Sometimes I think I birthed Bart Simpson, and he’s only 18 months old. I can’t imagine the boogers, toilet humor and general boy-ickiness in our future.

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He shrieks with joy when he hears my footsteps coming up the stairs when I’ve been out. “MAMA!!!!”, I hear before even getting inside from the garage. And there he waits at the top of the stairs, a giant smile threatening to burst off his chubby cheeks.

He gives so many hugs and so many kisses. He climbs into my lap for an impromptu snuggle before another game of trucks or blocks. When he gets tired he tells me, “Night, night, Mama”, and curls up on the couch with me before bed.

Sometimes I think I birthed a perfect little angel baby, and he’s only 18 months old. I can’t imagine all the love, joy and fun times we have in our future.

I adore Pinterest. (Find me here.) If asked to pick a favorite feature one might think it would be hard, but for me, it’s not. I love the recipes the most. I really like to cook and I love find variations on old favorites, brand new ideas and decadent looking desserts. Since I challenged myself to actually do some of the things I pinned, recipes have been the most frequent. Each time I sit down to write my grocery list/meal plan, I also open my Pinterest and try to use one new recipe each time. Some have been busts, but I’ve found some really great ones recently that are going into the arsenal. I especially like this since I find I tend to get into food ruts and make the same thing over and over.

Below are three of my more recent favorites. All photos are credit of the original poster. I’d love to be one of those bloggers who take pretty photos of their food, but I never remember to take them until I’m about halfway through and by then…meh. I just want to eat.

Spicy Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs by Handle the Heat

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This simple meal was quick, easy, and the perfect balance of spicy and sweet. My only recommendations would be to double the spice mix if you’re making a large amount of chicken. I made five thighs and just barely had enough spice to cover the last one. I also suggest using the cooking time as just a loose guide, and use your eyes and nose as the real timer. The original recipes calls for a seven-minute cook time, but mine took more like 15. Once you’ve unsuspectingly taken a bite of raw chicken, you try not to do it again. On top of being good, this was a really affordable meal. I bought seven thighs on sale for under $4. Yum!

Corn Cakes with Tomato Avocado Relish by Annie’s Eats

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I made these as a side to go with the spicy honey-brushed chicken, and I’m so glad I did. They are delicious! I used 2.5 cups frozen corn (thawed) instead of off the ear and regular milk instead of buttermilk because that’s what I had on hand. The result was a perfectly portioned cake of yum that paired really well with the relish. A relish that is so tasty, you could eat it straight out the bowl with a spoon…which I did! The cakes are a bit dense, so they are super filling and would work equally well as a side or a light lunch/dinner. I yielded about 11 cakes, so Owen and I finished the rest of lunch the next day. He liked it all, too! (Toddler approved!) I didn’t put any ranch dressing on top, as I don’t think it needs it.

Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken by Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen

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I’m a big fan of slow cooker meals in the winter. With minimal work, you have a healthy meal that makes the house smell good all day. This one is no exception. The recipe calls for chicken thighs, but I had 1.5 pounds of chicken breasts in the freezer so I used those instead and halved the sauce recipe. Since breasts have less fat than other cuts of meat, I also cooked them closer to seven hours in the hopes that they would be come super tender. While they still turned out really yummy, they never reached that pull-apart goodness I hoped they would. If that matters to you, I would follow the recipe exactly and use the thighs. I served this along side couscous and broccoli and Michael mmm’d his way through it, requesting I make it again in the future.

So there you have it, some of my recent favorite food pins. I’ll do another round up in a few weeks because I truly believe good food is to be shared. Happy eating…and pinning! (PS – if you’re on Pinterest and I don’t follow you, please leave your user name in the comments so I can. Especially if you have a food board!)

There was something lost in translation this time, though, because we didn’t quite understand that we had agreed to dog sit for a week and a half…until we were. So we are.

Lucy is a lab and just over a year or so old. I think. She was rescued from a “kill shelter” down south and brought up here. She is sweet, but also nuts and skittish and while I completely understand that given her unknown background, and the fact that she’s basically a puppy and not at all like the giant breed we’re used to…she’s driving me crazy.

She knows “sit”, but barely. Other than that, she responds to no other commands. Owen has started mimicking me and now runs around yelling, “DOWNNNN, U-CEE!”, which I must say a hundred times. She’s house-trained, but pees whenever Michael comes in the house.

Kodiak…well, he’s being a really good sport. But Lucy is like the little annoying sister he never had, and probably never wanted. She climbs all over him and trips him up, and while he basically sits there and takes it…

“W T EFFFFF is this crap?”

…he has certainly lost his patience a time or two and knocked her around a little.

Owen alternates between thinking U-Cee is hilarious, and outright yelling AHHHHH in her face when she comes near him. I guess he’s used to our big lump of Newfie and doesn’t know what to make of the crazy either.

We’re got six days left with Lucy. It’s really too bad I can’t open a bottle of wine right now.

14-week belly says get out of the way, dog! You’re blocking the mac and cheese. (I can blame her for the dirty mirror too, right?)

Only, my brain didn’t get what that meant. I didn’t know HOW to make it go straight. I mean, I was already to the right…and…? My parents are banging their head into the wall reading this, I’m sure. What with the hours of driving instruction they provided more than a decade ago.

I’m not an idiot, I swear. I just…didn’t understand the words coming out of his mouth. Until he said, why don’t, you know, just make the wheel straight.

Oh. That. Right.

Shut up.

At least now I back out of the garage perfectly.

~

Speaking of garages, someone needs to explain to me the thought process behind leaving your garage door open all day. Our last house didn’t have a garage, nor did most of the houses on the street, so I didn’t notice it as much. But now that we’re in our new neighborhood I see it all the time. Garage doors left open all day, sometimes with a car in it, sometimes not, but no people around. So what is it? Laziness? The idea that it’s just a little bit easier not to have to use the garage door opener? I DON’T GET IT.

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There is a set of twins that jog on the main road by my house and they always startle me. Before you yell at me for hating on twins (I don’t! Yay twins! I have twin nieces!), let me explain. They’re identical twins; adult women with long blond hair that they wear in ponytails that bounce in unison. To see two of the exact same-looking person doing the exact same thing in just a flash as I drive by is just…surprising. (Troll comment to come: I’m an identical twin! What gives you the right to be surprised by me, you judgmental beyotch? You’re just a mother who can’t drive. H8TR UNFOLLOW GAHHHH!!!!”)

~

The baby wants a sausage, egg and cheese on a garlic bagel. I must do what the baby wants.

- This pregnancy has been pretty run-of-the-mill. So far it’s pretty similar to how it was the first time, only my stomach is way bigger and I have less time to think about it. Also, I’m exhausted. I keep telling myself it’s because I don’t have the luxury of lying around all day, but I’m going to mention it to my doctor at my visit this week anyway. I figure it can’t hurt, and maybe she’ll write me a note to get out of work for the day. Oh, wait. Right.

I don’t want this baby to read here one day and think that I could care less about being pregnant with them. That’s not even the case at all. (You hear that, kid? I love you to the moon and back and will continue to smother you with love until you are begging me to stop hugging you in front of the school bus because GOD, MOM. YOU ARE SO EMBARRASSING.)

I think it’s just second time around syndrome. This feels natural, old hat, normal. And unlike with Owen, where early spotting was cause for a few extra and early ultrasounds, we’ve only seen this baby once around 8 weeks, when it was no bigger than a bean and resembled a manatee. I haven’t even heard the heartbeat on the doppler yet. (Friday!)

One notably cool thing though, is that I can already feel this one. Not kicking, not yet, but those early flutters that for awhile you confuse with gas. Only it’s not gas, and it makes me laugh and prompts me to stop for a minute and focus on the pregnancy and say, “Hi in there! We can’t wait to meet you!”

(And we really can’t, baby. I’m so excited!)

- Parents, when did you start potty training? (I’m going to talk about poop now. You’re welcome.) Owen turned 18 months old right after Christmas. I’m not in any rush to get him out of diapers (I wouldn’t mind, of course, but I figured he’s still on the younger end), but lately he’s been really good about letting us know when he has to poop. 99% of the time he tells us before he goes, so I was thinking maybe it would be a good idea to start guiding him towards a potty when he makes that announcement.

He doesn’t tell us if he has to pee, but I guess one step at a time? Anyway, I don’t want it to become a THING that he feels pressured about and blows up in our face, but has anyone started potting training this early with success? This is one of those parenting milestones I have no idea how to go about. Training Someone to Use the Toilet isn’t one of those fantasies I had while dreaming about children.

- My son has taken up planking:

I’m pretty sure the toilet was clean. At least, I hope so. He refused to NOT wear the hat in the house that day, insisting “Hat on! Hat on!” I think it just adds to it, no?

You are 18 months old! A  year and a half as flown by since you were born. I always say that whatever age you currently are is my favorite, but I really, REALLY mean it this time. This age is just so much fun, and you have such a personality.

I feel like I should say this in hushed tones so as not to jinx myself, but Owen, you’re just so good. Parenting is a hard job, but really, these last few months have been, dare I say it…pretty easy. Save for a small sleep regression a few weeks ago, you go to bed between 7 and 7:30 every night, and we don’t hear from you again until 7:30 the next morning. Sometimes even 8! (Although, that’s rare.) You start the day with kisses for Mama, and as soon as we’re done changing your diaper, you run into my room to kiss Dada good morning. And then immediately, you tell me it’s time to “eeeaaaattt!!!”

Because you DO tell me that. A lot. You love to eat, and would do it all day if I let you. You’ve become really proficient at using a fork and spoon, and it still surprises me to see you eating something like cereal and blueberries like a big kid. You will eat almost anything I give you, although your distaste for green beans remains. You do however love zucchini and broccoli, which I hope continues.

Your language has just exploded over the last few months and you never stop talking. You have so many words! Sometimes we can only understand them in the context of a situation, but most of the time we know exactly what you’re saying. Of course, you’re still learning, and sometimes get frustrated with me when I don’t know what you’re asking for. Most of the time a request to “show me” will solve the problem, but on at least one occasion you were repeating a word over and over with no solution. Learning to talk is hard!

Your first sentence was “Oh, my Dada!”, which has expanded to “Oh, my Mama (or any of your relatives)” and most recently, “Oh, my cheese.” I wasn’t kidding about you liking to eat. When we go to the grocery store you point out all the foods as we pass them by. You say please (“mease”) when you want something, although still have to be asked, “how do you ask?” to get you to do it sometimes. Recently you’ve discovered that asking of me specifically gets a much faster response, so many requests now sound like, “Open, Mama!” or “More, Mama!” You love animals and can name so many obscure ones (ostrich, dolphin, ram), but you don’t really like many in real life and tend to shy away from them. Except for Kodiak, of course. You LOVE Kodiak, and have recently discovered that you can feed him things like Goldfish crackers, much as we don’t want you to. I think Kodiak loves you even more now!

You’ve inherited the music gene and love to shake your stuff to any beat, play the piano at grandma’s house, and love the toy xylophone, drum and guitar. I hear you singing to yourself in the morning, and recently you’ve begun to sing “Five Little Monkeys” and “Ba Ba Black Sheep”. You can count to ten…sort of. It goes like this: “1, 2, 3, 4…gibberish…8, 9, 10…yay!” You can also recognize some letters, especially the letters O and E. You are obsessed with trucks and buses and tractors and can already decipher between things like a backhoe vs. a tractor vs. a dump truck. Mama is in trouble, because I would basically just call them all trucks.

You’re going to be a big brother this summer. If we ask you where the baby is you will pull up my shirt and kiss my belly, but I don’t think you really know what that means. If we ask if you want a brother or a sister, you’ll answer a broda-sisser. I think you’re going to be a really fantastic big brother.

Mostly, Owen, you are just so happy and loving, always offering a kiss and a hug, playing with your toys or sitting in your room surrounded by books, paging through them happily. You fill our hearts with joy every day and I can’t wait to see how you continue to grow.

I love you, little boy.

Love,

Mama

Owen grew day-by-day and before our eyes went from a squawking newborn to a beautiful, intelligent, funny boy. We celebrated his first birthday in the backyard of the house we brought him home to, surrounded by family and friends and so much love. He took his first steps, spoke his first sentence (“oh, my Dada!”) and started to (sort of) count to ten. He is our everything, this kid.

The most stressful part of the year was selling our old house and buying another. There was a period of time where it was looking pretty likely that we would have no official place to live and would possibly end up in my mother-in-law’s basement until the housing issue was resolved. Luckily for all of us, that didn’t happen, and in a span of 24 hours we moved out of one house, closed on two, and moved into our new house. It was a whirlwind of emotions and boxes, but in the end, we found ourselves on the end of quiet cul-de-sac in what could very well be our Forever House. We’ve spent far too much money at Lowe’s, and even more hours dreaming about our future here. From the first night it felt like home, and I think that makes it just perfect.

We spent the summer taking Owen out on the boat, celebrating the weddings of people we love and digging our toes in the sand. Autumn included our first night away from him, where we went to New Hampshire to celebrate our third wedding anniversary, his first Halloween where he was the MOST adorable lion I have ever seen, and trips to pick out pumpkins.

Autumn also brought the news that another baby is coming into our lives, and if that isn’t the icing on the 2011 cake, I don’t know what is.

We ended the year with a cozy Christmas with family in our new home, stockings crowding the mantel I always dreamed about and more presents than we deserved.

Tomorrow is my twenty-ninth birthday and the last day of the year. I really can’t say anything bad about 28 (other than the fact that it’s inching me that much closer to 30), and can only hope that 29 can hold a candle to how great this year was. I plan on stuffing my face with cupcakes and trying my very best to stay up till midnight. But no promises.

Happy New Year, everyone. See you in 2012!

I’ve gone back through my archives to compare my pregnancy with Owen (the baby stuff starts here, if you’re interested) to this one and omigod, you guys.

I was SO ANNOYING.

Like, seriously. I got all uppity at the time when some people suggested that maybe I couldn’t talk about anything but being pregnant, but now I will agree that all the preeeeeciousness and ammmmaaazingness and oh my goodness being pregnant is such happy little bubbleness of those posts is a little overwhelming. I mean, I’m glad I documented it all. I’m glad I can look back and remember all those tiny things that I probably would have forgotten and I really was completely and totally in awe of being pregnant for the first time. It’s really quite awesome. But still. I’d like to go back and tell first-time pregnant me to chill just a little bit and go eat another bowl of mac and cheese.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I am beyond thrilled to be pregnant again. I feel so very fortunate and blessed to be able to conceive easily and that everything seems to be healthy and going according to plan. But maybe this time, when I write about it, it won’t be so…I don’t know…Pink. And fluffy. And won’t be the topic of EVERY SINGLE BLOG POST OMMIIIGGGOOOD WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BRAIN?

Phew. Feels good to get that off of my chest. That being said, I’m still going to talk about it today! Hehe.

~

Thing is, even if I wanted to focus all of my energy on being pregnant again, I just can’t. Because unlike the first time when I was unemployed and had all the time in the world to daydream and la la la, having a toddler just takes most of my focus away from it. Owen woke up one morning and was suddenly this little boy who jumps on the couch and discovers a tote of clothes makes a great stool for climbing up onto our bed and is constantly running around, zooming trucks and knocking down block towers and is SO MUCH FUN, and also, very tiring. By the time his nap rolls around I find myself collapsing onto the couch and passing the heck out.

The nausea this time was way worse, but  it’s basically gone now unless I let myself get too hungry. The thing that kills me is the fatigue, which I’m sure is equal parts growing a human and chasing an 18-month old at the same time. Sometimes on days Michael is home, I go back to sleep for an hour or so in the morning because otherwise I’m not going to be all the mom I can be to Owen. And if we’re being honest, sometimes even that nap doesn’t stop me from laying on the couch while he plays because oooh, I need a break.

All those books I read the first time remain packed away or gathering dust on a shelf in our family room, because this time it just kind of feels like old hat. Even as I stood in the bathroom one afternoon holding the positive test while Owen played at my feet, my reaction was more of a, “Oh! Sweet!” as opposed to the first time, where I jumped on Michael in bed at 7 a.m. and shoved the test in his face. And yet, I’m still excited to feel that first kick because that part never gets old.

The major difference has really been the belly, which made an appearance at five weeks along. I had heard second (and third, etc.) pregnancies show faster since the muscles have already been stretched, but I wasn’t expecting to show so early, especially when we had planned to keep it quiet the standard three months. But no, there it was on full display. I even got outed by a stranger at a toddler birthday party at just eight weeks, which makes me think maybe I should, I don’t know, do a sit up or two (or 1,000) after this one is born.

(9 weeks with Owen vs. 9 weeks with Baby #2)

This pregnancy has also reverted my palate to the tastes of a 10-year old, because while I try not to, I could sustain on chocolate milk, mac and cheese and pizza alone. If it helps, all three of those things that I’ve been buying are organic varieties so…uh…healthy! Yes.

So there you have it, first trimester round two in a nutshell.

Oh yeah, the official due date is July 15th and I would put money on having another boy.

Now, I’m off to eat some pizza.

And I love even more that next year, there will be one more.

This Little Baby #2. Coming in July.

Merry Christmas, everyone!