Go Lady Tojans!

We are so proud of Auntie Jess (#55)! Last Saturday her team, the Bishop Chatard lady Trojans won Semi-State, for the first time in school history! They will be playing for the 3A State Championship on Saturday at Conseco Fieldhouse (where the Indianapolis Pacers play)! Good luck, we love you, mwaaahhhh!

The mystery baby and good burrito reception...

I had laid Monkey down for a nap and tried out his monitor for the first time. I had one of the receivers on the wrong channel and after I got him up and in his bouncy seat, I heard the cry of the Mystery Baby. Crying baby on the monitor, perfectly quiet Monkey in front of me. Seems we are picking up our neighbor's frequency. Better watch what we say when ours is on, I guess :)

I found a tasty and quick recipe that I am passing along to you. I took a picture of my creation after realizing it resembles the reception bars on a cell phone. Obviously there is great burrito reception at the Bryan house :). Enjoy!

Chimichitos
(Original recipe by Sam the Cooking Guy, changes made by Chef Stephanie)

• 4 cups cooked chicken, shredded (great tip, buy a rotisserie chicken from the store and shred it while it's still warm, very easy!)
  
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 can black beans
  
• Shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
• Sour cream
• Optional: enchilada sauce, picante sauce, jalepenos
  
• 4 flour tortillas, burrito size

1. Heat oven to 400
2. Saute onions in a little oil or butter in a skillet
3. When softened, add chicken and black beans.
4. Heat tortillas to make them pliable (I put all 4 between moistened paper towels and microwave for 15-25 seconds)
   
5. Spoon 1/4 mixture on each tortilla, top with cheese and roll up restaurant style.
   
6. Place on a greased pan and rub top of burrito lightly with oil
7. Bake until golden, about 10-15 minutes
8. Cut in half, top with cheese and sour cream. If using warm enchilada sauce or picante sauce, spoon sauce onto plate and place chimichito on top.

Things I've learned as a mom...

Some women are football widows, meaning that once football is on, their husbands are physically there but mentally thousands of miles away. I love football as much as The Hubs, so I am a "Lost" widow. Not only do we lose The Hubs completely for an hour each week, we have to watch the poor tortured soul wander around, speculating and muttering about plot twists :). Today I overheard them say the date the plane crashed, which happened to be Monkey's birthday. When I pointed this out, The Hubs looked at Monkey with genuine envy...how lucky that Monkey gets to share part of the plot line!

Since Monkey is snoozing and The Hubs is trapped on a desert island in the middle of nowhere, it's given me some time to reflect on a few things I have learned as a mom:

• No matter how many books you read, nothing prepares you for motherhood. On the flip side, nothing feels better than when you can finally decipher a hungry cry from a tired cry and what makes them happy.
• When your child has reflux, NO shirt is safe. My winner was 5 shirts in one day. I felt like a human burp cloth, he seems to aim right where the burp cloth isn't.
• Baby boogers are the stickiest, most mystifying things I have ever seen. You try to wipe it from their nose or face but all you really accomplish is moving it around (much to their disapproval) until you finally give up and give them a bath...and then you find it on their leg.
• You think nothing is better than the day you see their first smile...until the day they smile AT you. That is worth everything (labor, c-section recovery, midnight feedings, and being a human burp cloth).
• Baby laughter is contagious.
  
• People tell me all the time how lucky I am to be a pediatric nurse as a first time mom. On some ways this is true, I like being able to listen to his lung sounds and know that he has a little cold rather than flipping out and thinking it's the beginnings of whooping cough. But in some ways, all you know about nursing goes out of your head when it's your own kiddo. And I have to admit that going back to work and seeing kids in less than ideal situations breaks my heart in a completely different way now.
• Sometimes you forget that you are actually a mom. When I took Monkey for his x-ray, the tech said, "Awhh, we're all done, you can pick him up Mom." I was like, "Who? Oh wait, that's me." I guess I will get used to it when someone (besides a very nice older woman) is calling me mom.
• Just when you don't think things could get any better...they do :).

Lost is over now, I must console The Hubs and listen to his take on what is happening...maybe I should be nice and find Cliff Notes so I can understand??

Some new friends...

So yesterday we had a play date with our friends Davis and Jenny and I have a feeling that Monkey will be a little more entertaining for Davis when he is able to run around with him :). Although Monkey wasn't old enough to be very good host, his toys did a great job. Sadly Davis fell asleep on his way out to Costco, so Jenny and I had to cancel our shopping date, but I am sure we will enjoy buying bulk groceries and most importantly, eating a churro, very soon :).

So our excitement for today was going for an Upper GI series at Children's Mercy South. Monkey couldn't have anything to eat 4 hours before so I was expecting a very unhappy little boy, but he was so memorized by the waiting room and the other kiddos running around. For the X-Ray, they put him in this thing that looked just like a rotisserie. Poor Monkey was strapped down with his arm up over his head and being rotated while he drank some formula with barium in it. Luckily it only last about 10 minutes, and he got to eat right after. He was awarded a new friend, Dean the teddy bear, for all his hard work. Then we got to go up and see my friends Megan and Christy in the inpatient part of of the hospital. We've been shopping and home for a while and the poor guy is still out. I guess that will count as our 20 minutes of rigorous exercise for the day. Have a great day, try to stay warm!

Oh no, not again...

Is anyone else ready for Spring :)??

It's the little things...

So we did manage to avoid the ER this Valentines Day, however we initiated Monkey to our tradition by having a doctors appointment. Poor little guy is having some tummy troubles and has to go for a GI series at Children's Mercy next week. Because of the last minute appointment and trying to get his prescription filled, I wasn't able to put together the fancy dinner I wanted, but we had a great time anyway. There were the lavish gifts:

(Monkey's Love Dovey book is illustrated by Mary Engelbreit, my favorite, and I got the mega pack Papermate marker pens I'd been lusting after...I have an unusual love for school supplies!)

and there was snuggling...

And there was the luxury of a "take your time, I'll watch the baby, don't worry about the waste of water or damage to the environment" insanely long shower. Pens, a shower, and the love of two great guys...I am a very lucky girl :).
Happy Valentines Day!

A look at Valentines Day...

Hopefully this finds you all having a very happy Valentines Day and if I could find a way for the little paper cards we used to get in our mailboxes made out of shoe boxes in elementary school to shoot out of your screen, I would. Perhaps I should mention that to the Blogger people...

As for this lovely picture, it is a shout out to my Indy family...hopefully there is still room for those last minute reservations! Nothing says romance like a candle light dinner of White Castle!

So The Hubs and I always remember our first Valentines Day every year. I had big plans, I was a poor college student and he was working in KC. I had saved up my money and was going to take him to a nice dinner for a change. However, a few days before, the dentist I made the mistake of going to (everyone from Emporia was like, "Who did you go to? " When I said his name, they all got this look of pained sympathy and said, I wouldn't have gone to him...") decided to do 2 root canals and an extraction...all in the same visit and on either side of my mouth. I couldn't eat anything and whatever I could eat, i couldn't keep down. I don't really remember much of the next few days. The Hubs showed up on Valentines Day and found me passed out in bed, looking terrible. While he was getting me some shoes to wear so he could take me to the ER, I passed out and smacked my head on my dresser. So we spent our first Valentines Day in the ER for dehydration. And spent our second one in the ER again...with The Hubs's brother :). This year The Hubs's folks came up and watched Monkey and we had out first "date" since Monkey was born. It was great, we saw "Juno" and went out to lunch, but mostly we got some catching up time which was nice :). I realize how much I took "dinner and a movie" dates for granted before Monkey arrived :).

Speaking of "Juno," I almost spit out my water when her step-mother uttered the line "Well, honey, doctors are sadists who like to play God and watch lesser people scream..." And although I can say that this is not true for about a majority of the doctors I know, I think this may hold true for a small percentage :).

May you have a root canal/ER visit free Valentines Day with someone you love!

Look what I can do!

43 things

There is the awesome website called www.43things.com where you go and enter 43 things you'd like to do and find other people who are doing them also. It can be as simple as "I'd like to learn to yodel" or "I'd like to see Paris." Currently I have 14 things I'm working on, one of which I stole from someone else (they give you ideas and also have a search option. Once you find something you can add messages for other people who share your goal to read). I have always wanted to keep a journal and would be very good about it for a week or so and then find it several months later. So one of my things is to keep a photo journal...VERY easy since I seem to be 1/8th paparazzi. So you just a take a picture a day and write a little blurb about it. It gets to be pretty fun trying to find your picture of the day, you tend to look at your surroundings a little differently. For example, the other day I took a picture of my favorite tree (a weeping willow) in our neighborhood and of course random things like burnt out signs (yea, Wale Hose!) and the Weiner Mobile.

I am now reading a book called "The Daring Book for Girls." It is an awesome little eclectic mix of random things girls should know. For example: Hand clap games, words to impress, important women in First Aid (shout out to Florence Nightingale!), and how to whistle with two fingers. There is also "The Dangerous Book for Boys," which The Hubs is currently studying and bidding his time to go over with Monkey.

And I leave you with my picture of the day...a very sleepy boy and his bouncy seat. Good day!

A little late night excitement

For the last two days I'd been having random dizzy spells and they got a lot worse (room spinning, ears ringing, nausea, dizzy spells) last night. So the nurse in me refused to go to the ER until I had done some assessing. After all, I'd feel like a wimp walking (or stumbling) in and saying, "I see you have major traumas and seriously ill people, but I'm dizzy." Several blood pressure checks and a negative pregnancy test later (just wanted to make sure, I had dizzy spells with Monkey), we packed up and headed to the ER at 11:30, just after the snow started falling. Who says there is no late night excitement after you have kids! In our action packed hour there, I was walked in on by 3 people while trying to collect a urine sample, given the equivalent of a sobriety test (walk the line, finger to nose, etc), and diagnosed with an inner ear infection. They put me on medication to help with the dizziness until my ear heals up and I am supposed to call if I have any "stroke like symptoms." The Hubs and I thought that was amusing, "Well, we are thinking either ear infection or stroke..." is kind of like "Well, we could put a band aid on it or amputate it." Another amusing thing was that I might have to get tubes in my ears, a procedure I had done a lot as a child and that they normally only do on kids to alleviate pressure in the ear. My niece Lucy just had this done and was a trooper, so if I so much as complain, I will get set straight I am sure :).

So speaking of dizzy, I am completely in awe of the new sport of Zorbing. They put you inside this huge plastic sphere and roll you down a hill...sign me up! Hydro-Zorbing is where they put water in the inner chamber you are in so you are just slipping and sliding around. My hats off to those wacky New Zealanders for coming up with this one!

Yummy, yummy, I have food ON my tummy...

I don't know if it just coincidence, but Monkey tried rice cereal for the first time and was the happiest child I have ever seen all day long. It also seems to have cured all of his GI issues...I am thinking of having a bowl of rice cereal myself tomorrow and see what magic effects it has on me :). Some of the rice cereal actually went in him, more of it just went on him. He loved sitting in his "chair" in nothing but his diaper enjoying the breeze from outside considering it was 73 degrees outside today! And it is supposed to snow tomorrow...gotta love Kansas :).

For all you moms out there, you must check out a book called "You are My I Love You"by Maryann Cusimano, I have yet to make it through a reading without getting a little faklempt. To risk sounding a little sappy, it finds the words to explain being a mother in a way that my heart just couldn't find words to express.

We had fun watching the Superbowl Sunday, I have a little crush on the Manning brothers so I was glad to see the Giants win...and of course, there is always the commercials :).