One Rolled Over...

E fell out of bed this morning. I was at the pool and D was awakened by her shrieks. She's been fighting the same stuffy nose for a few days and was leaning out over her cool mist humidifier, miscalculated and toppled out. She's fine, but walked away with an imprint on her cheek that hasn't faded...

In other news, she's learned how to pump while on her swings in the backyard all by herself. Hooray no more "Can you push me?"!

Meanwhile, the dance never ends...we've signed her up for a rhythm gymnastics class for this summer and, well, she's jumping for joy.

Bear Crossing

This is posted near my neighborhood.






We don't live in Alaska.






Or near the zoo.

Right Around the Corner...

Check out these swimsuits!

Happy Earth Day

Head outside while the weather is still nice!

Rachel's Granola

When I was in the hospital after delivering E, I had a great number of visitors. Among them was my friend Rachel. I have to admit I don't remember much about the actual visit, (labor takes a bit out of you) but loved the gift she left with us. A glass Mason Jar filled with homemade granola. Upon our arrival back home, I easily polished off the entire jar in a few days. It was the perfect food, and soon afterwards I got the craving again and requested the recipe. It's been years since I'd thought about it again, but with this cold and crazy weather we seem to be hanging onto, it came to mind.

Rachel's Granola

• 3 cups uncooked oats
• 1/4 cup wheat germ (I used flax meal)
• 1 cup pecans lightly chopped
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup dried cranberries or other yummy dried fruit
  
• 1 cup grapenuts (can be omitted)

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. In large mixing bowl combine oats, pecans, wheat germ (or flax meal) and cinnamon
3. In saucepan combine: butter, honey, vanilla and brown sugar and heat until melted, then pour over oat mixture and mix well
4. Pour out into lightly greased glass 9x13 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring halfway through
5. After cooking, stir in cranberries and grapenuts
6. Cool and enjoy, and store in airtight container
   

* It's outstanding mixed with a good dollop of Trader Joe's Organic Lowfat Vanilla Yogurt.

* Now, I've named this Rachel's Granola, but after speaking with her earlier this afternoon to obtain publishing permissions she seems to recall that the owner is actually that of a friend's mother...either way, Y-U-M.

Portland

D had a few shows scheduled in Oregon this weekend. So we grabbed our family friends (the Kim's), piled into our van on Thursday afternoon, and made a vacation out of it. We took the MAX to the zoo on Friday, where the polar bears were in fine form (apparently a rare event) diving and doing the backstroke for all the lookers-on. Saturday we took a little day trip over to Cannon Beach to fly kites and run around on the beach, but the strong and chilly wind shortened our stay and we ended up one town over for the 2:30 showing of Horton Hears a WHO. Our hotel was great and the kids ended up in the pool at least once (mostly twice) a day, while the parents made quite sure we were fully caffeinated each morning down at Stumptown! Nice time with nice people in a nice city.

A Fish Eulogy

We bid you adieu, dear Bo. You were with us for such a short time and yet you brought us such joy. Um, wait a minute. No you didn't. You were a pain in the rear. I had to change your water every week, you were a finicky eater, and you tried to commit suicide more than once my burying yourself under the rocks in your bowl. Maybe it was that you were looking a little sickly before we left you on our long weekend trip, combined with the fact that we turned off the heat in the house and you were left with near freezing temperatures (it did snow for heaven's sake) and no food to sustain you. In any case we now say good-bye, rest in peace.

Anyone need Beta pellets?

80 Degree Bragging Rights

The weather today in the Greater Seattle Area was marvelous, 80+ degrees (nothing, I realize my California/Arizona friends and family would find all that amazing)! We went downtown near the marina for some beach time. It became increasingly obvious as we tripped across the waterfront that I had dressed E and myself all wrong; her in a long sleeved turtleneck w/sweater and rain boots and me in my smartwool socks (to my credit it has, in the last few weeks been deceptively springlike upon gazing out the window, only to find it snowing hours later)! Thankfully I remembered an old sun hat I had stashed in the jogger from last season, but no sunscreen, so we endured the heat.

(doesn't this look like water you'd find at Dinseyland?)

As we rounded the corner from the marina to the sandy beach we were greeted with the sights and smells of many pale, sun-lotion-slathered Nothwesterners lighting up BBQ's, teetering around on tender bare feet, and flinging beach towels on every inch of the soft sand.


It was warm, dare I say hot with little breeze. This proved to not be ideal kite flying weather, and after trying for a while with her dad E resigned herself to tossing rocks into the water and digging holes.


* You, dear reader can expect many more beach-going posts to come this summer as nothing really proves to be more relaxing than sitting under an umbrella with good friends and watching the kids amuse themselves at the shore. Sigh. Summer come quickly.

Beet Beet, Sugar Beet

I LOVED this clip on Sesame Street!

I was singing it's catchy song this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find it on youtube. E immediately started bopping and snapping her fingers to the tune and asked to watch it over and over.

Featuring, Us!

If you haven't gotten a chance to make it over to the 10 on 10 site yet, check it out!
Jen and I were featured this month.

10 in 10 on 10 - April

This month's inspiration:

(11 o'clock hour)

(12 o'clock hour)

(1 o'clock hour)


(2 o'clock hour)


(3 o'clock hour)


(4 o'clock hour)


(5 o'clock hour)


(6 o'clock hour)


(7 o'clock hour)

(8 o'clock hour)

Persepolis

I was recently reminded of a film entitled Persepolis that I had seen a preview for a while back but had since forgotten about. It is the true story of a young girl growing up in Iran and enduring many of it's struggles during the 80's and 90's. I frequently find myself too overwhelmed and confused with all of the goings-on in the Middle East to try and actually understand it. This autobiographical story helped me fill in a few of the blanks. The comic book format simplified without trivializing these heavy issues. I was able to understand a little bit of the mind and heart of an Iranian woman, her childhood, and possibly her future struggles. I highly recommend reading the 2 graphic novels, then setting out to see this subtitled, book-based film. It's now playing, you won't regret it.

Trophy

Our little cupcake spot was recently featured on Martha Stewart's Show for Cupcake Week (April 03 '08 for those of you that would like to view the episode & recipe on her site). I met up with a few friends and their children for the featured treat.

In case you were wondering; They are as good as they look.

Well done Trophy!

And of course we had to bring Daddy home a treat...

Bruiser

Last night I got a few friends together for Thai food and a movie. E and D had their Daddy-Daughter-Date-Night; they headed over to Green Lake for hot pizza slices and a walk to the playground. She's really been into 'racing,' and 'beating you,' and unfortunately while racing, the toe of her shoe caught the corner of some raised cement and really crashed landed hard. It doesn't usually take her too long to recover from these missteps, but apparently this time she was a wreck, and her poor little knee's showed it the next evening at bath time...ouch!

Well, it seems that we're quickly heading into these lovely warmer days and I'm beginning to get the feeling that her tiny shins and kneecaps have only begun to get worn in with all our outdoor activities.

Scuba

When E was younger (I mean like 3 months - 1 1/2 years old, before she could talk to him on the phone) I would hang up photo's of D at her eye level when he was gone on tours. I plastered them everywhere: on the wall next to her changing table, on her highchair tray, down both sides of the hallway, in the car; everywhere. It was a way I could keep him close to her in those long drawn out weeks. I suppose it was a bit for me too, being a single parent for months at a time and on call 24/7 was hard. Keeping up appearances while holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries were repeatedly missed stung a little. Maybe in some ways it kept him close for me too, memories of the times we did have together. But, I'm straying from the point.

These photo's played a pretty important role here at home, and E talks about them from time to time. In particular she asks about the one I hung in the bathroom just above the tub. It's a shot I took while we were in Kauai for my sister's wedding. The day before we left the tropics my parents made reservations on a day-long sight seeing tour around the island. We all were plagued with a bit of seasickness but D jumped at the chance to do a bit of scuba diving and I grabbed a picture just before he splashed in.


E loves this picture, and until recently I didn't really understand why. I mean she wasn't there, it doesn't bring her back to that sunny afternoon in Hawaii 4 years past. Perhaps it was because he's playfully sticking out his tongue, or maybe it was the thrill of seeing her dad in this uncommon paraphernalia, or just plain excitement to see documentation of him enjoying life around the water. It was puzzling to me. She has taken to the water like a fish, already learning so much in the short time she's been enrolled in her weekly lessons. In this way, she and I are cut from the same cloth. But she really identifies with her dad in this picture. Her attitude is almost like: "Well duh Mom, you and me like swimming, but look, Dad does too."

She's seen the professional scuba divers down at the ferry docks slowly entering and retreating from the waters edge. She'll stand motionless with her mouth open every time, in total awe, not quite able to picture the real people underneath all the tubes, masks, flippers and tanks. Oftentimes we're at the aquarium during feeding times. She'll stand off to the side almost refusing to watch these folks in scuba gear. She's panicked somehow that she's witnessing something that isn't altogether OK, but not quite able to look away.

But safe at home in her warm 3 inches of bubbly water she happily recreates these underwater scenes. Nearly every bath time she requests goggles and does a little deep sea diving herself. Placing one end of her goggle elastic in her mouth like a snorkel she'll declare: "Mom! I'm a Scuba!"

Then it started making sense: She's been unable to wrap her mind around the fact that Daddy wore all that same stuff, and very likely the people under all that get-up are nice daddy's and mommies too. She's scared of these guys and her way of working through her fear is, and really always has been to become a little bit obsessed (i.e. Pirates). Owning it. She has to personalize it so it's not so scary anymore.