Spaghetti Night

Recipe: 1/2 box spaghetti noodles, 1/2 lb. ground beef, 1 jar "Ragu Super Chunky Mushroom"
Cook the noodles. Cook and drain meat. Add sauce. Mix all together. Yum.

We leave the park at 5:30. The girls slept through lunch and Olivia ate chicken nuggets and goldfish on the playground, but Juliana wouldn't leave the swings. I'm hoping they will just watch TV.

I'm glad I planned something simple for dinner, because today seemed busy with pre-school and the park. Such a nice day though. I have tried spaghetti several different ways: I vary the sauce or have even made handmade meatballs, but no matter what I do, Shane prefers Ragu. That's fine with me. It's easier and cheaper that way.

I open the fridge and find two puzzles. Olivia must have been making cookies.

Hmm, what was I looking for? Oh, ground beef. It's in the freezer. I stick it in the microwave for 5 mins on 30% power to defrost and heat up the pan and boil a pot of water.

"Mommy, can I have a snack?" Olivia asks.
"No baby, I'm making dinner and don't want you to get full on snacks," I answer.
"What are you making?" she asks.
"Spaghetti."
"I don't like spaghetti. What's spaghetti?"
I show her a picture from the box of noodles.
"Yuck, I don't like that," she responds. "I want macaroni and cheese."
"No. And you do like spaghetti. You've had it before," I say.
She grumbles and leaves the room.

Gabriella (9 mos) is fussing so I pick her up. I put the noodles in the pot and I start browning the beef. I must say, I feel like a super mom cooking dinner with one hand and holding a baby on my hip with the other. Oops, I almost burn her foot. She's bigger than she used to be. I start unloading the dishwasher (still one-handed) while the stuff on the stove cooks.

"Seat." Juliana says, pulling a bar stool towards the kitchen. This is her way of telling me she wants to sit up by the stove to help me stir or cook, like when we're baking.
"No Juli, Mommy doesn't need help cooking right now. Do you want to help be do the dishes?" I ask.
"Alright!" she says. Then she goes to her room.

I drain the ground beef and pour the Ragu sauce into the same pan. I drain the spaghetti and pour that into the pan too.

Juliana comes back into the kitchen, clutching her ballerina dress. Olivia is close behind, holding her princess dress.
"Stuck," Juliana says. This is what she says if she can't get something open or, in this case, on.
I am still one-handed so I tell her I can help her after I make dinner.

I put Gabriella down on the floor, glancing around to make sure there was nothing harmful she could eat. While she cries, I finished loading the dishwasher and mixing the spaghetti, which I leave on warm until we're ready to eat. Juliana comes back, still clutching her ballerina dress.
"Peas Mommy?" she says. Aw, how can resist the magic words? I put it on over her clothes.

Shane comes home while I'm feeding Gabi baby food. Time for dinner! We coral the children to the table and I try unsuccessfully to explain to Juliana she cannot wear her ballerina dress at dinner because she will get it messy. She starts to throw a fit and I give in. I don't care at this point - it's washable.

Dinner is good. Shane has seconds, which is high on the scale. (Low is when he doesn't eat it; medium is finishing what's on his plate; high is when he gets seconds; super is when he agrees to eat leftovers.) Actually, he may have eaten the leftovers if there were any.

And guess what? Olivia liked it too! She even "made it" the next day in her toy kitchen.

Success.