Purple watch

It was a big day for Emily.  She made a big decision and a big purchase.  Since learning to tell time she has been hot on having a watch.  I had dug an old one out of my jewelry box, but it ran slow and was a silver clasp band that was way to big for her wrist.  She has been diligently saving up her "spend" money for a couple months.  Her goal had been a Hello Kitty cooling fan with candy in the handle from the check-out lane at Fareway that cost $4.  But this week we took a trip to Wal-mart to see what they had for watches.

Emily had a total of $4.86 in her spend jar.  Wal-mart had some plain purple digital watches on clearance for $3.00.  They also had some cute Hello Kitty, Dora, Disney Princess, etc. watches for $6.88.  She had to decide whether or not to get the plain watch now (and have a little money left over) or wait 4 weeks until she had enough money for the prettier watches.  It took her a day to decide, but when we went back to Wal-mart with her purse full of money she had settled on the cheaper purple watch.  It turned out to be a great deal because the watch also has an LED backlight button and a stop watch feature, which Emily is thrilled with.  I now know how many seconds it takes me to clean a toilet, clean the mirrors, dust the living room and how fast Emily & Lincoln can run races through the house. ;o)

I'm proud of Emily for making a wise decision and for purchasing a useful item rather than a cheap piece of plastic or candy.

An early spring day

I had been looking forward to this day for a week, and the weather did not disappoint!  It was a gorgeous 68 degrees.  We enjoyed playing outside without coats, but definitely needed rain boots as the last traces of snow were melting around the yard.  I put all the swings back out on the swing set and untied the twine holding down the sandbox lid.  The kids were in heaven!

There are also bulb plants poking up all over.  I actually spied some of the first ones as early as Feb. 2, but I think they've decided it's finally safe to come all the way out!  I can't wait until they start blooming!

Big boy bed

We finally took the plunge and moved Lincoln from his crib downstairs to a big boy bed in his new room upstairs.  I have been dreading and procrastinating this move for a long time, but it had to happen before March 21, so I made a snap decision that today was the day. 

We have had a bed with all the bedding set up in the upstairs room for months.  It was more a matter of moving other things like clothes, toys and books and Austin dismantling his work desk and reassembling it downstairs in what will be our new home office.  I decided to put very few toys in Lincoln's new room for now to try and encourage staying in bed at night & nap time.  We also moved the recliner chair from his old room to his new room, although I think the days of snuggling in it before bedtime have come to an end. :o(

Overall, the first night went well.  We did his normal bedtime routine in his room, and then he joined Emily & I for Emily's bedtime reading in her room.  Then I ended up sitting quietly in the recliner chair in his room until he fell asleep, which wasn't until 9:30pm.  He slept there all night, but was up with Emily by 6:30am the next day.

Ethiopian cuisine

One thing I have been super excited about is having our Wartburg international students cook for us.  I was especially excited about doing this with Rahel because Ethiopian food is much harder to make/come by, and I have some connections that I truly believe were divinely arranged.  Through a friend from church, I got teff flour, berbere and a very specialized pan, as well as a sour dough starter to make the staple food of the Ethiopian diet--injera.  It's a multiple day process, so I had Rahel do the first step before we left for Coralville on Tuesday. 

On Thursday afternoon we picked up "the gwil-els" (as Lincoln calls them).  This time it was Rahel and one friend.  After a quick stop at Fareway for meat, onions and jalapeno peppers, the girls spent almost two hours in the kitchen mixing and chopping and cooking.  We were all very disappointed when our injera did not turn out.  The girls made it exactly like they do at home.  After a call to my friend, Laurie, we tried an American adaptation, but it still didn't work.  I think we might have given up too soon.  I later spent some time doing some research online and am eager to try again.

The meat dish they made was spicy, but excellent.  The berbere sauce was a little too much for me.  Since the injera didn't turn out, I made some rice to eat like a stir-fry.  The girls made a sauce out of olive oil, red onions, tomato sauce and berbere to put on the rice like they do at home.  That was also delicious.  There wasn't enough time to make alecha wat, but you would really need injera to eat with it.

Trying new and exotic foods is a bit of a step for me, but it was fun.  Austin & the kids were good sports, although the kids mostly just ate the rice.  We had some nice dinner conversation and found out some really fascinating things about Ethiopian culture.  I look forward to Culture Week later this month and another attempt at injera in the future!

February 2012 Videos

5 years + 4 months

Since learning how to tell time Emily has become quite the clock watcher.  She will often announce what time it is in the van about every two minutes.  She also likes watching the digital clocks in the kitchen change hours so all the numbers change at once.  She knows how many minutes it is until we have to do something and keeps track of that, too.  The other day I told her we'd do something she wanted to do in 5 minutes.  She promptly asked if we could set a timer because she's smart enough to know that when I say 5 minutes it might not be exactly 5 minutes. 

In addition to math facts, Emily really got into geography this month--specifically states and state capitals.  This was spurred on by the iPad/iPhone app "Stack the States" and me digging out my beloved wooden states puzzle from my childhood.  This puzzle used to play "The Star-Spangled Banner" when the flag piece was taken out and replaced (it was light sensitive).  As it started to die off it would randomly start playing even as if it was completely put together and stored under my dresser.  I even still have the cardboard packaging it came in with a bunch of state statistics on the back.  Anyway, Emily can now put it together without the help of the board.  She also has most of the states and corresponding state capitals memorized (she has a real gift for memorization) and loves to have you quiz her on them.  Now we just have to work on pronunciation.  Since she has done this all on her own she hasn't heard the names spoken aloud much.  This is why she calls Michigan "Magician" and Oregon "Origin".  There are some others that a pretty funny to hear her try to pronounce.  She thinks it's pretty cool that there are two state capitals with the same name as people in our family.  Can you name them?

Note: Emily has already earned 36 states in the Stack the States game.  It's a great app for only $.99.  Besides capitals, it has also taught her a lot about the relative size and location of states (bordering Mexico, Canada, lakes, etc.), state nicknames and landmarks.  We highly recommend it!

When Emily gets upset about something or things don't go her way, she says something like "My show's not going very well." or "Quit trying to run my show!"  or "Quiet, I'm trying to run my show."  I'm sure this is coming from watching Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman.  In her own words, this is Emily's explanation:

"Sometimes my show doesn't go well for 2 or 3 days.  When you talk about something I don't like to hear, I have to replace one or two imaginary friends.  We have to take up a lot of soccer practice. When my show doesn't go well I stay in my room for 2-3 hours.  I use some things that are not very cool.  For example, if you're talking about a real rhinoceros at the zoo, and I don't want to hear it, then I stay in my room for 2 hours.  Then I plan some large meetings."

Iowa Children's Museum

I have been wanting to take the kids to the Iowa Children's Museum inside the Coralville Mall.  Wartburg has winter break this week, so I invited our Ethiopian international student and three of her friends to ride along with us.  They went shopping while we went to the museum.  It was a fun afternoon of exploring.  Lincoln's favorite exhibit was driving the ambulance and the train room.  Emily loved the theater stage and grocery store.  I did decide that it would be more ideal if the kids were either old enough to go off on their own or there was a 1:1 ratio of kids/adults. :o)  Here are some pictures of our adventures...

All the marbles...

Emily was into water experiments this afternoon.  It started off with Daddy helping to facilitate a hot/cold experiment with ice cubes out of a Child Craft book.  Then she did a float/sink experiment with different objects.  Then I dug out a set of marbles from my childhood that I ran across the other day.  Emily & I tried to guess how many marbles she could put in different bowls and containers before they tipped over or sank.  Some of the results were a little surprising!  Lincoln just liked playing with the little "balls". :o)

Emily Ball

Partially inspired by a recent episode of Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, Emily declared Saturday to be a day of "Emily Ball".  She made and hung up posters in all the bedrooms announcing it on Friday. 

Emily ball

24 hours of fun

Extra special ballgame: 30 minutes of fun

While it's still a bit unclear exactly what the whole purpose was (even after re-watching the episode with her that night), Austin & I think she was just looking forward to telling people what to do all day. ;o) 

Emily started out by making yarn necklace name tags for all the participants.  Everyone got a nickname.  Austin = AL, Megan = MN, Lincoln = LN, Emily = IZ.  Emily explained that her imaginary friend, Karen, calls her that.

I'm pretty sure Emily was making up things as she went.  The first "event" was listening to her perform "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" using the flannel set from her birthday.

Second was a car race on the masking tape track that currently winds around Lincoln's room and down the hallway.  Emily easily won that one because she took all the short cuts and made me go all the way around the crib.

Next was a puzzle break.

Then we experimented to see which car/vehicle went the farthest down the cookie sheet ramp in the foyer.

Later in the afternoon was an activity I had actually planned on doing.  It came from this web site I found via Pinterest that has lists of fun activities to try each month.  We've already done quite a few things on the February list.  Today we made structures out of marshmallows and colored toothpicks.  The marshmallows were pretty sticky, and Lincoln was much more interested in eating them than building with them, but Emily & I put together some fun stuff.  When they're a little older I'll get out the big marshmallows and maybe some skewers so we can try some more elaborate buildings. :o)

"Emily Ball" actually only lasted about 3 hours, but it was a fun day of different family activities.

52 OHC: Week 8

This week's challenge was on menu planning and grocery lists.  This is another area that I feel like I already have a good system in place.  I typically sit down on Sunday afternoon/evening and plan the menu for the week.  I use a printed version of my iCal monthly calendar that includes our family schedule so I can plan around various events.  I clip coupons and use the weekly grocery ads to plan meals and stock up on sale items.  Meals are penciled in to allow for flexibility within the schedule.  I usually just plan dinner since lunch is leftovers or something simple.  I have gotten better about using the plan to manage leftovers as our family needs and schedules change.  I used to keep the menu calendar in my recipe binder, but I have started hanging it on the fridge for everyone to see.

Last fall I switched from multiple grocery lists for different stores on random note pads to a free phone app called Grocery IQ, and it is awesome!  It has a scanner function that can scan barcodes from products and add them to the list.  The list is categorized by aisles, and the aisle order can be customized for different stores.  Items can also be assigned to specific stores, which I do.  When I do my menu plan I add the items I don't have on hand.  I add things throughout the week when I think of them or realize I'm running low.  I also have a favorites list that I can scroll through and add staple items.  Another nice feature is that it synchronizes across devices, so if Austin is running low on coffee, he can scan the barcode with his phone and it shows up on the grocery list on my phone. :o)

Note:  I don't want to sound like I'm bragging or make it seem like I have everything under control by putting up all these organizing posts.  Rather, I'm continuing to do it to give myself and the kids a picture of what life was like at this stage and maybe offer some explanation in the future as to how the environment/culture of our household influenced the development of our kids.  I also hope to inspire others and/or share some ideas that have worked for me.