Meet the newest members of our household!

Invisible Friends!!! That’s right,  Doodoo and Doddy.  They enjoy frequent meals, love ‘tend’ (pretend) food, never eat their vegetables and come with us on most outings.  They travel by pocket or by fist and Doddy has no Daddy.  This is sad, but he does have Doodoo, his best friend, to make up for it.  

Tan-tan is one of their friends.  Tan-tan lives in a cave and sometimes confuses his pet porcupine for his pillow at night.  This leads to very pokey dreams in his ‘dream place’ while he is sleeping.  (We made up a silly song to sing about it. ) 

Now that Doddy and Doodoo live in our house, they help Charlie process all sorts of things.  A couple weeks ago, I was making a celebration cake for his Aunt Catherine’s graduation.   He decided that Doddy and Doodoo also needed a cake, a “bwack biwfday” cake.  

So while I gathered and poured in the ingredients, so did he.  (Mama looked on and tried not to twitch too much as he gathered all the little toys in the house to be his cake batter.  I had no idea we had so many little parts and pieces until I saw them in one place!)

This video meanders…look at about 3:15 to hear about Doddy and Doodoo.

When I stirred up my cake, so did he.  Wendy, though bemused, did her best to help.

Thankfully,  while I washed up the dishes, he did put most of the little cars away!  I never did hear if Doddy and Doodoo liked their birthday or not.  Maybe that’s because they are not my ‘tend’ friends! 

Wendy Week: Happy 1st Birthday!

You woke up at 6:30 this morning, but that’s usual.  Dada brought you into bed to nurse. I love nursing you.  You love being done so that you can flop over on your stomach, wiggle your legs over the edge and slide off.  You head straight for the curtain to see your tree and check for birds and squirrels.  If you see one, you lean up on your tip-toes to watch it run or fly as far as you can.  Then you check on us, lying in bed, watching you, to see if we saw it too.   We didn’t, but that doesn’t stop us from talking about it with you.

                          Then Charlie starts humming.  He does that every morning when he wakes up, and every morning I promise myself, that I’m going to get a recording of it before he grows out of this stage.  I love his morning songs.  He loves having the bedroom to himself to wake up in.   He takes a while to wake up, he likes to be alone, and snuggle with his blankets before he is ready to see anyone, but especially you, Wendy.  Your exuberant “Eye(Hi)!” is too much for him first thing.  Except this morning.  When I walk in and I tell him that it is your birthday today, he is immediately up.  Excited.  And he wants to give you a birthday hug.  You love it!

We have breakfast in stages, and video chat with your grandparents while you open your packages from them.  Charlie helps you.  You have no idea what it is to do something interesting by yourself. When you are bigger, you are going to fight for independence from his interest in your life just like you fight for independence from us. But you aren’t big enough for that yet. Right now, whatever you are focused on is better if you are next to him and he is doing it with for you. After presents, you take a nap.  This morning there were thunderstorms and Charlie was very worried about the noise, but it didn’t bother you at all.   You slept from 8:45 to 10:45 and woke up very refreshed.  Charlie wanted to get in with you, which made you bounce and shriek and bonk your head on the side of the crib.  Sometimes enthusiasm can be painful, but I love the way you don’t let that stop you.  You know its worth it for the fun!After some snacks we got dressed to go to the store.  I remembered we had some rain boots for you, and Charlie was so excited about going “mudin WITH Wendy!”  It turns out you rock boots.  I have never seen cuter knees in boots. Ever. To Market to Market to buy some fresh cream, white chocolate and bread
Home again, Home again, let’s bake up a cake, just like we said….I do have to say, this picture is reminding me that I adore the way you wave to everything and everyone we pass when you are in the stroller or any kind of cart.  It makes me feel like I’m pushing the Queen of England, or Miss America on a float….elbow, elbow, wrist wrist, touch your pearls and blow a kiss….Today, because it was your birthday, you and Charlie each picked out a little balloon.  Actually Charlie picked them both out.   A blue smiley face and a yellow smiley face.  You immediately began to gnaw on your balloon while Charlie hyperventilated about it popping and I repeatedly told him, it was fine and to let me be the Mommy.   Until I noticed that you had a strange golden smile—the yellow paint was coming off where you were licking the balloon—and then it was time for me to hyperventilate.  I only tell you this so that you will know, someday when you are a Mom, that sometimes you will make the very best, most well-intentioned mistakes.   And it is Ok.  Also, balloons are really not a toy, but they should be. Thankfully, you were just as happy to chew on the little plastic stick that came with the balloon for the rest of our trip.  After lunch and a glorious nap with your brother,  we shared a bowl of blackberries.   It makes me laugh how very anxious you get about making sure that your tray stays full when you are eating something you really like.  If you get down to the last five or six bites you start asking and crying for more as if you had none left at all.

  

Then it was time to go muddin!  Charlie was really excited about going with you! 

    You on the other hand, planted your feet, leaned over to touch the muddy water once or twice, and then signed to me in no uncertain terms that you were “All done!”  You watched the rest of the proceedings from the stroller, with a wary look. 

…Until we found a puddle that didn’t involve grass and squishy mud!Of course, after the muddin, we needed baths.  You and Charlie sang a bath-time duet.  Charlie was singing about the snack he was about to get.  You were singing for the pure joy of bathing (and being with Charlie)!

After your baths we had dinner.  I made a favorite: peas with chicken and rice in coconut milk, and a little ginger to flavor it.  You ate a LOT for dinner tonight!  

Then our neighbors, the Sandersons walked over to help us sing to you and watch you blow your candle out.  You weren’t really sure how to.  Don’t worry, we will work on that.   But Charlie was glad to help!

Everyone was happy to eat cake!    (I made the butterflies out of white chocolate. It was fun to imitate your first birthday cake, though mine is not quite the creation that first one was! )…Looks like you did a good job eating it yourself!Not many girls get two baths in a day.  Still, but I figured it worked out perfectly, since they are one of your favorite activities.  

There you are, Zu-zu, heading off to bed with sleepy eyes.   Full of rice and chicken and cake; fully ONE!   You sure celebrated well today! What a great first year!   I can’t wait to see you through other!  

Happy Birthday, Wen-d-dee-dee-deee!

a well-celebrated day

the beginning:: blueberry pancakes in the shape of hearts and airplanes all made before 8:30 class, birthday song sung by all four parents, …the middle:: parks, sunshine!!! (so different from last year), spaghetti moustaches, music, seeing redemptive grace at work in discipline and baby girl lovin’ on me!

the end:: sparkler candles, fairy cupcakes, chocolate mousse frosting, giggling toddlers, and heart conversations…                        From beginning to end I was loved so well.   Thank you, my dear husband, family and friends for celebrating me so well!

Interviews with Charlie: the fine art of cutting gnocchi

Wendy has all but dropped her last nap of the evening and sadly,  our ‘Charlie-and-Mama-time’ cooking dinner dates are coming to an end.  I thought I’d post about it, since Charlie and I whipped up his favorite meal, “Gnochi Soup”  the other night.   aside: the international foodie in me cannot even begin to describe my delight when the words ‘gnocchi soup’  are chanted over and over with as much excitement as if it were ice cream or pizza or spaghetti!)  Despite its somewhat unusual name, there is little for a toddler tongue to get hung up on in this comfortable soup.   So I thought I’d share our version of it and save a few memories for later at the same time.   (and also send a big ‘ol thanks to my mom for forwarding me the original recipe !)

What I love about this soup is you can follow the basic pattern with whatever meat and veggies you have in the house.  It turns out great even when I don’t have an onion, or wine or stock on hand and everyone loves to eat it.  Plus, making the gnocchi is a lot like playing with playdoh.  Perfect for toddler cooking! 

Gnocchi Soup

Ingredients:

1lb meat cut into bite-sized pieces (chicken or beef will do, I imagine bacon would also be delicious), 1 onion coarsely chopped, 2-3 cloves garlic peeled and smashed, 1 turnip peeled and chopped or 3 stalks celery chopped, 3-4 carrots chopped, a cup or two of dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, etc) chopped, 1 C wine, 4-6 C stock or water, thyme or other herbs to taste, salt and pepper to taste.  One recipe of gnocchi.

Directions:

Sauté meat with 1-2T olive oil in a large soup pot on high heat.   Stir it very infrequently so that it gets nice and brown.  When the meat is browned on most sides (still raw on the inside is fine) remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. [to save time and keep your toddler entertained, chop up your veggies and tell a good superhero story or two while the meat browns.]

Into the hot  pot, add onion, carrots, turnip or celery, and garlic.  Let the veggies sauté on high heat for a few minutes until they get a little browned.  [Close supervision and  long handled spoons held with mittens or oven mitts allow even the most fool-hardy toddler to safely participate in this action.] 

Add 1 cup wine or water and scrape up the stuff on the bottom of the pan with it.  (I think the technical cooking term for this is deglazing…but Charlie didn’t know it until I told him—and he probably has put it straight out of his mind in favor of being able to remember “the really fast superhero guy who runs so fast you can’t see him and wears a red costume for banging down bad guys?  Yeah, I ‘member his name is Flash, Mama.  Yeah, because he is so fast.”) Any who.  So the soup.  and cooking with toddlers.  Yeah!  So after you are done deglazing the pot,

Add in 1 t thyme, 1t salt, leafy greens (unless you are using spinach-- add that right before blending) and another 4-6 cups of water or stock  (enough to float your veggies with lots of wiggle room). 

Bring to boil and simmer until the veggies are soft~15min.  [while this cooks, make up a recipe of quick gnocchi—(this is a toddler tested recipe, you can add the ingredients in any order, pick out egg shell quite easily and salvage their measuring errors with with a little extra water or flour at the end.  Just watch it on the baking power!)]  Blend all the veggies and stock together until no veggie part is discernable.  (Here is where the college tuition I paid for learning color theory in art class is paying me back.  It turns out that colors opposite each other on the color wheel, such as green and orange, make brown when they are mixed together.  This soup ends up tasting and looking like it is just meat and gnocchi in brown gravy, even though it has all those fabulous, nutritious veggies in it! )  I highly recommend using an immersion blender!  If you don’t have one, just use your blender and part of the broth (and share the angst of having to wash out all those blender parts with your close loved ones to convince them to get you an immersion blender as your next gift! )  I think it is my most often used and beloved appliance!   [Don’t forget to let your toddler push the button—making lots of noise while sister is sleeping is certainly a draw!]

Now, add the meat back into your broth and bring to a boil.  Simmer until meat is tender~15 min.  [while the meat simmers cut up your gnocchi]  Charlie thought he would demonstrate this step for you, though he seems to think you bake them…this is not the case: 

Five minutes before eating, plop that gnocchi into the broth.  When it rises to the top it is ready to eat.  Serve your soup with lots of super hero stories.   It turns out babies love gobbling down gnocchi soup, especially when it was made by their big brother! 

a-Babka-at-the-end-of-the-stick-kind-of-night

Ever since Wendy came into my life there are lots of days that end like this. (Truth be known, there were probably more days like this before any children came into my life than there are now, but I was more relaxed back then and had leisure to wait until the mood hit me to spend hours cleaning up.)Now, it drives me crazy.  I learned with Charlie’s infancy that the only thing more depressing to me than seeing this mess at the end of the day, is waking up to it the next morning and having to deal with it while dealing with an infant. 

I hope you realize I pose no moral judgment on the untidy.   If you can live in chaos without it gnawing at your insides like itchy wool at your neck, then fantastic.  I cannot.  Somehow having children has turned me into a crazy woman for neat. I now equate “peace” “rest” and “relax” with “tidy and clean.” At the end of the day, when I’m tired of wrangling 2 year old cowboys and pampering 6 month old princesses, I wish this weren’t true. But it is. 

So the other night I decided to bribe myself into doing the dishes with Chocolate Cinnamon Babka. 

“What?!??” you say?  “Do more work to convince yourself to do more work?”   Yes, it is true.  I am that much of a sucker for chocolate,butter and white flour. 

Here’s how it went down:

made Babka dough (a whole cup of butter, folks!)  (and also some whole wheat roll dough because it’s easy and I was baking already and we needed it for the next day.)mixed up some divine chocolate-cinnamon-butter spread and soaped up the dishes while the dough rose shaped it and rinsed dishes while it rose some more…finished the dishes in time to watch a show while the bread bakedTHEN I ate me some Babka from a sparkling clean kitchen (and breakfast was already made for the next morning too!) SO worth it!