Exhale and an update

Deep breath out.

I won't go into to all the reasons why I haven't shown up in this space lately, because there is only one: full-time school sealed my fate as a woman too busy to blog. If I had a spare moment after family obligations and school, I was usually to be found snoring on the couch next to Matty or asleep in Shira's bed. I would sometimes come home after a long night of studying and sneak into her bed, pretending to check in on her, but really just looking to snuggle up with her under the covers. I missed the girls so much over the course of this chaotic year, and it was healing to slide into Shira's bed. She wouldn't wake up, but she would know enough to roll into me and stick a hand down my shirt and maybe cup my face with her other hand. I would breathe her in, try to forget about the deadline I was probably unprepared for, and feel better. Sometimes I would even change into my pajamas first.

So without any giant promises or declarations, I'm back for the summer. I have the next four months free from school, I'll be working part-time from home, and I'll be doing all the daytime parenting until school starts up again in September. A week ago we took Shira out of daycare for the rest of the summer to hang out with me at home, both for reasons of saving some money and of me needing to spend some time with the girlies. For the time being it will be just me and Shira, and then at the very end of June Alyce will join us. It will feel like old times and will hopefully spark some oversharing right here on the blog.  Summer adventures await!

Now for the updates.

Alyce

• She is six, and enjoying the homestretch of grade one. She calls herself a "Grade Oner" and that makes me laugh every time I hear it. She dreams of the day she'll be a "Grade Twoer." 
• She loves telling me what she learned at school. A few weeks ago she explained kinetic energy with more clarity and passion than I could have mustered. 
• She writes book reports when she's bored. 
• Bouncing, skipping, and leaping are still her favourite modes of transportation.
• New freckles appear on her cheekbones every week.
• She received four dollars from the Tooth Fairy for her first lost tooth in December.
• She's the most generous person I know.
• Hanging from the monkey bars is her favourite after school activity. 
• She seems to be inheriting my perfectionism. I'm trying to model imperfection, which isn't too hard because I make a lot of mistakes.
• She actually sparkles.

 

Shira

• Yesterday she turned four. 
• Today she tried the big kid swing at the park from the first time.
• She's not all that interested in sharing, and still frequently yells at strangers when they look at her the wrong way.
• She has taken over the position of sous-chef in our kitchen and she is a delightful assistant. In the week she's been home from daycare we've made two batches of muffins, rice krispy squaures, tomato sauce, roast chicken, grilled salmon, and, of course, cookies. She takes her kitchen responsibilities very seriously. She steals pinches of brown sugar the second my back is turned.
• Still very loud.
• She's afraid of ants.
• She spontaneously declares her love for me at fifteen minute intervals.
• She's all mine. 

Matty

• He is leaving on a ten-day, all-fun trip to France "for work." His job? To tour around Paris, Nice, and Cannes with university students. I'm too green with jealously to say anymore about this. 

Me

• I've finished year one of a four-year midwifery degree. 
• I am exhausted.
• I can't wait to start year two in September.
• I have grown out my short hair cut. My secret? Don't get a hair cut for fifteen months.
• Red lipstick has become my new favourite accessory. 
• I have jumped into a summer reading season, beginning with Game of Thrones.
• I am searching for a gluten-free challah recipe for Shabbat dinners. Know of any?
• I cultured my lab partner's vaginal flora in lab this semester. And my own urine. It was awesome.
• I was super sick between February and April. Strep throat that required a visit to the ER for morphine and steroids, another trip to the ER for an inflamed gall bladder that will be removed sometime this summer, and a stomach flu straight from Hell. 
• I totally called Connecticut's victory in April. #marchmadness
• I'm pretty excited to have a whole summer with the girlies.

Food on Thursdays: A day in the life

Alyce, March 2010

4:45 am: Wake up with Shira. I'm not even kidding about this. Nurse Shira for 30 minutes.

5:15 am: Pour some coffee for me, water for Shira, and cut up some pineapple to offer Shira as first breakfast. She turns it down, so I eat it.

5:16 am: Shira nurses again, since she didn't eat first breakfast.

5:28 am: And again.

 Dinner out, March 2010

5:30 am: Start cooking oatmeal for me and Alyce (Shira doesn't care for oatmeal). We use steel cut oats, so they take about 25 minutes to cook on the stove.

6:45 am: Alyce is up and ready for breakfast. I give her a bowl of oatmeal with a mountain of maple syrup (or at least, that what I tell her it is--more like a teaspoon). For second breakfast I offer Shira a bowl of cheerios and milk. She sticks the cheerios to her cheek, dumps out the milk, and then Matt makes her an egg with cheese. She eats eggs every morning, and I should probably just stop trying with the other stuff. But I am not very smart.

6:46 am: Alyce asks for more syrup. Her request is declined. I sit down with my own oatmeal, topped with blueberries, almonds, flax seed meal, and some brown sugar.

Alyce, August 2011

8:00 am: Matt feeds The Children snacks of applesauce (Shira) and yogurt (Alyce).

9:00 am: Now it's my turn for second breakfast: peanut butter on a rice cake and a second coffee.

10:00 am: It's been two hours and naturally The Children are STARVING. So I make smoothies of raspberries, banana, baby spinach (don't tell Alyce), plain yogurt and orange juice. I pair the smoothie with half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

 Shira, June 2011

10:15 am: I start making lunch, an imaginative macaroni and cheese. I've been trying out some gluten-free cooking lately and so I decided to try, without a recipe for some reason, a gluten-free m&c. I used brown rice pasta and threw some gluten-free flour mix into the butter to make a roux (I also added cheese, milk, dijon, and salt and pepper). While that was cooking I added some frozen edamame to boiling water.

11:15 am: Lunch is served. Shira eats her weight in edamame, and they both seem to enjoy the m&c, though not with their usual vigor. After lunch Alyce tells me the following, as I posted on twitter:

Mama, sometimes you make the best mac and cheese, and sometimes it's just o.k. Today it was just o.k.

She said it very sweetly, if that helps.

12:30 pm: While Shira is sleeping, Alyce and I settle down with one of our Valentine's Day cookies, sadly the last two. Alyce tells me that I make the best cookies. I feel vindicated from the earlier mac and cheese feedback.

2:00 pm: We are heading to a friend's house for dinner so I decide that we should make something little for dessert (I'm also bringing pizza dough for dinner). We make rice crispy squares, but, sadly, we don't use enough marshmallows. They are a wee bit hard. It happens.

2:20 pm: Shira wakes up from her nap and it's time for another snack. This afternoon we dine on canned peaches and rice crispy squares. Snack of champions.

3:00pm: I make two batches of pizza dough. Somehow I use completely trash the kitchen in the process.

Valentine's Day Cookies, 2012

4:50 pm: We are in the car driving to our dinner date. Since The Children usually eat dinner at five, we break the no snacking in the car rule (even I have limits) and offer them cheese and crackers. Shira takes control of the crackers and refuses to share with Alyce. There is some discussion about this. She gives Alyce at least three of the giant bag of crackers.

5:30 pm While the grown-ups put pizzas together (one just cheese and chicken, the other topped with cheese and vegetables), the kids are offered hummus, carrots, and rice cakes. Shira eats all of these things, while Alyce just sits near them, choosing to direct 100 percent of her energy to talking about princesses.

6:30 pm We eat pizza. I love pizza. Alyce and her friend (the daughter of our hosts) eat a teeny tiny portion of pizza in hopes of getting to the leftover Valentine's day candy. Shira eats the chicken from four pieces of pizza, grabs a couple of Hershey's kisses, and calls it a night. But only after nursing some more.

Alyce, January 2011

So, I've crunched the numbers and it appears that I spend roughly 96 percent of my day preparing, eating, or cleaning up food. Thank goodness food is so delicious and worth all this work.

Does your day look like this?

Going on a bed hunt

On my way to bed last night I saved a llama and a lemon from drowning in the bathroom sink,

battled a dinosaur on my dresser,

brawled with beasts next to my bed,

and then settled in with a good book.*

In our house you must come prepared for adventures at every turn. And as much as I fight against it some days, this is exactly how I like it.

*My Friends, by Taro Gomi, is one of my all-time favourite books for little ones. I learned to march from my friend the rooster. I learned to kick from my friend the gorilla. Isn't it always nice to learn new things? In preparation of the upcoming holidays (and birthday, for one very excited little girl), I'm working on a post about our favourite books. Coming soon!