Monday...

So I was super excited that in less than 1 week I completed one whole thing off my list!  I made my own vanilla extract, it's super easy!  Just slice your vanilla beans in half, leaving a half inch unsliced on each end, and then add 1/3 cup of vodka per bean.  Put in a bottle, shake occasionally, and in 6-8 weeks tada! vanilla extract.  The vodka is already turning brown, so I can't wait to try it sometime between Memorial Day and M & I's wedding anniversary.  Apparently once you use some, you can keep adding vodka and make some more vanilla.  I used Madgascar Vanilla Beans from Penzeys in Pittsburgh's Strip District, but did you know that there are a bunch of different types of vanilla beans?  I could make all kinds of crazy vanilla extract if this goes well...

So that was my super good news, this weekend was great, met up with some of college friends at Burgatory for lunch, and went for some delicious Thai to celebrate my birthday.  But you know how you know you've become a parent?  You say after we go to the nice Thai place for my birthday lets stop at Home Depot to buy laminate floor for the kids' room, because it would be really nice to just look at floor samples and not have a toddler get grumpy because they want to make a mess of all the not free flooring samples. And your husband goes, are you sure this is how you want to celebrate your birthday?  I assume in about 25 years C will be really good at shopping at Home Depot, but until then maybe its better to sneak out when we can.  Its not like IKEA when I can say if you're a good boy I'll buy some playfood for your kitchen or we'll get meatballs...

In other news, does anyone else feel like as a first time parent you're getting ripped off?  Buy this incredibly expensive thing your kid will love it and you'll be an awesome parent because blah blah development.  Yet somehow our parents, grandparents, etc made it through without it.  For some reason lately my newsfeed has been blowing up with pictures of learning towers.  Do you know what one is?  Neither did I until today.  Doesn't a learning tower seem really cool?  The first time I saw one, I was like where is all the stuff?  Only to learn that its a giant wooden $200 chair.  Does it keep your kid safe while you cook?  Sure, but only from falling off a chair or stool.  Did I miss a memo?  I survived on chairs somehow, C helped me cook pancakes from out step stool.  Okay he pretended to stir in the empty measuring cup while I made pancakes.  But he's 18 months old, do you really want him actually helping with food yet?  I also signed up for one of those Citrus Lane boxes (they did it a deal where your first box is only $10).  Its a neat idea you get age appropriate toys and gear.  Was I super impressed with the box?  Not really.  We got a squeezy pouch of bananas, which we already have 3 boxes of since a certain mommy though the woot deal was a really good idea.  Good thing C likes bananas...We also received organic combined shampoo & body wash,  a Melissa & Doug watercolor pad, a place mat, and a thing to hold juice boxes so your kid doesn't squeeze them and get juice everywhere.  All at a value of $25.  The juice box thing seems cool, but the rest I could care less about.

Alright maybe this post is a bit grumpy, but C was up every hour or two half complaining half just being grumpy and only wanting to sleep in our bed last night.  Despite using some time off from work this morning to catch up on sleep, I'm still tired.  Pregnant ladies don't sleep well, and apparently pregnant ladies with grumpy toddlers sleep less.

C is also going through a big attachment phase right now.  Apparently, I am not suppose to go anywhere without him.  Good thing I leave for work before he gets up.  The last two times he's been in a childcare like setting he's pretty much cried the whole time, and then I get to pick him up early.  He did okay with my sister on Saturday night but still wasn't a fan of me going without him.  Luckily for him, we were buddies all day yesterday while M painted the kids's room.  I curious to see how today went...but also really tired.

30 by 30

I've seen a few friends do these great lists of things they would like to accomplish by a certain age or date.  I've decided to give it a try since today is my 29th birthday.  So here is my list of things I would like to accomplish in the next year.

1. Pay off a student loan.
2. Get more involved within in my community or with my library.
3. Learn to make pasta.
4. Read the entire Bible.
5. Have an amazing vacation/trip planned for M & I's 5th Anniversary in June 2014.
6. Make myself a dress.
7. Make curtains for the Kitchen with the fabric I bought 4 years ago.
8. Have some Mommy & C time each week once Baby Bean arrives.
9. Put together a giant granny square blanket with all the squares I've received or made over the years.
10. Add more to the lap blanket I first made M years ago.
11. Use credit cards less, carry more cash.
12. Make Baby Bean an outfit and blanket just like I did for C.
13. Make scrapbook for 2010.
14. Successfully grow a vegetable garden.
15. Learn to budget.
16. Cut back on reality tv and other junky tv.
17. Take a walk once a week.
18. Plan a family outing once a month.
19. Have a date night with M at least every 6 weeks.
20. Make homemade vanilla extract.
21. Destash 60% of my yarn collection.
22. Read, sell, or donate any books I own that I haven't actually read.
23. Lose an extra 10lbs after the baby weight is lost (so starting October 2013?)
24. Find a fitness regime that works with my schedule and small children.
25. Spend more time and less money making fresh meals, rather than relying on processed and prepackaged food.
26. Finish scrapbook for 2011 (seriously we're talking about 2013-2014 here!)
27. Get out and explore Pittsburgh!
28. Organize kids' clothing so its actually easy to sort through.
29. Pick the perfect name for Baby Bean!
30. Go on a family vacation!

Just a weekly update

The kids room is starting to come along.  This weekend M painted the room lacewing (minty green).  This weekend he'll put on a second coat and well as paint the accent color Picnic on the light switch cover and overhead storage doors.  Even though we have less than a week until we find out bean's gender, I've always preferred gender neutral rooms for babies.  We have some shelves that are a pastel yellow in C's room that we will add, as well as buy a unfinished dresser to paint in the Picnic color too.   I'm still trying to figure out if one dresser will be enough for two kids, or if we should buy two (let me know what you think please!).  We'll most likely going to purchase new RAST dressers from IKEA, since they're only $34.99 (can't beat that for a new dresser.)I'd like to put up some wall shelves for the more breakable items, so those will probably be white or picnic, since I don't trust that the picture frames will still be there if a terrible two year old can reach them.

We've been out enjoying the warm almost hot weather that has suddenly arrived (It's suppose to be the 80s today!)  We've been trying out our new stroller, which C loves.  He gets annoyed that we don't just use it all the time instead of the car.  We ended up purchasing a Phil & Teds stroller at the end of March.  They were offering a free doubling kit through the end of the month.  I really wanted something compact for a double stroller, I realized most of our walking is in an urban setting with older doors and steps.  I just didn't see those double wide strollers be easy to use, and the sit and stand strollers were to hard to steer.  We ended up with Phil & Teds' most compact stroller, Dot.  I love the fact that it doesn't always have to be a double stroller, which means that once C is too big for the stroller I can still use it with bean or any future babies (although I hope bean is done with a stroller by the time next baby comes along, I don't think I could handle 3 under 4 or 5.  The dots runs really smooth on our sidewalks (which being in older neighborhood they can be a bit bumpy).  The only thing I don't like about the stroller is the price tag   Its a lot for a stroller.  Its a lot for anything, but sometimes post tax return its okay to splurge on one thing.

I think that's all I have to say for now.  The week hasn't been filled with anything terribly exciting(which is nice to have a chance to relax and a break!)

Easter

Well the weather finally warmed up, just in time for Easter!

C "posing" for photos

This Easter holiday was a bit more fun than last year's, since C is much more active and can start to participate in things.  We participated in three Easter themed events, plus our own little family celebration.

Finding Eggs

C's first egg hunt was cute, he didn't really get the concept (he kept trying to put the eggs back), but he stopped so I could take some adorable photos. He also had his first haircut that day, so maybe he was just showing off.

waiting for the egg hunt to start

Our second adventure into Easter activities was another Egg Hunt event, at a mega church in Cranberry Township.  There was a lot to do, it was overwhelming.  The church was easily the size of school.  We took in a puppet show, and then joined the madness for the egg hunt (100 or so kids getting eggs in under 5 mins?!?).  We also got our first picture with the Easter Bunny, which was nice, since C didn't have a total meltdown, just looked a little concerned.  I think next year might be better spent attending a Good Friday service, since I have no desire to join a mega church 30 mins away (and really that was the point of the event, to recruit new attendees, C just cried/melted down when they asked Who found Jesus today?)

Moon Parks' Bunny

Grandma made my cool shirt.

Our third adventure was to Moon Parks' Easter Bunny Trail on Saturday.  It was a nice but busy event.  They had a petting zoo (C's favorite), games, and pictures with the Easter Bunny.  Being 1 C wasn't too into the games, but he did enjoy the duck pond (he wanted to pick more ducks, he didn't care about prizes.)  Afterwards we enjoyed the nice weather on the playground and swinging.

C's Dinosaur attacking his eggs.

We went home that afternoon to nap, eat lunch, and talk a walk (after so many cold days, you've got to enjoy the sunny ones!)  Afterwards we colored eggs, which is one of my favorite Easter activities, mostly because I like egg salad, and its a really good excuse to make it.  This was C's first time, so we kept it simple.  Three colors to pick from, 4 eggs, a wax crayon, and stickers.  The stickers proved to be too much, as he would only put them on his shirt.  Although it was really cute to hear him yell "ball" each time he saw one of the sport themed stickers (when your kid mostly makes animal noises, you're really happy for any real words.)

Yesterday we were up early, we went to the 7:45am church service, since my concern was that if we were late to later services we might have to stand.  Pregnant women do not like to stand for hours at a time, and I'm in the did she put on 10lbs or is she pregnant stage of pregnancy, meaning slim chances of anyone offering the pregnant lady a seat, because who wants to offend.  When we got home, we opened Easter baskets, and the Easter Bunny did well this year!  He left C two pieces of Sarris Chocolate (a local favorite), and a Playmobil 1-2-3 Noah's Ark.  The Ark was big hit, although C struggled to get all the animals on the boat (this being said he tried to put them all the same part of the boat.)  I'm sure Noah had similar struggles.  After breakfast I wanted to do an egg hunt (I filled the eggs with finger puppets and tiny stuff animals from IKEA) outside, but typical Pittsburgh, it was raining.  So we had an indoor hunt in the living room and dinning room. Which seemed to work out well, C really has a handle on the egg hunting now (and finally realized there are things in the egg.)  After the Egg Hunt we read a story about Noah's Ark and some Easter related books, and then C had nap time  while M and I had sorta relax, but clean the house, and work on Easter dinner time.  Typically for Easter we just do dinner for the 3 of us, with the idea that we weren't picking a family to celebrate the holiday with, plus we received fine china as a wedding gift, so we need an excuse to use it once a year.  We always open up dinner to any friends and family who might be alone for the holiday, this year my youngest sister E joined us since most of my family was out of town.  For some reason I like to take pictures of table settings each year, maybe it makes me feel like my home isThis seems Better Homes & Gardens (minus the mass amount of toys in the background).  This year's dinner included salad, roasted potatoes, Mark Bittman's Glazed Carrots, Easter Egg Bread, and Williams-Sonoma's Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken. (Links are to recipes or cookbooks)  I prefer to do lamb, but with only 3.5 half servings needed, lamb usually comes in such large quantities  so I opted for something fancy but smaller portioned.  For dessert I made Gordon Ramsay's Hot Chocolate Fondant, which didn't come out as perfectly as his, but was still delicious.  After dinner we played Trouble and then E went home.  Then C and I sorta passed out while watching Winnie-The-Pooh while M cleaned dishes.


Overall a pretty nice Easter.