I'll Make You [Chocolate] Pancakes, Pretend Like it's the Weekend...

Sunday is one of the few days that I involve the oven/stovetop in my breakfast preparations. I'm more of a night time cooker--for various reasons.

I actually love breakfast foods. I think they're best prepared on lazy weekends and for evening meals. I've heard there are people out there that don't fall victim to the spell of pancakes, waffles, hash browns, bacon, omelets, french toast, cinnamon toast, fresh orange juice, muffins in varying flavors and nutrition levels, flavored syrups, need I go on? Breakfast foods are the simplest preparation for the greatest satisfaction. I must not be the only person in love with this genre of food or we wouldn't see nearly so many Denny's, IHOP's or Waffle Houses dotting the country--and those are subpar at best.

This morning was going to be a pancake breakfast. Nothing too fancy, but my regular recipe was ruined by my own frequent use and some errant drips that stuck the recipe to another page and ripped the ingredient list to shreds. I don't like those Bisquick pancakes. They're such a poor imitation. Growing up my grandma never one time made me pancakes from a mix. She only does them from scratch and boy are they de-lish!

Since my regular recipe had gone the way of the Earth, I had to find another recipe. Enter the chocolate pancake recipe. It still has all the healthfulness that a regular pancake can provide (as my grandma would be quick to cite butter was a member of the dairy group and all-purpose flour as a member of the grain family). It just adds a little bit of cocoa to make chocolate pancakes!!!

My kids love pancakes and when I asked them if they'd like chocolate pancakes, it was a bit like asking them if they'd like me to take them to Disneyland. Owen started chanting, "Chocolate cake, chocolate cake, chocolate cake!" and I was left remembering the Bill Cosby routine where his children championed him with, "Dad is great! Give us the chocolate cake!"

I probably should've put raspberries, strawberries or a banana as a garnish, but I didn't. The kids were in heaven and Owen even requested a leftover pancake for lunch. Children after my own heart--obsessed with chocolate and sweets.

***Editor's Note: Is the lighting in that picture of Ryanna just awesome? (I have to point that out because my pictures always look so completely subpar next to so many of my amazing picture taking blogger friends. That's right and only 4.0 megapixels to work with.)

Happy Hour

Ryanna had her last day of school for the week. She gets a long Labor Day weekend. Too bad her dad doesn't get the same privilege. Our friend Melissa invited us to their community pool. It was fun to sit around and chat and watch Owen do everything but get in the water.

Ryanna loves to be jumping and playing in the water. Owen loves to be running around the edge of the pool and finding rocks to throw in the pool. Whatever...

You know, it's still over 100 degrees every day down here, so after we'd been swimming for two hours, nothing sounded better than a Route 44 Strawberry Limeade from Sonic. I love half price Happy Hour!

Oh yeah, another thing...we got a new car!!! More correctly stated, we got a 2006 Toyota Sienna. I drove around for weeks, but couldn't find an abandoned one. I guess a car payment is in our future. Despite the cost, I'm still really thrilled. I feel like I should take a picture of me standing in front of the van and jumping in the air and yelling, "Toy-ota!" Do any of the rest of you remember that ad campaign from the mid 80s?

This is not a picture of our van, but it looks just like the van pictured here. Except we have a magical parrot that hangs from the rear view mirror. Don't ask me, it came with the van.

What's in a Name?

As you know, it's been quite an uphill battle for us to come together on a name we could both agree on.

Derek was very, very insistent on Jude for a long time.

I was very, very insistent that it would NOT be Jude for an even longer time.

So, we compromised--it will not be Jude.

We both really like Gabe. I think it's a cute name. Derek would never agree to it if I told him that's why I like it.

He says a boy's name should be "strong". Apparently only he knows the key syllables that create strength in a name.

Doesn't he know I picked Owen because it was cute?

My name means Noble Strength. I've always thought that was really neat. A very high expectation to live up to.

Derek's name means Ruler of the People. And he says I'm the dominant one?

Ryanna's name as far as I can tell means Sweet Basil. However, some sites say it's a derivative of Rhiannon which means Great Queen or Goddess. I don't know, I like a little sweet basil in my life. Who needs the drama of royalty? We already have one ruler of the people.

Owen--typically I've found that it means "youth," however, one definition says, "born to nobility" and is that not a crazy coincidence given my name definition combined with Derek's?

Now, the name that we both like and agree on is Eli.

Eli, like all of these name definitions, seems to have many interpretations:

1. Height

2. Uplifted

3. Ascended; My God; On High

Apparently all of the definitions appear to be common in going upward anyway. We could use some height in this family.

My Wobbly Tooth Must Absolutely Come Out NOW!

There is this cute little book by Lauren Child (creator of the Charlie and Lola series) about Lola losing her first ever tooth. We've had the book for a couple of years and read it several times.

Now, going back to when Ryanna was two years old...She tried to get out of the bathtub by herself one time and slipped and fell on one of her front teeth. She cried for an hour, so I knew she had hurt herself pretty badly because she's not one to cry unless she's really hurt (she never cried for one single shot at the doctor's office). I gave her some Tylenol and she was fine from then on.

Well, a few weeks after that, I started noticing that the tooth was turning a brown color. I had it checked out by the dentist who said the tooth was alive, but had suffered severe trama. He said that because of the trama, the tooth would either come out much earlier than the others or stay in much later. Given how it looked, I was hoping it would be sooner.

Flash foward to this year. Ryanna's tooth changed from a brownish color to a red color--looking like there was blood in the tooth. We took her in for her check-up to learn that she must've damaged it again. Apparently teeth don't just change colors on their own, they have to be bumped or banged or otherwise hurt. Well, whatever had happened hadn't hurt her because she'd never said one thing about it.

Last Friday Ryanna went to the zoo. Afterward, she went for softserve ice cream cones. While she was licking the cone, she noticed blood on her ice cream. They cleaned it off and she took a bite of the cone and saw more blood. (This is turning into a Stephenie Meyer type tale wouldn't you say?)

Upon examination at home, I discovered she had somehow knocked off the bottom portion of her tooth. Ryanna said she didn't hurt at all--if there had been pain she would've definitely felt it eating ice cream that's for sure. We tried to have her eat soft foods over the weekend and scheduled her in for a visit on Monday. All weekend she kept saying, "I hope I have a wobbly tooth!!!"

Well, the nerve was completely exposed and the dentist was pretty much in awe that she wasn't writhing on the floor in pain. I think I may have to start her training as a boxer or something... So, this is how she'll look for 2-3 years is what I hear:

Of course Owen wanted to be in on the picture action:

We're happy to report the Tooth Fairy made her way to our house and left 75 cents. I thought she was going to get more, but she kept talking about how she was going to get a coin because of the story and apparently the Tooth Fairy didn't want to disappoint.

Olympic Joy

So, it's one of those few times of year when I like to have the TV on pretty much 24/7. I absolutely love watching the Olympics! (The only other time I really like to leave the TV on for such extended times is when it's March Madness.)

Derek and I watched the Opening Ceremonies which were awesome and then we woke up on Saturday, completed as much housework/lawn work as we could and flipped on the Olympics. There's just something amazing about watching your country compete...

I love those little stories they show about individual Olympians and their stories of hard work or how they've overcome...

I love to see their faces when they do well...

I love to hear the National Anthem played when they win gold (except when it's cut off!!!)...

I honestly find myself tearing up when I see the athletes getting emotional. It's all so inspiring for me.

I do have to confess that during the presentation of the countries, I was left feeling pretty dumb, I am very bad at world geography and hadn't even heard of a fair amount of the various countries.

I also have to agree with Bela Karolyi about the age of the Chinese gymnasts--16? Umm...I don't think so. (Read it here.) I mean I know you want to win lots of medals and prove your country is amazing, but let's be honest here.

Better get my fix now, only four more years to go!

The Next Big Thing

Technically, you can fit three car seats into the back of a Taurus, but I wouldn't recommend it. It will make your life very, very hard and might even cause you to utter (or proclaim depending on your level of anger control) words your kids don't need to learn. I may be facing this situation soon unless I can find an abandoned one of these: a van.

or I'd even take one of these: a different van.
Either way, we need to get something bigger than what we currently have. Or, I may look like this: a crazy woman!

I'm 30, but I'm really 29

So, on Friday I left my 20s behind. However, according to everything I hear, 30 is the new 20, so really, what am I doing with these two kids running around and one on the way? At 20, I'm much too young to have a five year old!
For my birthday my husband took me to the Tempe Arts Center that opened not that long ago, where we dined amidst his work associates while we had a fabulous view of the Tempe Lake. It was actually the closing dinner for the summer associates, but it was still really good, FREE food, a beautiful view and we got to tour an art exhibit which I really love. Makes me remember going to the Prado in Spain--back when I was??? What...let's see about 20, so I was really 10?
On my birthday, many of you called, mailed, emailed or came by with cards and treats in remembrance of my birthday. I felt so loved and special. It made me remember how important it is to remember other people's birthdays. It can be as small as a phone call saying, "Hey, I remembered your birthday today." All of those little acts of kindness really made me feel wonderful. I need to be more like that and remember these events and get cards in the mail or pick up the phone and dial a friend. Seriously, you never know when you might be the only person that remembered and that person is feeling so lonely.
So, here I am, 30...or 20 and 29 weeks pregnant and no name for this little boy growing and kicking--definitely kicking me all the time. We seem to be going through the same cycles of names at this point. If we ever do get pregnant again and it's another boy, I may have a mental breakdown. I'm the type of person who likes to go with a game plan and not having a name is driving me nuts. Derek, are you reading this? Driving me nuts!!!! So, we need to get it figured out.
This week I will be 30 and 30 or should I say 30 and 20? Either way, this baby is coming. Named or not.