The Barefoot Kitchen Witch

Rows Upon Rows...

Forgot to mention (traumatized as I was by last night's adventures) that Alex has two adult teeth coming in.  Front bottom two - which were also the first two baby teeth that showed up.  I like his consistency.

The funny thing is, he hasn't lost the corresponding baby teeth yet, so the new teeth are right behind the baby teeth. 

Like a shark, right?  They have rows of teeth always in the works, so when they lose some while feasting on oh, panic-stricken beachgoers, replacement teeth move right in to fill up the gaps, thus ensuring that all vicious tearing-of-flesh will continue uninterrupted and with the same degree of shreddiness as before.  (And yes, I know sharks are beautiful and amazing and much-maligned creatures of the sea.  I like sharks.  Which is why I can poke fun at them.  Just like I love my family....)

Anyway, that's the status with him.  No Tooth Fairy visits in the immediate future.  Maybe if he's lucky, all the adult ones will come in and then all the baby teeth will fall out in one shot, and he can afford to buy his first car with the loot.

For now, we are calling him Shark Boy.

Dora is a Troublemaker

The kids just watched an episode of Dora the Explorer in which, apparently, Dora had a baby.  At least that's what Alex told me was going on.  I double checked on that disturbing bit of preschool role-model news and he said her parents AND Dora were having a baby.  And actually it's two babies - a boy and a girl.

And Alex called up from the stairs to me to tell me the good news, and followed it up with "When are WE going to have a baby?  I just can't wait to have a new little baby!"

And I said...um...I don't believe we ARE going to have another baby.

This disappointed him somewhat.  And he mulled it over.  And he asked "Doesn't other mommies have new babies when they already have children?"

Have to give him credit for planning his argument.

I told him we'd wanted TWO babies, and we had them - him and his sister.

And then he came up to the kitchen and continued on as if it was still a possibility.  "If we have another baby, I hope it's a cute little boy baby." 

I told him "I already HAVE a cute little boy baby.  His name is Alex." 

And Alex said "No, aNOTHER little boy baby.........Mommy, what do you think you'd name a new little boy baby?" 

"Um....I don't really know."  Since it's not in the plans, I really haven't given much thought to baby boy names in oh, several years now.  "What would you name a baby boy?"

"Hmmmm....I'd name him....Jacob."

"Well maybe when you grow up you can be a Daddy and name your baby boy Jacob."

And then he was distracted by the new box of Fruity Pebbles Cereal that Julia picked out at the store this morning, and soon went back downstairs, a bowl of artificiallyl flavored goodness in his little hands.

Thank goodness for distractions.

An Experience Worth Telling

Last night was the next session of my kids' swim class at the local Y.  They're both in the Pike class, though Alex could progress up to Eel, but he's still kind of leery about jumping into the water unassisted.  He does well once he's in, but it's the scary jumping in that is holding him back from my husband's Olympic dreams.  Ah well.  We all get our bubbles burst from time to time.

Anyway, couple of little things from last night.  Okay, three.

First thing - it was EVEN hotter/more humid than usual in the pool room over there.  Just in case you were wondering.

Second thing - while we're sitting with the kids on the benches waiting for the earlier class to finish up, I noticed a little girl about Alex's height in a swimsuit.  She looked familiar, and within a second, I recognized her.  She and Alex went to daycare together when he went to earlier place (where he went for about 5 years of his 5 and a half years on the planet).  She is very cute in a tomboy girl way.  Pretty brown hair, big brown eyes, couple of baby teeth missing in the front with the edges of the adult teeth just starting to appear.  Very quick to smile.  Her father was tying the styrofoam "bubble" around her middle when she noticed Alex.  And I watched her telling her father and pointing to Alex.  So I hissed at Alex - "Hey, isn't that?" And he looked and looked away, because he is a cool macho boy and girls are yucky.  Bill joined in and tried to get Alex to say hi, but that didn't work either.  There was something very interesting Alex needed to stare at on the opposite side of the room.  The girl and her father sat a row behind us and as they climbed up, she said hi to Alex.  But of course, like I said, Alex is a cool, macho manly man boy and girls are yucky.  So he ignored her.  Which I thought was rude and so I hissed (yes, it's my day to speak Parsel-tongue) at him "SAY HI TO HER!!!!!" and, realizing I wasn't just kidding around, he turned around and tossed a casual "hi" over his shoulder in her general direction.

When the teachers came around to call the names of the students in their classes, GUESS who was in class with my kids.  Yep!  Bill and I grinned to each other like the goofy parents we have become and settled in to watch the show. 

Actually, it wasn't a whole lot of a show.  At first, she was at one end of the little line-up of students and he was WAAAAAAAAAAAY at the other.  Eventually, after late registrants had been added to the classes, there were 7 kids in that class.  Two boys, five girls.  And while Julia was still the tiniest, there was one other girl around her size.  But back to Alex.  The teacher passed out pool noodles to all of the kids and they hooked the noodles under their arms, across their chests, and began paddling and kicking across the width of the pool.  This is old hat for Alex and Julia, and like I said, Alex is doing well once he's in the water, so once he got acclimated to the process, he was way out in front of the pack every time.  They'd paddle and kick and splash across the pool, with their instructor helping the kids who were new to it, or joking around with Julia, the class clown.  (She hit him with a pool noodle last session.  And she was splashing water at him today.  He is great with little kids.)

Anyway, again, back to Alex.  After one or two races across the pool, lo and behold, guess who now was lined up next to Alex along the edge of the pool.  And guess who was chatting away with her like they were old war buddies.  I sat there elbowing Bill and giggling.  I'm so goofy.  Not much else came of it, but at least he wasn't being aloof any more.  He said "bye" to her as we left.  Girls aren't ALWAYS yucky.

And the third thing.  If you've been reading this blog for oh, the past two weeks or so, you know that Julia has had a bout with Lyme disease.  The most recent adventure was when she had to have blood work done.   That was last Friday.  One of her band aids (the Diego one, on her right arm) came off over the weekend, but she wouldn't allow anyone to touch the Dora band aid.  I'm sure she was afraid of more pain. 

But with pain and suffering often come great stories to share with friends and family, and Julia, while not as wordy as her mother, told her story with great passion and drama.  I overheard her telling Alex about it, her eyes wide, her face animated....

"I went to the BAD doctor, and she put a SHARP THING in my arms and I GOT BLOOD!"  And as she said this, she'd hold our her wounded arms, pointing at the band aids (or where the Diego band aid had been), her face drawn and grave.  She knows she's lucky to have survived that morning.  She's told the story to a few people now, and has her delivery down pat.

So back to last night.  We're watching the kids go back and forth with their pool noodles, and you know, Julia's small and so she kind of gets hemmed in by some of the slightly larger kids who can take off faster.  But she can move pretty fast if no one's in her way.  She smiles hugely through the whole class. 

She is not, however, there to learn to swim.  At least it didn't seem like that last night.  No, this is her social hour.  Social half hour.  She and the second-to-littlest girl bonded immediately and spent the swim-across-the-pool time chatting away about hair and nails and makeup and boys. 

We didn't notice this immediately, because we were too busy watching Alex and looking for signs of romance there.  And then Bill said "Why is she swimming with her arm like that?"  I looked, and there, in the middle of the pack, was Julia, her left arm raised straight up.  She looked like she was at a synchronized swim team practice session.  I waited for the next graceful move...and then I looked at her face.  It was no longer smiling.  It was grave.  Somber.  And her mouth was moving.  She was talking to her little best friend, and she was telling her the story of the Bad Doctor Who Put a Sharp Thing in her arms.  I saw Julia's mouth as it formed the words "And I got BLOOD!" 

She'd been holding up that arm so her little friend could see, with her own eyes, the scars of battle.

 

Lollipop

So That's How He Does It

The other morning Alex and Julia were squabbling about something downstairs.  I was in the kitchen working on cookies (what else?) and Bill went down to shush them after a while because there seemed to be no end in sight and we were tired of listening.

He went downstairs and, because it is December, trotted out the old "Santa's watching you!" tactic.  He used that warning voice, intended to subdue them with the fear of coal in their stockings.

And Alex said, skepticism creeping into his sweet little boy voice, "How can he be watching everyone all the time?  He's need to have a thousand heads!"

Shoosi

A few days ago I made tacos for dinner, but I'd also picked up a package of barbecued eel maki rolls from the little sushi area in the grocery store.

I believe I've mentioned this before, but in case you're new here, or in case I am mistaken in what I think I remember...my son, who is five and a half...LOVES SUSHI.  Loves it.  He can eat any adult under the table, particularly if we're talking tuna. 

For your entertainment

Alex REALLY REALLY wanted to make gingerbread men.  Not just any - he wanted to duplicate the gingerbread man from (what else) the Shrek movies.  So last night we made a batch of gingerbread dough and cut out some cookies, and the kids decorated two each before bath time.  Here they are:

Complete with gumdrop buttons.  Alex's, that is.  Julia's...gumdrop goiters, perhaps.

Planning for Spring

Yay!  We just signed Alex up for T-ball!

Our journey into the world of parents of children who play organized sports has BEGUN!

Okay, well you should know by now I'm just goofy.

Lactic Love

After dinner tonight, I had the kids get into their pajamas.  While I was zipping Julia's jammies, Alex came around behind me (I was sitting on the couch) and flopped onto my back, his arms around my shoulders.  I slumped forward and told him to get off of me (in my mock-grumpy mommy voice). 

He slithered off the couch and came around to hug me.  "But you're so nice and warm, Mommy!"

I hugged him to me...these little moments won't last forever. 

He continued:  "Because you're full of milk.  Because you're a mammal!"

Magic

I've had my nose in a book as long as I can remember.  I have stacks of books near my bed, shelves of them throughout my house, and countless books that I either gave away or sold at various low points in my life.  I'm working on replacing them.

I remember being read to when I was little...I remember my mother reading Kipling's Just So Stories to us at bedtime...I remember learning the rhymes in the Real Mother Goose book. 

I also remember - very vaguely - learning to read.  My first sentence - "I am a little gray donkey" from a book that had been my mother's - something like Fables and Fairy Tales of Long Ago or something like that.  (The book itself is upstairs, but if I attempt to get it, I know one of my sleeping kids will hear me and wake up, so the title will just have to wait.)  I don't remember a whole lot more about the learning part of it...it just seems like boom - I was off and reading.

Today I was home with Alex while Bill brought Julia to swimming class.  (Both kids are signed up, but Alex is a bit under the weather today, so he didn't go this time.)  (Gee, could I be more insecure?)  We sat together in the oversized chair in our living room and Alex, well, he read to me.  Read from these little books he and his classmates put together in kindergarten every few days.  Simple little stories, a lot of repetition...but still - he was reading.  Books.  To me. 

I can't describe how cool and amazing that was.  I mean, he's been doing it for a while - usually sitting cross-legged on the kitchen floor while I make dinner.  But today we read about 14 of these little books, one after the other, and I listened and watched in utter delight as he confidently read the words he knew and carefully sounded out the ones he wasn't sure of.

And he doesn't just drone on in a monotone.  No, he's got a fabulous kindergarten teacher who reads with expression - and he's got me (I, too, read with expression.  And accents.  I do a mean Dora impersonation too, which is a little bit disturbing, but it amuses me.), and he's got my husband (who finished reading Cinderella to the kids before bed tonight) reading to him (and to Julia) often.  And he's got a great ear for the music and rhythm of the spoken word.  Alex is an excellent mimic.

Therefore - when he reads, his voice - halting and hesitant at times though it may be - rises and falls, loudly and softly, appropriately expressive.  It's unbearably cute.

My firstborn child is learning to read. 

Isn't that the coolest thing?

Cupcakes with the Kids

Last week at this time I was in the process of making a birthday cake for the boyfriend of a friend of mine.  In order to keep the kids from trying to grab bits of cake off the final product, I told them we'd make cupcakes on Saturday.  So we did.

I used a regular boxed cake mix, and just for kicks I substituted a 14 oz can of pumpkin puree for the oil called for in the recipe.  And I shook in some pumpkin spice mix too.  We all took turns stirring the batter until it was nicely blended, and then I spooned the batter into mini muffin tins.  The kids had had the task of putting all the mini paper cupcake liners in each pan.  I think we made about five dozen of them.  And they were pretty good too - more moist than usual, due to all the pumpkin puree in there.  I think I put a bit too much of the spice mixture in, though.  But no harm done.

I let the kids each eat one once they were cool enough, but then it was time for Julia to go to bed.  After she was tucked in, Alex and I frosted about a dozen of them and decorated them with mini M&Ms and little sugar Harry Potter-themed decorative shapes.  Alex proudly showed Daddy his work, and we all had a little chocolatey pumpkiny goodness before Alex had to go to bed.

The next morning, both kids finished frosting the cupcakes and sprinkling additional colorful sugar on them.

Here's the end result:

They had fun.  Which, really, is the whole point.

(taken directly from an instant messaged conversation with my sister the other morning when i should have been working...)

me: this morning while i was getting julia dressed
me: and repeatedly asking alex to please take off his jammies and his pull up and put on his underwear and pants (over and over and over)
me: he finally took off his jammies and the pull up (which he just HAS to FLING into the air.  fortunately he is dry just about every morning now.  but still)
me: anyway
me: i'm trying to get julia's diaper on - like wrestling an octopus - and he's leaping around, happily naked for the moment - "Mommy!  I don't have any clothes on!"
me: and then he comes over toward me
me: saying
me: "my pee-pee"
me: i said "what about it"
me: and he said
me: "my pee pee is all twinkled up!"
mere: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
mere: what did you say?
me: i said "what?"
me: and he said it again, so of course i looked to see what "all twinkled up" might possibly mean
me: and i think it actually means "brrrr, it sure is cold in here"
mere: aahhhh.  Heehee
me: all twinlked up
me: twinkled, i mean
mere: Oh

me: and a julia thing
me: she LOVES the wizard of oz...or "Boz" as she calls the movie...
me: especially the singing and SKIPPING they do
mere: heehee
me: we were watching last night, alex and me on the couch and julia on the floor destroying one of alex's books...and the munchkins started singing happily because the witch was dead, and - as we have seen her do every time - julia got to her feet and started "skipping" all around the room, with a big big BIG smile on her face
mere: how cute
me: but she doesn't skip, it's more like a canter - there's one foot that always leads.  she doesn't switch back and forth.
mere: skipping is hard
me: yep
me: she thinks she's skipping.
me: bill has heard her say "kip!  kip!" while she's doing it
mere: heeheehee
me: it's extremely cute
mere: i bet
me: and at one point when some munckin is climbing out of a hole in the yellow brick road (i think it's when glinda is singing "come out come out wherever you are," etc) julia ran over to the tv and pointed at him right in the face.  she likes the little munchkin boy.  i think he's one of the lollipop guild guys...
mere: its guild?
me: yeah

mere: i thought it was lollipop kids
mere: :-[
me: there's the lullaby league (the ballerinas)...and the lollipop guild.
me: i used to think it was kids too.
me: but i read it was "guild" somewhere...
mere: i never knew it was league either
me: oh
mere: oh
me: i always thought the middle of the lollipop guild guys looked sort of like grandad.
mere: hahahaha  i'll have to take a closer look next time
me: i think it reminds me of that black and white picture of grandad in the bowler hat, with a cigar, looking like a thug...
mere: oh
me: oh
me: and
me: apparently alex had stuff on his face yesterday morning when i dropped him off at daycare.  his teacher checked his face this morning just before i left and oh it's too long to go into but jeepers crow some days i just feel so worn out after i bring him there.
me: and it's actually NOT oatmeal or milk...it's his runny nose that he wipes across his right cheek.  OKAY????
mere: that woman is so weird
me: i go through periods where i think - no - FEAR - that somehow, due to some incompetency of mine - he is going to somehow be a kid other kids make fun of.  i don't know why i do this, but i do.  and he's fine. and he has his little friends, and all that.  but still...this is what sneaks around the back of my mind...and then i've got HER bringing up something like his messy face...so...I'm sending my child in to preschool DIRTY.  IS THAT IT?

mere: hahahahahahaha
mere: its HER.
me: i know
me: but it's also MEEEEE
me: because that is how my brain works sometimes
mere: yeah, but thats normal
me: oh
mere: its the naked parent moments
me: yeah
mere: you'll get used to it.
me: sometimes i can laugh about it
me: other times i can't.
mere: thats good
mere: i know
mere: i know how that is
me: but if i write about it...usually i can end up laughing about it.
me: because then i can read how silly it all really is
mere: yeah
me: plus, Alex can say - and identify - a parasauralophus.
me: Which is a dinosaur that has a weird bone thing sticking off the top of it's head...pointing toward the back.  It's one of the "bonehead" dinosaurs.
me: He knows that.
mere: thats good.  whats wrong with that?
me: NOTHING.  He knows his dinosaurs.
me: that's really cool.
mere: oh good
me: he's perfectly fine.  i'm the wack-job.
mere: too bad about the snotty face
me: yeah
mere: if it wasn't for that he'd be normal
me: :)

Mail Therapy

So I've been feeling overwhelmed and stressed and depressed and lots of other awful things lately.  Mostly while I'm at work.  Yesterday was particularly bad, actually.  There were moments throughout the day when I just wanted to say "you know what?  I just can't do this any more.  See ya."  but I didn't because I did the math and I don't think we could afford it, plus I really should discuss that sort of thing with Bill first. 

Finally the day finished and I went and got my kids and the day began to improve.

For one thing, on the ride home, out of nowhere, Alex announced "You're a banana sandwich, Mommy!"  He said it like it was some secret I'd been hiding and he'd figured it out and thought it was pretty amusing.

Later on, after we'd been home for a while, and the kids were settled down doing something relatively safe, I got the mail.

And there it was.  My "House on the Hill" catalog.  (I'd link to it but my computer's being weird and I could lose this post so I'll do the linking later...)  House on the Hill is a company that makes and sells springerle molds, among other things.  I've posted a recipe for them somewhere in my recipes category.  I need to restructure that section, now that I'm thinking about it.

Anyway, it brought me a much-needed change of focus.  Here it is, October, and guess what, it's time to start planning the Christmas cookie baking.  YAY!!!  I don't know how to explain how happy that made me, and then, the more I thought about it, mentally planning who I need to bake for, and how many batches I'll need of the different recipes...and I realized, this year will be BETTER than the previous years!!!  I can do MORE!!!  I can go back to doing some of the more time-consuming decorated giant cookies that I used to make YEARS ago!  I can make those really cool gingerbread cookie BOWLS like I did about, oh, probably ten years ago....I HAVE TO START MAKING LISTS!!!

I couldn't sleep last night.  I know I sound nuts.  It's just cookies, after all.  But no, it's way more than cookies.  It's creativity, for one thing.  It's COOKIES, for another.  It's traditions.  It's the holidays.  It's me showing off, probably.  But none of those things compare to the biggest thing of all - the thing that makes all the other elements so VERY possible this year:

My kids are toddlers. 

Both of them. 

I loved both of their babyhoods - I'm not dismissing that section of their lives.  I sort of miss it, when I see little tiny baby clothes at the stores.  But.  Now.  They can play by themselves.  I don't have to carry either one of them everywhere all the time.  They mostly sleep through the night, which means so do I.  In short - I have more time and more freedom.  I need a little of that right about now. 

And another fun thing - Alex helped me last year, cutting out the almond stars.  He will help again.  And maybe Julia can help too...though I can just see her just ignoring the whole "helping" aspect and grabbing blobs of dough off the table and shoving them into her gaping maw as fast as she can....

But still.  I am wound up now.  If I didn't have to work today, I would have stayed up last night making my lists - of cookies, of ingredients, of people I'll send these to or bring them to, of other stuff I need (cookie tins, for one thing...)...ah, the bliss of lists.

We'll bake some cookies this weekend, me and Alex.  You know, for practice.

Conversations

My best writing (about the kids, about my life and whatever's going on with it) seems to be done while I'm at work emailing my sister.  And until my daughter decides to sleep through the night again, I don't know how successful I'll be at getting up early and writing or working out or anything else just for me.

So...I started saving some of these emailed conversations, because the way my memory works, it's pretty much guaranteed that once I type it, it's gone.

So...here we go...

Me:  This morning, in the car:  "No, mommy, talk in a mad voice, like a bad guy.l"

Mere:  Was he requesting this? or telling you not to talk in a mad voice?

Me:  He was talking in a bad guy voice about the bad guys in Tarzan (which is the new favorite, by the way) and how the bad guys are NOT NICE because they're BAD GUYS but those bad guys are nice but those bad guys are BAD GUYS cuz they're NOT NICE.

And whenever he spoke of the badder of the bad guys (I'm not sure who the good bad guys were, actually) he would speak in a gruff, growly voice and make a mad, bad guy face:  brows furrowed, nose scrunched, and teeth bared in a grimace of bad-guy-ness. 

And when he'd say that the bad guys were not nice, I'd agree with him - "Yeah!" and that's when he told me to speak more like a bad guy.  And how to do so.

And another day........

Me:  If I could just get up at 4 every day, I would have plenty of free time for myself.

I honestly wanted to get up at 5 this morning and just BE up from that point...maybe do some yoga or something or write or whatever...but then Alex woke up at 4:30 or so and wanted juice and we were OUT OF JUICE OH THE HORROR OF IT ALL and I told him he could have milk or water or orange juice, BUT I WANT JUUUUUUUUUUICE we don't have any juice, you can have milk or water or orange juice, BUT I WANT JUICE...and I just went downstairs and filled one sippy cup with milk and one with water and brought them up and put them near his bed and told him if he gets thirsty, there they are, BUT I DON'T WANT THEM!!!! and on and on and finally just so Julia wouldn't wake up too and want juice even though she never wants juice, I brought the juiceman into our bed and told him he needed to be quiet until the alarm goes off and it's time for MOMMY to get up.  Of course, he was wiggly and kept whispering stuff to me, but at least it wasn't about juice.

And then finally he said, "Mommy, could I have some milk?"

Okay, perhaps it's not my best writing...but it's my most frequent, and that's got to count for something.  Actually, now that I think about it, it's my favorite writing.  The little daily bits and pieces about my kids.  I've got more, but they're buried in my email and I have to find them. 

The Painters are Coming! The Painters are Coming!

Yes, it's another thrill-filled day here....

On Tuesday the "ceiling guy" came and plastered up the holes (from the flood in August) and made the swirly texture of the basement ceiling look like new, except for the slight color difference.  And today (a day earlier than expected)

The Purpose of a French Fry

I brought Alex to his doctor's office after work today to get his flu shot. We were in and out pretty quickly, and Alex recovered from the insult of being jabbed in the leg for no apparent reason.