Thirty-Five

I made this raspberry buttermilk cake with raspberries and blueberries, and whipped cream.

The Cheese Stands Alone

A Surprise Visit

from Santa Claus?

Velvet

So much for low maintenance fish: Bluey's got a parasitic infection.

Home on the Range

That's where the chief lives – in his "easy tee pee village".

Transition Meeting

In several months, when Z turns three, she'll age out of the First Steps program and I'm opting to have her evaluated for continued therapy through the public school system. As I found out at Tuesday's informational meeting, however, it's a very long shot, since Z has to show a two standard deviation delay in *both* gross and fine motor skills in order to qualify. (Her fine motor skills have never been a concern.) I'm curious to know what they have to say – testing is done without parents present – so I'm going to go ahead with it.

Let Go [Video]

Let Go

M's becoming pretty proficient at pulling to standing, so when, in the last couple of days, she's been experimenting with letting go her grip, I know trouble's coming to dinner.

Lizard

I had nothing to do with this:

Drew used his childhood lizard-catching skills to grab hold of this one for G. apparently she really enjoyed the experience, showing me exactly how she was supposed to hold still so it wouldn't run off, how to hold her hand to the ground and give it a little twitch to release the lizard.

Play

I enjoy watching the concentrated play at this age: they're discovering new things, everything's amazing.

Baozi

Combining two somewhat practiced recipes – hua juan and potstickers – from my repertoire, I made baozi on Saturday. I think the individual baozi need to be made smaller in order to get a better shape, i.e. not a flat mound; and maybe the dough needs a bit more sugar to balance the salty meat filling.

Hamantaschen

I did some baking for the church over the weekend. Since Purim started on Friday, I decided to make hamantaschen and run-of-the-mill oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

I made Haman's pockets for the first time for Purim last year using an assortment of fillings – apricot was the best –; this year I decided to hunt down the traditional poppy seed filling (in a can). Though I already had a recipe all picked out, I decided at the last minute to try Solo's recipe, and was disappointed. Probably half the batch ended up falling apart during the baking, so unfortunately, we had to eat them ourselves: I didn't think they were church-presentable.

I'm not waiting until next Purim to make another batch. I'm going to try this recipe – and maybe making my own poppy seed filling.

Paint

Quick Trip

The end of another visit from AhPoh. She was here only briefly – less than a week – for G's birthday.

The Lion and the Tiger: 9 Months

I forgot to post this: it's a week late.

Can't get this baby to sit still for anything...

Bike Ride Date

The weather being so nice, Drew and I went on a little bicycle tour of our neighborhood yesterday after dinner. (AhPoh kept the girls occupied with Uno.) It's the first time I've taken my new bicycle out, aside from a spin or two around the cul-de-sac, and it was a pretty sweet ride.

Baby in a Basket

Planet

I had suggested my mom get G a globe for her birthday. Of course I was envisioning one of those free-standing table top ones, but this soft planet, which arrived yesterday, is much better.

Christmas in March

Thank you Uncle Mark and Aunt Cindy, Christopher and Susan.

Six

Ah how time flies.

I made this chocolate Bundt – with whipped cream and strawberries on the side, as requested by the birthday girl.

We invited Elizabeth and her sister Emily, and the piano teacher to celebrate with us.

We got G a sewing basket; and

one of those Simon games. Ideally, I could have won one of the originals off eBay, but they were often more than I wanted to spend being collector's items and all. So we settled for the Trickster version, which has four different games on it, including the classic Simon.

14:49

Bluey had been living in a toxic sludge – so says Drew – for a couple of weeks because I ran out of water conditioner stuff. (If left out overnight, chlorine of its own will evaporate from water, but then there's another chlorine element that doesn't.) So last weekend I made an off-hand comment that I should run over to Petco to get some, would take me about fifteen minutes. Drew said, "Wanna make a bet?"

I considered: Petco is separated from our house by about two miles and two stop lights. It could be done. So with stopwatches synchronized, I ran out the door thinking to myself, "I can't believe I'm doing this." I hit a few minor snags along the way, like the girl on her learner's permit(?) and not being able to locate the water conditioner on the first or second try, but the short of it is, I made it home in 14 minutes and 49 seconds.

---
Several days later, Drew made it to and from Panera, which is on the opposite side of the same shopping plaza as Petco, in less than 15 minutes, approximately: we weren't timing it to the second.

Mischief

Coincidence that her name starts with the same letter? I think not.

Behind that barrier, those fireplace accouterments are just begging to be touched.

Roses

Been busy: nothing in particular. Hopefully things let up after this weekend.

Wipes

I can see the lure, pulling wipe after wipe after wipe, it's like magic. Nothing's safe from this baby these days.

Earwax

G: Look, M's scratching her ears.
G and BB begin to mimic M scratching her ears, and I go back to feeding M her breakfast.
BB: The flavor from my ears is kind of bitter.

Just in case you've ever wondered, you have the report from someone who's tried it.

Riding the Storm

So as I watch G throw her temper tantrum, I wonder, was I this ridiculous when I had my tantrums? (Don't answer that, AhPoh.)

Gappy

She kept grabbing at the camera so I couldn't get the shot, nor the smile, that I wanted. You can see a hint of her two front teeth: they're so adorable.

Leap

It's kind of hard to tell with the stairs in the background like that, but there's no denying that hair. We even got Z to take a couple of "leaps" – with help, so I wasn't able to take pictures of her doing it.