Track and field

This evening we decided to get out to the track again before nightfall. Levi had a great time running around.











Typical boy, stomping through the puddles.

We all loaded up into the car and then... click. Nothing, the car would not start. So I got Ellie out and Matt was getting Levi out as a man walked up and offered to help. Nothing he could do though, so we headed for home - on foot. About 2/3 of the way there I was ready to be done. My back was killing me, my shoulders ached and the tripod mount on the camera kept jabbing me in the side. A test of endurance, I thought. Reach down deep and find that last thread of energy. Parallels. It is hard to believe we only walked 1.3 miles. I was famished as I collapsed onto the couch.

Matt went back out and met his dad and jumped the car and got it going again. Not really sure what's going on there.

After dinner Levi and I made some cookies - Andes creme de menthe. So now the house smells wonderful and I am enjoying my Sunday night TV - Housewives.

Ellie

Ellie is pulling herself up on everything now. She will stand there for awhile and when she gets tired, she falls. Hasn't quite figured out how to get down yet. Here she is displaying our new cookware (on sale at Macys - thanks for the gift cards) :)

Techies

Tonight Matt and Levi put together a new Lego kit. Levi loves
handling tiny things, so this was very exciting for him.



Another thing we did, in the dark cold rain, was take Levi out to the WWU track. Matt wanted to go for a walk so we decided we would do that (before we looked outside). Levi was all amped up to go see this "race track" that Matt had built up in his head so we drove down to show him. I got out of the car and ran around to get Levi out. Levi said to me "I'm so excited!" as I was unbuckling him. So out we went to see the track. Levi loved every minute of it. He took off running. Would you believe he pretty much ran the entire track? He made a pit stop half way to check out the building and the drinking fountain (turned off for winter). I asked him "Are you going to be an athlete when you grow up?" His response? An enthusiastic YES!


After Levi went to bed, Matt took apart our iMac. He was kind of nervous about the whole thing and watched a couple of tutorials on YouTube before the big event. I wasn't worried until he pointed out that this computer is worth more than any of our cars. Gulp. Careful there sweetie! This dissection was brought on by the recent refusal of our DVD drive to recognize any discs. Put them in, it chews awhile and spits them back out. Since we use this as our primary movie-watching vessel this was not acceptable.

Matt did what he could to clean and carefully scrutinize all parts, put it back together and still no go on the drive. Guess we need to replace that part of it. Sigh. But the good news is, the computer still works!

Climber

Last week Levi had climbed into our bed early in the morning and Matt asked him to tell us a story. Levi's response? "No, that's your department!" He still loves putting together puzzles.




Ellie is pulling up on all kinds of things. Once she is standing, she will then lift her feet to try and climb higher. Yesterday I saw her holding onto her Walker from the outside, with both feet up on the ledge of it. Woah baby!

What did you say?

Levi using the headphones with the laptop.

Tooth #7?!

Ellie's got another tooth coming in. This one is to the right (looking at her) of the two bottom ones! Oh boy!

No wonder she still isn't sleeping through the night.

Number two

Tonight I was reading Levi the story of Henry To The Rescue. It is about Gordon (a blue engine) who breaks down while hauling the important Express. Edward (another blue engine) is sent for to help get the Express to the station. As I was reading I was pointing out the photos and how Gordon has a #2 on his side.

Levi asks me "Gordon is number two?"

"Yes son."

(more reading)

"But momma, Gordon is number two?"

Yes, see right there, a 2."

"But momma, Gordon is not number two, he is number four! Edward is number two. You are mistaken."

I couldn't help but laugh.

And lo and behold the child was right. He sure knows his trains! From the photos you couldn't even tell Gordon's number, it is small and out of focus.

Kid updates

Levi thought it would be fun to put his horseshoes on the dogs. They were sure good sports about it! He is always coming up with new phrases to make us stop and think. We had been reading a book recently about animal tails. Tonight he had a hold of Buddy's tail. I told him to let go, Buddy does not appreciate that. He asked me "If I step on his tail, will it come loose?" No son, he is not a lizard.

Ellie has started getting her knees under her now and is progressing in her crawling. She also is great at giving hugs. When I get home from work she will give me a giant smile and then when I pick her up she will squeeze me tight. Her top four teeth are more obvious now and I just can't get over how much she changes every day. We went to the park yesterday with my mom. She LOVED the swing.

Bravery

This morning we had been planning to take the kids to Sabbath School.

Ellie was up all hours of the night, I think about 5 times. The last time I got up with her it was about 6:30 am and I was not ready to get up. Levi got up and used the toilet and then I told him to go back to bed. The kids made a little noise, but were overall good enough for me to doze through the alarm a couple times.

I finally drug myself out of bed, took the dogs out and started in on breakfast. I asked Levi what he wanted. He said "French Toast" and that sounded like a plan to me so that is what I made, along with potatoes and pears.

We were doing better than usual with getting ready on time for church except I could not get Matt out of bed. He had taken a Benadryl last night at 5 pm, woke up at 11 and could not get back to sleep for awhile. Now what to do?

Well I decided to take the kids anyway. It was a scary proposition, wrangling them both by myself, in the rain. As I was putting on Levi's shoes he said "I love you momma." I said "I love you too." He said "Now you say I love you." So I did and then he said "I love you too."

I am pleased to report that the kids both did exceptionally well despite the fact there were about 20 other kids there - it was crazy today. Ellie sat in my lap and just took it all in. Levi sat in his chair in front of me and was (thankfully) well behaved most of the time. During the song with the telephone, teacher Opal asked him who he likes to talk to on the phone. Levi said "Daddy" After the chorus he turned to me and said "I'm talking to daddy" so I asked him what did daddy say? "Daddy said he's tired." We had a song with pinwheels and the kids had to take turns, Levi was quite adamant about wanting a "yellow" one and luckily he got one on the second turn. Then for the instruments song, he wanted the "triangle." Again, thankfully one was available on his turn. Although, he didn't know how to make it work. By the time I showed him, the song and his turn was over. He also did good waiting for his turn at the slide, he even let two girls go ahead of him. Later on he tried to climb UP the slide and another lady got to him before I could and led him around to the back of the line.

Heading out, the woman opening the door for us tried to help with Ellie's coat. She got one sleeve on and kind of wrapped the rest around. Halfway across the parking lot it fell completely off, into a puddle. So much for staying warm and dry! Oh well.

Levi read his little magazine on the way home and told me there were cookies in there like the kind we make. I asked him what they looked like. "Chocolate chip."

I was proud of my kids this morning, and relieved it went well.

Dilly Bread recipe

Another winner from my momma.

DILLY BREAD

1 package of YEAST
1/4 cut of warm water
1 Cup Cottage Cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon of minced onion
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons of DILL WEED
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1 egg
2-1/2 cups of flour

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, stir it around with a whisk to help it dissolve. Dump in all the other ingredients and stir it around to blend it well.

Add flour to form it into a dough. Put it in a bowl and cover it with a towel. Put it in a warm place to rise for ONE hour.

Knead the dough a little bit--but not too much, place it in a well-oiled round cassarole dish. Let it rise a second time--about 30-40 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Very yum.

This is much easier to make then regular bread. I do the brief kneading right in the bowl, so I dont' make a mess on the counter. :-)

Meal Idea #6

My momma made this the other day and brought us some leftovers. It was amazing.

SPINACH & MUSHROOM QUICHE

1 Cup of flour
Salt
6 tablespoons of butter or margarine
1 8-ounce package of mushrooms, sliced
1 & 1/2 cups of milk (I used whole milk, but skim is ok)
4 Eggs
1- 10 oz package of frozen spinach/thawed and squeezed dry
1 Cup of shredded cheese (I used cheddar)
1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1 Cup of brown rice (cooked)


1. In a medium bowl, mix flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. With pastry blender, cut in 6 tablespoons of butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in some cold water just until dough holds together.

2. With your hand, press dough onto the bottom and sides of a pie plate. Refrigerate this crust while you are preparing the filling.

3. In non-stick 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat, in 1 tablespoon of butter, saute' the mushrooms until they look golden and the liquid evaporates. (I actually used canned mushrooms).

4. In a large bowl, mix the sautee'd mushrooms with the milk, eggs, spinach, cheese, black pepper and 3/4 teaspoon of salt. Mix it up until well-blended.

5. Place cooked brown rice in the bottom of the crust. Pour the spinach mixture over the rice. Crimp edges of crust like you would for a topless pie.

6. Bake this at 400 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes until the filling and crust are golden and the knife stuck in it comes out clean.

7. Cool slightly. Slice like a pie and serve warm with soup and salad and dill bread. oh yum!

8. This makes 6-8 servings, it depends on how big you cut the slices.

Good morning

Today as I was getting ready to leave the house I started singing "Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning ah..."

I hear a little voice over by the sofa say

"Nothing to do...."

WOW!

Words, baking, misc.

This morning Ellie was in her walker and walked into the bedroom. Matt was still trying to roll out of bed, reached out to her and she grabbed his hand. Then she said "Hi Da!" Once last week she said "Mamamamama" but hasn't said it again since then. We could be getting close to talking. Maybe.

In other news, Sunday morning I decided to skip ahead in the Jewish baking book and try a recipe. I was starving. There was one that looked particularly awesome - a peach muffin with streusel. Unfortunately I did not have any peaches. So I flipped through the quick breads and found something that I did have the ingredients for - Cajun Corn Muffins. I decided to make it into small loaves instead of muffins and it turned out well. I was worried it would be too spicy, so I made one loaf before I added the 'heat' to the rest of the batter. Well as it turns out you can hardly tell there is any heat, it is more of a mild flavoring, even Levi ate the 'spicy' loaf without even noticing. The down side is that this really should have been served with chili, or a BBQ, something to really compliment the flavor, not breakfast pancakes. LOL We liked it, but not with breakfast.

Flashback

I did not get a chance earlier to post photos of Susan and Richard's visit - they had some darling moments, here are my favorites from Susan's camera.

Levi loves eating snow!

Daddy's girl

Richard and Susan took Levi to Brights - all that candy and he chose Popcorn!!

Richard teaching Levi about energy, Children's Museum

Levi, hard at work

Susan and Levi in a tree!

Oma went along too!

Levi and grandma Susan dig for dinosaur bones


Grandma Susan and Ellie

A tale of timeless cookies

This evening after work Matt came by and picked me up since he had the car in the afternoon. I had grabbed a couple of magazines from the free pile during the day and was clutching them in my arms. As soon as I got in, Levi asked "Can I look those mamma, one at a time?" I handed him one, not paying attention to the cover (they were all Cooking Lights)

The magazine I had handed him was the Special Double Holiday Issue, with a glamourous photo of various kinds of cookies on the cover. Levi tells me "I want that cookie, and that cookie." I told him we could select one to make tonight since I had promised him the night before that we could make cookies as a reward for him using the potty for a #2. In fact, I can proudly report that the past three movements he has had have been in the proper receptacle. So he deserved a reward for that.

After we had dinner I opened up the magazine to the section with the cookie recipes. I showed it to Levi and he chose the "star" cookies. Sweet, I thought, an easy sugar cookie in a star shape. Then he spied the pinwheel cookies. He quickly changed his mind. I thought they looked neat, there was what appeared to be an easy 5-step direction list with four clear photo how-to's. We had most of the ingredients on hand (with exception of the egg and fresh lemon).

Matt was out the door to go to a film class that he attends on Monday nights, so I loaded up both kids in the wagon and off we went on a quick trip to Wal-Mart. I ended up getting a little more than eggs and lemons, but both kids were well behaved. Ellie is big enough now to sit in the seat part of the cart and she gets a kick out of that. Levi likes to ride in the basket. He knows that if he is good he will get to choose a treat at the end. He decided against a Hot Wheels Corvette tonight in lieu of a bag of cool ranch Doritos.

Coming back home we got right to work on the cookie dough. Being pinwheels there were two separate doughs - ginger (dark) and lemon (light). Each dough had to be wrapped and refrigerated for 30 minutes, then rolled out and put back in the fridge for another 10 minutes. We plum ran out of time! I put Levi to bed about 8:30 after the first dough was in the fridge. I did some dishes, tended to Ellie and started on the second dough. After the second dough was ready Matt came back and Levi wanted to see him so I let him get back up to help me roll out the dough. After that he had to go back to bed. Once you have the doughs rolled out, you put them together and roll it up, then it goes in the freezer for another 30 min. It was late enough by this time that the kids were asleep so I caught up on some other stuff online. When the dough was frozen I sliced it and put it in the oven. They did not seem to rise or puff up at all while baking. I could even see the slight ridges from the knife on each cookies surface after they came out of the oven!

Please mamma, may I have one?

The first bite we took, I don't think either Matt or I were quite sold on them, but they were quite addicting. Kind of a refreshing cookie. Making them reminded me a lot of the rye swirl bread recipe of Kim's that I try to make every year. It takes all day, but you are happy about it in the end. I think this is a recipe I will add to my book.

GINGER-LEMON PINWHEEL COOKIES

Children's Museum

Friday morning dad came over and joined us for breakfast and we made quite a spread. We had french toast (I mixed eggs with nutmeg, cinnamon and a touch of whipping cream for the 'dip' for the bread), scrambled eggs, Stripples, a generic version of crispy crowns (crispy crowns are better!) and some pears. Dad entertained the kids while we made the food. Levi wanted to watch Percy Saves The Day dvd again.

After breakfast we all got ready to go to the Children's Museum of Walla Walla. I was just looking at this photo and thinking how incredibly fast the time has flown by. Ellie, already trying to run off, and with six teeth!? I think she is looking older thanks to her hair getting thicker also.



At the Museum I was thrilled to see only two other cars. Levi beelined for the kitchen - it's one of his favorite rooms. He had been talking about wanting to "make pizza" so sure enough the first thing he did was find the pizza and serve each of us a slice, then served himself the remaining four pieces. "One for you grandpa...one for you mama, one for me and one for me and one for me and another one for me!"

He also made some toast for my dad and my dad said "Levi, I don't think this is toasted enough, do you think you could take it back and toast it for me some more?" "Uh, sure, ok." He ran up and toasted it and brought it back. Then my dad wanted a drink. So I found a cup and Levi made grandpa Jeff a blended drink. :)

He pulled out all the other foods and placed them in his shopping cart, naming them all and on the ones he didn't know, asking me "What is that?" He asked me about the eggplant but I think he knew the rest of the foods. After awhile I asked him if he would like to go to another room to check out some other stuff. He said "Uh, yeah, I would!" I told him we had to clean up before we could move on and he did a great job putting the pizza back together and helping me move all the "groceries" back onto the counter from the cart.

We skipped the vet's office next door and went straight for the water. Levi loves to use the fishing pole and 'catch' the fish with their magnetic noses. He also likes to open up the channel for the boats to go through. Dad followed along behind with Ellie walking the whole way. She was so proud of herself!



Levi enjoys catching them and then he will shake the pole until they fell off back into the water. So he moved all the fish over from one side to the other side about six times before I suggested we move on to something else.

Ellie liked the fish too, but she watched the baby salmon.

One thing I was really surprised to see was how much the place has changed since I was there last. They used to have a big corner for tots that I was looking forward to having Ellie experience, and it was all gone now. In it's place were some tubs of rice and sunflower seeds, little shovels and hidden rocks and dinosaurs - so the kids could pretend to dig for fossils. It was really cool but definately more for Levi's age. All they had left for Ellie that I could see was a bookcase with some bigger toys and some books.

The room that used to be farmer's market based was now the tool room. I think that was dad's favorite place. Levi played in there for a little while too. By then though the place was starting to get busy.

We called it a day, headed for home, and dad said goodbye and left for Portland to see baby (cousin) Natalie!

I went back to work, sorry to see my vacation come to an end. It's been fun!

The Book Project

You are probably all wondering how I am coming along in my book The Secrets Of A Jewish Baker. So far I have read the first chapter and am part way through the second one. There is a lot of great information!! I am learning quite a bit and understanding more about baking, I think. :) One thing I need to get is an oven thermometer. Anyone have a favorite dealer?

Thursday

I forgot to post this photo earlier, but Matt invented this awesome new way to drain the oil off the tacos! Today I went to work from about 8-noon. For lunch we had tacos and dad showed me how to have self control by only eating two. TWO! I eat six! Man do I feel like a pig. After that it was nap time for Levi, so dad and I took a walk with Ellie around the neighborhood. It was nice to get some exercise, the sun was out and it was sure a nice day for mid-January. Ellie was so excited to be in the stroller, she was kicking her legs and giggling and kept looking up at my dad and smiling. Such a happy girl. She eventually fell asleep after about a mile and a half. After that I cleaned up the back yard and dad tried to take a nap but the noisy snoring dogs woke him up.

We drove to Tri-Cities once the kids got up and went to Parkade Hobbies so Matt could exchange his Christmas present. They have a neat layout there and the owner got the trains running for Levi to enjoy. One of the engines came disconnected and was pulling away from the rest of the train. I said "look Levi, that train is not connected." Levi says to me, in all seriousness, "It came uncoupled." Then later he was watching the passenger train and it went on a different route, he got really excited and said to me "That one go'ed on the siding!" Yes son, it went on the siding. So many train terms he already is such a pro at remembering, he can teach his old ma a thing or two.

After that we went to Olive Garden for dinner and only had about a two minute wait - good timing! The food was great but Levi wasn't very hungry since he had snacked most of the way over in the van. Ellie sat in a high chair and dropped as many things as she could on the floor. My dad ordered the Zeppoli for dessert and it was very tasty.

Food!

Today was busy busy busy. Let's start with last night. Once the kids went to bed I got started on two food projects. First, crêpes for tomorrow. I made the batter for that and put it in the fridge. I also made a double batch of my annual double-chocolate peanut butter thumbprint cookies. I think Matt and I finally got to bed around 1 am or a little after.

This morning the kids slept until about 7:30, as is usual. I got up with them and got Levi some breakfast - he is really into the 100 calorie cans of pears right now. They were on sale at the Grocery Outlet so I bought a whole flat and give him one a day. He wishes I would feed him more than that! At this rate they should last him 2 weeks. Once the dogs were taken out and fed and other morning chores accomplished, I started in on the crêpes. I think I may have gotten about 6 of them made by the time my dad showed up.

We moved the car seats out to his van and then got the kids ready to go. As we were loading up the postman told me that he had a package for me to sign, so we waited for him to bring his truck around.

It was model horses! One of my web clients sent them to me out of the kindness of her heart! They're awesome Lorri, thank you so much!!

We drove out to look at the house in Prescott we've had our eyes on, and wanted another opinion. Well, you know how you always notice more things the second time you look at a house? It didn't help that as soon as we walked in there was a comment about the furnace being broken. It was so much colder in the house than it was outside! On the drive home my dad told us his thoughts and none of them were very good. Funny thing is, by now I am agreeing with all of it. So I guess we keep looking. No hurry since our house is still on the market. When it's meant to be, it will all work out.

On the way back we stopped in at Andy's for some last minute ingredients. I always swing by the Winners sign to see who the weekly lucky people are. Lo and behold my name is on there! Wahoo! What did I win? A loaf of bread and milk. Well I had just gotten 2 gallons of milk so I knew I couldn't fit any more in the fridge. But I did get a free loaf of bread.

By now it's almost 11 am and I have an hour to get the crêpes made for Darcia, who had mentioned she'd be in town at noon and could pick up the food. Happy Birthday Darcia, and I hope Piers is doing well. I almost made it, I had her meal all together by 12:15 pm. A savory spinach/mushroom/chicken crêpe as the entree, and a salad with all kinds of fixin's. I also included a dozen cookies. If I had been thinking straight I would have also included some kind of bread, and the croutons!! Sorry!!

After that was put together I took a break from the crêpe-making (I made a double batch so we could also eat it later) and helped pull together some left over vegeburgers for lunch. Matt was zonked out taking a nap but dad and Levi and I enjoyed the burgers.

Back to making food. Once I had the rest of it put together I decided I needed to go to work for a couple of hours. I had an art conference scheduled at 2 pm but when I got there I discovered it had to be postponed, so I worked on a lot of other stuff that needed to be done, and stayed very busy until leaving at 5 pm.

I reheated the crêpes, made a salad, and invited Jenee and Maddaly to join us for dinner. Maddaly and Levi had such a great time playing. It is so fun to listen in on their little conversations.


Afterwards Levi and grandpa Jeff read a book together, or rather looked at the pictures and turned the pages as the computer read the book to them - the story of Paddington Bear from darkest Peru.

The day comes to a close. Now that I have caught up with my photos and blogging it is nearly 11:30 pm. Time for bed!

Half Birthday for Levi

I stayed home from work today. Matt had a job to do in LaGrande - a video project for a hospital there - and my dad was scheduled to arrive for lunch. I busied myself with cleaning the house, doing a couple loads of dishes, playing with the kids, and getting some work done online.
Levi wanted me to take this photo. Bet you can't find him.

Levi turned 3 1/2 today. Where does the time go? I dressed the kids in semi-matching outfits (thanks Wes for the cupcake one for Ellie!) and tried to get them to pose together on the sofa. Easier thought than carried out, but at least Levi was in a somewhat co-operative mood.
I thought this photo was amusing because of their expressions.

Here's another go at it. Levi is hiding behind his chunk of a sister.


One of the biggest challenges of a baby is keeping their feet warm. Why? Here's an example.


Here is another shot of Levi. It's getting close to nap-time, can you tell?


It's about 12:30 pm and Levi and Ellie are watching for grandpa Jeff to arrive. Levi had been asking me "What color is grandpa Jeff's car?" I told him I did not know. I was sitting here with them and Levi said "Grandpa Jeff's van is blue." I asked him how he knew that? "He's here!"




Ellie did reasonably well with my dad, considering her current stranger anxiety.


We had vegeburgers for lunch and that was very nice. After lunch the kids had their naps. Ellie's was only about 20 minutes but it allowed me to get some dishes done. My dad and I played a game of Rummy, as is tradition. He won by a LOT. My score was bit embarrassing. Matt got home at dinner time so I made oatmeal patties with brown rice and broccoli. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that two types of burgers in one day might be overkill. It was ok though, a nice hearty meal to end the day with.

I guess Ellie must have learned a little something from standing on the sofa, looking out the window. Tonight she pulled herself up for the first time in her crib. My dad had JUST walked back there earlier today and commented on how it was time to lower the mattress. Begrudgingly I agreed. Well not two hours later Ellie was standing there staring at me as I cleaned the kids room. Oops! Matt and I moved the mattress down right away!


Levi has been having a nice time with grandpa Jeff. They have been playing trains together and watching the DVDs my dad bought him for Christmas - Team Up With Thomas and Percy Saves The Day.