2 BIG days

Here are the BIG events that took place over the past 2 days.

1. Eva FINALLY decided to walk. She has had the ability to walk for a couple months now, but has been too stubborn to let us see her. She would cruise around with her little walker, taking a few steps now and then, with impeccable balance--but she wouldn't just walk. It got to the point where it became a power struggle between us. I knew she could do it and refused to carry her (plus my back is increasingly hurting as by belly increasingly grows), and she refused to do it and threw a screaming fit every time I set her down. Well, not anymore. Sunday afternoon after church, she started walking back and forth between Andrew and me. About 10 steps or so. Yesterday we went to the park about 7 blocks away. She pretty much walked the whole way there, did laps around it for 30 minutes, and walked home without falling more than once. Stubborn? Yes. Are we glad she finally gave in? HECK yes.







2. Eva peed on the potty this morning. She didn't really mean to and still doesn't know what she did, but we were ecstatic nonetheless. (And for any of you who have negative things to say about me introducing the potty to my one-year old, please keep them to yourself. My mom is negative enough about my "radical" parenting techniques for the rest of the world combined.) After just 3 days of trying out this Elimination Communication method**, I am feeling pretty good.

3. After my "cooking mood" came back in full swing and after begging Andrew for a couple days, I made these DELICIOUS apple dumplings from the Pioneer Woman's recipe. They were better than I could have hoped. Try them. Eat them. You will NOT be sorry.

4. My addiction to nosespray continues strong. I discovered this miracle drug while staying with Andrew's parents last week in Farmington, NM., a.k.a. Allergy Capital of the World. Especially for someone like me, who waking up in the morning is enough to bring on a snot attack, I was miserable. Until I tried nosespray. Literally the best $1.50 I ever spent. If you are suffering from allergies or are pregnant and have the constant stuffy nose, sniff it up, friends.

5. I am still plugging away working on my "90 Days of Dinner" project. I can't remember if I have mentioned this before--I got the genius idea from my good friend Leah. Being one who can't stand the thought of making the same meal more than once a month, this idea really resonated with me. I am collecting 90 of our favorite meals to be rotated 4 times a year. I'm working on compiling my favorites (using http://www.tastebook.com/) and it's been tons of fun. Of course, I like reading recipes more than most normal people, so it may just be fun for me. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those ambitious people who will post my weekly menu for others to benefit from--I just don't want to put in that much effort. But maybe if I'm feeling generous and hard-working, I will occasionally share a stupendous recipe I find. (See above link to apple dumplings. Side note: where did the term dumplings come from? Does it really mean "little dumps"? Hmm.)

6. I had a nightmare last night. Not your typical kind where someone is trying to kill me. It was worse. My baby was born, and I DIDN'T LIKE HIM. He was huge--like in the neighborhood of 25 pounds--and ugly and I didn't like him. The closer his birth gets, the more worried I get about mothering 2 children. Will I really like him as much as I like Eva? Is that even possible? Can he be even half as cute as she is? Will he be a good baby like she was? It isn't fair to bring him into the world with the expectation that he live up to his sister, I know that. But really, I can't help it. She is all I know in the parenting world, and the thought of throwing a curveball in that makes me shudder. I hate bad, weird dreams. To end the dream, I went to Papa Johns a few hours after getting birth to get Andrew a hot dog. The owner of the store was Dr. Pelegrino, our pediatrician here. He made me wait for hours and fill out all this paperwork to get the hotdog and I didn't mind because I didn't want to go back home to my huge, ugly baby boy. Oh man.

7. We rented the Bee Movie the other day, and it was way cute. If you haven't seen it, you should rent it. From Redbox, the best source for entertainment there is. Blockbuster is SO last year.

**Here is the link to the book that talks about this "potty training" method. Check it out if you're interested.

A new kind of soup...

There have been a few times since I have met Andrew that he has made me cry--always accidentally, due to his naturally insensitive nature. But there have been many, MANY times that he has made me cry because I am laughing so hard that tears are streaming down my face. And one of those times was tonight at dinner. I had made Ugly Chicken, one of our favorites. (I will include the full recipe below for those who are interested.) As we were sitting there eating, Andrew says out of the blue, "How would you feel looking down from heaven and seeing yourself being cooked and eaten with cream cheese, Italian seasoning, and cream of chicken? Or cream of human." After a few seconds, I registered what he had said. CREAM OF HUMAN? Where did he come up with that? Even as I type this, I have to keep stopping because laughter is overtaking my body. What a weirdo I married. I love it.

Ugly Chicken

1 package cream cheese
1 packet Italian seasoning
1 can cream of chicken soup
Enough chicken to feed your family--we do about 6 tenders, give or take--this recipe is very forgiving

Mix all ingredients in a crock pot and cook on low 6-8 hours or on high 4-6 hours. Serve over rice.

Tips: I mix everything but the chicken in a bowl beforehand so that it doesn't turn out clumpy. I also grease the crock pot in case the bottom feels inclined to burn.

New crisis in the Webb household

I'm back. Again. Due to the traveling, my blogposts have been sporadic. But now that we're back home again, I'll be better. At least for another 2 weeks, until we move. WHAT? 2 WEEKS?? That's it? I know, I'm freaking out in my mind a little. I am excited to move on, but in another way I feel like we just got here!
Speaking of freaking out, that's what Eva's personality has been doing. After getting home, I realized that we had a serious problem with her. She has always been a good baby. But it seems that after her first birthday, this alter ego took over her brain and she has turned into a spoiled little brat. A cute one, of course, but a brat nonetheless. Possibly due to all the attention from well-meaning family members? I think so. After talking about it with Andrew the last couple of days, we decided something had to be done. We were miserable with her tantrum crying self, and she clearly hasn't been very happy either. We went to the library yesterday and checked out "The Happiest Toddler on the Block" (which turned out to be one of the stupidest books ever--don't read it) and "Raising a Happy, Unspoiled Child: How Parents can be both firm and loving and help their baby develop into a secure and well-adjusted child." Quite the title, I know--but so far the book has been fairly enlightening for me and I have determined some changes that are being made, starting this morning.
Part of me says, "Take it easy on her--there will be a new baby here soon and she'll get alot less attention. Let her live it up now." But then logic kicks in, and I think of how miserable all of us will be when that transition actually happens. So.
Last night while laying in bed I said to Andrew (this may be blasphemous, but it's true, I actually said this), "People say that every question you have in life can be answered by the scriptures, but I don't know if that's true. Because there are certainly no answers on how to remedy one-year old temper tantrums." That may show a lack of faith or scriptural knowledge on my part, but there is it. So if any of you have in fact found an answer to this particular problem in the scriptures, PLEASE let me know. I am very open to suggestions, and we need help.

Time for a change

I have been trying to grow my hair out for a while now. My reasons are:

-To be able to throw it in a pony tail without blow-drying it
-Easy summer hair--get out of the pool and lounge around with no weird curl things around my face
-I swore to myself when Eva was born that the next time I was in labor I would be able to put my hair in a ponytail.
-To look like Melanie Wilson, Elizabeth Kartchner, Mandy Moore, and other long-haired beauties
-To see if I could do it

I am never very successful with doing this because I get too antsy to cut it. I did it for my wedding, and a few months later I chopped it off again. I HATE the middle phase (where I am right now) and no matter how much I look at girls with beautiful long hair and try to convince myself that with a little more patience I could be them, I still want to cut it.

My itch for a new hairstyle has only increased with my new-found access to television. Everyone on television is pretty and it makes me want to be cuter. (Another reason I will never have cable in my own house. Of course, that doesn't stop me from taking advantage of it at my parents' house or in hotels.) So...I am cutting my hair today.

My increasing size makes me feel increasingly less attractive, so I really NEED something new and fresh and cute about myself. So at 1:45pm I am heading to a salon for an appointment with my Mom's hairdresser, a Chinese woman named Trang. I hope she speaks English enough for me to tell her my stipulations--no A-line cuts, and no short bangs. I do have a picture to show her,

so hopefully that will make the communication process easier. And yes, when I achieve the above hairstyle, I will definitely walk around with that sexy "come hither" look on my face, permanently. The new me: seductive, cute-haired, and pregnant. Pictures to follow.

Homeowners, reunited with Eva, and new vampire fan

I'm back. I'm not home yet--this is the trip that never ends--but I am back in my parents' house. With my Eva girl. Last week I left her to go meet Andrew in Washington for a "house hunting" trip. Even though there was no hunting involved because we had already decided we were going to build. But what do you call that kind of a trip? A "detail finalizing" trip? No. Anyway. It was so fun to be with Andrew, and we got a lot done. We are homeowners! Well, officially. Of course our home doesn't yet exist, but it will by the time we move there, we hope. And we know exactly what countertops, carpet, paint color, light fixtures, front doors, dishwasher, and every other last little detail that will be waiting for us inside. It was a blast. Sorry to not post any pictures--they are on my laptop and I can't get them off. Anyway. The trip was great except for one thing. I missed Eva like CRAZY. Long distance dating was a piece of cake compared to this. Saying good night and watching Andrew walk to his car while being engaged and thinking I was going to die during the long 12 hours until I saw him again? Child's play. Separation from my child was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Every couple hours I would say to Andrew, "I miss Missy." Every time her crinkly nose smile would come in my head, every time I opened my cell phone and saw her face looking back at me from my screensaver, every time I saw any other mother with their child, I said those words. The worst it got was 3 days into the trip (also 3 days from coming home) when we were in a store looking at washers and dryers. I sat on a bunkbed mattress to rest my aching feet and started missing Eva worse than ever. I actually started crying. Andrew came over a minute later and I told him tearfully, "I miss Missy!" and he hugged me and said he did too. I felt like an idiot, shedding tears over machinery (that's probably what it looked like to passersby), but I didn't care. When I finally got home a little past midnight on Thursday night, I raced up to the room to look at sleeping Eva. I cried with relief to be back with her again. I think it will be a while before I leave her again. Not that I won't do it again--I definitely will. It's good for me every once in a while. But not for a long while.
So now that I'm back with Eva, I'm resigned to missing Andrew. He is stuck in a hotel in Spokane with NOTHING to do until his training starts on Thursday. He's bored out of his mind and I'm pretty bored too. Why is it that when planning a trip to my parents' house I never take into account how quickly I am ready to go back home? I always seem to forget that when I leave. Don't get my wrong, I love my family and it's fun to see them, but...I'm just really grateful that I don't live here for good anymore. :)
On a different note, I have just finished the Twilight series. I had been saving the first one for my plane ride to Washington. I started it at my gate waiting for my plane and finished it before we landed at SeaTac about 9 hours later. I bought the second book for my plane ride home, and the third one I started this morning and finished about an hour ago. To say the least, I completely devoured them (vampires on the brain...). They were easy reading and I was in need of some entertainment and a good story. I won't say they are my favorite books I've ever read. For some reason I am slightly offended that Bella thinks she would rather DIE than be apart from Edward, when here I am apart from my one true love and I'm breathing just fine. Of course there is some fairy tale aspect to the story that makes it romantic, but I think I love Andrew just as much as Bella loves Edward. And I never had a backup plan, and I never hesitated to marry him. So there, Bella. But aside from that, it was enjoyable. Oh, and I also HATE when authors use the cheap trick of not really ending the book so that you don't know the whole story until you read the next one, which of course won't come out for months. But that cheap trick does work, even on harsh critics like me. So if you're looking for a good page turner with a really good, imaginative story, read Twilight. And New Moon, and Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer. You can borrow mine.
One last thing--a two hour time difference should NOT wreak this much havoc on my sleeping cycles. Since Andrew is still 2 hours behind me, I have to stay up late to talk to him and then Eva gets up early, and I'm TIRED. As soon as this dumb basketball game that Andrew is watching is over and he calls me back, I'm going to bed. Where my hyperactive unborn child will wake me up several times from his hard kicking. Eva was never this bad. It must be a boy thing.

Happy Birthday Eva!

I can't believe my baby is one year old. Actually, one year and 3 days now. Where did the time go? These past couple days being with just the two of us and no daddy, I have come to love her even more than before. I just love to watch her and all the funny things she does. She smiles this insanely adorable smile with her four teeth showing and her nose all crinkled--it makes me want to eat her up every time she does it. Already she is beautiful and funny and smart...I'm sure all of those qualities will only get more pronounced as she gets older. But she really amazes me. I love her with my whole entire heart!

She had a great birthday on Easter Sunday. She wore her adorable new dress from Mammy and looked like a little princess. She got WAY too many presents and wasn't interested in opening them at all. So I helped her. She did like her new books though, and looked through those for a little bit. She just loves books, and that makes me so happy.

Why is it so impossible to get a good picture on important days? She was NOT interested in posing at all. As you can tell. At least I got a picture that demonstrates a real part of her personality. :)

We made her a birthday cake and she LOVED it. She chewed on her number 1 candle too and ate the burnt part of the wick. Gross.

Happy birthday, Eva!

Long day

We made it to Houston. I am exhausted. I need to write about our wonderful Easter/Eva's birthday, but...not tonight. Just popping in to say I'm here and our almost month-long vacation has officially begun.

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning the primary had an activity that we took the liberty of attending because of my calling as primary chorister. It was a pancake breakfast and an Easter egg hunt. I ate too much greasy sausage (gross) but we had a fun time talking with friends while sitting on the miniature plastic chairs. Eva found one egg, and she was very proud of herself.

She shook it but never seemed interested in opening it.



On a separate note, one year ago today (3 hours from now) I went into the hospital to begin the process of induction. How crappy I felt then, and how happy I was to finally be on the verge of giving birth. And how happy I am now to be a year past that horrible time! Unbelievable that here I sit, pregnant again. I know most people think I'm crazy. And maybe I am, a little. :) But I am happy to report that I weigh about 50 lbs. less than this day last year, I can still wear my wedding ring and all my shoes, and I don't feel like a cow. Yet. So I'm feeling pretty dang good.

St. Patrick's Day

At the bowling alley on base it was $.50 for anyone wearing green for St. Patrick's day. So after a pretty boring day, we decided to don green and head to the lanes. Andrew surprised me by wearing his Napoleon Dynamite "I'm training to be a cage fighter" shirt that he bought when we were dating. It's too small and pretty tight, and he looks totally hot in it. I didn't know he was wearing it until he took off his jacket at the bowling alley, and I just had to laugh.

Eva was sporting green pants and a green onesie, just for good measure. Totally didn't match, but she still looked cute. We kept our streak of horrible bowling. We used to be pretty good, for a while. Alas, the only thing we are consistent at in the sport of bowling is inconsistency. Every time. But we had fun.

Book review and more

I finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I liked it. I don't know if the timing was right for me to read this book as it didn't really "speak to me" as I had hoped it would. The story was set in the post-apocalyptic world, from what I understand, and it was about a father and son who are almost the last people on earth. The world is dismal and gray and rather depressing, and although I was touched by the father-son relationship, I think it wasn't the book for me to read at this point in my life. I was hoping for something a little more uplifting. Trevor would be disappointed in my review, but...there it is. I'm not UNrecommending it. It was a great book, and I will probably revisit it again in the future.
I have now started One Hundred Years of Solitude and am 2 pages into it. I like it so far--more info on that to come.
Tonight we had one of our old friends over for dinner, Matt Lohmeier. It was nice to have someone over because it forced me to cook a nice meal on a weeknight. Something I should probably do more often. But we had a good time talking with him.
Great weather today. I found a CUTE pattern for headbands on Elizabeth Kartchner's blog (her link is on the left) and had to run to the quilt shop in Hennessy to get some fat quarters to make headbands. Originally I had intended on making them as gifts, but the fabric is so cute, I just might keep them for myself.
Playgroup was at Leah's house and she made a DELICIOUS pork polente, I think it's called. Yum. I am really going to miss my friends here--that is the worst thing about moving. Thank heavens for blogs--we can all keep track of each other as long as we live. Or at least as long as the internet lasts.

Losing my mind.

Being a mother is the best thing I have ever done. With that said, allow me to complain about one negative aspect of motherhood. I have gotten DUMBER. I realized this the other day when I was in the mood for a good book. I was browsing through my bookshelf and nothing looked appealing. I saw my favorite book ever, Pride and Prejudice. I HATE to admit this, but the thought ACTUALLY came into my head, "No, I don't feel like reading something that requires that much thought." Immediately after thinking that, I was struck with the realization of my diminishing intelligence.

Back in college, as an ENGLISH LITERATURE MAJOR, mind you, I absolutely loved to read. I read tons of books, all the time. And now I have gotten to the point where a Jane Austen novel is just too much work. Not that motherhood is directly responsible for this--Eva does not require so much of me that I simply don't have time to read. It's just that I have chosen to do other things for so long that I've completely gotten out of the habit of exercising my mind.
Overwhelmed with shame, I set out looking for a good book to read that would get me back in reading mode. At this exact same time, I reestablished contact with my best friend from college, Trevor Berrett. Let it be known that Trevor probably had more influence on me in college than any other living person, and I trust his opinion on all things literary more than anyone else I know. We lost touch years ago and have both since gotten married and had a child and one on the way. Thanks to the power of Facebook, we are officially friends again. :) On his Facebook profile, he has a list of his favorite books. As in the past, I was suddenly compelled to read anything he recommended (much to the chagrin of my dear husband, who was insulted that I have not yet read a book he recommended, despite my attempt at kindly explaining to him that Trevor's recommendations are in a whole different category).

So yesterday at Walmart I found The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I started reading that. But my thirst for books was not quite satisfied, so I went to the library today to pick up three more off Trevor's list: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I also bought the movie of the latter, as that was also on Trevor's list of favorite movies.

Hopefully, thanks to Trevor's accidental help, I am on my way to restoring my full mental capacity. No more living in ignorance for me. With just a little effort, I will soon be able to say once again, in full honesty, that Pride and Prejudice really is still my favorite book. And it's not over my "motherly" head.

P.S. I must clarify that I do not worship Trevor as some sort of English major god. After our long friendship, I simply came to trust his judgment on things like this. :)

Big girl carseat

We have reached a milestone in Eva's life. Yesterday we moved her to her forward facing carseat. I know, she's not 1 yet (7 more days until she is!), but we were just so excited that we couldn't wait anymore.

She seemed a little confused at first, but soon got used to being able to see us. We both kept pulling down our mirrors to look at her. I think we were more excited about being able to see her than she was to be able to see us!

She chattered away (sometimes I think she's trying to sing with the funny sounds she makes!) and we had a good drive down there. We took a little excursion to OKC to go to Target. Man, I love that store. We got a Baby Einstein movie and a cute outfit for Eva's birthday. I think we've officially bought her too many birthday presents, but it's just so nice to have a good reason to spoil her. :)

She was a little terror for most of the day because she wouldn't fall asleep. We have been working all last week on moving her to one nap a day, but a full day with no nap at all--NO FUN. For anyone. Including everyone else in the store.

We finally gave up and left to go home around 4pm. And within 5 minutes of driving, she was fast asleep. Little punk. At least she's a cute punk. :)

We stopped for dinner in this small little Mexican restaurant in Hennessy. At first glance I said, "No way," but after gathering my courage and telling myself if it was THAT bad I could just at the chips and salsa, we ventured in. I probably wouldn't take the time to go back, but it wasn't too bad. We were pleasantly surprised. And I didn't have to make dinner, so that was even better.

After playing with Eva and letting her watch her new movie (I think we were more into it than her), we put her down and spent the rest of the night picking out house options. We have officially decided to build, and we are SO excited. We've moved up our "house hunting" trip (even though the hunting is done, there is still lots of paperwork!) to the end of March, and I'm SO excited. Andrew will be gone from home for almost a full month, and he's pretty sad that he won't get to see Eva for so long. He has not yet expressed how sad he is to be leaving me, but hopefully that will come soon. :) Picking out all the stuff for a brand new house is time consuming--there are SO many decisions--but it has been really fun. I'm so anxious now to get moved in! September can't come soon enough.