It's Just Another Day :)

There's this song in "50 First Dates" and I'm trying to find it to put it on my blog playlist, but anyways it talks about how each day is just another day of doing normal day to day things. This wasn't on my "official" New Years Resolution list, but I think I am going to try to make each day unique for both Maeve and I (and Ryan... poor guy always gets left out!) but really I'm talking about the actual day and he's not home then... but whether its cooking something out of "Deceptively Delicious" with MaeMae, going to the store to pick out a new book, going to the "Y" child watch or even visiting dadda at work... I think for my sanity and hers, we need to make it a point to do something interesting everyday- we GOTTA get out of this house!!
I did get to go to the grocery store today (WHAT FUN!) but my mom came over to watch Maeve because I didn't want to take her out in the cold... she is fighting this bug right along with me, and I know how crappy I feel, so the last thing I wanna do is drag her out in this JUNK. By the way, I heard someone say the other day that we should get over this snow because after all, IT IS JANUARY! WHO GIVES A monkey's butt it's January- I could care less- this weather is horrible- I hate it and 99% of the people here hate it... if you happen to like it, great for you, come over and shovel our driveway! Anyways back to the grocery store trip- it was miserable and biting cold but I HAD to go- I didn't have a meet tonight and I was determined to cook dinner. So I ventured out.... pretty uneventful besides me running into an old friend, Summer Moon. And the only one who will find any significance in that is Angela, so... if ya wanna know the details Ang, call me or something :)
When I got home, my mom told me Maeve was feeling warm to her- GREAT- the start of fever... sure enough, by nap time, her cheeks were rosy red and she was miserable. Although, after a dose of motrin, she took an AWESOME nap!
During her nap I worked my booty off in the kitchen. Now let me explain a little something- her nap times are my "breaks." As if I were at a job, and I had an hour for lunch- its that same sort of thinking for me. Every day I think about what I'm going to do during my "break." Usually it doesn't involve cooking, cleaning (MAYBE putting some clothes away or cleaning a bathroom) but most of the time you can find me curled up in bed taking a nap myself, or in the bath reading my gossip mags, or blogging... or blogstalking! Any one of those activities are far more appealing to me than cooking or cleaning or doing anything else useful around the house. Lazy? Yes. So what :) Today, however, I had planned out this elaborate meal and I knew there was no way around it- if I wanted to get it done in time for dinner, I HAD to cook during my "break." BOOOOO.
On the menu? Spaghetti Pie & Chocolate cake... both out of the "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook- so the Spag. Pie had carrot & broccoli puree and the "chocolate" cake was really BEETS!!!!! Seriously- an entire cup of pureed beets went into that cake! Anyways there I was pureeing away in the kitchen like a maniac. I got all the purees done (which really IS the hardest part- cleaning the veggies, steaming, pureeing- takes awhile!) and was ready to start actually cooking. I did the cake first- that beet puree was so dang pretty! It was relatively easy- the thing with this deceptive stuff is that everything is "pure"- there are no shortcuts. Meaning, you melt baking chocolate to make the chocolate flavoring for your cake- you use only egg whites (which I am a MASTER at!), so yeah- the concept is cutting out the oils, butter, sat fats all that nasty stuff and replace it with veggie or fruit purees. Once the cake was in the oven, I made the pasta just to have one less thing to do when Maeve woke up from her nap... somehow I could sense she was going to be a STINKER after her nap :)

My gorgeous purees :) The beets were sooooo pretty!!!

Mixing the beet cake :)

Still cooking... not sure of the significance of this pic. except for the fact that I really liked that beet puree!

Stinker, she was. Maaaaan it was an afternoon! She woke up around 3:30 or so, and we did all the normal stuff, changed her, let her be cranky for 20 minutes or so (really she is SO cranky after her naps! She walks around the house just being grouchy like an old person! :) haha its kind of funny- she gets SO ticked at the littlest things, like if you try and put a sock on her or hand her a book that she doesn't want, etc.) Around 4 I started dinner AGAIN, except this time I had a koala bear stuck to my leg... ahhh!! Let me just say, making 1/2 inch turkey meatballs with a toddler whining and clinging to your leg is not fun. I had to keep washing my hands before I could touch her (because of the raw turkey) and then I'd pick her up and try to figure out what the heck she wanted. She has this weird thing about her sippy cups- she CAN use them by herself- when she wants to- but when she doesn't want to, she throws it at you and she just stands there like a baby bird while you feed her... strange! Anyways she kept pulling that this afternoon... so it went like this: make a meatball or two, wash hands, give Maeve her sippy, make a few more meatballs, wash hands, give Maeve her sippy. YIKES!!!! I finally got done with that stupid spaghetti pie and was SO excited to "trick" Ryan when he got home- I had it all planned out- there would be this delicious spaghetti pie and chocolate cake on the table and he'd eat it all up and then I'd tell him the stuff that was in it :) so sneaky!

Meet my little bird :)

The Spaghetti Pie... yes, with green meatballs (they were green b/c of the brocoli!)

WELL the spaghetti pie did not turn out like it was supposed to- I think I added too much sauce? Who knows- but it didn't "crunch" up like it showed in the picture. So Ryan got home and it was STILL in the oven- he kept checking on it, and since it wasn't totally finished he caught sight of the "greenish" looking meatballs and the chunks of cottage cheese in the sauce. He was like "what did ya put in there???" DANG my cover was blown! How did it all turn out? After a SOLID hour and 20 minutes in the oven, the spaghetti pie was actually pretty good- no hint of carrot or broccoli at ALL. And the beet cake was AWESOME. DEF. will make that again!!!! I'm making Ryan take to work with him so I don't eat it tomorrow!


Ain't she a beaut'? :) My heart shaped beet cake...

Happy girl eating her beet cake! :) YES ITS CHOCOLATE! Bring in the troops! I gave my kid sweets! :) haha

So she's been into taking her clothes off lately... but this is the first time its happened at the dinner table :)

I simply ADORE this pic of Maeve. She was tipping her head back and cracking up at me... I caught a pic :)

Working on her dinner... look at those rosy cheeks!

After dinner, it was bathtime and I am proud to say that Maeve learned a couple new things within the past few days or so. First off, if you ask her where her "ding dong" is she points to her belly (we do "ding dong" on her belly button all the time) and just last night I noticed that she was very, VERY interested in her little baby boobies! She kept poking at them in the bath last night and it was one of those moments where I had to come up with something quick- I was thinking "What should we call them? I certainly do not want the word "boobs" coming out of her mouth or even "boobies" and "breasts" is just ridiculous to teach to a 15 month old, so I said "Boppies." Hmmm.... Boppies? Well today in the bath I asked her where her boppies were and sure enough she slapped her boppies. So Boppies it is! I am pretty sure she is still feeling under the weather (so am I) but her cheeks are super red and she didn't eat a thing for dinner... except some beet cake :) ughhhh hopefully tomorrow we'll both wake up with better feeling tummies!!! I gotta get to the Y!!!!
She looks funny in this pic... she is so fresh and so clean, clean after her bath :)

This is part of our bedtime thing- she picks out books....

and SHE reads them! She won't sit in our laps long enough to turn one page... so we let her flip through the pages... at least she's interested in books!

Just took this to show y'all "Billy" the penguin. We named him "Billy" for obvious reasons (or I guess not so obvious if you're not an Adam Sandler fan... but from the movie "Billy Madison", ya know the penguin...) anyways he sits at her baby grand piano... she's not to sure of him, but every once in awhile she'll venture over to him and give him a poke :)

OH- and all you gymboree fanatics out there- don't forget gymbuck redemption is this week!!!!! HOOOOOOORAY! I am going tomorrow (hopefully after the Y????) and stocking up for next winter.
Alright, long post, huh? Bedtime for me... goodnight and peace out :)