Siblings

Not only is it wonderful to see my parents when we go to Arizona, but we also get to see my brothers.

Matt and I are 20 months apart, and Alex is 7 years younger than me.

They used to call me "Mommy 2."

I still get an eye twitch when I hear that.

My brothers and I are so different.

One big difference is that my brothers like to go to bed around 3 am, and I'm lucky if my eyes are still open at 9:00.

Almost 2 years ago, Matt married Cydney, who I adore. She is way cooler than I will ever be.

And they have my energetic, cutie-pie niece, Audrey.

For a long time Matt worked as a PA on movie and tv sets in Phoenix. Among other movies, he's worked on Fast and Furious 4 or 5 (? I don't know for sure which one), Everything Must Go, Away We Go (you can actually see him as an extra in the dog racing scene). He's also worked on some reality tv shows like Basketball Wives, Police Women of Maricopa County, the Coco and Ice- T show; basically any of them  that have been filmed in Arizona. More recently he's decided to have a 9-5 job and works at a mega church as their head film guy. 

He's really good at what he does.

He has an amazing eye for detail and great style.

Alex is also a rockstar in his own right.

He is one of the best bass players in Phoenix.

I don't even know how many bands he plays in, but he works at least 6 days a week.

Aleks and I got to go hear him play at the Hyatt Gainey Ranch, in Scottsdale.

He was there with MDL, who play covers of pop and rock tunes.

If you stay there on a Friday or Saturday, you can listen to him too!

Another band he's in, called Alchemy Heart, just won the Hard Rock Rising Competition in Arizona. If they win the next round, they'll get to play in London and open for Bruce Springsteen.

On Sunday afternoon we heard him play with Mother's Favorite Child, and they are funky.

Like Stevie Wonder funky.

Of the bands I've heard him play in, that's my favorite. 

Alex is making a living playing music.

Like for real, can pay his rent, bills, etc.

This is the stuff most music majors only dream about.

Oh, and Alex has an adorable dog, Oscar.

My brothers are pretty great.

Spring Break

My awesome mother in law got me this beauty for an early birthday present!

When we traveled to Arizona for spring break, I didn't bring my computer. Long story short I didn't blog while on vacation. So now you are going to be bombarded with tales of our trip. Sorry.

We usually go to Arizona in the summer, when we're not working. That's a really dumb time to go.

The best time, I have come to discover, is March.

It was amazingly beautiful, not too hot, but warm enough to swim.

The clubhouse in my parents' development doesn't allow kids under three into the pool, so we made do with a blowup one in the backyard. 

The girls didn't know the difference!

Ruby was over it after 30 seconds.

Maia, on the other hand, could have stayed in there all week.

And on another note, what's with all the 2 piece bathing suits in the "baby" section at Target? 

Please believe me when I say that I'm not judging you if your almost 3 year old wears a bikini.

That's not for the Sternfeld-Dunn girls. 

In fact, as far as I'm concerned, my girls will never wear a bikini, or makeup, or high heels, or grow up... ok, ok, I know I'm being a ridiculous, but for now, I really just want to enjoy my little girls being little.

18 month old Ruby

Ruby had her 18 month check up this week.

She's in the 20th percentile for weight (22.6 lbs) and the 28th for height (31 inches).

She loves her sister (most of the time), books, eating, and runs everywhere.

Her teeth are starting to come in, she currently has 4 that have broken through the gums.

She's becoming more independent and doesn't cling to mommy quite as much.

She's our little peanut and we're so glad she came along when she did.

Menu for 3/11-3/16

First things first.

Ruby is doing puzzles! One day Aleks said, "did you know Ruby can do the animal puzzle?" Sure enough, here she is:

Not only is she a puzzle whiz, but this kid can throw a darn good tantrum. I only captured a mild one here:

Now onto our week's menu:

Sunday

Roasted chicken with chimichurri and roasted broccoli

Monday

Chicken teriyaki with broccoli

Tuesday

I'm not going to be home for dinner, so Aleks is sous vide-ing some steak and putting it on a salad with poached eggs. 

Which I think is gross. 

The poached egg part. 

Wednesday

Chicken tikka masala with rice

Thursday

Rigatoni with turkey sausage and kale

Friday

Our version of Chipotle's burrito bowl.

Chicken, beans, grilled vegetables, chesse, lettuce, and salsa.

Yum.

Have a great week!

It was a good day

Today was my day off! 

Which meant, I stayed in gym clothes all day and didn't wear any makeup.

A perfect day.

Highlights included: Maia's dance class, cookies and milk at Panera, backyard playtime, baths, and tv.

Ruby went down this slide backwards, on her own, like it was nothing.

Maia, on the other hand, just sat at the top because she's "too scared."

Look at these curls! 

Unfortunately, I think once we finally cut Ruby's hair, it's going to be straight.

And that curly headed beauty ate an entire pint of blueberries for dinner.

I think she gave herself a stomachache, because it took her a long time to settle down tonight.

Aleks and I were taking on the couch this evening. 

Maia ran up to us and said "Mom, Dad, you're not talking very well!"

While she is very cute, I wish she had volume control.

She is so loud.

Especially in the morning.

And at the risk of embarrassing myself, I'm going to share a memory with you that popped into my head yesterday. 

I don't know why this came to me, but I was remembering a day when I was in 1st grade and I had left class to go to the bathroom. Apparently things hadn't come out easily because I remember going to my teacher and saying, "I just had a really hard BM and my bottom hurts so I'm going to stand over there and finish my work."

Bahahahahaha!

Can you even believe it?!

I'll bet my teacher still tells that story to this day.

Now that I'm a teacher, you can bet if a student had said that to me, I'd still be talking about it.

Tomorrow is a half day off, which includes a trip to the orthopedic surgeon for a follow-up on my shoulder. Hopefully I'll only have physical therapy assigned and not surgery.

Keep your fingers crossed!

This week's menu and other things

1. It's amazing how once my shoulder was back where it belongs, there's almost no pain! Today is the 4th day since it was dislocated and I'm out of the sling and have full mobility. Yesterday the muscles were a bit tender from the trauma, but I'd say I'm back to 90%.

2. Some notes from last week's menu: The chicken slow cooker thing was a disaster. The chicken was dry, kinda gross tasting, and apparently I still don't know how to cook rice.

Homemade marshmallows, yes. Rice, no.

I suppose it's all about priorities.

The flank steak tacos were great tasting, but I couldn't stomach the texture of the steak for some reason.

The wanton soup was the best. Those pot stickers froze beautifully and I didn't even have to defrost them before adding them to hot chicken stock.

3. Maia and I did an experiment the other day. We were comparing and contrasting her animals. Seeing which ones were smaller and bigger, etc. and then drawing about it in her journal. It was very scientific of us.

4. Our week is a bit calmer, thankfully. Here is our menu:

Monday

Asian beef salad

Tuesday

Beef Pho

Wednesday

Chicken sausages and roasted potatoes

Thursday

Chopped Greek Salad with Grilled Chicken

Friday

General Tso's Chicken

I'm hesitant to say anything, but it appears spring has arrived in Wichita.

It's been gorgeous.

We hope you have a great week!

I had a really fun zoo day planned

Tonight I was planning to write about being a singer and how sickness affects the voice and confidence. A topical issue since I've been sick and had my first WSU gig last night.

But something more exiting happened today.
At 1:00 I was playing with Ruby and lifted her up onto my left shoulder. She started to slip and as I adjusted to catch her, I felt my shoulder pop.

I instantly knew that it was dislocated.

Did I mention that we're in the middle of a new music festival of which 

Dr. Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn is in charge?

Thankfully Nana is in town and came over right away to help with the girls.

2 hours later I was at the clinic (with my super amazing, supportive husband, who left a festival event to be with me) getting x-rays of my shoulder. After seeing the pictures the RN said, "yep, you dislocated your shoulder."

"No sh#@!"

This was seriously the worst pain I've ever been in. The RN said that they could try to get it back in at the clinic, but sometimes the muscles have seized up too much and if that was the case they'd have to send me to the ER.

I told them I'd take them to dinner if we could get it taken care of right then and there.

So here's how it went down:

They had me lay on my back on the table and wrapped a sheet under my left arm and around my torso and one doctor held the ends of the sheet. The RN held my left arm out to the side. So while the doctor pulled the sheet and my torso to the right, the RN pulled and gently twisted my arm.

Forever in my mind will be ingrained the moment we all heard a little pop, I felt a huge jolt, and the RN excitedly proclaimed, "that was it!"

So, now I'm wrapped up in a sling and on an ibuprofen regimen to help calm down my angry arm muscles.

And here's the best part: I have to stay in this sling for 3 days. 

Which means I can't change my shirt for three days. 

Or wash my hair. 

Or put on deodorant under my left arm. 

And of course, because it was my day off, I'm wearing a t-hirt that, unfortunately, accentuates my assets.

Unfortunate because I have to work tomorrow. 

If I'm not careful, my students are gonna get more at their lessons than they bargained for.

Ugh, is this craziness over yet?

It feels like we've been getting hit with one thing after another.

At least I'm not bored...