Three Months Old & Counting...

Yesterday Addison turned three months old. I can't believe how much my little baby has changed in just these past three months. It's weird because when I think three months it seems like it was just yesterday but when I look at her, I swear she has been with us for forever. In fact I have trouble remembering what it was like before Addison came home with us. I sat at our computer desk last night thinking to myself that just three months ago it was just me and the dogs at home and now we have this little baby who was talking away in her swing watching television. It's amazing how things change once a child enters into the picture. What is even more amazing is how much better things are with a child.

We had her two month well visit this past Friday, which was a month late, and she weighed in at 12 1/2 lbs and was 23 1/2 in long. The kid is average! We have twiddled our thumbs for a month now concerning her two months shot which is why we are just now doing them. We went back and forth between should she have them, should she only have some of them, as first time parents we are new to this and really want to educate ourselves before we start allowing all of these vaccinations so we took our time. Friday was not a good day for us. Not because I was absolutely dreading her getting these shots because I just couldn't bear the thought of my little baby being poked three times, but because she was sick. Since Daniel thought he would have to go into work Friday and we knew this appointment was scheduled I went ahead and took a vacation day from work. That way I could spend the entire day with my little princess plus do some running around with my sister Nikki and her son Dylan. We started our little adventure back at my work so that my step-mom could show off the grand kids. Back in the day there was a whole slew of my relation working there, now it's just down to me and my step-mom. In the mortgage industry it's amazing that we are still standing.

Anyway, to make a long story short, crap hit the fan about five minutes after we arrived. I have never in the three months this child has been alive, seen her cry and carry on like she did. It was almost embarrassing because all of these women could hear her screaming and one by one they started making their way into the bathroom to see what was wrong with the child and offer their advice on how to make her stop. None of the advice worked by the way, she just stopped on her own after about 20 minutes, or what seemed like 3 hours.

Now we quickly hightailed it out of there before meltdown number 2 occurred and she ended up doing just fine the rest of the day. We hit up Sam's Club, Babies R Us where we FINALLY found a one piece bathing suit in her size, and Logan's Roadhouse for some lunch. Her appointment was at 3:30 and we made it there with no time to spare. She was fine while we sat and waited to be called back even played around with Aunt Nikki a little bit. They call us back...I proceed to strip her down to her undiewears and it happens...meltdown #2 of the day. Over the course of the next HOUR they determine that she has a temperature, needs to switch over to soy formula, and oh by the way...possibly has strep throat. Say what?? Monday through Friday she does not leave the house and she really only goes to see family on the weekends...how in the lords name does she have strep throat?? The test came back negative but her throat was very red and very raw so they sent the swab out for further testing. We still haven't heard anything so they must not have found anything.

They gave her some Tylenol, a generic brand so please calm down if you immediately thought recall, and proceeded to send us home...for a very, very long and miserable weekend. She was upset all Friday night but woke up just fine Saturday morning. We ran a few errands and came home and by 5 or so the meltdowns began again. This time it lasted until about 10 Saturday night. Nobody slept, the husband and I got into a major fight Saturday evening, and she proceeded to get constipated from the formula change which did not help things. I think we're finally back to normal even though we have no clue what just happened to all of us...lol.

Now that I got the bad stuff out of the way on to some baby stats!

~ Addison you are wearing three to six month clothing but would prefer to just wear your diaper. Your Father started this little habit and it's pretty common to get home form work to find you in your swing in only your diaper and your Dad in the recliner in his underwear. Like Father like daughter I guess! :)

~ You are still in size one diapers though Aunt Nikki suggested stepping up to size two since she said you had a butt cheek hanging out of your diaper at the doctors on Friday. It was because we couldn't get it back on your properly since you were not happy but I am going to try one tonight and see how we do.

~ You sleep through the night, well almost through the night. Our typical bedtime is 10 and you usually wake up around 5 or so for a bottle. More often than not you go right back to sleep. As hard as I try to fight the urge you usually sleep nestled in my arms. It's not because you have to because you can truly sleep wherever we put you, it's because I find such comfort in holding you in my arms so that I can smell the lavender scent of your baby shampoo. I know I need to break myself of this habit but it's soooo hard!

~ You like getting a bath. You don't love it, you don't hate it. As long as we have the water warm enough and don't splash any water up on your face you are just fine. When Daddy puts you in your baby tub you kick your legs around like you're trying to swim and he gets the biggest kick out of it. I usually use your bath sponge and you just lay there like you have nothing better to do giving me the occasional smile. You love getting your hair washed and have since your first shampoo shortly after your birth. I love it to so I completely understand!

~ We have slowly started you on solid foods and I think we are going to start giving them to you more frequently since the bottle just doesn't seem to cut it anymore. Right now you are getting between 4 and 5 ounces of formula every two hours or so. If we feed you any more than that you throw it up and you are usually not a happy camper when we take the empty bottle away. I have gotten into the habit of telling you that the bottle is "all gone...it's all in your belly" just so you don't think I am just taking it away from you with milk still left. I think you are going to be just like your Daddy. He was stick thin growing up so I think you are going to have a fast metabolism, hence why we are going to start you on more solids. By the way, you do not care for carrots.

~ You love watching television. I think all of the colors and movements fascinate you. Daddy has been turning cartoons on for you...or maybe it's for him, I am not really sure at this point in the game...lol. We discovered a few weekends ago that you enjoy sitting in your Bumbo chair watching Nascar. Your papaw is going to be so proud!

~ You are fascinated by the dogs. Especially Bandit and Toby. Bandit likes coming over and just staring at you like it's a throw down and you just stare right back. I can only imagine what you two are really thinking.

Bandit- "I'm not sure who you think you are kid but you and this swing need to get outta here. Before you showed up I was Mom's little man with the sad brown eyes that could melt her heart...now all I hear is blue eyes this and blues eyes that. And another thing...this game you play each night, yeah you know the one, the one where you just so happen to start crying for a bottle right when Mom is getting ready to feed me and the other boys is for the birds. Knock it off or you'll lose another bottle when Mom and Dad aren't looking! Yeah that's right...it was me and not Lennon...he was just my fallback, stupid kid doesn't know what hit him."

Addison- "What is that hairy thing that keeps coming over and standing at the foot of my swing like he's got something he needs to say to me?? And the breath, man do something about that breath, you're going to stunt my growth with that stuff. And while we're laying everything out, quit scaring the crap out of me every evening when you oh so conveniently wake up and shake your head back and forth. Your jewels on that man necklace you wear rattle together and make me wet myself and it makes my Mommy pissy!"

~ You are talking so much right now...of course we need someone to try to translate but it's adorable none the less.

~ You love getting your diaper changed. I think you know how rank your diapers can be and you take great pride in making your parents suffer through diaper changes. You laugh and coo and just carry on, all while Mom and Dad are trying not to throw up. Yesterdays diaper change after the bout of constipation required Mom having to help you get rid of a little something. What a mother will do for her child! Dad had his nose plugged, a wash cloth over my nose, and we're both tearing up because of the smell and you just laid there smiling away at our expense. And Addison, you know it's a bad diaper when Mr. Leaky Winky Licker himself, a.k.a. Lennon has to leave the room.

~ You are most comfortable laying on your side and with your face plastered into something. I lay you along my pillows when I get up in the morning only to come back to find you turned on your side grabbing onto the nearest pillow with your head buried deep within it. Now you turn on your side in your swing and grab hold of the lambs ear which is the pillow. You fall asleep in this awkward sideways position holding on to his ear for dear life with your face smashed into the pillow. You crack me up child!

I'm sure I missed a few things but I will come back and add them if need be. The one thing I do know is that you are so incredibly special. Your Daddy says I am being selfish because I don't let anyone take you from me whether for a few hours or overnight. I don't really care what everyone thinks. I waited two very long years to hold you in my arms and I miss so much of your life during the week because I work as it is. I treasure every moment I get with you on the weekends and right now while we experience so many firsts as a new little family, there is no need for you to be away from us right now. I truly cannot get enough of you and I find myself just taking you in my arms and laying you gently in my bed so that we can just lay there staring at each other and having our girl talk. I keep telling your Daddy that now is the time to be selfish with you because in just a few shorts months you will be more independent and won't need us to just sit and cuddle with you. You will be on your way crawling back and forth and round and round and will have not interest with being contained in our arms.

I love you little girl, more than I ever knew possible.

Mommy

Banana Cheesecake Dessert

This recipe comes compliments of my July/August 2003 issue of Taste of Homes Quick Cooking magazine. I love these magazines and really need to renew my subscription. Most of the food they show us are the foods I grew up with, down home country favorites like Grandma used to make.

This dessert was really good and for the most part very easy to make. My only complaint was the crust...for whatever reason it stuck to the dish I made it in and I literally had to scrape it out to eat it. Not sure what I could have done to prevent it, suggestions are welcome!

Banana Cheesecake Dessert~
Source: Taste of Home/Jessica Simerly

Ingredients:
2 packages strawberry no-bake cheesecake mix
3/4 cup butter or margarine melted...I used butter
1/4 cup sugar
3 cups cold milk1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple, well drained
3 medium bananas, sliced
1/2 cup chocolate ice cream topping, warmed, divided...I used hot fudge
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping, divided
1 carton (8oz) whipped topping, thawed
1/3 cup chopped pecans, I omitted
maraschino cherries with stems

Directions:
1.) Set aside filling and strawberry topping packets from cheesecake mixes. Place the contents of the crust mix packets in a large bowl; add butter and sugar. Press into a ungreased 13x9 dish.

2.) In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk and contents of filling packets. Beat on low speed until blended. Beat on high for 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Spread over the crust. Refrigerate for one hour.

3.) Spread contents of strawberry topping packets over cheesecake. Top with pineapple and bananas. Drizzle with 1/4 of chocolate topping and 1/4 caramel topping. Spread with whipped topping.

4.) Refrigerate for 2 hours or until set. Before serving drizzle with remaining chocolate and caramel toppings. Top with pecans and cherries.

Yield: 16-20 servings

Chipotle Bacon Cheeseburgers

Not a lot of time for chit chat so this will be short and sweet as being a full time employee and a full time Mom is a lot of hard work. Throw in this terrible Ohio weather we are dealing with it and it makes for a very tired Katie!!

Anyway, I called home today to see if Daniel wanted anything in particular for dinner since I was stopping by the store after work. Surprise, surprise he said hamburgers, how typical...lol. I threw these together so I could blog about them and use up the extra chipotle peppers I had floating in the pantry.

I thought these were excellent although Daniel said five chipotle peppers may be to much. I think five was just enough and am thinking maybe I hadn't mixed the meat together as well as I could have and maybe he just got a really big bite of the stuff. I ate it without breaking a sweat which means they weren't to spicy for me. I do not do spicy so trust me on this one.
Chipotle Bacon Cheeseburgers
Source: Your's truly Katie! :)

Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground beef...I used an 80/20 mix
5 chipotle peppers in adobe sauce
2 tbsp. dried onions
1 tbsp. garlic powder
6 slices of cooked bacon
1 md. onion, cut in half and then thinly sliced
6 hamburger buns
Hellmans Mayo
6 slices of provolone cheese

Directions:

1.) In a medium bowl mix together meat, finely chopped chipotle peppers, garlic powder, and dried onions. Form into six hamburger patties.

2.) Over medium heat cook until you reach desired doneness. In a separate skillet saute onion until translucent.

3.) Top each burger with a slice of cheese and allow it to melt while still in pan.

4.) Cook bacon in microwave until done.

5.) To assemble burger apply a medium layer of mayo on bottom hamburger bun, top with hamburger, onion, and then one slice of bacon broken in half.

Hope you enjoy! On a side note...is doneness even a word or did I seriously just make that up and what in the world is going on with this post and it's fonts??

Another Kelly's Korner

Today on Kelly's Korner, it's "Show us your life- Your kids or future kids names" day so since I have had names picked out for forever I thought I would share.

What young girl who plans on raising a family one days does not think about the names of her future children?

Growing up I went from using Mercedes (don't ask it was an elementary school thing), to Kennedy or Reagan, and then finally to Addison. Can you tell I was all about having a daughter?

Obviously Addison took as that is what we named our little bundle of sweet goodness but I still have a few up my sleeves for future children even though we more than likely won't use them.

I am one of those weird parents who likes having a theme to all of their children's names. For me a first name ending with s-o-n was the way to go hence the name Addison. Plus, Daniel said we couldn't name all of our children to have the same first initial.

We now have Addison Grace and then for future use I had the names; Emerson(Emmie) Faith, Jackson Daniel, and Grayson Matthew all picked out and ready to use. Of course Daniel has to throw a kink into everything so he shot down the middle name of Faith which so totally went with Addison's middle name of Grace, and he also threw out the name Grayson. Of course he had absolutely know problem with the name Jackson Daniel and gee, I wonder why?

Did I seriously just spell no as know. Why yes I did...do you see what pregnancy has done to my spelling abilities? I now have to proof read work related e-mails no less than three times before sending them to their recipients thanks to this wonderful issue.

Now, if you're wondering why we more than likely won't be using any of those other names here is why? First of all the name Jackson has grown in popularity this year. I kid you not I know of three babies who were just born this past year all with the name of Jackson. It's even worse than Addison which we actually considered changing. I just couldn't do it though because as some of you know, I had the name picked out since high school and I just couldn't sever the emotional tie I had with that name. Second, like I stated Daniel didn't like Faith for the middle name for Emerson and to be honest he doesn't care to much for Emerson. Third, other than because Daniel didn't care for it, we can't go with Grayson because our new girl name is Kadence Marie and we can't have one kid not a part of Mommy's crazy s-o-n theme, it just wouldn't be right and since I am anal like that it would drive me crazy for the rest of my life.

Now that we have no boys names picked out I guess I better get back to the drawing board. It was so nice being pregnant and not fighting over a name or hoping that you would have one picked out by the time you were released from the maternity ward.

I think I like the name Ethan, yeah Ethan could work...now I just have to get Daniel on board. Oh brother!!! I would also like to add that I really, really, really like the name Harrison. The entire family pretty much vetoed that one from the beginning. Has anybody seen the movie "The Geisha Boy" with Jerry Lewis? Our family LOVES that movie and in it Jerry's rabbits name is Harry. All I can ever think about when saying the name Harry is how Jerry says it in the movie..."Harryyyyyy", "Harryyyyyyyyyy", "Harryyyyyy Nooooooooo". Well anyway, that's how I came up with the name Harrison. Blasted family for shooting my dreams down! LOL

And.........for you're viewing pleasure, my little bunde of sweet goodness...Lord how I could eat this child up! Get a load of those eyelashes while you're looking!

Last week...

...went a little something like this;

Happy Addison


to pissed off Addison as shown here


Same time frame...we were just trying on new headbands!

The fact Wednesday is Cinco De Mayo has absolutely nothing to do with the fact I am making several different Mexican themed recipes this week just so you know. It does have to do with the fact that I have been on a serious Mexican themed craving jolt this past week or so.

What I am about to share with you could alter the way the world works. Please don't be scared...I think we will all be just fine in the end, but I feel it is my duty to share with each and every one of you just as a warning.

I Katie Blankenship (please take a deep breath) am sick to death with making or eating anything pasta related!

I know, I know, hell is freezing over as I write this. Never did I think this day would occur but it has and so far everything seems to be going as normal. With the death of my pasta relationship has come an overwhelming desire to eat all things that include soft or hard taco shells. No I am not pregnant so please don't even go there. I have three more months until I am willing to start trying again and will have my husbands permission, so sit tight for a little while. Daniel told me I have already had my allotted baby for the year so my baby hormones have been set to the side.

On that note, if someone could please explain to me why I have a two month old baby at home and still have this void like I need another baby right this very minute I would appreciate it. I want the fresh out of my uterus baby back, she is already getting so big it makes me cry and I just know that one night I will fall asleep and when I wake up she will be off to college.

Back to the purpose of the story...pretend like you didn't read anything having to do with babies or my uterus. THANKS a million!

Anyway I think this new craving started with these little devils, Creamy White Chicken Enchiladas. If you still have not tried these please, please, pleaseeeeeee do so immediately. Seriously folks I am drooling over them as I type this and I think I might actually have the ingredients to make a batch towards the end of the week which excites me to no end. It's like being a redneck...except now it's you know you're a foodie when...making these enchiladas is the most exciting thing you have on your agenda for the week.

I figured I would give up blog stalking Cassie for a little while so I pulled out one of the many cookbooks/magazines that currently reside in our microwave cabinet on Saturday and this is one of the meals I decided to take for a test drive. I really enjoyed it and I am not pulling your leg when I say it was almost like eating a burrito from Chipotle, just minus the rice. If you're a fan of Chipotle's you have to try this recipe and please, when it says use only 1 to 2 chipotle peppers, please follow the directions and do not add 4 to 5 like I did...3 maybe...but please not 4 to 5. Unless of course you like having your lips tingle during dinner, then by all means use 5! :)Beef and Chipotle Burritos

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs. boneless beef round steak, cut 3/4 thick
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 to 2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
6 9 to 10 inch flour toritallas, warmed
3/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Pico de Gallo Salsa, click here for my recipe...store bought is just fine!
Shredded jicama or radishes, optional
Sour cream, optional

Directions:
1.) Trim fat from meat. Cut meat into 6 pieces. In a 3 1/2 or 4 quart crock pot place meat, undrained tomatoes, onion, chipotle peppers, oregano, cumin, and garlic.

2.) Cover and cook on low heat for 8 to 10 hours or on high heat for 4 to 5 hours. Using 2 forks, pull meat apart into shreds. Place meat in a large bowl. Stir in cooking liquid to reach desired consistancy. Divide meat among warmed tortillas.Top with cheese, Pico de Gallo salsa, and, if desired, jicama and sour cream. Roll up tortillas.

Slider-Style Mini Burgers

I was looking for something quick and cheap to make the other day after work and this recipe was showcased on the main page of allrecipes on that particular day. We love hamburgers and I especially love sliders so I thought I would give these a shot. We both really enjoyed them and we will definitely be making them again. Not only were these good served for dinner but they would make an excellent finger food during all of your summer parties!

Slider-Style Mini Burger~
Source: allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
1 (1.25 ounce) envelope onion soup mix (I used only 1)
1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used only 2 tbsp.)
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
24 dinner rolls, split
1/2 md. onion, finely diced (was not apart of the actual recipe but I added it in lieu of the second envelope of onion soup)
1/2 cup sliced pickles (optional)

Directions:
1.) Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.

2.) Mix together the ground beef and onion soup mix in a large skillet; cook and stir over medium-high heat until the beef is crumbly, evenly browned, and no longer pink. Drain and discard any excess grease. Remove from heat. Stir the mayonnaise and Cheddar cheese into the ground beef mixture.

3.) Lay the bottoms of the dinner rolls on the prepared baking sheet. Spread the cheese and beef mixture on the bottom half of each roll. Replace the tops. Cover with another sheet of aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray.

4.) Bake in the preheated oven until the burgers are heated through and cheese melts, about 30 minutes. Serve with sliced pickles.

Now don't hate...you know you eat Spaghettios! LOL