Super Easy Fool Proof Ribs

One of the biggest downsides to living in Northern Ohio is the extremely long winters. Given that Daryl's birthday is in early March, and one of his favorite foods is ribs, it's pretty difficult to deliver full satisfaction for that special birthday dinner (as ribs are most often the best prepared on the grill.) I've tried making ribs in the broiler before, and sometimes they turn out nice but other times not so nice.

A couple of years ago, I stumbled across this wonderful recipe, that results in delicious juicy and tender ribs every time. I've never had a dry piece of meat come out of this recipe! Some would complain that it "isn't the same" as ribs on the grill, but the slow cook method really deserves a category all on it's own. The flavor is completely different then you would get from the grill or the broiler. And when you're still looking at months of winter, the grill seems awfully distant. Daryl's birthday was this week, and he asked me to make this for his dinner. I was all for this, because truth be told, it's one of the easiest recipes I have in my book as well as one of the tastiest. I took a half hour before bed the night before Daryl's birthday to prepare the meat, then in the morning I simply plugged in the crockpot and went to run my errands. By the time that the family and company had gathered, we had perfectly cooked ribs. The measurements below are really approximate. Depending on how many people you want to feed, or the size of your crock pot, or your personal tastes, it is really easy to adjust this recipe by adding more or less of something. This is about what I used for Daryl's birthday dinner.

Crockpot Ribs:
5 lbs pork loin back ribs
2 cans dr. pepper (or any cola- I happened to have dr. pepper on hand)
2 cups water
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 red onion
3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
Barbecue sauce of your choice (here is a good recipe, but bottled will work)


Sprinkle both sides of the ribs with salt and pepper. Place the ribs into the crock pot. You might need to cleverly arrange them so that they'll fit while raw. Keep in mind that the lid needs to be able to cover the crock. You might need to cut the slab into smaller pieces. I had one 2.5 lb slab that remained whole and folded over in the crock, and one that I had to cut in half.
Chop the onion into large chunks and sprinkle throughout the crock. It doesn't make a huge difference where they land, but you don't want all of your onions in one place. Coarsely chop the garlic and sprinkle it into the crock as well.

Pour the soda over the ribs. Add water until the liquid level is pretty close to the top, but not all the way. Add the brown sugar. Give everything a good mix, so that there aren't any dry ingredients just sitting in one place (this could even be just turning a piece of rib over)


If you are preparing the meat a night in advance, place the lid over the crock and place into the fridge. In the morning, place the crock into the crock pot heater (I guess it's what that is called!) and cook on high for 9 hours. Drain the liquids and pour some barbecue sauce into the crock pot, making sure to coat each rib (you might use a basting brush for this job!) continue to cook on low for about half an hour to an hour. Serve the ribs with extra sauce.Don't expect to eat these ribs as you would eat ribs off the grill. The meat is so tender that it will fall off the bone as you are serving it (as you see in the picture) so you'll certainly need a fork. Any leftovers that you have can be turned into pulled pork sandwiches!

This is a really basic recipe that you can certainly experiment with. I've added Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, molasses, honey, and all sorts of other rib-smacking good ingredients into the initial cooking liquids. I've also seen similar recipes that call for cayenne or chipotle pepper, and some have liquid smoke added as well. It all depends on what your taste is and what you have in the kitchen. I've found that no matter what variety of the recipe I've used, this is always the end result:

That's one satisfied carnivore!
Happy birthday, my sweet Daryl!

Another leap in our Elimination Communication

I have to be honest and realize that the lack of progress we have made in our elimination communication (EC) has been mine and Daryl's fault. Jonah has been communicating to us beautifully, but we have not been very consistent. Shortly after we introduced Jonah to the big potty upstairs, we got frustrated. Jonah would tell us he needed to go, so we'd take him to the toilet and put him on his little seat. His diaper would be dry. We would give him the cue to go, just as we always had, but Jonah got so distracted in this new potty environment. He could reach the toilet paper holder, and the wallpaper has big pink flowers on it, and the lid behind him can go up and down. Jonah got so distracted by all of these things, that he forgot to go! We'd wait for up to forty five minutes sometimes for him to go. Then we'd take him off the potty and go back to the living room. Two minutes later, he'd sign "potty" we'd take him back to the toilet, take his pants off, and his diaper would be freshly wet.

So we became very inconsistent with taking him, after about two weeks of this. Jonah has also found that he kind of likes going in his diaper rather than being interrupted to go all the way to the potty. He has found that he would rather go in his diaper than stop our activity. This is completey our fault. He was almost ready for trainer pants. I even bought a sewing machine so that I could learn how to sew his large prefolds into training pants that we could use as underwear.

We went from thinking about undies, back to using diapers almost full time. I'm ashamed that it's my fault, but I have to admit it. To say Jonah regressed wouldn't be fair to him- his communication is still right on. I've even found myself whispering to him in restaurants or public places "It's okay to go in your dipie this once!" Embarrassing, but true. I was beginning to miss being a part of family dinners and outings because I had to keep taking Jonah to the bathroom. He had to go, and he knew it, and he told me so, he just got distracted once we got there.

Today we made a huge leap, though. Jonah hasn't gone to the potty on his own since we moved his potty chair into his bedroom. We used to keep it near our play area, and he would crawl over to it, climb on it, and pee. But it got to be a hygiene concern, as he would often go back over to it and take the little bowl part out. I always dumped any waste right after he'd go, so it would be empty and cleaned when he'd take it apart. But, it still kind of grossed me out that he was playing in his potty. So we moved it to his room and took him there whenever he would tell us he needed to go. We also started to take him to the big toilet on the upper level of the house when we were up there, cooking or eating etc. He has never gone to the bathroom upstairs with the intent of going potty.

Today, Jonah was crawling around the house like a madman. I have no idea where this energy came from! I gave him a bath, before which I put him on the potty but he wouldn't go. I'm pretty sure that he didn't go in the tub, and his diaper had been dry before getting into the bath. After the bath, he was crawling circles through the house, going up and down BOTH flights of stairs faster than I could keep up. The upstairs bathroom is right in front of the stairs that go down to our little apartment area. He was making his zillionth trip back up the stairs, and he headed straight for the bathroom. I said "where are you going?" and he signed "potty" I said "Yes, that is where we potty." and at that, he took off into the bathroom and tried to climb up onto the toilet. He was almost frantic about it! I followed behind him, took his pants and diaper off, but it was too late. His diaper was very freshly wet. He must have gone while trying to get up on the toilet. I sat him on the toilet anyway. He looked down and strained as though he was trying to go more. He signed "pee" and looked down again. He likes to see what's happening down there when he goes potty! He waited a few seconds and then reached for the toilet paper. I helped him rip off two squares, which he promptly used to wipe his bottom (as best as he could, anyway) and threw it down into the toilet. He was so proud of himself for using the toilet paper, too! This was not only the first time he went to the toilet on his own, but also the first time that he used toilet paper properly, and didn't just rip it to little bits and throw it on the floor.

I'm happy that he's taking the initiative to go to the bathroom himself. But at the same time, I'm scared about the safety issues of him climbing onto the toilet himself. He is too short to do it safely. I have seen videos of kids that have gotten their foots stuck in the drain of the toilet, and the EMTs had to break the toilet apart to get the kid loose.

I will have to be extra vigilant when Jonah is near the bathroom now, and learn to find the balance between giving him the independence he needs to learn to use the bathroom on his own and keeping our expectations realistic as well as safe!

Daddy Time!

I love watching Daryl play with Jonah. I mean, I really love it. It gives me those profound feelings that seem like they can't be put into simple words, but that's as simple as it gets- I love it! Seeing them together in their most happy moments, makes me realize how lucky I truly am. It really puts into perspective all of the good things in my life, and gives me the sense that absolutely nothing is wrong with the universe.

Just last night, Jonah discovered the nuudles left over from our science play group. I had left them in the baking trays and not yet put them back into their box. I didn't see anything wrong with Jonah playing with them, if that is what he wanted, so I let him get them out. Daryl was just as interested in the brightly colored corn starch pellets. We watched Jonah as he started to take them out of the trays, one handful at a time, and then he got impatient and dumped them all out. Daryl couldn't resist any more and he got down on the floor to play with Jonah in the rainbow colored pile.

I told Daryl that I was not cleaning those nuudles up one more time, so he would have to clean up their mess when they were done. I still had the rest of play group to clean up! At this remark, Daryl took two of the trays and started to scoop them up, dragging the trays along the floor. Jonah, who was watching intently, picked up the third tray and started dragging it along the floor too. He did not seem to mind that his tray was only pushing the nuudles, and not picking them up!

This touched me, because I don't see Jonah mimicking either me or Daryl very often. He will observe us, very intently, but he never seems to care about copying our actions. It was so cute to see him trying to do what Daddy is doing. He looked so grown up with all of that concentration on his face!

They continued playing in the nuudles for quite a while. Daryl started dumping the nuudles over Jonah's head, which of course led to an all out tickle fight and wrestling match. These are the moments that I wish I could freeze in time.

Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center (or Jonah, Dr. Dolittle)

Jonah loves animals. He has some sort of connection to them. He's our little Dr. Doolittle! Whenever we go anywhere, I try to find something for him to do that has to do with animals. I really see his personality come to life when we do such activities, and he seems to get a lot out of these kinds of outings.

Since we're in Florida, we felt that it would be fitting to take him to the Oceanographic Center that is right down the street from our hotel, to see what kind of marine life is in the area. While it is just a small facility, they have a lot of hands on activities for visitors.

One of these hands on activities was feeding the sting rays. I wasn't sure that Jonah would enjoy this activity, but we gave it a try. To my surprise, he loved it! He patiently held his hand, with a slimy little shrimp between his fingers, under the water until the ray came and gobbled it out of his hand. He had the help of his grandmother and Daryl, of course, but even with them guiding him I was amazed at how patient he was. After feeding them, he got to pet them as well. At one point, I was afraid he was going to jump into the tank with the rays! He couldn't get enough of them.Other activities that they had at the center include a guided nature walk, where you can learn about the vegetation and animal life of Florida, and a game fish feed where you can watch the staff feed the farmed gaming fish while giving a talk about each kind of fish in the artificial lagoon. There is also a children's area that includes a touch tank, a coloring contest, and several aquariums containing some very eye catching creatures. I absolutely loved that the tanks were lower to the ground, at the eye level for the little ones who they are meant to be viewed by. Jonah was able to look at them without Daryl or me holding him, and we even got to work on his walking and balance while he was having fun looking at the sea life.
The cost of admission is $8 per adult, children ages 3-12 are $4, and children under 3 are free. While it wasn't as big of a wow as something such as, say, Seaworld, I felt that it was a perfect activity for a small scale relaxing beach holiday. I wouldn't drive for more than twenty minutes to get there, but if you are in the area of Hutchinson Island I do recommend it as a nice morning or afternoon activity with the kids! Be aware though, that the nature walk is over an hour long and could be pretty boring for children.

The sign for Cracker

Jonah's newest sign is for "cracker." He usually uses this in reference to cheese crackers or potato chips. He also likes to eat avocado on saltines. This also happens to be his grandpa's favorite snack, and if Jonah sees him eating it he will go over to him and sign "cracker" until he gets a bite! Such a moocher!


The ASL version of the sign, which is the one that I show him, is to take your dominant elbow and cup it in the opposite hand twice. There are other variations of this sign, but that is the one I chose because of its ease. Jonah tried to lift his arm up and touch his elbow the way that I was, but he just isn't coordinated enough. After getting a bit frustrated the first couple of times, he adapted it so that he touches his forarm rather than having to lift his arm up to touch his elbow.

Picking Rays of Sunshine

And our "chilly" Florida vacation continues!

Yesterday we made the drive from our hotel to the opposite side of the peninsula to visit my grandparents. I cannot put into words how happy it made me to see them, and to be in their house, again. They have one last citrus fruit tree left (they used to have three) and one of the first things that we did when we arrived was to go out to pick some oranges. Jonah had a lot of fun! He thought the oranges were basketballs, or at least I'm assuming that is what he thought because he kept throwing them in the same manner that he throws his miniature basketball. We tried to show him that we smell the fruit, because boy did it smell heavenly! He didn't fully understand, but it was fun to see him try to mimic this action! He tried to help pick the fruit on the bottom, but it was extremely stubborn and didn't come off the tree easily.

Using Signing to Enforce Verbal Language

One of my biggest fears about going through speech therapy was that the therapists were going to recommend that we stop signing with Jonah. This might seem logical to some, and as I posted previously, it is the unsolicited advice that I get from fellow mothers quite a bit. But knowing what I know about how language is formed, I strongly (VERY strongly) believe that this would actually hinder Jonah's speech. It would actually make him a lot more frustrated with language and take away the ONLY connections that he has between his actions and communicating what he is thinking or needs.

I discussed this with the speech pathologist last week. We talked about my fears of following the advice that so many have given me, and we talked about keeping signing as part of our language and speech therapy. She completely agreed with me, and uses signs to communicate with Jonah throughout the group therapy.

But there is still the conundrum of how to turn these actions into verbal words. While I'm happy that Jonah can communicate to me, it really would be better if he could vocalize his thoughts and needs.

The speech pathologist suggested that we encourage him to vocalize while he signs. It doesn't have to be an actual word or a whole word, but just some kind of vocalization so that he understands the connection between saying something, and the meaning of the sign that he is producing.

This is how we are encouraging that vocalization. When Jonah produces a sign for something he wants, let's say his milk, we pick up the milk and emphasize "This is MMMMiiilk! Tell mommy you want your mmmmmiiilk!" and then give it to him. The first time he makes any vocalization at all, whether it is just "mmmm" or "aaaah!" or any noise at all, we praise him, repeat the sound back to him, an give him the milk saying "mmmmmiiiilk." After that first time that we hear him vocalize during the sign, we raise the expectation of him to hear that vocalization any time he signs for milk. If he only does the sign, we are to say "no, I heard you say it before, use your word... mmmiiilk." and wait for him to sign AND vocalize before giving him the milk.

The reason I am using milk as an example, is because this is exactly what we did at lunch today. Jonah gave me the sign for milk, and I asked him "Do you want your mmmmiiiilk?" He looked at me and did the sign again, vocalizing "eeeeehhhh!" Later during the meal, he did the sign again. I said "No, you said mmmiiiilk before, say it again! mmmmmilk!" as I did the sign. He did just the sign again, and I said "no, mmmmmmiilk." and did the sign. This time he did the sign and repeated "eeeeeh!" so I said "Eeeeeh! Yes, mmmmmiiilk!!! Good words! Mmmmmiiilk!"

I am very happy that we are able to come up with a plan for using Jonah's signs to enforce what he already knows about language. I am also relieved that the speech therapists are not only accepting of it, but embracing it as a valuable tool for Jonah.