Baby Goats

Polly before she gave birth.

Here is Polly after she gave birth with triples. Two females and one male. Charlie is trying to get them all rounded up for the picture.

Celebrating TaTa's coming home.

We had to do a little dance to celebrate that Katie is coming home and she will be staying for the summer and fencing. We can't wait to see her.

First Steps

Clarence's first steps.

On the phone.

I was trying to be somewhat conspicuous, but here's a view from my side while Charlie is on the phone. He only talks when he is in the mood, and he likes to go hands free, which results in a lot of dropped calls. The phone is also regularly upside down. He has this new thing where he likes to talk to YaYa for an hour on the phone while she reads him books and he sings her songs (it all started out one day when he talked to her while sitting in the dryer, with the door open of course, while drinking some chocolate milk; now they're phone buddies. It's exclusive, I don't know what they are talking about, but apparently its some kind of inside joke because I hear a lot of giggling sometimes). To the oblivion of whomever he is on the phone with, he usually takes them on a tour around the house, sometimes to his room to look at toys, and other times trying to find Meow (so be careful what you ask him/whom you ask him about). Sometimes he also puts the phone up to each of his Pooh bears, and sometimes his centipede, so they must also like to say 'hello'. If the conversation gets long (and sometimes when it doesn't) he puts the phone on the floor and lies down next to it. And that's Charlie on the phone.

~Becky

Baby Lingen #2 (again)

I didn't get very many good pictures or any 4-D/3-D pictures today, but that wasn't the point. Still fun to see and the baby looks good! Its about a pound and a half already, so its growing like its supposed to, another whopping Lingen baby for sure. She or he had his or her hand/s by her or his face the whole time. Look at those pudgy cheeks!

~Becky

TaTa on the start of her new adventure

 

This is Katie at 3am on January 31 in Rochester at the Kahler Grand Hotel.

She is waiting for her bus to take her to the airport in Minneapolis.

Let her adventure begin!


Choo Choo Charlie's new magazine.

 

 

You couldn't be here when Charlie first received his Thomas the Train magazine subscription, so here's a little play by play... (sorry the pictures are a little crazy)

First he got really excited and jumped around. Then he stood by the couch to look at it, until he got too tired and had to sit down. With great concentration he studied many pages, until he wanted Mommy to read to him ("Mama, please, Mama, please, Mama, please"). We found a physical activity page with a few train yoga poses on and decided to get busy. One involved dragging himself under my legs pretending he was a train going under a bridge, while another involved chuffing along, and still another was hopping on one foot, pretending to be Thomas going around a corner too fast (if you've watched Thomas the train, then you know what I mean, "Slow down Thomas!"). Then Charlie decided to paint (as the book suggested coloring in a paint job, and he wanted to do the real thing). And finally we called Papa Steve (from the dryer) to say Thank you for a busy day.

Oh, and we had Salmon Creole for lunch (recipe from Bringing up Bebe). It was pretty tasty and a great way to use stewed tomatoes. I'm really enjoying the food philosophy for toddlers, and also really enjoying food lately (so hang on Lizzie, you'll feel like this soon). Also, Charlie has been eating meals like a champ since he hasn't been allowed to snack as frequently; it makes meal time much more enjoyable.

~Becky

Charlie and his big boy bed.

Now that I know Katie has seen Liz's big announcement post, I can put up pictures of Charlie's new bed. His Grandpa and YaYa delivered it today. Grandpa Steve made it to match the toy box he made for Charlie about a year and a half ago, and it has storage galore. Charlie is so far in love with it. I'm only a little worried because its kind of tall, but he's probably big enough to handle it at this point. It was funny to tuck him in with a top sheet tonight and blankets tucked in the the mattress; and in that way he had outgrown his crib-sized bed. I feel like he is as snug as a little bug in there tonight (tucked in with Pooh, Pooh #2, the frog, Geoffrey the Giraffe and Shake-A-Bear, and with room to spare; but no more friends in bed, that's the limit).

And of course I had to put up a new picture of Charlie and his Kali. She delivered Charlie's Ikea mattress on Saturday, and we loved having her stay with us. Charlie wouldn't even let me enter the room sometimes, he thought maybe I would ruin his fun (and I didn't even mind).

~Becky

13 weeks.

Sorry, Becky & Katie, I couldn't wait to tell you in person!  We've been laying in the weeds for 3 months now.  Baby Tostenson #2 is due to make his/her arrival August 24.  Wheew!  (For those of you who know me best - this must be the L..O..N..G..E..S..T secret I've ever kept.) 
Interesting fact:  there is a baby due every month from a member of our congregation starting in March and ending in August.  We may meet or beat last year's record-setting number of baptisms!  There were 8, but we've already had at least one this year, so it's going to be close.  If boisterous toddlers and babbling babies is something you enjoy about attending church, Black Hammer is the place for you.
Good luck and take care all my glowing & growing sister-members, especially Becky;)

A day in which we received a visit from Clare Bear.

Before Liz and Clarence arrived, Charlie and I made Gnocchi di Semola (Semolina Flour Gnocchi) to go along with our Italian inspired spring beet greens (previously blanched and frozen from the garden when we thinned out our beets last year; I was saving them for a special occasion) with garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and chopped walnuts. We are using Katie's cookbook Cooking with Italian Grandmothers by Jessica Theroux. We were in northwest Italy (Bra, Piemonte) with Grandmother Irene. They were pretty good (I was the only one that thought they were a little bland), and as they are baked with only 1 tbs. of butter in the whole batch, pretty low-fat I would think. We used the Semolina flour, which we purchased at our co-op. The sprinkles on top are good Parmesan and breadcrumbs made from homemade hearth bread. (And then I completely forgot to take After pictures of our meal.)

And then we played, and the boys had fun. Most of my pictures were turning out so blurry I decided to stop trying and just enjoy their beautiful relationship; but here are a few of the better ones. ~Becky

Italian Provolone Dolce.

"A deep rich and nutty flavor, perfect for pizza or with some sangiovese. There is a small waxy rind so be careful when grating."

Charlie and I love shopping at our co-op, and picked this cheese up to try (now that Katie is in Italy, we're trying Italian). I think they must purchase it in bulk because a hunk was cut off and repackaged.
This was not my favorite cheese until we started eating it with apple slices for our after nap snack; but everyone enjoyed it well enough to eat it (though we still have a little dab left). We also tried some melted with cauliflower that we had frozen from our garden last year. That was pretty good- but Charlie just loves to eat his broccoli and cauliflower like a champ.

Provolone is an Italian cheese, with the most important production region in Northern Italy. This modern provolone cheese was made with cow's milk and is semi-hard. Dolce means sweet (Provolone Piccante is sharp after being aged a minimum of 4 months).

~Becky

*picture from Wikipedia Encyclopedia

20 weeks.

Much bonding and one baby outfit complete 

(cobblestone sweater with rose wood buttons, acorn hat and eco booties).

~Becky

What has Charlie been up to this week?

I've had a request for more Charlie pictures. I think these speak for themselves and were all taken this week...

~Becky

Baby Lingen #2

 

It was the big ultrasound day today- 19 weeks and 4 days. Pretty crazy, huh? With the 3D/4D ultrasound, you can see what the baby looks like (and interesting bits of my insides)- and to me, so far I think the baby looks like Charlie, especially in the first picture.

Everything with the baby looked good, so that's a lovely feeling. Now I can put all of my anxiety and worry into things like organizing and getting ready (yeah, I like to nest).

Oh, and if you talk to Charlie, don't believe him- there is only one baby in there, not two. And for clarificatoin, that is the baby's hand on its face in the first picture, actually both of its hands are by its face, and stayed that way most of the time. The baby did not ever stop moving and was mostly all streched out, just kicking away. I could feel it and see it at the same time.

~Becky

Milano, finalmente. . .

As I am writing on a borrowed computer, this will be brief, but I wanted to let you all know that I have arrived in Italy, in Milan. I have seen the Duomo, il Castello Sforzesco, etc. They are very beautiful. But I feel very mundane, and fuori la moda (out of style) when window shopping (which one cannot help but do all of the time). Speaking italian is returning to me quite quickly and I have already made a some italian, french, turkish, swiss, and american friends here at the hostel (which is a super nice one). Allora, I must go as I have only what remains of today to see all the rest of Milan.

Un baccio to all.