Quick Before I Get Sidetrack'd

Welcome to another edition of Ten on Tuesday hosted by Roots and Rings. This week’s questions are a bit all over the place, but you’ll definitely learn a little more about me.

1. If you were given an hour to use a $200 Amazon gift card, what would you buy?
I can’t even decide on what to buy with the $30 Amazon gift card I have, let alone a hypothetical $200 gift card. Hmm…probably some shoes and a few books, and maybe something for the kids (or maybe not).

2. Are there any fairly common foods that you’ve never had?
Brussels sprouts are the only thing that come immediately to mind.

3. What was your favorite way to use your imagination as a kid?
I loved to play with my baby dolls and to play “house”.

4. What’s your favorite state? Why?
I’ve got to say Tennessee here just because it is the state I’ve lived in all my life. It has three distinct and very different areas (East, Middle, and West), and I’ve lived in and enjoyed them all (although, East TN is definitely my favorite). A very close second would be North Carolina (at least the western part) because Matt and I love the mountains and the Asheville area.

5. If it was our culture to have our parents choose our spouses, do you think yours would make a good choice?
I think they would. They know me (and my strengths and weaknesses) pretty well.

6. What’s your favorite herb?
Tough one…It’s a close call between cilantro, oregano, and basil.

7. If you could have dinner with one celebrity, who would you choose?
I’m not much of a celebrity watcher, so I don’t really have an answer for this one.

8. What’s your favorite Disney movie?
Beauty and the Beast – My Daddy took me to see it in the theater for my 12th birthday.

9. If you had to listen to the same song over and over for 24 hours, what song would you choose?
That pretty much sounds like torture. No matter what song I chose and how much I liked it, by the end of 24 hours I’d probably be about ready to hurl myself off a cliff. (Matt suggested John Cage’s Four minutes, thirty-three seconds)

10. How do you order your steak?
It depends on where I’m eating. If it is a steakhouse, I usually order it medium-well; if I’m at a restaurant that just happens to have steak, I usually order it medium. Most places overcook their steaks.

I’m running late today, but I do have a menu to post. Here’s what we’re eating this week…

Friday – take out pizza

Saturday – lunch: eat out / dinner: meatball stew and grilled cheese

Sunday – lunch: eat out / dinner: fend for yourselves

Monday – leftover meatball stew, grilled cheese

Tuesday – chicken & broccoli macaroni, corn on the cob

Wednesday – tacos, guacamole, chips & salsa

Thursday – leftovers

We’re still carrying over the chicken & broccoli meal because we didn’t need it again last week. Our weekend involved more dining out/take out than we usually have due to my Mom visiting; we were out running around more than we usually do.

For more meal and menu ideas check out Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com.

Happy Monday!

Baby girl has a variety of places where she can sleep relax and enjoy the scenery – a swing, a baby papasan chair, a bouncy seat, a pack ‘n play, her carseat – and at different times in her short life has made use of each one. A couple of weeks ago we added another “special seat” to her bounty, and it has become her very own comfy chair.

This is the Fisher Price Rock ‘n Play Sleeper, a seat designed to go from day to night as a play seat, rocker, and sleeper (it meets all industry standards for bassinets). And we use it for all three. Baby girl’s chair travels with her wherever she is in the house – during the day it generally resides in the living room (where we spend most of our time) and travels to the kitchen or my bedroom as necessary, during the night it sits beside her crib and cradles her as she sleeps. We have pretty much put all of our other baby equipment away for now.

There are several things that I (and apparently baby girl) really like about this seat:
~ It is elevated which makes it much easier to get her in and out of and also limits how the older kids can get to her (I don’t have to worry about Boo climbing in on top of her). It is also the perfect height to rock from the couch or bed (although I haven’t used it as a bedside sleeper).
~ The design of the seat is inclined and kind of sling-like. It cradles her and keeps her from slumping like she does in the bouncy seat and swing, but the incline allows her to look around more than she can in the pack ‘n play. I think this seat would have been great for Boo, too, since he had to sleep at an incline to help with his reflux.
~ It doesn’t take batteries. This is one of those weird things, but I like that, one, we don’t have to worry about having a certain type of batteries on hand, and, two, that there isn’t an annoying hum or click coming through the monitor from her room all night long.
~ It is very portable. The swing and bouncy seat are bulky and clunky to move around while holding an infant in one arm. The Rock ‘n Play Sleeper is lightweight and easy to move around. It will slide along the carpet or is light enough to carry easily, and it is narrow enough to fit through doors with no problems. It also folds to make it suitable for travel.
~ It was easy to assemble. Assembly requires no tools, and I was able to put it together by myself in just a matter of minutes.

There are a couple of potential cons – If you have a baby who needs the vibrations in a bouncy seat or papasan chair to soothe them, this seat would not be a good choice since the manual rocking motion is the only motion it offers. Also, it is designed for newborns and infants up to 25 pounds or until the child is able to pull up or sit unassisted, so it doesn’t have quite as much age/weight range as some other baby products.

Matt and I were concerned initially about the stability of the sleeper since Boo has a tendency to hang on things and try to climb into seats with baby girl; however, we haven’t had any issues with tipping even when Boo has tried to get to baby. The biggest downside I’ve found is that it is light enough for Little and Boo to move it around; for the first few days I never knew where in the room baby girl would be if I left the room for a minute.

Overall, I think the Rock ‘n Play Sleeper is a really good product. I would not consider it a “necessity” for baby, but it is definitely a great seat to have around.

Thank you to MomSelect and Fisher Price for the chance to review this product.

Disclaimer: Fisher Price provided me one Rock ‘n Play Sleeper free of charge as part of a product review program through MomSelect. The opinions expressed in this post are purely my own.

There’s another fun set of questions at Roots and Rings for this week’s Ten on Tuesday. (Although there are 11 questions this week which kind of freaks the OCD in me out a bit)

1. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
I’m an ice cream kind of girl, so this list could go on (it’s hard to narrow to one favorite), but I’ll keep it semi-short: peanut butter and chocolate, moose tracks, cookies and cream (especially Blue Bell)

2. What is your earliest memory?
It would probably be of me flying to Houston with my Mema when I was probably 3 or 4 (right, Mom?). I remember us being on the plane together and it just being the two of us.

3. What is your earliest memory of a dessert?
This is an odd question. I can’t think of one from early in my life, but my first memory of cooking dessert would be in middle school when my best friend would come to the house and beg me to bake chocolate chip cookies for him.

4. Do you have any recurring dreams?
A few, but I haven’t had any of them recently. There was one (mainly as a child) where my house was on fire in a ring down the center of the house and I was on one side and my Dad was on the other and I couldn’t get to him. The primary one as an adult has been Matt and I (with some other people) running from a group of mercenary-type soldiers who are persecuting us. We hide out in this little room where we have to crawl through a hole and along a tunnel to reach it. I always wake up with my heart pounding. (could be related to the amount of reading I do about WWIII era Europe)

5. Have you ever dreamed about dessert?
Absolutely. Especially when I’m pregnant, but occasionally when I’m not.

6. What is one thing (aside from a cell phone or computer) that you cannot go the entire day without?
Talking to Matt.

7. What is one dessert you could go your entire life without ever having again?
I can’t think of any specific dessert (although I know there are some out there), but anything with raisins is high on my dislike list.

8. If you could go on vacation tomorrow, where would you go? (Assume someone else is footing the bill, but within reason…so “the moon” won’t work)
The beach (Caribbean or gulf coast)! There are lots of places I would love to go, but right now I just want WARM.

9. If you could have any dessert tomorrow, what would you have (assume someone else is buying it for you. Within reason though, no “gold sprinkled ice cream cones.”)
Hmmm…strawberry cake with strawberry or cream cheese icing (or maybe chocolate mousse cheesecake)

10. What was your first impression of your significant other? If you’re single, what was your first impression of your best friend?
Matt – I thought he was cute and very quiet.

my best friend – that she seemed like a nice neighbor and it was nice of her to ask about our new baby (Little)

11. What is your first impression of dessert pizza? (Personally, I think it’s weird. I love dessert but I don’t want any on my pizza.)
Before I tried it I thought it sounded bizarre and gross. Once I tried some I found out I like some of it.

It’s Monday again, and I’ve got a plan for our menu. Last week we had a few more leftovers than I anticipated, so there are a couple of carry overs on our menu this week.

The creamy mexican casserole that we tried last week was very good. I used a pound of ground beef instead of the chicken called for in the recipe and it worked out well (although it would probably be just as good with only a half pound of beef). If you like things spicy you probably want to add some ground cayenne pepper in with the spices; Matt and I added hot salsa to our servings so that the casserole wouldn’t be too spicy for the kids. This would make a great potluck or party dish, too, since it can be eaten with tortilla chips.

Anyway, here’s what’s on our menu this week.

Saturday: lunch: rolled tacos / dinner: meatball subs, fries
Sunday: lunch: leftovers / dinner: chicken nugget casserole, noodles, corn
Monday: enchilada casserole, chips & guacamole, salsa
Tuesday: leftovers
Wednesday: chicken & broccoli macaroni, salad
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: pizza

I’ve been craving buffalo chicken dip for a few weeks now, so I might make a dish this week and throw it in there somewhere. And, of course, I’ll be making several loaves of bread (thanks to my handy, dandy bread machine) including a couple of new recipes (hopefully).

That’s my plan for the week. For more meal and menu plan ideas hop over to Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com and see what everyone else is eating this week.

Happy Monday!