Making Spirits Bright

Note: This post was written on Sunday, December 14th, not the 12th as dated.

Logan and I did our first cooking project together a few weeks ago. We attempted to make little peanut butter bear treats from an awesome toddler cookbook R and J gave us. After stirring for about a minute, Logan abandoned me and I finished the project on my own. They were very tasty, basically peanut butter Rice Krispies treats. We, or rather, I, made cats rather than bears.

Despite this unsatisfying first attempt at culinary bonding, today we tried again, this time with the HPs, during what I hope will be a tradition for the next 40 years: Holiday Cookie Day(tm). Our plan was to gather our two families to make holiday cookies. After much discussion, AHamp and I decided it would be best not to produce the entire recipe in one day, but rather pre-make the dough and have cookies at different stages a la a cooking show. One batch already baked and ready to ice, one batch rolled out and ready to cut. TP predicted "Moms in the kitchen making cookies while Larry and I control the chaos."


Well, the event came off better than we could have dreamed. Logan and G thoroughly enjoyed the decorating, cutting and, obviously, eating. Everyone participated in the festivities while Ollie relaxed in his baby swing. The boys spent way more time helping than I thought they would.

We made two recipes: Spice Rollout Cookies and Vanilla Rollout Cookies, both from Bon Appetit. The spice cookies were the fave. They are pleasing to kids but are not crazy sugary, so they are tolerable for the rest of us. Recipe here.



Eat your heart out, Martha! Update: We've had some questions about who should receive "credit" for some of the specific designs. Italian flag gingerbread man: TP. Liberty Bell: Amy. Christmas tree with red outline: Larry. And mad props to AHamp for the candy cane sprinkles, which we all highly recommend. They actually taste like candy canes.

Still Sicky

We're being tested this week. Logan was much improved last night and had a good sleep with very little coughing. This morning, though, he's pretty warm and out of sorts, so we'll keep him inside again. This is the worst cold he's ever had, we're just praying nothing else capitalizes on it (bronchitis, sinus infection etc.)

Urgent Care

Winding down from an impromptu trip this evening to our pediatrician's urgent care office...not for Oliver, but for Logan. Logan has had the sniffles for a few days, but he was pretty chipper and asking to go outside, etc. So we weren't all that worried. Once Logan hit about two years old, we really started being more confident in our medical parenting and treating the kid, not the fever. Meaning that we take a lot more cues from Logan about how he's feeling rather than relying just on the thermometer.

But last night things went downhill quickly. He started to heat up and his cough turned really nasty. He woke up repeatedly during the night calling for us; Larry finally went to sleep in his room so he could console him right away. Logan woke up miserable, he was congested and lethargic today, ate very little and was just not himself. By this evening he was up to 104, even after ibuprofen, and completely limp. He just lay on my lap, and then Larry's when I had to go feed Ollie...and "just lying around" is not the Logan way. We started to worry about pneumonia, since we've been there before. Then when Larry went to change him, Logan complained about the light in his room. Well, high fever plus lethargy plus light sensitivity...Mama doesn't mess around with that equation.

Anyway, an urgent care visit and a chest X-ray later, it looks like it's just a bad cold. His chest is clear and, in fact, he made me look like a tool by asking for goldfish crackers while the doctor was examining him. "Sick? I'm not sick. I don't know why she brought me here, doc." So, probably another bad night tonight, but hoping he starts to feel back to his old self tomorrow.

Update Tuesday morning. Another bad night and Logan is at 104 this morning. Larry stayed with him all night so they were both miserable. Right now he's resting on the couch watching Yo Gabba Gabba. Just looking to keep him comfortable and hydrated today. Poor little guy.

The Stockings Were Hung

...by the chimney with thumbtacks.

Some sniffles and the need to do a LOT of laundry kept us indoors for most of this weekend. We did manage to get our stockings hung. I can give or take the tree but I do love me some stockings. From left to right: Daddy, Mommy, Logan, Ollie, little Avery, Rizzo and Cricket.



There's a lot to be said for hanging out and playing, especially when the playmates are so delicious.





It's hard to get good photos of Ollie right now because he still doesn't have much neck control. We did manage to capture him during the stocking-hanging festivities. Logan refused to wear his old Santa hat...until he saw it on Oliver. Just a little something I like to call "Momnipulation."

Clean Living

I'm dying to take credit for this, but props go to AHamp.

HOW TO SHOWER LIKE A MOM OF TODDLER:

Turn on the longest Thomas the Tank Engine DVD you can find.

Equip toddler with juice, binky, snack and position him as close to the TV as possible.

Make mad dash for bathroom. Leave door open.

Rip off clothes while turning on shower while simultaneously collecting rubber duckies, boats, cars, motorcycle men, balls, etc. off floor of tub leftover from last night’s bath.

Curse husband for not having cleaned out bathtub toys the night before.

Call out to toddler repeatedly, “Are you okay? Mama will be right back! Keep watching TV!”

Get in shower. Try not to look at hairy legs and armpits. Close your eyes for the duration of shower if you catch even a tiny glimpse of stretch marks.

Wash hair and soap body at same time.

Call out to toddler repeatedly, “Are you okay? Mama will be right back! Keep watching TV!”

Turn off shower, hop out, and run into TV area soaking wet.

Discover toddler has poured juice on TV.

Towel off while cleaning up juice and answering humiliating questions from toddler about unfamiliar body parts.

Calling My Cooking Friends

I have two kinds of friends: Cooking friends and non-cooking friends (I also have those same two kinds of family members). I love all equally. But today I'm calling on my cooking baking friends. You know who you are. Pretend you see a giant rolling-pin symbol flashing in the sky over Gotham. Help me!

My second attempt yesterday/today at no-knead bread was another dismal failure. Sticky dough after first rise, impossible to knead, did almost nothing on the second rise and, when baked, looked like a huge, tasteless muffin top (not in a good way). This recipe is supposedly foolproof. Am I a fool?

My ingredients were sound. It's really not that many steps. I've been baking bread for, seriously, like 15 years. Why have I twice failed to bake this loaf?

If you are one of my cooking baking friends, please make the damn bread this weekend and help me understand where I've gone wrong.

So Close

Oliver came very close to sleeping through the night last night. After going down easily after his midnight feeding, he awoke briefly at 4.30 a.m., nursed for 8 minutes and then went right back down. He woke up again at 7 a.m. Hoping for a trend...