Money can't buy happinesss...

...but it CAN buy you the cutest little teapot in the history of cute little teapots for the low, low price of $7.99!

it even matches our dining room!

Isn't this the perfect pot for brewing Chai Spice?  Or cinnamon apple?  Thank you, Home Goods!  And thank you Mr. Pickles for providing me with a couple hours off last week so I could window shop sans children and spot this gem!

Homemade Christmas

This year, since I had a new baby and all, I didn't have the time to do much for homemade presents.  But I did manage to put together one little gift for a sweet niece.  I got the inspiration from this post on my all-time favorite mommy blog.

take an empty Altoids tin...

and ta-da!  the perfect mouse house!

 

This was so fun and quick to make -- I think it took me two evenings (and that's with a nursing baby).  I didn't use a pattern; I just winged it, using little bits of things left over from other projects.  Everything was hand-stitched -- it took less time than threading the machine. :)

I wish I had more time to do fun little things like this.  I love sewing and knitting, but my time is not my own.  Having more time for creating is one of the things I'm looking forward to as the children get older, as bittersweet as that time will be.

Andy at three months

This week I dressed Andy in the hand-crocheted sacque set set that Aunt Terri and Nana made when Miriam was born (she had pink ribbons).  And oh... the cuteness.

now, I may be prejudiced, but I think he is just beautiful

and such a happy camper!

Mr. Bright-eyes

seriously, this kid is SO happy

the photographer's assistant, who "helped" by repeatedly climbing into the shot to "kisht Andy"

okay!  photo shoot's over!

And for a fun comparison, here are the other boys at the same age:

Jojo

Danny, who at 3 months was too big for the heirloom set!

(The shots of the girls are on the dinosaur computer, otherwise I'd post them too.)

Andy has been giggling up a storm lately.  He thinks Mr. Pickles is hilARious.  We've got lots of video, but for some reason the format isn't compatible with my laptop.  As soon as the resident technology guru fixes that for me I'll upload some movies so your brains can overload from the cuteness!

Christmas 2012

As promised, here's a glimpse of our Christmas festivities.

Aunt Katie and Uncle Dave spent Christmas with us (yay!).  We saved decorating the tree for Christmas Eve, as per tradition.  Uncle Dave, who is one of the few people who actually makes me feel short, helped hang all the really high decorations. Of course I have no pictures of that.

however, Mr. Pickles did get one of a ballerina decorating the tree

 

Andrew lent moral support by being cute

Of course we made Pulla.

Can you believe it took me umpteen years to turn the page in my Finnish Cookbook and notice all the awesome shapes you can make?  Behold, a Christmas star!

see?  see the star?  it's... five-pointed? ....just take my word for it, okay?

We toyed with the idea of Midnight Mass, but eventually opted for the Vigil instead.  Christmas morning was great.  Here the kids are waiting for their lazy mom to haul her sorry heinie out of bed so they can see what Santa brought:

beware the evil elf!

Eventually Dave and Katie came over and we had brunch, followed by a marathon family present-opening.  In our house we take turns opening presents one-by-one so we can all see and appreciate what everyone else got, and also so Mom can write everything down for the sake of thank you notes.  Now we might not ever actually get to WRITING said thank you notes...
 
This year we really, really will, though -- we got a good haul!

Lots of books:

Tintin, Calvin & Hobbes, and Polish picture books!  what more do you need in life?

 and lots of games!

thank you Aunt Katie and Uncle Dave!  you guys are the BEST!

We lazed around for most of the rest of the day and had a big Christmas feast -- you've already seen the pictures of The Aftermath.  Then in the evening we all headed over to some friends' for Christmas dessert.

It was a quiet (relatively), lovely day full of peace and joy and delight and love.  Thanks Dave and Katie for sharing it with us!

Adventures in Gluten-free Baking

Christmas post coming!  But until then, we present for your viewing pleasure, the uni-cookie!

Which, when removed from the tray, looks like this:

Next time, less butter.  Meanwhile, someone hand me a spoon!

(The next batch, to which was added more gluten-free mix, came out more normal):

Maybe I should take the metal cars out of his pockets before he steps on the pediatrician's scale.

Okay, so I've probably mentioned before that Daniel is big.  He was born weighing the same amount that all my other kids were at 2 months, so it's no surprise that he would be slightly above the normal curve.  However, he just had his 2 1/2 year check up last week, and the pediatrician was practically freaking out about his weight.  I can't say I blame her.  Check out his stats on the growth chart:

Okay, see that circled red dot?  The one that's on the 5th percentile line for length?  That's his WEIGHT. (40 lbs. -- that's how much Katie weighed LAST YEAR.)  So the pediatrician was asking about his eating habits and activity level, and making recommendations to help him slim down.  She hinted that he was borderline overweight and we should probably be concerned about that.

Now, I know Danny's big.  And heavy.  And tall.  But FAT? 

It's not like he's a Michelin baby or anything.  I mean, he doesn't have rolls.  He is just SOLID.  Future linebacker material.

So I calculated his body mass index: let's see, weight divided by height squared times 703 (how did they come up with this anyway??) equals... 18.02.  I had to find a chart for children, since according to the adult charts he's actually UNDERweight (ha!).  So here is his BMI compared with other boys his age.

Ta-da!  Surprise!  He's totally within normal range.  Still on the big side, but less than 90th percentile.  Whew!  Parenting panic averted. I'm still going to give him low-fat milk (he loves his milk) and try to get him outside to run more often (because it's totally not winter and freezing outside), but at least now I don't have to feel like I'm a bad mother for stuffing my child.  Maybe I'll bring this BMI chart in with me to his next appointment.

Lesson learned: be your own child's health advocate and refuse to be freaked out when your instincts tell you otherwise.

{phfr}, frozen tundra edition

{pretty}

Winter sunrises are so glorious -- and I actually get to see them b/c they're so late!

{happy}

boy + sword = happy

{funny}

At first we thought our new ice cream maker's motor was burning out.  Then I opened the dishwasher and saw this ex-medicine cup resting under the heating element.  And then I apologized to the ice cream maker.

{real}

It's so bright and sunny this morning... let's check the thermometer, shall we?

Gahhh!

If you need me I'll be hiding under my down comforter today.

The Great House Hunt Begins!!!

So we went to our first open house today.  It was only about a mile away, so we only had to postpone Daniel's nap by about half an hour to see it.  The kids had a great time running all over and choosing which bedroom would have been theirs.  It was a 5 bedroom house -- 4 beds upstairs, 3 full baths, one half bath in the basement, 2 fireplaces, a sun room (perfect for homeschooling!), an in-law suite (complete with separate entrance)...  the thing seemed HUGE to me as I was walking through it.  At first I totally dismissed it as way too much house for us -- so many floors to clean! -- but after we left I got to thinking about all the ways I could utilize so much space.  A library!  A sewing room!  A man cave!  A secret hideout!  (There was a darling tiny room upstairs -- only 7 x 6 -- with an octagonal window.  Basically a large walk-in closet with a window.  But oh, the possibilities!)  The tour prompted a good discussion with Mr. Pickles about how much house we each consider reasonable.

Several houses have come on the market in the last few days, so I've been scrolling through the possibilities and dreaming.  I found a wreck of a house that's selling for about the same as what our house is worth.  It's labeled an "investor opportunity" and I can only say that the pictures are brutally honest.  But!  It's about 1/3 of a mile from the bus stop on The Bus Route of Happiness, plus walking distance to our pool.  And there's something in me that relishes the challenge of taking an ugly house and beautifying it.  I actually enjoy housecleaning.  (Tidying, not so much.)  This would be like housecleaning on crack.  I almost want to take a look at the inside to see just how bad it is.  I figure as long as there isn't any mold or major plaster work to be done -- if we only had to replace flooring and repaint, maybe a couple appliances -- it might almost be worth it.

Please talk me out of it.

last 2012 photodump

One day when Mr. Pickles took the kids, along with one of their friends, to one of the neighborhood tot lots, they found an abandoned grocery cart filled with weeds.

city-slickers' hay ride

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While cleaning out the entry closet, I put all the out of season shoes in a paper sack.  I'm not quite sure how we ended up with a whole bag full of sandals...

I think they breed like rabbits.

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Methinks we need a longer couch.

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This was intended to be the {real} part of a {phfr} post

Hey, at least we HAD candles!  And I even attempted to decorate with liturgical colors... that one on the right is totally purple and not dark blue at all, nuh-uh...

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Jojo is becoming quite the artist. 

that would be a silly bat

as you can see, he is rather fond of silly faces

 ----------
 I just can't get enough of sibling love shots.

d'awww....

Katie LOVES reading to Daniel before his nap.  What a blessing to have reading children!

just plain silly.

SOOOO much love

And of course, to balance all that lovin', there's this:

Ahhh, I love my kids. :)

Adventures in Eating

Blah blah Christmas blah New Year.  Those posts are coming.  First some everyday news stuff that ought to have been published LAST year.

So.  I took Miriam to a pediatric allergist a month ago to get her tested.  It was time.  We knew soy was bothering her, and we thought dairy might be too, but we wanted to have an official diagnosis (if for no other reason than to be able to say, "No, you are not allergic to your vegetables.  Now eat them."). :)  (Actually, she loves vegetables.)  She didn't have the arm full of needles that Mr. Pickles had, thankfully -- for kids it's much more merciful.  They just painted common allergens on little plastic bristles and pressed them against her arms.  Then she had to sit for 15 minutes and get itchy and not be able to scratch.

And boy, did she itch!  Some poke marks swelled up almost immediately.  The grass and tree pollen we already knew about.  The soy poke swelled into a serious hive and even grew little feet.  It was pretty impressive (from the point of view of the one observing, not the one who was swelling and itching).  Thankfully at the end of it all they gave her an antihistamine which stopped the swelling and itching after a few minutes.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of her arms first, though.

Anyway, here's the official tally:

grass
trees
ragweed
oak trees (guess what grows all over our neighborhood)
timothy grass (guess what we feed our rabbit)
soy (just like Daddy)
corn (ditto)
almonds
peanuts (!)

broccoli (!)
green beans (!)

About the only suspected things she didn't react to were dust, wheat (thank heaven), dairy, and rabbits (they didn't have a test for gerbils).  They tested her for oatmeal too, and my memory is that she reacted a little, but it wasn't marked on the result chart the allergist gave us.  I'm grateful she tested okay for dairy.  We realized that each time she ate something with dairy in it and had an adverse reaction, the food also contained either almonds or corn in some form (Mr. Pickles' gluten-free baking mix has almond meal, and shredded cheese often has corn starch). The interesting thing is that she had been eating peanut butter, broccoli, and green beans with no reaction whatsoever.  The allergist admitted that food allergies are trickier to diagnose accurately than environmental allergens.  Sometimes you get false positives or negatives, and sometimes a person can eat the food in one form but not another.  For example, Miriam had been eating peanut butter, for which the peanuts were always roasted.  And the broccoli and green beans were always cooked.

Even so, we avoided all possible allergens for a few days, just to flush them out of her system, and re-introduced them one at a time.  Dairy was first, to make sure she could enjoy pulla at Christmas (which is chock full of butter and milk), although we had to skip the icing because all powdered sugar is mixed with cornstarch, sigh.  Peanut butter and cooked green beans are also okay, thankfully.  (Have yet to test broccoli.)  Man does not live on vitamin supplements alone. (many of which have corn in them anyway)  And without peanuts or cheese, what is one supposed to feed a kid on Friday???

Oh.  And Joseph says that carrot sticks and sugar snap peas make his mouth itchy.

And Mr. Pickles might be growing sensitive to dairy.

So.  We've become one of THOSE families.  So who wants to invite us over for dinner?

--------------------

It's not all abstinence and deprivation, however.  After the initial shock -- to our psyches and the grocery budget -- the food restrictions have been good in many ways.  For one thing, I've been cooking everything from scratch -- very few pre-packaged foods are safe.  This has made us realize that corn and soy are in just about everything -- that can't be good for a population.  And I keep hearing things about genetically-modified foods, particularly corn and soy, that could explain why my family is suffering these reactions.  It seems that modern farming techniques are altering plants to a degree that some sensitive bodies can no longer recognize them as foods, but instead see them as toxic invaders.  My hope is that after a period of time, we can re-introduce the offending foods into our diet, but in an organic and non-GM form.  This means we might also need to change the kind of meat and dairy we buy, too.  Local farms, organic produce, grass-fed beef, free-range chickens and hogs...  I can see the dollar signs floating out of my fingers as I type. :)  But you know what?  One thing this episode has taught us is how much better REAL food tastes.  I've mentioned free-range eggs here before.  It's just a pity that you have to pay through the nose these days to get the kinds of things our great-grandparents were all raised on.

But yes, real food and cooking from scratch.  It's gotten to the point where we don't enjoy eating out any more, unless we go to a really, really nice restaurant where the waiter sweeps the crumbs from our tablecloth in between courses. (see those dollar signs again?)  But at other ordinary places, whatever we get, our consensus is usually, "Meh, we could have had better at home. And for cheaper!"  I don't think I'm a great cook, I just happen to like yummy, flavorful meals so I try to cook things that I like.  Home cookin' is always better. (and less salty)  If you come visit I'll fix you some fennel-encrusted pork loin roasted with potatoes and pears and I think you'll agree. :)

Another bonus is finding things that still make life worth living.  Sadly, Mr. Pickles can't have beer (even the gluten-free ones often have corn syrup), but he has found a few hard ciders that taste nasty bitter strong enough to pass for a beer-like beverage.  Mike's hard lemonades are out, but there is Southern Comfort.  And Capt. Morgan.  And we've discovered port.  Both kinds!  Did you know there were two kinds of port?  Tawny and Ruby?  They are both yummy in different ways.  I can't decide which I like best.  And of course there's always wine.  We're considering becoming wine snobs.

Mr. Pickles has also discovered the most awesome recipe for lava cake.  Did you know it only takes 15 minutes to make?  Like, from start to finish?  Actually, the fact that he discovered this recipe is kind of dangerous, at least to our waistlines....  I also found a vegan gingerbread recipe that is awesome.  At least, it was the first time I made it.  The second time I tried to make it, it would have made a worthy entry in the "most spectacular baking disaster" category.  (I was too mad to take a picture.  Sorry.)  Not quite sure what happened....

So we are still able to eat, and eat well.  But it's like navigating a maze sometimes.  And it's hard this time of year, with all the soy- and corn-syrup-filled Christmas candy, let alone the box FULL of forbidden Christmas cookies which a well-meaning but uninformed family member sent us.  We've discovered NaturalCandyStore.com, however, which has made Christmas just a little sweeter than it would have been otherwise.  (Their candy canes were delish!)