Ellie’s new tricks

1. Walking: well, not exactly.  I may have overstated the case the other day.  She is definitely able to take a few steps but walking is still in the realm of “that silly thing that I do between Mama and Baba” and certainly not a preferred mode of transportation.Babies’ first steps are careful and slow.
Like plants in the garden, they take time to grow.
*

2.  Communicating her desires:  She’s very good at pointing, vocalizing, and otherwise getting us to do what she wants us to do.  The other day, she pulled Nik across the living room floor by his foot and then put his foot onto the piano pedals.  She wanted him to push them down for him!

3. Climbing:  She particularly loves to climb into our recliner and then ask (see #2) for books to read.  Just before nap time, I came back into our office/playroom to find her like this, clearly communicating to me that it was time for sleep!  She uses the nursing stool to get her high enough to climb onto the chair.

4. Making us laugh:  She keeps us laughing all the time.  For example, Ellie and I always nurse lying down when we’re at home.  She’s heavy and makes my arms ache to nurse sitting up.  So, at home, we nurse lying down – she nurses and I read.  I used to be able to read an extra page or two after she was finished.  She would just climb over and around me while I ignored her.  But yesterday, she started picking up my bookmark, putting it in the book, and then trying to close it.  OK, OK, I get it!  I’ll put the book away!

I love this girl so much!

*from the book In The Garden With Van Gogh

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Why Dread the Inevitable?

One unexpected result of becoming a parent is that I’ve become the surprisingly frequent recipient of negative comments like these:

She’s crawling?  Watch out – your life is about to get much harder!

Enjoy this time.  It’s the easiest it’s going to be.

Enjoy the non-walking stage while you can.  You’ll have your hands full once she’s walking.

Oh?  She’s walking!  How fun but watch out, it will be so much harder now.

I realize that these comments are not malicious in intent but they all manage to convey one real message:

Dread what’s coming.  What you have now is the best.  There’s nothing better to come.

Really?  These sorts of comments really frustrate me because there’s no stopping development change.  Ellie will be walking competently soon.  If she doesn’t, then that’s a problem.  Why should I dread something happening when it is the right thing for her to do?

Besides, I love each new stage as it comes.  I have loved watching her learn how to eat.  I’ve loved watching her learn how to crawl, how to knee-walk, and now, how to walk.

I just don’t think dreading the inevitable (and good) developments is helpful, productive, or a good use of my time.

This is how I respond to those kinds of comments:

I love that she’s crawling now!  Before, she was dependent on me for amusement but now that she’s crawling, she can go somewhere else if she’s bored!

I’m actually really looking forward to her being able to walk.  She’s a heavy baby and it will be nice for her to be able to walk some places on her own.

My mother says that she loved her kids as teenagers and now as adults and I’m anticipating that I will too.

Change?  Growing up?  Becoming the person that God has created her to be?

Yes, please!

Thoughts prompted by reading this article.

Posted in Ellie, reflecting | 5 Comments

January Sewing: Nik’s T-Shirt Quilt – Pinned and Ready to Quilt!

And yes, I realize I put an excessively excessive amount of pins  in that thing (more than double what’s really necessary) but I had some issues with the back being wonky.  Mostly, sewing all those little pieces of knit together resulted in not altogether perfect strips.  So to compensate for that, I’ve pinned the life out of the thing and hopefully it won’t shift.  We’ll see.

On to the quilting!!

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One Year! Hooray!

A year ago today, Luke, Nik’s nephew was born.  At the time, he looked so tiny compared to Ellie!

And now, they’re both so grown up!

Happy Birthday Luke!  We love you!

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January Sewing: Nik’s T-Shirt Quilt (still a WIP*)

(The raisins are still working their magic so I thought I’d post one more picture!)

My Christmas present to Nik is a T-shirt quilt made from some of his old T-shirts from high school and college.  I’m in the “pinning to prepare to quilt” stage.  I hope to finish the quilt by the end of January so I’ll post real pictures then.  (And yes, I realize that Christmas presents are supposed to be finished by Christmas.  That’s the curse of being married to the sewer.  Your gift gets pushed to the end of the line.)

In the meantime, here’s a little taste of the wrong side of the back of the quilt.  It’s taped to the floor in preparation for pinning the batting and top to it.

bits and pieces from the T-shirts along with Kona cotton

*WIP = work in progress

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It’s Going to Be One of Those Kinds of Days (and it’s only 9:15)

slightly pacified by being allowed to play with raisins on the couch

not any more

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Inaugural Use of the Bread Bowl!

Andreas and Nikki gave me a bread bowl for Christmas.  I was thrilled – THRILLED! – to get one of these.  I was making my bread in a wooden bowl that was not at all intended for that use and it was falling apart.  Bread bowls (real ones) are hard to find and a treasure to own.  Nikki heard me talking about this on our family vacation last summer and managed to track one down for me.

Bread bowls were used a long time ago to make bread.  They weren’t cleaned with soap (just like cast iron pans) and often a lump of dough was left in the bowl to use in the next batch of dough as the leavening.

first bread in my new bowl

My bowl was hand-carved from one solid piece of maple.  It’s gorgeous.  I was almost afraid to use it yesterday because I was afraid of hurting it!  But we needed bread and bagels so I dived in, used it, and loved it.  The bowl is fairly large, oval, and pretty shallow.  It was really easy to knead my bread right in the bowl – much easier on my wrists than my other bowl.

Here’s the bottom of the bowl:

Handmade by JP Madren, 6-04-11

The paperwork that came with the bowl says that he (the bowlmaker) hopes that I’ll get a couple hundred years of good work out of it!  I’m excited to have this heirloom in our family now.  Here’s the website for the artist – JP Madren.

Thank you Nikki and Andreas and thank you Mr. Madren!

(And yes, the bagels and bread came out beautifully!  And yes, I did wash out the flour and dough – not with soap, but just with water.  I figured that since I won’t be using it again for a couple weeks, I probably wanted it to be clean.  So I’m not quite like the pioneers!)

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The Recipe for Spiced Nut Waffles (with apologies to our covenant group)

We host a small group (called a “covenant group”) through our church every Sunday night.  We also eat “breakfast-for-dinner” every Sunday night.  So we manage to torture our covenant group every week with delicious smells.  The past two weeks in a row, we’ve eaten this waffles, which are amazing and our covenant group friends have had to smell them!  Sorry!

It’s totally worth the bit of extra time and fussiness to make this recipe, which requires using yeast and beaten egg whites.  They turn out amazingly light and crispy.

Spiced Nut Waffles
Serves 4
Adapted, just barely, from pancakes and waffles by Kate Habershon

¾ C whole wheat flour
¾ C all-purpose flour
1 tsp yeast
½ tsp salt
2 T sugar
1 T ground cinnamon
1 C walnuts, finely chopped

Combine in a small bowl.

1 ¼ C warm milk
6 T butter (3/4 of a stick), melted
( The original amount is 1/2 C, which results in excessively decadent, oozingly buttery waffles.  There’s still plenty of butter with 6 T!)
2 egg yolks
(save the whites for later)
1 T vanilla

Mix well in a large bowl.  Heat this mixture in the microwave (or stovetop) until it’s quite warm, but not hot.  This will speed up the rising process.   Add the flour mixture and stir until smooth.  Cover the bowl with a towel and leave in a warm place for about 45 minutes or until it has approximately doubled in size.  I usually just heat up my oven for a couple minutes, turn it off, and then put the bowl in the oven with the door closed.

2 egg whites

Once the waffle batter has finished rising, start your waffle iron preheating.  Then beat the egg whites with an electric mixer (or a wire whisk if you’re hardcore) until you see stiff peaks.  Gently stir them into the batter.

Our waffle iron takes about 1/3-1/2 C of batter per waffle – use however much works in yours.  Bake until golden.  On our waffle maker, 4 (out of 5) seems to be the perfect setting for these waffles.

These are good with peanut butter or maple syrup or marmalade or strawberry jam or berries.  Yesterday, we ate them with a sauce that I made from blueberries, cranberries, lemon zest and juice, and a little bit of sugar.

Delicious!

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Ellie Is Walking!

Ellie took a few steps today!  She still has to be convinced to let go of our hands but then she will take a few steps.  It’s so exciting to see her walking! 

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Who Needs Toys, Right?

What do you get when you have a mama desperate to get dinner made, a baby who just wants her mama to play with her, and a lot of potato and carrot peelings from the compost bucket?

A delicious dinner, a happy baby, and a very messy floor!

I like to call this experiential play.

Posted in cooking, Ellie, parenting, reflecting | 4 Comments