Bonding time

The evening started with my son standing at my office door holding a packet of chicken bouillon asking to cook with mommy.  We opted for Panang Curry, and while I did the chopping, the little guy cooked all the food and ripped up all the basil.  I figured it would be my dinner, but he sat down with me and scarfed it down too.  Looks pretty good for a 2 year old’s dinner right?

I may or may not occasionally use the TV as a babysitter.  Like yesterday evening, when I asked my son what he wanted to do, and he said watch Dora… I didn’t complain, I said let’s turn it on (I needed to use the laptop a bit). I will fully admit to strategically laying his head in my lab, with the laptop out of his field of vision.  He caught on about 10 minutes in and said “mommy stop working,” which is when the guilt hit me.  The laptop is “working” and “working” is not paying attention to him.  So as soon as Dora wrapped up we went on a walk.

My husband has his concerns that my son really only wants to watch Dora- ever.  He was happy to hear as soon as we stepped out the door, the 2-year-old imagination kicked in, and my son turned to me and said “Mommy is Dora. I’m boots”  And that’s when we went on a little neighborhood adventure.

The cul-de-sac were giant waterfalls, ending in pools  that we then swam around in.  Curbs became mountains, that needed to be scaled.   My pockets became Backpack… and twigs and stones and random finds ended up in it as we saw our neighborhood in a completely different light. It’s the first time I’ve seen him be so imaginative, and the first time I felt like we had a real between us moment.

We then spent 30 minutes jumping on the trampoline, and I had to drag his energetic butt off the thing.  I’m getting way too old, and am way too out of shape… I was winded!

Happy birthday to the best people in the world!

Me and my little guy. ..mostly my little guy.  We are 2 days apart, and of course decades apart as well.  It’s probably the reason the lil guy is so feisty.  He turned one on the 12th, which wasn’t a Saturday.  That’s important because when your kid’s birthday isn’t on a Saturday, that means you have to find the time to celebrated it during the day.  Yeah he’s one, what does he remember, but it’s the first birthday– it’s a big deal.

It’s also a bigger deal since I made a special cake for his brother’s birthday. I will admit the thoughts, will he know if we just do it on Saturday, and maybe I should just go out and buy a cake passed through my head.  I’m underwater at work and things are crazier than the normally are.  But I love the guy, so as soon as I got off work, I opened the great Google and found myself a quickie recipe of something that would be perfect for him. Banana Blueberry cake (kid loves his blueberries and bananas). Except turns out the hubby ate the last of those pesky blueberries so off it was for a quick Safeway run.  This is all of course under a pretty steep time constraint as he goes to bed between 5:30-6, and getting of early for me is 5…but I did it.  It turned out perfect, and super cute (if I do say so myself).

He also loved it- insisted he eat with a spoon, but  as always somehow got it all over himself.

We’ve been working on teaching him how to blow out candles, which he does pretty well. Except for the one moment he’s supposed to, then he just tries to grab it.  He was very delicate with the cake at first, and picked off all of the strawberries immediately.

Literally, the cake was just a big ball of white to hold his precious strawberries, as you can see from the below where he searches for more.

I modified this recipe for Banana Blueberry Cake.  I didn’t frost are cake, but just left the cream cheese as a spread. It was like a dense banana bread.

Sugar free strawberry blueberry cake

4 oz (1 cup) quick oats
5 oz (1 1/4 cups) white flour
4 oz (1 cup) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
good pinch of salt
6 medium ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
4 fl oz (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup strawberries, chopped (use fresh, or frozen berries thawed and drained)
4 eggs, beaten well
6 fl oz (3/4 cup) frozen unsweetened apple juice concentrate, thawed*

*You can use regular apple juice concentrate instead for a sweeter result, but do bear in mind that the recipe will be a higher in sugar than if you use the unsweetened variety.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F (175 deg C).
Put the first seven ingredients into a large bowl and mix them together.
Add all the rest of the ingredients and stir well until thoroughly combined.
Grease a 9 inch cake tin and pour in the mixture.  I poured 2 ramekins as well, so I could make a mini version.
Bake for around 50 mins to one hour, until a sharp knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for 20 mins, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the cream cheese frosting in the photograph…

Stir together one 3 ounce package of cream cheese, 1/4 tsp of vanilla and 2 1/2 tbsp regular frozen apple juice concentrate (thawed). Spread over the top of the cake once it’s cool.

Day to day musings

Just a free flow capture of life as I know it.

• We bought a trampoline- big ole sucker.  Stayed up until 9pm putting it together a few weeks ago.  Spent yesterday evening “fixing” the original set up. Siigh. If I can just unplug from work long enough to jump more than a few minutes each evening, I may just get in that “shape” I keep promising myself.
• Chased the hubby around the car today trying to wrestle the car keys from him.  I wanted to hit the grocery store without a little kid attached to my hip.
• The 2 year old has been sleeping in our bed, as we’re trying to get the 1 year old to sleep through the night again in the same room as his brother. 
• We’ve planted a garden in the backyard. Kind of funny it’s a ton of butter lettuce and bell peppers.  What does that say about us?
• Been too tired to sew, and have a bunch of half finished curtains all over the house.
• I think my nanny hates me, because I stopped making lunch or dinner for the kids and have left it to her.  I may or may not have fed my kid cheerios, refried beans, and peas one day in a pinch- work’s kicking my butt.
• Bought a bunch of crafty supplies for the kiddos, those Do-a-Dot pens, kiddie scissors and glue sticks.  I feel kind of guilty, like as a mom my kid should have had that earlier.  But heck, I don’t remember growing up with all of these things.  And a cardboard box, or a cup with water, oil and a spoon does a pretty good job of entertaining/educating the lil guy. Plus see bullet one above, we do have a giant trampoline – which the kid calls a bounce-o-line and I love it.
• Stepped on my phone today, crushing the glass for the camera.  Husband reminded me this is the exact reason he bought insurance on my phone.  What did people do before the days of insurance on cells?  Then again, who ever thought we’d be walking around with mini computers in our back pockets?

No photos, just words.