Mesmerized

Sadly, the day has come that John truly notices the television and is mesmerized by it. I have yet to ever put on a baby or kid show for him, but I will turn on an adult show for me. I very rarely watch television during the day, but yesterday morning I turned on the news in hopes of learning about something going on in the world beyond my motherly concerns of diapers and dirty laundry. A while later I noticed that the house was pleasantly silent and John's incessant-shrieking-unless-I-am-holding-him (he is going through a new clingy phase) had stopped. I found John just sitting like a lump, finger in his mouth, staring at the television. For minutes. So, now I have to avoid turning on the television when John is awake so that it's just me who is sitting like a lump, staring at the television. My brain is already turned to rot, but maybe I can save my son's!

Yesterday was pretty tough, so after dinner, Chris sent me on a walk alone and he bathed John himself. (Of course, Chris thought it was funny to call me on my cell phone while I was walking to ask where he could find the gauze bandages. Hardee har har. Give this mama a heart attack!) Here's my naked cutie, finger in his mouth (obviously, he's working on a tooth).

What's Cookin'? A couple of nights ago I made corn pone pie out of my beloved Fannie Farmer cookbook. I couldn't find any recipes for corn pone pie on Allrecipes.com to link for y'all. It is a mixture of cooked ground beef, pinto beans, stewed tomatoes, jalapeno pepper, and chili pepper with raw corn bread batter poured on top, then all cooked in the oven. It's homey and soothing. I made a beef version for Chris and a TSP (textured soy protein) version for me.

I gave John some off of my plate and he seemed to enjoy it both the first night and when we had leftovers. This boy doesn't seem to like sweet things (banana, yogurt, yams, apple sauce) but likes spicy flavors.

Homemaking Tip: Speaking of cooking in the oven, I tried a new technique for cleaning my oven, which was covered in carbon causing billows of smoke when I'd use the oven. I tried using a spray bottle of baking soda and water, following this fellow's instructions. I just sprayed the mixture in the oven before cooking something; baking soda is non-toxic and an ingredient in many of our foods, so it didn't matter if some got in my meal (which it didn't). The instructions said this might require many applications, but my oven was almost entirely cleaned after one application. I used a paper towel of all things to wipe off the burnt-on carbon! Last time I used baking soda as well, but I scrubbed with great force using balled-up foil. That worked but required a lot more sweat on my part. I like this new tactic better and I love that it is non-toxic and cheap!