Olympic Celebration

Some of our fun friends came over for dinner last night. They happen to be Canadians. And the other fun friends who came thought it would be fun to bring a Canadian dessert in honor of said friends (and the Olympics, of course). This friend is a trained pastry chef, so I knew it would be a winner. If any of you are looking for a fun Canadian treat to munch while you watch the Olympics, try Nanaimo Bars! Yum, yum! Warning: the recipe does sound a bit involved--you may feel like a pastry chef as you make them!
And since we ate them after a heaping serving of vegetable & lentil curry over brown rice, I really didn't feel too bad about enjoying these little beauties!

You're toast!

Elodie and Xander are both pretty into cardboard swords these days. It started a few weeks ago when Xander's primary teacher gave him a CTR shield made of cardstock with some yarn attached to it. He didn't think a necklace shield was too cool, so he asked me to put a handle on it. And once I showed him my armor-making skills, the requests for new swords and shields have just kept coming. Because cardboard swords bend and break, you see. And Xander has no tolerance for a floppy sword. Or sometimes, you're at Aunt Melayna's and you both forgot your swords, so you both have to beg and beg to have new ones made right then and there. And gratefully, Aunt Melayna's a softie. When we were gone in Florida for 4 days, Xander came home with a new cardboard sword made by Uncle Milan. And, call me silly, but the fact that he had written "Ctr" on it made me feel much better about the sword fetish.

Daddy Daughter Date

After reading the article on becoming a more influential father in this month's Ensign, Aaron and I decided it was time to implement what we've intended on doing when our kids were "old enough"--one-on-one outings with Mom and Dad. Since it was Elodie's birthday this week, we figured that was a good reason for her to go first. So daddy and daughter went to Baskin Robbins last night. What little girl wouldn't choose such a pretty scoop of pink bubblegum ice cream? We had told her for months that she couldn't have gum until she was three, so she felt pretty grown up to finally be old enough for gum. Aaron said she absolutely loved it and thought it was so special to have real chunks of bubblegum in it. Which she of course swallowed, since it's mixed in with the ice cream. Aaron sampled it and found the rock-hard chunks of cheap bubblegum rather repulsive. But to a three-year-old, this made it quite a special night.
The night seemed a little less special when she woke up 3 different times, complaining of not feeling good the first time and then throwing up 3 times throughout the night. And yes, it was bright pink. She slept in until almost 9:00 this morning to make up for the lost sleep, and since she's awoken, she's felt fine and had a normal appetite. We're pretty sure it was the bubblegum. So this served as a great opportunity to teach her why swallowing gum is not the best idea. In fact, she told me this morning that maybe she's not old enough for gum yet. At least we'll be holding off on the pink bubblegum ice cream indefinitely.

You are what you eat

The year I was born, President Benson said this regarding physical health and the Word of Wisdom:

"To a great extent we are physically what we eat. Most of us are acquainted with some of the prohibitions, such as no tea, coffee, tobacco, or alcohol. What need additional emphasis are the positive aspects--the need for vegetables, fruits, and grains, particularly wheat. In most cases, the closer these can be, when eaten, to their natural state-- without overrefinement and processing--the healthier we will be."

"To a significant degree, we are an overfed and undernourished nation digging an early grave with our teeth, and lacking the energy that could be ours because we overindulge in junk foods. ... We need a generation of young people who, as Daniel, eat in a more healthy manner than to fare on the "king's meat"--and whose countenances show it (see Daniel 1)."

(My dad emailed me an article containing this quote and my dietician sister posted this picture on her blog today; they are both great examples of this principle! They make ME look like a junk food junkie! These are great reminders and they go so well together that I thought I'd pass them along!)

Elodie Marie is Now Three!

Elodie was so excited to turn three. All day, when I told her we were going somewhere, like to take Xander to music class or to go to the store or to walk to the park, she wanted to just go to the "Children's Nuseum." I found out a couple weeks ago that on the first Tuesday of every month, they have a free afternoon, and since her birthday fell on the first Tuesday, we decided to incorporate the Children's Museum into her birthday party since we've never been there before. Well, when we finally got there, it was packed (free fun = overcrowded) and Elodie was a bit overwhelmed, shall we say! She's kinda the slow-to-warm-up type. When she saw the dress-up dance studio, she wanted to try it out. But when it came to actually doing it, well, this was the result.

Before long, she warmed up and began clickity-clacketing around in the tap shoes, twirling the rainbow ribbons, and swishing the pink scarf.

Then she enjoyed a little stint as a clerk at Whole Foods, reshelving what the 20 other kids were steadily ransacking off of the shelves.

Then she joined Xander the train engineer for a few minutes before we had to get home to have the "real party" with dinner, cake, and family.

The long-requested princess cake made her appearance this year. Elodie tends to change her mind, and had gone through all of the princesses as she expressed her greatest birthday wish over the last couple of weeks. Before I added the food coloring to the frosting yesterday, I made her nail it down--a blue Cinderella or a beautiful pink princess. She went with pink. I made it Monday while she was in bed and didn't let her see it until after her birthday dinner of "noodles and sausage and cheese" (Pasta Bake).

She seemed to like it, I'd say! I had lots of fun creating it--it's so fun to have a little girl! It definitely took more work than last year's butterfly cake, so I am VERY glad that she changed her mind last minute last year from a princess cake to a butterfly cake. I had the time to enjoy doing it this year! I was remembering tonight that Dexter came home from the NICU last year the day after Elodie's birthday. It seems so long ago. Alas, I digress. After numerous attempts, Elodie finally blew out all THREE candles (one is hiding behind the cake). As I was tucking her in bed tonight, I asked her what some of the best parts of her birthday were. First, she said watching a princess movie with everybody. (After opening presents, she convinced everybody--Grandpa, Grandma, Melayna, Rachael, me, and Xander--to watch 20 minutes of Barbie Swan Lake with her. So this may have been listed first because it was the most recent thing she'd done.) The next favorite thing she listed? "The cake." Aw, thanks Elodie! How'd ya know I worked hard on that just for you?

All around, it was a full and fun third birthday. We love our spunky little Elodie Marie!

Sweet Melliflous Voices

One of my favorite sounds is overhearing Xander and Elodie playing when they don't realize I'm listening. This is a frequent occurence and I just love it. One conversation sounded like it was getting a bit heated, but when I came in to see what was wrong, they already had it worked out. Elodie informed me, "I'm not going to say 'beautiful.'" I reassured her that there was nothing wrong with that word, but she told me, "I'm going to say, 'cool.' That's a cool truck." Apparently Xander took issue with her when she described the passing truck as a "beautiful truck." This led to their heated debate about what words can be used to describe boy stuff. I guess it sunk in--I noticed that today, when Elodie got Xander to play "The Bag Game" as she dubbed it, although she called her pink flower bag "beautiful," she was careful to call Xander's bucket "handsome, handsome, handsome" as she handed it to him.

As Uncle Milan (AKA Brat Child) will attest, it's pretty fun to hear Elodie play the mom, too. She really seemed to relish the chance to discipline her doll Erika the other day. "Erika, I have to put hot pepper on your tongue!" Then Elodie turned to me, nodding her head, "she said S-T-U-..." Hmm, guess what had happened just that morning when Elodie shouted at Xander, "You're stupid and I don't like you!" Yowza, that girl knows how to use her words! Now we're working on word choice and tone of voice! She toned it down a bit later that day when she was mad at Xander again, "You are mean and selfish!" On the bright side, at least she didn't say S-T-U again. And at least she had said "don't like" rather than "hate." And at least she's getting plenty of chances to learn the words to great songs like the Builder song "to speak with kindness in my home," and "Jesus said love everyone, treat them kindly, too," and "I'm trying to be like Jesus, I'm following in His ways."

Speaking of Elodie singing, she just loves to sing her own made up songs. They go on and on, occasionally incorporating phrases from "real" songs, but mostly, they're just her ramblings. Tonight, she whipped out a new one at family prayer. She was saying the prayer, and in the middle, she just started to sing it like one of her Elodie originals. "I'm so, so, so graaaatefullll that I have a mooom and a daaaad!" Oh, my little Elodie! What's not to love?

Qu Eenglix Laangwij

Ever sins Zander storted skwixeeng leterz tuugeqer intuu werds a fyuu munqs ugoo, II'v bin qeenkeeng qat Eenglix speleeng needz a cumpleet ooverhol. Az Zander haz triid tuu riit werdz funetiklee, I'v nootist qat hee'z on tuu sumqeeng.

Ferst uv ol, wee ol noo qat qu speleeng ov vauwul saundz iz unprudiktubel. I hav u suluuxun! Wen qaar iz just wun vauwul, it maaks qu xoort vauwul saund qat wee ol noo and luv. Dubel vauwels wil nau maak qu long vauwul saund.

Sins "c" iz tootulee reedundunt with its sumtiimz [s] sumtiimz [k] nonsens, "c" wil nau maak qu saund foormerlee maad bii "ch." Cildren evereewaar wil fiind it for simpler. "G" wil noo longer maak the saund olredee taaken kaar uv bii "j." Similerlee, "s" wil not be ulaud to saa [z]. And "q" iz raqer yuusless sins it kan kwiklee bee reeplaast. "Q" will nau maak qu saund preeveeuslee maad bii "th." "X" kan eezilee bee kuverd bii "ks," "gz," and "z," soo "x" wil reeplaas "sh." Wee wil need to canj qu alfubet song, tuu. Konsununts wil bee called bii qaar saund folood bii [ee]. Foor egzampul, wen yuu see "q," yuu xud kol it "thee" (riten in oold Eenglix). Qees caanjus maa taak sum geteeng yuust tuu, but kidz and fooreners uliik xud upreexeeaat it in qu long run!