Munchkin Moving

Growing up is hard. So hard in fact, that sometimes we just want to skip it. Do you remember feeling this way?

Lately, Squirt has taken to saying she's going to move out when things don't go her way. In the past it's been a response to not playing video games, or going to a friends house, or some other disappointment. Tonight it was because we asked her to wash her hands before dinner. Determined to prove she can live by herself out in the snow (Something we would naturally never let her do.) or in an abandoned car at a junkyard (Really? I'm not sure how she thought of that one.) she took her blanket outside and endeavored to show that she could indeed stay out there for hours on end without getting cold.

She lasted about a minute and a half.

After a few hours of being convinced she was going to ride her bike to Texas, she is now calmly and peacefully sleeping indoors in a warm bed. It's hard. She misses her dad and puts us through a little bit freaking ton of drama as she is learning to handle some big emotions.

At least at this point no one is moving; not outside, not to the junkyard, and not to Texas. Here's hoping it stays that way!

Getting anxious

It's finals week... again. The quarter system just flies by and before we know it we are in the midst of finals again. Which means that if I want to remember what my husband looks like I will peruse the image files on my computer - or steal a passing glance at the hermit crab who periodically emerges from the office for a drink of water.

Finals bring good things too. Once they are over it is SPRING BREAK!!! We couldn't be more anxious for it for a few good reasons, not the least of which is getting to spend it with our Jellie-bellie. As if that weren't enough, we get to fulfill her many-months-long request to go camping. I honestly can't wait to have TWO little people out on adventures with us. And truth be told I can't wait to teach them the joy of roasting things. His Hotness thinks I'm crazy with the list of stuff I keep asking if he's ever roasted so I'm certain that will be quite an adventure in itself.

Oregon granted us a couple sunny days during which we completely forgot that we ought to air out our tent. Once the thought occurred to us it was, of course, raining. Instead we moved our furniture out of the living room and set her up right in there.

It displaced a ton of stuff...

And took up pretty much the entire room...

But sitting in it playing Skylanders was a complete blast - for Squirt anyway. Taking the tent down again made our tiny apartment suddenly feel HUGE. It's funny how that happens.

Happy Finals Week!

Every Who down in Whoville likes pancakes a lot...

In typical fashion (lately anyway) I'm really slow to blog about our life. Last Friday was the birthday of Theodore LeSieg, aka Dr. Seuss. Squirt's school had a reading appreciation day and book exchange. One of the perks of living in the liberal-arts-land that is Eugene is that the schools have really great programs to encourage creativity and artistic expression. The kids were able to dress as a favorite character from a book and Squirt chose to be Kit Kitteredge. Quite frequently storytellers visit the school and this day was no different. At the end of lunch, one of the storytellers handed out gifts to some of the kids. What kind of gifts, you ask?

Well, when Squirt ran home from the bus she was wearing this:

We have a sheep in the family.
She is in love with this silly little hat and sleeps in it almost every night. It's good to be a kid!

In our tradition we ate Whoville Stackers as an afterschool snack. Several years ago we started making teeny tiny pancakes and stacking them into tall skinny towers reminiscent of a drawing from a Dr. Seuss book. She loved them and it's stuck with us ever since!

I confess that they are a bit of a pain to make. With each pan full the pancakes get slightly larger as my patience gets weaker. About halfway through the batch I cave in and make full size ones but not until there are plenty to stack like this:

Stab, dip, and eat!  

Happy Belated Birthday Mr. LeSieg. 

KidPics

A while ago I gave Squirt my point-and-shoot camera. She had so much fun playing with it and I seldom used it so giving it to her seemed the logical thing to do. She uses it quite a bit but I never think to check her memory card. The battery needs attention far more frequently than the memory card does. She's loaning the camera to His Hotness for the weekend which meant it was time to clear the card and see what was up. There were pictures of trees and toys, shoes, potatoes, friends, her room, drawings, closed doors, herself, and a bunch with nothing but total blackness.

A few things are evident:

• she still has no idea to wait and let the camera focus before pressing the button all the way (I've tried to help her, but all I get is an "I know, mom."
• she loves to change the setting to "pets" because of the little dog image that shows in the screen corner even if the pictures turn out crummy
• she is not camera shy, as evidenced by the 300 blurry self-portraits I found
• I can approximate the date pictures were taken by the way she captures her obsessions-of-the-moment
• she loves that it can take video and makes/narrates her own movies
• giving her the camera was the right thing to do, even if the images are less than stellar, simply because of the fun she has with it. 

Birthday Surprises

Last weekend His Hotness had a birthday. It was a significant one (as they all will be) because we are now the same age. Sometime back in October (19th, to be exact) I got an email from my MIL containing an itinerary. Not just any itinerary, but one containing a huge birthday surprise for my handsome husband.  After all, what could he possibly want more than to spend the day with Jellie-bellie?

The answer is nothing. There is nothing on Earth he would ever want more than that. Ever.

So the plans were made and the mild deceptions began so that we could pull off the surprise. I'd say it worked...

The only thing he'd actually asked for (or rather planned on his own) was to go to the BYU/Portland Pilots basketball game the night of his birthday. It isn't often he gets to watch his favorite college team in person any more. We went with his brother, niece, and mom along with our complete family. BYU won and it wasn't the blow-out that he was expecting, but honestly I don't remember any of the game because I was too focused on the little people.

I'd say Squirt liked Jellie-bellie coming almost as much as her dad did.

Jellie-bellie had a 100 days of school homework assignment to do during her stay with us. It was decided that she'd do a poster with 100 pictures of she and her dad. So the challenge then was to make sure we had 100 pictures. We did a few silly photo moments and were able to round up enough to get it done. We spent all Wednesday morning working on making a collage of the images while Squirt was at school. It was laminated to stay intact on the plane, and with that we were off to the airport again to send her home.

The weekend went quickly. We are sure counting down the moments until she is out here with us again. In the meantime, I had better practice my underdogs.

Goodness Gracious

We are still alive! Which is good news to us all after last week.
So here's our family life update in 60 seconds. Ready? GO:

• Squirt was more sick than she has ever been and it was a little challenging on us all. Amazingly it hasn't spread to any others in our home. 
• Last night we went to dinner with an Aunt of mine whom His Hotness had never met. It was a grand time with good food and good conversation. 
• His Hotness is getting into some busy times at school and has had some early mornings participating in studies and being made radioactive. It's a good thing he seems to really like all this experimenting-on-living-people stuff. 
• We are missing our Jellie-Bellie and counting the moments til we see her again. Squirt is enamored with the dragon Happy Napper Jellie-Bellie gave her for her Birthday and likes to take it everywhere. 
• After months of searching for pastry rings to use with some recipes I adore (like this one) a cousin blogged about English muffins and I found that if I searched for "muffin rings" instead of "pastry rings" there was a plethora of options available. All is right in the world, even if I do feel a tad silly over how long it took to figure that one out. 
• His Hotness is humoring me by watching The Bachelor and letting me drone on about the ridiculousness of it all and dealing with my analysis of everyone's personality. Our my guilty pleasure. 
• Oregon continues to surprise us with sunshine rather than torrential downpours this winter. It's a pleasant surprise, though I do hope it will not mean adverse results for the farmer's market when they reopen this Spring. 

I think that's about it. Happy Thursday!

Chewy goodness

Last summer at our favorite store ever there was a baking mix for sale that piqued my interest. Not one to use a mix unless I have to, the idea was filed to the back of my mind where I hoped I'd remember it for some future purpose. His Hotness had an appointment to go home teaching today and one of the family members had a birthday - so treats were definitely in order. Add to it that Squirt is sick in a needs-no-attention-whatsoever kind of way and I was happy to fill my time baking.

The idea is simple, but the results are amazing.

Mix up your favorite brownie batter (I used this one) then mix up some chocolate chip cookie batter (I used this one). Place one scoop of brownie batter in the bottom of well greased standard muffin cups and top with one scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Of course the time is approximate for the recipes you use and the way your oven bakes. As always when brownies or cookies are involved, aim to err on the side of a bit underdone rather than overdone. 

When they are done, place the muffin pan on a cooling rack until cool. Using a plastic spoon gently remove the Crownies (Browkies?) and try very hard to not eat them all immediately.

I would love to tell you how many this yields, but I have no clue. I mixed up one batch of the brownie batter and 1/2 batch of the cookie batter. I made 12 standard muffin cup Crownies, 20 mini-muffin brownie bites, and ate the rest of the cookie dough straight from the bowl. A yield I am completely content with.

Poor Squirt is sick enough that when I offered her one she said she was too sick for chocolate... I can't say that I have ever experienced that! His Hotness and I definitely approve.