Cautiously Optimistic

I previously discussed my fear of cooking with yeast. I had yeast phobia. You may remember that over Thanksgiving Leonard taught me how to make yummy white bread. I've made many loaves since that time, with various results. But my tiny successes made me think that maybe I could make some other things involving yeast. And I just had to post that I am cautiously optimistic that I can bake with yeast!

I've made five things in the past few weeks with yeast, and all have turned out to my satisfaction:

1. Leonard's White Bread. In fact, this bread has pretty much replaced store-bought bread.
2. Sourdough English Muffins. ENGLISH MUFFINS FROM SCRATCH! SOURDOUGH! Lots of exclamation points were used in referencing these babies.
3. Pizza Dough. Rich's comment was, "This is better than the pizza we'd buy for $15." That man of mine knows how to compliment a girl.
4. Rosemary Focaccia Bread. Loved this bread when Sue made it for a RS activity, so I attempted it for Valentine's Day. And, oh man, I want to make it all the time now. It's going to make me fat.
5. Dinner Rolls. I was beyond nervous for these, especially because I would be feeding them to guests, but miraculously they turned out big and beautiful. I didn't think they would raise, but they did. So wonderfully. I was actually a little prideful after this success.

I'm sure I have much to learn about baking with yeast, and that not all of my attempts will be successful, but I am optimistic that I have the time and the ability to be a baker!

*All of these successes came with the help of instant yeast; the glorious invention Leonard taught me about. There was no punching down or large amounts of kneading involved. 

Snow!!!

IT SNOWED HERE. So happy. When I opened the drapes in the morning I was greeted by fat, juicy, Christmas snowflakes. 

It was so pretty, and I was elated. The wee one enjoyed my rendition of "Once there was a Snowman" and later on had fun tasting the snow with Daddy.

Because snow doesn't happen here very often, and because the storm came fast and the snow was heavy with moisture, power lines snapped, trees came down, and roads became impassable. Meaning Rich got to come home from work early! 

It was a beautiful morning, and because our power never went out, I loved every minute of this change in weather.

Close Shave

My sweet baby boy got a shave yesterday. His daddy promised it would just be a trim, more of a cleaning up, per se. I went along with this because it was true, some of the curls were getting a bit unruly, and sometimes duck butt occurred, and, gasp, once or twice the wee one appeared to have a mullet. BUT. I did not agree to SHAVING OFF ALL CURLS. 

After trimming the top, Rich asked if he could blend the sides and back. 

Then he took off all of my baby's curls.

I cried. I didn't sob, but there were tears and a real sense of loss.

He just looks so grown up. Very handsome. But grown up.

I told Rich that there better be more babies in our future pronto, for this one was all grown up.

Even with his short hair, he still does a totally legit elephant sound.

My wee one is refusing to stay little.

But he is one adorable little boy.

Some Outside Time

I'm constantly amazed by Rich's man strength. 

He's very strong you know. He's currently increasing his already extreme strength by using the poor man's wheelbarrow. That's what I like to call it. It pretty much entails Rich filling a 5-gallon paint bucket with rocks and then carrying them about the yard. And there are a lot of rocks in our yard. 

Devin enjoyed being out of doors and having the opportunity to roam. As long as he was on the cement. Because once he got onto the grass--which was a feat in itself--he would just sit down and stay--not straying from his chosen spot. It's not so much that he dislikes the feel of the grass as the fact that our lawn of grass/weeds is very uneven and he gets tired from all the extra effort involved. Plus there are golf carts to watch, so the sitting is actually very entertaining. 

Even if the ball is only one foot away, he will not move. But he will yell. And then say "please mama." And then yell some more. But he will not move.

He also really liked putting rocks into his mouth. And then spitting them back out onto the sidewalk. This was his form of helping his dad move rocks about.

Oh, the Yelling

So we are a Britton family in the pre-toddler phase. This phase came fully equipped with a loud vocal soundtrack, fickle taste buds, and a sweet boy full of attitude. 

We were having days that included conversations such as this:

Son: "AGGHHHH! AGGHHHH! AGGHHHH!"

Mother: "Whatever do you want dear, sweet, yelling child?"

Son: "AGGHHHH! AGGHHHH! AGGHHHH!"

Mother: "I cannot think with all the yelling going on. I will aid and assist when you stop yelling."

Son: "AGH. AGH. AGH. AGH. WAHHHHHH!"

Mother: "a;ldkfjsdlfjkasdlf;ajksdflaksdjfasdfs!"

Oh for the love of the sweet baby yelling. A woman can only handle so much. I perhaps created this little monster by giving him whatever he wanted whenever he made a noise.  So this mother put her foot down and demanded (in a nice motherly way) that he say "please Mama" before he received his heart's desire. He complied. I was so happy. And shocked. I'm currently making a list of ways I can be more demanding. 

(Do you believe that a kid with that mug could make such tremendous noise?)

The kid's little voice is the cutest when he trills my name. And Daddy. Want to squish him. He then signs "please." Sometimes he needs help on the please. Sometimes he doesn't. In fact one day he started getting more and more upset only to look over and see him making the "please" sign over and over. I was not paying attention! Cute stuff. This development has mended some frayed mental nerves.

Another good thing involving the one-who-shall-forever-be-discussed is his signing milk. Clearly I'm interested in communication at this point in time. The milk sign has turned into "I want everything!!" 

And there was some extreme urgency in his eyes one day while signing "milk" but clearly wanting something on the kitchen counter, but he does want his milk sometimes when signing milk, so it all works out.

I'm being completely serious when I say things are much calmer at the Britton house these days. He's still a yeller. 

But it's not a constant, forever-on-repeat yell. I feel like I accomplished some sort of mothering in requiring him to "ask nicely" before receiving the goods. I now only have 3 billion other lessons to teach him.

Valentine's Day 2011

Valentine's Day was a simple, stay at home affair. Devin didn't care one bit when I told him it was Valentine's Day, but he did help me make the pumpkin roll that Rich requested for dessert. And then we played "get you" for about 20 minutes.

I made a fancy-ish dinner, which included my first attempt at risotto. I'm pretty happy with the results. It would have been better had I used real Arborio rice, but it was still pretty creamy. 

 

We ate by candlelight, with the kitchen lights still on for that extra ambiance, and displayed the beautiful rose Rich bought me. We're on a budget. One that does not have room for more than one flower. But it's a lovely flower, and I love that my husband knows that even if it's one flower, I will want it. I love getting flowers from that man of mine.

The wee one smashed a Valentine's cupcake into and onto everything while we cleaned up, and then it was early to bed for him--a lot because he was melting down and a little because it was Valentine's Day. 

We then enjoyed our pumpkin roll that I so lovingly cut into the shape of a heart and Rich completed the "love hunt" I'd prepared, which included tasks such as dancing to a romantic song, etc. I got the idea from here. 

It was a great Valentine's, and we are in love with being us!

Evolution of the Us

The little one just did something interesting. 

(I know you're thinking, "Really? Bc last week you thought it was interesting that he just looked at you. And then you blogged about it, and I spent precious moments of my life reading about how, shocker, you are obsessed with your child.") But I'm for reals.

Devin was just doing his normal baby thing of moving around the house and never really stopping, when I looked over to see him on the tile spinning about like the little puppy that he is. He then went flat on his belly and started to army crawl, which he hasn't done in months, then he went up on his hands and knees, then he pushed to a squatting position, and then stood right up and started walking. 

It was like this poster in action. 

Exactly like this. Except he is not a weird stick figure man. Nor did he demonstrate the being-in-womb part.

I feel like having a child brings a whole new perspective on time because you have something with which to completely gauge the days and weeks. And it's also amazing that he has changed and learned so much in just over a year. All I'm rambling about, really, is that I got some perspective this morning on how far a year can take us. Today is the one-year anniversary of us becoming a California family. So much has changed in a year. When Devin and I got off the plane one year ago he was just a wee, itty 6-week-old--now look at him.

Cuter and bigger and smarter and busier, and, though I thought it not possible, more lovable. And yes, he does have snot running out of his nose, and yes, he did wipe it on me when he struggled to get away from the tissue I was wielding. But still, lovable.

As for me, I've gone from not understanding some things in my life and struggling with some things I would like to change to feeling like I've overcome a few things (after some baby steps of my own, of course); I've found more meaning to my life, grown closer to my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and discovered what makes me truly happy. I think this is a cyclical process. Next year at this time I may feel like I've learned or accomplished nothing in the past year and will be in the depths of feeling all sorts of sorry for myself. I hope that's not true though. I've set some goals for this year and I intend on keeping some (hopefully at least one!) of them. Really, taking my life one year at a time (or even a day, week, or month at a time) and trying to become a better version of me in the process is what it's all about, and I need to remember that more often instead of demanding perfection right now. I say this all the time. Perhaps it's time I learned? I'm being all introspective lately. Okay, that's all for now.