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YUCK!

Tabby's new word for the day yesterday was “Yuck!” Why? you might ask. The evening went along well enough to start. Typical and all … nap, dinner, walk, Tabby went to bed, Matt and I cleaned up and retired to various leisure activities. Around 8:30, about an hour and a half after Tabby had gone to sleep, I heard crying and coughing over the monitor. I also heard Matt going up the stairs, so I let him. Within a few seconds he relayed that Tabby had puked all over the place. He brought her into our bathroom where I cleaned her up and he started on the mess in her room. Once we were done, we went into help.

Tabby, apparently feeling somewhat better after the event was fascinated by the mess. “Yuck,” I told her repeatedly, so she wouldn't touch it. She giggled and pointed at the mess and said “Yuck!” about 10 times. We got it all cleaned up and put her back to bed and didn't hear a peep from her all night.

Since Matt has more vacation than I do, he'll be staying with her today. I hope it was just an isolated upset tummy incident and not a bug … but I guess only time will tell. Today she'll learn a new word, “Brat” as in Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast. 😛

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Just Another Weekend

We had a really low-key weekend and I really had no idea how much I needed that. But for once, instead of feeling like I went to bed on Friday night and woke up to find it was Monday, I feel like we had a weekend … a nice one.

Friday we broke in the new Karaoke Revolution discs (American Idol) that Matt bought for my up-coming mom's group karaoke party. Kelly joined us and we enjoyed singing cheesy classics such as Total Eclipse of the Heart and My Heart Will Go On and my personal favorite, Copa Cabana.

Saturday morning was errands and housework. We had Holly and the kiddos over that evening for fun and cooking and the like. We made ricotta gnocchi and chocolate chip cookies and Matt and Holly finished her jewelry organizer.

Today was lots more housework, errands, a long walk, a nap (or two?) and a lot of fun family time. Tabby was in a pretty good mood most of the weekend, being funny and silly or wanting to be held and cuddled and read books.

It still went by too fast, but I think I might actually be ready to head back to work tomorrow. Wait… that's crazy talk.

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The Goings On

• Last night for the very first time, Tabby peed in the potty (incidentally, you know you're a mom when 3 exclamation points follow this statement)!!! She's been interested in all things bathroom for quite a while now and I picked her up her very own potty a while back which she'd sit on, sometimes with and sometimes without a diaper and last night she actually peed! Of course we made a huge deal about it.
• I picked up my platter last night. It turned out *so* cute. I'll have to post a photo or two of it sometime later this week.
• I can't believe September is almost over!! We've got out-of-town guests the first two weekends in October and we'll be away both weekends entertaining.
• We have not yet found a Halloween costume for Tabby … she liked a Little Red Riding Hood costume that we saw at Target, but they didn't have it in her size. I was pulling for the pirate girl, but the kid has a mind of her own (and it leans towards frilly and pink!).
• We did the nap thing again yesterday and it didn't work quite as well, but it was still an improvement over other days.
• Tabby now sees it as her daily duty to feed Loki. When we got home early yesterday and I denied her request to feed him, she about had a cow.
• Ugly Betty and The Office return tomorrow! Yay!!!
• Tabby's new words for the week: horsey (maybe this was last week), mouse, Loki, tacky (thanks Mom and Kelly), juice, potty
• Turns out Clay Aiken is gay … shocker.

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Seeeeee!!

Tabby's favorite thing right now, aside from running around like a crazy person, is to “see” what we are doing. Usually cooking things. Be it stirring or the rice cooker or whatever, she is always interested. This is cute but annoying, especially when we're making dinner. Chopping veggies is next to impossible when you're holding a squirming toddler.

Enter the Kitchen Helper. I felt like a dork spending $130 on it, but Matt said he couldn't make it for that much, so we went for it. It has been the best $130 spent EVER. Now we can make dinner happily with Tabby looking on and “helping.” There's a rail around the top, so she doesn't fall, and as she gets older it will be a great height for her to really get into the helping. This totally reads like a paid review, but it isn't and I really do love it … and so does Tabby.

Speaking of Tabby, I think I mentioned that she's been very cranky after she gets home from her sitter's lately. 2 hours of screaming and frustration (and eye rubbing) and then to bed at 7. So today we tried something new … I picked up Tabby early from her sitter's and we went home and had a nap together. We both enjoyed it and I was amazed at the improved mood she was in this evening. Happy, smiley, even FUN. Hopefully we can have a repeat performance once in a while anyhow.

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Fab Fall Weekend

We had a really nice weekend. It was too short, of course, but no complaints otherwise. Things progressed in pretty much the manner I predicted. My mom's pottery night was a fun event, even though our numbers had dwindled to three by the time the actual event occurred (we started with 9). I painted a platter with cocentric circles of multi-colored dots on the serving side and solid green on the back side. I have no idea what I'll do with it, but it's pretty – or I hope it will be, rather. The other two moms painted a votive candle holder with a ladybug on it and a light-up Halloween house. I'm excited to see what they all turn out like. Everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot and I think I'll schedule another event at a later date. I'd also like to take Tabby back to make some handprint or footprint pieces, possibly for the grandmas at Christmas. Wonder how that would work?

Tabby stayed at my mom's on Friday night so Matt could have shop time while I went out. So we picked her up on Saturday morning and took everyone to breakfast. The rest of the morning and afternoon were consumed with napping and errands. And the party for my cousin's 18th birthday was as nice as I knew it would be. Since I'm incredibly uncreative with gifts at the moment, he got the fab Lime in the Coconut shirt from Shirt.Woot.

Today we've hardly left the house except for a few walks around the neighborhood. It's been very warm, but we've kept things fall by watching football (the Broncos won, but we couldn't be too proud of it) and making apple butter with some of the bounty from our trip two weekends ago. The whole house smells awesome. Except for now it's mixed with the smells of buffalo chicken pizza, which is just a weee bit weird. But still yummy.

I'm still behind on email, haven't made a fall blog theme yet and want to post about 10 new recipes we've tried recently. But it is getting late and I have to do other things before bed … since work is tomorrow and all. Hope everyone had a good weekend.

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All Day Apple Butter

from: allrecipes.com

Ingredients
5 1/2 pounds apples – peeled, cored and finely chopped
4 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions
Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well.

Cover and cook on high 1 hour. Reduce heat to low and cook 9 to 11 hours, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown. Uncover and continue cooking on low 1 hour. Stir with a whisk, if desired, to increase smoothness.

Spoon the mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate or freeze.

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One of Those Weeks

I didn't do much better with the blog this week than last. It's just been one of those weeks. Work's been better, but home has been crazy.

Tabby, I can only figure, must be going through something, because she's been a mess this week, very grumpy in the evenings when I finally get to see her. We've had lots of screaming and grumping and you can just see how tired she is, even when she gets a nap. She's also been eating quite a bit again, so I'm thinking … growth spurt. But that's been a bit draining.

The only night she wasn't in a state was when we went to Supper Club. Our mom's group broke into a couple smaller groups to do supper club 1 night a month. Only 3/5 from our group were able to make it, but it was pretty fun and Tabby loved playing with the other kids.

As usual, our weekend is jam-packed. I have a paint-your-own pottery event tonight for my mom's group, which I planned, so hopefully that will go well. We've had a few drop out due to babysitter issues, but we should still have a nice small group. Then tomorrow night we're celebrating my cousin's 18th birthday with the family which should be a lot of fun. And in between there will be tons of laundry, some organizing, (hopefully) the fixing of our garage door and some football watching.

Have a good weekend.

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I ♥ Links

It's been ages since I've posted links … but I haven't stopped collecting them! For your enjoyment …

Misc
• HP Smart Web Printing stops you from wasting paper and ink on junk you don't need … check it out.
• Can't figure out how to describe this gadget … you'll just have to see for yourself.
• Check out PleaseDressMe, an Indie T'shirt search engine.
• more treehouses to love
• Deter would-be sandwich thieves with these clever moldy bags.
• Flump (presumably short for Flickr Dump) downloads your photos from Flickr – could come in handy if your hard drive disintigrates!
• check out these t'shirts encouraging our schools to teach the controversies in the world of science
• Possibly the cutest sticky-tabs ever!
• I'm always on the lookout for new good workout music: here's a list of the top 1000 workout tunes Continue reading “I ♥ Links”