California Livin'

We've been have lots of adventure during our stay in California! Here are a few moments we thought to capture on, well it's not really film any more, um digitally?

Starting off in San Fransisco.

Nose bumps from Daddy are always needed.

Kisses for Mommy are always appreciated.

A cruise around the bay gave us a beautiful new perspective.

We went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. I had no idea that Gilroy was the garlic capital of the world!

A hat that I loved but couldn't justify buying, where in Oregon am I going to wear a hat like that?!?

Introduction to face painting.

She is still talking about the butterflies on her cheeks!

Waiting for a roller coaster, for the second time! It was hard to keep her off them!

She loves to swing!

A zebra ride to finish off our trip to Happy Hollow!

We will have more adventures soon. We've laying low due to potty training but we're going to visit the redwoods and Santa Cruz. I'm so excited to see an actual California beach!

Light at the end of the tunnel

This week we started potty training, believe everything you have ever heard about it. It has been one of the most frustrating experiences I have ever been through, and I have no one to blame but myself (and perhaps some false advertising, do NOT believe any title that boasts potty training in a day. Really thought I was more savvy then that, but I guess we believe what we want).
For those of you who know me well you know that I have a tendency to be somewhat of a perfectionist, that might even be an understatement. It borders on a unhealthy need to have things just so, to have things go according to plan, to be in my control. It can be a blessing when things turn out as I hope, but I also used to list it as a weakness on applications. It causes me a great deal of emotional stress sometimes, usually needlessly since no one else is as concerned with the outcome as I am. I guess I sweat the small stuff is another way to say it. I am very adaptable to the big stuff, like cancer, or things that I cannot control. I have a zen approach to people around me, I can't control them so I won't worry about their actions, just mine and how I react to them. But when it comes to me and what I do, well I have high expectations.
Becoming a mother has seriously helped me to put myself into check. I cannot, nor do I wish to control this little being that we created. I have strived to create an environment for her where she feels completely comfortable in her successes and mistakes. Mistakes are how we learn after all. In wanting to create this environment for her it has also forced me to make the same environment for myself. She learns by watching me and if she sees me lose my composure after something not turning out how I wished or giving up on something because I would rather not do it at all than not do it perfectly, well than that's not a very good example. I have had to teach myself that mistakes are not only a part of life but often the best parts of life. Think of all of the wonderful inventions we have today because of mistakes.
Anyway this past week has forced me to reevaluate my expectations several times over, daily. I have the completely unbiased opinion of a mother that I have the smartest female child to ever walk the earth, she should have picked up potty training in an hour!
The end of day one found me exhausted but otherwise satisfied. We tried the potty every 15 minutes (thanks to juice boxes and salty snacks), had two accidents and a fair amount of fun. I had been warned that the second day would be much harder, so I prepared myself. I also decided to accelerate the training, mistake number one. Instead of pumping her full of juice and salty snacks all day I switched her back to water and her normal diet. It's much harder to teach a child how to use the potty when they don't need to go. That day found me almost in tears, her in tears, me in a literal timeout, me cleaning poop off the floor and both of us sick of the bathroom.
Yesterday found us in a similar fashion with me close to grabbing a diaper and giving up. After a phone call with a friend, who has talked me down from a meltdown more often than I think she knows, I relaxed. I relaxed my very unrealistic expectations of my child being potty trained overnight, I relaxed my need for her to not eat junk and drink sugar for a few days, and I relaxed my mind that if I reward her with gummies instead of stickers it is not going to give her a lifetime of unhealthy eating habits (yes that is honest peek into my mind, yes I know it's crazy. God bless my family and friends for not laughing at me constantly when I voice my numerous worries). I reintroduced the juice and snacks, I brought out the gummies (a much better incentive for a 2 year old than stickers, go figure).
And guess what, she was squirmy yesterday because she needed to use the potty but didn't want to stop playing. The fact that she didn't just release her pee right then and there was a major encouragement to me. We ended the day both much happier. This morning she woke up dry. Something I was not expecting for a long time. Another huge encouragement.
I see the light at the end of this tunnel and I am so glad that I stuck it out instead of giving up. There is still a lot of work to be done and frustrations to be had, but I'm prepared to roll with punches this time. I'm so proud of her but even better she is proud of herself, and that was an expectation I didn't have.
Plus I don't think there is anything cuter than a toddler butt in underwear.

What you get...

When you ask your two year old to show you their biggest smile!

Curry Chicken Stir Fry ($20 meal)

While we are on temporary relocation my husband's work has given us a small food budget, it's a daily thing so it makes menu planning pretty much impossible. It has completely changed the way we shop, instead of going once every two weeks (with stops for things I forget) we go grocery shopping everyday for dinner the next day, so we are one day ahead and don't have to wait for Eddie to come home for us to go shopping and then start dinner. We are trying to keep each trip to $25 or less, so far I've made it under $20 almost everyday! This is so great for us because it's allowing us to save!
This is a meal that I made at home a lot, it was a clean out the fridge kind of meal. I would grab whatever vegetables were left in the fridge to help us get ready for our next shopping trip. You could mix it up really easily, using whatever spices are best suited to your family. I use rice but I've been toying with the idea using yakisoba noodles and more of an Asian spice mix. I've also been thinking about adding sweet potatoes and leaving out the rice altogether. If you want to try the sweet potatoes I would chop and steam them first and then add with the zucchini.
This is specific mix has curry but it's not too curried. My husband is was not a fan of curry prior to me, but this is one of those dishes that has helped him expand his pallet, and Alice loves it too!
The ingredients can be changed to suit what you and your family enjoy, and everything can be easily increased or decreased based on who you are feeding! We usually have just enough left over for a lunch the next day.

Curry Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients
Coconut oil
3-4 chicken breasts (depending on size) cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 onion diced
1 red bell pepper diced
1 green bell pepper diced
2-3 cloves of garlic smashed and chopped
2 zucchini halved and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 yellow squash halved and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 broccoli bunch
Rice (I use a Thai jasmine)
Curry powder (1-2 tablespoons)
Garlic powder (1 tablespoon)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Red pepper flakes (1 teaspoon, or more if you want spicy)

Cook rice according to directions and start on the stir fry.
Heat coconut oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add chicken and spices and cook until almost done, about 5-10 minutes. Add onion, garlic and bell peppers and cook until almost soft about another 5 minutes. Add zucchini and squash and cook for a couple minutes. Add broccoli and cover, stirring occasionally until broccoli is tender crisp, about 3-5 minutes.
Serve over rice and enjoy!

Time out

She takes the "nose in the corner" instruction very seriously. Still learning to stay in the big girl bed...

I feel like I'm forgetting something...

Today is my 3rd wedding anniversary, although you wouldn't have known by looking at me this morning.
Our 2 year old woke up at 5 and I grumpily spent the next hour and half trying to unsuccessfully put her back to sleep. It wasn't until my husband came up behind me while I was making breakfast with a kiss and hug that I started getting suspicious that something was up. I turned around and looked at him with curiosity, "happy anniversary!" he said cheerfully.
Oh crap. I had totally spaced it, we had even talked about it yesterday, trying to decide what we wanted to do with a kid in tow but it got pushed out of my mind by Alice, and breakfast, and my need for coffee, and whatever else was rattling around in there at the time.
I felt awful, that I had neglected to do something special for him, to show him in some way that I still love him like I did the day I married him (which technically isn't true, I love him 1,000 times more today then I did that day, but that's besides the point), but one look at his face and all of that vanished. He had remembered and he wasn't annoyed or upset at me for not. He knew that I still loved him with all of my heart even though I hadn't done anything special to show it because we show it to each other everyday. When I make his coffee in the morning, even though I don't normally drink any, it's because I love him. When he saves me a plain glazed krispy kreme doughnut from his morning meetings it's because he knows they're my favorite and his restraint from eating it himself shows his depth of love for me (the man did NOT share food prior to me).
The truth is that at some point in our lives we are going to forget our anniversary, it happens, life gets in the way, it doesn't mean it's not important to us, or maybe it does. It's just a day after all, what's important is the marriage not the wedding, and the marriage is an everyday thing.

I remember a piece of of wisdom that I had read before we got married, it was something along the lines of 'you will both fall out of love with each other at some point in your lives, the trick is to not do it at the same time'. Now that seems a bit extreme to me, I don't think I can picture a time when I will not love this man with every fiber of my being, but then again it has only been 3 years (I'm kidding of course).
I like the saying all the same, I think it has a very valid point, you need to balance each other out. When one of us is upset the other is calm and helps to bring the other back to earth. When one of us is down in the dumps the other is the most cheerful person you've ever seen and it helps pull the sad one out of the gloom. It's vital for our family, for our relationship, for our sanity. When I get caught up in my troubles he remembers our anniversary and reminds me of how lucky I am to share my life with him, because is he my other half in every way.

Road Trip Adventures!

Phew, I'm exhausted. We have had a busy busy couple of weeks or so, I honestly can't remember when this all started, it's been that kind of crazy.
We've been given a wonderful opportunity through my husband's work to temporarily relocate to not one but two exciting locations. For 3 months we'll be in Santa Clara, California and then we'll spend another 3 months in Austin, Texas! Can you say "smell you later PNW winter?", I can, happily. I won't see rain until mid-January when we come back to Oregon!
Since we have a furnished corporate apartment packing was a bit difficult. Everything we brought with us were things we were using regularly. Clothes, crockpot, toys; it makes it hard to pack in advanced. Throw in the fact that Alice's second birthday fell just a few days before we left was just added fun. Lots of last minute scrambling to get everything ready to go, I do work best under pressure though, probably explains why my major in college was procrastination.
Alice's birthday was so much fun! We had a pajama and pancake themed get together at our house for family and friends. I wish had I uploaded my photos before we left, but now you'll have to wait until I dig through our suitcases to find the camera. Believe me though that a blast was had by all and I highly recommend centering every party around wearing your PJs! Eddie and I did meet at a PJ party, so only good things can come from them.
I can't believe she is two already, it doesn't feel like she's been around long enough for two but then at the same time I can't really remember what it was like before she got here. A lot quieter I'm sure. I had so many heart stopping, where is my little baby moments the weeks leading up to her birthday. I she walks up stairs like a real person now, she can use a spoon without spilling the contents everywhere, she has her own thoughts and personality. That's the best part, she is one funny kid.
Alice was able to enjoy the summer weather that finally showed up the day before we left. She had a friend come over to swim and I had a friend over to watch the kids while I packed six months of our lives into our car! It's crazy how much you can whittle your life down when you need it fit into the back of your car.

We made the drive down to CA in two days. We made a pit stop at Crater Lake, a place that neither Eddie nor I had ever been too, despite the fact that we have lived in Oregon the majority of our lives. It's a pretty amazing site and these photos don't do it justice. The water is so amazingly blue. It's the deepest lake in the U.S. and is believed to have the cleanest lake water in the world! If you are in Southern Oregon I highly recommend you make the trip.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, just a lot of driving, and some Winnie the Pooh.
I did learn during our hotel stay that no matter if I'm sleeping in a queen size bed with my husband or daughter I will have to fight for enough space to roll over. Seriously what is it with these people and their need to take up the whole bed?!?
Speaking of beds, Alice has made the jump to full blown big girl bed. She's loving it, we'll see if she loves the potty training I have in store as much.
I'm off to unpack the rest of our things and try to get some order to our life here...ok Alice and I are really off to check out the pool :)