North End West Side...

This past, past weekend (I'm a little behind posting this) we wanted to do something outside our usual bubble. We tend to visit the same places and parks. Feeling a little stir crazy, T Rex Dad suggested we drive to his old stomping grounds and visit a park he grew up playing at. 


So we did.


We made the drive to the North End and visited a favorite park from T Rex Dad's childhood. The kids loved it. Bebe Sister was especially excited to make a new canine friend - Katie.

 

Then we headed out on a walk. Before the kids were born, T Rex Dad and I used to take walks in the North End all the time. It was fun to get to do this again. Since our daughter is absolutely enamored by cats or "meows" we went "meow spying". Historically we used to see at least 6-8 cats during one walk. That night, we only saw one. However, we did encounter a lovely elderly woman, Mrs. H, sitting on her porch. T Rex walked up to her and started talking with her so we stopped and had a nice chat for about 20 minutes. Always refreshing to get to visit with someone from the greatest generation. It made up for the lack of "meows" on the walk.

After the walk was concluded, we went for dessert at the West Side Drive In. 

 

Of course, T Rex does not eat ice cream or like sweets, so we ordered him some fries or "crisps" as he calls them. He was kind enough to share with the rest of us. His "dessert" did come with a fortune cookie which he also kindly shared (he will eat fortune cookies). It read, "This world will look a little better with some love given by you." It was not a prophetic fortune. It was retrospective after his encounter with Mrs. H.

Bebe Sister LOVED sharing a banana split with her dad and myself. She's totally fine with sweets or salty.

This was a fun outing. We need to get our of our bubble more often. Plus, it was nice to celebrate being done with my school presentation. 

(P.S. No that sporty vehicle in the background is not ours.)

Ruminations - I Hope I Remember...

Tonight as I "rocked" my little daughter after a long but good day at the pediatric clinic, I held her tiny little hand in mine and listened to the sound of her sucking her thumb. She's still quite a wiggle worm so all these thoughts occurred to me within seconds. Amazing how the brain works. 

I hope I can remember...

I hope I can remember these tiny, soft hands and chubby Flintstone feet,

and breath so sweaty sweet.

I hope I can remember nursing my tiny babes and their favorite solid foods -

sweets for her, salty for him  - suit their moods.

I hope I can remember playing trains, tea parties, pretend forts, stacking blocks,

and Bebe Sister wearing snowmen socks.

I hope I can remember bed head hair and rosy cheeks after a nap, 

and snuggles on my lap.

I hope I can remember the pitter patter of little feet 

padding along the wood floors so sweet.

I hope I can remember little voices saying blue, ye-ah, duck, balls,

and non-stop questions filling the halls.

I hope I can remember crayons, coloring, play dough, painted hand prints, 

and various other artistic stints. 

I hope I can remember reading favorite stories before bedtime in the room, - 

especially the ever popular Good Night Moon.

I know I will always be grateful for this honor and call,

being their mother is best of all.

I know some day I'll be old and sitting in a rocking chair remembering these days. I just want to snap shot these memories so I can revisit them in my elderly days - knowing these really were the days.

Snow, Snow, Snow...Snow...

Snow
It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow
Snow
I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

Snow
I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow

Ah, yes, soon, we will be living Mr. Bing Crosby's words. Just not quite yet. 

Last weekend I had 40lbs of organic pears that needed to be canned. The usual helpers were not available so it was up to me. T Rex Dad took charge of toddler wrangling while I worked for 5 hours straight. 

My mother-in-law recently shared with me a few ideas that she used to keep young T Rex Dad occupied while she was working in the kitchen. We tried one of these out during canning time. 

We put a couple of cups of flour into my left over canning boxes. Then the kids brought over their cars and drove them in the "snow". 

 

It was sort of like having a mini sandbox of flour in the kitchen. It sounds kind of messy. Not too bad. Flour does clean up pretty easy. And we have a lot of it. Best of all, though, the kids were occupied for over 2 hours. When we were done, we dumped the left over flour into a plastic container and labeled it "play flour" and have since used it again and again. It's a big hit with the kids - especially easy clean up when used outside.

A big thank you to my mother-in-law for this idea. We owe you some pears!

P.S. 40lbs of pears yielded a full 3 loads of 1 qt jars - that's 21 jars. Thank goodness my good neighbor loaned me her super awesome peeler. I've added a couple of those to my wish list.

Costume Preview...

Knowing I would be too busy with school to make the kids their Halloween costumes, I opted to finish the the last week before I started back at school. It was a bit of a race to get them done but complete they are and I have to say I am very pleased with the end results.


Bebe Sister, at the request of her dad, is going to be a medieval princess. Not feeling like I could tackle this on my own without a pattern, I did hit the fabric store and find a pattern. It called for satin and tulle. If you are a sewer or have never sewn anything with either of these, then you can appreciate how tough this project was. Satin un-wravels like crazy and tulle just won't hold its shape long enough to do what you want it to do. There were a lot of sighs and deep breaths during this project but in the end, it was a success. 

I estimate this project took about 20 hours total to finish complete. Just cutting the pattern and the fabric took 3 hours. Lots of little pieces. Had I seen this cool Snow White dress tutorial, I probably would not have undertaken such a task and gone with a simple Snow White dress. In the end, I am glad I did this. It really stretched my sewing abilities allowing me to learn and grow as a seamstress. Plus, now I have the "to die for cute" costume. I suspect this will be used for dress-up for many months following Halloween.

T Rex's costume was quite a bit easier. He's a medieval wizard. It took only about 3 hours to complete and there are three separate pieces. Basically a pair of toddler pants, the hat, and the cape. He was particularly excited to try on the cape. I found him standing on his bathroom counter top modeling it. Initially he wanted to be Lightning McQueen but I really did not want to paint a box red and hang it onto him. When we suggested the wizard costume he eagerly agreed. He's still pretty excited about it. Poor dear, Halloween is still over a month away. But again, another costume the kids will have a great time pretending with long past it's initial use.

I just know the dress up bin in the play room is only going to continue to grow. It warms my heart the kids enjoy playing dress up and wearing costumes. I think it's good for the imagination. 


Do you have a costume bin for your kids? Or have enjoyed playing dress up either as a kid or adult? (T Rex Dad and I still cannot resist a good costume party or dinner.)

"My Soap Will Make Soap Suds...I Hope"

After some wonderful encouragement from a sweet lady, I made the plunge and finally made my first ever batch of homemade soap. Back in May I purchased all the necessary makings based on the recipe my friend sent. However, I was terrified of working with lye. Honestly, overall it seemed like such a challenging and unknown task. 


Then I found myself about to start back at school and I realized, the one project I really wanted to complete during my break I had not completed. I contacted my soap making mentor, watched a couple online tutorials, purchased a stick blender, and whipped up a batch of soap while the kids took their three hour naps. 


The lye, when mixed with cold water, caused quite the heat reaction. Because of this I made sure I wore my gloves and safety goggles. I chose coconut and olive as my oils and shea butter as my "nutrient oil". For my essential oil, I opted for lavender as it was the only one I had in sufficient quantity. I had to keep reheating the oils so they stayed warm while I waited the 30 minutes for the lye to cool to 100 degrees F to match the temperature of the oils. Once this happened, I used my stick blender for about 4-5 minutes. When it started to firm up, I added the shea butter and lavender oil, stirred one last time, and poured into my molds. 

As worried as I was that I would harm myself in the process, I suffered only minor injuries - a tiny oil burn from a droplet and a small abrasion from cleaning the stick blender. Nothing from the lye. I guess I need to be more vigilant during the non-lye steps, too. I also completed much of the process outside with the dogs locked in the side yard. I believe keeping safe was probably the toughest part of the process followed by matching temperatures simultaneously between the oils and lye/water mix.  


Twenty four hours later, I cut the soap loaves. The smell was delicious - I almost wanted to eat it. Alas, I do not have pica and therefore did not end up eating any of the soap. The kids were so excited to finally see the almost finished product. Both kids just kept sniffing it and saying, "Mmmm". 


Then the wait.  It takes 4-6 weeks for the soap to finish curing and then it can be used. However, I did get some instant gratification as there were some soap bits left over from cutting and cleaning. WOW! They left my hands feeling so soft and as T Rex said while I was cutting it, "My soap will make soap suds, I hope" (quoting from "My World", a favorite book the kids read). My dear little guy, "Mother's Soap" is looking pretty good thus far. In the mean time, my laundry room, where the soap has been curing, smells wonderful!

It's been four weeks since the soap was completed and I have gifted a couple of bars and used one for myself. I love it. I cannot believe I did not get into this sooner. I am already plotting my next batch. I even have a couple people asking to watch so they can also learn. 

To my dear sweet son  - my soap does indeed make soap suds. 

Toddler Tales

As I mentioned previously, I have specific mornings dedicated just to the kids and spending time with them. One of the activities we do every week without fail is visit the library. I try to time our visits with designated reading times. A couple weeks ago we went to a puppet show. However, every Monday morning is Toddler Tales reading time. The librarian, Ms. Tammie, always has a theme for the stories and she is just amazing with the kids. 


This past week the theme was "frogs". The mascot for toddler story time is Freddie the Frog. T Rex LOVES him and after every week's story time he wants to see Freddie (he's a puppet) and talk with him. Plus, he always has some kind of tale for Ms. Tammie, his favorite librarian. Always before we leave he asks her if she can please order more Thomas the Tank books and then hugs her telling her, "See you next time. Thanks for the stories."


It's a wonderful reading time. Generally there is a pretty good turn out of kids in attendance. I do like how our local library is very kid friendly and has areas where the kids can play and read and can browse through the books on their own.

I believe story time has really made my kids love reading even more. Of course, they don't watch TV and only rarely see some videos like old style Thomas the Tank. Bebe Sister still rarely sees any kind of shows. Because of this, I believe it has really impacted their desire for reading. Plus, they see their father and mother reading all the time and we always read to them -  it's the first thing they do in the morning and the last thing at night. 


Me? I'm looking forward to some lighter reading days - something somewhere between "Good Night Moon" and Pediatric Primary Care (20th edition). I did just submit my presentation on pediatric urinary tract infections. If there is any interest I might post some of the highlights from that presentation here. 


For this weekend, though, we're painting my mom's house and canning pears. Sigh...I guess my entertainment reading will remain with "Big, Little", "Little Quack", and "James and the Red Balloon" as well as some Dr. Seuss mixed in. (I think T Rex thinks it's funny to hear me try to read some of those tales fast and get tongue tied.) I'll just have to keep living vicariously through Jenners and her Life with Books.

Bye, Bye...

Mondays are hard for the kids. Their Dada has to go back to work after being home for the weekend. This is always tough for the kids. Bebe Sister LOVES her dad and walks around the house calling for him all day. She'll point to the stairs and ask if he is upstairs napping. 

T Rex just keeps asking questions, endless questions: Is Dad at work? Why does he work? Are their machines there? Is it hot? Is it cold? Is it just right? Does he miss me while he's there? Is it almost the weekend? Will he be home for the witching hour? The questions just keep coming until I ask him to think about more questions with his inside thinking voice.

Last Monday I captured a photo of the kids waving goodbye to their dad as he drove away to work. These photos make me feel so sad for them because I know how they are feeling knowing he will be away from us for the day. However, the photos also warm my heart because they remind me these little kids have such absolute, perfect, pure love for this man who so tenderly loves and cares for them.

Then, the daddy-detox begins... 

Quick update regarding school - I catch up just in time for the week to start again. This past weekend I spent the majority of my free time working on a pediatric urinary tract infection presentation. Thank you T Rex Dad for toddler wrangling the kids so I could endlessly work. I also spent 2 hours at the health center waiting to get a TB test (glad I took my textbook, such a waste of time otherwise).  Last week was a great couple days at the internal medicine clinic and later at the pediatric clinic. My heart broke as I told an elderly couple there was nothing more that could be done for this gentleman's condition and hospice should be considered. However, the week ended much better as I did a set of pediatric well checks - one on a 10 day old newborn and one on a seven year old boy (with his 2 year old brother helping). Ahh, the peds days I feel like I'm in my element. I guess I'm used to the chaos. I learn so much every week. My brain is on overload. I wish it absorbed things like my kids' brains do. I think I should send my kids to graduate school now while their brains are so plastic and mold-able.  Alas, this Monday is over and I need to get to bed for a couple of long clinic days.

Are Mondays tough in your house, too?