The munchkin wasn’t sure what to think about the fireworks.  And I’m not talking about big, cool, loud, gorgeous, fun fireworks.  I mean sparklers, pop-its,  ground blooms, and crackling bombs.  We tried to let her stay up until it was dark, but that was not going to happen.  So we did what we could. 

She would sit on our laps and do sparklers, and eventually (after about 8 of them and with me doing it with her) would stand up with them.

She liked to stomp on the pop-its, and that’s all she would have done if she had her way.

She thought the pull-string confetti launchers were fun too.

But everything else required a lap or a parent on each side, and ear plugs.  And she really would have rathered us not light any ground blooms at all.  She would say “No, don’t do that”.  Us being the kind of parents we are held her tightly and ignored her.

And please let me whine a little here.  It was the 4th of July, and do you see what my daughter is wearing?  Fleece pajamas AND A JACKET.  It’s criminal for the weather to be that cold on July 4th.

As I said in my previous post, our summer began in the hospital for a planned surgery for my husband.  He is now a very healthy daddy, after his ileocecectomy (a surgery where a portion of his bowel was removed).  He has Crohns disease and after many, many years of discomfort, he finally has relief.  He feels very good now (6 weeks later).  We are thankful indeed.

He and munchkin found ways to have fun while he was healing.

She took good care of her Daddy.  She gave him his “medicine” (and he gave her some too).  She held his hand and walked him around the house.  She told him to sit down.  And she checked to make sure he was feeling OK about every five minutes.  It was very sweet and cute.  He is finally able to pick her up again and we are so happy!

Our fathers and friends helped build a shed for us while Husband was out of commission.  It was very kind.  This is the only picture I have.  I blame it on my long days at the hospital.  It was still cold and wet many of the days in May.  We had to use every non-rainy moment we could.

In spite of all that, we’ve had so much fun this summer!  We went for a tea party at a friend’s house, where I realized I had dressed my daughter like Minnie Mouse.  It was a perfect accident.

The munchkin started using the ergo to carry her babies around.

She made beds for the kitties.  They didn’t enjoy it so much.

She built her FIRST REAL LEGO (well, Duplo) CREATION.  It was a car.  With a “driving wheel”.  It was fantastic.  I am proud.

We had fun with many friends, actually.  This is our dear friend Doreen.  She loves the munchkin and the munchkin loves her.

It finally got warm (not hot until after July 4th).  I’ve been waiting for some warm weather so Munchkin could finger-paint outside where we can hose things off.  I also have been waiting for the warm weather to start potty training in earnest.  I thought I could use the pool as incentive.  Unfortunately I am having no success with that.  “F” for me.

We have modeled, well she has…well… I guess you could call that modeling, if you wanted to stretch the truth.

We became pirates.

We looked for friends.

We slept hard and wore sweats a lot because it was still chilly up until about a week ago.

We have been enjoying our summer!

On June 1, 2010, he had bowel surgery and resection.  He went into surgery right about 1:30 and the surgery took about 5 hours.  They were hoping to do the surgery laparoscopically but towards the end they had to switch to full open surgery (make a long vertical incision).  He was close to a blood transfusion but didn’t end up needing one.  Today, (one week to the day later) praise Jesus, he is doing well.  We are thankful.  They took about a foot of small intestine and a little bit of the ascending colon.  The doctor didn’t see any disease in the remaining bowel.  For this too, we are thankful.

One day post-surgery, he had been up walking (twice), had consumed some water and a little sugar-free Jell-O.  He had great color, his sense of humor, and felt pretty good (all things considered).  His hospital stay was 4 days long.  A week later he is eating most foods, including wheat bread (something he has avoided for several months).  He has yet to try seeds, nuts, or raw vegetables but at this point they shouldn’t be an issue.  This is huge for him and us.

Something like this makes you truly thankful for all those willing to lend a hand.  We have had more phone calls, emails, and notes than I can keep track of.  People from all over are praying and asking how they can help.  What a blessing.  We feel so completely overwhelmed by the kindness of so many people, and by the greatness of God.

We have a long recovery road ahead.  Husband won’t be able to lift over 10 pounds for about 6 weeks and he will be tired and healing for a long time.  Daddy-daughter play will have to be greatly changed.  I will be functioning as caretaker, single parent, and chauffeur (Hubby won’t be able to drive for a while either).  I am overjoyed to do these things because that means my husband is home and healing, but it does mean some extra work for all of us.

We enjoy Seattle.  The munchkin wanted to ride this pig at Pike street all day.

This is not her first lemon.  She does know what they taste like.  Every single time she makes this face.  And everytime there are lemons around she wants one.

My youngest brother works in a giant cone called the Museum of Glass.  He has a cool job in a cool place.  I would very much recommend going there if you are in Tacoma or the surrounding area.  We spent all day in and around it and had a great time.

These are pictures of the “hot shop“.  You can watch the artists work during the day.   The artist we watched doing his glasswork, Gabe Feenan, is a resident at the Glass Museum.  I really wanted to see the “Kids Design Glass” days.  We couldn’t take pictures of the Kids Design Glass hall of the museum but it was my very favorite part.  You can see some of the sculptures online, but for the stories (which are typed word for word, mispellings and poor grammer included) written by the kids, you have to visit.  Kids are hilarious.  The Broken Heart Snake was a favorite of mine.  There is a picture of it on the website, but the story is really what got me.  The snake sucks love and if you see it you can’t love for something like seven years.  It made me laugh out loud.

Looking up into the dome.

Some pieces on display that you can take pictures of.  It is really incredible how they make the different sculptures.

This is one of Preston Singletary’s designs.  His work is amazing.  It is sandblasted to achieve the two toned effect.  The work that goes into a piece like this is intense.

You can see my punk brother here at his work station.  He operates the cameras and puts up videos both in the hot shop and online.

He is about half way up the dome and has a little window to see the hot shop floor.  He knows many of the artists personally and the guys of the hot shop floor were great to us.  They all came over to say hello and meet his family.

This is right outside the museum.

The water forest.

It was warm enough that playing in the water was fun, but I wasn’t excited to get too wet.  Not pictured, my brother and father trying to stick me to a water pole.

This is the bridge we crossed on our way to lunch:

Looking back across to the museum.

These reminded me of giant blue plastic bags.

In the little hallway above, there were walls of sculptures, and above…

…was this.  It was gorgeous.

You can see Union Station on the right.  Now part of U of W campus.

We walked over there for lunch.

Husband lovingly posed so that I could take a picture of the guy on the bike.  I always feel awkward taking pictures of strangers, even if they kinda are asking for it.

After lunch and frappes we went back to look at the gift shop.  If you are looking to spend tens of thousands of dollars, this is your kind of gift shop.

This was one of my favorites.  I can’t explain why.  I just really like it.

At first I was like, “O what a sweet picture of me and my middle brother”.  Then I read the blocks.  Like I said, PUNKS.

I don’t get it.  The tent Munchkin was supposed to be sleeping in (under the quilt) is large enough for an adult person, and yet somehow she found a way to roll out of it .  She slept on the floor most of the night.  Silly girl.

The fam.  Don’t ask me what I was doing with my glasses.  I don’t know.

Creativity turns cardboard boxes into buses, planes, trains, and boats.

“Bye Baby!  Have fun at school and be careful on the bus”.  Sunita loves buses, trains, and trucks.  She can’t wait to ride on the school bus.  She knows, without ever being told, that kids wear their backpacks on the school bus.  I took 5 minutes and cut some windows and drew on a steering wheel and she had a fantastic bus.  We had such fun.

Take the time to grow their imaginations.  You know it will be worth it.  If you are like me sometimes it seems like there are always other things to do.  I encourage you to take a break today from the other and spend time with the munchkins in your life.

My Grandma Ruth used to make us (actually all 4 of her boys’ families) a box every Christmas with a “Christmas Breakfast Roll”.  At least that’s what I called it.  It always had green and red candied cherries on top, just for Christmas.  Also in the box were divinity, rocky road fudge, regular fudge, rum balls, a chocolate and nut covered toffee, caramels, and peanut brittle.  I longed for the box to arrive every Christmas and there was always a mini celebration when it arrived.  We always (in my memory) saved the Christmas roll for Christmas morning.  I knew without a doubt Grandma was thinking of us and loving us each and every time the box would arrive.  I can’t tell you a single Christmas gift she ever gave me (at least not with certainty) but I remember the Christmas roll and candies with a surprising clarity.

Anyway, I’ve wanted to reproduce those food memories for quite a while now.  Finally, I made the Christmas roll.  My Aunt still has Grandma’s recipes and was kind enough to type some of them up and send them to me.  It is such a blessing to be able to reproduce her recipes. Mine wasn’t nearly as well done as hers but hopefully that will come with time.  As an adult, I found it still takes me back and lets me know that Grandma Ruth won’t be forgotten.  I’ve also found, as an adult, the Christmas roll is excellent with coffee.

Another of Grandma’s recipes.  I don’t remember this one from childhood, but my dad and uncles might.  It was mighty tasty.  A refrigerator roll recipe balled up, coated in butter, cinnamon-sugar, stuffed into a bundt pan with walnuts, and then topped with frosting.  Also good with coffee.  Know what else is good with coffee?  Everything.

*Update*

As requested here are the basic recipes for the dishes above.  Hopefully this will give me some incentive to find the candy recipes and replicate them too.  You will note the recipes are NOT detailed step by step.  As many grandmother’s did and still do, my Grandma Ruth treated recipes as guidelines, if she used them at all.  Therefore some of the steps are missing or unclear because I mostly tried to keep them in their original form.  In the rolls recipe the amount of sugar was missing, so I made a guess.  If you are making the sweet breads I would add a little more.  If you are making dinner rolls the 3/4 cup seemed right to us.  Otherwise, add sugar, butter, herbs, and spices to you or your family’s desires.

REFRIGERATOR ROLLS

• 2 pkgs yeast (4 ½ tsp; each packet 2 ¼ tsp)
• 2 ½ c warm H₂O
• ¾ c butter/shortening
• ¾ c sugar
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• up to 8-8 ½ c flour
• 2 ½ tsp salt

• Soften yeast in water (add the yeast to warm water and let it sit a bit), add butter/shortening, sugar, eggs, salt and 4 c flour then add flour as needed*. Cover tightly and store in frig. overnight or until needed.  When ready to use, punch down use amount needed. Let rise until doubled.  For pan rolls – 1/3 dough = 12 rolls. Bake in hot oven at 400•F for 15-20 minutes.

*If you have never made dough before and are unsure of how much flour to add, my rule of thumb is to continue adding until the dough is tacky but not sticky – it won’t stick to my fingers or the counter if I roll it around but if I let it sit for a minute it will stick (hope that helps).

Christmas Breakfast Roll

Combine:

• 1/3 c butter
• 2/3 c brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp corn syrup
• ¾ c walnuts

• Cook butter, sugar and corn syrup over low heat till sugar dissolves.  Roll out 1/3 dough into rectangle ½ inch thick.  Spread ½ c syrup & sprinkle ¾ c finely chopped walnuts.  Roll-up, seal edges and shape into ring (easier said then done). Place on a greased cookie sheet with a custard cup in center of ring.  Make 1 inch slashes in dough at 3 inch intervals. Let rise until doubled.  Bake @ 350•F for 30 minutes.
• Cover with glaze.

Glaze

• 1 c confectionary sugar
• 1 Tbsp water
• ¼ tsp vanilla or maple

Golden Crown

Combine:

• ¾ c. sugar
• 2 T cinnamon
• ½ c chopped walnuts
• ½ c raisins
• Use about ½ recipe of sweetened dough. Make rolls about size of walnuts.  Roll in melted butter then in sugar mixture.  Place in layers (don’t forget to thrownin handfuls of walnuts between the layers) in greased bundt pan until all dough pieces are used.  Sprinkle remaining sugar mix & any nuts over top.  Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled.  Bake 350•F for 45-55 min.  (I chose to leave out the raisins – me no likey in baked goods!)

Look at that concentration, dedication, determination.  Just like her mom and the quest for the most beautiful egg.

Licking the vinegar eggs – not like her mom.

But at least she has followers.

She didn’t stop with the eggs.

The next morning we were pleasantly surprised to find she is a great seeker.

Typically if she is trying to find something right in front of her face, she can’t.  So we anticipated a lot of “coaching” and a great deal of patience on our part, but she did great and loved it (and so did we).

“I have ICE CREAM!”  The sweet pea is VERY fond of ice cream.

Bowl-lickin’-good.

On a completely different note, Chunky Monkey (the little guy I watch) played himself right to sleep the other day.  Sweet Pea has been playing pretty hard herself of late.

She loves her slide right now with a passion.  Please ignore the ridiculously long grass.  This is what spring in the Willamette Valley does to grass.  My husband doesn’t get 5 o’clock shadow but my lawn does.

I’ve also been enjoying myself.  I love the nice days, and we’ve made it a point to spend as much of it outside as we could.  Good thing too, since cold and rain are always right around the corner.

A salwar kameez.  Of course she looks good in that color.

And a drop dead gorgeous dress.  She looks so grown up.

Some friends recently traveled to India (their home country) and were kind enough to do some shopping for grandma as well as pick up some gifts themselves for the Indian Princess.  We are blessed to have such amazing people in our lives.  Their generosity makes us more thankful than words can express.

Last night I was “helping” the munchkin hug her daddy and pulling on her hands (NOT hard) and then she made a face like this.  Prior to the face we all (especially her) where laughing hard!  And then disaster!

She cried and cried and her arm hung loosely by her side.  She refused to use it, even for chocolate.  We knew something was terribly wrong.  And I knew I was a terrible mother.  It is a horrible, no-good, rotten feeling, knowing you hurt your child.

I didn’t think it was broken because she COULD move it (but did not want to), there was no swelling, and she didn’t complain when I put gentle pressure on the bones.  She did cry if we tried to bend it at the elbow.  I googled pulling on toddler’s arm and found (right away – thank you Jesus!) “nursemaids elbow” a fairly common injury for children younger than five.

Then I googled how to treat it and found the blog Hold it Up to the Light (ironic) with an excellent explanation of how to treat it, with pictures.  Now, I wouldn’t normally try to diagnose or try any medical “fix” at home (nor do I suggest others try).  But in this case, I really felt like it was worth a shot.

The fix worked after just a second or two.  After not wanting to use her arm at all, I thought there would be some pain left.  But she got better right away, and a day later I can say all is good in her world.

I feel so blessed.  I am thankful to live in an age where you can “google” answers to almost any question.  I am thankful the Lord gave me enough background to understand what was happening.  I am thankful the Lord gave me courage to try.  I am thankful fixing it took seconds.  I am thankful we didn’t have to go to the doctor and we didn’t have to wait in the ER late at night (for her) waiting for entrance.  Mostly, I feel blessed the munchkin was alright in the end.

I just am so thankful!