Hippy Cookies

So last night Ani had sugar in the form of chocolate chip cookies. Kevin has made it clear to me that if she has sugar like that again at night, I get to bounce her to sleep. I kind of like my quiet time at the end of the day and I will not willingly give it up.

So... I made Ani some hippy peanut butter cookies to consume during daylight hours. "Hippy" because I found the recipe on my worn Lauren's Kitchen cookbook. It was the first cookbook I ever purchased - after I had copied too many recipes out of it at the local Barnes and Noble during my college years to call it "referencing" any longer. I love that cookbook. Anyhow, the cookies have honey, peanut butter, egg, vanilla, spelt flour, baking soda and salt. Super easy and Anika loves them. She is getting very good at asking for more in sign language. 

And just like clockwork, she took her nap at exactly 12:30 and slept for 2 1/2 hours.  

Yep. Anika is Finnish

A Saturday night, all of us exhausted from yard work and being outside, seemed like a good night to bring Anika into the sauna for the first time.  All three of us (Kevin, Anika and myself) got in our new Christmas bathrobes and trooped from the house to the sauna.  Kevin filled a rubbermaid bucket with warmish water and Anika and I sat on the low bench together - her in the bucket.  She had a fantastic time - playing with cups and her pig duck. I cooled her off by dumping cups of water down her back and putting a wet wash cloth over her face. She loved it!

When her ears started getting red and her cheeks stayed flushed, it was time to vacate the sauna.  We have learned to stop doing an activity while she still likes it.  There is no need for a meltdown if it can be prevented.

Hot, hot, hot!

Wow. Minnesota has warmed up in the past week! Anika wanted to be OUTside all weekend. When we would try to bring her in before she was ready, she let us know her displeasure by yelling loudly and thrashing about. Sometimes becoming a wet noodle on our arms.

Anika's new skill set includes: wet noodle mini-tantrums, running while "singing", walking backwards while maintaining eye contact with someone in front of her, eating with a fork and standing in the middle of the room and shrieking. All important skills on the road of life - at least her road of life.

The pavement is the only place that her feet seem to feel comfortable. Walking on the grass is currently off the table as is walking on dirt. I bought her a rake to give her a little something to do on the grass - and blister preventing gardening gloves of course. What does our 15 month child do? She wears the gloves and runs up and down the sidewalk singing. She tried to take the rake inside to sweep the carpet. Another meltdown when it went back where it came from.

we have a walker

We spent Anika's Birthday in Minneapolis - Black Friday shopping, meeting Santa, quality time at the Children's Museum, did I mention holiday shopping and Santa? 

 

Anika started walking just one day before her Birthday - on Thanksgiving.  If she was better at walking when she met Santa, she would have run away as fast as she could.  She did not stop crying until we were down to the 2nd floor of Macy's (Santa was on the 8th).  Oh.  Did I mention that Anika developed a fear of elevators while we were staying in Minneapolis?   It is a good thing that she won't remember much about the experience and perhaps she will one day LOVE Santa.  We have NO PLANS to see another Santa this holiday season.  

She is getting better at walking every day - oh yes.  And she is getting to be quite the dancer when she hears her favorite music: Elmo's World Song, Sandra Boynton's Cows, and of course anything I sing for her.  

Happy Holidays!

peek-a-boo

Anika - on the North Shore, 8 months old

Our darling, sweet baboon is moving around - really moving around. We have gone from playing possum to inching along furniture.  When I was told that when she figured out how to crawl she would be MOBILE within a few days, I did not believe it.  Everything else seemed to happen so slowly.  Well, the wise ones were correct.  She is very mobile - a high speed crawler.  It is so adorable when she wags her butt quickly because she is moving so fast - until I see where she is going.  Cornering a cat in the bathroom is not a good way to make friends.  

What a lively child. As I am writing this she is trying desperately to pull herself up to a standing position under the table on the hardwood floor - good thing Kevin swooped in to intervene.  Crawling is already old hat as is pulling herself into a standing position.  We have advanced to using furniture as a stabilizer to move around and take swipes at the toys we leave out for her. 

Recently, she got bored with sitting around while the adults did adult stuff and she decided to play peek-a-boo all by her lonesome. Adorable.  My favorite is when she plays peek-a-boo after we have read 5 books and sang many lullabies and I think nap time is about to finally start.  Then she starts with peek-a-boo and signing "all done".  Still adorable, but not funny. 

Is it bad that I left the Cheerios that she deliberately threw on the floor, on the floor so she would eat them later - so something would get into her belly? Just asking. 

swinging in the park

gas, gas and more gas

 

mango yogurt face

If someone would have told me in my 20s that one day I would be obsessed with my daughter's gas, I would have laughed in their face - well, more like swore at them, perhaps in a different language so it did not sound so harsh, smiled and walked away.  Well, my 20s are over and we are currently obsessed with Anika's gas.  Oh yes.  She was one gassy and therefore unhappy baby by bedtime. 

Gassy foods:
Pears
Prunes
Peaches
Apricots
Raw Apples
Carrots
Peas
Brown Rice
Oats
Broccoli
Cucumbers
Peppers
Beans

Who knew that almost ALL of the foods you feed a baby are gas producing?  And if you feed said foods to your already sensitive baby, by bedtime she will freak out for an hour or two and then pass out because all of her energy is sapped.  Oh - then she will flail around in bed - the current family bed - because her gas problem was not solved.  Hence her parents will wake up stiff and bruised in the morning. Our darling, gentle flower, has been eating the top 9 foods on this list.  Almost exclusively.  We did not want her to be constipated so we made sure to have pears or prunes with EVERY meal.  What were we doing to her?!

Non-gassy foods:
White Rice
Applesauce
Avocado
Sweet Potato
Mango

non-gassy breakfast tray

Her breakfast tray is currently orange.  Her lunch tray, snack bowl and dinner tray are the same.  Orange.  With the occasional avocado thrown in there - but remember we live in Ely MN - good avocados are not hanging out at the grocery store waiting for us.  So we are back to orange.  At least we are spicing up her life with some yogurt, winter squash, cinnamon, cardamom, egg yolks - and tomorrow, fennel.  Once again orange spices, veg and a little white yogurt thrown in there, which turns orange when we add mangoes.

Almost every food we have made for Miss Anika has been spit back out of her mouth. Carrots that her dad and I made for her last fall, came right out of her mouth.  But Earth's Best carrots in a jar were the cat's meow - she could not get enough of them.  Sweet peas that I steamed and ground up for her fresh - no way in hell.  Split peas that I soaked overnight, cooked, processed and froze, barely made it in her mouth before they came right back out (and yes, I did mix them with a fruit to increase their baby friendliness and texture), but Plum Organics: Spinach, Peas and Pear mix in the squeezy thingy... heaven for her taste buds.  All of that processed food joy is over for now.  Thank the stars that she has consistently consumed the sweet potatoes that I make for her (which by the way are the easiest baby food I have made to date) because that is just about her only veggie on her approved list.  At least we have a happy baby who goes to bed de-gassed by 7PM each night. 

happy de-gassed Ani

laugh out loud!

No matter how many hours of fussiness Anika needs to share with us, she also shares joy...

winter festival is here again

The Ely Winter Festival is here!

Kevin and I decided to carve again this year. We named our sculpture "The Queen" - oh yes. We joyfully sculpted a preying mantis out of a 4x4 block of snow - I say joyfully because we did not have the stress we had the year before. We had a game plan, went out a few evenings after work to cut huge chunks of snow out of the block for the tail section, and waited patiently for it to set up. We also did not worry about winning the amateur contest - which will get you to a big block (8x8 or 10x10) - because we were one of the winners last year and we did not get a big block. So without all of those expectations, we were virtually stress free. Just lovely!


Kevin and I chose parts of the Queen to be in charge of - he took the head section and I took the tail section. We collectively worked on the middle section. Teamwork!

The Queen's eyeballs were made from a PVC pipe endcap and the base of a Champagne bottle from the neighbor's beer bottling stash. Before Kevin added the fangs and eyes, people were guessing she was: a turtle, a grasshopper (here legs are a bit meaty), a dinosaur... usually kids who were about a 4th grade level and earthy looking adults guessed correctly. Kids who ere young just stared at it and then wanted to come over and touch it and then decided they were too shy to get more than 5 feet from us. I tried to get them to check her out, but they felt safer going up to the unicorn which was right next to us.


It was freeing to take huge chunks of snow from under her belly. We had worked so hard earlier in the week to get the snow set up and here I was cutting major snow out with a rusty saw. I loved it! It also helped that the temperatures were in the 30s and we did not have to wear layer upon layer of constricting clothing.

Overall, a fabulous experience!!

first mow

So. The mowing season is upon us - and here in Minnesota, you do not have time to take a breath between snowing and mowing. Our last snow storm was April (a good 2 feet) and the first time I mowed the lawn was May.

We have this lawn mower that needs special attention. I have to open up the wing nut (you see here in the picture) every time I want to start the mower - and it has to be turned the other way to stop the mower.


Last year was the first year I mowed the lawn more than twice a season and the first time I mowed the lawn without Kevin's help with the mower. Kevin instructed me to "turn the wing nut" but did not show me which wing nut - at least I knew what a wing nut was. I turned the wrong wing nut and nothing happened. I pulled and pulled and then put the damn mower in the garage. I have learned a lot since then.

Since this was the first mow of the year, I needed to do a bit more that turn that fricken wing nut.

You see, if you do not turn the wing nut, gas does not flow to where it is supposed to go. The wings nut was not moving in a forward direction - or any direction for that matter and I got out the wrench and turned the nut about the wing nut (not a good idea). I could turn the nut about 1/6 of a turn and then reposition the wrench and turn 1/6 again and again and again. I had to get the mower running because the neighbors were home and I had to look smarter than the mower.
I am not smarter than the mower. But I managed to mow the lawn (check it out) and Kevin came home and fixed what I had done to the mower.

Then the next week it was Kevin's turn to mow. It overheated, did not run, the wing nut trick was not working. So we went to town and bought a new snazzy mower. One that starts and runs until you shut it off. Amazing.

Moral: If I want a new mower, dehumidifier, blender... have Kevin use it and I will have a new one in a matter of days. That only took 2 years of marriage to figure out!

snow much for spring

Damn. A month ago, the snow in our yard was almost entirely gone, the robins started returning, and we thought that winter was done for the year. I was getting ready to start planning the garden and whoops, here comes winter. That was last weekend (April 5). From Saturday night to Monday morning we got over two feet of bloody wet heavy snow. Where did that come from? The town was immobilized. This storm dumped almost as much snow as we saw on the ground at one time all winter.

Then...oh yeah, we got another dumping on Thursday/Friday this week. Thankfully, this one was probably only about 6-8 inches or so. The problem was that this was blowing and drifting snow so it was hard to tell. Anyway, the forecast for this week sounds promising...highs around 50 degrees.

It has been a hard, long, cold winter this year and everyone in town seems to be getting cabin fever (and maybe even the first symptoms of scurvy). We need some green...NOW!

dos cervesas por favor

Ok, so we have been slacking quite a bit at putting up some pictures of our holiday to Cancun this February. The problem is...where does one begin? So here is the abridged version with some nice pics.

We went in the depths of winter and almost didn't come back. How can you argue with great company, food, bottomless cervesas and tequillas, fishing, snorkeling, kayaking, sailing, sun, sea, etc? So here are some pictures to look at...make sure to check out the barracudas!
Dos cervesas por favor.









The largest one, which I caught, was about 46" and about 17 pounds. They fight light northern pike on steroids.

buddha sculpture

Ely, Minnesota has a Winter Festival. We need something to look forward to in February or we would go a bit nuts. We may go a bit nuts anyway, but it helps to have a lovely outdoor activity to get the blood flowing.

The Winter Festival is all about art. There are snow sculptures that range in size from 4 feet to 40 feet, 2 of the main streets in town turn into an outdoor art gallery... simply fabulous!

After 5 years of living in Ely, Kevin and I decided it was time for us to carve an amateur block - 4 feet by 4 feet by a little over 4 feet. What to carve, what to carve? We happen to have a few statues of the Buddha. Laughing Buddha, the Buddha who has the belly that all love to rub.

When we started this carving adventure it was -20 degrees below zero. We had a week to carve out our creation so we went out there and started. Oh yes. We are Minnesotan and weather does not keep us inside. The first night we spent a good 20 minutes picking out our block and then ran to the warm truck. We ventured out 2 more times in the COLD COLD weather. But like I said, we are Minnesotan (actually Kevin is a 'Sconnie, but he has been here so long I think of him as a 'Sotan). I was scared to carve out any snow - oh yes. I knew if I cut too much we could not put it back. This is not clay we are talking about. This is snow.

But as I watched others come to the park to carve their hopes and dreams out of snow, I started to have a bit more confidence. I was in charge of Buddha's butt. Is turned out very well. Of course I helped with other sections of him, but his butt was my main project. This was only Stage 2 (out of 5 or so stages) of the carving. I made his robes look like they were flowing, like the Buddha was on the move...


The amateur blocks are judged and the winner is invited to move on to a large block. The large blocks are 10 feet cubed or 12 feet cubed. This year a carving team used three 12 foot blocks to make their fabulous sculpture - FABULOUS! Anyway, our Buddha was one of the winning blocks. Usually there is only one winner, but this year 4 out or 20 blocks were winners. Oh yes. So, we have to wait in anticipation to see if we have an opportunity to play with the big boys.

trout season

Well, trout season is finally here. Today was opener and I caught my second lake trout. (My first one was last winter and was half the length of this trout. Today was opener and Bill (a colleague of mine) and I went fishing for lake trout on Burntside Lake. Lake trout fishing is generally quite slow and today I was privileged with my second lake trout. This particular trout was just over 5 pounds and 26 inches long. This will make three fine meals for Tara and I. At least this time fishing I came home with something big enough to eat. Hopefully now Tara will be more excited about sending me out of the house fishing when I get all jacked up on coffee some mornings.

fish house frenzy

Tara's view of Ice Fishing: "I have never understood ice fishing. Never. You sit on a bucket outside in the freezing cold (and I am from Minnesota - I love the freezing cold) around this hole with frozen bait dangling for a starved fish to bite on."

Kevin's view of Ice Fishing: What better passtime...You get to fish, do not have to think about much (except making sure your pole does not get dragged under the ice), drive your snowmobile to the lake, have a couple adult beverages, and be outside. Well, I kind of lied about the outside for this year.

(Click on the picture for the bloody huge version!)

A couple guys from work and I decided to build our own fish house this year. All hail the local waste transfer station (dump). They have separate piles for scrap metal, demolition material, and of course, normal garbage. So we scavanged probably 90% of the material for the fish house for my favorite price...free. We got plenty of lumber, a door, and a few windows. We also got a bunch of corrugated galvanized steel siding from one of our contractors for free. What is best, is that I got a free woodstove from our elderly neighbors next door. They actually called it a "trash burner". Hmmm. And voila! We have a fish house for a very affordable price!

showshoeing adventure

Somehow I have been too busy this winter to go snowshoeing or cross country skiing - I think I need to remind everyone I do not have a full time (or part time for that matter) job that provides health insurance. I do a little nannying and organizing and shopping - nothing that demands my all of my time and energy. So last weekend, Kevin, Gina and I made a new trail in Jo and Troy's backyard. Oh yes.

We were having a potluck winter dinner at J&T's, so we got out there around 1 PM to test out the snowshoes - you know, see if the bindings still worked. It was a beautiful day - the sun was out, it was 20 degrees, the air was crisp and fresh. I felt alive! I even jumped off a tree (about 6 inches) and shortly there after fell to the ground because I was a bit too confident. Thanks to the snow gods for the creation of ski poles!! I do not know if I would have been able to get back up without them :)

Dinner was great, the company was great, and snowshoeing was fantastic!