mama’s sewing circus

I’ve been singing Steve Martin’s King Tut since I was 3 and only realized last week that it was written in response to the popularity of King Tut’s 1970s world tour. Head smack!

Last week was ski week, so I took the week off to hang out with Will.
I’ve been waiting patiently for my kids to be old enough to enjoy the local museums. (Adults find my enthusiasm excessive) So, I was all too thrilled to drag Will all over the bay area. I seemed like he had fun, too.

First stop was the Exploratorium. While this is technically appropriate for 3 and up, since our trip requires an hour drive each way, I think it was probably prudent to have waited until I just had a 5 year old in tow. Even still, we only made it through 3/4 of the exhibits before petering out.

Practicing our chorus line.

Beam me up.

Next stop was Anthropologie. Will found the perfect hat.

“Go sit on that bench and look like you are waiting patiently for your bus”

He’ll stick anything in his nose.

Battling to the death at the toy store.

… I unfortunately missed the gasping for air, tongue extended death sequence at the end of the battle.

Day two, we checked out King Tut. In preparation, I made Will watch videos of Steve Martin singing King Tut. Will claims to have found the exhibit interesting, but much of what I found incredible was lost on him. Well, duh. 19 seems unfathomably old to him, and 9 is twice his age, so he didn’t appreciate just how young the guy was when he became ruler. My attempt to explain how old these artifacts were – 3000 years! and some as old at 7000 years! – was just as successful. “Was Super Grandpa alive, then? Dinosaurs?” Tell the kid that this guy had a hair lip, club foot and degenerative bone disease making him look a little like a monster – AWESOME! So that was something.

Doing the King Tut.

Turns out, Amish quilts are just as exciting as 3000 year old mummies.

Will’s favorite quilt. (Hastily snapped as the guard approached.)

Mommy’s favorite quilt.

We capped the day off with a lesson in Gelato eating. It may be warmer than ice cream, but the brain freeze is just as painful.

Day three we headed down to Chabot Space and Science Museum to kick the tiles on some spaceships. This place puts NASA to shame. Apparently we’ve learned a lot since I was last educated about our solar system. Did you know that none of the four Gas Giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus) have a solid core? And poor Pluto is smaller than our moon? We live on a rocky midget.

A space suit.

Will is too small for space. Or at least this space suit.

Obligatory press shot outside the pod.

Day four, Big Tow made an appearance in his tow truck at the preschool. Will got to ride to and from school in the passenger seat. I didn’t know the kid could smile so big! (No photos on my phone, sorry.)

So that the rest of the family felt better about our week of leisure, over the weekend we hit up the Lego play land in San Anselmo. 600 sqr feet of sorted Legos. Every Lego product ever conceived is accounted for. Boxes upon boxes of pulleys, motors, barbie castle blocks, wheels, train tracks, dinosaur parts, … You name it, they had it. Just opening the door brought back traumatic memories of my brother pummeling me for having touched his motorized Lego dune buggy, and god forbid, using his race car as a Barbie transporter. (What good was creating it if he wasn’t going to let anyone drive it?) My family, all sans traumatic Lego issues, dove right in.

Will’s creation.

Sylvie’s creation.

Dad’s creation.

This week, Sylvie and I went to get her eyes checked out. Apparently, the muscles that control the tracking of our eyes are not fully developed until about 3 years old. So, until that point, it is okay if your child occasionally looks cross-eyed. At 3, the pediatrician checks the muscle development to confirm the eyes have developed at an equal speed. Apparently those big blue eyes of Sylvie’s were difficult to call, so off to the Ophthalmologist we went. The short story is it was a long 3 hour exam, and her eyes are fine.

Smiling for the camera.

An initial evaluation with a pediatric ophthalmologist takes about 3 hours. The battery of tests include the run of the mill identification of progressively smaller and smaller objects (letters for older kids), focus tests – “here watch this while I wave this object in your face”, ability to make out 3-d objects, and whatever they do when your eyes are dilated (I made the resident nervous by asking him to explain so ended up without an explanation). Having now witnessed 4 pediatric eye exams (3 of those completed by nurses), I was quite impressed at how quickly the actual ophthalmologist gauged Sylvie’s verbal skills and temperament and was able to adapt her examination on the fly based on those cues. Note to pediatric nurses: you shouldn’t slap an eye patch on anyone under 4 and then quiz them on the alphabet from across the room. Not unless you are testing their stink-eye reflexes. (Which apparently are advanced in Sylvie.)

Checking stereo vision. Many kids can’t see 3D until 4 or 5 years of age. Someone should inform Pixar.

It takes 45 minutes + a burrito break for eyes to dilate fully. That burrito just looks big because she is so small.

All that work was exhausting.

We’ve had giant heaping bags of spinach every week this past month and two weeks of arugula from our CSA which have outworn their welcome on our Friday pizzas. In an effort to work through all those greens, we’ve been on a salad kick. Really, disappointed with the prospect of a raw spinach salad, I discovered the wonders of candied walnuts which don’t go so well with wilted spinach, but oh my, toss them on the greens of choice with a little citrus or pear or pluot and I’ve found a new addiction! (For the unenlightened: toast a cup of walnuts under the broiler until they turn slightly golden and aromatic WHILE you bring 1/2 c of sugar to a boil on the stove- it should be just amber. Toss the nuts plus 1/2 tsp salt in the molten sugar. Voila!) The best thing is that my kids haven’t figured out these are candy. More for me!

In other foodie news, when I traveled to India for the first time several years ago, I discovered real Indian food. Sure, I’d had the americanized version in the states many times, but by comparison, our imitation is more a parody of the real thing. Theirs was incredible! Needless to say, I ate all that I could on that trip and resolved to learn how to make it myself. Unfortunately, my husband is not a fan and my children have gringo palates (Sylvie complained about the heat of her barbecue sauce, yesterday), so I haven’t made much progress. Until today.

I came home from work to find *The Vegetarian Epicure* by Anna Thomas on my doorstep. (Thanks, Mom!) Paging through it I found that Baco-bits are vegetarian and ran across a recipe for dal. Figuring if any American had figured out how to replicate real Indian dal, it would probably be that ole hippie, Anna, I attempted her recipe, tonight, with channa dal I had sitting around. The verdict: with a few tweaks, it passes.

Dal (revised to taste more like the real dal)
1.5 c moong or urad or channa dal or yellow split peas
4 c water
1 tsp sat
Wash the dal then bring the dal + water + salt to a boil. Stir often and cook until the dal becomes soft. You may need to add more water depending on the freshness of your dal.

3 Tbs butter or ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 inch cinnamon stick
1 tsp cayenne (it isn’t authentic unless you sniffle at first bite)
1/4 tsp ground ginger (1 knuckle grated fresh is best!)
1/4 tsp ground coriander (or 1/2 tsp coriander seed)
1/2 tsp mustard seed
6 whole cloves
Heat the butter/ghee until it bubbles. Add the spices and toast for a few minutes until aromatic. Add this mixture to your dal. At this point add a cup or so more of water if your dal has cooked dry. Simmer until you have a fairly thick soup. The more you simmer, the deeper the flavors. If you want to make this taste more like what you’d find in Delhi? Prepare this over your charcoal grill. Serve with warm roti/chipati.

Parody of Timbaland’s song, just in time for President’s day.

I’ve lived through a handful of historically significant moments. The first of those that I remember was the Challenger explosion. My 4th grade class was excitedly following the launch as one of our classmate’s father worked at NASA, and well, how cool was it that there was a teacher on board who would be broadcasting her experiences from the shuttle? So, the morning of the shuttle explosion, we gathered around the TV to watch the launch only to have it spoil our day. I remember being too sad to eat lunch. Amateur video of the explosion:

Long ago I believe I posted about the CSA we belonged to. After a year hiatus, we have re-joined Eatwell Farm’s CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is basically an arrangement where farms or a collection of farms sell produce subscriptions directly to end consumers. It works out well for the farms as these subscriptions keep money flowing throw the farm throughout the year despite the crop yield, and for the consumers it means incredibly fresh vegetables and good karma.

One of the more exciting things about CSAs for me is the exposure to new foods. It was through Eatwell that we years ago learned about green garlic (the first crop of young garlic which resembles green onions in shape and texture, but has a buttery garlic taste reminiscent of shallots) and fava beans. Our very first box contained both which we improvised into a shrimp/fava scampi. Today, we were introduced to romanesco and tatsoi. The former is a fractal looking broccoli and the latter is a peppery green.

Of course there are good years and bad years. The last year we subscribed, we amassed a cellar of potatoes and onions and were completely unable to keep up with the kale production in both our garden and our farm. That summer, the farm was hit with mediterranean fruit flies depriving us all the best fruits of summer (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant…). We ultimately canceled, up to our ears in potatoes. Thankfully, during our hiatus, the farm grew a bit and is now able to offer one of the best produce selections in the area. So, with as much produce as my kids consume at lunch these days, I decided we’d get back in the CSA.

Interested in finding a CSA near you? Check out LocalHarvest.org

Our box this week:
romanseco, carrots, tatsoi, kale/mustard greens, spinach, daikon radishes, cilantro, oranges, lemons, leeks, and 6 fresh eggs

What we’re eating:

• Tonight: tatsoi + pear + raspberry + smoked salmon salad – just wash and toss everything in a vinaigrette.
• Tomorrow: Spinach pizza; Green garlic pizza
• Saturday: breakfast of biscuits with spinach and egg scrambles; vietnamese sandwiches for dinner to use the cilantro/radishes/carrots
• Sunday: spinach dip + chips, apple+greens slaw and tofu dogs, beer/root beer
• Monday: Veggie Cobb Salad with fake-on, cheese, hard boiled eggs, romanesco, the remaining greens, green beans (+ capers and anchovies for the nicoise fans)
• Lunches for the brown-eyed pair: Leek and asparagus soup

I was home alone with the kids, today, so after a trip to REI/Target/a local thrift store to refresh the rain gear, a rain walk, some leaf races, a bath, and while sucking back hot chocolate, I gave the kids pedicures. Will insisted that I paint his nails a dusty rose color despite my insistence that he’d be teased by the big kids (second graders). Wouldn’t he prefer this silver? No, he doesn’t care what the older kids think. So, I proudly painted his toes and fingers. Later, after our trip to the grocery store, the kids ran to the dress ups chest to don their personas and I heard Will trying to convince Sylvie to let him wear the pink satin skirt so that *he* could wear it. “Sylvie, Angelina Ballerina doesn’t wear a skirt like that. Can I wear it? It goes better with my [pink feathered] shoes.” Yes, I love that gender appropriateness never enters into his mind, but I know this won’t last forever. So, I ask you, when is innocence lost?

Oh, and tonight, I remarked when checking Sylvie after a bathroom visit, “Oooh, Sylvie, that was big!” only to have Will run into the bathroom, “Let me see! How big was it mom? Show me with your hands! Was it this big? Bigger than this?”

My, it has been a long time, hasn’t it?

Truth be known, we’ve been the sickest ever this winter sampling each of Winter’s nasties. So, between flights of bedridden illness there was the obligatory frantic holiday shopping and crafting, booking of holiday trips, the attendance at holiday gatherings, avoidance of some due to flights of illness, then holidays and the taking of holiday trips… and I just never found time to check in.

Rather than boring you with what we’ve been up to, I figure I’ll start the year off with some learnings from 2009:
1. If you have to see the Nutcracker at Christmas, and you aren’t going to see your child or beloved family/friend, get tickets to the San Francisco Ballet. It is incredible.
2. The Madame du Cirque Scene in the Nutcracker is when all the three year olds in the audience exit to the hallways to run about.
3. Star Wars is not, as we parents believed, about spaceships and space. According to Will, it is about people and killing and …
4. 5 year olds don’t want guitars for Christmas. The fact that it was made by Santa doesn’t matter.
5. Santa’s giving your 5 year old a guitar for Christmas will make him appreciate the backpack, new markers, and fresh sets of Legos you bought him.
6. When booking your next trip to Disneyland, stay at the Howard Johnson across the street. The pirate themed waterpark attached to the hotel was our favorite Disney attraction.
7. You have to do New Years Eve at Disneyland once in your life. It sure beats standing around for 8 hours in single digits to watch a ball drop out of the sky.
8. Buy and cook fresh Dungenous crab for Christmas. Fresh, it is $4.99 a pound! At my house, we make the vegetarians boil those suckers alive.

What you miss by leaving Disneyland before the sun goes down:

Will rang in the new year missing a front tooth after knocking it lose in a freak rootbeer making accident. (We made rootbeer floats for Christmas Eve lunch.)

In other news, Santa brought me a ukulele to complete my hipster look. What a blast! The beauty of 4 strings is you can pretty quickly start plunking out identifiable tunes. I’m getting pretty decent at the classics like Leaving on a Jet Plane, She is Leaving Home (Beatles), Edelweiss, I’m so tired (Beatles), All of Me, Puff the Magic Dragon, Tonight You Belong to Me and Rainbow Connection. Still working on While My Ukulele Gently Weeps and Blackbird. I take requests… Maybe a tour in 2011?

When I’m not obsessively strumming, we’re training for the Napa Marathon on March 7th.

We’ll be tracking Santa this year, as usual, using NORAD’s site. Read about the amusing origins of NORAD’s involvement.

So there has in fact been sewing, crafting, running, cooking and interesting things going on in our lives. BUT, I’m not feeling up to sharing, as there has also been viruses galore.

Something that made me smile: