Firsts

The Peanut has been busy the last couple of weeks. He has traveled to Omaha for his great-grandpa's funeral, which allowed him to meet many of his extended family members on his daddy's side for the first time. He was able to see some of his cousins and aunts from Utah as well as his grandma Holly and great-grandma Bette. He also was stung by a bee for the first time. He was pretty brave actually as I nervously watched the sting swell on his cheek and fully expected his airway to close at any moment. Luckily, he's not allergic to bee stings.... now we know.

The Peanut has also been spending alot of time at the zoo. He and his daddy have lots of fun at the zoo. The animals.... maybe not so much...

First Strike

The Peanut and his daddy accompanied me on another work event a couple of weekends ago. One of the things they did to keep themselves occupied while I was away was bowling. It was the Peanut's first time. If you know the Peanut well, you'd know his size kind of gets in the way of him being very coordinated at the moment. Well I think we found something that has potential and is relatively safe until he gains better control over his long limbs.

My Picasso

The Peanut loves to paint. I love that he loves to paint. I love that he loves to paint at school. I know he's painted at school because he comes home with it all over his school clothes. All I have to do is throw those clothes in the laundry.

The Peanut loves to paint at home. I hate that he loves to paint at home. It's alot of preparation for the Peanut to paint at home, not for the Peanut, but for me. He grabs the paint and brushes. I grab the paper plates the paper towel the table size roll of paper the plastic garbage bags and the oversize t-shirt to protect the Peanut's clothes. I also have to supervise the entire creative experience so the paint only stays in the designated carefully protected area. I use extra paper towels cleaning up spills and the inevitable finger prints on the few things the Peanut touches while I'm cleaning up another mess. I think we could actually save a small forest if the Peanut would only care to paint at school.

School Days

Yesterday marked the Peanut's long anticipated First Day of School. You could feel the excitement in the air as the Peanut ate his blueberry pancakes for breakfast and didn't once ask to watch cartoons. Teeth were brushed, hair was combed and the backpack was on. He was ready for school.

When we arrived at the playground amid all the parent-papparazzi, the Peanut chose to stick close by instead of bolting for the slides as is the norm. He patiently waited for the signal to line up with his class and very sneakily skipped the smaller kid in front of him while she was preoccupied with balancing the huge backpack throwing off her center of gravity. With a quick wave goodbye and a frantic last "I love you! and Be a good listener! and Have fun! and I'll be right here when you're done!" (mostly said for my own benefit, not his) it was smiles, one last parent-papparazzi flash... and it was over.

My baby is officially in school. I quickly turn as soon as the Peanut's through the door and avoid lingering with the rest of the parents for fear my positive smiling exterior will fail me. I barely reach the Peanut's favorite 'loop-ty' slide when I feel the betrayal of my tightening throat and quivering chin. A perfectly timed text message of encouragement and support from the Peanut's daddy is all it takes for the tears to catch up to the lump in my throat.

After taking the long way home to collect myself, the 2 1/2 hours pass quicker than I anticipate and I walk faster than is necessary back to the school to wait for the Peanut to appear through the heavy school door to the playground where the parents anxiously await. Somehow even though I know he's just fine without me, I feel a huge sense that I've been holding my breath for the last couple of hours until I see his adorable little head bobbing up and down well above the rest and headed toward me.

He's fine.

He's had a great time.

He's excited to tell me about his day and all the fun he's had.

He can't wait to go back.

"Great! I'm so glad!" I tell him. He runs ahead of me eager to get home and show grandma what he's made in class today... With a sigh of relief and satisfaction I think, 'He made it.'

(And I made it too.)

Labor Day

The Peanut had a fun filled Labor Day weekend to mark not only the end of summer, but the end of the last summer before he heads off to school for the fist time!

105 Years

This weekend is the big 105th Harley-Davidson Anniversary celebration in Milwaukee. In tribute to that, the Peanut took his own 'chopper' out for a spin this morning...

Great Grandpa K

The Peanut's great-grandpa is in the hospital today having surgery to treat esophageal cancer. We just want him to know that our prayers are with him today and "We love you gramps!"

Feel the Love

In my shallow excitement over adding our 'Things We're Nuts About' section, I completely overlooked the 'people' we're nuts about! Which of course are WAY more important :) So you can now find all the people we're nuts about (who choose to give up time in their busy week to blog anyway) listed on the left side of our page.

Things We're Nuts About

I've tried a couple new products out recently, thanks to one of the Peanut's daddy's customers. I LOVE them! So, it inspired me to add a new column to our blog cleverly titled, 'Things We're Nuts About'. My first great finds are hair products, if this doesn't pique your interest, check back, I'm sure we'll have a more diverse list in no time!

Quality Time

So I had a work event this weekend that wasn't too far from home. As I was getting ready to leave last night, the Peanut asked if he could come and hang out at the hotel with me this time. After some pleading with daddy and batting those long, unrefusable eye lashes we consented. Basically we had a 2 1/2 hour road trip, then they swam in the hotel pool while I did some planning for my event by myself in the room. Then this morning I woke up early, worked a great event with over 50 soldiers, no breaks. While I worked, my family swam in the hotel pool again and visited some local small town attractions. By the time we got home and settled back in I was really looking forward to finally spending some time with my family. This is how I found them...

Look Out Little Miss Muffet

The Peanut just finished his Jumpstart to K4 program he took through the rec department this summer. It was basically a 2 week intro to what he would experience in Junior Kindergarten this fall. He LOVED going to school and seeing all his newly acquired friends each day. He made this spider headband on one of his last days. I tried to pack it away with all of his other glue and paper creations from class but he wouldn't have it. He found it to be just what he needed when sitting on the front step and saying 'RAWR' to any innocent person walking past our front door.

School Supplies

The time is quickly approaching when the Peanut will finally be starting school. I say finally not out of my own relief about a mandatory 2 1/2 hour break each week day for me, but because the Peanut has been begging to go for two years now. Ever since he saw the shiny yellow school bus drive by our house one wintry morning filled with red cheeked children weighted down by giant backpacks, he's wanted nothing more than to be counted among their ranks. It was the driving force behind our potty training success.

"Peanut, you can't go to school in diapers. It's not allowed. You have to go pee-pee & poo-poo on the potty."

It resulted in several sits on the toilet throughout the day even if the results of the labor were fruitless just so he could call out, "I'm sitting on the potty! I can go to school now!"

Well, with the new school year upon us I responsibly planned ahead by figuring in some extra money for school supplies into our monthly budget. I naively figured $15 should be plenty for Junior Kindergarten and dutifully entered the amount into the school supply column.

This week I visited our school district's website and printed off the list for the Peanut's K4 class. My immediate thought was.... "What the.. ?" After the initial shock wore off I headed out to our trusty WalMart and began ticking off the items on the list as the Peanut lobbed them into the cart. Helpful as always. Needless to say, after I track down the elusive $6 gel markers the list will be complete. Grand total: $31.10. The Peanut was highly disappointed when at the climax of the shopping trip (picking out a backpack) he was told that Speed Racer was not in the budget. Wait until I tell daddy that thanks to Lincoln Elementary, toilet paper isn't either.

A Bicycle Built For Two

The Peanut loves to go on bike rides. Thanks to a hand me down from his cousins, he no longer has to sit crouched up in the too small bike trailer that his daddy used to pull him around in. We thought he should have to do a little work of his own now that he's a big boy. The kicker... he's kind of hesitant to pedal, he seems nervous about the action of it, but jumping off the bike while still in motion giving anyone riding behind him a heart attack... not a problem.

Vicarious Living

Okay, so in my defense, he ASKED!

Superhero

It's a Bird...

It's a Plane...

It's SUPERAshton!

Just goes to show that behind every great Superhero is a Super Daddy...

And a Super Mommy who ties the Super Cape.

Green Thumb

The Peanut loves to help out in our 'garden'. I guess this is as close as you get in the city.

He has successfully kept alive 2 tomato plants, 2 red pepper plants and a few assorted herbs.

He loves to come out and help pick the basil when we're cooking. Now, how do we convince him that eating leaves off the ground is NOT okay?

Ahhh, the Joys of Youth

The smell of Play-Doh always brings back fond, salty smelling memories of our childhood. I have a feeling it will do the same for the Peanut...


Either that or it will give him an unexplained feeling of connection to Oopah-Loompahs.

Summer Lovin'

The Peanut has a BLAST on warm summer days in our neighborhood kiddie pool. He is an absolute social butterfly following the pool staff around and talking to mommies and their babies.





His swim classes end this week and he is applying his face in the water techniques very well in recreational swimming environments. They include: splashing people who don't want to be splashed, standing under the water spray in the middle of the pool area and laying on his back in the shallowest of water. We take our hats off to the swim teachers at our local rec department. Beijing here we come!

Good Eats

*This recipe has been Peanut Approved. He LOVES this as a snack or even as a quick and tasty breakfast. (The Head Nuts do too!) Yummy!!! Since dried fruits can get pricey pretty quickly, we recently purchased a brand new food dehydrator from Craigslist (for $8) which will allow us to buy fresh fruits and dehydrate our own 'til our hearts content...

-Gotta Have Granola-

4 c. Oats (NOT quick cook or instant)

1 1/2 c. Whole Almonds (shelled but skin on)

1/2 c. Flax Seeds

1/2 c. Lt Brown Sugar (we use Splenda brown sugar)

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1/4 c. Canola Oil

1/4 c. Honey

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 1/2 c. Dried Cranberries*

1 c. Dried Apricots* (cut in halves or quarters)

1/2 c. Dried Banana Slices*

*(substitute dried fruits of your choosing)

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Mix oats, almonds, flax seed, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon in a bowl. In a saucepan warm the oil and honey. Wisk in the vanilla extract. Pour the honey, oil and vanilla mixture over the oat mixture and mix well. I find a spatula works best. Spread granola out on a sheet pan and bake for 40 minutes (stirring half way through). Cool and break up any clumps. Mix in dried fruits (I actually add the fruit before it goes in the oven, but sometimes the apricots can get a little brown). Store in airtight container. Yields 9 cups.

Opa!

This is the Peanut stuffing his face full of sticky, sweet Honey Puffs at Greek Fest...

This is a random guy sporting what the Peanut's daddy describes as the world's longest Mullet, 'business in the front and party in the back' (he was so impressed he had to get a pic)...

This was the safer looking of the carnival death traps that we reluctantly agreed to let the Peanut ride after many minutes of tears and pleading. After proudly handing the carny his ticket and finally getting on the ride that he just HAD to have a turn on, he spent the whole 60 seconds of the $3 adventure yelling, "Get me outta here!"...

This is the Peanut and his daddy, safely reunited and all smiles once again. It's so great to be 4!