Back from Texas!

Mary celebrated by escaping from her diaper, apparently. Or something like that. Crazy child. She removes shoes, socks, shirts, pants, and diapers. And trying to get them on her in the first place is difficult; she protests even more strongly when I try to get them back on her. This morning, she took her diaper off while I was trying to get some food together for Josh before he left for work, so she went diaper-less for a while. Thankfully I have a steam vac. :-P :sigh: I guess she's going to be wearing fairly well-fitting pants over her diaper for the foreseeable future, because that's the only way she keeps them on. And I'm not entirely sure if the diaper removal is intentional or if it's just because her diaper gets caught on something and she gets annoyed and just wiggles out of it. I really don't know. LOL! I just know she is so different from Felicity...

So, anyway, I posted the other day about my demotivated approach to trip prep. When Josh got home (early, thankfully) the night before we were to leave, I was prepped enough to tell him I really only needed him to put Felicity's carseat back together, which he did in short order. He had taken it apart for me to wash the cover. And I couldn't figure out how to get it back together. Then he finally decided as the evening wore on that he was craving egg rolls and wanted some fried rice. So yeah, apparently that's what we do late at night before leaving for a road trip. We cook. My kitchen was so nicely cleared to be clean before we left, too. Oh well. ;-)

We bought the spring roll dough from Wal-Mart, but Josh wants to try making it ourselves eventually. I saw a recipe somewhere online that looked really similar to making crepes. Hmm. I guess putting the same filling in crepes could just be an Asian version of crepes. LOL! That would be yummy, actually. I could do the same thing for omelet filling, I guess. But I'm not really sure how we'll manage the spring roll dough. I think the recipe I read said that you have to fry it almost immediately and also that leftover egg rolls from that wouldn't be very good. So I guess we'd have to start with a very small experimental batch and then just expect a huge production whenever we make them. :-P (Or maybe we'll just buy the dough most of the time...)

The filling was chicken breast, carrots, green onions, eggs, and some garlic powder, I think.

We have a candy thermometer, really. But why use a thermometer when, uh, umm, you don't want to? :-P Josh wants to get a fryer with its own thermostat and everything. I'm a little concerned about adding another gadget to our kitchen appliances, but I may yet convince him just to get a fryer basket. Or, if we have to get a whole unit of something, maybe we can do a stovetop fryer. I just really don't like the idea of a whole new appliance, especially considering the reviews I've read. The decent fryers cost something I imagine would barely be affordable on a restaurant budget. ;-) Or something. I don't really know how they figure that, but I do know that buying a cheap fryer is unappealing.

Very basic fried rice: chopped up chicken breast, very finely chopped carrots and green onions, and chopped up cooked egg, soy sauce, garlic powder, salt, freshly ground pepper, lime juice, and ginger. I think I added some mirin and maybe rice vinegar and possibly some sugar. I can't remember. :-P I want to get white pepper and try that instead of the black pepper.

When we got to Eric and Noelle's house, Felicity acted terrified of the dog. Mary just treated him like ... I dunno, she walked around very comfortably, sat down if she thought he was coming near her, and walked away quickly if she thought he was licking her too much or something. She started trying to push him from behind towards the end of our stay. :-P But mostly she just ignored him.

Felicity saw me taking pictures of Mary with Gromitt and decided I should photograph her as well. :-P

Eric took us to Ikea while we were there and Josh went just a little crazy. The train set was a good deal, but I guess the idea of saving gifts for birthdays and Christmas just doesn't make sense to him. ;-) As soon as we got back to the house with the toys, they were all out and played with. And as soon as Felicity discovered them in the pile of trip stuff today (we're back home), she got them out and started setting up a train track. I think we have too many toys. But what do you do? Just get rid of them? :-P (I'm sure I will soon enough, but first I need to organize.)

There Noelle looks at all the puppets Josh bought at Ikea. We also managed to buy a drawing easel, a high chair for Mary, an end table (to use as a night stand in the guest room), and some other organizational supplies.

Felicity got to play with the train set eventually... ;-)

Anyway, now we're home and trying to get back into a decent routine. Felicity is napping, Mary should be (but is instead watching TV), and I need to do dishes and laundry. Felicity ate a lot today. Hahaha. I don't know why I worry about her so much. She just doesn't eat when she's distracted. I mean, she does eat...it's just less. Anyway, I'm glad she's eating. Mary seems to be teething, but I'm not sure what I want to do about it at this point. I gave her a pain reliever in the car yesterday, but even so she was mostly inconsolable.