For Her Own Good

They say good fences make good neighbors. That may be true, but put a fence (aka: baby gate) in your house to keep a child out of something and you've just made an enemy for life.

Over the past month or so Jessi has been sharpening her climbing skills. Some time ago she learned how to climb the dinning room chairs at my mom's house and get on the table. Shortly after that discovery she tried it here at our house.

Inevitably I'd pluck her off the table or she'd fall trying to get down herself. After several tumbles I decided to put the chairs on top of the table to keep her from climbing and getting hurt.

Well, you can imagine how inconvenient that made things for us when it was meal time. So, I scoured the Internet searching for a gate to fit into the 5 1/2 ft wide entryway between the dinning room and living room. I spent an entire day looking.

I FINALLY found one that looked like it would work. So, I went to several store websites and no one had what I was looking for in stock. I googled the company and found their website. I called the contact number and explained what I was looking for. The woman on the phone told me which style of gate they made would work for what I needed. She also told me which online stores carried their pieces. I ordered the main gate w/door from Walmart.com and the extension piece from Target.com.

Within a few days both gate pieces were delivered and I joyfully installed the gate. I was so tickled with it I took a picture with my cell phone and sent it to my husband to show him.

Jessi and John on the other hand weren't nearly as pleased with it as I was. John and Jessi cried and cried and cried. Within 2 days John figured out how to work the gate latch. I wasn't that concerned about it. The main reason for the gate is to keep Jessi out of the dinning room and kitchen so her inquisitiveness for the world around her doesn't get her hurt anymore.

Everyday since the gate's been installed Jessi has pitched a fit of sort when I've gone into the dinning room and left her in the living room. Can you tell she's crying at the gate in the picture above?

Despite her dislike of the gate, I love it and think it was worth every penny. When she's all grown up and I tell her about the 'evil baby gate' she used to cry at everyday, she'll appreciate the lengths I went to in order to keep her safe from herself. Hopefully.

Makin' It All Better

This morning, shortly before Jessi went down for her nap, John threw a fit. I wouldn't turn on the TV in my room for him so he decided to run into my room and repeatedly open and slam the door. All the while screaming.

Par for the course around here. Whenever John doesn't get his way he throws a fit. Screaming and being destructive. (still attributing much of the tantrums to our lack of communication because his talking is still not that good. He's made a LOT of progress w/ speech therapy, but he's still not talking in many understandable words or sentences yet)

Jessi toddled down the hallway to check out John's tantrum and tried to go in my room while the door was open before being slammed shut. She got her hand in there and John shut the door on her pinkie finger. She began crying from the pain and I ran down the hallway to free her finger.

Now, typically, if John has done something that causes injury to baby, he runs and "hides". Not this time. He was still standing behind the door when I opened it to free baby's finger. The door hit him right in the face. He began crying.

So, now I have 2 injured children. I already had Jessi in my arms when John started crying from his "mommy induced" injury. I called for him to follow me as I brought Jessi into the living room to comfort her in one arm and comfort John in my other arm. I put them both down and went to the kitchen to get John's "Booboo Lightening" and he put it on his lip (which was a little bloody and swollen). I got Jessi's "Booboo Pooh" and she held it in her hand. As soon as they had their "booboo buddies" they stopped crying.

I felt SOOO bad about John's lip. I almost burst into tears myself. I felt like a horrible mother. Who does that?!?! Apparently I do.

After a few minutes pass I collected "Booboo Lightening" and "Booboo Pooh" and put them back in the freezer and life went on. Both John and Jessi are fine and you wouldn't know they were even hurt. I'm sure they've forgotten about it all by now, but it's still lingering in my mind. I keep playing it over and over in my mind.

Maybe that's just part of being a parent.

Snowed In

No one likes to admit when they're wrong. I'm no better.

The week before Christmas a foot and a half of snow fell. I remember Charlie saying "This is gonna be a really bad winter". I said "Nah, I doubt it".

All week the weathermen had been telling us a major snow storm was coming and would arrive by Friday (yesterday). Everyday I kept saying "It's not gonna be as bad as they're predicting". Thursday, late afternoon/early evening Tabytha's school called to say that school would close early in anticipation of the impending snow storm that was to hit us Friday afternoon. I waved it off and thought it was silly to close school early. It wasn't gonna be that bad.

I was wrong. (there, I said it)

We woke up this morning to find nearly 2 feet of snow had fallen overnight. Charlie got started shoveling around 8:30am. The snow continued to fall as Charlie was working to clear a path to the front door and dig out the car and his tow truck. When he was half way down the driveway the front porch and sidewalk were buried again under a fresh blanket of snow. The wind was blowing and the snow continued to fall.

According to the weather reports we're suppose to see up to 8 more inches of snow by midnight, bringing our grand total to almost 3 feet of snow in two days.

This 'blizzard' may top all the previous MD records. Ever.

Good Food Bringing Family Together

Yesterday was a snow day and schools were closed. I packed up the kids and went to my mom's house for the day. When we got there Tabytha, Hannah and John went out back to play in the snow. Jessi was in the living room playing with toys and Bethany was working on a report for school.

When I called mom in the morning before we left she said she was making spaghetti and homemade meat sauce for dinner

Perfect!!! I wanted to try out an Asiago and Herb bread recipe I got from a friend and it would go great with spaghetti. I've never made bread before so I was a little nervous.

Not because it was a difficult recipe, but because I'm not the best when it comes to baking. Sure, I can cook and my family isn't whithering away to nothing, but when it comes to baking, I'm just not that good. I usually resort to boxed cake mix and canned frosting.

I felt a little more confident making bread for the first time at my mom's house because she's a great cook and has made lots of bread in the past. Whatever questions I might have I knew she'd be able to answer.

We gathered all the ingredients and got started. I grated the cheese and mom chopped the rosemary. All the ingredients went into the mixer bowl. I started the mixer and slowly poured the water and watched as the dough formed in the bowl.

Once it was mixed and kneaded I drizzled olive oil over the dough and mom covered the bowl and set it in the oven to rise. 20 minutes later I took it out, punched it down and divided it into two balls of dough.

Following the last steps of the directions I put the dough into the oven and 40 minutes later the bread came out perfect!!! It looked just like the picture and the house smelled incredible!!! Bethany had taken her dog out for a walk while the bread was in the oven and when she came home the first thing she did when she stepped into the house was take a huge sniff of the air and say how good the bread smelled. If there was a way to send the fragrant aroma of the Asiago Herb bread through the picture I posted on this blog, you'd be drooling over it, too, lol!!!

The bread paired perfectly with mom's spaghetti and homemade meat sauce. We joked about having a little piece of Italy right there at my mom's house. It was a great day of family and good food.