Kids at Play

I was having a hard time getting some of my longer videos to load, so I had to go through the YouTube route. Sorry--hope it works as well as it says it's supposed to. . . .This one makes us laugh every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L1w-C0Qen0

Grace is FINALLY crawling!

She started this past Thursday, two months to the day of Liam starting. (He's nearly walking now, but she'll get there. . .) She's made a lot of progress in just four days, and has become much happier now that she can keep up--sort of--with brother.

They Just Can't Get Cuter!

Notice the outfit Grace is wearing ina couple of the photos. I bought it at least ten years ago, when I was sssoooo into Harley Davidson motorcycles. When I got it, I told my mom to hold onto it for the daughter I would have some day. I didn't realize it would have taken that long, but low and behold, Mom kept the outfit and Grace looks pretty cute in it! And, I finally got a few of Liam smiling, but not without flaw? One he's closing his eyes and mostly naked, another he's got food all over his face. . .I do believe we're making progress, though! And would you just look at those beautiful blue eyes!

Babies Take a Ride

So, they take their first ride in the steering wheel shopping cart, and not only are they super cute, but Liam refused to let Grace steer her own wheel. Every time she tried, he literally shoved her out of the way. How do babies learn these things this early? It's fascinating to us the differences between boys and girls, when given the same opportunities, what they learn to do at such a young age. I am constantly surprised at their ingrained personalities.

Ooof! The past five years kicked our butts!

And we're all the better for it. It's so hard to believe we celebrated five years today, and I'm so grateful to my husband for all he's done and been for me in this time. We've bought and sold our first house (made an offer on another one today--fingers crossed, everyone!), catered numerous events together, lost loved ones, cleaned out an enormous patch of blackberries at the ol' place and turned it into a fruitfull garden, fostered two precious little boys and had our hearts ripped out when they had to leave, two rounds of failed IUI's, I'm sure THOUSANDS of fertility shots that made me cry and made him cringe, one successful round of in-vitro with ONLY TWO EGGS!, and now two beautiful babies. (We could have done without their constant barfing for five months, but they're sure cute now!)

Not bad for five years, and we still love each other strong! We are blessed. Thank you to all of you who have supported us, believed in us, and encouraged us.

Sleepy Little Baby

He gets to jumping so hard he can't stay awake. Funny little boy! (And then there's Grace, who is a pro at 10-minute naps. . .)

Kobocha!

Until now, Delicatta Squash has been the favorite in our household. Tonight we made steak and baked potatoes for dinner--nothing crazy--and Sean pulls out the last Delicatta squash from my folks' garden. He wanted that too. Then, in the same basket, I see the Kobocha I picked up about a month ago at my favorite Asian market, Uwajimaya. At the time, I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I just knew I had to find out!

First--a little "what is it" lesson. Supposedly it's been around since about the 19th century, but has only recently made it to US markets. It's considered a Japanese pumpkin, and is loaded with Vitamin C and A, and lots of fiber too, especially if you eat the thin skin which softens when cooked. The one I bought weighed about three pounds, and is about the size of a large cooking pumpkin. Though it's green outside, the flesh is pretty orange, very similar to our standard American pumpkin. It's apparently available from late fall to early spring.

Anyway, Sean scoffed at me making it, but I found a quick seemingly delicious recipe on someone else's blog. A simple sliced squash tossed with brown sugar, cumin, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, soy sauce and olive oil.

http://www.justhungry.com/sweet-and-spicy-roasted-kabocha-squash

I was going to take a picture of it, but we wound up eating it too fast. It candies up beautifully. We weren't sure about eating the skin at first, but it ended up being the best part--kind of chewy and REALLY delicious. I roasted the other half for the twins and mixed it will cinnamon and a little roasted banana. They liked it too!

Long story short--GOOD GRIEF, it was GOOD! I hope you get around to trying it some day, too. Sean still says Delicatta is his favorite, but he sure didn't have a problem fighting me for the last morsel of this one.

(For the record, I'm trying the following recipe the next time I buy one, which will probably be real soon.)

http://foodblogga.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-is-kabocha-squash.html