Dangerous Beasts!

Kiki's closed early today, so I figured I'd take Mozart to Magic Wings as it's been several months and every time we pass it, he exclaims that he wants butterflies.  He was thrilled when I picked him up and told him.

He continued to be thrilled all the way there, through a snack beforehand, and for the first half hour or so.

Then, God forbid, a butterfly landed on him:

"MAMA! It got me! BUTTERFLY DANGEROUS!!! I want Mommy!  I want her now!  I scared!"

The remainder of his visit was spent mainly in my arms rather than his usual running around, and then was ended rather abruptly when another one of those dangerous beasts landed on him.  He still wanted (and received) a stuffed butterfly from the gift shop on the way out - I figure, perhaps the toy will bring more benign thoughts about butterflies...

On the bright side we got home in time for me to make a proper dinner when I was planning something akin to sandwiches had we gotten home at the planned time.

Fire Tractors

Poor thing.  The Boy went to bed over an hour and a half ago.  He somehow convinced The Wife that it would be ok to bring his small fire truck and tiny new tractor to bed with him.  But until just moments ago he was playing with them both - in the dark, mind you - and having a running conversation with them.  When TW went in to remove the inhibitors of sleep there was protesting and crying.  But, as I say, that was moments ago and he is now fully asleep.

Earlier today I had another chiropractor appointment.  I can't recall if I mentioned it here, but for the longest time Mozart could not pronounce "chiropractor".  Instead he said "Fire Tractor".  Well, he's moved beyond that and now comes much closer to saying it, though you might be confused if you didn't have the context.  He now also knows that the chiropractor is a doctor and fixes things, namely Mama, and knows his name so that he can properly address him as Dr. Chiro, as well as the Secretary's name.  He also gathered that Dr. Chiro recently got a concussion from overhearing the secretary and I talking, so when Dr. Chiro came into the room, Mozart pipes up, "Hi Dr. Chiro.  Gotta bump on da head. Car did it. All better now?"

Can I just say how proud I am of this kid in times like this?!  Dr. Chiro said he has better conversations with Mozart than he does with his 11 year old nephew.  Proud Mama over here.

RAWR!

We took Mozart to see his first movie tonight.  It's been wicked hot and we all needed a break, so off we went to Monsters University.

As we went last minute we smuggled our dinner in to go along with the popcorn.  He did fantastically!   At two and a quarter, he was by far the youngest movie-goer of the evening by a good 5 or more years.*  I'm sure there were several groans of anticipated movie-interruption when we showed up, but he was an absolute star.  He paid attention, kept mostly quiet, and even laughed appropriately!

On the way home he was RAWRing intermittently for the whole 35 minute drive.  I was sure he'd fall asleep on the way, but he was so excited by the whole thing that he just RAWRed away the whole time.  And when we got home he was so tired, though still RAWRing, that he didn't even want stories or songs, and just went straight to sleep.  He is such a good boy.

*Disclaimer: Mozart had a four hour nap this afternoon, as did we, and we didn't wake up until 6:30p - we'd have never taken him to a movie that starts at his bedtime otherwise!

Happy Independence Day!

I'm a little late to wish you well on this 4th of July, but I figure better late than never.

I gotta say, spirit of the holiday aside, I am feeling really, REALLY grateful to care for myself independently today.  I feel somewhat human for the first time since last Saturday when I put my back out for the umpteeth time.  It was on its way out for a couple weeks - the beginning of strawberry season does not do this body good.  But since I love strawberries, I kept picking every chance I got and last Friday that entailed 3 hours of picking with a total of 8 quarts of strawberries.  I was certainly sore afterwards, but not too sore to attempt  to move a gigantic, albeit huge, bookcase that the neighbors had given us from their house to ours.  And it was all good until the very last foot of the move.  It tilted.  Did I mention it was huge.  A good foot taller than me.  So I compensated for the tilt with my position and *TWINGE* <-- yep, THAT put my back out.  TW had to step in to move it the rest of the mere 12 inches.  I held it together until the neighbors said their goodbyes... Then I promptly went upstairs, medicated myself, and hobbled - very slowly - into bed.  Where I stayed the remainder of the weekend with only 1-2 hour stretches out of bed.

As you can imagine, it was a long week for as short as it was.  I cut out of work at 1:30 on Monday, managed to stay the day on Tuesday, and took a respite in the middle of the day yesterday.  Each day I saw the chiropractor or a craniosacral therapist.  I love them both.  Truly.

Today I took it slow in the morning and we just hung around the house most of the day, but had to get to the farm to pick up our veggie share.  I did not pick strawberries.  (!)  TW and Mozart did pick peas and hunted for a time for the remaining strawberries.  I had my share of picking with the quart of basil that was allotted, and then read in the car and waited.  

On arrival home I put the basil into vodka for an infusion.  One of my favorite all-time drinks is The Legal Herb - a basil infused vodka martini that was served at this long ago fabulous restaurant in Minneapolis (can't remember it's name just now or I'd give it props!).  What with the strawberry vodka and now this basil vodka, I imagine you are thinking we are quite the drinkers!  No so, I'm afraid.  I did have a sip of the strawberry spirit to taste, and it was lovely, but it has remained untouched since.  I am just happy to have proper options to serve people (or us) when the mood strikes.

I also had an idea that I put into motion. It will either be brilliant as the week goes by, or I will have done the work for nothing.  I'm voting for brilliant: I took out my mandolin and sliced up zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, and onion and then filled several mason jars with said ingredients.  I'm hoping that this will get us to eat more of the veggies we get from our share.  One of my most-loved breakfasts is sauteed veggies with eggs and this will make it easy :D  And The Boy loves cucumbers, so he will always have some for snack or side-dish.  I'll try to report back and let you know if this planning worked out.

Small thrills.

I went over to Mme. Child's this evening and was thrilled to see several towering hollyhocks growing next to her driveway.  Immediately I asked for some toothpicks and informed Mme. Child that I had something I had to show Goose.  We went out and I made Dancing Faerie Angels.  She was thrilled.  I was thrilled.


This is something I have not done since I was a small child growing up in the boonies of Montana.  It was one of those things I looked forward to and thought was simply magical.  Goose appeared to have the same reaction!  How lovely!!

Broccoli, Stock, and Vodka

This evening has been very productive.  I always like to write after having bouts with great production involved.  We picked up our first meat CSA today from Chestnut Farms.  We've got to be there between five and six, and it is halfway to Riverland, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to make our pick-up days there on Thursdays rather than Saturdays.  I just found that by the time I went to the Farmers Market, picked up our Fish CSA, came home tossed the fish in the fridge, went to Riverland and selected our share, did the u-pick, and came home, I barely had enough energy to get The Boy, me and the veggies in the house, much less process it in any timely kind of way.  Granted, I have done a fair amount of strawberry freezing, but beyond that, I can hardly keep up with the greens and things from the farm.  Now, if I pick up on Thursdays, even if I'm exhausted that night, I'll have Fridays to process as I've got the day off. And then the weekend to enjoy the fruits of my labor, rather than running to try to catch up with my tail.

So this evening: I got the meat for the first time.  They had whole chickens and eggs for sale, and stock and marrow bones for the taking.  I came away with our 10 lbs of various meats (6 chicken breasts, two steaks, two lbs of hamburger, breakfast sausage, and hot Italian sausage) along with three good size soup bones.  At the veggie farm we got four fennel bulbs, three heads of broccoli, a fair amount of salad greens, a large bag of chard, several garlic scapes, a zuccini, and two pickling cukes (the latter two items were carefully selected by Mozart).  As dinner time was nearing we did not do our U-pick, but just visited the strawberry fields and had a couple berries each (tomorrow, I think I'll go back and get our 8 quarts of strawberries, and - was it 3 or 5 quarts of peas).  On arriving home, I turned Mozart over to TW and I started a beef stock, ran to the store (out of onions - very important), came home, finished setting the stock to simmer for the night, strained the strawberry vodka I started last week, and cut, blanched, and froze 6 heads of broccoli (three from last week that were left over), and collapsed onto the couch where I am now writing this and too exhausted to even get myself a tipple (though TW got to enjoy some while I was straining).  The real fruits of my labor will be served tomorrow with whipped cream - and by that I mean some very vodka-saturated strawberries!

 2C strawberries, 2C vodka (X2 as I wanted a full quart in the end) set to soak in the fridge for a week with the occasional shake, and now filtering to get every last speck of strawberry out.  Will keep, if it lasts that long, for a year in the cupboard.

A Case of the Crankies with a Touch of the Spots.

This morning, the first thing Mozart uttered was, "Mama, I itchy. I got the pox."

He did not come up with this on his own.  Children very rarely come up with these things ALL on their own.

Yesterday we got the (false) report that one of the kids at his daycare had come down with the chicken pox.  TW and I both had conversations with the daycare provider about what we would be looking for if Mozart came down with it.  This was, of course, in his presence and his little proclamation this morning was just a way to demonstrate that he is, indeed, listening to everything we say.

By this afternoon another child had been sent home with the pox, but then this evening we got word that it is not, in fact, the pox.  It is a mystery virus.  It starts with a long period of crankiness, followed by a fever and with some kids develops into spots.  But the spots are apparently short-lived, and the kid can go back to daycare 24 hours after the fever is gone - one of Mozart's spotted friends is returning tomorrow.

Well, he certainly has been cranky lately.  We'd been attributing it to being two, but maybe this is more transient and the whole thing will lift if he breaks a fever and has done with it.

At least there's strawberries.

Oh, the strawberries!

While the rain has been mostly unrelenting, we have been able to go and pick on a couple of occasions.  With all the rain, I wanted to get out their before they turn so this morning being dry, Mozart and I left the house 'round 6am for a picking spree.  We got about four quarts in about 20 minutes - the berries are phenomenal!  I gave him his own basket - not because I thought he'd actually help, but I figured he'd feel useful.  He plucked the berries right out of my basket and put them in his own.  Then proceeded to eat them.  By the time we left the patch his basket that he filled about a quarter of the way looked like this:  and then by the time we got to teh car, it was empty aside from three half-eaten berries.  At least he had a nutritious breakfast!

Short stories.

Earlier this evening. Mozart is attempting to climb the stairs while holding a book. BatCat watches him from two steps above. He looks at me and notes that I have a case of diapers in my hands, then turns to the cat, with the book presented, and says, "Bat-Cat, hold this." Resourceful, yes, but the cat could not comply.

Our Little MouseCat-eer.

I'm not yet sure whether I'm writing about BatCat or Mozart here.

I suppose it started with BatCat.  The other morning I was feeling quite ill after running some errands and Mme. Child had offered to oversee the Boy for a couple of hours.  I stopped home to get some scallops for her - I had bought them two days earlier and with the aforementioned illness, I was not about to fry 'em up, so they were going to Mme. Child as well.  I park the car, run in the house, get the scallops and notice BatCat on the stairway.  She had a mouse.  Per usual, she had not killed the poor soul, but instead let it down and batted it about for a minute.  I freeze, stare, and scamper around the kitchen trying to find a container that I can put the thing in.  I do.  I catch the thing (it was alive, but apparently injured/in shock enough so that it wasn't moving too fast), and go to the far corner of the yard to let the thing go.

I thought briefly that perhaps I should take it someplace far away from the house so that it didn't try to get back in, but I just didn't feel well and was already past when I'd told Mme. Child I'd be there.

Fast forward to the next evening.  I was feeling much better, though the Boy and I hadn't had any real playtime.  We'd gone to pick strawberries, sure, but he still needed some run-around time.  Instead of a sit-down dinner, I made him an elaborate snack (including several freshly picked strawberries, of course), and let him play in the yard while eating on the run.  I know, I know, not the best habit, but I figured he'd go down easier if he ran around a bit and we didn't have time to sit for a meal and run around.  So he's out there munching away, running around, inspecting rocks, munching some more, riding his trike, munching some more, inspecting the grass, munching some more, and telling me about the cute little mouse.

WHAT?!

Oh, yes.  That mouse did exactly as I suspected it would do.  It headed back to the house.  Unfortunately, it's injuries were too much for it and it succumbed to it's end right in the middle of Mozart's play area.  I screeched, "Don't touch it!" and for the second time that weekend scampered off to find something I could carry the thing in.  And thankfully Mozart did not touch it, but he did want to, "Keep it?"  I told him no, definitely not, it had to go.  "Where?" he asked.  And I said something to the effect of, a journey to heaven, or the like, as I tossed it into the trees.

Thankfully he did not ask further questions, but I realized that he is not to the age when he will start asking more difficult questions, and I'll have to explain things like death, love and war.  *sigh* He is growing up.  I am in awe every day by what he is saying an thinking and doing.

Here fishy, fishy, fishy!

Rather than going on about the massive temper tantrums we've been experiencing lately, may I just say:

I LOVE MY FISH CSA!

The Atlantic cod was to die for.  The calamari, which I would never in a million years bought on my own, was absolutely succulent.  And the swordfish, which I thought I didn't like, was REALLY good!  This week we will likely get Hake and Flounder with the option of buying Scallops.  I am in my glory.

I will say here that I grew up in a drought-ridden land with no fish available that could be considered anything but freezer burned.  We did move to Minnesota - land of 10,000 lakes - for my teenage years, but somehow we never got into the fishing or the eating of fish.  I have previously made a fine salmon (I credit it to a chef at one of the restaurants I worked at who told me to never, ever overcook the salmon) dinner: think a perfectly grilled salmon steak topped with creme fraiche and oregano, with a side of sticky rice and chantarelle mushrooms...  and I have experimented with frying up catfish, or baking various whitefishes, but I haven't had a lot of success with the latter.

But now.  This fish is fresh.  I mean still flapping a fin fresh.  And the CSA sends recipes along for the trying! I am looking at these and then comparing to other recipes, and lo and behold, I love fish!

Tomorrow I pick up my veggie CSA for the first time.  I still have to figure out Kohlrabi (Mme. Child insists that I do a slaw, but I'm not convinced)...  Let the season truly begin!