I had been eyeing this awesome sprinkler attachment for the hose (Melissa & Doug Sunny Patch Grub Scouts Sprinkler) since Christmas, but didn’t want to pay full price for it. And I found it for almost half off at one of my favorite places to shop – Marshall’s! So of course Henry and I had to test it out yesterday evening since it was incredibly hot. Henry was tentative at first; he wanted me to run through it (which I happily obliged because you’re never too old to frolic in a sprinkler!) but he wouldn’t try. After about 15 minutes, he got his bucket and and was filling it up, but still was kind of scared to jump right in. After another 15 minutes, it was difficult to pry him away from running like a maniac and dumping buckets of water on his head. Sprinkler win!

   

       

Our church has a fifth Sunday of the month social event, and this month’s was a picnic at Walsingham Park! We often play at this park (featured another day) so it was nice to hang out with our Good Shepherd family on Sunday. We ate delicious hot dogs and hamburgers, and in the grand Lutheran tradition of potlucks, everyone brought a covered dish to share. 

   
     
We had so many fun games for the kids! Henry LOVED the shaving cream and bubbles, and had a blast finding treasures in the ice pool. He also tried to play ladder ball, but mostly failed at that. The older kids loved throwing water balloons, and would played a second round but were cut short by the major thunderstorm that blew in and centered itself on the park. It made the scavenger hunt challenging, and ultimately ended the picnic early because of the lightning and torrential rain. We all left soaked, but had a great time. 

   

 

Not all days are sunshine and rainbows, even in Florida where we literally have sunshine every single day and rainbows most days after a good rain (i.e. every day in summertime). Henry has unfortunately entered a hitting and kicking phase and it’s driving me crazy! In the past it has just been directed toward me and Keith, which was bad enough, but he had his first instance of hitting at the YMCA Kids Zone on Wednesday. Before this, he was the one being hit, so I guess he decided to model the behavior. Ugh. We told him that he wasn’t being a good friend and the behavior was unacceptable as it made us sad. Yesterday, he seemed to take the discussion to heart, at least at the Y, and no problems were reported. 

When we tried to leave the park last night, he had a major meltdown where he hit and pinched the crap out of Keith’s face. We talked about it hurting us and he understood. So we thought. Unfortunately, this morning has been all about Hen violence. First, he kicked one of the adults at the gym (he apologized, at least). Next, he had a meltdown while leaving the gym where he wrapped his fingers in my hair and pulled. After having another talk about feeling angry and working on breathing and counting to four instead of acting out, we went to the playground where he seemed to get it together until right before we left where he kicked a boy about his age and then had to be carried kicking and screaming into the car where he fought the car seat by pinching my face.

  

I know it’s a phase, but I feel like such a failure of a parent each time he can’t calm himself down or he lashes out. Transitions from one thing to the next are difficult for him right now; he’ll get the hang of them eventually. Until then, I have to remain calm and breathe (like I’m trying to teach the Hen), even when I’m the one who wants to scream. 

Henry and I generally take field trips on Fridays to a variety of fun places around the Tampa Bay Area. Today, however, we took a family field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts (www.fine-arts.org) in Saint Petersburg for two reasons (besides it being a beautiful museum): (1) it only costs $5 a person on Thursdays after 5pm and (2) its special exhibit, Monet to Matisse On the French Coast, closes on Sunday.  

 

It was a small, yet lovely exhibition focusing on Impressionist and Modernist art on the Southern and Northern coasts of France. Several of the paintings usually reside in private collections, and those turned out to be my favorites (especially the obscure Picassos). Henry loved seeing paintings of sailboats and animals, and commented on his favorites quite loudly. He had the best time in its children’s art room, where he built towers, played dress up with beach gear, and colored boats – all in the vein of coastal France. It was pretty cool. We made it through part of the permanent collection when Henry decided it was time to leave to walk along the bay. 

   
 

  

I love Saint Petersburg, especially the way its residents simply enjoy being outside on a Thursday evening, whether strolling, running or biking along the water, playing trucks in the park, or reclining under the magnificent banyan trees. If Henry hadn’t had a major meltdown as we were leaving, I would say it was a perfect evening. Oh, toddler dictators, you are the worst sometimes. 

  

Henry is often my helper in the kitchen. It’s much easier to make dinner or bake with his help than his distraction that comes from not helping. If he can’t assist, then he opens the fridge 727 times, takes out everything from the utensil drawer and all the storage containers, then moves on to the pots and pans. We keep telling ourselves we need to lock down the kitchen cabinets, etc., but haven’t entirely decided to do it. So “helping” it is!

 

  
 

Yesterday I had to get the chicken marinating early so Keith could grill it for dinner. The Hen helped me dump all the ingredients into the bowl and stirred it all up, with my help, before I dumped it over the chicken. It was so simple, and made the BEST chicken we have ever eaten at home. Perfectly moist, flavored, and crispy on the outside. The Sriracha added a touch of heat, but not too much. We made it with roasted asparagus and brown rice. It is definitely getting added to our dinner rotation!

   
   

Honey Lime Sriracha Chicken

Prep Time: 10 minutes (plus at least 4 hours for the marinade)

Cook Time: 12-15 minutes

Serves: 4 (or 2 1/2 if you’re really hungry!)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup honey

3 Tbs low sodium soy sauce

2 Tbs Sriracha sauce

1 Tbs olive oil

1 tsp salt

2 limes, zest and juice

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 1/2 lbs (24 oz) chicken breast (I used organic)

Directions:

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, soy sauce, olive oil, lime zest and juice, garlic cloves, Sriarcha, and salt. Place the chicken in a gallon sized ziptop bag or other resealable container and pour the marinade mixture all over the chicken. Seal the container and shake to coat completely. Let marinade for at least 4 hours or overnight. Remove the chicken from the marinade before grilling, discarding the leftover marinade.

Prepare the grill for direct cooking over medium heat (350-450°F). Grill the chicken with the lid closed as much as possible until the meat is firm and opaque with an internal temperature of 165°F, about 4 to 6 minutes per side (longer if the breasts are bigger like ours were). 

 

For Memorial Day we had two kids. I don’t understand how parents of more than one child do it – we were exhausted yesterday and it didn’t seem like it was that hard compared to normal. Backing it up, our niece’s daycare was closed for Memorial Day, and her parents had to work. Since I’m home with Henry, and it was Keith’s day off, we were able to watch baby Finley. She is 4 months old, so all she really does is eat, sleep, poop, and look super cute. She’s also rolling over, but not liking it because she can’t roll the other direction.  

 
We met up at Zoo School at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa since that’s where cousin Grayson goes. It looked like a fun place to go to preschool; they get to take field trips into the zoo to hang out with animals all the time! We are zoo members so after a snack at the park, we went inside to check out the animals. Usually we head to Africa, but the Hen wanted to see the tiger first so we strolled towards Asia. The tiger was pacing back and forth! Hen remembered the dinosaur lantern-like sculptures from Zoominations and raced towards them because dinosaurs are awesome. He also loved seeing the fish, manatees, and otters. We left at 11 after a quick trip on the merry-go-round and walk through the petting zoo because it started getting insanely crowded and hot. Finley had no zoo preferences; she drifted in and out of sleep and drank a bottle.    

       

The kids fell asleep for about 10 minutes on the way home and Henry thought that was enough of a nap for him so he skipped his nap later on, choosing instead to destroy his room. After lunch, Finley took a two hour nap next to me. We all played outside while Keith took a well-deserved break (he was in the insanity of the no nap zone) in his hammock before heading off to dinner to meet my bro, sis in law, and nephew at P.F. Changs. Henry went to sleep fairly easily (luckily), and we crashed and watched Birdman (Keith liked it, I thought it was weird but cool to see behind the scenes of Broadway and enjoyed the drum solos). Again, Finley was a dream of a baby, but still we were tired – can we get a makeup holiday please?