Parenting is One Big Experiment

I was going through some pictures on the computer today and found this one of Addie as a newborn. I love this picture. It always makes me want to coo and revert to babytalk. I think this was taken in the first week when she was very jaundiced. I was still stunned that a 9 lb 6 oz baby could have come out of my body, and that said baby could hurt me so badly (nursing, incision, lack of sleep, etc.) My most burning question then was, "is she getting enough to eat?"

Now that same baby is going to be turning 5 in a few weeks. She's going off to Kindergarten this fall and is going to be a big kid. Now my most burning question is, "should I wean her off naps now so that not napping in Kindergarten will be easier?" They have a short "rest time" in Kindergarten, but my sister the teacher says that kids start to tease the kids who fall asleep during that time. I've got to think that tends to happen later in the year, but I don't know. This kid really needs her naps (unlike Lily who can pretty much take it or leave it).

I'm planning on adjusting her bedtime closer to the time school starts so that she's going to bed earlier at night. I know that the first couple of weeks will be tough anyway. Like so many parenting decisions, there is no right answer and we'll just have to feel our way through. Hopefully we'll make the right decisions on the big questions and use the wrong ones as teachable moments for next time.

Flower Girl Training

Who knew being a flower girl would take such training?

First, we had to clean off the hands and faces of these little princesses. They were filthy from a picnic right before our shopping trip.

Then we had to try on the dresses at David's Bridal so they could get ordered in time. (Don't get me started about the craziness of ordering dresses for children 3 1/2 months ahead of time).

Then, there's the requisite twirling in the dress to see if it looks like a real princess dress. (They do twirl well).

The girls were absolutely crushed that they couldn't take these dresses home. The real dresses with be a lilac color with a deep purple sash. I'm going to make them little bolero sweaters to wear over the top of the dresses in case it is cold.

The final and most difficult part of the Flower Girl Training is the flowers themselves. Addie has put herself on a rigorous training schedule that involves picking flowers wherever she sees them. The petals get scattered willy-nilly all over the yard, house and cars. I'm pretty sure she'll be a pro by the time October rolls around.

UP, Up and Away

While Adam was at the cabin last Sunday, I took the girls to see the 3D version of Up. First of all, I was completely shocked at how much it cost us. Apparently you get charged for an adult price ($9) for each person regardless of age! Add to that the price of popcorn and a pop for the 3 of us to share and I was feeling pretty broke by the end of the night.

Addie was completely fascinated with the movie. She jumped when things popped out of the screen and ohhhed and ahhed at the heights that the house floated to. Lily was a little less impressed. She almost immediately got her 3D glasses all smudged and yucky. She ended up taking them off and watching the movie without them until the end when I swapped glasses with her. In her defense, One Size Fits All glasses do not fit Lily. I'm not entirely sure that she could see out both lenses.

The movie was good though. I was a little worried that Addie would be scared by the dogs at one part (Lily really wasn't into the movie enough to get scared) but it really didn't faze her much. I would be cautious if you have a child who is easily scared. Like most Disney movies these days, there are enough jokes that just the adults will get to keep parents entertained. Over all, it's a sweet funny movie about a man trying to fulfill a dream that his wife had always cherished.

Things We've Learned in 4 Year Old Kindergarten

1. Raise Your Hand Quietly
2. Be Quiet on the Railroad Tracks
3. No Running in the Halls
4. There Can Only Be One Princess Leia
5. There is No Kissing in 4 Year Old Kindergarten (ask us how we know)
6. No Toys on the School Bus (ask us how we know)
7. No Biting
8. No Taking Toys
9. No Picking Fragile Flowers (again, ask us how we know)
10. Clean Up Before You Read a Book

You Know It's a Rough Night When...

... at 4:30 in the morning you are laying in bed composing your blog post for the next day.

I was woken out of a dead sleep by little Lily at the side of my bed asking for her animal pillow. I reached down to pull her into bed with us when I noticed that she was completely soaked and cold. Apparently the half a glass of pop she had shared with me at McDonalds that night had gone right through her.

I got her changed into dry footie jammies (because nothing else will do these days) and put her into bed with Adam. I then began the hunt for clean sheets. Everyone knows my saga with laundry and the never ending battle that we fight to get the laundry done and put away. Well, I've failed. I cannot find a clean crib sheet. OK, I'll put sheets on the queen size bed in her room. But wait, there are no clean blankets for she's peed on all of them in the last week. Into the deep upstairs closet I go, looking for a blanket that hasn't seen the light of day in at least a year. I finally found some that might be acceptable to our picky kid.

I take the sleeping Lily out of our bed (because I really don't want her to pee in that bed too!) and bring her into her room. She was very upset to be taken out of Momma's bed. I finally got her settled down and sleeping and went back into my bed at 5am. I'm not sure it was worth going back to sleep.

It Only Looks Bright and Sunny

Lots of Random Bits and Pieces

1. We went from bright and sunny shorts weather yesterday to cold and sunny today. Yech. That's just the way it's been lately.

2. Over Mother's Day weekend my sister and I took the girls to the Shepard's Harvest Festival. My sister snapped a bunch of cute photos including this one.

3. We finally have Lily Pull Up free at night. She's been potty trained for a long time now, but we continued putting the Pull Ups on at night. I finally realized that she was staying dry at night but didn't want to get up in the morning and go into the bathroom so was using the Pull Up out of shear laziness (or crankiness if you want to get right down to it).

4. Addie's last week of 4K is next week. She's got a month of Kindergarten Camp this summer to look forward to, then it's real Kindergarten in a new school.

5. Addie finally passed into the next swim class level. She'll be a Starfish. It's nice because that forces the girls to be in separate classes which I think will be good for them.

Sugar High! Flourless Chocolate Cake

My old college roommate is hosting a bake along on her site. The rules are that you can bake anything you want, it just has to be gluten free. Post a photo, a recipe and let her know what you've done. It all has to be done by May 25.

Since shortly more than 2 years ago I attempted to go gluten free & dairy free, I happened to have a favorite recipe in my stash. I can't tell you how happy I was to learn that Lily was only allergic to dairy - the wheat was a real killer for me. One of the things that I absolutely craved was baked goods. Bread, yes. Cookies, definitely. Brownies, oh man I wanted them. Cake, the absolute most. It was a blessing when I found this recipe. Plus, it has all my favorite things: chocolate, butter, coffee, and eggs!



Flourless Chocolate Cake
From America's Test Kitchen
1 lb semi sweet chocolate, chopped (obviously the better the chocolate, the better the cake will be)
16 Tbs butter
1/4 Cup strong coffee
8 eggs

Set up: Preheat oven to 325. Spray a springform pan with Pam, line the bottom with parchment paper. Wrap the outside of the pan with 2 sheets of aluminum foil. set inside a large roasting pan. Bring 2 pots of water to boil on the stove.

Mix:
Mix chocolate, coffee and butter in glass bowl. Microwave until chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside.
Beat eggs for 5-10 minutes. (the recipe says until doubled in size, but I think 5 minutes is a better measure since my eggs rapidly doubled but were not beaten enough).
Fold in 1/3 of the egg mixture into the chocolate until just a few streaks of egg remain. Continue adding egg mixture and folding until it is completely incorporated.

Pour into prepared pan. Pour boiling water into roasting pan and place in oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until internal temperature is 140. Cool at room temperature for 3 hours, then place in refrigerator overnight.

Enjoy!

Tips:
The water bath is key, it allows the cake to cook slowly and evenly and helps maintain the smooth texture.
The other must is beating the eggs long enough. I actually set a timer for 5-7 minutes, otherwise I get too impatient. This ensures that the eggs are frothy enough and helps with the smooth texture. If you don't beat the egg long enough, the cake will taste a little custardy in spots.
Use good chocolate!! I use the best tasting dairy free chocolate that I can find, which is difficult as they all seem to taste a little off.

When Daddy Makes Breakfast...

When Daddy makes breakfast, it's always an adventure. Today we helped Daddy make green and orange eggs. They tasted great! We had a little picnic on the floor of the living room with our eggs while we watched cartoons. Lazy Saturday mornings are the best.*

*The best part for Momma was being able to sleep in!

Park Cleanup

I took the girls to the park yesterday to help clean up the beach and park areas. The girls did very well to start with, but the wind off the lake was very cold so I ended up carrying Lily for a good part of the garbage pickup part. We walked along the beach and I picked up garbage while Addie collected feathers and pinecones. She ended up making a pinecone indian - a pinecone with feathers sticking out of the top as a head dress.
Later, the girls played on the playground equipment while I patrolled the area for litter.

The highlight for the girls was after most of the people had gone home. We paused for a snack with Bill. Bill shoveled sand off the sidewalks while I swept. Pretty soon I heard, "We need more sand!" Bill was shoveling sand over to the girls so they could "plant" their stick.

That's not a sand castle, it's a plant.

Swimming

Adam and Addie went to Menards today to pick up some supplies for our new front steps (Adam fell through ours yesterday). While they were there, Adam found a underwater flashlight. Adam tried to broker a deal with Addie...

If Addie will stick her head underwater (the one step that's holding her back from graduating to the next swim class level) then she can have the flashlight.

"Maybe I don't need the flashlight."

Adam tried convincing her that she was able to put her head under water. When that didn't go so well, he told her that Lily will put her head under water and Lily will move ahead of her in the class.

"Maybe I will buy the flashlight for Lily."

Somehow I don't think this bribe had enough bite to it. We'll see how they do when Lily starts swim lessons next week.

Hoppy Easter Every Bunny!

It was an Eastery Egg-stravaganza this weekend. On Thursday at Oma's the girls made little chicks out of eggs. Addie insists upon carrying them around the house and playing with them, even though they have not been refridgerated. We keep asking her not to play with them. I think they may have to find their way to the garbage can.

Saturday night we dyed eggs with Grandma and Grandma's neighbors. Lily loved drawing on the eggs with Crayon. The girls made a huge mess dropping eggs into the dye, but they had a great time. Good thing Grandma put down a tablecloth first!!

The dyed eggs. Addie announced to everyone on Sunday morning that they absolutely could not eat any eggs with a "face" on them. I have no idea what we're going to do with the "Face Eggs," but I guess they're being saved for a reason.

The Gang's All Here

The girls had a great time this weekend hanging out with their cousins, aunties and Grandma Dude. We spent Friday night at Grandma and Grandpa's with Auntie Rene. The girls got to stay up very late and eat Asian food. Sleeping in Grandma's big bed with Mommy was a huge treat for Lily. Addie stayed in Auntie's old room and was the first one up in the morning.

Naps were at a bit of a premium all weekend, but the girls had a blast. We stayed up late Saturday night in the hotel room and ate pizza. On Sunday the cousins came to the hotel and played in the pool. Both girls crashed in the car on the way home. I think they would have slept the entire 5 hour drive if I hadn't wanted to stop to eat.

Hopefully more photos will be coming - I took some great photos of the girls with other people's cameras.

"Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity-Dog"

You know it's been a long weekend when you have kid show theme songs running through your head non-stop. We took the girls to have their photos taken at a local photography place today. They have bunnies every spring that they bring in for photo shoots. We got some sweet pictures of the girls together in their Easter dresses and some of Lily alone. I'm hoping that by getting her 3 year old pictures taken close to her actual birthday, I can at least stay in the running for Mother of the Year. I'm suffering from Mommy guilt that Lily's party was cancelled last week and I have little to no desire to reschedule. The cake is in the freezer, the goodie bags are all ready... I just need to suck up and schedule a date. It's just so darn hard to coordinate a date with all the different people involved. That's why I scheduled it 1 1/2 months out the first time around.

So, when are *you* available for Lily's party?

Food Allergy Article

I want to show everyone what I found in one of the local papers this week. It's from the Cloquet Pine Journal in Cloquet, MN. They have an allergy response team in the elementary schools that practice drills on a regular basis. This is the first time I've heard of an allergy response team in the schools - I think it's fantastic. The more awareness we can bring to the issue of food allergies, the better.

*The link will only remain active for about a week. After that, articles are archived and they want you to pay for them.

Weird Science

We took the girls to the Science Museum of Minnesota last weekend. One of the perks of being members of our Children's Museum is that we get free entry into science museums and children's museums all over the country. The dinosaur area was a huge hit with Addie. She loved seeing all the dinosaurs that Daddy has told her about.

The "waterfall" entry into the water exhibit. We had to go through this entry several times.

The lights exhibit. Adam tried explaining to Addie how you could block out one light and have just a single color shadow, or combine colors to make new colored shadows. However, she really was more interested in just seeing what her shadow looked like when she moved.

Overall, the Science Museum was a lot of fun. It is definitely geared for older kids, but we were able to find enough things that the girls could do to keep their interest.

Goodnight Moon

Last night was the first night in over a week that we didn't have a little person coming into our room in the wee hours. We woke up to the alarm at 6am. With only two of us in our bed. In our own bed. I can't tell you what a treat that was. In fact, I woke up to the alarm thinking something was not right. It took me a second to realize that it was my alarm that was going off and that there wasn't a child standing in front of me. Then, I started worrying that something was wrong. Why didn't Lily wake up? Was she ok?

She was fine of course, just tired. The kicker is that I am completely wiped out today. Why is it that I got a full night's sleep and yet I'm so tired today?

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Daddy, Happy Birthday to You.

A Life Lesson via SpongeBob

We were watching SpongeBob SquarePants tonight as the girls were eating their before bed snack. I hold firm to my belief that SpongeBob is not really a show for kids. In this episode, SpongeBob and Patrick got Squidworth kicked out of his club so they tried to make their own exclusive club. When Squidworth yelled at SpongeBob and Patrick, I told the girls that Squidworth was not a very nice friend. I got no response from the under 5 crowd.

As part of the initiation into the exclusive "Feathered Friends" club, SpongeBob and Patrick held a stinging jellyfish to their tongue. They then held Squidworth's tongue out and stung him with the jellyfish. Addie and Lily thought this was very funny. I told the girls that SpongeBob and Patrick weren't being very good friends to Squidworth. Addie (never taking her eyes from the TV screen) said, "But they did it to themselves first."

"Addie, if your friends sting themselves with jellyfish, are you going to sting your tongue with a jellyfish?" It may not give me the Mommy of the Year award, but I feel like I've hit a Parental Milestone by uttering that phrase.

Have I told you today....

We have a new saying in our house. It is, "Have I told you today that I love you?"

Apparently Adam says this to Lily every morning as he's taking her to Oma's. Depending upon Lily's mood, this can either solicit an "I love you too." or a surly grunt.

I've picked up on saying it to both of the girls and now they're saying it back. It's a nice little change from the pouting that so often goes on around here.

Northland Moms Get Creative

When it looks like this outside, Northland moms get creative on how to get their children to burn off some energy. We were having a lazy morning at home when Dana called and asked if we wanted to go to the aquarium. Our aquarium has some issues so I haven't been there in about a year, but it sounded like a good thing to do.

Addie and Lily were very excited to see their friends, AJ and Sydney. They ran all over the upper floor of the aquarium, barely pausing to look at the fish. Lily was very impressed with the moving stairs (she's a small town girl, what can I say?). In fact, she was very upset that you didn't take the moving stairs to get down to the first floor. The elevator wasn't good enough for her.

One of Addie's favorite spots was a little bear den. It's a little "cave" that has a fuzzy stuffed animal that's supposed to be the momma bear inside. Addie thought it was a great hiding spot and wanted everyone to go inside with her. Unfortunately, AJ and Lily were not convinced it was safe. Lily went in, but wanted to go feet first (just in case). AJ checked it out and that was as far as he would go.

As always, the otter slide was a big hit with Lily. I'm not so sure they were excited about the actual otters, but the slide is neat.

We finished up with lunch at McDonalds and more playing there.