the squibix family blog

Of course, we learn those patterns automatically as young people, and it's possible for language learners to overgeneralize. Zion does! And when I think about it, I totally agree with him. He hears "batches" and thinks, fine, how about "pathes"? And if th, why not f as well? I'm a big fan of "roofes" (pronounced roofiz), which I think is yards better than the current confusion. Is it "roofs"? "rooves"? Horses have "hooves", right? Hmm, what was that I said about automatic pluralization? I take it all back. Can I have some direct instruction please?

So far, he's shown no impulse at all towards building. Maybe he figures his brothers have that under control; they certainly spend plenty of time on it (ideally in safe places like high tables or on another floor from the little agent of destruction). As parents we have mixed feelings. On the one hand, the mess! On the other, when provided with enough things to take down or out Lijah can amuse himself for a good long time, which is more than we could say for Harvey or Zion at this age. If you move quick you can even get some cleaning done in one part of the house while he wrecks up another: since we move slightly faster than he does, with constant work the net effect is—very slowly—a cleaner house.

And of course, whenever you want to get his attention all you need to do is set a single block up on edge, and he crawls right over: he's not going to let that stand for long!

There were some very nice presents, but Lijah might have been more interested in the lovely—and easily reachable—appetizers.

Luckily his brothers are always available to show him how to play with his toys (they even let him have a turn after a while!).

After a tremendous birthday dinner (thanks Mom!) it was time for cake. It was Lijah's second candle, but while he might be figuring out the routine the mechanics of candle-blowing still escape him.

Then all that was left was to eat the cakes (though Lijah, healthful baby that he is, mostly stuck to the blueberries and strawberries).

We had another party yesterday, but I didn't take any pictures of it. Leah did; I'm sure she'll post some as soon as she has a moment.

Why?

It may seem counterintuitive, but the addition of milk, cream or any other liquid for that matter, will actually make it more likely that your eggs will turn out dry. By thinning out the eggs, it's easier to overcook them. Most importantly, the milk dilutes the taste of the eggs. It also screws with the texture, leaving the eggs slightly rubbery — and no one wants rubbery eggs. If you're using good, farm fresh eggs, you don't need anything except maybe a little salt and pepper to make them taste delicious. A little butter never hurt anyone, either.

The author, Alison Spiegel, "is a Food Editor at the Huffington Post. She is a graduate of Middlebury College, and she currently lives in Brooklyn." I don't know part of that qualifies her to to judge egg preparation, but I'm pretty sure that her main qualification to the bosses at HuffPo is the ability to draw traffic, and she hit the jackpot with that egg post (which I got to via google news); most of her posts have maybe two comments, but that particular gem pulled in 693 at current count. I didn't read any of them.

I only hope people aren't really following her advice and leaving milk out of their eggs. I've been making eggs with milk or cream for years and they're always really good; why on earth would I change at the unreferenced suggestion of a Middlebury grad living in Brooklyn?! But I bet there are people who will: the same people who can't resist the latest weird diet trick, or believe conspiracy theories. "I hadn't thought of that before, so it must be true!"

There's nothing wrong with changing your mind about things, certainly. I've done things one way for years before realizing I was "wrong": I used shaving cream like a chump until it occurred to me that plain old soap does a better job. But when I make a change you know it's based on my own experience, a trusted friend, or a well-reasoned argument. Not some handwaving about how milk "screws with the texture".

As for milk and cream in eggs specifically, I'm going to stick with what works for me. And if I want backup justification, I'll turn to the words of Tamar Adler, also a Brooklyn resident, but one who has cooked at Prune and Chez Panisse (as well as her own restaurant):

Beat two or three eggs in a bowl, adding a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of heavy cream if you want. This is not a trick, but an expression of the fact that things taste good with cream added.

And I'll do it a lot: I forgot to check our henhouse for eggs two days ago and yesterday there were ten to bring in. Scrambled eggs with cream every morning, and never mind about that dumb bossy internet!

Before we were buried in snow earlier this winter we'd made some half-hearted attempts at practicing without training wheels—you know, with the holding the back of the seat and running alongside—all quickly aborted when Harvey rejected my every attempt at correcting his technique. Naturally enough, I might add; I'm just the same way.

Then yesterday, beautifully warm, the boys were out riding around with the neighbor kids and he asked me to take off his training wheels. I was busy pruning apple trees so I tried to put him off—I didn't want to get involved in the emotional conflict I thought would be the inevitable result. But when he kept asking I finally agreed to do it, if he went and got the wrench. Which he did with alacrity.

Once two-wheeled he asked if he could just sit on the seat and push the bike with his feet for a bit, and I agreed that was the best way to proceed. Which he did for about two minutes, then the next thing I knew he was getting his feet on the pedals for a good five seconds at a time! And then we had to go in. Today was much cooler, but he was eager to get back to practicing... at least as long as I was out there riding with him. Which was fine with me! Before long he was racing around like he'd been doing it for years, so I got out the camera to take some video.

Of course, with me as a cycling model he wasn't content to stick around home for long. Once he showed me that he could brake under control and turn around in the width of the street, we took to the sidewalks of the wider world for some more practice. I was so impressed with how well he navigated the range of obstacles: we both laughed when he crashed into that telephone pole, sure, but he also negotiated street crossings and sharp turns like a pro. Just think how far he'll go this summer!

Is it ok to feel a little bit proud?

I'm not going to let it stop me doing something similar in future, but I might wait for the next one until it gets a little warmer, so the kids can spend a bigger part of the time outside. It's hard, hard to stay indoors this much from an activity standpoint—we've all had enough of indoor activities and indoor voices by this point, I feel—and now I think the germs need room to spread out too.

It was pretty awesome. When I was painting the house I was terrified up on the ladder up near the eaves, but with my snow gear on and piles of snow all around me I didn't mind it a bit being even higher, up to the very peak of the roof itself. Plus it was nice to move all that snow without having to lift any of it above my head. And there was plenty of snow to move!

In between then and now we had some pretty warm days, and it suddenly occurred to me that one day it would be spring... and I should be thinking about starting seeds! So I had to find the cold frame. It took a little work but I was able to discover it, with only one pane cracked by its heavy blanket of snow (it's probably a really good thing I got it cleared before it rained!).

But mixed in with the warm days have been lots more cold ones; some of the coldest days of the year, in fact, in terms of perceived temperature! Which means that there are definitely no plants outside yet, even under the cold frame. The positive side of the temperature fluctuations is that, on the cold days, the snow is finally firm enough for kids and dogs to walk on top of. Which means that the backyard became a place to play again for the first time in a month!

The chickens could also walk on top of the frozen snow, but that has no appeal to them, so their day of backyard enjoyment had to wait until there was some actual dirt visible. When that day arrived they were so delighted to get out!

Well, most of them were delighted... two of the young hens flew halfway across the yard only to land in a patch of soft snow where they stood still for half an our before I took pity on them and carried them back to the coop. They're going to wait a little bit until they can take their whole outing on dirt. Not, of course, that there's any dirt showing any longer, after this morning's snow. But not too long now!

Which of course is ridiculous. He absolutely can sit still when he wants to, and in lots of ways is basically a model student. Check out this video of him at age two to see what kind of a baseline we're working from (really, check it out: it's pretty much the best video ever made). If someone is ready with interesting content, or even a compelling reason why boring content is worthwhile, he'll be totally willing to endure the presentation. And in my more rational moments I know that what he needs isn't more sitting, it's more running around playing imaginative games.

So mostly I let him run (or build with legos or listen to music or whatever). But every once and while we throw formal schooling a bone. Here's the last formative assessment he did, back in January (formative assessment means "test" in teacher language).

Today Harvey, Zion, and I sat and drew pictures for each letter of the alphabet. That is, Harvey and I drew, and Zion looked on and told us what letter should be next. Harvey easily thought of something to draw for almost every letter (I was particularly impressed by his quick choice of "quilt" for Q) and he drew everything confidently in his own, admittedly non-standard, style. That seems like pretty fair for kindergarten if you ask me. So tomorrow if all we do is play legos, ride bikes, and read stories, I won't feel like that's any kind of a problem at all; and maybe I'll even be able to own it proudly when someone asks what we've been up to.

Our flock's laying trails off to nothing in the winter because we don't light their henhouse. As I understand it, hens need 14 hours of light a day to lay at their fullest rate. Not only did we not want to bother running electricity and hanging lights, we also aren't interested in speeding up our birds' laying life... since we're not sure what we're going to do with them when they don't have any more eggs to give. But another good reason occurred to me for the first time this morning, as I listened to them squawking and arguing first thing in the morning: it's bad enough worrying about them waking the neighbors at 5:30. I can't imagine them making that racket at, what, 4:00! No, we'll stick with things as they are!

Ever since got his training wheels off, a couple weeks ago, he's been pretty serious about his cycling. There was a little setback a couple days after his two-wheeler breakthrough, when a friend backed over his bike with her car and rendered it unrideable; but on the upside that led us to dig through the shed to find a replacement that ended up being a better fit for an increasingly confident rider. (His confidence also extends to not caring a bit that it's pink and Barbie-branded.) Consistent riding means his balance gets better and better, and his turns are now as nimble as mine—more so, even, with his shorter wheelbase. No more, playing bike chase, can I out-turn him to turn the hunted into the hunter.

As much as we enjoy games like that on our dead-end street, he sees me modeling cycling distances for transportation and wants to get in on the action. Sure, he wasn't enthusiastic about joining us on our family walk to Whole Foods this morning (once we got going, Leah said, "Isn't life nice when none of the adults have to work!"), but he did great once we got going. Then we joined our neighbors on a ride up to the library—but we didn't have time to go in, since we had to get home and take over the Lijah care when Leah went to do an errand. Well, that wouldn't do for my pair of library lovers, so we hooked up the trailer for Lijah and headed right back up the hill. So yeah, a little over six miles without a complaint.

Even though we're riding in mittens, getting out in the fresh air makes spring feel a little more real. And with all that good outdoor exercise, we fall asleep so quick we have less time to mind the closed windows!