sunday

This afternoon J-P held the sleeping babe while he read his favorite Louis L'amour book for the 87th time. Every time I ask J-P what he wants for Christmas, birthday, father's day...his reply is always the same: a Louis L'amour book. I don't understand his addiction, but I'm grateful that it's cheap paperback books and not video games.
Tonight J-P read story after story to the pajama-clad boys while I made pumpkin cookies. I make pumpkin cookies at least twice a week in the fall, just to make sure we get our fair share of vitamin A. I blame my pumpkin cookie addiction on my sister-in-law Amie, who shared this recipe with me a couple years ago.
Also, I would like to publicly thank all the dads of mormondom who babysat last night so we women could partake of some much needed spiritual enlightenment. My heart is full and I am bursting at the seams. I can't even express how much I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk. If you missed the broadcast you MUST hear this talk. I will link to the transcript when available, in the mean time go here to listen to/watch his talk.

lentil soup and potty training

Here are the haps today at chez scoville...

The activities: endless reading of curious george, chasing the baby, building towers, racing trucks, potty training (revisited), and breaking up fights. There is no sharing on max's agenda.

The menu: Lentil soup, homemade whole-wheat bread, peaches, and strawberries. Lentils are my favorite legume and a whole blog post should be dedicated to them. I'll have to do that later.

The arrival: A new sewing machine. An accidental ebay purchase. Yikes. Happy early birthday to me, I guess. I suppose I deserve something special, the big 3-0 is looming around the corner.

The milestones: Ian started pointing and repeating a few sounds. "Mmmmm" as I am feeding him. "Uh dah (what's that)" when he points to something. "Ma-ma-ma-ma" when I prompt him. Melts my heart every time.

morning light

I am not a morning person. When 5 a.m. rolls around, I am paralyzed by a combination of low blood sugar and lack of sleep. I try to pry my eyes open when Ian starts crying, but I swear they are glued shut.

Enter amazing husband. I nudge (sometimes shake, kick, push...he's a deep sleeper) J-P and he pops out of bed to rescue our early riser from his crib. They watch the sun come up together everyday. Good thing he is a morning person.
I take over bath and bedtime duties because J-P starts slowing down around 7 p.m. After our story-song-prayer ritual, I put Max into his crib. As I'm putting him in, I say "Max, I love you sooooo much." To which he responds (every night) "I love daddy sooooo much!" I'm starting to wonder if J-P is bribing him with candy in the morning while I'm sleeping. One of these days I'll have to get up to see what they do with J-P in the morning that has them both wrapped (as tight as can be) around his finger.

salmon cakes

When Max wakes up in the morning, he rubs his eyes, yawns, and says "how about have salmon cakes for din din mommy?" Salmon cakes are always on his mind. He brings them up throughout the day at random, but when 4:00 p.m. rolls around he starts chanting "SALMON CAKES...SALMON CAKES...I WAAAAANT SALMON CAKES." Everyday. Without fail.

I give in and make them at least 3 times a week. Luckily for us, salmon has not been placed on the do-not-eat-because-of-mercury list. I'm really missing tuna. And sushi. Anyway, I don't use a recipe. Partly because Max has a strict diet, but also because I haven't found one I like. This is what I usually put in them:

14 (or so)oz can of Red Salmon (pink salmon is "garbage" according to my father, who said that it sits on the dock all day to rot while they rush to can the red salmon)
a few mashed red potatoes (I usually microwave them)
one small zucchini, grated
a small finely diced onion (white, yellow, green..whatever)
a couple cloves of garlic (pressed)
1/2 red pepper, diced
2 egg yolks (max is allergic to the whites, whole eggs work better)
1 tsp lemon juice (maybe more? i don't measure)
1 tsp soy sauce
a few shakes of seasoning salt
fresh parsley (i rarely have this on hand)

Mix well and form into patties. You can add flour (or something to help it stick together) if you want. Roll patties in bread crumbs (or not), and fry on each side in a little bit of olive oil until browned. Here is another family's version. There is no wrong way to do it.

p.s. i separate the bones, skin, and gunk...but they say it's healthy to keep it in, more calcium and omega 3's.

p.s.s. the salad we had with it the other night was just a mixture of fresh corn (grilled is best), diced tomatoes, diced cucumber, and black beans (rinsed) tossed with a little olive oil, lime juice and lot's of fresh,chopped cilantro. and salt.

swinging

...So, I was told that babies who are exclusively breastfed don't get ear infections. Ever. It's against the rules. A mother's milk is magic ear infection prevention potion. Magic, I tell you. And, for me, it has worked like magic. No ear infections at Chez Scoville. No ear infections, that is, until today.

The doctor was quite surprised to hear that I've never had to deal with ear infections. "It's because you breastfeed," he said. Hello, I am STILL breastfeeding. I feed the baby all day, every day, and never give any formula in LARGE part because I don't want to join the ear infection club.

Despite my efforts, Ian has a horrible double ear infection. I swallowed my pride and filled his antibiotic prescription. About 10 minutes after we gave it to him, J-P yelled (in all seriousness) "you better come over here, I think Ian is high." He was laughing, dancing, squealing, bouncing, clapping...so much so that he was on the verge of hyperventilating. We are worried they may have given us the wrong stuff. Is amoxicillin pink? Does it make your children crazy? Now that I am an official (and humble) member of the ear infection club, I would also welcome any and all advice.

picnic in the park

Yesterday it cooled off to 90 degrees. I almost got goosebumps. To celebrate the arrival of cooler weather we packed up the family to spend the evening in the park.
the menu: salmon cakes, fresh corn/tomato/black bean salad, and pears
the activity: feeding (chasing?) ducks, relaxing, playing on the toys
J-P finished his first round of finals over the weekend (including a brutal 13-hour-long accounting final) so we will be spending as much time as possible relaxing at the park before he has to disappear into the depths of his office again.

9.11 and the haboob

I'll never forget where I was on this day seven years ago. I had just started my first teaching job. I was working at my desk before school started, when one of my students walked into my classroom and said "Miss McDonald, someone just told me that a plane crashed into the world trade center, and another one crashed into the pentagon."

She looked scared. I laughed and said "don't worry honey, that's not true..." Thirty seconds later a boy came running in and said "Miss McDonald, what's the pentagon?" Before I could answer I heard the principal blaring over the intercom, reminding us to check our email about Wednesday's faculty meeting. We didn't have faculty meetings on Wednesdays. This was a code for "there is an emergency, check your email immediately." We were instructed not to turn on our TV's or talk about the situation, but to continue on with our day as we normally would. Ha! Like that happened. I spent the day calming fears, sending overly emotional students to the counseling office, and explaining over and over what the pentagon is. I'll never forget it.

Today as I drove out of our neighborhood I saw the flag-lined street and it brought me to tears. The one good thing about that horrible tragedy is that it brought out the best of human nature. It proved that, as humans, we are innately good. We have a natural inclination to help others in time of need.
p.s. On the way to get the mail I tried to stop and take a picture of the flags but right as I grabbed the camera a haboob (60-mile-wide wall of dust) hit. You can't really see the flags. I threw the camera in the stroller and sprinted home with my eyes closed. Sometimes I feel like I live in saudi arabia.

baby watching

I have been watching Ian crawl all day. He turns 10 months in a couple days, and I'm not ready to give my baby up to the world of walking. Not yet. Not when he's still so little.

What's all the fuss about? He took his first two steps today.

naps and granola bars

Me: Max, it's time to go take a nap.
Max: Yeah, Max a take a nap. When Max a wake up, Max a go store a buy granola bars. OK?
Me: (trying not to upset him) Uh, sure. But right now it's nap time.

Approximately a minute and a half after shutting his door I hear wailing. This is unusual behavior (he's good about napping) so I went to check on him.

Me: What's wrong sweetie?
Max: (mater-of-factly) Uh, Max a wake up. Time a go a store a buy granola bars...RIGHT NOW!
Me: Max, you have to take a nap first. We'll go to the store after your nap.
Max: But Max a wake UUUP! How about go a store NOWWW!

I rocked him for about 2 minutes and sang "row your boat" (his favorite song this week) and he was out like a log. He's sleeping now, but I have a feeling we'll be shopping for granola bars shortly.

black and white

...So I'm a huge sucker for fads. I love them and hate them at the same time. Lately I've been intrigued by black and white. I've been storing ideas in my head of a black and white room with splashes of color (yellow, maybe turquoise?). Saturday night I started this blog (a.k.a. another way to waste time) as a means to organize my finds. If you have black and white on the mind you can check it out. I would love to have the time to start a blog for every color. If only my house cleaned itself:)

please help

Today I found some really cool pink paint. I waited until my mom was feeding the baby (the perfect distraction) and I made my move. I painted my face, my clothes, and my mom's cell phone. When my mom saw my masterpieces she screamed "MAX! where did you find that?!? that's permanent lip gloss, it doesn't come off!!" Whoops. I didn't know.

My mom has tried everything to get it off. Nothing works. We need to go to the store to get some bananas, but my mom is too embarrassed to take me. Please give my mom some ideas for getting this stuff off so I can have my banana-berry smoothie. Thanks.

labor day weekend and the perfect pizza

Grandma Scoville came to visit for labor day weekend. The boys soaked up as much attention as they could get. Stories were read, songs were sung, and games were played. Max was on cloud 19 with all the attention.

Grandma was nice enough to babysit on Saturday so J-P and I could go out to celebrate our 4th anniversary. J-P and I are both "foodies" so our precious date time is always spent at restaurants. After much deliberation we finally settled on this place. It was sublime. Our waiter, a fellow foodie, recommended the "padre" pizza. It's not on the menu, but should be. Without a doubt, the best pizza I have tasted in my entire life. I salivate every time I think about it, which is usually at least 37 times a day. The ingredients: fresh ricotta, figs, prosciutto, and arugula. The combination of flavors is perfect, divine. It might become an addiction. After dinner we wandered next door and had the most amazing gelato. My favorite flavors were fresh plum with dark chocolate shavings, coconut with dark chocolate, and roasted almond with lingonberries. In all, a perfect night.

p.s. Top Design started again last night (it is the ONLY reality tv i watch) and it was mentioned that the contestant Andrea is married to Ricky Schroder. "Who is Ricky Schroder?" , I asked J-P. "Oh, you know, that blond kid from Saved By the Bell," he said. Certain that J-P was mistaken, I began my google search. He was not on saved by the bell, but a show called silver spoons. He has been on NYPD blue, scrubs, 24, and a few others. Interestingly, he recently converted to mormonism. You can read his conversion story here.

p.s.s. thanks for the visit Grandma, and for our much needed date night

Political Clarification

Protecting traditional marriage is a huge issue for me. I will be voting for proposition 102, which states that only marriages between one man and one woman will be allowed in the state of Arizona.

I believe all people should be treated with respect. I also believe that all people should be allowed religious liberty (including the freedom to avoid affiliation with organized religion). Because we live in such a litigious society, it seems inevitable that legalizing same-sex marriage will infringe upon our religious liberty. A principle our country was founded upon. For further explanation read this article. Or this one.

Also, Here is a video about a health care situation in Canada. It highlights why many Americans are scared of moving to a more socialized health care system. I don't pretend to be an expert in the area, by-the-way, just found the video interesting...

Politically Correct

Ok, let's talk politics. These are my views, feel free to disagree.

First, a run-down on Barack O-B. This guy is good, and I mean really good, at reading a teleprompter. If this whole politics thing doesn't work out for him, he could definitely have a career in Hollywood. Plus, he's a good dancer. I admire his family, and the relationship he has with his wife. I believe he is altruistic in his motives, and that he is concerned about the welfare of our nation. I also believe that he is SERIOUSLY misguided. His solutions are reminiscent of socialism. He is on board with the social/secular progressive movement, which I believe is poisoning our culture. Most importantly, he does not support a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. I think he should just move to the Netherlands, he would like it there.

On to John McCain. I don't care for his personality. At all. He is cantankerous, unrefined, immature, sarcastic, and rebellious. I read his daughter's blog during the primaries, and was very unimpressed (to put it lightly) with the product of his parenting. He is not my number one choice for the presidency, but at this point he is the only choice. He understands the seriousness of the war we are in with Islamic extremists. He recognizes the dangers of socialized medicine and the need to end our dependence on foreign oil. Most importantly, he would nominate conservative justices to the supreme court. This is enormously important.

On Sarah Palin: I was obviously MAJORLY disappointed that Mitt didn't get the VP nod. I tossed and turned all night on Thursday, dreaming about the McCain/Romney bumper sticker I might or might not be able to put on my mini-van. I almost had a panic attack when I woke up on Friday and our internet was down. I quickly turned on the TV and my stomach dropped when I saw Sarah Palin's name next to the breaking news headline. I was shocked, yet at the same time not surprised at all.

I think McCain's motives in picking Palin are embarrassingly transparent. He picked her for four reasons. First (and foremost), because she is a woman and will help shore up disaffected Hillary voters. Second, to appease the gun-toting, pro-life (and anti-romney) evangelicals. Third, McCain needed to authenticate his maverick image by making a bold, questionable, and unexpected choice. Fourth, he wanted to send the media into a frenzy and draw the attention away from Obama. None of these are appropriate reasons for selecting a could-be future president. McCain had only met her one time (about two years ago), and did not know her at all before he selected her as his running mate. I believe his decision is irresponsible given that he is a 72-year-old who has had two bouts with cancer and who subsists proudly on pop and pizza.

While I think Palin seems like a nice person, I do not believe she has the experience or qualifications necessary to be the leader of the free world. I also believe there are more important things she could be doing with her time, like taking care of her 4-month-old special needs child or teaching her 17-year-old daughter about abstinence/birth control. I have no problem with a woman president, but I would hope that she would be chosen for her vision, experience, competency, and ability, and not just because she is a woman. The end.

p.s. please check out this and this