peanut moved out!

well out of our room and into his brothers' room that is!

after 14mos of co-sleeping and sharing a room, it became apparent that this little arrangement wasn't going to work much longer. peanut has always woke around 6am for a bottle, which it used to be that i'd give him a bottle of water (or milk/nurse when younger) and he would fall right back asleep. well B is now getting up earlier because he has to be at work a little earlier and apparently when peanut knows that daddy is up, he won't go back to sleep.

now i will admit, i hate mornings and i love to sleep so getting up this early with him was a challenge for me. plus he was loud enough to wake the other boys up before they were truly ready to be up. but the the problem was in fact that peanut himself wasn't really ready to be up yet! he thought he was, we'd go downstairs and eat breakfast and suddenly he would morph into this whiny, fussy, fit-throwing baby; it wasn't even 8:30am and he was ready for a nap.

um...in a word, no. not going to happen. it used to be that we ran errands in the early morning so that we'd be home by 10am for his nap then lunch. so napping from 8:30-10/11 won't work because it threw off is nap routine for the entire day and made for an extremely fussy child by 4pm. and it especially won't work now that bubba is in preschool!

the logical solution was to get him to stop waking at 6am (or at least stop him from thinking that it was time to get up). and since B can't change what time his workday begins, we had to move peanut so he wouldn't know that B was up. we actually made this transition last week and so far, it's gone pretty well!

okay, that's a lie.

the first nap with all 3 in the same room led to laughing, talking, singing, getting in and out of beds and general mayhem for over 2 hours before they FINALLY fell asleep. i was at the absolute end of my rope wondering if they would EVER sleep. but they did.

the first bedtime took about 45 mins...but after that, the newness wore off and now they usually all settle down within 10-15minutes. luckily (at least so far) they haven't woken each other up in the middle of the night. (sometimes pooks has to go potty, or peanut starts fussing, etc).

i have to say that i am very glad that our 2 bedroom house, has 2 pretty big bedrooms! they fit perfectly and they love it! here are a few pics from the doorway.

peanut's crib the the curtains on the closet that i still have not lengthened. eh, someday i will...or we'll move and i won't need to!

the the left is pooks' bed, a bookshelf and you can't see it here but at the foot of his bed is their toybox

bubba's bed

and a {kinda crappy} view of the whole room

by the giggling and talking that i hear at bedtime, i think it's like a little sleepover for them, every night!

today was the day!

for bubba's first day of preschool!

after giving it a couple of days (since this post) to really let it sink it, he was super excited to start school! he went to bed last night knowing that when he woke up he'd get to go to school.

here he is enjoying his breakfast

(usually we have cereal but since today was special we had scrambled cheesy eggs, potatoes, banana, yogurt and orange juice)

we went ahead and dropped pooks and peanut off at nanaw's house to play before heading to school. (i knew i'd have to fill out paperwork and with peanut walking now, well it just wasn't gonna be easy)

here he is outside of the building, and yes his eyes are closed because of the sun shining in his face but i still thought it was cute. he was really saying ''cheese''!
yes, i did the ''first time mom dropping off kid thing'' and took more pictures. judge all you want but it was a little bit emotional. i've never dropped bubba off anywhere (other than nanaw and papa's house) so i knew this was a bit hard for both of us.

here he is outside of his ''wee wigglers'' classroom

and a close up of his cuteness!

as soon as we went up those little stairs, while hesitant, he was excited. i started filling out paperwork while he explored. he immediately found a fire-truck and book about construction that were pretty exciting. i told him that mommy needed to go and he said ''stay just for a minute'' so i talked to his teacher a bit about what their ''day'' is like.

during drop off time, it's free play. once everyone is accounted for they head to the circle rug for story time and phonics. after that they do an activity/craft, then snack time and then a game/song or they head to the gym. while talking to Ms.Deb, bubba came up to me again. at this time some of the other moms were leaving so i told him that it was time for the mommy's to leave. i told him to go play and to listen to his teacher, he gave me a big hug and never looked back.

surprisingly we both took it very well :)

i ran a few random errands while he was in class then went and picked up pooks and peanut. see, here's the thing...bubba was excited and hesitant to start school. pooks however wanted nothing more than to go to school and he couldn't. i was nervous about how drop-off/pick up would go with pooks then seeing the classroom. in my mind i imagined a tantrum of epic proportions when bubba got to stay and pooks had to go.

so i decided that i would take pooks to pick-up bubba first, so he would see all the kids cleaning up and lining up to leave (rather than during free play during drop off). it went quite well. he did ask to play a few times but he stood by me and held my hand. Ms. Deb said that bubba did really good, he was really quiet but seemed to have fun and behaved well. this week is pretty laid back, just getting the kids used to the class and teaching them how to line up, where toys go when you clean up, etc.

when we got to the car i asked bubba if he had fun. he responded that ''yes, i played and it was fun. i not talk to other kids though, i just was shy." while he wasn't like "we did x, y and z today'' he did talk about it once i prompted. for storytime they read ''If You Throw a Pig a Party" and then (in his words) "we made the puh sound too. just yike da letter P". he also got to play basketball and they had a snack. after repeating "waisins and gonola wars'' i figured out it was raisins & granola bars.

overall it was a very positive experience and he is excited to go again tomorrow! my little guy is growing up :)

me and my big boys

in honor of bubba starting preschool tomorrow, i wanted to do something special today. he's much much more excited about going, he talks all about reading and painting but i thought we'd go out to breakfast {just me, bubba and pooks} for a big-boy breakfast and talk about school. so we waited until peanut went down for his morning nap, left him with a tired and cranky B, bundled up in our winter coats and hats and headed out.

bubba was so excited, he loves the local breakfast place more than i do, i think. pooks was equally thrilled, as he's excited about anything involving food. on the way over there, bubba was telling me all about how he wanted potatoes and ''one of them big rolls mommy''. after some careful thought, i realized he wanted a big biscuit. so i ordered the biscuits and gravy plate, while the boys split ''the usual'' or scrambled eggs, potatoes, toast and bacon. normally they order off the kids menu but for what they wanted, this was easier (and cheaper!). they actually wanted to drink water (and i thought for sure that they would want chocolate milk so chocolaty it looks black) but they surprised me! they looked like such big kids eating this adult meal and drinking water out of coffee mugs...pooks insisted.

see for yourself via these crappy photos because the lighting was horrible and my flash was off :

bubba trying to decide what to eat first...

pooks (of course was wearing his hat) excited about his bacon!

aren't they just so stinking cute??

what is possibly more adorable is the following conversation:

me: bubba are you so excited about starting school tomorrow?
bub: yes mommy, its going to be so super fun. i get to play?
pooks: me go when i'm free [three] and me play too!
me: yep, pookie will go after his birthday and bubba will go tomorrow. you'll have a lot of fun playing and making new friends.
bubba: i not have any friends at school mama, i not go yet.
me: bubba, you'll make friends.
bubba: me not know how!
me: you just tell the other kids ''hi, i'm [bubba], what is your name?"
bubba: me not say that mommy. no. i just gonna be shy.
pooks: me do mommy! me do. my name is [full firstname and last name]....and me go 'hey kid whats ewe {your} name?'
me:(lol) that is your name pooks, and when you go to school you can say that too.
bubba: i just gonna have fun mommy, i yike {like} school.
pooks :me yike school too!

seriously, it was like the cutest conversation ever...i cannot even convey how bubba sounded when he replied ''i just gonna be shy''.

it was a great breakfast and the boys were perfect. seriously like 3 waitress and 4 random patrons around us all complimented me/them on how well behaved they were. they did great and i kid you not they ate almost every single piece of food on their plates. bubba ended up eating 1/2 of my biscuits and gravy and then pooks ate everything on his plate (minus 1/2 a piece of toast) and then he ate the rest of bubba's eggs. i don't think that i have ever seen them eat so much! bubba told me as we were leaving that he "ate so many potatoes he was going to turn into a GIANT potato."

bubba, i believe it!

3 boys + 150 mega blocks =

easy entertainment for an entire hour!!
now granted, there was still some fighting, pushing and yelling but overall, it was nice. everyone had fun, there was some sharing going on and while they destroyed my living room, it only took about 30 seconds to clean up.

working together to fill the back of the dump truck

racing around the front room

and i must mention that while pooks is wearing his winter hat, we did not go outside today. they didn't even leave the house today. he enjoys wearing it. indoors. all day.

Easy-Peasy Cheesy Potato Soup

bubba and i ♥ potato soup. love, love, love it. there is a local eatery that has a potato soup that is wonderful! after months of eating that every other week (or so) and a few attempts at emulating it at home, i finally figured it out! and because i'm nice, i'm going to share it all with you. i don't actually measure anything so sorry if you're a stickler for measurements, just eyeball it and go with what you like.

you will need:
24-32oz shredded hashbrowns
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 block of Velvetta (or more, personal preference)
water
onion
garlic
salt
pepper
cooked bacon/diced ham/ hamburger
small amount of olive oil or butter
*milk

1. on medium heat, using either EVOO or butter, sautee a little minced garlic and chopped onion until translucent in your soup pot (personal preference as to how much...if you don't want to do this, your probably don't have to)
2. add the whole bag of shredded potatoes then add water, just to cover the top of the potatoes. bring to a boil.
3. while waiting for that to boil, cube up your velvetta, open your cream of chicken (i assume cream of mushroom would work too!) and dice up your bacon or ham.
4. once the potatoes are boiling, turn the heat down til it's at a high simmer/low boil. cook until the hash-browns are completely thawed (about 7-10mins)
5. when your hash-browns look like this, you're ready for the next step. (you want to be able to squish them against the side of the pot and have them mash up a bit.
*optional step* if you want to mash up your hash-browns a bit, do that now using a spoon or potato masher. i like to mash them just a little bit so they aren't so 'stringy' but the place that originally makes this soup, doesn't seem to mash theirs at all.

6. add your cream of chicken soup, velvetta and meat.
7. stir until melted into soup. add salt, pepper and if you have it, onion & herbs mrs. dash is good too! let simmer on low low heat 5-30mins depending on when you want to eat. *if your soup is too thick, you can thin it down with a bit of milk. if it's too runny you can always add more velveeta!
7. tada! you're done! you can top with shredded cheese, green onions, more bacon, etc or nothing. i like mine super cheesy so i add more cheese.
doesn't that look so yummy? it makes alot. typically we have enough for all of us to enjoy a bowl, plus 2-3 servings leftover. (and it freezes really well. i actually like it better thawed from the freezer). we usually enjoy ours with a bit of crusty french bread. it's so easy (no peeling!), it's cheap (you totally can't tell if you use store brands at all!) and we usually have everything on hand. perfect for this cold weather!

* you might be able to make this using a reduced fat cream of chicken soup and the reduced fat or 2% velvetta if you're worried about calories--i'm not sure how it would turn out, but you could try!*