Pinterest Fail!

Today was one of those days where I felt like I pretty much had it together.  We had Skyped with Daddy this morning, and Christopher was awake for the call.  We went to the library to get some new library books for Sammy.  We spent the afternoon enjoying the sunshine at the playground.

Sammy and I were both hungry after the playground, so I decided to try out a recipe that I had seen on Pinterest.  I thought I would earn extra Super-Mom points by letting Sammy help me make it.  Here's what the Pin that I saw looked like.


I chopped up 3 sticks of string cheese, then let Sammy dip them into milk and coat them with the bread crumbs.  I popped them into a 425 degree oven, set the timer for 10 minutes, and then went to go nurse Christopher. 

As I was going to the kitchen to take them out of the oven when the one-minute-warning timer beeped, I had a fleeting thought about the fact that there was nothing to help the bites keep their shape.  I then opened the oven to find this...

Whooops!!!!!  In retrospect, I should have set the timer for 7 or 8 minutes, checked them, and then left them in longer if the bread crumbs still needed to brown.


I ended up breaking them up into pieces, so that they kind of looked like cheese chips.  Luckily, they were pretty darn delicious even if they ended up looking like a mess.

Hurricane Sandy

We got hit with a pretty nasty storm as a result of Hurricane Sandy earlier this week, but we tried to make the best of it. We had plenty of notice, so I was all stocked up on food, water, and ideas to keep Sammy entertained if the power went out. We ended up losing power for about 18 hours, which left me with nothing better to do than snuggle with Christopher and take pictures of Sammy. Here's how we stayed busy!

Grandma had left a bunch of little wrapped toys for Sammy for tough days, so I let her open one (a treasure chest).  We spent hours opening and closing the lock and hiding our treasure from Captain Hook.

Keeping Christopher warm by covering him with the baby doll quilt Grandma had made.  Christopher is not impressed.

Playing with water beads (other moms...if you haven't done this yet, it should definitely go on your to do list).  This was right after we added them to the water, so they've only grown a little bit.  Sammy had fun stirring them around and trying to pick them up and squish them.

While we were waiting for the water beads to finish growing, I gave her some cleaned egg shells to play with.  She liked cracking them, and decided to make a chair and a helmet for her toy cat.

Dance party with a battery-powered CD player to get the blood flowing and stay warm!



Playing with the water beads once they were fully grown.  So fun!

They bounce!

Scooping them into cups.

We had three different kinds: regular round ones, giant ones, and ones that looked like ice cubes.  I think the regular round ones were the most fun.  The biggers ones tended to fall apart when Sammy would squish them.  She thought that was pretty cool, though.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween.  This was a big one for us.  It was Christopher's very first Halloween, and the first one where Sammy really understood what was going on.  We went out trick or treating with some of the neighbors and Sammy sprinted from door to door until she was exhausted and told me she was ready to go home.  She was so proud of herself for remembering to say "trick or treat!"and "thank you!".

My theory at this point, it to have Samantha's costumes be something that she can use for dress-up after Halloween is over.  Last year, my mom made her an apron and Chef's hat and got her a little wire wisk, that is still a regular in our toy rotation.  This year, I got her a pirate dress-up outfit, because she's very in to pirates these days.  Christopher didn't have an opinion on what to be this year, so he was a lion because the costume was warm and snuggly.

Sammy's Third Birthday Interview

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest to ask your kiddos the same 20 questions around their birthday each year starting when they're 3, and then have them all made into a book eventually.  Here's Sammy's first installment.

1. What is your favorite color? Pink
2. What is your favorite toy? My airplane
3. What is your favorite fruit? Watermelon
4. What is your favorite tv show? Fresh Beat Band
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac and Cheese and Chicken Nuggets
6. What is your favorite outfit? Ballerina tutu and butterfly wings
7. What is your favorite game? Memory
8. What is your favorite snack? Fruit Snacks

9. What is your favorite animal? Pig
10. What is your favorite song? Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People
11. What is your favorite book? Good Night Tennessee
12. Who is your best friend? Baby Chris
13. What is your favorite cereal?  Oatmeal
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride bikes
15. What is your favorite drink? Orange Juice
16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Care Bear and Ribbit
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Yogurt
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Spaghetti and meatballs
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A pirate

Christopher David's Birth Story

30 Minutes Old

After my quick and uncomplicated birth experience with Samantha, I decided to look into a home birth for baby # 2.  We really lucked out and ended up moving to a house only 20 minutes away from the only home birth midwife in the area.

My whole pregnancy had gone smoothly, except for the pesky little issue of Pat's deployment.  Luckily, my mom was able to drive out to stay with me about two weeks before Christopher's due date.  Sammy arrived three days before her due date, so I assumed Chris would be a little early too. 

At about 1:30 in the morning on 9/25, I woke up with some mild cramping.  It came and went a few times, so I decided I should probably time them.  They were not very painful and only lasted about a minute each, but they were coming regularly and were only about 5 minutes apart.  I called the midwife, who advised me to drink some water, lay down on my left side, and try to go back to sleep.  I was supposed to call her back in half an hour if I couldn't sleep.  I e-mailed Pat to let him know what was going on, and then tried to rest.

By the time 30 minutes had passed, my contractins were a lot more intense, and I was convinced that we were having a baby soon.  I called the midwife and told her to head over and then woke my mom up.  My mom called my in-laws who were going to come over to watch Sammy.  By 3:30, I was in my room dealing with pretty serious contractions, and Sammy had woken up.  My mom took her downstairs to watch a movie, and I was just waiting on the midwife.

I think there were only 2 or 3 contractions after the midwife arrived before I felt ready to push.  Apparently, I only pushed for about 15 minutes, but it felt like longer than that.  My water finally broke, and 2 contractions later Christopher was born at 4:02 am.  The birth assistnt and my in-laws hadn't even gotten to the house yet.  He weighed 9 lbs 2 oz and was 21 inches long.  He was born with a full head of dark hair, just like his sister.

We let Sammy come upstairs to meet her baby brother, and then Chris and I got all cleaned up and settled into bed.  He latched on right away and has been nursing like a champ ever since.  Overall, it was an amazing birth experince.  If Pat had been able to be there, it would have been just about perfect.

Cleaned up and sleeping soundly

The Best Laid Plans

Never a dull moment at the Vogt house!  Most of our friends and family know what's been going on recently, but I thought I'd put it here too.  The biggest change would have to be that Pat is currently in Afghanistan for a year-long deployment.  The deployment was very unexpected, and kind of had us scrambling to fit in some quality family time and get things ready for Baby Vogt that we didn't think needed to be done until September/October.

We did manage to squeeze in a family trip to Jamaica.  We went to the Beaches resort in Ochos Rios and had a fabulous time.  They had a water park area for kids with lots of different slides, a nice shallow beach area, and tons of activities with the Seasame Street characters.  Sammy had an amazing time, and mentions frequently that she would like to go back.

Since Pat has been gone, I've been working on settling Sammy into a new routine.  The mornings are pretty easy, but you can tell she's missing have Daddy around in the evenings and on weekends.  I figure just about the time things have calmed down, Little Man will make his appearance, and we'll get to deal with craziness all over again.

Speaking of Little Man, he's doing great.  Everything is progressing along smoothly, and aside from occasionally using my bladder as a trampoline and my ribs as monkey bars, he's a pretty mellow kiddo so far.  Fingers crossed that he continues to be mellow out in the real world!  I really like the midwife that we're using, and I'm looking forward to having this little guy in the comfort of our own home.  My mom is going to come stay with us for a while to help out with the baby and Sammy, but its nice knowing that we don't have to worry about getting me to a hospital and all the logistics surrounding a hospital stay.

Well, hopefully that explains why things have been so quiet on the blog front.  I'm sure I'll have a lot more to post about once we have a new adorable baby in the house.

Interview with Sammy

Here's a short interview with Sammy.  She has news.  Enjoy!