When life hands you lemons...

Make lemonade.

And when you're stuck at home because your kid is running a fever for three days straight (ugh.), make Pinterest projects!

Poor Samuel got his first fever last week. It was weird, because he didn't really have any other symptoms. He's had a few little things going on for a week or two that I thought were because of teething, but then Wednesday he got a low-grade fever and Thursday it spiked up to around 102. It got better with Tylenol/Advil, but every time we let the meds wear off, it spiked back up and he got into super-grouchy-inconsolable mode. Sad.

Anyway, I tried to make some use of my time at home. I had a lot of plans this weekend, most of which got cancelled. Bummer. So instead I pulled up some pins I'd been wanting to try and went to town.

Cajun Chicken Pasta -- I've been meaning to try this recipe for a while, but finally got around to it Thursday night. It was sooo good! The recipe calls for sun-dried tomatoes, but I swapped them out for some tomato paste since sun-dried tomatoes are super-pricey. It tasted akin to something I've had a Carrabba's a few times. Definitely a keeper!

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
4 ounces pasta, cooked al dente
2 teaspoons cajun seasoning
2 tablespoons butter
1-2 cup heavy whipping cream (I used half milk and half whipping cream)
2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes (I used tomato paste)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Place chicken and Cajun seasoning in a bowl and toss to coat. In a large skillet over medium heat, sauté chicken in butter or margarine until chicken is tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Reduce heat add green onion, heavy cream, tomatoes, basil, salt, garlic powder, black pepper and heat through. Pour over hot linguine and toss with Parmesan cheese.

 Art Work - I made this in Word and printed it, then stuck it in a dollar store frame. I really like it and may re-do it on photo stock. Easy playroom art work!

Vanilla Candle in Coffee Beans - It does smell really good! I haven't tried burning it yet, so it hasn't been super strong, but I love the smell of coffee when I walk in the door. :-)

DIY Sensory Bag -- This was fun while it lasted. Sweet boy chewed a hole in it after about 5-10 minutes. Good thing I colored the water with Jello powder. Just what he needed, right? haha.

Project Board - This is still a work-in-progress and will probably get re-done when Eric has time to help me with it. Samuel really likes it so far though!

I definitely did a lot of lounging around too. (Notice most of these projects are not super intensive :-) 

Little man seems to be feeling better today, though, so hopefully we can get back to life as normal! 

The cuteness.

Samuel does a lot of cute things these days. So many, in fact, that I often chuckle and then forget about them. By the time his little birthday rolls around and I decide to blog about him, he's doing something new. So here are a few things he's been up to lately.

- Saying mama. It took him a good month and a half after learning to say dada and dee dee and bye bye. But he finally has mama down, and it's definitely his favorite word! He likes to wrap his lips really tight around his teeth and focus really hard when saying it. It's one of his silliest faces so far, but he LOVES it.

- Fish facing. We have no clue where he got this from, but one morning last week he woke up and made a fish face at me and then kept doing it for the next two days. He hasn't done it much since, and I guess he didn't really realize he was doing it, because he would look at me like I was crazy when I would make the face back at him. Such a goof!

- Clapping. He hasn't quite figured out clapping with music yet, but he knows to clap when I throw him a ball or when he puts a cheerio in is own mouth. He's also great at clapping whenever I say the word, "Yay!" He's so proud of himself!

- Indian noises. He loves it when we put our hands over his mouth while he makes noise. He also loves to flick his bottom lip while humming just to hear the noise it makes.

- Waving. He still hasn't 100% gotten this one down, but one of my friends told him "bye" the other day and he put his hand up in the air. We assume that was a wave goodbye. He does actually make the waving motion, but usually only to himself.

- The smile. I love love love love love how he makes this scrunched up smile with his whole face. This isn't the full-blown version, but it gives you an idea. Such a happy kid.

- Self-feeding. Or attempting to self-feed. He really has gotten a lot better at it, but he likes to get whatever he is eating balled up in his fist and then hit his mouth with his fist until he gets it in there. As previously mentioned, he gets super excited when he is successful.

- Playing Peek-a-Boo. He's learned how to pull the covers up over himself and "hide" for a minute, then come out while we say "There he is!" His timing isn't great, but he gets pretty excited anyway. :-)

- "Petting" animals. He usually just ends up pulling out chunks of their hair. Our poor Conner cat is probably going bald thanks to Samuel, but he's taken it like a champ.  He gets SUPER excited when he sees a dog or cat and makes this crazy squeal while chasing after them.

- Switching out pacifiers. It doesn't matter if he already has a pacifier in his mouth. If Samuel sees a new pacifier, he will switch it with the one he already has. Fortunately, this has been known to entertain him for 5-10 minutes at a time.

I'm sure there are a lot of other cute/milestone things that I'm missing. It's just crazy how much he's been learning the last few weeks! I'm so grateful for my funny, happy baby boy!

Into the Wild Blue Yonder...

It's been a couple of weeks now since I made my first flight with baby in tow. It was definitely an experience!

We left Wednesday morning with 5 (yes 5!!) bags and a stroller packed away. My friend Tara was sweet enough to drive us to the airport in Charlotte. I hated that it was such a long way, but I couldn't figure out how in the world I would manage to get ALL of our stuff from long-term parking to the shuttle to the terminal... and I was right. Just getting to the check-in from the door was hard enough! (And I was lucky enough that my parents bought a car seat & pack and play for Samuel so we didn't have to haul that too!)

Checking in was kind of a pain. I wanted to check my pump, but the lady thought it was "too sensitive" and that I would "have to sign a waver because it would probably get damaged." So there was one extra bag I got to carry through security.

Oh, security.

I sent my four bags through the monitor. I took Samuel out and folded up the stroller and took my shoes off and put them back on and opened the stroller back up and strapped him back in and... oh, wait! They decided to totally unpack my bags because of the baby food. They had to test everything (milk included). And apparently ice packs aren't allowed, so they took that and threw it away. Great. Never mind that it was in the bag I already tried to check and they wouldn't let me.

Once I finally made it through and got my bags repacked, we booked it down to the end of the last terminal to catch our flight. Luckily, it was running a little late. We waited about 10 minutes and then on we went! The plane was full (of course), but everyone was really nice. We sat next to an older lady who was returning from visiting her daughter, grandkids and great-grandkids in Myrtle Beach. She was super-understanding and even let Samuel play with her watch (brave lady!).

As I hoped, Samuel fell asleep when I gave him a bottle during take-off. We got up to cruising altitude, and I was feeling pretty good. Baby was sleeping. I had the iPad out playing some games. It was all set up to be an easy two hours... then the captain came over the loudspeaker. Just to say HI. Normally I would probably think that was very nice of him. But it was NOT nice of him to wake my baby!

Samuel didn't sleep any more after that. He jumped and bounced in my lap and tried his hardest to escape my grasp. I entertained him with new toys and shoved him full of cheerios and puffs. He kept trying to grab the hair of the people in front of us and flirting with the lady across the aisle. He let out a few [happy] shrieks which, thankfully, elicited laughter from my fellow travelers, not looks of scorn. All in all, I think he had a good time, and generally did well. I, on the other hand, left with several bruises from his crazy flailing about.

We made it to Little Rock, though, and were greeted by my parents who were gracious enough to pick us up. We spent some time shopping and eating with my brother, then went to their new home in De Witt. We stayed there for a day and half. It was fun to explore a new little town, and Samuel had a blast playing with his Grammy and Pappy!

First time playing on a real piano. He wasn't sure what to think!

Samuel experienced cornbread for the first time. Oh boy!

Friday we made our way back to Little Rock. We ate lunch and got checked into our hotel and Eric's mom and family friend, Shane, joined our little soiree. We hung out and played with our sweet boy and I got ready for my friend Karis' wedding. Then Eric's grandparents and aunts, who happened to be coming through Little Rock on their way home from New England, stopped by for a bit to see Samuel too. I'm pretty sure he was the most popular kid in the state that day!

Little man didn't nap much at ALL while we were there, so I put him down for a bit then went to the wedding. It was beautiful, as expected, and one of the sweetest ceremonies I've been to. :-) I hate that I couldn't spend more time there before and after! My parents brought Samuel to the reception so he could "visit." Unfortunately, it was well past bedtime for him, so he pretty much just stared blankly at everyone. I ended up leaving before they even cut the cake. Sad. We did get to visit with Karis a bit though!

Saturday morning we woke up and ate breakfast, said our goodbyes and headed to the airport! This time around we seriously barely made it. We were the second to last ones on the plane! I was kind of glad, though, because it meant we only had to wait about 10 minutes and we were up in the air. Once again, Samuel fell asleep on the way up. Once again, he was awakened, this time by the stewardess accidentally dripping cold water on his head. The return trip was pretty similar, and I was pretty exhausted by the time we landed. Unfortunately, we still taxied for about 30 minutes AFTER landing. Talk about torture for an 8 month old who is ready to move!

Isn't that face adorbs? 

Anyway, Eric picked us up from the airport and said I looked like superwoman with my baby and all my bags. Glad somebody recognized! Haha. I definitely have some serious respect for people who travel overseas or cross-country with multiple kids alone. I'm SO glad we went, but I am in NO hurry to do it again!!

Politics {venting}

So I don't have much to say about politics. Sure, I have opinions, but I usually choose to keep them to myself. I've never seen ANY good come of arguing about political opinions, only disgruntled friends and family and broken relationships. Our government is set up so that citizens can have a voice by voting, or by writing letters to people who have been elected to office. If we feel strongly about something, we should express it that way. That's just my two cents.

That being the case, I have been SO annoyed lately with the crazy amount of political garbage that has been shared lately through both social and mainstream media. A lot of what I've seen propagated are flat out lies. Almost every ad or story attacks officials in one party or the other. Some are so vicious and ruthlessly mean that it makes me sad for the people sharing them.

As a believer, the thing that really bothers me about this is that a lot of what I see is coming from well-meaning Christians. Don't get me wrong here. I am all for standing up for what you believe in. But does that really have to include severely slandering someone else based on information that may or may not be true? Someone you don't even personally know?

It seems like people are so ready to have their opinions reinforced that they will believe anything they hear from any source and then shout it from the rooftops. If, as a believer, I'm really convinced that a person or party is in the wrong, shouldn't I pray for them rather than turning to slander?

I'm not a politician and don't ever plan to be. But I can imagine that it's a HARD JOB. You have to make decisions for millions of people. There's never going to be a way to make everyone happy. You have to try to stick to your own beliefs but compromise enough to find something that works for a whole city or state or country. I may not agree with everything every politician that represents me does. But I'm not in their shoes, either.

Jesus said we should pray for those in command. I definitely don't do that nearly enough, but I hope to more, and I hope that others will choose that route as well. Arguing and party-bashing hasn't gotten anyone anywhere in the past, and I don't think it will now either.

End vent.

Weekly Pics and Such

No time for a super long post today, but here's a few more recent weekly pics. I probably won't be able to keep this up much longer.... I wanted to go a year, but maybe just doing them 40 weeks (aka as long out as he was in!) will be enough. He's just so crazy-wiggly. At least he's cute though! :-)

Swinging with his big buddy, Charlie.

"Hiking" with daddy!