Happy Valentines

Love, Anna and Eliza

Genre Connections

I really like reading memoirs, they are usually interesting and clever and occasionally insightful. I recently realized that memoirs are the reality TV of books. That seems obvious now, allow me to relate how I came to this conclusion.

I was watching TV and I saw an ad for a show called Billy the Exterminator. From what I gathered, it's about an uncouth but extremely daring guy named Billy, who will go after any animal in any part of a house. The ad shows him under porches wrestling with big snakes, in attics battling hoards of bats etc. You can tell he's seen it all, and I sat there thinking, I would never watch this show, but if he wrote a book about his experiences, I would totally read it.

I'm not sure why I would read the book but not watch the show, but then I realized that I recently heard about a book written by a professional dishwasher, Dishwasher Pete. I totally wanted to run out and get this book and learn all about the ins and outs of the dishwashing industry. But what would I gain from this? I won't learn anything particularly useful, probably, at least not for my life, I could read a much more pertinent or at least more educational biography or something. These memoirs are the reality shows of reading, just kind of ridiculous white noise. They feed my curiosity about people.

Anna says

Anna is very verbal, she just talks and talks and talks. So here are a few of the best gems for the ages:

Situation: Outside playing with a friend, friends grandmother offers Anna an apple, but first asks if Anna is allergic to apples
Anna says: No. I'm just allergic to poop.
Skips off.

Situation: I asked Anna if she could be Eliza's babysitter for 10 minutes while I got dressed.
Anna says: Well, she lives with us. And also I don't want to.

Anna says: Remember that party we went to, where someone painted a flower on my cheek?
me: yes, that was fun huh?
Anna says: That was the good old day.

Situation: I hand Anna a sippy cup of milk and ask her to please not spill it on the couch.
Anna says: Your couch?
me: umm, yes. my couch.
Anna says: Well, could you share with Daddy?
me: share the couch with Daddy?
Anna says: Yeah because he needs a couch too.

These are just a sample of hundreds that I cannot and will not remember.

Eliza is still playing the mime. I am ready for her to start talking any time now.

Cinnamon Rolls

I made cinnamon rolls the other day,...well, let's back up a bit

My mother is a cinnamon roll professional, she is not one to brag about herself, but she knows for a fact just how good her cinnamon rolls taste. She takes them to sick neighbors, bake sales, random service and etc. I remember very fondly watching her when I was young, I was mesmerized watching her roll out the dough to a perfect rectangle (bread-tangle) then using a pastry brush (!!! this is the only time I ever remember seeing a pastry brush used) to paint melted butter across the whole thing then dusting it with the perfect combination of brown sugar and cinnamon concoction. She definitely has the whole system down, she can make a batch of cinnamon rolls in no time flat and they always turn out perfect.

I still need more practice, first I need kids old enough to help me eat them all.

I have developed a classification system for cinnamon rolls. There are three basic parts of a cinnamon roll:
The Dough
The Filling
The Frosting

My mom's rolls define the first class, hers rate very high on the Dough scale, it is soft and delicious. I can't even think of the words to describe them, but I definitely eat them for the dough.

The Filling is often the highlight of other cinnamon rolls I have experienced. My cousin Megan (who we stayed with during the snowpocalypse) made some of "Aunt Cherie's Cinnamon Rolls", which were gooey and delicious. They rated very high on the Filling scale. (plus Megan gave me a tip, when you microwave a cinnamon roll, put a bit of butter on it, it melts in and keeps everything moist).

The Frosting, the obvious example here is Cinnabon. They are so coated with a rich and creamy cream cheese frosting, with one look I have to weigh the pluses and minuses of the dental work it will cause me to endure if I eat one.
My mom uses a spare glaze that I am used to and doesn't cause mental toothaches.

In conclusion, what do you prefer? Do you have any additional observations to add?

Sisters (and Cousins) in Texas Trip

I took the girls down to Texas for a quick visit with the fabulous Franciscos. It was so fun to see how big they are and to visit their big new house, I call it Mansion House II. 

The kids enjoyed almost daily dips in their hot tub, and Ben finished building this clothesline hours before we arrived, so I felt we just had to put it to use.

 After weeks and weeks of asking for it, we finally made some candy sushi with fruit roll ups and rice krispies and gummy bugs. So yummy, then we sent the kids outside to run it off.

One of our grandest adventures was visiting the SAS factory, it's very old-timey with old cars and a general store that sells popcorn for 15 cents and cokes for 10 cents. They also had a penny candy section, where you can fill a bag for $2 with anything you can reach. The kids loved it, I thought it was pretty fun too.

 This was an old toy car inside, the kids climbed in to check it out.

Other, undocumented highlights include:

Pocahontas

Downton Abbey

Desserts, Desserts, Desserts

Skippyjon Jones

Literal Videos on YouTube

Swings

Trying to go places that are closed

Thanks Franciscos! We miss you a lot.

Anna photography

Anna took all these pictures of her sister while I was in the other room.

I'm glad someone is taking pictures of Eliza.

Christmas Gingerbread House

I just finished cleaning up after making our Christmas Candy House (2011)! Our neighbor friends showed up at the door just as I was getting the roof on and Anna was arranging the candy. So they helped us decorate, it was a little nerve wracking for me as the first thing they did was push licorice ropes into the roof seams that were still a little tender, but I'm glad they were there.

 Our Mission Statement was "More is More"

 Actually the 4 year old had a very classy minimalist thing going. Totally put me to shame. I have gaudy taste in candy houses.

FAQs:
Q: Is that a kit?
A: No it is not. For the first time ever, I designed and built a fancier-type gingerbread house based on one I found in a book. I made the dough, cut it out, baked it and built it with my own two little sticky hands. It is about one foot tall and 14 inches long. None of the angles meet and there is a wall awkwardly sticking out in the front.

Q: How long did that take?
A: 3 days? One for making dough and designing, one for baking, one for assembly and decorating.

Q: What about the icing?
A: I made the icing, that is primarily what made my hands sticky. I do not like the recipe I used. I wish I could remember what recipe I used for our Halloween house, it worked much better. This house used all of 2 batches of icing.

Q: Did you make the candy too, smarty pants?
A: I did not make the candy, but I did take my 2 kids to the grocery store in the middle of the day to buy candy, which is never really a good idea. Eliza had a death grip on the M&M bag.

Q: Is that a mirror?
A: Yes, I put the whole thing on a mirror because I couldn't find a board strong enough but light-weight enough to hold it. I think it looks nice.

Q: What's with the windows?
A: If you crush up some hard candies (jolly ranchers) then put them in the window cut outs with 5 minutes left to bake, they will melt down and make some killer colored windows. I think this is the coolest part, and the part I was most worried about, but it was no problem.

 So, that's the deal. Fun times!

Thanksgiving Cinderella

For a special Thanksgiving treat Gramma and Aunt Rachel arranged for Cinderella to meet Anna before dinner. Here are the best pics, courtesy Aunt Rachel

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Screaming baby? love it. This is very similar to how her visit with Santa went.

As Seen On TV

 The following is an example of my hair dream and hair reality as depicted by bygone cartoon characters.

Hair Dream

Hair Reality

Secrets

So Friday night I took Anna to a Relief Society night, she played with some older girls while I oversaw the quilting project. At the end of the night I collected my children. Anna kept conscientiously pulling her skirt over her knee and saying "oh that's a secret". I pretty much figured that she fell down and ripped a hole in her tights but I was ok with it. So I told her she didn't need to keep it a secret because I wasn't mad. Well she was outrageously upset that I figured out her secret (she was an hour past her bedtime). She just desperately wanted me to not know her secret.

On Sunday, Eliza was sick so Ben took Anna to church. She was apparently very good in sacrament meeting, so Ben praised her for that and said "I want to tell Mommy how good you were" and she said "No! let's keep it a secret" Ben asked why, and she said, "Because I need to have secrets from Mommy."
Of course, Ben told me this, but it's ok. Anna still thinks it's a secret.

Halloween and Thad's visit

Halloween - October 31st.

Thad's visit - October 29th.
Largest, earliest snowstorm to hit Connecticut, like, ever - October 29th

We lost power at about 3:30 on Saturday the 29th, we stayed in through the night as the snow fell. We all slept together in the girl's room to keep it nice and toasty. In the morning we had 12-18" of snow and we heard that it would take probably a week to get the power back on. Basically the whole state, plus parts of surrounding states were without power. So we packed up and headed out the door. We didn't have great phone reception (more than a few cell towers had been damaged) and the roads were extremely treacherous with downed power lines and trees all over the place. We made it to the highway with less than 1/2 tank of gas. We tried to stop and get gas a few times but the cars were lined up or the stations were just plain out of gas. Once we made it out of CT and closer into Boston we found some gas and food.

I called my amazing and gracious Cousin Megan to see if we could take refuge at their house outside of Boston and she offered before I could even ask. She and her whole family were amazing and so much fun to hang out with. She also happened to have a 4 year old son - doesn't get better than that.

On Monday we hooked up with Thad, who was staying with our friend in Cambridge. We played at the house all day then Anna finally got to go Trick or Treating. This was her first time and she was great at it; not at all shy or timid, and also very polite. I took her for half the time, then Thad took her while I took a cold Eliza Unicorn inside.

So pretty much the whole week we had a little vacation. Ben worked from his computer at Megan's or took the day off to play. We went to the Museum of Science in Boston - It had some awesome exhibits. At one table you could make a bobsled out of the materials they provided, the goal was to either have the fastest or the slowest bobsled and Anna's was the slowest. It took 14 seconds to go down a 3 foot ramp. So we got to put her name up on the leader board. (she was competing against all the high school kids there on a field trip). Thad and I and the girls went to Plimouth  Plantation, which was pretty fun, except for the 2,000 field trippers chasing the chickens around. We just hung out until 2:00 when we knew they had to leave.

All the while we were checking the online map of Connecticut outages. It was bleak. Our town consistently had the highest percentage of customers without power. It was hard watch as it just didn't improve for the first 5-6 days. The original goal was to have power back on for 99% of the state by Sunday night, we were still above 50% that night. So they pushed the timeline back to Monday, then Wednesday.

We also spent a few days with Gramma Lynne who also lives near Boston. At the end of the week she went on vacation and let us take over her condo for a few nights, we were so grateful for that. We got to play with Aunt Rachel, playing Candyland and doing some paintings.

We planned to stay until Tuesday morning then head back. On our drive in we got the call from our neighbors that the power was restored at 3:30 that morning. Most of the trees in our complex were missing a few branches, it looks very different.

Recipes That Don't Work - Chicken Soup (For The Soul)

Chicken Soup (for the Soul)
1 Can chicken chunks
1 Can chicken broth
3-4 Carrots
3-4 Celery
Cumin
Salt
etc.

Directions: Get out the cans and your can opener. Open the first can, distractedly pour out the juice. Notice the can is now empty. Begin laughing hysterically because you just dumped out an entire can (your last) of chicken broth. Keep laughing 3-5 minutes. Call someone who will laugh with you even though they can't understand you because you are laughing so hard.
There, now doesn't your soul feel better?

Congratulations, you tried to make chicken soup and it didn't work!

First Birthday Party Pictures

For Eliza's 1st birthday we made some chocolate cupcakes with a dollop of frosting. I feel I should describe them because the sippy cup is in the way. 

 She loved it and ate the whole thing. Her sister just ate the frosting off of hers then asked for another one.

I found only 2 pictures of her opening presents, this blurry one and a non-smiling one. She was spoiled by her grandma's who gave her toys and books, I gave her a homemade dress that is too big for her and a crochet giraffe that I was promptly put into a toy chest and I have not seen it since. Her sister got her a bouquet of flowers and a squishy dinosaur.

So, that was Eliza on her birthday. They are both getting cuter everyday.

New Rule

When I rule the world it will be an enforceable rule that as long as mothers have to change diapers, the child/baby will have to take at least 2 naps per day.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Eliza 1 Year Old

Height: 27 3/4"

Weight: 16 lbs 4 oz

Enjoys crawling around, looking at pictures of herself on my phone/ipod, keeping her sister up late with screams and giggling, eating everything, riding in her toy car, sprouting teeth, smiling.  

New Bike!

So Anna is pretty well potty trained now, I know I had an alarmist blog about this recently, it finally came to a head and she learned how to use the head. I will spare you the details. But she got a sweet tricycle out of the deal. I let her pick from a bunch of cool helmets, she picked a shark. So cool.

She rides around our condo parking lot a lot with her friends, kind of a Heck's Angels group; all in pink with some princesses and tassles thrown in.

Chalk Paint

 Have you ever left your sidewalk chalk out in the rain and assumed it's ruined? Well, I tell you it is not. This activity did not exactly come from that kind of experience, but in my pre-mom years I observed that sidewalk chalk was more vibrant and clay-ey when it got wet.

 Step one, find a puddle or create one (with water). Then color it up with your chalk until it looks kind of paint-like. It usually takes us most or all of one piece of normal sidewalk chalk in a small puddle. We go through our chalk pretty fast.

Step Two: Do hand and foot prints everywhere! I haven't experimented with paintbrushes or other means yet.

 Butterfly!

 Anna and her little friend Lily.

So last week we found chalk on sale for 75% off because it's a summer toy; so we got these massive chalks, 7x larger than a normal piece, only $1.50, score! 

 This is kind of what our front walkway looks like right now. rainbowy.

Time Capsule

Anna is playing wedding this afternoon. I helped her put on her biggest white dress (probably a 6T), she put on her ballerina slippers and, while I was on the phone, found a red marker and did her 'makeup' coloring her lips, spots on her cheeks and on her nose.

Now she is gathering all the costume jewelry she can find, including a christmas lights necklace, and asking for a "wedding hood" which I think means a veil.

Somehow this was all brought about by a new Ariel magical cell phone toy that I finally relented to buy her. She promised to play with it all afternoon instead of watching any more shows or movies. I am supposed to be the Prince, but I have suggested a few times that she use a giant penguin instead.

The wedding cake is banana bread. It's a beautiful, peaceful and quiet event.

Guest Editor

These do not relate to any new stories or adventures, they are just nice pictures of these cute girls, so I let Anna do the captioning.

 umm, yeah, that one could be good.  I think it's so silly.

Eliza, I like that one. She's doing this "ptpey777ythhughythgjuj"

Me and Eliza.

ghthngnngjgngnthngnjghj

 

That's her bootie that you made with crochet.