More on fixing bugs

Naomi proudly informed Michael the other day that she had fixed some bugs. Hannah felt the need to clarify, "She fixed some bugs, Dada, but not in Vista."

What does this mean

Naomi was singing through her bedtime songs after dinner today. She got Su La Li just right, as well as O Christmas Tree and The Little Drummer Boy. Hush Little Baby was sung like this:

Hush little baby, don't say a word,
Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring.
If that diamond ring turns to brass,
Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring.

It turns out that Papa, in Naomi's version of the song, always buys the baby a diamond ring, no matter the circumstances or the rhyme scheme.

Bread baking continues

Michael's baking was a wild success today. I actually was the one to bake the bread, but he'd done the mixing and then set the loaf up to put in the oven before he left on a bike ride with the kids. We ate the bread at dinner and were all very impressed. Hannah admitted that she hadn't thought she'd like the bread but liked it a whole lot. Naomi ate a couple of pieces. Michael and I agreed that the results were a lot like the artisan breads you can get at the store. MMMMM....

Adventures in Baking

Monica took a book out of the library recently about bread baking, which I've been peeking at recently, and I decided to try my hand at it. Results were ... amusing.

The first recipe was 100% whole wheat. I made the dough, let it rise, let it rise a second time, made a dough ball as the book instructed, and put it into a loaf pan. The book said to grease the pan, but the pan was non-stick, so, that counts, right? Bake for one hour; remove. I tried to get the bread out onto the cooling rack. Nothing doing - it was stuck. I used a wooden spoon to pry around the sides, and then flipped it over and pounded on the bottom of the pan. Whoosh! Out came the middle of the bread, leaving the crust conveniently behind. It has since occurred to me that this is exactly what children across the country have been seeking for decades, and I really ought to go into business making crustless bread, but that was not actually my first thought. Instead, I removed the crust-hulk, and then stuffed the innards back into the bread. It was like taxidermy bread - not that I've ever been a taxidermist, mind you, but I've read about them. I called it "broken bread", and we had broken bread for snacks and sandwiches today. The kids liked it, and it actually tasted OK, but this was not the success I had hoped for.

So, this afternoon, I set out to make the dough for a white bread recipe. The book says to refrigerate the dough, so I haven't tried it yet, but I already had a good story. After mixing water, yeast and salt, I started adding flour. Hannah really wanted to help, so I let her stir. After adding several cups of flour, it becomes hard to stir, so I asked her if she needed help. "Oh, no, Dad, this is easy!" Really? I look over and she is stirring with all her might and the entire bowl is spinning around with her. The flour is quite still, but the whole apparatus was rotating rapidly, and she was as pleased as could be. I finished adding the flour, and then took back the bowl to do the (rather more boring) task of actually incorporating the flour. I'll try baking this batch tomorrow - hopefully no taxidermy required.

Interesting choice

Me: Hannah, you'll need some protein with breakfast. Would you like yogurt or cottage cheese?

Hannah: I was wondering if I could have baked beans with breakfast.

Me: Um...sure.

The Fair

We went to the Evergreen State Fair today. We'll be going again on Monday with Michael, but we usually enjoy going a couple of times while the Fair is going on. The girls had a great time and both fell asleep in the car on the way home. They both enjoyed seeing the animals. Hannah loved the petting farm...Naomi liked petting the rabbit, but didn't want to touch any of the more intimidating animals. There were chicks that hatched on Hannah's birthday and piglets that were 2 weeks old. There were cows that scared Naomi by mooing (very amusing to be walking through the cattle barn with a little girl pressing her hands hard on her ears) and horses competing in a log-dragging contest. There was fair food, of course. And there was a pony ride for one 5-year-old. I think that was the highlight for her. You would think that a kid who didn't want to jump into the pool by herself (in the shallow end, same thing she'd been doing the previous week) would have been nervous about the pony rides, but you'd be wrong. She had on a face-splitting grin the whole time (not captured by her mother, who forgot the camera today...). As we were on the way home, she declared her intention to take horse-back riding lessons. I don't know where she gets it! :)

Exciting times at our house

Work at home

Both Naomi and Hannah have picked up on the idea of using dinner as a time to catch up on how the day was for everyone. They will often ask Michael how his day was. Naomi has also noticed that Michael often talks about fixing bugs at work. So she's taken to going off to a separate part of the room and saying, "Fix, fix, fix" while moving her hands around somewhat nebulously. Then she'll come over and tell us, "I fixed some bugs."

Swimming lessons

Good to know

I went to the OB this morning and everything looks good -- great news. I had asked Michael if he had any questions I should bring in to the appointment with me, and Hannah overheard. She told me she'd like me to check with Dr. Blackham about whether "it's okay if pregnant ladies watch TV." I was a bit surprised, since we don't really watch TV, but I did as she requested.

Me: Well, my 5-year-old wanted me to check and see if it's okay for pregnant ladies to watch TV.

Dr. Blackham: You know, I'll go ahead and give the O.K. to that.

Hannah was very relieved to hear this.

Coming soon

Since I recently realized that the due date for the new baby is coming right up, I have started to do some necessary preparation -- some directly relating to the baby's arrival, and some not. This weekend I went through the 0-3 month clothes and washed the gender neutral ones, as well as blankets, sheets, burp clothes, lap pads, slings, and various other baby gear. It is ridiculous how small these clothes are! I should know this by now, but it still strikes me as ridiculous that they're so small.

On a slightly more dangerous note, I've been working on a bit of garden planning, too. This is only more dangerous in that gardening plans easily get out of hand, and I am notorious for this particular difficulty. So I've been trying to choose a project, rather than work out an entire plan to be implemented this fall. It's difficult to stay reined in, especially since there is a lot of ground to work with, and most of it is in dire need of help.

It's cooled off a bit

thank God! We had some nice weather this weekend, and today is back to being off and on rain and 60 degrees. It's not as much fun for the kids, since their outside playtime is hampered a bit by the rain, but they've been taking advantage of Kerri's visit to do crafts, stickers, and paper airplane projects galore, so I think they're okay with it.

Ballet camp

was a mighty success this year. Here's a photo of our little ballerina in her ballet outfit (her slippers aren't on yet for this photo, but her hair is in the requisite bun).

It's the little things

I had some copies to make, and yesterday turned out to be the day I did them. The girls came with me, of course, and I found myself thinking that it could be a somewhat disastrous trip to Kinkos. However, I plowed ahead. When we got there, I told the girls what I was going to do -- put the pages in here, then the machine would copy them and new pages would come out here. I started up the machine.

Both girls were instantly enthralled. They cheered about the pages coming out and Hannah said, "This is much better than the laminator!" They saw the laminator last week. Each time I started a new batch, they watched in awe as the pages came spitting out. I had to tell them not to scream so loud, they were getting so excited about it.

I have no idea what the people around us were thinking, but I have to say that I'm not sure I ever have come across that much excitement about making copies before...

Confusing songs

This evening we were singing songs, and it was Naomi's turn to pick. She said she wanted the dino song. We tried several, but they were all the wrong song -- "NO! Not that song, the dino song!" We were at a loss.

Suddenly, though, something clicked, and I realized that she wanted "I've been working on the railroad." To her, "Dinah" sounds just like "dino," so it was the dino song. She was very pleased that we finally figured it out.

It certainly does put a different spin on the line, "Someone's in the kitchen with dino," doesn't it?

It's warm here

The past few days have had highs in the mid-to-upper 90s. We don't have A/C here, so that's pretty warm -- inside and out. Our thermometer today is reading 94 (in the shade), and the inside thermometer says 89. Pregnancy and heat with no A/C don't really mix too well, I have to admit. The kids thought it was hilarious that I was sitting by their wading pool with my feet in the pool, but boy is it a good way to cool off! The nights and mornings are still pretty cool, so we try to get out early in the morning to do stuff, then get into some sort of water in the afternoons.

More birthday thoughts

Hannah, on her birthday, laughingly remarked, "Well, I may have 100 more birthdays, or even 30!"

Rescheduling

Thursday, July 31, as we were on our way across the 520 bridge (which, for out-of-towners, goes over Lake Washington), we saw the Blue Angels practicing for their performances at SeaFair over the weekend. Hannah was most impressed and really wanted to go to the performance. Unfortunately, our weekend was completely booked.

"Maybe we could reschedule my birthday party to Sunday so we could go," she suggested.

"Your birthday party is on Sunday."

"Oh. Can't we go Saturday, then?"

"No, Saturday we're going to Jen and Tim's wedding."

"Oh. Can we call the Blue Angels and ask them to reschedule?"

I picture myself calling the SeaFair information number and asking who I can talk to about changing the Blue Angels to the following weekend..."I think we'll just try to make it to the show next year."

"Oh. All right. Can you find out when it is next year?"

Phew!

It's been a very busy week for us! Hannah's 5th birthday was Friday, with party on Sunday, and Michael's parents drove up for the occasion. Saturday was the wedding of some very good friends of ours, and Michael was in the wedding, so we attended the rehearsal dinner Thursday. It was a great weekend of seeing friends and family, but much more active than we've been recently.