I climbed up a mountain

and all I got was this delicious cookie.

Well, actually, I rode in the backpack. But I walked down the mountain. Part of the way. Then I got mad. Then I asked for another cookie. Mmmm...cookies.

Apple Pie with the Apple of My Eye

We bought a whole bunch of delicious apples at the farmer's market. They just have boxes of them, 3 for $1 and you pick out whatever kind you want and take 'em on home.

So we did.

And, apple pie being my absolute favorite, we made an apple pie. Actually, really my favorite pie is crust. I don't care that much what is in the pie as long as there's a thick, flaky crust. In fact, I think next time I might just make a crust and fill it with ice cream.

But, now that I've wiped the drool off my chin, I'll show you how we did it.

First we took out the Rotato. Yes, it's the Rotato. And I love it. And not only does it peel potatoes, but it peels apples. And I love it.

We peeled some strips of inner apple for Sadie to eat, too.

Here's just a lovely shot of Sadie, I kind of like it. She does this a lot.


Hmmm, I didn't show you the crust making. Well, I made that ahead of time and chilled it a bit. I learned the hard way recently not to involve Sadie in any project that requires careful measuring of flour. Let's just say she gets a little too enthusiastic with the cup of flour. Yes, let's leave it at that.

Anyway, so we rolled out the crust. Sadie has her own rolling pin.

What is she doing? Well, she's making pie dots. That's the secret to a really great bottom crust, you know. You just poke it repeatedly with your fingers after you've rolled it out, like so:

Um, no. It's not the secret to great crust. She just liked doing it. The crust was great, though. So maybe it is the secret.

Now we've dumped the apples in the crust. I've just realized I also neglected to show you the cutting and seasoning of the apples. Well, thankfully, you're here to see Sadie.
You'll have to get a cookbook if you wanted the actual recipe for apple pie. Sheesh, this isn't a food blog, people.

Notice Sadie eyeing those apples above? Well, here she goes, stealing them. If you look closely or enlarge the picture by clicking on it you will see a special prize on top. That is the apple she took out, bit a chunk off, and put back:

And she went back for more. Do you now see the THREE apples minus one bite on top?
That girl was moving fast:

So we quickly put the top crust on. But did that stop her?
Sadie? Hey, we just...

...put that crust on and...

...wow, you must really like cinnamon sugar apples:

Well, now you know the real secret to a good pie: Letting a toddler nibble on half of the contents. Are any of you ever going to eat anything I serve you ever again now? No?
Well, we'll just have to order in then.

Alright, crust closed back up. Let's decorate it!

Dada came over and took a picture of us. Here I am in all my delightful glory. Enjoy:

Look at it, all covered in hearts and stars.
I love pies with hearts and stars. So does Sadie.


And it was gooooood. Yes, it was.

I hope I haven't scared you off of my pies. They're really tasty. Even if a little mouse nibbles on them.

Whatchyou talkin' 'bout Sadie?

Sadie has been saying some funny things recently. Here are a few:

All done Mommy talking. (When she wanted me to read her a book but Will and I were talking)

Hair bothering me. (Her wispy bangs in her face annoy her and she gets mad)

Mommy hair bothering me. (When she thinks my hair is bothering me)

Mommy, sit chair booboo. (Nurse me in the chair)

Mommy sit chair play playdough. (I think you know)

Bread? Bread table. Bread, bread table. Pease? (Ummm, give me some bread folks. Why is there no bread at dinner tonight? Pats table. Have I mentioned that this child will eat buttered bread, and only buttered bread? Not that I blame her.)

Laddie sock. Laddie sock on paw. Laddie sock head. (As she attempts to put her sock on Laddie.)

No snuggoo Dada. Snuggoo Mommy. (She will not snuggle with Will in the morning. Later, yes. First thing in the morning? No.)

Mommy, picture Sadie. (As she points to my camera.)

That's all I can think of for now.

Quirks

Like anyone else, Sadie has her quirks. She likes certain things a certain way. Or has a funny way of looking at stuff.
And, like I said, I know everyone has their quirks, but when it's your own kid you find them entertaining and you wonder where the heck they came from.

I'm sure my parents are still wondering why I'm so dang weird.

Like with All done. We desperately taught her all done in sign language and words because when she was smaller her favorite thing to do was decide she was done eating and 1/1000th of a millisecond later she would toss all of her food to the floor.

Eventually, she got it. She didn't really stop throwing food, but she took to all done like a duck to water. She not only says all done, but signs it at the same time. And, if she thinks you aren't getting the message fast enough, she takes both hands and signs about 1-1/2 inches from your nose while saying all done, all done.

But all done has morphed into no as well.
If you ask her if she wants something she justs says all done. Before she's had it- All done.
If you look at her when she doesn't want you to look at her- All done. All done Mommy.
Hey Sadie, want to go inside? All done inside.

You get the idea. We hear these two words about 75 times a day.
And I swear this is true- the other night Will and I got into bed where Sadie was already asleep. She, in her sleep, gave a little stretch and murmured All done. Really.


Then there's a new one: Want.
Sadie has suddenly decided that reading books is not enough. She wants the pictures in the books to come out of the books.
So she lightly grabs/scratches at the picture and says Want, want. She gets very upset when I tell her that the characters live in the book and we can't get them out. I try telling her how we can visit them whenever we want and that seems to make it a bit better.

I completely understand this problem. Who doesn't want their favorite book characters to come visit? Or to go visit them. But still, what a nut! I've never heard of this being an issue.

And, finally, she pretty much calls any lady Granny. Or Gahnny.
The other day we were sitting in traffic on a country road due to an accident up ahead. We were stuck for over an hour and everyone was out of their cars and wandering around.
We were talking to two women in their 50s or 60s. Sadie looked at them and said, Gahnny! One, two. Two Gahnnies!
We thought it was pretty funny.


So those are three quirky things I can think of off the top of my head.
I'm sure there's tons more. I know there's tons more. But I'm all done for the night.
All done blog.

Mini (very mini) Vacation

We went on an overnight trip to Bend and Sisters this week. Those are towns. Yes, they are strange names.

We had a good time and stayed in a hotel with a pool and hot tub. Sadie enjoyed all the sights but I think her favorite part of the trip was running from Dada in the pool to me in the hot tub and jumping in. Since I am a total baby about cold water I didn't go any deeper in the pool than about knee height.

Then I got in the hot tub and stayed there.

It's amazing how kids don't feel cold they way we do as adults. Sadie could just jump into the cold (heated) pool and then straight into the hot tub, then back again. Yikes.

We also went down into a cave. It is a giant tube of lava rock about 1 mile long or so. It was cool, and cold, and dark.
Sadie vacillated between enjoying herself and saying All done. She seemed to feel much better when we could see other people. She would say People come! Light! People! But she walked a bit on her own holding our hands and we had a good time until we were too chilly, and Sadie was All done-ing to beat the band.


Wow. There are a lot of chipmunks in Bend and Sisters. Or they might be a squirrel that looks just like a chipmunk, we never quite figured that out. Anyway, they are fearless and Sadie loved them to bits.

Here we are having lunch.


And this is the waterfall we stopped at and took a little hike. Can you believe how gorgeous?

Polka Dot Dress

Sadie has the cutest polka dot dress that Grammy bought her when she was about 5 months old. It's an 18 month size, and it finally fits her. But we have nowhere to wear it.
No parties, no galas, no balls. Our social calendar is looking quite empty, in fact.

Unless you count library story time. But then I'd be that weird mom who dresses her daughter in party clothes to go to the library.

I'll wait until Sadie decides on her own that every day deserves a party dress. After all, that's what I did when I was around 5. Who wouldn't want to feel like they were going to a party every day?

So I decided to put her in it today and take some pictures. I just couldn't leave it unworn in her closet.
Have a look.

Mail

Sadie loves to go get the mail. It might even be more fun than picking black boways, but I'm not sure about it being better than picking maynoes.

We go to the gate and walk down the driveway to get the mail.


Well, actually, Sadie runs:

Since she's still too short, I take the mail out of the box.
I have a feeling it's only a matter of time until she insists on doing that part herself.

Immediately upon removal of mail from the box I hear Hold mail, hold. Mail. Hold mail. And then she walks it up to the house with me.

Still walking:

It's easy to get excited when you've got all that mail to carry:

Sometimes the excitement is too much, and we lose some along the way:

And then sometimes we get distracted by odd things. And we have to run and watch.

But at least we hold onto the mail:


Sorry about that last picture, I couldn't help myself. But if you know Sadie, you know about her obsession with dog poopoo and cat poopoo. Just count yourself lucky that I didn't post the next picture.

Yummy Yogurt

Just a quick picture to keep y'all happy.

Quacks!

We rode our bikes down to the park to feed the ducks and geese. We had a bunch of bread items that needed to be eaten by someone other than us.

Sadie still calls ducks quacks. It's the last vestige of a time period when all animals were referred to by the noise they made. Slowly she has phased out meow and woof and moo in favor of cat, dog and cow. I miss those days. So I'm hanging on to quack for as long as I can.

And the best part is that it's pronounced quock, like Jacques.

But anyway, we went to feed the quacks and the goo.

Here she is throwing some food for them:


Wow, this is fun, I'm surrounded by quacks and goo:


Getting the hang of feeding:


Oh, hi there goo.
What? Too close?
Hey, one of your goose brothers hissed at my kid.

And now look at her. She's stuck to me like glue:

The Lower Forty

OK, well maybe it's only the lower forty inches, but sometimes I feel like for such a small backyard there is such a large assortment of treats growing.
Of course, there's the garden. And while it hasn't produced as much as I'd like I have learned a thing or two for next year's garden.

Then, just growing randomly, we have grapes, yellow plums, purple plums, pears and blackberries. Yum!
If I get a hankering for some fruit I just step outside and pluck and eat.

Like this:

This has not been a great year for tomatoes. But there are enough for salads and sauce, but not enough to freeze and can.
Sadie doesn't care, though, she just wants enough that she can pick maynoes.

Now, the blackberries are another story. They are nuisance plants out here. They seem to not need a single drop of rain in order to grow. It's pretty crazy. And while keeping them from taking over is a real pain you do get a delicious reward. And we've been getting a pint of delicious rewards every day:

I don't know what we'll do this winter. Sadie is obsessed with Boways. Black Boways. Picking black boways.
It's gonna be a rude awakening when they're all gone and the rains sweep in.



And here's dinner. Made of our homegrown tomatoes and zucchini.
And mozzarella made from our cow, Bessie's, milk. Oh, I forgot to mention we bought a cow?

No I didn't forget. I'm lying.

And here's the dessert. Apple-blackberry pies. I can't even explain how delicious these were. Will even ate some for breakfast.


And Sadie wasn't refusing to eat them either.