Birthday Monkey

Here is Sebastian wearing the monkey shirt and socks he got for his birthday. The first two pictures show two different phases of his "deliberate smile," which he has recently developed. When he is trying to smile, he tilts his head backwards, squints up his eyes, and grits his teeth. He seems to think this is the correct way to produce a smile on demand. Sometimes he also shakes his head back and forth really fast as part of this process. I think he looks quite rugged and dashing in that first picture, don't you?

In the last two pictures he is trying to remove his socks. (These show his real smile.)

Sebastian's Birthday

Zucchini Bread cake (his favorite!)

Eating cake--yum!

How old are you, Sebby? One!

Going swimming

You can really see the difference in their skin tones in this picture

Looking up at Daddy

We had a fun time at the swimming pool the other day. Abe likes the BIG waterslides best, the faster the better. And Sebby is like a slippery little fish. He kept signing "drink! drink!" as he looked at the pool (the biggest drink in the world!), and in spite of our efforts to stop him, he would bob his head down and slurp up water from time to time--then wrinkle up his nose and spit it out.

Seb is walking pretty much all the time now, by the way. He's getting less unsteady day by day, although he still has that cute baby wobbliness.

Playing with Adam

Abey and his cousin Adam play together on Thursdays. They have a lot of fun together! Here they are running through the sprinklers last week.

Tomato and Basil Pizza Recipe

Now that I finally figured out how to use my pizza stone (you're supposed to preheat it with the oven, which I had somehow never realized until recently, which is why I always wondered why people thought pizza stones were so great--but now I think they're great too!) we've been eating lots of pizza. We love it topped with Mom's garden tomatoes and my own fresh basil. Here is my favorite dough recipe. It's great with whole wheat flour, or half white/half wheat, too.


Tomato and Basil Pizza

Dough:
2 T. instant yeast
2 C. warm water
1 T. salt
3 T. olive oil, plus more for brushing crust
4-5 cups flour

Toppings:
Mozzarella cheese
Fresh tomatoes (Romas are good)
coarse salt
fresh basil, chopped

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, with pizza stone on lowest rack. (It's good if the stone can preheat for a half hour or more.)

Mix first 4 ingredients, then add flour and knead until dough forms a ball and isn't sticky anymore. Let rise anywhere from 10 min. (if you didn't plan ahead) to an hour (if you did), then roll out onto a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel or cookie sheet. The cornmeal should be spread thick enough that the dough won't stick.

Brush dough with olive oil, then top with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and sliced fresh tomatoes. (Add other toppings too, if desired.) Sprinkle lightly with coarse salt. Slide pizza off of pizza peel onto hot pizza stone in oven. (This is tricky, but Sam and I working together can do it quite well.) Bake for 10-12 minutes at 425, until cheese is bubbly and brown-spotted. After you take it out of the oven, sprinkle generously with chopped basil.

Mmmm! Delicious!

Irrigating at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Doesn't this look fun?

More wind!

We had a big wind storm today. We were at the grocery store when it happened, and it was pouring rain and hail there, but I don't think the wind was as strong. As we drove home, the streets downtown (Center Street, 2nd West) were all flooded, and the power was out. The water was really deep--maybe 6 or 7 inches. We just had to drive through it. The store owners were wading around outside with their pant legs rolled up, trying to sweep water away from their store fronts.

As we got closer to home, we saw dozens of branches scattered around on State Street and nearby. There were pieces of some big mangled plastic thing--it looked like the side of a camper or a storage shed--hanging up in the telephone wires, wrapped partly around a telephone pole, and in several places on the side of the road.

Everyone was outside in our neighborhood, looking at the damage. There were shingles down everywhere on the ground, and people's siding had been ripped off in a few places too.


We fared pretty well, overall. Our nice arch was all blown down and mangled, and the deck furniture had blown all around. I can't believe the wind was strong enough to blow the glass tables and chairs, as well as scoot the grill around. I took this picture after I'd retrieved the cushions from all over the yard, and righted all the flower pots which were tipped over. Note the piles of hail underneath the roof overhang.

I was afraid our aspen tree would be down again, but the rope (and its lighter weight) seem to have protected it. However, another tree was snapped off near the middle of the trunk. You can see here the snapped trunk, the trunk's new top, and the broken top lying on the ground over the mailbox.



These pictures show more damage--to roofs, siding, windows, etc.--around the neighbors' houses.

We're glad that no one blew away! Abey and Sebby helped me walk around taking stock of everything, and Abe doesn't seem too traumatized--although his eyes filled up with tears a couple of times, when he was asking me things like "Did any of our windows break?" I'm glad we were at the store during the storm, because I bet it would have been scary to see and hear* all that deck furniture blowing around. But he's been brave about it, and even called Grandma to report all of the interesting things we saw. He especially liked the flood ("It's like driving in a river!"), and was pleased to think of all the vacuum trucks that would be needed to suck up so much water. He loves vacuum trucks.


* "Last night's rain and hail, did you see and hear it?"