Happy Birthday, Baby Lowly!

Can you believe it?  Baby Lowly is 1 already!

Actually, I can.  I have more trouble believing she's only 1.  Then again, I have a weird sense of time.  But that's a problem for another day.

Back to birthdays!  Lowly had a lovely tea party at Paka's house yesterday.  WeeBee restrained himself and only hijacked a few of her presents.  He's not really buying into the whole, "It's Lowly's birthday, so you should be extra nice to her" thing, though.  This morning he tried to convince her that it was a fair trade if she gave him the Matchbox car that she was playing with, and he gave her a shoe.

Anyway, remember how I had said I've been working on super secret craft projects?  Well here's one of them!

Isn't it brilliant?  It was one of those things that had been making the rounds on Pinterest awhile back, and as far as I can tell originated here.  I'm rubbish at coming up with things like this on my own, but once I see an idea, I'm not too bad at adapting it.  (At least, I think so.)

Basically, you take the Ikea Bekvam step stool, which is about $15, and then decorate it with odds and ends to make it look like a stove.  I used Panna coasters from Ikea for the burners, and my husband came up with the brilliant idea to cut down old corks for stove knobs.  I got little measuring cups and spoons from the dollar store to use as pots and spoons, and then wedged a wire basket in the middle to store everything.  Then I used some old scraps of yarn to crochet little pot holders.  After a little paint and Gorilla glue, you've got yourself a stove.

A few notes, in case you're inspired to do something similar:

1.  The Bekvam step stool was a major pain to put together.  I've put together my share of Ikea furniture (table & chairs, beds, bookcases, nightstands, dressers) and it was by far the worst.  The instructions weren't terrible, as these things go, but it was extremely difficult to get the screws to fit properly.  I suppose it could have just been a fluke (one never knows with Ikea) but I'm inclined to think they were a bit overzealous in their attempts to get the thing to be sturdy, and drilled extra small holes for the screws.

2. Olive oil and nail files work reasonably well for removing Gorilla glue.  Or you could just wear gloves in the first place.

3.  All in all, it's a fairly sturdy piece, but keep your kid's particular idiosyncrasies in mind.  If you think your child will be hell bent on gnawing off the stove knobs, draw them on or something.  Yes, I suppose in theory your kid could try to climb between the first and second step and get stuck.  Yes, your kid could fall off it if they climb it.  It's a step stool.  You can fall off anything if you try hard enough.  My point is, I am not responsible if your kid is determined to live dangerously.

Anyways, here's hoping Lowly enjoys this as much as I did making it.  Happy Birthday, sweetheart.

No, WeeBee, St. Brendan Was Not A Pirate

This afternoon the kids and I were cleaning upstairs.  That is to say, I was putting things away, and they were taking them out again.  That's how we roll.  WeeBee popped out from underneath the blanket on his bed, and had the following conversation:

WeeBee:  Um...excuse me, Mommy.
Mommy:  Yes?
WeeBee:  I'm a pirate!
Mommy:  Umm...really?
WeeBee:  (bouncing up and down)  Yes!
Mommy:  That's nice.
WeeBee:  I have a pirate broakt.
Mommy:  What?
WeeBee:  I have a pirate broakt.
Mommy:  A boat?
WeeBee:  Noooo.  A book!
Mommy:  Ahh.  What book?
WeeBee:  You knowwwww.
Mommy:  WeeBee, what are you talking about?  You don't have a pirate book.
WeeBee:  (hops off bed and pulls a picture book about St. Brendan off the bookshelf)  See!  This book!
Mommy:  Ohh.  WeeBee, St. Brendan wasn't a pirate.
WeeBee:  Yes!
Mommy:  No, sweetie, he wasn't.
WeeBee:  He had a boat.
Mommy:  Yes.
WeeBee:  It went in the water.
Mommy:  Well, yes.
WeeBee:  Up and down?
Mommy:  Well, yeah, I guess so.
WeeBee:  He was a pirate!

Eventually he let the matter drop.  The implication was clearly, "Yeah, Mom, you believe what you want.  He was a pirate."

Look At What I Made!

I love to putter around on Pinterest when I'm bored.  Lately there have been a whole bunch of recipes for edible Eastery birds nests floating around, and that inspired me to make the following.

 (Photo courtesy of my brother, Patrick, who also emailed it to me after I thought I had sent it to myself and then apparently lost my train of thought and wandered off without ever hitting "send."  He's awesome.)

The original recipe I found here actually used lo mein noodles and melted marshmallows.  Apparently it tastes better than it sounds, because similar recipes are all over the web, but I had a feeling that wasn't going to fly with my family.  When I originally saw the picture I thought it was of pretzels covered in chocolate, so I figured I might as well try that instead.

As a disclaimer: I had no experience melting chocolate.  I used chocolate chips and melted them in the microwave.  I'm sure that breaks most of the chocolate melting commandments, but my kids will only amuse themselves for so long, so time was of the essence.  I'm sure it works much better if you use chocolate that's meant for melting for lollipops, and melt it over the stove.  So if you are a chocolate melting expert and spend the next 2 minutes reading my blog and slamming your head into the keyboard because I did this all wrong, I warned you.

Basically, I poured a quarter of the bag of chocolate chips in a bowl and microwaved it for 30 second increments, stirring it in between, until it was smooth.  If it starts to get grainy, adding a little butter seemed to help a bit.  (As you can see in the picture, there was a batch I had trouble with.)  Then I took little pretzel sticks, broke them into quarters, and threw them in the bowl of melted chocolate.  I mixed it up with my hands and then put handfuls of chocolate covered pretzels into muffin tins that I'd sprayed with Pam.  (You can try spraying your hands with Pam too, but it didn't help me much.  Eh, some recipes are just messy.)  Then I popped the whole thing in the freezer for an hour or two.  You could probably take it out sooner, I just had other things to do.  Then I melted a few more chocolate chips to use as glue to attach the "bird eggs."

The verdict?  Well, it's difficult to go wrong with chocolate covered pretzels, as far as taste goes.  Unfortunately they don't bend the way noodles do, so you run the risk of your nests looking less like nests and more like animal droppings.  (Especially if you run out of room in your muffin tins and start free-forming nests on a cookie sheet.  It will work, but they can look kind of funky.)  If I made it again, I'd do it with the chocolate specifically made for melting instead of the chips.  Still, it was fun, and the ones that came out well looked really cute.

I Guess I Should Get Used to This?

So Baby Lowly is starting to talk.  She said her first real word the other day, if you don't count "mum mum," "dada," and "Baabaa" (which apparently refers to WeeBee.)  I was holding her on my lap, facing me, when she suddenly pitched forward and smashed her forehead into mine.  Then she grinned and announced, "Dinnnng!"  Then she repeated the whole thing another 3 or 4 times.  She thought it was hilarious.  My head hurt for the next half hour.

Anyways, last night I was driving home from Grannie & Peepaw's house with the kids.  WeeBee was very tired and borderline cranky, but Lowly was in a great mood.  She spent, no exaggeration, a half an hour trying to get WeeBee to talk to her.  This is what went on in the back seat, while I sat in traffic on the BQE.

Lowly:  Baabaa.  Baabaa.  Baabaaaa.  (shifts in carseat towards WeeBee)  Baabaa.  Baabaa.
WeeBee:  No, Lowly!  I don't want to talk!  I'm tired!
Lowly:  Baabaa.  Baabaa.  Baabaa.
WeeBee:  No, Lows!  I tiiiiired.
Lowly:  (sinister giggle)
Mommy:  WeeBee, Lowly just wants you to talk to her.  Be nice.
WeeBee:  No!
Lowly:  Baabaa!  Baabaa!
Mommy:  I'm sorry, Lowly.  WeeBee is tired.  I'll talk to you.
Lowly:  Mummum.  Mummum.
Mommy:  Yes?
Lowly:  Baabaa!  Baabaa!  Baabaaaaaa! (shifts again to get a better look at WeeBee)
WeeBee:  Lowwwwwly, stop it!

Fun times!

Only WeeBee

Would think it's a good idea to scoot around the floor on his head like some sort of demented inchworm.  And of course he managed to get a nice little rug-burn on his forehead before I realized what he was doing.

(sigh)

I guess it could be worse.  He could have done this Easter morning.