Colin's Clubhouse

As it turns out, the best thing that you can do for a stir crazy toddler stuck in the house during a freezing rain storm is throw a sheet over the furniture and call it a fort. ;-) The weather here is all gloom and I am running at just about zero motivation at the moment. I was getting geared up to make homemade play dough for Colin thanks to a recipe from Kimberly, but I don't have cream of tartar and simply could not bring myself to bundle Colin up for a trip to the store in this weather. After trying everything entertaining under the sun, I finally tossed a giant sheet over the entertainment center and Colin thought it was the best thing EVER. He now has all of his trains and cars piled in that little corner "fort" and at the moment is trying to convince Enzo and Ferris to stay in there with him. Thank goodness for the little things!!

I have been doing lots of research lately and I believe that Colin will be starting a one day a week preschool class in the fall. There is a church just down the road from us that offers a wonderful preschool program with the option to attend on Mondays only from 9-2. This will be perfect for Colin...he will have just turned 3 and I think the experience will be crucial for him. He will have the chance to learn, play and socialize with other children, not to mention learn to listen to a teacher and not have me around. They run with the local school calendar and registration for next year is in a month! It is a good thing that I started looking early! We would have absolutely missed out on signing up. I am excited to think about Colin starting preschool, even just once a week. That sounds like such a big boy thing to do! :-)

Here is Colin coming out of his awesome fort. Yes, there is a giant train table where my coffee table used to be. Yes, my house is a huge playroom. ;-)

Inviting me into his clubhouse.

Look at this fine craftsmanship. hehehehe!

Is January Over YET?

GREETINGS! It has been a very rainy day here and as you can see from the photo above, we decided to end our boring indoor day with a little bit of chocolate fondue. It was just as messy as you can imagine, but Colin was in heaven. I got the brilliant idea from Jer's mom, who melted chocolate chips with a smidge of oil when we visited last weekend. When you melt them together, you get perfect fondue. We had a blast tonight dipping all sorts of fruits and pretzels in the melted chocolate goodness...what a fun evening!

Colin has continued his new schedule and not napped during the day in probably three weeks now. He goes to sleep between 7 and 7:30 and sleeps until 7:15am. With this new schedule, I am much stricter on bedtime...lights are OUT at 7:30. Colin is so exhausted that it is no problem...he is out like a light. Things have been going smoothly and I do love the free evenings with Jer. Colin has never even come close to sleeping for 12 hours straight before and I just love it. I will say that I am tired in my bones by the time 7pm rolls around, though. I don't have a single truly free moment during the day, so that is pretty taxing. However, the big nap time struggle that used to take up the entire middle of my day is now over and I like not having it hanging over my head. We can do whatever we want at whatever time...as long as we are home for our early evenings. I am hoping that when summer rolls around, the longer daylight hours will push his schedule later...maybe sleeping from 8:30 - 8:30 or something amazing like that. I don't know for sure if that will happen, but I hope so. It will seem very strange to call it a night at 7pm during the summer months! We shall see!

I should also note that I finally got my HORRIBLE New Year's Eve haircut fixed today...my amazing hairdresser Leslie is back in business after shoulder surgery and she fixed me up. She did have to take a lot of length off to salvage something, but it looks a THOUSAND times better and I feel like a new woman. Now I am off to grow it out...AGAIN.

New Adventures

Our little vacation weekend continued yesterday and we kept up our local road trip. We left the house early in order to take Colin to the park before the rain started. It was scheduled to be a dreary day, so we knew that we needed to act quickly if Colin was going to get outdoor playtime. The rain started sooner than we expected, so we ended up back in the car and searching for something to do with Colin at 10:30am on a rain soaked Saturday morning. We were in Roanoke, so we found ourselves circling the new (and beautifully constructed) Oak Street in the center of town. We spotted The Book Carriage, a fairly new bookstore and coffee shop that I have been dying to visit, but keep forgetting about. We parked and ran inside...and ended up walking into my idea of heaven. The giant doors of the two story brick building opened up into my favorite thing on earth...an independent book store. It smelled of coffee and books and home. It was warm and cozy, filled with book displays and a children's corner stacked with new books, cowboy hats and princess wands. I was overcome by the sensation that I was inside The Shop Around the Corner from "You've Got Mail". The owners and employees were milling around working on various things with reading glasses perched on their noses and a sweet young girl was manning a very impressive coffee bar. We ordered coffees and a chocolate drink for Colin and began investigating every corner of the store. Colin played checkers on a big floor mat and found a bin of maracas. The back wall has books all the way to the top with one of those heavy wood ladders attached to the floor...if I could design my dream library at home, it would have looked exactly like this place. The owners talked to Colin and patted him on the head several times while updating us on the events they host. They have live music every Saturday night and two different story times for kiddos. I kept closing my eyes and taking deep breaths while wondering if I could live on their second story. We bought a giant "Where's Waldo" book for Jer and Colin to play with and finally forced ourselves to go...but I could have stayed all day long. I hope they make it....I can't imagine a place like that turning much of a profit in the days of Barnes and Noble, but what a JOY it was. I promised myself that I would buy a book there whenever possible in support of their mission. They have a big patio that I can't wait to park myself at when spring arrives and as soon as Colin can manage to stay awake past 7pm, we will be going to the live shows. It was the absolute perfect way to spend a rainy Saturday morning and I can't WAIT to go back!!!

After our wonderful visit, we decided to head over to Arlington for another much anticipated treat...lunch at Prince Lebanese Grill. We are big fans of the show "Diners, Drive-In's and Dives" on Food Network and we will always go check out local places that we see featured on the show. We saw an episode last week about Prince and Jer was beside himself to go...he has been craving Mediterranean food as of late. We made the trek over and it was absolutely AMAZING. It is hard to put into words how fantastic this place was. It absolutely fit the bill of "dive" and the food was out of this world. Colin and I shared the Hummus Mah Lahme with Beef Shawarma and it was INSANE! Jer ordered the Gyro Plate and we all shared Falafel as an appetizer. Colin ate a ton and was quiet the whole time! You know the food was good if Colin was persuaded to sit still and eat! ;-) I can honestly say that I don't remember the last time that I ate something so incredibly delicious and it is all I can do not to go back right now! What a wonderful find!!!

It was a fantastic day and Colin still managed to stay awake throughout the day with no nap...another 7pm bedtime for him. I am not sure if he will keep this up, but at least it leaves our days open for fun, even if our nights are now cut pretty short!

The Cooking Blog!

Here we go! I just started my cooking blog tonight and it is under major construction at the moment. I just got my first little introductory post written and I will hopefully have the first "cooking" post up tomorrow. So come on over to "See Chalna Cook!". :-)

Walking in the Woods!

Jer's trip got cancelled right before he was scheduled to airline over to London. There was a mechanical on the airplane when it landed in Zurich, so Jer's portion of the trip had to be taken over by another operator. The good news is that we now have an impromptu four day vacation with Daddy! We decided to celebrate the time together by spending the afternoon exploring a new place; the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge. The preserve is only about 30 minutes from the house and is MASSIVE. We shared lunch beforehand and then headed over for our walk. Colin did great and seemed to be most impressed with the large selection of rocks on the trail, as well as the centipede that we managed to cross paths with. They have a little visitors center that was full of turtles, snakes and even a precious little prairie dog! We also managed to to catch feeding time for their two owls, who were each handed a giant mouse to eat...it was really cool!! It was a good first hike for Colin and I think he is going to be a great outdoorsman just like his Daddy. I am always thankful for the random warm winter weeks that we experience here in Texas. Just when you think that winter is swallowing you up, the sun comes out and things heat up for a few days.


The time has come to truly say goodbye to a daily scheduled nap. I knew that Colin would grow out of it, but I am still shocked by how fast the time seemed to come. The progression is all but complete at this point. For the past week, he has not napped at all and gone to bed at 7:00pm. This is both good and bad at the same time. The great part is obviously a full evening alone with my husband. We get to talk, watch grown-up television and relax. It can't be understated how fabulous this is. The bad part is that by going to bed so early, we can't really do much in the way of evening activities. The hours of 5 to 7pm are spent carefully making sure that Colin stays awake long enough to go to sleep for the night rather than a very late nap. This is not a big deal right now...with short winter days, we are not trying to do much in the way of evening activities anyway. He sleeps for over 12 hours...still waking up at his classic 7:15am. That is wonderful. He even tells me that he is ready for bed (Mommy, I got the sleepies!). I can tell that he is happy with this new schedule because he won't even fall asleep in the car anymore. I thought for sure that he would doze off in the car after our hike today...usually his prime car nap time after a lot of activity to wear him out. He did not even LOOK tired once and made it all the way home with not even a drooping eyelid. That tells me that he is truly ready to stay awake during the day and just go down earlier for a long night. I know that there will probably be exceptions to this rule and that he will nap on occasion, but I think we are done for the most part. There is always something new going on around here, that is for sure!!

Here are some pictures from our afternoon:

This is the trail that we hiked today...it was BEAUTIFUL!


Our little family during the hike...I love Colin in this shot! (I don't love ME in this picture, but I have some pretty handsome men, eh?)

Colin was not exactly thrilled to stop and take a picture with Mommy.

The champion hiker! He loved it!!

One of my all-time favorite shots of my boys!!!!

A Jumble of Stuff

Let's talk tidbits!

*I made Tres Leches Cake yesterday and it is far and away the best dessert that I have ever made. I don't bake that much because it usually takes a bit more time and effort than I can afford with a two year old running around, but this cake was so amazing that I may have to do it again tomorrow. :-) The out of control cooking continues.

*I am going to start the food blog. I don't know that I will try to make anything "professional" out of it...it will be just like this blog, at least for now. I don't want to clog up this blog (which is for Colin to look back on) with cooking talk, but I do want to write about my cooking expeditions. I will also be able to catalog what I cook and then have the recipes all in one place, which will be great for me. As it stands now, my house is brimming with recipes on printer paper, pages cut out of magazines, cookbooks and grease stained napkins...all with random recipes. I cook so much that favorite recipes tend to get lost in all the mess. Jer noted that I need a place to keep recipes that we love so that I don't forget to revisit them. This will do the trick. I will post the link when I get it up and running!

*Colin continues to have strange tastes for a two year old. His new favorite thing is my hot tea that I drink in the mornings. It has gotten to the point that I brew a mug for each of us! I let his stand until it is lukewarm and then serve it in his cup, per his request. :-) I laugh every time I hear him say, "Mommy, you got hot tea for me?". Who knew? He also has taken to eating grape tomatoes by the truckload. However, make him a grilled cheese or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and he turns up his nose. Cooking for Colin has it's interesting moments, to say the least!

*The weather has turned around again here and it has been warm all week. Colin has spent a good deal of time outside with us and it is so wonderful! We spent Saturday morning out walking the trails around Town Center and even brought Enzo. Colin loves to hold his leash and it never fails to make him seem like such a big boy.

There is not much else to report at the moment. Jer has another trip coming up, this one to Pisa. As in "The Leaning Tower of". Again, if anyone needs me, I will be here watching Nickelodeon. hehe! I tease, but I am truly grateful for a husband who works so hard for us. These trips he takes are on top of his regular job, so he sacrifices his vacation time in order to fly the extra trips. I am incredibly thankful to be married to a man who is so wonderful...he is not only willing to work overtime, but he is such a brilliant pilot that lots of people want him to work for them. Jer values the fact that I stay home to raise Colin and works so hard to allow that luxury for our family. He is always the first person to point out how much work it is to be the full time parent and his constant support is what keeps me going when the mommy trenches get tough. Thank you, husband! We love you so much! (even if you do keep going to Europe without me!) :-)

A few pictures to leave with...Daddy's future co-pilot!

My precious bathtime baby!

On Food and Passion...and food.

I can't stop cooking. The above two pictures are from yesterday...potatoes au gratin and garlic thyme cast iron chicken. Not pictured is the tomato basil soup that I concocted for dinner out of pantry ingredients or the roasted potato leek soup that is sitting on the stove now, which is dinner tonight. I am out of control. Reading about cooking, scouring food blogs and watching Food Network has become a giant part of my life. Three years ago, I didn't cook ANYTHING. Now it consumes me and I would seriously consider it a passion. I have always loved eating...finding amazing food is probably one of my favorite pastimes...but I never made it myself until I left work. It is strange how life happens and sends you in different directions. I have been toying with the idea of writing my own food blog...something along the lines of me being an ordinary mom trying out recipes I find during all of my digging around and then posting about how they turn out, if I recommend them and how easy they are to accomplish with a toddler in tow. I am on the fence about it because there are a LOT of food blogs out there. Not to mention that taking pictures of food is a lot harder than it looks (those pictures are horrible) and I really need a good camera if I plan to get serious about a real blog. I plan to think on it. Writing, food and making people happy are my favorite things in the world...I wonder if it is possible to combine all of that into something. We shall see.

The soup frenzy is thanks to my husband, who purchased me a lovely handheld immersion blender a few days ago. I have no idea why I did not have one before...it is HEAVEN. It turns making homemade soup into the easiest thing in the world and the results are to die for. I have made several soups before, but they are few and far between because they involve me hefting out the big blender to puree and that is a giant pain. This little handheld is very powerful and it is far and away my favorite new toy. Jer had a late night last night and grabbed a bowl of the tomato soup when he got home. As he was raving about it, he looked over at me very seriously and said "Potato Leek". It was hysterical! Dinner tonight was born. I am pretty sure the only reason that I am blogging now is because I am trying to keep busy in order not to eat it all!