Spinach with Hot Bacon Dressing
(an HEB recipe but altered with more vinegar and bacon)
Makes about 2 cups
1/2 c sugar
1 1/3 T cornstarch
3/4 t celery seed
1/2 t salt
1/2 T ground mustard
1 c milk
2/3 c cider vinegar
1/2 stick butter
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
5 strips crisp bacon, crumbled
Fresh Spinach
Place 1st 5 ingredients in saucepan over medium heat. Slowly stir in milk and vinegar. Add butter and stir until mixture comes to a boil. Stir for 1-2 minutes more. When thick and bubbly, pour a little of the mixture into the beaten eggs. Stir and add the egg mixture back into the saucepan. Stir in chopped eggs and bacon. Serve over fresh spinach immediately.

Andy tried rice cereal last week. He hated it. LOL. Dr said it was good for his Reflux though.
*****DH insert video here*****
Since then he has gotten rice just about once every day. He continues to not like it. So yesterday I mixed his cereal with carrots instead of EBM. Bingo! I am wavering between holding off on any more since he is only 3 months old or continuing with carrots and maybe trying pears since he likes it.

Andy is also working on batting & kicking toys and holding rattles. I don’t know if I ever mentioned it but he has been rolling over from back to front for a long time now.
He is starting to be harder to lay down when he asleep- he pops back awake. Hate that. I can spend all day trying to put him down for a nap. Like today. Grrr. But on the flip side he has been better on car trips.
Andy gets the most appealing look on his face and kicks and moves his arms all around when you come near him. Love it! 😀

Brendan went “nuts” over this talking squirrell last night while we were at Papa Dobie’s house…

What he’s been up to:
Playing his new Tonka Search & Rescue and Firefighter games. Thanks Grandma and Papa Don!!
Collecting his Thomas engines- he recently acquired 2 Christmas cars and Gordon.
He is now solidly in size 4T but when buying him underwear he needs size 6 in FOTL and size 8 in Hanes!! Why is that??? Love them boxer briefs- he can run around the house in them but if someone comes to the door they look like shorts. LOL
He loves fried fish and fried shrimp.

Andy is 3 months old today!

Took Andy to the dr Friday because his reflux has been worse lately. He upped his meds- he now takes .8 mL Reglan and 1 mL Zantac. He acknowledged that the Reglan may be the reason he wakes up so often at night and said I could give it to him 3x a day instead, skipping the right before bed dose, and see if that worked. Fingers crossed here, though I’m not quite the zombie I used to be.
He weighed just an ounce under 15 pounds!! That sounds like a lot and even the dr wondered out loud if he was eating too much and causing the vomiting but it turned out to be right along his weight curve. My mother has been pestering me to start him on rice cereal for the thickening properties and I couldn’t believe my “not til they’re 6 months” pediatrician agreed. He says that usually it is put in bottles but since I BF, he wasn’t suggesting it until Andy could eat from a spoon and old enough to give it a go. Three cheers for a pedi that didn’t suggest I formula feed instead!
Had a rare outing Thursday evening without DH. We went with my mother, aunt, uncle and grandparents to a drive thru lights display. I had to deal with BFing in funky places with impatient people and it went better than I thought. I really get nervous in situations like that but it went fine.

Brendan: almost 3 years & 8 months
Shhh! But I think Bren may just be [at home] potty trained. Including pooping AND night. Just all of a sudden decided to do it, do it ALL, and do it right. It’s been 4 days… and no accidents. **KNOCK ON WOOD*** So… how DO you teach them how to wipe and do it well??? lol
Andrew: 12 weeks today
He started holding a rattle two days ago. He can hold it for a long time and likes to move it all around. He also purses his lips in a little circle and makes an “ooooh” sound (not like the word oh but like wind whistling). He is *still* nursing every 2-3 hours around the clock- I’m getting up 3x a night to feed him. I thought maybe a bit of Metformin would help maintain my milk supply so I started back on 500 mg yesterday. It is common for those with PCOS to have low supplies.
Both Bren and Andrew have really taken to their Grandma. She is so good with both of them and I so dig the adult company. She went to stay with my grandparents for a few days and Bren has been asking for her since she left. She plans on alternating places until closer to Thanksgiving, then she’ll stay here until they leave. My stepdad arrives the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Looks like I may be hosting Thanksgiving dessert and old home movies since I have the best living room space for 40ish people. First thing I think of… Oh God, I have to really clean this house!!! Haha. Good thing Grandma is here to help or at least entertain the kiddos.

My boys got to meet my mother last night. She flew in from North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with us. She loved on Andy while giving Brendan time to adjust to a roomful of mostly strangers. Then she gave him a couple of new trains to add to his Thomas collection and he played trains with her. It was all good. After Brendan’s shy period he did great- he even went outside with my Uncle Chuck for awhile. My mom is staying with my grandma (MaeMae) today and then is coming to our house tomorrow to spend some time here.

*****
In other news, I had to wake Andy up at 7:15 to eat since I was about to explode!!! I call that sleeping through the night!! I wonder if I will adjust and get an even longer time at night or if I will continue to wake him up because I am too full to sleep. We’ll see. Hooray for better sleep!!!! That was my first 6 or more hour stretch of sleep in over 11 weeks!

DH took Brendan to an air show today featuring the Thunderbirds. Judging by the vast amount of excited chatter in the house tonight it was a roaring success. Even better- they did the free “park n ride” and rode in a bus! Brendan loved every minute but I think DH loved it even more.

Happy 11 weeks Andy!

I started Andy back on the Reglan yesterday. He’s had a bad day of clearing his throat and just acting like his reflux was bothering him. Lo and behold he only woke up 2x last night.

Bren and I have been practicing writing activities the past 2 days. Yesterday he held 2 markers together and called it a flag so I asked him if he wanted to draw a flag. We did that and put a star in it. Then I held my hand over his again and we wrote out “FLAG” and his name. He really enjoyed it.
Today, considering his extreme interest in the numbers of his Thomas engines (i.e. “Thomas is the number one blue engine”) and the fact that he recently learned that 1 and 2 beside each other make twelve, we wrote out the numbers from 1 to 15 together. I was curious if he could trace so I drew a yellow zig zag and a curly pattern for him to trace with the red marker. After practicing 2 little versions with me he was able to do them himself. Yay! He needs to practice hand-pen coordination and the zig zags are right up his alley since he has been playing the Starfall zigzag skit in the letter Z over and over. We say “zig” as we draw up and “zag” as we draw down. LOL.
*****
In baby news… Uggggghhhhhh! Last 2 nights I have gotten up every 2 1/2 hours or less- 5 times and then 4 times last night but would have been 5 if Brendan hadn’t woken up more than 2 hours early. This is the only part about baby care that I hate and I know breastfeeding plays a large role in it. Other than this, Andy is a model baby- very happy and playful. This morning I was staring off into space while he nursed and he gave out this fake cry sound. I looked down at him and he gave me his widest grin and cooed- he wanted my attention so we could play! 🙂
Andy’s day is much like I remember kindergarten to be… all about stations. Under the gym, in the swing, play on the floor, in the bouncer, in the highchair while I cook, under the crib mobile… He moves from place to place interspersed with naps and meals. We always start daytime nursing with little chats. He is so lovable and cute!
Edited to add… here is his 2nd tracing page.