The Mixture that is Leah

Remember when I said the two things Leah wanted for Christmas was a little oven and a football uniform? She had also been asking for a double stroller with babies for months.

So this is her after opening presents (the other baby was sleeping. shhhh. The other is a girl. She named them Adam & Hannah.) - 

Football, cooking, babies. She’s just fantastic. Later she sat at the computer playing her new computer game – still wearing the uniform and the helmet on & off. Too cute.

This is her right after she opened the football uniform. She opened the box and immediately began stripping so she could put it on.

Happy, happy girl!

Southern Pecan Cheesecake

This is all because of Jeff Whitfield (a beloved high school friend). He posted this picture on his facebook wall when he had this cheesecake for his birthday that had me drooling. Since he got it from a shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma where I can’t get to buy a cheesecake I started doing some research about recipes and after reading about 20 recipes. I took tidbits of many and put this recipe together. And holy cow am I glad I did!

Sorry this is so long. It’s a rather involved recipe -

Crust

• 1 cup finely crushed gingersnaps
• 1/3 cup pecans, finely crushed
• 6 TBSP butter, melted
• 2 TBSP brown sugar

For the crust, combine ingredients and press into bottom of spring form pan. (It needs to be a large one if you want one big cheesecake but I used two 7 inch spring form pans and it was perfect with the two. One 7 inch cheesecake feed 6 people with a piece left over. It’s VERY rich.)

Caramel

• 25/26 caramels or half a caramel bits bag
• 6 TBSP sweetened condensed milk

Melt together over low heat. Mix thoroughly. Pour into crust.

Filling

• 3 – 8 oz cream cheese (1 1/2 lbs) – Do not use low fat
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 16 ounces sour cream1/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice (or try using 1 tsp of lemon zest)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Using an electric mixture on low (this matters – stay on low the ENTIRE time. Don’t be tempted to speed it up) beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy.
3. Continue mixing on low while you slowly add the sugar to the cream cheese.
4. Continue mixing on low while you add one egg at a time, beating after each egg.
5. Add flour, vanilla and lemon juice (or zest) and mix on low.
6. Add in the sour cream and mix on low until completely blended.
7. Pour the mixture into the spring form pan.
8. Bake the cheesecake on the top rack of the 325 degree oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.
9. Once the timer goes off, prop your oven door open, turn off the oven and let the cake sit inside the oven for 1 hour.
10. Remove from the oven and let your cheesecake cool in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Here’s the thing about the 24 hours. We ate my first one after about 8 hours. It was to die for. We LOVED it. But the next day? When it had been 24 hours? Unbelievable. It seriously gets better the longer it sits in there. So make this the day before you need it. And trust me – and WAIT.

Topping

The topping – Pecans pan toasted with butter and brown sugar – arranged in a circle. Pan toasted again with the chopped pecans (more butter and brown sugar) and put in the center.

PS – While I pulled all these ideas from several places – the filling is from a copy cat restaurant site – Cheesecake Factory.

Now – for pictures! I should go get Jeff’s picture so you can see where I started from…

Jeff’s Cheesecake:

See why I needed this?

My cheesecakes -

Merry Christmas

Still my favorite Christmas picture ever…

December 17, 2005

Leah can write.

Who knew?

She asked to write a letter to her cousin. Sat down next to me with a crayon and a piece of paper. I helped with the y and the g. It's all her own content. She asked me how some words were spelled...


PS She's royally ticked off at me for being out of envelopes. The nerve of me. She needs to mail this RIGHT. NOW.

Christmas Party & Santa Trauma

Help me out here. Do you think she liked being a donkey? Do you think she liked those ears on her head?

That was the look on her face the whole time. I did get a tiny half smile out of her but I had to make the most ridiculous faces to get her to do that.

She told me afterward, “I hate those ears! I didn’t want to wear those!”

Poor kid. Drew & I laughed through the entire thing.

PS Sorry about the sad picture quality.

Then she wanted to go see Santa.

Now, first I must explain that I haven’t told my child all about Santa. I love the magic of course Christmas. I love the mystical quality of Santa but I have a really, really hard time flat out lying to her face. So she’s got the idea of him now – I haven’t tried to avoid it. Actually, last year I did say something about people liking to believe that he comes to their house while you’re sleeping and leaves presents – She was HORRIFIED. I told her it wasn’t true to get rid of her fears that some crazy  man in a red suit was going to break into our house. Whew.

This year she doesn’t seem to remember that. And even though she brought it up to me and told me she doesn’t believe in Santa and she knows I buy her presents she seems to be changing her mind…

She says she wants to talk to him but as she’s shy with new people it all seems like a great idea until she was standing in front of him.

He talked to her, he gave her candy and then as she walked away from him… she BURST into tears. She came running to me, clinging and I couldn’t get her to tell me what was the matter. I figured it was one of two things. 1. the whole thing scared her or 2. she was upset she hadn’t talked.

As it turns out it was both. She finally calmed down and went off to play (although she still hadn’t spoke) and then she came back to me crying again – I just want to talk to him. I didn’t tell him what I want. He won’t know!

Okay. Clearly she’s decided whether she’s sure she believes in him or not – he needs to know what she wants for Christmas.

So we stand in line again (forever I might add) and she gets about 6 inches from him and won’t go closer and is too scared to talk again. So I offered to tell him what she wanted. (she had told me earlier what she wanted to tell him)

So I kneeled down next to her and I told him she wants a little oven and a football uniform with a helmet that has dolphins on the side (the child loves the Miami Dolphins!).

This made him laugh (of course – how many 4 year old girls are asking for football uniforms??). He talked to her for a minute about loving football and finally got some grins out of her.

And she left happy – even though she still never spoke to Santa. Mommy took care of it.

Whew.

The best news is I’d already bought those things. They should actually both be here in the mail today.

Yeah Mommy! (aka Santa)

Random Productive Review

I like to do eco friendly things when I see them. I don't go all out by any means but if I see something I'll try it and keep using it if it work. I like that Green Works cleaner by Clorox. It's great.

But this stuff? Palmolive Eco?

It. Is. Awful.

First - it just flat out doesn't work all that great. Second - and worst - it leaves a while film all over everything that's plastic and a few things that aren't. So for instance my black utensils? Spatula, ladle, etc - are all covered in a white film. My red plastic colander.... everything. All covered in some blasted white film.

I don't know how the heck to get it off. And I'm so cheap I keep using the bottle trying to get rid of it all. One more load I think and I can move on to new soap. I should have just thrown it away. Sigh.

There. Just an FYI.

Oh and when I was looking for a picture of the stuff. Well, I'll be. More reviews - and guess what? It leaves a white film on everyone's plastic.

I'm all for ecofriendly but what good does it do me if it means all my plastic dishes are ruined and I have to buy more and more plastic?? Not. Good.

Adoption #2

I've been meaning to post this:

Our Adoption Profile

is officially up and on itsaboutlove.org.

It's similar to the information on the adoption profile blog I did here. Some different pictures and no slide shows.

But it's nice that it's up! And now....

We wait.

That's the adoption thing. Wait.

So if you know someone or know someone who knows someone who... you get the idea. Feel free to pass out our information. You'd be amazed at how adoption connects are often made. You just never know.

Hey Universe? Are you listening? - May it be a speedy process this time!

Schooling

So we're still doing this book: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. And Leah still loves it! We are in the 50 somethings. I know it's working and I know she can do it but ya know... Sometimes you're doing all this homeschooling stuff and teaching her everything you think she can absorb and you wonder if this is all doing any good. If that makes sense. But then a few things happen and you learn two new things yourself.

1. You underestimate your child and what she "can absorb" or is ready to learn.

The other day I thought I would print out an addition worksheet (just +1 problems. ie 1+2, 4+1, etc) and just introduce her to the idea and the math vocabulary. (I'm tired of counting) And she got down with the whole worksheet in less than a couple minutes. Forget the vocabulary. I explained it to her and the idea just made sense and she did the problems. Here I was all prepared with M&Ms to introduce the concept. Forget that too. She was way ahead of me.

Now we're working on other things with Math 2+3, etc. Those she actually has to stop and count in her head. Or she'll use the M&Ms or hold up two fingers on one hand and three on the other and count them.

I think I'll show her some subtraction today. We'll see how that goes.

2. You have no idea how much she's retaining. It's probably more than you think.

And the reading. I know she rocks at the lessons and she does really well. She loves to walk around sounding out words to herself and rhyming everything she can think of.

But yesterday in the van. She wants us to look at her doodle pad while we’re driving and there was this:

OPRĀT – operate

If she were to see that in the reading lesson book it would look like this: operāte - with a line over the a to mark a long a sound. they make the letters you don't sound out smaller in the lesson. She spelled that exactly right given how she'd learned it.

And don't ask my why she chose operate. We weren't discussing that. I just have no idea. lol

Anyway - look! It's working. I'm ever so glad. Not bad for 4!

Christmas Tree Cones

This was a fun idea I read on some preschool craft site forever ago. I didn’t save the link but it suggested using sugar cones. I just used a regular cone as you can see in the pictures (because it’s what I had in my house) and the candy was leftover from making Leah’s birthday cakes. I also had a thing of white ready made frosting so I just added some green food dye to it. Totally spur of the moment but Leah thought I was a genius.

Gum drop on top to provide the point of the tree (sugar cones obviously would have provided this).

 

The “star” is a piece of cut red licorice, two sizes of M&Ms, some gum drops, and red & green sugar.

Then Leah wanted to eat hers…

She says it’s hard to eat. Of course eating them was NOT the point. Silly girl.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten Free!

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet)

Stir peanut butter, sugar, egg, baking soda, and salt together. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll into small balls, smash just slightly (with your hand or a fork) and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Move the cookies to a wire rack and let them cool.

Makes about 18-24 cookies.

*****

I made these today for a woman at church. When we were doing the thankful jar thing one of them was to be grateful your teacher (I think that was what it said). Anyway, Leah chose her teacher at church who she ADORES. But I knew she had lots of food allergies so I wanted to ask her first before I brought her cookies she couldn’t eat. She can’t have artificial sweeteners when it comes to cookies  but her mother has celiac disease so she needs gluten (flour) free food. So I wanted to make something they could both eat. Years ago I made a cookie similar this to another woman I know with celiac. Those didn’t have baking soda in them. I like what it did to the texture of the cookie.

I read several recipes today looking for the one I had before. The one I posted above is not exactly like any of them I read but they’re by far the best version of this I’ve had. I think it would be stellar to have some crunchy nuts in there. Peanuts seem like the obvious choice. Maybe walnuts.

Oh PS The cookies are very crumbly while still warm – leave them be until they’ve cooled off some!

Chip Dip

Today is the last day of NaNoBloMo! I feel like I should do some grand post but... I got nothing grand to share with you today!

I'm sick today and feeling particularly uninspired.

I did make a yummy dip yesterday. I took a picture before I baked it but forgot to afterward.

In the dip I put every cheese in my fridge - mozzarella, sharp cheddar, colby jack,  some white velveeta with green chiles in it (this is something I've never found in name brand velveeta - it's a Kroger brand thing and great for chip dips!), a little parmesan, a brick of cream cheese, sour cream, milk, some juice from a jar of jalapenos (I didn't add the jalapenos because Leah was going to be eating it), salt, pepper, red pepper.

Then I added a bunch of chopped up ham and then I cut the corn off three ears of corn on the cob and added that.

So it was Ham Corn Cheese Dip.

This is Drew’s plate – he who was too impatient to wait for me to bake it. Then I forgot to take a picture of the baked version. It just had a slightly crusty top – would have made a better picture though.  A very hearty chip dip with little bursts of sweetness from the fresh corn. Dinner served!

PS Not exactly a health food. Or particularly great for my blood sugar… But yummy!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

 

Two things:

1. This is Leah saying – Happy Birthday, Nana! And then she called her to tell her that out loud. How adorable is she??

2. I was totally excited that I got a picture of her with her clothes still on. She normally strips within moments of being in the house. And this one she had just come in from church and said, “I want chocolate and then I want to call Nana!”

(Kid has her priorities straight!)

PS – You like my TV on that ridiculous bench from the table? Do you know how hard it is to find a table that’s 13.75 inches deep or less? They’re usually 15+ (sofa table) YEARS I’ve been looking. I have finally found one. I was waiting to be done Christmas shopping to order it. Woohoo!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Potato Pancakes

Recipe

And what I did:

2 cups of mashed potatoes (day old as suggested)
1 egg
a scant 1/4 of flour (it needed more than the recipe link said - just slightly)
1/4 diced onion (I sautéed it first in butter)

Then I proceed as the link suggested.

These, of course, will only be as good as your mashed potatoes were to begin with.
I put gravy on top like syrup and then a dollop (I love the word dollop) of sour cream on top.

Thanks to Camela for the idea of making potato pancakes and giving me the craving. And thanks to Pep for the sour cream on top idea!

The Friday 5

I found this funny site today - apparently every Friday they post five questions you can answer on your blog. I'm certain I won't do it every Friday but maybe sometimes - it looks fun!

http://www.friday5.org/ - okay. I'm not gonna do this week's. I just scrolled through the list and chose. I'm a cheater already.

1. What is your favorite shape of pasta?
2. Which of the Lucky Charms marshmallows is (or was) your favorite?
   
3. Of people you know who are older than forty, who’s in the best shape?
4. What shape is one of the more interesting scars on your body?
5. Of a human’s internal organs, which you think has the most interesting shape?

1. De Cecco Angel Hair Nests or De Cecco Capellini - it is the thinnest tiniest pasta around. There is no better angel hair. I've done research. I'm just sayin'. (Right Renee??)
2. I would rather eat chalk. Those marshmallows are so nasty. - So, uh. The clovers?
3. The best shape? Does that mean physically? Hmmm.... My mind is totally blank. I got nothin'.
4. Sadly, I have no fascinating scars. They are all straight lines. Does that make me uninteresting? Oh wait. I do have one sort of round one on my right shin. I suppose that's not interesting though...
5. LOL funny question. I think I'm gonna go with kidneys. At least it's a shape. The liver is just a glob as is most everything else. Except the heart of course. But kidneys are kind of cool lookin'.

Sorry about the rather boring post. I needed some Nanoblomo fluff. Everything else going on in my head is too deep, too personal, or can't be blogged because too many people read my blog.

And heaven knows there are people waiting in the wings who'd like to censor what I post! So bothersome.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Family, Friends, Blog Readers, and Anonymous Blog Readers ;)

I hope you get to enjoy some good food and some good company today. I am grateful for my life and all that I have!

Poor Kid!

Here she is – pinned like this – while I snapped pictures and forced her to say: Mommy is the best! Mommy is the best!

I am thankful for my eyes.

Thankful Jar Post

We have been doing the thankful jar still. Although we've missed a few days here and there so we'll probably keep going until we've used them all.

Today was "I am thankful for my eyes."

It said to watch a movie together. We did that, of course, but then I got a handkerchief and blindfolded Leah. We talked about how she could hear the cartoons but not see them. Then I told her to go potty. Drew stayed close to her as she worked her way up the stairs and went to the bathroom. Then she came back down - asking Drew to carry her first but he said no. Then I got her a bowl of ice cream (I did not tell her what it was) and left her blindfolded to try to eat it. While she tried that with little success (there were many spoonfuls of nothing in her mouth) we talked about all the things that she wouldn't be able to see. Flowers, movies, etc. And she said - I wouldn't be able to see my mommy!! - which was very sweet.

Finally I took off her blindfold and let her eat her ice cream.

It was a good little mini lesson. I think she got the point about what blind really means. Not the depth of it of course but she's 4.

I wonder how I can mange it when we hit the "I am thankful for my ears" one...

Children's Book Review

Except no mayhem or turkey murder!

Leah has hundreds of books but some are just more fun to read outloud than others!

These are two of my favorites:


The Barnyard dance one is in square dancing rhythm & you seriously can't read it out loud with out sing songing it and kind of bobbing. It's so fun to say "promenade two by two!"

Babycakes is a fantastic book too. Right away I started calling Leah babycakes and my sister I believe is the one who bought Leah the book. Before I'd ever seen it I used to say "babycakes, babycakes rah rah rah. babycakes, babycakes sis boom bah" and the whole book is written in the exact same rhythm. You can do actions with it too - kiss their toes, kiss their nose - and it ends with goes nigh' night. So it's a great bed time one.

Fun books!

(and no turkey murders!)

Cookies!

Leah asked to make “cookies where we use cookie cutters, mom!” So that’s what we did this evening…

Just a tidbit – cookies that have been rolled out by a four year old – they don’t cook so evenly… But still yummy!

Neato Burrito

Green Bean Chef

I'm a cook. You all know I love it.

I love fresh and wonderful ingredients. I like sashimi grade fish, for example. I like high grade all kinds of things.

But you know what I can't make myself like?

Green Beans. Fresh green beans.

I'll eat canned green beans anytime. I love them.

But fresh? No.

That flavor is all wrong, the texture, the after taste.... I don't like any of it.

Fresh green beans are not good.

That's all.

It makes me feel bad. I should like all fresh things, right?

Of course I also hate mushrooms. But there's just nothing to be done about that one.

Grandparents

Leah loves her Nana & Papa. I love to watch it!

Pumpkin Pie Bites, Part 2

  These pictures are for you, Connie. This is the PERFECT way to eat these little bites.

A little whipped cream – sprinkle with cinnamon.

 

This is the deal with these. I love pumpkin pie but I always like to turn the pie on it’s side and get crust in every bite plus I want whipped cream in every bite. It’s a lot of organizing to eat it correctly. But this? Perfect. Everything you need in every bite!

PS One more post coming. I feel like it’s cheating to do the same topic two days in a row! lol

Pumpkin Pie Bites

Pumpkin Pie Bites

I made these today (I know, I know. I said I was going to do it days ago. Sue me.) - they're rather delicious. They're supposed to be for tomorrow. I may have eaten four. I'm not admitting to anything for certain though...

They look different than on the site I got them from for a couple reasons. I used circles not pumpkin cookie cutters and I used the fresh pumpkin so the color is considerably lighter. I also didn’t do it in two batches as she suggested. I guess if I was doing the pumpkin cutters that might have been necessary but these fit just right.

Actually a little more work than just making a pumpkin pie. Tomorrow I’m going to do some heavy whipping cream with sugar and cinnamon to eat on top. That will make it a perfect little pumpkin pie bite!

  

PS I keep saying tomorrow because we’re having a Thanksgiving dinner at mom’s tomorrow since she’s going to be out of town. Hooray for Thanksgiving dinner!

The Trampoline

Okay - this is ridiculously blurry but could she look any cuter??



PS There is an enclosure that goes to this. We just haven't put it up yet. It was cold and raining when we did the trampoline and we'd had enough. And now it's freezing and snow covered. lol

Good Eats

So yesterday I was watching a DVRed episode of Dinner Impossible (love that show!) and I had gone into the kitchen as it was ending. A few minutes later, my newly 4 year old comes into to the kitchen tugging on my hand saying - What is this called? I love this show. Come see! I want to watch this. It's my favorite cooking show! Hurry mom! Hurry!

Okay, Leah! Okay. I'm coming.

Sheesh.

It was Good Eats.

Seriously. I love my kid. It was just a few minutes of it because it was on the tail end of my show and she was so upset that it wasn't actually on. The sad, sad disappointment. So now the DVR is set to record all new episodes of Good Eats.

She asked me about it again today because I'd told her it came on Monday nights. Sadly it comes on after she's in bed so she has to wait until tomorrow.

Poor kid. lol

My 4 year old loves Alton Brown. Who knew?

Birthday Pictures

Her first day of being four! She got tons of presents and had a most fantastic time at her party. Here’s a couple of pictures on her actual birthday:

She seriously can’t stop talking about this mp3 player. It’s an iPod Shuffle. What cracks me up about it is that I won it in a drawing at the bank! I just stuck it in a drawer and saved it for her birthday since Drew & I each already have an mp3 player we like. I filled this with Kidz Bop pop music, some great kid pop type music Camela sent her and some classic kids songs. She has Bingo stuck in her head from it. Oh and some Kidz Superstarz Christmas music. She just loves it. She hasn’t figured out that the volume button is on the ear phones yet. So I know she’s not blasting her ears. I’ll have to cross that bridge when we get to it.

Never mind the TRAMPOLINE we (Drew & I and Nana & Papa) got her, of course. She was very very excited about that but it cracks me up how she can’t stop talking about the thing I got for free.

And this baby hasn’t left her side:

The baby makes the most adorable giggling noises.

At her party (but still 3 in this picture – as she kept reminding everyone – I’m not four YET!) right before blowing out her candles.

Shortly after taking this picture my camera battery died. How ridiculous is that? I got another battery the next day but luckily my parents had brought their camera. I need to get the pictures from them still though.

My Leah - Addendum

I forgot something else I want to remember about her.

She is incredibly sensitive and tender and even raw in some ways.

I cannot yell at her. Oh I can use the "mommy voice", I can even sound upset but if I actually raise my voice? Forget it. I do it very infrequently. And always end up immediately apologizing because essentially it dissolves her and she will be crying and saying, "You're not supposed to yell. Don't yell at me." or something similar. I love it about her and at the same time it requires a great deal of self-control on my part. And I love it because it makes me - a better me.

She's even more sensitive with her Daddy. He can't even do the stern "mommy voice" thing before she's distraught.

We still do time outs. She still gets in trouble. It's not like we don't ever discipline her. It just has to be done calmly.

She also needs preparation for things. If someone is coming over, a basic description of where we are going, what a new experience will be like, etc. If not she'll be generally more clingy until she adjusts to whatever the new situation is - for like maybe 30 minutes or so. Then she's off again - but if she's really prepared it takes much less time for her to adjust.

That's it.

I think.

PS We had a wonderful birthday party yesterday and then a fun family day together for her birthday today. She got to plan the menu for today: Grits/eggs/toast for breakfast, Thai food for lunch, and Alfredo for dinner. She's got good taste!

Two posts in one day! Take that NaNoBloMo!

My Leah

I've been planning on writing a post about Leah today. Something the encompasses and describes her. The problem is it makes me all emotional and then I can't write.

I'm gonna try. Maybe I'll just start with things she loves.

Leah's beloved foods (she's listing these to me while I type) - spinach, oranges, carrots, celery, broccoli, crab rangoons, sesame chicken from the thai place, grits/eggs, mac & cheese, peaches, bread

She also like hollandaise sauce - when she asks for that it's "eggs with sauce please".

And sometimes she asks for alfredo and sometimes when she can't remember the word she says "noodles with that one sauce - the white one".

She still won't eat sandwiches. If you give her a plate that has turkey, cheese, lettuce, and bread, she will eat it. But if you actually stack that into a sandwich? Forget it.

She doesn't like any red meat, no ground meat patties! She loves ham (with a passion) and chicken if it's cooked well. She does not like fish but really likes crab - but not lobster. (she told me to add that. I don't think I've ever shared lobster with her). I can get her to eat salisbury steak - which is of course a totally different texture of ground meat. She will eat the meat in a taco sometimes.

She likes candy as much as the next kid I think but she regulates herself very well. She had free access to her halloween candy and she was still only eating 2-3 pieces a day and sometimes none. When it had been 3 days since she got a piece out of there I threw it away. She hasn't noticed. Currently she wants any candy with peanut butter inside of it. She LOVES peanut butter. No peanut butter sandwich (I keep trying) but she'll eat a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter and be blissfully happy.

Leah still rarely stays in her bed through the night. She loves to come and snuggle. And even if she's been in my bed all night she'll wake me up and say "I want to snuggle with you" and fall back asleep for another hour. She's very physically affectionate. There is a lot of hugging and kissing and random "I love you"s. She likes to tell me "You're my favorite best mommy!"

She's also very compassionate. I've blogged about that a little before I think. She worries about other kids being sad or making sure Drew & I get some of whatever treat she's having - or have one of our own. Especially Daddy. She always makes sure he's getting some too. Her favorite cousin - she just adores - and they fight and both act obnoxious sometimes as kids do - but Leah says things about her like "She's mean sometimes mom but I love her. I love her the most of all my cousins!" The other day we took E to story hour with us and Leah asked her if she wanted to come play and E told her "no" and Leah said, "Do you want me to come play at your house?" "No. You can't come to my house and play!" And I swear if I was Leah I would have burst into tears and the look on Leah's face, she was clearly hurt but she said "Are you okay Elaina? Are you sick?" And E just wouldn't answer her. I was driving then so I just started driving straight to E's house. I was so mad. I hate being that mad at a 4 year old but it seemed like mother bear instinct, kwim? And I love E! I told her mom about it and she said she's been acting like that to her sisters too. Anyway - I know it's just a phase. My point was that Leah was so compassionate in response... then I started to ramble.

On Wednesday at church we did a Veteran's Day dinner and invited all the veteran's we knew. As I still helping get things out of the kitchen, etc but I stopped to make Leah a plate and asked her where she wanted to sit - She did not choose the teenagers that she knows (there were no other kids there), she asked to sit in the middle of six people - a very elderly man on her left, elderly woman on her right, across from her was her primary teacher and her mom, and then another older woman and her husband on the other side of her primary teacher. And my wonderful child just sat there and had conversation and ate her dinner like it was the most normal choice in the world for a four year old. Later several of those people commented to me about it. They totally enjoyed her company and her primary teacher said she used all her manners and was so polite. Love it!

She is learning how to read and progressing so fast it's rather scary. A couple more months of these lessons and she'll just be reading. Right now she walks around sounding out words to herself. If she hears a new word she says it very slowly and asks me how it's spelled, etc. I love her loving to learn. She's so interested in everything. She knows that I can show her just about anything on the computer. Yesterday she asked if I could show her "different colors of hermit crabs". I didn't even know she knew what a hermit crab was! We found a picture of a hermit crab in a soccer ball shell. Totally cool. lol

Leah is also incredibly mouthy sometimes. I often say - and have been told many times - that when she's a teenager... I'm screwed.

I love her spunk, her heart, her spirit, her adorable face, the shape of her little body, her hair, her chocolate-y eyes (which I sometimes ask her if I can lick), every single part of her!

Happy Birthday beautiful girl!

Birthday Cake

We are having Leah’s birthday party today (her birthday is actually tomorrow). And I’ve been working on her cakes this morning.

Here is the tablescape all put together:

A close up of the lady bugs – which I just think are adorable!

This is what the butterfly cake looks like – it’s just a round cake cut in half, cut outs, put back to back. I sliced a little slice off the back side of each too to make them fit together better.

The instructions for all these things can be found here: 31 Incredible Birthday Cakes.

There are a few things I did different out of necessity. Dark green muffin cups are not easy to come by. I went to 6 stores! So for the snakes I dyed the cake batter green and used mint green cups. It worked well. You can see them in the picture below. The lady bugs I used pink ones but I didn’t dye anything. They didn’t need it.

The instructions say to use mallomars for the ladybug body (and then cover in frosting) but I couldn’t find those anywhere either. I used mini cakesters. They worked perfectly – slightly bigger than mallomars I think.

If you look at the butterfly cake above you’ll see several candies are different. I couldn’t find sprees so I used these giant smarties a checker in walmart showed me. I didn’t know those things came so huge! They’re slightly alarming. I still haven’t eaten one. lol

The grass is dyed coconut. A little warm water, green dye, a little yellow – done in two batches to get multi tones.

I think everything else I did pretty much what they said. Leah loves it!

Now I’m off to finish cleaning, cook some rolls, and make a ham corn potato chowder. Yummy on this snowy day!

Applesauce

Here’s the recipe I used: Simply Recipes – Applesauce

I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear I did exactly what this recipe said. Although it was a recipe with built in “the sugar is guidelines – depends on your apples”. That’s the best kind. ;)

I stirred that up so the picture wouldn’t just be apples but really I left the lemon peel and cinnamon on the bottom to make sure they soaked in the water a long time.

After about 30 minutes I pulled the peel and cinnamon stick and dumped it hot into the food processor. Put it on high for about 20-30 seconds. And ta-da! Applesauce:

Leah helped with the whole process. She was ever so pleased with all of it. She did discover she doesn’t like applesauce when it’s warm.

This is so good now I don’t want the stuff in the handy jars anymore… great. Just great.

What's next?

So what does Leah ask me tonight as we run in the store to grab two things after church?

Go on.

Guess.

No. That's not it. Try again.

Nope.

Okay I'll tell you...

"Mom? Can we make applesauce tomorrow?"

"What?"

"Can we buy some apples and make applesauce?"

"Sure baby" (I say this all nonchalantly. Like I ever MAKE applesauce. How 'bout this nice jar Leah? It's not like I don't think I can. It just comes cheap in these nice jars....)

"Hooray! Oh I can't wait!" - and she dances off to the produce section.

You know why this is happening to me? Stupid educational cartoons. Sid the Science Kid. An episode about food decaying. They watched a pumpkin decay and get disgusting. And then they learned - what can you make from old bananas? Banana Bread. What can you make from old apples? You guessed it. Applesauce.

So I'm thinking - UGH. Like I don't have enough to do getting ready for her party on Friday.

But then as she's going to bed and she says her prayers she actually says "Thank you we get to make applesauce tomorrow!" in her prayer.

There's no getting out of this now, is there?

I really do love my kid. She sure keeps me on my toes!

Pet Love

Do you think it’s weird that my dogs and cats like each other so much?

Benny (orange boy) & Joon (black girl) are the cats (yes, they’re siblings). Rosco & Tripper are the dogs.

Benny seemed annoyed at my intrusion.

Odd animals.