Epic Fail

My day didn't get off to a great start. Oliver slept from 9:00pm-3:45am, which wasn't bad, but then he was awake for 2 hours. He first started fussing at 3:30 so I got up at that point, and Ian came into our bedroom a few minutes after I fell asleep after getting Oliver down. Thankfully I had gone to bed at 9:30pm, but I really prefer to get more than 6 hours of sleep. Ever since the time change, my day has been starting between 3:30-4:30am. I haven't gotten any sleep past 4:30am in weeks between Oliver and Ian. I have always said I'm a morning person (I'm absolutely not a night owl), but I've never been one to get up THAT early on a regular basis. I wonder if we're going to have to wait until when the clocks "spring forward" for Ian to sleep later in the mornings? Hopefully Oliver will sleep until at least 6am long before then. Nadia has adjusted to the time change, but she is really, really in need of a nap. She hasn't taken one in many, many weeks. I strongly suggested she take one today because she was yawning so much at lunch time, but she insisted she didn't need one. I told her I would love to be able to take a nap today, but that didn't help persuade her to try to take one herself.

Now that Ian is eating non-pureed foods, he has started asking to eat some foods that he can't eat due to allergies. For example he's asked to eat pizza, our yogurt, cookies I've made, brownies, ice cream, and peanut butter crackers. He's been enjoying the chocolate cake so I thought I'd try to make some egg-free brownies. I did some research online about different substitutes for eggs (such as the vinegar used in the chocolate cake I've made). Several places recommended using 1/4 cup pureed fruit (such as applesauce or mashed bananas) in the place of each egg. Many times before I've substituted applesauce for the oil to decrease the calories and fat content of the brownies. I decided to try the applesauce in place of the eggs this afternoon. I thought it might be too much applesauce to also use that in place of the oil, but the mixture seemed runnier than usual so I omitted the water. When I licked a bit of the batter I could taste the applesauce. That proved to be the least of my concerns. When I opened the oven 50 minutes later, I could tell this was a total disaster. In fact it was very hard to clean the cake pan. After smelling brownies baking in the oven, I still really wanted a brownie. I hadn't had one in awhile because #1 I've been trying to lose weight and #2 it had been awhile since they had been on sale (I won't pay more than $1 for a box of brownie mix).

 

The other option I had considered (after reading various recipes online) was to mix a can of pureed black beans with a box of brownie mix (the beans replace both the eggs and the oil). I'll have to pick up a can of black beans and give that variation a try sometime in the future. I ended up making a smaller batch of brownies with eggs and gave Ian some store bought lemon cookies for his dessert after dinner. I also have been trying to find some margarine that he could have so that I could make some homemade cookies that he could eat. The dietician told me he can have Fleischman's light or unsalted, but they only carry the "original" at our small grocery store. It's nice to have him wanting to eat foods, but it's also heart breaking to have to tell him "no," especially when it's a food the rest of us all really enjoy. Hopefully he'll outgrow most or all of these allergies in the not so distant future.

Ian also had an "epic fail" this afternoon. When he was getting off the toilet he landed smack on his head. I was expecting to see a bruise on his forehead. It never ceases to amaze me how resilient children's bodies are.

When the kids and I got home from church, I noticed Paul's car wasn't in the garage, which meant he had gone to PSU. He called us around 5pm and said he'd be staying until Monday evening. He's hoping to finish the draft of his dissertation. His advisor has already approved chapters 2-5. She's seen and given him feedback on the introduction (chapter 1). He's hoping to finish chapter 6 (conclusion) and get that to her by Tuesday. Oliver is very fussy in the evening. If he's not nursing or drinking from a bottle, he's usually crying. Tonight I laid him in his crib screaming and shut his door so I didn't have to raise my voice over his crying when I read the Bible story and we each prayed. I felt badly for Oliver, but it seemed like the better option. I rescued him after I got the other two in bed. Oliver went down about 30 minutes later.