More conversations with my son (part ?)

My son, who was fairly non-verbal when he was younger, continues to talk more and more. And more. (He's still not as talkative as his sister, who could talk the ears off a fence post, but that's okay).

It doesn't seem to bother him that people can't always understand him, and sometimes it seems that he doesn't even need others to respond, he just likes talking and telling stories.

One night at dinner recently he was talking and telling a story about some crazy thing (elephants, cannons, you name it) as if it was something that had happened to him that day. I watched, listened, nodded, and when he stopped I looked around the table at the Italian and Punkin and said "does anybody have any idea what he's talking about?"

Without missing a beat Buddy looked right back at me and said "my do!"

And, in the end, I suppose that's what really counts.

In the Kitchen

But not barefoot (or pregnant!)

I spent much of last weekend (and part of the previous week) cooking like a mad-woman.

On Friday I made sourdough bread from scratch using my sourdough starter. Even though I've had this starter for a while (ever since I killed the last one) I've only ever used it to make sourdough pancakes (which are the best pancakes in the world, by the way. Comment if you want the recipe, or you want to come over for brunch some time).

This time though I wanted to make sourdough bread. So I started the night before and made the bread on Friday morning. While the bread was rising I decided to keep the oven warm by using the oven to make a double batch of bran muffins. I started eating bran muffins regularly when I was pregnant (I had anemia with my first pregnancy and the iron supplements, combined with just being pregnant, slowed down my digestive system substantially). I tried different recipes until I found one I really like and have just kept eating them ever since.

On Saturday we had a dinner guest, so I baked double chocolate brownies in the morning and cooked Chinese pork tenderloin for dinner. It turned out great and we enjoyed our dinner.

On Sunday morning I made a double batch of sourdough pancakes and bacon for breakfast. I put the pancake batter into a modified squirt bottle so I could make shape pancakes, and then dropped chocolate chips on top once they were on the griddle, because the kids love them that way. (I would feel worse about feeding them chocolate in the morning, but neither of them uses syrup if they have the chips, so I think it's a wash).

Then I was putting food away and noticed that there were a lot of apples in the fridge, none of them getting any younger. So I made a double batch of applesauce, and used my new food strainer attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, which is great.

On Sunday night we made Japanese food, although I was just assisting - the Italian was in charge.

On Monday we went out to the Leonardo exhibit at the Tech Museum in San Jose for the day. The exhibit was nice and the kids had a good time. I was a little disappointed, I thought they could have done much more with the material, but it was still good to go.

And for my final food event on Monday night, after the kids were in bed, I made sausage. We've done it a couple of times before and the results were really good, so I had purchased the supplies on Saturday and needed to do something with the meat. Even though it's a multi-step process it's not hard, just somewhat messy. I use the food grinder and sausage stuffer attachments for the Kitchen Aid, and it is actually pretty fun.

I worry sometimes that I spend too much time involved with food, that I should be doing more with the kids instead. But I've come to feel that if the children grow up having good food in their lives, food that they know how to cook and enjoy, they will have a healthier relationship with food and may be healthier for it for the rest of their lives. So it's a good thing.

So it's been all about the food lately. The past few days have been less about the food (there's only so much time in the kitchen that I can stand). The one bit of kitchen news that is exciting (at least to me) - the Italian was able to track down replacement parts for the dishwasher - we may soon have a functioning dishwasher! (Ours has been broken since before Thanksgiving). Who knew that I could get so excited about an appliance!

Photo fun

Thanks to Kathy I'm starting out the New Year with a look back. The task is to go to the 4th photo folder and choose the 4th photo and tell four things about it.

I don't have photo folders, and in fact I don't have a lot of photos on my computer since my husband tends to store most of our family photos on his computer, but I went into iPhoto and viewed my photos by event and chose the 4th photo from the 4th event.

So here goes:


1. This photo was taken in July of 2005. We were on a trip back East with the kids, the first trip with my son who was only a few months old.

2. This particular day the kids and I spent with my cousin and her kids. My cousin J (who is actually a third cousin, not a first cousin) has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. We've known each other since we were two years old, and lived next door to each other from age 7 to about age 11. Growing up in a town with a small population the fact that we were next door neighbors also meant that she was the only other kid within reasonable walking distance at that age. The fact that her older sister and my older brother were the same age meant that the four of us spent a lot of time together (and the fact that they had a swimming pool didn't hurt!)

3. For a variety of reasons this trip to Boston had been really stressful and difficult, and the day I spent with J and her kids was so relaxing I almost cried. Punkin played with her cousins (who are one year older and one year younger, so they played together really well) and I just sat and held Buddy and talked with my cousin, and it was the first time I felt like I was on vacation in years.

4. My cousin lives on a pond. It's actually more of a small lake, but this being New England they call it a pond. Their house is 10-15 feet from the edge of the water, and their kids spend lots of time swimming. This day Punkin put on a water floaty and the three kids just swam and splashed and had so much fun. At some point during the day J even took the older kids out for a spin in the canoe - what fun!

Last summer when we went back east J once again came through - she took both my kids for an overnight so the Italian and I could get away for a night together. Nobody has done that for us before or since, and it was a slice of heaven. Once again the kids spent lots of time in the water and they didn't want to leave.

Even though we talk on the phone a lot I really miss my cousin. She is a good friend, a nice person, a great mother, and I wish that she and I were not three thousand miles apart.