Friday, January 21, 2011

How I am going to drive my mom INSANE, by Ronan McCarthy

#1  Develop a sixth sense for when things that are usually locked/childproofed are accidentally left UNlocked or mom's efforts are inadvertently sabotaged by one of my siblings.  My favorite is the bathroom, where I have been known to swish toothbrushes in the toilets or unravel the toilet paper.  Aerosol cans are fun too!  Today though, it was the pantry...I discovered flower and sugar in this normally off-limits wonderland!  And as if that wasn't enough, someone moved the fish food from its usual HIGH location to a nice easy location for me.  And you wouldn't believe how easily I just popped that top right of...it was like a party with fish food confetti!  I don't think my mom likes parties.



#2  Use my super radar to find things that no one even knows are hidden throughout the house.  If you crawl around long enough and under enough beds you'll be amazed at the cool stuff you can find!  Today I found an old  lipstick in the far reaches of Lauren's closet.  I got my finger stuck in the tube but that waxy red stuff was awesome! 


#3 Climb climb climb. Whatever whenever!  Today I climbed on the table to swing the light.  I do this quite often but I have learned to swing and duck because it does actually hurt when I get smacked in the head with that heavy light and my mom is less and less sympathetic.  I also climbed on my sisters bed and pulled a picture off of the wall which then fell behind her bed.  My best trick of the day was to climb on an end table and flip the switch from "heat"  to "cool" on the thermostat!  Ha ha ha! Watchin' my mom shiver was so funny!



#4  Never ever learn what the word "NO" means.  My mom sure tells me that a lot, but I don't know what she wants me to do.  I thought I would end the day with a naked ride on my dog.  What could be better?!


A note from Ronan's mom:  I know that some of you reading this feel my pain.  You are going through exactly the same thing.  I ask you:  HOW do they always know the exact window of opportunity for trouble? Like when you are changing another kids diaper or you just duck into the laundry room to switch the loads for 30 seconds.  It's not like we aren't watching 99.9% of the time.  Sheesh!  I think his plan for sending me to the looney farm is working.





Thursday, January 20, 2011

So Handsome!

Connor was fitted for his first pair of glasses yesterday!  The poor guy was only using one eye to see!!! At some point we may even have to patch the "good" eye to get better use of the other eye.  As we were walking out of Eye Masters Connor exclaimed "Hey!  I can see!".  We headed over to the bookstore to find a book about kids wearing glasses...he kept going up to people saying, "Guess what?  I can see you."  I had to do a little explaining on his behalf and then everyone was so happy for him!  He is still  exploring with his new vision, and we are working on keeping fingers off of the glasses, but we think that Connor's world just got a whole lot brighter! We are so happy!




Friday, January 7, 2011

Stuffed!

Check out these bad boys!  Moroccan style stuffed acorn squash.   Yum!  Brian and I like things SPICY, so next time I think I will add some red pepper or more cumin or something.  We are also very carnivorous creatures so maybe some beef in the mix as well.  Cooking this was pretty far out of my box and I think they turned out pretty well.  Tasty and filling!  Here is a link to the recipe: 
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moroccan-Style-Stuffed-Acorn-Squash/Detail.aspx
I will say that the recipe calls for celery which I don't ever have on hand so I used some green and red peppers and onion.   Similar texture, more flavor in my opinion.  Happy cooking if you decide to try this!


Thursday, January 6, 2011

Happy 2011!

Brian and I stayed up until midnight!!!  I can't remember the last time we did it...it certainly wasn't in the last 7 years.  We celebrated by having Dion's pizza and chatting it up with Mike and Helen (Bri's brother and his wife) while the kiddos snoozed upstairs.  The kids did get to toast to the new year with some "kid wine" aka Martinelli's Sparkling Cider, and we played a few "minute to win "games, which is a new favorite pastime of ours.  Tammy and Adam (my sister and her husband) stopped by for a bit too.  A good, mellow time for all of us.  Happy 2011 to all!

 What do you set your table with?  We opt for paper plates but only the finest crystal highballs.

 Minute to Win It:  Stack 3 or 5 apples on top of each other in under a minute.

 Minute to Win It:  Stack 36 cups in a tower and then take it down in under a minute.  Sound easy?  Give it a try! ;)

Photo credit:  Thomas McCarthy

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Quote of the Year!

Lauren says, "Dad, I love you so much!  You are the best dad in the whole world...kind of like a mom!"