More food

I've got some interesting recipes on the docket this week; we'll see how they turn out.

Last night's experiment was a success, though. The cookbook calls it "Oriental-Style Chicken Noodle Soup", but we are calling it "Fancy Ramen" It was easy to make and yummy to eat. However, I did have to venture into an untouched corner of the produce section to buy bok choy. It was pretty good and tastes like water chestnuts.

To make: Heat 3 cups of water to boiling. Add one package of Oriental-flavor Ramen noodles, 2 cups of cooked and shredded chicken, one carrot sliced thin, and 2 stalks of bok choy, sliced thin. Simmer and stir for 3 minutes; stir in seasoning. Eat!

Sam and I were both surprised by how good this was. Lots of crunchy veggies and good chicken-y flavor. We'll definitely make it again.

Food!

Anne "helped" me make pizza last night. She was mostly concerned with sprinkling the cheese. Not surprising, considering her love affair with all things dairy. Here she is rolling the crust:

Sam the Man LOVES solid foods. He wants anything he can get his hands on--including anything you are trying to put in your own mouth. He's grabby and determined! On Thursday night I made a waffle for Anne and thought "Hey, Sambo might like this." so I tossed one in the toaster for him. After eating 2 tiny little bites from my hand he lunged forward and grabbed the whole thing! So here he is, trying to stuff an entire Eggo into his mouth:
No, I didn't let him keep it, but he DID eat the whole thing! Just kept gummin' away at it until there was nothing left. I anticipate he'll be having his own steak at his first birthday party.

Goodbye, Sweet Dog

Last night Mikey left us to live with another family. It was a sad night.

We love that funny dog, we do, but what sort of life is it for an animal to live in a kennel all day and then be ignored all night? He deserves better. He's with a family now that has another dog to be his buddy and a fenced yard where he can run. Maybe he'll slim down a little!

To "re-home" him was my idea, but it was me who cried when he left. It was me who teared up again when Anne said "Mikey's gotta come back home." She seemed to get it this morning when she said "Mikey has a new home, now." He seemed very happy when he left, and he didn't look back at us as they drove away.

So, bye, Mikey dog. You were a lot of things, but most of all loyal. We'll miss you.

A Wee Leprechaun!

I realize St. Patrick's Day was last week, but it took a while to get Annie to wear her shamrock hat/Irish beard and take a picture of it. So here she is!

I tend to favor the idea that our kids are just "American," since Sam and I both have a mottled mix of ancestors; all I know for sure is that they are more German than anything else. Click to enlarge the map of Germany below and look on the west side--you'll see "Westphalia" It contains the city of Dusseldorf, and I assume it is where the Westphalls hail from, originally.

Our kids are also Dutch, Native American, Russian, Welsh, and a few other things. They may or may not be Irish; we're not totally sure. But isn't everyone Irish on St. Patrick's Day?

Thankful for Words

I'm (obviously) quite pleased with Annie's verbal skills. In the last few days we've had situations in which an average 2-year-old would maybe have a tantrum or been frustrated with their lack of communication ability. However, Anne has done quite well with telling me how she is feeling. Two examples:

While eating dinner, Anne pushed her plate away and said "No, I am not going to eat my noodles." Frustrating, yes, but better than a screaming "NO!" and a plate flung to the floor.

Yesterday at the X I took Anne to the bathroom (at her request). She sat for a minute and the announced "No, I am not going to poop right now." Okie doke, kid! Let's get out of here, then!

Way to speak your mind, little lady.

More photos

To see some pictures from the game, click HERE and HERE

The Wild have photographers all around the building who will snap a picture for you in hopes that you will then go online and buy a print. Pretty savvy marketing, people!

Hockey Day!

Opa scored some free Wild tickets at the last minute today, so we dashed out of the house and headed to St. Paul. Here are the kids in their matching jerseys:Sammy finally enjoying himself. He spent the first period nursing and crying at every loud noise. It was pretty rough there for a while.
Opa telling Annie all about hockey.
The whole family! Jigga what? Notice we all have our Wild attire on.
Annie and the Herb Brooks statue. Classic.
Thanks for a fun afternoon, Opa! We had a great time (and got the taste of basketball out of our mouths)

Addition

One story to add to the last post:

Annie and I were walking the concourse and one of my 3rd grade students stopped and yelled "Hi, Mrs. Westphall!" He came over and said "Is this Annie!?! She's so big!" I had to laugh and think to myself "You guys DO listen when I tell stories about her!"

I may not be overly popular with my high schoolers, but the lower-elementary set is a pretty big fan of Mrs. Westphall.

Back-Set Ball!

I don't know how to word this..."my" school's girls' basketball team is playing in the state tournament this week. "My" meaning the school I work in, not the school I attended. Anyway, they played their first game yesterday and I had the option to A) work all day or B) attend the game, since school was canceled for the day. Anne, Opa, and I decided to go to the game. Sammy went to daycare and we headed to Williams Arena to take in some "back-set ball," as Anne calls it.

Minnesotans will know that Williams Arena is where the Gopher basketball teams play, and that it is affectionately referred to as "The Barn." Anne found that fact quite amusing and kept saying "We're going to the barn! No cows, no pigs, no chickens."

We watched a very exciting game in which our Wildcats beat the Mustangs 54-46. Anne seemed overwhelmed by the whole thing and sat on one of our laps for the entire game. The crowd, the cheers, the pep band; it was a bit much for her. My camera batteries died, otherwise I'd have a picture of how cute she looked...she even had pigtails with purple bows. We sat right behind the Wildcat bench, 4 or 5 rows up, as evidenced in this photo, courtesy of the Republican-Eagle:
Opa is in the green windbreaker between the Mustang and the Wildcat. Anne and I were just to the left of that.

The Wildcats play again at noon today, so we have another day without students. I guess this is a perk of working in a tiny school district; team goes to state, school shuts down! I chose to work today instead of "hooping it up," so I'll have to catch the game on TV. Let's go, Wildcats!

Hockey Teams, Part 2

Here's the rest of Anne's performance.

The Shark's logo is a shark biting a hockey stick in half. Anne says "He bites the stick! He bites the stick together!"

The Rangers' logo includes the Statue of Liberty, which is also in a video Anne likes to watch. So when she says "That's in the gummy bear!" she is referring to that movie.

Hockey Teams, Part 1

If you turn this up a bit, you can hear Annie identify NHL logos and teams. It will help if you have a background in hockey, but it isn't necessary.

At one point she says "The Minnesota Wild, and I'm wearing it, too!" then later explains "They are green and red"

Near the end Anne identifies "the 'Nucks", which are the Vancouver Canucks. She then tells you that "The 'Nucks are poo-yuck!"

My Nice Annie Post

Here are some amazing things Anne is doing these days (to counteract her more defiant nature, as of late...)

--She knows almost all of her letters

--She counts to 14

--She knows all of her shapes and colors

--She can spell and read her own name

--She can spell and read "Opa" "Oma" "Mommy" "Sammy" and "Daddy"

--Last night I spelled (out loud) all of those words and she told me what they were. I laughed when I said "What does M-O-M spell?" and she said "You!"

--She can type her name on the computer

--She has a repertoire of 12 songs or so

--She jumps! A pretty good 2-footed jump. Yesterday she said "I have to jump and pop the bubbles" I don't know what that means, but it was helping her jump.

--Opa has been working diligently with Anne to learn to identify the logos of NHL teams. She can do them all! Show her any logo and she says "That's Buffalo!" or "That's the Oilers" She can also, then, identify who the Wild are playing on any given night. I particularly love when she says "Avawanche"

--She also knows the players on our Wild team calendar. Last month she'd say "That's Boogie" (Derek Boogaard) and now she asks "Where's P-Marc?" and we have to page forward to July and see him. If we prompt her with a first name, she'll fill in the last name ("Cal....?" "Clutterbuck!")

What really amazes me about her is that you only have to tell her something once and she'll remember it. The details she can recall are amazing.

This post was prompted by the notes in "What to Expect: The Toddler Years" According to the book, a 2.5 year-old child should be able to:

-Identify 1 picture by naming
-Identify 4 pictures by pointing
-Use 2 or 3 words together

So, when I have a child who has the following conversation, I tend to think she's exceptional:
A: "Where's P-Marc?"
M: "He's not playing tonight."
A: "Yeah, he hurt his head. Long time."
(For those of you unaware, the Wild's Pierre-Marc Bouchard, aka P-Marc, has been out of commission dealing with a concussion. Anne has been paying attention.)

or

"Sambo is crying. He's upset."

"These are my babies. They're brothers. They're sleeping."

"My tummy likes French toast!"

"That's not your seat. That's Daddy's seat." (spoken every time I drive anywhere)

"Sambo is crying. Please come get him!" (spoken/cried from her room one early morning)

And she randomly said "Orangutan" last night...took me a minute to decipher that one!

We love you, Anne. Use that giant brain to do some good in the world!

Anne's here, too

She just is never still enough to get a picture of. We took a short video this evening; you can see Anne's current attitude toward her brother and life in general...she's lying in bed debating which book to read and then snaps at the baby for touching her book. She proceeds to hide the book by her pillow after that. And while I have no witnesses to back me up, I'll tell you that it was HER idea to put him in the bed. She asked me to, I swear! I stopped the camera just before she yanked her quilt out of Sammy's hands and screeched "Let go-o-o-o-o-o-o!"

Yay for 2 kids :)

Tomorrow I'll make amends by writing a braggy post about her emerging spelling/reading skills. Love you, Anne-Pan!

Yes, but how does it taste?

Sam can hold and play with toys a bit now, so that means everything goes in his mouth. It also means he has the Baby Death Grip, which is often applied to my hair.

Mmmm...stacking rings. Click to enlarge and see all his spit-up spots on his clothes and sheets. He's like a really adorable leaky faucet.
Hmmm...baby dolls, huh? I guess they'll have to do!
I'm gonna get it, just a little bit further
Meh, I'll eat this dress instead. Can somebody get a brother a truck or something? Hockey stick? Airplane? Any kind of boy toy?