monuments and memorials

almost two months into our stay in the dc metropolitan area, we finally ventured into the iconic national mall.  'twas a lovely, sunny, late summer day, not too crowded, and punctuated with only a few metro mishaps on the way ;-)

chloe looked like such a big girl in her corner seat on the metro, with her purse and her chewing gum, studying the map:

lucy was a little less enthused by the train ;-)

i'd forgotten how imposing the washington monument is:

and how touching and sobering the war memorials are.  this is part of the world war II memorial:

the highlight for the girls - their first italian ice =) we got a lot of smiles and chuckles for scenes like this:

it was a long outing, and with the warmth and the sunshine, it was bound to end up like this =)

music

i need to listen to more music.   i've never been much of a listener, strangely enough, and these days, most of what i hear is Frog and Toad or 'iodid' (lucy's very early and inexplicable rendition of Overcome Evil With Good, from Steve Green's kid's collection).

tonight, in a (less than successful) effort to concentrate on work, i put on a pair of headphones and turned on the faure and franck sonatas.  the passion, the beauty - i almost cried.  (we've established that this doesn't take much).  i played part of the franck sonata in high school, and had aspirations of learning the rest (on piano) during my brief musical renaissance before the girls were born.  chopin nocturnes followed, quietly and piercingly melancholy.  less familiar to me, some intricately gorgeous scriabin piano works rounded out the night.

stirring up the shades of another lifetime, it seems.  one where i practiced chopin ballades till 2 in the morning, where i brought staff paper to church so i could work out compositions between services, where i somewhat naively perhaps, took up my dream instrument, the cello.

i'm not saying all of that might not be lying dormant somewhere deep down, but for now, maybe i'd better turn the music off.  as i said, it has not been a very productive evening for work =) 

culinary corner

a mandoline + two pounds of colby cheese = ?

scalloped potatoes of course!  indulging my fondness for kitchen gadgets, ben got me a mandoline for mother's day this year.  i didn't have much chance to use it in our temporary apartment, but it was time to pull it out.  it did a nice job reducing four pounds of potatoes into nice, uniform 1/4" slices, though i'm still not sold on the amount of cleanup.  add a giant chunk of cheese i bought on sale, and it was time to find a scalloped potato recipe.  this one on epicurious.com got 4 forks - Scalloped Potatoes With Three Cheeses - and was nice and easy (no cooking required before baking).  i more or less followed the recipe, except that i used colby jack instead of cheddar and blue cheese.  i think the blue cheese would have added some better depth, but the girls wouldn't have gone for it.  i'd use less butter next time too, and i only cooked it for 20 minutes uncovered.

results:  tasty, not spectacular.  after two dinners, the potatoes presented their own difficulty.  notice the four pounds of potatoes - this was a 13x9 dish, and fully half it remained.  time for a new concoction =)  i bring you

Easy Baked Potato Soup
(well, easy if you happen to have 2 pounds of scalloped potatoes handy ;-) )

2 pounds (half a 9x13 dish) scalloped potatoes
1 32 oz box of chicken broth
1-2 cups finely chopped kale or spinach
1 small bunch of cilantro, finely chopped

put the potatoes in a soup pot and add chicken broth.  mash to desired consistency with fork or potato masher.  bring to a simmer and add kale.  cook 10 minutes or less, till kale is cooked.  add cilantro and cook a few minutes more.  thin with milk or water as desired.

don't skimp on the greens and cilantro, as they add a fresh bite that complements the richness of the potatoes.

bon appetit!

chopped: the apple doesn't fall far from the tree

after the girls go to (or should i say stay in) bed, i usually go to the computer and ben turns on the tv (sometimes he falls asleep before the girls do - shhh ;-) ).  tonight he found one of our favorites, food network's Chopped.  that and Iron Chef are two of the few shows that I can't seem to ignore, foodie that i am.  Iron Chef is like going to a concert hall - admiration of great art and execution, but from a distance.  Chopped is more like your kitchen jam session, something i empathize with when i scour my fridge and pantry for dinner ideas.  for those who don't know the premise, you have four competitors who are given a mystery basket of ingredients.  in each round, they have a certain amount of time to make an appetizer, entree or dessert using every ingredient in the basket, and at the end of the round, one person is eliminated, aka chopped.  last chef standing wins $10,000.

tonight's was an unusual show - a competition featuring four of the judges in the kitchen.  tables, or chopping blocks, turned.   would the judge-chefs make any of the same mistakes they so often criticize in the competitors?  how would they do in the conditions they impose on others?

i'll let you watch the show to answer those ;-), but for our purposes, i found it inspiring, heart-warming (yes, leave it to me to tear up watching a cooking show), and mostly, convicting.

i spend a lot of my day as a judge, you could say.  here are your ingredients:  we are (or are not) going to the playground today, your sister wants (or doesn't want) all your books, and we're having chicken (or fish or pork or pasta or any long list of things you don't like) for dinner.  what do you make out of it?  does your dish include contentment or complaints, patience or selfishness, thankfulness or sulkiness?  it's my job to watch what the girls make of what they're given and to do my best to correct, rebuke and encourage, with as much patience and careful instruction as i can manage (1)

scene one:  chloe, as you know, got her first bike.  she was starting to do pretty well at it - we'd made a few trips to the playground and several circles around the block - but the last few days, she's refused to ride it.  oh, she begs to take it outside, puts on her cute new helmet, gets on and cruises a few inches, then *shrieeeeeek* on the breaks - 'it's DOWNHILL!!  i don't like downhill!!'  okay, chloe, you can just coast and hit the breaks any time you want to.  at the bottom of the hill, turning to the next block:  'it's UPHILLLL!!  i don't like uphill!!'  just keep pedaling, chloe.. make the pedals go around and you'll be fine.  'but i don't want to ride!  i just want to walk it!'  okay, chloe, you can walk your bike if you want.  'but YOUUU hold it!  i want to push lucy [on her new tricycle]'.  no, chloe, it's your bike, you can walk it if you want, but you have to take care of it.  'NOOOOO!  YOU walk it!!'

i think you get the idea =p  the girl is just too much like her mama.  she hates doing things that she can't do right and right away, and she gets grumpy about it in a hurry. 

scene two:  'i want to watch bugs bunny.  can we watch one bugs bunny?'  daddy:  it's late, but you can ask mommy.  mommy:  let's get ready for bed first, then you can watch one.  can you see it coming... 'NOOOOO!  i want to watch it NOW!', rolling and flopping around like a fish out of water.  chloe, change your clothes.  'NOOO!  i don't want to change.  i'll change my pants but not my shirt.'  your shirt's dirty, chloe, look, it even has a stain on it.  'NOOOO, it's not a stain, it's a reflection.  it's not wet anymore, it's totally fine.'  eventually the shirt gets on.  come brush your teeth, chloe.  'NOOOO!  we can do it after.. i don't want to wait that long.'  chloe, if you didn't spend so much time complaining, you could have been done and watching your bugs bunny a long time ago.  'NOOOOO!  i'll brush the bottoms but i can't brush the tops.'  sighhhhhh...

let's revisit the above -

your basket contains: a 'bike ride' with one toddler who can't reach the pedals yet insists 'i TAN do it!!' and one toddler who unpredictably refuses to ride a bike that she is perfectly capable of riding; two self-centered human beings who want what they want when they want it; a family dinner to serve to feed bodies and souls.  i'm ashamed to admit the annoyance, irritation, and yes, anger that has flavored my words and actions all too often lately.  yes, i did shove that maddening bike over on the grass and threaten to leave it there if she didn't walk it or ride it herself.  i did blame her for wanting to take the bikes too far afield when i knew i should have taken the stroller.  i have demanded obedience for my own convenience, i have berated in frustration, i have engaged in a battle of wills with a girl every bit as stubborn as i, i have not been thankful that i have an abundance of options to put on the dinner table.

'You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things' (2)

forgive us our sins, Lord, as we forgive those who sin against us.

(1) - 2 timothy 4:2
(2) - romans 2:1

day on the pond

i've been going to target in a big commercial complex called washingtonian center.  somehow i heard that hidden behind the big box stores was a pedestrian mall with a lake, a boardwalk, a train, and - oh joy - paddleboats!  i don't know know why i've always loved paddleboats =)  so, since we needed to get chloe a bike helmet, which cost more than the bike - grr, we decided to check it out.  a college friend of my mom's, who lives here in rockville and has been incredibly welcoming to us, came along.

there were fountains:

there were geese by the flock that came right to our feet:

and our first small boat ride!  lucy's hat did end up in the water at one point, but luckily, we managed to retrieve it =p

it goes without saying there was all kinds of running,

and ju--u-u-mm-mping:

unfortunately, the train only runs in the afternoon, so we'll have to try that another time.  all in all though, it was a fun discovery =)

sisters

the girls are 14 months apart to the day.  when lucy was born, chloe wasn't even walking yet -  talking, yes, walking no ;-)  they've shared a room since lucy was 11 months, and with the exception of two weekends that i can remember, they've never been apart for more than a few hours.  they've always gotten along well, i would say, but more and more, some of the sweetest moments of my days are just watching them together.  sure, they occasionally fight over things (e.g. the current most valued commodity: Berenstain Bears books), chloe has been known to shove lucy off a stool she wants, lucy sometimes systematically destroys things her sister is trying to build, and they are quite often partners in crime.  investigations of naptime screaming generally go like so -
c:  'lucy clunked me with her head!!'
mama: 'lucy, get back in your bed'
l:  'but i want read book with toco [coco]!'

that is all unremarkable though.  after all, which of us is not selfish and willful at heart?  the beautiful thing is when they spontaneously care for each other - the 'toee [chloe] need tissue!' when chloe's crying in timeout, chloe's 'good job! that's it!' when lucy puts a puzzle piece in place.  there is endless rolling around, giggling, story-reading, synchronized book pile-making, and bed-scaling (you didn't know a toddler bed was a piece of gymnastics equipment, did you?).  you can find them hidden behind chloe's bed with a stash of treasures or inside their armoire (having dumped out the contents), or walking the length of their alphabet train puzzle, or pushing each other around in a laundry basket.

oh, and i shouldn't forget - they have an imaginary friend, avanor.  chloe met him first, but lucy seems to have befriended him also.  my requests for one of the girls to get back in her seat or finish her food are sometimes met with, 'but that's avanor's seat' or 'avanor's food'.  how can you argue with that?  avanor just turned 5 - at least, that was the claim at the last birthday party, of which there have been more than a few lately.

so, a few pictures of the nicholson sisters over the past month or so -

jersey girls

we took a short trip back to good old holmdel, 'to see nai nai and ah gong and our piano', in chloe's words ;-)  not such a fun drive - o tollbooth, how i have not missed thee - but a sweet visit.  we squeezed the most out of our 40 hours or so:


on our way to peach picking!  one of my fond nj memories =)



yes, there were very many peaches consumed, during and after ;-)

doesn't take long to fill a 20-pound bucket!

ben and i snuck off to holmdel park to run the old cross country course, then it was dinner outdoors on the shore, seabright to be specific, where the girls loved watching the assortment of boats go by -

and generally running, skipping, hopping, bouncing, shouting and squealing - all those things we have to curtail in our apartment.  a place of your own, with a little yard and a piece of grass.. there are reasons that's the american dream -

cheers to nai nai and ah gong!