It's Over!

Hurricane Season 2009 ends today and we had:

0 hurricanes
0 named storms
0 watches
0 warnings
0 evacuation orders

hooray! Now to move on to that whirlwind called Chrismtas-time!

Caleb asked for days for me to bring out "the stable". He took to heart my stern warnings about dropping the pieces on the floor and so far we have only one leg broken off of the sheep, that's sort of a record for us!


Annalise with the famed 9-foot-tall tree.
And by the way, this picture is not backwards, the ornament is :)

Happy End of Hurricane Season and Merry Christmas!

White Christmas?

Wondering if you'll have a white Christmas? The NOAA put out this prediction map recently:

Caleb is really excited about spending Christmas in Ohio and snow is not the least of the things he's excited about! Based on the predictions, I'm not sure he'll be building the snowman he's been imagining:

Well it's a much better chance than in Miami!

We are a little chilly today thanks to a cold front and it made me think of how living down here kind of makes me romanticize cold weather. I know that it's not really that much fun to be out in the bitter cold...but constant heat makes it seem oddly appealing!

Talking Turkey

Caleb is very excited about our Thanksgiving turkey. On the morning we went to purchase it, he announced, "I know A LOT about turkeys!"

"You do?" I replied, "What do you know about turkeys?"

"I know they have great big wings -as big as our house!- and that people make clothes out of their wings. And that you can make PAPER out of them!"

Really, wow, well lately, Caleb makes up a lot of facts! He is a trivia machine...so long as you don't mind them being completely fabricated! He also makes up Bible verses, his favorite to quote? "Mommy, the Bible says, "Parents should do whatever their kids want." Hmmm, we have got to teach this kid how to read!

Dog Theology

Rob always says that Mako reminds him of how the Bible says that Satan is on the watch to see how he can take advantage of us. Mako at least, knows that Annalise is the person to sit next to at dinner! (Actually he usually is put away during dinner, but sometimes he'll be really quiet and we'll forget.) She'll act all bothered that he's begging for food and then without warning toss him whatever she was eating!

Thanksgiving in Miami

Thanksgiving has kind of snuck up on me. Is snuck a word? I know sneaked isn't. I realized it's next week and I have no personal desire for turkey. Rob does though. I made a list of all the things we like to have for Thanksgiving dinner and besides the turkey and the pumpkin pie, there were SEVEN side dishes! That's just way too many. Sure we could invite friends over, but I do not feel up to hosting a party either. I think we will still have all seven side dishes...just not on one day at one meal.

Other than eating, we plan to get out the 9-foot-tall Christmas tree, Caleb is so unspeakably excited about Christmas this year. Besides talking about the gifts he will receive, he has continually made gifts for other people or wrapped up toys for Annalise for days. Rob asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and he said, "I want whatever you want to give me!"

I am also considering venturing out on Black Friday. I have never shopped on the day after Thanksgiving. I definitely don't plan to go anywhere at 5am! But I may go out to see if I can get some of the Christmas shopping done.

My parents sent Annalise and Caleb Thanksgiving cards. This mouse was on Annalise's:

I asked her, "What is this?"
"Mouse!" She answered.
"And what is the mouse holding?"
She smiled, "A co-co-nuh!"
Happy Thanksgiving from Miami!

Garden-y Things

And I was impressed with one bloom!




One day last year, our neighbor was out working in his garden and pulled up a spindly piece of ornamental ginger. He tossed it out to the side and Caleb picked it up. He told Caleb he could have it, so we planted it and it took off. Our plant bloomed this week:

It's a very fragrant bloom, but it wilted quickly. Although this is not the kind of ginger you can eat, it's roots look all knotty like that kind.

And we just had a big batch of queen caterpillars in the front garden. I sent 3 to school with my neighbor's little girl and one picked the pentas to "J" in, so we have a wild chrysalis to watch.

Thorn Bug!

This morning I climbed into the van to snap the kids in and felt a prick on my back! Ouch, like someone stuck me with a needle. I brushed my hand across my back and felt something pokey, but the 2nd time I felt for it, it was gone. Then as I was getting into my seat, I saw this on the floor of the van:

It's a thorn bug (aptly named, don't you think!).

Here is a better picture from a story in the Miami Herald. It is credited to our local entomologist, who I email when I can't id a bug:


It seems they aren't poisonous, but are common in South Florida (I'd never seen one before!).

45 in People Years

Today is Mako's 6th birthday (observed)! We don't actually know when Mako was born, just about how old he was when he became ours. I picked November 12 for his birthday and it works pretty good with the rest of our birthdays.

I was curious as to just how old our pet is getting and figured, if there is an online calculator that can tell you how many seconds old you are, there must be a dog to human age calculator...and there is! In fact there's more than one, but this one showed Mako to be 45 years old.

And a senior dog too! Actually he's fortunate to be a mixed breed because the two breeds we assume he's most made up of (German Shepherd and Rotweiller) age even older than that!

By the way, Rob is in 3 of these picture and each time his head is cut out - that was not intentional!

Posing - doesn't Mako's ear look like Annalise's mustache?

A portrait drawn by Caleb - the lines come out of his mouth are his barks directed to our neighbors incredibly tiny dog. My favorite part is Mako's curly tail!

The birthday song! His "cake" was Frosty Freezer Pie. Well a little under half of Frosty Freezer Pie! (Raspberry flavor)

Rob and I laughed so hard I was crying when we saw this picture! He always plays a little rough with Rob!

Present time!

"Just what I needed!"

Pediatrician

I'm so glad our kids have close birthdays. I don't like going to the pediatrician anyway, so I was very happy to schedule their check ups together so we could make one trip. Today started out last night when Caleb declared, "I don't want any shots!" ok, who does? But this kid should have a relatively high pain tolerance level, afterall he (accidentally) bites his tongue hard enough to bleed at least once a week.

He must have dreamed about it because the first thing he mentioned and all he could talk about during breakfast was how bad he didn't want any shots, how he wouldn't go to the doctor, and could we please reschedule the appointment until after Easter (???).

But we did get him in the car. The first thing was that our pediatrician moved his office, so we went to the old place, read the sign and went off to find the new place. Then we got settled into the waiting room just as the receptionist announced we were in the sick waiting room. We went to the well waiting room and the a father sitting there with us struck up a conversation with, "Who did you guys vote for in the last election?"

Rob answered his questions vaguely, but it turned out that we disagreed with this guy in basically every way possible!

They called us back and weighed and measured the kids - which was pretty funny, since Caleb went first, Annalise was extremely excited to be weighed and measured! She especially enjoyed standing on the scale :) The same went for their physical exam, Annalise kept patting her chest saying, "My turn!"

They were having a rolicking good time when the nurse breezed in with all the shots - they each had 4 - and after all the pre-tears and protesting, Caleb bravely sat for the shots, cried hard during them, but immediately dried up afterward and declared, "It only hurt for a minute!".

When we left he said, "I had a very good time!"

At bedtime he chooses something he is thankful for and he prays a short prayer thanking God for it - usually it is "Everything in the world!", but tonight it was the doctor, he prayed:

Dear God, Thank you for the doctor and please keep the doctor safe and help her to make good decisions and when its time for her to give kids the shot, put your hands over them so she can't give them a shot and Amen!

Funny Things Annalise is Saying These Days

When I can understand what she is saying, Annalise says a lot of funny things. Part of it, I am sure, is that she has such a bitsy kid accent right now. So if you can imagine that sort of voice, imagine her saying:

"Happy Birt-day You, Mama!" (me) "Thank you, Annalise!" (her) "You weh-coom, Mama!"
(BTW, EVERYTHING she says ends with Mama these days!)
She notices every police car and school bus on the road, so when we were passed by a Pepsi truck the other day she shouted out, "Coke School Bus, Mama!"
"My Daddy!" - what she suddenly has started calling Rob.
"I go too!" - no matter where anyone is going, even if it's just to the garage to put the laundry in the dryer...
Mako has progressed from "Nay-no" to "Nung-o"
but Caleb is still "Cay-cay"
Every plane in the sky is "Paw-paw's airplane!"
And her own name is now "Ah-la-lee"...or something like that. I guess we picked a hard name to say for a little kid!

Persimmon

I'm a sucker for seasonal fruit. Being introduced the honeydew melons when they taste like something other than pale green styrofoam opened my palate to trying just about anything - provided it's "at season's peak".

I was lured in by this week's Publix ad: Georgia Grown Fuyu Persimmons - A Sweet Seasonal Treat only available during the fall months.

This fruit was especially curious to me because when I was a kid, there was a persimmon tree at my great Aunt Net's house and the trick was to get someone to bite into one and watch their stunned reaction to how sour it was. Sweet persimmon? I had to give it a try!

Note - you know you're eating something unusual when the instructions for consuming have to be listed on the fruit.

So here is my reaction - it wasn't terribly sweet, but it wasn't sour at all. The taste was actually pretty bland. I didn't think "Eat like an Apple" was a good direction because the skin was too tough to "Eat like an Apple", so maybe "Eat like a Peeled Apple". I thought the taste was more vegetably then fruity. On the whole, not bad, but not something I expect to crave.

Wordless Wednesday

Annalise's First Birthday Party

Annalise did not turn one, but she did have her very first ever birthday party last week :) Her theme was a Garden Party.

We had a morning party with a brunch. Here is Annalise getting a head start. Our brunch menu was Egg and Cheese Strata, Fruit Salad, Sweet Potato Biscuits, and Regular Biscuits. The Sweet Potato Biscuits were a huge hit - a random internet find.

Here's the butterfly cupcake I copied from Martha Stewart. I didn't get a picture of the craft we made - paper plate bees.

A whole flock of butterflies.

The grand moment!

The aftermath!

As a party favor our guest got to plant a flower to take home. I took cuttings from my pentas a couple of weeks ago and set them in water to start roots.

Rob and I gave Annalise this stroller, the baby came from Grandpa and Grandma - great combo (unplanned) and a big hit with Annalise!

Caleb gave her this set of farm animals - I told him he could pick out what he wanted to get her and before we even got to the store, this is what he decided on. I like shopping with someone who already has their mind made up!