When You Just Feel Like You Can't

I have so many aspirations, so many things I want to accomplish. But then life happens. I often find myself burned out at the end of the day. After Tenley goes to bed I have these visions of going for a run, burning a few calories, sitting on my patio reading a good book, drinking a glass of wine. Or maybe even blogging. By the time I get myself back downstairs, I find myself crashing onto my couch. Eating a late dinner. Only getting up to clear my plate, start the dishwasher and then to go to bed. I need to break that cycle. For my sanity. But more importantly, for my health. I want to be the mom that does it all. And while I know that in reality that goal will never be 100% attained, but I am going to strive for it nonetheless. I want to be able to leave a real life story for my precious daughter to remember long after I'm gone. To pass on to grandkids, neices and nephews. Even if there's not much of a story to tell. But it'll be our story. And for me, that's worth it.

Tenley - First Dentist Appointment

My girl had her first dentist appointment this weekend.  Don't let your pediatrician mislead you.  We were told her first dental appointment wasn't needed until she was 3 or 4.  I did a little research online and found a few different pediatric dentists that actually state your child should be brought in when their first teeth come through.  I was really happy I did.  They were able to clean her teeth (quickly, mind you...) :) and dug out some calcium build up (white stuff that gets stuck on your teeth, same as we get as adults).  I was really surprised because Dave and I really work hard to be proactive with her teeth.  So much so that even after she's done "brushing" we pin her and brush her teeth really good and we do so twice a day.

 

So, my advice, make an appointment soon for your toddler!  The pediatric dentist mentioned that most times if you wait til they are 3 or 4, the cavities have already formed and not much you can do at that point.

 

I gotta say, I think I was dreading it more than her.  She cried, yes, but once she was done she was all smiles.  The hygenist and dentist both said she has a really great personality. 

 

Love my peanut!

 



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When it Rains, it Pours

It's been a strange spring.  And when I say that, it's a total understatement.  We had SNOW on April 20th.  Kid you not.  Might not have been enough to accumulate, but there was definitely a layer of snowy frost on the windshield that morning.  

Evidence:

Yet, the few days before we were completely inundated with rain.  9+ inches in certain areas in 24 hours.  I knew areas around us were getting flooded but felt confident that we would be okay.  Our sump pump was replaced 2 years ago when it broke (and our newly finished basement completely flooded) AND we bought a battery backup.  

We learned our sump pump had been running for almost 12 hours straight with no break.  Given the volume of rain, the pump just couldn't continue to keep up.  I also learned that when the pump ejects the water outside, the pipe it flows through is supposed to feed the water into another pipe that drains the water to the edge of the property.  The two pipes don't have a flush connection and the water was just spewing all around the pipe.  It was causing it to pool in that area right around the foundation of the house and was creating the issue with the sump working constantly.  

The rain didn't phase me.  I knew getting into work would be a bit of a nightmare with my 35 mile commute, but I was willing to do it.  I agreed to drop Tenley off that morning so Dave could run to the hardware store and fix the drain issue and make sure the water was flowing away from the foundation.

It didn't really go down that way.

I was on my way to take Tenley to the sitter around 6:30.  Talking on the phone to my brother about how bad the rain was.  Paying attention to the road and listening to him telling me that Mom had called and told us we should just stay home and avoid it all.  Roads were closed down, flooding everywhere.  No sooner than he says this I end up driving through a 3 foot pool of water I didn't see.  It was fairly dark out still since it was so gloomy and the road looked like glass since the rain had let up a little.  The pool of water was located in a dip in the road and looked like wet concrete.  I was only doing about 35mph, but didn't realize until I was just about in the water that I was going through it.  I hit my brakes but realized it wouldn't make a difference so just braced myself for the worst.  I hydroplaned a bit but fortunately there were no other cars on the road and I was able to get the car back in control.  That's when I realized it wasn't okay.  Sitting at the red light I heard LOUD knocking coming from somewhere in my car.  I had no clue if I had water in my engine or what.  At that point I knew I wouldn't be making it into work.  I decided to continue on and drop Tenley at the sitter so I could call the mechanic and get my car fixed.  Our mechanic was fantastic.  They arranged for a tow (which was fortunately covered by insurance!) and fixed my car within 4 hours.

FORTUNATELY, there was no water damage to my engine.  Praise the Lord!  The force of the water on impact had torn off the exhaust shield under the car and it was banging against the under body of the vehicle. I'll tell you what.  The banging sound was so loud that when I was on the phone with Dave after it happened, I could barely hear him talking to me.

Dave ended up staying home to keep an eye on the sump pump and try to keep the basement from flooding so I ended up being home with him.  It was a pretty stressful day.

Retention pond in our backyard; fortunately didn't overflow into our yard.

The huge tube we had to hook up to prevent flooding.  You can see water pooled in one area below. 

The backyard was a swampy mess.

Leaving our neighborhood later to go pick up my car 

The path we go walking on completely under water

I took this road earlier that day to drop Tenley at the sitter (no this was not the pool of water I drove through).  Someone ended up getting flooded.

All things considered, it could have been worse.  My car ended up being okay; we were able to fix the sump pump drainage issue; and all of us are safe.  

I'm continuing to pray that spring will make its appearance.

Before summer gets here.

Tenley Milestones: 21 months

Tenley is 5 days shy of officially reaching her 21 month milestone.  Which also means her birthday is 3 short months away.  Unreal how fast it all goes by.

I have been really bad at documenting our lives in general, but didn't want to miss out on these big milestones we've seen the last few days or past week or two.

She sings along to songs, even if it's just a laaaaalaaaaaaaaaa.  She loves when the radio is on and if she isn't feeling shy she'll sing and dance and rock out with no inhibitions.  She loves watching Dancing with the Stars and tries to mimick the dance moves.  As soon as the song and dance ends, she looks at me right away and signs more. 

More in sign language is also something she's been doing for months now.  I had hopes to teach her more because I used to know so much of that when I was younger as I have a special needs cousin, but I can't remember nearly what I used to.  Sad face.

The other day she saw a silver fish on the bathroom floor and I think it freaked her out a little.  She didn't scream but she definitely jumped back and froze for a sec.  I explained its a bug and distracted her while Dave smooshed it.  Now every time she walks into the bathroom, she goes to the same place looks down, waves and says BAP!  She can't quite say her "g"s yet. :)  Adorbs.  I tell her the bug went bye bye, and then she waves and says bye bye bap!

She started sleeping with a pillow this month.  My parents, aka the Easter bunny, got her a moose pillow pet from Bass Pro that she loves.  The first night or two she could care less, but now she has to have it with her when she sleeps.  We put it on the floor so she can lay on it for her diaper changes and when we're done she picks it up and tries to put it away back in her crib.  She's a big helper these days with putting things away and throwing laundry in the hamper. :)  I hope it lasts but not going to count on it!

She's started saying prayers with us at dinner (and bedtime!).  We hold her hands and close our eyes and she tries to mimic us, but when I peek at her, I see her peeking at us.  Other times we say Tenley put your hands together and pray!  And she does it right away and smiles really big.  When we say Amen! Tenley says MeMen!  And then she signals for more.  I literally melt.  If Dave said the prayer first, then she points to me and wants me to say one.  If Uncle Steve is there, she wants him to say one.

Cheerios are the it thing these days.  She wakes up and as soon as she gets downstairs she runs to the pantry and says Eerio! over and over until we get her a little snack.  If we tell her no, the all-out-fall-on-the-ground-kicking-and-screaming temper tantrum quickly follows. :)  At dinner time all we hear is eerios!  In the car all we hear is eerios!  I tell her she's going to turn into a cheerio!

Along with the full blown temper trantrums we've been experiencing, she's been saying NO! and MINE! All the time.  I keep telling myself this is a phase.  Sometimes I have to chant it. ;)  No one said this parenting stuff was easy!  We're trying to squash this as best as we can but it definitely takes consistency on our part.  When she acts out we tell her "We don't talk like that Tenley, it's not nice; we say hi and we give hugs..." and try to redirect her to something else.  When it works, she leans in for a hug, squints her little eyes and says hi in a little whisper.  If she's being particularly stubborn, we put her in her "thinking chair"... equivalent to a time-out; and let her sit there for a minute so we can try to teach her what behavior is acceptable and what's not.  We explain why she's sitting there and what we expect and I swear sometimes she really gets it.  I ask if she understands, she shakes her head yes, I ask for a hug which she usually gives, and then she gets up and goes on her way.  We've had a lot of success with this method, but of course as is with anything, sometimes she still pushes.  I feel like there's been a lot of improvement though in the past week.  I'd say we've been dealing with the temper tantrums for the past 3-4 weeks.  I know a lot of it stems from her own frustrations and not knowing how to communicate so we try to take that all in stride. 

We've been working on counting with her and I feel like she's picking up it pretty quickly.  She will repeat all of the numbers all the way up to ten which I think is pretty impressive.  Then last night at bed, she didn't want to get changed and was miss wiggle worm.  I was trying to distract her and so I asked her if she wanted to count.  She shook her head yes so I said "one" and she immediately responded, all on her own... "two!"  I swear to you, my jaw hit the floor.  Then this morning as I was getting her dressed, we started counting again and she was holding up her fingers and pointing to them, trying to count on them!  I know she doesn't fully know what one, two, three, etc means, but she definitely gets the idea that you can "count" on your fingers.  Dave asked the sitter about it this morning and she said they've been working on it a lot.  We were also told that Tenley's had a lot more interest in circle time (where they do their learning activities) and actually sits down, listens and pays attention.  Before she didn't really have the attention span for it and would immediately get up and wander around looking for other things to do and toys to play with. 

I absolutely love how perceptive she is.  She's so interactive and when I see things just click for her, its and incredibly great feeling.  Being a mom is seriously the greatest thing ever. 

Rib Roast Recipe

via

Make sure your rib roast is fully defrosted before cooking.  Plan to allow 1 day in the refrigerator for every 5 pounds (approximate).  This may differ depending on the fridge settings, so be sure to keep an eye on it so it's ready when you need it.  Otherwise you can try an alternative option to defrosting sooner, like putting in a large zip lock bag and submerging in cold water.  You would do so for 30 minutes, drain and restart.  Keep doing this until the meat is fully defrosted.

When ready, place into a roasting pan on a rack.  Slit open a few lines on the top of the meat and stuff with chopped garlic.  You can use any kind of meat rub for the outside seasoning, or just concoct your own with salt, pepper, coriander, etc.  Be creative!

Cook for 25 minutes @ 450 degrees.  Reduce the oven temperature to 350 and cook for an additional 15 - 20 minutes.  You'll want to check with a meat thermometer to ensure the internal temp reaches 135 - 140 degrees.  

Remove and let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

I like to serve with asparagus and potatoes, but pick what you like!

Eat & Enjoy!

Jenny