Me: If you don’t quit begging, then no movie tomorrow!

Holt: Okay! I’ll quit begging! NOW can I watch the movie????

We couldn’t help it–we started cracking up.

Me & Daddy:  That’s still begging.

Holt:  (In what you could tell was a strategically quieter, calmer voice)  Okay, okay.  Now can I watch the movie?

We finally told you to stop asking.  You finally caught on. 

Today, we went from this:

…to this:

Crazy, but true (sniff)…my “baby” has lost his first baby tooth.  I actually pulled it–only because it was very, very loose.  (Schmoop’s usually the tooth puller ’round these here parts.  That would seem a little odd, since I am the one in the dental field, but I don’t want to hurt them & have them be afraid of me working in their mouths.) 

The tooth pulling happened right after dinner, before going to church.  After we got home from church services, big sister told him she had a surprise for him–she loaned him a special container to put his tooth into, under his pillow. 

When I was tucking PLBoy into bed & asked him if he was absolutely sure that my baby was old enough to have a visit from the tooth fairy, he said,  “I’m not a baby–I’m 5 years old.  This is gonna be fun.”

“What did I eat that was GREEN???”

Crispy-Skinned Chicken a l’Orange

Ingredients
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 skin-on bone-in chicken breast halves
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
4 tablespoons honey

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Liberally salt and pepper the chicken breast halves. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat and sear the chicken, skin side only, until brown and beginning to crisp, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the orange glaze: In a small saucepan, heat the orange juice concentrate, honey, and salt and pepper, to taste, over medium heat, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Turn the chicken over and brush each piece with the glaze. Turn the chicken skin side up and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake until the internal temperature reaches 160 to 170 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, brushing on more glaze halfway through, about 15 minutes in total. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes on a cutting board. Remove the chicken breast from the bone and slice the meat on the bias. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and serve.

(*I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs in this recipe. It actually took a little longer to cook than the recipe said, but it was really good.)

Perfect Crispy Potatoes

Ingredients
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 russet potatoes, peeled, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large saute pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the potato cubes and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Saute stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Turn the heat up to high, add the water, stir, and cover the pan with a lid. Steam the potatoes until the water evaporates, about 3 or 4 more minutes. (Every 1 to 2 minutes, open the lid long enough to stir the potatoes so they don’t stick.) Lower the heat to medium, and saute another 1 to 2 minutes until all traces of water are gone. Toss in the butter and stir to coat the potatoes. Spread the potatoes out on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven until the potatoes are crisp and browned to your liking, about 15 to 25 minutes depending on how dark you want them. Transfer the potatoes to a serving bowl and serve.

Here it is:

1 & 1/4 c sugar
1/2 c (1 stick) margarine or butter, softened
2 eggs
1 & 1/2 c mashed ripe bananas*
1/2 c buttermilk**
1 tsp vanilla
2 & 1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 c chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease bottoms only of either 2–8 1/2×4 1/2×2 1/2 inches or 1 9x5x3 inches

Mix sugar & butter in a large bowl. Stir in the eggs. Add bananas, buttermilk & vanilla until smooth. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda just until flour is moistened. Stir in walnuts, is using. Pour into pans.

Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, 9-inch loaf about 1 hour & 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Loosen sides of laoves from pan & turn pans upside down to remove bread. Cool complete on cooling rack before slicing. (If you can wait. Haha)

*I found this tip from a reader of that other blog–If you have ripe bananas but don’t have the time to use them, mash them up, seal them & store them in the freezer for later use. I haven’t tried this, so I don’t know if it works, but it sounded like a good idea!

**I learned this one from a cookbook a long time ago–if you don’t have buttermilk–substitute w/a combo of milk & either white vinegar or lemon juice. It’s 1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar to 1 cup milk. Let stand for 5 minutes before using in recipe. (So in this recipe–I used 1/2 tsp vinegar & 1/2 cup milk)

This banana bread will keep–tightly wrapped, in refrigerator–for a week.

The sad part is that Schmoop doesn’t like bananas, so he doesn’t get to enjoy this one, but the kids (yes, even Mr. Picky Pants) love it.

Yesterday, I was standing in front of my armoire in our bedroom when I catch this thing fly past me, out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t think much about it–with kids in the house–until I heard a commotion in my bathroom. I go in there to see what was going on & find this–

She had climbed into our shower. She was just going around in circles, scratching on the shower floor. She finally just laid down in there. Last night, we were in bed & she was going crazy. I got up to see where she was & she was running around in our closet. She went into the corner, under some hanging clothes & laid down.

Poor Mags. She is 12 years old, so I’m not sure how much longer she will be around. Hopefully our sanity can outlast hers.

I said, “Well, we can’t marry our brothers & sisters, but I’m glad you love yours so much. You guys will always be close & love each other.” (I hope.) He then said, “Well, someday I can be an uncle & I will have a mustache.”

I couldn’t help it. I cracked up. The only thing I can think of is that, recently, our daughter was talking about “someday…if brother had kids…what would they be to me…” etc… I guess he picked up on the uncle thing from that. The mustache…who knows.

Then we went on to Chic-Fil-A, or as Holt called it–Shic-Fil-A

This morning as we were walking to there classrooms & got to Abi’s first, before we had even stopped, Holt reaches out to hug Abi & says, “I love you Abi.”

It’s nice to have these moments inbetween the normal sibling fussing & fighting. I’m going to have to remind them both of this in the coming years–not that they will want to hear it, I’m sure.

We both just started cracking up.

If only, when it was time for the girl to be born, it would have been POOF–there was my baby!

I noticed a text message from Schmoop on my phone & this is what he sent:

It was this picture with the caption “Love you!” on the top.

When they got back from the snow cone stand, I asked Schmoop where they had seen that heart-shaped spot. He said that, on the way to the car, Holt picked up a leaf, saw the spot on the driveway & said, “Hey! That looks like a heart!” So he took the picture…& so on.

Pretty cool picture, huh?