Bug and not-stitches

Tonight after dinner we were out on the deck enjoying the beautiful weather (it's been our best summer in New York, weather-wise!) when Robert discovered that he'd become the seat of choice for a praying mantis. We were all enchanted, and then Zion wanted to hold the bug. We said no, because praying mantises are delicate and we didn't want Zion to accidentally mash the bug as he picked it up. I took a couple of pictures while it crawled around on Robert.





Then Zion put his hand in front of the praying mantis and it crawled right on him. He was patient and very gentle, and good at putting one hand in front of the other to keep the bug on him. I was quite impressed with his bug handling skills! He later told me (quite proudly) that that is what he does with Huggy-Buggy (his school's pet hissing cockroach). Good to see that he's learning!



We tried to get the bug to pose on Zion's shoulder, but he wasn't having any of it (being rather tired of us at that point) and leaped onto Zion's face.



I took some pictures of Liel, too, since she got her stitches out a few days ago. She asked me to be sure to take a picture of her cut. It's healing pretty well, I think! And she's just so beautiful.

Happy Anniversary

Today is my parent's 37th wedding anniversary. They are in Oaxaca and hopefully having a good time!

In celebration (...or something) I made an incredibly delicious summer treat: lemon ice! Here's how I did it.

Zest of 5 lemons (6 would be good, but I bought 6 and already used the zest from one).
Put the zest in about 2- 2 1/2 cups water and put it in the fridge for a few days. Strain out the lemon zest and keep the lemony water.

Juice the lemons (I got about 1 c juice). Mix it with the lemony water and add some plain water- I think I added 2 cups or so. Stir in a cup of sugar (or whatever sweetener you like) and about a teaspoon of vanilla. Pour it into a 9x13" pan and put it in the freezer. Stir it with a fork every hour or 30 minutes so it doesn't freeze solid (though if it does you can put in a blender and save the day), and eventually you will have rock star lemon slush.

Stitches and recipes

Liel got her stitches out today! It would have been more exciting had we not had to wait over an hour past our appointment time to see the doctor, but it's nice to see her looking more like herself (of course part of that is the tiny bandage right over the scar. But still.). Liel got bored once the lollipop the receptionist gave her was gone (aside from the sticky traces she left on the chair), and we made 3 trips to the bathroom, only one of which was productive (the second, if you're interested). The surgeon told me to keep the scar out of direct sunlight for a month, which will be a bit tricky since we don't put sunscreen on the kids unless they're going to be outside for a good while and Liel refuses to wear a hat.

On to the recipes! Robin asked for the pilau recipe and she and Rachel both wanted the spice cake.

The pilau is simple- Crumble some thin pasta (vermicelli etc) into a pan with hot oil. Saute it until it is golden, then add rice and chicken broth and salt and cook until it's tender. While it's cooking saute an onion until it's lovely and caramelized and then top the rice/pasta with the onion, nuts and raisins. Oh, I sometimes add cinnamon and nutmeg to the rice, too.

The Cochin Spice Cake recipe comes from Joan Nathan's Foods of Israel Today.
1/2 c melted butter
2/3 c sugar
3 eggs
2/3 c semolina flour
2/3 roughly chopped almonds
2/3 c roughly chopped cashews
2/3 c golden raisins
cinnamon
nutmeg
cardamom
clove

Beat the eggs until they are nice and foamy. Add the sugar and butter and spices and continue to beat til it's fluffy. Add the flour (should be fairly stiff). Fold in nuts and raisins and bake in a loaf pan for about an hour at 350.

My notes: I added baking powder since I use egg replacer and it doesn't get foamy or fluffy. Glad I did, as this is not a light fluffy cake even with the baking powder. I think I'll add a bit of salt next time, too. I didn't give exact amounts for spices bc I don't have the recipe in front of me and because I added more than called for- just went with my nose. Cake comes out dense, very nutty and fruity. Quite tasty.

Liel's nose + K+ Z

Just some illustrations for ya. Liel the day after her injury and Kenny and Zion at K & G's birthday bash.

To the 4th of July...and beyond!

After I posted the other day we had another scare- Liel woke up about 2 hours later in a screaming panic and couldn't draw a normal breath. The hospital had given her a dose of penicillin (had I been thinking clearly I would have refused it- the plastic surgeon said she did not need antibiotics) and one allergic reaction to it is difficulty breathing. I got dressed and prepared to take her to the hospital again, which upset her even more. I'd tried talking to her about it before but tried again, explaining why I thought she might need to go, her difficulty breathing etc., and suggested she try to be calm, and sit with me and see what happened. Eventually she did calm down enough to slow her breathing and so we decided not to go. She wanted me to sleep with her and I didn't want to leave her alone in case it started again- our disagreement was about where to sleep. I wanted her to come to my big bed, and she insisted on her twin bed. She won. I dozed a bit until 430am when I crept back to my room and lay awake for 20 minutes feeling guilty and anxious (what if she woke up and was scared? Or her breathing (which had been perfect) got bad again?) and then I slept.

At 10am we had Zion's schoolmates who were still in town over for a playdate. I'd made hummus and bought cherries and blueberries the day before, so we finished cleaning up, sent Robert to Target for more children's Advil (her nose was bothering her a fair bit) and made pita bread. We had a great group of kids and parents over for a few hours and it was fun, even though we were tired!

In the evening we went over to Craig and Vivienne and Valentina's house for a BBQ. It was yummy and fun, and we could see the fireworks (not perfectly but well!) from their yard. It was the first year we'd seen the Nyack fireworks since we usually go to Manhattan. The Nyack ones were about what you'd expect for a little village- nice, but nothing to write home about.

So imagine our surprise when we started home! The village streets were PACKED. Traffic was at a standstill, lights turned green and red and green again and we didn't move at all. Most annoyingly there I didn't see a single cop helping with the traffic, which really, really needed help. Robert and I were cursing our decision to drive to the V's house. We normally walk (it's about 1.5 miles) but had driven since we'd be out late and wanted to get the kids home quickly. Yeah. It took us 45 minutes to get home, and I drove over two sidewalks to facilitate that process. It blew.

Anyway, Liel is in fine spirits. Her nose and the forehead about it is swollen, but she is cheerful and wonderful as always. This evening Mr. Faux and Kaori are coming up and having dinner and we are giving them our crib and other baby things for their little one (due in a couple of weeks!). Menu: hummus with snap peas and carrots, Israeli style pilau with nuts and currants, green salad, and Indian-Jewish spice cake (it has cashews and almonds and raisins in it! I've never made it before- hope it's good. It SMELLS good.).

Bed Jumping

Man, what a night. So, at bedtime Liel was jumping on her bed and fell. She cracked her nose on the headboard of her bed (lovely heavy cherry wood- it was my bed and it was my mom's) and split the bridge of her nose clean open. Except that it wasn't clean at all- it was very, very bloodly. Blood pouring all over her face, on her blankets, on Robert. Once we got a glimpse of the wound I pulled some clothes on her and ran her to the ER, cradled in my arms with a cloth diaper over the cut trying to staunch the blood. Thankfully we live 1/2 a block from the hospital! The desk guy at the ER rushed us right into the pediatric ER and a doctor had her cleaned up (all the dried blood and such. Well, not all...her hair is awful, gonna have to wash it in the morning!) and put a bandage with anesthetic on her. Then he suggested we have the pediatric plastic surgeon come in to stitch her up, since its right in the middle of her face. I agreed, and the plastic surgeon (who was at home) was called in. He got there pretty quickly, though waiting for him wasn't bad...Liel wasn't crying anymore and we were snuggling and talking about the doctor coming to help the cut on her nose.

The helping part was rough. They have this baby straight jacket thing they put her in so he could clean, cauterize, and stitch her up. Once the poking started (the injection of the local anesthetic) Liel started crying. And screaming. And begging me to pick her up so we could go home, and wailing, "You're hurting me!". That went one, more or less uninterrupted for about 20 minutes. The hole in her head wouldn't stop bleeding! He finally got it to slow up enough that he could put the stitches in. There are 6 or 8 of them. Once the poking was done and I could hold her Liel calmed right down and was positively cheerful when the nurse brought her stickers and a cookie (though she did inform the nurse that the straight jacket thing was "too tight").

She's home, sleeping. We'll go in on Tuesday to have the stitches out. I'm a little worried and sad for her about having a scar in the middle of her face (right between her eyes!) but I'm also incredibly grateful that that's the worst I have to worry about with regard to this particular incident. She's an amazing kid, and I love her so much!

New class

I'm supposed to be writing up the syllabus for the brand-spanking new class I'm teaching this fall. But, to paraphrase Barbie, "Writing syllabuses is hard!" (Of course it is- that's why I spent most of my 20's in grad school.) Mostly I'm having trouble working movies into the class, since it meets 3 times a week for 50 minutes a pop. I have ideas, but it's still tricksy.

The reason I should be working the syllabus right now is because Robert took the kids hiking. Lucky me, I have a quiet house! What I'd like to be doing is creating a new WoW character (she's going to be a blood elf warrior), but I feel too guilty to do that so I'm blogging as a compromise. See how grown up and responsible I am? Anyway. Liel was looking extra cute in her self-chosen hiking outfit this morning and when Zion came in to get his jeans on he looked at her admiringly and said, "Mama, can you dress me so I look as cute as Liel?"

Speaking of the kids, they have been getting up waaaaaay too damn early the past few days. I don't know what happened! We had several weeks where they were getting up at the luscious hour of 7am and now? Well, it was 5:45am today. We've been insisting that it is too early and that they should sleep more, which they don't. Our compromise has been to close our door and tell them entertain themselves until 7 or so, when Robert gets up. It kind of works, too, esp if you don't count the interruptions (which range from every 15 to 45 min) to check time, give hugs (yes, it is kind of nice, even at that hour) and bring bunny covers in for fixing.

Tonight we're having dinner with Craig, Vivienne, and Valentina at the swankily named River Club. Viv assures us that it's all an act, and really is quite casual and fine for kids. They have a burger with cheese and pulled pork on the menu (too bad it's not called The Good Morning Burger ala The Simpsons) so I'm guessing she's probably correct.