ferber, hoarder, soup

We're going to talk about three unrelated things today.  One, Ferber, and how much I love the Ferber.  As I said over in Facebookland, forget the Biebs, I've got the Ferbs.  Ferber Fever, yall.  Two, a word not to use in front of your four year old, lest it be improperly regurgitated in the grocery store and make you want to die.  Three, chicken tortilla soup.  Wait, I have a fourth thing.  And four, how much I love this picture of my girls.  Totally unprompted, taken without them even knowing I'd walked back into the room and caught them snuggled together like so:

i hope this lasts forever.
it totally will not.

 Vivi loves her sister.  She tells me all the time.  This morning, in the kitchen, she hugged my legs and said "mama, I am so glad I have a baby sister.  I do love her."  I mean, really.

poor, damaged, ferberized baby.

So, Ferber.  I hadn't actually intended to use the method on the first possible day that Dr. Ferber says is okay (6 months) .... but at 4am on Wednesday, I pulled the trigger.  Mabel had been up hourly, or every other hour at most.  Since 8pm. Ohhellno.  So at 4am, when I went in and ensured she didn't have a leaking diaper and didn't have an appendage caught in a crib bar or a cat on her face or what have you, I declared it Ferber Time.  Most of you know about this, but if you don't, it's a sleep training method where you check in on baby every so often, but without picking up or feeding, because FOR SERIOUS, no six month old needs to eat every hour at night.  Sorry, no.  There was crying.  And it was awful.  But?  You guys?  For the first time EVER our baby is putting herself to sleep in her crib.  And last night?  Dare I say it?  She slept from 8:00pm (after about twenty minutes of crying and check-ins) until 8:30am with very little disruption.  I'm not even kidding.  She woke at 4:00am, but before I could even get out of bed, into slippers, and down the hall .... silence.  Back to sleep.  Then she did wake at 5:00am, and I fed her, and I set her back down, and by the time I was under my covers back in my room ..... sleep.  And she's napping.  In her crib.  Where I set her down fully awake at nap time.

As for the second topic of conversation.  Do not, no matter what, call your three year old a "hoarder" in front of your four year old.  Even if your three year old totally IS a hoarder whose underbed, at any given moment, is hiding ripped up coloring books and 2,452 ponytail holders and barrettes and shoes that haven't fit since two summers ago (where did she even FIND those?) and the like.  Hoarder extraordinaire.  Because if you DO call your three year old a hoarder and your four year old is listening, then an hour later, when you're in the (quiet) grocery store, your four year old might turn to your three year old and go "hey, Vivian, you a BIG HOARDER".  Except, in four year old speak, hoarder is going to sound like something else.  Something very inappropriate.  And you're going to want to run and hide but you can't exactly run or hide with a baby in an Ergo, a cart full of food, and two preschoolers.  You could try, but you're not going to get very far.  Just keep your head down, pay for your food, and go.  Just go.

soup fixins.

Finally, the soup.  I posted about it being chicken tortilla soup day on Instagram.  My very favorite kind of day, it is!  It's so good!  And so easy!  Or, as easy as you want it to be, really.  There's no "real" recipe, I just mixed things together until I got the results I wanted the third time I tried.  Here's what I use:
-chicken broth
-one packet of taco seasoning
-diced peppers (red and green)
-diced onion (I only use about 1/2)
-diced tomatoes (prefer to use fresh, but canned are fine)
-diced, cooked chicken (today I used a bag of the pre-cooked fajita chicken)
-optional: cream of chicken soup (I usually use, did not have today, soup is obviously thinner but just as tasty when I tested it out just a bit ago!)
-optional: chopped jalepenos.  My spice-loving Texan husband says yes, my kids say no.  It was a no today.

Chop up what needs chopping, toss in the crock pot on low, leave on for about 6 hours.  Top with shredded cheese, tortilla chips, whathaveyou.  Light a candle because your house smells like chicken tortilla soup which actually tends to smell a little like BO when the whole house smells like it.  You know?

tgif, yall.