2nd Birthday: Sesame Street

Somehow ButterBean is 2 years old! He is growing up so fast and each day more of his personality emerges. He is one of the funniest people I know!
His love of all things Elmo/Abby/Sesame Street prompted the theme for his 2nd birthday party: Sesame Street! I had so much fun planning this party!

Decorations were easy because it seems that every party store has a section dedicated to Sesame Street. Any bold primary colors work for this party! I picked up some plates, napkins, balloons, and table cloth at Party City. Michaels provided some cute little cardboard cutouts in the scrapbooking section. We had the party at Gatsby's work since our house would not accomodate the amount of people we expected to come. 

The food was the most fun to make. I made the same turkey sandwiches that I made for his first birthday (big success both times). We also had Abby Magic Fairy wands -- fruit on bamboo skewers

Burt & Ernie veggie sticks with Ranch dressing

Big Bird popcorn puffs (ButterBean gags on  the hulls of popcorn, so we had to get the puffy kind)

Goldfish crackers in honor of Elmo's goldfish, Dorothy. I considered getting ButterBean a real goldfish for his birthday, but I decided I didn't want to take care of one!

Elmo and Big Bird crackers and Sesame Street juice boxes were picked up at Babies R Us on a diaper run, but you can find those lots of places. 

For dessert we had Cookie Monster Cookies and Elmo cupcakes. 

The kids played Oscar's Trash Toss, which was just throwing crumpled news paper into my tiny compost bucket that looks like a mini trash can. Running up and down the hallway was another favorite!

 ButterBean got more presents that we know what to do with! It's time for a toy purge in this house!

I had a great time with this party and most importantly, I think ButterBean did too!

After the party ButterBean insisted I put a tie on him!

party favors!!

First Crush

I knew this day would come. 

ButterBean has fallen for a girl. She's cute, friendly, wears pigtails...

His first crush

Her name is Abby Cadabby and she lives on Sesame Street! Yes, ButterBean has a crush on a puppet fairy girl. 

Elmo (or Melmo if you're talking to BB) used to be his absolute fave, but he has moved on to Abby. Before Christmas, I was at Target and picked up a stuffed Abby doll for my cousin's daughter. ButterBean spent the entire trip yelling "Ahhhbeee!!" and giving her kisses. So, Santa brought ButterBean an Abby for Christmas. 
Fast forward to this week. I won tickets to Sesame Street Live a few weeks ago and we brought little ButterBean to see his favorite characters sing and dance on stage. He LOVED it and yelled "Ahhhbeee! Melmo!! KeeKee!" (*cookie monster*) over and over. 

He looks terrified, but really he was thrilled!

All went well until we were a couple blocks from home when all of a sudden there was a loud shriek and wail from the back seat. 

ButterBean burst into huge crocodile tears and continued to wail. He wouldn't tell me what was wrong, but finally he sobbed "Ahhh...beeeee!" When we got home he stood by the door, pointing and crying Abby's name. Not even his stuffed Abby could console him at first. He finally snapped out of it, but he and Abby have been inseparable ever since. Every car trip, nap, journey from living room to kitchen - Abby is right there! The first words out of his mouth waking up from his nap have been "Ahhbee???" every day. 

Snuggling on the couch with Abby

Napping with Abby

Playing in his room. What do you know? Abby's close by!

ButterBean's first crush! How cute! She's going to break his heart some day...

We stood in a long line (of girls) to get a picture with the Abby cutout

What We've Been Up To: Arizona

As a present to ourselves and as a reward for surviving anesthesia school we went on a fantastic vacation to Arizona right after Christmas! We went to escape the cold, but somehow we brought the cold with us and Arizona experienced unusually cold weather throughout the entire week we stayed! The weather promptly warmed up the day after we left. Even so, we enjoyed a good 30-50 degree increase in temp by going to AZ!

I've never been to Arizona and it was amazing! We went to Scottsdale, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon and I already have a list of things I want to do when we get to go back some day!

 ButterBean was an absolute champ travelling (other than vomiting in a museum...we're still working on that) and kept us entertained at all times with his crazy dances and songs.

Checking out the cacti in the Botanical Gardens

Pure ButterBean bliss: a golf cart

My in-laws, who had also never been to AZ, came as well. ButterBean loved spending time with them! The most frequent words out of his mouth were "Papa!! Papa!! Mama!" Mama  = Grandma to him. It gets confusing.

We are back in frozen Minnesota and trying to getting back into the groove of real life. Vacations are never long enough!

What We've Been Up To: Christmas

Another fun-filled Christmas has come and gone!  

An almost-two-year-old is the best at Christmas!! Every time he sees a Santa he says "HoHoHo" in a really low voice, followed by "pum pum pum", which is Rumpapum-pum from the Little Drummer Boy song. He also loves to carry around baby Jesus and put him to bed.

Here's Christmas morning!

Putting Big Bird and Abby Cadabby "nigh nigh"

Really got into the wrapping paper ripping this year!

Passing Gas

Ha! Guess what?? As of December 7th at 0940, I am officially a "gas passer"! In other (more mature) words...I am officially a CRNA - certified registered nurse anesthetist!! I have never been more stressed out in my entire life! I have spent the last month studying (I'll post my study plan for SRNAs later) and the last 27 months waiting for this one day.
These were my thoughts:
1) How would I ever face my friends and family if I failed?
2) How could I possibly stand another moment of studying?
3) I'm going to freak out!!

Our graduation was in November, but it didn't give me a sense of relief because you can't do anything as a CRNA until you pass your certification exam. It was definitely a sense of accomplishment though.

Getting my diploma

My parents gave me the Fisher Price doctor's kit that I always played with. It came with a note saying "Who would have thought when you got this kit as a gift from your grandparents, you'd make it a career!"

Finally, the big day came and it was time to take the certification exam! The entire week prior I had been a nervous wreck, had to force myself to eat, and barely could sleep. Thankfully, my test was first thing in the morning so I didn't have to stress about it all day. 
After going through the thorough check in process (2 IDs, picture taken, pocketes emptied, sleeves checked, palm scan taken, blood draw...kidding on the blood draw) I was able to start my exam. Half way through the exam I had to close my eyes and take a few deep breaths and refocus my brain. Then, at the end, an hour and 40 minutes later, my identification was checked again and I was given a piece of paper that would tell me if I passed. I honestly thought my heart couldn't be pounding any harder and that I might just pee my pants. I went around the corner and peeked under the paper and there was the best four-letter-word I had ever seen: PASS! Oh my goodness, I just started shaking all over, gathered my stuff and scooted out of there. I can't describe the relief I felt!I did I little ninja kick in the hall and ran to bathroom so I wouldn't pee my pants. Seriously, unbelievable day! 
That night we celebrated at our house with a yummy dinner with my parents, one of my sisters, and a fantastic bottle of wine. I also received some gorgeous roses from my grandparents. 

And that was my fabulous day!!I'm looking forward to the rest of my life as a CRNA!

A Mortified Mama

I haven't blogged previously about ButterBean's digestive system because I was hoping he'd get over his "problems". But, after yesterday's events, I needed to share! I will tell you the tale of my woes
A little History:
ButterBean was a VERY barfy baby. So barfy that I marvel at the fact that he grew! I'd say 3/4ths of whatever he ate came right back up.
When he has decided he is done eating, he will gag and spit out his food. We see a lot of gagging around here.
As he has gotten older he will randomly projectile vomit, look at it, say "Uh-Oh!" and walk away and go about his business. To ButterBean, a spontaneous explosion is just no biggie. I began to worry about this at his 15 month checkup when he had not grown a smidge since his 12 month checkup. After trying to figure out why he is throwing up and trying to correlate it to a food, we've given up and have an appointment with a GI specialist on Monday.
Sooooo, about yesterday. We had friends in from out of town and decided to invite them and another couple over for dinner. We've had them over once before, but it's like a once a year thing. Gatsby and I spent ALL day cleaning the house (it was in dire need of a deep clean) and making homemade enchiladas, and Mexican rice. ButterBean had a great appetite and had wolfed down his food for breakfast and lunch. Since dinner was going to be late, I fed ButterBean a half an avocado before the guests arrived.  By the time the two couples arrived, I was tired!
Things were going great, a little chit chat, beer/chips/salsa/guac were being consumed. Then ONE OF THE MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENTS OF MY LIFE occurred. ButterBean took a chip, nibbled it, ate a little more and crawled up on the couch. Something was excited to him because he proceeded to bounce on the couch a couple times. I saw his make his gag face.
I put my hand out to catch the food he would inevitably spit out. He spit out his chip and out came a little of the prior avocado.
"Oh no! Not here, not now!!" I thought. I have caught a lot of barf in my hand over the last year, so that was nothing new. (I've tried to save our carpet by diving in front of the falling barf and catching it, but at this point it is beyond help)
"Please don't barf in front of guests!"
This was no ordinary ButterBean barf. This was the Mt. Vesuvius of barfing. This was everything that he had eaten since breakfast vomit. And it just. kept. coming.
Imagine - one guest leaping off of the couch to get out of the line fire, me trying to contain ButterBean's spewage as he does NOT stop!, people yelling, and more barf! Just what you'd like at a dinner party right? I won't even list all of the places that we had to clean or the details of what it looked like (think the Excorcist!). Just know it was bad.
I whisked him off to the bathtub and to get some incidental chunks out of my hair while Gatsby tackled the couch.
Amazingly, our guests stayed for dinner (I can't thank them enough for eating after that ordeal) and we had a fun time. However, I am not having people over for a looonng time.
Monday we will hopefully get some answers from the GI doc, or at least start getting somewhere in this process. I can't take many more days like that. I recently had a trip to Trader Joe's that was almost as embarrassing and left me walking out with a shoeful of vomit. I've had my share of this!
And since no photos were taken of this event (duh!) I will show you the latest in ButterBean dance moves

Little Lentil Lover Soup

ButterBean has become increasingly hard to feed. What happened to The Baby Who Eats Everything? He has turned into The Baby Who Spits Out Everything! Most of the food offered to him get chewed for a second and then promptly spit out onto the table, floor, or into his mother's loving hand (disgusting!). He will actually sometimes wait to spit something out and just gag on it until I put my hand out. Nice.

You expect me to eat THAT?

His one true food love right now is Lentil Soup. My mom discovered this when she fed him some Trader Joe's. He will eat and eat and eat lentil soup. The downfall of this (besides the obvious: extreme flatulence) is atrocious garlic breath. I could not believe how awful his breath would be for a full 24 hours after consuming that soup. So, today I set out to make him a homemade lentil soup for three reasons
1) cheap
2) not from a can - I have a mild can phobia and the BPH that lines them
3) less garlic = better breath
I used this recipe that I found on Pinterest, from The History Kitchen blog, which uses ingredients that come straight out of the Bible. I had to tweak it though, because I didn't have all of the ingredients, and I had extra stuff lying around the house. And I recently made some yummy chicken stock that I was itching to use up.
Here's what I did:

• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 celery stalks, including leaves, chopped
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic minced (I cheat and use the jarred stuff)
• 2 cups dry red lentils
• 1/2 cup pearl barley
• 2 small potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 qts. chicken stock (homemade preferred)
• 1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 bay leaf
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in medium soup pot and add diced onion. Saute until translucent. Add carrot, celery, and garlic and saute for another couple of minutes until the veggies start to get a wee bit softened.
Add red lentils, barley, potatoes, and chicken stock. Stir. 
Bring to boil, add cumin, cilantro, parsley, and bay leaf then reduce to simmer. 
Cover and simmer for 1.2 - 2 hours stirring often. I left it for a half hour and it was sticking to the bottom. 
Remove bay leaf. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with more fresh cilantro!

Good to the last spoonful!

...And he gobbled it up! Laaahhh! That would be heavenly angels singing. This soup has a nice mild flavor - great for little folks! And, it can easily be spiced up with spices like cajun spice, more cumin or garlic, perhaps a little curry powder. Also, it gets a little thick after you refrigerate it, so you made need to thin it with some water or broth.

All gone!!