A humbling moment

This morning E asked for a drink as soon as he got up. So I went and got him a cup of juice (he still won’t drink soy milk but his doctor said it’s find as long as he takes a calcium/vitamin D vitamin). We went back upstairs to N’s and my bedroom to hang out while N got ready for work.

I don’t remember what set him off, but E shouted something and threw his sippy cup on the floor–which is definitely not allowed. So N and I asked him to say “sorry.” E wiggled and squirmed and flirted and danced around the room, doing everything he could to avoid saying sorry. We talked about how we shouldn’t throw cups on the floor. We took turns telling him he could get his juice back as soon as he said sorry but nothing seemed to work. This went on for about ten minutes.

Then a bolt of inspiration struck and N asked if maybe E had trouble saying the word “sorry.” E does pretty well with some two-syllable words but even then he sometimes drops their initial consonants. So I asked E to say “ree” and he did so immediately.

I handed him his juice and he ran around the room giggling. I felt like a bit of a dolt. Here we thought E was just being stubborn and refusing to apologize when we were asking him to do something he was incapable of doing. E sometimes seems like such a big kid when he’s being sassy or following instructions. But I need to keep in mind that he’s not even two yet.

Letter: Month Twenty-Two

Dear E,

You’ve grown so much this last month. You’re more verbal than ever and seem to pick up new words almost every day. And your comprehension has grown to the point where you understand mostly everything I saw to you. When we leave you with your babysitter sometimes you get upset but if I talk quietly to you about where we’re going, the fun things your friend Ashley is going to do with you while we’re gone, and what time we’re going to be back you’ll usually quiet down. It’s amazing to have a more give-and-take relationship with you.


While you still like to please your dad and me you’re starting to assert your own opinions more and more often. You continue to be very easygoing but during this last month you started to try and play us to get what you want. If something you care about isn’t going your way you’re not above covering your eyes with your balled-up fists and crying pathetically. I hate to tell you but it sort of undermines your credibility when you suddenly cut the crying and peek out from behind your hands to see if we’re falling for it. If the tears don’t work (and they almost never do) you’ll aim a knowing glare at us. But even that’s pretty cute.

Speaking of your shenanigans, I gave you your first time out this month. You were holding a container of dried fruit and I asked you to hand it to me. But you didn’t want to and so you looked me in the eye and then threw the fruit on the ground. NOT cool, E! So I sat you in your little red chair and talked to you about how it’s important to listen to Mama. At the end of two minutes you were in tears but hugs and reassurance were given and then everything was better.

Your attention span has grown recently and you usually ask for book after book to be read to you before bed. I can almost see the wheels turning in your head as you look at the pages and listen to the words. We’ve been reading Goodnight Moon to you since you were tiny and lately you’ve developed a fondness for pointing out the moon wherever you see it. The problem is that you don’t really have a concept of the sun and so you are quite insistent that any round shape in the sky is the moon.

We’ve tried correcting you (e.g. “That’s the SUN. The sun shines during the day.”) but every time you matter-of-factly and very insistently correct us. And now it’s kind of become a thing: you like to flip to every page in your books that has a round object in the sky and look us in the eye and state “MOON!”, challenging us to disagree with you. It’s pretty funny. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of other disagreements as you grow up but this one might be the most adorable.

Love,

Mama

Those Darn Racist Babies

You might have already seen it, but I just read this fascinating article from Newsweek about how kids as young as 6 months recognize racial differences. It started me thinking about how I want to discuss racism with E as he grows up. There are a lot of things I like about living in Utah but the latent racism that pops up fairly often is not one of them.

The area where I live in Utah is predominately white and because my features are kind of ethnically ambiguous a lot of people tend me lump me in with the majority. And as a result they sometimes let down their guard and say some pretty racist things in front of me. A couple of times I’ve had the presence of mind to call them on it but more often than not I’m just completely flabbergasted. I’ve also heard some pretty crazy stories from friends and family.

Anyway, I would recommend reading the article if you have time.

{Found via Harlow’s Monkey}

Art Weekend

Last year I took a photography class from Nicole Hill, a very talented local photographer. I really enjoyed the class and learned quite a few things. I wanted to take another class from her but Nicole got married and moved to San Francisco.

But I just found out that Nicole is coming back to Salt Lake City and putting on a weekend workshop of fun art classes. The classes will run November 5th to the 7th and will cover topics like photography or using Illustrator or screen printing. I have my eye on two classes: Tabletop Photography and Digital Workflow for Photographers, but I’ll have to see how it goes.

If you’re interested there’s more info here.

I made a pie!

A couple of weeks ago I went over to my friend and neighbor Stephanie’s house to be instructed in the art of pie making. And I made my first first from-scratch pie! Well, Stephanie peeled and sliced the apples but I rolled the dough out. (So I’m totally counting it.)


Here’s the recipe we used. I think it’s from the Betty Crocker cookbook. I omitted the butter so the pie would be okay for E’s food allergies. He really loved it and now exclaims “Pie!” whenever he sees one at the store or when we read this book together.

Recipe: Apple Pie

Pastry
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
4 to 6 tablespoons cold water

Filling
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon ( if you do not like nutmeg do ¾ teaspoon cinnamon)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples (8 medium)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Directions
1. In medium bowl, mix 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time. 1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary.

2. Gather pastry into a ball. Divide in half; shape into 2 flattened rounds on lightly floured surface.

3. Heat oven to 425°F. With floured rolling pin, roll one pastry round into round 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side.

4. In bowl, mix sugar, 1/4 cup flour, the cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle 1/3 of mixture on the bottom of pie crust, layer with ½ of apples, sprinkle with 1/3 of mixture, layer last ½ of apples and finally use last 1/3 of mixture on top of apples. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over filling. Roll out the other half of pasty crust and placing on top of apple and mixture crust. Cut slits into the top of crust. Trim overhanging edge and press the bottom crust to the top crust to create a seal.

6. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust. Serve warm if desired.

The smell of sawdust in the fall

I just signed up for the fall semester of woodworking. To be honest I’m a bit discouraged about this semester because last semester I had hit a snag on the jewelry boxes I was making and I don’t know how to fix the problem yet. But I’m sure that once class gets going and I figure out how to fix things I’ll feel better. The class is ten weeks long so hopefully I’ll have some time left over to make a little toy for E or some bowls or something.

When I was registering for woodworking I took a look at some of the other classes offered through the community ed program. There were a ton of other interesting classes…Wheel-thrown ceramics, Calligraphy, Basic Auto Mechanics for women, Beginning Ukulele, Digital SLR Photography, Beginning Archery, Beginning Fencing, etc…

Wouldn’t it be great to have unlimited time (and money) to take classes in whatever interested you? *dreamy sigh* Sometimes I miss college. Anyway, if you’re local and interested you can see the full listing of fall classes here.

…but receiving is pretty darn nice too.

This is the package that my charming swap partner Erika sent me. Isn’t it great? I don’t know how she finds the time since she works part-time as a nurse AND has two little kids, but Erika likes crafting and made some of the things she sent.


Clockwise from left:

  • Patchwork coasters
  • Re-usable Trader Joe’s tote bag (I love the design)
  • Zipper pouch
  • Yummy cinnamon almonds from Trader Joe’s
  • Jelly Bellies
  • A lovely teacup personalized with my initial and some of Erika’s favorite tea
  • A couple of glass magnets backed with pretty papers

And no, Erika did not send me half-eaten almonds and candy. N and I were so excited about the treats that we ripped into them before I remembered to take a picture. (Oops!)

I really enjoyed participating in this swap. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know Erika. She made the coasters, zipper pouch, and magnets. Seeing her projects has made me want to dust off my sewing machine. I love the coasters she made and I’d like to try my hand at making them or some other small projects. When I was at the quilting shop picking out fabric I saw this pin cushion pattern which looks really fun.

Sadly any new projects will have to wait a while. I’m swamped at work, frighteningly behind in doing laundry, stuck in the middle of reorganizing my kitchen (after an impressive initial push I’ve sort of stalled out), AND I have my fantasy football draft on Friday that I have to study up for that. Oh, well. I know they’re all lamely bourgeois problems but at least they’re my lamely bourgeois problems.

Tis better to give than receive…

My swap partner Erika emailed me yesterday to let me know that she had received the package I sent her. I had held off posting about it until now because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. We were supposed to swap a few of our favorite things like the last swap I did. I didn’t want to repeat myself too much so I tried to switch it up a bit.

This is what I came up with:

Clockwise from left:

  • Porcelain fish soap/sauce dish
  • Tangerine lavender soap from Purple Haze Lavender farm
  • Enlargements of a few of my Holga photos
  • A quilted Korean pencil case
  • A package of cinnamon spice pancake mix (from the local mill that was used in the movie Footloose)
  • A little book of crossword puzzles (I have one myself and really like it; I got it Costco)
  • Two fat quarters of cute fabrics
  • A mix cd I made (with N’s help) of music that hopefully kids and adults can enjoy (Erika has two kids)
  • A few lollipops from See’s Candy.

Well, that’s what I came up with. I’ve really enjoyed participating in these swaps. It was a lot of fun to get to know Erika. Check out her blog. I’ll post the details of the great package she sent me tomorrow.

Goodreads

Growing up, Saturdays mornings were for chores and my responsibilities were the bathrooms. I would sneak a book into the bathroom along with my cleaning supplies and then lock the door and sit on the hamper, reading. For a while my mom wondered how it could take me over two hours to clean one bathroom but eventually she wised up.

Along with reading I also like to catalog things; it feeds the tiny OCD streak I have. I recently stumbled upon a web site that feeds both my love of books AND my love of lining thing up in tidy rows.

Goodreads is a website that lets you track books you’re currently reading, books you’ve read, and books you’d like to read. When you add a book to one of your online bookshelves you can rate and review it as well as see what other people thought about it.

There’s a community aspect to the site as well. You can link to your friends and follow what they’re reading. Some authors also use the site and you can follow them as well (Neil Gaiman is the #1 followed person which somehow does not come as a surprise). They also have some nice widgets you can add to your blog to display your books. I added the books I’m currently reading to my sidebar.

Anyway, if you have some time to kill take a look. Adding books and rating them can be highly addictive. I know I’ve spent entirely too thinking of books I’ve read recently or that stuck out in my mind and adding them to my list. If you’re interested you can see my books here. If you’re already on Goodreads or end up setting up your own account be sure to let me know. I’d like to see what you’re reading.

Monday, Take Two

Mondays–Bleh! (Am I right, Garfield, or AM I RIGHT?)

E woke up with a leaky diaper sometime after 6 am this morning. I was hoping to put him back down but after I changed him out of his wet clothes he was wide awake and raring to go. So I took him downstairs and turned the tv to Sprout and crashed on the couch for while.

E’s still not drinking soy milk but I’m making a concerted effort this week to get him back on it. Part of my plan is to take away apple juice so he’s only drinking water and then consistently offer him soy milk. There’s no way he’d choose milk over juice but he might prefer milk to just drinking water, or so my thinking goes.

So this morning was the first major tantrum about not getting any juice. I tried to show E that there wasn’t any juice in the fridge and I let him examine the empty jug but he was still really, really mad. He was so mad that he didn’t want to eat his breakfast of a vegan (no milk, no eggs) waffle and syrup which he normally loves and the only thing to do was cry and shriek and storm around the kitchen. He cheered up for a bit when he came up with the idea of drinking syrup straight from the bottle but it was only a split second before I quashed that idea and we were back to tears.

After breakfast the only thing E wanted to do was watch Pororo videos on the computer, over and over again. (This one about colors is a current favorite.) In fact, he’s squirming around on my lap as I attempt to type this now. He’s not content to just sit on my lap; he wants to jump up and down on it. Jumping up and down on the floor is apparently worse than death and only my lap has the right squishy surface for jumping at the moment.

Speaking of squishy, I was planning on going to the gym this morning but now I feel sucked dry of all get-up-and-go and any ambition I had to Get Things Done today. Sorry this post is so whiny; our weekend was actually quite lovely and E was charming and funny and cute much more often than he was a pill. It’s just that today started out lamely. So I’m going to put E down for a nap and take one myself and hopefully when we get back up Monday, Take Two will go better.

***Update***
E slept from 11:30am to 2pm and consequently so did I. It was awesome! The rest of the day was great and now I’m filled with optimism that the juice debacle will go better tomorrow.