super yum: mexican trifle bowl salad

I think this is my first time ever posting a recipe on my blog, but I want to start doing it more often. For me personally, the best incentive to try out a new recipe is if it's received the stamp of approval from a family member or friend. With that said, consider this recipe STAMPED. Oh, and before I type it out, I should say that it comes from a Pampered Chef set of recipes that are supposed to be made in the Pampered Chef trifle bowl...but any bowl will work.

Ingredients:
1 box Jiffy corn bread mix (plus ingredients to make)
4 oz. can chopped green chilies
1 clove of garlic, pressed
1 can pinto beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 large tomato, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

(for the dressing):
1 cup mayo
1 cup sour cream
1 pkg. dry ranch dressing mix

**Mix corn bread mix according to package directions, addin in can of chopped green chilies and garlic. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Cool.
**Mix together dressing ingredients in small bowl. Set aside.
**Crumble corn bread and layer half on the bottom of the trifle bowl. Add in layers of half each of pinto beans, corn, tomato, green pepper, onion, chicken, dressing, and cheese. Repeat layers.

This keeps really well in the refrigerator and (I think) tastes even better the second day!

cuteness

Henry is getting more and more fun everyday it seems. The other day Dameon and I agreed that we wish we could just freeze him right now. He is getting so talkative and so independent (mostly in a good way). Here are a few cute stories from the past week:

The other day I was sitting at the table eating breakfast. Henry was playing in the entryway. I couldn't quite see him, but I could hear him. He started to repeatedly grunt. For a minute I thought he was probably doing his business. When I peeked around the corner, I saw him sitting on the floor with the photo album. He had it opened to a picture of my parents and was reaching for them and grunting for them to pick him up. Awwwwwww...

Last Saturday we all went to the mall to find some new shoes for Henry. I wanted to go to Stride Rite because I had seen several cute pairs online, but I wanted to try them on him. Barry the Stride Rite employee had clearly been working there awhile and clearly knew his stuff. He measured Henry's feet and then told us that his current shoes were way too small. When I told him he's been tripping a lot he said it's because Henry needs extra wide shoes. His current shoes were too narrow and were curling his foot, making it hard for him to walk. (Yep, I patted myself on the back for that one.) Sure enough, he strapped those 5.5 extra wides on Henry's very square feet and off he went walking better than ever! Naturally the shoes that really caught his eye were the glittery pink Sesame Street sandals. "The girls get all the fun colors," said Barry. So true, Barry. So true. The cutest part is that Henry is so proud of his new shoes. He talks about them at random times throughout the day (shoes! shoes!) and pauses to smile at them when he's wearing them. Precious.

On Monday night when we were getting him ready for bed, I told him that the next day would be Tuesday so we would go to storytime. He immediately reached out his hand and said, "Butt! Butt! Butt!" Turns out that the mere mention of our weekly outing to the library reminds him of the button he'll get to push to make the door open. Yay for the little things in life!! :)

SUPER henry

There's no object he will not drum.

No sweater vest he will not wear**

No dog he will not...um...help

And no laundry basket he will not empty.

**Disclaimer: I did not actually dress him in this patterned shirt/sweater vest combo. He found the vest in his drawer and started saying, "Hat! Hat!" He then continued to squeal at me and put the vest on my lap until I said, "Do you want to wear the vest?" He grinned and squeaked (which is Henry for "YES") so I pulled it on over his shirt and he was happy as a clam.

Henry's words

For weeks now I've been thinking about how I need to make a list of everything Henry is saying these days. Mostly just for my memory's sake. So...here goes. And of course he rarely performs on command so it's taking quite awhile to get these captured on film!

Bubble, ball, book, boo, uh-oh, dada, mama, dog, star, clock, sock, lock, up (dup), moon, button, phone, what's that, hat, baby (ba-ba), duck, swing (pssss), no (oh), and these animal sounds: monkey, cow, lion, elephant.

an update

Needless to say, lots has happened in our lives the past week and a half. First (and least importantly), we sold our car and bought a van. Dameon has been wanting one forever and I have been resisting one for...um...ever, but there she is in our rainy day driveway. I must admit, the extra space does have its perks, but I still like driving our Pilot more. For now.

In other news, Henry is on the mend and acting more and more like himself. I took this picture on Tuesday before we were discharged from the hospital. He was finally napping until another nurse had to come in to take his vitals. It was so crazy and scary how quickly his illness worsened. Last Monday he started in with just a little bit of a cough. On Tuesday night we decided we would take him to his pediatrician the next day before heading out of town to visit my grandparents. She was sure it was just a little cold and said he didn't even seem sick...and we agreed! She swabbed him for pertussis as a precaution, told us the results would take about a week, and sent us on our way. Then on Friday night things started going downhill. We had taken him to the mall just to walk around and get out of the house a bit (big mistake) and on the way home, we noticed he was breathing a little weird. We decided it was probably just caused by his stuffy nose, so we got home and put him to bed. I checked on a him through the night and he seemed fine. In the morning he was definitely coughing a little more, so we decided I should take him back to the clinic to be sure we were staying on top of things. The doctor heard him wheezing right away and decided to swab him for RSV. While we waited for the results, he had us give him a ten minute nebulizer treatment. Thank goodness my dad was there to help me (Dameon had to be out of town with the jazz band) because Henry HATED it. The RSV test quickly came back positive, so we were sent home with a nebulizer. I asked the doctor if he thought we might end up in the hospital and he said he didn't think so because Henry looked so good. By Sunday night, we thought Henry was doing great. He was playing and acting like normal, just coughing a little, having a bit of a runny nose, and handling his neb treatments like a champ. On Monday morning, Dameon brought him in to me to nurse right before leaving for work. Henry wasn't too interseted and was whining quite a bit. I could tell he felt warm, so I took his temp. It was 103.6...definitely the highest it's ever been. Within the hour, he was asleep again, which is also rare for him. When he was awake he was whining with his eyes just kinda half-open and he was breathing in a way I would describe as rapid and shallow. Around 10:30 I called our pediatrician's office and the nurse said she could hear Henry on the phone and felt he was in respiratory distress. She said we needed to get him to Blank Children's Hospital immediately. I called Dameon at work and he was home about 30 seconds later. We drove very fast to the hospital and I sat in the back holding Henry. He was asleep and breathing quick little breaths. Scariest thing we've ever experienced. We spend about three hours in the ER where he had chest x-rays, IV fluids, breathing treatments, and tylenol (which he immediately vomited) and the doctor told us we could be in the hospital for two days or a week. It all depended on how he responded to the various treatments. They also put him on oxygen right away, which helped his puls-ox dramatically. I think it was about 3:30 when we got to our hospital room, by which point I couldn't hold it in anymore. The nurse proceeded to use a machine to suck out Henry's nose. He was gagging and screaming and I just cried while we held him down. She also told me I shouldn't nurse him in the hospital, which sent me into an internal panic attack...but that's another story. It was a very long night with almost no sleep for anyone and lots of concern that Henry was dehydrated and not able to get rid of all the built-up mucous. The final diagnosis was RSV which had turned into atypical pneumonia. BUT once we were finally able to get him his antibiotic without him throwing it up right away, he really turned a corner. On Tuesday, he was feeling so much better and showing us glimpses of his normal (adorable) personality again! He got off his IV and off his oxygen and was maintaining good numbers all on his own. We were able to be discharged around 5:00 on Tuesday evening. He's doing great at home, taking his medicine with ease, and catching up on sleep. Thanks to the luxury of facebook and hospital wifi, we were able to see the many messages of support from family and friends. Thanks a million for your prayers!!!

Finally, I couldn't wrap up with post without saying a bit about my grandma. She passed away on Friday and I miss her so so much. Her visitation was Monday night and her funeral was on Tuesday. That was at the exact time of Henry's hospital stay, so sadly we had to miss everything. As soon as Henry is healthy again, I will visit my grandpa. The service was videotaped so I'll get to watch that, as well. I'm in the process of compiling my (many) favorite Grandma memories, which I'll include in a separate post. This is probably my most favorite picture of the two of them. They were married for 67 years! 67! I love them.

oh happy day

This is Henry....Happy little Henry just looooooves to play in the kitchen. Especially unloading any drawers within reach. He has also learned how to pull himself up by his little fingers to stand on his tiptoes and peer into the tallest drawers. This is a photo of what happens when Henry tries to reload a drawer that he has previously unloaded. He has just started doing this and it cracks me up!

The problem is, Henry is pretty hard on our cupboard doors. And by 'pretty hard on our cupboard doors' I mean he ripped one off the hinges. Yeah. So, a few weeks back I came up with a pat-myself-on-the-back kind of good idea. Henry and I strolled up to Ben Franklin (cuz it was still nice out then) and chose a few baby-friendly kitchen items. Then we brought up some plastic drawers from the basement and loaded them up with the newly purchased items. And now...

Henry has his own kitchen drawers to unload (and load) however he wants. Oh, happy day!

Ramblings

My oh my have we been enjoying this crazy awesome weather. A whole three weeks ago I was taking Henry on stroller rides and saying, "we gotta get outside today because this will probably be our last nice day!" But for real I think today might be the last one. Henry's excitement for the outdoors makes us all the more excited for summertime and the swimming pool!

Dameon has been super busy these past few weeks. He's serving on lots of extra committees which means going in early and staying late. Plus he has a new student teacher. Plus he has been clocking some serious sweat time at the gym and resisting junk food like a pro. Me? I've been hungrier than ever and the discovery of nutella is not helping matters. Chocolate in a jar? Are u kidding me?

Teething is taking quite a toll on our little buddy right now, which makes his moods, our nights, and my productivity pretty unpredictable.

Next weekend dameon and I are signed up for a conference at our church, which we're really looking forward to. Yes, we finally found a church!

Henry seems to be closer to really walking everyday! It seems like there are several moments each evening where dameon and I hold our breath as he finds his balance and slowly leans forward like he's really gonna go for it! But so far only one or steps in a row.

No computer at home means blogging from the iPad...which is challenging.

Annnnnd he's awake.