Pluto is No Longer a Planet!

I suppose you've all heard this by now. It's all very exciting!

I don't have much else to say except last weekend we went to Bath, NH for the sole purpose of bacon: The Brick Store . Their smoked bacon is heavenly. We also got some of their smoked cheese and summer sausage and fudge. The fudge is a little too achingly sweet for me, but the cappuchino flavor was very nice.

Vitamins

Fiona loves to take her vitamins, even before they were dinosaurs. She also takes (sometimes) her fish oil capsules. She sometimes takes these "green" vitamins which amazes me because I think they taste awful.

We have these calcium chews for both the girls and they taste pretty good. Fiona wants so badly to like them, but she doesn't. I said to her: "They are supposed to taste like vanilla milkshake, you know" (as I am reading the bottle yet again). She said, "Too bad they don't".

The Versitility of Tang

Bacon and...Tang?

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Bacon Snack Bars

Prep Time: 15 min
Total Time: 15 min
Makes: 12 servings, 1 bar each



1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 pkg. (2.8 oz.) OSCAR MAYER Real Bacon Recipe Pieces
4 tsp. TANG Orange Flavor Drink Mix
3 cups POST HONEY BUNCHES OF OATS Cereal, any variety



MIX sugar and syrup in large saucepan. Bring just to boil on medium heat, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.
ADD peanut butter; stir until well blended. Stir in bacon pieces and drink mix. Add cereal; mix well.
PRESS evenly into greased 8-inch square pan. Cool completely before cutting into 12 bars to serve.




KRAFT KITCHENS TIPS


Substitute
Prepare as directed, using 1 pkg. (3 oz.) OSCAR MAYER Real Bacon Bits.

Jazz It Up
Prepare as directed; sprinkle with additional drink mix.
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I'm trying to decide what's more horrific. I can almost see the bacon (for heaven's sake, is it so hard to cook bacon?) but...Tang? Why? Why would we want to "Jazz It Up" by sprinkling more Tang on top?

This got three stars, by the way. Someone supposedly actually made this.

I get that bacon is good with sweet things sometimes (coat bacon with brown sugar and cook at 500 until done) but TANG?

Maybe it's more horrific that someone actually thought something like: "I'd love to make a snack bar that is really unique. People sometimes eat them for breakfast, so a protein like peanut butter is a good idea. People also like to eat bacon for breakfast, so that will probably taste pretty good in there. Why not add some fake orange-y instant drink so it can be an all-in-one bar? I'm brillant!"

She Won!

A few weeks ago, the library ran a poster contest for its 100th anniversary in September. There was a category for Fiona's age group, so she did a poster for fun. I forgot all about it until just now when they called and told us she won her category!

She said, "I bet it was the glitter that did it".

Here, Mommy

Sophia likes to practice using the potty (by this I mean the big one, no one uses the red plastic potty I got...). Right now this means taking off the diaper (wiping her up if needed), putting her on the toilet, her saying "all done!" and then she likes to wipe and throw it in the toilet. That is her favorite part. So today I do this and it's just a wet diaper. I am running around doing a million things and it's a moment before I can put her on the toilet (she always wants to get right up and then the toilet paper and flushing and turning off the light and saying "bye bye" to the toilet and bathroom is a bit of a production). I come in and she is standing there and handing something to me.

She hands me two pieces of bowel movement. I know what they are, but I take them anyway. Believe me, I was weeping inside. I am just glad she handed them to me (she likes to hand things to us when she's done with them). She could have done much worse. Soooo...after I washed my hands and her, she took a nice soapy warm bath.

And by the way, if you are ever faced with ballpoint ink on your antique couch, blotting rubbing alcohol on it takes it out very nicely.

You've Got a Little...Um, Yeah...Right There...

Fiona is taking afternoon classes at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science---the same place where she (and I) got to hold a Madagascar Hissing Roach (which she did again today, actually). Monday they learned about worms and yesterday they learned about slugs and snails. It's great. It's right at Sophia's ideal nap time, so she has just been napping on the go. The problem is, Fiona is totally wiped out at the end of this class and Sophia is ready for action at the end of her class.

This morning we played with a couple of their friends and had a great time. We played on a playground (we had to do some searching) and then went back to their house. I unfortunately forgot the tube of sunblock was in my back pocket when we got in the car to go back to their place. I would not even have noticed except I picked up Sophia from her car seat and then put her down in the back of the station wagon to change her diaper and there was a vast amount of cream on her leg. I was perplexed and then noticed it was all over me and my shorts. So I took the excess cream and slathered Fiona and myself and Sophia. I think it was half the tube. It's also all over the seat. So. Don't sit on tubes of cream.

Her friend, Nick, was telling us all about this boy in their neighborhood who "isn't very nice" and nearly ran over himself and his sister Linnea on his bike. This boy was riding past us on the street while Nick was telling us this. Fiona responded (boy nowhere in sight thank goodness): "Don't worry, we'll just kill him later". I swear to you, this is a non-violent household and we restrict what they watch to avoid this sort of thing (well, and other things) but something must have slipped through.

It's Official

Not that there was any question of not going, but I just bought four (gulp) plane tickets from Boston to Dallas. We are going to take the bus from New Hampshire into Boston (about 2 1/2 hours). Fiona will be very excited but I think Sophia is going to not be quite so thrilled. Well, we'll see! She'll be a different person in 2 months. I am glad to have this under our buckle, so to speak.

I am not even sure if I've mentioned this, but we are going to my youngest sister's wedding in October (hence the plane and bus tickets)! Ellen Aim and Corinthian are tying the knot (and currently buying a house) and are having quite the creative wedding. We are all going in costumes (no, I do not know what we are going as yet) and I am making her cake, with the help of the talented Triana. I think the food there will be all desserts and I am not sure if I am helping with that. I'd love to, but I guess it depends on the kids and timing and whatnot. I plan to search through recipes to find my favorites anyway. The cake will be chocolate buttercream with a red interior. I am planning to dye a nice spongecake for the red. The plan as of now is to have cascading chocolate dipped strawberries on the outside of the cake. The wedding invitation was very unique. I would love to post it here. It was goulish and creative and very cool. I didn't show it to the kids, though.

So we had the Home Visit from Fiona's new teacher (Fiona goes back to school on the 30th)(Yes, I edited the date! It's not the 23rd--I can't tell my up from my down.) and Fiona gave her a tour of her room and OUR room (didn't see that one coming, so yes, look, we don't make our beds and, yes, they are just mattresses on the floor---don't mind the books all over the floor and the baskets of cloth diapers). I think it went well, Fiona has met her before and likes her. She had the teacher (named Kristen) read her a dinosaur book--which was a cool book which came with very tiny pieces of dinosaur bones to put together--and apparently (I forgot about this) it is a quite graphic dinosaur book where they talk about this T.Rex mauling some Triceratops in great detail. Kristen asked her if this book didn't scare her---to which Fiona said no, of course. She comes up with all sorts of ghastly "meat-eater" type of dinosaur stories. At least she didn't ask Fiona what she had for dinner last night. She could very well have said "cow muscle with leeks". (Doug made this incredible "silky beef with leeks" dish that all four of us inhaled. We finished it off with leftover blueberry buttermilk lemon tart from his birthday).

We Just Have Time for a Quickie

It's so hot and humid today. It's that Armpit thing. Level 5. We all just took cold baths/showers. The refrigerator is sweating which is gross.

So the science museum summer camp thing is going well. It's quite a drive to do every day and of course they nap in the car and awake refreshed (if sticky, but at least we have car a/c now) while I feel like sleeping the afternoon away. Sophia loves being able to play at the exhibits on her time table instead of Fiona's and having all my attention. Fiona gets to do neat things in class and take walks outside. There is this awkward hour between 9 and 10---the dropoff hour and the time the museum actually opens for visitors. Yesterday we ended up just driving around and today we went to the Hanover Co-op.

Doug made these incredible spicy Hunan noodles. He's made them before but it's been a while (We neither of us have any energy at the end of the day, so he is heroic for making dinner. I think I would make...cereal).

I got Doug's birthday present (Aug 5) and it's so hard not to give it to him so he can enjoy it immediately.

Portsmouth, NH

Hopefully I am not going to regret this, but for the next 5 days we have to leave the house at the cheerful hour of 8 AM so Fiona can do the summer camp at the Montshire Museum of Science. She loves this place (which is why I'm driving an hour and back each way) and what better close to summer than spending every morning there for an entire week? Now, you may be thinking, 8 AM, that's nothing! Hell, I used to leave for work at 3 AM. The challenge, you see, is getting everyone and everything in the car BY 8 AM... really more like 7:45 that first day just to make sure. I'm one of those people that is either just a little bit late or way too early. It sucks, but there it is.

So we went with Doug to Portsmouth, NH for another business presentation. Portsmouth has a lot more going for it than Latham, I have to say. We were also in a very nice hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn . I'm not really picky these days, I like to think. A/C, TV, bath/shower, clean floors and we can get by. Our room had a microwave (didn't use but I brought popcorn just in case and YES I know how to make REAL popcorn---bugger off!), a coffee maker (eh), and not only clean floors, but very clean floors. The beds were soft, white and filled with pillows. The staff was downright friendly. The kids loved the buffet at breakfast. There were minor flaws, but I would stay here again in a heartbeat, even if I had to pay for it (well, we did pay for the 2nd night). We didn't walk much that morning because Fiona just wanted to watch TV in the A/C. That was about as exciting as that time she and I were stuck in a motel room when we had the outside of the house scraped and painted (we have lead paint out there!) and she was about, what, 18 months?, and hadn't seen much TV at that point and wouldn't have except I was sick as a dog so I just left it on all morning and let it eat her brain. Teletubbies are four minions of Satan and Bush except I can actually follow what Teletubbies are saying if I haven't had more than 4 hours of sleep.

Right, where was I? Right--we stayed in the room also because Fiona had a "tummyache" (god DAMN those creatures, I almost wrote "tubbyache"). So even though I got the car down (unfortunately, there is only valet parking) for the baby carrier (no stroller) we walked for about 10 minutes and then we sat, glazed in our clean room. Doug came back for the afternoon and I can not even remember what we did except finally walk around. We also braved the pool which is hard with two young girls who do not know how to swim---and the 21 month old has No Fear of water At All.

The next day was better (except the car still didn't have a/c but it does now after we gave them a lung and $600) because we went to The Children's Museum of Portsmouth. Now, looking at it, it just looks like a nice old house. I'm telling you, it is very cool inside. The yellow submarine was the biggest hit (Fiona still loves Yellow Submarine and the Beatles; it's just that John is no longer the focus of her adoration). There were all these neat little details there that made you (the adult) want to play there all day. We also went to the beach to look at whatever sea life we could find and jump along the rocks (there was a "real" beach there but the water was so cold...however, people were swimming there--I'm going to guess these were native New Englanders who have family here going back several generations when the water was probably even colder in July).

Depsite the heat, we went to the outskirts of Boston to Stone Zoo, where we've been a few times before. Many animals were hiding or were missing except for the cool jaguar and her cubs. They were right next to the window. At this point, our girls were the most wild animals at the zoo.

NY Trip

Sunday through Tuesday we went to Latham, NY, which is just outside of Albany. Doug had a presentation which went, of course, very well. I got to see him in his suit, which is always a real treat.

Those were the days of really high temperatures (high of 97) and it was bloody humid, so I can quote (with some glee) Ellen Aim and say that in our un-airconditioned car (it will take $600 to fix it because we have to replace the parts...which still seems freaking high to me) it was definitely "Armpit Level 5". I was hoping we could wait until next summer to fix it, but we really need to take care of it.

Anyway, Latham was pretty uneventful. The hotel had a nice trail where we saw tons of bunnies which Sophia loved to chase back into the high grass. They were very cute with the white fluffy tails. The pool was shallow (hooray!) and we had a couple of frog visitors. That was the highlight of the trip for Fiona.

Doug took the next day off and we went to a very cute botanical garden in Massachusetts called the Berkshire Botanical Garden. They had a children's garden amoung other fabulous gardens. We also went to the Berkshire Museum that had a dinosaur display and a bug exhibit which was really a gallery of bug artwork. It was really neat. It was also not airconiditoned so it was really hot. Sophia loved the museum and raced around the entire building. She is really talking now and saying things like: "Where is Daddy?" "Where is Fiona? (fe-nah-nah)" "That's Sweety!" "That's mine!" "Give me that!" "You!"

Fiona is at a birthday party today for her friend Juna and Doug took her there. I was going to take Sophia grocery shopping but she fell asleep in the playpen while I was taking a shower. That has never ever happened before, but I have wished that it would happen. Now I am waiting for her to wake up! She wakes up at 6 am which seems to early for her, but she doesn't usually go back to sleep. She ends up taking these really early naps instead. She's been asleep for a bit over an hour now. We may not go to the farmer's market today! Oh well, the blueberries aren't ready yet anyway.

Things I am Glad Not to Witness

So let's review the pet population up until a certain ghasty moment which I will relate. We had two frogs named "Cutie Cutie" and one parakeet named "Sweety Tweety". The bird is fine, by the way. Oh, and the aquarium of three (yes, three, now...I hope Doug took the latest casualty out of the freezer...) fish. The frogs we raised from tadpoles (we just bought them). One of them grew really fast and seemed very healthy (I guess). The other took forever to change into a frog and when he was finally a frog, was much smaller than the now Big Frog.

Big Frog and Little Frog seemed to live in harmony, eating and swimming, and...whatever frogs do. These are frogs that live in the water, by the way. One night before bed, however, Doug looked into the frog home and said "Rachael? Can you come here for a minute? How many frogs do you see?". Sure enough, there was only ONE frog in there. There is no way the other frog escaped (I looked to be sure). Big Frog's belly did seem quite...bulky? We told Fiona. She was sad and distraught. She was sure he had gotten under the bookcase (I looked again) but even if he had, he would still not be with us. She is ok with it now. I thought they were supposed to be friends, but I guess something was not quite right. We could get a free frog for a new friend (the people we bought them from say they LIKE to have company) but as Doug says, maybe we had better not. Now that the one and only Cutie Cutie has gone down this dark path, maybe he's developed a taste for his own kind.

Medium: Wet Dirt

The other night was such a lovely night. Doug watched the girls, king superhero Aragorn-like manly man who can wear tights that he is, and I took a bath with a Golden Slumbers ballistic, had a nice glass of port, and turned off the lights (it was still somewhat light outside) and listened to the rain. I'm ok with rain if it happens at night. And, really, it's the other way around. Aragorn wishes he were more Doug-like.

'Course it rained during the day, too, and that I didn't like so much. I mean the ground had just barely dried.

Doug has taken the car in so the a/c will be fixed. We're going to somewhere near Albany, NY for a couple of days, so that will be nice. Unfortunately, the car also has all of our sunblock and swimgear in it. Nothing like being stuck at home (we can't use the little Honda) with no sunblock! Argh!

Ok, I have a bottle I can scrap the lotion out of. This is why one can not have too much sunblock. I've blocked off the driveway and we're going to try to paint with mud. I'll bring the camera and we'll see how this goes. We don't normally play out front b/c of said driveway (it's sort of steep, but ok if you stay at the top, and it's hard to see from the street b/c it's behind a hill), so we'll see how blocking it off goes (people like to turn around in our driveway...we don't get a LOT of traffic but we get more than you would think for being on a dead-end street). It's being blocked off with the Honda, by the way.

Another Ice Cream Post

I'm eating Godiva's Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Praline ice cream. Sorry, Ben and Jerry. This is amazing. I almost never buy chocolate ice cream (I'm just weird that way) but this is REALLY good. Do what you have to do to get some.

I'm eating it before dinner---I used a friend's recipe for a quiche she entered in a contest. Please vote for it here! :) I didn't make it exactly like that (I always change something) but it's close enough and it smells divine (it's baking now).

Well, it wasn't ME!

So Fiona has a bit of a shiner. She and Sophia head-butted Sunday (Sophia is fine) and Monday she had a purple bruise under her eye (it hurt when it happened, but apparently it feels just fine now). Today it's purple and yellow and brown and it covers the area under her eye. I took her to the library yesterday and took her today to the grocery store. I think we are getting some looks (covert looks) but I could be paranoid. An older lady came up to them in the grocery store all smiling and cooing and then asked Fiona if her sister had given her a black eye. I laughed and said, well, in a way she did.

She didn't really look at me or talk to me. Maybe official people will be showing up on my doorstep this week.

Whine for a Rainy Day

So this Sunday, we're accompaning Doug on a work trip to Albany, NY. I'm searching for things to do with kids on a Monday morning. Even a playground would work really well.

I finally made an appointment to get the Subaru looked at because the A/C no longer works. I thought we could tough it out, but even in Vermont the car gets very hot. No one likes driving on the highway with the windows down (I'm also afraid of someone tossing something out of the car. Now I suspect I understand the Mystery of the Lone Shoe on the side of road...).

The weather has finally been co-operating and we've been enjoying warmth and sun. Today looks like a rainy day and I have no idea what to do with two small kids on a rainy day. One, yes. Two, no. Sophia is not really into arts and crafts--unless you include their culinary value. I can only play so much hide and seek. Maybe I'll just go outside in the rain with them. We could adventure to the Montshire Science Museum but I am feeling a bit under the weather. It's an hour away and with two explorers, requires hardy and intense supervision. I was wondering when it would rain again. The ground is actually dry (was) and we can't have that!

I would like to get out of the house, though, because I really think something has died in the basement. I loved the idea of a basement as a kid. I have to say I'm over it.

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.

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."

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.