Happy Half Birthday and First Day of Preschool

Selena is now 3 1/2 and she is in one of those stages where she is learning new things quickly.   Her climbing is improving daily.  There are some monkey bars at a nearby playground that have a slight downward angle and are quite high and now she can do them all by herself and even let go and land on the ground without help.  I need to get it on video because she looks pretty small doing them and it is pretty impressive.

Her hand and eye coordination has also improved a lot.  She can now catch something if you throw it to her and she can throw better as well.

She has now also figured out how to use the computer by herself.  She can use the mouse to click on stuff and drag it.  She can even use the scrolly button to scroll a web page.  She mostly plays on the starfall website or the Super Why and can do most of the games on them without help.  I'm proud of her, but am not completely sure if this is a good thing or not.

She is getting better and better at writing.  She almost knows how to spell her name without help.  I've seen her do SELE before she asks for help and the letters are getting in the right order and facing the right way more often.

We went to camping, to the Evergreen State Fair, and blackberry picking and she had a lot of fun.  Her favorite parts of camping were riding the ferry, and making smores.  She enjoyed the rides and playing in the farming maze at the fair.

She also had her first day of preschool.  She has been waiting for this moment for months.  She enjoyed it a lot and was upset when I came to pick her up.  She didn't know why it wasn't longer, she was playing on the playground and didn't want to go, and she didn't want to wait five days to come back.  The first thing she told me about was how she didn't know where Owen went during snack time.  I guess he might have gone home?  She said she had a funny teacher.  She brought home some worksheets and she didn't completely color in the sun.  She said next time she would, but she got tired so she didn't finish.  They made her walk around in a circle "for some reason" (maybe duck, duck goose or something?).  They played and played and played.  They had animal crackers for snack and water.  She took three sips of water.  They had music time, but weren't allowed to sing.  Then they did sing an America song.  They read a Clifford book, and it was one she had never read before.  It is very weird for me because its the first time she has been away and I don't get a report from an adult on what she did.

Lately she has been in a phase where she keeps asking if I love her or Allie.  It is really annoying because she asks it at least 20-30 times a day.  I keep saying I love you both or ignoring the question.  Then she'll say I have to love only one.  She'll also ask if I love her when she does bad things and I say I do.  I love her no matter what.  Well to balance all this annoyingness she was playing with Allie and Allie smacks her, so she tells Allie to not hit and then says, "Even though you hit me Allie I still love you," and my heart melted. :)  She has also been very helpful in figuring out what Allie wants when she is crying.  In the car she'll give Allie snacks, she watches for when Allie drops things in the stroller. On my sleep-in-day apparently Allie was crying and saying Mama so Selena comes in (thankfully right about when I wanted to get up) and says, "Allie is crying and calling your name."  So she's looking out for her little sister, at least some of the time.

Wild Berries in Western Washington (Blackberries)

This is a continuation of my series on wild berries in the Pacific Northwest.

In the Puget Sound area typically Labor Day weekend is the prime time to pick blackberries.  However we have had a very cool summer and there are still lots of green berries on the bushes right now and overall not a plethora like usual.  There are two species that are ripe right now.  I already blogged about the native trailing blackberry that was ripe a month or so ago.

Himalayan Blackberry

This is the most common bush you will find around here.  It is an invasive species and is often treated as a weed. According to my berry book the only other place in the world blackberries are treated as weeds is New Zealand.  You will find these bushes in almost any empty lot, empty field, under powerlines, or on the side of the road.  The best spots to pick are bushes that are away from the road and have lots of sunlight.  Make sure the bush looks healthy as people will sometimes spray them with poison.  Bushes near the road may also have lots of pollution on them.  The bushes will grow in the shade, but the berries are not as sweet if they do not get a lot of sun.  The berries grow from green to red to black and are ripe in late August early September.  The leaves are oval shaped and have serrated edges.  The bushes are very thorny so you have to be careful while picking.  The berries that are perfectly ripe and taste the best are the ones that are slightly soft and come off the bush without having to pull hard.  You can usually find bushes that have large amounts and you should be able to pick a bucket or two of berries without much problem.  It is really satisfying to get so much delicious free food.  Blackberries make yummy smoothies, ice cream, milkshakes, and jam.  Flash freezing the berries is a good way to preserve them for later eating.

Cut-Leaf or Evergreen Blackberry

The evergreen blackberry is quite common as well though not quite as common as the Himalayan.  The evergreen blackberry's berries are firmer, have larger seeds, and in my unscientific sampling are less likely to be sour.  These berries also go from green to red to black and are ripe in late August early September.  The leaves are deeply incised and tend to be a darker green (the first picture's color seems to be more accurate).  This species doesn't tend to be as loaded as the Himalayans so picking a large amount is a little more difficult.  But many times the two species grow together and you can pick both at the same time.

15 months

Allie is 15 months and just as cute as ever.  She's kind of a ragamuffin always getting into things and making messes.  She is learning new words every day.  Recently she started saying "Seenuh" for Selena.  When she can't find her she'll start yelling "Seenuh, Seenuh" and then ask us, "ud seenuh go" (where'd Selena go).  She has also added "thank you", "belly button", "super why" and "one, two, three" to her repertoire.  She really likes belly buttons and noses.  She is always showing us hers and finding ours.  Shoes are also very cool, and we have lots of conversations about shoes, and where'd they go.  She is always taking her shoes on and off and losing them so we have to find them about 3 times every time we go somewhere.

She likes to take her diaper off and run around the house.  She likes to run away and be chased.  She's become adept at moving the furniture around so she can climb up and get things.

She is still abusive.  Selena's started calling her Abusive Allie.  She doesn't seem to be mad, most of the time.  She just smacks you and gouges out your face.  She thinks it is funny.  It is getting old.

She is still a great berry picker.  She homes in on the huckleberries and she enthusiastically went after the blackberries even though they scratched up her belly.

We've gone swimming a couple times and she enjoys that.  Just as long as she can do what Selena is doing she is happy.

We went out and got Allie her own baby doll since she and Selena were fighting over Selena's.  They still fight over Selena's.  Allie just gathers up hers, Selena's and another baby doll we had and tries to carry them all around.  She brought them all over to me and said, "uuh, two, tee."  :)  She likes to undress and attempt to dress the babies with their dresses and diapers.

She enjoys dancing, especially to the Super Why songs.  One night her and Selena were dancing out on the deck in the dark to their own singing.  It was incredibly cute.

She's gone back to going to bed fairly easy.  We moved her to a mattress on the floor next to our bed so now I at least start the night with no kids in the bed.  However 99% of the time by the morning they are both snuggled up to me.

Wild Berries in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon Grape and Indian Mock Strawberry)

This is a continuation on my posts of wild berries.

Indian Mock Strawberry

Edited:  Due to a comment from a wonderful reader I have re-identified this from wild strawberry to Indian Mock Strawberry. 

I was so excited when I found these at my uncle's cabin on the Washougal River.  The berry books rave about the taste of wild strawberry.  Unfortunately I was sorely disappointed.   These had no taste whatsoever.  Completely bland.  So far it seems that overall berries that get a lot of sun and heat are sweeter than those in the shade and these were completely in the shade.  I did also find a small patch along one of the nature trails near my house.  Those too were tasteless.  The strawberries are tiny.  About the size of a small raspberry or blackberry.

Oregon Grape

Oregon grape is found all over the place.  I mostly see it as native landscaping along the sides of the road. The leaves are prickly and look like holly but Oregon Grape has blue berries instead of red.  (Holly has red berries that are poisonous so do not eat the berries from holly.)  The berries are really easy to pick and there are a lot of them.  However they taste really, really, sour.  Not palatable at all really.  But if you squeeze the juice from the berries and add a lot of sugar you can make jam, or wine if you are so inclined.  I did attempt to make some jam by squeezing the juice out of the berries through a mesh bag (I recommend wearing gloves as my hands are still stained a couple days later) adding sugar (3/4 cup of sugar to 1 cup of juice) and boiling.  My "jelly" ended up more like syrup.  I added some chia seeds to get some more gelling but that didn't really help either.  Selena did eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with it, but  I'll probably pour it over some pancakes or ice cream.  The jelly did taste pretty good though, but how can it not when its almost all sugar?

Next up are blackberries.  They are just starting to get ripe.  I am so excited!

Things I've been reading

Here are some interesting posts I've read in the last couple weeks:

Using Computers to Teach Children With No Teachers - I read lots of stuff on educational theory, early childhood development, etc. and I've been drawn to self directed learning, multi-age peer learning, and unschooling as a more ideal way to teach kids.  This article is an example of these methods working really well.  Amazing.

Irrigationless Irrigation - Really cool invention that would allow massive amounts of trees to be planted in the desert.  Can we reclaim the Sahara?

Breast milk Kills Cancer - Breast milk is magic and the answer to world peace and all civilizations problems.  Maybe, maybe not, but I've finally found some update on the research being done on breast milk killing cancer cells.  I think the Susan G Komen institute should start funding some more research on this.  Wouldn't it be cool if the answer to breast cancer could be made from the breast?  I am curious to know if inducing lactation could curb/stop or kill the growth of some breast cancers.  I need to read the whole article sometime and attempt to understand it.

Kermit Alphabet Song - I love this youtube video.  It is my favorite version of the ABC's.

Down with HFCS - Cancer apparently feeds on it.  Love how they need to create a drug to make it not feed on fructose.  Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to just stop eating it?  It's all about the money.

Seahawks got screwed in the Super Bowl in 2006 - I'm still very upset about this, but I love that the ref admits he made mistakes.  Makes me feel a bit better.

History of Science - This is a neat site that has articles on the history of technology and information on various artifacts.  The database goes from 2,500,000 BCE to 2010.

3 years and 5 months old

We've been having a fun summer so far.  Selena has been begging to go camping for a couple months now so when we went on our annual trip to my uncle's cabin on the Washougal River we brought our tent and decided to sleep in there instead of in the bunk house.  It was good.  Both girls fell asleep sitting around the campfire, so I didn't have to miss any socializing putting them to bed.  They even managed to sleep in a bit.  We'll try a real camping trip (cooking our own food) in two weeks.

In addition to that excitement we made a few trips to the "beach" at Silver Lake.  Selena loved swimming in the lake and made us go two days in a row to get all her swimming in.  The beach is nice because she can adjust the deepness.  We did go in the pool at my brother's condo earlier this summer, but it started out at 3 feet deep so she had to be held the whole time.

We've still been doing a lot of berry picking.  One day Selena commented, "I didn't know we were going to turn into berry pickers when we moved to our new house."  We've gone and picked strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries at various local farms and we often go out among the nature trails around our house to pick wild berries.  I'm looking forward to the blackberries getting ripe.  My parents do an annual trip to Whidbey Island to pick blackberries, but we haven't gone in a long time because we lived so far away, but we will get to do it this year.

In theory I am against television for young children for a few reasons, but I have succumbed to the convenience of it giving me a few short breaks during the day and by the fact that Selena asks for it.  The habit started when I was pregnant, still working part time from home and needed a nap and Sesame Street could give me it.  So she watches a few shows a day, but no more than one at a time and we use the DVR so there aren't many commercials.  But in the last couple weeks Selena seems to have entered a new level of comprehension when it comes to watching television.  She used to watch the same episode about 5 or 6 times on our DVR before getting bored with it, and sometimes you would ask her about the show and she couldn't tell you what happened (research has shown that young children's learning is very inefficient through the television ie they have to watch something on the TV 4-6 times before they learn it, but if they are taught it in person it only takes 1 or 2 times of repetition).  She did learn a lot of things from the shows, but she did have to watch them over and over.  Now she only wants to watch a show once, and she participates in the interactive portions of the show.  So it is kind of an interesting developmental milestone.

She has been writing a lot lately.  She can now write most of her letters without me creating dots for her to trace.  It is neat because we don't work on writing or reading.  We just include it with things she does.  Like we write letters to family members or make cards for people's birthdays.  It is fun to see her progress.  It also answers my question if she knows her letters, because I'll tell her how a word is spelled and she writes it only occasionally asking me how the letter is made.

She has also been drawing a lot.  My favorite has been her series of pictures of her cousin Issac.  She's drawn Baby Issac playing golf, wearing a tutu, with an afro, in a blanket.

We still are struggling with frequent accidents, both at night and during the day.  She was dry at night for a while, but then she started having a lot of accidents so I put her back in diapers.  She kept them dry, so I put her in underwear and she wet the bed.  I really think she doesn't like peeing in a disposable diaper, but it doesn't bother her when she does it in her underwear.  She also will have accidents often when she is playing in the backyard.  I think then it is mostly laziness because she figures she is outside and it doesn't matter.  Other times she'll have them in the bathroom or on her way to the bathroom because she gets distracted and doesn't get there in time.  It is really annoying.

She is definitely in a climbing stage.  Everything is a jungle gym, and when we are in a store, and she's using the shopping cart to climb on.  It is pretty annoying.  However when we are at the playground it is pretty impressive.  She's small for her age so I'm sure other parents think she is younger than she is and thus I've gotten many parents hovering around her at the park when she is fine.  In general I don't like to hover because I've noticed that if I hover she is more likely to give up and have me do it for her, than if I am not nearby.  If she asks for help I will help her, but I try to let her assess her own abilities to figure out what she can do and what she can't.  There is a big rope spider web at Willis Tucker Park and she is determined to climb to the top.  She's gotten almost there, but she is a little too short to get up the last two rungs.

She is also in a question phase.  Of course the inevitable "Why?" to anything and everything.  But also some more thoughtful ones.  Today we got into a discussion on how the dinosaurs died and where humans came from.  When she doesn't understand she keeps asking, "What did you say?"  Obviously my explanations were confusing and she eventually said, "Mom, I am so confused."

She still has her invisible friends Do, Re, Mi, Fa and So and the other night we were out, in the dark, with our flashlights looking for their house so she could go over there for a slumber party.  When we couldn't find their house she was very upset.  I kind of pointed out that Do, Re, Mi were pretend so they didn't really have a house, and she got very upset about that.  So I quickly covered and said I didn't mean it, and I was confused, and that they must have gotten confused and really wanted to have a slumber party at our house.

Minimally Sweetened, Fresh Mint, Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe

I've been trying to cut back on sweeteners.  It is recommended that you get no more than 25g of extra sugar (so not counting fruit) a day.  25g is pretty much one bowl of ice cream.  I have been doing pretty good overall.  There is a little bit of sugar (about 3-4g) in the piece of toast I have each morning (Dave's Killer Bread) and then my bowl of ice cream in the evening.  However I'd like to do better.  So I decided to make a minimally sweetened ice cream.  I figured strawberries would be good for it because you can macerate the strawberries in a bit of sugar to bring out their natural sweetness.  I also thought some fresh mint would be yummy.  I like to mix strawberry ice cream and mint ice cream in the same bowl so I figured making an ice cream with them together would be good too.  The ice cream turned out yummy. It probably would have been even better with more sugar, but overall it was a success.  Here is the recipe:

Minimally Sweetened Fresh Mint Strawberry Ice Cream
* Start this in the morning if you want the ice cream in the evening
* This makes about 5-6 generous servings which is about 12-14.5 grams of sugar per serving

1 lb of strawberries
1/2 cup of evaporated cane juice (3/4 cup if you want fully sweetened)
fist full of mint leaves
1 cup whole milk
2 cups of cream

• Warm the milk and 1 cup of cream on the stove.  Remove from heat, put the mint leaves in and cover. Let them seep for a couple hours
• Hull and chop the strawberries and put them in a bowl.  Mix the evaporated cane juice in and let them sit for a couple hours.
• Pull out the mint leaves and press them through a strainer back into the milk to squeeze out all their mintiness.
• Put the strawberries, minty milk, and cream in a blender and blend.  It is up to you how much you want to chop up the strawberries.
• Put the mixture in the fridge for a few hours. 
• Pour it into your ice cream maker following your machine's directions.
• Eat it!  

For more ice cream making tips see my previous post.

Refashion - Men's Shirt to Girls Dress

I've been really anxious to sew.  My stuff was all packed in the garage, but I finally got it out/organized.  However my free time is very limited so I wanted a project to do that was quick and didn't take too much thought.  I saw the shirt dress in blog land a while back and Google turned up this shirt dress tutorial for me which worked perfectly.

The shirt was a gift from a student to Floyd.  Not exactly his style, but it is silk and pretty.  I thought it would be very nice for Selena.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

Now the only problem is laundering a silk play dress. ;)  The project was very easy.  My only comment is a reminder to pay attention to where the buttons lie when placing the pattern.  I put the edge too close to a button so when I went to fold it over to make the casing the button was in the way.  So I had to pick off the button and move it down.  

Wild Berries in the Puget Sound (Thimbleberry, Blackberry, and Blackcap Raspberry)

This is a continuation on my posts on wild berries.

First Post (Red Huckleberry, Salmonberry, and Salal) 

Red Huckleberries and Salmonberries - Mostly redundant of first post, but some additional info.

to come Oregon Grape, Indian Plum, Salal, more blackberries, wild rose and poisonous berries.

Thimbleberries

These are my new favorite berry.  They are kind of tart, but I think they taste so good.  If I am out running and spot some I will stop to gobble them up.  These red berries are kind of fuzzy and are very squishy.  Sometimes they fall apart when you pick them.  They start off as white and get red when they are ripe.  The plant has big kind of furry maple looking leaves.  There are no thorns and most of the plants I've seen are about 4' to 5' tall.   Each plant doesn't have a lot of berries and they are kind of hard to put in a bucket because they mush each other so I think this is one you pretty much just eat right off the bush.

Blackcap Raspberry

So far I've only come across one of these bushes.  In the top picture the raspberries aren't ripe yet.  (I ate all the ripe ones earlier in the day when I was out running.)  In the second picture the one on bottom right is ripe.  The bush has small prickles on it.  The berries go from green to plum (like in the picture) to black when ripe.  The couple berries I ate were pretty sweet.  These ripen from July to August.  You can tell they aren't blackberries because the globules are smaller and not as fragile and when you pick the berry the center receptacle stays on the stem. 

Blackberries

In Western Washington blackberries are everywhere.  What you may not know is that most of the blackberries you see are an invasive species and are not native.  But the trailing blackberry, seen above, is native.  It grows low to the ground (not in a gigantic bush) or climbs over fallen logs.  Some say that this is the best tasting of the three types of wild blackberries.  This blackberry isn't quite as prickly and the berries start ripening in mid July.  I'll do the other two species of blackberry in a few weeks when they get ripe.

Wild Berries in the Pacific Northwest (Huckleberry and Salmonberry)

This is a series about wild berries in the Pacific Northwest.  I decided to separate the berries in their own posts.  Here is my first post that has mostly duplicate information as this one.  Here is info on Thimbleberry, Blackcap Raspberry, and Blackberry.

Red Huckleberries

Sorry the picture isn't that great.  I'll try to get a better one.  Red huckleberries like to grow out of nurse logs.  So sometimes the bushes can be way up high.  The bushes I have seen range from about 2 feet to 10 feet tall.  They have small red berries that progress in ripeness from white to green to pink to red.  They are supposed to be ripe from late July - October but there were some ripe ones near my home in late June early July.  The early ripened berries were pretty sour, but I have tasted some sweeter ones that ripened in mid July.  Both my girls have loved them. They tasted delicious in muffins and this scone recipe.  You have to do a lot of picking to get a decent amount.

Salmonberries

I'm a little confused on the salmonberries.  There are supposedly yellow ones and red ones.  But around here I've been seeing both on the same bush.  So I'm not sure if they are both growing on the same bush or if the berries turn from yellow to red and the yellow ones aren't really ripe yet. (It seems to me that the red ones and yellow ones were growing on the same bush and they were both ripe.)  The ones that ripened in late June were pretty sour.  When I tried them a few weeks later they taste pretty plain and didn't have a whole lot of flavor.  This article said to avoid red ones, but I have no idea why.  The berry book just said there were two different kinds.  The bushes can be really tall.  Lots of the berries have been way over my head.  The bushes don't produce a whole lot of berries.  They supposedly ripen mid July to mid August, but there were ripe ones at my house in late June early July.  The ones I managed to hide from Allie ended up in ice cream and tasted good.