creativity

I took a bunch of pictures today of a very cute baby. It was a fun day (and it took ALL day), but at the end of it I am exhausted. It's amazing how much energy creativity--even creativity as rudimentary as mine--requires. Anyway, even though it's hard to narrow it down, here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Happy Evacuation day!

Sadly, on this most important holiday, in which we celebrate the final victory of the American insurgents over their British oppressors more than 200 years ago, I am out of both dental floss and cat food and must venture out to the stores.

A black, black Friday indeed.

Sylvia and Paul

People often ask if Sylvia likes her little brother. She does.


Frequently to decorate.



Sometimes she'd still like to sell him.

Wet shirt

This morning I found Sylvia taking her shirt off in the living room. I asked why she was taking her shirt off. She said it was wet.

"How did your shirt get wet?"

"I was playing in the toilet."

She got a bath after that.

Confusion

Sylvia doesn't know she's a girl, or at least doesn't realise her gender isn't set by her clothing. At bedtime she gets very excited about putting on her "big boy" pull-up, believing her pull-up makes her a big boy. From the time she puts her "big boy" pants on until the time we deprive her of them in favour of "big girl" panties, she goes around claiming to be a big boy.

The confusion doesn't end with gender either. The other day she was trying to climb the pantry to get to her Halloween candy. I told her to get down. In response, she said, "No, I monkey!"

Apparently Paul's big sister is actually a big boy monkey.

If you want something done right...

I told Sylvia we'd make cookies tonight after dinner. Of course, Paul decided he wanted dinner about three bites into my dinner, so I was still nursing when Sylvia and Derrick finished eating. Rather than delay the cookie-making, I instructed Derrick to help Sylvia with the first few ingredients while I finished up with Paul.

I used this recipe, omitting the orange zest and substituting raisins for the chocolate chips. The cookies weren't great. They were too salty and just not very sweet. I added chocolate chips to the last batch, figuring chocolate works better in salty dough and that perhaps this just wasn't a good oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. While adding the chocolate chips, Derrick and I discussed the inadequacy of the cookies. He said they weren't very sweet. I agreed, saying it was surprising given there was almost two cups of sugar in the dough.

"How much sugar?"

"Almost two cups. Three-quarters of white and a cup of brown."

"Oh."

"Oh? How much sugar did you add?"

"Three quarters of a cup of white and a quarter cup of brown."

"Oh."

If these weren't cookies I know Derrick likes I'd suspect he was attempting to fail into never having to help again. Too bad for him this is one of those things I think needs more practice.

11022011

Is just kind of a cool number and cool date.

Only one more this century, I believe (12022021).

Most notable thing about today in my life: I made green chili cheese tamales. Mmm, yummy!