Atomic Tonictag:blog.atomictonic.com,2008://12008-02-07T15:20:36ZA rooster, a pig, a monkey and a dog walk into a bar...Movable Type 3.34Februarytag:blog.atomictonic.com,2008://1.2392008-02-07T15:17:46Z2008-02-07T15:20:36ZWait. I have a blog? Huh. I keep forgetting. I guess I'm over the whole idea but not sure what to do with that information. I need to keep the site up for access to PSV, so what's the point...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
Wait. I have a blog? Huh. I keep forgetting. I guess I'm over the whole idea but not sure what to do with that information. I need to keep the site up for access to PSV, so what's the point in shutting down the blog if things need to stay active here anyway?
Well.
Got me there.
Here's some things:
Matilda turned three on the first of the month. This age might kill me.
Linnea turned one 10 hours and 3 minutes ago. She's got a hacking cough today. Sounds like a seal and I'm pretty sure her throat is sore as she whimpers every time she does it. Heartbreaking.
There. That should do it for a few more months around here.
Unpluggedtag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2382007-11-18T13:54:18Z2007-11-18T14:02:47ZHai so I just spent 48 hours locked out of my own site and starting at this instead of what you are currently staring at. That's what happens when you: get married, change your name, move, get a new phone...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
instead of what you are currently staring at. That's what happens when you: get married, change your name, move, get a new phone number and drop the email address associated with the domain. You don't get a notice that your domain is about to expire.
So that was fun. Lesson learned!]]>
Please send vodkatag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2372007-11-15T18:16:49Z2007-11-15T19:59:18ZI don't know how you do it. You mothers that stay home with your kids everyday. I'm home with mine, sure, but Matilda is in preschool (and used to be in daycare) twice a week. You folks that have the...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
suburban bliss and not get why she was always so excited for school to start. Why she seemed to dislike spending time with her kids. Then my kid outgrew that baby stage where they can do no wrong. Linnea is still in that stage. I'm enjoying it in her because I know it's not going to last. I know in two years I'm going to want her to leave me alone for 5 minutes. Today I want Matilda to leave me alone for 5 minutes.]]>
It's not easy being greentag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2362007-11-15T15:27:15Z2007-11-15T15:27:44ZHey so have I told you all about my green smoothies? A few months ago, when I stopped eating sugar and flirted with a raw food diet (I love coffee too much to do more than that) I discovered the...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
like them. Weird, huh.
Green Smoothiea banana
big handful of baby spinach
one lime, quartered and peeled
couple of sprigs of fresh mint
three slices of fresh ginger
handful of either mango or pineapple (I use the latter when I can and frozen mango when I run out.)
Toss it all into a blender, fill about halfway with water and blend for a good couple of minutes.]]>
Messytag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2332007-11-13T15:59:29Z2007-11-13T16:00:26Z I'm trying to come to terms with this blog. I'm trying but all I get is silence. I'm certainly not the first person with a public blog to feel trapped by the...publicness of it all. Writing for no one...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
I'm trying to come to terms with this blog. I'm trying but all I get is silence. I'm certainly not the first person with a public blog to feel trapped by the...publicness of it all. Writing for no one holds no appeal to me but the possibility of anyone reading this scares me. It scares me because I want to have control over who reads it but that's impossible.
I bought this domain in 1999. I did this and that with it and started some forums. For a while it was more of a 'zine with contributors. Then it was...I have no idea. Then it was more and then it was less. Then I got pregnant with Matilda and for a long time I gave up posting here and posted somewhere else. Mostly because it was a pregnancy/kid/parent blog and my friends didn't care about that and our family did. Then I moved everything back here and it's still a parent/kid blog. My friends don't care and the family does. And because the family cares, I tend to only post about the kids. The surface of life with kids.
How Matilda cooks us dinner in her kitchen all the time and pretends the pizza is a cake and either way it's "really too hot." How she hugs Linnea and tries to pick her up despite our telling her to stop. How she wore her bikini all summer and loves swimming and band-aids and telling me she wants oatmeal for breakfast when 7 times out of 10, she doesn't really. How she dresses herself and currently will only wear 30% of her clothing, including a too small light pink short sleeved t-shirt. We fight over it at least once a week now that it's too cold for short sleeves.
How Linnea is sturdy and strong and laughs the hardest for Matilda. How she eats everything and bounces when she wants more. How she claps and talks and points and pulls her ears when she's tired. How she rests her leg on my chest when she's nursing and kneads my thighs with her feet when she's sleeping.
But the reality is hard. I'm 9 months post partum and still can't get a handle on myself. I still have 10 pounds to lose. I can't reliably run 20 miles a week. I missed the last race I'd signed up for and I'm not positive I'll make it to the next one. This morning I saw a photograph of a stranger running the NY marathon and it sent me into a tailspin of depression. Niclas tells me I spend too much time on myself and not enough on the kids and yet I feel totally overwhelmed with the responsibility of two children. I feel guilty that I want to run an hour a day and I feel worse when I don't run. I'm angry at Niclas for judging my parenting and angry at myself for feeling guilty. I'm angry at my body for taking so long to recover from this second pregnancy and angry at myself for caring. I've tried to count calories and I've tried to eat less carbs. I've knocked out sugar and then cooked foods. I've done shots of olive oil. I've given up and tried Margaret Cho's Fuck It diet. I haven't been on it long enough to stop gaining. I've lost 5 pounds more than once and then regained it in a second. I'm saggy and even after hernia surgery on my belly button, I'm soft and round and my pants don't fit. I look old and used and as much as I try, reading The Shape of a Mother is not making me feel any better. I love my kids but I hate what they've done to my body.
I hate how overwhelmed I feel. The whining of the two-year-old often melts my face before 8 am. It can take two hours to get out of the house and both kids almost always freak out when we finally get back home. I hate that there's always someone to make me feel guilty about something -- buying Christmas presents or not writing thank you notes or not making a decent dinner or being short with Matilda or not getting the kids out of the house often enough -- or tell me I'm doing it wrong. I hate how some days, it's all I can do to pick up toys. I hate how I'm desperately thirsty all the time but can't seem to keep my water bottle handy. I hate that I feel like I fail at everything. I hate that I curse under my breath when Matilda spills a hundred dried black beans on the floor. I hate that she drives me crazy sometimes and I really hate that Niclas looks at me like I'm terrible when that happens. I hate that I gloat when she drives him over the edge and I hear him growl at her. I hate that I resent him for hardly ever getting up in the mornings with the kids. I hate how our relationship has changed since we've had kids. How I feel like when we met he'd do anything for me and how now it feels like pulling teeth if I ask him to get me water. ]]>
Crawling, croup, christmastag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2322007-11-11T16:29:25Z2007-11-11T17:12:20ZLinnea started crawling last week. It'd taken her a few weeks to work out the logistics so for a bit of time there she was mobile and thus untrustworthy but not exactly crawling, per se. Anyway. Girlfriend is now at...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
crawling, per se.
Anyway. Girlfriend is now at it and she's reminding me of just how dangerous our house is especially now with the toys of toddlerhood all over the place as well as computer cables and light fixture cords. I'd give you a full list of the things I've pulled out of her mouth in the last week but it'd only send the grandparents into a tailspin of worry and seeing as how the grandparents are the entire audience of this blog, I'm going to skip it. Too bad because it's a pretty impressive list already.
(chapsticktopstaplecraftrhinestonetinybluebowlblackbeangoldenraisinstickerhairelastic)
I'm thinking this kid only worked out crawling so she could motor to furniture to stand up. Right now she's using Matilda's trampoline to work on the standing, one sock off and the other hanging on by a thread. She's also coughing like a seal because the kids have croup. The croup? I don't know. All these childhood illnesses, they sound so sinister and medieval. Turns out (the) croup is one hell of a cough and a runny nose but not quite on par with The Black Plague, although Matilda does have an ear infection (AGAIN), so she might be up for round two of ear tubes. Anyway. I can't say we're enjoying (the) croup but I think we'll make it out alive.
So what else. I never post here, do I?
We've been up to certain things. Put a bunch of kids in robot jammies in a bouncy house.
Dressed our kids up for Halloween.
Matilda is now in preschool a couple of days a week. Same place as her daycare, same days, just other end of the hall. For some reason that end of the hall changed a lot of things for her. In daycare she was quiet as a mouse. In preschool she talks all day.
Preschool hasn't changed how she feels about class photos, however.
So bershon already. I might have to put some black eyeliner in her christmas stocking. I also might have to start buying prints of these photos if she keeps this up.
(Speaking of Christmas. I've been doing all my shopping online this year and nearly 90% of it on etsy. I'm deeply in love with etsy and I want to share my finds but I can't ruin the surprises so you're all just going to have to go over there and poke around.)]]>
...tag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2302007-09-13T14:27:51Z2007-09-13T14:28:00ZWhat would you do if you saw 30+ kids in these jammies all at the same time? Just a question. No reason. ... We gave Linnea seltzer the other day. Kids. They're so much fun. ... My constant hunger coupled...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com...
We gave Linnea seltzer the other day. Kids. They're so much fun.
...
My constant hunger coupled with The Nursing Hunger has driven me to new lows of food obsession. Stopped eating sugar and flour two weeks ago because I was up to my eyeballs in cookies before I'd even had a cup of coffee. Replaced them with raw nuts and fruit. Been eating like a garbage disposal. Frankly horrified at my fat/nut intake but must remain satisfied else I'll be right back to hoovering cookies and the Nutella in the baking drawer.
Working out a new breakfast regime. Making my own almond milk and cocoa Lara Bars. Trolling Raw Food sites in search of interesting ways to eat more vegetables and thinking that the raw chocolate chip cookie dough is maybe not the best thing to try next.]]>
Oletag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2272007-07-30T13:02:19Z2007-07-30T13:08:13ZTwo years ago we though feeding Matilda her first foods was fun (and messy) but two years ago we didn't have a two-year-old to help....atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
but two years ago we didn't have a two-year-old to help.
]]>
I think this is fillertag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2262007-07-29T13:24:20Z2007-07-29T13:25:26ZLook. I've got nothing to give. Linnea is nearly 6 months old. I'm sleeping more than I did with Matilda at this age but I'm still sort of burned out. Feel like I'm slipping into quicksand. Sick of typing with...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
We go every year. Little did we know that the first year we took Matilda, when she was 5 months old, was going to be the easiest trip we'd ever take with kids. This year, with a two-year-old and a 5 month old, was the exact opposite of a good time. Door-to-door the trip is 15 hours. 6 hour time change and at least 4 extra hours of daylight a day. I'm not going to lie. It was not really. Um. Fun. Sure, Matilda got to swing in the best swing ever:
and Linnea got to eat her rivals:
but the trip as a whole sort of hurt my head and sent me into a tailspin of tired and drained for a week after.
So there was that. Now we're home and it's hot. Matilda starts repeating herself before she's even out of bed in the morning. She nurses her babies (asks if they're done or do they want the other side?), been making salads out of paper towels and eating the thai basil straight from the garden. She's been talking about potty training and wearing underpants but she won't use the potty. I'm trying to be patient but I'm really quite done changing diapers on two kids.
Linnea is well on her way to a balanced diet. She's had rice cereal and applesauce. Lemon sorbet and watermelon and sweet potatoes.
She talks all day and is *thisclose* to sitting unassisted.
These kids. ]]>
Dear Running,tag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2252007-06-22T12:09:03Z2007-06-22T19:31:08ZWhy you gotta be so cruel? If you keep hurting my feelings like this, I'm going to have to break up with you. For a little while. Nothing permanent, mind. I can't stay mad at you. But truly, you're not...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
and a medal. This year I got an upset stomach and had to remove both sports bras at the finish line, under my singlet, and nurse Linnea.
(That last part was comedy, actually. I had my mother bring the kids to the race. I figured the commotion would entertain Matilda and distract Linnea from the baby witching hour. What it really did was send both kids into a spiral of hysterics, one right after the other. Boy was my mother glad to see me finally cross the finish! Those 28 minutes count for at least an hour of Grandparent Duty because my kids, they can really lose their shit.)
Anyway running, you're making it hard to love you. I tried again first thing this morning and you wouldn't let me in. I've resigned myself to puny 5k distances in crappy time and forcing myself to go 5 on Saturdays with my club. I'm doing it but my heart's not in it.]]>
Trying in vain to bring us up to the presenttag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2242007-06-08T20:58:28Z2007-06-08T20:57:50ZLinnea is four months old. I have no idea how this has happened. Twice last week she slept from 8 to 5. I'm not complaining, no, it's just. When she does that? I don't get to run because 5am is...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
Twice last week she slept from 8 to 5. I'm not complaining, no, it's just. When she does that? I don't get to run because 5am is when I'd leave the house. But you know, not complaining. And I can't really blame her for my lack of motivation this week. I guess I can blame being four months postpartum, but that's me and not her. The hair loss is certanily me. As is the overwhelming desire to eat. Doesn't really matter what it is, I'll eat it. And I'm not even really hungry.
It's a good thing Linnea is cute because four months postpartum is kicking my ass. I'm a wet hot mess and there's so much to tell you but I can't seem to form the sentences. I put Linnea in the car the other day. Got in myself, put the key in the ignition. Released the parking break and noticed that the car was already in drive. On our inclined driveway. I can't even park a car, nevermind organize a paragraph. I will try stringing a bunch of stuff together.
Farfar came to visit. We almost had scabies but then we didn't. I made mexican chocolate ice cream and then marzipan ice cream. I've been wearing the prescription glasses I bought 5 years ago. Am no longer squinting. Went grocery shopping. Explained strawberries to Matilda. Been watching her watch them for signs of doneness since.
Things are hopping over here. Things aside from my brain. The kids are in constant motion (Matilda)
and sucking their thumbs (Linnea)
and chatty, the both of them. ]]>
I will never learntag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2232007-05-21T13:15:44Z2007-05-21T13:15:05ZOur nightlife has been pretty quiet the last three years. I've spent them pregnant and/or nursing which hasn't left much room for cocktails. I replaced the sugar in alcohol with the sugar in cake and the martini shaker with the...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
and baked goods.
Chocolate Zucchini Cake2 1/2 cups regular all-purpose flour, unsifted
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup soft butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini
1/2 cup milk
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Glaze (directions follow)Preheat the oven to 350°F.
1 Combine the four, cocoa, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon; set aside.
2 With a mixer, beat together the butter and the sugar until they are smoothly blended. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. With a spoon, stir in the vanilla, orange peel, and zucchini.
3 Alternately stir the dry ingredients and the milk into the zucchini mixture, including the nuts with the last addition.
4 Pour the batter into a greased and flour-dusted 10-inch tube pan or bundt pan. Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes (test at 45 minutes!) or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes; turn out on wire rack to cool thoroughly.
5 Drizzle glaze over cake.
Glaze: Mix together 2 cups powdered sugar, 3 Tablespoons milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until smooth.Grandma Babe's Lemon KnotsIngredients
Cookies:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large eggs
3 cups flour (about 13 1/2 ounces)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon low-fat buttermilkPreheat oven to 375°.
To prepare cookies, place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in rind and 1/4 cup juice. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition (mixture will look curdled).
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; stir with a wooden spoon to form a stiff dough. Turn dough out onto a floured surface; knead 10 to 15 times to form a smooth dough.
Divide dough into 8 equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time (cover remaining dough to prevent drying), shape each portion into a 30-inch-long rope; cut each rope crosswise into 6 (5-inch) pieces. Tie each dough piece into a knot. Place knots on 2 baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake 1 sheet at a time at 375° for 8 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are lightly browned and tops are still pale. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.
To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons juice, and buttermilk; stir until smooth. Dip tops of cookies into glaze; dry on racks.]]>
So much nothingtag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2222007-05-21T01:12:02Z2007-05-21T11:18:07ZThere's so much to talk about. Too bad I have nothing to say. There's Linnea, old enough to play a newborn on tv. Chewing on her hands and rolling onto her back. There's Matilda, picking up new words every hour...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
There's Fredrik, refusing to believe he looks just like his father.]]>
What do you eat?tag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2212007-05-13T01:43:07Z2007-05-13T02:02:40ZI've got a meeting on Monday with a trainer/nutritionist because I still have 15 pounds of baby weight to lose and I'm starting to get all caught up in my underpants* about it. The trainer has requested a food diary...atomichttp://www.atomictonic.com
taking pictures instead.
*Thanks for that, Bibi.]]>
Patsy wants a refilltag:blog.atomictonic.com,2007://1.2202007-05-11T17:22:58Z2007-05-11T17:22:34Zatomichttp://www.atomictonic.com]]>
instead of what you are currently staring at. That's what happens when you: get married, change your name, move, get a new phone number and drop the email address associated with the domain. You don't get a notice that your domain is about to expire.
So that was fun. Lesson learned!]]>
a banana
big handful of baby spinach
one lime, quartered and peeled
couple of sprigs of fresh mint
three slices of fresh ginger
handful of either mango or pineapple (I use the latter when I can and frozen mango when I run out.)
Toss it all into a blender, fill about halfway with water and blend for a good couple of minutes.]]>
I'm trying to come to terms with this blog. I'm trying but all I get is silence. I'm certainly not the first person with a public blog to feel trapped by the...publicness of it all. Writing for no one holds no appeal to me but the possibility of anyone reading this scares me. It scares me because I want to have control over who reads it but that's impossible.
I bought this domain in 1999. I did this and that with it and started some forums. For a while it was more of a 'zine with contributors. Then it was...I have no idea. Then it was more and then it was less. Then I got pregnant with Matilda and for a long time I gave up posting here and posted somewhere else. Mostly because it was a pregnancy/kid/parent blog and my friends didn't care about that and our family did. Then I moved everything back here and it's still a parent/kid blog. My friends don't care and the family does. And because the family cares, I tend to only post about the kids. The surface of life with kids.
How Matilda cooks us dinner in her kitchen all the time and pretends the pizza is a cake and either way it's "really too hot." How she hugs Linnea and tries to pick her up despite our telling her to stop. How she wore her bikini all summer and loves swimming and band-aids and telling me she wants oatmeal for breakfast when 7 times out of 10, she doesn't really. How she dresses herself and currently will only wear 30% of her clothing, including a too small light pink short sleeved t-shirt. We fight over it at least once a week now that it's too cold for short sleeves.
How Linnea is sturdy and strong and laughs the hardest for Matilda. How she eats everything and bounces when she wants more. How she claps and talks and points and pulls her ears when she's tired. How she rests her leg on my chest when she's nursing and kneads my thighs with her feet when she's sleeping.
But the reality is hard. I'm 9 months post partum and still can't get a handle on myself. I still have 10 pounds to lose. I can't reliably run 20 miles a week. I missed the last race I'd signed up for and I'm not positive I'll make it to the next one. This morning I saw a photograph of a stranger running the NY marathon and it sent me into a tailspin of depression. Niclas tells me I spend too much time on myself and not enough on the kids and yet I feel totally overwhelmed with the responsibility of two children. I feel guilty that I want to run an hour a day and I feel worse when I don't run. I'm angry at Niclas for judging my parenting and angry at myself for feeling guilty. I'm angry at my body for taking so long to recover from this second pregnancy and angry at myself for caring. I've tried to count calories and I've tried to eat less carbs. I've knocked out sugar and then cooked foods. I've done shots of olive oil. I've given up and tried Margaret Cho's Fuck It diet. I haven't been on it long enough to stop gaining. I've lost 5 pounds more than once and then regained it in a second. I'm saggy and even after hernia surgery on my belly button, I'm soft and round and my pants don't fit. I look old and used and as much as I try, reading The Shape of a Mother is not making me feel any better. I love my kids but I hate what they've done to my body.
I hate how overwhelmed I feel. The whining of the two-year-old often melts my face before 8 am. It can take two hours to get out of the house and both kids almost always freak out when we finally get back home. I hate that there's always someone to make me feel guilty about something -- buying Christmas presents or not writing thank you notes or not making a decent dinner or being short with Matilda or not getting the kids out of the house often enough -- or tell me I'm doing it wrong. I hate how some days, it's all I can do to pick up toys. I hate how I'm desperately thirsty all the time but can't seem to keep my water bottle handy. I hate that I feel like I fail at everything. I hate that I curse under my breath when Matilda spills a hundred dried black beans on the floor. I hate that she drives me crazy sometimes and I really hate that Niclas looks at me like I'm terrible when that happens. I hate that I gloat when she drives him over the edge and I hear him growl at her. I hate that I resent him for hardly ever getting up in the mornings with the kids. I hate how our relationship has changed since we've had kids. How I feel like when we met he'd do anything for me and how now it feels like pulling teeth if I ask him to get me water. ]]>
Dressed our kids up for Halloween.
Matilda is now in preschool a couple of days a week. Same place as her daycare, same days, just other end of the hall. For some reason that end of the hall changed a lot of things for her. In daycare she was quiet as a mouse. In preschool she talks all day.
Preschool hasn't changed how she feels about class photos, however.
So bershon already. I might have to put some black eyeliner in her christmas stocking. I also might have to start buying prints of these photos if she keeps this up.
(Speaking of Christmas. I've been doing all my shopping online this year and nearly 90% of it on etsy. I'm deeply in love with etsy and I want to share my finds but I can't ruin the surprises so you're all just going to have to go over there and poke around.)]]>
...
We gave Linnea seltzer the other day. Kids. They're so much fun.
...
My constant hunger coupled with The Nursing Hunger has driven me to new lows of food obsession. Stopped eating sugar and flour two weeks ago because I was up to my eyeballs in cookies before I'd even had a cup of coffee. Replaced them with raw nuts and fruit. Been eating like a garbage disposal. Frankly horrified at my fat/nut intake but must remain satisfied else I'll be right back to hoovering cookies and the Nutella in the baking drawer.
Working out a new breakfast regime. Making my own almond milk and cocoa Lara Bars. Trolling Raw Food sites in search of interesting ways to eat more vegetables and thinking that the raw chocolate chip cookie dough is maybe not the best thing to try next.]]>
but two years ago we didn't have a two-year-old to help.
]]>
We go every year. Little did we know that the first year we took Matilda, when she was 5 months old, was going to be the easiest trip we'd ever take with kids. This year, with a two-year-old and a 5 month old, was the exact opposite of a good time. Door-to-door the trip is 15 hours. 6 hour time change and at least 4 extra hours of daylight a day. I'm not going to lie. It was not really. Um. Fun. Sure, Matilda got to swing in the best swing ever:
and Linnea got to eat her rivals:
but the trip as a whole sort of hurt my head and sent me into a tailspin of tired and drained for a week after.
So there was that. Now we're home and it's hot. Matilda starts repeating herself before she's even out of bed in the morning. She nurses her babies (asks if they're done or do they want the other side?), been making salads out of paper towels and eating the thai basil straight from the garden. She's been talking about potty training and wearing underpants but she won't use the potty. I'm trying to be patient but I'm really quite done changing diapers on two kids.
Linnea is well on her way to a balanced diet. She's had rice cereal and applesauce. Lemon sorbet and watermelon and sweet potatoes.
She talks all day and is *thisclose* to sitting unassisted.
These kids. ]]>
Twice last week she slept from 8 to 5. I'm not complaining, no, it's just. When she does that? I don't get to run because 5am is when I'd leave the house. But you know, not complaining. And I can't really blame her for my lack of motivation this week. I guess I can blame being four months postpartum, but that's me and not her. The hair loss is certanily me. As is the overwhelming desire to eat. Doesn't really matter what it is, I'll eat it. And I'm not even really hungry.
It's a good thing Linnea is cute because four months postpartum is kicking my ass. I'm a wet hot mess and there's so much to tell you but I can't seem to form the sentences. I put Linnea in the car the other day. Got in myself, put the key in the ignition. Released the parking break and noticed that the car was already in drive. On our inclined driveway. I can't even park a car, nevermind organize a paragraph. I will try stringing a bunch of stuff together.
Farfar came to visit. We almost had scabies but then we didn't. I made mexican chocolate ice cream and then marzipan ice cream. I've been wearing the prescription glasses I bought 5 years ago. Am no longer squinting. Went grocery shopping. Explained strawberries to Matilda. Been watching her watch them for signs of doneness since.
Things are hopping over here. Things aside from my brain. The kids are in constant motion (Matilda)
and sucking their thumbs (Linnea)
and chatty, the both of them. ]]>
Grandma Babe's Lemon Knots
Ingredients
Cookies:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large eggs
3 cups flour (about 13 1/2 ounces)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon low-fat buttermilk
Preheat oven to 375°.
To prepare cookies, place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in rind and 1/4 cup juice. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition (mixture will look curdled).
Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; stir with a wooden spoon to form a stiff dough. Turn dough out onto a floured surface; knead 10 to 15 times to form a smooth dough.
Divide dough into 8 equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time (cover remaining dough to prevent drying), shape each portion into a 30-inch-long rope; cut each rope crosswise into 6 (5-inch) pieces. Tie each dough piece into a knot. Place knots on 2 baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake 1 sheet at a time at 375° for 8 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are lightly browned and tops are still pale. Remove cookies from pan; cool on wire racks.
To prepare glaze, combine powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons juice, and buttermilk; stir until smooth. Dip tops of cookies into glaze; dry on racks.]]>
There's Fredrik, refusing to believe he looks just like his father.]]>
*Thanks for that, Bibi.]]>
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