A Couple More Things

I forgot to add a few important items to my update yesterday. First off, we've rescheduled Cate's surgery for tomorrow (Thursday, February 21). She will get a new set of ear tubes and she is having her adenoids removed. Both are fairly minor procedures, but they do require general anesthesia. I think it takes a few minutes (at least) off my life every time she has to go under a general. I am sure she will be just fine, but keep us in your thoughts tomorrow. She is scheduled for surgery at 8:30, she'll go to recovery for a little while, then we'll be in the pediatric unit for a bit while they monitor to make sure there aren't any complications. I am hoping we'll be home around or just after lunch time.

The other big news we have is that we have officially begun working with Cate on potty training. I never imagined that I would be so interested in this particular subject.....but when you have kids, it kind of becomes the center of your world for a certain amount of time. Stephen and I went out for dinner on Sunday evening and it was a central point of conversation. We really need to find some other hobbies, right? :) Anyway, Cate is doing so well, we are really proud of her. We bought her a potty chair a long time ago and we've let her sit on it whenever she likes. I checked out some books at the library to read up on the subject and I checked out some books for Cate as well. I also got her the infamous "Elmo Potty" DVD and she has watched in at least 1000 times. Finally, she started asking if she could wear "underpants" and we figured it was time to really get going with this. I took her to the store and let her pick out her very own pair -- of course, she chose Elmo. She was so excited to wear them last weekend. I was a little apprehensive. But she went the whole weekend with only two accidents. Then, on Monday and Tuesday at day care, she didn't have one single accident. We may have some backsliding at some point, but for now, she is really doing a great job. Several times, she has said to us "Mommy and Daddy so proud of me." That just about breaks my heart. We are, obviously, extremely proud of her all the time.

Finally, I thought I'd draw your attention to my latest attempt to let people sign up for updates to this blog. I got rid of the old FeedBlitz email updates on the right-hand side of the blog and now I have added a feature so you can get updates through RSS. If you don't know how to do this, it's pretty simple. If you have a Google or Yahoo account (I know most people do now), you can "subscribe" to blogs and get the updates sent to your Google or Yahoo home page. Just click on the logo I've added to the right-hand side of the page and you can follow the instructions. It works with quite a few feed readers, so if you are using something else, there should be instructions there for you.

The Weekend

Due to the weather, it was a pretty uneventful weekend at our house. We stayed in a large part of the weekend. We did venture out in the rain on Saturday and Cate got some new markers (the highlight of her day). She was happy to spend time coloring with them when we got home. She is very serious about her coloring.
Stephen and I did not get to celebrate Valentine's Day together because he was out of town. He was doing a little tour of the state for work, visiting newspapers to talk about the new casinos coming into the state. I have included links to a couple of the articles that resulted from his interviews. I am sure there will be more articles as the casinos get closer to actually opening and I'll keep posting information about them here.

Next step toward Ford Co. casino could be finished by late March

Gaming reps visit

Since we didn't spend much time together during the weekend, we had a babysitter on Sunday evening and caught a movie and dinner.

Cate and I baked some bread for one of our neighbors. It was so delicious that I had to post a couple of photos here. I am not particularly skilled at food photography, so these aren't terrific. But if you like banana bread and coconut, I am sure you will love this recipe. You can see the coconut on the top of the bread...it got all toasted and yummy. And the lime glaze on the top is fantastic. It's a litte sour and little sweet. Plus, it's a Cooking Light recipe, so it's pretty healthy!

Coconut Banana Bread with Lime Glaze
2 cups all-purpose flour (about 9 ounces)
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 bananas)
1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
3 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup flaked sweetened coconut
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon flaked sweetened coconut
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt, stirring with a whisk.

Place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add banana, yogurt, rum, and vanilla; beat until blended. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed just until moist. Stir in 1/2 cup coconut. Spoon batter into a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with 1 tablespoon coconut. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Combine powdered sugar and juice, stirring with a whisk; drizzle over warm bread. Cool completely on wire rack.

Yield: 1 loaf, 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

CALORIES 193 (21% from fat); FAT 4.6g (sat 2.8g,mono 1.1g,poly 0.3g); PROTEIN 2.9g; CHOLESTEROL 35mg; CALCIUM 15mg; SODIUM 179mg; FIBER 1.1g; IRON 1mg; CARBOHYDRATE 35g

Cooking Light, SEPTEMBER 2007

Cute Toddler Toes

Every parent knows there are lots of cute things about babies and toddlers. They've got sweet little fingers and hands, chubby thighs and cute toes. You know what I am talking about. They are so tiny and sweet -- it's just hard to resist. Toddlers also have the cutest little bellies. Cate insisted on running around without socks or shoes on Wednesday evening. Since it was a fairly warm day and evening, I didn't protest too much. Plus, I got a few picture of her little feet. I am savoring all these things because it won't be long before she isn't a toddler anymore. The time just flies by.

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone has a nice day on this Hallmark holiday. Cate was excited this morning because she got to wear a new outfit (courtesy in part from her cousin Quentin's Valentine's package) and there is a party at her day care this afternoon. We provided the napkins, plates and heart-shaped pink cookies for the party. Given the looks of things, Cate will be on a serious sugar high by the time I pick her up this afternoon. There were two other moms with cookies, plus fruit snacks, cheese, crackers, juice....the list goes on.

When I told her that there would be a party, she said, "For me?" She cracks me up.

Bubbles, Sesame Street and more

It seems like all we have been doing lately is working, but we have found some time to do a few fun things too. First of all, our Sesame Street Live experience was terrific. Stephen and I had a great time....and I think Cate liked it too. We had really good seats at the show, so it was easy for her to see. When the characters all came out, the look on her face was priceless. I really think she couldn't believe her eyes. There was a short intermission about halfway through and we got some popcorn and drinks. During the second half of the show, she was a little preoccupied with the popcorn, but she sang along to some of the songs and clapped her hands. Afterwards, we asked her what she wanted for dinner and she was very firm that she wanted pancakes. We found an IHOP and she ate five small pancakes. I guess she really wanted pancakes. All in all, it was a really fun evening.

We have not been able to do much outside because the weather has been just terrible. When it's not raining ice or snowing, it's freezing cold and windy. We've spent quite a few Saturday playing in the play area at the mall or just hanging out at home doing play doh, baking something and watching some Elmo on TV. There was one day back in January when it was fairly warm (although there was still snow on the ground) and we ventured out to blow some bubbles. I posted a few pictures here.

I'm still not feeling great, but at least we are past the halfway point on the pregnancy! Only 3 1/2 more months to go! We haven't made much progress on a name for this little guy, but Cate calls him Allie. We have no idea where she came up with that, but there are lots of things she says that are mysterious. One recent development that is cute and has us mystified: when she really wants something, she will beg "puleez" and then "pretty puleez." If that doesn't do the trick, she resorts to "puleez for the good Lord." The first time she said it, we kind of looked at each other as if to confirm that's what she really said. Not sure where she picked that one up, but I guess there are definitely worse things she could say.

I am still trying to figure out how to get Flickr to do what I want with photos. I have tried posting another slide show here. Click on the i in the middle of the slideshow to get captions.