A packed weekend
I got so carried away in creating to-do lists for the apartment and such that I forgot to post this weekend. On Saturday Devon had a fabulous day with Walt while I went mountain biking (for the first time in, literally, ages). They went to the park and played at the playground and then went to the lake. Walt had this idea to rent a paddleboat and take her in the lake, but he later told me that it was clear it was a two person deal: one person to paddle and the other person to wrangle Devon. As it was, she had a wonderful time playing chase around the lake, looking for ducks and checking out the boats. We'll have to try paddleboating soon, because when I was back from my ride, she was so excited about the prospect that she kept saying, "Mommy, Daddy, boat!" She's getting more and more sophisticated each day with her language, so I loved that she was trying to explain that she wanted to go on a boat ride with us using (almost) a compound sentence.
Another nice benefit of her day at the lake was that she was totally exhausted this evening and slept through till 7am (instead of waking up at 5 or 5:30am, getting some milk and then falling back to sleep for another hour or so). It was downright blissful to sleep through from 10pm to 7am -- I was practically giddy from that much sleep in the morning.
We've been making pizza pretty regularly, partly because we can buy very tasty fresh dough at Trader Joe's, so it's a very easy and fast dinner; and partly because we have these fabulous dry-farmed tomatoes that we've devouring by the bushel. I've taken to roasting them, which is truly gilding the lily -- roasting is the tried and true technique to take lousy or mediocre tomatoes and make them barely palatable. It concentrates the juices, so tomatoes that aren't so sweet or have been stored in the fridge so their texture is horrible and cottony, become more tender and sweeter. When you do it with already fabulous tomatoes, though, it's like eating a tomato flavor bomb -- the thing just explodes in your mouth. At any rate, it's divine on pizza, so we've been eating them about twice a week now.
Devon has gotten very interested in this, particularly the rolling out the crust part. This weekend she insisted on rolling out "her" pizza, so we got her stool, led her up to the counter and had her roll it out. This mainly consists of her eating the raw pizza dough (ick) and poking holes in the dough with her fingers. When I try to take over and roll it out, she shrieks at the top of her lungs, "Mine, mine!" and lunges for the dough. This all makes for pretty ugly pizzas -- lumps of dough, holes in the middle -- since even when I intervene, she's fighting me all the way, so the pizza never really works like a pizza should and inevitably has at least a couple of holes in it. She adores the whole pizza-making exercise even if the end result isn't too great.
On Sunday we had some more time at the playground (the JCC is closed this weekend for Rosh Hashana, so it's thrown a wrench in our usual routine -- I think there are as many Jewish holidays as there are bank holidays -- I think the JCC is closed at least 4 times in the next month for holidays. Ugh).
We went to the east bay in the afternoon, since we were having dinner with my mom. A few weeks ago when we went to Ikea, we had spied a cool fabric tunnel for kids -- it unfolds (or folds) and kids can climb through it. I was too cheap to buy it when I first saw it (and later was chastised by Walt), so we went back to get it this time. Ikea, as much of a hassle as it is on the weekends, is super kid-friendly. The kids' section had all sorts of toys, including a little slide, and it took us about 20 minutes to pry Devon away from it. The tunnel turned out to be a big hit, though, and she played with it at my mom's for quite a while. It's also a perfect apartment toy, since it flattens to a relatively small bundle for storage. If nothing else, Ikea is a haven for apartment dwellers who need collapsable, foldable, hideable items and don't mind cheap construction (although I have to say that inch for inch, our Ikea countertops are one of the best buys we've made -- they look terrific and were amazingly reasonable). I was hoping that we'd make it to the Claremont for a swim, since the JCC has been closed all weekend, but after we got out of Ikea and did our EXPO return, it was time for dinner. We'll have to plan another east bay weekend where we can spend a lot of time at the pool, since I'm sure Devon would love it.
She's still obsessed with water and in fact has now discovered showers. On Saturday when I got home from my ride, I needed to take a shower since I was covered in dirt. Devon had just gotten out of a bath (or shower, I forget which), since she was filthy from her time in the park; but when I started my shower, she demanded to come in with me. So she turned right around from the bath and took a shower. It made it rather difficult for me to wash my hair, but she sure loved it.
Another nice benefit of her day at the lake was that she was totally exhausted this evening and slept through till 7am (instead of waking up at 5 or 5:30am, getting some milk and then falling back to sleep for another hour or so). It was downright blissful to sleep through from 10pm to 7am -- I was practically giddy from that much sleep in the morning.
We've been making pizza pretty regularly, partly because we can buy very tasty fresh dough at Trader Joe's, so it's a very easy and fast dinner; and partly because we have these fabulous dry-farmed tomatoes that we've devouring by the bushel. I've taken to roasting them, which is truly gilding the lily -- roasting is the tried and true technique to take lousy or mediocre tomatoes and make them barely palatable. It concentrates the juices, so tomatoes that aren't so sweet or have been stored in the fridge so their texture is horrible and cottony, become more tender and sweeter. When you do it with already fabulous tomatoes, though, it's like eating a tomato flavor bomb -- the thing just explodes in your mouth. At any rate, it's divine on pizza, so we've been eating them about twice a week now.
Devon has gotten very interested in this, particularly the rolling out the crust part. This weekend she insisted on rolling out "her" pizza, so we got her stool, led her up to the counter and had her roll it out. This mainly consists of her eating the raw pizza dough (ick) and poking holes in the dough with her fingers. When I try to take over and roll it out, she shrieks at the top of her lungs, "Mine, mine!" and lunges for the dough. This all makes for pretty ugly pizzas -- lumps of dough, holes in the middle -- since even when I intervene, she's fighting me all the way, so the pizza never really works like a pizza should and inevitably has at least a couple of holes in it. She adores the whole pizza-making exercise even if the end result isn't too great.On Sunday we had some more time at the playground (the JCC is closed this weekend for Rosh Hashana, so it's thrown a wrench in our usual routine -- I think there are as many Jewish holidays as there are bank holidays -- I think the JCC is closed at least 4 times in the next month for holidays. Ugh).
We went to the east bay in the afternoon, since we were having dinner with my mom. A few weeks ago when we went to Ikea, we had spied a cool fabric tunnel for kids -- it unfolds (or folds) and kids can climb through it. I was too cheap to buy it when I first saw it (and later was chastised by Walt), so we went back to get it this time. Ikea, as much of a hassle as it is on the weekends, is super kid-friendly. The kids' section had all sorts of toys, including a little slide, and it took us about 20 minutes to pry Devon away from it. The tunnel turned out to be a big hit, though, and she played with it at my mom's for quite a while. It's also a perfect apartment toy, since it flattens to a relatively small bundle for storage. If nothing else, Ikea is a haven for apartment dwellers who need collapsable, foldable, hideable items and don't mind cheap construction (although I have to say that inch for inch, our Ikea countertops are one of the best buys we've made -- they look terrific and were amazingly reasonable). I was hoping that we'd make it to the Claremont for a swim, since the JCC has been closed all weekend, but after we got out of Ikea and did our EXPO return, it was time for dinner. We'll have to plan another east bay weekend where we can spend a lot of time at the pool, since I'm sure Devon would love it.
She's still obsessed with water and in fact has now discovered showers. On Saturday when I got home from my ride, I needed to take a shower since I was covered in dirt. Devon had just gotten out of a bath (or shower, I forget which), since she was filthy from her time in the park; but when I started my shower, she demanded to come in with me. So she turned right around from the bath and took a shower. It made it rather difficult for me to wash my hair, but she sure loved it.
posted by Devon Szalva at
8:51 PM
1 Comments:
It sounds like it was a fantastic weekend! Sometimes it takes something like the JCC closing to come up with a more creative idea.
What is Devon going to be for Halloween?
By
Jim Sailer, at 4:03 AM
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