bike ride & other random things i don't want to forget

We went for a family bike ride on Sunday evening. The weather was gorgeous, everyone was happy, we were able to just hop on our bikes from home and pedal up to Ault Park … this is a moment that I have dreamed of. To me this is perfection. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole way (even as I was pedaling my legs off to get up the steep hills).

Lexi was on the back of my bike and she was cracking me up the whole way. She is so observant and her excitement for every “squirrel!” she spotted and every “slide!” we passed was contagious. She was narrating the entire ride. Kenzie did not stop smiling for the whole ride. And whenever we would pass her and Daddy she would wave excitedly and yell “Hiiii!” Kenzie enjoyed the actual bike riding so much that she really did not even want to get off once we arrived at the playground – and this is quite unusual for her (she typically squeals with delight when we arrive at the playground and screams when we leave).



Speaking of which, this is something which I don’t want to forget about my Kenzie girl. At 19 months she lives in the moment. She is typically so happy and excited to be doing whatever it is she is doing at the moment, that the thought of stopping that and leaving to go somewhere else is devastating for her. This leads to meltdowns almost every time we get in the car or the stroller to leave. Fortunately she typically finds the next activity equally exciting and is soon giggling again. She has this delicious excited giggle that kind of reverberates in her throat. I could eat it up. She also swings her arms in an exaggerated fashion when she is excited. Kenzie’s favorite phrase right now is “Uh oh! (always said with her mouth in a big round O - see picture above) What’s that? (usually accompanied by a finger point)” While Kenzie has been slower to develop her words (she has always been a big talker just using her own language), her vocabulary is suddenly starting to blossom (although it is not always exactly clear what she is saying). Her favorite words yesterday were “cat” and “moon.”



Lexi has been building up her vocabulary for some time now. As I have mentioned, some of her favorite words are turtle, squirrel, and slide but she is also starting to copy everything. Last night she found some flash cards that we haven’t played with in some time and I was amazed by how many of the words she recognizes and says now … cat, truck, fish, ball, etc.



Both girls are obsessed with finding the moon these days. Daddy showed them the moon about a week ago and talked to them about the Man in the Moon. Now, every time they go outside and it is remotely dark they are looking for the moon. Unfortunately the moon has not been very visible lately … but they still look for it.

The girls have started using their potty. While we haven’t started full blown potty training, the girls sit on their potty before they get in the bath and they are starting to understand the concept (rewarding them with mini marshmallows may or may not have helped ) and have both gone pee-pee in the potty on several occasions now. I don’t think they are quite ready for all out training yet … and I am not quite ready to commit to that either, as I imagine it will be quite time consuming with 2 and that we will be making countless trips to the bathroom.



The girls are not big fans of thunder. We had a thunderstorm last night and after the first big roll of thunder which rattled our windows, Kenzie came running over to me screaming with the most terrified look in her eyes. This caused her sister to also start screaming and both girls were clinging onto me for dear life. Randall is in Panama for the week so it was just me there to comfort them. I decided that we would turn on some (loud) music and have a dance party to hopefully drown out and forget about the thunder. This worked for a few minutes, but the thunder was louder than our music and the fear returned to their faces and they both wanted to be held. So we decided to have a special treat to distract us… we had some cupcakes left over from Sara’s birthday. This brought back memories of the book Thunder Cake. This was one of my sister’s favorites (or at least baking the cake was a big hit) and I will have to get it for my girls. In the story a grandmother helps her granddaughter overcome her fear of thunder by baking a special cake while a storm threatens. While we didn’t bake a cake, we did enjoy some yummy cupcakes and it did the trick of distracting them from the storm. I googled the recipe and we will have to make it the next time a storm approaches. Here’s the recipe … the pureed tomatoes sound really strange in a chocolate cake, but if I remember correctly it is actually quite delicious!

Thunder Cake!
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together one at a time:
1 cup shortening
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs, separated
( blend yolks in. Beat whites until they are stiff, then fold in.)
1 cup cold water
1/3 cup pureed tomatoes
Sift together:
21/2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup dry cocoa
11/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Mix dry mixture into creamy mixture. Bake in two greased and floured 8
1/2 inch pans at 350 degree for
35 to 40 minutes. Frost with chocolate butter frosting. Top with
strawberries.

ENJOY!!!