Happy Belated Veteran's Day & St. Martinstag!

Yesterday, we were returning from a wedding in San Diego for a U of I friend and as soon as we got home, Raj went directly to a Bears' game. So, we didn't have a chance to acknowledge Veteran's Day and St. Martinstag.  So, I thought we'd do a belated celebration today instead. 

Unfortunately, Shawn wasn't in the most cooperative mood today, so he lost the privilege of going on our traditional lantern walk around the neighborhood.  I had planned to just use the lantern I made last year, so at least we didn't spend a lot of time making a new one this year!

But, we did celebrate with some German food at dinner.  Using the cookbook, The Best of My Grandmother's German Cookery by Carmen Graves, tonight's menu consisted of:
Paprika Huhn (Chicken in Paprika Sauce)
Sauerkraut
Apfelsalat 3 (Warm Apple Salad - recipe #3) with pecans & vanilla yogurt
Kartoffelpuffer (Potato Pancakes)

No German beer or wine for me, but... YUM!
(Regrettable, a lantern walk would've been a good idea after that big meal!)

St. Martinstag

To celebrate St. Martinstag yesterday, I made a German-ish twist to a Creamy Beef Stroganoff (see the recipe below), sauerkraut, and green beans. Raj & I had some beer from the Galena Brewing Company (not German, but good). We finished the frozen store bought pretzels I had left from Oktoberfest (not the greatest, but they did the trick). I was going to make Apful Kuchen for dessert, but realized too late I only had one apple. It wasn't a big deal, we were full after the pretzels anyway!  We could've done our lantern walk last night, too, but I didn't feel like the lantern was quite done yet and it simply got too late to go before we realized it! 

Creamy Beef Stroganoff (from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

1 (10.5 ounce) can beef consomme 1 tablespoon prepared mustard 8 ounces wide egg noodles, cooked and drained 1 cup sour cream

Directions:

In a skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in flour and salt until blended. Stir in soup, consomme and mustard. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the noodles and sour cream; heat through (do not boil).

However, as it usually happens with recipes, I really didn’t follow this too closely.  I left out the extra salt, only had beef bouillon crystals, added some garlic, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms, and parsely, and had to substitute for a lack of sour cream (with a mixture or cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, and lemon juice - thanks to my very handy book Substituting Ingredients: An A to Z Kitchen Reference by Becky Sue Epstein and Hilary Klein).  And, to help boost the German-ish feel, I swapped the wide egg noodles for Spaetzle.  Even with all of the substitutions and deletions from the original, the final dish seemed to be intact.  It turned out pretty well and it was nice to try a different recipe.  (I should’ve reduced the amounts in the sauce though, I have waaaaaay too much left over and no more Spaetzle!)

So, we waited until this evening for the lantern, but we did that part of the St. Martinstag tradition, too. I used a guide to help get me started on a balloon and paper mache lantern, but once I read through it, I remembered that it really is pretty easy.  I only made one lantern, since *ahem!* NO ONE else was interested in helping and I didn't think it was quite reasonable for me to make three alone! (grrrr...) I tried to get Shawn excited about making or at least helping me make a lantern, but he was absolutely not interested at all.  (Sometimes he’s all about getting his hands messy, but lately it seems to turn him off completely. Bummer… in a way.)  Raj used Shawn as his ‘out,’ too.  Oh, well!  I had fun doing it!  Once it was done, Shawn (finally) got excited about it.  He helped Raj find a stick that we could use to attach to the lantern. 

(No, I didn't draw any of those pictures myself, they are clip arts that I've used on our lanterns for the past few years.
Wish I could claim them as my own, but not even close!
After paper mache-ing them onto the balloon, I used permanent markers to dress them up a bit.)

Once it got dark out, Shawn got really excited about going on a walk with the lantern.  Raj did express a little concern about looking strange as we paraded around the neighborhood, but I made sure to point out that Shawn and I had just returned from a short walk and only saw one person the whole time, and besides, who cares?!  The weather was still holding on to a few warm degrees before dropping into Chicago's sub-zero winter that is looming just around the corner. (Though, the gusting winds were a bit tricky at times.)  In past years, we've kept the lanterns inside due to weather.  So, we took advantage of the evening, and it was a lot of fun!  Shawn got even more excited about the lantern when he saw the green glow stick to put inside of it and then watched the whole thing turned into a radiant orb!

 My camera's flash was too bright to get the full effect!

Gusting winds and an excited 2 year old swinging the lantern around made it a bit tough to get focused pictures!

Shawn carried it for the majority of the walk, but I think the long stick got a little awkward to hold and maybe even a little heavy after a few blocks.  When we were almost home, and Shawn was starting to lose interest and slow down, I took the glow stick out of the lantern and the three of us took turns tossing the gleaming rod a few feet ahead of us and then watching Shawn squeal, giggle, and race to retrieve it in the darkness.  NOTE: Glow sticks + outside + night time = FUN!  (Duh!)  Once that happened, there was no way I was going to get the glow stick back into the lantern – even back at home!  So, Raj had fun teaching Shawn ‘light-saber’ sounds and Shawn was his fully-attentive student.

Next year, maybe Shawn will be more willing to get his hands gloopy.  Or, maybe I’ll find another way to make lanterns.  Either way, it’s fun in the end and I’m thrilled to be bringing back some of our old family traditions!

P is for Pumpkin, Potty, and Pfffffft!

I woke Shawn in time to catch the garbage truck come around our circle, which also meant he was awake to greet Abby and Bill when they arrived.  Suddenly, he wasn’t so bleary-eyed anymore!  It’s play time!


Bill explained that Abby’s doctor didn’t think she was ready for potty training yet, so they were going back to diapers.  Bummer, but okay!

Abby and Shawn played in the living room with some trucks and books until breakfast was ready.  Then, played some more until it was time to go to art class.

Art class focused on pumpkins today. Too bad Shawn didn’t focus on pumpkins today! He was all over the place and not very interested in participating in the projects.  

Abby's

Shawn's Mine

I will admit that Shawn helped stuff the paper bag with newspapers in the beginning, but when it came time to paint, his contribution was done.  Every once in a while, I got him to hold the paintbrush, sometimes with me sometimes independently, and made a couple of dabbles, but he just wasn’t into it.  Meanwhile, Abby realized that scrunching the giant sheet of newspapers was a bit too tricky for her fingers, so she figured out how to loosely roll up the paper, then fold it into (about) thirds in order to get it all to fit inside the paper bag!  Great problem solving!  She had a great time painting her bag and was very aware of any brown bag showing through.  (Ms. LouAnn even commented on her attention to detail!) 

While the kids ate Winnie the Pooh cookies, Ms. LouAnn read Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington.  It was a simple story illustrating the growth of a pumpkin, starting from a seed.

Shawn was a little more interested in the second project. They painted an apple orange and stuck stickers on it to make a jack-o-lantern face.  Shawn figured out that rolling the apple in the paint was a much faster way to cover it, but we managed to use the brush to spread the paint around.  He loved putting the stickers on, too.  (Meanwhile, I thought it was a weird project to do at all!)

For the last activity, Ms. LouAnn uncovered the tub/table and the kids found balls and foam blocks.  She set up a game of 'Pumpkin Bolwing,' since most of the balls were orange and the blocks could stand up like pins.  It was a good practice in taking turns and waiting patiently.

I had a chance to chat with Shelley while kids napped.  Since Abby’s enjoying wearing underwear and using her potty seat, Shelley decided to continue potty training as we have been.  (Phew!)  There have been other instances that she hasn’t been happy about with their current pediatrician, and this sealed the deal.   Now, she’s on the market for a new doctor.  Shelley said she had someone lined up to get a second opinion and I shared Dr. Lin’s business card, just in case they want to shop around.

I’m so glad I closed the windows in the kids’ rooms before naptime.  The house stinks of exhaust from the roofers’ machinery and generators.  It’s a shame to shut out the beautiful day, but there’s certainly no fresh air circulating around here today!

Abby woke around 3:30 pm and was not happy with all the noise over our heads.  She was all smiles by the time Bill came to get her though.  Perhaps being back in underwear for the first time all day had something to do with it…?

When Raj got home, he and Shawn went out to Open Gym at Gymboree.  When they came home, Shawn had a goose-egg / strawberry on his forehead.  He was excited to tell me about the Elmo ice-pack he got to use though, so the bump must not bother him too much!

After bath time, we were each doing our own thing in different rooms.  Suddenly, I heard a sound that I haven’t heard in 20-something years, yet I knew immediately what Shawn was doing.  We keep a cassette (yes, cassette) of German/English songs in the tape player of the mini-stereo in his room.  I heard the familiar, though distant, swooshing sound of the tape being pulled from the inside of the cassette.  Argh…  Using the eraser tip of a pencil, I managed to re-wind it all back inside, but as I was spinning the pencil around and around, I kept reminding myself, “This is why no one uses cassettes anymore!”  Though I got it all back in place, Shawn had it pretty crumpled in spots, so it may be history… like the rest of the world’s cassettes!  (It would be a shame not to have those songs anymore…

...oh, well...

...it is a cassette!)

Tag der Deutschen Einheit

An email to Oma, Opa, and Jennifer:

Haben Sie eine wunderbare Tag der Deutschen Einheit!
Liebe,
~ Shannon

Have a wonderful Day of German Unity!

Love,

Shannon

I've got a great excuse to have German food tonight!  I’m trying a new slow-cooker recipe and  for dessert I have brown bag apple pie, ahem, Apfelkuchen, from the Long Grove Apple Festival we went to yesterday.  Can't wait!

Slow Cooker Smoked Pork and Sauerkraut Dinner

Ingredients:

• Use 1 1/2 lb. peameal bacon roast or a smoked pork loin roast.
• Use 4 potatoes, preferably Yukon Gold because they are firmer and don't fall apart as easily.
• Use one 28 oz. can Sauerkraut, drained.
• Liquid - 1 cup of either apple juice, orange juice, or water.

Instructions:

• Put Peameal Bacon Roast and Sauerkraut in slow cooker (crock pot).
• Add peeled potato quarters to the slow cooker, making sure the potatoes are pushed well to the bottom. Potatoes need to be in liquid to cook properly. Even though there is not enough liquid in the cooker to start, there will be once it cooks for a few hours.
• Pour in about 1 cup of apple juice, orange juice, or water.
• Cook, covered on low to medium, for about 6 hours. Check your slow cooker instructions for approx. times.
• Remove potatoes, meat, and sauerkraut. Keep warm.
• Put cooking liquid into saucepan, bring to boil, and thicken with 1 - 2 tbsp. cornstarch dissolved in some cold water. Use as sauce for the meal.

Serves 4.


Abby came over shortly after 7:30 am this morning, while Shawn slept in until a little after 10:00 am!  That gave Abby plenty of uninterrupted time to play with a box of books and Shawn’s new magnetic Thomas the Train book all to herself.

Gymboree’s free Bonus Class schedule changed this month, so we were left without a class today.  I had plans to take the kids to a much needed excursion to Costco, but instead, we spent the day playing at home.  Ahhh… the simple pleasures of a pile of boxes.  (I keep meaning to put these out to recycle, but I just don’t have the heart to take them away!  Maybe tonight will be the night.)  Here, they show off their favorite game – riding a Choo Choo Train!

Sometimes staying home is just as much fun, if not more, than running out to planned activities.

After a stretch of great days, potty training seems to have taken a setback today.  I feel like both Abby and Shawn are peeing every 10 minutes or so – whether they’re on the toilet or not!  Lots of clean ups today.  (sigh)  On the other hand, Abby got enough stickers on her Potty Paper to finish her sheet and take it home!

Luckily, I got a break when both went down for naps easily.  Abby woke up minutes before Bill arrived and Shawn woke as she was leaving.  It was an early wake up for Shawn, but he also went to sleep faster than he has lately.  I was a little nervous that Shawn’s sleeping in this morning was going to mess up the rest of the day, but (phew!) not the case.  He must have just needed a few more hours of shut-eye.

Grandma Fanny came over for her English lesson.  We reviewed short a and short e sounds and introduced the short i sound.  I've given her small picture cards of words that contain those short vowel sounds rather than written words and she LOVED sorting them. It helped build her vocabulary, her spelling (I had her write the words on the back), and it gave her something to practice at home between our sessions.  She has a hard time differentiating them and an even harder time getter her mouth to cooperate when trying to enunciate, but she’s such a hard worker and incredibly motivated.  What a difference it is to work with her and struggling middle schoolers!

After emailing with Jennifer, Oma, and Opa, I added soft pretzels to the German meal.  I cheated and bought some frozen from the grocery store.  Not the best, but they fit the bill. Shawn loved his!  After all the food from dinner, we didn’t have any room for the Apfelkuchen for dessert!  It’ll have to wait for another day.

Viva the Boogily, Woogily Piggy!

Abby stayed home with coughing and congestion today.  Her coughing yesterday sent up a red flag for me, but I was hoping she’d fight it off.  Instead, she has a doctor’s appointment to help her get back to normal faster.

With Abby at home, it turned out that Shawn was the only student in our last day of German class!  (Rosemary and her mom must still be coping with whatever was going on a few weeks ago.)  Shawn took advantage of having all Nina’s attention to himself.  While we practiced the names of shapes, he was really involved and spoke a LOT.  He really did great.

As we said, “Danke schön!” (thank you) and, “Auf wiedersehen!” (good bye), Nina gave Shawn a heart shaped sticker, which he immediately stuck to his forehead!  It took me a moment, but I realized that was the pretty close to the place his band-aid had been for the past week or so!  I guess he missed having something up there!

In music class, we started a “swing and jazz” unit.  We know have a new favorite song The Boogily, Woogily Piggy, which is a jazzed up version of “This little piggy went to market…”  In honor of the new song, Ms. Kim stamped the kids’ hands with a little pig rubber stamp in addition to the usual music class stamp.  Shawn was certainly ‘jazzed’ up after class – he didn’t want to leave!

When we eventually got home, Shawn’s energy finally wore out and he took a three hour nap.  Phew!  Later, we Skyped with Oma, Opa, Gamble & Buddy.  Shawn loves to see them and asks about them all the time.  Even though he gets a bit antsy sitting in front of the computer and ends up running around from room to room in the background of our Skype conversation, he likes to check in and see if they are still there.

Shawn had us giggling this evening as he hollered his favorite non-sense line over and over.  Raj and I agree that it sounds an awful lot like, “Viva Toya!” which of course means something like, “Long Live Toys!” He’s been saying this for months and gets really excited when he says it, or when we say it to him.  We’ve figured out that we can get him to smile and get pretty silly just by starting, “Viva…” We have no idea how this started, where he got the phrase from, or why he thinks it’s so great, but it is a lot of fun!

Hmmm... How do you say 'pee-pee' in German?

Rosemary didn’t come to German class today.  I think whatever was upsetting her mom last week must still be going on.  So, it was just Shawn and Abby again.  We continued the animals theme from last week.  Abby was great with the chunky puzzles and she’s very quick to find animals posted around the room when Nina asked for them.  Shawn’s pronunciation was right on cue today!  Nina had a bag full of animal puppets and handed them out to us one at a time.  Shawn got a giraffe, Abby got an elephant (her favorite today), I got a lion.  Nina asked Shawn, “Mama hat eine Giraffe?”  (“Momma has a giraffe?”) and Shawn said, “Nooooo!  Mama hat einen Löwen!”  (“No!  Momma has a lion!”)  We were floored!!!!  Later, Nina mentioned that she was impressed how much both have learned in just three weeks. (It’s going to be hard to end our free trial next week.) 

At the end of class, Nina passed Diego on their way to their next classes and both saw us at the front door.  Diego said, “Hola, Momma!” and Nina said, “Auf Wiedersehen, Momma!”  Both giggled.  Then Nina told Diego how much Shawn spoke today and Diego said, “Oh, I’m jealous!”  To which I jokingly responded that because of their teacher inservice, we missed his class yesterday – it could’ve been Spanish class that Shawn was talking so much in!  Sorry!  When we got home, I wrote a thank you note to the director of the program, Craig:

Guten Tag and Hola, Craig!
First, I want to express how much fun Shawn and Abby (and I!!) are having in your program.  We are so grateful for the opportunity to try a few weeks of classes in two languages, which we normally wouldn't be able to afford.  Though I've gotten tongue-tied more than a few times in the Parents and Tots programs, I can clearly see the benefit of Diego and Nina's hard work and enthusiasm when I watch the little ones in class and especially when I see them bring the skills home.  I have to admit that I've gotten many strange looks from people when I rave about having Shawn enrolled in language classes, not to mention two languages recently.  People are surprised, since he's not even old enough for preschool yet; however, I credit Language Stars for so much of his language development and his emerging social skills. Even though he chooses not to talk in class sometimes, which can be very frustrating, it is abundantly clear to me that he's listening carefully, taking it all in, and just waiting for the perfect time to try out his new words.  Your program is wonderful and your patient teachers are truly talented!  Please let them know how much we appreciate all they do.  (It will be very hard to end our German experience with Nina next week!)

We rushed home to drop Abby off at home so she could get to a doctor’s appointment.  It turned out she has an ear ache, but luckily nothing else. 

Then, Shawn and I went to Music class on our own.  Ms. Kim was surprised to see us without Abby.  Everyone missed her - it was strange having just one child in class today!  Though Shawn was much more physically active (he danced and wiggled and moved much more than usual), he still wouldn’t reply during the “Ba-Ba” activity.  Maybe some day!

In the evening, Shawn commented, “Momma go pee-pee in the toilet.  Shawn go pee-pee in the toilet?” So, I jumped at the chance and helped him sit on the toilet.  He was very excited about it and grinned from ear to ear.  After a few seconds, he said, “All done!”  but I’m delighted that he’s showing an interest and wants to try.  I don’t think he’s physically ready for serious potty training, but I’ll certainly take advantage of his curiosity!

While I made dinner, Shawn pulled out the canned goods from the pantry.  He’s becoming quite the architect!

Once Raj came home, he convinced Shawn to help him put his things away.  It was tough work!

What an exciting day!

(By the way, I think 'pee-pee' is 'pinkeln' in German!)

Lions and Tigers and... Kindergarteners? Oh, My!

In German class, we continued our lesson from last week, learning the names of Raubtiere (wild animals):  der Elefant (the elephant), der Tiger (the tiger), der Löwe (the lion), das Zebra (the zebra), die Giraffe (the giraffe), and der Affe (the monkey).  Obviously, these were pretty easy to catch on to!  We made a picture using animal stamps for our project.  Nina had another class scheduled after ours today, so she couldn’t wait for Rosemary and her mom in to start class.  (That worked great for us, since we started a new day for Music at Gymboree today.)  Yet, when they did arrive, Rosemary’s mom was visibly upset about something and had to leave to take a phone call for most of class.  While she was gone, Rosemary was fine, but when she returned, she became very clingy and started crying.  There must be something going on at home.  Since we only met them once before, I didn’t feel right asking personal questions.

Today was our first day in our new Music II class with Ms. Kim.  It’s a big class, but saw Paula and her mom (who live in our neighborhood).  We miss having Miss Elizabeth, but we’ll see her on Friday and Ms. Kim did wonderful job too.  After class we had a chance to say hi to Mrs. Mary Beth, Shawn’s old teacher from Levels 3 & 4. 

We came home to find Shelley and Bill in their driveway.  The internet wasn’t working at Shelley’s office, so it was tough for her to get much work done and she came home early.  That meant that Abby got to go home early, too.  It was a really warm day, though a bit soggy, so we were all going to meet outside to play after the kids had had their lunches and naps.  Shawn was a little confused why Abby was leaving so early, but as soon as lunch was over we headed to his room for a much needed nap after a super busy morning.  So much for playing outside with Abby later… naptime lasted for about three hours!  By the time Shawn woke up, the temperature had started to go down again and playing outside didn’t seem quite so appealing.  We managed to go out and do a few laps around the driveway with his Cozy Coupe while I let Baron out, but our fingers and ears started to get cold and the wind started to pick up again, so we didn’t stay out for very long.

Raj closed his office today.  Instead of thetypical work day, he invited kindergarteners from a local school to visit for “Give Kids a Smile Day.”  Ms. Tina directed the whole event.  She carried a special Tooth Fairy wand and even wore a tiara and wings over her scrubs to show her special status.  The team lead groups of children through tours of the office, read stories about taking care of teeth, and showed them that the dentist is someone who helps people and not someone to be afraid of.  They even had a coloring contest.  By the end of the day, over one hundred students toured the office! 

Afterwards, Raj had to drive all of the way to Naperville for an IDA meeting.  He didn’t get home until well after Shawn was in bed.  I know it’s hard on him when they don’t get to see each other.  He’s been working very hard.  Hopefully, he’ll have a chance to take a break soon.