Today I took advantage of the holiday and pulled out a much neglected project. (no Sharai it wasn’t your curtains…)
It was Brooks’ baby book. I decided to wrap up the first year entries since we are in the final stretch of the second- you know while it is still fresh on my mind:).
Actually it wasn’t as I flipped through the pages, I had a hard time remembering all the little details of those blurry months from age thee months through 1 year. Thankfully I blogged about some of it on Brooks’ baby blog.
The photos and few details I posted for relatives far away helped me remember the first foods, weaning off the swaddler (more like cold turkey) and other great baby memories. I have faithfully finished putting them to the written pages of his baby book along with pictures that chronicle his first months. Now all that is left to do is put in birthday photos each year for the next couple and wait for high school so I can pull out the babybook and embarrass him.
I feel sort of bad that I had such a hard time remembering stuff, but thankful that I had some evidence of his little life besides a box full of pictures.
Here are a few tidbits for those of you who pop by this little blog for news of family- particularly the boy named Brooks.
He is as energetic as ever- so busy running, jumping, climbing and in general scaring me on a daily basis with his daring. We were playing outside on the playground and I looked up to see him not climbing the stairs (with safety rails) to go down the slide, but climbing up this arched monkey bar type apparatus (sans safety rails) that was much higher and scarier than the stairs. He grinned and then raised his little arm in the air which is our sign for help. I quickly recovered from my shock and fear and ran over to help him climb up.
Climbing is a favorite activity as is jumping- jumping in his crib, jumping on our bed, jumping on the couch. Brooks really likes to take the cushion off the big ottoman in our living room and jump from the couch to the ottoman then onto the cushion. This is guaranteed fun for at least an hour.
Honestly his physical development has far out paced his verbal, which is normal- so I’m told. He runs everywhere- and currently prefers galloping to walking. Riding toys are VERY fun and he loves to race around the gym at our church on a little ride on race car. Climbing stairs is also a favorite and offers him a chance to use his counting skills which so far consists of him saying “twooo” over and over while I really count.
Talking- Brooks knows how to say lots of words- but getting him to say them is another matter entirely. He will NOT under any circumstances perform all of his words. While he loves to watch our friend Ezra recite all the words and animals sounds he can say, Brooks will not do the same. The only time I can get him to “parrot” is when he is engrossed in something else like blocks or trains. He uses words sparingly, only when needed- like to point at the dozens of busses all over campus- saying “busss” ”bussss” over and over and over. Choo Chooo, wooo wooo, Track and train are among the few words he says often besides mommy and daddy.
He does use his sign language very consistently.
please- hands to the tummy
thank you- hand to the mouth (think blowing kisses)
more- fingers of both hands touching together
hurt- an index finger pointed into the palm of his other hand
help- raising one or both arms up in the air (very cute)
are used most often.
Some of the funnier things he says are for items of clothing- shirt comes out without the “r” sound and when he says pants it sounds just like he is saying “witch” but with a ‘B” sound. Needless to say getting him dressed can be a bit obscene:).
Brooks’ love for trains and Thomas continues. In fact, while playing at my office recently he was not satisfied to play with our “Little People” nativity set. Brooks proceeded to rifle through every storage bin in my office un til he found the train set I had put away while the nativity set was out. Thomas the Tank Engine is a regular visitor at the manger in our world.
Here are some fairly recent pictures, some Larry took at a nearby park with a cool bridge and stream, the others are of him “helping” decorate the tree,
For recent videos visit my Youtube page.
Cherry Ice Box Cookies- a little bit of heaven if you ask me and perhaps a few others I know.
These cookies are great and come from a bakery in Corsicana Texas called the Collin Street Bakery, better known for fruit cakes but they also make all sorts of other yuumy goodies. The Cherry Ice Box cookies are my favorite. They are very chewey with a bit of tang (like a good sugar cookie) and lots of great buttery goodness. Larry doesn’t love cherry flavored anything- but he does like these cookies.
We’d stop by the bakery on the way to and from various places and treat ourselves to a dozen. Just before we moved they actually built another location in Waco, but alas it didn’t open until after we moved.
I’ve made a couple of attempts to replicate this cookie with marginal results. My cookies either come out flat and cakey or flat and crispy. I’ve yet to duplicate the wonderful cheweyness of these cherry delights.
I discovered a recipe today for chewey chocolate chip cookies, so I’m adapting it for cherry icebox cookies. I’m doing one batch with chocolate chips just because it sounded really good. The second batch will be just cherry. I’ll post the recipe when I get it right and maybe some pics:).
You know the homes of toddlers by the Christmas trees. They are guarded by baby gates or they have only sparse ornamentation- usually at the top, out of reach. Some like mine have ornaments at the top, a cluster in one spot where the toddler in my life has re-hung several and a pile of ornaments at the bottom where he pulled them off.
I did have the good sense to only put on the plastic, shatter proof, non- toxic ,etc. etc. ornaments on the bottom of the tree. There is no real danger unless my active boy decides to start pulling out the mini light bulbs and eating them.
Other than the tree, the apartment is decorated and we are done shopping (sort of) and ready for Christmas!
We’ve taken some cute videos of Brooks lately- one of him FINALLY saying a few words. He has been slow to really talk- not because he can’t but because he is stubborn.
Because WordPress wants to charge me $60! for the privilege of uploading videos, and because I really don’t want to pay for something you can do for FREE all over the web, you can see these videos on my Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/christycecile
The “Words with Brooks” video is from this morning. He is playing in our room with some curlers I bought for our Halloween costume and while is occupied he is willing to say a few words with us for the camera. We are going to see our friends the Tietjen’s so we practiced saying their names.
We also tried practicing saying “Grammy” and “papa” which he TOTALLY said before we got the camera out but refused to say once we started recording…
So Brooks is going into hour three of his nap today- I just checked to be sure he is still breathing. he is.
In the unexpected free time here is a list of some favorite things:
1. a stocked freezer. In that stocked freezer is tonight’s dinner- BBQ pork loin.
2. recipe starters from Kroger- also in the stocked freezer. I don’t know why I didn’t know this before BUT I just discovered that they sell, onions, peppers, and all sorts of basic veggie variations all chopped and ready to go in the freezer section. I stocked up when Kroger had them on sale recently. Frozen chopped onions may not be quite as good as fresh, but they went into the slow cooker this afternoon in about 5 seconds- much quicker than cutting up an onion.
3. slow cooker liners- got these on sale too. It’s no secret that I love my crockpot and these just make using it EVEN BETTER. Washing a crock pot is a pain and these make clean-up as simple as stomping on the trash can pedal thingy and dropping in the mess.
4. my slow cooker. When you combine easy to use ingredients with easy clean up and a crockpot, well, it is almost like having a personal chef.
Of course, now that I’ve started writing- I hear the baby boy chirping….Oh well, my house is filled with the wonderful aroma of BBQ pork. Larry will be so happy.
I was inspired this week once again by the Bakerella. Brooks’ school is having a big yard/bake sale tomorrow and I decided I’d make some fairly simple cake pops to donate and sell.
Here is my recipe for Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cake Balls/Pops
1 yellow cake mix
1 can of pumpkin (NOT pie filling- just plain pumpkin)
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup water
1 tbsp of pumpkin pie spice or 1tsp each of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg
1 tsp of ground ginger
1 can of cream cheese frosting
1 bag of white chocolate candy melts (in the cake decorating section of hobby lobby, michaels or other big box store)
Mix the cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, oil, water and spices up just as you would a regular cake mix. Pour into a 9×13 inch pan and bake according to the directions on the box. The cake might take a bit longer to get done, just check it with a toothpick.
When the cake is done- take it out and let it cool completely.
This is where it gets fun…
dump the cooled cake into a large mixing bowl and crumble it all us with a fork. I like to use my hand mixer. Then dump the entire tub of frosting into the cake crumbles and mix it up really well. I use the hand mixer to make a smoother, truffle like filling, but you could mix it by hand if you like more cake-like texture.
Take the mixture by the tablespoonfuls and roll into ball shapes. Place the shapes onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper or parchment. Put the sheet of cake balls into the fridge to firm up.
Now you can do one of two things at this point- you can move forward with making a regular cake balls coated with white chocolate OR you can get really crazy and put them on a stick and make cake pops.
If you haven’t done so yet- you MUST check out the Bakerella’s site for TONS of fun ideas and recipes for these yummy and adorable little treats.
For Regular Cake Balls-
Melt the candy melts according to the package directions. Use a fork or candy dipper or whatever implement works for you to dip the balls into the melted candy and then place them back on the lined baking sheet.
Let them cool and firm back up and then enjoy!
OR you can make
Cake Pops-
Take a sucker stick (also available at your local cake decorating aisle) and dip it into the melted candy and then insert it into the cake ball. Let these cool ( only takes a minute or two). Then use the stick to dip the cake ball and coat with melted candy. A styrofoam brick works great as a stand for these little pops to cool. Decorate as creatively as you want. I used orange candy melts and made little pumpkins.
Here is my little Pumpkin Patch:
For LOTS of tips and helps with this- check out the Bakerella (really if you haven’t yet- do it now- so fun!)
here it is-
Adam posted a link to one of their videos on his facebook, but I actually discovered them by accident earlier today. Since I randomly encountered two of the improv troop’s videos in one day- I thought it warranted a post on the blog…
Very fun and sure to make you smile!
Brooks has been bitten by the Thomas bug. He LOVES trains of any kind and will sit and play for literally HOURS on end with tracks and little trains.
I picked up some Thomas stuff at a recent consignment sale that he is currently loving.
Video of this obsession is on Facebook.
You will notice in the pictures that he has on a onsie and shoes- pretty funny.
Every day when we get him up and dress him, he insists on putting on shoes. He has this funny thing for shoes. (He gets it honest;)). He doesn’t care which shoes, he just cries and reaches for his shoe baskets until we put some on him. So here you see him playing with trains half dressed, but with shoes.
Also funny is how he says the words “shoes” and “socks.” “Shoes” comes out really long and funny like “Shooooes.” “Socks” sounds something like “Shicks” which comes out sounding like there is a “t” on the end…you get the idea. It’s pretty funny and caused my friend and co-worker, Amy to get the giggles the other day.
