Cutting Mushrooms

The following is an article that I wrote for the Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library newsletter. They only got a picture, but you get a video!

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After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and having my husband tell me about The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan we have been convicted as a family that in order to be good stewards of our bodies and the earth we should eat local and organic food as much as possible. However, cooking from scratch and using fresh produce takes a long time. I didn’t want to spend all that time alone in the kitchen and not include my one-year-old son, Micah. So I found some ways for him to enjoy the process with me.

Micah can’t use knives or the stove, but he wants to cook. He loves having a job and he’s more likely to eat things he’s helped with. His favorite activity in the kitchen is cutting mushrooms. Whole Foods sells local organic mushrooms all year round. We use Pampered Chef’s Egg Slicer Plus to make this a group activity. I strap him in his booster seat with the egg slicer ready to go on his tray. I push him next to the table and put the fry pan right on the edge of the table next to Micah. Then I get rinsing. Each time a mushroom is ready to be cut I put it in the egg slicer for him, then go back to rinsing. Meanwhile, Micah expertly presses the top down, squeals, “AH HA!” and pries the mushroom pieces out of the slicer and puts them in the pan. When the mushrooms are done, I let him down, chop up some onion, fry it all together in butter and serve!

Another way we involve him is by allowing him to put spices in certain dishes. He plops cinnamon sticks and cloves in a pot of apple cider or dumps the measured spices for a soup into the pot. Micah also loves to put the spices in scrambled eggs. His favorite combination is basil and coriander, a strange sounding concoction of my husband’s that is quite good.

From visiting the PTLL, Micah has developed a love of painting. Whenever I make a pie, he “paints” the top crust with water or egg whites and we put the sugar on together. The irony of this particular cooking activity is that now Micah likes the crust the best. He requested an apple pie for about two weeks and I finally gave in. Luckily this happened in the winter when local apples from Dawson’s farm were available at Whole Foods. During his nap I peeled and chopped countless apples by hand, mixed the filling—except the spices which I saved for when Micah awoke. He painted the crust. When the pie was finally finished and ready to serve he ate all the “crust” and left the apples. Oh well!

While cooking from scratch with Micah is healthy and fun, sometimes I’m too tired or there’s just not time. We have sworn off all the fast food burger places and anything else that sells CAFO meat. That doesn’t leave many options. But we have found a few local places that we all enjoy without having to sacrifice our food values:

• Panera – Kids meals come with a side of Horizon organic yogurt; drinks include organic milk or organic apple juice; all chicken is antibiotic-free; Micah likes the chicken noodle or chicken and wild rice soups.
• Chipotle – Most meat is naturally-raised; Micah likes carnitas “buh-buh-buh-bitos” with black beans, rice, pico de gallo, and guacamole.
• Whole Foods – A great place for a quick hot meal.
• Oh Yeah! – They sell organic ice cream; they make waffles, can add fruit.
• Taza D’Oro – Micah loves steamers (Turner’s local hormone free milk with flavored syrup). He likes them cold, which means they’re not steamed, but who cares! He orders them like this: “code teemer, app-oh teemer!” Only one of the cashiers can understand him!

Sleeping with Trucks

Yay! I finally learned how to put pictures on the blog!

Micah does actually go to sleep with his trucks sometimes.



And other times he falls asleep reading.

IN BUS!

Hi Everyone!

One of Micah's favorite activities is to "GO IN BUS!" Or go to the "BUS TOP!" Sometimes I will drive him to CMU campus around 5pm. Then Brett and Micah ride the bus home together. It's not exactly "green" but oh well. We buy local produce. Anyway, Micah has a very clear idea in his mind for what is needed to "GO IN BUS!" or go to the "BUS TOP!" First, he needs, "hat on!" Depending on his mood he may choose his baseball hat with a basketball on it or his old swimming hat, which is bright blue with a full brim (all the way around) and is a little bit too small. Then, "jacket on!" Then we need, "Backpack!" But often we need to put something in the backpack first. Two days ago, Micah was only satisfied and ready to wear the backpack once the A&D cream was in there: he was prepared to fight diaper rash. Just to give you a visual, his backpack is a frog. Bright green with eyes, a mouth, and feet. There is a main zippered section and the mouth and feet are all smaller zippered pockets. It looks quite hilarious, especially when he wears the bright blue, full brimmed swimming hat. hahaha! Then he climbs on the gate at the top of the stairs that lead to our front door and says, "OPEN GATE! Bye bye, Mama! DOWN TAIRS!" At which point, I laugh. On the days that I actually take Micah to CMU for a bus ride with Brett (a.k.a. Ga-ga, Micah's name for him) he is very excited. On the days that I can't take him to CMU, I take advantage of the suitcase that is still sitting unpacked at the top of the stairs and tell Micah that it is a bus stop and he can sit and wait for the bus on it. He is still confused about this and doesn't always realize that he's supposed to sit on it and pretend, but once he gets it, he sits down and says, "Waiting bus." hehe! However, this pretend bus stop is very confusing for Micah. Yesterday when I actually took him to CMU to ride the bus home with Ga-ga he really wanted to take the suitcase with him and threw a fit when I wouldn't take it. Ah well. Such is life when you're 20 months old.

Orphans in Myanmar

Hello -

I am very distressed. I just heard from a brother in Christ who lives in Myanmar (he attended PTS for one year and we visited him when we went to Myanmar a few years ago. The government in Myanmar has closed all of the Christian orphanages and organizations. All of the Bible Schools have been warned. This is happening because after Cyclone Nargis hit it was the local Christians who provided relief and aid to the people and as a result many have become Christian. The government feels threatened by this. For more information and ways to help the orphans go to Asia Heartbeat. This is very distressing because orphans are always the most vulnerable in oppressive regimes and after disasters (Cyclone Nargis). If you go to Not For Sale you will find information on how sex traffickers from Thailand target children in Myanmar for their brothels. I am very concerned about the fate of the orphans in Myanmar now that the Christian orphanages have been closed. Please pray for the children in Myanmar and if you want to support either relief organization you can find ways on their websites.

Grace and peace,
Sarina

Fun Phrases!

Hi!

Here I am again with no pics or videos. I need to learn how to do it, but I just haven't yet. If it makes you feel better I feel guilty that we haven't posted any pics. ;-)

Anyway, Micah is doing so much! He is now talking in small sentences. The other day we were about to walk under the bleachers at CMU and he said, "Go in tunnel!" This morning he said, "I love coffee!" haha! He's never had coffee before but has participated in making it. Whenever he plays with water or even just with empty cups he says, "Pour coffee!"

He has taken to singing. The only song he really knows is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. However, we recently received a burned CD with the new songs that the praise team at church will be singing in 2009 and I really like one of them and was listening to it over and over in the car with Micah. (It's called "Bless the Lord/Son of Man" by Tye Tribbett). Now he sings along and will sing, "You are!" and "My soul!" And then he wants to keep singing but doesn't know any more words so he just breaks out with, "Tinko tinko...tar...how wonner...are! Tinko tinko tar...how wonner...are!" It's awesome!

Micah loves to read. His favorite author is Byron Barton. We have been going to the library and checking out every book about vehicles that he has written and he's written a lot. Micah actually asks to go to the library on Monday mornings because that's usually when I take him. He gets his hat and says, "Hat on," then gets his jacket and says, "Jacket on." Then he says, "Library! Eh-vator! Choo-choo!" The children's section at our library is on the second floor so we always take the elevator (eh-vator) and they have a brio train set by the picture books so that's the reference to choo-choo. It's a good time.

Oh! And some exciting news! He peed and pooped in the potty for the first time ever on Saturday March 14th! Woo! Go Micah!

HI!

Hi Everyone -

I have heard that many people are glad to know that Micah can drink from a cup, but want to know what he can do now! I'm going to give you a verbal update instead of an update with a picture or video (mainly because I don't know how to do a pic or video). :-)

About Brett: He is supposed to graduate August 2009 so he's applying for jobs. He submitted 42 job applications to Universities with Engineering programs in the top 65. He is also in the midst of filling out an application for a prestigious post-doctoral fellowship with IBM as well as applying for industry jobs. In the midst of all of this he is finishing up his programing, experiments, and writing for his dissertation. Soon (hopefully!) he'll be traveling often for job interviews. It's exciting but crazy!

About Sarina: In January Sarina wrote an exegesis paper and sermon which she preached yesterday. A representative from the Pittsburgh Presbytery came to hear the sermon and evaluate her. She goes before the Committee on Preparation for Ministry on Wednesday to present her statement of faith and be examined, then Presbytery on Feb 5th for the same thing. If all goes well, she will be ordained on Feb 22nd! The service will be at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh @ 3pm and you're all invited! Needless to say, there have been a lot of things to do in order to get everything completed. My Mom came to visit last week. Praise God! Before that I was only able to work on my myriad of things at night after Micah went to bed. I'm not sure how I would have finished everything if she hadn't come. Thanks Mom!

About Micah: Micah is 18-months-old. He is Mr. Constant Motion and Mr. Chatterbox. He's so much fun! He's running everywhere now and constantly has ideas about what to do next. He loves to talk and has a lot of words. Yesterday evening we went out to dinner and we asked Micah what he wanted and he said, "Soup!" In addition to soup, his favorite food is waffles, which he asks for often: "Faffle?" A new phrase he said yesterday is, "No way!" hahahaha! He also loves art. He likes to draw with pens, crayons, markers, and colored pencils. He likes to paint with finger paints and water colors. I'm sure he would like other mediums, but that's all we have at home! (I need to go shopping.) He always wants us to write "a Y!" or "a M!" He can do dots, lines, scribbles, etc. Yesterday he created his own signature: a super-spikey M followed by a frilly spiral (my interpretation, of course). He laughs now whenever I write it with sound effects. Today we were water-color painting a picture of the bus from the movie Cars and he wanted to paint the stars yellow. When he finished them all, he wanted me to paint more stars so he could paint them yellow. He knows his colors (his favorite is brown, followed by red, green, black, and purple), he can count, he can name most letters, he knows animals and their sounds, and all manner of vehicles. Wow! Brett and I are constantly amazed at how much Micah knows.

He is also a very caring person. Here's a cute Micah story to leave you with. This happened about a month and a half ago or so. I was upset about something (can't remember what) and I was crying in the kitchen. Brett was comforting me, of course! Micah came in from the living room when he heard me and said in a high pitched imitation of what I sounded like, "Mama, mama." He came to me and wanted to sit in my lap. By this time I had snot all over my face and Micah knows all about Kleenex and what they're for. So, I asked him, "Micah, would you get me a Kleenex, please?" He got this look on his face like, "I know how to do this!" He bounded off my lap and tore into the living room. Brett followed him and found him standing in the middle of the living room looking around with his arms out - he was looking for the Kleenex box. Brett pointed it out to him and he raced over, grabbed about 15, then tore back into the kitchen and thrust them up to me while trying to climb onto my lap at the same time. Oh! It was so cute and fabulous! I sat him on my lap, smiled, thanked him, and felt much better.

We hope that you are all doing well. It means a lot to us that you check our blog, even though we have been remiss at keeping it updated!

With much love,
Sarina

Drinking like a big boy

For some time now, Micah has been (mostly) successfully drinking out of normal cups. Every once in a while, he'll drop a cup, or pour water all over his face, but this is happening less and less frequently. When some mishap does occur, however, a well-timed and perfectly-intoned "uh oh" is in order.

Big pot

Sarina and I enjoy cooking. We eat out only infrequently, and as a result, Micah spends a lot of time in the kitchen with us. Of course, he likes to do the sorts of things that we do, like haul around big pots. We try not to fall over while carrying big pots, but as Micah learns, sometimes this is unavoidable.

Taking to the stairs

Micah has become quite a competent stair climber. He climbs with ... enthusiasm.


He's also started climbing other things, like chairs and the like. He's such a cautious boy in general that he hasn't taken in big falls. He hasn't bloodied a lip or anything. He's even managed to avoid major bruises. As a result, I don't think he's desensitized us to falling. Should we buy him a helmet?

... just kidding.

Walking and talking

What's this? Can it be? A second post in as many days!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what about a video? At one minute long, and 30 frames per second, this video is valued at nearly 2 million words. Plus, it's Micah.

I'd heard many times that you have no better mirror than your children. Micah at one point began calling to us from distant rooms, and we quickly realized it was because we had set the standard. I think we both also walk and talk. Does it show?


Yes, we let Micah play with our cell phones. No, in general he doesn't drop them, though he does call random people and make changes to our contact lists. However, it is good entertainment, and we figure we're training him for the many hours he's likely to spend pacing the halls of his apartment, talking on the phone.

Sign language

So ... it's been a while. How are you? We're fine. Busy, but fine. You know, we should catch up sometime. Now isn't a great time, but I have a special treat for you. We have a little video of Micah doing some sign language. I think you'll probably enjoy it.


Versatile Micah, proving that if you're coughing so hard you can't speak, you can still ask nicely for milk and cookies from Daddy if you know sign language.

Robeez Season of Giving

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that Robeez, our favorite brand of baby shoes, is donating products to Kids in Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.) based on easy things that we can do, like sending e-cards or posting on our blogs about it. This is an easy way to make a difference. See details here.

Thanks, Ian!

Micah, in general, displays fantastic manners: he shares, puts things away when he's done with them, says please and thank you (in sign language). Of course, he is one, and he's a boy. He also has a close friend Ian (7) who can teach him things he might not otherwise learn at home. For example, hilarious hand noises. Thanks, Ian!

Eating with a Spoon

Hello Everyone! We're back! I survived retaking two of the PC(USA) ordination exams and Brett passed his proposal. Brett is now in the middle of writing a paper for submission to DATE (a conference) and preparing for SRC TECHCON (another conference, in Austin, TX and we're all going). I am recovering from the craziness of the last month...whew!

We thought we'd update you with the latest and greatest in Micah's life tonight since we've been away for so long. Micah is now successfully and messily eating with a spoon. It is still just a new fun activity more than an eating process, but we are both impressed with his dexterity. He is also babbling up a storm. He'll rattle off whole sentences of babble very earnestly, looking you right in the eye. It's so hilarious and cute! The following capture both of these things.

This picture is Micah's I-live-in-the-'hood-and-I-eat-from-a-spoon picture.


Here's a video of dinner tonight. :-)