Victory!

I wasn't getting anywhere with Isaac in Pull-Ups. They're too much like diapers. He felt totally free to just pee in them rather than going to the potty. Yesterday morning I decided to try just wearing regular cotton underpants on him, without pants, so if he had an accident it wouldn't ruin his entire outfit. He did have a couple of accidents, but he saw his puddle on the floor and knew what happened. He said, "Pee pee, uh oh!" I tried this again after his nap, and he kept himself dry all evening! He said, "pee pee" when he had to go and he'd go to the bathroom where his Elmo potty is! I still can't get him to poop on the potty though. Oh well, we'll just take it one step at a time. I hope he continues to keep himself dry in regular underoos now.

Isaac can also count to 10 and he called his blanket red all by himself the other day! I've been working on colors with him for so long! He also knows orange pretty well, because he loves oranges! Oh, and Isaac's latest crazy thing is that he loves lemons! I bought some for me & Keith to put in our water, but as soon as Isaac spots them in our glasses we have to take them out and give them to him to suck on! Guess I'll have to learn how to make some good fresh lemonade for my boy!

Josiah is just growing by leaps and bounds. Before Christmas he began crawling. On New Year's Eve his first top tooth emerged, and now the second top tooth is poking through. On Monday he pulled himself up to standing by himself! He's doing better and better with his sippy cup and feeding himself those little Gerber star-shaped puff thingies. He's also been trying really hard not to wake up at 5am and scream for two hours. Lately he's been making it to more like 6am, but I make him wait until 7am to come out of his crib. My rule is that nobody gets out of their crib before 7am. Lastly, we've really discovered that Josiah, in spite of how active he is, loves to be held and to cuddle. He will sit on our laps as long as we'll hold him. He never tries to get down!

I just finished reading The Diary of Anne Frank yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon I began my continuing education course on Environmental Nutrition. I had to re-read every paragraph twice. My brain just isn't geared toward that kind of reading anymore. I'll have to re-train it. I also received an email/forward supposedly written by Karl Rove about a friendly competition he and President Bush had going for a few years. The competition was to see how many books they could read in a year. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, if anyone out there is interested in a little friendly competition! Even if no one is, I'd really like to see how many I can read in a year.

If I may, I love learning new vocabulary from the books that I read. For example, in Pride & Prejudice the word "felicity" is everywhere! I had to look it up in the dictionary! But now I know! My new vocabulary words from Anne Frank's diary were "clandestine" and "pedantic." Clandestine: kept secret or hidden, especially for some illicit purpose; surreptitious; furtive. (This prompts me to look up surreptitious and furtive.) Pedantic: 1) laying unnecessary stress on minor or trivial points of learning, displaying a scholarship lacking in judgement or sense of proportion, 2) narrow-minded teaching insisting on exact adherence to a set or\f arbitrary rules.

One of my readers requested I post recipes to help them stick to their resolution to eat healthier in 2009. My first selection is a hummus recipe I got by watching Rachael Ray. I chose it because 1) it's vegetarian, 2) chick peas are a good source of fiber and protein, and 3) I like hummus! What you have to be careful about in this recipe is that although it calls for olive oil, which is a type of "good fat," olive oil is still an oil! It is a fat, with approximately 120 calories and 14 grams of fat per tablespoon. So don't overdo it!

Chick Pea, Roasted Pepper & Rosemary Spread

2 15oz. cans chick peas (garbanzo beans), drained & rinsed
1 6oz. jar roasted red peppers, drained and coarsely chopped
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 cloves garlic
4 stems fresh rosemary (strip leaves from stems)-I just use some dried rosemary & it turns out just fine
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Dippers, such as sliced flat breads or pita, grape tomatoes and zucchini

Combine chick peas, roasted red pepper, lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper in food processor. turn processor on and stream in olive oil until smooth. Remove spread to a serving bowl and surround with pita/flat breads, grape tomatoes and zucchini.

I like to buy those mini whole wheat pita pockets and stuff them with some hummus and salad. Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it!

Enjoy! Stay tuned for a Cream of Butternut Squash soup recipe!