Library day

We take great pleasure in Calvin's love for books.  Yes, we've cultivated it some, reading to him in every quiet moment, and making sure that he sees us reading books for our own enjoyment regularly, but in addition to our own endeavors he must have been born with a propensity towards this recreation.  It's not every two year old who, on a visit to the library, will shirk his duty to the surplus of brightly colored toys littering every available surface for a chance to curl up on a window seat with a good book (and only sometimes his mother).  It may be more common than we think, but we're taking our cues from the cacophony of rowdy pleasure in the children's section, in contrast to the ever available amount of seating in the same, and deciding otherwise.  In any case, we are most definitely pleased with our son's obsession, not just with the library, but with the books within it.

Spring

It's all about baby animals, isn't it? The mall near us took this second day of spring as an opportunity to introduce the Easter Bunny (with only three weeks to go before Easter I'm surprised they didn't do this last month), and they did so with a toddler style gala event. What exactly does that entail, one might ask. Well, in this case it meant craft table (as in crayons and coloring sheets), the big bunny himself, and the all important baby animals of which I earlier spoke. We weren't entirely sure what to expect when we got there, but were brightly greeted by ducklings, lambs, bunnies, and kids (as in baby goats). It was enjoyed by all, ourselves included. And Calvin even managed a nice high five with Mr. giant long ears, who, for all we know, could be related to the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog (why do we let our children sit on that beast's lap?).  No worries, he already knows how to count.

Happy Valentine's Day 2009

How to make Valentine's night special with a two year old on the premises. That is, besides the fact that every night is special with a two year old on the premises.  Given his choice Calvin would make a every night a party (although, apparently not with cake, but I'll get to that later).  At least a couple times a week he asks to have a picnic in front of the fire place, an activity which, thanks to the difficulty of keeping a two year old sitting during a picnic, we reserve only for occasions which we deem as special.  So we made tonight just one such occasion and spread our blanket in front of a warm fire to enjoy its coziness on "the day of love".  Of course, many people celebrate hearts day with fancy meals; some go out, some order in, and still others plan and cook delightfully gourmet versions of an edible love affair, but that just wouldn't do for a picnic dinner and we opted for something way more fun than fight crowds or pay exorbitant amounts of money - we made individual heart shaped pizzas.  Perhaps that's the crowning glory of making your own pizza dough - being able to shape it however you want and in any size (and dressing it however you want, too, of course).  We had two different Valentine themed pizza options tonight - The Audrey Hepburn Classic Romance pizza (sporting clever cheesiness, olive you olives, going all to mushrooms, and slightly spicy uncured pepperoni), and The Brad Pitt Spice Things Up pizza (with it's extra cheesiness of Italian mozzarella and Mediterranean feta, and slightly spicy, yet goofy, banana pepper rings).  Strangely enough Jon and I opted for half and half pizzas and Calvin opted for everything everywhere.  I guess you just can't have one without the other.  Don't forget to pour the (cheap) champagne.  We hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day, no matter how you decided to celebrate!

Make believe

This will be another quick post, short and to the point.  Mostly we just haven't done much out of the ordinary lately, or, perhaps that alone is worthy of mention.  Calvin, as I mentioned before, had a successful swim class on Saturday, then this week he had wonderful music and library classes.  We're all healthy again, and the weather has been warm enough to entice outside for short periods of exercise.  Maybe the only notable events this week (aside, that is, from the new era of hope that was beautifully sworn in on Tuesday at noon) were the sighting of the sun, the discovery that we have a rabbit living under our deck (we can tell by the track patterns), the darling little bluebirds who have started hanging out on our deck again, and the fantastic make believe play in the train town that has been built in our play room.  Actually, come to think of it, it really has been a great and busy week.  And if you want to see more pictures of our fantastic train town, you can visit our January photo gallery.

4 days: cookies and carols

With the outside temperatures reaching all the way to a whopping 5 degrees above zero, and wind chills dragging that number down by about twenty degrees, we found some great, festive ways to keep ourselves occupied inside today.  This morning we made two different kinds of cookie cutter cookies (see our To Your Health blog for recipes), frosted them, sprinkled them, and made plates to give to the milkman, the organic man, and the librarians we love so much (plus a plate to keep home, of course).  And after all that baking this afternoon found us settling in for short winter naps. Then, much refreshed, this evening we belted our entire library of carols so loudly the neighbors must have heard us, even through our closed doors and the sound of the howling Siberian wind.  Here we come a wassailing...