Weekly Menu 11/29/10-12/4/10

Breakfast: Cereal, Oatmeal, Eggs, Toast, Waffles, and/or fruit
Snacks: Graham Crackers, Popcorn, Yogurt, Cheese & Crackers, Fruit, and/or Veggies

Sunday
Lunch - Hot Ham & Cheese Sandwich
Dinner - BBQ Beef, Baked Potato, and Corn

Monday
Lunch - Sloppy Joes, Sweet Potato Fries
Dinner - Mexican Lasagna, Rice, Green Beans

Tuesday
Lunch - Chinese Rice Bowls
Dinner - Calzones, Broccoli

Wednesday
Lunch - Pizza, Salad, Pineapple
Dinner - Marinated Chicken Quarters, Rice

Thursday
Lunch - Taco Salad with Chicken and Black Beans
Dinner - Chicken Teriyaki with Pineapple over Brown Rice

Friday
Lunch - Leftovers or Sandwiches
Dinner - Shepherd's Pie with Turkey

Saturday
Lunch - Leftovers or Sandwiches
Dinner - Spaghetti with Spaghetti Squash and Italian Sausage

Thanksgiving Day

We had a good Thanksgiving. Last year, Russell was still in Texas for Thanksgiving, so this year it was nice to be celebrate as an entire family this year. And this was Delilah's first Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving round 1 was at Papa Terry and Grandma Onie's. They had quite the turnout! It was nice to see some of my cousins that I don't normally get to see! The food was delicious, although I'm not sure that Jameson ate more than a roll. We kept having to tell him to sit down. It's much harder to enforce the sit down until you're done eating rule when he's at another table! :-) Jameson was pretty happy to be playing with all of the kids, although Russell had to go in the toy room at one point to make sure he wasn't picking on the girls. However, Russell ended up falling asleep. Poor guy got woken up even earlier than usual so we could make it to my Dad's house in time.

Round 2 was at Nana Sandy and Papa Bruce's house. Another delicious dinner! It was nice to see the twins, but Rachel wasn't there because she was on a trip to Cancun! (Lucky girl!!) Anyway, at this dinner Delilah tried some actual turkey (I tore it up really small for her) and she ate a sweet potato (the WHOLE thing!!). So, she got to eat a little bit of what we ate! :-)

Overall, we had a good holiday! Now it's time to watch some football!!

Sick! :-(

There has been a terrible cold making its way through our house. I'm not sure where it started, but the kids got it first. I haven't been sleeping a lot with the kids coughing themselves awake. To make matters worse, I get paranoid when Jameson starts coughing because on two occasions he's been coughing, swallows whatever he coughs up, and then throws up. So, I lie awake in bed waiting for him to get sick. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet. But, every day this week I've drug myself to work. I consider calling in, but then I worry that tomorrow will be worse than today, so I force myself to go. Well, today I finally gave in and took the day off. It seems that I have also gotten the cold, but what sealed the deal was when Jameson, whom I've never heard say the word "black" before says it while pointing to the bags under my eyes. Thanks, Buddy. :-) The good news is that I had already taken Friday off to throw a baby shower for my friend, E. I already have everything done or enlisted the help of others, so it should be pretty low key. Looks like, I get another day to recover.

Delilah 9 months!

Delilah is 9 months old. It seems pretty unbelievable! I remember thinking when she turned 3 months that she was 1/4 of a year old and now she has 1/4 of a year left to go!! She is acting less and less like a baby and more like a person every day! She is such a funny little girl. She can play peek-a-boo all by herself. She is crawling and cruising all over the place! She is even able to maneuver under things, for example the coffee table, and she is getting into everything!! She is very curious.

I still think her favorite person is Jameson. She just laughs at everything he does...until he makes her cry, that is. :-) She squeals and screams all the time. She makes these little, almost growling noises when she's playing with Daddy, I call them gremlin noises. She is talking more. I hear Da da da and yeah yeah yeah all the time. And I swear she is saying "Hi Dada." But, when I say "Mama?" she responds by laughing! It's not a joke, little girl!! :-)

She has a big appetite! She eats a whole container of baby food and is still hungry! So, we started giving her table food in addition to the baby food. She is loving it! I think her favorite is Cheerios, but she's had peas, cut up green beans, banana pieces, sweet potato pieces, squash pieces, and cut up peaches. And she didn't seem to complain one bit!

To celebrate Delilah's 9 month birthday, she got to watch the family eat at Cheesecake factory. Oh, they did bring a few bananas on a plate for her. And Nana Sandy joined us for dinner, because it's her birthday too! (Happy birthday, Nana Sandy!) :-)

Delilah 9 Month Appointment

Delilah is 9 months old today and this morning she had her 9 month well-baby appointment. Dr. Zimmerman has been back from her maternity leave for a while and Jameson has already seen her, but this was Delilah first appointment with her since she's been back. Delilah scored high in all areas of the questionnaire that they had me fill out. But, like her big brother, she especially excels with her gross motor skills. Anyone who has met baby D in person should not be surprised. This little girl is on the move! She is always trying to bang something, get into something, or climb over something. She is definitely trying to keep up with her brother!

I did have a surprise when the nurse calculated Delilah's stats. She seemed concerned that D's percentages had dropped. Her stats were: Height: 26 1/4" (11%), Weight: 16.9 lbs (15%), and Head Circumference: 17 3/4" (77%). Dr. Zimmerman seemed less concerned about the drop. She said if they are going to drop, it will be when they start getting active. And since Delilah is a crawling, cruising, and climbing machine, she said it might just be a matter of increased calories burned. I wasn't too worried because I was thinking that she was in the 20-25% range previously. But, I just looked back at D's stats from 6 months. She was 30th for height and 50th for weight. That makes me sad! She's only gained about an inch and a pound in 3 months. Poor girl! I think I need to work on really getting her to eat before her next appointment.

Oh, I also talked to the doctor about Delilah's leaking eye. Jameson was born with a blocked tear duct (which is common) and that thing leaked constantly for weeks. It was pretty gross. I *thought* we had avoided it with D. But then when she was a few months old, she got a touch of the sniffles and, wouldn't you know, her right eye started to leak. And then I noticed that when she cried, she her right eye always had more tears than her left (if her left had any at all!). When she got her two colds, the gunk coming out of her eye was her biggest symptom. In fact, when she had her first ear infection, it was the greenish gunk coming out of her eye that concerned me because there wasn't much coming out of her nose.

So, Delilah will need to see a pediatric opthamologist. Dr. Zimmerman said that if a block tear duct is going to resolve itself it almost always does do by 6 months. I did let her know that some times when my sinuses are really bad, I also have gunk come out of my eye. She said I probably have a narrow tear duct and there is a possibility that Delilah also has that, but we won't know until she's checked out. So, it looks like Delilah also gets to see a specialist - just a different type than her brother! That reminds me, I need to make an appointment for Jameson to see the orthopedic doctor in March. :-)

Weekly Menu 11/14/10-11/20/10

Haha, guess I didn't really keep up with my menus. The big reason is that I have been pretty busy (mainly with work, nothing too exciting, but I may blog about this later) and we have mostly been eating out of the freezer. But, here we go again!

Breakfast: Cereal, Oatmeal, Omelets, Eggs, Toast, and/or Grapefruit
Snacks: Yogurt, Fruit, Graham Crackers, Cheese & Crackers

Sunday
Lunch - Soup & Sandwich
Dinner - Pizza Burgers, Spaghetti Squash

Monday
Lunch - Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup
Dinner - Possibly out to eat, I'm not sure.

Tuesday
Lunch - Hoagie Sandwiches, Pasta Salad
Dinner - Taco Tuesday (You're welcome, Russell!)

Wednesday
Lunch - Leftovers or Sandwiches
Dinner - Hawaiian Pizza, Salad

Thursday
Lunch - Spaghetti & Meatballs, Cheese Bread, Zucchini
Dinner -Meatloaf, Twice Baked Potatoes

Friday
Lunch - Chili, Cornbread
Dinner - Out...for me, anyway. The guys are on their own! :-)

Saturday
Lunch - Leftover Mexican chicken, Mmmmmm!
Dinner - Pork chops with gravy over egg noodles, squash

What's on your menu?

Jameson's trip to the Dentist!

Jameson had a trip to the dentist today. We go to Children's Dental Specialist. I cannot say enough about them! Jameson has been going since he was 18 months old and they have been great with him! I was a little concerned because it started off with a tantrum. Even though I had prepped him all morning about the impending trip, he had a tantrum of epic proportions when it was time to turn his movie off. But, he eventually settled down and off we went. Jameson had fun with the toys in the waiting room. He found a truck that he liked so much that he wanted to bring it back with him. But, I convinced him to leave it in the waiting room pretty easily and he happily trotted to the back room.

We entered the back room which is basically just an open exam room with about 4 chairs. There was a little guy on one of the chairs screaming as the dentist cleaned his teeth and his Mom held his legs. Jameson just kind of looked over at him and hopped up on the exam chair. He picked out his new toothbrush, put on the headphones, laid down and enjoyed the episode of Dinosaur Train. I sat up a little straighter when another Mom walked in the room with her two young kids and asked her kids if they were going to be good like "this little boy." :-)

Jameson had X-rays of his teeth for the first time. He did really well until the last one and then he started crying. Poor guy jumped down from the chair and wanted to go back out to the waiting room to play with the truck! But, I talked him into getting back in the exam chair to watch some more Dinosaur train. The dentist said his teeth look great! Jameson did such a great job that he got to pick a prize! It was really funny because this time was the first time he had definite opinions about which one he wanted! He picked a little toy car.

Weekend Recap

Friday morning I had my Weight Watchers meeting. I had to take both kids with me. The kids were well-behaved, so I'd say it was a success. :-) I have been dealing with some medical issues for the past few weeks, so WW had kind of been put to the back burner. Two weeks ago I had gained 2.6 lbs and then I skipped last weeks meeting. But, I went this week and lost 1.4, so I am just about back on track. :-)

Saturday was a busy day! D and I had a party to go to in the afternoon. We went to my friend's house. She has a son who is just a little bit younger than D. He was flirting with her and she was trying to attack him! We'll have to work on how not to come on too strong! :-) D was up cruising around and she even moved from a line of folding chairs and then reached across a gap to my leg. I think this little girl will be walking before I know it! Then we joined the boys to watch the Husker game with some other friends. Whew, that was a nail-biter! Jameson was having a good time playing with boys his age. He found a bunch of Cars toys and was in heaven! After the game, we went to the Rose Theater to see Go, Dog, Go. We met Nichole, Hannah, and Justice at the play. Jameson really got into it. He was yelling at the characters (along with all of the other kids - it was appropriate) and at one point he was dancing to the music! It was a busy day!!

Sunday morning, J and I got haircuts from my talented cousin, Jenny (thanks again!!!). No more mullet for Jameson! :-) Then, with our fresh haircuts, we went to Lincoln to visit Russell's family. Jameson was so excited to show his new Cars toy (thanks to our awesome neighbor Thomas) to Gigi. He had a lot of fun playing with Russell's cousins Michael and Katie. They played catch with him forever! Jameson also helped Gigi and Katie make dinner.

This morning we had breakfast with Nana Sandy and Papa Bruce. They wanted to see the kids before they went on their trip to London. Jameson scarfed down his pancakes, along with some of Nana and Papa's breakfasts and Delilah ordered a GIANT bowl of applesauce. She made a pretty good dent in it too! :-)

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun-filled weekend! Russell was in Texas for Halloween last year for Navy training, so this year was extra special. We started off our Halloween celebration on Saturday at Papa Terry and Grandma Onie's house. Aunt Erin, Uncle Tyler, Aunt Nichole, Hannah and Justice were all there. We had lunch and celebrated the October birthdays (Papa Terry, Aunt Erin, and Aunt Nichole). Afterwards, the kids got into their costumes and trick-or-treated through the house. Everyone went into a bedroom or the bathroom. Nichole and I took the kids around to knock on the doors to get their treats. It was really cute!

Then on Sunday we, of course, took the kids trick-or-treating. Graham Cracker (Grandma Debby) came over to hand out candy so that we could all go together as a family. I took Jameson last year, so this was actually his second year trick-or-treating, but we only went around the circle and up and down the street that our circle is off of - so maybe 10 houses total. This year we went around basically a whole block plus our circle. Jameson was in a weird mood. He woke up from his nap quiet. He was happy to be dressed up as Brobee, but didn't want us to take any pictures taken and he was pretty serious when he went up to the doors. I think the highlight of his night was when Spiderman answered one of the doors. He saw him when we were walking up to the house and he yelled and started running! I think overall he had a good time. And he's been asking to eat candy constantly since we got home. :-)

Now, about their costumes. Unless you have a kid about preschool-age, you probably don't have a clue who they are dressed as. Jameson was dressed as Brobee and Delilah was Foofa from the show Yo Gabba Gabba. It's one of Jameson's favorite shows! Here are the few pictures we were able to take: