Guest Book: Aunt Sissy

So, last weekend my sister came to visit us. The weekend was filled with fun stuff like checking out Portland, meeting some friends, driving through the Willamette Valley, trying out a new cafe, walking downtown for the Farmer's Market, visiting our local playground, relaxing at the river, and taking pictures at the zoo. It was a very full weekend, but so much fun!

April is, I know now, my single biggest fan of this blog. I recently logged into my statistics to learn that she checks this page for updates about thirteen times a day. Every day. Aside from any other things you might think about that, nobody can deny that's commitment! And so, as a reward dear sister, I include here an outrageous number of pictures to celebrate your visit! Let's do it again soon!

The night before April had to leave, we packed up a little picnic and headed to the river. With a planned stop at Annabelle's favorite swing set on the way there... (Sorry about the partial removal of the white van in the background. I started to work on photoshopping it out, but working with all the shadows was really annoying so I gave up.)

Down the hill towards the river. Annabelle calls April "See Dee", which April prefers to think is "Siti" (grama in Arabic), but I know the truth: Annabelle came with me a few days before April arrived to buy a CD for her as a birthday present. It was right after that trip that she would hold the present and walk up to April's picture on the fridge and say, "CD!" Though it was really cute when she called her Aunt Sissy, "An Dee See Dee."

Half a dozen drumsticks to share... still hot from the frying pan and salty. Yummy.

We are confirmed carnivores in this family.

Lounging back, enjoying some deliciously fresh, locally grown organic Edamame (I am SO going to grow some of these next year!) and admiring my new stainless steel water canister. (It even has a steel top, so the water never contacts any plastic at all. For my anti-plastic friends: http://www.enviroproductsinc.com/)

It was so relaxing I actually fell asleep right there on the rocks, in the shade. I love this river!

Thanks so much for visiting us Aunt Sissy! Looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Moments later she pitched that screwdriver into my eye.

It's hot. I built some shelves for the guestroom today with Annabelle's help. And by helping I mean grabbing the hammer every time I put it down and trying to hit the cats with it while saying, "Hep! Heping! Me! Booming! Boom boom boom! Yow! Heping!"

Finally done with all the booming, I laid down on the deck. She helped me do that too...

When they say exotic, they really mean it.

My sister recently visited** and among other things, we paid a visit to the Portland Zoo. I don't know why this place doesn't get more rave reviews, it's just SO AWESOME, as far as zoos go.

Most of the time I actually hate it when people take, share, and otherwise advertise their zoo pictures. The average photographer can't possibly pick up the nuances of, say, a zebra or hippo, that would actually make the picture interesting. Zoos are this place where everyone with a camera seems like a tourist to me... simply because the pictures only say one thing: "Hey, there was this cool giraffe, and I was there standing in front of it!"

So, this day that Annabelle and I trekked to the Portland Zoo with Aunt Sissy was my day to take a slough of exactly those kinds of pictures. But, you have to realize something: Portland hosts no ordinary zoo! I think the pictures speak for themselves.

**Aunt Sissy's guestbook post is coming! Be not disappointed!

No, really, they're terrific.

Annabelle, approaching two and a half, has mastered the art of tantrums. I know there are moms out there who perceive the whiny, not getting what they want, fake crying, thirty second episodes that their sweet kids go through as tantrums. This is not what I am talking about.

What I am talking about it the fire breathing, head spinning devil having an seizure on the floor in the supermarket who takes deep breaths just to emit a glass shattering shriek long enough to ensure that any ear drum within twenty feet is bleeding. I'm talking about a child who can be laughing and happy and then hear the trigger word spoken by Mom (who is dying to know what that word might be so she can erase it from her vocabulary forever) and suddenly be throwing things, targeting breakables (and bruisables) with kicks, screaming that SHE wanted to place the butter on the checkout counter, but now what's done is done, there's no going back, the butter has already been touched and tainted by Mom, she's inconsolable and no amount of talking, bribing, threatening, or willingness to buy one or two more pounds of butter that will help.

These daily, sometimes twice daily occurrences have had me so burnt out that I have felt near the brink of insanity. But then Dave pointed out that I'm not the one who is insane, it's Annabelle who is acting like a psychopath. So this, coupled with the realization that my fantasies of running away were not healthy, I knew something had to be done.

So, with a little encouragement from my mom friends, we starting using time-outs.

In less than three weeks Annabelle has had about five time-outs. They have changed my life. She has her little time-out chair in the corner between the armoire and the stairs, she knows that a warning is a warning, she knows that she has to stay in the chair until she does whatever it was that she refused to do that got her landed there in the first place. And to my utter surprise: it works!!

Only two time-outs so far have been biggies, closely bypassing a dramatic power struggle, and required that we sit there (always together) for more than five minutes. But both of those times were also our biggest success stories, ending with her agreeing with Mom, doing the helpful thing I wanted, and then giving me a big hug and kiss. I love that she is so proud of herself for complying...

I'm sure there will be more on this topic. Stay tuned!

Doesn't it make your heart hurt? We were at a park watching dog trials, the kind where they run through tunnels, climb stairs and maneuver other doggy obstacle course challenges. This tantrum started because I wouldn't let her run into the pen with the dogs and do their tricks with them.

Guest book: Dave's parents visit again!

A whirlwind visit from Dave's folks to bring by some fun stuff (lamps, chair, Francis) and share a birthday dinner. It was quick, but very fun! The pictures speak for themselves!

Getting a Winnie the Pooh coloring book from Oma Shirley. Annabelle has a pretty strong Winnie the Pooh obsession going on right now...

Window shopping downtown.

What can I say? She really likes to run when Grampa is around!

Catching our breath. (Yes, me too... I had to run after them with the camera!)

Trying to walk the last stretch home, but she would break into running every ten feet or so.

Love.

Talk to the ear!

Annabelle has been gets loads of presents in the mail lately from Grama Carolyn. She's gotten to the point where she practically expects something in the mail box or on the porch every afternoon... and when she sees a package she stops, gasps, holds out her arms with her fingers splayed, and says, "Ahhhhhhhhh! Mooooooooom! HAPPY! Me! HAPPY! OPEN!" And then claws at the package until I walk over with some scissors to help her open it.

Now, aside from the awesome relief it provides me for Annabelle to have a new (old) toy from Grama's house that she remembers (and can now do a pretty good job talking about those memories), getting a package in the mail is like a two fold gift: the gift of it arriving and having it to open and also the gift that is actually inside. I stretch out the experience of these mailed packages as much as possible. She takes me to the refrigerator and points at the picture of Grama and then points to her HAPPY! and then says, "ME!" It's really fun.

But the funny part is this peculiar thing she does when she gets really excited about something. When the gift that she opens has particular meaning for her, or is something that she is feeling extraordinarily enthusiastic about, then she turns her head to the side, almost pointing her ear to the gift. (I think this comes from me looking at her with an excited expression when there was a surprise to find near by and then looking at the surprise out of the corner of my eyes... As if she interpreted this to mean that I couldn't face the surprise, not that I was "pointing" to it with my eyes.)

It was tricky to catch this on camera. It took some practice because I was usually at her side and the package was directly in front of her, so in the first picture it looks like she's facing me when she turns her head. But I think you'll get it. And hopefully you'll find it as peculiar and funny as I do! I love how she copies my "surprise" expression perfectly!

PS Please ignore all the computer wires hanging down behind the "desk" in that last picture. We're still unpacking the office and getting things arranged... and I didn't want to crop this photos because I thought they might lose meaning for this post.

My cat.

I have a list of 14 topics to blog about sitting right here beside me... lots of important things to share: we've had more visitors, Annabelle's doing new stuff, I've been painting a lot, we've gotten some nice presents in the mail, and I even shot a couple little videos that might make you laugh.

But for now all that will wait because I want to welcome home someone very special: my cat. After more than a year with Dave's folks, he's come back home to me. When he went away I was so engrossed in being Annabelle's mom that I thought those sweet kitty loving feelings were gone, and I had assumed his new home would be a permanent thing for us both. But no!

It can be so strange to be reunited with someone (or something) that you hadn't quite realized you missed. And it can be so nice when you realize that someone is just as soft, cuddly, and sweet as you always knew him to be. We've been hanging out together and it feels just like old times...

Welcome home Francis. I'm so glad to have you back.

Playground hopping at the local park

Last Friday I took Annabelle to the park for two hours. It's rare that she shows any sort of long term interest in playgrounds these days, and I was glad to have the camera to catch her really enjoying herself. Our first stop on the way into the park was at her favorite swing- the one that is really tall so it swings super wide. Then we kicked a ball across the greenbelt to the "nice" playground where she played with another two year old for an hour before we headed home.

She really really loves this swing!

A study in green.

Scoping out the playground before diving in...

Climbing to new heights, literally. Her new friend leaned over and said, "Hew, take maw han."

PS Don't you love her little green dress? She could almost pass as a Mennonite if it had some flowers on it... we live among a very large Mennonite community here in our little town. But talking about the Mennonites is a post all of its very own... soon to come!

Guest Book: Another set of California transplants

We had the joy of spontaneous guests this evening: our friends Rebecca and Dan and their two daughters! They are in the middle of their move up to Portland from Southern California and we were so glad to see them. But nobody was as glad as Annabelle, who kept reciting the name of their ten year old daughter over and over and over. These are some of Annabelle's favorite friends (ours too) and I know the positive effects of the visit will stretch a long way for her...

We can't wait to see them in Portland for some fun adventures!

The Summer of Salads

A couple months ago I informed Dave that we were going to have salad every single night for dinner during the entire Summer season. The Summer of Salads! I called it... And with the exception of one night out to eat at a restaurant and a couple dinners with friends, we've been entirely successful. It has involved a LOT of vegetable preparation, but it's been fun to come up with new salad combinations every week. We never supplemented with bread or pasta, just had the veggies topped with some sort of meat and a dressing.

But, like you are probably already thinking, the idea got kind of old and I got tired of salad. I have already planned to have The Winter of Soups! even though we've got a few months to go until Winter is truly upon us, but thinking about all the soups made me want to eat soup and so tonight I gave up a night of salad in exchange for some soup.

However, my decision to make soup came spontaneously, just as I was walking into the kitchen to get a salad ready. Turns out, I made an awesome twenty minute meal for dinner, a desperate imitation of an awesome dish at an Italian restaurant that we loved in California: Wedding Soup. It turned out great! Everyone ate it up happily and Dave and Annabelle even had seconds. It probably helped that all the ingredients were organic, and the kale and pork sausage were locally grown too. (I am really getting spoiled with all the local meat available around here, it is so delicious.)

So, here is my new recipe! Please let me know if you test it out!

Wedding Soup

Cook some pasta until almost done, with just a little bite to it. Set aside. Then cook some pork sausage mixed with diced onion until the meat is completely cooked through. Add a generous amount of kale, cut up in very small pieces. Cook until the kale is wilted, but not too soft. Add chicken broth to desired soupiness and salt and pepper to taste.

When serving, spoon the soup mixture over the noodles. Do not cook (or store!) the noodles in the soup because they get too mushy. I think the trick to this soup is to not overcook any of the ingredients...

I didn't have the really small pasta that Wedding Soup generally calls for, so I used penne, but you know what? It didn't matter one bit. It was very yummy and we'll be having it more often, I can tell already!

Another county's fair

So we had such an awesome time at our county fair that I was super excited to check out our neighboring county fair... simply because I knew it would be much bigger.

But it was a huge disappointment. They charged really high prices for everything and I was bummed out that Annabelle was too small to participate in any of the kids activities except for one: panning for gold. Panning for gold is such a dumb kid activity, especially when there isn't any actual learning going on, just a couple pans in a bucket full of dirt and brown water.

On our way out I walked by the "parent relief" booth and they offered me a free stroller for the remainder of my time there at the fair. Annabelle had already climbed into the stroller before I could tell the woman that we were about to leave, so I took the opportunity to walk around the vendor section. Though I use the term "vendor" loosely... the pro-lifers, church organizations, and a guy with a sign that said, "Are you going to heaven? A two question test!" were in one corner of the building while the other corner held Planned Parenthood, a gay rights booth registering people as Democrats, and some baby chicks that had just hatched that were surrounded by educational signs about raising chickens on a farm. Wedged in between were the Avon lady, Mary Kay, the DMV, a pots and pans roadshow and people selling subscriptions to the local paper. However, waaaay in the back was a cardboard jungle scene, so we headed in that direction. Once there I realized that we had nearly missed the very coolest thing at the fair: a small zoo-like exhibit of semi-exotic animals.

They started out pretty big, with an American Alligator in a big tub right when you walk in. I pulled the stroller up to it and Annabelle signed "big!" while making a surprised face with her mouth wide open. Then the Alligator moved a little bit and she realized it was real and quickly shouted, "DONE!" while signing at the same time (which she sometimes does for emphasis.) So we moved pass the giant Tortoise, Monitors, Porcupine, Bobcat, and over to the snakes. In the corner was a little booth, and well, the picture speaks for itself...

I only wish the photographer had waited to catch the pure excitement and surprise that Annabelle was showing, instead of distracting her for the picture. Just two seconds earlier or later and you would have seen a face that said, "MOM! Can you believe this?!" while saying "Sssssssssss....... WOW!" Instead you get the "What does this woman want?" face. Oh well. Still it's pretty cool, and I know Annabelle really enjoyed it.

I also know a few people who will freak out when they see this picture. All I can say is that when they offered me a choice between a Tarantula and an Albino Python, just the thought of a spider made my skin crawl and I was relieved that they had snakes to hold instead of something really crazy.

...on a day hot enough to make the devil sigh...

**Does anyone out there catch my obscure Country Music references?

It's an illusion

Dave brought these glasses home to Annabelle last week. She likes to try them on, but I think it's only for the sake of looking through the little holes punched in them so that you can see while wearing them. I wanted to catch a picture of her with them on, but after only two shots, she wanted me to wear the glasses...

...and these pictures certainly give the impression that she finds them hilarious! But the truly funny thing is that she hardly even seemed to notice that I was wearing the glasses, because she's laughing at the sound of someone squealing their tires in the distance. Honestly. I think some kids were messing around and peeling out or doing doughnuts or something and every time she heard a little squeal she'd bust up! I think it's funny how we're laughing together at the sound of skidding tires and I just forgot to take off the glasses...