A Mommy Has to Keep Track of These Things

Jambuca has finally started calling e-baby by a name!! Well, it isn't her name, but it's definitely her favorite girl's name (or almost so). He calls her Lily. Well, almost. He calls her LELLLLY! As in:
LEH-LLY! LEH-LLY! LEH-LLY! LEH-LLY! LEH-LLY! LEH-LLY!



When he tried to say "I love you, e-baby" it came out:
I Luh Lelly! I Luh Lelly!

So, OK, for the record he clearly got none of that early vocabulary and clear diction that his sister had in spades, but he gets his point across. And now that he's in the two-year-old class at daycare, he is growing and learning so fast that when I left town for 3 days and came back, I could really tell a substanital difference in him.

Jambuca loves having his teeth brushed. He always remembers it before I do, and after his bath he reaches up to the sink and goes "TSH-TSH-TSH!" I can't remember, but this might have been the age when e-baby started tolerating tooth brushing as well. I only had to force him against his will for a few weeks, and then it was like a switch went on, and he decided it was fun. And, he likes to brush his teeth cradled in a parent's arms like a baby. I'll tell you, his morning breath is much nicer now that he brushes nightly. :-)

That's all, just a Jambuca update. E-baby has been home from school for 2 days with pink eye. She goes back tomorrow. It's been terrific fun to stay home with her, but I'm glad I have work to go back to eventually. I can only do empty pickle jar crafts for so long before I want to eat my own hand. If I stayed home full time, my kids would probably watch a lot more TV.

But Really, Does *Anyone* Eat Normal Food?

Taste is a funny thing. My own taste, for example, has shifted so that things like waffles and Jelly Bellies are not nearly as tasty as they used to be, and things like garlic-roated kale and diet soda are much better. When I was a waitress at The Kettle in San Marcos, we used kale to decorate the edges of the salad bar, and that was the only way I had ever seen kale used in my whole life. A few years later, I also saw it used as a garden ornament, and even grew some ornamental kale of my own. But to eat it? Uuuuuuh, no, and I won't eat parsley sprigs either.

But tastes change, and now I like nothing so much as fresh baby kale leaves roasted in the oven tossed with olive oil, salt, and fresh garlic.

Some things never change, though. When I was a kid, I loved liverwurst. You can never eat more than a small piece at a time before your mouth goes from "YUM GIVE ME MORE" to your stomach saying "OK, that was tasty, but if you give me any more I'll stop talking to you." Some favorites never change. Except when they do. Rewind to February (or was it March?), 2006. Me, a little-bit-pregnant. In the midst of a world tour of puking performances across Spain and France, I'd managed to puke my way into Germany. The land of liverwurst. They even serve it for breakfast. And being in the same room with any liver-related product (even the really expensive foie gras in France) could turn me green. It was so unfair. I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to eat liverwurst again.

With my 2nd pregnancy, I had the same reaction to onions-- even to shallots, which you'd think I could never hate. I'm still not too hot on onions but I got over the shallot thing.

Well, I'm over the liverwurst thing as well, and I bought a tube of it today. I doubt it's the best thing for my diet, but when the liverwurst calls, I am powerless to resist. Dinner tonight was roasted garlic kale, liverwurst, turkey lil smokies in BBQ sauce and Cholula, and a bit of e-baby's latest recipe creation:

1/2 chopped apple
handful of strawberries, hulled
splop-spoonful of strawberry preserves
about 2 T Cheerios
Mix well and microwave for 15 seconds. Mix again. Serve warm.

Weird Brownies and a Yogurt Blast From the Past

Yesterday I made two recipes that I'm posting here for posteriority.

The first is based on a recipe for fudgy brownie bars from Women's Running magazine. When I first saw the ingredients list, I thought "EEW!" but I had seen something kind of similar on my cousin's blog awhile back, so I decided to give it a try. (I'd link to the recipe, but I can't find it online)

First time, I made it exactly as directed. It wasn't sweet enough. I also didn't drain the beans well enough.
Second time, I made it with stevia instead of agave. It was the wrong texture-- too dry, and perhaps overcooked as well.
Third time, I changed the sweeteners and added pecans, and it was perfect.
I can't emphasize too much the importance of rinsing the back beans several times. Insufficiently rinsed beans make a chocolatey bean-blob. Eew.

Here's the third version of the recipe, slightly modified from the original, attributable to Women's Running magazine, 2011:
Spray an 8" square pan with nonstick cooking spray, and preheat the oven to 350F

With an immersion blender, puree until smooth:
15oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 c unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp instant espresso powder
3/4 c liquid egg substitute
3 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c agave nectar
3/4 c Splenda granular measure
1 Tbsp melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

then, fold in 1/2 c chopped pecans or walnuts and pour the batter into the baking pan.

Cook at 350 for 20 minutes, turning once half-way through
Reduce temperature to 300 and cook 5 more minutes.

An inserted toothpick should come out slightly batter-coated. If it comes out clean, you've overcooked it.
Let it cool completely. (I like them still slightly warm, but the author likes them better chilled). My kids like them no matter what.

And, if you've never read Women's Running, it's a really nice magazine. I like Runner's World a lot, but their audience are more than half men, so their articles aren't always relevant. Women's Running has articles featuring some great women. I don't get any kickbacks from WR for telling you this. :-)

The 2nd recipe I wanted to write about is a response to something that has haunted me since I was 6 years old. Long, long ago, Dannon used to have a strawberry-walnut (or was it strawberry-pecan) yogurt. The fruit-on-the-bottom kind. It was my hands-down favorite as a kid. I don't know why it was discontinued, but like Brick cheese, I have never forgotten it. Unlike brick cheese, I can't even find it in Wisconsin.

Here is my no-sugar-added variation on the old Dannon favorite, even better than the original.
1 QT fat-free plain Greek Yogurt
3 cups good strawberries (thawed from frozen OK, if they're good frozen berries)
6 Tbsp granular-measure Truvia
1/2 c pecans

Puree everything with an immersion blender. The nuts will pulverize to tiny bits. That's a good thing.
Mmmmmmm now I'm hungry.

I Think My Heart Seized a Bit as Well...

I can write about the last few weeks and how I've had a few nice trips and how last weekend Jambuca was sick with a stomach bug and how SNG had it Monday night right before I left for New York and what a nice anniversary dinner we had last night, but today was a little more newsworthy than those things.
This morning, e-baby went to church with her Granny and Grampy, so SNG and I took Jambuca to the grocery store. He was sleepy, but cheerful enough. After that, we went to Durham for a birthday party for a friend of e's. When we got there, I noticed that Jambuca felt a little warm, but SNG thought he felt fine. A few hours later, he stil hadn't had a nap, and it was showing. He had a thousand-yard stare, but being as he is, he doesn't sleep in a stroller, so he just gazed around until time to leave. He just looked dazed and tired, and not real interested in anything.
In the car, we were certain he'd fall asleep right away, so I looked back to see if he had even made it the few blocks from the parking lot of the life and science museum.
His eyes were rolling around and his body was tremoring, drool coming from the side of his mouth.
"OH-SHIT he's having a seizure PULL OVER I'm calling 911" (yes, I hollered the s-word with e-baby in the car. I just hope she didn't add it to her vocabulary.)
SNG ran a red light to turn, pulled over, put on the blinkers, and took Jambuca out of the car. He held him up, put his face up to Jambuca's, talking and trying like mad to get him to respond. Jambuca's body was stiff, back arched, facing up to the sky, totally unresponsive. 911 dispacher telling me it looks worse than it is. Eight minutes later EMS arrived. By this time, Jambuca was catatonic, flopped against SNG's chest, staring at nothing. His temp was 103, skin was cold and clammy. EMS said it was for sure a seizure, probably brought on my a sudden onset of fever.
They put him on a gurney and I rode in the ambulance. They stuck his finger to test his blood sugar, and he didn't even register that it had happened. His O2 sat wasn't great, so he had an oxygen mask. He was shaking like crazy from chills. I could see SNG following behind us like his car was on a bungee cord.
It wasn't until we were in the ER at Duke for about 10 minutes that Jambuca fussed or cried or made any noise (when he threw up all over the place).
Jambuca slept in the car going home from Durham, and drank apple juice when we got home. He was in bed asleep by 6:30, and didn't even want a book. His eyes were closed before I finished th 2nd verse of his lullaby.

Bottom line is that he's fine. One in 25 kids under 5 get febral seizures, and it doesn't really mean anything. If he had a lot more, they'd start doing additional testing. But I'll tell you, watching your 2-year-old have a seizure and not knowing what to do is terrifying.
E-baby stayed calm, patient, and charming the whole time. She made friends with the staff but didn't get in the way of the work being done. She tried so hard to make her baby brother smile (it didn't work). But I'm sure that after he's had a good rest, he'll have a good laugh with her over some goldfish crackers.

A True Future Fairy Tale

Scene: My car, on the way to daycare drop-off

e-baby: Mommy, I am going to tell you a true story. It's a true story, about a real girl. OK?
me: OK, babylamb. Let's hear it.
e-baby:
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named (e-baby) . She had a beautiful medal, and it had her name on it. She loved her medal and wore it every day. One day, she was playing outside and dropped it on the ground. She left it outside when she finished playing. That night, there was a GREAT STOOOOORM. The wind BLEEEEEW and BLEEEEW and lifted the medal off the ground, and threw it in the river.
So she grew up without the medal. And when she became a teenager, she cried, "Noooooo Faaaaaair! Nooooooo Faaaaaair!"
When she grew up, she became an animal rescuer. All her friends who worked at the rescue center had soooo muuuuuch fuuuuun, and one day someone said, "We have to rescue an animal in the river!" So (e-baby) put on her scuba gear and went in the river to rescue the animal. When she was there, she found her medal. She was so HAPPY!

I enjoyed that story so much I had to write it down for posterity.

In other news, Jambuca can count to 2, and makes us more aware of all paired things in his world (2 cars! 2 birds! 2 books!). I love this life.

Two.

My tiny baby boy is two. Never was there a sweeter, more endearing boy. You know, except when he hasn't had his beauty sleep.

We had a birthday party while my parents were in town, which was fantastic fun, and just like my thank-you notes, this blog is running very late. Things haven't slowed down enough to be able to sit and write for more than a minute or two before I have to sleep, exercise, shower, feed someone, switch a laundry, get to work, put someone else back in bed, or pick up the exponentially growing pile of clutter in the house.

Oh sure, all those things are looming now, but I want to get this down before the next month officially begins.

Jambuca is still average weight (50%), and is slightly taller (65%) for his age. On his 2nd birthday he was half of 5'10", which means he'll be roughly SNG's height when he grows up. E-baby was roughly half my height, so it's only fair. He is able to do all the things on the 2-year-old questionnaire that his doctor has us fill out (fine and gross motor skills, communication, basic problem solving, etc) but he is very hard to understand when he speaks. I know he can make all the sounds, like 's' because he goes 'SSSSSSS' when he sees a picture of a snake, but he pronounces 'Star' as 'Lar' so he doesn't seem to know when to put the right sounds together. He can say 'Yay' but also pronounces the color 'Lellow.' If I still can't understand him in 6 months, I'll ask for the daycare's speech therapist to have a listen. It might be just an unfair comparison after e-baby and her poetry and songwriting at this age.

His favorite things:
Daddy
Dogs
Pajamas (his own)
Shoes (anyone's)
M&Ms (at my office)
Little toy mice (from the Hideaway Hollow series)
Cars, trains, helicopters, boats, and any other Things That Go.
The dollhouses
Play structures
e-baby, the coolest big sister in the world (I catch him striking a pose next to or behind her so that he looks like her stunt double)
Mommy

When Did This Become a Recipe Blog????

My parents are in town, and we've been having a terrific time. In fact, we've had so much fun, that when I cooked up a big 10-Qt pot FULL of broccoli and zucchini, I completely forgot about it and cooked it till it was grey. We ate it that night, and no one said anything. The next morning, I put some in my omelette, and didn't say anything. For lunch, I had some more and had to say something- it was just awful. My mom asked if I had put fish sauce in it (I have to hand it to her, she is so diplomatic, "What an interesting taste, did you do a thai version with fish sauce or something?") -- I had not. It was just awful.

I wanted to salvage it. It was a ton of vegetables. I wanted to make a cheese soup.

Here is what I did:
1 stick butter
3 shallots, sliced thin
3 ribs celery, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
Cook these in the soup pot until nice and soft. Gradually add
1/4 c flour
Add
6 cups chicken stock
Simmer for 45 minutes.
Add
1 c low-fat buttermilk
12 oz shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 t dry mustard
1/2 tsp hot paprika (like El Rey de la Vera's)
Stir well until cheese melts (do not boil or the dairy will be ruined).
Add all the leftover overcooked broccoli and zucchini (in my case, it was about 10-11 cups)
Process with the immersion blender until smooth.

It was OUTSTANDING. Mmmmmmmm.

So it seems that I am now running not just a recipe blog, but a recipe blog for salvaging doomed foods. I would have been popular in the 1930s, no?

Thai Peanut Sauce and Whatnot

I made up a peanut sauce this evening that I will forget the recipe for if I don't put it down somewhere.

1.5c natural peanut butter (the kind that's just peanuts and salt)
1 can light coconut milk
3T fish sauce
3T soy sauce
2T lime juice
2t kaffir lime leaves
2t minced garlic
2t minced galangal (thai ginger)
2T "man ketchup" (Sriracha hot chili sauce-comes in a squeeze bottle) (blame SNG for the nickname)
2T "man salsa" (Sriracha chili-garlic sauce-comes in a jar)

Mix everything in a bowl. You can leave out the Sriracha or double the Sriracha, or only use one kind, depending on how hot you like it, or use fresh finely chopped serrano peppers instead.
I had to use a mixture of kinds of Sriracha because I ran out of man ketchup before it was hot enough for my taste.This was crazy-good over Shiratake noodles and broccoli. 

I took a half day off today to go see the Normal Rockwell exhibit at the NCMA. I've never been a Rockwell fan; he stopped doing Saturday Eve Post covers long before I was born, and his art always seemed corny to me. But seeing all the covers of the SEP in sequence, and having the chance to really look at the details was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. I also really appreciated some of his art commissioned for Look in the 1960s. The exhibit ends Monday, and even on a rainy Wednesday, it was pretty busy in there.

The kids-- I haven't had an update on them in a long time. Next week is Jambuca's birthday, so I should save some news for a birthday blog post, but I'll tell you he's making us laugh all the time. He talks about everything (and we understand about 1/4 of it) and he is getting a little easier to redirect verbally.

E-baby has really taken off with reading and writing. Something just clicked finally, and she's getting it more and more. The other day she wrote her first name from memory without any help from me. And that's a lot of letters to remember! :-) She's reading 2- and 3-letter and some 4- letter words, but what's funny is that half the time she can guess what the bigger words are because of the rhythm and rhyme of the story. She also memorizes most books after the first or 2nd time they're read to her, so it's hard to always know whether she's reading or reciting. She's got a storytelling streak a mile wide.

I'm starting to suspect that Jambuca has as well. He loves playing out little narratives with the doll house residents, making little parties and dinners, driving the little mice to and from different doll houses, and I wish so badly that I could understand what he's saying when he's there for an hour at a time making the little village come to life.

Reduce, Reuse, Recipe!

For the past couple of months, Sunday mornings have mostly been a time for cooking. Since I've been on my New Year's Resolution diet*, we've mostly been cooking healthier things like veggies and meats for the next week's meals. Having quick meals ready to heat and eat keeps me from snacking like a fiend when I get home from work while trying to make something for dinner.

This morning, I also cleared out the fridge (which I do every 2 weeks or so-- it's shameful how much I throw out each time-- I'm looking at you, 2 week old slice of leftover meatloaf). There in the back were 6 Del Monte Fruit Naturals blackberry and blueberry fruit cups. I bought these because I had a BJ's coupon. Which means, of course, that I bought a case of them. They're fruit in juice with no added sugar and my kids LOVE fruit cups, and they LOVE berries, so I thought, what a perfect match!

Not so much. After repeated attempts, neither of the kids would eat these blackberries and blueberries in a fruit cup. I think that to preserve shape, they have to do something weird to the texture. The flavor is great! But the texture is just... not quite right. I've given up on trying to get anyone to eat them, and I pulled them out of the fridge and thought, "What can I do with these?" So I present to you:

Two Recipes from One Surplus of DMFN Fruit Cups!!!

Gelatin blocks:
Juice from 6 DelMonte Fruit Naturals fruit cups (not the berries)
Enough of any other juice to make a total of 4 cups liquid
2 Stevia packets
4 Knox gelatin packets
Put 1 c juice in a bowl and sprinkle the Knox on top. Boil the rest of the juice. Add to the gelatin mixture and stir in the stevia. Stir well, and pour into a rectangular or square dish (I used a 2Qt Corning Ware). Fridge until set. Cut into squares.

Berry Sorbet (based on this recipe)
berries from 6 Del Monte Fruit Naturals cups (not the juice) (should make about 4c)
20 Splenda packets
2 c buttermilk
Freeze the bowl of your ie cream maker at least 8 hours
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and puree with an immersion blender until super-super smooth.
Fridge until ready to eat.
Put in ice cream maker according to your instructions (mine went 15 minutes)
(The kids wanted a little extra sugar, SNG and I thought it was perffect as-is.)

Both of these were so good we all 4 ate until our bellies hurt. And there were hardly any calories in there. So New Year's Resolution is still holding strong.

* the New Year's Resolution: NO NEW CLOTHES in 2011! Shoes, hats, scarves, gloves, and socks do not count. Just no new clothes to fit a bigger posterior.

Instead of a real blog post...

a totally cute video of my kids!

Two Stories (One long, One short)

This time of year if I even see one PSA about children/families/individuals who are giftless/hungry/alone for the holidays, I get choked up. Case in point, the other day, e-baby asked me why it's better to give than to receive. I told her it was because it feels good to give someone something, like when we donate to the Goodwill. She wasn't quite following (well, they could just go to Target and buy some things). She prodded for more-- she asked why we donate old things to the poor, and I tried explaining how some people don't have much, and the least we can do is give them our old stuff.
Blank stare, crickets.

So I took a different strategy:
me: You know how, when you come home from school, we make dinner, or sometimes we eat out?
e-baby: Yes
me: And whenever you outgrow your old clothes, we go buy new ones?
e-baby: Yes
me: And when your birthday comes around, or Christmas, you get lots of new toys and books and things?
e-baby: Yes
me: That's because mommy and daddy have jobs and we are paid enough to buy the things we need, and have a little extra to buy things we want, like dinner in a restaurant or a toy now and then. Well, some people can't find good jobs, or their jobs don't pay quite enough for all the things they need. There are even some mommies and daddies who can't afford to buy food and toys for their children (and at this point, I start choking up like a super-sappy-sop and can't speak in a coherent sentence anymore-- little face with huge brown eyes, so lucky to have everything a child could ever need)

So we discussed that there are organizations that we give money and other donations to so that they can bring food and toys to people who don't have enough.
e-baby: If I had a friend who was really poor, I would give her one of my toys that I didn't want anymore.
me: Would you maybe give her one that you do still want?
e-baby: Well, no, I don't think that would work.
I mean you know, she is a 4-year-old, not Jesus or the Dalai Lama.

But, she seemed really receptive to the whole taking-care-of-poor-children thing and asked a few more times about how we could help some poor children. So we began a new family tradition: each kid has a budget for buying toys for donating, and we go shopping. Jambuca is still too small, so e-baby shopped on his behalf. She picked a deluxe toy food set (like the one she has and loves) and 2 small Disney Princess figurines. "He" picked a 12-piece toy muscial instruments/band set for babies (like the one she has and loves) and 3 Matchbox cars. We also picked out a bunch of her favorite nonperishable foods to give to the Food Drive at my office.

Here's my favorite part...

In line to check out at Target, the man in front of us accidentally bumped into e-baby, and knocked her over a little. He apologized profusely, and she (in classic e-baby style, using the opportunity to make a new friend) tells him (loudly), I'm donating some toys and food to the poor children! I am so excited! I can't wait to donate! It will make some children so happy! This is the happiest I've ever felt!

After he had checked out, he noticed that our Matchbox cars accidentally made their way into his stuff, and he had been charged for them. Before the cashier could credit it back, he said, NO! Leave it on my bill- That little girl is going to donate, and I want to be a part of it.

A near-tearful Hallmark moment. Over a $3 Matchbox cars donation! But no, that's not the reason. It was the poignant, the raw and gorgeous humanity of the situation. 

When we put the toys into a Toys for Tots collection bin, e-baby told the toys to find their way to a great new home. I don't think she really gets it completely-- how can you understand hunger if you've never been without food? -- but it is the beginning.

By the way, if any of you have ideas for other ways to get preschool-age kids involved in helping others , I'd love to hear your ideas. I'd love for my kids to grow up with a strong conscience and sense of social justice. After all, it was my own mother who, in the mid 1970s, had her children flying Black Power kites in the field next to the airport which had been notable for their racist empoloyment policies. Start 'em young, right mom? (this really is true. ask her about it. my mom is so awesome.)

OK, and the 2nd story. Much shorter, struck me as funny.
To save time and water, the kids have been bathing together more often. We let them use our big bathtub, and tonight I overfilled it and overbubbled it. Jambuca ran into my bathroom, sat right down and pulled off his right (red) cowboy boot. Then he pulled off his right sock, and stuffed it carefully inside the boot. Then he pulled off his left boot, then the left sock, and stuffed it inside the left boot. Then he neatly lined up the pair of boots next to the bathtub and put his arms up to be lifted into the suds, stomping his feet in excited anticipation.

Heh. I think at 1 yr old, I was wriggling free of my diaper and running from the house to streak nekkid down through the neighbors' yards. Jambuca is SO Montessori. (For the record, Jambuca does love to run around nekkid. But he mostly stays inside.

Gingerbread House-Eating Day

I love making gingerbread houses at Christmas, decorating them with cheap candy, and picking at them throughout the holidays. At the end of the Christmas season, the whole thing is so stale you just want to throw it away. E-baby has never been all that interested in eating them, so mostly they sit around being decorative.

This year we made a whole gingerbread village. There was a large central house (town hall?) made mostly from graham crackers and ginger snaps, surrounded by 5 tiny houses made from one of those gingerbread house kits. E-baby made my favorite snowman ever with mini marshmallows.

This year, Jambuca was very, very (VERY) interested in the gingerbread village. He climbed up onto the kitchen island at one point to grab a mini-house and try to gnaw on it. Repeated efforts to redirect him were thwarted and just led to a lot of screaming, so the gingerbread house moved to the top of the fridge.

It's been there for almost 2 weeks. That's just useless.

So, thanks to a great idea from my BFF Lizard, we also decided to have Dec 15 be gingerbread house-eating day. At breakfast today, the kids went nuts on the houses. And honestly, they didn't want much. Everyone had fun. E-baby said it was her favorite day of the year, and she was only sad that she'd have to wait another year for gingerbread house-eating day.

She also started singing this funny song with the lyrics "Chick it easy." It's odd, so I decided to videotape it. Here it is!

(Thank you again, Lizard, for the great idea! And, it is killing me that I know I took pictures of this year's house, but I can't find them anywhere.)

A Recent Collection of e-babyisms and Jambucaisms

* Discussing the Irish potato famine, we somehow got onto the subject of fungicides and insecticides and how they have saved so many lives from starvation and famine. She said that they were like superheros, but for potatoes. (car conversations with e-baby are strange, but never boring)

* He won't go anywhere without his mommy doll: a Polly Pocket with perma-clothes and hiking boots. He carries it in the car, leaves it in his seat to go to school, and grabs it as soon as we pick him up. He loves to point to it and say, Mommy! and then point to me and say, Mommy!

* At school, a little boy friend told the class about watching Rudolph on TV. She burst into hysterical sobbing, and once the teachers settled her down enough to speak, she said, I missed it! Now I will never get to see Rudolph! (the teacher told her that it would come on TV at least 10 more times before Christmas. I DVR'ed it and we watched it this evening).

* He loves to push the Pager button on the cordless phone cradle just to hear it go BEADLE-BEADLE-BEADLE! He also likes to use the cordless phone cradle as an easy-chair for Polly mommy.

* Describing a troll that has bad teeth, she tells me, That troll doesn't eat oranges- he's a scurvy troll.

Existential Mommy Crisis

Since I haven't posted pictures on Flickr since the Ireland trip, you might be surprised to see some more up there (Thanksgiving week and the first snow of the season)

When e-baby was 2, she loved watching Caillou. She was the same age as Rosie, Caillou's little sister. I enjoyed watching her go from being able to speak less than Rosie to being able to speak better than Rosie. I also wondered whether the kinds of things Caillou was able to say and do were really representative of a 4-year old. I mean really, there's no way a 4-year-old can do all that stuff and speak so clearly and understand such concepts.

Tonight we watched Caillou for the first time in a long time. E-baby is Caillou's age and does all the things Caillou does. Jambuca is just a little younger than Rosie. Caillou is a typical 4-yr old (only waaaaaaaay better at using his polite words). It took my breath away.

Speaking of e-baby, she never fails to make me laugh with how she explains things. This evening, a friend/neighbor from next door came over with her 4-yr-old son, and we loaned them our copy of the book James and the Giant Peach. I read it to e-baby last month, and she loved it. She was showing her friend the pictures on the cover, and explaining who the good guys were, and the bad guys, and then she told him about the peach.

"They went inside that peach. I mean INSIDE of it! Wait, I'll show you..."
(putting her hand waaaaay into a big barrel of goldfish crackers)
"See how my hand is in here like this? THAT is how they were INSIDE the peach!"

A lot can change in 2 years.