Arctic Circle

It has been cold here lately.  Like the North Pole.  Don't believe me?

The temperature tomorrow is forecasted to be 49 degrees Fahrenheit.

The temperature in Rovaniemi, Finland tomorrow is forecasted to be 46 degrees Fahrenheit.  Rovaniemi is located 9 km (5.6 mi) from the Arctic Circle.  Santa Claus lives there.

Training Surprise

We have a blessing and a curse in our nursery: a small, child-sized toilet and child-level sink in a child-sized bathroom located within our classroom.  The blessing is that we don't have to spend the entire two hours hunting down parents when children say they need to go to the bathroom.  The curse is that we don't have to hunt down the parents when the children say they need to go to the bathroom.

Since we teach the two-year-olds who are turning three, about half of the kids are in the process of being potty-trained right now.  The other half wish they were being potty trained right now.

It usually begins around snack time.  One child says, "I need to go to the bathroom." So we open the door, turn on the light, and the child goes about his or her business.  (Lucky for us they're all very modest and don't want any help.)  Then it is as if every child in the room just drank a gallon of water and is now standing next to Niagra Falls.  A chorus of "I need to go to the bathroom!" erupts and a line quickly forms, often with the kids trying to barge in on whoever is currently using the facilities.

The problem arises when we have non-potty trained kids who decide in nursery that now is the time to begin their potty training.  And since we as nursery leaders don't know who is and who isn't potty-trained, we all take them at their word.

Take today, for instance.  A little girl told me that she needed to go potty.  So I opened the door, turned on the light, and asked if she needed help.  She said no and pointed to the door.  So I let myself out.  I checked on her periodically and after about 5 minutes she was finished.  She'd put her tights and shoes back on.  To my shock there was a wet diaper sitting on the floor.  She grinned up at me.

One of the other leaders left in search of the dad so we could get her a new diaper.  Meanwhile she strutted around the nursery, enjoying the feeling of being diaper-free.  And, to her credit, she did actually go in the toilet, too.

Her dad was chagrined when he came to get her.  "Don't take your diaper off any more!" he chided her as he picked her up and carried her off.  I, for one, think it may be time to get her some training pants!

April Fool's

The weather was absolutely beautiful today.  I gathered with the tourists around Temple Square and began snapping photos. This way, when it snows on Sunday, I'll remember the cruel joke nature played on us today.

Lucky Us

Last Sunday, Nate made a delicious dinner of lemon chicken, brown rice, and peas, covered in a homemade bechamel sauce.  Lucky woman?  Yes I am.

We had some brown rice and sauce left over so Nate decided to make himself some hard boiled eggs to go with it in his Monday lunch.  He started the eggs and when they began boiling I turned the water down to simmer.  Then we both settled back to relax and enjoy our Sunday evening.

Around 6 PM we got a text that my nephew N was born and at 6:40 we got the go-ahead to drive to the hospital to see the baby.  So I gathered my camera and we made the one-hour trek to the hospital.

N is beautiful.  Enough said.  We hung around long enough to watch him get his first shots (pitiful!) and his first bath in the nursery.  We visited with my sister and brother-in-law and even got to hold the little bundle.

Baby N, about 2 hours after his birth.

Then Nate said, "Katie, did you take the eggs off the stove?"

You can imagine our horror when we realized neither of us turned the stove off.  Nate started calling neighbors to see if they'd check on the apartment but nobody answered. ("What are they going to do anyway?" I asked.  "Watch it burn down?")  He finally reached his dad, who was about 20 minutes south of our apartment and who agreed to go check out the situation. (When we got home and met him, he said, "I don't know what I was going to do, other than watch it burn down.")  Did we try the complex's emergency line?  Yes.  No answer.

We rushed home without getting pulled over  and we booked it into the apartment. The water in the pot had completely cooked off.  Amazingly, the pot was fine as were the eggs.

Lucky us?  Yes indeed.

I married a statistician

Today Nate came home from school and told me that the statistics students each set up a bracket for March Madness.  Nate isn't terribly interested in basketball so he's not too familiar with the teams.

His plan to fill out a bracket:

1. Ask a friend questions about the likelihood certain teams would win.
2. Write a program on the computer that simulates flipping a coin.
3.  Weight the coin based on the information he received from his friend.
4. Use the results from his program to fill out his bracket.

Trying to be domestic

A few weeks ago I decided it would be a good idea to make homemade bread for our sandwiches instead of using store-bought bread.  My sister Rachel gave me a recipe quite a while ago that she said makes the best sandwich bread ever.  I actually made the recipe about a year ago and it turned out well.  This year...well...

Here is try #1:

As my brother-in-law so kindly said, "It looks like a brick!"

Try #2, using the SAF yeast called for in the recipe:

Surprisingly both loaves have tasted yummy.

I'm going to see if third time is the charm.  I have one more idea up my sleeve to try to get a loaf that actually rises.  If that doesn't work, I guess I'll be back to store-bought bread.

Sugar High

Lest you think I have forgotten about my little nursery babies, here is a story for you.

Every Sunday we have treats for the kids.  I want to state right off that the treats are supplied by the parents so the sugar content is not my fault.

Last week we fed them goldfish, teddy grahams, and fruit snacks.  Most of the kids ate calmly but one little girl devoured her fruit snacks in a flash and then started working on her teddy grahams.  When she ran out of her own snacks she started taking the snacks off the other children's plates.

"Her mom doesn't let her have any sugary snacks at home," one of our joint nursery leaders said.  I felt sorry for the poor girl and urged Nate to give her a few more teddy grahams.

About 20 minutes later I realized my mistake.

This little girl is usually rather timid.  She doesn't particularly enjoy nursery; the previous week she spent the first 15 minutes of class underneath the table while the other kids played with play dough.

Well, 20 minutes after her introduction to fruit snacks and teddy grahams she was having the time of her life.  She was literally running around in circles.  It was like watching a cat on catnip.

She shocked one little girl when she ran up to her, said, "I love you!" and gave her a huge hug.  Then she ran around in a few more circles, ran up to the same girl, said "I love you!" and hugged her again.

When her mom came to get her, the little girl ran and hugged her.  Then she immediately darted off again playing a catch-me-if-you-can game.  It took two of us to catch her.  I may have been bit in the process.  I'm hoping she doesn't have any diseases.

Needless to say, the little girl was not in nursery this past Sunday.