Storytime

Just one reason that I love my husband.

The ups and downs of stock...

So I recently attempted to make my own chicken stock. I got the idea several months ago when CCL's Family Foundations magazine had an article about how to do it, and how much more nutritious it can be compared to store bought stock. Well, always wanting increase my "crunchiness" I decided to give it a go.

I combined two recipes, one from Nigella Lawson and one from the La Leche League cookbook. Here's what I did: When I first read the article, I started saving up chicken bones (when I remembered). So I ended up with three frozen carcasses, with some meat and skin left on them. I took these and threw them in a large pot. Then I added a sliced onion, some chopped carrots and celery, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme, celery seed, a bay leaf and nine peppercorns. Then I put in enough water to cover, and set it to boil for about three hours. At that point I strained it and put it back on to boil down to about 6 cups of stock. After it cooled, I put it in the refrigerator to chill in a large bowl. Then the next day I skimmed the fat off the top and separated it into cup size portions to freeze for later use.

Now here are the problems that I had: I was interrupted several times in the beginning when I was chopping the veggies...first by Maria, then by Amelia. At one point I was frantically trying to get things into the pot and get it starting heating while I was holding Amelia and trying to nurse her. The books don't tell you how to deal with a situation like that.

Once it was on the stove, things went well, since you really don't have to watch it. It was only later, trying to decide where to put it (the downstairs fridge was the only place it would fit), how to skim the fat, and wondering why it looked like gello, that I began to question my sanity. I had to call my mom to find the answer to the last question. Apparently, if you want it to be a thin, non-gelatinous liquid, you have to strain it through a cheese-cloth. Ah, if only the recipe had mentioned that. Now I'll have to buy a cheese cloth and strain the stock before I use it. All-in-all though it was an interesting experiment, one worth trying again a I think.

Rollin', rollin', rollin'...

...watch that baby rollin'! Roll-on! Yeah!

Yep, Amelia's made her first moves...yesterday one roll, today many. Now she just has to figure out how to get back.

Here's a pic of how I found her after her first roll.

"Hey, how'd I do that? That was pretty cool!"

And here's a pic of the magical rolling outfit from the front. See, it just so happens that Maria was wearing the exact same outfit for her first roll. There must be something about that giraffe.

"Oh, ya! I'm doing that again as soon as I get a chance."

A shoulder to spit on...

Amelia: WAAAAAH! WAAAAH!

Me: It's okay Amelia, Mommy's got you now.

Amelia: Spluuup!

Me: Arrrhhh! Not again! Just needed to spit, huh?

Amelia: (BIG SMILE) Ga!

Yep. Lots of laundry around here.

Boo-boos

Lately, Maria has been obsessed with boo-boos. It's not like she's had that many in her life or even any very recently. She's just started thinking a lot about them one day and hasn't stopped...for two weeks. Every time she bumps into something or falls or slightly pinches a finger, she comes running to me screaming, "Uh, no! Boo-boo! I NEED BAN-AID!"

I can't figure it out. Even when she has boo-boos we don't really put band-aids on them because they stick too much and are hard to get off or they stick too little and get lost in the bed or in the living room or on the bottom of my sock. I think once we went to the doctor and she got a Dora band-aid after a shot. But that was months ago. Funny what kids remember.

Co-incident with this "ban-aid" obsession has been her desire to "Go docker." So maybe she is really remembering that Dora Band-aid of months ago. She goes through a whole routine. "I go docker, now!" "Docker check mouth, ahhh!" "Docker check nose!" "I yike docker n nurse."

What amazes me about all this is the glimpse it gives me into how her brain works, how little things we say can trigger memories or form connections for her. For example, Jim and I were talking at the dinner table and he remarked that, that morning when the alarm went off he spent some time staring at the position of my arm... Apparently, I was sleeping with it above my head and jammed between the slats of the headboard. He was worried that I'd injured myself. This prompted Maria to start looking at my arm and saying, "mommy, boo-boo, arm! Oh, no! Mommy need ban-aid." It was even funnier the next morning when she climbed into bed next to me and looking at my arm (again in a weird position) said, "oh, no! Mommy hurt self, need ban-aid."

All this makes me realize just how much kids pick up from every day occurrences - places they go, things they hear and things they see. It kind of scares me to think how easily she is influenced by the world around her, especially since I'm the one who is primarily responsible for the content and scope of her world at this time. I can only hope and pray that I'm doing a good enough job that what she learns from her 'world' ultimately leads her to the "Doctor of Souls", Our Heavenly Father.

Maria's 2nd Birthday.

Here are some pics from Maria's birthday dinner.

For some reason, I feel compelled to bake and decorate birthday cakes for Maria. Can anyone guess what this is? I'll give you a hint: to Maria it's a "towman."

After the party Maria had fun with her new dress-up clothes.

Dinner conversation

When we all get a chance to eat dinner together (i.e. when I'm not in the living room nursing Amelia), we try to have pleasant conversation and we always try to get Maria involved. We usually turn to her and ask, "So, how was your day?" or "Tell Daddy what we did today." So recently she has been turning to us and asking, "So how day?" It's really very cute and I'm glad that she wants to be involved in our conversation.

Like tonight, she was obviously listening as I told Jim about a dream that I had last night. I had dreamt about eating a large plate of chocolate chip cookies (can anyone tell I'm trying to lose weight). Maria got a funny look on her face and said, "Chocolate chips?".

So I said to her, "Yes, Maria, mommy was dreaming about chocolate chip cookies last night... I was thinking about cookies in my sleep. What do you think about when you're asleep?"

To which Maria answered, "I wake-up."

Hmm... yes, Maria you wake-up. Glad I asked.

Starting Solids...

So this morning, I was getting breakfast for myself and Amelia was fussing in her bouncy seat. Maria was running around underfoot, eating a "cookie" - really a cereal bar. So as I often do to buy myself a little more time before Amelia really starts to wail, I told Maria, "Go talk to baby Amelia, she's lonely." Away Maria runs... "Ah, good!," I think, as I hear Amelia calm down and stop crying. Then Maria comes running back into the kitchen. "Mommy, Mommy! Baby Mee-ya like cookie!"

"WHAT!" "oh no!"

I ran into the living room to find Amelia, smiling up at me from her bouncy seat, with drooly cookie crumbs trailing down her face... Quickly, I did a sweep of her mouth to make sure there were no large pieces for her to choke on. Finding nothing I breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help but laugh a little as Maria came into the room, insisting "Baby Mee-ya like cookie!"

Who's teaching who?

Today at lunch Maria and I had the following conversation:

Me: "Maria make sure you eat that chicken."

Maria: (looking at the plate of chicken) "Oh, no! Me fegot pay."

She then precedes to place a hand on her head, getting peanut butter everywhere.

Me: "Maria, stop, what are you doing! Don't wipe peanut butter in your hair!"

pause... Maria staring at me with wide eyes hand still poised just above her head...

Maria: "In name da fadder..."

Me: "Oh, OH!... Yes, Maria we forgot to pray before we started eating...Let's do it now, but first let me wipe off that hand..."

It's after a scene like this that I have to ask myself, who's teaching who here? It's pretty humbling to have your child remind you to pray. But isn't that what is supposed to happen in a family...each one in his or her own way working together to help the others reach heaven, with even the littlest ones playing a role.