important life lessons

i yell at my children, more often than i should admit to. but i yell at them with love and the best of intentions. and sometimes, i even yell good and important things at them. yesterday i was shown proof that at least one of them is listening.

i have already learned much about this walking to and from school business. i have learned that the boys are at an age where the school doesn't check if their parents are there before letting them out. in fact, there is a girl in bumble's grade who lives a block further away than us that walks by herself everyday. the boys think this is a  great idea, and want to implement it themselves. i said those famous motherly words: "we'll see."

i have also learned, through trial and error, that dear fish is not up to walking back and forth to the school twice a day. she is best at walking in the morning, and will even run to try and keep up with her brothers. in the afternoon, i push her in her stroller, and let her play on the playground while waiting for the boys to be released. i'm honestly not sure if the afternoon is harder because the walk falls so close to the end of nap time, or if i'm just out of patience for her dawdling at that point in the day. either way, the stroller works.

another thing i have learned is that there is more then on way to get from our house, through the neighborhood, and to school. with the crazy design of the streets, there are a silly number of different routes, but we have been trying to find the fastest. because there was some discussion between my boys and i about which way to go, we took a different path home yesterday afternoon.

it was, in my personal opinion, no shorter than our normal route. it was also not a way i would want to walk to school because of a large hill, but going home meant going down, and i was fine with that. the only plus i see in going that way is that we go past a different playground. thought it wasn't much of a plus yesterday because the slide was too hot to use and there was a spider on the see-saw.

so, instead of getting to play, we all agreed to walk home and eat popsicles. and because my boys are secretly teens and i am totally lame, they decided to run ahead while i slowly pushed their sister home.

and before i could even open my mouth, my dear fish yells "be careful and stay together!" and so they did.

all i could do was smile, because i knew, in spite of all of my doubts and fears of failure, my kids were at least getting the important stuff i was trying to teach them.

"all through the night"

i just realized something recently. my dear and beautiful fish is finally sleeping through the night. and it only just hit me because i also realized that, because she is sleeping all night, i get to sleep all night.

i know it might not seem like a big deal to some, but to those with little kids, you know how big of a deal this is. when babies sleep all night and don't get up for 2am feedings, it seems like such a parenting win. and when little toddlers don't get up and ask for a cup of water and a cuddle, it's just more proof that they're on their way to being a big kid.

now, when my boys were little, i never had a problem with them sleeping all night. i would put them down for bed, and they would stay there until it was time to get up in the morning. it might have had something to do with the fact that they've shared a room since lumpy was just over one and bumble was two, so if one got up they were able to comfort each other. little fish, always sleeping on her own, has been a completely different matter.

when she was little, she never really slept through the night. there were times where she would, but more often than not, she was up. and it wasn't that she was hungry or thirsty, it was just that she would wake up for whatever reason and then she'd need help settling down and going to sleep again. it was even worse when we transitioned her into a toddler bed, because then she'd get up crying and wander through the house until someone found her and put her back in bed. when we were staying with my mom, after we lost our house, she shared a room with my hubby and i, so she got very used to getting up and having us right there. and so, when we finally moved into our new house, it was hard for her to get used to sleeping in her own room in her own big girl bed.

this summer has been a crazy mash of not sleeping "normally." when we'd go places, usually all the kids would sleep together, so fish would have her brothers for comfort. and when people would come and visit, i would let people sleep in her room or in her bed, and have her sleep with my hubby and i. by the end of august, we were practicing our school routine, and so everybody was not only sleeping in their own bed by themselves, they were going to bed early and getting up early.

these last few days are kind of when it all hit me. fish has been going to bed just like her brothers, and she gets up with them in the morning. but she doesn't get up in the middle of the night any more. and no more fighting to go to sleep, with her screaming and crying that she's not tired, or i need to come in and hold her, or just sit and watch her fall asleep. nope, she's sleeping like a big girl, and i am so happy!

it's potty time!

with the boys in school all day, i have more free time. over the summer we were all so busy with reading and writing and all the normal summertime fun, i didn't have much time to get to all the things that i was hoping to do. now that my schedule has opened up a bit, i can focus on some of the important things i was putting off. like helping fish take the big step that will officially (in my mind) turn her from a toddler into a big girl. yeah, it's time to start potty training.

it's not like this is an out-of-the-blue decision. she's shown signs that she's ready. and we have attempted it a few times in the past. but either things got crazy at home or she just stopped being interested, and so i put off really trying until a later time. i really wasn't worried about her not being interested, because she's only 2 and a half, and i can remember the boys didn't bother until they were much older.

we started trying to train bumble just before he turned three. it was a struggle, but that i think had more to do with the fact that i had no idea what i was doing than that he wasn't ready. and it took a while, but he had it down. then we moved and he started having accidents and we had to go through potty training refresher courses.

my dear lumpy was a completely different story. he would watch his brother trying to go, he watched us help bumble through the whole process, he knew exactly what he was supposed to do, he just didn't want to bother. why stop what you're doing and the fun you're having just to go and sit on a funny white seat when going pee in your pants is so much faster and easier? the preschool we sent both the boys two had a daycare of sorts that allowed kids that weren't potty trained, which lumpy joined when he was two. on christmas break they had two weeks off from school, which also happened to be when he turned three. and so, in those two weeks, my hubby and i really forced lumpy to stop being lazy and start going like a big boy. he went from diapers all the time to regular underwear and no accidents all night in two weeks. if ever i need to point to a sign that my youngest boy will always choose the easiest way possible, how he was potty trained is it.

(another story that springs to mind is how he used a calculator to do his simple addition problems for homework once. and the only reason i questioned him is because he finished all 20 problems in less than 5 minutes. maybe he doesn't choose the easiest way so much as he is just lazy. and clever. which is turning into a very dangerous combination.)

anyway, i have a funny feeling that training my fishie will be much like training lumpy. she knows what she needs to do, and she's done it enough times that she's comfortable going. she's even gotten to the point where, once she goes, she comes and tells me when she needs a diaper change if she's ready for one. so, starting today, i am making her go. at least twice an hour i make her sit on her potty chair. and we decided her rewards for going would be temporary tatoos. i'm really pushing this because i've also decided i bought my last box of diapers. i'm not sure what i'll do if she runs through them all, but i believe that it won't be a problem. now that it's just her and i home all day, i can focus on helping her go.

she's clever, just like her brother. and i know she likes to take the easy way out. but i've told her princesses don't use diapers, and if she can stop having accidents, i'll buy her a crown. thankfully it's almost halloween, so i know i can find her one. and an outfit to go with it.

dress rehearsals

the summer is almost over. not by the calender, but by the standard of any family with young kids: school is starting. in fact, for my boys, it starts tomorrow.

that means that starting last week, we've been getting up early. and then earlier and earlier every day until today, when we got up as early as we will need to tomorrow. and we've been practicing not only getting up, but also getting ready. so today was a full dress rehearsal in getting to school on time.

and really, i've needed all this practice as much as the boys, because this year is going to be different. last year i was able to get the boys up and breakfasted and dressed. then i'd grab fish and we'd hop in the car and drive to the bus stop, wait for the bus, and then drive home. i never realized how easy it was that i really only had to worry about getting two people ready to go.

this year they're walkers. which means i can't really get them to their school in my pj's. or i could, but it's a long walk in slippers. it also means that i can't really leave fish in her pj's either, because i'm trying not to look like the trashy family that runs around in sloppy clothes with messy hair. i don't want to embarrass my boys so early into their new school careers, i'll have years for that.

this morning we got up, had breakfast, got dressed, and walked all the way to school. and we actually made it with time to spare! and, just to see how'd she do and how it would go, i let fish walk the whole way. she made it the whole way there and only wanted to be carried when we were 20 yards away from being home.

the boys thought it was great fun getting to walk. lumpy was even up and ready to go before bumble. or he would have been if he hadn't had a small melt down with his shoe laces being in knots. but both boys walked ahead and waited at the corners to cross with fish and i. and my dear littlest even held my hand most of the way.

still, it's the last official day of summer according to them, so i'm letting them take it easy. no work books or reading today, just games and cartoons. poor fish is happy with an easy day too, walking more than a mile just after breakfast has her laying on the couch, ready for a nap. hopefully tomorrow goes just as smoothly.

and it will, i'm sure. as long as it doesn't rain. because i don't think we have enough umbrellas for everybody.

stupidly easy cinnamon rolls

after a bit of crazy and a lot of absence, i am hoping to get back into this posting thing. school starts in two days, and with that comes a pretty solid routine that allows for some free time during the day. still, i have found the time to play with sugar and my oven, and i figured i'd try to put things back to normal by sharing my latest experiment.

i've been going through my pantry and fridge and freezer, marveling at all the random things i've purchased for recipes that i never made. there are cans of things and odds and ends of so much stuff that i feel i really need to start using more and wasting less. not that the stuff in the pantry gets wasted, because it has such a long shelf life, but the stuff in the fridge sometimes languishes in a dark corner on the bottom shelf, and when i pull it out i cringe at the long passed expiration date.

like the last time i went grocery shopping, i bought apples, and when i brought them home i put them in the crisper drawer. it's sad to say it's been so long since i've bought something to put in that drawer, i didn't realize i had a tube of crescent rolls stashed there. ones that had expired a few weeks ago. and i just happened to find this tub of dough a few days ago, but i left it in there because i kept thinking it might still be kind of good.

i know this might sound gross to some people, and might make them change their minds about eating things i make, but honestly, when the food in question is so processed with chemicals, as long as it doesn't smell sour or look off, i figure it will still be ok to cook with. and especially when it's something that's baked, it'll be cooked thoroughly, and the most that happens is that the leavening agent is so old it doesn't puff up like it should.

and so, after thinking for a few days about what exactly i should do with this magical tube of fun, i settled on something different that i wanted to try. and when i searched for recipes to try, i couldn't find any. which just meant i'd have to make it up as i went along.

i love cinnamon rolls, always have, always will. when we went to the beach a few weeks ago, there were coupons for the recently constructed cinnabon, but i was very bummed that i was unable to find it. and i have made different versions of cinnamon rolls of the years. i've made the standard yeast version that i talked about in my old post. i've made ones with biscuit dough. and today, i used creasent roll dough.

seriously, i have no idea why i've never done this earlier. all i did was pop the dough out of the tube and put it on a piece of wax paper so it wouldn't stick to my count. parchment paper would work, as would a rolling mat, or even some flour sprinkled down (but i was feeling lazy and didn't want to clean flour from everywhere). then i rolled it out it help close the seems and make a bigger rectangle. i actually had to put another piece of wax paper on top of the dough because it was so sticky, but i think it was extra sticky because it was so old. once it was nice and thin, i spread soft butter and sprinkled over cinnamon and sugar. then i rolled it up and cut it into 12 pieces, put it into a well greased 8x8 pan and baked it. because i couldn't find another recipe like this one (and there might be one out there because i didn't look very hard), i baked it at 375, which is kind of my standard baking temp. and, as my mother says, i baked until done, which meant golden brown and delicious.

i used probably way more butter and sugar than i needed, and it baked out of the bottom of the rolls. once cool, this just gave them a crunchy, crusty, sugared bottom. and i liked them enough like that so i didn't even bother with an icing glaze. they didn't puff up much, but i wasn't really expecting them to. i think if i ever try to make these again, i'll use the new creasent sheets they came out with, that don't have the perforation to make rolls. then i could skip the rolling pin step and get them into the oven in less then five minutes. all in all, not bad for for a random recipe i made up on the fly to try and waste less.