Grrrrrr, grrrrr, grrrrr says the baby

Guest Blogger: Der Murfmensch

Last night, Nora had one of the best times I've seen her ever have. She held hands with Ellie Juice! They walked about Todd and Natascha's house, played with magnets and hugged.

Nora had a fever early this morning and we got worried. The nurse eased our concerns. Frankly, I always feel like my calls to the nurse must seem a little nervous compared to other ones they get in the day. We've worked on keeping her comfy. She just needs to relax. We were surprised by how well she's spent the day. She's been engrossed in her new puzzle and her toys.

Maggie and I took shifts and got to get out during this break. Maggie bought me some socks.

Nora has a new thing. She says "Go away!" with all the pitch and fury of a tea kettle. This is probably a two-year-old thing but it came across at the same time as this bug and made us think it might be more serious.

Toy report. Now Nora is making the five different cats that Todd and Natascha have given her kiss each other. (It should be said that Maggie believes that Jo-jo and Lillian are chipmunks.) Nora makes most other pets receive hugs from her but wrestle each other. These cats, especially the two that live in a comfy mushroom, are constantly making out.

Week of Troubles

Since I've last posted it seems like we've had one thing after another. First I was sick (again!), and Nora had the croup (again), which evolved into the stomach flu last weekend, which resulted in me not cleaning (again). But the worst day was Monday. Just as Nora was getting over the flu (no barfing in almost 24 hours), we were rushing off to our Monday morning routine, and Jason slipped on the ice and fell down the front steps with Nora. I was right behind them and in my haste to help, I hurried after them and fell on top of them. Jason and I were fine, but Nora to a nasty konk on the head and we rushed her to the emergency room in possibly the most panic-frenzied state of our lives. After several hours there and a CAT scan, we found out she's fine, but we're still a little shaken and guilt-ridden. Fortunately her bruise isn't as horrible as I feared it would be and she's back to her normal self. But between the croup. flu, and concussion she lost 2 pounds, which wouldn't be a big deal for adults but it's quite a bit for a already-light-for-her age 24 now 22 lbs little girl.

The one upside to Nora's flu was that last Saturday we did watch an entire day of Rankin and Bass stop action animation holiday features and Nora learned a whole new vocabulary - "Rudolph", "Santa", "Reindeer", "Vixen", "snowman", "Heat Miser/Snow Miser", and most unfortunately, "barf", which punctuated our day of TV excess. For those of you who may only be familiar with Rankin & Bass's "Rudolph, The Red Nosed Reindeer", I can highly recommend several of their other features, most notably, the surreal "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus" based on a Frank Baum book, the historically laughable "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" which features Ben Franklin and Caveman Ug helping Rudolf save Baby New Year, the biographical "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town" or as Todd calls it "Glen Cambell Claus" showing the early years of of a very red haired Santa and his efforts to thwart the toy-destroying Burgermeister Meisterburger. But best of all was my personal favorite " A Year Without Santa Claus" featuring those trouble-making siblings - Heat Miser and Snow Miser. There were also several less thrilling features - Nestor the Long Eared Donkey and Pinocchio's Christmas. For those of you who missed it, I understand the Family Channel does this every year and that they will also show them throughout the month of December as well. All this Family Channel watching also resulted in me having to tune in on Sunday to the much advertised and anticipated Family Channel Holiday Special, Holiday in Handcuffs, featuring Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina) and Mario Lopez of Dancing with the Stars fame (but I know him from Pet Star on Animal Planet). Jason commented that it was much better than expected.

The other event of note is that my aunt has bought Nora yet another pink pony that she can sit on and it neighs and plays music. This one has wheels instead of a rocker. It was supposed to be out at my parents but somehow it made it's way here, and now there are TWO singing pink ponies in my living room. I need a stable.

Mourning the Muppet Show still, but at least we have this....

Anyone who has a had a child in the past few years, is probably familiar with Sandra Boynton, illustrator and author of a band of animals who wear pajamas, dance, and play together nicely across the pages of rhyming board books. Those of you without kids, have no doubt seen her characters on greeting cards and other such products. The books withstand multiple readings and I've yet to tire of them after almost two years. But not everyone may be aware that she is also behind several CD and book sets as well. Nora has received two of these from my aunt and while we were initially hesitant to put it on (children's music isn't always a something adults want to listen to), one of these has become a standard in our ipod playlist. Jason and I have been known to spend days singing the Rhinoceros Tap songbook, especially So Long Doggies Goodbye, Oh What a Crab, and These Little Piggies and not mind a bit. It works both as Nora entertainment but also a hilarious send up of showtunes. The second CD/book, Philadelphia Chickens, featured a conglomerate of artists I've heard of but never really were into and despite a 2003 Grammy nomination (thanks Wikipedia), it never seemed to take off with us, maybe we just weren't willing to give it a chance (Scott Bakula has a song on it and I still can't get over the stink of Enterprise) But last month, as part of Nora's Christmas gifts, I picked up Dog Train (yes the name made me buy it). It had a similar conglomerate of artists (those Bacon Brothers again), but I also couldn't resist the Weird Al Yankovic / Kate Winslet duet, I need a Nap. Jason couldn't wait for Christmas and popped it in tonight, possibly to distract Nora from her cold/croup that she's suffering with. We have not been disappointed. Weird Al and Kate were fabulous, Five For Fighting made us smile with Penguin Lament, Alison Krauss mesmerized us again with her lullaby, Evermore, but what stole the CD for us was the 3 part Cow Planet by Billy J Kramer. For one brief moment it was as if David Bowie was on the Muppet Show with Lenord Nemoy. If I ever got motivated and posted a Christmas shopping guide for parents, this and Rhino Tap would top the list. It's a must if you've got children under 5 and it might even make your Christmas list even if you don't have kids. Now I'm going to have to give those Chickens another chance.

Welcome to the World, Mete!

Nora now has a new cousin! My cousin, Leah gave birth to her son, Mete Dylan Berkoz this past Saturday. He weighed 8 lb. 1 oz. and was 20 inches long. He came right on his due date - what a prompt little guy! Congratulations new parents Leah and Oguz and grandparents Ted and Linda. I can't wait to meet him!

Spunk Lost and Found?

Carol has been complaining lately of a lack of blogging spunk and apparently it is a problem over here as well. I can't complain about a complete lack of activity, because, actually November has had plenty, which may be why I've done so little blogging.

We returned Sunday from our trip to Arkansas for Thanksgiving which was a bit of an exhausting drive and required more luggage than a debutante's tour of European capitals. But Nora got to see her grandparents again, and Jason's grandmother, Grant was up from Texas and Max was down from Bentonville. Nora had a great time re-arranging Kathy's rock tray and bowling walnuts, and practicing her piercing shrieks among people who find it endearing. Jason and I took advantage of the free babysitting to eat a meal together (as opposed to in shifts between Nora chasing) and to check out downtown Hot Springs and marvel at the changes that have occurred since our Little Rock residency. Happily, the fabulous toy store is still there and we had a great time buying too much stuff for Nora (musical instruments, kitties, and a music box). For those who care, the Arlington now has a Starbucks and they've done some redecorating so it's not quite so bright in the lobby. Oh, and there was some football game between the Razerbacks and LSU, I'm told it was quite a game, but it's really not my thing.

We took a little side detour to Conway to see Bob, Sarah and Zelda. They ministered to our need for a place to unwind and an audience to vent about the horrors of travel and holidays with family. Zelda kindly played big sister with Nora and let her touch and play with all of her toys (even the horses and unicorns) and read stories to her and prevented her from destroying the house while Jason and I languished on the couches and made Bob and Sarah entertain us with stories. It was very restorative. Hendrix has grown by leaps and bounds and I learned that there are actually two new mascots - one with a sword and one with a banner not sure that one is that much of an improvement over the other.

Now we're home again and December looms in front of me. I actually do have some Christmas spirit this year and while that doesn't translate into putting up a tree (we really don't have any room). I did get an advent calendar for Nora (it came yesterday and no, I didn't pay that much for it) and I think there is some serious baking in my future (I've got the whole Veginomicon to get through!). The Rock N' Roll craft show is this weekend and while I know I will be shopping I also hope it inspires some more craft activities. Unfortunately, I didn't really have an opportunity to work on Nora's stocking this break and my mom has made a lovely one for her already, so I might not get it done, but I had so much fun with the felt food, that I'm hoping I get another project underway soon.

Breakfast, Morning Everybody, Sun's Up And We'e Having Toast and Jelly...

Or something else. Here's my felt breakfast and there have been some comments regarding some of the elements not resembling what I think they resemble. So, can you name what's on the plate? Or have I gotten in over my head with my breakfast creation?


I also went a head and made a little snack as well. My favorite - cookies! These are oatmeal raisin because that's what Nora eats, but maybe you would prefer chocolate chip or some other yummy variety. Whatever you like, it's your imagination!

Pasta Party

I took a mental health day to try to catch up from working several weekends this month and to take on a project that I've been meaning to do for awhile. Nora's kitchen should be coming any day now (I hope) so I need to get onto making that felt food to complete her birthday and Christmas present. Awhile ago I bought a pattern for an Italian dinner set from a mom on hyena cart. I probably could have winged this one on without the pattern, but in retrospect, I'm really glad I had it for my first foray into felt food! Without further ado, here's the pics:


Above is the ravioli and butter pats with a cannoli. I'm most happy with the ravioli. The canaloni is my least favorite, but that also could have something to do with me deciding I didn't want to make it quite the way she suggested. I'm also thinking of making some pancakes so that Nora can use those butter pats again. I might make some eggs, just because that seems so fun, even though Nora can't eat eggs.... Here's the fettucine with tomato sauce and meat balls.
This was so much fun, it took me about 2 hours because I decided I didn't want to hunt up a sewing machine, so I did all the raviolis by hand and nor did I have a pinking shears so that took a little while too. I got to finally use my cutting wheel and mat, so over all I'm pleased, but I'm sure the next projects will go better since I've got the hang of it all now. Next on my list is the breakfast and then I might go on to making some cookies and fruit. I think that this will work for Jason's dinner - he went to the dentist today to have several cavities filled, so maybe felt food will be soft enough. Poor guy!

American Girl

So my mother got an American Girl catalog in the mail and passed it on to me. Nora is a bit too young still for their targeted demographic, but I ended up browsing through it anyway. It confirmed much of my early opinion of the marketing giant, that they use book tie ins to lure parents in to buying a whole lifestyle for their dolls, that they might even balk at buying for their daughters themselves. After my initial horror, I brought it to my office and to a group of women who are similar minded to me, for them to turn their feminist eyes on it. One of them noticed (& I heard her cackling at her desk) and pointed out to me that Kit, the 1934 doll was described as the "bright light of the depression era". We were all feeling a mixture of shock and awe at the sheer volume of accessories and lifestyle packets that are available for the dolls, some of which correspond with their literary historical counterparts (check out the new 1970's doll if you really want to feel old) and then something odd happened. It got to my co-worker first. She turned the page with the matching daughter/doll pajamas. "Ohhh, I can see why people buy this, I would've wanted my daughter to have this", As I was laughing at all the excess (do we really need tiaras for our daughters and our daughters dolls?) I was occasionally pulled in by some of the details. It brought me back to my aunt's amazing barbie doll wardrobe and how much fun I had playing with it. My colleague, who's daughter is just a couple of years older than Nora, pointed out how well made the AG stuff is compared to other toys, and how cool the record player (for the doll) actually played little miniature 45's. Then I saw the Kit doll's doll (insane isn't it?), who was dressed like an aviatrix. Now I want an aviatrix outfit and matching doll for Nora (no, I haven't checked to see if this is possible). So who knows if I'll eventually fall into the American Girl marketing quagmire. I've still got a few years before it starts working it's evil hypnosis on Nora, and maybe by then I'll figure out where I stand.

It's true, everything was cooler when we were 12

Well, actually this is more like when I was five. But Sesame Street was cooler then. I give you this prime piece of evidence. I can't imagine them showing it now and we are all poorer for it.

This Just In

For all you HP fans out there, our favorite headmaster is Family:

From IMDB.com:
Dumbledore Is Gay
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix author J.K. Rowling has shocked fans of the boy-wizard series by stating that character Albus Dumbledore as gay. The writer revealed the truth of the Hogwarts school headmaster's sexuality at New York's Carnegie Hall on Friday as part of her American book tour. When asked by an audience member if Dumbledore had found "true love," she replied, "Dumbledore is gay," adding he was in love with his rival Gellert Grindelwald, who he once beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago. She says, "Falling in love can blind us to an extent. (Dumbledore was) horribly, terribly let down."

Owls of Autumn, Part II

Here's some more footage of Nora in the Owl Dress. As you can hear, she wants you to know all about Karl and she's been all about the mirror lately...

Owls of Autumn

It's October 8 and today it reached 90+ degrees. This is insane. I have been ready for fall for several weeks and it looks like I'm not to have it. Well possibly later this week. But anyway, Nora is all ready for crisp weather to begin. A trip to our fabulous children's used clothing store, Kangaroo Kids netted us some fun tights. Then I got too happy on hyena cart and bought her a very cute owl hoodie dress that would really only be comfortable in cooler weather, but I'm dying to put her in it. Here's some pics, but they don't really do justice to the dress since she won't stand still.

It's long enough that she'll be able to wear it next fall too, so it's not like I'm worried she'll grow out of it, but I'm just anxious to dress her up like the little elf she is:

And then there's the Halloween costume. Jason was pretty insistent that this year she go as little red riding hood, so Etsy helped me locate an appropriate cloak and Karl will be standing in as the big bad wolf. But again this isn't going to work in hot weather, so it better cool off by the end of the month.

And then there's me. What's the use of having fabulous boots if you can't wear them. Have I mentioned how sick I am of shaving my legs? How about how ready I am for some hearty chili or soup? This heat wave really needs to end so I can enjoy my favorite time of year, October.

Eggs

Are definitely out. We had been thinking that possibly Nora was able to eat them, but this weekend proved that this is so not the case. Unfortunately this allergy doesn't disappear until age 5, if at all. Lets keep our fingers crossed. On the upside, Isa's recipes came though for me again! This time I tested her biscuits. Although, I think I could veganize my traditional biscuit recipe, I decided to go with a more sure bet. They were a little crumbly, but the taste was super yummy and despite having a less-common ingredient (non-hydrogenated shortening, aka: Spectrum) I plan on making these as my permanent biscuit recipe. Alas, alack I don't have any pictures - though that may be fore the best since this meal also resulted in the great jelly disaster of 2007 (baths all around for Nora, the chair, the carpet and almost Karl).

Sunday was also our 12 anniversary. Hard to believe that it's been that long but it has. Happy Anniversary Sweetie! I shamelessly spent the day reading the present I purchased for Jason - Box Office Poison by Alex Robinson. He got to read it yesterday too, but still... sorry I commandeered your present, Jason! Anyway, it's as great as I hoped and I recommend it to all of you. Especially if you are, live with or know a Star Wars, Star Trek, or Comic Book fan. Or if you ever worked in a bookstore. Yeah, I'm talking about you, Todd.

Blue Hat

Nora does her best Garbo impersonation here and turns the camera away....

Lincoln Park Zoo and Other Chicago Sites

Here are some photos from our trip to Chicago a couple of weeks ago:

For Einstein, Newton, and Darwin

Nora and I check out the Giraffes


Meercat Madness for Natascha
Anouk gives Jason and Nora the 411
Jason blasts off in Anouk's rocket

Strolling around the Northwestern Campus

But How Will She Ever Hear The Gambler?

It was when Jason asked this that I realized how ill-equipped we were for the task. He had proposed that we compile a sort of "greatest hits" of our lifetime for Nora's benefit. I'm still unsure if he intends this to be an album of songs that we think are great or if they merely reflect the soundtrack of the time of our childhood/teens/young adult years. I guess more of the latter, since she will have access to our music collection and is already listening to it all the time. Anyway dear readers, it is clear that we are not up to the task, since after 2 hours of discussion and a great deal of lost sleep and insidious ear-worms, we still don't have a list. Nor are we even sure that this can be a single compilation, but perhaps a series of compilations - perhaps done by decades or in the footsteps of the great call now! infomercials, there could be an arena rock disc, a disco disc, a country disc, a metal disc, a Europop disc etc. Clearly we need your help. We welcome suggestions for how this project should be organized as well. Possible candidates already tossed into the ring include: the afore mentioned Kenny Rogers standard, Big Country's Big Country, David Bowie's, Space Odyssey, Led Zepplin's When the Levee Breaks, The Cure's Love Cats, Cindy Lauper's Girls Just Want To Have Fun, REM's Driver 8, The Police's Message in a Bottle, Paul Simon's Graceland or Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, Nina's 99Luftbaloons, KC and the Sunshine Band's Shake your Booty, and a gazillion others have been tossed about. We've agreed that no Rush or Styx will be included but we are in debate over whether Boston's More Than a Feelin' has a place. Jason is adamant that Trio's Da Da Da be included. Obviously there are some gaping holes. We can't decide on which Bob Marley and Indigo Girls need to be included and the Pogue's are lyrically problematic so we'll wait on them till she's older. Fortunately, Jason has not insisted on Hall and Oats. We know several of you have opinions on this already, so start posting.

Fallen Behind

It's been forever since I've posted, and I really have no excuse. But here's a run down of what we've been up to lately. Last weekend (not this just past one, but the one before) we made a mad dash to Chicago to see Anouk and Christoph and their parents. We had a wonderful time visiting the zoo, Northwestern University, watching the kids, and eating delicious food. Oh, and there might have been a stop on the way home at Ikea that was way too expensive and time-consuming, but one of us had a lot of fun. Nora generally felt that Christoph was just fine, despite his fondness for baseball bats, but that maybe Anouk should keep her distance a bit. I've got excellent video that I will eventually post.

This past weekend, I was baby showering in honor of my cousin Leah, who is due at Thanksgiving time and then Todd and Natascha made an amazing brunch for us that was made even more amazing by Nora sitting in a big person chair and eating all of her waffles (graciously made vegan by Todd) while the rest of us actually got to eat and talk! She then tried to put her syrup sticky hands on everything and everyone, but fortunately the kitties were too quick for her, or else there might have been some grooming nightmares.

The weekends prior to these two were spent painting all of the furniture in the bedroom and then re-arranging said furniture in the bedroom and then deciding one of the bookcases looked better in the living room which resulted in more furniture moving in there. Big thanks go out to Todd and Laura who got in on the rearranging (Todd actually got talked into it twice!). Jason is completely sick of the upheaval, but we've got to get it all back in shape (which it's not) before Friday when his parents arrive. And I'm working all day Saturday. Whew. So that's where September went. Do I have any pictures of all this activity? Yes? But of course not handy. I will eventually post them....

In food news, I've been proceeding with the Isa recipe testing. Sunday I made some black bean soup in the crock pot which we didn't get around to eating until last night, so it was a perfect opportunity to test Isa's vegan cornbread recipe. I loved it, but I should warn readers that this is not quite like southern cornbread (it has more flour) but nor is as sweet as northern cornbread. Perhaps it's a happy medium. I did it in the 9x9 cake pan as Isa (a New Yorker) instructed, but I think I might see what happens if I were to do this in an iron skillet, which is how I do regular non-vegan cornbread or maybe in muffin tins. If you aren't a cornbread purist, or if maybe you think of this as something else entirely, I'd recommend giving it a shot.

Given the eating of black bean soup and cornbread along with the date on the calendar, you might think, ahh fall is here. Unfortunately, it is not. Yesterday it was 90 degrees and the rest of the week plans to hover around in the 80s. I am so very sick of this non-fall weather. It is the time of long skirts and boots and cute sweaters. I'm still here in my capris and tee shirt, although I did put away the sandals, but still, this is definitely not office wear (although I get away with it in the summer). What am I going to do? It's bad enough we don't have any apples due to the late freezes this spring, and I'm sneezing my head off with allergies (seriously, every hour!) but I could handle that if there were some crisp weather.

Sweets

Todd's post about the knitting cupcakes was timely for me. I've recently become enthralled with knitted play food. Really all play food made from fiber (crochet, felted, sewn, etc). I think Nora might be getting some for her birthday, especially if I ever find the perfect play kitchen (that's really a topic for another post). I give you this amazing sundae as an example, although if you search Etsy you will or Hyena Cart you will find many crafters who are all about the play food. It's making me wish I could crochet, but maybe I just need to find a way to carve out sometime to make something out of that pile of sweaters that I've been meaning to felt. Since I finally got around to painting my furniture, maybe this is next on the list.

This is Not a Soccer Blog

Nevertheless, I give you this photo of Jason because it makes him happy.

This was taken during his man-date with some soccer cultural blogger who was road tripping across the US on his way to grad school. Inexplicably, Jason is not wearing Spurs gear, despite the intent of going to this sign to take a photo and despite the grad student/soccer culture blogger being an Arsenal fan. I would have thought that was a perfect opportunity to "support the team", but Greece got the shout out that day.

Recent Rural Property Purchases

I thought I'd better update you on the status of some of my old posts. Since some of you have inquired, I have indeed, bought the farm. It came in last week (was it last week?) and I couldn't be more pleased. It was one of those great eBay snares and here are my gloat pics. Note the fabulous condition of the lithos on the sides of the barn, silo and tractor, the presence of ears on the animals, and most glorious of all -- floor boards on masonite instead of plain green plastic. This is the farm of my childhood and not one of the later models. Oh, yeah, Nora likes it too.

Here's the whole farm, note that the orange pen and it's creatures do not belong to this farm set, but they came with the e-bay listing, along with that cute, wooden(!) truck up front and the boat in the back by the silo, which was not part of the original farm set, but was part of the houseboat set that I also had and thankfully my parents saved - this boat is going to their house to join the bigger houseboat, yellow lounge chairs, and red table set with lobster dinner that survives.
Close up of the farm animals and the fabulous inside of the barn. This picture is not detailed enough for you to see that the fence pieces have a rough-hewn texture - detail completely lacking from today's FP toys. Also missing from this picture (and modern FP farms) but not from my set is the happy sound of "moooooooo" that happens when you open or close the door (or when you spend several minutes triggering the mechanism: moooo, moooo, mmooooooooooooooo). Note the Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Symbol on the side of the barn in the pic below.

Nor do the modern sets have nearly the number of figures/pieces. While the modern figures are more detailed, they are perhaps too specific. Like many modern toys they eliminate the use of imagination by filling in too many of the blanks for us. Or maybe I'm just too blinded by my nostalgia for me to warm up to them. Here's the modern FP person and the vintage for your comparison:

In other news, I finally installed the Dutch Kinder on my mom's old pantry that she refurbished for Nora. This project went incredibly well. I fully expected the decals to crumble given their age and for me to have a royal fit. But they performed as their 50 + year old descriptions claimed and slid off their paper backing with water and adhered to the doors as if they were brand new. Actually, given the state of recently manufactured things, probably better than brand new. My lesson from these two experiences - go vintage. Better quality, more detail, and it keeps stuff out of landfills.


This is my favorite decal, sorry it's so blurry!:

Here's Nora and Grammy having a tea party in front of the pantry, by the way that cute tea set is from Lillian Vernon Kids and is NOT vintage, but it is perfect for little hands with it's soft fabric construction although it is perhaps a bit pink. Despite the horrors of the regular Lillian Vernon catalog, the Kids catalog has some neat stuff (as well as too much Disney Princess crap):

Howdy

Recipe experimentation continues....

I've had this soy creamer in the fridge for a bit and last weekend I bought some chickpea flour, so the time had come for Isa's "Fronch" Toast. I'd be procrastinating on this one for awhile, since it had two unknown elements for me (the afore mentioned ingredients) and after the sun butter fiasco, I was feeling wary. However, once again I realized that I must trust in Isa because she's the bomb. Especially of breakfast. Although it turned out to be dinner for us. It was made even more delish by the addition of the very non-vegan Nancy's Yogurt for Jason and I. Nora had hers with honey and if her sticky hands, mouth, tray, and well, every inch of her body was any indication, it was a success. Karl got a couple of bites but not many. This could hardly be called "healthy" by the time we added all the maple syrup, but it was definitely more "light" than standard French toast and just as yummy. Unfortunately, it was eaten before I remembered to take photos. Plus, I didn't take as much a bother of presentation.

In other cooking adventures, tomatofest continues at our house with some fabulous little yellow cherry tomatoes from Local Harvest (where you can also find Nancy's yogurt) that have found there way into bacon, spinach and tomato pita sandwiches, a feta, eggplant, olive, sunflower sprout and tomato pasta salad with a side of falafel.

Busy

Nora has been a whirlwind these past few weeks. It seems like everything is much more interesting to her than ever before (which given her curiosity previously, doesn't seem possible). She is always carrying one, two, three or more items around and then gets frustrated when she wants to pick up more, but can't without dropping what she already has.
She is also getting the hang of moving things in and out of other things (fish in and out of the boat, little people in and out of the plane, shapes in and out of the sorter) and wants to do this for longer periods of time.

The other big steps are the imaginary play - bears and dolls are of more interest now and can be fed, put down for naps, and generally dragged around by their appendages, and this weekend there was cooking! As I made the ill fated sun butter cookies, Nora stirred up a mixture of flour, brown sugar and honey on her tray allowing me almost the entire time to make the cookies. Now she's obsessed with carrying around her dish and spoon everywhere. If only she had more hands! Or could figure out how to make use of pockets! And she has plenty of those, since another big deal for her is putting on clothes. She's been wearing two pairs of pants (over the giant diaper) in this heat the past week or so. She's insisting that once pair isn't enough so she'll try to pull on a second, usually the chinese pjs or the red and white striped pair (both sized for babies under one year of age) and then gets angry when she can't pull them up all the way. We pull them up for her and she's happy as a clam. I can't imagine where she gets this desire for more clothes from...
But there's always a still moment in the middle of the tornado. Karl, the every faithful, will make her slow down for a second just to give him a few pats or make him model a hat. And then she's chasing him round and everything is in motion again.

Sunbuttery goodness and then no longer....

I’ve recently become enamored with sun butter, the peanut butter like substance made from sunflower seeds. I actually like the taste better, and it has more vitamins, and best of all, it doesn’t trigger a peanut butter allergy attack in Nora (we don’t know yet that she is allergic, but given her reaction to dairy, we are supposed to avoid it like the plague until she’s five). And because I’m also all about Isa’s vegan recipes, that have yet to fail me, I thought I’d try the crispy peanut butter cookie recipe substituting sun butter. Well…I don’t blame Isa, but this was not a success. I was so very excited. The batter tasted great raw (one of the other pluses of vegan recipes – no problem eating raw cookie dough). However, the first pan (made as written except for the sun butter sub) was way too runny to possibly set up. I added some more flour to the remainder of the batter. Again, a bit too runny for cookie texture raw. Baked, both batches were too cakey – the first crumbling very unhappily

and the second still to cakey and crumbly. Also, there was a faint burnt/scorched taste – true sunflower seed oil has a lower smoke point than peanut oil – but at 350 degrees I didn’t think this was an issue. They are okay with milk, taste wise, and Nora seems to eat them, though not as greedily as the oatmeal/pumpkin/raisin ones and there is no “coookkiiee” exclamation once she eats them. I've put the rest of the batter in the fridge to eat raw, but as for cookies, it's back to the drawing board.

Look For Me On TV

I just got interviewed by the Weather Channel while walking back from lunch. I was with Laura and she shoved me in font of the camera when the reporter asked to speak to us. They wanted to know what I thought of St. Louis weather. Yeah, I said it was hot. Fascinating television, I know. They seemed to think it was more of a story than I did. I guess standing on the street in 100+ degree temperature, lugging a 25lb camera for hours while trying to talk to folks as they scurry from building to building might make you think it is indeed hotter than usual, but to me this is just St. Louis in the summer.

Now I'm really glad I bothered to put on makeup today... if only I wasn't wearing a maternity shirt from two years ago and sporting a giant zit on my chin. Advice to you all - look smart, you never know where the Weather Channel might be lurking. You'd thinking watching all of those ambush makeover shows would have made me more conscious of this.

Avatar me?

Tomatorama

This past week has been full of tomatoes. I picked up several from a guy with a truck on Broadway, and then the next day I was presented with some more, along with some squash grown by Ted and Linda via Mom, and then I couldn't help myself and bought still more (heirlooms this time) from the local gardeners at the Tower Grove Farmers Market. So what did I do with all of these? First there was the ragout with tomatoes and zucchini over grillled polenta, then there was the tomato, kasha, and cheese stuffed zucchini, then there was another ragout of tomatoes, zucchini, white beans and eggplant over more polenta (baked this time), and finally I experimented with my first crepes and stuffed them with fontina, sunflower sprouts and those heirloom tomatoes. Nora even got some in her tofu-cheese quesadillas. We ate it all so fast, I never remembered to take photos. While I'm temporarily out of them, I can't say I'm done with tomatoes though - there are still plans for BLTs or maybe just plain tomato sandwiches, Jason wants some gazpocho, I need to make some of Miss Dixie's Hot Sauce, I'd like to replicate this great fattoush salad I got in Michigan, and well I could eat more in just about any form. If I haven't gotten enough, I think we might have to attend the Iron Barley Tomato Fest later this month. I love August. A Big Thanks to all of you farmers out there with your magnificent produce -especially the tomatoes!

Nora's Glasses

Here's another short video that Jason shot of Nora wearing glasses the only way she will allow and eating a cookie. Or in Nora speak, that would be COOOKIE!

Beatrix goes Flat Cuckoo!

Guest video director:
Murfmensch

Before you play, strap yourself to your chair and get prepped for the ride of your life!

Sand Castles

We're on our way home now, but here's a little movie of Nora on the beach.

More Michigan

The vacation continues! We've been back to the beach on Monday and up to White Lake to see a lighthouse and eat some nice Mediterranean Food. The table next to us held a woman and her son - both were reading their own copy of the newest Harry Potter. I think they talked briefly about Snape and other than that continued reading. Saturday I did buy my copy, but Jason has been the one reading it. I think I'll have to save it for the trip back home, unless I break down before then and tear it away from him.

Yesterday we were back in Holland, where we visited the Dutch Village. So here's some obligatory pictures with wooden shoes:


This Flat Beatrix is for Fred:


We also went into downtown Holland, which was really delightful. Their downtown shopping area of about 4 blocks had two independent bookstores, a terrific toy store, some nice clothing shops, and a ton of restaurants including an Viennese style pastry shop and cafe and an Irish pub were someone bought someone else a football hoodie. Practice has already started.


And here's a shot of that monster grill and the Grand Marshall, who Nora is now calling Groshal.

Bend it Like Bourdieu: The Habitus of American Soccer Fandom

Guest Rant By Jason
Bend it Like Bourdieu: The Habitus of American Soccer Fandom

American soccer fanatics like me do not just root for one team, we root for the sport itself, hoping to see it better received and understood. And about half of us (including me) root for MLS, our Major League Soccer. And we worry. We worry about what Americans might think if they are told one thousand times that David Beckham is invincible and, yet, his new team is crushed by Chelsea FC. That part went fine. Chelsea was better but only won 1-0 and the Galaxy bizarre scrappy defenses were pretty exciting. (Abel Xavier is fun to watch and not just for the foot-high bleach-blond afro.)

But why do we worry? We know that jackass commentators will bemoan a 1-0 score as if there is never such a thing in "American" sports.

We also worry about what the British will think when ESPN broadcast a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament even though the US team entered the semi-finals of the U-20 World Cup. I cringed hard when this channel interviewed Jennifer Love Hewitt DURING THE MATCH. She's B-list. But perhaps her analysis will surprise. "I've never been to a soccer game. It's superexciting. It's like a movie premiere!" What will the Guardian do with this?

The recent defeat of the Galaxy by the UANL Tigres of Mexico was already cited as evidence that MLS is not "real". They looked better against Chelsea than a few of the English Premiership teams have.

But why do we worry? English pundits will say no one cares despite four million youth players and high cable TV ratings. Let them be.

As for Beckham: He only had time for one excellent pass and a good corner kick. Once the rest of the team practices with him, these will start to look very good. Next year, they will be the favorite to win but, right now, they have about a 6-win deficit below the Houston Dynamo so they won win the "Supporter's Shield" for best season. The playoffs are relatively easy to get into and then they just might win the "MLS Cup". My team, the commie-monikered Houston Dynamo, would have beaten Chelsea last night and would be my bet for both Shield and Cup.

To quote Faye Dyer: "I got to see him warm up and run around." Sarcasm from unexpected quarters means the British papers surely won't hold back.

BTW-- the Chicago Fire will premiere their new star, Cuahtemoc Blanco, for whom many Mexicans have even more love than we saw with Becks. He is an incredible dribbler and one of the most ill-tempered players in the world.

Umberto Eco and Pierre Bourdieu noted that soccer fans cannot stop talking about the sport. There is something compulsive at work. I can't seem to prove them wrong but the sport rewards knowledge and talk.

For example, here in Muskegon, I recognized a guy's Hearts of Midlothian and asked him if he saw the Celtic play here. If you, as an American, can name one team from a guy's homeland they are impressed. Except ManU and Real Madrid fans who just presume you love them.

Michigan

We're in Michigan, and while yesterday was a little exhausting, today is going very nicely. On the way up, we passed though Holland, and so we thought Flat Beatrix would like to pose for a picture for Carol and Fred. We plan to run back down to Holland sometime this week to get a closer look at their windmills and giant wooden shoe, but this is all we glimpsed from the car.


We are staying about an hour north of Holland in Muskegon. This is not as big a tourist location as the small towns south of here (Holland, Grand Haven, South Haven, Saugatauk, St. Joe) but it is a nice place. We visited the beach this morning, but we didn't take photos since we forgot the camera. The beach is part of Pere Marquette (yeah, that same guy was up here and they name parks after him up here as well) State Park and it was very nice and clean, with a beautiful view of Lake Michigan, and it's about a mile from where we are staying. Nora spent the morning shoveling sand into her pants and down my shirt, and on the beach towels and in Jason's shoes and even some into her bucket. Then we all hiked out onto the pier to see the lighthouse, then back to the beach for fried perch and fries and tator tots and mushroom burgers. It was a terrific morning.

About where we are staying... we rented a place I found on-line. It's held by a small realtor, and it's a little old and could use some new mattresses and slipcovers for the old couches, but overall its fine. If you bother to click on the link, you will see pictures of our realtor/and the house's owner, Dave, and our place is listed under vacation rentals. It's the yellow house. Dave is nice, but as we quickly found out he has a different set of priorities when it comes to vacation rentals. We have a grill in the back yard that is big enough to roast several small children and a television of similar size. It also has a terrific back yard with a view of Lake Muskegon (which is really a bay off of Lake Michigan). Oh and there is also a pool table, which is now doing a second job as Nora's changing table (don't act all horrified, it isn't a nice pool table). However, the kitchen is not what we would call well equipped. But things are freshly painted, though some of his other improvement projects are not quite as well executed. All in all it is fine for the week and now that we've revised some of my cooking plans, we are settled in.

We haven't checked out the rest of Muskegon yet, we were too tired when we got in. Although Mom and I did go to the grocery store, which was unfortunately, very similar to a Walmart Super Center - called Maijor or something like that - that was also extremely depressing and Dad, Jason and Nora explored the marina and found a very nice little grocery shop that caters to the big boats and yachts when they come in and now we are well provisioned. We plan to check out "downtown" Muskegon tomorrow when all of the bikers have gone. Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that this weekend is Muskegon's Bike Festival so we saw lots of tents selling leather and tattoo services when we came into town, but haven't bought anything ourselves.

After buying all that stuff we were too tired to cook so we ordered carryout pizza and then, some of you might be aware that there was a certain game on last night with a certain international celebrity making a debut appearance for a team on this side of the pond. I'm sure Jason will make a guest commentary about that later.

Here's Mom and Nora this morning - posing on top of Nora's changing table, wearing the new apron that Grammy made her. She's ready for the beach but unfortunately Daddy and the Grand Marshall aren't up yet.


So, that's all for now. I'll post more later.

Countdown Until VACATION

We're leaving as soon as I get home for work for Michigan and I am so looking forward to our trip (despite the very long car ride). We'll be gone for a week, but hopefully we'll have time to post some during the week so you can see what we're up to. In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy this picture of Nora and Jason trying sunglasses on her Smacky Bear. They also tried to put him into her purse.


Now, if only SHE would wear the sunglasses.


Yes, that is a bonnet.

Arkansas

Last week we were in Arkansas visiting the Grandparents.

We took Karl, because somehow it seemed easier at the time. Nora loved talking to him on the way down, and the grandparents are fond of him too. We all got out on the boat as evidenced here. Nora was a good egg about the floatation device she had to wear, but was less thrilled about having to remain on our lap.




We eventually relented, and let her peak over the edge....












But we both remained ever vigilant, should anyone fall in the water.








And she got to drive the boat with the Captain.

We all made it back to shore safe and sound!

Fractured Fables

I read the first in the Fables series a couple of months ago, on the recommendation of some members of an on-line discussion group for librarians who love graphic novels. And I thought it was great fun. It's a comic book (now collected in to paperbacks) about fractured fairytales - a theme I love. Fables gives us our fairytales that we know and love so well, and has brought them to our world when an army of goblins under the control of the mysterious Authority has ransacked their lands. Fables tells us how they've been getting along after the "happily ever after".

So I shelved it mentally with all of my other favorites in this area - the Gregory Maguire books, Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime books, Jon Scieszka's True Story of the Three Little Pigs, and perhaps the original- Rocky and Bullwinkle's Fractured Fairytales. I was interested enough to buy the third in the series, but I passed over the second, due to the reviews. But now I'm hooked. Bill Willingham keeps peeling back layer and layer to these stories. Just when you think you know all about Snow White and Prince Charming he changes thing up. You say okay, I can deal with that and then he does it again. I'm all out of order in the series, but I'm trying to catch up - I've got the second book on request at the library and I've already read a backstory that is making me totally rethink what all happened in the third book, and I sense that I'm going to have to plunk down the cash for the rest of the series since the library only has 1, 2, and the below pictured backstory volume, 1001 Nights of Snowfall, which uses a variety of artists - some absolutely amazing.
One last note, like the original fairy tales - these aren't necessarily appropriate for children, so don't plan on buying the set for any kiddies in your orbit.

Under The Weather

All of my obsessing about buying a vintage Fisher Price farm that might be contaminated with germs has jinxed me into getting sick myself. Unbelievably, I am recovering from my SECOND bout with stomach flu this year. Prior to 2007, I cannot remember the last time I threw up due to legitimate illness and not over indulgence in drink. (Amazingly, I never once threw up while pregnant with Nora.) Oh, yeah, and I had the shingles this year. Jason says it's as if a small, wee person is sucking the antibodies out of me, and while I don't really plan to wean anytime soon, he might have a point.

Buying The Farm

Lately, I've been thinking that Nora needs a farm. I have fond memories of my old Fisher Price farm from the "good old days" (see, I've started already) that we spent spent hours playing with as kids. The new Little People Animal Sounds Farm, is just not as fabulous. So I have some options: eBay an old farm just like my own (not that expensive and they can go through a wipe down with bleach), buy the cute but not as accessorized wooden farm that Melissa and Doug make or find some other fabulous farm. Anyone got any suggestions?

Grocery Store Happiness

Isn't usually an emotion I feel. It's more like grocery store annoyance or grocery store irritability - despite that fact that I like to shop and I like to eat. Lately I've been extremely annoyed because I'm reading more ingredient lists on my food and suddenly I don't want to eat that food anymore. The most recent case was when I bought some turkey sausage for Nora and me and then was extremely annoyed to find that it had whey in it (off limits for Nora) and then after I read everything else, I was sure that I didn't want to eat it either! What with the absence of soy cheese and yogurt products at Schnucks and my already aware state about our meat industry (made worse by everyone reading The Omnivore's Dilemma in my orbit) I have not been too happy at the grocery store lately.

But then I visited the Local Harvest Grocery on Morganford. This place is small but awesome. Local meat (not necessarily organic - but hormone free and grass fed), soy products galore and other organic/healthy food also. And it is so much closer than running out west to shop for those specialty items. I'm happy again. Please go and support it! They even have sandwiches/coffee/sweet rolls for when you just need a quick nosh. Yum!

Welcome to the World

Allana Michelle Ogden, 6-26-07, 7:42 pm, 6lbs, 8oz, 18 in.

Congratulations to Uncle Bill, Aunt Lynn, Beth and Andy! So glad to hear everyone is doing well.

Soccer Blog

No, this isn't Jason's Blog - he doesn't have one because he has a dissertation instead. So why am I writing about soccer? Because my cousin is. Well, really my cousin's son, Sito is. He plays soccer for his school and also for the Scott Gallagher team (okay, I don't really follow much soccer, but I'm told he's a big deal). Anyway, the cool thing is that Sito's team has made it to the 2007 National Youth Soccer Championship (way to go, Sito!). But for me the really cool thing (not a soccer fanatic, remember) is that he was one of 7 players chosen to blog about it on their site. Check him out here. I hope they win and that he keeps writing.

Welcome Summer!

It really is summer, and if you have a doubt, I give you this picture of Nora in her kiddy pool at Grammy's.
To mark the solstice, Jason and I took turns running outside during a 3 minute window to watch the progress of the space station and shuttle orbiting across our sky (Nora was inside sleeping, hence the tag team relay). We didn't take any pictures because we're not good with night pictures and it just really looked like two stars moving slowly across the sky in tandem which wouldn't look like much in a picture, but was nevertheless pretty cool to the two of us. They will be visible again tonight. Here's the link where you can check out shuttle/space station /satellite spottings

Mac and Cheese for the Cheeseless

One of Nora's favorite new words is "CHEESE". What she is actually meaning is vegan cheese or soy cheese (see previous posts about milk allergies). I finally figured out a way to make the holy grail of kid friendly food safe for Nora - so here's my Vegan Mac n Cheese. I made it with soy milk and tofutti american cheese. While it doesn't age up as well as the real stuff, it does taste pretty good first time around.

I am thrilled she is learning new words and thrilled that I can figure out a way to feed her things that she likes and that don't make her sick, but I am a little concerned about her new found love for cheese. Because eventually, she's going to realize that there is other stuff called cheese as well. And while we try to watch her all the time, there's the chance she might grab someone else's cheese from their plate and eat it and then it's not so pleasant for her or for the person she throws up on either. I just hope she's in the 85% who outgrow this nasty allergy and then we can move on to a whole new set of words that will no doubt become favorites: ice cream, yogurt, milk shakes, cheesy-puffs, gold fish crackers and all that other yummy dairy stuff. In the meantime, I've got my Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook from Isa Moskowitz, and I have to say, her stuff is super yummy - even for carnivores.

In the Park

This weekend we went to the Shakespeare festival in Forest Park with Todd and Natascha. Despite the heat, a lovely time was had by all. Natascha and Todd had brought a yummy yummy picnic that we contributed some wine, cheese and bread to and Nora did her best to flip over all of the containers to feed the absent Karl. Or maybe that's just how she views eating - stick food in mouth, dump bowl over, repeat, sometimes with out that first step or with the added step of opening mouth and letting food fall out. It makes for a delightful meal.



The play this year was Much Ado About Nothing, but set in the Old West. Once we got over the strange (but very necessary) disoriented feeling of having all of the actors miked over the loudspeaker and the whole gunslinger atmosphere, we settled down and enjoyed the play. Nora's favorite part was the Hey Nonney, Nonney song (she's got a thing for guitars - maybe she'll have her own garage band one day).

Three of us had to leave after the first two acts. Someone was sleepy (okay, really all of us were sleepy, but one of us HAD to go to bed), but fortunately the two of us who were still following the play had read it before or seen the Emma Thomson version, so we knew the ending, and didn't have to call T & N for a recap.


All in all, much fun, and it was sort of nice to get out and do something adult-ish and still bring the kiddo along too.

Possibly the best part was that the next day, Nora slept into the unheard of hour of 9:00! Absolutely the best Father's Day gift ever (and I got to share in it too!)