Breakfast at IHOP

Bobby, Alice, and I hop over to IHOP for breakfast this morning. I do some "mystery shopping" now and then, so sometimes we get free meals at random places. IHOP is today's random place.

Bobby orders the strawberry Belgian waffle and I have Eggs Benedict. We give Alice bits and pieces of our meals. Alice enjoys the strawberries and syrup quite a bit. She spreads some of it on her cheek. Bobby quickly, and expertly, wipes it off her face and manages to get the last bit just as Alice decides his actions are annoying. She waves her hand up by her ear to shoo Bobby's napkin away and smears a whole new strip of syrup by her eye. Now it looks like war paint.

I just love having this kid around.

CSA share May 27th

Here it is! The first batch of produce from our share of the Bob Brackett CSA.

2# rhubarb

1/4# spinach

1/4# salad mix

1 bunch garlic chives

We used half of the garlic chives in a black bean dish served with rice. They were cooked so long in the crockpot that there was little garlic flavor by the end. I think we'll dehydrate the other half and see how that goes.

The salad mix is bold. The bugs appeared to have liked it in the field, but I'm okay with a little crop damage here and there. Makes it more real. The flavor is bold. Not spicy, not bitter, not dirty. Just bold, strong, earthy. I had to dilute the flavor with some spinach and romaine in my salad yesterday. Maybe I'll graduate to full-strength by the end of the summer :)

I'm still deciding what to do with the rhubarb. Perhaps a dessert. Perhaps jam/jelly. Perhaps it gets frozen until the strawberries ripen.

Kinder Surprise!

A former lab mate sent me a surprise package! Kinder Surprise eggs from Belgium! And a delightful Kinder-Surprise-like toy that she said reminded her of me. I absolutely adore KS eggs. A few years ago I bought a case of them from Canada and handed them out to my coworkers and friends for Christmas. Of course, I made each person open their egg as soon as I gave it to them (my passion for KS eggs would probably border on obsession if only they were easier to get in the U.S.). Here are the three little toys that were in these eggs:

Each toy has a little code you can type into the Belgian KS website for a little more info. We used an online translator to decode the French explanations. Perhaps HeidiPB and J would interpret them differently?

• Bernard L'ermite rouge: La limace la plus paresseuse de toutes aime se reposer sur la plage

Bernard red hermit: The laziest slug of all likes to rely on the beach

• Ovni violet: La nuit, il vole sur les pyjamas en laine des enfants les plus sympathique

Purple UFO: At night, it flies on the woolen pyjamas of the nicest children

• Shrek est un ogre au grand coeur. Il a hâte d'échapper à la vie agitée du royaume pour retrouver une existence tranquille dans son marais avec sa femme Fiona et ses amis, Potté et l'Ane. Dans cette aventure, il va s'apercevoir qu'épouser une princesse entraîne toute une cohorte de royales responsabilités

Shrek is an ogre in the big heart. It is impatient to avoid the life agitated by the kingdom to find a quiet existence in its marsh with his wife Fiona and his friends, Potté and the Donkey. In this adventure, it is going to realize that to marry a princess draws away whole cohort of royal responsibilities.

My former lab mate remembers my little love for KS all these years later. I wonder what other people remember about me. Out of context, any small personality quirk can seem like some freakish obsession. I wonder what I'm remembering about other people...

I remember odd things about some people long after I've forgotten all the normal things. Food associations are especially memorable. Zippy chicken and the Garners. Banana pudding and my mom. Bobby and snap peas. Chard or fortune cookies and the Graberts. Rolled tacos and the Hersoms. Lentil soup or beet salad or TVP chili and Heidi.

Not everyone has a food memory in my brain, and some food memories even fade with time, but you might be surprised to learn what I remember you by.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was like a lot of other weeks. Susan already wrote four entries in the blog about this week so I won’t bother to talk about all the things that she did.

This week at work was somewhat new and interesting. My new boss came to town. I just recently switched groups and the same day that I transitioned into the new position the guy who was going to be my boss transitioned to a new position too and we all got a new boss who is based in California. He seems like a really nice guy, but it is rather interesting that for the last year and a half I have essentially been reporting to someone off site.

Alice caught on to the idea of signing a lot more this week and also communication in general. She has picked up and started using the signs for fish and her favorite, baby. She uses “baby” to tell us that she wants to find her dolls to play with and also to point out that there are children her size and smaller around. She loves to stare out the window and sign whenever she sees a bird. She even tries to say bird. Another word that she knows is toes, which she loves to bend over and grab whenever anyone says it. She is very happy that she knows what it means.

Yesterday we went to the Temple. It was a nice trip, but also a kind of odd one. It being a holiday weekend the Temple attendance was actually down quite a bit, but they had just called several new Temple workers from our ward and almost all of them showed up. There were several sessions where there were more temple workers than there were patrons.

Stroller Success!

It has been one emotional breakdown after another over the last couple days, but we finally figured it out. Here is Alice successfully navigating her new doll stroller around the house:

[flv width="400" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2008/StrollerSuccess.flv[/flv]

Let me explain how truly monumental this little video clip is. For all of us. For the last two days (that's when the stroller joined our household), whenever the stroller would run in to a wall or piece of furniture, Alice would scream and shake the stroller violently and finally collapse herself on the floor in tears. As soon as Bobby or I would unstick it, she'd hop up (still sobbing) and run away with it as fast as she could, thus smacking it into another wall or piece of furniture and collapsing in frustration yet again. I could tell she desperately wanted to play with it, but she couldn't get it to work.

I wanted to help her sooooooo bad. I cleared everything off the floor...but the walls remained. I took her and the stroller outside...she ran it into the garden fence. Finally, this morning, I put my hands on top of hers and let her feel how I turned the stroller this way and that. I noticed at that moment that the front wheels had been half-locked into the "straight" position this whole time. They would turn enough for an experienced cart-pusher to make it work, but it was a hopeless situation for a newbie. I unlocked the wheels and Alice was zipping around corners and avoiding obstacles in two minutes.

Woo hoo!

Unexpected Self Discovery

Those who have known me well for some time know that I'm a planner. I thrive on having a well-thought-out and deliberate path to walk, with numerous strategies on hand to tackle surprises and potential snags. I'm only flexible with snags that are not a complete surprise...whether that even qualifies as "flexible", I'm not sure.

Anyway, even Alice's arrival didn't change me much because I had planned that she would require me to be more flexible. It was a deliberate action on my part---all part of the plan---to move away from TO DO lists and toward a more fluid schedule that moved more easily around naps, feedings, diaper changes, and the moment-by-moment life of raising a child. I had therefore planned to become more spontaneous as the need arose. There seemed no contradiction. It felt entirely consistent with who I was and what I wanted with my life.

And then, recently, it all fell apart. I had been working with some friends to put on a little get-together. The night before the event, I'm feeling like I'm on top of everything. We've got people who've RSVP'd, we've got the location and snacks lined up, it's all fine, right? Wrong. I realized then that I had not thought it through. People were coming to this event with certain expectations that I had not even considered. As the questions came pouring in, I realized my "plan" was a farce. To a planning kind of person, this is the ultimate shame. It was akin to one of those horrible dreams where you're at school and suddenly you realize you're naked.

*sigh*

How could this happen? How could I feel like everything was under control when it was absolutely NOT under control? I talked it out with Bobby and decided my "go with the flow, take things as they come, and make do with what's on hand" attitude that had made life so pleasant at home with Alice had spilled into other arenas of my life. These other arenas do not bode well with that kind of approach. My work, my volunteer responsibilities, and my personal relationships with other people have all slipped. I just didn't realize it until I was finally confronted with this event.

So now I need to find another balance. Re-align my thoughts and attention so that I am flexible and easy going in some bits of my life but also thoroughly well-planned and scheduled in other bits. I wonder if that's even possible. In some strange way, this feels inconsistent with who I am. Actually, it's just plain inconsistent. A double life. Double standard.

Can someone live happily while straddling these two totally different approaches to life?

How do you turn off one way of thinking and turn on another? It seems possible if you are working in one location and then being spontaneous in another (like a physically and temporally separated employment life and home life), but how does that work when you're trying to be well-planned and scheduled in the small chunks of time your spontaneous schedule permits? You're constantly switching between the two mindsets.

I think I might go crazy. This will take much more thought to find my healthy balance.

Touch a Truck!

Alice and I went to "Touch a Truck Day" today with Alice's friend Anila and my friend Kemily. We got there 15 minutes before it officially started and still had to wait in line 10 minutes for the bounce house, which had opened as soon as it was inflated. Alice found it all a bit startling: loud music, kids running around, unpredictable horn blasts at every turn. She did, however, thoroughly enjoy getting inside the "smaller" trucks like this Radio Station Van.

Alice is pushing all the buttons on the radio while her friend plays in the passenger seat. There was a neat little door separating the cab from the back of the van and both girls had fun with it.

[flv width="400" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2008/TouchTruck.flv[/flv]

We also got inside a SWAT van, the Champaign Library Bookmobile, a jazzed-up motorcycle, a Pepsi delivery truck, a fire engine, and a whole assortment of SUVs, vans, and trucks. The girls tended to gravitate toward the "smaller" vehicles (smaller is relative, here) because there was more to climb on and fiddle with. They sat on seats, pushed buttons, peeked out windows, so on and so forth. Just those fun little things you don't normally get to do in the car. Anila liked putting on a seatbelt all by herself, especially since she's still too little for a booster.

Alice tasted soda for the first time (Sierra Mist) and found it interesting. She kept licking and smacking her lips and asking for another taste. The ice cream line was far too long, so we came home and ate some here :)

New Calling

I have a new calling, and it's one of those EXTRA humbling ones.

For those unfamiliar with the LDS faith, our church has a lay clergy. Guided by the Spirit and our worldwide priesthood leaders, the members themselves are responsible for all of the worship services, fellowship, programs, and teaching that goes on at the local level. Each church member is prayerfully selected to fulfill a responsibility, or "calling" in the church. Since moving to Illinois, I've been a youth Sunday School teacher (ages 12-13), adult Sunday School teacher, youth summer camp director, children's Sunday School presidency member (ages 3-12), assistant Cub Scout den leader, and a member of the presidency of the women's organization. Not all at once, of course, but some of those responsibilities did overlap. Every new calling is a humbling experience because it always requires me to do something that I've never really done before. I've had to pray for a lot of help. This new calling is no exception.

I've been asked to direct the local Family History Center (FHC). The FHC is a local resource for members of the church and the general public to research their family history. People research their ancestors for all sorts of reasons (see Wikipedia article here) and need all sorts of resources to do that. This center is connected to the gi-hugemous Family History Library in Salt Lake City and therefore has access to all sorts of records a person might need to uncover their family tree. As director, I will not only need to manage the excellent and experienced staff, but I will need to learn all the tools and methods currently available to assist people in their research.

That is no small task. In fact, my husband has been called as a FHC consultant (someone who helps/teaches other people to begin their family history) for almost 2 years and even HE doesn't really know everything that's out there.

This calling is SO different from anything I've ever done or ever SEEN done in the church that it will take at least a couple months to train me. The good news is, I may get to stay in this calling for a few years, so eventually I might feel like I have a handle on it.

The bad news is, people who start to research their family history often get hooked on it. It's such an adventurous hunt with ups and downs that they just can't give it up...family vacations to libraries, cemeteries, and government record archives...emails and long-distance phone calls to perfect strangers they might share a common ancestor with...the eerie ability to distinguish between a second cousin and a first cousin twice removed...

Bobby's Sunday Summary

For the most part this was a fairly normal week. I have been finishing up one project at work and will be starting on a new one with a new group on Monday. It has been very interesting lately. I am now on the third project since I started 8 months ago. That seems to be about the average there a new project every three to six months, but it is much faster paced then Motorola was.

This week Susan has been playing around with a few different software packages for video messaging. We have tried iChat and Yahoo! Messenger. Both of them had problems for someone. We have now discovered www.tokbox.com and basically if you have an Internet connection you can watch our video, and if you have a webcam then we can see you too. If you would like to set up cross country play dates with Alice, or Susan feel free to e-mail us and we can get it all set up.

This week is Stake Conference, so instead of being to church bright and early we are having a lazy Sunday morning. We don’t have to be at Church until 1:00 today and it is throwing off our routine a little. Last night was the adult session. Susan went and I stayed home with Alice. Next time I get to go. Susan said that one of the speakers used Grandma Luce’s parable about the pebble.

“A small trouble is like a pebble. Hold it close to-your eye and it fills the whole world and puts everything out of focus. Hold it at a proper viewing distance and it can be examined and given its proper niche. Throw it at your feet and it can be seen in its true setting, just one more tiny bump on the pathway to eternity.”

It kind of surprised Susan a lot to hear it. I am sure Grandma would be happy that it has come as far as it has.

CSA co-op

We're trying something new this year. I finally found the courage to purchase a share in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm. That means I pay the local farmer up front for the vegetables and fruit he will grow for me throughout the season. The best part is, though, that I won't have to do it alone. I managed to convince a few friends to do it with me. Yay!

You might be wondering, "Hey! What about your own garden? Isn't that enough?" Sort of. In my own garden, I'm growing the things I know we eat a lot of and can preserve for later (peas, snap peas, chard, broccoli, canning tomatoes, beans, beets, onions, maybe carrots, maybe brussels sprouts). This CSA share will round out my garden produce with salad mix, rhubarb, more beets, peppers, heirloom and cherry tomatoes for fresh eating, collard greens, onions, berries (straw, goose, rasp, currants and sour cherry), apples, pears, cukes, summer squash, garlic, cabbage, pak choi, kale, potatoes, radishes, basil, and a few things I've only ever dreamed of tasting fresh...purslane, dill, and garlic chives.

We'll only get a little bit of a few of these things at any one time, so it shouldn't be too overwhelming for us. I'll take a picture of our share every week (first pickup is May 27th!) and let you know how it goes. Yay!

Fun Movies

Alice has overcome her initial fear of walking on grass, but I believe some resentment remains as evidenced by her grunting efforts in this video.

[flv width="400" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2008/AliceGrassGrunt.flv[/flv]

Alice has begun to copy what we say. This morning, as I pulled her urine-soaked Raggedy Ann out of her crib (we didn't adjust her nighttime diaper for the 2 glasses of milk and 8 ounces of water she consumed right before bedtime) she pointed and enthusiastically lilted "Oh thank you! Raggedy!" just like I do every time Alice brings Raggedy to me. The words were barely comprehensible, but the singing tone was dead-on.

Does she understand how appropriate her little "whoa" sounds are in this video?

[flv width="400" height="300"]http://evansfamily.powweb.com/movies/2008/AliceChairSpin.flv[/flv]

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has not been too different from the last few, so I don’t have too much to say besides Happy Mother’s day.

This week Susan built a rabbit fence. The bunny had already stripped several broccoli plants down to the stems. Hopefully this will help force the little hungry bunny to eat weeds instead of vegetables.

We noticed this week Alice started using a sign to indicate that she wanted more of something to eat, and more generally I want something. The only thing is that we didn’t teach her that sign. We have seen a few of her friends use it. So, our best guess is that she picked it up from one of them. It is kind of scary how quickly she is learning.

Baby Peter Rabbit

There's a timid little gourmand nibbling up all my gardening efforts this year.

(Photo courtesy of Google Image search)

He/She is quite cute, and still very young, so I can't seem to get myself mad about it. Something must be done, though, if I want to grow anything edible this year. Especially since I just learned that the darling lives under our tool shed out back. Perhaps he/she is not alone?

A friend has been kind enough to give me some chicken wire. I will have to surround the garden beds and anchor the fencing to the ground in multiple places. I hope this works. I'm not keen on lethal defense, especially since some other rabbit family is likely to move in as soon as there's a vacancy:

"NEW LISTING: Warm, sheltered outbuilding for the growing family. Private fenced yard is protected on every side by large dogs (2 pitbulls, 1 bull dog, and 1 cockerspanial) to ensure your privacy. Rustic outdoorsy feel, plenty of shaded hideaways, and an exclusive restaurant across the way. Kids eat free!"

Look Where You Leap

Took Alice on a walk around the neighborhood this morning. As we passed random bits of litter, I would think to myself, "Aw, bummer. Garbage." Every once in a while I'd think, "Hey! That's recyclable!" So, approaching the umpteenth aluminum can, I decided to pick it up and throw it in the bottom of Alice's stroller. Then came a plastic water bottle, and I thought I could pick that up, too. Then I picked up another can, a bottle, a paper box, and on and on until I finally looked up and realized I was not in a very good part of town. I had followed an alluring trail of shiny recyclables all the way to a very uncomfortable situation where litter abounds and small clusters of shaggy-looking men loiter about and laugh loudly.

Yikes.

I high-tailed it out of there, trying to look all casual, square-shouldered and I-totally-came-here-on-purpose-so-don't-mess-with-me-ish.

They probably didn't care about me, Alice, or our stroller filled with garbage, but I was more than slightly relieved to get back to my neighborhood.

Jungle Gym

Warning: To those who feel children should never be allowed to fall, shield your eyes.

Pondering Alice's recent passion to climb things, and her penchant for all things outdoorsy, I created a new little climbing feature for her bedroom. I put a large plastic tub next to her little Lego table and placed them at the foot of her crib near the window. The tub is weighted with books and toys, so it's pretty stable.

Alice scrambles onto the Lego table and heaves herself onto the bin, finally standing up to peek out the window. Sometimes she does a little victory jig on the top level. The dance is too sporadic for me to get a good picture or movie. Yes, she has fallen a couple times.

I was lucky to get this action shot by accident :) A couple hugs and kisses later, she decides to take a break and read a while.

This is one of her favorite books to read. It's a photo album of family members. Her cousin (though I keep wanting to call him "uncle") Colin is the first page.

First Scribbles

I feel kind of dumb sharing this, but it's actually REALLY exciting for me and Bobby. Alice scribbled for the first time last night. On Cinco De Mayo!



We invited some nearby family friends over for strawberry pie and some Mother's Day card-making (for grandmas, of course). The original plan was fingerpainting, but I didn't make the paint in time and it needs time to cool. So! We brought out construction paper, glue, scissors, markers, and every sticker we could find. The kids seemed to enjoy it well enough, but I was kind of disappointed we couldn't make a bigger mess. Oh well. Maybe for Father's Day?

Bobby handed Alice a marker...or two...and let her go. She really liked it! Now each of Alice's grandmas will have a piece of that moment. We're keeping a piece for ourselves, so you grandmas shouldn't feel pressured to save it for posterity. Please don't save it unless it brings you some deep personal satisfaction.

I'm embarrassed to feel so excited about something so small. I mean, this kid is going to produce scribble after scribble after scribble. I will trash/recycle probably 90% of the artwork this kid brings home from church, school, birthday parties, summer camps, and other activities. Another 9% will probably be thrown away by the kid herself once she's old enough to inherit all her "memory boxes" from us.

But I'm so happy for her! She picked the stickers herself, made every one of those marks (most of them intentional), and each sticker is lovingly placed exactly where it fell after she flicked it or dropped it :)

It's the blessing and the curse of the first-born, I suppose. All her developmental firsts are our parental firsts. That's how it goes. Poor, poor babe.

No More Baby Jokes

In response to a recent announcement, I have been gently asked to avoid future jokes regarding my reproductive status :) These sentiments have been expressed by friends and family alike, reminding me of the counsel I once heard from a wise yellow friend:

"It's uterus Marge, not uteryou."---Homer Simpson

No offense was meant. Sorry to those who received a shock. Love, Susan.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was not that terribly different from last week. Not too much happened out of the ordinary during the week. But Saturday was a very busy day. We went to a few garage sales before Susan dropped me off at the Family History Center. Susan attended some baptisms that morning and then volunteered at a garage sale that mothers and more put on that day. Once that was over we went home and had lunch just to turn right back around and go to the church again for another baptism, and a quick class at the Family History Center.

There was one thing that we found at the garage sale that was somewhat out of the ordinary. It is a piano keyboard that hooks up to the computer. It does not have any speakers itself. I managed to make a few recordings of Alice playing a duet with both Susan and I on it.

There are links to them below. When you click on the link it should start to play. If you want to download it, I don't know why you would you can right click and select save-as.

Alice and Daddy

Alice and Mommy

Mommy Milestone #2

The last few days have been interesting. Alice is becoming herself...finally? I've had a whole year of "easy" parenting where the kid just happens to do exactly what I want/expect her to do...most of the time. Just this week, however, I feel like that is changing.

I always think these new developments are permanent, thinking I'll never get used to the new behavior and I'll always feel stunned and incompetent. Just talking about this now reminds me that I've felt like this before. Alice was almost 9 months old. Here's what I wrote about it then. Funny how that's EXACTLY what I'm feeling right now.

So maybe I just need to retool my approach to Alice. She's a toddler, after all, and no longer a baby. She attempts to climb on everything. She throws herself on the floor when frustrated. She has clear opinions about what she would like to do next, though she is strangely obedient and very gentle for someone so little. She also has the patience of a saint...a toddler saint, perhaps, but patience nonetheless.

So, since I'm a planner, here's what I'll do:

1) Look up the kinds of developmental milestones 1-year-olds are working on. I hope this will give me perspective and empathy. Maybe this will also help with communication.

2) Pay attention to the kinds of activities she likes to do and find creative ways to bring more of these activities into our day. I'm always up for something a little different. Maybe she'll like climbing over a pile of cushions? We'll see.