The Crockpot is Your Friend

I love to cook.  Be it making dinner, or baking yummy desserts, I absolutely love to do it, and even more than the process OF cooking, I love to share what I create.  This produces a bit of conundrum with Mr. Combat Boots being deployed for the next year, as it leaves me making dinners for just Princess and me.

And toddlers?  They are so picky.  I can't make a well thought out dinner and share it with Princess like I can with Mr. CB's, because she's happy as a clam with chicken nuggets, pasta and peas.  (No dinner for Princess is complete without peas, they are her favorite.)  Unfortunately, this leads to my eating way more fast food than I would care to admit (and also adding on the pounds that come with so much junk food.)

Then I found a community called "What A Crock", and a new love of cooking was born.  I can get up, make breakfast for Princess, and sit her down in the high chair and proceed to make dinner right then as well.  This also yields enough that I can freeze meal sized portions in the perfect amount for both Princess and myself later on in the coming weeks.  This also saves quite a bit in the pocket book as cooking for one day yields enough food for up to five or six meals for a toddler and an adult.  Even for a bigger family, the recipes can be tweaked to yield left overs for pennies on the dollar.

If you don't have a crockpot, I highly encourage you to invest in one!  There is a whole new world to cooking out there, especially if you're a single parent without a lot of time on your hands, and you would rather be playing with your child than slaving away in the kitchen.

Princess at 7months, when her love of peas began.

BBQ Pulled Pork

Spice Rub:

• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 4 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons table salt
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
• 1 tablespoons chili powder

If you like your BBQ on the spicy side, add this to the spice rub as well:

• 1-2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoons ground cumin

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

• 1 bone-in pork shoulder (I used a 5lb cut, and froze the leftovers)
• ½ teaspoon liquid smoke (optional)
• 2 cups Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce

1. Mix all spice rub ingredients in small bowl.

2. Massage spice rub into meat. Try to use the whole rub. Wrap tightly in double layer of plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 3 hours, though I would recommend overnight.

3. Unwrap roast and place it in the crockpot. Add liquid smoke, if using, and 1/4 cup water. Turn slow cooker to low and cook for 8-10 hours, until meat is fork-tender.

4. Transfer roast to cutting board; discard liquid in crockpot. Pull by tearing meat into thin shreds with two forks or your fingers. Discard fat.

5. Place shredded meat back in slow cooker liner; toss with 1 cup barbecue sauce, and heat on low for 30-60 minutes, until hot. Serve with additional barbecue sauce.


You can eat this on french rolls, straight out of the crockpot, with mashed potatoes! There are so many ways to enjoy this meal, and most kids will gobble it up!

This recipe was seriously, ridiculously, delicious.  I made this while my mother was visiting just before Mr. CB's deployed, and both of them enjoyed it so much that they were sneaking bits out of the crockpot because they couldn't take the smell anymore.

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Product Spotlight: Children's Books

I love to read.  My mother is a huge book lover, and passed the trait to me, and I hope to do so with Princess as well.  I think books are a huge part of imagination and are slowly being phased out with the introduction of the internet, movies, television etc.

I do my best to keep a rich library for Princess (and maybe for more later on in life!), that she can one day pass on to her children.  We have the classics ( "Goodnight Moon", "The Giving Tree" and "Guess How Much I Love You" being a few), and a few recommendations that I've picked up from other mom's out there ("Duck Soup", "You Are Special", "The Bellybutton Book").

Whenever I go for coffee with some of my friends, we end up in the children's section of Barnes and Noble so that Princess can play, and I usually wind up browsing for another book to add to our collection.  Today, I stumbled across a book called "Llama Llama Red Pajama" by Anna Dewdney.  I knew it was a keeper the second I opened up.  The illustration is unique, colorful and enticing, and the story is adorably cute with a great message.  Browsing Amazon later in the afternoon, I found two other books by the same author, and ordered them for our library as well.

Princess absolutely loves reading these books and looking at the pictures, and I highly recommend you pick up all three for your own collection as well!

 

Mirror Image

The second a child is born, after the initial "I created this child, they are mine" moment, everyone begins to do "the comparison".  You know what I'm talking about...

"Oh look at her nose, it's just like your momma's!"
"Oh, look at his ears, they're just like your Grandpa's!"

We try to find the pieces of ourselves that we pass on to our children.

Princess is my spitting image.  Other than her Daddy's long glorious eyelashes (and what a great trait to get!), she could be my mini-me.  If I placed a picture of me at 2 next to a recent picture of her, we could be nearly identical, barring the fact that I'm in 80's style clothing that is never ever going to be on my child.  (Thanks so much Mom.)

But traits aren't all physical.  There are ingrained traits that you may find your child has similar to you as well.  When Princess was in her first year, I would wake up at night to find she had one leg kicked over the covers, and an arm flopped over her head, deep asleep.  I myself do this, and I found it amazing that my child could do something so similar almost straight out of the womb.

Well, today, I found a piece of my husband's personality in Princess.  And boy did I know it was from my husband the moment she did it.  Having put her down for a nap, I lay next to her browsing facebook and twitter on my phone before planning on joining her for a nap myself.

After about ten minutes, Princess farted so loudly that she woke herself up.  She then proceeded to glare at me, and roll over and put her back to me like *I* had done it and disrupted her slumber.  So there you go Princess, you have some of your daddy in you too.  Now if only I can get a repeat scenario once Mr. Combat Boots is home from the desert, so he knows there's a little bit of him in our child too.

Like mother, like daughter.

Note to Self

When your child is running a temperature of 102.8, try not to panic.  Be calm, give motrin/tylenol on a rotating schedule to help bring the fever down, and monitor for more serious symptoms.

Easier said than done when it's your own child though.  Princess is currently sound asleep on my lap, in a Motrin induced slumber, with a fever that has gradually increased through the evening.  I'm fairly certain it's just a teething fever, as she's not showing any other symptoms of sickness (cough, sneezing, wheezing), and other than being slightly cranky, has been very playful.

It's never easy to have a sick child, and when you're the only one carrying the burden, it can become a very heavy load extremely quickly.  Unless it's a serious illness, I try not to worry my husband over it, as he has a lot on his own plate over in the sandbox.  Good news is great to share, it's a morale booster and spirit lifter, and keeps him thinking of home in a positive light so that we aren't another burden for him to worry over while he needs to be focusing on the danger in front of him.

So, chin up, back straight, I can be a single Mom, and Princess' superhero, and I can hold out for the next year on my own.  We've done it once before, and we can surely do it again, 102.8 fever to boot.

Baby Product Spotlight

While browsing through Etsy.com I stumbled across a seller named Lola Miren.  Her shop consists of the most adorable hand crafted bibs, onesies and blankets made out of retro patterns that are absolutely adorable.

Here is a sample of a blanket that I'm absolutely in love with:

This is her Arly Cerise (Light pink Alexander Henry Starling bird print embroidered baby blanket).  The description is as follows:  


"Our favorite blankie, named after Bianca's little Aussie Arly Cerise.

Perfect for tummy time, sleepy time, mommy time or just about any time. A special keepsake that baby can enjoy for years to come.

Our Arly blanket is best personalized for that little lady in your life. Please let me know which initial(s) you would like embroidered on the blankie (in the notes section upon check out). Of course it can also come plain. If you have other ideas share and share alike - we'll see what we can do!

Handcrafted with 100% cotton "Arly Cerise" upper and extra-soft white polka dot "minky" underneath. Unbleached batting sewn inside for extra warmth and "snug". White rick-rack trim. Lime embroidery. Approx. size is 29"x 29"."

Running at $42.00, it's a bit on the high end for your average middle-class parent, but well worth the memento keepsake and lovie that it could become for your child.

A sample of her other items include:

Parenting Advice and a Grain of Salt

When you have a child, be it your first or third, you will find yourself receiving ample amounts of parenting advice.  This advice will come from anyone and everyone, including parents, people with no children, grandparents, the gas station attendant, the checkout bagger... you name it.

This advice can range anywhere from telling you how you should feed your child (breastfeeding vs formula feeding), how you should discipline your child, how you should deal with your child's sleeping (co-sleeping vs crib-sleeping/etc), whether or not they should have a pacifier.  The list truly goes on and on.

Not too long ago, Megan and I went to Target to pick up a few odds and ends for around the house.  Now, Megan turned 2 in December, and I still let her have her pacifier (which we call a binky).  After doing a lot of research on pacifiers and toddlers, I found that they will actually do no harm to a child's orthodontic structure until they start getting their permanent teeth.  With this in mind, I have put off the fight with the Princess over her "Binky" until she is potty trained.  She has no other "lovey", no blankie, so the pacifier is all she has to calm herself and soothe.  She usually only gets it when cranky/tired or sleeping, and on this particular trip, cranky didn't even begin to cover my child.  While checking out, Megan told the lady helping us "thank you", and the lady reached right over and pulled her binky out of her mouth, while saying "You're too old for this, you just take that right out," and tossed the pacifier towards my purse in the cart.

Rather than starting a huge scene, I calmly pulled the pacifier out and gave it back to my child, who looked completely crushed that this woman had taken her sacred binky away.  The woman gave me a dirty look and went on to advise me against all the evil ways of pacifiers, right down to the fact that I was setting my child up for a life of failure.  I merely thanked her, took my receipt, and walked out of the store.

While inside I was seething, as this is my child, therefore my parenting decisions, it's best to just nod and smile where these advice givers are concerned.  They either:
a) have your child's best interests in mind
b) believe in the advice they are giving wholeheartedly
c) are just being a busybody and getting in your business

So just say thank you, take their advice with a grain of salt, and as my soldier husband would say "drive on".  When it comes to your child, you are their parent, their advocate, and the expert on what they need.  Do not let anyone make you feel guilty for making a parenting decision that you feel is in the best interest of your own child.  So long as you are not putting your child in harm's way, no one but you and your partner are to say when your child needs to give up a pacifier, a blankie, breastfeeding, or diapers.

Stick to your guns, because if you feel it's right, then it most likely is.

Mama Circus Act

It's amazing the things you find yourself capable of when you don't have anyone but yourself to help you.  Before children, if someone told you that you would be able to balance a child, a purse, a drink, a stuffed animal AND a huge bag of take out food all while walking across the parking lot, getting the car door open, and setting everything inside without dropping anything, you would have likely laughed in their face.

Yet, here I am, Princess on my hip, trying to keep hold of the string to her balloon so it won't fly away (as that would be a catastrophe), holding a bag of takeout food from Red Robin, a purple stuffed tiger, a drink for me, a drink for the Princess, my purse, and a cell phone.  Of course, the restaurant was completely packed so we had to park across the street, which I then had to navigate back across to get this huge load into the car while mentally crossing my fingers that the food won't fall.  Of course, through this whole trip, the Princess can't just hold on and sit still.  Oh no, not this little two year old.  She has to swivel every which way to see all the cars, the birds, you name it!

If someone were to ask me what the biggest help to a single mom could be?  I think I would honestly have to say, an extra pair of hands.  You realize once your partner ships out for a year worth of deployment just how much help they provide, even if it's only a pair of eyes and a ten minute distraction so that you can whirlwind through the kitchen and pick up all the dishes that have accumulated through the day, or to keep an eye on the little one so you can go pick up that food without involving the juggling act.

Motherhood truly is a Circus.

Department of Redundancy Department

I never quite got a full grasp on just how much children like repetition until my daughter hit the toddler years and actually started paying attention to her surroundings. This repetition is mostly found in learning, in television shows, in movies... especially in movies.  Put that sucker on repeat and it will soon become a fast favorite and a must have in your home.  As a mother to a 2 year old toddler, I'm going to give you one piece of advice:

Choose which television show and/or movie carefully.

Because you are going to have to watch it again, and again, and again.  And again.  There will be brief moments of bliss when your child suddenly attaches on to a new found favorite, and you get a day of reprieve, watching this new, different movie, that is blissfully not the one you have watched on repeat for the past three months.  But by day 2, I promise you, that movie will be just as dreaded, just as grating, and just as annoying.  So choose wisely, as your sanity is on the line.

The Princess' current movie du jour (more like month) is the Aristocats.  While this movie is thankfully short, it is chock full of songs and whiny voices (and to the mother of a toddler, you get a whiny voice enough in your day to day living, I promise).  Blindfolded and in my sleep I could spit out the cats names (Abraham de Lacy Guiseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley the alley cat), quotes ("Why, your eyes are like sapphires sparkling so bright. They make the morning radiant and light"), songs, and every single adult innuendo that will blissfully go over your child's head for many years to come ("If you want to turn me on, play your horn don't spare the thought...").

These lyrics, quotes and songs will come to you at all hours of the day.  Brushing your teeth, doing the dishes, in the middle of the night.  So please, take my advice, and choose wisely, new parents, what you let your child view and come to love and obsess over.  Because you have to "love" and obsess over it right there with them.

S@HM Insomnia

It's never a good thing to find yourself awake at 4:06am.  When you factor in a 2 year old child sleeping down the hallway who is likely to be up in four to five hours time, when you're essentially a single parent due to a deployment, you've got a disaster in the making.

However, here I sit at 4:06am, my husband is currently thousands of miles away in Iraq, and just down the hallway, a baby monitor away, is my sweetly slumbering Princess, who will indeed be up within a few hours time.  Why, you ask, am I up at this horrific hour?  Insomnia, also known as Night Owl Syndrom (NOS), runs in my family.  The Princess is doomed.  Not only does her mother have NOS, so does her daddy.

I can remember back to being a little girl, stuffing towels in the cracks of my door so that no light would seep out, and staying up until the wee hours of the night wrapped up in a book that was far too good to save for daylight hours.

And now, at the age of 25, I have a new vice.  It's called the internet, and it is only a click away, be it on the computer or my phone, which I call my hand held internet, as it's rarely used for phone calls.  So, rather than sleeping, I'm starting a "Mommy Blog", an idea I've always toyed with, but one I've never put in motion.

How appropriate that it should start in the wee hours of the night, with a slumbering cat on my lap, a picture of the Princess at the corner of my desk, and an email from my husband telling me about the latest sandstorm sitting in my inbox.

The Princess, Age 2