Author: Melissa

Alternate title: Bangs Against Wall

The other night, my husband was working late so we had leftovers for dinner. I let my kids choose what they wanted: leftover Chinese food, leftover grilled chicken and cous cous or hot dogs.

Yes, I realize that was my first mistake with a two year old.

My oldest picked a hot dog, so I – very innocently – went to reheat it in the microwave. Colin promptly threw himself on the floor and began screaming "NO HOT DOG! NO HOT DOG!" I tried to explain that it was for his sister… no dice. Fit continues. I got the hot dog all ready "Mustard only, please. I'm not Gracie." (She always says that. Apparently her not being Gracie explains her choice of hot dog condiments.)

Then I begin heating up Chinese for my middle daughter. Then – I'm sure you'll be shocked by this turn of events – Colin threw himself on the floor and began screaming "NO NOODLES! NO NOODLES!!" I explained that this was for his sister, but – as you might have guessed – it made no difference. I decide to ignore him and let him calm down.

So his sisters were sitting down at the table eating their meals and Colin notices that he's missing out of food. (CLEARLY he takes the food very seriously.) He climbs up into a chair, looks at me and sweetly says, "Hot dog, peeze, Mama!"

And his newest thing? "Don't want to."

"Colin, eat your lunch."
"Don't want to."

"Colin, its 3am. Go to sleep."
"Don't want to."

"Colin, tell your sister you're sorry for hitting her."
"Don't want to."
"You hurt her. You need to say that you are sorry."
"Don't want to."
"It doesn't matter if you want to.  You need to."
"Nope. Don't want to."

I may not make it until he's three.

I can't remember where I found this recipe, but I made this last week and it was a such a big hit that I have to share it. I can't even find the recipe, so its from memory! Sorry! It will turn up eventually.

Pork Chops with Pineapple Salsa

4 pork chops, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 lg can of pineapple chunks, mostly drained
1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
1/2 to 1/4 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed, diced (depending on how much heat you want)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

1. Grill or saute pork chops until cooked through. Set aside. (I made mine the day before after I grilled our dinner, so they were all ready)

2. Heat pineapple, onion and (if using) pepper in a large saute pan, 2-3 minutes, add cilantro. Let stand for a few minutes to let flavors blend.

3. Serve with rice.

Swim diapers are not water tight.

So when your son pees as you're carrying him through the house, you end up looking like this:

And then you get to clean your floor.

Good times.

Saturday morning, we piled the kids into the car bright and early and headed out to Lancaster. It’s so close, but I’m sad to say that we don’t make it out there nearly enough. It was a fantastic weekend! I think the pictures will tell the story far better than I can:

We started out at the famous Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Our kids love breakfast, so we get our money’s worth at places like this. I’m surprised we don’t have our picture next to the cash register or something.

Gracie had a terribly healthy breakfast, consisting mostly of sugar. Note the M&M pancake the size of her head and the donut (with frosting and sprinkles). She topped it all off later on with an Icee. Yes, an Icee. This is what happens when you send one of your kids out into a smorgasbord with your husband. And, of course, she chowed down on the breakfast meats. We eat our money’s worth at these places in bacon alone.
The rest of us had healthier fare. My only complaint about Shady Maple was the bacon thief that kept showing up at our table…

Then we headed off to Strasburg Railroad. We pulled into the parking lot and Colin basically started screaming “CHOO CHOO!! MAMA! DADDY! CHOO-CHOO!!” and trying to get out of his car seat.

He was a little excited.

So we climbed aboard (some of us practically jumped) and settled into our seats to enjoy a ride through Lancaster County farmlands in a gorgeously restored coach car.

 


Actually, I think this picture pretty much sums up how Colin felt about the Railroad:

After our ride, we enjoyed exploring  all around the Strasburg Railroad,
including introducing our kids to one of our childhood favorites –
those little candy dots that come on a long piece of paper. Remember those? So fun! And, just so you know, eating these little candies takes
great concentration when you are two years old and will keep a child quite busy
and quiet for an extended period if time. If you were looking for such
a thing… not that we were.

Ahem.

Anyway, we piled pack into the car and headed over to what several friends told me was a ‘must see’ in Lancaster, the Choo Choo Barn, which is a 1,700 square foot model train that takes you through everything from famous Lancaster landmarks to a fully animated circus!

Its THOMAS! “Tommeee, Tommeee!!”

And we topped off our visit to the Thomas’ Trackside Station. Where Colin pretty much went insane with joy.

We dragged him out after spending surprisingly little (he fell in love with a ball that was only $2.50. Nice.) We headed over to spend the night in our amazing hotel, the DoubleTree Resort Lancaster/Willow Valley, which even had a water park inside!  It was a super fun day, but we were all asleep by 9pm – including Mommy and Daddy! We made it home this morning, where Colin and Daddy promptly made the must humongous train track ever in Colin’s room. I’m not sure he’s left it all day!

I can’t believe we hadn’t made it out to Strasburg yet, but I am so glad that we did. I can’t wait to take Colin back for the Thomas Train (where he’ll probably just about pass out from excitement) and wouldn’t that train ride be gorgeous in the fall? Dinner aboard the train would be such a neat date if you were going out to Lancaster for a little romantic getaway.

disclosure: we were provided with tickets to strasburg railroad and choo choo barn free of charge. as always, all opinions are our own.

We're focusing on the kidlets this week for Fashion Friday. Mine are headed back to school Monday after next  (WOOT!) so I've been going through their clothes and figuring out what they need for the new school year.

A few looks my girls will be wearing this year:

1. Jeggings: I bought both girls the Medium Wash and Dark Wash Jeggings at Target last week for only $12.99! (And this week they're only $10!)

They love them! They are terrific for those
kids who don't really like jeans (like my girls) because of the
buttons/snaps and zippers. They have the comfort of leggings but the
look and durability of jeans. Perfect!

2. Cardigans: We're all about the layers around here. Gracie picked out this Zip Hoodie while Ellie went for this Layering Cardigan. Ohmyword, does this Jayna Cotton Cardigan come in my size? Look at this:

3. Boots: Both of my girls love boots, especially their "Fuzzy boots" which they wear all the time:

OHMYGOSH these ruffled tall boots are so cute! So are these Geox Peggy boots.

4. Tunics: Because you need something to go with the Jeggings! Gracie just got this Pierced Ruffle Dress from Target:


How cute is that? She's been wearing it with her jeggings. I also love this adorable ruffle dress from Old Navy – very Gracie – and Ellie would love this Button Sleeve Dress from GapKids. and this Striped Rugby Dress from Ralph Lauren.

Speaking of Ralph Lauren, have you seen the Ralph Lauren fall line? Its so adorable. They have a cute storybook called the RL Gang – and each child in the book has a unique style, so you can easily find things for your child's clothes personality. My daughter Gracie is totally Mae – girly girly girl! – while Ellie is Willow – comfy, no frills.
I could totally see Gracie wearing something like this Marielle Dress on the first day of school:

With those ruffles, this is so her style! And she would totally need some matching leggings so "no one will see my panties on the monkey bars!" She's my little lady!
Now Ellie, she hates dresses and skirts, but loves tunics and leggings and scooters. So am much as I would KILL to put her in this Ruffled Polo Dress, I'm not sure she would wear it. She'd be more likely to wear these Liam Chino Shorts with a t-shirt.  But for fall, I would love to  get her this Courtney Fleece Dress:

Sooo, its basically a super cute, really long sweatshirt! Brilliant! She would wear this all the time with some cute leggings and her Uggs.

Ralph Lauren is offering Girlymama readers 10%-off full price Ralph Lauren Children’s and Baby products on their website. Use code RLG_GIRLYMAMA – its only good TODAY so hurry over and pick up some classics for your child's wardrobe!

For more fashion friday posts, check out Musings of a Housewife and Mommies with Style!

disclosure: some of these are affiliate links. i am a ralph lauren ambassador and received this discount code to share with my readers, but was not compensated for this post.

So Colin is sick with croup and I'm going on my 4th night of terrible sleep. I think I've gotten – at most – 5 hours of (non-continuous) sleep a night over the past few days. Colin is sleeping for maybe two hours at a time – the other night he was up until midnight, then up from 2-4, then woke up for the day at 6:30. Now he's so overtired he can't fall asleep. He just screams. Its super fun. There is a reason I am drinking pretty much nothing except was has caffeine. Mama needs her sleep and I'm about to hit the crazy wall.

You moms know what I mean by the crazy wall. We can go for a long time with very little sleep. We're a little out-of-it, but we're functioning (with copious amounts of caffeine) at a fairly normal level. You can go like this for a few days, usually.

Then you hit the wall.
The "I need sleep" wall.
The "I am this close to losing it" wall.
The "Why do these children keep bothering me" wall.
The 'If I don't get sleep soon, something bad will happen" wall.
The "Lets hide from Mommy in our rooms" wall.

I'm so there today. I am so exhausted that I'm no longer functioning properly. I'm completely spacey, I have zero ability to focus, I have a headache, my whole body is aching… and I'm definitely not going to win any parenting awards today. Unless its for "Least Patience" or maybe "Most Easily Annoyed."

So today I'm taking a nap. I have tons of work to do, but I don't care. I'm putting Colin down for a nap, putting in a movie for the girls and sleeping until its done.

I was so excited to be a part of the Chevy Roadtrip to BlogHer program. So on Thursday before BlogHer, Jo-Lynne, Robin and I piled our mounds of luggage into the new 2011 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid (I called driving first. Because I'm quick like that.) and headed up to New York City.

Don't I look so super adorable? I know. This car is my color 😉

Anyway, by some strange aligning of the planets, there was no traffic in New Jersey (weird, right?) and next thing I knew, I was driving through the Lincoln Tunnel. Which, if you didn't know, comes right out in New York City. So I went from driving down a nice highway to driving in the middle of NYC.  Now – if you didn't know, the Tahoe is a rather large vehicle. And NYC has just a few cars. And several buses. And approximately eleventy billion taxis, all of which are in a hurry and have horns.

My knuckles were white. I kid you not. Ask Jo-Lynne or Robin, who fluctuated between being very supportive as I navigated through the 6 lanes of traffic trying not to lose a side mirror and laughing hysterically at me. What can I say, they're true friends.

I made it to the hotel, thanks to OnStar, and I am proud to say I only swore twice and the car did not even have a single scratch. I immediately called my husband and bragged about what I accomplished. And he didn't believe me.  But I have witnesses to back me up.

Now Chevy didn't ask me to write a review, but I have to say that the Tahoe was gorgeous. The ride was smooth and very quiet, especially when
driving in Hybrid mode.  It was so fun to drive and remarkably easy to maneuver, despite its size. Its a big one! I loved the dashboard and how logically it was laid out – everything was easy to access in the drivers seat. 

There were a few minuses: The MSRP “starts” at $50,000, and the list price of the one we drove was $56,000.  Wow. I also found the brakes took some getting used to and there wasn't as much storage room as I would have thought a vehicle of that size would have. It would be hard to fit three kids and all of our stuff in the Tahoe without taking out the third row seats. I mean, this was just three adults:

(Granted it was three women going to BlogHer, but still…)

We probably wouldn't consider the Tahoe for our family – my husband is the one who is starting to look to replace his car. Since we already have a minivan, this would be a lotta car for one family! We'll have to check out the Traverse or maybe the Equinox. We'd love a small SUV so we'd have 4 wheel drive and room for all three kids.

I don't think I've ever tried bison, but my husband has been a huge fan ever since his business trip to Montana. (Which is apparently where the buffalo roam, because I think he ate it every meal while he was there, including breakfast.) Now our local farmers market sells (non-organic) bison, but I confess that I've never gotten the gumption to try it out.

So when High Plains Bison offered to send me some bison meat to try, I jumped at the chance. Not for me, but because I knew my husband would be thrilled. A Styrofoam container
arrived at our door a few days later, filled with gourmet bison steaks, sausage and
hot dogs.

I was so surprised at how healthy bison is. According to the website, bison is "naturally lean and lower in saturated fat than beef, chicken, pork, or
even salmon. The dense proportion
of protein, fat, mineral, and fatty acids to caloric value make bison
one of the more nutrient-dense meats available today." We grilled up the lot the other night and we were not disappointed:

Everything was delicious.  The kids gobbled up the bison hot dogs, then started begging for some of our steak. Which we grudgingly gave them teeny-tiny pieces of, because it was amazing. I only seasoned the steak with salt – nothing else – and they were fabulous. My husband knows steak – having visited some of the country's best steak houses on business trips – and he said he could not believe how excellent these steaks were!

Now note that because bison is so much leaner than beef, it require slightly different
cooking techniques.  High Plains Bison has many
recipes on their site, and the packages came with 
instructions as well.  So don't just throw it on the grill like a regular steak – bison only takes about 1/3 the time to cook and you'll end up with a burnt mess! 

High Plains Bison is offering Girlymama readers 20% off their orders with the code EATGOOD22.   Although you will add the code on the cart page, the discount does not
show up until the billing page, so don’t be alarmed if you don’t see it
right away.

Colin's new hobby is spitting.