I started work yesterday and although I am not at full time yet I have deadlines and it seems I’ll work the majority of my hours between mon-weds this week. Go figure. Every week is different so its a bit of a juggle since Jackie is only part time too. Not always the same of course. Have I mentioned how excited I am about preschool in the fall?

Its actually good timing with work since my dad is coming Wednesday night. After acting odd all weekend and waking up a bunch between 1-330 and then 530 Sunday night/Mon AM we decided to take Asher to the pediatrician yesterday. Luckily Matthew was off since ditching work on your first day is sort of frowned upon. He has an ear infection and fluid in his ears. AGAIN. We have to make an appt with an ENT. Its his 3rd since Jan and his 937th since birth.

This morning I dropped him off at school and started working, He had a music lesson and learned about insects. They made ladybugs out of egg cartons. Jackie picked him up in the pouring rain. He told her he wanted to make cookies when he woke up. We had lunch together (beef and barley soup) then he went to take his nap. He got up at 330, walked into the living room and said “Jackie, lets make cookies together” and they got out the ingredients.

Chocolate chip of course!

Once that was done I heard them reading books and playing in his room, exactly what I’d like to do on a rainy day. I worked until about 5 then took a break to hang out with Asher for a few hours. When I came out Jackie was drawing houses with chimneys and explaining how fireplaces work. I got handed a cookie.

Matthew isn’t going to be home until midnight but he made us a turkey loaf last night so all I had to do was put it in the oven which is great because I still have about 3 hours of work to do when Asher goes to bed at 8. On rare days when Matthew is home in time I try and just plow through until dinnertime but today is not one of those days.

He’s having his screen time right now and he chose the iPad and he’s sitting next to me on the couch. He is squished up to me THISCLOSE for the next few mins until its time to shut things down and do something else before dinner.

I think today was a good day.

Its a work in progress

I found this recipe on One Hungry Mama and made it right away since we had all of the ingredients. Its adapted from a Melissa Clark recipe.

Coconut oil or butter for greasing pan
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cardamom (optional) **YES, maybe half?
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup creme fraiche or plain Greek-style yogurt **I used greek yogurt
1/4 cup milk (whole or skim)
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup high quality extra virgin olive oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Confectioner’s sugar, for serving (optional)**YESSSSSSS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9″x5″ loaf pan. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, combine creme fraiche and milk. Add sugar and mix until well combined. Whisk in olive oil, eggs and vanilla.

3. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until well combined. Pour batter into prepped loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and finish cooling on a wire rack. Serve plain or dusted with confectioner’s sugar.

**Its great, and stays moist longer than it takes to eat it up. We thought it had a bit too much cardamom for our tastes but I kind of chalk that up to the uber fresh coop spices, so it all depends. Next time i’ll halve it for sure but you can do what you like

This app is awesome and free. You pick what you want to bake – cookies, cupcakes, layer cakes. Then mix the batter, pour it into the pan and bake it. When its done you take it out and decorate with frosting and candies. There are about a million different choices. Then you EAT IT. Its super fun and cute. It only says “Easy-Bake” twice during the whole thing so its not even that offensive of an advertisement. He begs me to play this game all day long.

Team Umizoomi Math $6.99

Team Umizoomi is one of Asher’s favorite shows and this is a great app that he loves. It teaches counting, numbers, shapes and patterns.

Zoo Train $1.99

This was one of the first apps we bought for Asher so he’s had it over a year. He still plays with it all the time. Its got 4-5 different things you can do and they all involve trains and animals. There is puzzle games and spelling and its pretty cute.

Trucks $1.99

This was just released but the developer makes tons of apps that we really like. Asher took to this right away but if your kid isn’t so into trucks definitely check out their others. They are simple but very entertaining.

Don’s Let the Pigeon Run This App $6.99

As huge Mo Willems fans this was an instant hit. The pic above is Asher’s drawing of The Pigeon that Mo talks you through as part of the game. The app has various levels of interactivity, perfect for different ages. Asher even made up a game we play based on the stories in the app. He is super into it.

Runners up
Harold and the Purple Crayon
Angry Birds
Anything by toca boca
Super Why
Monster at the End of This Book
Easy Coloring
Dora ABCs

Saturday we hung around listening to music and doing art projects in the morning, had a pizza party for lunch, did laundry, picked up some groceries and stopped by lowes to see forklifts, played soccer and practiced drawing letters in the backyard, ate BBQ chicken for dinner and watermelon for dessert. I fell asleep at 930.

Sunday we went to Tom’s for pancakes then spent the morning at Underhill playground (Asher calls it UnderWEARhill Playground), cleaned up, hung on the stoop for a while, had Uncle Danny over for dinner and did more laundry.

Looking forward to the week ahead – one of my last before work really picks up.

(frowny face)

Using Chopsicks

Asher loves sushi, yes the raw fish kind. I know its weird but he’s always loved lox so I guess its not all that surprising. Since little kids aren’t really supposed to eat it I only let him have 1 piece of salmon sushi with his miso and edamame. After unsuccessfully trying the 2 handed chopsticks method I started putting together these kids chopsticks and he is really getting the hang of it! It makes for a very serious dinnertime. Pretty damn cute though.

Identifying Coins

Asher likes to tell you which coin he is putting in his bank, his favorite is the quarter.

Juicing Oranges

Also a very serious activity. I picked up this little juicer because I HATE squeezing lemons by hand and it seemed like a fun thing for Asher. It is. He loves it. Do you see how hard he is concentrating??!!! Its a little hands on for moi – I took it out thinking he could do it himself while I’m cooking but not really. He doesn’t push hard enough yet but I just let him do all the pieces on his own (cut into 8ths) and then go back and quickly squeeze them all when he is done.  Still a good time waster of an activity and he gets a cup of fresh juice at the end.

Shaving

Matthew impulse purchased this bathtime shaving kit and it has saved us from many a bathtime meltdown. He used to shave side to side but he’s really getting the hang of it. (why so serious?) (also yes, our shower has wood paneling. I’m gonna let that sit with you for a minute)

Checkers

Our landlords/upstairs neighbors have 2 grandsons close in age to Asher, he is actually right in between them. Sometimes the older guy sleeps over on Friday nights and we play on the stoop with him but one day they went inside and learned how to play checkers.

Every word to every song ever written

His song of the moment is “Leaving on a Jet Plane” – this clip is from a couple weeks ago, now he can sing all the way through the first chorus without prompting. The best is when he’s playing with his blocks and he just starts belting it out. He was very interested to learn that the Paul who sings this song is a different Paul from the one that sings Hey Jude.

Other learny stuff he’s been obsessed with, for the archives:
Counting to 100
Distinguishing dinosaur carnivores vs “obovores”
Identifying the sound of musical instruments
Naming different types of flowers (I need someone to make an app)
Who sings which Beatles song
What subway goes where

I heard it was funny so I got the dvds of the first season of Happy Endings from netflix. Its a secret show, no one knows about it and its sort of hit or miss for me but the hits are very, very, very funny. Its should be called “Like Friends but Better” because that’s what it is. With Damon Wayans Jr!

Believe me when I say that I was shocked to fall in love with Raising Hope. Knowing the premise I thought it was going to be so stupid but its really so funny. Martha Plimpton is perfect. It makes fun of itself and I love a show that makes fun of itself.

I love New Girl. I know Zooey Deschanel is all twee and stuff but I literally laugh out loud every week.

Parks and Rec has been one of my shows for years, I really do think each character could have its own spin off. Its still good! Its the smartest comedy on tv, just ask EW. Kudos to the writers, I think about the 3 minute scene inside Tom’s Apartment last week and laugh.

Don’t Trust the B in Apt 23 – I gave this a shot the other day when I was doing the dishes, not really expecting much. Its ridiculous but very funny. Surprisingly funny. It makes fun of itself more than Raising Hope. James Van Der Beek playing a dbag version of James Van Der Beek was a genius move.

Turns out I don’t hate comedy, I think I just hate a laugh track. A runner up is Psych. I am the only person I know that watches it but I think its very funny.  Matthew loves Community but I haven’t gotten into it yet. Maybe I’ll catch up this summer (thanks hulu!) What am I missing out on?

Her recipe calls for 6 pieces of bacon but I only used 3 each time. Other than that I followed the instructions to a T, including the parmesean rind – which is listed as an option but I think it adds a lot.

We like lots of kale and lots of parm cheese grated on top.

The week went fast. Jackie came over a couple of times, Asher went to preschool and music class. Ramona stopped by. Friday I took him to soccer then Tim came for dinner and Asher talked his ear off and taught him all about his favorite app.

On Saturday Asher and I headed over to the yearly ‘touch-a-truck‘ fundraiser at a local elementary school. I asked if he wanted to go inside a fire truck and that seemed to pique his interest, then I explained where we were going and he was pretty excited. He dubbed it the Truck Factory.

They closed down the block of the school and parked the trucks out front. This is what we were in store for:

• FDNY fire truck
• Ambulance
• NYPD police car
• Dump truck
• DSNY Garbage truck
• Tow Truck
• School bus
• Bucket trucks/cherry pickers
• Sean Casey Animal Adoption Van
• Concrete mixer
• Green-Wood Cemetery Trolley

As you can tell by his extremely smiley face in every picture it was…very exciting stuff. We ran into Gabriel and got a cookie in the shape of a truck. The lines to “drive” the trucks were crazy so it probably would have been smarter to bring another grown up. Asher was not interested in waiting in any lines. Not even for frites and meats!

He had a crazy good time just hanging out at the back of the firetruck though. I had to pull him out of there.

On our way out there was a bonus fire truck parked at the entrance with a bunch of yawny firemen just waiting around. There was no line so Asher went into the truck to talk to the firemen and check it out. Just as I plopped him on the front of the truck for the best photo op ever the guy we were talking to said “We gotta run” and threw his jacket on and 30 seconds later they were pulling away.

We got out of there and had a quiet evening watching tv and playing with cars. Is there anything cuter than an almost 3 year old hanging out in a helmet?