A Day to Celebrate

Eli is 18 months, and that means.... NURSERY!!!! (at church) Hooray! Evelyn took 6 months before going without crying, then 5 more months after Eleyna was born, then another few months after we moved to California. Eleyna was scared for a long time and took about 9 months before she said a word to her teacher.

Eli walked right in while they were having singing time and started singing along. Jake left him there and he was great. He said "More" a lot during snacktime and "Ghee" (again) after every verse of "The Wheels on the Bus".

He really is adorable lately. He LOVES to sing. His favorite songs are "I am a Child of God" to which he sings, "Ah ah ah ah ah ah .... way" and "Popcorn Popping" - "Ah ah ah see, ah ah ah ah tee." He loves to watch "Little Einsteins" on the Disney channel and always sings along. On our recent trip to Idaho, he was having a hard time the last 20 minutes. Eleyna started singing, and he calmed right down and sang the rest of the way there.

He also loves to eat. He'll stuff his mouth as full as it could possible be, then say, "More! More!"

He has learned quite a few words lately: "Chee" (Cheese), "Kank you", "Balloo" (balloon), "Tee" (tree), "Car", "Ball", "Cookie", "Gampa", "Gamma", and a lot more that I can't think of right now.

Ode to Motherhood

Today was a relaxing, mostly peaceful Mother's Day, thanks to a wonderful husband and good-most-of-the-time children. I got to sleep in late, 8:00, at which point I was showered with gifts by a loving husband and three completely dressed for church children. Jake cooked my favorite pasta dish for dinner, a recipe that he invented and is divine. Then I lounged about reading a book the rest of the day, only to be interrupted by blackberry pie and ice cream. In fact, nothing much about the day was very motherly. Is it bad to celebrate Mother's Day by taking a break from motherhood?
I did have a few good motherly moments, like the moment in church that Eli sat on my lap being so adorable that I was so grateful that he's mine. A few minutes later he and Eleyna were not very quietly fighting over the Quiet Book, and Eleyna got mad and threw some things on the ground so I had to take her out. (of Sacrament meeting, I mean). Or the moment that Eleyna sweetly asked to do puzzles with me and we had a nice time until every child wanted to sit on my lap at the same time.
I got my garden taken care of yesterday and finished my book today, so tomorrow I'll be ready to pick up life again and try to be a good mother. Wish me luck.

Here are the things I am so grateful to have learned from my Mother:

* How to work. Working is a part of who I am, and when my family gets together we actually try to think of a project that we can do together. Jake and I were pondering over how to make work not a burden for the kids. When we ask our kids to help out, it's like we asked them to swim through a lake of crocodiles. It's not a pretty situation. So, how do you make work something you actually enjoy, or something you appreciate doing for the result? I don't know. Any ideas, Mom?

* How to cook. Growing up, cooking was a time to be together and enjoy each other's company. Now every time we come home, eating is an experience, not a necessity of life. We get to help Mom cook all the meals that we loved growing up- her famous Chinese food, tamales, chimichangas, roast and potatoes, stir-fry, cookies. One of the best parts about having a baby is having Mom come and cook for me. I also love to cook and even though it usually stresses me out with the mess at this stage of life, the girls love to help.

* How to be patient, how to have faith, how to love, how to care for other people, and so many, many other things.

And to my mother-in-law, wow, I can't believe she raised 7 faithful, wonderful kids. It's incredible. She is such a hardworker, so faithful, so talented, such a kind and caring grandmother. When she comes to visit she always helps me catch up around the house and the kids love to have her to play with. (Not that I expect her to come and help, but it is always appreciated.) I'm glad to have her as another example and another Mother in my life.

I'm grateful today to be a mother to three sweet children and to have two incredible Mothers in my life. Happy Mother's Day!

Strawberry Spinach Salad

My spinach is almost ready to eat! That's good news for me, maybe not for the kiddos.

Here is my favorite Strawberry Spinach Salad:


Dressing:
½ cup red wine vinegar
½ tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. salt
½ cup jam (raspberry, strawberry or blueberry)
¾ cup oil
1 T poppy seeds
1/3 cup sugar

For Salad: (quantities and ingredients are all optional)

1 lb. cleaned spinach
5-6 strips crisp bacon, drained & diced
½ red pepper, cut into thin strips
¼ large red onion, thinly sliced
½ cup shredded fresh Parmesan cheese OR swiss cheese
¾ cup toasted, slivered almonds OR sugared almonds*
2 cups strawberries, cut in quarters
3-4 oz. won ton wraps, cut diagonally in quarters, deep fried and drained (optional)
Mushrooms
Lettuce

Mix salad and dressing together before serving.
Serves 10

*Sugared nuts:
1 TB butter
1 cup nuts
1/2 cup sugar
Cook on the stove over medium heat. Spread onto parchment to cool. Break apart.

(Sorry, Lady Lyn, if this is plagiarism for borrowing your sugared almond recipe. I've just always poured almonds and sugar in a pan and cooked them for awhile, but this looked easier to follow.)

Cousins

Last weekend we went to our sweet niece's baptism. It was really fun to be around all of the family that traveled there, too. Here's Eli playing peek-a-boo with our niece.

Unfortunately the day ended up like this:

Thanks to a certain screaming sweetie who we will not name.

3 Darlings and a Baby Goat

Isn't this the cutest baby goat you've ever seen? (We went to a farm today.)

Ring around the Rosies

Eli played Ring around the Rosies for the first time Monday night, and he loved it.

Chicken Cabbage Salad

Jake and I were cracking up last night because when we sat down to eat, Evelyn said, "Oh, this looks so yummy!" And she promptly ate two helpings. This is very unusual for our picky daughter for which dinner is a constant battle. What did we eat, you may ask? (If you hadn't read the title of the blog.)
Chicken Cabbage Salad
It's very delicious, if you haven't tasted it before. It's about the only way I've ever eaten cabbage in my life. So, here's the recipe, from my wonderful mother:

Chicken Cabbage Salad
Salad
2 T sesame seeds
1 cup almond slivers or sliced almonds
1 pkg Ramen Noodles, uncooked and broken up (I like chicken or oriental flavor)***
1-2 cups chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1/2 head cabbage, chopped or grated
2-3 green onions, sliced (opt. for picky little ones)

Toast the sesame seeds, almond slivers, and Ramen Noodles on the stove slowly or in the oven for about 7-10 min on 300, until browned.
Mix ingredients together and add dressing.

Dressing
2 T sugar
3 T rice vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 pkg seasoning from Ramen
1/2 cup salad oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat sugar and vinegar together until sugar dissolves. Add remaining ingredients. Cool. Add to salad just before serving.
***I used 1 1/2 pkgs Ramen because the girls were stealing them while they "helped" me, and I cooked the other half for Eli because I didn't imagine he would eat cabbage salad.)

OR

Here is another recipe that I've made before that is slightly more Oriental, which I prefer, but the hubby does not. It's basically the same recipe, but a different dressing, from a fun cookbook called One Bite Won't Kill You.

Vaguely Asian Cabbage Salad
Salad
2 T sesame seeds
1 cup almond slivers or sliced almonds
1 pkg Ramen Noodles, uncooked and broken up (I like chicken or oriental flavor)
1-2 cups chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1/2 head cabbage, chopped or grated
2-3 green onions, sliced (opt. for picky little ones)
2 large carrots, grated (You could add this to the above recipe, too)

Dressing
The "flavor packet" from the noodles
1/4 cup veg. oil
2 T rice vinegar
2 T soy sauce
1 T sugar
2 tsp sesame oil

Toast the almonds, sesame seeds, and noodles on 300 for 7-10 min, until browned. Whisk the dressing ingredients together and add to the salad, either right away to let marinate a little bit, or right before serving for a crisper salad.

Hilarious

I don't know if a certain friend reads my blog, but I had to post this because it is so funny:
My friend was in the line at Wal-mart and her three-year old boy was talking really loudly. He said something like this, "Mom, be careful or you'll get arrested again!" She was mortified and said, "Do you even know what arrested means?" He answered, "Yeah, it means you go to jail, Remember?"

A miraculous week

This week was so wonderful for the following reasons:

• Monday I was complaining about putting Eleyna to sleep, but this week was so wonderful. We decided to put her to bed at 7:00 to hopefully reduce the 5:00 whine-fest, and she was so much better. Plus Evelyn was an angel and slept with her, so we didn't have to lay with her to get her to fall asleep, and she stayed in her bed THREE TIMES all night!!!! Hooray! I feel so well rested. Who would ever have thought we'd reach the point of all three kids in their bed all night long? Well, at least for 3 nights anyway. There's no guarantee for the future.


• Evelyn has been pretty hard lately, but Friday she woke up a whole new girl with the bribe of ice cream for a day of no time-outs. She was SO wonderful- she helped whenever I asked plus when I didn't ask, she nicely reminded Eleyna to be good, which means she didn't start any fights, and she was just so pleasant.


• Eli has learned so many words this week, it's nuts:Ball ("Bah"), Eleyna ("Neyna"), play, ("pay"), uh-oh, again, ("gee"), hug, amen (after he covers his eyes for prayers, so cute), Look, a book and he still says "Eat" ALL THE TIME! Tonight he ate two pieces of pizza! He eats an adult-sized portion of oatmeal for breakfast, and 30 minutes later he'll come up to me begging to eat. He's started singing along with songs on the TV or that we sing to him, and tonight he did a really fancy booty shake to the rhythm of our toy keyboard. He's crazy about music.


• We went to the park three times this week with different friends, and it was so fun. (Even though it was 80 degrees on Monday and snowed the next day! That's insane.)


• I have spinach, beets, peas, and onions coming up in my garden, despite the nearly weekly snowstorms. I planted an entire 4x4 garden box of peas, and they are about 3 inches now. It's such a wonderful feeling to see plants grow. I hope the peas survive, because I sure didn't have good luck with them last year.


• Our basement is nearly done, and we have all of our stuff moved back in. We won't be totally settled for awhile because we still have a room and a hall that needs to be fixed since the drywall job looks really sloppy. However I spent all day long putting our toy room back together, and the kids are in heaven. At least for a few days until everything becomes boring again.

What do you do when....

• Your 17-month old learns to say Movie and wants to watch movies all day long? ("Oooh-eee, oooh-eee, oooh-eee") It will be a great day when we have a toy room again.
• Your 3-year old is terribly afraid of her bed and wants someone to lay down with her every night? So you wait until 8:30 at night when it won't take quite as long until she falls asleep. Really she should be in bed by 7:30 since she wakes up around 6:30, takes no naps, and gets terribly whiny by 4:00 in the afternoon. She's so peaceful and happy when you lay next to her as she drifts into peaceful sleep. Yet, you're sick of falling asleep laying there and wasting an entire evening. Do you make her cry it out and go to sleep afraid that the giants might get her?
• You have a 5-year old? They just keep getting more complicated every year, don't they?
  

Skin and Bones No More

Eli learned to say "Eat". Yesterday he said it all day long, doing the sign language for it at the same time. And sure enough, he ate every time. I think he's finally out of the negative percentile for weight. Now I have to figure out what to feed him besides fruit snacks and cookies. Any ideas?
Last night after he finished eating, he was sitting on my lap and out of the blue he put his toes in his mouth. We asked him what he was doing with his toes and he said, "Eat".

Musical Discovery

Eli absolutely loves music. He's not the crazy dancer that Evelyn was, but he's got a few arm-waving moves that are darling.
The other day I was in the kitchen with the kids, and just started singing, to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Bah Bah, Bah Bah....". I could just see Eli's face light up, and he started singing along, "Bah bah, bah bah...". He realized a way that he could actually sing, too. Now every once in awhile he'll just break out in song.
Last night I was singing "Twinkle Twinkle" to put him to bed, and he was snuggling on my shoulder. I started another song that he hadn't heard before, and he sat up, grabbed my chin and shook it until I started singing "Twinkle Twinkle" again, to which he happily laid his head down again on my shoulder.

Happy Belated Easter!

It's been awhile since I posted some pictures, so I thought I'd better post some to keep things on our blog more exciting.

Have you ever....

Quite often I ask Eli if he wants to take a nap or go to sleep, and he'll nod his head very definitively yes.
Have you ever heard of such a thing?
Even better, he'll just chill out in his crib in the morning until we're awake and ready to get him out. Years ago, my sister told me they let their baby lay in the crib for up to an hour in the morning, and I thought she was nuts.
It is so wonderful.

Here we go again!

Eli woke up throwing up this morning! Eleyna is extra whiny, so I think she's next. This is crazy! Poor Eli has been sick most of the winter. He had just gotten over the throw-ups followed shortly by a cold for the last two weeks that went into his lungs last weekend. We've been giving him breathing treatments all week because he's a little rattle box.
On a good note, Evelyn has barely been sick all winter, for the first time in her life. She either has finally built up a decent immune system, or she's just determined not to be sick. Some mornings she'll wake up and seem like she's going to be sick, but after I tell her what fun things we're doing that day, she never lets on to any hint of sickness again.