Arguably Better Than a Pot of Gold

Pinterest has me salivating over hundreds and hundreds of recipes that look SO. GOOD. And also so, so bad for you. I try not to pin the worst offenders (waffle cakes! cinnamon roll pancakes! anything and everything red velvet! more macaroni and cheese recipes than you can shake a stick at!), but sometimes I'm weak. Such was the case with a brownie recipe that caught my eye about a week and a half ago - the "Triple Layer Fudgy Mint Oreo Brownies" from Averie Cooks.

Now, if there are more mac and cheese recipes than you can shake a stick at on Pinterest, there are more brownie recipes than you can shake a whole forest at. Or whatever. The point is, there are a lot. And they all look ricidulously delicious. But this particular brownie recipe had a few things going for it that put it in the "perfect storm of sinfulness" category. First, it involves Oreos. Lots of Oreos.

(There are Oreos on top. And there are Oreos inside.)

I love Oreos. Their trans-fatty goodness has been a favorite of mine since childhood (actually, I preferred the Hydrox over the Oreo, but since the Hydrox cookies are no longer available, I make do. Also, Wikipedia tells me that Oreos no longer contain any trans fat, so there's that, too), and as a child, my favorite ice cream flavor was always Cookies 'n Cream/Oreo, depending on what each ice cream venued chose to name it. With chocolate jimmies (NOT "sprinkles"), of course.

 I also love holiday-themed goodies, and these brownies involve lots of green and mint, perfect for the imminent St. Patrick's Day holiday. They are layered and gooey-looking and very, incredibly, not Weight Watchers-friendly. Or so I assume - I'm not crazy enough to attempt that math.

But I made them anyway, with the goal of providing a holiday-ish snack to share with my work colleagues (and M.'s). It's an excuse to make something I very much want to eat, but of which I very much don't want to have a whole pan sitting in my kitchen, tempting me.

I won't recreate the recipe instructions here - the original blog post does them far better justice than I could. But I will say that these were really easy to make. The only "shortcut" step I took was to use storebought vanilla frosting instead of homemade buttercream, but the brownies themselves I made from scratch, according to the recipe. It was easy, and I didn't have to dirty any kitchen appliances in the process (I mixed everything by hand).

I will also share some pictures, so YOU can salivate over these, too, just like I have been. See, don't these look festive and delish?

In other news, M. has decided that he is no longer "against" Pinterest. Hurrah!

And Slainte! Happy St. Patty's Day to all!

It's Always Sunny in Florida

You know how sometimes there's a blogger you read, and their posts start trickling off? And you're all disappointed because gah! Why isn't she/he posting lately? And then it turns out it's because they've been exhausted due to a new pregnancy, or busy because they're moving, or exhausted AND busy because they're moving AND pregnant?

Well, that's not the case here.

Nothing exciting going on to explain my lack of posts. Just, dare I say, contentment? There hasn't been much to write about, because it's easy to write about DRAMA, a thing we've had little of lately, and harder to write about happiness, of which we've had plenty. Thank goodness, of course. I'd take a boring blog with little action over an action packed one any day, if it means our house has been peaceful. I'm not even freaking out about Finn's impending kindergarten matriculation (yet).

I did take a quick trip down to Florida with these lovely ladies:

Stacey is on the left, MommyEsq is on the right.

We went to visit these two wonderful people:

 My Papa and Mimi, grandparents on my mom's side. I have many fond memories of visiting them at their house in Florida, but I haven't been down there since before I was pregnant with Finn, six and a half years ago. Crazy!!

These things happened: pool-side lounging, card playing, leisurely shopping, cocktail houring (LOVE my grandparents' die-hard devotion to the cocktail hour), birthday celebrating (Papa's and Poppy's, a dear family friend), carrot cake eating, lots of reading, LOTS of laughs and wonderful conversation. A little cleaning. Sadly, no sleeping late (drat my autopilot body!).

The trip was too short, and made me want to consider a career change that would allow me to live in a place where it always feels like vacation. Why is it that we don't all live in Florida? I mean, aside from the hurricanes, alligators, and oppressive summer heat, of course?

I came home to these cuties, who CLAIMED to miss me, but appeared to do JUST FINE without me. Damn their dad and his capable parenting skills. Why don't they NEED ME?? (trying for some drama):

M. took off on another work trip early yesterday morning, leaving me to deal with the fall out of the time change alone. The kids have been pretty easy to get to bed, the only problem has been getting them OUT of bed. This morning was rough, it took some convincing and my best "School is SO FUN!" routine to get them moving. It didn't help that I was pretty slow getting myself out of bed, too. We were a tad bit late getting to our respective places. Hopefully tomorrow morning will go a little more according to schedule...

I got through the solo-parenting Sunday by relying heavily on movies I borrowed from the local library. In an effort to introduce the kids to as many Disney movies as possible before our May trip to DW, I had them watch Bambi. It's been a long, long time since I watched Bambi. I clearly blocked a lot out of my memory. Lucy is enamored with Thumper, but I got the sense that both she and Finn could take or leave the movie. Not a whole lot that's laugh-out-loud funny, and quite a few "AHH! The Hunters Are Coming! AHH! The Hunters Are Coming Again! And Now There's Fire!" moments, and a total glossing over of the fact that poor Bambi's frackin' mother dies. I mean, there's a gunshot, and Bambi's prancing in the snow, all "Mama, where are you?", and then Bambi's dad tells him "Your mother cannot be with you anymore." And then 5 seconds later, Spring arrives. Cue montage of beautiful flowers and green growing things. Finn and Lucy commented, "Bambi's Mom is dead." And then they just kept on watching... I'm more than a little disturbed. We'll be returning it soon, I think.

I'd prefer to show them films like Cinderella and Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, but curses to Disney and their stupid VAULT of DOOM, where movies go after a while so we can all get hot and bothered over our inability to buy them, and then pay a fortune when they are finally re-released (and probably aired in 3-D, too, because $$$). I will pay the fortune! Just release them from the VAULT! How can my kids appreciate Cinderella's castle, if they have no idea who Cinderella is?

OK, it's a pretty awesome looking structure, even if you don't know who Cinderella is. But still.

I need to wrap this up and get myself to bed, but first I will share this little snack that I found via Pinterest and charmed the kids with yesterday: It involved banana slices, peanut butter, mini Nilla Wafers, and sprinkles. It's yummy, is not competely devoid of nutritional value, easy to make, AND the kids liked it. I will definitely be making these again. You should make them, too:

I see possibilities - sub Nutella instead of PB (or any other nut butter), switch up the sprinkles, etc. Enjoy!

Naps, Etc

Let's talk naps for a moment here. I know many a parent that is staunchly in the pro-nap camp. I used to be one of those parents. Naptime was sacrosanct, and if M. and I didn't get those two hours to ourselves every (weekend) day, cranky tempers abounded. It was the only time we had during the day to get anything done around the house, the only time we had to ourselves. I swore up and down that Finn would nap as long as possible - until Kindergarten! We made it a point to be home by 11:30 am for a nice, early nap (because everyone knows that the earlier they go down, the better/longer they sleep...).

Well, things have changed. I'm sure my sisters, who are both still firmly pro-nap (and whose kids both nap AND sleep 12 hours a night, a feat my kids have never, ever managed), think I'm crazy. But I actually can't wait for Lucy to give up her nap. Now, I find that naptime is restrictive, particularly since the kids sleep a little later than they used to. Yes, when Finn would rise at 5:30 in the morning, it was easy to do a LOT and still be home by 11:30 for a nap. But we try to roll out of bed as long after 7:00 am as we can get away with. And now that TV rules have been relaxed, wake up time is followed by lounging and coffee-drinking while the kids entertain themselves with mind-numbing TV. It's a challenge for us to get everyone out of the house earlier than 9 or 10, a far cry from the early days of parenthood.

We could, of course, get our act together and get out of the house earlier, and make napping more of a priority. But we already have one kid that doesn't nap. Finn stilled napped when Lucy was born - he was only two and a half then, and still pretty good about going down. By the time we got Lucy on to a semi-regular nap schedule, though, Finn was already fighting the nap, and fighting it HARD. By 3, I gave up the war. Finn still napped at school, but not at home. I can count on one hand the number of times we got both kids to nap at the same time on the weekends.

So, we're already up with one kid anyway. We might as well have them both awake so we can go out and DO stuff, too. We are getting closer to that new reality. Lucy still naps at school (though her naps have always been shorter at school than at home), but weekend naps are intermittent at best. Not because she fights the nap - she doesn't. She usually falls asleep for us pretty quickly, and sleeps for over two hours. Yet this weekend, I didn't put Lucy down at all. She didn't melt down into a ball of hot toddler mess, she was fine.

And the best part? She goes to sleep INSTANTLY at night. Tonight I put Lucy down, went in to tuck Finn in, and grabbed each kid a cup of water from the kitchen. By the time I went in to Lucy's room to give her the water, she was out. Despite the fact that I heard her calling out to me no more than 3 minutes before then. The silence was music to my ears, because on the days she naps, we often have an hour or more of shenanigans coming at us over the monitor, and more than one trip back up to her room.

Yes, I am firmly in the anti-nap camp now, proud to be a member.

Unless we're talking about grown up naps, of course. I strongly, strongly support the naps that I take.

How about you? Are you wedded to the nap? If your kids don't nap anymore, at what age did they give it up? Do YOU nap? :-)
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The kids and I had a pretty good day together - the snow stayed away, Finn went to his last swim class of the current session, we ate lunch out where the kids were shockingly well-behaved, and we watched two old school Disney movies - The Aristocats and The Sword and the Stone. The kids are bathed, both are asleep, and I have only 12 more hours left as a solo parent. Yes, we relied heavily on the television to get us through the day. Yes, that was in part due to the fact that I am trying my darnedest to finish reading Game of Thrones. I am totally sucked in, and yet no matter how much I read, I only seem to be able to move a percentage or two on the Kindle. It is apparently a freakishly long book. There may have been a little benign neglect from all the reading. Just a little, though.

Some pictures from the goofing around that occurred today:

Same profile!

Greasy face from Movie Night pizza (he ate three pieces! This kid LOVES pizza!)

Finn's report card from swin class - he can do all the required skills, and he got two A+'s. It's entirely possible this will be the best report card of his life (you never know...), so I'm saving this one for posterity!

Humming Along

This conversation happens a lot:

Me: Lucy, do you remember what his name is?

Lucy: Yes.

Me: What is his name?

Lucy: I don't know.

Note that the initial question can be substituted with just about anything (Do you know what this is? Do you remember what I told you yesterday? Do you remember what I told you 5 minutes ago? etc). Also, the final response isn't always "I don't know," sometimes it's just a sly smile. God forbid toddlers actually admit they don't know something.

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Lately Finn has introduced a new element to his whining, the "It's not FAIR!" rant. I have now said the phrases "Life's not fair" and "Who said life was fair?" more times than I can count, despite hating those responses when said to me as a child/teenager/sullen young adult.

His impressionable younger sister has taken up the mantra as well, along with another fun toddler phase that I distinctly remember Finn going through - the "You hurt my feelings!" phase. Oh, how I love that phase.

Me: Lucy, don't stab the table with your fork.

Lucy: Stabs table with fork.

Me: Fine, I'm taking your fork away.

Lucy (fork is now in my possession): You hurt my FEELINGS, Mommy!!!

Me: Sigh.

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So I got through Day 3 of solo parenting - just another day and a half to go. My patience was perhaps a bit shorter today, but we managed to have some fun anyway. A 3-cup-of-coffee morning that was mostly relaxing, some shopping, and beautiful weather. I even managed to shower (while fending off advances from Lucy, who wanted to join me). I relied heavily on bribery to get through the day - each kid got a toy and 3 new books while we were out. And let's face it, no matter how easy a solo parenting gig is, any given day is infinitely more tolerable and interesting when it's spent with more than just persons who think it's an honor for you to watch them poop and who still require you to wipe their butts when the whole process is done.

I don't WANT to watch them poop.

When will I be done wiping butts?

On the plus side, I didn't end up having to drag out our big ladder to grab Lucy's Precious Purple Balloon. It was still sky-high when we woke up in the morning, but Lucy had thankfully temporarily forgotten about the Great Balloon Disaster. The afternoon sun worked some magic, and by the time we got home from our outing, the balloon was listing limply right around Lucy level. It now looks like this:

She is just happy to have it back, she apparently notices no difference in balloon functionality.

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Highlights from today: The pumpernickel bagel I had for breakfast. A walk around the "lake" at the Washingtonian Center. Buying new underwear for myself (not an easy feat with two kids who are oh-so-curious about all those lacy bins at Target). Cuddling with the kids while they watched a couple of episodes of the Wild Kratts. The heart-shaped PB&J sandwhich I made Finn for dinner. Kids in bed by 7:56 p.m. The cold glass of Martin Codax Albarino sitting next to me. The spy glasses I bought Finn today:

The goodnight hug I got from this little girl (who refuses to look at my camera):

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Word on the street is that it's going to snow tomorrow (you know, AFTER we've pretty much already gotten used to the idea of impending spring). This could be the kiss of death - we won't really be able to leave the house, and I'll have to fend off all kinds of demands to go outside and build snowmen, since the kids think that even the lightest dusting of snow makes for prime sledding and snowman-building conditions. This may be tough, they might turn on me. Send help if I don't answer my phone.