This is an Axe Cookie

I took Wren to Whole Foods today to do some shopping for my Cookbook Club dinner tomorrow night.  They have changed the Kids Club free snack options so Wren chose a fruit leather from the snack area and then wanted a cookie too (cookies were on the old Kids' Club menu, along with pizza and fruit.)

I allowed him to choose a shortbread heart shaped cookie dipped in chocolate.  As he started to eat it, Wren kept turning the cookie around and around.  After a while he said "You are wrong.  This is not HEART cookie it is an AXE cookie.  See, you chop with it like this."

I showed him how you could turn it 90 degrees and it resembled a heart but he was emphatic that it was an AXE cookie.   Next time I will get him the dog shaped cookie and see what he makes of it.

This evening, at bathtime, Wren wanted to see my vagina.  I explained that was private and like the doctor had told him, you don't look at people's privates. 

Wren, chancing upon the "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" tactic, stood up and waggled his parts close to me and repeated his request.  "I want to see where I came OUT" he explained.

I countered that his bits were always on display and that girls were more private privates.  He said that its okay, "I don't want to see all the way INSIDE, just the part I came out."   I said that it was hidden but it was "down there".  He peered.  I told him not to.

He said he must have been very small to fit down there.  "Just this small" he showed me his fist.

"No," I explained "YOU WERE THIS BIG!" 

"What the hell!" he said.

"Yes, you were large.  But vaginas can get bigger when the baby comes out.  Like your mouth is small but if you want to eat an apple it gets big."

"Oh," he said.  Looking concerned.

I decided to get out before the conversation veered further off course.

Hawaiian Birding #1
Meanwhile, the Pratt Birds of Hawaii and Tropical Pacific which I bought from Abe Books arrived today.  It is used but in perfect condition and came wrapped in a piece of beautifully folded archival paper.  It felt like a present even though I bought it myself.

Unfortunately, reading Pratt is very depressing.  Half of the Hawaiian birds in the field guide are EXTINCT.   Hawaai Rail?  Extinct.  Kioea?  Extinct.  Hawaai Oo?  Extinct.   Its the most depressing field guide I've ever read.  Imagine going around Seattle with our bird book and half the birds in the guide are marked EXTINCT.  I'd say they should have two bird books - a LIVING bird field guide and an EXTINCT BIRD MEMORIAL GUIDE.   Here is a bird list for Kauai.  You can see the number of critically endangered species among those remaining, particularly among the indigenous passerines.

Also, a fair portion of the field guide is for Polynesian birds.  There is some overlap but there are 4 or 5 pages of native Island birds (inland ones) and then an equal number of pages of introduced birds.  This whole introduced birds thing is confusing.  I mean, I understand people introducing chickens and pheasant but why on earth do people introduce Cardinals, Australian Magpies and Indian Mynahs?  How about "I am going to live in Hawaii, I think I will bring some Sparrows with me?"  Its just odd.  I shall have to explore the process in more detail.

So, I was going to provide you with one Hawaiian bird per day but now, compelled to educate myself about the mass extinction, I am going to do two. One extant and one extinct.

Extinct Hawaiian bird of the Day:  Kauai Oo

Extant Hawaiian bird of the Day: Kauai Elepaio

 

Cardiology update

Wren's cardiology clinic visit went well.  He was very well prepared:  for the first time he remembered what to expect, calling it "the doctor who uses the goo to look at your heart."   He asked to hold the buzzer which they use to call you to the appointment and as we walked in he said "I LOVE this place."

The echo was quick and he lay still the whole time. 

Most importantly, the results are encouraging.   Dr Lewin said Wren appears to be in "a stable phase."

His gradients were almost unchanged from last appointment and he has gained weight and height.  His pulses are strong (although I can't feel them very well).

We can go anywhere from 6-12 months before our next appointment, depending on how neurotic I get at the 6 month mark.

I have vowed to be calm so we can wait a long while.

Happy to have this over.  Now there are no immediate impediments to GOING TO HAWAII!!!!

Cardiology and the Winter Dark

**** WREN HAS HIS SIX MONTHLY CARDIOLOGY CLINIC TOMORROW**** 
I shall update tomorrow night.

Life in Seattle
Christmas has passed and only the odd spattering of holiday decorations remain up in the short dark days.   Its supposed to be an El Nina year but we haven't seen much snow, just the days of half-light and rain interspersed with blinding cold days of sun where the falling temperatures are marked by our cars being frozen in with ice.   On those days the doors to my minivan don't open and I have to pop Wren in through the front door and then clamber over the front chair to buckle him in on the way to preschool.  The shadowed side of my car is always worse off and requires extra work with the ice-scraper.

These days, my mailbox is full of credit card offers as the major banks leap in to scoop up the debts of those overextended over Christmas (7 in the past 3 days). 
The boys have settled back at school and I have finally become used to typing 2011 as the date.   The mycology email lists are quiet.  The mushrooms are sleeping but in their place the parent-lists are in a flurry of Sale and GIveaways as families reorganize and declutter after Christmas.


Mid-Winter Break in late Feb
Coming up is Mid-winter Break where the schools are off for a week from Presidents Day (Feb 21st-27th) and then there's Tax Season.  For the first time in many years we have an appointment with a Tax Accountant.  Now that I am working part-time our taxation is a bit more complex and we are going to see if someone else can do it better.   Like cleaning your house before a house-cleaner arrives, handing the tax over requires organization and I am starting to make piles and lists of things I need to fill in the Tax Worksheet the accountant provided.

We are lucky to be going to Hawaii this spring.  None of us has been before and we are going to Kau'ai.  Mum is going to be joining us for a week away.  I am terribly excited.  So often, I have been on fabulous visits to family but the places are familiar.  It is such a treat to be planning for a visit somewhere WARM and Tropical and new. 

The Boys
With winter and the new games acquired at Christmas, the boys are in a screen-time pit from which I am going to have to extricate them.  Frost is loving playing a Skate Game on XBox and Wren begs to be allowed to play iPad (Zombie Smash or PVZ or Sword Poker) or Kinectimals.  We have an Xbox with a sensor which 'sees' his movements so he controls his saber toothed tiger cup with various gestures and makes loud thuds as he runs around the living room to simulate the cubs running around his favorite obstacle course.

However,  they are not doing so well with alternative forms of entertainment.

Wren loves Magic the Gathering.  He has a deck of creatures, spells, instants and mana which he carries around the house most of the time.  He puts it in a little plastic sandwich bag when we go out and shows significant cards to strangers, failing to read the utter mystification on their faces when he explains that his Duskdale Worm is a 6/6 with Annihilator 3 (Frost told him that, although it is not strictly true).  Whenever I am working, cleaning, cooking or reading Wren comes up to me and asks me to "Play Magic with Me?"   He is remarkably good at it, playing about 50% of the rules most of the time.  However,  his emotional investment in his creatures makes it hard for him to let them die in blocking attacks so he sometimes lets damage through or fails to attack when it would be tactically wise.

My Entertainment
I have recently joined a book group which meets a bit over monthly.  Right now we are reading Cleopatra:  A Life.  Those of you who know my alarming lack of historical backbone will be pleased to know that I am filling in my gaps of a particular era in history while reading a book with the cover showing a pretty girl.  Win-Win in my book :)

I am also doing well with my running training.  The first half-marathon I have registered for is the Whidbey which is on April 9th.  I have reached the point of being able to run 6 miles easily at 10 minute mile or less and will do that a few more times before moving to a few 7 or 8 mile runs.  I have a running buddy (Courtney) and friends in a running group (Lauren and her peeps) who are all more experienced than I and able to answer some of my basic questions. 

For now, my main concern is that I will get injured as I increase distance. 

Each longer run or run I go faster on, I get slight twinges in my calves / achilles that makes me feel they are not quite up to the task yet.  I am not sure whether I have to keep building distance before adding speed or just do dedicated stretches and exercises for the calves.  Research needed!  This weaknesses a bit unfortunate as I love running faster.  We shall see whether I can keep the tension between exertion over distance and pace within a healthy balance.

Wren and Math
Wren is interested in numbers.  He spends a lot of time counting things.  He counts to twenty with occasional omissions and can add numbers with some thought.  Once, we were driving down the interstate and he said "If you have 2 and you have 2 then you have FOUR!"  I asked him what you had if you "had 3 and you had 3?" and he said "SIX!"   However, the next day he said "I can't remember" when I asked him the same thing.

He is very puzzled by the decimal system.  He often says "O-one" for ten and "O-O-1" for one hundred.  Today, he asked me  "What is 1 - 1 - O - O  dollars?"   I explained that it was $1,100.

Wren said:  "Well, that is a lot of money.  If there was a toy or a costume that was very very big we would spend ALL our money on it and I would ask you for it and you would say YES.  It might be a Robot Monster Costume."

I am interested that he thinks I would say "yes."

Wren and God
Wren is also puzzled by God.

Frost saw a comic of a man, naked, holding a fig leaf in front of his pelvic area.  I asked if he knew what it was in reference to.  He had no clue so I told Frost and Wren the story of the garden of Eden and Eve and the Serpent.  I also told them about the story of Noah and the Ark (and Dylan's song, Man Gave Names to All the Animals." 

Later that day I told Wren to stop bouncing on the couch.  I said "I have told you not to!"

He said  "GOD TOLD ME I COULD DO IT!"

We had a talk about God and how many people think God made life and the world.  I explained that some people think that there is no god, some people think that God is everywhere, some people think she or he is in the sky or somewhere far away, others think he lives in your heart or is like a holy ghost.

Wren said "I believe in God.  He is a guy.  He does not live in your heart because if he lived in your heart he could not make life."

He added:  "God is an invisible Giant Ghost that Lives in the SKy.  God is Called Fertility."

"Fertility?" I asked.   "What does that mean?"

Wren said:  "It is what God is Called."

"Uh huh."  I said, quite confused.

"BUT!  Wren continued.  "Some people think God is in a Statue and not in the Sky!"

I was quick to grasp this one since we took Frost and Wren to a Hindu temple in South Africa and saw Shiva and Kali and Ganesha.  I explained that the statues were like pictures of the Gods but that they were not really in the statue only.   Still, perhaps my explanation of a Murti as an image which expresses a Divine Spirit but is not in fact its embodiment was too subtle for Wren.  

Later, at the Aquarium, Wren told me "I think that God has Magic ways.  If he touches glass in pointy ways he doesn't bleed.  And in this Quarium, God did a good thing.  He picked up each animal very very gently and put it in the Aquarium so we can see them."


The Quarium
We had an excellent visit to the Aquarium last week. We were lucky enough to come at Octopus feeding time and saw both octopi in paroxysms of excitement chasing a squid on a stick.  It was quite amazing to see them in motion - they are extremely quick and dextrous.  The one keeper poked a squid on a stick and kept it out of reach for a while until Homer, the one octopus, caught it with his tentacles.  Wren also enjoyed seeing the river otters.  One, in particular, was careful to pick up his tail and suck it whenever he went to sleep.  Wren and I decided it was his "soft shirt" for bedtime.

The octopus chases the stick with a squid on the end

He holds onto the stick to eat the snack

Wren, posing as an octopus

The Eye of Homer's friend

Josh and Hiking
Josh is also thinking of greater things.  He has often mentioned a desire to hike The Pacific Crest Trail.  Recently, he has started planning to do some of the first sections on his own and has thoughts of doing the first section this Summer.  I would drop him off and meet up with him 3 nights later down the trail.  It is very high altitude and only open for a few months each year.

Its late and I am going to fold laundry.  More on Frost and our wild winter life (not) with our cardiology update tomorrow.  

How Wren Plays

Wren and I have created a new game.  It is called AirPorts.  The game started with the Duplo airport and evolved into a world laid out on the carpet, three planes and various scenarios of baddies and goodies and excited animals.

The Lemurs get a ride to Madagascar

Here is my participant observation of a few minutes of morning play.  It begins when I have build a rough square structure from Duplo and Wren has named it "the Heekee Hole" for Baby Dinosaur to live in.  Bad animals have threatened to attack.

Wren:  "[Mama Dinosaur] is going to hide in the Heekee Tent.  Now she is in the Heekee Tent!  She is safe."

Me:  Where is baby dinosaur?

Wren:  He is in the Heekee Hole so he can't find anything to eat. 

The Heeky Hole with coconut palm

Me:  He can eat coconuts that fall off the coconut tree.

Wren:  They are too small for him.  He is a giant fella.

Me:  There are quite a lot! 

Wren:  Okay.  Gawp gaup gaup.  He ate all the coconuts.

Me:  What!

Wren:  He ate all of them.

Me:  But I told you baby dinosaur can eat them.

Wren: Oh, uh oh.  BIG DINOSAUR ate them.  The baby girl can plant some more.  She can go in the Heekee Hole.  I am going to eat some really quick because of that Godszillary Guy coming.

[Wren brings a little Duplo girl into the Heekee Hole and munches 'coconuts'.

The BIG ONE who ate all the coconuts

Wren:  Mummy.  Looks what comes running down.

Me:  Is it a boulder?

Wren:  It is a volcano.  This is a volcano ERUPTING.
[The lego rocks enter the Heekee Hole]
It is coming into the Heekee Hole.  Its falling.

[I squirt it with blocks of blue lego.  ]

Wren:  Now its cold.  It still rushed in but it is cold. 

Me: They can use it as a table now.

Wren:   They will play with it.

Later, we went to Value Village and I found one of those 'excavation' kits where you get a block of plaster or sand and some tools to chisel into it.  It was Egyptian themed.  It said 6+ but Wren was very excited, having 'helped' Frost and Alex excavate a few weeks ago and been sidelined by the bigger boys.

We took it home and he dug and chiseled for a long while before I helped him get the sarcophagus out.  Thereafter he painted all the pieces with the craft paints provided.  It was a very worthwhile purchase.

Go Snow, Go!

We have some snow in Seattle.  The boys are very disappointed that it is falling overnight and predicted to be washed away by a warm front by morning.  Its been very cold recently - without gloves my hands were very painful running around Greenlake on Monday and I couldn't believe how red they were.

Frost wanted to play in it and hoped for a day off school.  Wren wanted to watch.

Snow out the window at 11.15pm.

 Annual Checkup for Wren
Wren had his annual pediatrician visit this week.  The pediatrician told him "When you were a baby we did not know what a big healthy boy you would grow up to be."   It brings tears to my eyes.  Of course, Wren has cardiology this month so I always get that superstitious "don't trust the future" feeling.  However, he looks great.  Here are his stats:

Age:  4 years  (he told the nurse to put a 0 in for zero months)
Height: 41 inches (70th percentile)
Weight:  37lbs (70th percentile)
Hearing:  perfect
Eyesight:  20/30

Height:  41 inches

Weight 37lbs

Raise your hand when you hear the BEEP.

Other than the shot, Wren really enjoyed his visit to the doctor.  She talked to him like he was a big boy and asked him his favorite colors, about his preschool and what he liked to read.  He told her his favorite colors were white and black because white is no color you can see and black is too dark to see it.  She said "he is really thinking!"

When we came home he wanted to play Doctor Dinosaur.  All the dinosaurs lined up and were given well-child visits.  They had their hearing tested, received a shot, had their feet checked for Plantar warts (Because Josh had one and it has greatly impressed Wren) and had splinters removed.  They were also asked about "any problems in their body".  At his appointment Wren told the doctor he had a sore in his mouth and she saw that it was a canker sore.  He also asks the dinosaurs this question.   It is very satisfying and we have many dinosaurs still lined up to receive treatment in the hospital!

Great Wolf Lodge
We also spent a night at Great Wolf Lodge last weekend, with Kindra and her family.  It was lovely to see them and we spent a long time eating, swimming and wandering around with wands.  It is interesting how kids suddenly change around adolescence.  Mason (12) is so much older than Frost (9)right now!

Here are Wren and Cousin Charlie at the big bear.

4 Year old cousins.

Happy New Year Rambling

I am a failed blogger.  Seriously.  I just can't think of anything to write or its something I shouldn't write about.  Here is a case of the latter.

Wren and I are in the car, driving to the Post Office.  Its 5.15pm and all those unfortunate people who work all day are rushing home in the wet dark behind their streams of headlights.  I am in the same stream of headlights rushing to make it to the post office before it closes so I can collect my EXPRESS PARCEL from South Africa.  I have reason to believe it contains our Christmas Presents from Dad.

The presents are in the mail
As I drive, I brood.  I worry that I have not heard from the family that my Christmas Presents for them have arrived.  I fear the worst.  This year I failed to fully insure and register the Christmas Box.  After visiting South Africa this summer it seemed paranoid to spend $35 extra to make sure that it got there.  I felt it would since they'd caught those thieves at Oliver Thambo Airport and sorted out the main problem.   Anyway, I worry that the Christmas Presents, mailed December 5th, have been stolen.  Dad is sanguine.  He says they are probably still delayed due to the big freeze in the UK.  I want to believe.  I suspect Dad remembers the days when international parcels went by sea and took 6 weeks.  Remarkably, his parcel to me has arrived within a week.  This augers ill for my parcel reaching them and I start to think what Backup Christmas Presents I can send.


As we climb the hill in the stream of traffic I remember that I have left the masala sauce bubbling on the stove.  I reach for my cell to call Frost and ask him to turn it off, but have left my cell phone at home after one of Frost's friends called to ask for a playdate and I talked to her while slicing onions.  Now my cellphone remains near the onions, possibly near the site of the possible conflagration should the sauce burn and Frost not notice.  I start to worry that Frost notices too late and tries to turn it off and then gets burned.  I ponder turning around but the traffic is determined and evenly spaced.  There is no way to get off this arterial without wasting more time than my direct route.

At the post office I learn that the parcel I have come to collect is still out for Delivery in the mail truck.  He found me out but has not made it back in time.  I learn that it is Tuesday 4th January and Not Tuesday 5th, as I had believed.  I recall that an early sign of dementia is not knowing the date or day of the week.

Being called on my Twitting
At the major intersection where I must turn left, a cautious turner makes all of us miss the lights.

"You twit!" I exclaim.

"Why do you call everyone a TWIT when you drive a car?"  Wren asks.
"It is a bad habit.  Its what I say when I am frustrated."  I explain.
"Are you mad?"  He checks.  Wren checks this all the time. It makes me mad when he checks all the time whether I am mad when I am not mad at all merely saying "no" or "ow" or some other less-than-thrilled emotion.
"You should stop doing it.  Promise you will never ever do that again."  he demands.
"Well, I don't want to but sometimes I forget.  Like when you hit Frost on the head or in the tummy.  I tell you not to but you do it again."
"That is not like that." says Wren.
"Well, it is a bit."  I argue.
"No, its not."
"I shall try and stop saying people are twits when they are." I concede.

The Younger Generation  are also Twits
We race home through the twits and arrive to find the sauce nicely reduced and in a good state.  Frost is doing his Geography Homework.  He has a list of questions.  Instead of solving the geography puzzles by looking at a map to locate a certain Gulf, find the longest nation in South Ameria or determine which Hemisphere contains the most land mass - he Googles it.  Apparently his Geography Quiz questions are common ones because all are answered on Answers.com or Wikipedia.

When I complain about his methods Frost says "I am doing research."

I notice him googling "What country is between Seattle and Anchorage" and grab the Atlas and tell him to look at the map.

"WHAAAT!" he exclaims in shock when he realizes that Alaska is north of Canada.  "I thought Alaska was down there!" he gestures towards Florida.

"Um, no.  You have to drive through lots of Canada to get to Alaska."
"Why is it America if its UP THERE!"   Apparently Frost has no future in US foreign policy. 
"I am sure some people in Canada wonder that too."
He stares at the map a bit longer before googling the next thing, something that would require turning to another map page instead of one-finger typing in a querey.

This generation is going to be real dumb real soon if they are without google.

Hawaii Bound
After dinner we sit in the man cave to watch a DVD on Kauai I borrowed from the library.  Frost has been keen to visit Kauai but after viewing the DVD he starts to ululate with joy and shout about Guavas everwhere and going up rivers on a boat and boogie boarding and eating shaved ice.   It has become real.  We have booked a trip to Kauai this spring and since it was very pricey I am avowed to get maximum benefit by anticipating the hell out of the trip for the full 2-3 months lead time.

I have also vowed to learn Spanish.  I have been embarrassed making calls in my Freelance work and hearing many respondents switch from Spanish to English when I flounder.   Today, Wren and I learned to say Hola and Buenos Dias.  Wren said it to 4 people.  We also practiced counting.

Unfortunately, they don't speak Spanish in Hawaii or I'd make it a whole educational thing.

What else is going on?

My First Running Injury
I am training for my half-marathon.  I am much faster than I thought - my faster pace seems to be around 9 minutes per mile for 4 miles - but I am weaker too as I have a mild calf-strain since the last run.  It didn't happen in a dramatic fashion, just started to feel sore and really tightened up when I cooled down.  I swam instead of running today which was good but I became quite waterlogged after 40 minutes and stopped.

We are talking about getting a dog this fall.  So far, the leading contender is a puggle.  However, looking at the price of these things I suspect a tulip bubble (or ostrich bubble, or alpaca bubble) and think we may get a small low-energy mutt.  To make an analogy - we would like the lost sock.  The one that is well loved, ordinary, and just needs to find a home.   In an alarming development (to me) Josh would consider dogs in the toy category.  You know, small fluffy things that sit on noble laps.  I tend more towards the large loping breeds which are often wet and full of mud.   Frost wants a corgi.  Wren wants "a cutey".

Frost on Broadway in the Bathroom
Frost is starting a drama class.  Josh gave him a man-talk and told him that the drama-geeks get the girls and so he should get ahead and learn his lines.  Frost wasn't keen at first but I have since seen him talking and gesturing to himself in the mirror and I think he is making up lines.  He also makes up and sings songs and sometimes dances in the middle of soccer matches leading Josh to announce "I don't think Frost has the right personality for soccer, I think he should get into drama as soon as possible."

He was frustrated with Frost who explained later that he was making up a song about playing levels of halo and forgot to look up.

Now, its time for me to get some tea and read my bookclub book.  This is my first bookclub and although friends tell me that reading the book is optional, I plan to do my homework so I can nod sagely while chewing my cocktail.

Blending Nirvana
Finally, no catchup blog post can be complete without mentioning the Vitamix.  I had a birthday and received a Vitamix from Mum and Josh and myself.  I had expected to use it a lot but I had not expected the blending mania to catch me to quite this degree.  Last night I made a curry which required coconut milk.  Rather than using canned milk I used a coconut Frost and Alex had opened (drilled and hammered) and grated the pulp in a cuisinart food processor.  I then added water to the pulp and blended it in the vitamix.  Then, I poured the thick creamy mixture into the Champion Juicer and extracted all the liquid.  We were left with some dry flakes of cocunut fibre and about 2 cups of coconut milk.  It was amazing how fatty it was.  When I scraped the vitamix container there was lots of coconut butter / fat in it which I ate.

I poured this coconut milk into the spiced sauteed onions and then cooked it down with squash, peas and tofu.  Delicious.

I am also having blending failures.  If you blend low-fat dairy yoghurt (for tzaziki) it turns into water.  They must put some kind of emulsifier in which fails in the face of the vitamix's blending power.  Similarly, soups can get too smooth and appear weirdly creamy.  This is nice for me but Frost and Wren prefer chunks.  Hummus is delicious and so easy - one can makes a whole cup of hummus.     The kids favorite drink so far is a raw shake - frozen bananas, agave, a tablespoon of raw coconut butter, raw cocoa, vanilla,  fresh nut milk and nut butter.  They beg for more.  I based it on the Thrive recipe for a chocolate shake.

Thank you Mum for the gift voucher for Thrive.  I had lunch and spent the rest on blending supplies (coconut butter, raw coconut pieces, red rice.)   Mrrmrmm

Frost asleep on the couch after staying up all night.

Wren hiding under the blanket to play the iPad when he is
already out of screen time.

Sickle Moon

I've just been woken up early by a phone-call from Florida.  Some guy would like to confirm his juice bar is the right Juice Bar.   I galloped out of bed to catch it and thanked him, hoping my voice was not too clouded by sleep.  I've been doing some freelance work confirming restaurant details and with the time zones in the US, I get these callbacks at odd times. 

Apparently, the curve of the earth has already found the sun, in Florida.

Back here in the PNW its still darkish.  The raccoons are making their way home and the sickle moon is still bright against the morning sky.   Wren is asleep in my bed after waking twice in the night which is quite unusual for him.  The only reason Wren usually wakes up is when Kitty Haiku has slept in his bedroom and scratches to be let out.  He mistakes her scratching for a raccoon and calls out in alarm.

Last night he told me he had "lost soft [shirt]."  I helped him find it.

The second time he was "very hot and wide awake now".   It was 5am and he didn't feel hot but I brought him to our bed where I promptly fell asleep and dreamed of strange permutations on the holidays while Wren squirmed and kicked me and snored with a slight whistle.

Seagulls are flying overhead and the sky is pink.  The buds on the camellia are getting larger and a few have tiny pricks of red on them.  In a few weeks we should have flowers.  What can pollinate this tree in the dead of winter?
  
Catching Up
The week before Christmas I took the boys to the Pacific Science Center to see a show of puzzles and challenges called Mindbender Mansion.  They both enjoyed running around filling in clues on their cards but the puzzles were too hard for Wren, and Frost at times.  The one they both loved was a large conveyer belt with wooden food trays on it.  There were puzzle pieces that you had to insert into the trays before they moved away into the machine.  This food tray filling race was always full of kids but the boys managed to get a turn.  Here they are earning their own high score:

Frost rushing to grab food for the next tray.

On the way home we took a route through Queen Anne.  We chanced apon a tree which had fallen the day before during a strong windstorm which swept through the area.  We were barely affected but there were many trees down due to the soil being sodden from days of rain.   The boys and I were very impressed by the dramatic scene.  Nobody was in the car when the tree fell, thankfully.

The unlucky car but its lucky owner.

It was a large tree.

The boys sneak up to peer inside.  Frost says "The windscreen
was broken!"

Wren says "I am looking like that because I want to be AHSOME [sic]"

S is for Snowboarding

This morning I took Frost and Alex up to Snoqualmie Pass to try snowboarding. Neither of the boys had done it before but they are at an age where that seems like a thing they could do, and both were enthusiastic.

It was pouring with rain in Seattle but around North Bend the skies cleared and we had sun in the morning and then some overcast clear weather later in the day.  It was around 34 degrees at the base of Summit Central but in the high 20s at the top of the Central Express.  I got quite hot skiing.

Alex with his gear

Frost ready to try Holiday, sort of.

 The boys had a two hour group lesson where they learned the basics of managing a board.  They complained that it was a bit boring and that they kept wiping out because people hit into them.  The bunny slope by the magic carpet (a moving conveyer belt for learning on) was very full of kids and clumsy adults so I understood their feelings.  After their lesson I offered to take them up Holiday - a green run with a two person chairlift.  The only tricky part, I thought, would be the dismount.

Oh, the drama.

Frost was reluctant.  He was tired.  He had not had lunch.  He had fallen over and twisted his leg "almost off."  Alex was very keen.   I agreed and slightly persuaded Frost to go up too.  As we waited for the chairlift in the long line I told the boys that the chair stopped from time to time because people fell over as they got off.  Somewhere along the line this became "fell OFF" the chairlift.   The next time it stopped abruptly Frost became quite convinced that someone had fallen off (30 ft in the air?) onto the snow.  He had overheard someone ask "are you alright?" and seen someone below the chairlift and a seat with only one occupant.  It all made sense.  Suddenly the chairlift became perilous.

"Oh, why did I let you persuade me to do this?" asked Alex, who had been the instigator.

Alex 25 feet up and loving it, a bit.  I learned later that he
thought you had to jump down to dismount.

Frost had to ride with another kid because the seats only take two.
Both boys were worried their boards would just fall off their boots.

I told them they would be fine.  And they were.  Both gripped the seat tightly on the way up and neither did a graceful slide dismount BUT neither actually fell over.  I was very impressed.

Getting down the hill proved more of a challenge.  The bunny hill is a small and marginal decent but even the green run is a great deal more vertical.  You can get up some speed. Frost became very frustrated and lay down in the snow in pain and despair more than I few times.  I said "I can't get you down off this hill any other way." more than a few times.

We despaired together.

Alex fell over many times but also made some speedy progress (generally involuntarily).

Alex waiting for Frost to get up.

Frost lying in the snow thinking about getting up.

On the way home in the car both boys said that "the free end part was the best time!"

Boys.

While they were in lessons I spent 2 hours on the slopes.  It has been 5 years since I skied and I was rusty.  I did a few green runs and then went down the big blue slopes (intermediate) from Central Express and Golden Nugget.  That was a lot of fun.  If I skied 3 or 4 more times this season I think I would try a black once, just for fun.   My current skis are on the long side and I coveted the shorter tails of the modern carving skis.  I have to really lean forward into my skis to get the weight off the tails during turns.

Heres some snow for you South Africans and Aussies with
your Summer Christmases.

Conditions at the top on my last run - overcast but dry. 

WANTED:  Ski buddy for intermediate joyful skier
sick of being the +1 in the chairlift line (although you get to go sooner).

 
Still, very happy, very sore and lots of fun.  

Mince Pies
I am very pleased with QFC.  This evening I realized it was almost too late to fulfill all the holiday traditions from my past.  I have been so busy having American Children that I nearly forgot the importance of having mince pies during the holidays, that you need a Christmas Pud on Christmas day and that yorkshire puddings are great with gravy!

Thankfully, QFC at U-Village carries a wide range of British Foods.  The only thing that was sold out was spotted dick.  I tracked down the Christmas pudding on the bottom shelf of the dried fruits section, along with fruit mince.  It was Cross and Blackwell and the mince pies I made (at 10pm) are now cooling.  I plan to take some over to Tara's in the morning when I fetch Frost (who is having a sleepover after seeing a performance at Seattle Childrens' Theatre).

Dad, this is for you - Shortcrust pastry from scratch.  I made it
with freshly milled flour bought at the farmers market.  
Remembering what you said I handled it as little as possible.

MINCE PIES (plus a few huckleberry jam ones for the kids who have
yet to acquire colonial tastes.

Gingerbread Houses

Yesterday, the boys and I decorated their gingerbread houses.  Frost had a kit from Fred Meyer and Wren had one from Trader Joes.  Gingerbread house building is an activity fraught with danger.  The most likely result is that the frosting will have the wrong consistency and not cement the pieces of the house together before the roof slides down or the walls cantilever outwards.  Having witnessed these scenes of horror in prior years, as well as the untenable wait between construction and decoration, I built the houses while the kids were asleep.  They woke to the site of virgin, dry, stable gingerbread houses surrounded by candy and were spared the mess, drama and construction setbacks when the cans used to prop the walls slid of the board and toppled over.

"We will eat candy for breakfast!" they chorused.

It wasn't quite that bad, but certainly a noble intention.

Wren opens the bags of candy before breakfast.

One of the kits came with pre-mixed royal icing.   I used this one to build the houses and had to mix up my own icing (per box instructions) for the second batch.  This failed.  The icing was thin and slimy.  When I piped it in the bag it shot out in pretty patterns that did not hold larger candies in place.

I said a bad word.

Frost told me not to.

I scraped the faulty icing out of the bag (not easy) and added more powdered sugar.  Departing wildly from the quantities on the box, I managed to dry up the mixture until it was more paste like.  Now it wouldn't squirt so I had to smear it on the houses.  Wren wanted me to make icicles but the frosting was constipated so I had to content him with many dollops hither and thither.  The boys were utterly happy and fought vigorously to have the most gum-drops, jelly beans and other rare or preferred candy on their house.

When they tired, they ate candy until they were "done".

The houses looked fanTASTic.

Wren and Frost with their decorated houses

Wren showing how he feels when I told him he could not eat the house until Christmas and
Joshua said "It will be stale by then."

I said "Gingerbread houses are stale when they come out of the box."
"But we can still eat the candy, right?" asked Frost.  Wren nodded and ate some immediately,
in case I said "no."

Midnight Feasts and Turning 4

Its 11.30pm and Frost and Isaac are eating breakfast cereal in his room.  Its a midnight feast.  I am hoping this aberration in discipline may lead to some sleeping in tomorrow but, if not, it is still okay.  When I was a kid we used to wake up late and sneak around for midnight feasts on most sleepovers.  I am not sure I share the novelty of eating in the dark of night but as transgressions go it is not a very large one.

I hope they go to bed soon.

Meanwhile, Wren has turned four.  He did it with some style and excitement.  After days of counting down to his birthday it was finally here and he had a Harry Potter cake (aka a purple star cake with silver balls on it).

He loved his presents and now carries his Lego rock monster around in a plastic sandwich bag (so as not to lose parts such as the minute Lego jewels encrusting his back).

Wren before the Birthday Table at preschool.

Wren dressed for his preschool birthday celebration

Wren and his friends at the birthday party.

Up close and personal with his Harry Potter birthday cake
MADE BY ME, obviously.

Wren with his ACTUAL birthday cake.  This was
a noel log chosen by Wren at Wholefoods.
He ate the little snowman and I ate the cake, almost.  Tara helped.

I am up late too, having just returned from a joint 50th birthday with Trey and Jaxie.  It was a good group of people fueled by a great bowl of Mai Tai punch.  There was a little note by the punch bowl "This contains rum."  Unfortunately, it did not specify how much Rum.  About half an hour after imbibing a good glass of it I came to believe it contained a great deal of rum and was grateful that there were Very Interesting People to talk to without inhibition.

Later, there were shots of champagne jello with little oranges and whipped cream as well as a twist of burnt toffee.  Delicious.

Now, you must excuse me to go and put those midnight snacking boys to bed.