Stuck!

David can pull up to standing.  And finds this is his preferred mode now.  Everything from playing to eating, he tries to do standing up... with one hand holding on tight!

Only trouble is, he doesn't know how to plop back down yet. :(

I had to rescue him a couple of times last night when he was standing there, crying long, slow, tired wails.  He was stuck standing, and didn't know how to get back down to go back to sleep.

US Botanical Garden

While in DC last week we stopped in at the US Botanical Gardens, where they have a holiday display of Washington buildings and monuments, and world landmarks from the continents of Africa, Asia Europe and South America.

But the catch, is that all the models were built to scale and were made entirely of plant material.

My Guys waiting in the line outside.

Yes, even Thomas was there! And that blurry thing is the Taj Mahal.

There was this cute little tunnel about three and a half feet high, where there were tiny little displays behind glass:

Love this little coat of Lily's!

Jake and the kids and me with Grandma Lucy, in a reflecting ball.

Traffic

The Whites are currently on the road.

What should have been a five and a half, maybe six hour drive, is now in hour eight due to HORRENDOUS traffic.

And we're still 50 miles from home. :(


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Excuses

Great dinner with great friends. And a whole lot of great wine. ;)

G'night.


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Black Friday

So I can't stand a crowd. And I swore I wouldn't go shopping on Black Friday ever again. But I'm in DC with my friend Lucy... and Le Creuset was having a 25% off sale. I've been talking about a Dutch oven for at least five years now, just ask my mom. So today I bought one. :)


6.75 quart in cobalt blue. Big enough for a chicken. :D


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:)

Happy Thanksgiving!!
We're in DC with friends and loving every minute of it. Turkey was great, weather is appropriately fall like. And I have much to be thankful for!

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It Starts Early

I'm mildly embarrassed to share this, as Jake and I are clearly letting Lily throw Dave around. But in our defense, he IS laughing!

Looks like our Dave could be a wrestler.

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Of Bread, Zipper beds and Style

At the risk of using up all my blog fodder for the next few days, I have a few things to share.


In my practice run for making bread to take with us to share at our thanksgiving meal this year, I have made a couple of discoveries with a new, more complex bread recipe. It takes a few extra steps, but the bread is FANTASTIC, bakery quality according to my hubby.  And let's face it, what are a few extra steps when you are already making bread from scratch anyway?!

So here it is, Sara's Bread 2.0:

9 oz of whole milk
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
17 1/2 oz flour (again about 60/40 whole wheat to all purpose)
1/4 cup butter at room temp
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt and
2 large eggs

Four little rolls are all that are left from yesterday's batch of twelve.

I proofed the yeast like a good girl.  Warmed the milk to 100-110 degrees and mixed the yeast in to set for about 5-10 min.

Then to half the flour rub in the butter and sugar and salt, and mix in the eggs and yeast milk.  Cover and let set until doubled at room temp (half an hour).

Mix in the rest of the flour and kneed to smooth. (What a workout!) DON'T ADD MORE FLOUR! It will eventually pull together and get smooth!

Cover and let double in the fridge. Takes a while... mine was five hours.

Turn out, stretch and reshape your dough into loaves, rolls, etc brush with egg wash and let rest one final rise.  (about 45min)

Preheat oven to 425. 

Brush with egg wash again.  A dozen rolls take about 10-12 min at 400 degrees.  Two loaves take about 20-30 min at 425.  One big rustic loaf... I haven't tried.  They should sound hollow when you tap the bottom. 



Also, with staying at friends over thanksgiving in mind, I made Lily a sleeping bag.  She calls it her zipper bed.

I thought I was just about finished with it the other night and was trimming it up and turning it right side out, when something told me not to trim the way-to-long-zipper yet.  And it was a darn good thing because I had put one half in upside down! Goodness knows what I was thinking at the time, I'm usually so careful!

These just don't join up no matter how much you want them to!

Anywho, after ripping the zip back out and putting it back in right side up, Lily loves it!

peek-a-boo

Oh, all those nasty cords! Please don't look.

And since I love her sense of style so much (I let her do it to herself you know) I wanted to show you more Lily.

David's thinking "Really? Wings with those jammies?"

Note that she has shoes on.  Lily must ALWAYS have shoes on.

This one is way more subdued.  But she picked it out all by herself and I thought she looked sooooooo cute!

An Outing

I mailed my Holiday Cards!!!

While at the post office Lily begged me to go to Starbucks, across the parking lot, for "chocomilk." (I have created a monster) Starbucks didn't have any more Horizon chocolate milks, so they made her chocomilk in a small hot coffee cup. On our way to the bathroom (Lil is almost potty trained!) Lily squeezed the cup, knocking off the lid, spilling milk all over the floor in the walkway.  So there I am David on my hip, my cup - and now hers - in hand, trying to simultaneously calm the "I'm sorry Mommy" Lily AND figure out where I am going to get paper towels to clean up the floor.  I spot a dispenser across the food court and instruct Lily to stay by the puddle so that nobody can step in it while I walk the 100 ft away from my 2 1/2 year old! and grab napkins as fast as I can so I can get back to my baby big girl.

While I am crouched down wiping up the floor and Lily's shoes, and just as she is starting to do the pee-pee dance, a wonderful young Specialist walks up and asks if he can take care of the spill for me! Actually told me to go on, he had it under control.

God bless you, Specialist, whose name I do not know!

I had most of it mopped up, but didn't quite have enough napkins to finish the job properly. So I gladly accepted and thanked him profusely as I trashed her cup and rushed us off to the bathroom.  When we came out, he was gone.

And I didn't get to say thank you again. :(

Oops!

JUST occurred to me that I never blogged pics from David's baptism!
Let me give you a quick run down...

David and his Godparents, Uncle Nino Jake and Nina Alissa.

Lily holding court with her Auntie Stevie and Nino Ben.

Nice belly David!

David was that kid. The screamer.  Check out the lady in the bottom left corner.

Lily's opinion of the proceedings.

Yay!

Lil moving too fast for the camera.

Great Grandma Peter and the Dave at the after party.

Congratulations Mijo!

Two and a Half

Lily's new favorite phrase? "Don't tell me no Mom."

Lily's new reason for being sent to time out (over and over and over again)?  Kicking... her toys and her brother and her mom and whatever else is in reach.


But she also calls out to me... "Mom!" "Yes Lily?" " I love you."

And she took herself to the toilet today to poop.


Two and a half doesn't last forever. :)

What Time Is It, Mom?

Lily is obsessed with the time.

"Look at the clock Mom! What does the clock say?"
It's six o'clock Lil.
"Six o'clock? Is time for school?"
No Lil, it's not a school day.
"Oh."
(and that was pm even, silly girl)

"Time to get up Mom?"
No Lily, it's not seven o'clock yet.
"Clock says it's not seven o'clock yet. Not time to get up."
"Clock say seven o'clock Mom?"

"It's eight twenty-five! Time to go to school!!!"

Not that she can read the clock....


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Winter Blues

I was making dinner this evening, as it was getting dark at 5:something, waiting for my husband to get home.  I was thinking about what a bummer it is to leave the house in the dark and not get home again until it is dark.  I know quite a few people who run into that unfortunate timing in the winter. 

But it also turned my thoughts to those who are REALLY affected by the change of the season; those with "winter blues" (so quaint) or seasonal affective disorder.   People with SAD suffer with symptoms of depression to varying degrees. I am fortunate enough to not suffer from SAD, but I know and love people who do. 

I don't have an answer, and I think it sucks. And I just want them to know that I am thinking of them.

More Bread

After a couple of requests (I'm so flattered!) I wanted to share my bread recipe with you. Now mind you this is just plain old everyday bread.  I have fancier recipes, but this is my most often used. Makes two loaves.

18 ounces of flour, yes I weigh it, which is about 3 3/4 to 3 7/8 cups of flour. I just guesstimate 60% whole wheat flour since the recipe actually calls for all all-purpose flour.
2 1/4 tsp yeast (one packet of active rise)
2 tsp salt
5 Tbsp olive oil
11 1/2 oz (again weighed) water which is just over 12 fl oz in a glass measure
(if you're feeling fancy 1-2 Tbsp honey is also nice)

Rub the yeast into the flour until it disappears. Add salt, water and olive oil and mix it up, turn it out to kneed it and then do this:



That's the really fun part. :)

Let dough rise one hour in an oiled bowl in a warm, draft free place.
Turn dough out and divide into two, form each into a ball and cover, rest for 15 min.
Mold dough into loaves and place in greased loaf pans, cover with dishtowel and let rise until doubled. (1 hour-ish)

Bake in a preheated 475 degree oven until tapping the bottom of the loaves sounds hollow.  In my oven it's 20 min, but it can be as many as 35... go figure. Remove from pans to cool.

Somebody Found His Sister's Cup

I know, I'm being totally lame tonight.  But I have a fat headache.  And I am a headache wuss. :(

Impatient

I couldn't stand the wait any longer! I put up my Christmas tree(s).

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Baking Bread

So I have this (relatively) new wild hair about the food we eat, where it comes from, what it ate, it's nutritive content, etc.

So I've started making our bread.

I see you rolling your eyes.

Bread is a big deal to me a) because I love it so much and b) because the stuff you buy at the store is basically empty calories.  The flour they use is stripped of most of it's nutrients when the germ and the bran are removed so that the finest, lightest, whitest flour can be ground.  Not to mention the fact that removing these helps extend bread's shelf life.  And there are all the other preservative ingredients that we just don't really need. And since I love it so much... and want to eat it so much... I want to be able to control what we are eating.

Bread in it's most basic form is just flour, water, salt and yeast. (I use a combo of about 60% whole wheat flour that has been ground with the germ and the bran, and 40% white flour.) I use a recipe that uses these plus a little olive oil, which makes a more supple, tender loaf.

And you know what?  I've enjoyed myself.  And it tastes so good!




(Let's face it, girls who are/were stationed in Germany, that loaf at the commissary doesn't taste anything like the bread from the bakerei down the street!)

Kinect

We caved.  We don't wait for anything.

We bought a Kinect for our Xbox.  And Dance Central and Your Shape.  It's been a fun couple of days, but now I'm sore. lol! All I want to do is sit on the couch now. (counter intuitive huh?)

My shoulders and my thighs HURT! :)

Whip My Hair - part II

So we had a Whip My Hair revisit the other day and Lily just cracked me up in her panties, jammie shirt, shoes and ONE knee pad.  Totally reminded me of a fly girl, lol!

Hold My Hand

Lily is a funny little bug.  When she was an infant, she would "noodle" my fingers while nursing.  She couldn't just be still, she had to be wiggling her fingers and feeling my hand.

She's no longer a nurser, but she has her cup of milk first thing in the morning.

Literally, one of the first things.

It's the first thing she asks for when you get her up.  It's actually the second event of the morning, now that we make her go potty right away (heck, she wakes up dry... why not?) and sometimes third, if David wakes up when she does.  But she still insists on holding hands and noodling my fingers.  Which is quite a trick if I'm meeting someone else's first-thing-in-the-morning demand, nursing David.

I've actually managed to convinced her to hold my "belbo" on occasion.  And was really proud of myself.

Honda Odyssey

My criteria for our new vehicle was that it seat eight... no I am not having six kids, but I would like to be able to go somewhere with another mom... and it be relatively easy to get in/out of the back seat.  So we went with the Honda Odyssey.  Consumer Reports rated it really well for safety and it was one of the easiest to get in and out of the third row when I was checking them out.

We ended up getting the navigation system and the rear entertainment system.  The Nav is really intuitive and even has voice controls.  I push a button on the steering wheel, and can tell the car to do anything from turn up the A/C to changing the radio station to entering a destination.  It even has blue tooth!  And the RES is nice in that it comes with headphones so that Lily can be watching a DVD and I can be listening to a CD... but that is only in theory so far.  Her head isn't quite big enough to keep the headphones in place, and rather than have her screaming for me to fix it every five seconds I listen to Cars (or whatever) in the background.  Or we both listen to the CD, because sometimes it is mommy's turn!  You can't watch the DVD on the Nav screen in the Honda, the way you can in the Town and Country when it is in park, but what are ya gonna do?

I have no complaints about the way it drives. And I LOVE being able to open both slideing doors and the rear hatch while walking up to the car with two cranky kiddos and a cart full of groceries!

Bye Sadie

We found a buyer for my Mercedes C230.  :-(

Jacob traded the keys for the money orders this evening. Just a little paper work and she will be but a memory. I love her and I'm sad to see her go. :*(




But I LOVE my van. ;-)

Bribery

I tried to bribe Lily to poop on the toilet today.

She wore panties most of the day and successfully told me when she had to pee three times. So I told her if she pooped on the potty, that I would give her chocolate.

We spent a lot of time in the bathroom. Waiting.

After an accident this evening, we switch back from panties to pull-ups.  Not ten minutes later she pooped in her pull-up before I could get her to the bathroom.

Sitting on the toilet, she asked me for chocolate.  I told her no, she hadn't put her poop in the potty.

She said, "It's right here Mom, in de diaper.  Put it in de toilet. I have chocolate?"




Smart girl.




.

NOT Our Holiday Card Photo

Look at the camera Dave!

I Love Fall

Fall makes me feel like suddenly someone/something has given me permission to slow down.  I cook soups, breads and other foods that generally take a little longer to prepare. We go on walks, with no destination in mind or time to have to be back before it gets too hot out.  I knit/crochet and just plain sit still, without the associated guilt that I usually feel in the spring and summer. And I like it.

It doesn't have to all be done NOW. 

...except my holiday cards, which I feel like I should get out soon since we have recently moved and no one has our new address. ;)

Priceless

The Pumpkin Patch

or Apple Hill Part II.

And while I'd love to write more... I have to go sew patches on a uniform for a payday activities day tomorrow... so the pics will have to stand for themselves. :)

Apple Hill

While in California we spent an Sunday afternoon in Placerville where the Apple Hill Growers entertain the masses in the fall.  There are Orchard and Farm tours, craft fairs, apple markets and crowds. You saw a couple of pictures from that outing in David Likes Ice Cream.  In the interest of making sure I have a post for tomorrow too, I'm going to drag the photos out some more. :)

While David shared ice cream with Mommy, Lily shared with Gramma.  Though you can see she is rather dubious that Gramma is sharing equally.

 And then there were the pallets full of apples.

 I had to remind David that he still had no teeth... the apple wouldn't do him any good.