At Christmas O got a camera from Auntie M, so far he’s run the batteries down, filled the memory card once, and taken dozens of nowhere close to in focus pictures. I was recently inspired to upload the most recent batch of blurry perspectives, and thought I’d share a few.
More of O’s fine work is now up in an album entitled Oliver’s Perspectives at my picasa.
As I surfed around the internet one dreary rainy day I came across a recipe that really made my day. I thought it would be simple, fun and really neat, then I saw the ingredients and I hit delete!
The recipe in question was for star-crunch cookies, the recipe looked so revolting I opted not to bother to try it. A jar of caramel ice-cream topping? Really? Ew.
I also came across a recipe for oatmeal creme pies - another childhood favorite. Yes, at one point my mother put Little Debbie snacks in my lunch (shocking, I know!) This afternoon O wanted to help “cook goo-coos” (cookies) so helped me bake up a batch of oatmeal creme pie knock-offs.
At eight months the baby in the stripy pajamas is adept at scooting quickly across the tile floors stalking his prey.
Quickly, he lunges.
Look out! He wants to eat your face!
Yesterday O turned 3, so today we celebrated with “choo-choo cake.”
Miss E and her family joined us to help celebrate. Together she and O made pinecone bird feeders, ran around the backyard, had cupcakes, opened presents, and generally had a very fun morning.
More photos of the party in the January 2012 album.
Three years ago we inaugurated a new President, and Oliver made his grand entrance into the world. Today, the little guy is turning three, playing quietly in the living room with his duplos, and listening to his newest MiniMusic CD.
Tomorrow we celebrate with family, friends and, most importantly, a specially requested “choo-choo cake” that I still need to bake. I should probably get on that.
When it gets below freezing at night we have to cover the lemon tree.
It really sucks when you forget and put it off until 10 pm and end up running outside barefoot, in the dark in your pajamas. It really, really sucks. This is why I was lazy today and just left it covered.
Mostly, I just wanted to share the photo of the thermometer hovering around 20*F in our backyard. I like the thermometer, it acts as a nice reminder to bundle up before we leave the house – particularly on clear mornings, those tend to be the coldest.
Oliver has decided he likes to Help! This is not a new feature, but it has become more pronounced as the months pass, and now that O is armed with his helping tower his rate of helping has increased dramatically.
O has also acquired the concept of “me tun” – after waiting patiently and watching me do something, he decides it is his turn to undertake the task. It does not matter if the task is vacuum cleaning, unloading the dishwasher, feeding the baby, pressing the buttons on the food processor or spooning muffin batter, eventually, if it is OK for mommy to do, it is OK for O to Help!
The challenge comes with balancing what is truly helpful and what just makes a big mess. We are working on finding balance in the kitchen: chopping cucumbers for the salad is truly helpful – he can manage to do so with a dullish knife, and it does not matter if the cucumber is a uniform size. I will not however, let him chop onions. Pressing food processor buttons is fine too, he’s helping make “foof” for “Pa-tik.”
Then there are things which require no help. The other day P slept late and I felt the need to express some milk. O came into the kitchen where I was pumping, declared “me see boob!” and then attempted to assist with the positioning of the shields. Thanks for the offer, but no help needed.
I try to have several activities through out the day that O can help with. This morning started with a trip to the grocery store where O helped push the cart, bag apples, and navigate to and select the ice-cream. This afternoon, during P’s nap time, he helped bake muffins lemon blueberry muffins.
Helping “cook!” muffins is a finer line: half an extra egg here, some extra salt there, batter dripped all over the counter – my inner baking perfectionist does not appreciate the mess, but the muffins came out tasting alright, and he had a lot of fun while helping “cook cake.” The recipe was fairly forgiving -it held up to my modifications and O’s input- and while they are unlikely to win any awards, they will make for excellent snacks through out the week.
Patrick is a bit of a foodie. Oliver enjoyed starting on solid foods, but he mostly enjoyed food as a textural experience and as a medium to create a colorful mess all over everything. P also enjoys food as a textural experience and medium for colorful messes, but he packs away more in one meal than O would in a day.
P is quite the eater and he enjoys a variety of foods. O enjoyed single-vegetable and fruit purees. Just squash, just peaches, just peas, etc. P will eat those, but he really enjoys multiple-vegetable/fruit purees, and he loves bananas.
By “really enjoys” I mean he’ll eat through a jar or two a meal at both lunch and dinner, clearing 3-5 jars of organic baby food a day. Continue reading
It is a new year so I figured it was time to change up the toys in the living room.
P’s toys have been consolidated into a basket that is fun to tip over and rummage around in and I have brought the duplos out of the garage much to O’s delight.
Up next, I think I’m going to change up the kid-lit reading collection downstairs.
This evening we celebrated the end of 2011 with a bottle of Martinelli’s, Venezuelan chocolate and some of the amazing almont-honey cookies Oma sent in her great big Christmas box.
It was as good an excuse as any to use our nice stemware.
The kids are in bed so we’re going to get some sleep now.
Wishing all of you a Happy & Healthy 2012.