Oh the things she says

As Annika was pulling a rather heavy wooden chair across our living room, I asked her what she was doing. She said, "Oh. I just need to rest my body for a little while."

Other gems of late:

• "When I'm a giant I won't fit in our house. We'll need a bigger one."
• "Oh THERE you are little sweetheart!" (talking to Conor)
• "I don't like my breakfast." I asked her if I could give it to Conor; she said, "No! It's mine!" and proceeded to eat the entire plate of food. (I think our kids are part Labrador!)
• "Mommy, I'm sorry your knee is hurty. Can I kiss is to make it feel better?"

Conor's Popsicle

Last night, the kids got popsicles for a treat after dinner. Watching Conor eat a popsicle is often a source of entertainment for me. He typically wears the majority of the treat ... hence, I thought ahead and actually pulled him out of his shirt before giving him the deep purple popsicle. (Every so often, I do have a moment of genius!)

Conor definitely does better with popsicles that have been de-sticked and are in a bowl. He isn't quite speedy enough to eat them off of the stick before they melt down his arm .... his body ... and onto his feet. Keeping that in mind, he's still mastering the use of utensils, which can be a source of great entertainment as well!

Food doesn't necessarily go directly from the plate/bowl to the utensil. Conor frequently uses his other hand to load the food onto the utensil. (See exhibit A below)

After loading up said utensil, he often uses his second hand for a little added stability... 

Repeat as necessary. 

Conor is keeping an eye on his big sister, who has mastered the ability to eat a popsicle off of its stick without winding up with sticky toes.

Not all bites get from Point A (the bowl) to Point B (his mouth) without a little detour to the table... 

Our cute little boy modeling his popsicle goatee! 

Weird Stuff I've Witnessed on the Bus

About a year ago, I started commuting to work on the bus. Working downtown is great; driving downtown and paying to park downtown, however, are not. Over the past year, I've encountered a few... how shall I say ... interesting people and I've decided to share details about a few that have really stuck with me.

Drum roll, please!

• The middle-aged guy who boarded the bus on Greenwood Ave wearing a legalize pot shirt who, upon sitting down, proclaimed to everyone on the bus "I AM SO HIGH!" and then proceeded to tell everyone about how he uses medical marijuana. Yeah, dude, we quickly realized you were high. You wouldn't shut up, asked ridiculous questions, and stank to high Heaven.
• The lady (while standing on the sidewalk ... again on Greenwood Ave) who asked the driver of the bus I was on what time another bus (different route) would be there. When the driver said he didn't know, she yelled, "I know you won't tell me because I'm (insert race here). " No, lady. He just didn't have the timetable for other bus routes memorized. Sorry...
• The guy (who oozed the stench of alcohol) who sat next to me yesterday and told me all about how he was hit by a car and broke his ankle. He then produced pictures of his broken ankle and the hardware that is now inside it. I heard all about how his lawyer said it would be work $250k, how he was married to a gal for 24 years but they're now divorced so he's moving back to Montana after his lawsuit is done, how he was shot in the knee in Viet Nam (hopefully during the conflict in the 60s-70s and not more recently), and that his daughter gets confused by calling the north area of seattle "North Seattle."
• The person who left an eaten chicken leg next to a seat .... I didn't actually see this person, but did see the chicken bone.
• The teen who fell asleep on the bus and his friends couldn't get him to wake up at their stop, so they just left him. I keep envisioning him waking up somewhere along the bus route not haveing a clue where he is. The "WTF! Where am I???" look on his face must have been priceless!
• The UW grad student who practically assaulted me with attention when she saw me knitting. She was overly excited about having a fellow knitter on the bus (mind you, there are always a few of us on each bus during rush hour... on every stinking bus) and proceeded to tell me all about how much she loves to knit, what she's working on, what she's studying in school, and how to contact her so we could be BFFs. (OK, she didn't really say we'd be BFFs, but it was implied). In all honesty, I'm shocked she didn't crawl into my lap and start braiding my hair during the commute!

There are plenty of other interesting folks I've encountered, but these are the few that really stand out .... until I ride the bus home tonight and unearth another busload of nice, normal people ... and a few whacky ones!

Annika Sings

Annika brought this gem home from school recently. Really... how could a child get ANY cuter than this?

Daring Bakers Challenge Revealed: CROISSANTS!

I am so excited to announce this month’s Daring Bakers challenge! Croissants ala Julia Child. I have wanted to make homemade croissants for years, but was too intimidated by the idea to try. Well, the Daring Baker’s challenge made me face my croissant fears and look ‘em square in the flaky eyes.I’m officially addicted to baking croissants now. In fact, I’ve made 4-5 different batches of them this month and plan on doing more (once my knee heals!). I even ventured into making chocolate-filled croissants. There was definitely a learning curve and I had a few flops (especially when using the pre-corrected recipe that called for WAY too much flour), but also enough successes to make it worthwhile. This is not a fast process; it takes about 12 hours to make a batch of croissants, but it sure seems to pay off once you take a bite of the warm, flaky goodness.The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

Jungle Cake

Annika's little friend Gage had his 5th birthday party this past Saturday. Gage's mom is a good friend of mine and asked if I'd be up for making his cake. Ummmm..... an excuse to bake? Count me in!! Unfortunatley, a few weeks later, I volunteered to help with the Bite of Broadview and was going to be manning the dunk tank all Saturday. So, I didn't get to attend Gage's shindig. That didn't stop me/us from getting the cake made. The party had a jungle theme, so the cake had to follow suit.

The cake was a multi-day project. I baked early in the week and froze the cakes; it consisted of a 10" tier (comprised of 4 cakes) and a 6" tier (comprised of another 4 cakes). Thursday night, I stacked the cakes and then covered them with the green fondant. After that, I did the work on the palm trees. On Friday, Eric (aka, my amazing artistic director and sculptor extrordinaire) helped create the animals. While he sculpted, I did the painting for the animals that required paint (zebra, giraffe, snake). Our house was really warm on Friday, so we ran into a little difficulty with the fondant/gum paste... it kept slumping. ACK! We wound up using toothpicks as internal support and we rotated the animals in and out of the refrigerator, just to keep them cooler.

All in all, a huge success!!

Dipping my toes into photography

Last weekend, I did something I rarely do. I took some time just for me. What did I do during this chunk of time, you ask? I took a 3.5-hour photography workshop just for moms. The workshop was hosted by Seattle Mamas with Cameras, and I can't even begin to describe how much I learned. I walked in with VERY little knowledge of how to use our new camera, let alone how to take a photograph instead of a snapshot. I've been interested in photography for many years, but never did anything about it. Now that Eric and I have our new fancy-schmancy camera (that we purchased with the goal of being able to take better pictures of our kids), it seemed prudent to learn what in the heck I should be doing.

We started out learning a few basics about photography terminology (ISO, apeture, f/stop, shutter speed, etc.) and learned what in the heck some of the buttons and dials on our cameras did. There were two instructors, one is a Canon mama and one is a Nikon mama, so we had lots of expertise to guide us. After the "these are the basics" portion of the class, we headed outside. The workshop was held at a fantastic location here in Seattle. The Good Shepherd Center is an historic building that originally was a place for unwed mothers to have their babies. After 60 years, the center was closed and the building was eventually purchased by the city and the grounds were turned into a park. The building is used as a school and a community learning center. The grounds are GORGEOUS! There are beautiful gardens scattered around and a great play area for kids. (I'm planning on bringing the kids there so they can play on the playground equipment; they'd love it there!)

Our first assignment was to "get to know" a flower in the garden. I chose this yellow something-or-other flower. After spending time with him, I took pictures of some gorgeous purple artichokes; my pictures, sadly, didn't do the beautiful plant justice.


I also hung out with some beans that were near the yellow flower. I found them interesting and worthy of being photographed. I truly appreciated that the flowers and beans held still and didn't cover their faces as I took their pictures.... unlike our beloved children. ;)


I think this is my favorite picture of the day. There's something about the brick wall that really grabs me.


We spent about 45 minutes (if not more) outside and then returned to our classroom to learn a bit more about photography. This portion was more about the art of photography instead of the brick and mortar details of photography. One point our instructors kept driving home was it is important to tell a story with photographs. The story behind a photograph is often what captivates those looking at it.

After returning home, I decided to try my hand at applying the many, many, many lessons I learned during the workshop. Conor decided he wanted to take my picture with Annika's camera while I took his picture. (He loves running around saying "cheese!!" with the camera.) I caught this moment and really feel it tells a story. His eyes are practically dancing and even though most of his face can't be seen, it is evident how happy he is.


I was trying to play around with the use of light in this picture. Eric's mom recently made this hat for Annika (isn't it adorable???) and I wanted to include a picture with the thank you note. So. we did a little experimenting with the natural light that was streaming into our kitchen. Annika decided that Bunny was feeling shy. I like that she isn't engaging with me or the camera; her focus is on Bunny. I love how her face is so soft and angelic in this moment. I don't like how bright the sun is shining on her hat, but oh well!


There is still SOOOO much to learn, but I feel like at least I have the basics to take some "keeper" pictures of our life now. Hurray!