the cold oven for a second rise. When we get home, the dough is ready to cook, it takes maybe 20 minutes. Once it's ready, spoon the sauce on, put some cheese and more toppings on, back in the oven for 5 minutes, and you're good to go!
It seems really complicated, maybe... But honestly, if you want a hearty home cooked meal with minimal effort, pizza is totally the way to go. There is nothing else that requires so little of my attention and tastes so good as Pizza does... So if you have time in the morning, or a few hours before you want to eat, and don't want to spend a lot of time cooking at meal time, wow them with your pizza, and enjoy the leftovers! You can even make the dough up ahead of time, pop it into the freezer right after you kneed it (don't let it rise) and leave it there till the day you want pizza. Pull it out in the morning, throw it in a bowl and let it thaw. As it thaws, it will rise, and voila! Home made pizza dough!

The isolation of the modern SAHM

Sirenita and I took a walk this morning before the temperature skyrocketed from "uncomfortably sticky" to "heat warning." I was, of course, wearing my work out gear - aka stuff that makes me look like an active person instead of someone who showers during AM Naptime. Our 8 year old toy poodle trotted (or panted, more like) along at my heels.

As we walked, I explained where we were going, and the things around us, like a good parent developing their child's communication skills is supposed to. I was feeling pretty good about our walk. And then they showed up. The local clique of stay at home moms.

Three fit women in their "I haven't showered yet" work out gear, marching right at me with their kids in strollers taking up the entire road. There was no way they couldn't have seen me. I smiled, nodded a normal gringo greeting... And they swept on like I didn't exist, laughing and talking behind their strollers. And leaving me feeling incredibly isolated, like the little girl ignored by the other kids at recess.

The Accountant and I only have one car. As much as I would love to have one, we honestly we don't need a second one. It would just sit in the garage most of the week anyhow.  But because we have only one car, and all the local mom groups seem to be an hour away on the far side of the city, I am not really connected with any other SAHM. 

Being a stay at home mom is hard work. I spend my whole day wrapped up in the whims of a tiny person who communicates through "ITA, ITA, ITA!" (Sirenita speaks Spanish only right now, Ita is "Lista" or ready) at best, and leaves me wondering what in the world she is telling me she is ready for?  That's not the really difficult part of it, though. As a stay at home mom, your identity suddenly takes a drastic shift. Once, you were a social person talking about interesting things with your friends. Now you tell yourself to refrain from sending them video of your genius 11 month old making farm animal sounds, because they're surely sick of hearing about your child. You become keenly aware that you've become that mom. The one that talks about kids all day, and little else. You feel socially awkward, and even if you do manage to have a conversation that doesn't revolve around your child, you have to interrupt it every 30 seconds to pull your child out of flower pots, remove dvd's from their mouth, drag them out from under the couch, and run down the hall because God alone knows what she'll get into by herself down there. 

It's a hard life, trying to keep a decent identity, or just not care what your friends think. If you're lucky, you aren't the first to have a kid and the transition is smoother. Or someone else gets pregnant and you find yourself looking with joyful anticipation to the moment they understand your sudden insanity, and why bath time and animal noises are so wonderful

But I'm sure there are plenty more of us out there, pushing on through the ups and downs of the mom life, feeling lonely, awkward, stinky, and ignored. It's a sad world where we live so close to so many people that we'll never know.

Several blocks later, we passed another Mom. She too, was in her haven't had a chance to shower yet work out gear, as she pulled her little one along in a wagon. She smiled, commented on my well behaved dog. Exchanged a moment of humanity. Ladies, this mom business is far too lonely to be cliquish and rude. Have a heart, and at least smile at others as you go by. I know I will be, because they may just need an extra cup of coffee and a smile today. 

Human Waste and Crisis Management?

Yesterday, Monday, was my regular cleaning day. There's nothing like getting the house back in order after the weekend. Sweeping, mopping, cleaning the kitchen, the guest bath, vacuum, the laundry... I always save the master bath for last. It's easy for me to do while my Sirenita is up. Our master bath has a big doorway that opens, obviously, into the master bedroom. The Master has been baby proofed to bareness since Sirenita was 3 months old and started rolling everywhere to get around. It's easy for me to put a baby gate between the bathroom and let her play while I clean, and then shower.
Our day started out like any other Monday. As I stepped out of the shower, I prided myself on the speed of my cleaning, and thought that there would be enough time before nap time to sit down and play with Sirenita. Maybe go through the enormous book of animals she loves so much.
I looked up at her as I grabbed my towel. So sweet, sitting on the floor, playing with.... Wait. What in the world is she playing with?
I squinted at my daughter. She was sitting on the floor, not far from the bathroom door with something about the size and shape of a blueberry in her hand.
"What??!!! What is that, and where did she get it?! I just vacuumed, she can't have found it on the floor, whatever it is! It looks like a choking hazard!"
All my mom alarms were going off. How could I have missed this dangerous object? I stepped to the gate.
Time froze as I realized what Sirenita had in her hands. The strobe lights going off in my mommy paranoid brain stopped exactly where they were. There was no sound, no time. My first reaction (a bad one, I must say) was to yell, "Nooooo!!!!!" As if she were the dog, and that would help. I'm thankful it didn't start her into scrambling away. Instead, she continued to play with it.
I stepped over the gate. My second reaction was a much better, more reasonable one. "Sirenita, sweetie... Look at me."
She dropped the ball of feces she had been playing with on the floor, and looked up at me.
"Oh thank God..." She hadn't been eating it. Her face was clean.  There was, however, blueberry tinged poop smeared across her belly, her hands, her feet, and rolling out of her open diaper onto the floor.
"Ok.... What do I do now?" I thought fast, then closed the diaper back on her, and whisked her away to the bathtub.  Where does one even start when their child discovers his or her own poop for the first time? I felt so...unprepared. I didn't know whether to clean the child, or the floor.. Or how to clean the child.
I opted to leave my little Poopykins in the empty tub while I removed the escaped convicts from the carpet, not considering the immediate draw and imminent contamination of my shampoo bottles. Next, I came back, realized I was going to have to clean the bathtub again, pulled Poopykins out of the tub, and removed the diaper and remaining offense from her backside on a towel. (We don't have a changer.. but who would want their little feces dipped baby on the changer anyhow?) Then back in the tub for a nice bath, into a diaper, and out into the bedroom to play some more while I cleaned the tub and all my  bottles.
Later on, over extra coffee I contemplated the events. Two things stuck out in my mind. One, if I had her in cloth this wouldn't have happened. In fact, she will never be left unclothed or "unattended" in a two piece outfit and a disposable diaper again. Viva la Sleep Sack. She'll be wearing them to bed until she is potty trained!
Two, They say all babies do this. I've heard horror stories of children who painted their entire rooms, or ate their own. I experienced first hand the time my niece opened her diaper to scratch her little bum during a nap, then twirled poo in her hair and went back to sleep. The hospitals offer birthing classes, hoo heee, hoo, hee... and breast feeding classes... and daddy classes, and sibling classes, and basic baby care classes... But why is their not a "Human Waste and Crisis Management" class?

Mom Stuff: Removing the irremovable - Banana stains.

A while back Sirenita got banana on one of my favorite onsies. I didn't think much of it. I was too busy including said onsie in my mental plan for vacation packing. It's cute, it's great quality, I got it for $2 bucks... Whats not to love about this onsie?
As the day wore on, this Adorable White Onsie grew a brown spot smack dab in the middle. No big deal, it'll wash out, right? Two washes later I realized that I had a stain. I tried my go-to stain remover. No go. This booger was one tough stain.
Who knew that Bananas stain? Obviously they're nature's first baby food, thus they should be stain free, too, right? Hahaha..... All the mommy's laugh at this one. Especially since they're trying to remove a stain from a particular outfit they love.
I went to the internet. I saw 500 posts about banana stains. 499 of them said "The only way to get banana stains out of your kid's clothes is not to get them in the first place!" Great. Not helpful. There was 1 that involved some weird chemical I've never heard of and ironing. Also not helpful. So I decided to try again. This time I tweaked my recipe. Dawn and peroxide. I lathered on the dawn, then I soaked it really well with peroxide, and let it sit for a day before I washed it.
Success! Dawn is magic! Banana stains can be conquered!

Sirenita's First Easter Outfit part 1: The dress

A month or so ago I had the revelation that Sirenita should have something a little more special than a knit carter's dress for Easter. I don't have anything against Carters, but... I remember one year having an Easter dress that I particularly loved... I got to pick the fabric (I don't think that happened to often) and the pattern. I remember going to church in that dress, my new sparkling white patten leather dress shoes (the ones all little girls wore at that time) and to top it off, I had a new purse, lace gloves, and a hat. It was actually warm in Ohio that year. It still sticks out to me. There aren't many times when a little girl really gets to dress up and go out in this world we live in. So when those opportunities come along, we've got to seize them and make the most of them, right? That is why Sirenita deserves more than a generic knit dress. So I set about the process of "going all out" for Sirenita's first Easter. I'm almost done, I just need a bow to match. And to sew her Easter basket together.

The fabric was easy to find. The pattern not so much.I  had seen a keyhole dress with a heart shaped hole in the back years ago, and I thought it would be adorable. It's always warm here at Easter, so a keyhole sundress would be nice.
Not being exactly confident that my sewing skills were up to the task ahead of me, I decided to hunt out a tutorial and try a sample dress before I risked ruining the fabric I bought for her dress.  I found an absolutely wonderful Keyhole dress

 tutorial. I had never made a lined bodice before, so I had to learn that too. This same blogger has an awesome lined bodice tutorial, as well. Now I knew that I had the skill to make the dress, but I still couldn't get the size quite right. As awesome as her tutorials are, there isn't a pattern and the ones I made just didn't cut it.  
Finally I found "The Party Dress" from The Cottage Mama. I think it is probably the ultimate in little girl's classic dresses. It's so easy, and so cute. It took me a few hours to put my "test" dress together. It's a little big for Sirenita, but come summer it'll be perfect.

The Cottage Mama's tutorial and pattern are free (If you join her facebook page or her newsletter) and so easy to use. I was able to adapt them easily to create my keyhole dress. Since Sirenita is almost crawling, I opted to leave off the contrast stripe down at the bottom. It worked out better because I really, really wanted to use this ribbon I picked up as the sash. Instead of cutting four pieces for the back part of the bodice, I just cut two and I cut them on the fold like the front. I also only cut two pieces for the skirt, one front and one back. I didn't need the extra slit in the skirt since I have a big open heart on the back. I put in my keyhole when I sewed the neckline, and did everything else just like the Party dress tutorial said. I think it came out wonderfully, and I can't wait for Sirenita to wear it on Easter!

This is just the first part of her outfit, because I believe in going all out if you're going to dress a little girl up... As I just discovered. Stay tuned, posts on the rest of the outfit coming soon!

No sew headband

This one is super easy, and very cute. Sirenita wears these and gets compliments on them often. Best of all, they're made of stretchy knit material, and can be adjusted to her head size as she grows! Ready to start?

 Find yourself a strip of knit fabric. This is made from a leftover cami that got turned into a skirt for Sirenita; I just cut the seam off. Make sure that your piece of fabric is big enough to go around the intended wearer's head twice with a little extra leftover.

Pull on the strip of fabric and stretch it could. It will roll up, and hide most of the raw edges. Knit doesn't ravel, so raw edges are no big deal here. 

Once you have stretched the fabric well, cut it right in the middle, so that you have two stretched strips of equal length. 

Lay one strip down in the shape of a "U." Lay the other one over the middle, so it looks like a fork or trident. 

Take the center piece of your "fork, and pull it back, passing it underneath other strip. Now it should be "linked" like a chain. 

Take the two ends of your first "U" and twist them around each other. 

Now do the same on the other side. You can twist alot, or a little, whichever you like, just make sure both sides match. 

Now take the twisted ends of one side, and lay them over the opposite side. 

Tie a knot, and you're ready to go! This can be untied, and adjusted if need be. You can also stretch it out to make it fit better if you need it. 

My Experience with sleep training Part 3: We survived the four month sleep regression