My day in facebook statuses

Things I did post today on facebook:

• Last night my baby proved she can sleep all the way through the night. And miraculously, so did I.
• Maggie: That was bad manners for Addie to do that to me. I'm going to spit at her!
• She's decided the right index finger is definitely the tastiest. I've never had a finger sucker before. It's awfully cute.

Things I thought about posting to facebook, but didn't

• I knew the morning was going too smoothly when I actually had time to groom myself before driving Addie to preschool. Good thing I decided to brush her hair before grooming myself or I wouldn't have had time to work the gum out.
• Why, oh why did I purchase the round, pearlized sprinkles? They were so pretty, but after last night's cookie frosting session, they are now rolling all over my kitchen floor.
• I am just amazed at how much I can accomplish when my baby takes a decent nap. For instance, I made baby food, and not just inside my body.
  
• I had no intention of staying in my pajama jeans all day today, but they were perfectly comfortable for the aerobic cleaning I did on my kitchen.
• I laughed to myself at the library today as I watched a little boy wail while his toddler brother attacked him. I reassured the mom that I knew what she was going through since I had four kids myself. Then I realized I wasn't very reassuring in my scroungy clothes, scraggly hair, and pasty face.
  
• Do the kids who come to play at my house return home with brilliant tales of the chaos they experienced while at my home?
• The good news is that Addie is fine. The bad news is that Maggie just pushed her out of the top bunk of the bed. I think it's time for a nap.
• Oh, good. She drew on her sister's pillow pet with a pen.
  
• Everything my girls paint ends up brown. They've finally mastered rinsing their brushes and drying them, so they're not mixing up the colors on the palette, but they haven't yet learned that you can't layer wet paint.
• So far Rosie has tried cereal and applesauce. Tonight I gave her more cereal, which she really wasn't that excited about, until I mixed it with carrots. She likes flavor!
  
• Oh, I love cuddling a sleeping baby. I kiss her on the cheek and she smiles in her sleep.
• So grateful that my dinners have been pleasing Addie lately. "My favorite!" is so much nicer to hear than, "I don't like this," every single night.
• We frosted sugar cookies last night. I stayed out of them until about 10, and then it was all over. Why can't I eat just one?
• Heading to my bed to read Little House on the Prairie to the girls. Love it.
  

Urine my way

Last night I was woken up by a little knock at the door. On the other side was a very wet, very cold little girl who had saturated her bed during a nightmare, then kept sleeping until the chill woke her up. I stripped her sheets while repeatedly reminding her to be quiet because her sisters were still sleeping.

My warnings were in vain. One of the other sisters woke up. She emerged from her bed completely nude and urgently demanded she be taken to the bathroom. She did her business, we put her clothes back on, and I asked her to please not take them off again.

Bracken was woken this morning by the third potty trained daughter loudly doing her business. She may have been loud, but at least she went in the toilet. At least I think she did. I did find a large puddle of water on the floor this morning.

Shortly after that, I went in to smallest daughter to find that once again, perhaps because she had been up 5 times in the night, she had peed out her diaper and soaked her bed.

Our most recently potty trained child is in the phase of potty training where she has a lot of what I refer to as "Half-cidents." She knows when she has to go, and she can take herself to the potty in time, but she's a little over confident in her ability to hold it. She prefers to wait as long as she possibly can, necessitating a panty change at every potty break. Just now she threw herself into the screen door, yelling that she needed to go potty. As I opened the door, I watched the urine drip down her leg. I tried to convince myself that it was an improvement over the day before when she had taken off her panties during her playdate and peed on the patio rather than come inside.

I took her to the bathroom to finish the job. As we walked to the toilet I thought, "I've had about as much contact with other people's pee today as I can handle." Then I opened the toilet lid and found a pair of panties floating in the unflushed bowl.

Mac and Cheese

Before my oldest was born, Kraft introduced a product called Easy mac, microwaveable macaroni and cheese. They promptly stopped printing the instructions on the box for making their traditional macaroni and cheese in the microwave to boost their new product sales. Now, for those days when your kids are starving and you don't have the time to boil water, or you don't want to dirty a pan, I'm bringing those instructions back. They are surprisingly simple.

In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine 1 1/2-1 3/4 cups water and the macaroni from your preferred brand of mac and cheese. Do not cover. Place in the microwave for 8 minutes. Stir once about halfway through.


When you take it out of the microwave, it should look like this.
Prepare as per your usual preference, be that full fat, low fat, or guess and dump. Stir, and voila, ready to eat macaroni and cheese. I actually think it's a little better than stovetop. The starch that remains from the water that boiled away makes the sauce a bit creamier.

Curious what else is on my messy, messy counter these days? First, there is a jar of homemade pepper spray. Thus far it has done nothing to deter the squirrels from eating all the birdseed.

Second, the star of the countertop, is our mushroom growing kit. This is about day 5 of our mushroom growing project. It is fascinating, and to Bracken, a bit frightening. But the girls and I are excited.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat all that macaroni by myself. It's just that kind of day.