of nibblings and fresh pasta

It is the honest truth that egg yolks and a little flour make one of the most delicious foods edible on this earth--fresh pasta.

My brother Erik and his fiance, Catherine came into town last Monday for a visit with the nibbling. I had intended pasta making to be a fun "let's all cook together in the kitchen" project. Then they were delayed and so I thought I'd better get a head start on dinner during Charlie's nap ....and it turned out to be the little nudge I needed to try something so daunting on my own. I was surprised when it turned out to be so completely do-able and even repeat-able! (I need things like this every once in a while to remind me that I don't have to simplify everything just because Charlie is in our life now. )

Charlie and I mixed the dough.

Then Charlie helped admirably by falling asleep and not waking up to the squeaking of this hand crank turning outside his bedroom door.

This pasta maker belonged to my mother. I have delightful memories of using it with her when I was young. And later memories of making pasta on it with my closest girlfriends.

You roll out the dough several times in the flat roller to get it to the elasticity and thickness you want.

Then you put it through the cutter blades....

Presto, linguine!

I dried it on our laundry rack. (Jonathan was worried our pasta would taste like fresh washing, but it didn't.)

Paired with a bottle of wine we saved from our wedding, some halibut and fresh green beans, FRESH PASTA was the perfect way to celebrate our 6th anniversary and Erik and Catherine's engagement! (And yes, Charlie's face IS shiny from eating olive oil, lemon and basil coated fresh pasta!)

Mmmmm!

Keren's silly accomplishment of the week

(For those of you wondering about the self-bragging here, I have noticed that there are times when accomplishing a seemingly trivial task gives me a great, and I mean great as in way-out-of-proportion-to-what-I-actually-accomplished feeling. Since these "mom moments" are such a rare delight in the daily grind, I decided to start celebrating them here on the blog when I can! )

I took care of two toddlers all afternoon and still managed to make chicken fajitas in time for dinner at six. It is funny how something as simple as warmed tortillas and an on-time dinner can make you feel like super mom! The children added to the fun by deciding they both need to be held while I was searing the chicken....

circles

Charlie asks to color several times a day now.

Jonathan taught him how to draw circles and what Mama likes.

playing in the rain

When I was ten I lived in Mindanao in the southern Philippines. To this day, the deep colors of that plateau-ed landscape are part of my soul. I could paint the red soil, the blue-purple mountains and the green green green from memory. The geography was such that most afternoons, deep grey-blue thunder clouds rolled across the land. Out the back windows of our house, my brothers and I would watch the approaching line of rain pough through the corn fields. We would pause, sniffing the smell of water hitting dirt through the screen, our noses quivering like the young animals we were. As soon as the rain hit the back fence, and the first drops ricochetted off our tin roof, we would startle, break, and run shrieking outside. The rain was warm. The drops of it fell plump and heavy enough to sting a little. We were soaked before our bare feet could speed us, running, down the slate front walk and out into the open field. "Playing in the rain" was what we called it. We twirled and ran. We lay down in hot puddles and let it pelt our backs. We hydroplaned through ditches of water on old wooden planks--running with a board and jumping on top until it sank. We built whole kingdoms in the mud under the meeting hall. The rivers of rain water floated our boats manned by bugs and centipedes flooded out of their homes in the ground. We came home muddy and spent and ALIVE. It was worship. It was free and wild and joyful celebration of God's creation.
Missouri has warm rain and thunderstorms too. So I took it upon myself to show Charlie how to play in the rain this week. The lesson was well learned. And his Mama's heart worshiped a little better for having his company!

music lessons

Charlie started singing a couple months ago. That is to say, when I sang to him at bedtime, he started chiming in with held-out droning sounds. At first we kept asking, "is he singing?" And then there was the night I was singing "Jesus loves me" and I got to the chorus and he started singing "Ssssssssaaaaaaa, saaaaaaaa" in imitation of the S-sounds in "yes, Jesus loves me." So there we were, in the dark, singing our hearts out and praising God together, and I almost cried. That off-key noise was about the cutest, heart melting thing I have ever heard. (No bias here, of course!) Since then, he has started singing along with his favorite songs on CD, and even switches to humming if I do!

I tried to get a little of his singing on video. Its not the same as snuggling his sleepy self and hearing his little voice droning away in your ear, but it is the next best thing! Hope you enjoy!

crayon-ing

Since coloring with my old colored pencils and the scrap paper from our computer was keeping Charlie so happy, (we have the scribbles on our couch to prove it)

we decided that it was time to invest in some washable crayons.

He loved them! "Ooo!"

They really were so much easier for him to color with.

And putting them in and out of the box was half the fun!

Here's a little video of the master at work. (Notice the helicopter sound effects!)

Oh the fun we have!

I am having so much fun being Charlie's mom these days.



Enjoying motherhood is a novelty for me. In fact, for the first 6 months of Charlie's life (as he woke up 4-7 times nightly and spit up all over me every 5 minutes) when ever another mother expressed her feelings about loving being a mom I just thought she was lying or delusional. Until Charlie was 14 months I thought that mom was just exaggerating. Now I find I can fully agree. Charlie and I are having a blast together!

He is growing up so fast--and getting so big and smart and independent. I know it's just the tip of the iceberg and I'm going to be saying these things until he is a full grown man, but that doesn't change the wonder I feel watching it happen.

His developing language and social interaction keep surprising me. We have real interactions now. For example, yesterday he came into the kitchen, where I was chopping veggies, gesturing the "help" sign and saying 'da da' urgently to get my attention. I asked him if he needed help, and he pointed to the living room. Then I told him to wait, while I rinsed of my hands and he stood right there. Then I said " show me" and he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the living room, climbed up on the couch and pointed down where he had dropped a toy cup behind it, against the wall. As I fished it out for him, I couldn't help but just be amazed that he had just managed to communicate something as complicated as asking me to retrieve a toy from behind the couch, where I never would have seen it if he hadn't pointed it out.

Of course, then he proceeded to drop the same cup in the same place and come and ask for help getting it out over and over! But somehow I just didn't mind because I was still so delighted to see him figure out that he could communicate like that with me.

I've been more intentional about doing things with him that we both enjoy.
We go to the pool or some water-related outing most days.

There is this great park down town called Citygarden that has a whole half block devoted to fountains. They squirt up in different patterns and can be quite surprising if you happen to be leaning over, looking to see where the water went, when it shoots back up again.

I've experimented with reading a book or knitting while he plays in the living room. I'd give the reading experience 5 out of 10 for efficiency, but 9 out of 10 for enjoyment.

It kind of worked--part of the time he read his books next to me. Every five minutes or so I'd have to suggest getting another one. Then he would clamber down, run to his room (he ONLY runs, and does not walk anymore) to get another book, bring it back, and climb up onto the couch next to me again. That usually involved climbing over me too.

It wasn't really quality concentration time but way more interesting to me than pushing cars around and making sound effects...which I'd happened to do a lot of already that day!

I've been enjoying Charlie's growing independence, not only because it frees up my hands to do other things while he is awake, but because he is so proud of what he can do on his own. I can ask him to put his shoes away or put his cup back on the table and he will. Once he finishes the task I've given him, he runs back to me with his arms out for a congratulatory hug. He plays on his own for short periods of time, and can get thoroughly engrossed in books all on his own. He is starting to get creative in the way he plays with things. He crawled into the kitchen looking like this the other morning.

Not sure what was going on, but he was adamant about putting this float through its paces while he crawled and walked and rolled around on the floor.

Charlie has also started eating at the table with us. He's still learning that we are serious about him not being allowed to pick up, toss, or in any way play with his place mat, but he is really great about leaving his plate on the table.

(As an aside, a wonderful development for mealtimes has been teaching him what "chew" means. Now when we put a piece of chicken in his mouth and he starts to spit it out because it isn't as soft as he likes his food to be, we can say " chew it up, Charlie" and he will chew it up. He has discovered that he likes a lot more food than he thinks he does through chewing--for which this mother is very grateful. If we have greenbeans and chicken and rice for dinner then so does he! So fun!--and SO much easier than making special food for him...)

And affection! That little boy can give hugs (and kisses). I love the feeling of his arms wrapped so tight around my neck. Mothering is such a physical love--so much touching and wiping and lifting and holding--to be hugged back overwhelms me sometimes with how good it feels.