Sa-sa-sa-SATURDAY!

So, Saturday morning rolled around at 6:30 when Oliver woke up and I just could not drag my butt out of bed. So I asked Bo to instead, and he did without so much as a sideways glance at me. Good husband! I tossed and turned for another four hours (but I probably could have done so until 3 in the afternoon). I got up and headed to the family room to spend some time with my guys.

We watched tv for a bit, and we played for a bit, just had a nice relaxing Saturday morning. I can't even remember all the details of what we did because it was just that, average and boring and perfect. I made Oliver some macaroni and cheese for lunch, and took some pictures of him while he played downstairs. Ok, time to whore out a wack of pictures. He's just so darn cute though!

 

After another couple of hours spent watching America's Test Kitchen (YES!) while Oliver napped we headed into Newmarket to do some grocery shopping. Bo and I are struggling financially right now. We got in way over our head with credit card debt when we moved into the new house, so now we're doing our best to get out of his, working with the back to consolidate it onto our mortgage. Until that happens though, money's tight. Our grocery / home / Oliver budget is $160 a week (this is for absolutely everything, all food, home supplies, diapers, wipes, etc.). To so many people this must seem like a ridiculous amount of money. You must read this and think, my god, this chick is just completely out of touch with reality.

The truth, yeah, I probably am. I'm 27 years old (28 in a matter of days, I should really just start going by 28), and I have been spoiled my entire life. I never had to worry about where the next dollar was coming from, or wondering if I could afford that $30 wedge of parmagiano reggiano. This is a ridiculous adjustment for me, and it's hard, and I bitch and moan about it in my head (never to Bo though, because I know this mess is far more my fault then it is his). Don't judge me too harshly though. Please. Because I am trying, and I'm trying to make this a permanent change, because I know that it would be good for me.

Just let me bitch and moan on here, at least a little bit. Like, I REALLY wish I could have bought that $30 block of parmagiano reggiano this week. lol.

Oliver passed out in the car on the way home, of course. I swear the car is his kryptonite. Anyway, we unpacked the car and then I started on dinner. It was late though, I couldn't believe it was already 7:30. Tonight we were having (by request by Bo), buffalo chicken bites with canned corn. That's right, my husband is married to someone who loves to cook. LOVE's corn on the cob, and all he wanted with his chicken bites was a can of Green Giant (had to be that brand) peaches and cream corn. He's hilarious. First though, I made a hot dog for Oliver, and he had that with some cheese and a few little munchie things. It was his first hot dog and he seemed to really like it.

Dinner for Bo and I was a little late though, because I also decided to make Mac and Cheese for us as a side. They made it on America's Test Kitchen and it just looked SO fantastic that I couldn't resist. With my own tweaks though. I had considered my mac and cheese as already perfected, but I've been proven wrong before, and I was again.

Exhausted, after dinner and another hour or so of tv, we all headed to bed. This was a pretty darn great Saturday though.

Despicable Me

Ok, so the post title sounds like I've done something horrible, but I haven't, we just saw that movie tonight. We'll get there though.

TGIF was certainly true this week, and I'm not even really sure why. Maybe because of Oliver being sick, maybe I'm still struggling to adjust to working every day, maybe it's a combination of it all. Anyway, TGIF. I woke up and had my bath, then headed off to work (seeing Oliver before I left, yeah!). Work was ok, busy enough to make the day go by quickly, but not so busy that I was losing my mind. Because I knew Bo was picking Oliver up, I figured I would try taking 27 home. It was a nice and relaxing drive, but it wasn't really any faster (actually a bit longer; I got home at 5:15). But it was relaxing for a change. A nice change. That bloody highway traffic is enough to give anyone a coronary, never mind a home sick Momma in a rush to pick up her boy.

I got home to find my two guys sitting upstairs on the couch, watching tv (well, Oliver looked like he was close to a nap, but he woke up to play with me for a few minutes). We started talking about dinner, or what we felt like doing, and my husband actually offered up the drive-in. This never happens, but he was itching to see Despicable me, and I'm never one to turn down the drive-in!

I made Oliver some scrambled eggs for dinner (though he'd been eating snacks with Dad since they got home), and we headed to the drive-in. Well, really we headed to pizza hut to grab a large pan pizza with peperoni and bacon, then we went to the drive in.

Guess what I learned. Oliver hates scrambled eggs. HATES them. Like, as soon as I could sneak some in his mouth, we would grab it out and once I didn't "listen" to him the first time, he started throwing them out of his chair (I was feeding him on the way to Pizza Hut. I gave him his bottle instead, and he drank some then took a nap for the rest of the drive. I should mention here that the pizza, it was fantastic!

Oliver woke up when we got to the drive-in and proceeded to win over every single person who walked by to get popcorn, or who parked close enough that he could see them. He leaned out of Bo's window, chirping and talking, smiling and laughing to literally everyone who walked by. He especially liked one little girl, maybe around 5. The problem with her though was that he got shy. He didn't start talking until after she had walked past the car, and then he started waving like crazy. We felt so bad for the poor boy, not even 13 months old and he already has a story about the one who got away.

One bonus, Oliver enjoyed some of the pizza. I know, it's not healthy, but at least he got something besides crackers into that little belly of his.

The movie was fantastic, so so funny. Bo has already let me know that it will be a blue ray purchase (he's ridiculous). Oliver passed out about 15 minutes into it, which was a nice change for us as usually he fights with us to play with parts of the car through the entire movie. We got home around 12 and we were in bed by 1 (I'm not really sure what took us so darn long).

If Momma aint happy, aint nobody happy!

I'll skim through the morning here because it was the same as every other normal morning.

I headed off to work and Bo got Oliver ready and off to daycare (I did get to see my boy for a couple of minutes in the morning though, yeah!). Work was work, oh yeah, except for Justin who was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to take his appendix out. Holy shit. Thankfully, he's doing really well, but he will be out of work for at least two weeks, which means I'm on my own here. Kinda like when it was just Julia and I, lol.

After work I headed home to pick up my boy, but traffic was brutal so I didn't get there until 5:20. Lindsay mentioned that Oliver still wasn't actual normal (as we told her was normal for him), and she was right. Before I even got to the car he was fussy and gearing up for a tantrum (or so I thought...little did I know, I had not yet experienced a tantrum, gulp).

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that when I talked to Bo on the phone earlier today he said that he was meeting Tony and Wilf's tonight at 7:30, hopefully earlier, to go over what needed to be done, but that he wouldn't be late, to hold dinner until he got home.

Anyway, once we were home I tried playing with Oliver but he was having absolutely none of it. He didn't want to do anything or play with anything. I'm a big fan of just going with the flow and not trying to force anything. So, I filled up his bottle and put it in the fridge, then took him upstairs to give him a bath (he was just gross from daycare, covered in food). I put him in his crib so I could go and get changed first, and while he cried for about 2 minutes, he was sleeping before I got back in to get the water running. So, I let him sleep (of course), and he had a good 30 minute power nap.

When he woke up though, he was even more upset then when he fell asleep. I had never experienced this before, I didn't recognize my own son. He just kept screaming at the top of his lungs, tears rolling down his cheeks. I got him out of his cloths and ready for the bath (which he loves), but even that couldn't stop the screaming. He just kept at it in the water, wouldn't look at his toys or splash in the water, he just kept trying to throw himself back, screaming. I don't even know how I managed because I'm pretty sure both my hands were on him, I washed his hair and scouped him out of the tub, which wasn't hard to do because he kept standing up in it.

I got him back to the change table, but still he screamed. And now, with the wall in close proximity, he just kept pushing his legs off the table to hit his head on the wall. Over and over again. I mean, it's like that scene in alien where the baby alien rips out of the chicks stomach. Oliver was that baby alien. I scooped him up again, but it didn't matter how many hugs, kisses or back rubs I gave him, he just would not stop screaming. We were approaching the thirty minute mark now. Rough.

I decide that maybe he's hurting. He didn't have anything close to a fever, but maybe his ears were just so painful and he didn't know how to say. I left the Tylenol at Lindsay's so I decided crying baby or not, I didn't care how many stares I would get in Wal-mart, it was worth bringing him there to get Tylenol and make him feel better. So, I took Oliver to my room so I could change, and put him on the floor by his toys. He wouldn't let me put him sitting, he kept throwing his head back and arching his back so I had  to actually lay him on the floor. He just stayed like that, looking up at me, screaming. It was like he was paralysed, our didn't know how to move. God damn this kid is stubborn. He finally moved when I went into my closet to put my jeans back on (yeah, so what if I changed into my pj's already, right when I got home). Oliver crawled, screaming, into the closet, clawing his way up my legs. Picking him up did nothing though. Well, nothing but make my ears ring.

Here comes the crazy part. I got his bottle out of the fridge (screaming), got my purse and carried him outside (screaming), put him in his car seat and gave him his bottle...nothing...he grabbed the bottle and started to eat, looking out the window. By the time I got to the park he was actually laughing at something. What the F*ck?

When I parked at Wal-mart I almost had my boy back, and once he was in the cart he was 100% there. I wasn't going to ruin this, so I took my sweet ass time walking around the store, picking up Oliver's Tylenol, and then getting a bunch of crayola finger paints and some stretched canvas' so that Oliver can do some painting this weekend. Now it was almost 8, and time to get home to try and get Oliver to eat dinner. It was also time to call Bo and find out where the hell he was, because he was going to be at Wilf's before 7...He was still there, and told me he was just getting ready to leave (I told him how Oliver had been, and assumed that he could see that 40 minutes of tantrum had pretty much worn me right down).

I got us home and Oliver some dinner, which he ate about half of, he just wanted to play...I thought. Oliver fought to get out of his bouncer, and once on the floor he looked at me then pointed to the window. Then he started his chant "dadadadadadadada dadadadad dadadadada" while he cruised across the couch and onto his chair. Still chanting for Daddy, he climbed into the chair, banged on the window, then put his head down onto the back of the chair and started crying.

Yeah, Momma is pissed now. It's been 48 hours since Bo's spent any quality time with Oliver, and he's sick. Sicker then he's been and in pain and Bo knows this. I went and picked up my boy, giving him as many cuddles as I could, then grabbed a couple of books and a new bottle for him. I put him in his bouncer, then called Bo and bitched him out for being such a dick. I read to Oliver until Bo got home 20 minutes. Oliver was very happy to see his Dad, full of smiles and laughs. I just really wish I hadn't needed to call Bo to tell him that there were more important reasons to be home then to (still) be at Wilf's. We ordered a pizza for dinner, ate, and went to bed.

Quick cook zuccini

Cook-top Roasted Zucchini

Ingredients:
2 medium zucchini, cut into ¼" slices
3 tbl extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt to taste (fleur de sel, french gray, sea or kosher (in my order of preference, lol)

Steps:
Heat the olive oil until it's very hot in a large skillet (this is important, as it allows room for the water in the zucchini to evaporate) over med-high heat.

Add the zucchini to the pan and let cook for 3 to 4 minutes over medium - height heat, until brown spots appear. Flip over and cook on the second side for an addition 3 to 4 minutes until also browned. Don't stir the zucchini.

Turn off the heat and remove the zucchini to a heat proof bowl using tongs, leaving the oil in the pan. Add the garlic to the pan, and working very quickly, smooch the garlic into the pan and oil using a spatula. Do this for a minute or so, until the garlic is fragrant and softened, but not brown.

Pour the garlic oil and salt over the zucchini and toss to coat. Serve while still hot.

Poor sick baby.

After a fairly crappy nights sleep (I was worried about my boy and tossed and turned all night), I got up at 6 and jumped in the bath to shower for work. Such a confusing sentence. (explanation: We haven't tiled our master shower yet, or finished any shower in the house for that matter, so to "shower" we have to have a bath and used the hand shower. It's pretty annoying).

Oliver woke up as I was finished up drying my hair, so I went in to get him and sure enough he was on fire. I knew that this was going to happen last night, just a gut feeling. So, I gave him some Tylenol and brought him into our room to call work and say I wasn't coming in today (something everyone looks forward to doing their second week back after being off for a year). Oh, and why did I have to go to our room to call? That's because our phone / internet lines went down  yesterday, and still aren't back up, so I needed to use Bo's cell to make the calls.

Oliver and I just relaxed in the morning, with me trying to force feed him liquids while he tried to escape from his chair to play.I caved, we played. At nine I called and made an appointment for Oliver to see Sam at 11:30, and it was about that time that Oliver fell asleep for a nap. He napped, I  realized the phones were working and spent the next hour getting the computer reconfigured (not my forte, SO frustrating!). I also gave my mom a shout, she wanted to see Oliver one night after work, and we were trying to figure out how that would work with daycare, so I called to let her know that I was home today. She's heading up at 3.

At 10:20 I woke up Oliver, got him ready, and we headed out for the doctors. Guess what, he's actually quite sick. The little bugger doesn't complain at all, doesn't show any outward signs of being in pain. Nothing. It was on a whim that I mentioned at the last second to Sam "I wonder if he has an ear infection, when I take his temperature, he always grabs his ear and tries to turn away". I hadn't noticed this over the last 5 days, it occurred to me literally as we were pulling into the office's parking lot.

Sure enough, Sam checked his ears and he has not one but two severe ear infections. The poor kid. Sam said that usually they suggest to decrease the duration of medicine, but because it's severe and in both ears he's gotta taken medicine morning and night for the next ten days. Here's hoping he's good with his medicine!

After that I called Bo to see if we could come and meet him for lunch, but he was getting ready to head to London so that was a no go. Oliver and I headed home to try and spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing. At least as much as possible. I did have to make a quick stop at Shoppers to get his medicine first, and because pizza pizza was right next door I found it quite hard to resist.

We got home and played for a bit, and Oliver took another good nap, waking up just before my mom arrived. Once she was there I was able to take an hour to get the garbage ready and out (I hate Wednesdays), and then started dinner. We had baked cheese capaletti and zucchini, because it was going to go bad if I didn't use it soon. The capaletti was just store bought pasta and sauce, but the zucchini I was finally able to perfect. I'll through the directions up next, it was that good.

After dinner Mom and I took Oliver to the park. I figure even if you're sick, you should still get to do the things you love (so long as they don't make you worse). Oliver wasn't himself, which was to be expected, but he did still enjoy the swings, and walking around for a little bit.

After the park Mom headed home because her call was going to start soon, and I got Oliver ready for bed and his last bottle. Oh yeah, I gave him his medicine too and he was a total trouper, no issue at all! He downed the bottle and then passed out.

Bo didn't get home from London until just after 10, so brutal. I heated up his dinner while he put Oliver to bed, then sat with him while he ate. He had to run on the computer after dinner though, and I was exhausted, so I left him on his own and headed to bed.

Huh...

This morning I wondered why the saying goes "Easy as pie".

Pie is not easy to make, that crust can be a fickle bitch, and don't even get me started on lemon meringue.

A major "Oh F*ck" moment...

So...

Nana stayed over last night to watch Oliver for 1 more day, making sure he's good and ready to go back to day care. The fever hasn't returned, so we're looking good!

I was supposed to have meetings at work today, but some drama went down earlier in the day and everyone left. Fine by me! I wasted my lunch wandering around homesense, falling in love with a big painting that I want for Oliver's room (it has all these little animals, one for each letter, and it's just so unique and cute, but totally boyish...I'm stretching here). It's $50 though...and this is one hell of a tight week month, so I'm not sure it's in the cards. They only have one of them too...I really hope it's still there in two more weeks!

I did get one fantastic call while walking around though. The builder screwed up and paved our drive-way. Woot! We had taken it out of the original offer because we were planing on doing a stamped concrete driveway, or one with big pavers. When we did this though, we forgot that bills existed, so we weren't going to be able to afford either of them...and we didn't exactly have the $700 to pay the builder either, but now it's totally their mistake and we're off the hook. So, so sweet!

Here comes the "Oh f*ck" moment...are you ready?

Nana greeted me at the door as I was walking in. I should have known that something was up. Less then 30 seconds later she let me know that it was her birthday. Oh f*ck. Now, I am horrible with dates, seriously, I can barely remember my own birthday, but still, this was SO shitty of me. I should blame Bo, he always reminds me of this stuff!

Any way, Nana wanted to order pizza for dinner or something, so that she could just relax with us before heading home. I stealthily emailed / called Bo (I probably wasn't nearly as stealthy as I thought), to see if we could take her out for dinner. We couldn't (money wise), but we did anyway.

Oliver was just starting to get hungry, and Bo was almost to newmarket, so we loaded everything up (Nana in the pick-up so she could leave to get Tiki and go home after dinner), and we headed off to Kelsey's and meet Bo there. Dinner was great, I was absolutely starving (these days with no lunch blows), and after a nice relaxing hour plus we all headed to our respective homes.

Oliver was pretty exhausted and passed out for the night shortly after we got home, which was nice because it meant that we could too. That's exactly what we did.