Winter garden, food stuff, kid stuff

A rare photo of me with the kids.
The chard that won't die. I thought we pulled up all the veggies in August, but this chard just never dies. It is gigantic! I think it is pretty, so I'm just going to keep watching it and see what it does.
We also still have pumpkins growing. They are barely surviving, but Athena still enjoys checking on them and I like looking at them.
Chris made Energy cookies from Vive Le Vegan. He tweaked the recipe quite a bit, but they turned out well. I like to think of them as energy bars, and then you won't be disappointed. If you are expecting a cookie, then it most likely will be a let down.
I'm still on a waffle kick and made some killer blueberry ones on Saturday. I like to use a combo of soy and hemp milk because otherwise I can't palate the hemp milk at all! Mmm.
Rowan can actually ride this little bike now, he looks like such a big boy.
Athena made a "feast" for her "kids" last night. She really goes all out.
Athena made herself a comfy bed out of her dress up clothes bench/box. Her baby had it's own little spot too, complete with pillow. A good little cosleeper.
Athena has been loving to play with this barn that was actually for Rowan. She plays with it everyday and insists that the fence pieces go vertically. It works but is driving me crazy because I can't think outside of my little box.

Winter Nights

Tonight was a "Winter Nights" celebration at my sister's house. All my cousins on my mom's side of the family attended (3) so there were 5 of us in all. It was so much fun. Winter nights started as "summer nights" many years ago. It was just a time to hang with the cousins, drink, eat, and laugh a lot. Tonight was no different. My sister made us all pasta and garlic bread, plus there was plenty of junk to snack on like Newman-O's, redvines, and tofutti cuties. I always have so much fun with them, wish we hung out more often. We usually crank call family members and dare each other to do it to our grandma, I don't think anyone actually has called grandma, but our moms get plenty of calls. No kids or significant others are welcome.
I had a glass of wine and on the way home there was a sobriety check point, but on the other side of the street. I'm sure I would have been fine as I didn't drive for a few hours after the drink, but it still freaked me out for a second. Then I just laughed and called my sister to tell her about it.
When I got home, Rowan was screaming. He was tired and Chris had run out of milk for him. I felt bad, but I guess he was only really upset for 10 minutes. Chris was walking him around in the ergo and Athena was reading books on the couch. He went right to sleep once he had mom. Anyway, now I know I'll need to leave more milk for him next time I leave him for that long! Hope everyone else had a fun Saturday night!
We also tried to play this American Idol Karaoke game, but my sister's CD player wasn't working and the game was kind of boring so we cheated and skipped ahead to the singing part without the CD.

Oops

Rowan served up his own breakfast while I was busy making waffles this morning. I actually thought the bowl was out of his reach and that Athena was just feeding him some O's. He loved it.

Holiday Update

Athena threw up 3 more times Christmas eve (throughout the night), but we didn't let it ruin our day. It meant we had to miss our family party which I was very sad about, but Athena was too sick and so we tried to cheer her up at home. Here she is above dressed in her new kitty slippers, with her new "ergo", diaper bag, and doll stuff all in her color, PINK! She was loving it.
She also got a new pink bike because her purple one was getting too small. We are going to save it for Ro.
Rowan felt left out of all the bike giving, and so we got out the radio flyer push bike and Athena's old helmet for him to try. He thought he was pretty cool.
And just because Athena was puking, didn't mean that Chris and I couldn't enjoy a nice breakfast on Christmas. I made pumpkin chocolate chip waffles (from VwAV) and they were fantastic. It was my first time making waffles, other than a failed attempt in college, and I was so pleased with the results. And yes, they are farm animal shapes, a barn, pig, rooster, and cow, all rescues and living in a farm sanctuary.

And keeping with that theme, here is a picture of Rowan's own little farm sanctuary that Santa brought. He loves to play with the fence pieces the most.
I really hope Athena is well tomorrow, she has only eaten a bit of rice in the past 2 days and has almost no energy. She is hanging in there and has hardly complained at all. My heart aches to see her so sick, but I know she will get through it. It just sucks when you can't do much to make your kids feel better. So please send healthy healing vibes our way. We need it after the week we have had. On the plus side, it forced us to catch up on our laundry so yay for that. Now if I can just get the rest of my house in order. The bedrooms are neat and tidy, but the rest is disastrous. Who thought we could cram as much crap into this little 800 square foot house as we have. We used to be so good, but I really think we are outgrowing this place.

Hate Mail

Dear Stomach Flu,

I hate you. Why are you trying to ruin my poor little girl's Christmas? I don't appreciate it! Please go away, and don't come back.

Sincerely,
The Sick girl's momma on Christmas Eve

Crazy Stuff

It has been a super crazy week with lots of illness around here. Chris got the stomach flu Monday night and was home sick all day Tuesday. I tried to keep the kids out of his hair and spend 2 1/2 hours at the Dr.'s office that night, only to be told what I already knew. I was just so tired of being a human snot rag for Rowan. He has been sick for so long but the doc said it all sounded viral and that his ears were a little red but not raging with infection. Athena had one of the biggest public tantrums ever, it was insane and I should have left the office then, before I knew we had another hour and a half to see the doc. Anyway, it was just horrible (and it was started because I was getting all germphobic about being in the dr.'s office and I didn't want her playing with the toys and then eating so I kept making her wash her hands but I got tired of her eating then playing so I said no more playing, just reading books and that is when I pushed her over the edge) and probably why the next thing followed which was that I thought Tues. night I was getting the flu. All day Wednesday it continued, but I didn't throw up. Then Wednesday night, I realized I was feeling awful, and had a sore spot on my nursing anatomy. That is when I put 2 and 2 together and a realized I had mastitis. It is a horrible breast infection that feels like you have the flu, chills, fever and all, plus it hurts to nurse your baby, but you have to nurse your baby to get over it! Anyway, it was a pretty bad infection but I rested all day Thursday (Chris took off work) and my fever broke throughout the night in lovely bursts of sweat that soaked my t-shirts. I've never welcomed sweat as much as the times I've had mastitis because I always know I am getting over it when it comes to that. So, that is why I haven't posted in a week. Here is what we were doing when we weren't sick.

Athena helped make vegan sugar cookies. I wasn't feeling very good so I used a mix where you just add the earth balance and some soy milk. I decided not to use artificial colors this year so while they aren't beautiful, we definitely enjoyed the process and the final product didn't taste bad, plus it made me not feel as guilty for letting her eat crap loads of candy at the ginger bread house decorating party.

We went to a holiday/birthday party which gave me another excuse to get Rowan dressed up. I LOVE this picture of him!
I made some really easy and good pancakes from How it All Vegan. They were the "Classic Pancakes" with added blueberries and carob chips.
We mailed out holiday cards to as many people as we could and then emailed the rest because we ran out of time and stamps and cards. If you didn't get one it is probably in the mail, or I didn't have your address, or I ran out of cards before I looked up your address because you weren't on our 2006 card list. Please don't take it personally! And if you are really sad about it you could always send me your address, just to be sure your on the list for next year!

Rowan is 9 months

Look how much he has grown! This was on his birthday.

Ro turned 9 months yesterday so I will tell you 9 things about him.
1. He just got his 6th tooth.
2. He is a FAST crawler.
3. He loves to stand up and can do so without holding on for a few seconds now.
4. He is very easy to get to smile and laugh. Just make a face or say boo a few times.
5. He is starting to like food but has a very strong gag reflex. He wants to eat real food but can't really chew it enough not to gag. We keep trying though since he is very demanding. He puts EVERYTHING in his mouth.
6. He says "Hi Da" when Chris gets home from work, well it is more like "Hah, Dah, dah, dah". We are pretty sure he says hi and dad though I'll admit I can't say for certain.
7. He waves bye bye to Athena when we drop her off at school.
8. He loves to dance and sing.
9. He is the most adorable, curious, loving little boy I know.

He has also not slept very well for about, um, 9 days or so. Now that the tooth is through and the cough is hopefully subsiding, we should return to our regular nights, I sure hope so because veganmomma is tired.

Birthdays

We went to my nephews' 2nd and 7th birthday party this weekend in the OC. The kids had a great time. Athena loved the camera her big cousin got and waited patiently for a turn with it. (She kept saying, "Mommy, I really like that camera.") She loves visiting her cousins. I always call them her "boy cousins" but she has a boy cousin in town too so I don't know why I keep saying that. Maybe because there are so many of them (3 boys). It is funny whenever we visit them that Athena practically blends into the background whereas in my circle of friends here she can sometimes be a little, um, attention grabbing. I don't know what it is but compared to her cousins there she is pretty mellow. They are always commenting on how mellow she is. It is weird, because I don't usually see her that way. It is funny too because her cousin Ethan is the closest in age to her at 4.5 and they always end up playing together by the end of the day. At first, they are both a bit shy. I bet if we saw them more often it wouldn't be that way. I wish they lived closer, it is fun having cousins around, we are so lucky to be able to see some of her cousins practically every week. I'd like it if we could hang out with all of her cousins more often.

We all went to native foods for dinner and it was so good. Athena loved her kids meal which consisted of kids cup of native tea, veggie chicken nuggets, brown rice, cucumbers and carrots with vegan ranch, and a slice of mango. Plus an order of native fries to share.

Charile Brown Xmas

We weren't going to get a tree because we figured this would happen (Rowan pulling it over). Athena seemed really disappointed though, especially since her cousin's house had a tree over the weekend that she couldn't get enough of. I decided we'd get a small one and let her pick it out. It is the funniest tree ever! Short and round. The guy at the lot said he didn't think anyone would buy it and that it had been there for awhile. Athena was set on it. There were 4 to choose from in our size range but she only had eyes for one. It is perfect.

The Baby Wearer/Bye-Bye

Athena saw an old picture of herself carrying a doll in a little mock snugli carrier today. We no longer have the carrier and she really was upset by that.
Tonight in the bath she said, "Yeah, I think I need another one of those baby carriers. The one like the ergo." I said, "Well, we gave that one away because you already have enough carriers." Then she responded, "I don't really have enough, just one Maya Wrap and one sling. I don't have ANY like the ergo."

It cracked me up because she is just as much of a collector as me. Anyway, I just thought it was cute.

Oh, and Rowan can wave bye bye now, I am a very proud mama. Athena didn't wave goodbye until she was 11 months old. She was too cool for it. I remember being at the park playgroup and saying to the other moms, "yeah, she doesn't wave yet," and she looked right at me with an annoyed look on her face and waved. She was like, "Duh mom, FINE, OK, I'LL WAVE".

Owie

Rowan face planted on the wood floors this afternoon. His sister was involved but not to blame for the incident. Poor baby. Oh, he is totally fine though, I promise and the lip is hardly swollen anymore. And as you can tell from the pictures, he recovered very quickly!

Pictures

I took the kids to JC Penney's for portraits today. A family friend works there now so she gave us an extra long session. Let me just start by saying if you think this sounds fun, you'd be very wrong. Ok, well the cute pictures of my kids made it worthwhile, but it was downright exhausting. Ro was being so very curious and Mr. "smiles all the time", wasn't really feeling it. Surprisingly the photographer captured some pretty awesome shots. My sister in law told me it only gets worse since she has a walking toddler now (more like running from what I heard). Anyway, it was fun and exhausting, but so much more fun when I just had one child. We did it though, and I am glad. I'll share photos when I have them but I did snap a few of my kids myself today.

Smart Baby

For the past 2 nights, Rowan hasn't been sleeping well. He's been up every 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes more or less. It was starting to take its toll on me and tonight when he got fussy around 7 I told Chris to start putting him to bed for a change. We hadn't talked about this at all or made a plan, but I think Chris knew from my tone that I wasn't kidding around! I just said, go play some music, turn out the light and get him to sleep. He was pretty quiet for a few minutes and then fussed for awhile. After about 10 minutes, I went in and nursed him to sleep. Now he's been sleeping 2 and 1/2 hours which is more like him! I can't really complain, he has been so much kinder to me in the sleep department than his sis, but still I was used to him actually sleeping a few hours at a time. Anyway, I say he is a smart baby because it seems he must have known something was up, like maybe his all night nursing pass was going to be revoked or something. Now he is sleeping a nice stretch, so I guess I won't revoke his privileges. Smart baby, I tell you. And now I'm thinking this could be our new bed time routine, Chris gets him all tired and cozy in the bed and I just go in and snuggle/nurse for a few minutes. Sounds good to me. Let's hope he has a better night ALL night.

Funny stuff

I've seen this a couple places, decided to play too!

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & first car) – Puff Honda
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream/favorite cookie) - Cookie dough Chocolate Chip
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) – Scun
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Green Dog
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name) Cunsa
6. SUPERHERO NAME: (The + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) - The Black Chai
7. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) – Lawrence Clifford
8. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) – Dempsey Denver
9. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, favorite flower) – Summer Orchid
10. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) –Watermelon Jeanie
11. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) – Toast Pine
12. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) - The Knitting Thunderstorm Tour
13. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) – Faye La Mesa
14. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) – Elizabeth Allen

Vegan Latkes

I've always wanted to make these. Let me know if you try them since you may get to it before me...

Vegan Latkes from (veg kitchen)

Makes about 3 dozen

You can find recipes for traditional latkes, in which the grated potato is held together with eggs, almost anywhere, but a vegan version is harder to come by. Here, the latkes are held together with something just as sticky as eggs — oatmeal! It works splendidly. I’ve also added a carrot for extra color.

• 2/3 cup quick-cooking oats (oatmeal)
• 6 large potatoes, peeled and finely grated
• 1 medium carrot, grated
• 1 medium onion, finely grated
• 1/2 cup matzo meal
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Light vegetable oil for frying
• Applesauce

In a heatproof bowl, combine the oats with 1 1/3 cup boiling water. Stir and set aside while preparing the other ingredients.

Combine the grated potato, carrot, and onion, and matzo meal in a mixing bowl. Stir in the oatmeal, then season with salt and pepper.

Heat just enough oil to coat the bottom of a large, nonstick skillet or griddle. Drop enough potato batter to form 2 1/2– to 3–inch pancakes. Fry on both sides over medium-high heat until golden brown and crisp.

Drain briefly on paper towels and place in a covered container to keep warm until serving. Serve warm with applesauce.

Contest entry

I'm entering what I believe is my first contest. My friend Lorien has been knitting away and has opened an etsy store. Go check out her hand crafted goods, you won't be disappointed!