Mommy's Mis-Adventures in the Kitchen-#2 - Baking 101

Last winter I took a baking class, really my first ever cooking class! I was very pregnant at the time so I think my domestic hormones were kicking in & I must have been channeling June Cleaver or something. I have to say I enjoyed it very much and learned quite a bit. The biggest take-away was that I have a lot to learn so this will probably not be my last class. But it's okay because it's something I want to do as opposed to something I have to do. I absolutely loved our chef teacher. She was kind and patient and funny! Or maybe she just thought my skills or lack there of, were pretty hilarious. Hmm.

Anyhow the girls have reaped some benefits of my baking experience and we made some Xmas cookies last year. Not to embarrass myself I only shared with my immediate family, the peanuts and J. Once I could please their taste buds I'd be ready to offer my goodies to the rest of the world.

How did I stumble upon this class?? I pass by Chef Central often on my way to the baby store. I have never ventured inside well because it does say "CHEF" and I'm not a chef by any definition. So I have no business in there. Except one day I was in search for a platter for Thanksgiving for my other adventure (my latte cheesecake) so I thought I might check it out. When I walked in I was amazed by all of the amazing chef STUFF they had! I must have looked like one of the Willy Wonka kids in the Chocolate Factory. I might as well have walked on to one of the sets of the Food Network! They had everything from exotic spices and ingredients to the latest tools and gadgets and lovely displays to show off delectable creations of skilled chefs. None of this really relates to me but nevertheless I walked around aisle after aisle wishing I knew how to use all of these magnificent little contraptions. By the time I reached the back of the store I found a cooking classroom and a wonderful person in one of those cool chef jackets, the object of my envy. They had a calendar display of all the great classes they offered and the level of each one. Level 1 would be novice. That would be me! I was excited that they offered some hope for poor hapless wanna-be-bakers like myself! It was a chance to learn how to make something not from a box or refrigerated tube.

These people really knew what they were doing with this class. They managed to teach someone like me how to create something like this!

J was totally impressed when I came home with these goodies!! I think he was under the delusion that I could pull this off on a regular basis on my own, neither of which was true.

These were the girls favorite, glass sugar cookies made with candy centers. Not too difficult and quite yummy!

These were my favorite, white chocolate cranberry cookies & chocolate macaroons. These were easy and required no artistic ability!

Rugelach cookies, these were a royal pain! I don't think I could repeat this at home, as it had way too many steps but they were tasty.

THESE were my pride and joy! They were what you would call my pièce de ré·sis·tance!!

These were great and I put in a lot of time in the decor and was so happy with the result that I didn't want anyone to eat them :) Eventually J convinced me that I should let the girls eat them, so I did.

This year I pulled out the recipes and decided the peanuts and I should practice our cookies for Santa's big arrival. They're older and I thought it would be fun to decorate some sugar cookies. Not sure what we'll try next but this is how this adventure turned out.

First lesson of Xmas cookies is that delicious cookies require work! Cati took it well...Val umm not so sure.

They suggested that we just bake them & eat them. But I persisted, and next it was some more work to make them look pretty. And just so you know that's home-made royal icing. I'm pretty impressed with myself.

VOILA!! Done!

I will not tell you which ones I did and which ones the girls did, for fear that I might receive some ego-bruising commentary lol! And finally it was time for us to enjoy the fruits (or cookies) of our labor!

I have no idea if the girls were looking to make something that they could be proud of but by the looks of it I think they were just looking for a reason to convince me to give them yet another sugary treat. I had a totally different agenda, to prove to myself that I could bake something edible and easy on the eyes! HA!

I also want to start some holiday traditions with the girls that they could look back on fondly. And I'm hoping that maybe just maybe they won't remember that mom was not the best baker but they could look back and remember that we had fun doing it.

The Drunken Years

....if I were writing a book about the girls and motherhood this would be the title of the current chapter in our lives.

Why? Well because for one, this is what it's like to parent 3 year old twins right now. I constantly feel like the AA sponsor of 2 drunks trying to rationalize, negotiate, and appease them every waking hour of their little lives. Secondly, the emotional roller coaster of three-year- old-twins can certainly lead to several drinks a day. Only alcohol could numb your mind enough to deal. Thankfully the latter doesn't happen too often because of school (thank you Lord), grandma (thanks again dear Lord), and daddy does eventually come home (Good Lord I am really blessed).

What really compelled me to post this today was reading this article and watching this video. Warning: If you have no children watch at your own risk. You may never want children after this.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/12/05/143062378/whats-behind-a-temper-tantrum-scientists-deconstruct-the-screams

The screams and yells resembled the same sounds that occur in my house times two! But what really got me was the reason that caused the tantrum of Noemi and David Doudna's daughter...and I quote,

"Their daughter Katrina once had a meltdown at dinnertime because she wanted to sit at one corner of the dining table. Problem was, the table didn't have any corners – it was round. When David Doudna asked Katrina where she wanted to sit, the tantrum only intensified. "

In my opinion the article should have been named, "What's Behind The Drunken State of Your Toddler." I'm not sure if it's scientific enough but it certainly captures the sometimes mind-boggling-reasons why your child gets upset.

This is a picture of their school's Halloween parade of 2010...notice they are not wearing the black pants of their costume. Why? Nobody knows, but the teacher told me that they explained to her that bumble bees don't wear black pants. Ummm ok. Again you can't rationalize with a drunk you just say okay and move on. So long as they agreed to walk in the Halloween parade the teacher couldn't spend too much time discussing the black legs of a bumble bee. And I agree.

In my experience this has been the difficult part of having twins, the tantrums. While at our local pool one day, Catalina decided she wasn't going to follow directions of her swim teacher. So I kept reminding her, very patiently I might add, that if she didn't listen we would NOT stay at the pool after class. After several reminders Cati had blatantly refused to do anything the poor young teacher asked. So as a result I had to stick to my threat and follow through. I braced myself for what lie ahead. Don't ask me who's more strong willed of my twins because I'll say the one that's giving me the hard time in the moment and that could change any day, any hour, any minute. Anyhow once she figured out we weren't staying the tantrum ensued she screamed, she cried, she smart mouthed me but I ignored it all because in the end a battle of words would get us nowhere. I can't say it was easy to hold it together. And I guess the look on my face was one of angst and worry. Worry that I would cave because I couldn't stand the embarrassment and the dread that all eyes were on me. And I wanted to explain this this tazmanian devil was really my child I was trying to drag out of the pool.

Suddenly I heard a voice from what seemed like a crowd of hundreds of other judging moms. The voice, because I couldn't possibly stop and look up to see who it was, said "Way to stick to your guns mom. You have to follow through otherwise it will only get worse." In that moment I felt a surge of strength and reassurance that came from the voice and I was suddenly confident that I had to be doing the right thing. And any fear I had that one day Cati would be telling this story opposite a therapist, completely dissipated. To the unknown mom who encouraged my disciplining that day....A heart felt Thank You. I really needed that.

The way I see it at two they're frustrated because they can't express what they want and you're frustrated because you wish you spoke babble. But at three the frustration is exponentially higher because they can talk fairly well now and they can say please and they can "use their words" and yet they still can't get what they want. When this happens the reaction is along the lines of...WHAT! Are you serious Mom?? In my case I guess this would be to the second power. And as a result sometimes I need TWO beers after a long day with the twins. If you throw in the infant in the middle of this madness and now I need a nice little alcoholic concoction that will knock me to bed in one gulp, like a Kamikaze Shot.

Since they've turned three I've had to up my negotiation tactics. They're smarter now. Now it's about creating the delicate balance of providing options that allow them to feel empowered and me to feel like I'm still in charge here. This is no easy task. So if you're out there thinking I can't possibly do this. I'm here to tell you that you're not alone. There are many days when I don't think I can do it either. You're not a failure you're just part of the masses.

Sometimes I think that because I have twins I'm much more willing to give in and just comply. After a day of heavy deliberations I am worn out. I can't hear myself think anymore never mind thinking straight so I just give in. Inside I'm pleading for mercy and screaming "UNCLE enough already!" When is Ashton Kutcher going to jump out of a car and say this is all a big joke on you! You just got PUNK'D!!

Every day it's about strategy, how do we get through whatever activity without an emotional breakdown. At this age they're thoughtful, albeit in a irrational sort of way, so I need to be careful not give some half-assed reason for why I need them to eat their meal, put their shoes on, or go to bed. If you think you can get away with some thoughtless response, then think again my friends. Get ready for a rebuttal. You do not want to get into direct, cross-examination, re-direct, re-cross, etc. That is what you want to avoid at all cost. That will eventually end with ...meltdown. You want to address the question and calmly agree to a settlement. Done.

For example:

Twin A: Mommy I want to wear my pretty brown sparkly shoes to school.

Me: You need to wear your big sneakers today because today is gym day at school and if you wear your brown sparkly shoes they might fall off your feet while you're playing races at gym today. And you can't stop to pick up your shoes while you're racing otherwise you'll lose the race.

Twin A: Oh okay mommy. Let's put on my big sneakers.

And this is the kind of quick-thinking I have to come up with early in the morning without even having my first cup of coffee.

Things to note in this example. First of you never say "no." I try to avoid this word like my tongue will spontaneously combust if I say it. "No" usually leads to automatic rebuttal it doesn't matter what you say after that word. There will almost always be a rebuttal and so begins the negotiation. I try to always begin with words like "I want, I need, You must, You need to, Please do, or Would you like"

I'm not sure if my kids get away with way too much or if I'm way to hard them. I probably won't know until much later in life, and will probably be too late to do much about it at that point. One comforting thought that lets me sleep at night is that I'm trying. In my heart my intention is not to scar my children for life or allow them to become degenerate burdens on society. I am doing the best that I can. I hope that one day they can look back at their childhood and see that we tried very hard to be good, positive, and fair parents. I hope they can look back and see that our intention was not to rob them of the pleasures of life but to protect them of the dangers that lurks in the world today. I hope that they can appreciate what we wanted to teach them about life and how to deal with the the success, the struggles, and the sometimes painful experiences that their life might bring them. I hope that one day when I'm long gone they can say with gratitude that we prepared them for their future.

And this is why it's so hard to deal with the little drunks. Because I want so much for them to understand why I make the choices I make and why I can't just let them roam the planet like little savages. I know that one day I won't be there for them to make that crucial decision and so I pray with all of my being that I have given them the tools necessary to do the right thing. And I hope that my little drunks grow up to be sober adults :)

What I did on my Summer Vacation...

...don't you wish you could go back to those days! This year I actually DID have a summer vacation because I was on maternity for most of the summer. If I could go back to 4th grade I'd do it in a heart beat ;O) My mom, bless her soul, tried really hard to make summers interesting and desperately tried to occupy our time with something...anything...to keep us out of trouble. When you're a working mom, like my mom was, summers are just hard & stressful because you have to find something to keep your kids occupied during the hot, non-air conditioned, cramped, summer months so the kids won't kill each other and you don't wind up choking a child. But most of all you probably stress about keeping your kids out of trouble during the summer months. Some of the things that come to my mind from my childhood....

Summer Day Camp-this must have been so friggin expensive for my mom. I now appreciate her sacrifice. If I haven't said it before, THANKS MOM.

Trips to Peru-I get that this helped reduce mom's stress but who the heck wants to spend their summer in a cold country?? While it was a lot of fun to be there and be in a place where you could roam the streets with other kids and not have the fears that exist where you live in the inner city...but really it was no place to tan in July!

SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE-one of my favorite places on earth! The best times here were with cousins and aunts and have a full blown meal out of the trunk of my aunt's car stocked with rice and beans and pernil and spaghetti and a Peruvian fav....papa ala huancaina! Yes, this is how we rolled.

Pleasure Land-a long lost concept today, this was a public pool in Jersey & boy was it a fun place!

The Jersey Shore-the beach has always been a favorite for me and I plan to keep this tradition going with my own kiddos.

So now that Fall has arrived I'm compelled to document our summer vacation with the peanuts. I think it's my way of holding on to the warmth of summer as the weather in reality gets colder & colder around me.

Camila has clearly enjoyed the summer. I think she especially enjoys the fact that there's no need for shoes or socks!

As a kid, I went to a baseball game once. I think I was about 13 when I got to go to my first Mets game. This summer we took the girls to see the Mets & they got to meet my favorite big head, MR. MET!

And J took advantage of the batting cages to see if we have any small prodigies on our hands.

And I thought Val looked pretty cute in her batting helmet ;O)

This is probably not one of J's proudest moments (he's a Yankee fan in disguise) but it is certainly one of mine. It's such joyful moments like this that make me feel so lucky.

The Bronx Zoo

I think I went once as a kid to the Bronx Zoo. J has been wanting to take the girls for some time. So this year we did. The girls had a great time. Me, well not so much. I think much like folks in the Bronx, the animals were just way too hot to come out and entertain us. I'll give it another shot next year but if they don't straighten up their act we'll be going to Turtle Back Zoo in NJ.

The little hungry caterpillar. The girls love this book & it was fun to actually see one up close and personal. Thankfully it wasn't real :)

The highlight of the zoo, the merry-go-round. HUH?? I'll take it.

This is was some sort of zoo monorail. Not sure if it's just a contraption to keep the kids contained and get off your feet for a while or if it really is a way to see more animals. Here's what we saw....

Each other...

Some kind of ant eater??...the darn thing was moving too fast.

ELEPHANTS!...something we recognized.

Lion?...umm yes sounds good.

The 4th of July 2011

This is the first fireworks display we've attended...and this was Camila's first 4th of July. And she did so great and loved it!

Summer is truly for lounging...

Playing...

And lounging some more....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

The Jersey Shore

Fist pump...or as Cati and Val say Piss pump!

With the Jersey Shore you can never go wrong...we ARE beach bums :)

And so are our cousins...

And favorite uncle Jeff!

And just bumming around....

So as not to forget their heritage we also celebrate the the 28th of July...Peruvian Independence Day.

Did I mention J hates the heat?...This is J hating the heat...and Camila too.

My littlest Peruvian Peanut!

The older peanuts deal with the heat a tad better...

Titi Ani loves the heat...little cousin David, maybe not but he's still hanging showing his Peruvian pride ala Elmo! ;O)

And as we wind down the summer...Pre-Season Football!! Due to the lockout we got to see our very favorite green team in Jersey this year as they prepared for the season.

Thank you JETS for provided some seriously FUN entertainment for the kids.

Big REX!

Revis on his island..

And our beloved cutie patootie...Mark Sanchez! Along with our recent acquisition Plaxico Burress.

What a great summer indeed. I'm thankful for these great summer days that I got to spend with my peanuts. Good-bye pretty dresses...and golden tans....

hellooooo Pre-K. YIKES!!

The girls didn't know they would be starting a new school this year. It was intimidating at first for them but mostly for me. It was not easy as an over protective mom to let my kids go into a new environment. I worry all the time. Will they be okay? Will they be scared? Will they need me? In the end I know they're ok. I have very independent, strong, and resilient little girls but they will always be my little peanuts and I will always worry no matter how reassuring a place may be.

My peanuts are growing up so fast....

And Camila enjoyed some quiet time at home. After a very busy summer it's nice to have a little alone time as we wait for big sisters to get out of school.