Spring Cleaning 1

This is what I found this morning. It's (hopefully) our last snow of the winter. The big one said that she felt like we'd fast-forwarded through Spring, Summer, and Fall and were in Winter again.
But, it's still Spring and we have been doing lots of cleaning. I cleaned out the camera, for one, and here's a few highlights of what I found:

The little one turned two at the end of January. Surprise! She has been acting very 2-like. She likes to dictate the house and demand her way, but she's just so little and cute. She is however, sleeping all night in her bed and is starting to use real words, other then, "EHHH, EHHH!" while pointing.

On our trip to St. Louis we came across this cool tree at the Art Museum.

The girls are such tree-huggers, or at least fake-tree-snugglers.

While on vacation, the little one got a nice shiner. She was in a street fight with some other kid in the line for Ben and Jerry's. The kid loves her ice cream.

The big one hijacked the camera. Again. And took more artistically riveting photos like this one. Again.
The cleaning has spread from the camera to the house, actually from the house to the camera, but I'll (maybe) post more on that later.

Last weekend we went on "vacation." It wasn't a real vacation because it wasn't relaxing, but it was nice to do something different (even if it was more exhausting than real life.)
We went down to the St. Louis area, our old college stomping ground. The whole trip was, in my opinion, an elaborate ploy to revisit all of the delicious food that we loved when we lived down there. We started at the pizza joint in our college town and were sorely disappointed by the lack of cheese. Our next attempt was the Thai restaurant that we have been faithfully returning to since 2000. There we received the harshest blow: the cook had left and apparently taken all of the deliciousness of Thai with her. Thankfully (and I do mean that only God could have provided us this opportunity) there was a waitress that sort of remembered how to make #33 (or #36 according to the new menus) and she wrote it down for us (in English.) It is almost embarrassingly simple, but it's a real treasure. Our last visit was the old 24 hour truck stop that didn't disappoint. The chocolate chip pancakes were as fabulous as ever. Pepper those events with odd encounters with weird people, 5 hours of zoo time, swimming, and bad mattresses and you have one exhausting weekend! But maybe even better than a vacation that you hate to end is one that makes you eager to get home.

We started the big one on TV at a very young age. We'd place her in front of Baby Einstein videos while she was swinging or in a bouncer. As she grew she continued to be enthralled with video entertainment, moving on to BooBah and Sesame Street. At one point I remember cancelling our cable because she would actively watch whatever we were watching.
The little one is very different. She has never cared about TV. She won't sit and watch the flashy colors of Baby Einstein or the oddly gastric BooBah. That is, until now.
Enter Melmo.
Or Elmo.
Melmo, as she calls him, has entranced her little mind to the point where she watches the DVD constantly. Elmo plays almost back to back to back either on the computer upstairs or the TV downstairs.
But honestly, I can't complain. In fact, I LOVE IT! I love MELMO!
Yesterday I was in the kitchen and I suddenly realized that I could do anything. The big one was busy playing, the little one was watching her movie, and I was free! I went in the bedroom and read a book. DURING THE DAY! I almost read the whole chapter. It is amazing.
You know how people always say that when kids digress they're just preparing to take a big developmental leap? Well, this kind of falls under that category from a mother's perspective. The turmoil of a sick, nursing, non-sleeping 2 year old has suddenly given way to a (semi)independently entertained, fairly well, sleeping all night (I shouldn't even say it, lest I jinx it) 2 year old.
*Sigh*
:)

Wow, it has been a long time since I last posted! I kept thinking that I should change that previous post so as to move along the great picture of me after giving birth to the little one. But not even that got me posting.

The last few weeks have been riddled with illness (like the rest of the winter), warm spring-like days, and lots of food.
I recently tried a recipe that I found on foodgawker for the world's easiest bread.
You mix:
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 T yeast
1 1/2 T kosher salt
6 1/2 cups flour
in a huge bowl (just stir it together.) Then you let it sit out for 2 to 5 hours. Then you refrigerate it up to 2 weeks. When you want to make something, you tear off a hunk, shape it and let it rest/rise then bake it.

When I made it I used whole wheat flour, so I used more water and I also added olive oil, just because. I just guessed on the measurements, but I went for a wet bread dough consistency. The resulting goods were a bit salty, so next time I'll reduce the salt to 1 T.

Overall it was tasty! I made donuts and rolls out of it. (Given the chance we'll fry anything at least once!) The flavor is a little fermented, but really good and bready. The consistency is spongy in the middle. For the effort, it was great. It only lasted 2 days in our fridge (becuase I had use for it,) but I like that you could have it accessible for a long time.

Today my little one is 2. Just like every other mother out there, I can't believe how fast the last 2 years have gone. She's changed so much from the quiet, observant, peaceful baby that she was when she came out.

She was born underwater at 12:55am. I had the privilege of using the newly-approved birthing tub at my hospital. Once I was in there, it only took about 3 1/2 hours before she was born.

Her big sister has always loved her. Even now, when she's deep into the "MINE!" stage and regularly a pain, her sister still loves her.

Now she's two and she can tell you she's "doo." She loves jumping and cd's and being naked. She talks as much as her sister ever did, except you can't understand most of it. She started potty training before she could walk (while she was still scooting.) She loves to set the table for supper. She loves clothes and shoes. She has a special preference for high heels. She's a real pill, but she's so darn cute that she can do just about anything.

I guess that the dehydrator is a fine place to nap...

if you're a cat...
that's constantly being attacked by crazy and often-naked children.

What delicious treat did we have to accompany our homemade pizza tonight?...


CREAM PUFFS! (I know, I know, they're only slightly less excessive than donuts.)
They were delicious. Obviously. How can something that combines eggy, buttery dough with custard and whipped cream, not be?

The whole family loved them.

The little one's half-drunk expression really sums it up.