Right now I'm sitting in a hotel room in Seacacus, NJ. It's about five miles away from Manhattan. This past week has been very, very interesting. To sum it up in four words-broken ship, bad weather. Intrigued? Stay tuned.

An amazing thing has happened the past couple of weeks, Beepers has started sleeping through the night consistently. And, he is absolutely an angel when it comes to putting him to bed. Beepers has been a horrible, horrible sleeper and it's shocking how much he has changed in the past couple of weeks. I used to spend at least an hour every night rocking him to sleep. When he finally fell asleep I would ever so carefully would place him in his crib. When Beepers was three to six months old he wouldn't go to sleep until 3:00am. It was rough, especially on the days that I had to go to work. Eventually I was able to get Beepers to go to bed at a more reasonable hour but every night was difficult. Every once in while he would sleep through the night (about once every two months), but mostly he woke up at least two times a night. We tried the crying-it-out method a handful of times, and sometimes we were successful, but then Beepers would get sick and we'd have to start all over again. Things changed a couple of weeks ago, and it basically just happened one night. I was sitting in the rocking chair rocking Beepers and after just a minute or so of rocking he said, "crib". I put him in his crib, gave him his bear, put a blanket over him, kissed him, told him that I loved him and said goodnight. He cried when I opened the door and walked out of the room, but he only cried for a couple of minutes. The next night we did the same thing and every night he cried less and less, and now most nights he doesn't even cry. I'm still in shock that it's that easy, but I always keep in mind that it could change any day. Oh well, I am enjoying it for now except for the fact that it's now 12:30am and I'm not asleep. Last night I was awake until 4:00am. Beepers has been sleeping well that past couple of weeks, but I have not.

P.S. Chad, Beepers, and I are going on a cruise! We fly out on Saturday and board the cruise boat on Sunday. I'm excited but nervous. For all you millions of people that read my blog, you can look forward to my blogs about our adventure.

Enough Said...

Earlier this morning when I was making my bed Beepers stole one of the pillows from me and ran out of the room. A couple minutes later I heard him yelling, "Mommy, I'm sleeping." I found him lying on the couch with the pillow and a blanket. It was cute, and I gave him a kiss on his forehead. Right after I did that, he said, " I wuv you." We have been trying to get him to say it for months, and he was fully capable of saying the words, but he just wouldn't do it. Beepers is a parrot, he loves to repeat everything we say. When we ask him a question, he always repeats the last word we've said. We have been using this to our advantage when we are giving him a choice. For example-When we ask him, "do you want to stay awake or go to bed," he answers, "bed." I'm sure it won't be long before he figures out our little trick and we'll have to change the choices we give him. Even though Beepers parrots just about everything we say, he wouldn't say I love you. Beepers started saying "I wuv you" on his own about two weeks ago and every time he says it, it makes my heart melt. Last week he was looking at a picture of my dad and he started yelling, "I wuv you Papa," over and over again. It's a good thing Beepers learned how to soften my heart a little bit, so I don't get so mad when he does things like this--

(Beepers thinks I'm proud of him for doing this, because I took a picture. That's why I didn't take a picture of him this morning dancing on the kitchen table or precariously perched on the arms of his rocking chair.)

Correction to the recipe-I orginally put shallots, I meant to put scallions (green onions)
I like to cook, it's one thing I' m good at. Some nights we eat really well, and other nights we just do something simple. A couple of weeks ago I was grocery shopping at one of my favorite stores, NPS Market Square and I found some pancetta. ( On a side note- I am obsessed with finding good deals on food and I always find good deals at NPS. I recently found out that they take manufacturers coupons, so I've been going crazy buying stuff for cheap at NPS and then using coupons to make things even cheaper. Another way I find good deals is through a shopping club. I have a membership for a shopping club and I just log into a website and it tells me what's on sale this week at the stores in my area and what coupons to use. It's awesome. I come home with bags of groceries and make Chad guess how much I spent. It's a stupid little game, but I always love the look on his face when I tell him how little I spent.)
Anyway, back to the pancetta. I made this delicious dish-



Here's the recipe-
12 oz pasta (linguine, penne, rotini, whatever kind you have on hand)
5 scallions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
6 ounces pancetta, chopped
2 cups fresh sliced mushrooms
2 pinches freshly ground black pepper
2 pinches dried oregano
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup butter
2 Tablespoons capers
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente.
In a large skillet, cook pancetta in oil and butter until just beginning to brown. Stir in shallots, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook for one minute. Season with pepper and oregano, and pour in chicken broth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add capers. Cover, and continue to simmer for 5-7 minutes.
Mix with pasta then top with parmesan cheese.

Usually I don't have recipes to give people. This time I have a recipe because most of it came from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com, but of course altered it. Keep in mind, capers have a very strong, different flavor. I find them to be very tasty, but many people do not like them.

Now I'm hungry....

Where does the time go? It's been almost a month and a half since my last blog. Turns out I don't have as many thoughts as I thought I would have. Actually, I think a lot, too much sometimes and I can't sleep. Maybe I'll write about those things in future blogs.
Monday I took Beepers for a haircut. I was pleasantly suprised when Beepers was born with hair, but it turns out, it's kind of a pain. At nineteen months old Beepers has had about seven haircuts, by me, my mother-in-law, and at a salon. I used to be able to cut it while he was sleeping, but I can't do that anymore because he wakes up. Now I have to sit in the chair at the salon, hold his arms down, and try to hold his head, while he screams his head off. On Monday, the lady who was cutting his hair cut her finger because Beepers was flailing around so much. The lady was very nice though, and Beepers ended up with a nice haircut. (It's quite short on the sides, but I requested that, so he didn't have to get another haircut quite so soon.)

Beepers trapped me in the bathroom again. Yes, it has happened once before. It happens when I am taking a shower. I haven't figured out what to do with Beepers while I take a shower. I use to just have him take a shower with me, but then I decided he doesn't need a shower every day. Here's how it happens- The shower and toilet in our apartment are separate from the sink and vanity. If you close the bathroom door and open one of the drawers in the vanity it prevents you from opening the bathroom door. I take a shower with the shower curtain slightly open, so I can keep my eye on Beepers. He runs all over the apartment, but for the most part stays where I can see him. It takes a split second of me not watching him for him to close the bathroom door and open one of the drawers in the vanity. The first time he did it, I panicked for a couple of minutes. I looked around the bathroom to see if there was anything I could use to pull a 'McGyver' trick and get out of the bathroom. There literally was no way for me to get out unless somebody on the outside closed the drawer. Fortunately, after ten minutes, by pounding on the door, I got Beepers to close the drawer and let me out. The next couple of weeks I took my cell phone in the bathroom with me. (My sister lives across the street from me and kindly said she would come rescue me should Beepers happen to trap me in the bathroom again.) Well, I stopped taking the cell phone in the bathroom with me and last week Beepers trapped me in the bathroom again. I was only in the bathroom for three minutes before he opened the drawer and let me out. He was eating some of my chapstick, which I quickly took away from him. He probably regrets letting me out.
I love being a mom, but there are a few things I miss about being childless. I miss being able to take a shower whenever I want and not having to worry about Beepers. I miss going to the bathroom when I want and with the door closed. I constantly have to know where Beepers is at, because if I don't, he is usually getting into trouble. Last week he threw my toothbrush in the toilet, then two days later he threw his toothbrush in the toilet. One time I was taking a shower, my cell phone was out on the hall table and it rang, Beepers kindly brough it to me by throwing it in the shower with me. He has also thrown in a broom and some of his toys. There is never a dull moment when you have a kid.

We have an ant problem. For those of you who know we live in a basement apartment at my aunts' house, let me clarify that it's an ant problem, not an aunt problem. They are everywhere. It doesn't help that Beepers (our son, names have been changed to protect the innocent) loves to dump food all over the floor. To let us know he is done with dinner, he pushes any food remaining on his high chair tray off onto the floor. We clean it up, but inevitably we don't get everything. Twenty minutes later we will find little pieces of food we missed covered with ants. Beepers loves ants and can spend twenty very focused minutes watching them. So, despite the fact that we are trying to get rid of most of the ants, I don't mind if a few stick around. There are very few things that keep an 18 month old entertained for 20 minutes.

My first blog. I have been thinking about doing a blog for almost a year now, I guess today is the day. I was inspired to do it today because today I discovered that Melanie had started to blog.
I am horrible at writing in a journal and I always have a goal to do better. Almost all my journal entrys start out with the words, "I want to be better at writing in my journal," and then six months later my next entry starts exactly the same way, "I want to be better at writing in my journal." I hope I will be better at blogging.