The snowy day

Surprise

I try very hard to remember that February is not Spring. I was still unprepared for this:



But it's pretty, isn't it? And i'm on vacation so that's why I can say that.

The Journey of Nu-Nu

Nu-Nu is the name of Maddie's pacifier. It comes from Rob's family and his childhood and just stuck. Maddie pronouces it someplace between "new-new" and "no-no" with such cuteness of tone that she can keep that thing until she's 20 just so she'll keep saying it. Believe me there is nothing cuter than when Rob is getting her dressed in the morning and knocks nu-nu out of her with her shirt. She yells "Nu-nu" and then paws at her shirt until she finds it.

Well, yesterday a curious thing happened. In the morning Maddie and I were putting pennies in her piggy bank when a penny got away from us and rolled under her crib. She went to find it and instead found the original nu-nu that she came home from the hospital with.

All day long Maddie went back and forth between her old and new nu-nus. And that is home the real Nu-Nu managed to get away.

We had friends over to visit yesterday (Hey, Kat!) and Maddie was our source of entertainment, playing with every toy and stuffed animal imaginable. After our friends left, we noticed that Nu-nu was missing.

We assumed it would turn up but by bedtime that damn thing was no where to be found. Have I mentioned it's pale pink, so it blends with everything?

Rob and I did a pretty thorough search of things, delaying bedtime in hopes of a miracle. But alas, nada. We tucked Maddie in with old nu-nu and hoped for the best.

Surprisingly, Maddie did pretty well. She woke up twice, briefly, crying in her sleep but didn't seem disturbed enough to stay awake.

I actually spent another hour after Maddie went to sleep systematically going through the house: every toy box, laundry basket, bookshelf. Even the fridge. Our friends got a text, asking if they for personal reasons had decided that they really needed a nu-nu. I even checked the hall in case it had somehow gotten knocked outside the door.

I looked for it for two hours this morning. No stone unturned! I prayed to St. Anthony. I prayed to St. Jude. And I'm not even a saint patronizer.

Then I decide to swifter under our bed (mind you, we had checked there three times, and moved the bed just in case.) As Maddie ran away with the Swiffer, I stooped to examine my box spring where a certain cat with claws has torn a little hole I'm the lining. And, voilà! Nu-nu. Inside our box spring.

To be fair I really don't think the cat put it there. They were both pretty sleepy. I'm postulating that Nu-Nu fell and by some odd chance bounced into the hole (from the size of the hole, I think it's possible. I might research...)

So now there is peace in the house, and naptime has commenced!

***please note: for those of you wondering how the sleep training is going there is a hint in here. I will not be blogging about our progress because the minute I do everything will change! Mum's the word.

Tomato Pepper Relish

I haven't done this for a while but I'm posting a recipe. Bad photography and all.

Tomato Pepper Relish:





This recipe started with Martha Stewart Everyday Food's recipe for Tomato Eggplant Relish. Since I don't care for eggplant I started substituting and then just kept going.

It was super easy and delicious (clearly as I keep crappy recipes to myself). Here you go:

Tomato Pepper Relish:

1can whole tomatoes
4-6 cloves garlic
1 red pepper
1small onion
1Tbsp olive oil

Super easy instructions:
Pour out can of tomatoes onto a rimmed baking sheet. Break up tomatoes. Add garlic cloves unpeeled and red pepper, chopped. Roast at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take out pan and fish out garlic cloves. Use flat side of knife to peel cloves and toss them back in the mix.

Purée have the sauce in a food processor and then add it back to the rest of the sauce. At this point, you can store sauce in the refridgerator or even freeze it.

Before serving, saute one chopped onion in olive oil. Add sauce and season with salt and pepper to your taste. I add in a little bit of the water from the pasta to make it adhere to the pasta better.

I served this with rigatoni and feta as Martha suggested. Delish!

Goldilocks

Maddie's learning about spatial relations. It's a tough lesson to learn.



This tin is too small!



This ball is too big (but I love it)!



This face is just right!



Happy Valentine's Day, everybody!!

The writing is on the wall

Let's play a game. Write a caption for this picture:


I'll start:
"So much for our security deposit."
"Time to buy stock in Magic Erasers."

Here's Maddie's entry:
"Elmo."

Portrait of the artist in her studio

This is what it looks like outside today:





What Twitterers have hashed "snowmagedon" and we call winter has befallen us, happily causing a snow day! Gosh, I love working at a school.

Of course it would have been cooler had it not fallen on my normal day off. Ah, well.

Rob went into work at 4am to shovel snowmagedon away from his coffeehouse. Thankfully Maddie slept through his departure AND he brought me a latte. AND he let me sleep until 8:30! Best snow day (normal day off) ever!

So after he went back to work, I built this with the help of my busy worker bee:






For Christmas, Maddie received this gorgeous (and surprisingly easy to assemble-- I.e. Not from Ikea) art table. It's a blackboard, with a roll of paper (being saved for more economical use in later years) with cups to hold pencils, chalk, etc...

Maddie's currently using it as a reading table:







And for doing our taxes:






(see our W4s? Bah-da-dum.)

And for doing this:






I can only assuming she's measuring out milk for a baking project.