Friday, June 30, 2006

What's Your Favorite Ben and Jerry's Flavor?

I thought it was going to be sunny today so I took the girls to the Ben and Jerry's factory. (I think the playground is the third picture, it's a short slideshow). They have a playground there (and, naturally, ice cream).

Fiona had the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, Sophia had the (entire cone of!) triple caramel ice cream...and I had the key lime pie ice cream, which Fiona preferred to the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Sophia was a royal mess, but happy. I inevitably got chocolate caramel blobs on my fairly new shirt.

The playground is clean and stable and we had it all to ourselves for a while, then the big kids came, and my girls gravitated towards the sand box. It rained off and on while we were there, but it was still fun. With all the fracking rain we've been having, you'd think we'd at least see a rainbow today because of the bright sun mixed with copious amounts of rain!

Thick Creamy Goodness

Liberte

This is the best yogurt I have yet to eat. You will never go back to Dannon or those atrocious "whipped" monstrosities.

We like it sprinkled with a bit of Kashi's "Seven in the Morning" cereal on top. It's not called that anymore, but we still call that. It's something like "Seven Golden Nuggets" or something. I hate refering to food as "nuggets".

Oh, here it is. "Whole Grain", not "Golden". They're still "Nuggets". Ew.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Downward Dog

I am so proud of myself. I actually dragged my post childbirth butt to yoga class! It's even right here in town, so I don't have to schlepp to the "Big City" (of about 8,000 people, 20 minutes away). It was a good class. I even have a friend in the class. You don't get better than that.

And now for the Way Too Much Information part of this post. Really, I'm warning you. If you have kids, it's pretty tame, but if not...well, it's hard to say. I can't remember if I'd be horrified reading the upcoming or just revolted.

I was shocked to discover that Sophia apparently ATE some crayons while we were drawing yesterday. They have been eating a lot of strawberries and blueberries and so I have been changing a lot of diapers. The last one not only was, well, dark blue, but technicolor. Bits of yellow, red, and blue. I told you she eats everything. She also likes rocks. You can see why I don't like to let her out of my sight. Ever.

Doug has taken the girls out while I was in class (which I why I am typing at 8 PM at night) to stomp spiders at the arcade. Both girls love to do this. They are not really spiders, just these red lights that you stomp on when they light up and you get points. Fun for all.

It has been raining so much this month. It rained again today. A friend of mine said it has rained 20 out of 27 days this month and that is double what we usually get. Hard to enjoy the summer when all it does is rain. Apparently, it's making things very very hard for the farmers here.

I think Fiona and I may be marching in the Fourth of July parade with the Montpelier school. I don't usually do parades, but we'll try it. Maybe it will rain and be cancelled.

Hello, I'm Rachael

..and I'll be your personal day planner.

That is what I feel like on some days. It hit me yesterday as I was serving breakfast to the girls (which means I was dumping cereal into their bowls---hey, it was whole grain antioxidant-rich cereal). I was talking to them like this: "Ok, so we'll have breakfast and then we'll dress for the day. We'll go to Gryffon's house to play and then we'll have lunch. Then it will be Sophia's nap time and we'll play blocks and dress-up. When she wakes up, we'll have a snack and then go on a walk and toss pennies in the fountain. When daddy gets home, he'll take out Sophia and you and I will meet Hannah at the pool and then go have creemies. Yes, the dirt dish is an option on the menu (note: it's crushed chocolate cookies with fudge sauce and vanilla ice cream and chocolate sprinkles and a gummy worm and WHOA it's much bigger than I realized). At the end of our day, we'll bathe (oops, that itinerary item got neglected), read some of your favorite books, listen to soothing music, and sleep in our pillowtop mattress bed."

Ok, so, I didn't say all of that, but after a certain point, I felt like I could have. She would lose interest about halfway through that. I could add things like: "Breakfast will consist of lightly sweetened wheat flakes mixed with oat crusted wild blueberries, served with local organic 2% milk. Yes, it's rBST free. An option of sliced peaches that I bought a huge bag of because you normally eat all of them in one day will be available. You may choose to lose all interest in peaches at this point. That is your option. Your personal day planner will find a use for those quickly softening peaches in a crisp or a pie or something. Or maybe the fruit flies will just take over."

"Snack will consist of a conveniently located box of crisp (well, they were before we had all this rain) apple flavored whole wheat organic crackers. (I know! They are still bad for your teeth and therefore will be served with ice cold local water (ahem, tap) from a suitable drinking vessel.) Lunch will be roasted organic peanut butter served with wild blueberry jam (it's not organic, but I think we'll live) on local whole grain and seed bread. If you decide to sleep through lunch, chef will still be available to provide lunch after you wake. Dinner will consist of orecchiette pasta that you selected earlier mixed with organic tomato and basil sauce and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. (This is a departure from your usual plain pasta because this combination "tastes like pizza" and "smells so good!"). Drink choices at all meals are local 2% milk, local water (hee hee), or fruit juice of the day--one meal only, please."

"Chef is available at all hours if you would desire something more and substitutions are not only accepted, they are expected. Due to the season, snacks of local strawberries and blueberries will be provided at all hours of the day. Please do not get them on the furniture."

Monday, June 26, 2006

Blue Sand Blues

Nothing is more exciting than sand in your child's diaper and in your bed and in---everything. You know this as a parent. It's even better if it's really in the diaper. As in, oh, that was yesterday's second breakfast.

Now imagine this sand is blue and you're taking it up a few notches to "what on earth was I thinking?" fun.

Then imagine your toddler, who has a beard of blue sand, getting into the bird seed and pouring it all over your dining room hardwood floors. I am still picking seed out of my toes even though I did actually vacuum the floors.

Sophia has so many new words and signs I've sort of just stopped keeping track. She can sign "potato"--she loves the apple of the earth--and can say "strawberry" quite clearly.

Fiona misses her friends and I took her to the public pool to meet one of them and we happened upon another classmate, too. The swimming thing was really becoming something I could see myself doing often, but now it seems the rain is back again. I even found a place for swimming lessons.

Fiona has a new parakeet and his name is "Tweety Sweety". Or maybe it's "Sweety Tweety". He seems very calm and even lets her stroke his belly.

Friday, June 23, 2006

A Small Brag

Fiona had her first dental X-rays today. After some inital hesitation about being alone in the chair (it really was small potatoes) she got three x-rays done happily. She thought it was very cool. She tried really hard to be still for her cleaning, too (which I can see is difficult---I can almost see waves of energy coming out of her body). Her four temporary fillings are holding in nicely. So nicely, in fact, that I finally relented and will now let her have gum (the only sugar in it being xylitol). You can see her front adult teeth in the X-ray. They are so big! It is really neat. Foreshadowing. The big girl teeth.

I took the girls to Silver Lake with a friend and her son and godson and while it was a lot of work for me, we had a great time. Unfortunately, my shoulders and back got pretty sunburnt. You'd think at 33 I would no longer get sunburns. At least the girls did not. I forgot how annoying sunburns are. No blisters, just pain.

Doug is my hero and sent me out to eat by myself. I don't normally like eating out by myself, but I brought along Last Child in the Woods and had a good time. I had some pretty good calamari, some very nice house-made gnocchi (a tad too much Parmesan...or was it Asaigo?) with fabulous vegetables (snap peas, asparagus, haricot verts, carrots--all very fresh) and some Italian Zinfandel that didn't really make a huge impression with me, but it was all relished. I wanted dessert, but I was just too full. Next time, no calamari, but definitely some dessert. Maybe even somehow a side of Doug. I ate at Conoscenti's.