Munkin

Madeline has two baby dolls. She got one from me for her birthday last year. Her name was "Baby" for the longest time. Sometime this summer she became Julia. Mads is a very sweet little mama to Julia, changing her diaper, nursing her, bathing her, dressing her, reading to her, tucking her in to bed. The other baby she got from her Grandma E, maybe for her first birthday or the Christmas she was one. That one was called "Tiny Baby" and was Madeline's dear friend for about a year. But she has played second fiddle to Julia for the last several months.

Recently Madeline has been playing with both at the same time. And "Tiny Baby" got a real name, Munkin. I have no idea where that came from. Well, that's not true. I have a couple ideas. In any case, I'm glad Munkin has a name and is getting some love again.

Decluttering

I'm on a decluttering spree. At least I hope it's a spree. I lined up a bunch of stuff from our basement and took pictures of it to post on Craigslist and Freecycle. We have way too much stuff in our home and I really want to thin it out. It's driving me crazy.

My biggest problem when it comes to getting rid of stuff is not sentimental, but rather environmental. I don't want to just throw stuff away or even load it all up and take it to Goodwill or Salvation Army or something. I'm a perfectionist and I want to find everything its perfect home. I'm hoping if I get on a roll the momentum will carry me on.

The end is near

Prepare yourself, the world may be ending soon. This afternoon, at my husband's request, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Regular old Nestle Toll House cookies. That's amazing enough, but even more amazing is that I followed the recipe exactly. I neither substituted for nor skimped on the butter. I used no amount of whole grain flour. I used plain old sugar, no sucanat, no agave nectar, no maple syrup. Just for Al.

But I did make a batch of whole wheat oatmeal raisin cookies with dairy-free margarine for Madeline and myself.

Two Cuties

Madeline's favorite dairy-free frozen desserts are faux ice cream sandwiches called Tofutti Cuties. They are cute. Little tiny ice cream sandwiches. And they are yummy. You'd never know it wasn't ice cream.

(I don't know why I'm all about fake ice cream that tastes like ice cream these last two days.)

We all scream for rice cream

I've never been a big ice cream eater. I like it okay and even enjoy certain ice cream treats: malts, root beer floats, Culver's strawberry sundaes. So when we discovered Madeline's cow's milk allergy and I had to give up all things dairy, ice cream wasn't one of the things I thought I'd miss terribly. Until summer rolled around. Sometimes it's just nice to have a bowl of ice cream. We found a good dairy-free sorbet (Sharon's Sorbets) which, besides many yummy fruit flavors (our favorite is mango) also comes in chocolate and coconut. But it really isn't the same as ice cream, not creamy or rich, probably due to the lack (or should I say "lackness") of fat. And some flavors have a vaguely chemical-y aftertaste. We tried a soy-based version and it was horrible. Really, really horrible.

Then an acquaintance of mine introduced me to Good Karma Organic Rice Divine. A rice-based "frozen dessert" that is very nearly as rich and creamy as ice cream. And the flavors are so full and vibrant. Very Vanilla is like sucking on a vanilla bean. Mint Chocolate Swirl is cool and refreshing. I can't wait to try Mud Pie and Carrot Cake. Our natural foods co-op had the Rice Dream version of rice cream on sale, so we tried it. Not nearly as good. Edible, even enjoyable. Had I not tried the Divine first it might have been great. But it doesn't have the creamy texture of ice cream or Rice Divine. And really it's that creaminess I'm after.

Out of the mouths of babes

This morning Madeline got a hold of Al's wallet. We found her in her room sorting the money into piles on her bed. (Not to imply that Al has piles of money in his wallet.) We asked what she was doing. She replied, "I have a baby in my tummy. I'm going to need money." Wise beyond her years, that one.

No jokes, please

Madeline learned something else this weekend. How to go down the fireman's pole at the park. I had been lifting her up a few feet and letting her slide down. But when she started going down hand over hand, I realized if I showed her how to get on the pole from the platform she could do it all on her own. It took a few tries, but soon she was an old pro. By the time we left the park she had conquered all 7, even the one whose platform was over my head.

I learned!

Before I had a child, I never thought about how much we learn throughout our lifetimes and particularly how much we learn in those first few years. Now it never ceases to amaze me. All the little things we take for granted were learned, through trial and error, through observation, through practice. My favorite thing about being a parent is seeing the world anew through Madeline's eyes as she learns new things and makes new connections every day. And apparently she thinks it's pretty neat, too. She desperately wants to learn to write. She doesn't draw anymore. If she's got a writing utensil and paper she's busy "writing, " squiggly lines from left to right, top to bottom, front and back. Last week we were playing with sidewalk chalk and she didn't want me to draw our usual pictures, she kept asking me to spell different words. Finally I asked her if she'd like to learn to write some letters. She looked awestruck and nodded solemnly. We started simple, with X and T. I was pretty sure she could do those. We gradually got more complex, E and H then D, B and P, eventually making our way through the whole alphabet. She was so proud of herself. After executing a nearly perfect D, she looked up at me, beaming, and exclaimed, "I learned!"

Independence

Eden Prairie had a big 4th of July celebration on Friday. It was voted "Best Community Event" by reader of the Eden Prairie News, so we thought we'd better check it out. There was a lot of fun stuff for kids and a lot of fried food. Madeline bounced in 3 different inflatable castles, touched a shark, sprayed a fire hose, danced and got a tattoo and a shark tooth necklace. The rest of us ate fried mashed potatoes, bacon cheese fries and footlong hot dogs. We left long before the fireworks, but still had a good time.

Non-Newtonian

Trying to keep Madeline busy and quiet this morning while her dad and Uncle Mike slept in, I decided to make some of this. She was not into it at all. But it has entertained Al and Mike and I all day. Go make some. Right now. Seriously. Go.

Staycation

The pictures are here! The pictures are here!

With the costs of airfare and gas and the realities of traveling with a 2-year-old being what they are, we decided this summer rather than plan any grand getaway we'd spend one day each weekend exploring part of the greater Twin Cities metropolitan area. Even though I grew up near here, I hadn't spent a lot of time exploring all the great things "The Cities" have to offer.

We didn't know we were part of a larger trend until we saw a headline in the Eden Prairie paper last week which read "Summer of the Staycation."

One month into the summer, here are some of the things we've done:

We took a train trip along the St. Croix River on the Osceloa and St. Croix Valley Railway. On our way home we stopped at William O'Brien State Park, bought a State Park pass and went for a hike along the St. Croix.



We rode our bikes around Lake Calhoun and part of Lake Harriet.

We went to the Mill City Farmers' Market, where we bought rhubarb and radishes and Madeline got to pet a goat. We also learned that residents of St. Paul are able to raise goats and other hoofed mammals, but residents of Minneapolis are not. Just one of many things to love about St. Paul. Both cities allow fowl (chickens, turkeys, ducks and the like.) Then we walked around the Mill Ruins Park, which as the name implies contains the ruins of several of the old flour mills that lined the Mississippi and gave Minneapolis its nickname, "Mill City." Did you know Minneapolis was at one time the leading international producer of flour? I didn't either.



We visited Minnehaha Falls. Many visitors are surprised to discover a roaring waterfall in the middle of Minneapolis. This is the best time of year to see it. The creek was high and water was pouring spectacularly over the falls. We also rented a double bicycle surrey and rode around the park. Madeline was delighted. It had a little basket for her in the front. She sat up front yelling, "Faster!! More faster!!" as Al and I pedaled as hard as we could up hills. It's not the most stable vehicle, more than a little top heavy. Every time we went around a corner I was sure we were going to tip. We finished up our visit to the falls with a fried fish po' boy from a little restaurant called Sea Salt right in the park. The sandwich was very tasty, but we were perplexed as to why this restaurant at an inland waterfall in Minnesota was called Sea Salt.

I was going to crop myself out of this pic, but decided to let everyone see my sexy farmer tan and hot bike helmet.

Our most recent excursion was to a local berry farm to pick strawberries. The season is very late this year. The berries were still a few days from peaking. A storm was moving in so it was quite cool and Madeline was shivering and asking to go home most of the time. But fresh picked strawberries are kind of like sex in that even when they're bad they're pretty darn good. We had strawberry shortcake, strawberry-rhubarb crisp with rhubarb we bought from this wonderfully crazy old lady who has a farm near the berry farm, and I'm gearing up for my first attempt at homemade jam. The prospect of homemade jam on fresh-from-the-oven homemade bread is almost more than I can stand.

Stay tuned for further updates from our staycation!