A Trip Up North: Part Two

Today I'll talk about our Sunday up in Gleason, Wisconsin, and our trip back to Illinois. After we woke up at the hotel, we checked out and went back to the farm. Nick sure loved being outdoors. I'm glad we brought our jeans and long sleeved shirts, because it was a little bit chilly. We walked all over the property, and Nick picked up sticks and followed his Great Uncle Bob around like a little puppy.

Nick really liked the rocks on the gravel path, and he picked up a bunch and put them into a plastic cup. He brought them inside to show his Great Grandma Marie, and then he threw them on the floor. I guess he liked the noise they made.

There's an old Estonian Church on the property, from the 1800s, and it's all boarded up. It's kind of neat, actually, and the road is named after the church. Nick looked at it for a minute, then found an interesting stick to play with. Toddlers have short attention spans. My impressions of the farm? It's lovely and peaceful and chilly. I like the stars and the quiet and the smell of the woods. But I hate the mosquitoes. I believe I got over six bites just in two days. Nasty, big mosquito welts. At least the peacefulness of the woods makes up for the hours of scratching.

We had a delicious brunch with Nick's Great Grandma Marie, Great Uncle Bob, and Great Aunt Mary. Nick ate more bacon than any boy who's not even two should be able to eat! Then he asked for his "colors," and Nick and his grandma colored pictures together.

After we left Gleason, we drove for hours and hours while Nick (thankfully) napped peacefully in the car. He started to stir right around Madison, which is where we'd decided to stop for dinner and to walk around. Can you tell from the picture that I was glad to be finally out of the car? Madison is pretty cool for a college town, and I think I would've liked going to school there.

We really liked Madison, but at some point Greg and I realized that not only were we way too old to be mistaken for college students, but also . . . The kids who are freshman at this college right now? Were in diapers when Greg started college. Freaky. They were probably just in kindergarten when I started college. Sigh. Anyhow, it was an awesome college campus. Nick was glad to be out of the car, and he especially liked pushing the stroller up and down the sidewalk.

We stopped at a Brazilian Steakhouse for dinner. It was super-expensive, but very yummy. I like the places where the costumed men keep bringing you different cuts of meat. Nick just liked playing with the meat tongs. He did eat a ton of beef, though.

After dinner, it was just a few more hours in the car to get home. Thankfully, Nick was tired and slept through most of the trip, with not too much screeching. We were so glad to be home and out of the car.

A Trip Up North: Part One

Last weekend, Greg and I took Nick up north to his family's farm in Gleason, Wisconsin. We go every year. It was quite a long trip to make for just two days, but it was for a special occasion. Greg's Grandma Marie (that would be Nick's great grandmother) just turned 96 years old. We usually go up there every year for her birthday, to see her and Greg's Uncle Bob and Aunt Mary, who live at the farm, too.

It was a very long car trip (over 6 hours one way), because we were way up, north of Wausau. We left Friday night right after work, and drove all the way to Rockford before we stopped for dinner. It's a good thing we stopped there, because at that point, Nick had been screaming nonstop for a good 45 minutes. It was time to get him out of the car before we all sustained hearing loss. We stopped at a place called Thunder Bay Grille, and the food was pretty good. Nick sure liked it.

After dinner, we changed Nick into his pajamas because we knew we would be travelling long into the night. It was funny because the changing table at this restaurant was really high off the ground, and Nick got really scared. He was clingy and sobbing and truly scared. I haven't seen that side of Nick very often. Apparently, he's afraid of heights. That doesn't seem to apply when he is climbing on the furniture, though.

We didn't get to our hotel (in Merril, Wisconsin) until about 11:30 p.m. Nick had been sleeping for hours by that point, which is why we had decided to travel at night. Containing a screaming child in the car for six hours when he'd rather be running is a nightmare, and we wanted to avoid the trouble. It wasn't a bad plan, even though Greg was extremely tired by the time we arrived.

First thing Saturday morning, we headed straight for the farm. Well, after stopping for coffee at McDonald's. You know you're in the middle of nowhere when the nearest Starbucks is an hour away. Sigh. But we persevered, and Nick loved running around outside on the farm.

It's funny how the weather just one state up can be so very different. We went from 90 degree heat on Thursday in Illinois, to Friday night in the mid-40s at our hotel room in Merril, WI. Good thing we brought our sweaters and jeans!

Everything is so beautiful in this part of Wisconsin--and quiet! You can hear each individual car even if it's a couple of miles away. Nick loved watching the sky for birds and airplanes.

Aunt Mary and Uncle Bob took us all out to dinner at a golf club nearby. I was very glad I'd brought some crayons and some little animals for Nick to play with. He's been getting more snuggly with his toys lately, and he kept hugging and kissing the little zebras.

Great-Grandma Marie watched him play and laughed when he threw his toys.

Nick enjoyed lobster, beef tenderloin, and fried chicken. He also ate salad, french fries, mushrooms, and green beans. Then he had ice cream for dessert. I cannot believe how skinny this child is compared to how much he eats. Here's a picture of Nick with his Great Uncle Bob, Great Aunt Mary, and Great-Grandma Marie. This was after dessert, thus the giant smile on Nick's face.

After dinner, we went back to our hotel for a swim. This was Nick's first time staying in a hotel, and he seemed to like it. He was especially interested in climbing into the drawers, so we had watch him pretty carefully. Stealing things out of our suitcases, screeching randomly, and climbing everything in sight, Nick thought hotel rooms were pretty cool. I don't know what our neighbors thought of all the noise. Nick loved opening the refrigerator. . .

. . . and stealing my sunglasses.

Tomorrow I'll write about Sunday with Great Grandma and our trip through Madison and back to Illinois.  :)

Carrots From The Garden and The Best "Mummins" Ever

Okay, as promised, here is my extra-long post about the best muffins (or "mummins," in Nick-speak) ever. Even if you're not into recipes, please scroll down to the bottom, where I've included a little video clip of Nick chatting with me about his tasty snack.

I finally got some carrots from my garden a few weeks ago. In fact, I got a nice sized crop for a small garden. Next year I want to plant more. Nick loved the carrots, but he especially liked the long tails they had.

My husband, however, thought that these carrots were lumpy and misshapen. He wasn't too keen on eating them raw. I guess they did look a little silly. You see, where they grow the carrots in California, the soil is sandy and the carrots turn out perfectly shaped. Here in Illinois, our soil is thicker and thus the carrots are lumpier. See what I mean?

Well, crooked or not, we were eating those carrots! So I found a recipe for carrot cream cheese muffins, and I decided to alter it significantly to make it at least a little healthier. I'm sure the original recipe would be delicious, but I wanted muffins with enough fiber to have for breakfast. I'm also pretty sensitive to sugar, so I tried to reduce it without eliminating it entirely. I do some baking with Splenda, but I always leave some sugar in it or the recipe won't brown correctly. I think these muffins are a good balance of nice and naughty.

What I came up with was a delicious miracle. These muffins are quite delectable, and I've lowered the sugar as well as significantly upping the fiber. Nick absolutely loves them, and he calls them "Mummins."

I'm going to share the recipe here, because about four people have asked me for this particular recipe. Trust me, this one is worth the trouble. I even doubled the recipe last week to make another huge batch, and all of the mummins were gone in just three days.

Carrot Mummins with Cream Cheese


In one huge bowl… mix together the dry ingredients…

• 1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ t. baking soda
• 1T. vital wheat gluten
• 1 t. baking powder
• ½ t. salt
• 1 ½ t. cinnamon
• ½ t. nutmeg
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup baking Splenda

In another bowl, mix together:

• 3 eggs
• 1 T. ground flax seed
• 1/3 cup of melted butter (unsalted)
• 2/3 cup applesauce

Then add in:
• 1 ½ cups shredded carrots (I'd suggest a food processor for this.)

• ½ cup walnuts, chopped finely
Now take ½ cup of raisins and soak them in very hot water for about ten minutes. Drain, and add them to the carrot mixture.

For the cream cheese filling, get a completely separate bowl and stir together until smooth:

• 4+ ounces of Neufchatel cream cheese
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 t. vanilla
• ½ cup sugar

Pour the carrot mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients, and stir to mix. (Don’t stir too much or the muffins will be tough.)

These “mummins” have a filling, and you can just put the cream cheese mixture (about 1T on top of each muffin if you'd like. I did my mummins half with the filling inside and half with the filling on top. Personally, I like the filling inside better. When the filling is on top, sometimes it bubbles over and you lose a bit of the cream cheese. I don't like to lose even a little bit of that filling. Yum!

If you want the filling inside, you have to follow these steps to make your mummins:

1. Fill each muffin cup about ½ full with the muffin mixture.
2. Add a tablespoon or so of the cream cheese mixture.
3. Put just enough muffin mixture on top of the cream cheese to cover the filling.

Bake the mummins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes. Smaller muffins bake more quickly, and larger ones may take a little longer than 20 minutes.

You’ll know they’re done when you can stick a toothpick into one and it comes out clean. (Stick the toothpick in a non-cream cheesy part.) Enjoy your mummins. I know Nick sure loved his!

Now, here's some video of Nick enjoying his mummin. I rather enjoy these little snippets of toddler conversation. When I got my master's degree (ESL concentration), I had to take a lot of classes about how people learn language. Linguistics taught me about the stages of learning a first language, and it is very fascinating to see Nick go through those stages. He's a chatty little guy. Hungry, too.  :)

Wordless Wednesday: Captions, Please!

Tall Ships, or as Nick says, "Boats!"

Last weekend we took a trip downtown to see the Tall Ships Festival at Navy Pier. My mother and stepfather came with us, and we had a great time. Thanks to Groupon, we go our tickets for only $10 per person. That helped to counteract the joys of the $25 parking fee. Even though it was extremely hot, the ships were really neat and Nick loved seeing them. He kept pointing and repeating, "Boat!" "Water!" "Birdie!"

We all look a little overheated from waiting in line, but the boats we toured were worth the wait. I would've loved to be able to go sailing on one of these. Maybe next year.

Nick loved having the chance to see his grandparents. In fact, the day after our downtown trip, Nick kept asking for "Papa?!" That's his name for Grandpa Ray. Nick even got to ride on Grandpa's shoulders.

The views downtown were absolutely gorgeous, and even though it was hot, it was cooler at the end of the pier and we got some nice breeze. It was neat to see Navy Pier all filled with these old fashioned boats. I'm kind of a history buff (my undergraduate minor was history), and I enjoyed walking by all of the boats. I still wouldn't have liked climbing up the rigging, though. I'm afraid of heights.

After we were done with the boats, Nick got to ride the carousel with his daddy. He really liked that--so much so that when we saw another carousel this week (as we drove past in the car), he started screaming, "Horsie Fun!" over and over again.

Nick loved the fountains in the inside area of Navy Pier. He was just fascinated by the water, and his Grandma Linda let him get very close. I believe Nick was trying to figure out how the fountain worked. I was just glad his cast was off so he didn't have to worry about getting it wet. He can now play with water anytime he wants.  :)

We also stopped for ice cream, which Nick also loved, of course. We should all take as much joy in simple things as little kids do. It makes me smile to see his face when he gets a special treat.

We loved the Tall Ships festival, and Greg is already saying he wants to go again next year. Oh, and Nick? He just says, "Boats!"

Busy, Busy, Busy

Since school started, I have so much to post about and no time to write. I love the beginning of the school year, because there's so much promise. I also actually miss my students, and it's so nice to see them again, even if it's just in passing in the hallway. But I'm already missing the lazy days of summer, now that the craziness of the school schedule has started. I swear, there are some evenings when I do not sit down until it's time for Nick's bedtime, and that's only because he sits in my lap while we read stories. My school has been very hot and humid this week, so I come home every day and take a shower. Hopefully it'll cool down some next week.

Next week, I'm going to post about our trip to Navy Pier to see the Tall Ships. I also have a cool post about the best carrot muffin in the world, and a garden update. But for today, I'm going to talk about Nick and how he was busy with his Grandma Toni.

He loves to get into the laundry basket; in fact, he likes pushing his toys around in it as well. We have tons of developmentally appropriate toys, and yet my son prefers to play with the broom, a laundry basket, and an old toothbrush. Ah, well, at least he's easily entertained. Plus, he's mostly stopped eating the crayons, which is a definite improvement in maturity. Either that or he's figured out that they don't taste very good.

Next is a picture of him coloring with Grandma Toni and I. Lately Nick wants to color for about an hour each day. He doesn't make anything recognizable yet, just scribbles. But he physically puts crayons into our hands and begs us to draw. He likes when we draw shapes so that he can name them and then scribble on them. So far he can recognize (and name) our oh-so sophisticated drawings of the following things: square, house, socks, kitty, circle, star, moon, heart, car, and door.

Nick calls his crayons "colors!" and he just about flipped out on Tuesday when I took him into the store to buy groceries and decided to get an extra box of washable crayons. Poor kid nearly dislocated his arm trying to grab them from the back of the cart. I tried to convince him that he couldn't possibly color while in the cart, but to no avail. Luckily his arms are still short, and he got to color the picture above as soon as he got home.

Nick seems to have inherited his love for a brand new box of crayons from me. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I stockpile new boxes in my classroom, and when I color with my students, I always pull out my own "special" box of sharp new crayons. Of course, I'm such a softie that when my students beg to use my special crayons, I always let them, and then I have to start over again next time with a new box.

Wordless Wednesday: Captions, Please!