Author: eaumaison (Page 110 of 207)

Isn’t every rainy day a good day? Yesterday I ended up working 16.5 hours without a real break. Blech. But when I came home friends there with pizza. We watched old Movie Saturdays and reminisced about how skinny and naive we were.

I had a good sleep in, then Ben went for a run. After lunch-where Jack actually ate some spinach!- we went swimming. The rec center pool is great for kids and I’ve been dreaming of taking Jack for a while. He was over the moon! They have a toddler friendly area; gentle slope down to just 2 feet deep, water fountains that bubble gently up over the surface, buckets that fill and dump from above, sprayers, and a mini slide down a frog’s mouth. Jack played joyously until we dragged him out with blue and chattering lips.

Later we dropped him off with a sitter so Ben and I could eat out. I stuffed myself with spinach salad and pork scaloppine drenched in Gorgonzola cream sauce. Abrusci’s never disappoints. I picked up Jack and Ben went to see a scary movie.

Now I’m curling up with some luxurious knitting and a fresh disk of The West Wing while rain softly falls. Doesn’t get much better than this.

Jack says it's a dog! I love that he identifies his pictures without suggestion from us.

I’m posting my altered recipe so I can easily look it up.  My last batch didn’t have the nooks and crannies I’d hoped for, maybe too little rise?  But it was still delicious sandwich bread and Ben remarked that he wished I had made two loaves!  Still, this is the recipe for a single loaf (the original recipe makes four), although I rounded up the quantities where math wasn’t clean.

1 1/2 cups very warm water
2 teaspoons yeast (see original recipe note)
1/2 tablespoon salt
3/4 tablespoon sugar
2 3/4 cups water

I follow the instructions as written, but find I have to add a little extra water to make the dough as sticky as it is in her pictures. 

 Jack’s first egg hunt. I had to show him what to do.  He caught on fast, though Amanda and I had to give heavy hints for finding the eggs.

That's the age when Jack called me Mama. Heart = melted.

Jack had his first dentist visit. He did awesome; they were so gentle and kind, and Jack didn’t so much as whimper.   The chipped tooth will be fine, we just need to monitor it.

Today is my mom’s birthday, yay!  Since she is queen of spoiling her presents, Jack and I surprised her with a weekend visit.  My dad was in on the secret, so we didn’t mess up their weekend too much. 

What follows are photos of gratuitous spoilage.  You might want to avert your eyes.  

 Kipper.  On the Big Screen.  In a kid chair.  A bowl of watermelon.

Recognize the car set, Andy?  

 Banana chocolate pops are dessert #2 of this meal.  Then a walk to the neighborhood playground.

Jack wasn’t the only one spoiled.  (This was apparently “just lying around the office.”  And everyone “has one but you, so you might as well take it.”)

 

 This is English Muffin bread from this recipe. (I halved the recipe.)  I’m super sad that I forgot to pack home the bag with my extra loaf in it.

Dad prepared for the weekend with finger-paints!  Jack was hesitant to get messy at the start, but after a while he was able to enjoy it.

I have to document the moment of great sadness.  At one point Jack decided to get off his chair at the dinner table and face-planted into the tiled floor.  It took a good half hour of mothering and grandmothering to calm him down.  This was earlier in the day, before finger painting.  I got him to smile for a picture, showing us his chipped tooth.  Poor guy.  Good thing he has his first dentist visit Wednesday.  Here is a before and after comparison. 

(PS Mom, he let us brush his teeth tonight with his “choo choo” toothpaste and penguin toothbrush.  He also gobbled down dinner without trouble and was upset there was no more watermelon.  Don’t worry, Ben picked up a watermelon already.)

Even with his fall, it was a super fun weekend!  If anything, it was too short.  But I have a shift tomorrow I have to work and my folks have to go back to their busy lives too.  Thank you for letting up crash your house this weekend!  

First some knitting project:

A rainbow beanie for Ben from yarn that I spun.

A giant simple cardigan using pencil roving.

A lightweight sweater for Jack I made on the machine.  It would be done if I hadn’t run out of yarn.  Might not finish it by Easter now.

Here are some old photos I found on my phone from the last month.

Kipper, of course.

Going down the slide by himself.

Here’s my take on Miranda’s Company Cake that we shared with the missionaries.  Jack chanted cakecakecakecakecake all night.

Here’s my Hunger Games braid. 🙂 We saw the movie yesterday. Very faithful to the book although they had to skim too much! Ben and I think they nailed the Capital culture best of all.
I got to come home early today since I’m on call. I hope there’s not too much going on this weekend. I like to sleep and knit an awful lot.