I was supposed to take photos for the July 12 in 12 challenge on Friday the 12th, but my camera was in the shop for its yearly tune up. Ergo, these photos are actually from Monday, July 15th. It was a pretty average day -- not a whole lot going on -- but a good one all the same. Don't forget to check out Darcy and Rebecca's 12 in 12 projects this month and to let us know if you want us to link up to you for next month's 12 in 12!

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8:30 AM: Anouk wakes up before me and greets me with vibrant purple marker outlining her eyes. "Mommy, I pretty!" I alternate between being horrified that the ink might be toxic (it isn't) and impressed with her steady hand.





9:45 AM: Now that Anouk has finally (mostly) left the putting-everything-in-her-mouth stage, I feel like I can break out my favorite dangly-beaded summer sandals, which have been in storage since May 2011. Welcome back, friends!



10:30 AM: A trip to the garden reveals that a half-dozen tomatoes have started to turn red overnight. We pick them and put them in our window, lest the squirrels eat them before we can.



11:15 AM: Playdate at Adalae and Zeke's house.


12:00 PM: A. helps me and Miss Molly get ready for Kid's Clothes Week.






12:45 PM: Temper tantrum.



3 PM: After lunch, nap, and a trip to the store, I ask A. to help me clean her room.



24 minutes (and many entreaties, threats, and finally bribes) later, the room looks like this:



These photos are probably the best representation of how I spend my days.

5:30 PM: It's James's night to make dinner (venison burgers, grilled squash, and gazpacho). Since we're off dinner duty, A. and I head outside to for some sprinkler action. The weather is perfect for this, just a balmy 97 or so degrees.





8:30 PM: Anne is finally in bed and so it's down to the sweltering garage for a workout. A month or so ago, I mentioned wanting to get stronger and J. volunteered to train me in our home gym. He is a very strict trainer and our sessions usually end with me yelling at him but it seems to be working.

How was your day?

The best recipes for cooking with very little kids (at least, in our kitchen) are the ones in which not a lot of actual cooking is involved. In my experience, a toddler's attention span is mostly limited to dumping things in a bowl and stirring and not much else. This recipe for Watergate Salad, then, is perfect because dumping things in a bowl and stirring is basically all that's required to make it.

Watergate Salad was first served at the Watergate Hotel in DC in the 1970s, which is strange to me because it seems like this kitschy, neon-green dessert would be the last thing you would think of gracing a high-end hotel brunch buffet. Still, the mix of chilled pudding, marshmallows, and fruit make it a wonderful treat at a cookout on a hot summer day.

The recipe we use is adapted from the one published on the Kraft Foods website, with a few special additions that sprang up over the years (as we really just experimented with throwing random things in the mix).

Ingredients:

1 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, with juice
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 cup pecans
1 cup blueberries
1 package instant pistachio pudding mix
1.5 cups Cool Whip, thawed
Shredded coconut (sweetened or not, depending on your preference)

Directions:

Combine the pineapple, marshmallows, pecans, blueberries, and pudding mix in a large bowl. Add the Cool Whip. Refrigerate for one hour. Sprinkle shredded coconut generously over the top of each serving. Eat.

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The last time we brought this to a party, someone commented that it was like sex on a plate. Which isn't perhaps the most kid-friendly way to talk about something your two-year-old helped make, but it sure is descriptive.

Are there any retro recipes that you can't help but love?

Anouk got her first haircut over the weekend -- two years and four months in. We took her to a kid-friendly salon in VB, let her choose whether to sit in a fire engine or taxi while the stylist snipped her ends, and had a lock of her Spanish flamenco Barbie's hair shorn to acclimate her to the general purpose of the visit. A. left the salon a half-inch or so less ragged around the edges; I left with a small plastic bag of curls that I will probably keep until the day I die.

When I was pregnant with Anne, I wondered (like most new parents do) what she would look like when she was born. Would she have my eyes, my grandfather's cleft chin, James's long legs? One thing I crossed my fingers for was that she would inherit James's hair -- thick and mostly straight, with only the barest hint of a wave. My own extremely curly hair has always been a little bit of a struggle for me. It never seems to do what I want, it has the kind of uncontrollable moods that require professional regulation -- exuberant on dry days, angry and puffed up on rainy ones. My whole life, I've been trying to wrangle it -- buying flatirons and hot rollers off of late-night infomercials, spending hundreds of dollars on products in the search to find one that would work, even, for a while in 8th grade, wrapping my hair in an Ace bandage every night to try to tame it by morning.

Sometimes I think of all the chemicals, the money, the time -- the not going for that run or swim because I wanted to keep my hair nice and frizz-free -- and I want to cry.

When A. was born, the first thing I noticed was her hair, dark and straight. I held my breath. But as the months passed, it only seemed to grow thicker and straighter. Maybe she had escaped the curly hair gene, after all?

Then around A.'s first birthday, I started noticing the first curls forming. Just a few. But then, suddenly, those few curls became a riot, seemingly overnight. They grew fast and thick, mostly horizontally instead of vertically -- they stuck out from her head in all directions like hair at a surprise party. Soon we had to put away the baby brush, with its flimsy plastic bristles. It just couldn't handle the explosion of her exuberant curls.

And even though I had been worried about this -- even though I've spent so much time and effort wrestling my own hair into submission -- I wasn't disappointed when I saw those curls on my baby's head. Anne's curls make her who she is and they are (objectively, says the mother!) adorable. Literally every time we're out someone will approach us to tell me how much they love her hair. People will smile at the sight of them and call her "curly top." They'll say, "I wish I had that hair!" But sometimes, a fellow curly-haired person will sigh and add something like, "She'll hate them when she's older."

I hope she doesn't. I couldn't imagine my daughter without her curls. I want her to love them as much as I do. But how can I expect her to when the only example she sees is me wrestling with mine? And in the first place, why shouldn't I like my hair? It's the same as Anne's, after all.

In thinking these things, I thought that maybe I should put down the flatiron a little more often, to try to teach her -- and to learn myself -- how to be happy in our own skin. To stop the negative self talk, the I wishes, and just be happy with what I've got.

So here you have it. Two curly tops, happy. It's taken one of us a long time to get here, but here we are, all the same.





Is there something about yourself that you started to love because you saw it in your child? Please share, let's keep this positivity party going.

Every now and again, Anne's work-at-home daddy comes downstairs and suggests that we take our lunch hour off premises. When that happens, we grab our things and rush out to one of our many, established favorite area restaurants, but sometimes the adventurous spirit strikes us and we seek out a new place. Last week, we hit up Handsome Biscuit on Colonial Avenue, and as soon as we had our first bites of our lunch, we knew it was going on the list.

Handsome Biscuit (which opened just a few weeks ago) is a quirky place -- and we love quirk. The menu features sandwiches made on fluffy homemade sweet potato biscuits, with a whole slew of inventive add-ons and sides (caviar! pickled veggies!) They also feature a selection of Dr. Brown's sodas and even biscuit bread pudding (to die for). So far each of us has already picked a favorite -- PB&J for A., barbecue with slaw for J., and eggs over easy with bacon and cheese for me.



Eating out with a picky toddler can get more than a little repetitive, so whenever we find a place that offers kid-friendly food and also something new and interesting for an adult palate, we can't resist telling the world about it, even if that might mean that we'll have an even harder time getting a table in the lunch rush! But in this case, the buzz is well-deserved.

I am head over heels with the restaurant renaissance that's been happening in Norfolk lately. Handsome Biscuit is a welcome addition to the roster. We love you, Handsome B.! We'll be back soon! (I promise).



Happy Friday! Where/what will you be eating this weekend?

• Think pink (and red, and blue...) Each pollinator is most attracted to a certain color range of flowers. For instance, bees prefer yellow and blue flowers, while hummingbirds prefer reds and pinks and butterflies will be attracted to blossoms in the violet range. We made sure to choose plants in several color ranges, but to concentrate our choices in ones that would be most appealing. 

• Go for three of a kind. The more plants you have, the more likely you are to attract pollinators to your space. Ideally, to attract the greatest number of pollinators, you would plant in masses of five or more plants in the same color spectrum. However, for a lot of gardeners with limited yard or patio space, this isn't an option. A good rule of thumb is to place at least three flowering plants of the same color range on each doorstep (front, back, side if you have a side door).

• Do double duty. The space in our backyard is limited, so we made an effort to choose plants that would appeal to more than one pollinator. Our big, bountiful buddeleja (butterfly bush) is also a favorite of bees. Our salvia bush is one of the top plants for hummingbirds, but also attracts the insects that bats eat. And the deep flared flowers of the hummingbird plant (AKA Dicliptera suberecta) will appeal to butterflies as well as its namesake.

• Party hardy. Because our pollinators will need food throughout the summer months, we chose plants that are cool-weather hardy, and will bloom late into the season. Asters, shasta daisies, bee balm, trumpet vine, and blanketflower (gallardia) will all bloom throughout the summer and well into the fall.  

• Stay up all night. Don't forget the late-night pollinators like moths (which are often overlooked). Many daytime flowers close their buds at night, but there are plants that will blossom in the evening. Evening primrose, moonflowers, and flowering tobacco are all examples (we planted a patch of cheerful four-o'-clocks for just this reason). 

A few of our transplanted flowers are looking a little ragged in the heat, but we've still seen an increased number of butterflies (a few gorgeous swallowtails!), bees, and flying ants (?) buzzing around them. Anouk no longer screams when she sees a bee, but says, "Hi! Hi!" I guess those bee-friendly books are really changing her attitude?

Last week, during one of those long afternoons of rain that we endured, I suggested to A. that we make sugar cookies. However, upon closer inspection, it became apparent that we lacked several key ingredients necessary for this process (little things like flour, butter AND SUGAR). As a tantrum built, I quickly scanned the shelves for something, anything, that would produce a cookie-like effect on my toddler. When my eyes fell on the watermelon, waiting patiently for Fourth of July festivities, I had an idea.

After a little experimenting, we decided we could make watermelon cookies -- use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the watermelon, frost them with coconut whipped cream, and decorate them (with berries, kiwi, sliced almonds, mint). We had just as much fun making these watermelon cookies as we would have ordinary sugar cookies and they were just as tasty (and far healthier), too.





We made sure to gently pat the watermelon dry before applying the whipped cream (if the fruit is too wet, the cream will slide right off). By the time we finished decorating the last cookies, the first ones were looking a little melty, so we slid the whole tray into the freezer for 10 minutes to let everything firm up. Then we took our nice chilled watermelon cookies outside and ate them on the deck (in the one fifteen minute period of sunshine we had in those gloomy four days).

Anouk couldn't bear to eat her snail cookie. "I don't wanna eat him, I love him!" I waited until she forgot about him and then I ate him. (He was delicious).

One of the goals of the proposed Norfolk Arts District is to promote displays of public art -- such as murals -- around town. The Arts District is still a ways off, but in the meantime, Norfolk already is home to some pretty amazing murals, which we always spot when we're out and about. Here are five of our favorites around town -- have you seen them all?

1. The USS. Renova (129 W. Virginia Beach Blvd.)



Directly across from the Virginia Opera House is the USS Renova, painted on the side of the Renova Center building. The whimsical display integrates the building's windows into the design and features a submarine swimming through schools of colorful fish and three-dimensional mermaids and sea turtles. Take your time with this one -- there's a lot to spot hidden in those depths.

2. The Canvas at Zedd's Auction House (776 Granby Street)



Hampton Roads: The Canvas is a public art project that allows for artists to decorate abandoned buildings in the area. Their first project was the old Zedd's Auction House on downtown Granby Street. Four local painters transformed the building's boarded up windows and walls into dazzling panels featuring everything from cartoon animals to social commentary on beauty and capitalism. It's a wonderful (and free) mini-art gallery that makes what should be a sign of urban blight into a sign of the city's forward progress.

Update (9/4/13): Zedd's was torn down last week. The murals went with it. See what I'm saying about the impermanence of public art? I'm so glad we had a chance to take a look before the walls came down, and we hope you did, too. 

You can watch a short (~12 minutes) documentary on the painting of the Zedd's mural here.



3. Sunflowers (22nd Street and Colonial Ave.)





J., A. and I pass these sunflowers, painted on the side of Yorgo's Bageldashery, almost every weekend when we go for our Saturday morning breakfast. A solid two-story wall of flowers and buzzing bumblebees, it can be seen for blocks and provides a sunny spot in even the most dreary day. We've noticed that it's often referred to as a navigation point in the area -- "turn left when you see the sunflowers," and so forth.

4. Babe Ruth at Bain Field (702 W. 22nd Street)



Artist John Hickey painted this mural, which depicts Babe Ruth playing at Norfolk's Bain Field against the Norfolk Tars on June 29, 1934, on the front of Norfolk Baseball Academy on 22nd Street. (Hickey has also done several other iconic murals in the area). The photograph on which the Babe Ruth mural is based was projected onto the wall and then traced in the original newsprint colors. There is a wonderful sense of movement and you can almost hear and feel the excitement of the crowd when you look at it.



5. Enchanted Garden at Coleman Place Elementary (2450 Rush Street)



The giant animal and plant shapes on the Rush Street side of Coleman Place Elementary aren't painted, but cut out of giant sheets of aluminum that glitter in the sun. The mural, created by Garth Edwards, really sets the stage for what a school should be: a place where the world is discovered and explored, where imagination is valued.


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I think the thing I like best about murals is how transient they are. Buildings rise and fall, and the art goes with them -- it wears and tears in the weather or is replaced by something else. It gives a sense of lightheartedness to the act of making them, and also reinforces the idea of art purely for art's sake.

What do you think? Are there any other cool murals you've seen around Hampton Roads that we should check out? Or where you live, if you live outside the area? Tell us your favorites!

One evening a few weeks ago, we went for an after-dinner walk in the Miyazaki Japanese Garden at Red Wing Park in Virginia Beach. Red Wing Park has several beautiful gardens, but the Miyazaki Garden is our favorite. No matter how hot the day has been, it's always cool there, and no matter how gloomy the skies might be, there are always a few sun-dappled spots to explore.

The garden was planted in honor of Miyazaki, Japan, which is Virginia Beach's sister city. (Side note: I love the concept of sister cities -- Norfolk has several, which you can read about here.) The Miyazaki Garden is a wonderful mix of Japanese plants that fit perfectly with the native Virginia foliage in a way that encapsulates the spirit of both places and feels both familiar and unfamiliar at once. In the spring, they feature the area's best show of cherry blossoms, which we appreciate, since we were big fans of the ones in DC when we lived there.  




Anne had a great time running out some pre-bedtime energy on the garden's shady paths and setting up elaborate Barbie doll panoramas in the azumaya (Japanese-inspired outbuilding). She also tried to take home several of the smooth white rocks from the rock garden to add to her collections. Is there anything more attractive to toddlers than a pile of rocks? If there is, I don't think I've found it.


Happy 4th of July! Hope that everyone has a safe and festive holiday. See you back here on Monday. 

Anne and I made a great find at the Cape Hatteras lighthouse gift shop a few weeks ago -- a copy of 25 Secrets Revealed: A Culinary Tour by OBX local Kevin McCabe (we also got to meet the author!) McCabe grew up in the Outer Banks, but his travels have taken him all over the world, and his cookbook is a collection of his favorite recipes he's collected along the way along with the stories of how he encountered them.

So far we've only had the chance to try a couple of the recipes (though I plan to work through the rest of the book as soon as possible). But this recipe, for sugar spiced peanuts, is one we've made a few times. McCabe created it after he spent time in Indonesia, and it is delicious and addicting.
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Ingredients:

2 cups raw peanuts with the skins on
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of allspice

Directions:

In a heavy saucepan, dissolve the sugar and water over medium heat. Add the peanuts and stir very gently from time to time. After 8-9 minutes, the mixture will begin to look like rough sand and all the bubbling sugar will suddenly disappear. Quickly spread the nuts onto a nonstick cookie sheet and sprinkle on the cinnamon and allspice. Place them into a 275-degree oven for 25-30 minutes, stirring lightly every 5-6 minutes. Let cool and see how long they last.
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This is a quick recipe -- it goes fast, both the cooking and the eating of it. We made another batch with almonds, just because we could, but the peanuts were the real star. Something about how creamy they get when they're roasted...  Still, I think this recipe should be pretty easily adaptable for kids with peanut/tree nut allergies -- just substitute pumpkin seeds or even soybeans in place of the peanuts. (I would love to hear how this works if any of you decide to try it!)

You can get your copy of 25 Secrets Revealed here. 

I photographed this project while we were doing it, but looking at the photos after, was kind of like, "Eh, maybe not" about posting it. However, when Anouk was still talking about our leaf prints the next day, and demanded we do it again the day after that, I reconsidered. I've never seen an art project hold her attention for this long.

It's a very simple concept: you line up a bunch of leaves and flowers on white paper, cover them with a paper towel, give your kid a hammer, or a mallet, or a wood block, and let them whack to their heart's content. After a good hammering, the pigments in the leaves transfer to the paper, and you've got yourself a nice, nature-inspired print.





A few tips: dark-colored flowers and needle-y plants (pine needles, rosemary) make the most striking designs. We had the best results when we placed the underside of the leaf against the paper, facing up. We also noticed that after a few hours, some of the colors faded or turned brown -- any suggestions for things that might keep them bright and fresh are appreciated! (Lemon juice? Fixiative spray?)

Our designs turned out a little muddier and less crisp than the examples that we found online, but some of them were really pretty in spite of (because of?) the softer effect. And we had a really fun (and noisy -- sorry neighbors) time making them.



We're going to try this again in the fall, with some bright autumn leaves. Happy Monday!