Pleased

Nothing is more pleasing to an almost-2-year-old than when she accomplishes a job of her own choosing, all by herself. This morning, it was taking off her pajama pants. They always get stuck around her ankles, but Avery persevered and got them off by herself and she was so happy. This was about a minute after and she was still grinning! Another Avery story: Warren practices piano each day and as part of that practice, sings "Do is home" on what he remembers to be middle C pitch, then plays it and sings it to see how close he was. Last night, Avery was at the piano and Andy picked her up. She protested, "Do Daddy! Do home, Daddy!" So he took her back and let her "play" it and sing. This morning she sang it for me--I love to see my kids learning (good) things from each other.

Prickly Pear Fruit Syrup

A few weeks ago, Warren asked our neighbor if we could have the fruit off of her prickly pear cactus. They weren't ripe then, but she said we could have them when they were. Fast forward to this weekend, when she let us know they were ready, almost overly ripe. Andy and Warren went over with tongs and Tupperware and picked the fruit and then yesterday, Warren and I decided to make jelly with it.

After rinsing the fruit, we cut it open. Warren was surprised by all the the seeds inside, and got really good at safely cutting the fruit. Next, while holding it with an oven mitt to avoid the fuzzy barbs, I scooped out the flesh, seeds and all. We added a bit of water then boiled it down to juice on the stove. Last, we strained it through a mesh colander to remove the pulp an seeds. At this point I realized I had no pectin and not very much juice, so I improvised syrup instead. It turned out a very pretty and vibrant magenta--just the same color as the bougainvillea flowers that bloom so much here.

We ate it this morning on pancakes, and truthfully, it looks better than it tastes--prickly pear is just not a flavor I am accustomed to. It might be much better suited to eating over vanilla ice cream. Hmm. Still, I'm glad we did it, and next year, we'll probably try something else just because it is such a funky novelty to eat prickly pear.

The First "Real" Day of Fall

It finally cooled down today. I feel like singing just thinking about it! Not only is cooler weather more pleasant, but it also brings a rapid end to the phantom bug population that inhabits our yard and is responsible for the chickenpox-like scabs all up and down my kids' legs! Lucky that it was cooler since I had committed to baking cinnamon rolls for my sister's birthday tomorrow, and usually turning on the oven is so disheartening. Warren was pretty interested watching me roll out the dough, layer the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon on top and then roll it up into a log. He couldn't figure out what I was making at first. His first guess was "brownies." After about 4 more, he got it right.

He was pretty fascinated with the dental-floss-as-a-knife technique and got to try it out himself. He said after he was done, "Now I can use this floss to floss my teeth!" Hmm--I think that would be counterproductive.

While Andy attended the Priesthood Session of General Conference, we hung out in our front yard. Avery thought my mom, her Tutu, was coming over and was calling out to her, wherever she was. It's like when we're driving away from our house, and we're out of the driveway and she and Abigail call out, "Bye, dad!" confident that he can hear them through the car door and house doors. Well, I knew that Tutu was at her twin sister's house, so we took a walk to my aunt's house and joined in on their crafting. I made this set of picture/card/recipe holders for my sister's birthday. They were so fun and easy, I might have to go buy some more clips and dig into my mounds of unused scrapping paper.

I is for Interntaional Children's Day

An entry by "Warren" and his mom:
"I am from a different country. I am from France--that's why I'm wearing a scarf."
The "I" is highlighted because Warren is on a letter "i" kick today, as you will see from the 3rd picture. At Montessori House, today was International Children's Day, where the kids celebrate the cultures of the world and also America. The Parade of Nations came first, with all the pre-schoolers and kindergartners dressed up from the country of their choice and walking around to "It's a Small World." When he saw us, his face lit up and he waved excitedly, as did Avery. In fact, she waved and shouted, "Hi Warrnen" (yes she says Warnin') through most of the first song, too. Naturally, Warren chose France, wore my scarf that I wore most of the days I was there, and brought crepes with Nutella for the potluck.

"Love grows 1 by 1, 2 by 2, 4 by 4. Love goes around in a circle and comes back knocking at your front door. Note by note we make a sing, voice by voice we sing it. Choir by choir we fill up the world with the music that we bring it. Love grows 1 by 1, 2 by 2, 4 by 4. Love grows around in a circle and comes back knocking at your front door."
Other songs they sang included: Joyful, Joyful and Tell Me the Continents. Warren can name them all: North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Antarctica, Australia.

In Montessori School, children learn to write in cursive first, primarily because they tend to not reverse the letter direction and develop better control and penmanship by keeping the pencil in contact with the paper most of the time. Lately, he has enjoyed making letters out of the hose; today it was an "i." He was pretty proud of it and took the picture himself. Warren's list of "i" words: "it, is, ickle, inside, ipple (the modified form of apple, apparently :). On another Montessori note, "Show Your Work" night was Tuesday and Warren was able to show us number chains--the work he has wanted to do since last year. He is so excited. I wish I'd thought to take a picture. He's pretty pleased with the skip-counting number chains involves, and also with another new work, movable alphabet. He is reading all sorts of short, phonetic words. Yeah Warren!

Just for Laughs