Clouds and bread

Since it was another drizzly overcast day, Jonah and I headed to the library this morning. On the drive there, we saw the sun peaking through the clouds onto the Olympic mountains. So, I thought it might be nice to stop at Carkeek playground before the library. When we lived in California, we would always say, "it doesn't snows here, but we can see the snow," meaning, during winter, we could see the snow-capped mountains, but it never snowed where we lived. In Seattle, it's quite similar. We can often *see* the sun shining down on the mountains, but it isn't sunny in Seattle.

Off in the distance is Olympic National Park. We could see bits of sun shining on the snow-capped mountains, but no sun in Seattle.

In the afternoon, I attempted bread again. I think it was a little bit better than last time, but different. The bread was a little softer than last time, but I cooked it at a slightly cooler temperature for a little bit shorter time. There is still some hope for my bread. I haven't given up yet.

This pizza was nothing more than flour, yeast, salt, tomatoes, garlic, basil, onion, and cheese a few hours ago.

Marginal improvement since last time

Still not exactly what I'm after

Mealtime

Jonah can really eat. A lot. I'm not sure how much he weighs now, but it's probably around thirty pounds. For breakfast, Jonah ate a banana, a bowl of cereal, and a small cup of milk. Then a couple hours later, he ate two cereal bars and a few Cheez-its (for some reason there was an open box in the van). Then, while I did a bit of grocery shopping at Whole Foods, Jonah ate an orange and some grapefruit samples. After a few more Cheez-its in the car, we came home for lunch. After all his snacking, I didn't think Jonah would eat a big lunch, but he devoured a half a can of spaghettios (WFs, organic, of course because we DO live in Seattle). Still looking around for more food, I gave Jonah a handful of chocolate dipped sunflower seeds. After this, Jonah took a good nap. When he woke up, I decided not to give him a snack because dinner would be ready shortly. So, when I said "dinner time!" Jonah ran downstairs (as fast as a toddler can) and crawled up into his booster seat. After two helpings of shepherds pie, the all-in-one protein, starch, and vegetable casserole, I felt he earned a dessert. A small cup of hot cocoa made Jonah all smiles.

Look at that belly. Is that normal?

Genna could disappear behind Jonah

After a big meal his belly sticks out. His bum is also sticking out due to the bulky cloth diaper. He's my macho boy.

Bedtime

Jonah's new bed has been a bit of a challenge. He enjoys the freedom he has to climb in and out of his bed all by himself. This means that I have a difficult time making him stay in his bed. I normally have to threaten to put him in his pack-n-play, where he cannot climb in and out by himself (also known as the port-a-prison).

When I tell Jonah it's time to go to bed, he happily climbs into bed and assesses the stuffed animal situation. He takes a look at his animals to make sure that at least a few of his favorites are already in bed (Dog, Elephant Pillow, Horse, Owl, Duckie, Rat, Lamb and Alligator). Occasionally, he'll miss a particular animal, climb out of bed and look for it. Then, Jonah assesses Genna's stuffed animal situation. There are a few stuffed animals that belong to Genna that Jonah really likes (Bunny, Bear with Red Shirt—not to be confused with Pooh Bear—the actual Pooh Bear, and Bear—another one). Fortunately, Genna is really only attached to Elephant. I think that Jonah knows this, so he never goes after Elephant. If Jonah determines that he is not satisfied with his stuffed animals, he'll climb out of bed and take one of Genna's animals. If Genna is in her bed, there might be a small squabble, but they usually come to a compromise. The kids are surprisingly good at negotiating for stuffed animals. If Jonah tries to take an animal that Genna really wants at that moment in time, she can usually find a substitute animal that Jonah will be happy with.

After the stuffed animal situation is satisfactory, Jonah then gets into his "play" mode where he looks for a few toys, tries to put them in his bed, or tries to play games with Genna, such as tossing a stuffed animal back and forth, but since neither of them can consistently toss an animal to the other's bed, this results in a few more times that Jonah is in an out of his bed. Genna (who never gets out of bed once she is in it), then starts telling Jonah that he has to get back in bed. After this goes on for a few minutes, I usually have to step in and threaten the pack-n-play. Eventually, though, Jonah usually gives up (or just gets tired enough) and stays in his bed. He tosses and turns for a while, but eventually falls into that baby-slumber where he looks so innocent and adorable. Finally, success for me.

A little playtime before bed

Zoom! Zoom!

Tonight's dinner: Lebanese flatbread salad with hummus. It wasn't easy finding sumac. I am really going to miss my Lebanese cookbook when I have to return it to the library.

Sunday nights

I tend to dread Sunday nights in Seattle because we have to clean up the downstairs kitchen and foyer for school on Monday (we share the first floor with a preschool). In just three short days, the four of us can really make a mess. Jonah has taken a liking to the little cubbies where I store his mittens and hats. By "liking" I mean that he takes all the things out of his cubby and throws them all around the foyer. The kids also discovered that they can throw their stuffed animals off the balcony of the second floor and have them land in the front hallway without me immediately stopping all of their fun; stuffed animals don't make a loud noise, so I don't know that the kids are getting into mischief until I suddenly find ten stuffed animals in the hallway. Also, we are not as diligent about cleaning the kitchen when school is not in session. So, we have to spend about twenty minutes Sunday night (or in this weekend's case, early Monday morning) cleaning up. On the other hand, I'm glad that we do have this weekly deadline, otherwise who knows when we'd clean up. Would we wait a couple months like we did with the upstairs? I wonder what will happen when we get back to Baltimore and don't have these deadlines anymore. It could be a bit scary.

That's a little bit of chocolate doughnut on Jonah's face. This is the look he gets on his face just before he poops, the doughnut probably was the cause of the tummy-rumbling.

Stuff be gone

One of Noah's college roommates was visiting Seattle this weekend and we tentatively planned to have them over at our apartment. So, Noah and I spent about thirty minutes this morning trying to make the house presentable (i.e. not completely disgusting). It had been almost three months since I've really "cleaned" our place here and the amount of dust bunnies that accumulate is always a bit frightening. Then there's the clutter. Even though I've made a very conscious effort to not buy the kids a bunch of toys here, knowing that we would have to pack them up in the minivan to move back to Baltimore, the kids somehow seem to accumulate piles of stuff. I can't exactly define the "stuff;" it's not really toys, but just little accumulations of things that they've grown attached to. Genna is still holding on to all her Valentine cards. She just loves them and knows which kid gave her every card. Then there are the birthday cards for Jonah - both kids love those. Then there's all of Genna's drawings and little things that she makes in school. Then there's the magnets and bookmarks and stickers and tatoos that seem to multiple like rabbits. By themselves, none of these things are big nor bothersome, but as a whole, the "stuff" makes the house messy and difficult to clean. So, this morning, while the kids were playing elsewhere, I did the unthinkable. I put most of the "stuff" in the trash or recycling. We'll see how the kids cope, or if they even notice. Genna did spend about five minutes looking for the little heart card she made Jonah for his birthday. I told her that it would "turn up," of course hoping that in a week or two she would forget about it. I took a gamble this morning, but it was for my sanity.

The Conservatory at Volunteer Park. I'm sure Jonah was not supposed to play in the water, but I made sure he didn't disturb any plants.  

Jonah is trying to adjust the temperature and humidity at the conservatory

Nick, Erica, Madeleine, Henry, and Sullivan

Head to toe

Today, Jonah was the envy of every other toddler at Greenlake Park. It was a beautiful day: sunny, blue skies and a few puffy white clouds. After gymnastics, I took the kids to the Greenlake park. It's a little lake with trails around the perimeter (perhaps a couple miles), and a playground on one end. At the edge of the playground, between the soft walking trail and the grassy playground, there was a good-sized mud puddle, perhaps about 2 feet in diameter and a good three inches deep. Before I could swoop down and pick up Jonah, he ran to the puddle and jumped right in the middle of it. The bottom two inches of his pants were covered in mud. Since the damage was done, I let him continue to play in the mud puddle. We had the little purple princess doll stroller with us (one of Jonah's absolute favorite toys), so Jonah spent the next thirty minutes running through the puddle, stomping in it and pushing the stroller through it. At least eight other toddlers wanted to do the exact same thing as Jonah, but all I heard was "No! Stop, Olivia!" "Jacob, we're not going to play in the mud today!" "No, no! Lilly, let's play somewhere else." Jonah was the only toddler allowed to play in the mud, and it was the highlight of his day, if not the week. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me (we were our usual 5 minutes late for gymnastics and I didn't have time to run back in the house for my camera), but just imagine my little butterball Jonah covered in mud from toes to shoulders and lots of mud splattered on his face. Truly, ever other toddler at the park today tried and/or wished they could jump in the mud like Jonah. Sure, I have a lot of laundry to do now, but I just couldn't deny him one of the happiest moments of his toddler life.

Two kids, pink pj's. This is blackmail for when Jonah is a teenager. 

Dora!

Clouds all around

A friend of ours lost their 8-day infant son today. There are no words that anyone can utter that can express the sorrow that we feel for their family. As bad as I feel, I almost feel guilty about how fortunate I am. It is impossible for me to know how sad and heartbroken our friends feel.  I try to think about how they must feel, but I know that I can't. The only thing I can imagine that might be close is the feeling I get from the time that I see one of kids get hurt, until the time I can rationally assess their injuries; usually this is just a few seconds. For example, today, Genna fell down the stairs. I was in the kitchen and I heard her fall in the hallway stairwell. She was okay, but there was about one and a half seconds from the time I heard that horrible noise to the time that Genna started screaming (at which point I knew she was basically okay). During that brief moment, I'm overwhelmed with intense feelings. For about a half a second, my heart stops. Then for another half second, there is complete silence where I am partially paralyzed; I'm pretty sure I can only partially breath, but at the same time, there are tons of things racing through my mind: tons of questions about what really happened, what should I do. And then there's a small amount of guilt. I wonder why I wasn't upstairs with Genna, which would have prevented this entirely. For me, this gut-wrenching feeling only lasts about a second and a half, but for our friends, this clouded paralysis and emptiness will last the rest of their lives.

The other activities of the day seem trivial, but I'll document them anyway in the spirit of being thankful how fortunate that I am: I made bread again and although it still was far from what I want it to be, it exhibited improvement. Crust was better, and although I did not get the huge light, airy pockets that I wanted, it was about a 10% improvement over my last loaf. It of course tasted very good and the kids gobbled it up like it was candy, but pretty much any warm bread out of the oven is irresistible. So, I won't give up on the bread-making... yet.

Bread - looking better, but still requiring significant improvement

Dinner also goes down as a success: calamari, basil and white wine pasta.  Oh yeah, I decided not to do the no wine & spirits for lent. I can't really judge a good meal unless it has an accompanying wine. 

A good day

I waited a very long time for today. Genna is 4 and a half years old, but I think I've been waiting even longer than that for today. Today was Genna's first ballet recital. It was only 15 minutes long and well, kind of what you'd expect from a group of eight 3 & 4-year olds, but there was an instant where I got a little choked up to see my little Genna relevé, posé, and plié in the community center all-purpose room A.

First position 

Pansy dance

My little pansy in the center

The paparazzi 

One last pose for mama. Jonah has been great too. He sat quietly through the entire performance. What a trooper. 

This was the first (somewhat) warm beautiful day we've had this year in Seattle. I never tire of looking at Mt. Rainier out of our back window. I wonder if its name "Rainier" has anything to do with rain?

Chocolate

I chaperoned Genna's field trip today to the Theo Chocolate Factory. They are a local micro chocolate maker in Seattle. What could be more fun than chasing fifteen little 4-year-olds around a factory filled with chocolate and dangerous equipment?

Children in Hairnets

This was the "lecture" portion of our tour.

Genna making a fashion statement. We, of course, brought the hairnets home with us.

Sampling cacao nibs. 

Can we get seconds?

"Don't sneeze on the equipment!"

I miss my engineering days. Note that these controls are all in German.

Cacao beans. Only two kids started jumping in the buckets before we caught them. FYI - do not buy any Theo's Chocolate with a date code of March 22, 2011 (only kidding). 

Equipment

Factory scrap

Is it chocolate or beer?

I think I spot a defect

Love this sign

Can we get more samples?

I had a fun time on the tour, and so did the kids. There were plenty of chocolate samples which resulted in a bit of preschool wildness, but a little over-indulging is always fun. I would like to return to the factory and take a "grown up" tour. As a chocolate-lover and former manufacturing engineer, I had a ton of questions, but they just weren't appropriate with a group of 4-year-olds. Several years ago I toured the Scharffen Berger chocolate factory in Berkeley, CA. They were the first micro-chocolate factory in the US. They have since been purchased by Hershey's and closed the Berkeley factory, but I still love their chocolate.

I think I better sneak downstairs for a few pieces of chocolate right now, while the kids are sleeping.

A little clean up today

I tried cleaning the house a bit today, but that's close to impossible because no matter how hard I try, the kids can scatter the toys around the room much faster than I can put them away. It's often hopeless.

Since Genna was in school, I did manage to clean up and recycle some of her drawings. Shortly after we moved here I purchased a ream of 650 sheets of paper. And even though I insist that Genna uses both sides of the paper, we are nearly through 2/3's of the ream. Genna can sit and draw for hours and hours. She also  loves to write her letters and numbers. This is all great, except that if she sees one of her drawings in the recycle bin, she starts to cry. She doesn't want us to throw away any of her artwork or "books." That means we have 400 pieces of paper that we cannot throw away, not including the 100+ drawings she's done at school. Our refrigerator is covered in art and we've long since run out of magnets. So, while she is at school, it is my time to sneak some of her drawings into the recycle bin. I just have to let Noah know that Genna can't help take out the recycling. One time she was helping and started to cry when she saw some of her works in the recycling dumpster; that stack of drawings came back in the house. Boy did I feel like a bad parent that evening.

Genna reading one of her books to me. She's actually starting to sound out some of the words now instead of just memorizing.

"Look at the pictures, mommy" 

Jonah and his "learn your colors" book

Jonah trying to draw like her sister. Genna appropriately calls his drawings "fireworks." Jonah often draws a few "fireworks" scribbles, then runs over to me with his paper to show me, "Fire-orkf, mama!"
Note the mature grip on the crayon; Genna has taught him well. 

Colors were too exhausting, so Jonah had to rest for a couple minutes with on of his beloved tags.

Noah made a macchiato. Note the fine detail in the foam design.

I took a sip of the macchiato. Noah gets so mad when I suck all the foam off the top of his macchiato. 

Noah had to make another macchiato; I was not allowed to take a sip of this one.

Baby-ccino for the boy

Baby-ccino for the girl

Tags

Jonah sucks his thumb. He started sucking his right thumb regularly when he was about four months old, predominantly when he's tired and trying to fall asleep. His favorite way to suck his thumb was thumb-in-mouth and left hand rubbing the back of his head. I had thought about popping a binky in his mouth every time he sucked his thumb, but it was just so cute and I didn't have to hassle with a binky like I did with Genna.

When Jonah got a little older, he transitioned to sucking his thumb and rubbing a tag in his left hand, usually between his thumb and index finger. He started out with stuffed animal tags. He liked his "taggie" for a while (an infant toy with about a dozen tags; apparently tags are very popular with lots of kids). But then Jonah started having preferences in tags. He likes the "silky" ones best, secondly he likes the cloth-type. However, Jonah is always willings to test new tags. In fact, when he sees a tag, it's almost like he has an involentary reflex to test the tag. Genna has a dress where the tag sticks out, and when spotted by Jonah, he immediately puts his thumb in his mouth and starts reaching for the tag. Carter's brand pajama's have very silky tags, so when we're dressing Jonah for bed, he always has to suck his thumb and feel the pajama tag for a few seconds before putting it on. We often now just let Jonah sleep with an extra pajama set in his bed so he can suck his thumb and hold his favorite pajama tag. His brown jacket also has some very desireable tags. He now refuses to put on his jacket unless he gets a few seconds of thumb-sucking with each of the two tags on his jacket; one on the inner side, and one in the back by the collar. Jonah does not stop at traditional stuffed animal or clothing tags either. There's a tag on a rug that we have. He had to test it out. Fortunately, he didn't like the tag, so I haven't seen him do it since. Today, there was shipping box with a very smooth address label. He just wanted to test it out, so in went his thumb and the left hand felt the shipping label. Again, not a very good tag, but at least he can say he tried it. Mittens have great tags when Jonah is tired, so do hats. Another convenient tag is on the stroller that he loves to push around the neighborhood and playgrounds. It's perfect because if he gets tired, he can stop pushing and get a few hits off the stroller tag. I'm sure in a few months or maybe a few years I'll be pleading with him to stop sucking his thumb, but for right now, I think it is adorable.

Jonah had his hat tag on-deck when we were out to lunch today. 

An exhausting walk calls for a little thumb-sucking with the stroller tag

Playground today!

Wheeeeee!!!

Working hard. The helmet is because she was riding her balance bike.

Three musketeers on the slide

I don't know what we'd do at a restaurant without crayons

Jonah had a good lunch

Genna rarely eats as much as Jonah, but today she ultimately polished of the M&C and broccoli (already gone). 

Thanks, Noah, for taking such a flattering picture of me.

Why is that boy so cute in just his diaper?

Getting into trouble playing with daddy's computer

Balance bike