Where she is going to cost us money is in her hobbies. At not even 2.5 years old she has already shown an interest in a few activities and, time will tell if she pursues any of them, but, it is giving us the impression that she has some expensive tastes and seems to think we are country club members.

So far her favorite interest are guitars and drums, golf, and horse back riding. Could this child please pick at least one activity that won’t cost an arm and a leg?! Thankfully she also likes swimming which is relatively cheap.

Music – Since she loves to strum the strings on my husband’s guitar (and every time she finds one at a friend’s house) we decided to get her a ukulele. While they were bringing a new one from the back, she discovered the junior drum kit, walked behind it, sat down, and started playing it with her hands like she’d done it 100 times. She now walks around the house with her ukulele “singing” and demanding that you alternate singing and “playing” “Twinkle, Twinkle” and the ABC’s with her. Future rockstar?

Golf – We went to a St. Patty’s Day event downtown and the YMCA had an activity area featuring their golf program (which she is no where near being old enough to participate in). There wasn’t much interest so she got some one-on-one time with their staff who showed her how to hold the club and where to hit towards. Since then, if she finds anything resembling a golf club and something to whack it with, she will walk around putting it. At a PGA activity area this week she walked up, pulled a golf out of the bag, stood in position and hit the balls that the attendant put down for her. Future LPGA golfer?

Horse back riding – She had her first pony ride in April and loved it. When we visited my family in Miami we went to an event with pony rides and she somehow got the handler to let her ride around for about 20 minutes. Today she rode her first two horses. Not ponies. Big, huge, full size horses. I am pretty sure looking at them will no longer be an option and riding them will be an expectation. I am screwed. The ladies today noticed she has absolutely no fear of them. When it was time to start riding they told her to say “walk on.” She looked down at the horse and said “Ok, horsey, walk.” Future Olympian?

Aside from watching what I ate and drink, there wasn’t really much to do as far as baby preparations were concerned until we found out the gender so I pretty much tried not to think about. When you have a toddler it is not hard to block out other things since so much energy goes in to entertaining them day to day. So, that still left a lot of time to fill every day with my high energy little monkey.

The best thing we’ve done this year is we got a family membership to the local YMCA. It has been great. Last summer we just got a membership for Kelsey for swimming and gymnastics classes. Now, I get to drop Kelsey off at the Kid’s Zone, aka daycare, for up to 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. I get time to myself to take a class, work out on some machines, actually catch up on the news while I walk on the treadmill, or even just sit and thumb through Facebook on my phone while I sip on some coffee. With the warmer weather, we’ve been out and about a bit more recently so I’ve kind of been slacking. Sometimes my husband takes her so I can get a few things done while he works out and sometimes we all go and I get to have a conversation with my husband that doesn’t take place when someone is only thinking about going to sleep or with a toddler, dog, cat or any combination there of underfoot and demanding our attention.

We try to make it to at least one open gym time a week so Kelsey can bounce like crazy. She has gotten pretty good (for a 2 year old, I think) on the balance beam, doing forward rolls, and getting some height on the trampoline. I love that she gets a good workout every time. We’ve been doing a mom and me swim class once a week since April and I think she’s really improved in her comfort and ability in the water. She’s no Michael Phelps but she can get around the pool by herself with a noodle under her armpits and climb in and out with no problem. During the spring session, I don’t know what happened to the rest of the class but half way through we were the only ones still showing up so she basically had a private lesson every week. I don’t think we are going to get that lucky again this session but that is ok because we still have a lot to work on.

My husband’s parents came for a visit in April which gave us an excuse to see some things we still hadn’t in the Tampa Bay area like the Manatee Viewing Center where we got to see some manatees and learn a little bit about them.

There have also been trips to the zoo, the aquarium, parks, to play in the sand at the beach, and children’s museums. Somewhere in there, Miss Kelsey decided to was time to use the big girl potty. More on method another time, but after about a week we didn’t really have anymore accidents and a few weeks later I stopped putting training diapers on her during the day all together, she just wears a diaper for night time now. This adds a whole new element to going anywhere or doing anything since everything now revolves around where the nearest bathroom is located. It was also around the time of the Great Cloth Diaper Change so that day was one of the last she had a diaper on during the day.

That pretty much takes us through April. I often get comments that we are always out doing things and don’t we ever just stay home. One or two days a week we may be home for part or all of the day, with perhaps the exception of a walk around the park by our house or a trip to the Y for an hour. I catch up on laundry and vacuuming and those types of things but I can’t do much since Kelsey gets into everything I do and is always in the same room as me. Some days I end up running errands all morning around town. So, I’d rather go somewhere. It’s exhausting to chase her down and tell her that she can’t pet the alligator for the third time because it’s someone else’s turn. However, it beats watching a 15th episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for the day and Kelsey literally bouncing off every piece of furniture in the house.

She is also starting to get better about playing by herself or with other children. She used to not play at all if I wasn’t right next to her. This is good because even though I plan to babywear “Jerry” (as she has been nicknamed, aka Baby #2) as much as possible there are certain to be times that I simply can not going climbing through tunnels with her. Although, I do still enjoy that when she gets a sticker or a stamp at an event she insists I get one, too.

The biggest recent news in our family is that my now 2 year old is going to be a big sister to a little girl in September 2013. Oh, and we are PCS’ing (being moved by the military) back up to Dayton, Ohio in July. I kind of just want 2014 to get here because I know the rest of 2013 is going to be crazy between moving, adding a new member to the family, and having a newborn again but it’s going to be exciting.

Let the adventures of a now mother of two continue!

Our announcement!

Mom to Bed by 8, the Iowa-Mom is proud to present the The New iPad Giveaway Event, sponsored by BeeSavy.

I decided to take the camera along on a recent visit to the sprayground and got some great pictures of Kelsey in the fountains and clmbing on the lion statues (which she can now do by herself, oh boy). I managed to snap the shutter right at the exact moment to catch her dumping water over her head which she thinks is hilarious to do. It is second only to pouring the water on me.  Just trying to enjoy this part of our lives.

Check out the photo contest at I Heart Faces:

]]> http://domesticatingmichelle.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/summer-photo-challenge/feed/ 3 mlvanhuss Image I-Heart-Faces-button http://domesticatingmichelle.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/yellow-photo-challenge/ http://domesticatingmichelle.wordpress.com/2012/06/17/yellow-photo-challenge/#comments Sun, 17 Jun 2012 18:59:37 +0000 Michelle VanHuss http://domesticatingmichelle.wordpress.com/?p=788 ]]> I took a few snapshots of Kelsey playing at a nearby playground with my cellphone a couple weeks ago so when I saw a “yellow” challenge I knew what to put her in and where to go to get some great pictures with a better, not as grainy camera. So glad I did because I got a couple of great shots of her.

It’s weird and great at the same time to watch her climb and go down slides all by herself now. She’s grown so much and now says a couple of not very well pronounced words (car, cracker, shoes, chair, banana, honeydew). I have to admit it is nice when, even though I know she can do it by herself, she’ll reach out for my hand to help her up.

Check out The Paper Mama’s Photo Challenge:

I’ve worked out some activities for Kelsey and I for the summer that hopefully won’t be too hard on the old pocketbook. I got a youth membership at the YMCA for Kelsey which lets me take her to the Open Family Gym times and Parent/Child Swim Lessons for no additional cost. Then I got a postcard in the mail for 50% off a program so I signed her for Tumble Tots class for the second half of the summer since she’s been loving the open gym time. In addition, before we decided on Kelsey’s membership, we were given 10-day guest passes so I’ve been trying to stretch those out so I can take Kelsey to the pool until her class starts. So there’s something to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays for now.

I’ll be also be taking her to Growing Together class at Baby Bungalow on Mondays. I skipped this last session because it seemed a little over her head when I took her about 14 months but I could definately see her learning new things and being more confident already so I knew I wanted to go back to it. In the hour class they do a bunch of different activities and the kids get moved along to the next activity but at least I get an idea of the types of activities Kelsey likes and is ready for so I have things to do with her througout the rest of the week.

That leaves the sprayground, playgrounds and other activities that pop up to fill in the rest of the time. I’m hoping Kelsey will come around to touching sand at some point so we can go to the beach but it doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon. Also, we’ll be getting a family membership to Glazer Children’s Museum for those crazy hot days, super rainy days, and need-to-get-out-of-this-house days for the next year.

Well, along with summer comes one of my favorite foods and one of my favorite desserts. Mangoes are out and about and Key Lime Pie is so good. When we went to Key West a couple of years ago we had at least one slice everyday! My wonderful husband had the brilliant idea to make Mango Key Lime Pie. Publix sells a pretty tasty one but it’s, dare I say, too sweet. Thankfully this one came out not as sweet but just as tasty. We used this recipe for the filling and this recipe for the crust. We had enough filling for the large pie plus we filled 4 ready-made mini pie crusts. We didn’t have any whip cream and skipped the garnishes, just plain old pie. (If you’re looking for more inspiration, here’s a link to a bunch of mango recipes.)

Here’s to kicking off the summer!

Kelsey had a great time “talking” to the chickens and following them around and then feeling her way around the plants. She wanted to use the shears and kept carrying around the basket. I was happy to let her explore the different textures, shapes and colors.

While there were many more items we would have liked to pick up, we settled on a few, including some things we hadn’t tried before: mulberries, kale, patty pan squash and apple mint.

Mulberries:

These little berries were messy but tasty. Tasted like kind of  cross between a raspberry and a grape to me. We didn’t end up making anything with them but here is a link for information and recipes in case you want to try them.

Kale:

About half was turned in to Kale Chips. The rest eventually became Kale and Basil Pesto.

Kale Chips

Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Rinse, dry, remove stems and break kale into pieces. Spread out on baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with spices (we use a Mexican Fiesta blend we found at Whole Foods or black pepper, we try not to add salt to things when we can). Bake for 20 minutes.

Patty Pan Squash:

At the time, we had no idea what this UFO-shaped thing was. The gentleman there told us what it was and told us what he does with it. He said to cut the bulb off and grill the pieces. After a little research, I came across this recipe and made a few changes to suit our taste and to use what we had including the fresh basil and rosemary growing out back.

Buttery Patty Pan Squash with Basil and Rosemary

• 1 patty pan squash, 1/4 inch slices
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• fresh basil and rosemary, chopped
• fresh ground lemon pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep ingredients. Lay slices in a baking pan, drizzle butter over slices, scatter basil and rosemary over slices and crack pepper over it. Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

It came out tasting pretty good, kind of a typical “squash-y” taste and texture, if that makes any sense. The fresh herbs gave it a lot of flavor. I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to get another one but it wasn’t bad and I would have it again.

Apple Mint:

I’ve been having some trouble with insects in my garden and wasn’t trusting the mint so we decided to pick some up while we were here to make another batch of Mint Simple Syrup for iced coffee. Boil 2 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar and a bunch of mint leaves. Once the liquid is clear, take it off the heat and let it sit the rest of the day. You might want to give it a taste test over now and then to make sure it doesn’t get too strong.

There was some mint still left so I decided to chop it up and freeze it in ice cubes. It might be good with some handmade sweet tea!

After Kelsey followed the chickens around again, we headed out to find some blueberries. It was getting towards the end of blueberry season and not every where was still open for u-picking. Basically we just needed to decide to make a right or left from Fort Lonesome Farm and keep our eyes peeled for a place. We found one which was, again, basically a backyard. Will and I were chitchatting the whole time, which wasn’t very long, and when we got to where we were going, I got out and opened Kelsey’s door only to find she was passed out asleep.

Will and I traded off blueberry picking and waiting by the car so Kelsey could sleep. I had a nice conversation with the man that owned the farm and we talked about a whole different bunch of things. Finally, it was my turn to go picking. You know, I could have stayed out there picking for an hour! You get in to a groove with looking for and picking the blueberries and can just kind of zone out and think or not think, which ever ends up happening.

We ended up with about half a bucket full for about $10 which came out to just over 8 cups worth. Of course, that’s not including the couple here and there that I popped right in my mouth! Check me out in the bucket holding rig – for stylish, hand-free blueberry picking.

Blueberries:

We ended up doing a couple things with the berries. Some went in to shakes and oatmeal. We made some delicious Blueberry and Banana Muffins (had some really ripe bananas I wanted to use up) and Will made a delicious Blueberry Cheesecake. Both recipes were adapted from cookbooks we had at home. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but it was so good that it didn’t last long!

Blueberry and Banana Muffins (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book)

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 3/4 cup mashed banana
• 3/4 cup fres or frozen blueberries
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Grease muffin cups, don’t line. In medium mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of dry mixture. In another bowl, combine egg, milk, and oil. Add egg mixture all at once to the dry mix. Add mashed bananas and lemon juice. Stir until moist, batter should be lumpy. Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake in a 400 degree oven fo 20 minutes or until golden. Cool in muffin cups; serve warm.

It was great having some different fresh fruits and veggies around the house for a bit. Always makes me feel a little healthier, even if they end up as desserts. Looking forward to the next new food.

Once again, I found myself trying to think what I could do with something in an effort to not throw it out. Pesto it was. I then remembered that there was some kale still in the fridge from our u-picking adventure a little while back. After a quick search, I found a couple of recipes for Kale and Basil Pesto. I used this recipe as my starting off point and used what we had on hand.

2 cups basil

2.5 cups kale

1 cup olive oil

1/2 cup pine nuts (can use walnuts)

1 teaspoon garlic powder (we were out of minced and fresh so powdered it was)

fresh ground lemon pepper and salt

• Hand shred and rinse basil and kale. Chop in food processor. Slowly add about 1/2 cup of olive oil.
• Add pine nuts, garlic, salt and pepper. Continue to process until well blended.
• A tip from a basil pesto recipe: 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan or Ramano cheese–add this only if you are serving immediately

It is sitting in the fridge for now. Hmm, what to have it with? Some tri-colored pasta, spaghetti, chicken, pork? We’ll just have to wait and see!

It has been fun having our little garden. I can sometimes get Kelsey to water the plants and today I was picking the basil leaves and giving them to her to put in the bowl. Then she dumped it all out. Well, she is just 16 months old. Looking forward to her being more involved as she gets older.

Mom to Bed by 8, the Iowa-Mom is proud to present the The New iPad Giveaway Event, sponsored by BeeSavy.

Event dates: July 1 to July 15.

Details: This is a free blogger event, open worldwide and blog accepting sign ups now.

Join The New iPad Giveaway event today!

• If you do not wish to post the announcement, send the $5 via paypal to goodnightmommyboutique@gmail.com with your email address and BeeSavy Event in subject line or notes portion of the form.
• Once you have posted your announcement or sent the paypal payment, fill out this form.
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• Then around June 28^th you will receive another email from me with the html code for publishing the giveaway.  Note it is required that you publish the giveaway html in full to be included in this event. I will verify links on July 1^st around 8am central and if you have not done so, your link on the rafflecopter will be removed. This keeps this event fair for all who joins.

Referral prize: The top referrer will receive $50 paypal or Amazon credit for your effort. Then the top 2 runners-up will receive $10 paypal or Amazon credit Just make sure to add-on your announcement that they should add your blog name or url in the referred by section on the sign up form. This bonus will be paid the on June 2^nd after your referral links have been verified.