New Recipe: Cinnamon Roll Cake

When I bake, I rarely have a desire to eat what I bake. Unless it has cinnamon in it. Then I really don't want to share. But, considering the amount of butter in this recipe, I was willing to share. Every year we have a work conference. Everyone from our division gets together for presentations, division/department updates, and some general bitching about things they're unhappy with. I always try to make something to share and this year I made Cinnamon Roll Cake. There is always coffee in the morning so I figured this would be a yummy morning treat. And it was! I loved this recipe and I can't wait to make it again.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

Cake:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Topping:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 9x13-inch glass baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In an electric or stand mixer add the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, and vanilla. Once combined well, slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour into the prepared 9x13-inch baking pan.
3. For topping, in a large bowl mix the 2 sticks of butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon together until well combined and creamy. Drop evenly over the batter by the tablespoonfuls and use a knife to marble/swirl through the cake.
4. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or when a toothpick inserted near the center comes out nearly clean.
5. FOR THE GLAZE: In a medium bowl, mix the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together with a whisk. Drizzle evenly over the warm cake. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe Source: Life as a Lofthouse

Notes/Suggestions:

• The only thing I would have done differently with this cake would have been to eat a bigger piece :)

Enjoy!

New Recipe: Buffalo Chicken & Potato Casserole

I didn't think I was going to get in my two new recipes for this month. But I managed to pull them both off this week (I will try to post the second one tomorrow). Monday night I decided it was time for something different. I had been eyeing a recipe for Buffalo Chicken & Potato Casserole that I figured Husband would love and I decided it was time to make it. I'm not a huge fan of spicy food but I figured I could handle this one. In the interest of trying something new I kept an open mind.

Looks yummy, doesn't it?

I'm going to be honest: I didn't like it at all. And it had nothing to do with the hot sauce, that part actually wasn't bad or too hot for me. I felt like the casserole was just missing something. It does have quite a bit of ranch in it and I'm not a lover of ranch so that could be part of my problem with it. Why post the recipe, you ask? Well, I did challenge myself to try two new recipes each month - and post about my findings whether they be good or bad. But also - Husband loved it. He literally ate 3/4 of the casserole dish and said he'd eat it again if I made it. And he brought the leftovers to work and a co-worker of his gobbled it up and said it was great. So perhaps, I'm just overly picky.

Buffalo Chicken & Potato Casserole

•  1 1/4 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch strips
• 1/3 c. Franks buffalo sauce
• 6 c. potatoes, grated w/ box grater
• 1 c. light ranch dressing
• 1/2 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1/2 c. panko bread crumbs

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 13x9-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together chicken strips and buffalo sauce. Spoon into baking dish in a single layer.
3. In the same bowl, stir together potatoes, dressing, cheese, and soup. Spread over chicken. Sprinkle panko evenly over the top.
4. Cover with foil. Bake 30 minutes; uncover and bake 20 to 25 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender and juice of chicken is no longer pink when center of thickest pieces are cut.

Recipe source: Holy Cannoli Recipes

Notes/Suggestions:

•  For some reason the potatoes didn't cook completely for me. I did exactly as the recipe said and I grated fresh potatoes. If I try it again I may use frozen hash browns. The fresh ones were very wet and I felt like they made the potato mixture very soupy.
• I thought the light ranch made for a bad taste. Or maybe I needed to use a name brand ranch instead because I bought the store brand. I try not be a store brand snob because most of the time I find no difference in the store brand versus name brand but in some cases it does make a difference.
• This recipe could use more chicken. I used exactly the amount of chicken called for and it cooked just fine. But underneath all those potatoes it did seem to turn into a game of Find the Chicken.
• I firmly believe that this recipe needs bleu cheese. Somewhere. Crumbled or in dressing form. But it is a "buffalo chicken" recipe and it's begging for some bleu cheese.

I'd love to hear the results if anyone out there decides to try this!

Eleven Months

On Tuesday, Grant was eleven months old. Eleven. Months. Where has this year gone? I have said before that I'm excited for Grant's 1st birthday - and I still am - but every day he seems so much less like a baby that it makes me sad.

Eleven Months Old

We are working on getting him off the bottle, although the bedtime bottle is still what gets him to sleep. And "real" food is going better. This child can pack away a banana like nobody's business. We've agreed to let him eat food from the day care menu for breakfast, lunch, and snack time (providing I approve - on days when they have sausage biscuits and such I haven't agreed to that yet). So now, most days, instead of pureed baby foods he's eating things like cinnamon toast for breakfast or mac & cheese w/ broccoli for lunch. And snack time has introduced him to all kinds of things (Cheezits being among the popular items).

He always wants to stand or run around. There
is no more being still for this little guy.

Walking is how he gets around now, he rarely ever crawls anymore. He's quite sure of himself on his feet and even running is getting a little better. I'm not saying he never falls. He definitely does. But it's not as traumatic as it was a few weeks ago.

This last month brought about our latest ER visit but Grant seems to have completely recovered from his butt cheek infection. He does have a little scar but it's really tiny. And I'm just glad that everything healed for him the first time and no other procedure was necessary.

We've had some not too in depth conversations about trying to break Grant of the pacifier. But I have to say, I'm really reluctant. He's not as dependant on it as he could be but when it's needed it's a savior. (Anybody out there ever get "advice" about the paci? The people that tell you that "you really should think about breaking him of that". Or the ones who get that look on their face and say "You use a pacifier?" People are so judgemental about the paci! But they aren't the ones who have to deal with my screaming kid. )

Anyway, Grant is waving bye-bye more often and even sometimes sounds like he's trying to say bye-bye. Although, sometimes he sounds like he's trying to say Brodie's name too. It's hard to tell. But he's definitely still doing "Mama" and "Dada" and I love to hear him say those :) And at daycare, in addition to helping with the bye-bye, they're also trying to teach him to high five. He practices with Daddy too:

He'll have it down before too long.

It's so hard to believe that this year has gone by as quickly as it has. And I know that this next month is going to go by the quickest because there is so much going on. I'm going to miss him being a baby so much (although he does sometimes still act very much like a baby) but I'm also looking forward to what's coming. Grant gets more and more fun every day. It's exciting to think about all the things we'll be able to do with him soon.

How Do You Baby-Proof the Furniture?

Very recently climbing has presented a problem. Grant thinks he can climb the furniture with no repercussions what-so-ever. The problem is that he can't climb the furniture. Remember baby jail? I remember when the pack-n-play was all we needed.

Ahhh...those were the days.

Not so much anymore. The little guy eventually needed more room. To keep him contained we basically used furniture as baby gates. It was easy convenient there so we went with it. But now he's trying to climb the couches. You can baby proof cupboards, outlets, even the edges of the coffee table (I never went that far)...but how do you baby proof the couch?

He gets super pissy when he can't do it. Which is every time.

We've used the furniture-turned-baby-gates for at least a month - probably more like two - and this past weekend I was over it. I may not be old, but I do have arthritis (ok, not actually diagnosed but I did get a "probably" from one doctor's office) and it gets painful climbing over furniture every time I need something from the kitchen. So Grant has been transferred from Baby Jail to Baby Maximum Security Prison.

It's called a Superyard but according to the directions can also
be used as a Petyard. So Husband has been calling it Grant's "dog run".

It literally takes up our whole living room. I believe I've said before that we have a small house and this makes it feel that much smaller. However, I am no longer climbing the love seat to get a drink of water and my bum hip is very happy about that.

That face has conned me into climbing in there for
 playtime on more than one occasion.

Grandma's Little Helper

Grant usually gets to spend at least one day a week with his Grandma. Last week it was actually two days because the week before she was in Las Vegas and didn't get to have her "Grand baby Fix". I know she loves it when he's at her house...and I know he loves it too because of the giant smile on his face when she walks through the door.

Husband and I went to pick up Grant on Friday and to hang out for a bit. We found out that Grant had been doing some dusting (a.k.a. playing with a duster twice his size...but handling it quite well). Next time he's over there, I'm going to see what kind of magic she can get him to work with a vacuum cleaner. I don't feel like 11 months old is too young to start earning his keep. But anyway, he also learned how to put the chairs back at the table. His Nana (my Mom) would be so proud of his cleaning-up skills! I'm sure she's happy that someone is teaching him how to clean up because I imagine she is watching me every weekend wondering when I'm going to mop my kitchen floor, dust my livingroom, fold my laundry and make my bed.

Grandma's Little Helper

Dinner Is No Match For Playtime

We're having food problems. Problems with new foods has been expected. It's problems with foods I know Grant loves that I wasn't expecting. The real problem? A constant disinterest in being still. How dare we strap Grant into his highchair for meals? Such horrible parents. The way it works is we strap him in and give him a cracker or some goldfish to munch on while we heat up food. Tonight it was ravioli. He loves ravioli. Loves to eat it, loves to make a mess with it...loves to feed it to the dog. I think Grant was a little mad at me tonight for banishing the dog to another room. He's distracting! And I get very tired of wiping Grant's hand each time Brodie licks ravioli filling from his palm (roughly every 10 seconds). You know he wants out of the highchair when he starts bucking in the seat. But he hadn't enough so I kept trying to get him to eat more but apparently feeding himself was not what his Highness wanted tonight. So I heated up some regular baby food to get some more food in the belly. He didn't really want that either but I managed to get almost all of it in him before he had a complete meltdown. Like turning purple from crying so hard and almost refusing to breathe. This is what dinner time has been reduced to. However, the moment the bib came off and those tiny feet hit the floor our smiley guy once again graced us with his presence.

He was ecstatic when I let him run through the kitchen like a freak while I cleaned up the dinner mess.

Right after I took that picture he made me clean up a mess of a different kind. Which could account for some the fussiness. Grant is teething - both of his top front teeth are about to poke through any day now - and all that drool seems to be causing some commotion in his tummy. Which is causing some very stinky stuff to happen. I want to invent a changing table that has a hose attachment and you can remove the changing pad to reveal a large sink underneath. Sometimes...baby wipes just don't cut it.

Mom-provising

I never fail to be amazed at how odd my mind is at times. Two weekends ago I was changing Grant's diaper and butt bandage and narrowly missed being hosed down by a rather impressive stream of pee. Rarely do we get peed on anymore. At first it happened at least once a week. When we were very new parents, maybe even once a day. To one of us. Or both of us. Or, if the dog was standing there, all three of us. But it's a very uncommon occurrence now. But that one weekend I didn't have a bandage at the ready like I usually did AND I had already removed the offending diaper (quite poopy, if I remember correctly). Not seeing an immediate need for coverage - Moms of boys know exactly what I mean! - I let him lay on the changing table in all his nakedness because, lets face it, he's just happier naked. And he let it fly. I managed to get the hose covered but not before he soaked the changing pad cover, carpet, and the t-shirt he still had on. So this is how the thought process happened in my head: He needs his little peeper covered. But I don't have the bandage ready. So I can't put a diaper on him. I need to get him off the pee-covered changer. Put him in his crib. Naked? What if he pees again? I don't want to waste a diaper, it annoys me to waste a diaper. *spots laundry basket of clothes needing to be folded* Eureka!

I made a temporary diaper out of one of the rarely-used-anymore receiving blankets. It kind of looks like a loincloth doesn't it?

1st Birthday Cakes

The party planning has begun! As sad as I am that my little baby is going to be my little toddler I'm pretty excited to celebrate Grant's 1st birthday. I think the part of his party that I'm that most excited about is his birthday cake. I've made some 1st birthday cakes and they're always fun...but I can't wait to make my own baby's 1st birthday cake.

A birthday present cake and a little matching one for the birthday boy



Caterpillar cake (they used the head as the smash cake)



For a cupcake themed party - designed to match
 the birthday girl's bib (not my favorite one...I thought it was a little boring)

`

The Very Hungry Caterpillar! Those are cupcakes.



For a sports themed party



For a Halloween birthday boy



For a doggie themed party

 And, if I had to pick, I'd say this one is my favorite so far:




I had so much fun with these cakes. And I molded those animals myself!

So here I am planning my little guy's 1st birthday party. I've gone back and forth on several themes and I've finally settled on one. And it's permanent now because I've also ordered the invitations. And I've booked a place to have the party (because our house is way too small for even the smallest birthday party). We're having the party outside which in August is slightly insane, but it's only going to be a couple hours. And it's very near a playground. The bonus is that because we're using a park shelter there is so much less area to decorate. I feel like I've gotten the big stuff out of the way...except, of course, for making the birthday cake. I sort of have a picture in my head of what I want his cake to look like. I want to base it on the invitation and I'm hoping that he icing and decorations don't slide off of it in the heat.

 I'm trying very hard not to go overboard. It seems like so many kids birthday parties have gotten so out of control. I used to feel like it was a treat just to have an ice cream cake instead of a regular cake. But I also keep reminding myself that my first only turns 1 once, right? :)


Look, He's Praying!

Before you read further, I warn you this is so random. Consider yourself warned. The other day I was talking to my cousin (well, we were texting) about Andrea Bocelli. One of my favorite singers. And then this week I was listening to him in the car too. And it made me think of one of my favorite stories of my parents:

My Dad was a really emotional guy and my Mom made fun of him for it. A lot. He would cry about stuff that would make most people say "Awww, that's sweet" or "Awww, that's sad". He even cried during the Olympics. Not because somebody great won...but because that person coming in last was "just trying so hard". Mom always said "Ugh, put it in your journal."

A few years ago when she and I were on the phone - around Christmas - she told me that she and Dad had watched a Christmas special. Well, Dad was watching it and he called Mom into the room. "Hey! Come watch this. I think it's that guy Tara likes." I think my Mom was a little surprised (as was I) that he even knew who he was let alone that I liked his music. Mom said "Oh yeah, Andrea Bocelli". So they listened to his song and at a break in his singing my mom noticed my Dad crying silently. She said "Ugh, what's wrong?" Thinking he would say he missed me or something like that she waited for him to calm down a little and he said:
"Look at him. He's praying." And then he started crying all over again.

I can still picture what my Mom's face must have looked like when she said to him "Oh my God. He's blind, you ass!"

Cake Mix Cookies

I can't call this a new recipe but it's one that I really want to share because I love it. Easy and yummy and so many ways to change it up. I found the recipe right before Mother's Day from a Betty Crocker post on Facebook. That led me to this blogger who shared the recipe for cake mix cookies. When I saw the picture and the recipe I had to have them so they were part of our Mother's Day desserts. This past weekend I was really craving something cake-like but never got around to baking. Wednesday since I had the very few ingredients called for I decided to whip myself up a treat. I rarely ever bake "for me" so this was nice :)

Cake Mix Cookies 

1 box cake mix

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 can prepared frosting
*for the record I used Betty Crocker party chip cake mix and
 Betty Crocker party chip frosting

• Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat cake mix, butter, vanilla, and eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
• Onto ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by slightly less than tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart.
• Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are set (centers will be soft). Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.
• When cookies are cooled completely spread one cookie with frosting then top with another cookie to make a sandwich. Enjoy!

 

Mix the dough

 

Drop it on the cookie sheet (I used a cookie scoop)



Cookies may be a little difficult to remove

Mmmm...yummy :)



Notes/Suggestions: 

• Although you may be tempted - because the cookies do stick to the sheet a little - do not grease the cookie sheet. I did it thinking "I always grease my cookie sheet" and I burned them. Don't do it!
• So many flavor combos! I've also done red velvet cake mix with cream cheese frosting. Delicious! I think my next batch will be chocolate cake mix with peanut butter frosting for Husband. Lover of all things Choc & PB. (To make PB frosting just mix peanut butter into some vanilla frosting until it's as peanut buttery as you like it - easy peasy).

Enjoy!

Spinach & Cheese Ravioli

New recipe? Nope. Baby food. Although some spinach & cheese ravioli sounds pretty damn good. I've had a hard time introducing new finger foods to Grant. I figured once we got over the hump that was the cereal puffs everything else would be easy. Wrong. Silly Mama. What has ever been easy when it comes to feeding this child? He'll eat some carrots, but not green beans. Fruit? No ma'am. In it goes and out it comes. If I want the fruit to stay in his mouth I have to hold my finger against his lips and he'll reluctantly chew. He'll eat the pureed version but not the pieces. So, when I was in the grocery store Thursday after work I swung through the baby aisle. I have a baby food problem. Since Grant has started "solids" I don't think I've left a store that sells baby food without buying some. This time I saw the ravioli. It said it's for a toddler but really that's just a guideline right? The ravioli is smaller than the kind I would buy for me and Husband and it seems mushier too. I had less than no hope that Grant would eat it willingly so I only bought one package of it. Well guess what? Miracles do happen folks. He loved it.

First he squished it in his hands. A guy's gotta check things out, yes?

After proper squishing it did actually end up in his mouth.

And then, much to my surprise, more of it went in his mouth.

Before I knew it he was happy about his ravioli!

Then the biggest shock of the meal came when the ravioli was almost gone. Brodie came to check things out. Brodie never comes to check things out when Grant is involved. Because Brodie is still waiting for us to bring him back where ever he came from (I, for one, am rather glad he's not going back there). Upon seeing Brodie, Grant leaned forward and started saying "Babababab! Ba ba ba ba!" Which leads me to believe he's trying to say Brodie's name. Then Grant hung his hand in the air to touch Brodie and I waited for him to run away. He didn't.

He actually licked the ravioli off his hand!

And Grant quickly realized that if he threw ravioli on the floor
Brodie would stick around for clean up duty.

Always the easiest way to clean up! (I promise the tray was washed
very well before we let Grant use it again. I'm not that bad!)

Hmmm...they might just become friends after all.

Captain Destructo

My favorite thing about weekends is watching Grant play. I'm jealous that the women at daycare get to see him waddling around that room and the playground all day while I sit in my cubicle. Last weekend, pre-ER visit, I decided to bring out some blocks I've had since before Grant was born just to see how he would play with them. If he would play with them. If? Please. When I dumped the blocks out of their storage bag his eyes lit up like I had just dumped out gold in front of him.

No encouragement was needed. He immediately started picking them up, tossing them, and grabbing some more. Putting them in his mouth gnawing on them. Carrying them to some other place in the room and then going back for more. He loved them. 

One thing Grant doesn't seem to like is order. I knew if I stacked the blocks he'd have fun knocking them over. What I wasn't expecting was his complete objection to me stacking the blocks in the first place. I had to distracting him just get them stacked.

And when I finally got them stacked and moved away from them...

No ma'am! Neatness will not be tolerated!

Crazy! Even when I tried a "messy stack" he had to destroy it.

He had fun though and so did I. Sometimes it's just the simple things :)

How I Spent My 4th of July

No cook out. No fireworks. No fun. We spend our 4th of July - Grant's first 4th of July - in the ER. Again. In the past 10 months, we've not been strangers to the ER. Although it's been a different one each time. This marks Grant's third trip to an ER. This time it was Wake Med's Children's ER, who knew they had one just for kids? I didn't, but it's nice to know.

It all started with a pimple. We thought it was a pimple. We'd noticed some small ones on Grant's back in the vicinity of his butt. Friday I noticed one rather large one in the middle of his butt cheek. By Sunday it looked like it was threatening to take over. I joked with my sister that I thought it was so big it might have a face. So, with Husband's help, I popped it thinking it would be much better in the morning. Not so much. We popped it again early yesterday morning and after nap time it was just as bad if not worse. And it was presenting a problem with Grant's mobility and attitude. Husband called the pediatrician's office and left a message with their answering service. An urgent care that does pediatrics was recommended.

First 4th of July - at urgent care
(All pics taken with my phone. I promise I did
not bring the camera to the doctor's office.)

Urgent Care couldn't do anything about it. At first they were just going to give antibiotics and left an ER trip up to us. But upon a brief second exam they said it would be better to take him to the ER and have a surgeon look at it because it may have to be cut and drained and they couldn't do that at the urgent care. So we loaded up and headed to the ER.

The ER wasn't busy. We didn't even have to wait, which was nice. Immediately after checking in they took us back to get Grant's information and we went right to a room after that. They gave us a tiny hospital gown to put on Grant. Ok, I never knew a hospital gown could be cute, but it's kind of adorable on a tiny person.

It didn't take too long for a doctor to come take a look and he knew immediately that he'd have to open it. He told us that it wasn't a pimple but an infection. One that antibiotics alone wouldn't take care of. So in came a nurse who called for reinforcements because she had to get blood and start an IV. Remembering our first experience with Grant and an IV, we were not looking forward to this. One nurse held him down (and was quite good at positioning himself so Grant couldn't move) and the other started the IV. It wasn't pretty but once it was over, Grant was ok. And he did pretty well not playing with it.

He took a little nap and then they came in to set up. We stayed in the room until they sedated him and then we stepped out. Partially because there were 3 doctors and a nurse in there, partially because we both had to go to the bathroom, but mostly because we really didn't want to see them cut into our baby's bum. The waiting room was right outside the door so I headed there after the potty. A very sweet girl named Erin - who, I believe, is there to talk to nervous parents - saw me and immediately came over to see if she could get me a drink. I was about to say no thank you when she started naming off a bunch of stuff so I asked for a pepsi. She brought two because she saw Husband with me, I thought it was very sweet of her. They said the procedure would take 15-20 minutes and it didn't even seem to take that long. The doctor came to tell us that it was over and went fine. Husband asked a few important questions: Will need antibiotics? How often should we change the dressing? Can he have tylenol and/or advil while taking the antibiotics? Are there side effects to the sedation? I asked the doctor: Will he have a scar? Seriously, that's all I could come up with. The doctor looked at me, not for the first time that day, like I was an idiot and basically said that of course there would be a scar. Then he seemed to find his sense of humor and told me "He'll never be a butt model".

We were allowed back in the room in just a few minutes and Grant was really out of it. They said it was important that he recognize us but I really didn't think he did. I think he was only recognizing the fact that he had been through a lot that day and was really sleepy and groggy. Not too long after that he took a little nap. He had spiked a fever right before the procedure (102) and the nurse said she was going to get him some tylenol. He must have been asleep about 30 minutes when she came in with the tylenol. She said she was going to give it to him rectally...silly me, I thought it would be liquid. You know will bring you out of nap real fast? Having a tylenol capsule shoved up your butt hole. That'll do it. Grant didn't cry but he gave her a look like "You could have bought me dinner first". But he did come around real fast so the nurse suggested trying something to drink. I had a sippy cup with me so I dug it out of my bad.

It was very much accepted which was a good sign. He eventually drank the whole thing and we even had to refill it. The fever was slowly coming down and I had food with me so they allowed him to "try" to eat. He wolfed it down. We were discharged around 6:30 and Grant was in a pretty good mood. And by the time we got home he was ready to play.

Like nothing ever happened.

Today brings much improvement. The fever hasn't returned, Grant's appetite is present and accounted for, and his mood - except when being told "No" - has been great. Changing the bandage sucks. Really bad. Grant screams and tries very hard to crawl off the changing table. But I'm getting quicker at it so at least he doesn't scream for long anymore. He even had a bath to clean the area. So far so good. He has to have a check-up on Thursday. Next year, I think I'll just stick with the cook out and fireworks.

Sleeping Baby

What is it about a sleeping baby? My sleeping baby. When I see him lying there so peaceful with his little bum stuck in the air...I breathe a sigh of relief at the break that the nap provides. But I'm also struck with this weird desire to snatch him out of that crib and lay him down in our bed so I can cuddle with him. Grant and I used to nap together when I was on maternity leave. Sometimes after he ate but also sometimes in the very early morning when I just couldn't wake up yet for the day. Then, seeing how well that worked, it sometimes happened at night too so that the four of us (I'm including Brodie here) could get sleep, even if it was poor quality sleep. But now that the little man is sleeping better and we seem to have our bed back...I miss the cuddle time. How can I not miss it, look at him!

Tell me you don't want to cuddle with him.

Of course, there is the other side to consider. Grant always woke us up whenever he felt like it (hungry, wet/poopy diaper, or just because it was 3:00 a.m.). But he sure doesn't seem to like it much when we have to wake him up: 

Good morning!

Oh yeah? What's good about it?

Look at that hair. What the devil are we going to do
about this boy's hair??