A Day of Sunshine and (Mostly) Good Luck

Neither Greg nor I come from an Irish background, though I have some Scotch-Irish ancestors. Regardless, the boys and I got into the spirit of things today. We all wore green. Henry is chewing on some Irish soda bread that Nick and I made this morning. He loved it!

On Saturdays, Greg works all day. Now that he's home with the boys all week during the day, Saturday is his only full day of working as a therapist. I'm finding things to do to keep us occupied without Daddy around. For starters, I gave both boys a bath. You know, for luck.

I even wore green shoes myself. I'm very happy with this pair of Dansko sandals. My feet can't handle anything else now that I've tried them.  I can only wear Dansko shoes, according to my podiatrist and ortho.

Actually, back to the subject of luck, I felt pretty lucky when I looked at this picture and saw that my ankle was pretty much back to normal size. Baby weight is gone. At least the baby weight from Henry. The baby weight from Nick. . . well, I'm still working on that. Anyhow, my ankles look positively trim compared to last June.

After the dressing in green, we decided to try something new. Last year I helped Nick make cookies with green sprinkles, but I wanted to try something more authentic this year. We made Irish Soda Bread with raisins. I didn't have any caraway (Nor do I know how to spell it. Had to look that one up.) and I used 3 cups of bread flour and 2 cups of white whole wheat flour. Other than that the linked recipe is exactly what we did. Here is Nick helping me squish the butter into the flour.

Nick only needed one time out the entire time we were baking. (For throwing a spoon across the room.) I'd call that some pretty good luck. I tend to have more patience while we're baking than at other times. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it is the sweet reward at the end of the baking experience. Nick is learning to stir without getting flour all over everything.

Here's what the final soda bread looked like. (Look in the bowl.) It was sweet, but not too sweet. The raisins were perfect, and the texture was unique. I like it. Nick and Henry did, too.

We also did some neat St. Patrick's Day crafts. Nick decorated this shamrock with a big "N" for Nick. Then he stuck all the stickers on himself. He also stuck several stickers to the kitchen table, our hardwood floors, and the refrigerator. But the stickers came off without too much trouble. I'd call that pretty lucky.

Here's what his final project looked like. Not too shabby. Nick looks angry in this picture. It is because he had just refused to go to the potty. I think it's going to take even more than the luck of the Irish to potty train this boy.

I'd say that Henry liked his first St. Patrick's Day. I finally got him to clap on cue. This really made my day. I love when he responds and copies us.

Henry liked the Irish Soda Bread so much that he kept crawling to it and stealing pieces out of the bowl. I guess the crusty part must feel good against his teeth.