will it blend?

The other day I was reminded of the old youtube classic, Will It Blend in which a man in white-lab coat proceeds to blend, well, just about anything… golf balls, marbles, an iphone…

Elijah loves “helping” me cook, especially if it involves his favorite appliance, the blender.  The other day, while David and I were doing the dishes, Elijah pulled out the blender onto the floor, and set it all up himself, announcing, “COOK!”

His play reminded me of these videos.

Will It Blend? -- Tractors

First, insert as many cars, tractors and trains as possible into your blender.

Always put on the lid when you blend.  You never know.

That should do it.

Will it blend?!

photo challenge: romance/love

We’ve been pretty sick this past (nearly two) weeks, so Valentine’s Day was a “low-key” event with a rain-check on a date. Sickness also explains the low quantity/quality of photo challenge pictures! Still, in keeping up with the challenge, here’s a few pictures of flowers and cards!

Waking up to roses= romance.

If only pictures could capture fragrance.  This one almost does.

Elijah’s valentines from his grandparents and great-grandma made a big hit with him.  He loves walking to get the mail with me each day, and was thrilled to have cards of his own (in bright red envelopes.)

Our mailbox.  Picking up love from family and friends!

Elijah knew right away this card was from his “Yaya” without me even telling him! She drew a picture of his “sign” for her, thus finding a way of making sure he knew the card was from her!  Love.

photo challenge: body parts

edible play dough

Our crafts are somewhat limited, due to the fact that my Little Artist enjoys taking nibbles (or chomps) out of his art supplies.  Thus began my quest for edible art materials.


 


The first edible play dough I made was a traditional “home-made” recipe, smooth, with vibrant colors.  I made it nearly a month and a half ago, and it is still soft! Elijah loves playing with it, though he can’t resist repeatedly sampling the dough. 


I started to see this as a golden opportunity, and got the idea of sneaking in some nutrition into craft time! I got some ideas from this post on Ohdeedoh.





I discovered this recipe for peanut butter play dough.  Not nearly as pretty as the other, but just look at the way he chomps down on it. Protein-packed play dough! I can’t get him to eat peanut butter any other way.





Next project I’m curious to try: cream cheese play dough.

finger-painting

I‘m reading a book called The Emotional Life of Toddlers.  Our pediatrician in Boston recommended it to me, and I’m finding it to be a great observational study of things I have noticed, but have not put words to complete the thought.  One thing she talks about is how toddlers’ play is their work.  In watching Elijah play, I am amazed at what he discovers, learns and puts together.  Every day he is learning how his world fits together. 
I love that Elijah is at the age when we can start to do crafts.  We try to do one “craft” a day.  He loves the creativity and mess, and I love the education of it, watching his face light up when I smear a blob of red color onto the page. 
“Red,” I say.
“More,” he says, signing the word with paint-covered fingers.

He takes his art very seriously, you can tell.
The world is his canvas.  Right after he spread the finger-paint on his shirt, Elijah said “Oh, Pretty!”
Don’t worry.  It’s edible finger paint! All of our crafts are going to have to be edible for a while yet. Next up?  Edible play dough.

Art at its finest.

photo challenge: sleep (tired)

Live Hard. Play Hard. Sleep Hard. (Notice poor Elijah’s bruise on his face?  That’s from Playing Hard and crashing into our bed rail.)

I love the fingers slipping out between the crib rails.

With Nana right by his face.  He must have fallen asleep looking at his monkey.

photo challenge: breakfast

I don’t think it would occur to me to photograph breakfast.  That’s why I’m enjoying the 2011 photo challenge to weekly capture things from every day life that you might not normally photograph, but are special because they are just that, Every Day Life. 

Breakfast is Elijah’s favorite meal of the day.  At breakfast, he eats as much as David, and often more than me!  He devours eggs, muffins (he calls them “koo-ka” for some reason,) pancakes, sausage, fruit, yogurt, and pretty much anything else you put in front of him.  As the day wears on he eats less and less, and his pickiness increases, to dinner when he has a few bites and insists he’s done.  For health and sneakiness sake, we’ve been sneaking vegetables into breakfast.  David makes amazing eggs with spinach, and I’ve started adding vegetable purees into the baked goods I make.

Elijah rises at 6 a.m, cheerfully calling for “Mama” or “Dada” (though we have occasionally woken up to him singing about his “Backhoe” or “Nana.”)  We call him our Little Rooster, and set an alarm merely for back-up.

Elijah greets the mountains out the window “Hiya, Mani!” and we go downstairs for breakfast, with David leaving for work around 7 a.m. Here are some pictures of a typical morning breakfast.  You will notice that I do not appear in them… Sneaky, huh?  I don’t like my picture taken ‘til after my morning coffee.

Patiently waiting to eat…

Ooh! Eggs!

David sits beside Elijah with his eggs appealingly wrapped in a tortilla, not realizing he has forgotten his cup of hot tea.

“I want yours, Daddy.”

Making an attempt at distracting Elijah from stealing his food, David points out Elmo on Elijah’s pajamas. A valiant effort.

Unfortunately, the cry for hot tea is too great, and David leaves his breakfast unattended in its pursuit. Elijah goes in for the kill.

Score!

Hiya, Daddy!


And one more picture... My boys at a weekend breakfast at Cracker Barrel (or as Elijah likes to cheer "Kaka Booga!")  It was snapped from my phone in less-than-desirable lighting, but I can't resist the expressions on their faces... Elijah loving being just like his Daddy!

photo challenge: cold

We have some catching up to do on our weekly photography challenge!
The theme “cold” was easy to capture this past week when Albuquerque faced record cold temperatures and was crippled with snow.  David was actually sent home from work due to mounting “unsafe road conditions” and the fact that due to a natural gas crisis, his office was freezing.  Elijah and I discovered that our weekly activities were also cancelled (it never occurred to me to check… the roads looked fine to me!)

David and Elijah in front of our house and the “treacherous” roads… what do you think, people from the Midwest and Boston?
David and I laughed over the affects of weather on a city… The few inches of snow we got was not a big deal (coming from Boston which is under feet of snow right now we hear…)  But to a city unused to such weather, it really is unsafe to drive, not because of the roads, but because of the other drivers!

Here are a few shots of us enjoying a New Mexico snow fall before the cold winds brought us back inside.


The playground across the street… we love this place!

Elijah shooting off the slide… he was a little afraid at how slick it was from the snow.

Meeting some neighbors who shared their sled with us.

Little Thrill-seeker’s first sled ride.

Pike’s Peak and Garden of the Gods

On our way down from Boulder we stopped at Pike’s Peak just outside of Colorado Springs. Being the dead of winter hiking the mountain didn’t seem very thoughtful to our little man. So we decided to take a train. The train is based on a cog system that allows it to climb up to 25% grades on our way up to the top (or near the top) of Pike’s Peak.

As you can imagine Elijah was pretty excited about riding in a train for a couple hours as most of the pictures in this post will demonstrate.

The views as the train ascended the mountain kept getting better and better. Off to the east we could see Colorado Springs, the Garden of the Gods, and the great plains, and south we could see a snow storm coming over the mountains. It was beautiful.

Unfortunately we had to stop about 1500 ft from the top of the mountain due to high winds and snow accumulation, but that didn’t seem to diminish Eli’s excitement of being in the train.



After riding the train we stopped by the Garden of the Gods for a little hiking. We were there as the sun was starting to set turning the red pillars a fiery color.

Tea for Two, Western Art and Butterflies

While David spent the day in a (highly successful) design review, Elijah and I had a day to explore the city of Boulder.  The views of the mountains were truly majestic, so driving anywhere in the city felt like an adventure.  I had been hoping to do a bit of hiking, but the weather was cold, and my Little Sidekick and I don't last too long in freezing wind, so we opted for indoor exploration of Boulder.
 
When I saw that Celestial Seasonings tea factory offered free tours, I knew that we had to go, loving tea as much as we do.  It was outstanding!  I highly recommend this, if you are ever in Boulder.  I was impressed by the company’s all-natural, eco-friendly, and global worker-friendly practices as well as the creativity they bring to their product.  For every new tea that is launched, a new piece of original art is commissioned (which they have hanging on their factory walls), inspiring quotes are selected for the boxes, and an essay contest is held to best describe the tea.  (I love reading the blurbs on the boxes of food I eat, too!  Anyone else?)

Elijah was too young to be able to go to the factory portion of the tour (I was a little bummed about that... I wanted to experience the famous "Mint Room" where scent of mint is so strong  from the handling of mint for teas, it is overpowering!)
 
We went to the Tea Shop where we could sample any tea that Celestial Seasonings makes, as much as we wanted, for free!  I found three teas that I fell in love with, a Thai Coconut Red Chai (perfect with milk and sugar), a Strawberry Burst (one of the few fruit teas I enjoy) and Sleepytime Vanilla.  I bought boxes of each, as well as my new favorite kitchen gadget, a tiny pair of tongs to remove teabags from your cup.  I don't like touching wet tea bags... just one of those things...

Elijah had his first taste of tea. He loved it.  I think he felt very grown-up.  He kept requesting "Ko-Tea" (cold tea) or "Haattea” (hot tea) and couldn't believe it when he actually received tiny samples, all decaf of course.  David was a little disappointed that he wasn't the one to give Elijah his first taste of tea, though he nearly died when he saw the picture of Elijah with his little finger sticking out so elegantly as he drank.
 
A few blocks away was the Museum of Western Art, also free!  Elijah enjoyed this particular style of art.  I think you can imagine why… Western Art includes portraits of his favorite things!  Horses, cows, hats, boots, and the room devoted to paintings of trains.  He matched any Art Enthusiast’s level of admiration with how he squealed “Choo-choo!”  Outside the museum were sculptures, with one marked “Please do not refrain from riding!”  Here’s our little cowboy on “Grandpa’s Saddle.”

After Elijah’s nap, we headed out to the Butterfly Pavilion, an indoor rainforest with flowers, plants and butterflies.  We arrived close to closing time, so many families were leaving.  This turned out to be a perfect time to come, as the butterflies, in hiding from all the running, yelling kids, as the Pavilion began to quiet down, came out and flew joyfully around.  What an experience to see colorful, fluttering butterflies, though a challenging photographic subject!
 
I tried a novice hand at a few macro shots, in keeping with that week’s photography challenge (inspired by friends Ruthie and Ben, Kyle and Alli).
 
We finished off our day with a Mother-Son date at a Nepali restaurant.  I was disappointed they didn’t serve momos… my favorite food from my time in Kathmandu, but otherwise, the food was perfectly delicious and authentic.
I’d say we seized our indoor day in Boulder!