sharing

kaden sharing his favorite monkey rattle with his best friend simon

Happy Superbowl weekend everybody! In honor of foodie friday (which I think I may have forgot about for the last few weeks...oops!) I thought I would post the yummy recipe that we are making for sunday's game.



Taco Soup

1 (approx 1.3 lb) pkg boneless chicken breasts or thighs, or 1 pkg Chicken-less Strips (vegetarian option)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 pkg Taco Seasoning Mix
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
2 (15 oz) cans black beans
1 (15 oz) can corn, or 1 1/2 cups frozen corn
2 cups chicken broth (optional; omit for a thicker stew)

Your choice of toppings:
Tortilla chips
Fresh cilantro
Sour cream
Shredded cheese
Avocado
Fresh chopped tomatoes
Chopped green onions or red onions
Jalapenos or chiles

1. In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook onions for 5 minutes, or until softened.
2. Add remaining ingredients and heat to boiling. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook for 1 hour.
3. Remove chicken, shred, and return to pot. Stir and heat through before serving.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Hands-off cooking time: 1 hour
Serves 6-8

Slow cooker method: Place all ingredients into a crockpot and cook for 5-6 hours on low setting. Remove chicken, shred, and return to crockpot. Stir and heat through before serving.

And for those with little ones, I just discovered this fabulous site that has so many great ideas for creative meal ideas. Check it out here!

Happy 13 Months Kaden!

Dear Kaden,

Today you are over the hump...you are not zero any longer, and you are no longer just one year old, you have gone ove the hump into what some call *toddlerhood*. I am in denial of this, and I so badly just want to hold you in my arms and have you stay a baby for at least another year!

Your 13 month birthday started off a little rocky. You woke up and the left side of your face was completely swollen. So much so that your little eye was also swollen and seemed to irritate you. We raced you to the doctor's office only to find that your poor little face was the victim of mean monster molar that is desperately trying to cut through. It caused your gums to swell up, and even your doctor was shocked at how well you were handling it! You are such a tough little guy. You can tell that your teeth have been bothering you lately, with all the tugging on your ears and continuous drool down your chin, but you never let on just how painful it is for you!

You are learning new things every day! Yesterday at lunch, I tried to feed you carrots, and you shook your finger at me and said "uh uh uh"!!!! We have been shaking our finger for months while saying "no no no", and you wanted to give it a whirl yourself! You say so many different things, that mostly only daddy and I can decipher at this point. You and I always finish off the day talking about the moon, and just the other day, I pointed up at the amazing *wolf* moon, and you clearly said "moooooooo"! This made me soooooo happy as mommy is a HUGE moon lover! You also are completely smitten with your shows, which we try to limit to just an hour in the morning. The other morning, you crawled out to the living room, opened the doors to the armoire and pushed the power button on the tv! You are loving more and more your cuddle and snuggle time with us and this makes me soooo happy!

DRUMROLL please...............today you took 3 STEPS! Daddy was playing with you, and you just went ahead and took a few steps toward the ball that you were wanting. I am so upset at myself that I chose the moment before you did this to get a glass of water, after spending every cherished moment with you during the entire day, THIS was the moment that you chose to take your first steps???

Each and every day, I learn something new from you. I knew that you would change my life completely, but I never would have thought that you would teach me so much about simple everyday blissful pleasures and the true meaning of JOY! I love holding your hand and watching you discover the world.

I love you!
love,
your mommy


We took you to Shane's Inspiration playground in Griffith Park on Sunday, and thought you may want to ride on the Merry-Go-Round. You were staring and pointing at it, so we thought we could give it a whirl!

here you are rethinking your excitement about the horses




and here you are trying to figure out how to jump off

First ride on the Merry-Go-Round-Big FAIL....poor baby, this is where your tortured self ended up sitting for the rest of the ride



here you are in your precious Bronco sweatsuit from Mamaw!

how cute is your little profile?




one of your new and favorite places to sit in the house


first driving lesson

owwie

~even with his owwie, he still can manage that amazing little smile


My poor little man has been hurting, which is why I haven't posted in a while. He has had a double ear infection and a sore throat, and his fever got up to 103. We started him on antibiotics on thursday, and were hoping he feels like himself soon! I can't imagine how painful it must be for him, and it absolutely breaks my heart.

It's also been raining for DAYS! Like El Nino rain, unbelievable amounts! It is beautiful and everyone knows I intensely adore the rain, but los angeles is so not prepared for rainstorms of this nature. When they built los angeles, someone forgot to put gutters in the streets, and everything just completely floods with the smallest amount of rain. Even so, it was incredibly beautiful and made everything GORGEOUS! So many amazing rainbows and everything actually looks green! We even got blessed with a few thunder and lightning storms which is a rarity in this neck of the woods.

~we spent so much time looking out this window watching the storm....kaden seems to love them as much as mommy.




we spent a lot of time inside, we had to get a little creative with his ball crawl and have all of his *friends* join him.





Yes, he is still wearing his sock monkey xmas jammies. He looks adorable in them and I REFUSE to put them away. It's been so cold, we have layers of socks on his footsies in the mornings while we hang out in our jammies. He is so smitten with this blankie from Jennifer. Here he is pointing at Big Bird...


and then just like that...the rain cleared up and we had the most GORGEOUS weekend! We spent both days at the park and could not be more grateful for the beautiful weather!

Random Wednesday

We all laid low for this long weekend, so I am feeling like a horrible mommy that I don't have any super cute new pics of my little guy! Kaden had diarrhea for three days, and Chad was feeling really under the weather, so we just stayed cozy and warm at home for most of the weekend. On Monday, I wanted to get Kaden out to do something fun, being that it was the holiday and I had an extra day off with him. We *thought* it might be a cool idea to check out another indoor playground we had heard about in Eagle Rock, since it was a rainy and cold day, and the park was out of the question. We braved the rain and set out for PeekAboo PlayLand. Silly me, and I thought we would be the only mommy with this great idea! We met up with our friends Hanna and Mike, and unfortunately, about 3,000 other wild and crazy little ones. The whole thing was a little overstimulating for little kaden, and we spent the majority of the time upstairs in this little balcony area they had as a safeplace for the little guys. We did some MAJOR people watching and only managed to get into one or two rumbles with some other less than supervised maniac children. I brought my camera and had hoped to take pictures, but my hands didn't leave the little man at any point in the adventure.

So, since I have a shortage of fun new pics, here is *truly* a RANDOM Wednesday post featuring random videos and pics...

Kaden the musical wonder....








introducing kaden to the wonder of mulberry pizza..


we set up his ball castle and he is a little skeptical about why there it seems we may have stolen one of the toys from the indoor playground...



Mommmmmmmmm....will you PULEASE stop tryin to snap a photo of me with my hoodie up lookin all gangster...it's just not my style. But I will go ahead and eat this block that it seems I have been knawing on for months.

summer in january

The weather here has been BEAUTIFUL! It has been in the 70s and 80s for the past week and we have been getting outside as much as possible, taking advantage of every moment! Over the weekend, we went for a little hike in Griffith Park, and played with some new little friends. Kaden absolutely LOVED this crazy fun roller slide, total sensory overload!





Here's what kaden wanted to do while I was trying to nurse him in the backseat of the car. Such a distracted little people watcher...just like his mommy.



Kaden received a ginormous birthday gift from Uncle Tobe and Aunt Kerry and the kids. We don't actually have a picture of it, because we truly have not needed to *actually* set it up yet! It is an inflatable castle ball pit by Little Tikes! Truly an amazing gift, and we know he will absolutely LOVE it when we take it out of the box and set it up...but right now, there is no need, when he is incredibly happy playing in the mailing box with all the balls. Eventually, when we rearrange our tiny apartment, OR when we move in a few months to a more spacious living space, we will bust the castle out and he will enjoy every minute with it! For now...he is in love with the balls and the box!



practicing his rasberries


here he is in his fort.


I sure wish he enjoyed playing in there a little ;)



I have started giving Nugget bigger bites for meals....in hopes that he can next start practicing with the spoon! Here he is practicing eating a whole nugget all by himself. The last pic is my favorite!




Kaden also went for his 1 year doctor's appt yesterday. It was pretty awful to say the least. He had to have three shots, the MMR, the chicken pox, and the H1N1. He should have also had the Hepatitis shot, but thankfully our pedi said she could cut him a break and give it to him next month. Maybe it is because he is older, and he understands pain more, but this was absolutely terrible. Watching him cry, his face to bright BEET red and hyperventilate (for what seemed like 30 minutes afterward) was absolute torture.

Here were his 1 years stats!
Weight- 20.5 lbs
Height- 29 inches

We tuned his car seat around last week, after a lot of going back and forth about it. I have read a lot about Extended Rear Facing and I know that it is the safest for the child to be rear facing for as long as possible. But for us, Kaden would get so incredibly anxious and MAD when he was facing the back, that the stress it would cause mommy and daddy while driving was equally as dangerous. We turned him around, and he is a totally different little backseat driver. He could not be happier. I was even happier when our pediatrician reaffirmed my opinions about it.

and lastly...I will leave you with the little man strolling around balboa park. We took his little walker there, and he had a ball with it!

foodie friday

~kaden wearing daddy's onesie that he wore when he was one!

So a few days ago, I suddenly realized that I need to start feeding Kaden some "big boy" food, now that he is offically of toddler status. *sniff sniff* Kaden has been super picky about the food I have been giving him, and why shouldn't he be? I have just been throwing little pieces of tofu dipped in cinnamon and little broccoli and cauliflower *trees* at him every night. NOT very exciting, and extremely boring for a big ol one year old. So I spent a few days doing some research and came up with some fun ideas. Last night we had nuggets! That's right, nugget had his first nugget! And he LOVED it! I don't want to get him in the habit of eating frozen stuff like that (although it was trader joes all natural baked chicken nuggets, I am sooooooo going to miss trader joes when we move!), but here and there isn't gonna hurt.

So welcome to Foodie Friday, I am hoping it will stick a little better than Random Wednesday (which is not gone forever, I just apparently took a hiatus...it will be back next week!). I know way back when, I posted the recipe for that yummy taco bake, and so many people tell me it's now one of their regular dishes that they make. So foodie friday may be about something new that kaden has tried, or that mommy has tried, or maybe just something ridiculously yummy!

So tonight I would like to introduce to you, Broccoli Bites!

I found this recipe on this amazing site
Thanks Judesmama!

I used a bag of broccoli florets, mozzarella cheese (it's all we had, next time I would totally use cheddar), 1 egg beaten, and bread crumbs. All you do is steam the broccoli well, throw it in a food processor with the egg, cheese and bread crumbs, about 1/2 cup each of those. Whip it up, add more cheese or breadcrumbs to get thicker consistency if needed. Roll them into little balls and bake on 350 for 15 min on an olive oil greased cookie sheet, and voila!!!!

Kaden AND mommy LOVED these! Such a good way to sneak in some broccoli!




and here are a few of my recent finds on the flip!

white pants

I had to post this video from when kaden was 6 months old! Chad and I were laughing about it over the weekend, and I couldn't get the *white pants* song out of my head. Thank you TT Rita for the coolest white pants that ever were made.