I discovered the secret to perfect pancakes - Vanilla Bean Olive Oil!!!  Add 2 T to your pancake mix, and the resulting pancakes will melt in your mouth!  Pancakes normally don't call for oil, but add it anyway.  It's totally worth it.  You can also replace the oil in waffles with vanilla olive oil to yield the same results.  

I discovered an awesome vanilla bean olive oil at the Queen Creek Olive Mill, just south of Phoenix.  This places makes some amazing flavored olive oils from herb infused to blood orange, chocolate and even bacon!  The chocolate olive oil can actually be served over ice cream - it's amazing!  They supply different recipes around the store and tasting is available.  A little cafe serves lunch and they also sell gourmet foods and bath/body products.  If you live in the Phoenix area, or are there to visit, take the time for a visit.  You will not be disappointed.  If you can't make it, you can always shop online!

Here's the vanilla bean olive oil:

Over time, the husband and I have come to a very satisfactory agreement.  He 'works late' at the local watering hole once a week while I do solo kid duty, and he takes over for me once a week so I can 'work late' with friends.  It works and makes us both happy, especially since we don't have any form of free babysitting here (i.e. grandparents).  

So, the other night he was heading to the hole after a long meeting and was trying to convince a friend (and new dad) to go.  The friend said he had to head home to baby duty, so my husband made a suggestion of doing something like our arrangement.  A third guy at the meeting chimed in saying something like 'I don't think that's the point of having kids'.  So, the new Dad told him that my husband has 3 kids, to which the other guy didn't have anything else to say.  

Husband came home all fired up telling me what the guy said.  He just couldn't believe that someone had the nerve to suggest that he was a bad parent.  As if he was just leaving our three children in the cold on the back step while he attended some kind of wild party.  I asked if the guy has kids, but husband didn't know, so we couldn't immediately blame the dumb comment on complete and total ignorance about parenthood.  

Parenthood is not about sacrificing an occasional social engagement just so both parents can put the kids to bed at 7 and then watch crappy TV (although there is value in crashing on the couch at the end of the day and indulging in New York Ink or The Soup).  It is not about losing yourself in daily routine.  Guess what?  The baby will be fine if Mom and Dad aren't both there for one bedtime or they have a babysitter.  Parenthood is definitely not about changing your entire life to fit into baby's schedule.  The baby joined your family, remember?

Parenthood IS about raising happy, healthy kids, which sometimes means that Mommy and Daddy need alone time (individually or on a date night).  Human adults can only take so much crying, pooping, whining, cleaning, and laundry without a break before they completely lose their minds.  Parenthood IS about showing your children that you can live a fulfilled life doing things important to you while maintaining that your family is your priority.  Besides, little ones need to know they can't have everything the way they want it all the time.  Surely that lesson will benefit them in the future.  Parenthood IS about family, but every family is composed of individuals who have needs, and if a couple hours at the watering hole helps maintain sanity, then so be it!

Our kids are our number 1 priority, without a doubt.  But, it doesn't mean we shed our former selves of all interests and wants.  There is plenty of sacrificing happening on our part, but we do it joyfully.  And, the occasional few hours to ourselves certainly gives us a renewed boost that we need to get us through fights, whining, peeing on the floor, temper tantrums and endless laundry.  Oh, the laundry . . .  

So, what's the point, then, of having kids if you're just going to go to the bar for 2 hours once a week?  Or take a solo shopping trip on a Saturday afternoon?  I guess I don't have a great answer to that, but we love our three kids, and will certainly continue to make our happiness as adults a priority as well.  A happy adult makes a much better parent.  But that's just my opinion.

One of the most frightening things about when your kids start school is all the crap they learn and bring home.  My son is generally pretty gentle and kind-hearted, and hasn't yet come home wanting to play WWF or fight club with his sisters.  Yet.  He's only in kindergarden, though, so I know there's so much more to come.  

However, yesterday he got off the bus, and this was the ensuing conversation:
Me:  How was your day?
Him: You know when I toot . . . 
Me: Yeeeaaahhhh??
Him: I'm going to pretend it's like fire.  You know, the gas is like fire coming out! (Big grin)
Me:  Oh. Wow. (astonished look on face)

Why are boys like this?  I had a couple friends in middle school over once (they lived in the neighborhood and loved to bother me) and I distinctly remember them lighting their toots on fire in my basement while laughing uncontrollably.  My brother also thought this to be hilarious.  Seriously.  I was just in awe of their total stupidity.

Boys.  What more can I say???

No, I'm not referring to the very funny Christina Applegate show, although I'm sure she could make a good episode out of my experience.  When there is a newborn in the house, everyone seems to quickly adapt to no sleep and being awake around the clock.  Nature prepares women pretty well by creating a completely miserable existence for them in the last few weeks of pregnancy.  But, once the sleepless nights become a memory, it seems a million times harder tend to go through it again.

Sunday morning the baby was fine.  By Sunday afternoon her eyes looked tired and she seemed to have a low-grade fever (of course it went from good to bad in the car on the way to a family event).  Then she started coughing, which means her asthma was coming on.  So, once we were home I gave her a breathing treatment, some tylenol and then some motrin.  She slept well for a couple hours before the coughing came back.  I went to give her another breathing treatment around 11:30pm and I realized I was nearly dripping sweat from just holding her.  Her temp was 101.8, and I gave her more tylenol (too early for more motrin).  She was miserable but finally settled down after about an hour, but her fever wasn't down yet which made me nervous so I kept checking on her every 15 minutes.  The husband was working late and arrived home around 1:30 at which point her fever was finally down.

But then, of course, after many months of Texas's worst drought (and about 2 thunderstorms in a year), a MASSIVE thunderstorm settled in right above our house letting loose some enormous house-shaking claps and even took me off guard.  So, of course, the boy wakes up scared (somehow the girls slept through that - amazing!), arrives in our room and has to be settled on the floor.  I finally fell asleep for the night around 2am, only to be awakened by a coughing baby at 3:30 am in need of a breathing treatment.  Ugh.  Husband is dead to the world, so up I go.  At least her temperature was normal.  I finish and finally get back to bed around 4:15 only to be awakened by my alarm at 6am.  After hitting snooze a couple times I made the husband get up and get the boy off to the bus (which comes at 7:05!).   My eyes refused to open.  

And, of course, a day of exhaustion combined with a sick baby combined with a dirty house filled with an enormous amount of dirty laundry is just dreamy.  At least it poured rain all day so I had nothing to do but stay indoors.  These kinds of things are definitely the reason why so many parents look 

We did it.  We took three kids ages 5, 4 and 1 on a plane for a 3 1/2 hour plane ride.  I flew several times with 2 kids and never felt particularly nervous, but this time the nerves crept up on me.  I prepared with toys and snacks, but there is always a creeping feeling that your kid (or kids) is going to be the one that screams, cries, kicks or throws up the entire time.

And, obviously, many people were thinking the same one.  We sat down, all five of us, with our backpacks (1 per kid), camera bag, purse, computer bag and a couple coats.  And those were just our carry-ons.  I could feel the thoughts of some of the single, young fliers thinking 'Oh great, I'll probably get stuck next to THAT family.  With ALL those kids.  I should have checked in earlier . . .".  I could feel the stares of the single and/or childless travelers as they tried not to let their near disgust of the possibility that they might have to sit next to us show on their face.  

We flew southwest and boarded between A and B group.  The older 2 were excited and the baby had no idea what was going on.  We found our seats, settled in, and luckily my husband was left with one of only one or two empty seats next to him.  Obviously, everyone was avoiding us, the family who brought three kids on the plane.

There were a variety of other families with children, most with just 1 little one, so I'm sure people weighed their odds that those kids would be better luck than my force of three. Well, they were wrong . . .

My kids were great!  My oldest daughter slept a bunch, my son was quiet, and the baby was a bit terrified during take-off, but was fine after that, especially with the empty seat next to Daddy.   A baby in the back was screaming for quite some time, and numerous children were being walked up and down the aisle (which is totally reasonable).  I had no problem with any of that, but had to laugh at the people who thought we were going to be the troublesome ones.

The flight back was just a good, although the baby was a little more restless.  A baby a few rows up from us threw up (I felt so bad for Mom and offered her some smell-reducing baggies), and several other kids were screaming.  And, we received the same looks at the airport.  "Oh, great.  I hope I don't get stuck next to THEM"!  

Overall, a few toys and some snacks go a long way.  My kids were pretty good, and we survived!  I'm not super excited to be flying on an airplane with three under 5, but it was much better than I expectd!  I'm not going to avoid flying because of what anyone thinks, but that doesn't mean that I don't notice the looks and REALLY hope for peaceful travel!

My best advice for plane travel:
1.  SmallsSnacks that take awhile to eat:  animal crackers, puffs for little ones
2.  A few new toys:  we traveled the day after Xmas so that was easy, other wise the dollar store is great for quick, easy stuff that is easy to dispose of in case they are destroyed or lost
3.  Video games (ipad or small video game device)
4.  Lots of prior excitement, preparation and discussion about wha

For the first time since I have known my husband we spent the Christmas holiday with just our little family.  And, I may go on record saying it was the best one we've ever had! We spend Christmas Eve cooking enough risotto, sweet potatoes, home made ravioli and pasta sauce and pumpkin pie to last for 2 days.  I bought a 1/2 rack of lamb (8 chops), and we decided to make 1/2 on Christmas eve and 1/2 on Christmas day since it was just the two of us having the lamb.  Christmas Eve we had Lamb Chops with Balsamic reduction, which was truly amazing, and Christmas day we had herbed lamb chops that were also very good (that was husband's choice and I don't have the recipe link).  

Christmas day the kids were up at 5:30.  Yes, FIVE THIRTY!!!  We had to actually put a show on to make them wait until we felt like getting up since we had been up building things, watching the Sound of Music (my FAVORITE!!), and drinking a lovely Barolo that Santa delivered early.  Anyway, we fought them off until about 6:45 and Christmas began.  The baby woke up a bit later with a fever, but it wasn't anything a little motrin couldn't fix.  We opened stockings, ate Christmas pop-overs and then opened gifts.

Since all that was over relatively quick and we didn't have any real plans for the day, we just sat around.  The kids played with their new toys, my husband built his new fire pit, we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores, and I read a book.  I didn't change out of my pajamas until noon, which is unheard of for me.  We snacked on fruit and left-overs and called family.  We fed the kids their dinner, put them to bed and then made the rest of our lamb chops.  We ate a nice dinner in peace and quiet and marveled at what a nice two days we had.  It was the most gloriously stress-free, relaxing day we've had as a family for a long time, maybe ever!  If you've never spent a holiday with just your immediate family, I highly recommend it.

Of course, we missed our family, but we have never had a holiday to just ourselves and we really enjoyed it.  The day after Christmas we headed to California on a plane, but that's a story for next time.  

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!