Sunday, September 30, 2007

Spoons are fun!


And so is a chocolate-vanilla swirl pudding cup.
Is this really what Bill Cosby had in mind?

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Project Pancake Entry #4



Sweet Potato Pancakes

Source: A Real American Breakfast; modification to the Pumpkin Pancake recipe
Circumstances: Weather forecasters predicted Saturday would be a perfect end of summer/start of fall day: clear, sunny, 74 degrees. We didn't have anything planned until about 6 in the evening, so we were able to have a really nice, kind of lazy start to the day. I'd mashed up the sweet potatoes the night before, too, which made putting the pancakes together really easy. Ever since our breakfast in Boston I have been thinking about sweet potato pancakes, and these were really close to my memory of the Boston cakes. After breakfast we set out for an apple orchard, so we also have apple pie and apple cake and baked apples and possibly another Dutch Baby in our futures. Fall is yummy!

Ratings (* to ***** stars)
Ease of Preparation: **** provided you remember to get your sweet potatoes ready ahead of time.
Taste: ***** (lots of gingerbread spices in these cakes)
Texture: **** (between the buttermilk and the potatoes, this recipe makes a very moist cake, which isn't perhaps the ideal texture, but if you know that's how it will be it won't bother you)
Cora's Verdict: See photo above. She ate about 7 little pancakes.

Monday, September 17, 2007

The End of the Third Week of Daycare, wherein all our hopes and anxieties turn out to be well-founded

Once we realized we really had to find a daycare for Cora, and once we found one we liked, and once we had visited, and once we had her signed up, I had a moment of awful realization. I liked and trusted the people involved, I believed she would make friends and enjoy her time there, I also believed that this would be good for her developmentally. But...she would also be entering her own world, one I would have very limited access to.

The smarter part of my brain told me this had always been the case. When Cora was forming, swimming, and grabbing her feet inside me she was in her own world. I might contain that world, but I in no way knew it. Even as we learned how to communicate about milk and more and toys and diapers, I really only knew the outer contours of her world. But now, three days a week, what I mostly know about her days are what and when she ate and whether or not she slept (mostly...not), if she went to the library, and maybe what kind of art project she did.

But what really has brought it home lately are the songs. She knows songs we don't! The other morning she was singing, Chris reported, first really high and then really low, "Row, row, row, row...row, row, row, row....whee!" She learns words like juice and the names of the other kids. She wants to hold and swing hands while she sings. She wants her snack at 10:00...she somehow knows when it's 10:00! Even though this confirms all those anxieties I had, I also love to see it.

And, last Thursday afternoon, when I arrived to pick her up, the kids were just coming outside for their outside playtime. What a thrill to see Cora, holding her teacher's hand, walking out the door. And she walked over to me when she saw me. Whew! Friday afternoon we went to a museum, and she walked from the parking to the front doors holding our hands - quite a distance for someone so new to the activity!

Sunday, September 9, 2007

The baby still has a better wardrobe than me


I mean, she is just so hip, isn't she? I could never get away with an outfit like this, but somehow if you're less than 3' tall (if just barely), you can make it work. And wouldn't this make the best outfit for her to wear to daycare? (Or, to school, as we call it.)

No.

Because everyday at daycare she manages to get completely filthy, what with the playing outside, coloring with markers, and eating without a bib. It's all good filth, but nonetheless...we wear just plain clothes to school.

So classes started for me Thursday (for Chris the day before) and I talked all day long, but felt okay at the end of the day, except for my feet killing me, and my back from hauling around my stuff, and my thumb knuckle (my "thumkle" as my mother called it) from writing on chalkboards and whiteboards. Today, all those aches and pains are gone, but my voice has been slipping away all day. Good thing Cora likes her bedtime stories read softly.

As Cora's adjustment to daycare continues, I have the following to report:
- She won't walk at daycare, despite doing it almost all the time now at home.
- She is napping better at daycare, but not at all at home.
- She talks a lot more! New words: shirt, keys, Harry, Eva, juice, and a few we haven't decoded yet.
- She really likes the daycare schedule of eating something every two hours! She asks for crackers and snacks more often.
We also went to a MusicTogether class this weekend, which she really liked. This Wednesday we have our first Music & Movement class at the ballet studio. Another interest we discovered is tennis: she has watched part of a couple US Open matches and really likes it. This evening she was laughing at Federer and his opponent. She finds the serves especially amusing.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Another quiz? No, not the briar patch!

I found this through another blogger's posting - I am such a sucker for any kind of quiz. At this website you can take a quiz to determine your liberal breed (not that I don't already know my breed, of course). (Note to BrotherR: I don't know that this quiz skews left enough for you, but give it a try!)

My Liberal Breed: Reality-Based Intellectualist

I like the sound of that...even if it does sound a little gloomy and snooty, now that I think about it. A little ivory-tower reserved. But doesn't that just go to show how freakily accurate the quiz really is?

Monday, September 3, 2007

The best part of the new deck?


A baby can crawl on it without getting splinters!




















A baby can play in a tub of water!









Plus, it isn't going to crumble away beneath our chairs.