F is sitting up and playing with toys really well now! She likes to blow raspberries (even when she nurses-a strange sensation) and shake toys. This is my absolute favorite age! I love being able to plop her down on the floor with a pillow and a few toys (and a brother for back up) and get some work done. It was really cold this weekend and we don't really want to heat the whole house for a temporary chill, so we put on sweaters and I lengthened F's woolies! I love having an exuse to knit all weekend. I also kept busy in the kitchen with apples (what else-sigh) and also pumpkin!
Remember last year when we didn't carve our Halloween pumpkin and ate it instead? I had one container of frozen puree that fell out of the freezer and shattered that I needed to use up. In my VitaMix I made pumpkin pie smoothies! Oh, Heavenly! Frozen pumpkin puree, plain yogurt, a touch of brown sugar and spice... yum! The only problem was I didn't make enough, because the kids drank it all up!
Luckily I had a pumpkin in reserve that I picked up from the farm down the street from my house. E helped me separate the seeds from the flesh in a wonderful Montessori-like activity (look closely at the background of the picture, you will see one of the reasons I love M so much). We roasted the seeds (my recipe: lightly spray seeds with canola oil, bake at 350 until you've forgotten what you are doing and wonder why the house smells like popcorn, remove from oven, stir and enjoy!) and froze the rest. I even used the stringy part that we took the seeds out of in (oh you will love this) Carrot-Pumpkin-Orange-Strawberry-Banana Ice Cream!!!If I could only have one countertop appliance, it would be a VitaMix 5200. My husband has never eaten so many vegetables. IJ, who was a journalist this weekend, did a newscast about how much he loves my smoothies and it was all because of the VitaMix. I wonder if I send it in to the VitaMix company if they will pay me???
In addition to newscasting (which I have on video and will use as blackmail in about ten years), IJ learned how to tie a square knot and a sheet bend. I let him have a garbage bag full of cheap acrylic yarn that I've kept for kid's projects. He would cut a length of yarn, tie it to the end of the previous string, and wind it up. The perfect activity to develop those fine motor skills which will translate into good penmenship, so they say. For two straight hours last night I heard, "...rabbit comes out of the hole, around the tree, back into the hole..."What about S? What did he do all weekend? Saturday and Sunday are video game days, so he played video games for hours and hours. We set the timer and made him come up (or go outside) for air, and we had peace. Peace because when it isn't video game day, S asks when it will be video game day (he has learned the days of the week this way) and talks nonstop about his races and the bosses he beats and how many balloons he has. In fact, he wakes up really early and sometimes goes downstairs where he waits for A to emerge to get ready for school. As soon as he sees her, he asks her what the hardest race is and how to beat the big boss... I should have a problem with this, but for some reason I don't. When he wasn't playing video games or playing outside, he was making his baby sister laugh with his insane antics. No one makes F laugh like S does.
We had a power outage last night and for some awful reason everyone was up WAY too early. S was up at 4:45am, F followed at about 5:10, and E crawled up next to me on the couch at 5:20. I guess I will get an early start on those apples in the kitchen... Today is apple butter day!
