Special delivery

Somehow an e-mail from Santa just wouldn't be the same.

My baby is three!

We spent the last couple days celebrating Dylan's 3rd Birthday: treats at school, dinner with both sets of grandparents and several new Thomas the Train-related gifts that now accompany him to bed.



Hard to believe he's grown from a little month-old butterball in my arms 3 years ago to that smiling kid next to Jason who knows every train in the Thomas and Friends world and who comes home every night and heads straight to his room to craft a new masterpiece before running to us to declare: "I built you a beautiful train track! Come see!" while dragging us by the hand to see for ourselves.

He loves climbing and jumping off of any stationary object and is impulsive and physical in ways that still surprise us, mainly because he's so different from his older sister. With her, we didn't child-proof anything, simply telling her: "Don't touch that." She'd nod solemnly and do so.

This guy? Left to his own devices, he'd touch, bang, throw and drop anything not nailed down, as if to say, "This? Don't touch this? Right here? Don't push it off the table like this?"

12 months old and already into things

Last week, while he stood on the bathroom counter waiting to get his teeth brushed, I turned away from him and bent over to help his sister with her shirt. A moment later I was nearly knocked over as he launched his nearly 40 pounds through the air and landed on my back with no warning. What the?! Who does that?! Apparently him. After a stern warning to never do that again if I wasn't facing him, he gave me a huge hug, kissed me and said, "I love you Mom."

I love you too, you little character! Happy birthday.

The doors are opening! I've given out ticket number 231. #MEDayWA.

We're up to ticket number 221. #MEDayWA.

The gospel choir is singing! #MEDayWA

It's 106 min. to #MEDayWA, we have a full set of tix, 1 1/2 blocks of waiting couples, it's dark and we're not wearing sunglasses...HIT IT!

5 year old logic

Ava: Your cookies are so good you should work at a bakery! And take me to work with you. Then I can work at a bakery when I grow up!

Me: Okay, but you'll have to get up pretty early. Bakers start work at like 3 or 4 in the morning to make all that yummy food.

Ava: Okay, well since I can't tell time, you'll have to wake me up and take me so that I can get there and everything.

Most wonderful time of the year

Tree went up last night. Time for after-dinner Charlie Brown Christmas.

Up close and personal

Dylan and Nana waving to gorillas at Woodland Park Zoo over the weekend. We went to go see the Turkey Toss: carnivores got raw turkeys. The grizzly bear devoured it within minutes!

Rainy day doldrums offset by BC day trip w/knitting & Jonny Quest in the car, laughing family & a BC eatery showing #Seahawks. Score!

Princess Ava of Camelot

A friend's daughter passed along some outgrown dress up gowns. Let the accessorizing and fashion show begin. It's like Project Runway up in here.

Happy Halloween

Results of annual Jones Family pumpkin carving & viewing of It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

Location, location, location

Oh, is running my rail yard through the kitchen while you try to cook dinner a problem?

I always joke that although we are blessed with a lot of space in our house, somehow everyone ends up within an arms length of me at all times. Guess this makes up for all those (happily) solitary days as an only child.

Preschool story time

Two bundled up kids getting their nightly story. After 5 years (for Ava) it's still an occasional favorite. I live this age.

Kids picked up after work, U-build-it toy fire truck completed as dinner cooked, kids fed, now watching Hawks. Pls update my binder entry.

The winner of this debate was the voter, thanks to great moderating of Martha Raddatz. She rocked! #Debate2012

Crockpot lasagna

With fall in full swing (foggy mornings, sunny afternoons, cold nights), I broke out the lasagna recipe and decided to try it in a crockpot to see if it was any different or better by Googling "slow cooker lasagna recipe." Most seemed to be variations on standard lasagna recipes just cooked on low for four to six hours.

 

Spoiler alert: the lasagna rocked. Just as good as in the stove, but I could let it cook all day while I was at work (sort of). But if I do it in the crock again, I'd change one thing. Here's how I put it all together.

First, I made my standard lasagna filling, using lean ground turkey that I sprinkled with italian seasoning and seasoning salt. I added just over a pound of chopped crimini (brown) mushrooms, a chopped yellow yellow onion, and chopped garlic from a jar, sauteeing it all in one pan.

 

I sprayed the inside of a 6 quart oval crockpot, layed down a little sauce to coat the bottom, followed by the first layer of broken no-boil lasagna to cover the bottom. The first real layer of meat mushrooms mix followed.

Next was 32 ounces of ricotta mixed with 2 scrambled eggs, 2 pounds of frozen chopped spinach that I cooked in the microwave for 4-5 minutes per directions, drained, and to which I added a little butter.

Next came the shredded cheese layer. I repeated the noodle, sauce, ricotta, cheese layer again...

and put it in the fridge overnight. I took it out and put it on low when I left for work and had Jason's Great Aunt who lives with us turn it down to warm after about 6 hours.

When I returned home, it was still hot and the cheese had melted perfectly.

We added a salad and some freshly buttered bread...

for a delicious adult- and kid-pleasing meal. It was also really nice to come home to a hot meal that only required 15 minutes of prep work on the sides before it hit the table.

It cut so much time out of our evening routine that we had time for a fall family movie night showing of a vintage Jonny Quest episode and It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown before putting the kids to bed.

 

Lesson learned: the one thing I'd change is maybe cutting the recipe in half: it made a lot, as usual, but I didn't care for how the crock's oval shape (9 1/2" x 11 1/2" x 5 1/4") compressed the contents compared to my 9" x 13" x 3.5" lasagna pan. The piece were really tall and I didn't care for the ricotta to meat layer ratio: too much ricotta. So halving the whole thing might eliminate that issue. Or just using the standard pan, even though I couldn't leave it to cook all day like I did in the crock.

 

Also, I didn't like how it was a little difficult to cut small, uniform pieces because of the shape. Silly, first world concern, I know (If someone in a food desert read this, they'd be thinking, "You and your stupid crock can bite me."), but hey: friends asked me to tell them how it came out and I'm doing that, silly concerns and all. I just like the uniformity of the nice, square pieces that emerge from my regular lasagna pan.

So did it work? Yes, and it didn't stick to the crock at all, which was a risk a friend warned me about. Apparently PBS's America's Test Kitchen recommends creating a sling of foil to make crockpot lasagna. I liked the outcome, but will try the half-size version next time to see if that reduces my issues with the shape and depth. Still, it's nice to know I can use the crock option if needed. If you try it, let me know if it works for you.

MT @queenofSpain THIS IS AWESOME. http://90days90reasons.com. why YOU WILL vote for Obama. Oh yes you will # jedimindtrick

Watching adolescent boys @ playground (hurtling off things, pummeling each other just because): it's a wonder they make it to 18.

Good news: just mailed 15 page handwritten letter to friend. Bad news: it took me 3 mos. to write. #JustSendAnEmailAlready

Fall flashback: September 28

Day 5 writing prompt from the SITS Girls fall blogging event: link up a post you wrote on this day (September 28th) from a previous year. If you didn’t publish something on the 28th, link up a post from that week.

This was a fun exercise. I went back to 2010 and found a link to September 26 when I chronicled Ava's first foray into preschool.

It's funny to look back now at how small she was, how worried I was about whether we'd chosen the right school and how many pictures I took. We definitely picked the right place. Dylan is there now too and this is a good reminder that I need to get back on the stick with taking pictures so that they'll have them in the future. And so that I'll have them.

Fall recipe goodness: lasagna

Day 4 Prompt from the SITS Girls fall blogging event: Share either your favorite fall craft or autumn recipe.

This one is in the works this week: my lasagna recipe, complete with tutorial. Cheesy, meaty goodness. Hope it makes you drool!

 

Fall memories

Day 3 Writing Prompt from the SITS Girls fall blogging event: share one of your favorite fall memories with us, or something you look forward to each fall.

My husband and I dated for eight years, because, you know: you gotta be sure. Kidding. But we did take A WHILE to get engaged. We were enjoying our lives and careers, but finally decided to make it official and get married.

As we discussed wedding logistics and narrowed down our date choices, he said he really wanted to do it in the fall. Great! I did too. But what was his reason?

"Well, we met in the fall, so it always feels like "our" time of year, plus, fall is about change, like the changing of the seasons, and we're changing our relationship, making a lifetime commitment to each other. It just really feels appropriate."

Huh. Wow. I was just thinking it's more likely to still be a bit warm in the fall so I would be comfortable in my strapless dress. But what he said works too.

Our wedding was right at the start of fall, it was still warm, I was comfortable in my strapless dress, and eleven years later, fall still feels like "our" time of year.

Wedding day, September 2001

Team & I just did customer service training for 30 employees from 9 county programs. Feedback themes: good energy & humor, bring handouts.

Foggy fall in the Northwest

I'm trying to catch up on the SITS Girls Fall Back into Blogging event. Day 2 is a Photo Prompt to celebrate the beauty of fall with a picture of what fall looks like in your neck of the woods.

I grabbed this picture earlier this week. We've had a string of foggy mornings with pretty decent afternoons. I love summer and hot weather. But there's something to be said for these cool mornings: I'd rather the weather just skip the niceties and drop kick us right into the frost and fog of fall (say  that four times fast!).

But all is not gray and gloom around here. The sun has been burning this fog off most days and leaving us with sunny and warm (for Seattle) afternoons with temperatures in the low 70s.

 

Still, I'll take the clear, bright sunny fall days like we had at the Harvest Fest last year over the fog any day.

Me + school = love

I'm doing the SITS Girls Fall Back Into Blogging event, with daily prompts and ideas for getting your blogging mojo back. Boy do I need it! So here goes. The first prompt is writing about your best school memory.

Unlike some other parts of the country where school starts in August (What the heck?! That's still prime summertime.),  in the Pacific Northwest it kicks off in September with a frenzy of activity around our house. 

There's back to (pre-)school for the kids, and also for me too in a way, since I serve on two schools' boards: my alma mater's and the kids' preschool. Ava's birthday is mid-month, followed by our anniversary. It's a bit crazy-making, but also exciting because my best school memory is...school itself!

Narrow it down to one memory?! That's like asking a chocolate lover what's their favorite chocolate memory. Or a parent which kid they love best. It. Can't. Be. Done. I have ALWAYS loved school. LOVED I tell ya!

The books, the assignments ("Is it okay if I read ahead?" Yeah: I was THAT kid.), my teachers, the schedule, the lockers, my friends, and even trying to decipher the intrigues of the popular cliques.

Unlike some folks, who found their school years to be something to be endured, I couldn't wait to get there every day, despite the two hour bus ride each way during middle and high school. I also had no angst about my place in the class or school hierarchy because I had my own "peeps," my own places to excel, and because there was so much that I loved about being at school that I really didn't dwell on the vagaries of the affections I elicited (or didn't) from my fellow hormone-addled classmates.

It probably helped that I was a happy, confident, and self-directed kid. Also, I was (and am) a realist. I knew there was no way to change my family's income or name, or the fact that we didn't use the word "summer" as a verb. Things were what they were, so I had to get on with my life and revel in the parts where I had some control. Like studying and doing my best in class.

From a social standpoint, in the bell curve of class popularity, I probably fell squarely in the middle of the hump: not popular, but far from an outcast. I was a nerd who played sports, I was smart, I fit in (at least with my friends) and I was among fellow school-loving, athletic, and nerdy kids and had a tribe to call my own. It was a school that was very classically academically rigorous but that also gave students a bit of latitude in identifying and working on non-traditional academic pursuits too. Like helping Bill Gates to work on early computers during his time there. And look where that got us all: right here with me blogging and you reading, here on the interwebs, that's where. 

But there is one memory that sticks out in my mind as pretty great about my school years. In high school, I took Graphics (or art as it was called in most schools) with a great teacher who was renown for his unconventional approach that drew on his experience in a number of disciplines, including being a Unitarian minister. Students were allowed to draw on the walls of the studio, which were painted over every year to allow the new class to leave their marks. We learned to draw live nude models, which I drew with a discrete black bar over the naughty bits, enacting my own self-censoring.

I was no artistic standout, but he made each student feel like they were. And he taught us techniques that enabled us to strengthen whatever artistic abilities we had.

One winter, he gave us an assignment to draw a interesting Santa Claus. I decided to do a funky Santa. Not funky like smelly: funky like platforms, bell bottoms, gold chains (it was the mid-1980s and hip hop was just getting big, after all), and an afro, complete with the afro pick in the shape of a Black Power fist. The next day, he called me in to his office.

As one of the few kids of color at the school, I was scared. Was he mad that my Santa didn't match the other rosy-cheeked, white-haired specimens turned in by my classmates? Had I (horrors!) misunderstood the assignment?!

No. He got teary as he told me that my goofy picture, done on a whim to amuse myself and complete my homework, had moved him deeply. It turned out that he had an adopted daughter who was African American. Seeing my Santa, in all its funky glory and all my obvious joy at creating an image that reflected my reality and worldview and that didn't fit the cookie cutter mold of what was expected, gave him hope that his daughter would also someday be comfortable creating art that reflected her reality and complexity as an African American girl with a white dad. And he thanked me for sharing my vision of what could be, not just what we were used to. How's that for making a nerdy little girl feel that she had something amazing to contribute to the world?

Now that I'm shepherding Ava and Dylan into their school age years, I want them to have similarly powerful experiences and mentors; to have grownups in their lives - besides their mom and dad and grandparents - who let them know that they have something unique to contribute to the world, but that they have to work hard to hone whatever talents they have.

I want to facilitate their love for learning, nurture their natural interests and provide an outlet for - and celebration of - their own wacky funky-Santa-like ideas. I want to model for them the need to push their personal boundaries and be lifelong learners in a way that is not dependent upon being in a classroom. After all, I have to prepare them for a world I may never see, but in which I want them to excel. Hopefully, they will also come to love - LOVE! - school the way I did.

Happy anniversary

Thanks to my inlaws for watching the kids so that we could celebrate 11 years of marriage with a lovely grown folks dinner at Blueacre.

 

To answer the question Ava posed when we picked them up ("What did you do all night? Why didn't you want us to come?"): we talked politics, work, kids, crazy teenage shenanigans, what crazy shenanigans our kids better not even THINK of trying, what we've learned, why we love, and more. Even after 19 years, we still had each other laughing out loud (the real one, not the text kind) all night.

 

Happy anniversary to my friend/husband/love, Jason Jones.

 

Vintage facial hair

Jason's off to work to train clients, rockin' the Dr. Benton Quest facial hair from the Jonny Quest cartoon. Maybe I'll dress Dylan like Hajji. Where does one find a size 4T nehru jacket?

 

 

Ava: Why do people live longer than dogs? Is space above heaven? #PreschoolerDeepThoughts #WhenLogicAndFaithCollide

5 years!

Guess who turned 5 today and wore this crown & carried her new unicorn from the moment she woke up until she climbed into bed tonight?

She declared, "I don't like my birthday gifts, I LOVE them!"

Dylan: What is that, man? Ava: I'm not man! I'm dude. You're bro!

Driven to (non-alcoholic) drink

Rough day on the parenting front. I don't drink, but tonight trading sparkling cider for sparkling lemonade.

On a related note: does the French Foreign Legion have a minimum age or potty training requirement for inductees?

Good grief, night 2 is barely underway & my tears are already welling up. I add my thanks to troops and military families. #DNC2012

LOL! RT @CharlesMBlow: If Suge Avery bursts in that room singing "God's Trying to Tell You Something" it's going to be all over... #Clinton #Preaching #DNC2012"

Clinton "'We're in this together' is a far better philosophy than 'you're on your own.'" #DNC2012 #swoon

Loving Cristina Saralegui! "Don't boo: vote!" #DNC2012

Band-aid's stuck on you

We've reached the scabby knees and assorted size band-aid stage of childhood.

End of an era

Last toddler daycare update for Dylan, who'll start preschool in a couple weeks. Now I'll just have to guess when he's gone potty during the day. ;-)

Train-induced euphoria

Dylan climbed the fence to get a better look at the trains rolling by in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood. You can't see the ear to ear grin that lit up his face when the engineer blew the horn and waved.

Is nothing s-a-c-r-e-d?! RT @jdickerson: RT @1bobcohn: Cheating scandal at Scrabble Nationals. http://t.co/ZxkXTfiQ

Fresh feeling

Note to self: before walking through spray park to take pictures, note which features drop water and which ones spray up at your crotch.

TGIF

Seafair weekend date night on a deck in Ballard.

Reporter: Olympians who ate Mcdonald's after medaling said they felt pretty gross b/c they usu. eat so healthy. Um, no, it's the food.

Pen lust

My latest fountain pen magazine came. I'll be indisposed/drooling at times over the next few days.

Petite posers

I thought the kids looked pretty stylish heading out this morning. I was particularly happy for Dylan, who doesn't really care what you put on him, though he likes any clothing with Thomas on it, and his Crocs, as mentioned previously.

We struggle to find clothes for him that are as effortlessly cute and comfortable as the ones made for girls and that don't feature a truck, dinosaur, dog, skull, sporting equipment or athletic team, or a trademarked character.

Ava has been particular about what she wears since she could voice an opinion, like laying out her own outfit at 2 1/2. Thankfully, we get lots of great pre-loved dresses and outfits from friends and family for her, but there are also just racks and racks of great girls items to choose from in the stores.

For boys though, the last time I hit Ross in search of short sets for Dylan as the warm weather finally appeared in Seattle for the summer (in mid-July no less), there were still several racks of clearance items for girls, and exactly four outfits in Dylan's size. Two of them were athletic gear and one was hideous.

But I did find the shirt and jeans he's sporting. And even his fashionable Dad gave a thumbs up to the Vans-like kicks. "Nice! I've been looking for some suede joints like that!" he said with a smile. So here's the rundown of the looks they're modeling. I feel so Project Runway.

 

Ava
Dress: H & M
Capri leggings with lace: Gap Kids

Shoes: abominations Crocs hand-me-down  pre-loved from friends
Backpack: Barbie from Target
Hair: ponytails by Nana
Take-and-Toss Cup: Target

Dylan
Jacket: Hand-me-down Gap Kids, pre-loved from friends
Shirt: DKNY from Ross
Jeans: Paper Denim Cloth from Ross (marked down from $58 to $9.99!)
Shoes: Target
Hair: fro-hawk by Dad

Date night: Batman movie. That once would have been followed by night on the town. We did a Target run for diapers. #RealLife

Filled tires w/machine giving 3 minutes of air for $1. Did all 4 with 10 sec. to spare. I'm like an urban NASCAR pit crew.

On the links

Family twilight golf self-portrait. Thank goodness for self-timers.

Firefighter heroes

Dylan is two and a half years old and all about trains and firefighters these days. Whenever we pass a fire station, fire truck or ambulance, he calls out its presence: "Firefighter heroes! Going to help someone!"

Recently, while we were out and about, we passed a Seattle Fire Department station where the firefighters were out washing the trucks. I pulled over, told them about Dylan's love for firefighters and asked if we could just get a quick up-close look at the equipment.

The lieutenant said, "Sure! Come on in. We'll show you all the tools." By opening all the compartments, she opened a huge door into my kids' hearts. She explained what everything was for and what situations called for each item, then introduced them to some of the other firefighters who were around and let them sit in a ladder truck. 

The ear to ear grin on Dylan as he sat in the rig said it all: this kid was overjoyed by the experience. Even Ava, who is soon to be five and already declaring some things to be "for babies," initially deemed the visit "boring because it's just going to be boy stuff" walked away with a smile: "She was really nice! I like firefighter things now. And princesses."

We sent a thank card and Ava included a drawing of her and the lieutenant holding hands.

 Kids' passions affirmed? Check. Horizons broadened? Check. Thanks to a caring firefighter who made it possible, my work here (for today at least) is done .

Service with a smile

Business idea: The Frohawk Waffle Haus. Delicious breakfast fare, served with a smile.

9am tee ball, two school picnics and a birthday party. Kids & mama need a nap!

Solo parenting day 3. So far: ER trip for nana/babysitter, mystery late night rash for 2 y.o. & job demands. Coping tools? Smoke & mirrors.

Afro-wearing love bug

Dylan, reiterating this whole love thing.

Really NRA? Robo-calls for support in Seattle on the day of a horrific shooting - the latest in a slew? #wrongplacewrongtime

For 1st time when I called, my 2 y.o. answered phone & carried on a conversation! About bird poop on grandpa's window, but still: yay!

It's Beastie Boys week. Kids new fave car song? Brass Monkey. Parenting fail? Maybe. Rap is so fast they can't grasp lyrics.

Power hitter

T-ball! Ava used her hot pink bat to smack two solid hits, prompting a parent on the opposing team to shout, "Way to go girl power!"

Would sir prefer the clown shoes?

See Dylan's blue Crocs? A month plus of speech therapy and his first sartorial declaration is that he wanted "this ones." Fashion-wise, I may have preferred him mute.

Wearing fleece & cooking banana bread. Is this spring break or mid-winter break?!

Spring break

Lovely spring break stay-cation day off. Light rail to downtown with grandparents & kids for walking, people watching & lunch, then sous chef for Jason's first chicken fettuccine, which was the bomb. Life is good.

Bicycle Sunday

When the weather warms up, the City of Seattle closes off auto access to portions of the street along Lake Washington so that bikers and others on small wheels and on foot can roll along and meander in peace, without having to share the road with large vehicles.

With this weekend's warm (for Spring in Seattle) weather, I felt compelled to finally secure a tricycle for Dylan and bicycle for Ava. I'd been checking Craigslist for weeks and finally found a tricycle in good condition, at the right price, the right distance and from a seller who actually responded in a timely manner. Really: what is up with listing something for sale on a service that used email for communication, then not responding to email?!

The two biggest selling points on the trike? A parent's push/steer bar and a "trunk" on the back just perfect for holding a few Thomas and other assorted mini trains.

So we got the trike, but couldn't reach the seller of the girls bike we wanted. So we just hit our usual fave Target to see what was available. It's funny to flash back to last summer when we did a bit of a dry run on this bike purchase. In the toss up between a Barbie bike and the Disney princesses, the princesses won because of the doll carrier that was included. Like the trike, cargo space is critical!

While Dylan at first didn't seem to understand that it was for him, he soon jumped right on and was thrilled with his new wheels. So was I, because it means that I can now rollerblade alongside them instead of hunching over Dylan's scooter to push him along. Goodbye back pain, hello independent riders.

In contrast to Dylan's quiet joy, Ava's bicycle-induced squeals were so loud dolphins at Sea World said, "What the...?"

We hit a local bike trail and Ava did great, only taking one small spill before getting the hang of applying the brakes when she feels like she's going faster than she feels comfortable. All we need now is a few more days with temperatures north of 60. Happy kids? Check. Yet another cool childhood milestone that makes me feel even more like a parent? Check. Simple pleasures that remind us: blessings abound.

Sense of self

Dylan's burgeoning sense of self.

He knows who he is, even if he pronounces his name "Dy-n."

What's funny is that since being released from speech therapy, his word count and complexity have continued to grow by leaps and bounds. Still, some things he says are not so clear, like his name. But other times, he clearly articulates phrases like "Wake up Daddy" and "Ava: what the heck!" That one threw me for a loop tonight.

He's also clearly catching on to the verbal wackiness that ensues around here. We've always played this ridiculous game where we insert the sound "shhhh" into an otherwise normal sentence as if we really have something important to convey. It started out as a bedtime thing when one of us was trying to go to sleep and the other was piping up with some question or comment about the day. The sleepy one would finally say something like, "That's a great question. Let me check my shhhh!" As in, "Shush. I'm trying to sleep."

We did it with Ava too, and it has become an occasional bedtime game. Like, "Okay, it's time to lay down and put your head on your shhh!" or "Oh man, Ava what is all that in your hair?! It looks like you fell in shhhh!" Any permutation is guaranteed to elicit peals of laughter.

Recently, as we tucked Dylan in, he piped up, "Mommy: I said shhhh!" Whaaat?! His proclamations are so unexpected that they crack us up every time. This kid, like his sister, is a hilarious character in his own way and I love watching him develop.

Ferry-enabled fun

Jones guys hanging out on Bainbridge.

Quality time

Curing the nature deficit disorder.

Amnesia day

This is the type of Seattle day that makes you forget about the past six months of grey awfulness. We had T-ball practice followed by al fresco lunch on the deck. Happy sunny day.

Who's bad?

Even before Trayvon Martin's death, I wouldn't put Dylan in clothes that played into negative stereotypes of African American males as trouble or somehow bad.




Which means this pre-loved shirt we received, though apparently part of one of the most beloved Japanese cartoon shows ever, will be donated.

Extreme? Maybe. Ridiculous? No more ridiculous than Geraldo saying Trayvon's hoodie got him killed - a statement for which he later apologized directly to Trayvon's parents.

NPR's Michel Martin wrote a great piece that captures the fear many parents of color feel for their  sons as they reach the teen years: Trayvon was scared too.