For Father's Day this last Sunday I decided to cook salmon. (Now, why, you ask, would I make salmon when my husband hates fish? Salmon was the alternative main course-venison, his favorite, was the main event-two vegetarians meant something was needed other than red meat.) Fortunately, I was long ago exposed to salmon in it's real and true form. But for many, salmon only exists in loaf form. Now, in my book, nothing should exist in loaf form but bread. I've never quite understood the need to put meat in a loaf. It's bad enough that we butchered the poor, helpless animal to begin with, but to totally demoralize them by then forming their remains into a loaf seems somehow very wrong. My opinions on poor helpless animals aside, I realized how many people have had their views of salmon tainted by concoctions such as this:
Foul in every sense, my first memories of salmon loaf are my dear mother opening a can of salmon and extracting the tubular pink blob, bones and all and mashing it into a loaf. "Bones are good for you," she would say, as she handed us a little dish of round bones to munch on, "why when I was a little girl, we thought bones were like candy." AS IF. From that day on I would only eat my salmon loaf after meticulously mashing every last bit on my plate at least twice to be sure there were NO bones in my portion. To make matters worse, we always had salmon loaf with cooked carrots (I can't imagine any two foods that I despise more), so there was no hope of chasing the loaf down with some other more appealing dish. And as is always true with cooking fish in the house, the fishy smell would linger for days, clinging to our clothes, an olfactory billboard to anyone and everyone announcing that yes, we had dined on salmon loaf that week.
A few weeks back we were discussing fish at a family dinner. Little did I know that it wasn't just my mother who thought salmon loaf delicious. My aunt was also a salmon loafer-right down to the "candy" bones! And as I was soon to discover, my mother-in-law, too! (although she readily admitted that bones were not a substitute for candy) For my poor cousin, who never had the hope of salmon patties(a later concoction my mother created in an attempt to reform the loaf idea in our minds), salmon was nothing but a foul, pink, loafy fish!
So, you can imagine my joy as I served REAL salmon to my guests and in doing so, opened their eyes to a whole new world of salmon -one where loaf is not a part of the vocabulary.
The salmon was a hit-even my fish hating husband ate it and said it was good.
Besides eating fish, we did do a few other things over the weekend:
J's parents joined us for the weekend. Cool, sunny weather meant a perfect Father's Day at the lake.
The dogs misbehaved, but what's new? They spent dinner in the car-we'd had enough of their seranading. (They got a nice walk after dinner.)
Colton decided the weekend was a good time to educate Amelia. Amongst other things, he taught her how to cut her hair (she has a nice buzz patch on the top of her head) use the phone, and shoot a deer....hmmm. She taught herself how to run top speed anywhere and everywhere-up and down the stairs to the beach being her favorite.
Too bad this didn't wear them out...
A long time ago I bought finger paints for Colton. Thinking better of my purchase, I put them away. Today being another hot, humid day I thought what better time to pull them out and have a little fun?
The picture above is clear proof as to why this was NOT fun. Now, of course, my fun is different than others fun and I know that some of us did have fun and lots of it.
Stupid me for setting up the "finger" paints in the dining room. I did, fortunately, have the foresight to put down an old blanket, but a few other words that might have been helpful if they had occured ahead of time would be OUTDOORS, NAKED, PRESSURE WASHER. Dining room, carpet, and dogs do not belong with "finger" paints, but they were certainly there, too. And I write "finger" in quotations because fingers, I think, were the only things NOT used to paint with. Colton decided that painting his legs was much more appealing than using paper. And Amelia decided it was the appropriate time to forget about walking and scoot through the paint that did make it onto the paper-and while she was at it, why not scoot through the paint plate, too? And when I tried to take her paintbrush away she shoved it into her hair where it promptly got stuck.
And the fact that these paints were washable means nothing. I think the people at Crayola must sit back and laugh with great satisfaction everytime they apply the word "washable" to one of their products. While it may actually wash off after a great amount of scrubbing and soap, I will be looking for the product labled "NO MESS, NO CLEAN UP" next time. But as we all know (yes, even I was a kid once) NO MESS = NO FUN. So for now, I'll just lump finger paints into that category with yogurt in a tube and juice boxes-Products Not Meant for Parental Self Preservation.
(The colored blob on Colton's head is not finger paints, but his healing bruise-much improved from the enormous goose egg gash it was last week-playground fun!)
And to top it all off Amelia thought it wasn't enough to eat sunscreen and destroy the house with finger paints today. She's added stripping to her repertoire-and how am I supposed to teach a 1 year old that this is not suitable behavior for a young lady?
And this last one of Colton is because he was not happy that all the pictures were of Baby and not him.
On days like this, I can empathize with the Grinch, would it be all that bad if I outlawed fun? How about just clean fun?
Another clip of Amelia-I finally found something she likes to eat-Rice Krispies! Snap, Crackle, Drop.
P.S. No, we do not have wine for breakfast...we're just lazy and didn't wash our glasses from dinner.
Like a ghost in the night, she's fast and she's stealthy!
(J thought my previous "Amelia walking" clip was pitiful and didn't adequately show off her skill. I managed to get a better one this morning.)
Life being particularly busy (as usual), I have not had the time, nor the mental capacity to post a blog. So for those of you who depend on my blogging for your daily entertainment, I hope you found some other way of getting a good chuckle. I would have to classify May as a "blink of an eye" month-it is ALWAYS gone in a blink of an eye. I think for that very reason it's my favorite month. It's the fleeting moments in my life that I seem to cherish the most. While May is fleeting, I could also describe it with this collection of words: green, anticipation, renewal, promise, refreshing, new. The deep, greens the woods display on a cloudy day in May always remind me of Colton's arrival-a very special May memory. I am always thankful for the wonderfully cool and fragrant breezes that float in the window on a perfect May day. May is spring at it's best. All that being said, it's now June. And as always, I ask, where did May go?
May this year went to starting our walks around the block again. Yes,
we are fair weather exercisers. Along the left side of this post I have compiled a picture log of our journey around the block. Some of the pictures are video clips.
May this year went to Amelia learning to walk. She still scoots as fast as ever, but she is becoming a very accomplished walker, too.
She has her own little toddle-which I've discovered
is very hard to capture on camera. My whole reason for purchasing a camera with video option was to record Amelia learning to walk. And that's been about as easy as catching a urine sample from my dogs. (which is on my to do list from the vet..."a designated ladle works
best," she claims.) Nothing with Amelia has been easy. Like for
instance, right now she is chewing on a balloon-one of
the top ten choking hazards for a baby, but this is relatively good as her last
venture into bad babydom had her putting her fingers in electrical sockets. (never fear, the balloon has been confiscated) We have been very excited to see her walk after being a bit concerned that she might not. All in good time. (her time)
May went to a trip to Philadelphia.
We had not been to Philadelphia since before Colton was born-so this was all new territory for him and Amelia, too. Colty finally got to meet his cousin Elaina, who is just about the same age, and
her new baby brother, Jonathan.
Colty and Amelia especially enjoyed their time with Auntie E and Uncle Jeff-which I, of course, documented, but which, of course, will not transfer to this web page. We did see lots of relatives on both sides of the family and had beautiful,
warm, sunny weather. This was also Colty's first car trip without a diaper or a pull-up. We made quite a few stops at McDonalds...As luck would have it, he chose the 40 mile stretch of turnpike with no rest stops as the place where he HAD to go potty. He waited all 40 miles to go. Miracles never cease. When we reached the rest stop (along with the other 535 people on the turnpike who really had to go)-the family bathroom was
wide open. (In my mind this was somewhat like Moses and the Red Sea opening before him....was that Moses? time to brush up on my O.T. knowledge.) And, wonder of wonders, there was a child seat-with belt-to strap Amelia into! What D.O.T. worker had
that ingenious idea? Now if only the rest of the world would catch on.
Amelia learned how much she likes to go up and down
stairs...and how well she
could throw a tantrum when no one would escort
her up and down.
May went to playing outdoors.
The sandbox is a new favorite with C & A, and a wonderful "playpen" for
them while J and I make our attempts at creating a civilized looking yard. Needless to say, I feel like we're living at the beach again (which is not necessarily a bad thing)-sand on the couch, sand in our beds, sand in our food, sand in our eyes, sand in the washing machine, sand in the bathtub....
Colty quotes:
"Flowers go in holes." as he was making his tulip tree.
"I always hug you when I see food." When J was making his lunch.
(Chester refused to pose.)
And so that's the end of May because I think if I sit at this computer any longer and deny "them" any more of the attention they are so desperately seeking I will go insane! There is a limit to how many screaming requests for cheese sticks a person can withstand before her mental state completely cracks. That, and I'm not sure what that was that was just stuffed under the couch cushions...I think I better go find Amelia.
p.s. these blogs never publish the way you think they are going to...sorry for the helter skelterness of this one
Amelia....always a clown.
(Sunday was Colton's 3rd birthday-he wanted to share it with you so below you will find his very own blog creation re-telling his special day. )
There's me. There's baby and there's Uncle Roo. There's Andy. That's bunny. I'm playing with my monkeys. There is a red and blue balloon.
That's Baby and that's Aunt Ruth and that's Grandma. They are eating my birthday cake.
I am playing with a card.
I'm looking at elephants. They are down there. I am playing in the sandbox. Good and cold (the sand).
That's my baby sister. She's playing with a ribbon.
This is Uncle Roo and that's me. I'm playing with Uncle Roo and taking my presents out