Easter pictures

Well, Easter was kind of a long time ago... Oh well. We had a really nice Easter. Here are some pictures from our egg dying (thanks to my sister Anna for the cool idea!) and our neighborhood/playgroup/church friends Easter Egg Hunt:





Here's the link to the blog that explains how to do this method. I had been saving all my onion skins since December...

The Easter Egg Hunt was a blast. There were probably about 30 people who showed up. Woodland Park is about the most perfect place to have an Easter Egg Hunt.

Gideon and the potty

I've been afraid of posting anything because I thought, by doing so, I'd jinx myself and Gideon. But we've had a couple of months of pretty consistent potty behavior and it's safe to say that Gid is "potty training". He is dry and clean about 6 out of 7 days of the week, he is dry after every single nap for weeks now, and he's dry just about every other morning when he wakes up. He's in underwear all the time at home and when he takes a nap. Since breaking my ankle, I've been having him wear a diaper when we go out to the park because I can't run him over to the bathroom if need be and I don't want to worry about it right now.

So both my boys have potty trained pretty early. It's probably 90% due to their personalities and only 10% (or less) due to my approach to potty training. But it's worked really well for both of them and they are pretty different little boys. I'm sure I'll eat my words someday.... I thought I'd share how I go about it on my blog in case anyone is interested and so I can go back and read it when I need to be reminded down the road.

My approach to potty training with both boys has been to 1. follow their lead and 2. nothing but praise, praise, and more praise (until they are four and they pee their pants when you are on a field trip to the UW geology department, right? ;) I really believe that staying hyper positive about it, even when you are about to pull your hair out, makes the biggest difference. I use the word hyper because that is how I feel after my boys pee or poo in the toilet. It's like I'm throwing them a mini party with lots of "hoorays" and "hi-fives" in the bathroom. If they feel the slightest bit of discouragement coming from their mom or dad, whom they look to for the majority of validation at this point in their life, they will freeze up and refuse to continue with potty training in fear of disappointing you again. Pure and simple from my point of view. It's the same principle that parents use in all aspects of raising a child. Shame your child and they lose confidence in themselves. When it comes down to the nitty gritty and my boys have an accident I say "Oh dear, oh dear ( in a slightly worried voice)" because that is how I feel a the moment that pee is dribbling down their legs and onto the carpet, followed by, "It's okay. Don't worry. Let's clean up. You'll remember next time to go pee-pee on the potty!" and I encourage them by reminding them about all the successes and hard work they have put into going pee on the toilet.

As for following their lead- this is where you use your intuition as a parent. Every child is so different and understanding your child's personality to determine what cues they are giving you will help you make this decision. My boys both showed interest by wanting to sit on the potty. When they didn't want to sit on their potty, no problem. When they did, hooray! (even when nothing came out). My boys both were very, very excited about wearing underpants, so that was helpful. Both times, we introduced underwear even before they were fully potty trained. It has worked as positive incentive- you can put on some underwear after you try sitting on the potty!! They also both loved wearing underwear over their diapers. The more practice they get pulling those things off and back on and up and down, the better. Gideon will spend a good thirty minutes trying on multiple pairs of underwear. He's busy and happy which makes me happy. With both Jasper and Gid, we've tried to ride the initial spark of interest as long as possible. Honestly, I wasn't ready for Gideon to want to start potty training and I spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out if this was really happening already. He turned two in December and this potty training stuff started back in March. Rob has been the one keep reminding me we have to go with it. The other thing that has been great with our boys has been a potty chart where they get to put stickers on each time they sit on the potty. They lose interest after about a month of putting stickers on it but it sure if fun while it lasts.

Ankle bone blues

Some days are just sad...

On Friday morning, we went to the park. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Not a care in the world. I didn't notice a four or five inch hole in the sand and I stepped right on the edge and rolled my ankle right into the depression. It really hurt at first, but I brushed it off as just a little twist. For about 30 minutes, I felt like I had morning sickness and like I was about to puke. I kept walking around at the park and even went to my garden with my friend. We stayed at the garden for a few hours. When I got home, my boys and I were so tired from running around for the entire morning and afternoon, we fell asleep for an hour. When I woke up, my ankle was HUGE and turning blue and I couldn't put any weight on it. I hurt like the dickens. I took some Ibuprofen and iced it. After moving around on it for awhile, it hurt less and the Ibuprofen kicked in. The next morning- same thing- it killed at first for a little while but then the meds kicked in and I was able to manage with only a slight limp.

Last night I decided to cancel Nature School, which was very sad and hard for me to do. Rob kept telling me I should and my sister said I should, but I didn't want to admit that my ankle was serious. I ended up going to the university's clinic and the doc ordered an x-ray. She found a small fracture at the very end of my fibula. The sadness of this is sinking in for me. I've been training for months to do my very first triathlon in July. We have multiple camping, backpacking, biking and hiking trips planned this summer. I just love doing things and going places and moving my body. These kinds of trials are the toughest for me. My dad told me on the phone that it will heal and I will be okay and I'll be up and running again soon. That was good to hear. I have to just make it through a few hard and sort of painful months. But I feel overwhelmingly sad today and that is okay too. My boys are sleeping and I should do the same.

Dumb ankle bone!!

On a more positive note, last time I broke a bone I was all alone living in D.C.- Rob was in China for a month. The day after he left, I broke a few ribs while using a pull pruner on a huge cherry tree at the National Arboretum. Seriously, I could not lift myself up from bed. I remember just lying there realizing I couldn't get out of bed and I was all alone. That sucked. My dear sister, Anna, flew out with her beautiful little Jimmy and that was one of the happiest things that has ever happened to me in my life. Thank you, sis, for that kindness. Anyway, this time is way less painful and way more happy because Rob is not on the other side of the world. I love my husband. He is so wonderful and thoughtful. He's been so supportive and telling me to "sit down, put your feet up, and do a crossword puzzle" all weekend :)

Easy, delicious bread recipe

We've had some people ask about the bread recipe we use. Here's the link. We follow this closely, but here's our variation (same ingredients and process for the most part):

• 4 cups warm water (should feel comfortably warm, not hot, to your finger)
• 2 tablespoons Kosher or coarse salt
• 2 tablespoons yeast (any active dry yeast should work; buying it by the bottle is cheaper than the packets)

Mix it together.

• 8 2/3 cups flour

We usually add 4 cups of flour, mix it in (it should be quite wet still), then add the remaining 4 2/3 cups. You can experiment with any proportion of white to whole wheat.

When you finish adding and mixing the flour it tends to be very sticky. Once you extricate your mixing spoon from the dough, cover it with a towel (disposable shower caps work great, and are reusable) and let the dough rise for 2 hours or so.

Once the dough has risen we sprinkle some flour on top of it, add some more flour to our hands, and pull out enough dough for cooking immediately. There should be enough dough for 4-6 loaves, depending on how big you make them. They can all be cooked at once, or placed in a container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Leave the lid on loosely for the first 12 hours or so to let the dough finish expanding. Our dough usually gets used in a few days.

For those being cooked immediately, we shape each loaf, from 1x-2x the size of a grapefruit, into whatever shape (great link to shaping a boule here), let it rise for 40 minutes on a greased pan or nonstick mat, sprinkle more flour on top of the loaf and slash the top with a serrated knife (optional, but highly recommended), and place in oven preheated to 450 degrees (every oven's different - 425 works well for us at home).

One note on the oven - we have a roasting basin below the bread pan on a lower rack that we add a cup of hot water to just after adding the loaf/loaves to the oven. This steams the bread and tends to produce a nice, crisp crust. Bake the bread for 20-30 minutes, until browned. Done.

One comment on using loaves from the fridge. Make sure that, once shaped, the loaf is given an hour to warm up and start rising. A lot more rising will happen in the oven (especially if the loaf is slashed deeply), but if you put it in the oven too soon the center of the loaf will remain doughy.

Here's another good overview of bread baking basics, including a discussion of the major ingredients.