Putting BamBam to bed tonight was quite the challenge. This is the first full week of preschool for him and he’s tired, so I get it. But still. Everything was an argument. Then, when it came time to read books, he decided we would read only one tonight. Fine by me. He handed me But Not the Hippopotamus. I opened to the title page and pointed out the pigs there. I don’t know why there are so many pigs on the title page for a book about a reluctant hippopotamus, but I trust Sandra Boynton to know what she’s doing. Anyway, I pointed out the pigs and that was apparently the wrong thing to do because BamBam started screaming that this was not the book he wanted. I considered pointing out to him that he was the one that handed me the book in the first place, but thought better of it and just let him switch out the books. He accepted that, a pleasant surprise, and we continued with the end of the bed time routine. I turned out the light and lay down on the bed to sing songs. That’s when I noticed the noise.

Zoo Keeper was taking a bath and the music Sparky plays for him was too loud, but there was also an intermittent squeaky noise that was shrill and annoying. I finished singing, hugs and kisses, then got up to investigate the noise. BamBam protested because he’s in a mode where he needs me to stay until he goes to sleep, but I told him I’d be right back. By that time, the music had ended and Zoo Keeper was brushing his teeth. I asked about the squeaking and Sparky said it was a whale bath toy I didn’t know we had. I waited until Zoo Keeper was out of the bathroom and made sure we don’t have it anymore.

I returned to BamBam’s room only to go back out again because the noise from outside had not stopped. This time Zoo Keeper was standing outside BamBam’s room instructing Sparky in Minecraft at the top of his voice. Naked. I told him to be quiet, closed the door, and lay back down next to BamBam, who was still wide awake thanks to his brother.

When I left Zoo Keeper, he was headed downstairs to get something. I didn’t realize a kid with a BMI that hovers around 0.2 (not the real number) could make that much noise just by walking, but it’s true. It’s all true. I wanted to go shout at him. “SHUT. THE FUCK. UP. Because your brother can’t sleep with you making all that noise. And I can’t leave his room until he goes to sleep. And I can’t have my cocktail (see below) until I can leave this room. And MOMMY NEEDS THAT COCKTAIL!” But then I heard Sparky tell him to be quiet and the noise stopped. BamBam went to sleep and I got to go make my cocktail.

So, the cocktail. My friend Sonja, the Pintester, is having a new Pintester Movement. That’s where her readers test pins, blog about them, and Sonja posts links to all the blogs. For any of you who haven’t been over to check out pintester.com, go there now. Seriously. I’ll wait…

See? Sonja is hilarious. Hence a wee bit of stage fright on my part. But Sonja won’t have that, plus, as I mentioned, the boys are just back in school full time this week, so I figured my pin choice should probably have alcohol. And chocolate. So I picked the Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup Martini. ***As of 2017, this link no longer leads to this recipe.

Because awesome, that's why.

Because awesome, that’s why.

Sadly, said luscious looking drink cannot be had without first infusing some vodka, so I got to practice suppressing my instant gratification urges by infusing some vodka over seven days. On the plus side, I got to shake the shit out of a mason jar filled with vodka and Reece’s miniature peanut cups a couple of times a day.

For the vodka infusion

For the vodka infusion

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It didn’t look like much on day 1, but by day 7 (today), it looked like this:

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Yeah, I know, still not very appetizing, but the instructions say to strain it before you make the drink and I hadn’t done that yet. Once strained, it looks like this:

RPC Infused Vodka

I’d love to also show you the macerated peanut butter cups left over in the strainer that made it take a long time for the liquid to go through, but I forgot to take a picture. You’re welcome.

After putting Grumpy and Noisy Boy to bed, Sparky and I ate dinner and I made us a cocktail. I assembled the ingredients:

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Milk. Chocolate sauce. RPBC infused vodka. Ice. SHAKE! Holy cow does that cocktail shaker get cold fast! My hands started to stick to the metal like a wet tongue.

The pin calls for two mini pb cups as a garnish. I didn’t have a fancy sword or anything, so I used a toothpick. Turns out you need the swirly part of the sword to hold the garnish on the side, so my toothpick impaled pb cups fell in and sank right to the bottom of my drink. I made Sparky hold his up so you could see what it would have looked like if it had worked. Pretty, no?

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Here’s Sparky about to taste his:

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Here we are together taking the first sip:

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And here I am after that first sip:

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Not so much with the delicious, turns out.

Sparky said, “This tastes like rubbing alcohol. Like even more so than just straight vodka. How’d you do that?” It takes talent. And seven freaking days to make chocolate-looking vodka that tastes so much like regular vodka that even a teensy amount of chocolate syrup can’t keep it from sterilizing the inside of your mouth. We probably could have added more syrup at this point, but decided to scrap the drinks and just eat the rest of the Reese’s from the bag.