Category Archive

Oh, she’s cute.

That she continues to wear the green and lavender cowboy boots almost everyday brings me joy.  And that I had her hair in dog ears–if only for a few hour and if only to disguise the fact that the leave-in conditioner I’d put in her hair made it look greasy–made me happy.  And that she’s starting to read and write?  Utter delight.

Lily does “journal prompts” every day at school. There’s a sheet with room to draw a picture and then a few words like “At the doctor I” or “When I’m scared I” and then she fills it in. I get a week’s worth at a time and they’re about my favorite thing ever.

Here’s a week:

Dinosaurs r bad.

I love mom (with a drawing of her thinking of me)

When I’m scared my mom cums. (ahem.)

I am happy when my mom cisis me (kisses me. how cute is that)

If I could fly I wood fly to urooba.

Then this week’s:

At the doctor I got bedr (child hasn’t even been in a dr.’s office in years)

A teacher teachis

A firefighter savs pipl

A policeman yts donuts.

Steve said, “You know, police do more than eat donuts.” And she said, “Well sometimes they do, if they want a snack before bedtime.”

Tonight we dined in Brazil. This stew was quite delicioso. We also had cheese potatoes from my Global Vegetarian book. They were a very big hit. I, of course, only had a taste or two. Gotta tell you, finding vegetarian chow in South and Central America is a challege. Sure you have beans and rice and quesadillas, but there’s only so much of that one can take. If nothing else all this global eating is telling where it would be good to travel as a vegetarian. Africa, Middle East, India–no problem! Eastern Europe, South America? Not so much.

Catching up a bit…Ben is sporting that one front tooth gone, one coming in look that I love:

and yes, he is still wearing the piece of yarn and beads he got at Field Day last June. See his fabulous haircut? I took the kids to The Temple for a trim over Spring Break. Ben’s bangs are a bit shorter. Lily is unchanged. But Julianna went shorter and layered. Then the stylist straightened it, which was weird:

She didn’t wash it for 3 days, knowing it would spring back up. She has come to terms with it now, thank goodness, b/c it looked a bit weird, honestly.

And, um…I’m UTTERLY uninspired. Go read Stuff White People Like.

Only in Kenya.  Turns out it’s also a good place for slimy spinach.  We had a bad leg on our journey.  It was bound to happen, I suppose.  I made Kenyan Corn, Bean, and Spinach Mash which really did sound good to me, but…wasn’t.  The spinach was slimy.  Slimy is not an acceptable food texture.  The Garbanzo stew was good, but I didn’t make enough, so I plumped it out by stirring up left over rice and veggie sausage.  The mango snow for dessert was good, but since it is made of mangoes and cream, I’m not surprised.

This morning, when she awoke, Lily said to me “I dreamed that I was at Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends [TV show] and there was a guy that turned into a giant vulva.”

Me, sure I had heard wrong, r’s and a’s are hard to distinguish: Revolver?

Lily: Nooo [implied "you idiot"], a VULVA.  And the giant vulva was chasing a spider.

oKAY.  And she referred to the Vulva as “he.”  So make of it what you will.

For those of you with an unnatural interest in what I eat, I’ve started a semi-blog about my breakfast smoothies.  Check it:  Ugli Shax

Julianna turned 11 yesterday. Holy hand grenade of Antioch. There she is, in the birthday hat, all ready to go to school and listen to countless people say, “Oh, is it your birthday?” It’s a good exercise for her to have to come up with responses. “Um, no…why do you ask?” “Nah, I just like to put cake on my head when my ears get cold.” Mostly, I’m just delighted that she’s inherited my need for attention and willingness to do any stupid thing to get it. Like wear cake on her head.

She had a slumber party Saturday night. Our house is gloriously limiting in these situations. No den or family room means you can only invite as many kids as can fit in your room. And small rooms mean that number is going to be no more than 4. And even at that, kid #4 better be short. So they all brought old T shirts and they had a “T party” cutting up and altering their shirts. And, in all but one case, ultimately throwing them away. Most of them ended up looking like dollar store Peter Pan tunics. Nonetheless, they had fun at it. And it was quiet.

Then came the pizza and then presents and then cake. For some reason, Julianna decided she wanted a brain cake. No problem!

I helped them to put henna designs on their feet (after getting parental approval!) and they watched “Herbie the Love Bug” while it dried. I wasn’t sure they’d like it, the pacing in movies has gotten so much faster, but they were shouting “Go 53! Go 53!” and, of course, punching the crap out of each other. Hooray for Punch Buggy! I was glad they liked it. As was Alice:

They went to bed and were fairly quiet and were up the next morning for pancakes. Easy peasy.

Yesterday, for her actual birthday, I cleaned Julianna’s room (Steve: Way to go, reinforcing the notion that rooms need to be cleaned once a year. Me: Whether they need it or not.) and got her a cool mirror at Goodwill. She said that it was one of the best days ever, waking up to a pot of purple tulips and a bag of Werther’s Originals, having a good day at school, going out for custard, and coming home to a clean room. Oh, and pesto for dinner, followed by creme puffs. Yeah, that DOES sound like a pretty good day.

I got to eat Hazel feet! Yum. Looky, can’t you almost smell that yummy tiny baby stink?

Lily informed Emma: My mom always wants to bite babies’ feet. Emma said, a bit horrified, “Really? Why?” Tash said, “Well because they’re so yummy.” Emma was concerned. “Really?” Yes, when you next go to your butcher, be sure to ask for feet. It’s the choicest cut.

I’m sure it couldn’t compete with the cereal at Nonnie and Papa’s house, though. Here, we get Whole Grain Groaty Os and Sugar Barren Kasha Kakes but at Nonnie and Papa’s? Whoo doggies! This time, with help from Uncle Justin, they had Chocolate Marshmallow Mateys (or, chocolate Lucky Charms if you’re made of money) and Peanut Butter Chocolate Spheres (or, Cocoa Dodecahedrons, for the name brand). And this doesn’t even take into account the cookies and gum and cobbler and cool whip and just general yum that one can expect from a weekend in Marydel. Remember that Simpsons episode where the Germans buy the plant and Homer hears that Germany is The Land of Chocolate? And he imagines going there? That’s Nonnie and Papa’s house but generalized to all forms of sugar and fat. And lest you think I mock–oh no, no. It is yummy there. Steve and I have joked that after a day at his folks’ house I’m dying for a Little Debbie cake and when I leave my folks’ house, I need a plate of sprouts. We are a well-balanced family.

Luckily, Hazel isn’t scamming any of the sweets just yet. She still needs Andi to process it first. You could see her leaning toward the chocolate peanut butter cheesecake–”More of this, mom! Seriously!” She’s wicked cute:

And even cuter in person. She was happy to have a steady parade of people who were willing to carry her around. I was happy to have more people to step up. Once I saw that there was no sling to carry her in, I was done. I’m too out of shape to haul a baby manually. I just took on the task of telling her how pretty she is. And stealing bites of toes.

Sadly, no one can read that. Driving back from taking the kids to school is prime blog time, but since I have to keep my eyes on the road, you get none of it. Sorry.

This is parent-teacher conference week. I’m so grateful that they are so uneventful. Lily’s teacher seemed a bit confused as to why I was even there (Duh, so you can tell me how brilliant my child is), and Julianna’s teacher was utterly unconcerned that I didn’t get a slot on the schedule. I can make an extra appt, if I want (And I will, because I want her to tell my how brilliant my child is). Even Ben, who is the one I worry about at this point, has a fine report. It would be lovely if he was to do his homework now and again, but other than that, it’s fine. Homework is a new thing, given that it’s a Montessori school. But it is also a Public School, so we have to take the accursed state tests. Because Montessori Math goes in a different sequence than Lame Math, we were getting hosed on that part of the test, at the lower grades. By middle school, it was all fine, but meanwhile, we looked like we were screwing up. And since the school board would like nothing more than to yank our charter, we needed to fix that. Thus was born homework and a math specialist and all manner of extra help. Which is fine. Not hurting anyone. This year, Study Island was introduced, an on-line homework thing (and the least popular Carribean Destination). Whenever I suggest to Ben that perhaps he should log on, he has said, “I can’t remember my password.” I mentioned this to Ms. Kim last night. She said, “His password is Ben.” Well no wonder he was stumped, poor dear. But she was cool about it, as she only cares about homework a smidge more than I do (which is not at all. YOu have them for 6 hours. Get it done then. Home is for play and interacting with family. And watching Fairly Oddparents).

The Eat To Live diet is still going smoothly. The cravings are gone. I’m not tired during the day and don’t get that mid-afternoon crash. Previously, it wasn’t just that I felt kind of laggy, I HAD to lay down. A nap was a must. Now, I nap about once a week, and only because I just love naps. I think I’ve lost about 10-15 lbs, I’m not actually sure of my beginning weight, just what I weighed at my check-up in the fall. The one that made me say, “Holy crap, I last weighed that a week before giving birth.” Best of all, I haven’t had real hip pain in a couple of weeks, in spite of having the rainly low pressure weather that usually does me in. Apparently, in addition to being good for weight loss and heart disease/blood pressure, this is an ideal diet for folks with many auto-immune disorders. The critters and carbs are killing you people. But oh, so yummy.

Speaking of yummy, I’m going to hop off the wagon tomorrow night. We’re going to Isabella’s with Bev and Jerry and Lara and Andrew. It’s my most favoritest b/c it’s lots of little dishes. But best of all, it led to this exchange:

Bev: We’re going to Isabella’s on Friday night with the Greenbergs. It’s Deana’s favorite.

Jerry: Isn’t that the tapas place?

Bev: Um…nooo…I can’t…no…

Jerry: Did you think I said “topless”?

Bev: YES!

So, good times for everyone!

Was there ever a better game than Punch Buggy? You get to seek out VW bugs, the best car ever; you get to punch your friends and family; everyone, everywhere knows what you’re doing, so you can just run up and slug a stranger and say “Punch Buggy red!” and it’s okay! No police involvement! By us, it has evolved a bit. Now we realize that all silver PBs are followed by Punch Buggy Invisible. So you can get in two hits for one if you’re fast. I also told the kids that I see a lot of PBs when they’re in school. So anytime they just feel a random pain for no reason, it means I’ve seen a Buggy and punched them with the power of my mind. They accept this.

I get to bite Hazel this weekend! I can’t actually eat her b/c of the diet, but at least I’ll get a nibble and a sniff. Can’t wait!

I was lying in bed with Lily the other night, as is part of our bedtime ritual. She said, “Hey mom, hear that?” “What?” “Hear that? It’s Fredo. He’s mad we let him get in the road and get hit and now he’s back. He’s out there going ‘waroooo. waroooo.”

We were at the Philadelphia Art Museum yesterday. Lily wanted to see some real Mondrian, Ben wanted to see the armor, and we all could use an excursion. Lily was satisfied by a cursory glance at the Mondrians (”Yep, there they are!”) and we moved on to the armor. I’d seen it years ago and didn’t expect to care to see it again (given that I no longer have need to determine which style my D&D character would most likely sport), but it really was pretty cool. It’s one of those “Holy cow, this is OLD. And this detail was added by the hand of an actual person” moments. Somehow the handiwork of regular men and women (armor, tapestry) is more awe-inspiring than the work of an artist to me…but anyway. On to the funny.

We were standing in front of a case in which there were these wee metal domes. They looked like helmets for cats. Ben asked what they were and I read the little sign that identified them as codpieces. “What’s a codpiece?”

“Well, see how the armor leaves this area totally open? That’s where his penis and scrotum would be and he really, really doesn’t want to get hit there.”

Steve cuts in, “It’s a cup.”

Ben: “I do NOT want to drink out of that cup! I mean, WHO would drink out of a cup like that?!”

Son, that is what the internet is FOR.

Had a lesson in “Why I am not a Kindergarten teacher” today. I was back for my monthly art lesson with Lily’s class. Today, we talked about the art of Piet Mondrian (specifically his works that look like the side of the Partridge Family’s bus ) and learned about parallel and perpendicular. I open my little lessons by reading Bob Raczka’s No One Saw. The text of the book runs along the lines of “No one saw flowers like Georgia O’Keefe” and then there’s a picture of an O’Keefe flower. Today after every line, they’re hitting me with “I do.”

“No one saw mothers like Mary Cassatt”

“I do.”

“No one saw Sundays like George Seurat.”

“I do.”

“No one saw trains like Rene Magritte.”

“I do.”

“Really Quinn? Have you seen a train coming out of a fire place? Really? Because I think you lie. Liar liar pants on fire!” Ahem.

But I get through it. I keep it light. I keep my humor appropriate to small children. I give each of them a 12×12 square of paper with 1 inch grid drawn on. They sit quietly and await instruction. No, no they don’t. They wave the papers in the air and put them on their heads and generally behave like the toilet-trained chimps they are. I do that teacher thing of standing still and silent. They quiet down. (I think this may be some prey-animal instinct. The predator has crouched and is still. We’d better stop flitting about before she pounces on us. ) I pass out red, yellow, and blue squares and rectangles. Before I hand out the glue sticks (because once they have a material in their hands, they begin to use it. Stupid Montessori), I tell them that they will be putting the shapes within the lines of the grid. I demonstrate at each table. Give them the Goofus and Gallant versions. Then I get the glue sticks. Of course, they start slapping them on any old way, but I’m cheery and light, “Okay guys, I know that usually I let you go your own way on these, but this lesson is about parallel and perpendicular. Remember? Keep it in the lines.” And I go table to table. They’re putting one shape on top of another, they’re trying to just hoarde the shapes, they’re gluing both front and back. One of the girls at Lily’s table has folded rectangles like cards and is giving them to her tablemates. Much little girl squeeing. Then she has to take one she’d given to Lily. The tears. Lily, do you SEE the other little rectangles in a pile in front of you? And where did the paper come from in the first place? Your house. That’s right. oy.

Then it was time for the black strips of paper. I had cut them all 1/2 inch by 12 inches. I gave 5 to each kid and then told them that they could cut them to make them shorter if they needed to. I was not specific enough. Lily’s table was cutting confetti. Another boy cut his, jaggedly, up the middle, leading to his gluing down stringy triangles. I’m feeling that old feeling of the first time your first kid is using watercolors and won’t rinse the brush and all the colors turn grey. Of the first playdough that all turns grey. I’ve made all the other projects Super Mellow. I just. wanted. some. damned. lines. When I gave them a pencil with which to write their names on one of the white spots of their pictures, I was specific–”Write JUST your name. Don’t decorate any more of the picture. JUST your name.” One kid wrote hers alllll the way across the page. Another wrote hers 4 times… So it seems that control freaks shouldn’t teach art to children. Next lesson, I’m going to let them draw to music. Totally free. all their own. Lets see how they are able to defy me THERE. HAH!

Anyway, here’s the bulletin board:

Day before Ben’s birthday party and we have nothin’. It’s his birthday today (he’s 8! yikes.) and he managed to control the weather enough to get a day off from school. He’s spent the morning lying on the couch, eating chips, watching Star Wars and playing Lego Star Wars on the DS. And best of all, both girls have gone to friends’ houses. Right now, he’s out to lunch with Steve. So that seems pretty perfect for him. Which is good, b/c as I mentioned we have little in the way of a party planned. Every flippin‘ year. What the hell is wrong with me? I have this inability to actually think of a month until I’m in it. So things that happen in the first week just catch me by surprise. His damned fault for not coming at the end of January like he was supposed to. THEN he would have had a lovely, well-planned party.

He’s no help, really. It finally occured to me this year that if he can’t be bothered, why should I? He can just barely come up with names to invite. And, since we don’t actually invite anyone until 4 or 5 days before the party, all but two are unable to come. So Steve will just take the three boys to Adventure Park USA (known as Hell or Xtreme Chuck E Cheese) to play laser tag. Then they’ll come back for pizza and ice cream cake. Which I’d better go order… He actually requested that, so if I don’t get the order in, I’ll be smooshing ice cream into a cake pan. Which, really, I ought to just do. I’ve never NOT made a birthday cake before. Hm. Screw it. First time for everything. This will be the party I buy my way out of! I wont even have to clean! yay me!

Oh, and sorry about that stupid quiz in the last post. It took me to the dating site when I took one Andi posted a while ago. Seems that a dating service shouldn’t advocate that sort of teasing and bait-and-switch, eh?

Photos! At last! I had all this written, then the whole thing crashed and I couldn’t find a draft and I was wailing and gnashing my teeth and I stormed off. Today, it came back! yay! So here it is:

If you’re on dial-up, just give up your day, ’cause here come the photos…

Maggie really wanted to go too. She thought that hunting lizards would be awesome. And maybe they’d have pudding, too!*

*for those who did not hear the tale…Because of a sale, I had six boxes of pudding mix in the basement on the shelf for excess food. Because I don’t always read well before I click “add to cart” I had about 11 boxes of ice cream cones on that shelf as well. Steve went down one night to get a bag of Trader Joe’s hot mustard won ton chips. The bag turned out to be totally empty, with a wee mousie hole in it. That’s when he noticed that ALL of the pudding and ALL of the ice cream cone boxes were also empty. We realized that the reason why the cats never catch the mice is that the mice are giving the cats pudding. in ice cream cones.

On the way from NJ to NY, we stopped at the Liberty Science Center to kill a couple of hours. From the balcony, you can see the Statue of Liberty, which impressed Lily quite a bit. In person, it seems much closer; in the picture, it looks like we were standing in Indiana.

There were cool interactive exhibits, including one in which you could generate a headline with a photograph to put up on a big board for all to see. This was mine:

Oh for the love of Pete (Best, not Sampras), why is she not showing us any photos of the damned island?! Oh, all right. Here is the view from our hotel room balcony:

Why yes, that IS a rainbow over the Carribean Sea. On our first day. Those Arubans know how to treat a guest. The lazy river and pool was right below us:

The majesty of the hotel iguanas. This one might be Octavius. Or, it might not.

I think this is Sheldon.

This was how we spent the bulk of our time:

There aren’t any photos of me in the river, so imagine me in a big ring like Steve, but with my feet propped in Lily’s little ring, eyes closed, bumping into everyone and not caring even a little. This is before I got in the pool and snagged it:

After the just-cooler-than-a-bath temps of the pool, the Sea seemed chilly. In fact, it was really warm:

But Ben still wouldn’t go in, so he isn’t in the family shot.

Did I mention before that Steve is not quite 4 ft tall? No? Well, there you go. He seems taller b/c of his shoes.

The hotel property goes down to the water, so there are lots of little umbrella tables and chairs with awnings. This photo was from one of the disposables the kids had. Disposable Cameras, the Official Last Known Photo Cameras.

(this is where the original post fell apart. So now is the actual Sunday post.)

Aruba in general was deserty-er than I thought it would be. The landscape isn’t very colorful, but everything else is. Even, as stated in an earlier post, the shopping carts. How flippin’ cute are these?

The houses were really bright. My house is a boring old white colonial compared to the houses there:

That was a fairly representative shot of the roads off of the main drag through Oranjestadt. Deserted and brightly colored with an air of decay. It seemed that if you wanted a house or a business, you just build a new one. There’d be bright shiny new right next to abandoned and derelict. I’m sure we could have asked, but I wasn’t sure these guys would give us the best info:

My only regret is that I wasn’t able to go poke around a cemetery. They all had locked gates, but look how lovely they are:

bright colors and such. And all above ground, of course. I’ve lost Ben as a gravestone buddy. He just doesn’t want to poke around the dead any more. Sigh.

There an ancient volcano in the middle of everything, and that looks pretty odd:

The kids thought about working up some anxiety about it, but luckily that passed. “Look at it. Does it look as if lava has flowed there recently? And by ‘recently’ I mean ‘within the last million years.’”

The Butterfly Farm was a favorite. The kids nearly used up their disposables there. And, of course, once I developed them, I found I had about 80 photos of blurry green foilage with the occasional arm, finger, or –if the aim was true–wing in them. Here are a few of my favorites from MY camera:

That’s a male and a female of…something. This one of the little cabinets they have for the butterflies and moths to hatch in. When they find one on a plant out in the “farm,” they carefully move them to the cabinet. They’re just a little creepy looking.

here’s a scarlet swallowtail that just hatched out!

We kept remarking on how butterflies, at fluttering distance, are pretty pretty! like flowers that fly! and up close they’re BUGS! GAH! I have many more photos, but I’ll spare you. For now. All bets are off if you visit.

We went to the “flea market” right where the cruise ships let off. Quality stuff. Lily checks out the lizard that will soon be hers, while Ben stands limply and complains of the heat.

“Mommy look! It has an iguana!”

hey look, Dora and Garfield are vacationing together! Seriously, copyright violation never gets old to me. It’s my favorite part of any carnival–ill-drawn cartoon characters airbrushed on the rides.

Now photos of our mediocre dinner on the beach! Look, there was a rack for our shoes:

Seriously, we were ON the water:

This was our view. It’s a house you can rent. No electricity or running water, but who cares?

And the sun set right there, much better table-side entertainment than the sax player that later showed up:

This was a couple of houses up from the restaurant. That’s the Aruban flag in his hand, so I guess it’s the guy that fought for them to have their own constitution. But damn, people, that’s some patriotism.

Abandoned playgrounds are never not creepy.

Couple of cool photos from Baby Beach, where we went snorkling:

I’m going to skip over submarine pics b/c they’re all…blue. Not very good. Once I mess with the video, I’ll see if there’s anything worth sharing. So on to Natural Bridge!

So, the Natural Bridge collapsed in 2005. It used to look like this:

Now it looks like this:

Not nearly as majestic, is it? Well, there’s a smaller version forming a few yards to the left. It looks like this:

here are the grandparents with Ben and Lily on it, to give you some scale:

As I mentioned in a previous post, there were all these stones atop other stones. Here are Ben and Lily with one WE made. Because we are horrible followers who come to the islands of others and mess up their rocks:

Ben was so happy climbing rocks. In the car, later, he sighed and said “I’m just so happy.” Which, if you know Ben, is rather a big deal. By nightfall, he was mad about something and declaring it The Worst Day Ever, but for a while, it was nice.

It was a wild and wooly coastline. I guess it’s coral? Really rough and porous:

Wild donkeys! They never moved, except to wiggle an ear or tail. I told the kids that they were actually animatronic. Which they believed. I sometimes forget not to lie to them.

A quick stop at the Bushiribushi Gold Smelter ruins for more rock climbing…

Last night on the island. sigh.

The girls enjoyed the sand one last time:

And Ben enjoyed his hair.

This is the sight that greeted us at the airport. Thats our plane, btw.

This collection box was at our gate. They were all over the island:

When I have the time, I’m going to add the word “terrifying” after the “are.”

There you have it. A quick picture tour. Come visit for more. and now, back to your regularly scheduled winter.

Thanks for the tilda advice, very-soon-to-be-new-mom Andi! Tonight was tapas from the Andalucia region. Holy moly, it was good. We had patatas bravas, ajillo mushrooms, queso de cabra con tomate, and tomates cherry en salsa de torta del casar. Or, for you English speakers, fried potato chunks with a tomato sauce, lemon garlic mushrooms, goat cheese in tomato sauce, and cherry tomatoes in a yummy stinky cheese. They were all fabulous, but the patatas bravas were definitely the group favorite. Julianna did prefer the tomatoes in stinky cheese, but even she–who doesn’t like potatoes–like them. Lily even ate some, after moving on to cheese sticks. Steve, bless him, declare that it may have been the best meal I’ve ever made. So there you go, folks, good chow.

Tonight, in honor of the final night of the Festival of Lights, we ate the food of the Sephardic Jews. Spanish Lentil soup was met with mixed enthusiasm. Ben an I gobbled it down. Julianna and Steve ate politely. Lily tried to get it away from her as if it might become sentient and attack. Sephardic Spinach Patties or Croquetas de Espinaca were beloved by all but Ben. Apparently in some Spanish Jewish houses, these are made instead of latkes. Which is just nuts, as they taste not at all like french fries.

Tonight was my monthly trip in to Lily’s class to teach them about a famous artist and make a huge artist-inspired mess. Today was Jackson Pollack, which meant an ENORmous mess. Much paint slinging. I showed them a youtube video of Pollack in action. I figured they’d zero in on how he was just winging the paint all over the place or at least the fact that he had a cigarette in his mouth. But no. “Wow! He has a big nose!” and then much exclaiming about the nose. And one little boy who kept moaning, “His shoes! Look at his shoes!” It was kind of funny in light of the fact that Converse had a Chuck Taylor ad featuring Pollack, wearing his Chucks, painting. I always thought “An enormous tool that makes, let’s face it, hideous art, wears your shoes? I must have them!” Seriously, it’s not exactly “James Dean wore khakis” now is it?

No clue how to do a tilda over that n. Imagine it and rolll with it. So tonight we begin our Spanish Cuisine week. At Andi’s insistence, I made Tortilla Espanola, which was, as promised, utterly yummers. Like eating in a diner in Madrid. We also had Escalivado Tostadas, essentially roasted veggies on toasted baguette. Again, yummy. To round it out, a lovely Manchego Cheese. The kids liked it all in varying degrees. Lily liked the tortilla served with a red sauce (traditionally sofrito. Tonight, marinara). People, if you’re in a rut, I highly recommend this exercise. There’s just so MUCH good food out there, there’s no excuse to eat the same 10 dishes night after night.

It is the penultimate night of Hanukkah (you know I’m posting that just to use penultimate), and it has mostly gone well. For the benefit of those with similarly aged kids, I’ll post what they got…And, you know, so that I’ll remember in two weeks.

Lily got: Pop up flower fairy book, stuffed otter (upon rejecting the doll clothes), T-shirt from Threadless and slippers, Creature Creator for the Leap Pad (and I’m suddenly plagued with the fear that a grand parent bought that too…I hope not…), a Schleich horse set, a stuffed horse for the horrible rejected dolls to ride (hmpf), a pair of Breyer ponies, and tomorrow’s big gift will be a full set of Blendy pens and pad of paper.

Ben got: a Star Wars graphic novel (fancy comic book), old Pokedex from ebay,a Tshirt from Threadless and slippers, Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green for the GBA,a Pokemon Movie, a new Pokedex, a box of Pokemon cards (are you sensing a theme this year?), and the big gift tomorrow is a Lego Star Wars MTT.

Julianna got: a Bad Cat calendar (full of really, really lame jokes. Some of them more inappropriate than I noticed when I looked at it in the bookstore. She thinks it’s hilarious), a drawing set (replacing the horrible doll clothes), a Tshirt from Threadless and slippers (it’s cold people, and I’m not turning up the heat. Oil is a billion dollars a thimblefull), the game Drawn to Life for the DS, Schleich elves on horseback, a medium sized Breyer horse, a big Breyer horse, and tomorrow’s gift will be a tabletop easel, paints, and canvasses.

Tonight, in addition to the regular gift, Steve gave them each a box of old Topps Little Shop of Horrors Trading Cards. Complete with 22 year old bubblegum. Which probably tastes no different than it did in 1986. Ah, trading card gum, pink flavored glass dusted with powdered sugar. But you should have heard them geeking out as they went through the cards. /Comic Book Guy voice/ Look, this one shows a picture that was in the never-released original ending! /Comic Book Guy voice/ The geek genes are strong in this clan.

Just now with Lily:

Lily: Mommy, what does what mean?

Me, not sure I’d heard correctly: What?

Lily: yes.

Me: yes what?

Lily: yes. what.

Me:

Lily: What does what mean?

Me: the word “what?”

Lily: yes.

Me: It means “sorry, I didn’t hear that” when you use it that way.

Lily dances off, happy. I think, “I’m headed for the blog with this one.”

Use to be that I rather liked the whole Hanukkah set up. 8 nights, one present each night…it meant there wasn’t the frenzied ripping of paper and flinging of gifts. Each gift is given its due. Only here’s the flaw in all of that–if you only get one present, it has to be awesome. So each night will either be exciting or disappointing. In the frenzied scenario, if you get one gift that misses the mark, no matter, there’s another one right over there. But now…Turns out Julianna no longer plays with the Only Hearts Club Dolls (sob), but I didn’t realize and got her an outfit for her dolls. I got one for Lily, too, since she is just getting old enough to dress them. Julianna tried really hard to not be visibly upset, I’ll give her that. She was such a sport that I called her into my room and said I’d let her have a different present and take the outfit back. I gave her a sketch pad and manikin and she was thrilled. Yay. But Lily noticed, and suddenly the outfit which had been fine enough to remove from the packaging was now horrid and she “just remembered” that she doesn’t play with the dolls after all and she wants something else instead…it led to a full on tantrum in which she slapped me and I slapped her back (way to go!) and snarled like a lion. Happy Holidays! So, in further thinking, I’m considering a grab bin. If your present bums you out, you can swap it for something in the bin, which will contain beanie babies and notebooks and the like. And then you shut. up. Ben, btw, got a pokedex, which he asked for.

Last night, we had an Armenian Pilaf. It was tasty to most of us. Lily, of course, refused it after noting that it contained neither macaroni nor cheese. And far too many things that were not either of those magic ingredients. I added some broccolini to it b/c I was beginning to get scurvy. There aren’t a whole lot of green things in yer Eastern European food. Tonight, however! Yum! We had a Belorussian soup (which I freely improvised based on what I had in the fridge. Like any peasant would) and Latvian Vegetable Nuts (you’ll need to scroll down on the link). These little babies were delish. Basically, I sauteed mushrooms and onion in butter, tossed them in the food processor along with a cup of canned garbanzos, a cup of peas, 2 cups of cooked carrots, 2 eggs, some parsley, and matzo meal until it held together. Roll into wee balls toss in flour and FRY BABY FRY! Turns out, that when you sautee things in butter and then deep fry them, and then serve them with sour cream? They’re good. Who knew?

Next week, Steve is in California, so we’ll take a much needed rest from our world tour. I need to cook slacker-style for a while. Then, we’re off to Spain!

I have some things to get through, so just be quiet for a minute. First, the food. Food is always first. Our second night of Eastern European cuisine featured Hungarian Noodles and Fasole Batuta, a Romanian bean dip. Ben and Julianna liked the noodles, Lily did not, in spite of their similarity to mac and cheese, her current sole form of sustenance. The bean dip was VERY garlicky, which means Steve and I ate most of it. Last night, we had a 4-H meeting until 6 and had to be at a play at 7, so I just fried up Pierogies (Mrs. T’s mini’s–in your freezer cabinet!).

Next, Lily’s new-found reading skills are rocking her world just a bit. She was looking over my shoulder as I was reading The Amber Spyglass (terrific!) and saw the word “dragonflies” as a chapter heading. She asked what it was. When I told her, she replied “No, that’s a ‘duh’, dragon starts with a ‘juh’–’jragonflies.” Wow, they do sound the same. So we talked it out, but she was a troubled. Then, a couple of days later, I asked her what dress she wanted to wear. “Dress? I thought it was jress!” She was kind of laughing it off but in this really nervous “NOW what are you going to throw at me?” Knowledge can be unsettling.

Love Project Runway, we know that. But you know, PR Canada is really stepping up the competition on dear ol’ Heidi and Tim. This week on the American show–make boring men’s wear for some ex-athlete with conservative taste. The results were sloppy and dull on the whole and those that were interesting were utterly ignored b/c the guest is the whitest black man since Bryant Gumble. But this week on PR Canada–the models came out dressed in one fashion era or another and the designers had to decide whether to choose by model or by the style they want to be inspired by in the next challenge. Great idea! And then, the challenge? Swimwear. Genius. And then? Not only do they have to design for their model, they have to do a plus sized suit as well. AND they didn’t act like the plus-sized women were lepers. They mostly made good, flattering suits. Yay. Plus, Iman referred to her husband as “Bowie.” love it.

So tonight we started our tour of Eastern European cuisine (Steve: If you make Kasha Varnishkas, I’m going to a restaurant.). I tend to think of this region’s food as Brown. Mushrooms and sour cream and dill. And, in sifting out vegetarian options, I’m not far off the mark. But I think I’ve got us set up decently. Tonight, we had Ukrainian Barley Mushroom Winter Borscht and Sou-berag or Armenian Lasagne. They both were pretty tasty. The lasagne was good b/ c it’s a big ol’ pile of cheese. But the borscht was very good, I thought. But can it be borscht without beets? It can certainly be yummy without beets. In fact, I don’t think it can be yummy WITH beets. But is it borscht? That’s one for the food philosophers. I’m going with it. The kids all liked the lasagne. Julianna ate the soup, Ben ate some, declared it “okay” and gave up. Lily tasted it and refused more. But she’s on a very strict mac-and-cheese regimen.

I draw a map of where we’re eating each week, and I swear drawing this section of Europe was full of “so THAT’s where that is!” moments. When I learned geography, everything west of Poland was “Russia.” Damned inconsiderate of them to break it all up like Ma Bell. As a result, I was looking all over for Armenia. I knew that starving children came from there in the 60s. I thought it was all tucked up there in the cold areas. But no! It’s wedged between Turkey and Albania. Which, thanks to Cheers, I know borders on the Adriatic. And its chief export is chrome.

I was lying in bed with Lily last night, way too late for her to be awake, but there it is. We were in my inlaws bed (they went to a hotel, bless ‘em) and there’s a digital clock on the dresser at the end of the bed. Lily said, “Hey, it’s 10:10!” And I said, “Make a wish!” She said, “I wish I had a pony.” of course. Time passed. She said, “It’s 10:11! Is that a wish time?” I told her sure, any time the numbers match on either side of the two dots or if they make a counting up, you can wish. “I wish Aiden was my boyfriend.”

“What would it mean if Aiden was your boyfriend?”

“MOM, you KNOW what a boyfriend is.”

“What does it mean to you?”

“We’d…um…hang out together?”

“What would you do together?”

“We’d ask our moms to buy us video games. Hey, it’s 10:12. That’s going to be a wish time too. I’ve decided.”

“okay. What do you wish?”

“I wish Aiden loved me back.”

Caroline? Keep your boy away from my child. She’s trouble.

I’m all over these damned blogs, trying to find one that doesn’t give me a seizure or make my eyes bleed. Or crash when I’m uploading blogroll links (lookin’ at you, Blogger!). Okay…picture insertion:

Ima bite dem piggies!! pee-yew!