Michael's Birthdays

What a kid! Michael is such a precious little boy. I can hardly believe he's now a big four year old. We are so blessed to have him as a son. He is so smart and so creative and so sweet and such a "good worker." He loves to help and to be involved in anything and everything. He loves doing crafts and simple experiments and is super-excited about our little garden. He is really into "outer space" right now and can name and describe all of the planets. He is already learning to read simple sentences using phonics (e.g. "The hot dog fell off the log.") And, he has already leaned to ride the bike (with training wheels) we got him for his birthday.

We were visiting family around Michael's birthday, so we ended up celebrating it three times. When I asked him what kind of party he wanted, he said he wanted a "monster-dragon-dinosaur-ghost party." In the end, the monster-dragon-dinosaur-ghost theme proved less important than the colors --everything had to be red and yellow, or orange, "because red and yellow make orange."

Party at Nana's:

Party at Grandma's:

Party at Home:

Sadie is as fun and funny as ever.

Adelaide is just about 8 months old now. She has been creeping on her belly for months, and wobbling around on all-fours for over a month. We've been expecting her to start crawling "any day now" for a long time, but she just hasn't gotten it. Today, sitting among our toy-srewn playroom, I finally realized why: she has no motivation. "Why go over there, when I have plenty of toys to chew on and play with right here?" Maybe we should start our nightly cleanup again? . . .

Months ago, I made a huge batch of Black Bean Soup. After eating it for several days, I froze the remainder in some small tupperware containers. This week, I decided to take a night off cooking and reheat the soup for an easy dinner. I emptied three containers into a large cooking pot, put the lid on, turn the stove on low, and let it defrost while I played with the kids outside. After 10mins or so, I came back in to check on it. It was starting to turn liquid, so I stirred it a little and went back outside. After another 5 mins or so, I came back in and realized that the smell emanating from the pot didn't quite match what I had remembered the soup smelling like. But it looked fine, so I stirred it again and went back outside. After another 5 mins., I came back in and knew something was just not right. I finally recognized the smell, and it wasn't black beans. It was chocolate. Apparently I had combined 2 containers of black bean soup with one container of chocolate pudding that I had completely forgotten about. When I mustered up the courage to taste it, it wasn't all that bad. I had heard of people making black bean brownies, so I decided to let it finish cooking, serve it to the kids and see if they liked it. It was a good plan, I think, only I forgot that chocolate burns --quickly! The next time I came in to check on the soup, what I smelled was not chocolate black bean soup, but burnt-chocolate black bean soup. I didn't bother tasting it this time. I pitched it and started making stir-fry.