Halloween

So, the rain kind of held off, and the kids went out trick-or-treating.

My daughter was a Barbie-Thumbelina-Fairy-Princess thing or something. The boy was a fireman.

The boy loved it. I am not sure he really understood he was getting candy (not at the time – he figured it out later), but he just seemed to love the idea of going up to people’s houses, getting something out of a bowl, putting it in this strange pumpkin container thing is parents gave him, and carrying it to the next house.

The girl, surprisingly, did not go too crazy… a couple of blocks and she was done. Or just ready to get to the eating part, I’m not sure.

At the end of the night, they picked their 15 pieces of candy and left the rest out for the Candy Fairy to come and trade for a gift.

I am not sure what the Candy Fairy does with all that candy, but if I find it, I’ll let you know. Eventually.

A Peanut Battle Update and More

Hey, all – sorry I haven’t been around. Work has been crazy… I’ve gotten a promotion without the promotion, so I am trying to do my old job and my new (really more of a new role than job) while transitioning.

Oh, and learning that raising two kids is a lot of work!

Anyhow, it has been another year already for my daughter, so we hauled her off to get her allergies re-tested, and to get The Boy tested as a precaution because now we have a “history” in our family.

The good news is that, based on the skin test, the allergist felt my daughter may no longer have an issue with peanuts! We were actually a bit worried, because they prick the arm, then leave you alone for 15 minutes. One of my daughter’s tests was really swelling a lot, and Ms. Kaz and I were a bit bummed because we assumed it was the peanut.

Turns out, that’s just the control test. Apparently something everyone reacts to (anyone? maybe just raw histamine??).

That being said, she still needs to go back for a … PEANUT CHALLENGE! (dun dun dun!)

Basically, they will start with a teeny tiny bit of peanut, uh, something. They will then watch. Then they will give a little more. Then watch. Eventually, it progresses to peanut butter on a cracker and beyond (presumably they’ll let her go to eating a whole jar of peanut butter than afternoon if she has no reaction and is so inclined).

So, we are not out of the woods yet, but things are looking a bit brighter!

Howdy, Stranger!

Things are finally starting to settle here at work. This is my last scheduled night shift (6p – 2a or so – shh! Don’t tell my boss!), and, hopefully, my kids will get to know me as more than just Morning Guy.

Actually, this past week, while making nights and early mornings tough for Ms. Kaz, has afforded me a bit more time with the kids. My daughter, especially has been excited.

I promised her, once things calmed down, I would take a day off (not yet) and do something fun. “How ’bout we make cookies?” she asked. “Sure,” I said. So, the last few days, she’s been asking me about making cookies. So, today we began making cookies. “Is today your day off, daddy?” It isn’t, but I was home during the day, and the recipe I chose (sugar cookies – yum!) required overnight refrigeration.

We had a lot of fun making the dough. My daughter kept asking if she could try the dough as we added each ingredient. “Not yet,” I told her. The dough kept filling the bowl and filling the bowl. As my daughter enjoyed licking the mixer, I checked the recipe.

Good lord. Servings = 60!!

Well, if anyone wants cookies, let me know. We’ll have plenty.

And hopefully, I’ll be able to post a lot more frequently.

A Nice Pear

For my birthday, I got a box of pears and apples from Harry & David from my in-laws. Of course, as I always do when we get pears, I have to make the comment that there’s nothing I like better than a nice pear. And, as she always does, Ms. Kaz rolled her eyes.

Last week, at 4 1/2 months, we started The Boy on solids. Rice cereal. Yummy.

Needless to say, he didn’t really take to it. He didn’t soundly reject it, either. But he wasn’t encouraged to learn how to eat either. Oh, he eats now, but it is mostly just sucking. He still doesn’t quite grasp chewing and swallowing.

We figured this week, with mushed up pears, he’d try a little harder. Pears are sweet. Kids like sweet stuff (like the valentine’s sugar cookie from Mrs. Field’s my daughter devoured last night). This morning, with his first spoonfuls of pear, he seemed somewhat interested. But he still didn’t get the chew and swallow method of eating.

Then he got his thumb in his mouth. I think he was surprised his thumb suddenly tasted to good! So sweet! He totally went to town on his thumb. So, the rest of breakfast went that way. Sneak in a spoonful, thumb goes in mouth, pear gets sucked down.

Oh, well. He’s not even 5 months yet. He’ll get it eventually.

While we’re on the topic of eating.. a few weeks ago, my daughter ate a few pieces of asparagus from my leftovers, and it left her asking for more. A few days later, she mentioned that she liked “the pointy end” of asparagus. So, I suggested to Ms. Kaz we get some asparagus. She bought some, and last night we had a risotto with beans and asparagus sauteed with garlic.

Our daughter ate an ungodly amount of asparagus. Which is good! But a little scary how much she ate.

Bread making for those with kids

I’ve always wanted to be one of those guys who makes his own bread. There’s nothing better than fresh, warm bread.

I’ve dabbled in it a bit before kids, making a good beer bread once, but never had the time with kids. That, and I’ve always hated dealing with the dough.

When the No-Knead Bread recipe came out in the New York Times, and it was all the rage a while back, I thought again about trying. It seemed so simple. However, it still required some planning.

When I read about the Quicker No-Knead Bread recipe over at OhDeeDoh.com (formerly nursery.apartmenttherapy.com), I knew that if I didn’t try this recipe, I never would. Kaz: I should say I saw this at the BOTTOM of the OhDeeDoh page. It actually resides on another part of the former apartmenttherapy, known as TheKitchn.

The recipe is somewhat kid-friendly in that, there’s not a lot of work, so you aren’t slaving away all day and not helping out with the kids (okay, maybe this isn’t a negative so much!). However, my daughter was all excited to help, and the dough is so sticky, and hard to work with, there wasn’t too much she could really do.

I just gotta say, though – this recipe was awesome. We had some nice warm, fresh bread for the Curried Butternut Squash Soup we made for dinner. And the smell the bread made was like heaven.

Plus, my daughter was proud of me. “Good job, dad!” she told me.

If you’d like some fresh bread, give the recipe a try. It really is quite easy to make. If you do, let me know how it turned out!

I only wish I took pictures to share with you all…

Conversations With…: Where do they get this stuff?

I’ve had a couple recent conversations with my daughter which stick in my mind…

They’re always after me luck charms

At our house, my daughter eats healthy, or at least organic and natural, cereals. Mighty Bites (or “guys” as we call ‘em, ’cause they’re shaped like people) and Chocolate Blast ‘Ems are popular (side note: Chocolate Blast ‘Ems, to me at least, are nowhere as tasty as Coco Puffs). But when we visit my mother’s house, it is Trix and Coco Puffs and Frosted Cheerios and my daughter’s favorite — Lucky Charms. How can you not like cereal with little marshmallows in it? Especially if you are three years old.

My daughter also brought back some jewelry, which I am sure is Chock Full O’ Lead, from daycare. Including some charm bracelets. Her favorite? The one that says, “Princess” of course.

So, the other day, Ms. Kaz and I thought it was strange when we had the following conversation:

Daughter: Mom, where’s my.. uh… my marshmallow that says “princess” ?
Ms. Kaz: Your what?
Daughter: My marshmallow that says “princess” on it?
Me: She means the princess charm
Daughter: Yeah. That’s right. My princess charm.
Ms. Kaz: Ohhh…

So this morning, as Ms. Kaz was eating breakfast, I said to her, “Boy, she really likes her Lucky Charms. I think she really likes the marshmallows.” This lit a bulb over Ms. Kaz’s head about the whole charm/marshmallow word mix-up.

Now, we’re not really sure if this is how she mixed up her words. It seems like a really leap to make that connection. But she’s made stranger connections in her mind before.

Isn’t she a little young to be dating?

Usually, our make believe play involves my daughter being a princess (one of the Disney ones, of course), and me being a prince* and Ms. Kaz being someone evil. One day, my daughter said to me, “Daddy, I want you to be the boyfriend! And mommy will be my mother!” Okay, I thought, let’s see where this goes…

Daughter: Okay, boyfriend, time for bed!
Me: Uhh…
Daughter: I’ll sleep here, and you sleep over there.
Me: Oh, okay. G’night, girlfriend.
Daughter: Uh, oh! Mommy!
Ms. Kaz: Yes, daughter?
Daughter: The cat went pee-pee on my bed!

You see, our cat has been acting out because of the new kitty litter and possibly because we brought another torturer child into the house. So, we’ve found, uh, cat urine in places it isn’t supposed to be.

Ms. Kaz: That’s okay, daughter, I can clean the sheets.
Daughter: Okay! I will sleep with my boyfriend tonight!
Me: Uh… I don’t like where this is going.

And, yes, of course I know it is all innocent. But when get the ideas in their heads early?

No dating for her until either (a) she is 30 years old, or (b) I am dead.

Oh, who am I kidding. (b) is the only real option.

* Quick side note: a conversation we often have — Daughter: Daddy, I want you to be uh… uh.. who’s the prince from Jasmine? Me: Hmm… yeah, who is that prince in that Aladdin movie?!?

The Peanut Battle: Part V (Nuts to Nuts)

When my daughter turned 3, one of the things we had to do was schedule a follow-up with the allergist.

We weren’t happy with the last one, so we tried a different one this time. This allergist was recommended by our neighbors who have a son who is allergic, not only to peanuts, but dairy, and a host of other foods.

The initial tests were negative. However, this just lead them to do a second test. This second test consists on just spreading a little peanut butter on my daughter. This test came back with not so good results. She still has her peanut allergy.

The one thing that has changed is that this allergist insists we be more careful about peanut exposure. We now have to read labels a lot more carefully and watch her much more closely if she is exposed to something which is exposed to peanuts.

I gotta tell you – reading labels is tough. We were at Trader Joe’s, and my daughter was being very good and asked nicely about some cookies that she saw another child buying. Well, those cookies were made in a plant which also processes peanuts. I checked every single container of cookies in Trader Joe’s. Same thing.

It is tough continuing to look at all the containers when, after each one, my daughter asks me, “That one has nuts, daddy?” and I have to sigh and tell her she cannot get those cookies.

There’s still a chance she will grow out of the allergy. I really hope so. While she seems to like Soy Nut Butter (*shudder*), I can only imagine what her taste buds would think if she had Peanut Butter.

On the plus side, last night, as a family, we made chocolate chip cookies from scratch.

I think she forgot about the Trader Joe’s cookies as soon as she took that first lick from the bowl.

Organic To Be

Hey, all – another quick post.

I just discovered the OrganicToBe website here at WordPress. What drew my attention is that they have two contributors who focus on organic foods for kids and babies. Lisa Barnes has a series of posts with a lot of intriguing recipes.  Barbara Storper answers questions and provides some useful information for parents.

I like to support sites which help parents help their kids and the world they are going to inherit (as well as fellow WordPress’ers), so check them out.

Who are you people??

I can not have a post for several days, and yet still get what for me is a decent amount of hits.

That means either people are getting here via search engines for important product information, such as double strollers, organic products, or their hate for home depot, or “something to wear that starts with k” (dude – kimono), or, more recently, “I don’t want my daughter to be a bird”.

Or, you all are just curious to see if I survived having a birthday party for a three-year-old at my house (not sure yet).

Man, I wish I had some good stories from the party. But I don’t. I don’t understand – it isn’t like I wore a shirt that said, “I am blogging this”… I mean, you’d think this would be a perfect thing for some good stories. But, no, we remembered all the food – unlike the year we bought a giant ice cream cake, forgot to put it out for people, then attempted to take it back to Buffalo (6 hr drive) in just a cooler with a couple ice packs (doesn’t work, don’t try it).

There was no break-down — Timmy was probably missed, but not while my daughter was distracted by all the kids. There was no nap-time break-down. Despite all the excitement, my daughter managed a 1/2 hr nap.

About the only eventful thing is that I went 9 hrs without food Friday due to a visit with a potential client and traffic on the Merrit Parkway. Then I crammed a whole plate of greasy french fries in my stomach and proceded to get sick several times the night before the party (don’t worry, I recovered in time to have pizza and beer).

Things went well. And my daughter seemed to have a lot of fun. I am still recovering a bit, but I promise to be back in full-swing soon(ish).

Oh, we did wind up with a lot of left-over pizza, if anyone wants any (you “New Haven Pizza”, “a-beetz” and “Sally’s Apizza” searchers, I’m looking at you)…

What the..?!? Ice cream ready in just 5 mins?

Great. Now I’ve gotten Alice from the Brady Bunch doing the minute rice commercials stuck in my head.

Anyhow… just saw this via BoingBoing — a simple ice cream recipe using plastic baggies that only takes 5 mins.

My daughter’s currently hooked on popsicles, but she is an ice cream nut (the only food she will use a spoon and not her fingers for the entire consumption is ice cream), so this might be a good “emergency” recipe to have on hand.

Basically – ice cream ingredients in a small bag. Small bag inside large bag filled with ice and rock salt, shake 5 mins, and you have ice cream.

If anyone tries this before I do, let me now if/how it works.

Pick It

I mentioned previously (I think!?) that, in addition to our garden, we are growing some strawberries. We planted them in a planter because (a) we hear they spread like wild fire, and we don’t want that, and (b) our house was built in 1923, so odds are, there’s some lead in our ground soil.

Well, the plants are doing okay, not great.

So, maybe we will take our daughter to a farm to pick some strawberries. We’ve always thought she’d enjoy it. And this year, I think she’s probably old enough to do it. The problem is, where do you find these places?

Well, thanks to Consumerist.com, I found PickYourOwn.org, which has what seems to be a pretty extensive list of pick-your-own farms across the country. And it isn’t just for strawberries – these farms seem to have a pretty good range of fruits and veggies to choose from… at least in our area. There’s even a farm nearby which offers organic produce!

This idea seems like it could result in some good photo opportunities, as well!

Long (and sometimes loooooooong) weekend

Sorry for being gone so long… I intended to do this update last night, but we finally had a chance to watch the season finale of Lost (I’ve got just one word – wtf?!?!)

This weekend, some friends and their 2-year-old came to visit. I knew it would be interesting having 2 two-year-olds in the house. Granted, they were 9 months apart (my daughter being older), but they were still two-year-olds, if you know what I mean.

Two things surprised me. The first was how quickly and how much they took to each other. My daughter especially. It usually takes her a while to warm up to other kids. Well, at least other kids who are coming into her territory house and playing with her stuff. But she took to little, let’s call him Ian, right away. And little Ian was just as excited.

The other thing that surprised me about having them both in the house was just how much my daughter needed to show off. And not in a good way. At two years old, many kids are trying to prove they are the boss and are in control. They are, but as parents, we’re not supposed to let on.

My daughter took many opportunities to throw HUGE hissy fits when not getting her way. And, about the dumbest stuff — not getting to ride in the same car as Ian (during this fit, I was told I was “a bad guy” and that my daughter didn’t want to “ride in my car ever ever ever again”), having to wear socks, not getting to take a bath, etc.

More after the jump…