Better Get an Update in Before Christmas!

Today, I made 128 chocolate peanut-butter balls. 127 of them made it into the freezer - not bad! It's the first day of the lifting of my self-imposed NO BAKING rule, in order to prepare for the many Christmas get-togethers over the holidays for which I need to bring baked goods along, among other things. I guess it wasn't actually baking that I did today since the oven wasn't on, but we'll disregard that since a heat source was indeed used. Besides, the caloric content of a chocolate peanut-butter ball most likely falls into the range of "too high but it tastes so good" and therefore by default, such an item is a baked good. Hopefully 127 chocolate peanut-butter balls will make their way into someone else's digestive system somewhere along the way but I have my doubts about that. Next on the list: cookies, speculaas, and perhaps if I feel particularly laden with spare time and enthusiasm, butter tarts. Oh, and maybe also some homemade arrowroot cookies since Aaron will probably appreciate some sort of snack.
Hmmm, thinking back on last week, I suppose you could accuse me of breaking the NO BAKING rule earlier already when I made a gingerbread house "with" Peter last Friday (actually a graham-cracker house). Caloric content most definitely falls into the range of "too high but it tastes so good" but since a heat source wasn't used, and since the house probably won't be entirely eaten anyways (graham crackers don't taste too good after a while out in the open), I think I will forgive myself for breaking the rules.

My graham-cracker house, which may or

may not be structurally unsound

That being said, perhaps an update on the household would be in order since it's been a while since I've posted. What's new.... Mike has one week left of school, although since today is basically done and Friday is a half-day, it's actually only 3.5 days left for him. Yay! He's been busy at school with various projects, and enjoyed taking his class to the ROM on a field trip last week. We went earlier with some friends of ours to check out the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit which is there for a limited time. Quite something to see these 2000 year-old writings and artifacts in person, coming from such an important time in history. We enjoyed our trip and I would recommend going to see the scrolls if you have the opportunity, although the exhibit closes January 3 2010 so you'd better hurry up.

Out in front of the ROM - quite the interesting addition they put onApparently I'm really bad at taking pictures in low-light
situations, so I thought I'd reduce the pictures way down

so they didn't look so bad for ya. The dinosaurs, always a favourite. RUN!

Both the boys are doing very well. I know I probably keep saying this, but Peter is learning more and more all the time. I guess that's just the nature of a child, they have so much to learn especially in their first years that it is hard not to comment on their exponential learning curves. Anyways, he knows every letter of the alphabet and most of their sounds, and generally enjoys being quizzed and playing games about letters. I took the boys grocery shopping the other day, and was listening to Peter count to 20 by himself in the cart. Wow! Well, he might have skipped 13 and said 18 a few times, but I am still very impressed. He's learning his colours (favourite one is currently yellow) and is really starting to LOVE singing, which is a ton of fun! He asks for songs often, however I must sing the one HE wants to sing or else he won't participate. His imagination is really taking off and if the mood hits him, he can sit by himself and play for a long time with his trucks, blocks, trains, whatever. He's got this thing going right now where he thinks he's a "digger". He'll sit at the table, eating with one hand and having the other arm parked like a digger on his tray, or he'll be moving it around all digger-like, dumping imaginary "dirt" on the ground. Where do they come up with these things anyways? When given a box of dinky cars, he'll leave behind all the cars and pick out all the garbage trucks, dump trucks, diggers, fire trucks, transports, etc. I just have to laugh because it's such a boy thing to do. I hope we have girls some day so that we can see how much of a difference there is between the genders.

Aaron is closing in on the 8 month mark and continues to be a cheerful, content little guy. His smiles melt your heart and when he and Peter laugh at each other it's hard not to laugh yourself! He's a solid little guy, probably around 25 lbs now and he feels like a chunk of concrete when you pick him up. He doesn't look particularly chubby but I think his bones must be filled with lead or something. He watches Peter run around, and he is eager to gain his own mobility. He sits on his hands and knees and rocks all the time (even in the middle of the night) and I'm wondering when he'll figure out the key to moving forward instead of pushing himself backwards all the time. Until then, he'll get himself stuck under chairs or other furniture... the other day he ended up way under Peter's bed. My guess is that he'll be crawling before the new year, but as I recall with Peter, the transition to crawling can take longer than you think. I guess there's a lot of new muscles to be built up and coordination to figure out before then. I hope for his sake it doesn't take long, since he'll really enjoy his newfound freedom when it arrives!
Aaron loves to eat, although he's still not a pro at chunky things. This is kind of frustrating, since the immersion blender I have seems to be giving up, and the smoothie-blender we got for our wedding doesn't seem to do the trick getting rid of lumps in our suppers. I've been doing some research on a new blender, but without spending hundreds of dollars, it seems hard to find one that will do what I need it to do, and last longer than a year or two. I like the all-metal drive systems of the Oster blenders but it seems that half the reviews are very positive, and the other half are VERY negative. I'm thinking the Oster Beehive blender might be the one, even though one review claimed it was so noisy that it's "like having a helicopter and a vacuum cleaner running at the same time in your face". I think I laughed out loud at that one. The noise might scare the kids a little, and maybe even the neighbours but I guess most blenders aren't really quiet anyways.
Well, my both-kids-asleep-at-the-same-time time is running out, so I should load up some pictures for a minute while I still have a chance. Until next time, take care!

Someone's being a stinker at the park...Little bitta sunflareGotta love those runny noses...Brothers and best buds... Aaron got stuck under the
chair so Peter decided to join himDuring Peter's nap the other day, Aaron and I had a photo shoot.
Pictures like these make me REALLY want a camera with a
few more pixels!! Not that I'm a pro photographer or anything,
but a clearer picture would be really nice sometimes. Mr. Handsome admiring himself in the mirrorPeter LOVES my swiffer and will gladly "help"
me clean the house with it