Wasting time this morning

Toddlerville

We have entered the world of the screaming protests of toddlerhood. Anna is 19 months old now, and she has discovered her voice. Anything that is not to her liking is met with screaming and foot stamping, and just the other day she sat down and started banging her head on the floor. So much anguish for such a little person.

We're still at the stage where it's cute to see her expressing herself like that, but when she started getting loud at the store yesterday, and the nice little old lady in front of us in line started giving us looks that could kill, I began wondering for how long I will be amused by it. I think we will have to start planning our shopping for times when she can stay home for now. I love to bring the kids with me, but when we reach the point of having to forget half the list and just get out before they kick us out I guess we have to come up with a new plan. :) (That's me, still smiling.)

Random Silliness

We have been joking about making a music score for our 'Jacobs Circus, the Musical'. Ellie makes up so many little songs, it gave us the idea to do a musical of our life.

The list of songs so far:

• 'Lets Walk to Bed', in which Ellie sings of bedtime,
  

• Chuggy Chan, an ode to Maggie the bear-dog (this is one of her silly nicknames),
  

• Chubbly Bubbly Boo, an ode to Anna. Chubbly Bubbly Boo is one of Anna's silly nick names.

• The Rain Song. Ellie sang this song when she played in the rain a few days ago, which goes like "When you get in the rain, you are wet! You're not dry! You are cold! You're not warm!" I wish I filmed Ellie singing that one.
• I Do Believe In Sandwiches. In the newer Peter Pan, they have a part where they bring Tinkerbell back to life by saying "I do believe in fairies! I do! I do!", Ellie randomly started singing "I do believe in sandwiches! I do! I do!".
  

Yet Another Farewell to a Pet Post

This morning our guinea pig Patch ("Patchy-Poo") Jacobs passed away after an extended illness. She is survived by her sister, Penny, and her owners, the Jacobs family, who will all miss her greatly. Patch was born June 1st, 2003, and died September 16, 2008.

The girls will undoubtedly be spending more time loving on Penny now that she is all alone, so hopefully she won't be too lonely. Here is an old post with pictures of the two piggies.

We buried Patch in the backyard and the girls decorated her grave with lots of flowers, then they spent some time hanging out with our newest pets, the chickens.






I'm not sure what it is with Anna and this scrunchy-nose smile, but it's awfully cute. As you can see, she still has both of her front teeth, although the right one still hangs a bit lower than the other. Contrary to my expectations, it has reattached, so for now she gets to keep it!

Dinner Mon Dieu

Here is a recipe that I created last Friday while trying to make dinner with what we had on hand (Tony was gone with the girls to take Margaret to guitar lessons). I had in mind something like a stew, and I considered baking it a bit at the end to brown it, but I didn't. There isn't any meat or cheese because we don't eat animal products on Fridays :), but some beef or even some cheese might be a good addition.
Here's what I did:

6 or so potatoes, scrubbed and diced
1 white onion, sliced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 zucchini, sliced
5 or 6 fresh tomatoes, diced (I probably should have peeled them, but I didn't)
A few pinches of dried herbs, I used thyme and rosemary, and a bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Heat some oil in the new cast iron dutch oven that your parents gave you (thanks mom and dad) and saute the carrots and onion. After they begin to soften, add the potatoes and let them brown a bit and start to cook. Then add all the rest of the ingredients, put the lid on and turn the heat down and allow it to simmer until everyone else gets home, about 45 minutes. Serve in bowls, but be sure to let the baby's cool first.

That's it. Everyone kept asking me what did you make for dinner (they all thought it smelled really good, I think it was the garlic and rosemary) and I didn't know what to call it, but Margaret said it reminded her of ratatouille, so Tony dubbed it "Potatoes Mon Dieu" which any one who's seen Better Off Dead will understand. We didn't have any fraunch bread, unfortunately.

Edited to Add: The next morning (Saturday) we took the leftover potatoes Mon Dieu and fried them (in little patties, like potato pancakes) and ate them with fried eggs. It was at least as good as the night before.

Thursday Update, of silverware and dreams

We have had a soggy week with much rain and more in the forecast. Not much else notable is happening, just the usual endless stream of silliness with the occasional screaming fit added in for variety.

Sophie and Ellie have recently developed a weird habit of bringing several forks a piece to the table during meals, and having them all talk to each other and act out dramatic scenes while they eat with their fingers. Even Anna joined in the other day by holding up her fork to the other girls and saying "hello!"

Ellie had a bad dream last night and woke up yelling "no!" She later told me a long, drawn-out tale of how she dreamed she was running and then she ran into Count Olaf (this is a character from a movie the kids have seen) with Hanna's two sisters, and she said "can we eat this?" because they were hungry and a scary guy chased them around and then they ran into count Olaf's office and he had food, so they ate his cookies. It was very cute to hear her explain the dream. This is Ellie's nightmare world, scary guy and lack of cookies.

I also had a really bad dream last night in which my mother (sorry, Mom :) came to visit and painted every wall in my house a pale yellow. It looked awful. So glad it was just a dream. I guess my nightmare world is one where someone else is taking over and making bad home decorating decisions for me.

Ellie reads a book

Edited to Add:
Ellie didn't know I was filming her until right at the end. The book she's "reading" is Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton.