I felt flutters last week, but, in true Natalie fashion, I ignored it. “Oh, it’s just allergies, the weather is being funny, my body is reacting…I’ll be FINE.”

I went to the beach with my family last Friday and was able to keep it together, but as soon as we got home and decompressed I realized that it wasn’t just allergies.

Still…I shrugged it off and went to Bill’s cousin’s going-away party on Saturday (it was so worth it…the best homemade pizza I’ve ever had!)

I woke up on Sunday and sounded like Marge Simpson.

Absolutely no voice. Please understand there was no yelling or crazy partying that happened on Saturday, I didn’t have one drink, but I still had no voice.

This has never happened to me before. It was (and is) weird.

Bill kept asking me to call one of the girls my “special little guy” but instead I just “hmmmmm”ed at him, which amused him to no end.

I stayed in bed all day Sunday, and was forced back to my real world of being primary caregiver on Monday. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: stay-at-home mama’s do NOT get sick days. I can’t speak for working moms, but I would assume MOST moms don’t get sick days. Sucks, but along with the pros I guess I have to take the cons.

I was still unable to talk above a whisper on Monday, and Olivia and Sophia kept asking me why I was “talking like that”? I couldn’t yell at them for misbehaving (not that I EVER do that or anything. *smirk*) which led to some very creative parenting. “I’m going to swat your legs with this flyswatter if you keep acting like a fly and bugging me!”  Since we don’t spank in our house they both called my bluff and I actually looked at them and said “man, I’m gonna have to come up with some better threats since we don’t hit in our house, right?” Olivia looked at me thoughtfully and said “Mama, why is your voice so funny?”

By Tuesday, Bill said my raspy, deep voice had gone from “Maude”-era Bea Arthur to “Golden Girls” Bea Arthur, which, I suppose is progress.

Yesterday and today has been much better, I have faded in and out from being able to speak, to losing my voice and sounding like a boy entering manhood. However, the coughing has taken over and for the past three days and nights I feel like my lungs are going to come up out of my throat.

Unfortunately it hasn’t affected my appetite and when I’m sick I’m less likely to eat healthy and more likely to eat for comfort. So much for the appendix diet. But, seeing as how starting next week I’m going to have to walk a few miles a day to get Olivia to and from preschool (I’ll be so glad when we finally get that second car), maybe I’ll be able to tackle the extra (and then some).

Other than that, I must say I am a lucky girl to have such a great husband. He brought me my favorite soup when I feel like crap (Chinese WonTon soup) and went out and bought breakfast items since I have not felt like baking for the girls. Plus he hasn’t complained about eating sandwiches or random meals since I’m in no mood to cook. I did get a burst of energy on Tuesday and made Waffles & Bacon (it was National Waffle Day, Ya’ll) but other than that I’ve been MIA from the kitchen (okay, I do get the girls’ meals together, but sandwiches, leftovers and quesadillas are not exactly heavy-duty cooking).

I’m hoping that I am better by Monday. This can’t last forever, can it? Plus, my baby girl starts preschool and I have to meet all the other parents. I don’t want to be the weird mom (with the frog voice and glazed over eyes) from the very beginning…gotta let them warm up to the weird, right?

The Yo Party Party I threw for Sophia’s 2nd birthday was featured on the Gabba Friends website. Many thanks to them for helping me plan and execute the most amazing party for my sweet girl!

And just in case you missed it earlier, here is the lowdown on her Yo Party Party.

“What do the numbers say, mama?” Olivia asked me.

“It says I’m the perfect weight!” I responded, because, if you remember, I am trying not to make a big deal over the numbers on the scale. I want the girls to grow up healthy and not focused on a number, the way I always am. I’m trying to make myself better, in order to give them a leg up on self-esteem and body image.

“But mama!” Olivia protested. “Perfect is NOT a number…what number does it say?”

“It says that I am the perfect weight, Olivia.” I grinned at her and Sophia who were trying to peek at my scale (which I had covered with my foot).

She kept protesting, until I finally said, “Olivia, is mama healthy?”

“I don’t know.” She said, a little confused.

“Well, mama is very healthy, and her weight is the perfect weight.” I responded, kind of proud of my answer.

She smiled and both girls went back to their room to play.

And you know what? Saying that to my daughter, and seeing how it made her happy to know, I began to believe it myself.

I looked over at Bill and said “Don’t you want to go to 7-11 and pick me up a Twix and a slurpee?” He looked at me and said “You’ve got two legs and car keys…if you want it, go get it!”

I gave him my poor, pitiful face and said “I’m your WIFE! The MOTHER of your CHILDREN!” (with my most dramatic, over-the-top voice) “Doesn’t that mean ANYTHING?” (Of course, I’m playing it up).

He looked over at me and said “Do you REALLY want to play that card right now? For a Twix and a slurpee?”

He had a point. I decided to forgo the Twix and the slurpee and am going to bed. I’m holding on to the card for just a LITTLE while longer.

That’s probably just a portion of my week. Life is never boring around here. I love it!

And, just for fun, a picture of a bubble I took today. Because it is purdy.

Here is our Yo Gabba Gabba decorated patio. All of my decorations were printed from my computer, and handmade. Nothing fancy, but helped saved a lot of money. The balloons really helped give it lots of color. I also used all of the Yo Gabba Gabba toys that the girls had for decorations.

I really liked how the birthday banner turned out. Blue construction paper and sticker paper with Yo Gabba Gabba-esque font printed on it. I made the party hats (printed Yo Gabba Gabba printables from Nick Jr. on sticker paper and hats in Yo Gabba Gabba character colors). I printed the Yo Gabba Gabba paper dolls and glued them to ribbon and hung them from the patio roof.

The kiddie table (also decorated with printables from Nick Jr.)

The food table: All Sophia approved. We had Peanut Butter and Jelly Sushi AND for a fun variation, Nutella and Marshmallow Fluff Sushi. I also made chicken and plain cheese quesadillas, Bacon Wrapped Pineapple Bites! and little smokies in a blanket. There were various dips and salsas and Bill’s mom brought a great fruit platter with this delicious cream cheese/marshmallow fluff dip. I also made pink lemonade but re-christened it “Razzle Berry Lemonade” which is what Muno’s mother makes for the gang in the “Family” episode.

Excuse the graininess of this photo, it was taken with my cell phone at 1 in the morning the day of the party as soon as I finished it. But this is the cake I constructed for my baby’s 2nd birthday. I was quite proud of it–it isn’t as fancy as a store-made cake, but it was EXACTLY what Sophia wanted, a green and pink cake. The inside was pink with chocolate chips. It was a Apple-Chip recipe my friend gave me. It was pretty tasty. Between each layer was a chocolate ganache I made from scratch. I iced it with homemade buttercream (any generic recipe will do). I forgot to take a solo picture of the inside of the cake, but it looked like a watermelon. I also made her the Ben & Jerry’s French Vanilla ice cream that I made for Olivia’s birthday, and like her sister, she wanted it BRIGHT yellow.

My icing skills need a little work, but I’m still quite proud. (Toodee fell off somewhere between the kitchen and the table).

Our Muno Pinata that was bigger than the kids! And yes…there was beer at a 2 year old’s party. But I didn’t provide it (if that makes it ANY better–apparently on really hot days, beer is a necessity for some folk).

Yummy candy.

The ring pops were a hit.

All-in-all we had an amazing day!

Unfortunately I keep finding myself complaining about how awful some of the newer stuff sounds. It doesn’t help that Bill says “Okay Grandma” whenever I complain. So, I’m trying to weed out the crap on my ipod that I never listen to–those albums and songs I constantly skip every time they pop up on the shuffle and find either newer bands or older bands I never found the time (or they were before my time) to listen to in years past.

As a general rule the children’s music that we listen to is decent, I make it a point to never download or keep the stuff that makes me want to claw my eyeballs out. But I want to find music that we adults like that the girls can also learn to enjoy without fear of them singing about bitches and hoes (or the like).

Advice on music that doesn’t suck? Please?

I’m an equal opportunity listener.

They are GORGEOUS.

Not tight curls, but big loose curls that are usually curlier right after her hair air dries. Her hair is also long. When wet, it stretches almost to her butt, when dry it is halfway down her back.

Some days it is a struggle to get her to cooperate with me when it comes to combing and fixing her hair, lots of days she’ll say “You’re just going to pull it back, no combing it, right?” Which I have to inform her that yes, indeed, I will be combing her hair, because when you have long hair you HAVE to take care of it. When she protests I tell her “well, if you want to get your hair cut, then we won’t have to comb as much!”

Then the tears start “I don’t WANNNNTTTT to cut my hair, no mama, please don’t cut my hair!” Of course I have no defense: “OK baby, we won’t cut your hair right now, but we have to keep combing it and taking care of it so you don’t get any bugs or big tangles in it.”

“Okay mama.” Usually after that we have no problems (until a day or two later when we have the same conversation).

We’ve tried to explain that cutting your hair is painless, and it is a lot like cutting your fingernails or toenails. Nothing seems to help, she is still terrified of the idea of cutting her hair. I couldn’t put my finger on it until one day when we had the conversation about hair and she said “But I don’t want short hair like daddy!”

No amount of explaining how a haircut works would persuade her that it didn’t mean getting a number 3 shave on the back and sides and a trim on top. So for now, long hair rules.

I need to buy stock in detangler.

“Keep your hands to yourself, and DO NOT push each other down!”  Both Bill and I have repeated some variation of this mantra to the girls at least once a day.

After telling them this again today, I hear Olivia say to Sophia, “No Sophia! You have to do it with your tummy.” And witness them tummy bump each other to the ground, laughing hysterically the whole way down.

While this can’t end well, what do I say to that?

I’ve started small, with muffins, and then realized that the girls really enjoyed a good mini muffin, so I just started converting all of my recipes into mini-muffin form. I’ve done this with my Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, as well as many of the recipes in the Deceptively Delicious cookbook my mom gave me for Christmas (Believe it or not, there are some AWESOME recipes in that book–the girls loved the PB & Banana muffins).

Although we love sweet potatoes, especially my famous Sweet Potato & Apple crockpot recipe, sometimes we need help with the leftovers (because, how many nights in a week can you eat them?) so I started hunting for a mini muffin recipe that would allow me to use my leftovers. I found this one but didn’t want to use walnuts or raisins so I ultimately bastardized it and made it my own.

The final verdict is out, as my taste testers will be trying them tomorrow morning, but I found them tasty. Not quite as good as my blueberry ones, but still pretty darn good.

So, here is my version:

Sweet Potato & Apple Mini Muffins

2 cups of whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (plus more for the topping)
3 tablespoons of applesauce (or if you don’t want to be uber-healthy, you can use the canola oil)
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar (I used dark because that’s what I had)
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1 1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1 3/4 cups chopped, peeled baking apples (I used Fuji apples)
1/4 cup of wheat germ (can be omitted, I just wanted to try it out–couldn’t taste it!)

Your cast of characters:

1.) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2.)Mix the flour, baking powder and cinnamon in a bowl; set aside

3.) In another bowl, mix together applesauce (or oil), brown sugar, egg, egg white, mashed sweet potatoes and milk.

4.) Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add sweet potato mixture, stirring until moistened.

Do not over-mix!

5.) Peel, Core & Chop your applesNext time I will be mincing my apples since I made these mini muffins, the apple chunks turned out a bit big for my liking.

6.) Fold in the apples

7.) Spoon batter into greased (mini) muffin tins. Fill them pretty full. My first batch were a bit puny because
I only filled half-way.

8.) Mix a little cinnamon and sugar together and sprinkle on top of the mini muffins for a little extra crunch.

9.) Bake at 400 degrees F for roughly 10-12 minutes for mini muffins, or about 20-25 minutes for regular-sized muffins.

10.) EAT!

Super yummy!

Enjoy!