Two Teeth in One Blow

My little man Dylie lost both bottom front teeth - these are his first ever! They had been loose for a billion years, and he wouldn't let us even touch them. But one day, he was whining about how sore they were, so when I said, "Do you want me to try to pull them?" He actually said, "YES."

I used needle-nosed pliers, thinking that the grippers on them would keep the teeth from being slickery, but they were still really slickery. Mom says next time to use kleenex to wrap around the pliers. Good idea. With the first one, I thought the pliers slid off the tooth, but the tooth had just come out, that easily. With the second one, I had to wiggle twice, and it came out, too. I think Dylan was really freaked out that he bled a little bit. He cried and cried and cried, like, "What have you DONE, Mom???" He looks pretty traumatized in this picture, taken immediately post-pull:

Dylan's friends came over right after I pulled the teeth, and he was like, "No! I'm BLEEDING!!! Waaaahhhhhh!!!!" They giggled and went home. After a few moments, he decided he didn't want to miss out, so he went out to play, but not without a big wad of kleenex in his mouth. He kept that dang thing in his mouth all day. It was disgusting. I finally convinced him to stuff some gauze we had in his mouth, so he did. Here he is, watching TV, HOURS after the pulling:

Here are the teeth:

And see how much better my hand is getting? That burn took forever to heal.

Here Dylan is the next day, much less traumatized:

Oh, he looks so cute without those teeth. I love it, love it, love it.

Buttermilk Pie - Per Mindy's Request

Mindy, The Best Blogger in the Universe, asked me for my Buttermilk Pie recipe, so here goes:

Buttermilk Pie

1 1/3 cup sugar
3 T flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1 cup buttermilk
2 t. vanilla
1 t. lemon flavoring

Combine sugar and flour. Beat the eggs thoroughly and add to sugar/flour mixture. Add melted margarine and buttermilk. Mix well. Fold in vanilla and lemon flavoring. Pour into an unbaked pastry shell. Bake at 425 degrees for ten minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 and bake for 35 minutes longer without opening the door. Makes one pie.

When life gives you zucchini...

...make zucchini bread!

Nine batches, and counting...

If I ever get up the gumption to start my own garden, I won't need to grow zucchini, because I always get oodles and gobs of it from my mom and friends. I've received... let's see...10, I think, so far this year. But we aren't complaining, because we get to eat this lovely goodness every single day:

Those are chocolate chips, my friends. I put chocolate chips in it when I have enough. When I don't, I do raisins and pecans, which are just as good. I seriously think I've gained five pounds over the last few weeks...

Per Amy's request, the recipe (I got this from Nat's Better Homes and Gardens cookbook):

Zucchini Bread

3 cup shredded zucchini
1 2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup chopped pecans*
1/2 cup raisins*

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two loaf pans that are 8 1/2 X 4 1/2 X 2 1/2 inches, or one loaf pan that is 9 X 5 X 3 inches. Mix zucchini, sugar, oil, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and baking powder and mix again. Add the pecans and raisins and mix again. Divide batter evenly between pans. Bake the 8 1/2 inch loaves 50-60 minutes, and the 9-inch loaves 70 mins to 80 mins, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. I'm usually able to pop them out of the pans immediately and put them on a wire rack to cool.

*I prefer chocolate chips to the pecan-and-raisin combination, unless I'm out of chocolate chips. If I've got the chocolate chips, instead of adding the pecans and raisins, I add 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips. With the pecans and raisins, you can use your mixer to mix them in to the batter, but with the chocolate chips, it's important that you just fold them in with a big spoon; if you use your mixer, the chocolate chips all end up settling to the bottom of the loaves. It's really weird. Trust me on this one; I've had nine batches to figure it out.

Here's another recipe I came across to help me use up the myriads of zucchini I've been given (I got this from a recipe book I have called Barbeques - Pot Lucks and Parties. I get a LOT of my meal ideas from this book. It's been really helpful):

Zucchini Casserole with Crumb Topping

2 onions, chopped
4 T butter
3 c. grated zucchini
6 eggs, beaten
1 cup sour cream
1 cup Bisquick
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup Ritz cracker crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Saute onion and zucchini in butter until almost tender. Place mixture in a greased 9X13 pan. Beat together eggs, sour cream, flour, salt, and pepper until blended. Pour mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle top with cracker crumbs and grated parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 mins, or until casserole is golden and puffy.

Last zucchini-involving recipe, again from my Barbeque book:

Grilled Fresh Vegetables

1 cube butter
1/2 cup olive oil
8 cloves garlic, minced
Summer squash, sliced (as much as you want to do)
Zucchini, sliced (as much as you want to do)
1 portabello mushroom, sliced (I had some leftover small fresh mushrooms that I sliced, and it was just fine)
salt and pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in the microwave or small skillet. Add garlic and olive oil and stir to blend. Put the mixture into a cake pan or a pie pan, dip your slices of veggies into the mixture so that both sides are buttered, and throw them on the grill. Salt and pepper the first side. It takes about five minutes to grill each side. When you flip the slices over, pepper and salt the other side, too. I like to double this recipe and eat half the first night, half the second night (heated up, of course). I actually do this with all my meals - I make enough to last two nights. That way, I don't have to cook every single night. It helps my sanity.

I'm a maid!

Um, wow. There are some kind of naughty pictures when you google images for the word "maid." Just be aware of that.

Anyways, my mom and I have the sweetest, sweetest deal going on right now. And I hope it lasts. Her knees are really bad, so she can't do heavy housework - you know, the stuff where you're scrubbing and crouching and reaching and things like that. So she asked me to work for her five hours per week. And she pays me!

I've been doing some spring cleaning in her house and lots of harvesting of vegetables. It is definitely hard work, but it's awesome to have the extra fundage.

Can I tell you how wonderful it is when, for instance, we need, say, eggs, and I can actually go to the store and buy eggs?? Or if I want to get a shaved ice, I can actually spend the one dollar and get myself a danged shaved ice. It's amazing. I'm so grateful. Ben has us on a teeny weeny grocery budget, and I have to tell you that, for a family of five, one of which is in diapers, what is budgeted just does not cut it. So it's nice to have my own private fund to use when we run out of milk or bread.

I am currently saving my earnings to buy those gorgeous pics Megs took of my kids a couple of weeks ago. It's hard to withstand the temptation to buy a burrito for lunch every day, but I must.

Thanks for the job, Mom. A ton. I appreciate it so much.

ANAKIN????

There is a show on Cartoon Network called Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It seems to be set sometime during Episode 2, from what I can tell. Because Anakin and Padme like each other, but nothing has happened about it. So maybe between Episode 1 and 2? Whatever. I haven't read the books. I think Padme is a senator in this series.

Anyways, it's when Anakin Skywalker and Obiwan Kenobi are working together, jedi and whatever you call the student. I'm not schooled well in Star Wars stuff. Here's Anakin as he is in that series, still on the side of good:

Dylan hasn't seen any of the Star Wars movies. We really should buy them. Someday. Anyways, Episode 3 was on TV the other night, and Ben and Dylan sat on the couch and watched it together. Dylan's mouth was open SO WIDE at the end. He couldn't believe that Good Little Anakin Skywalker went bad:

And turned into Darth Vader:

He kept going, "ANAKIN???? ANAKIN??? But Anakin is good..." Even the next day, I would catch Dylan shaking his head and muttering to himself about Anakin turning into a bad guy. It was pretty funny.

Squash

Last night, I didn't get a chance to eat dinner before going in to work for a couple of hours (I still work some hours in the evenings for my dad's office). As I was gathering my stuff to leave, I saw Ben slicing some squash to steam and put with our meal, and I thought, Good work, Benny. We need to use up that squash. And it's good for you. I planned to eat when I got home.

When I came home from work, Dylan asked me to cuddle him and rub his face, of course. So I was on the top bunk with him, rubbing his face, and I said, "So how was dinner, buddy?"

"Fine," he said.

"What did you think of the squash?" I asked.

"Squash tastes like.... nothing."

I chuckled and said, "But Daddy put butter and brown sugar on it, right?"

Dylan said, "It just tasted like nothing... with butter and brown sugar on it."

From the bottom bunk, I heard Sadie's little voice volunteer this opinion on the matter: "I hate stwass. It's dwoss." ["I hate squash. It's gross."]

I laughed so hard, because Dylan's opinion on squash is the exact same opinion I have about squash - it tastes like nothing. I'm not crazy about it, but I eat it when it's offered, because I know it's good for me. I feel the same way about water chestnuts - I feel like I'm eating crunchy air. I don't like those, either.

He's Walking!!

We took this video only a week ago. Since then, he has completely converted to walking. Can walk forever. Patty's sad about it, because when he crawled and was happy, he would bop his head happily from side to side. But Micah's therapists are thrilled. He has come a really long way, and I'm grateful.