Yum Yummy!

We had fun at dinner tonight. First, Rychen P. said, "Look! A banana chair!" I thought it was so cute that we grabbed the camera....



And here's a fun meal idea we figured out on accident - and WOW they are SO GOOD! And not in a healthy-good sort of way, in a REALLY yum-yum way!

1. Cut a BIG potato really thin, length-wise, using a mandolin.
2. Bake the thin slices long enough to be soft, but NOT crispy.
3. Fill them with something and roll up like a tortilla!


For our filling we used lentils spiced with turmeric, ginger, and coriander, mixed with egg, topped with avocado and honey.

I just made this up without meaning to. We were eating lentils for dinner and also baking potatos. Normally we do wedges, but we didn't have enough time for them to bake so we did the mandolin slices. Then I had the idea to put my lentils in it! Rychen P. had the avocado/honey on his plate, so I stole those and made these cute little wraps. How fun! We love making up dishes around here. It's something Rychen and I both enjoy. (One of his favorite things to make is taco salad, with his own corn tortilla home-made spicy strips!)

Talkin on the phone

I took some pictures while Rychen P. was on the phone with "Bamma Bamma Edge-itch" (Grandma Gremlich)





Bonus picture: Being creative with mandarin oranges before peeling them for the juicer! Rychen P. can actually peel one of these suckers all by himself! And he is very involved in the juicing also. We've all been drinking OJ every morning since these mandarins are on sale (and yes, we all wake up early enough to have breakfast with Dad, as much as I regret I tell you...)

A trip down memory lane

We don't have many new photos to put up, so I thought we could look back on our first days together as a family of three.

I apoligize if this first one is offensive to anybody, but it's my favorite and this is my blog! Meeting my little sweetheart for the first time. My first words were, "You have big eyes! Just like your daddy." I couldn't believe this was the person I felt inside me for so long, only now to experience visually. (oh yeah and I was thinking, I DID IT!)

Cousin Ethan

We got to visit with Melan & Ethan (my brother Erick's family, from Salt Lake) for a little while Thursday evening and Friday. We took the boys to Jamba Juice and a park where we could see the Willamette river. And after we all took naps, we shared some raw pecan pie! (It was one of my best so far, I looooove pecans!)

It was so hard to get them BOTH (and by both I mean Ethan!) so sit still long enough to take this picture. It was just too much to ask for them to be sitting closer... And it was so cute to see Ethan wearing this outfit that Rychen P. used to wear!

Pie & apple bread. Ethan LOVED my apple bread! (recipe: apple pulp, ground sunflower seeds, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg - dehydrated)

And when the apple/beet juice gave Rychen a big "lipstick" lip, I just had to document it for posterity.

Time to move on

Rychen Parker has recently improved in his abilities to keep himself entertained. I am soooooo relieved. For instance right now, I am just surfing the web, with him playing blocks on the floor. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. Usually I have to fight him off, or try to do it with him on my lap, or just wait until after bedtime. This all started last week when I told him bluntly, "Mom needs to get work done. If I play with you for ten minutes, could you play by yourself for a half hour while I do some work upstairs?" and he did! He is starting to respond to our needs when we explain them, and work with us. He does good with negotiating, say he begs to do something, we say, "OK 5 minutes. Then we have to ___." And usually he is really good about that. Just another testament that when you respect your kids, they will respect you.

That being said, NIGHTS have been an entire different issue. I haven't stayed in bed through the night for an entire week. The past 4 nights, Rychen has woken up and refused to sleep. At least this morning it was 4:30 so Rychen just woke up with him and let him play. So with nights off like this, he is taking 2 naps and still going to bed before 8. I've been snoozing around the clock, so now at nighttime, I find that I can't sleep!! Our bio-clocks are all messed up now. *sigh* We're really struggled this week, and a couple times I had to disappear, or put myself in time out.

Times like this I wish we had a community of mothers, so we could step in and take kids when moms are losing their wits. I don't really have anyone I can call on when I am going crazy (or need to sleep in, for instance). But yesterday I had a nice talk with my visiting teacher and got a lot off my chest. I think this whole experience has been beneficial for me to be humbled, stop trying to be the ideal mom, and learn that it's OK to be imperfect, and it's OK to need help. Also no parenting philosophy is going to be perfect, but our children will be just fine if we love them as much as we can, and balance that with taking care of ourselves. What does that mean? Rychen P. is ready to detach from my hip, it's time for him to have babysitters, time to wean because this whole scenario has gotten way out of control. I also had some great insight from Pamala, that this is really about MY need, my reluctance to let him grow up. As soon as I release him from this role (of "baby") he will willingly grow up, wean, get out of our bed, etc. I admit, this is an issue, and it's hard for me to see him grow up. Yet I know I need to turn my focus to the next child, and that will only happen when Rychen P. makes room for somebody else to be in the "baby" role. Let's hope we see the transition by the end of the year.

P.S. (11/14) We've transitioned beautifully, and now Rychen P. sleeps all night, from about 7 to 6. We've also been focusing on various ways of being close and staying entertained, so he hasn't nursed and hasn't missed it! (he's nursed once in the past week)

Letter squares go Vrroomm!

We got this huge basket of letter puzzle squares, which Rychen P. just calls "squares" (or pronounces it "Fiers" like the German word for the number 4). Anyway he can lift this big basket on his own, and his favorite thing to do is to "drive the squares." We put Football in his "carseat" and drove the squares all over the house.

Feast!

We eat lots of fruits and veggies around here, so imagine our delight when Rychen comes home from a lunch seminar with 4 cartons of scrumptious food! Rychen Parker got really excited about the cut-up melon and insisted on having "Daddy's fruit" for dinner.


(That is Teddy Bear watching us!) Here's another picture of our fruity selves.

Videos: Spanish & Alphabet, Puzzle, and Goodnight Animals

This was just a lucky video, messing around, I started reviewing Spanish facial features with him. Whenever I teach him Spanish, he says "No!" And corrects me with the English word. But apparently he is catching on... (he then goes into naming letters of the alphabet, if you stay with us long enough)


Here is a clip of Rychen P. doing a puzzle. It looks impressive, but honestly we've just done it so many times that he memorized it. You can tell he really doesn't have very good puzzle skills...because he is oblivious to borders and other obvious clues.


This is part of our bedtime routine: Saying goodnight to the animals, hugging and kissing each one (sometimes this seems too ritualistic, when I get involved and we have to take turns kissing). My favorite part of this video is the elephant's sound effects!