Overheard – A Father/Daughter Conversation

Chloe walked over to Devon’s swing and said, “I give it a big push!”

DaddyMort says, “No. You don’t need to play with that.”

Chloe responded, “Yeah. I give big push.”

DaddyMort said, “I said no.”

To which Chloe quickly replied, “I said yes.”

At this point, I started laughing and had to turn away.  But it got better…

DaddyMort calmly responded with, “If you give the swing a big push, you’ll go to time out, because I told you not to.”

Then, in her sweetest voice, Chloe asked, “I give it a little push daddy??”

He was chuckling by this point as well and gave in, giving her permission to do a little push.

I’m Thankful for…

At the end of October I read several blogs that stated they were going to be spending November talking about what they’re thankful for.  Many of my friends on Facebook have posted something daily this month.  I thought this sounded like a fabulous idea, and had good intentions of participating, because I am truly blessed and have so many things to be thankful for, but suddenly it’s November 18th and I have yet to participate.

I have one for you now, and maybe I’ll find time to post about some more before the month is over.  For now though, here’s one thing I’m thankful for:

This is Devon sleeping peacefully.  I have the Fisher Price Newborn Rock ‘n Play Sleeper to thank for that.  We spent the last 7 weeks struggling with getting this boy to sleep.  It’d take us a while, and usually several tries, to get him to sleep in his crib.  Then he would do okay overnight, but would get uncomfortable and congested part-way through the night and we’d end up spending the early morning hours sleeping with him in the recliner.

Not anymore.  This boy slept from 8-1:30, ate, slept until 5, ate and slept until 7 or 8 the last couple nights.  Only getting up twice overnight, and being able to comfortably sleep in my own bed the rest of the night, is pretty okay with me right now.  We can put him down while he’s sleepy, but awake, and he falls asleep on his own.  A-mazing!!

My Cutie Girl*

*This is what she calls herself and her brother is a Cutie Boy.

Before Devon’s arrival I’m not sure I would have thought this was possible, but I think I love Chloe Mae even more now.  Although she’s a handful (what 2.5 year-old isn’t?!?) seeing her interact with her brother makes me so grateful to have such an amazing little girl as my daughter.  Not only is she a sweet big sister, but with the craziness of our life right now, I really make an effort to enjoy the moments I do get to spend with her.  Here are some fantastic Chloe-isms from the last week or so.

-While I was combing her hair the other morning, she said to me, “Elephants no work. I just have plain.”  I stared at her reflection in the mirror for a few seconds trying to figure out what in the world she was talking about.  Then I got it: her underpants, obviously!!  She had been wearing some with elephants that morning, but when she get herself dressed for they day after using the restroom, she was having issues getting them back on, because they got twisted funny.  I’m not allowed to help her get dressed anymore though, in fact, I’m not even allowed in the room, and apparently she grabbed a pair of plain underpants and put those on instead.

-While I was feeding Devon, she was reading books in his room.  She started reading a book, then turned it away from her to face Devon and I, explaining to me that she was reading to him and wanted him to be able to see the pictures.  Then she started turning pages and ‘reading’ what was on each page.

-In that same reading session, she read a book about colors.  I was asking her what color each of the items were (a red apple, blue blueberries…) and when I asked what color the banana was, she enthusiastically said, “White!!”  I paused, then said, “You’re right!!  The part you eat is white.  What color is the peel??”  Immediately she responded with, “Yellow.  I no eat peel.  Peel yucky.”

-Chloe put her coat on while I was loading Devon into his carseat.  She was talking about how her purple coat doesn’t have pockets.  When I looked up at her, she had her hands in her hood.  She informed me that she was putting them their so they wouldn’t get cold.

-When I was making her toast for breakfast, I asked what she wanted on her toast.  She said, “I no want peanut butter.  I no want cinnamon sugar.  I want….I don’t know.”  She looked positively stumped.  Then she suddenly yelled, “Jelly!!”  Whew!!  Glad we got that one figured out 😉

-We have some of our best conversations of the day at breakfast.  Devon is usually dozing in her swing and she’s not cranky from a full day of playing (which is often the case at dinner.)  I asked her what she thought she’d do at MissK’s that day.  Her answer is usually, “Play!!”  but that day she told me they’d go on a walk.  Then she went on the explain who would go – Chloe, MissK and MissK’s daughter, N.  However, she thought that MissK’s son, J, who is Devon’s age, should stay home and told me that the dog would keep him company.  I quickly explained that dog’s can’t watch babies – you need an adult for that.

-This morning at breakfast she told me she didn’t like her friend N.  This is a game they play now when they’re in silly mood, where they say they don’t like something or someone they actually are quite fond of – she’ll often say she doesn’t like purple when she’s in this mood.  She went on to say she didn’t like mommy, daddy or MissK either.  Then she went so far as to say she didn’t like anybody.  So DaddyMort asked if she liked Nanna.  She paused….then in the voice of an exasperated teenager she said, “I like Nanna!!”  DaddyMort and I couldn’t help but laugh.

-When she realized she’d left her skirt at MissK’s last night, she immediately went to her room to get a new skirt.  But just one wouldn’t do, she wanted to put on two.  I told her that wouldn’t work, so of course she had to prove me wrong.  I never got a great picture of it, because she was too busy to stand still for a picture, but I got some good shots of my cutie girl while I was trying.

Pomegranate Cookies?? Yes Please!!

I’ve never eaten a pomegranate before, but when I saw a recipe that used the pomegranate seeds (apparently the only part of it you eat – that shows you how much I knew about pomegranates!!) I thought we’d give them a try.  Pomegranates are packed full of antioxidants and have been shown to help with arthritis, lower blood pressure and help prevent certain kinds of cancer, among other things.  So combine all of those benefits with a cookie and I’m all in.  If you’d like to give them a try, here’s the delicious recipe for you:

Ingredients

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 2/3 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips (we used half semi-sweet, half white chocolate)
• 1 cup pomegranate seeds, patted dry (we got almost exactly 1 cup from our pomegranate)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugars until smooth.
3. Add egg and vanilla; beat on low until well combined.
4. Add flour, baking soda and salt and beat until just combined.
5. Fold in chocolate until evenly distributed.  Then very gently fold in pomegranate seeds.
6. Drop by rounded teaspoons on cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes, until light brown – centers may not appear set.  Remove and let cookies stand 2 minutes on cookie sheets, then cool on wire racks.
7. Enjoy!!

I thought these were delicious cookies.  However, if you can believe I’m saying this, when we make these again, I might cut down a bit on the chocolate and increase the amount of pomegrante seeds.

What recipes to you love that sneak in something healthy??