Yes, another post about footwear.
Not sandals, though.
Not involving the Fashion Queen.
It involves boots and how The Mother just can’t pack.
We arrived at The Grandparents with a large plastic tote in tow filled with footwear. Slippers, sandals, clogs, “strap on shoes” and one pair of boots. One would think that would be adequate for all our footwear needs. Teach One to think. I know, I know- I should give that up. I’m trying, really.
The one pair of boots belonged to The Boy- just in case he went out to do some work with Grandpa. The last day we were there it rained just a little. The Boy wanted to go out to the garden to pick some berries for our homeward trip. There was a little concern about mud so it was decided that he should wear his boots. These precious items were spotted by Little Miss Sunshine who promptly wanted hers, which were at home in a closet.
I promptly received a tongue lashing. How could I not bring them? She wanted them! Where were hers?
This nagging would crop up every now and again on the way home. She has a tendency to nag and not forget things.
After we arrived home there has been one choice in footwear, as far as she is concerned. She doesn’t care how hot it is outside or what fashion would dictate.
Ah, that we were all that confident in our footwear choices.
A strap on The Boy’s sandal broke awhile back but it still stayed on his foot.
Last Friday, right after we arrived at the park to play, the other part broke. It no longer stayed on his foot. He stayed on the play structure or the grass most of the time to protect his bare feet.
We headed straight to that “Evil Out House” place that is basically the only place to shop here. I knew that trying to find sandals at this time of year was a nearly impossible task. The shoe people and the stores seem to think we need to buy sandals in February and snow boots in August. I have found, from past experience, that if you don’t shop for sandals before the end of April, the selection will be pitiful. Then hope that the child’s foot doesn’t go on a growing spree or they don’t break. So there we were, in need, scurrying (The Boy was shuffling; trying to keep the sandal attached to his foot) to the shoe aisle with very low hopes. The sandals, the few that were still languishing there, were relegated to a small, far section of the shoe area. There were a few scattered sandals for toddlers on the shelf.
And one pair of size four.
On sale.
I think it was a God thing.
Sunshine came into the bedroom as I lay with my eyes closed.
“Are you pretending to be awake?” she asked.
I contemplated the question- it seems an apt description of how I go through life- just pretending to be awake.
Yes, I replied.
” I thought so” she giggled.
Sunshine decided on this day that she wasn’t going to ride the Dirt King Trike, her faithful friend that rides the ditches with her. She was going to walk. I guess she decided that it was really going to be a trek because she just had to carry her chair with her.
The chair is a real cute one that was given to her by her Grandmother. It has straps so she can carry it on her back and a pocket to carry things.
She carried it the whole way, which wasn’t really that far, and we didn’t even stop to use it. Tsk, tsk.
Let’s all sing here-“One of these things doesn’t belong here, one of these things just doesn’t belong.” One of these children is not dressed appropriately; she made her own choices on what to wear.
Hint: it was 80 degrees.
This winter when there was snow on the ground Little Miss Pixie decided to wear skirts… everyday. When she went outside she would bundle up in her jacket, scarf, hat and gloves and then fight me tooth and nail to put on thin leggings or tights.
Now, when it’s warm, she is wearing jeans and long sleeve shirts. She has other choices in her closet. I bought some cute skort (skirt with shorts sewn in) outfits when she was along with me. She helped me pick them out- now they are not pink but she said she’d wear them. There was not any tan to be seen. One set has not adorned her body and the other was worn once. We picked out some cute sandals for her, she tried them on, she said they were fine and now it’s a fight to get her to wear them. She would rather wear too small, dirty old ones. The sandals are even white and PINK for goodness sakes!
Do you sense a bit of frustration in my typing? Ah well, I’ve told her I am not buying anything more for her because she tells me she will wear it and then doesn’t. That will last until this winter when she’ll need jeans that aren’t expecting a flood.
And to think- she’s only 5. What will the teenage years be like?
Lord help us.
****Updated with correct numbers****
How high can we go? It’s anyone’s guess.
Just what are we counting, tallying on a daily basis?
Mosquito bites on The Boy.
I should clarify that- “we” aren’t keeping count by choice but there is one of us who is very interested in the numbers and keeps us minutely informed.
Do you see eyes rolling?
To be honest, The Boy is effected by bites more than the average Joe. The bites tend to swell up on him and annoy him more than most. It leaves one to wonder about the constant…. complaining. Is it really bothering him or is he not dealing well with minor discomfort? Since he reacts so to them it’s hard to know. So we medicate him- mostly to relieve our own suffering.
I think we are up to 22, just in case you were wondering.
(Don’t worry, West Nile has not been reported in our county…. yet. Whoops! I was informed I was wrong- a bird was found to have it in 2006 but none has been reported since then.)
We tend to weigh and measure the kids a lot. Why? They keep growing! And growing, and growing….
At the age of two, most children slow down in the growth department- not our crew. So I like to keep track of it all- I’m like that. Give me buttons to push and charts to keep and I am a happy camper.
So… because I know you all are dying of curiosity, here are the most current stats:
The Boy- 56 1/4″ (4′ 8 1/4″), 71 pounds. This puts him in over the 97th percentile in height. He is in the 90th percentile in weight.
Pixie- 46″ (3′ 10″) and 43 pounds. She is on the 90th percentile line for height and 50th for weight. And you wonder why I have troubles finding clothes that fit her!
Sunshine- 43″ (3′ 7″) and 41.4 pounds. She is in the 95th in height and 87th for weight.
I went back to the height predictor at WebMD to see if it said anything new. Since Sunshine was now 4, I wondered if it would change anything.
It assures me that The Boy will still be 6’5″.
Pixie will still be the shrimp of the children at 5’9″.
Sunshine is heading for 5’10”.
I will be the leaning post for all of them, I’m afraid.
I asked Sunshine what she wanted for her birthday (yes, this was BEFORE it happened!).
“A tractor and a shirt!” was her immediate response.
What color of shirt?
“Green!”
Green. Great.
I guess it’s better than orange.
I did buy her both items. The tractor was green too. (my apologies to a certain family I know who prefers implements of a different color.) She was thrilled with it.
Yes, she is wearing a green shirt. But not the one I bought her for her birthday. She hasn’t lowered herself to wear that one yet. It has green stripes but no fun tractors or Sesame Street characters on it- so it’s not hardly worth mentioning. I should have ventured into the boys department to find something more suitable. She is happily examining her tractor set here. This was after she kissed it.
It’s interesting to see how two little girls can be so different. Here is an example:
This could be titled “There is always one who doesn’t cooperate”. Here we are about to go to dinner at a friend’s house. Notice Pixie all color coordinated down to her “hair thing”. Then her sister’s fashion ensemble. The sensible shoes, green shirt with a tractor on it. She didn’t forget the accessories- the apparently fascinating necklace.
I just love watching their personalities bloom!
My Little, ever so Helpful, Pixie has decided to bring me my coffee in the mornings.
This started when her Father would pour me a cuppa (a little Australian for you) and bring it to my lazy bum me while I was still in bed. Little Miss Helpful would carry the mug in the last little bit to me. She was so pleased with herself.
Then there came the fateful morning when her Father had already gone off to work and she was up before me (unfortunately not a rare occurrence- she gets up early- yeah, that’s it!). She carefully poured cream into the mug and poured the coffee out of the thermos carafe where The Col. had left it for me. Her beaming face as she brought it into me was something to see.
Not that I was totally happy with the situation. We told her we didn’t want her to pour hot coffee out of the carafe on the coffeemaker. It’s pretty high up and we were afraid she’d be more likely to drop or spill it and burn herself. But she seemed to manage the other carafe well, and it usually didn’t have much in it.
Then I noticed a disturbing trend. Now, I like my coffee with milk or cream in it. Not like some of the members of my family where there are equal amounts of each but a dab will do- especially when it’s the cream. But I started to get coffee in the mornings that was getting a bit heavy on the cream. And cold too. I’d take a few sips, then put it down and when I got out to the kitchen, I’d add more coffee and heat it up. And then add more coffee and heat it up…. repeat. One day I was trying to tell her how to use the microwave because she said the coffee was cold. I know, not a smart idea to try to tell someone who doesn’t read or recognize most numbers how to operate the microwave. All I can say in my defense is that I hadn’t had my morning coffee. Finally I just told her to push the one button, knowing that the microwave would run for one minute. I figured that would be too long but I didn’t realize that the mug had only about a third of a cup of liquid in it. Scorching!
This morning I heard The Col. tell Miss Helpful that she should wait for me to get up to help her. Hmmm? I got up to find my mug on the table- half, HALF full of cream. I was sure glad that her Dad stopped her! That’s a little too much even for me!
Chocolate cake to be exact.
I didn’t get a good shot of just the cake. Since the focus was on a certain young lady’s birthday, I guess that isn’t a bad thing.
It looks like a regular chocolate cake, right? Little would you know that the frosting had one pound (16 ounces) of semi sweet chocolate in it. And butter. And 1 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream. Do I hear your arteries clogging? Are you drooling on your key board? Eeeewww!
It was yummy. The cake itself, made from scratch with my own two hands (and the electric mixer) was also very good. It had butter in it too, of course, and two kinds of chocolate. It’s an America’s Test Kitchen recipe and, oh is it good. You have to have a bit of patience making it though, as with most of their recipes. I made it without a standing mixer and thought it turned out fine; just be patient and make sure things get mixed well.
I had one part that didn’t go totally smoothly. The recipe for the frosting says to melt the chocolate and (separately) heat the butter and sugar, etc. then combine these two with the cream. It’s too warm for it to whip up at this point and so to cool it down you place the bowl into a larger bowl filled with cold water and ice. The tricky part is to get it to the desired temperature of 70 degrees. If it’s too cold, it will seize up, if too hot then it will not whip up all light and fluffy. I cooled it in the water bath for a bit then did the scientific thing of testing it with my finger. It was clean! (and then I got to lick it too!) I don’t have a thermometer that reads that low. I thought it felt pretty cool, and not wanting it to get too cool went ahead and started to whip it with my hand mixer. It wasn’t getting lighter in color nor was it whipping up all “fluffy” like. I mixed, and mixed, and mixed. I finally decided, after referring to the recipe again (and again, and again) that the mixture was too warm still. So I plopped it back into the water bath and continued to beat it. And then the miracle happened. It got lighter in color and fluffy in texture. It looked lovely and was great to work with when putting it on the cake.
It was worth the effort.
