Self Fulfilling Prophecy?

So, yeah. Edie got a runny nose yesterday. Remember how I said this would happen??!! So far it doesn't seem like a repeat of the plague, just a runny nose and some sleep disruption, but GAWD. Please please please let it resolve quickly so that we can still go out on the town this weekend.

Heart Art

A week or two ago, Edie made valentines. First, she dressed in her custom craft smock made by Aunt Kati:

then we get a feel for the paint brush and test out of the homemade sponge and potato stamps.
Then we put paint on the paper, on our head and maybe just a little, in our mouths.


Not photographed here is the fact that I then cut the paper into heart shapes, wrote Happy Valentine's Day on the back and let Edie go to town with heart shaped stickers.

We attended a lovely party today at Edie's friend Mae's house where many children dressed in pink frolicked while eating sugar cookies. Technically I think I was the only parent irresponsible enough to let my kid eat one, but dude, it's Valentine's Day. And if I'm going to eat one (which I totally did), then it's really hard for me to explain to Edie why she doesn't get one (at least without making up a lot of lies). At the party, we also made Dad a valentine using elaborate craft supplies, which he greatly appreciated. Our real gift will come this following weekend when Edie will have a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa C's house and Jeff and I pretend it's 2008 and do things like GO TO A MOVIE. And SLEEP IN - and I'm not talking one at a time, I'm talking both of us sleeping, in the bed, together. Until at least 9 am, heck, let's go crazy - 10!!!

I'm pretty sure that by throwing caution to the wind and discussing sleeping until 10am, Edie will wake up with a terrible cold tomorrow and the whole thing will be postponed.

Chicken Pot Pie

I used to love playing the game "Would you Rather". This is the game (for those unfamiliar) where you pit two terrible things against each other and force your opponent to choose which one they'd rather face. Example: Would you rather weight 400 pounds or have terrible acne? But you can also tempt people with two awesome choices and see which way they go with it. While playing once with a group of riends, I came up with a choice where one option was "or would you rather be able to spontaneously, make a pot pie in your pants on command." It didn't matter what you put opposite this choice, no matter how tempting, everyone would rather have a pot pie whenever they wanted. This recipe isn't instantaneous, and you don't (in fact I would recommend you don't) pull it out of your pants, but it is reliably stellar.


Recipe and Directions:
Saute in 3T butter: 3 chopped carrots (large dice), 1 large (8-10 oz) potato cubed (I like 1/2 inch-ish cubes), and one medium onion diced
Cook until soft - 5-10min
(Optional: you can add a cup or two of sliced mushrooms at this point and saute for an extra few minutes)
Stir in 4T flour for one minute to coat vegetables and then pour in 1.5C chicken stock and 1.25C whole milk
Stir and simmer until it thickens (5-10 minutes)
Stir in: All of the meat from one pre-cooked rotisserie chicken (chopped, shredded or cubed to your desired size), 1C frozen peas, 1T fresh thyme and 1t chopped fresh sage, salt and pepper to taste
Stir and set aside

Pastry dough (for one layer of crust - I double this for a two layer pie):
1C + 2T flour pulsed with 1t salt
Add one stick of cold butter cubed and pulse until pea gravel consistency
Add 4-7T of ice water (2 at a time) and pulse until it just starts to combine a bit
Dump crumbly mix onto plastic wrap and use the wrap to make the dough into ball, put in fridge wrapped in saran if not using immediately. It can keep wrapped in fridge for up to 24 hours if needed.

Assemble:
Roll out one dough for bottom crust and put in Pam sprayed pan (I recommend a casserole type dish because this makes a lot of filling - a regular pie pan won't be sufficient), fill with warm filling, then top with another layer of rolled out crust and pinch around edges, cut slits in top and brush with an egg wash.

Cook uncovered the whole time at 375 until crust is golden brown - about 45min

Weekend on Orcas

We decided rather last minute to head up to the island last weekend and had a fantastic time. We spent almost the entire month of January as social lepers, festering in our own sick, that a change of scenery was the best thing ever. Also last minute, we asked friends we haven't seen in forever to come and were surprised first that they were free, second that they were willing to make the trek and third that they are having a baby in April! Obviously, it had been WAY too long. We hadn't seen them since before Edie's first birthday. We spent Friday night just the three of us and for the first time in maybe forever, Edie slept through the entire night at the cabin. For some reason her sleep is always a bit of a mess there, but that spell has now been broken. She slept like a champ the whole weekend and we all had such a nice time. Saturday, when our friends joined us, was a lovely beach day.
Sunday was soggy city, so we spent the entire day curled up inside with the fire kicking the temp up to 80.
Edie shared her pretzel sticks with her new friend.

And now we come to what I'll call the "hat montage". Edie was quite taken with this hat on Sunday. As is probably obvious from the photos. Eventually Jeff decided to take Edie for a short walk in the rain, wearing her hat.


She returned from the walk like this:
On Saturday, I made (if I do say so myself, which I do) a stellar chicken pot pie. I will post the simple recipe shortly.
Edie spent much time playing with Jeff's old toys from the 70's that live in a toy box at the cabin.

Looking sharp in her favorite "DINO!!!" pjs and a sweater. And a stylish hat that really brings the whole ensemble together.

When it was time to go and Jeff packed up the pack and play, Edie found a new way for us to carry her around. Oddly she hung out like this (voluntarily) for way longer than seemed right.

Sneeze

This exact exchange just occurred between me and Edie at the breakfast table:

Edie has a giant sneeze. Then she looks at me in an accusing way and says: "BESSYOU!?" (as if to say, Why didn't you say bless you Mom? SO rude.)
Me: Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to say "bless you!". Bless you Edie.
Edie slowly shakes her head at me in silent disapproval and then adds: Sheesh

17 Months

The 17 month mark seems like the toddler equivalent to turning 31 as an adult - zzzzzzzz. Turning 16 months old was such a sweet number and next month is a big one because 18 months makes you one and a half years old! But 17 months sounds a bit ho hum. And if I'm being honest, this has been worse than a ho hum month, in fact I think it's easily been one of our hardest as a family of three.

One week into the new year you came down with a terrible flu/cold bug that lasted over two weeks and eventually turned into an ear infection. I don't want to dwell, but I think it's important to leave an accurate memory of things... Your Dad and I both caught the bug from you and taking care of a miserable toddler while being miserable yourself is the hardest thing I think I've ever done.
You had a fever that came and went for 12 days before we were able to start you on antibiotics for the ear infection and during those 12 days you spent all your time doing one or more of the following: clinging to us, crying, or snoring loudly with your sweaty head pressed into my neck and then crying when put down to sleep in your crib. We are SO happy to be in better health now that the month is coming to a close, although I will say that we are all three still a bit shy of 100% when it comes to night time coughing.

In non-illness related news, you met your baby cousin Hannah this month. Her Mom (my cousin Sarah) and Dad brought her down to visit from Alaska and after talking about her Christmas picture for almost a month, you were very excited to meet her in person. It's possible that you won't get to see her again until she's your age now and we all go to Hawaii next year with our extended family.

You with Hannah's Grandma (your Great Aunt) Laura and Grandma B holding Hannah.

Great Grandma holding Hannah and you trying to feed her one of your goldfish.

You made a few changes to your eating routine this month. Midway through your cold, Grandma B came to visit and made us chicken noodle soup from scratch. It was one of the only things you would eat (except for "pops!" - Popsicles) and for some reason you were only happy being fed soup while sitting in one of our kitchen chairs like an adult. A day or two later, I tried to serve you a meal in your highchair, but when I turned around to pick you up and plop you into the chair, you instead ran to a regular chair and tried to climb it while saying "sit!". I took the hint and you have now graduated from high chair to booster seat. You seem much happier and more willing to stay put through meals now that you sit at the table like a big kid.

You have also been working on eating your food off of a plate, rather than everything being on your chair's built-in tray. You only sometimes pick up the plate with your dinner on it and tip the whole thing upside down. Just last week you started eating cold cereal (with milk) for breakfast. You actually do really well getting the spoon to your mouth with cereal and milk still on it, which is a pretty major development. Granted you also reach in with your fingers to fish out the "manas" (bananas) and "boobays" (blueberries), but still! Using a spoon is tricky business and you are making great strides.

Eating Kix at Grandma and Grandpa's house

We started taking a toddler music class this month, and from the one class you attended before falling sick, I think this is going to be fun for you. We pranced around with scarves, beat drums, and sang songs about all sorts of things. Your favorite was the welcome song that the teacher sang where she included each of the kids' names into the song. You stood in the middle of the circle while most of the other kids sat in their parents' laps and seemed to think it only fitting that everyone in the room should be singing your name while seated in a circle around you. You love to dance and have started to quietly sing "Sataaa" to the tune of Raffi's 'Must be Santa' at random moments while swaying from side to side. You also frequently stop what you are doing to say "widdle" (wiggle) and then you do a funny little shimmy move.

You've started going to bed SO happily this month and while sleeping through the night hasn't quite returned to normal since recovering from your illness, we're getting there. At night (after blowing your Dad a kiss or 10), we say "ni-ni" to your baby and you love kissing her with a big smacking noise. Then you become very concerned about tucking her into your crib with a blanket ("blantet") and after reading your 3 stories, you happily get plunked into your crib and talk quietly to baby before dropping off to sleep for the night.

You've started requesting that I put your hair in pigtails by pointing at your head and asking "ponies?" almost every day. They start looking a little droopy after riding in the car and napping, but you don't seem to mind. Your other charming activity includes you saying, "Cookie, eat" while pointing to your mouth. This happens at any time of day, typically starting at 8am. When I say no or offer you something else, you look at me with the saddest expression and say "Peeeese?"

In other talking news, you've started saying thank you, but it sounds like "foutou" or "fantoo" and it cracks me up every time. Thanks to your illness you also learned the words kleenex (keenex), tissue, medicine (me-acine), and because of your humidifier - steam (sheam). You are very talkative, frequently answering non-leading questions with answers other than yes or no, and making choices/demands for your meals and snacks. In addition to knowing most of the words for your clothes (shirt, shoes, pants, coat, etc), you also have most body parts down, many animal words, and you have most of the words for the foods you like eating - raisins, pirates booty (pooboo), goldfish, peanut (for peanut butter), toast, soup, eggs, noodles, cheese, strawberries (saberries), bananas (manas), and of course cookies. You learned about ice cream recently when your Grandparents took you to the drive thru at Dairy Queen and wow, I thought you might never get enough. Your Dad and I are suckers for sweet treats so I'm worried I'm a bit lax about letting you enjoy dessert, but given how skinny you're getting these days I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

At your most recent doctor's appointment for your ear infection you had grown a bit over 31 inches, but had barely gained 4 ounces since your 15 month appointment. Physically, you are definitely turning into your father's daughter, temperament-wise I'm told by others that you're all mine. You love to act overly surprised at things for an audience, gasping and holding your hand to your open mouth and waiting until everyone is watching. You do this every time the tree outside our dining room scratches the window in the wind. You also love to hold your hand out to us and point at it saying "boo boo" and when kiss it, you immediately hold out the other hand to show us your other boo boo. This happens so often that your Dad finally asked you the other day if you have chronic pain in your hands. You love to be a helper in any way you can and love the praise that follows, patting your chest and saying, "helper". It certainly seems like you received a double dose of charisma and pride while baking in my oven.

Let's hope your next month brings some health and sleep back to our lives.

Love,
Mom

Dishwasher

The import of this announcement may not be fully understood by those not close to me, but: WE HAVE A DISHWASHER. I should clarify - a brand new, functioning dishwasher. Because we've always had a dishwasher, it's just that for the last 2 years it's been totally broken and a complete waste of space. It died in a blaze of glory when I was newly pregnant when the main spinning piece inside essentially set on fire mid-cycle. It didn't come as a complete surprise as it was approximately 100 years old - pretty much the first dishwasher ever built. When we bought a new one and it was delivered, the Sears people told us that it was impossible to remove the old one and therefore, install the new one. When new floors were installed in our house, they were installed OVER the dishwasher. Therefore, the only way to remove the one was to saw the counter tops off and pull it up and out. Oh, and something was wrong with the plumbing and our counters were too low and a bunch of other stuff. We were overwhelmed with baby prep and essentially gave up. The last two years have been a blur of bottle washing and fighting over sinks full of dirty pump attachments, bottles, sippy cups and dishes. But then. Then Jeff and his Dad made a second and successful attempt this weekend and I can hardly believe it but we have a dishwasher. It's such a thing of beauty. Edie's been pulling a Jekyll and Hyde move all week and every time I feel like throwing her out the window, Jeff guides me into the kitchen to look at our shiny new roommate.