We Rock — for 12 hours

There's a kid at Nigel's school who sports a mohawk, and Nigel's been asking for one of his own. So last weekend, Tim cut him one. Twelve hours later, he decided it wasn't for him and requested we whack it off. What are the odds that when he asks for a wild hairstyle when he's older I can just tell him, "Nope, you've already had one!"

So Much Love

Happy belated Valentine's Day! We've had some behavior and tummy issues down here in Texas — behavior chart and probiotics, anyone?!? — but we took some time out for love. Nigel and Tim made me these beautiful heart flowers and card (Tim sent some real ones to the office). Nigel had a little party at school with a veggie tray, sandwiches and Valentines; he reported that his tomato sandwich was "pretty tasty." How did your family celebrate?

We're still spending lots of time at the library these days. Two of our most recent favorites are Not Inside This House! (a funny read for any mom who's got a boy) and Love, Splat (we love this cute Valentine's book about a cat's first crush).

We're Still Here

Wow, has it really been nearly three months since we last posted?!? A new full-time job, daycare, the holidays and a surprise guest kept us pretty busy. We've also been cherishing our weekend time together. This winter has been quite mild, so we've been able to spend time outside doing the things we love — like play croquet!

A quick holiday recap: My mom, LaLa, surprised Nigel with a visit before the holidays. He was over the moon to have her here. Nigel's been enjoying all of his presents, and he continues to text Santa (on his pretend phone) in preparation of next year.

Tim: Work is going very well for Tim. He's had several things published recently, including this Market at a Glance of Des Moines, Iowa. He's traveling to Kansas in late February. Before that trip, he is running his very first 10k with me! So very proud of him.

Sarah: I'm plugging away at my new gig. The firm has recently take on oil and gas titling work in Ohio. I've had the opportunity to review documents signed by Thomas Jefferson, which is pretty cool. What I enjoy the most about my job is that I get off at 4:30 and don't think about work until the next morning when I clock in. It's been a while since I've had that luxury!

Nigel: Daycare and the new routine was a bit of a rough start for everyone, including Nigel. He's doing much better now, though. We've signed him up for extra activities during the day — dance class and gymnastics — so he can get his wiggles out. His gymnastics teacher says he's the only kid strong enough to pull himself up onto the bars and hang upside down! Nigel's also really progressing well with writing letters and words and is showing a real interest in learning how to read and spell. For now, we're working on perfecting our letters and not writing so largely.

In addition to all of the normal things that go on in our house — Buddhist temple on Sundays, game nights with friends, book club, trips to the zoo — we have lots to look forward to this spring, including visits from BOTH uncles and a dear friend from NYC, Nigel's FOURTH birthday party and lots of festivals. Thanks for checking in on us!

Friday Baking Backlog

I'm so lazy with blogging and downloading photos these days, so here's several weeks worth of baking....

Several weeks ago, Nigel and I made chocolate mousse from one of our standard kids' cookbooks. We beat 2 cups of heavy cream, melted 1 1/4 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and combined the cream and chocolate. The picture in the book showed the mousse in small coffee cups, so we put ours into our tiny ones from Ethiopia.

Speaking of Ethiopia, that same week I made Ethiopian black-eyed pea cakes from a kids' ethnic vegetarian cookbook. It was so simple:

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups dried black-eyed peas
1 sweet potato
1 onion, diced
small chili (optional; I used 1/2 of a seeded jalapeno)

Directions
Soak peas over night in water, covered. Drain away water and rub peas between your hands to loosen the skins. Cover the peas with water again and drain away the water and skins. Peel the sweet potato, cut it into pieces and boil until tender. Add the onion to a food processor and pulse. Do the same with the potato, peas and chili. (I had to do this in batches because it seems like my food processor was too small.) Flour a work surface. Make flat patties using 2 tablespoons of the bean mixture. Place the patties onto the floured surface (I turned them over once so each side would have flour). Fry in olive oil (I added a small bit of butter, too) until brown and flip to brown the other side. Eat immediately.

Conclusion
These cakes are pretty much bean burgers, sans bread or any other binder. Next time I'll add some salt, though. Tim suggested that they could be a good sandwich base... perhaps with bacon and avocado.

The following week, Nigel and I made Jello shapes. Or at least we attempted to. Being the non-baking person I am, I halved the mixture between 2 shallow dishes, making the Jello too thin for cookie cutters. No worries, though. Nigel still enjoyed stirring up the mixture and eating the jiggly goo.

The week after that, our dear friend Amy invited us over to make Halloween cookies with her son, James. The boys rolled out the dough, cut out the shapes and decorated the cookies. Yummy fun!

And finally, this week, Nigel and I made a lemon cake for Tim. My mom makes super delicious tiny lemon cakes during the holidays, so this was my lazy attempt to duplicate. Instead of lots of tiny cakes, Nigel and I made one loaf-shaped cake. Next, we created a glaze from powdered sugar, lemon juice and orange juice. Nigel liked rolling the lemons on the counter before I squeezed the juice.

What have you been baking?

Stuff Nigel Says

Yesterday I asked Nigel what they talked about in "chapel" at preschool. He said, "Oh nothing much, just the fruit and the spearmint."

Friday Cooking: Chocolate Fudge Cake

When the librarian showed me where the kids' cookbooks are, she had no idea she was creating an obsessive monster! This week we picked out four cookbooks: two about healthy snacks and meals, one with ethnic vegetarian dishes, and one that talks about how chocolate comes about. This week's recipe comes from Mom and Me Cookbook: Have fun in the kitchen by Annabel Karmel. I got this book because we own a baby cookbook by the author; it was really helpful when I made Nigel's baby food and wasn't sure about quantities, safety, etc.

Nigel chose this recipe from all of those books. I even brought out the books we own to try and sway him to something else. No dice. Thus, Chocolate Fudge Cake was born. While the recipes in this book aren't as healthy as her baby cookbook, the directions were simple and Nigel could follow along with the pictures. He really enjoyed beating the graham crackers with his mini rolling pin and dumping all of the ingredients into the bowl. The "cake" is a little more sticky than I thought it'd be, (I guess the syrup keeps it from turning into a block.) but it was still pretty tasty. It kind of reminded me of the Sweet Dream Pie.

Ingredients
8oz graham crackers
5oz semisweet chocolate (we used dark)
5oz milk chocolate
1/2 cup golden syrup or light corn syrup
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup raisins (we used dried cranberries and dried cherries)
3/4 chopped dried apricots

Directions
Line an 8-inch square pan with plastic wrap. Break the graham crackers into small pieces. Melt the chocolate, butter and syrup in a double boiler. Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the crackers and fruit. Spoon the mixture in the pan and press down. Cool for 1-2 hours and cut.

Friday Cooking: Cereal Bars

How many people does it take to make cereal bars? Three! One to dump in the dry ingredients (6 cups of cereal, 1/2 cup of dried cranberries and a few chocolate chips); one to melt the 3 tablespoons of butter and a bag of mini marshmallows ... and wash the pot of melted marshmallows; and one to put some muscle into stirring the super sticky mess and spread it into a pan. For such a simple recipe (from the library book Peanut Butter and Jelly Sushi ), these bars were a bit of a pain. And ours certainly don't look like the neat pressed bars in the book. The sticky cereal kept sticking to the spoon. I guess some cooking spray would have helped with that, but I don't use that stuff so we don't have any. Oh well, Nigel enjoyed picking out the different types of cereal (Grape Nuts, wheat chex, Cheerios and blueberry Kashi flakes) and watching the marshmallows melt.

Friday Cooking: Pudding & Cheesecake

You guys, you can't get much easier than last Friday's cooking projects: instant chocolate pudding and a low-carb, low-sugar cheesecake (I'm in training mode again). Nigel dumped in the pudding mix and milk; as you can see, he enjoyed mixing it all together.

The cheesecake was fat-free, sugar-free lemon Jello, hot water and 2 packages of low-fat cream cheese. It tasted a lot like it sounds: dull and kind of gross.

We'll be back with something more inventive this Friday. My pal Amy suggested some cookbooks, so we picked up a few at the library this week, including Pretend Soup. The book looks really cute and simple. There are directions for the parents alongside step-by-step picture instructions for the kiddos. Stay tuned!

Friday Cooking: Cookies

We had some Internet issues last week and this weekend, so Friday Cooking is a few days late. I know you were holding your breath to see what we'd make. This was another pretty simple week here. We made basic chocolate chip cookies and added dried cherries. Nigel got to dump in the ingredients, mix and sample some chocolate chips. The cookies were really good, but I need to research some recipes that would allow him to be more hands-on. Any suggestions?

Preschool: The Aftermath

Nigel wrapped up his first full week of school today. He had a blast playing outside, learning kids' names, going to creative movement class and eating lunch. He's even been invited to his first preschool birthday party. (There are two kids on the invite, and they have different last names. Good friends having a duel party?)

Unfortunately, there are already three downsides to preschool: 1) He came down with a runny nose over the weekend. It isn't responding to allergy meds, so looks like a cold. To be expected, I guess, since his exposure to germs has been minimal thus far. 2) He's started saying here and there with a slight Boston accent — hearyar. I'm guessing there's a kid in his class who talks like that. Not a biggie, but for some reason it's really grating on my nerves. 3) The biggest issue, though, is after school he's a cranky old man! On Tuesday, his first full day, I could tell he was tired, but since it was kind of late — 2 p.m. — and he hasn't been napping consistently anyway, we just watched some TV, played outside and chilled. On Wednesday, I made him nap. Despite his protests that he wasn't tired, he was out like a light in less than 5 minutes. I didn't want him to be awake all night, though, so I woke him up after an hour. He was grumpier than an angry drunk. Today we went to the grocery store immediately after school to buy supplies for Friday's cookie project. When we got to the cashier, he went bonkers. I'm talking an all-out scream, like he was being murdered. As the afternoon rolls on — with or without the short nap — he starts getting a little delirious and talking nonsense.

So I kind of feel damned if I do, damned if I don't, in regard to nap. I'm hoping he'll get used to the schedule and we can have pleasant afternoons again. Anyone have any suggestions for making this transition easier?

Friday Cooking: Fruit Pies

This week's cooking experiment was pretty uneventful. I had some leftover pie crust and fruit, so I thought we could make mini fruit pies. Nigel chose pears and peaches for the filling. I diced the fruit and sauteed it in some butter and brown sugar. Nigel helped roll out the pie crust and make circles with cookie cutters. Then I put some fruit on a circle and topped it with another circle. I had hoped to ice the tops of the pies with and icing made of powdered sugar and the juices from the fruit, but I didn't have enough powdered sugar on hand so it was too runny to use. The pies were very dry; I couldn't figure out how to keep juices inside the crust without it running out. Maybe I needed a cornstarch thickener? Cookies are up this Friday, so there will be lots for Nigel to do!

Playing Dress Up

We're in dress up mode here, folks. Nigel's never really been interested in costumes and stuff, but he's shown some signs recently so I'm jumping on it! My mom mailed Nigel a tutu this week. He likes to wear it and dance around like a ballerina and making silly faces. I also went to Thrift Town on Tuesday while he was in school and scored some pretty awesome stuff for $5: fairy wings, a Bob the Builder construction vest and a pumpkin costume. Add all that to the Mardi Gras beads from my pal Bridget, his cowboy hat and a few other items and we've got the makings of a nice prop/dress up box! Can't wait to hit the Halloween section at Target after Halloween.

Preschool, Week 1

Week 1 of preschool has come to an end. Nigel continues to love it! Each day the teachers sent an email to the parents to let them know what went on that day. It was a great starting point for discussion since at first Nigel wasn't really telling us a lot. So far he's read stories, learned new songs and circle time rules, played with Mr. Potato Head, and made a few friends. I was feeling a little unloved earlier this week, but Wednesday and Thursday I got a hug before class. And tonight, when I was late coming back from an interview, Nigel bawled his eyes out when Tim told him they'd have to eat dinner without me. He likes me, y'all. He really likes me!

The Boy Who Loved A Bath

See that boy there? The one who's having a blast in the tub? Oh how we miss that boy. From day 1 Nigel has loved taking a bath. What's not to love — especially for a kid that would live in the pool if we let him. When we moved to Texas he was slightly less interested in taking baths, but he'd still sit still and play for a bit.

That all changed about two weeks ago. One day, after they had worked on the waterline in our neighborhood for the millionth time, some mud came out of the faucet and Nigel saw it. It totally freaked him out. We got over that hurdle, only to have a little poo episode. Now, he's afraid of sitting down in the tub. Afraid is an understatement. There's a whole 'lotta screamin' going on over here. We've got good old fashioned screaming, plus the yelling of some very dramatic — often hilarious — phrases, such as: "I gotta get out of here" and "There's some yuckiness in here." And it doesn't help things that our cold water is so hot (we've had more than 60 days over 100 this summer) that Tim has to run the bath 30 minutes before bath time and add ice cubes to the tub.

It's so dry here that we had been giving Nigel a bath every other day, but in order to get Nigel calmed down we're doing it every night with more play and less cleaning. Any other suggestions?

First Day of Preschool

The first day of preschool was a hit! When we dropped Nigel off, he hung up his backpack and went on inside the class without even looking back. He reports that he played with blocks, sang some songs, had snack and used the potty all by himself. Tim took off work, so that made the day all the more special (we had coffee alone... I know, right?!). This first week is half days, so we're settling in for lunch, a movie (Cars) and a special dinner of Nigel's choice (Smokey's BBQ).

Friday Cooking: Cupcake Cones

This week we borrowed an idea from our trusty kid's cook book, but cheated a tad. Nigel drooled over the cupcake ice cream cones when we first explored the book last week, so we gave it a shot. We used a box mix and canned icing, so unfortunately, Nigel didn't get to do a ton this week. He dumped in all of the ingredients, helped stir (after flicking a bunch of cake mix onto the floor), iced the cooled cones and added the sprinkles. I was worried about the cones falling over in the oven, but they were quite sturdy. The cake mix made way more than the book called for, so we made 10 cones and put the remaining batter into a loaf pan (once the loaf was cool I cut it into little sticks and froze them for Nigel's lunches). Unfortunately, less than 7 hours after we made them, the cones have already gotten a little soggy; Tim said it tastes like chewing on stale bread.

One Super Healthy Kid

I took Nigel for a checkup today so he could catch up on immunizations and get some preschool paperwork completed. I used to joke that I would marry Nigel's RVA pediatrician if we both weren't already married. He was just that awesome... very open to new therapies and ideas. So I was quite anxious about finding a new doctor, especially one here in Texas. Never fear! My pal Amy referred us to an amazing doctor of osteopathic medicine. I was really impressed with her interaction with Nigel. She didn't bat an eye when I told her he drinks almond milk and that he wasn't circumcised.

A huge bonus point was that she didn't make a big deal about him being adopted... she only asked if there was any family history she needed to be concerned about. (We had a bad experience with an older pediatrician in RVA when we first brought Nigel home. He had an bump on his arm that the old man discounted as "some African ritual." We knew that wasn't right. When we took Nigel to the VCU adoption clinic, the doctor was furious about that comment! Turns out it was a horribly infected mosquito bite that required some special medication.) The entire staff there was quite amazing. When Nigel's vaccination records were faxed piecemeal, one nurse took the time to go through all 25 pages so Nigel didn't get any unnecessary shots. They also set kids up to have a stress-free visit: Nigel got to pick out a special band aid and he got several small trinket toys as rewards.

As always, Nigel got a clean bill of health. He weighs 32 pounds and is 39 inches tall. Nigel got 2 shots (with very minimal fussing) and a blood draw for iron levels (he didn't even flinch... he watched the blood going into the tube). His new doctor was so impressed with how smart he is that she gave him a vision test that's normally for 4 year olds — and he totally aced it.

UPDATE: Not long after I posted this, a nurse from Nigel's doctor's office called back with the results of his blood draw. Turns out, his iron levels are slightly low and they want him to take a kid's multivitamin with iron and calcium. Honestly, I'm totally baffled. Nigel eats red meat, greens, raisins, etc; we have beans at least once a day; and he doesn't drink regular milk anymore (excessive amounts of dairy block iron absorption). My limited Google research suggests that Vitamin C aids iron absorption, so we'll add and an orange or OJ to our breakfast and research the multivitamin. Anyone else dealt with this?

Indoor Obstacle Course

In addition to our indoor exercises, Nigel's added obstacle courses to his beat-the-heat fun. Earlier this week he ran down the hall, did 5 jumping jacks, ran back, and jumped over a yoga block and a yoga mat. Good times.

Friday Cooking: Blueberry Muffins

Friday cooking time here. We're due a trip to the grocery store tomorrow, so we had to choose a recipe based on our existing ingredients. After consulting our recipe box and three kid cookbooks, Nigel chose Blueberry Muffins (recipe below) from the The Kid's Cookbook by Williams-Sonoma; I actually purchased the book back in the late 1990s when I worked at Time Life.

Nigel helped measure and dump the flour, baking powder and milk; stir the ingredients; line the cupcake tin with paper liners; and add the blueberries. There was also a good teachable cooking moment — and an example of why baking and I don't mix: We reread the ingredients before we scooped out the muffins and realized we'd forgotten to add the sugar!

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients
1/2 cup melted butter
2 cups flour (we used 1 cup of whole wheat and 1 cup of all-purpose)
1/2 cup sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 cup milk
1 egg
3/4 t vanilla
1 cup blueberries (we were a little shy of a cup, so we defrosted some frozen strawberries and tossed those in, too)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, combine milk, beaten egg and vanilla. Add the milk mixture and the melted butter to the dry ingredients; combine and add blueberries. Spoon mixture into 12 muffin liners. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

Bento Boxes

Over the last two years I've become obsessed with Bento boxes and planning Nigel's lunches for school. The moment is almost here, so I finally bought some supplies. These two boxes (sorry for the crappy cell phone picture) are from Minoya in Plano; the lemon is there for scale. They were $3.99 each, compared to $10+ online. The most important thing, though, is that Nigel is able to open them on his own. I also bought a mini rice mold. Stay tuned for some photos of lunches. Want to learn more about Bentos? Here's my favorite blog!