Randoms

I love my church! We officially launched our morning service last week and I still can't decide which service I want to go to. I don't want to miss anything! Yes, I realize they are the exact same service, but twice is always nice. Don't worry I'll decide at some point and I won't force Tommy to go to the same thing twice in one day. But for now, all he knows is that he gets to play with playdough, hear a Bible story, eat goldfish, drink juice, and play on the bridge two times on Sunday. Not a bad deal.

I can't wait for small group tonight. Those ladies are so great and I love the time I get to spend with them. And we're doing dessert tonight. Yes, that always makes it even better.

Dorsi and I have this little game that she plays. When she's outside and ready to come in, she barks incessantly. I open the door and tell her to come in. She doesn't and just keeps on barking. I close the door for a brief second, open it up again, and offer her a cookie (dog treat... yes I know I'm reinforcing bad behavior). The bribe usually gets her in. We're currently out of cookies and I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I tried opening the door and closing it multiple times (that works a lot too), offering her various treats, and pleading with her to stop barking. She didn't. Finally, Tommy got up, opened the door and in his diaper and paci said "Dorsi, come here girl!" And she waltzed right in. He's on Dorsi duty from now on.

It's about time for me to go to the gym. I have energy and I'm not craving an unhealthy snack. However, it's absolutely pouring down rain outside and I can't find our umbrella. So now I'm forced to sit here until the rain slows down, during which time I might lose all desire to go to the gym. Aaah!

To Gym or Not to Gym

Tommy's taking a nap, Dean's home watching TV and resting up for tomorrow, and even Dorsi is snoring in her kennel (with the door open- she just likes to be in there and I don't really understand why). This is my chance to get to the gym. At this very moment I'm psyching myself up for a good jog/walk (a wog, if you will) on the treadmill while watching something at least somewhat entertaining on my own little personal TV (I love my gym, it has all that fun stuff). Then I'll do some weights and stretch and all the other things that you're supposed to do at the gym. And I'll feel really great afterward.

But for some reason I really want to just stay here and sleep. And eat potato chips. Wait, we don't have potato chips. Well, I can run to Walgreens (which happens to be right next door to the gym) and get some. Or I can make some cookies and eat them. Yes, I'm letting you in on a little secret of mine: every time I get a chance to work out I have this inner struggle in my mind. Every single time. Yesterday I went with sleeping and potato chips. But today...

I better go, I'm off to the gym now.

Aaaahhhhhh....

Today's been a good day so far. Tommy and I spent the morning at the Museum of Florida History with my friends Jen and Danielle and their little ones, Karsyn, Lila, and Mackenzie. Lots of fun there, only a couple meltdowns. The funniest thing was that before we got there all he could talk about was the "elephant" (which was a skeleton of a mastadon found in Wakulla Springs, not too far away... very cool) and the train. Obviously a giant mastadon is a bit hard to miss, so we found that one right away, but he still kept talking about the train and how he wanted to go see it. I looked at the visitor's guide and it said nothing about a train so I just figured he was confused. But as we were walking through the 20th Century Florida exhibit, low and behold, there was a display case that was about 2 feet by 4 feet. It was a model of Silver Springs, featuring the tugboats and paddleboats and kind of on the side, not doing anything, was a train. I think it had about 6 cars on it and it didn't actually move, but he was mesmerized. One of the meltdowns was getting him to leave the train. That's my boy.

When I got home with him, we got ready for a nap, I took a nice hot shower, and swiffed the floor. I was about to empty the dishwasher when I saw that my fabulous husband had come home while we were gone and emptied it for me. Thanks Dean!!! That totally made my day. Now I have 35 minutes before piano lessons and a clean house, so I'm curling up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate. Yes, you read that right. I'm having hot chocolate in August. But it's been raining all day long and I think a good mug of cocoa is called for in this situation. So bring on the rain!

Gooooooood Morning!

Warning: This post is not for the faint of heart or the sick of stomach.

This morning I walked out of our bedroom and was greeted by the distinct aroma of... poop. I knew it wasn't Dorsi because she was in the room with us (although she did eat an entire bag of dog treats last night, so it wouldn't have surprised me). As I turned on my coffee maker, I heard Tommy starting to open his door. This was another odd sign because he usually stays in bed until I go in his room and get him (it's awesome, I have no idea why he started doing that, but I'm not about to stop him). When I opened the door I almost passed out from the odor. I said "Oh my, I think I smell something poopy!" (understatement) His response?

"I pooped-ed all over my bed. But it's ok, I cleaned it up with my blanket."

There was poop all over his bed and bedding, on the back of his pants, and on the bottom of his shirt. So when I started undressing him of course the poop spread all over him. Lovely. I managed to get everything off of him (while dropping piles on the floor... I told you this was gross) and got him into the bath. He was scrubbed from head to toe and played happily while I cleaned and sanitized and deodorized his room. Thank goodness for Febreeze!

All of this was before 8:30 this morning. I hope that's the extent of my excitement for the day!

Gotta Love Those Imagination Movers!

Besides eating vegetables, what's the toughest thing to get a three-year-old to do? Clean his room, of course! Unless you're watching Imagination Movers, on the Disney Channel. I had begged and pleaded with Tommy to clean the disaster area that was his room last night and this morning and I finally gave up, figuring it would probably get clean sometime before he went to kindergarten. We went out in the living room and were watching Mover Scott, Mover Dave, Mover Rich, and Mover Smitty. They had to clean the warehouse (maybe I watch this show a bit too much?) and came up with this cute little ditty. About 15 seconds into it, Tommy goes "Mommy, let's go clean my room now, just like the Imagination Movers!" And before I could say anything he was making a mad dash for his room.

I wanted to help the rest of the frustrated parents out there and since I couldn't find it on YouTube or anywhere else online, here's the audio clip. It's called "Clean My Room". Enjoy and I hope your toddler sprints to clean their room as well!

Never Give Up (or If You're Going To Pick a Battle, You Better Win)

I've been trying really hard to get Tommy to eat healthy lately. It's not that easy. Not only does he not enjoy vegetables, but he thinks he makes all the rules and runs the show in this house. The other night I made a really good vegetable soup (containing carrots, green beans, corn, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, barley, celery, and onions). He decided he didn't want any and so I told him that if he didn't eat that, he wouldn't eat anything that night. That seemed fine with him so he went to play while Dean and I ate. Of course later on that night he wanted a popsicle after his bath. I reminded him that he didn't eat his soup and so he could have nothing else until he ate it (I should have just made him go to bed because he didn't eat the soup when I told him to, but we'll get there someday). I gave him two options. He could either eat his soup and then have a popsicle, or he could brush his teeth and get ready for bed. His response?

"No, I'm going to play with my fire trucks and then eat a popsicle."

He kept coming up with "compromises" like this but I stuck firm. Finally when I got his toothbrush out to brush his teeth, he agreed to eat his soup. So I let him. I didn't even warm it up. He had a pretty full bowl in the beginning and this is what I was left with.



I told him that Hulk Hogan eats all his vegetables and that with each bite he gets bigger Hulk Hogan muscles. So here he is showing off his Hulk muscles. All because I stuck firm in that he could have nothing else until he ate it. Woo hoo!

Fall Cleaning

I've been doing some fall cleaning lately. I wish I could say I'm a clean freak. Or that I can't stand clutter. Well, I guess I can't stand clutter, but I don't hate it enough to eradicate it all the time. However, I had finally had it and so I tackled our bedroom the other day. We had to get a new comforter set because Dorsi had completely destroyed the other one (she's no longer allowed on the bed...she hates our new comforter). So of course when you get new bedding you want to show it off! Since then my allergies have been going nuts but at least the bedroom and bathroom are clean. And I'm getting some lean pork chops all ready to put in the crock pot for dinner tonight. This is one of those days where I really feel like I have it all together. I even cleaned out my e-mail inbox! But then I walked into Tommy's room and this is what I saw.



Apparently he's not a clean freak either.

Move over Seinfeld

So my son's a little comedian. It's actually a great thing because I read that one of the many possible outcomes of his lack of a corpus calossum is not understanding humor. When I read this nearly 3 years ago, I was really crushed. I mean, we have a pretty funny family and I would hate for Tommy to miss out on all that! I figured it wasn't going to be a problem for him as he developed his little personality (which is really funny), but last week he proved that he totally gets humor. He came up with his own joke. A knock-knock joke, nonetheless. It goes something like this:

"Knock knock"

"Who's there?"

"Orange" (you think you know where this is going by now, but he's gonna fool you... wait for it...)

"Orange who?"

"You!"

And then he breaks out into hysterics. And if you don't, he'll inform you that now is the appropriate time to laugh. Just ask his uncle Todd.

So maybe I don't exactly get the joke, but I'm just impressed he came up with one in the first place!

Catch-Up

It's been a few days since I've blogged and I've received some grief about it. But things have been slightly crazy since Saturday and so I figured I'd give a brief catch-up session of our weekend.

We had a great time doing the family birthday party thing for Tommy on Saturday night. I made him a Mickey cake which actually didn't turn out that bad. It seemed like it was Christmas, this kid got so many gifts! He was slightly overwhelmed by all the presents and at one point he did cry when we didn't let him watch one of the movies he had just opened then and there. But he got over it. The big present of the night was his McDonald's kitchen. It's a drive-through and it's really cute. And now I think his dream in life is to work at the Golden Arches. Oh gracious. But all day long he takes our orders and makes us food. I joked that yesterday he worked an 8 hour shift.


Sunday we started our day by having his friend birthday party at Zoinks. He had a blast, won more tickets than I thought possible (thanks to his uncles being addicted to the "Deal or No Deal" game), and decided that birthday parties are awesome.




We then headed home, put him to bed for his nap, and I rushed out the door to be at church by 3 because I was playing in the band for the 2 year anniversary service for The Well. It was absolutely incredible. There were lots of people, especially considering the college students aren't even back yet. Dean did an amazing job (as always) and we completely packed out Shane's Rib Shack for the after dinner. I'm so thankful for my church!!

So now we're getting back into the swing of things. I'm getting ready to crank out piano lessons in full swing (I'm up to 20 students now!) and Tommy will be heading back to his Mother's Morning Out preschool thing in a couple weeks. Yay! And I'll be blogging more regularly once we get back on a routine. I promise.

Birthday Weekend

This is a very busy and exciting weekend in the Inserra household. It's birthday weekend. Today is my little buddy's birthday... he's 3! I actually started celebrating two days ago because that's when they induced me and 3 years ago yesterday I was in labor all day(2 nights in the delivery room has to be some kind of record). And three years ago right now I was still in labor. Tommy made his grand entrance finally at 12:04 PM, right in time for lunch. If they wouldn't have used suction, I might still be pushing now. I found out later that the doctors were huddled around my monitor at the nurse's station (or wherever a central monitor is), taking bets on when I would finally have this kid. But he's here now!

I went in his room to get him this morning reminded him that today is finally the day that he's three. He's still getting the concept of changing ages and having a birthday all day. So when it clicked that his birthday is right now, he was really excited... and then came the first meltdown of the day when he expected birthday cake. Right now. It was 7:30 am. I reminded him he'd get it later. It'll be a long day for him!

We're taking him to Coosh's for beignets this morning and then he'll celebrate with Dean's grandma at the assisted living place before lunch and a nap. Then my parents will be in town this afternoon and we'll have a family party tonight at Me Me and Be Be's. Lots of fun.

Another big celebration in our family is the Well's 2 year anniversary. The service is tomorrow night at 5:30 and it's gonna be awesome. If you're anywhere in the area you need to come. If you're not in the area, you need to get over here and come. This is a service not to be missed. More on that tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Tommy!

Tommy's New Pet

After Dorsi and I went for our walk this morning, I opened the door to the garage to get her some food. When I got to her food container thing, something caught my eye behind it. Staring up at me was a toad about 3 inches long (and across... perfectly round). It was creamy color with black spots. GROSS! I did what anyone would do. I quickly got the food and ran back inside, slamming the door.

Then I realized that at some point before this toad finally croaks (haha, funny joke) someone in my household will be opening that door to the garage again and they might possibly leave it open for more than a few seconds, giving froggy a perfect opportunity to come explore the inside of the house. Even grosser. Or maybe this is a pregnant toad and is looking for a nice place to lay her eggs. By this point I'm totally freaking out. So I girded my loins (I've never used that expression before, but it seemed appropriate here) and went back into the garage, armed with a large plastic rake. The plan was to open the garage door to the driveway and assist the toad in exiting the premises.

I opened the door, grabbed the rake, and held my breath as I tried to find my new friend. I'm not sure why I held my breath, but it seemed to help me remain courageous. I found the toad and gently tried to coax it toward the door. Instead, it jumped on the rake and I screamed silently (Tommy was still sleeping). I flicked it off and watched as it got trapped near a bag of books. And peed. Yes, my little friend was urinating all over my garage floor. Near my stuff. That I will now proceed to burn.

Before I could push him toward the open garage door and freedom, he jumped toward the pile of Tommy's stuff that he's outgrown. And I lost sight of him.

So now there is a somewhat large toad somewhere in our garage, probably peeing more. If I pull out one of Tommy's old toys one day and there's a gross dead frog, I may pass out.

Cooking Part 2

I'm still chewing on this whole lost art of cooking thing (no pun intended). Thankfully in my family, it's never been a lost art. I've been blessed to have a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother who love to cook (my great grandmother passed away about 15 years ago at the age of 98, but I hear she could cook it down in her day). And we're also all naturally packrats, so it's no surprise that my mom just found a program from a cooking school that my great grandmother attended back in 1937.

At any given time in my parents' house, you can find either my mom or grandmother cooking something. And there's usually something yummy (and fattening) baking in the oven. We didn't eat out that much growing up and I never thought anything of it. Now when I go back to Ft. Lauderdale and see all the incredible restaurants and realize how many of them I've never been to, I wonder why. But it's because most of our meals were home cooked.

Unfortunately I've gotten a bit lazy and I'm not a huge fan of cooking for just Tommy and I when Dean can't be here (he has meetings at night a lot). But I'm trying to get better about that. And I also live about 6 minutes away from my mother-in-law, who is always cooking delicious meals for us, so it's easy to get lazy about cooking for just us. Back when we lived in Louisville and had no money and no family there, I cooked just about every night. And lots of those nights we had at least a few of the football players from the University of Louisville over, so I had to cook A LOT of food. And I was so good about going through my cookbooks and making sure I made a new recipe at least once a week that I'd never tried before. I need to jump back on that train. It was way more fun to cook when I was trying to be inventive. Maybe I should just take a cookbook and make each recipe. Dean wouldn't be too keen on that though.

Is It Officially A Lost Art?

Dean showed me this article and I had to post the link and get some feedback. First of all, I'm really excited to see this movie, so that makes the post even more fun. I am one who loves to cook, but I don't do it as much as I want to. I thoroughly enjoy cooking from scratch, although it can be more convenient to buy pre-made stuff. But way more expensive too. What do you think?

While you mull over this, I'll be making my sauce for lasagna tonight.

Potty Training: Round 2

The last few weeks, I've been psyching myself and Tommy up for potty training, Round 2. You may recall, Round 1 was a complete disaster and may not even deserve to be called Round 1. So this time we went all out. We got non-carpeted floors, bought new big boy pants (he had outgrown the last ones), printed out a potty chart, got the Smartees all ready for bribery, and have just been generally pumped about the whole thing. Yesterday wasn't terribly successful, as he wouldn't sit on the potty at all until the afternoon, but he did manage to dribble a bit into the potty (the rest wound up on his pants... that's ok, still a success). Today I was totally that mom that camps her kid in front of the TV all day, sitting on the potty chair. We went through 4 pair of underwear, and wiped up 3 or 4 pee pee messes on the floor (one of which he slipped and fell in and I had to try not to laugh; I feel terrible). But again, he did manage to dribble the slightest bit into the potty chair. Tomorrow we're trying again. He hates it, but I'm determined. This child will be potty trained! Any advice is much appreciated!