The Kids Are Alright

Just a quick kid update since I'm realizing it's been a really long time since I did one of those:

Milo:

Milo is 2 1/2 and finally putting together some sentences. Verbally he's progressing just fine as far as boys go, but man alive it's so hard sometimes when he can't communicate what he wants! We've been working really hard to help him identify his emotions. A few of our breakthrough moments were of him saying, "I'm sad" when he tripped, "help please!" and guiding me to the problem, and his first proper use of pronouns yelling, "I POOPED" as he walked down the stairs one morning. While he's not speaking a whole lot, his comprehension is just staggering. He's correctly counting things in his books, recognizes specific words in any context, and can follow multiple steps of instructions.

Milo is one of the most even tempered kids I've come across. He doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve so he seems really stoic, but he's quick to smile and laugh when he wants too. His biggest tantrums come when we're transitioning activities and I think it's because he gets so laser-focused on the task at hand that it takes a lot of effort for him to pull away from it. That along with his lack of communication makes things very frustrating for him and us occasionally.

Physically, Milo is absolutely huge. Just a giant. Whenever I put him in a cart at Target I get weird looks from people because his feet dangle halfway down and it looks like I'm still making my 4-year-old sit in a cart. He's thinned out a lot the last few months. The 3T jeans I bought him in September and had to cuff 2 inches are close to being high waters on him. He's wearing size 10-11 shoes and is just shy of 40 lbs. We've had to move him up to 4T footie pj's since he was walking around with a perma-wedgie! With his size comes a lot of strength; at a playdate a few months ago he threw a tricycle it at some kid :/ We're working on helping him realize how strong he actually is so he doesn't accidently hurt other kids.

Milo's very favorite thing to do is read books. A few weeks ago I went in to check on him before going to bed and he had climbed out of his crib, grabbed most of his books, and was sitting on his chair reading them. We have no idea how long he'd been out of his crib (or that he even could climb out?) but we're just grateful that's all he did! He really loves Magic School Bus, veggies (particularly salad?), everything that has wheels, ring-around-the-rosie, his Etch-a-Sketch, and ordering things according to size, color, and type (no idea where he gets that from...). Milo's extremely curious and is already constantly asking, "what's that!" about everything. He needs a lot of alone time during the day to just sit and explore things. That's been one of the more unusual things for me to get used since I am NOT that way at all.

Milo is extremely wary of being unsteady on his feet. Sometimes I wonder if he's afraid of his own height! He does NOT like climbing things, going down slides, jumping, or being upside down. This tempers his curiosity with a healthy dose of wariness which I'm really thankful for because he could be getting into a LOT of stuff with how tall and strong he is! He also really dislikes thunder & lightning, messes of all kinds, and having to put his toys away.

Milo is very sweet to his sister for the most part. There are normal sibling squabbles, especially with Livvy following him around like a puppy and him needing more alone time, but Milo is more than happy to have someone to play with. We frequently hear him saying, "come on, Wivvy!" as they climb up the stairs to play, and he loves to surprise/scare her since she laughs so hard at it. Milo's also become a little protective of her which I never expected. At the playground the other day, a 4-year-old was pushing Livvy out of the way so he could go down the slide and Milo turned to him and yelled, "NO!!". The kid was shocked (it helps that Milo was taller than him), and then went back down the stairs. It was really cute until Milo turned and pushed Livvy down the slide. Apparently pushing her is a job reserved for him haha.

Livvy:

Livvy is 15 months old and started the new year off with a bang by walking and climbing like she's always known how to do it. We went to Reno to meet up with some friends and I swear the change of environment catapulted her into walking. That and attending nursery for the first time and seeing that everyone else was walking. If we thought Livvy was active before now, boy were we wrong. SHE DOES NOT STOP MOVING and she is fearless. She doesn't stop moving even in her sleep; she is the most restless sleeper I've ever seen and half the time I find her asleep sitting up! She doesn't have a long attention span and goes from activity to activity lightening fast. Before I even knew she could climb the stairs, she was up half of them before I could blink. While Milo stands at the tops of the slides, refusing to go down, Livvy pushes him aside and goes down head first. I used to have panic attacks over her accidently hurting herself, but when she falls, she just gets annoyed and bounces back up.

Livvy girl LOVES food. Just absolutely loves it. Her very favorites are mangoes, avocados, oatmeal, peas, and bananas. I honestly don't know if there's been a point where she was so full she was turning food away. She will always, always open her mouth if you offer her something which is impressive since she only has 4 teeth still. I'm really thankful for her appetite because she certainly needs it. At her most recent appointment she was measuring in the 96th percentile across the board. Our pediatrician commented that we make big, symmetrical children haha. Between her verbal and physical progress she's burning through calories like crazy!

Livvy shocked me to my core when one day she started saying "mama" at 11 months old. I just sat there looking at her really confused and she said it a few more times. Since then she also hasn't stopped talking. Soon we were hearing "daddy", then "Wivvy!" and we taught her how to say "please" by feeding her bits of cake. She repeats everything we're saying and loves when Milo talks to her in the backseat of the car. When she gets really hangry, she'll go through every word she knows knowing that one of them might at least trigger us into giving her some food.

What has surprised me the most with Livvy is just how easy it is to tell how she's feeling. For the most part she's extremely happy and lights up every time we come into the room which just makes our day. The flipside of that though is that she can throw colossal tantrums. At first we genuinely thought something was wrong every time she did this, but the tantrums grew suspect when they immediately stopped after picking her up ;) Livvy's emotions are much more of a roller coaster than Milo's, but luckily she's young enough that nothing upsets her too much for the time being. Livvy also seems to be very in-tune to others' emotions. Whenever I'm feeling sad, she'll race up to me and give me a micro-hug by putting her head on my legs. It's heartbreakingly adorable, even if it's short-lived ;)

Livvy absolutely adores Milo. Anything that he is doing is immediately the new, cool thing to do. Any toy he's playing with, anything he says, any book he's reading, Livvy insists on imitating him. Right now we're working on making sure she also learns how to spend time alone since she hasn't had much experience with that. The first few days/weeks of this were NOT fun, but she's gotten a lot better. She's just now starting to be interested in looking at books (as opposed to eating them), stacking blocks, and racing cars around, but mostly she just prefers to be moving; climbing on the couches and out of her highchair (!!), up and down the stairs, and racing around the living room.

We've been doing our best to prepare them both for our new baby. My hope is that they'll keep each other entertained and occupied a lot once this new baby comes. I think Livvy might "get" it a tiny bit more than Milo; either that or Milo just isn't interested at all. I'll ask Livvy where the baby is and she immediately pulls my shirt up and hugs my belly. I once got Milo to put his hands on my belly, but baby girl kicked his hand and he freaked OUT. Probably scarred him, poor kid. I was getting a little worried about how this transition would go, but then as we were in line to checkout at Costco, the gal in front of us had a new baby in a carseat in her cart. The baby started crying and both Milo and Livvy were riveted. Milo kept saying, "baby sad!" and both of them were looking at me with a lot of concern in their faces. For a full 5 minutes neither kids looked away from that crying baby and because I'm a pregnant hormonal mess, I was crying by the time I had to pay.

With Livvy walking now it's like a light switch went off and all the hard moments of having them 15 months apart is paying off. It was a lot of work in the beginning. I had to tell myself mentally that I actually had twins so that I wouldn't overestimate Milo's abilities; he seemed so much older once I had Livvy so I had to constantly remind myself of his age. The downside of having kids so close together are all the immediate needs the parents have to help them with. The lack of independence of multiple kids is exhausting and often overwhelming. Now that they're older and slightly more independent, all of that hard work is paying off. Neither kid has known what life is like without a sibling to have to share toys with, take turns, be gentle towards, and get along with. That doesn't mean that there aren't tantrums and unkindness ever, but I think we missed a lot of that adjustment stage. Milo and Livvy are the best of friends and I hope that continues throughout their lives.

All pictures taken by Chris Romney. Look him up on Instagram! @chrisromney.art

Cooking When You're Type A

Last year I dedicated a lot of time to figure out how to cook. Not that I don't seriously mess up now or anything, but I finally determined how to meal plan and cook in a way that makes sense to me. I'm NOT the type of person who can look at what food we have and just whip something together. Or "eyeball" things, or understand the term, "until it looks right". That ability BLOWS me away. It used to make me sad that I can't do that but that sadness kept me from cooking so now I just have come to accept it and move on.

I don't think I'm the only one who isn't capable of kitchen sorcery so I write this in hopes of helping my fellow no-mag's. Consider this the Quickspell Guide for the kitchen.

If you're starting from literal ground zero, like me, then I highly recommend watching the show Good Eats with Alton Brown. It's on Netflix. Alton is like a combination of Bill Nye meets Mythbusters meets Julia Child. What we've loved about his show is that he goes into the science of why we cook things in a certain way but in a way that laymen (hi, that's me) can understand. I don't leave a show knowing how to make just one dish; I leave knowing how to make steak in all different types of applications. Alton is also super practical. He doesn't feel the need to use top of the line ingredients or equipment and has a special hatred for what he calls "uni-taskers". As someone with a small kitchen, I super appreciate this. Who really needs a crepe pan or grapefruit spoon??? I also recommend getting some America's Test Kitchen cookbooks. I've found these in checkout stands in grocery stores. They teach you techniques and applications instead of just "how to make a dish".

Armed with both Good Eats and ATK cookbooks wasn't enough. All last year we cultivated our kitchen to have basics. Once we figured those out, cooking at home became a cinch. Below is a list of the basics we utilize, then I go over my actual planning & shopping process.

What are "kitchen basics"? - I'm going to divide this up into 2 sections: kitchen gear and food

1. Kitchen gear:
• 12 inch frying pan - highly recommend this one
• Dutch oven - I drool over these, but these ones work perfectly. These are perfect for recipes you start on the stove top, then transfer to the oven
• Knife set - there's a lot of argument over knives but the most important thing is that they need to be and stay sharp!! I have this one and it works great. Surprisingly, Ikea has some really great ones for cheap
• Cutting boards - your preference, but I'd steer clear from the acrylic kind cuz it really dulls your knives
• Pasta pot - I couldn't even begin to tell you where mine is from, but it's just a generic pot I can boil water in
• Wooden slotted spoon, spatula, ladle, etc. - your preference again but make sure it's on hand
• Coffee grinder - just trust me on this one
• Meat thermometer - got ours at Ikea
• Most people probably have a lot more than these items in the kitchen (thank you, wedding gifts!) but these are the ones we use most commonly
2. Food - These are items I've found I use in nearly every recipe. The first list are the items I've found that are actually worth buying in bulk from Costco. The other list are random staple items to have on hand (and yeah, a lot could also be bought at Costco).
• Costco:
• onions
• chicken stock - in liquid form
• chicken, beef, and vegetable boullion
• diced tomatoes
• tomato paste
• milk
• eggs
• chicken breasts
• bread
• white beans
• black beans
• rotisserie chicken - one chicken gives me meat for two dinners, plus three, 32 oz containers of stock when I take the time to make it!
• pasta
• garlic; both the whole bulb and pre-minced
• butter
• olive oil
• parmesan
• sour cream
• Random staples:
• flour
• sugar
• rice
• soy sauce
• rice wine vinegar
• diced green chilies
• panko
• baking soda
• baking powder
• cornstarch
• kosher salt
• dijon mustard

These are my very favorite cookbooks

1. Planning:
• There's really not many shortcuts for this but I've found a few helpful things to make the process smoother:
1. When I get a new cookbook, I immediately sit down and bookmark all the recipes that speak to me.
2. On our fridge I have a "to buy" list where I write down everything we're out of as soon as I notice it.
3. About once every 10 days I take an hour in the morning and make my list. My grocery list is on a OneNote notebook so I can use my phone as my list while I'm in the store.
4. I browse through all the marked pages in my cookbooks and my Pinterest board for anything that sounds good. I'm still very much in the exploration stage of our family meals, so I don't really have any "top 10" meals I make quite yet. I do however follow this general guide: 
• 1 soup/sandwich/salad dinner
• 2 chicken dishes
• 2 beef dishes
• 1 pork
• 2 vegetarian
• This gives me about 7-9 dinners total, which lasts 10ish days. We have a leftover night once a week, and eat out once a week, so occasionally I can make this stretch over a two week period
2. WRITE IT DOWN:

• Nothing kills a grocery budget like not having a list. And going shopping hungry. Don't do either of those things.
• To make my list, I first write down all of the items I've written on our fridge list. Usually these are random ingredients (ie: peanut butter, oatmeal, rice wine vinegar). Then I write down the produce items I typically use for breakfasts and lunches and veggies for dinner side dishes.
• I go through each dinner recipe and write on my OneNote any ingredients for dishes I don't have. Typically this is mostly produce, herbs, and the occasional "special ingredient" (mostly some type of cheese if I'm being honest). This gets much easier the more familiar you become with your pantry and fridge.
• In a second column I make sure to write down the meal I plan to make and where I found the recipe (ie: Six Sisters - pg. 12). 
• I write down all the planned meals on a whiteboard that's in my kitchen. I used to assign the meal to the day of the week, but that was a little TOO restrictive for me. It's nice to look at the whiteboard in the morning and decide, "hey, chicken sounds good today" and know I have a chicken dinner option to choose from. I just made a habit of figuring out dinner by lunchtime so if anything needs defrosting, it has time to do that.
• I print off any Pinterest recipes I'm going to try, or any recipes I have paper copies of, and hang them up on the fridge.
• Utah locals - if you haven't been to Harmon's before, I highly recommend it! They're a bit more expensive than WalMart or Macey's, but I've found the produce to be MUCH higher quality and it lasts longer (eg: I've never bought a bad avocado from there!)
• The last thing I do before actually going into the store is organize my list by my typical route through the store. I've been going enough times through Harmons that I know the layout, and doing this last step has helped me a lot, even if it's borderline OCD haha.
3. Side dishes:
• I'm a HUGEEEE veggie lover and always have at least one veggie side at dinner. I've found that to make it more enjoyable, you can't always eat steamed veggies on the side, so I've really delved into making the veggie dish standout more. One of my favorites was shredding brussels sprouts and frying them in pan with garlic and butter, or roasted cauliflower with bacon fat and a little paprika. Just cuz you grew up hating it doesn't mean you hate all forms of it ;)
• We're working on incorporating more fruit into our diets. It's still a little odd for me to have fruit at dinner (idk why), but it's easy enough to slice an apple or peel an orange.
• Salads - when in doubt, have a salad. Having simple greens is better than not having any!
4. Helpful Tips:
• One of the hardest things for me in the beginning was figuring out the terminology. I had no idea what a roux was or a mirepoix, let alone why either was important. Watching Good Eats helped a LOT with that! I'm still working on learning different cutting techniques and terms
• One of the quickest and cheapest ways to get a LOT of flavor in your meals is to GRIND YOUR OWN SPICES. Hence why I mentioned a coffee grinder as a kitchen gear basic. We primarily use ours for cumin (I'll never get pre-ground cumin again!), cinnamon, and occasionally nutmeg. It makes a WORLD of difference with very little effort. Additionally, it's worth every penny getting a pepper grinder instead of a pepper shaker for the same reasons.
• Fresh herbs always amp up your dinner as well. I planted 3 basil plants and 2 parsley plants in my garden this summer, and while that was maybe too much, it definitely got the job done! I almost always have to get cilantro, parsley, basil, and chives during the winter months when my garden is dead.
• Remember your personal preferences for things. I don't personally love eating raw peppers however I don't mind them in things, so when a recipe calls for red bell peppers, I just make sure I chop them small enough that I'll have to have other things on my fork.
• Follow the recipe precisely until you know what you're doing. When you start customizing it to your family's taste, write down those changes or ideas cuz I guarantee you'll forget the next time you go to make it!
• It is MUCH easier to add salt than to take salt away. Save seasoning for the last step.
• USE YOUTUBE AND GOOGLE. I bought a whole salmon at Costco over the summer. Head, tail, scales, bones and all because it was $4/lb. I had no idea how to skin & debone a fish, but I YouTubed about 10 videos on the subject beforehand, then setup my laptop on the counter while I did it. It wasn't a pretty job, but I feel pretty good about it! If you don't know what translucent onions look like, YouTube it. If you aren't sure how to tie a specific knot around your meat, YouTube it. If you don't know how to chop an onion, YouTube it. Need a substitute for a spice? Google it. Don't know how long you should reduce alcohol down? Google it. You get the idea.
• Remember!! The whole process gets much easier with practice. For example, we've realized we really love asian foods and in the beginning we had to keep buying a lot of ingredients for the various recipes. Now that my fridge is stocked with oyster, fish, and hoisin sauce, most of those recipes only require me to buy 2 or 3 things
5. Budget:
• I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention a grocery budget at some point in this post. For our family of 4.5 (I eat a ton while pregnant and Kyle does too, especially when he's consistently working out), we spend on average about $450/month. About $300 of that is at Costco and the remaining is at Harmons.
• There is definitely room here for cutting back when needed; we occasionally splurge on steaks from Costco, or get a nice new olive oil to try out. We like to experiment with foods and our budget gives us the room to do that, thankfully. Harmons does have a loyalty program card that I use every time. It gives me discounts and I earn points that go towards monthly events they host. I know a lot of grocery stores do something like this, so check into that option if you can!
• One budget saving option is to look into buying meats at butcher shops or Zaycon foods. Over the summer we bought 50 lbs of chicken for $67. Zaycon carries really high quality meats, so while it's not necessarily the cheapest of cheap places to get it, for the quality and price, it really can't be beat. Same with buying from your local butcher, it may be slightly more expensive than the cheapest option, but the quality is unmatched.

I don't personally mind going to the store and buying the food. It's kinda therapeutic for me in some way, but only if I have a plan of action and a list. If I'm stuck wandering around or frantically trying to remember something we need, then it's not fun for anyone.

Anyway, I'm sure there are thousands of other tips and tricks other people have and can share, but I've found that this method has been really helpful for me as I slowly delve into this world!