Another Winner from Ray-Ray

Leeky, Creamy Chicken-and-Dumpling Stoup - NEW!

I made this yesterday, substituting chicken thighs, as my crew prefers dark meat (I am the only one who likes the white meat), and instead of gnocchi I cooked some tortellini separately and added it into the bowls so that Paul's was low carb. I also added some thyme and 1/4 t red pepper flakes. Then after we had dinner, I stretched it with more chicken broth, a bag of chopped spinach, and a little nutmeg (always with greens, just like Racheal says!). That way Paul has it to eat when he's hungry, which is ALWAYS. Man, I thought he had a big appetite before he was on Adderall... if I had wishes from a Genie, one would be that he could be WAY less hungry with no ill health effects. If he takes too much Adderall, we get part A, but also he loses a LOT of weight and suffers from a form of malnutrition; not to mention the meds make him kind of terrible to live with, unless you like aggression and paranoia ;).

But anyway -- the soup... it's good. For the mere mortal (not Paul), it's super filling because it's really rich... one serving is plenty for dinner with salad or the like.

Aw, Freak Out!

Today I finally got around to putting together something Carter received for, yes, CHRISTMAS. It’s a no-pedal trike with trailer from my father, and I just didn’t feel like sitting on the floor and assembling it while giantly pregnant, then I simply had other things to do all the time, like nurse a newborn. Funny how that happens!

So today I noticed the box in the garage while I was putting other boxes into the recycling bin and decided today’s the day.

It was not hard to put together, but I am glad I did it when able to sit and bend. Carter loves it, and didn’t want to stop playing with it at dinner time. He really seemed to think it would be a good idea to bring it ONTO the table. I tried to ‘park’ it next to the table, but he was not having it, so I finally had to put the thing outside. Instant DEFCON 5 here (if I remember my War Games well). Carter freaked out and I basically had to ignore him for a good 15 mins while he worked it out and then he came to the table and ate. It was hysterical to me, to watch him being hysterical. If you can’t laugh at tantrums, what can you laugh at? Plus I think I am always a bit slap happy at the end of the day. Tomorrow we’ll take the toy to the park and see if he likes it as much on Day 2.

What goes around...

Before I start: near as I can tell, it rained 2+" last night. And *not* quietly. Don't need to water this week! :)

Anyway, on to what I wanted to write about.

You know how sometimes you’re in the midst of something and have a moment of clarity? I’m not sure if it was clarity, or perspective, but it was something I had the other day when driving back from the zoo with my three in the back. Bunny and Carter were having a grand time making some noise (maybe it was being a cat, maybe a dog—that’s not the point). One or the other of them would make the noise and the other would copy and then giggles would ensue, leading to more making of the random, and unattractive noise. After about 15 mins, I had to ask them to cut it out. By “ask”, I mean, of course, snap at them to “CUTITOUTI’MTRYINGTODRIVEHERE!!!” Having fizzled their bored fun, I then remembered.

HARDEE!

What, you say? Well, way back in a time we call the Awesome 80s, my family was on one of our annual summer road trips down what seemed like the whole East Coast. We always went one of two places, with *very* little exception: Wrightsville Beach, and Disney. One year, when we were going to Disney, my parents chose Hardeeville, SC as our overnight stopping point. There’s not a whole lot to do when you’re in the back of a car for hours on end, unable to read in the car because it makes you sick to your stomach, etc. So, for some reason (slap happiness, I assume), my sister and I started to say, “HarDEE!” in what can only be described as the most goober way possible. It was hysterical. We said it over and over, especially when we’d see a sign on the highway saying ‘so many miles to HARDEEville’. I don’t know for how long we said it, but I do know eventually our parents threatened to leaves us for dead or something. They were such meanies. As was I.

To this day, I am *sure* I could call Eleanor, and just say, “HarDEE!” and she’d dissolve into laughter. I should try it. And then ask her to burp. But that’s another story.

Meatball Recipe for Heidi. :)

I made THIS soup for dinner Thursday, but me being me, I winged it with what I had on hand (didn't plan to make it, just saw the recipe and decided to try it), and also made a bigger batch, so that Paul could have leftovers.

Heidi and her kids came over for a playdate and dinner that night, so we adults had the soup, and we all really liked the meatballs. It was the first time I'd ever cooked meatballs in a soup, and I have to say they come out very tender that way.

More or less I used the recipe if you cook the above link, but I initially subbed a quart of beef stock for the chicken stock, then, seeing as I was making a double batch of meatballs, I topped it all off with some 3 cups of chicken stock so it would all be covered in liquid in the 5qt pot I used. I also just used about half a pound of the 3 color peppers you buy in the frozen section of Trader Joe's--they're super cheap compared to fresh colored bell peppers--and chopped them to bite size instead of strips. Finally, the soup had little in the way of herbs/spices beyond salt and pepper, so I added 1/4 t red pepper flakes, 1/2 t dried thyme and a bay leaf. (Little t = tsp.)

For the meatballs: I used sourdough instead of white bread (never buy the stuff). Ripped 2 large slices into pieces and soaked with 1 c milk. When the milk absorbed, I mixed in 1 package TJ's sweet italian sausage removed from the casings, one package of ground beef, some salt and pepper, about 1/2 c chopped parsley, an egg, and about 1/3 c grated parmesan. I also threw in probably 1/4 c leftover creamed spinach, just because I had it and figured it couldn't hurt. Then I followed the recipe on forming them and adding to the soup. It was really good, and I will make it again. Oh! And I had it over cooked egg noodles, just because it seemed like a nice idea. I liked it!

Monkey Boy Update-arooni

Carter cracks me up. Today he bowled for the first time (rainy 'no school' weeks make you do the darndest things). He was so cute, squatting down low as his ball rolled very s-l-o-w-l-y down the lane, yelling, "Go, go, go!" and then hopping like mad, so happy about the results, even when he managed to hit nothing.

Then later today he was drawing (okay, scribbling) and kept saying, "Zoboo... Z, B, O." over and over... He loves the show Zoboomafoo and i honestly am not sure how he came up with the ZBO part, but he has been learning a little about letters as I help Bunny, so who knows. I'm sticking with him being a genius. :)

Very much likey

banksy pollard st bethnal green, originally uploaded by alex image.

Banksy.

Though I imagine it may be a confusing street to drive on, what with the double lines veering off to the side and then making a flower. ;)

Eureka!

I found it! I bought two skeins of cashmere a few months ago when the Bascom Beverly's was going out of business and everything was massively discounted. Knew I wanted to make Paul a hat, but not just the typical toque I generally do. I wanted cables or something a little special for this special yarn. but I don't like knitting cables--too much to remember when I'm sleep deprived (which is for 6 years running more or less, haha).

Anyway, I found it!
http://www.rheatheylia.com/index.php?page=patterns&id=5

Will print this tonight after kiddie bedtime and begin. I should be able to finish in time for Paul's birthday. I doubt I can keep it a surprise, since I find he likes his hats *just so* in fit, and I need to periodically fit using his real head.

Oh, and I also am making this hat for Cole.
http://haakpoes.blogspot.com/2007/06/noodle-baby-hat.html
I need to think of colors, since he's not a girl, ;). And I may leave off the noodle bit.

Moose Baby!

So Cole is all of 6 weeks tomorrow. And I dug out the 3-6 mo stuff for him last weekend. He's 12 pounds, the milk guzzler. And the legs on the 3-6 mo sleeper he's in are not even long. Sheesh! Bunny was wearing some 3-6 mo stuff at 9 mos, and Carter only needs tops a size big because he is long waisted and has broad shoulders, but he's far from large--actually some 18 mo pants still fit him, but mostly he's in 2Ts except for Osh Kosh, which I swear is designed for huskier kids.

I think maybe Cole is our large boy who's going to take after his dad, who was his family's moose-child growing up. I can't believe I am putting away clothes that he has outgrown already.

Carter's Doggie

Doggie Diner on Sloat St. in SF, originally uploaded by lslphoto.

FYI, two out of two times, Carter has gone berserk over this dog 'thing'. :) He says it's his dog. You see when walking from the auxilury lot at the SF Zoo on Sloat St. Too bad the Doggie Diner chain went belly up about 20 yrs ago, or I'd take him for a snack post zoo sometime.

Quick -- name the ethnic (??) group you can make fun of!

Then go to the "Stuff White People Like" blog. Which is hilarious. Nearly every entry (there are 70-ish so far) I find myself saying, "Oh yeah, I like that!" ::hangs head in shame for she is so white::

Kids Bring Home the Darndest Things

2008-02-16 010, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

This is what Bunny brought home Friday. The small version makes it hard to see clearly, and you're not missing a thing. It's some various rat and other rodent bones Bunny dug out of owl pellets at school. Christine from the Wild Bird Center comes to her class once or twice a month, and the kids love it. It's great really. BUT. I could really go a long time without finding another bag of tiny bones in her backpack. Bunny was upset I chucked it out after we *admired* it, but I'm sorry, there are some things I can not stand the thought of being scattered all over the house--or even her touching, then touching other things in the house. Like regurgitated rat bones. *shudder*

What good is it without chocolate??

Just figured out something. Yesterday Carter discovered a Christmas flap book in with the books and kept yelling at me, while chewing on a flap he’d ripped off. I told him we don’t pull apart the book, and when Bunny asked shy he was doing htat, I said, “Dunno. You also ripped flaps off this kind of book until you were about 4, honestly.” Now, however, this is odd for Carter. He’s a boy, to be sure, so he can have Y chromosome destructive disorder. But he’s not “Bunny destructive”… not just for no discernible reason other than “because it popped into her head.” He’ll bang a toy hammer on the glass door, or huck a car across the room – boy stuff! But ripping a book is not his thing.

So anyway, today I figured out what his deal is/was with the flap book. He came up to me with the book, and was scraping the photo under the flap, saying “Chokkit… help!” Eureka. The advent calendar we get every Christmas! You lift the flap for that day and get a little piece of chocolate! It’s even a Christmas flap book. Now, I get it, dude!

Happy Valentine's Day

Vintage Valentine's Day Postcard, originally uploaded by riptheskull.

Been busy using my allocated blog time (which would be naptime most days) copying over old posts from my old LiveJournal blog. It's been funny to read over old things as I cut and pasted. Lots from 2006 so far, but there eventually will be some 2005, too. I don't think I had a blog before then.

Anyway, also, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
We're having a nice dinner for the 4 of us who eat solid food this evening: grilled flank steak, sauteed shrimp, glazed tomatoes and roasted asparagus, with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert.

Dodged a bullet by making sure Bun had indeed addressed all her Valentine's cards, and *phew!* she left out Brian's and Heather's. Which explains how she had extra candies to wolf down this morning -- thankfully I had a couple of reece's hearts to use in a pinch. My inability to resist those at the store a couple of weeks ago paid off, haha. Bunny was miffed she didn't get the last couple as treats in her lunch, since I have been letting her have one every few days, but hey, thems the breaks. (And she'll end up ahead by the end of the day in the candy count.)

Speaking of, time to change Carter and head out to pickup time.

5 Weeks!

My baby boy is 5 weeks old today. In about 2 hours, he'll be 5 weeks to the minute. He's already gone and changed on me. No longer a totally newborn, larval, creature. Cole is cooing, learning to amuse himself a bit by batting at things with his newfound hands, smiling at both animate and inanimate objects a LOT, and settling into longer awake times (which means a couple of longer naps during the day and night, too!). Bunny still loves to hold him for long periods of time, and has figured out how to lie back with him on her chest--a very comfy position for both holder and holdee, I must say. Carter, good hearted soul he is, has never shown any resentment towards Cole. Not to say he's not a two year old, and prone to testing limits and tantrums, but he's simply the kindest little 2 yr old to Cole. Cole is lucky to have two older siblings who love him so much. And I'm lucky to have three wonderful, healthy, smart, and cute kids.

Carter's Baby

This is Carter's baby. Yesterday Paul was at a biology event at Stanford and I let the big kids stay up until about 8:30, figuring they’d be more tired and hence more ‘put to beddable’ than if I did it an hour earlier, which is the norm here. After I got Carter and Cole into jammies (well, changed Cole – all his clothes look like jimmies to be honest), Carter and Bunny were fooling around brushing their teeth and then Bunny decided she would give Carter an old fleece blanket of hers. He took it, and wrapped up this UGLY toy, then decided it was his baby. He cooed at it, telling it that it was ‘coot!’ and then settled in next to me on the sofa, hugging ‘baby’ to his lap, just like I was doing with Cole.

Then he unzipped his footies just a little bit and said the baby needed to nurse. Apparently Senor Siniestro or whatever his name is has a *very* small tummy, as it only took a moment for him to be ‘all done’. Then Carter unwrapped him, said, “Eww! Poopy!” grabbed a wet wipe, wrapped the baby in it, and the reswaddled him. (Which would be why 2 yr olds don’t change real baby diapers, haha.)

This morning Bunny decided to dig out an old Bitty Baby for Carter so he has a cuter baby. But Senor Siniestro sure cracked me up last night. Carter is so funny.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Vintage birthday postcard, originally uploaded by palesoftness.

I'm 35! Tada.

My baby LOVES my sweater.

Cole approves of what I am wearing this morning. He can't take his eyes off my striped sweater. He's cooing and smiling at it. I think the stripes are making him think it's smiling at him?? Whatever, it's really pleasant to hold him like this.

Kid Talk

Bunny's speech is very advanced for her age. Excellent vocabulary, though I am sure there are some instances where she sounds like she understands a word better than she really does--but she really has an appetite for linguistics, and is always asking what a word I say means, since I do and always have spoken to her as I would any adult (well, vocabulary not content, haha!).

But she has one word she still uses her baby word for: opymeal. Oatmeal. She knows it's oatmeal. Simply prefers to say it her way. I'll miss with whenever she decides to give up that one.

Carter is coming along with his speech. At two years he really was not speaking in sentences anyone other than his mother would understand, and even most of his words were iffy at best. He is forming 3-5 word sentences in generally a correct order, though tense is hit or miss and really limited to present or simple past. he has a couple of really cute baby words or names for things. Chiggy being the funniest to me. A decrepit old, falling apart quilt that used to be my dad's. He loves it, because the underside is very soft cotton, and because it is DAMN cozy. He hates that Bunny always wants to use it as the 'roof' of her sofa forts, and hides it under the aquarium base. Yesterday he hid all the blankets under the base, and when I asked him if he wanted to 'nuggle' on the sofa with me, he ran over, pulled out one blanket, said, "Mama chiggy," brought it to me, and then retrieved *his* chiggy. And he was SOOO happy to snuggle with me. I had Cole on my lap, but I think he till felt like it was a return to pre-baby times, since he is a very snuggly guy and needs a lot of it--and this darn baby has kept me awfully busy!

Cole? He made a 'g' sound. It's more pleasant than crying, and nice to hear his 'voice'.

But... it's the crappy design, I promise!

Just had a Monica Geller moment. See, my vacuum SUCKS. Not in the good way. It was designed poorly as far as the refuse bin goes. You can end up with a mess inside the vacuum the way it is (someday it will be kicked to the curb and I will dance). Anyway, I had the genius idea of cleaning it with the dustbuster. So, there I was, dustbusting the vacuum.

Yikes. I am not that anal, I promise.

Good Mom/Good Dad

News Flash: Women have to be damn near perfect to be considered a "good mom." Recently New York Magazine had a feature in which the writer relays the results of an informal poll asking what consitutes a good mother or a good father. Good read, check it out.

What makes a good mom? Well, let's start with what makes a good dad. That's easier. He is there. At the delivery room (pretty much no wiggle room there), at dinner time (when he can work allowing), at school recitals/shows and sports events (but again, we understand when it's not possible). He changes some diapers and will sport a Baby Bjorn. He's a good provider.

And that's about it, more or less. If you're being honest, your own definition probably is not all that far off. Maybe you add in a thing or two, like weekend trips to the park, or cooking an occasional meal, but let's face it, we put the bar rather low for the menfolk.

What makes a good mother? Well, according to we women (always hard on ourselves aren't we?), she should be Mary Poppins, but not leave; she possess infinite patience, remembers to serve a balanced breakfast, never yells, is always cheerful, volunteers (with all her imaginary free time that she doesn't even desire, no doubt!), she does art projects with her kids, and she enjoys playing games with them (I challenge you to enjoy Candyland more than twice in a row--or a week!). Oh, and she is never too tired to be intimate with her husband.

Sadly, I know no good mothers, according to that definition. We're all a rotten bunch. So we read Crabmommy and the like and revel in comraderie. And complain to each other about how hard it is to deal with whiny kids when at the park together. And generally scare the bejeesus outta first time moms. And yet still manage to have rather well adjusted happy kids. Go figure.

6 Weeks

According to Phil, there will be 6 weeks more winter. Boo.

However, today is delightful. 60 and sunny enough to make it very warm. I need to check the forecast to see when the next system comes through, but for today I am pretending it’s spring.

If I can get Cole to sleep (Carter just passed out for his midday nap), then I am going to throw open the front window, air out the place and put a cheery tablecloth on the table for starters. I also think I need something to freshen up the potted plants by the front door. It’s a running joke that I am the family potted plant killer (I’m not so good at remembering to water them in the heat of summer), but I did keep alive some freesia that are threatening to bloom in a couple of weeks, and a geranium, but there is a large planter I need to put something happy in. I’d rather be getting our summer veggies in, but I have to be realistic, haha. Plus Paul is the veggie grower. I’ll let him do that and keep my goal attainable—to remember to water the 3 things I walk by 4+ times daily. It helps that Bunny knows how to dump water from a cup into them.

And maybe this afternoon I will finally check out the Japanese Dollar store down 85 from me to see what neato stuff they have. Nothing makes me happy like Japan-schwag, and I have been wanting a little bit of bento stuff for Bun’s lunches. Yeah, I’m a dork and enjoy making cute lunches. I’ll never be in the big leagues like THIS lady, though. Man, she must have a lot of free time.

Workout Mommy

Seguinot's wife Lisa is a personal trainer and has a blog. Since I am a couple of weeks away from being able to finally work on looking normal, it is good timing that Mike sent me the URL yesterday. :)

http://workoutmommy.com/

I've been looking into kettlebells, and Mike says Lisa likes them a lot for women. And I need to get an infant carseat converter for the BOB as Cole can't sit up for a few more months. That should do it for now. :)