Happy Thanksgiving

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable holiday.

My mom came over to our house and helped me with some of the cooking. I had made the pumpkin pie the night before (and fretted over the crust) and also the cranberry oatmeal bars. Then Thanksgiving morning I put together the dressing/stuffing, stuffed mushrooms (instead of the new artichoke recipe), broccoli (instead of collard greens) and mom made the mashed potatoes. We were running a little behind schedule but so were the other people. We left the house about 1:30 pm.

Our little family joined some of Matt's family and we met up at cousin Warren and Debbie Rood's home. All together there were 13 of us, counting Levi. Warren and Debbie had made the turkey, candied yams, and an apple pie. Gail and Jerry brought the vegetarian turkey loaf and butternut squash, rolls and another dessert. Tina and Venetha brought the beverages and cranberry sauces. All told when it was laid out there was a lot of great food!

While we were getting the finishing touches taken care of in the kitchen and dining room, Levi amused himself by playing with his "Blue Camaro" and "ZR-1" cars and found some other things there of interest - including a nut cracker.

He also found an antique doll carriage and pulled it all around the house.


After dinner we all took a walk to burn off some calories. Once everyone was back at the house Jerry and Levi pulled up their rocking chairs to the fireplace and sat and enjoyed the glow and warmth.


After that Levi was quite tired, and not feeling very well. He had a bad cold develop last night. He eventually fell asleep in Matt's lap while all the adults sat around and gabbed.

We had an enjoyable time and wish to thank the Roods for opening their home to us. Our house is so small, it worked out really nice this way. Thanks to everyone for all their contributions.

The sad news is that once we got home, we were sitting watching a movie on TV and Matt heard the chickens squawking. He opened up the window so I could hear them too. It sounded like real trouble. Usually they are all fast asleep by nightfall. I went out to check on them and could see wings flapping on top. It looked like one of my silver hens had gotten caught in my net across the top of the kennel. Well the chickens were just screaming and very upset and it wasn't until I got right up to the door of the kennel that I saw a large dark form take flight right up over my head. I was confused at this point because while my chickens can fly, they certainly don't fly that well. My gaze followed the bird and it came to rest on top of the nearest telephone pole. It was a huge owl. I was afraid to look on the roof of my coop. Well, I found a dead chicken. It was not pretty. A mess of feathers. I wasn't sure what to do with it so I ended up putting it at the back of my yard so the owl could come and get it. I had about three chickens that would still sleep on top of the coop. Well after this happened last night the other two chickens did not go back up on the roof. I hope they will continue to sleep inside where they will be kept safe.

Matt gets selected

We got an exciting bit of news today from the FAA.

Congratulations. You have been selected to take the Air Traffic Selection and Training (AT-SAT) test. This letter is notification that your testing location is Seattle, WA. You will be scheduled for a single, 8-hour testing session during the period December 15 – December 20, 2008. Testing is scheduled for Monday through Saturday only. All travel and lodging arrangements and expenses are your responsibility. The test will be administered for the FAA by Robinson Aviation (RVA), Inc.

So his appointment is December 15th. This is only the first step in becoming an air traffic controller. If he passes this stage he would then be sent for training to some other state for about 4 months and then stationed where needed, hopefully Pasco. I guess we'll see where this journey takes us.

Playing with daddy

This evening I got Levi up from his nap and was changing him and I was escalating my voice to make him laugh, going higher and higher. For fun, I told him that was called escalation and asked him to say it. He tried and did a decent job. So then on a whim I asked him if he knew what surprise was. He didn't answer me for a long time. Just when I thought he wasn't going to, he kciked out and YELLED "DADDY!" as loud as he could.

On our way out of the bedroom he saw his tupperware full of cars and asked to play with them. So I said OK and we brought it out to the living room. I realized the Duplos were still scattered about so I told Levi we had to pick them up first. He helped me put them all away. Once we got them up, Levi pulled all the orange Hot Wheel track out of the tupperware and held one up and said "want help." I put the first two pieces together and then for the next one, I told him to use both hands so he grabbed the end of assembled track with one hand and was holding the other piece in the middle. I showed him he would need to hold it closer to the end in order to have leverage to push them together. So the next piece he grabbed the end with one hand and a new piece and then thought about it and put his hand closer to the end so he could push them together without them bending. He still had trouble lining it up so the next piece I showed him how to line it up but he couldn't push them together. By the last piece he had remembered to hold it with both hands, near the ends, lined up, and pushed them together all by himself.

-Matt

When Matt called me to tell me all this he put Levi on the phone and Levi said "Hi Mamma." then "I play cars" and then "I moose mamma" (I miss mama)

Words of the morning

This morning Levi walks into the kitchen and then comes back over to me, saying "Want more hot chocolate." I said 'Daddy will get you breakfast, you will need to wait for him to fix you something." And he says to me. "Want more hot chocolate, honey. Honey!" It was so comical I couldn't help but laugh. I have noticed when I call out Matt's name, Levi will do the same. Matt doesn't like it when Levi says "Matt!"

Later on Matt and Levi were watching Curious George. George was digging around in the garden. Narrator: "He pulled out something he had never seen before." Matt said "What is that?" Levi said "That's worms."

Movies

We have been able to see some movies lately.

The Happening we both were completely disappointed in, it was just not good at all. I have been a huge fan of M. Night Shyamalan since the Sixth Sense. And I like Mark Wahlberg even though he seems to play the same type of character in every movie. Just don't even waste your time with this one. Sad to say! If you want to watch a better M. Night movie, go with The Village (2004). In fact we might even own it and could loan it to you.

Casino Royale is the latest James Bond movie (not counting the one in the theatre now) and that one was a lot of fun. Lots of action and suspense. Two thumbs up and I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Iron Man was also a lot of fun, and another 4* movie. I thought Robert Downey Jr. was cast well. Some of the CGI stuff was a little goofy but what do you expect from a comic book movie? It was amusing seeing The Big Lebowski (ie Jeff Bridges) cast in a different light as well. Ha ha.

Next up: Witness (1985) with Harrison Ford. Might be a couple days before we get that one though. This one made it to the list of the 100 Top Movies of all time in the Entertainment Magazine which is why it's in our queue. We're working our way up the list. We have 492 movies in our queue right now. I found out a couple months ago that netflix will cut you off at 500. LOL

I know...

Levi has added a new phrase to his vocabulary. It is "I know" and he adds it to the beginning of every sentence. "I know want down. I know want banana," etc... It get a little confusing at times because at first I thought he was trying to say "I don't want..." but alas that is not the case. Perhaps we are a house of know-it-alls and use the word phrase too often and have confused the poor child.

We had a pretty lazy weekend. Went to Sabbath School and church - Levi did much better in his own familiar class. Afterwards he took his nap and we fixed lunch. Matt got him up for lunch (angel hair spaghetti and meatballs) and as a result he was a grump and didn't want to eat a thing. No luck putting him back down then either. I fell asleep on the sofa and napped most of the afternoon. I wanted to go out and see my horse but by the time I was moving around again it was dark out already - darn winter!

Sunday morning we got up and had blueberry pancakes with eggs and Stripples and grandma Baer's applesauce. I will be sad when that is all gone. Levi ate SO MUCH food, I thought he was bottomless there for awhile. He had a pancake, 2 Stripples, 2 eggs, asked for more applesauce about 4 times, and then finished off a box of Cheerios. I worry about when he is a teenager.

After breakfast I went out and turned the chickens loose to roam and scratch while I picked up dog poop. It was frosty out but the sun felt nice. I moved the nesting boxes around to the side of the coop and looked for the tarp cover but didn't see it in the panel truck so gave up and went inside. I left the chickens loose until about noon and they were all still there when I rounded them back up. Did a bunch of laundry, thought about cleaning the house but read a book instead. Went to Wal-Mart for some more grocery items and clothing for Levi. Was hoping to have Thai food for lunch but we were missing half the ingredients so we had curried rice and yams instead. At least I think they were yams. Matt did a lot of homework and worked on some video projects throughout the day.

I was disappointed to see that my favorite show, Desperate Housewives, was not on tonight in lieu of the music awards. So Matt and I watched Iron Chef America, which is not as good as the original japanese version but it is still fun.

Not much else to report on. What's new with you?

Friday night

Well I forgot to write about Friday night so this post will be slightly out of order.

Friday after work we went and did our big grocery shopping, getting everything on our lists except the Thanksgiving food. After tromping around until dark I was so glad to get home. I would have liked to just sat down and watched Judge Judy, as is my usual Friday afternoon activity. :) No such luck it was over and now was time to make dinner. My mom was expected although I couldn't remember what time. I put the food away and started in on some new stuff. My mom usually eats at her place of work/residence and lately has mentioned that they put onions or peppers in everything and their food makes her feel bloated and gassy. I had entertained the idea of making a chili macaroni but since it has onions and peppers in the ingredients, I decided to stray far away from that one.

When mom moved and couldn't take her food with her she gave us a surplus of goodies, which included a frozen prosage roll. Something she used to make with this was called Scrapple and I decided to give that a whirl. Having never made it before I did not realize typically this is made the night before planning to serve it, as it has to chill before you can slice it. Oh well. It is pretty easy, just crumble the prosage into a pan with water and butter and sage and I forget what else and bring it to a boil. In a separate bowl combine cold water and cornmeal and then add that to your pot and stir until it is thick. Then you put it in a loaf pan and pop it in the fridge and once it is cool you dump it over and slice it and fry it up. Yum, good stuff.

Well I did at least get that made and into the fridge before starting in on the rest of the meal. Scratch that, I threw two yams in the oven first. Then I made Cottage Cheese Egg rolls. These are a delightful combination of cottage cheese, eggs, and I forget what else, but you fry them up like a pancake and then you can put whatever you want inside them and top them with even more options and then bake them until it all melts. I like to stuff them with mushrooms and sharp cheddar and top them with condensed mushroom soup, slightly cut with milk so it's not so thick. This is another one of mom's recipes and one I was sure she hadn't had in a long time, so hoped she would appreciate the effort. :)

Lastly I rinsed and removed the stems on a bunch of Kale and put that in a big pan. I bring it just to a boil and then turn off the heat, and it is a nice texture at that point.

Mother had class online until 6:30 so she came by about 7 and everything was just about done. It was sure nice to have such a colorful meal, with dark green kale and orange yams contrasting the unhealthier items on the plate. (Mother was indeed delighted by the menu choices and ate at least two plates). Funny thing is, Levi ate all his kale first. I think he likes it because it gives him an excuse to eat lemon juice. He picked at the cottage cheese roll ups and yams, and ate most of his scrapple. Amusing what he deems worthy at this time in his life.

After dinner we sat and gabbed for a long time. Mom wanted to talk about her will and who should be the executor and all that not-so-fun stuff. We also talked about the best ways to advertise her business, and all the misc. stuff that comes up in conversation when you haven't seen someone in a while. Levi went to bed probably around 9 pm, and I think mom left about 11, when I was ready to fall asleep in my chair. :)

It was a nice evening and we (mom and I) are looking forward to working together on the Thanksgiving feast.

Levi's Big Day (Or, Levi goes to the Dentist)

This morning after Matt had put Levi down for a nap he heard a grumbling outside. He was curious, so went to see what it was. It was the city crew, come to clean up the leaf piles on our street, with their back-hoe and dump trucks. Matt knew that Levi would just love to see the "tractors" so he went and woke him up from his nap. At first he reports that Levi was quite disoriented but upon spying the back-hoe said "WOW!! Look daddy, tractor! Wow!" I wish I could have been there. They watched as the back-hoe moved the leaves from in front of our house over to our neighbors house to make a bigger pile.

I came home early for lunch since Levi's dentist appointment was at 12:30 and the letter they mailed out in advance made it pretty clear that if you are late for two appointments they will drop you as clients and you can't go there anymore. Well I had never been there but I sure didn't want to be blacklisted off the bat! When I walked in the door I saw Levi sitting at his table cradling his model horse."My horse. My big grey horse." He was just talking away to me about his horse.

Levi ate his lunch and then had a big movement (good boy! although he still says "no poop!" no matter if he did or not) so we were able to get him all changed and fresh at home where it is convenient. We hurried around getting his clothes changed, shoes and socks on, teeth brushed and jacket on. Matt had things to do so I took Levi to this appointment. I said "Say goodbye to Daddy, he's going to stay here" and he waved and said "Bye bye daddy, bye bye," quite happily.

I got him buckled in to the car seat and then realized I had left the directions in the house, so I ran back in to get them. When I brought them back out Levi wanted to see them, so I handed them over and told him that we would need those to figure out where to go. He held them up proudly and read letters off the sheet as we drove along. When we got to Andy's Market he pointed to the right and said "Mom-a, go that way." Wow, such a great little navigator already!

This afternoon I have been telling him that we will go to see the dentist and they will clean his teeth and count them and it will be a new place. Our appointment was with Dr Steven Karmy and they are over on Portland Avenue in Eastgate next to Tom's Cycle. Just around the corner from Barnabys. A real nice seedy part of town, or so it seemed. The clinic appeared fairly new and the staff were prompt and nice. They had mailed me the application form so I had that already filled out. I saw a toy corner and Levi was happy to run over and check it out (after waving and saying a loud hello to a person seated there waiting) while I took care of business with the receptionist. It was only about a five minute wait - just long enough for Levi to learn how to work this new toy, and they called his name. C'mon Levi, let's go. "Here we go...here we go" he said.

The nurse walked us back to the room and had us sit on a bench against the wall. The giant dental chairs would have dwarfed him anyway and were a bit intimidating. She asked some questions - I have to notify them that he does have a heart murmur. They asked about dental habits and if he is on fluoride. He was in the past but we ran out and let our prescription lapse so she wrote me up a new one for him today. She came over and had me hold Levi so he was facing me in my lap, with a leg on either side of me. Then she rolled up on a stool and had him lay back with his head in her lap. He was a little unsure (the nurse had a face mask on) but handled it really well. She had a new toothbrush for him and thankfully he doesn't mind brushing his teeth so he opened up for her pretty well so she could take a look. She explained that I should start with the inside of his teeth and end with the outside when I brush for him. She also flossed his teeth and said we should be doing that every day because he has some bottom teeth just like me that are tight and cavities could happen there. She mentioned that juice and milk should be restricted to meal time only and the rest of the time he should be offered water. Well we pretty much do that anyway so no problem there.

Then the dentist came in. It was not Dr. Karmy. It was Dr. Melissa Ramsey. I know her from somewhere! I think we went to school together at some point. Anyway she was great with him. He was sitting back up in my lap when she came in and he gave a little wave and said "hi" to her. She had me turn him around again and lay back and I held his hands. She explained that she would be looking at and counting his teeth, and giving him a fluoride treatment. Sometimes kids cry but she said that was ok. Levi was very brave and did awesome. He opened up his mouth when she asked and she looked around with her mirror. She said he had all his 20 teeth but that a few were still coming through. When she gave him the fluoride treatment he did just fine. She said some kids love the taste and some kids hate it. He didn't seem to care one way or the other. When she was all done she asked if I had any questions. I didn't, so she said we should bring him in every 6 months and that eventually he would graduate up to a big chair and then they would get some x-rays of his mouth.

After Dr. Ramsey left, the nurse said Levi could have a prize. She walked us back into the hallway where there was a big tub of toys. They had sweat bands, mini skateboards, rubber bracelets, and gaudy plastic rings that only a young child could appreciate. Levi reached for a ring but I told him that was for girls. So he took a skateboard after pulling out a couple of other things. I think the choices were overwhelming. There was a lot more than I can remember to list here. All cheap and small things, but it makes the kids feel special to know they get a prize for doing well at the dentist. I think it is great to keep everything positive.

We went back into the lobby and Levi went straight for the toy corner. I told him it was time to go and we had to get his coat back on. I asked him to hold his skateboard so we could walk back to the truck. He was proud to do that. I told him he did such a good job at the dentist and now we were all done and could go home! It was raining outside, but he was more interested in the airplane he could hear overhead.

Although we usually go places with all three of us, I really enjoy my one-on-one time with Levi, especially now that he is getting older and can [almost] carry on a conversation. I was glad that our trip to the dentist turned out to be such a good experience.

Fun in the bath

Levi loves playing in the tub

Helping himself to the soap

Laughing about his bubble goatee

We had loaded baked potatoes for dinner again. We are really enjoying them. We top them off with Nally's vegetarian chili beans. I also got some kale at Andy's and we had some of grandma's beets.

Apple Pie day

Today Matt made apple pie with our surplus of apples. We had loaded baked potatoes for dinner. Not much else in the cupboards. :)

This and that

This morning Levi came into our bedroom, spied a little woven plate from Honduras and said "cowboy hat!" I do not know how he got cowboy hat from this little item.

Today after lunch Matt needed the truck so he drove me back to work. As we pass through the Myra intersection Levi says "Pick mama up." He recognizes that we are near my work. I tell him "Mama is right here, silly, you are dropping me off!"

Well tonight we decided to eat up our leftover food for dinner. We pretty much just have condiments in the fridge now LOL. I had angel hair pasta so I fried it up with a little butter and then added cottage cheese and parmesan cheese and capers. Levi came over to see what I had and said "want up lap please" and then proceeded to pick most of the capers out of my dish. Eventually he also ate some of the pasta but it was pretty amusing. Least you think I don't fix food for my child, I had sliced up an apple for him before I started on my food and he had been snacking on that, and some cheerios all the while. He can be a bit of a grazer. Matt had leftover chicken (chic-kett) pasta - a new recipe I tried this past week, and that is finally gone now also.

Ok well I mentioned that I would share my menu for Thanksgiving.

Entrees
Lemon-roasted chicken with potatoes for Matt
Holiday Loaf from Andy's

Side Dishes
Mashed Potatoes (our usual recipe)
Savory Butternut Squash (Cooking Light Nov '08, new recipe)
Baked Artichoke Hearts (new, not sure where I found this one)
Collard Greens with Lemon (new, and if I can't get collard greens I may substitute broccoli, from Martha Stewart)
Garvick's Turkey Stuffing (our old favorite)
Rolls of some kind

Dessert
Pumpkin Pie
Cranberry-oatmeal bars (new, Cooking Light Nov '08)

Around here, I try to incorporate new recipes on a regular basis - at least one a month. If the recipe is a winner and we all like it, I will add it to my personal cookbook. If we don't like it, it goes in the trash (if a photocopy) or I make a note next to it in whatever book it came out of.



Tonight Matt set the heat lamp up for the chickens and a couple of them went into their new house and roosted on their own. Progress! Here is a photo, our glowing orb in the back yard. :)

Weekend update

Sorry about the recent intermission, life has been keeping us busy around here. This past weekend on Friday I watched Judge Judy while cleaning house, rearranged the living room furniture again, it felt good to get at least that one section of the house organized!

Sabbath morning dawned bright and lovely so we decided to visit the Village Church which is only two blocks away. We walked, and though it was slow going with a cripple (me) and a kid, we got to Sabbath School on time. I was interested to see how many kids would be there and what age the parents would be, and how their lesson plan went. I counted 22 kids age 2-3 (including Levi) however the adults seemed to be closer to the 40s range, along with some grandparents. Only a couple parents our age that I could tell. The lesson was good, lots of fun things for the kids to get up and do, lots of songs, and after all that they broke up into groups of 5-6 kids to tell the lesson with felts. So each kid felt more involved with that. Throughout the class Levi was in a sour mood, he would be happy to take the felt up to the board, or pick up sticks and put them in the basket, or feed the strawberry to the bear, but when it came time to go back to his seat he would flop upon the floor and act very tired and cranky. He did not want to sit in his chair but would do ok reclining in my lap. ("Mom, want up lap, ok!") So I didn't think he would go to the smaller group for the lesson. I was blown away when I told him to go sit in the chair at the table, he did just that, calmly, climbed into his seat and sat there looking at the other kids, waiting for the teacher to begin the story. He sat there for the whole thing. I couldn't believe it. At the end when the teacher gave him his stickers on the My Little Friend, he peeled the stickers off and put them in the trash can. Too funny.

For church, we only made it through the children's story and then decided to walk back home and watch the sermon on tv. Levi was being a real cranklepuss, trying to crawl under the pews and being loud, and I was feeling nauseous because I didn't eat enough for breakfast. The walk back was sunny and Levi likes to "run run run!" from one leaf pile to the next. He went right down for his nap when we got home. About one o'clock my mom came over for lunch and it wasn't ready yet. We made "meat"balls with angel hair spaghetti and then I realized I didn't have enough sauce left over so we improvised and added some of grandma's canned tomatoes with spices. Turned out just fine. We also had green beans and cottage cheese to round it out. We ate and visited and had a nice time.

Later, mom took Levi for a walk in his stroller before it got dark. I was glad she could do that for him, as I can't walk all that far yet, I think I did pretty well today walking the two blocks to church.



Saturday night we went over to Matt's grandma Venetha's house and had a nice time visiting with everyone. Matt's dad Jerry spent some time reading books to Levi and he sure loved that. Got some cute photos on Venetha's camera too. We were there until 9:30 pm and Levi was up the whole time happily playing with "new" toys.

Sunday was another beautiful day. We all slept in until 9:30 am. I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then sat around and watched a movie on TV. I meant to go out and put a cover over the entire chicken coop but didn't get around to it and they don't need it unless it's raining anyway. I don't think I got much done on Sunday. I know we went to eat at La Casita for lunch with Matt's family because his aunt was in town from idaho and leaving but that wasn't until 2 pm. Afterwards Matt went to help Steve Fisher videotape some more stuff for his Zip-It Opener. Levi was napping so I stayed home and tried to take photos of my model horses but didn't have much luck since I didn't have my lights set up right.

Lately Levi has been starting a lot of his sentences with "n" as in "in" and I am not sure why. He also has a new favorite phrase "n..go go poo poo" At first I thought he was telling me he went #2 but that is not the case. He just thinks it's a fun thing to say.

Sunday evening I sat down with my recipe books and organized my menu for Thanksgiving. Although it is a week+ away I like to be ready so I know what to shop for and what to tell other people to bring when they ask. Matt wanted to have his dad and Gail over, and his grandma Venetha, and his aunt Tina. My mom will also be there.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it involves great food and family, I like the warm house and good smells when its cold outside. I also love the extra time off work! All that and you don't have to worry about buying presents for anyone - just feed them and they are thrilled. After that was done we walked the two blocks down to Jerry & Gail's house and I shared my menu ideas, and Gail volunteered to bring a couple of items. That will help a great deal - I had too many things fighting for space in the oven. I will post up my menu later on. I am trying some new recipes but also having some old favorites.

Rough Night

Levi had a rough night last night. He woke up crying about 1:20 am so Matt went to get him. He tried laying with him in bed for awhile but he was very upset. When Matt asked him where it hurt he would point to his head or his ears. Matt ended up giving him some baby tylenol and vicks. They also made muffins and watched a movie before he finally was to the point where he could go back to bed. His nose has been running lately and I am afraid the germs have finally got him. He did so well not getting sick the last time we were, but I guess it 'tis the season. Now Matt is not feeling well either.

Matt thought maybe Levi had a headache last night. This morning at work Julie said there have been studies done that correlate migraines with chinooks. We had a crazy windy night, and Matt had taken Levi on a walk with him. I thought Levi would love to experience that - he had been pretty excited to hear the wind as I was taking the dogs out, and would point at the falling leaves and blow air through his mouth. However now I am thinking that maybe the wind gave him an earache, or perhaps he did have a bad headache from his current cold. Poor kid.

Doc Appt.

I had an appointment with my doctor today, just the usual monthly checkup. Weight - too much. I have gained 13 lbs since my accident two months ago - HORRORS! Can't very well blame all that on the baby. While we were waiting in the exam room Levi had a lot of fun playing hide and seek behind the curtain.

My blood test results were all normal. BP was great. Heartbeat on the baby was 158 at first and Genie looks at Matt and says "ah-ha, maybe a girl this time" and then the baby moved around a little and the heartbeat went up to 165. Levi sat in Matt's lap with big eyes, listening. He was very friendly to all the staff today, saying "Hi" and "Bye Bye" to everyone that crossed his path.

He has learned to say "Mum, want lap" when he wants up in my lap. He has also added 'crackers' to his list of words and is really enjoying the apples I have been slicing up for him. He is still sure to tell us "thank you Aunt Julie" a couple of times a day at least. Wow we really need to teach him a new phrase. :)

It's a Levi-gram!

Julie sent Levi a shirt and a sweater. Here, he thanks her for the clothes.



He is pretty proud of himself for learning this sentence. Today at lunch he said to me "mum! thank you aunt julie" (grin). "Mum. Thank you aunt julie."

Levi-isms

Last night I had to give Levi a time out for just flat-out not listening to me. After his 2 minutes were up I went back to get him and told him he needs to obey mommy and he nodded yes. Well then I set him down on the floor and he said "I sorry mum." No prompting for the "sorry" word at all! Wow!

Today at lunch he was very talkative and did something cute, can't remember what, will update when I think of it.

He also learned how to say "cracker" this afternoon.

When Matt drove over to pick me up from work he said that Levi recognized where they were before they even turned into Business One Circle and said "Pick mama up." I love this kid!

Guess who....

Guess who this is?



In other news...Matt finished the coop and put it out in the chicken area for me. Doesn't it look swell? The only problem is that my chickens don't quite 'get it.' With all this rain storming we have had, where are they when I go out to check on them? On the roof. One evening I waited until they were all asleep and I snuck out and moved them one at a time off the roof and onto a roost. Well they woke up and weren't too pleased. Only one of them stayed put - Harrison, the chicken I thought was a rooster (she is not). Today during breakfast when I glanced out I was very happy to see four of them roosting. So maybe they'll figure it out yet. One can hope! Either way I'll have to cover the whole pen with a tarp for this rainy winter season we're about to have.

Friday night I made a new soup. We had some left over leeks and I decided to make a leek and potato soup. It turned out fairly well. While I was cooking Levi busied himself with one of his favorite activities. He loves to remove these spice jars from their rack and stack them up on his chair.

Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to the Levi quiz;

1. etch-non - Egg Nog
2. mama weet - Microwave
3. goot - Good (Karen & Nicole got this one right)
4. boo lup - Blue Cup
5. moot -Milk
6. beese - Please (Karen & Nicole got this one right)
7. bee hut - Big Hug (Karen got this one right)
8. rain bot - Train Box
9. bopee - Broccoli
10. earse - Shirt
11. ew fi ew - Shoo Fly, Shoo (Nicole got the fly part right on this one)

We will post up your prize(s) soon. However, Nicole also got the clue I gave in this post so I will be posting up the answer to that soon.

Thanks for participating!!

A proud day for pop

Today Matt was looking for Levi's shoes so they could go to lunch, as they always do on Fridays, with grandpa Jerry. Matt told Levi "go find your shoes" so Levi ran off to our bedroom and climbed up in the bed and pointed at a car and said "(mumble)..one... car" and Matt said "what?" and looked where Levi was pointing and saw it was one of Matt's Formula One Cars. Matt was so proud.

Kids say the darndest things...

I don't know how many of you read the little quote box on the right hand column of my blog, it is a collection of children's quotes that loads a new one every time you visit the page. This morning I found this one to be quite humorous;

Due to a power outage at the time, only one paramedic responded to the call. The house was very, very dark, so the paramedic asked Katelyn, a 3-year-old girl, to hold a flashlight high over her mommy so he could see while he helped deliver the baby. Very diligently, Katelyn did as she was asked. Heidi pushed and pushed, and after a little while Connor was born. The paramedic lifted him by his little feet and spanked him on his bottom. Connor began to cry. The paramedic then thanked Katelyn for her help and asked the wide-eyed 3-year old what she thought about what she had just witnessed. Katelyn quickly responded, "He shouldn“t have crawled in there in the first place. Smack him again. Submitted by Dick, Williamsport, Md.

A morning with Levi

My conversations in the morning with Levi go something like this...

He sees me walk through the hallway to the bathroom. I hear "Mum? Want out...please." Mum? I say "ok, just a minute."

As I reach for him in the crib, he gathers up his blanket and says "want ni-ni blanket" and I say "ok you can bring it with you." And then "ta go?" Mum? ta go?" He is asking me where the tag to his blanket went, so I find it and give it to him and he rewards me with a giant smile. Then I proceed to change his diaper. He tells me "Mum? No poop." about three times. I say "you are right! there is no poop here." LOL

Then we go into the bathroom to brush our teeth. He says "Mum? Want ooth-bush" So I get his toothbrush ready for him and hand it over. He proceeds to brush as best he can and does ok. When I am done with my teeth I usually help him with his. Then we are "all done," and he thunders out to the kitchen for some breakfast.

A typical breakfast would be cereal with yogurt, and lately a plum or two. He loves my grandma Joyce's canned plums. He eats as I potty the dogs and then it's off to work for me.

Dinner idea

Tonight for dinner we are having Tex-Mex Lasagna. It is really quite an easy dish to make. The sauce consists of salsa, chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce and cumin. The innards are corn, black beans and mexican-blend cheese. Put it all together and bake for 30 min at 450. Yum! I think this recipe came from a Cooking Light issue. There is a lot of flavor from the salsa and cumin and you don't need a lot of cheese. I used up the rest of the pepper jack from last night's Firehouse Potatoes, so I hope it's not too spicy for Levi. He is in my lap right now, getting a kick out of sticking papers in the keyboard.

Update; Levi ate the lasagna pretty well. After dinner we watched an episode of, ah shoot I don't know the name of the show, it is on the food network and it is a group of four cake decorators and they all had to create a theme cake from cat in the hat. It was pretty darn cool. Afterwards I did more dishes and then made lunch for tomorrow - One Dish Meal. I chopped up more carrots and celery than the recipe called for but I am trying to stretch it a little since my mom will be joining us and this recipe is quite forgiving. Got that in the fridge overnight and pottied the dogs and went to bed!! In by 10 tonight. Exhausted....

Domestic Housewife

Tonight I was feeling quite domestic. I did dishes and then decided to make dinner. I was in the mood for potatoes - and we had two bags that needed to be used, and fast. So I made Firehouse Potatoes for dinner and also made Potato Salad for later. Then I did more dishes. We watched part of the election updates while we ate. Obama won by a landslide, wow! That didn't surprise me. Although if you stop to think about it, in my grandfather's time he has seen African-Americans go from not having a right to vote at all, to being in the White House. It was really a historic election all the way around.

After Levi went to bed I got out my sewing machine and started on my stockings for the soldiers. I have five to stitch. Well I had some trouble with the first one, and had to adjust the tension a number of times before I got it close to right. I am still having trouble with the underside bunching up at times and adding more thread than is needed. GRR. Well I got two stockings done and then Levi had a nightmare or something - he woke up crying so I spent some time with him and then realized how tired I was! We finally got to bed about 11 pm.

Election Day!

Today is Election Day, and Starbucks Coffee is celebrating that by offering a free cup of joe to anyone who votes. Simply go into your local Starbucks and tell them "I voted" and you get free coffee. What I really enjoy at Starbucks this time of year are their decaf Gingerbread Lattes and I don't imagine they will give those away.

UPDATE from NPR: Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's are among the companies that planned to offer free food or drinks to voters Tuesday. But election laws bar giving people free stuff to encourage them — or dissuade them — from voting. Listen here

New words

Tonight Levi and I took some sushi to Jenee' and stayed for a short visit. Levi and Maddaly took turns sharing her neat yellow tractor. When she handed it over to him, I said "Levi, say thank you." And Levi said "Thank you...Maddy" That is the first time I have heard him refer to someone by a proper name. Then as we were leaving I said "Say goodbye Levi" and he says "bye bye ee-ii" and I said "You know Jenee', say goodbye to Jenee'" and what does he say? "Bye bye Maddy." Too cute.

On the drive home I had a large yawn and Levi looks over at me and says "mum, big yawn." And I said "yes, that's right!"

Thank you!

It's eleven, but it feels like noon, so I fed Levi some grapes, some milk, and some wheat thins. Things were going well, but I thought I might as well give him a cheese stick to make the meal complete. So, I got one out of the fridge, unwrapped it, tore of 1/4 of it for myself, and set it in the bowl his grapes were in. As soon as I did, Levi, with perfect clarity, and enthusiasm, said "Thank You!"

-Matt

Barn Party

It's the first day of November, and what a better way to bring in fall than a good ole' fashioned church barn party?! There was advertised to be soup and hot beverages, games and fun. Costumes were encouraged, but not required.

Matt had a fun idea to wear a bath-mat , he got it all rigged up and it looked pretty good (He was a "Matt"). Then we got there and he chickened out of wearing it. I went as an "equestrian" with all my riding clothes on, helmet, as well as watch, HR monitor and new GPS unit on my wrists. (I decided after last night that I still do need my crutches, and combining a wedding dress with rain and a barn floor probably wasn't a great idea!) Levi was a little cowboy, although we didn't have a hat for him. He wore a proper shirt, jeans and cowboy boots.


The party was in a big barn that used a lot of original wood beams, it was neat and completely empty aside from all the people, many of whom I did not recognize. There were games along one side for the kids and they could earn tickets and then use those tickets for prizes. Levi had fun watching the older kids play.

My mom came to see what was happening because she has always loved barn parties back home in Maryland. She brought a date. They didn't stay very long. We got in line for the soup and there were many different choices even though some were already all gone by the time we made it to the table. We had a black bean taco soup with chips and cheese on top, and a tomato one. Both were really good. There was also pumpkin bread and carmel apples.

When everyone was about done eating there was a man leading out with a mic and taught everyone how to do "rhythmic walking" (aka dancing) Everyone found a partner and got in a big circle (oval) and walked around and then into the center and back again and then the women and then the men and they clapped and switched out for their neighbor and round and round they went. It looked like fun.



Jenee' and her parents were there with Maddaly, who was a cowgirl. We also saw Laura and Tim and their little boy Peter, dressed as a cow. The three of them made quite the cute photo, but didn't pose for long!

After awhile we decided to call it a night, Matt had homework to do. As we were leaving the barn there was a line of kids waiting to go in a different section of the barn. I think there was a maze in there for them. The weather was perfect now that the rain had passed so we walked over to check out the bonfire.



What was really cute was that on the drive home I asked Levi, "Did you have a good time?" and he enthusiastically nodded YES!