Snowy Days

Well, it is the fifth day at home for me and the boys.  Monday was a holiday, so my morning yoga class was cancelled anyway, but then the snow decided to join us and stay.  It is still here.  And I am ready to head to Mexico.  Seriously!  I guess if you got snow like this all the time, you'd know how to drive in it and, thus, not be home bound.   The cities may also have enough plows and staff or who-knows-what else is needed to keep the roads clear and safe.  Not so here.  I have to admit, it was nice to have a week off to sleep in until 7am as all my early yoga classes were cancelled.  But, let's here it for rain and warm temps!  I think we're all ready for our normal gray.  (I find myself quoting Thomas the Train: Snow, pah!  Silly white stuff!)

Here are a few pictures of our house, and the convenient sledding hill right outside our doorstep.  The fun part about all the snow (aside from copious amounts of hot cocoa) turns out to be the neighborhood gatherings every afternoon for sledding.  We meet our neighbors yet again and sheepishly ask their names - we wrote them down this time!  But all the kids are out, and even some of the older neighbors take their turn down the hill on sled or skis or snowboards.

 View from across the street.  

More snow came after this photo as well.

 Graeme taking care of Crushety Crush, the monster truck tractor who the boys carry around like a puppy.  He had a cold night outside on the bench.

Gavin and I sledding.  He made two runs with me before he decided that it was much more important to shovel the driveway and scrape off the cars.  It was snowing so much that both those tasks were constant.  But Gavin had to do his job!  (I wish he was that diligent about his jobs inside... like cleaning up toys and putting clothes in the hamper!)

 After it got too cold and dark outside for us, we came in for dinner and a game of Scrabble.  We played teams and, though Graeme was on my team, you could imagine he wasn't the most helpful.

Here is is holding all but two letters, putting them in his shirt saying: "No, Mummy, the letters are scared of you!"  Not so conducive to teamwork.  (But for the record I still won.)

The Negotiator

You may be able to guess about whom I am speaking.  He will present his ideas, enforce them if possible, and negotiate at length to get what he wants.  (For the record, if said negotiation does not work or is not understood by younger playmates, rougher tactics may be used.  We are working on that.)  Indeed, he rarely stops talking - so much so that you have to laugh.  He is SO focused on how things should be; it really is quite amazing.  I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but it had to be documented in some way.  I'll give you an example.

Today, we packed up for a little run around Kirkland with the boys' bikes.  There's a nice, flat paved trail that  wanders down to the main "beach" area by the lake.  Our goal was to give the boys are little ride and get a walk in ourselves.  Gavin, of course, had his own plan.  As we were leaving home, he began talking about making crafts.  With trash.  Then he proceeded to explain to us that the only reason to go to the beach was to find trash to bring home for making crafts.  We could bring it home, put it in the school room, and then make crafts.  (No, Gavin, we are not bringing trash home for crafts.)  Well, that's the only reason to go to the beach... We could go to the beach, find some trash, and bring it home for making crafts!

And on and on... all the way to the beach.  While we were at the beach.  And on the way home.  Luckily for us, Kirkland beach is pretty clean.  Not much trash to be found.  Phew.

He is incredibly sweet with all of his plans, and makes us smile in lots of other ways too.  For instance, Craig enjoys the fact that Gavin's starting to finish sentences with "Eh".  As in: "Crushety Crush will really like the new house we built for him, eh?"  He also says, "Zed."  (I tell him to at least say "Zee" here and "Zed" in Canada.  But so far I'm not winning this one.)

And one last example of his quirkiness, we got a page-a-day Dot-to-Dot calendar for Christmas.  Gavin loves this.  He does it everyday.  It is for adults, so the numbers go quite high... and he says, "Kachow!" every time he passes the number 95.  Can you figure out why?

Everyday Excitement

If only I could capture and share the excitement of every moment of Graeme's day, the world couldn't help but smile.  No matter what he is doing, he has this incredibly cute (usually high-pitched) energy about him.  Tonight we are having "Movie night" and he's been bouncing around all day, singing "I want movie night!  Is it dark out?  Is it time for movie night?"  He even peeks trough the curtains to check if the sun has gone down.  He runs with a little hop everywhere he goes.  He bounces.  It's lovely.

If he finds the right puzzle piece, he has this guttural, self-satisfied laugh that is precious.  I need to catch it on video.  For Christmas, he got a number of presents, but the most exciting were the few packing peanuts that were left in the bag of gifts from my parents.  "I got some 8's!" he shouted.  "I love 8's!"  Then he found a suitable plastic cup for them to sleep in and carried them around for the next few days.  Once forgotten, I threw them away (horrible mum that I am) thinking that was that.  A few days later, however, Gavin was snooping (as he often does) for toys or snacks or anything new and interesting.  Lo and behold, he finds a very large bag full of packing peanuts from the larger box of gifts sent by my parents for Christmas.  The scene unfolded as follows:

"Hey, look!  It's a big bag of 8's for Graeme!," says Gavin,  "Hey, Graeme, look it's a bunch of 8's for YOU!"

I say, "Oh, Gavin, let's not get those out.  They will just be a mess and I don't want you to --"

Graeme enters, "My 8's!  I love 8's!!  I want to count them all!  I love to count."  And then he proceeds to grab the bag and drag it out into the living room.  Since I love for them to count - practice is good, right? - and it is cute that they are still entertained by packing peanuts, I make them a deal.

"Here, Graeme, how about this... I'll give you some to count, but I get the rest of the bag so things don't get too messy."  He agreed. And I dished out a couple handfuls of peanuts.  (He can only count to eleven after all.)  Everyone wins.

Happy Christmas, Happy New Year!

This holiday season we were lucky enough to have my parents up to visit... on a trip up to see Craig's parents.  The boys were spoiled with all of their grandparents attention and, for the most part, everyone had a good time.  Now that Gavin gets the whole idea of Christmas, presents, and all thing treat-like, he suffered more than a few freak out moments.  Overload, perhaps?  He won't remember that bit, I'm sure, but we might.  You wonder, who is this child that has just thrown himself on the floor because he doesn't like the shirt I brought for him to wear?  Not mine, surely.

Tonight at dinner we recognized our sweet boy again.  It took a few days, but the hub-bub is over and life is getting back to normal.  'Gavin sans sugar,' we'll call him.

After dinner, I started transferring dates in my ultra-high tech paper calendar.  My hope this year is to actually remember people's birthday and big events before it is too late to send a gift or card.  As I reached September, I realized that our little world will change greatly this year.  Gavin starts school!  It's far off, of course, but it makes me want to take time off during the week while I can...

Regardless of how our lives will change this year, we wish all of you a wonderful new year full of exciting new adventures and cozy snuggles from people you love.

Santa Here We Come!

 Last Friday, the boys and I went on the Santa Train with a good friend who has two boys as well... and (luckily for me) organized the whole trip, drove us all, and brought snacks. 

 (Thank you Colleen!!) 

The boys loved it, though Graeme was a little apprehensive on the train ride over.  The ride itself was only about 20 minutes - from North Bend to Snoqualmie - but the ride was a little rocky a times.  Graeme held my hand and snuggled a little closer.  I enjoyed the snuggles as I heard the conductor explain that they couldn't roll too fast over the bridge we crossed.  

Not entirely confidence inspiring!  

 Before meeting Santa they give you cookies and hot chocolate!  

It was easy to keep track of the boys while they ate their little snack.  

Waiting in line to visit Santa and running around to explore the other trains proved more challenging.  

What's a tie for?  

Why, stickers, of course!

Here Gavin explains what he wants for Christmas... and then what his toy cars want too.  

Pretty standard: car transporter, tow truck, and a car.  

And once Gavin stops talking (a rare occasion - I don't even think he's stopped in this photo), 

Graeme gets to tell Santa that he'd like a broken toy bike.  

So he can fix it naturally!

Overall a crazy, but happy day!  

Simple Soup

There's something totally satisfying about eating soup in winter.  I've been craving lentil soup, which is strange I realize, but I tried a new recipe this evening that really worked.  It turned out great!  We topped it with a little balsamic vinegar and goat cheese.  The boys even ate it!  (Of course, Graeme had to be bribed with dessert, but he still ate his whole bowl.)  For the record, they skipped the vinegar and cheese as well.  The taste reminded me of the soups I used to get when in Sweden at a place called Hemma Hos Greken (or At Home with the Greek).  The best place ever for cheap good food.  If you're ever in Lund, you should try it!  I've never really tried to recreate the taste and this was remarkably easy!

And, just for fun, I found a blog post about the restaurant.  If you can read Swedish or translate it... certainly brought back memories for me!

http://tantekologisk.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/hemma-hos-greken-en-restaurang-med-ett-stort-hjarta/

 Greek Lentil Soup

 http://healthy.food.com/recipe/greek-lentil-soup-76083

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic , minced
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup finely chopped carrot
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 8 cups water
• 24 ounces beef stock or 24 ounces broth
• 2 cups dry lentils , rinsed
• 1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano (or 1/2 tsp. dried)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped mint (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach , thawed

Directions:

1. 1
   In a large stock pot, heat the oil and saute garlic, celery, onions, and carrot until veggies are tender.
2. 2
   Add the water, stock, and the rinsed lentils.
3. 3
   Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 45 minutes or until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally.
4. 4
   Add the tomatoes, along with the juice in the can, as well as the chopped herbs, and salt and pepper.
5. 5
   Stir in the spinach and simmer uncovered for 15-20 minutes more.
6. 6
   Re-check seasoning before serving.

I Should Write About That...

So far this month, I've compiled a long list of things I should write about... yet I've not written a word.  This is how I imagine December goes for most busy people.  And I'm not really even that busy.  In order to continue with the trend of short synopses, here are our activities of late, funnies from the boys, etc.

1) We bought a new camera.  A major purchase which will (hopefully) create better pictures of our lives for keepsake purposes, but also make my blog look a little better too.  Now, to figure out how to use said camera and all it's features...

2) I've noticed that Gavin answers anything I say to him with: "No!" or "But"... and then proceeds to negotiate what he wants to do in any given situation.  Hmmm... not so good for me as it ends up in a debate.  However, I see my own culpability as I answer him in similar fashion.

3) The boys and I bought/gathered supplies to make bird feeders about 6 months ago, and FINALLY made them!  Instead of Christmas lights in our tree, we have peanut butter - pine cone bird feeders.  I halted the project because shortly after gathering the ingredients, I walked out the door to meet a cute family of three raccoons in our driveway.  Could they like peanut butter and bird seed?  I wasn't sure, so we didn't make them.  Now, however, I figured it was cold enough that they'd stay away.  And, this morning, to our delight, we saw a bunch of cute little birds and even a woodpecker in our front tree.  (Note: no birds in this picture as they flew away when I came outside.)

4) Graeme hides things.  I've heard stories of kids that stuff food or other objects into weird places.  I think Graeme is one of those kids.  So far (as far as I know), he's only stuffed socks into the pillows of the couch or trucks under his mattress.  Let's hope it stops there.  His logic?  Why go all the way to the hamper when I can stuff my socks right here and no one will see them?

5) My two new favorite cooking techniques?  I thought you'd never ask.  a)  Roasting.  If only because it's super easy and makes everything taste better.  Even over done Brussels sprout chips (for the record, not intended to be chips).  b) Quiche.  I'd always thought of quiche as something fancy.  But, seriously, easiest thing ever to throw together in a pinch with whatever meat/veggies you have on hand.  And the boys eat it.

6) My favorite thing that Graeme says right now:  "Ya Member!"  As in, "Hey Mummy!  I love peanut butter, ya member!"

7)  Instead of having imaginary friends as such, my children have befriended all of their letters and cars/trucks.  I've noted in previous posts that they like mixed nuts, but Gavin informed me today in the grocery store of all the other snacks they would enjoy.  They also wrote letters to Santa.  Apparently they are asking for a roundabout on which to drive and race.  I told Gavin that, with all the kids in the world, their trucks and letters might be lower priority, but maybe Santa will be able to take care of their requests as well.  And, oh yeah, he's hung some stockings for them too.

8) Gavin and Graeme took a holiday cooking class in which they learned how to make every recipe of questionable to absurdly sweet nature.  For example, fruity pebble wreaths with fruit roll topping.  Seriously?  I can totally understand as the teacher's audience was eight 3-5 year old children - consisting of 6 boys and 2 girls.  It's not like you're going to attempt the perfect pie crust.  Needless to say, they enjoyed it.  Graeme got put in time out the first day for screaming (happily), and then every class after he'd say: "I was very quiet today."  I enjoyed it as I wasn't there.  And that was the whole idea.

9) Tonight we played Monopoly with the boys.  A little ambitious, I admit.  They did quite well though, and Craig and I realized how much you can actually learn from playing that game!  It is the set that Celeste and I played with when we were kids, so that's kind of fun.  Graeme had a stroke of bad luck as every turn he landed on someone else's property and had to pay - even being the player with the least idea of what was actually going on.  In order to not scar him for life, or have them up till midnight, we ended the game early and put them to bed.