We had a great time at Bubbe's for Passover. Matzo balls were eaten and family and friends were seen. Shara had a great time - not too much uppies at all and she loved seeing her cousin Samantha. She went with her and didn't care to see mommy or daddy. The trip there wasn't bad at all. Shara mostly watched movies while mommy knit. I know, I know - car games, looking at the sceanery, etc. but boy it's easy to put on Cinderella. Plus when we try to do car games and show her cows, she's really not that interested. If I had a tv in the car as a kid, I'd be more than happy to watch it rather than being bored - or carsick if I remember correctly. And now you can't have fun jumping from the back seat to the back of the car and laying on the floor, etc. You're just stuck in a car seat.
We made a couple of stops along the way - mostly bathroom breaks. We first went to Aunt Jill's for lunch, assuring Shara that the dog would not be in the house. She didn't want to go to Aunt Jill's and upon questioning, found out it was because of Isabelle! Jill made homemade bread and tuna fish and (super yum!) deviled eggs. I think Shara may have eaten 5 eggs if she could. We had fun dancing in the living room, doing "ring around the rosey", and feeding the chickens. Shara made all the chickens scatter when she jumped up. That was fun. Shara really wanted to go on the trampolene, but we promised her in the warmer weather she could. We then left to go to Bubbe's.
When we got to Bubbe's, it was clear that Shara was tired. We visited for a bit and then Shara and daddy took a nap. This was great because it turned out to be a very late night! Jill and Samantha came over before Shara woke up but shortly after she did and then had so much fun playing with Samantha. She really loves her big cousins. I think they dressed baby bella and Shara got dressed and books were read. This was all great because mommy could help bubbe, which she couldn't do during dinner and after cleanup. Not wanting to cause a fit, I gave in to mommy not being able to get up from the table.
Aunt Susan came by to visit and brought Shara a beautiful dress. I took it out of the bag and immediately Shara said, "princess", which is what she looked like in it when we tried it on her at home. I picked her up so she could see herself in the mirror and her eyes lit up! Thank you Susan. She may be able to wear it sooner than we thought. Aunt Susan also gave Shara a very nice book that we started reading and do like a lot too. I think that will be on the bookshelf for many years.
The sedar went great. Shara wasn't any more noisy than the grown-ups. She sat nice through the whole thing and looked at my book. She took a small taste of the horseradish and didn't cry, even though everyone was saying it was very potent. I did make her try with the horosette and not alone. She loved the alkes (matzo balls) in the soup and the soup too. She ate a couple pieces of the gefilta fish and a bite or two of the chopped liver. For dinner she stuck to the mashed potatoes and turkey, and not much of anything else. I think I told her to have a bite of asparagus and she did and said she liked it, as with the tzimmis, but didn't really want any of that and had seconds on the potatoes. She did have too much junk - fruit slices (lots of artificial everything, thank you for buying bubbe!) but I got her to stop with the chocolate by saying we'd go to Hilliard's for a chocolate easter bunny instead. I'm trying to get her to have good chocolate if she's going to have any. Not the junky kind.
We all slept together, no sense bringing the pack and play if it wouldn't be used, and we seemed to mostly sleep well, relatively speaking. We didn't get to sleep until after 10:30 and all woke at 6:30. More yummy eggs for breakfast - bubbe makes the best scrambled eggs! and lots of matzo with cream cheese and cantalope. Good breakfast and then a good lunch. Another too short visit was over with promises of seeing each other soon. Bubbe and Papa will come to visit us next time.
On the way home we stopped at a bar that was in the process of turning itself into a "brewpub". Shara fell asleep shortly after we got on the pike and we didn't want to wake her up too soon, so we waited until Westfield. We found this place and it seemed like it would be a good place to go and it turned out that she ate almost a whole bowl of corn, chicken and potato chowder. She also had some of my fried clams and a couple sweet potato fries. Alan had a burger and I had a "slap and tickle" basket - which was basically a very greasy fisherman's platter. We continued on toward home, with another stop at Whole Foods. Mommy wanted something sweet and got a cookie to split with Shara. It was a gingersnap cookie - vegan, from their bakery, and I was surprised she liked it - very spicy! We also got some bagels and nice vegetables. We love those little sweet potatoes and Shara really got excited about all the colors of the peppers, so I had to buy a stir-fry mix, since it had all the colors of the rainbow in it. That was with the hope that she'd try some of them, which she didn't!
But we did have the sweet potatoes last night, along with a pork loin roast and even asparagus! I roast the asparagus and the sweet potatoes. The potatoes I sliced and tossed with some low-sodium onion soup mix (Goodman's) and a little oil. Then when they were 1/2 done, I threw in the asparagus. The roast had a honey/mustard/herbes de provence sauce and was cooked perfectly. We all had a very nice meal (didn't start until almost 6:30 - the roast wasn't done!) and Shara couldn't get enough of the roast. She ate a whole piece and then about one more - basically the amount I had, and then a piece of asparagus and at least 2 of the baby sweets. We had a lot of fun at dinner - Alan & I had a glass of wine. I think we had too much fun - we were laughing and then Shara started gagging and threw up a little, but she was ok and we all learned that she needs to swallow what's in her mouth before she takes more.
We did end up getting the chocolate Easter bunny - dark chocolate, from Hilliards. Shara ate 3/4 of the ears and then agreed to share with Oma, Jidor, and Auntie Chris the rest - in the form of the filling for the macaroons I made. I didn't have enough chocolate and this was a good excuse to keep her from eating the whole bunny. She was more than happy to share. We then colored easter eggs - Alan got some video. She was really careful to put them into the cup of colored water gently, but getting them out was a little messy, but it was all fine and in the end we have a nice bowl of colored eggs to make into egg salad, or deviled eggs, seeing as they are a huge favorite!
Today it's off to Oma & Jidor's for Easter Brunch/Lunch? I don't know. Alan told me the time and we'll be there - looking forward to another easter egg hunt, but Shara said we needed to take 3 home, we don't need to take all of them home this year. She only needs three to add to her collection in the kitchen. Don't know where she got three from, but it's better than 15!
