never here again

Terrible Threesome

2010-01-03T16:17:00.004Z

Of course the only time the three of them have been getting along is when one of them is in a cage.

Perhaps I'm over-doing it with the can-do attitude.

2009-12-05T02:11:00.002Z

We're watching Sid the Science kid this morning and he's using a magnifying glass.
Silas: Mom? Can we use a magify (sic) like that?
Me: We can if we can find one. I'm not sure we have one.
Silas: We can make one.
Me: I'm not sure I know how to make a magnifying glass.
Silas: Yes you do. I know how to make one.
Me: You do?
Silas: Yeah. You cut the glass, then you grind it and shape it. And polish it. Then, put a handle on it. Then you can look at it and make things bigger.

Bam! Magnifying glass.

Parenting by neglect

2009-12-04T15:50:00.002Z

Emmet successfully removed his jammies and diaper this morning. After a naked lap around the house, he then peed in his potty and filled it with toilet paper. Then he came and got me to show me his handy work.

Bones

2009-12-04T14:13:00.002Z

We put a few of the larger turkey bones in a jar of vinegar on Thanksgiving day to see what happens to our bones if we don't drink our milk. (Not exactly a problem at our house. But I like to demonstrate that *most* of what I tell them is not a lie.)
They are getting a little softer today.
As we were looking at them and feeling them today, Emmet named them Silas and Randi (the girl that lives across the street).

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-27T13:37:00.004Z

We gave thanks for our many blessings with Orrin's parents and brother yesterday.

This control freak, specializing in kitchen based authority, was particularly thankful for the self control, patience, and calmness, that helped her hold it together while everyone helped make the pies, peel the potatoes, and prepare the rest of the feast yesterday.
I actually kept thinking that I was forgetting something major because I was so un-stressed. But the dinner turned out beautifully.
Hope you all had a beautiful day as well.

Emmet is three!! No, two.

2009-11-27T13:11:00.004Z

Emmet is lying about his age already. Though he is trying to make himself older, unlike his mother who will now have to be 29 for a couple years. He keeps insisting he is "tree."
We had a frog themed party for him last Sunday. I baked the whole wheat butter cake from King Arthur's Whole grain baking book and frosted it to look like a frog pond. It looks very amateurish, and reading Cake Wrecks made me have a running commentary of how the frogs could be interpreted to be green poo piles. But thank goodness, the Thanksgiving wrecks that are on there now are so awful mine looks down right adorable by comparison.
Most importantly the frogs were recognizable to the birthday boy and the candles were successfully blown out. Look at the concentration on his little face.
I painted a big green frog on a piece of butcher paper with long red tongue. Then I drew some bugs and had the kids color them, or draw their own and played pin the fly on the frog tongue. We also folded origami frogs. The kind that you can make jump. Both were a big hit, though I was afraid they would be a little lame. Orrin and Silas strung crepe paper and blew up balloons for a generally festive atmosphere, and of course balloon bopping was a popular game.
We made a donation to the National Wildlife Federation, as they have an "Adopt a Frog" program. So all the kids brought spare change and slipped it into the jar to contribute to the adoption. I made a little knitted frog as a gift for Emmet from this pattern. There is a tennis ball inside so it's a little bouncy. I think it turned out pretty well.
And now Emmet is two. And I am thirty. And Aunt Sonja is unmentionable old! :)

Kisses for all

2009-11-21T20:29:00.003Z

A few days early, but successfully surprised Bridget...

Halloween Bypass

2009-11-06T21:01:00.004Z

Would you be upset if we went past Halloween pictures and straight to some Thanksgiving ones?I've been trying to get Silas to make hand print turkeys, but he wanted to make 3-D ones. He stuck teh eyes on and bent all the feathers. But what he really wanted to do was use the glue gun. He didn't do too badly actually. No burns at least. Though the crazy strings of glue about drove me crazy. Thank goodness I was wise enough to not attempt this project while Emmet was awake.
And just kidding about the Halloween photos. Here's one of all the boys in costume. And not one of me. I did dress up for the 5k runwe did with the boys in the stroller; leopard print tights (I think they date from Mom and Dad's trip to London when my Aunt Susan lived there), ears stitched to a headband, and painted face. But I post 'em, so I choose 'em.

Great Pumpkin

2009-10-31T01:41:00.002Z

Just because it's the Halloween Capital of the World (!) doesn't mean we don't wait until the last minute to carve our pumpkins. Silas actually carved a good portion of his. "The flame face is the scariest!"
Team Orrin and Emmet carved the friendly monster in the back.
In typical fashion, Emmet was nearly inverted into the pumpkin while getting seeds and strings out. Meanwhile, I asked Silas to help get the pumpkin guts out; "Ok, Mom. but not with my hands!"
The 50 pound behemoth Silas picked out in the pumpkin patch remains uncarved. We don't know how many we might have to host for birthday and Thanksgiving celebrations. We might need a lot of pie.

Breaking my heart

2009-10-26T00:46:00.002Z

Some ridiculous things Silas has said in the past few days:

Being with Grandma, just being with Grandma. (When I asked him at bedtime what his favorite part of the day was.)
It doesn't matter if we find it Daddy. Super Why said in the super story answer that you just enjoy the game. (When Orrin said they had to hurry so they could find the Halloween medallion in the scavenger hunt, referencing the Tortoise and the Hare episode of Super Why.)
Look at this face Mom. And when you think of this face you will remember me this night splashing in the bathtub. (Tonight after his bath, on the way up to bed.)

Orange ya' glad it's Halloween?

2009-10-25T19:14:00.003Z

We have entered the age of the knock knock joke. As Grandma and Grandpa will attest to after having an interrupting lion, pig, goat, chicken, horse, as well as a cow, come a' knockin. He also seems to think that any word can replace "orange" in the banana joke. For instance, bat will knock over and over again, then suddenly it's pumpkin. Pumpkin ya' glad I didn't say bat?

Emmet also is getting in on the act.
"Knock knock!"
"Who's there?"
"Juice"
"Juice who?"
"I ha juice!"

Silas is loving all things Halloween at the moment. He spent the morning cutting scary things out of the newspaper. And has been telling everyone he meets that he has a cheetah costume. Emmet's going to be a lion. Here's a preview. The make-up needs work, we were ina rush to get to the library Halloween story and craft time.

Apologies for my prolonged absence. We weer away on vacation in Michigan for a week, then came back to a new computer, with a new operating system, and nothing where I can find it. And then. we became hooked on watching Lost on Netflix Instant so every evening was two hours of that. And then Orrin was traveling to the Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan for work for two weeks so the boys and I escaped to Grandmas in Michigan and Indiana. But now we are back home and getting caught up and I will try to be more consistently here. (Hmm.. where have we heard that promise before?)

Oh yeah..

2009-08-15T20:26:00.002+01:00

And...
Emmet screams, screams!, "airpane! airpane!" anytime he sees an airplane, or hears what he thinks is an airplane. And he doesn't stop until you say, "Yes, Emmet I see the airplane."
Likewise, a slide or swing or anything resembling play equipment, "Paygroun! Paygroun!"

The net enclosure is up around the trampoline. So jumping can commence. Already games have been invented with spray bottles and assorted balls. Emmet loves to be on the tramp', but not if anyone else is jumping. Then it's very swiftly, "Top it! Top it!"

Took a family canoe trip down the Rum River this morning. Sans dog, of course. It was delightful. Nice breeze, not to hot, virtually bug less, the boys were angels. They played with cat tails, and watched for dragon flies, and herons, and ducks and geese. They paddled a little bit. They ate fruit leather. It was only about an hour paddle, but still quite nice.

We picked corn for lunch. We found one ear that had gotten really too old- starting to wrinkle, and totally blue. After the boys went up for a nap I tried parching it. I pulled the kernels off the cob and tossed them in a cast iron skillet with a little olive oil and salt. Then a slowly pan roasted them until they were brown and drained them on a paper towel. They are quite good; some crunchy, some a little chewy, but all sweet and salty and yummy.

Bullets of Toilet Learning

2009-08-15T20:00:00.004+01:00

So, what has the youngest member of our family been up to lately?

Last weekend he used the toilet for the first time ever! Liquid and solid! Hooray!
Monday he peed in the potty while Silas was watching Curious George and he was running around naked, between diapers. Unfortunately, before I realized he had done it he managed to stuff his new dry diaper and the clothes I had brought down for him into the potty as well.
The next day he pooped about 6 times, each time about a teaspoon, each time hopping of the potty shouting "hoe-ay!" clapping his hands, and "look dat!", each time making me dump it in the toilet before his next deposit, each time standing on the seat of the potty and squatting.
The past three days he's had his "morning poop" in the potty.

Early August Photos

2009-08-09T21:36:00.009+01:00

The lack of posting here caused Linda (my mother-in-law) to join Facebook. Little did she know I don't post updates on there either!! Bwah-ha-ha!!
So here's a few pictures and commentary on the last week.Adorable Emmet looking cute in the twilight at National Night Out/Night to Unite, last Tuesday. The kids rode bikes and scooters, blew bubbles, and ran around in the (blocked off) street.

The fire department stopped by to play dress up.And to look for new recruits.Emmet had to practice his skills with the hose before they'd let him wear the gear.
Orrin was too busy taking pictures of the ducks to realize that they were eating all the Swiss chard!
We had some bad luck with the bee hive. I think they swarmed and were left without a queen. We replaced the queen and she is laying now, but I don't know if we'll get much honey this year or how they will fare over the winter. But at least they seem to be on the mend and seem more purposeful as they gather pollen from the giant sunflowers lining the fence.

In other back yard news, we set up the free trampoline we picked up from a church rummage sale a couple weeks ago. It was missing one spring, the spring cover pad, and the safety net. I was able to find replacements online today. I am hopeful that I can keep all the bones in our bodies unbroken until that shipment arrives!

As corny as Minnesota in August

2009-08-08T19:38:00.005+01:00

A rather sad patch of sweet corn. It's definitely not Kansas.

So we bought a dozen ears from the farmers market and picked one from our own patch. Here they are shucked on the counter.

Orrin challenged the boys to try to select which ear came from our garden. Here they are pondering it over.

Oh come on Silas, give us a little credit.

That's right! The purpley bruised looking one! Wait! It's supposed to look that way. It's called Triple Play since it's tri colored. I thought it would be a good cool weather short season variety to try. It seems to have done alright. There are more ears out there we'll have to pick soon, since i think we let this one go a bit long- it was a little on the starchy side.

Mississippi River Challenge

2009-08-02T22:20:00.001+01:00

The last weekend in July we paddled a 40 mile stretch of the Mississippi River to raise funds for an organization called The Friends of the Mississippi. Orrin's cousin was nice enough to watch the two boys for us- my first overnight away from Emmet.
The paddling was less strenuous than I was expecting, though the current was slower. So, that meant constant, if easy, paddling.
The event was really well organized, with lots of volunteers, and safety captains. They even hauled our camping gear for us and provided snacks or meals about every five miles. It was a nice and easy introduction into longer distance canoeing for me. Though I'm still not sure I would want two kids and a dog in a boat with me for that amount of time or distance, it definitely increased my confidence in my canoeing ability.
It was also very interesting and special to see the river from that vantage point. Although we live within walking distance of the river I've only ever driven across it, or seen it from the park. It really is an amazing natural resource and was truly beautiful along some stretches.
A few of our photos from the journey:

Going through the lock at Upper St. Anthony falls. You drop about 50 feet! You can see the lighter colored part of the wall at the top? That's where we started.

We camped Saturday night at Fort Snelling.

Sunday morning paddling past Harriet Island (I think).

A rocky overhang in one of the quieter areas of the river. We only passed one moving barge, though lots lined the river in places. We saw lots of herons, egrets and other water birds and one bald eagle.

Light sabers

2009-07-20T13:26:00.001+01:00

"Oh Mom, if you need us we'll just be upstairs fighting bad guys. But if you need us you can just call us and we'll come back and help you. Ok? Ok, so good luck. Bye!"

A Berry Happy Birthday

2009-07-17T02:52:00.004+01:00

I had intentions of a real party for Silas, but somehow it didn't plan itself. As the calender slowly inched towards the 16th, still no magical party plans appears. So a few days ago, I asked Silas what kind of birthday cake he'd like to have. He said strawberry. "And a strawberry party to go with it."
So that's what we had, kind of. We just had a few neighbors and friends over, and there were no organized games, or food, other than cake and ice cream. So it was very low key.
But Silas did want to decorate. So we found some red heart shaped balloons and glued crepe paper to them to turn them into strawberries. We made a big sign on paper left over from the movers. We strung red and green and yellow crepe paper around the dining room. And made a garland out of packing peanuts and foil wrapped strawberry candy.
The cake was a yellow layer cake, from a recipe I hadn't tried before where you beat the flour and butter together, a la Rose Levy Berenbaum's Cake Bible. It came out very much like pound cake. It wasn't bad. But not what I was hoping for. I made this frosting to go with it. (And as my mother said, it tinted just fine if you color the milk and flour before you mix in the butter and sugar.) I mixed a portion of the frosting with diced strawberries adn filled the layers with that. Silas added red sugar all over, and I "stenciled" a number four on teh top with yellow sanding sugar.
Silas must have liked it because when I asked him what he thought of his birthday, he said it was exciting 'because of cake and fancy.'
Of course that was before the light sabers had been opened. After that, cake, ice cream, balloons, and subsequent presents were chopped liver.

Why I love my kids, well one reason anyway

2009-07-15T18:45:00.002+01:00

They found the old Schwan's ice cream tins that we've picked up from Goodwill for 79 cents over the years. Mom always used them for Christmas cookies, so I've built up a collection for the same purpose. So they dug them out of the cabinet and completely on their own started playing a rolling racing game up and down the kitchen. And they have been very cutely playing together for the past 20 minutes.

Success?

2009-07-14T03:05:00.008+01:00

I had one major project this year for the Historic Society Home and Garden tour. No one on the tour even noticed it. I guess you can say that's a compliment because the front door now blended with the rest of the house instead of sticking out, but come on, I put over 60 hours blood, sweat, and tears into the thing! Technically, only Silas and Emmet contributed the tears, but close enough.

Our front door before:

And after:

Note 1) The door, new glass (had been broken out at one point and replaced with Plexiglas), and door hardware was all sourced by and from the best personal shopping services I've ever dealt with: Mom and Dad.

Note 2) Nathan was right, I could have built a door in the time it took to restore this one, considering just about every aspect of it had to be adjusted/added to/taken from, and some parts even built from raw lumber. And a whole lot of hand chiseling. But I don't have the skills to replicate the character of this old door. Added bonus: I feel 'green' recycling this one from the tough neighborhoods of South Bend and giving it new life.

Note 3) Not only did I get no comments from the tour goers, but I think Bridget and I are already overlooking the improvement. Ah well, success is hard to hold onto I guess.

Note 4) Who cares. Because I enjoyed this one. Nice to be figuring out problems of this nature and adding to these skills again. They were getting dusty in Ireland. By the end of this project I was a bit burnt out though, considering the rush of late nights and weekends to get this done. Will need to recharge with family time before tackling my next big project. Speaking of which, movie time!

-Orrin

Urban Wildlife

2009-07-13T03:33:00.002+01:00

We had about 420 people come through the house today. It was fun and exciting to have people, strangers, compliment us and our decorating style and marvel over painting, woodwork, stained glass, and other home improvement projects around the house. Lots of people also complimented the quilts and the puppet theater. So many thanks to those of you that have given me your works of art.
I know people grow up exposed or not to all different things. But here are some ridiculous, to my mind, conversations that occurred in our backyard today. And not just once or twice, but over and over again.
"Is that a beehive?"
"Yes, they are honey bees."
"Oh, so do you make honey?" (Do I look like a bee?)
"Well, the bees make the honey, but yes we harvest it."

"Are your ducks pregnant? They look pregnant."
"Well, they are all hens, so no, they aren't pregnant. But they will probably lay an egg tomorrow."
"What do you do with the eggs?"
"We eat them."
"I didn't' know you could eat duck eggs."

Heigh-Ho Silver! Away!

2009-07-11T03:01:00.003+01:00

Our neighbors recently gave us this sweet vintage horse on springs. I love the look on Emmet's face. Having fun pretending to be a jockey, yet terrified at the being behind him that may be trying to bite his ear off. Funny enough, Silas isn't yelling in this picture. Just making faces for teh camera.
Both boys really like the horse, though they haven't named it yet. It's really cute when they take turns riding and "leading" the horse with its rope reins.

Backfire

2009-07-07T03:30:00.003+01:00

Part of the reason we planted the vegetable garden was to educate Silas and Emmet about where our food comes from, how plants grow, and how we take care of other living things. It was also to encourage them to eat the fruits and vegetables we weer growing. You know, give them a stake in what they put in their mouths, get them involved and excited.
For the most part it's worked. I often find Emmet picking buds off the broccoli heads, Silas demands freshly picked (by his hands) spinach in his grilled cheese sandwich. They both stuff their mouths with sugar snap peas as soon as they find them. An all you can eat vegetable buffet. And let's not even get started about with the raspberry bushes. It's a virtual magnet. I'm considering putting up netting, not for the birds but for the boys.
So all this fresh, homegrown, handpicked fruit and vegetable harvest had me feeling very self satisfied, until...
Last night I made a muttar paneer, a pea and fried cheese curry with rice. Silas was inspecting the frozen peas before I tossed them into cook. "Who grew these? Where did they grow? When were they picked?"
My little food snob. No bananas for you!

Tendrils

2009-07-07T03:12:00.002+01:00

Sorry, this is the artsy garden picture you'll have to put up with for the time being. The pole beans are my favorite thing in the garden. I love the willow poles they are climbing up, I love how tall they are, I love the way they spiral around the cling so tightly, and I love eating the vegetables they produce. Not everything is doing well in the garden this year. In fact the beans are getting some brown spots on the leaves which may be rust/fungus or possibly spider mites.

The corn is starting to tassel, even though it is still very short. The zucchini are setting fruit, as are the tomatoes. Cucumbers, potatoes, and eggplant are flowering. The turnips, carrots, peppers, and cabbage, are all looking good. The basil is making a comeback. The peas, radishes and broccoli are all being harvested regularly. As are the chard, lettuce, and(measly) spinach. The mustard greens are prolific, and I'm not really sure what to do with them all. We ate some on our grilles brats over the weekend and they were delicious, but it didn't' really make a dent in the crop. They are pretty spicy so the kids won't eat them. Maybe a soup recipe? Same with the kale. They seems like cool weather food to me, so I'm reluctant to eat them when it's hot.

Safety First

2009-07-07T02:52:00.003+01:00

Silas found a kids woodworking book that was a present from Aunt Rachel last Christmas and decided it was high time he got some use out of the scrap wood in the basement. He looked through the book and decided he wanted to make an airplane. Since I couldn't really take him down to work on it by myself with Emmet, I told him we first had to draw out what we wanted to build. So he drew some rather abstract pictures of an airplane and a boat.
He was so stinkin' adorable and excited when Orrin got home. "Dad, Dad! I drew a plan. A plan for the scrap wood. We can cut and drill and hammer and make it just to the design. I drew this design on the paper so we can make an airplane that really flies!"
Somewhat fortunately for Orrin, Silas became distracted with playing with all the different tools and practicing with the various drills, saws, levels, hammers, tape measures, etc. that he didn't really ask that the design be adhered to strictly. In fact I don't think they even started on any part of it.
But they did make this:
And I love that he's wearing safety glasses and barefoot.