All Things Supercinski

Let me introduce a candidate that has hit the scene only recently:

If you thought this year’s presidential race couldn’t be any more of a joke, well, think about it again.

…if you had to give your two year old a bath before you could put him in his bed for a nap!

Josiah and several other boys discovered an area of loose, dusty dirt at the park today and he was covered from scalp to sneaker. There was even a fine layer of dust in his ears. What fun!

I am a creature of habit. Every morning, I eat roughly the same thing–a huge bowl of oatmeal and a glass of orange juice. You might recall that I ate a huge breakfast while pregnant. I still do, but I don’t have two eggs everyday anymore. Oatmeal is one of the few things I can eat for breakfast and not feel faint within a few hours.

The basic oatmeal recipe is simple. This makes the equivalent of two packets of oatmeal, so you can adjust the measurements as needed. I like my oatmeal thick and sweet. You may like yours more watery and will want to add more milk.

Basic Oatmeal:
generous 1/2 cup of quick oats
generous spoonful or two of milled flax seed
spoonful or two of honey
about 1/8 cup of walnut pieces
generous 3/4 cup of milk

Stir together and microwave on high for about 2 minutes. Enjoy.

Variations:
Fruity oatmeal
Add a handful of fresh or frozen blueberries before cooking. Half a banana is also tasty.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Add a quarter of a coarsely chopped, peeled apple and a dash of cinnamon before cooking.

Tropical Delight Oatmeal
Add a handful of unsweetened raw coconut flakes and half a banana, chopped before cooking. The banana gets nice and mushy and the coconut adds a wonderful flavor. This one is so tasty that I have to limit myself to eating it at just breakfast.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal (I make this when I have leftover canned pumpkin)
Add a spoonful or two of pureed pumpkin along with a dash of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger before cooking.

Enjoy!

We mustered our courage and drove to DFW last weekend to see family and attend my friend Erin’s baby shower. A last minute tantrum and a baby who refuses to nurse unless we are alone and in a quiet room made us late getting there and I missed the shower. I could have driven the extra 50 miles over there and been really late, but Annalise was already wiped out (and so was I).

We stayed with my brother and sister-in-law and their little girl and got to hang out with my other brother and other sister-in-law, and my mom and her husband, too. It was a fun get-together and I was glad my brothers and sisters-in-law got to meet Annalise.

On Sunday morning, we got up and headed to the Fort Worth Zoo with my mom and Woody. Josiah seemed to enjoy everything immensely, and just got testy around lunchtime as we ventured deeper into Day Two Of No Naps. Annalise was a champ, but still refused to nurse both at the zoo and in the car on the way home, silly girl. She’s making up for it this week.

Our attempt at a family photo. Josiah, teetering on the edge of no-nap meltdown, refused to cooperate.

Josiah’s favorite things were the huge koi fish swimming in the water near the baby giraffe who ran laps around the giraffe area (just like Josiah likes to do). He also got a kick out of the penguins. I also enjoyed seeing the penguins, the gorilla eating his own poop, and this one-tusked elephant.

And a huge thanks to Mom and Woody for braving the zoo (and lunch) with us! You made it a much smoother adventure.

Our little guy has had a lot of changes in his world lately ever since “our baby came out”. Josiah loves Annalise, and it is so sweet to watch him dote on her. He loves to talk with her, bring her toys, and read to her. He also loves it that she needs to be fed and put down for naps, because he gets to watch a movie/PBS while I am occupied. I would say that he has adjusted well, but it’s been rough at times for our sensitive little guy. This picture is when he wanted to be “wrapped up” in Annalise’s swaddling blanket:

He also started learning how to use the potty a few weeks ago. I finally bit the bullet and did it since he kept telling me when he was going pee-pee. (I will continue to use our potty terms, so bear with me.) I have been dreading this task since I was in college and worked in the two-year-old class at a daycare.

We stayed home for five whole days the first week, and things have definitely clicked since then. He hasn’t had an accident in a whole week. Of course, he is still in a diaper during naptime and bedtime, and continues to make his poo-poos in his diaper during those times, but he is making progress. He actually started telling me when he needs to go “make pee-pees” and does a great job of going. His rewards have been homemade lollipops and stickers, and the occasional bowl of ice cream after dinner. I am so proud of him!

He shocked us Saturday morning by appearing in our bedroom at 6 a.m. We had not moved him out of his crib yet, and he managed to scale the side and climb out. He has successfully slept in the “big brother bed” ever since, though not without some fun learning times, but that’s another post. And now Annalise has a bed of her own, too!

Otherwise, he is doing great. He still enjoys reading books, playing at the park, lining up cars, blocks, and other random objects, and playing. He is a lot of fun and pretty hilarious most of the time. He also loves to sing and is often singing songs while he plays. I love this about him, and it is even more fun now that he can actually sing the words to song. So here is a compilation of some of his favorite tunes–several of the other songs he sang and bits of these are edited out since he didn’t have pants on during potty learning weeks (also why we have so few pictures in this post), but you get the idea.

A friend of mine shared this recipe with me, and it was absolutely delicious! I like that it uses bone-in chicken breasts (which were $1/pound last week at HEB) since they are cheaper. I just pulled the skin off and de-boned them before serving.

The recipe seems to take a long time to cook, but it has very little hands-on time. While it was cooking, I folded laundry, changed two of Annalise’s diapers, fed and put Annalise down for a nap, and checked my email (Josiah was asleep).

Apple Cider Chicken - from Rachael Ray
Yields 4 servings
* 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided
* 2 whole chicken breasts, 4 halves, bone-in and skin on (I used 3 breasts because they were all thawed)
* Salt and pepper
* 3 large yellow onions, thinly sliced (I only had 2 on-hand)
* 2 tablespoons thyme leaves, 7-8 sprigs, leaves stripped and chopped (I used about 1.5 teaspoons of dried thyme)
* 3 tablespoons honey (eyeball it)
* 4 large cloves garlic, chopped
* 1 cup plus apple cider vinegar
* 2 cups chicken stock

Preheat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add a couple tablespoons of EVOO, 2 turns of the pan. Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper, and add to the hot oil, skin side down. Brown chicken, about 5 minutes per side. Remove and reserve.

Add another 2 turns of the pan of EVOO, the onions, thyme, honey and the garlic. Season the onions with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently for about 20-30 minutes or until the onions are really brown.

Add cider vinegar, scraping up all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Add the chicken stock and bring up to a bubble.

Once at a simmer, return the chicken to the pot with the liquid and onions. Place a lid on the pot, turn the heat down to medium and simmer for about 15 minutes, flipping the chicken over in the sauce about halfway through. Remove lid, check to make sure the chicken is cooked through by cutting a small slit in the thickest part of the breast with a paring knife to have a look inside. If it is cooked through — no pink meat — remove to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Turn the heat up to high and simmer until the sauce thickens up slightly, about 4-5 minutes.

You can serve the chicken right away topped with a big spoon full of sauce and the onions or you can return the chicken to the pot, turn the heat off and cover with the lid until you’re ready to serve it. Once you are ready, add 1/2-3/4 cup additional chicken stock and turn the heat back on to heat everything back up. This goes really well with a nice, crusty bread.

Sir Spotsky, a resident of Bryan/College Station for 3 years, passed August 2nd, 2008. Spotsky was preceded in death by bowlmates Byte and Giga. Spotsky led a full and at times tumultuous life, beating the odds and outliving his bowl mates and the dire predictions of two pet store clerks.

Sir Spotsky’s latter years were spent imprisoned in solitary confinement after the unexplained death of his one time bowlmate, Giga, whose death was ruled an icthocide by the authorities. The rehabilitation efforts of his wardens seemed to have produce a glimmer of change in his attitude in recent months. Alas, the fruits of those efforts and his positive response will not be seen.

For anyone interested, Josiah was not adversely affected, despite his parents’ attempts at using the occasion as a life lesson. All he could say was ‘fish got died’ and ‘bye fish’.

You will find Sir Spotsky’s burial plot here, if you would like to visit and pay respects.