Today was one of those days that just didn’t go quite as planned. I wouldn’t call it a bad day because a lot of good things happened, but there were definitely a few bumps in the road!
Bump 1: Nursing Issues
This may totally be TMI, so if you don’t care to read about my nursing issues, feel free to skip down to Bump 2. Yes, I’m still nursing. I’m very proud that I made it to 1 year! I didn’t even know if I’d be able to nurse the boys at all, so the fact that I’ve nursed them 1 whole year is pretty exciting for me. We’re down to three sessions a day, first thing in the morning, 3:00 or so in the afternoon, and right before bed. I’ve been lamenting the fact that I’m going to start weaning them soon, but Miles has started to wean himself…by biting. Ouch. I’ve done all the things I’ve read to do to counteract this, and he’s still doing it. Subsequently, today, he skipped both his afternoon and evening nursing sessions (my little chunk, Ollie, however, shows no signs of giving up). I know that Miles is still getting plenty of calories, so I’m not worried about him, but I just wasn’t quite ready for him to move on yet! Oh well…the kid is independent, what can I say?
Bump 2: Open Flames
I invited a couple over tonight who just moved to Japan. Because they were to arrive right after the boys went down for the night, I decided to make a chicken with veggies in the crock pot (my go-to company meal these days) and make some bread in my bread machine–then it would all be done right when they arrived. Genius right? Well, I had just started the crock pot and the bread machine and put some squash on the stove to steam for the boys’ dinner. I went in the living room for just a second and I thought I smelled something burning. I thought to myself–crock pot? no. bread machine? no. squash? no…I just put it on. But there was DEFINITELY a burning smell, so I went back into the kitchen to investigate. And saw this potholder in flames on the stove! Ack!
When I thought I had turned on the back burner where the pot of squash was, I had accidentally turned on the front burner. Oops. And guess what was sitting on the front burner? Lucking I easily smothered the fire and not even a smoke alarm went off (which now that I think about it kind of concerns me, because there was quite a bit of smoke–maybe I should investigate that tomorrow…).
Bump 3: Nearly Causing My Child to Choke
In the evenings as I sweep up after the boys’ dinner, I let them crawl around the kitchen. Tonight, I noticed Miles was being very quiet–which as you moms know, usually means trouble. I look over and see that he is sitting there sucking on a little candy egg. I keep a dish of these candy eggs on my side table in the living room, and when I was opening the bag yesterday it spilled…
I thought I had cleaned up all of them, but apparently I hadn’t! And they are the perfect choking hazard size–and are pretty hard. Luckily, he was fine, but by the amount of color already gone from the candy shell, it looked as though it had been in his mouth for 30 seconds or so–made me feel like a stellar mom!
Bump 4: Dinner
Finally the boys were in bed, the couple had arrived, and I was ready to serve dinner. As I said before, I had timed it so that everything would be done right around 7:0opm, when I had told them to come over. Well, 7:00pm came, and the whole chicken in the crock pot didn’t look quite done. I have made a whole chicken 4 or 5 times since I’ve moved to Japan, but I always get 3 pound chickens…this was a 5 pound chicken and of course I knew it would take longer, but it is taking a LOT longer. I saw is (not *WAS*) because it is 10:20 as I type this and that darn chicken is STILL not done! Seriously… No, the couple is not still here waiting for me to feed them. Luckily, I had made a huge salad with lots of goodies (including some nuts for protein!) and I had that loaf of freshly baked bread, so there was plenty of food to just have salads and bread for dinner and then yummy peanut butter brownies for dessert. I do want the chicken to be done soon though, because I need to go to sleep!
And that, folks, was my day…and why I may be up cooking a whole chicken in the middle of the night!
I did leave my joo-joo with you. It’s days like these that make a personality pop and say, another glass of wine please. Just think, if it weren’t for days like these, we’d not feel human at all because of the Superhuman (male spouses included) complex that comes with every military spouse. I will apologize for the chain of child choking syndrome though. I didn’t mean to leave that one behind. I still swear, if it can happen at all, it’ll happen to me. Unfortunately, I tend to rub off on people… You know, things like breaking your driver’s side door handle so you can’t open it type of thing. Here’s to a good evening and cooked chicken.