Amazon Smile

THE New Family is very pleased with Amazon. Dad recently became aware that he can support his favorite charities while shopping there at no additional cost to him. Through the Amazon Smile campaign, Amazon will donate 0.5% (0.005) of every purchase to charity.

If you are a regular Amazon shopper, and would like to also support a charity you can go hear: https://smile.amazon.com/

If your curious about which charity Dad is currently supporting, it is the Home School Foundation.
https://smile.amazon.com/ch/52-1354365

http://www.homeschoolfoundation.org/index.php?id=17

Sick Children

THE Twins were sick recently. But the symptoms were unusual. In Buggy, it presented as extreme lethargy and an inability to keep cow's milk down. She slept most of the day. Then she slept some more. At first Dad thought it was just a sleep deficit catching up with her (on three days the week before, she did not take a nap). But the vomiting confirmed her being ill.

The next day, she was able to keep powdered milk down.

The subsequent day, EJ began running a fever and was also extremely tired, sleeping for several hours during nap time. He is a regular 90 minute napper, so for him to nap close to three hours is unusual. While not sleeping, he was extremely quiet and passive. While nice for Dad, he would prefer his Son be his usual bounce-off-the-wall self.

Sick boy lays passively. Temp: 101 F.

One good thing came out of Buggy being sick. She is not a cuddler, but while sleepy she does like to snuggle. She snuggled a lot with Dad and seems to have enjoyed it enough to repeat it once well again. Yay!

What Doesn't Costco Sell?

DAD found this family at Costco recently. He thought it such a good deal he decided to to take them home.

Things are working out pretty well so far. He thinks he will keep them. He might even get a few more. :-)

Tot-Lot

WITH the weather a balmy 45 degrees, and the wind not so bitter, Mom and Dad felt the need to get the kids outside to play.

Innate Nature

DAD has had several previously unexamined biases about children proven wrong in the 21 months the kids have been around. First, he uncritically assumed that given a choice between sugary food and vegetables, the kids would always choose sugar. Buggy proves that wrong when given a choice between candy and broccoli. Dad also assumed that children were selfish by nature; they had to be taught to be self less. But both Buggy and EJ have shown that they have a sharing nature.

Recently, Buggy was upset for some reason only known to her. EJ sat at the table eating his cheese puffs. Feeling sympathy for her, he offered her a few.

They have both done this before. This is not that unusual.

Dad has to guard against unfounded assumptions about the nature of children, at least these children.

Play

THE twins club and My Gym hosted an event recently to showcase their services. The Twins had fun.

Five Second Rule

Scientists confirm dad’s common sense: 5-second rule totally legit

A British microbiologist has concluded that food dropped on the floor is okay to eat as long as you pick it up really fast. Other researchers aren't so sure.

Indeed, the British researchers included a poll that also seemed to confirm the obvious: 87 percent of people say they are “happy to consume dropped food,” in the words of the report, and 55 percent of those people (wait for it) are women. (Kids were apparently not asked, but let’s just throw a guess out there: roughly 100 percent have eaten off the floor.)

Read the whole thing: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2014/0316/Scientists-confirm-dad-s-common-sense-5-second-rule-totally-legit

Yeah, Dad remains skeptical but the Twins have absolutely no problem eating food off of the floor. In fact they will find stuff that has been there for days and eagerly plop it into their mouths.

Kids are gross. Parenting is not for the squeamish.

Perfect Shrimp

HI Foodies!

Getting shrimp done perfectly has been a challenge for Dad. Typically he would saute them in butter. They would generally be unevenly cooked, some were underdone while others were overdone. Underdone can make you sick, and has mealy texture. Overdone resembles rubber. Dad wants neither.

Pink, pearl, and brown.

Mom directed Dad to cook her shrimp in their counter-top electric convection oven (1,800 watts). He did so placing half on the wire rack and the other half on the drip pan. He set the temperature at 350 degrees and checked them after 8 minutes. They turned out perfectly. The shrimp in the drip pan boiled in their juice while the ones above on the wire rack dripped their liquid below. Both were acceptable but the wire rack shrimp were more appealing because they were dry.

The texture is awesome. They are nowhere near rubber but not raw either. Dad would be proud to serve these to guests. The three Dad sampled were consistent in doneness.

Mom notes that the technique used is credited to Opa. Apparently he baked his shrimp.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

THIS is Liesel last year on this day, (actually yesterday).

.

This is her today.

Final Updates: Best of Winter 2013 - 2014

WINTER happens. Bundle up, grab your loved ones, toss the blanket over top, and stay warm (even if they squirm away from you laughing and giggling). Do what you have to do.

A evening trip to the grocery store.

The snow piles up about 8'. More on the way.

One could freeze in this bright sunshine. (- 1 F. at 8:45 a.m.)

The sun sets on another bitter cold day (facing East).

The sun sets (the same day facing west).

Your blog writer takes a shadow selfie.

Killer icicles hang off a building. They literally could be.

Minus 13 F. according to the car's dash. That's not with wind chill.

The meat smoker on the balcony.

Waiting for the light to change to green.

Preparing for Christmas.

Hard pack snow makes for pretty good traction.

The video above demonstrates the strange acoustics of falling snow. While it hushed the neighbors a few dozen yards away making a ruckus trying to get their old jalopy running, he could clearly hear the snow flakes impacting on the already fallen snow. Be sure to turn the volume up. Also in the video is the crunch Dad's shoes make traversing from one filming position to the next.

Most of the snow fall events this year featured fine powder snow because it was so cold. That makes for poor photos. The snow appears to be nothing more than fog. But above, the snow was wet and heavy making it stand out against the green trim.

Neighborhood kids play at the end of the block.

This season's winter had several polar vortices, high pressure air masses that moved down from the Arctic, that brought cold temperatures, lots of snow (third snowiest season on record as 03/14/2014), but many bright sunny days.

The sun sets.

Another fresh snow.

While the snowfall totals approached record breaking, the frequent warmups between snowfalls melted a good volume of it. So on any given day the volume of snow on the ground was 8" or less.

03/11/2014 at 11:58 a.m., before the snow.

03/12/2014 at 8:39 a.m., after the snow.

Much to Mom's delight, this post is now closed. No further updates will be made unless there is a major late season snowfall. She writes, "[T]hat winter update blog is too long [and] its repetitive. Get rid of it. Too much scrolling to get to my beautiful babies."

Teddy Bears

MOM bought the Twins new teddy bears.