Grocery List

I forgot to buy some misc items this week, and so I started a new grocery list on the fridge. They are:

burnfree
magnets
baby wipes

B came into the kitchen, and read them as one item: burnfree magnetic babywipes. She thought this was odd, but if there was such a thing, I would be the one to know about it.

Think about it for a minute: babywipes that attract poop so that you don't have to wipe, and also don't burn your baby. What a wonderful product that would be!

I also had a conversation with Bapu, my grandfather, about needing more patience. This is what he said: "I would like to be able to buy patience from the store. But you can't, so I buy ice cream instead. Then when I need patience, I eat some ice cream."

Adventures in parenting

Got to practice my parenting skills (or lack thereof) with Ji (pronounced Gee) and Ra today. (My 3 year and 10 month old nephews.) My sister Ju fixed a plate for Ji with 2 varieties of hummus-- (one with beet & one with basil), veggies and multicolored chips. "Umm, pink hummus, my favorite!" said Ji. Ju laughed. "It's not funny," he scolded. He asked if he could sit on the floor to eat, and I let him. There were too many exciting things to do, so he only ate a few bites here and there. At lunch he wanted a roll with cheese, and got very upset with me for spreading hummus on half of the roll. So I ate that half, and was going to eat the rest of his hummus, but he protested about that too. He did finish it.
     
Ra let me try out babywearing (yes, it's a thing) for a few minutes at a time, then he'd lean as far over as he could to let me know that he wanted to roam free on the floor. I need to sweep before I babysit him again. He was very good at batting my hand away when I tried to see what he had in his mouth. He also has a habit of chewing on his tongue, so it's hard to know when he has something else in his mouth. He was very disappointed when I closed all the doors along the hallway, he stopped at each one to check that it was closed.

One of the favorite activities of the morning was playing with large  styrofoam pieces from electronics packaging that Uncle Paul was getting rid of. Ji built things with it, while Ra banged two pieces around.

Although I spent most of my time playing with the boys, I did manage to make some vegetable stock and scald and cut up many preaches to freeze. I also managed to clean up after the boys and leave the house slightly cleaner than before. Ji did manage to get red marker all over his hands, and I didn't notice until he was using the toilet and I was trying to figure out where the pink marks on the toilet were from. As I cleaned off his hands best as I could, he asked "What bird is red?"
       "Cardinals are red. They have a pointy tuft of feathers on the back of their heads. There are lots of cardinals where Grandma and Grandpa Z live."
       "I'm a cardinal," he informed me. "Do they have red hands?" He asked.
Later I realized that Ra's pants were wet because I had sat him down on the bath mat which was wet. Luckily he was wearing a onesie, so I just took his pants off. He had already repeatedly kicked his sandals off.

I was glad to see N when she came to pick up the boys, and I hurried to get a to work for the afternoon. But I am looking forward to having them again next week. As I told N, it was fun but a little exhausting. She knew just what I meant :)

Pancakes!!! For Lunch!!!

Grandma G, Ji, and Grandma V:  3 generations bonding with Bisquick!

      My mom came for a visit last week. She was mostly here to see grandkids, but I did get to hang out with her some too. On Saturday she came over with my oldest niece and nephew. M and I had been talking about making pancakes for lunch (after deciding that we should pioneer bagel smoothies: "It's Not Nearly as Bad as it Sounds"), and I thought this would be a fun thing to do with the kiddos. Just as I set the Bisquick down on the counter, Ji materialized next to me and pronounced his desire to help. His first step was scoot a chair to the front of the fridge so that he could reach the freezer, where he knew that there were frozen strawberries. (This kid knows where we keep the good stuff.) I partially defrosted some and let him at them with a butter knife. (I did stress that he could only use a knife if an adult was supervising.) Turns out even the blunt side of the blade can cut through partially frozen strawberries. K was much more interested in making signs for our restaurant. They have their own restaurant, Rosie Rose's, at home. Ji is the cook in their play kitchen and K manages and markets the restaurant. I have eaten many a plastic fruit and vegetable soup there. I am occasionally employed to work in the office at Rosie Rose's, where I take internet orders and balance the books.

      Reader's Digest (which keeps coming in the mail even though Grandma stopped subscribing) had some ideas to liven up pancakes: dividing up the batter and making each a different color with food coloring, using a squeeze bottle to make lacy shapes; that I thought would be fun to try. Instead of just using food coloring, though, I thought we could also use different ingredients. So we made one batch with peanut butter, dyed yellow, and one with strawberries, dyed pink.

      I had gotten a Tolovo Pancake Pen as a gift, and M (check out his new haircut) was the master of pancake creation. He went beyond just letters to pictures using both colors of batter! Notice the lion face on the left below:

      We all enjoyed a hearty lunch of pancakes and scrabbled eggs. Although Ji's request to have ketchup on his pancakes went unanswered. The best part was that Mom volunteered to do all the dishes and cleanup :).

Hanging with the horses while the pancakes cooked. Notice Dell, Ji's nephew.

All I Wanted for Christmas...

      This Christmas was the first one that I haven't spent with immediate family members, since more than half of them were in India for a wedding. It was also the first time that I haven't taken off most of the week between Christmas and New Year's. Somehow I decided that this meant I was taking Christmas off--I only bought presents for my oldest niece and nephew (I figured that the youngest 2, both under 3 months, wouldn't care if I didn't get them anything.), I didn't make treats for anyone, I only sent out 7 cards.

     My aunt invited me to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with her family. Since they live around the corner & I love to hang out with them, this seemed like the best idea. She said that they would make a stocking for me, and even get me presents. She asked what I wanted. 
     I have a habit of asking for very practical presents. I think this may be because I try very hard not to want things, so that I won't spend too much money. "I want my own toilet plunger," I told her. This was the first thing that had come to mind. "The kind with the accordion bellows." (This request may seem a little less strange if you know that I live in a house with 6 other people. There are 3 bathrooms, and only one toilet plunger, which is kept in a storage room in the basement. I don't need to use it that often, but when I do need it, running downstairs to get it is no fun.) I did manage to think of a few other things, including these:

A sandwich-shaped case and dinosaur sandwich cutter.

I've enjoyed many grilled cheese sandwiches shaped liked dinosaurs this last month. :)