Those much needed nights

You know those days where you just don't think you can go much more without running away? Or those days that you wish your kids couldn't talk yet? Or those days where if you have to change one more poopy diaper, you might just go insane? Well that is how I was yesterday. And Robbie has been that way for more than a few days now. It has been insane around this house lately.

Robbie works 12 hour shifts, and when he comes home, he comes home to me trying to cook dinner (almost always it is almost ready though), trying to keep Clay away from the stove/oven (and out of everything else), trying to keep Colt entertained since he is going through a stage where he has to see me or he isn't happy, and me trying to keep from pulling my hair out. And for the next 2 hours after he gets home and before Clay goes to bed, it is us eating dinner, cleaning up from dinner, me bathing Colt, him bathing Clay, and then teeth getting brushed, bedtime stories being read, and then fighting with both kids to go to sleep. By the time that they are both asleep, Robbie and I are ready to fall over dead. And if Robbie is going to work the next day, he is really in for it. Since Colt can sense when Robbie needs a good night of sleep, those are usually the days that he doesn't want to sleep all night. Or he wants to fight until midnight to go to sleep.

On top of the normal routine, Colt has been teething. The first 2 teeth (on bottom) finally cut through 2 nights ago, so he hasn't been as fussy. But we also think that he may have an ear infection, so he is going to the doctor tomorrow. So he has definitely been more fussy than usual. And it can wear anyone down to hear a baby cry and fuss all day long.

So I knew that we needed a break. We have not had more than a 4 hour break since August 5th. Do you realize how long that has been? Now we have had a break from Clay lots of times. Breaks that last overnight. But from Colt, not more than 4 hours. And we definitely appreciate those times for sure. But we can't have an overnighter from both boys yet because Colt is exclusively breastfed. He has had a bottle ONE TIME since he was born August 27th. ONE TIME! Do you hear me? ONE TIME! Anyone who knows how many times a baby eats (from the bottle or breast) knows that that is a lot of time to have a baby attached to your boob. And with him not being on anything but rice cereal once a day yet, he still nurses a lot. I plan on exclusively breastfeeding him until he is 10 1/2 months old. Then I will start weaning him off of me, and hopefully have him on whole milk by 11 months old. Clay was 10 1/2 months old when we started switching him over to whole milk (for tummy issues, and approved by the doctor), so I am going to do the same with Colt. So until then, we won't be getting an overnight break from Colt. And as soon as he is weaned from me, I plan on having a whole weekend overnighter! :-)

Anyway. So yesterday it just so happened to work out for me to plan an in-home date night. The last in-home date night that we had planned, Clay went to my Mom's, and we kept Colt. And Colt cried from about 8:30 pm until 2:30 am. Just cried and cried and cried. And for no apparant reason. It was horrible! So last night I really wasn't looking for it to really work out for us. But it did!!! Clay didn't have a nap yesterday because he absolutely refused to lay down, and so I knew that he would go to bed early. And Colt had been up most of the day, and he was due to eat cereal and nurse around 6:30. I had planned on putting dinner in the oven at 6:30, and that would give me 30 minutes to feed and nurse him. Since I wanted Clay going to bed between 7 and 7:30, I ended up making him a grilled cheese for dinner with chips. I started that at 5:50, and he started eating at 6 pm. Since I had to make pasta, I started the water to boil, and I fed Colt his cereal while I was waiting for that and while Clay ate his dinner. Then once Clay finished dinner, I cleaned him and his dishes up, and then I put him on the couch and turned his Barney movie on.

Once Colt was done with his cereal, I prepared the rest of dinner and put it in the oven at 6:30. Then I nursed Colt. Then Robbie got home and took a shower. After I finished nursing Colt, I changed his diaper, put his pjs on, and then I put him in bed. After Robbie got out of the shower, I asked him to brush Clay's teeth while I finished getting dinner ready. Robbie didn't know that I was doing this, so he was a bit surprised to hear me asking him to brush Clay's teeth BEFORE dinner. I told him that Clay had already eaten, and he was going to bed once Barney was over. When Barney was over, I popped the bread in the oven, and we went to his room, changed his diaper and put his pjs on. Then off to bed he went. And then all was quiet in the Girman house!

Robbie and I have become huge fans of The Office. We had never watched it when it came on during the week, but we had caught a few of the late night episodes on TV and fell in love with it. So I bought Robbie the first 3 seasons on DVD for Christmas, and we just recently bought Season 4 and 5. So after putting the kids to bed, we happily filled our plates, popped the first DVD of Season 4 in the DVD player, and sat on the couch together. Other than the few times that I had to get up and tell Clay to go to bed with the last time threatening his life to take his toys away the next day if he didn't hush and go to bed, it was a pretty quiet night. And just what we needed to re-energize. We would have been in bed at 10 pm, but as soon as we laid down, Colt got up to eat again. So we went back in the living room and talked while I nursed Colt, and then we were in bed by 11:30. It was SOO nice! Colt did wake up again at 2:15, but it was because he was uncovered and couldn't find his paci. So I popped that sucker back in his mouth, pulled the blanket up, and turned back over and went to sleep.

Clay is again refusing to take a nap, and I am completely fine with that! Another early night for the boys, and a nice quiet night for the parents! Works for me! Robbie is off tomorrow anyway, so he can spend much needed time with them then!

I made Destiny's Baked Ziti last night, and it was amazing! Robbie said that he would prefer it over regular spaghetti! There was 1 change that I made, and there is another change that I will make the next time that I make it.

It doesn't have ground beef in the recipe. Robbie is a huge fan of having meat in spaghetti (as long as it isn't meatballs), so I mixed ground beef in with the sauce before mixing it in with the cheeses. That was the 1 change that I made this time.

Next time...I did NOT like the way that the parm cheese "melted" on top. It is like it doesn't melt. It gets hard and forms a shell on top of the dish. I am also not a huge fan of bagged cheeses. I prefer grating the cheese myself. So next time I will buy a block of mozzarella cheese, grate the whole thing, put 3/4 of it in the mix with the ricotta cheese, and then put the other 1/4 on the top and bake it. I also grated fresh parm cheese last night to put on top of individual portions. Sometimes Robbie does, sometimes he won't. I love fresh parm cheese though. So next time I will just do fresh parm cheese on the side and do the fresh mozzarella on top to bake with. But other than that, a simple, easy, and delicious dish!

Here it is fresh out of the oven!

I was planning on putting a salad on the side with it, but I decided to do something different instead. I had 2 kaiser rolls leftover from the hamburgers the night before, so I cut them in 1/2. Then I buttered each 1/2. Then I put garlic powder on them, freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese, and then Italian seasoning. And Robbie and I both loved it! Something that I would definitely do again! Next time since I will be using mozzarella cheese, I will grate a little for the bread too and mix the cheeses. So good.

Robbie's plate

This dish made so much that we have over 3/4 of the pan left. Therefore, we will be having this again tonight. Tonight Clay will be eating it with us, and I will be doing salad on the side instead of the garlic cheese bread.

Tomorrow I plan on doing PW's (courtesy of Pastor Ryan) Cajun Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and some sort of veggie or salad. The meatloaf serves 8 people (with 3 lbs of meat), so I am going to cut that down to 1 lb of beef and cut the ingredients to match that. Should be good! I love meatloaf with onions and bell peppers, but Robbie can't even stand the sight of meatloaf. I am hoping to change his mind with this one.