Saturday, April 18, 2009

Updates on the kids


One of the books we checked out of the library on our latest visit is about Pirate Pete. Trevor loves it and we've read it at least ten times in the past two days. Pete and his parrot are following the sound of thunder to find the magical Seafairy Sapphire...the thunder booms again, and Pete picks up his pace. At this point in the story, Trevor asks me, "where's his pace?"
I was corrected this week on my pronunciation. Trevor's friend Anna cannot pronounce s-blends, so they come out as a p. He picked up a toy at her house and asked, what's this? Anna replied, it's a pider. I repeated, oh, it's a spider. And Trevor said, no, it's a pider!
It is amazing the things he repeats. His language is growing more and more descriptive and he loves to get in conversations with strangers anywhere we go. Today we went to the earth day procession of the species parade and saw lots of cool costumes of mythical and real creatures. I think he loved the seahorse most because he just learned about them in Pirate Pete and it was a big, beautiful creation. We stopped at the coop on the way home and he was talking about it with someone in line, who said it was big, and he corrected them, and said it was GIANT.
Noel is growing by leaps and bounds, but it is much less obvious. She is really starting to recognize her family. When she wakes up in the morning, she coos and talks in her crib until I go pick her up (unless I wait too long, then she yells), and she always has a big smile when she sees me. She's making a lot more varied sounds, like squeals and screeches, and is very ticklish with the silliest little laugh. She can roll from her back to tummy, but only to the left and when she's feeling very motivated. She grabs everything now and passes stuff back and forth and puts it in her mouth and is totally bored with all the dumb baby toys we have.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Yummers. Cookies!


The only thing I've eaten today is about a dozen of these yummy cookies I whipped up using a recipe from one of my favorite food blogs, http://tiny-morsels.blogspot.com/. (Note: there are probably thousands of way better food blogs out there, but I have no idea how to find them.) I changed the recipe slightly based on ingredients on hand (I don't stock rice flour and I didn't feel like grinding up any oats), but I have to say that this recipe is a godsend for vegans who are missing their tollhouse chocolate chip cookies...yummy and buttery but without the butter. Trevor liked them, too.




1 cup (256 g) tahini


2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


1/2 cup (120 ml) pure maple syrup or (168 g) agave nectar


1/4 cup (48 g) raw sugar


Zest of a big (organic, preferably) orange, about 2 heaping teaspoons, or same amount of lemon zest


1/2 cup (40 g) ground oats (I used hazelnut meal)


1/2 cup (80 g) brown rice flour(I used whole wheat)


1/2 teaspoon baking soda


1/2 teaspoon baking powder


1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt


1/2 cup (88 g) nondairy semisweet chocolate chips (I used minis and I don't think they were nondairy.)