A Special Party,

Today we held your birthday at our apartment, even though your official birthday isn't until Monday. I'm pretty sure you still don't quite grasp the concept of a birthday, but you had a blast nonetheless.

I hope to forever remember the pure joy on your face as we all sang happy birthday to you by the light of the lone number 2 candle on the cake we made for you. The candlelight dancing with excitement in your eyes. Your head occasionally bopping to our sing-song voices. The silent giggle & open-mouthed grin as you turned your head up in uncontrollable glee.

I want to remember it all, because its the little things that mean the most to me. The moments in which your strongest emotions shine through are my most cherished memories.

You are how the world should be.

Thanksgiving Recipes

This year we had Thanksgiving at our teeny tiny apartment & we cooked way more food than was really needed for Cyrus, R, my parents, & I. But that means left overs for us! Right now, we actually have what's left over of the turkey boiling away on the stove to make a nice stock.

I figured I'd share two of the recipes that were at our table this holiday; one I found on in my big book of slow cooker recipes that I have been dying to try & the other is a staple that has been at our table for as long as I can remember.

Butternut Squash Braised with Thyme & Cider

from Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever by Diane Phillips

Servings: 6 to 8

Ingredients:

1/2 cup [1 stick] unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup apple cider

2 teaspoons dried thyme

4 cups of 1-inch chunks peeled & seeded butternut squash

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in the insert of a 5 to 7 quart slow cooker. Cover & cook on high for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until the squash is tender.

Serve the squash from the cooker set on warm.

 

image was taken before it was cooked, because it was gobbled up before I could get to my camera!

Sweet Potato Crumble

from my Grandmother

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsifted flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2.5 - 3 pounds sweet potato, pared
1/3 cup pecan halves
maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, allspice, & nutmeg. mix well. With a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Grease a 2 quart shallow baking pan or casserole dish.

Cut sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices, on a bias (diagonal). Place 1/3rd of the potatoes in baking dish & sprinkle half a cup of crumb mixture on top. Layer with remaining potatoes, slightly overlapping. Sprinkle with remaining mixture. Top with pecan halves & drizzle with syrup. 

Lightly cover with foil & bake for 45 minutes. Remove foil & cook for 10 minutes longer, or until fork tender.

 

The resulting dish is so so very sweet & delicious!

Do you have any must-haves on your holiday table?

A bit of a handful.

The other week, Cyrus & I accompanied R to our general practitioner so he could get a look at his blood work & have a full work up since he hasn't had insurance in literally 10 years. Cyrus was his normal, active self & had me up & about, running down the halls & in the waiting room, playing games & such. My father see's the same doctor, who is a family friend, & I guess he went & they talked about how much of a handful he was.

Hearing this got me thinking. Frankly, I was surprised. Handful? Really? He was quite well-behaved, & yes, he was always on the move. But he's always like that; he's my little ball of energy. I honestly never considered him out of the ordinary as far as children his age are concerned.

Yes, sometimes when I'm on edge & frustrated, he feels like a handful, but when I really think about it, I don't feel that he is. When I'm at my most frustrated, it's not him being a handful, it's life in general. Cyrus is just that type of kid who has such a zest for life & is always able to find joy in anything & everything. Not much can keep him down [except for Mommy telling him no more Mikey Mouse] & that's just one of the many, many things that I love about him.

See, I've always been quite the opposite of him [for numerous medical, psychological, & situational reasons] & having him grace me with his presence has really done me a world of good. I'm still constantly battling my demons, & I continue to deal with the skeletons in my closet, but he reminds me on a daily basis that there can be joy anywhere you look, if you just open your mind to find it.

Until he was born, I had never laughed as genuinely & as fully as I do now that he's here. I can't even explain it, other than, if souls do in fact exist, that he has the ability to make my soul & body laugh.

His happiness, innocence, & jubilee seeps out of every pore on his little body & it's all extremely contagious.

As you sleep,

You're giggling in your sleep again. Each time I hear your soft laughter drifting over from the corner of the room, I can't help but smile & ask myself, "What are you dreaming of, sweet son of mine?"

I wish you could tell me all about the images that dance across your minds eye at night. Do you imagine yourself playing in the sun with Stormy chasing after you? Am I there with you as well? Do we play together at the park & roll around in the grass? Or maybe you're imagining being on the job with Daddy & Pop-Pop, working with the big machines. Or perhaps you're thinking of something as simple as what you did earlier in the day. With how much you're into Mickey Mouse lately, it wouldn't be a far reach to assume that you're dreaming of being back in Disney World, playing with Mickey & the gang.

What ever it is that makes up your dreams, I know it's keeping you content while the rest of the world is asleep. That alone helps me rest well at night.

Pinterest Find | Homemade Play Dough

Every now & again I go on a pinning spree over on Pinterest. I mostly search through it all to pick out some interesting recipes to try & inspiration for various crafts. The other day I stumbled across this recipe for play dough & why play dough is beneficial activity & I just knew I had to try it out. 

The very first things I looked forward to when I learned I was pregnant was being able to buy & play with play dough in the near future without feeling like a strange 24-year-old playing with children's toys by herself. The closer he's gotten to the recommended minimum age, the more excited I've gotten (he still likes to put things in his mouth, & I wouldn't feel comfortable with him eating the name-brand stuff). Naturally, when I found this recipe compiled of pantry ingredients & Jell-o, I jumped all over it!

We had everything except the Jell-o on hand already, & you probably do to!

Cyrus absolutely loved being right along side, helping me the entire time (even during clean up!). He held all the measuring utensils while I poured the ingredients in them, & then dumped them into the pot when I let him know it was okay to. He was so eager to start mixing it all up.

After we were able to mix almost all of the floury dry lumps away, I put the pot on the stove & took over mixing while he watched from a safe distance away. It was slow going, even for my stove, but eventually...

...it all came together beautifully!

After about half an hour of cooling, the moment I'd been waiting for since Cyrus was conceived had finally arrived.

Cyrus loved the play dough a lot more than he did the air-dry clay from last week. Probably because this was a lot more pliable & soft compared to the clay. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience as well, especially the smell! This stuff smells very similar to the store-bought kind (at least from what I remember), plus there was a nice hint of grape from the the Jell-o! Another great part about this recipe was the cost. We only used one box of Jell-o, even though I had bought 4 & thoroughly intended to make it all today; there was just no need to because of how much one batch makes! What you see Cyrus playing with in his chair is only a fraction of what this recipe makes. 

Do you have any favorite homemade recipes for playtime?

What's on the Menu | Zucchini Fritters

Often, while I'm sitting at our computer, I can be found perusing the internet for new recipes to test on the guinea pigs family. I start by jumping over to Pinterest & typing in a main ingredient that I have on hand. This past week, we had a few left over zucchini in the fridge that needed to be cooked & I found a recipe over at Smitten Kitchen for zucchini fritters that looked absolutely delicious, so I decided to give it a go.

Unfortunately, I'm not the best in the kitchen. I've got a lot to learn, & I'm sure the tiny area we call a kitchen isn't a conducive learning environment, but I give it my best. Looking back on the zucchini fritters now, I can tell where I may have slipped up, & where my kitchen appliances & supplies failed me. I encourage you all to give the recipe a try, though!

The first mistake I think I made was that I didn't shred up enough zucchini. The second was that I don't think I got enough water out of them! I thought I had, because I seriously had about a cup of zucchini juice in the bowl. I pushed them against my fine mesh strainer & I wrung them out using a couple paper towels (I highly suggest using cheese cloth instead, we just didn't have any). It was crazy the amount of water that came out!

The second thing that hindered the way these zucchini fritters came out was our stove. It is very, very old & desperately needs to be updated, but my grandfather (our landlord) tends to be...well...cheap (the washer & dryer for the building is literally from the 70s) & will not get a new one until this one completely croaks. The knobs on the stove don't have any "high-low" notches, but even if they did, they probably wouldn't be of any help. The flame comes out as either super-duper high, or barely on. There really isn't any in between (it's a total hassle to make rice). So, it was either burn them way to quickly & smoke up the entire apartment, or let them cook really slow. I opted for the latter, which took the fritter out of "zucchini fritter" & replaced it with pancake.

The recipe was really easy, quick, & tasty; I'll definitely be making these again. Especially since Cyrus gobbled up a few by himself!

Outside in our Pajamas

The Alex Magnetic Tabletop Easel is easily one of the best purchases we've made for Cyrus to date. We picked it up at a silent charity auction while I was still pregnant & visiting family in Virginia.

I love that it's a tabletop easel instead of a full-size floor easel, especially since we're currently residing in a small apartment. It allows us the option to hide it away easily & to set it up wherever we currently have space, which is most often outside.

The artist side of me is absolutely ecstatic that he enjoys drawing, coloring, & exploring with his hands. I don't want to force him into doing something he doesn't like, but I can't say that I wouldn't be proud if art became one of his passions in life (that said, I'll be proud no matter what he decides to do!).

He's quite the multimedia kid at the moment, switching from dry-erase crayons one moment, to chalk  the next. If it was warmer outside, he'd be stripped down to his diaper with a paintbrush in hand. Speaking of dry-erase crayons, can I just rave about them for a moment? I absolutely love them. They come with an eraser cloth instead of one of those fuzzy pads, which is easily thrown in with the wash when they get used up. It takes a bit of elbow grease to get a drawing erased (it's easier if you let it sit for a bit), but that's alright, Cyrus doesn't seem mind.

I can't wait until he starts drawing actual things instead of just scribbling. Don't get me wrong, I love the scribbles! But I'm really excited to get a peak into how his little mind works & the way he interprets the world. It'll be wonderful to help stoke the flames of his imagination, especially since the artistic language is one that I am quite fluent in (if I do say so myself).

What types of art activities get your children excited?