Tree!

What I've been doing today (in Photoshop).

amphibian dragon facts

Kate modifies her homework.

fishy fishy fish bread

I tried out the fish-shaped hot cake pan that I got for my birthday. I can see it's going to take some practice, getting the right amount of batter and filling, and the right cooking time and temperature. I ended up with some pretty misshapen fish.



I used this recipe for the batter. The traditional filling is red bean paste (팥). I thought I'd try strawberries.

Warm up the pan on the stove, add batter, add filling, more batter on top, close the pan--



Cook on both sides--



Ta da! Fish!



(We had eaten some of the uglier ones by this point.)  They tasted pretty good, though the texture wasn't quite like the Korean version.



"Hey Andy, want a fish?"



Andy is intrigued. Kate decided she doesn't like cooked strawberries, but she liked the tail part.

In other news, we are not doing so well with the time change.  Andy was up and bouncing off the walls till 1:00 in the morning, and then Kate woke up at about 2:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.  Oy.  Long night.  

Letter Fun

Andy's obsession with the alphabet continues.  He has a couple of sets of Melissa and Doug letters that he likes to line up in interesting places.  Like on the kitchen floor, with one letter in the middle of each tile (and then when he runs out of room he starts a second row on top).  We think this is pretty clever, but it's better if he does it when we aren't trying to cook or do something else in the kitchen.  He does get underfoot. 



He recently discovered that the piping on the edge of the couch cushions also makes a good ledge for letter display.  (Resourceful!)



Kate made this for her letter-loving brother at school.  I thought it was very sweet.  Particularly because I think this is the first thing she has made for him, ever. 

Andy is starting to talk a little more--he has a lot of words and phrases that he has memorized and frequently repeats them to himself, but it's still more like he's practicing talking than actually using them to communicate.  He is reading up a storm, though.  Loves reading.  When I let him play with my kindle he types words that he knows.  The other day he typed APPLE BOY CAT DOG... and then tried to do ELEPHANT but that was a bit beyond him.