Random Thoughts About Stuffing

I love Stove Top Stuffing. It has pretty much been my favorite part of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and all other "stuffing" holidays for as long as I can remember. As much as I love it, I've never made it myself. You think I would have made it for myself at some point. This thought crossed my mind as I was in the store last week so I bought a box.

Now how is it exactly that I'm 32 years old and never knew how easy it is to make Stove Top Stuffing? Boil water and butter. Stir in stuffing packet. Remove from heat and cover. Wait five minutes. Done! That's it?!? Tonight we had chicken, green beans, and Stove Top stuffing. (Andrew also had a side dish of Golden Grahams sans milk.) And is it wrong that I thought to myself that I could easily finish off the whole pan? Who needs chicken and green beans? I know that one box (maybe one serving) probably contains more sodium than I'm supposed to consume in two weeks, but I'm just sayin! I wonder if Sam's Club sells Stove Top. Hmmm...

Balls, Books, and Cars

Balls, books, and cars. That pretty much sums up the past week for us. To be exact, that really sums up Andrew's week. And it has been great!

Books: Andrew seems to be really starting to pick up language. He is babbling and chattering all the time. I think that is maybe why he has been so interested in books recently. He has spent a good amount of time pulling out books and bringing them to us to read. I think he pretty much went through every book we have! We used to ask him to point to the dog or show us Elmo. Now we are transitioning and asking him questions like Who is that? and What's that? He is definitely trying to say words. Dog. Cupcake. Cookie. Car. Ball. Bubble. Pizza. Yes. No. There. Now granted we might be the only ones that understand him.

Balls: Andrew has been all about balls lately. It seems like he's always got a ball (or two) in one arm as he's running around the house. He's gotten good at throwing and also pretty good at letting the ball bounce off of his body before he picks it up. That's as close as we are to catching for now. Maybe he'll be good goalie someday. He really enjoyed sitting up in a big chair we have in the living room and playing ball with Grandpa this weekend.

Cars: If he has a ball in one arm, then chances are he has a car in the other. He actually says "car car" as he rolls them back and forth over our floors. Santa brought him a couple of toy cars from the movie Cars. He's got a Lightning McQueen and a Doc Hudson. The other night we were in the kitchen, and Andrew was playing with his Doc Hudson. He said "car car". Susie then said to him "That's a Doc Car." Andrew responded by saying "Doc Car Car". We are still new to all of this talking stuff so it completely floored us.

Here is the aftermath of all of the book reading we did this weekend. It doesn't look too much different today actually.

Here is Andrew's new activity table with cars, trains, and tracks. Right now it's in the middle of our living room. We needed a coffee table. Haha!

The neat thing about the table is the roadway mat lifts right out. Underneath is a white playing surface. They also make inserts for Legos and other blocks.

Dancing Andrew

I'm still pretty new to this whole blogging thing. Most days I have the adding of pictures down. Except sometimes the order is all crazy. But I decided to up the degree of difficulty by trying to add a video. This is the one I found. It's from about a month ago. It's really not that exciting, but I thought it was pretty funny at the time. I think it was taken after a bath right before bed time. Andrew played music and danced for a good five minutes. So much for the theory that the bath helps them calm down and relax so they're ready to fall asleep, huh?

Already a Year Later

January 7, 2008. It was one year ago Wednesday that my grandma passed away. It's hard to believe a year has already gone by because its seems like it just happened last month. Sometimes it's hard to believe it happened at all. It was unexpected. The whole family was at my grandma's house for Christmas Eve and Christmas a year ago. She was so happy to have us there and seemed to be doing really well. She got sick and went into the hospital on December 30. As it would turn out, her body was attacking itself. Her spleen was producing antibodies that were attacking her red blood cells. The doctors tried all sorts of different treatments, but most of them were only temporary fixes. The one thing they felt would really help was to do surgery to remove her spleen. The difficult part was that they were never able to keep her red blood cell count up for her to be stable enough for surgery. She passed at the end of a long, emotional, and frustrating week.

I still think about her often. I was lucky to live very close to her (about an hour away) during the last several years so it meant lots of Saturday trips over to visit. And while none of us were ready to let her go just yet, one of the things that has helped me in the healing process is knowing that she was ready. At some point, she had purchased a small notebook and written very specific instructions in it about after she was gone. One of the things she had written has stuck with me. She wrote that she did not want us to be sad because she was ready to be with my grandfather and that she missed him so much. He had passed 5 years prior, and he was my grandmother's best friend for 50+ years.

As I think about my grandmother this week, here are some of the memories that stick with me:

• Learning to drive the old pickup truck on the country roads in southern Illinois when I was 11. We would go on two drives a day. She grabbed the steering wheel a lot back then. I think I even drove into the ditch once.
• Filling up a brown bag of candy after visiting them when we were young. They ran a small country "convenience" store and had an awesome selection of candy.
• Her infectious laugh. I can't describe it, but for those people who knew her you know about her laugh.
• That she put money in the Easter Eggs! And not just coins either.
• Scratching off instant lottery tickets on Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. Nobody ever won much money, and she was always so surprised by that.
• How she could play her 12 bingo cards and still see that I've missed a number on one of the four I'm trying to play. And this was when I was like 25! That was serious business cause we were playing for money at the Knights of Columbus. And also how she would be annoyed by having to split a $ 500 bingo pot with the other person who hit it on the same number.
• That she made the best apple pie I have ever eaten and ever will eat.
• How excited she was when I told her she was going to be a great-grandmother.
• How much she loved my grandfather. Especially in the last couple years of his life when she devoted herelf to taking care of him.
• How unselfish and giving she was. She never asked for anything, but gave everything.
• Christmas morning 2007 sitting around her kitchen table for a couple of hours just talking and playing with Andrew.
• That she was probably more faithful and devoted to her church and her God than anyone I have ever known

Celebrating the New Year with a little more Christmas

Happy New Year! We celebrated the new year last night and today by finishing up our Christmas with Andrew. You see, Andrew had so many gifts from his grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles to open this Christmas that we decided to hold off on giving him any of our gifts. He's still too young to realize that being the only grandchild on both sides means you get lots of presents!

Andrew has never really paid any attention to the presents under the tree. On Christmas he wasn't even all that interested in opening the presents people gave to him. He's still just a bit too young I think. (He has always been more interested in the ornaments on the tree. He especially likes pulling off the traditional round ones, rolling them across the floor and saying "Ball, ball!")

So we had to get him started and really help him open the first few. Then Andrew really started to get into it. It was so cute to watch him go back under the tree for another present as the initial excitement of each gift wore off. Some of the boxes were "big", and he really had to work to maneuver them out onto the floor. One thing we did find out is that Andrew is very meticulous. He did not want to move on to opening the box until he was sure all of the paper was off each present. He is also definitely a ripper as opposed to the neat unfolder.

Andrew loved his Lightning McQueen and Doc Hudson cars.

Here he is carrying his two new cars in one hand and a Jeep Christmas ornament from our tree in the other. He spent most of New Year's Day carrying Lightning and Doc around with one arm leaving the other one free for eating, playing and doing everything else.

Doc and Lightning race! He's actually lining them up. He does this with all of his cars.

It's a Mr. Potato Head!

Notice the set of cars neatly lined up in the background of this picture. It's like a parking lot.

Giving Mr. Potato Head a nose.

This is New Year's Day playing with his new train set.

Rosebud

The day after Christmas this year we all got bundled up and went out to enjoy some of the Chicago snow and ice. This Christmas has really been Andrew's first time to play in the snow. I don't count the little half inch dustings we get in St Louis.

So while Andrew changed into his snow pants and boots, Grandpa Tom went up into the rafters of the garage and pulled down one of the oldest sleds we'd ever seen. It was an old wooden one with the metal rails and the steering bar in the front. It's pretty safe to say they don't make them like this anymore. Andrew had a great time being pulled down the icy sidewalk by Grandpa to the park. Andrew also learned how to throw snowballs and walk on top of the snow without falling. (Most of it was hard and slippery because the top layer had refrozen as ice.) We broke through the top layer so he could get down to the soft snow. Andrew liked tapping the snow with his hand but was not fond of snowy mittens. He kept holding out his hands looking for someone to clean off anything that might have stuck to them. (It's no wonder I didn't get messy spaghetti pictures!) After a contest between Grandpa, Dad, and Aunt Janette to see who could hit a lamppost with a snowball, we went off to the school parking lot. This was where Susie, Janette, and Tom (if you can believe it!) all went to grade school. It is also where Tom had one of his first teaching jobs.

Anyway, the parking lot was completely covered in ice, which meant pulling the sled was easy. We had a great time and were lucky we went out on Friday. It was 60 on Saturday and all of the ice and snow melted.

Getting ready to go out in the cold.

Andrew enjoying his ride to the park. The Spenny House is the two tone one in the background (cream on the bottom and dark red on top).

Susie & Andrew taking a turn on the sled.


Getting ready to throw a snowball. And then, "Can someone clean off my mitten?"


My father-in-law has the perfect term for this kind of behavior. He calls it being "wuddly" (rhymes with cuddly). Say it out loud. For some reason that word just captures that sense of playful mischievousness.

Andrew and Dad take a turn at Surf Sledding...being "wuddly".

Messy Spaghetti Pictures...Almost

We had spaghetti for dinner tonight. I was excited, but it's not because I really like spaghetti. (In fact, Italian is not really one of my favorite foods.) No, I was excited because I thought to myself that it would be a good chance to get the "messy spaghetti" pictures of Andrew. You know those pictures that all of our parents have of us and you have of all of our kids. The ones with noodles and sauce stuck to the face, in the hair, covering the hands and clothes, and maybe (if you're lucky) on the walls. We had a brief conversation about taking off Andrew's shirt. We decided he might get too cold so we lef the shirt on, rolled up his sleeves, and put on his bib. Then he got a pile of spaghetti and some slices of bread on his tray.

There was only one problem with all of this. Andrew didn't want the spaghetti. He went right after the bread, but wouldn't touch the spaghetti. We tried to get him to taste it, but he shook his head no and made an ugly face when we held it up to his mouth. So spaghetti goes on the short list of foods that Andrew doesn't really like for now. You wouldn't know it by looking at him, but he eats pretty much everything we give him. Grilled chicken to peas and green beans to mandarin oranges and peaches. And let's not forget McDonald's and St Louis Bread Co. (Panera). He's 18 months old, but the kid has brand recognition already. A couple of weeks ago we were in the grocery store parking lot when he pointed to the McDonald's next door and said "Ooh!" "Sorry, buddy, but we are going shopping so we can make food at home." Because we gotta use our kitchen at least once or twice a week, right?

So I still don't have my messy spaghetti pictures. Heck there wasn't even a speck of sauce on Andrew's hands when we washed them after dinner. But that's not going to stop me posting a few pictures tonight. The first one is from a couple of days ago. The bath pictures are from tonight. I hope you enjoy. And please take this post as an IOU for messy spaghetti pictures. I'll get them to you someday.

Goodbye, Candy Cane Arch

We used to have a candy cane archway that stood in front of our house. I say used to because it did not make it through the wind and ice storm we had last night. In fact, it didn't even make it past midnight. It was about 10:30 last night when Susie walked into the room and asked, "Did you hear that?" "Hear what?" "The candy cane arch is done." I looked out the window and her beloved candy cane arch was split into two pieces. Now it usually splits into two pieces for storage, but this time one of the pieces had been bent in half by the wind and impaled on the stake that was supposed to hold it up. Goodbye, candy canes.

A few of you might find it hard to believe that I'm actually a bit saddened by this. This is, after all, the very same candy cane arch that was the bane of my existence two years ago. That was the year Susie bought it. That was also the year that I had to stand it back up, restake it, and reinforce it again and again. (It's no wonder it broke last night because this thing catches wind like you wouldn't believe! If I had a sailboat, I would have a candy cane arch as my sail.) Anyway, I was so frustrated by the arch that it didn't even go up last year. I should have disposed of it this summer. But I didn't. And Susie has been determined to turn our house into a lifesize gingerbread house for Christmas. This year she took the initiative on the Sunday before Thanksgiving to hang the outdoor lights. I didn't think the candy canes were going up, but she got them out, and put them up with me and her cousing helping. They had blown over a handful of times so far this year, but Susie was always out there working to get them back up and reinforce them. I did it a few times too because I got to the point where I thought they looked pretty good. So the quest for the lifesize gingerbread house remains unfulfilled for at least another year. We do have an inflatable Santa driving a fire engine that we never opened. It's in the trunk of the car to go back to Garden Ridge. Maybe we'll keep it and put it up so we have at least one Christmas yard decoration taller than I am.

This all does make me think of the story that candy canes are actually religious symbols. Have you heard this? The story goes that a candymaker in Indiana invented the candy cane. It was made in the shape of a shepherd's staff (also a "J") to represent Jesus as the Good Shepherd. It's a hard candy to symbolize that Jesus is the solid rock on which the church is built. It's white to represent the purity of the virgin birth. The traditional candy canes have three small red stripes to represent the scourging of Jesus that alternate with one thick red stripe to symbolize the blood shed on the cross. To be honest, I don't really think this is a true story, but I do love the thought behind it all.

Cleaning Out The Basement

Okay, so I'm a reformed packrat. So is Susie. Before Andrew we did a great job of getting rid of all the miscellaneous stuff and unused junk in our lives. I do admit that I still hold on to empty boxes. There's a stack in the basement that is as tall as I am of the boxes from our stereo system, satellite receivers, video game systems, computers, and anything else that I feel must be a "major purchase".

Now that Andrew has grown out of lots of clothes, toys, carseats, strollers and other accessories, we are making another pass through our storage areas in the basement to decide what we really want to keep. It can take a long time, but it's also a very cathartic experience. This was the major project today.

The funniest thing I think we found today was an old set of sheets. They were in clear storage bin all by themselves. I have no idea how they've made it with us this long. Although when I pulled them out to put them in the toss pile, Susie asked me what we would use for guests who needed to sleep on the couch on our three season room. (That is usually the last resort for overnight guests, and we only use it when we are very crowded. Unless it's my Dad who prefers to sleep there. Probably because it feels like camping.) After some discussion, we decided that we could probably find some different sheets to use for that couch. So those sheets are going to Goodwill. But if anyone has an 80's or tie-dyed theme room they are working on, please let me know. We've got the perfect set of sheet set to complete the decor.

Getting Started

Okay, so this is my first post. I've been inspired to do this because I've been reading and totally enjoying the blogs of a couple of good friends recently. This will be my attempt to keep family and friends more updated on the happenings, experiences, and thoughts of our lives.

Since I created this last Saturday, I've thought about it off and on all week trying to think about something extraordinary for my first post. Yeah, I got nothing. So I'm going to do something that a couple of my friends do. It's called Not Me Mondays, and it's a confessinal kind of thing. Yes, I know today is Friday, but I'm doing it anyway because all of this stuff happened to me this morning, and it seemed like a sign.

1. I did not send Andrew with leftover pizza for lunch today. I did not think to myself that it may be "too leftover", but sent it anyway because I had nothing else to send for him. I would never do that.
2. I did not eat a cold piece of that very same pizza this morning as I was packing his lunch. I would have a healthier breakfast.
3. I did not drink one of Andrew's organic chocolate milks on the way to work today. I didn't do it two other times this week either. I'm 32 and too old to be drinking chocolate milk out of a box on the way to work.
4. I did not view a Thanksgiving album on Facebook from a complete stranger who had tagged one of my old high school friends in it. I did not accidentally tag myself in a picture where I knew absolutley no one. And I then did not scramble to the computer as fast I could so I could delete the tag because I couldn't figure out how to delete it from the phone application.
5. And I'm not going to reread this post today and think about whether or not I should go back and edit anything. I'm totally not that obsessive.

Thanks for reading! If you are interested in seeing recent pics of Andrew and us, we finally updated the website at http://www.kabatfamily.org/ (thanks Susie!).

Happy Friday!