Mrs. Independant - part 2

In my last Mrs. Independent post I explained how Soraya wants to put her shoes on by herself. Well, we have now moved on to picking out our clothes for the day. I shouldn't be surprised as for awhile now she has enjoyed standing on a stool in my closet, tapping her index finger to her chin saying "hmmmm, pick....pick." I wonder where she got that from? Did she possibly watch me try and decide what to wear one too many times :)

So we now have moved on to picking out our own clothes. Today she was adamant about wearing the same t-shirt from yesterday that had a sparkly BFF on it. Along with some navy blue sweatpants. I had to convince her that we could put a long sleeve shirt under the t-shirt and you could still see the sparkly BFF as it was too cold to just wear a t-shirt.

So here is a picture wearing her well thought out outfit. She is also wearing her puppy dog "pack pack"

Snow Day!

Thanks to a couple more feet of snow Chad had another snow day yesterday! It was nice just lounging around the house, getting some things done, and Chad getting in a little more studying since finals are next week. Chad took Soraya out to play in the snow. All of the dad's on the block were shoveling their driveways while the kids played so I took a few pictures. Soraya LOVED it! We had to make her come inside after an hour because her cheeks were bright red and since her gloves got soaked she took them off then had freezing cold hands! But at least she had a good time! Jack made it out for a bit and was mesmerized with the snowflakes landing on his eyelashes :)

Oops!

Well, I was checking my email while Soraya was taking a bubble bath and Jack (freshly bathed) watched his mobile. Next thing I know Soraya is yelling that it's time to get out! I run in and she had pooped in the bath tub. She said "Raya poo poo in the tub" and then she started crying. She was clearly upset about her accident. So I got her out, wrapped her in a towel and told her it was ok. I didn't want her to feel any worse about the incident. So I let Chad clean it up when he got home :)

Graham Crackers

When we started potty training we bribed Soraya with crackers. She could have 2 crackers every time she used the potty. Well, we were going through a lot of crackers. And in my opinion, even the "healthiest" cracker in the super market still is not nourishing to the body. It is more harmful than helpful. So, I decided to make some homemade graham crackers. I just made them for the second time today and they turned out even better than the first time! They are actually pretty good. I enjoyed dunking them in some raw milk :)
Graham Crackers
41/2 c. spelt flour
1 c. butter
1 c. buttermilk
2 c. rapadura or sucanant
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Mix flour, butter and buttermilk and let stand at room temperature overnight. (Use a glass bowl and cover with a plate). Next morning, mix rest of ingredients and add to four mixture. Roll out as thin as possible and cut with a cooking cutter. Bake at 350 until crisp.



Tips

• My hardest problem is rolling them thin enough. I still think I can get them thinner. The harder I push though, the more they tend to stick to the counter.
  
• I don't have any cookie cutters...so I use a shot glass :) Works great!
• They seem to stick less to my stone than cookie sheets.
  
• 15 minutes seems to be the right amount of time. They will crisp up some as they cool, so take them out when they are golden brown.
  

Mrs. Independant

Well, I now have to give Soraya ample notice when we are going to leave the house. She wants to put her shoes on all by herself. It is interesting to observe the learning process of such a huge milestone for a toddler. She started practicing on Sunday. She found some of her summer shoes in her room and put them on by herself. However, that evening when we went to leave it took 15 minutes and 2 tantrums to get out the door. She now wants to do it by herself every time. However, she still can't get them on by herself half of the time. So she tries, lays down and screams. I ask if she wants help NO! I ask if she wants to try again NO! And she cries the some more. She kicks her foot up and the half on shoe flys off and hits her in the head. She cries some more. So I finally pursuade her to try again and sucess! She got it. But now we are wearing our summer shoes in the winter....no big deal. It was just her and I going to Jessie's house so I could carry her. Well, Chad calls later in the evening and Jack is crying because he is ready to be fed and put to bed. So I tell Soraya it is time to go and the tantrum starts all over again trying to get her shoes on by herself. Fifteen minutes later she is still crying and I know Jack is probably crying for Chad, so I convince her to carry her shoes. So it works and I get her out the door....this time it works...not sure about the next time...

Beer Day

I sure love living by the college calender. Getting those random holidays off that you don't get in the real world, like MLK day today. So since Chad has today off, it is Beer bottling day. And so far it has been a family event. This is the first time he has bottled beer since we moved which posed 2 problems.

Problem #1- We no longer have a dishwasher, which is how you sanitize the bottles. Chad is Mr. Sanitizer himself. So he wants them sanitized at the last possible second and stored in an airtight, sanitized container. So we asked friends Dave and Amy who live down the block and they happily agreed to let us use their dishwasher for a few beers in return.

Problem #2- We had to get the bottles to Dave and Amy around 10 in order to have them back by Soraya's nap time, which is prime bottling time. Well, Chad didn't even start looking for the bottle until 9. We found about 200 bottle with the labels still on...but couldn't find the 80 that he used in his last batch which we had already scraped the labels off of. So during Jack's am nap the scraping began. We had one side of the sink full of hot water soaking bottles. Once Chad and I scraped the label off of a bottle with a razor blade we put it in the other side of the sink where Soraya dumped out the water, rinsed it off and put it in the tub with the other finished bottles.


Soraya also made sure the bottles that were soaking were stirred.


So we get the bottles ready in time and Chad takes them down to Dave and Amy's. Well, they couldn't fit all of them in their dishwasher in one load so then we call Rod and Amy who live a few minutes away and Soraya and Chad drive over with the rest ofe bottles to get a load going in their dishwasher as well, costing us a 6 pack.

We then get both kids to sleep for their naps and we start bottling.

First you sanitize. Chad sanitizes EVERYTHING!


Then you syphon the beer from the carboy to the bottling bucket.


Chad didn't want to waste a drop!


I was the bottle filler.


Chad was the bottle caper.


All done! Just in time for Jack to wake up!

Roadtrip

Well, time to get caught up with the blog. I tend to get a few days behind. We went to meet our new niece, Marissa, this past weekend. Soraya talked about her all week and was excited to give her some baby shampoo. But when we got there, she was much more excited about Marissa's toys, which I should have expected. Jack found her crib to be very exciting, as he wanted to look at all of her stuff instead of sleep :) But it was a nice visit and I was glad to finally get to meet her! The drive home was interesting. Jack cried off and on the last hour of the drive, and poor guy, we had to make two stops, which stretched things out even more. Soraya had to go potty, she now wears no diapers ever, so we had to stop at a gas station in Wadworth, about 20 minutes from home. I know what you are thinking...gas station...well we had her little potty seat that sits on big potty seats so I didn't think it would be too bad. So I go running in with toddler in one hand and a potty seat in the other and of course...there was someone already in the ladies room. I stand there for a second...knowing Jack is in the car screaming (poor guy) so I try the men's handle..it was empty..after a few seconds of hesitation we go in...i know not only gas station bathroom but now mens gas station bathroom! Soraya happily trots in and I yell "don't touch ANYTHING!" She goes, without a hitch, thankgoodness it was #1 and not #2! So we get back in the car and head on down the road and we had to then stop in Copley to pick up our milk (we get raw milk from a farm co-op that we have to pick up weekly). But Jack survivied, poor guy, you just wish he could understand why he was stuck in that seat for 3 hours and why no one picked him up even though he was crying. So we get home feed the kids, put them in bed and I hit the hay at 8! I was exhausted!

Jumping Jack wearing daddy's hat. This is his new favorite hang out spot :)

Mama Carol with baby Marissa

Close up of Baby Marissa

Soraya "swimming" in her "boat" while I tried to pack our bag for the weekend.