"The Cook" better known as "The Kook"

Lately Miranda has been into cooking. But only at the real stove, of course. What do I think she is, a 2 year old who should use a play kitchen set?! Insulting. She likes to be Ratatoullie and I am Linguini. She says, "Can I help you coook?" like that with a very long O. I think she thinks it is a British accent...coook almost rhymes with puke. She adds pretend ingredients, wafts the scent to her nose to see what is still lacking, helps me stir, and eyes the burners, longing to sneak a forbidden touch.

She does quite well, actually, and for a moment I honestly contemplated teaching her to make a few simple recipes. Then she actually did touch a burner which, phew, was only hot enough to scare her a little. Lesson learned. Once again, I can take no parenting credit for teaching her life skills.

We made homemade macaroni and cheese one day. A first for me, and it showed. Luckily she never had macaroni and cheese made by a true talent, say Kraft for example, so she didn't realize mine stunk. Fernando realized it, sadly. His distaste was very polite. Although at times like that I would actually appreciate him spewing pieces of soggy macaroni into the far reaches of the kitchen and storming into the basement so at least the moment would have some cinematic drama to it. As it was the two of us choked down what was not only not good but not good for us. Stop the cruelty. The kids actually both ate it. So, likely, I'll make it again. I think I might actually be going insane because I'm laughing at this while I'm typing.

Last night my mom gave Miranda some biscuit dough from one of those pop-n-serve cans, and she rolled it and rolled it for more than a half-hour and made us some gooseberry pie. Of course, being Sneezy I had a hard time enjoying it between the sniffles. The only person to sample the finery besides Snow White herself was Dopey. Clearly, the name fit in this case.

Since I have no picture of Chef Miranda, I substituted this picture borrowed from the files of Katie Belnap of an Asian girl. If you blur your eyes it looks a bit like Miranda.

Breakfast guests

Does it ever get lonely here, you may ask? Just Sharon, Samuel, Miranda and her multiple personalities day after day...The three of us waiting for Fernando to appear at dinnertime like a limey sprout cracking through the crusted frost. Well, you don't need to worry about us anymore. We have company.

Every day for breakfast we are joined by the cast of Cinderella, and, I think, Cinderella 3. Two princes, four Cinderellas (rags, ball gown, and wedding dresses--two styles), and multiple everyone else except mice and stepmother. Luckily they don't eat much. Here they are enjoying a blueberry bagel with cream cheese.

A close up of the feasting

Drezella (sp?) gets to sit on a real person's chair because she is the only one who folds her arms for the prayer (Miranda's rules, not mine).

Miranda is very glad for the company.

What does The Sam think of all this?

Get used to it buddy. You're stuck at home with two women who frequently refuse to deal with reality.

Some pictures while we wait

Well, because I have, for the moment only, been defeated by video upload, here are some pictures of Christmas. Mami Betty knitted the pink dress and hat for Mimi, and Sam's favorite gift was the Go Diego ball pit, of course. If only Santa had found one Fernando's size...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, here is a little update from the Seminario family!
Fernando is working as an administrator and teacher at Paradigm High School in Sandy and is finishing his graduate degree at the University of Utah with a Masters of Public Administration. He is also having thoughts of doing a joint PhD in Educational Administration and Policy with the idea of working at the college level. He is a very busy guy right now but he is still a really great daddy and a wonderful person.

I (Sharon) am still teaching advanced composition but ONLY online now which is nice. I have six ideas in my mind right now for really great books but I haven't written one word of any of them. That's one of my new year's resolutions. I had Samuel in March and he and Miranda are the most fun I have ever had, even on crazy days.

Miranda is almost 2&1/2, and she enjoys pretending. She is always pretending. So, I guess even if my kids don't get my looks, I've still got some strong genes in there somehow. Today when I woke up she told me I was Shang and she was Mulan and Sammy was "little brother," Mulan's dog. It is not rare for her to change characters fifteen times a day, or to remain in character for days in a row...even through sleep and meals and Church. So she's pretty fun. She just learned her letters and has a lot of fun with billboards and mail and other things with letters on them. She also loves rhyming and making up words that rhyme with words she knows. And making up songs. (She just came in while I am writing this and told me I'm Cinderella and she is my fairy godmother.) She loves nursery and playing with other kids, she loves family and holidays, she likes reading and her movie box, and fruit and food that tastes good but isn't exactly good for you like frosting,butter, and chocolate. She says the funniest things, and, did I mention this?, she LOVES pretending.

We call Samuel the man-child or the Alpha-male because since he was born he has embodied the sterotypical male. He's about nine months old and He LOVES eating, blondes, wrestling, conquering things like stairs and standing, playing in and eating dirt, attacking people, yelling in war-cry manner, he's stinkier than Miranda was and more fearless...we laugh whenever we discover a new alpha-male quality. BUT he is the sweetest boy in the world. He is always smiling; since he learned how to smile that smile has been a constant. He brings us so much joy...I cannot help but be happy when I see his little smiling face with only two bottom teeth. What a blessing he has been to us!

We bought a house in west Salt Lake City (Taylorsville really) and we are really enjoying our ward and fixing up our house. It's perfect for us right now. We feel very blessed to have shelter, food, truth, and love in our lives. Who could ask for more?

MERRY CHRISTMAS from us...we hope to hear from anyone who visits this site!

The Elves' Birthday Dance

It was Nancy's birthday today, so we sent her a little message. I thought it was only right that I posted it here, too, especially since the program randomly selects each person's order and made Fernando a girl body (a shimmying girl to boot) and me a man. Sammy is the funniest, though. I can't get the link to work for some reason, so you might have to paste this into another window. Sorry!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1294234016

I had to post this awesome picture

Well, let me just go on record as saying that my kids have the best aunts and uncles. I'm highlighting the uncles today. This was over Thanksgiving, and my brothers-in-law actually re-donned their Halloween costumes just for Miranda. I love them. That's Eddie the scarecrow and Smore or Cesar the Lion.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Yes, it is true. The holidays have been upon us and will continue. We went to California and had lots of adventures, and I have a slew...slough...sloo? of wonderful pictures to post. For now I will only say that the yulesome twosome and I were listening to Christmas music over breakfast a few days ago and Nat King Cole was singing "O Tannenbaum" and Miranda put her hand over her mouth and put on her "That's so silly I have to laugh but I'm putting my hand over my mouth because it's just too silly" face and said, "O TINY BUM!!! Oh tiny bum?!!" We laughed and laughed and I didn't correct her.
Yes I will post more soon, but first we were sick and then Thanksgiving in CA and now we are in the throws of grading and submitting finals and I have been less than prompt. Miranda is grading a bunch of coloring work by her dolls and Sammy has a huge final in drool-ology. So, yeah, just give us a break. MERRY CHRISTMAS.