Gingerbread (3 Nov. 07)

Tired after a morning filled with ballet lessons and swimming Bayan contentedly slept. While he dozed I read the girls the story of The Gingerbread Man and we unanimously decided to bake some gingerbread. Only I didn't have any "men" (or anything remotely human for that matter) shaped cookie cutters so we improvised. Here is the process.

The aftermath. What can you do? It is what sponges were made for.

Rolling out the dough...easier said than done.

Cutting out the shapes, very, very, carefully.

While the gingerbread baked the girls sat on the carpet enjoying our most recent selection from the library.

We had too much fun decorating to take pictures. Here is the end product. The stars and butterflies were mostly Ruhi, the snakes, faces and houses were done by Anisa. They were delicious if I do say so myself.

Halloween (Oct. 31 07)

Halloween is beginning to get a bit more commonplace here in Australia, but it is just not the same as it was in the States where all of society participates. Somehow (although I was an enthusiastic trick-or treater as a child) I now find the process of watching your children knock on strangers' doors and beg for candy to be deeply humiliating. This year we went to three houses. All of whom we knew. They got a few treats (not that they needed them - and one of which I still haven't been able to bring myself to let them eat...I do believe it is destined for the rubbish bin). But they had the most fun dressing up in the costumes, part of which we made together. They insisted that Bayan be dressed up too. Behold their handiwork. Isn't he cute?

Three Things (29 Oct. 07)

Today Anisa found: some rainbow material at the fabric store (which we quickly made into an impromptu fairy costume),

a fairy book at the library (photo courtesy of Ruhi),

and a family of ladybugs residing in our organic celery.

Boys will be boys (28 Oct.07)

Bayan's favourite 'toy'.

He loves the indicator buttons, the lights and the airconditioning controls.

He also loves making the "honk, honk" "Beep! Beeeeeeeeeeep!" sounds when he hears them on the street or inadvertantly leans on the horn.

But most of all he loves the CD player and the volume control. He enthusiastically tries to drive the car while playing music loud enough for all neighbours to "enjoy" as well.

Its all good.

Art Time (Oct. 28 07)

Anisa loves to paint. Anything. At anytime. Here she is sharing her passion with baby Bayan, her enthusiastic apprentice.

We call it "hands on".

The end result finds them both in the bath blowing bubbles while the water slowly changes colour.

New Skills (Oct.27 07)

Children's Services would probably freak to see the following photos, but I will post them anyway for your viewing pleasure. They say that around the age of two male babies get a boost of testosterone, well I think Bayan's kicked in early. He has been very frustrated and irritable lately and getting into all sorts of mischief. In a desperate attempt to restore a small semblance of peace and quiet, to harness his energy and channel it for good I have resorted to doing things I would never have done with the girls. Behold: (Ugh! That way. Visualize an arrow pointing to the picture.)

Yes, he is sitting on the counter and yes I am right there. The juicer is approximately 99% plastic (excluding internal mechanisms) and he was excessively supervised.

He actually did a very thorough job, it just took a shocking amount of time... but who's counting?

Besides look at how pleased he is with himself, and how helpful his actions were. It sure beats the heck out of attempting to clean or plaster (depending on the activity in question) the walls or struggling to remove regurjitated food that someone (read: Bayan) has massaged into the handmade Persian carpet.

In the Garden (Oct. 27 07)

As you will see from this and the following few posts I am backdating a number of entries. Three guesses as to why... You may also notice that I am still experienceing technological difficulties. (Take a peek at the gaps and position of photos... Honestly!) I should have been born in the 17th century...parchment and quills...those were the good days.

We spent the morning in the garden wrestling with weeds and preparing the ground for our future veggie patch.

Ruhi revived her seedlings.

Notice the highly beautiful, if somewhat inappropriate, gardening attire.

Bayan practiced coming safely (I will say that again... safely) down the moss rocks. This is a most important skill when dealing with our yard. Lets just say we were all impressed.

Anisa was busy just being Anisa. Seen here singing and dancing in the midst of an imaginary production.

Ps. I think I fixed some gaps....maybe...

Choooocolaaate

I was awakened at 7 am, by a thouroughly exasperated husband brandishing a half empty container of chocolate chips. Rattling the tupperware for effect he proceeded to describe how he had found Anisa in the shadowy nook under the computer table contentedly noshing away - after having scaled the pantry shelves (a desperate and dangerous act in and of itself)to reach my "secret" stash.

With husband appeased, Anisa's hands and face hosed down and the chocolate restored to a new hiding place, we began the day.

By mid morning there were new developments on the chocolate front. The distant sound of crackling wrappers lead me, once again, to the computer room where I found Anisa working her way (fortunately my speedy intervention meant that she only managed to injest one square) through a large block of compounded cooking chocolate. When questioned about her actions she innocently replied: "It's Ok Mommy. God gave them to me." Humph.... Indeed.

Unwavering in her determination Anisa later reminded me that I had promised to bake chocolate brownies to take to the teacher appreciation ceremony at Ruhi's school tonight. It wasn't until I was half way through making dinner that I noticed one tin of brownies was missing. Fortunately I made a double batch. I had placed both pans on the counter to cool and one was definately no longer in sight. After searching her favorite haunts beginning with - you guessed it - the computer room, I discovered a tin of partially eaten brownie remains nestled on the bookcase in the girls' room. I wonder who...?

This was to be nothing when compared to the sweet array of delicasies she heaped on her plate after the award ceremony, but perhaps the biggest surprise of all was that our four-year-old chocoholic wasn't in a diabetic coma by the end of the evening.