Terrific little Tuesday

Well, today has been just as terrific (for Dean and me) as Sunday was sad! We were stuck inside all day with the fear of getting stuck outside when the freezing rain decided to hit. I was worried we were going to go stir crazy, so to help break up the toy play we did a whole house pick up and vacuum. I rarely get all rooms clean in the same day. It was kind of nice because 1. My house looked better. 2. The vacuum kind of intrigues/terrifies Dean, so he was very occupied and content on my hip while it was on, and he enjoyed playing in different rooms while it was off and I was picking up. and 3. It kept me from laying on the couch feeling pregnant while I let Dean play and get bored.

He ate all meals (small, but substantial enough that I would call it a successful meal) and two (or three?) snacks! Woohoo.

During his nap I finally got around to cleaning up my pukey (literally) toilet. It needed it after the last couple puke days.

After his nap we cleaned up the kitchen, and inspired by the Montessori stuff I was reading earlier, I let him help me unload the dishwasher. I've never attempted it before, and he did quite well! He pretty much just took all of the dishes in the lower level out and set them on the ground.

With a clean kitchen I decided to make rice crispy treats with some leftover marshmallows and cereal we had from our Christmas treats. Dean LOVED it. I let him try a marshmallow before we melted them and he was a little distraught when they started disappearing, but once we finished, he delightfully partook of the goodies.

It is getting increasingly difficult to hold him while I cook. I tried putting him on a kitchen chair so he could see, but he ended up falling off sideways. Luckily I caught him before he hit anything too hard. After looking into safe step stools, I all but decided to buy the Little Partners Learning Tower. While it's expensive, I would buy it in a heart beat if it were just up to me. Matt is not sold on it. He thinks it's too expensive and too big for our already crowded kitchen (our rather large table's in there since we have no dining room). Valid arguments. But all I hear all day long is "Ge' up. Ge' up." He is not content being down and out of the loop. Chairs are not safe. The stool we have is not safe. There is only one other option that is comparable to the learning tower in safety and height. It can fold up, but reviews say it's not built as sturdy and doesn't wear as well. Plus it's still pretty expensive.

Anyway, off of my tangent and on with my day. One of my lessons canceled because she was afraid of freezing rain, so I ended up with 2 instead of 3. Dean is so much more manageable with only 2! He did pretty well during lessons, and thank heavens since Matt was stuck at work with a time sensitive project!

I didn't really have to do much for dinner since I did another crockpot dinner. Twice in one week is unheard of for me! I only have a handful of crockpot recipes that I consider delicious, and I just can't bring myself to eat or make un-delicious food! But the swiss chicken hit the spot tonight. (Thanks again for the recipe Pam--if you're reading this!) Dean even ate it. Well, he ate the stuffing and one small bite of chicken. And like 5 helpings of green beans.

Poor Matt. He was at work from 8AM-7:15PM. There was freezing rain when he got out of work. He has the neon which is not so great at heating up quickly. Luckily he has our 1 ice scraper in his car and got the ice scraped off, but by the time he got out of the parking lot it was totally iced over again! He scraped it again at the stop light going out of the parking lot. He drove to the next stop light with his head half hanging out the window to see and pulled over again to scrape it. It's a good thing we live only a mile from his work or he would have never made it home! Luckily I had a hot dinner and rice crispy treats waiting for him when he got here. Dean was asleep when he got home, but that's how it goes sometimes.

I even got one load of laundry folded as I watched The Biggest Loser. I swear tears come to my eyes every episode! I feel very productive and happy with the day's outcome.