An original story by Dimitri Meder, age 3.5

Dimitri holding a drawing of 9444.

     Its started with a big ant. And then a big tube. And then it starts with a big boulder. And then it starts with a big straight line.
This machine is called a 9444 super squad. Its job is to throw people down it and turn them into Nannies. And they will have the same voice and the Nanny that lives in East Lansing will not even know that we are all Nannies. And the Sebastian that lives there will not even know that we are Sebastians. There is a machine  called the 9114 that turns people into Sebastians.
It has lots of parts and gears that puts a mask on that changes your face and everything. It looks like a giant, giant house that is a big boulder. There is a giant curly french fry tube that you slide down and it takes you super fast and drops the mask on a scrapes everything off and that is how it turns you into Sebastian or Nanny. It will drop you into the soft trash can at the bottom.
There will be 40-60,000 Nannies. Nanny will say "Oh! That is my reflect!"
There will be 40-60,000 Sebastians.
And 40-60,000 Hammers.
You buy this machine at the market store and it costs 40,000 quarters. It is blue and red and yellow and green.
The Sebastians will eat Tomatos, Broccoli and Bananas. Nanny's robots that she has invented will make the food. Laser beams will catch the food. The food will get bruised, but that is ok.
There are robots inside also. The bottom of the tube looks like a toilet paper tube, but that is just a playmobil attitute tube.
And the now I want to buy that machine. Phew!

Written by Dimitri Meder 5/5/11
Transcribed by his Mama, who, as this is being written is catching large squads of robots with her hair.

Apple Pan Dowdy

     














 In many ways, the moment a chill hits the air all I can think about is baking. Not that I am actively doing it, but I love to dream. And read about recipes.

                          
 

Apple picking opens tomorrow at Wasems. We went through 2 bushels last year, can we do 3 the next?

Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy

If you wanna do right by your appetite
If you're fussy about your food
Take a choo choo today, head New England way

And we'll put you in the happiest mood with

Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
Makes your eyes light up
Your tummy say "Howdy."
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
I never get enough of that wonderful stuff

Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
  Makes the sun come out
When Heavens are cloudy
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy

I never get enough of that wonderful stuff
Mama! When you bake
Mama! I don't want cake
Mama! For my sake
Go to the oven and make some ever lovin' Sh

Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
Makes your eyes light up
Your tummy say "Howdy."
Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy
I never get enough of that wonderful stuff
-Dinah Shore

gourd-lackery

Long handled gourds, growing around Tomatos. 6/24/10

 

 

Long Handled gourds around Tomatoes. Note the complete lack of Gourds. 8/15/10

Up North, with harmony.

    































     This silly guy. Every where we went somewhere today, he would ask our destination. Whatever the answer was, be it library, pool, store, pizza.... he would yell "No! I want to go Up North!"
Luckily, this has been a summer of many Up Norths.
He is one lucky boy.

Killer gourds and Etsy pages.

My long handles gourds are taking over the garden. In a frightening fashion. And producing no gourds.
I could not be grumpier.
Dreams of birdhouses and rattles, all gone.
A reality of gourd vines blocking us into our house and stealing Dimitri's dump trucks, fat approaching.

In another note, started a web page.

Check it out: www.peaceweasel.com

Also been getting crafty, see anything  you like on my site, look for it for sale here: BootsNGus

Watch out for my Gourds, they're long handled.

Lets try again.

Leaf in the face.



Every once and a while I get the urge to write down some daily occurances. Perhaps if I take a photographic approach it shall help. We shall see.

I love the names of the garden.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. - Shopping Cart Contents

Conversations with a sick man.

There is a chance that Todd is coming down with something. His throat is quite sore and he is acting like a maniac.
I will attempt to transcribe our conversation.

T- What is the capital of Georgia?

J-Atlanta maybe? Although that doesn't sound right... What did you think it was?

T-Rhode Island.

J-No, more likely Atlanta.

T-What is the capital of Rhode Island?

J-Providence.

T-No. it is not.

J-What is it then?

T-Oh, you know that book that everyone is talking about these days.

J-Huh?

T-That book, you know, by Jane Hathaway.

J-Huh?

T-Or was it Charlotte Deville? or that Hawthorne fellow, they were friends...

J-Do you mean "Pride and Prejudice"?

T- Yes! That's it, Providence is the first in the series.

J-Pride and Prejudice was not a series. Except on TV.

T-It was so! By Anne Stevenson.

J-What are you talking about?!?

T- (very exasperated, but still humored by my incompetence)
The series about the young women who solves mysteries......

J- No. That is not what Pride and Prejudice is about. No. Do you mean Nancy Drew?

T- No, no... not Nancy Drew. There was a boy and a sheep dog. And they lived in a lighthouse. And there were all these secret compartments where they hid things.....

J-I don't think I know this series. Sounds interesting though....

T- Oh, I remember! The Babysitters club!


I did take his temperature and send him to bed. I will hope for the best.

"Alphabet soup" starring Dimitri.

The first big boy bath. A fairly momentous event. Bath time is getting to be a pretty vigorous evening activity now that he is not going to imminently drown himself. It is an interesting thing to listen to yourself parent on a video. Why, I wonder, do I say "We" all the time? "We don't...." We aren't...." I want the tone of my voice to match my words and actions and I am not sure that they do. Is this the way we are supposed to talk to our children or is this some hideous modality of speech that I have fallen into, such as saying "like" or "Dude". Both of which I do.



Recently read The Happiest Toddler on the Block by
Dr. Harvey Karp. Interesting guy, says we are supposed to growl at our children, which I approve of. We also watched the accompanying video, illustrating the caveparent approach. After the video Todd said that Dr Karp was like Gildaroy Lockhart. And he has not even read Harry Potter.

Back to the bath. Dimitri is such a big kid these days. He asked me for cheese the other day, a sign of big boyness to be sure. Well moments after the above video was finished, he pooped in the bath.

A big boy poop, in the big boy bath.

If it had been in the baby bath, it would have been contained, but no, in the tub. Now notice all the toys and bubbles.

26 stick up letters, 2 rubber duckies, a tennis ball, and 3 water scoops. and a washcloth. and a bath scrubbie.

A dozen little turds floating in minty fresh, alphabety goodness.

Needless to say, he got his first big boy shower right after that, which I did not film. We did however get some good shots of water fun.

-Dude.

Best Mittens ever.

We got a package today from my Mother-in-law, Todd opened it, showed me the boots and snowpants and nothing else. Hours later I saw a glimpse of yellow and investigated.
Best mittens ever.
I want them to fit me. I tried, they don't.
Best Mittens ever.

P-Mate - Female Freedom - The Freedom To Pee Standing Up

P-Mate - Female Freedom - The Freedom To Pee Standing Up

25 things

I did this for Facebook, but it took me so long , that I will post it here as well.

1. I have bitten my nails for as long as I can remember.
2. It irks me that I cannot think of random questions. I looked up random question generator on Google and found squat.
3. I am a Breastfeeding mother to a 13 month old. Todd and I have been married for six years and can set up camp at night, in the pouring rain, without fighting.
4. I would like to become a Lactation consultant. I feel Breastfeeding resources are very limited.
5. I have a birthmark on my foot the shape of Louisiana, with a freckle for Baton Rouge.
6. I am very fond of reading. Many, many things.
7. I am very fond of the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome.
8. I am an aspiring organic gardener, flower and veg. I grow too many Zucchini and have a Whiskey barrel pond.
9. Sometimes I feel sad about my compost.
10. I have horrid insomnia.

Scooter.

11.I collect things. Muppets, Rocks,Monkeys,Baby carriers, Books, odds, ends
12. My favorite direction is North.
13. My favorite smell is Sweet grass 2nd. Earl grey
14. I am a little obsessive about the weather.
15. I have climbed Mt Yale, 14,196 feet above sea level and been rained on in Death Valley, 282 ft below sea level
16.When I do sleep, I have very vivid dreams.

Mariah, Redtail hawk.

17. I am an animal person. I have had many pets, from Dogs to Rats.I have been bitten a Snowy owl and kept Opossum babies in my bra. I have 3 Cats (Gabriel, Zowie, Eliza) 3 goldfish (Bertie, Gussie, Tuppy) 5 houseplants, yet unnamed except the moss who is Lord Emsworth.
18. I am an amateur naturalist. The book by the same title by Gerald Durell is one of my first book memories.
20. I would like to not pass my fear of Spiders to my son.
21. I would like to keep Bees.
22. There should be a bachelors degree in Jack-of-all-trades.
23.For my 30th birthday I went to a Morel Festival.
24. There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
25.I am forgetting something definitive.

Amanita?
Thimbleberry.

For Abby, because she asked. And to the player-haters who can bite me.

Orchid indeed. Windows open, no flash. From Curtains Curtains closed, uneveness obvious. Note lovely Aloe. From Curtains A close up of fabric next to paint.

From Curtain

An apology to all my online Scrabble friends.

Oh that we love our Facebook Scrabble, Todd is on vacation this week. What I mean to say is that as Todd is on vacation this week therefore I have less Dimitri sleep time to be constantly reviewing my word choices. Be assured, come next week I will be able to maintain umpteen Scrabble games at a time.

Qua, Qi, and Drake,

Jessamy
(Which is not a playable word but potentially very high points)

I am afraid that the maple leaves need to be fresh.

How to make roses from maple leaves | haha.nu - the lifestyle blogzine

What fabric do you want to look at while pooping?

So this is the fabric I have used for the curtains I made for the downstairs bathroom. Not sure what I think yet. I am not a talented sewer. Well that is just not a word. Not a talented sewer. That cannot be right.

sewer - someone who sews; "a sewer of fine gowns" baster, tacker - a sewer who fastens a garment with long loose stitches needleworker - someone who does work (as sewing or embroidery) with a needle sewing-machine operator - someone who sews by operating a sewing machine sewer - a waste pipe that carries away sewage or surface water cloaca, sewerage drainpipe, waste pipe, drain - a pipe through which liquid is carried away sewage system, sewage works, sewer system - facility consisting of a system of sewers for carrying off liquid and solid sewage

Huh.

Anyway. I'm not good at it.
Not sure about the colors either. One wall is kind of a Burnt Pumpkin, the rest is still undecided. Either white or off green. Hope it does not look like the room of a strange, toilet loving, child.

Aloysius Snuffleupagus

Dimitri is just beginning to get into Sesame street. He likes the music and colorful monsters. In my time I have watched much Sesame Street, but not much in recent years. There have been changes. Not ones the I necessarily approve of. I have many questions, but for now all I will voice is this: Why is Snuffy kept in a Cave now?
Have we gone from imaginary friend, to integral character, to..cave??
Think it over. Get back to me.
Inquiring minds want to know.

States push fire-safe cigarettes

It is a strange world we live in.
Fire safe cigarettes.
Ha.


States push fire-safe cigarettes - USATODAY.com

Habeneros, yogurt and tears.

One of the successful things I grew this summer was
Habanero peppers. They took forever to mature, but they were well worth it. There is something special about a Habanero, a warm, satisfying heat as opposed to other peppers that blow your mouth out with out adding any ambiance to a dish.
Well, although I have cooked with Habaneros many times, I think the home grown variety may be more potent. I had decided to make hot sauce and freeze it for winter chili. For some bizarre reason it seemed a good idea to roast the peppers on the stove, in the process smearing my hands fire juice. Now I did not do anything like stick my finger in my eye or other pertinent places, I just touched my cheeks. Very unpleasant experience. Much burning and sadness. Todd suggested that I splash milk on my face, no help. Then, thinking scientifically, I smeared baking soda all over my face. Gritty, but also no help.
Then the epiphany. Yogurt.

So upon applying thickly, much relieved, I returned to cooking.














That was when the tears began.

Dimitri was horrified. He acted as though I had horrid clown makeup on. I had to leave the room. Dimitri kept pointing at me and sticking his lip out all evening. Todd thought this was hilarious. Needless to say that my face burned for a full day afterward. Sauce was good though.

Habanero Ginger Hot Sauce.

1 Habanero, whole
4 or more cloves garlic
one whole ginger root
2 cups Apple Cider
3 tablespoons Hone2 tablespoons vinegar
pinch salt
maybe a little lime.

Blend until smooth. Heat to combine flavors and reduce slightly. do not overcook or flavor will not be bright.
mine made 2 jars and a bunch of ice cubes.

My keyboard is not mightyer than a sword.

So apparently I have been neglecting my blog, having not written anything since 9/17. This is an attempt to rectify that. Since I spend way to much time on Facebook, I am going to try writhing through an app there.
We shall see.
The sad thing is that I think of things that I want to write all the time, but between a toddler and a non-functioning A button, I am thwarted. I even took pictures of something with the express intent to write about it and did not. Perhaps I shall now, months late.